mrbrown.com

Carrie Bradshaw knows good, er, love

So HBO is finally showing Sex and the City in Singapore and what does the slogan say?

"Love is worth the wait".

Oh, family drama! Aiyah, early don't say. And all this time, I thought the show was about single women having active sex lives! Why didn't Singapore Government allow this earlier then?

Adri thinks the same way.

Excerpt:

By the way, has anybody noticed the Sex and the City ads at our bus stops? They come with a picture of Sarah Jessica Parker set against a warm hue of happy colours, and a huge SLOGAN - “Love is worth the wait”. I was minding my own business on the bus when I saw that, and it puzzled me for a while, unclear of its relevance to the series. I then figured it had to be the family censors’ bright solution to counteracting ‘decadent American culture’, since of course, it is not right for unmarried women to lead active sex lives. Nobody says a thing about unmarried men.

Something I wrote at work: Connecting Gamers

If you are even remotely interested, something I wrote for work, in the May issue of Viewpoint magazine.

Excerpt:

There is no such thing as a private web site, unless it is protected by passwords and preferably some very big dogs.

TODAY: Why not call it Garang-polis?

Latest TODAY column is: Why not call it Garang-polis?

Excerpt:
When I think NSCS, a kick-ass anti-terrorism agency does not spring to my mind immediately. I think National Sports Cultivation Secretariat or Nurturing Singapore's Community Services.

Let mr brown help you name the new agency. How about Rainbow Six? Too Tom Clancy? Ok, The Merdeka Merlions. Too much like a poorly-performing local football team? Ok, let's settle on Group of Anti-terrorism Rangers and Agency of National Gatekeepers (Garang).

And if we aim to be a hub for anti-terrorism activity, we will be the Garang-Polis.

I suggest that members of this new agency wear black to stand out from the other agencies. They can be the Men-in-Black.

Oh wait, that is reserved for those guys responsible for our recent power failures (who will be punished the NEXT TIME they fail, when we make our laws tougher! NEXT TIME, they better watch out because we changed our laws!).

Google me!

Your homework for today:

1. Go to Google, type: mr brown, hit "I'm Feeling Lucky".

2. Go to Google, type Browntown, and hit "I'm Feeling Lucky".


Today Google, tomorrow the world!!! Bwahahahahahaha!

Er, and thanks for your support, gentle readers. World domination would have been so much the harder without you.

Google in 1960

by Kevin Fox

It's so nice to be right

Oh, my bleeding heart. Record labels now realise people are not buying their precious Copy-protected albums because they do not work on iPods. Remember my little rant?

iPod undermines Microsoft on copy-locked CDs

Excerpt:

For the past several years, both SunnComm and rival Macrovision have worked to put two different versions of songs on each protected album. The first set of tunes is a locked-down version of the CD's content. The second set consists of digital tracks that can be transferred to a computer or to some portable music devices.

That "second session" has been filled, to date, with songs in Microsoft's Windows Media Audio format. Both companies chose the WMA format because it's supported by virtually every PC on the market, and a large number of different portable players...

Analysts said the move toward iPod compatibility is very important if copy protection for music CDs is to succeed.

And the part I liked best about the article? When it said:

"It's fairly critical," said GartnerG2 analyst Mike McGuire. "If the labels start hearing that the reason people aren't buying an album is because it won't work on the iPod, then you'll see some reaction."

Singapore's New Anti-terrorism Agency

Singapore gets a new security agency to fight transnational terrorism, and what do we name it?

National Security Coordination Secretariat.

*slaps head*

That's what you get when you have bureaucrats doing the naming of elite agencies. I am surprised, this is the same Government that gave us names like "Spring Singapore" and "A*Star".

Why not Rainbow Six? Not local enough? The Merdeka Merlions (ok, that sounds like a bad local football team). Anything but "National Security Coordination Secretariat"! It doesn't even make a cool word! I mean, how do you say NSCS? NesCes?

If they ever made a computer game for this elite anti-terrorism agency that reports directly to the Prime Minister, I doubt if "National Security Coordination Secretariat: The Game" will sell very well.

What a waste of a perfectly good PR opportunity.

I do think I need to lay off the Xbox and my Tom Clancy novels for a while.

Excerpt:

New agency gives security top priority

Threat of international terrorism is main concern of high-level revamp

By Dominic Nathan

A GOVERNMENT agency reporting directly to the Prime Minister will be set up to give national security concerns top priority at the highest levels of government.

Called the National Security Coordination Secretariat, it will shape the security response to transnational terrorism, Singapore's most serious and immediate threat, Dr Tony Tan told Parliament yesterday.

Honey, that Islamic man is staring at me and going to the toilet suspiciously

The Peking Duck has a link to an interesting take by World O'Crap, on a story about a hysterical lady who had a personal encounter with possible skyborne terror. I mean "hysterical" in describing the woman's state of mind, of course.

Excerpt from World O'Crap:

"No, it's not a story about somebody remaking Airplane!, it's about how a woman and her husband were terrorized on a flight from Detroit to Los Angeles by a group of Middle Eastern men who went to the bathroom a lot.  Fraught glances are also exchanged, and somebody carries a McDonald's sack on board.  It's pretty intense stuff."

The deconstruction of the story is brilliant, and the comments following the long post are worth reading, although some of the racist remarks scared me.

Maybe we should mobilise the Turban Hunters of America.

Blog the NDP

Tym shares some thoughts on The Great NDP Moblog.

I'd love to moblog for the nation, especially at such a major propaganda event, but my SMS fingers are not what they used to be. Lao liao, what to do. Besides, I doubt the organisers want to see my kind of patriotic comments.

Excerpt:

Now the blogs I'd like to see, like any good blogs, would offer idiosyncratic, yet entertaining, no-holds-barred views of the ups and downs, ins and outs, naughty and nice aspects of the show. Tell me which contingent had the first guy fainting while they were waiting for the President. Speculate how many fights will break out between impatient parade-goers. Provide a running commentary on what the parade commander's really thinking while he waits to give the next cue.

All Creatures of our God and King

I am listening to All Creatures by the David Crowder Band, while reading this unusual blog which is, in Boingboing's words, " a father's daily documentation of his prematurely-born child's struggle to survive. Eric was born at only 24 weeks' gestation. He was twelve inches long, and weighed only one pound, seven ounces."

Read the blog here.

Excerpt:

nope. you never get tired of seeing the finger grab.

we had another great day today. his white blood "differentials" are all back to normal and he's now getting a whopping 1.5 cc's an hour of breast milk, which - if i've done my math correctly - is a little over an ounce a day. he didn't forget to breath at all today and he had 8 episodes of bradycardia (slowing of the heart rate), but they can all be attributed to a buildup of saliva in the back of his throat. micropreems don't have a fully developed swallow response (and all the tubes don't help) and somehow that leads to his heart rate slowing down. nurse cheri said he lets them know that he needs his mouth suctioned by throwing a bradycardia alarm or two. he's funny like that.

and he got two more hours of kangaroo care with kris. maybe tommorrow i'll get my chance.

All Creatures

All creatures of our God and King
Lift up your voice and with us sing
O praise Him, alleluia
Thou burning sun with golden beam
Thou silver moon with softer gleam
O praise Him, O praise Him
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Thou rushing wind that art so strong
Ye clouds that sail in heav'n along
O praise Him, alleluia
Thou rising moon in praise rejoice
Ye lights of evening find a voice
O praise Him, O praise Him
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Let all things their Creator bless
And worship Him in humbleness
O praise Him, alleluia
Praise, praise the Father, praise the Son
And praise the Spirit, three in One
O praise Him, O praise Him
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Praise, praise the Father, praise the Son
And praise the Spirit, three in One
O praise Him, O praise Him
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

O, alleluia, alleluia

All Creatures from the album Illuminate by David Crowder Band

iPod vs Zen

Apple's 20GB iPod can only hold 5000 songs. Our Creative Zen can hold 10,000 songs, using a digital format. Hmm, what "digital format" is Creative using get this many songs, I wonder?

Not long ago, Sony also made a similar claim that its latest player holds 13,000 songs while the iPod only holds 5000.

To quote geek.com, "Sony's estimates are based on encoding at its proprietary ATRAC3 format's bit-rate of 48kbps, a rate at which your music would sound like it was being played on an AM station two states over."

So you will have to excuse my skepticism about the Zen, until that "digital format" is revealed in more detail.

From the ST:

The 20GB Zen Touch will cost $499, compared to $548 for a 20GB iPod.

That is not the only advantage, says Creative. Because of the usage of a digital format, its 20GB Zen Touch can store 10,000 tunes, compared to the iPod's capacity of 5,000 songs, the company says.

With that much space, you will also need more juice from the battery, and Zen Touch, says Creative, will give you just that: up to 32 hours of use on a single battery charge, compared to the iPod's claim of eight hours.

UPDATE: Creative's numbers were based on 4 minutes per song at 128kbps MP3 encoding and 64kbps WMA encoding

More Good Years?

Oh, and I made this screen grab from ST's site. Note the unusual juxtaposition of the headlines in red.

The only way is Up

School fees going up, conservancy fees going up. People fed up. Economy must be improving then.


The masses are resigned to this 'natural order of things'
TODAY letter, Monday July 19, 2004

THE same symphonic pattern emerges.

First, the prelude, with the local media heralding a slew of statistics announcing the arrival of better economic times.

Then, a premature suggestion to restore the ministers' and top civil servants' pay cuts, which was greeted with unpopular feedback by many who felt that the economic upturn benefits have yet to filter down the masses.

The main theme comes into play with miscellaneous school fees and town councils' service and conservancy charges going up.

This will inevitably lead to more government and quasi-government bodies following suit.

The crescendo builds up as everybody scrambles to raise charges, taking the cue and green light from the early birds who first up their fees.

The finale ends in an anti-climax as the masses resign themselves to their fate — the swallows have arrived, spring has come, the flowers are blooming and so prices must go up.

We are led to believe that this is the natural order of things.

Oddly enough, when times were really bad and many retrenched, things took much longer to come down and the cuts were, if any, merely token symbolic ones.

What is worse is every price increase is met with the rhetorical reassurance that nobody would be deprived of basic services despite the hikes and the social net is always there for those who really cannot afford the increment.

The other tired argument to justify the hikes is that the charges have not been increased for so many years and therefore the increase is way overdue.

This is cold comfort as most Singaporeans would rather tighten their belts than go through the hassle of applying for poor men's benefits from the government.

So what is next? University and polytechnic fees, transport hikes, hospital bills, parking charges, stamps ...

Sigh …

Lim Boon Hee

NDP 2004 Videos: More National Education

For an expert's view on these matters of high cultural importance, check out Agagooga's review of the latest National Day Parade videos.

Personally I think the white long-sleeved top and black pants worn by the kids in the music video look like they were designed by committee.

"We'd like a uniform for the children to wear, something like will capture the ethnic diversity of our country, while not emphasising one race over the others. And it has to make the children look disciplined and well-behaved examples of upright young citizens, while showing their cute and spontaneous sides."

So the kids end up looking like a cross between a Chinese Amah (maidservant) and something out of The Ring. Either that, or there some new school called "Amah Primary School" and the kids all hail from there.

Singapore: Where your kids grow up as national maidservants.

But don't mind me and my cynical ranting, the song is really quite pleasant, and the kids look very cute running across the fields and along the rivers of Singapore. I even downloaded the MP3 for my iTunes (it was free, and I am a True Singaporean).

On the NDP 2004 page, there is also a link to a video called "Into the NDP Matrix". The still shows a boy shielding his eyes from the computer screen. How original. So, we've gotten so transparent that we are now acknowledging that Singaporeans are living in The Matrix?


Cypher: All I do is what he tells me to do. If I had to choose between that and the Matrix, I'd choose the Matrix.
Trinity: The Matrix isn't real.
Cypher: I disagree, Trinity. I think that the Matrix can be more real than this world. All I do is pull a plug here, but there... you have to watch Apoc die.

Cypher: You know, I know this steak doesn't exist. I know that when I put it in my mouth, the Matrix is telling my brain that it is juicy and delicious. After nine years, you know what I realize?
[Takes a bite of steak]
Cypher: Ignorance is bliss.

My Pet Goat, Amazon Bestseller

More review fun at Amazon.com. Read the reviews for My Pet Goat. Read it quick, I doubt if Amazon will allow them to stay up for long. Hilarious stuff. I wonder if the Singapore Government will allow the movie Fahrenheit 9 11 to be shown here. Seems to be taking a long time for the movie to be making its way here...

Excerpt:

our pet president, July 18, 2004

Reviewer: Erica F. Verrillo (Williamsburg. MA)
For anybody who wants to know about pets, or goats, or simply wants to avoid the responsibilities of national leadership, My Pet Goat is a "Must Read"!

"A real page-turner! When you pick this one up, you'll wish you never had to put it down!" George W. Bush



Absolutely riveting!, July 16, 2004

Reviewer: A reader (USA)
My friend Andy was, like, "Can we go now? Because there is a big emergency in New York." And I was like, "Whoa there, Andy. I'm in Florida, not New York. And besides, this is the best book in the whole world." Well, I didn't say that. I just thought that because I was afraid I might lose my place if I said it out loud. And Andy was like, "Oh OK. Well maybe later, then." I know I should have left because it was time to go play hide-n-go-seek in my big airplane - that's what Andy said - but I was still sitting there, seven minutes later, hanging on every word. Later, Andy asked me, "Like how come you weren't scared that there would be a big emergency in Florida too or that the bad guys would come and get you since everyone knew where you were going to be that day? The bad guys could have come to Florida and then you and all your new friends in that classroom would have been in danger." But I said, like "Gawd Andy...I wanted to know how 'My Pet Goat' ended. Don't you know ANYTHING?"



I liked it when the goat stopped that car robber., July 16, 2004

Reviewer: James C. Gawthrop (Marietta, OH United States)
I was scared when the girl's dad said the goat had to go, because he ate too many things. I wished Uncle Dick was here. Uncle Dick would know what to do. I was worse scared when the car robber came and tried to steal the girl's dad's car, and some men came and told me that New York was on fire. But the goat butted that car robber in the seat of the pants and sent him flying. The goat saved the day! I decided that I would kill all the bad men who do not like the United States and might be hiding weapons.



good, but not great, July 16, 2004

Reviewer: A reader (Washington, DC)
I am the Prezident of the United States of America, and I resent all the people who are pretending to be me on this here site, Amazon Dot Com. For the record, the book isn't all that great. It's good, but not great.

You may think I was really into the book judging from the way I kept reading it on September the Eleventh, Two Thousand and One, even after I learned that the United States of America was under attack by Muslims. But the truth is, it wasn't that I liked the book, it was rather the fact that I am an incompetent moron who had no clue as to what to do. You see, my dad's pals on the Supreme Court made me president of the United States of America, even though I lost the election to Al Gore. Everyone knows that I have no business being president, and that I am a dumbass moron who has done way to much cocaine. But I am president anyway. That doesn't mean that I know what I am doing. It just means that I am president.

I was scared on September the Eleventh. I knew that I was supposed to go and do something, but I didn't know what to do. So, I pretended to be really interested in the book. It wasn't really that good. Not like the Bible, or the Little Hungry Caterpillar. So, please stop saying that I liked the book. It was good, but not great.



For those of you unfamiliar with the My Pet Goat reference, here are a few quotes:

ReelViews: Three segments redeem Fahrenheit 9/11, allowing it to claim to be more than just a list of anti-Bush charges. The first is the videotaped footage of Bush in Florida's Booker Elementary School, reading "My Pet Goat" for seven minutes after the second plane crashed into the World Trade Center. His face is a mask of bewilderment and indecision. It's clear that he has no idea what to do next, and he is waiting for one of his advisors to make a suggestion. It's not the portrait of a man any sane American would want in command.


Boston.com: For my money, the key scene in "Fahrenheit 9/11" -- the moment on which Michael Moore's blistering yet frustratingly blunt object of a movie hinges -- is when President Bush first hears that a second plane has hit the World Trade Center and that the United States is under attack. He was at a photo op in Florida, remember, reading "My Pet Goat" to a schoolroom full of children, and his expression of pole-axed confusion is by now a matter of public iconography. But Moore got his hands on all the footage, and he time-lapses us through the entire seven minutes that the president sat in that classroom and, knowing terrorists were using passenger planes as missiles on innocent Americans, stared like a stuffed deer into space. We've recently learned that this was around the time Vice President Dick Cheney was ordering fighter planes to shoot down the hijacked jets and our government's emergency-response mechanisms were convulsing with chaos. You look at Bush, whose circuitry seems quite simply to have overloaded, and think, "This is the leader of the free world?"

Gunpowder Redux

By popular demand, I will share the location of one of my fave eating places, Dunman Food Centre.

Dunman Food Centre, recently renovated with nice and stylo open-air toilets and all, is located opposite Joo Chiat police station. It has stalls upstairs, and downstairs. In the morning, more of the first floor stalls are open, and at night, more second floor stalls are open.

There are two wanton mee stalls on the second floor, Seng's and Eng's (not related to Chang and Eng, the Siamese twins). Both are good, but Eng's chilli is the hotter one. I believe they open only for dinner.

There is also a very popular Rojak stall there. Very long wait but worth it. He sells rojak, both yew-char-kuay-only style and regular style, grilled cuttlefish and grilled tow pok too. He used to take faxed orders, but I think he does not anymore (the fax machine probably overheated and broke down).

There used to be a cranky old guy who ran the Tekong drinks stall at Dunman, where I spent many a late night drinking teh-peng (iced milk tea) with my two best buddies, and talking cock until even the KTV ladies of Joo Chiat went home to sleep. Mikey would get kopi-peng (iced milk coffee) and Studman would get his Milo-peng (iced Milo). Tekong's boss seems to have retired. This guy's coffee and tea was so good, regulars to Dunman Food Centre often referred to the place as Tekong rather than Dunman.

The lady who served us the drinks (his wife I think) knew us and our orders well from our regular visits but never knew our names, so she gave us her own names. I found this out when I went to eat there with my wife one time, and Lady Tekong asked me in Hokkien, "Kopi-peng and Milo-peng never come ah?"

Eng's is so famous, I found a japanese writeup on Eng's on this webpage together with other food centres in Singapore.

Parking there can be a problem, although they added some new lots in front of the building and also at the police station too (don't park on the lots reserved for the Home Team, ok?). And don't even think about cheating on your coupons, the parking aunties are rabidly on-the-ball there. No point paying $50 for a night out at the hawker centre, right?

For some fun sight-seeing, drive through the streets of Joo Chiat and marvel at the sheer number of KTVs and dodgy lounges (pronounced "launch") there. Hostesses of all shapes, sizes and ages fill the streets. And if you get tired of all the food and sight-seeing, you can always check into one of those hotels with, ahem, transit rates, and pay by the hour.

Remember, you heard all this useful information from mr "teh-peng" brown.

Newsflash: Music consumption methods have changed

I have not been visiting CD shops for a while, and decided to pick up some music to listen to. Having heard Maroon 5 through radio and other sources, and enjoying it quite a bit, I decided to buy the album.

Because of the friendly and helpful guy at the store, I ended up walking out with FIVE CDs instead of the one I wanted to buy. Got the latest albums by Train (My Private Nation), The Calling (Two), Switchfoot (The Beautiful Letdown), Maroon 5 (Songs About Jane) and, please don’t suan me, Justin Timberlake (Justified).

That last one was because it was in the $10.95 bin, and despite what I think about his voice, I thought the production values were quite high. That, and it was only $10.95.

There was an Angie Stone album out too, which I wanted to get, but it had the dreaded Copy-Controlled Mark of Death, so I gave it a miss. Yep, I consciously avoid buying any of that Copy-Controlled (CC) shite, because I listen to my music digitally. In fact, if it wasn’t for my car’s 10-disc changer, I wouldn’t even buy a CD. I would buy and consume only downloads.

And I don’t seem to be the only one. The store guy was very keen to tell me that they try to bring in the non-Copy-Controlled versions parallel imported from unnamed countries. Mind you, these are still originals, but just not scarred by CC. So obviously, the store was responding to customer feedback and simple demand-and-supply.

When I picked up the Maroon 5 with the CC logo on it and said, “Aw shucks, I cannot buy this.”, the guy swiftly whipped out the virgin non-CC version for me. One more sale for him.

I wonder if anyone in the music industry even realizes how ridiculously archaic and Jurassic the CD as a format is. Most people like me treat CDs as a storage medium. I take the CD home, I rip the music out into my Mac, burn it into a CD-R containing 700MB of songs, or into an iPod, and the CD goes back into the CD rack, never to be touched again.

It may have been a real thrill to be paying twenty-something smackers for this shiny high-tech looking disc of music, back when policemen wore shorts, but these days, you go home with five CDs and $100 poorer, and you start to wonder, I paid $100 of my hard-earned money for just these five coasters?

Furthermore, I hardly buy albums anymore. Most of the time, I only like one or two tracks on an album, and it seems like a bloody waste to be buying the whole damn thing. I wish Apple’s iTunes Music Store would get here soon. It is frustrating to go to my iTunes app on my Mac, and see all that lovely music I cannot buy. And no, that recent Soundbuzz and Creative Asian store is not going to cut it for me, not enough choice. Sony’s silly ATRAC stuff on their Connect service is even worse (what’s up with Sony and their insistence on controlling every damn medium and format, from proprietary Memory Sticks to digital music formats?). I might consider this "Sony product" though.

Music stores like the one I visited know what their customers want, music without the pain-in-the-ass copy protection. Apple knows we will buy more iPods if they provide an easy way to download and buy digital music. When is the rest of the music industry going to spend less money coming up with technology that pisses off the legitimate customer, and more money on helping me spend mine? Oh, suing your buying public is not exactly Winning Customers 101 either.

At least, I get to vote with my dollars. In Singapore, where we have no real say over our choice of Prime Minister, where most of us have yet to vote in our lifetime (walkovers, anyone?), it is reassuring to know that in at least one area, buying music, I get to exercise my choice. I’ve got money to spend here, who’s going to help me spend it?

(I know, I shall get me one of those new BMWs with the iPod controls built into the steering. Forget about ditching the 10-disc changer, I will now aim to ditch my whole car. Bwahahahahahaha!)

Things We Can Learn From A Dog

Got this from April-Dazes blog.



Things We Can Learn From A Dog

Never pass up the opportunity to go for a joy ride.
 
Allow the experience of fresh air and the wind in your face to be pure ecstasy.
 
When loved ones come home, always run to greet them.
 
When it's in your best interest, always practice obedience.
 
Let others know when they've invaded your territory.
 
Take naps and always stretch before rising.
 
Run, romp, and play daily.
 
Eat with gusto and enthusiasm.
 
Be loyal.
 
Never pretend to be something you're not.
 
If what you want lies buried, dig until you find it.
 
When someone is having a bad day, be silent, sit close by and nuzzle them gently.
 
Delight in the simple joy of a long walk.
 
Thrive on attention and let people touch you.
 
Avoid biting when a simple growl will do.
 
On hot days, drink lots of water and lie under a shady tree.
 
When you are happy, dance around and wag your entire body.
 
No matter how often you are criticized, don't buy into the guilt thing and pout. Run right back and make friends.

Eating Gunpowder: Fire in the Hole!

This SMS exchange took place one night, after 5 blokes decided to have a late dinner at Dunman Market, to eat the famous Eng’s Wanton Mee. Besides the tasty and firm egg noodles, Eng’s chilli is renowned for its potency, so strong that it is known as “gunpowder” by his regulars.

Dr Bob, Capt Ang, Long Dong Tan, KTV Mel, and I made the little trip. We all stayed to eat at the market, but Mel being the good husband, “packet” home to his wife awaiting her dinner.

On the way back, KTV Mel sms-ed this to us:

Mel: U r not going to believe this. Cab with hooker pick me up. She in front seat. But i m going home. Think she is his gf.

I sms-ed back:

Me: Don’t worry, we will back your story up too, if your wife asks.

Later that night, he sent this sms:

Mel: My wife, a self-proclaimed chilli expert, is reeling from the gunpowder. Ha



The next morning, I saw the sms and replied:

Me: Ah yes. That gunpowder wanton mee has a way of doing that to former self-proclaimed experts of chilli. If she was reeling, wait till she goes to the loo. Heheh.

Mel: That explains what happened this morning.

Me: Fire in the hole?

Mel: Yah.



After laughing my (sore) ass off, I decided to see if there were other victims of Eng’s “gunpowder”. So I sent out a group sms to the rest. I also tried to call Dr Bob, but he did not pick up.

Me: Anyone else got “fire in the hole”? Heheh.



Long Dong was the first to reply.

Long Dong: You don’t need more than 2 lah.

Me: I am not talking about a card here.

Long Dong: I have an old version. About two years old. You want?

Me: ?

Long Dong: Counterstrike for PC

Me: No. I meant you have been to the loo yet? On account of the chilli.

Long Dong called, finally understanding my question. He had already gone to the loo twice in the morning, and was in fact awaken by his first, er, run. Dr Bob also replied finally.

Dr Bob: You call? Guess where I was, yup the toilet man. All hell broke lose.



By now, I was really curious. What had happened to Capt Ang? Dr Bob and Long Dong only took a dash of the gunpowder (the wimps) and left the rest by the side of their plates, and they were already casualties. Capt Ang stirred the whole lot of chilli into his noodles. Surely he would also be on fire?

I called the man, and our hero was more than fine. In fact, after eating with us, he went home, ate dinner again (the family cooked), then played Ninja Gaiden on his Xbox till the early hours of the morning, slept a bit and woke up at 6am to go to work.

Iron Man Ang, I salute you.

Sexless and the Lion City

Singapore tames 'Sex and the City'

Friday, July 16, 2004 Posted: 8:26 AM EDT (1226 GMT)

Excerpt:
Samantha, the provocative single who often puts the "sex" into the U.S. sitcom "Sex and the City," has been tamed by Singapore's strait-laced censors...

"I'm excited," said Alicia Phang, a 33-year-old travel agent, standing across the street from a poster of the show's star actress and producer, Sarah Jessica Parker, festooned on a shop front in the island's busy Orchard Road shopping belt.

"I've seen the show when I've traveled but it will be good to finally see it here," she said. Is she upset by the censorship? "No, it's okay. We're used to that," she said...

Singaporeans generally support the government's tough laws, including the death penalty for drug smugglers, a ban on pornography and curbs on political dissent, as part of a social contract that in return has delivered years of prosperity.