Goodbye PC, Hello mac

I've finally done it. I blew this month's paycheck and I got myself a mac mini to replace the darn old PC. Thankfully, Monday got PROGRESS fund. Only just figured out how to transfer pictures, which is probably the one most important thing that it needs to do. And the uncluttered table top is something that is very pleasing. On an end note, here's "in loving memory", my old PC, not that I will never use it again. Since I just realized that my mouse is actually spoilt, it was the culprit of the retarded response.

Google Analytics - Part 3: Mystery Solved

So, got hundreds of hits overnight at Yellow, Creamy & Bittersweet. The thing is, I want to find out which website is my benefactor...

I would like to thank all visitors of Tomorrow.Sg who noticed and made an effort to click onto my blog. You guys made me very pleased. :)

Google Analytics - Part 2: Wah! What Happened?

Donch liddat leh. Now I become very stressed to produce another good story for people to read....

So what ever happened? I mean, it's a little piece of history. But the tremendous increase in traffic is well, unprecedented by my puny blog's standard. So curiosity got the better of me, and I went to take a look at how long visitors stayed... Sheesh... I almost thought I could become a famous blogger overnight. Oh well, back to the drawing board.

Project Sunshine - Day 16

Petals so yellow
Under the sun shining bright
Sunflowers, I like

– my lame attempt at writing a haiku

So the problem here is a combination of things: weather, soil, water and pests.

Last week's weather was really terrible for the seedlings. They were at mercy of the rains. About half of them did not survive. Many broke off at the stems. Even the stronger ones that managed to sprout a few leaves didn't make it. Sort of heartbreaking, really.

Not too certain about the soil too. I can't be sure if it also contributed to the demise of the seedlings.

Maybe the seedlings drowned too, from all the rains.

Then, there could be the pest problem. I mean I saw holes on the leaves.

But overall, you should also say I neglected them. Sigh.

Seems like the weather has become relatively drier for now. So I may be beaten, but I haven't given up. This time, it's going to be bigger and meaner. But first I'll need to catch up on some studying...

Stay tuned and see what happens this weekend.

Save the Internet

Came across this at www.askaninja.

There is something called Net Neutrality that is being quietly discussed in Washington DC. There's a lot of confusion about it, but here's a great video that explains what's going on:

I sure hope this doesn't happen here in Singapore...

Visit savetheinternet.com for more details.

It is a numeric life: The power of BECAUSE

Would you visit kormmandos.multiply.com BECAUSE it is a blog? It is a numeric life: The power of BECAUSE

Elections are coming...

Morning Latest: Loving Cars / Lang-gah Qia

The "third party": So anyone want to buy 4D? This morning I was awoken by 3 bangs. I got out of the house and caught this. This road has seen many, many accidents. Mainly due to motorists speeding to beat the traffic light.

"Think of all the beautiful children they'll have..."

The topic of inter-racial relationships popped up again in a conversation between my girlfriend and I. A previous similar conversation had occurred when Mr Rajaretnam passed on and it was reported that he had an ang moh wife.

The quirkiest thing about this was the almost unanimous reaction that goes, "Think of all the beautiful children they would have had."

Damn funny lah, every time some someone put asian and ang moh together, they think about the outcome in the form of an offspring. I mean it's like sex is a sure (fire) thing between the two.

Anyway, while we were still on that topic of the "beautiful children", I thought might as well spread the dumb idea of getting mail order brides from exotic Eastern European countries with even more exotic names. If they come here, got married, pop some mixed blood children and still have free time, they could even contribute some freshness to the modelling scene regionally. Like that, we can say we not only bring in and keep the foreign talent, but we even (re)produce foreign talent... Ok, that's a bit far out and nonsensical, or maybe not...

Project Sunshine - Day 7

I had forgotten to bring them back under shelter. And it rained really heavily. But the seedlings did rather well against the downpour, though some of them are now crooked. Maybe they will straighten up under the sun tomorrow.

Project Sunshine - Day 6

Another rainy day. Thankfully, it was not the kind of heavy downpour. The seedlings are going strong, I think. They seem to be all doing quite well even in this period where it rains almost everyday. I'm thinking of transplanting them soon.

How My Parents Did It

Raising the kids, that is. Looking back, I must say that it was nothing short of amazing. Here's an entry dedicated to Mum and Dad. Excerpt:

When I was young, my mum was a full-time domestic engineer. (Ok, that really means housewife) But the one thing that I remember most vividly then was her sitting at a corner of the kitchen of our old 3-room flat in Clementi, (the kitchen was huge then, you could do a lot of things there.) clipping away wires that were jutting out of electronic chips which she would later solder with a electric soldering iron. Sometimes, she would be seated at the same place, with a device that looks like a giant exercise wheel. There, she would wrap insulating tape round and round the device till the roll of tape is used up. Then, she would use a 10 cent pocket knife (the kind that flips out from a metal sheath) and make a quick motion through the gaps, cutting the tape into 5cm strips in the process.

Click here for the full entry

Project Sunshine - Day 5

The seedlings are now an average of 9 cm in height. Some of them are already bending towards the sunlight because I had put the nursery tray in the common walkway, under shelter.

No pictures yet, unless I find an excuse to go to office to upload the pictures. I'm seriously considering getting the Mac mini to replace this dying PC, the Progress fund will come in handy.

Above the Influence

Here's a great site about doing the right thing under peer pressure. I think it's a great website for youths to visit. Be cool, be yourself, be ABOVE THE INFLUENCE.

There comes a point in your life when you realise you're not a kid anymore. Suddenly you have to make decisions. You have to make choices every day. This is the time when you define yourself or you let others define you. You quickly learn that there are two ways to go: UNDER the influence or ABOVE the influence. I am ABOVE the influence.

Project Sunshine - Day 4

The seedlings have reached an average height of 6 cm!

Unfortunately, no pictures because my PC is in a real sorry state. I won't be able to download pictures from my camera until next week.

Expensive drinks

At Esplanade, even the vending machines charge more.

But of course, that's because they sell kawaii Japanese drinks.

Non-smokers get your Fresh Air Breaks

Smokers have been using smoke break as an excuse for skiving for too long. Non-smokers must take back what is theirs at work! If smokers need cigarettes, non-smokers need fresh air!

Non-smokers need Fresh Air Breaks!

Imagine, if a smoker takes 6 smoke breaks a day at work, each one lasting 5 minutes, that would chalk up 30 minutes of skiving. Let 2 smokers off to a smoke break, that would mean 2 man-hours lost because humans have a tendency to gather and "socialize". 1 man-hour for the act of smoking, and 1 man-hour for the "socializing". If smokers need cigarettes to to clear their heads, non-smokers need fresh air to clear theirs!

Non-smokers need to stand up for their fresh air rights as to smokers for their smoking rights. Just think, who covers for the smokers job when they go on smoke break? The non-smokers! Smokers should learn to reciprocate, you know! Non-smokers should have the right to skive too!

So, non-smokers unite and go for a fresh air break, NOW!

Project Sunshine - Day 3

Slowly and gradually, the seeds sprouted.

A closer look...

Photoshoot: Jenny's Wedding

Just in case you visitors are interested with wedding pictures of a hot babe. Yah, for the guys, just too bad.

Click on pictures or entry header to go to the photo album

I smell a scam here...

According to Google Analytics... Part 1

Unfortunately, I am unable to track my Multiply with Google Analytics. But on blogspot, I can!

From the past week, I've had distant visitors from United Kingdom, Canada, United States and South Africa. Cool eh?

However, most visitors aren't very impressed with the content, with a majority exiting the website within 10 seconds. I think I'll need to resort to putting a picture of bikini models at the front page, and saying there are more of where that came from and they need to look around.

That's all for now. More pointless updates and analysis coming up!

Project Sunshine - Day 2

I can see some sprouts emerging from the soil!

Got this quote from Readers' Digest...

And it put a smile on my face. :)

People who don't have anything to feel good about can become petty simply to prove how important they are.

Project Sunshine - Day 1

Irrigation

Did not water the tray today as the soil is still damp.

Weather

It had rained in the early hours of the morning. Thankfully I had moved the tray into shelter the day before. Sunlight broke through after that. I brought the tray out to bask in the sun and I left for service.

Growth Progress

Not visible signs of progress, yet.

Photoshoot: Urban Cowgirl

Clothes by Weiling Model: Wendi

So Joyce's friend, Weiling, is a fashion design student and she wanted to take photos of her designs worn on a model. So both of them ended up getting their old classmate, Wendi to do the job. I ended up shooting some somewhat glamour shots for Wendi...

My first fashion shoot, yeah~ (Yes, I know the shots are quite dark at the face.)

But most important of all here, I want to thank Joyce for asking me to take the photos. Thanks Dear!

Project Sunshine - Day 0

Inspired by the blooms at the Sentosa Flower Festival earlier this year, I've decided to start my own. Of course, it is a smaller scale one. Made a few searches on the internet and found it was relatively easy to grow sunflowers. So here I am, chronicling the growth of my sunflowers... Ok, so they are still seeds right now, but you'll see. (I hope...)

The preparation

So here there I have a penknife, changkol, sunflower seeds (regular and dwarf varieties), seed & potting mix, organic fertilizer and plastic tray with drainage holes.

I start off by creating a nursery bed for the seeds by putting the potting soil in the tray, spreading out the soil evenly with my hands. The soil is loose and not tightly compressed into the tray.

With my fingers, I make holes in the soil approximately 2 cm deep, and 4 cm apart from each other. 3 seeds are placed into each hole and loosely covered with soil.

Apparently, I am supposed to choose the strongest seedlings from each of the group of 3 seeds after 1 week for transplanting. Even in gardening, there is natural selection.

Being kiasu, I decided to mark out a little plot of land I will later transplant my sunflower seedlings to...

Water was then poured over the soil.

The Weather

It wasn't the best state of weather today. The sky was overcast with clouds most of the day. Sunshine was only available very briefly and I put the tray under direct sunlight only to realize that it started to rain again.

I didn't want the seeds to "drown", so I heeded my father's advice and placed the tray right outside my door.

Then I went out.

That was Project Sunshine - Day 0.

Just for the sake of it

Just for the sake of it

Just to let people know that this is a regularly updated blog, although quality of content is rather inconsistent.

History of a Name: Hong Kah - The Aftermath

After a conversation about the history of Hong Kah, I posted an entry on yesterday.sg. Very quickly, I realised I got quite a bit of facts wrong, like the actual names and the time/era of the incidents.

Fortunately, the good people at the Singapore Heritage Group dug up the real facts in not one but two entries:

1. Shedding Light on Hong Kah
2. Shedding Light on Hong Kah: Part 2

Seems like the possibility of Hong Kah being because of Christianity is very high.

"Ice" Branding

Just returned from lunchtime at Raffles Place. Had Don's Pie. Good Stuff. Two Thumbs Up. Then I popped over to Ya Kun for a kopi peng (iced coffee).

"How much?" "$1.20!" "?!"

Strange. I remember Ya Kun everywhere else charges $1.80 for kopi peng, but this "flagship" stall charges just 10 cents for the ice. Reminds me of the Ang Moh's story at a food court from my lecturer...

"How much is an iced coffee?" "$1.80" "What? How much is a hot coffee then?" "90 cents." "You mean the 'ice' cost 90 cents?" "..."

From now on, I shall prefix an 'ice' on anything that I might want to sell. That way, I can charge more for the product or service. "Ice" <whatever>. Got a ring to it, doesn't it?