Monthly Archive for March, 2009

Word of mouth gets slap on wrist

Published on March 29, 2009 in Usual Ramblings. 4 Comments

Lyn (my boo) pointed out an advertisement in yesterday’s Straits Times classifieds section. It is about some young guy apologising to a hair stylist for “wrongfully” blacklisting his salon in an online forum. No idea what that the term “wrongfully” represents by the way. Guess the issue might have gotten out of hand and to the extent that an advertisement had to be taken out instead of a handshake, a bow or a cup of coffee.

I have always thought that it is okay for one to put his or her comments in an online forum, of course abiding to the rules and regulations set out by the moderators. Word of mouth is usually considered more trustworthy (but taken with a pinch of salt) compared to advertisements or other forms of publicity. I mean the cost for such advertising are more often borne by the companies and should be viewed as an awareness campaign. With experiences from consumers published online, other consumers like us will be warned of establishments that provide bad service or fleecing incidents. And for those that receive rave reviews and comments from satisfied customers, we will probably put a pin on it.

Unfortunately, I don’t have the full story and wouldn’t want to take sides. But this is perhaps the first kind of advertisement I’ve seen on apologising for blacklisting an establishment in an online forum.

Earth Day today

Published on March 28, 2009 in Usual Ramblings. 2 Comments

In about four and a half hours, a significant part of Singapore will fade away for an hour as businesses and individuals show their support to VOTE EARTH. This is perhaps the biggest involvement in our country for an environmental project that is not initiated by the government. Of course we know that the government can’t do everything. But do you know who can? Just look in the mirror.

It is everyone’s responsibility to do their bit for the environment, whether its big or small. From turning off the main switches everytime you head to work or installing recycling bins all over your office building, they all play a part. Thanks to the folks from the World Wildlife Fund for organising Earth Day in Singapore. I have spoken to them a couple of times over the past few days and am encourage to learn that they put our environment first. All the best in your event tonight folks!

As for Lyn (my boo) and I, we will be switching off our lights at home and heading out for a nice dinner. Hopefully candlelight… .

Gooooo Tarheels!!

Published on March 27, 2009 in Usual Ramblings. 0 Comments

Not too sure if such it has been done last year, but college Basketball fans wanting to catch the March Madness’ Sweet Sixteen matches can watch them live for free all thanks to NCAA.com. I’m rooting for the University of North Carolina’s very own Tarheels of course, that’s where the greatest basketball player, Michael Jordan came from . Click Here to check out the games!!

Project Wonderland

Published on March 22, 2009 in This I like and Usual Ramblings. 4 Comments Tags: chingay, project wonderland, singapore.

Here is another delayed entry in a bid to keep the ‘ol jBlog going. But before that, and just in case you are wondering, yes, I am still spending my free time slacking off and loving it. During the times I don’t, I dive deep into a personal project that have and will take a significant amount of my time until the end of the year. To be honest, its no big secret and my closer friends would know exactly what I’m talking about. But do give me some time to sort out the details before I fill you, so hang in there .

Back to the subject proper, I am finally blogging about the photos I took during the Chingay Parade Singapore 2009. Themed Project Wonderland, the parade was held during late January this year at City Hall. This year’s Chingay presented to us 13 floats with 4000 performers from 40 organisations. Some of its participants included four local international communities and cultural groups from eight countries (more info on this year’s Chingay here).

Thanks to my colleague, I managed to score a pass to join other fellow media photographers at the front. Security has been tight in recent Chingay events and none of the media photographers were allowed to step out of their zone and into the parade itself. This contrasted with my experience back in 2004 where I managed to somehow sneak into the parade without any media pass and immersed myself with the participants. Good times…good times… .

Filled with any array of vibrant colours both from the lighting effects and participants, the parade was a haven for photographers looking to capture choreographed moves amid a variety of effects in a single frame. Although the initial wait was long, none of us got any rest time for the next hour and a half or so as the parade progressed from one performance to another. Here are some of my takes of Chingay.

Left and Right: Participants and spectators waiting for the parade to begin

Left: Awaiting the first float “Roaring Ahead” | Right: A closer look

Left and Right: The performances went on…

Left and Right: …and on and on

Right: From our international friends including Japan.. | Right: …to local performers such as those at Marine Parade

Right and Left: Not forgetting a harmony of cultures

Left: Most of them are grounded… | Right: …while the rest float around

The highlight of the night was a magic show by Lawrence Khong as “King of the Magic World”, together with his daughter (I think) Priscilla Khong as “Princess of the Magic World”. Priscilla thought it would be freaking awesome if she set her dad on fire (which she did). But being the magic family they are, Lawrence kind of disappeared somewhere in the smouldering heat and ended up at the top of City Hall. As grand exits complementing grand entrances go (he arrived in a ‘unicorn’..erm..yeah), he ‘flew’ his way back to the stage. Yeah I know, its one of those ‘waaaa’ moments. I was busy chimping my card and didn’t really pay attention…darn!!

Left: Lawrence and his ‘unicorn’ | Right: Priscilla setting her dad on fire

The parade was punctuated with a nice fireworks display and loads of confetti. Serious, I really mean loads, like truck loads. I kept thinking to myself that the cleaners are going to be pretty pissed off when the see the mess, but somehow I figured they have been briefed. Either way, word has it that the streets were cleared the following day. Well done folks… .

Left: Fireworks | Right: Performers enjoying the snowing confetti

I would love to share more photos with you in this blog but given that I have about 350 on the parade, I wouldn’t want to take too much of your downloading time. You might want to go check out my Flickr album here and here on the parade. For those who have no idea what Chingay is, you can find out more at their website.

Long queues = Good food?

Published on March 16, 2009 in Usual Ramblings. 4 Comments Tags: punggol nasi lemak centre.

Not too sure about that though. Although many of us do equate snaking long queues to good food, our experience at Punggol Nasi Lemak Centre begged to differ. Sure the wait was long, but the portion was rather small and in my humble opinion, not very worth the price…

The long queue with about 10 more people behind us

Operation hydrate

Published on March 9, 2009 in Usual Ramblings. 0 Comments Tags: hydrate, watsons.

The scorching sun from yesterday’s HSBC Women’s Champions have left my face drying up like the Sahara Desert. The glowing red face is a dead give away in office today and if I had a dollar everytime my colleague asked me what the heck happened to me during the weekend, I would have enough money to go get myself a nice car.

Never mind that I chose not to bring a cap along because none of them matched my clothes and shoes, and that I decided on showing up without applying any oily and scented sunblock. What mattered most was that the weather folks had forecast rain and I was (to express myself better) cheated of my feelings. There was no rain, just enough sun to fry an egg and cook a particular person who is foolish enough to go leave home without a cap and sunblock.

I had loads of skin care tips from my female colleagues today given that my office is pretty much female-dominated (hey, I’m not complaining). Heck some even offered to bring masks and aloe vera gels just to help in the hydration process. Sheepishly turning down their offers (but wait, I do feel the love), I heeded their advice and popped over to Watsons to pick up a box of mask to help me prevent peeling.

Since this is my first attempt at masking (and nothing to do with Photoshop) I’m really not sure how this will pan out. I have am even enhancing my hydration by dipping myself in more aloe vera gels, something I use after golf. As long as I don’t peel and end up looking like a Star Trek Klingon, I think I’ll do fine. We’ll find out in a few days time… . ~Cross fingers~

HSBC Women’s Champions weekend

Published on March 8, 2009 in Mac and Me and Usual Ramblings. 2 Comments

Thanks to an old friend Jane again, Lennie and I plus a couple of friends headed to Tanah Merah Country Club to catch our second year of the HSBC Women’s Champions. Unlike last year, world number one Lorena Ochoa was unable to dominate the boards giving way to other LPGA greats including Paula Creamer and Katherine Hull vying for the cup. With players exchanging leads throughout the four days, none of them were able to withstand the combination of weather, turf and game consistency.

Teeing off from the sixth position this morning, a quiet South Korean who went by the name of Jiyai Shin sank a number of birdies and took the lead during the later part of the game. Keeping herself headstrong, she rallied into the 18th hole scoring a magnificent -11, two ahead of once-was-first-place Katherine Hull and ran with the cup. At the end of a very hot, very humid day that left us burnt into a crisp wondering where the heck my sunblock was when I needed it most, we clapped our hands in somewhat disbelief that a young, shy, 5′1″ Asian could have beaten LPGA’s finest. Little did we know, this was not her first time. Well done “Muscle Girl” (or how Keith describes her).

At the end of the day

Not wanting to leave home empty handed, we queued with other fans and managed to bag ourselves a number of autographs. The long wait under the hot baking sun was worth it as we departed for home with signatures from Lorena Ochoa and South Korea’s Jiyai Shin, Se Ri Pak and Hee Young Park. They can really complement the one I got from Paula Creamer last year (now if only I remember where I put it). To be honest, these autographs were not easy to acquire. Apart from the heat, we had to time ourselves in the queue to ensure that we get to the golfer we want. Any early misses would mean its back to the start of the queue for us. This would mean that your hopes for her autograph is pretty much a goner.

Needless to say, we really had to be very shameless just to get them. But then again, I guess its safe to say that being shameless comes easy to me, a walk in a park if I may add . Memorable weekend? Yeah, I guess so. Looking forward find out what next year has in stall for us… .

Left: Se Ri Pak signing | Right: Se Ri Pak on the left and Hee Young Park on the right

Left: Lorena Ochoa | Right: Jiyai Shin

More of last year’s HSBC Women’s Champions here and here.

Macbook up and running

Published on March 5, 2009 in Mac and Me, This I like and Usual Ramblings. 1 Comment Tags: hard disk, macbook, sim lim.

Woah it has been a while hasn’t it? Just in case you thought I might have possibly died in my office cubicle and none of my colleagues noticed anything amiss for about a good two weeks, well…I haven’t. The long break is the usual combination of slacking off (its a periodic thing I guess), endless research for a new and life changing project and an incident that has something to do with a corrupted hard disk in my not so new Macbook.

Lesson learnt here, never ever install any Microsoft Windows operating system in an Apple computer…EVER!! Its really a kick in the nuts when you discover both your operating systems decided one day that they are no longer friends and stopped booting up. Its an even hard kick at the same location (really, its that painful) when you haven’t gotten round to backing up your files. Long story short, these fellas can’t co-exist and seriously, if you want Microsoft Windows, go get a PC.

So with a corrupted 250Gb hard disk (which I personally installed about a year back) that refuses even to allow me to format, I headed to Sim Lim Sqaure’s Best Bargain to pick up another one in a bid to get my life back to normal, technology-wise. Forgetting how much such drives in addition to RAMs cost these days, my collegue Dan and I awkwardly stood there frozen for a short moment as the nice lady cashier quoted us an unbelievable price. Heck, even bargain hunters upon hearing it would almost immediately kneel down while throwing both hands up in victory, claiming that they have finally reached shopping Nirvana. Okay seriously, it was a real steal at S$109 for a 2.5″ 250Gb hard disk and 2Gb 667Mhz RAM for Lyn’s (my boo) HP 2133 (I know, it was supposed to be mine..long story ).

Heading home happy last night, I easily removed my old, corrupted and new paperweight hard disk and replaced it with a fresh one. Although Leopard installation took a little longer than I expected but before I knew, I found myself back in the comfort of my room “downloading the internet” (as Lyn would put it), instead of twiddling my fingers at the edge of my bed and intermittently sobbing about how painful life can be when disconnected. Its good to be back. Hope to get out of my blogging drought soon.. .

New hard disk on the left and the corrupted one on the right