Interesting

Was watching "Makan Places Lost & Found"... the episode where Gurmit and Michelle were searching for the famous Taman Serasi Roti John stall. It has since moved to Serangoon Gardens Market (not Chomp Chomp). Always wondered why Roti John is called Roti John??? I finally have the answer!!! The dish was created by the original Taman Serasi Roti John stall owner specially for Ang Mohs because they were tired of the local food. Sounds just like my Caucasian colleague. Roti=bread but why John? John was the collective name for Ang Mohs back then. Woooooooooooooo.

Singapore heartland

To do away with the monotony of clouds... I decided to put up pictures of the Singapore heartland. Ok ok... I couldn't help it so I had to have two pics focused on clouds.

*sigh of relief*

Phew... I finally got my PC back online. I had to suffer "Cold Turkey" for the past two nights and I can't say I'm cured so I'm glad to be able to turn on my PC again. As analysed, it did turn out to be the power supply failure. Here's a pic of the !@#$%^&* faulty one on the left and the new snazzy one on the right. Man!!! The new one (S$35) packs a punch offering an additional 30W and an extra fan compared to my old one. Its like upgrading from a Hyundai to a Volkswagen.
I did suffer an initial shock when my PC still couldn't boot up after I installed the new PSU but it turned out to be a loose connector. I could work as a computer technician part-time to collect more pocket $$$. Neh!!! I'm too lazy... hahahahahaha.

Tale of my day

As usual, my day started real early. It was my first year anniversary in my current job. The afternoon was nice and sunny again. Headed to Sim Lim after work... it is nice to be out of the office while the sun is still out. That's what I love about my current job... the fact that I can leave at 5.30... that hardly happened in my previous job.

Had dinner with two of my colleagues after our trip to Sim Lim... one is Indonesian and the other Burmese. Wanted to know more about Indonesia and Myanmar so got them to share during dinner. We arrived at a consensus that people tend to complain about Singapore too much. My Burmese colleague suggested that these folks be sent to Myanmar for a day to cure them. Hahahaha!!! I also suggested that those who constantly bitch about the cost of buying and maintaining a car be sent to Indonesia to experience the traffic jams there. My Indonesian colleague agreed totally as he's spent countless hourless getting stuck in traffic back home.

K.O.

My PC finally gave up on me and is currently out-of-commission (OOC). As a result, I couldn't surf the net and as a result suffered from "Cold Turkey" the whole night. I analysed the symptoms displayed by my PC and came to the conclusion that it was the PSU* (power supply unit) that had gone "kaput" so I had to take my PC apart to remove the PSU. Made the mistake of bathing before doing so and was perspiring like mad after successfully taking out the PSU. Besides being a hot task, it was dusty too!!! Man... its time for major vacuuming but will do that once I get a new PSU from Sim Lim today.
More updates when the new PSU arrives.

* The thingy you plug the power cable into ;p

Which came first?

The chicken or the egg? Scientist now claim to have the answer.

Warning

My PC has been "konking" out the past three days. It just blacks out while its on. I narrowed it down to the power supply overheating. Now I'm forced to dedicate my standing fan to blowing the rear of my PC whenever I want to use it.
So don't be surprised if you don't see me online on MSN or if this blog does not get updated in the near future. You were warned!!! Hahahahahaha. Yeah rite!!! Hardly anyone reads this blog anyway.

I'm in heaven

Another day of amazing clouds. Insane!!!

Cool

The thing I miss most about Perth is the weather. I love Autumn and Winter. Used to open my room window wide open to enjoy the natural "airconditioning" in my singlet and boxers. The temperature could fall into single digits. Aaaaaaaaaahhhh.
In my three years there, I never touched the heater... not even once. The cool weather is probably the only plus point of living in Oz so why waste it?

Surreal

Woke up to this glorious site this morning. Love the gorgeous orange hue. Also got a wonderful view of the sky when I got to work.

Miscellaneous stuff

Was waiting to cross the traffic light at Raffles Place yesterday. Heard a group of ladies speaking Singlish behind me and turned around to have a look. Turns out that this Ang Moh lady was one of them speaking Singlish. I was pleasantly surprised and found that refreshing because it wasn't one of those forced attempts or "Haha... I want to make fun of you Singaporeans" insults. Her Singlish sounded very natural. Kudos to her for fully assimilating with Singaporeans instead of trying to get Singaporeans to change just for her. Thank you.
On a separate note, my company made the headlines in the news yesterday for retrenching thousands of people. Today, they sent a PR email advertising the fact that an employee won a model worker award from PM Lee earlier this month during the Labour Day ceremony. My colleague's response in jest... "how come they never broadcast the news of the retrenchment exercise also ah?".
Dun u just hate it when a surprise is ruined? The Sushiman's fren SMS'd him who the winner of American Idol was earlier today. He was pretty cheesed off... reminds me of the time when I watched "The Sixth Sense" and my fren revealed the twist within the beginning 5 mins of the movie. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Keep the suspense to yourselves people!!!

How strange is this?

Kelsey Grammer as "The Beast"? Don't rub your eyes... you read it right. After being an avid fan of Frasier for years... its strange to imagine him as anything but Frasier... let alone a mutant. I keep envisioning him as "The Beast" in the latest X-Men movie talking like Frasier. Hahahahahahahaha.
OMG. Vinnie Jones is a mutant too!!! The former Wimbledon captain really looks dumb as Juggernaut.

Blanket

The entire sky was blanketed with clouds... every inch of it. Amazing!!!

Postcards From Heaven*

Another collection of cloud pics from me. Still having problems getting the right lighting settings... it was blazing hot outside but becoz the sun was so bright, most of the pics came out dark.

* Song from Lighthouse Family. Luuuuuuuuuuuuuuv them!!!

My Saturday

Met up with Thierry at NTUC this afternoon and told him that he made the right decision staying with Arsenal. Hahahahaha. Also bet S$5 on Germany to win the World Cup. The odds of them winning is currently 6.5... if I had done that before Wayne Rooney's leg injury, I could have gotten 7.5. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
Watched "The Da Vinci Code" at the cinema. I already read the book so I wasn't there for the story or the twist but to admire how Ron Howard translates the book into film. I would have to say its a pretty good job done but the look and feel of the movie kinda reminds me of "A beautiful mind". I do highly recommend that you read the book first though... or you might miss the details put into the movie such as the fact that Tom Hanks wears a Mickey Mouse watch* in the movie just like the character, Robert Langdon, does in the book.
Had D24 Durian ice cream at this place called "The Ice Cream Gallery" in "The Valley Point" with April, Boo and Fenn. Went to Mount Faber for a short leisurely walk after our heavy ice cream.

* You would need to keep your eyes peeled to catch a glimpse of it as it appears for less than a second.

New kicks!!!

April got me two pairs of new kicks. Check out the Swift 3!!! It has the English name at the back and the Jap equivalent on the tongue. Also got a pair of Soccer trainers with the 90 symbol on it. How freaking cool are they? Marketing geniuses... the Nike folks. The 90 theme is very symbolic becoz 90 sounds like Nike and apt becoz the regulation game of Football is played for 90 mins.

Henry stays a Gunner!!!

After months of intense speculation, Thierry Henry finally commits himself to Arsenal. He stated that the heart shown by his team during the Champions League final loss convinced him that he wanted to remain a Gunner.
Here's my take on what transpired after the game.
Henry: (whispers) Barca got company transport bo?
Eto'O: (whispers) Dun have lah... stingy bartards ~!@#$%^&*(
Henry: (whispers) Har??? Dun have!!! Wah lau!!!

And the rest they say is history. Hahahahaha.

Gunners Vs Barca

Watching the game live this morning at 2.35am and writing this while the game is going on. Lehmann sent off in the 17th min and lucky not to concede a penalty too!!! But 10 man Arsenal take the lead in the 36th min thru Sol Campbell's header off a Thierry Henry freekick. A flurry of Barca attacks towards of the first half sees them hit the post. Halftime... will Arsenal hang on? Interesting statistic... Barca has never won a final in Europe against English opposition.
The second half sees Barca impotent in front of goal with Arsenal showing some brilliance when attacking until Eto scores in the 75th min. Belletti shocks the Gunners in the 80th min... Arsenal had 15 mins to hang on for a famous win.
Thierry Henry to Barca? I think so. Saw him after the game... hugging and whispering to several Barca players *sigh*
Football can be such a cruel game.

OT?

I personally don't believe in OT unless absolutely necessary. I see OT as a lack of efficiency in completing work-related tasks and affects my quality of life. "I'm the 5.30 maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!!!"
My mum just nagged me for not doing OT... she fears that it will hurt my promotion chances* and increase my chances of being retrenched. What a load of crap!!! This is the type of mentality ingrained in most people resulting in them being screwed by "The Man" who take advantage of this. You think they scrutinize the number of OT hours you put in when some heads have to be placed on the chopping block so that they can cut cost to protect their own pockets?
I've been in the situation where I experienced colleagues getting retrenched. Did they deserve to be retrenched? No... if you go by the sadly mistaken perception of securing your job with tons of OT. Some of these guys probably clocked the most hours of OT in the company and a few of them were actually given the news when they were performing OT!!!
Instead of firing X number of employees to save S$Y... why don't top management volunteer to take a temporary paycut until things turn around? This would be a sign of leadership and inspiring to employees thus spurring them to work harder to get the company back in the black instead of demoralising them.

* The only chance that I'm going to get my boss's job is if he falls over and dies but then there are other engineers waiting in the wings.

Dumb

Linesman photographed wearing Barca's jersey before the Champions League final and an auditor installs malware on his boss' PC.
Why do people make dumb decisions? I have no idea but I definitely have made my share of them before. Any insight on this anyone?

I found my soulmates

I thought I was alone in this world. However, someone left an anonymous comment pointing to this site. Visiting this site made me realise that there are so many like-minded people in this world who are obsessed with clouds. Man!!! These people's pictures are out-of-this-world... my pics don't even come close but I'm even more motivated to continue to take more cloud pics.

The One With All The Thanksgivings

Hahahahaha. I will always remember this episode. Its the episode where they did a flashback of the 80s when Chandler has this ridiculous haircut.
The Sushiman brought to my attention that the hairstyle belongs to the lead singer (second from left) from this group called "A Flock Of Seagulls".
I love the 80s but their fashion sense back then was atrocious. Hahahahhaha.

Walking on water?

Scientists conducted a study that implies that Jesus possibly walked on ice. They wrote a comprehensive research paper that includes complex calculations and graphs. The results of their hypothesis does not exactly dispute that Jesus ever walked on water... if you think about it, he walked on frozen water. Hahahahahahaha.
Talking about Jesus... my ticket was nearly up to see him earlier this evening when The Sushiman gave me a lift after work. The taxi driver we had was struggling to keep awake the whole journey and was continuously nodding off. I started talking loudly to try to keep him awake. Stressful.

As simple as ABC

Was telling a friend how easy it is to spoof emails... but got a disbelieving expression back. Well here you go... its as easy as this. Test it but don't use it to spam others.
This service is even deadlier!!! It is meant to allow people to email attachments that are up to 100MB in size because most web-mail services (like Hotmail) enforce an attachment limit. But it can be used by those with malevolent intentions as well by inserting legitimate looking sender addresses and try to convince you to potentially open up a malicious file. So as best practice, always scan attachments that you download before opening them or don't bother downloading them in the first place if they are suspicious.
The Internet... it is both a boon and bane to society.

I hate being considered a liar!!!

Don't you just hate "Mr Know-it-alls"? Well I do know one and just the other day... he was implying that I was a liar when I commented that kids can get sick from playing with sand in sandboxes. Well I am one who believes in facts so here goes.
http://www.safesand.com/information.htm
http://parents.berkeley.edu/recommend/where2buy/sandbox.html
http://www.stopworms.com/family_zootest.html
http://www.lymediseaseassociation.org/News_Senator_Schumer.html
http://nwco.net/044-WildlifeDiseases/4-2-RaccoonRoundworm.asp
http://healthlink.mcw.edu/article/977858513.html
http://www.ext.nodak.edu/extpubs/ansci/animpest/v1221w.htm

Notice that a lot of HDB estates no longer have sandboxes? Derrière crevice.

Losing

Losing is part and parcel of life especially when it comes to football. No team can win all the time and when you support a team like Blackburn, you have to get used to it. However, I managed Blackburn in "Football Manager 2006" through a season winning all 38 games*!!!

* I've only managed to do it once and no... I did not cheat.

FA Cup Final 06

Its been awhile since I watched the FA Cup Final live. Think the last one I caught was the one where Michael Owen scored two goals in the dying moments in the game to steal the FA Cup from Arsenal's grasp. Anyways... I forgot that the FA Cup Final was on today and didn't realise it till it was halftime. Quickly ran downstairs to the coffeeshop for two pratas and a Teh Peng while catching the second half.
Gerrard equalised for Pool in the 53rd minute with a stunning volley to make it 2-2. Konchesky then scored a superb chip to put West Ham in the lead again. In the dying moments of the game, Gerrard scored with a long range scorcher to equal the score again!!! West Ham had a goal disallowed in extra time and then proceeded to hit the post. Its going to be Pool's nite as they win the penalty shootout.
Gotta love the FA Cup!!! Did I mention that I got a tummy ache midway through watching the game? Dun know if its the prata, teh or combination of both ;p