tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-346571872024-03-08T16:54:49.863+08:00e-HOLICe.limhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09169172571222814353noreply@blogger.comBlogger105125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34657187.post-44830427374924284822008-12-06T12:14:00.000+08:002008-12-09T12:17:03.835+08:00"Freemasons Becoming more open ..." ???<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:85%;">This is interesting...</span><br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kGxn415GX8s/ST3xDOjIWpI/AAAAAAAAAMA/p6f359Bk0c0/s1600-h/06+Dec+2008+Today+Page+10.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 235px; height: 320px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kGxn415GX8s/ST3xDOjIWpI/AAAAAAAAAMA/p6f359Bk0c0/s320/06+Dec+2008+Today+Page+10.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5277639376095435410" border="0" /></a>e.limhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09169172571222814353noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34657187.post-47858935668011207122008-11-24T12:58:00.002+08:002008-11-24T13:03:38.414+08:00My Drama of the Week - モップガール (Mop Girl)<div align="center"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_kGxn415GX8s/SSo1H5WRBmI/AAAAAAAAAL4/xFLGZa2NAuo/s1600-h/mopgirl.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5272084723560154722" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 244px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_kGxn415GX8s/SSo1H5WRBmI/AAAAAAAAAL4/xFLGZa2NAuo/s320/mopgirl.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Mop_Girl">モップガール(Mop Girl)<br /></a></div>e.limhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09169172571222814353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34657187.post-76288570066512398572008-10-21T00:17:00.002+08:002008-10-21T00:25:21.558+08:00Relationship is like waiting for bus?<span style="font-size:85%;">In a coffee shop, it was discussed that relationship seems like “waiting for bus”.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Often when we are waiting for a particular bus, other buses keeps coming and we give it a miss… If the bus we waited for comes on a regular timing, we will take it for granted and board it as it seems to be… But sometimes when we waited for a particular bus (especially when we are in a hurry), the waiting time always seems so long, and the worse part is that when it finally arrived, it is packed and everyone wants to board it too…<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Like in a relationship, whenever we are in one, it seems like we have many other opportunities, and we can go into another relationship anytime… Therefore we often take our relationship for granted and not appreciating it… But whenever we are not in a relationship, it always seems so hard to wait for one to come by and get into it; and when the opportunity finally comes, it seems so hard, as competition is always so strong…</span>e.limhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09169172571222814353noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34657187.post-84545765031838319742008-10-06T08:34:00.009+08:002008-10-06T09:01:31.235+08:00My First Time...<span style="font-size:85%;">It is not something rare... but it just took me quite awhile to have it done it...</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">I have always wanted to do it... but... you know... there is always thousand and one excuses...</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">So on Saturday, 04th of October 2008, while on my way home from work, there was it... Smack right there infront of my face at the entrance of Dobly Ghaut MRT Station(NEL)... Something I thought I always wanted to do, yet have not make an effort to go do it... the opportunity appeared right infront of my eyes...</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">For my first time... It seems scary in the beginning, but when I realised that I didn't really feel any pain at all... It seems kind of cool as I finally did it... </span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">I gave my blood away...</span><br /><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kGxn415GX8s/SOlghoNOnXI/AAAAAAAAALo/XAlYE8PaKho/s1600-h/DSC00818.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5253836571149245810" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kGxn415GX8s/SOlghoNOnXI/AAAAAAAAALo/XAlYE8PaKho/s320/DSC00818.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kGxn415GX8s/SOlgh0TNP2I/AAAAAAAAALw/nGukcGVqR5Q/s1600-h/DSC00819.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5253836574395547490" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kGxn415GX8s/SOlgh0TNP2I/AAAAAAAAALw/nGukcGVqR5Q/s320/DSC00819.JPG" border="0" /></a>e.limhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09169172571222814353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34657187.post-85093001818924515222008-09-29T09:48:00.005+08:002008-09-29T10:07:11.745+08:00Monday Blues...<span style="font-size:85%;">Usually when I am working, I will be too busy to even feel Monday Blues...<br /><br />But now, I will be having my MONDAY BLUES at home since I am not working on Mondays, starting from today onwards...<br /><br />Anyway, friends out there, if you are not working on Monday, feel free to buzz me out for coffee...<br />Yuujou Banzai! (Hurray Friendship!)</span>e.limhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09169172571222814353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34657187.post-86124388111591543242008-08-29T00:49:00.008+08:002008-08-29T01:05:37.855+08:00Blink Blink<span style="font-size:85%;">Time flies really fast... it is not an excuse not to blog for so long... I'm just commenting that I'm very busy... so by the time I think of login in to this thing to even start thinking what to write... it took 4 months plus for me to realised that I need to at least write some nonsense like "this" down... How efficient and effective have I become? Ha.. Ha.. Ha.. and I'm feeling sleepy already...</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">:p</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"></span><br /><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kGxn415GX8s/SLbajKHnHdI/AAAAAAAAALg/K4zmhZt_CXI/s1600-h/DSC00755.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5239615514038705618" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kGxn415GX8s/SLbajKHnHdI/AAAAAAAAALg/K4zmhZt_CXI/s320/DSC00755.JPG" border="0" /></a>e.limhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09169172571222814353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34657187.post-31215233067290267002008-04-14T01:01:00.005+08:002008-04-14T01:11:05.945+08:00Guiying's Birthday - Gathering - KTV Night...<div align="center"><span style="font-size:85%;">Well... Well... it has been long long time since I have been to KTV...</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">But anyway, it is a gathering plus celebrating Guiying's Birthday...</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">so here is the fun....</span><br /><br /></div><a href="http://bp0.blogger.com/_kGxn415GX8s/SAI9F3dJjrI/AAAAAAAAAK4/oDhnYpRXH_8/s1600-h/n523756545_518076_5191.jpg"><span style="font-size:85%;"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5188776891679084210" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://bp0.blogger.com/_kGxn415GX8s/SAI9F3dJjrI/AAAAAAAAAK4/oDhnYpRXH_8/s320/n523756545_518076_5191.jpg" border="0" /></span></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span><a href="http://bp1.blogger.com/_kGxn415GX8s/SAI9GHdJjsI/AAAAAAAAALA/KASFLkPpLwQ/s1600-h/n523756545_518077_5957.jpg"><span style="font-size:85%;"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5188776895974051522" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_kGxn415GX8s/SAI9GHdJjsI/AAAAAAAAALA/KASFLkPpLwQ/s320/n523756545_518077_5957.jpg" border="0" /></span></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span><a href="http://bp2.blogger.com/_kGxn415GX8s/SAI9GXdJjtI/AAAAAAAAALI/Xssy47k_iPE/s1600-h/n523756545_518075_4472.jpg"><span style="font-size:85%;"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5188776900269018834" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://bp2.blogger.com/_kGxn415GX8s/SAI9GXdJjtI/AAAAAAAAALI/Xssy47k_iPE/s320/n523756545_518075_4472.jpg" border="0" /></span></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span><a href="http://bp3.blogger.com/_kGxn415GX8s/SAI-AndJjvI/AAAAAAAAALY/-ZIwoJB9en0/s1600-h/n523756545_518086_8365.jpg"><span style="font-size:85%;"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5188777900996398834" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://bp3.blogger.com/_kGxn415GX8s/SAI-AndJjvI/AAAAAAAAALY/-ZIwoJB9en0/s320/n523756545_518086_8365.jpg" border="0" /></span></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span><a href="http://bp3.blogger.com/_kGxn415GX8s/SAI9GndJjuI/AAAAAAAAALQ/gCls-62Wy0w/s1600-h/n523756545_518074_3772.jpg"><span style="font-size:85%;"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5188776904563986146" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://bp3.blogger.com/_kGxn415GX8s/SAI9GndJjuI/AAAAAAAAALQ/gCls-62Wy0w/s320/n523756545_518074_3772.jpg" border="0" /></span></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /><br /></span>e.limhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09169172571222814353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34657187.post-53432380121152979342008-04-10T00:19:00.004+08:002008-04-10T00:38:27.572+08:00xxxHolic Second Season - Kei<div align="center"><span style="font-size:85%;">xxxHolic is back with its season 2 - Kei<br /><a href="http://bp1.blogger.com/_kGxn415GX8s/R_zvLUEu7iI/AAAAAAAAAKw/pq0A-tRTQXA/s1600-h/xxxholic_kei.jpg"><span style="font-size:85%;"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5187283848470130210" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_kGxn415GX8s/R_zvLUEu7iI/AAAAAAAAAKw/pq0A-tRTQXA/s320/xxxholic_kei.jpg" border="0" /></span></a><span style="font-size:85%;">I'm quite excited about it, as it is a very unique anime compared to the rest I have seen...<br />The second season, xxxHolic: Kei, began airing on TBS on 3rd April 2008 in Japan and there will be a total of 26 episodes. The main staff and cast remains the same as in the first season. Chapter 154 of their manga release shows the future episodes that will correspend to both the anime and its manga arc counterparts like the Spider Grudge arc, Kohane Tsuyuri and Haruka </span></div></span>e.limhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09169172571222814353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34657187.post-73384278755239408682008-03-21T02:56:00.007+08:002008-03-21T03:38:35.143+08:00Good Friday... Something to Remember...<div align="left"><span style="font-size:85%;">Since 10 years ago, it was a day to be remembered... Anyway, it was on 10th of April then but I remembered it was a Good Friday too... Some of those who were studying in Gan Eng School School then, might still remembered it just like me...</span></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"><span style="font-size:85%;"></span></div><div align="left"><span style="font-size:85%;"></span></div><br /><div align="left"><span style="font-size:85%;"><em>He, whom we lost, will always remain in our memories... </em></span></div><div align="left"><span style="font-size:85%;"><em>He, who's lived his life, will continue into our lifes... </em></span></div><div align="left"><span style="font-size:85%;"><em>He, who is a leader, will never be left behind... </em></span></div><div align="left"><span style="font-size:85%;"><em>He, who passed on, will be prayed by us every year...</em></span></div><div align="left"><span style="font-size:85%;"></span></div><div align="left"><span style="font-size:85%;"></span></div><div align="center"><span style="font-size:85%;">-To my dear friend, Lin RongTong</span> </div><div align="left"><span style="font-size:85%;"></span></div><a href="http://bp2.blogger.com/_kGxn415GX8s/R-K5REEu7hI/AAAAAAAAAKo/mFdeyHupV3M/s1600-h/We+as+Part+C+(Large).jpg"><span style="font-size:85%;"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5179906224232001042" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://bp2.blogger.com/_kGxn415GX8s/R-K5REEu7hI/AAAAAAAAAKo/mFdeyHupV3M/s320/We+as+Part+C+(Large).jpg" border="0" /></span></a>e.limhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09169172571222814353noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34657187.post-9465047825355289902008-03-19T23:12:00.003+08:002008-03-19T23:40:38.226+08:00Third Day of Work...<span style="font-size:85%;">KuanYee, the person I am taking over, offically ended her job today...<br />She is a good teacher... and I think she look a lot like my youngest sister...<br />Think they are of the same age too... the only different is that - my sister more "chia"!<br />anyway, she is going to continue her study (I guess)... so, Good Luck to her...!<br /><br />Well, and today my manager is finally back from his MC...<br />Well, I guess the nightmare is only just beginning for me....<br />I SENSED DANGER!!! more work is coming...<br /><br />*sweat*<br /><br />LoL... </span><br /><a href="http://bp1.blogger.com/_kGxn415GX8s/R-Eyu2VTqPI/AAAAAAAAAKg/4A0UYqhrymI/s1600-h/Danger.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5179476826893035762" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_kGxn415GX8s/R-Eyu2VTqPI/AAAAAAAAAKg/4A0UYqhrymI/s320/Danger.jpg" border="0" /></a>e.limhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09169172571222814353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34657187.post-80284703397353071092008-03-11T08:05:00.007+08:002008-03-11T09:07:21.315+08:00Process of getting this new Job...<div align="left"><span style="font-size:85%;">I remember spending 2 whole days trying to fill up an job application form a few months back... It was just a simple form with difficult questions to answer... well at the end of the day, I wanted to get that job so much, because I spent lots of time and overuse some of my limited braincells just to complete it...<br /><br />The interview came only yesterday, and it was the MOST interesting interview I had so far... The interview was held at a coffee shop at Lavender (French Rd) over lunch (which I only drank a Coke Light), and the interviewers consist of Amos (my future direct boss) and his 5 to 6 yr old son, whom I think is called Joshu or something that sound like Joshu, as I can't really figure it out since he speaks while biting his fishball noodles... Well, I mean, who will get such an interview?(maybe once in a lifetime for some people only) <br /><br />It certainly does turn out good as I was offered the job... but the BAD new was it was only a temp job... some shit happened, and it became a temp position from a perm position... anyway, i am going for it, I don't care anymore :p<br /><br />I will be starting work next week and I don't know how tough the job might be, but I am going to cling on to it as long as I can... so let's hope things turn well and my life improves from here... I am putting my "kite" aside, and hoping that I wouldn't need it anymore... </span></div><span style="font-size:85%;"></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><div align="center"><br />Sample of the Job Application Form:<br /></div></span><a href="http://bp0.blogger.com/_kGxn415GX8s/R9XX1mVTqKI/AAAAAAAAAJ4/dEXHJlAObhk/s1600-h/job-application-form_Page_1.jpg"><span style="font-size:85%;"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5176280662555207842" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://bp0.blogger.com/_kGxn415GX8s/R9XX1mVTqKI/AAAAAAAAAJ4/dEXHJlAObhk/s320/job-application-form_Page_1.jpg" border="0" /> <p align="center"></span></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><br />Page 1<br /></p></span><a href="http://bp3.blogger.com/_kGxn415GX8s/R9XYsWVTqNI/AAAAAAAAAKQ/Afp3FVb1LGQ/s1600-h/job-application-form_Page_2.jpg"><span style="font-size:85%;"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5176281603153045714" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://bp3.blogger.com/_kGxn415GX8s/R9XYsWVTqNI/AAAAAAAAAKQ/Afp3FVb1LGQ/s320/job-application-form_Page_2.jpg" border="0" /> <p align="center"></span></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><br />Page 2<br /></p></span><a href="http://bp1.blogger.com/_kGxn415GX8s/R9XZH2VTqOI/AAAAAAAAAKY/VyKV_F4gKIc/s1600-h/job-application-form_Page_3.jpg"><span style="font-size:85%;"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5176282075599448290" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_kGxn415GX8s/R9XZH2VTqOI/AAAAAAAAAKY/VyKV_F4gKIc/s320/job-application-form_Page_3.jpg" border="0" /> <p align="center"></span></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><br />Page 3 </span></p>e.limhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09169172571222814353noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34657187.post-14953016623468195812008-03-08T01:40:00.003+08:002008-03-08T01:49:33.948+08:00Long Job Hunt<span style="font-size:85%;">I have been Job Hunting for quite SOME time... </span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Actually, it has been a LONG time...</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">So far, so bad... I hope, pray, wish, dream, wants, and desire a good offer to come by REALLY soon... If not, I can start going Marina South to fly Kite liao...<br /><a><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5175057769401919490" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" height="143" alt="" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_kGxn415GX8s/R9F_n2VTqAI/AAAAAAAAAIo/iXmelm09a_k/s320/KITE.gif" width="103" border="0" /></a><br /></span>e.limhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09169172571222814353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34657187.post-58498898008239670972008-02-25T15:48:00.002+08:002008-02-25T15:53:22.276+08:00This cost me 200 dollars... WTF!!!<div align="center"><a href="http://bp2.blogger.com/_kGxn415GX8s/R8JzKNRuUAI/AAAAAAAAAIE/PL9aeMI9cIY/s1600-h/IMG.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5170821941374636034" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://bp2.blogger.com/_kGxn415GX8s/R8JzKNRuUAI/AAAAAAAAAIE/PL9aeMI9cIY/s320/IMG.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">I just couldn't have been luckier...</span></div>e.limhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09169172571222814353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34657187.post-76698010652255547712007-10-10T10:48:00.000+08:002007-10-10T10:59:22.308+08:00What happens when a squash ball hits you?<span style="font-size:85%;">This is what I got after being hit by a squash ball....<br /><br /></span><a href="http://bp0.blogger.com/_kGxn415GX8s/Rww-Dw_rOCI/AAAAAAAAAH8/0REjZ2koMhE/s1600-h/DSC00484.JPG"><span style="font-size:85%;"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5119535110825916450" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://bp0.blogger.com/_kGxn415GX8s/Rww-Dw_rOCI/AAAAAAAAAH8/0REjZ2koMhE/s320/DSC00484.JPG" border="0" /></span></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span><div><span style="font-size:85%;">By the way, don't ask me who did this to me... I am not disclosing who did it... </span><span style="font-size:85%;">But just to let everyone know some news update, Chuk is learning squash recently from us... and he is GOOD!</span></div><div> </div><div><span style="font-size:85%;"></span></div><br><div><span style="font-size:85%;">Anyone keen on playing squash or even learning squash, can call me up ok... we hoping to have more people to join us for squash games... It is always fun with more people being hit... At least, it decrease my chances of been hit too...</span></div><div><span style="font-size:85%;">:p</span></div>e.limhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09169172571222814353noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34657187.post-19583041622068969372007-09-25T10:38:00.001+08:002007-09-25T10:44:07.686+08:00Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!<p align="left"><span style="font-size:85%;">To those who reads my seldom updated blog,</span></p><p align="center"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-size:100%;">I will like to wish you a<br /></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><strong>Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!<br />中秋节快乐!</strong><br /></span></p></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><p align="left"><br /><strong>Origin of Mid-Autumn</strong><br />The custom of celebrating the </span><a title="Moon" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon"><span style="font-size:85%;">moon</span></a><span style="font-size:85%;"> (called Xi yue in </span><a title="Chinese language" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_language"><span style="font-size:85%;">Chinese</span></a><span style="font-size:85%;">) for both the </span><a title="Han Chinese" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_Chinese"><span style="font-size:85%;">Han Chinese</span></a><span style="font-size:85%;"> and minority nationalities, can be traced as far back as the ancient </span><a title="Xia Dynasty" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xia_Dynasty"><span style="font-size:85%;">Xia Dynasty</span></a><span style="font-size:85%;"> and </span><a title="Shang Dynasty" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shang_Dynasty"><span style="font-size:85%;">Shang Dynasty</span></a><span style="font-size:85%;"> of </span><a title="China" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China"><span style="font-size:85%;">China</span></a><span style="font-size:85%;"> (</span><a title="20th century BC" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/20th_century_BC"><span style="font-size:85%;">20th century BC</span></a><span style="font-size:85%;">-</span><a title="1060s BC" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1060s_BC"><span style="font-size:85%;">1060s BC</span></a><span style="font-size:85%;">). In the </span><a title="Zhou Dynasty" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhou_Dynasty"><span style="font-size:85%;">Zhou Dynasty</span></a><span style="font-size:85%;"> (1066 BCE-</span><a title="221 BC" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/221_BC"><span style="font-size:85%;">221 BC</span></a><span style="font-size:85%;">E), the people celebrated the Mid-Autumn Festival to worship the moon.<br />The practice became very prevalent in the </span><a title="Tang Dynasty" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tang_Dynasty"><span style="font-size:85%;">Tang Dynasty</span></a><span style="font-size:85%;"> (</span><a title="618" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/618"><span style="font-size:85%;">618</span></a><span style="font-size:85%;">-</span><a title="907" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/907"><span style="font-size:85%;">907</span></a><span style="font-size:85%;"> CE) that people enjoyed and worshipped the full moon. In the Southern Song Dynasty (</span><a title="1127" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1127"><span style="font-size:85%;">1127</span></a><span style="font-size:85%;">-</span><a title="1279" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1279"><span style="font-size:85%;">1279</span></a><span style="font-size:85%;">), however, people started making round moon cakes, as gifts to their relatives in expression of their best wishes of family reunion. At night, they came out to watch the full moon to celebrate the festival. Since the </span><a title="Ming Dynasty" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ming_Dynasty"><span style="font-size:85%;">Ming</span></a><span style="font-size:85%;"> (</span><a title="1368" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1368"><span style="font-size:85%;">1368</span></a><span style="font-size:85%;">-</span><a title="1644" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1644"><span style="font-size:85%;">1644</span></a><span style="font-size:85%;">), and </span><a title="Qing Dynasty" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qing_Dynasty"><span style="font-size:85%;">Qing</span></a><span style="font-size:85%;"> Dynasties (</span><a title="1644" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1644"><span style="font-size:85%;">1644</span></a><span style="font-size:85%;">-</span><a title="1911" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1911"><span style="font-size:85%;">1911</span></a><span style="font-size:85%;">), the custom of Mid-Autumn Festival celebration has become unprecedentedly popular.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><strong>Some Stories related to Mid-Autumn : Overthrow of Mongol rule<br /></strong>According to a widespread folk tale (not necessarily supported by historical records), the Mid-Autumn Festival commemorates an uprising in </span><a title="China" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China"><span style="font-size:85%;">China</span></a><span style="font-size:85%;"> against the </span><a title="Mongol" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongol"><span style="font-size:85%;">Mongol</span></a><span style="font-size:85%;"> rulers of the </span><a title="Yuan Dynasty" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuan_Dynasty"><span style="font-size:85%;">Yuan Dynasty</span></a><span style="font-size:85%;"> (</span><a title="1280" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1280"><span style="font-size:85%;">1280</span></a><span style="font-size:85%;">–</span><a title="1368" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1368"><span style="font-size:85%;">1368</span></a><span style="font-size:85%;">) in the </span><a title="14th century" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/14th_century"><span style="font-size:85%;">14th century</span></a><span style="font-size:85%;">. As group gatherings were banned, it was impossible to make plans for a </span><a title="Rebellion" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebellion"><span style="font-size:85%;">rebellion</span></a><span style="font-size:85%;">. Noting that the Mongols did not eat </span><a title="Mooncake" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mooncake"><span style="font-size:85%;">mooncakes</span></a><span style="font-size:85%;">, </span><a title="Liu Ji" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liu_Ji"><span style="font-size:85%;">Liu Bowen</span></a><span style="font-size:85%;"> (劉伯溫) of </span><a title="Zhejiang Province" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhejiang_Province"><span style="font-size:85%;">Zhejiang Province</span></a><span style="font-size:85%;">, advisor to the Chinese rebel leader </span><a title="Zhu Yuanzhang" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhu_Yuanzhang"><span style="font-size:85%;">Zhu Yuanzhang</span></a><span style="font-size:85%;">, came up with the idea of timing the rebellion to coincide with the Mid-Autumn Festival. He sought permission to distribute thousands of moon cakes to the Chinese residents in the city to bless the longevity of the Mongol emperor. Inside each cake, however, was inserted a piece of paper with the message: "Kill the </span><a title="Tatar" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatar"><span style="font-size:85%;">Tatars</span></a><span style="font-size:85%;"> on the 15th day of the Eighth Moon" (八月十五殺韃子).On the night of the Moon Festival, the rebels successfully attacked and overthrew the government. What followed was the establishment of the </span><a title="Ming Dynasty" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ming_Dynasty"><span style="font-size:85%;">Ming Dynasty</span></a><span style="font-size:85%;"> (1368-1644), under Zhu. Henceforth, the Mid-Autumn Festival was celebrated with moon cakes on a national level.<br /><br />Taken From: </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-Autumn_Festival"><span style="font-size:85%;">Wikipedia</span></a></p>e.limhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09169172571222814353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34657187.post-49365704055713756492007-09-08T04:49:00.000+08:002007-09-08T04:53:29.376+08:00IN S'PORE: VICTIMS OF LOTTERY SCAMS DOUBLE IN NUMBER<span style="font-size:85%;">I also kanna... but lucky I wasn't conned... but I feel sad for the others...<br />------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Teen who lost $3,800 admits own folly in believing conman's promises<br />By Crystal Chan<br /><br />September 07, 2007<br /><br /><br />SHE was irked by the pop-up windows that kept appearing when she logged into a social networking website, prompting her to take part in a survey.<br /><br /><br />Miss H T Ng, who lost $3,800 in a lottery scam, said she was aware that others had lost money in similar ways.<br />Fed up, Miss H T Ng, 19, a student, did so on 9 Aug, hoping to stop the nuisance.<br /><br />However, the personal information she gave pulled her into a lottery scam, costing her to lose $3,800.<br /><br />Police figures show that a rising number ofpeople like Miss Ng have fallen for lotteryscams.<br /><br />For the first eight months this year, the police have received 83 reports from victims who lost amounts ranging from $6 to $353,000 in such scams.<br /><br />This is almost double the 42 reports made about such scams last year.<br /><br />The police warns the public to be on guard as legitimate lottery companies do not ask for upfront payments before paying winners.<br /><br />Its message is, 'If something is too good to be true, it probably is.'<br /><br />Miss Ng is one of the youngest victims of such scams.<br /><br />OVERSEAS CALL<br /><br />She had included her real name and phone number in the survey and received anoverseas call on her handphone a few dayslater.<br /><br />'The caller spoke with a Chinese accent,' she said. 'She told me I had won $200,000 after taking part in the survey and that the lucky draw had been held in HongKong.'<br /><br />Thinking she would have to go to HongKong to claim the prize, Miss Ng said she was not interested and hungup.<br /><br />Miss Ng said she had heard of people being conned in lottery scams and was suspicious.<br /><br />But the woman, who claimed to be from a company called Huipu-C, phoned her again twohours later.<br /><br />Miss Ng said: 'She persuaded me to claim the money, saying it was a big amount and that other winners had claimed theirs.<br /><br />'She also gave me the company's website address, assuring me the whole thing wasn't ascam.'<br /><br />Miss Ng got her mother, who was more fluent in Mandarin, to take another call from the woman the next day and her mother decided she should claim the $200,000.<br /><br />But first, they had to pay $3,800 as an insurance deposit for 'taxpurposes'.<br /><br />Miss Ng figured the prize would come in handy for her future studies, and did as told on 18 Aug, sending the money through Western Union, a remittancefirm.<br /><br />CALLED AGAIN<br /><br />However, instead of collecting the prize as expected the next day, she got another call to send another $4,500.<br /><br />That was when she realised she had been conned.<br /><br />She said: 'This time, a man claiming to be a manager at the Hong Kong Turf Club said I couldn't get my prize because I wasn't a club member.<br /><br />'He said I was contacted because of a technical error. He also said I had to pay more money to get the prize.'<br /><br />By then, Miss Ng knew she had lost the money she sent earlier, saved from working as a part-time sales promoter for more than ayear.<br /><br />She said: 'I didn't want to lose any more money. I already felt so much heartache at losing the $3,800.'<br /><br />She made a police report immediately after hanging up, but by then, the crooks had withdrawn the money.<br /><br />She said she still feels 'sore' about losing the money and said it was greed and naivety that caused her to fall for the scam. </span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Taken From the </span><a href="http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/news/story/0,4136,141130,00.html"><span style="font-size:85%;">Electric New Paper</span></a>e.limhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09169172571222814353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34657187.post-81674264374416847342007-09-07T11:07:00.000+08:002007-09-07T11:09:27.144+08:00When Piracy Becomes Promotion<span style="font-size:85%;"><em>The underground subtitling and circulation of Japanese anime helped to open the American market to Asian cultural imports. </em><br />By Henry Jenkins<br /><br />Anime is everywhere. The global sales of Japanese animation and character goods, an astonishing 9 trillion yen ($80 billion) has grown to 10 times what it was a decade ago. In his 2003 opening speech to the Japanese Diet, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi praised Spirited Away (the first non-American release to win the Academy Award for best animated feature) and anime more generally as the savior of Japanese culture.<br /><br />Much of that growth has occurred in North America and Western Europe, where young people have embraced this distinctive style of popular culture, one which extends well beyond the wide-eyed beauties, cute animals, and giant robot battles anime represents for the most casual consumers.<br /><br />Disney has purchased the American rights to Spirited Away and the other films of its creator Hayao Miyazaki (Princess Mononoke, Kikis Delivery Service), redubbing these films with the voices of American film stars. The Cartoon Network features a wide array of anime series as part of its late night Adult Swim programming. ADV Films, a major importer of anime series for the American market, has launched a 24 hours Anime Network. TOKYOPOP, a Los Angeles-based company, will publish 400 volumes of translated manga (Japanese comics) for U.S. consumption this year. One can find whole shelves of manga in many Barnes and Noble or Borders bookstores, where they frequently outsell American-produced graphic novels.<br /><br />Japanese anime has won worldwide success in part because Japanese media companies were tolerant of the kinds of grassroots activities that American media companies seem so determined to shut down. Much of the risks of entering Western markets and many of the costs of experimentation and promotion were born by dedicated consumers. A symbiotic relationship existed between fans and producers that warrants closer consideration as we watch American media companies take a scorched earth attitude toward their most dedicated followers.<br /><br />Two decades ago, the U.S. market was totally shut to these Japanese imports. Today, the sky is the limit, with many of the most successful childrens series, from Pokemon to Yu-Gi-Oh!, coming directly from Japanese production houses. The shift occurred not through some concerted push by Japanese media companies, but rather in response to the pull of American fans who used every technology at their disposal to expand the community that knew and loved this content. Subsequent commercial efforts built on the infrastructure these fans developed over the intervening years. In this essay, I am drawing heavily on a detailed chronicle of the early history of American anime fandom developed by the former President of the MIT Anime Club, Sean Leonard.<br /><br />Japanese animation was exported into the western market as early as the 1960s, when Astro Boy, Speed Racer, and Gigantor made it onto American television primarily through local syndication. By the late 1960s, however, reform efforts, such as Action for Childrens Television, had used threats of boycott and federal regulation to push back against content they saw as inappropriate for American children. The next wave of Japanese content aimed at adults in its country of origin, often dealt with more mature themes and was a particular target of the backlash. Discouraged Japanese distributors retreated from the U.S. market, dumping their cartoons on Japanese language cable channels in cities with large Asian populations.<br /><br />The rise of videotape recorders significantly changed this picture. American fans could dub shows off the Japanese language channels and share them with their friends in other regions. Soon, fans were seeking contacts in Japan‑both local youth and American G.I.s with access to newer series. Both Japan and the United States used the same NTSC video format, easing the flow of content across national borders. American fan clubs emerged to support the archiving and circulation of Japanese animation. The clubs, such as the MIT Anime Club, functioned as lending libraries and dubbing centers as well as holding marathon screenings to attract new members.<br /><br />In most cases, the content was shown without translation. I remember attending some screenings in the late 1970s. Much like attending an opera, someone would stand up and tell us the plot and then we would watch without understanding anything said. We didnt know what we were watching but it was pretty damned interesting any way.<br /><br />Japanese distributors winked at these screenings. They didnt have permission from their mother companies to charge these fans or provide the material but they were interested to see how much interest the shows attracted.<br /><br />The late 1980s and early 1990s saw the emergence of fansubbing, the amateur translation and subtitling of Japanese anime. What enabled such efforts was the introduction of a devicecalled a genlock, for generator lockingthat allowed a television set to accept two signals simultaneously and that synchronized an incoming video signal with computer output. Time-synchronized VHS and S-VHS systems made it possible to dub the tapes so that they retained accurate alignment of text and image. The high costs of the earliest machines meant that fansubbing would remain a collective effort: clubs pooled time and resources to insure their favorite series reached a wider viewership. As costs lowered, fansubbing spread outward, with clubs using the Internet to coordinate their activities, divvying up what series to sub and tapping a broader community for would-be translators.<br /><br />Beginning in the early 1990s, large-scale anime conventions brought artists and distributors from Japan, who were astonished to see a thriving culture surrounding content they had never actually marketed here and who went back home motivated to try to commercially tap this interest. Some key players in the Japanese animation industry had been among those who had aided and abetted U.S. grassroots distribution a decade earlier.<br /><br />The first niche companies to distribute Anime on DVD and videotape emerged as fan clubs simply went pro, acquiring the distribution rights from re-engaged Japanese media companies. The first material to be distributed already had an enthusiastic fan following. Interested in exposing their members to the full range of content available in Japan, the fan clubs had often taken risks that no commercial distributor would have confronted, testing the market for new genres, producers, and series and commercial companies followed their path where-ever they found popularity.<br /><br />The fansubbed videos often ran an advisory urging users to cease distribution when licensed. The clubs were not trying to profit from anime distribution but rather to expand the market; they pulled back from circulating any title that had found a commercial distributor. In any case, the commercial copies were higher quality than their multi-generation dubs.<br /><br />The first commercially available copies were often dubbed and re-edited as part of an effort to expand their potential interest to casual consumers. Japanese cultural critic Koichi Iwabuchi used the term, deodorizing, to refer to the ways that Japanese soft goods are stripped of signs of their national origins to open them for global circulation. Anime and manga now rank at the top of these cultural exports. In Japan, manga constitute 40 percent of all books and magazines published and more than half of all movie tickets sold are to animated films. More than 200 animation programs are aired each week on Japanese television and about 1700 animated films (short or feature length) are produced for theatrical or straight-to-video distribution each year. Japanese media producers had created a complex set of tie-ins between comics, animated films, television series, toys, and games that allowed them to capitalize quickly on successful content. They are increasingly eager to export this whole apparatus internationally. In this context, the grassroots fan community still plays an important role, helping to educate American viewers to the cultural references and genre traditions defining these products through their websites and newsletters. The fan clubs continue to explore potential niche products that over time can emerge as mainstream successes.<br /><br />Many U.S. media companies might have regarded all of this underground circulation as piracy and shut it down before it reached critical mass. The Japanese media companys tolerance of these fan efforts is consistent with their similar treatment of fan communities in their local market. As Temple University law professor Salil K. Mehra notes, the underground sale of fan-made manga, often highly derivative of the commercial product, occurs on a massive scale in Japan, with some comics markets attracting 150,000 visitors per day; such markets are held almost every week in some parts of the country. Rarely taking legal action, the commercial producers sponsor such events, using them to publicize their releases, to recruit potential new talent, and to monitor shifts in audience tastes. In any case, they fear the wrath of their consumers if they took action against such a well-entrenched cultural practice and the Japanese legal structure would provide for fairly small legal penalties if they did pursue infringers.<br /><br />More generally, as Yuichi Washida, a research director at Hakuhodo, Japans second largest advertising and marketing firm, has argued, Japanese corporations have sought to collaborate with fan clubs, subcultures, and other consumption communities, seeing them as important allies in developing compelling new content or broadening markets. In courting such fans, the companies helped to construct a moral economy that aligned their interests in reaching a market with the American fans desires to access more content.<br /><br />Many have argued that cultural rather than legal, technological, or economic solutions are crucial in resolving the bootlegging crisis hitting American media companies. Rather than suing their fan base, perhaps they should study how their Japanese counterparts profited from this first wave of underground circulation, seeing it as promotion rather than piracy.<br /><br />Copyright Technology Review 2004.</span>e.limhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09169172571222814353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34657187.post-88736469339473931332007-08-28T15:37:00.000+08:002007-08-28T15:57:34.546+08:00Old Memories - 1996<div align="center"><div style="WIDTH: 360px; TEXT-ALIGN: center"><embed src="http://w128.photobucket.com/pbwidget.swf?pbwurl=http://w128.photobucket.com/albums/p167/jglim/Old Memeries 1996/80f0a93b.pbw" width="360" height="360" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent"></embed><a href="http://photobucket.com/" target="_blank"><img style="BORDER-TOP-WIDTH: 0px; BORDER-LEFT-WIDTH: 0px; FLOAT: left; BORDER-BOTTOM-WIDTH: 0px; BORDER-RIGHT-WIDTH: 0px" src="http://pic.photobucket.com/album/slideshow/wrapper_logo.gif" /></a><a href="http://s128.photobucket.com/albums/p167/jglim/Old%20Memeries%201996/?action=view¤t=80f0a93b.pbw" target="_blank"><img style="BORDER-TOP-WIDTH: 0px; BORDER-LEFT-WIDTH: 0px; FLOAT: right; BORDER-BOTTOM-WIDTH: 0px; BORDER-RIGHT-WIDTH: 0px" src="http://pic.photobucket.com/album/slideshow/wrapper_viewshow.gif" /></a><a href="http://photobucket.com/slideshow?action=landing" target="_blank"><img style="BORDER-TOP-WIDTH: 0px; BORDER-LEFT-WIDTH: 0px; FLOAT: right; BORDER-BOTTOM-WIDTH: 0px; BORDER-RIGHT-WIDTH: 0px" src="http://pic.photobucket.com/album/slideshow/wrapper_getyourown.gif" /></a></div></div>e.limhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09169172571222814353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34657187.post-39066106688784966162007-08-24T12:47:00.000+08:002007-08-24T12:52:14.253+08:00Extreme Diet Coke & Mentos Experiments<div align="center"><span style="font-size:85%;">Extreme Diet Coke & Mentos Experiments I<br /><object height="213" width="260"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/znoSaHwbHYg"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/znoSaHwbHYg" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="260" height="213"></embed></object><br /><br />Extreme Diet Coke & Mentos Experiments II: The Domino Effect<br /><object height="213" width="260"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/9vk4_2xboOE"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/9vk4_2xboOE" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="260" height="213"></embed></object></span></div>e.limhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09169172571222814353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34657187.post-68793605882782409052007-08-23T13:55:00.000+08:002007-08-23T13:59:18.590+08:00Why Transformers Cannot Be Set in Singapore<span style="font-size:85%;">While watching 'Transformers', we wondered how come this kind of big action movie about giant robots who turn into cars and stuff cannot be set in Singapore. Then we thought about it some more, and realized why... </span><br /><div align="center"><span style="font-size:85%;">(click on picture to see)</span></div><a href="http://bp2.blogger.com/_kGxn415GX8s/Rs0hwHYnQ0I/AAAAAAAAAG0/RWDoK0MMC6c/s1600-h/transformers.jpg"><span style="font-size:85%;"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5101771063380362050" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://bp2.blogger.com/_kGxn415GX8s/Rs0hwHYnQ0I/AAAAAAAAAG0/RWDoK0MMC6c/s320/transformers.jpg" border="0" /></span></a> <div><span style="font-size:85%;"></span></div><div><span style="font-size:85%;">© </span><a href="http://www.talkingcock.com/"><span style="font-size:85%;">http://www.talkingcock.com/</span></a><span style="font-size:85%;"> 2001-2003. All rights reserved. </span></div>e.limhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09169172571222814353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34657187.post-55038795323788529932007-08-23T13:41:00.000+08:002007-08-23T13:49:41.497+08:00NATIONAL DAY SPECIAL: 60 SIGNS YOU’RE A TRUE SINGAPOREAN<a href="http://bp3.blogger.com/_kGxn415GX8s/Rs0f6XYnQzI/AAAAAAAAAGs/0fJdpXheCME/s1600-h/60signstitle.gif"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5101769040450765618" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://bp3.blogger.com/_kGxn415GX8s/Rs0f6XYnQzI/AAAAAAAAAGs/0fJdpXheCME/s320/60signstitle.gif" border="0" /></a><br /><div><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">It’s not enough if you pay taxes or carry a pink IC. To commemorate National Day, TalkingCock.com brings you a checklist to see how Singaporean you really are.<br /><br /><br />1. Thanks to SMS, you have an extra large thumb.<br /><br />2. Tks 2 SMS, u oso dun no how 2 spel n e mor.<br /><br />3. You pat MRT and bus seats to cool them before you sit down.<br /><br />4. At lunch, you start discussing what to eat for dinner.<br /><br />5. Your wedding photos include shots of you dressed up like Louis XIV, Michael Jackson, or Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in Titanic.<br /><br />6. When speaking to foreigners, you somehow feel a need to adopt an accent. (If you’re a DJ, this happens even when you’re not speaking to foreigners.)<br /><br />7. You won’t raise your voice to protest policies, but you’ll raise your fists to whack someone over Hello Kitty.<br /><br />8. You’re forever talking about businesses you want to set up but will probably never get around to starting.<br /><br />9. You don’t know ¾ of the people attending your wedding.<br /><br />10. You separate food into 2 basic groups: ‘heaty’ and ‘cooling’.<br /><br />11. You’re never completely sure how many times you’ve sung the second verse of the National Anthem.<br /><br />12. You think that what makes you ‘married’ is not the legal registration but whether you’ve thrown a 12 course dinner.<br /><br />13. You marry for the real estate breaks.<br /><br />14. You have kids for the tax advantages.<br /><br />15. You move to where you want your child to go to school.<br /><br />16. You feel you can’t walk around naked in your own flat.<br /><br />17. You force your children to take Speech & Drama classes, but pray they won’t wind up in Arts later on.<br /><br />18. You suddenly realize you’re very interested in biotech - just like you suddenly realized three years ago that you were very interested in e-commerce, and before that, engineering, and before that, medicine and law.<br /><br />19. You think being an entrepreneur is setting up a bubble tea/Portuguese egg tart/gao luck/porridge shop right next to an existing bubble tea/Portuguese egg tart/gao luck/porridge shop.<br /><br />20. You think people are inconsiderate when they don’t leave their table immediately after eating at the food court but think you have every right to take 25 bites to finish the last red bean in your ice kachang.<br /><br />21. You find it impossible to make suggestions without drawing a fishbone chart first.<br /><br />22. If you’re a guy, whenever you get together with your guy friends, you invariably trade army stories.<br /><br />23. If you’re a girl, whenever you get together with your girl friends, you invariably trade stories about how your stupid guy friends are forever trading army stories.<br /><br />24. You think the most important sporting event in Singapore this year was David Beckham switching from Manchester United to Real Madrid.<br /><br />25. You somehow feel that food tastes better when eaten by a longkang.<br /><br />26. It actually makes a difference to you being called an ‘NSMan’ rather than a ‘Reservist’.<br /><br />27. You’ve eaten more times at the Esplanade than you’ve actually seen shows there.<br /><br />28. You need campaigns to tell you how to be courteous, to flush toilets, have sex, etc.<br /><br />29. When you visit the Zoo, you wonder what the animals taste like.<br /><br />30. You feel the urge to add the suffix ‘-polis’ to everything, viz. Biopolis, Airtropolis, Fusionopolis, Entrepolis, etc.<br /><br />31. You always feel oddly hungry at 11 pm, and are willing to drive to far away places for supper.<br /><br />32. You meet in hotels a lot.<br /><br />33. Your children have a rudimentary knowledge of Tagalog or Bahasa Indonesia.<br /><br />34. You work at McDonald’s when you’re old rather than young.<br /><br />35. You’ll gladly spend $50,000 on a car, but will go to great lengths to save a few bucks on ERP charges or even a few cents on a parking coupon.<br /><br />36. Pork floss and mayonnaise on bread is a completely natural combination to you.<br /><br />37. If you’re pregnant, you have the strange ability to make people on the MRT fall asleep instantly.<br /><br />38. You ask for the bill by miming a signing movement.<br /><br />39. You’ve started referring to foreign employees as ‘talent’ instead of ‘expatriates’.<br /><br />40. At the dinner table, you’re always discussing which other food places serve better versions of what you’re eating.<br /><br />41. You copy down licence plate numbers of cars involved in accidents.<br /><br />42. You think your boyfriend doesn’t really love you unless he gives you part of his liver.<br /><br />43. During sales, you book hotel rooms near malls to enable you to shop more efficiently.<br /><br />44. You pronounce the letter ‘R’ as ‘ah-rer’ and the letter ‘H’ as ‘haytch’.<br /><br />45. No matter how old you are, you keep associating people with their secondary schools. (alternative: No matter how old you are, you secretly need to know what other people got for their PSLE, O levels and A levels.)<br /><br />46. You’re always on a quest for the definitive version of your favourite local dish.<br /><br />47. When you explain things to people, you keep (a) using alphabets, and (b) speaking in point form.<br /><br />48. You believe that you can generate ‘creativity’ through rules and committees.<br /><br />49. You ‘chope’ a seat by placing a packet of tissues on the chair.<br /><br />50. You’re very forthright with your criticisms of the Gahmen, unless there’s a chance they might actually hear you.<br /><br />51. You diligently track the whereabouts of your favourite hawkers, i.e..you know that the famous Tiong Bahru Bao is now in Jurong, the famous Outram Char Kuay Teow is now in Hong Lim Centre and the famous Lau Hock Kien Hokkien mee from the old Lau Pa Sat is now at Beach Road.<br /><br />52. Your mother probably can’t speak your ‘mother tongue’.<br /><br />53. You’d rather drink your own pee than pay someone more for water.<br /><br />54. You secretly find that the best part of the Speak Good English Movement is hearing the Singlish bits in their ads.<br /><br />55. You have an automatic sensor in your head which categorizes people you meet into stayer/ quitter, cosmopolitan/heartlander, normal/ express/ gifted, etc.<br /><br />56. You think we’re living in a modern, sophisticated country even when our leaders still insist on wearing their school uniforms.<br /><br />57. You wish your constituency is in a walkover, because otherwise it’s damn ‘leceh’.<br /><br />58. During elections, you decide that there is no credible opposition even though you don’t know the name of the opposition candidate in your constituency.<br /><br />59. You think having a constitution is like the condition you get when you don’t eat enough fibre.<br /><br />60. You can never quite remember what “the core values” of Singaporeans are.<br /><br />by Kway Png </span><br /><br /><strong><span style="font-size:85%;">© </span></strong><a href="http://www.talkingcock.com/"><strong><span style="font-size:85%;">http://www.TalkingCock.com</span></strong></a><strong><span style="font-size:85%;"> 2001-2003. All rights reserved. </span></strong></div>e.limhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09169172571222814353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34657187.post-43629516801288833972007-08-22T00:55:00.000+08:002007-08-22T01:04:03.937+08:00Currently Watching: AIR GEAR<div align="center"><object height="213" width="260"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/YieEuQ1ezqQ"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><br /><br /><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/YieEuQ1ezqQ" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="260" height="213"></embed></object></div><a href="http://bp2.blogger.com/_kGxn415GX8s/RssafnYnQqI/AAAAAAAAAEI/578g0w8XF7k/s1600-h/Team+Kogarasumaru.png"></a><br /><div align="center">Opening Song:<br /></div><br /><br /><div align="center"><br /><a href="http://bp3.blogger.com/_kGxn415GX8s/Rssat3YnQrI/AAAAAAAAAEQ/yRTCGy7XbC4/s1600-h/Team+Kogarasumaru.png"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5101200378190840498" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://bp3.blogger.com/_kGxn415GX8s/Rssat3YnQrI/AAAAAAAAAEQ/yRTCGy7XbC4/s320/Team+Kogarasumaru.png" border="0" /></a><br />Team Kogarasumaru</div><br /><br /><div align="center"></div>e.limhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09169172571222814353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34657187.post-64780864234902228272007-08-22T00:38:00.000+08:002007-08-22T00:49:57.087+08:00MOS Dusty Opening + SAFRA Night<div align="center"><a href="http://bp3.blogger.com/_kGxn415GX8s/RssVq3YnQnI/AAAAAAAAAD0/SChH8ncJIyU/s1600-h/DSC00191+(Large).JPG"><span style="font-size:85%;"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5101194829093094002" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://bp3.blogger.com/_kGxn415GX8s/RssVq3YnQnI/AAAAAAAAAD0/SChH8ncJIyU/s320/DSC00191+(Large).JPG" border="0" /></span></a><span style="font-size:85%;"> Dusty Opening @ MOS</span></div><div align="center"><span style="font-size:85%;">it was kind of boring actually...<br /></span></div><div align="center"><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span></div><p align="center"><a href="http://bp1.blogger.com/_kGxn415GX8s/RssVrXYnQoI/AAAAAAAAAD8/Yw0hceNnlY0/s1600-h/DSC00478+(Large).jpg"><span style="font-size:85%;"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5101194837683028610" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_kGxn415GX8s/RssVrXYnQoI/AAAAAAAAAD8/Yw0hceNnlY0/s320/DSC00478+(Large).jpg" border="0" /></span></a><span style="font-size:85%;"> so it became SAFRA Night...<br />something more "normal"...<br /></span></p><div align="center"><span style="font-size:85%;"></span></div>e.limhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09169172571222814353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34657187.post-14148842978562666172007-08-08T10:51:00.000+08:002007-08-08T11:21:54.604+08:00Singapore Women's Masters Squash Championship, Singapore04-Aug,<br />Final:<br />Nicol David Masters Singapore In Latest Triumph<br /><br />Nicol David showed fans in Singapore just why she is the world squash number one with a fine display that was full of running and crafty shot-making, outlasting her closest rival Natalie Grinham 9-6, 9-5, 9-5 in 54 minutes in the final to win the inaugural Women’s CIMB Singapore Masters at the Kallang Squash Centre in Singapore.<br /><br /><p><a href="http://bp2.blogger.com/_kGxn415GX8s/Rrk0-pCl29I/AAAAAAAAADM/qhiDhuPjfEI/s1600-h/squash.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5096162704119684050" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://bp2.blogger.com/_kGxn415GX8s/Rrk0-pCl29I/AAAAAAAAADM/qhiDhuPjfEI/s320/squash.jpg" border="0" /></a>03-Aug:<br />Semi-Finals Results:<br />[1]Nicol David(Mas) vs [3]Rachael Grinham(Aus) 9/2, 9/2, 9/3 (23m)<br />[2]Natalie Grinham(Aus) vs [4]Tania Bailey(Eng) 9/6, 9/6, 9/1 (46m)<br /><br />02-Aug:<br />Quarter-Finals Results:<br />[1]Nicol David(Mas) vs [5]Vicky Botwright(Eng) 10/8, 9/0, 9/3 (44m)<br />[3]Rachael Grinham(Aus) vs [6]Omneya Abdel Kawy(Egy) 5/9, 9/5, 9/0, 7/9, 9/4 (68m)<br />[4]Tania Bailey(Eng) vs [8]Jenny Duncalf(Eng) 8/10, 9/3, 3/9, 9/1, 9/1 (84m)<br />[2]Natalie Grinham(Aus) vs [7]Madeline Perry(Irl) 9/5, 9/5, 9/2 (38m)<br /><br /><br />Taken from : <a href="http://www.worldsquash.org/singapore2007.html">© World Squash Federation </a><br /><br /><br />I was there... hoping to witness the match on 04th Aug.... but I can only see the back right hand cornor of the court... kaoz.. there was too many people there... so horrifying... didn't know that there were so many squash fan in Singapore... :p<br /><br />but I got to see all the full matches for the quater-final and semi-final on the 2nd and 3rd August... mmm... better than nothing... :p<br /><br /><a href="http://bp3.blogger.com/_kGxn415GX8s/Rrk0-5Cl2-I/AAAAAAAAADU/-BXOVSM-8FU/s1600-h/DSC00158.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5096162708414651362" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://bp3.blogger.com/_kGxn415GX8s/Rrk0-5Cl2-I/AAAAAAAAADU/-BXOVSM-8FU/s320/DSC00158.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://bp1.blogger.com/_kGxn415GX8s/Rrk0_ZCl2_I/AAAAAAAAADc/bqznWMbSoU0/s1600-h/DSC00162.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5096162717004585970" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_kGxn415GX8s/Rrk0_ZCl2_I/AAAAAAAAADc/bqznWMbSoU0/s320/DSC00162.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://bp2.blogger.com/_kGxn415GX8s/Rrk0_pCl3AI/AAAAAAAAADk/8m2LST7Cov0/s1600-h/DSC00164.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5096162721299553282" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://bp2.blogger.com/_kGxn415GX8s/Rrk0_pCl3AI/AAAAAAAAADk/8m2LST7Cov0/s320/DSC00164.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://bp3.blogger.com/_kGxn415GX8s/Rrk0_5Cl3BI/AAAAAAAAADs/Y31yoqvcDeI/s1600-h/DSC00166.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5096162725594520594" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://bp3.blogger.com/_kGxn415GX8s/Rrk0_5Cl3BI/AAAAAAAAADs/Y31yoqvcDeI/s320/DSC00166.JPG" border="0" /></a></p>e.limhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09169172571222814353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34657187.post-47034349909723407352007-08-02T15:45:00.001+08:002007-08-02T15:52:00.212+08:00Licensed Anime (By AnimeSuki)<span style="font-size:85%;"><strong>What is licensed anime?</strong><br />Licensed anime is any series or movie (part or whole) for which the rights to publish the anime in a specific area have been bought. Simply put, if a company buys the rights to put an anime series or movie on TV and/or release it on DVD in the USA (in English), that anime series or movie is considered licensed anime by AnimeSuki. Note that of course it's also possible for anime series and movies to be licensed in other areas (such as Europe). Such licenses usually involve publishing in languages other than English though and therefore are of no interest to us.<br /><br /><strong>The original purpose of fansubs</strong><br />As recent as about 10 to 15 years ago anime was not easy to get outside of Asia. The few anime companies that existed could only bring out a few titles as they lacked the funds and the market for licensing more shows. To get more anime and also to encourage certain titles to get licensed in the US, some anime fans started to make fansubs: series which were taped of Japanese television with subtitles added. These fansubs were distributed on VHS tape. One of the self imposed rules the fansub groups adapted was that once a series was licensed in the US, distribution of the fansub should stop. After all, the fansub had served it's purpose.<br /><br />Eventually the popularity of anime grew in the US and with it the market for anime grew, which in turn resulted in more money to be available to license even more shows. It is probably this reason why in the past few years more and more shows are getting licensed. The popularity of fansubs also grew explosively with the introduction of digisubs: digital fansubs which could be easily distributed over the internet.<br /><br /><strong>Fansubs violate copyrights</strong><br />We have to admit it: the distribution of fansubs is technically a violation of copyright under the </span><a href="http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/trips_e/intel2_e.htm" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:85%;">WTO TRIPS agreement</span></a><span style="font-size:85%;">. However the TRIPS agreement does not demand that distribution of copyrighted material is a criminal offence unless it is done on a commercial scale. This means it is up to the copyright holder to bring the offender to court. The copyright of unlicensed material is held by the original creator. In the case of anime this usually means the Japanese distribution company. If something is licenced, the licensee holds the copyright and thus the right to sue any copyright infringers within the area covered by the license. (source: </span><a href="http://forums.animesuki.com/showthread.php?t=951" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:85%;">ato's forum post</span></a><span style="font-size:85%;">)<br /><br />Up until now fansub groups have had little to worry about legal pressure from Japan. However US companies are more likely to sue, therefore it is an additional reason for fansub groups to stop distributing a series once it gets licensed in the US.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><strong>The future of fansubs</strong></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Whether fansubs have a future remains to be seen. David Williams of ADV Films recently mentioned at </span><a href="http://www.animeondvd.com/conitem.php?item=133" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:85%;">Anime Boston 2003</span></a><span style="font-size:85%;">: "One thing fans might not know is most shows are licensed now during the financing stage, before the show is even produced. This makes a lot of fansubs pointless now. Of course, there are still old shows that probably won?t be licensed; but new shows are almost guaranteed."<br /><br />Still some series might need some help to get popular. Would you buy Azumanga Daioh DVDs if you had have never heard about it? Fansubs probably helped this series and others gain popularity. Also as there is so much anime being created in Japan, there will usually always be some series which don't get licensed for some reason, like Boys Be or Kokoro Library.<br /><br /><strong>It's not a perfect world</strong><br />If you are wondering why you can still find fansubs of licensed shows (even of episodes aired after the show was licensed), the answer is that the world is not perfect. Certain fansub groups do not follow the general fansub ethics of ceasing the distribution and fansubbing of a show after it is licensed. AnimeSuki does not recommend downloading these files, but there is little we can do to stop them.<br /><br /><strong>What if you're not in the US?</strong><br />While a large part of the visitors of AnimeSuki are from the US and Canada, not all of them are of course. Those people might be thinking: "If anime is licensed in the US, what has that to do with me? Why stop fansubbing? Why remove it from AnimeSuki?". AnimeSuki's view on this is that the US is the largest market for English subbed and dubbed anime, therefore once anime is licensed in the US all English fansubbing of it should stop.<br /><br />If you're not from the US, this means you can still download non-English fansubs of the same series (if it's not licensed in your region as well). Alternatively you could also import the DVDs when they are released in the US. It is not expensive to do so if you order directly from online DVD shops in the US. You will need a region free DVD player of course, but even those are easy to get - just ask around or check out </span><a href="http://www.rpc1.org/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:85%;">The Firmware Page</span></a><span style="font-size:85%;"> to make your DVD-ROM drive region free.<br /><br />If a title is not licensed in your area and you still want to download English fansubs, AnimeSuki won't stop you from doing so. However, we won't help you find them either for reasons mentioned earlier. Also be aware that (again for obvious reasons) newer episodes of series which have been licensed before being completely fansubbed might be very hard to get. So even if AnimeSuki did not have the policy of removing licensed anime, we would still be left with very little to link to!<br /><br /><strong>AnimeSuki.com & Fansubs</strong><br />Unless something major happens, AnimeSuki.com will continue to list torrent links to the latest English fansubs of unlicensed anime. Please note however that only torrent links listed on AnimeSuki can safely be considered to be unlicensed. Certain BitTorrent sites also tend to list licensed anime, which AnimeSuki does not support. However it is not possible for us to just link to those torrents which are not licensed as we link to sites and not the torrent files directly.<br /><br />See the </span><a href="http://www.animesuki.com/doc.php/licensed/list.html"><span style="font-size:85%;">License List</span></a><span style="font-size:85%;"> for an overview of anime which AnimeSuki considers licensed.<br /><br />Taken From : </span><a href="http://www.animesuki.com/doc.php/licensed/"><span style="font-size:85%;">AnimeSuki</span></a><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span>e.limhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09169172571222814353noreply@blogger.com0