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30 July 2007

Volkswagen Touareg


I arrived in Los Angeles, en route to Las Vegas when Kev told me that there was a change in plans with the itinerary.

Originally, the plan was for me to fly in on Friday and we drive in together with his S65 AMG, taking turns to cover the 245-mile (394km) journey.

As it turned out, he was leaving for Las Vegas that very afternoon and leaving me the keys to his spare VW Touareg.

I took it for a spin and it was a wonderful piece of work. V8 engine to give you the power you need on the highways and despite the clunky appearance of a typical SUV, this is certainly no slow poke and certainly very limber.

Word has it that the VW Touareg rolls off the same assembly line as the Porsche Cayenne which, if anyone remembered, was a car I was closed to driving on one of my earlier trips. Too bad. I guess this is as close as driving a Porsche as I'd ever get.

Anyway, the interiors are very well done and sans the sunroof, Kev got all the options installed. My only gripe in particular is the GPS taking a darn long time to initiate when you are starting up the car. Still, while it still may be faster than the Kev's wife's Mercedes Benz CL500 but only because the latter's GPS software on board the CL500 was faulty.

Software wise, Mercedes Benz' GPS software is still far superior to that of this VW and the BMW. In general, both will still get you to the destination but it is the Mercedes Benz' attention to details that won me over. One particular example would be that after you key in the City, Street and House Number of your destination, typical GPS navigation would simply tell you that you are reached your destination when you eventually get there. Mercedes Benz' software goes a step further and tell you that your destination is on the left side or right side of the road. This is especially useful when you are unfamiliar with the place and you are driving really slowly coz you can't find the exact spot as you are looking at the wrong side of the road.

Anyway, coming back, while V8 means power, it also means gas guzzling. V8 + SUV = Get Ready To Sell A Kidney. I just fueled up last night ahead of today's trip and an almost full tank (from just below the 1/4 mark) cost me USD 61.00 (SGD 92.17) for 20.7 gallons (76 litres) @ USD 3.039 per gallon (SGD 1.213 per litre). If were in Singapore where the petrol prices are higher, I'd be sure I would be staring at 3 figures everytime I were to fill it up. Ouch.

SUV is definitely a No-No for me if I had a choice. I still think a fuel efficient car is the way to go. Good for the pocket and good for the environment.

Will update more when I start my journey into Las Vegas. I pray for journey's mercy.


- Voxeros

1. spinnee left...
Monday, 30 July 2007 9:20 am
gas prices sucks. y the fuck they keep raising gas prices...ARGH!! hehehe
take care in LA hor..._


2. slurp! left...
Wednesday, 1 August 2007 12:08 am
WOW! S65 AMG! that's obscene amount of power & $$$ ;P so is Bentley or Maybach his next target?


3. JayWalk left...
Wednesday, 1 August 2007 3:09 am :: 
Spinnee: It is artificially inflated to feed the greed of the oil companies but prices are due to come up even if they stayed honest for fossil fuel is being depleted faster than they are being form at the rate that we are using.

slurp!: Ahhh... finally someone who recognises an AMG. The next car could well be a Bentley or a Ferrari, although not in the immediate future. I will keep everyone posted as soon as I get a chance to test drive it.

Anyway, I am in Las Vegas now and we have swapped cars. I will be driving the S65 AMG back to L.A. later this week. =)


4. Pam left...
Wednesday, 1 August 2007 5:52 pm
Am sure you know this already, but Europe is already paying alot for petrol/diesel. at the mo, we're looking at close to 1 pound (SGD3) per litre. I filled up from almost empty tank last week and it cost me 40+ pounds (> SGD120). The good thing is, my car's pretty good at being fuel efficient (40 miles/gallon). Germany is not far behind in the costs (hence why those living near borders go 'across' to eastern europe to fill up - abit like the singaporean habit oh...10 years ago before the govt stepped in?!!). Unfortunately, most of it is tax and profit though... so the only pple who benefit are the oil co and the govts....We were recently in America where we hired a car and the cost of refueling was ridiculously low, to be honest. and this cost difference has nothing to do with standards of living.


5. Kelly left...
Wednesday, 1 August 2007 6:46 pm :: http://www.kellchan.blogspot.com/
Arghhhhh... I miss Las Vegas!!!
Miss the roller coaster ride at New York, Treasure Island and Bellagio!!!


6. slurp! left...
Thursday, 2 August 2007 12:20 am
Ferrari? that a totally different class of car all together leh? BRABUS tuned V12 S Biturbo comes with 750hp .. madness!!!
anyway, this AMG IS definitely bloody FAST, no doubt about it! But I'm really more interested in their very advanced active suspension system. i read that there is a switch that allows you to select amount of body roll you want to reduce.
i think, sometimes, small body roll are desirable as a feedback especially when driven to the extreme
Coolz!... can wait for your updates on the AMG. Drive safely :D


7. JayWalk left...
Thursday, 2 August 2007 1:52 pm :: 
Pam: Well, let's put it this way. I am sure the oil companies have contributed a lot of money into the politician's campaign fund allowing them to get into and become part of the gahmen successfully.

Kelly: Wanted to catch Penn & Teller but my kakis all not interested leh. Other than hitting the tables, I have a cool outing last night at the Roof Bar at Rio (51st floor). Excellent view. Legs got a bit wobbly when I got too close to the side.

Slurp!: No reviews on the S65 AMG this time as I have covered it liao. Click the link in the entry for the review. This time round it was a laid back drive as I maintain the speed at a modest 110 mph (180 km/h).

When it comes to climb up slope from 0 to 4000+ ft above sea level over a distance of 15 miles, I was comfortably overtaking everybody.

Oh yah, we also equipped the car with the ValentineOne, that was super accurate when it comes to detecting traffic police's radar gun. I encountered 3 of them along the way and they were 2 miles ahead which gave me ample time to slow down and avoid getting booked.

27 July 2007

10 Random Somethings Meme

Memes are fun only if they are novel. However, it has been, of late, to spot a trend of one meme suspiciously a rehash of another.

Even the name as per Lexandria's entry was, IMHO, a tad off. Hence, I have taken the liberty to rename it.
Anyway, since I am 35,000 ft in the air during the time you are reading this, I thought I plug in a filler to cover my absence from the internet.



Rules of the game :
  • Each player of this game starts off with ten weird things or habits or little known facts about yourself.
  • People who get tagged must write in a blog of their own ten weird things or habits or little known facts as well as state this rule clearly.
  • At the end you must choose six people to be tagged and list their names. No tagbacks! 

1. I like to - return to what I would love to do. Teach?

2. I am allowed - the occasional splurge on a good meal and/or party with good friends.

3. My favourite part of my body is - my legs.

4. If I could fix one part of my human body - my tummy.

5. I hate - people who are condescendingly holier-than-thou.

6. If I could date a female celebrity, I would date - Maria Sharapova.

7. If I could date a male celebrity, it’s - why the heck would I wanna date a guy?

8. I’m attracted to - sporty babes.

9. I hate it - when people who don't use their brains.

10. I prefer to sleep - more.


6 persons chosen to do this are:
1. Gary the xxx-surfer.
2. Anna the leggy Aloe.
3. Ruth the roof is on fire.
4. Spinnee the RSS-less blogger.
5. Ruok the signaller actor.
6. Ellen the merry feet.

Image Credits: http://www.csueastbay.edu, http://cowboybar.liquidblade.com

- Voxeros

1. Gary left...
Friday, 27 July 2007 1:29 am
sorry jay, someone beat you to it.. and we got the same target in An.. hiak hiak hiak..


2. JayWalk left...
Friday, 27 July 2007 1:51 am :: 
Gary: That's would probably be R3gular. Too bad, I scheduled this to be released on Friday. Otherwise, it would have been me being the earlier.


3. spinnee left...
Monday, 30 July 2007 9:19 am
AGRH!! tagged again!! ok i shall do it this time....kekekek........let me do it by wed...wahahahha


4. JayWalk left...
Wednesday, 1 August 2007 3:10 am :: 
spinnee the RSS-less: Thanks for the heads up as I will try to remember to go to your blog. Hopefully, I can remember.

26 July 2007

Oh My God Coding Bug


We have a security CCTV system network at the factory all the cameras feed video signals back to the server to record onto the harddisk for archive purposes.

One day the recording software crashed as the images on the master monitor (where you can view all the camera feeds on a single screen) froze.

As I went to reset the server and I found out what caused the crash.

It was the "Oh My God" coding bug.

Mann... these SpitLand software programmers have a strange sense of humour. LOL.

- Voxeros

1. Gary left...
Friday, 27 July 2007 12:44 am
lol.. any thought of sending the bug back as "smlj coding bug"??


2. JayWalk left...
Friday, 27 July 2007 1:50 am :: 
Gary: Well, it will take a programmer to hide an easter egg like that. Unfortunately, I don't have the coding know-how to pull something like this.
 

25 July 2007

Interesting Restaurant


There is a new restaurant just outside my place and we decided to go check it out over dinner a few Sundays ago. As we entered, we saw rows and rows of these red things.

Wanna make a guess what they are?

Find out the answer in the comments section.

- Voxeros

1. JayWalk left...
Tuesday, 24 July 2007 11:40 pm :: 


It is a claypot restaurant and the red coloured "buckets" are actually claypots. The glass receptacles in the lower rolls are claypot soup boilers whereas the ones on the top are claypot (hidden) rice cookers.

Only difference here is that the clay in the claypot is of a different kind that the ones that we are more familiar with as in the picture below.


The clay used here is known as Purple Clay (紫砂 or 朱砂) and we more often find them in the 泡茶 teapots that is especially popular among the older folks in Ta1wan.

As the fare are mostly steamed and very little oil is used, the food is much healthier as most Spitland food are very heavy in oil.

Image Credit: http://www.zisha.cn, http://www.gourmetsleuth.com


2. An left...
Wednesday, 25 July 2007 12:09 pm :: http://www.xanga.com/aloeve
ooo.. I tot it's some herbal stuff... :)


3. Old Beng left...
Wednesday, 25 July 2007 3:17 pm
The food nice bo?
I fit is good, can share the venue?


4. okiedokie left...
Wednesday, 25 July 2007 4:04 pm
though is claypot, i still prefer those cooked over charcoal..somehow the soup just taste nicer bcoz all the essence of the ingredients go into the soup (probably due to longer duration as compared to electricity)...
now i wanna eat claypot rice..esp after yesternite show showing claypot rice at chinatown... *drooling*


5. JayWalk left...
Thursday, 26 July 2007 7:43 am :: 
An: Yup, it sure does look like one of those "Liang Teh" shops.

Old Beng The food is not bad and the service is excellent but lest you forget I am in Spitland? The restaurant is in ChangAn. Do you come up to this part of the world often? ]
okiedokie: You already won me over when you said the word charcoal. Everything is nice when it is done over charcoal e.g. kaya toast.

But the way I feel about this, granted that both are technically claypot, you cannot put the two together for comparison as they are apples and oranges. Both have they one distinctive characteristic.

Yah, I too am craving for claypot rice right now. ~growl


6. slurp! left...
Friday, 27 July 2007 9:27 pm
we can get both type here (aiyah, there are generally made in china also hahaha...) the bottom is essentially a double boiler for stewing soup.
you can't get crispy charred rice when cooked with this methods, the heat is too gentle.


7. JayWalk left...
Saturday, 28 July 2007 3:00 pm :: 
Slurp!: My favourite is still the latter and I love especially the burnt part of the rice. I am so going to die of cancer from all the carcinogens I am consuming.

24 July 2007

More Flying Woes

More news of air mishaps and what better timing than mere days before I am about to fly? Liew.....

First was an Aero Republica skidded off the runway and ended nose down into the sea.
Reports says that the runway was extremely wet and my speculation is that the poor water drainage system may have been the main culprit on top of the fact that this regional airport's runway length is significantly shorter than that of international airport standards. The runway length at Santa Marta's Simon Bolivar airport is 5,575 ft as compared to Bogota's El Dorado International Airport's 9,850 ft.

Related News:

Fortunately, there were no fatalities as casualty count was at a lucky 7. However, the same cannot be said of the landing crash in San Paulo, Brazil where the plane landed, skidded off the runway and slamming into a gas station. All 189 passengers on board perished in a great big fireball.

Related News:

For both incidents, I noticed a common denominator. Both were a result of short runway length with a wet slippery surface.

It was said that the Sao Paulo's Congonhas airport was nicknamed The Aircraft Carrier due to its difficulty to land - that if the plane did not touch down within the first 1,000 ft of the tarmac, the plane must pull and and retry to land again or risk overshooting the short stretch of a mere 6,362 ft of runway.

All these kinda reminded me of the old Hong Kong Kai Tak Airport where a Ch1na Airline plane did overshoot and landed in the sea back in 1993.


Speaking of Kai Tak Airport, here's a YouTube clip to see how the plane needs to land if it is assigned to land at RunWay 13. Runway 13 is famous for the fact that the plane needs to make a 47-degree right turn in the middle of descend in order to line up with the runway due to the hilly terrain surrounding the airport. The clip shows a Japan Airlines Boeing 747 making the landing but only barely.


Image Credits: http://news.xinhuanet.com, http://www.airdisaster.com

- Voxeros

1. Gary left...
Tuesday, 24 July 2007 11:26 am
Controller: "Flight xx, you are required to land at runway 13!" Pilot: "wah lan eh.. im not that skilled as the japanese pilot in the youtube video leh!"


2. JayWalk left...
Tuesday, 24 July 2007 2:49 pm :: 
Gary: Most runways have ILS (Instrument Landing System) for the planes to engage "auto-landing" i.e. letting control tower land the plane remotely.


However, due to the terrain surrounding runway 13, plane have to deploy a Visual Approach where the plane will have to look for a small hill checker-marked in red and white (middle marker) where they make an 47 degree right turn upon reaching the marker in order to line up with the runway to make the landing.

Take a bit of skill but nevertheless nothing that the pilots aren't trained for.


3. Pam left...
Wednesday, 25 July 2007 12:27 am
well, I thought about that when I was in Munich on Friday for a day meeting. Our flight back to London was cancelled due to really bad weather (you might have seen/read the flooding in parts of UK and lots of rain). Thankfully, they gave us a hotel room for the night, free dinner etc (even though I didn't have a change of clothes or anything else). Sometimes when it's seen as 'an act of God', they tell you that you just have to hang out at the airport! I got back eventually on Saturday afternoon.


4. JayWalk left...
Thursday, 26 July 2007 7:37 am :: 
Pam: Here's the thing that a lot of passengers do get when they whine and kick up a big ruckus about flight delays and cancellations. It was done to keep you alive.

Only problem is that I personally get frustrated when airline staff deliberately act stupid and keep quiet in their attempt to withhold information. I would have appreciated more if they were more forthcoming and tell us exactly what is going on.


5. Pam left...
Thursday, 26 July 2007 7:28 pm
We didn't kick up a fuss - and everyone got a hotel room, so that was fine. I guess the process could have been a bit faster but hey, at least we were stuck in Germany. I honestly think if we were in a London airport, it would have been a whole lot worse... without a hotel, without food ...much worse.


6. hiaoauntie left...
Friday, 27 July 2007 12:57 am
kai tak airport was known to be one of the world's most challenging airports to land... many times the pilots were damn scared about ending up in the sea... anyway, usually airlines used the more experienced pilots when landing in HK... it used to be that Cathay Pacific had some of the most capable pilots in the world (due to the numerous landing attempts and practice) and they were paid alot too! anyway, now they have the new airport.....


7. JayWalk left...
Friday, 27 July 2007 1:56 am :: 
Pam: Actually, we, if not most of us sans the whiny arseholes, all understand the delays and even the cancellations. Unfortunately, it is the condescending attitude of the airline staff that pisses everybody off.

hiaoauntie: Chap Lap Kok is definitely a much improved airport over Kai Tak. Unfortunately, cross-winds still proved to be a very dangerous challenge for pilots. I was there at the airport when a Ch1na Airline MD-11 flipped over as it failed to land safely.
 

23 July 2007

Guess Her Job


I have been at the local land office dealing with some title deed issue over the past few weeks. Due to the efficiency (or rather than lack of) of the already horrendous red tapes that I had to waddle through, it was really exhausting having to make numerous trips. Something as trivia as a typo error means having to make a trip up there.

And to avoid the people jam, we made it a point to go there first thing in the morning and wait for them to open. Funny thing is that while the official hours states 8:30am, you see people behind the glass window walking around, some on MSN, some surfing for web shopping sites. Even the lady at the counter where you stood facing her, ignored you. I guess it's the same for gahmen offices all over the world. Not exclusively just SpitLand.

Problem is since you need them more than they need you and so figuratively, they got you by the balls. You stand there stoically constantly reminding yourself not to make so much of a squeak to piss the NICE lady at the counter off.

As I stood there, my eyes started to wander as I looked around to kill the boredom while waiting for the NICE lady sitting in front of me behind the glass window to be good and ready. That's when I saw this girl sitting in the corner.

I didn't see her sitting there for the first 2 visits but she was there for the rest of my visits.

Guess what her job is.

Click on comments for the answer and the continuation of this story.

- Voxeros

1. JayWalk left...
Monday, 23 July 2007 9:11 am :: 
The answer?

Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Her designation indicated that she was a customer service officer which I am guessing means to help the applicants fill in the various forms as well as handle the various enquires. I supposed this is targeted at the older folks whom many received little or no education.

However, what I have observed was that she just sat there in the corner doing nothing. Read a book perhaps? I have not seen her get off her ass and ask any of the applicants if they needed assistance.

Perhaps it was already known that the customer service officer is as good as useless that the applicants also don't bother to approaching her either.

How is that for a job? VP, Special Projects. Sorry, your project not special enough. Cannot helpchoo. Sorlie.


2. An left...
Monday, 23 July 2007 9:36 am :: http://www.xanga.com/aloeve
har?! I tot she sit there paste paste paste stuff nia.... Sit there do nothing? Wah... like that super boring leh. How to pass each day? So sianz!


3. Meepoktah Maihiam left...
Monday, 23 July 2007 1:48 pm
Atchery, I thought she is the official stamp licker or a queue number crier. "lumber 23, who ah? Your turn now !!"


4. Gary left...
Monday, 23 July 2007 2:46 pm
i tot she was a person who is reading those documents that got typo error and reject back to you guys.. but doing nothing yet can earn a salary.. i cant do that..


5. JayWalk left...
Monday, 23 July 2007 5:38 pm :: 
An: When I took that picture, I believed she was reading some book. It was quite thin and so I don't think it was Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows.

Meepok: Nope. Not stamps and neither is she a queue caller. SpitLanders don't queue.

Gary: Salary or not. Ask me sit one place don't do anything, I'd go crazy.


6. slurp! left...
Tuesday, 24 July 2007 1:03 am
is she pretty? she might have gotten that easy job via her good connections?


7. Ruok left...
Tuesday, 24 July 2007 10:24 am
dang my guess is she's a porn actress.


8. JayWalk left...
Tuesday, 24 July 2007 10:39 am :: 
slurp!: She is normal looking but I seriously doubt if she got the job via special connections coz imagine a bank where everyone is behind the glass and she being the only one on the outside.

More like being tekan than having special privileges.

ruok: Dang..... you and your Spitland hairy armpit fetish........ sheesh.....

20 July 2007

Recycle vs Recycle

Spitland has been recently commended for their efforts in recycling paper and successfully stemming the depletion of trees for paper.

Read article here.

BUT.

While the Spitlanders are to be applauded, there is a bunch of unscrupulous people taking "recycling" a step too far and risking the lives of their fellow countrymen. All for the greed to make money.

These bastards are going to burn in hell.

I am referring to the recent exposé of mixing cardboard into the filling of buns. Mind you, these are cardboards that were picked off the streets. I suspect is these guys got the street bums/beggars/garang guni men to bring them the cardboard from the garbage and then paying them by the kg. Next step in the recipe is to soak them in industrial caustic soda (also known as Sodium Hydroxide NaOH) to accelerate the decomposition i.e. softening of the cardboard, which is toxic to the human body.

A formula of 60% cardboard and 40% fatty meat is then mixed together to be the filling for the buns before going into the steamer.

What pisses me off was the manufacturer's comment where he said he wouldn't eat them. This comes to show that he is aware that the buns are not fit for human consumption and yet he was selling them to the unsuspecting public?

According to R3gular, this has been going on for years (I can't verify this though) and I wonder how many lives have been lost from this?

WTF??

Has this guy no conscience? These idiots ought to be shot. I'll pay for the bullets.



Check out the video clip here (Microsoft Internet Explorer only. Firefox not supported)

and

Here.

Related News:
 
Afternote: As it turned out, the above report was a fake. The whole story was staged by a reporter (perhaps for the sake of boosting TV ratings?). As if things aren't bad enough already as Spitland as been reeling from a recent spates of tainted food incidents and now we have a dishonest journalist sparking a public panic with a stunt like this.

Well, good news is that this reporter together with a few other collaborators have been arrested and will be charged in court soon. I think a prison sentence is unavoidable. Only a matter of how long.

Related News:
Image Credit: http://www.cnn.com, http://english.aljazeera.net

- Voxeros

19 July 2007

More Lake Woes

If you think 100,000 kg worth of fish is a lot, wait till you see 2,200,000,000 field mice (by my calculation should weigh a total of 88,000,000 kg!).

With heavy fall in recent months, has flooded the burrows that the mice usually live and as a result is forcing them to come further inland and chomping their way through the crops AND not to mention furiously multiplying along the way.

The locals are setting dike walls and ditches to trap these mice and imagine a ditch of 30 to 60 cm filled with swarming mice.

Imagine the ditch as a stream with brown water and quick ripples. Problem is that the brown water are actually the brown mice and the quick ripples are just the energetic squirming of the mice.

On the bright side, the field mice are not as harmful as their city cousins as far as diseases are concerned but given that they are moving nearer and nearer towards civilisation, we have a potential plague time bomb on our hands and that is after that have devoured all the crops meant for human consumption supply. Imagine famine and plague striking at the same time?

Reports says that so far 90 tonnes of mice has been killed and again by my calculation, that probably accounts for 0.1% of the mice problem. I won't be surprise that if you throw all the cats into the ditch, it would be the cats ending up as food rather than the other way round.

Click here for the video clip (may not work on Firefox. Use Microsoft Internet Explorer)

Related News:
And true to the spirit of the Ch1nese of eating everything, news reports are popping out several days later where restaurants in Guangd0ng are putting these mice back on their tables, given that they are now so cheap, so abundant and so FRESH!

Ewwwwwwwwww...


Related News:
Actually, if you seriously thing about it, all these are just our own doing. With the snakes entirely harvested for the restaurants, the mice have thus no more natural enemies to keep their population in check. We messed with Mother Nature by breaking the natural order of the food chain and now we are paying the price for it with the invasion of billions of mice.

Rats. (No pun intended).

Afternote: A later report said that the number of mice is set to rise even further as we enter the monsoon months starting August, where the water level in D0ngT1ng Lake, from the increase rainfall is likely to rise even further and thus, forcing even more mice to surface.

Siao Liao.

If Adam and Eve had been Ch1nese
"If Adam and Eve had been Ch1nese" - Click here to enlarge
 
p.s. My thanks to Little Dowager* for introducing Wulffmorgenthaler. I love it!

Image Credit: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/, http://www.scmp.com; http://www.wulffmorgenthaler.com
 - Voxeros

1. Lil Dow left...
Thursday, 19 July 2007 2:18 pm :: http://littledowager.blogsome.com
I sure if they replace all chicken with mice and sell them cheap cheap, this problem will be old news in a week.
bet they taste just like chicken. ;)


2. Kelly left...
Thursday, 19 July 2007 7:51 pm :: http://kellchan.blogspot.com/
I hate rats!!!


3. akk left...
Thursday, 19 July 2007 9:39 pm
what's wrong with eating them? they feed on grain and crops. don't waste the protein mah, better to eat them rather than just kill them.


4. JayWalk left...
Thursday, 19 July 2007 10:06 pm :: 
Little Dowager*: I recall a news article a few years ago where they use alley rats and cut them up, dye them and roast them to look like roasted pigeon.

In Ta1wan, there used to be push carts where they operate a dice gaming stall. Win and you get their grill sausages. It has been rumoured that some of these stalls use alley rat meat to make those sausages.

Kelly: Yeah. Me too. Not a big fan. I use to trap rats when I was living in landed property. Cage traps are definitely better than the snap traps. The latter can get very messy.

Akk: Yes they may be field mice but given the badly polluted environment that they are breeding in, I don't think it's a good idea to be consuming these critters.


5. slurp! left...
Tuesday, 24 July 2007 1:19 am
eeeeeeeeeek, they don't bite back? minced them & make into dumplings, let's it don't look that gross hahahaha


6. JayWalk left...
Tuesday, 24 July 2007 10:41 am :: 
slurp!: Mice are generally timid. The "bite back" one are usually the larger rats but only when threatened. Very rare though.

18 July 2007

Blue Algae Blues


While we are on the topic of the sorry state of rivers and lakes in Spitland as per yesterday's entry, let me take you to Wux1 where the crisis is even more severe. While WuHàn's problem only threatened the local marine life (can you use the word "marine" since it is fresh water and not sea water?), Wux1's problem has escalated all the way to threatening human existence.

Ok, Ok, not like people are dying or going to die but at the very least we have already taken that alarming first step towards it already. Not good.

The growth spike of the blue algae is a combination of polluted waste discharges into the lake and coupled with the strong summer weather. While blue algae itself is not harmful except that it starves the water of oxygen, it is only when the algae dies that the problem starts. Dead blue algae is toxic and smells of dead rotten corpse. This is when the water becomes unfit for human consumption. You can't even use the water to wash, let alone drink.

Sure, the local gahmen may have announced that the water crisis has been averted and that the water is now safe to drink, the known fact that the local gahmen has all along been a corrupt one seems to have shot all their credibility to bits.

Suuure it's safe. Riiiight...... let's see you drink it then, shall we?
 
The clip above tells of the current Wux1 situation with a little coverage at the back on the recent X1amen PX protest. (Read here for my earlier coverage)

Anyway (note how often the female narrator says AIR-NEE-WAY?), I shan't talk about the X1amen incident as that was over and done with. It was a victory for the people and the good news is that the central gahmen does listen to the people, but only if the people can get pass the suppression of the local gahmens. Still, with the central gahmen starting to sit up and take notice of the alarming increase of protests by their people against the corrupt local gahmens, you can be assured that cleaning up is in progress. It may be slow but at least it is moving in the right direction.

For that I salute the leaderships of Wen and Hu.

Related News: China Daily (14 Jul 2007) - Official Warns Of Major Algae Outbreak

- Voxeros

1. slurp! left...
Tuesday, 24 July 2007 1:15 am
Terrible! i hope they find solutions for these environment & corruption issues soon


2. JayWalk left...
Tuesday, 24 July 2007 10:43 am :: 
Slurp!: Oh they are as we are reading busting cases on the papers pretty often. However, given the sheer number of cases out there, it is going to take a while to get them all resolved.

Only question is "a while" means how long?

Nobody knows, unfortunately.

17 July 2007

What The Fish?

How's this get you to sit up and take a closer look?

This picture was taken in WuHàn where there was an illegal discharge of toxic waste, usually by factories up-river using heavy rain as a camouflage cover. With the hot summer months, it catalyses into a growth explosion of blue-green algae. As a result, 100,000 kg of fishes died of oxygen starvation. Due to the toxic nature of the polluted water, the dead fish aren't fit for human consumption either.

Environmental disasters is common fare on the news these days in Spitland but only because the respective local gahmens (read: Town and City councils) are no longer able to cover that it blew up into the open.
Something like shit hitting the ceiling fan.

Once there is public attention, the central gahmen (Read: Beij1ng) also no longer able to act blur and thus need to take action according to the book.

Thereafter, we then have news of officials sacked from their positions, stripped of their party membership, jailed and/or even given the death sentence.

Problem is that for every big disaster uncovered, there are possibly another 10 remained hushed up. The consolation is that the central gahmen is indeed doing something about it albeit not as quickly as we would have wished. However, given the magnitude of the proliferation of the current number of environmental time bombs, this is as fast as the central gahmen can act.

Fingers crossed.

Image Credits: http://www.sinaimg.cn

- Voxeros

16 July 2007

Collateral Damage

It all started with an MINDEF Intranet email (Click Here if you can get to it before the invisible hand of Gahmen takes it down) written by the son of our current Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, 2LT Li Hongyi, lodging a complaint all the way to the Minister of Defence, Chief of Defence Force, Chief of Army, Chief Signals Officer, right down to the storeman in the camp. It wasn't long before this got leaked to the public.

I shan't go into the details of the entire drama as the letter itself is self-explanatory. Go read it as I don't see a point to regurgitate everything here.

Well, the people are saying that he didn't follow the chain of command when he lodge the complaint. I beg to differ. He did and realised it didn't work out. According to the email, the OC cover up the incident by sweeping it under the carpet.

I agree with Rockson that the LTA X and the OC are stupid people. Knowing full well that he is the PM's son, then still don't on the ball is really asking for it lor. If the rumours are correct, PM's son is not a White Horse. He is not only beyond that, he is two steps beyond that. He is in the Dragon List (above Eagle List), assuming such lists exists. Wah raoz! Dragon List personnel and you still dare to guai lan in front of him? Confirm die damn ugly one.

Read Rockson's entry here.

I agree with 2LT Li that the calibre of SAF officers are getting more and more fucked up by the day. During my NS time, it is already quite bad with my camp littered with condemned Sergeants and condemned Captains, all wasting tax-payers money away while waiting for retirement as they are on Pensionable Service (PS).

In my time, I have seen countless of junior officers (especially young punk 2LTs) tio chor by NCOs for stupid things that they did. The kick in the nuts for these useless officers was that they have no rebuttal for it coz they really did screw up big time. Things that sometimes go against common sense. Perhaps a tongue lashing by a subordinate is a better deal that to be officially charged?

Have you seen a regular LTA sobbing in the dark corner? I did. He was an OC and was chewed up by the Commander in front of the entire Tactical HQ for incompetency. Apparently for every question that the Commander asked him during a high level meeting where only OCs and above attend, he drew a blank. Next came a blasting of tirade so loud that people in the vicinity outside the tent could hear. Next we saw the OC's PC scurrying into the Tactical HQ tent while the OC was booted out of the tent and ordered to stay out.

How I knew the OC was sobbing in the dark corner? The dark corner was my unimog.

Anyway, coming back to the present episode.

I have come to accept the fact (and fate) that all of us are not equal. We are a melting pot of the haves and have-nots. While I do not resent those who have what I don't have, I only hope that they use it for the general good.

What 2LT Li has here is that when he says "This is my grandfather's army." He is not joking. With that power, he has the ability to shake the tree in order to dislodge some of these free-loading monkeys. Something the rest of us can't even dream of. I'd already quaked in my boots if I had to face my Brigade Commander, let alone draft a protest letter to the CDF.

Well, looks like 2LT Li is going to get charged for contravening orders to broadcast the email and would certainly be a blemish in his personnel record. I say screw that blemish and wear it as a Medal of Honour for I personally feel that 2LT Li's heart was in the right place, just that the plan of execution wasn't exactly most ideal. Take the record blemish as collateral damage in the war against the enemy. In exchange, LTA X is definitely screwed and the OC's career is definitely over. Condemned CPT, if he is lucky.

All that for the price of a small little black mark in the personnel docket. I'd say it's a good deal.

In all, I have a new admiration for this young man for he has guts. Naive? Yes but a stand-up kinda guy nonetheless.

I'd vote for him, if he runs for office in the future.

Related News:
Image Credits: http://www.todayonline.com, http://www.pmo.gov.sg 

- Voxeros

1. ihawk98 left...
Friday, 13 July 2007 2:09 pm
me thinks your link to the email is not working liao.....


2. DK left...
Friday, 13 July 2007 2:28 pm :: http://decayonnet.blogspot.com
I agree with the points that he mentioned in the email. But I disagree with his method of conveying the message. Yes, he did follow chain of command and report to the OC. We know that the OC didn't take action. But that doesn't mean he can just simply jump CO, Chief of Signal, Chief of Army, Chief of defense and go all the way up to Minister.

There is a proper chain of command. And it is important to follow it. Not happily happily email anyone you like.

And I'm utterly shocked that he only got a verbal warning. Such thing should at least throw a few extra duties or SOL.


3. callandor left...
Friday, 13 July 2007 4:05 pm
you do realise that voting for him is the last thing you should do...Just because he knows he can get away scot free (almost) due to his lao peh and gong gong. If you try something like this, you think you can get away with a reprimand?

Also, this may be more of a stunt by him to get some attention (so that people will vote with him). Paranoia yes, but you never know what Lau Lee is planning..this might all be a plan for his grandson to look good...


4. JayWalk left...
Friday, 13 July 2007 4:43 pm :: 
ihawk98: Nothing wrong as far as I can find out. Perhaps a spike in traffic as a result of this case causing server load to slow down everything.

DK: Welcome to the blog. I am with you as far as disagreeing with the approach that he has deployed. However, I doubt if it is any difference where he got sign extra or not. DO duty very siong meh? Not say he do duty is to be prowler wor.

Callandor: What I saw was the underlying desire to want to stand up straight. Again, I already said that his methods are not ideal but hey, he is still a kid at this point in time and I believe with proper guidance, he will matured into a better person. The type that we need (hopefully) to be in the Gahmen.

As for whether this is a stunt or not, it is still better that some MPs (whose names I shall not spell out) who coasted in via the back door effortlessly.

Again, my perennial question. (Read this)

Can you spell G-R-C ?


5. Meepoktah Maihiam left...
Friday, 13 July 2007 5:36 pm
Hongyi's points are valid. Excellent penmanship too. Time to flush out the freaking old boy's club @ SAF. Draw big pay to cho bo.
I may not agree with Hongyi's method of conveying his message. Then again, if it's my Ah Gong's army, Limpeh also do the same :-)


6. JayWalk left...
Friday, 13 July 2007 6:04 pm :: 
Meepok: Ah Gong's army is right! This guy has special privileges and I am glad he put it to good use.


7. Ruok left...
Friday, 13 July 2007 8:27 pm
can u imagine staff singh's reaction to this? rofl


8. JayWalk left...
Saturday, 14 July 2007 9:02 am :: 
ruok: That's easy. Before anything, he would start off with "Your sister's CB!!!"

buahahahahaahahah

While on the topic of SGT Singh (that's Staff Singh to the rest of you new birds), he is one great fellow that I have full admiration and respect. Granted that it is a common sight to see him stumbled out of the NCOs' Mess on Sunday mornings at 8am when I report for duty; Granted that you often saw him with a can of Stout on his table during office hours, this is one fella that gets the job done and done well.

His mantra was "If you want a job done, don't ask me how I am going to do it. Just shut the fuck up and wait for me at the finishing line to collect your results."

Stay-dee.

p.s. If you are able to recall, this was the fella who went overseas exercise with us with a full on plaster-casted leg. Remember? Tough guy.


9. Ruok left...
Saturday, 14 July 2007 11:41 am
yeah this guy got my r-e-s-p-e-c-t. He was also the one who also made my liver the way it is now ... I can still recall that one time he summoned me to the officer's mess and plied 3 Jugs of beer in front of me. I lost count after the 7th mug and some time later he told me that I was off duty liow and ordered me back to the bunk.
I can only remember lying on the bed to rest a while.... when I woke up, it was the next day liow and I was still in last night's clothes. >.<


10. Ah Seng left...
Saturday, 14 July 2007 4:50 pm
He real lucky to go all the way. I got take COS 5 days in a row because I left the office to go to the Canteen when I was in the army by this cheeby Captain.I went to see the Manpower. He told me to come with my complaint the next day. The next day I went the Manpower on leave. So I had to do COS 5 days in a row. I still think it was illegal but do already so what use of complaining? You try to sleep in the office for 5 days then u know how I felt.


11. JayWalk left...
Saturday, 14 July 2007 5:38 pm :: 
ruok: Yup, those were the good old days and it's been an honour for me to serve my NS alongside with this crazy dude.

Ah Seng: Welcome to the blog. I am no stranger as far as sleeping in the office for days on end and it wasn't even serving punishment!

The problem here for both you and I and that when we have no backing, we get bullied and pushed around.

In a way, I was glad to see HongYi, with his special status", push back and kicking these worthless soldiers in the ass.

Yes, he may have "used his special status" to hantam the LTA and the OC but you know what? I am glad he did.


12. JayWalk left...
Saturday, 14 July 2007 5:52 pm :: 
Ah Seng: Your story reminded me of an episode of my own. I had to leave the Ops Room to fax daily report to HQ. Because the Ops Room has to be manned at all times, the DO has agreed to stay behind.

When I returned, the DO was nowhere to be found. Instead, there was my Dy S3, a straight by-the-book no-nonsense super anal* guy, fuming and accusing me of leaving my post.

I got 2 weeks confinement as a result.

My OC wanted to fight my case on my behalf but I objected and served my punishment quietly. The DO (an encik) was an asshole well-known for tekaning new birds.

He was surprised that a new bird took the proverbial bullet for him without question and has since found a new respect for me. I guess the story of this incident spread to the rest of the encik fraternity in the camp and I have to say that I have been treated very well by all the regular NCOs until my disruption.

My story's ending is different from yours and I am not writing this to try to counter your point. I just wanted to share this story.

* He may be anal but it is all by the book and all his decisions, orders and punishments are fair and justifiable even though I may not like it. He was later promoted to the rank of Major and I felt that he deserved that promotion.


13. babydoll left...
Saturday, 14 July 2007 11:02 pm
he might just be the next PM, and, he's kinda cute :p


14. JayWalk left...
Sunday, 15 July 2007 9:09 am :: 
Babydoll: Babydoll?? Cute?? Focus!! Focus!!


15. aloe left...
Sunday, 15 July 2007 10:25 pm
Yah! I was thinking he looks cute too! so did my friend. LOL! ~ drool ~
On the other hand, if it's my ah gong's army, I would have taken the same stance as him. See how he manage to find all the facts about the wrongdoings? Shows that the others know that he is atas atas! Cannot anyhow play play, so provide him with info instead. they will sure rise up high high yah! :P
He won't get into any kind of serious trouble one la. Maybe just a warning.


16. callandor left...
Monday, 16 July 2007 11:25 pm
Again, you're gonna hate me for being devil's advocate but I don't see why he only whistleblow just as he was about to disrupt/ord.. that just doesn't add him to his..."heroic" nature.
I have done stuff similar where I whistled blow through a proxy and caused no amount of lim kopi headache...but the thing is, no one listens in the army till you blow it up. At least I did it a long way to ORD and right during the incident...
This just smacks of LHY having a grouse, and afraid of getting "marked" during his service period, and only doing it after when he was about to go...


17. JayWalk left...
Thursday, 26 July 2007 7:33 am :: 
aloe: Auntie, never knew you to be the cradle snatching type!

Callandor: You have to understand that as powerful as he may be, he is only one man against a sea of regulars, condemned or otherwise. You under estimated the power of the regular fraternity. It is not merely condemned regulars protecting condemned regulars. I am sure the a significant portion of the rest of the regulars would have come forward in solidarity.

2 years in NS is not long but neither is it short especially when you are in the middle of it. Imagine whistle blowing right in the middle of NS (3 months BMT + 9 months OCS), you still have 1 year of service to go. When you get ostracized in camp (even if you have done nothing wrong), the remainder of your one year is going to be damn miserable.

Hence, waiting for disruption before firing the letter is a necessity for survival.

13 July 2007

Blood Red Tape


Got to know this clip from the CowBoyBar who in turn got it from Tomorrow.sg.

As I watched, I was seething in anger. The idiotic red tape morons have done it again. RFF lost a leukemia boy last year as a result of the bone marrow donor in Hong Kong getting entangled in the red tape pertaining to securing a passport to fly over for the transplant.

Now this.

While I can vaguely understand the need to secure approval for releasing of blood beyond allocated quota since there are more than one patient in the hospital requiring blood transfusion at the same time. The process of seeking approval from upstairs is merely a check process to ensure that issuing of blood to one patient will not endanger the life of another.

However, this check and approval process should be a short and decisive one and not one of those "Wait ah. I call upstairs to check.... Oh, approving officer is on his tea break. Wait ah. Wait." I hope that didn't happen in this particular case.

Even so, this could have been prevented if patient's family and friends were informed of the likelihood of such occurrences. Excessive bleeding after childbirth is not uncommon, mostly as a result of the womb failing to contract and close up after delivery. Then again, it was a Caesarian birth in this case and so I am not in any position comment further as to why the bleeding failed to stop.

Perhaps such tragedy would have been prevented if the hospital had advised the family to gather up other family members and friends with the required blood type, to be on standby. Surely something as simple like being on standby as this would not be considered as a hassle. Yes? No? After all, being on standby doesn't mean 100% sure kena activated. Besides, we are all on pagers and mobile phones. How difficult can it be?

Still, all is said and done on 20-20 hindsight. Also, I am not saying that it is the family's fault for failure to plan for such contingency for after all, how are we, as lay people, supposed to know all these? The hospital should have done more with regards to advising the patient's friends and family about the various risks and perhaps the need to be on standby for further blood input.

My heart goes out to the family.

The real PISS-ME-OFF trigger was the bladdy staff at the blood bank refusing to help simply because he/she was not supposed to "start work" for another 10 minutes. While it cannot be proven that the 10 minutes delay killed the mother, had the staff agreed to "start work" earlier, he/she would have been easily exonerated from being part of the party responsible for the death. Now he/she has blood on his/her hands. I hope he/she can sleep well every night from hereon now.

Investigations are on going right now and heads are definitely going to roll, now that the case has hit the media. A field day for the media to be going out for blood (no pun intended). No?

Perhaps this is a lapse in the policy that needs to be quickly reviewed and make right or perhaps this is case of your typical civil servants slacking off the iron rice bowl. I say time to remove the iron rice bowls if such people are not doing enough to earn it.

I hear people saying about Karma will serve its justice. Well, in that case, allow me to wish all those responsible to be safe. There may not be enough blood for you, if you get run over by a truck. Better put your friends and family on standby.

Stay safe ok?

Afternote: I have to admit that this was initially drafted with boiling blood. 24 hours later, I am a much calmer person and my emotions are back in check. I apologise if there has been any inaccuracies above.

Thinking further, I have to say that there is no conclusive evidence to suggest that the red tape delay, with regards to blood supply, is the cause of Mdm Swee's death whether directly or indirectly. The doctors and medical staff did all they could to save her. That was never in doubt.

Perhaps it is the policy in place that make the whole place devoid of empathy, compassion and sensitivity. Perhaps we are in a society where a moral martyr gets flogged instead of exaltation. Break protocol in the effort to save a life and one may get oneself fired (no pun intended again) for breaking the rules.

I can't help but be reminded of Wee Shu Min's saga in my earlier post. I wonder why? Strange.
And oh yes, how many times have we heard the lame excuse where "if we were the break the rules for you, then we would have to break the rules for everybody else. Then what good of use are the rules to begin with?"

To them I say "Screw you and screw the rules". If a rule has to be broken for the greater good, then obviously the rule is flawed and must be reviewed and amended. Blindly following every rule that is churned out without challenging it, is foolish in a lemmings sort of way.

Gee..... doesn't that sound like us and our elite Gahmen?

Nairmind. I wait. Four more years only.

Related News Articles:
Image Credit: http://www.towncrier.org.uk, http://www.channelnewsasia.com

- Voxeros

1. fayeth left...
Saturday, 14 July 2007 12:22 am
It's very sad, because no one could have predicted that this would happen.
I am sure that as per hospital protocol, the staff would have given a pre-op briefing that there're risks etc, and even if there was any warning about possible heavy blood loss, it is really unlikely for the family to register that it is a real risk. Because no one ever thinks it could be them. So realistically, the family would not have even thought of being on standby for blood, because we all have that mindset - can't even strike 4D, not so "lucky" to get complications =x
Just like you, i hope it wasn't a delay in the blood supplied to Mdm Swee that caused her death. It would really be very sad. My heart goes out to her family.


2. JayWalk left...
Thursday, 26 July 2007 7:24 am :: 
fayeth: I too do not think that the hospital is responsible for her death but it is just that the way things are done, it is felt like as if the patient is merely just a statistic rather than a real person.

The hospital and the blood bank should address this shortcoming.
 

12 July 2007

Faith The Little Dancer


I had a bladdy hard time uploading this to YouTube. I think it is due to the incompatible video format despite it being QuickTime MOV. Fortunately, I was able to convert it to MPG format and uploading was successful. Still, it was only with the help of AKK (Thanks Sweetie!) that this was successfully uploaded.

Also thanks to Gary for the valiant attempt too.

Mann.... I was tearing my hair and banging my head against the wall as I pek chek until nearly die.

Anyway, this was taken last Sunday where Faith (K-2) was performing a farewell item for the graduating K-3s. By the way, Faith was on the extreme left. The tall lanky one in the back rom.

As you know, YouTube's quality isn't exactly fantastic and so for those with ample bandwidth and wish to view the video more clearly.

Click Here. (QuickTime 86MB)

The above is a YouSendIt link which means that the above link will expire in 7 days or 100 downloads whichever is sooner. Should anyone needs to download after the link has expired, drop me a note and I'll refresh the link again.

p.s. To my fellow Lumix users, do you have the same problem with incompatible MOV format? Try shooting a clip on your Lumix and upload to YouTube. Let me know your results. Thanks.

- Voxeros

1. Everton left...
Thursday, 12 July 2007 8:34 am
It took me about 35 seconds to realize it's the same song I learned in elementary school. Back then we sang the slow version. You wanna send her to Moscow or Prague to study ballet :-) Don't waste her talent.


2. Ruok left...
Thursday, 12 July 2007 10:02 am
bro, try using H.264 format next time. I use it all the time, for the compression it gives, its really quite good quality. My 4min showreel is about 16mb niah.


3. JayWalk left...
Thursday, 12 July 2007 10:53 am :: 
Everton: Ballerina tan bor jiak. She is better off being a pro golfer or tennis player. Then I can retire early liao.

ruok: I was kinda hoping to be able to upload to YouTube right from the camera but obviously the MOV format in the Lumix is something that is not directly compatible and as such, I have to go through the hassle of converting to something other format first before uploading.

Bladdy pain in the ass. I wonder if other Lumix users have the same problem?


4. okiedokie left...
Thursday, 12 July 2007 5:54 pm
erm my sis uses lumix too...I'm not sure if she converts the videos b4 uploading but she did upload a few videos (taken by Lumix) onto youtube... get back to u after i have checked with her...


5. JayWalk left...
Thursday, 12 July 2007 6:03 pm :: 
okiedokie: Set the Lumix to 30 fps and take about 2 minutes of video then see if any problem uploading. Btw, I am using FX-7. Quite old liao. What is the model that your sis using?


6. okiedokie left...
Thursday, 12 July 2007 9:41 pm
checked: her's FX-01...is it even older model? she said she could upload the videos (ususally more than 1 min) directly w/o conversion... probably the connection speed is slow & the file is big so it takes a long time?


7. JayWalk left...
Friday, 13 July 2007 11:07 am :: 
okiedokie: FX-01 is newer (2006 model) while my FX-7 is an older 2004 model. I think the "0" in the model number depicts the later series.

Anyway, my guess is that the MOV format in my old camera is outdated and/or obsolete since Quicktime has undergone several changes over the years.

Thanks for taking the trouble to find out for me. Appreciate it. =)


8. okiedokie left...
Friday, 13 July 2007 5:33 pm
u're welcome; it's just 举口之劳 (since i only asked, din check the camera myself =p)
just wondering, wld the format (.MOV) change even if the software (quicktime) upgrade? i mean, for eg, winamp upgrade but still can listen to mp3 d/led way b4 the upgrade rite?


9. JayWalk left...
Thursday, 26 July 2007 7:22 am :: 
okiedokie: The way I see it, this should not happen to formats like MP3 as it is a standardised format. I see this occurring only in proprietary formats like WMV and MOV.

Usually these players are backward compatilble and as such, users will not be able to detect any changes coz ultimately all we want it to do is to just play the bladdy file.

Whenever there is a update in the format, most software will be notified in advance to anticipate this, hence we have update, upgrade and patches available for download.

I believe YouTube not accepting an older MOV format is perhaps just an isolated incident.

11 July 2007

Faith The Little Student


It has been gradually getting easier to get Faith to wake up and go to school. She used to, in the past, struggle kicking and screaming while we attempt to get her out of bed. These days, it has been reduced to the occasional whining or 赖床 in Ch1nese speak.

I don't think my last hantam session has anything to this but I think more of the fact that she has grown up and matured to understand that going to school is not that a horrid thing after all.

This is a picture of her doing her homework the night before school. She is learning to write and doodle. I enjoy watching her do her homework. It brings a smile to my face know that she is learning and getting smarter right before my eyes.

She still has a short attention span where I have to break down writing 20 times into 2 sessions of 10 with a short 5 minute goof-off break in between. But looking at the progress that we have come thus far, this is good enough for now.

Looks like my dream car will have to wait as I guess I have to start saving for her college fund.

p.s. It's official. She is right handed.

- Voxeros

1. Everton left...
Wednesday, 11 July 2007 1:26 pm
Is Faith in Primary 1 or Kindergarten? She seems to be a very diligent student :-)


2. JayWalk left...
Wednesday, 11 July 2007 1:54 pm :: 
Everton: She is in K-2 now. She is diligent coz I am sitting right next to her and will wring her neck if she try to run away from her homework.


3. mht left...
Wednesday, 11 July 2007 2:00 pm
you this daddy ah....why sit beside her to pressure her...let her scribble what she want lah...only in k2 leh...


4. JayWalk left...
Wednesday, 11 July 2007 2:11 pm :: 
mht: Dounch anyhow say me hor. What pressure? She like me to be around when she do her homework.


5. mht left...
Wednesday, 11 July 2007 2:31 pm
ok lor!....................:)


6. JayWalk left...
Wednesday, 11 July 2007 3:08 pm :: 
mht: *bish*

p.s. Btw, quite surprise to see you at CowBoyBar. Good to see you!


7. aurore left...
Thursday, 12 July 2007 9:05 am :: http://aurore.vefblog.net
How are you Jay ? moi ca va, ça fait longtemps que je n'étais pas venue ici.. tes enfants sont toujours trés beaux, bon anniversaire à ton garçon ! le mien aussi a son anniv. le 28/07..Bisous.. je pars en guadeloupe à la fin de la semaine.


8. Jaslyn left...
Thursday, 12 July 2007 5:26 pm :: http://precious-jas.blogspot.com
She's a smart kid. Very cute too.. Nice meeting her in HK :) Though didn't really talk to her but she's cute lah! Lol.. Pretty like mummy and daddy :p


9. JayWalk left...
Thursday, 12 July 2007 5:51 pm :: 
Jaslyn: Well, she was tired by the time she got to the dinner place anyway. Next time lor.


10. JayWalk left...
Thursday, 26 July 2007 9:27 am ::
aurore: Welcome back! Happy Birthday too! Have a safe journey to Guadeloupe.

10 July 2007

TomYam Half Of Manchester

As many football fans are aware. Ex-Thailand Prime Minister, Mr Thaksin Shinawatra, has completed the takeover of English Premiership club Manchester City for a whopping £81.6 million last Friday.

With the Thai mogul at the helm, I'd bet he will be pushing the management to start bringing local Thai footballers into the scene.

The motives are quite obvious, on top of the genuine interest to want to lift local standards of football up a notch, the ex-PM hope that this little PR exercise would find him back in favour with the people of a football crazy nation.

Anyway, let's not talk politics here. Today's entry is all about the beautiful game and I shall focus on the primary motive.

In order to bring Thailand's game up, exposure is essential. It is analogous to that of a transfer of technology when high tech firms come set up shop in our own backyard.

Exposure by way of sending promising Thai prodigies up to Manchester and train from the bottom up. From youth team to B team and who knows, we will start to see gems emerging onto the Starting XI.

10 years ago, an Asian face on the pitch of EPL was unthinkable. Yes, granted we have our own Fandi Ahmad playing in FC Gronigen but seriously (a) it was a fluke and (b) he didn't make a very big impact, did he?

Today, Asian names are all over Europe with names like Nakamura, Nakata, Inamoto, Sun JunHai, Dong FangZuo, Park JiSun, just to name a few. It won't be long before we see names from our part of Southeast Asia.

Needless to say, with the helping hand of Thaksin, the first Southeast Asian face to grace the EPL pitch would without a doubt going to be a Thai. Who knows, 20 years from now, maybe even half the squad is Thai? Laugh all you want. It may just happened. Wenger and Houllier are know to favour French imports while Benitez is Spain. Did Fergie not in recent months starting to court South American players?

Let's put on our vision goggles of creative imagination, shall we?

Imagine, Thai players on the pitch of a ManCity game. Mann..... are we in for a lot of problems!!

Problem #01 - Name Try printing Choonhavon Bhumipol on the back of the jersey. So many letters how to fit? Mind you, there is a not a First Name + Last Name. That is a two-word surname!

Don't say jersey cannot fit. Even the TV screen also cannot fit ok!




If reading Thai names is a problem, wait till the commentators pronounce them. Can you say Yongchaiyudh? If you can't, can you see an even bigger problem for the ang moh commentators? Imagine ManCity is awared a direct free-kick right outside the box. By the time, the commentator finish saying the name, the screen is already showing ManCity celebrating the goal and jogging back to their half for the restart!

Problem #2 - Thai Culture Speaking of goals, well...... one thing I must say is that Thai people are a very polite bunch of people. You really got to love them for that.

Imagine the Thai goal scorer having to apololgise to the opposite goalkeeper for scoring a goal with palms together and saying "khor thot".

Being polite doesn't mean that the Thai people are easy pushovers. Piss one of them off, and he will unleash his Thai kickboxing on you and send you flying out of the stadium.

Thereafter, palms together again, he would bow in the general direction of which he just sent you flying and "khor thot".

And speaking of Thai Kickboxing. I think protective shin pads are optional for them while double shin pads are compulsory for everybody else.

Problem #3 - Lady Boys Don't laugh for these folks are generally as accepted in Thai society as you and I. Gotta give them credit for all embracing tolerance.

Imagine players with boobs, make-up, boobs, manicure, boobs, pweety pweety hair and boobs! I remember how the girlfriends from our gang used to follow football together with their respective boyfriends, especially during World Cup season. But for these ladies, they look at the hot bods of Roberto Baggio, Klose, Beckham, C.Ronaldo, just to name a few while the rest of the blokes watch the game for the er..... game itself.

Give "half-ball" also got new meaning liao. Hur hur hur....

With these Tiffanys coming unto the pitch, I think the guys will have hot bods to oogle at too. Lucky, Thaksin never buy Tottenham Hotspur. I hate to imagine what it would be like for them to be playing when it's raining.

Image Credits: http://www.aftonbladet.se

- Voxeros

1. Gary left...
Tuesday, 10 July 2007 12:18 am
lol.. i have been waiting for this kind of entry to come out and trickle my funny bones.. but then again, in order to play in TOP league in europe, the national team must be in the top 100 in the FIFA ranking.. second-tier, third-tier of the league, reserves league, youth league, no problem..


2. JayWalk left...
Tuesday, 10 July 2007 12:45 am :: 
Gary: Well, we are not expecting results over night. The Thai boys will have to start from bottom and work their way up. It may be a long route but at least in the right direction, they will get there eventually.


3. Everton left...
Tuesday, 10 July 2007 12:33 pm
Speaking of exotic Thai names, I remember having quite a few "porn" classmates in the business school. Ang moh professors must be wondering why the parents give their children names like "porn" :-)

One poor Japanese teaching assistant has one of the most unfortunate last names: Takeshita (literally means under the bamboo Zhu Xia). Many ang moh students simply call the poor chap "take shit". I feel so bad for my TA.


4. barffie left...
Wednesday, 11 July 2007 10:35 am
Hmm if I'm not wrong Thais usually give themselves aliases or just shorter forms of their names. Like if the name is Pongsomethingsomething he will just be known as Pong!


5. JayWalk left...
Wednesday, 11 July 2007 11:11 am :: 
Everton: The classic cultural myopia of the gweilos.

Barffie: I think they have to do it if a Thai guy ever don the jersey. If short form then I won't be surprised to see repetitions like 2 guys and 1 Pong.

Sekali, ManCity also get another new Ch1nese guy in, then we have Pong, Pong, Hu ?

09 July 2007

Xiao Ren Wu De Xin Sheng (Voices From The Heart)

.
The party's over.
The end is near.
Don't look for me.
I'm no longer here.

- Corporate Animals (1995)
.
My thanks to Trina who showed me where to find the song playing in the background of the "ROCK AC" clip. Apparently, it's the 2007 National Day Parade song "Will You" sung by Janani Sridhar, Asha Edmund, Emma Yong, Lily Ann Rahmat, Jai Wahab, Shabir Mohammed, Sebastian Tan and Gani Karim.

Unfamiliar names except Emma Yong who is active in the local Theatre scene (Pam: Ring a bell there? Jubilee Hall?) and Gani Karim who was my ACJC schoolmate, both of whom starred in the 1995 local musical Corporate Animals together with other notable names like Hossan Leong and Deborah Png.

Anyway, the song is available on the NDP website at http://www.ndp.org.sg/multimedia/audio/index.html.
As I was browsing through the other songs, I spotted 小人物的心声 which was the 插曲 of the 1985 TV show 咖啡乌. Anybody remember the character 阿才?

Ahh the memories...

The words of the song are very simple but the meaning strikes very deep. Like I said, in the comments of my ROCK AC entry, this song will be my theme song if I ever get into Singapore politics. Well, the big keyword here is "IF".

Will continue on this tomorrow.

Enjoy.


小人物的心声 - 巫启贤
也许我一个人
不能成就一番大事业
让我尽力贡献一份微薄的力量
也许我自己
不能发出万丈光和亮
但我能为斗室带来足够的光芒

我从来就不在乎
自己不是一个大人物
因为平凡也是一种幸福
看到名人总是忙忙碌碌
我的时间由我控制
平凡日子一样会充实
<< 贤言贤语 (1985) >>
 
- Voxeros

1. Pam left...
Monday, 9 July 2007 10:32 pm
How can I forget the bad good ol' days...esp when I worked with her for 3 months!!!


2. slurp! left...
Monday, 9 July 2007 11:41 pm
these oldies are so shiok! simple simple words, deep deep meaning :) though not part of 咖啡乌, i still like the song 手足情 very very much


3. JayWalk left...
Monday, 9 July 2007 11:42 pm :: 
Pam: Eh... I referring to us. You and Me. Leave her out of it. Focus! Focus!


4. JayWalk left...
Monday, 9 July 2007 11:56 pm :: 
Slurp!: You have the song? Send to me!!


5. Everton left...
Tuesday, 10 July 2007 12:50 pm
Eric Moo (Wu Qi Xien) and I were classmates in JJC. Although his grades were unimpressive, his talent in music was undeniable. He sang back up vocal for some Taiwanese pop stars before he got his break. I think he is by far the most famous JJC alum. Success in life is not measured by how many A's you score on the GCE A Level Exam, seriously.


6. Pam left...
Tuesday, 10 July 2007 5:47 pm
sorry... not focusing on the important bits...hehehe :)


7. JayWalk left...
Wednesday, 11 July 2007 11:12 am :: 
Everton: Eric Moo is your classmate? Holy cow! That is a small world!!

Pam: That's why you have me to keep you on the straight and narrow. =P


8. Pam left...
Thursday, 12 July 2007 12:51 am
that's why I have you to keep me on the straight and narrow...?!?!?! *choke choke...* (was going to 'puke' but then hey, I've been gagging this whole week....feeling damn miserable! )


9. Ruok left...
Thursday, 12 July 2007 9:59 am
This is one of the rare cheena songs that I like to sing. I heart the other one by Eric Moo, think its one of the cha qu from kopi-o.


10. JayWalk left...
Thursday, 12 July 2007 11:00 am :: 
Pam: Time to air dirty laundry? Hur hur hur......

ruok: I thought this was the 插曲? The 主题曲 is Kopi O? "Kopi O, Kopi O, 喝一杯浓浓的 Kopi O ....."

Then again, it was so long ago and I could've gotten the two mixed up or was there a third song?


11. Ruok left...
Thursday, 12 July 2007 8:44 pm
There's another song, has this in the ending of the first verse
"故事的结局是悲是喜, 只有终归有些决定"


12. JayWalk left...
Friday, 13 July 2007 11:07 am :: 
ruok: Er... this one I dunno liao. You have the song?


13. Ruok left...
Friday, 13 July 2007 8:37 pm
found it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxxa-jNbI64
yi wang guo qu :p


14. JayWalk left...
Saturday, 14 July 2007 9:01 am :: 
ruok: This song!! Yes! I remember it now.... mann..... that was a L O N G time ago!!