Sumo Moustache

We were at a red light behind this van when I noticed the sumo wrestler.

Sumo has a moustache.

Tee hee hee.......

- Voxeros

F-35 Joint Strike Fighter And Singapore

• Reuters (14 Jul 2014) - Pentagon’s Big Budget F-35 Fighter "Can’t Turn, Can’t Climb, Can’t Run"
  
• RT.com (26 Mar 2014) - Software Problems Will Set Back F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Another Year - Report

Despite the fact that MINDEF has never said that they will buy the problem-after-problem-after-problematic F35 Joint Strike Fighter, the word in the coffee shop, for years, has been pointing in that direction of the Singapore gahmen's unwavering determination to angkat American bola.

Then this came out in the news yesterday.

• RT-com (19 Jan 2015) - 50 Terabytes! Snowden Leak Reveals Massive Size Of F-35 Blueprints Hack By China

Dear MINDEF,

If you die die must buy the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, may I suggest you try looking for it in taobao.com. It's probably in there somewhere. You just need the correct keyword in Chinese to find it. Confirm cheaper.

p.s. Do I get money for helping MINDEF save money under the WITS program ah?

Cheers.

Image Credits: http://media.worldbulletin.net 

- Voxeros

The Truth About CPR.

• Wall Street Journal (25 Feb 2012) - A Doctor On How Physicians Face The End Of Life

It has been a secret till this day that I think back of that fateful afternoon when Steven was rushed back to the office not breathing and not beating.

I was shrouded, ever since, with a cloud of self-doubt playing back that scene repeatedly and asked myself if there was anything I didn't do right?

Why was I not able to save him?

OH how I would have savoured the sweetest Tiger beer he would buy me when he recovers! All the plans to make him my bitch thereafter twarted!

For the uninitiated, I was referring to that one day back in the late 90s.

• JayWalk Online (03 Jun 2005) - I Was A Teenage Male Nurse (Scroll down to Case No.5)

That old article (above) from Wall Street Journal was a good read by the way but it was that one sentence that resonated a chord within me.

So many of us had gone through the CPR course but how many of us has actually put it to use in real life? So all along, we thought this would the the life saver as long as it is within 7 minutes of the casualty's last breath.

Nobody mentioned the grim stats of success rate then.

I felt a relief when I read that and told myself that it is time to let it go and stop kicking myself over it.

RIP Steven. We missed ya.

p.s. Just because the stats of success if less than optimistic, it doesn't mean giving up altogether. I would still encourage everyone to learn CPR. A 0.000001% success rate may still mean saving the life of that someone out there.

Image Credit: http://www.wsj.com; Flickr - Rickloh

- Voxeros

Ballast

It's a Sunday and this is the time I spend mucking around the house doing a little Tim "The Toolman" Taylor.

Today's assignment was the fluorescent tube in the common bathroom that has gone out the day before. A quick stop at the DIY store across the street and I had the tube replaced in double quick time.

A flick of the switch et...... nothing.

Aw... nuts. It's the ballast that has gone to ballast heaven. The old tube which I now suspect was still alive, was already disposed of already.

So armed with the new tube and the old ballast, I headed down to the store once again.

The tube tested ok and so it was confirmed that the problem was indeed the ballast.

JayWalk: (Showing her the ballast) 我要买这个. 这个叫什么?

China Lady Store Manager: Ballast.

JayWalk: Har? 我也知道叫 "ballast". 中文怎么讲?

Store Manager: 不知道.

JayWalk:  (Gives the "您来自中国不知道这个中文怎么说?" one-raised-eyebrow look).

Store Manager: （Gave back the "七早八早你是来给老娘添乱的是么?" death stare)

JayWalk: *quietly exit stage right*

TIL: Ballast for the fluorescent tube is known as "镇流器“， according to the description on the box.

Image Credit: https://thatssodad.blogspot.com

- Voxeros

Hong Kong's Occupy Movement

The Occupy Movement* in Hong Kong has been going on for a while now and any hope of breaking the stalemate looks destined to diminish with each new day.

* It is supposed to be called the Occupy Central but it has since spread all over the place like Admiralty, Mongkok etc, that I felt simply calling it the Occupy Movement would be more accurate.

The courts finally decided that enough is enough and granted the authorities to start clearing the streets.

I was in a little cafe in the ulu part of Hong Kong near the Chinese border and the TV was screening the morning news. When the news went on to the segment showing the streets where a small group of defiant activists still remained with their tents pitched and not budging, the patrons in the cafe, mostly elderlies over the age of 50, erupted a mini uproar. It was unanimous that they lamented that the group of naive impertinent youngsters are still clogging up the streets and disrupting other people's livelihood.

The way I see it, while it is noble to pursue transparent democracy, disrupting social order just isn't the way to go about doing it.

I find it hypocritical that nobody made any noise when Hong Kong was under British rule where the governor was simply appointment by the crown. Why didn't they make a ruckus back then?

The West kept pushing for Hong Kong to gain full democracy and I'd be hardly surprised if they have a hand funding this. If they were so into pro-democracy, why didn't Britain implement this before 1997 when they were still in power? Again, hypocrites if you ask me.

Anyway, there is no perfect ideology. Even democracy has its weakness too. Look at Taiwan where all they do everyday is to dish out dirt on their political opponents. The televised fights in parliament were a real joy to watch. Even more entertaining than WWE.

We move on to look at the ultimate proponent of democracy. The leader of the free world. The United States of America. The land of the free. The home of the brave. During the years under Bush and Dumb Bush, the country was run into the shit hole. A round of applause for democracy, yah?

While I am not saying that pursuing democracy is wrong, I think that there is a right way and a wrong way to going about it. Knee jerk is certainly not the right way.

The Berlin Wall was seen taken down overnight but perhaps what people failed to see was the years spent deliberating before that final yank.

China gave herself 50 years to go about reintegrating Hong Kong and I believe that there is a logical rationale behind that. It's only 17 years since the hand over and China still has 33 more years to mull things over. I have faith that whatever the eventual arrangement, at the end of the day, by the Chinese government, will be in the best interest of the Hong Kong folks.

I highly doubt if these young kids even know what they are in for. Said for a few, I dare to venture a speculation that most of them do it because it's the trendy thing to do right now.

Let's face it, you get awesome selfies to post on your Facebook page. Chicks dig the scars on your hand as long as you don't tell them it's cuts from the cable ties when you attempted to fasten the barricades together. Or the bloodied nose when you tripped over your own tent and face planted in the darkness of the night. Or the dried streak of tears when you accidentally poke yourself in the eye with that yellow umbrella.

The main foundation of a democracy, correct me if I am wrong, is that the minority yields to the majority.

So here we have a group of activists proclaiming to speak out on behalf of the people of Hong Kong. The highest head count on the Occupy Movement is somewhere between 100,000 and 500,000. The huge discrepancy is due to the police having a tendency to play it down while the activists tending to exaggerate.

So for the sake of argument, we take the figure of 500,000. How is that the voice of the majority in a land of 7 million population?

Can you spell. I.R.O.N.Y?


Caveat: This is just my personal view on the situation. I hope that people with a problem with my view respect my take on the situation as much as I respect your right to disagree. Let's not start throwing stones at each other. I only wish for the best for our Hong Kong friends and not be under-happy like the rest of us on the tiny red dot.

- Voxeros

End Of Another Chapter

I was planning a long entry to document the end of my second tour of duty in QQland.

The news shocked many when I sent out an message blast via WeChat and it took me almost 3 hours to finish replying everybody's "Why? What happened?", which by the way was mostly congratulatory.

Well, that was just WeChat. I haven't gone on to the rest of my friends, associates and colleagues on QQ, LINE and email yet.

So anyway, just as I was about to begin putting pen to paper, figuratively speaking, when I stumbled unto this article which summed up exactly what I was feeling.

• Five Stars And A Moon (17 Nov 2014) - Employers: Do You Wonder Why Your Employees Are So Switched Off?

In short, I checked out.

I feel sorry for the old towkay who brought me in. I worry his idiot son is going to squander away the business by sheer brute force stupidity so much so that the old towkay will finish his remaining days in destitute.

At the same time I am baffled why old towkay is so blind to the ice berg that his newly minted captain son is steering towards.

Lastly, I am disappointed with the old towkay for being the coward, hiding from me to hear what I have to say where this ship is heading.

Cowardice and denial.

RMS Titanic.

- Voxeros

Seeds And Nuts 2.0

• JayWalk Online (17 Feb 2011) - Seeds And Nuts
• JayWalk Online (16 Mar 2011) - Seeds And Nuts - Thereafter

Just when I thought the last time I had "Bird Food" was just a while ago, it dawned on me that 3 years have already flown by.

Wow. How time passes!

So anyway, during my last trip back in June 2014, I decided to pack more seeds and nuts back to QQland.

This time round, my mix is:

• Walnuts
• Cashew Nuts
• Pumpkin Seeds
• Almonds
• Wolfberries

I did away with black sesame seeds as they have a tendency to get stuck in between you teeth and really ugly when you smile. I added wolfberries for its health benefits and also the fact that there was a special offer.

No pine nuts nor sunflower seeds as there was no stock that day.

As usual, all of them are unsalted with the exception of the pumpkin seeds.

The wolfberries are quite nice but I made the mistake of buying too much which made the entire mix tasted off. It didn't help that they have a tendency to clump together and so you can imagine when I bit into a big chunk of it.

p.s. Yeah. It was the same tupperware, I used the last time round. Still good and tight sealed as ever.

- Voxeros

Hong Kong Tennis Open 2014

By right, I should be featuring the match winning point above but Lisicki won that on account of Schiavone's double fault and so essentially, it wasn't a point worth my top billing. Instead, I put up Schiavone's save of the first match point.

I was in Hong Kong two weeks ago to watch the semi-final games but was too busy to update it on my blog until now.

Anyway, the other semi-final was between relatively unknown duo of Pliskova (Karolina) and Van Uytvanck.

Er.... who?

Anyway, it was a b-o-r-i-n-g match and kudos to the organisers for having the foresight to place them as the first semi-final of the day where at 3pm in the hot afternoon, the place was about 1/4 filled.

There were sparks of brilliance from time to time between these two ITF graduates but they have a long way to go as far as paying their dues is concerned before being able to be regarded as serious contenders in the big league.

The disparity in levels between Lisicki and Pliskova was evident in the final the next day as latter young padawan was schooled 7-5, 6-3.

Coming back to the semi-final between Lisicki and Schiavone, everyone was rooting for the underdog Italian as the 34 year-old put up a gutsy display against the German who is 9 years younger.

We were awed by her never-say-die attitude as she hunted down every stray ball covering every squared inch of the court.

Win or lose, as far as the point was concerned, was met with big applause from everyone. Perhaps it was everyone's way, including mine, giving her an "A" for effort.

Eventually, youthfulness triumphed as Lisicki takes the title 6-3, 3-6, 6-2.

My thought next, goes to the tournament itself. The Prudential Hong Kong Tennis Open 2014 is a tiny tournament where the winner goes home with just 280 ranking points. This compared to the Grand Slams (2000 points) and the WTA Premier Events e.g. the current ongoing Wuhan Open 2014 (900 points). The down side to this is that with fewer ranking points and smaller prize money, you aren't going to attract as many big names. In fact, for this particular tournament the top seed was eventual Sabine Lisicki and she was ranked back then as 28th. We won't be expecting the likes of Sharapova, Williams, Kvitova etc to grace the event.

The up side on the other hand is that smaller tournament means smaller venue, means we are up closer to the action. And yeah, cheaper ticket prices too.

p.s. My favourite day of the tournament is actually the quarter-finals where, IMHO, the ticket price gives you the best value for money. The price of the ticket grants you 4 matches to watch in a single sitting. Compare this to the more expensive semi-finals (2 matches) and most expensive ticket final (1 match). Earlier rounds can be boring as players hold back on the throttle to avoid peaking too early and so the quarter-finals is the turning point where players step up their gear in terms of play intensity as they are just a mere two steps from victory. 

Click Here To See --> The rest of the HK Open 2014 photos as well as the video of the match point between Pliskova (Karolina) and Van Uytvanck.

- Voxeros

Talent Uncovered

This is a video of Faith's drawing. It is a time-lapsed video capture and so no. She didn't draw THAT fast.

We started noticing her interest in drawing anime characters and her obsession with creating stuff on Minecraft. For those who have fallen behind in terms of technology, it's a digital low-res version of lego or nanoblocks.

Anyway, when we first saw her drawings, we were like...

... this kid's got a bit of talent. What I initially thought was just a knack coupled with hours and hours spent glued to youtube tutorials (which kinda explained her plunging grades in P5).

After watching this video, I stand corrected.

I don't recall us sending her to any art classes after school. I believed she just happened to pick things up herself.

I am impressed.

Perhaps yellow brick road is laid down for her already. Let's send her to arts school. Yes?

Who knows she may even be in the CGI FX team for Star Wars IX. Who knows?


p.s. I can see the generation gap getting wider. Gone are the days where it is just a pencil/pen and paper.

p.p.s. Perhaps I should get her to meet Grasshopper?

Image Credit: http://www.knowyourmeme.com

- Voxeros

Happy National Day 2014

Happy National Day, Singapore!

Granted this song isn't going to be remembered a year from now (or even a month from now), it is nevertheless a commendable effort.

p.s. I would recommend turning on the captions to read the lyrics as the song runs along. Click on "cc" below the time line bar.

- Voxeros