Keep going

I attended a colleague's funeral a month back...it took me awhile to try to get over it. Balling was helpful, and so is the spring weather. Somehow I wished I could have done more, many of my colleagues here in Gresham probably thought so as well. The funeral was full of tears and disbelief and definitely many unanswered questions...Dave, you are missed each time I look at the empty desk beside me. Somehow I wished this video could have made a difference.

Why they keep doing that?

Losing memories...because of high rental, businesses have to fold.
The place where I first met my wife....
Sigh...making new memories here in Portland now...
Source

From Monday, Hai Bin Bishan Prawn Fishing will shut its operations after six years, following a rent dispute with its landlord.

Their landlord, Nature Park, which runs Asian Golf Academy at the same location, recently notified them of the new rental figures - $65,000 monthly, up from $26,000 they were previously paying.

Hai Bin, which has two other outlets, said they could not afford the new rent and decided to shut its operations at the Bishan branch.

Hai Bin's group manager David Ng claimed that they were then asked to clear out of the premises in three days. They asked for more time and claim they were charged almost $35,000 for the 15-day extension.

Mr Ng said Hai Bin Prawning will commemorate its last day in Bishan tomorrow (Sunday, Sept 8) by inviting customers for a three-hour prawning session free of charge. From 7am to 11.59pm, each customer will get one rod to fish for prawns for a three-hour slot. They have imported 500kg of live prawns from Thailand for the occasion.

iBye Steve

This man brought about change in a world which noone else has done before - in terms of making the world more savvy, more demanding.

I am not an Apple fan, though I have been willing to try. Had 2 Shuffles, thinking it would make good jogging companions, both died at very young age compared to my China made replacement or even the small capacity 1st generation Thomson or Creative MP3 players, which are still working well after over 10 years? But my iPhone 2G is still in existence, perhaps now a valuable antique sitting on my iPhone compatible speaker.

Yes, Steve was not a Green conservationist unlike Sony who led the world on a Green Partner movement, making all their suppliers "Green" friendly. Yes, Steve was more concerned with making things for the masses, so that people can afford made cheap iPhones, iPod players, though many would think otherwise. But seriously think about what you can do with your mobile device, MP3 players or tablet now, and effectively people are buying less handheld gaming devices, compact cameras, GPS, laptops, even CDs etc  - Steve killed PSP, NDS, Netbooks and a slew of other gadgets as well as bookstores and CD shops. He made every other mobile maker especially Nokia to wake the hell up and rethink their own slogan - Human Technology.

Steve also drove the suppliers' margins, making his army of gadgets in China out of factories which drove many employees to commit suicide. His fault? But it is the very same factory that churns out your HP/Dell laptops etc. Why has the price of your technology gadgets never seem to rise despite all the new features? Why does it seem that newer gadgets seem to have shorter shelf lives? Well something has to give in order to cater to our cheap replaceable consumerism attitude of late, which mobile phones are accessories which are changed on a yearly, for some - it is a monthly basis. We've even heard of young kids selling their organs, or prostituting themselves just to pay for the latest iPad.

These cannot be Steve's fault -  it is the evolution of consumers these days, be it gadgets, technological devices, even clothing, shoes etc. It is the high pace life we have chosen to live by, and the importance we have placed on these silly "things". So no blame should come to Steve, because in the end he did make the world a savvier place - people are more connected; musicians are finally paid for easier music downloads, companies are making easier-to-use devices; life somehow seems more innovated with a focus on simplicity and catered to the masses. People are more demanding wanting things to be like Apple gadgets, is the touchscreen as sensitive and nice like the iPad? Is the phone as thin as the iPhone 4? The list goes on.

He made everyone - Think Different.
Now go revolutionize heaven so that mortals can wake up and think different.

Gone too soon

Farewell Michael. Your music and MTVs will always live in my heart, etched into my memories, and your lyrics often linger on my lips - Like A Comet Blazing 'Cross The Evening Sky...Gone Too Soon


Michael's brother Jermaine Jackson performed MJ's favorite song: "Smile."

Find no other MJ song more epitomical than this - Gone too soon

Born To Amuse, To Inspire, To Delight
Here One Day
Gone One Night

Passing of a fantasy great

From Gygax's passing on last year - co-creator of Dungeon and Dragons. Now comes the passing of my favorite fantasy author David Eddings. Introduced to me by a friend during my JC days, the Belgariad series was a great read. David Eddings captured the story characters so well, when I read it, it brought imagination to another level. He left us with a legacy of wonderful fantasy books which I have yet to complete all of them. I seriously need to get back to reading.

The loss of 2 great men, who have sparked the fantasy in my childhood, it is my hope that they find a magical place to dwell for eternity. Farewell and thanks for leaving a legacy - I do hope someday, someone will make movies from his books.

Due Respects to a Great Man

Rest in Peace Mr. JBJ, you never gave up for this country- one of the greatest fighter, Singapore has ever seen.



My grandmother can write better condolence letter than this - utterly disappointed, graciousness and respect seems not needed as forte of our leaders these days.

Imperial Herbal Kitchen for my farewell

It was a nice conclusion to my 2 years plus stint at Xilinx. My US boss managed to fly to Singapore and join us for my farewell dinner which was held at Imperial Herbal Kitchen located at Vivocity. The eventual bill was a whopping S$1436, where we ate fancy scallops, Buddha Jump over the Wall soup, lamb chops, etc..it was just wonderful.

I like this restaurant. Given the fact my parents have brought me here as a child for my pre-exams nutrition meals back when it was located at Metropole Hotel. This was a restaurant where they prepare dishes which are healthy and can be specific to your needs. Need to be rejuvenated? Need to be working hard later in the night?? They have all the herbs and even a deer "whip" which will work wonders for you! That is if you are a guy! But ladies can have those replenish blood or beautifying, cleansing soup!

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.