Sydney

Z took these pics when he was in Sydney visiting his brother. He took these pics using his mobile. His Sony Ericsson rocks!!!

Xmas lunch

I love my "wu xiang". What is it with Singaporeans and their fried food? So much for healthy living... scour hawker centres and I challenge you to find non-fried food. Almost impossible I tell you.

Merry Xmas

I'm feeling very lazy this holiday season so I will make this short and sweet. Merry Xmas to all my fans... may the new year bring joy to you and your family, hope that you get all that you wish for and I ask for world peace ;p

Another one caught!

I'm always catching my former hostel flatmates sneaking into Singapore without notifying me. This time I bumped into Cat who just arrived today. We spent the whole evening reminiscing about our hostel days. That was when I found out through her that Carol Cheong used to live in the same hostel with us!!! WTF... I didn't realise that.

* Reigning Ms Singapore.

Unconventional

Was at Vivo to have din and watch "The Holiday". Man... the wood fire pizza was overflowing with Parma ham and Rocket salad. Movie was not bad but Jack Black has gotta stick with comedies. Used the gents after the movie and the basin was amazing. None of those conventional sinks that are messy and wet. This one was made up of marble slabs sloping downwards. Very well thought and designed. I'm impressed.

When it rains, it pours

This year has been unusual in that it has not rained on a daily basis as it should during the monsoon season. However, it poured like mad the entire day today. Insane!!! My socks and shoes were wet and I absolutely hate that.

My best friend's wedding

Went to Jim and Fenn's wedding recep. Stuffed ourselves silly with cakes and tea. Check out the cake soaked with Bailey's. Mmmmmmmm.

Adjourned to Changi Village for drinks and food.

Lazy Saturday

Had my fav Char Kway Teow for lunch. Went back into a "coma" after that. Had a haircut becoz I'm attending Jim's wedding reception tomorrow. Lazy to go out becoz of the overcast sky.

Maggi+Mee Goreng?

YF, Marion and I had din at an Indian food stall before our Pool session today. We ordered 3 plates of Maggi Mee Goreng. The uncle looked confused and asked us if we wanted "3 plates of Maggi mixed with Mee Goreng?"
Hahahahahahahaha.

Broken streak

All streaks come to an end and mine just did this morning. My clock didn't ring and I got into the office at 8.15am. What a waste! Been on time for the past one month. Oh well.

Mr Basketball?

Haha... self portrait taken by my bird. Mid-life crisis? Neh... just passionate about Bball.
Played Bball today with the guys on a weekday for the first time in a long time. Think it will be awhile before I play on a weekday again. Its too hectic having to rush down to the court from my office then rushing home for din.

Italiano

Had din with my bird at "Pizza Walker". Never knew that Rock melon wrapped with Parma ham is an Italian delicacy... never heard of it but its scrumptious. The pizza? Not bad.

Another year, another year older

My colleagues got me a cake to celebrate my birthday. As requested, they got me Black Forest becoz its my fav flavour.
The good thing about turning 30 is that I now fall under Cat Y when I take my next IPPT.
Visited a vendor's office last Thurs afternoon for a meeting. One of the staff there asked me if I had just completed my NS. Duh!
At least I don't look 30.

Cluttered

Singapore has numerous architecture that are interesting to take in even with all the modernisation going on all the time.

However, I noticed a common trait amongst them which I find irritating. They are all very cluttered with various objects blocking their facade. Trees, cables and lamp posts are some obstructions that I can list off my head.
As an experienced traveller, nothing pisses me off more than having objects blocking a perfect picture. I think the Singapore Tourism Board has to look at this problem seriously.

Isn't she beautiful?

Passed by the National Museum for the first time last nite since the completion of its revamp. Have to say the grand old dame looks gorgeous.

Boys night out

Played Pool with TH and AC. Check out AC wearing his "jockey cap" and potting balls. Turns out that we have the same shoe but his is an "authentic" version from China. Haha.

AC brought a fren along. He looked very familiar but I couldn't place my finger on why which was irritating as it bugged me the whole nite. I finally realised why the next day. His fren looks like my cobbler!!! Dun tell your fren AC ;p

Cantona

He is the only Man Utd player that I have respect for.
"Collar turned up, back straight, chest stuck out, he glided into the arena as if he owned the fucking place. Any arena, but nowhere more effectively than Old Trafford. This was his stage. He loved it, the crowd loved him." - Roy Keane on Eric Cantona

Insurance?

Fren commented to me during last Sunday's bball session that "passing the ball to me to shoot is like insurance". Maybe I'm delusional but anyone wanna comment or confirm this statement?

Work conditions

This is how I feel like everyday at work. Due to the nature of my work, the analogy I would use to aptly describe my situation is that "I am left outside in the wild alone to fend off vicious animals that constantly attack me while management and my peers are safe in the log cabin having hot cocoa in front of the fireplace".
Seriously.
I'm passionate about what I do but my passion really gets doused when I receive nasty IM messages, emails slamming me, aggressive phone calls and hostile looks during face-to-face meetings.

Happy Feet

Watched "Happy Feet"... there were parts that were pretty funny but the storyline was a bit weak towards the end. Think that "Finding Nemo" was better.

Back from my hiatus

Haven't been taking much pics recently but I'm back. Check out this collection. Love the myriad colours in these scenes.

A day in town

Attended M$'s Technet Security seminar today. Spent the day out of the office and it was refreshing. It was nice and sunny outside during lunch time. Nice.

Anyone game?

Hey... anyone wants to buy this limited edition Swatch from me? It was released to commemorate Tintin's 75th anniversary and there were only 9,999 pieces made.
Nice!

Strange

Was waiting for the bus with my bird. Guess what we saw? Can you see a condom and wrapper in the pic? This is what we found at the bus stop.

Did you know?

There are currently 827 CISSPs in Singapore. I am one of them! Woah!

Now I know why

Wondered why bus fares went up again? This is probably the reason. We paid for the installation of these surveillance cameras and the staff to monitor the footage. Big brother is watching. Hope we do not become another England, which is currently the world's most watched country.

Skylight

Beautiful illumination through a huge cloud.

H0w t0 tr4ñ$l4t3 3ñgl!$H t0 H4x0r?

Don't ask what Haxor speak is. Just try this.

Morning!

I've been on time for work since last Monday. Wonder how long this will last?

Lilies

Got my bird some lilies. Nice?

Cheesy ads

Cheesy ads are irritating. The Grassland Express ad is one of those. Kym Ng says that sitting in the coach is as good as sleeping in her own bed. I challenge her to take the coach seat home and sleep in it every night.

Nite out on the town

Was given free tixs to watch Casino Royale. April couldn't make it so I went with TH instead. The movie? Man... the trend continues as it was another violent movie. Can't complain though, it was free. Btw, Bond drives a Ford!
Walked along Orchard Rd after the movie. Check out this cheesy Xmas tree on the left. Ack! The other one is much better.

Went to HMV to listen to CDs. They had the Creative Xmod on display for customers to try listening to CDs and with the X-Fi technology turned on. Amazing. I now know what I want for Xmas.

Bloody hilarious

Just remembered this incredibly funny moment during a meeting last year. It was a teleconference amongst my Security peers in the U.S. and Singapore. The meeting was organised to collate the skills and knowledge held by the group as a whole. One area of expertise that management was trying to gather was OS proficiency. Each one of us took turns to list out our familiarity. Win NT, Win 2000, Win XP, Win 2003, RedHat, Solaris, BSD, Mac OS X... the list went on and on. When it was my boss' turn, he declared "Windows 3.1"*. I nearly burst out laughing.

* Windows 3.1 is a legacy M$ OS that I used when I was in polytechnic in 94.

Limerick

Gorgeous pics of The Sushiman's hometown. Did I mention he's Irish?

"Why don't you have cable?"

I love football and as a result been asked this question countless times. I have decided to provide a canned reply.
"Too stingy. I would have to pay S$100 to get the cable installed in my room. Monthly subscription on top of that. Football used to be aired free for crying out loud. The footballers already own so many houses and cars. Don't need to support them any further. They should pay me to watch them ;p"
Thank you ladies and gentlemen.

The power of the subconscious mind

YF was telling me about his hostel life during his uni days. He shared a room with this very studious and pious guy. That guy used to study in the wee hours of the morning while listening to Christian songs. Y was oblivious to that and just went to bed every night till he realised that he was singing those songs while bathing one morning. He immediately told his room mate about it and his room mate promptly bought a pair of headphones.

Laughable

I find this claim by M$ laughable considering that I have to patch my OS every month. Those who are thinking of purchasing Vista, do apply all recommended security measures including installing an antivirus software.
Update: M$ has since retracted this claim.

Where are you studying?

I was asked this question by a taxi driver. I told him I was 30 years old and he was flabbergasted. It took some convincing before he believed that I wasn't pulling his leg. Is it really that unbelievable?

Food!!!

April and I had Italian for our anniversary dinner yesterday. We had our food cooked by a guest chef from Sicily and he's supposed to be an award winning chef. The food was ok though... not spectacular. Had Korean today for din together with April's colleagues. Not bad but expensive though. Check out the charcoal grill and raw meat!!! Nice.

Its that time again

Yes... the monsoon season is here again. Christmas is also around the corner. This year really flew by quickly.

5x5

I've heard of double-doubles and triple-doubles but this is the first time I was aware of 5x5. This is an incredibly impossible statistic to collect during a basketball game as you have to collect at least 5 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists, 5 steals and 5 blocks in a game!!! How crazy is that? Its amazing that Andrei Kirilenko has had 2 5x5s in his 6 year career. Wow... I'm in awe.

Face off

Its been awhile since I featured a story involving "The Sushiman"*. He was talking about how some Ang Mohs have a very high opinion of themselves and do not display humility.
Here is an incident he encountered recently.
I was in the post office the other day and this American oldish guy was at the top of the queue. He didn't see the LED counter flashing for the next available counter so the woman behind him pointed it out to him. He got all annoyed and started shrieking at the top of his voice what good the counter did anyone. (Apparently there was someone still at the counter that was supposed to be free). I was third in the queue. I got so annoyed with this guy that I shouted to him to "just pay up and do your business". All the other Singaporeans in the queue were surprised. I commented to the lady at the top of the queue that he was giving Ang Mohs a bad name and she smiled. So you see we have our own troubles as individuals just surviving in a foreign city without having stereotypes even though we are all branded by idiots like that guy in the post office.

* Did I mention that TSM is an Ang Moh?

Death Note

Watched "Death Note" in the cinema. It always fascinates me when mangas or comic strips make it to the movies. I would have the say that the story and characters were engaging. The "hero" uses his gift to eliminate criminals but he is not perfect as he kills innocents too. Power does corrupt. I'm looking forward to the sequel.

Got an iPod?

You can install Linux onto your iPod. Pretty neat stuff.

New IE, still vulnerable

A new 0-day exploit was discovered... both IE 6 and 7 are vulnerable. Have you switched to an alternative browser yet?

More than meets the eye

Transformers are making a comeback on the big screen. Not an animated version. I would watch it becoz I'm a fan.

Wiki danger

Hackers modified a Wiki entry and changed a link. Visitors who install software provided by the link will have their PCs infected with malware.

Botak Jones

My vendor brought me to "Botak Jones" in AMK for lunch on Fri. I would have to say it's interesting to find an "Ang Moh" who opens an eatery in the heartlands. His food? Not bad at a reasonable price. Check out what I had.