The Field Marshal

2006-07-24T13:15:00.000+08:00

Goodbye!!! See you over at the other side!!! Blogger has been the most wonderful platform for my rantings and ravings since 2001. As I pack up my e-bay and relocate to Wordpress, I can't help but feel a sense of sadness. It's like leaving behind a pack mule, one that has work tirelessly and loyally since the journey started. Like all journeys, this one must end too. As I bid farewell to Blogger, I look forward to my new journey in Wordpress. I hope to see all of you, you know who, over there. Here's my new address for The Fieldmarshal at Wordpress. Do visit.

2006-07-21T17:48:00.000+08:00

Change Life is a journey of change. The thing is, we should always change for the better. Just like Hem and Haw, the 2 mice in Who Moved My Cheese, we should always be ready for change. I smell change in the air... actually, more like the smell of new cheese.

2006-07-13T13:40:00.000+08:00

Been some time since I last wrote. My last post after kena "Tomorrowed" got me lots of hits, hehe, and lots of interesting comments. Pardon my ignorance, but I didn't know that I kena flamed also until Mydaemon told me so. For me, I am ok with the comments from others as everyone is entitled to their opinions. Anyway, I have been busy, busy, busy. Reading the comments made me realised that what I thought, how naive of me, was right, was so wrong with many people. Granted, perhaps I should have "taped" the woman's eyes with black photoshop tape. But I am appalled by the comments. While I cannot say if the people I wrote about in the previous blog was trying to get a free ride, the comments, or the main theme I gathered, stating that it is ok for commuters to hop on the bus since the "important thing is to get people home, and not be so particular about whether they pay their fares." This is RIDICULOUS!!! Since when are we taught that it is ok to steal when one is tired after a hard day's work. Did our teachers taught us to steal food when we are hungry after a hard day's work? Or even to ride a cab and just skip off home without paying after a hard day's work. Whether it's $1 for a bus ride or $10 for a cab ride, not paying for either = stealing. Unless MOE introduced a new dictionary with a flexibility understanding of the words "theft" and "steal", these words should be understood across board, young or old, black, white or yellow. I can only come to the conclusion that society is evolving into a me, me, ME-centric environment. Values such as honesty is no longer value. What's there to value these lofty ideals when I have "me" to value. I am tired, so I choose to go up the bus via the rear "entrance" while others who are just as tired are trying to board from the front. In the end people are just selfish, by getting up the bus "first" from the rear, they are assured of a place while those still trying to get up from the front would be deprived of the chance of getting up since standing commuters have not space to move behind anymore. Still somewhat flabbergasted and disgusted by many of the comments, I have come to the conclusion that the relentless push towards materialism and indivdualism has shaped the nation into a selfish society, one which no longer is able to tell what is right or wrong. Call me a fundamentalist, purist, whatever, to me, there a black and white. No two ways about it. And don't quote me the shade of grey statement. That's what PR or marketing people use to get things done.

2006-06-27T11:45:00.000+08:00

Ugly Singaporeans Sometimes I wonder if I am living in a 1st world cosmpolitan city-state or a third world country. I have come to realise that it's both. Singapore is a country with first world infrastructure, but a citizenry with third world mindset. While it may be unfiar to broadbrush all responsible citizens out there, I have to admit that soft skills is one thing sorely lacking in our society. On top of this list would be social grace. Was going home on Bus no. 124 last Friday after a night out with Mydaemon. The bus was jam packed. But we still took it since it was already 9pm plus and that's the only bus home for us from Plaza Singapura. Anyway, as the bus stopped at the bus-stop across People's Park Complex, 2 women, 1 old, 1 young, rushed up the bus from the exit even though the bus was packed. I was totally digusted with such behaviour since the only time I witnessed such behaviour was in Shanghai. Even then, the public buses had a conductor. The 2 women put up a show of tapping their cards on the reader, to no avail since the readers are for exit only. What peeved me was not only these people had no social grace to board up the bus properly, they was mot prbably free-riders too. Guess the worst thing to this was the fact that they are native Singaporeans, not some PRC citizen. Brandishing my handphone, I snapped a picture of the aunite who pulled the stunt. The vigilante in me just can't help doing it. Wanted to capture the other woman, but the bus was too shaky. I have decided that I will do my part in exposing the ugliness of Singaporeans. More Singaporeans will become a mini celebrity here. Just watch this space.

In the meantime, here's a mugshot of the auntie who boarded the bus. Sure does have a "kiam pah" face.

Free-rider from Chinatown

2006-06-22T13:24:00.000+08:00

Bullying. But Where's the Corporal Punishment? This must be the season for explosing bullies. After reading about the 'Happy Slapping' incident, the floodgates are now open. Bullies beware! If you have bullied someone in the last 14 days, chances are you will become a mini celebrity overnight thanks to our zealous reporters at Straits Times. I do not now what's more depressing. To read about the bullies that roam our streets. Or to be concerned that the most exciting piece of local news is about bullies. While the saying goes that "no news, is good news", I must say that such news are wearing our gray matter down. My mind hungers for insights and ideas that help the nation to grow. Perhaps the agenda at ST is really to help the nation grow by wedding out the bullies? Going back to the issue proper, I read with horror, in reality more like mild boredom, that another kid being bullied story is published in today's ST. Titled "Pupil hurt 3rd time by school bully", the most notable part of the story is the actions taken by the school - Zhangde Primary. Here's an extract, or most of the article, which I found mildly interesting. The school responded by making the boys apologise to each other and writing a detailed report of what happened, but Zhijie's parents feel that this was insufficient punishment. 'All we got was a mumbled apology after the vice-principal asked him to say sorry,' said Mr Chia, a retiree. He wants the bully to get a harsher punishment - caning, or counselling at least. But the vice-principal of Zhangde Primary School, Mr Chong Chin Hong, feels that making the boy reflect on his actions will help him learn. I have to agree the somewhat aged dad of the kid being bullied. Call me an ageist, but I can't help but wonder what's a 68 year old guy have a 12 year old kid. Boggles my mind. That's another red herring, but perhaps the baby bonus is finally paying off. Going back, I totally agree with Daddy Chia that the bully of his boy should have gotten harsher punishment. The school, more correctly, the school's vice-principle, has not heard of the old adage, "spare the rod, spoil the kid". Hope I got that right. This wave of a softer touch, a la western ideals, disciplinary mindset sweeping across asia is doing our young ones more harm than good. Look where softer touches have gotten US and Europe. Stabbing and gun violence are norms in the school environment. It's so bad that schools actually put up signs to 'discourage' kids from bringing weapons to school. Thankfully, our firearms laws in Singapore are pretty stringent. Bring a weapon, especially a firearm, and see what the authorities will do to the kid. Western countries should take a leave or two out of our penal code. Here's another interesting extract. 'It was a scuffle between two boys. One was punched, the other scratched,' said Mr Chong. 'Writing a report will enable them to reflect, then react positively to similar situations in the future. If we are able to achieve that with reflection, it is definitely favourable to meting out heavier punishment.' Would writing a report release the anger and pent up frustration in the kid who eventually blew up by whacking Chia Jr? If writing reports are so effective, why hasn't the Singapore Prisons implemented it as a rehabilitative therapy for our violent criminals? Why is the rotan still use with tender loving care on the butts of criminals? There must be a reason why coporal punishment is still utilised in our prisons. It either means that it is effective, or that our prison officers are sadistic. I choose to believe in the former. I can imagine reading the following in the kids' reports. Sir, I am sorry for hitting Ah Kow on the head. I shouldn't have done done that. But Ah Kow is such an asshole. Always refusing to let me copy his homework. Ah Kow is also such a show-off. Everyone knows he has an IPOD, but no need to show it to me, a Creative Zen user, everyday mah. Bloody hell. The more I think about it, the more I think Ah Kow deserves it. I think I will give him another wallop tomorrow. Make sure he doesn't show me his stupid shiny apple again. Oops. Can I apologise for tomorrow's corrective action for Ah Kow. Signed Your humble student, Ah Buai Song Jokes aside, I can still remember that as a kid, if I did something wrong, or simply stupid, up come the magin wand in my parent's hands. With a hiss the wand lands on the most exposed parts of my bodies. The arms and legs mind you. The red welts apart from teaching me that a particular action is wrong, also serve notice to my friends that I just kena from my parents. Pain and shame became part of growing up and learning the right things in life. Blessed are those kids who learn without the cane. Hope I get one like that in the future. But I believe caning was a norm during my adoloscent and teenage years. As parents got more educated, they think everything can be rationalised by counselling the kids. Look where rationalising has gotten parents in the UK, if you have watched Super Nanny. Nowhere. Parents get abused, physically and emotionally. Or kids just feign contriteness and go back to their good old ways again. I dare propose to the world that the time has come. It's time to dust off the cane's from our storerooms. The reign of the shrinks is over. It's time for a new age. The age of the rod!!! Despite all this tough talk, I, as a potential future parent, will only utilise the rod only as the last resort. I am not going to be a rod-toting parent caning my kid from morning till night. I am no sadist. I am just asking for a more balanced approach to the disciplinary regime. Counselling and caning should go hand in hand. Here's my advice to parents, or wannabe parents. Cane first. Rationalise later. No pain, no gain.

2006-06-19T21:36:00.000+08:00

FM 好介绍!!! This is a new segment, if I may call that, in my blog. Thr FM 好介绍 segment basically introduces the good makan that I have tried. To kick it off, I will start by introducing one of my favourite noodle stalls - 阿南特制面, or loosely translated, Ah Lam's Noodle House.

Located within a coffeeshop at Blk 712, Clementi West St 2, Ah Lam's has been packing the crowds in since I started eating there some 1-2 years back. I should thank Mydaemon's parents since it was them who introduced me to such a wonderful makan place. Ah Lam is famous for 2 types of noodles. The first is the abalone noodles. Going for $6 per bowl, the noodles are simply delicious. Not sure where they get their noodles from, but there are really 'springy', or as the Taiwanese would say, very the "Q". The six bucks is well spend especially when you see the slices of real abalone adorning the already mouth watering bowl of noodles. Not sure where he got the lobang for cheap abalones, but they taste great! Apart from the nice noodle texture and generous helpings of abalone, Ah Lam has also perfected the art of making mouth watering soup. Cooked with pork, pig's bones, fruits, yes, I mean fruits like pears, apples etc, the soup is simply heavenly. I can just gulp down a bowl for a meal. It's your loss not to drink the soup. Lastly, I belive what makes a noodle dish great is the sauce that the noodles is mixed in. The sauce is the thing that makes or breaks the dish. Ah Lam doesn't disappoint with his splendid sauce. My inexperienced tongue can't really tell what went into the sauce, except to know that it tastes great! To top it off, you also get pig's liver, minced pork, shredded mushrooms and some fried lard, yummy, in the noodles. Having said all that, the other noodle Ah Lam is famous for is the minced pork noodles. At $3 a bowl, it is simply the hottest selling noodles there. Everyone just can't get enough of it. The only difference between this and the abalone noodles is that the formers is simply san abalone. That's about it. So if you are in the mood to splurge, fork out that $6. It's worth it! But the queue's a bummer though.

2006-06-19T13:15:00.000+08:00

Is Technology to Blame for Happy Slapping? It disturbs me to read in today's papers - Let's Talk About Happy Slapping, that there's a 'happy slapping' video, locally produced, that is doing its rounds on the internet. The victim, I have yet to see the video myself, is allegedly a teenage girl being assaulted by a group of girls. I was aware of happy slapping quite sometime back and I am actually surprised, quite pleasantly, that it took such a long time to reach our shores given the tech-savviness of our teenagers. The lag between the first report happy slapping incident in UK and the recent local case gives some small hope that Singapore's moral fabric is still more or less intact. Having been an owner of a camera handphone for the last 2 years, I know the potential of how such a phone can be abused. For me, the phone is simply a gadget for capturing moments which I would like to remember. These can be places I visited, loving moments with Mydaemon, great food I ate and the company I had. But I am aware the such phones have been used for far more undesirable acitivities. One is the purported voyeuristic streak that seems to plague our society today. Peeping toms seem to be on the prowl everywhere. If outraging of a person's modesty is not enough, we are now witnessing the start, hopefully not, of a happy slapping trend in Singapore. Physical abuse is now added to the psychological abuse suffered by the victims of those who abuse their handphones. While bullying is part and parcel of growing up, being bullied and having a video clip of the bullying session circulating around the internet is going a bit far. Fact #1, bullying is a part and parcel of life. I would like to state that despite my size, garguantan since my primary school days, I was never a bully. Actually, I suffered under bullies who laughed at my girth etc. Kids do have a nasty streak in them when they have the protection of a peer group, i.e. the bullying group. I seriously believe that there's a dark side in many of us, one which will surface when we are allowed to indulge in less socially acceptable behaviour, especially in the anaonymous setting of a big group. Bullies draw their 'strength' and courage to carry out their dastardly acts when they know they have kakis backing them. I will never forget who bullied me, but I have more or less made my peace with them, for they know not what they are doing. Enough of my past. Anyway, I believe technology, as with all things, is a double-edged sword. When put to its correct use, a camera handphone, like I mentioned earlier, captures moments of tender love, beauty, basically happy moments. On the flip side, a minority of users give it a bad name. Instead of capturing the beauty surrounding us, the camera now becomes an accomplice to pain, shame, and downright cowardly behaviours. It's a shame that something so wonderful can at the same time be so terrible. It's time society take a more active role in imparting the right values to the younger generation. Families is the first place to start. Parents should spend less time chasing after the next dollar. Spending quality time is never the same as spending quantity time. Have you heard of spending quality time in office? It's time for our materialistic nation to look inward and truly realise what's important. Don't blame technology, or for the fact UK, for what has happened to the poor girl. If anyone's to blame, blame the parents for not imparting the right values to the bullies.

2006-06-19T13:10:00.000+08:00

And the Winner is (drumroll)....

SAMSUNG D820!!!!

2006-06-16T23:56:00.000+08:00

Death of the Handphone Without a word, my handphone decided to call it quits on me 2 days back. Since then I have been more or less'uncontactable'. There was, of course, the initial panic attack - "Where's my phone!!! Oh, it's here. Why is it not working!!!! - cause I have become, in my inner-eye, oh-so-self-important that I worried that I might miss some important calls. As the panic attack subsided, I suffered from the 'handphoneless' withdrawal symptom. It feels weird to stuff my hand into my pants pocket only to feel the emptiness of it as my now departed Sony Ericsson K700i rests in peace somewhere in my bag. Further on, as the withdrawal symptom subsides, I am starting to wean myself off the reliance on being contactable 24/7 and vice versa. I find it hard to believe that I actually enjoy being free from holding a handphone right now. The only thing I miss is that I can't contact Mydaemon when we are on the move. That's the major drawback. Apart from that, I find life so much more quieter and peaceful. No more calls from bosses using the "private" numbers, no more spam smses and no more pesty insurance agent trying to sell me another policy. Guess the honeymoon, being a honeymoon that it is, will have to end soon. The death of my trusty, but oft-buggy K700i, has given me an excuse to scout around for a new handphone. Yup, Fieldmarshal is on the prowl for his new gadget! Sorry K700i, it's not that I didn't love you, but life has to go on. Rest in peace and go to handphone heaven. A place when you will no longer have to endure days when I had bad breath or when I accidentally dropped you onto the floor. Since my first handphone in 1995/6, Sony Ericsson, then Ericsson , and Nokia have been my staple brands for handphones. But I am pretty tired with their models. Ericsson models are so formulaic while there's a Nokia phone staring at me wherever I turn. I want to have a phone that is not so common, as in it is used only by 1 person in a 1,000. Guess that's hard to achieve unless I get myself a, oh so bloody expensive, Vertu handphone. Don't think breaking my piggybank for that type of handphone is an option for me. Anyway, who needs a sapphire scratch-proof screen or diamond studded buttons anyway? After scouring the net and a Hi! Singtel shop during lunch, I have zoomed in on 2 models. The first is the Samsung D820. The slimmest sliding phone around. Sexy and sleek. Only drawback is that the camera only comes in 1.3 megapixels. Since I intend to post more photos and videos in my blog, the1.3 mp camera is sort of a drawback. My other option is the Motorola RAZR V3X. Very sexy and slim for a clamshell model. The main pull here is the 2mp camera on the phone. But I have heard of the famed, more like infamous, Motorola interface.

Sexy. Slim. Sleek.Sharp.

Not so slim. Still sleek. 2mp camera! It's a RAZR. Decisions. Descisions. Decisions. Note: Post was published 2 days late due to the inability to insert photos of my targeted phones. I have already got myself a new phone. Guess what's the model? :)

2006-06-14T11:52:00.000+08:00

The Sound of Music Music, especially those with vocals, have been the bane of my mental focus since I started formal education. My mind just cannot concentrate on a task in any environment where loud music is being played. Thus, I have always looked on with envy on friends who study with the discman, yeah it was that long ago, 'plugged' into their heads via the earbuds headphones. This 'affliction' has followed me into my work life. I would always be one of the most irritable person around when someone blares a radio in the office, since most offices are open-concept nowadays. Since there are no walls to muffled the music, I had to suffer in silence as the majority of the people I know enjoy the music as they work. Guess minorities like me will always suffer. FM987 and Power98 are two of the stations which I dislike the most. They are definite noise polluters in any setting. Most of the songs are pop junk that are neither melodious nor nice. Thus, my nerves are always frayed and grated whenever people switch to these channels, which somehow seem to be really popular with younger folks. Perhaps I am getting old? Bless the higher-ups, now I have my own room in office. Ah... silence... peace... no more noise form the 2 highly irritating radio stations. Here comes the contradiction. Despite my obsession with silence, I have to admit that I do enjoy music. I love listening to mostly popular tunes played on Symphony 92.4, Class 95, Gold 90.5, Love 97.2 and sometimes Y.E.S933. Looking at the stations above, I have to admit that my taste in music has changed from, omigosh, 987FM, to these 'old folks' stations. Guess I am really getting old. I am in a conundrum here. I love listening to my favourite tunes but I just can't put my mind on anything when tunes are playing. So it must mean that radio and music is a no-no in my office, which happens to be my modus operandi for the last 5-6 years of office-life. But I want to listen to some music to relieve some of the stress I get everyday. Jia lat! Is my life, work-life that is, destined to be one filled with crypt like silence? To the rescue came The International Channel FM96.3! Playing an eclectic mix of music, classis, J-pop, instrumental covers of pop songs, vocals, jazz etc, the International Channel is definitely music for ears tired of the incessant rubbish that comes out from today's popular stations. Apart from music which I can relate to, the main draw, for me, is the continued streaming of lyric-less, yes no lyrics!!!, music for hours on end. To this, I have to add that I can actually work with music, but only those without vocals. Thus, the music is a perfect match for me. It allows me to relax from the daily stresses at work, which appears to increase everyday, but it also gives me the enjoyment of listening to tunes which I grew up on. Barring the French and German segements, the station is wonderful! The Japanese segment is great since I somehow enjoy the chatter of the talkhosts, despite my total lack of understanding of what's going on. The J-pop is also pretty good. Since this discovery, my office is now filled with music from every morning till evening. There were times when my colleagues must be wondering if I am a talented linguist, especially when I forget to switch channels even when the French and German programmes come on. Well, they have no need to know that I am not one. Now, that's a secret for you and me to know. ;)

2006-06-12T13:23:00.000+08:00

Sawadee Ka... Welcome to Thai... oops, I mean Singapore, the land of 4 MILLION SMILES :D You know that Singapore ain't a friendly place when you have the prime minister, in today's Straits Times article - Singapore prepares four-million smiles welcome for IMF, encouraging the citizens to tilt the corners of their lips when foreign visitors flood our shore come the September World Bank and International Monetary Fund Meetings. Cynicism aside, most of my friends, true blue Singaporeans all of them, are people whom have a ready smile for me. By extrapolation, that'd make most Singaporeans nice. Sad truth is that at the private personal level, everyone is likely to be nice to each other. But faced with a strange face, we are likely to see a "Mr Jekyll and My Hyde" pandemic amongst our citizens. Nice to friends, but horrible to the public. I am sure all of us have a brush with the nice Singaporean counter staff who brushes us aside to tend to the ang mohs. 'Whether it is the taxi driver who shares his wealth of knowledge about our global city, or the sales assistant in the department store whose smile and service gives a warm human face to the hurried shopper, or the service staff in the restaurants and hotels who go the extra mile to provide quality service for the delegates after a long day of meetings, or simply the ordinary Singaporean who pauses to give local tips and directions - every contribution counts, every contribution is important.' - extract from the article. I have seen a lot of human faces in malls and shops in my 20-odd years of shopping. Very few of the faces are 'warm'. Physically warm they are, but that's about it. I guess the best service staff that ever attended to me were the ladies at the Takashimaya lingerie section. Actually, they tended to my wife, not me. But they provided a 5-star service. It was an experience that has left a deep impression on me. Perhaps PM Lee should track down these girls to be the ambassadors of the smile campaign. The actual name of the campaign is the Four Million Smiles campaign. Actually it should be Three Million Nine Hundred Ninety Nine Thousand and Nine hundred Ninety Smiles Campaign, since I will be participating in it, cos I don't smile for everyone. Only those dear to me. For those who would like to take part, the website for it is www.smileS2006.com. You can even send your toothy grin in to be included in a huge mural to welcome the guests. Imagine 4 million, make that 3,999,999, photos of faces with teeth baring at your while stepping off your plane at Changi. What a welcome! Let me sign off with a smile for my dear readers here. :) Sawadee ka!

2006-06-11T14:10:00.000+08:00

Sorry hor... No upgrade for you yet. Sore losers. That's the first thought in my head when I read Minister of National Development Mah Bow Tan's comments on the upgrading of HDB flats in the opposition ward in today's The Sunday Times. Didn't blink an eyelid since this was not unexpected. But I thought the wind in the corridors of PAP's headquarters have changed since the drubbing it received in the May elections. Guess we were all fooled. Nothing new in the circle of politics. So, citizens living in PAP wards can now pop the champange and celebrate since they are going to "get priority" in having their blocks upgraded. Falling through the cracks, once again, are our heroic citizens in Hougang and Potong Pasir, whom I salute them for their integrity in not "selling" their votes in exchange for the carrots offered. Here are the reasons, extracted from the article Upgrading for all wards, but PAP ones first, cited by Minister Mah on why PAP wards should get priority. "About 130 blocks in Hougang and Potong Pasir are eligible for improved lifts but they are not the oldest blocks to have gone without upgrading. Mr Mah said about 800 blocks in PAP wards are as old or older and have not been upgraded at all." However you look at the statement, it looks fair and logical. If a block is older it should stand in front of the queue. Sounds wonderfully fair to me. But something's still amiss here. Hmmm what can it be? Can it be the fact that barring the 800-odd blocks in PAP wards, the rest of the upgraded blocks around Singapore, exclusively in PAP wards, are actually newer than those in Potong Pasir and Hougang. I have seen younger housing estates going for the Interim Upgrading Projects (IUP) or the Main Upgrading Projects (MUP) when they are fairly new looking. Compared these to the venerable blocks in the opposition wards, I would dare say that the rationale used in today's article is nothing but PR fodder meant to rationalise the "PAP wards first" argument. For the sake of argument, let's say that the system is fair, which the article tried to put forth in the following extract, "To select precincts for upgrading, the ministry uses three criteria: the age of the blocks, the geographical spread to ensure upgrading is not concentrated in only a few constituencies and support for the Government." As stated above, if we don't take the age of the estates as the main criteria for upgrading, looking at it from the ratio of upgraded blocks versus the total number of housing blocks in a ward would be a fairer system since slums will not be created, take a closer look at Potong Pasir and Hougang, should the former criteria be used as it will take donkey years for the 'middle-aged' estates to be ready for upgrading. Taking this so-called ratio formula, I believe there's actually no ratio to mention of in the opposition wards since there's barely any HDB upgrading programme taking place there. So the argument put forth in the article is totally irrelevant since it does not reflect the reality. Now the article gets more interesting. "While acknowledging that many thought it unfair to link votes to upgrading, Mr Mah defended the policy as 'not unreasonable'. He said the massive and costly upgrading programme was only possible because of the Government's policies, which generated economic growth and the Budget surpluses needed to fund it. And these policies could only be implemented if the Government received the people's mandate. 'We really need to be fair to the people who voted for the PAP candidate. Upgrading has been a major election platform for the PAP and those who support the PAP candidate expect their MPs to deliver on their promises." Quite a lengthy extract above. First and foremost, I want to state that the purpose of having a government is exactly to develop policies which generate economic growth and budget surpluses. The government's role is to take care of its citizens, not only those who voted for it. If this rationale holds, then shouldn't the opposition parties find out which of the estates were pro-PAP and put them last on any programme to maintain the estate? Lastly, it brings us back to the issue which was highlighted by the opposition parties during the elections to counter PAP's carrot tactic. Every single citizen in the opposition ward, rich or poor, pay their income tax. They contribute to the so-called budget surplus which is waved to us all the time. Shouldn't they have a say in the fair and equitable distribution of their monies when their housing estates are old? Tell the truth, people don't support the PAP candidates. I don't even know if mine stays in the same ward as me. What they support, or more accurately - want, is a stable government, which the PAP provides, and yet at the same time a government which allows us to express our voices and dreams. PAP must remember that it is no longer PAP when its members are sworn into the government. They are the "Singapore Government". They are there to work for us - citizens. Not only those who don their white shorts, socks, pants, skirts or what not every six years. Times have changed. We are beyond sticks and carrots.

2006-06-10T22:57:00.000+08:00

FULL TIME - England 1 - Paraguay 0 The match was played at a frenetic pace in the first half. England dominated most of the possession then. Applied lots of pressure on the Paraguayans. Had only one goal to show for the pressure though, and an 'own goal' by Gamarra at that. Well, beggers can't be choosers. Not sure what the Paraguayan coach said to his team, or for that matter, fed them. Paraguay came charging out of the fitting room. England had a few hairy moments in the second half. Crouch had a fine game although the referee seemed to have a personal grouch with Crouch's height, or his own lack of it. Anyway, England was penalised once and again for the most innocent of challenges while the Paraguayans escaped unpunished. This kind of reminded me of what happened during the 2002 World Cup when referees sided with Japan and Korea in most matches. The 1-0 scoreline is a respectable one. Although England had to do most of the defending towards the end, it was a job well done. Now to Trinidad and Tobago.

2006-06-10T21:09:00.000+08:00

LATEST UPDATE!!! OMIGOSH!!! ENGLAND SCORED WITHIN THE 4TH MINUTE. A DAVID BECKHAM FREE-KICK!!! GOAALLLLL!!!!

2006-06-10T20:52:00.000+08:00

Pre-match Report - England vs Paraguay I am looking forward to the England vs Paraguay match. Although I would never publicly declare my allegiance to the Lions, which the English is presumably called, my heart goes to them every four years when the World Cup swings by. Guess how many times my heart has been mended since. Anyway, my love for them stems from the fact that there are usually one or two Liverpool players donning the red and white stripes(?) of the English team. Steven Gerrard aka "Captain Fantastic" and Peter Crouch aka "Bean Pole" will be the two of the more notable Liverpudians on the pitch today. Jamie Carragher may just get a match. "Eight minutes to kick-off", at least that's what the time on my monitor is telling me. Gotta go and warm myself up for this match. Perhaps a cup of English Breakfast Tea to usher in the English team. Talk about being superstitious. Till half time then. Adious!

2006-06-10T02:01:00.000+08:00

Final Score Germany 4 - Costa Rica 2

Klose scored another goal on the 61st min before Wanchope closed the gap to 3-2 on the 73rd. However, the scoreline was put beyond doubt when Frings fired in what looked like a potential goal of the tournament when he struck a beautiful shot from a free kick to end the match at 4-2. It's 2am now and I am totally spaced out. Gonna brush my teeth before hitting the sack. Fieldmarshal 'out'...

2006-06-10T00:58:00.000+08:00

Fieldmarshal's Half-time Report (Live from Singapore)

Germany 2 - Costa Rica 1

Lahm - 6 min... GOAL!!!

Wanchope - 12 min... GOAL!

KLOSE - 16 min... GOAL!!!!

Just a short update on the match I am watching with Mydaemon. Obvious from the number of exclamation marks that I am supporting Germany. Mydaemon naturally takes up the opposing team since she will support the 'other' team whenever I supposrt a team that she doesn't really have much love for.

Can the the TV beckoning me in the living room. Going back there for 2nd half now. Will have the full-time score here later. Yeah I am that bo-liao....

2006-06-09T13:28:00.000+08:00

D-Day for World Cup 2006!!! After a 4-year hiatus, World Cup fever is going to grip us again! I can still remember the days when Mydaemon and I jumping around in estastically when 'our' team scored, or hanging our heads despondently when 'our' teams lost. The latter was most profound when Spain and Italy was dumped out of the competition by the asian hosts - Japan and Korea. 'Cheat' was written all over those two matches. We were totally gutted! But that's then. All the action will kick-off tonight with Germany's match against the Costa Rican minnows. We can only hope for an upset, and a major one at that for the central americans to put one over the Germans. Used to be a fan of Germany, when it played under the guise of West Germany. United Germany ain't that great to watch somehow. As for the team, actually teams, I am cheering for this year, it's the usual suspects... England (which I think has no hope), Spain (always the unachiever), Italy (look at all the good looking men with oily scalps out there), and maybe Argentina (heard that they have a strong team). Deep down inside me, I am always a fan of England. Guess growing up with a staple diet of the English Premier League has somewhat determined the choice of team to get my shouts and tears. Wish I didn't have to go through the heartache again and again. I can't wait for all the action to unfold in the next few weeks. Heroes will be celebrated while villains will scorned. This is one single events where the most heroes and villains emerge. Look for players who decided to apply for Chinese citizenship by adopting the favourite Chinese past-time of public excretion of nasal mucus. There will be those poor souls who will miss that critical penalty, or the villanous one who scores with the 'hand of God'. Look for wrestling moves which would have made pro wrestlers with the WWE proud. Villains aside, on show will be generous souls who console the losing team. Sportmanship showing how human should ideally treat one another, albeit in a sporting arena. Hilarious moments, which always happen, when someone does something really weird. The smiles and the laughs by player as they clap each other on the back at the end of the match for a job well done. Whew... that's long. Anyway, the next few weeks are going to be tough. Have yet to formulate a plan to ensure maximum rest while watching the maximum games. It's times like these when I wished I am back at school...

2006-06-07T13:00:00.000+08:00

X-Men vs Spiderman Here you have Spiderman gatecrashing X-Men's hour of glory.

2006-06-05T23:39:00.000+08:00

A sumptuous dinner Cooking is something which I look forward to everyday. But the rigours of worklife means that I can only cook 2-3 times a week. And tonight is the night for me to take up the spatula and do my stuff in the kitchen. In order to cut down on the prep time, Mydaemon and I washed and cut all the ingredients yesterday. The chye sim were de-wormed, the kailan washed, the carrot peeled and diced, ditto for the garlic and celery. All I had to do was to put everything into my pot and cook. Yeah, I wished it was as simple as that. Let me introduce you to the 3 dishes I had tonight. Dish #1 Stir fried chye sim. (Top centre) One of the easiest dishes to cook. But one of the hardest to prepare, unless one is prepared to eat worms or their eggs. Here's what you need to cook it. Ingredients 1 packet of chye sim 2 cloves of garlic - diced 2/3 tablespoon of dark soy sauce (which has been proven to be good for our health) Slightly less than a tablespoon of Lee Kum Kee Oyster sauce. Cooking Instructions Heat up the wok with some olive oil in it. As the oil gets hot, put in the diced garlic and fry it till it gives off that wonderful aroma. As the garlic starts to turn golden brown at the corners, it's time to put in the stem and stalks of the chye sim. As you stir fry, you will notice that the wok will get progressively dry. This is a sign that water should now be added. Cook the stem for a while more before putting in the leaves. The stem should be around 40% cooked by the time the leaves go in. Don't ask me how a 40% cooked stem looked like. I only know when they are cooked around that percentile. Guess that's why cooking is an art.

Once the leaves are in, it's time for more water. Ignore this at your own peril, or you have a penchant for eating charred chye sim. As the water starts to steam, which is usually instantaneous, add in the dark soy sauce. The sauce not only gives the dish it's colour, but also much of it's taste. This is followed by the oyster sauce and a dash of sugar. Continue to cook the vegetables by stirring them continuously. Watch the amount of gravy you have as it is likely to dry up very fast.

Cook for another few minutes and the dish is ready.

Dish #2 Fieldmarshal's Grilled Oregano Dory. (Bottom Left) Grilling fish is one of my specialties since I cut my culinary teeth with my seminal blackened paprika dory. Nope, I did not blacken the fish on purpose, the dish was supposed to be as such. Anyway, seafood has always ranked highly in my diet. I love all fishes, crustaceans, sea cucumbers, jelly fish and whatever's edible in our oceans or lakes. Ingredients 1 Large piece of dory/cod (depending on what's good in the market) White pepper Oregano poweder Salt Olive Oil 1 Slice of lemon Cooking Instructions Before doing anything, shape a plate, or anything flat with edges, out of the trusty aluminium foil. This will hold your fish in the oven. Put a few drops of olive oil on the 'plate' to prevent the fish from sticking onto the foil when grilling the fish. Marinating is the fun part. I just love to marinate food with my bare hands. Anyway, dry the fish properly before marinating it. Having the old splattering all over the oven is not something I encourage. Nobody told it is that difficult in cleaning tough grease stains in the oven. Back to the fish, it's getting bored on the plate. Let me start off with my very own bizarre way, which will be explaind later, of marinating my fish. first coat the fish with a little olive oil. Not too much since you are not frying the fish. Just enough to cook it and give it that nice taste. Rub the oil into the fish as salt is also rubbed into it. For the uninitiated, please marinate the fish on both sides. Yes, some people can be that blur. For the record, everything said here refers to both side of the fish. After the salt, add in the oregano powder and pepper. Give the fish a good Thai massage. This will ensure that the marinate penetrates the flesh properly. Jokes aside, do rub the fish till the marinate is evenly spread. You wouldn't want a fish to tast salty at one end, and bland on the other. Let the fish stand for 5-10 mins as it absorbs the marinate itself. I speaking as if the fish is still alive. Once that is done, put the fish, which is already in the foil plate, into the oven. For those with conventional microwave ovens, set it to top and bottom grill for 15 minutes. No need to put the fish through harmful microwaves, since its already dead anyway. Forget about this totally till the alarm on the oven beeps to signal that the fish is read for its journey through our digestive system. That's the best part of it. Well, at least for me. Dish #3 Miso Soup with Xiaobaichai, Carrots, Celery etc.(Bottom Right) This is another simple dish. Easy to cook. Only the preparation time is the killer here. To cook this soup, make sure that those ingredients which are to be washed, cut, diced, are washed, cut, and diced the night before. Failure to do this is likely to result in the consumption of instant noodles since people are easily put off by the preparation time. Ingredients 1 Packet of miso soup paste (got mine from Carrefour Plaza Singapura) Few bunches of xiaobaichai 1 Medium carrot cut into cubes 1 Stick of celery 3 Cloves of Garlic 2 Pieces of pork ribs Some dried shrimps Cooking Instructions Bring to boil water in your soup pot. The bubbling water is a signal for you to put in the dried shrimps and garlic (whole, no need to diced). Let the water cook for some time as it take a while for the shrimps and garlic to surrender their taste to the soup. 10 minutes later, put in the pork ribs. Btw, these have been marinated with sesame seed oil, wine and pepper. More waiting is in store as we wait for the pork to be around 60% cooked. Once the pork gains that cooked-looking colour, put in the celery and carrots. You may want to put these in earlier, since they take ages to get soft, if you prefer. Let the soup simmer for a while before putting in the miso paste. Stir the soup till the paste totally dissolves, which is usually pretty fast. Let the soup cook till the ingredients have taken in the miso flavour. When the soup is almost, note almost, ready, put in the xiaobaichai, lock, stock and barrel into the soup. As this vegetable cooks really fast, make sure you don't overcook it. The soup is ready when the vegetable is cooked. And there you have it. A simple 3-course dinner. Simple enough for all families in Singapore. Actually, I would strongly encourage all families, be it big or small, to have home-cooked dinner together as often as possible. Such are the occasions which brings the family together. What's a better way to grow familial love than over plates of wonderful home-cooked food?

2006-06-05T13:20:00.000+08:00

Who's exactly the real 'offender' here? It has been sometime since I last read stories along the lines of students filming their cher putting them down in class. So I naturally read with interest when The Sunday Times carried the story - Teacher warned for having 'sexy legs' banter with JC girl. Afterall some of my best buddies are in the teaching profession. First, I have to categorically say that whatever the teacher, in Tampines JC, did was wrong. Even if the student has the longest legs in Singapore, he should still have kept his comments to himself. Afterall, he's her teacher, and one should never compromise oneself, especially when one is put in a position of power and trust. He should just keep his thoughts to himself. Frankly, I am not surprised that they are other teachers out there who are 'admiring' their students of opposite sex. That's hormones working overtime for you. My advice to this particular teacher is to approach the girl after she has completed her JC course. That would have removed any charges of any perceived favourtism or unethical behaviour. I don't see any wrong in that as long as the teacher concerned does not 'groom' the person he's interested in while she's still schooling. Anyway, such incidents are commonplace in university. I have known of students getting married to their lecturers. So, what's the difference? Bot are minor since most girls only turn 21 at year 3. The lecturers must have started wooing them much earlier. Get the point? Looking at this incident from a different perspective, I realised that the fella, who blew this into the open, ain't such an angel himself. This 2nd year science student apparently stumbled upon the girl's intranet chat, when the latter forgot to log out from. Instead of doing the right thing, which is to log off for the girl, he went on to read her messages. That's invasion of privacy! What was he hoping to glean from reading her messages? Was he trying to fish for info on the girl himself? This very act itself is breaking the Computer Misuse Act as the person has unauthorised access to another person's online account. This kid should be punished. As if reading another person's private messages ain't enough. He proceeded to forward them to his classmates. This guy is nothing but a person who delights in gossip, and enjoys getting into trouble. I seriously believe that exposing the teacher wasn't on his mind, this kid ain't that noble. A responsible person would have either raised this to another teacher or the principal. Only a person of low IQ or of a mean spirit would circulate the messages the way it did. The only good thing that came out of this was the fact that the teacher has been warned and counselled. All thanks to this chap, the entire episode has affected the girl's social and academic life. So tell me, who's the real offender here?

2006-06-04T22:58:00.000+08:00

Singaporeans and the Environment Since my undergraduate days, when I was still filled with ideals and hope, I have already consigned myself to the fact that Singapore, its people and government, have not much love for the environment. Yes, we do have campaigns about keeping Singapore clean and green, and tree planting sessions, which essentially are photo opportunities for politicians. To me these are all lip-service. As our urban sprawl grows and green areas shrink, I was appalled to Sunday Times' Ignatius Low's piece "Want Orchard Road buzz? Cut down the trees". Ignatius, who apparently put some thought, which ain't very much, into this after listening to his friend's comments on Orchard Road not being as iconic as other shopping districts in other parts of the world. Going on to show that he konws the reasons on why we have trees there, citing the heat, tradition, Orchard Road being an orchard literally etc., he rationalises that these are now irrelevant and the trees just gotta go. Reading his piece, I can't help but think of the pragmatism drilled into our brains during our years in the formal educational system. Sadly, Ignatius is just another 'robot' produce by the system. A robot with no love for heritage, culture and history. Everything can, and should, be done for the economic well-being of Singapore. Personally, I think the trees add something to the road where we rush to each June and July. This small sliver of greenery disrupts the boring skyline of concrete and glass structure which are 'iconic' and repetitious in all major shopping districts around the world. Orchard Road is unique precisely because of the trees which line both sides of the road. Just imagine. No trees. What can one see? Nothing. The glare from the sun would pierce the eyeballs of any idiot, including Ignatius and his no-brainer friend, who wants to look into the not so iconic structures lining the road. If you want an iconic structure, go to our famous Esplanade aka Durian, or the lion headed fish called the Merlion at Merlion Park. One can always turn to the Singapore Arts Museum or St Andrew's Cathedral for some colonial structures. Having said all that, I have a question for Ignatius. Why does Singapore need to mimick others to have the so-called buzz? Shouldn't we create our own source of buzz and let the others mimick us? We should lead from the front and not play catch up all the time. It's people like Ignatius and his friend which prevents Singapore from having its own culture and heritage. All they want is a spanking and gleaming city, just like any other around the world, where we need to go to the park to see the trees.

2006-06-04T22:49:00.000+08:00

Here's my Seagate 200Gb External Hard Drive

The box...

The 'real' thing...

2006-06-03T11:33:00.000+08:00

The Fieldmarshal Takes on the 2006 PC Show @ Suntec Gleaming gadgets, mob, loud music, flyers, booth babes, great bargains... all ingredients which make shows like the PC Show a hit with Singaporeans. Perhaps it is the timing, coinciding with the GSS, or my naivete, I did not expect the crowd at the show yesterday. I sensed that something wasn't right when what seemed like the entire Singapore thronged the CityLink Mall enroute to Suntec City. Then again, I always enjoy a good crowd. It gives life to the environment. BUT crowds are bad when one is shopping, something which happens to be on my agenda yesterday evening. Anyway, crowds aside, one cannot shop with an empty stomach. So, a pitstop to the chow place before hitting the tracks at the PC Show. Mydaemon and I decided to top up our fuel tanks at the Crystal Jade La Mian place at Suntec. Having had the sour and spicy noodles on my last visit, I decided to go for my all time favourite, the za jiang mian. Basically, noodles with lots of minced pork and beancurd. It never fails to disappoint. Mydaemon had beef noodle, something which she absolutely digs.

My yummy za jiang mian....

I was raring to go once my belly was sufficiently full. The crowd swelled as we approached the escalators leading up to the hallowed, gadget packed, halls. By the time we reached the entrace of the exhibition hall, the place was packed.

Future 'hubbers'. Starhub must be laughing all the way to the bank.

Being the consumate shopper that I am, I dived into the show without a clear idea what I had in mind. Somewhere in the grey matter was the idea that I should get a 1Gb SD card for my palm, or an external hard-drive to serve as data back-up for the pc. I was starting to get a high from looking at all the stuff supposedly on sale. Everything was on sale!!! Snap out of it!!! Thankfully, I did.

Having regained my footing, I directed my focus on seeking out the Seagate or Maxtor booths, since both are the industry standard for hard-disk drive. Alas! Global economics do indeed percolate down to us humble consumers. With the recent merger and aquisition of Maxtor by Seagate, Maxtor is no more. Guess we will have to make do with the market leader. Not a bad proposition at all.

Having finally sighted the Seagate booth, we headed to it, like a shark which had a sniff of fresh blood in the water. Or should I say we were like sheeps going to the corporate slaughter house of profits. Whatever perspective that was taken, we made our way there. At the booth, we inquire about the products that Seagate carried. After some discussion, we finally decided on getting the 200Gb Seagate External Hard Drive, which happens to be sitting pretty beside my monitor as I type now.

This baby costs me $249. To me, every cent is worth it as I have experience the pain of losing all my data when my hard-drive crashed in my old PC. Apart from backing up all my data, the new drive will mark a new era in computing for Fieldmarshal's household. An era marked by digitalisation of every piece of CD ever own by Mydaemon and I, as well as the archival of photos that were ever taken.

2006-06-01T22:33:00.000+08:00

Habit 1 - Be Proactive Stimulus leads to response. A trait of animals. Stimulus, deciding how one feels and finally arriving at a conscious response. A trait of an independent person. The above were gleaned from Steven Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. And I have to admit that those 2 simple lines have changed me more than all the books I have ever read in my entire life. I am finally in control.

2006-05-30T22:18:00.000+08:00

Fieldmarshal takes on the Great Singapore Sale Lelong! Lelong! The Great Singapore Sale is on!!! Everything going cheep cheep ah! Well, at least that's what retailers are saying. Can't remember when GSS started. But I can remember the times when Sweetlullaby, Perfect 10 (Sweetlullaby should know who I am talking about) and I, yes your very own Fieldmarshal, would hit the hallowed streets of Orchard to hunt for bargains. Actually, it's the 2 ladies who were on the prowl. I was more like an apprentice learning the art of shopping from the masters. Guess the shopaholic curse still course through my blood today. I can't help but feel excited when I see advertisements quoting mind boggling discounts of 50% or more, which most of the time are untrue, since the usual price has been marked up, those dirty merchants. Anway, I still like to shop during this period since I can get some necessities are rather low prices. So to Orchard Road I went this evening. The trip was actually meant for Mydaemon since she's looking for a nice pair of working shoes. But the shopaholic in me stole the show today. Instead of getting her shoes, I ended up with a book - It's Not How Good You Are, It's How Good You Want To Be, errr...., briefs, and groceries. Not much of a shopping trip eh. But I think this is the beginning of a rather nice month. G2000 is most likely to earn some cash off me since I am hunting for some groovier officewear. Yah, Fieldmarshal is going chic. Here's a photo of my raid at Takashimaya and Kinokuniya. And no, the briefs ain't as sexy as the box. By the way, if you are looking for a good management book with some and sharp insights. I highly recommend the book by Paul Arden. Good buy!!!

2006-05-29T13:37:00.000+08:00

Bukit Merah... the town lost in time Yesterday, Mydaemon and I made a trip to Bukit Merah central as we wanted to made a trip to the Bukit Merah Community Library as well as shop at the NTUC there. It must have been 10 or more years since I last set foot in Bukit Merah, the last time being a transit bus trip there to the nearby CMPB. For the clueless, CMPB stands for Central Manpower Base of the SAF's. Anyway, being the first trip there for both of us, we were expecting a nice interesting town centre since we are likely to shop there once awhile to stock up on groceries etc. That's all wishful thinking now I guess. Setting foot in the Bukit Merah bus interchange, the first thing I noticed was the number of buses. There are so few that I can literally count with my fingers, on one hand you. Thankfully, we are not dependent on the bus system here. As we moved from the bus interchange to the overhead bridge connecting to the central proper, the only word I can use to describe the place is decrepit. The bridge is dirty, sorely in need of a fresh coat of paint and exuded a gloomy feel for both Mydaemon and I. We actually concluded that if a robbery is going to take place, this is the perfect place, going by the feel it gives to pedestrains. Really a weird place. Past that, we were hoping, idealists that we are, for some interesting shops in the central. Down the steps of the bridge we went. Setting our eyes on Bukit Merah central, I only have one word, technically two, for it... Ghost-town. The place feels drained and flat. Lacking a buzz or life which most town centres have, Bukit Merah feels like Bilbo Baggins, "like butter too thinly spread," if you remember the line in LOTR. The only life was some loud music blaring from speakers as some aunties lince danced while old ah peks gawked. Even that odd-mix failed to liven up the place. Having eaten in many hawker centres in my life, I have to say that Bukit Merah's hawker centre is one of the most lifeless place one can find on a Sunday evening. The place was, like the rest of Bukit Merah central, dark, tired, lifeless... Eeek.... As we let all this sink in, we plodded along in the hope of finding some salvation at the library. That can't be that bad. I am sure NLB would conform to the design common to all the other libraries. Afterall, we read that Bukit Merah's library was renovated and reopened only last year. There's yet hope. What a relief it was when we set our eyes on the library. Like the rest of the town, the library's entrace was funny in some sense. But the inside was 'normal'. Sanity prevailed in the ivory tower. I was just glad to once again enter a realm where things felt real and normal. The library is a two-storied building. The good stuff is all on the second floor. I got myself 3 books. Two on cooking. One asian and the other mediterannean. The third is a guide on Italy. Got it was I am doing research on the country to visit for my honeymoon. Italy sure looks like a wonderful place for a holiday. Not to mention that fact that I would like to visit the Vatican city while there. Books aside, we had one last adventure before heading home. The adventure is none other than having dinner at the KFC there. To most, eating in a KFC is just a normal meal. But have you eaten at a KFC where there's a sign that says "restaurant" above the entrace? Yeah, don't think I have seen one like that since KFC served with plates, knives and forks. The trip to Bukit Merah was really a blast from the past. Ain't exactly looking forward to another trip there since there's nothing much to see anyway. By the way, the NTUC there is 'normal' though.

2006-05-26T13:57:00.000+08:00

Hmmm... I am the 'real' Mr Brown... Your true color is Brown! Brown You're brown, a credible, stable color that's reminiscent of fine wood, rich leather, and wistful melancholy. Most likely, you're a logical, practical person ruled more by your head than your heart. With your inquisitive mind and insatiable curiosity, you're probably a great problem solver. And you always gather all of the facts before coming to a timely, informed decision. Easily intrigued, you're constantly finding new ways to challenge your mind, whether it's by reading the newspaper, playing a trivia game, or composing a piece of music. Brown is an impartial, neutral color, which means you tend to see the difference between fact and opinion easily and are open to many points of view. Trustworthy and steady, you really are a brown at heart. Fieldmarshal's comments: Hmmmm.... I feel like a dried piece of leather wrinkle like a piece of bark. That 'feels' brown. I have to admit that the description is pretty accurate. I have an inquisitive mind, one that has been invariably labelled as being a kaypoh. Impartiality is something which I value a lot. But the state of the world it is in today has let me down on this count way too many times. Impartiality is only paid lip service, be it politicians etc. What's Your True Color? Brought to you by Tickle

2006-05-25T13:35:00.000+08:00

Does Singapore really value its talents? Vaguely remember that I read about this young violin prodigy who applied for deferment from serving national service sometime back. Didn't really put much thought into it since it is really an ikan bilis piece of news to me. I am more interested in reading about the current cross straits situation or the new boo-boos by George Bush. Thought this episode was over the last time. Got curious this time when ST published an update on this today - Mindef turns down violin prodigy's appeal to defer NS. First, I found out that this kid's name is Ike See. Ike? What kind of name is that? Guess all promising musicians or artistes gotta get themselves a designer name. Nothing beats the symbol of a name used by a person known as Prince previously. Let's not let the bloke's name detract me from today's issue, which is my take on this brouhaha. Actually, I beleive that MINDEF has wizened up after the previous debacle where a supposedly famous musician left Singapore so as to 'escape' NS to learn music in London, or someplace in UK? Anyway, the similarities between the 2 cases are all too familiar. Talented kids with the world under their feet only to have the mammoth MINDEF bureaucracy cast a shadow over their bright futures. Personally, I don't see why Ike can't defer his NS till he has graduated from his music course in US. Based on what I read, the Curtis Institute of Music is a great place to be for budding musicians. I am sure MINDEF can wait 2-3 years for this young bloke to learn his craft before trading his in he beloved violin for a M16 rifle 'wife'. As he's 17 years old now, he'd be no older than 21 when he comes back. Even if he decides to stay longer, he should be back around 22-23 years old, still young enough to go through the rigours of NS, which is really nothing nowadays. Well, nothing compared to NS of my time circa early 1990s MINDEF quoted equity as being the main reason for rejecting Ike's appeal. For me, equitability is still maintained as long as Ike comes home to serve his duties. I can understand MINDEF's argument since boys going to local universities can't defer NS till after they graduate. I happen to be one of them. But the difference here is that NUS and NTU are willing to wait for us, Curtis can only wait a year. There's no guarantee that Ike can make it back into Curtis after 2 years of NS, never knowing what's going to happen to his precious fingers during the standard obstacle course etc. If Ike's fail to get into Curtis after NS, Singapore is going to lose a potentially great musician. Is the loss of talent not worth a few years wait? Anyway, the word equity is not something I would use in the military setting. I remember certain platoons having extra long canteen breaks or nights off while the rest of the camp continues with normal 'time-wasting' training. That's 'equity' at its best. Anyway, here's wishing Ike all the best. Hope he doesn't follow the example of the other musician.

2006-05-23T13:32:00.000+08:00

Going Bananas over Da Vinci Code No, I am not the one going bananas over it. But many Singaporeans, especially from the Christian community, are. First, I would like to state upfront that I am a Catholic. That naturally puts me in the same broadstroke as one of those fanatics, be it Catholics or protestants, calling for a boycott and whatever actions to discourage the general public from watching a movie packed with lies. Perhaps being one of those so-called 'Christmas Catholics', Catholics who only attends Mass on Christmas, I don't feel strongly about this issue at all. I recall an article by ST's Andy Ho, who happens to be a christian, who talked about this brouhaha in the christian community. I agreed with him then, and I still do. Fact is, Christians, which I mean protestants, tend to look at issues, and I mean ALL issues, from a very religious centric perspective. This is not wrong per se since the faith requires them to place God above all else. I need to draw the line between 'them' and the Roman Catholic church since our doctrines are inherently different and that they are not keen on the ecumenical movement in Singapore (read Andy Ho's article if you can find it). You seldom see a Catholic going around telling people to believe in Christ, because if you don't, you burn in hell. I, for one, have been abused by such overzealous christians in their evangelical outreach. I can't presume what God would think about Dan Brown and his Da Vinci Code novel, or the film adaptation of his story. For me, the story is simply a story. That's why it is categorised in the fiction section of libraries and bookstores, not on the non-fiction shelves since it cannot stand on any academic finding. Simply put, Dan Brown just has a very creative way in pieceing together some facts with a whole load of imagination into a coherent story. Fact is, there are hundred of books with hypothesis on Jesus being an alien etc. Puzzling why I don't see any opposition to those. At least Jesus is depicted as a man in Dan Brown's story. Alien? Can't find any words to descrieb what I think about that. So what's my take on all this? Well, I am going to watch the movie. I would like to see how the church etc is portrayed. I am most likely going to be well entertained if the pacing is done well. Wait a minute! What about your Catholic faith?, you might ask. Well, to me, believing in something does not mean that I take offence everytime someone, or something depicts my faith wrongly. If I did that, I would have died of pent up anger. Instead of that, I believe that my role should be that of educating people to the inaccuracies in the movie, and that the movie is not a factual representation of my faith. Simple as that. Lastly, I find a somewhat double-standard attitude of christians when approaching this issue. Labelling the movie as lies and loads of falsehood, which essentially is quite true. What I cannot understand is the fact that these very christians go around telling people of other faiths that these are lies and falsehood. Guess things have a very weird way of coming a full circle, a vicious one that is in this case. And please be civil if you want to leave any comments here on this subject. I am not here to say who's write or wrong. I am here just to share my views. Being the highly evolved and intelligent species that we are, I am sure all of us can agree to disagree right?

2006-05-22T13:13:00.000+08:00

Movies Weekend King Kong

Have not been able to catch any of the latest Hollywood flicks on the big screen. So, had to count on dvds and Star Movies for my diet of movies. Having been hugely impressed by Peter Jackson's LOTR trilogy, I had pretty high expectations of King Kong. Being the ever avid dvd collector, I got myself a 2-disc code 1 dvd version of the movie. Both Mydaemon and I were expecting a roaring good time when I popped in the disc. Perhaps it's me. But as the movie progressed, I felt that it was one of the most uninspired movies I have ever watched. The CGI depiction of Kong and his T-Rex nemesis were great. Colours were vibrant. Sound effects were so-so. But the word 'overkill' was written all over the movie. I can still remember vividly the scenes where Adrien Brody was attacked by giant insects, again and again and again, and then there was the scene where Naomi Watts, bless her good looks, juggled and danced so that Kong would growl in approval. Think there were more, but my mind was too numb to remember all of them. I give this movie a rating a rating of only 6/10. Nothing fantastic. Good CGI, but not groundbreaking when compared to Spielberg's Jurassic Park in 1991(?). Oh yeah, another overkill scene was the stampede of the dinos. It felt like it lasted forever. Seabiscuit

Got the chance to catch this movie on Saturday. Although I am not a fan of Toby Maguire, I am a fan of stories depicting the triumph of the underdogs. The storyline for this movie is simple. What do you get when you put together a down and out racehorse, a passionate trainer and a kid who's blind in one eye? One hell of a good movie which showcases the strength of spirit, in both man and animal. This story is all about putting 'broken' people together and having each of them helping each other in fixing themselves. Always had a soft spot for such movies, especially when they are based on true life accounts. Despite the lack of mind-boggling CGI or action scenes, the storyline got my vote. Seabiscuit gets a rating of 8/10. I thoroughly enjoyed it. By the way, the photo above is a real photo of Seabiscuit and Red Pollack (acted by Toby in the movie). Hostage It has been a long time since I watched an action-flick. The last one should be Chronicles of Riddick, which I caught on HBO while at my parents place. Bruce Willis is my all time favourite botak action hero. Instead of hearing lines like "I see dead people.", the movie is a nicely paced action thriller taking place in a sleepy small town.

Willis is a police negotiator who has chosen to take up the post of a small-town sheriff after failing to save the hostages in a case he was negotiating. Hasn't he learnt that life's troubles don't disappear when one chooses the escape route? Trouble will follow you everywhere till you have solved the problem. Anyway, Bruce's negotiating skills were once again put to the test when 3 rednecks held a family hostage after a botched robbery.

The twist in the story came when Willis' family was also taken hostage by a highly clandestine group, who seems to work for the rich and powerful. These fellas wanted a dvd from the home of the family, which happens to be held hostage. So, Bruce had to save his family while also ensuring that the lives of his hostages are not compromised. The story is more complicated than this, but you gotta watch it yourself as I don'tintend to go into specifics.

The simple storyline was both engaging and well paced. Both Mydaemon and I had our eyes glued, mine more so, to the tv as the story unfolded. Bruce was once again the hero that saved the day. For it well paced plot, I give it a rating of 7/10. An entertaining movie.

2006-05-19T13:41:00.000+08:00

Much Ado Nothing. Singaporeans of the inane'st' sort Singaporeans are known by various names. Kiasu(ians) - a term coined by moi - being the term that we are more or less known for around the world. After reading the Forum section in today's Straits Times, I think another new term should be coined to define another subsection of the Kiasuians. For want of a better term, I can only drum up the term By-lawians. Read Ms Theresa Yen York Lan letter to the ST forum to understand the mindset of this select group of special Singaporeans. May 19, 2006Hello, why put on the hazard lights? I AM confused by the widespread use of hazard lights by drivers to indicate that they are stopping, slowing down or when they do parallel parking. Taxis drivers seem particularly fond of doing this. Isn't it the left or right signal that's used for parallel parking, and brake lights for slowing down or stopping? I thought that hazard lights are used only in an emergency, such as car breakdown, poor visibility or when the driver is unable to proceed. Perhaps the Highway Code has changed since I took my test in the 1980s and Singapore now doesn't follow the international standard. Can the Traffic Police clarify? Fieldmarshal's reply to Ms Yen My dear Ms Yen, or if you prefer, Theresa. While rules and examples given in the highway code book, the bible for all learners, are good and proper, we should understand that the book is just an aid to help to new motorists understand the rules of the roads. Rules, something which Kiasuians love a lot, are good. But motorists should be flexible, which may not be a strength of Ms Yen's, when they are on the road. If Ms Yen is so concerned with the abuse of hazard lights, why doesn't she write in to complain about the blatant abuse of the speed limits by almost all the motorists on our roads, especially our expressways? I have yet to see the abuse of the hazard lights leading to chain accidents on the road. I can't say the same for the excessive speeds which some of my fellow Singaporeans decide to drive their cars, driving as if the devil is chasing them. To me, the scenarios of abuse which Theresa, if I may call her that, painted, are actually norms, which may or may not be unique, to Singapore. On the road, if I see a car signalling either right or left, my first reaction is to think that the car is making a turn somewhere ahead. The next thought would then be that it is slowing down. However, if I see the hazard lights lighting up, I would know immediately that the car is going to slow down pretty fast and that it's best for me to slow down in order not to buang the car in front. Apart from the above, the driver in me also tells me to be prepared to fight for a parking lot. Following the rules right down to the 'T', I am sure Theresa's a dream trainee driver for all driving instructors. Her fixation with hazard lights could perhaps be explained by some traumatic experience while she was learning to drive in the 1980s. For all I know, Theresa's trainer may have a fixation with not using the hazard light unless the car is about to explode. As such, poor Theresa has yet to hit the hazard light button on her car since she passed her test then. The fact that drivers, particularly taxi-drivers, love them or hate them, used the small red button with a triangular symbol on it so frequently must be driving Theresa nuts while she's on the road. For her sake, I hope she's watching the road more often then trying to spot drivers abusing the little red button. Her fixation will one day led to a situation when she actually needs to press the little red butoon. Guess the By-lawian thing didn't really catch on here. But I guess you get the drift with what I am writing about. Darn, I am a By-lawian myself. Phuaaa...

2006-05-17T23:02:00.000+08:00

Post Elections Blues True to form, the garmen is back to its very best following its less than convincing win during the May 6 elections. Today the dreaded news is back. The tripartite - Garmen, employers and unions, what unions, are in agreement that our CPF system ain't nimble enough to cut business costs during times of economic downturn. In simple english, the evil capitalist companies think that our wages, a la the CPF portion, are too high. So to be nimble and survive the cut-throat global economic system, employers are encouraged to reduce workers' CPF while increasing that the variable portion of our pays. This simply means that our it is easier to cut our pay. As if one bad news is not enough. Read one or two days back that the transport council, or something like that, is saying that transport fares will not rise above a certain percentage, along the lines of 1.5(?), this year. I remember a time when bus fares for feeder services were pegged at 15 cents for donkey years before they were increased. Now the only time when we don't hear of an increase is the 6 or so months before the elections. I can't wait to hear the good news for our income tax next year. Care to hazard which way it is heading?

2006-05-14T11:20:00.000+08:00

Liverpool - The 'Comeback' Kings! Liverpool has been conferred the title of Comeback Kings since the fateful night in Istanbul last year. While such classic comebacks are great in showcasing the game of football to non-fans, it can be a real roller-coaster ride for Liverpool fans like myself. Yesterday was another comeback classic by Rafael Beniztez and his Men in Red. Liverpool started the 125th FA Cup Final looking listless and lost. Guess fatigue levels were high after playing around 60 matches in a season while most teams played only 40 plus games. However, that's still no excuse for a club of Liverpool's stature. From the way they played, I was pretty sure a trashing, a la AC Milan style in the Champions League final, was in order. Proving me right was the quick succession of 2 goals by West Ham. Two-nil down at the 28th minute was like sounding the death knell to the match. Even the commentators said the cup is more of less in West Ham's hands now. Then came Cisse, the lazy Frenchman, with a fantastic volley near the end of the 1st half. Two-One! Game on!!! You know it is Liverpool's night when Gerrard struck a beauty of a volley in the 54th minute to tie the game at 2-2. At this time, my morale was at an all time high since it plummeted at the 2-0 scoreline. Liverpool looked the better side after tying the score. However, Lady Luck decided to smile on West Ham when Konchesky floated in a cross which just happened to fly past Reina's outstretched hands. Darn! 3-2!!! Liverpool is behind again. As the seconds ticked by, it looked like a lost cause as West Ham held on to the ball and started running the clock down. My heart sank as we approached the 90th minute with the score at 3-2. In my mind, I was thinking that another comeback is just too much to ask of the men in red. They looked as if they are ready to drop dead from exhaustion any second. As I was about to give up all hope, Captain Fantastic aka Steven Gerrard, fired a blinder from 30m out. The ball streaked as if chased by the devil himself. My heart was in my throat as the ball smashed into the right corner of West Ham's goal! Both Mydaemon and I was shouting GOAALLLLLL!!!!! I being the loudest of the two lolz. People with weak heart should not attempt to watch any final football matches involving Liverpool. The chances of getting a heart attack is ridiculously high. As the game went into extra time, Liverpool players started dropping like flies as tired legs started to cramp. My heart was in my throat again. Having lost Xabi Alonso and Harry Kewell to injuries, the decimated reds looked a spent force as it tried to keep parity and proceed with the penalty kicks. Penalty kicks looked imminent up till West Ham decided that the 26 year wait for the FA Cup was too long and took a beautiful shot on goal at the very last minute of extra time. That beautiful shot produced one of the most magnificent saves by Pepe, wonder what is means, Reina, who have made 2 blunders leading to the first 2 goals by the Hammers. With that save, I am sure it's Liverpool's night again. Up came the penalty kicks. Don't think I need to elaborate as Reina saved 3 out of 4 penalties by the Hammers. Anton Ferdinand being the main culprit for the Hammers. There you have it, the comeback kings of Europe are not the comeback kings of knockout competition.

2006-05-12T22:39:00.000+08:00

National Library I have spied the spanking new National Library from the corner of my eyes each time I passed by this glass and steel structure. Compared to the old red brick dame along Stamford Road, this new National Library is the essense of the soulness modernity which surrounds us today. Don't get me wrong, I think the architecture is beautiful. But it looks just like another building down the road in Shenton Way or in a city like Tokyo, London etc. There's simply no character. Anyway, I still took a few shots of the building since I liked its simple lines. Here they are.

Another shot taken just before Mydaemon and I stepped into the hallowed halls of knowledge and wisdom.

Loved the vivid colours of this sculpture just outside the main entrance of the library.

Anyway, let me tell you that the new National Library is damn huge! Tell the truth, Mydaemon and I spent around 3-4 hours just looking for books in the loan section at basement one. There's at least another 5-6 levels of stuff waiting to be explored at the higher levels. Guess that's another adventure for another time.

2006-05-07T01:30:00.000+08:00

My First Vote Imagine, 30-plus years and queueing up to cast my first vote. Yes, that's the political reality in Singapore. For good or for ill, I am given the power to vote for a candidate of my choice for my constituency for the very first time in my adulthood. Alas, my choice is clear since the calibre of the members of the party whom I voted for clearly outshone their competitors. Although I can't deny that I harboured the thought of voting for the 'other side'. By now, I am sure Singaporean readers would have guessed which party I voted for. Anyway, I have to describe how I felt as a first time voter. Being born into a democracy, and studying it during my first year in university, I always wanted to exercise my right to vote the person who will represent me in parliament. Blame it on the political realities in Singapore, or the lack of talent to challenge the incumbent, but the constituency I stayed in were always one of those under the 'walkover' category. Thus, I was pleasantly surprised when my ward was one of those challenged by the opposition. My dream of casting a vote has finally come through. As I stepped into the polling station this afternoon, I got this sense of destiny. The feeling was that my single vote has the power to shape the bigger picture. Singapore's destiny is in my hands. As I collected the voting slip, my mind made a quick mental decision, which is pretty rare, on which party I should vote for. Once I was in the polling booth, the decision was made. With 2 strokes of the pen, the cheap kind used by civil service, a 'X' marked the area on the slip which I was supposed to mark. Weird as it may sound, I had second thoughts once I crossed the slip, guess that was the indecisive me at work. With a firm push, I slide my voting slip into the ballot box. That's pretty much the end of my voting experience. That voting experience was to continue from last night 10pm till this morning 2am. Both Mydaemon and I were glued to the TV as we watched the electoral results unfold. We were particularly worried for Chiam See Tong as we have a soft spot for this guy. With $80million backing for the PAP challenger in Potong Pasir, I feared that Chiam's political career will come to an untimely end. Thus, with each result, the adrenaline in my arteries increased. However, we sensed that something was amiss when PAP failed to get a thumping victory in the initial results. Being an ex-political science student, I sensed something was amiss. When Hougang's result was read, I was whooping for joy. But there was fear that this joy would be short lived as the result for Potong Pasir took ages to be announced. Moreover, Mydaemon and I made a pact to consume a lemon cheesecake, which we bought earlier from Carrefour, to celebrate Chiam's victory at Potong Pasir. The thought of consuming the cake became a distant one as the result took the longest of time to be announced. When it was finally announced, I whooped for joy. Chiam has been re-elected with a bigger margin. Good job Chiam. Guess the upgrading carrot did not work on Potong Pasir's residents this time. Here's a salute to the brave Singaporeans who stood up against rewards for their beliefs. Once this result was out. I was looking forward to hearing the result for my GRC. Afterall, I can't help but feel excited on how my single vote would affect the result in my GRC. On hindsight, I think it did. Although it was a single vote, I think it helped in the overall numbers since all votes played an important role in my ward tonight. I am sure one of my MPs was totally disappointed with the result. But I guess he should be thankful for winning the ward. Just imagine if all those who thought like me voted for the 'other side.' That would have made things interesting. In the end, I guess it is a wake-up call for the incumbent. I am now looking forward to 2012, at least that's the latest date by which the next election will be held. That should be an even more interesting elections. Till then, I hope the PAP government will continue to deliver what it promised us during the elections.

2006-04-21T23:24:00.000+08:00

My Last Post as a Bachelor This is it. Once the clock strikes midnight, I am officially struck off the list of bachelorhood. I would have graduated to "marriedhood", if there's such a term in the first place. How do I feel now. Well, I have a headache, a bad cough and my head feels like it is stuffed with cotton. What a time to catch the flu. Seriously, I am excited yet fearful. I am stepping into the unknown. All my years in formal education means nothing as I step into my next phase of life. Doubt my knowledge of erosion and weathering, which I gleaned as an undergrad, would be helpful in marital life. Months and weeks before tomorrow's big day, the 'big' day just felt like any other day. But I now understand why people tell me it's different. I feel it, although I don't know how to define or describe it. All the preparations in the world has not prepared me to be the man of the household. Guess it another learning phase in my life. A phase which I am looking forward to with Mydaemon by my side. Thanks for all the well wishes. I look forward to writing my next post as an undergrad in married life. Till then, that's all folks! Adios... sayonara... goodbye, tata, adieu, 再见...

2006-04-11T19:13:00.000+08:00

First Post from New Home!!! Today marks another milestone in the Fieldmarshal's household. Yes, we have finally freed ourselves from the slavery of ignorance, and internetless life, to one of blogging, surfing and downloads. Having been so used to broadband access at home and work, the absence of it in my new place is keenly felt indeed. There were times when we were tearing our hair out trying to find info, which we know is at our fingertips only if we have had access to the wonderful world of the worldwide web. Yup, something as simple as finding out the home delivery number for the Golden Arches turned into a major newspaper flipping exercise. It that incident, we still did not find what we want. Not anymore! Apart from this update. I have a new product to unveil in my blog tomorrow. Shall hold my horses and bear with the need to blurt it out, being the talkative person that I am. So do check in tomorrow. However, I have to caution you guys that it is nothing much at all. But it is another milestone in my materialistic life. Lolz. Like Gump said, "Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you are going to get". Time for me to make my long trip home to my parents place. Adios folks!

2006-04-04T17:09:00.000+08:00

Mr Men turns 35 Coming in all shapes, sizes and colours, Mr Men and Little Miss characters entertained a generation of kids since 1972. Just two years before I was born. Oops, there goes my secret. Anyway, read in BBC that Mr Men is celebrating its 35th birthday. Can't help but take a break from my work to write a short post on it. I am sure that Mr Men and Little Miss characters have touch the lives of my faithful readers and friends. Being the clumsy guy that I am, guess my character is Mr Bump. With bandages around his blue egg-shaped body, I can't help but feel that's how I would look like in the world of Mr Men. I shall sign off with a picture of Mr Bump here. Here's wishing another 35 years of good clean fun for our kids!

2006-03-16T17:20:00.000+08:00

Million Dollar Baby You must be wondering why I am titling this post based on an old Oscar's favourite just when the event just passed us by recently. Well, I had the good fortune of catching this movie when Star Movies decided to showcase some Oscar-winning movies in the lead up to this year's event. I never thought much of Million Dollar Baby since I am never a fan of Clint Eastwood or his zillion lines of wrinkles. Somehow I just wasn't interested in the movie. Maybe it's the title or the movie poster. But I am glad that my prejudice against it did not stop me from viewing it when it was screened on the small screen. I am not going to write a synopsis of the movie. It is a good movie. As simple as that. What touched me was the theme, or message, that the director - Eastwood, was trying to convey to the audience. I find it very hard to put it into words. Basically, it's about dreams, risk and being satisfied with one's effort. The last being the most enlightening. Before I lose everyone, what I want to say is that we always strive to be better in whatever we do. We try, try and try harder to be better. Personally, I feel that this neverending quest is tiring. I believe that striving for a goal etc is honourable. But there must come time when I can say, "that's good enough", "I am satisfied with what I have achieved." Society don't like people like me. Many think that I am shortchanging myself by not pushing all the way. That's the sad part of life in today's society. We have lost sight of life. It's the process and not that achievement. If I enjoyed the process and totally satisfied with what I have learnt or gained, then that's good enough for me. Do get your hands on a copy of this movie if you have not watched it. I am sure you will find something there which you can relate to.

2006-02-28T13:23:00.001+08:00

I miss my Blog Yes, it has been 2 weeks since I last laid eyes on my blog. Doesn't feel that long to me since I have been up to my neck with housing stuff and the wedding. Caught up with the happenings with the rest of my fellow bloggers via their blogs. Glad to see that they are all alive and kicking. My life is just a blur of making arrangements for deliveries and running all over Singapore looking for the furniture to make my house a home. Glad to say that the effort made were well rewarded. I am happy with all the stuff delivered to my place so far. The only disappointment is perhaps the microwave oven with the biggest and fattest arse I ever seen. Darn! But it still serves it purpose lah. For that I forgive it for it big ass. Apart from these mundane happenings, Mydaemon and I have been attending the Marriage Preparation Course conducted by the Catholic Church. Being the lazy, skeptical and efficient me, I was not really interested in it. But marrying in the church requires a certificate, a la COE style, for the non-Catholic partner, we have no choice but to sign up for this course. Conducted at my old school, SJI, the talks were pretty ok lah. Nothing new that I have not heard of. But there are still gems of wisdom in the sessions we have attended. Perhaps the one thing that caught my imagination thus far is that fact that, "Love is not a feeling", but "A Decision". Hmmm, being the slow ponderous thinker, this statement baffled me for a while till good old Mydaemon enlightened me. And who says that guys aren't creatures of logic. Whatever. Anyway, I think love is in itself a feeling. But the act of loving another person is a decision. Love doesn't just well up at the sight of a loved one. If that's the case why do we feel anger, hurt, jealousy, among other feelings, even when we relate to our loved ones. Yes, love is a conscious decision, a reality that has been lost through countless celluloid depictions of this venerable emotion in Hollywood. I, for one, can attest to the above. On many occasions when I don't feel all lovey dovey to Mydaemon, a contest of wills take place in my mind. On one side, my mind is telling me that I am a nasty person if I take the hurtful way of handling things. On the other side is the prompting to do it the loving way, even though ego is bruised and pride is hurt. I have to admit that on many occasions I chose the hurtful way of doing things. For that, I am very sorry. But as I grow older, the strength to do the right things is stronger. Is it because the root of our love has taken a stronger hold of my heart? Or is it because I learnt from experience? I sincerely hope it is the former.

2006-02-13T08:14:00.000+08:00

Cooking Porridge Living in this modern day and age, cooking dinner is something which a lot of couples dread upon reaching home after a hard day's work. Well that doesn't really apply to Mydaemon and I. We enjoy cooking nice dishes for dinner, as a sort of a reward, after a tiring day in office. Yes, we are actually working hard nowadays. Anyway, dinner would usually consist of a vegetable, soup, and meat dishes. Top it off with a bowl of rice and we have a nice hot meal. But I cannot deny that working life really restricts our creativity in our meals. Since we usually reach home around 7pm or later, it is often difficult to prepare the ingredients and cook them thereafter. Thus dinners could start as late as 7.45pm on some days. Something which I don't really relish since I am more often than not hungry by then. I found one way of circumventing this. The solution is simple. Just cook a huge pot of porridge. Being an advocate of healthy and easy to cook meals, let me share with you Fieldmarshal's very own chicken porridge recipe. Fieldmarshal's Favourite Porridge Ingredients 1 Chicken thigh (remove skin if one is in 'healthy' mood) 4 Cloves of garlic Half carrot (big) 1 Stick of celery 4 Slices of ginger (skinned) 6 Mushrooms (dried or fresh) Hua Diao wine Sesame oil Dark soy sauce Fish sauce White pepper 1 Cup of fragrant white rice 2 Cabbage leaves or 1 '高山娃娃' 3 Tablespoons of dried shrimps Preparation Season the chicken with 2 tablespoons of wine, 1 tablespoon of dark soy sauce, put in the ginger slices, 2 to 3 dashes of sesame oil and pepper. Stir the ingredients with hand till they are evenly mixed. Leave seasoned chicken in the fridge, for 2 hours or more, to let it absorb all the seasoning. Cut the carrots into cubes. Size is up to you. Slice the celery into small pieces. Just cut across the celery and you have a beautiful 'U' shape. Soak the mushrooms (if they are dried ones) and slice them into thin strips when they are soft. Cut the cabbage into bite-sized pieces. Cooking Instructions Bring water to boil. Put in the chicken and garlic. Once the water boils again, put in the rice. Washed mind you. You do not want to eat rice weevils and what not. As there's already seasoning in the chicken, make sure that you don't put in too much of the other seasoning. The amount of seasoning will depend on the amount of water and rice. Pour in the rice (washed) and stir. Make sure that you stir regularly as the rice will get burnt if you let it settle on the bottom of the pot for too long. Once the water boils again, put in the carrots as they take the longest to cook. Also add in the mushroom at this point of time. Keep stirring. Now you will put about one tablespoon of fish sauce, 1 tablespoon hua diao wine, 1 tablespoon of sesame oil and few dashes of pepper. Taste to add more if necessary. Bring the water to boil again. Add the celery into the now boiling porridge. Continue stirring. The process above takes around 20-30 minutes. The porridge gets thicker as the water evaporates. As I prefer to eat porridge which is gluey and dried, my advice is to keep stirring till you achieve such a nice texture. Add more water if you prefer the watery sort. The cabbage is added around 10 minutes before the porridge is ready. By this time, the rice is all cooked and the porridge is quite 'thick'. Don't forget to keep stirring it! The porridge is ready to be served once the cabbage is cooked. Enjoy!

2006-02-08T13:02:00.000+08:00

ToTo Hong Bao Draw With 10 million bucks at stake for this Friday's ToTo Hongbao draw, everyone just wants a piece of the action. Thought that by leaving office slightly earlier for lunch would allow me a quick sortie into the Singapore Pools outlet near my office. Alas, how naive I was. There was already a long queue snaking from the outlet way before I can actually see the shopfront. With that, my dream of being an instant millionaire went up in a puff of smoke. Being a non-gambler, one that bets less than 5 times a year, I have to admit that I was all caught up by the allure of this upcoming Hong Bao draw. Yeah, I am a greedy bugger. But hey, find me someone who's not greedy. The rich wants to get richer while normal blokes like me just can't get enough moolah for daily expenses. Actually, I have enough lah. Just that have some spare cash lying about ain't that bad an idea. Well not all hope is lost. There's this Pools outlet near my place...

2006-02-07T22:18:00.000+08:00

Shopping for Home Stuff You know what? Shopping for home stuff is one of the exhilarating activity one can engage in. It is the one point in our lives when we can spend as if there's no budget. It's like a neverending dream for me. Let me repeat it again. It's THE experience of the lifetime. While I ain't no millionaire, it is darn satisfying to ~~splurge~~ spend hard earned budgeted money on lots of fun stuff. Boy, I feel like Charlie in the Chocolate Factory! Try it and you know what I mean. It's like buying an Ipod again and again and again. My most satisfying purchase to date is the 40-inch Sony Bravia V-series LCD TV. While it did put a dent in my wallet, I consider every cent well-spent. Being a movie xiao, a large screen will do justice to all the dvds I have collected over the last few years. I can't wait to see Frodo and company journey once again in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. Throw in a decent Pioneer home entertainment system and I have a mini movie cinema in the middle of the living room. Sigh...

2006-01-26T13:31:00.000+08:00

The Haven The posting by Batman on Chinese New Year and pesky relatives coupled with Luna Esa's comment will be the subject of my post today. Having graduated from the 'when are you getting married' class to 'when is your first baby coming' class, I can emphatise with both Batty and Luna. Guess I was lucky in the sense that my parents aren't the visiting sort, so I was protected from the barrage of questions from my relatives during CNY. To be fair, I think our relatives are genuinely concerned, in most cases, with our welfare. Thus, the incessant chanting of 'when are you getting married har", "you not getting younger you know", and "must invite me to your wedding when you are finally married hor". Things like that. Nonetheless, they are all irritating comments to all singles out there. So what can the single do about it? Here's Fieldmarshal's 10 Ways to Avoid the Venerable "When are you getting married" comment 1) Skip the country. Even crime-ridden Johore is better than a relative infested house! 2) Feign sickness and skip the visits. Do you know one can have a bad tummyache from too many softdrinks, or beer? Try it. 3) Offer the answer before relatives pop the question. Something like this, "No, not getting married this year. Don't think it will happen next year or even the year after". That'd set them off balance. 4) Shoot the question back to them and ask them when their sons or daughters are getting married. 5) Answer the question by saying that you will get married after your aunty (who's in her 50s) gets married. So there no need to ask again till old aunt Mary is married! 6) Bring a good book during the visit and park yourself in the host's toilet till the visit is over. But make sure the toilet is of ISO9000 cleanliness standard before doing this. 7) Play with younger cousins, somewhere away from all the chatter 8) Act dao. Ignore all questions related to marriage 9) Stuff your mouth with food and give an inaudible answer 10) Get married and stop thinking about this :P Haha... The last one ain't exactly a solution. Just ran out of ideas. Anyway, I was mulling over this during lunch and I thought, 'why don't I invite my single friends to my place over during CNY?' Make my place into a singles' haven, for those who are trying to avoid that dreaded question. Sounds like a great idea to me. Perhaps I will do just that next year. Well, only after I have visited my parents and in-laws. :)

2006-01-24T13:32:00.000+08:00

Day 2 - Settling In My second day in the new office has been a breeze. Still nothing much to do. No fires to fight. No inane issues to work on. Taking advantage of the lull, I spent most of the time preparing myself for the real work. Come to think of it, I have not been so involved in work since I started working in 1999. Has it been that long since my blood stirred for work? Tucked away in the corner is my office. A nice little room which I am starting to infuse my character into it. Hopefully, it doesn't turn into the pigsty that was my old office. Having one's own room is really great! If it is possible, I would wish that everyone out there can have their own room. But that ain't gonna happen. Guess I will enjoy this state of affairs as long as I can before I am dropped back into the world of office cubicles. Although this is only my second day at work, I have this one observation to make. Unlike the first time I stepped into the working world, my move to the new department doesn't feel like a move. Yes, the people around me are strange faces, and the physical surroundings have all change. However, the impact of all these changes are hardly felt. It was more like a change of environment and work functions. Other than that, I don't feel anything at all. Wonder if it has something to do with my age or my past work experience. Am not complaining or anything. A smooth transition is always better than a rough one. Will update again if anything interesting happens to me. Till then, I will just lower the blinds, turn on the radio, dim the lights and invite sandman for tea.

2006-01-19T16:21:00.000+08:00

Fieldmarshal, Mondo Magic and AXN Asia Hey, my post on Mondo Magic was quoted in AXN Asia! The webmaster of AXN knows my blog better than I do myself! Didn't know that my post on Mondo Magic was the inaugual post of the year. Anyway, why didn't AXN offer to let me meet the highly talented magicians? I would have volunteered to take part in one of their tricks. Pick me! Pick me! Ok, here's what AXN wrote about me, and of course, Korn and Benn (excerpts from my post in green): Sightings: Skeptics Beware. The Mondo magicians are in town! Think David Blaine with a much lighter sense of humour and you'll get Mondo Magic. Starring not just one, but two magicians, TV's latest sensation brings to screen street magic with a twist. Not only does the madcap team widen your eyes with disbelief, you bend over with laughter. The astonishing US hit series following Chris Korn and JB Benn's cross country trip had the honour of making Teddy's (Singapore) - me! me! me! - inaugural post of the year: I have to say that I am impressed with their sleight of hand tricks. The movement of their hands is so fast that it is impossible to catch the optical illusion behind their 'magic'. And with Mondo Magic, expect no passive TV: There was an interactive performance before the show breaked for commercials. Basically, Korn asked the audience, me and Mydaemon, to focus on a pack of cards which he flicked quickly on the screen. What the audience needed to do was to concentrate and remember one of the cards. Afterwards, the audience was suppose to raise their palms and think 'now' when their card is flashed, amongst other cards, on the TV screen. Curious, they both complied and raised their hands. On screen, Korn asked if the card in their mind was the 4 of Diamonds: The freaky thing is, that's the card I had in mind...If you don't believe in the skills of these guys, I propose that you guys catch an episode of Mondo Magic and judge for yourself. Now believe this - Mondo Magic will be coming to our very own streets in Singapore! In fact, the dynamic duo is in Singapore now, filming. Beat that! Read the rest of the article here By the way, the episode on their magical exploits in Singapore premieres on 21 Feb. Mondo Magic is show every Tues 10 pm on AXN. How's that for free advertising? So, can I appear on an AXN programme now?

2006-01-19T14:32:00.000+08:00

A Tribute to My Cubicle My desk in front of me is totally clear of stuff. A first since the turn of the year. Gone are the AIA calendar, the caculator, hole-puncher, my favourite blue extra-strength stapler, post-it pads, CDs and dictionary. Gone too is the african violet which adorns the desk behind me. A pang of sadness touches me as I survey my once messy, but always cosy, work area. Packed and shipped to my new office someplace in Chinatown, they await my hand to unpack them and bring them into light again. Yes, the time has come to say goodbye. Just like the closing line for the classic Mickey Mouse programme which I watched in my younger days, I am saying goodbye to a place where I spent at least 8 hours everyday since 2001. I will need the familiar sounds of people chatting around me as I worked. Even the annoying vacuuming sound emited from the shredder machine doesn't sound that bad now. Going to a place with windows facing another office block, I will miss the green vista which greets me everyday. The only greenery there will be my little pot of plant. Better that than all the concrete. Tomorrow is my last day at the current office. You can say that I am a sentimental fool to be so attached to the surrounding. A fool that I am. If there's one memory which I want want to take with me, then its the memory of me meeting my wife. Although we met earlier in another place, it was at my current office where our relationship blossomed. Come tomorrow, I will be adieu to a wonderful workspace which has given me so much professionally and personally over the 5 years. Thanks for everything!

2006-01-12T13:21:00.000+08:00

Of Marriage, Family and Responsibility Actually I have crafted a post this morning about my impending move to a new department this morning. But some server hidden somewhere on this globe just gobbled it up. Decided not to follow up with a similar post since I always found it irritating trying to recapture what was written earlier. For friend who are concerned with my professional life, I will be moving on 23 Jan. If there's a lack of updates here during that period, it means that I am working hard over at my new place. Well, that's that. Now for this post. Well, Naniecheng, I and a colleague were having lunch earlier. During our, almost, daily ~~gossip~~ session, the topic of interest fell on boy-girl relatioships, or BGR. It all started with my ever ~~nosey~~ genuine interest in the welfare of my fellow colleagues in office. Started off asking how's his pursuit of a particular girl in the office. Being his old evasive self, he brushed off all attempts to probe into his ~~deep and dark fantasy world of romance~~ personal life. Anyway, we ended up discussing the problems faced by one of his female friends. That's still technically fodder for gossip right? Evil me. Basically, his friend is married and has a young child. The problem is that this friend of his yearns to taste life overseas for an extended period of time. However, she feels trapped by her family. All this makes for one unhappy mummy with a stressed out hubby and kid. Being a person who symphatise more than emphatise, here's what I think about all this. Married Life Underneath the cloak of modernity that I adorn is the spirit of an old fogey. Old fogey as in that I hold on to certain values and ethics which have been considered outmoded by today's generation Y. Gen Yiner's (read whiners) think that the postmodern world they live in is a free for all. Institutions such as marriage is an outdated concept relevant only to the baby boomers of the 60s and 70s. This thinking is the very disease which plagues the youths of the world today. That, will be another post for the future. So, what about marriage life? For me, marriage, is about being a loving and responsible spouse. One can argue that a person can be both loving and responsible out of wedlock, and that marriage is but an institution that gives a societal status to the couple. Such a view can only come from singles who think they know everything about life and marriage. While I agree that being loving and acting responsibly is not exclusive to only those couples who are married, I disagree that they are the same in both married and non-married relationships. Being the straight laced person that I am, marriage here precludes gay unions. Yes, I am a stick in the mud. A stick that's stuck really deep. So, what's with married life? Well, I for one believe that in a marriage, people do not just simply walk out on their partners. They stay together through thick and thin, in good times and bad, in sickness and in health. That sounds like the marriage vows in church. Get the drift? Couple just don't up and leave a relationship in times of trouble. Such bond is not apparent in stay-in couples. Somehow the process of marriage transforms couples into more than mere journey partner on this planet. Marriage creates a stronger bond between 2 people that just a simple profession of love. You can perhaps say that we grow into the very concept of marriage, instead of it grows into us. Kids Some couples just pines for them, others just shudder at the thought of having them. Kids are sometimes seen as the final jigsaw to the picture perfect family life. How do these little ~~devils~~ angels factor in marriage and responsibility? Firstly, we must agree that without the parent's 'consent' no kids will be born into a family. So, if I hear one word from any parent saying that the kid was an accident, I would give that fella an earful. If parents do not want kids, they either spend some money on rubber or they jolly well abstain. Telling me that the feeling is not shiok ain't an excuse. You want to have that feeling, be jolly well prepared to have that baby coming out of your wife after 9 months. That's life. Frankly, I cannot understand why my colleague's friend can actually think of skipping the country to live in a foreign land for a year. Doesn't her maternal instincts tugs at her heartstrings to stay behind for her kid? I confess that I am not one to emphatise. Tending to symphatise more, my answers to people's plight is to provide answers. Guess that's why I am an ENTJ type of person. Since the lady under discussion here is not my friend, I cannot criticise her since I do not know that problems or stresses she face. However, I just find it hard to understand how can a mother choose to abandon her family just to experience life overseas. Somehow the priority is just not right. Personally, I'd rather do everything that I would like to before planning for a baby. It is financially impossible to do everything that I want to, thus I'd rather shelve some of the plans until later in my life. If need be they can always be done after my retirement. There's always a right time and place and to the right thing. The right thing for me to do now is to plan for the perfect church wedding followed by a perfect wedding luncheon. Stressed, but still happy. Ciao.

2006-01-05T15:41:00.000+08:00

New DVD - Star Wars Clone Wars Vol. 2 This is the latest title in my DVD collection. I have to say that the guys at Cartoon Network did a fantastic job in linking Episode II and III. I highly recommend this to all Star Wars fans out there.

2006-01-05T12:49:00.000+08:00

Old Friends, Like Old Wine - Are the Best I have been so tied up with the drudgery and routiness of life in the last 3 to 4 years that I have lost contact with some of my good friends. Gone are the days when we would swap latest entertainment gossip and lifestyle issues via the phone. Yeah, I actually bitched about stuff with my friends. Those were the days when handphones were a rarity. With SMS, I would have thought that contacting my friends would be a breeze. However, the spirit is willing, but the body, always weak. With time, some of my friends dropped out of my vision. In their place were countless hours of gaming, TV programmes and housework. Life past me by like a blur. However, life was not all meaningless as I found an anchor in Mydaemon admist life's countless distractions. Now, as I prepare for my wedding, my friends are once again back in my vision. Back because I would like to share one of my life's milestone with them. Their absence would take away so much from the church service and wedding luncheon. For the first time in many years, I looked up my friends email addresses in my PDA and shared with them the good news of my upcoming wedding. I wasn't sure what replies I would get. In my mind were these questions: Would they reply my emails? Would they remember me? Here's how it went with 2 of my good friends - Chincilla and Rafflesia. I think the nicks should be clear to these 2 friends if they should drop by here. Well, Chincilla was my first friend in NUS. She's one of the nicest girl around. Although she has a 'you gonna die now' look quite frequently, I can vouch that she's really a nice and good natured person. Was just exchanging emails with her earlier. During our exchanges, she told me that we last met at her wedding dinner in 2002. I was like, are you sure? I was quite sure that we met up sometime in 2003. But then again, my memory ain't as good as before. As we chatted via email, I just come to know that she's going to be a mummy. Well, another one of my friends are joining the motherhood gang in the neighbourhood. The first was Sweet Lullaby. Apart from this good news, she also informed me that she has already finished her masters. Man, the last time we spoke, she just left her job for her studies. Anway, Chincilla, I would like to congratulate you again on being a mother in the near future. I also look forward to keeping our friendship alive and well. Coming to Rafflesia. She's this nice girl whom I met in university when, in a moment of madness, I joined an ECA. Yup, I was crazy enough to sign up for an ECA. Anyway, Rafflesia is one person whom I have kept in contact on and off for the last 6 years since her graduation in 1998. Being a fun-loving person that she is, she's the life of any conversation. She's also one of the rare few who dares to speak her mind. Wish more people could be like her. Anyway, I am happy to see that she has gotten herself a great job. Now what she needs is a better half. For your sake, I hope you find Mr Right soon. One thing that I noticed while writing to Chincilla and Rafflesia was the continuity of our friendship despite the silence over months or years. Picking up from where we left off is something which touched me deeply. Sad to say, I have not been able to find friends in the workplace despite seeing my colleagues everyday. Maybe it's me, but I have not really made a friend, perhaps with the exception of Luna Esa, Summerbreeze and Shitake, since I started working. Friends are really like wine. They get better with age. It is a gift from God that I can take a sip from the bottles of friendship once a while. Sips which brings back memories of laughter, joy, and happiness. Here's a toast to everlasting friendships around the world.

2006-01-04T20:48:00.000+08:00

How a Magician on the TV Read My Mind My first post of the year. What should I write about? Nothing has caught my eye. Well, that's until I caught this really interesting, and a tad freaky, magic-show programme - Mondo Magic on AXN this evening. Starring magicians JB Benn and Chris Korn, Mondo Magic follows these two guys as they go around showcasing their skills to the public. I have to say that I am impressed with their sleight of hand tricks. The movement of their hands are so fast that it is impossible to catch the optical illusion behind their 'magic'. However, there was this spooky trick which the guys performed. Cupping both their hands together, they formed a dark shadow between their palms. For a spilt second, a tiny grotesque gargoyle-like face rears it head in the shadows. It was really spooky. Makes me wonder if there's some spiritual beings involved in their tricks. Apart from this rather spooky trick, there was an interactive performance before the show breaked for commercials. Basically, Korn asked the audience, me and Mydaemon, to focus on a pack of cards which he flicked quickly on the screen. What the audience needed to do was to concentrate and remember one of the cards. Afterwards, the audience was suppose to raise their palms and think 'now' when their card is flashed, amongst other cards, on the TV screen. Both Mydaemon and I raised our hands as we had a card in mind. After all the mambo jumbo, he asked us (the audience) if the card was the 4 of Diamonds. The freaky thing is, that's the card I had in mind. However, Korn was way off the mark with Mydaemon's choice as her card was 9 of diamonds. I have to admit that if I was to watch this programme alone at home, I would have freaked out. The fact that Korn did not got Mydaemon's choice served to show that the diamond shape and the number 4 have some unique features that are somehow etched onto the human conciousness when we look at shapes and number. Well. at least that's what I choose to believe. If you don't believe in the skills of these guys, I propose that you guys catch an episode of Mondo Magic and judge for yourself. If I am right, the show should be on from 8pm to 8.30pm.

2005-12-28T14:40:00.000+08:00

Buaya Spotted in Yishun! What's green (or brown), has a long snout, tough leather skin, and rows of sharp teeth? Answer. The BUAYA!!! Not sure if I should say that I am lucky. But I saw a live buaya today. Please note I am not referring to the human buayas which we have come to associate this term with locally. The buaya that I saw was a real crocodile or alligator. Still cannot remember what's the difference between the 2 of them. Anyway, here's how I became one of the rare few people on the island to actually see a buaya outside a zoo/leather farm. Today, like any other boring working day, I was comfortably slouched against the glass barrier in our MRT trains. As the train was travelling past the huge body of water between Khatib and Yio Chu Kang stations, which I believe is either the Peirce (no idea if it is Upper or Lower) or Seletar reservoir, I looked out the window to take in the rather calming natural scenery. Everything looked as it should be. The water was there. A teenage angler with a rod was perched on the granite boulders. Light pink mosses were growing along the water's edge. A picture of normalcy in boring Singapore. As the MRT chugged along, I happened to look at the shoreline of the reservoir. What caught my eye was this floating log, or which I thought was one. However, as the train moved closer to the 'log', since the tracks skirt the reservoir, I was able to make out a snout and 2 shapes on either side, which looked like eyes to me. It was then when I realised that I was staring at a buaya that is floating along the bank of the reservoir. It was an interesting sight despite past reports of sightings of these leathery creatures being reported in other reservoirs.

Photo: This is similar to what I saw this morning. I was tempted to call up the police since the animal might become a danger, or nuisance, to the people who fish near the reservoir. In the end, I decided not to call the men in blue since it might not be their business to deal with buayas of the non-human type. For his sake, I hope the boy with the rod is sharp enough to notice that the log floating by is a buaya and not a piece of driftwood. Being the nasty old me, the only way to find out the well-being of the kid is to read tomorrow's papers. If there's no "Kid mauled by Yishun Buaya" headline in tomorrow's Straits Time, I assume the boy is safe and sound somewhere. Here are some tips which I think I saw on National Geographic/Animal Planet on what to do when faced with a fearsome buaya: 1. RUN!!! 2. RUN!!! 3. RUN!!!

2005-12-23T09:36:00.000+08:00

Merry Christmas & a Very Happy New Year to ALL!!! Have been bogged down with wedding and housing stuff. Reserve energy was used up dragging myself to bed every night. Thus explaining the paucity of musings here over the last week or so. Despite the exhausting schedule, I am one happy Fieldmarshal. Cannot deny that there were times when the darkest of overcast skies couldn't compare to the colour on my face. But the process of planning and the wedding and doing up the house has been fun. As 2005 winds down to an end, 2006 promises to be the year which marks the definitive change in my life. Perhaps the greatest change would be my marriage followed by moving to my very own place. For me, leaving one's parent's home is a bittersweet moment. The symbolic act of leaving the home where I grew up marks the true initiation to adulthood. It means that I am on my own, I am the master of the household. No longer do I defer to my parents for decisions regarding household issues. On the other hand, I feel sad that it marks an end, although it could be temporary, to sharing the same roof with my parents who went through so much to bring my up. So, it is a mixed feeling type of event for me. In my professional life, 2006 also marks the end of an era and the beginning of another. Yes, news has finally reached me that I will be packing my bags for greener pastures in another department within my organisation. Grass always look somewhat greener over the fence, I just hope the green looking grass ain't choked with green colour weeds and nasties like snakes and spiders. Yes, pessimistic old me. But I definitely need the change snakes or no snakes. Just have to arm myself with some sulphur and an attitude to boot when I move over. Show them who's the real Fieldmarshal. Looking back at the past year, a sense of nostalgia, without fail, rises up in me. Not sure if this nostalgic feeling is an extension from my fear of getting old, but I feel sad everytime I close a chapter of my life with the passage of a year. On hindsight, I realised that I looked forward to growing up when I was young. Guess my young mind was too immature to comprehend the value of time then. Now I wish that time will move slower. Fanciful wishes aside, I think I will need to be more alive to taste life to its fullest. So, my first resolution for 2006 is to experience life for what it is, and not from the perspective of the sofa. To all my friends and fellow bloggers... MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

2005-12-09T17:13:00.000+08:00

Milestone in Life This post will be of few words since the pictures are likely to explained everything. I am getting my... ...

To my... ...

So, I feel like this now... ...

2005-11-29T21:20:00.000+08:00

The Story of 2 Safety Pins and a Man's Modesty Safety pins. Little contraptions made of twisted metal with a sharp end. Use in tailoring, dressing of wounds, stitching torn clothings, and protecting men's modesty. Where did that come from? Since when did safety pins played such a noble role in the brief history of humankind? Well, that noble role was discovered by your very own Fieldmarshal today. Yup, my modesty was capably protected by 2 humble safety pins. While I have always attested to the usefulness of such a simple contraption, I have never depended on it, as I had so much today, to safeguard my modesty. If you know by now, these little buggers - safety pins - have come to our rescue when skirts get torn, buttons on our pants (near the zipper) drops off, and countless other scenarios. But I have never utilised them for what I did today. To start the story, I am starting on a course today which will continue till the end of the week. Being the lazy bugger that I am, having a course wasn't my cup of tea since life in office is actually more comfy. Life is that great. Anyway, I am not one of those who goes ga-ga over self introductions, sharing what I think about management processes, or presenting the group's ideas etc. My idea of a course is for me to park my lazy bum on a chair and just listen to the trainer drone on about the subject at hand. Spoon feeding is my cup of tea. I can be that lazy sometimes. I have to say the course is pretty interesting. Everything was going fine till we broke for lunch. Being the 'gulper' of water that I am, I had a bladder that was screaming for release. So, at the word go, I got up from my chair and made my way to bladder heaven - the toilet. Oh, don't worry, there's nothing R(A) about what I am gonna share next. It's more embarassing than anything else. Okay, trudging happily to the gents, I did my business as I would any other day. And as I zipping my pants, the entire zipper head came off!!! Yes, the brass like thingy in the picture here. It CAME OFF!!!! It took me some micro seconds before my mind hit the panic button. I was like WHAT THE HELL!!!??? What's the likelihood of that happening? Having recovered sufficient wits, I headed into one of the cubicles and attempted to repair my pants. After a short while, I realised that my attempts at being a tailor was rather unsuccessful. My only option now was to leave the building and look for the trusty safety pins. It is a weired feeling walking around knowing that one's coffeeshop is 'open'. While the open fly is nicely camoflaged under my shirt, I felt really naked. Have you ever felt naked while fully clothed? Well, it's a really weird sensation. While I know that I looked like any bloke on the street, I can't help but fear that someone will see my open fly and think that I am one sick person trying to outrage their modesty. A 5 minutes walk felt like an eternity. After a short search, I managed to find a small little shop in the market that sold huge safety pins. I was going, 'Thank you God, Thank you so much!' Here's a picture of what my 'saviours' looked like. Mine are a sweet pastel blue (see title of post).

Upon getting hold of these little fellas, I made my way back to the training compound - in doublequick time. Rushed into the toilet and started Operations Save the Fieldmarshal's Modesty. Stitching up the front part of the pants where the zipper is, ain't an easy task. The sharp point on the pins looked capable of serious hurt if the stitching is not done properly. And to be frank, I do not want to hurt my crown jewels. After some struggle, I managed to pin up my pants in such a way that my modesty as well as those of the others will not be offended by the missing zipper head, which incidentally is still in my pant's pocket, that little devil.

And the day was saved. By 2 humble safety pin. You can leave your credit card at home. But never leave home without a pair of safety pins. Ignore this advice at your own risk.

2005-11-21T15:02:00.000+08:00

You Will Never Walk Alone That's the motto of my favourite football club - Liverpool. Entitled this post with their motto cos' I, as well as Mydaemon, have been hooked on the game Fifa Manager 2006. Being a football junkie, I have always bought the latest version of EA Sports' football management game whenever they are launched. The same goes for this year. Perhaps my addiction to this game comes from the fact that I don't play football in real life, something which I do regret a little, and also that Liverpool can win the English Premier League, something which they have not done in the real world since 1990, under my armchair managerial brilliance. Apart from the countless hours of gaming, I have also been busy with a much more important issue, my upcoming wedding. Although there's still around 6 months plus to go, I realised that holding a church wedding entails quite a significant amount of planning. Firstly, we had to confirm if we can 'book' the priest, the church and the hall on our chosen 'auspicious' date. Then there's the invitations, preparation of traditional gifts, wedding photography, catering and the list goes on. But I am more than happy to do all these lah. It's worth it. Mydaemon has also be the best fiance around, helping me whenever the 'fieldmarshal' in me decides to AWOL the battleground. Things are moving along fine. I am preparing to call up some offers which my friends have generously volunteered some time back. I remember a particular friend of mine saying that she wouldn't mind being the MC for me wedding. She was somewhat glad to hear later that I am not having a banquet, but I am sure a church wedding will still require someone of her talent. You know who you are. So don't try to hide by stop reading my blog, cos' I know where to find you. hahaha..... Jokes aside. Over the last few weeks, I realised that having a Chinese wedding involves a lot of customs and traditions for both the groom's and bride's families. My family is totally clueless to such practices since we are not particularly traditional in that sense. Being a kantang that I am, lost is a good word to describe the way I felt. What to do? Log on to the net lah! That's my last hope of learning about the obsure, and sometimes interesting, rituals that we Chinese go through during weddings. It's bizarre, but most of the websites that provide advice on traditional Chinese wedding are based in US. Yes, US, not China, Hong Kong or Singapore. It made me realised that despite decades of residing in the land of the free, our Chinese brethen there are as traditional as their forefathers who first set foot there. Bizarre!!! Just have to repeat that word. Fact is, I don't care if the information is residing in a US website, or an African one. The important thing is that they contain the information which I need to ensure a smooth and happy wedding. For those we are still single, and still harbouring hopes of having a western-style wedding, here's some advice from your very own Fieldmarshal. First, if you are born between 1970 to 1985, my advice is that you give up that dream of a simple no-frills western wedding. There's no such thing as a simple wedding in the vocabluary for parents of those born in this period of time. Yes, you, you, and you in that corner over there. If you still insist on hanging on to that dream, then get prepared to be cut out from your parents fortune. Secondly, traditions and customs are very important. Lest the severity of this statement is not evident, think of spending the rest of your life thinking what you would have had if you didn't refuse to haul a skewered roasted pig to your wife's, I mean potential wife, parents. Heard that the Cantonese requires a pair of jeans be placed under the roasted meat. Wonder if there's a requirement that the jeans must be Levi's. Would Giodarno do? Thirdly, simple weddings are potentially possible sometime in 2030-2040, when we become parents to children who are preparing to get married then. I am sure most would have gotten the drift by now. Having shared some interesting insights to the world of Chinese weddings, I will now impart my secret manual. Just like those kung fu manuals, Master Fieldmarshal guarantees that the manual will impart to all fellow future 'bridegroom pugilists' the necessary skills to win the hearts of the in-laws. Like all good and responsible kung fu masters, I had certain rules for those wishing to have a peek at the manual. Firstly, the bridegroom must love his future wife with all his heart. Failure to do this will lead to death by bleeding through the seven channels (those who reads Chinese novels would understand what I mean). Secondly, he must be willing to exorcise all evil thoughts, thoughts which include simple western weddings. Thirdly, he must take everything seriously. Don't laugh if the manual tells you to string together 100 needles with a red string. If it has to be done, DO IT. Darn, I am having a ball of a time taking jibes at this. But frankly, customs are an important part of the Chinese society. So, the manual, or in its modern day version, website, I am sharing, is really useful for all couples who are intending to get hitched. However, I have to warn that I cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information. So, do read and follow the advice at your own discretion. And here's my secret manual... ... China Bridal.com. Have fun reading it!!!

2005-11-08T11:35:00.000+08:00

New Favourite Radio Channel You know something has changed when your radio needle starts hovering around LOVE 97.2FM. Yes, 97.2FM is currently my preferred Chinese radio station. It has just dislodged YES 93.3FM from the perch I have left it on since my university days. Coming at a time when I just celebrated my 31st birthday, I can't help but feel that this change in my taste of music is but one of the symptoms marking a watershed point in my life. I am saying this since I have been one of those louts who laughed at the 'aunties' tuning in to the station in my younger days. Now having made the switch myself, I understand why those aunties and uncles enjoyed the music play spun by the station's DJs. Guess, it is time that I transit into the 'uncle' category. Have to say that I enjoyed the 20s. For those who still think that LOVE 97.2FM is for old fogies, I can only say that they are missing out good music from the early to late 90s. Guess the music strikes a deep chord within me since I have spent countless hours 'killing' songs (杀歌) with my friends in KTVs during our university days. Ur Sweet Lullaby was probably the best crooner amongst us then. I was just croaking most of the time. Think she's still the best songbird around even after becoming a mummy. There are also rumours that Mydaemon is also one 'mean' singer. Eh, how come I have yet to hear you sing? Anyway, listening to the station brings back a flood of memories. Going back to listening to my radio now.

2005-10-28T11:35:00.000+08:00

The Worth of My Blog My blog is worth US$3,387.24. Not much compared to well-known bloggers. But it's enough for me to know it is not totally worthless. Find out about the worth of your blog here. Actually, I feel the value of this blog is the connections it made with other bloggers aka YOU. The worth of my blog - $3,340+, the worth of your readership - priceless.

2005-10-28T09:54:00.000+08:00

Super Long Weekend The upcoming weekend cum holidays is the 'Big One' for all employees in Singapore. Its akin to striking the top prize for ToTo in terms of a 'super long weekend' draw-edition. The upcoming weekend will most likely be felt most keenly by working adults. I have excluded students here since they are already in the process of slowing down their engines and gearing up for their even longer year-end holidays. So, what will this long weekend hold for me? Well, I will be effectively free for 6 days as I have taken leave on Monday and Wednesday. No office 'visitation' for me till next Friday! It's a huge relief since life in office is getting really drab and highly demoralising. Think I am suffering from some sort of professional depression. Making it worst is that Mydaemon is out of office this entire week. Really miss her company. Thankfully, this depression ends at 6pm when I leave office. No point carrying that burden past office hours. Life's much more than work. Anyway, I am really glad to have the opportunity of recharging my almost flat batteries before going back to the daily grind or boredom in office. Well, to kick off the long break, I will celebrate my 31st birthday over the weekend. No party or expensive dinner for me. At most, I will just have a nice quiet dinner with Mydaemon at some restaurant tucked away in town. Just the two of us enjoying each other's company. As for the other 5 days, I hope to do doing some shopping as pre-Christmas sales are starting for several stores. A good time to buy some big budget items and save a couple of hundreds to spend on even more stuff. On my list are, a bed, bed stand, crockery, cutlery, electronics and various appliances. Hope to find some real gems in the sales. Wish me luck! Apart from shopping, I foresee myself putting in some serious time playing Black & White 2. Can't wait to develop my civilisation and unlock the Tiger divine pet. Looks like my new PC will be working overtime in the next few days. In case my gaming takes away too much time from spending time with Mydaemon, let me say that I am prepared to drop the game any time if she wants me to do something with her. Although I have to say that'd be somewhat difficult, but spending time with her is more important that playing god to some electronic signals. Think Mr Brown did a good job of explaining this conundrum, in his 'All hail the super long weekend' article, between family and gaming. Guess I will go through that phase some time in the future. It's another 6hrs 45mins to go before the official start to the weekend. This is one of those moments when I wish time would just move faster. To all my friends out there, have a super duper long weekend. See you guys next week!

2005-10-27T14:29:00.000+08:00

Black & White 2 (New Game) Highly recommended for megalomaniacs out there.

2005-10-25T14:15:00.000+08:00

New Books Finally finished 1984. Bought myself 2 new books, Kafka on the Shore (Haruki Murakami) and Crossing the Threshold of Hope (Pope John Paul II).

2005-10-24T10:51:00.000+08:00

The Shuttle has landed! Damn!!! I lost the entire post for this at least 4 times! Too tired to retype everthing again. Anyway, here's the new PC which Mydaemon and I bought over the weekend. Cool ain't it? Btw, it's called the Shuttle SN25P. Looking forward to the hours of gaming on it.

2005-10-12T10:40:00.000+08:00

Are low income Singaporeans really poor? The widening income gap between the haves and have nots have been an issue of much debate in recent years. I think policy-makers generally feel that the widening gap is inevitable, but in order to appease its constituents, who happen to vote them into office, they take on the tagline that this gap can be narrowed through robust economic growth. Thus, the continuation of the ever vicious cycle of basing Singapore's success on economic prosperity. I happen to discuss this issue with Mydaemon a few days back. Basically, I wondered how can low income earners consider themselves 'poor', in every sense of the word, when they expect to subscribe to a handphone, have large TVs and hi-fi sets at home. It is perhaps propitious that Straits Times carried an article on this today. Titled "He has cellphone, aircon, TV. Is he poor?", the story looked at the plight of low income earners caught by the sudden economic downturn. Here are some of the extracts from the article. "A Department of Statistics study on HDB home ownership, released on Monday, shows that more than half of those in the bottom 20 per cent by income own four-room or bigger flats. Members of Parliament say an increasing number of families suffer this wretched state: their homes are not short of creature comforts but their bank accounts reflect a picture of poverty." . . . . . . At the last Parliament sitting, he (an MP) argued that many luxuries of 10 years ago are now basic essentials: children's enrichment classes, toys and even travel. (extracted from ST) The gist of the story is that the definition of how poverty is defined today differs significantly from how it was defined say a decade back. Frankly speaking, I disagree with such a view. I find it hard to stomach the fact that "enrichment classes, toys and even travel" can be considered as basic essentials. For me, if you don't have the money don't send your kids to ballet or violin classes. Forget about a PSP or gaming console for your child. Take them for a walk in the park or engage in other activities. Toys are not everything. Lastly, while I think everyone should expand their horizons through visits to other countries etc, I think those who cannot afford it, should just stretch that dollar by spending it on food, electricity or even a landline. I am a believer of Maslow's theory of Hierarchy of Human Needs (see Wikipedia's explanation for the theory). Although his theory is kind of simplistic, it sums up, for me, the essence of human needs. I find it quite unbelieveable that PCs are considered as a basic necessity when families are finding it difficult to pay their water or electricity bills. Giving a PC to poor families would only put extra burden on them since their electricity bills are likely to rocket. And there's also the subscription for internet connection. For me, I think a better solution would be to educate the low income families of the importance of learning the use of a PC, and more importantly, the usefulness of the internet. Instead of helping them source for cheap PCs, policy-makers should consider setting up computer clusters at Community Clubs which charges nominal rates for the use of PCs and internet connection. Firstly, it would be cheaper to subsidise such a scheme. Secondly, low income families would be burdened with the additional stress of rising electrical bills. As for enrichment classes, I read that help should be given to low income families when their kids are talented in a certain field. The example cited was ballet. I fully agree that talented Singaporeans should be given every opportunity to fulfill their potential. But my question is, what level of talent are we talking about? Do we want to subsidise ballet classes for kids from low income families when their potential will only take them up to the local stage? If their talent is only good enough for performance at small shows etc, I am sorry to say that these kids should focus on mainstream education then. If they are so talented, then we have countless scholarships to aid them. So, it begs the question on why enrichment classes is a basic necessity. It is a basic requirement only for those who are 'world-beaters' and are unable to fulfill their potential due to monetary constraints. Help should only be extended to these families. Having said all that, where should we draw the line? Call me hard-hearted. My view is that if you want to spend money on air-con, handphone, TV, hi-fi systems etc, then don't stretch out your hand for free handouts. By cutting these corners, many low income families can more than make ends meet. Luxuries are luxuries, make no mistake about that. One should never make the mistake of thinking that they are bare necessities because society has become more affluent.

2005-10-11T08:27:00.000+08:00

Here' my list of Se7en things which Dark Muse invited me to share. Read Dark Muse's Se7en here. Se7en 7 Things I plan to Do Before I Die Always cherish and love Mydaemon Find God and not let myself be lost again Climb to Mt Everest's base camp Have my own photography exhibition Run a marathon Find the version of Macross that I saw as a kid Learn how to draw/paint/'pottery' 7 Things I Can Do Be more patient with others Spending more time with my mum Improve my photography skills Planning more and playing less Jog more often Deflate my ego Be more charitable, since not all charities are NKF 7 Things I Cannot Do Tell lies Believe that there's no 'black' and 'white' in this world of grays Tolerate hypocrites (esp those two-faced people) Stop my dislike for Christians who say that Catholics and non-Christians will burn in hell Stop being the worrier that I am Not playing another PC or console game Not having any friends 7 Things That Attract Me to The Opposite/Same Sex Kindness Generosity Curiosity Filial piety Intelligence A loving and gentle spirit Willingness to challenge my oft-stupid ideas 7 Celebrity Crushes Brad Pitt Evangeline Lilly (Kate) Liv Tyler Cindy Crawford Jennifer Aniston Jeon Ji-heon (My Sassy Girl) Maria Sharapova 7 People I Want to Do This (but are not obliged to): Mydaemon My Sweet Lullaby Byzantine Beliefs Batman Luna Esa Batman Summer Breeze

2005-10-04T16:23:00.000+08:00

I am a bad egg I did something really horrible today. Basically, I expected somebody to trust me, while I expressed my total distrust in that person. The worst part is that I told the person in her face that I didn't trust her. It must be hurtful for one person to tell another person that 'I don't trust you'. If I can say 'sorry' to her now, I would. But the context of this entire thing is just too bizarre that a 'sorry' would be bizarre. Being one of those who absolutely hates double-standards, I am guilty of being a hatable double-standard person today. I felt bad the moment that I let loose my tongue and allowed it to say what's on my mind. Yes, I have been known to speak without thinking. And yes, I agree with everyone that that's a stupid thing to do. For speaking without using my brains, wherever it went just now, I have hurt a person. No one deserves what I just did. I will not offer an excuse for what I did. Excuses are nothing but tiresome explanations which are designed by the perpetrator of a wrongful act to alleviate the sense of guilt for taking that action. What I intend to do is to reflect on what I did today and train myself not to do such things again. Refraining from such actions is a good start, but more importantly, I must come to an understanding that what I did is wrong. Call me a purist, but the act of suppresing a wrongful act while still thinking that there's nothing wrong is a cardinal sin for me. Being the non-reflective person that I am, I foresee a long night later as I try to decipher how to understand my mind, and hopefully rein it in and prevent it from hurting anyone in the future. I find it intriguing that I am trying the understand 'me'. Ain't 'me' the person that is typing this post now? But the fact is that 'I' being who I am doesn't understand the entire 'me'. Anyway, my mind is like a monkey that's running every doggone place. Time to catch and tame that monkey so that it will do some good and not go around causing havoc and hurting people. Let me end this post a Buddhist teaching I found: Ancient Pali texts liken meditation to the process of taming a wild elephant. The procedure in those days was to tie a newly captured animal to a post with a good strong rope. When you do this, the elephant is not happy. He screams and tramples, and pulls against the rope for days. Finally it sinks through his skull that he can't get away, and he settles down. At this point you begin to feed him and to handle him with some degree of safety. Eventually you can dispense with the rope and post altogether, and train your elephant for various tasks. Now you've got a tamed elephant that can be put to useful work. In this analogy the wild elephant is your wildly active mind, the rope is mindfulness, and the post is our object of meditation, our breathing. The tamed elephant who emerges from this process is a well-trained, concentrated mind that can then be used for the exceedingly tough job of piercing the layers of illusion that obscure reality. Meditation tames the mind. Henepola Gunaratna, Mindfulness in Plain English (Source: Best of "Buddhist quote of the moment")

2005-09-30T08:51:00.000+08:00

Little Green Men

Yesterday's premiere of Steven Spielberg's Taken has prompted me to talk about my interest in all things extraterrestial. Little green men, metallic suits, ray guns, are stuff that have captured my imagination at a very young age. I have no idea where this fascination came from. Graphic dscriptions of humans being forcibly taken or convinced to go away with aliens into their blindingly bright spaceships in countless books on UFOs and alien abductions is perhaps the primary reason for my interest in this. Having such an interest ain't good since many have been labelled mad, or looney, for believing in aliens. I believe that most, 99.9%, of the stories or photos are just stories or fakes concocted by pranksters for a good laugh. But I believe that the unexplained phenomenon observed in that 0.01% points to something which we humans currently can't explain, or even begin to find out. Life in outerspace is something which I believe. If the universe is infinite, I find it incomprehensible that planets in other universes cannot go through Earth's mind boggling odds of creating life. Statistically speaking, if it can happen to Earth, why not planet X, Y, or even Z, millions of lightyears away? Not seeing something doesn't mean that the 'something' does not exist. Many a times, the flashing lights or balls of flames in the sky could perhaps be explained by natural phenomenon, but some are still unexplained. So, the verdict is still out on that. At a personal level, I think it is interesting to know that life can exist in other parts of the universe. But being the worrier that I am, my question is, "would the aliens be the nice cuddly ones, or those that we saw in War of the Worlds." I would definitely not want them to be those featured in the Alien movie series. No thing is going to use my body as a host for incubating an alien baby. On hindsight, such things are actually happening now. There are parasites around us who uses a host, be it an animal, human or plant, to keep itself alive or to leech off the host for food etc. BUT we don't have a parasite which explodes from our chest at birth. What would I do if I come face to face with an alien?

Fieldmarshal Meets the Furry Alien

Fieldmarshal - Welcome to planet Earth my ugly looking friend! (grins widely) Furry Alien - wheeze, hoot, rasp (raises an appendage with a rock like rod) Fieldmarshal - Errr friend, I am not getting to you dude. And what's with that stick? (a present for Fieldmarshal?) Furry Alien - makes strangling sound while pointing the stupid rock-like object at FM. Fieldmarshal - Oh, my first interplantary gift. Cool, dude. (Grabs the stick from the alien) Furry Alien - screeches in high shrilly tones and start making lots of noise. Fieldmarshal - Ah, my very first alien present. Hey there's sort of a cavity for a finger here. What's that. Feels warm inside. (Fiddles with the stick and sticks finger into the cavity) Furry Alien - screeching like a crazed bird and turning more green (if that's possible) Fieldmarshal - (thinking it is an intergalactic way of greeting starts shouting together with the alien) THANKS YOU MY UGLY GREEN FRIEND. I WILL GIVE YOU A SPECIAL SINGAPOREAN 'FINE CITY' T-SHIRT LATER. I AM SURE YOUR BUDS WILL LOVE IT! AND AS A SHOW OF ETERNAL FRIENDSHIP, LET ME USE YOU STICK TO GREET YOU BACK! (points the stick at the alien and puts finger into the cavity, hears a soft 'psssssssfffff' and a sudden gush of warm air, but turns away from the alien after hearing his name being called) Mydaemon - Dear, who are you talking to? Fieldmarshal - Hey, come and meet this cool alien dude who just gave me this wonderful gift. (turns back to ugly green alien). Mydaemon - Hmmm, I don't see anyone here. Just a huge heap of dried green bird pooh. Fieldmarshal - (loss for words) But.. but... it was right where the bird pooh is now. MR ALIEN! MR ALIEN! WHERE ARE YOU? (still thinks that shouting is the best way of communicating with it) Mydaemon - Stop playing with that piece of rock and clean up the place. (takes the stick from FM's hand and dumps it into the trash can) Fieldmarshal - Darn, I could have sworn I spoke to an alien. (takes up a dustpan and broom to clear the huge pile of bird pooh) 'Huge Bird Pooh' (aka alien after being fried by superduper laser beam that kills humans) - f u c ....... (last sound it made) Tsk tsk, what a dirty mouthed alien.

2005-09-29T10:05:00.000+08:00

Sleepy... Woke up at 2.30am this morning to catch the Champions League group match between Liverpool and Chelsea. Darn, was once again fooled by the timing, as the match started only at 2.45am. Anwway, I put the 'extra' 15 mins to good use by ironing my shirt, which I am donning now in office. Given the constant crap from Mourinho about the ball not crossing the goal line when the 2 sides met at Anfield last time, signs were that both teams will be out to get a win and the resultant bragging rights. While Liverpool has improved over the last few months, it continues to be hampered by the lack of goals. This is worrisome as no one ever won the Premier League by drawing the entire season. Coupled with the lack of goalmouth action, visiting Chelsea will boast of Arjen Robben and Damien Duff, both hellishly quick. Hyppia and Carragher will have a tough match shutting out those two. I have sobered sufficiently by the time the match kicked off. Liverpool started off well, and controlled the early proceedings. Chances were at a premium, but at least we kept the 'champions of England' at bay. Having survived the early pressure, Chelsea grew in confidence in the later part of the first half. However, both sides found it tough going forward as the defenders have already shut up shop for the night. Second half was more of the same. Lots of probing and 'cut and thrust' by both sides. However, Liverpool was unable to find the goal to finish off a stubborn Chelsea side. While the blues were quick and dangerous and the break, Liverpool were the ones asking the questions. We were denied 2 penalties. One of which I felt was clearly justified. But football, being the game that it is, is always full of such incidents. However, I have to say that the referee was rather lenient to the blues. The game ended a goaless draw. While I have to admit that I was a tad disappointed, but I consider it a good result. Fact is, up till now, all the teams that met Chelsea have lost to them. Ekking out a draw is a good result. For me, it shows that Liverpool is definitely not far, in terms of footballing standards, from the English champions. What they lack now is a goalscorer to justify all their possession. Keep up the good work Rafa. I am sure the lads will find their feet soon. Am in a daze as I type this in office. Looks like a long sleep day in office for me. Yawn...

2005-09-27T11:22:00.000+08:00

Cabled and Liberated Finally, Mydaemon and I have free our Mediacorp's shackles by subscribing to Starhub Cablle TV. While I have cable TV at my place for years now, Mydaemon, who conforms to the mantra that too much TV stupefies a person, has not joined the bandwagon last weekend. Well, we have been meaning to 'cable-up' her place since I have been whining about missing Liverpool matches over the weekends for years. Guess the whining paid off. Anyway, I am more than willing to foot the bill. Moreover, the box-set will move with us when our new home is ready. So, in the interim period, it will provide entertainment for Mydaemon, her family and me. Fixing up the box-set was a breeze. It was as simple as wiring it up to the TV and cable point. And voila, you have cable TV. Being the impatient person that I am, I immediately surfed the channels, hoping against all hope that we will get instant access. Well, you can't fault me for having this expectation especially when we have already done an upfront payment for the first month's subscription. Were disappointed in the end as the channels really took 48 hours to activate. Tonight will be the first night that our cable subscription will be put to good use. Yes, I am talking about the 'live' telecast of the Champions League match between Chelsea and Liverpool. Although Channel 5 is also screnning the match, I prefer watching it on SCV as they provide the original commentary from Europe. Which is by far of a better standard than our local commentators. The latter always going into long lapses of silence and funny comment. Listening to the locals is a real bore. Hope Liverpool does well tonight.

2005-09-25T14:28:00.000+08:00

My Home on Google Earth

Having heard so much about Google Earth, I decided to download it and check it out. After fiddling it with for a while, I actually found out that there's a satelite image of my home. I ain't gonna say where my home is actually located except that it can be found in the north-east area of the photo below. Do try out Google Earth. It's fun to locate the location of your home in it. Have fun!

2005-09-21T16:10:00.000+08:00

Cavanagh Bridge

This is a picture I took while walking towards the ACM. The only visible part of the bridge is the support structure in the foreground. Well, what inspired this shot was the way the tree and structure 'framed' the picture. I have this soft spot for framing my photos with trees. Tell me what you think of this shot. :)

2005-09-21T15:53:00.000+08:00

Asian Civilisation Museum - Journey of Faith

2005-09-20T15:49:00.000+08:00

Who Says Gaming is Bad I have been playing computer games since the good old days of Pac Man, Lode Runner, Digger, Western Bar, Alley Cat, Frogger etc. While not enough to qualify as an addict, I have been known to play a good game for 3-5 hours in one go. Gone are those days since I started working. Currently, I am playing Winning Eleven 8, Call of Duty - Finest Hour, and Prince of Persia on Xbox. Sid Meier's Pirates! comes on and off on my PC whenever I feel like leaving a stream of flotsam and destruction in the Carribbean. By the way, Pirates! is a damn good game. Its original version was released sometime in the early 1990s. Its second incarnation is awesome. My love for electronic gaming, be it on game consoles or PC, is unlikely to wane even as I grow older and into fatherhood in the future. I guess such phenomenon is going the way of mainstream in the coming 5 to 10 years as people in my age group enter middle-age. Anyway, gaming has taken quite a lot of flake from the various interest groups, for obvious reasons. Parents, for one, worry that their kids would become anti-social, develop violent tendencies or become unhealthy due to the lack of exercise. Other social groups argue that there's just too much sex and violence in today's games. Tell that to the developers of Grand Theft Auto - San Andreas. Religious groups have also been vitriolic in lambasting games for being 'satanic', unholy, and downright evil. Yup, there's a call by some churches to produce more Christian themed games. I, for one, will be giving these games a wide berth. Ok, I admit that some games are way too violent and gory. Sexuality is also common with barely dressed beach babes playing beach volleyball in Dead or Alive or Red Ninja.But to me, these are harmless. Granted that some of the scenes are too explicit for young minds. Perhaps that's the reason why all games are rated. If parents don't want their kids playing certain games, they should either, (a) check on the games they are playing, or (b) make sure that their kids can't afford the games. No one's to blame when parents give their kids so much pocket money nowadays. So, if you do not intend to watch what's your kids doing on the PC, then you better keep a tight rein on his pocket money. Many have also argued that gaming takes away too much time for other activities, like, homework, sports, social interactions, and even meals. Well, everything we do takes time. So, the same goes for gaming. But I do agree that there's a limit to how much one should play each day. For me, I used to play until my I cannot stare at the monitor any longer. And that's usually 3-4 hours of non-stop gaming. Actually, the amount of time one can spend on gaming depends on one's ability to cope with life. If a gamer can spend 5 hours on gaming and yet ace his exams, and still play competitive sports, then this fella should continue playing his games. But if the fella flunk every subject each month and is obese, then parental guidance should come in. I do not advocate gaming addiction, but only responsible gaming. A lot of parents ask what's that, or if that's achievable. Well, I can only say that people are unique and a one-size fits all solution ain't the best way to go. Parents, or even adult gamers, should know their kids and themselves. Only with such an understanding of self and their kids would responsible gaming be possible. Having rattled off from the original purpose of this post, which is becoming a habit of sorts for me. I would like to share with concerned parents or spouses out there that one can actually learn something from gaming. Take my example. Was playing Call of Duty the last 2 nights. Was having problem with one of the missions, and had to play it time and again, since the stupid game does not have intelligent save points. Basically, my mission was to take out German soliders who are advancing on my tank factory. The purpose of this mission is to ensure that no Germans get into the factory to destroy the tanks. At first, being the trigger-happy guy that I am, I took down all the soliders, especially those with bazookas threatening to blow the factory's doors off their hinges, that were pouring forth into my sniper rifle's scope. As the mission wore on, I realised that I would be swamped by the flood of Germans who kept pouring towards me. Despite my high 'kill rate', I found that I would eventually miss out that strayed bazooka that would eventually put away my doors. After trying the mission for several times, being the stoopid person that I am, I finally realised something profound. See, told you that gaming is good for all of us. Basically, I realised that I should focus on killing those with the bazookas, or those with the machine guns. Rationale being that these are the units that could inflict the most damage on me. Yeah, yeah, I am not a top rate gamer. Once that dawned on me, I had more success with this mission. Gaming aside, this realisation made me realised that this is a lesson for real life living too. While the management gurus have been harping about the need to focus on the core issues, companies have always had their eyes fixated on the least important of things. With people like me at the bottom of the corporate ladder taking the cue from the big bosses, I would also naturally fall into the same trap. What my gaming experience taught me, was this. Always find out the core issue that needs to be addressed. That's why I am employed by the organisation. To solve problems and not become part of it. Sadly, most middle managers and supervisors are so attuned to the system that they no longer see the real issues. Anyway, my mind has been sharper this few days as the lesson is still fresh in memory. But with time, I am sure it will fade away. The moral of the story is, play more games!!! It is good for you. (To readers: Pls note that the moral of the story is only applicable to those who reflect on the game. It is not valid for addicts and children below certain years of age).

2005-09-19T12:08:00.000+08:00

New Games!!! Got a steal when I bought BOTH Prince of Persia (POP) and Call of Duty - Finest Hour (COD) for $79. Mydaemon had been eyeing POP since we bought our Xbox in 2003. But have been delaying its purchase since it is a single player game. Decided to buy it when we saw that it was being sold for $39.50. Very cheap. Was encouraged by Mydaemon to get another game since she was worried that I would feel neglected whenever she played POP. Being the 1st person shooter type of gamer, I chose COD which also went for $39.50. Have been sleeping late the last 2 days as Mydaemon swashbuckles through palaces, while I take down German bunkers and troops. Looks like some sleepless nights ahead.

2005-09-19T10:58:00.000+08:00

Journey of Faith There's a similarly title post in Zap the Bug, since Mydaemon and I do most things together. Anyway, after much delay, we finally made our way to the Journey of Faith exhibition of Vatican art and artifacts at the Asian Civilisation Museum (ACM) @ Empress Place. Being a Catholic, I was keen to look at some of the art from the Vatican and learn more about my faith. It was my first visit to the Asian Civilisation Museum. Having been to the Singapore Art Museum, which happens to be my old school compound, and the Singapore National Museum, I had no great expectations of the ACM. And having visited both the Britsh Museum and the National Gallery in London it is hard not to compare our local ones with the world's standard. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find a well maintained building which actually exudes an aura of heritage, which is somewhat lacking in the other 2 museums. Located at the 2nd-storey, the galleries contained local collections that were displayed based on cultural themes, e.g. Chinese, Malay, Indian etc. I have to agree with Mydaemon that the ambience created by the smart positioning of warm/spot-lights was good. But I still think that it was a tad too dark. This wasn't helped by the smallish font the museum used for information panels. Had to lean close to the panels many a times just to read what the art or artifact was about. The gallery containing the Journey of Faith exhibition, as with the rest, was dark, yet cosy. Playing in the background was a haunting, but beautiful, loops of some hymn sung by a choir. The ambience was about just right. Perhaps being a Catholic helps in my appreciation of the artifacts on display. Could emphatise with most of the themes displayed in the artwork. Learnt that St Peter would usually be depicted as holding the keys and a book, while St Paul would be holding a sword and the letters (Epistles) he wrote. There's a lot of interesting artifacts on display. Perhaps the most intriguing one was that of a gold-coloured crab holding a cross. From what I remember, the crab is a symbol of Christ's death and rebirth, since it sheds it old shell for a new one every so often when it gets older. It's a pity that I could take a snapshot of the crab since photography is not allowed for the exhibition. Might drop by the place again to get a copy of the exhibition catalogue. What's stopped me from getting it last Saturday was the price tag - $32. Took some photos of the museum itself and the publicity banners for the exhibit. Will post it here when I am done downloading them into the PC. Based on my past experience, this could take from between 1 month to never. It all depends on my mood. I highly recommend this exhibition to those who wish to look at really good pieces of art and artifacts, things which are seldom exhibited in our museums. See it before it goes back to the Vatican. Exhibitions ends on 9th October.

2005-09-16T15:36:00.000+08:00

This is a song that touches me deeply. Can't explain why it has this effect on me. It has that Truly, Madly, Deeply effect on me. Managed to find the lyrics on the net (see below). There's also this really fabulous flash file with the song too. It's the version sung by Weilian. You can view the clip here (highly recommended).

童话

忘了有多久

再没听到你对我说你最爱的故事

我想了很久

我开始慌了

是不是我又做错什么

你哭着对我说

童话里都是骗人的

我不可能是你的王子

也许你不会懂

从你说爱我以后

我的天空星星都亮了

我愿变成童话里 (chorus)

我要变成童话里 (chorus 2)

我会变成童话里 (chorus 3)

你爱的那个天使

张开双手

变成翅膀守护你

你要相信相信

我们会像童话故事里

幸福和快乐是结局

一起写我们的结局

2005-09-16T10:36:00.000+08:00

Oyishi!!! Watching Japan Hour on ChannelNewsAsia is an educational activity. Apart from being exposed to new yummy exotic live foodstuff, I also got to expand my Japanese vocabluary from two words, to three! Arigato and sayonara, were the first Japanese words I learnt. Oh yeah, just remembered that I know the word baka too. Although the latter is more of a derogatory term. Don't go around calling Japanese baka. They will give you a big baluku on your head! Ok, in view of the third word, the fourth Japanese word I learnt from CNA was OYISHI! At first, I have no idea what it meant. But this word was always spewed forth by the guests on the show after slurping down some tasty morsel or muching on something that looked really good. So, whenever the guest mouth the word, I immidiately looked at the English subtitles. Immediately, I saw this pattern. Guest: (Mouth full of food) OYISHI!!! Slurp, munch, swallow...

(Subtitles): DELICIOUS!!! I had the sensation of a bulb being switched on in a dark room - my head. So-deska.... (if that's correct). Since then, whenever I see food that looks tasty, I would exclaim to Mydaemon in with a greedy look and loudly exclaim OYISHI!!! Haha... Anyway, started off this blog with the title cos Mydaemon and I had a wonderful Japanese dinner yesterday. It was kind of a decadent decision on my part. But I just wanted to have a good meal with Mydaemon after the tough week she had at work. It was meant as sort of an surprise. The restaurant we went to is located at IMM. Called Hoshi, the place serves Japanese steamboat buffet, teppanyaki, and a la carte dished. The quality of the food here is not too bad. But I would consider it on the pricier side. Anyway, the money spent was worth it since we had a fabulous meal. Looking at the menu, I was spoilt for choice. Being a typical don (Japanese rice) person, I was debating between katsu don, unagi don, and oyaku don. There were also huge set meals which contained various meats. Being the more noodle person, Mydaemon zoomed in on the udons. After some serious consideration, for one should never be flippant when deciding on the food to please one's palate, I decided on this mega set. Wahahahaha.... Can't remember what's the Japanese name for it. But it contains, stir fried chicken in sweet suace (which I had no picture for)....

2 tempura prawns..... OYISHI!!!

followed by . . . unagi + rice. . . OOOOOOYISHI!!!

More excitement to come... CHAWANMUSHI... O.. O... O... OYISHIIIII!!!!!!

Haha... it must be easy to tell that I lurrrvvve Japanese food. It was a wonderful meal. I tucked into my dishes with relish. Yum, Yum! Oh, Mydaemon's food was also very 'oyishi'. She ordered for herself a bowl of tempura udon. That's the best picture I can find for her food. The real thing sure looks tastier than this.

Will bring my camera with me everywhere in the future so that I post the 'real deal' here.

2005-09-15T16:56:00.000+08:00

X-Men Legends II - Rise of Apocalypse

Was happily surfing the Gamespot when I came across this (see picture). Jaws drop. OMG!!!! X-Men Legends II is on its way! Release date is stated to be on the 21st Sep! Which means it will hit our shores not too long after that! Frankly, gaming on Xbox has become predictable since we have not purchased another game after Winning Eleven 8, which testifies to its ultra replayability. But that doesn't mean that the fun stops there. Have been hunting around for a new Xbox game for sometime. Halo 2 was high on my 'to buy' list. But it has just dropped a notch since X-Men Legends II is going to be released soon.

Another reason why I look forward to this game is that fact that it allows 2 or more players. This means that Mydaemon and I can team up and do some serious mutant ass-kicking. I am really looking forward to playing my favourite character, the lethal and quick Wolverine, while Mydaemon will retake her role as either Storm or Rogue. Read that Magneto will also be playable in this release. Sounds like a bloody good game already.

Here's my alter-ego getting ready to kick some nasty mutants ass.

2005-09-15T09:35:00.000+08:00

An Indian Rojak Dinner Mydaemon has been putting in the hours at office for the last few weeks. Guess that's sort of a payback for all the hours we slack throughout the year. Cooking was not possible since we reach home rather late, and sandwiches for dinner don't really appeal to her. So, we have been eating out rather frequently over the past week. Being ever the foodie, I have been pining for the sinful meal for quite some time. Here's how I would define sinful foods. Sinful: Any food items that contain hazardous levels of fats, oil, cholesterol, and anything that tastes good but is essentially unhealthy. Read char kway teow, Indian rojak, fried Hokkien mee, roti prata (Field Marshal's favourite), KFC, cheesecakes, coffee - cafe mocha, curry, sweetcakes.... SEDAP!!! My mouth is starting to water just looking at the words. Oops, there goes a stray drip of saliva. Slurp. Ok, back to last night's dinner. After all the hard work, Mydaemon decided that we should have Indian Rojak for dinner. YIPPEE!!!!!!! Having to contain my elation, since performing somersaults and running around like crazy ain't possible in the car, I just said, sure. Don't want to show too much enthusiasm, and have my rojak meal 'revoked'. Once the car was parked, my internal gastronomic radar was switched on to full power. Homing in to the fume emitted by the boiling oil, reused countless of days, used to fry the heavenly little buggers - the rojak, I calculated the shortest trajectory to the rojak stall, with Mydaemon in tow that is. Here again, I had to contain my enthusiasm. Not very sightly to see a full-grown man in smart office attire dashing like a lunatic for something as simple as Indian rojak. Every step was a test of my sheer willpower. It was a conscious effort to keep my legs from running away from me. With much self-control, we finally arrived at the stall. Boy, the sight was heavenly. Laid out nicely in front of me were neat rows fried Indian rojak. Only my lack of Indian vocabluary prevents me from naming the tasty treats staring at me. Mama, I am in heaven. For those who love Indian rojak, you have to try this wonderful stall. It's located at the Ayer Rajah Hawker Centre. Look for stall number 69. The number of the stall is a coincidence, and have nothing to do with any aphrodisiac effects of the rojak. :P Was at a loss on what I should order. I wanted to eat EVERYTHING!!! Again, losing self-control in front of Mydaemon is a definite no-no. Calling down every single ounce of self-control, I started picking off the mouth-watering items onto my plate. Did anyone tell you that choosing the food items from an Indian rojak stall is therapeutic? Try it and you know what I am talking about. The first thing on the plate was this huge fried sotong. Following that, the floodgates opened. In quick succession, I filled the plate with goodies, which I have not names for. Basically, these include those kosong long fair ones, oranged coloured ones stuff with hardboiled eggs and potatoes, tau gua, and tempe. In the end, we ordered $9.50 worth of Indian rojak. And as the saying goes, the rest is history. Burp!

2005-09-14T09:01:00.000+08:00

Real Betis 1 - Liverpool 2 Good news greeted me when I checked the Football365 website for an instant update on this morning's European Champions League group stage matches. Given Liverpool's rather staid start to the English Premier League season, I wasn't hopeful for a win against a well-rated Spanish side. But surprise surprise, Liverpool did it again. Go Rafa! Go!

2005-09-13T10:50:00.000+08:00

The Night of a Thousand Lightnings

Not sure if any noticed, but Singapore must have been hit by a record number of lightning strikes lat evening. If you believe Straits Times to be the definitive medium in covering news in Singapore, then you are missing out a lot.

Yesterday's evening 'thunderstorm', which I as a trained geographer attest to, is one of the most scariest one I have ever witnessed. Leaving my office at around 6.30pm, the vista from my window was already a picture of inky, oily black, clouds rolling towards my general direction. What's intriguing about this coming storm was the frequency of lightning strikes. From my window, I could already see one lightning after another striking different locations in the general area around Novena, where my office is. Fearing that we could be caught in the rain, I told Mydaemont to pack up and 'evacuate' from the office if we are not to be caught in the middle of a rainstorm.

Once out of the building proper, we witnessed continued flashes of lightning striking places near out office. Lighting up the sky like some flash photographer gone mad, we heard the boom, boom, boom, of the thunders that follow the repeated lightning strikes. It was an uncomfortable experience even when we were under the scant shelter of a covered walkway.

Hoping to reach our car before the rain pours on us, we hastened our footsteps, but the continued flashes and booming kept us huddled under the covered walkway. Fear of a lightning strike kept us from walking on the open route, of wide grass patches, which we needed to take to reach the car. Deciding not to risk ourselves as human lightning rods, since we are likely to be relatively tall targets in the open space, we decided to make a detour through the Tan Tock Seng Hospital, a route which will help to cut the distance of open ground which we need to cross before reaching our car.

Upon reaching the exit of the hospital, we found out that the skies have finally opened up, and were pouring buckets of rain down onto Earth. We were still debating on whether we should risk make a quick dash to the car, which was now around about 400m away. But another rapid fire series of lightning stikes in the immediate vicinity made the decision for us. We will stay in the relatively safer confines of the hospital and wait out this crazy thunderstorm before. Before we headed back into the hospital, we witnessed a spectacle of lightning after lightning stiking buildings around the hospital. There was actually a moment when three bright streaks struck an office building. We were transfixed by the noise of the rain, the flashes of the continuous lightning and the booming of the thunder around us. It was a weird feeling.

Since we are not able to make our way home, we decided to get some chow into our systems to soothe our frayed nerves. Guess there's always a bright spot in the gloomiest of occasions. For me, the bright spot was the Yong Tou Foo stall in TTSH's foodcourt. I am singling this stall out because the size of its yong tou foo is big. Big, as in 30% or more larger than those we get in other foodcourts. They also have my favourite fried wanton. Yummy. Tucking into my yong tou foo dry beehoon meal, I totally forgotten about the raging thunderstorm which was still wowing people with its brilliant lights show for people in the open. Once my tummy was full, I suggested to Mydaemon that it's time for us to make the trip home. As we made our way to the exit again, we noticed a barrage of flahses, made visible through TTSH's windowed roofing. Darn! Looks like the 'Lightning God' is having a hell of a good time this evening.

When we reached the exit, we were once again treated to the spectacle of continued flashes, thunderous booming and rain. I was like, what that hell... At the rate the lightnings were going off, there must have been at least a few hundred stikes while we were having dinner.

As Mydaemon and I were once again cowed into inaction by the show of force by Mother Nature, we noticed that Singaporeans, from old uncles to schoolkids, simply opening their filmsy umbrellas, filmsy compared to my huge one, and started trudging into the open, making their way to whichever destination they were headed for. And there we were standing under shelter as countless people walked into the open as lightning struck ever which way around the hospital.

I am not sure if my jaw dropped open then, but I was amazed at the actions of my fellow citizens. Did the government fed them something in the water which failed to take effect on my and Mydaemon? These fellas were either very brave, or worryingly foolhardy. Perhaps the constant call by the government to take risks are finally beginning to bear fruit. But I bet the government didn't say what risks not to take, and being the compliant people that we are, most Singaporeans thought takings risks is good for us when the government said so. Guess natural selection is also at play here. If you know what I mean.

After waiting for another 10 minutes, we finally decided to make 'THE' trip. What a normal walk to our car yesterday had become a really bizarre 'trip'. Never in my life was a simple walk turned into such a nerve-racking 'adventure'. As we worked up our guts to step into the open, with only my big but still 'filmsy' umbrella for protection, my only thought was to make it through this experience not being struck by lightning.

We walked as fast we our legs could take us while keeping the umbrella upright. I could feel Mydaemon's iron-like grip on the umbrella. She later told me that she wanted to make sure that we are not the tallest object around. Covering that short distance between the hospital and our car became an eternity. Lightning flashes and thunder were going off all around us. There was an occasion where I felt as if I was in the middle of a photoshoot as the surrounding lit up in a bright flash. I still have no idea where the lightning struck. It was like walking through a war zone with the noise. It felt exactly like the scene in War of the Worlds when the lightning struck Earth. It was that scary. I would be lying if I said that I was not afraid. Hell, I was totally rattled.

After what seemed like a lifetime of walking, we finally reached some shelter. Even under the shelter, the sky refused to let go of us, another bright flash lit up the surrounding around us, putting more spring into our legs to make the final short burst of speed to our car, which was now 20 plus metres away. Even that short a distance was punctuated by flashes and booming thunder. Once inside the car, Mydaemon and I looked at each other, with a look that essentially said, 'we made it'.

At this point, I mentioned that this night, with the storm and lightning, was like a scene plucked out from one of Dean Koontz's books. Yes, the night was really dark, wet and evil. Something was just not right. The car was like a protective cocoon. Boy, I was never that afraid in my life. Even when I was alone with my military vehicle in the training area, and 10 plus stray dogs started surrounding me and started howling in the moonlight. That was freaky, but it was no way as scary as what I experienced last night. It was as if end times were near. As we drove off, we had this surrealistic sensation of being in a horror flick, just like what Tom Cruise experiences ni War of the Worlds. Freaky.

When we reached home. There was nary a drop of rain. The floor around the block was surprisingly dry. It was as if the entire rainstorm existed in our minds. Another freaky moment. It was really a night of a thousand, at least, lightnings.

2005-09-12T10:37:00.000+08:00

Hitting the Tracks Running Given the frequency in which I will be hitting the running tracks, I think I will only update the D-Days when I am out jogging with Summerbreeze and Shitake. Today, will be my third jogging session since Mydaemon and I started our permanent healthy lifestyle programme. Wide ranging changes have started to change various areas of our lives, from our diet to the frequency of our exercise sessions. Let me go back to the first jobbing session last Friday. It has been some time since I last jogged in any stadium. Thus, it was a refreshing change from pounding on the gym's treadmill or the gravel track around the Pandan Reservoir. Before I share my running experiece, I just have to share with you on the standard of the toilet facilities at the Toa Payoh Stadium. Being one of the oldest stadiums around, I expected the toilet facilities to be run-down and 'icky'. But I was genuinely surprised when I found out that the toilets were dry, well-ventilated and bright. Residents of Toa Payoh are one lucky lot. Stepping out of the toilet, I had a good view of the stadium itself. Looking around, I realised that Singaporeans are actually quite health conscious, as the number of joggers in the stadium number only around 40-50 people at any given time. There was also an carnival-like feel as there were many parents jogging with their little ones. Also in the jogging fraterinity were retirees, NS boys, students, and office workers. Somehow, it just feels good to be in the stadium partaking in the same activity with my fellow Singaporeans. I started off the session with a super slow pace. The rubberised tracks was really a joy to run on as it absorbed the impact of each of my strides. The first 400m was sort of a warm-up for me as I got my stiff leg muscles to loosen and warm up. Once sufficicently warmed-up, I adopted the fast-slow technique, where I jogged slowly for 100m before picking up my pace for the next 100m. Alternating my speed helped to regulate my breathing and pace as I am sure I would have stopped after 2 rounds if I maintained a 'medium' speed jog. After the 2nd lap, I entered into the 'zone'. This is a sensation when my body becomes attuned to the level of exertion I am imposing on it. All my actions became a fluid motion when my strides and breathing became synchronised. It was a joy to run then. My target was to complete a 2.4km run. No time limit was set since this was the first time I am timing myself after quite a long period of time. At the end, I took 30mins to complete that distance. I am not really disappointed as this is the start, and I believe the my timing will improve with time. My eventual target is to reach a level of fitness where I can complete the run within the IPPT standards, around 12mins. For today's run, I am looking to 28 to 29 minutes. I can't wait to put on my running shoes and start running this evening.

2005-09-11T12:16:00.000+08:00

New on the PA System - 大长今 OST The music and songs in the Korean drama 大长今 (Da Chang Jin) is really well composed and written. While I have no idea what the lyrics is about, the tone and tune of the main theme is a very touching piece. It kindles in me a feeling of challenges, dreams, hope, love and peace. Don't ask me where I get all these feelings from, but I just innately feel them whenever the 长今 faces a new ordeal or tribulation, or when she shares a happy moment with Ming Zheng Hao, or even when she's slicing away in the Imperial Kitchen. Having vowed not to spend too much money on CDs in recent years, I decided to get myself a copy of the 大长今 OST yesterday. My only other Korean OST being that of My Sassy Girl, I have full confidence that the OST for the hit drama should not disappoint. And it sure didn'tdisappoint. The music is exactly what I hear on every expisode. A flood of memories and scenes hit me when a particular track is played. It's really an enjoyable CD. In fact, it's still playing on my PC now, having ripped it into my mediaplayer. I like the Chinese version of the theme - 娃娃. The translated version was meaningful as the lyrics spoke of 长今's longing for her parent, who she lost at a very young age. I found this line especially meaningful, "想爸爸，想妈妈，想要回家". In the context of the drama, you will understand this deep sense of longing. While no tears are welling in my eyes, but I feel this warm fuzzy feeling deep in me. Better stop here.

2005-09-09T16:31:00.000+08:00

D-MINUS 1 HR 45 MINS TO D-DAY ONE The day of reckoning is here. In another hour and forty-five minutes, I will be pounding the tracks of Toa Payoh Stadium in my first planned exercise session of the year. Looking out the window of my office, I can see the sun shining brightly on the trees and buildings. What a wonderful weather for a jog. I can almost feel the warmth of the sun in the freezingly cold environment of my office. Can't wait to put on my track shoes and start eating up the track. Looks like I am going to have an enjoyable evening. What's missing is a Ipod Nano on my arm. Nah, I'd still rather have it bigger brother or Zen Vision. Shucks, gotta stop thinking about them! Perhaps some exertion on the tracks will clense my mind of such 'evil' thoughts!

2005-09-08T17:47:00.000+08:00

PUBLIC ENEMY NO. 1

Every week, around 500 plus people are knocked out by this little pesky bugger, aka Aedes mosquito, in Singapore. Hospitals are getting so crowded with dengue fever patients that Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan has made a statement that all non-critical surgery will be postponed in public hospitals in order to free up space for a potential surge of dengue patients in the coming weeks.

Personally, I also have a bone to pick with this insect. Firstly, my housing estate falls within one of the identified dengue hotzones. Tough luck. Anyway, blocks just a street away have been declared as a dengue affected zones. So, my family are at risk. Secondly, my dad recently developed high fever and a horrible rash on his ankle. We were quite worried that it was dengue fever since rashes and inflammation are symptoms of this viral infection. A blood test at the polyclinic cleared my dad of the infection. But the rash has not subsided. So, we are still kind of worried. The only thing we can do now is to make sure that we take extra precaution and immediately see a doctor if we start exhibiting symptoms common to dengue fever.

Now, at the more macro leve, we, as in Singaporeans, have been exhorted by the authorities, namely MOH, to play our role as responsible citizens, to look out for any potential mosquito breeding areas and take the necessary actions to clean up the place. Rationale is that these pesky little creatures have an effective range of around 100 plus metres, and if all of us do our part, Singapore will be aedes-free.

I think that we should all play a part in this battle. At our level, we should check that all the water collection plates of our potted plants are drained frequently. Containers holding water in the open should be covered properly. For landed properties, owners should check their drainage, roofs and ledges that could collect water. If not for the public, owners should do this for their own families. I believe these actions should put a dent on the dengue scourge. However, I think the Town Councils should take on a more active role too. Frankly, I have not heard the hums of thermal fogging in my neighbourhood for months. This is puzzling especially when I live around the 'hot' zones. The only consolation is that fogging could be carried out during the weekdays while I am at work. But if that's the case, how is it possible that there are still mosquitoes, of the non-aedes type, feeding on my blood while I sleep. Go figure.

While I fully support the above public initiatives, I am also worried about the potential erosion of privacy which can happen due to this development. Well, my concern basically stems from a statement contained in Mr Khaw's anti-aedes speech. Basically, he thinks that mosquitoes could be breeding in houses that have been left vacant for extended periods of time. And since no one could access these houses, he mooted the possibility of giving enforcement agencies the power to 'access' (for me, break into) those vacant houses.

I think such a legislation is too extreme for my liking. How can the state be given powers, or even harbour the thought, to enter the private homes of the citizens. To me, privacy is a sacred right that all citizens should have. Unless it is an emergency situation, where martial law has already been enacted, then I would more than readily agree to such a legislation. But to forcibly enter our home, albeit legally for a reason as insignificant as this, is not right. Our rights to privacy should be respected.

If such a legislation can be pushed through the parliament so easily, what's there to stop the government from pushing through more draconian laws, in the name of public safety and welfare. The government should review all possible solutions before even considering such a drastic act. For example, have they considered whether increased thermal fogging at the surrounding premises of these vacant homes would be effective against the aedes mosquitoes?

I would rather pay a little more, as if there's a need to, income tax to pay for this, than to have a law which essentially allows legal access into my home whenever the government thinks there's some insect breeding in it. I would feel violated at a very basic level if my home is ever forcibly accessed for the name of 'public good'.

2005-09-08T08:30:00.000+08:00

England 0 - Northern Ireland 1 Looks like Sven should work harder on the field than between the sheets. England looks good for a first round exit in next year's World Cup after their loss to Northern Ireland this morning. To think they even dared to declare that they are capable of winning the World Cup is a joke. Whoever made that comment must have been very drunk then. The English should be thankful that it was the Irish they faced, and not 'real' competitors such as Brazil or Spain. The scoreline would have been very different then.

2005-09-08T08:24:00.000+08:00

Fever Pitch (1997)

To satisfy the likes of Mydaemon and Naniecheng, I have found a photo of Colin Firth in the Brit production of Nick Hornby's Fever Pitch (1997). Looks kinda goofy. With a look like this, I am sure the movie is a blast.

2005-09-07T13:48:00.000+08:00

Fat cells beware, I am coming after you! Yesterday evening, Mydaemon and I finally overcame our inertia and went for a walk-a-jog. Months must have passed since the last time we exercised together. So, restarting a healthy regime needed much mental psyching since I have not in anyway, exercised for a long time. As I dusted the imaginary cobwebs away from my track shoes, I felt a sense of purpose in the jogging session. Well, as most of you know by now, Mydaemon and I are getting married in the near future, but we have yet to get many things sorted out in our lives. Health has been an issue between us since I have gout and a hint of high blood pressure. Guess that the price I had to pay for being the foodie that I am and being overweight for much of my life. It has been a difficult last 2 years when I had almost monthly gout attacks. These attacks are horrible! Some joint on my body will get inflamed and swollen. The skin around the joint will turn an ugly angry red. One thing that gout sufferers has to sacrifice is the consumption of protein, read red meat, alcohol, bean related produce etc. This has been the hardest part of the journey since I love soya bean milk, steaks, seafood, nuts and beans. And all these are on the restricted diet list. Sigh... Being the greedy guy that I am, I often often beyond the amount that I can 'safely' take. The end result is visits to doctors and consuming tonnes of painkillers. Thankfully, that episode is behind me now. My last attack was 3-4 months back. Going back to an attack-free lifestyle is a relief. Not only that I am more active physically, I am happier as a person now. It is not easy to live with constant pain. Pains inevitably wears down the person. I do actually feel helpless and depressed when the attacks just refused to go away. For gout sufferers out there, my advice is listen to the doctor. Take your allopurinol properly, and life can go on as normal. Back to th exercise regime. Well, I see the purpose of the regime as easing myself back to a healthy state. I stringly believe that a healthy body is one of the foundations for happiness in life. Thus, it is my responsibility to Mydaemon to remain fit and healthy for our future family unit. While I know that Mydaemon will always be there for me, in health or in sickness, I do not want to tire her with such concerns which can be avoided if I put in more effort. With that in mind, we outfitted ourselves in comfy attire, ready to take on the jogging track ahead of us. The jogging track we took was the dirt/gravel track bordering the Padan Reservoir. At the beginning of our job, I thought that a slow jog would be a piece of cake. But I realised that my calf, thigh and leg muscles have all atrophied since my last exercise session. The first 100-200m was ok. But as I progressed, the going got tough. And since I am not an Energizer Bunny, the tough got tougher. As I laboured on, I could hear Mydaemon's steady footsteps behind me. Come to think of it, we must have made an interesting sight. Interesting in that she was walking at the speed that I was jogging, or vice versa. I have to admit that my speed is really slow, but this only shows that Mydaemon is still pretty fit. Well, fitter than me at least. We jogged/walked for 25 minutes. In terms of distance, I think it should be in the region of 2km or more. For me, that's already a very good start. Now my legs are all rubbery and tired. I am just glad that my job doesn't require me to run around much. Hopefully, my legs would have regained their strength by this Friday, when Mydaemon, Summer Breeze, Shitake and I meet up for the 'planned' jogging session. If not, then I will have to find someway to move around the jogging tracks. Hmmm... perhaps I will be the first Singaporean to set a Guiness record for rolling the longest distance on a jogging track.

2005-09-07T08:43:00.000+08:00

The Perfect Catch

Caught this movie with Mydaemon on Sunday. Been a long time since a nice romanc comeday came our way. The Perfect Catch is a movie about the relationship between a crazy high-school teacher cum fanatical Red Sox fan - Ben Wrightman (Jimmy Fallon) and type-A go-getter Lindsey Meeks (Drew Barrymore).

The movie does a pretty good job in parodying real-life relationships between men who are obsessed with a certain sporting team, and women, who are generally clueless as to why their men are so crazy about a bunch of people who don't even know they - the men - exist.

Perfect Catch is a movie I can closely emphatise with since I am very much like Ben in real life. Having been a Liverpool supporter since their glory days in the mid-1980s, I have rooted for them since. The advent of cable TV did not help since every Saturday night is THE night for football. You can imagine the times I have to wrench myself from home spend time with Mydaemon on weekends. Don't read this wrong. I enjoy the times I am out with Mydaemon when 'live' matches of Liverpool are shown on cable. But I'd be lying if I say that no part of me would like to rush home and catch the match.

Lastly, I chose the photo above since it is just like a snapshot of Mydaemon and I in bed. Looking at the picture, I can see myself reading some trashy novel while Mydaemon sharpens her mind with books of wisdom by the cutting edge thinkers. This is indeed a case of art imitating life, or is it the other way round?

2005-09-06T17:23:00.000+08:00

Of Rivets and Responsibility Recently, news of people rushing to retrofit their windows with new rivets started to resurface in our media as the deadline for retrofitting draws nearer. Being one of those who are affected, I note with some concern over my dad's, who's the head of the family, lack of reaction to the impending change in legislation, which essentially makes the owner of the flat liable if the window rivets have not been changed to approved specifications. After much cajoling, and a lot of noise making on my part, my dad finally called up HDB to check if we needed to have our rivets changed. His initial resistance to take action partly due to his 'anti-establishment' mentality as well as his misguided 'gut' feel that our rivets are safe since we had changed our windows before. His argument was that why should the government penalise the flat owner for problems with the rivets when it was the government, a la HDB, would fitted thousands of flats with substandard rivets in the first place. On this count, I have to agree with him. Firstly, how can HDB tender the building projects to the lowest bidders and expect the contractors to build the flats with the best available materials? Only a fool of a businessman would do such a thing when profit margins are razor thin. Lowest bids would only mean shoddy materials, those that just barely pass the specifications. Like the saying goes, when you pay peanuts, you get a T T Durai. So, when the government pay peanuts for thousands of flats, we get aluminum rivets, not steel ones. So, it should not come as a surprise when our substandard rivets start corroding and windows start raining down HBD estates. If my memory serves me right, I think one of my kitchen windows threatened to commit suicide some years back. It was then when my home got a new set of windows, which thankfully are not supplied by HDB contractors. Going back to the story, my dad made a call to HDB to check on whether our rivets needed to be changed. Basically, what he did was to inform them that our windows were not the original, crappy set, installed by HDB, and asked how we can verify if the current set of rivets would meet the new specifications. I am not sure what to make of this, but HDB told my dad to try scratching the rivets with a piece of metal. If it doesn't scratch, it is ok. He scratched, and the rivets stayed pristine. However, does scratching the rivet really show that it is made from steel or aluminum? If you happen to be a materials engineer, please let me know if that's true. And if there's a lawyer reading this post, I would greatly appreciate some free advice on whether we can use the defence that we followed HDB's advice on this. And if our rivets should turn out to be made of aluminum at least we have some form of recourse. My fear is that with no written record, we are bound to lose any appeal if the garman decides to slap the ridiculous $5000 fine on us for a stupid defect which was not of our doing in the first place. The more I write about this, the moreI smell the stink in the system. How can we be expected to dig ourselves out of some crappy problem generated by HDB? Why should the onus fall on us, the homeowners, when the 'problem creator' gets off scot-free. How can the Ministry of National Development simply solve the problems by passing a bill which made it mandatory for the homeowners to bear full responsibility while absolving the responsibility of HDB from the defects that came with the flats when it sold them to people like my dad. Tell me, where's the logic in this. On hindsight, the hotlines and media onslaught reminding us to do the right things is all one big ridiculous ruse to coerce us into giving up our right to question HDB, and the government, on what they should have done. Instead we are made to feel like criminals who have to needlessly worry about breaking the stupid law which shouldn't be passed if not for shoddy workmanship. This is so 1984.

2005-09-01T16:46:00.000+08:00

Ever Expanding Sidebar I think the sidebar is the greatest invention after blogs. Why do I say that? Well, it is the only place on the blog where I can keep piling things into! For a HTML-idiot like me, it is a miracle that I have deciphered how to make simple alterations to the template. Once that 'talent', call me thick-skinned, is unlocked, things have never been the same again. Suffering the greatest abuse from my '皮毛' HTML skills, is my trusty sidebar. For those who have followed this blog (thanks for the support), you would have noticed that my sidebar has been getting 'fatter' vertically over the past 2-3 weeks. Today's latest addition is the Stuff I Want section. Basically, it will showcase some of the things that have caught my eye and plans are being made to 'procure' them. Ssssh.... don't let Mydaemon know since she's rather disapproving of me splurging on tech toys. Oops, forgotten she's linked to here. Hee Hee :P I know she will understand one lah. Right, dear? Anyway, what you will see listed there is the Zen Vision ($799) and the white Ipod ($528). Yes, both of them perform roughly the same functions. The only difference being that Zen Vision plays videos and have 10GB more space. But the price is $200 more too. As to why I want them. Well, I need storage for digital photos when I am overseas, being the trigger happy person that I am. Moreover, I am not willing to get a 1GB CF Card, which is prohibitively expensive and slows down the speed of the camera. So, I am looking at MP3 players that functions as a storage device as well as displays the photos I have taken. The contenders have always been clear. It is between the cool, and ever sexy, Ipod, or the new, and yes, hard to believe, sexy, Zen Vision, which comes in 2 colours, black or white. Since I am still recovering from the purchase of the Palm Tungsten E2s, my acquisition of a MP3 player, which is of very low priority, will have to wait. But at least this is something which I am looking forward to. I will be following up with a poll to let all of you vote on whether I should get Ipod or Zen Vision. But the decision of the buyer, that's me, will still be final regardless of the poll. But your votes may just swing my decision, which is currently tilting towatd Ipod. Last but not least, here are the contenders... On the left corner, Steve Job's ever cool and damn sexy IPOD!!!! On the right corner, we have Wong Hoo's up and come 'Ipod-killer' wannabe, the ZEN VISION (in black overalls)... Who will triumph? Will Wong Hoo's Zen Vision finally put a dent in the sexy white casing of Steve's Ipod? The saga continues.

2005-08-31T15:30:00.000+08:00

New Ringtones Was going through my bills last night when I decided to read the leaflet, which I consider spam, in my M1 bill. Basically, it contained nothing but useless information and plans to earn more money from unwary subscribers. The only good thing to come out from my 2 minutes of attention was my realisation that I can download free ringtones from M1. Call me slow or suaku, but this is new to me. Being the cheapo that I am, I immediately logged onto MiWorld via my trusty K700i, hoping to find some gems. Couldn't relate to most of the ringtones in the 'webstie'. Think they are too hip for 'uncles' like me. But I manged to download 2 ringtones yesterday. Here's the full list since last night. Did some downloading earlier in office. Tong Hua - Guang Liang (Very nice!!! Personalised for calls from Mydaemon) Dan Ni Gu Dan - Zhang Dong Liang (Not too bad. Replaced Pachabel's Cannon as my general ringtone) DaDaDa - Cyndi Wang (so-so. Won't use it since I don't really like her as a person) Don't Phunk with My Heart - Black Eyed Peas (ok lah. Don't know how to appreciate this genre of music) Sweety - Qin Yi Xia (whatever. Don't even know who she, or he, is!!!)

2005-08-30T17:40:00.000+08:00

Omigosh! Owen is signing for the Magpies!!! Was hoping for the 'prodigal son' ending for the Michael Own saga. Am still pretty peeved that he upped and left Liverpool last season when we were building a squad for the future. that showed us where his loyalties lie. But I am willing to see him back in the famous red shirt again after he fell out of favour in Real Madrid. This willingness has much to do with the misfiring duo of Fernando Morientes and Djibril Cisse. All signs were pointing to a comeback for 'St. Michael' up till I caught this news in Soccernet. Does Owen know that he's taking a huge risk by going to Newcastle? Sure, they will offer him regular football. But can they offer him the European competitions that Liverpool can? Granted that Newcastle did a great job against ManYoo last Sunday, if not for the abject defending of Boumsong. But the team sure has the look of an underperformer this year. And no one is going to bet against it from dropping down into Division 1. If things don't turn out well, we might see Owen going down the route of another Liverpool great - Robbie Fowler. Guess all Liverpool fans will have to resign themselves to an 'Owenless' Liverpool. Ok, Cisse and Nandoo better buck up and put on their scoring shoes.

2005-08-30T14:29:00.000+08:00

New Addition to Side-bar I have just added another category to my ever-expanding sidebar. Called the 'Important D-Days', the section basically counts down to several important dates to me. Especially useful is the number of days to the next public holiday, something which every Singaporean looks forward to. Then there is the countdown to the completed of our (Mydaemon and I) dreamhome sometime in Nov this year. So, lots of stuff to look forward to. Lastly, I had a blast by creating a counter for counting down to my retirement sometime in 2036. According to the timer, I have to slog another 11,446 more days before I can kick off my shoes and relax at home. The good thing is that the 11,000 plus days include weekends, holidays and of course the very precious annual leave. Hopefully, I can cut short on this and update my targeted retirement day as and when I think I can afford it. Stay tuned!

2005-08-29T20:10:00.000+08:00

The 1968 NDP Downpour I knew that something was on when PM Lee choked back his emotions and tears during the National Day Rally last weekend. Being the cynical person that I am, my sensors were at full power trying to pick up any stray nationalistic educational waves that are to be emitted from PM Lee's speech. And as sure as the sun will rise in the East I was 'rewarded' with the reasons why the 1968 NDP Parade held supposedly strong emotions for him. Well, according to the man himself, he was part of a band that was to perform at the parade. That makes him one of those heroes that braved the torrential rains on 8 Aug 1968. Frankly speaking I cannot understand what's the big hoo-ha over this incident. For me, it is just plain bad luck that heavens decided to dump rain on the performers on that fateful day. If you ask me what I will remember that day for, although I wasn't there, I would say that it is a day when most Singaporeans got wet at the same time. Seriously, does a show of few hundred wet performers show the resolve and tenacity of a fledging nation? Nay, I say. The resolve of our forefathers were not shown in one single event, like getting drenched at the parade, nor standing by the road to cheer the drenched performers as they march past the old streets of Singapore. What really showed the resolve of this nation is the fact that the people wanted to make Singapore, the 'new kid on the block', work. It is every drop of sweat and blood that went into ensuring the our ports ran 24 hours, that our docks were cleared of goods, that factories produced the goods, which make each and every Singapore of the 1960s-70s the pioneers that we should all look up to, not a bunch of fellas who think that are heroes just because they got wet. Fast forward to the 1990s - 2000s. Chances are, National Day Parades will still go on even in rain or shine in this day and age. The fact is, without the command of the parade commander to fall out, nobody in their right mind would run at the faintest of a torrential downpour. Ask any NS boy and they would answer that facing the wrath of nature would be preferable to facing the wrath of the company regimental sergeant major back in camp after running to take cover from raindrops. I can imagine the RSM shouting, "KNNCCB! You call yourselves men? My grandmother can stand in the rain for TWO, yes TWO f*cking hours without flinching. You TELL ME THAT YOU ARE AFRAID OF SOME BLOODY RAINDROPS!!!! ALL OF YOU SIGN FOR DEFAULTERS PARADE THIS WEEKEND. And all will get one week confinement. FALLOUT YOU SISSIES!!!

Since the first generation of RSMs, circa 1968, were trained by the professionals, Israel, I doubt anyone in their right minds would want to check if their RSMs or parade commander is nice enough to excuse them from the parade. Come to think about it, if just weathering through a torrential downpour qualifies a person as full of resolve and strength, then all who had ROD (before 1995) from NS are heroes to me. I say this since all who had ever gone through NS would have taken more shit and nonsense in the two and a half years in the shitholes we call army camps. Not all shitholes are alike since things do change when a pristine white horse trots into camp. I say post '95 NSFs are sissies because I have seen how soft these losers are. Remember all the softies who looked capable of peeing their fatigues when some robbers were loose on Tekong? Yeah, they are big time LOSERS! Afraid of robbers holding a pistol when you are holding a bloody M16 rifle. Need I say more.

Coming back to the issue proper, what I want to say is that the tears that failed to flow during the Rally was an impressively chereographed piece that kickstarted a host of national educational media programmes. We are now in the middle of it. Look around and you will find at people coming forward to share their experience of the '68 spirit. Prior to the mention of the rain that befell PM Lee in 1968, no one gave a hoot, or half for that, to know whether the sun was shining then. The fact is, no one bloody cared. So, after one mention, the whole nation has caught on this 1968 bug. To be linked to that fateful day is seen as patriotic and worst of all, cool. Performers, spectators, former MPs and loads of other unimportant people suddenly remembered what they did on 9 Aug 1968, tripping all over each other now to give their accounts. If you ask them what happened on another NDP parade, I bet their eyes would glaze over and answered with a 'duh'.

If you are still not convinced that this is a concerted effort to pump some nationalistic sentiments into brains, then ask yourself this. How did Mediacorp and SPH managed to pump our all the info in articles and documentaries within such a short period of time? Journalists are hardworking folks, but I doubt that they, or the filming crew + supporting cast, would be able to field documentaries and a whole range of other media onslaught within such a short period of time. Everything was already ready. They were just waiting for our PM to hold back his tears.

Welcome to Singapore's very own brand of national education. One has to live here for an extended period to not even feel that something is not right. Well, there are always the cynics like me. Always looking for something sinister, even when it is just as simple as rain.

2005-08-28T15:29:00.000+08:00

大长今 - Jewel of the Palace

I have always been a fan of Japanese drama and TV series. It has something to do with Oshin, the drama of a little girl who overcame everything to become a successful businesswoman with heart. Since then I enjoyed other drama series like Under One Roof , Hero, Long Vacation, and many others. What's kicked off this Japanese drama fanatism was no less driven by my support for Matsu Takako. Having said so much about what I liked, now I will talk about what I really like now.

大长今 (Jewel in the Palace or Da Chang Jin) is the latest Korean drama hitting our shores. I am not sure when cable started screening the series, but I was sure it was already running when the MRT trains were plastered with the advertisements. At that time, I just thought that it must be another one of those fads which will pass. Never did I know that I would become an avid follower of the series myself.

Actually, I have Mydaemon to thank for introducing me to this series. Prior to that my impression of all Korean series is that they are pretty crappy. Yes, it kind of a strong sentiment, but that's what I felt all along. I happen to be at Mydaemon's place , when Mydaemon tested the 大长今 dvds which she bought for her mum. I have to admit that I was hooked after watching the first few episodes. Since that fateful day, I have been watching 大长今 every Sunday. Now I am at the part where 长今 lost her ability to taste. Not sure what's going to happen next, but I am already looking forward to the next few episodes.

Going to sign off and pop the disc into the player now. Sundays have never been so good on the goggle box.

2005-08-28T15:05:00.000+08:00

Teddy the Field Marshal

This picture basically sums up who I am. I am really a child at heart. The big smile you see is the happy-go-lucky me. The lolly and ice cream shows that I am a foodie who is often mistaken by Mydaemon as being greedy. The mud's there since I can be quite lazy and messy at times.

2005-08-26T12:54:00.000+08:00

Chao Mugger Award (Senior Survivor) Awarded to the retired mugging veterans, who have successfully proven themselves to be mugworthy for the Singapore society, and still appreciative of their past education. Field Marshal's Acceptance Speech I would like to thank the En & Hou of The Students' Sketchpad in awarding mugging veterans like me with the Chao Mugger Award (Senior Survivor). I would also like to thank my parents, especially my mum for going through countless of hours giving me 听写 (wipes a stray tear). Without them I wouldn't be what I am today, the Chao Mugger with an award to boot! Ok, I have to head back to mugging in the office now. Till the next awards, leeeeeeet's MUG!!! (APPLAUSE pls) Well, that's how I would envision myself during the award ceremony. :P

2005-08-24T23:14:00.000+08:00

蔡淳佳 - 有一天我会 Just bought 蔡淳佳 - 有一天我会 album. Have heard her older songs before, and I have to say her voice is pretty good. Just ripped the album into my mediaplayer and letting it play as I write this post. It's a pity that she does not possess the crucial 'X' factor which makes a star a star. The entertainment circle is a pretty unforgiving place. Having talent is one thing, but having the looks cum x-factor is every thing. One can survive with looks or x-factor. But it is always an uphill battle for those artistes with pure talent. They either become extremely popular, for their talents, or they just disappear from the horizon after a short stint. I sincerely hope that 蔡淳佳 is the former class. She does possess a nice clear voice. Perhaps she should have adopted Ocean's marketing style of staying out of the limelight. Conquer the market then show her face. Success rate should be pretty good since she not too bad looking at all.

2005-08-22T21:37:00.000+08:00

Tsk Tsk Michelle After hearing so much about Star Run (跑吧！艺人) from Mydaemon, I decided to catch today's episode. The guests for the show were Michelle Chong (庄米雪), Jeff Wang and Ng Hui. I have the admit the show is pretty interesting. I think the Math game is the toughest. Basically, whenever a star kena the 'Math' penalty, a young student will read out a mathematical problem currently taught at Primary 4. Most of the time, I sat in front of the TV flabbergasted at the level of difficulty. Have to hand it to our next generation for being able to solve such tough questions. Another penalty was to get the guest star to call up a friend, and within a stipulated time, get that friend to say a specific word or comment. Anyway, Michelle Chong kena this penalty during the game. Basically, she had to ask her friend to say '你去死'. So, she picked up the phone to call Sharon Au (欧菁仙). This Sharon Au also quite blur one, immediately, she blurted out "ain't you suppose to call me when you are on the show Star Run right?" You should have seen Jack Neo's face - as black as thunderclouds. Well, I don;t blame him lah. The purpose of this show is to sabo the guest stars and not to have someone collude with a friend to stage an act, sabo Jack Neo and gang, and win the prize money. That's a no-no in the entertainment circle. You should have seen Michelle Chong's face then, she was embarrassed big time! It's not often to see one's integrity go down the drain on national TV. For me, I was kinda disappointed that Michelle is this sort of person. I always thought that she's quite a nice girl. Guess I was wrong then.

Here's Michelle protesting her innocence. It's too late Michelle. You should have just played the game fair and square.