So far so good!

Besides a nice weekend getaway, managed a wonderful Mars Cheesecake with colleagues made by Vera



Wonderful ice cream slice with 2 tubs of HD from Jane who had it delivered to my office surprising me!



And a preview tee shirt pressie from my sis from New York..she has promised me the latest Jordan 23..will go get it when we visit in Sept.
Pretty good for 2008..so far so good..more partying when I get to Macau on Wed!

Rawa Island

Just to share some nice pictures taken over the wkend..too busy to blog about it but a picture tells a thousand words..maybe when I get back from my other vacation...doubt it would be as beautiful. Anyone interested in going let me know!

Here's 10,000 words:

Equiping your cars with energy convertors!

Based on my previous entry on killing mother earth with our eagerness to drive fast. All oil guzzlers have to control their usage especially with the rising fuel costs. But what recent studies reveal, will change all that. Coming in the near future! All hail engineers!

In hope of being more earth friendly and energy efficient, researchers have recently came to know that heat makes photons too. Previously the vast majority of photovoltaic ,or solar cells as it is commonly known, capture only photons emitted by the sun, but there many other sources of electromagnetic radiation exist. Since combustion of any kind emits photons in the infra-red (IR) portion of the spectrum, the waste heat produced by generators, combustion engines, etc offers a potential source of radiation for solar cells with the appropriate bandgap.

So effectively, we can place solar cells in close proximity to a combustion heat source and harness that energy. Well won't go into further engineering technical details.

Let's just hope they can find cheap ways of creating thermophotovoltaic devices with low-bandgap materials to exploit low energy, long wavelength IR photons which my car engine emits and the control of excess heat just in case I rev above 7500rpm.

Going for much needed vacation soon...here's my fav Dilbert comic strip for the moment.



Let's end the tough engineering work week I had with a self poking engineer joke - especially about my low pay..man we try to save the world, but we get paid peanuts, in Singapore that is and no I do not mean golden peanuts which charity organisations get over here.

At the end of a job interview, a young Engineer fresh out of NTU was asked, "And what starting salary were you looking for?"
The Engineer replied, "In the neighborhood of $100,000 a year, depending on the benefits package."
The interviewer said, "Well, what would you say to a package of 5-weeks vacation, 14 paid holidays, full medical and dental, company matching retirement fund to 50% of salary, and a company car leased every 2 years - say, a red RX-8?"
The Engineer sat up straight and said, "Wow! Are you kidding?"
And the interviewer replied, "Yeah, but you started it.

Death Star Canteen

For all Star Wars fan out there...this Lego Spoof version of stand up comedian Eddie Izzard totally took away my Mondays+Tuedays blues..thanks to a friend who forwarded it to me...

Singaporeans embrace, while New Yorkers screw...

...the ERP.

As Monday came, 5 of the upcoming 16 gantries were turned on. The new ERP gantries at Upper Bukit Timah Road, Upper Boon Keng Road, Geylang Bahru, Toa Payoh and Kallang Bahru began their money collecting duties, as Singaporeans have to deal with the added woes espcially at Toa Payoh. Businesses at the heartland will have to deal with the expected drop in traffic amidst the global rising cost of commodities, and the impending credit crunch -aka recession. This is just one of nicely timed addition/plus "+" sign in our daily costs, inflation, CPI index that our government policies has chosen to add on to and expect us, the prosperous repressed citizens to embrace.

This term "prosperous repressed citizens" was introduced to me while I was reading an English translated edition of the local papers on board a Japanese airline. It was in brief summary with relation to our Singapore elections 2 terms back - maybe the translation sucked, they probably used some online translator service, actual term is probably subdued, cowed, submissive, passive, subservient, meek, docile, compliant, obedient. (Strangly, it seems easier to find alternative words for repress than suck)

Anyway, for those who do not know what is the use of these electronic road pricing (ERP) “checkpoints-aka gantries”, they are the government's "creative" efforts to keep Singapore's roads moving smoothly. This creative method is like most "whine and fine" schemes we have, they deduct a certain amount of $ as the vehicles passes through these checkpoints. It is mandatory for all vehicles in Singapore to be fitted with Identification Units (IUs).

So come November, we would have a total of 71 gantries performing their money deducting functions on pitiful road users (having to deal already with the world's 3rd priciest petrol - drivers, please check out this interesting post by Static Variable, I bet you would be fuming after reading it).

In other noteworthy news, my sister who is working in New York but unfortunately not driving, has democratic neighbors who gave a huge thumbs finger UP to the planned congestion pricing fee. The reason cited was that plan was flawed as the underfunded mass transit would not be able to cope with an increase in commuters. Well Singaporeans probably do not have to worry about the public service being underfunded! They will just simply passed on the costs to the commuters, even as we try to minimise service disruptions and suicides.

Go Spartans! 2-0

With the new kickass Jerseys (check out Jase's website) and new team mate Didier, we are going 2 for 2 and top of the league!! The last time we had this good was during season 5; when we were split into divisions, so better to blog about this as I am confident we will go 3-0 next week!

The last time we beat Askals, when I was playing lar, it's on my b'day in 2006! 51-49, that was my b'day gift! The other recent time was 78-56 on 31st Mar '07.
Here's Saturday's short match report with JR Escobar topping all scores again! His NBA-style reverse foul-in layup was worth even paying to watch our games! So indeed deserving MVP for 2 straigh games averaging 28pts per game! Read the previous game's lengthy report against a very rough opponent Serangoon Boiz.

In other worthless notes, I was only voted twice for MVP - once because all the other players performed too well while I was a guest player, they decided to sympathetically vote me instead. The other being well...unbelievable..go read Manager Jem's super long post on it. And also to add..I managed to pass my IPPT the next morning with the tired aching legs. Thank God!

Jokes for singles on a lazy Sunday!

Man: Haven't I seen you someplace before?
Woman: Yes, that's why I don't go there anymore.

Man: Is this seat empty?
Woman: Yes, and this one will be if you sit down.

Man: Your place or mine?
Woman: Both. You go to yours, and I'll go to mine.

Man: How do you like your eggs in the morning?
Woman: Unfertilized.

Man: Hi...
Woman: Save your breath. You'll need it to blow up your date.

Man: If I were to rewrite the alphabet, I would put U and I together.
Woman: Yeah?! Well, if I were to rewrite the alphabet I would put F and U together.

Ok ok...seems like the woman is winning...here's some great comeback lines..

A guy goes up to this girl in a bar and says, "Would you like to dance?"
The girl says, "I don't like this song, but even if I did, I wouldn't dance with you."
The guy says, "I'm sorry, you must have misunderstood me, I said, you look fat in those pants."

Man: Your place or mine?
Woman: Both. You go to yours, and I'll go to mine.
Man: Fine with me, I don't care where you go after we're done in the car.


Ok here's for those Chinese New Year/Family gathering moments (thank me later)

Top 10 answers to questions like theses: "Why aren't you married yet?" or "Why are you still single?"

Ans#1: I was hoping to do something meaningful with my life.
Ans#2: What? And spoil my great sex life?
Ans#3: Because I just love hearing this question.
Ans#4: Just lucky, I guess.
Ans#5: I'm waiting until I get to be your age.
Ans#6: I already have enough laundry to do, thank you.
Ans#7: I don't want to have to support another person on my paycheck.
Ans#8: My fiance is awaiting his/her parole.
Ans#9: We really want to, but my lover's spouse just won't go for it.
Drum roll....Ans#10: Oh you have not met Jane/James yet? (single ladies pls use Jane, James for single men)

Crazy basketball shots

In reference to a friend named Ben's "wudi" and JR's last night Spartan's match crazy reverse body roll shot that got in plus a foul!!

Singaporean ladies beware or go queue up..Edison Chen coming..

Just found out that the infamous yet considered luckiest bastard by all men, Edison Chen will be coming Singapore to film a movie. So Singaporean ladies, beware or (looking at the amount of girls who have ahem "enjoyed" -couldn't find an alternative word for sucking in the Thesaurus ;P) go queue up! Get filmed, photograph and be famous!!

Always buying sneakers? It's the sign of a leader - that's me!!!

Picture of the shoes I just got lately from US and Japan (Jordan Men's Team 9.5; Jordan 1 Low East; Jordan XX2 5/8). Yeah they are all Jordans. 80% of all my shoes are Jordans, thereby making 90% Nike.







Just read this interesting poll on Yahoo...

Not sure if its true..been apprehensive on articles released online on 1st April after getting conned on mrbrown.

But this one by Reuters, should be quite accurate lar..and it gives me an excuse to get more kicks.

NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - Got a passion for buying sneakers? It could be a good sign, with a poll finding that people who buy three pairs of sneakers or more a year are far more likely to be a leadership type that other people.

Mindset Media, a media company that examines personality traits of different consumers, found that people who buy more than three pairs of sneakers a year are 61 percent more likely to have the qualities of a modern leader.

These qualities were defined as having ideas and vision, and a style with others that is both inclusive and decisive.

The survey of 7,500 people, using market research group Nielsen's online panel, found multi-sneaker buyers were 50 percent more likely to be very assertive and 47 percent more likely to be spontaneous.

Lauren Arvonio, a spokeswoman for Mindset Media, said sneaker buyers were more likely to fly by the seat of their pants.

"It is often said you can tell a lot about a person by the shoes they wear, and now we have some hard data to back that up," Arvonio told Reuters.

"What is interesting is that these personality traits held true across the board, regardless of age, income, or gender."

First of all, note they mentioned sneakers, not shoes...so no pointy leather, suede shoes we wear to work kind. It's sneakers, so myself and Jase qualify!! I always wanted to put up my entire collection of my sneakers, I have so far lost count, last was about 40? Jase should have about 50 plus..

I have reached the quota for this year on having 61% possibility of being a modern leader! Wondering if we buy more than 5 pairs, do we have 80-90% leadership qualities? Haha..Now tell that to my mom who is complaining about me filling up 3/5s of the shoe rack shared by 4, not forgetting those still in their shoes boxes in my room. I leader-like leh..give me more space! Still waiting for my own place to put up my wall-to-wall shoe display case...dreaming. Right now me and Jase only got a small display glass cabinet to put the nicest ones.

Not doing our part for Mother Earth!

Raised earth's temperature by a degree. Don't flame me! The cars parked in Ridley Road by just 2 owners generates more carbon emission than the 70 here.