Something I can't understand...

Facebook is a wonderful social networking tool. I've found my long lost primary school friends of over 20 years to even newly found ones. Even tonight, an Army friend whom I have lost contact with since Uni days have found me! hahaah

What's most interesting is that I have dwindled my addiction to Facebook, stopped myself from playing the addictive Petrol Head where I have managed to get an Aston Martin DBR9 Le Mans version and accumulated 15639600 points! I basically now use Facebook to keep in touch with my friends and ex-colleagues, like an emailing tool except its cool to stay in touch without sacrificing the already limited time we have. It's cool to put up old photos and new ones tagging friends in there, sharing all the photos we have taken, and even share the vacation pictures. In the beginning I've basically added all sorts of applications, and little did I know that this application called Compare People, which our peers vote for each other such as best smelling, smartest etc...have me stumbled in confusion.

I just recently saw that I have been voted:
1) Most athletic (Duh, I am training hard for my IPPT lately, cos I normally die passing the 2.4km run - have you seen me? I am like overweight!)
2) Most desired for marriage (Err..I am still single leh)
3) Most dateable (Err...single..and available and dateless)
4) Best catch (I think this one is because all other good men are married or attached already)
5) Most kissable (Ok, this one I do not mind, but hey I ain't getting any! Maybe that's why, have lots of kisses left)


So this is something I totally cannot fathom as well as my crazy friends who think that by having a ride..(check out the Aston Martin!NOT! hahha) you can get lots of gals.. but hey I ain't getting any dates or kisses! I doubt the female gender is really that shallow. In case you do not mind a date, that's me circled and arrowed in the little picture with Jase...just kidding..

:P Conclusion I think my friends are just being nice!..way too nice!

Juicy exciting news about the Singapore Slingers!

Usually I try to blog once a day, that's about it. But this news just came hot off the press, and I am so excited about it - I just wanna share with those who have been following my blog on the developments of the baby Slingers team.

If you read my previous post on the lost to Adelaide 36ers. There are a few reasons to why we lost, well the people behind the Slingers have managed to turn it around to our advantage and might be the reason why we WILL WIN more games this season!!!

Well, what I've heard is that the Slingers have managed to signed their prize recruit of Darren Ng for the upcoming season. Darren was #8 when playing for 36ers, and normally I keep track of Jersey # numbers, in case they get famous like #23 aka Michael Jordan's number! Well luckily there is no #8 in Slingers previous season line up, though not sure if Darren will opt for #8 again. He might choose it because he likes Kobe (who was #8 before he became #24 in Lakers), but maybe also because Darren NG is ASIAN. #8 is fatt in Cantonese(meaning prosperous and all Asians love it, just check out the car numbers on the Singapore roads, even Jase and myself have a #8 in our license plate #).

More about Darren, he has family in both Singapore and Kuala Lumpur and I feel he will become the new local hero for the Slingers, replacing Michael Wong who probably had to go back to teaching. The 6'3" guard averaged 13.3 points per game last season in 30 games played with the Adelaide 36ers. Darren is in his final years of studying to become a medical Doctor and will go back to Adelaide in the off-season to continue his residency. The 25 year old will join Singapore in July.

Any other juicy news, like if he's single (Not because I am gay hor, but for the single female readers out there, who even google on Shane McDonald's CLEO's 50 Most Eligible Bachelor - oh and if you are interested if Shane's back...well let's just say come for the season opening game, I promise you Shane will probably still be there signing your autographs) or will he open his own clinic here...haha well I hope Slingers management will let me chat with him, or even have a game with him once he gets here.


Other non-exciting news would be new sponsors like Novotel and shareholders Jobstreet.com (this one no love - haven't managed to find me good jobs, though lots of lobang lar)

I can't wait for the new season to start...whoever want free tics, put some comments on how you feel and if you are as excited as I am, and like a queue system, I see what I can do.

Of jogs and stars

Having the need to train for my impending IPPT, I took to jogging in the night when it is cooler and not much traffic. As I hit my mid-way mark of about 1.2km, the urge to quit is unbearable. I do not fathom how I can survive easily 24km of cycling against 2.4km of jogging.

If I could have my way of testing my own fitness, I would rather be cycling or roller-blading, where the impact on my joints would be less and the joy of speeding will drive my heart rate faster.

Anyhow, at the mid-way mark, I would be staring up in the skies, looking for God!!! As I will not give up..must..make...it...to...my....goal..
While up in the skies, I noticed somethings which I haven't enjoyed for a long time. The afternoon rains have been drastic, but I couldn't imagine the night skyline would be so clear. March nights are filled with many constellations in the southern hemisphere, you can easily spot 50 over stars clearly visible.

If you need a star map to spot the skies with your love ones, download here.

These are some of the Constellations of the Southern Hemisphere:

Apus, the bird of paradise
Ara, the altar
Carina, the ship's keel
Centauras, the centaur
Chamaeleon, the chameleon
Circinus, the compass
Crux, the southern cross
Dorado, the swordfish
Eridanus, the river
Grus, the crane
Hydrus, the water snake
Indus, the Indian
Lepus, the rabbit
Mensa, the table
Musca, the fly
Norma, the surveyor's level
Octans, the octant
Pavo, the peacock
Phoenix, the phoenix
Pictor, the easel
Reticulum, the net
Triangulum Australe, the southern triangle
Tucana, the toucan
Vela, the ship's sails
Volans, the flying fish

Enjoy it while it lasts!

Over hot chocolate and Famous Amos cookies - avoid coffee

Haven't been blogging lately though I have so much I wanted to talk about. From a close friend leaving her job because of misunderstandings at work, to even another who has gone to seek greener pastures in South Africa. I am having similar experiences of both and have to be discreet about it, because you never know who reads this blog entry - thus the crazy title which makes no sense to what I am about to blog.

Though it pretty much shouldn't matter because its just avenues of expressions which is just stating how one feel at that moment of blogging. But I am having my hot chocolate and cookies right now.

A close friend of mine had misunderstandings with a female/woman/bitch boss lately. It was seriously very minor, but it escalate till the fact that she needs to resign even without a job. (That's gutsy and at times encouraging to just do it) Since I started working, I had my fair share of working with women and their issues. Many female colleagues have also shared with me their experiences with working for men vs female bosses. And they all are observed to be in the same points. I shall attempt to recall from all these experiences including my own to write a dissertation on this topic.

Normally for a male boss, their common problems would be the BIG male ego, power struggle, demanding respect while not rightfully not deserving any... just to list a few. While the female boss would be having blinkered views, favoritism, demanding attention over small little issues, revengeful, spiteful, particular over every single thing once you've stepped on their toes; or actually thought to have step on their tails...just to list a few as well. Women tend to be less logical and uses more intuition.

Citing a book written by Anna Frances Grundy on Women and Computers.

Men use intelligence; women, on the other hand, use intuition. And parallel to this, men are rational and logical; women are emotional...

This is said in context of having intelligence for top jobs and thus men having a big chunk of most CEO positions.

While applying to my discussion is that women do tend to judge intuitively or instinctively, enabling them to care better for children and the elderly. And their development in these areas confine them to jobs requiring more of it in their areas of work. But of course let's not make a general sweeping statement as there are good female CEOs there, but the percentage is lower. You do not have to agree to my statements but you have to look at it objectively like Prehistorical Men are hunters and explains why all women would occasionally call men barbaric.

Anyhow most women hold terms of being emotional, intuitive, irrational, sensitive, hysterical and empathetic. And these states at certain moments can be rather explosive if you are any men who have been in a long term relationship. These states at work if not controlled due to quarrels at home or with friends, or certain periods of the month, or even hear a wrong hearsay from rumour-mongers can kill relationships at work which will end employment for many. Because, there is another trait of women which goes hang in hang with this killing spree - memory.

Women tend to bear more grudges, less forgiving, like to bring out the past etc etc..

Actually studies have been made to prove that fact:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Drinking more than three cups of coffee a day helped protect older women against some age-related memory decline, French researchers said on Monday, giving women more reason to love the world's second most popular stimulant, with the vibrator being the most popular.

Men did not enjoy the same benefit, they said. "The more coffee one drank, the better the effects seemed to be on (women's) memory functioning in particular," said Karen Ritchie at the French National Institute of Medical Research, whose work appears in the journal Neurology. "They remembered all sorts of shit to be mad at their husbands and families about, going way, way back, in some cases to when their teenaged children were babies."

The researchers followed more than 7,000 men and women in three French cities, checking their health and mental function and asking them about their current and past eating and drinking habits, their friends, and their daily activities.

They found that women who drank more than three cups of coffee per day, or its caffeine equivalent in tea, retained more of their verbal and -- to a lesser extent -- visual memories over four years.

They were also much crankier and generally more angry and difficult to get along with.

These extra-pissed-off but stimulated french women had a 33 percent lower odds of having verbal memory declines and 18 percent lower odds of having visual and spatial memory declines, compared to women who drank one cup or fewer per day and were less pissed-off.

The effect also depended on age, with women over 80 reaping more benefits from these beverages than those who were 10 to 15 years younger, Ritchie's team wrote. It was unclear whether current or former coffee consumption made the difference, and whether or not the coffee was high quality or cheap, nasty shit.

Some studies in mice have suggested that caffeine might block the buildup of proteins that lead to mental decline.

"Our best guess is that women don't metabolize coffee in the same way (as men)," she said in a telephone interview. "Also, men tend to let things go, whereas women hold onto grudges, sometimes for life, which requires that they remember more. I suppose it would have helped if I had actually talked to any of the men, but ... eh, whatever."

The average American drinks one to two cups of coffee a day, according to the National Coffee Association. The average American woman drinks three to four cups of expensive Starbucks coffee and is pissed off at someone roughly 50 percent of the time.

I rest my case and thus I carry on drinking my hot chocolate and continue my coffee abstinence for over 30 years. In light of my brave friend who left this rat caged lifestyle, for a totally new exposure, I also hope to find my own greener pastures for a mid-life career switch or to go study once more to find myself.

Life's too short to screw with people's life with pent up gender-inflicted-possible-coffee-induced frustrations. So stay off caffeine as I can't possibly tell you to be less emotional and intuitive.

Defining culture

I was asked recently on my understanding of culture during a dinner with some friends. And she actually stumped and belittled my short answer when I told her it was about the arts, appreciation of life, and involving pottery, dances etc. Maybe perhaps the fact that she used to work for MICA - Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts. Singapore's Government Ministry in charge of the creative industries, arts, heritage, library, media, info communications and government public relations. So I better give her some credit and do some work on the real definition on culture and have a shot at giving a longer excerpt on my understanding of it.


Wiki defines Culture as (from the Latin cultura stemming from colere, meaning "to cultivate,") patterns of human activity and the symbolic structures that give such activities significance and importance. And Culture can be defined as all the ways of life, arts, beliefs and institutions of a population that are passed down from generation to generation. Culture has been called "the way of life for an entire society." As such, it includes codes of manners, dress, language, religion, rituals, norms of behavior such as law and morality, and systems of belief as well as the art.


My shot at explaining my deeper understanding of it again - Culture is about the arts, and a whole lot more. It's about all things in appreciation of the finer things in life, history, literature, language, religion and the grasp of the society fabric at points in time where it meant something. Like periods of European Renaissance where we have the best paintings by 14th-17th century artists like Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo. The accumulation of humanism, arts, science, music, dance etc. being represented in their forms as they were interpreted by individuals. Where people in the future like ourselves can appreciate it and somewhat grasp that moment it was defined.


So if you ask me..Singapore has no culture. We have no defining moments and I do appreciate the government in trying to promote it. With all the fundings and I hope we have more opportunities to appreciate it, to refine ourselves, so that I won't have irritating people sitting beside me during concerts which talked loudly during Jeff Chang's concert at moments the symphony was playing. Those moments were NOT intermission time for people to go to the loo as well.

I leave you with a painting I saw recently at the Jeff Chang concert (which I will try to blog on the event later and explain how there are paintings to see in a concert) which somehow captivated me and I did up some research not knowing the importance of it. I just love it.





Het meisje met de parel - which in Dutch meant Girl with a Pearl Earring, also widely known as the "Mona Lisa of the North" by 17th Century artist Johannes Vermeer. The painting is universally recognized as one of Johannes Vermeer's absolute masterpieces. The painting is currently housed at The Mauritshuis in The Hague, which I hope to be able to see it some day just as I've seen the Mona Lisa and watched the Da Vinci Code. In the meantime, I shall go find the the novel by Tracy Chevalier inspired by the painting and watch the film starring Scarlett Johansson inspired by the novel. They bear the same name for titles.

Life's still good..

Recently life has been tumultuous for me. Everything doesn't seem to look as beautiful as before.

Usually in the morning, I will have the woman of my life sitting beside me - my mom, nagging at me as I drop her off work, and in the event the nagging requires a response, I would turn on the radio. Local radio stations really talk too much - Power 98, Class 95, Perfect 10-98.7 FM, my gosh either they are laced with adverts or sublimal selling, or they can be rather crude.

My love for classical music is somehow still hidden there, covered by angst of rock, alternative, punk, pop music during my adolescent periods of clubbing and extreme sports. With the windows down, and my radio tuned to Symphony 92.4 FM, I start entering another world where I start to lose focus in life and leave the rat caged environment; slowly try to merge with nature and its unhurried pace.

I smell the cold morning wind laced with dew, check out the clouds in the skies for familiar shapes, reaching out my right hand to feel the racing wind. With the radio belting out a John William overture, in that brief moment, I sense that life's still somehow good despite all the turmoils in life - God's somehow out there with a wand scattering glimmers of hope.

Mr Brown for MP! Congrats to gutsy M'sians!!

Congrats for my friends up north! You guys have guts to stand for what you believe!

Prior to the election, only one state, Kelantan, was controlled by the opposition. But as of today, the oppositions stand proud winning states Kedah, Perak, Kelantan, Selangor and Penang. All of these states will now be ruled by the oppositions of Islamist PAS party, Democratic Action Party (DAP) and the People's Justice Party.

"People can only put up with so much," says DAP Secretary-General Lim Guan Eng, who is set to become Penang's new Chief Minister. "Dissatisfaction has reached a boiling point."

I admire Malaysians for standing for what they believe. I hear dissatisfaction everywhere here in Singapore. Having to gripe with rising costs, dealing with GST hike, means testing, ERP increases, fatter paychecks of public servants etc since our last election. I wonder if Singapore Elections are held now before forgetful Singaporeans get election ang baos, how would we fare?

The opposition's results yesterday proved that their voices had been heard. And after election results were announced, Prime Minister Abdullah actually said that the poll results proved that democracy did work in Malaysia—and that defeat was part of the democratic process. I admire this man, taking defeat gentlemanly and indeed democracy has prevailed today in Malaysia.

Quoted from Online Time Magazine:

On March 5, Human Rights Watch, the New York-based NGO, issued a report criticizing the way in which it believes the National Front has maintained its grip on power. In a public statement, Human Rights Watch deputy Asia director Elaine Pearson said: "Once again, elections in Malaysia are grossly unfair to the opposition. Malaysia's ruling coalition is too comfortable with the status quo to allow reforms that would level the playing field." Among the watchdog's claims were accusations that the ruling coalition received a disproportionate amount of media coverage; that repeated attempts by opposition parties to organize rallies had been stymied; and that voting irregularities were rampant. In the state of Selangor, for instance, opposition party PAS says it found two 128-year-old citizens registered to vote.

I wonder if the Human Rights Watchdogs ever visited Singapore? I hardly get to read about our oppositions in our local media. Maybe if local media gave them more coverage on TV, newspapers, there will be less people trying to go to opposition's rallies and jam up the roads.
Interesting note: 2007 Freedom of the Press World Ranking - Singapore is classified as not free and we are ranked below Malaysia's 150 at 154 out of 195, alongside Afghanistan. Wow..Iraq is just behind us at 158.


In other interesting news, newcomer politician celebrity blogger Jeff Ooi who actually been blogging since 2003 on his website - Screenshots and on CNET, won his campaign Penang seat in his first general election.
Jeff Ooi's blog has been dubbed "Malaysia's Most Influential Blog" and receives more than 200,000 page views per month! I wonder if our local famous bloggerMr Brown could stand for the next election?


"This is a new dawn for Malaysia," said Anwar Ibrahim, a former Deputy Prime Minister, who is the spiritual head of the People's Justice Party and the opposition's most charismatic figure. "The people have voted decisively for a new era."

I do hope the oppositions can really bring a new era to those states, and let the nation see that they can do a good job in governing.


The promises of a new era...hmm sounds good..I wonder if I ever get to see a new era or just a basic wish of getting to vote before I turn 60.

Dungeons and Dragons co-creator dies at 69

The co-creator of Dungeons and Dragons, the fantasy role-playing game which I used to play when I was a kid amongst my primary school buddies has died recently on 4th March Tuesday. Gary Gygax co-founded Dungeons & Dragons, a game for nerds of the 80s but millions played it. Gygax and the other co-founder Dave Arneson first developed the game in 1974. The game utilises medieval characters and mythical creatures with oddly shaped dice which I saved my lunch money to buy - eight-sided dices to twenty-sided ones!

What's not known is that the cultural significance of the game is that it is the recognized spiritual founder of every adventure-themed video game – and, by extension, many of the movies – around today. J.R.R. Tolkien imagined much of the fantasy universe, but it was Mr. Gygax who let players move in. The New York Times reports that he sold $1 billion in books and equipment. But despite such numbers, the game and gamers like me were pushed to the fringes of society, tainted by links to being an occult during my childhood even though D&D was roughly as satanic as an episode of Bewitched.

I've read a news article about his death and the kind of gamers which D&D attracted which probably is the reason on why I am in my current profession.

There's no denying Mr. Gygax's game drew a certain kind of person – most of the time, we preferred books to basketballs, and the only time you would see us running on the football field is if we were trying to get away from a linebacker who was trying to give us a wedgie.

We would grow up to be engineers, artists and maybe a journalist or two. But back then, the game gave us a safe harbor during the stormy passage from youth to adulthood. More accurately, the people we played with – on our parents' castoff dining room tables, with bags of chips and liters of soda almost crowding out the gaming materials – became both anchor and shelter.

Indeed the game gave us a safe harbor and a place for imagination.

Farewell Gary and thanks for the childhood of friendships and fantasies I've made.

Money No Enough! - forwarded email

Ok normally I don't do spam or forward emails, but this one is something I wish to share with our tiny red dot local residents on how they grasp or understand the fallacy this email and actually if they understand the policies and decisions made by our leaders.

I've heard a lot of these investments from my banker friends on the ground, not sure the exact figures but I heard our gahmen already lost USD$4 billion based on UBS alone based on last week, so if they did not take only 8 days to decide the purchase and buy now, we wouldn't need to have 2% GST hike for the next 3.68 years. Anyway this is the email I got this morning, I just cut and paste what was sent - what an erroneous bullshit to blame our gahmen..we just buying things on sale mah, later when price go up, we sell and make $ then maybe they will remember to cut GST? (I hope! anyway I did not even correct the grammar or spelling)

>>
>>
This is the most simplified version of the Annual Report for 2007 based on the media reports.
Or according to Jack Neo; is it Money: Not Enough??


You figure it out!


In the past year alone, the Singapore government through its investment arms of Temasek and GIC - invested a whopping $34, 560, 000, 000.00 in various investments worldwide.


That's $34.56 billion.

GIC:

UBS - $14 billion
British Land - $388 million
Citigroup - $9.8 billion
US Hedge Fund - $429 million

Temasek:
British Bank Barclays - $4.3 billion
Merrill Lynch - $5 billion
Standard Chartered - $643 million
And if you think the government is stretching itself too thin, no worries. GIC deputy chairman and executive director Tony Tan says the GIC has capacity to bail out another bank. (AFP)

Now, government investments are not a bad thing, to be sure. Of course there are questions of transparency and accountability which some people have brought up. Be that as it may, what is even more troubling is another issue.

This is the constant lament of the government about not having enough money or financial resources to deal with Singapore's ageing population, helping the poor, providing subsidized healthcare and so on.

Thus, the government has introduced the GST hike to 7% ("to help the poor"), and is introducing the Compulsory Longevity Insurance (for our ageing population), and Means Testing (for healthcare).

All of these are paid for by Singaporeans, in some way or another.

In raising the GST to 7%, ChannelNewsAsia reported PM Lee as saying:

"Mr Lee explained that the hike was necessary to finance the enhanced social safety nets, needed to help the
lower income group.." (CNA)

The extra 2% will give the government a further $1.5 billion to finance "the enhanced social safety nets, needed to help the lower income group".


Now, if the GIC and Temasek Holdings have $34 billion to bail out ailing foreign banks, why does the government not have the money (a mere $1.5b) to help poorer Singaporeans, which it says it needs?


Why does the government not have enough money to spend more on the aged and healthcare?


Contrast the obscene spending by the GIC and Temasek with the pathetic excuse given by MCYS minister Vivian Balakrishnan about giving those on public assistance a further $23 increase, which some MPs have asked for:


"The government is reviewing the S$290 monthly public assistance (PA) allowance for needy Singaporeans to see if it should be increased. It is also conducting a separate review on the qualifying income limit for assistance, which currently stands at S$1,500 a month. The review is expected to be completed later this
year." (CNA) (TOC)


Why does the government need to have months of "review" to ascertain whether giving another $23 to those most in need is justified? If this is not the height of hilarity, then I don't know what is. It would be funny if it weren't so sad that our government would not blink an eye in spending billions bailing out foreign banks in risky undertakings while being so hardfisted about giving a mere $23 to its most vulnerable and needy citizens.


Something is just not right.


How did the government suddenly make $34.5 billion appear out of thin air when they were just lamenting, not too long ago, that they didn't even have $1.5 billion to help the poor?


Now, the next time I hear the government says it does not have enough money and need to raise this and raise that to fund certain "programmes" to "help the poor", I will tell them:

"Please stop lying to us."

Update:

Minister of State for Finance, Mrs Lim Hwee Hua, said this in 2006:


"In the case of Temasek, since inception, Temasek has delivered 18% total shareholder return by market value and 16% total shareholder return based on shareholder's funds.


As for the exact size and returns of our investments, we have explained on numerous occasions that the disclosure of such information is not in Singapore's national interest. Our financial reserves help to maintain confidence in the Singapore dollar and the Singapore economy. Any revelation would make it easier for currency speculators to target the Singapore dollar.


Mr Chia can take comfort in the fact that there is full accountability for GIC and Temasek's overall performance and risk management."


Now, even a fool will have to ask: Where has all that "18% total shareholder return" gone to? Gone to whom?


Read this from a fellow blogger: Does any one local benefit privately from Temasek's huge foreign investments?


Where are the 84 MPs in Parliament? Why isn't anyone asking such simple questions? Why do GIC and Temasek have so much to spend while our govt keep saying that they don't even have enough to help the poor?


An interesting note: The total spent so far by GIC and Temasek ($34.56 billion) exceeds our 2007 National Budget of $33 billion.


Now, imagine that.


GIC and Temasek Holdings are spending more on their shopping sprees than the govt spends on the entire national budget.


So Mr Prime Minister, please stop lying to us that you don't have enough money to help the poor.


Point to note, perhaps our gahmen have reasons for being so heartless and operating like a company/corporation - so that our currency can remain strong and we can go overseas or online to shop for cheap US goods which is already 20% discounted off. But we talking about the poor here lar, they don't have computers to go online let alone go shopping in US lar..

What's wrong with the Singapore Slingers? Part 2 of the Trilogy Series

Ok, I was suppose to share my experiences about the HSBC Women's golf championships - A bunch of men following women through 18 holes, I guess people would want to read that more than blogging about a losing basketball team. But instead I should do what's morally right, than falling to public expectations. But hey I don't get much readership anyway. If you have to...go read Jason's entry about the event, he managed to steal some nice shots on the golf course.

Will get serious about this and lose the pictures, and have just lots of words, so that people actually fall asleep reading this entry.

What's wrong with the Singapore Slingers? Actually ain't much. Just a few key points - Firstly they do not get enough local media attention as compared to the other NBL teams in the league. Perhaps if our local media pays just half as much attention on them as compared to the soccer leagues such as EPL or the S. League. The Singapore Slingers could actually get a shot at filling up the stadium for a match.

Even with a million dollars on the line, this is all the coverage we got (source from Nic):

2 articles from Straits Times and Zaobao, and 6 mentions from the following radio stations:

* Power 98 FM - 7am (14 secs)
* Class 95 FM - 9am (17 secs)
* 938 LIVE - 6.35am (1 min 6 secs)
* 91.3 FM - 7am (16 secs)
* 88.3 Jia FM - 7am (24 secs)
* 98.7 FM - 8.55am (56 secs)

1. The Straits Times, 14 Feb - Slingers are second last, page 12

The article touched on results of the game and highlighted the Million Dollar Shot segment. It also featured a colour photo of Rod Grizzard in action.

2. Lianhe Zaobao, 14 Feb - Singapore Slingers defeated, page 15

The article featured results of the game.

3. CNA Coverage

There was also coverage on the CNA website that can be found here: . Although the cameraman was present at the game, however, by the time the studio received the footage all their slots for the evening had been filled.

Well the bloggers who were present probably had more coverage than our local media.
But as we all know, unless you are paying to get attention, there's no such thing as free publicity unless the public wants to know, and wants to read/hear about it. That's the laws of demand at work. But to think we are going for the 2010 Youth Olympics, our local media seriously needs to pull up their socks.

So the key missing point from the Slingers line up is awareness.
People need to become more aware of the Slingers. There should also be more opportunities to allow chances to create awareness - this sound complicated, but what I am trying to say is that Slingers marketing guys need to create opportunities for people to talk or write about it. Sensationalized articles such as the Million Dollar shots, Shane Macdonald as Cleo's 50 most eligible bachelor, etc.

Singapore Slingers are alcoholic friendly and photography friendly!

Did you know Singapore Slingers at the indoor stadium is the only place where you can have your booze indoor and watch a game? It's cooling and you can order beer and wine as you watch your game (just remember: drink don't drive). Perhaps soccer fans get too violent after booze - just follow the EPL fans brawling record, you know I am right. Basketball is usually a tamer sport lest you have Ron Artest and Dennis Rodman on the court. People who want to pick up sports photography should also be encouraged to come for games as we are allowed to take pictures!The other bloggers had many ideas such as creating contests or be a cheerleader or waterboy for a day etc.I would gladly try it out - because they have the best seats at the courtside for free.


Next pointer I would like to give is rather frank and it might hurt - Get a good coach, a coach that knows what it takes to win. With wins, you will automatically gain media attention, you will gain more fans, more converts-from-critics. You will gain respect, more exciting games, more following. But I also hope that the coach gets free play - to choose his team, to coach his ways, his style, ability to bench the players etc. Not sure what the current arrangement is, but it should be that way. Perhaps like in the movie "Invincible" - open up the opportunity for locals to try out for the team, let them go through the training camps before the season start. I would go try for it! Though I know at least 200 better local players in Singapore than me..actually there probably are 20,000 better local players than me, but I don't really know them. Haha

Watch out for the concluding episode of "What's wrong with the Singapore Slingers?"