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Philadelphia 2009 Day 3: DiaS'pura 2, Sing, City! 2 musical, Instant noodles song

Update: Caleb Yap, the younger brother of the pair who composed the musical sent me the lyrics to Noodle Blues (the name of this song) too. Lyrics are inside the video as a Closed Caption.

Another of my favourite numbers from the Sing, City! 2 musical composed, written and performed by the Singaporean students University of Pennsylvania.

The musical was presented in the evening of the 29th of March, at the Harnwell Sky Lounge, as part of DiaS'pura 2 http://www.diaspura.org

The song is an ode to instant noodles, the lifeblood of Singaporean students overseas. Oh, and I was most honoured and humbled by the shout-out to one of my hums in the song too.

I feel like getting a bowl myself now.

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Philadelphia 2009 Day 3: DiaS'pura 2, Sing, City! 2 musical, Sekali I

Update: Josh Yap, the elder brother of the pair who composed the musical sent me the lyrics to Sekali I, in case you want to sing along (I know I couldn't get the song out of my head). Lyrics are inside the video as a Closed Caption.


One of my favourite numbers from the Sing, City! 2 musical composed, written and performed by the Singaporean students University of Pennsylvania. The musical was presented in the evening of the 29th of March, at the Harnwell Sky Lounge, as part of DiaS'pura 2.

This song is call Sekali I.

Also wins points for the use of "Cockanaden" in the lyrics. Very steady bom pi pi.

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Philadelphia 2009 Day 3: DiaS'pura 2 morning session

This is the morning of the DiaS'pura 2 event in University of Pennsylvania, organised by the wonderful Singaporean students there, on 28th of March 2009.

Before the morning session began, the boys were showing me the camera facilities in very well-equipped Huntsman Hall.

We had some fun discovering the power of camera tech.

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mrbrown in Bangkok Part 2: Thailand Creative and Design Centre

Part 2 of my interview with Mr Paravi Wongchirachai (Albert) who is Deputy Director of Thailand Creative and Design Centre (TCDC), when I was in Bangkok last week.

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Philadelphia 2009 Day 2: Riding The Loop at Fairnount Park

I'm taking an evening ride through the 13km bike trail around Schuylkill River (pronounced "SKOO-kull"), at Fairmount Park, Philly. This is the Falls Bridge point. I started at Market Street so I still have a ways to go. I reckon by the time I'm done, it'll be just nice for dinner. Such a pleasant ride this trail is!

Philadelphia 2009 Day 1: a rainy evening

I had just checked into the Sheraton Philadelphia University City Hotel at 36th and Chestnut Street on a Thursday evening (US East Coast time).

After Yaoxiang, a senior from University of Pennsylvania, the organisers of DiaS'pura 2, which I am here in Philly for, picked me up from JFK airport and we drove a good 3 hours in the rain to get to the hotel.

The lady at the reception referred to him as my son (!!!) when he offered his credit card for the room's incidentals and suddenly, I felt very old. Maybe I should spike up my hair next time and dye it purple.

I also didn't realise my Twitters were being monitored too! LOL.

I wanted to ride the bike out but it was raining and fairly late so I just walked to look for dinner. I ended up having a Baracoa bowl from Chiplote.

Part of my travel ritual is always a trip to the convenience store to pick up a few bottles of water and iced tea for the room. So into the 7-Eleven I went.

I spotted a big bookstore nearby (this is the university district of Philly after all) on the way to dinner and made a mental note to visit it.

In the middle of the night, still up at 3am because I am not used to the 12-hour time difference, I dashed acrossed the street in 6°C temperatures to a Wawa's to get a hot hoagie. It tasted good but man, was it messy to eat. I felt like a housewife cleaning up my table after I finished supper.

It is funny how much of a neat freak I become when I travel. I always arrange my toiletries nicely in the bathroom, wiping up and stray water on the sink, and place my bags, clothes and computer gear neatly in the room. Maybe it is my way of making the hotel room a little more like home.

Philadelphia 2009 Day 0: My first time at Qatar airport

After a rather uneventful flight on a Qatar Airways Airbus A330, my middle-of-the-night flight is now in Doha. I slept for part of the flight since we departed Singapore at 2.30am.

The airport looks new and there seems to be construction going on when I saw the view from my bus (yes, we had to take a bus to the terminal). I spent a little time in the duty free shop checking out tech prices. Not that great.

The flight itself was pleasant enough. The QR flight attendants were efficient and polite. Breakfast was served when it was about 8am Singapore time, and I made the mistake of choosing the "noodle" suggested by the flight steward. It turned out to be this dry orange (yes, orange) coloured beehoon with some chicken. Should have taken the omelette instead.

The thing that puzzled me on the flight though, was why there was no entertainment for a six-hour flight. No headphones were given out and the screen was blank. It was only when I pressed the controller to check that I saw the movies available.

So I took out my airline adaptor (I always pack one, $7 only, so that I can use my own better headphones instead of the awful ones given out by the airlines) and plugged my own headphones in. Ahh, movies to watch.

I am staring at the Departures screen in the transit lounge and my QR flight from Doha to JFK in New York, is some codeshare with United. Oh please don't make it a United flight...

Philadelphia 2009 Day 0: Almost time to board my New York flight

...and still cannot stop twittering and using the Net. Gonna be a long flight to NYC and Philadelphia but also looking forward to meeting friends, old and new, there.

The Dahon Curve SL (2009 model with Capreo rear D and cassette. Thanks to my sponsor Speedmatrix!) has been checked in after being packed carefully into the luggage with the bike tools and tiny Blackburn Flea lights. This time I decided not to chuck the helmet into the checked in luggage. I was afraid of baggage handlers cracking my new Met helmet so I packed it into my laptop backpack.

I also packed a few more warm clothes in case it gets too cold in the East Coast. By the looks of the weather reports, it's averaging 0 to 11 degrees C. Yikes.

I have my iPod Touch, Macbook, Creative Vado HD video cam, Microtrack recorder and mics on me. Also carrying the DSLR. I am a One-man IT Mall.

I picked up a Sanyo Li-Ion mobile booster battery at the tech shop in Terminal 3 just before they closed at 1am. It will let me power the devices that use USB to charge. I've been meaning to get that for a while now.

I took a little time between packing at home earlier, to talk to the kids and tell them where Papa was going and when he'd be back. Joy asked for a present. I said see how.

Then the wife drove me to the airport and we shared a Popeye's meal before I entered Customs.

They are boarding the rear number now. Hope the Qatar airways flight goes smoothly. See you guys soon.

mrbrown in Bangkok Part 1: Thailand Creative and Design Centre

When I was in Bangkok recently, I had the opportunity to speak to Mr Paravi Wongchirachai (Albert) who is Deputy Director of Thailand Creative and Design Centre (TCDC).

Khun Albert told me his views about design and the creative economy in Thailand, and gave me a little tour of TCDC.

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the mrbrown show: National Annual Bonus for Exceptional Individuals

Get your big bonus at mrbrownshow.com!

A picnic at Botanic Gardens and a little birthday celebration

We had a lovely little picnic at the Botanic Gardens with our friends on Sunday.

Being the ignoramus that I am, I circled the Botanic Gardens trying to find the right entrance to the place. In the end, I parked at Cluny Park Road carpark and the whole family walked towards the Shaw Foundation Symphony Stage area where the gang had gathered.

Well, to be accurate, the wife and the kids walked. Isaac and I scootered ahead on a Xootr kickscooter. It was fun getting lost with my son. We rode through the park, partly to backtrack and look for Mommy and Co (who had taken a slightly different route to the stage) and partly to just get lost and stumble into things, like the Evolution Garden (Creationists would flip out here).

When the road got bumpy, I carried the scooter and we walked. When the slopes were too much, we walked again.

Isaac got a little worried when we couldn't see Mommy's entourage. "Call Mommy on the phone, Papa," he kept saying.

"It's okay," I told him, "we'll get there. Just enjoy the ride with me, ok?"

This reassurance helped him to enjoy the rest of the journey and our fellowship.

By the time we reached the group, they were already playing some group games, very sportingly. I turned on my camera and did my unofficial photographer job.

Towards the end of the picnic, the Friends sprang a little surprise for the wife because it was her birthday. She was very touched by the gesture and we all devoured the green tea cake despite being already full with hotdogs and beehoon.

The Friends asked me how many candles to put on the cake, before they took it out. Being a clueless husband, I said, "All of it lor." Fortunately, they were wiser and put in a symbolic number of candles instead. Not that my does-not-look-her-age-at-all wife had anything to hide anyways.

Faith had fun lazing in the park grounds and running here and there. Joy tried to blow bubbles but failed by no fault of her own (the solution was too soapy). Watching her "pfffft" as hard as she could, only to have a tiny bubble appear, cracked me up.

I think I shall try getting lost in the gardens with my son again. It was a great little adventure to share with him.

We shall never ever let you forget... VR Man

Just when you thought you have pushed this into the deepest recesses of your memory, someone on twitter reminds you of the greatness that is... VR Man!

Thanks @eadwine. I really need the laughs on a Monday.

BBC asks PM Lee: "Are you worth all that money?"

The BBC interviewed PM Lee recently (listen here) and the local press reported on it. (e.g. TODAY and ST)

Other people noticed this too.

Transcript of the final question in the BBC interview (via TOC):

BBC: “Finally, Prime Minister, I read that you are apparently the highest paid head of government in the world. Your salary is about four or five times what President Obama gets. Are you worth all that money?”

PM Lee laughed and said: “I am not comparing myself and I don’t look at these rankings.We go on a system which is open, honest, transparent – what is the job worth, what is the quality of the person whom you want. We need the best people for the job and these are jobs where you make decisions which are worth billions of dollars. And you cannot do that if you are pretending and you just say, ‘Well, we are all in it for the love of King and Country’. We want it to be honest, we want people not to come in for the money. But at the same time the sacrifice cannot be too great. And at times like these, you want the best possible government you can have.”

Maybe the question not that important lah, like that CDC 8-month bonus thing.

Besides, why omit that last question on his salary? Singaporeans are all very happy and pleased at what our leaders are paid what. And we all understand the need to pay top dollar for top talent what.

Lovely rainbow against an orange sunset

The rainbow made my kids and I very excited. Like it's a promise of something good coming our way. That's how I see rainbows.

CDC Bonus Fiasco Part 2: The missing forum threads

I didn't believe it at first when someone commented that SPH's AsiaOne forums had locked and deleted a lively thread discussing the Northwest CDC 8-month bonus issue. I mean, yes I can see the news articles disappearing from ST and CNA, but forum threads too?

This forum post entitled "Northwest CDC 8-month Bonus" was started at 3.36pm on Thursday, 19 March on AsiaOne forums, that's yesterday.

This is what the forum post said:

As of last night, there were two pages of comments on this thread but if you went back this morning, with this URL, http://forums.asiaone.com/showthread.php?t=226046, you got nothing.

Then this morning, there is already a third thread started on the AsiaOne forum, entitled "CDCs giving out 8 month bonuses?", and people are wondering when it will be deleted.

Oh wait. It's already gone. That was even faster.

So SPH, why ah? Dowan people to discuss the CDC 8-months bonus topic ah? Or read anything about it ah?

the mrbrown show: paddle of righteousness

Check out the latest ping pong drama series at mrbrownshow.com!

Missing articles from ST and CNA on CDC 8-months bonus fiasco

Not sure why hor, but Straits Times and Channel NewsAsia no longer have the news articles about the Northwest CDC 8-months bonus outcry.

In case you are not aware of this, the outcry was over the fact that two staff from the Northwest Community Development Council (CDC) received bonuses of eight months last year, including the 13th month bonus.

In response to the fracas, Northwest CDC’s mayor, Dr Teo Ho Pin said, "If you ask me, I do not know the salaries; I do not know the bonuses of all my staff."

According to Dr Teo, bonuses and salaries of CDC staff are decided by the People’s Association (PA) and the Workforce Development Agency (WDA).

People's Association (PA) deputy chairman (and Minister in the PMO) Lim Boon Heng said, "I think we should not begrudge the few people who get very high bonuses."

The bonuses were paid in 2008, when the economy was said to be good until the last quarter.

The missing articles:

• CNA: Northwest CDC mayor says PA, WDA decide on staff pay, bonuses (link to page is empty)
• Straits Times: CDC bonuses explained (404 page)

The internet moves in mysterious ways, you know. But never mind, I have the PDF of the pages, in case you want to read them.

• CNA: Northwest CDC mayor says PA, WDA decide on staff pay, bonuses (Yahoo CNA news PDF)
• Straits Times: CDC bonuses explained (PDF of cached page)

The deleted ST piece can also be read in Google's cache.

Riding a newly assembled vintage bicycle on East Coast Park

Took my new old bike out, a Columbia "Made in England" Sports model Light Roadster made in the 1960s. The dark green chromoly-steel frame was found brand new in the shop, still covered with oiled brown paper. Columbia is an old American brand of bicycles but it seems they had some frames made in Birmingham, England, in the olde days.

The bike has a 1978 3-speed Sturmey-Archer hub with a vintage lever switch (hard to find nowadays). Uncle helped me find as many vintage parts as possible to outfit the bike. I think only the rims, tires and crank are not old.

For example, the front hub is an old Shimano hub, the pedals are MKS Quill 2k pedals from the 70s, the brakes are old centre-pull caliper brakes from Japan, called Cherry, which were popularly found in sport bikes of the 1960s and '70s.

The seat is some old padded Japanese saddle with some obiang diamond pattern. Even the lights are old. The rear light is a Cat Eye TL-550 2.5V halogen red light, while the front is a Sanyo LK-H203E 2.5V halogen lamp. Both were new out of their yellowed boxes, at least two decades old. The TL-550 uses four AAs and looks like something out of a 60s space movie, and the Sanyo lamp uses two C-sized batteries. I mean, who uses C batteries on bicycle lamps anymore?

To top it off, it was a lovely cool evening to ride this piece of history out for the first time.

TODAY: No newspaper will die one leh!

TODAY newspaper: If newspapers die, terrible consequences blah blah... ("Companies will see sales slump, citizens will make important decisions in the dark")

mumbrella: US readers say die die lor ("A sizeable proportion of the public wouldn’t particularly care if their local newspaper closed, a new report suggests.")

The Crisis of Credit Visualized video, and Bad Bank episode from This American Life

The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

A very cool video that explains the credit crisis simply and effectively.

via Crisisofcredit.com

Also listen to this great episode from This American Life, Bad Bank, and learn about the collapse of the US banking system in 59 minutes.