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Wow, a trade union that actually puts priority on workers and their jobs. Singapore really leads the way in everything, man.
So what was their priority before this? Opening supermarkets?
Actual quote from my friend M when I showed her the headline: "Maybe it's not the union arm leh, maybe it's the supermarket arm that wants to help the workers leh? Hahahahaha!"
I have such witty friends.
In other news, Little Cart Noodles features the stoopid ST letter of the day.
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After completing my quest to get the berserker stance for my Elf Warrior, I was trying to get from Fray Island, near Ratchet, to Chill Point in the Alterac Mountains to do the next leg in the quest, The Windwatcher.
Trying to get the fastest way to travel from one continent to another, I checked thottbot.com and found this comment by a reader:
"To get to the Alterac Mountains in the Western Plaguelands, you need to visit the Zepplin transport tower outside of Origimmar. It's the southern entrance, off to the east. Ask any guard, they will point it out to you. Take the Zeppelin going to Undercity, you have to ask one of two NPCs to see which one. Like the ships in Ratchet, you wait for it to arrive then hop on. Ride is free.
Once you arrive in Undercity, run south, swim east across the lake and your pretty much there."
So I followed his instructions, running to the Horde city of Origimmar, and just a little curious why he would suggest a route that would take my Alliance Elf into enemy Horde territory, and even onto enemy public transport, but figured, it must a faster route and everybody does it.
Along the way, I ran past Horde towns and their NPC guards came after me, unprovoked, and some of them killed me. After dying for the third time, I began to wonder if it was the right way for my character to get to my destination.
By the time I reached Origimmar's Zeppelin tower and got set upon by the tower guards (who despatched me swiftly, being waaaay higher level Orcs), I knew I had made a mistake. The instructions must have been for Horde warriors doing that quest.
A check with James confirmed that, yeah, Horde Zeppelin balloon transports were meant for Horde only, just like Alliance ships and MRT trains were meant for Alliance use. But he did hear of a Horde player who once got onto the Stormwind Alliance MRT, just that he died a lot to do it.
Er, I said, I think I may be on my way to take a Horde Zep as an unwelcome character then.
"Take screenshot!" said James, reminding me that there are more important things in life than trying to keep my character alive.
I figured, hey, what the heck, I am already here, I can't turn back because that would mean running through Horde towns again, so I waited for the Zep to arrive before dashing into it immediately after resurrecting from my death inside the Zep tower, with the Orc guards on my tail.
When I got onboard, the guards did not follow, and the other Horde players were surprisingly friendly, and one even waved at me. They must have checked my character level and figured a newbie like me must have made a mistake and it was not some one-elf suicide raid on their towns.
When I got off at Stranglethorn, I got killed by the Orc guards again, but I managed to take a few more screenshots and got away from the Grom'gol camp after resurrecting and made my long trek back to friendly territory.
A fun little adventure for a newbie like me. Personally, I think a Horde Zep is a much nicer way to travel than by Alliance ship. The views are nicer, and the inflight service was great. Too bad my character can't do it often, heheh.
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Little known fact about Singapore: Raffles introduced Ice Mountain mineral water to the island of Temasek.
Photo was for a news report on an upcoming documentary about Singapore, "Bold new show on S'pore's History" (Straits Times, Sat, 12 Nov 05). Click on the image to see enlarged version.
(via Tomorrow.sg, spotted by Hobbesyeo on Clubsnap)
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Faith cried this morning when she saw her brother go out with Grandma for breakfast. She had to stay home for her ABA therapy. She is now quite conscious of us going out without her.
So when we got home from our busy morning that included a visit to the gynae, the wife and I called ahead to tell our helper to dress Faith up for a short outing.
When we reached home, she had her pretty pink dress on and was even wearing her pretty shiny shoes. And the look on her face and her body language told us she knew she was going to go out, and she had been waiting patiently in her outing clothes and shoes, for our return.
For her patience, she was rewarded with a little Haagen Daas ice cream (a very, very rare treat because of her strict autism diet), and also a short walk at the nearby mall.
She looks like she almost knows what she wants to order from the menu. In fact, when we tried to tempt her with her favourite fruit, banana (which was a topping we chose deliberately for the ice cream we shared), she pushed my hand away when she saw there wasn't any ice cream on it.
Smart girl.
I would've blogged this Live from where we were, but the M1 GPRS and 3G network have been down all day. Which sucks.
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Update: my mrbrown mail is back up (as of 13th November 2005, 11pm). If you sent me any email between the 11th of November, 9pm, and the 13th of November, 11pm, please resend, thanks.
My email at my current domain is currently down for the next 48 hours, due to a server outage. Please email me at my gmail addy if you need to reach me these few days, thanks.
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Latest TODAY column: More ranking blues
I actually wanted to call this piece "We suck at sex", but I guess cannot lah. Wait kena comprain.
Excerpt:
In the 2005 Durex Global Sex Survey, Singapore came in second last out of 41 countries. Japan was last.
Hooray! We beat Japan! Woohoo! Positive spin, people, positive spin. We don't want any of that divisive stuff getting the people down and all, do we?
But euphoria aside, I would like to question the basis of this ranking! What was the methodology used to measure frequency of sex? Could it be that Singapore's Frequency of Sex was measured through the standards of Western liberalism?
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Thank you for loving Johnny, at last count, 40,000 listeners of his first show, and growing!
the mrbrown show cannot say no to all you crazy fans, so Johnny, host of the popular car makeover reality show, Zhng My Car, is baaaaack! Special guest on his show, Kenny Sia of kennysia.com!
Johnny bridges the North-South relations with his guest consultant, Kenny of the famous garage Kenny Zhng Kerata (or Garage Z) of Malaysia.
(MP3, Filesize: 6.9mb, Time: 00:19:48)
Audio file for the mrbrown show 11 Nov 2005
(MP3, Filesize: 6.9mb, Time: 00:19:48)
Subscribe to the podcast feed here.
Technorati tags: singapore, mrbrown, podcast, podcasting
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In Singapore, if school not happy with a student's blog, student will kena suspended and blog gets shut down.
In USA, if school not happy with a student's blog, and punishes him, student sues school and wins.
Excerpt:
A New Jersey school district will pay $117,500 to a student who was punished for creating a website that included critical statements about his middle school.
The settlement of the lawsuit brought nearly two years ago follows a decision by a federal judge ruling that Oceanport school administrators violated Ryan Dwyer's free speech rights...
"While my parents and I are happy the case is resolved, most importantly, I'm hopeful this will help ensure that free speech rights of students aren't trampled on again in the future," said Dwyer, who is now in 11th grade...
"Our schools should encourage debate and political engagement rather than punishing students who provide a forum for free expression," Barber said.
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18-year-old Tyson Ibele of Minneapolis, Minnesota, took 11 days to put this neat Sony clip together. You can see the clip at the Make LLC site (look under Portfolio, it's called SONY-Transform-spec), and read the forum thread where he talks about his work. For example, rendering took approximately 3 days in total, on 15 different computers.
I wonder if he will do a clip about Sony's rootkit DRM. Heh.
(via Chys and shawntim from SPUG forums)
There was a little CG humour in the sig of one of the CGSociety forum posters that the geek in me could not resist posting here: "It took God 7 days to create earth because he was rendering with Radiosity, Raytraced Shadows, Sub Surface Scattering and Caustics."
Excerpt:
Hey everyone!
Here is an animation I just finished today here at MAKE. Although it wasn't actually created for Sony, the idea was to see what it would be like if we transformed several of their products into each other.
The total make time was just under 2 weeks (about 11 days in total). That included modelling, shading, animating, rendering, compositing and editing.
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I think the boy has seen his pregnant Mommy walk like this, just a little too often. Children are such astute observers and incredible imitators.
At one point, he was even putting his hand behind his back "for support".
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Kids sneak up on you.
They catch you when you wake up in the morning, using your body as a trampoline. Despite the pain and the aches, you actually look forward to being awoken this way.
They say Papa when you least expect it, after 4 years of silence.
They say Papa for the whole car trip, after they learn it at 18 months.
And another way they sneak up on you is they get born, and it only fully sinks in two weeks before the date.
When you have your firstborn, it is a major event. Everything is larger than life. Every ant is an evil monster to be killed. Every item in the hospital bag (or hospital luggage if you want to be accurate) is important. Everything needs to be bought — the cot, the clothes, the bottles, the toys.
By the time you have your second child, everything is cool. The wife even does some of the gynecologist visits on her own. You take a Gameboy to the hospital.
And then number three, possibly the Baby of the family, is due to arrive.
Number three is the sneakiest one. With Papa and Mommy busy with her autistic oldest sister, and precocious second brother, Baby knows she needs to make her presence felt.
So Mommy gets more uncomfortable kicks and movements than from any one of her kids. Mommy gets more nausea than before. Mommy has less appetite, her favourite foods taste horrible.
But even with all these attention-seeking reminders, Papa and Mommy are not quite ready when the doctor tells them... soon.
Baby is coming soon.
Then we start to realise the wardrobes and drawers have no space.
We realise have given out all the infant clothes to other Mommies.
We realise the bottles and nipples need to be replaced.
We realise the white cot handed down from my younger brother (because Isaac is still using his) is still being used a mini-storeroom.
We realise we still haven't chosen a first name for Baby and have been using her second name thus far.
At least the wall fan was bought and installed in the kids room, I tell the wife helpfully.
"We need a checklist, I think," I tell the wife with my best take-charge tone. "Go write one, ok?"
You think you get better at having children after you've had a few. But really, we've had to learn something new each time. With Faith we needed to learn to deal with autism. With Isaac, we needed to learn to deal with a boy. With Baby, we will need to talk to parents who have three kids or more. What are the logistics of dealing with three?
Like I said, kids sneak up on you.
It happened at poolside BBQ party at the wife's friend's condo.
"Faith really looks like she wants to swim. You should have brought her swimming things," the wife chided.
"She'll be fine. We'll just keep her at the playground, and away from the sight of the pool." I am always an optimist.
"She is really starting to whimper and pull at you, I think she really wants to swim," said the wife.
Her friend kindly offered her son's smaller bodysuit for Faith to wear.
"Ok then," I said, a Papa's heart is very easy to un-harden, you don't even need to know how to talk, "I suppose she can swim in this square pool next to the BBQ pit, it looks small enough. That kid who just used it doesn't look much taller than Faith."
So we changed our four-year-old autistic girl who cannot resist swimming pools into the borrowed swimsuit. And I let the wife hold on to Faith's hand while I took off my shoes and socks.
"Hang on to her, ok? Let me take off my shoes and socks and fold up my jeans. Then I can watch her when she swims in this baby pool... ok, you can let her go now."
Like a stone from a catapult, my Faith bolted from my wife's hand.
One step, two steps, three steps, hang on, why is her head underwater?
Like a stone, she sank into the 0.9m mini-pool that was just a tad deep for her height. I could see her struggling to stand, her head tilted back in an attempt to break the surface, as I waded into the pool to get her out.
She looked a little surprised when I pulled her clear, but not frightened.
I, on the other hand, was terrified.
Then I realised that I had waded in fully clothed and was drenched from my jeans to chest level.
I also had my waist pouch on, with my iPod and my camera in it. I removed them immediately and surprisingly they were dry, as the water did not seep into the pouch fast enough (thank you, Eastpak). My wallet was in my jeans, but it only got damp. Amazing.
For the next 20 minutes, I sat in my wet clothes watching Faith play in the real baby pool.
Twice she decided she was bored of the baby pool and climbed over the wall separating the big pool from the baby one. Twice I had to run over to stop her because she did not have her arm floats on.
My daughter, I discovered, can really climb and she moves like lightning. I should have known how quick she can be from the way she swiped some birthday cake not long ago, during Isaac's birthday party.
I decided to drive home to change, after Faith was done swimming. When I walked back to my car, I realised my running bag was still in the boot, with a full set of clothing and my track shoes. So I took a shower at the pool toilet and returned faster than expected. God bless the running bag.
Having children is not unlike being unable to swim, and in a pool too deep for you, and without your arm floats.
One step, two steps, three steps... sink.
But we have each other, and if it gets too deep, Love will fish us out of deep water. Even if it means jumping in fully clothed.
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Seen in a kids clothing and toy store... So are you supposed to wear these outside like the Dark Knight too?
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When half of Singapore seems to be out of the country on vacation, it is good to go to places that tend to be crowded on Friday nights. We ordered Rosti, wild mushroom soup, DIY pizza, and washed it down with sour plum calamansi juice and strawberry milkshake. We also shared a caramel banana crepe with Macademia Nut ice cream for dessert. Generally a pleasant meal, if you avoid the crazy peak queues and crowds.
Just note that the place has a $10 per pax (regardless of age) minimum spend on Fridays, Saturdays, eve of Public Holidays and Public Holidays. Helps get couples like us a table faster, but a little challenging if you are planning to take your very young kids along. But at $8.70 for our dessert and $9.80 for the pizza, it should not be too hard to chalk it up.
Part of our dinner conversation dwelled on the upcoming arrival, and how close it actually is. Less than 4 weeks till the Blessed Day. And the little one gave Mommy a firm kick to remind us of her impending arrival, just as we got up to go.
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Latest TODAY column: Practise safe and responsible dining
Excerpt:
Singaporeans must be careful not to ape the West. We need to choose the dining that is suitable for our climate. Just because Westerners like to dine al fresco does not mean it is appropriate for us too.
Singapore climate is very hot, you know. Just because it is al fresco does not mean the food will taste any better. There is no correlation between sitting outside and good quality food.
Continue reading "TODAY: Practise safe and responsible dining" »
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Interesting, I never knew a hanging in Singapore pays $400 per gig. Also educational for those who never knew how hangings are carried out in Singapore.
Australian newspaper, The Australian, reveals this in a story about the man who will perform the execution of Australian drug trafficker Van Tuong Nguyen. Until now, I don't believe we have ever seen Singapore's Chief Executioner, Darshan Singh.
I understand from the story that it has been hard to find his replacement, which is why he is still being asked to hang criminals at age 73.
Some of Singapore's top civil service jobs are hard to find replacements for, it seems. Hey, maybe that's why some of our talents are employed waaaaay beyond retirement age.
Excerpts:
Mr Singh has officially retired from the prison service but is called upon to carry out executions, for which he receives a fee of $S400 ($312).
Until now, his identity has been a closely guarded secret in Singapore...
...A colleague and close friend, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told The Australian that Mr Singh wanted to give up his hangman's responsibilities and live quietly in retirement but the authorities were having trouble finding anyone to replace him.
"He tried to train two would-be hangmen to replace him, a Malaysian and a Chinese, both in the prison service," the colleague said.
"But when it came to pulling the lever for the real thing, they both froze and could not do it.
"The Chinese guy, a prison officer, became so distraught he walked out immediately and resigned from the prison service altogether."...
...Mr Singh reportedly spends time getting to know the condemned prisoners, especially those who do not receive visitors or religious support.
"He is a very kindly man and although it's his job to end their lives he does feel for them," his friend said. "Mr Singh tries to comfort them if they are completely alone in the world at such a horrible time."
(Thanks to reader sha for the link. Someone also submitted it to Tomorrow.sg)
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I am not sure if it is a good thing to be called a "spitting image" of Teresa Teng, as this Straits Times Life section (3rd November 2005) front page says of China-born singer, Tong Yao.
I suppose she is really good at Teresa Teng songs like:
-Little Drops of Rain
-One Water Separates the Universe
-Raining on the East Mountain
-On the Other Side of the Water
Thanks to reader charis for spotting it.
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April Tan aka poutingbuddha was also at the Breast Cancer Foundation's Pink Ribbon Treasure Hunt on Sunday, and she took this shot of me. Look very like those paparazzi shots of Cameron Diaz or Lindsay Lohan looking frumpy and fat hor? Hahaha!
Her team's car was opposite mine and in case you are wondering, she was shooting from between the boobs of Shrek. Yes, her car had a Shrek-with-boobs ornament.
Aiyah, April, why never come up and say hello? The treasure hunt damn fun right? Our two teams certainly had a blast.
Here is a Flickr set of our third outing at this iconic BCF event, already in its fourth year. And here are poutingbuddha's photos.
Incidentally, April's team came in first in the fundraising department, raising more than $600 from selling this year's BCF pink ribbon pins (all Treasure Hunt teams were given pins to sell). This is a remarkable achievement as their haul represented more than 10% of the donations collected for the pins alone. So kudos to you and your team, April!
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I also got to meet Jeremy Lim, Boy Wonder. He is one great kid and I was thrilled to finally meet him in person.
Miyagi got his two seconds of fame, in a short-history-of-TODAY video shown at the dinner.
Right after I shot this photo of his first "big screen" appearance, he MMSed me from Australia where he was doing his reservist, and sent me a photo of some tank graffiti. So I MMSed him his TODAY video appearance back. Haha.
Like Miyagi, I also got a small bit role in the video. I said how much I love the diminutive size of TODAY, that allows me read it on the train without hitting people with my elbows. (I also said a whole lot of other wittier things in my original recording, but they were edited out... boohoo).
It was very kind of the audience to laugh at my silly joke, and some even turned in recognition to look at me at my table.
And what was mr brown doing at that precise moment?
Left hand raised holding mobile phone camera, shooting this from the video screen.
Go people gala dinner also must take photo for blog.
Malu sial!
You can take the blogger to a gala dinner, but you can't get the blogger out of him. Oh, I also tried (unsuccessfully) to get a shot of SM Goh who was the VIP there. But man, is he tall.
I also have a small Flickr set of the evening.
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Update: added a Flickr set of our trip to the Zoo.
Happy Deepavali! We are at the Zoo today, and we just signed up to be Friends of the Zoo!
It's a lovely day to be out and about, and we are going to the Playland now. We brought a towel and a change of clothes for Faith in case she makes a dash for the water play area. Like the last time. Haha!
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