New ugly S’porean
THERE is a new breed of Ugly Singaporean more sinister than the ones who cut queues, pile up the buffet plate or rush onto the bus before other passengers can alight.

Those belonging to this new breed fancy themselves as keyboard warriors and deface Internet sites with postings that are plainly worrying.

Hiding behind the anonymity of the Net, they post comments that reek of prejudice, racism and envy.

For instance, it is virtually unavoidable these days to read anti-migrant comments online. These netizens flood message boards with anti-foreign worker vitriol that degenerates into childish name calling and personal attacks on those who are courageous enough to defend foreign workers.

These ugly warriors use labels like ‘traitor’ frequently. The irony is that these same anonymous posters say they want to leave Singapore because they feel they are being forced out by foreigners taking their jobs.

Another example: The Eric How controversy, in which an inflammatory Facebook diatribe by an unidentified individual who called himself Eric How and claimed to be a member of Young PAP triggered a witch hunt.

As a result, two other people named Eric How were caught in the crossfire of postings about the issue.

Those in this new breed of Ugly Singaporean worry me because they suggest a sense that beneath a placid exterior lurks a collective subconscious that is intolerant, mean and narrow-minded.

Keith Gerard Tan

I think the author has just came out of his shell or something. Where has he been living in the past few decades or so? I’m sure if you looked hard enough on the world wide web you would find negative comments to just about anything, so why be critical about netizens now? Even while reading through the controlled local propaganda publications do we have to distinguish right from wrong. Please do not tell me I have to take every word the local newspaper publishes as the Gospel and label everything I read online as nonsense. If the author does not have a mind of his own then I do not blame him for being critical of such online comments. However, if he indeed does not have a mind of his own, he really should not post such letters that show he cannot discern right from wrong and that he does not know how to embrace the new media.

Putting that aside, I have written a new application. It was written in C# yet again. I do most of programming at work in C++ but C# seems to be much friendlier and easier to code. I have no C# background but picking it using Visual C# Express was a breeze. Anyway, the program I have written is a application to solve Sudoku puzzles. I’m sure there are many such applications out there but coding it was rather fun. The link to the program can be found at the usual applications page.

Anyway, will be going down to Changi Exhibition Centre tomorrow for some familiarization with the Air Show 2010. Will be there on duty next Wed, Thurs and Sat so come say hello if you are coming!

Also, I added a new page for applications that I write in my free time. Most of the applications will be written to suit my needs, but maybe someone out there might be able to make use of it. I wrote the “Amos Reminder Application” in a few hours yesterday. If there are any bugs, then too bad, since it works on my side :P

Anyway, here are some photos I took during New Year’s Day 2010 countdown. We booked a hotel at Pan Pacific with a view of the fireworks, although the Marina Floating platform was blocked by Mandarin Oriental hotel. Taking photos seem fun enough, but my interests don’t seem to last long enough and thus I don’t think I should get a DSLR camera. And these interests include blogging, writing programs and taking photos coincidentally. Click continue to view the pictures…

Anyway, being the Economist that I am, I realise that people really do respond to incentives. Like duh! And sleep is one of the strongest motivators out there. I went to school early for lessons @ 9am. I was supposed to have lessons until 6, and then a project meeting at 630pm. However, the project meeting got cancelled, and so I was supposed to end at 6. Then I thought to myself, the tutorial at 5 to 6 can be skipped and I can go home at 4 to sleep since I have a break from 4 to 5. Further into my lessons I thought that the programming lab too could be skipped since I did not have much to do at the lab anyways so I could go home at 2! By the end of the lesson, I decided not to go for the Statistics lecture since the lecturer would put me to sleep anyway.  So here I am, through the rain and at home @ 12! For a day that was supposed to end at 7+ and which ended @ 12 I think that is really good!

On a side note, I got 34/40 for my Econs Mid Term MCQ test, so I guess last minute studying really does pay off!

Just a thought,  Li Lin did said in The Leap Years movie that “it’s better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all”. I wonder if I can synonymously say the same “it’s better to have studied and failed than never to have studied at all!”. Somehow, it just doesn’t have the same meaning when used in this context…

Anyway, went to school today after 1 week of “holidays”. Most of my friends were busy with projects and stuff for this so-called holidays, or recess week to be exact, except it didn’t seem much like a recess. Ok, it was not supposed to feel like a recess week for me too, since I had some assignments and projects to do, and also had to study for an Economics test I have this thursday. However, I made it more or less like a recess week by the fact that I procrastinated and did close to nothing for the whole week! So, now I have to rush a few assignments and also study for the test! And they say time flies when you’re having fun! I think time flies when you’re not working/studying! Unless you’re Kermit, then “time’s fun when you’re having flies!”.

So you see, now we know why you should not use a fan if one of it’s blades is broken! The explosion threw bits of the blades around my room, and I’m quite surprise I’m still alive to be typing this post here. The next time you see you should be thankful that I’m still able to spend time with you, and was not stabbed to death by flying blades of a fan. I will be thankful that I’m still able to be with you still, and not stabbed to death by flying blades of a fan. Jokes aside, my fan is resting in pieces, my aircon is leaking, life sucks for me. Go shopping for a new fan anyone?

On a side note, it’s the recess week of NUS today! I asked my mini boss whether she wanted me to go in for work more days this week, but apparently the medium boss thinks there’s no need for it, so here I am slacking my time away at home. I actually have a few projects and stuffs to do, but I’m too lazy to even touch them! Maybe I will start on them later. Or maybe not :P

After that, my next chance to take photos and play around with my cameras was at dinner time when I went out with the group of friends to Serangoon Gardens for dinner and chilling out.

Well, I’m too lazy to type out comments for each picture so I’ll just throw everything in for you to see!

Also, I’ve integrated Gallery into wordpress so click on the memories link to view all the pictures!

Decided to splurge on a new digital camera! Got the Canon Ixus 860 IS. Went with my mini boss during lunch to Macs for lunch then proceeded to Harvey Norman to purchase my camera. I was telling her to help me bargain, and I also quite determined to bargain cause I heard you could bargain at Harvey Norman. However, when we got there, I asked to look at the camera, and she offered no support from the side! I had already set my mind on that model, so I just looked at it, turned it on, tried it for 5 secs before deciding to purchase it. I think the person was also quite eager to sell me. I had $100 worth of Harvey Norman vouchers that my mother had won at her company dinner, and so I took out the envelope to ask if I could use it. He didn’t even bother looking inside the envelope and said that the vouchers could be used, thus proving how eager he was to sell me! Well, that’s me when I buy stuff. Normally I’ll do my research online then check out some prices and then just purchase it without thinking twice. Sales people must really love me because they don’t really have to hardsell. Later in the evening, my boss told me that the guy didn’t even bother checking inside the envelope, and I could have just put some NTUC or other vouchers inside. Haha, I wonder what would have happened if I did that. I would have acted blur and said the guy told me they could be used!

Anyway, I believe the gimmick to selling camers is to give as many freebies as possible. They gave me 2 x 2GB HS SD cards, 1 Camera Case, 1 Digital Camera Kit, 1 LCD screen protector! And they even make you feel happier by putting the price tags on the items. Those prices are probably marked up anyway, to make you feel that you’re getting a great bargain, since on the price tags it’s written (not for sale) too! I guess they did the trick though, and my boss also was jealous that I bought my camera and got so many freebies and she didn’t when she bought hers! So, the summary of my purchase are as follows:

1 x Canon Ixus 860 IS Black – $669
1 x LCD Screen Protector – Free (No price tag)
1 x Camera Case – Free (Costs $39.90)
2 x 2GB HS SD Card – Free (Costs $38 each)
1 x Canon Digital Camera Kit (Digital Camera Bag, Mini Tripod, Cleaning Kit) – Free (Costs $29)

In all I paid $669 – $100 (voucher) = $569 for all those items, so I guess I got quite a bargain! I’m still charging the battery though, and have not used the camera. We were not allowed to bring it into the Supreme Court, and had to safekeep it at the security. Hopefully, I would use this camera much to take great photos, and it will not become a white elephant like my last one. :P

Hi,

Thank you for participating in the Prime Time Morning contest for The Leap Years.

Congratulations!

You have won for yourself a pair of tickets to catch a very special Valentine’s Day screening of The Leap Years at GV Marina.

…

Cool, I merely signed up for the contest because I was lazing in the living room while Channel News Asia was on and I heard them talking about an online contest which seemed rather easy. So, browsed to the webpage, googled for the answers, and the next thing I know, I got the aforementioned e-mail! Reading through the e-mail, I realised that the movie was on Valentine’s Day! One problem… Who should/could I ask to watch a movie with me on Valentine’s Day? Who would be free on that day anyway? So I asked Joanne and she was free!

So, I took a bus to Suntec today, and went to collect my free ticket to The Leap Years. After that, I walked around Marina Square alittle before Joanne finally arrived after work. The movie was not bad! It was around 1 hours and 40 minutes, and was a nice heartwarming romance movie. There was quite a nice cast too, Joan Chen, Ananda Everingham, Li Lin, Qi Yu Wu, Vernetta Lopez, Nadya Hutagulung as mentioned on the movie’s site. The plot was interesting too, and the movie didn’t make me fall asleep even though I’ve been deprived of sleep the past few days. The soundtrack was nice too, and during the movie I felt the singer’s voice was rather familiar, somewhat like Corrinne May. At the end of the movie, my doubts was confirmed as I heard Corrinne May’s The Birthday Song being played, unless of course only this song was by her, and the rest of the songs were not, which I highly doubt. Also, the movie is scheduled for release on the 29th of this month. At first, I thought it was just a regular date to be released, but during the movie, I noticed that the movie was about “The Leap Years”, and the 29th was a special date chosen for the release. And, I guess I’m one of the privileged few to get to watch the movie 15 days before it’s official release.

After the movie, we headed to Chomp Chomp for our late dinner. It was still rather crowded, and we had to wait quite long for our food. I don’t know how it started, but we ended up chatting about those IRC days. Those were the days, when we were still young and noisy, with energy to log on every night to have idle banter, and flooding of the chat channels. It was quite a nice reminiscence of those days, when we didn’t really have a care in the world, and we all had time for each other more or less. Ok, I might exaggerate a little, but nowadays, meeting up is such a chore, as everyone is busy with work/school and what not, and you would not be able to have a gathering with everyone there. I wish those carefree days were back.

Anyway, heres wishing every single one of you a Happy Valentine’s Day!

PS. Should I get a Canon Ixus 860 IS? This deal at bargain city looks rather tempting, and my hong bao money is looking to be spent!