mrbrown: L'infantile terrible of Singapore

Good English Cool!

In a recent newspaper interview on the Speak Good English Movement, Professor Koh Tai Ann, Chairman of the movement, said:

"We would need workers who can communicate with not only the non-Singaporeans among us but all the visitors we are attracting to Singapore — tourists, those who come for conventions, meetings and so on. It would so ironic if we find many Singaporeans' English not suitable and we have to bring in foreign workers to work in these industries who can speak better English than we do."

Dunno whether correct or not but a Sammyboy forum chap made some corrections to the quote, in the spirit of good Englishing:

We would need workers who can communicate not only with not only (poor sequence) the (article unnecessary) non-Singaporeans among us but all (all is hyperbole) also the visitors we are attracting attract (present tense is used since article suggest future rather than current events) to Singapore — tourists, those who come for conventions conventioneers (why use 5 words when one suffices?) people attending meetings and so on. It would so be (choice of word) ironic if we find many Singaporeans' our (my stylistic choice) non-standard (better choice of word) English not suitable and we have compels us to bring in foreign workers who can (unnecessary) speak better English than we do can (polish up phrase sequencing; "can" a better choice than "do" as it denotes ability) to work in these industries.

------------------------------------------------------------
Bold Red: inserted word/phrase.
Italicised Blue: explanation of the correction.
strikeout: deleted portion.

Channel 8 does a CNA too

Hey, where did Tiger go?

More technical bloopers from our TV networks network.

(Youtube text link here.)

via everlyn

Channel NewsAiyah

Update: As littlecartnoodles pointed out, bloopers can happen very easily in a live environment, but this is a rerun of a Live recording. Hey, maybe they liked the blooper so much, they just had to share it again later in the day mah! Heheh.

Doodeedoodeedoo doodeedoodeedoo... (thought balloon: I can now talk casual because the mixer is supposed to cut away to something before cutting back to studio, so I can chill...) doodeedoodeedoo...

(Youtube text link here.)

via Tomorrow.sg

Letter from MICA: Distorting the truth, mr brown?

There is a MICA letter in TODAY, today, in response to my latest Friday column, S'poreans are fed, up with progress!.

Voices, TODAY newspaper, Monday, July 3, 2006:

Distorting the truth, mr brown?

When a columnist becomes a 'partisan player' in politics

Letter from K BHAVANI
Press Secretary to the Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts

Your mr brown column, "S'poreans are fed, up with progress!" (June 30) poured sarcasm on many issues, including the recent General Household Survey, price increases in electricity tariffs and taxi fares, our IT plans, the Progress Package and means testing for special school fees.

The results of the General Household Survey were only available after the General Election. But similar data from the Household Expenditure Survey had been published last year before the election.

There was no reason to suppress the information. It confirmed what we had told Singaporeans all along, that globalisation would stretch out incomes.

mr brown must also know that price increases in electricity tariffs and taxi fares are the inevitable result of higher oil prices.

These were precisely the reasons for the Progress Package — to help lower income Singaporeans cope with higher costs of living.

Our IT plans are critical to Singapore's competitive position and will improve the job chances of individual Singaporeans. It is wrong of mr brown to make light of them.

As for means testing for special school fees, we understand mr brown's disappointment as the father of an autistic child. However, with means testing, we can devote more resources to families who need more help.

mr brown's views on all these issues distort the truth. They are polemics dressed up as analysis, blaming the Government for all that he is unhappy with. He offers no alternatives or solutions. His piece is calculated to encourage cynicism and despondency, which can only make things worse, not better, for those he professes to sympathise with.

mr brown is entitled to his views. But opinions which are widely circulated in a regular column in a serious newspaper should meet higher standards. Instead of a diatribe mr brown should offer constructive criticism and alternatives. And he should come out from behind his pseudonym to defend his views openly.

It is not the role of journalists or newspapers in Singapore to champion issues, or campaign for or against the Government. If a columnist presents himself as a non-political observer, while exploiting his access to the mass media to undermine the Government's standing with the electorate, then he is no longer a constructive critic, but a partisan player in politics.

Dr M is Da Bomb

Ex-Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed said in a speech recently:

"...(the) MIGs are given, are sold to us without any condition, if you feel like bombing Singapore, for example, the Russians are not going to object.

[laughter]

Any Singaporeans here? Or ex-Singaporeans?"

Dr M continues in the later part of the speech:

...but this great aircraft called F-18, which we bought from America, after buying it, after several months, I got to know that this aircraft cannot be used for any attacks against any country, even if this is not Singapore.

Upon watching this video clip on Youtube, a Malaysian friend of ours said, "Every country has its Bush."

Top rated referee in the World Cup at soccernet today

Reader Hairul sent me this link at Soccernet where Shamsul Maidin has been rated top World Cup referee for today (June 23, 2006).

Check it out here (screencap) and here (screencap).

Go Shamsul!

爱到才知痛

I was watching the trailer for Singapore Idol last night with the fake audience cheering/clapping track attempting to hide the obviously bad singing of the girls in that group, and asked my wife, is this the William Hung segment or are we into the talented batch already?

Speaking of painful, love can also be painful, as this Singapore girl, princessgx, reminds us, by singing a Hokkien classic a capella beautifully on Youtube. The song is 爱到才知痛 "You'll Only Know Pain After You Have Loved".

I hear already my bak sai also lao, man.

(Text link here)

Why Japanese TV shows kick our TV shows in the balls

To quote a reservist motto: Good shit must share.

Ok, gather your office mates around a PC (or my 17-inch iMac, in our case), make the Youtube screen fullscreen, turn up the sound, and just watch these two video clips, the Portaloo video (above) and the other one. Trust me, it will be worth taking a few minutes off your day to enjoy these two clips together.

Our mouths are still smarting from the laughter.

And I am never using a Japanese portaloo. Ever.

Singapore beats Malaysia and North Korea in World Democracy audit

I am sorry to find this out so late, but it is my pleasure to announce that Singapore beat Malaysia and a host of other countries like Uganda, Dem. Rep. of the Congo and Sierra Leone. We were number 83 out of 149 positions, a good number ahead of Malaysia's 93rd position. We almost beat Mauritania (81st) and Bhutan (82nd) too. Better luck next time!

Go Singapore!

See the whole thing here.

Of course we all know that these freedom indexes are compiled by people with too much free time in their hands, and who do not have a clue about the unique conditions of Singapore.

But we beat Malaysia! Yeah!

(News of our win courtesy of Mr Wang)

MOE ad seen in The Guardian newspaper

Quick, native speakers of English! You have one more day to apply to Mould the Future of Our Nation!

Sorry, you Singaporean native speakers will not get a relocation allowance if you are living in Jurong and need to teach in Punggol. Actually you cannot even apply, because the ad is for a UK audience.

I particularly liked the precise way they described some of the requirements:

...Humanities (e.g. English Literature, Geography, History, etc.)

...English (e.g. PGCE, TESOL, TEFL, etc.)

...or relevant teaching subject (e.g. Geography, History, etc.)

Etc., etc., etc.

The ad in The Guardian's classifieds:

Organisation: MINISTRY OF EDUCATION SINGAPORE

Location: Asia & Australasia
Salary:
Date posted: 15 May 2006
Closing date: 15 Jun 2006

Ministry of Education
Moulding the Future of Our Nation

Be Different.
Teach in Singapore.

The Ministry of Education (Singapore) is looking for experienced, qualified native speakers of English to teach English as a first language, English Literature, Geography, History, Knowledge and Inquiry

We are looking for teachers who:
- Hold a relevant degree in English Language or Humanities (e.g. English Literature, Geography, History, etc.)
- Have a recognised Teaching Certificate in teaching English (e.g. PGCE, TESOL, TEFL, etc.) or relevant teaching subject (e.g. Geography, History, etc.)

Newly qualified teachers are encouraged to apply but they MUST have completed the induction year.

You can look forward to:
- An attractive remuneration package (including medical and dental benefits, and bonus upon successful completion of contract), depending on qualifications and verifiable working experience
- Relocation allowance (one-time baggage and lodging allowance, free economy air passage for candidate, spouse and 2 children below the age of 18 to Singapore on first appointment)
- Return air passage upon successful completion of contract
- Interest-free settling-in loan

You can view the video recording of our online career seminar held on 23 April 2006 on the website.

All terms and conditions are subject to review and change from time to time without prior notification. The Ministry of Education (Singapore) reserves the right to decide on the terms and conditions to be offered. No reasons will be provided for selection and non-selection of candidates.

All gay people take drugs one

At least that's the impression I got from this article. So all you promising doctors take note. Wait you become unpromising then you know.

Maybe when they are done catching the promising doctors who descend into the downward spiral of "gay sex and drugs", they can start catching the ones who descend into the downward spiral of straight sex and drugs.

And last on the list would be those who don't have sex at all, but take drugs.

Big Fat Duh disclaimer: mr brown is not suggesting that you take illegal drugs. Nor is he promoting or unpromoting gay sex, for that matter.

Lame slogan of the week

"My Life, My Copyright"?!!

What the the?

I keep having a mental picture of Kelly Poon saying (cue random funky music), "Yes, I am the kind who lives life MY way, because I am so original. And I hate people to copy me lor! Because... "My Life, My Copyright!"

Ok, gentle readers. For our project this week, go around saying "My Life, My Copyright!" in as many situations as you can. Report the reactions you get here in the comments section.

Go! Now! Because My Life, My Copyright!

We "scratched" your car, haha

Ad agency comes with interesting guerilla marketing by sticking transparent decals with scratches on cars. Accompanying the faux scratches? A message: "Call (Company X) at (XXX XXXX) or visit Paya Lebar Road for all your car grooming needs."

They also have a "wanker" and a "bird shit" version of the sticker.

Hmm, clever. But frankly, if I catch anyone trying to stick any kind of sticker or decal on my car's bodywork, he is probably going to get some unpleasant reaction from me. And I am also very unlikely to patronise a car grooming company that let their agency do shit like this to my car.

Flyers on my windshield, I can barely tolerate. Sticking stuff, especially advertising stuff, on my car? You've got to be kidding.

via creativecriminal from Chennai, India.

The first rule of Fight Club is — you do not talk about Fight Club

(If you cannot view it here, click on this text link to video.)

The first rule of Fight Club is - you do not talk about Fight Club.

The second rule of Fight Club is - you DO NOT talk about Fight Club. But you can film it with your mobile phone.

Third rule of Fight Club, someone yells "你不要在那边做 l*n j**o pattern leh!" you start fighting.

Fourth rule, make sure none of your three mobile phone cameramen uploads the video to Youtube.

Fifth rule, let's fight like real men, in the school toilet. Because if fight outside, wait the teacher catch us then how?

Sixth rule, shirt pulling is allowed, heck, while you're at it, why don't you biatches pull each other's hair and bite too? Bitch slap him, boy. "I hate you I hate you I hate you!" (sobs)

Seventh rule, fights will go on as long as they have to. Or until recess is over, whichever comes first.

And the eighth and final rule, wash your hands after you fight in the school toilet.

Choice quotes from the video:

"Fight leh, fight leh!"

"Sian leh, 快点 leh!"

"Wah lau, start lah!"

You can tell this is a film with high production standards. It was a THREE-Mobile-Camera Shoot. And years from now, one of the boys may look at this video and realise that he was only fighting himself. Yes, Grayson and Darren were the SAME BOY!

I wonder why this short did not win at the 7th Schools Video Awards organised by the MOE.

Must have lost on the sound engineering. Too much echo. And the cinematography also a little weak (must focus mah). I did like the last scene, when one of the boys pushed one of the fighters against the wall. Very original.

via Lancerlord

Baffled cabbie gets interviewed on BBC news as IT expert

Update 2: BBC interviews both, er, Guys

Update 1: Reader Nick informs me that the dude was not a cabbie but a Business Studies graduate, Guy Goma (ya, same first name), from the Congo, applying for a high level IT job with the BBC (more here from the blog of the real Guy J Kewney). Thanks Nick!

This is the look of a man who knows he is in over his head.

This black taxi driver was mistakenly interviewed by the BBC, who thought he was an IT expert named Guy Kewney — a WHITE, bearded technology expert — who was supposed to speak on online music.

The dude even gamely tried to answer the questions posed to him by the reporter. You have to watch the video of the interview (also viewable at Youtube). That look on his face was priceless. In the transcript of the interview, it was described as Face of horror.

ROTFLMAO.

Excerpt:

A computer expert has described his astonishment at seeing the BBC's 24-hour news channel interview a taxi driver — in the mistaken belief it was him.

Guy Kewney — a white, bearded technology expert — was astonished to see himself appear on screen as a black man with an apparent French accent. He was even more shocked to see himself unable to answer basic questions about the legal battle between the Beatles' Apple Corps and Apple Computer over the use of an apple symbol.

Cookie Monster does some soul searching

COOKIE MONSTER SEARCHES DEEP WITHIN HIMSELF AND ASKS: IS ME REALLY MONSTER?

Me know. Me have problem.

Me love cookies. Me tend to get out of control when me see cookies. Me know it not natural to react so strongly to cookies, but me have weakness. Me know me do wrong. Me know it isn't normal. Me see disapproving looks. Me see stares. Me hurt inside.

(From McSweeney's)

Mr Tur Kwa the Forum Avatar and my new No-walkover Poll

Wah, Mr Tur Kwa is also found in forum avatars now. Wow. Liver was never this popular.

And I was thinking, since many of you did not have a chance to vote in this election, here is a poll so that you can exercise your vote on a critical issue that affects all our lives...

Jeff Lopez vs Bak Chor Mee man (Youtube)

Wah so fast the spoofs come out already ah! Check out this funny clip at Youtube, done by Jerzy8! He also did a tribute to Jeff Lopez, The Man and His Ideas, in this other post of his.

(If you cannot view it here, click on this text link to video.)

From the author: A tribute to mrbrown.com's Jeff Lopez, the man and his ideas. Long live tur kwa!

Long live tur kwa indeed. Hahaha!

Honey, I Blew Up the Matter

Update: I just love some of the suggestions by your readers! You guys are more bo liao than me!

Minority Report: Everybody Runs

Dude, Where's My Form?

Fight Club

From Singapore's premier online news service, Sammyboy's Al Fresco Coffee Shop (requires registration):

These are some film/book titles inspired by the James Gomez Saga:

I Not Submit

The Wayang

Rebel without a Form

The Form, the Envelope & the Certificate


I had a few of my own:

Sorry Not Enough

The Form, The Liar and the CCTV

Star Wars Episode 4: Return of the Form

Sorry, I could not resist. Ok, ok. I'll move on.

DDOS attack on my host

Update: Fixed.

Sorry for the intermittent uptime of this site. My provider, Typepad is having some technical problems.

From the Typepad status blog:

Since approximately 4:00 pm Pacific Daylight Time, Six Apart has been the victim of a sophisticated distributed denial of service attack. This has affected all of Six Apart's sites, causing intermittent and limited availability for TypePad, LiveJournal, TypeKey, sixapart.com, movabletype.org and movabletype.com. Our network operations staff is working around the clock with our Internet access providers to resolve the issue. We appreciate your patience and support, and will provide updates as we have them.

I am sure they filled out their forms properly. We'll have to wait for the footage from their CCTVs before we can confirm that.

Jon Stewart pwnage on CNN's Crossfire (Youtube)

Another classic clip by Jon Stewart when he bitchslapped the team from CNN's Crossfire, in October last year. To quote a commenter, Jon went "on someone else's show, live, told them they suck and proved it". That is pwnage indeed. (If you cannot view it here, click on this text link to video.)

Can also be seen at Media Matters for America and ifilm.com.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on blogs (Youtube)

A little old but still very funny clip from The Daily Show on bloggers, broadcast in Feb last year. (If you cannot view it here, click on this text link to video.)

Can also be seen in Quicktime at a mirror here.

So CNA got podcast or no?

Ey? The CNA doing videocasts for GE piece that Miyagi referenced seems to be spoil liao.

Never mind, can read it here:

Tuesday April 25, 10:17 PM
CNA: Videocasts on GE to be available on Channel NewsAsia website

SINGAPORE : Videocasts of the General Election, shot using 3G mobile phones, will be available on the Channel NewsAsia website everyday starting from Nomination Day.

These clips will be produced by bloggers representing both the pre- and post-independence generations.

"Here (with videocasting), you can put a little bit of your own personal comments and see whether you are convinced by the issues being argued," said blogger and Channel NewsAsia producer Au Yong May Lin.

"I'm trying to capture a different angle of the elections, something that is more colourful, something noisier and funnier," said blogger Farid Johari, Channel NewsAsia art director.

What viewers will also be seeing is news as it happens on the ground, as the bloggers will be uploading their clips on the Channel NewsAsia website instantaneously.

Simi is "I am the Law"?

Seth asked in a previous post where in DoTA do you hear "I am the Law!" and wondered, "What version you playing, man?"

In answer to the version of the DotA map we play (and no, sixphere, it is not 5.84b), it is currently DotA Allstars v 6.30b, which I think is a little buggy.

I am surprised, I thought everyone would recognise the voice of Mortred the Phantom Assassin (see annoying animated gif on the left), which is based on the Warden in Warcraft 3. Here are some of her other quotes.

"I am the iron hand of justice."
"Let the hunt begin."
"Understood."
"I can taste their fear."
"Justice shall be swift."
"They shall not escape!"
"Let justice be served!"
"I am the law."

I have to say that my favorite quotes are from the two-headed Aggron Stonebreaker the Orge Magi, who says:

Head 1: "I'm with stupid."
Head 2: "Me too!"

And the quote from Slithice the Naga Siren, who says:

"Would you like to feel the ocean spray in your face? (spits)"

Crazy traffic and pedestrians in India on Youtube

I never wanna drive here, or even cross the street.

Watch for the white car from the top right. That guy champion.

(If you cannot view it here, click on this text link to video.)

Do NOT enter your email passwords into PlayBingoLive!

Please hor! Do not respond to emails asking you for your email addresses and PASSWORDS! I have been getting a lot of these emails from compromised email accounts out there.

There has been a recent one going around where the email subject says "Check it out", and in the email body, it says "Sign up so we can play". Some people actually clicked on the link in the email, and worse, filled in the blanks with their email addresses and PASSWORDS!!!

When you do that, the spammer has access to your email account, and proceeds to email EVERYONE in your address book with the same spam email.

Mr Miyagi did it, and all his Gmail contacts kena (he has since changed his password), both my email accounts kena from his one mistake. Fortunately, I ignored the emails.

I know of at least one person who not only entered her password into the page, she stayed around and PLAYED BINGO for a while, wondering why nothing happened! In fact, she played for a long time, and wondered why Mr Miyagi did not come online to play Bingo with her.

Then again, this is the same girl who, many years ago, upon receiving an email encoded with an autoplaying sound file of Mr Miyagi saying "Hello? Hello? Can you hear me?", actually leaned forward and talked back to her computer.

Kua kua..

This is just a current version of this scam. The next ones may have a different message. But the bottomline is to be totally skeptical of sites that ask for your email address passwords. NEVER give those out especially from unsolicited emails.

And don't even get me started on the ebay and paypal phishers.

Titanic 2 spoof trailer on Youtube

Brilliantly done. Jack's back.

(If you cannot view it here, click on this text link to video.)

the mrbrown show is a Popular Odeo!

Zhng My Car from the mrbrown show is mentioned by rabble, Odeo's lead developer (photo of him here), on the Odeo Blog, as one of the most popular odeos.

Thanks for the shoutout, rabble!

Saladin, the animated series

Hot on the heels of Singapore's first 3D animated film, Zodiac, the Race Begins, which screened during Chinese New Year, comes a 3D animated series from Malaysia, called Saladin, based on the life of Salah al-Din Yusuf bin Ayyub. Saladin was one of Islam’s most legendary figures, who united and led Muslim factions in the past.

Funded with a couple million bucks of financial support from the Media Development Authority, Singapore's Zodiac received less-than-stellar reviews, and having seen it at the DVD stores, I am not exactly surprised. But then I read that besides us, some lucky folk from China, Thailand and Eastern Europe will also get to see enjoy it, because Zodiac has been sold to these countries wor.

If you go over to the Saladin site and watch the rather generously long trailer (6 whole minutes!) for the Malaysian series, you cannot help but feel that Malaysia's Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) is putting its funding in the right places (more news coverage here and here).

From the trailer, this looks like a series that will rock. Creatively, I have some problems with it, like why does Saladin look like something out of Disney or Dreamworks (kind of a Prince-of-Egypt white-guy version of the man, I feel)? And why does he have to speak English with an "Arabic" accent? I mean, Chinese characters in English cartoons don't speak with a "Chinese" accent, so why should this renowned 12th century Kurdish Muslim warrior speak with that "Middle-Eastern" accent?

My creative misgivings aside, the technical work of this animated series is stunning. Fire and water are rendered with CGI beautifully. Wood flies across the screen as ship meets floating fire bombs. You can feel the weight of the Crusaders' armour pulling them down into the waters as their ships sink from the explosions. It made me mutter, "Wah lau eh, Malaysia really BOLEH, man!"

I wonder, why we can't produce work of this calibre? Is it for the lack of talent? I don't think so, because I have seen some stunning 3D animation work by a local dude done for his polytechnic's final year project. I kid you not. And if I have a chance to, one day I will share it his video clip with you.

Meanwhile, I cannot wait to see the 13-parter series from our northern neighbours. Go Malaysia!

The Singapore Sci-fi Movie you never saw

So we were surfin' around, looking for DVDs to buy, when we came across this title, Cyber Wars, coming out on April 11.

Wah, looks so CYBER (even got the name Cyber in its title), so we watched the trailer loh. Wait! Was that Singaporean actor Lim Kay Siu? Singapore got Sci-fi movie meh?

Well, apparently yes. Seems that Cyber Wars is actually a reworked version of movie named Avatar (IMDB link) which was made in Singapore.

Here is a review (check out the Pokemon badge prop used here) and blog mention of Avatar. Strappingyounglad, the blogger, says "I cant wait to see Avatar... so i can go jam a pencil in my ear and dig out my eyes..."

Can't be that bad, right?

I mean, they have characters with stylo names like heroine bounty hunter, Dash MacKenzie (see the Japan-market Trinity-like poster here), a Cyberpriest, and Goggles Man (NOT related to VR Man, much missed TCS sci-fi TV series).

A friend told me when he watched the movie way back then (he was given free tickets), he noticed that when the actor closed the door of the "sci-fi vehicle", the prop car shook.

Ok, so it was a stinker then. But hey, got Joan Chen half nekkid what. Surely that counts for something.

Engrish menu

Funny until stomach pain. Taken from a real Chinese real menu.

I would like to have an order of Cowboy Leg Beautiful Pole please. Though that plate of Strange Flavor of Inside Freasuse looks tempting too.

More menu fun here.

Sent to me by friend, Sita.

Always check your attachments before hitting Send

"Oh, shoot. Did I just send that internal media briefing document to journalists?"

Cue: heads roll.

via Tomorrow

Excerpt:

A Temasek document, entitled "2006-03 Taurus Q&As" - which was designed to help its executives answer media enquiries on its 12% stake in Standard Chartered - was yesterday sent as an email attachment to some journalists instead of another file. The document contains 59 questions and answers and was prepared by staff to anticipate questions that might arise from the acquisition. Given that Temasek has rarely done Q&As with the media, the exercise represents a somewhat unique insight into what the Singapore state investment agency currently perceives its perceptional issues are and its own stance on these issues. In what follows we have reproduced the entire Q&A section. It is unedited, except to state in square brackets where answers were left blank.

Ministry of Home Affairs calls Ministry of Sound

Maybe the phone lines got static leh, you know, like the telephone got some virus, so when the police said "your party may shut down traffic" it was heard as "your party will be shut down"?

I know how annoying that can be, because everytime I drive into the CTE tunnel at Havelock, my M1 handphone signal will almost always cut.

From: Fridae:

According to Mr. Clement Lee, executive director of Ministry of Sound’s parent company LifeBrandz, Mr Kelvin Yeo, Compliance Management Officer from Tanglin Police called on Friday evening after office hours demanding that the club cancel the event, failing which enforcement officers would come to the club on Sunday to shut the party down. The reason given by the police to Mr. Lee over the telephone was that the party would "promote gay activities."

From TODAY:

A police spokesperson, however, denied that they had intervened in any way.

What they did after receiving "information from the public" about the party on March 24 was to contact the Ministry of Sound's management to "obtain more details" to plan for possible "traffic or law and order situations that might arise".

Said the spokesperson: "At no time did we advise the management of the Ministry of Sound to cancel the event."

Hokkien Speeding song

Thanks to the brilliant Linkmeister, Lancerlord, who found this gem of a Hokkien song, a ditty about the importance of safe driving (no, REALLY).

Stuff like this should become National Treasures, I tell you. Dammit if I knew who sang this, I'd BUY the CD.

As Miyagi says, you must blast it while driving down your favourite expressway.

Zhng My Camp!

I am speechless. Really, jaw dropped. Almost word for word parody of Zhng My Car 1!!! Excellent work! Miyagi and I are just amazed that you guys transcribed the audio script and then acted it out on video! (text link to Youtube page) We are flattered, Cai!

Excerpt:

Got the ideas from mrbrown podcast zhng my car. Created a Zhng my Camp for 33rd Boys Brigade Annual Camp 2005

Like Mr Miyagi, he does not get his car back too

A funny Dr Ken and Bobby Lee (Korean comics from Mad TV) skit on Youtube (text link here for full size). It reminded reader Ray of Mr Miyagi (last seen, er, heard, in our latest podcast, Zhng My Car 7).

Also funny, Dr Ken performs the History of Rap.

Another funny one is comedian Dave Chappelle's parody of Apple's Switch ads on Comedy Central (warning: explicit content). And while you are on ellenfeiss.net, check out the super cute Japanese Switch queen, Momoko Kikuchi.

Rough translation of what Momoko says, from japanesestreets.com:

My old computer was like this huge thing you know. And well, I was writing this e-mail to my friend. I was trying like real hard to do it in English. I was just about done… and it all froze up. Everything I wrote… GONE. Haaaaaaahhhh. I thought ‘this thing is really garbage!’ Now I use a Mac. It never happened to me once yet. Isn’t that like WOW?!” – KIKUCHI Momoko, Student.

FREE Free Culture Show

Free Culture artist and activist Colin Mutchler will be conducting a show on Creative Commons, at Lasalle College of the Arts today. Go and catch his show and learn about this important and exciting issue.

Venue: Lasalle College of the Arts (check out the map), Studio Theatre (ground floor of Performing Arts Block)

Date: Wednesday, 22nd of March (TODAY)

Time: 6.00pm

Mutiny at a cafe

Mutiny by disgruntled employees at this cafe chain called Blenz, in Vancouver, becomes a lightning rod for other employees from the chain. The comments are just as interesting as the post itself.

In this age of the high impact high propagation internet technologies, companies who don't treat their employees well may find all their dirty linen broadcast to the world, overnight.

Also discussed in Livejournal.

Of course, this will never happen in Singapore, because we have such a pro-employee union protecting our interests.

Zhng my Singlish

Wah lau eh, the mrbrown show podcast also can use to teach English language one ok? Steady pom pi pi, man. I damn the flattered, can?

Excerpt:

But the more interesting part was the guest speaker Dr. Chen - where she discussed about "Singlish" haha or Singapore Collq. English (SCE). I was simply 'jaw-locked' when she flashed the properties of Singlish on the slides; she actually catagorised the structures and words used in Singlish into the technical classification of a language. haha.. And she mimically imitated the Singlish style of speaking as she was a local lecturer that sent the class into some laughter.

In some part of the lecture, she played a clip taken from the "MrBrownShow" blog to explain the structures in Singlish to us. haha...

Love in Warcraft

Never pick up "chicks" in World of Warcraft. Funny as heck, even if you don't play the game.

Excerpt:
From January to February, for three weeks in game I had my Warrior, Looks, offer herself as a Girlfriend to anyone pathetic or gullible enough to take me up on the business. To my surprise, business was good.

My goal was to see how many "boyfriends", for lack of a more demeaning term, I could maintain at one time. The rules I set for myself were not to spend any gold at all on the loves of my life, and never implicitly ask them for gold or items.

Adidas Yellow Series

Check out this particular model from the Adidas Yellow series, which has a slanty-eyed bucked-tooth image on the tongue and the word "Fong" on the back of the shoe.

I can't wait for the Adidas Niggah series to come out.

via tian

Loose Change: a scary 9/11 documentary

Scary shit.

Underworld: Evolution

Kate Beckinsale looking super hot in black tights (as my wife put it, "like the Hush Catwoman toy figure on your shelf") and using every weapon in an FPS computer game; vampires and werewolves ripping each other's guts out; and a Lord of the Rings kind of beginning (vampires in stylo armour all, I almost wanted to shout "Watch out for that werewolf behind you, Aragorn!").

What's not to like about Underworld: Evolution?

I watched it with the wife and my bunch of comic-lovin', card/board/computer/console gaming-lovin' mates. You know your offline and online lives have blurred when during the scene where the human SWAT team is hunting for the big bad vampire, three voices, including your own, can be heard whispering, "Free frag! Free frag!".

And then the inevitable, "She is level 10 character trying to fight a level 60. Cannot one, sure die."

Too many hours of WoW can do this to you.

Just make sure you watch Underworld again before watching this, or else you will have to try to remember important plot details from the first movie to follow this sequel. It took us the car ride home to connect all the dots completely.

Wife: "Who was Victor again?"

Our friend Dave: "That one lor, the fella who kena his head sliced 45 degrees by Selene one."

The plot was pretty cool in the way it built on the first movie. And I have to say, I enjoyed this sequel more than the original.

Too bad they still insist on showing scenes where the vampires need to use torchlights (or, in Selene's case, an advanced Cyalume stick) to see in the dark, just like the subway scene in the first movie.

Wah lau eh, vampires that cannot see in the dark... harlo???

Microsoft iPod packaging parody

A very funny video from YouTube. Click on this text link to see the video at full size.

CBS4 undercover TV crew uncover police intimidation in South Florida

All the undercover TV guy does is ask for a complaint form to file a complaint against a police officer. And the intimidating reactions from the cops in the South Florida police stations he visits are astounding.

Watch some of the videos. They also have transcripts of some of the conversations.

One Sergeant who was seen in one of the videos tried to get temporary injunction in court, to stop the TV station from airing his story. The judge denied the injunction.

Excerpt:

CBS4 News found that, in police departments across Miami-Dade and Broward Counties, large and small, it was virtually impossible to walk in the door, and walk out with a complaint form.

The I-Team conducted an extensive hidden camera test, carried out by a police abuse watchdog group called the Police Complaint Center. Remarkably, of 38 different police stations tested around South Florida, all but three had no police complaint forms...

In the I-team’s undercover investigation, there was one incident in which our tester went in to file a complaint. After several times asking for a form, being told "you're not leaving without a form," he was asked to leave and actually walked off the property, to the point where the officer reached for his gun, put his hand on his gun and said, "Take a step closer, and see what happens.".

Cool remixed default Nokia ringtones

The talented Tracker from Howard Forums compiled this collection of Nokia ringtones which are actually remixed versions of the standard Nokia ringtone.

Check this example out!

Each of the tones in this set come in three formats: AAC, MP3 and OGG. Use whichever one your phone supports. The Series 60 supports AAC and the filesize for AAC is the smallest, so you may want to use that format.

Do save it on your memory card if you want to save space on your mobile phone.

I liked them so much, I did a little remixing of the remix myself. I took one of them and added Isaac singing his ABC song, with Apple's Garageband.

Download the ringtones here (winrar archive).

via Mobile Diva Darla Mack

She will pay you with her Gbuy

According to tinkertailor, Google is going to come out with a payment system to compete with Paypal and it is going to be called... Gbuy.

I shall refrain from the obvious Hokkien jokes that tinkertailor could not help sharing, because I am more cultured than he is.

What next? Google does an Ebay and calls it Gbay?

Buy on Gbay, pay with Gbuy!

I is Uniquely Singapore, ok?

Wah, the mrbrown show is considered Uniquely Singapore leh!

But chao turtle, how come got Miyagi's blog and not mine? Har? Har? Where is the Comprain Dept?