Category: I See I Write

I promise to show you a picture of a hottie. Just stay with me.

Today (Thursday) was such a dramatic day. But I will get to that in a future blog depending on how tomorrow turns out.

Cynthia’s cousin is in town and he has chosen Hooters as our dinner destination. Fine by me. I have been to Hooters a couple of time mainly because my buddy RC loves to lunch there. I was terribly late and when I arrived (more details to come later), I got a shock of my life. Cynthia’s cousin was there. His wife was there. His 3 kids were there. His wife’s brother was there. His wife’s brother’s wife was there. His wife’s brother’s 2 kids were there. Hence as you can see in the picture (pardon the quality as my phone is not that great in taking pictures in the dark) – Cynthia and the 5 kids … at Hooters. I was the only Singaporean in the party. The rest are all Indonesians.

Kids at Hooters eh? Somehow the idea of Hooters girls and kids don’t really mix.

But it is kind of cute to see those kids. I was like the magnet and they all wanted my attention. So cute. Cynthia was kind of giving me that jealous look but hey, they kind of love me. Not my fault eh?

Two of the Hooters girls did that Hula Hoop dance and somehow got all the kids excited. They all got into the dance floor and tried Hula Hoop too turning the area into a playground. Think of this … Hooters turns into a family playground. Hard to reconcile.

And then, there was a drinking competition. Each contestant was given a super long tube to suck the glass of beer dry. Hooters picked someone from France, someone from Australia, Hong Kong, and a girl and guy from Singapore. Everyone except the guy from Singapore were good looking. I have a picture to prove (You can’t see the guy from Singapore, thank God … and check out the only girl contestant in the competition). In the end, the guy from Hong Kong won and got himself … 10 Hula Hoops from Hooters.

What an interesting night. Cynthia and I headed to another pub later to talk about something serious. And that is another story.

(Erm … I apologize if this blog gets too “geek-ish” towards the end. I love watching reality shows such as America Idol because I love to decipher how voters think.)

I think by now anyone who follows the America Idol on TV should know that the 17 years old Jordin has won the competition. And if you have realized, I usually get excited and vocal about the Idol shows in my own website but after two big disappointment whereby someone whom I supported from day one made it to the finales only to emerge as runner-ups (McPhee of Amercian Idol and Jonathan of Singapore Idol), I kept my opinions pretty private this season. By the way, did you know that last season’s finale was exactly one year ago (+1 day). I still have the blog written for the final 3 performance.

Friends of mine who are into this season of America Idol know that I am a fan of Jordin. I like her voice, her smile, and the way she connects to the audience. Throughout the season, Jordin’s performance has been consistence except for the Bon Jovi night. I don’t think she is born to be a rocker. Even Melinda, the most consistence of all, has one bad night. In that sense, I think the only two contestants who have won judges’ praises episodes after episodes are Jordin and Melinda.

Many wished to see Jordin and Melinda at the finale but hey, there are voters who vote for stage performance and originality and there are voters who vote for great voice so while Jordin and Melinda (and to some extend the vocal powerhouse such as Lakisha) all fought for the same pool of votes, Blake cruised into the finale with another pool all by himself. Of course, let’s not forget there are voters who prefer male contestants and others who prefer female contestants. Katharine made it to the finale as the only girl in the final 4 amongst Taylor, Elliot, and Chris. Blake made it to the finale as the only guy in the final 4 amongst Jordin, Melinda, and Lakisha. It is no hard science of course – just a little swing in probability. And I usually look at the racial distribution, age distribution, and etc. in order to decipher the voting results. I even have one theory that those who have landed on the bottom positions (at times the show announces) has a dampening effect on their chance in reaching the top. Look, there are reasons why someone is not having enough votes at some point in time especially if they have not really screwed up their performance. Fan base grows over time. It is hard to become popular in just one episode. And furthermore, I usually pay attention to what happens to those voters whose contestants they support get voted out of the competition. For instance, those who were used to support Melinda (read: they value vocal performance), how would they cast their votes to the surviving contestants? That’s why I love to watch reality shows such as America Idol. Lots of thinking behind. There is one more thing to decipher: why do Cynthia and I always support a different contestant? And you guessed right, we are still not talking … (hmmm)

Enough of boring geek talks. Check out Jordin’s final performance at the finale that totally out-sang Blake on the same song. Jordin, you have made my day.

I am not sure how often any of you visit local grocery stores such as NTUC. Since the outbreak in the pig farms just across the straits – for as far as I can remember – Singapore or rather NTUC has been importing pork from Australia instead. Couple of weeks ago, the counter that was used to be filled with AirPork (air flown pork from Australia) was overtaken by a new local supply by a far greater margin (somewhat like 80% of the shelf space). The packaging is very attractive and the meat does look fresher than AirPork. I saw a staff who usually works behind the beef counter admiring this parade of new products and I started to have a chat with him.

Me: Wow, these are local pork eh?
Meat Man: (Giving me a serious and stern look) These are local pork. Much fresher than AirPork … (and he continued to educate me why it is so … common sense really).

I noticed that the new packaging comes with all the new terminology as well. I am so used to the naming convention of AirPork that I found it hard to actually choose which type of meat to buy from the local pork.

Me: Man, I really don’t know which one is which.
Meat Man: What you want?
Me: Pork muscles … AirPork used to have that.
Meat Man: Pork muscles no have but this … (holding up a “priced” item) … is rare. One pig one piece.

I looked at the price and I gasped. Next to me came an old man …

Old Man: Why change all the names? How to buy?
Meat Man: (Randomly picked up a package) … try this. Just try.

I just could not decide which one to take. Another thing strange about the new packaging is that unlike AirPork that has the information on the weight of the meat as well as price per kg. This new local supply has this tag of “not less than 250g” with the same type of meat selling at a fixed price making a price comparison totally inconvenience.

I picked up one type of meat, put it back, picked up another, and put it back. Finally I laid my hands on the minced pork.

Me: Man, this looks really fatty (as my finger circled around all the white fatty stuffs).
Meat Man: Pork, no fat, no good to eat. Local pork pink. AirPork red. Pink more fresh.

Not sure if I really wanted to risk my health over something that was obviously fatty, I picked up what seemed like lean pork loin to me (that is the name I am familiar with). I must say, though the portion was a bit too much just for Cynthia and I (250g for 2 people is a lot), the taste was out of the world. I was in Heaven, for a moment. Succulent and fresh.

Couple of days ago I returned to NTUC and the local supply only occupy 20% of the shelf space. The rest was repopulated by AirPork. I was not surprised. Even with someone who enjoyed the experience that much, I did a mental calculation. The local supply must have been 20% to 40% more expensive than AirPork. I doubt if the local supply will win the battle at all.

If I was to market the new supply, I would have … (1) named the type of pork exactly the same as AirPork to gain immediate acceptance, (2) slabbed in a promotional price to make it competitive with AirPork, and (3) created a premium category and/or drive down the cost to make the pricing sustainable. And if the live fish suppliers are doing the same, more Singaporeans will enjoy the freshness of seafood rather than keep eating the dead fish. It is ridiculous that the dead fish costs the same if not more than the live fish in Hong Kong.

PS: Picture taken when we were in Melbourne.

My good buddy Sing Chyun has passed me one of his three precious Joost closed-beta invitations (thank you!) which by now he should be able to send 99 invites like me. I hope that the number of invites one can send does not correlate with the amount of time one has spent watching Joost. Then again, according to the shocking statistics from YouTube, I have watched closed to 4,000 videos so far. How can that be true?!

Joost offers a multitude of TV channels that fit a certain segment of niche market. I suspect that more channels will open up as time goes by (hope it is not by usage). The first channel I stumbled across was “Alliance Atlantis Sci-Fi” and the first episode of “Total Recall 2070” (more than 40 minutes) was streamed into my computer in a better-than-VCD quality. I was impressed with the full screen quality. (Of course I was slightly surprised by some of the artistically filmed nudity scenes made in 1999 that by the way, it is not what Joost is about I ensure you.) Though I must say in normal circumstances I probably would not watch “Total Recall 2070” on TV but it is refreshing. The production is professional; the acting is also professional; the storyline though is strange. That is what sci-fi is about I guess. Gosh, I don’t even read sci-fi fiction. If I have time, I will certainly follow the rest of the episodes.

Joost does not offer video over the Internet Browser like YouTube. It has its own interface. The interface looks pretty though it took me quite a while to figure out how not to watch random Joost recommended videos and to choose my own. I am sure that is nothing wrong with the interface design. I am fair. I was just too overwhelmed by the experience I guess.

Joost interface has a translucent panel at the bottom that has the simple player control. It also allows you to switch videos within the channel and to switch channels within Joost. A translucent icon on the left “My Channels” upon clicked onto display a translucent list of channels that can be further explored to a list of available videos. Another translucent icon on the right “My Joost” is what makes Joost innovative. It has a list of widgets. There is a translucent clock, a rating mechanism, and amongst a few others, I like the chat-room a lot. The viewers of the same channel are brought together to chat while watching the videos. Much like having a group of friends watching TV in the same room. Of course if you don’t want to see any of these translucent features, you can just hide them all and watch TV alone. There is one more translucent icon on the top that gives forth an interactive menu that contains a little bit of history and background of the channel as well as a list of featured videos in some cases.

The next channel I watched after that mildly-shocking-sci-fi-channel was “Live @ Much” and I have watched a 40 minutes worth of live interview with Beyonce in Canada in front of her fans. It is much like E! Entertainment and I enjoyed getting to know Beyonce better. Time to get her new CD! The channel “Ministry of Sound Music Videos” is interesting. I got to see a MoS DJ from London taking the viewers a short tour on where are the DJs’ favorite hangout places such as underground record stores, restaurants, shops, and watching the street of London brought back sweet memory. London does not seem to have changed much. The Chinatown still looks the same and so does the iconic Empire theater.

“Lime” is an unique channel with a tag line “healthy living with a twist”. I have watched some of the motivational short clips and all of a sudden, I feel empowered. It is just amazing. And as someone who is passionate on music creation, I can’t give “XL Recordings Channel” a miss. They have some of the original artists under their label as well as some that license their music to them. Big names such as “The White Stripes” and “Thorn Yorke”. Inside Joost, they showcase two of the acid rock bands “The Prodigy” and “Basement Jaxx”. Again, refreshing videos.

At present I am not sure what Joost’s business model is like. It doesn’t seem to have advertisements, it is free TV, and they want to create a community within Joost. Joost is more than TV-on-demand like our MobTV (which is not free). Joost is an experience.

Edit: I just realized that from May, all current Joost users are able to invite an unlimited number of friends. Also, Joost’s advertisement partners have started to come in so I guess that answers why it is “free”.

Related Links: Joost Official Site, XL Recordings, Lime, Ministry of Sound, and Much Music.

Gosh, it is difficult to write this blog. How little do I know about the local entertainment industry, set aside the region. Besides, this is probably one blog that a handful of my overseas readers will not be able to relate and the remaining Singaporean readers will disagree with. But there you go. I try not to write politically correct blogs. I try to stick to what I observe.

One evening while playing back one of the recorded TV programmes, Cynthia was in horror that her favorite show “Desperate Housewives” was not showing at 10pm as it normally did. Instead, “Desperate Housewives” was knocked over to a later time slot by a local production “After Hours”. While Cynthia was fast forwarding the recording at lightning speed, I recognized one of the actresses. She was in one of the magazines … was it FHM? … and then I screamed stop, took over the remote control, and had a closer look. As I was reading the end credits, I did recognize her name and she was in FHM. Okay, she looks better on magazine (so much fairer than on TV) but what caught my attention was the short music video of hers at the end of the show. The song in English is called “So Real” written by the actress herself and though some may criticize her vocal range, I do appreciate singers who write and perform their own songs. Besides she looks hot in the video and guess what? I do like the song. She is Linda Liao.

I don’t know how much you can qualify “After Hours” as a local production. We have a Taiwanese MTV VJ (Linda Liao), a Thai-Chinese MTV VJ who is now based in Singapore (Utt), a Swiss-Chinese MTV VJ whose hometown is at Switzerland (Max Loong), and a local actress who has won a few local awards (Joanne Peh). With such a crew composition, how “local” can the production be? Then again, we are talking about Singapore, an unique land of limited opportunity, limited resources, but happy to leverage on … “foreign talents”.

To be fair, let’s not talk about Utt’s acting. He has a good look and that is about it (sorry Utt, love it when you host MTV programmes though). I think Max’s casual and at times comical acting may win some hearts and that too is about it. As for Linda, I just cannot reconcile with what I saw on the magazine and what is on the screen. I guess she does have the overall package and guys and girls who prefer the slim girl type may adore her. I think her acting is okay. What I like is her well rounded package of a singer/songwriter, actress, and MTV VJ (again, love that video). Out of all four, I do think that our local actress Joanne, the only non-VJ, stands out to be better in terms of acting. I think she looks sweet too.

Some may discount the quality of local production. I do too. But what I like about “After Hours” is the cinematography. Some of the cut scenes do feature a slice of Singapore well – be it as Orchard, Times Bookstore, a street in CBD, Coffee Bean, or just an estate – giving the viewers like myself a sense of familiarity in a good way. Perhaps I am more into making videos these days and have been spending time with YouTube, I do get to appreciate what is behind the camera better. Script-wise, can be corny at times but surprise to say, I do enjoy the lightheartedness after a long day of … whatever (I can’t say the word “work”, can I?).

I think “After Hours” is not bad. You may wish to give it a try with an open mind. All you need to do is not to turn off your TV after “Desperate Housewives”, which I am sure half of the population of Singapore is currently watching.

Related Link: Excerpt from Channel 5 Website.

Yesterday I had an important appointment to attend and just when I was ready to go, I failed to retrieve the location of the appointment from the Internet. Google was down together with my emails and calendar entries. Panic! At the 12th floor … I waited and waited and somehow many of the International sites could not be reached. Fortunately, the Google Gmail application installed in my 3G Wi-Fi mobile phone has a copy of an old email. From the email address, I figured out the company name. I did a search online at Yellow Pages and found the office address. Barely made it on time.

So, the question is, how far will you rely on free online services? And how much an online service can promise to deliver when there are many factors such as the network and infrastructure that is beyond control?

I love using Google’s Gmail. I think it is revolutionary to organise emails that bounce to and fro between multiple recipients into one single expandable conversation. No more “RE:” and “FW:” that cluster the mailbox especially when you have 20 recipients reply to each other putting everyone else into the copy list. With an application that enables us to read Gmail on my mobile phone, that is just sweet.

Impressed with Google’s Gmail, I was tempted to try the Google Docs & Spreadsheets. Microsoft Office dominates the market of productivity tools in both office and in some way, our homes. Almost all the documents created nowadays are in Microsoft Words format. Then came Sun’s OpenOffice that offers free applications in creating documents and spreadsheets and even presentation slides that can be saved into Microsoft formats. It is good news to home users like me because I do not need to pay for a software that I seldom use at home and since the same document can be read and edited in both Microsoft Office and OpenOffice, I am not fussy over the occasional incompatibility issues (Microsoft is always one step ahead of OpenOffice for obvious reason).

Out of nowhere came Google that offers a documents and spreadsheets collaboration tool over the Internet for free. Forget about setting up a shared drive in your network to share the document editing task with your co-authors, forget about the clumsiness of sending the document to and fro for your friends to edit via email just because you all are not working at the same place, forget about setting up an access control to give permission to certain groups of people who can view and edit your document, most impressively, Google Docs & Spreadsheets allows you and your co-authors – whom you have invited – to edit the documents and spreadsheets simultaneously. The refresh rate is pretty impressive and you can literally see what changes others have made in real time. To keep a revision is simple and all the documents and spreadsheets can be downloaded and saved in Microsoft, OpenOffice, and PDF formats. And the real beauty of saving my work online? I can work on it almost anywhere that has an Internet access. The same way you can search for contents from the Internet, you can search through your documents’ contents efficiently like your very own little Internet space.

On the flip side, you would probably not to expect all the bells and whistles Microsoft products and OpenOffice offer. And the first question of this blog reminds: how far will you rely on free online services? I did panic when Google was down especially when I am current writing a novel using Google Docs. Having said all these, I still believe that collaboration via the Internet and having the flexibility to work on any computer still the future to be.

Related Sites: Google Docs & Spreadsheets, OpenOffice.org.

At first I wanted to write, “We Met Ericia Lee”, but although we were in the same place as her, we didn’t talk except an exchange of friendly smile, it is more appropriate to use “We Saw Ericia Lee”. Or to be more exact, “I Saw A Celebrity” because at that moment, the lady whom I was holding hand with seemed to have vanished (joking!) and seriously, I had no clue what her name is. All thanks to Cynthia’s not-so-correct memory on car park level that got us face-to-face with Ericia Lee (on the evening we watched the movie “The Fountain” at VivoCity). What was she doing? Waiting for her partner to pick her up I suppose. My first impression was: wow! Second impression was: she is very pretty and indeed prettier than she is on TV (though I must say Cynthia does not share the same opinion on that count … on whether she is pretty at all). Third impressive was: she is tiny … and very skinny! So, yes, “I Saw A Celebrity” and no, that picture was not taken by me. Surprisingly, Cynthia remembers her by name.

That day was not the first time I saw a celebrity in Singapore. Not too long ago we saw Glenn Ong dining at one of the restaurants we were dining at VivoCity. And about a year ago, we saw Stefanie Sun at HMV Orchard (see previous blog). I wonder if VivoCity is now the place-to-be for celebrities.

I remember in one of the case studies as illustrated by Melcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, we human beings are sensitive to the environment around us without us consciously thinking about it. Take a mad driver like me in Singapore and put me in Melbourne, I am a changed man. Drivers in around Melbourne do stick to the speed limit and I must admit it is a pleasant experience because most people are sticking by the rule. No aggressive drivers like we do in Singapore.

When I rented my small car from Metrocar second day into my Melbourne trip, I had a nice chat with the salesman. And in especially I wanted to know how traffic laws are enforced in Australia. I do that all the time wherever I go. For instance, in Malaysia, 110 km/hr is the highway speed limit. 120 km/hr is how much you can safely reach with a low possibility of getting fined. Anything above 120 you will have to exercise common sense like watch out for policemen hiding underneath the opposite pillar of an overhead bridge (i.e. slow down when approaching one), watch out for policemen lying flat on the ground on either side of the highway (this one is hard, be prepared to jam brake), watch out for policemen hiding around the road construction area (because drivers are usually distracted by the mess around the roadwork area and for me, I usually slow down), watch out for flashing headlights from the cars of the opposite direction (road block ahead). Knowing the time of the month when the policemen need to meet a certain speeding ticket quota helps too. Of course there are other things to watch out for such as holiday period, timing of the day, concentration of Singaporean drivers (yes, they love to fine us), and so on.

Driving in Mauritius is totally insane. You can basically get away with any kind of speed during morning rush hours. A local once told me that the authority usually keeps a closed eye because having the traffic to move faster in the morning rush hours is not necessarily a bad thing. The only thing to watch out for is late at night when you can see the policemen mounted on their shiny motorcycle ready to catch you speed away.

Singapore is an interesting place. The mechanism is based upon deterrence and the aim is to keep the accident rate in tap. Speed cameras are deployed on major highways and there are tons of road signs to remind us of the speed cameras miles ahead. The traffic police has this mobile speed camera that somewhat looks like a video camcorder. These traffic policemen with their white and shiny uniforms under the sun are either standing on an overhead bridge that is hard to miss or they are along the side of the highway with a shiny motorcycle or a shiny Subaru WRX parked next to them. At night, they will turn on all the lights of their Subaru WRX – of white, yellow, and blue – and you must be pretty drunk to even miss this blinking Christmas tree on your left. And if you talk to any taxi driver, they know all the exact locations where the traffic police try to hide and give us the drivers a surprise. So with all said, some Singaporean drivers (knowing that our government does scan our blogs) pay more attention to the “road conditions” other than speed limit road signs.

Within the state of Victoria, however, is a different story. They have hidden radars all over the place (even the speed limit around the road work areas are enforced). According to this dude from Metrocar, the state of Victoria receives AUD 300 million odd a week from fines. Those radars are capable of knowing if you have been speeding in a stretch of 5 or so km. I guess how it works is that once you enter a slower limit zone, you have the next couple of kilometers (or less) to slow down. The pattern is similar. When you are in no man land, you can go by 100 km per hour. Once you approach town, you are asked to slow down to 80 then 60, and if the city is pretty big, to 50 and 40. Once you leave town, you can increase your speed from 40 to 50 to 60 to 80 to 100. It can be pretty stressed up at times as I did from time to time forget if the speed limit has changed – especially when I turned into a scenic lookout location and when I was back in the main street, I usually turned to my navigator for advice on speed. More likely or not, none of us could remember what the speed limit was.

Highways in and around Melbourne are mostly toll free. Locals have a device in their cars that enable them to pass through the toll and have their accounts deducted (or it is like a monthly fee, I am not sure). For travellers like me, if you pass the toll, you have to visit a post office (or a 7-eleven) within 24 hours to declare that you have utilised which stretch of highway and pay for the toll. If you are unsure, it is not possible for you to enquire if there is a need for you to pay because your record will only be in the computer system 3 working days after you pass the toll without a valid device. By then, it will be too late. Failed to declare will result in AUD 100 fine as well as an administration charge of AUD 55 by your car rental company. If you think Singapore is a “fine” country, think twice.

After dinner, Cynthia and I was pondering what to do. I knew she would be happy left alone in her fantasy World of Warcraft and she gently reminded me that Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show 2006 would be airing in Singapore tonight. I have watched the TV trailer of the show and hell yes, I want more! (The trailer stopped halfway with a black screen showing the text “You Want More” before basting the TV audience with more tantalising images.)

If you don’t know what “Victoria’s Secret” is, I don’t know where to begin. I first heard of this wonderful brand back in the days when I went for a 3-weeks training in US a good number of years ago. My training roommate and buddy Colin wanted to get a few Victoria’s Secret products for his girlfriend (now wife). I still remember when Colin held up a very flimsy and sexy pantie and asked the salesgirl if that was comfortable and functional at all. The lady replied: oh yes, I am wearing it now! Uh-huh … and she was really attractive as well. You should have seen Colin’s face turned red almost instantly.

I am not a fan of fashion shows nor into beauty pageants. But Victoria’s Secret Fashion show?! It is a different story. The filming of the show is good showing some of the hectic scenes behind the curtains. One time, a high heel shoe slipped off from one of the models when she started walking the runway and she finished the catwalk with just one shoe. Truly amazing that if viewed from a distance, you wouldn’t even notice the difference.

I found one clip from YouTube and if any of my friends wish to view the show, I have it recorded in DVD quality! (Cynthia was like: Huh? You are recording it?! And I was like: Huh? Duh!)

Related Link: Victoria’s Secret’s Official Website.