Thank you for the hope and awakening

Unbelievable but the tiny steps for democracy and change is finally coming. Salute to PM Lee.
I guess in some ways, our MIW should be very happy - there is now little talk of apathy in our young Singaporeans and if such videos exist - it only means Singapore has hope to go further.

Worker's Party win Aljunied GRC and Hougang SMC from Repro on Vimeo.

Thanks to all opposition parties and their candidates and supporters for everything...and now for election withdrawal symptoms.

Why Men Love Gaming More than many other things...

Having a shitty night, so wanted to play my PS3..it has been a long time since I touch that black lean machine. Gaming is such a good escape, and you now know why most men play it...and I've been at it since early 1980s when my dad got me my first gaming console - Atari. Kudos to Nolan Bushnell who co-founded Atari back in 1972. Read this article about his ideals, cool shit.

“When I hired engineers and people on the creative side, I never looked at their grades,” he said, referring to the teams he built at Atari and beyond. “I interviewed them strictly on their hobbies, and if they did not have a hobby in technology I wouldn’t hire them….

I bet I'll get hired. It's so easy to conjure out 10 good reasons why men love gaming...easier than well, a lot of other things non-important style.

1) Because you can always restart the game if it goes wrong. Slightest itty bitty wrong step, restart...no problems asked, no worries.

2) A good game is smart - knows that if it is too difficult, noone wants to play it; and if it is easy, gamers find it no kick. Basically it coded in degrees of difficulty at the right time with the correct adequate training. Basically hardly any sudden surprises that throws off your ego and makes you want to throw the game away.

3) It builds up men's ego, top scores or completing a game makes one feel accomplished. Perhaps a short term goal which seemingly makes that $80 you spent on the game worthwhile.

4) It is easily understood, perhaps because most programmers are men. There is no need for complicated instruction manuals, no need to take a class to complete a game. Basically not much effort is needed besides trying.

5) There is hardly any pressure. The only reason why you want to play that game, is because you want to. Nothing else, no pressure whatsoever.

6) You do not have to attend game forum, or groupie discussions, or game clubs etc. You only attend it because you want to improve, learn more and not because you have to rub shoulders with everyone else in order to do well in the game.

7) Because the game will never tell you to stop having fun. The very purpose of the game is to have fun, to loosen you up, to chill you off from all the pressure you are already getting at work and at home. It gets you away from the mundane life you are already having.

8) The game will not mind if you are yelling at it because you've just lost a game and you feel shitty making that one wrong move that cost the game but you can do better next time. There is no game nagging at you to admit you made a wrong move and it wants you to admit your mistake and eat your ego for breakfast and die and repent NOW.

9) The game allows you to cool off, pause, take a walk, think about things, sleep on it, do some research on the next best move...take a month off pondering about nothing at all. No explanations needed.

10) You can love your game and have your peace as well, you can turn off the game without guilt.

Time for some space out time. I'm out.

The view from 81 stories up at Bangkok

Greetings from Baiyoke Sky Hotel in Bangkok!

Annual Photography trip with my ex-colleagues. So far it has been a day of great shots. More coming soon.

So what happened?

I was less than happy that the election results turned out that way..yay we won a GRC but now what? 7% representation for a 40% support in opposition parties? Anyway now that we have Michael Palmer, a minority winning in a single member ward, yes please let's do away with the gerrymandering GRC scheme. Yes it is a scheme, to allow people like Tin Pei Ling to be a Member of Parliament though easily 99% of the population would want her out.

So what really happened? A 6% negative swing despite 1.9mil citizens voted with almost all constituencies contested? That goes to show only 3 things...Singaporeans really like to complain, if things are really that bad why did the results turned out the way it is? Secondly, we are still afraid...the fear in civil service, the fear of asset prices collapsing..fear in every corner and crack of our society - how else can you explain why in almost every GRC or SMC, we have about 2% in spoilt votes? Some of which can change the outcome of the results. Lastly, the outreach of new medias, social media isn't entrenched enough...we are not able to enforce change unlike in the USA. Yes, we too have celebrities supporting for opposition, but we do not have independent TV news, TV networks, radio stations etc...in other words - the reach is still limited. Yes, perhaps we should self-fund radio stations, or newspapers etc and all we need is readership, listeners in numbers...but oops our radio waves are controlled, print media too is limited and let's not talk about Television..so we have only the internet to turn to. Until our parents and their parents turn into online news or YouTube for information, we are pretty much limited in our choices.

So what other factors could have come into play? New citizens? Old people who are confused on gratitude with servitude? Old man's words of repent or threats? Whatever the case, we lost the chance for change...seriously come 2016, do you think it will be better? Do you notice the branding issue here in elections? The men in blue attracted all voters from all over Singapore only to have them not listening to their own candidates, and very often you hear people saying - 'Why my area is not Worker's Party but XXX' ; or 'My candidate not so good lar, but if MyLow stood here, I will guarantee vote for him!' Do they even know the party's manifesto, what they are standing for and how about the incumbent? Some do not even know who their PAP candidate is! It has become a branding and likely a marketing issue at the elections. Well, what's done is done, I hope at the end of it all, the incumbent knows the reason for the decreased votes and popularity and try to do what's best. And I won't mind if they steal some of the oppositions' ideas and their detailed manifesto and look into it. In the end, we all want to do the best for the people - be it a million or two difference into the bank accounts. All I can say, I think some things will never change and I am reserving a few 'I told you so' to some friends of mine. I am happy though, on finding out how those closed to me have voted decisively and wisely.

And yes, thanks to all the candidates and their helpers, polling agents etc. Be it whichever party, thanks for giving us a choice and woke up some Singaporeans from their slumber.

Majulah Singapura.



This is the kind of candidates that PAP bring into Parliament based on GRC...and let' not forget Kate Spade!

This is it - May 7th

No fear...vote calmly, wisely and courageously.

Told myself to watch this just before elections...

Good night Singapore...Majulah Singapura...