Much better

Jos is back in town as she's on vacation. Met her at Newton for dins. Ordered seafood from the lady with the big hair and I have to say... its a vast improvement from the crap I had previously from Lau Pa Sat. Remember... look for the Auntie with the big hair when you're in Newton. Apparently there are 28 seafood stalls there now!!!

More Facebook privacy issues

Facebook sues a Canadian firm because they attempted to hack its website. I like the sarcasm displayed by the writer in response to Facebook's lawsuit.

Golden Compass

Watched it yesterday with my bird. Not quite as absorbing as "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy but I enjoyed it. Nicole Kidman is pretty convincing as the villain. Its good to see her back in form. The ending is open ended so don't discount a sequel.

No comments

No words needed here.

M$ Security Seminar

Attended M$'s full day seminar... the highlight of the day? Not the seminar content but photo opportunities. Taking photos was more exciting than the seminar itself. The seminar was disappointing because though the seminar title had the word "security" in it... there was hardly much useful security information shared. Disappointing really... so much so that I decided to go for a long lunch and run an errand.
First to last: M$ trademarked view?, Collyer Quay, Raffles Place, Fullerton, view from Cavanagh Bridge, Victoria Concert Hall, Mr Raffles, "old" Supreme Court, side of "old" Supreme Court, "old" Supreme Court walkway, Stamford Raffles' landing spot, Cavanagh Bridge with Fullerton in the background, intriguing lamp, interesting ceiling and rain clouds approaching.

Capello vs Lippi

Capello seems to be on everyone's lips including the FA's press statements. I'm wary of Capello though... those teams managed by him all play defensively. Though the English team is naive... they don't need a defensive minded coach... they need a tactician and a winner. Lippi has my personal endorsement. He's a shrewd tactician... knows when to make the right substitutions and he's a World Cup winner. Too bad Mourinho ruled himself out. He could really bitch and moan to the press but he is charismatic and entertaining. I miss him.

Another birthday

I was never big on birthdays. This is probably down to the fact that my parents never celebrated my birthday when I grew up... no cakes or parties. Today started up dull... walked past a depressing construction site in the morning... was counting down to 5.30pm in my stale cubicle.

Went to Prego for dinner. My bird had Lobster with squid ink pasta and I had grilled Seabass. Good stuff. Finished off the day with Cherry Coke at home.

Rave reviews

I've heard so much about the Beach Boys' "Pet Sounds" album... it took me this long to get my hands on my own copy. Time named it into their top 100 all-time albums and Rolling Stones selected it 2nd in their own list. The Beatles also stated the influence it had on them. I'm currently listening to it... I will post my feelings about it when I've finished the album. but who am I kidding? I'm no music critic. My verdict? I would label the album evergreen. The album is easy on the ears and it is obvious that it's not from this century. Enjoyable nonetheless... just take the first track, "Wouldn't it be nice", for example... it is used in Cadbury's recent chocolate commercials and that's testament that the Beach Boys sound is still relevant in this era.

Evening stroll

It was a nice lazy and cool Saturday. Went for a stroll with my bird and passed by the fruit stall close to my place. Also had Escargot at Miss Clarity Cafe. The Escargot was a bit too dry for my liking.

Best album of the year

My personal favourite album of the year is Daft Punk's "Alive 2007". Its by far the best album that I bought this year... by more than a mile. It is a recording of their live performance in their hometown, Paris, this year. It's a very energetic and fast paced performance... the songs played during the concert sounded better than in their original arrangement. Must buy in my opinion. "Robot Rock" is my fav song of the album/concert.

Amazing picture taken by a blogger at a Daft Punk performance in the U.S.

They even appeared in a Gap commercial with their song "Digital love" being used in it.

I wanna wear the helmet!!! Wish I could dance like that.

Brunch

Had brunch with my bird this morning. Didn't even have to read the menu as I was enticed by the picture of a Club Sandwich on the table. Ordered the Club and was pleased by what I saw served on my table. Mmmmmm. My bird had the pizza. She felt that the pizza was something different. Me chilling out on my comfortable seat.

Standard drop

Had din with Redjade and her friends at Lau Pa Sat. We ordered lots of food from Satay, Roti John, Stingray, Tau Hu Goreng, etc. The Satay was the only decent food to eat there. The rest of the food we ordered were either stale, burnt or unappetizing. I'm sticking to the Satay for my future trips there.

The gap continues to widen

CFO pockets US$13 million whilst employees get one umbrella each for their efforts. If I had that $, I would retire immediately and invest the $. Perfect Bday gift.
I find it amusing that people are fighting over brollies instead of their deserved remuneration. What a brilliant smokescreen.

Emerging trends

This month's security awareness session. Spam now aims to infect rather than sell. Wave of Trojans coming from China. Consumers indifferent to security. Keystrokes generated by wireless keyboards intercepted.

Emergency

Singaporean drivers are assholes who don't understand the concept of an emergency. What do I mean? Ambulances who turn on their emergency lights... do so because they are transporting human beings whose lives are hanging by a thread... but do drivers go way to them? Nooooo... they not only do not filter left to give way to them but even try to race with them. Nuts I tell you... I have witnessed drivers overseas who automatically and immediately filter to the side of the road to give way but it doesn't happen here. Sickening... what triggered this rant was a bus driver trying to block an ambulance which had its emergency lights on this morning. What is wrong with these people?

Boredom

Random pics taken over the past few days out of boredom. Near perfect symmetry, alcoholic chocolate, fair skies and more Xmas lighting.

Morning wait

Took this while waiting for my bus to work. Nice clouds and reflection of the sun off the windows.

"Souvenir"

Got it while playing Bball last Thursday evening. Some Ah Beng left his mark on me becoz he didn't cut his fingernails. Its not an external wound but an internal one. Doesn't hurt though.

Early presents

My bird gave me early Bday and Xmas presents this year. I got a pair of Audio-Technica noise cancellation headphones for my Bday and a Darth Vader Transformer for Xmas. The headpones will be useful for our upcoming vacation and the Darth Vader transforms into the Death Star. Far out!!!



I got myself Daft Punk's "Alive" album. It sounds amazing with the new headphones. I'm blasting that CD right now.

Need one of this

This T-shirt will be very useful especially since I frequently travel to non-English speaking countries.

Hitman movie

Watched "Hitman" the movie becoz I'm a fan of the cult computer game. There are subtle differences between the movie and the game. The narration in the movie mentions that orphans are taken in and trained into assassins but it is stated in the game that Agent 47 is actually a clone. I love having control over Agent 47 on my PC... watching a celluloid version of him on the silver screen is just not as satisfying. But the movie is decent effort nonetheless. Did I mention that there is nudity? Not just 0.5 secs of it but quite a lengthy few seconds... I'm surprised that it wasn't snipped by the censors.

Google password cracker

Someone creative come up with a new use for Google... MD5 hash matching... interesting.
Update: Who needs Google? Someone has hosted an app that does MD5 and SHA1 hash decoding.

Tough draw

We made it to the 3rd round for the first time but tough luck... we drew the Saudis, Uzbeks and Lebanese. Don't know about beating the Saudis and Uzbeks... we might be able to get 2 wins against the Lebanese maybe? See you guys at the National Stadium next year.
Update: Correction... we got it good... check out who China got drawn against? Australia, Iraq and Qatar!!! Good luck to them.

Upgrade

I just swopped my N70 for an N95 8GB model. Check out the pics I took with my new 5 mega pixel mobile. Yup... it's that time of the year again... Xmas!

I amaze myself sometimes...

and scare myself too!!! I predicted that England will flop if McClaren was hired. Well... they've missed out on Euro 2008 and Mcca sacked.

My dream

My dream is to live in a bungalow with a basketball court in the basement. This would go nicely with that space.

Singapore boleh!!!

Singapore makes history by making it into the third round of World Cup qualification. Like I said... Raddy is the man. He's the only one who can make the Singapore team perform. Well done but like Raddy says... there is more work to be done. He's got me dreaming.

Loogi

It was forecast that inflation will be at 5% in the first half of next year. My company gives out 3-5% increment annually to its executive employees. I got 4% this year... that means that my income will shrink next year and I actually suffer a "loss" of 1%!!! Just basically confirms my previous rant.

Another bundle of patches

Apple has released another package to fix some 40+ security vulnerabilities in its OS. What are you waiting for? Patch!!! Thank goodness I have a 10Mbps Internet connection.
Related news... Apple releases a fix for its Mac OS X 10.5.1 (aka Leopard) firewall.