Let The Engines Roar! F1 is finally here in Singapore. Hope I can hear the thunderous roar of the engines from where I stay. This roar sounds much nicer than the cacophony produced by the jet fighters over our heads almost every day of the week. I work in Ubi with Paya Lebar Airbase nearby. All the fighter planes landing in the airbase fly pass over our building when they are descending towards the airbase. The noise is highly intolerable especially when you’re standing outside the building.Afterall, the thunderous roar of F1 car engines along the streets of Singapore’s downtown area would only happen once a year.Nonetheless, I’m sure there would be people who would write in to the forum to complain about the noise produced by F1 cars.The circuit practice happens on Saturday night (27 September 2008) at 10pm. Dastardly Litterbugs It has been reported in the news that there are people who throw soiled sanitary pads and diapers out their windows onto their neighbors below. Then there’s also curry, people who brush their teeth and spit their gargle out their window.The anti-killer-litter campaign has been propagated since the 1980s, and it has managed to reduce the number of such incidents that speak of outright anti-social behavior.But it seems that such crappy behavior is rearing its ugly head in Singapore again. I wonder if the foreign workers from PRC could be the culprits as littering and spitting in public is a norm for them back in mainland China.What should we do to these buggers who anyhow throw such crappy litter out their windows at the expense of their neighbors below?I think throwing shit on their doorstep would be nice.How about throwing a Molotov cocktail on their doorstep? Lovely, heh? Former Beauty Queen Can't Get A Date Former Miss Singapore, Teo Ser Lee, is not able to get a date. And that’s not because she’s not beautiful.On the contrary, she has the looks. But at the same time, she’s also a successful entrepreneur. It’s not because she doesn’t want to get married.It’s just because no man has enough guts and confidence to approach her.Most men just assume that a woman with her beauty probably already has tons of suitors. So they don’t dare to court her for fear of being rejected.Besides her good looks, there is also the issue of her success and wealth. To be able to hold a candle up to her, the man who wants to court her needs to be just as good-looking, successful and wealthy as her, if not more so.Men have big ego by nature. What if a man makes advances towards her and gets rejected? He just can’t swallow the embarrassment. Worse still if she tells her associates, colleagues, family members and friends about it. The poor guy who’s not in her league and gets rejected by her, would be a laughing stock, derided and ridiculed by them.Unless some handsome, rich, successful hunk comes to “rescue” her from her single-hood, it looks like Ser Lee may have no choice but to remain single for years to come. Maybe even for life, which is not necessarily a bad thing, considering the numerous financially stable and happy singles in our midst. Sleepy At Work What do you do when you feel sleepy at work?Do you rest your head forward down and take a nap?Or do you wash your face, drink coffee, etc.i think one of the most effective ways to stay awake is to chit chat with colleagues. But that's one of the things we don't do much.So day in day out, it’s a constant struggle to stay awake at work.That's the problem with a deskbound job. Insufficient blood circulation. Feel sleepy almost the whole day.Having to travel around all day long definitely helps to keep one awake. A delivery man gets to do just that. Some of them drive to one shady corner, leave the vehicle’s air-con running and take a nap during lunch time. Can't Stop Talking Our son, Shaw, is now 5-years-old plus.He can't stop talking. He's always asking questions, most of which we have no answers to.Questions like:"Why the taxi behind us?""Why the red light so fast?" "Why your stomach so big?" (He asks his mother this as she's around 6 months pregnant. Even though we have told him his younger brother is inside, he still keeps asking. He said he wants to ask her this same question one million times.)Can't stay still. Can't keep quiet. Must talk all the time.When we ask him, "Shawn why must you talk all the time?"He would reply, "Because I like." My Paper Has Wire-Stitching i was pleasantly surprised with the free copy of my paper i got this morning. After flipping through it, i realised that the papers are wire-stitched together like TODAY. Cool. No more flipping through loose pages that drop and fly all over the place. Wedding Dinner at Rasa Sentosa Last night I attended a wedding dinner of my cousin at Rasa Sentosa.It was originally planned to be an outdoor event with lantern decorations and stuff.But it rained. So they had to move everything indoors to a basement ballroom.The buffet dinner was supposed to start at 7pm. I was hopeful it could end early at around 9pm +.But because of the shift, it only started at 9pm. So after all the items, videos, thanksgiving speeches, etc, the dinner ended at 11pm, slightly earlier than a traditional Chinese wedding dinner.So much for wanting to stuff oneself silly at a buffet dinner and leaving promptly when one is full.A buffet dinner is so much better than a traditional dish-by-dish kind of dinner where the first dish normally starts around 9pm and each subsequent dish comes in every 15 minutes. For a 9 course dinner, the last dish would only get served at 11pm. Eating such a dinner is such a laborious chore. Wouldn’t it be great if all the dishes can get served in one shot? My Son Deletes All The Missions I Accomplished As i've been playing both Grand Theft Auto Vice City and Liberty City Stories these past few weeks, i've accomplished quite a fair number of missions. After completing these missions, i saved the game.My son went to delete all these game stages which i had saved.Crap. Now i have to replay all these stages from the beginning again.He and his itchy hands.I need to get another memory stick to store all these game stages to prevent him from deleting them again.Would probably get another 4GB stick, as 8GB is terribly expenisve at $100+.With a separate memory stick, i can bar him from playing the GTA games, since they are not meant to be played by a 5-year-old anyway. A $5 Note Slips Away This morning i went to Bedok to get free papers and bought some kueh for my wife for her breakfast. I got $5 change which i put in my right pocket. Just a couple of minutes later, when i reached into the same pocket to pay for a pack of Fisherman's Friend, i realise the $5 note is gone. Damn. It must have slipped out of my pocket somehow. Crap.And yesterday i tapau 2 packets of hor fun from the coffee shop downstairs. My son loves to eat hor fun.But when his grandma opened the 2 packets, they turned out to be fried rice instead. The 煮炒char bor must have heard me wrongly. Ow ee ai. My son was upset he called me to ask why there was no hor fun. Next time i buy from them i must make sure they give me exactly what i ordered. Kallang-Paya Lebar Expressway Finally, the construction of KPE, which started all the way back in 2001, is completed. It will be fully open to traffic come Saturday, 20th September, 2008.This 12-km expressway connects ECP in the south and TPE in the north, of which 8.5km are underground. This makes it the longest subterranean road tunnel in Southeast Asia.It's a pain having to drive at 70km/h along this expressway. It's a pain for motorists who are used to crusing along the underground sections of CTE at 100km/h.KPE's underground section is fitted with digital speed cameras that operate 24 hours throughout the day to enforce the 70 km/h speed limit (lower if safety advisories display so).In the first week of phase 1 operation 3,400 motorists were caught speeding in the KPE, consisting of 3% of the total traffic which alarmed the Traffic Police. 45 of the speed violators were caught driving at 110km/h.These speedsters received court summons, while others received either a traffic summons or a warning letter from LTA. Playing Cheat On Grand Theft Auto I'm now heavily addicted to playing Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories.Found on the net how to get cheat codes. Now i could get free money, weapons, health, armor, etc. Best of all is the Rhino tank. With this tank, i'm invincible, i can just drive the tank into any vehicle and cause them to blow up. All the police cars that try to stop me get blown away, literally. The explosions are really cool.Came to a part entitled "No son of mine" where the mother of the main character Toni, which i'm playing, ordered a hit on him. This was one part which was very hard to play as i was surrounded by dozens of mafia hitmen raining bullets on and throwing grenades at me. So how did i get out of the mess alive? By spawning a Rhino tank and driving over all the mafia hitmen. Ha, ha, ha...! :D But after killing all the hitmen, i was busted by the police. A Former Colleague Jumps To Her Death Received a call yesterday evening from an ex-colleague who’s making big bucks now by being a stockbroker, telling me that a former colleague of ours from China, had committed suicide by jumping from the 13th floor.All of us in the office are shocked. She was sacked a few years ago because her work performance was deemed less than satisfactory by the management. I was told ever since she was sacked, she had gone through a very rough period in her life.She was 40. She had a 12-year-old son whom she sent back to her mother’s place in China some time ago.She’s divorced from her husband because of his ex-marital affairs. It was reported in the papers that she had recently been fired from her job as a production operator. Her ex-husband was present at the time when she jumped. He even tried to pull her in from the ledge. But she struggled free from his grip and plunged to her death.Guess she must have very much weighed down by all the crap which drove her into depression. We are shocked by her suicide because we all know her as a cheerful and friendly person. She’s someone who’s quite chatty. Even another colleague, who's close to her, also claimed that each time she calls her up, she would sound cheery. Guess she’s probably hiding all the hurts and depression behind her smiles and laughter.All of life’s problems are temporary because life itself will end someday. Committing suicide is dealing a permanent solution to a temporary problem.Only God alone, the Giver of life, reserves the right to end one’s life. Seat Fan Does anyone know where i can find this USB seat fan?I wonder if i can find it at Sim Lim Square.It's such a wonderfully fantastic thing to be able to sit down whole day and have your ass cooled.I hate to sit on warm seats. When i travel on the MRT train or bus, i avoid having to put my ass in a seat that has just been vacated by a previous passenger. This is why i hate parking my car in the sun. The seat gets so hot it can fry your ass.Word says the new Nissan Teana has this feature.High-end Lexus models have this feature for many years already, if i'm not mistaken. I even read long ago that this fan-seat was actually a feature which was first introduced in American trucks where the drivers had to drive for many hours at end to get from one coast to the other. Babylon A.D. Watched Nuffnang's free screening of Babylon A.D. at Lido last night.It's a really terrible show with a horrible plot. Its action sequences are its only saving grace.Vin Diesel must be cursing himself for dropping out of Hitman which did better than Babylon A.D. even though both have been panned by critics.Even the director of Babylon A.D., Mathieu Kassovitz, was very unhappy with the distributors, 20th Century Fox, producers and other partners. He described the film as "pure violence and stupidity" and that "parts of the movie are like a bad episode of 24."This movie has got to be one of the biggest turkeys of 2008. Black Book Just watched Paul Verhoeven’s “Black Book” last night. Long movie. 145 minutes.The story is about a young Jewish woman in the Netherlands who becomes a spy for the resistance during World War II, when tragedy befalls her after an encounter with the Nazis.It’s a bit similar to Ang Lee’s “Lust, Caution” which was also set in World War II but in Shanghai, China, where a young woman Mak is a member of a resistance group who plot to kill a Japanese collaborator, Yee, played by Tony Leung (whose balls could be seen in one sex sequence).Mak starts a love affair with Yee for this purpose. However, she really falls in love with him, and just before her comrades try to kill him she warns him. He escapes and has the whole group executed, including Mak.Even though it might seem like one movie has copied the other, but I think their similarities are more coincidental than intentional.Ironically, “Lust, Caution”, a Chinese movie, has more sex scenes than “Black Book”, an ang-moh movie.“Black Book” is great fun, an old-fashioned war movie in parts, but with deep undercurrents about fugitive Jews, the Resistance, collaborators and the messy politics of war. This being Verhoeven, there's lots of sex and a scene in which the extremely attractive star (Carice van Houten) dyes her pubic hair blond.“Black Book” has a happy ending where the heroine settled down in Israel where she got married and had 2 kids. Whereas the heroine in “Lust, Caution”, after warning Tony Leung, the traitor, about the danger he’s in, gets executed along with the entire resistance team.Incidentally, the actress from “Lust, Caution” Tang Wei got herself into deep trouble, she received death threats, after her bold and daring portrayal of the heroine in the movie with numerous raunchy sex scenes with Tony Leung. For this reason, she moved her ass down to Hong Kong.The villain Ludwig Müntze played by Sebastian Koch, was also not a 100% bad guy as he tried to prevent the resistance captives from being executed. And for that, he himself got executed. Personally, I much prefer “Black Book” to “Lust, Caution” as it is more of a thriller than the latter. “Lust, Caution” was more of a drama with tons of dialogue and less action. I also think Carice van Houtenis more beautiful than Tang Wei.My wife prefers the latter as it has more sex scenes. Wall-E Shawn told his mum that he wanted to watch Wall-E last week.So yesterday, we brought him to the cineplex at E-Hub to watch it.Terribly expensive. Each of us had to pay $10, including our 5-year-old son.This was the very first time Shawn has ever watched a movie inside a cinema. All along we were afraid he would be not be able to sit through the movie from beginning to end. We thought he would want to leave the cinema halfway through the movie.When we first entered the cinema and the ads were shown, Shawn asked, “Why the TV screen so big one?”Had to tell him it’s not a TV screen but a projector screen.The movie is typical Pixar fanfare. 97 minute long. A bit too long for Shawn though. He asked his mum a few times, “Why so long one?”Other than that, Shawn actually managed to sit through the whole movie without making us leave halfway and waste the ticket(s). Grand Theft Auto I've been running low on sleep for the past few weeks or so. I've been staying up late until 1am to 2am playing Grand Theft Auto Liberty City and Vice City.This game is really highly addictive. Everyday i'm a zombie at work and on weekends.My 5-year-old son is hooked on it too. Even though he doesn't really know how to play the game. He's never even fulfiled a single mission before. He's always running around and taking the subway train instead of driving. Getting busted by police and wasted.Found some cheat codes on the internet and got some free money, free weapons, free health, etc. Ha, ha, ha...! :D It's really fun to cheat. Becos even with all this cheating, i still get busted and wasted every now and then. It just goes to show the game is not really easy to play. Either that or the fact of the matter is i completely suck at playing such games.The good thing about playing it on the handheld PSP instead of Xbox or PS3 is the battery will always run flat after a few hours. Then i would have no choice but to charge the PSP and go to sleep.Just read a few days ago that a hardcore teenage gamer's record at playing such video games non-stop is 22 hours. I'm sure there are those who have even gone beyond that.This begs the question: How does a hardcore gaming addict get rid of and overcome his seemingly incurable and overwhelming addiction? Saying "Thank You" To The Driver Have you had the following experience?You give someone a lift in your car. And after sending that someone to his desired destination, he doesn’t thank you at all.I think it’s basic courtesy to say “Thank you” to the driver who gives you a lift. I always thank the driver who gives me a lift.But somehow I have a friend who has not thanked me on at least 2 counts after I have given her a lift. Maybe I should stop giving lift to her? Nah. That would be nasty.There are just certain people who are quick to say “Thank you” to the driver after being given a lift and those who don’t do so at all either because they have totally forgotten about it or they just can’t be bothered with exercising such a basic pleasantry.Forgetting to say “Thank you” is quite inexcusable under the following circumstance:2 persons are getting the lift and they are both alighting at the same place.One would say “Thank you” to the driver while the other doesn’t do so.I think if someone doesn’t thank you at all for giving them a lift in your car, you would probably be a bit upset too, wouldn’t you? You might even curse at the person after you drive your car off and vow never to give the same person any more lift. Leech Friend Do you have a leech friend who's always asking for favors (monetary or otherwise)?He would always be borrowing money from you. Or when he has some problem he can’t fix, he expects and wants you to fix it for him. For example, computer problem, etc.And when you decide not to help him, he gets upset with you. As if the reason for your existence is to owe him favors. Such a leech has no qualms about troubling his friends for help. He doesn't feel bad at all about imposing upon his friends for help.Would you keep your distance from such a leech friend? Would you avoid him at all costs? Or would you willingly let him suck your blood?When I have troubles of my own, I don’t impose on my friends to help me. They owe me nothing. I would ask them for help nicely. If they can’t or don’t or choose not to help me, I would hold nothing against them at all.正所谓靠人不如靠自己。(It’s always better to depend on oneself then on somebody else.)The best way to keep a friend is to lend them nothing and owe them nothing.Unpaid debts sour relationships, even the best of friendships. Nuffnang Movie Screening: Babylon A.D. Nuffnang is giving a free screening of Vin Diesel’s new movie, Babylon A.D.Date: Tuesday, 09th September, 2008Time: 1930 hoursVenue: Shaw Lido @ Scotts Road, Hall 1. Twentieth Century Fox: Babylon A.D.I want to watch this movie because Vin Diesel is in it. Somehow Diesel hasn’t been able to repeat his success with Fast & Furious and XXX. Hopefully, it would be similar to Bruce Willis’ Fifth Element, which I enjoyed very much. Can't Sleep In Peace This past weekend, was not able to take afternoon nap because of the fighter jets’ flyby.Paya Lebar Airbase had an open house.The F-5E and F-16 fighters made hell lot of noise.It’s a hell of a thing to make tons of money by being a fighter pilot and being a pain in the ass of a lot of people. Okay, maybe not ass but ears. Looking For Baby Posters I've been looking for baby posters but have not been able to find them either at Kiddy Palace or Popular Bookstore.Does any of you know where i can find them? Today No TODAY Was not able to get a copy of TODAY at the bus-stop opposite Bedok MRT station this morning at 7:20am. I guess the delivery van might have broken down somewhere. Maybe it's the printing press problem. Couldn't get the papers printed out in time.Lots of people in a queue that didn't move since there was no TODAY for distribution. It only moved because those who realised there was no TODAY, left the queue.Somehow such technical faults don't seem to happen to Straits Times heh? Hungry Ghosts At Press Briefing Buffet One of the things I get to do, working for a magazine, is to get invited to press briefings hosted by various companies listed on the Singapore Exchange. When these companies announce their results, they are required to hold press briefings. The generous ones like Banyan Tree Holdings, Qian Hu Corp, etc. would throw in either a sumptuous lunch buffet or dinner buffet at the briefings. The cheapskate, stingy ones (usually foreign ones) would even deprive the press of tea and coffee.When a decent feast is thrown in, if the briefing is not meant only for just the analysts, shareholders in their 60s and 70s would attack the feast like hungry ghosts. No need to wait for the Lunar 7th Month for hungry ghosts to roam the earth. These uncles and aunties would whack down all these free food and even blatantly “ta pau” home to eat some more later.When I see these hungry ghost uncles and aunties in full force action, I lose my appetite. They don’t attend the briefings to listen to what the directors have got to say. They only attend the briefings for the food. Immediately after the briefing, they would swarm to the food like bees and vultures. Some of them don’t even bother to queue up properly. They would grab as much as food as they can and wolf down the food like wild boars. All proper courtesy and etiquette are thrown out the window. Nevermind the food served may be classy and the venue may be a classy hotel. Inching Forward To Let Vehicle Behind Turn There are certain lanes at traffic lights junctions which are meant for both going straight and turning either left or right.What do you do when you've come to a stop at such a lane as the traffic lights are red because you are going straight, and there is a either a left or right turn arrow that is on, at this junction?Do you inch forward across the line to let the vehicle(s) behind you make their turn? Or do you hold your ground without budging and hold up the traffic behind you that wants to make a turn?For me, I would inch forward to let the vehicle(s) behind make their turn.But I don’t always reap what I sow because every now and then I would get inconsiderate pricks who refuse to budge and prevent me from making my turn even though the left or right turn arrow is on.And what happens if you want to make a turn but the vehicle in front of you refuses to budge? Do you horn and flash your high beam at him or her? If you do, the driver in front of you just might show you a middle finger. HDB Hub Basement Car Park Having read in Lunch Is Served’s blog entry about visitors who park at the Fusionopolis’s basement car park, having difficulties finding the elevator as it’s concealed in one corner, I also want to write something on HDB Hub’s basement car park.I’ve parked at this car park countless times already since HDB Hub has been around for years now. But almost every time, I have difficulties getting out of the car park because I couldn’t find the exit. I would follow the exit signs, one states “Toa Payoh Central”, while another states “Lorong 6 Toa Payoh”, but these signs would take me round and round instead of getting me to the exit ramp.So I almost always have to drive one additional round inside the car park just to find this rather “obscure” exit ramp.Such is a design flaw which I have to live with as long as I go to HDB Hub basement car park to park my car.Of course I would have no such problem if I work at HDB Hub and have to park my car there every day.Now to avoid this problem, I would park at Block 190’s multi-storey car park instead, provided it’s not full. Inflate Your Tyres One of the ways to save on petrol bills is to ensure that your tyres are correctly inflated.One of the reasons why certain cars consume more petrol than they are supposed to, is because their tyres are under-inflated, causing more resistance on the road.How many drivers actually regularly pump air into their tyres to ensure they are correctly inflated?I guess drivers who do so are probably outnumbered by those who don’t.It would seem most men drivers don’t pump air into their tyres on a regular basis. If that is so, what about women drivers? Most of them, if not all, probably never pump air into their tyres at all.I guess drivers who don’t pump air into their tyres probably think it’s a hassle to do so. Or they think there’s no need for it. One reason why we don’t have problem steering our cars around even though the tyres are under-inflated is because they come with power-steering.If you drive a car or vehicle without power-steering, you would immediately feel the heavy steering each time your front tyres are under-inflated. This could perhaps be one of the advantages of driving a vehicle that has no power-assisted steering. It forces you to pump air into your tyres to ensure they are correctly inflated at all times.So most people just change their tyres and drive around until it’s time for the tyres to be changed without pumping any air into the tyres at all. They don’t mind chalking more on their petrol bills due to under-inflated tyres.At old petrol stations, the air-pump is installed right next to the petrol pump, this facilitates the inflating the tyres with air by the pump attendant. But such an arrangement causes a car to hog a pump for a longer time.I guess petrol stations probably did away with such an arrangement so that more cars can get filled up with petrol in a shorter time.Then there are those who park at the lots meant for pumping air, and take their sweet time shopping for groceries, hindering drivers who need to pump air into their tyres. Increased Paternity Leave Child care leave has been increased from 2 days to 6 days.So will fathers use the leave to help take care of the small one?Or will he use it to play golf instead? Olympic Medal Drought Ends After 48 Years After almost half a century, Singapore has finally won in another Olympic event.All three table-tennis players are China-born foreign talents. This begs the question: Can we depend on local talents to bring in the medals?Afterall, in 1960, even Tan Howe Liang,the first Singaporean to win an Olympic Games medal, was also born in Shantou, China in the 1930s. The table-tennis team representing Singapore gets S$750,000 as reward for winning the Olympic silver medals.That's S$250,000 for each player. After 20% deduction by Singapore Sports Council, each player gets S$200,000. Opel Combo See Bae Gao Jao*! The 1.6L(M) Opel Combo is one hell of a sprinter.Despite the fact it’s just a van of sorts, its acceleration power is certainly not to be snuffed at.Nevermind that in Singapore, it is registered as a G-plate goods vehicle and has a speed limit of 70km/h imposed upon it.It can easily move off from a traffic lights, turning from red to green, and overtake a 1.6L(A) car.Its 70km/h legal speed limit does not hinder its drivers from taking it to 100km/h and beyond on the expressway. Such speedsters get away with such antics most of the time anyway.* "See Bae Gao Jao" means can run very fast in Hokkien.