mrbrown.com

CNNGo column: Deciphering the mystery of Singapore's MRT station names

Latest CNNGo.com "Say What? with mrbrown" column: Deciphering the mystery of Singapore's MRT station names

Excerpt:

I tried to take the MRT to the Esplanade the other day. I had a wedding to attend in the afternoon and the National Day rehearsals were on, and I thought it best to avoid driving into the area surrounding the Padang.

Oh, did I also mention that I was taking the entire family there? Yes the entire Lee Clan (I do have a Chinese name besides mrbrown, you know).

Together with my two domestic helpers, three kids, one wife, and both my parents, we looked like a National Day contingent. I think we should have brought along some flags that said "The Lee Family: No, Not That One" and joined the march.

The first thing we learned was that the Esplanade MRT Station is a lie. It is no where near the Esplanade. We had to walk through the labyrinth that is underground Citylink Mall to get there.

I think when you name a station Esplanade, you are expected to locate it within the same time zone of the actual Esplanade. (cont'd)

CNNGo column: Collecting Dust: mrbrown takes stock of his overgrown CD collection

Latest CNNGo.com "Say What? with mrbrown" column: Collecting Dust: mrbrown takes stock of his overgrown CD collection

Excerpt:

A recent event caused me to take note of my CD collection again. Yes, you remember CDs? Compact Discs? Shiny round things that carry about 10 to 15 songs each? Plays on this ancient thing called a CD Player?

Yes, Modern Listener of Music from Non-Physical Media, those things still exist.

The wife gave me an ultimatum, move out of your study and give the room up for the kids, NOW. That prompted me to take stock of my life, review my career goals, and think of where I was going to move my PC gaming rig.

And of course, my CD collection.

There it was, more than 500 CDs in two shelves, covered in a few years of dust. Since I moved over to MP3s, I hardly played them, even though I had a perfectly good CD player hooked up to a lovely amp in the living room. (cont'd)

CNNGo column: mrbrown and family have an art attack weekend

Latest CNNGo.com "Say What? with mrbrown" column: mrbrown and family have an art attack weekend

Excerpt:

Over the weekend, the wife said to me, "I entered Joy for a Spot Art Competition and you're coming with me."

For a moment, I was wondering what kind of art competition based itself on drawing spots. Then I realized it was an on-the-spot art competition, held within walking distance of our home.

I figured it was a good way to get the kids out of the house on a Saturday afternoon, so we grabbed Joy's art bag, my six-year-old Isaac, and Singapore's Next Top Artist, Joy, and walked over to the apartment block down the road.

It turned out to be much bigger than we expected. The art thing was merely one part of a larger affair. It was called the rather long name of "Paya Lebar Emergency Preparedness Day Cum Emergency Evacuation Exercise."

I felt a little cheated, to be honest. What I thought was a little art competition for kids turned out to be this big quasi-political public education event. But since we were here, we decided to make the best of it. So into the circus my family walked. (cont'd)

We Like...

Spotted this cool little site called welike.sg, where you get to put stuff you like about Singapore. I am told this is not some gahmen project, so it is kinda cool to see some funny ones like:

"We like to makan and talk cock in kopitiams and hawker centres."

"We like complaining for the sake of complaining."

And my favourite one:

"We like mr brown."

Thanks, whoever you are that submitted that one. Hahaha!

the mrbrown show: Song for XCB

Inspired by the NDP 2010 theme song, we wrote this song for XCBs all over the world! Sing with us at mrbrownshow.com!

Or click on our singalong video above!

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.

Think Family's new video: A Girl's Hope

I thought this tvc, by MCYS and the Think Family folks, fairly clever and touching. If only they didn't try to force fit NDP and Youth Olympic Games themes into it, whether wittingly or unwittingly.

As my friend Lucian put it, "Good attempt, but storyline kena hijacked by committee."

It's almost as if someone from an NDP committee piped in, "Hey! Throw in our 'Live Our Dreams' line in there leh!"

And then a YOG committee person may have said, "Make the little girl talk about our sports event too!"

Wah, bao ka liao, can save Gahmen lots of money by trying to hit so many birds with one stone. And almost hitting none. Thank goodness the commercial is saved by having a lot of heart.

What happened to this STOMPer's Big Walk post?

An alert Sammyboy forummer spotted a post missing from the SPH-owned STOMP site.

The STOMPer tanwk posted photos and a report entitled "Hundreds left waiting for goodie bags as Big Walk turns into big mess".

The post was about how participants of The New Paper Big Walk (also SPH organized) were allegedly "still queuing for their goodie bags at 7.55am even though the flag-off was at 7.30am".

This is the dead link where the post used to be: Dead STOMP link.

This is the Google Cache: Cached link.

Why the missing post? Was the report by the "citizen journalist" not good enough for the site? Was it a technical glitch? Has the post URL changed?

How mysterious.

Goes to show yer, though, the internet doesn't forget easily.

the mrbrown show: bookie blues

Bookies look for new sources of income, find out what, at mrbrownshow.com!

Joy and the rocking horse

There are mornings you wake up and walk through the home, and though the kids are all in school or kindergarten, you see their handiwork.

I spotted the family Ikea rocking horse dressed in this pretty dress and just HAD to ask the helper, "Who dressed the rocking horse?"

Even though I already knew the answer.

"Ah that Joy-joy! I asked her to change into her kindergarten uniform and she decided to put the dress she was wearing on the horse, hahaha!"

Only a child would think of dressing a rocking horse like that. Spontaneously and delightfully. Just because it was a fun thing to do at the time.

That brought a smile to my face, a smile that was with me all day.

the mrbrown show: the wave song

Singapore should also do the wave, because we so many floods! Cheer at mrbrownshow.com!

CNNGo column: Is Singapore becoming... messy?

Photo by RongC

Latest CNNGo.com "Say What? with mrbrown" column: Is Singapore becoming... messy?

Excerpt:

Recently, DBS, Singapore's biggest bank and the one with the widest network of ATMs, suffered a system outage that brought their ATMs and Internet banking to a grinding halt island-wide.

From around 3am Monday morning till about 10am that same day, folks could not do Internet and phone banking, draw cash from ATM machines, or pay with their debit cards.

When I found out about this technical glitch, I immediately went to my nearest ATM, once it was back online, to see if I had gained an extra million dollars. To my disappointment, the system outage did not bless me with the additional funds. Dang it.

A later news report said that the bank has ruled out "sabotage".

Which means poor system design or stupidity was to blame for the seven-hour financial blackout. Very reassuring.

Poor IBM. I'd hate to be in their shoes right now, "helping" DBS with their investigations.

Good thing I don't do much shopping at 3am in the morning or I'd be really mad. The only thing I do at 3am in the morning is buy fishball noodles for supper and the fishball noodles man does not take debit cards. (cont'd)

mrbrown shops at Changi Airport

While I was at Changi Airport for the Changi Millionaire Dance filming, during the days when I had free time, I took some time out to shop.

It is my fave thing to do before and after flights.

Also, I may get a chance to win a million bucks. Check out the details at their site, www.changiairport.com/millionaire.

CNNGo column: If Singapore floods, escape the five-star way

Latest CNNGo.com "Say What? with mrbrown" column: If Singapore floods, escape the five-star way

Excerpt:

We used to pity Jakarta and other cities for their "Third World" style flooding, safe in our super-efficient infrastructure and modern facilities. But after a few recent floods, most notably along Bukit Timah (a rich man's residential estate) and Orchard Road (our shopping belt), we should be turning that pity on ourselves.

After the Bukit Timah flood, we waited for a robust response from our government, something like, "This flooding is not acceptable and we will cast out the demon of poor drainage, and restore peace, balance and dryness to our society!"

But instead, we were told by Yaacob Ibrahim, Minister for Environment and Water Resources, that the Bukit Timah flood was an event that "occurs once every 50 years", a freak event of more rain than usual.

That was in November 2009. Then months later, another once-every-50-years freak event happened (time moves very fast in Singapore) and Orchard Road flooded.

A newly opened Wendy's and a Starbucks at the basement of Liat Towers were submerged in water. A Hermès store was hit too. Many women I know wept at that last bit of news (nooooo, not the poor little Birkin bags! Send in the Navy Divers!). (cont'd)

Insing column: mrbrown and the World Cup

Latest weekly Insing column is "mrbrown and the World Cup"

Excerpt:

I am in the midst of discovering that my body is no longer the late night fighting machine it used to be. I learned this from this year's World Cup.

Three matches a day was taking a toll on my poor body. I am so glad we are going into the second round soon, with just 16 teams.

It did not help that when I went to Malaysia for a short vacation with the family, I got hit by a severe gastric attack, probably from eating something funky. Fortunately it was on the last day but it meant that I had to stay in the room while the rest of the family was out doing fun things like ice skating, shopping and watching The Karate Kid (the new one in which the kid does not learn karate but kung fu).

Since I am on the topic, what is up with that movie? At least be honest and call it The Kung Fu Kid. Will The Karate Kid 2 be about a middle-aged woman who wants to learn tai-chi? (cont'd)

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...

The right way to hold your iPhone 4

(image via macgasm.net)

iPhone 4 has been reported as dropping calls and losing signal strength if you hold it a certain way. Steve Jobs says it is a non-issue. "Just don't hold it that way," says the Wise One.

Even Nokia has chimed in with a little poke at this iPhone 4 "feature".

Here is one possible fix:

But that is not as effective as the method this lady discovered. Scientists have confirmed that the right way to hold your iPhone 4 that will not only prevent signal loss, it will BOOST your signal.
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