Posts from — February 2008

Great to be Singaporean?

Linda Grant thinks so! I love to read her articles and blog whichbelieves that a great handbag makes an outfit…she was down in Singapore to promote her latest book, The Clothes on her back.

“I hadn’t realised Singapore was so much fun, and had not realised how many Singaporeans have English as their mother tongue. Someone really should write the great Singapore novel” 

Orchard Road, Singapore

I just spent a whole lot of moolah on a trilogy by a Russian author, Sergei Lukyanenko.

Finished book 1 Nightwatch at one sitting. Currently on book 2…jia lat…not enough sleep coz book 1 held me captive…i just had to know how things ended. Plus I still didn’t sleep well coz book 2 was calling out to me to be read….luckily the hubs is out of town for work and I am free to read in bed till the wee hours  

but there’s always a price to pay for lack of sleep…and I am getting older. The recovery and bounce back is no longer as fast….acks, aging…

I like pork and all it’s peripherals, as you can see from my Bak Ku Teh raves.

So when news like this comes about…I am all in support for quality farming and produce + the “Stand by your ham” song is pretty farnee:

Pig farmers trot out Internet song to save bacon  

In what they say is a last-ditch attempt to save the country’s pork industry, dozens of pig farmers gathered in London on Thursday aiming for an Internet hit with their song “Stand by your Ham”.

It will be available for download from the weekend from the website www.pigsareworthit.com

“It’s a lighthearted way of drawing attention to a very serious issue,” Yorkshire pig farmer Richard Longthorp told Reuters by telephone from the recording session.

“If this doesn’t stop, then as sure as eggs is eggs, the industry is going to disappear.”

I swear Klang has the best Bak Ku Teh (BKT) ever! Clear tasty soup with herbs and spicies, succulent pork ribs, intestines, fish maw, sea cucumbers *slurp*… it’s a completely different style from the peppery type in Singapore. Everytime we make a trip back to Klang, we make it a point to have our usual BKT breakkie at this dilapidated coffeeshop which is always packed to the brim with families.

Accompanying the BKT is always a grand selection of Chinese teas, “cha” that you choose a type from and than proceed to start your brewing, sterilizing etc with the hot water from a gas tank & kettle that is located at every table.

Singapore’s MOE would have flipped long ago at the unsafe and unhygenic conditions.

But the best foods is always to be found at dirty, run-down locations right?  

 Hong Kong Actor Chen Quits, Admits Web Sex Photos

Hundreds of photos published online and in newspapers led to debate about Hong Kong pornography laws and a public apology from a female pop star. The pictures were posted on the Web after about 1,300 photo files were stolen from a computer sent to a repair shop, police said.

Moral of story: Secure your information!

Mr Darric Hor, Singapore’s country manager for IT security company Symantec, urges users to do a regular backup of “all important information” on external HDDs.

He also advises users to practise good security habits such as using encryption software for confidential files, so that when the computer crashes, the files remain secure during repair.

Even then, experts caution that it is still possible to recover data from disks that have been formatted several times over.

In fact, they say the only sure way to eradicate the “identity prints”, or information from computers, for good is by smashing the hard drives into bits.

Don’t be the next Edison Chen

The subject of psychology is getting popular these days with most universities and polytechnics starting to offer courses in this particular subject area. Guess with the increase in societal stress and complexity in today’s social issues, the study of the human behaviour & mental processes from biochemistry to group environments is getting hot.

Someone recently passed me their uni text featuring case studies on various psychological disorders that are manifested in various scenarios. The book was fasinating and one of the disorders that caught my eye was something called Somatization Disorder.

Definition:

Somatization disorder is a chronic, severe disorder characterized by many recurring physical symptoms, particularly some combination of pain and digestive, sexual, and neurologic symptoms, that cannot be explained by a physical disorder.

The intensity and persistence of the symptoms reflect the person’s intense desire to be cared for in every aspect of life. The symptoms may also serve other purposes, such as allowing the person to avoid the responsibilities of adulthood. The symptoms tend to be uncomfortable and prevent the person from engaging in many enjoyable pursuits, suggesting that the person also suffers feelings of worthlessness and guilt.

I am no doctor and no expert. However I suspect I may have encountered certain personalities/persons with the above symptoms and characteristics. It has been insightful reading up on this disorder (there’s sooo much literature on somatization)…at the very least, it has helped me understand the whys of it all. Although understanding the disorder doesn’t change the fact that I am unable to handle people with this type of issues.  

My dog is getting more nua as he gets older. He lets us smother him in pillows, blankets, legs etc without any resistance. in fact, these days, the only thing that gets him riled and barking is the “dong dong chang” from those CNY lion dance drums and cymbals. He HATES those things to the DEATH.

Other than that, Mr Hump is the mildest dog ever.

   hilarious write up on SAF via Mr Brown.

All Singaporean males, when in the prime of their life, are required to sacrifice two years of their life trapped in National Slavery Servitude (NS) or commonly known as Nothing but Shit, where they are trained to protect Singapore from the very real and credible threats of terrorists strapped to nuclear missiles, subterranean terrorist squid, mosquito terrorists, imminent invasion from Indonesia and Malaysia, and other terrifying things. Singaporean males who attempt to flee from their National Servitude are ruthlessly put out of commission, especially those with exceptional talents that could be put to good use elsewhere in the world; the rest of the world is not as important as Singapore’s national security.

Click here to read more. 

I love this video!