Dept Dinner and SITEX

My Department's Year End Dinner Celebrations

We had our year end department dinner on Tuesday, it was buffet at Sakura. Food’s not too bad, love the soup dishes (sharks fin, herbal prawn, herbal chicken) and the sushi, they had baked mussels and scallops as well. Satay was served together with steaks and even fried salmon head. The usual cooked dishes were served. Only thing I did not really like was the dessert, probably could have been better. SITEX Just got back from SITEX as well, for the first day it was not that crowded except getting off the train and getting through the door once you are through, it was a relatively easy walk, met up with some friends there and a former warden from St. Anthony’s church as well who was there buying up xbox 360 games for his son, but it's probably for himself as well :) I got me some 360 games as well and in the lucky draw got a spare xbox headphones and mic. There were some good deals I think but the sales tactics of screaming their heads off into the loud speakers really did not go down well with me. Some cyber car was on display but did not really get to view what that was all about. I was really looking only at the games and the TV section as I was looking for a small set for the room (something to hook up the 360 to as well). An interesting item was one of those robo-vacum cleaners, just press the start and off you go to work, after about an hour or hour and a half, once the batteries are low, it will find it's way back to the docking station to get recharged. Pretty interesting stuff that one.

New Car ??

I was getting my car insurance renewed today, I called the company asking if the recent Windscreen claim would affect my No Claims Bonus and they said no. So I get my 50% off and covered my car for another year. Soon have to renew road tax and all that again. I got me a parking slot for Dec at my office so I guess I will be driving to work for that month and will be $170 poorer sob sob ..... :( The funny thing is that after I renewed my Insurance, the Honda Agent (from about 3/4 years ago) SMS me and told me that he has made a check and that my car can be sold already as the sale of the car would exceed my loan amount and asked me if I am interested in getting a new car. hhhmmm ... that is really tempting but not sure which brand/model should I get as I have not really been hunting for a car. Any help folks ? Probably a simple family car would be what I would be looking for, but I have always liked the Lexus model, but that's way way over my budget.

New T

Finally my T-Shirt I ordered from the states has arrived. woo hooo ... love it :)

On my way back today there was quite a major accident at the Selegie complex area where they were doing some demolition works if I am correct, the whole front section of the scaffolding gave way and landed on the road blocking 3 lanes, 1 lane was only passable, there was a car trapped under the metal, hopefully no one was injured. Probably will get to hear about it in the evening news or tomorrows paper.

MOCCA.com

Well, I finally got round to taking some pics of the XBox set that I am going to put up for sale, had to dig out all those games and what not's but still could not find where I put the video remote. Surprisingly more than half of the current games are still playable on the 360 but I've just kept 5 of them and the rest will be bundled in. Probably will get an ad placed on MOCCA and see how it goes from there I hear it's currently free to place ads. Hopefully I can just place my ad there and no need to do some video of me selling the product like those you see on TV. Maybe if need to will have to write my contact number on my butt or something like that. Then again the ad will probably be taken down after that ha ha .... Well here's the base set with 3 remotes, the black and transparent green one and the third is a wireless Star Wars Yoda remote. I thought I could use the wireless on the 360 but it's a whole new setup for that.

The whole array of games sad to say I have only completed the first 2 games Lord of the Rings (with a little help from the guide) and Hello Kitty (damn the song is still stuck in my head till now), ya I super slow one and last time hardly have time to play, the rest most of them half way or just started or get stuck somewhere in between hee hee ... :-

• Lord of the Rings (The Return of the King) + Prima's Guide
• Hello Kitty - Mission Rescue
• Halo - Combat Evolved
• X-Men Legends II - Rise of Apocalypse
• Hulk
• Crimson Skies - High Road to Revenge
• Star Wars Clone Wars
• Tetris
• Techmo Classic Arcade
• Rainbow Six 3 - Black Arrow
• Project Gotham Racing 2
• Crash - Twin Insanity
• Dead or Alive Ultimate 1 & 2
• Chessmaster
• Magic the Gathering - Battlegrounds
• Fantastic Four
• Peter Jackson's King Kong

Also have included an XBox Cheat Guide as well in case get stuck in any of the games or just want to get an unfair advantage :)

Public Profiles

Ever since I tried my hand at Facebook, I've always wondered what's the percentage of people out there who do not put up their profiles or put up a missing profile or partial profile image. Are males or females more likely to put up their pictures? Ok lah I'm one of those who still puts up his little Star Wars Mr. Potato Head Photo but soon soon, will change that once I get the right image up :) Anyways I did a little survey and after collating some data over the last few weeks, I have come up with some surprising stats. This part is a little technical but you will need to understand it first. Tried not to get duplicates but there maybe a small magin of error for duplicate counts. Also Gender is basically decided from the name (John's a Male) or photo in the event I can't tell based on the name (Leslie can go both ways) also I have to based on the photo and the person may have used a different photo which may have again a small percentage of error, but I figured it's probably negligible. I decided to split up the groups into 4 main categories. (A) - Good Images (can see the person photo, some maybe small but still can see) (B) - Missing (those that have not put up any image yet) (C) - Hidden (those with image but cannot see face, eg use a photo or cartoon, showing back, bend head etc.) (D) - Partial (those with images but face partially hidden, eg by hand, scarf, hat, some object etc.) So here are the results ....... Total number of subjects - 2967 (Males = 1438, Females = 1529) Total Percentage of GOOD Cases (Type A) - 69.87% (Males = 68.57%, Females = 71.09%) It's a very close figure, almost 70% of subjects put up a good image. Of the other Types the total percentage is (B) - 7.38% (Males = 6.19%, Females = 8.50%) (C) - 13.41% (Males = 15.02%, Females = 11.90%) (D) - 9.34% (Males = 10.22%, Females = 8.50%) Not much difference I can see except maybe Males are slightly more likey to partially hide or totally use a different picture as their profile while Females may have a tendency to just leave their profiles blank. So I wonder if you are on any of those social networking sites are your list of friends that have Good Profile Images about 70%?

Running Gear

Well it seems that after I have been hitting the jogging circuit and gym recently I’ve realized that as you get older there are more and more things you need to take with you :) It isn’t just about getting a pair of shorts and t-shirt or buying a pair of good running shoes anymore. Before the Run/Exercise Besides the longer warm up time needed, there is the ever popular deep heat rub to get those muscles warmed up properly so that you don’t feel the soreness at the end and not to injure yourself as well. During the Run/Exercise When I hit the gym, the list of items just gets longer and longer, running outside usually means less items to carry. A typical day at the gym sees me lugging the following items down. a) Towel – essentially a must in the gym as you will need to clean the equipment after use, it’s just common courtesy to the next person using the equipment. b) Water – bring along a drinking bottle in case you need a sip. c) MP3 Player – copy in your favorite songs so that you can exercise to the music. d) Portable Speakers – for the music player since I don’t like running with earphones stuck in my ear. Something I think if you want to do it in the gym is fine but on the road, I think that is really dangerous. Anyways if there are people in the gym I always ask them if they mind me playing the music. Most people are grateful for that ‘noise’ as it breaks the silence. e) Spare Battery – for the music player in case it runs out half way, learn that the hard way once. f) Patella Band – usually used when I run just to give the patella some support. It’s the bone at your knee cap. I’ve had an x-ray done on my left knee before in 2000 or 2001 as it was really giving me some problems previously and basically there’s a slight wear and tear on the knee and doctors’ advice short of surgery, which unless you are some world class athlete, was not recommended. Rest up and give it support. g) Knee Brace – used in place of the band but ultimately now that the knee is getting a little better I hardly ever use any of it. h) Gloves – guess the new age man needs to protect his hands as well. Comes in handy when you need to mop the floor as well :) i) Pedometer – used when I run out of the gym just to have a feel of the distance I’m covering j) Sports Bag – with all that ‘junk’ you’ll need something to hold them all and carry it down to the gym, that’s where the sports or in this case it’s a shoe bag comes in handy. Just throw everything in. So there you are after having done the necessary warm ups and runs and exercise, you’ll think that’s over, but no there is still ….. After the Run/Exercise Here’s where the muscle aches start to set in, and the cold spray really helps with the recovery. And all this just in an attempt to stay healthy ….. :)

One Month

ONE MONTH

I made it through my first month of blogging

Error Message

I got this error message sometime back as I was doing a search on Facebook. Couldn’t help smiling at the way the message was phrased. I kept the screen shot of it. I’m still wondering if they changed the message or it’s still the same. Ha ha … In case you can't see it the error message reads :

Search is currently unavailable.

Please try again at a later time or right now.

Which day to ask for a Pay Rise

I read an article in a magazine recently and they had this column on which days of the week are best for doing certain things as it turns out : Monday * Best day to get organised, set goals, follow your boss and don't invite conflict. Tuesday * Peak day for productivity but also the best time that people go online to job hunt. Wednesday * Best day for creative thinking. ie Hold your meetings and brainstorming sessions today. Thursday * Best day to ask for a pay rise. Friday * Thread carefully, people tend to take more risk and have more accidents. Weekend * If you are one of those stress out over the week and then get sick over the weekend, it is suggested you try some excercising on Friday night to help you adjust to the weekend. WHEN YOU SNEEZE DON'T DRIVE With the upcoming holiday season just round the corner a word of caution !! An interesting bit of research that was done has shown that if you are driving at 110 km/h and you sneeze, you could be covering 90m with your eyes closed !! Wonder if it will become unlawful to sneeze in your car ? Proably the speed camera's will be fitted with sneeze-cams soon. But seriously, it's advisable you slow down when you feel a sneeze coming on.

Kindergarden Days

For me the past 3 weeks, I was not a happy camper, things happen that just make you feel down and you start to go on a roller coaster ride of emotions. You look into yourself and your self beliefs and you question your abilities and worth. It's a time when you have to step back and take a look at the wider picture. But this week was much better, things have passed, decisions will be made and like I have always believed, there are always two sides to a coin and it's up to you to choose which side you want. A new week brings new possibilities ;-) STORM Today Sunday -- wow wasn't it a huge storm in the evening ? At the Balestier / Toa Payoh area as I was driving back from my grandpareant's house (more on that later) there were 2 fallen tress on the expressway and at least another 3 more at the main road of my place. Guess the NParks would have their hands full removing all the fallen branches. Hopefully no one got hurt. GRANDPARENT'S I spent my Sunday at my Grandparent's (bless their souls) home, since they have passed on it was time after almost 8 years to dispose of the flat, getting a buyer wasn't the difficult part, clearing the 'junk' if one can call it that was exhausting. Anyways being the eldest grandchild I volunteer to help, anyways my mum and dad would be there as well. Left the wife at home since she isn't the type that's too crazy about roaches and dirt and stuff like that. You watch the Cable TV program - Dirtiest Job - well it's something like that. The place was really in need of a good renovation, it's over 30+ years old already and nothing was changed since I first stayed there during my Kindergarden years. I lived with my grandparents when I was young, both my parents worked and I only saw them over the weekends. Kindergarden was in the nearby Good Sherpard Kindergarden if I remember correctly at the East Coast area. I dreaded going to school, I would cry and all that, did all the tricks in the book to try to get out of school and this was only in Kindergarden. After Kindergarden when I got back I would grab my Ribena bottle and my Danny or Beano comic, go lie on the bed and I would read it for hours on end. Guess that's where my interest in comics and reading develope. Children should love to read and comics I feel is a great start. My other favourite was Tarzan -- which incidentally I still have a couple currently now, all yellow and the stapes all rusted but they are still with me. All these were given to me by a family friend who would without fail get me every issue of the comic. Some gems were uncovered in the 'rubble' the standard family photos, some of me (damn I look like a stick insect back then) and my sis at our birthdays, holiday trip photo's, my aunt's and uncle's weddings and family outings, most were in black and white. But some rare finds of interest anyone remember this old Yaohan plastic bag and it's made of the more durable (but more environmentally damaging) plastic. On it's back it's got weights conversions. if you can't see if properly the first line reads : 1 tahil = 37.8 g (advises you to ask for 50 g as the nearest) the last row reads 3 katis = 1.8 kg (advises you to ask for 2 kg as the nearest)

My grandfather's what you would call a 'hoarder' he keeps everything and I mean everything !! What's really good is that he also labels everything, you want to know when the TV or Fridge was bought, just look around the back and sure enough there would be some sticker with the date of purchase neatly hand written on it. He used to have this mini which he drives around and the boot of the mini is always full, you can't put stuff in there, he has everything you need in that boot, probably the only thing missing is the kitchen sink. One of the rare find was his collection of match boxes and here's a sampling of a few.

This above is the Singapore Zoo collection, one side features animals the other side features the really really old zoo logo. How about this collection of SEAP game match boxes, comes even with it's own box to contain them all,16 in total.

and this is the very neatly packed in groups of 8 of various different match boxes. I think you can pick out the Mandarin Hotel (bottom row 2nd from right), there is the American Club (top row, 2nd from right) and even The Pink Pussycat (top row, right) have no idea where that is, the others are nightclubs, restaurants, tea houses and hotels if I am correct.

As I was shifting through the load, I came acoss one of those old journal like books, I flipped it open and it was a brand new one, but probably 20+ years old. Nothing was written in it. Anyways no one uses these nowadays with all the latest electronic gadgets around. As I causally flipped through the pages I came across a US $1 bill !!! You can see from the picture below where the bill has been lying in that book all these years. It's probably my grandparents first US note. (oh ya I figured I better put the word SPECIMEN on the picture just in case) What a strange place to find that note.

Well we finally cleared up all the broken and useless items and it was all brought down to the allocated HDB area for bulk waste disposal. As we made the many trips down to throw the stuff away, there were a few karung guni men around and they probably had a field day with the items. I even say a young couple shifting through the boxes and they came away with some coasters. Guess they wanted some retro feel to their home. Tomorrow the final sale will be concluded and the new owners will take over the flat and their renovations will begin.

New Toy

Well actually not a really new toy, but something the missus won at her D&D, one of the top 10 prizes, 8th spot was the XBox 360. It would have been just a slightly teeny weenie bit better if it came in just 1 spot better at 7th spot as it would have been a Wii !! Something I was kind of eyeing recently. But I guess you can't really complain getting the 360. Now the only problem is I already have an XBox (older version) and now with the 360, probably will have to get rid of the other one. So anyone interested in getting your kids or yourself an XBox, for sale a full set plus extra controller, video remote (just got to find out where I put it) and at least 12+ games (there are a few that I can keep as they are suppose to be compatible with the 360 just need to sort out and keep a couple).

Pantry and Toilets

The office pantry and toilets are really peculiar, having been here for almost a month and a half, I still get a kick out of the design. On my floor the pantry only has hot water, all well and good when there is a need to make coffee or tea but there is no cold water. For that I would have to go down 1 flight of stairs to the floor below which has both cold and hot water. So when I want to get something cold to drink, I’ll need to walk down 1 flight of stairs. The toilets are even better, to get to the gents it’s HALF a floor down. (the ladies are half a floor up) But when there is the daily toilet maintenance when the cleaners tidy up and replenish the toilet paper, the toilet is effectively out of use and if you need to use it then it’s another 2.5 floors down to the next gents toilet (you could walk up but that’s another 1.5 flight of stairs up) and that’s not a situation you would want to be in when you happen to be in urgent need to relief yourself. I guess with all this stair climbing, it makes a healthier you and in a year’s time I’ll probably be ready to tackle the Singapore Vertical Marathon :) I’ve also updated the Simpsons Puzzle Solution.

Prizes

Well, I'm back, not much really done to the site, was looking for some animation letters but I could not find which CD I had them stored in. Too long ago since I had a website, all those graphics are now missing in action. Oh well if I find them I'll do the changes then, been fiddling around a bit and I don't think any chnages I make later will affect the site too much.

My company had a conference recently and they gave out really interesting door gifts. The little men are paper clips and I love that marker it's got all the colours in 1 nice circle so you don't have to have 5 different pens lying around. One thing I have to say is that these conferences it seems it's a norm for all the management team to act in some skit. Well I'm used to seeing a CEO do stuff but all management is something new and anyways I hardly ever was able to attend conferences previously in my former company. Just too busy to attend.

The company usually runs some small little contest and I entered one recently and lo and behold I actually was picked as one of the 5 winners. Ok that's great have to go and collect my gift, figured it's some coporate mug or postit pad or tea coaster or name card holder etc. In the end ya there was the postit pad but there was also a $5 NTUC voucher which was a pleasant surprise.

Pause for a minute

I think I'll try to see what features can be added to the blog, will be trying out a few things and see how it looks so probably there will not be too many updates in the coming days. And the site might look funny in case I mess up. I guess I better try to tweak it now before I start putting in more post. Probably takes a couple of days. There was an interesting article in the Sunday papers today. About people going to Jurong to get 'beaten' up with a cane. The missus was telling me, "wah these people go there pay money and get cane, suppose to cure your aches and all. If come here can get cane for free man, I do it." and then she goes on and ask me. "Are you aching from your excercise, there is a new therapy to cure aches, you want me to try?" I guess I'll definately pass on that. Now after excercise cannot say pain pain any more.

DVD Review - Transformers

Well folks, I'll try my hand at a DVD review, and what better way to start than with the new Transformers DVD that I recently purchase. The case transforms into Optimus Prime as my previous post last month mentioned. I finally got some time to view the DVD and all the extras on it so I figured might as well give my take on it :) Here's the front and back of the DVD casing again in case you missed it the last time. There are some spoilers in it so you have been warn, I'll cover the following points. 1) Story 2) My Likes and Dislikes 3) DVD Extras 4) Rating 5) Easter Eggs Transformers - The Movie Well hope you like the title in Optimus Prime's colour ;) 1) Story It's your standard good vs bad movie, the story is about the Bad Guy (Megatron) crash landing on earth years ago, where does he land -- the arctic of course -- (like that Aliens vs Predator movie). Earth so big and still they crash land at the poles, can't they land in Singapore or something !! He had come to find the "All Spark" which is a super powerful cube that can make your handphone turn into a real nasty piece of vicious shit! The map of where the All Spark is gets embedded in the glasses of the explorer who finds the frozen Megatron. Cut to modern day and we have Sam Witwicky (our Hero) some nerdy guy who gets a new car which turns out to be an Autobot (Bumblebee). Sam is of course the explorer's grandson, who inherits his grandfather's glasses (the one containing the map). The Autobots descend on Earth and engage the Decipticons in battle. Meanwhile Megatron who has been frozen all this while at a top secret Governemnt Facility (aka Independence Day) gets defrosted and starts wrecking havoc. Final climatic battle between Megatron and Optimus Prime in the city, a few slow mo fight scenes (aka John Woo style - just no doves flying) which sees Sam saving the day by using the cube to destroy Megatron. And so the Autobots save the day but are stranded on Earth. --> Probably gives the director a chance to make Part II if the movie is a hit. Well along the way there is the love story angle and the comedic relief from the autobots and some lady code cracker who has a very heavy Australian Accent and her wise cracking sidekick. It's a Michael Bay movie (incidentally the extras show his cameo appearance in the film which he cut out in the end) If you watch the movie I guess you will know who the stars are so instead of giving you the lowdown on the 'live' stars, I'll give you a summary of who the Transformers are (if you really interested in the full details you can check out the official Transformers Movie web site) : AUTOBOTS (a) Optimus Prime - voice by Peter Cullen ## He is the original voice of OP. He is also the voice of Eeyore the donkey from winnie the pooh movies. He has been doing voices for a number of other movies and television series like from Knight Rider, GI Joe, Spiderman, My Little Pony, Jetsons, Scoody Doo and many others. (b) Bumblebee - voice by Mark Ryan ## Has been in film, television and theater including the west end musical's Evita. (c) Ironhide & Barricade - voice by Jess Harnell ## Has been nominated for an Emmy Award and named one of the top ten voice actors by Variety magazine. Has done numerous shows including being the announcer for America's Funniest Home Videos and has appeared on cartoon shows like the Simpsons & Rugrats. His film credits include Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, Cars, Robots, Finding Nemo, Toy Story 1 & 2, Bug's Life and many others. TV Commercials - Macdonalds and Diet Coke to name a few, plus Video game voices. (d) Ratchet - voice by Robert Foxworth ## Worked in theater and a couple of television series like Law and Order, Boston Legal, West Wing and Falcon Crest to name a few. (e) Jazz - voice by Darius McCarry ## Was a child actor at the age of 10. Has worked in theater and film including Hostage and Mississippi Burning DECEPTICONS (a) Megatron - voice by Hugo Weaving ## An Australian actor who played Elrond in Lord of the Rings and as Agent Smith in Matrix. Won 2 Austrlian Film Institute - Best Actor Awards. He is also heard as Noah the Elder in Happy Feet. (b) Barricade - see above (c) Bonecrusher - voice by Jimmy Wood ## He is a musician, singer and actor. He's sung and played harmonica in movies and commercials and has voiced in television series Rugrats and Wild Thornberrys. (d) Starscream - Charlie Adler ## He is an Emmy Award winning director and 2-time Annie Award nomiee. Among his many credits are Rugrats and the Wild Thornberrys. Has been heard in Tiny Toon Adventures and has been a Smurf, GI Joe and even a Glow Friend. Named one of the Top 13 All Time Voice-Over Artists by Animation Magazine and Voice of the Decade by Animation World News. (e) Frenzy - voice by Reno Wison ## Mainly worked in television including the Crosby Show and has guest starred in Las Vegas, NYPD Blue, Cybill, Chicago Hope and many others. 2) My Likes and Dislikes Likes :- - Damn !! it brings back those childhood memories of the cartoon. - The CG was awesome, I like the fight scences best, althougth it's just mindless bashing and at times you can't really figure out the bad guy from the good. - Love the transforming, if they had toys that transform like that it would be soooooo cool. - Sound was great especially the transformation sounds. Dislikes :- - No sound track of ' Transformers... Robots in Disguse etc..etc.. More than meets the Eye ' - Hhhhmmmm.... not enough air time for my favourite transformer of all time Star Scream ! - Megatron not depicted with that 'kelvar like' helmet which too me was iconic and he did not transform into a gun !! what a waste. - Too few Bots (** explaination below **) 3) DVD Extras On the DVD there is the usual Director's commentary, trailers, concept art and a part on how they got the desert attack accomplished. Lots of insight into the making of the movie a few deleted scenes (including the Michael Bay cameo and the X-Box transformation). Interviews with the cast and much much more inside info on the making of the movie. Love the parts on the CG for the Bots. And did you know the actions was all shot live, most of it was live except for the Bots (and it cost heck of a lot to render them to life as such the number of Bots had to be scaled down). Something like 200+ vehicles were burn, shot at, blown up, crashed, flipped, twisted, smashed and rolled over. Most of the vehicles were custom built from old vehicles. However Bumblebee was a GM prototype. Cost ? you have to watch the extras to find out. They had a special segment on Bumblebee. Military hardware was real. Some of the equipment so top secret that the Military only allowed them to be film at a certain angle. 4) Rating The movies was great but then again probably it will appeal to men more than the ladies. It's a simple plot line, no need to get too worked up about it. Actions shots were ok. Need to better differentiate the good and bad guys. CG effects were great. Some things were changed from the original Bots but overall it fits the movie. DVD extras were excellent and of course this particular packaging had that great transforming gimmick. Overall I would give it a 8.5 out of 10. 5) Easter Eggs As you may or may not know, most DVD's usually come with some hidden features. These are called Easter Eggs. I think it comes from the fact that the original hidden icons resembled an Egg. In this DVD they resemble the autobot/decepticon logo or actually the vehicle logos. ON THE 2ND DISK there are 5 hidden Easter Eggs (1) At the Main Menu highlight 'Subtitles' then press the LEFT arrow on your remote and an icon will appear, 'enter' and you will view the DVD credits. (2) From Main Menu select Our World, highlight 'I Fight Giant Robots' then press the DOWN arrow on your remote and an icon will appear, 'enter' and you will get an amusing commercial for BAYBOT a Michael Bay Autobot :) (3) From Main Menu select Their War, highlight 'Inside the All Spark' then press LEFT arrow on your remote and an icon will appear, 'enter; and you will get behind the scenes footage of Michael Bay's Cameo. (4) From the Main Menu select More than Meets the Eye, highlight 'From Script to Sand' then press UP arrow on your remote and an icon will appear, 'enter' and you will see a clip about Casting Mojo which is about the dogs on the show. (5) From the Main Menu select More than Meets the Eye, than Trailers highlight 'Trailer 4' then press the RIGHT arrow on your remote and an icon will appear, 'enter' and you get to see the X-Box transformer effect. There is suppose to be an Easter Egg on DISK 1 as well but I can't seem to access it. Well I hope you like the review and if anyone else bought the DVD and is able to access the Easter Egg on Disk 1 do let me know. thanks.

Spooky !!

Well I'm feeling a little better today. Check out this sad looking guy, it was the little fan I won at the Bingo game. I'll call him Ooh Tea as in OT ;) Look at his sad face and you know why ? Because he has to do OverTime :)

And this here is the Simpson Family sitting on my monitor at my desk since no one wanted it that night and it seems a waste to throw away such a nice piece of work.

In case you are interested in the game. The characters from left to right :

Father - Homer

Mother - Marge

Son 1 - Bart

Daughter 1 - Lisa

Daughter 2 - Maggie

Police - Chief Wiggum

Thief - Barney

Son 2 - can't remember his name

and of course the car that is to take them from thier hose to the mall.

Rules are pretty simply you need to basically get everyone from the house to the mall with the following constraints :

1) Only max 2 people in the car.

2) Father (Homer) cannot be with daughters (1 & 2) unless Mother (Marge) around

3) Mother (Marge) cannot be with Sons (1 & 2) unless Father (Homer) around

4) The thief cannot be with any of the Family (father, mother, son or daughter) unless Police around

5) Only Father, Mother and Police can drive

So have fun. You can try your hand at this and I will post the answer sometime later, or you can add it in if you think you got it.

Ok so I promised you something spooky, well actually I was having lunch with a friend the other day and after lunch she took me around the building, went down to the basement to see the gym which is basically a dance studio which was pretty big with just 2 threadmills, I think the room is used mainly for yoga, pilate and stuff like that rather than a 'gym'. There's a relaxation corner for you to watch TV or you can bring your own DVD's / VCD's to watch during lunch. The area comes equipt with a billards room as well. Overall the basement is really nice and when you get down there you are treated with a waterfall feature. But then my friend tells me the whole building is haunted. WHAT !! Don't know if true or not but some worker died there before. Everywhere they say haunted, I guess just because it's a relatively old building, everything's haunted. Or that's why maybe no one ever does OT !! Well if I do encounter anything I'll definately post it here ;)

World's Slowest Escalator

Sorry for the lack of post lately as I've been feeling under the weather recently, dry cough that does not seem to want to go away, saw the doctor he did a full check - blood pressures down (the excercise has help), no temperature but my tonsils were inflamed again, standard dose of anti-biotics and cough medicine, was told to drink lots of water and get plenty of rest, ya probably the late nights are taking it's toll. I think due to the medicine, I forgot to bring my work pass today, got caught out without it and had to sign in as a visitor to get into the building, ah it's going to be one of those days where you just want it to end. I'm sure everyone has heard of the trishaw uncle who got bullied by the 3 british tourist. What really pissed me off was the fact that not only did they make fun of him where the poor guy has got to cycle with these 3 tourist in his trishaw, not only did they video the whole incident, not only did they started laughing at him, not only did they not even want to pay the agreed amount at the end of the ride, not only did they bargain down to $5, not only did they make the guy look pitiful trying to get his money BUT they drove off in a taxi without giving the man a single cent !! Anyways with regards to slowest trishaw's and what have you, I encountered the slowest escalator today on my way home, it was at one of the underpass in town, I've passed it a few times before and for some reason today it was moving at a quarter of the normal speed, it's not a heavily used escalator, not much traffic on it. Kept looking around to find why it was moving so slowly, pity I did not think (the drugs again) to video the journey. (would had then be able to add my first movie :) Anyways I got fedup and just walked up the escalator. I'll post a Spooky tale tomorrow ;) if I'm feeling better. It seems I've been hearing a lot of spooky stuff lately ;) so tune in next time for BIT - B's Incredible Tales, hosted not by Utt but Butt ;)

It's Fixed

Well well well, finally !! I managed to get my car's winscreen fixed !! Thanks to all of you who emailed me about what to do and where to go, except for the person who suggested I use Super Glue !! you know who you are !! Anyway's in the end I decided to let insurance sort this one out. So called the Honda people and they said ya no problem come on down and you need to fill in some paper work and we will get clearance from the insurer and fix up the winscreen. Down I go and filled in the paper work. In the afternoon I get a call from them saying that the car is over the 3 year warranty period so I can't get it fixed at the agent and I have to go to one of the recommended service agents from the insurer !! What the hell, I don't understand this, here I am going back to the Honda Service Centre to fix my Honda car and it's not allowed !! So that really waste my time and I had to find one of the 'recommended' service centre's to go down again and fill in the forms again and wait. But I have to admit these people are fast, morning fill in afternoon get reply go ahead. So have to send in the vehicle another time to finally get the winscreen fixed. But there was still an excess of $100 which I had to pay. Cracked Screen

Repaired Screen

Got a scare on my way back along the expressway, another stone hit my screen AGAIN !! but luckily this time it sounded like a smaller stone and I wasn't driving that fast so probably the impact was not that great, but I went over the winscreen once I got back and confirm no damage done.

ITS Year End Party 2007

Last friday was my department's Year End Party, it was my first time attending one, being the 'newbie', held in our basement function room. It was a really simple affair but very well done considering the organising committee did not use any professionals for the gig, everything was inhouse from the design to the setup to the programme and to the entertainment. It was attended by about 100 to 150 staff, pretty decent turn out. They came from all the departments and even from our other main site at Tampines. Food was catered buffet style, the standard rice, noodles, veggies, fish, chicken, salad with the addition of sushi, crayfish and cereal prawns. Dessert of cakes and some mango pudding was served. Not too bad all food was halal so everyone could enjoy. Proper dinner tables you know those type found in hotels and seat 10 were setup, came with table cloth and even a centre piece. (below the food spread) In the course of the night, CIO and all the Heads did their Karaoke of some Mandarin, Hokkien songs. They did 3 numbers, some sound vaguely familiar but then I had no idea what they were singing about. I suspect half the room also would not be able to understand them. My fellow malay, indian, philipine and indonesian colleagues. I guess I'm the worst of the lot, a Chinese who has no understanding of Mandarin :) The Photo taken from my camera phone did not come out well with the low lighting and distance it was blurred, so nothing to put up. Or maybe their singing was so off key that the pictures just came out bad :) We also had a Band (below image) which was made up of ITS staff, all from the Philipines - 3 singers and 4 musicians for backup. Pretty good, actually damn good, well at least they sang in English so I guess everyone could understand :) They introduce themselves at the end and I only remember one name, which belongs to one of the lady vocalist - Tin Tin - you know from the comic book with the dog Snowy and Captain Haddock and the Thompson Twins -- what you don't remember ? no one read comics any more !! There were games galore, including a jigsaw puzzle game which our table won. A Simpsons Family game you can see from the images below, the type where you had to get the whole host of Simpsons characters from the house to the mall and there are conditions to be met like who can drive the car, who cannot stay with whom unless someone else is around etc. You can just make out Lisa, Maggie and Bart, can you see Barney and Officer Wiggum ? Homer's there as well (lazy as usual lying on the table) and Marge is there (under the right hand) The other guy is one of the Flander's kid but I can't remember the kids name currently. Anyways the winning table had to do the entire crossing on stage complete with Simpson Mobile. They also had the standard crowd favourite BINGO, and I actually won something. It was one of those desktop fan. Guess it will come in handy during those nights I need to do OT :)

The night closed with another crowd favourite the Lucky Draw. Sadly no one at my table collected any of the top 10 prizes. A few others got the other top 100 prizes. Overall a pretty fun and entertaining evening.

I'll see if I can get some pics from the official photographer or the videogapher to add to this lot.

Top Ten

I've been at work in town for the last month and here are my top 10 things I have learnt so far. 10) Bus rides good. 9) MRT rides baaaaad. (sounds like a line from Animal Farm) 8) There are still bus inspectors around 7) Lunch is bloody expensive in town !! Actually breakfast and dinner are equally expensive. 6) Parking is horrendously expensive. 1 day can set me back about $20+ monthly charges range from $170 to $250. 5) You can't flag a cab at 5pm, it's like the CBD twilight zone. The cabs will appear at 5.01pm when the extra charges kick in. 4) Must REMEMBER to beep the transitlink card BEFORE getting off the bus. 3) MRT lines are all single colour coded, man I can't wait till the circle line kicks in, that will just make it more confusing. 2) Always have something to read or listen to on the bus/MRT. 1) People are very resourceful with 'chopping' seats, there's the regular tissue paper, newspaper and umbrella. I also seen, MRT cards, pen, notebooks, sweaters etc. yet to see a belt from that KFC commercial. On another note, I think I fixed the time stamp settings, finally found out why my post were getting stamp like 5am in the morning when I am submitting them at night !!