Life after ACSWO

An English Tea Party

2009-11-16T00:48:00.002+08:00

Val's birthday ...

and surprise engagement party!

Congratulations to the happy couple and family!

Holiday Planning

2009-10-12T08:00:00.008+08:00

Another weekend well spent with friends... planning a year end trip to the land of the rising sun! Unfortunately (or fortunately for them), I'm not joining the gang again.

And Ben, this was sort of a preview for you to see pics taken with the Panasonic LX3 (which i borrowed off my sis)! Heh heh! If you want the original sized sample jpegs (no raws taken), you know where to get me!

Tshush commissioned a video that was taken with the cam as well which I will attempt to get it onto Vimeo or Utubz in due time! Till then... feast/starve your eyes!

As I arrived late to the 'party'.. the discussion was already in full swing and well into the mid-stages!

Busy busy busy.

"And do you, Ivan, take Valerie to be your lawfully wedded wife. To love, honour, comfort and cherish...." Kekekeke!

Opposition MP Tshush contemplating the order of business for parliamentary proceedings for the day.

Other MPs enjoying the evening.

Desmond, who was there to savour crumpets and tea only!

Shall we get down to business?

Not!

"My two(2) iPhones are not entertaining enough.. :("

The view of the 'Royal Copenhagen' from the aisles.

Shameless plug: "Apple's iPhone 3GS, for all your communication and entertainment needs!"

Jeffrey!

I swear, this photo was not posed for.

Darren and his trusty 'Lonely Planet'!

Desmond taking, uploading to and tagging photos on Facebook to entertain himself. At the expense of his friends. Haha!

Darren not too pleased with Desmond's Facebook adventures!

Tshush dutifully doing his job as secretary for the evening.

Jeffrey (again)!

Secretary Tshush's powerful writing and smashing (for badminton) arm.

Getting deep into the discussion.

Eat, drink, talk, read and write.

The nice and comfy (if a bit noisy) locale for the discussion.

My option to fly should I change my mind about the holiday!

Opposition MP Tshush getting more animated while stating his views.

Opposition MP Tshush threatening the media. "I'll poke your eye out with this! Just you watch!"

Opposition MP Tshush resigned to his fate.

The quiche that arrived late, after Ivan realised it was not served yet.

The quite lovely cups and saucers that the tea came in.

Opposition MP Tshush laughing about something.

Jeffrey getting his point across to his attentive audience.

Popquiz! Identify the pictured items!

And off we go.. discussion adjourned to 'Moonstone View', KFC (Yummy!) in tow!

Stuck in traffic with the brake lights of the car ahead bathing us in a red glow!

Back to business after dinner! Google maps/Street view for the win! (They did contemplate touring Tokyo from Singapore that way! HAHAHA! Brilliant!)

Tshush happy that his secretary duties has been relinquished! (The job went to Jeffrey.. and subsequently, Darren.)

Lazy shot from a lying down position.

Tshush!

4 hours after saying their wedding vows.

Jeffrey looking 'forlornly' at his Toyoko Inn manager girlfriend. Don't worry Jeff, you can see her again soon enough!

All right guys (and gal), let's wrap things up for tonight!

Tshush getting a ride from Darren!

And me from Ivan!

And that's it!

Ii Otenki desu ne,
-Cal-

Jared is Back!

2009-08-16T01:06:00.007+08:00

Well for a week at least!!

Learn to Communicate with Squirrels

2009-05-25T16:36:00.006+08:00

Event: Forest Adventure (@ Bedok Reservoir Park)
Date: 16th May 2009 (Saturday)
Adventurers: Jeffrey, Tshush, Boon, Desmond, Ivan, Valerie, Sandra, Pauline and me!

It all began 2 months back, when Jeffrey mentioned this "Forest Adventure" thing that his friends attempted which they found pretty fun. After a few more E-mails and web searches enquiring about the difficulty and such, it was decided that hey, if KIDS can do it, it should be no problem for us adults right? As we found out, we were "just" slightly off the mark.

Anyway, if anyone of you guys/gals out there are interested, here is the link to the Forest Adventure website!

The run up to the event actually started off the day before, with would-be-adventurers pulling out left, right and centre (due to extenuating circumstances and commitments of course!). *cough* Darren *cough*. Then, there were those who didn't even dare take up the challenge. *cough* Aunty Ho and Jon *cough*. And even on the day itself, we had people throwing MCs! *cough* Edmund *cough*. Well, they were the smart ones!

The rest of us sacrificial lambs made our way to Bedok, first for lunch at the hawker centre next to Bedok Interchange, where we had our fill of 'Chai Tau Kueh', Fish Slice Soup, Century Egg Porridge, 'Wan Ton Mee', 'Tau Suan' and a Filet-O-Fish from the nearby McDonald's.

Done with stuffing ourselves, it's off in the car pool (courtesy of Jeffrey's Subaru and Tshush's Mazda) to our destination!

Oh, on a side note for you all, there is an added "benefit" if you so choose to sit in Jeffrey's car. Provided Desmond is around, you'll be treated to the "JEFFREY & DESMOND SHOW"! I had the luxury of listening in to parts 1 - 6 for the whole day (From Jeff's to Bedok Interchange - Parts 1&2, From Bedok Interchange to Bedok Reservoir - Parts 3&4, From Bedok Reservoir to Bedok North Blk 85 - Part 5 and From Bedok North Blk 85 to Jeff's - Part 6)! It's really fantastic, you'll never listen to Mediacrap radio again after after you've experienced the 'J-D Show' first hand! They make squabbling couples look like they are madly in love! Honest!

Pardon the digression and wordy intro, but it was all part of the adventure, to me at least! Fun stuff! Here on out, I'll let the photos and the captions do the talking!

Walkity-walkity walk! Off to climb trees we go!

Monkey-face experts Jeff and Ivan!

Add one more monkey and you have a monkey trio!

Safety, safety safety! In event of a serious injury or fatality, your mangled body or corpse will not get a refund and your persons will be asked to vacate the premises. NO AMBULANCE WILL BE CALLED AND NO FIRST AID WILL BE PROVIDED. That's what the last 2 sentences seem to say to me that is.

All smiles now eh... later then come and sweat!

Lazing around the bench, waiting for the skies to clear. (There was a lightning warning due to approaching rain clouds... aka Cat 1 to the army folks.)

Monkey-boy happy with his tight-rope!

The wait is taking its toll.. but monkey-boy is still happy because he still has his tight-rope to hang on to.

All righty, those faces says it all! It has been a 40 min wait already! (Boon looks like he is all ready to go ninja on the management! Hai-yah!)

Finally! Boon's ninja stare downs got them scared! We are on to initiation training! Note the low levels and keen supervision of the instructor on the left.

The sequence is "Red On" - Clamp carabiner to red safety wire when on the platform so you can move safely around on it.

To get from platform to platform safely, you clamp the "flying fox wheel/rail" onto the guide-wire then release the "red on" carabiner and lock it to the "flying fox wheel/rail" before attempting the crossing.

And so, in this case, as the crossing is the flying fox.... WHEEEE! Landing is supposed to be done with a running motion while facing forward. A crash landing is when you twist and turn and end up landing facing backwards. No worries though, in the event of a crash land, only your butt usually touches the ground, so no one should be eating sand.

This is a good example of employing the buddy system of boy-girl, boy-girl, boy-girl.. alas, later on as you will see, how discipline takes a backseat and basically it becomes a free-for-all. Haha!

Go Pauline! No fear, it's only 3 feet high! (For now. Kekeke!)

Smile! While you can!

Come on buddy Desmond! The 'sacrifice' the photog has to make is that he must go first! The 'upshot' however, is that there will not be any embarassing photos him! HAHAHA!

"Say 'Cheese' everyone!"

The prelude to the first flying fox!! Here we have guinea pigs number 2 and 3 (Tshush and Desmond)! Just in case you're wondering, the sign says 'Apple Picker's Ladder'. It is basically just a solid ladder made of wood used to get up to the platform I'm on.

Hooray! Buddy Desmond lands safely!

Double Hooray! Tshush makes a nice landing too!! Looks damn pro too! Machiam special forces commando!

Triple Hooray? Pauline looks set to make a good landing...

...alas, her landing gears fails her at the last moment. "Splash one, Red leader."

Boon incoming!!! BRACE! BRACE! BRACE!

"Splash two, Red leader!"

Sandra on her maiden flight... and it's not turning out too well!

"Splash three, Red leader!" We'll be fighter aces in no time at this rate!

Onward to the next site, and it begins with the terrible "Trapeze"... it definitely is much tougher than it looks. Rated 'black' for difficulty, ie. most difficult. Luckily, there is an easier alternate route which most of the others took! This is what seperates the men from the boys!

Come on Tshush, you can do it! I tell you, this damn item takes patience, balance and strength. What you're doing is basically moving onto consecutive free-hanging trapezes. Very tough.

Another MAN takes the challenge! All in all, there were only 4 men! Namely Desmond, Tshush, Jeffrey and yours truly! Actually, I dunno if Ivan took the manly route, but I'm guessing that he didn't, the wuss that he is! HAHAHHAHAHAHA!

Here, we have the less manly route, and a clear example by Pauline how NOT to do this particular course. "Pauline ah, you're supposed to grab the hanging ropes, and not the safety cable/guide-wire!"

Interestingly, straight after that and it was on to the 2nd of the four flying foxes! The highlight of this flying fox is supposedly the close proximity one gets to the water line. Here we have Tshush Airways, flight T 003 coming in for his over-water landing.

Unfortunately, it wasn't as good as his first landing. "Splash four, Red leader."

He was still pretty satisfied with himself however! "Seriously, the sand is nice and soft and fluffy... I really wanted to do that!"

"Control to Ground. Ready the emergency crew! The Pauline is landing!!!"

"Control to Ground. False alarm. The Pauline made a super landing! Amazing! Return to base. Out."

"Watch those legs Boon, they're gonna hit the water!!!"

Boon is experimenting whether a 'backwards-running' move is feasible for a backwards landing!

Well, results are in. It's not. "Splash five, Red leader. Aces high!"

Sandra's looking good for an excellent landing with a smooth approach!

Whoa, wind shear! And it's a strafing landing!

Somehow or other, she makes it with nary a scratch!! The ladies sure showed us guys how it's supposed to be done on this run!

Come on Jeff, do the males a favour! Show them how monkey-men do it!

And there we go, a perfect landing to boot!

BOO-YA!! Take that Venusians!

Valerie, don't cover your eyes! How are you gonna see where you're going!?

This can't be good.

Yes, we are back to regular programming for the ladies then. Heh heh!

Is it me or is there something wrong with Ivan's reflection in the water? IT'S HUGE!! Or maybe it's just the Bedok Reservoir's version of the Loch Ness monster.

Loch Ness monster or not, this can't be good too!

And we are back to regular programming for the guys as well! Haha!

No worries, on to site 3! So, just as a recap, initiation and site 1 was at the beginning and we zipped to site 2 where the treacherous trapeze awaited us. Then, another zip line and here we are at site 3 where Sandra, Jeffrey, Valerie and dinky Ivan (notice his sneaky carabiner hook onto Valerie!) are awaiting their climb up to the tree-tops!

Go Boon Go! Nice 'pantat' shot! (Jeffrey took this picture btw!)

From this site onwards, I decided to stay behind a little bit and let Desmond, Tshush, Pauline and Boon to go ahead first, so I can get to shoot the 'back stragglers'. Heh! Also, the weather was turning on us again, and the adventure instructors were egging us to move onward rather then wait for everybody at the start points of the sites. There were legitimate reasons for this of course as one, we wouldn't want to be called off the adventure due to the impending inclement weather and two, we wouldn't want to hold back and choke up the entire course.

For this site, there were no alternative routes and everyone had to go through the same challenges like this one for example, what is known as the 'Log Swing'.

Here we see how far my ex-buddy Desmond is ahead! He's two items ahead of Tshush who is watching Pauline struggle onto his platform.

This one is a real mystery to me! Poor Jeffrey, posing for a photo apparently offended Ivan who in turn 'stabs' him, much to Valerie's delight! Haha!

This ain't so tough right? Everyone's smiling! In truth, the course is really not that difficult, and is actually quite fun!

More smiles from the 'tail-end' quartet! Erm, except maybe for Ivan, since he's busy maneuvering on his 'floating planks'.

"Oopsie! Nearly missed a step there!"

Jeffrey having fun on the 'Rope Passage' while Ivan and Valerie look on. He's still oblivious to the fact that Ivan tried to murder him earlier!

Aww... couple shot! (Note to Ivan: You keep complaining about the Taiwan trip's post that your couple shot is right at the start! No complains here ah, it's nicely nested within the timeline of events in this post!)

Peek-a-boo!

Altogether now everyone, big grin! *Grin* Desmond and Tshush kindly waiting for Pauline while she traverses the 'zig-zag planks'. This is just before the last item on this site before the zip line (flying fox) that will take us to the final site!

Jeffrey trying his darnest to look cool! Heh heh! This also was the second easiest item of the entire course, some 'suspended barrel' thingy!

See, it's so easy even Valerie can do 'peace signs' while going through it!

Truth be told however, it is actually slightly more difficult for the taller dudes/dudettes as they need to maneuver to get their legs out first at the end of the tunnel, unless they wanna plop out head first ala 'Sadako' from "The Ring"!

Finally, on to the flying fox towards site 4! "Bon voyage Jeff, watch out for those trees!!!"

Site 4! And we begin with the heart-stopping 'Tarzan Swing'! Like the treacherous 'Trapeze', there is an alternate route to take again, for those with the weak of heart and nerves. Ivan was voted most manly and he couldn't appear weak in front of Valerie and so, he trundled up to show off his balls of steel!

How ballsy was he? So ballsy was he that he took off backwards! It was actually a ploy by the adventure instructor to trick him into thinking it is easier stepping off backwards. But in fact, the suspense of not knowing when you'll hit the net and the shock thereafter when you do hit it makes it an even better adrenaline rush!

This is a good view of the challenging 'Tarzan Swing' on the right where you can see Desmond prepping himself and the less challenging 'Rope Pull' on the left, where you see Sandra sniggering while pulling her way across.

"Or-yee-or-yee orrr!!! Desmond bor cheng kor!!!!" Hahahaha!

The safety net is apparently not so safe! Although most of them made it into the net unscathed including Desmond here, I nearly went straight through it! Well, my legs did actually! Hahaha! Thank goodness there are no other cameramen out there to catch my follies on the trail! Hehe!

There's no escaping the 'Half Trapeze'! Everyone has to go through this part of the course. This is the milder version of the free-hanging 'Trapeze' in site 2 where you can only grab the rope parts. This one here has handrails in fact that make things that much easier. Not easy still, but definitely easier!

Here we have it, the easiest item on the course! The 'Tibetan Bridge'! It's so easy, it's akin to sleeping in a hammock! A very comfortable walk through!

Part of the alternate route if you did not do the 'Tarzan Swing', is this 'Amazon Bridge' which is basically a tightrope walk! Luckily though, you have the guide wire above for support! This should be a cinch for the Amazon woman that is Pauline! Heh heh!

These rather far spaced planks proved to be a playground for Tshush, as he attempted to balance his way across without using the guide wire for support! And lo, he did it rather simply as it would seem!

"Ahhh! The nightmares of the 'Trapeze' are coming back to haunt me!"

"Hey, who's swinging the supports!! HEY! HEY!"

And this is almost it! A final walk on the planks that our Sugar Plum Fairy, Tshush, was dancing across previously and the final flying fox that will bring you back to exactly where you started off from!

Desmond showing off his prowess by doing the flying fox one-handed while coming in for a landing!!!

A great seasonal start!!! As it shows the guys still have what it takes to land properly and safely! It's time for revenge! Take that ladies!

"Brilliant. Simply Brilliant. What a landing! Go males!!

The last flying fox was nothing really special actually, at least, there were no highlights to it. Maybe a tad steeper then the others? No problems for Pauline here even if it is so!

Ok, I spoke too soon! Hahaha! Sorry Pauline, it's gonna be a another rough one!

It's all right Pauline, your face cannot be seen! No one will know who you are if they are just browsing through. Oops!

Boon, do the twist! Come on, you can do it!! TWIST! TWIST!!

Gaaa! I thought ninjas were supposed to be good at zip-lining!!

But a happy ninja Boon remains to be! Seriously, the sand is really fine and comfy... I would know, just that there are no humiliating pictures of me only! HAHAHA! Designated photog perk!

*Yawn*... Jeffrey makes another safe landing... so boring.

Jeffrey being pretty pleased with himself!
(Note: [Cameraman rage] That KNN man in the background... I wanted to go bash him up! Maybe he didn't notice my small little compact camera, but I swear he looked in my direction a few times.. and still dunno how to "zi dong" and move out of the shot view. Got DSLR big f*** ah!? Btw, I noticed he got a few shots of Pauline, Boon and Jeffrey! You guys might want to take his DSLR and throw it into the reservoir. [/Cameraman rage])

Job well done fellow adventurers!!! So what's next? I suggest Paintballing! The brusing gets even worse! Nothing a bit of Zambuk can't cure though!

After a quick wash-up and we were off to Bedok North Blk 85 to sample the infamous 'Bah Chor Mee' and 'Grilled Chicken Wings'! We had abit of 'Satay' as well.

The day's activities was rounded off with a trip back to Jeff's place! Where Desmond and Boon proceeded to generously sprinkle the entire place from the bathroom to the sofas with fine grained sand. Haha!! More clean-ups later, and we were back to lounging and lazing around as usual!

A pirated movie of a super duper long 'Dark Knight' closed things off for everyone and that was it! A fun-filled and eventful Saturday that encompassed most of the day and night!

So, thanx to everyone who participated and to Jeffrey especially for organizing the event! Till the next BRIGHT idea then, cheerio!

Before I go, some Flying Fox awards and statistics, as judged singularly by me! I'm not entirely sure if this is accurate, since I wasn't around for ALL of the splashes and successes but you guys can help me rectify the situation by casting your votes and expressing your grievances with your comments!

Top Foxes: Jeffrey, Tshush, Desmond and Sandra - 3 out of 4 successful landings!

Swimming Fox: Boon - 0 out of 4 successful landings!

Charismatic Foxes: Tshush and Desmond - Most impressive looking when flying and landing and/or crashing.

Reflex Foxes: Sandra and Pauline - Made a successful landing despite seemingly destined for a crash.

Twin Foxes: Ivan and Valerie - Most in sync in flying and landing attempts. (She flies, he flies. She crashes, he crashes. Same way too!)

Lancaster Fox: Pauline - Most likely to bomb a target into oblivion.

Stealth Fox: Me - Most unlikely to be captured in photos while flying and/or crashing.

Final Statistics:

Fox	Good Landing	Bad Landing	Award(s)
Jeffrey	3	1	Top Fox
Tshush	3	1	Top Fox, Charismatic Fox
Desmond	3	1	Top Fox, Charismatic Fox
Boon	0	4	Swimming Fox
Ivan	1	3	Twin Fox
Valerie	1	3	Twin Fox
Pauline	2	2	Lancaster Fox, Reflex Fox
Sandra	3	1	Top Fox, Reflex Fox
Me	2	2	Stealth Fox

Update 1: As informed by the egg-throwing crowd! Updated stats and awards!

Update 2: Added video.

Wheeee! *Splat*,
-Cal-

Republic of China 中華民國 (Taiwan 台灣)

2008-12-18T23:01:00.002+08:00

The Eight Immortals! 八仙!

The inseparable loving couple Ivan and Valerie!

Muscle man and gym bunny Jeffrey!

Jeffrey's two friends and another couple Marvin and Pei Ling!

CEO of Sanrio and #1 Hello Kitty fan... Sandra!

Japanese TV hot throb and prawn star T3!

And me!

A bit off topic!

2008-11-05T22:53:00.003+08:00

Total shamelessness from Darren!

Well, I suppose it counts - since its something I am doing after ACSWO.
So without further delay, please vote for me! And help me pass the word around! Get your whole family involved! I promise change! LOL

http://www.female50gp.com/2008/vote.html

I'm contestant #24!!

Thank you all!

Geocaching

2008-10-29T20:53:00.004+08:00

Darren will post!

Since I was lamenting the fact that we had become terribly boring people, and that there's nothing to do in Singapore, Jonathan suggested that we go "Geocaching"

So in a matter of an hour, we were all set..to head off early in the morning!

Me in back seat...Cal on the left and Jon on the right! Onward!! Roadtrip! A trip to the north...oooooh! The north! What wonders await us?!! Beautiful natives? Exotic sights and smells? Bacwkard plumbing? AH! The excitement, mystery and wonder that was promised was truly intoxicating! (Well actually, the place where we had lunch...*puke*...that whiff of fecundity still lingers on the palette....)

Anyways, we entered the co-ordinates into this little thing-a-ma-jig and off we went! To Admiralty Park (next to Republic Polytechnic!)

An antiquated but rather cool GPS system. WHAT?! NO MAP?! Anyways, we soon found ourselves at Admiralty Park, next to Republic Polytechnic!

I was secretly groaning when the 'puzzle' called for some mathematical brain dexterity.. ugh...and even some Amazing Race type scenarios....

Guess what we were doing?

And worse still...bashing into the jungle is one thing..but MUDDY jungle?! Heavens! The humanity! But Jon figured it out soon enough.

But 'luck' was not on our side and 45mins later, we surrendered. We just couldnt find it!

ARGGHHH!!! I stepped on something!

But at least there were somethings to see...

And a bubbling volcanic pond!!!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Well at least I hoped it was...I really don't want to know if it was polluted and some poor animal was drowning in that stinky cesspit.

The Second Mission was simpler. We arrived somewhere in Sembawang, somewhere near Pakistan Road and Canada Road (no idea? use this.. The poor man's GPS/Road directory... Sky pigeon!) with some gorgeous old and somewhat different looking Black and Whites. we found the 'whatever' we were supposed to find.......

Well....yeah...It was only half of the co-ordinates!

However, after battling ants...

and rummaging through a huge tree, we totally creamed the next task! !!

Jonathan touched it... I was NOT GOING TO TOUCH IT.

It was already lunchtime, but still we soldiered on. Well, more like dragging feet - I was having a terrible headache (I've been trying to wean off the caffeine see, but as I found out, I was just dehydrated!).

So we stopped for a bit of lunch, before setting off to another mission. We couldn't find the thing again, but the area itself was the 'treasure'

And this! We climbed to the top of course! But at the top..... Jon started getting static electrical attacks from the railings and ....

Urm..guys...do you hear thunder? RUN!!!

Oh yes! And there were monkeys! Lots of them!

We then met Tshush (who accompanied us on another TWO failed mission around Serangoon Gardens! No more caches by kids!) and Desmond for a quick pre-dinner snack. Before embarking on YET ANOTHER MISSION. Hardcore hor?

By now, I was very tired (and hungry) but the plaec was quite something. Never knew such a place existed.

And that's all! I'm wondering if I should post the portraits of all the culprits!

If music be the food of love, play on!

2008-10-28T19:48:00.001+08:00

From Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, 1601:

DUKE ORSINO:

If music be the food of love, play on;
Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken, and so die.
That strain again! it had a dying fall:
O, it came o'er my ear like the sweet sound,
That breathes upon a bank of violets,
Stealing and giving odour! Enough; no more:
'Tis not so sweet now as it was before.
O spirit of love! how quick and fresh art thou,
That, notwithstanding thy capacity
Receiveth as the sea, nought enters there,
Of what validity and pitch soe'er,
But falls into abatement and low price,
Even in a minute: so full of shapes is fancy
That it alone is high fantastical.

Bi-annual 'musings'?

2008-10-16T12:01:00.009+08:00

Yo peeeps!

As you can see, I have updated the blog to match with 2008 standards... yes, Blogger HAS been steadily improving functionality and ease-of-use even though we (meaning YOU busy busy people) have ceased to notice!

Nevertheless...

CHANGELOG (16th Oct 2008) in L.A.ACSWO 2.0:

OLD CODE IS HEREBY INVALID (and super messy btw) and cannot be recovered (actually, it is possible, but let's move FORWARD ok?)

Changed Template to support 'Gadgets' (Widgets is what the universal term is). So now, adding code should be done by "adding gadgets" instead of hard-coding the template. Although I had a problem with the 'techno line.gif' and therefore wrote it into the template instead.

Changed Colour theme and font theme and post format.

Added Techno-line.gif graphic into header. (This is probably done wrong. Some expert coder please check the code in the template under the CSS style "header".) Note: Some formatting errors to be solved as I checked how it looked in IE7 and FF3.0.3, and it looks slightly different in IE7.

Added 'Poll' on changes. Please vote! Or add your own!

Added 'Shoutbox' for you guys to bitch! Old shoutbox removed.. can't tell whose id 175909 belongs to! Sorry!

Added 'imeem music stream' gadget using my account and an impromptu CHEESEEEY (but GREAT!) 80s playlist. Anyone who has an 'imeem playlist' can add a music stream to the site too! Just add your own "HTML/Javascript" gadget and put in the embed code given by imeem and remove the old one.

Added 'Recent Comments' gadget. Destroyed old code for recent comments as Blogger now has their own easy-to-use version.

Added 'World Clock' gadget to reflect the globe-trotting exploits of fellow ACSWO-ians.

Added 'LED Text Scroller' at bottom of page. Highly imposing and should be kept below. Will be removed if I receive enough complaints! Heh!

TO BE UPDATED (by anyone!):

Cascading comments is GONE! Someone put it back? HAHAHA!

Any other requests by non-contributors. Contributors can add/remove gadgets as you like!

Personal Blog 'Link Graphics' which are outdated.

Some interesting points to note:

There are 19 contributors on this blog, but we have an average of 2 posts per year (for the past 2 years - Hence my post title!)! At least there is a draft sitting pretty in the "posting" section since 16th June this year (*cough* Lemming! *cough*)!

Now all graphics uploaded directly to your post will go to your PERSONAL 'Picasa Web Album' (It's like Flickr, etc) which all Gmail members should have. You have a 1GB space limit however.

I decided not to have a slideshow gadget (at this point in time), as personal albums should go to personal blogs. What I'm suggesting (since we're so bored on weekends anyway) is to gather all our pics and select a hundred or so to scan them into a general Flickr/Picasa account.

Finally, I made the music stream 'autoplay' just to irritate you all. HAHAHA!

So that's it from this update! We've taken the plunge, and there's no going back!

Rickrolled,
-Cal-

Thailand (Bangkok) Shopping Trip 2008

2008-06-02T19:38:00.009+08:00

Greetings folks!

I see a severe dearth of postings on this apparently long forgotten blog (it's NOT!). So, to do my part, with all things "Life after ACSWO"... I bring to you a video montage of a bunch of us on our shopping expedition to Bangkok within the Sukhumvit district/area.

It was a short trip with the idea to do some clothes tailoring (shirts, pants, suits) which are apparently cheaper there. We visited this place called "Tony's Fashion House", which was recommended by our unofficial tour guide, Desmond!

Besides that, there was of course the massages that came in 3 flavours, namely Thai, Oil and Foot! We only did the Thai and foot ones... as I think most of us felt the oil one was a bit icky! Haha!

And lastly, it was more shopping at places like MBK which is our very own Lucky Plaza, Sim Lim Square and IMM (one level for each) all in one place. We also shopped at Platinum (equivalent to our Far East Plaza) and Siam Paragon (upmarket stuff, high-end boutiques).

So there you have it, a fun, short 4-day trip to tranny-land! Btw, if there is one thing that is a turn-off there.. it's the constant smell of sewerage when walking on the streets. But I guess it's a matter of getting used to it!

Expedition members:
Desmond
Jeffrey
Ivan and Valerie
Tshush
Me!

Enjoy the video (embedded below) or you can click here to view it on Veoh!

-Cal-

p.s. Please excuse the jap music.. haha!

p.p.s. PRIZE GIVEAWAY! One pre-shrunk Tee (size S) from Bangkok if you can spot how many times the photographer (aka me!) appears in the video montage! Just leave your answer in the comments below! TERMS & CONDITIONS: Applies to ex-ACSWOians only.

*Created using Microsoft Photo Story 3 (Free montage making software)

Ivan and Calvin's Birthday

2007-02-12T14:33:00.000+08:00

Entering the 28ers club with the lovely and delicious trans-fat free cake that gave everyone sore throats! =)

Happy Birthday mateys!

More pics at flickr!

Goodbye Sharon

2007-01-30T05:31:00.000+08:00

Sharon Boesch-Chua (1977 - 2007)
ACJC Concert Band, Class of '96

"Family Portrait"
Seated 2nd from right.
ACJC Band Performance Tour Japan-S.Korea, 1996

Dearest Sharon departed us on 19 January 2007.

Our sincere condolences to her family including Aaron her brother, a fellow bandsmen, class of '98.

The memorial service in Singapore will be held on:
2 Feb 2007, Fri, 8pm
Cairnhill Methodist Church
Anglo-Chinese Junior School, Pheck Way Road [Map]

Your notes of remembrance are welcome under this post.

10th Anniversary

2006-12-15T13:50:00.001+08:00

Kanna ____, so long no wan post something?

anywayz, 10 year anniversary coming ya, you guys wanna do something?
book chalet, fix date, take leave, eat bbq(hope not), party?

Plan ahead ya, then can send ppl MS Outlook meeting request and put BUSY.

Everyone got 14-30 days leave, take one day from u not too much yo?

hmm...wanna go overseas?

Vote vote plz.

Chaaanng-er!! Wo men yong yuan zhi chi ni!

2006-10-08T15:03:00.000+08:00

Greetings!

As part of our calender of annual events which includes, NYE, X'mas Day, B-days, etc... it's the annual MID-AUTUMN FESTIVAL this time! (Albeit one day behind the actual day.. heh!)

Here's a short photolog of the late (cuz of latecomers like me! hehe!) evening's "lantern walk"!

"Look! It's a bird, it's a plane.. NO, it's 'hazy' CHANG-ER!"

The lantern path... and.. who's that mysterious gal? Hmm?

Daniel lighting and preparing the lanterns for everyone! Except the unwilling Boon and Jon who refused to carry lanterns! (p.s. I was designated photog, so i couldn't carry a lantern as much as I wanted to! Really! *snigger*)

Awww... and here's the "mystery gal"! Valerie & Ivan!

Double awww... Pauline & Leonard!

Triple awww... Darren & Daniel!

Floating lanterns by the bridge...

It's time for the sparklers!!!

Two of Aunty Ho's THREE victims... she's a closet arsonist I tell you.

L-O-V-E! Love!!!

*cough* Read above caption! *cough*

F-U-C-_! FUCK?!?!? Lalala!

Desmond with 5 spraklers at a go!! Ow Ow ow!

And that was it... I bet some neighbours filmed us jokers down and we're probably somewhere on Youtube getting 1/5 star ratings now. Haha!

For more pictures, here's a link to Darren's aptly named coverage of the event too! Moonlight Massacre! <-- CLICKITY CLICK!

"Flame on!",
-Cal-

Photoblog of Jeff's Club 27 Initiation! [20-08-2006]

2006-08-22T18:07:00.000+08:00

Sorry for the delay of 2 days! Heh! Anyway, just note that this is a very "picturesquely wordy" post... whatever that means! And if you're viewing this from work... well, some parts are mildly NSFW which is 'Not Safe For Work' if you're not familiar with web-speak. Onward!

The day began with the very impromptu (actually, it WAS briefly discussed midweek.. but.. lalala!) decision that we will ambush Jeffrey at his own home! So, a meeting time was set for 3pm to meet at a coffeeshop opposite his condominium (Moonstone View aka Moonstone Theatre) before we set off up to his place for the SURPRISE!! Benjamin at this time was in Australia but occupying Jeff online (and AT HOME) so as to make sure that we don't give Jeff's mom a heart attack instead.

By a twist of fate, for once, I was earlier than everyone else. And the best thing was that the coffeeshop was CLOSED!

This uncle was sleeping inside and "jaga-ing" the place to make sure loiterers like me dun steal his secret 'Briyani recipe'!

And so... i waited and waited... and waited... till the cows (crows in this case!) came home. *caww... cawww...*

After a couple phonecalls, I decided to check out the place. Hmm... it's really quiet (that would explain the jaga being able to sleep!).. and there's nothing/nobody around. One thought came to mind then... "Malaysia.. Truly Asia!!" Hehehe!

As quickly as my tour began, it abruptly halted due to the discreet arrival of both Darren and Tshush and our special boy's BIRTHDAY CAKE!

Now... we're only left with Edmund. I wonder where could he be...

It came to the point when it was unbearably hot outside, so we decided to enter the condominium to wait for Ed instead. We stood by the pool, and enjoyed patronizing this ~~used panties~~ cold drinks vending machine.

Eventually, Ed did arrive of course, and we proceeded to carry out our SURPRISE! Having gotten to his unit however, we rang and rang and rang the bell and knocked and knocked the door to no avail! Apparently, Benjamin was doing a damn fine job in occupying him!

Thus, at one point, Ed suddenly realised the absence of a certain Ivan Lim. And the following brief conversation ensued..

Ed: Ivan's in China?
*Darren raises eyebrow*
Rowf: Yeah, he's visiting prostitutes.
Darren: *gasp* Ivan's vagina???
*cue infectious laughter*

Ok, so I probably have bad pronounciation, but that little episode sure cracked us up!

Anyway, eventually, I messaged Jeff to tell him to come open the door for a pizza delivery that we ordered for him! And of course, by this time, it wasn't really a surprise anymore.. as even a ninnyhead like Jeff would noe who was waiting outside for him.

Still, on the very slight chance that he did not expect it, we wanted to immortalise his "shocked" expression on camera for the sake of it!

Here he comes! We can see his shadow!

Quick, block the peephole Darren!

SURPRISE!!!!! *???!* Where's Jeffrey?!

Ah, there he is!! In all his half-naked glory!! (Bear in mind he was in this state while playing games with Benjamin online with the air-con on! We came to the EXTREMELY LOGICAL conclusion that he was in fact touching himself while playing too. No doubt about it.)

So, we made our way in to congratulate Ben on a job well done in keeping him at home! And of course, to wreck the BIRTHDAY BOY'S HOUSE!

Once inside, Jeff jumped into his bed being disappointed that we interrupted his little PERSONAL & PRIVATE party with Ben... tsk tsk. Nothing says it more than evidence in pictures.

They of course had nothing to say in response to that! And, not like we would accept any other explanation either too!

After throwing on a singlet (His body is for Ben's eyes only see), we did what all geeks/nerds/dorks would do to celebrate a party! Play 'Settler's of Catan"!! The game proceeded with little fanfare or incident, besides the fact that even by giving the BIRTHDAY BOY his deserved chances, he was still unable to fight his way out of his little village of doom.

His blue village was somehow cut-off by the roadworking endeavours of White Wizard Darren and Red Dwarf me! And Ed's yellow infrastructure expansion sealed off his only ways of escape. (Note: The toothpick holder u see is the most "biggestest" and "giganticus" robber you'll ever see in a game of Settlers. The original robber was swallowed by T3's beagle, Coco, I think.)

However, it is necessary to note that Jeff wasn't really gonna be totally stifled. He merely changed strategy to attempt to win the game by hoarding development cards.

But, that of course just prolonged the game as the road building war between Darren and me became a tit-for-tat battle. And when it was realised that the White Wizard was going to win, a trade embargo (includes merciless ravaging of his resources by robbing) was placed upon him by the rest of us.

Still, Ed had time to build what he would call his little version of the SURPREME COURT as the game went on.

That did not last long however, as Catan soldiers came forth from nowhere and spread death and destruction upon the court of law.

Eventually, the trade embargo and relentless pirate attacks proved futile and the White Wizard went on to claim victory on the land of Catan! Being Jeff's special day, Darren was SOMEWHAT 'gracious' enough to share the winning mugshot with him!

After the game, it was time for dinner of course! And we called in deliciously unhealthy KFC! Mmm... finger licking good. Of course, we had to make use of that big screen and projector, so we watched "Star Wars: Clone Wars" (The animation that tells the story in between Episode II and III)... and Futurama! All during and after dinner!

Somehow, time flies when you're watching DVDs it seems... and it was time to cut the CAKE! Jeffrey had no lighter, so Ed used the hob to light his candles! When it was all ready and done, we realised, that Darren and Jeff were engaged in deathmatch 'Brain Academy' on the Nintendo DS! The candles were melting, but there was no disengagement of battle when it comes to whose brain weighs the most! *ROWR!!!*

Alas, Ed had no choice but to sing a Happy Birthday to himself.. and ogle at the cake (No longer cheap cakes from Giant!)...

"It's my party, and I'll cry if I want to!! CRY if I want to!!! CRRRRYYYYY if I want to! You'll do too if it happens to you- du, du-duuu du-duuuuuuuu, DU!"

Unfortunately, it WAS NOT Ed's birthday! So he couldn't cry of course.. and after saving the chocolate flakes from the wax, Jeffrey finally settled in front of the cake and we all sang a short, sweet and totally in-tune "Happy Birthday" song for him!

After which, the somewhat battle-hardened black forest cake took the opportunity to say a few words too... "HAPPY 27th BIRTHDAY!".

But that did not spare it from brutal murder at the hands of BIRTHDAY BOY Jeff! With 5 fell swoops, it was all over for Mr. Black Forest. *SShhhiinnng!*

And needless to say, first to the cake was none other than the fatty-bom-bom, Dr. Zoidberg aka Tshush! He unceremoniously demanded the biggest and creamiest piece of the cake.. which Jeff duly obliged.

Darren and Ed were on the other hand, very wary of the fat content that the cake possessed. Even in mutilation, Mr. Black Forest it seems had the last laugh!

Soon after, it was time to say goodbye, to what was a fun-filled and constructive afternoon-night out for all of us! Long live Club 27!!! Cheers!

[Update 23/08/06: Corrected 'ACTUAL CONVERSATION' regarding Ivan's vagina as provided by Ed and confirmed by Tshush. Heh!]

Till the next B-day!
-Cal-

International Fireworks Festival 2006

2006-08-09T13:51:00.001+08:00

Nothing more strangely romantic than watching fireworks. It was enjoyable though too short for me...

Some pics here.

I also took some vids with my camera (I need more megabytes!)

Grand Finale

Bits and Pieces

Nasrina's Wedding Pics

2006-08-07T00:39:00.000+08:00

Hey ho...

Have posted some pics taken at Nasrina's wedding! Here!

Darren

Have kids? Watch this!

2006-07-28T01:48:00.000+08:00

Click here to view video for "non-flashy" users.

HAHAHAHHAHHAHAHAA!! I guess T3 and Ivan should be immune to this kind of stuff liao rite? Amazing!

"Ivan-kun.... Byebye!!!" HAHAHAHAHAHAH! That's gold!

-Cal-

p.s COMPUTER BUILDING WORKSHOP (CB1001) to be held this Saturday at Jeff's place! Come if interested.

p.p.s MOVIE [Marathon of 8 hrs or part thereof.] SESSION (MV1010) to be held on same day for people not interested in CB1001 module.

p.p.p.s Do note that both CB1001 and MV1010 modules are run concurrently.

p.p.p.p.s For more details. Please contact relevant parties (Host Jeff, Prof Kam and crippled Cal) on actual day. Thank you!

Longkang Dance

2006-07-20T00:14:00.000+08:00

Can so imagine Jeff doing this!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMu9xj-dQKw

What's it mean to be ACSian

2006-06-30T01:06:00.000+08:00

Look behind the 3rd interviewee, fomer VP guy...
Anybody remembers the significance of the picture??

Of Cars and Hedges

2006-06-27T17:23:00.000+08:00

Ahh... animations... dun you just love them? And of course, we have the latest in Pixar/Disney vs Dreamworks Animation SKG productions. Namely, Cars vs Over the Hedge.

To me, both animations had their strong point(s), but overall, I felt Cars gave me a larger "another satisfied customer" feeling.. in other words, value for my precious SEVEN SGD!

Here's a quick shootout (IMHO) between them:

Storyline = Cars! (Both had their "moralistic" story to tell.. but Cars put it through more subtly.)
Animation = Over the Hedge! (Rendering Fur physics >>> Rendering Reflective surfaces. 'nuff said.)
Soundtrack = Cars! (Just visit the website links above!)
Humour = Cars! (See below for more!)

There you have it! And as I'll elaborate... Cars took the humour category for me cuz of the "Pixar Short" (One Man Band) preceding the actual movie. If you haven't seen the movie, you might want to take a look at the short below to see what I'm getting at. And if you have seen the movie, well, sometimes it's good to see it again isn't it?

Enjoy then, courtesy of 'higuizmo' who uploaded it to 'Dailymotion' (Another one of them video upload sites like Youtube, VeOh, etc.)

-Cal-

Congratulations ACJC Band!

2006-06-23T16:02:00.000+08:00

Just got news that ACJC got "Judge's Choice" and has thus been chosen to perform for the "FESTIVAL COMMAND PERFORMANCE" on the 26th of June.

They were brilliant at their adjudicated performance yesterday night playing Movement for Rosa and Turandot, wish I had a recording for yer guys, coz the hall sounds as good as it looks!

*Groan* that means it's gonna cost me $35 to go watch them at the opera house now...

G'day from Sydney!!

2006-06-21T00:40:00.000+08:00

Miss Sng is here with her entourage of students. Not to be outdone, us sydneysiders took the oppurtunity to meet up with her!

Aaron and I are pictued below with her, outside the Sydney Town Hall where ACJC had just performed as part of the opening night ceremony for the 17th Australian International Music Festival!! [link]

ACJC Band on stage

2 new members of Club 27

2006-06-19T19:07:00.000+08:00

A long time coming since we did anything like this.. but our lucky pals Darren and T3 (sans Eric cuz he is away is New York) were given a messy (crabs!) B-day dinner at 'Jackson's Place' followed by a drinks and cake session at 'Moonstone Theatre'.

Selected photos below!

While looking for the B-day cake, we caught Astro Boy copping a feel! Cheeky!

What's wrong with this picture? Caught on the way to 'Jackson's Place'.

The early birds waiting for the 7 late comers! Sorry! Oh, we had one uninvited guest who made a surprising appearance also.. *whisper* Mr./Dr. Lee. *whisper*

The attendees plus the "tiramisu" cake! Front Row: Daniel, Darren and T3
Middle Row: BDSM Queen aka Kong Qi Tou aka Aunty Ho, Sandra, Jane and Me
Back Row: Benjamin, Ivan, Patrick, Desmond, Jeffrey our host, Ah-Boon and Jonathan

After cake, drinks! Well, sort of...

Mario Kart addicts! Join the ACSWO Nintendo DS fanclub today!

Sudoku addict!

Aunty Ho trying her best at PC Sudoku.. while everyone waits to go home!

Desmond finding out his brain age...

"WTF?!?!? I'm 46?! Stupid game!"

And that wraps things up!

-Cal-

Dinner at HV - 10 June 06

2006-06-11T01:21:00.000+08:00

Activity: The weekly meet up of Aunties and Uncles and their Juniors.

Location: HV Crystal Jade

Time: By right 6pm. By left 6.15pm, 6.30pm, 6.35pm and 7.00pm.

Attendees:

Uncle Lim Johnathan
Uncle Leow Desmond
Auntie He Shan
Teecher Sng Sandra
Singapore Explorer Ng Edmund
Japanese Tan Tsu Tsen
Student Ong Calvin
Baka Chua Jeffrey
Photographer Lim Ivan

Most popular combi meal: Stew Beef Noodles at Crystal Jade and Tau Hway Zui.

Uncle John acting very sian. (Thanks for the free transport!)

The laughing buddha or bugger?

Certified best flavour: Chocolate with Oreos!

Jokes galore!

Watching Jeffrey try out some IQ stuff. Dunno whether got or not in the first place. =p

Sorry for the lousy captions... Am watching some stupid CH8 movie, no time no time. Hehe!
Full picture album internet address can be gotten from me. =)

* Anyway, another alcohol/dessert/espresso gathering is up next saturday (17th Jun) at Jeffrey's new house... HEHE. Watch this space. *

Westsex Story

2006-03-21T16:06:00.000+08:00

If you're going to West Side Story on the 30th of April, look out and take pictures if you can of the people in Circle 1, Row CC, Seat 31-32 please and post the pictures up here!!

Christmas 2005

2005-12-27T18:27:00.000+08:00

Click for bigger pic
Kudos to Jeff, we'd a blast this year!

Catch phrase of 2005: Rotten Apples.

We're getting married too... =)

2005-12-27T15:55:00.000+08:00

Hi guys... havent seen you all in a while, sorry me and Wendy were unable to attend the christmas party at Jeff's place as my close friend's dad just passed away on christmas eve so we went to accompany him during the wake the following day =(

At any rate we'd like to you all know we'll be finally tying the knot after 7 years of running and hiding (kidding =) on Feb 25th next year.

It'll be at Life Bible-Presbyterian Church, 9A Gilstead Road at about 5pm, so do drop by if you can...

There will be dinner after that at a hotel we've booked, so let me know directly if you're coming so i can prepare the summons, ermm... i mean invites!

Hope to catch up with u all soon,

Sam & Wendy

Super Mario World by Jazzy Marching Trombones

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

Click below for video!
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7871234421362265231

Bye Sandy

2005-10-26T14:21:00.000+08:00

While she's off to Vietnam, do visit her blog for updates.

So when we visiting her huh??

2005-10-11T19:51:00.000+08:00

Every now and then...especially after my submissions, I would surf around and read everyone's blogs. ..yes, Tsush, I am one of the bo liao people that read your blogs...and also Ivan..Darren...Ben...Daniel...Edmund..anyone I know that i can get my hands on...that's my pathetic architectural student life for you..

Well, I think this is my second post here. The first one was when I joined the blog which was last year. Time really flies. One of the reasons why I don't post is I keep forgetting my password to the blogs and how do you get photos up here...it's such a process! Of course, there is the other side of me who doesn't want to confront my inner voice. ..they should stay inside..when you verbalise your thoughts espeacially your fears...they sometimes become real and an obsession.Wonder what would hubby think if he knew I was writing blogs....hehe...who says you have to tell your partner everything...of course, if that came from him, I wouldn't be too amused...

Anyway, I still can't believed that I did tie the knot after these 3 months. Actually to tell you the truth, during the soleminisation, we were supposed to sign some papers. Under the scrutiny of so many relatives, especially my newly acquired ones, I just signed it. And so, I always joke with hubby..." You know, I don't really know what I signed that day. Hope it was something good. I should have read the papers before I signed them, huh?"

Seriously, marriage has been so far lovely. I think we are still at the blissful stage coz we don't have mortgage and screaming babies yet...Well, eventually we'll train the babies not to scream in the future...hehe..but I think I'll still enjoy enjoy it years down the road. The events of July was very surreal. I do take out my marriage certificate which I brought to Australia and read it....hmm....my name and his name....just to be sure it actually happened. That's what happen when you stay apart too long. ..every few months, you have to say goodbyes...you start thinking your life back home was an imagination. Anyway, I think this year will be the last time staying apart..

That brings me to....one final examination/presentation before I get my Bachelor of Architecture. I think it's a very daunting affair with all the independent examiners involved. Everyone's quite stressed and intimidated. However, I think I manage to find something that I can be commited to and love for the last 6 years. And I did learn a lot in this few years compared to my college days. Haven't been doing too badly for the final year either (considering all the sideshows that I performed!), I really hope I'll make it through rather scarred free. Wish me luck, okay? Oh yes, I can't build a house for you...although I can give you free unofficial architectural advice if you trust me enough...:)

I am looking forward to December...will miss Hari Raya for the first time since I haven't finish exams.( It' s the fasting month now!)...looking forward to attend my first Lunar New Year...although hubby was whining...."Hmm...can we skip it?"..and I responded, " Come on, give me a break...I am trying to show solidarity with you here..." So I hope tis year will end up nicely...

Well, think I wrote enough...hope everyone is well.till then, see you another year? well, maybe sooner:)...

iPod Flea

2005-09-12T00:19:00.000+08:00

Yo!

Been a long time since i posted here.. dunno how old is this clip.. but it's hilarious! Here's an excerpt from the link.

"This week, David Pogue has arranged for a special guest video artist: Scott Kelby, Photoshop maven. Last week, as he keynoted his own Mac Design conference, he played a hilarious Apple ad spoof for something called the iPod Flea, which I'm pleased to offer in its Web debut." - NYT

Click any part of this line to see the video!

-Cal-

p.s hey Ivy! Can repost ur msg to get rid of spam comments? Thanx!
p.p.s Ben, Ed, any ideas how we can curb spam comments? It can get dangerous. KIV yah?

What are you doing now?

2005-09-07T13:45:00.000+08:00

Time check: 3.00pm

Location: Office desk

Feeling: Bored.

Drink on hand: Suntory Cafe Mocha bottle can

Reading material: Japanese Language Notes Chapter48 Causative Verbs

Things to do: Learn Jap, Read Forum, Surf Net, Watch Stocks.

End of Work: 5:15pm Tokyo Time.

Typhoon: Strong gust of wind n rain. Umbrellas are useless.

Earthquakes: none.

After work activities: KFC/Macs/SGusto Dinner followed by volunteer Jap lang class.
then. personal Jap class. Me teacher today.

wat about you?

p.s. yea i know this should go to my personal blog...but hey..no one is writing anything...hehe
need to read something fresh.

Missing my student life!

2005-08-28T02:26:00.000+08:00

Apparently, this is a glimpse into how Singaporeans hold house-warming parties over in America.
http://ia300810.eu.archive.org/3/items/KevinFlorenceHouseWarming/florencewarming.mov

Bleh, it's quite a big place I must say, for a 1-bedroom? But ugh, she can do with better interior designing. Can't blame her for missing out on those "home makeover" shows, since she JUST got her cable.

Arrrgh...I wanna get cable back in aus!!!

BTW, is it just me, or does the girl right at the beginning of the clip remind you of Evelyn from kids central?

Google Talk

2005-08-25T17:28:00.000+08:00

If you don't have one yet, it's time to get a Gmail a/c, coz Google's IM service is out!

Chee Soon Juan Podcasts?

2005-08-08T22:12:00.000+08:00

Off SDP website:

The Singapore Democrats have launched RadioSDP, the first political podcast in Singapore (see announcement on the Home page). SDP secretary-general Chee Soon Juan has given the inaugural address, in which he highlighted the Party's manifesto as well as raise issues regarding transparency and accountability (or the lack of it), NKF, ministers' pay, minimum wage, foreign talent, etc.

Some ppl said...

Slammed

2005-08-02T00:11:00.000+08:00

3rd Time Lucky?

This fella's account about being slammed into during an accident.

Anyone want to go for Real Run?

2005-07-29T00:24:00.000+08:00

Anyone want to go for Real run?

2005-07-28T21:11:00.000+08:00

got this from one of my friends on Lj

http://dash.notsniw.net/unbelievable.wmv

wonder if there's some camera trick involved...but I dunno...what really puts me off is those Jap girls squealing 'EEEeeeeee' with excitement and stupification...and I was thinking of going Japan to study......hahaha

Trigger Happy

2005-07-28T13:27:00.000+08:00

BBC News (UK Magazine) "Developing world". An interesting article from BBC about the phenomenon of the ubiquitous digicam.

HR Talk - Would you hire a fool or a jerk?

2005-07-27T11:09:00.000+08:00

From HBS: Fool vs. Jerk: Whom Would You Hire?

Suddenly I start to categorize colleagues into fools/jerks.

Only today...

2005-07-20T17:21:00.000+08:00

FREE SkyeOut MINs!
Call somebody today!

New Apple iPod

2005-07-12T01:28:00.000+08:00

I'm quite sold on getting Apple's new iPod!
http://www.layersmagazine.com/features/feature_cs2/flea.htm

Summer Weekend

2005-06-30T21:29:00.000+08:00

Summer's here! But the singaporean in me ain't getting too excited.
Spot me if you can.

What about photos from Singapore?! Post post!
(Its very easy to post pictures now! no need anymore!)

*End of the day, at Onjuku Beach, Chiba*

Pocky Lover?

2005-06-28T15:43:00.000+08:00

Took this pic on my ski trip..erm..yup...1 season ago.

Yeap. Miss the snow n cool weather.
Japan is freaking like Singapore now. HOT!!!
So hot my thermometer broke! serious!
(Of course i am not going to tell you i dropped it by accident.)

P.S. Willing to trade Japanese products for Char Kway Teow.

誰もは　日本語を　話せますか？
（Who also can speak Japanese?)

Another totally nonsensical post. (Been too quiet.)

MSN wif Webcam

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

For the benefit for those whom don't understand Korean (which I also don't).

1st sentence: Hey, whose is the person behind?
2nd sentence: oh dear, hey, hey, cannot do that!!
3rd sentence: nok..nok…(expressing shocked, loss of words)
4th sentence: ah….

Meanwhile the final box says: “Interesting, isn’t it? Send to ur fren with webcam now…”

ACSWO playing at ACJC Concert

2005-06-03T12:36:00.000+08:00

Hi guys,
Sorry to use this to announce. But anyone who is reading this, you are welcome to play for the concert.
Practices are at ACJC, 730pm on 3 June, 10 June and 15 June. Concert at VCH on 16 June 730pm.
We'll be playing First Suite in Eb by Holst, and Gloriosa.
There will be a party on Saturday 17 June at Upstairs@Harry's in the evening. Free food, but buy your own drinks from the bar.
Tell everyone. It'd be great to just come down and see everyone!

Roadcasting

2005-05-31T22:16:00.000+08:00

Roadcasting, the next big thing after Podcasting. From Wired.com: "Stuck in traffic and sick of Howard Stern, you may soon be able to tune in to the music collection of the person in the car in front of you. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University are developing an ad hoc networking system for cars that would allow any driver to broadcast music to any other vehicle within a 30-mile radius..."

Increadibly Scae-ree!

2005-05-31T08:26:00.000+08:00

[Post has been retracted]

Most distrubing...

2005-05-31T00:02:00.000+08:00

Lemming recently searched for Ivan Lim using MSN Search, and wanted to share the results with you:
http://www.mymsnsearch.com/results.aspx?q=Ivan+Lim&FORM=KoDjI3SfnIHf

If anybody's going to be shopping for a computer, here's some diagrams to pore over
http://www.consumerreports.org/main/detailv4.jsp?CONTENT%3C%3Ecnt_id=596745&FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=162693&ASSORTMENT%3C%3East_id=333133&bmUID=1116459925734

Grocery Store Wars

2005-05-26T20:39:00.000+08:00

Check out the movie!
My fav character? Chewbrocoli.

This is Life?

2005-05-25T02:20:00.000+08:00

This is Life?

And how to avoid having one...
http://www.pointlesswasteoftime.com/games/manifesto.html

And how to understand it...
http://www.forbes.com/lifestyle/health/feeds/hscout/2005/05/23/hscout525874.html

Teacher's passion brings school band to the top

2005-05-17T08:50:00.000+08:00

Check this out for Japanese dedication to their school bands...
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20050514f1.htm

Bush & iPod

2005-05-14T15:12:00.000+08:00

SO President George W. Bush listens to an iPod, it was learned recently. How uncool is that?

Hamster Mastercard

2005-05-13T19:05:00.000+08:00

Consultation for hamster with a tumour: $ 25.

Removing the tumour: $ 152.

Getting rabies trying to feed the hamster its medicine: Priceless.*

*The f***er actually bit the hand that fed it for the past year!! HE WILL PAY!!! I've decided to make hamster sandwiches.. I'm passing him off as a furry frog though.. a rare delicacy or sorts. So, just between you guys and me huh? Ha! The bas****.

p.s I didn't get rabies btw.. it was only an exaggeration. I think. *Foam*

-Cal-

Blogging for Small Biz

2005-05-06T22:11:00.000+08:00

SFGate.com: The Business of Blogging

SYF 2005 JC

2005-05-06T10:40:00.000+08:00

Results [Somebody update this pls]

ACJC - Gold

NJC - Gold with Honours

PJC - Gold with Honours

RJC - Gold

SAJC - Gold with Honours

TJC - Gold with Honours

YJC - Bronze

Pop on by to read a junior's take on it! Leave some encouragements if you can.
http://sasenaide.blogspot.com/2005/05/syf-2005-junior-college-category.html

One can certainly dream...

2005-05-03T14:45:00.000+08:00

The Time Traveler Convention

May 7, 2005, 10:00pm EDT (08 May 2005 02:00:00 UTC)
East Campus Courtyard, MIT
42:21:36.025°N, 71:05:16.332°W
(42.360007,-071.087870 in decimal degrees)

Yes of course we all know about the temporal prime directive, if people from the future actually visit, will they be able to reveal themselves, to change history/affect our timeline. Maybe temporal science has become so advanced that the intangibles in our present time have negligible effect with the invention of [insert favourite geek technogarble]. One can only dream....

So, be there or be square?!

[Edit: Was thinking, the co-ords are 2D, what if the visits are made on another dimension? 3D? 4D?. Apparently anyway, it's already been done: Destination Day. No sure for cancer yet...]

3 Shots of Poison

2005-04-29T09:50:00.000+08:00

Found some short films that are worth watching, well except the last one, it's a little iffy since it was made using a gaming engine, I'm playing LSL:Magan cum Laude, and it's a total waste of my time I know, one of those [said with Simpson's comic guy voice] "worst ever title to grace the Leisure Suit Larry series" but what the heck, you take it where you can get it...bleh!

Goto http://www.allnewv50.com/ and click on the "Gala Premeir Screening Winners" ticket top-middle to view them.

Oh, like the car too =P

BitTorrent & The Info Wave

2005-04-28T15:16:00.000+08:00

Read misweb.com: Catching an information wave - an opinion about the utility of P2P software beyond illegal file-sharing.

Go on, ride the P2P wave... if you aren't already.

Capture the Flag

2005-04-26T10:50:00.000+08:00

Anybody playing or interested in BZFlag?
It's quite old school...

BZFlag is a free multiplayer multiplatform 3D tank battle game. The name stands for Battle Zone capture Flag. It runs on Irix, Linux, *BSD, Windows, Mac OS X and other platforms.

The Perfect Wedding

2005-04-20T12:58:00.000+08:00

Singapore on Satellite

2005-04-19T01:01:00.000+08:00

http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=1.625977,103.474731&spn=2.817993,4.053955&t=k&hl=en

Gold with Honours

2005-04-16T11:56:00.000+08:00

Secondary School Central Judging results are out!

The top 3 bands are
Anglo-Chinese (Independent) School
Dunman High School
St. Andrew's School

Shalln't comment much about the results (or about the competition), I'll leave it to disjecta, our resident music guru! Suffice to say, things have changed a lot since our heydays...

Next up, JCs!

Advance Notice to the Death of a HDD.

2005-04-15T19:09:00.000+08:00

Hallelujah.

Yes, my IBM Deskstar 60GXP 40GB HDD (Read: Suckiest HDD series in the history of IBM storage solutions!!!) is dying.

Well, as it goes, it was a fairly normal Friday afternoon for me, what with breakfast at 1:30pm (yes, u read right.), followed by a bath and finally, proceeding with my "prepping procedures" for my anime marathon watching session. This included copying burned anime from CD-Rs to the HDD (It essentially streamlines my watching experience as my CD/DVD-rom buffers aren't too effective to allow me to watch from the drive directly.).

So happily dee doo! Everything goes fine, hmm, I have time to spare, so I check out online till what episode I should watch to not get stuck in the middle of a story arc. Whoa, I have a few episodes missing! Ok, it's all right, I noe where to get them! Up you go Azureus! Hmm.. ok, run run run... it's only 2 episodes I'm short off till the end of the arc, that's around a 400 MB download only! Shouldn't take too long. Perhaps an hour+ (yes, I do not have optic fibres or insanely reliable connections like the pple overseas!), if I have enough seeds and peers. Right, let's go check out the TV!

Tick tock tick tock... 45 mins pass. Bleh, nothing on TV, mom watching some recorded TVBS drama serial again! What kind of a serial has the name "BLADE HEART"?!? Not to mention, it's starring a HK oldbie! Adam Cheng! Wasn't this guy famous during Lydia Sum's time?? Wait, I think I remember, he is Lydia Sum's ex-husband! Hmm.. or are they still married? Bleh, doesn't matter to me. Better go check my downloads!

Hmm... ok, 50% complete.. not bad! But, damn it! What's that clicking noise?! Oh crap, it's the HDD! /on *PANIC MODE*.

All right, let's compose ourselves men!! We will not falter in the face of danger!!! ARRGH, my data!! ARRRGHHH!! Thank goodness, I backed up my mp3s and photos already! But but but, there's still E-mail and ICQ history! No problems! Shut down Azureus! Shut down ICQ! Shut down MSN! Reboot? NO! Not a good idea, it might just die on me! Okok, pop in CD-R! Open Nero! Find E-mail and ICQ data backups! Done! BURN BURN BURN damn it!!! ARRRGHH, stop that clicking!!! 10%.... 30%... 60%.... 100% "Burn completed successfully!" WOOT! Okok, check back-ups! Anything missing? Nope! Wait... ANIME!!! ANIME!!! Arrgh.. my incomplete series!! "Gundam SEED Destiny", "Samurai Champloo" (Just 1 episode more!). No fear! BURN!

20 mins pass.. phew!! Damn it, still clicking! Time to do a HDD check now. Ahhh.. IBM website... damn you all! Hmm.. what's this? Now hitachi is handling all RMAs and warranties? No time to read the press release! On to hitachi!

Hmm.. this looks familiar... Disk Fitness Test (DFT)! Ok, let's run this! Need floppy disk? Check! Great, DFT now on floppy! REBOOT! Check Check! Quick Test!

OMG. "0x73 (Device Failure. Excessive Shock)"

Hallelujah. (again)

I will not relent!!! Let's do the advance test!!

Hmm... IT LIVES!!! "0x00 (Device is free of errors)"

This can't be! Hmm... let's do a quick test again!

Hmm... "0x00 (Device is free of errors)". Ok, now what?

Ok, let's get out of DOS mode and back to windows! ARRGHH!! The clicking is still there!

I guess, there is only one conclusion then. My HDD has gone symptomatic. It's dying. No doubt. No cure. /off *Panic Mode*

Thus, I sit here now, with the clicking still going on.. pondering my next move. Typing this out. Looks like it's SLS (Sim Lim Square) time! Sigh.

Initialy, I wanted to format... but looking at the first error, it seems to be a hardware failure... ie. formatting wun do much good. Better if I just go with a Western Digital or Seagate I guess. Bleh.

So, end of the day, this is a note to all of you out there! Refrain from buying IBM desktop HDDs and always backup often.

-Cal-

p.s Jeff, you sueh chui ah!!! Ask me go SLS yesterday, today I kenah this liao! Arrgh! >:(

p.p.s For the technically less inclined... I'm sorry if you can't understand much of this. Just read the last sentence! :)

p.p.p.s This would be the 2nd time I would need to replace this IBM HDD, the first being in late 2002.

Edit: Added a link at the top (sukiest HDD blah blah blah...) I'm not alone! Class Action Lawsuit! Woot! does this mean I can get money for this? Woo!

UPDATE (16th Apr 2005 @5pm): Miraculously, the clicking has stopped! But, like a dormant cancer, the problem is probably still there... it's only a matter of time now.. -_-

Big Boned

2005-04-14T20:37:00.000+08:00

HBS: Great Managers Understand Their People

2005-04-14T13:32:00.000+08:00

Read article.

My New Alarm Clock

2005-04-11T08:11:00.000+08:00

I've always put my handphone on vibration mode to wake me up. But at 7.25am (J-Time) this morning, it did the unthinkable. I know sometimes, actually only during the holidays, i dun wake up to the phone. But surely it doesnt have to shake the whole freaking room.

Earthquake. One of the latest hit of the newspaper blockbuster.

Honestly, it was a little scary, cuz, i have yet to clear my stock of walchester sauces under the table. Let alone, putting supplies under the table. (urm, you know how it is when you just wake up. Too lazy to run under the table. Had a terrible night too with all the crows calling on to their mates or something.) What will i do if its the big one. Of course, its only the 7th floor, with the evacuation stairs just 2 rooms away. hmm. Maybe some ropes and a vertical walk down my building would do just fine.

Anyway, just to say HI. Getting pretty bored at work ya know. Work started 30 minutes ago in this rainy day. Hows yours?

*update* Since i am at it, another one at 1545 Jtime. Felt like being in a car running over bumpy road, and after that, swaying side by side. Wasn't THAT strong, so no worries. This time, the collegues went "woh.."...talked abit about it, then went back to work. Not much of an excitement. heh.

Another shameless plug

2005-04-05T03:08:00.000+08:00

http://dementedlemming.blogspot.com/2005/04/remembering-simant.html

But so I don't feel so guilty,
http://everybodylovesedmund.blogspot.com/2005/03/kena-lovebyte-kekeke.html forgive me ed =(

Farewell

2005-04-03T22:01:00.000+08:00

Not-So-Famous Creatures of Japan

2005-03-30T12:47:00.000+08:00

Tokyo Tower Mascot

Didn't know they had a mascot. Pretty amusing looking one. =P

My overall opinion of the TT: Not really a must go. Its more romantic OUTSIDE the tower. I'll write more next time, department head just came over to check me out.

Snow Man From Kanazawa.

A little one we made ourselves with a glove on top. Plays snowballs for a living.
Found melted by a passerby during summer. Leaving a written message "Looking for an apartment with a fridge."

How corny can i get.

The End is VERY Nigh

2005-03-29T01:55:00.000+08:00

Huge quake hits Indonesian coast [again...]
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4388579.stm

TREMOR IN SINGAPORE
INFORMATION ON SOURCE EARTHQUAKE
http://app.nea.gov.sg/cms/htdocs/article.asp?pid=1198

Time to batten down the hatches pple!

If you're thinking of a Mac mini...

2005-03-28T22:37:00.000+08:00

Mac Mini: The Emperor's New Computer
http://www.divisiontwo.com/articles/MacMini2.html

Viva the Mac revolution!
http://www.business2.com/b2/web/photoessay/0,21937,1039453,00.html

The Pink Panther Movie

2005-03-27T11:26:00.000+08:00

Happy Easter

2005-03-25T16:17:00.000+08:00

Wikipedia.org:

"Good Friday is a holy day celebrated by Christians on the Friday before Easter or Pascha. It commemorates the crucifixion of Jesus. Special prayer services are often held on this day with readings from the Gospel accounts of the events leading up to the crucifixion. Mainstream Christian churches view Christ's crucifixion as a voluntary and vicarious act, and one by which, along with his resurrection on the third day, death itself was conquered."

"Easter (also called Pascha) is generally accounted as one of the most important holidays of the Christian year - perhaps the most important - observed in March or April each year to celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead after his death by crucifixion (see Good Friday), which Christians believe happened at about this time of year around AD 30-33. (Easter can also refer to the season of the church year, lasting for nearly two months, which follows this holiday and ends around Pentecost."

iPod Therefore iAm

2005-03-20T21:48:00.000+08:00

Tech Central Station: iPod Therefore iAm

Ordinary people narrowcast; always have, always will. It's human nature to want to surround ourselves with like-minded people, familiar music, comfortable art, and unchallenging surroundings. Who can be surprised that our technology reflects this basic impulse?

Mind Your Blog

2005-03-15T20:11:00.000+08:00

CNETAsia: The blog of Anne Frank?

Success?

2005-03-15T12:48:00.000+08:00

Read CIO.com: Why You're Not Happy.

Good News Everyone!

2005-03-11T14:11:00.000+08:00

Singapore Surpasses U.S. As Top Tech Nation

Singapore has displaced the United States as the top economy in information technology competitiveness, according to the World Economic Forum's latest annual Global Information Technology Report released today.

Ok, so not good news to everyone, just good news for me? Well, just hope that I'll be gainfully employed when I graduate!

Industry Insider: Sony Sinking

2005-03-11T01:11:00.000+08:00

Sony is in deep trouble. If it hadn’t been obvious to you over the last year it sure is obvious now with their elevating a foreigner to CEO, Howard Stringer. Now having worked for and with Japanese companies, hiring a non-Japanese to do anything with a lot of responsibility is rare, but to run the whole company? Almost unheard of.

http://www.thetechlounge.com/article.php?directory=industry_insider_030805

Do the guys in nippon have any comments?

Site summary for 04 March 2005

2005-03-09T10:53:00.000+08:00

I've been receiving tons of these, and just decided to post it as an entry. These aren't the interesting stats though, you should head to the link below, and click on "organizations". Pretty interesting to know who visits our little site.

Life after ACSWO
(s11acswo)

-- Site Summary ---
Visits

Total ........................ 2,370
Average per Day ................. 13
Average Visit Length .......... 1:08
This Week ....................... 92

Page Views

Total ........................ 3,844
Average per Day ................. 18
Average per Visit .............. 1.4
This Week ...................... 127

http://s11.sitemeter.com/stats.asp?site=s11acswo

Useless Facts...

2005-03-07T13:26:00.000+08:00

Short index finger shows men are as hard as nails

Careful now, blogging might cost you your job

2005-03-01T22:21:00.000+08:00

Read ComputerWorld: Fired Google blogger reflects, moves on

Gasp! More spyware?

2005-02-28T21:00:00.000+08:00

CNET: Spyware Infiltrates Blogs... incl. Blogspot

P.S. I like the pic

Cartoon Blogs

2005-02-25T17:30:00.000+08:00

Not sure when these started, but these cartoon blogs are rather quaint and in my opinion, are a truly individualistic form of self-expression.

Natalie Dee: Huffing It Up, Every Weekday

Toothpaste for Dinner

Need some info

2005-02-22T05:24:00.000+08:00

Hey everybody! I need a little bit of help, especially from those of you who follow japanese comics/cartoons...

Long before we were in ACJC, I was crazy about Doraemon, and occasionally within the comic books that I collected, I found a couple of strips that seemed to feature a new version of Doraemon. Instead of the traditional blue, this "new version" had a yellow balloon-type head with crazy eyes (one eye pointed up, and the other pointed down), and had a short ponytail sticking out from the top of his head. His arms seemed to be extendable and retractable, kinda like Doctor Octopus' robotic arms from "Spider Man 2". The other characters, as far as I remember, were the same as the traditional Doraemon version (i.e. Nobita and company). I think this new/alternate version of Doraemon had a different name from 'Doraemon', and I need to know the name of the comic series. I've been desperately searching on Google, but to no avail, because it's hard to search for something when you don't even know the name of the thing you're searching for.

Reason behind this is because I just recently found a Nintendo/Famicom emulator for the Mac, and I remembered playing a game with this new-version-of-Doraemon that I liked during the late 80's. It was, as most Famicom games were, in Japanese, so I have no idea what the name of it is. Can't search for the ROM without knowing the name.

So... any help at all would be appreciated! Ivan, Tshush? You're in sushi-land! Perhaps you've come across this?

Thanks!!

Tiny URLs

2005-02-21T22:29:00.000+08:00

Our TinyURL is...
http://tinyurl.com/69rfa

Earth Movement

2005-02-16T10:01:00.000+08:00

It was 4.46am in the morning. As usual, i was half awake thanks to a very active mind. i was half dreaming of *censored*.

Then, the room shook. The first thing i thought about is not to run, but Jared's waterbed post. I felt like sleeping on a slab of jelly. 19 people reportedly got lightly injured in Tokyo area. Some apparently fell out of bed. hmm. but they had magnitude 5 out of 7. so can't blame them.

It wasn't violent. My Gundam Seed figurine still stood up, but my BB gun almost dropped to the floor. a mild 3 out of a scale of 7. They use a different scale called the "shindo", which is what people feel at that particular location, as compared to the richter scale.

Then i thought. Dang. If it was a big one, i would have to survive on 2 litres of coke, a few packets of caramel popcorn and lots of chocolates. (in the cupboard..heh) Oh. My Kueh Bankit and pineapple tarts are on the table. But i do have to hide UNDER the table, which housed 2 litre bottles of walster sauce, 1 litre bottle of soy sauce, a dustbin and a keyboard. So much for survival. I think its about time to re-org my little bomb shelter.
Anyway, went back to my dream since no one (the japanese) bothered to run.

The next aftershock today was in the office. The 2nd-in-charge looked at me and i looked at him. No sparks or chemistry flew between us. Thank goodness. A small one.

Well, i finally felt it. After 3 months of "missing out". But that is enough for me for this Japan trip.

It pays to be an IBM customer!

2005-02-14T15:54:00.000+08:00

Here I am, enjoying M&Ms from the minibar when I really shouldn't be eating chocolates at all, and am having a capucino from the drinks machine too. All for free!

Woot!!!

Well, actually I had to drive myself all the way over here to Changi, so might as well enjoy as many complimentary food stuff as I can =P

If anybody's interested, I'm flying off tomorrow....

Rooster, Meet H5N1

2005-02-12T12:04:00.000+08:00

So much for ushering in the Year of the Rooster - read ST: Vaccine alone won't do.

BTW some renowned geomancy expert recommended carrying 88 grains of rice around this entire lunar year because the year of the rooster is not auspicious or something.

恭喜发财 - Happy Chinese New Year!

2005-02-10T10:37:00.000+08:00

Hi Guys! How your new year?? I want my ang paoz!

Steamboat Reunion Dinner Japanese-style with Tsu Tsen and gang.

Yusheng ..er..Japanese Style...Secret ingredients added...only can be found in Japan..the green thingy...guess wat it is..hehehe

Ah..no time to write more...i want to do my report liaoz...working on the first and second day of CNY...boo.

Earthquake Alert

2005-02-08T10:39:00.000+08:00

11.29am GMT +900 Japan time.
A small earthquake struck somewhere called 茨城県南部 richter scale 4.
Tremours could be felt at Kawasaki Solid Square and surrounding buildings.

"did you feel the earthquake? it was like shaking a little here and there."
- co-worker 1

"yea i did, a little bit like last time, when there was an earthquake at Niigata" - co-worker 2

"Huh? Got meh?" - me, coming back from the toilet cubicle.

Source KNS.

Confessions of a Speed Demonn

2005-02-02T23:57:00.000+08:00

I am, unfortunately, one of those victims mentioned by Ed.
Well.... actually not me, but my dad.

I believe that in the UK, people have sucessfully petitioned for visible warnings signs to be put up where speed traps have been deployed, and I do strongly feel that it should be the same case here. Yes, including the petitioning part...

All cameras (whether fixed or mobile) must be highly visible. This includes painting camera housings yellow and ensuring they are not hidden behind trees, signs or bushes. Mobile camera operators must wear reflective clothing and use specially marked vehicles. In all cases, signs must be placed before the site and signs may only be placed in areas where cameras are present. The precise locations of all speed cameras will be published.

The fine has not only scared my dad into driving at the antagonizing speed limit, but it's also made him extremely paranoid when he sees a flash, spots any suspicious persons standing at the sides of the road, or passes any white parked car along the expressways. The allevated level of stress of constantly glancing down at the speedometer is also definately not healthy for his heart.

I keep telling him it was an isolated year-end/Christmas TP blitz, but he refuses to heed my advice since infringing on the precious laws of our state would cost him a hefty fine, something that the family can certainly do without.

He also contests the fine itself, since he sees himself as a safe driver and could not believe he was going 84km/h along alexandra rd. There seems however, no avenues for people in his situation or seeing some kinda proof or viewing the picure that was snapped.

In Australia, it has already been proven that the speed cameras are inaccurate, flawed and thus unreliable! Could that be the case in Singapore too?

MICK BUNWORTH: Vanessa Bridges was one of the first to challenge the accuracy of fixed speed cameras on Melbourne's Western Ring Road six months ago.

Vanessa's car was clocked at 158km/h by a fixed camera - a speed she knew was well beyond the 4-cylinder Datsun 120Y which has been putting along for close to 30 years.

After unsuccessfully querying the fine, Vanessa faced a mandatory loss of licence, but rather than trusting the technology she sought another opinion.

VANESSA BRIDGES: We got the car tested not only for the maximum speed it could go, which we found out it could only be 117km/h, but we also did a test on the actual speedometer and we found that when the needle was on 100 the car was actually only doing 90.

Without a way of retriving any form of irrefutable proof, one can never know.

A very good article on the pros and cons of using speed cameras can be found at http://www.debatabase.org/details_print.asp?topicID=252

Is this the transparency that our gahmen has been harping about? Vapourware I say...

Speeding in Singapore

2005-02-01T13:28:00.001+08:00

Among the recent bout of complaints about the Traffic Police's hidden speed traps, two common ones are that the hidden speed traps are sneaky and they put undue stress on drivers who now have to adhere to speed limits not knowing where the speed traps are. One man even wrote in to the ST Forum to complain that after 2 incidents, now he drives slowly - so slow that other drivers freely express their irritation at him. Not too smart eh?

A friend of mine asked me to help vet a letter intended to be submitted to the One Motoring forum and I was surprised at the gripes listed. While the loaded language was uncalled for, my friend did have some questions that appear valid, such as publicly warning drivers about speed cameras and why this method of punitive deterrence is being utilized over others. Accordingly, the number of traffic offences has risen drastically in the past few years, but without any contextual information, it's difficult to ascertain the real cause.

My friend went so far as to suggest that hidden speed traps are the practices of authoritarian states, but we know that the police in America uses these along highways. Besides, Singapore's political climate is another topic, altogether.

So I pondered long and hard before deciding that the main issue is that these drivers are disgruntled because they want to be at liberty to speed at certain locations, such as a straight road, or times of day, such as early morning or late night. A certain degree of enforcement is tolerable as long as the methods are respectable, i.e. publicly known.

When drivers complain about hidden speed traps, aren't they actually contesting the speed limit? After all, legally offenders are fined only because they've exceeded the speed limit which was determined by the traffic police to be a safe speed. Are they questioning the rationalization behind?

A discussion with a colleague made me realized that visible speed cameras with warning signs may actually be hazardous. Some drivers blissfully speed along the highway till they realize a speed camera's ahead and slow down unexpectedly or unreasonably. Worse still, kan cheong drivers nearing junctions with traffic lights slam the brakes without first checking for vehicles behind.

At the end of day, I remember that I haven't received any tickets for speeding. This is probably because my car's only 1000cc and I'm a safe driver :) Officially the speed limit along main roads is 60-70kmh, I've definitely gone up to 80kmh but still no ticket. What does this say?

Speeding in Singapore

2005-02-01T13:28:00.000+08:00

Weekly Dose of Today's Crap

2005-02-01T13:19:00.000+08:00

Mr Brown of TodayOnline: Excuse me, your cup doth runneth over

Fondue Fun

2005-01-26T13:59:00.000+08:00

Jeff: "Me! Me! I want ice-cream too!"

Rowf: "Tastes like cough syrup!"

Des: "Mine! All mine! I only want sorbet!"

Lemm: "Help me take a picture to spite Juli."

Ed: "How romantic, fondue for 5."

Fond Memories of Harmless Fun?

2005-01-23T19:25:00.000+08:00

Read ST: Bonding Rituals Thrill or Torture?.

Remember Taupok (nothing to do with Taufik)? Or the flagpole? Guess most of us missed out on the soggy biscuit too huh?

Seriously, call me a kill-joy parent-to-be, but I wouldn't want my children partaking in any of these. I definitely don't want a bout of seemingly harmless fun severing the Ng lineage.

Disco of the Year

2005-01-22T22:45:00.000+08:00

It's amazing what you manage to find when you're packing your room...

Emma Yong?

2005-01-22T01:36:00.000+08:00

Anybody interested??

Late Nite @ Esplanade:
From Bjork to Broadway with Emma Yong
Accompanied by John Lee on piano
Singapore
When: 28 Jan 2005 (Fri), 9.30 PM at the Recital Studio

She has pulled heartstrings as Cinderella, played a drama mama in Dim Sum Dollies and soared high as a sexy flight attendant in Boeing Boeing. She has lit up both the stage and small screen with her enormous talent. Now meet the real Emma Yong as she returns to her first true love - singing.

In her first solo concert, be prepared to be seduced by Emma's angelic yet power-packed vocals as she traverses different genres, from silky-smooth bossa nova to soul-rousing show tunes and contemporary pop. This is an Emma you've never seen before - one-on-one in a very personal concert of songs. Sexy, smoky and sophisticated, she delivers every mood where it counts in all her favourite tunes, from Bjork to Broadway.

Accompanying Emma is John Lee on piano, a talented musician,singer and vocal coach. John has always had music in his life, and has been performing with his brother Dick Lee since young.

Join Emma and John, together for the first time, for an intimate evening of soul-baring songs.

60mins with no intermission.