Heal the World, Make it a Better Place?

Yesterday BlogTv.sg episode was on the theme 'Does the World Sucks?' and I was thnking, what an interesting General Paper question this would be for Singapore students. Hah!

I had a sudden urge to pen this post on why the World sucks purely because:

1. From a reglious point of view - When Adam and Eve sucummb to tempatation in the Garden of Eden, they were already in for deep S***. That explains why women have to go through the monthly menstrual cramps and endure hours of labour pain while the men have to work their ass to put bread on the table for the family.

2. From a general point of view - In general, human beings are by nature INDIVIDUALISTIC. We live in a world of our own, paying more attention to our love ones rather than strangers on the street. (Tell me honestly, has anyone taken a second look at people who are not close to us??!!) Look at all the environmental and Save-the-World/Earth campaigns that have been established throughout the world. What is the percentage of the population that actually took a interest in all these communities and campaigns whose noble missions and objectives have fell on deaf ears to many?

3. From my point of view - Nobody is perfect in this world. And since nobody's perfect and it is purely because of this imperfection - the world has to suck big time for sure.

Of course, taking a light hearted view on this topic. I guess when one is feeling good and all the good things are on the right track, the world looks good to them. For those who are feeling down and feel that the world owns them a living every minute, the world sucks no matter how hard they try to change the fact.

Taken off from Michael Jackson's song 'Heal the World'
Heal the world,
make it a better place.
For you and for me and the entire human race
There are people dying
So if you care enough for the living
(And the man himself was accused of child molestation many years back - DUH. Hey, no offence to his supporters. I love the man too, but what an irony - no wonder the world sucks. (haha)).

I rest my case.

Modern story of the birds and bees

A little boy goes to his father and asks "Daddy, how was I born?" The father answers: "Well son, I guess one day you will need to find out anyway!

Your Mom and I first got together in a chat room on Yahoo. Then I set up a date via e-mail with your Mom and we met at a cyber-cafe. We sneaked into a secluded room, where your mother agreed to a download from my hard drive. As soon as I was ready to upload, we discovered that neither one of us had used a firewall, and since it was too late to hit the delete button, nine months later a little Pop-Up appeared that said:

"You've got MALE".

Kawaii Nihon!

Kawaii (かわいい) Nihon!! Japan is a fantastic place to go to if you love the food and culture. My first trip to Japan and to Tokyo Disneyland and Osaka Universal studio was awesome. It seems to have brought back the child in me as I grabbed the opportunity to take a photo with one of my favourite character Popeye. Also, did anybody mentioned that the food and clothes in Japan were way too EXPENSIVE-NEH!!!


Another thing I love about food in Japan is that their Macdonald serves the one and only Ebi-fillet burger. This burger is only found in Japan's Macdonald and no where else.I had my fill of Ebi-fillet burger for 2 days in a row and it was so OISHII. Hmm...I can still feel the ebi sauce lingering in my mouth....

FeiMao and I went to the Toyota car show room and we were blown away by all their latest car concepts. It was truly an eye opener for him being a car lover.


Some photos for memories:

I remembered you, do you?

I salute Facebook and the guys who invented it! I really think they deserved a place in the history of geniuses who invented this great piece of work.

I happened to bump into the profiles of primary school buddies, secondary school friends, college mates, pubbing kakis, bus mates (yes, bus mates!) and friends whom I have not seen for ages. I am talking about friends whom we have lost touch since the age of 12??!! Yes, it's really amazing to see how everybody has grown. I could hardly recognize their pictures, but somehow, you can sense it's that person all right.

Some people might disagree that Facebook is just a flash in the pan and very soon the fickle minded 17-25 year old market will jump on the next thing that comes along. Just a novelty?? Well, I don't really care if this were to happen. I am just glad to have found the friends whom I have lost touch with and I really hope to meet up with them again.

Important Memo - Must Read!

Today, I received an IMPORTANT memo from a colleague and decided to share with all. Thanks Kristy for sharing this IMPORTANT memo with us. It sure brightens up my day.

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An important Memo to all employees

In order to assure the highest levels of quality work and productivity from our employees, it will be our policy to keep all employees well trained through our program of SPECIAL HIGH INTENSITY TRAINING? (S.H.I.T.)

We are trying to give our employees more S.H.I.T. than anyone else. If you feel that you do not receive your share of S.H.I.T., please see your supervisor. You will be immediately placed at the top of the S.H.I.T. list , and our supervisors are especially skilled at seeing you get all the S.H.I.T. you can handle.
Employees who don't take their S.H.I.T. seriously will be placed in DEPARTMENTAL EMPLOYEE EVALUATION PROGRAMS (D.E.E.P.S.H.I.T.) Those who fail to take D.E.E.P. S.H.I.T seriously will have to go to EMPLOYEE ATTITUDE TRAINING (E.A.T.S.H.I.T .)

Since our supervisors took S.H.I.T before they were promoted, they don't have to take S.H.I.T anymore, and are all full of S.H.I.T already.
If you are full of S.H.I.T, you may be interested in a job teaching others. We can add your name to our BASIC UNDERSTANDING LEADERSHIP LIST (B.U.L.L.S.H.I.T).
Thank you,

BOSS IN GENERAL, SPECIAL HIGH INTENSITY TRAINING
(B.I.G.S.H.I.T)

P.S. Now send this S.H.I.T to 5 people who need S.H.I.T in their life, just not the same person who sent you this S.H.I.T They have already had their fill of S.H.I.T

Two Nuns

There were two nuns..

One of them was known as Sister Mathematical (SM),and the other one was known as Sister Logical (SL).

It is getting dark and they are still far away from the convent.

SM: Have you noticed that a man has been following us for
the past thirty-eight and a half minutes? I wonder what he wants.

SL: It's logical. He wants to rape us.

SM: Oh, no! At this rate he will reach us in 15 minutes
at the most! What can we do?

SL: The only logical thing to do of course is to walk faster.

SM: It's not working.

SL: Of course it's not working. The man did the only
logical thing. He started to walk faster, too.

SM : So, what shall we do? At this rate he will reach us in one minute.

SL: The only logical thing we can do is split. You go that way and I'll
go this way. He cannot follow us both.

So the man decided to follow Sister Logical.

Sister Mathematical arrives at the convent and is worried about what has happened to Sister Logical.

Then Sister Logical arrives.

SM: Sister Logical! Thank God you are here! Tell me what happened!

SL: The only logical thing happened. The man couldn't follow us both, so he followed me

SM : Yes, yes! But what happened then?

SL: The only logical thing happened. I started to run as fast as I could and he started to run as fast as he could.

SM : And?

SL : The only logical thing happened. He reached me.

SM : Oh, dear! What did you do?

SL : The only logical thing to do. I lifted my dress up.

SM : Oh, Sister! What did the man do?

SL: The only logical thing to do. He pulled down his pants.

SM: Oh, no! What happened then?

SL : Isn't it logical, Sister? A nun with her dress up can run faster
than a man with his pants down.

And for those of you (us) who thought it would be dirty, well ...

An encounter with 3 Ah Peks...

Yesterday night, I was dining at Vino Vino wine bar with fatcat at Mohammed Sultan Road and happened to overhear a conversation coming from 3 middle aged men.

Okay, I sweared that I was not eavesdropping because going by the volume of their conversation, they were practically the loudest table in the restuarant.

What made me interested in their conversation was that these 3 Ah Peks were literally trying to fake an accent, telling their Bangkok adventures and requesting that the chef of the restaurant (there was a new chef by the name of Sonia) served their table. Some interesting and disturbing remarks made by one particular Ah Pek caught my attention and i directly quote what he has said:

Ah Pek 1 said to the waiter:
- 'We are not Singaporeans. We are International. Tell Sonia (the chef) that she is cooking for Internationals like us.We don't want to be served by Singaporeans.'

Ah Pek 1 telling the waitress:
- 'My wife told me I am looking old. So you won't be seeing me here for the next few months as I will be in Bangkok. I am going for plastic surgery.'

and

- 'You know in Thailand, the 'girls' look so pretty that you can't tell if they are boys at all. The moment you touched their hands, you can feel the muscles and you know they are boys.'

Ah Pek 1 raising his voice at the waiter:
- 'Bring the food that we have ordered out.' (when the waiter did not hear what he said, he raised his voice again and repeated).

All this while, i was listening and enjoying my food and was totally digusted by these 3 Ah Peks sitting just one table away from me. I;m not saying that they are bad, but just based on their conversation, I can roughly seized them up and make out the kind of people they are. I would like to say to Ah Pek 1, if you are not proud to be a Singaporean, then don't stay in Singapore and you don't deserve to be serve by Singaporeans at all.

Bad experience with Tour Agency

I had a bad experience with one of the tour agencies in town - ASAHolidays. I had initially booked my tour package to Europe with fatcat somewhere in early October this year. The tour staff who made our bookings verbally confirmed that the tour was set to go on Nov 19 (the date of our tour) and informed that he will update us on the status nearer the date.

We waited till this week (Nov 5) and yet receive no calls from ASA. So, I called their mainline and what was horrendous was that I was put through a chain of call-waiting, silence, phone cutting off and impatient staff who ultimately broke the bad news that there was not enough people to go on this particular date and we had the choice of either (a) pushing it to a further date (29 Nov) or (b) request for a full refund. All this time, I was wondering don't they even have the slightest courtesy to call us and update us on the status instead of having us to call them and being put on call-waiting and all kinds of nonsense?

So, in the end, I decided why should we be throwing our money to ASAholidays when their customer service sucks bad time. Honestly for me, I have never experienced such bad services with other travel services and this was the first and last time I will be using ASAHolidays for any travel plans.

The hilarious part was when I requested for a full refund on my booking, the guy who was supposed to send us the authorization form for filling up left out the attachment in his email and all we got what his email (without attachement and directly quoted from his email) 'Please kindly FEEL up the form and send it back asap please.'

Oh my god!!! I was really in stitches when I read the email and was tempted to reply 'How do you expect me to FEEL up the form when I can't even see the form?'Well, at least...something to laugh it off despite not being able to get on my desired tour.

Witness the undying spirit of Community Power.

Community Technology Update 2007 kicked off to an awesome start on Nov 3. A combined user group efforts with an army of internal and external Microsoft experts brought the house down on that Saturday. Wohoo! The impact that the community has created was vavavooom - People came down precisely because they were thirsty for knowledge and eager to absorb the latest information and Microsoft technologies. I was glad to be part of this event and to witness the passion and spirit of the community!

Somber day for the running community

Another sad day in the running community as Elite distance runner Ryan Shay collapsed and died on Saturday (Nov 3) during the U.S. men's marathon Olympic trials. He was only 28 years old and at his running peak.

Although he was born with an enlarged heart at age 14, doctors gave him the clear and he has since ran his way to fame.

It's kind of disturbing to read such stories of elite long distance runners collapsing and kicking the bucket after finishing a marathorn. Pushing the body beyond endurance or is it just pure coincidence? The vulnerability in human beings is definitely something worth pondering over.

The search for my Hokkien Mee

Eversince I cut down on my carbo (yes, abstain from loading up too much of rice, noodles and fatty stuff) to train for the Singapore Run and Realrun, I had a sudden craving for Hokkien Mee lately. Just for dinner last night, I had a hard time finding a smacking licking good Hokkien Mee stall in Sun Plaza. Sniffing out a good plate of Hokkien mee seems fruitless as I am quite a fussy eater when it comes to my plate of Hokkien mee.

I prefer my Hokkien mee to be cooked in my ways:
a) A mixture of the thin beehoon with the thick beehoon gives more bite
b) The sauce has to be gooey, wet and slurpy (yum yum)
c) Best not to have pork lard although I know that is the ingredient that gives the whole dish it's own characteristics

A dash of lime sauce and some red hot chili and I am all set to gooble down my hokkien mee. I guess I will go in search for my Hokkien Mee tonight again...

Want to hear how you RUN?

Want to hear how you RUN? You must be scratching your head and asking 'How do I hear how I run?' Hmm....well, NIKE is brillant to come up with a Nike+ ready shoes that has been built to cater to this need. All one needs to do is to insert the virtually indestrucible (so they claimed) sensor to your insole and connect the receiver to your iPod Nano (yes, this means you need to go and buy an iPod) and Wala! You can just program it to select the kind of workout you want. It can even store your most recent workout data for future reference! AMAZING!!!

Check out their amazing invention here.

I am really very curious over this Nike+ tool. Do I really want to see how close I am to my target mileage for today or do I want to know how much calories I've burned while I am running? Maybe not - I guess sometimes, running for me is more of a leisure activitiy, just to take my mind off and to enjoy the people and greenery around me. Calories burned, mileage clocked - I think I will pass for now.

Love at first sight......

Moi was in Sri Lanka on Oct 15-17 for DevDay 2007. This time round, DevDay 2007 was held in Mt Lavinia. It's really a gorgeous place with the intoxicating beaches. I fell in love with Mt Lavinia at first sight - a great place for a romantic getaway for anyone who loves the beach. For the finale, it was a beach party with the drinks, food and company..who needs anything else!!!

Garbage Truck

This is an interesting article on Garbage Truck which I personally finds that we as human beings tend to act like one all the time, if not most of the time. Hope it makes your day better.

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Beware of Garbage Trucks By David J. Pollay

How often do you let other people's nonsense change your mood? Do you let abad driver, rude waiter, curt boss, or an insensitive colleague ruin yourday? Unless you're a robot, you are bound to blow your top off. However,the mark of a sucessful person is how quickly he or she can get back his orher focus on what's important.

Sixteen years ago, I learned this lesson. I learn it in the back of a NewYork City taxi cab. Here's what happen. I hopped in a taxi, and we took off for Grand Central Station. We weredriving in the right lane when, all of a sudden, a black car jumped out ofa parking space right in front of us. My taxi driver slammed on his brakes,skidded, and missed the other car's back end by just inches! The driver of the other car, the guy who almost caused a big accident,whipped his head around and he started yelling bad words at us. My taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy. And I mean he was really friendly. So, I said, 'Why did you do that? This guy almost ruined your carand sent us to the hospital!' And this is when my taxi driver told me what I now called, 'The Law of the Garbage Truck'.

Many people are like garbage trucks. They run around full of garbage, full of fustration, full of anger, and full of disappointment. As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it. If they happen to dump it on you,don't take it personally. You just smile, wave, wish them well, and moved on. You'll be happier if you did that rather than fight them. So this was it: 'The Law of the Garbage Truck'.

I started thinking, how often do I let garbage trucks run right over me?And how often do I take their garbage and spread it to other people: at work, at home, on the street? It was that day I said, 'I'm not going to do it anymore.' I see garbage trucks everywhere and everyday. I see the load they're carrying. I see them coming to drop it off. And like my taxidriver, I don't make it a personal thing; I just smile, wave, wish them well, and I move on.

Good leaders know they have to be ready for their next meeting. Good parents know they have to welcome their kids home from school with hugs andkisses. Teachers and parents know that they have to be fully present and attheir best for the people they care about. The bottom line is that successful people do not let garbage trucks takeover their day. What about you? What would happen in your life, startingtoday, if you let more garbage trucks pass you by? Here's my bet. You'll be happier. So...love the people who treat you right.Forget about the ones who don't.Believe that every thing happens for a reason.If you get a chance, TAKE IT!If it changes your life, LET IT! Nobody said it would be easy...They just promised it would be WORTH IT

Cheers!"Life is short. Enjoy the journey
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Of Spideyboy, Poodle and Attack of the Octopus

Sometimes, all it takes is for spideyboy, weird poodle and attack of the Octopus to spice up the day and end a long and tiring working day.

The untold magic

This is really interesting and was sent to me by a MVP. I tried MAGIC #1 and #3 and it worked. Unfortunately for MAGIC #2, I couldn't detect any bug...(still scratching my head). Try it out for yourself.

MAGIC #1
An Indian discovered that nobody can create a FOLDER anywhere on the computer which can be named as "CON". This is something pretty cool...and unbelievable. TRY IT NOW ,IT WILL NOT CREATE " CON " FOLDER


MAGIC #2
For those of you using Windows, do the following:
1.) Open an empty notepad file
2.) Type "Bush hid the facts" (without the quotes)
3.) Save it as whatever you want.
4.) Close it, and re-open it.
Is it just a really weird bug? :-??


MAGIC #3
Microsoft crazy facts
This is something pretty cool and neat and unbelievable. It was discovered by a Brazilian. Try it out yourself...

Open Microsoft Word and type
=rand (200, 99)

And then press ENTER

I want to play a game with you

It's coming back on Oct 26 and I heard it's the finale of all finale. Woohoo! Yes, I am talking about Saw Part IV!! (Thanks 'YanDao' for sharing this with me).

For those who have caught the series of Saw Part I-III, you wouldn't want to miss this for sure. Challenge yourself to enter the mind of a madman's harrowing game and try to get yourself free from a series of interconnected trap or bear the deadly consequences on your own!

Just by looking at the trailers has got me all hype up.Ooooooo...I can't wait.

Prayers of the 2 Sexes

WOMAN'S POEM
Before I lay me down to sleep,
I pray for a man, who's not a creep,
One who's handsome, smart and strong.
One who loves to listen long,
One who thinks before he speaks,
One who'll call, not wait for weeks.
I pray he's gainfully employed,
When I spend his cash, won't be annoyed.
Pulls out my chair and opens my door,
Massages my back and begs to do more.
Oh! Send me a man who'll make love to my mind,
Knows what to answer to 'how big is my behind?'
I pray that this man will love me to no end,
And always be my very best friend.

MAN'S POEM
I pray for a deaf-mute nymphomaniac with huge boobs
who owns a liquor store and a golf course.
This doesn't rhyme and I don't give a shit.

Being forced to grow up too fast

Lately, one of my girlfriend's father was hospitalised and awarded in the ICU (Intensive Care Unit). Despite several blood tests, doctors could not diagnose what was wrong with him. He is now back at home recuperating and has to go back to the hospital for regular check ups and physiotherapy.

My girlfriend recently told me she felt as though as she has suddenly grown up (too fast as a matter of fact) as the burden of the family (her brother is studying overseas) has fallen on her shoulders. Apart from having to deal with stress in her daily work and having to take care of her mother, and now her ailing father has added to her shoulders, she is totally drained both mentally and emotionally, not to mention financially too.

When I told her to stay positive and to look on the bright side of things (I really don't know what to say to her at that point of time). she said to me 'If you are experiencing what I am facing now, it would be a different story.' Yes, I was at a loss of words and who am I to advise her when I am not even in her shoes. I should have put myself in her shoes before I said those words to her.

I guess Life sometimes throws challenges at you that do not have a quick-fix formula and it can drag you down into depths of desperation. But, it is also under such kinds of situations that one needs to prepare developing their emotional fitness. Just as you need to be physically fit to run a marathorn, you need to have emotional fitness when you are forced into a challenging situation that confronts and confounds you. I know it's easier said than done, however, if you are able to ride this turbulent wave of uncertainty, you will definitely emerge as the champion.

The saying that 'Life is never a bed of roses' - how true this is. This is also what makes life challenging as through each experience, we develop certain character that makes us bigger than what we are and the setbacks, griefts and disappointment which we have endured and overcome help us to march forward and onwards. This is the only way to survive if we want to continue to survive.

So, to my friend and if you are reading my blog, don't forget that we are always there supporting you both emotionally and physically. I am sure even if you need any financial support, the volleyball team will be most willing to chip in too. We are just a call away.

E-mail Consequences

This is so funneeee - you must see it and thanks Mag for sharing it with me.

For those of you who are 'sick to death' of getting messages that tell you to forward an e-mail to at least X number of people in the next 15 minutes so that wonderful and miraculous things will happen if you do, and consequences if you don't, so here's is a piece (below) which I think youw will enjoy.

Check out this video.