Not KFC as in Kentucky Fried Chicken but the Kentucky Wildcats - my guess for Men's NCAA Finals Champion this year. They rolled over 2 teams at about 30 pts difference coming into Sweet 16. You can watch the highlights or full game here. They are so good now that all bets have been raised and odds are now 2-1 to win. Watch out for #54 Patterson who looks to me like a young Dwight Howard!
If only Singapore Slingers can get a NCAA player later this season!
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Parents' Love
Love this site about Phillip Toledano's time spent with his 99-year old father, great photos especially the accompanying words. It was made into a book.
Wished one day, I would have my own kids and they would be able to say this when I go - "I've always been amazed at my father's love for my mother."
I love history...because you can look back at any point in time and try to see what could have been done otherwise, but yet the final page of that particular story has already been written. That journey has been walked, now walk your own undiscovered path and make your own history.
Keep holding on
Though I love the Avril version, couldn't find the official video - totally sucks that Youtube have so many restrictions for this part of the world. Here is Glee's version as my April travelling plans are firmed up and glad my last minute business trips did not clash with my personal trip.
Fingers crossed on what has been happening so far of late...
Glee - Keep holding on from Sjumilakliv on Vimeo.
Fingers crossed on what has been happening so far of late...
Glee - Keep holding on from Sjumilakliv on Vimeo.
Interesting stuff you find on Facebook about Singapore Policies
Before I begin with the interesting stuff you find on Facebook which is closely related to the policies the government has been making lately, it is good to note from the walls and comments found in social sites or other forms of new media, there are about 6 ABCDEF groups of people you will often observe.
1) The Apathy group who don't comment at all and are sitting on the fence on everything.
2) The seemingly Biased/Blind group who protest at everything or support blindly on all issues basically because they are on the same side.
3) The Complaint group who does nothing but whine without any analysis of the issues.
4) The Destructive group who engages everyone to do stupid things like spamming some MP's email.
5) The Effeminate group who I think are the worse kinds, often telling people to stop whining, what is the point of doing this or that, cannot change anyway, accept the fact that...etc - Seriously isn't it worse than whining/complaining? Because I think at the very least a complaint raises awareness.
6) The Fruitful group who will have constructive suggestions and critical analyses to take it to the next level.
This is a pretty interesting Facebook group : Dear PM Lee, please take the train with me :)
This group is asking our PM to get down from the ivory tower and take time to see how the public transport is actually performing. An interesting find on the wall inside the group :-
Another interesting group: VOTE FOR CHANGE, VOTE THE PAP OUT
This group's manifest or description is pretty interesting and somehow very true, tempted to join the group but fear the repercussions, that my Facebook friends will proclaim I am a biased bigot and thus lose my effectiveness to actually discuss like I am a sound-minded individual with no political affiliations (haha, which is true that I am sound-minded and somewhat educated with absolutely no inclination for whatever party but focussed more on policies made by sleeping buffoons in parliaments these days) :-
1) The Apathy group who don't comment at all and are sitting on the fence on everything.
2) The seemingly Biased/Blind group who protest at everything or support blindly on all issues basically because they are on the same side.
3) The Complaint group who does nothing but whine without any analysis of the issues.
4) The Destructive group who engages everyone to do stupid things like spamming some MP's email.
5) The Effeminate group who I think are the worse kinds, often telling people to stop whining, what is the point of doing this or that, cannot change anyway, accept the fact that...etc - Seriously isn't it worse than whining/complaining? Because I think at the very least a complaint raises awareness.
6) The Fruitful group who will have constructive suggestions and critical analyses to take it to the next level.
This is a pretty interesting Facebook group : Dear PM Lee, please take the train with me :)
This group is asking our PM to get down from the ivory tower and take time to see how the public transport is actually performing. An interesting find on the wall inside the group :-
So the PM's wife just proclaimed that me, and a hell lot of my friends including her Father-in-law is no better than waiters and waitresses!!...no offense to the service industry intended on my part, though maybe Ho Ching has. A job is a job, what makes her work more noble? Especially after losing billions and billions of dollars which can be used to help the poor instead of raising Conservancy charges, GSTs, ERPs, Polytechnics/University fees...etc, but seriously I think even if we did not lose those billions, the money wouldn't have gone to subsidise the population but into the coffers of the employees of the SWFs.
LKY's daughter Lee Wei Ling wrote on Sunday Times today (21st Mar):
"My brothers chose not to give their children any Western names. One nephew, when he was in school, asked his parents' permission to adopt a Western name. His mother Ho Ching told him: 'In China, only waiters and waitresses use Western names.' My father also explained how 'Harry' became part of his name and how he tried to remove it."
So, if you who have a Western name, Ho Ching is saying you are no better than PRC waiters and waitresses... LOL!
Another interesting group: VOTE FOR CHANGE, VOTE THE PAP OUT
This group's manifest or description is pretty interesting and somehow very true, tempted to join the group but fear the repercussions, that my Facebook friends will proclaim I am a biased bigot and thus lose my effectiveness to actually discuss like I am a sound-minded individual with no political affiliations (haha, which is true that I am sound-minded and somewhat educated with absolutely no inclination for whatever party but focussed more on policies made by sleeping buffoons in parliaments these days) :-
Monday, March 22, 2010
New fav Nature/Wildlife photography blog
Hope to be able to do this sort of photography in the later part of my life. Love Phillip Colla's wildlife and nature pictures, sharing his blog. His natural history photography has appeared in the pages of BBC Wildlife, National Wildlife, Ocean Realm, Ranger Rick, Reader's Digest, Skin Diver, and National Geographic Magazine; photos also widely used in aquariums and museums.
California photographer Phillip Colla / Oceanlight.com
This is his gear list - Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III & II, with lenses like the 500 f/4, 400 f/5.6, 300 f/2.8, 70-200 f/2.8, 24-70 f/2.8, 16-35 f/2.8 II and 15mm fisheye (all killer lenses)
And woohoo, he is also an engineering graduate.
California photographer Phillip Colla / Oceanlight.com
This is his gear list - Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III & II, with lenses like the 500 f/4, 400 f/5.6, 300 f/2.8, 70-200 f/2.8, 24-70 f/2.8, 16-35 f/2.8 II and 15mm fisheye (all killer lenses)
And woohoo, he is also an engineering graduate.
Life After Army
Weekend was great and back to work soon. So some after-thoughts after the recent 2-weeks reservist stint. I finally had a SAR21 technical handling course as well as a range shoot using the electronic and real life bullets. Love the scope on that thing, little need for calibration and adjustments and the fact that the technical handling course was completed within 30mins. I could strip and assemble the weapon under a minute in total.
The technical handling course was conducted by a Warrant Officer who was observed to be very dedicated and passionate about teaching us reservists, whom many can be seen to be simply "bo chup" otherwise known as I-don't-give-a-shit attitude. Seriously, quite often we give less thought about the training we receive and even much less thought when the trainer tells you about his 31 years of dedicated career in the force. From an uncompleted secondary school education to signing on the army and give it over 30 years of your life, you wonder what would this Warrant Officer do if he was asked to go? Recently with the streamlined establishment of several appointments and job scopes, we have heard of many of such long-serving soldiers being asked to leave army. And I wonder what is life after army for them, what can they do, what holds for them? Security guards? Did the army think about it for them, with plans on integrating back with the society like the Yellow Ribbon project with the Prison Services? Ask any employer of any industry what useful role can a 40-50 year old Army Warrant Officer do to stay employed in their company?
The technical handling course was conducted by a Warrant Officer who was observed to be very dedicated and passionate about teaching us reservists, whom many can be seen to be simply "bo chup" otherwise known as I-don't-give-a-shit attitude. Seriously, quite often we give less thought about the training we receive and even much less thought when the trainer tells you about his 31 years of dedicated career in the force. From an uncompleted secondary school education to signing on the army and give it over 30 years of your life, you wonder what would this Warrant Officer do if he was asked to go? Recently with the streamlined establishment of several appointments and job scopes, we have heard of many of such long-serving soldiers being asked to leave army. And I wonder what is life after army for them, what can they do, what holds for them? Security guards? Did the army think about it for them, with plans on integrating back with the society like the Yellow Ribbon project with the Prison Services? Ask any employer of any industry what useful role can a 40-50 year old Army Warrant Officer do to stay employed in their company?
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Life passes by so quickly
Trying a panning shot and missing the slow times in Siem Reap.
Sometimes life stays still for some, while others keep moving on.
Wow it's almost April!
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Army Life
It has been a restful yet tiring week. Restful because of the lack of thinking during office hours as I am on reservist this couple of weeks, tiring because of running around in camp and IPPT which I managed to clear in camp - a respectable feat despite the terrain and hot humid weather this week; and also due to the fact that my company does not have a HR leave policy of a staff being on reservist.
Well, I was hired from Hong Kong where my Asia Pacific HR is based, and my company is American. Besides the fact that my direct boss who was based in Singapore before, the concept of 40 days of reservist duty by Singaporeans is quite peculiar to the rest of the company. So nevertheless, the job must be done as I come home to work till 2-3am every day and up at 6am to book in every morning.
I love reservist, its a time of bonding with old friends who go through the last 5-10 years of idle time and thoughtless conversations ranging from cars to politics. Similar to our local "kopitiams" (coffeeshops), where old men sit around and drink beer in the afternoons while chatting over the latest gossips or Jack Neo's "Honey No Enough" escapades.
The Singapore Government tries its best to sell the idea of defending the Nation to Singaporeans but not understand the problems we face at work with the constant pressure of having a cheaper, "faster" (not necessarily true), and NO-RESERVIST-up-our-asses options of worthy Foreign Talents. The citizens clamouring for equality in this context is easily shut with their latest initiative of setting up Business Centres in 3 Army Camps where employees can bring in their laptops to work. Great, as I thought I can do some work during the idle period. Well, as all other wasteful initiatives previously thought of like renaming Marina Bay to Marina Bay to the tune of S$400k, this will be another while elephant in-waiting. Why so? I was briefly "entertained" as my training camp is one of the sanctioned camp which will be ready come 1st Apr and we were allowed to have a trial.
The top three white-elephant potential reasons :
1) We must inform ahead if laptops need to be brought - nothing wrong here, except only there is a limited number allowed per business centre, I believe depending on the network restrictions, so I foresee a tie up with Singtel and probably personal mobile broadband will not be allowed.
2) The laptops will be sealed before entry and are to be under lock and key in lockers (probably chargeable) with a manned reception with CCTV readilywatching you protecting your laptops.
The lamest one yet 3) The laptops can only be used after training hours. And since the business centres are manned, its operating hours are like 8am - 530pm. So bite me...
Ok time to sleep as I have a long week ahead and a physical day tomorrow of morning range and afternoon route march. I have more thoughts about my reservist from more idle observations, hope to blog in the coming week.
Well, I was hired from Hong Kong where my Asia Pacific HR is based, and my company is American. Besides the fact that my direct boss who was based in Singapore before, the concept of 40 days of reservist duty by Singaporeans is quite peculiar to the rest of the company. So nevertheless, the job must be done as I come home to work till 2-3am every day and up at 6am to book in every morning.
I love reservist, its a time of bonding with old friends who go through the last 5-10 years of idle time and thoughtless conversations ranging from cars to politics. Similar to our local "kopitiams" (coffeeshops), where old men sit around and drink beer in the afternoons while chatting over the latest gossips or Jack Neo's "Honey No Enough" escapades.
The Singapore Government tries its best to sell the idea of defending the Nation to Singaporeans but not understand the problems we face at work with the constant pressure of having a cheaper, "faster" (not necessarily true), and NO-RESERVIST-up-our-asses options of worthy Foreign Talents. The citizens clamouring for equality in this context is easily shut with their latest initiative of setting up Business Centres in 3 Army Camps where employees can bring in their laptops to work. Great, as I thought I can do some work during the idle period. Well, as all other wasteful initiatives previously thought of like renaming Marina Bay to Marina Bay to the tune of S$400k, this will be another while elephant in-waiting. Why so? I was briefly "entertained" as my training camp is one of the sanctioned camp which will be ready come 1st Apr and we were allowed to have a trial.
The top three white-elephant potential reasons :
1) We must inform ahead if laptops need to be brought - nothing wrong here, except only there is a limited number allowed per business centre, I believe depending on the network restrictions, so I foresee a tie up with Singtel and probably personal mobile broadband will not be allowed.
2) The laptops will be sealed before entry and are to be under lock and key in lockers (probably chargeable) with a manned reception with CCTV readily
The lamest one yet 3) The laptops can only be used after training hours. And since the business centres are manned, its operating hours are like 8am - 530pm. So bite me...
Ok time to sleep as I have a long week ahead and a physical day tomorrow of morning range and afternoon route march. I have more thoughts about my reservist from more idle observations, hope to blog in the coming week.
Thursday, March 04, 2010
Don't waste beer
Well you know how the sweet Mentos react with Pepsi/Coke...have you tried it with beer?
Since I don't drink Pepsi or Coke but I do drink beer...please avoid trying it with beer, it has been tested in the video below.
Since I don't drink Pepsi or Coke but I do drink beer...please avoid trying it with beer, it has been tested in the video below.
Wednesday, March 03, 2010
Gotta keep running
Injuries after another, both wrists seems to have recovered but my right heel is acting up again lately possibly due to the return to jogging. Apparently Achilles heels (Achilles tendinitis) is usually suffered by basketballers due to the high impact actions and landing. It hurts like hell, but I've gotta keep running.
Army's IPPT (Individual Physical Proficiency Test) is upcoming and I am embarking on my usual plan - an biennial suffering when I do my IPPT just before and then again after my birthday. This way I get into optimum physique just in time and can clear 2009 and 2010 cycle and slouch all the way till end of next cycle at 2012. Let's hope I never get to do RT (remedial training - heard it sucks up lots of after-office time).
Army's IPPT (Individual Physical Proficiency Test) is upcoming and I am embarking on my usual plan - an biennial suffering when I do my IPPT just before and then again after my birthday. This way I get into optimum physique just in time and can clear 2009 and 2010 cycle and slouch all the way till end of next cycle at 2012. Let's hope I never get to do RT (remedial training - heard it sucks up lots of after-office time).
Tuesday, March 02, 2010
A good read
For my home hunting friends out there. A good blog entry.
...the passing of the Land Acquisition Act in 1966 which allowed the government to buy land as cheaply as $1 in the name of national development. The forcible acquisition of land at dirt cheap prices is normally referred to as expropriation in other countries and is normally illegal too.National development came as a price to many who gave up land forcibly in the name for the greater good only to find that the monies profited went to far fewer than expected.
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