Pelican Swallows Pigeon Whole! Freaky! I know Pelican swallows live fishes, but I didn’t know they do this to other birds too! Technorati Tags: pelican swallows pigeon whole, pigeon, pelican, bird eat bird, bird eating bird, pelican eats pigeon in london, pelican video What the Hell! omy什么鬼都有! Yesterday was the first day of the Lunar 7th Month. Did you notice any strange on the homepage of omy.sg? From 1 to 30 August 2008, omy.sg, will mark the seventh month of the lunar calendar with a fun and interactive online campaign. Visitors to omy.sg will be in for a series of spooky surprises when they browse through the 12 sections of the portal. To see the full set of artworks, you can visit omy’s graphic designer, Marc Chen’s blog. You can also join the “What the Hell! omy什么鬼都有!” facebook group to show your support for the campaign. In the Showbiz section (showbiz.omy.sg), celebrities such as Joi Chua (蔡淳佳), Kenji Wu (吴克群), Victor Huang (品冠), Milk (牛奶) and Jackie Chan’s son, Jaycee Chan (房祖名), will relate ghostly encounters via exclusive vodcasts. In addition, deejays from Radio 100.3FM will be sharing their own ghost stories. omy will also be recommending horror movies which are worth watching. The Lifestyle section (lifestyle.omy.sg) will feature the refreshing concept of ghost tourism, and bring visitors to the world’s top ten haunted tourist attractions. There will also be interviews and vodcasts with Getaiorganisers and performers, with lots of interesting insights into the trade. The seventh lunar month is also commonly known as the Hungry Ghost Festival. To whet the appetite of “hungry souls” during late night hours, the Eat section of omy.sg (eat.omy.sg) will introduce some of the coolest, undiscovered supper hangouts in the city. Students are invited to share ghost stories in the Yzone section (yzone.omy.sg). In the Showtime section (showtime.omy.sg), users can send in photos and videos of Getai performances to share with others online, or simply send in their scariest faces! Omy’s own blog (blog.omy.sg) will be tracking all the campaign activities. Users can write in and interact with the omy team, and send in ghost videos, stories, photos or any other material related to the theme to share with others. For the first four days, there will even be a game on the homepage to entertain visitors to omy.sg. For more information, log on to www.omy.sg or http://blog.omy.sg/lunar7month. Technorati Tags: What the Hell!, omy什么鬼都有!, WTH, hungry ghost festival, singapore, getai, lunar seventh month, lunar 7th month, ghost sightings, singapore ghosts, omy, omy.sg, campus ghost stories, marc chen, ghost campaign, interactive ghost campaign, showbiz, Joi Chua, 蔡淳佳, Kenji Wu, 吴克群, Victor Huang, 品冠, 牛奶, Jaycee Chan, 房祖名, celebrities’ ghost stories, lifestyle, yzone, omy blog Money No Enough 2 《钱不够用2》 I watched Jack Neo’s Money No Enough 2 (MNE2) on Monday at the Gala Premiere, together with the a theatre full of bloggers from the omy’s Singapore Blog Awards. I have always been a Jack Neo movie fan as his movies always provide me with a good laugh after a hard day at work. They are entertaining and reach out to the heartland crowd. That’s good enough for me, as well as the bulk of Singaporeans who repeatedly helped his movies to reach box office success. Here’s the movie trailer for a preview: Sans the blatant product placements and the bad CGI, I think MNE2 was good entertainment and I believe most of those who paid to go watch it will agree too. However, it seems the local movie critics will disagree with most people on this. Jack Neo’s movies are always given extremely bad ratings, especially by movie critics from the English media. Frankly, I don’t think it is being fair. The Straits Times, Singapore’s leading English newspaper, actually gave MNE2 only one and a half star out of five rating. If it was Ah Long Pte Ltd (which even a fan like me thinks is horrible), I would think it is reasonable, but seriously, MNE2 got so bad meh? Sometimes, I think film critics just pretend to favour painful-to-watch box office flops by art-house directors like Tsai Ming-Liang to appear uppity and high class in their taste. I can switch between mass appeal and arthouse films; and I measure them with different yardsticks as they were made with different audiences in mind. I think this should be the way lei. Technorati Tags: singapore, money no enough 2, MNE2, jack neo, ah long pte ltd, money no enough 2 movie review, bad cgi, mark lee, henry thia, money no enough Dawn Yang and her copyrights This is my third entry on Dawn Yang and her plagarised entries already. For those who do not know what this is all about, you can read my two previous entries, HERE and HERE. The image above is a screengrab of the left-hand-side-bar on Dawn Yang’s xanga blog. I find it ironic that even before all the accusations of plagarism, Dawn actually have the cheek to claim copyrights and propriety rights over “all text and image files, and other content” found on her blog, knowing jolly well she was doing some heavy “cut and paste” jobs. This coming from someone who claimed she didn’t know it was necessary to attribute sources in a radio interview. Hmmmm. Btw, here is an interesting article about the pending lawsuit between Dawn Yang and Xiaxue, written by the dean of my alma matar, Nanyang Technological University’s Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information (WKWSCI), Professor Ang Peng Hwa. Quite an insightful read as it postulate the wider implications of the lawsuit and it’s influence on the law and future blogging landscape in Singapore. Technorati Tags: singapore, chiobu, xiaxue, clapbangkiss, dawn yang, candid pictures, star blogger, singapore blogger, pretty girls, singapore beauty, straw poll, nuffnang pajamas party, nuffnang birthday, kidchanstudio, wendy cheng, xiaxue pwnd, xiaxue vs dawn yang, dawn wayang, xxvsdy, xiaxue vs dawn yang, dawn yang pwnd, my paper, stomp star blogger, plagarism, dawn yang plagarised blog entries, cosycot forum, edmw, hardwarezone, the moderate voice, freedom digitised, what will happen to your life if there is no internet?, the lies of dawn yang ,copyright, propriety rights More on Dawn Yang and plagarism This is a follow-up entry from my previous post about Dawn Yang and the topic of plagarism. There’s an online petition circulating on the Internet asking for STOMP to fire their star blogger, Dawn Yang. The last I check, there were already close to 500 signatures. Visit HERE to compared some of Dawn Yang’s blog entries against the original entries. Interestingly, it has been revealed she even copied content from our very own Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong’s rally speech! *gasp* Oh, and btw, it was also revealed she is very sensitive to the innocent word “plastic” and will edit it out from plagarised content. Funny right? This one really got me laughing till I almost fall off my chair. After reading all these mudslinging, it shocked me that there are so many people who seem to have personal vendettas against Dawn Yang… and the thing is they probably don’t even know her in real life! Scary lei… even if she did have plastic surgery, did sleep with rich old man, did plagarise her blog entries… does this warrant the witch hunt that is going on now? The Internet age scares me sometime. Technorati Tags: witch hunt, singapore, dawn yang, dawn wayang, xiaxue vs dawn yang, xxvsdy, plastic, lee hsien loong, pm lee, rally speech, vendetta, stomp, online petition against dawn yang, star blogger, plagarism Restaurant “translate server error” Seen on AdFreak: This must be one of the worst translation job ever beating even the “Stir-fried Wikipedia” and “Juice Bao”. I see already really don’t know what to say man! EPIC PHAIL! :p Technorati Tags: fried wikipedia, juice bao, translate server error restaurant, translate server error, epic fail, epic phail, chinglish, bad english translation, chinglish restaurant Dawn Yang plagarises her blog entries? As reported on omy, EDMW, XXvsDY, Dawnwayang and theliesofdawnyang, there are many dirts surfacing in the local Internet community on Dawn Yang allegedly plagarising her blog entries. Here are some sample URLs with screengrabs: Dawn Yang’s posts on STOMP and her own blog (note: Dawn claims this article was even published on SPH’s my paper (English)! *gasp*: Original post:  Dawn Yang’s post: Original post: How? Serious sia… What’s your verdict on this? Plagarism is a serious offence, as clearly reiterated by Xiaxue, in her blog entry titled ” A general article on my general thoughts on Plagiarism on blogs”. Poor Dawn. All this started because she chose to pick up a spate with Xiaxue. I have to admit, I made a wrong comment in my previous blog entry - I gleefully proclaimed Dawn Yang had the last laugh from the spate when she managed to forced Xiaxue to take down an offensive blog entry via threat of a lawsuit. Looking at the situation now, Dawn Yang is clearly at the losing end, with so many people focused on digging out dirts about her. The morale of the story: Don’t mess with Xiaxue and her gazillion fans. Seriously. In any case, since we are on the topic of Dawn Yang and Xiaxue, my poll on who’s the prettier among the two is still on. Visit here to vote. Technorati Tags: singapore, chiobu, xiaxue, clapbangkiss, dawn yang, candid pictures, star blogger, singapore blogger, pretty girls, singapore beauty, straw poll, nuffnang pajamas party, nuffnang birthday, kidchanstudio, wendy cheng, xiaxue pwnd, xiaxue vs dawn yang, dawn wayang, xxvsdy, xiaxue vs dawn yang, dawn yang pwnd, my paper, stomp star blogger, plagarism, dawn yang plagarised blog entries, cosycot forum, edmw, hardwarezone, the moderate voice, freedom digitised, what will happen to your life if there is no internet?, the lies of dawn yang Haircut 2.0 How to get a free hair cut via crowdsourcing. I think this is very innovative and your hairstyle is guaranteed to be one of a kind in the world! Anyone dare to attempt this in Singapore? If you are going to do it, do remember to video the whole process down and share it on youtube. Must email me let me know also! Technorati Tags: free haircut, crowdsourcing, haircut 2.0, lamedust, singapore, free hair cut, stylish haircut, cool hairstyle Singapore in 1960s Interesting video introducing Singapore back in the 1960s, with British-accented narration. The policemen were still wearing shorts, samsui women can be seen working in construction sites, Haw Par Villa was still a star attraction… and best of all, there were no ERP and the road didn’t look half as congested as it is now. Technorati Tags: singapore, 1960s, retro video, old singapore video, haw par villa, tiger balm garden, samsui women, policemen in shorts, ERP, conjested roads Lee Kuan Yew (李光耀) on Facebook Don’t be alarmed. This is not Minister Mentor, Lee Kuan Yew’s own personal facebook profile, but a special facebook page for famous politicians. You can show your approval for these politicians by becoming their supporter on facebook. To see the full list of politicians, including Barrack Obama and Wen Jia-Bao, you can visit HERE. I tried to search for our current Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong and Senior Minister, Goh Chok Tong, but both were not on the list. I guess all the other politicians in Singapore still have a long way to go to attain the kind of global status MM Lee has achieved. Technorati Tags: lee kuan yew, lee hisen loong, goh chok tong, singapore, minister mentor, mm lee, pm lee, prime minister of singapore, senior minster, sm goh, singapore ministers, lky, facebook, politicians on facebook, barrack obama, wen jia-bao, lee kuan yew on facebook Faye Wong (王菲)’s husband, Li Yapeng (李亚鹏) attacked Paparazzi Watch this video before you comment: The paparazzi were obviously daunting Li Yapeng to agitate him into a fight. Although violence should never be condoned, in this case, I am inclined to stand on Li Yapeng’s side as the paparazzi was going way out of line, taking close-up shots of his baby girl, and repeatedly verbally abusing the naturally concerned father. What do you think? You can read more news report regarding this incident on omy: 王菲李亚鹏一家飞抵北京 李亚鹏：事情已经解决了 李亚鹏动粗有前科 王菲两任老公脾气火爆 李亚鹏经经纪人：为保护孩子才过于激动 李亚鹏打人后 被带回警局问话 不满李嫣被拍 李亚鹏怒打记者 Technorati Tags: 李嫣, 李亚鹏怒打记者, 李亚鹏, 王菲, faye wong, li yapeng, paparazzi, bhutan wedding, omy, omy.sg, celebrity violence, bangkok airport, 忽然1周, li yapeng violence, unethical paparazzi, hong kong tabloid Satay eating competition: Joey Chestnut and Takeru Kobayashi face-off in Singapore As part of the Singapore Food Festival, the two most famous competitive eating athletes in the world, Joey Chestnut and Takeru Kobayashi will be facing-off to see who can eat more satay. To spice things up, there will be a Singaporean representative chosen to compete with them too. If you don’t know who the two of them are, check out the video below showing their face-off for a hotdog eating competition last year ( WARNING: Don’t watch the video if you are eating something now): More information is available on omy and the Major League Eating Asia site. The event details are as below: Date：27 July 2008 (this coming Sunday) Time：4pm – 7pm Location：Robertson Walk From now till 27 July, omy is also running a online guessing contest, inviting netizens to guess how many kilograms of satay Joey Chestnut and Takeru Kobayashi can finish off together this Sunday. The 4 closest predictions will win food vouchers from Old Chang Kee, Carl’s Junior and Pie Kia. You can visit here for the details or submit your guess directly here. Technorati Tags: joey chestnut, takeru kobayashi, asia face-off, major league eating, major league eating in singapore, competitive eating, eating competition, singapore, robertson walk, satay eating competition, online contest, old chang kee, carl’s junior, pie kia Carina Lau and Tony Leung: 2008 Wedding of the Year This is not a movie screen shot. It’s for REAL. Hong Kong’s most famous celebrity couple, Tony Leung and Carina Lau have finally tied the knot after dating for more than 20 years. The couple got married on 21 July 2008, in the beautiful kingdom of Bhutan. If you don’t know where the heck Bhutan is, it’s a is a landlocked nation in South Asia located amid the eastern end of the Himalaya Mountains. If you are interested to explore traveling to Bhutan for a holiday, you can visit HERE to find out more. Some fun facts about the wedding (via omy): 1. The whole wedding cost more than S$7million 2. The ring alone cost S$5million 3. The bride’s gown is by Vera Wang and the groom’s suit is by Tom Ford 4. The couple were received by the King of Bhutan himself This type of news must read it on Chinese websites and tabloid newspapers then more interesting - more news of the wedding are available on omy, can go 八卦八卦: 梁刘大婚 - 梁刘印度蜜月 林青霞当电灯泡 梁刘大婚 - 刘嘉玲小肚微凸疑有喜 梁刘大婚 - 儿子结婚梁母好开心 梁刘大婚 - 刘嘉玲梁朝伟成立基金会 梁刘大婚 - 梁朝伟送刘嘉玲12克拉钻戒婚戒  中外女星排第三 梁刘大婚 - 梁刘不丹行婚 印度度蜜月 梁刘大婚 - 刘嘉玲打激素针 秘密回春行婚礼 梁刘大婚 - 王菲开金口唱《甜蜜蜜》祝贺 梁刘大婚 - 梁刘婚宴1分钟吻9次 梁刘大婚 - 刘嘉玲红围巾表荣耀  林青霞拉五色旗去霉运 梁刘大婚 - 狮城化妆师Zing 为刘嘉玲化妆 梁刘大婚 - 伟仔母亲感动落泪 梁刘大婚 - 名嘴宋祖德大骂刘嘉玲：不丹婚礼是交易 梁刘大婚 - 姐妹淘那英竟缺席 梁刘大婚 - 不丹一夫多妻制 梁刘回港再宣誓 梁刘大婚 - 王菲长女当花童 梁刘大婚 - 伟仔14年前已想娶嘉玲 亲手用兰花制戒指求婚 梁刘大婚 - 狗仔与保安起冲突 相机险砸烂 梁刘大婚 - 5个半小时婚礼 天降花之雨 寓意好兆头 梁刘大婚 - 创下近年来演艺圈之最 婚礼花费700万 单是婚戒500万 梁刘大婚 - 不丹完婚 梁朝伟刘嘉玲结束20年爱情长跑 梁刘大婚 - 发出婚前感言 刘嘉玲：我们充满感恩喜悦 梁刘大婚 - 今日结婚 风水师怎么看？ 梁刘大婚 - 不丹公主嫁衣借嘉玲 皇妃亲手打点婚纱 梁刘大婚 - 梁朝伟刘嘉玲黄金吉时行婚礼 梁刘大婚 - 王菲机场与女儿走失 自称不会献唱婚礼 梁刘大婚 - 婚礼司仪由李浩林担任 称未知婚礼程序 梁刘大婚 - 梁朝伟刘嘉玲今日不丹举行大婚 梁刘大婚 - 梁朝伟刘嘉玲 不丹婚纱照曝光 梁刘大婚 - 给准媳妇100分 伟妈大赞刘嘉玲 梁刘大婚 - 曼谷机场狂扫烟酒 刘嘉玲遭搜身 梁刘大婚 - 陈百祥爆料 曾志伟曾为刘嘉玲介绍不丹王子 梁刘大婚 - 梁朝伟刘嘉玲10箱行李赴不丹举行婚礼 梁刘大婚 - 嘉玲未婚先残 梁刘大婚 - 梁朝伟刘嘉玲到底何时结婚？ Technorati Tags: carina lau, tony leung, leung chiu-wai, liu jia ling, liang chao wei, 梁刘大婚, 梁朝伟, 刘嘉玲, 不丹, bhutan, bhutan wedding, hong kong celebrity wedding, himalaya mountains, vera wang, tom ford, king of bhutan, omy, omy.sg How to get rid of Telemarketers (picture via Toni’s Corner of the World) I found this set of very useful “Anti-Telemarketer Script” from Junkbusters and have modified it slightly to suit Singapore’s context. I do not think there’s a similar Telephone Consumer Protection Act in Singapore’s Constitution to protect us from such spams. Although we can’t sue the telemarketers, we can still scare them off with a series of questions, build to intimidate. Next time you meet a persistent, pesky telemarketer using one of their lame scripts on you, you can use this anti-telemarketer script to get them back at their own game. Here goes: 1. “Are you calling to sell something?” (or is this a telemarketing call?”) 2. “Could you tell me your full name please?” (note: ask the person to spell it out alphabet by alphabet, and make sure they are enunciated clearly - do this for all other steps for optimal intimidation impact) 3. “And a phone number, residential/office adress?” 4. “What’s the name of the organisation you’re calling for?” 5. “Does that organization keep a list of numbers it’s been asked not to call?” 6. “I would like my number(s) put on that list. Can you take care of that now?” 7. “And does the company you work for also make telemarketing calls for any other organisations?” (If they answer no, skip the next question.) 8. (If yes) “Can you make sure your company won’t call me for any other organisation?” You may need to ask to speak with a supervisor if they sound lost. When you’re ready to let them off, you might close with “Is it clear that I never want telemarketing calls from anyone?” and just say goodbye. If you feel like making them pay, keep going: 1. “Will your company keep my number on its do-not-call list for at least ten years?” 2. “And does your company have a written policy that says that on paper?” 3. “Can you send me a copy of it?” 4. “What’s your supervisor’s first and last name?” 5. “What’s your employer’s business name, address and main telephone number?” 6. “Are you calling for a tax-exempt nonprofit organization?” 7. “Is this call based on a previously established business relationship?” Actually, better still if you have the guts for it, you can pull a recorded phone gag on them like the fonejacker dude I blogged about previously! Technorati Tags: telemarketers, telemarketing, fonejacker, singapore telemarketer, anti-telemarketer script, junkbusters, telephone consumer protection act, singapore constituition, spam calls, spam, phone gag Who is Gloria Chee (徐诗韵)? (pictures via Smell of Rain official site) According to her IMDB biography, Gloria Chee was a graduate from the pioneer batch of Film, Sound & Video (FSV) program, Ngee Ann Polytechnic, Singapore, and was the first FSV graduate to direct a full-length feature film (Smell of Rain (2006)). She’s quite a seasoned filmmaker isn’t she? Do you know she is also the same Gloria Chee who was recently bombarded by netizens for ripping off a Japanese TV ad for a National Day Parade (NDP) video? Initially, I didn’t want to comment on this issue as I thought she might have been some newbie filmmaker being exploited by the NDP committee for cheap labour and unreasonable timeline, given that she mentioned only receiving a honorarium as a token of appreciation for her work. However, when I googled her name… no lei… Gloria Chee is not an amateur hor! For the benefit of those who do not know about this incident, here’s the full article from my paper: Mon, Jul 14, 2008 my paper Netizens slam NDP video as Japanese ad rip-off THIS year’s National Day Parade (NDP) videos for its theme songs have sparked off some controversy online. A contributor to citizen media website Stomp, Daniel, felt that some scenes in the videos were copied from a Japanese television advertisement for The Children’s Foundation. He said that although the NDP videos are not exact copies, some scenes, like that of a child painting, seemed very similar to those in the Japanese ad. Daniel said: “I think this is unoriginal and uncreative, especially for our NDP. “I feel that any national projects should be original and not recycle concepts already done by other countries.” NDP video is three minutes long and depicts various everyday scenes in the lives of Singaporeans, such as children colouring, a boy courting a girl and a man running up the stairs in a block of HDB flats. These scenes are interspersed with those of Singapore Idol 2006 winner Hady Mirza singing the theme song Shine For Singapore. Joi Chua performs the Chinese NDP theme song Qing Kong Wan Li. Among others, Daniel pointed out that scenes like those of children colouring and paying attention in class are very similar to those which can be seen in the Japanese advertisement. A video of the 11/2-minute Japanese advertisement was uploaded onto Google Video in April 2006. It is stated on the site that the advertisement was created by the Japan Ad Council. Netizens who commented on the post on Stomp mainly felt that it was the fault of the advertising company which had been engaged to create the video. Contributor goolen2001 said yesterday: “National Day advertisement also want to copy other advertisement? Shame on you. Goolen2001 added: “The advertising agency wants to earn money only. Lazy to use brain.” Fellow contributor krankiepants said: “It’s sad to see such things happening.” However, pbcjohn79 defended the video’s creators: “It is an honest mistake. Let’s move on.” But jacksparrow2 disagreed strongly: “I think it is serious as a lump sum has been paid to make that video.” Stomp has contacted the authorities for comments. I love the last quote which was obviously a sarcastic potshot aimed at the authorities, as duly pointed out by Mr Brown. Below are the two music videos. The first one is the original Japanese ad promoting a children foundation: Here’s the pirated version done by Gloria Chee for NDP: Technorati Tags: gloria chee, japanese children foundation, ndp video, pirated ndp video, singapore ndp video, national day parade, my paper, mr brown, japanese whale video, singapore ndp star video, plagarism, copycat, smell of rain, imdb, ngee ann polytechnic, film sound and video, fsv, stomp, honest mistake, hady mirza, japan ad council Linux Penguin in HTML The entry title doesn’t make sense to you? Well, you have to see it for yourself to know what I am talking about. Visit here to see it! Cool isn’t it? I like the subtle details on the gradient text colours to make the penguin looks 3D. Here’s a screengrab preview for those who need a little prompting prior to clicking on anything. Technorati Tags: cool html, linux penguin, interesting webpage, colour texts, linux, penguin, text penguin, cool coding Fatty strips to get into Club I don’t know what’s going on in this video, but the ending was quite shocking! The fatty just ripped his tee-shirt off and charged into the club… What’s going on man? Can someone enlightened me about this Incredible-Hulk-wannabe stunt? Technorati Tags: fatty strip to get into club, fat stripper, funny video, singapore club, incredible hulk, funny fatman, fatman stripping, stripping in public, public stunt Inle Myanmar Restaurant Rachel introduced me to this quiet restaurant tucked away in the basement of Peninsular Plaza some time back. They claim to serve authentic Myanmar cuisine - I am not too sure if it’s really “authentic” as I have not been to Myanmar before. In any case, I think the food tastes great! Plus the price is quite reasonable for an air-conditioned restaurant with proper services Here’s their exact address: 111 North Bridge Road #B1-07 (A/B) Peninsula Plaza Singapore 179098 You can visit their official website for more information - it’s a very well-developed website with a comprehensive introduction to all the items offered on their menu. The bulk of their customers seems to be of indo-chinese origins, judging from our visits there. Maybe not many Singapore know of the place yet. Either that or they are probably not adventurous enough to try out alternative cuisines. Me ordering my lunch Oun Nau Khau Hswe Butter Rice with Myanmar Chicken/Pork Curry Sorry about the yellow lighting… it makes the food looks strange, haha. A meal for two should cost no more than S$30 inclusive of drinks and appertisers, quite worth it. Technorati Tags: singpaore, myanmar restaurant, myanmar cuisine, burmese food, inle myanmar restaurant, peninsular plaza, basement, burmese food, singapore myanmar restaurant Tampopo Ramen Tampopo. It used to be a family restaurant situated at the basement, and Rachel and I were disappointed to find a tiny deli instead of a restaurant when we went to Liang Court to catch Kinokuniya’s 20 per cent sale two months ago. By the time we’d discovered Tampopo on the ground floor, housed inside the unit which used to be Swensen’s, our bellies had been stuffed with deli food. We vowed to return. On the day Karen Cheng went to Indochine@Forbidden City we decided to have lunch here. For those interested, the new address is 177 River Valley Road, #B1-50, Liang Court Shopping Centre. The ramen was taking a tad long to arrive and Rachel was ravenous, so we started with dessert first. This is a green tea red bean cream cake, if my memory doesn’t fail me. It was so yummy Rachel licked clean the clear plastic sheet wrapping the slice of cake. (Yucks!) Good thing the ramen arrived, or else she’d have eaten the aluminium foil. Rachel ordered Kyushu ramen with kurobuta pork. I think. The thick soup was so thick that it was almost like milk. Very tasty. According to the info on the menu, the pork bones are boiled for 30 hours to make stock. Someone who knows this please correct me if I am wrong. I ordered something more conventional. Hokkaido ramen with kurobuta. The stock is different from the Kyushu stock. Slightly piquant. But the Kyushu noodles are more springy. All in all, it was a good meal. Technorati Tags: tampopo ramen, singapore japanese food, good ramen, liang court, river valley road, green tea cake, kyushu ramen, kurobuta pork, japanese cuisine Red Cliff (赤壁): Better than Tolkien picture via Wikipedia At least for me lah. I generally prefer Asian movies as compared to Hollywood fares due to the cultural similarities we share. A good case in point - I can’t understand why in ang moh movies, the guy and girl can have sex then discuss about whether they love each other the next morning while it’s the other way round for Asians. I digress. Back to Red Cliff. It’s damn good lor! Die-die must watch okay! Check out the trailer below if you don’t believe me: My favourite Hong Kong actor, Tony Leung Chiu-Wai (Zhou Yu) is starring in it. The director is veteran filmmaker, John Woo. There’s also the dashing Takeshi Kaneshiro (Zhuge Liang) and the stunning beauty, Taiwanese supermodel, Lin Chi-Ling (Xiao Qiao). Added to that, talented actors like Chang Chen (Sun Quan) and Zhang Fengyi (Cao Cao). What more can you ask for in a blockbuster hit? I watched it with my friend, Melvin last Thursday at the Gala Premiere, courtesy of the my paper movie night event. The screening was a VivoCity and I was taken aback when I saw the place jam-packed with movie fans all the way from the second floors upwards! There was a large crowd, even by the sides of the red carpet leading into the cinema from the elevator More people… who are they waiting for? Obviously not the mediacorp ’stars’ who were being interviewed on stage, like this guy, 715, here. I mean, the people were crowding OUTSIDE the cinema, not at the stage. Why ah? There are even drummers deployed to further warm up the anticipation for the real stars. And here she is! Lin Chi-Ling in person! (I am sorry I can’t get a better shot) Once she graced the stage, cameras started snapping away like crazy. A far cry from the half-baked stars earlier on. Three of the main actors (L to R): Lin Chi-Ling, Chang Chen, Zhang Fengyi Director, John Woo fielding interview questions The entire ensemble of the real stars for the night (L to R): Lin Chi-Ling, Chang Chen, Zhang Fengyi, John Woo and his wife. BTW, Melvin was damn hilarious… he totally KNOWS NUTS about the Three Kingdom story! OMG! I thought he was joking with me when he asked me during the movie, “Who’s Cao Cao?”, “Which is the three kingdoms?” One good thing about watching Red Cliff was that the storyline so intrigued my friend, Melvin, that it inspiresd the self-confessed “banana-man” to go read the translated version of the classic literature. For parents who have problem getting their children to learn chinese, maybe you can also consider taking them to watch Red Cliff? Oh, and one last note - for John Woo fans, the answer is YES, there were a lot of scenes with white doves again in this movie. Technorati Tags: john woo, gala premiere, red cliff, singapore gala premiere, lin chi-ling, chang chen, zhang fengyi, john woo, takeshi kaneshiro, tony leung chiu-wai, zhou yu, zhuge liang, sun quan, cao cao, xiao qiao, red carpet, 715, mediacorp stars, three kingdoms, 赤壁, tolkien Venerable Shi Ming Yi going the way of T.T. Durai? Is the former head of Ren Ci Hospital, the Venerable Shi Ming Yi following in the footstep of jailed, former CEO of NKF, T.T. Durai? According to various news reports in the local media, he has been charged with alleged forgery, conspiracy and misuse of funds and was slapped with 10 charges this morning. Here’s the story via Yahoo news: The monk faces four charges under the Penal Code involving two counts of alleged criminal breach of trust. He also faces one count of alleged forgery for the purpose of cheating and one count of abetment for allegedly falsifying accounts. He also faces six charges under the Charities Act for allegedly providing false information. Two of his associates Raymond Yeung and Phua Seow Hua were also alleged to have gone into conspiracy with the Venerable and were also charged in court Tuesday. Separately, a volunteer from Ren Ci was charged with allegedly possessing some 70 copies of obscene film. Venerable Ming Yi, also known as Goh Kah Heng, is out on S$200,000 bail. The case will be heard in court on August 4. Venerable Ming Yi has been on leave for five months before his arrest on Monday night. He had been under probe by the Commercial Affairs Department. The Commercial Affairs Department was called in after auditors engaged by the Health Ministry highlighted possible irregularities in some of the charity’s financial transactions. The Ministry of Health had said that several transactions, which involved several million dollars, could not be satisfactorily explained. Ren Ci and 11 other large Institutions of a Public Character were subject to the Health Ministry’s general review in July 2006. Ren Ci is believed to be the third largest health charity in Singapore after the National Kidney Foundation and SingHealth Endowment Fund. The Commissioner of Charities has suspended Venerable Ming Yi from his office as Chief Executive Officer of Ren Ci Hospital & Medicare Centre with immediate effect. He will also be suspended from his executive positions in five other charities: Foo Hai Ch’an Monastery, Foo Hai Ch’an Buddhist Cultural and Welfare Association, Singapore Buddhist Free Clinic and The Singapore Regional Centre of the World Fellowship of Buddhists, and the Katho Temple. He remains the religious leader of the Foo Hai Ch’an Monastery. There are more juicy reports available on omy: 明义被控10宗罪:  公众读者纷来电 ‘他曾做不少好事！’ 明义法师被控10项控状 仁慈医院院监明义法师 明天上午被控上庭 明义法师同事友人皆被控 To me, this whole scandal involving the Venerable Shi Ming Yi is making me cast serious doubts about charitable institutions in Singapore. First NKF, now Ren Ci… what’s next? Then again, somehow, I can’t bring myself to hate the monk vis-à-vis T.T. Durai though… something about the bald head and the robe makes a man looks sincere and vulnerable. I do hope he can be cleared of his charges. Let’s wait and see how his case develops over the next few months. Technorati Tags: vulnerable shi ming yi, shi ming yi, ren ci hospital, renci, nkf, national kidney foundation, singapore, charity scandal, t.t. durai, durai, abbot shi ming yi, renci monk Dallas Chicken & Ribs (Halal) Fancy great fried chicken at rock-bottom prices? Forget KFC, have you tried Dallas Chicken & Ribs? It’s a UK based halal fast food chain, but has only opened it’s first outlet here in Singapore. Located at 12 Upper Cross Street (near Chinatown MRT station), the small, but cosy fast food restaurant used to offer all-you-can-eat buffet at just $8 per pax! They have recently revised their price to $10 per pax though, but it’s still a great bargain. Even without the buffet, all the set meals cost under $5 with a generous serving of fries and a free choice of soft drink to go along. Very worth it. See the menu below: Rachel and I went there a few weeks back to try it out. The young boss politely informed us they were out of onion rings before we ordered. (Apparently, a previous buffet crowd had swept his kitchen clean of onion rings.) I opted for a fillet burger meal while Rachel went for the two-piece chicken meal. Total cost was less than $10 and the portions were definitely bigger than KFC’s. Check out the piping hot and tender chicken pieces. The only fried chicken fast food outlet comparable will be old-timer, Arnold’s, which also happens to be halal. I like that they do not salt the fries when served. This way, you can determine how salty you want your fries with the salt sachets provided. The fillet burger is like twice the size of the puny, ever-shrinking-in-size, KFC’s fillet burger. For both items, the meat is juicy, flavourful and so yummy! It’s not even half as oily as KFC or may I say, Arnold’s. Go try it! Technorati Tags: Technorati Tags: dallas chicken and ribs, fried chicken, kfc, arnold’s chicken, halal fast food, singapore, dallas chicken singapore, cheap food, good food, fast food chain, french fries, saltless fries, fillet burger, kentucky fried chicken Dining at Swenson’s Boliao blog entry for a lazy Sunday. I seldom eat at Swenson’s restaurant any more since my JC days. The previous few times I visited was when I was working at Youth.SG. We dined at Swenson’s for quite a few birthday celebrations as it’s one of the more commonly accessible halal restaurants. A few weeks ago, Rachel and I went for a simple meal at Swenson’s, Toa Payoh Entertainment Centre as I got some vouchers to use up. I took some photos of the food we ordered, and they turn out looking surprising good, haha. Taste-wise… since Botak Jones is just opposite of my work place, I already found a cheaper and better alternative to unhealthy, hi-cholesterol American food. Hence, no thanks. I probably won’t be going back in a while. :p Technorati Tags: alvinology, swenson’s, swenson’s reataurant, singapore, botak jones, burger, sandwich, sundae, american food My best friend, Mark, the hardcore Transformer collector My best friend, Mark (Shithead), and his girlfriend of 10 years, Meiyen, got married on 8 June, 2008. I went to take a look at their new condominium unit at Woodlands some weeks back. The first thing I noticed when I step into Mark’s room… His HUGE Transformer toys collection! He always maintained a keen interest for retro toys like G.I. Jone, Mask and Transformers since I knew him in primary school. Somewhere along the 20-odd years we known each other, he decided to concentrate his spending power on solely Transformers. Check out these pictures… (btw, this is only 1/3 of his entire collection, the rest are still in his old house) omy did a vodcast interview with him on his Transformer collection. You can view it HERE. Power hor? More than meets the eyes. Technorati Tags: mark tan, tan chet siang, hua mei yen, meiyen, singapore, transformer, toy collector, retro toy, ultimus prime, GI Joe, Mask, collectors toys, transformers collectibles, giant transformers collection Lao Zha Bor’s Rap Okay, I know I am a bit WOLS… but I came across the Lao Zha Bor rap music video on youtube and thought it will be interesting to share with everyone as it’s really hilarious! In case you don’t know who Lao Zha Bor is, she is the elderly actress who acted as Fann Wong’s mother in the Jack Neo movie, Just Follow Law. She shot to Internet stardom when she talked about maintaining a blog called “www.laozhabor.blogspot.com” in the movie and it really existed in real life. Here’s the original rap music video starring Lao Zha Bor: Here’s the version with English subtitles: Technorati Tags: laozhabor, lao zha bor, singapore, old lady blogger, lao zha bor rap, jack neo, j-team, fann wong, just follow law, old folk rap video, funny old lady AntiStomp - We Stomp the Stompers There’s no denying that hyper-local, citizen journalism website, STOMP is one of the more influential Singapore websites shaping the local Internet community lately. Controversial and loud, the people who loves it swears by it as a daily read while detractors who hates it, refuses to click on the site ever and cringes whenever they hear the word “STOMP” being uttered. In any case, I was still quite surprised to find a professional-looking “AntiStomp” hate site. The layout looks eerily similar to that of Stomp, except this site seeks to “Stomp the Stompers” and get them at their own game of citizen journalism. I think this is an interesting development. I always think it’s an achievement of sort when you attain “hate-site-status” on the Internet. It means you are well-known. At least famous enough for detractors to bother operating a hate site whose sole purpose is to promote negativity about you. Just look around, most famous bloggers like Xiaxue and Dawn Yang all have their hate sites. I will honour the day whereby someone start a “anti-alvinology” blog. Since it’s not going to happen anytime soon (due to my lack of fame); it explains why right from the start, this blog has another secret co-author, Antialvin - the evil nemesis of Alvinlogy. Technorati Tags: alvinology, antialvin, stomp, antistomp, stomp.com.sg, hyper local, citizen journalism, stompers, we stomp the stompers, stomp hate site, stomp sucks Doing the Karen Cheng in Singapore I attended the “Doing the Karen Cheng in Singapore” event last Saturday with Rachel, at Indochine’s Forbidden City. It is a simple fund-raising event hosted by popular Australian blogger, Karen Cheng and her husband, Andrew to raise funds for the Singapore Red Cross. The public is invited to grace the event to “do the Karen Cheng” together with Karen Cheng herself. By “doing the Karen Cheng”, it means posing in front of a mirror and taking a self portrait of yourself with a digital camera, a pose popularised by Karen Cheng on her blog. I bumped into Kenny Sia and a bunch of friendly Nuffnang bloggers at the event which attracted a respectable turnout for a spontaneous web viral campaign with no much mainstream media publicity. Actually, as mentioned in a previous blog entry, this was what inspired me with the idea of “Doing the David Gan”, as a tribute to one of Singapore’s leading style guru, David Gan. Here are some pictures from Saturday: Take 1 of Rachel doing the Karen Cheng with Karen Cheng Take 2 of Rachel doing the Karen Cheng with Karen Cheng Group of pals doing the Karen Cheng A family doing the Karen Cheng Smile! Karen Cheng with her loving husband, Andrew Spontaneous crowd Technorati Tags: do the karen cheng, doing the karen cheng, karen cheng, rachel chan, indochine, forbidden city, singapore red cross, doing the karen cheng in singapore, nuffnang, kenny sia, do the david gan, doing the david gan Do the David Gan on Facebook I have created a facebook group to viral this “Do the David Gan” pose, for the fun of it. Help pass it on please!!! To know what this is all about, you can read my previous blog entry. In summary, I am jio-ing everyone to take pictures of yourselves, showing off your nice watches in poses, similar to one of Singapore’s leading style guru, David Gan. You see, on David Gan’s blog, it appears he likes to pose with one arm resting on his shoulder, probably to flaunt his expensive designer watches. It’s a very stylish looking pose and I thought I should help him spread this around since he’s such a charm. You can add your picture directly onto the facebook group; submit it to omy’s Showtime or email it to marketing@omy.sg. Better still, also post it on your blog, forums or other networking channels on the Internet to help propagate this movement. Technorati Tags: alvinology, david gan, digital photography, do the david gan, do the karen cheng, karen cheng, online photos, pass it on, singapore, omy, omy.sg, web viral, doing the david gan, facebook group, do the david gan Cosfest 2008 - Photo Galore! WARNING: Long entry ahead with loads of photos. I went to Downtown East yesterday to check out Cosfest VII - the biggest annual cosplay event in Singapore. Cosfest is growing from strength to strength each year, attracting a bigger and bigger crowd (You can compare the photos I took this year to those I took last year in my 2007 blog entry). Kudos to the organisers, Stephanie and Takahan for making all these possible for the last six years. Below are some photos I took to share. Enjoy! You can also visit HERE to view the news report by omy.sg. Girl group with giant lollipop Make a wish around a tree? Japanese gangsters Is this a Chobit with no ears? Japanese school prefects Booth selling anime/manga fanarts Very crowded Another fanart booth Booth selling manga and illustration books Paper aeroplanes can be cool This guy very attention grabbing! Showing off some pass playing dead Life-size dolls Nature lover Gothic lolita group Naruto and his friend Dynasty Warriors cosplay Naruto, Kakashi and one more… Very impressive costume! Two girls in yutaka Cloud looking at clouds Leon cosplaying himself and taking his own photo Techno-coloured wigs one of my favourite character in Final Fantasy Fierce! The Star Wars dudes who are everywhere Watching too much Star Wars is bad for your health Some princesses or angels Graffiti wall Demon and Angel Happy cosplayers White penguin Naruto cosplayers resting Baddies Gothic lolita with perfect cosplay accessory for a hot day Japanese schoolgirl murderer Black and white costumes Gold samurai Smoking causes cancer Freeze? Booth selling cosplay stuff Here’s your sundae Sir! I like this costume Japanese schoolgirls with neo-print pose See what see! Booth selling all sorts of random stuff Hellsgate cosplayers Retro green Naruto characters fighting Gamers cosplayers Check out the Rastafarian wig Take picture some more?? I slice you ah! All by myself… with rubber hoses Cosplayer with a winning smile Watch out Transformers! Nice gundam costume Violin players Two girls Death Leather girl Pikachu and Stitch Final Fantasy? “By the power of the universe!” Shiny wigs Naruto and his muse Fake muscles! L, from Death Note Apologetic schoolgirl Nice leather costume Country song legend and his friends Singapore’s representatives for World Cosplay Summit All the winners on stage Finale Dance Don’t shoot! Dancing close-up: Check out the abs for the guy on the right! Parting shot - see you next year at Cosfest 2009~! Technorati Tags: singapore cosplay club, scc square, stephanie, snowheart, takahan, chivalry entertainment, singapore cosplay event, cosfest 7, cosfest VII, cosfest, downtown east, d’marque, death, sandman, naruto, kakashi, cloud strife, final fantasy, hellsgate, singapore cosplayers, japanese schoolgirls, world cosplay summit, manga, anime, fanarts, gundam, gothtic lolita, dynasty warrior, yutaka, leon kiong, star wars, luke skywalker, pikachu, lilo and stitch, bleach, singapore best cosplayers kinkyexorcist: Female version of Steven Lim? (picture via kinkyexorcist’s blog) Her name is Azhen (阿珍) and she lives in Sengkang. Her email is serenneteng@gmail.com - you can contact her if you are interested to know her (I got all these information from her public blog). I shall just embed three of her videos here to share. To see more, you can visit her youtube page. Quite courageous lah, uploading these really candid videos of herself onto the Internet for the world to see. However, I don’t know why she reminds me of our dear friend, Steven Dragon Lim lei. What do you think? Her video nice or not? Technorati Tags: azhen, sengkang, serenne teng, serenneteng@gmail.com, pinkyexorcist, kinkyexorcist, sexy dancing, youtube video, singapore girl sexy dance, steven dragon lim, singapore girl erotic dance, erotic dancing