Category: I See I Write

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I See I Write

Storyboarding at 24 Frames per Second – My First V-blog (Prelude) Episode 5

“There is no point in teaching a young one to choose his battle.  He is going to fight every single one, refuse to relinquish his power, and only experience can teach him such thing: There is no ultimate victory and there is no absolute righteousness.  As his eyes are cast upon the rain of fire, in this bloody ground of the many fallen, down to his last man …”

OK.  I am not that imaginative and I certainly can’t dream of stories with such depth.  My new story is going to be short and sweet.  Animals, lots of animals, from worm to whale, from human to elephant.  And there are brains too, lots of brains.  It is when technology meets biology, from my childhood to my adulthood, and onto my hood that says, “It’s my birthday tomorrow and I can write whatever I want!”.  Numbers, plenty of numbers.  But none is going to tell you how old I am, ha!

I want to challenge your senses in this multi-tasking, short attention span pop culture.  The theme is the same but what you are going to hear will be different from the words you read and will be different from the animations you see.

The first decision I made for my video blog was the number of frames per second.  The rest, is history.  I still need time to touch up on the video.  Time, we all need more time!

PS. Majority of the images you see above were taken in Taman Safari Indonesia back in January this year.  Then there was me, and my family’s dog in Hong Kong.

My 1st v-Blog Mini-Series:

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I See I Write

So Cynthia’s Going to Learn Spanish (Working Title: So Spain Has Won the EURO 2008 Eh?)

My [male] bimboic approach to football tournament – no offence to the fans out there – is more like watching the American Idol.  And hence, my only contribution to the blogosphere (if you can call it one) is my quick drawing of one fine Spanish player who scored the golden goal.  Spain has won the UEFA Cup first time in 44 years, so I read.  44 years is a long time.  I for sure am much younger than that.  Ha!

Before I met Cynthia, who is one football fanatic, I seldom watch football matches on TV.  I can’t remember the name of this dude whom I’ve met in an International school back in the UK, when I was 17.  I think he is an Malaysian and on his wall, he had this huge tournament chart that tracked the World Cup progress.  What a hardcore fanatics he was.  Not only that, he had a large collection of magazines and I remember there was a ring binder – from a magazine publisher I suppose – that contained some of the finest moments in the soccer history in forms of illustration and writing.  I guess that was what people did prior to the advent of Internet, filing contents month after month.  My friend would show me all the wonderful passes from the world famous sorcerers using the materials inside this ring binder of his.  Pele, he pointed out, is a legend and here is why.  I have not met anyone that passionate about football until I met Cynthia.

She is really one of the kind.  And because of her, I found that watching football matches can be entertaining.  For the past couple of world tournaments, I have religiously watched every single match live, even more so than Cynthia.

This year, because no one talks about football in my work place, I can afford to watch some of the recorded matches during the sane hours.  Still, we took leave and watched the final match live.  Cynthia joked that she would pick up either Spanish or German as a new language depending on the outcome of the UEFA Cup final.  I guess it is going to be Spanish then.  And ya, we love the music played whenever there was a goal.  Both of us would jump out of the sofa, hands waving in the air – that is if the goal is not against the team we support.

PS. Interestingly, I have also equated watching the football tournaments to the American Idol back in the Word Cup 2006.

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I See I Write

Gecko in the Sky: One Man’s Pest is Another Man’s Pet

O lovely creatures that roam my home and keep the bad insects in check.  I can’t comprehend why some would smash your species into blood and gore, spilling guts on the walls and on the floors.  I would never do that.  Uh-ah, never crossed my mind.

At times I see some of you in my kitchen, on my bathroom floor.  It is good to have good living creatures in my home because I don’t even keep plants.  I can’t recognize your faces, of course, but I can recognize who are the babies, who are the well fed grown ups that have double, quadruple your infant size.  Because of that translucent skin of yours, it often amuses me to see your dark bulging stomachs, full of flies and ants, spiders and other bad, bad insects perhaps?

From time to time, my shower area is infested by fat and tiny, slow flying creatures.  I would have to smash four or eight of them flat prior to my shower.  What an annoyance!  And they fly onto my face!  Then one of you would arrive, clean the area up.  Now I don’t even see flies in my bathroom no more.

You don’t make me jump.  Except that one time when one of you fell onto my shoulder while I was showering.  I laughed away and really, no harm done.

PS. Picture taken by Cynthia on March 24, 2008.

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I See I Write

It’s Not Who’ll Be In The American Idol Finale. Question Is: Which David Will Win?

American Idol

Provided that there will be no major screw-ups by the two David’s nor any kind of ‘divine intervention’ by the producers, the next few rounds of the American Idol will be exactly like the past few rounds – a series of agonizingly predictable episodes of everybody taking the musical chair of bottom positions except David … and David.  It is not even a remote question of who will be in the final two.  In the absence of a dark horse in this season, we may as well fast forward to the finale and get over and done with what this season ultimately offers – a glorious battle between the little David and the Goliath who also called David; a battle of the soothing pitch perfect young vocalist who specializes in ballads and voice improvisation against the more mature, stage dominator, and arguably the most original singer of all seasons; and if that is not enough, a pianist against a rock guitarist.  Who can really tell what the outcome will be this end May?  Does anyone really care?  I don’t because I love them both.

What American Idol desperately needs is a winner who will have a career after the show, to stand the testimony of time that the producers do discover talents all over US.  Season 1 winner Kelly Clarkson had some fantastic achievement on her first and second albums (2x and 6x platinum in US) but is on decline with her latest one.  Carrie Underwood from season 4 stands as the favorite star of the American Idol having a 7x platinum sales on her debut and for her latest work, a 2x platinum sales.  Recent Idols such as Taylor Hicks and Jordin Sparks are embarrassments to the franchise.  Even the runner-ups are not doing well except Daughtry who achieved a 4x platinum over his band’s debut.

So, who can save the franchise?  David Archuleta or David Cook?  To pick a promising recording artist, my money is on Cook.
 
I love to analyze the weekly results and the trends with my friends – those are also fans of the American Idol.  There are many factors that work with the ‘physics’ of this TV reality powerhouse.  Over 30+ million votes are cast (more towards the finale) by the audience each week and base on what?  Here are the down right dirty open secrets of American Idol that I am sure everyone knows but no one is crazy enough to pen down.  Please note that not one attribute is the governing factor when we attempt to spot the weekly trending.  We need to look at a bigger picture most of the time.

  • Sex: The only season that has contestants of the same sex in the final 3 was, I believe, season 3 with Fantasia, Jasmine, and Diana.  It is rare to see three or more consecutive elimination of the same sex.  In recent years, happened only once in season 6 and didn’t happen at all in season 5.  Season 4 was an odd one but by and large, opposite sex – between a viewer and a contestant – does attract.  So, is it as simple as …
  • Sex appeal: Not!  Fortunately, voters do usually prefer skills over appeal.  But how about last season’s great vocalist Melinda DooLittle?  That has to do with …
  • Growth: Viewers love to see growth.  We love to see not only the heroes but also the making of heroes.  And we love to be influenced by …
  • Judges’ preferences: Besides Paula’s comments, I think viewers do listen to judges’ reaction to each contestant’s performance.  I admit that I do not agree with them all the time.  However, if Randy and Simon are a fan of a someone, that someone is almost certainly going to sail through to the top.  But there is one more person I have not mentioned …
  • Ryan Seacrest: I once read a book (Tipping Point I think) on how a TV anchor’s approving smile could affect the voters’ choice of a presidential candidate.  I personally think that Ryan is a lot powerful than some may think.  At the end of the performance, before he announces the the number to vote, the questions he asks, the gestures he makes – all can give the contestants a little push to a certain direction, good or bad.  Surely you may ask: this is a singing competition and so …
  • Weekly performance: Matters of course.  More so in the initial stage.  But we all know that at times (remember this season who forgot the lyrics and who had to restart the performance but yet they did better than survived?), it is …
  • Fan-base: At work.  At later stage, it is almost all that matters.  And while we are at that, why don’t we examine the contestant’s …
  • Home town support: If you are from LA where celebrities are everywhere, you probably won’t have as much home town support as others (think Katharine McPhee).  That pub you often frequent, the school you grew up with, the church you go, they all add up.  OK.  What else are there to compare against others?  Could it be …
  • Genre: Can American Idol sustains, say, two rockers till late stage?  I think not.  Votes will have to be split amongst contestants of similar genres.  And if your rocker competitor get voted out of the competition, a chunk of the future votes may possibly land onto you and while we are in this topic …
  • Who get voted out last week: Assuming that voters will continue to vote even if the contestants they support leave the competition, I often challenge my mind on questions like: OK, now that Michael Johns get voted out, who would his supporters vote for next?  Imagine that if I do like Michael Johns, what do I like about him?  Talking about voters’ preferences, here is one piece of trivial thoughts that may or may not hold water.
  • Race (?!): 12.5% of Americans are black.  Majority of the blacks support Obama.  That aside, what about …
  • Age group:  Instinctively, I feel that a 21 years old girl may go crazy over the 25 years old David Cook than the 17 years old David Archuleta.  And last but not the least …
  • Divine Intervention: American Idol is a show business.  There are invisible hands behind the scene.  Maybe it is the producers; maybe someone or some entities have a stake on one of the contestants.  Regardless, you will be entertained.  And someone is getting paid for getting you entertained.  Oh, guess what?  I am not done yet.  One final last point (bad English, but who cares?) …
  • Unknown unknown and a game of personality: Cliché as it sounds, there are signals and information that are simply hard to pick up beforehand.  Scandals can spawn from nowhere (like the provocative photos of Antonella Barba in season 6 circulated in the Internet or the news of David Hernandez in the current season as a male stripper … for men).  And we have seen personality that works (David Archuleta’s boyish giggles), personality that should have worked (Kady Malloy’s impersonation of Britney Spears is just oh so funny), and personality that doesn’t.  Star quality to the singers is tantamount to the X-factor of the models – not only you have to born with it but also have to flaunt it in front of the crowd.  The show is called “American Idol” after all, instead of “So You Think You Can Sing”.

OK.  I purposely write this blog entry so long that 99.99% of my readers won’t reach this line.  And I am going to put my money where my mouth is and tell you who I think will win the American Idol.  Hence, even if I am wrong, only a 0.01% of the population may notice and I won’t end up with tons of comments posted here on May 22 to laugh at me.

Based on what I have observed so far, Cook will be the winner.  Cynthia will be upset.  And once again, we will support a different finalist.

What’s new?

And even if I am wrong, I will still stand by all that I have written here with perhaps some fine tuning – part and puzzle of the trending exercise.

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I See I Write

Got Kicked Out From Tourist & Transit Hub @ The Singapore Flyer But Overall Experience Is Positive

Singapore Flyer

I genuinely wanted to know more about where else to sightsee in Singapore.  At the ground floor I saw an outlet called “Tourist & Transit Hub” and I thought I’ve hit the jackpot.  There were brochures at the counter and the place did look like a tourist information centre.  I have no idea why the place is named that way but knowing how ‘unique’ Singapore is, I thought it was meant to be yet another cool branding strategy to reinforce our “Uniquely Singapore” image.

I approached the counter and asked if I could take some brochures.  The not-so-attentive staff motioned me a ‘yes’ and so I took one brochure of “Attractions Directory – Visitor Information” and another one on the Singapore Flyer itself.  Very well!  The centre has a comfortable ambiance.  There was a huge flat panel TV surrounded by a good number of comfortable sofa – all empty.  In front of the TV was a small round table with some local newspapers.  At one end of the centre was an Internet kiosk and there were two men surfing the Internet in this wonderfully air-conditioned place called “Tourist & Transit Hub”.

While waiting for Cynthia and my mother (from HK) to finish their fish spa (more write-up about that later), those empty sofa seemed like a big magnet to my tired body.  As my butt making its way to those seats, I heard a female voice from behind me.

“Can I help you,” said the not-too-friendly staff.  “Erm, not really at the moment.  I just wish to sit down and read through the brochures,” I replied politely waving the brochures in the air.  “This place is for group tourists only,” said she.  I was speechless for a moment standing just an inch away from the sofa and there was hardly a soul in the room!  “How about individual tourists?” I asked.  “You can’t sit here.  Sorry,” she insisted.

I couldn’t think of anything else to do but to leave.  Actually, if she was to allow me to stay, I really wouldn’t mind giving up my seat should the group tourists actually turn up.  How about renaming the center to “Exclusive Group Tourist Lounge”?

Inside Singapore Flyer

I-have-only-my-stupidity-to-blame aside, the Singapore Flyer is actually a charmingly huge structure able to see – as quoted by my mother who has seen the Flyer advertisement in Hong Kong – Malaysia and Indonesia.  (She actually said Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta and I said no way.)  The Singapore Flyer has 28 capsules and it takes 30 minutes to complete one round.  Deep inside my heart, I knew my mother wanted to take the Flyer so … well, she is above 60 so her ticket was S$24.  Both Cynthia and I have to pay S$30 each to go up. 

Being an engineer at heart, I marvelled at the beautiful and symmetric structure.  Although there is probably nothing much to see by now except the Integrated Resort construction site, the highway, the sea, the Marina Bay area, and some of the city buildings, I think it will be a nice view once the Integrated Resort is completed.

The Singapore Flyer is not perfect.  My humble wish-list would be:

  • Make each capsule a mini-museum of Singapore history and introduce the current attraction spots.  It doesn’t have to be elaborate, can be made subtle, and if done right, add new meanings to the experience.  Look, the Flyer has trapped up to 20 tourists in each capsule for 30 minutes and they are not going anywhere.  Why not help them to know Singapore more?  It is actually getting quite boring after the first 3 minutes.
  • Dedicate an area for a museum of the Singapore Flyer itself.  What was the building process, how high is the capsule at topmost position, and etc.  People like to boost about what they have done overseas.
  • Have some automated mechanism to clean the capsule every now and then during the day.  Singapore rains often and if it is the view we are selling, it is quite a turn off to see through those dirty windows (like in our case).
  • Turn the entire area into a mini-carnival.  Add in the clowns and live music, stores to play games and win soft toys.  Make it a fun and colorful place that is memorable.  Right now, the Singapore Flyer looks like some sort of business centre to me.
  • (Perhaps rename “Tourist & Transit Hub @ The Singapore Flyer”)

My mother, Cynthia, and I at the Singapore Flyer

There aren’t many interesting shops in the Singapore Flyer except one – the fish spa where there are tons of fish in the tank ready to nibble your feet’s dead skin away.  My mother is the brave one but Cynthia, I am not so sure.  After reading an article by my blogger friend EastCoastLife on “doctor fish therapy”, I insisted that Cynthia should try.  The package (30 minutes fish spa and 10 minutes shoulder massage) was quite expensive, S$38.  According to ECL, it only cost her S$10 per half an hour!

They both love the results feeling the renewed freshness of the skin.  Cynthia observed that her feet looked whiter.  My mother loved it so much that she grabbed my sister for another session the next day.  Now that my mother is back in Hong Kong, we all know what she misses the most here (definitely not us, sis!).

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Boys Night Out … At Toa Payoh

Toa Payoh At Sunset

Avid readers may recall my good buddy KF the muscleman whom we … erm … did one time publicly admire each other’s bodies (pretty much like what girls do to each other I guess?) and did our little not-what-you-think kind of home videos.  Cynthia granted me a last minute night visa so … Boys Night Out it was!

For reasons that will become apparent to you as you read on, the muscleman has agreed to meet me at Toa Payoh.  My impression of that little old town of Singapore has always been … old and I was pleasantly surprised when I got off the train.  This little old town looks so modern!  KF proudly told me that his hometown, Toa Payoh, has everything one can think of, except a bowling alley.  As I was ‘touring’ the bus terminal, KF proudly informed me that Toa Payoh has the Singapore’s first air-conditioned bus terminal and some of the design flaws it has as compare to the one at AMK such as the placement of shops and so on.  I was nodding my head as though I have an idea of what a bus terminal is like (seriously I have yet to try one of those air-conditioned bus terminal).  I felt like I was the PM touring the Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC.  That was crazy, so much to absorb.

Another crazy thing was that I felt like I was walking around with a super hero.  Gosh, those bulging muscles!  I swear those aunties and young girls were all so checking my super hero friend out.  Tsk tsk tsk … now I am so inspired to do some serious work out … ha ha ha …

The roasted meat was great, the dessert was great too!  KF took me to a park where he often takes his kid to feed the fish … OK, that sounds wrong.  I mean they both love to feed the fish with breadcrumbs.  What a loving father he is!  And there we were, two of us, seeing the sunset at the charming little town of Toa Payoh … hmmm … anyway, I quickly took out my phone and snapped a picture (see above) and headed to …

The main reason of my visit was to check out the flat panel TVs.  KF has been in this mission of trying to help me to decide on a TV for years.  As I was looking up and down and up and down on two of the major brands, I still could not make up my mind.  And I gave up …

8.25pm and we both rushed into the Crystal Jade bread shop.  KF wanted to get a particular bread that his son loves (again … what a loving father!).  The night discount of 20%+ starts at 8.30pm every evening.  I said to KF that we were still early.  He replied, “We should start queuing up now.  The whole community will be here soon!”

True enough, there were quite a number of people queuing up at the counter but not paying.  It was actually quite a scene.  The cashier looked elsewhere pretending that the customers were not around.  The queuing customers looked elsewhere pretending that there was a virtual queue in front of them.  When the clock struck 8.30pm, the cashier started to count the bread and the queuing customers snapped to life.  Suddenly, the shop was so full of people grabbing all that they could see on the shelves.

I may not have decided on which TV to buy.  But certainly tonight was an interesting night out.

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Horror I See I Write Movie Reviews

Body #19 – Lack Of Fear Factor But The Crowd Was Awesome!

Body 19

This is not my usual stuffs, I swear. It’s going to be a fun read. I think there are way more girls who can take horror movies than guys. The question is: why?! Amongst all my guy friends, I seem to be the odd one out who truly enjoy watching horror movies. But I can name you quite a number of my female friends who actually enjoy or don’t mind watching this genre of movie. Unfortunately for me, Cynthia belongs to that 1% who can’t take it. Knowing that asking TK would be a waste of time so I have decided to watch “Body #19” alone – like the last time when I watched “Alone” alone.

There was no popcorn flying to my face this time and I did make a mental note that if the dude in front was to hold a box of popcorn, I would shift seat. On my right was a bunch of girls. On my left was a pair of girls. I am telling you, I bet more than 75% of the audience are girls.

What I observe from the crowd is this: most of the audience comes in large groups. Perhaps they need some emotional support? And there are quite a number of people who are on our own. These are usually the quiet ones. The screaming ones usually come from the groups or at times, the pairs.

What I LOVE about watching a horror movie is really the crowd. I observe that more often than not, in a horror movie setting, you bound to find some pockets of audience who chit-chat throughout the movie. I think they are the scared ones and they chit-chat their way just to divert their attention. And you know there are times when something bad is going to happen on the screen – believe it or not – usually there are one or two persons in the crowd who tend to scream ahead of time (or make certain moaning sound). It is incredible how much entertainment value these people provide and it makes the anticipation more real. Then of course, at times the anticipation leads to nothing … and suddenly … BAMP! … a loud sound and most of the audience will jump out of our seats. These effects usually get me and people usually laugh about it after the act. The most disturbing ones are the scenes that get some of the audience screaming out loud continuously.

And that was what happened to at least one guy and one girl in the theatre. One girl behind me screamed so loud and so long in duration that I thought she was going to pass out. At the end of the movie, thanks to the director who gives the audience one last shock, the girl behind me was screaming and choking. I turned around and she didn’t look well at all.

I wonder why.

To me, “Body #19” lacks the fear factor. I was shocked at most 5 times and those blood scenes, or body-part scenes, or ghost scenes really didn’t get me at all. I can imagine if I was watching this with my buddy Mark, he would pass out seeing so much blood on the screen. The storyline of “Body #19” is good though – full of twists and turns. “Body 19” is from the studio that brought us “Shutter” and “Alone”. “Shutter” is a great movie by the way. I personally don’t think “Body #19” is anywhere near.

But still, I love the crowd!

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I See I Write

Nokia’s N95 8GB – First Impression

The new Nokia N95 8GB, in my humble opinion, is a true beauty. I will tell you why in just a bit. I did not anticipate a phone upgrade. My last phone was a N80 just 1.5 years ago. Since SingTel was kind enough to extend the expiry date of my S$120 voucher for another 3 months (while at the same time issued me another S$120 voucher that lasts till the end of 2008), I traded in my N80 and got my new phone for just over S$300 with a 2-year plan.

The first thing you shall notice is that the screen of N95 8GB is pretty big. Especially so when compares to its sibling N95. Not only that, the charger is really tiny and light – a size less than your normal power plug (again, smaller than its sibling). In fact, the phone is pretty light. More than one friend of mine are surprised by its weight. N95 8GB is lighter than my old N80, thinner as well. I like the “latch” feeling when I slide the phone upward to reveal the keypad (N80 didn’t have that feel) or when I slide the other way to reveal the media player buttons. Once I slide downward, the screen automatically switches from portrait to landscape. Neat! Landscape mode is best for viewing pictures, video clips, and surfing Internet.

I am a big music lover. So the first thing I did with the phone was to play some music. Mind you, forget about the audio format that the Nokia desktop software suggests. Go for a good quality MP3 conversion (by iTune or Windows Media Player) and stick by it. You have 8GB and it is more than enough to store close to 1,500 songs of good sampling quality. On the day I got my phone, I invested in a good pair of Sennheiser headphone. It is a must-have, believe me. The media player of the Nokia N95 8BG allows you to have the audio settings of loudness (good for my car stereo), stereo widening (good for headphone listening), and a standard set of equalizer that caters for different genres of music. Cynthia was pleased with the sound quality of the phone, and she has an iPod player.

One music video clip takes up about 20MB after conversion by Nokia desktop software and the result on the N95 8GB is stunning. Of course, cutting videos from your favorite DVD or CD could be tedious (I will post a how-to article later) but I can tell you, it is worth it.

The browser is a lot faster than my old N80. And thanks to all the free wi-fi network in around Singapore, I found myself connecting to the Internet often when I am outside. Wireless@sg has certainly improved since its first launch. Even at Thomson Plaza, I can access the Internet at a relatively high speed (snail speed when I was at Orchard though).

Some people I’ve talked to are concern about the battery life. Let me tell you one thing. One fine day I was making phone calls, listening to music, watched some videos, log onto Internet to check the stock market and to watch YouTube mobile the entire day, and surprisingly, the battery survived.

Though there are still quite a number of functionalities I have not explored (such as the GPS and Podcast), by and large, I am glad that I have this new phone. The only complain I have? It doesn’t run on the standard Java platform, only a scaled down version I suppose.  That would have been nice because I book movies online often and I buy and sell stocks in the Internet too.

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I Am Toast, What About You?

Tigerfish is eggs. So I am curious. Just what sort of breakfast I am. And I did a simple test …


You Are Toast


Old fashioned and a bit of a homebody, you totally go for comfort food.You’re the type who loves to cook for friends, and they love you for it.You truly know what tastes good, and you can often pick out the best dish at a restaurant.

You don’t fall for food trends. You stick with what’s been food for a long time!

What Kind of Breakfast Are You?

I have to say, though being a “toast” is not sexy and uncool … what is said about me is mostly correct. Gasp! Old fashioned … skip … homebody, yes … comfort food, oh yes … love to cook for friends? Yep, that is me. Picking the best dish at a restaurant? Now I know why I always hold onto the menu and order for everybody! Ha ha ha.

Now go ahead, test out what sort of breakfast you are!

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Com’on! My Site Is Rated “R”. Where Does That Come From?!

Online Dating

When I told my friends that my site is rated “R”, instead of being sympathetic, they are jealous that their sites are rated “G” instead. I want to be rated “G”. I want to be universal and to know that even a 3 years old kid may find my site interesting without worrying that I am a bad influence to that 3 years old. I was actually furious wanting to shoot and kill any insect in sight or to drop a bomb to desecrate the entire cluster of ant colonies (yes I do have ants problem at home that just won’t go away … and I bet that last sentence will earn me another 2 weeks of R rated status).

In retrospect, if I continue to write reviews on movies that are NC-16 rated, M18 rated, and R(A) rated, continue to write reviews on music albums that comes with that “Parental Advisory – Explicit Content” sticker, continue to post lyrics of my songs that is dark in nature – it is only fair that my site is rated “R”.

Still … that red sticker displeases me.

Footnote: Some friends of mine out of curiosity asked how exactly my site is rated. Basically, this online dating site provides a keyword search service on the submitted site’s front page and the submitted site is then classified based on the results of this search. Many people relate “R” rating to vulgarity and explicit sex but less so to violence and blood and gore.