Friday, September 26, 2008

Singapore Grand Prix

For the first time since the 70s, the F1 is coming back to SG! This time, it's going to be held at night! This is yet another first for SG, the world's 1ST NIGHT FORMULA 1 RACE! How's that for a 1st-loving SG?

Please pardon me for show-boating abit today but I'm really excited and proud to be one of the 1st in the world to watch the F1 cars in action at night. Thanks to my bro-in-law who mistakenly bought 3 Marina-Bay Grandstand tickets for his staffs. He handed me 3 Friday Passes and I went crazy. I've been waiting to see the F1 on TV and now I'm going to see it live!

I was in the underpass on my way to the Grandstand when I heard the cars already going at it. The engine sound is thunderous, yet to the thousands present (me inclusive), this is music to our ears.... Over at the Grandstand, I was fortunate to be able to grab a spot near one of the turns where the cars will have to slow down before exiting the Grandstand. Not only can you catch the cars in slower motion, but you will also be able to catch the 'aroma' of burnt rubber from the tyres. You may think that is crazy, but to me and many others too (I'm sure), what's a car race without having smelt burnt rubber?

Enjoy the following pictures taken by my pal CK....

Renault's Fernando Alonso, winner of the Singapore GP 2008

McLaren's Lewis Hamilton

Ferrari's Felipe Massa


Tuesday, September 23, 2008

A Feeling of Nostalgia....

For those who born in the 70s and 80s. Fond memories......

1. You grew up watching He-man, MASK, Transformers, Silver Hawk and Mickey Mouse. Not to forget Ninja Turtles, My Little Pony and Smurfs too..

2. You grew up brushing your teeth with a mug in Primary school during recess time. You will squat by a drain with all your classmates beside you and brush your teeth with a coloured mug. The teachers said you must brush each side 10 times too.

3. You know what SBC stands for.

4. You pay 40 cents for Chocolate or Strawberry MILK every week in class.

5. You watch a very popular Malay dubbed Japanese drama on RTM1 about schoolgirls who possess powerful skills in volleyball called Meoro Attack.

6. You find your friends with pagers and handphone cool in Secondary School.

7. SBS buses used to be non-airconditioned. The bus seats are made of wood and the cushion is red. The big red bell gives a loud BEEP! when pressed.. There are colourful tickets forTIBS buses. The conductor will check for tickets by using a machine which punches a hole in the ticket.

8. Envelopes given to us to donate to Sharity Elephant every Children's Day.

9. You've probably read Young Generation magazine.You know who's Vinny the little vampire and Acai the constable.

10. You were there when they first introduced MRT here. You went for the first ride with your parents and you would kneel on the seat to see the scenery.

11. Movie tickets used to cost only $3.50.

12. Gals are fascinated by Strawberry Short Cake and Barbie Dolls.

13. You learn to laugh like The Count in Sesame Street .

14. You longed to buy tibits called Kaka (20 cents per pack), and Ding Dang (50 cents per box), that had a toy in it and it changes every week. Not forgetting the 15 cents animal crackers and the ring pop, where the lollipop is the diamond on the ring.

15. You watched TV2 (also known as Channel 10) cartoons because Channel 5 never had enough cartoons for you.

16. Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, The Three Investigators, Famous Five and Secret Seven are probably the thickest story books you ever thought you have read. Even Sweet Valley High and Malory Towers .

17. KFC used to be a high class restaurant that serve food in plates and let you use metal forks and knives.

18. The most vulgar thing you said was asshole and idiot and THE MOST EXTREME WAS 'super white'... you just couldn't bring yourself to say the hokkien relative.

19. Catching was the IN thing and twist as the magic word.

20. Your English workbooks was made of some damn poor quality paper that was smooth and yellow.

21. CDIS were your bestfriend.

22. The only computer lessons in school involved funny pixellised characters in 16 colours walking about trying to teach you maths.

23. Waterbottles were slinged around your neck and a must everywhere you go.

24. Boys loved to play soccer with small plastic balls in the basketball court.

25. Teng-teng, five stones, chapteh, hentam bola and zero point were all the rage with the girls and boys too...

26. Science was fun with the balsam and the angsana being the most important plants of our lives, guppies and swordtail being the most important fish.

27. Who can forget Ahmad, Bala, Sumei and John, eternalized in our minds from the textbooks. Even Mr Wally & Mr. Yakki. What abt Miss Lala??? And Zaki and Tini in Malay Textbooks?

28. We carry out experiments of our own to get ourself badges for being a Young Zoologist/Botanist etc.

29. Every Children's day and National day you either get pins or pens with 'Happy Children's Day 1993' or dumb files with 'Happy National Day 1994'.

30. In Primary six you had to play buddy for the younger kids like big sister and brother.

31. We wear BM2000, BATA, or Pallas shoes.

32. Your form teacher taught you Maths, Science and English.

33. The worksheets were made of brown rough paper of poor quality.

34. You went to school in slippers and a raincoat when it rained, and you find a dry spot in the school to sit down, dry your feet, and wear your dry and warm socks and shoes.

35. School dismissal time was normally around 1 pm.

36. There would be spelling tests and mental sums to do almost everyday.

37. Your friends considered you lucky and rich if your parents gave you $3 or more for pocket money everyday.

38. You see Wee Kim Wee's face in the school hall.

39. You freak out when the teacher tells you to line up according to height and hold hands with the corresponding boy or girl.

40. Boys like to catch fighting spiders.

41. Collecting and battling erasers was a pastime for boys.

42. Autograph books were loaded with 'Best Wishes', 'Forget Me Not', and small poems like 'Bird fly high, hard catch.Friend like you, hard to forget'.

43. Class monitors and prefects loved to say 'You talk somemore, I write your name ah!'

44. There were at least 40 people in one class.

45. Large, colourful schoolbags were carried.

50. You brought every single book to school, even though there was one
thing called the timetable.

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

Those were the days.... I'm guilty of those in green :p

PS : Does it mean I'm very uncle since I've got so much in green?

Sunday, September 14, 2008

ERP

aka Electronic Road Pricing
aka Every Road Pays
aka Even Reverse Pays

I found some pretty funny 'doctored' pictures that our creative fellow Singaporeans had came up with regarding their take on ERP....






Ok, perhaps the last 2 pictures were abit too extreme :p Anyway, don't say I didn't warn you.... the last I read, LTA is starting to install the 2nd Generation of the IU for new vehicles being put onto the roads. These IU are GPS capable, meaning that your vehicle can be tracked via satellite when the weather conditions permit.

My personal opinion for the future of ERP in Singapore is such :
There will be no more ERP Gantries nor Road Tax. The GPS-enabled IUs will be embedded with a CPU, a metering device like the cabs and a storage media. The metering device tracks the distance and time travelled. When combined with the GPS system, the CPU will be able to compute the 'zone' you are travelling in as well as the time and distance in this 'zone'. With 'ERP' rates beamed down via GPS, the charges you'd need to pay will be computed and stored in the storage media for 'upload' to LTA at a stipulated time, most likely via GPS too. LTA (or a 3rd party) will then consolidate and bill you accordingly. You may also opt to pay via Giro. :)

This situation is not far stretched. The technologies are all in place. Its only a matter of putting them all together to form the 'perfect' solution. In case you're unaware, UK is proposing the idea of 'Pay-as-you-go' with help from the satellites. Knowing Singapore loves to be the first in everything (eg. F1 Night-Race, ERP, Changi Airport, etc), we could very well beat UK to it and be the first to implement such a plan. Come to think of it, the benefits are all there on the table for the authorities :
1. squeeze more dollars from us
2. deter vehicle owners from driving, thus reducing congestions
3. encourage usage of public transport
4. saving money on building/maintaining gantries (est. S$1m - S$1.5m each)
5. implementing ERP now is very easy (few clicks on the computer and that road is now ERP-ed)

Anyone would like to bet against my vision?

Sunday, September 7, 2008

Manchester City

*Extracted from the 7th Sept STi*
---------------------------------------

Dear _______ (Sir/Madam/Manager/Owner/Fellow billionaire/To whom it may concern) of _______ (Manchester United/Chelsea/Arsenal/Liverpool/Real Madrid/Barcelona/AC Milan/Inter Milan/Juventus/Bayern Munich)

Allow me to introduce myself.

I am Sulaiman Al-Fahim.

I represent the Abu Dhabi United Group for Development and Investment, the new owner of Manchester City.

I am also known as the 'Donald Trump of the Gulf' due to my real estate company and my hosting of a TV series in the Middle East which looks like The Apprentice.

However, I would be just as honoured and pleased if somebody considers me the _______ (Bill Gates/Warren Buffett/Don Corleone) of Abu Dhabi.

Let me clarify first.

Although it sounds like it, Abu Dhabi is not the name of a midfielder in Arsenal or a prison in Iraq where people are tortured.

No, you are confusing us with Abou Diaby and Abu Ghraib.

We are a very wealthy emirate, one of the seven states which make up the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

You may have heard of us - the stadium at Arsenal is called Emirates Stadium and one of our fellow emirates, Dubai, is hoping to buy Liverpool once the American owners there declare _______ (bankruptcy/ insolvency/foreclosure/a fire sale/a suicide pact).

As you are probably aware, we are in the process of transforming Manchester City into the biggest football club in the world.

We are already the richest club in the world, overtaking even Roman Abramovich's Chelsea.

We do not want to boast, but our financial muscle of US$_______ (1trillion/2trillion/3trillion), depending on the price of oil, is more than Mr Abramovich's who, by the way, is welcome to join forces with us as our _____ (assistant/trainee/butler/ jester/falcon trainer).

As you are probably aware, we have just bought Robinho of Brazil.

_______ (Pele/Maradona/Cruyff/ Beckenbauer/Dr Phil) may question Robinho's judgment and sanity, but he is our first superstar at Manchester City.

I can assure you, sir, that he will definitely not be our last.

I am writing to you now because we are very keen to add to our collection to form the Greatest Team Of All Time.

As such, we wish to buy _______ (Cristiano Ronaldo/Fernando Torres/Francesc Fabregas/Kaka/your best player) from you.

He is a wonderful, wonderful player, befitting the ambitions of The Biggest Club In The World.

We are very eager to acquire him as our coaches have already engaged the services of _______ (Usain Bolt and the entire Jamaican Olympic sprint team) to train him to be even faster.

You should be pleased that your player is heading to a better place.

At Manchester City, we call our home New Paradise, we have a former Thai prime minister on our board, and part of our development plans is to include similarly powerful people such as a _______ (president/king/emperor/United Nations secretary-general/American game-show host) in our committee too.

Please remember, sir, that in our business dealings, money will never be an object, a subject or a reject.

We do not concern ourselves with such trifle matters.

There is no question of how.

Abu Dhabi United Group is used to getting who, what, where and when it wants, and we are very happy to have invited ourselves to come and play with you.

Please name us a price for your player but again, as I have stated, do not be intimidated by the extra penny or two.

US$ _______ (100/200/300/400/500) million will be wired to your Swiss bank account.

If you prefer the amount to be in more tangible terms, we can always throw in _______ (Hull City/Stoke City/Newcastle United/Tottenham) too.

Our manager, Mark Hughes, will be in touch.

If he does not call due to his busy schedule, kindly contact _______ (Kevin Keegan/Alan Curbishley) who is now part-timing with us in view of his recent resignation from _______ (Newcastle United/West Ham United).

I would appreciate if you could reply to this letter soonest.

Bearing in mind that kick-off next Saturday is at 5pm.

Thank you,
Sincerely yours,
Sulaiman

PS: Please call me _______ (Donald/Bill/Warren/Don Corleone the Godfather)
---------------------------------------

Looks like we're going to see an abundance of Man City fans around soon.... :(

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Biggest Physics Experiment on Earth

"An international team of over 2,000 scientists, led by Professor Tejinder Virdee from Imperial College London's Department of Physics is stepping up preparations for the world's largest ever physics experiment, starting next year at CERN near Geneva, Switzerland."




Those people at CERN seemed to be very free and can afford to make rap in their spare time. Wondering if any rap's going to emerge outta XXX anytime soon :p

If you had read Angels & Demons by Dan Brown, you couldn't have missed the backdrop on which he had based the novel upon. I completed the novel about 3yrs back and I actually did googled CERN back then. I've never expected that the "Anti-Matter" thingy that Dan Brown had in his novel is actually a reality in the making! You gotta read his novels if you have the time and energy to do so. Don't need to read all, just "Da Vinci Code" & "Angels & Demons" will do. Actually, its recommended that you read "Angels & Demons" before you proceed to "Da Vinci Code" as they are somehow vaguely related.

Before you bash me with things such as the above 2 novels being anti-Christ, I would like to clarify that as long as you read it with the mentality of reading a storybook, I'm sure your faith, no matter how strong or weak, will not be shakened.

Coming back to the topic proper, CERN is experimenting with re-creating the Big-Bang. Should anything go wrong along the way, the facility will most likely blow up, with the potential fallout (nuclear?) affecting hundreds of thousands of innocent lives around the vicinity. However, if the experiment goes well, the potential benefits to the human race could be in-measurable....

World running out of Iron ore, no problem... CERN can produce some!

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Ugly Cinema Goers


Today's post is about the typical ugly side of Cinema goers according to a report by the Straits Times. There is a wall of text below. Carry on at your own peril....

*Extracted from the 3rd Sept STi*
---------------------------------------
TEN minutes. That's all the cleaning brigade has as cinemagoers walk out.

In that time, before the next screening, scattered popcorn kernels and paper cups - and even spilt drinks - have to be cleaned up.

Even condoms have been left behind.

The Straits Times staked out a popular cinema chain's complexes in Orchard Road and Bugis one Saturday night, and saw the spills amid the thrills.

Engineer Foo Mee Lin had just caught the film Mad About English and wasn't too crazy about the idea of taking her trash out with her. The 34-year-old said there were cinema cleaners who swooped in once the lights came up.

'It's their job and they're expected to do it,' she said.

The cleaners did move in - fast.

Mr James Tan, 54, a cleaning supervisor at the cinema for the past four months, explained the need for a speedy mop-up: The cleaners have only 10 minutes before the commercials kick in for the next show.

It is especially tough for them on Saturday nights, when it is full-house for most screenings. Resources are strained.

Small cinema halls get two cleaners, and the bigger ones have four.

Mr Tan drew a link between the kind of movies and the mess left behind. He said: 'The arthouse film crowd don't really make a mess.'

But it is a different story for blockbusters and movies that appeal to teens and young children, he said.

Mr Mohd Isa, 35, a supervisor at the cinema's complex in Bugis, backed Mr Tan's observations. When asked to name recent movies that yielded the most mess, he said without hesitation: 'Iron Man, The Dark Knight and Kung Fu Panda.'

These are movies more popular with the younger set - the ones who make life the hardest for people like Mr Tan and MrMohd Isa.

Five minutes before the closing credits rolled on the thrill-spiller film Death Race, MrTan and his crew were already waiting outside the cinema hall, armed with brooms and giant red buckets.

As the lights came up, The Straits Times saw the cinema hall dotted with empty shells of popcorn cartons.

The floor had not been spared either - two rows of seats were covered with kernels. An empty cup of Coke had been turned on its side, and its sticky trail of liquid stretched across five rows.

Mr Tan and his crew quickly mopped up the mess. He said that teenagers were the biggest culprits.

'Sometimes when I do a check while a movie is going on, I see them throwing popcorn at one another. They don't realise how difficult it is for those of us who have to pick up after them.'

Mr Tan said that caramel popcorn is a particularly annoying snack for cleaners. The sticky kernels are difficult to pry off the carpet and make cleaning more time-consuming.

He recalled a school-organised screening which left the cinema really messy.

'What's worse was that the teachers didn't do anything to stop the kids from throwing popcorn around!' he said, emptying his fourth dustpan of popcorn into a red pail.

That night's screening saw Mr Tan's four-man crew haul out buckets laden with empty cartons, drink cups, popcorn and potato chip remnants, and more.

Despite signs clearly indicating that food other than that bought from the cinema's food kiosks is not allowed in, moviegoers have not been deterred from 'smuggling in' fast-food meals such as burgers.

Ushers said it is difficult to catch these offenders because they are not allowed to search the bags of customers.

Cinemagoers The Straits Times spoke to said that the problem lies with the fact that cinema halls here do not have dustbins for people to dispose of their trash, which is why the option of leaving their rubbish behind is more convenient.

Mr Kay Chan, 34, who works in marketing, believes Singapore cinemas should emulate their American counterparts. He said: 'There, the ushers will carry in large bins and start shouting for people to throw their trash as they exit. We should do that here.'

Technician Mohamad Isa, 31, suggested putting up signs to tell people to take their trash out with them. He feels his suggestion will work. 'It works on the MRT because Singaporeans are generally quite obedient.' He carried his empty popcorn cartons out with him.

An American couple, who declined to be named, said that a year of living in Singapore had cultivated in them the local habit of not clearing their own trash. With higher ticket prices now, they added, having someone pick up after them should be 'part of the service'.

The cleaning supervisors said they occasionally find 'interesting' items left behind.

Mr Mohd Isa has had to sweep up condoms, presumably left behind by less-than-discreet couples in the back rows of the darkened cinema.

Mr Tan said he has come across a pair of shorts and the smelly insoles of someone's shoes.

He said: 'It's very unpleasant. Just because they're paying customers, they think they can do whatever they like.'

But Mr Tan is hopeful. He said: 'Good values need to be instilled from young. That way, people will behave with consideration and respect in any circumstance.'

Clutching his broom and dustpan, he then made his exit, stage right. Till the lights come on again.

---------------------------------------


Damn irritating, right? Ok, I admit I do usually leave my trash in the theatre for them to clean up. BUT.... my trash is usually limited to only UPRIGHT drink containers & pop-corn packs. Can you imagine? Even condoms are found in there! Wonder how the couple is able to carry out the act without generating 'extra' noise or to get detected.

I hate it when :
  • the persons around me takes up more then his/her fair share of space
  • the persons around me keep talking to his/her companion
  • the phone rings during the show (I sometimes wished they can install jammers in the theatres)
  • eat/drink, making lotsa noise in the process
  • sit very upright, thus blocking those behind (me)
  • slouch on the seat and prop both knees against the backing of my seat
  • keep rocking the seat back and forth
  • keep walking in and out of the seats be it my row or the row in front of me
Am I very mean? I doubt so because I believe the above are reasonable requests such that everybody can enjoy the show. Be considerate for others, not be self-centred!

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Do I need a Lappy?












Eyeing the MSI Wind... but am caught in a dilemma due to the following....

For :
  • the current PC is nearing 5yrs old. its time to upgrade
  • the MSI Wind is so chio
  • can get it @ special price
  • I've always wanted a laptop
Against :
  • my existing PC is still alive
  • 'nuff said...
How now, brown cow?