samedi, septembre 30, 2006
I'm slightly disturbed. 1968?! [1968: Free spirit with drugs] |
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Sony Ericsson launches bluetooth-enabled watches  Sony has just announced that it's launching a new range of bluetooth-enabled watches with Fossil.I like bluetooth. I don't like blue (out of point). I like fossil watches. I like fossils. I like watches. I'm thinking: bluetooth a watch for what? [Sony Ericsson launches bluetooth-enabled watches] |
vendredi, septembre 29, 2006  I've been online for quite a number of years now (to say the least), and I consider myself fairly adept at spotting scams from just their email header, but I have to say that this particular scam is rather scary because it would fool my mother, who doesn't do any safety checks when it comes to this sort of scam (she just runs and phones me, which is not a bad idea, come to think of it.)I opened my hotmail account (rarely checked, always used as spam account) on Internet Explorer, and saw an email from Paypal, titled "Dispute Transaction". I DO have a Paypal account, and I have used my cards to pay for stuff online before, so you can be sure this email caught my attention. At first glance, it appears legitimate (see figure 1), showing that I was about to pay US$398 for a camera. However, a double check with the sender's email shows that something is up - instead of having an ebay.com return email address, it has a support@site.com email address, suggesting dodginess.  Since I was reading that email on IE, I decided to open my Firefox to check on my paypal account. Sure enough, there was nothing there - the lone credit card which I had listed had expired anyway, so nobody could possibly do anything with my account.I went back to the email, and clicked on link there. It pops up a page (2nd pic) which looks almost identical to the real Paypal site (3rd pic) - except that many links don't lead anywhere, and the URL bar shows something completely different. Only the "log in" link and the "sign up now" link work. I'm getting very worried now because this is exactly the thing which will trip people like my mother up - by making everything look like the real site, the only things that the average internet user will be able to use to discern if this is a real site or otherwise, is the URL bar, and mouse-ing over the various links.  And yet, even these methods are not foolproof - URL masking is getting more common, and links can be coded to be excluded from the preview bars.Conclusion: BEWARE! And keep your eyes and ears open. [Paypal Fraud] |
mardi, septembre 26, 2006  Sometime back in the 1990s, I watched this movie starring Chris where-is-he-now? O'Donnell and Drew Barrymore, where she is clinically depressed and needs to be hospitalised. Chris breaks her out of the hospital, and they go on a tour of the USA before her illness catches up with her and she attempts suicide.A rather sober movie, but I remember that it was completely illogical and completely nonsensical because the girl would just be leading the guy by the nose throughout the movie. Barrymore would decide to dance on top of a car, and then O'Donnell would be half-willingly dragged into doing the same. She would want to party all night, and he would willingly follow her. Qualifier: not that there's anything wrong with the girl taking the lead in romance; I just had a problem with his spine completely disappearing into thin air. That's exactly the same problem I have with Para Para Sakura - yes, stop laughing your asses off, I actually borrowed the VCD and watched it. Aaron Kwok plays a colour-blind dance instructor who's strangely mesmerised by a slightly insane Cecilia Cheung, who plays a "free-spirited" rich spoilt brat. Her "free spirit" (imagine me using Dr Evil quotations marks as I write this) generally translates into loud talking, lots of hair-flouncing, Aaron bullying, and generally getting her way all the time. The thin plot: she jumps on stage while he's performing, he suddenly sees her in a shade of pink. She disappears. Another chance meeting a day later. She disappears. Then she reappears in his dance class and hires him as her bodyguard. She's rich, and engaged to some Japanese guy. After everything goes to hell in a handbasket, he declares his love for her just before she marries the guy. She rebuffs him, and he walks away, dejected. But wait! She leaves him a secret message to meet her! He goes to meet her, but meets her husband instead, who tells him an elaborate tale of being bethrothed at birth (retch) and how both their companies share prices were going up blah blah blah zzzz. So of course they'll quietly divorce two days later, but hey, otherwise she's all yours, buddy! I can see the appeal to Kwok's shy and retiring character (a dance fitness instructor who's shy and retiring?!), but the obvious clash in personalities just grated on me the whole entire movie long. I wanted to shoot her for being so out of control and wild, and I wondered what was wrong with him that he liked being bossed around all the time on inconsequential matters. The acting was overdone, the special effects were cheesy without being funny (like Kung Fu Hustle funny), the plot was thin as triple-boiled soup, and I just wasted two hours of my life on it. I didn't even like the Para Para dance. Not as catchy as The Macarena. [Para Para 什么？] |
dimanche, septembre 24, 2006   [Random cartoons Silvia sent] |
vendredi, septembre 22, 2006 ZOMG. Canon in D: Electric Guitar version [ZOMG. Canon in D: Electric Guitar version] |
 Seen quite some time ago, on an SBS bus. [Fame wears many guises] |
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Stee: your tomatos have multiplied  I had posted the picture of the gigantic totato that was on top of the S-11 at Ang Mo Kio at Stee's request, but for the life of me I canNOT find the post in question!It doesn't matter though - apparently the denizens of AMK must actually like the crazy things, because the town council has *gasp* made some MORE tomatoes, and placed them strategically around flowerbeds and artistic corners! I tried to get someone in the picture, just to give everyone an idea of how large these monstrosities are: they're approximatly 1m in diameter, and just... hideously huge. The best thing is: their raison d'être seems to be apropos of nothing. There's no reason why they should be there; AMK isn't famous for tomato crops or anything. I propose that we hire George Clooney to get to the bottom of this (I actually OWN the DVD.) [Stee: your tomatos have multiplied] |
 Cool car (seen at Neil Road carpark)  Cute bike (seen in NTU) [Of Cars and Bikes] |
 After my beloved free Minolta watch (with both analog and digital displays) got destroyed by an incompetent watch battery changer in Ang Mo Kio about a year ago, friends know that I've been agonising over buying another watch for the longest time.Willis has given me his lovely Diesel/Matrix watch which I lovelovelove, Mich has kindly donated two of her Casio G-shock collection for my dive purposes, and World Vision gave me their "It's All About Saving Kids' Lives" watch. But none of these watches are dual analog/digital, so I dug around the house a little bit, and chanced upon my dad's old watch, which still works, but the bracelet was broken. Thinking that I could just bring it to Bras Basah and get a new bracelet, I left it on my computer table for the longest time, until a paperclip found its way onto the table as well. That was the catalyst for a little creative repair; bend the paperclip in order to poke and prod the joint-links out, and voila! Another watch for me. So now, from having one single watch which came free with our old, old Minolta film camera, I have 5 watches to choose from. Sweet. [Watches] |
lundi, septembre 18, 2006 Work is fun VI: Why can't SG be like this all the time?  Leaving aside why the blinking blazes did the S2006 committee choose CHRYSANTHEMUMS, of all the flowers to use for the roadside decorations (the flower-sellers near the temples along Waterloo Street aren't going to be very happy), why can't Singapore look so pretty all the time? The colour that they give our streets are inspiring, and it really makes everything looks very vibrant.I love that we're a clean and green city, but what's wrong with a little yellow and red and pink that grows as well? [Conspiracy theory: it is a conscious statement about discrimination.]
 flowers toeing the line (see the string to keep them straight?) [Work is fun VI: Why can't SG be like this all the time?] |
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Work is fun V: Beauty in Singapore
Have I mentioned that I'm staying in a hotel? I'm staying in a hotel for the duration of the meetings, which is slightly bizarre because I associate hotels with the strange and the foreign, and yet everything is so familiar to me. I either take a bus to Suntec in the mornings, or if I've missed the bus, I walk there. Along the way is the old St Josephs' Institution, which has been (like everything else) spruced up for the Meetings. Despite the slight distaste at how quickly the mess in front of SJI had been cleared up just for the meetings (after the eyesore had remained untouched for the last year or so), I cannot deny the beauty of the sculpture that's been put up on the lawn in front of it. I don't know what it's called (I privately refer to it as "the tissue paper" in my head), but it looks lovely. Perched very precariously on a "tip", it floats. The smooth lines of the structure, coupled with the way that it has been placed, suggest movement, and yet fragility. This is reinforced by a sign in front of it on the lawn, which states something like "do not touch the structure as it is extremely delicate," or something similar. [Work is fun V: Beauty in Singapore] |
vendredi, septembre 15, 2006 Work is fun IV: if cell phones were a symbol of success...  Arief is this tall, dark and handsome communications officer from Jakarta, who's recently been posted to Washington DC. He's been working with the press for a long time, and the picture on the left shows you how ridiculous his life has become:Jakarta personal and press phone, Singapore personal and press phone, Washington personal and press phone. We told him that he would die from radiation. [Work is fun IV: if cell phones were a symbol of success...] |
jeudi, septembre 14, 2006 I really did want to blog every day while I was here, but circumstances are... difficult. So I'll just post pictures and write when I can.
[Work is fun II] |
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13 Sept: The Event officially begins today - not with a bang, as everyone expected, but the main thing today was that the Press Centre opened. This is important because it means that all accredited press may now roam freely within their allowed areas, which is basically everywhere except for the private offices of Bank and Fund staff - and even then IF they have managed to arrange an interview, they may put forth a request to be escorted up there (they must surrender their pass in order to do so.) A little note about these passes - they're colour-coded, bar-coded and tagged with writing in the front, behind, with little logos of this and that which mean various things to various people. It's great fun watching the security guards on the restricted floors trying to peer discreetly at your pass to see if you've REALLY got access to the floor or not. They hang around your navel, so I'm alway wondering if I have lint or food on my shirt ot not. Which brings me to another thing: I thought I had no time to eat when I first started working. I was wrong. Now I know what it means to have no time to eat. My whole office laments the fact that the toilet is so far away - 5m away from our office. Woo hoo! Long walk away - but we really don't have time for it! But I'm learning a lot - there's a lot of things that I'm seeing for the first time in action. I've read about a lot of stuff, and read OF other stuff, but to actually see a message being crafted, drafted, worded with "Language", released to the press, then being inverted, converted, translated, mutated, violated, ripped apart, misconstrued... it's amazing, and I'm having the time ofmy life working alongside colleagues from all sorts of places like the USA, UK, France, Italy (and that's just my current temporary office), India, Pakistan, Germany, Chad... I feel so blessed. My assistants who have been co-opted from various places in the ministries (MFA, MOM, HPB, and other stat boards) have been so great as well - they have been so helpful and such pleasant people to work with that apart from the issues that are plaguing the centre (which has become Political Science 101 central), I am continuing to enjoy what I'm doing. I think that my bosses could afford to chill out a little (this is not my regular boss, who is a fantastic guy), but everyone's so high strung that I think some of them are at the breaking point tonight, so I vamoosed before anything erupted.
Some of the CSOs had planned a protest against the ban in Singapore at 12 noon, and they did it. They beeped their badges in, and stood tall in their t-shirts and their little surgical masks over their mouths, which read "No Voice". I actually have one of those masks, keeping it as a souvenir (or until I can get a good picture of it, then I'll... auction it or something.) I didn't have my camera with me, but I have pictures from my crappy phone camera! Only 30 people protested, and there were SO much press that you could not see over anything - it was just a sea of cameras and lightbulbs.
Hopefully it'll get better after this, because the press has taken it as far as it can go - the CSOs have done their protests, they've staged their mass walk-out, so basically the story has run its course: there's nothing left in the toothpaste, so they have to stop squeezing. [Work is fun III] |
mardi, septembre 12, 2006 11 Sept [day 1] - Full of meetings and laughter as everyone in the regional team introduced each other and had lunch. I didn't head out to The Venue as I had to settle a whole bunch of other stuff along the way first. 12 Sept [day 2] - was today. Today was again meetings, and my boss has offered my body, mind and soul up for sale to the highest bidder, and now I think I've just been assigned to one of the most exciting departments... one which the press is already bugging for information. I DO have pictures, and WL requested that I put them up, but I think I'll post them only after everything's over, just to be safe. They might take away my badge! :) eta: security's so tight that I think I can put up the pix after all:
[Work is fun I] |
lundi, septembre 11, 2006 Crazy, thinking-out-of-the-box idea The Singapore Police Force declined requests for an interview, but issued a statement Friday defending its decision to ban individuals it believed may pose a security risk or disrupt the community during the meetings. "The meetings will attract the attention of many, not least those who may want to use the ready platform and presence of the international media to stage events that will pose a security threat to Singapore, and compromise the level of security arrangements we have put in place," it said. Here's a crazy, thinking-out-of-the-box idea: let these loons in, and then have your security arrangements handle them! This way, we can 1) Make the IMF/WB people happy; 2) Make the officers who get to shoot live rounds happy; 3) Make Singapore not look like a complete washout to the whole world. [Crazy, thinking-out-of-the-box idea] |
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IMF and World Bank rebuke Singapore over its curbs on protesters Dudes, we are getting our collective asses kicked by the global media cos of this CSO thing. The 4 million smiles campaign is getting completely hijacked by this!IMF and World Bank rebuke Singapore over its curbs on protesters While I understand the need for consistency between treating foreigners and Singaporeans the same, I wonder why they decided to host the meetings in the first place if they KNEW this was going to be an issue. There was an article which suggested that Singapore was chosen for this very reason (think conspiracy theories), but I don't know... maybe this is a veiled (and long-winded, and expensive and massive) way of telling the SG govt that they really need to move on this whole public space issue. [the views on this blog are completely my own, not my company's.] [IMF and World Bank rebuke Singapore over its curbs on protesters] |
vendredi, septembre 08, 2006   Seen in my neighbourhood. [Homewrecker] |
jeudi, septembre 07, 2006 by LMA, for The World BankImagine you're taking a stroll along Orchard Road. You walk into Borders to buy a book, amble along to Starbucks and get that frappachino, gawk at Zara's new range... then stare straight into the face of poverty. Think that Orchard Road and poverty make strange bedfellows? Let me tell you why: the World Bank's got a photo exhibition on poverty right outside Liat Towers. Titled "Imagine A World Without Poverty", there are 50 pictures in all, each photo telling a million tales of the types of impoverishment which exist around the developing world today. Did you know that it [insert factoid]. I didn't. In Singapore it only [factoid]. Did you know that [factoid]? I didn't. In Singapore, it [factoid]. "We want to give a face to the problems of poverty," said Peter L. Stephens (World Bank Regional Communications Manager), when asked about the impetus behind the month-long exhibition. The panels will be up from the 4th to the 30th of September, and visitors to the exhibition tent can speak to World Bank docent volunteers, as well as pick up informational pamphlets about the World Bank (including a really nifty set of 4 mangas on development issues, and various atlases for free!) The exhibition is part of a series of lead-up events organised by the World Bank to coincide with the IMF-World Bank Board of Governors Annual Meetings. Libellés : humanitarian, writing [Poverty on Orchard Road] |
lundi, septembre 04, 2006 Singapore 2006, IMF and the World Bank  I'm extremely bemused by this.I've been taking an extraordinary number of taxis these days, and meeting a large number of people, and one of the most tiresome things is actually telling people that the IMF and the World Bank are not behind the 4 million smiles campaign, nor is it their idea to close Nicoll Highway. I'm just shocked at how badly the average Singaporean is completely mangling this IMF-World Bank meetings, and how poorly the Singapore 2006 team has educated the average man on the street, who is constantly referring to the Annual Meetings as "the IMF". Better yet are the emails in my Inbox which read "the IMF thingy." I've also just read this thread on a photographer's forum which featured a number of photographers who were given the opportunity to cover the IMF-World Bank Annual Meetings, and there were some grouses about copyright and pay/allowance. Someone accused the IMF of being tight-fisted with the cash, "considering that they have the word MONETARY in their name." That's like saying Paris Hilton should look like a hotel "considering that she has the name of a hotel." Singapore bid for the project, just as Beijing and London and Paris were bidding for the Olympic sites. So whatever hoops you have to jump through to get into Suntec City, whatever problems you're facing with whatever, if you're sick of the Singapore 2006 logo or ad or campaign or whatever: take it up with Singapore 2006, not the other two organisations. Take it up with them! :) [Singapore 2006, IMF and the World Bank] |
 We'll miss the bright, cheery smile, the crazy stunts and the amazing crocodile pictures.But above all, we'll miss the cry of "crikey!" on our tellys, and your message of wildlife conservation. The world is a poorer place without you. (And who's going to put Australia on the map now?) Libellés : current affairs [R.I.P. Steve Irwin] |
Agents Magpie and Cheerleader, are we gonna do that blog for Agent Skeletor? Cos I have the PERFECT user picture: "I am the shadow that flaps in the night...!"Or this one:
 "The crux of the issue, ladies and gentlemen,is that I am not part of the gahmen!" C'est tout! [Ashanti's Blog] |
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Ong Yunyu: Singapore girl making good  Yunyu used to be my classmate in Sec 1 or 2. I sat beside her and she helped me with my chinese. (Actually, anyone who sat beside me had to help me with my chinese.) I remember she used to be horrifically messy, and her handwriting was completely shite - which should have given me an inkling of the incredible store of talent this girl has. Yes, I'm one of those who believes that if you've got crap handwriting, it's a sign that (1) you're incredibly talented artistically, (2) you're destined to be a doctor, (3) you're a computer geek who has forgotten how to use a pen, or (4) you're two years old.Anyhoo, she's made good in Australia: writing music videos, getting pimped by the Master of Goth himself, Neil Gaiman, and working with Big People In Important Places. She's got an album coming up soon, which I hope will hit our shores, either that or I'm just getting Lorraine to get her to mail a couple over. The music's not that bad, but what really won me over are her lyrics and her absolutely cool music videos. Check out "You Are Expendable" for the dark humour (it's a really funny satire on life and desire), and the amazing, amazing stop-motion music video for "Lenore's Song" (based on Poe's "The Raven"). http://www.yunyu.com.au [Ong Yunyu: Singapore girl making good] |
 What's the point of having civil servants blog? I forgot to do the cut-out, but there was a later article stating that civil servants can blog, provided that they do not blog about their day to day activities.So essentially, these people are just... using taxpayers money to blog about their own personal lives? That makes so much sense. In a Singapore civil service sort of way. [Governmental Blogging] |
dimanche, septembre 03, 2006 I have a sneaking suspicion that once I start watching House, I will want to have a Hugh Laurie to call my own.[hugh know who?] |
vendredi, septembre 01, 2006 (or, Why the IMF-World Bank Meetings are good for Singapore)The Singapore government is renowned the world over for being one of the most efficient and incorruptible on the planet. And yet, startling inefficiencies and wastage have suddenly been discovered as the IMF-World Bank meetings draw near. (This next section is culled from a number of observations by various friends working around town.) 1. Construction: that little slip of a road between the Padang and the Cenotaph - This spot has been an eyesore since the beginning of time - in fact, I don't remember a time when there WASN'T some form of ugly orange barricade or other lining that path. But when you walk by there now - it's clean. Clear (or clearing up). Like a bad pimple that's clearing up, the whole walkway looks so much more uncluttered now, and you can actually take a GOOD picture of the Padang without bloody orange stuff blocking your way. WHY DID IT TAKE SO LONG? 2. Construction: the Singapore Art Museum (SAM) walkway - Another festering sore which has damaged more than one high heel as pedestrians are forced to stumble around the backside and the innards of SAM, occasionally pissing Dome waiters and managers off as we take the shortcut through Dome. Magic! That stretch is CLEANING UP! I just bus-ed past it today, and I can finally see the front facade of SAM again, and the pavement, and - get this - that little side road (Queen Street) almost looks like (hold your breath!) it's a THROUGH ROAD! Amazing! WHY DID IT TAKE SO LONG? 3. Wastage: Highways and Roads - From my memory, we've NEVER painted our highways before. Ever. It was just a nice, boring grey. They looked like highways. But now, noooo. We're PAINTING THEM. Not just that, but we're painting them WHITE. In Asian weather. With mould that loves to grow. With motorists belching out exhaust. NEVER BEFORE, WHY NOW? WHY PUT IT UP WHEN IT'S JUST GONNA GET DIRTY AGAIN? ESP WHITE??? DID GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS RUN OUT OF IMAGINATION AND DECIDE TO USE ALL THE COLOURS? How about you? Anyone else with stories to share? [Singapore is inefficient] |
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