Lousy Xmas Eve Dinner

Met up with 2 'irritating' friends of mine for Xmas Steamboat Dinner last evening @ Clementi, Sunset Way to be exact. We all agree that it sounds kind of weird to be having steamboat for Xmas but who cares since we all enjoy steamboat-ing.

We choose this place because we want to be away from the mad crowds in town. 'Older' folks like us prefer somewhere quieter and less havoc :) Based on a colleague's good review of the place, I suggested giving it a try. At the end of the dinner, I must say I've made a wrong recommendation, and its a pretty bad one :(

We had a reservation @ 7pm but we arrived around 715pm. The table's still there for us, in front of the ventilating fan outside in the alfresco area. Great! At least they took note of my request during my reservation call. The place is about 80% occupied as we arrived and were seated promptly.

They offered 4 choices of soup bases; Chicken, Tom Yum, Ma La & Seafood (basically seaweed soup) from which we are supposed to select 2. My 2 'irritating' friends made their way inside the premises to get the ingredients but they took nearly 10mins to come back with 2 barely full plates of veges and some meat. From experience, they're not those who would take so little, not especially on the first trip. Anyway, as they come back with the food items, I proceeded inside to grab more stuffs.

The first thing that greeted me as I stepped in were no sumptuous spread like what you'd see in a typical steamboat buffet-line but EMPTY trays lying there on the line!! "Ok", I tell myself... "they needed time to refill due to the crowd tonight..."

Making my way around the line, I saw a huge tray of neatly cut-up chicken-looking meat which I presumed was turkey. I wasn't firmed on this until I saw a BADLY HAND-WRITTEN label beside the tray that says "Turkey". Turning to my right, I saw a NEAR EMPTY vegetable, meatballs and non-marinated meat section! This is terrible!! Looking to my left now, there is this lady rolling up some sushi but instead of cutting them up when it was rolled up, she placed the un-cut, rolled-up sushi to one side and proceeded to roll the next one.

Moving further down the line, there stands yet another lady, 'fishing' some tempura out from the container with the mix and dipping it into the deep fryer. Next to her were some 3 trays which were filled only with crispy batter, NO tempura of any sort at all. Turning to my right once more, I finally caught sight of something decent, a pretty filled BBQ meat section. However, my relief was to be shortlived as again I spotted NEAR EMPTY TRAYS in the cooked-food section.

Making a left turn at the end of the line, there lies the dessert section which looks adequately filled for the moment but I was seriously doubting its presence later on in the evening as most of the patrons would have been done with the 'main course' and am proceeding with 'desserts'. The seafood section, somehow, is right next to the dessert section. I found this arrangement to be a little weird but am unable to pin-point the weird-ness. Anyway, as usual, there were barely any seafood left in the trays there, only ice....

No doubt we were able to fill ourselves up last evening, but the sight of 'emptiness' seriously TURNED US OFF big time! It seems to us that everything is empty most of the time. Are you under-staffed that you have delays topping up the food? Or are you simply trying to 'save cost' by putting out lesser food? Either way, they've just lost 3 potential repeat customers.

Oh, I forgot to mention that they do BBQ the meat from the BBQ section for patrons. However, it takes a damn long time to arrive. Our's were picked and handed over to them for queueing when my 2 'irritating' friends first went inside. The items arrived only 45mins later...

This terrible place, is Fortune Cuisine @ Sunset Way..... Patronise @ your own peril. Don't say I didn't warn you....

Census...

According to Wikipedia, a census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population.

In the case of Uncle Law's Cubicle here, I would like to conduct a census of whoever is reading this blog. As such, if you are reading this post as of now, I would appreciate it very much if you could just drop me a comment to indicate your presence. If you do not mind, do include your name (or nickname) and how do you come across my little cubicle in the world wide web.

Thank you very much.

谢谢.

Terima Kasih.

Merci.

My 1st Les Mills Quarterly Workshop

As promised in my previous post, I'd be dedicating this entire post to the ins & outs of my first Les Mills Quarterly Workshop in KL on 6th Dec 2009.

If you've been reading my entries all along (which I assumed you do), I was over in KL 2 weekends ago and the major reason why I was even there is to attend the series of LM Workshops (specifically BodyCombat) which are held every 3 months in the various cities. These workshops are the platforms by which LM uses to launch their new releases for the various programs in their stable (eg. BodyCombat, BodyPump, BodyStep, etc).

This time around, the workshops are held @ Twin Towers Fitness which is located in the basement of KLCC, right at the ticket booth whereby you can obtain tickets to the Petronas Twin Towers Skybridge. The reception area of this gym isn't fantastic to begin with, in fact, the worst of True Fitness's reception is easily 2 notches above that of Twin Towers Fitness. However, what really awed me is the existence of an indoor basketball court, full-sized, @ basement 2 within the confines of the gym. I supposed most of the GX Classes are held here except for maybe the RPM Classes since I did not spot any other rooms within the gym that looks like a studio. Not surprising, they had setup a stage in the middle of the court for the workshop.

This workshop is based on the upcoming BodyCombat Release 42, a pretty much Muay Thai-themed release. There were 6 presenters on stage, including the 2 Program Directors for Body Combat, Rachael & Dan Cohen (yes, they're husband and wife) from NZ. With the 'dress-code' of the day being white top with Muay-Thai bottom, it's not at all surprising to see many fellow 'Combatants' dressed in white tops and Muay-Thai bottoms of various colours. Others, like me, who didn't stick to the dress code, turned out in various colours and gears but generally tried to stick to the 'official colours' of the day. I spotted at least 1 dude in Muay-Thai gears, complete with 'Pra-Jead', an arm-band worn on the biceps. I later heard from Irene that this guy's the Head of BC, from FF Malaysia.

BC is the 2nd workshop of the day. BodyVive's the first @ 830am. BC's coming up next at 10am. By the time we got changed and went down to B2, there were already many other folks already hanging around on the sides of the court, looking on and waiting for the BC Workshop to commence. As the clock ticks closer to 10, more folks poured in, amongst them quite a few of TF's Instructors. The scene sorts of reminded me of TF's Mega Combat held @ Suntec's Fountain of Wealth.

Everyone got on their feet, all ready to run towards the centre of the court so as to get a 'prime' spot in front of the stage. I'm sure the objective for doing this is not to be able to catch the action on stage, but more to catch Dan & Rach instead. At least my objective for being in a prime location is such. The participants of the BV workshop barely occupied half the available space on the courts but the participants of BC, had they spread themselves out, would have easily fill the ENTIRE court. But it was not to be as everyone tried to squeeze towards the centre, resulting in very little space around us. I can barely straighten my kicks without hitting the fellow in front, not to mention that I got kicked TWICE by this lady at my 5 o'clock direction!

BC 42's not that difficult to do, but to instruct would be a bit challenging for there were some rather complicated moves such as the 4-directional Ginga and a new move called The Sweep. I quite like Tracks 1A, 3, 7 and 8. I've always been a fan of power tracks and its no surprise that Tracks 3 and 8, again, are 2 of my favourites from the new release. I especially love the Muay Thai track of the new release, it's a 'recycled' track from the past but had been remixed for use this time around. There were 2 rounds to go for this track, 1 round for each side of the body, totaling about 8mins in all. In the beginning of each round, there is a traditional ritual dance for Muay Thai fighters before the fight called the Wai Kru which I really enjoyed. The accompanying music in the background during this choreography sticks in my mind all the time! For the sake of those still in the dark about the upcoming release, I shall not comment too much herein.

Attending the Workshop this time is very meaningful to me because its my VERY FIRST Les Mills Workshop and to be able to meet Dan & Rach makes it even more special. I've always been wanting to meet them ever since I got hooked on BC and by attending the KL Workshops, my little dream came true. :) The icing on the cake would have been able to get a picture with them both but it was not to be. I've only to get some pictures with Rach and also her autograph on my BC 40's Choreography Booklet. Perhaps my objective for the next Workshop with them in attendance would be to get some pictures with Dan.

New Zealand filming anyone?

A Unique KL Experience

This is a long overdue post which should have gone up long ago but due to laziness.... here is it now....

Well, I hopped over to KL over the 04-06 Dec weekend for the Les Mills Quarterlies taking place on Sunday. Although I signed up for Body Combat and Body Pump, I participated only in the BC42 Workshop due to time constraints, plus abit of laziness too. :p

I arrived on Friday morning on an uneventful flight together with G & V, his partner. Prior to the trip, we both knew we're on the same flight but probably different rows/sides of the plane. As it turned out, their seats are actually right next to my window seat! Talk about coincidence....

Something 'dramatic' happened the moment we landed. I was trying to switch on my phone but it simply wouldn't power on. I then tried using a pen's pointed end to 'poke' the power button, it still wouldn't start.... I've by now started to panic for without my phone, I'm unable to link up with Ms Ang, my very kind course-mate who offered to play host to the few of us from SG and showed us around KL. I'm supposed to link up with Ms Ang @ KLIA for she had come all the way to the airport to drive GV & me our accomodation @ Concorde Hotel. Desperate, i borrowed G's phone and plucked in my SIM Card. To my great relief, I received an SMS from Ms Ang the moment G's phone powered up. Had she not SMSed me, I've no idea how to reach her.... Anyway, all ends well regarding the linking up part once we're able to reach each other. Much credit must go to G for helping me out of the 'crisis'.

After checking in, Irene brought us to this street market where she recommended us some very delicious chicken/beef rendang. I particularly like the rice for its kinda sticky, unlike those we have in SG which is non-stick. The hawker must have added quite some spices to the rendang for the smell and taste is fantastic. I could have eaten it for dinner too if not for us going elsewhere in the evening!

We proceeded to Mid-Valley Mall post-lunch for some shopping before returning to attend a BC class at the Menara MBF Fitness First which is about 300m from Concorde while Ms Ang's office is, can you actually BELIEVE it, right next door!!

The highlight of the day comes in the evening post-dinner where Ms Ang, GV, G's coursemate B & wifey, Ms Ang's 2 friends from FF and myself drove up to a place in Ampang called Look Out Point. I've always a soft-spot for great scenaries be it urban or natural landscapes. It sort of like a ritual of mine to ascend up the local viewing tower for a look around the city during my first visit. I've been up KL Tower and also the Petronas Tower, but to look 'down' onto KL City from its outskirts is something totally new to me and I love it very much! The view up there is stupendous while the roads leading up is horrendous. Can you imagine driving up an unlit, winding road with pretty faint road markings at 10pm? If you thought the roads up Genting is bad enough, wait till you try this!!

The atmosphere here is very conducive for a good chill out session with friends, with your significant other and maybe even a good location to propose! :p If could be adventurous enough, I might have brought my SO up too (if I have one). The drinks and food is pretty ordinary, nothing fantastic to boast about. But like I've mentioned earlier, the atmosphere is second to none (Jewel Box @ Mt Faber is WAY OFF!!).

Day 2 was an interesting day for Ms Ang's Team-Teaching and G, B and I decided we just had to attend it to give her our utmost support. Her mentor was this petit lady called Peggy whereby she gives you the kind of impression that she's just like any other BC Instructor we have in TF. The moment she gets on stage and started rattling off the standard Class-Intro, the way she explains the various techniques in BC and some of those safety points to take note of, you'd know she's not a mentor for nothing. I'm really glad Ms Ang had been assigned Peggy for mentorship for I know she'd be in good (in fact, very good) hands.

More folks are arriving from SG on day 2, eg. MF, Grace and Mich @ 2pm via coach. Ms Ang and I met up with them at Corus Hotel where they're staying before we hit the road for 1-Utama. This mall seemed like a hell-of-a distance away from KLCC! A rough estimation of the trip time goes like 1hr? We drove past a Nandos signage and Grace went crazy... no prizes for guessing what's our lunch that day. The plan of the afternoon is to have lunch, then hit the mall for shopping before proceeding to meetup with more folks for dinner at Bubba Gump @ The Curve. The Curve's a nice dining spot, it sort of reminds me of The Grove back in LA. There wasn't much activity post-dinner as we all wanted to retire early for the next day, the HIGHLIGHT of our trip up north, the Les Mills Quarterlies!

It was rise and shine real early on day 3 of my KL Trip. Met up with Ms Ang for breakfast at the lobby just like the previous day as I'm staying alone in my twin room. Rather than waste one breakfast each day, why not invite Ms Ang to join me? We had a light breakfast before heading out to the gym @ KLCC where the Quarterlies are held. Body Combat is the 2nd programme of the day @ 10am while Body Vive was the first. The event was conducted on this indoor basketball court within the gym where they had setup the stage on one facet of the court. Anyway, we finished the workshop, did some cam-whoring, snap pictures with Rachel (one of the BC Programme Directors) and then left the gym for our hotel to pack up and check out. G had hired a cab to take us to KLIA for our flight back.

I've actually sooooooo much to share with regard to my very first LM Quarterlies that I'd be dedicating one entire blog post to it instead of mixing it in with this post. Do stay tuned to my next post, ok?

As the 4 of us, Ms Ang, GV and me sat drinking in Hard Rock Cafe waiting for the cab to arrive, I can't help but felt abit sad that the weekend's coming to an end so quickly and we'd have to leave. Thank goodness KL isn't too far away from SG and we can always drop by whenever possible. This trip had been one of my best ever trip for it was the first time that I've done things which are not  'tourisy' and this is all thanks to Ms Ang for playing host to us and showing us the nooks and corners of KL. On behalf of GV, Grace, MF and Mich, I would like to express my heartfelt appreciation for all that you've done for us during our visit.

Hope January comes around faster so that we can once again meet up and have a helluva good time :)

Exercising in the MRT

REALLY? Yes, I'm not kidding you. Read on......

Exercise 1 : Strong Core

How? By simply being free-standing whilst in the train and not holding onto any grab poles. By being 'support-less', you'd be forced to balance yourself as the train runs along, thus strengthening your core muscles along the way. The 'connecting' space between 2 carriages is the best.....

Exercise 2 : Strong Forearm Muscles

How? Whenever you grip onto the vertical/horizontal grab-poles. You'd adjust your grip accordingly as the train runs along, over time, the muscles should build up.

Exercise 3 : Strong Obliques

How? When sitting down and dozing off, one tended to lean to one side or the other. That's where the obliques gets trained up.

Exercise 4 : Strong Abs

How? Same as above, but leaning forward as you doze off, 'crunching' your abs in the process.

Exercise 5 : Strong Biceps

How? Using the horizontal grab-poles, stretch up your hands either in an over/under hand grip. Pull yourself up. Do not use your legs to propel yourself upwards.

Exercise 6 : Strong Triceps

How? Place both hands over the edge of the seat and push your butt off the seat towards the floor, using the arms as support. Lift yourself in an up/down motion using the hands as the driving force.

Exercise 7 : Building Stamina

How? While waiting for the train, run along the platform... Do take extra caution to stay behind the yellow line. 'nuff said....

Who needs a gym membership when you can get so much benefits just by taking the MRT?

KL in another 12hrs....

In about another 12hrs, I'd be in KL for my 2nd last trip out of Singapore in 2009, ending an uneventful travel season for me...

Let's see my travels this year :

• KL in Jan
• BKK in Jun
• Malacca in Nov
• KL in Dec
• Cambodia in Dec

Compare the above to my trips last year :

• Shanghai & Suzhou in Mar
• Bintan in May
• US West Coast in Sept
• Batam in Nov
• Hainan in Dec
  

Back to the topic proper.... My main purpose in hopping over to KL is to attend a Les Mills Body Combat Workshop on Sunday but am arriving 2 days early to go around KL properly despite having been there earlier this year. In that trip, Mr L and I went around mainly around the Bukit Bintang area as we're not too familar with KL and didn't want to get lost. However, this time, with Ms Ang being my guide, I'm hopeful of seeing more of KL....

Ms Ang : See ya tomorrow!!

Do you know that.....

You can now use Google Maps Singapore to plan your trips by car, public transport and even walking? Wow!!

I quite like this service when I was using it in the past to plan my California Trip... Now that Singapore's in the coverage, I'm sure I'd be using it even more.... :)

Holiday BC

 

I attended the Public Holiday Classes @ GWC today, particularly (actually, should be only) the BC Class @ 12noon. I must admit I walked in with a suspicious feeling that the class will be just so-so... but I walked out awed by the energy, the enthusiasm and the 'shameless-ness' of the instructor!

This instructor today is quite a newbie to the scene, maybe only a few months' worth of instructing experience? But her style was one of confidence, energy, fun and full of lame but funny jokes. Tracks selected by her today are from the newer releases and I'm not surprised by that considering that she might not have the time to learn the older ones so quickly. Overall, I must say I enjoyed her class today and will attend the class for which she's covering tomorrow too.

To Miss R (in case you're reading this) : You did very well today for a 'newbie'. Keep up the good work and I'm sure your fan base will grow soon enough. At least you've got one fan now.... :p

Another instructor to add to my 'must support' listing. :)

A Special Wedding Banquet...

I attended the wedding of a colleague earlier in the evening at the Marina Mandarin Hotel today, actually, yesterday to be exact. The groom and I both served in the 23rd Recreation Committee of XXX in 2007.

So, what's the special thing about this banquet? Well, for the first time of me attending banquets, the staffs here are predominantly Indians! A very good change for once from the usual Ah Tiongs who speaks no or little English at most. The other special thing about tonight's dinner was that as with the usual first dish being served, there would be the usual 'grand' entrance of the dish, together with some equally bombastic music. Well, the music was bombastic enough, the entrance grand enough....

What made me early fell off my seat was that the servers, with the first dish in hand, had all taken up positions around the stage area and started swaying to the music, very, very much like a Bollywood styled MTV!!! Did I forget to mention that the servers are mainly Indian?

Money nowadays really ain't easy to make... Even a banquet staff need to be multi-talented. :p

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPod Touch

@ SGH...

This is one of the several places on this island that no matter how many years had passed, the memories simply wont fade.

Today, I'm back at this sad place again after 21 long years... Yes, you read correctly, 21 years! My friend's mum had been warded here for quite a while and I thought I'd pay her a visit. But then, it seemed that she didn't feel like receiving any visitors yet. Her face was turned away from me just now as we walked into the ward, an obvious signal that she doesn't want to see anyone except her kins.

I don't exactly blame her for this as I do understand that when one is ill, we sometimes simply do not wish to see anyone for no particular reasons. Whatever it is, i do hope that she recovers soon.

:)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPod Touch

Starhub in Desperado Mode....

*Extracted from the 3rd Sept STi*

StarHub's offer is 'three years too late'

But SingTel doesn't rule out sharing the hosting of pay-TV content

By Chua Hian Hou

---

TOO little, too late: This just about sums up SingTel's reaction to StarHub's unsolicited offer to host its pay-TV content.

That said, SingTel is not throwing out the baby with the bath water either: it has said it will consider the proposal and respond if it is formally tabled.

StarHub's proposals have thus far been made only through the media.

SingTel Singapore chief executive Allen Lew, making his most direct remarks on the hot-button issue at a media briefing yesterday, said StarHub's offer comes 'three years too late'.

It was no secret SingTel had set its sights on the pay-TV market years ago, he said. But StarHub, the only pay-TV provider here for 12 years until SingTel launched mio TV in 2007, had made no proposal about sharing the network up until it lost pay-TV's crown jewel, the Barclays Premier League, to SingTel.

Mr Lew declined to say if or what discussions transpired back then. SingTel thus went ahead to build its mio TV infrastructure, he said, 'a new state-of-the-art pay-TV network with unique features like true video-on-demand'.

mio TV is now all set to take the 126,000 subscribers it has so far garnered on board Singapore's billion-dollar national broadband network, with which it has been designed to work seamlessly.

The Straits Times understands that StarHub's older, non high-definition ready set-top boxes may need replacing if viewers are to make the most of the new fibre-optic network's capabilities.

StarHub now has 535,000 subscribers.

Mr Lew, noting that the Government has commissioned a study on the issue, said it would be prudent to await the outcome of that, as it did not want to make a move contravening what the Media Development Authority (MDA) would propose.

Timing aside, Mr Lew questionedthe sincerity of StarHub's offer: 'Let me state upfront that I find it very unusual that a competitor will make a commercial proposal to us through the press. If someone is serious about doing something, you would approach the other party first before blaring it out to the whole world.'

StarHub chief executive Terry Clontz had conveyed his offer to host SingTel's content on its network in an e-mail to The Straits Times two weeks ago. He said then that it was in response to customers' feedback that it would be a hassle to install a set-top box for exclusive StarHub programmes and another for SingTel's.

StarHub followed up on this offer - using The Business Times next - with a proposal to let SingTel carry StarHub's exclusive content like HBO on its network.

Mr Lew said yesterday that he does not rule out cooperation altogether: 'When they send that proposal, then I can give you a more specific comment.'

A StarHub spokesman said yesterday evening that a formal proposal had just been sent to SingTel.

The Government has declined comment, but has reiterated that it is in talks with both sides. MDA head of competition and market access Eileen Ang said: 'Our goal remains to find an effective solution that works best in the Singapore context and that best addresses consumers' concerns.'

Retiree Philip Poh, 56, who wrote to The Straits Times Forum on this issue, just wants it sorted out - and soon.

'I just want to watch football, and I don't mind paying either party. In fact, if SingTel bids for and wins the World Cup rights next May, it had better be able to hook up my home by then,' he said.

He had inquired about getting mio TV, but was told it was now unavailable in the eastern part of the island, where he lives.

Yesterday, SingTel said its pay-TV service would be available to all Singapore homes by July.

chuahh@sph.com.sg

---

That's what you get for being arrogant and complacent.... Take a look at what Starhub had done to their subscribers over the past 12yrs :

• enforce upon us the mandatory 'Basic Tier' before other packages can be added on even though few are interested in it. Most of the subscribers are keen only in the Sports (specifically EPL) Package.
• raise prices of the Sports Package as and when they like
• pushing the exhorbitant bid price of the EPL content to subscribers, giving those under contract no chance of cancellation

I'm really glad that Singtel won the rights for the next 3years, waking up Starhub's idea!

Interesting Information from my iPod Touch

I was going through my playlist, making some changes when I stumbled onto some interesting statistics....

'nuff said....

Secret

I was just done watching a repeat (don't know how many times) telecast of Jay Chou's maiden movie as a Director, 不能说的秘密.

I first saw the movie back in 2007 in the theatre and kind of liked it since. Even till today, I'd say this is one of my all time favourite Mando-movie. I can't really explain why I like it but perhaps I like the idea of time travelling and the mysteriosity of 小雨 as she travels back and forth thru time. I didn't quite understand the movie in the beginning, it was after reading Wikipedia and catching the movie again that I finally understand the story completely.

Am I lousy or what?

I Hate Myself

.... for loving you

Can't break free from the the things that you do.

I wanna walk but I run back to you, that's why

I hate myself for loving you....

That's a 1988 song by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts and the first single from the album, Up Your Alley. The song reached #8 on the Billboard Hot 100[1], Jett's third single to reach the Top 10 since "Crimson and Clover" in 1982.

Today's post is not about Joan Jett and the Blackhearts... Its about how I hated myself for making a (silly) mistake, more like a mis-prediction....

We were supposed to hit the Night Safari earlier in the evening for some Halloween Horror Themed Night but I supposed the Weather had other ideas. The plan was very simple... Hit the roads at about 630pm for the Night Safari, arriving approximately 730pm, just about the time the park opens. However, it was already raining cats & dogs by the time we came out of the theatre around 630pm. We can even hear the thunder from inside the theatre!!

I was both disappointed and mad at myself for the unexpected turn of event. Had I not waited until the last day of the Themed Night to visit, things would have turned out pretty differently and I probably might not be typing this post here as we speak...

We ended up heading back into the theatre for another movie :p

PS : Do read more about Joan Jett and the Blackhearts at Wikipedia if you are interested.

Singapore Funny Video

Gooooooooooooooooooooooooogle

Nope, there's no typo in the title above. I've indeed spelt Google with 25 "O"s.

Why 25? Its for a very simple reason of there having 25 additional ways by which you can search for information using Google other than the usual way of punching in whatever search terms you wish into the Google Searchbox. They actually have various syntax for you to key in in order to find information such as :

• Exchange Rate
• Weather
• Stock Quotes
• Time
• Simple Arithmetic
• Unit Conversion
• etc....

Amazing? Try it @ any Google Searchbox.... For more information, do check out http://www.google.com/intl/en/help/features.html for more details!!

Travel Plans until end-2010*

Nov 2009 - Malacca
Dec 2009 - Kuala Lumpur
Dec 2009 - Cambodia (Tentative)
May 2010 - Bali
Aug 2010 - HK/Macau (Tentative)
Nov/Dec 2010 - New Zealand (Tentative)

*confirmed unless otherwise stated....

:)

Securing Your Wireless Networks

With the increase in recent years of the popularity of broadband access, connection sharing and falling prices of wireless routers, it's not at all surprising to observe the mushrooming of numerous wireless networks around the island be it in the residential nor commercial areas.

While it makes sense to use wireless technology to share internet access, one very worrying trend emerges; that many of these hotspots are lacking in basic security... Just like how you do not allow strangers into your home, there are plenty of such networks everywhere that failed to secure it's doors, allowing anyone out there to hook onto the unsecured network for the most harmless activity of FREE surfing to the most damaging acts of stealing your data for malicious intent.

It is precisely with securing your wireless network in mind that I've decided to pen this entry today... There are 101 ways to secure a wireless network but I'd not be able to cover all. I shall just stick to the basic defenses that you can deploy with out-of-the-box features that your wireless router should come with...

1. Do not broadcast your network SSID. The SSID is the name of your wireless network. Broadcasting it is equivalent to telling the whole world your home address, potentially inviting a whole lot of junk mails and other unwanted attentions.

2. Enable MAC Filtering. Each devices that needed to access the network must have a MAC Address and by limiting only those MAC Address which you are aware of, you are simply 'distributing your house keys only to those whom you know and trust'.

3. Limit IP Address Range to only as many as you need. Do not over allocate as this is similar to 'leaving excess sets of your house keys lying around'.

4. Change the default IP Range of your router. Change the default IP Range of the router to something similar but not the default. Some IT savvy folks may be able to guess your IP Range and conduct malicious tasks against you. As such, changing the default IP Range is similar to why some home owners prefered to change the locks to their homes when they initially bought it.

5. Enable encryption (WEP or WPA) on your wireless network. These 2 are the most common standards available in all of today's routers. WEP had been cracked before while WPA had proven resilient so far (phew). What happens now is that with either of the standards enabled, your communication between the PC/Laptop to the router is now secured. Think of it as if you are talking in some lingo that only you and your colleagues understand such that you boss will not be able to catch that you 2 are actually gossiping about him!

Do note that the above are not foolproof. They are only able to provide some basic defenses against evil-intentioned folks. To the experts, these defenses can be easily breached in hours, if not minutes. However, in the normal context, this is just about sufficient protection.

2009 Formula 1 SingTel Singapore Grand Prix

I was at CHV today for the launch of BC41. Apparently, TF had shifted the venue of the launch from STC to CHV to avoid the expected huge volume of human traffic at City Hall MRT and I must say that this is indeed a GOOD judgement call! The presenters were 3 of the better instructors in TF's stable and thats the main reason why I'm even there. I'm not sure if I would have attended had it been other mediocre fellows....

We all had our own programs after that and thus didn't wait up with one another for dinner. For me, I went around near the F1 Trackside, hoping to buy some F1 merchandise after having seen some of the fans wearing the better looking ones. Sad to say, besides the stall I saw in Orchard Rd yesterday, the few I saw just now were all within the F1 Spectators' Area which is obviously out of bounds to me unless I forked out some dough for the tickets.

By the way, the 2009 Formula 1 SingTel Singapore Grand Prix (official name) is in town this weekend for the 2nd consecutive year. Actually, Singapore used to host the Formula Libre events back in the 60s & 70s but thats eons ago...

Disappointed, I then made my way to the MRT. Along the way, I noticed the heavy police presence in the vicinity and noted that those under SPF had, strapped to their left thigh, a black bag which I assumed to be containing a chemical defence suit similar to the one I've been trained to put on back during my NS Days. WOW! Looks like they had even factored in chemical terrorism into their security plannings. Splendid job by the organisers!!

Up till yesterday, I was actually still harbouring hopes that someone would somehow have a spare ticket or 2 to give up and I would be the lucky recipient. :p But then again, reality isn't as such. As I walked along on my way to the MRT, memories of my experience at the very first F1 'Night' Race came flowing back. I was very lucky to have gotten 3 free passes for the Friday 'Practice' session thanks to my Bro-in-Law who had bought the tickets for his staffs as incentives but they prefer monetary rewards. Thus, the 3 passes become excess. If I had not been scheduled to depart for my US Trip the following day, I would have tried ways and means to get the Sunday passes instead!

Attending the race and watching it on TV is a totally different experience. Being on the ground, you'd see the cars for only a few seconds each time due to the speed at which they are going. You'd only get to see them for that bit longer if they had to slow down due to cornering or if they had a crash. Most of the time, you'd turn your head from right to left, back to right and then to the left again as the cars zoomed by. The noise generated by the engine can go up to 140 decibels and if you do not use earplugs, good luck!! If you're near enough to the tracks, you'd be able to smell burnt rubber, probably due to the friction between the road and the tyres during braking.

I must say I'm extremely lucky to have experienced all these last year and am looking to be able to tilt my head right-left-right, hearing 140 decibel noise and smelling burnt rubber in 2010 at the Marina Bay Street Circuit.

I strongly recommend you to try watching it on location at least once to experience it. If you've already done so, stick to the TV for its commentary, race statistics and most importantly, for the numerous camera angles!!

Something strange about Hero today....

Hero had always been a staunch Buddhist for most parts of his life but today.... he did something which none of us could ever have imagined!! I can still vividly remember how he locked Mat out of the house when he found out that she had been going to the church with her classmates while in uni.

Hero had a portrait of a certain Deity in the hall which he would spend hours daily cleaning it, wiping the area around the altar and doing 'horticulture' with the 'legs' of the joss sticks & the ashes in the urn. He is so devoted that he would go vegetarian twice a month, visit the temple pretty often to offer prayers, etc...

However, since his operations last year, he had been cutting down on the above activities gradually.... First, he stopped going vegetarian twice a month. Next, he also visited the temple less often. Today, the last straw come in... he actually 'invited' the Deity back to the temple from our house and he took that portrait back to the temple!

When asked, he said he had a dream sometime ago about him 'inviting' the Deity back to the temple....I don't know how credible is such a theory but my sister, Mat prefers to attribute this phenomenon to his weekly visit to her church since the op....

I hope the event today is not to be followed by anything untowards.... if you know what I mean....

Are Singaporeans better-off now?

Referring to the above statistics, my answer to the question posed in my blog title is a BIG FAT NO!!

How can we be better off now than in 2006 when the "Wage level" had fallen while the "Price level" had moved north instead? However, there are 2 bright sparks though...the falling "Car tax" & "Cost of a mid-range car". However, with the related increase in "Fuel", "Prices of services" (aka car washes, maintenance, etc), ERP and parking charges, the outlay far exceeded the savings from those fallen charges.

Oh, and I've not even mentioned that we're putting in longer hours at work and potentially spending lesser time with our family and friends.

With a stressful situation as such, no wonder we've got a population replacement problem at hand.

60 SIGNS YOU’RE A TRUE SINGAPOREAN

Extracted from Talkingcock.com

==============================================

It’s not enough if you pay taxes or carry a pink IC. To commemorate National Day, TalkingCock.com brings you a checklist to see how Singaporean you really are.

1. Thanks to SMS, you have an extra large thumb.
2. Tks 2 SMS, u oso dun no how 2 spel n e mor.
3. You pat MRT and bus seats to cool them before you sit down.
4. At lunch, you start discussing what to eat for dinner.
5. Your wedding photos include shots of you dressed up like Louis XIV, Michael Jackson, or Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in Titanic.
6. When speaking to foreigners, you somehow feel a need to adopt an accent. (If you’re a DJ, this happens even when you’re not speaking to foreigners.)
7. You won’t raise your voice to protest policies, but you’ll raise your fists to whack someone over Hello Kitty.
8. You’re forever talking about businesses you want to set up but will probably never get around to starting.
9. You don’t know ¾ of the people attending your wedding.
10. You separate food into 2 basic groups: ‘heaty’ and ‘cooling’.
11. You’re never completely sure how many times you’ve sung the second verse of the National Anthem.
12. You think that what makes you ‘married’ is not the legal registration but whether you’ve thrown a 12 course dinner.
13. You marry for the real estate breaks.
14. You have kids for the tax advantages.
15. You move to where you want your child to go to school.
16. You feel you can’t walk around naked in your own flat.
17. You force your children to take Speech & Drama classes, but pray they won’t wind up in Arts later on.
18. You suddenly realize you’re very interested in biotech - just like you suddenly realized three years ago that you were very interested in e-commerce, and before that, engineering, and before that, medicine and law.
19. You think being an entrepreneur is setting up a bubble tea/Portuguese egg tart/gao luck/porridge shop right next to an existing bubble tea/Portuguese egg tart/gao luck/porridge shop.
20. You think people are inconsiderate when they don’t leave their table immediately after eating at the food court but think you have every right to take 25 bites to finish the last red bean in your ice kachang.
21. You find it impossible to make suggestions without drawing a fishbone chart first.
22. If you’re a guy, whenever you get together with your guy friends, you invariably trade army stories.
23. If you’re a girl, whenever you get together with your girl friends, you invariably trade stories about how your stupid guy friends are forever trading army stories.
24. You think the most important sporting event in Singapore this year was David Beckham switching from Manchester United to Real Madrid.
25. You somehow feel that food tastes better when eaten by a longkang.
26. It actually makes a difference to you being called an ‘NSMan’ rather than a ‘Reservist’.
27. You’ve eaten more times at the Esplanade than you’ve actually seen shows there.
28. You need campaigns to tell you how to be courteous, to flush toilets, have sex, etc.
29. When you visit the Zoo, you wonder what the animals taste like.
30. You feel the urge to add the suffix ‘-polis’ to everything, viz. Biopolis, Airtropolis, Fusionopolis, Entrepolis, etc.
31. You always feel oddly hungry at 11 pm, and are willing to drive to far away places for supper.
32. You meet in hotels a lot.
33. Your children have a rudimentary knowledge of Tagalog or Bahasa Indonesia.
34. You work at McDonald’s when you’re old rather than young.
35. You’ll gladly spend $50,000 on a car, but will go to great lengths to save a few bucks on ERP charges or even a few cents on a parking coupon.
36. Pork floss and mayonnaise on bread is a completely natural combination to you.
37. If you’re pregnant, you have the strange ability to make people on the MRT fall asleep instantly.
38. You ask for the bill by miming a signing movement.
39. You’ve started referring to foreign employees as ‘talent’ instead of ‘expatriates’.
40. At the dinner table, you’re always discussing which other food places serve better versions of what you’re eating.
41. You copy down licence plate numbers of cars involved in accidents.
42. You think your boyfriend doesn’t really love you unless he gives you part of his liver.
43. During sales, you book hotel rooms near malls to enable you to shop more efficiently.
44. You pronounce the letter ‘R’ as ‘ah-rer’ and the letter ‘H’ as ‘haytch’.
45. No matter how old you are, you keep associating people with their secondary schools. (alternative: No matter how old you are, you secretly need to know what other people got for their PSLE, O levels and A levels.)
46. You’re always on a quest for the definitive version of your favourite local dish.
47. When you explain things to people, you keep (a) using alphabets, and (b) speaking in point form.
48. You believe that you can generate ‘creativity’ through rules and committees.
49. You ‘chope’ a seat by placing a packet of tissues on the chair.
50. You’re very forthright with your criticisms of the Gahmen, unless there’s a chance they might actually hear you.
51. You diligently track the whereabouts of your favourite hawkers, i.e..you know that the famous Tiong Bahru Bao is now in Jurong, the famous Outram Char Kuay Teow is now in Hong Lim Centre and the famous Lau Hock Kien Hokkien mee from the old Lau Pa Sat is now at Beach Road.
52. Your mother probably can’t speak your ‘mother tongue’.
53. You’d rather drink your own pee than pay someone more for water.
54. You secretly find that the best part of the Speak Good English Movement is hearing the Singlish bits in their ads.
55. You have an automatic sensor in your head which categorizes people you meet into stayer/ quitter, cosmopolitan/heartlander, normal/ express/ gifted, etc.
56. You think we’re living in a modern, sophisticated country even when our leaders still insist on wearing their school uniforms.
57. You wish your constituency is in a walkover, because otherwise it’s damn ‘leceh’.
58. During elections, you decide that there is no credible opposition even though you don’t know the name of the opposition candidate in your constituency.
59. You think having a constitution is like the condition you get when you don’t eat enough fibre.
60. You can never quite remember what “the core values” of Singaporeans are.

==============================================

Yours truly guilty of those in green....

Numa Numa Misinterpreted Lyrics

Is Cyber-Connectivity Hindering Free Speech?

Yes or no? I'd say yes if you asked me... The reasons are very simple... just read on.....

With the increasing ease by which we get hooked up with our friends online via social networking sites such as Facebook, Friendster, Myspace and so on, the world is getting smaller as we soon come to realise that our friend knows another friend of ours which we all do not know in the beginning.

And so you can see that we're all becoming very interconnected in one way or the other and this brings me to my topic of discussion for the day : Is Cyber-Connectivity Hindering Free Speech? Why would I say this? Now, if you could just lend me your imagination for the next few mins... I'd be able to show you how do I arrive at this statement.

Scenario 1 :
You're on Facebook(FB) and you have your best friend, David and John in your circle of FB Friends. David had unknowingly done something which pissed you off. You posted an angry 'Status Update' in FB which goes like "Screw you David! Don't you know how to be on time for the important meeting?"

What can possibly happen? Either David logs in and sees the post or John sees it and inform David. You're screwed either way... Alternatively, you can keep the anger to yourself and tell no one about it.

Scenario 2 :
You've got a blog (like what I've got here) and you think you could write freely because you think you had stayed anonymous by not revealing your name, photos and other related tell-tales details. But you had your friend reading your blog too because you shared the URL with them. Supposedly you need to bitch about your friend in the blog yet you're worried that he/she may come across the blog and read about it.

As a result, you wrote a watered-down version of the rant or you maybe even omitted it altogether and wrote something else totally un-related.

End of the day, what I'm trying to drive at is that with inter-connectivity nowadays, I felt that we're holding back our real feelings for fear of offending the peoples around us. Is this a good or bad phenomenon? I used to be an advocate of "If I dare to post it online, I'm not afraid of its repercussions" but recently, I've noticed that I've mellowed down somewhat and each time I need to rant online, I would think twice, thrice before acting... Something is holding me back, I'm losing my 'baptism of fire'!!

Someone please tell me what to do......

And back to where I belong I go....

Yup, the journey's come to an end... its not unexpected anyway. But the way it had been ended was kind of unexpected. It in the end, I didn't lose out because a competitor was better than me, but I had lost out because the 'Assesser' preferred the other party even though he'd need more mirror-work than I (maybe we, if you know who they are) do. :( thats DAMN SAD....

Well, with the events today, I've made up my mind not to pursue any further. I shall just quietly go back to being a 'happy' member just like what RL had opted for right after her course. Come to think of it, I've not imagine that I would come 'so far' in this journey. To be honest, back then when I had signed up for the course, I've only had a few objectives in mind and they are :
1. to be able to buy the DVD
2. to be able to better my techniques
3. to be able to appreciate the programme better

It never really crossed my mind to go into shadowing and the eventual instructor-ship. REALLY! Actually, my objective in going for the audition wasn't even to proceed for shadowing. I merely wanted to upgrade my grades from 'Withheld' to 'Pass'. But since the 'Assesser' said both grades makes no difference to TF in terms of shadowing, it somehow turned my purpose of attending the audition from a 'grades-upgrade' into a fight for a shot at shadowing.....

Now that the outcome is clear, I'm not really disappointed that I wasn't selected. But I'm just pretty pissed that the outcome is such....

Nevermind, now that events had turned out this way, I doubt I will go for auditions again.... I'm not the kind of person they are looking for and I might as well save my breathe?

Ten Commandments for Body Combat

Gotten the following from somewhere....

*******************************************************************

1) Members must be able to shuffle right/left and back/forth smoothly.
2) Members must not be in contact with one another.
3) Members must learn and do CORRECT techniques which include stance and guards, jab, cross, hook, upper cut, front kick and roundhouse kick.
4) Members must work with different levels of power in arms and legs from level 1 to level 3.
5) Members must have good stamina to kick, punch, ginga, elbow strikes and defensive moves.
6) Members must be able to do high jumps n kicks at knee level height.
7) Members must do their best, never give up and complete the whole class include arms press up / abs crunch / cool down..
8) Members must not cheat and proof they are sweat all over and even better to have hot air coming out from the body.
9) Members must be ready with 100% focus and would be better if they have chemistry with the Instructors they like.
10) Members should show confidence and shout as loud at the right time and not all the time.
11) Members must try and do all the moves correctly especially those occupy the front rows.

*******************************************************************

OK, I'm guilty of No. 7....

Irritating Passengers on Public Transport

When had you last taken a ride on our 'infamously' slow and packed-like-sardines public transport such as the bus or MRT? Well, for non-drivers like me, I had to face the 'crap' daily... and its more often than not, pretty much bearable (perhaps used to it), but then again, sometimes you'd just be so lucky and ran into some pretty inconsiderate or even irritating passengers to help make your ride even more miserable (if its not already bad enough).... I recently encountered 2 incidents which I could not resist but need to rant here!

The other day I boarded SMRT963 home from the AYE after work, intending to change to SMRT67 along the way as the former doesn't pass by my place. Just one stop after I've boarded, up came this long-haired uncle wearing tattered berms which looks like had been unprofessionally cut off at the knees to make a pair of berms from an orginal pair of jeans.... This uncouth looking guy seemed like a labourer kinda worker which explains the sourish smell emitted from him, smelt heavily of cigarette smoke. As the bus was packed to the brim, he stood somewhere behind where I was seated and started clanging against the metal overhead grap-poles using a coin (I presumed). Then as the bus reached a popular stop, many alighted and he came to sit next to where I was seated BUT across the aisle (thankfully). Immediately, he propped his knees against the back of the seat in front of him, whipped out his HP and blast the hokkien songs away sooooo loud that I can hear pretty clearly the melody even though I'm using an in-ear earphones!!

Knowing that such people sometimes do appear from time to time, I tried to ignore him. But I really do pity the lady seated right beside him for she had to endure the smell and the constantly repeating song.....

I encountered another incident on my way back from town earlier this evening.. As usual, the bus was packed like hell by the time it pulled into the Dhoby Ghaut bus stop... the front of the bus had already been packed until the passengers where standing on the steps! And when the doors behind had opened in anticipation for others to alight, this group of teenagers which I presumed were no more than 16, boarded from these 2 doors!! Not that I've a problem with them not paying for their rides... but I'm more pissed off with the din created by that group of pent-up teenagers with nowhere to release their energy.... They were standing near the exit, blocking everyone from moving further back to the rear of the bus, talking and laughing out loudly, spewing vulgarities from their foul-mouth like nobody's business! Damn it... I really felt like telling them off there and then... but then again, I'm only on the bus for the next 30mins, might as well just forget it?

Sometimes, I really do wonder what is today's world coming to?

Being 'Away' .....

Another wkend spent away from my family, I can already imagine/expect a certain woman screaming in my ear... Don't worry, this woman ain't my SO, but my sister.

Mat's a staunch believer that the family should sit down at least once a week for dinner with my dad. Its her way of trying to keep the siblings close and updated. But then again, we all also have our own lives to lead and it can sometimes be difficult to adhere to this 'tradition'.... This is the part where the screams would come in, at least in my ears....

Its not that I'm trying to avoid the gathering but she needs to understand that while I can come home most of the time after my wkend gym sessions for dinner, I do sometimes have programs on both days and need to absent myself.... Each time this happens, she would go "Can you please don't treat your home like a hotel? Don't just leave your dad to the maid, can you please help monitor her too?"

I know what I'm doing and I need some space... Please accord me some, thanks!!

PS : The above entry was composed using my iPod Touch...


Update on 31 Aug 2009 : Mat, surprisingly, didn't scream in my ears... in fact, she didn't even mention a word of what I was expecting to come from her. :p

Return of the Good Old Days...

It's been quite a few months since i last thoroughly enjoyed my BC class all thanks to the Instructor Course that was coming up at that time, stressing us all out! But with the course over, BC stress-level is back to near zero :)

I attended J's class on Wed and the feeling is entirely different... It reminded me of being back in the past where i would be under no pressure to 'perform'... I could fight at my own intensity and not be under the instructor's watchful eyes!

Going forward, I'm really not sure if i wanna advance my BC Module grade from 'Withheld' to 'Pass'. Since I have no intentions to teach, having a 'Pass' or not isn't gonna make any difference. But then again, having a 'Withheld' just seems abit the not right....

Maybe I should go for just one attempt to get the 'Pass', failing which I'd then just let it remain as per status quo?

Any suggestions? :D

3 Gruelling Days + 19 Awesome BC Fanatics = ??

The answer is : An Unforgetttable Experience...

I attended the long-awaited BC Instructor Course over the weekend from 21 - 23 Aug and I'm sure the title of today's posting tells the entire story of the 3 days... I must admit the course indeed IS fun.... but the stress level is there too due to the 4 presentations that we have to do.

Day 1's pretty much about theory and technique work. Don't think this is chicken feet... we did the same moves over and over again until we got it. Its either this or we had to hold the moves in position while the trainer goes around to check.... By mid-day, we were allocated our presentation track for Day 2. As luck would have it, I was assigned Muay Thai Track just as Jo had predicted! Not that I hated this track, but MT tracks are usually the most intensive tracks of the release. By intensive, I mean in terms of strength, voice and tempo. I was petrified when allocated because I've never really like this track and also due to the worry of not being able to match the intensity required.

Day 2 started off with plenty of aches for me in the butt and shoulder areas. I guess this is what everyone else in the course is feeling too. The day started off with the 1st of 4 presentations we had to do in total.... As my turn draws nearer, my heartbeat goes faster, my hands turned colder and my feet became heavier. It felt worse than my first time being on stage in the XXX SP Auditorium presenting my presentation on Spams Prevention.... When my turn inevitably came, I took a really deep breathe and told myself : "You've signed up for this... now go out there and get the job done. You have nothing to lose.... Just do a good 5min show and you're 1 down!"

The feelings at the end of the 5mins was one of one of relieve and elation. But my throat and shoulders ain't on such good spirits... they're screaming for help for I've actually unknowingly went all out with my shouts and descending elbows. There were more theory lessons after lunch before the 2nd Presentation in the late afternoon. This time, however, we were only expected to present 1/2 of the track. Again, I took another really deep breathe and took the plunge again. 3mins later, 2 down! Yeah!! However, my throat now is not only screaming, its ICU mode now! I dread to think how I could have presented my Exam Track the next day had I not bought Strepsils on my way back.....

Day 3, we had theories again in the morning b4 the 3rd presentation of the course. This time around, my allocation was a Power Track (T3, Sweetheart). When my turn came, I was much more confident than yesterday partly due to the previous 2 'exposures' I've had and it also happens that Sweetheart's one of my favourite track of BC40 besides Set Me Free (T8). Again, this presentation's a 1/2 track.... I'm pretty satisfied with my performance for this round as I've managed to remember and presented out most of the things I wrote down during scripting.

Actually, the reality was that I copied down 80% of what Tanya Walker (the LM Presenter of Sweetheart in the DVD) said in during the 1st half of this track. You should have seen the DVD, she's such a GOOD presenter! She's so informative throughout the presentation that I simply couldn't stop myself from 'lifting' all her cues. I copied quite a far bit that for once, I thought I'd be sued for plagiarism!

We finished off the 1st half of Day 3 with the much-feared Combat Challenge.... Initially we all thought it would be like a 1hr circuit training kinda programme but it turned out to be about 30mins only. The intensity is not that high either, at least in my context. The only thing which caught me out was the pushups and the kicks that we had to execute while lying on our sides. These 2 segment made me recall those days back in the army during BMT where the PTI (the most hated/feared trainer) would make us do pushups like crazy and run around touching things like monkeys.... Just like what Ben said : "We'd earn our lunches."

There were some final bits of theories after lunch... then came the defining moments we've all prepared so hard for... THE FINAL PRESENTATION!! I managed to finish off my last presentation without much hiccups in the choreography but I've not been able to cue/coach as much as scripted. However, I've managed to add in quite some impromptu feelings and motivational cues which I've plagiarised from Sue. Not too sure if the cues went down well with the folks but from the looks on their faces, I guess it ain't that bad :p

The look on everyone's face after the last person had present was one of extreme relief and elation! With the final 'exam' outta the way, 'Camwhoring' is next! Everyone got into the camwhoring act while Ben's giving out the training results to the individuals in private. I can imagine the anxiety within everyone of us as we approach him for our results.

For me, I won't say I'm entirely pleased with my results because I didn't actually attain the mark I've set for myself. Maybe I've expected too much from myself.... Nevertheless, I'd happy to have endured the 3 gruelling days with 19 awesome coursemates. I shall proceed with more practice and see if I can work towards my expected result.

These 3 days had been most rewarding for me in a long while as I've made plenty of new friends and could feel the strong bond amongst us due to the 'blood' and sweat we've all been through together.... Oh, and not to forget those impromptu unified shouting & singing-along of certain parts of the tracks each time that track was played.

We've our very own group in FB now and I really really do hope that we will keep in touch, meet up often and attend workshops/quarterlies or even the FILMING together if possible! I still remember how we were still pretty much in our own 'factions' at the end of Day 1 to now all bombarding each other's FB with messages and postings, starting threads on organisation of trips to upcoming quarterlies, etc..... I guessed this is the so-called camaraderie-ship....

I'm honoured and proud to have attended the training with you ppls!

At the end of the day, what many of those who had attended the course said IS true : "Don't stress yourself so much, just go there and enjoy the 3days!!" I DID enjoy my 3 days....

Anyone keen to go for the next run in Sept 09 @ TF?

Bloopers....

With compliments from XXX/OD/CI/SID/eOS....

Wah... how come the dept abbreviations is sooooo long? Wells, lets slowly break it down :
1. XXX = Cannot tell you what it means
2. OD = Organisation Development
3. CI = Corporate Information
4. SID = Systems & Infrastructure Department
5. eOS = eOffice Support

FYI, eOS was my ex-team, helmed by you-know-who... Well, there's this recent ban of thumbdrives in the company and in its place, they implemented something called the Clearing-House so that users can copy out their files from the secure network via this place. I shall not bore you with the technical aspects.... Bascially, by the day the ban comes into effect, there were still many problems out there, esp. with the Clearing-House itself....

Damn it, not that I wanna slam them now that I'm outta the team, but I cannot understand how come the shit comes over to ITSec when its not even our idea nor job to roll this Red Green Shit (System, actually) out...

Somehow, I felt as if I've joined the Sai Kang Team instead....

Random Thoughts

21 Aug is drawing nearer with each passing day... whats so special about this day you might asked? Well, it may just be another start of the wkend to the average person but for 5 of us from TF and maybe 10 more from the other gyms, it signals the start of 3days of 'torture' whereby the end result is a certificate granting you entry into the Les Mills' Instructors circle.

Yes, 21-23 Aug is the long awaited BodyCombat Instructor Training Course that I've been eagerly (nervously) been waiting for. No doubt many in the circle told us its difficult to fail, but I just can't help worrying about it... I hope everything can turn out well, REALLY...

The past 2 weeks had been real hectic for me at work. 2 weeks ago, I was dealing with the testing of some new HDDs solution which XXX is deploying... so I needed to conduct testing and preparations work. Last week, I was involved in the series of seminar which we (ITSEC) conduct around the various XXX locations to bring awareness and information of these new HDDs to the end-users. At a rough count, I think I've been the presenter for half of the 8 sessions so far. This is good for me because :
1. helps me overcome the fear of presentations
2. gets me exposed to the organisation
3. allows me to get familar with the new implementations
4. somehow helps me prepare for my BC Training too :p

I do not mind doing presentations actually.... but at least I must be familar with what I'm presenting. I cannot imagine presenting slides prepared by someone else and passed over to me to do unless I myself am familar with the topic presented.

Anyways, that's all over for the moment. I shall just continue to do my job, projects, tasks and learn whatever comes my way....

Return of the Cram Days

Back in the past, whenever an exam is imminent, ppls around me would be cramming their books, hoping to score well. For me, I usually take it easy because I'm lazy? Not really but its more of I don't enjoy memory work. I'm a hands-on person. But then again, somehow (I also don't know how), I'd be able to do fairly fine for the exam... Maybe not the top marks but at least 60-70%. My feelings prior to the exams would be one of extreme anxiety, low in confidence and can't wait to get it over. Yet I can't be bothered to do any serious, hardcore cramming.....

I've handled it in this manner all the way until my Uni days were over... Since then, there hadn't been any exams which were able to exert such an influence on me. Not even the CCNA which I was attempting some years back. FYI, I didn't get that certification lah... But all these feelings suddenly all came flooding back over the wkend......

The 5 of us had our first 'combined' practice session yesterday. That was when reality sinks in! All along I had thought I'm going along fine.. it was until yesterday's session that I found out I've got loads to catch up on. This morning's sessions merely made me even more nervous about the entire thing. Yet nearly everyone whom I talk to about this tells me : "Don't think so much, just go there and enjoy the whole thing. It'd be fun...."

Seriously, in the early days of signing up for the course, I still have some hopes of having fun during the 3days but as time goes by, these hopes had all but evaporised into thin air! Right now, I'm basically cramming all that I can whenever, wherever I can.

I really do wanna fulfil my KPI for 2009.

Passion or Job?

My 'new' colleague, Gary is constantly proactively imparting his knowledge of IT Security to me, a complete noob. I really appreciate his efforts in doing so and I'm trying to take in as much as I can.

But I'm not a quick learner at times and tended to forget things which I try to mitigate by writing them down. However, there exists some information such as account credentials which you shouldn't be writing down and such... more so in an extremely security conscious like XXX.

I'm recently involved in the evaluation of a solution which is pretty much a high priority project at the moment. The evaluation had concluded and I'm supposed to prepare a post-evaluation report for the management. Of course, knowing that you have a high-power audience waiting for your report, you'd surely wanna spend more efforts and time on it to produce something readable and presentable. Inevitably, this also means I've to let up on my other on-hand items.....

This is where the problem lies... I run a server vulnerability scan the other day and the report is ready. Before we pass this report to the System Administrator (SA) of the server, we need to analyse the report and prepare recommended solutions for the SA. This being my first time at it, Gary was very nice to show me the ropes and all, even to the extend of doing the analysis. However, he expects me to go thru the report too and learn from it. Not that I'm not receptive to learning new 'tricks', but I've got my bandwidth too, right? Its not that I lack the interest to learn, but I'm really tied up.....

To him, IT Security is a passion... for me, its only a job....

Funnie Letter

Got this via an email... kinda interesting. Read on...
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Intro: The first letter was posted last year, in one of the forums, by a person who goes by the nick "ChinChaiOne" and he named his thread "Tolong Tolong". It was picked up by other forums, circulated around (even in govt depts) then someone posed as an official in the PM's office posted a reply.


OPEN LETTER COFFEE SHOP TALK

From : ChinChaiOne
28-Apr 12:15

Dear Prime Minister,
We citizens of Singapore urge you to PLEASE MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS. We DO NOT NEED your help. Every time, you mention HELP, we have to run for cover!!!

Help the poor? Raise GST!

Help traffic flow? Up ERP!

Help passenger service? Up Bus fare/MRT fare!

Help us get taxi? Raise taxi fare!

Help us get good government? Raise Minister and Civil servant salary!

Everytime YOU WANT TO HELP, we all PAY FOR IT!!!

THANK YOU THANK YOU! TOLONG LAH, please, we will HELP OURSELVES, no need your help liao. We DARE NOT ask for help any more!!!

Sir, most honoured sir, I urge you NOT TO HELP Singapore INVEST also! Everytime your wife invest, we all lose money! Kao liao, kum siah! Just let us have a dose of bad governance, like recently the Mat Selamat case, like dat¡ .so far, it is ok, your incompetence, we ACCEPT!

PLEASE DO NOT help us have better security! Wait we all kena PAY FOR IT!! I believe ALL SINGAPOREANS PREFER NOT TO HAVE CRUTCH MENTALITY! I think it is ok lah, please just take your salary and enjoy life ok?

Thank you thank you, I am very chin chai one, any how any how, no need to help oso can one.

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Following is a reply from the Prime Minister's Office:

Date: Saturday, 2 August, 2008.

Dear Chin Chai One,

10Q you for your letter. On behalf of the Prime Minister, I am replying to your letter as follows:

As the erected party of Singaporeans, we are here to serve.

We are demon-cratic country, you are master, we gahmen servant, we serve you. You got problems we must help. You say no need our help? That means you're not Singapore's master. You say you run for cover? Cannot one, our police will find you.

GST is to help the Gahmen to help yourself. The Gahmen Service Tax is everywhere, you go America also have one, cannot run one.

Traffic very bad, so bad that we have to hold car racing at nite to avoid traffic jam. We believe there is no free lunch like PM's father say before, you use, you must pay, so Every Road Pay.. So you see no ERP cannot one.

Needless to say, passenger service also must pay. The increase in bus fare and MRT and taxi fare are very little already. We foresee world inflation coming: oil, steel, pay of foreign talents, etc, so we have to pay for the service.

You see, many foreign talents come to Singapore . If we don't pay our ministers well, they will go other countries to be their foreign talents. So must raise salary to keep them. If not, Nathan, Shanmugam, Bala etc will go India and work. Khaw will go Malaysia . etc etc. Must keep them. To keep them must pay well.

You are right, any help also must pay.

To help yourself? No, it's illegal. You mean you can build your own MRT? Run your own buses? Drive your Ba-Ong-Chia? Build your own roads? Seow liao!! Every one help himself then how? No social order lah! Ga ga ask for help, we are here to serve you.

We understand some of you have temporary problem. Don't worry, it is only short term. We must look long term. We must invest long term. Now lose a bit don't cow beh cow boo, long term! Yes, remember. 30 or 50 years later we will own Swiss banks, US banks, UK properties, maybe even South Pole condominiums. We must tighten our seat belt and bite our false teeth. The future very bright. As long as you continue to
support the gahmen 30 to 50 years you will see bright future. So Chiang See Tong a bit lah. Also, investing is very complicated business, not easy. We must pay school fee to learn from advanced countries.

On Selamat's case, we also must learn our lesson. We encourage life-long-learning. I learn whole life time, you learn whole life, Mr Wong Can't Sing also whole life learning. It's actually good. Mr Wong already apologise, don't force a dog to jump over the wall, the wall may collapse. Old dog cannot jump high also.

Selamat's case gives us many lessons. We must be on alert, not too complacent. Now every Singaporean know there can be a terrorist among us any time. This is the best self defence education !! PM will give Mr Wong another salary increment for that.

Also now we merge the prisons and detention centre, more space will be available now. We will build it like another IR, Integrated Retention - so those don't want our service and thinking of doing illegal service will go there. We will pass a new law too, the expenses for stay in that IR will be deducted from your CPF money.

Remember we must be grateful to people who help us -- and pay.

I hope I have explained the situation and give you the message clearly. If you still need help, please call my handphone: 9990-6767, it's toll-free.

By the way, Mr Chin Chai One, our pioneer Toh Chin Chai already toh long ago. So if you choose to be Chin Chin Chai Chai, you will also Toh.

10Q you again,

Reguards,

Ah Beng
Grassrude secretary

Another Feeling of Nostalgia

I was at my sis's place last evening when the TV started playing this year's National Day theme song. It was one of the worst I've heard in recent years!

Anyone realised that the trend nowadays is to have a new song every year and sung by one (or more) local singer? The list of them as far as I can recall includes Kit Chan, Stephanie Sun, Tanya Chua, etc.... With the songs of recent years being bad enough, I hope the organisers don't worsen it by inviting sub-standard singers (SG Idols?) to sing it.....

No matter what, I still prefer the songs of yester-years such as the infamous Count On Me Singapore, We Are Singapore, etc.... I recalled back then during my school days, we would all be expected to learn/practice/memorise/sing a few of these songs during Music lessons, during assembly and of course, during the National Day Celebration itself! Singing these songs properly was a big thing back then and teachers would go around catching students who merely lip-synch. I wonder if teachers nowadays still do the same thing... Does schools nowadays even 'enforce' the singing of National Day songs during National Day Celebration.

Can anyone answer me?

You may not think much of it but singing those 'retro' songs as compared to today's 'modern' songs has a great deal of difference. The 'retro' ones must be sang by many in order to bring out the 'feel' of it and somehow along the way as you sing it, you'd just feel proud to be a Singaporean. In fact, I still do feel this way whenever I hear those songs (in it orginal melody, not the remixed versions). Those 'modern' songs simple DOESN'T give me the same kinda feel at all. To me, they're more like pop songs than National Day theme songs.

Perhaps the organisers want to have a catchier tune to connect with the younger crowd and I'm sure they had succeeded with the connection, during the National Day period only, if you asked me. Why so?

Lets do an experiment : Ask anyone in the street to name 3 'modern' National Day Theme post-National Day. I'd bet my last dollar that maybe only 10% of them can name you 1 or 2 songs. I'm pretty confident the same group would be able to effortlessly name 3 of those 'retro' ones.

I, for one, can effortlessly name (singing them might be an issue though) 5.... And I didn't cheat by referring to any resources beforehand!

1. Count On Me Singapore
2. We Are Singapore
3. Stand Up For Singapore
4. Five Stars Arising
5. One People, One Nation, One Singapore

Software Evaluation

I was recently tasked to lead the evaluation of a software which my team is intending of recommending for use in XXX because we are going to BAN THUMBDRIVES in the organisation. Yeap, you read it right.. banning of thumdrives.

You might then be thinking : "How the hell would we transfer our files around from 1 network to the other?" There will be a 'Clearing-House' in place and you are supposed to submit your files to this house who will then transfer your files to your desired network where you will then copy those submitted files from. Don't worry if it sounds complicated for this is not the main topic of my blog entry today...

With the transfer mechanism in place, the next question would be : "How do you ensure users do not plug in authorised devices into their machines?"

This is what my blog entry's gonna be talking about today....

This software which I've been evaluating for the past 2wks is capable of blocking computer ports, files, storage-media and other recognisable-devices on the PC as defined by rules set by us. I've been tasked to evaluate software in the past but I've never really learnt the trade of proper software evaluation until now. Gary guided me along in this project and I learnt a great deal from this exercise. He taught me to try out every single function offered by the software, test out all possible scenarios which might occur in our environment, find answers to question which the management may ask, etc.....

In the process of doing so, I compiled a list of some 20 questions which was sent to the software vendor for them to help us answer (of course). When the product consultant came down for the 2nd time on Friday, we bombarded him with those compiled questions + new ones. He was able to addressed some 50% of them but had to escalate to higher support for the rest. I supposed he got pretty stressed up because he mentioned a few times that none of his other customerstested the product so extensively and in-depth. It feels as if like we've helping him to debug his product and all....

Once he revert with the other 50%, I feel confident enough to present to the others who should be presented to.

Thanks to Gary for guiding me in this evaluation..............

Pwned by Bausch & Lomb

I've all along been using Bausch & Lomb contact lenses but recently realised that there seemed to be some 'un-scrab-able' eye residue on the lenses... I initially thought its scratchs on the lens due to rough handling. But my eyes seemed to be able to take these scratches well... so I thought they could be proteins or other residues but also seemed to be wrong because it just doesn't seemed to go off no matter how much I rub the lens to wash it off....

I thought it would go off with the use of a new pair of lenses but to my horror, they were still there!! I thus decided that I should ignore it since it came 'out of the box'. Finally, this morning as I was putting it on, somehow at a certain angle under a certain lighting, I made out the characters "B & L" on the lens itself... and thus solved the mystery...

Silly me.....

Asian Youth Games 2009

At the last check (5mins ago) of the Medal Tally, Singapore's 4th behind China, South Korea & Thailand respectively.... We've got 9 Golds so far, each and everyone of them won by TRULY LOCAL-BORN Singaporean...

I feel so proud of the 9 Golds even though its only the Youth Games. Its only Asian standards, not World. Its home soil for Team Singapore.... etc

But the fact remains that all the winners are Singapore-born! 'nuff said....

Group boxing classes deliver a one-two punch for fitness

(CNN) -- It has been almost 30 years since Maggie Rajnic lost her leg in a motorcycle accident. Since that time, she's tried to stay competitive, not allowing her disability to alter her life.

Maggie Rajnic says group boxing class helped her develop "a a fitness component to my body."

But for years Rajnic has been looking for a way to improve her strength and endurance. Four months ago she found it at the LA Boxing gym in Rockville, Maryland.

Designed to teach responsible and injury-free boxing, the gym offers group sessions in the sport, which is much like an aerobics class but with punch.

Combining boxing, kickboxing and a mixture of martial arts, class participants use bags, jump ropes, weight machines and funky music to get fit. Although the gym offers one-on-one sparring as well, the gym's manager, Felix Pagan, said many members choose to battle a bag in group class.

For Rajnic, the class was everything she had been looking for. Not only did she lose 25 pounds and inches from her waist, but she also gained the confidence to participate in a marathon -- something she never thought she'd do. She credits it to boxing. "It creates agility where I don't have the agility or the mobility [because] of a missing limb," she said. She added that the program has helped her develop "a fitness component to my body that I've never been able to achieve before."

Traditionally thought of as a combat sport between two people and four fists, boxing is now seen as an excellent form of exercise. Although physical fitness experts have touted boxing as a good way to tone up and bust fat, some people may shy away because of a fear of injury. But injuries can be avoided by working with experienced instructors on proper form, all while building muscle tone and improving cardiovascular endurance, said Pagan. "When your form is the way it should be, it helps you execute [your moves] and your exercises are more effective," he stressed.

Although the amateur athletes at LA Boxing may not be in the same league as Muhammad Ali and Mike Tyson, they're still burning calories and staying healthy. Dr. David Johnson, an orthopedic surgeon in the sports medicine division of the Washington Hospital Center in Washington and a former Olympic swimmer, said boxing is a perfect way to combine cardio with strength training. "A lot of my women patients have taken up boxing," he said. "They like the idea of losing weight and getting in better form."

Johnson said a group boxing class is a good idea. "They teach you the basics: how to hold your hands, your arms," he said.

He added that he sees a lot of hand and arm injuries in patients who box. "They don't know where to hold their thumbs, how to hit a bag," he said. "Any class that can teach people how to safely box can't hurt."

LA Boxing and other gyms across the country say an hour workout can burn hundreds of calories -- even up to 1,000. If that sounds like a lot, Johnson noted it takes plenty of effort and stamina to pound and kick a bag for an hour. "Just keeping your arms up for that length of time takes real muscle strength," he said.

Pagan said his members not only claim they've lost pounds, but also say they've improved their strength. "Our members, especially our women, say it makes them feel empowered," he said. "It's not a bad skill to kick some butt."

Rajnic couldn't agree more. "I've become more toned," she said enthusiastically. "My body is more shapely, and I have an overall sense of euphoria after one hour of working out, which is hard to come by in a lot of classes."

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Extracted from CNN


'enuff said.....