mrbrown: L'infantile terrible of Singapore

NDP Rally 2010: Pink overload

I think the PM should ask his National Day Rally production folks to go easy on the pink. My eyes are now seeing everything with a pink hue now.

Manila cop pew-pew

Not sure if this has been photoshopped but this was allegedly a photo from the Manila Bus Hostage fiasco, where Rolando Mendoza hijacked a bus of Hong Kong tourists.

If indeed this was a real Manila cop with his "gun", then the Manila police were way more ill-equipped than we thought.

At the BBC: Ten things the Philippines bus siege police got wrong

Also floating around the Net, suggestions have begun to describe the Philippines SWAT team:

1. Sorry, We Aren't Trained

2. Special Window Assault Tactics

3. Seems We Are Timid

4. Sorry, We Are Takot (Tagalog for Afraid)

Also seen online, this photo of Manila's new tourist attraction:

Truly a *facepalm* moment.

Faces from the street

Warning: image heavy post ahead.

I thought it would be fun to share some of my photos taken of the folks who lined the streets, as the Olympic Torch made its way through Ang Mo Kio. These are faces of real people, many of whom just happened to be there when our noisy bus and convoy went by. I loved the ready smiles and waves we got from them.

I don't care how cynical or enthusiastic you are about the YOG. I just like taking pictures of happy faces.

If you see yourself here, say hi in the comments, won't you?

An easy way for Singapore to get new bicycle lanes

Dear Gahmen,

Soooooo, after YOG is over, can we cyclists have the "Give Way to YOG" lanes?

It will help us NOT die so much.

Just take away 3 Olympic rings, add a man, and voilà! Bike lane!

French-Indian cuisine?

This must be one of those fancy French-Indian vegetarian places I've heard of.

And I wonder what Impure Vegetarian food tastes like.

S is for Sky

It was a lovely day for making a few photos but all I had was my iPhone 3GS. Didn't turn out too badly eh? Haha!

These fellows below went one step further and did a whole fashion photo shoot with the iPhone 3GS. A fun 10-minute video to watch, even if you are not into gadgets or photography.

The iPhone Fashion Shoot - Lee Morris Shoots With The 3GS Fstoppers

(via Gizmodo)

Not-so-glam photo of Marina Bay Sands SkyPark

I was looking at this press release for the Sands SkyPark and decided to take a closer look at the photos.

I don't think you want the media to download a full-res photo of your fancy garden in the sky, with your construction workers still in it, do you?

You can even see the luminous safety vests they are wearing and the hose or measuring tape still on the ground...

Taking the bus in Singapore

Don't tell fairytales about taking the bus in Singapore.

Inspired by this video done by weijie639.

PUB caught off guard everywhere today

The Minister of Freak Floods may be very busy today. Hold all appointments please. Please don't blame PUB, the poor things. Like last time, they must have been caught off guard by these floods today too.

(via @blackawfee)

(via @mooteh)

(via @keithpng)

(via @victorllc)

Someone call the Minister of Freak Incidents! Orchard Road flooding!

Update: Got VIDEOS!

Apparently, in 1999, a TNP writer said that "Orchard Road will never flood" because a Ministry of Environment (ENV) spokesman said we have a solid flow capacity there.

Well, someone better call Minister of Environment, Water Resources and Freak Floods Dr Yaacob Ibrahim and tell him that Orchard Road is now Orchard River.

You gotta love Twitter and the speed at which we can share images like these:

(via @peiwenl)

(via @Winnilicious whose friend @lunlun_ MMSed here the photo)

(via @pegpegs)

(via @rememberlove)

via @beverlytan)

(via @elimchew)

Gosh, I Love Weddings

Three weddings in a month was a little hectic but it was great to see my friends so happy. To the grooms and brides I have had the privilege of taking unofficial photos of, many blessings in your new journey together!

And did I also mention how much I love black and white film too? It also helps to have such lovely subjects to make photos from, of course!

Our Havaianas family

Over the weekend, the wife dragged us to the Havaianas store at ION to pick out some flip flops for the family. It was also an excuse to take the Circle Line. So grandma, mommy, maid, me, and three kids all took the train to town.

I got the glow-in-the-dark ones so that I can wear my glow-in-the-dark Threadless tees with them when I watch movies.

Isaac picked out a blue robot pair, Joy wanted the yellow pair with straps (and we picked out an extra red pair with a sweet on it), and mommy got the gold pair with heels.

We tried to get a pair for Faith but she toe-walks too much for flip flops to be practical.

Now the next thing to teach the kids is how to walk in flip flops without the drag-drag-drag sound. Even the wife got a little scolding from me for dragging hers. I was brought up by a strict Dad and we were never allowed to walk like Ah Bengs even in slippers.

New York Times: A Moment in Time

My friend Jennie told me on Sunday night about the A Moment in Time project from NYT.

You were supposed to take a photo at 1500h GMT, Sunday, 2nd May 2010 (11pm our time) and submit it to the pool to capture a moment in time. By collecting the photos, they hope to show a mosaic of the world at this moment.

It was so popular a project their server crashed.

So at 2250h, I grabbed my camera, jumped on my bicycle and biked as far as I could go before the 2300h timing, and snapped some shots. The one above was what I submitted in the end.

You can see some of the early selections at the NYT Lens Blog.

Here were some of the other shots I took.

Honestly, who rides a road bike like this?

I am told that this looks like the correct technique to ride over lava.

Or maybe it is just S-League football players who ride like this.

Or it is just another Photoshop Fail.

Bolo Santosi of Just Cause 2: A Singaporean accent in a US game?

Bolo Santosi is quickly becoming a cult figure in the gaming world, with her terrible voice acting, campy dialogue and the all-powerful Singaporean accent. In fact she sounds like a Masters of the Sea reject (a very old Singapore tv series known for its badness).

This stuff is so bad, it is good.

Who is the voice of Bolo Santosi? The world wants to know!

Update: Some readers have asked me if this is for real or something my mrbrown show team made up. I want to declare formally that no, I did not make this shit up. This is FOR REAL.

Some choice comments from gaming forums mainly in the US:

"I love this game just her VA (Voice Acting) is just so terribad."

"It sounds to me like she should be reading fortunes over the phone."

"She should never be allowed to say 'people' 'comrade' or 'metal' ever again."

"I hate her voice. I hate her face. I also hate that manly walk she does to the chopper."

"I wanna rip out her vocal chords! Her accent is so damn annoying."

"Every time Bolo Santosi speaks I want to hit her voice actress with a brick."

"I die a little inside every time Bolo Santosi opens her f**king mouth. I still can't bring myself to skip cutscenes."

"That Bolo Santosi woman might actually be the worst voice I've ever heard in a videogame."

"What is the problem everyone seems to have with her? She has a heavy accent but it sounds reasonably exotic to me."

Earth Hour 2010 with the browns and friends

Observing Earth Hour with my wife and buddies with some candlelight, strawberries and Ben & Jerry's Chunky Monkey, Phish Food and Turtle Soup ice-cream. Yum.

Seen at a Best Denki in Bishan

I like how Best Denki Bishan managed to spell HP's name wrongly for every HP product in their store.

Joy dances with her pompoms

My four-year-old youngest daughter Joy shows us her cheerleader skillz. Where does she learn these things? LOL

What Singaporeans look for in Google

My reader Ashley sent me an email regarding this little Google Singapore thing. Go to Google.com.sg and type "Why" and then a space, and see what Singaporeans search for the most.

Quite eye-opening, yes?

Not the best juxtaposition of news and ad

This page from TODAY newspaper (pg 23, Friday 18th Feb 2010) has a story about a man flinging infant off a bridge and next to that, an ad for Milo showing a kid on a diving platform.

A most unfortunate placement of news and ad, methinks.