fail train (or better by whale)

I am sure I am not the only one on earth who finds the "Better by train" picture at MRT stations strikingly similar to the "Twitter is over capacity" screen, aka fail whale.

Hur hur hur, it's open to so many interpretations I'll leave it to your imagination.

(ok, I can't help chipping in. Fail train? Better by whale?
Train is over capacity - too many passengers! Please wait a moment and try again.)

evian spelt in reverse

I used to think that people should stick with their job for at least 3 years.
I even thought that I can stick with my first job till I retire. (loyalty reward)
Now I am breaking both of the above myself.

That is how naive I am. Until you see it for yourself, experience it for yourself, get a taste of it yourself, then you understand why ideal gas only exist in textbooks. In sociology there is a term called "social experience" which helps to mold people as we are. Not sure if it can translate into "社会经验" in Chinese, but the idea is there. That's why it is very easy to judge others and their actions, but when you are the one in the same situation, you end up being judged by your earlier self.

By the way, yesterday was my last day of work.

i'm new, please be patient

This morning I went to the supermarket near my place. At the checkout counter I was served by this cashier who wasn't in uniform. Below her name tag was a bright red tag that says

I'm new
Please be patient.

Ah, so she's new.
Now, can you imagine a service staff trying to explain to a dissatisfied customer that she's new, and the next thing from the customer would be "I want to see your manager." Not uncommon. And many-a-times being new is not an acceptable excuse to many. So now they are telling you upfront, and I presume they want to seek your understanding if their service is below par. Don't complain about slow traffic and red lights if you choose not to take the expressway.

That cashier definitely wasn't the fastest among the lanes, and in fact she was clumsy too. But hey, who didn't start new?

toshiba calmee titan

I seriously didn't consider much when I went to buy a portable hard disk. I mean, a hard disk is a hard disk, other than price and volume, what is there to compare? Almost gotten myself a Seagate FreeAgent but it wasn't of a colour that I want, and didn't want to get a Western Digital since there's one next room, so in the end I bought a Calmee Titan by Hitachi.


Me being a superficial goon, chose it because I was attracted by its design. I think the Calmee Titan has the smallest packaging of the different ranges I saw at the store, and seems to be the cheapest. That little hard disk logo resembling a turntable caught me a lot too. The actual thing itself is sleek as well, not sure if it compromises on protection. As a hard disk, well, it works.

But there are smaller kano delighters that are not there. Take for example, the carrying case. You can't fit the USB cable together with the hard disk. (I know WD's can, while Seagate's doesn't even come with a case) Next, I thought there isn't an indicator light to show hard disk activities, but there is, a very small blue one hidden at the back. (fine, front and back are relative) I've seen other brands' portable hard disk that can almost light up like a christmas tree. And the workmanship seems a little rough on the sides.

Oh well, still a new toy :)

quote of the day

me: (heading out of the office) Have fun!
coworker: What have fun?
me: Well, try...
coworker: I am trying!
me: Then try harder

repo men

Can you imagine your internal organ doesn't belong to you, and if you can't pay up the installment, someone's going to hunt you down, slice you up and take back the organ?

Went to watch the movie preview of Repo Men, starring Jude Law and Forest Whitaker.

Set in the year 2025, the sci-fi revolves around Remy, a repossession man working for The Union, which produces artificial organs. Customers can purchase the organs to replace their damaged ones, but have to pay a stiff price (what, 19% interest rate?). Those who cannot repay the debt will be tracked down by the Repo Men who will take back the company's properties, brutally. You can read more spoilers about the plot here.

The movie itself is really bloody. Don't recommend it to people who can't stand blood. My body really went weak in the seat as they cut open people's body and blood started splashing everywhere and then they reached their hand inside and took out some shiny metallic object, or trying to stick a barcode scanner into someone's chest... eek! The choice of oldies as music in the movie was a good contrast to the bloodiness though. There is also a rude twist at the end of the story. It started off as the main character's narrative, and he mentioned that he got knocked out 4 times in his life. When viewers see him being knocked out for the fifth time, well.. I'll let you discover it yourself.

Movie aside, the idea behind is actually very thought provoking. Those Repo Men are like loansharks' runners, going around collecting debts and terrorising people, although by right the organ buyers signed on the piece of paper just like borrowers in our real life. When people are desperate they make the wrong informed decisions (just like the main character said, they always sign). But when you are only left with 2 choices, live or die, which will you choose? And also, it reminds me the reality that many people are somewhat working for banks, earning money to pay back debts, and the house that they stay in actually belongs to the bank cos they have taken a loan. I even find The Union's logo in the movie resembling the logo of an actual bank.

Oh boy, I'm still not recovered from the bloodiness.

Thanks omy.sg for the invite!

oily hello kitty

What do you get when you combine Agip with Hello Kitty?
Agip Hello Kitty motor oil!
Erm, what does it do to your car?

RoboCup 2010 Singapore

While the vuvuzelas are making helluva noise at World Cup 2010 South Africa, another cup is happening here in Singapore. I went to take a look at RoboCup 2010 Singapore, happening at Suntec City. RoboCup is the world's largest annual robotics event which draws teams from institutions around the world, and this year Singapore is hosting the event.


The competition can be largely divided into 3 categories, namely RoboCupSoccer, RoboCupRescue and RoboCup@Home. Pretty self-explanatory names. Within RoboCupSoccer, it is further divided into Small Size Robot League, Medium Size Robot League and Humanoid League. Although I'm not the mechatronics type, but that didn't stop me from being intrigued by the event. You get to see teams from top tertiary institutions around the world, donning their team shirt with really big name sponsors, watching their robots on the field with undivided attention. And the cheer when a team scored a goal. This game really uses brains (I didn't say world cup is brainless), and you can see teams deploying various tactics with their robots. There were hilarious moments, like team with more powerful motor could actually push the opponent together with the ball into the goal, or the goalie struggling for a mighty long time to get back up onto its feet.

RoboCup 2010 will be on till 25 June.

Buddhism for Beginners

A while ago at an exhibition of religions in Singapore, I got this book Buddhism for Beginners published by Kong Meng San Phor Kark See Monastery.

The book is divided into 3 parts, namely Life and Teaching of the Buddha, Buddhism in Practise, and The Historical Development & Spread of Buddhism. The first part talks about how Prince Siddhartha attained Enlightenment and became the Buddha and the events that followed. Part 2 introduces some of the practises that Buddhists follow, while part 3 introduces the various forms of Buddhism in different parts of the world, such as Zen, Tibetan Buddhism, etc.

The catchy title and cover are evidences that this book's target audience are the youngsters, and true enough the book is written in easy-to-understand English. Many examples cited are with reference to modern days lifestyle. Chapters are short, easy for light reading. On the other hand, I feel that names with regards to historical places and people should have Chinese translation notes to aid in understanding.

I read the book with an open mind, and I should mention here that before and after reading the book I am still a freethinker. I think the aim of the book is not to convert people's belief, but rather, to let people learn and know more about Buddhism and Buddha's way. I must say I picked up a lot about Buddhism which I did not know before. I think it is very easy for people to write on application forms and declare that they belong to certain religious group, but thinking and behaving like one, is a very different story. In fact, I am humbled by many points mentioned in the book.

equal opportunity employer

Nowadays when I flip open the recruitment section of the newspaper, I often see the words "an equal opportunity employer" next to the companies' name. I am sure that's not the companies' mission or vision statement, but to tell jobseekers that the company hires equally.

Equal would mean, regardless of ethnicity, age, gender, nationality, religion, marital status, body size, pregnancy.. what else can be added onto the list? It is something like hiring on merit. If a guy thinks that he can do a good job as an air stewardess or salesgirl, then by all means~ I wonder how is it like to be served by Ugly Betty on a flight. (do you know that in some countries, you can sue a company for stating gender preference in their recruitment ads?)

However, I am not sure if education qualification and job experience can be counted in this equality equation. Everyone likes experienced hands. I've seen job advertisement saying things like "fresh grad need not apply". What the heck? So where do all the fresh grads go? You want people with 3 years of experience, but 3 years doesn't come overnight. It seems like 90% of the ads do not welcome freshies. In Europe, they have apprenticeship and graduate programmes which sort of inducts fresh grads into the working world. Here in Singapore, although we do have industrial attachment and internship during degree and diploma courses, but how many grads end up working at places where they had their stint? (either one party doesn't hire, or the other party doesn't apply). Although to be fair, we do have local on-the-job-training(LOT) programmes and a few of my friends were enrolled in. The prospect is another story though.

It seems like all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.

the making of jabulani

With so much talk about the official World Cup 2010 ball Jabulani, (it's a case of if your bullet can kill your enemy, so can your enemy's bullet kill you) here is a clip of its manufacturing process. Interesting. There are still so many manual processes.

It seems like the production line is in China since I saw Chinese words on some of the machineries. Seeing how the tournament is running, looks like the workers didn't go on strike.

remember goal 2010?

The World Cup 2010 fever is pretty much up and burning, and should last for a while (damn, my eye bags!) Besides all the hoohaas over local broadcasting of matches, anyone remembers GOAL 2010?

Now what is GOAL 2010? After watching the French "foreign legion" winning the 1998 World Cup, Mr Goh (you know which Mr Goh) thought that we can do the same thing, thus announcing plans to put the National team into World Cup 2010. 12 years on, and we have succeeded in putting Singaporean referees into the game. Isn't that an even greater feat?

It seems like not many people remember the plan (you can google for some blog and forum posts though), and little was mentioned officially. Are we still training the lions for the real hunting ground, or just feeding them for zoo?

Or we can find foreign talents just like our table tennis team.

train for creativity

Last month, a SMRT train was spotted with spray art by a commuter at the station and uploaded onto YouTube. Subsequently the train operator reported to the police and a Swiss national was arrested and charged for vandalism. No Interpol red alert required.

People are concerned about how on earth 2 angmohs were able to cut through the fence, enter the depot and leave their marks on the train, and what took the operator so long to report to the police. People asked what if they were saboteurs. C'mon, if someone can do a Singapore version of Prison Break, then why not?

Anyway, what interests me is not the security part, but the creativity part. This illegal artpiece is way prettier than the legal ones. Make no mistake, I am not promoting or applauding illegal stuffs. I believe that things should be done within the legal frame, and I am sure the culprit must be scared shitless thinking of the caning. It is just sad that these guys sprayed at the wrong place. Come to think of it, there aren't that many places in Singapore where you can spray legally.

They should have retained his artwork on the train. The punishment is another story.

Look at what they have in other countries. Got a feeling people are more creative in places with graffiti.

Photo from rinaz.net

flying duct tape

Duct tapes are so versatile that they find themselves in the aviation industry. A Kunming Airlines Boeing 737 was seen flying with tape on its wing component.

As what Chinese netizens would put it, "牛!"

It looks shocking, but it was probably given the nod before being allowed to take (the duct tape) to the sky.

fish plays foul

This morning I bought 2 sea breams from the supermarket. For some reason, the staff did not scale and clean the fish for me. And for some reason, I took the fish as they were... with the price label and plastic bag of course.

When I reached home, I went about "killing" the fish, as fishmongers' and housewives' lingo put it. (yes, you can kill fish after it is dead.) Not the first time I was doing it, but definitely the nastiest time.

Scaling the fish was easy using the tool, so was removing the gills. The fun part came when I was cutting open the stomach and trying to remove the intestines and bladder. A pungent smell came rushing out and entered my nostrils. Geez, how can anything smell that terrible? I think it is so foul it can wake Snow White up from her sleep. It can win any rubbish truck hands down. Go "kill" a fish yourself to experience it, but it was something that stays in your memory.

Time of death, 1030 hours.

Next time, insist the fish-man "kill" it for you.

A for A-Team

Went to watch the premiere of The A-Team yesterday. Now before I go on, you gotta watch this clip first.

(ok, if you want the 2010 version, it's here. Same same but different)

Just listening to the music brings back emotions and memories of well the music itself and Mr T, that's what I remember of watching the TV series of the same name as a kid. For the storyline, both the old and new trailers pretty much explain. An elite commando unit was sent to prison for a crime they didn't commit. (Ok I'm not going to repeat the line...)



The story flow was well-articulated, starting with how Hannibal gathered his boys forming A-Team. Every bit of the movie is about wits and gun powder and explosives and actions and, funny shit! Especially Murdock the mad pilot who flew a Huey ambulance helicopter like a fighter jet, and BA the airborne ranger with hundreds of parachute jumps but became phobic of flying thanks to Murdock's mad piloting. You also will see scene of them trying to fly a tank while being pursued by armed unmanned aerial vehiciles (UAVs).

I think they can further develop Face's role in the movie as a flirt and the skincare freak, and somehow the movie became less interesting when Face took over from Hannibal to do the planning, maybe cos Hannibal is that central figure in the team and now his boy is snatching the planning..

Another die die must watch movie!

380A train

China's latest high speed train, the 380A, recently rolled off the production line at Changchun Railway Vehicles. It will serve on the Beijing-Shanghai high speed line in 2011.

Now, why do I have a feeling they are playing a pun on the Airbus A380 jet? (although the 380 is supposed to denote the top speed of 380km/h achievable by the 380A train) By the way, it is also the world's fastest train. Wish I can get my butt on one.

locksmith goes high tech

I'm sure many of us had the unpleasant experience of seeing locksmith's stickers all over our front gate and power meter. (ok, they haven't gone to the extent of covering your keyhole). Those stickers are hard to remove and sometimes leave behind bits of adhesive, which can be quite unsightly.

The other day when I got home, I spotted something different. This particular locksmith has turned to magnetised strip. I don't mean those you find on the back of your ATM card or bank passbook, but those that you can stick onto your fridge. Now that is different. It is less irritating cos you don't have to peel and scrub it off, and well you can stick it onto your fridge (not very useful when you are locked OUTSIDE of your home though). Another down side is, it only works on front gates that are made of magnetic materials.

I wonder what are they going to put next. Transceiver? Listening bug? GPS? Help button?

gadgets

It has been a while since I last enjoyed an art performance so much, until my eyes were moist. Last night we went to watch Gadgets by Joel Salom, a performance part of Flipside festival at the Esplanade.

Like other Flipside performances, it brings out the "lighter side of arts". It is juggling + circus tricks + music + technology + comedy. Any component by itself is, common. But when the trio merged them all, it was something. Their engaging of the audience was fantastic too. They "arrowed" volunteers by shining beams of spotlight on the audience stand, and it was pretty much no escape :P Their attempt to localize their jokes also had the effect of connecting with the audience, such as citing the integrated resorts alongside global warming and violation of human rights as some of the evil deeds the human race has done.

a clip found on youtube:

Really enjoyed the show until the audience was either clapping madly or swinging our hands in the air. The show is still on today and tomorrow. By the way, some of the jokes were adult content, so... unless you are prepared to let your kids hear about balls and what-nots...

Tiger Im Schlamm

A few years ago I read the book Tigers in the Mud by Otto Carius. I have the manga version drawn by Miyazaki but only have time to read it recently.

It is not that common to have manga based on historical events. (Maybe I just talk a bit on the story. It is about Otto Carius, a German panzer commander who destroyed 150+ tanks during World War 2. The most notable was his campaign in Estonia where with 2 Tiger tanks he beat off Russian counterattacks.) It is funny that Miyazaki uses pigs to represent the characters and makes the story less bloody. There were times when the artist showed his own frustration due to the never-ending counterattacks and his constraints to finish the story within the few episodes. Nevertheless the maps and the technical aspect were really nicely drawn, with the tense atmosphere, actions, flow of events and humours nicely blended together.

You can find the online version here.

the surprising truth about what motivates us

I just saw this awesome animation that talks about what really motivates us at the workplace. It is interesting to note that monetary rewards don't necessarily motivate us to do better, but rather the driving purpose and even fun.

But it is sad that many-a-times, we have to pseudo-motivate ourselves to wake up and go to work out of the need to earn for a living. If only work can be a bit more fun.