Expectation and disappointment

The higher the expectation, the greater the disappointment...

期望越大...失望越大...

New revelation - its still affordable!

"Let me illustrate. A family with monthly household income of $3,000 who spends 30 per cent on housing can buy a flat of up to $250,000. This covers all the new 3-room flats in HDB's most recent BTO projects in Choa Chu Kang and Hougang in Jan 10. They also have a selection of the 4-room flats, where prices start at about $230,000. At $4,000 monthly income, a family can afford up to $333,000 without spending more than 30 per cent every month."
- a minister from little red dot.

City or country?

I am so confused now....so which country we belong to?

"We are a city. We are not a country." - LAW Minister K. Shanmugam at the New York State Bar Association International Section's meeting in Singapore.

Obama burger in Singapore

Oh gosh...O'Leary's, a restaurant at the Singapore Flyer, will include an "Obama burger" on their menu, in recognition of the US President who will be in town for the summit. The burger will cost S$16.
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Source: Channelnewsasia

Restaurant offers APEC-themed menu, including Obama burger

SINGAPORE: Delegates to the APEC Summit next week will have more to chew on than just meetings.

An APEC-themed menu at O'Leary's, which is a restaurant at the Singapore Flyer, will include an "Obama burger" in recognition of the US President who will be in town for the summit. The burger will cost S$16.

And for an additional S$4, APEC delegates will be able to have the country's signature cocktail - the Singapore Sling - all in celebration of the grouping's 20th anniversary.

- CNA/sc

How sensational can you get

The title is so inapt, or partially true.....

Source: channelnewsasia

Thomas Ong got engaged to a 17-year-old

SINGPORE : When Thomas Ong signed on to be the host of Channel U's new infotainment programme "Diminishing Horizons", there were a lot of things he wasn't prepared for. Landing himself a teen bride was one of them.

In the show, Thomas visits places around the globe with a rich sense of history and culture that are in danger of being wiped out, such as Harran, Turkey, one of the oldest cities in the world; the descendants of the Sino-Russians; and the headhunters of Nagaland.

It was in Harran that Thomas found he had unwittingly plighted his troth to be wed.

"We visited these very old houses made from clay and mud. According to them, their ancestors 5,000 years ago lived in houses like those," Thomas told TODAY. "There was this old man with a 17-year-old daughter. She offered me coffee. Then the father explained to me that I had to marry her. They had this silly rule that if the girl offers you a beverage and you accept, it's like you're accepting her. I was shocked, lah!"

Don't worry, Thomas escaped unscathed, bride-less and with no breach-of-contract troubles. "If you don't want to marry the daughter, you have to give them livestock. I offered her a small amount of cash and got myself out of it!"

Smart move if you're up the creek without a goat - but that wasn't the worst of it. The most memorable thing about his journeys, said Thomas, was "the hardship".

"The life there is very tough. Things we have been taking for granted, like clean water, electricity and flush toilets - most places I visited didn't have those. I wouldn't want to live there for too long.

"I'm very lucky that I could visit these places and share it with viewers. I come back a more humble person. I no longer take for granted clean water, electricity, things like that."

We're guessing he no longer takes his swinging singlehood for granted, either.

Catch "Diminishing Horizons" starting on November 11 at 8pm on MediaCorp TV Channel U.

Oh, you mean LUP is a National Programme ah?

Short of knowing the constitution and the town council act, I find the following article found in the StraitsTimes forum abit bizarre...

If the opposition party has no legal obligation to carry out national programme, then maybe it's time to review the constitution?
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Advisers and MPs have different roles

IN HER commentary last Thursday, ''Adviser over MP' raises many questions', Ms Sue-Ann Chia has misunderstood the roles of Members of Parliament (MPs) and advisers to grassroots organisations.

The MP is elected by the people of a constituency, and represents them in and outside Parliament.

In Singapore, MPs also have an important role in running town councils. As provided for in the Town Councils Act, this role includes managing the common property of HDB estates and carrying out local improvement projects, thereby contributing to the well-being of the people of the constituency.

As for the government-appointed adviser, his main role is to assist in implementing national programmes, such as government campaigns, and HDB's upgrading programmes, including the Lift Upgrading Programme (LUP).

The roles of MP and adviser are distinct and separate, even though government MPs, wearing their other hat of advisers, are expected to perform both roles.

Opposition MPs cannot be appointed advisers, because they do not answer to the ruling party. They have no constitutional or legal obligation to carry out national programmes on the Government's behalf. Nor can the Government hold them to account if they perform this role unsatisfactorily.

Let me re-emphasise that the LUP is not a town council programme. It is a national programme which receives most of its funding from the Government.

Therefore, in opposition wards, it is the government-appointed adviser who is accountable for implementing national programmes like the LUP. In doing so, the adviser will work closely with the local town council and residents.

Lim Yuin Chien
Press Secretary to the
Minister for National Development

Source: StraitsTimes

Impact of Morakot in little red dot

Source: StraitsTimes

Typhoon slows down Internet

SOME Singapore Internet users may be experiencing slowdowns on the Information Superhighway, especially when trying to access websites hosted in the United States and Taiwan.

Typhoon Morakot, which has triggered Taiwan's worst flooding in 50 years, has damaged the Asia-Pacific Cable Network 2 submarine cable system through which bytes of information travel.

This means that people trying to connect to gaming servers in the US or trying to instant message friends overseas may find it difficult to connect.

A SingTel spokesman said that restoration works on the cable system have begun.

'Our engineers are in the process of diverting Internet traffic to other cable systems. We expect the situation to return to acceptable levels within the next 24 hours,' he said.

The last time a major outage happened was in December 2006, when quakes off Taiwan severed several cables at once, causing the Net to go down.

Presenting...Singapore in a different light

Singapore Lights Timelapse from Weehan Yeo on Vimeo.

Non-supportive wife of a supportive fan

What is the world coming to? Has man's status in the family degraded in the 21st century?

Source: Yahoo.com
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - Police have detained a Malaysian woman who allegedly stabbed her husband in the chest for coming home late after watching a football match between Manchester United and Malaysia, an official said Tuesday.

The man had promised to come back immediately after the match in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday evening, but his wife was "very angry" when he returned after midnight, said district police chief Abdul Jalil Hassan.

The woman stabbed him twice in the chest with a kitchen knife and then took him to a hospital, where a doctor reported the incident to police, Abdul Jalil told The Associated Press.

"He was with friends after the match, so that's why he came home late," Abdul Jalil said.

The man was recovering in the hospital, he said.

Police have not decided whether to charge the woman with any offense.

The English Premier League champions defeated Malaysia 3-2 on Saturday in their opening match on a preseason Asian tour.

Remembering the King - We are the World

As I listened to this song, my heart aches...



Lyrics can be found here.

RIP King of POP

My favorite song from the King of POP...



Make that change.

There are always some socially irresponsible people

Personally, I has nothing against people traveling overseas during this flu seasons. I give them the benefit of doubt that they have weigh the consequences and still decided that they need to go.

But I am disgusted when people comes back and start going to crowded places or office, even when they are not feeling well. For goodness sake, there are people with families out there.

Just because it is currently not a deadly strain, it is not an excuse to jalan-jalan around the island and inadvertently spread the virus. If you die-die must go, wear a freaking mask. Otherwise, please chain yourself at home.

Don't be a socially irresponsible idiots.

It's been more than 2 months...

...since I am jobless. Surprisingly, I became even more lazy to blog though I am supposed to have more time.

Have been keeping myself busy actually...visited the zoo, Sungei Buloh...shoot sunset at Labrador Park, Changi Beach, Marina Barrage,...saw a few DVDs, including HongKong drama serials...bought a new camera...bought a new netbook...went for a cruise...read some books on photography...created a small photobox...attended some photography workshop...caught a couple of movies...catch up with Uni friends & ex-col...

On top of my mind - do I still want to go back to IT industry? I seems to have lost the passion for it. Can hobby become a job or career?

Just came back from a Canon camera product training. Very surface introduction to DSLR functionalities...most of which I already knew.

Perhaps I should try to attend some travel photography trip to gain more knowledge.

Upcoming events:
Attending a talk at Laselle this coming weekend...
Attending a Flash and event photography course in July...
Partipating in a photo walkabout in July...

See no evil?

See no evil? hear no evil?

I beg to defer. It's all in the mind, in this cyber highway era.

What does 1 trillion US dollars looks like?

Very interesting illustration here....but in reality I wonder if anyone has that kind of money physically.

清醒了

突然之间,脑子特别冷静，整个人清醒了...

林宥嘉-伯乐

谁才是你爱情中的伯乐...

爱你的那一个 伤你的那一个
谁才是你爱情中的伯乐
放弃了这一个 然后等待着下一个
最后哪一个让你最舍不得

感谢不能让别人来说
你给过我的 她们是做不到的
那时候的幸福是真的 虽然过去了
我们也都经历了

释怀教育着仇恨 和平劝着天下人
故事发生便住下了 不管好的坏的
你让我成长了 就算是痛得值得

爱你的那一个 伤你的那一个
谁才是你爱情中的伯乐
放弃了这一个 然后等待着下一个
一个个过客 过得快不快乐

爱你的那一个 伤你的那一个
谁才是你爱情中的伯乐
放弃了这一个 然后等待着下一个
别太多过客 祝你早日快乐

离开时别忘了 看看眼前的人
流泪记住了 还是微笑祝福着

迎接2009

再过几天就是2009了.

一年就这样晃过...一年里发生了许许多多的事...许许多多的不愉快...许多心痛...

如今应抛开过去,面对未来. 虽然对接下来一年没多大期望.

只希望多一点快乐及少一点不开心的事, 周围的朋友亲人少点烦恼!

You’re My Angel

法证先锋II英文插曲 - You’re My Angel
once upon a time,
an angel in the sky,
made a cover every night.

once upon a time,
the angel loved me so,
it's a miracle in the snow, my heart won't be cold.

my dear, you are my angel,
tell me what you know,
something should be told

my dear,you are my angel,
tell me where you go,
I will brace behind your love.

once upon a time,
my angel give me life.

Spoof: Adolf Hitler discusses the Nikon D3x

Farnie video about Nikon cam...


First saw this from Cowboy Caleb's blog.