九月二十九日, 星期一, 雨天

今天好像星期四, 因为后天是假日, 什么 holiday 不重要 ... 主要的是不用上班 !! Today seems a bit slow, with enough time to finish up what I supposed to do. Till afternoon it was like hell of a volcanic hot, then about 3+, dark clouds then torrential downpour. 幸好的是要回家时, 雨停了.

Less than 2 months my contract will be up, renewing shouldn't be an issue unless, some really bad news came up again. 现在这个动荡不安的经济环境里, 好像什么都可能发生, 金融界里已是死伤惨重, 损失的 amount 是没人能想象的到地. Not that I do not like my current job, probably everyone will want something better. Better in ? I am not quite sure now though ...

又好像回到我曾经提过的 "兴趣与能力" 的 issue. I think probably will stay around till something really "out of this world" comes along or maybe I finally find what I really want to do ! Or maybe even better ... I may finally 领悟到 "A sAmE a day keeps the bLuEs away" 的道理 :)

A sAmE a day keeps the bLuEs away

Who will carry

20 over tokens in your hand

during a 35 mins journey to the destination ?

画皮

Adapted from 聊斋志议, so storyline within expectation. Guy saved a girl but actually was a fox spirit. His wife suspected and becomes more obvious when people started to die in town, with their hearts taken out. Guy and resst defended girl but seemingly still vouch his love for his wife. Then with her so called ka kia, a chameleon spirit and another so called demon catcher, also must mention so called martial expert ... is 画皮.

There aren't elaborate battle and fighting scenes. Real life martial art expert, Donnie Yen is 庞勇, also a kung fu expert and also try to be 周星驰 with several slapsticks one liners and action. The rooftop chasing scene between 庞勇 and 飞天蜥蜴 by 戚玉武 was quite nicely cheoreographed. But the main "fighting" was between fox spirit 小唯 by 周迅 and 佩蓉 by 赵薇. 小唯 was nice and was popular with the group of soldiers and commander 王生 by 陈坤.

庞勇 and 降魔者 夏冰 by 孙俪 attempts to tell everyone 小唯 was a evil spirit failed. But when 小唯 told 王生, she really loved him, wanted to be his 2nd wife but was rejected. She plotted for another plan as more people died so that she can eat their hearts to prolong her skin.

And that will be forcing 佩蓉 to drink some poison that transformed her into some white hair albino demon with blood dripping from her eyes.

So is like most people KT enough will believe the wife was the actual evil demon, 庞勇 saved her from the riotic soldiers and town people.

王生 had no choice and led his men, then so called painstakingly and bo bian stabbed 佩蓉 to death. Immediately, 庞勇 swung his sabre right into 小唯's left shoulder but she continued to stand there, this shocked everyone.

小唯 regretted her action when 王生 died in front of her, begging her to revive 佩蓉. But 飞天蜥蜴 had other plans, took away the don't know what life elixir which 小唯 spitted out. Anyway, all's well end's well.

Some moments were abit slow, was like it was building up the animosity between the women and the truth of she was a demon but nobody believed her. Some die die attempted slapstick moments by Donnie Yen was something new. 6/10

Disaster Movie

Well, it was rated 0.5 star in Life.

It followed the tradition of how all the previous scary movies till date movie, epic movie and meet the spartans, how worse and crappy can this get ?

But yes, it is degrading to the lowest form of stupidity and moronity.

I tried hard to laugh and also keeping awake towards the end.

Based on Cloverfield and endless spoofs of other movies or whatever throughout, No country for old men, Ironman, 10,000 BC, Dark Knight, Chipmunks, Sex in the City, Hellboy, Step up 2, Indiana Jones, High School Musical, Facebook, Juno, Night in the Museum and Amy Winehouse, etc.

The almost 1 min "continous and never want to end" winehouse burp was the start of the crap and when you see Juno's breast milk spurted all over J Parker face .... You could sense the torturous attempt to continue the movie and also probably the end of the line of slaptick type of scary movies. Let's see what do we get in 2009. 5/10

Friday Dinner@Frensh

A small cafe inside VivoCity selling tartines. Just beside Modestos, a row of benched seats and just 2 tables of seats inside + some alfresco seats. What the heck are tartines ? We have absolutely no idea even browsing through the menu. The waitress gave us some idea, basically it is an open sandwich. So locally, you can say it is like roti john french style.

Numerous choices of tartines on the menu. The set menu at $17.50 looks reasonable. You get a tartine main course, a drink and a dessert. Duck tartine, ice latte and original cheese cake coming up ! And escargot and a salad, can't remember what salad. The names are too french to remember.

1/2 dozen Escargot at $8.50 are fat and chewy, slightly seasoned, quite liked it. The salad with ham, goat cheese, lots of lettuce and seasoning. Quite a good mix .... Not bad ! Shortly came the tartines ... My duck one was really good. The duck was minced, seasoned and peppered, spreaded on top of several pieces of bread ... seems like wholemeal ones. You get lots of crunchy lettuce with abit overwhelming vinegar kind of sauce.

The desserts are done nicely and taste as good. My original cheese cake was just too good ! The way I like it, the right amount of cheesy taste, how dense, how tangy, how chewy .... Good stuff !

To top it up. The service was just superb ! And no service charge ! For sandwich and dessert lovers, this is worth trying out.

iPhone 3G - Tips and Tricks #4

The apple accessories business is very big. So many brands, design and colours to choose from, but not all are available in Singapore. What can you really buy ?

Screen Protectors. I have seen from $8 to $69, each claiming their own capabilities or maybe just playing with words. I decided to get the one from Singtel for $8

Casing. From $10 to $100+ custom made vaja cases. Still satisfied with my $49 Agent18 transparent casing, think it is as slim and thin it can get.

Charging. From $8 to $49. The Griffin car charging cable looks good because you get the car charging connector and the usb charging cable, the cheapest non ah-huat you can get at $45,

Docking Station. Am looking for something good, decent and around $150. From $99 to ???. Some must have ... It needs to dock and charge. Speaker must produce good sounds. It cannot use the battery's life for any usage when docked. Docking can be used as handsfree speaker.

How do you save a picture off Safari into your camera roll ?
By putting your finger on the picture for a few seconds, you will get a "Save Image" and "Cancel". Choosing "Save Image" will save the picture into your camera roll.

How do you organize your icons ?
By putting your finger on any icon for a few seconds, all your icons starts to wriggle. Now you can shift them around in the position you like. Fix them by pressing the "Home" button.

To be continued ...

iPhone 3G - Tips and Tricks #3

If you are not on any Singtel data plan, you will be charged when you are online. Online will means you are connected to the internet through 3G or GPRS, it could be that you launch certain applications on your iPhone which requires a internet connection. Like youtube, email or facebook, etc.

The pay per use rate is $0.0054/KB, charged in 2KB block. So for example, if your total incoming and outgoing data usage is 2MB which is 2048KB, it will cost

2048 x 0.0054 = $11.059.

If you need to always connected, signing up a BBOM plan will be much more cheaper.

How do you check your data usage ?
Under Settings/General/Usage, total will be sum of "Send" and "Received"

How do you turn off 3G access ?
Under Settings/General/Network/Cellular Data Network/APN, it should be "e-ideas". Change it to something else.

To be continued ...

Kiss Goodbye

baby不要再哭泣
这一幕多么熟悉
紧握着你的手彼此都舍不得分离
每一次想开口但不如保持安静
给我一分钟专心
好好欣赏你的美
幸福搭配悲伤
同时在我心交叉
挫折的眼泪不能测试爱的重量
付出的爱收不回
还欠你的我不能给
别把我心也带走
去跟随
每一次和你分开
深深的被你打败
每一次放弃你的温柔
痛苦难以释怀
每一次kiss you goodbye
爱情的滋味此刻我终于最明白

Step Brothers

Blockbuster months are over. Another mindless slapstick movie about 2 游手好闲 无所事事adults still staying with their parents. It seems still okay if their parents are okay with that, but problems starts when Dad of Dale married Mum of Brendan.

Will Farrell is Brendan and John C Reiley is Dale.

Both are very unhappy about their parents getting married. More unhappy when each got a new step brother.

Each with their own eccentricity, outright laziness, the most outrageous childish behaviour, etc. The fun part starts when lines filled with sacarcism, 人生攻击, sexual innuendos, kill threats, "dare you" challenge began rolling.

So Brendan and Mum moved in, Dale has a room where he drums which he sweared he would kill Brendan if he touches them. Well, he just need to touch them, more than that, Dale founds out, confronted Brendan which pissed him off and he explicitly put his "LP", nuts, balls, testicles, on his drum sets !!! This one quite hiong :)

Their feud starts to cool down abit when Dale punched Derrick, Brendan's bro, a total asshole, which both of them hated him. Then both of them started to know about each other's common interest, like the best non-sexual magazine to masturbate with is "HouseKeeping", etc.

Derrick offer to sell the house and let Dale's dad and Brendan's mum sail in their boat which is their dream. And this would mean both the "adults" has to find work and moved into their own apartments, this is implied armaggeden to them. With their interviews failing, the scenes though quite funny. They decided they need to do something big.

They did up some preso and a music video. The best part is they finally show some enthusiam in doing something but they screwed up Dale's dad boat. This pissed off dad and things starts falling apart, finally dad and mum divorced. So both really got a reality hit and started to try to become adults and get some real work. And they did quite well. So all's well end's well. Stupid show with enough laughs for a .... 7/10.

Tuesday Dinner@HillMan Restaurant

We tried ManHill before so decided to try this HillMan. Both are so called the same restaurants, though not sure why the different names. This outlet is along Kitchener road, just opposite the famous "剪刀剪" "Ka Toh Ka" curry rice and dishes stall. The menu here is almost the same as the one in ManHill. Anyway, we were hungry. 纸包鸡, 咕噜肉, claypot beef, crabmeat 豆腐 and chilli kang kong coming up !!!

The food was surprisingly even better than ManHill. The claypot beef was succulent and the sauce was really good. The 纸包鸡 wasn't that hot though, abit oily but the marinated taste with abit of alcohol was good.

The 咕噜肉 was a must mention, definitely not the ones you had at 菜饭 stall or tse char stall, right amount of sweet and sour, meat gives you just the right bite and chew and crisp when you bite it.

The crabmeat 豆腐 goes well with the rice, several chunks of 豆腐 with real crabmeat. The sauce was not thick thus making you wanting more. The chilli kangkong was to my liking, with lots of "Heh Bi", dried shrimps and just abit spicy.

It comes to about $20 per pax for 3. Definitely worth coming back :)

iPhone 3G - Tips and Tricks #2

There are bound to be some people who wants their phone to sound off something different when their phone rings. The iPhone doesn't allow you to add any music source as a ringtone like you do in a Symbian phone. Firstly, it does not allow you to transfer any file to your iPhone either through cable or BT. Secondly, it does not support mp3 as a ringtone.

But it still can be done ...

How to add your favourite mp3 as a ringtone ?
1) The mp3 will have to be 40s or less. To do this, you have 2 options. One is download Goldwave and edit your mp3, choose your favourite 40s, cut it, fade in and out, etc. Then save it.

2) Or you can do this in iTunes.
Right click the mp3
Click "Get Info"
Click "Options" tab
In the "Start Time" box, enter the time. Example, 0:45 will start the song at 45s
In the "Stop Time" box, enter the time. Example, so for 40s you need to put 1:25
Click "OK". You will be back in iTunes.

3) Convert your mp3 into AAC format. Right click the mp3 and click on "Convert Selection to AAC". Once converted, you will see a duplicated song of length 40s in iTunes. If you use step 1 to get your 40s, you have to import this song into iTunes first.

4) Then you have to copy this 40s song to another folder on your computer. Easier way will be to drag and drop this song onto your desktop.

5) This song will be in ".m4a" extension. Rename it to ".m4r" extension.

6) Import this ".m4r" song into iTunes. Connect your iPhone to your computer.

7) Under "Devices", you will see your iPhone. Click it, then you should see your song under "Ringtones". Do the usual sync and this song will be transfer to your iPhone.

8) On your iPhone, under Settings/Sounds/Ringtone, you will see your song there.

To be continued ....

Death Race

Straightforward, no nonesense, plotless, mindless killings, blood spills, explosion, tonnes of ammunitions used. It was definitely a B-grade movie but an entertaining one. Jason Statham as Jensen, was a past race car driver whom trying to make ends meet but still living happily with his wife and baby. All these till his wife got murdered and he got framed for it.

Of course a setup and as expected he went to "Terminal Island", a prison where inmates are selected to perform car races of their life. The year was 2012 where the US prison systems was maxed and ran privately for profit. Thus, the idea of "Death Race" came up and inmates will race in cars that are fitted with "Desert Storm" machine guns and missles, defensive systems like oil, smoke and spikes. And cars are retrofitted with all the metal parts you can used from the "Transformer" movie.

Each race comes in 3 stages and stream "Live" on the internet where viewers pay $$$ to satisfy their cravings for blood, explosion and dead people. Jensen got the deal of his life when the "Tau Eh" Hennessey by Joan Allen, offered him his freedom if he was to win another race. But he must so called be the character "Frankenstein". Some inmate who had been racing and suffered so much facial injuries that he need to wear a "Texas Chainsaw" mask.

He agreed but soon found out that another racer killed his wife and it was Hennessey who gave order. And also that no one has never win 5 races and walked out alive.

Must mention was the girls that accompany the racer during race days, they act as some kind of advicer. They are from another female only prison.

Natalie Martinez, stunningly gorgeous was the one for Jensen. Initially ordered by Hennessey to make sure the any "Frankenstein" inmate do not win the 5th race, but did helped Jensen got out.

9 or 10 racers started but one by one got killed in various total annihilated way. And Jensen worked with another race Joe and managed to escape eventually. Not bad for a $7 show. 7/10

iPhone 3G - Tips and Tricks #1

Alot of stuff can only be done when your iPhone is so called "Jailbroken". Meaning using a 3rd party software to force it install some kind of installer applications. I have found out "Cydia" and "Installer" are the 2 popular installer applications. With these installer applications, you are able to add sources which allows you to download any kind of stuff you can ever imagine.

Inaddition, when "Jailbroken", you can installed OpenSSH, thus allowing you to access the filesystem .... But still there are still numerous basic stuff which you can so called tweak without getting it "Jailbroken".

How to lock you iPhone ?
Under Settings/General/Auto-Lock, you are allowed to set the time that is required to lapse before the iPhone get locked. But minimum is 1 minute, pressing the power button locked it immediately

How to display contact's mobile number in 9XXX XXXX ?
Under Settings/General/International/Region Format, you have to change it to Singapore.

How to know the current iPhone's firmware ?
Under Settings/General/About/Version. In addition, numerous information are found here. They are network, number of songs, number of videos, number of photos, capacity, available, serial number, model, wi-fi address, bluetooth, IMEI, ICCID and modem firmware.

To be continued ....

ICT Sept 1st to Sept 9th

This was supposed to be a "lobo" reservist and so far still alright, a combination of that I am already PES C9L2 and a quite relaz training progamme. The main highlight was the combat shoot which everyone needs to go through. Almost impossible hard to fail as it is a team effort and the distance of the targets get nearer and nearer, the scope of the SAR 21 also aid alot. I took part a few years back before I downgraded, the closest thing you can get being a "Rambo".

ITI is now at Jurong Camp 2, almost every facilities are new. Actually the most important are the bunks and toilets. Bunk are spacious, airy and lots of fan. Toilets are like those at SAFRA. These definitely make a difference, though we stayed at 5th flr, quite a climb ! I have climbed in total several times that can reached Taipei 101.

Building names are given more "humane/civilized" names. Cookhouse are called Recreation and Dining. Numerous PCs with internet access are provided in the mess for everyone usage. Our living quarters are given names like Warriors etc. Most important is THERE ARE NO MOSQUITOES !!!

Another item that was changed was the "tabao" box for our meals. Now it comes in bento style ! Meaning, different little compartments for you to put in different dishes and food. Nobody will like Soya Sauce chicken mixed with Sweet and Sour fish ....

But then processes wise, doesn't seem to have any change, still as "SAF". Anyway, finally next year will go into MR :)

iPhone 3G

My iPhone is 1 week old. I reserved mine and got it last Sunday at Tampines Mall Hello. $348 with a 2 year iTwoValue contract. I am always been a fan of mobile phones with big screen.

My previous phone was a e61i which I managed to sell it off for $220 ! I believe it was a good price as highest trade in for service provider was $150.
Knowing there are key flawed areas for this so called new version, I still got it. Below are stuff probably they are saving up for the next version of iPhone.

Only A-GPS
Only 2-megapixel camera
Only can take images
Only phone that cannot remove battery
Only can install anything from iTunes

But there are more things that I liked about the iPhone ... before I bought and after 1 week

3.5 inch touch screen
Runs on MacOS X. Something new for me
32 bit color
The user interface is great. How you navigate around by just fingering etc
It can be "jailbroken" !! Once you do that, you are able to do so much more

So far so good. And of course the phone screen and glossy back attracts fingerprints, dirt and dust. I got the screen protector from Singtel for $7.20, considering damn cheap, of course won't know so called how good it is and how long it would last. There numerous brands outside ranging from $10 to $49.

And also finally I got a transparent casing .. Agent18. $49 from Funan MacShop