I will never forget this day, it happened on the 26 June 2006 (260606).
I was at the basement of Yishun Sports Hall with some of my friends, where we had this encounter.. I was having this very strong urge to take picture of the “EXIT” sign which looks pretty creepy. The first shot I got this:
I felt that the “EXIT” sign wasn’t very clear, thus I took the picture again.
NOTE THAT at this point of time, I’m still standing at the same spot. It only took my like less than 10 seconds to take the second picture and this is what I got:
This seriously creep the hell out of us.. (feel free to click on the pictures to enlarge it full screen)
Some of my friends tell me that this might be some smoke. I disagree, because there wasn’t any smoke around. If they are some invisible smoke, how come the first picture don’t have it?
Some say that it’s my finger. I disagree, where in the world does it even resembles a finger? I don’t remember my finger having “tones” like that.
Some even tell me that I accidentally moved my camera when I was taking the picture. I disagree again, why is it that this weird figure only appeared on that area and so firmly outlined, whereas the rest of the picture were so normal, not affected by the vibration?
The Master of Tai Chi (太極) is a Hong Kong drama series produced in 2008, also the first ever TVB high definition TV series. It is said to be a custom-made series for kung-fu icon Vincent Zhao (赵文卓), whom is known by many as “the next Jet Li“
A little more information about Vincent Zhao,
Vincent Zhao was born in Harbin, Heilongjiang, Northeast China. His father, whom is a martial arts practitioner, gave Vincent martial arts lessons at the early age of eight.
In the early 1980s, Vincent was sent to a martial arts academy in Harbin and began to train vigorously, growing to love the sport. He soon became the youngest member of the Harbin wushu team, which was established in 1985. Trained in various wushu techniques, Vincent mastered the Arts of Tai Chi (太極拳), especially in the styles of Chen and Yang.
Vincent maintained high academic standards, and in 1990, he was accepted to Beijing Sport University, studying martial arts. Throughout his university career, he joined many national championships, winning first place titles and gold medals for the National Junior Championship, the National All-Around Championship, and also the National Martial Arts Championship. He was also qualified to be in China’s national martial arts team, and his classmates gave him the nickname, “kung fu King.“
Okay, so now you guys roughly know why he is being known as the “next Jet Li”. Back to talk about the show, I’ll start off with a short video clip of some fighting scenes in the show (look at how he demonstrate the arts of Tai Chi) with a very nice song that was composed specially just for this show, sang by Raymond Lam (林峰).
It demonstrates the philosophy of the way,
It shows the path to wisdom and harmony,
A master is here to teach the essence of Tai Chi!
Orphaned as a child, Mo Ma (Vincent Zhao) grew up in an village at the countryside and started learning Tai Chi from his mentor at a very young age. The devastating experience of being abandoned by both his parents and later on, his mentor, left him twisted and full of hatred.
After a series of events that leads to his house being burnt down in the village, his best friend and him joins the army, hoping to change their life and eventually be successful as they come back for revenge. After yet another series of events, they travelled to the capital together.
In the capital, again, another series of events leads Mo Ma to be reunited to his mentor and he starts learning Tai Chi from his mentor seriously, which eventually made him the title of the drama series – The Master of Tai Chi.
Curious to know what happened in between (all the series of events)? Then go and watch the show! There are 25 episodes to it It’s really very nice!
By the way, I actually found out that this drama series has an official website by TVB, amazing. Interested people can find out more there. But I’d suggest just go and watch the show, reading anymore information is going to be spoiler :p
She played defensive, she went on the offensive. She slowed the game down, she went straight for the jugular.
But, try as she might, Singapore paddler Isabelle Li just could not find a way to trouble her far-superior final opponent for a first Youth Olympic Games (YOG) gold for the Republic last night at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.
The 15-year-old Singapore Sports School student did clinch the Republic’s second YOG silver as a consolation, despite losing 8-11, 5-11, 8-11, 9-11 to top seed Gu Yuting of China, whom is currently the under-15 world number one.
Spurred by a loud and supportive 3,000-strong crowd – including Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong – Isabelle mustered all her skills gleaned from the past two years of training to try and subdue Yuting.
GOKUSEN: THE MOVIE was officially released in 2009. It was a movie version of the Japanese Manga series, Gokusen. The stories goes around Kumiko Yamaguchi (山口 久美子), the granddaughter of a Yakuza boss and teacher at an all-male private high school.
Despite being the next in line to head the family business, Kumiko’s lifelong dream has been to become a teacher. While her grandfather approves of her choice, others in the family want her to become the next boss.
As a teacher at an all-boys private high school, Kumiko’s class is full of delinquents, but she tries her best to teach them not just about academics, but about lessons of life, much like any “dedicated teacher” story. Reminds me of GTO Great Teacher Onizuka 麻辣教師…okay I’ll post about it soon.
Though she’s forced to keep her family a secret from the public, her Yakuza upbringing gives her the strength and the experience to reach out to her students, while also providing comedic relief.
Overall, the movie is great! I’d recommend it to you guys; it’s pretty inspiring looking at how the teacher and students gets connected together, even after the students graduated, they still have the sparks and stay connected together as friends.. a lifelong teacher for the student, respected and remembered.
Anyway, go watch and movie and feel it for yourself, it’s too hard to describe
This 22 episodes Hong Kong drama series is a combination of crime/detective stories with time travel. Despite the lack of style seen in other works of this genre, To Get Unstuck in Time has an amazing script, even if you can’t make sense out of some parts of the story, this series is a must watch!
Ho Tin Gwong (Roger Kwok) is a capable policeman, but takes everything too seriously and is hot-tempered. Although already in his 30s, he has never dated before, and always spend his free time with his mother, whom raised him up in a single parent household.
His father, also a policeman, died in infamy 20 years ago, of drug overdose in the bed of a prostitute. This event has ever since became a sensitive spot in both their lives. When his father was still alive, they were a close-knit family. However, this shameful death came as a shock to both the mother and son, that neither could comprehend exactly what kind of person was this man they loved – faithful husband and loving father, or a filthy scumbag.
One day, Ho Tin Gwong discovers that he can transcend time with his father’s old cell phone from the present year 2004, to talk to his father whom is in the year 1984! Despite his father’s wrongs, Tin Gwong is overjoyed at being able to communicate with someone used to be so close to him.
From then onwards, his father becomes his “secret informant” and helps him with cases. His father is also able to “send” evidences to him by burying them under a designated spot, where Tin Gwong is able to dig out in the present. At first, Tin Gwong distances from his father, only identifying himself as a “future person,” but as they get to make up for lost time through talking and solving cases, Tin Gwong gets to know his father better and discovers the mystery behind his death.
Watch the drama series by yourself to find out more! You won’t regret it
In my personal view, I find that the collaboration day with the students at Yishun Junior College (YJC) on the 6th August 2010 was truly a very fruitful event. We get to share what we know with people who are interested to know what we know, get what I meant?
Being an Artillery Specialist, I’m well-versed with knowledge about my weapon, the Singapore Lightweight Howitzer (SLWH), also known as the PEGASUS. In this event, I am the main presenter of the PEGASUS, where I get to share my knowledge about the gun, including facts such as how far can the gun shoots, how fast can it move, and etc.
When I shared my outfield experiences with them, I can see that they are very interested with it, especially the guys who are going to get enlisted into army soon (since they are on their final year).
I’m quite glad to see that most of them are pretty interested in how we lay the gun using our Peri-Telescopic Sight (PTS), despite the fact that the entire concept is pretty complicated (inclusive of forward observers and etc, etc…). However, the feeling is quite nice when you tried you best to explain to them, and eventually see the “oh, I finally understood” smile on their face, I felt so happy.
I find that such an event should took place more, although the organising process is very troublesome, at the end of the day, when everything is being put together, it just… well, GREAT. Everything is just so worth it.
Chess warriors, a Hong Kong drama series that was released in 2001, was yet another masterpiece of Dicky Cheung (张卫健). It has a mixture of action and romance in the programme.
From the appearance, it looks like they are just another martial arts series, but the fact is no, they isn’t just that. Other than martial arts, they have those palace politics that exists in some other shows, and also a very complicated love triangle between the main casts.
Not only that, there are several funny scenes that makes one laughs and also many parts that were unpredictable. The ending is nice also, everything was properly ended (not like some shows which leave a mystery ending for people to guess and never get an answer…).
It starts with a match of Chinese chess between the Emperor of China (in red pawns) and the King of Khitan (in black pawns). However, what makes it different is that the match uses real soldiers on the chess board. When the match started, the King keeps on losing his pawns and begins to get upset.
He’s losing not because his chess skills is not good, it’s actually because he listened to the wrong advices and not only that – his soldiers are not strong enough. (At times, even though it should be your pawn killing your opponent’s pawn, if your opponent’s real soldier is strong enough to defend himself, there’s a chance that you “tried” to “eat” the chess on the board, but ended up got eatten… if you get what I mean. If not, never mind.
Near the end of the match, there were only two pawns left, the yuè huái xiān (岳懷仙), the chariot and the general of the red. Being the most well-trained soldier among all, yuè huái xiān managed to defeat a few black pawns all by himself, making it a seen dangerous threat to the black pawns.
After which, the chariot of the black pawns, whom is the strongest soldier among them, started to pick a fight with yuè huái xiān. However, the tired and exhausted yuè huái xiān can’t withstand his attack and eventually lost his right arm during the fight.
The rest is for me to know and for you to find out!
It’s a very nice Hong Kong drama series, it never drag; short and sweet – only 20 episodes. Somemore, with Dicky Cheung in the show, it’s really not bad, seriously.
Want to have more readers? Want to have more traffic? Want to earn the extra income?
It’s very simple – to get started, you got to have dedication, hard work and consistency. For someone whom have just started with their marketing campaign, it may seem like a lot of work with little or rather no returns at all. However, you have to be aware that marketing your blog is not a one-day thing, you need to slowly build it.
There are many things that you can do to market your blog and make it seen by other parts of the world, one of the most important thing is to visit other people’s blog that are relevant to yours and leave comments. Note that the comments is not like those which spams URL and ask people to come, NO. It’s just a casual comment on whatever is the latest post or any things that interests you.
By leaving comments, it gets your blog out there to readers of other’s blogs. And in return, you might get to have some new readers. While all these might seem confusing at first, after a while, you will get the hang of it and things will start to make sense.
Updating your blog on a regular basis is another way to get new readers. Who in the world would want to read a blog that is never updated? Would you?? Me? Of course not! Don’t torture your readers, update your blog with new contents frequently so that they won’t give up on it and never comes back again! Try to post daily, if not weekly, just be consistent about it. This allows your readers to know how often they should come back to check on your blog for any new content.
You need to know where your traffic is coming from; what are the keywords that keep bringing people to your blog? Once you know all these information, make full use of it. Well, I guess I don’t need to teach you what to do with them, do I?
Make friends with other bloggers and network with them. Exchange links with them and visit their blog often, most of the time, they would visit your blog back as well, this adds on a small but stable traffic. Also, you can exchange ideas and think of things together, sometimes things might just works!
Blog marketing is a great way to earn some extra income (little, but it’s okay), especially for people like me; I like to share, I love to blog. With extra income coming in, it gives me an even more powerful push to make me move.
I really hope that my tips and guides on blog marketing could help you guys out there, anyone feel free to post any comments yeah.
The Saboteur is an action game from Electronic Arts (EA), set during World War II in German-occupied France.
The game’s protagonist, Sean Devlin, is a hard drinking Irish racecar mechanic, a regular among the racing groups of Paris. After being cheated out of a win in the 1940 Saarbrücken Grand Prix by Kurt Dierker, a Nazi colonel, Sean and his best friend Jules Rousseau seek revenge and sabotage his prized racecar. However, they were being captured during the process; Dierker executes Jules during interrogation under the belief they are really British agents sent to spy on him, but Sean escapes.
The rest of the storyline chronicles Sean‘s fight to kill Dierker. He is recruited by the French Resistance and British SOE, who help him throughout the story. The story takes place during World War II and the German occupation of France, but the war itself is used as a backdrop to the main story, which is about Sean‘sfight to avenge Jules‘s murder and kill Dierker, which is where the story comes to its conclusion.
Throughout the gameplay, players get to upgrade their character by achieving certain “challenges” such as killing a certain amount of Nazis, evading high alarm levels, sniping targets, and stuffs like that. All these upgrades will improve accuracy, ammo counts, damage and more.
Players also has the ability to scale buildings and even reaching rooftops; where sometimes loot of some kind can be found or get a good sniper’s view of the ground beneath. A garage can save vehicles and also repair damaged ones. The player also can engage in fist-fights or use a more stealthy approach, by sneaking around and even changing into a disguise.
Overall, it’s fun! I’m playing it now too, just installed the game today and playing prologue now!
I came across this song today, which really caught my attention. Although it’s not a very new song, it’s melody is smooth and overall it’s really nice!
People who like to listen to Chinese songs, especially those with lots of “feel”, this is the song for you!
Enough said, go and listen to it & you will understand what I meant!
Every Singaporean Son is a 18 episodes series show, featuring a recruit’s life from their enlistment day to their passing out parade. It’s a video project done by Ministry of Defence (MINDEF), which promised to document all the action that goes down in a Basic Military Training (BMT) section.
For nine weeks, 15 young men from different backgrounds came together for the rite of passage that every Singaporean son must experience – BMT. And now you can follow their journey of self-discovery on the Web!
You guys can view the show via cyberpioneerTV Channel on Youtube.
Mr Donald Chew, Head Defence Information Television, of the “Every Singaporean Son” series says,
We hope to get people to understand more about BMT. For the pre-enlistees, they are entering a new phase of their lives. Hopefully, through this series, they can get a better understanding of what’s to come so they can prepare themselves mentally and physically.
And as for their parents, we hope to allay their concerns and assure them that their sons are well taken care of in the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) during their National Service.
That’s pretty true in my opinion, I mean, it’s important. For me, despite asking many people for their experiences in Army, which includes some of my Diploma course mates, working colleagues, relatives & siblings, I still got a VERY bad culture shock when I entered army, mainly the BMT.
My life was totally twisted up and down and I’m nowhere, I went through a lot of changes and really.. well, hurt. Anyway, to me, my BMT life is a “preview” which makes me slowly get use to army life and my actual army life starts only in SISPEC (School of Infantry, Specialist), however, they are changed to School of Specialists (SCS) now.
The in demand Germany midfielder, Mesut Ozil says it “would be a dream” to play in the Premier League and admitted that the prospect of a move to Chelsea or Manchester United greatly excites him.
Mesut Özil, 21, has attracted the attention of some of Europe’s biggest clubs after emerging as one Germany’s most impressive performers at the World Cup 2010.
The Werder Bremen playmaker has just one year left on his contract and would represent excellent value for money for any potential suitors in an otherwise inflated transfer market.
The Bundesliga club appear resigned to cashing in on their star player now, rather than risk losing him on a free transfer next summer, with Manchester United and Chelsea reportedly among the interested parties; And if either of the Premier League giants were to swoop, Ozil believes it would be difficult to turn down a move to England.
Ozil commented the following to the Daily Star Sunday,
There are four or five clubs in Europe that you would have to say as a player would be a dream to play for, Manchester United and Chelsea are very much two of them.
When you are looking at moving clubs it’s impossible not to pay attention to the Premier League and even more impossible not to pay attention to Manchester United and Chelsea.
I am a winner and, when I am looking for a new club, I simply look at where I can be the most successful and where I can win the most trophies. If you look at the recent history of Manchester United and Chelsea then it’s clear that a player can be very successful there.
Of course clubs like Real Madrid and Barcelona are of huge interest and the Premier League’s top two clubs are of serious interest to me when the time comes.
I am under contract with Werder for another year and it is impossible for me to say if a deal will be done this summer. They may decide that they want to keep me for another season or they may decide to sell me this summer so they can get some money for me. That is up to the club.
Despite appearing to favour a move away from Bremen, Ozil was a little more coy in an interview with German newspaper Bild am Sonntag, as he said the following,
It is very good for German football that big clubs are interested in German players. In recent years, there has only really been Michael Ballack who represented German football at a top club.
For now, my situation for the next 12 months is clear. Only the facts count and the fact is, I am under contract with Werder. I cannot know what comes after that.
I am a friend of honesty. Many people extend their contracts long-term for better conditions, but two weeks later, they want to leave. I have never done that but have rather always respected my contract and been happy to fulfil it. Why should now be any different?
Recently, action movies are coming up and many people are gaining interests in Martial Arts. And thus led to the release of a new Facebook game, MMA Pro Fighter, created by PlayFish (created many successful Facebook game, which consists of EA Sports Fifa Superstars & Restaurant City).
My fighter is definitely not as good of most others’, but I’m quite sure that I’m coming up soon. Those whom have been following my blog would know that I’m someone who like to share, especially when it comes to Facebook game which allows me to spend/waste time rather than stoning in office. All right, let’s talk about some of the stuffs that I have discovered during the past few days playing the game.
First, the attribute points that you gained from leveling up which allows you to improve your fighter’s stats, I’d suggest putting most of them into your Cardio attribute, which allows you to fight more efficiently. Put minority of them into your Health attribute so as to survive longer, as for Stamina, it’s not that essential since 10 points are generated every one minute. Well, what’s the point of being a fighter with high stamina to do training, but can’t survive/win a fight??
Regarding the training sessions that your fighter can take up (they are like jobs in Mafia Wars), the theory stays the same; finish them up to the maximum level (level 3). The more you train, the more tough your fighter will become, not forgetting that by mastering each level, it gives you extra bonus experience and cash as well.
Trainings give you those extra bits of experience and keep your fighter at the highest condition possible. Unlike in other games, it shouldn’t be really wise to train as much as possible since training only gives you experience and levels you up very fast. However, you need money to learn new techniques (and you can get money via fighting only or purchase them for real cash), so a high level doesn’t really mean that you’re a lot better. Only use the training when needed and don’t overdo it!
Start out by focusing your attention on one particular martial art skill tree, as it will make your fighter grow stronger faster, compared to learning a little bit of all skills from different skill tree (Judo, Wrestling, Kick-boxing, etc…). As a beginner, you won’t have enough money to buy all the skills, so choose wisely.
In this game, there are boss fights as well. Try to get your fighter to around 5 levels higher than the boss before fighting it, so that you could have a good chance of winning the fight once and for all without losing.
Try to fight battles with other players who are 2 levels higher than your fighter so as to gain good experience points. Also, do check their constitution as well; those with “Mighty” would usually give you some hell before winning/losing to you. Try to find those who are “weak” or “fat” for some easy win
It’s really difficult to gain money in this game and money is essential for improving your fighting and also getting some boosts, plus that you need some extra money to be able to train.
Most of the money will be won by winning fights, so you should make sure you fight as often as possible and win as much as possible. This will be your main source of income and it’s better to fight for lower rewards than trying to fight against better players and losing, since you’ll have to wait a lot for your health to replenish.
Also, you’re awarded quite well for completing challenges, so make sure you visit that page often and claim your rewards.
That’s all I got for now, please feel free to post your comments on this page!
Finally, AppleiPhone 4 is available for order. The delivery time (at this moment) is 3 weeks. And as usual, no white iPhone.
The following is a screenshot of the information I got from their official website,
It’s pretty cool isn’t it? And the price is rather reasonable too, if not because I’m serving National Service (Army) now, I’d probably make an order! Argh!
The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is a Disney’s attempt at revitalising forgotten tales such as “Fantasia” and “Bedknobs and Broomsticks”. No, it’s not even close to as good as the level of the Harry Potter series nor is it anywhere close to whatever magical movie that’s in your mind.
The plot is talking about Balthazar Blake, whom is a never-aging mortal apprentice to Merlin who is on a mission to save the world; he is a master sorcerer in the modern-day of Manhattan, trying to defend the city from his arch-nemesis, Maxim Horvath.
Balthazar has limited power and is not able to defend the world alone, so he recruits Dave Stutler, a seemingly average guy who demonstrates hidden potential, and was chosen by the Dragon Ring. The sorcerer gives his unwilling accomplice a crash course in the art and science of magic, and together, these unlikely partners work to stop the forces of darkness. It’ll take all the courage Dave can muster to survive his training, save the city and get the girl as he becomes The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.
Personally, I wouldn’t give this movie a very high rating; probably a 6.5 out of 10. Firstly, the storyline is too short, way too short. And it started out rather boring, making many people (yup, not just me) felt sleepy and kind of turned off.
Not to mention that there are too little villains, or rather, most of them didn’t appear on the screen for more than a few minutes =.= They should let them have a good fight with the main casts before they die or disappear from the screen.
All the computer generated images are good, and there are several good scenes in the movie, especially when it reaches the middle and close to the end. But the ending is too predictable and too short, which makes this movie to have more down time than climax, that’s my point & what I don’t really like about.
Overall, it’s quite an okay show for you to watch with friends or girlfriend. I wouldn’t highly recommend it though.
Despicable Me is a 3D computer animated film, it’s about the world’s greatest villain, Gru, who plans to use three little orphan girls (Margo, Edith, and Agnes) as pawns for a grand scheme, only to find that their innocent love is profoundly changing him.
The plot started with a group of tourists stopping by at the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt, where a boy accidentally falls onto it to discover that the actual one has been stolen and replaced by an inflatable rubber duplicate. News of the theft shocks and puzzles the world.
In a nice and peaceful town surrounded by white picket fences and rose bushes, lies a eerie black house, owned by Gru. However, no one would imagine that hidden beneath this house is a vast secret hideout, where Gru have a small army of minions working under him, scheming evil plans to achieve his plan – to commit the biggest and most evil crime of the century.
I believe that you guys surely have experienced trying to invite friends to a page or group, and have to click for over hundred times to send invite to all of them.
Now, you can do it with just ONE click by using the following script:
Simply copy and paste the script into the address bar when you have the friend selector window opened up.
Jay Chou’s “Drift” has gave many people a very memorable impression, even until today! One of his new song in his “The Era” (latest) album, 自導自演 (self directed) is yet another car-related song! He created the music/rhyme and wrote the lyrics all by himself, and acted in the song’s MV as well.
In this MV, he “self directed” it as well; the MV shows the betrayal of Jay Chou’s girlfriend, as she’s together with another guy behind his back. Jay Chou felt pain and upset as he spins a ring, the token of love between him and the girl, which is rather meaningful (all these feelings are actually also described in the song itself, making it more interesting as the song matches the MV’s storyline)
The very top focus of this MV is actually the ultra amazing car, which Jay knows last year, he wanted to write a song about cars, and this is the song! Specially for this song, he managed to get this concept car, 雪鐵龍GT (Citroen GT) to appear in his MV. It’s a very nice car, yet it’s a conceptual one, it may not be launch in the market, which means that to see this car once in a life time, your only bet is to watch this MV!
In this MV, you can see a very different Jay Chou, by looking at his dance moves and the way everything is put, you can actually understand how hardworking he is. No wonder he have been so successful so far~ I still remember that his first album was launched like almost 10 years ago? I remembered because back then when I was in secondary 1, I got injured when playing sports and was hospitalised.
Being bored to hell, I wanted to find some songs to listen to. My brother brought me an Discman (serious, back then there was no MP3 like what it is now, even handphones don’t even have polyphonic sounds yet) :p and I listen to this “new artist”, Jay Chou’s song like all day long~ His FANTASY and JAY ALBUM songs.
In the upcoming 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games, Weiqi (a board game, also known as GO) will make its debut as one of the competing events; this marks a big step forward for Weiqi as a sport.
The Singapore Weiqi team performed extremely well in past competitions in both regional and international settings. In the 2007 SEA Games, the Singapore team has proven to be the strongest among all Southeast-Asian countries: they clinched a total of 3 medals, 2 gold and 1 silver. More recently, in the World Amateur Go Championship held in Hangzhou-China in May 2010 in which 71 countries took part, Singapore players proved their mettle impressing the rest by winning 6 out of 8 games. This put them on par with players from Japan, Hong Kong and Chinese Taipei. Thus far, only players from China and South Korea have ever managed to win 7 and 8 games respectively.
Given these results, SNOC (Singapore National Olympics Council) has rejected the application by the Weiqi team to compete for the upcoming Asian Games based on their guidelines that a team must be among the top 6 in order to qualify for a place to represent Singapore. However, all competitions joined previously by the players were on an individual basis as there was almost no team event (for the uninitiated, a team event consists of 5 player a side; the team wins when 3 or more of their players win) organized for Weiqi. Given this lack of chance and opportunity, SNOC’s rejection is unfair as the team has not been given a chance to prove their prowess in a team setting. In fact, SNOC’s rejection serves as a double whammy as it implicitly disregards the stellar performance of individual players previously and withholds a precious opportunity for the Weiqi team to unite and gain exposure as a team at the Asian Games.
Despite support letters from the Chinese Weiqi Association and International GO (Weiqi) Federation stating that the Singapore team will be able to get into top 6 in Asian Games, their appeal for Asian Games has been rejected. The team’s offer to pay for all their expenses has also rejected by SNOC.
How can the players gain experience and learn from sparring with better players if SNOC does not let them take part in this once-in-a-lifetime competition? Applying parallel logic to the Chinese saying that unity is strength, the excellent past records of individual Weiqi players are likely to translate into an amplification effect where the sum surpasses the parts; this has been affirmed by support letters from experts in the sporting arena. Given these circumstances, why is the lack of opportunity used as a penalty for the Weiqi team? Shouldn’t the authorities assist the Weiqi team in providing them a rare and valuable chance to work as a team at the upcoming Asian games?
Singapore has been urging her citizens to take up sports and excel in them; how do the current SNOC guidelines on representing Singapore encourage our players to work hard so that they can represent Singapore in various overseas competitions? This rejection is belittling and does nothing to encourage the Weiqi team in their immense effort invested in pursuing continued excellence at their sport.
Is winning medals so important in Asian Games? I believe the answer can be found from SNOC website:
“The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well.”
Please give Singapore Weiqi Team a chance to bring glory back to Singapore by signing the petition on the following link:
South Korean superstar Rain sings about lost love in his comeback track Love Song, it’s a really nice song, so nice that I want to share with you guys.
Rain ripped his shirt to show his anger and frustration about love
If you guys don’t understand Korean language, not to worry, this high quality official MV for Love Song that I put up on my blog contains English Subtitles, you guys gonna love it.
P.S. – Ladies please don’t drool all over your keyboard, for he’s too hot :p
It took place at Wembley in September 1995, during a friendly international match, England against Colombia.
Jamie Redknapp floated an aimless cross in to the Colombian penalty area. As the ball drifted towards goal, Colombian goalkeeper Rene Higuita could have caught the ball, but instead, he choose to clear it with an astonishing scorpion kick.
Rene Higuita says,
I call it my scorpion kick and I try to do it whenever possible. My philosophy is to enjoy myself and to entertain.
When the England coach Terry Venables is being interviewed on regarding this matter, his reply was as follow,
I have only one word to describe it, extraordinary. I have never seen anything like it. They tell me he does it all the time in his own country, thats probably why his last three managers have had heart attacks.
England’s World Cup lengendary winning goal keeper Gordon Banks said the following to the reporters,
If he’d done that playing for England it would have been his last cap. Bobby Moore would have had a quiet word and Jack Charlton would have punched him on the nose. It was incredible, but whats wrong with a simple catch?
Very interesting uh. hahaha. For those who don’t know, he is actually one of the legend in the world’s soccer history.
Rene Higuita
I’ll share more about him when I got the time, that’s all for today!
Googlehas bought semantic search startup Metaweb, according to recent post on the official Google’s blog. Metaweb isa company that maintains an open database of things in the world. Google plan to work together with them to improve search and make the web richer and more meaningful for everyone. Isn’t that great?
Metaweb develops both semantic data storage infrastructure for the web, and Freebase is a massive, collaboratively edited database of cross-linked data. The idea behind the product is to create a Wikipedia-liked system for building the semantic web.
Freebase allows anyone to contribute, structure, search, copy and use data. It sounds like Wikipedia, but instead of arranging by articles, it is more of an almanac, organized like a database, and readable by people and software.
Let’s quote some of the excitment shared by Google’s:
With efforts like rich snippets and the search answers feature, we’re just beginning to apply our understanding of the web to make search better. Type [barack obama birthday] in the search box and see the answer right at the top of the page. Or search for [events in San Jose] and see a list of specific events and dates. We can offer this kind of experience because we understand facts about real people and real events out in the world. But what about [colleges on the west coast with tuition under $30,000] or [actors over 40 who have won at least one oscar]? These are hard questions, and we’ve acquired Metaweb because we believe working together we’ll be able to provide better answers.
In addition to our ideas for search, we’re also excited about the possibilities for Freebase, Metaweb’s free and open database of over 12 million things, including movies, books, TV shows, celebrities, locations, companies and more. Google and Metaweb plan to maintain Freebase as a free and open database for the world. Better yet, we plan to contribute to and further develop Freebase and would be delighted if other web companies use and contribute to the data. We believe that by improving Freebase, it will be a tremendous resource to make the web richer for everyone. And to the extent the web becomes a better place, this is good for webmasters and good for users.
Clearly, Google is acquiring Metaweb to boost its own search offerings. Metaweb’s database of tagged data will help make Google search smarter. And Freebase will be maintained as a free and open database but Google will continue to develop and contribute to Freebase.
Let’s enjoy this video which welcomes you to Metaweb, it is really really cool…
Koizora (恋空) is a 2007 Japanese romance film based on the novel of the same name. However, I watched it recently and want to share it with you guys; it’s really worth watching. (simply search for the movie on Youtube and yup, you got it…)
The movie basically goes around Mika and Hiro, two high school students who fall in love and encounter many hardships, and yes, hardships. Anyone who felt that your life is tough, and that you’re going through hardships, think twice after watching Koizora
I personally watched until tears filled my eyes, especially when… you’ll know when you watch it. It’s a very nice movie, who cares if it’s old already.
During her freshman year in high school, Mika Tahara loses her handphone, but later finds it in the school library with the help of an unknown caller. Throughout the summer, Mika and the mysterious caller continue to communicate, and agree to meet each other once school starts again. The caller turns out to be… well, go and watch the movie to find it out yourself!
Although it is now part of history, World Cup 2010 is unforgettable. That could describe the first World Cup played on African soil. What happened on and off the field will remain on people’s minds forever. It had everything: the good and the bad.
FIFA’s director of communications, Nicolas Maingot said the following,
These are memories for life, we all survived the noise of the vuvuzelas, those plastic cornets inspired by the horns of kudus (the African antelope) that roared in every match and that gave South Africa 2010 a special imprint.
The end result was Spain’s crowning Sunday night at Soccer City Stadium after beating the Netherlands 1-0 in Extra time.
Thus Spain enters the exclusive club of world champions, joining Brazil (five titles), Italy (four), Germany (three), Argentina (two), and Uruguay, Britain and France (one each).
It was also a victory for the Americas. Seven of their squads — Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Chile, Mexico and USA — made it to the Round of 16. Two didn’t reach the quarterfinals because there were fratricidal confrontations when the Brazil beat Chile 3-0 and Argentina beat Mexico 3-1.
Individually, Uruguay’s Diego Forlan won MVP’s Golden Ball for carrying the Blues on his shoulders. He was one of the crucial figures in placing his team among the best four in the planet after 40 years, amazing uh.
Besides, the Charrua attacker tied for first place in most scores with five goals with the German Germany’s Thomas Mueller (who also won for the highest number of assists), the Netherlands’ Wesley Sneijder and the Spaniard David Villa. The Golden Boot award is eventually awarded to Thomas Mueller.
The bad part of the tournament belonged to the refs for some bad calls, like the one from Koman Coulibaly, of Mali, who annulled a legitimate goal by Maurice Edu, which would have given the U.S. a 3-2 victory over Slovenia in the first round.
Also the Uruguayan referee Jorge Larrionda called back the goal scored by Frank Lampard, which would have marked a temporary 2-2 tie of Britain with Germany, which eventually won it 4-1.
The Italian judge Roberto Rosetti allowed Argentina’s first goal in its win over Mexico. Carlos Tevez was out of bounds.
On Monday, FIFA president, Sepp Blatter, confirmed that on the July 21 they will begin to study the possibility of introducing technology on the goal line and in October they will reopen their files.
The ugly and shameful was France’s performance. It started badly for the French. Their classification in October was obtained with a goal helped by Thierry Henry’s hand.
Then on July 2, nine days before the Blues’ debut against Uruguay, the French soccer federation announced that after the World Cup, Laurent Blanc would be its coach, undermining Raymond Domenech’s authority.
There was also a lot of criticism for choosing South Africa’s most expensive hotel to house its team. To make things worse, in the middle of the tie with Mexico, Nicolas Anelka hurled obscenities at Domenech. Chelsea’s attacker was expelled from the delegation and his teammates sided with him, went into rebellion, called for a strike, and it was all shameful.
World Cup 2014 will be host by Brazil. In less than 4 years, the greatest football spectacle of them all will be heading to the country that introduced the notion of the beautiful game!
For the first time in 64 years, football’s biggest event will grace Brazil’s shores and a feast of football is sure to be served up in front of passionate crowds. True, there is the small matter of the World Cup in South Africa in 2010 to contend with first, but football fans across Brazil and indeed the world are rubbing their hands in anticipation of the 2014 Brazil World Cup.
Thinking forward to the Brazil 2014 World cup it is hard to think of a time when there was no FIFA World Cup. The tournament which graces us with its presence every 4 years is probably only second on a global stage to the Olympic Games due to the number of nations who attend each four year celebration of sporting excellence. Yet before 1930 (when Brazil lost 2-1 to Yugoslavia), there was no world cup. There was no competition to determine the best international side in the world.
Thanks, however, to FIFA President Jules Rimet international football would be changed forever. It was proposed that the first world cup would take place in Uruguay as a result of them being Olympic champions. It was the only World Cup where qualifying wouldn’t take place and invitations were sent out to all major footballing nations.
The response to the idea of a global tournament was not a warm one. A number of nations decided against entering the tournament, England most notably, citing a number of reasons for their non attendance. So, despite the low attendance, only 13 teams contested, when the tournament kicked off, Jules Rimet was able to realize his dream to determine who would become the first ever world champions.
Ultimately, it was the host nation who triumphed and went on to raise the Jules Rimet trophy, but from such inauspicious and humble beginnings the World Cup has gone from strength to strength and is now contested by thirty two international teams in attendance from all corners of the globe.
It is an event watched by billions and something that every football fan positively salivates over and dreams of watching their side stand alone as the Champions of the World. This timeline follows the history and successes of one of the sides who has competed in every single World Cup since its inception, Brazil.
Since the format began, Brazil have been the major success story of the tournament with a record five victories, enthralling and entertaining sides with their brand of fantasy football. Their sides have fielded some of the greatest names in footballing history, produced arguably the greatest team of all time in Mexico 1970 and given football fans one of the two finest players ever to grace the football stage.
They are a major reason behind the competition’s massive popularity and will, no doubt, lavish us with a wonderful tournament in six years time. That is the in future, so let us look at the past and go back in time to Uruguay in 1930 and see how it all began for the boys from Brazil.
Spanish players celebrate after winning their match against the Netherlands for the World Cup 2010 victory: 1-0
World Cup 2010 is done with Spain the victors over the Netherlands: 1-0
The Spanish team made history today, making their first World Cup final, then winning it, and the cherry on top: being the first team to win the World Cup after losing their first game in the tournament.
So that’s three history making feats for Spain.
Spanish players resplendent in their navy blue jerseys and the Netherlands’ on fire with their electric orange kits were quite a sight to behold in Johannesburg’s Soccer City Stadium.
But, the play was ugly and tense in the first half with rough challenges from both sides. English referee, Howard Webb, whipped out his card holder 5 times in the first 45 minutes: three yellows for the Dutch (Van Bommel, Van Persie, and De Jong) and two for Spain (Puyol and Ramos). De Jong’s yellow was for one of the nastier challenges, a high kick to Xabi Alonso’s chest. He could, and probably should, have been sent off.
Spain looked strong, confident, calmly passing in that Spanish style, in the first minutes of the game, but the Dutch played a rough and rugged game that shut the Spanish down. And they looked strong at the very end of the half with a great shot from Arjen Robben almost on half-time.
0-0 at the half.
The second half was not as rough, but choppy, so much whistle blowing, falling, stopping, starting and “free kicking” — it was enough to drive even the most seasoned soccer enthusiast, crazy.
At 62 it was Arjen Robben vs. Spanish goal keeper, Iker Casillas — it was looking bad for Spain as Robben powered toward the goal and, and, and — MISSED. And it was Spain’s golden chance at 76 minutes when Xavi took a corner kick headed by Ramos WAAAAAY over the top of the goal. Then, 82 minutes in, Robben with another wonderful one-on-one chance, again saved by Casillas.
0-0 into extra time.
In extra time there were few opportunities to score and those few were missed. Iniesta with a great run on goal at 99 minutes that he bumbled at the last moment and Fabregas with another miss at 103.
The beginning of the end for the Dutch came shortly into the second period of extra time. Heitenga got a second yellow card for shoving Iniesta to the ground on his run toward goal and was sent off, leaving the Dutch with 10 men. Free kick for Spain at 110, but Xavi with the miss, free kick for Sneijder at 114, but another Dutch miss.
It was Spanish midfielder Andrés Iniesta who made the first and only goal at nearly 117 minutes into the game after a bad cross from Torres and a quick pass from Fabregas dissected the shorthanded Dutch defense. Iniesta took the chance beautifully. And that’s all Spain needed for a deserved win, that’s all they’ve needed to win this entire tournament, ONE GOAL.
But, we all know the real winner of this championship is Paul, the octopus.
Paul, the psychic octopus maintained his flawless performance in the World Cup 2010 by correctly predicting Spain’s victory over Holland in the World Cup finals.
Dubbed the “oracle octopus”, Paul beat his rival Mani, Singapore’s psychic parakeet, who incorrectly predicted a win for Holland.
Punters gambling on the mystic mollusc’s predictions have won up to half a million pounds during the month-long tournament, according to bookmakers William Hill.
Paul, who was born in Weymouth in 2006, has become the closest thing to an English World Cup success after accurately foretelling match results throughout the tournament.
The octopus, who now resides in Germany’s Oberhausen Sea Life aquarium, correctly predicted the outcome of all six matches involving his adopted homeland by choosing to eat a mussel from boxes emblazoned with the flags of the German team and its rivals.
After his prediction that Germany would be defeated by Spain came to pass, some angry fans called for him to be thrown in a shark tank. But he won support from Spanish fans who pledged to protect him, despite their country’s fondness for calamari.
They are the most dangerous killers on the planet, but this is not our planet…
The Predators movie 2010 is one of the most anticipated release of 2010, it was shot on location under Rodriguez’s creative auspices at the filmmaker’s Austin-based Troublemaker Studios, and is directed by Nimrod Antal.
The film stars Adrien Brody as Royce, a mercenary who reluctantly leads a group of elite warriors who come to realize they’ve been brought together on an unknown planet… as prey to be hunted by the predators.
With the exception of a disgraced physician, they are all cold-blooded killers – mercenaries, yakuza, convicts, death squad members – all these human “predators” that used to “prey” on fellow humans, are now being brought to an unknown planet that is totally alien to them and they are now the “prey”, to be hunted and eliminated by the Predators. Ironic uh?
The details and the rest of the plot is for me to know and for you to find out! I personally don’t quite like the ending, but nonetheless, it’s a good movie with reasonably good acting performed by the cast, and several thrilling fighting and action scenes.
For me, most of the movie plot can be easily predicted, thus I’m quite disappointed in this sense.. but then again, some unexpected twists does compensate to it, so it’s still quite all right
Enough said, you guys should go and try watching this movie especially if you’re a die-hard predator series fans, you won’t want to miss this one
Here’s the official movie trailer just for you to enjoy:
Several hours back, Paul the octopus had successfully predicted that Germany will get the 3rd place in the competition, and the match result is YES, he is correct again! Well that’s amazing, isn’t it? He seriously have a 100% success rate in predicting Germany’s matches!
Paul the Octopus or Paul Oktopus (hatched in 2008) is a common octopus living in a tank at a Sea Life Centre in Oberhausen, Germany. The octopus is used as an animal oracle in an attempt to predict the results of football matches, usually international matches in which Germany is playing.
During a prediction, the octopus is presented with two boxes. Each contains food, and is marked with the flag of a national football team in an upcoming match, among which he is said to choose his predicted winner. Paul is reported to have chosen the box with the flag of the winning team in several of Germany’s six Euro 2008 matches, and in each of their first six matches in the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
Paul has predicted that Spain will be the World Cup 2010 winner
He has predicted a win for Spain against the Netherlands in the World Cup final by eating the mussel in the box with the Spanish flag on it.
Tonight, Uruguay and Germany will clash against each other with three factors at stake – firstly, a chance to win the golden boot; next, a chance to win the young player of the year award; last but not least, a chance to finish their World Cup 2010 in the 3rd placing.
Uruguay Team 2010
Third place play off matches generally have a lot of goals as the teams play freely and without any rigid plans, thus most can expect an outstanding performance from both sides when they clash at the majestic Nelson Mandela Bay stadium in Port Elizabeth tonight.
Both Miroslav Klose and Thomas Muller have a chance to win the golden boot and can go to the top of the standings if they score 2 goals or more, cool uh. Even Diego Forlan has a good chance to win the golden boot or the golden ball award for been having an outstanding performance throughout the World Cup 2010. In short, we can look forward to the match that’s going to kick off in a few hours’ time, which is going to be full of entertainment!
Germany Team 2010
In terms of team wise, Uruguay have no fresh injury worries and they have vouched to play to the death to secure the third place and cap a memorable world cup for them. The return of suspended striker, Luis Suarez, is an added bonus to Oscar Tabarez who has a fully fit squad for the clash.
On the other hand, Germany would also welcome suspended striker Thomas Muller who has been a revelation at this world cup. Joachim Loew had insisted on resting some players but there might not be much changes with most important players either starting or on the bench.
Lastly, let’s look forward to the great showdown between Uruguay and Germany~!!
Happy birthday to me~ Happy birthday to me~ Happy birthday to me~~~~~ Happy Birthday birthday to me~
Finally, I have turned 21! Officially an adult now Really happy~~
Yesterday when I was in camp, had a surprising birthday celebration with DET 2 and some others, it’s really heartwarming and fun! Never expect anyone in army would celebrate my birthday with me, somemore is inside camp! WAH~~
Too bad no photos taken, no media capturing device can be brought to camp :/ but never mind, all the images are captured inside my brain & shall never be forgotten! (even the part where my face kena the chocolate cake and I became “花臉貓”) xD
The most cock thing is to use tissue wipe halfway, STILL GOT CHOCOLATE, but I thought that I wipe finished already; AND no one tell me despite all of them saw – they sit there watch me talk so much with my face full of chocolate… ._.
Anyway, really thanks them! & not forgetting all others whom have wished me happy birthday! ALL OF YOU RAWKS~!! xD
Spain has never won the Cup. Not just that, Spain has never been in the Finals even once. Their best ever finish was 4th place, in 1950, which was sixty years ago.
Today, in the World Cup 2010 @ South Africa, they managed to beat Germany, whom has been World Champions 3 times – 1954, 1974 and 1990, and not only that, they had reached World Cup Finals for 7 times.
On top of that, Germany has been on really good form, given that they have won England 4-1 and won Argentina at 4-0. Many people believe in Germany. It’s said to be a very exciting match as it not only is a match to decide which team reach the World Cup Finals, it also determines whether Germany can avenge for the Euro Cup 2008 finals, where they lost to at Spain 1-0, and also, the top scorer – David Villa who got 5 goals, and Miroslav Klose who got 4 goals – who is the top scorer of World Cup 2010?
However, sad to say that the match was pretty one sided – those who have watched it would know. It’s quite disappointing but nonetheless, there are several good saves done by the keeper, and it’s very exciting to see how Spain easily bypass Germany’s defense and attack on them mercilessly. It’s pretty deadly.
A wonderful header from a Xavi corner by veteran centre-half Carles Puyol 17 minutes from time was enough to break stubborn German resistance and give them a 1-0 victory in a semi-final in which Spain emphasised their credentials to be acclaimed the world’s best team in comprehensive fashion.
The scoreline gives no clue to Spanish superiority against a German team that looked a shadow of its earlier self. Spain had the chances to ease their nerves and put the game beyond doubt well before Puyol’s goal, but didn’t take them.
Spain’s Carles Puyol, on the ground, heads the winning goal!
Rarely can a game of this magnitude have been so one-sided, at least in the first half.
Spain didn’t just dominate possession – at times it seemed as if they had brought their own ball and only players in a red shirt were allowed to touch it, such was their monopoly of the action.
Germany, who had played with such pace, power and precision as they demolished Australia, England and Argentina, were forced to chase shadows trying to get hold of the ball, especially in the first half hour when the Spaniards set the tone for the game.
In their sporadic forays forward the Germans, so assured in earlier matches, lost posession, played passes that were too long, too short, or directionless, as Spain pressed and harried them in midfield, won the ball back and started another attack.
But for all the intracy, the delicate approach work, the flicks and the nudges, the European champions were unable to break through a stubborn German rearguard for far too long.
Still, it wasn’t for the want of trying, and it provided plenty of entertainment as the football world’s pass masters moved the ball forwards and backwards, sideways, diagonally and through all permutations of 360 degrees as they retained posession and pushed and probed to try and find a chink in the German defence.
Roy Keane has launched a passionate defence of Fabio Capello and believes the blame for England’s World Cup exit lies solely at the door of the players. He said that England’s players “get away with murder” for a series of poor performances.
Keane said the following,
To keep criticising and questioning the manager is crazy. He didn’t do anything wrong in the qualifying campaign and now, all of a sudden, he’s not the top man any more.
The goals they conceded against Germany, particularly the first couple, had nothing to do with Capello’s choice of system or tactics. It wasn’t a case of getting overrun in midfield. It was just very bad defending.
They should just leave him to get on with the job. He is absolutely brilliant and England are lucky to have him.
Keane also added,
They have to take a long hard look at themselves. They get away with murder, I wasn’t really surprised by the Germany defeat. I keep saying it – good players don’t necessarily make good teams. People keep talking about world class players but who are they?
There’s probably only Wayne Rooney, who had a brilliant season. But look at the goalkeepers. David James was relegated with Portsmouth and Robert Green just about stayed up with West Ham. Glen Johnson did okay at Liverpool but they had a poor enough season.
John Terry? He had his issues and I don’t think he had a great season. Chelsea may have won the Premiership and FA Cup double but that was more down to some world class attacking players.
Matthew Upson didn’t have a great season at West Ham and Ashley Cole, to be fair to the boy, has just come back from injury.
James Milner had a good season but Gareth Barry was very average for Manchester City. Emile Heskey started the World Cup up front but he only scored three Premiership goals for Aston Villa.
For those who don’t know who is he, here are some background information on who is Roy Keane,
Roy Maurice Keane (born 10 August 1971) is a retired Irish footballer and the manager of English Championship club Ipswich Town. In his 18-year playing career, he played for Cobh Ramblers in the League of Ireland, Nottingham Forest and Manchester United (both in England), before ending his career with a brief spell at Celtic in Scotland.
A dominating central-midfielder, Keane was noted for his aggressive and highly-competitive style of play, an attitude which helped him excel as captain of Manchester United from 1997 until his departure in 2005. Keane helped United achieve a sustained period of success in more than 12 years at the club.
He played at international level for much of his career, representing the Republic of Ireland over a period of fourteen years, most of which he spent as captain. In the 1994 FIFA World Cup he played in every game, although he was sent home from the 2002 World Cup after an “incident” with national coach Mick McCarthy.
Credits for the interview goes to Guardian.co.uk & Roy Keane background goes to Wikipedia
Speaking of how great and thrilling the World Cup 2010 is, how can we forget about what happened in the previous World Cup 2006 that happened 4 years back in Germany? You won’t want to miss them.
Here’s a video that consists of all the top rated & best goals of the World Cup 2006 in Germany, all of them are really impressive goals that make people stand up from their seats!
The world’s media were left stunned after England’s news briefing for Sunday’s World Cup clash with Germany lasted barely five minutes and featured only questions taken from British TV reporters.
More than 250 journalists from around the world plus around 30 TV crews packed into the media tent at the Free State Stadium for the briefing with England coach Fabio Capello and captain Steven Gerrard.
Reporters, many of whom had travelled long distances to be at the briefing, left in anger after the FA’s Head of Media Adrian Bevington took only eight questions from hand-picked reporters.
Giancarlo Galavotti, soccer correspondent of Italy’s Gazzetta dello Sport who has reported on English soccer from London for more than 25 years, told Reuters the following,
That was typical. They do not seem to appreciate this is the World Cup, with the emphasis on the word ‘World’. The idea that the English set-up is not the friendliest among the top teams is reinforced by this sort of arrogance. And this, despite the coach being able to answer in three languages: Italian, English and Spanish. The FA do not seem to think the rest of the world is important.
Jorge Luiz Rodrigues of Brazil’s O Globo newspaper was stunned by what he saw, and commented the following,
That was bad. This is the World Cup. This guy doesn’t know what the World Cup is. He only asks for questions from his friends. This is not professional. If you go to Brazil you will have questions in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian. All the journalists have the same opportunity. And Brazil is five times champions, not once.
Bevington told Reuters the following afterwards,
We complied fully with FIFA’s regulations by bringing the coach and a player, our captain, to the conference. Furthermore, and as agreed with FIFA, we had a further five minutes with English newspapers and a further five minutes with FIFA.com.
In the five minutes access allowed to the wider world, journalists learnt that manager Fabio Capello knew his team – which he did not reveal – and that skipper Gerrard was confident of victory.
Bevington declared after five minutes and 12 seconds,
OK, everybody, thank you very much. I would like to invite the English Sunday newspapers to join us in a separate room.
One reporter sarcastically clapped and with that the England delegation swept out of the room.
Although German coach Joachim Loew failed to appear before the media on Saturday, he did speak to them for 45 minutes on Friday and the German FA, at least, gave reporters the chance to quiz goalkeeping coach Andreas Koepke for 30 minutes on their preparations for the game.
“Knock It Down!” is a military slang for doing push-ups as punishment.
Here’s an army video that I came across on Youtube, it is really interesting and heart warming especially for all the Male Singaporean whom have served National Service (NS) before.
Well, at least for me, it warms my heart very much; looking at the video showing the recruits being “Knock it down” and doing those exercises, reminds me of my BMT life.
No, to put it better, it reminds me more of my life being a Specialist Cadet, where we get punish for like… nothing? Just because they (the instructors) “need” to punish us in order to make them look good (or perhaps its their mission/task of the day), then they just come and find things to punish us.
For friends who have been following my match predictions recently should have won a bit of money now, especially with yesterday’s results - Paraguay DRAW (bingo), Italy WIN (wrong) Japan WIN (bingo), Netherlands WIN (bingo).
And previously predicted other matches such as South Africa WIN (bingo), South Korea WIN (wrong), Argentina WIN (bingo), USA WIN (bingo), England WIN (bingo), Germany WIN (bingo), Australia WIN (bingo).
Seriously hope that my prediction form don’t go down. Soccer matches are thrilling and exciting, they are even more thrilling and exciting if you make a prediction and stands on it, THEN you cheer for respective team and watch how they stands out to eventually become the winner that leads to your prediction…
Alright, time to go analyse the other matches for today! All the best to fellow mates who are having World Cup fever as well and is making serious predictions every night!
Probably due to the FIFA World Cup 2010, many soccer-related Facebook applications were being created. One of the most successful among all is the EA SPORTS FIFA Superstars, which is a combined effort of EA (Created many successful sports/soccer video game series) and PlayFish (created many successful Facebook game such as Pet Society & Restaurant City).
Although my Superstars team is not the best team out there, , but I’m quite sure that I’m going up quickly, and being someone who like to share, I’m going to post about some of the stuffs that I have discovered during the past few days playing the game.
First of all, if you log onto the game and realise that you have some match credits available, go to the “League Matches” and play, even if you know you would lose the match (e.g. your team rating 51, opponent team rating 83)! This is by far the best way to get money, due to the fact that regardless of whether you win, lose, or draw with your opponent, you get a fair amount of coins.
Also, by playing “Friendly matches” with your friends who also have the game installed on their account, it can allows you to not only earn money, it also allows you to earn more experience which could allows you to level up. By having a higher level allows you to get better players (e.g. you need to be level 10 to buy the gold package of players)
Don’t forget to save up your coins as well, don’t just randomly buy players from the Bronze package like what I did when I just started playing the game! The players you get from there are terribly low quality; well, it depends on your luck actually. Nonetheless, you would have a much better chance of getting good players by saving up and buy a silver or gold package, so why take the risk?
Something very important yet troublesome about this game is the training; it works as something like the morale of your Superstars team; the higher it goes, the higher your team rating will be. Thus, a team with a very high “Talent” would not be strong if they has a very low “Training”, understand what I meant?
Last but not least, just like most of the games in Facebook, it would always be a big bonus if you have many friends who also plays EA SPORTS FIFA Superstars. The reason being, these friends can send you daily gifts that will definitely help your team grow.
Right now, the EA SPORTS FIFA Superstars gifts include coins, match credits, and some random players. It would be great to get players from it, imagine you are lacking of a good goalkeeper and every time you buy a players package, they spams midfielders and defenders to you, but no goalkeeper at all; suddenly you received this decent goalkeeper from your friend… you’ll be damn happy right?? :p
However, do remember that good players don’t come easily, you got to be patient with that! The gifts would normally give you a small amount of coins, which could definitely help you, don’t worry!
Another approach you could go for is to join all the EA SPORTS FIFA Superstars Fans page (be it official or non-official, just join), you can definitely make friends with existing players who are so enthusiastic about the game just like you! Go and share tips with each other and probably play the game together, you guys could send each other daily gifts as well!
Well, that’s all I have for now, if any of you want to share your personal tips and guides on regarding the EA SPORTS FIFA Superstars, please feel free to post them as comments under this post; I’ll definitely go and approve them
Here is another song from Jay Chou’s latest album, “The Era” – 自导自演. It’s the kind of song that keeps your body moving, woots! The style of this song is very “Jay Chow”, I don’t know how to explain; the best solution is to listen to it yourself and you will understand why I said that.
Here’s a MV that I managed to find on the net, it’s created by people using the cut scenes from “Initial D” the movie. Enjoy!
Here’s the lyrics if you guys are interested to know:
Just in time for World Cup 2010, EA has launched EA Sports FIFA Superstars – a Facebook edition of one of the most popular and successful sports game, soccer.
Despite not being an arcade sports game like how it used to be in video game consoles, it is a soccer management sim game that resembles a bit of FIFA Manager yet too basic to be similar to it; the idea is that, it’s about how you manage your team and make it a winning team!
A short description of the game written on its Facebook Fans page says the following,
Build your dream team by signing the world’s best football players to your club. Upkeep your training and customize your formation to work your way to the top. Don’t forget to challenge your friends to 1v1 matches and brag about your victory!
Ever since the first edition of the FIFA Soccer game series, they have been to different gaming system – be it console video games like Playstation 2 or handheld consoles like PSP, the gameplay is always having the user to control the players in game, and play a virtual soccer games by making moves like passing, shooting, tackling and such. Users have to control the entire team to play a game of teamwork.
However, when I played my first match in EA Sports FIFA Superstars I was a kind of surprised as I watched the entire match being played automatically before my eyes without me having to lift a finger like what I did while playing Bola.
The match itself is actually one of the least exciting things about EA Sports FIFA Superstars – in fact, you can even skip the matches if you want. What the game is really about is the numbers, that is, the rating (team stats) of your team. They have this formula behind the screen which do calculations to simulate the game and decide who is the winner.
To put it simple, if your team’s stats are better than the team you’re playing against, then you’ll probably win (the bigger the margin difference, the higher possibility of winning). The fun part is in managing your team to get those stats as high as possible.
As manager you’ll supervise your team’s training, hire and fire players, choose which players to sub in or out on a given day, and purchasing of improvements for your home stadium.
While building up the team that you have been managing, you can challenge other teams in league matches. You start in the junior leagues and as you win you’ll move up the ranks with the ultimate goal of competing in the Barclays Premium League.
One of the limitation is that users can only play a limited number of matches per day before you have to wait for the countdown timer to recharge (which took quite a number of Hours), unless you want to buy more matches with Playfish Cash (which I personally feel that not really worth it). You can also ask friends for help (by publishing a message to your Facebook news feed), receive them as gifts, or earn them by playing friendly matches against Facebook friends who have also added the application, and win the match.
Although it might not be the kind of usual FIFA experience that some people are expecting from EA, EA Sports FIFA Superstars seems perfectly suited to the Facebook platform. The fact that friends can challenge each other to matches is a great example of social interactions that go beyond gifting or visiting each other – and apparently players trades are something that can make users look forward to as well.
The new Facebook game that’s coming up nowadays – Bola is a social soccer game created by Three Melons. This game is intensively gaining popularity every week, and one of the big reason is because it is one of the few games on Facebook that allow players to actually play, rather than the simply clicking and watching.
By the way, for those who don’t know – Bola means BALL in Spanish.
In Bola, you get to manage your very own soccer team! Cool isn’t it? If you want to bring your soccer team to glory, you will have to manage it and make it play random matches. You can also challenge your friends’ teams with it by playing the home match, then your friend will play the away matches to see who is the winner
Bola is a pretty game that has good graphics with bright colors & engaging animations. You can see both their 2D animations and their animations while playing a game of soccer. Each character is well drawn and everything fits nicely. You can actually see your players running around the field, scoring, passing, etc.
Although the best part of Bola is the immersion into the game, because of the amazing graphics. Not forgetting that the team management tools are great as well; And users can move players around, adjust their team, and basically have control over the team’s success.
This is one of the song on Jay Chou’s latest album, “The Era” – it instantly caught my attention, especially its rhythm, it’s great! Here’s a MV that I managed to found on the net, it loads pretty fast so you guys can try listen to it.
Here are the lyrics if you guys wanna know (although it’s already shown inside the MV):
On the 27 May 2010, my batch of Specialist Cadet Trainees (SCT) were officially pass out as sergeant (3SG) of the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) during the parade held at Pasir Laba Camp.
Special thanks my brother for coming down to watch my parade despite he’s having work on that day & still need to rush down after that, & stayed till so late that day. Really appreciated it
I would also like to thanks all my friends in SISPEC Bravo for my foundation term (BSLC), & all my friends in Artillery Institute’s 155mm Course for my pro-term (AI).
Not forgetting all the instructors whom have taught me so much, without any of you, I won’t be where I am now, standing straight and proud with a chevrons on my chest!
Great memories that will stay in my heart for the rest of my life!
Recently, Ning announced that they were cutting off 70 staff and would no longer provide their social networking platform for free; Ning’s COO said they would stop offering free services, forcing networks to either pay or move.
Although it is not unusual for us to hear about the need to downsize & tighten belts, it is unusual to hear that such a large social networking venue to suddenly charge you for what you become accustomed to and enjoyed having as a freebie for quite some time already.
Just what is the cost of providing services and products as freebies??
First of all, just because you offer things for free doesn’t necessarily meant that people would want them. By offering products and services for free can be rather tricky.
Giving away products and services that you promote as “valuable” actually decreases in value the more you do it. Although one man’s junk can be another man’s treasure, what is the value in something that you can get easily, anytime you want? Just how long can your business survive when you are giving away everything?
How much is too much? What happens when you can no longer afford to give away your products and services? What do you do? Do you provide your existing clients with the freebies & only charge new clients? Do you abruptly stop providing the freebies and only provide the products & services that can allow you to earn money?
Providing products or books & etc as freebies are all great ways to get your company on the track, but when it is done in excess and/or over time, there are risks. Those risks could cost you more in the long run. The last thing you want your clients and potential clients to feel is like they’ve just experienced the “bait and switch.”
However, it is not impossible to avoid the costly mistake of providing products and services for free; here are three advices or tips that I could share with you:
Make the free product as a platform that they can upgrade from. Keep the freebie as something like an empty bag with lots of pockets, & keep the contents that would perfectly fit into them as something of value, something that is attractive enough to make them willing to pay for in order to get it.
Set a time limit, there shouldn’t be an endless feeding. This will help let your clients and potential clients know that it is only for a set period of time and that they can anticipate having to pay for those products in the future.
Attach the free product to the purchase of another product. Create a win-win scenario where you get a sale, and your client gets something extra of value without having to pay the extra cash.
Following the departure of Fiona Xie, Dawn Yeoh, & Jesseca Liu, the seven princesses are now left with four: Jeanette Aw, Felicia Chin, Joanne Peh, and Rui En.
During the Star Awards 2010 Show 2 held in Resorts World Singapore, Felicia Chin hinted at the possibility of being next-to-go in her Top 10 Most Popular Female Artiste award acceptance speech when she said, “This might be my last time standing on this stage.” & also, “it is hard to predict what will happen in future.“
During an interview with xinmsn, the 26-year-old actress professed her nervousness and happiness in winning this award, and that she felt particularly touched with this win, she said the following,
I have not been appearing on local TV screens in Singapore for a long time. I was told that my name was on the Top 10 Most Popular Female Artiste listings for the past 9 weeks and I am really grateful for this.
Currently filming an upcoming sports drama series, No Limits, with Elvin Ng and Dai Yangtian, she likened the award as “a very good present” and repeatedly expressed her thanks and joy.
When asked if she plans to leave the entertainment industry and return to school – as she previously mentioned in interviews, Felicia said nothing and merely confessed that her mother “hopes for me to finish my studies.” She said the following,
I personally hope to complete my father and mother’s tiny dream. I personally feel that studying is a really great thing to do. It’s like taking one step forward. It’s not convenient for me to reveal my contract details, but there might be some minor changes this year.
This week had been rather good – I managed to pass my FH2000 Gun Drill Evaluation (an assessment), and pass my Standard Obstacles Course (SOC), not only that, I broke my personal best record with a timing of 8.45~!!
Thanks all my friends whom cheered for me, and especially Warrant Chua for giving us all the tough training which makes me more familiar with the route as well as clearing the obstacles faster (more practise can clear them faster), also thanks Jun Jie for pushing me during the final 600m rundown towards ending point, I’m so shag that I slowed down so much, I’m lucky that he ran pass me and keep asking me to “RUN! WENBIN, RUN!!”
9 weeks in Artillery Institute had past already, going to pass out in a month or so’s time. So much had happened and seriously, I found myself grown up a bit. So much more things in life to learn, guess I got to be more positive about life yeah.
Last but not least, hope that all my friends managed to pass their SOC test as well! Also hope that there will be a IPPT retest, I want to go for the gold badge & honor again!
I’m serious, I tried it myself & it works; and it’s easy! Check this video out:
I really feel that the person who come up with this idea is really very smart. Anyway, now that you watched the video a.k.a tutorial already, what are you waiting for?
I’m going to share with you guys some of the most effective ways to keep cancer away from your life.
As quoted from a report on cancer prevention by the American Institute for Cancer Research and the World Cancer Research Fund, they found out that one-third of cancer cases could be avoided by adopting a healthy lifestyle of eating right and exercising.
In another words, by carrying excess body fat increases risk for several cancers including that of the colon, the oesophagus and the uterus as well as post-menopausal breast cancer.
Here are some tips that you guys can adopt, or advise your family members to adopt to improve their lifestyle:
To lose weight through exercises – being overweight may increase your risk of cancers of the breast, colon, esophagus, kidney, stomach and uterus. Physical activity (exercises) can help you avoid obesity by controlling your weight & also lower your risk of cancers of the breast, colon, prostate and uterus.
Just simply try to be physically active for 30 minutes or more on most days of the week. Once you achieve that goal, adding more exercise to your day may further reduce your risk of certain cancers.
What I meant by physical activities doesn’t mean sports such as playing basketball or soccer, it can be low-key activities such as brisk walking, climbing stairs or even social dances in community centres. Safe exercise programmes are available for just about everyone.
Eat lesser meat – note that by eating lesser meat is not to totally don’t eat them at all, it’s just cutting down on having too much of them so as to have a balance diet; high-fat diets tend to be higher in calories and may increase the risk of overweight, which will increase cancer risk.
Eat 5 or more servings of fruits and vegetables each day - a diet high in fruits and vegetables has always been linked to a reduced risk of cancers of the colon, esophagus, lung and stomach. Nonetheless, if 5 servings is too much, at least eat 1 or 2 servings so that you could have a balanced diet.
That’s all I have for you, if you guys have any other advices & want to share it with everyone else, feel free to post them under comments
Yes, it’s the iPad! Apple stores are opening their doors and customers who either pre-ordered or got in line early enough will get their very own iPad!
For the benefit of those who don’t know what is iPad – it is a tablet computer developed by Apple, but not exactly a computer. It is categorized somewhere between a smart phone & a laptop I guess.
In short, iPad is rather similar to a larger & more powerful iPod touch, it runs a modified version of the same iPhone operating system, with a user interface redesigned to take advantage of the larger screen.
As Apple’s first device to use its iBookstore service and companion iBooks ebook reading application, the iPad has been compared with Amazon’s Kindle and Barnes & Noble’s Nook. The following picture shows an iPad using the iBook application:
Now let’s look at some of the crowds of people who are super enthusiastic about getting their very own iPad, we shall start with New York city,
Next, let’s look at Mission Valley, CA,
Follow by San Fransico, CA,
And still many other places as well! Cool uh?
I wonder how would be the crowd like when they’re in Singapore.
It’s so close – I’m just two seconds away from getting the $200! Ouch…
Well, I took my Individual Physical Proficiency Test (IPPT) a few days ago, and my results were rather good for the stations, until I reach the 2.4km run station, which has always been my killer station.
I pushed myself really hard this time, as I’m quite used to having a gold standard runner to pace me when I go for 2.4km run. Guess what was my timing?
“9.46″
What the hell. I’m just 2 seconds away from getting the $200 award for getting GOLD AWARD for IPPT & having the honor to put up the GOLD AWARD badge on my uniform! It’s really a big “ouch” to me. Heart pain.
But never mind, I heard that there might be chance for a retest after the next few weeks should the time permits. Hope by then, I can run a solid gold standard timing for my 2.4km run station!
North Korea’s military threatened South Korea and the United States with “unprecedented nuclear strikes” as it expressed anger over a report the two countries plan to prepare for possible instability in the communist country.
The North routinely issues such warnings. Diplomats in South Korea and the U.S. have repeatedly called on Pyongyang to return to international negotiations aimed at ending its nuclear programs.
North Korea’s military says,
Those who seek to bring down the system in the (North), whether they play a main role or a passive role, will fall victim to the unprecedented nuclear strikes of the invincible army.
The North, believed have enough weaponized plutonium for at least half a dozen atomic bombs, conducted its second atomic test last year, drawing tighter U.N. sanctions.
Experts from South Korea, the U.S. and China will meet in China next month to share information on North Korea, assess possible contingencies in the country, and consider ways to cooperate in case of an emergency situation, South Korea’s Dong-a Ilbo newspaper reported earlier this month, citing unidentified sources in Seoul and Beijing. The experts will also hold follow-up meetings in Seoul in June and in Honolulu in July, it said.
A spokeswoman said the South Korean Defense Ministry had no information.
Gen. Walter Sharp, the top U.S. commander in South Korea, says the possibility of turmoil in the North is of real concern, citing the country’s economic weakness, malnourishment in both the military and general population, and its nuclear weapons. he added the following before the House Appropriations Committee hearing,
The possibility of a sudden leadership change in the North could be destabilizing and unpredictable.
South Korean media have reported that Seoul has drawn up a military operations plan with the United States to cope with possible emergencies in the North. The North says the U.S. is plotting to topple its regime, a claim Washington has consistently denied.
Last month, the North also threatened a “powerful – even nuclear – attack,” if the U.S. and South Korea went ahead with annual military drills. There was no military provocation from North Korea during the exercises.
China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the U.S. have been trying to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons in six party talks. The North quit the negotiations last year.
The fate of the North’s nuclear weapons has taken on added urgency since late 2008 as concerns over the health of leader Kim Jong Il have intensified.
Kim, who suffered an apparent stroke in 2008, may die within three years, South Korean media have reported. His death is thought to have the potential to trigger instability and a power struggle in the North.
I believe that most of Facebook users (especially those who are very into game applications) know about FarmVille, developed by Zynga in around 8~9 months ago. Today, there were approximately more than 85 million users fertilizing & grow crops everyday!
FarmVille won as the best new social/online game in the Game Developers Choice Awards, which was held at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, incredible uh? I still remembered how I got myself addicted to this game & was playing it along with my colleagues in Microsoft:
LUNCH TIME
“Let’s go eat!”
“Wait… I plant my Farm first!”
“!!! Oh yeah, I wanna plant mine too!”
“…..”
Well, social gaming is just getting started, and there is plenty of opportunities for developers to make their mark. Just keep thinking of good ideas and there you go – you’ll fly high!
So what’s coming up next for FarmVille? According to reliable source, they are going to introduce pets that can do tricks & users will get to do missions together with their friends very soon.
Cheerios!
P.S. - For people who are searching for hacks or
cheats to play FarmVille, I really got no comments :/
Yes! I passed my FH2000 Gun Howitzer driving test~!!
For the past one week, I have been going through lectures on driving of the FH2000 Gun Howitzer, which includes being the driver, being the ground guide 1 (to guide the driver in/out of infrastructures), & last but not least, being the ground guide 2 (to lookout on blind spots which ground guide 1 is not able to see).
My first practice drive was seriously horrendous – I got the highest demerit points of 232; well, almost all others has 100+ demerit points though, I’m still the only one whom broke the 200 points barrier, which I don’t feel proud of it at all!
I remembered that everyone has a low morale that night, knowing that we have to take the test on the next day right after our second practice; it’s quite scary. As for me, being one of the only 3 out of 16 people whom doesn’t have driving license, I felt even more pressurized (not forgetting that I got the highest demerit points as well).
After discussing with my friends (& thanks my buddy Colin for spending time explaining to me how does the Gun react upon the steering etc) and asking for advices from my instructors, my second practice was an improvement, I got 49 demerit points, still fail though. Anything which exceeds 30 demerit points is considered a failure.
Nonetheless, I managed to pass my actual test in ONE try! Whooots~!! I got 26 demerit points though. Personally, I’m rather confident being a driver now, and I’m sure I’m a perfect ground guide 2 – the biggest flaw is that when it comes to parking the Gun Howitzer in the Garage, I still don’t think that have a very good judgment on being the ground guide 1. I’ll have to work harder to achieve it I guess… whenever there are opportunities, I’ll have to do some guiding already!
I’d like to thanks my buddy, Colin Soh, for spending his admin time explaining to me how does the Gun react upon the steering etc, and all other friends and instructors whom tried explaining to me on the controlling of the Gun Howitzer as a ground guide 1 (that’s my killer part), especially 3SG Jeremy & 3SG Zhi Hao whom graded me for both practice and the actual test itself.
They are very strict (I got 10 demerit points just for taking ONE step backwards) but that is also why I could learn more efficiently, I like it more this way. I’d rather all my mistakes are being pointed out (that explains my 232 demerit points) when I’m learning, than having them being pointed out in future when I got into an accident when I’m being post to unit where no one will be guiding me anymore.
Facebook’s move into location has seemed inevitable for some time, and it now appears that they are going to officially reveal its plans at next month’s Facebook developer conference.
According to reliable sources, Facebook will incorporate location in two ways:
Its own features for sharing location.
APIs to let other apps to offer location services to fellow users.
Facebook says that they will make sure to address privacy (?) issues with its location features – for example, with settings that allow you to share your location only with a selected group of friends. However, the source doesn’t detail the specifics of such features, though it notes that Facebook updated its privacy policy near the end of last year in preparation for a location launch.
Facebook will be rolling out its location features to an enormous user base – there are now more than 400 million users of the social network in total, with 100 million of which access the site via mobile regularly.
In any case, location feature remains to be the huge trend so far, and literally each day seems to bring new indications of how it will goes – smart move uh, Facebook!
Firstly, I’d like to say that Dragon Age: Origins is a game with an incredibly great storyline, detailed and great characters (each with unique story/sidequest behind them), and also, many exciting battles as you play through the game.
On top of that, there are amazing dialogue & voice acting on the main story/quest, which makes the game more exciting and bring the characters to life. The “world” that you’re going to play in rather huge (with many sub maps), which makes it a rich fantasy world filled with interesting & unique cities designed in detail.
With Dragon Age’s plot in the land of Ferelden, its residents are under threat from the impending invasion of a horde of demonic creatures from the south, called the “Darkspawn“. Your short-term mission is to join the ranks of “The Grey Wardens“; whom are basically the ‘Interpol’ of Ferelden, tasked with defending the regions of the land from this ancient threat.
Ferelden is a colorful and fascinating kingdom that takes enough cues from well-known fantasy tropes to be familiar, but bends enough conventions to feel original. Dragon Age features dwarves, but their caste-based society and the social paragons that rise above it twist the norms enough to keep you intrigued. Mages remain under the constant watch of templars, a restriction that doesn’t sit well with those who view such policing as virtual slavery. The role of religion among human is of particular note. Chantries provide refuge to those worshiping the all-powerful Maker, and chanters recite the holy word near their houses of prayer.
Your adventure has one of six different openings and can play out in a surprising number of ways. Your background determines the initial setting, your social status and the reaction certain characters will give you by default. Interesting huh? One of which opening is a Human Noble (normally people start with this as their first character, due to the easily understood opening as you start to learn the combat system & background of the story; unless you’re a RPG Veteran, then you might want to start with any of the 6 openings).
An RPG of this nature lives or dies by its subtlety in this respect, but however, while the dialogue options definitely divide Lawful Good & Chaotic Evil, there’s no cut-and-dry alignment tracking. Instead, what might appear to be the ‘good‘ lines of dialogue will sometimes lead you to certain things which you had no intention of moving to (well, I’m serious!).
The structure of this game hinges around these dialogue decisions. You really need to pay attention to subtext, due to the fact that even though this game lurk within books of lore and stories of martyrs; they burst forth during spine-tingling moments when you must choose from a selection of difficult choices that affect the storyline, and the way your associates interact with you.
Your every actions in the game also have as much impact on how your party members view you to make you double-think which quests you undertake and how that might affect the ending of the game. In short, your every actions have tangible consequences.
Dragon Age: Origins is a game that once looked set to be the best RPG of the year. It has a great story, high production values, and one of the most immersive worlds ever created in a video game. It is a very good game which provides to the user, an experience that will stick in the mind for a very long time. However, it is fitting that one of its main themes is how seemingly good choices can have bad consequences. That message is something the game’s design reinforces throughout.
To conclude my game review on Dragon Age: Origins, I’d say that you should definitely play this game if you are someone who love to play RPGs (Role-Playing Games), as highly recommended by me!
Feel free to post any comments or suggestions (just don’t spam advertisements or nonsenses), cheerios!
As mentioned in the previous blog entries; I’m now a Specialist Cadet Trainee in the School of Artillery (Khatib Camp), and my specialisation is FH2000 A.K.A 155MM!
Don’t know what the heck is that?? Never mind, you’re not the only one! I don’t know what is it when I’m being told that I’m going to be trained on that too! :p
Here are some information I have managed to find out from my good friend, Wikipedia.
The Field Howitzer 2000 (FH2000) was developed by Singapore Technologies for Singapore Army. It is a 155 mm/52-calibre towed howitzer gun. It fires projectiles to a maximum range of 42 kilometers using special extended range ammunition. It has a crew of eight and uses a 75 hp diesel Auxiliary power unit to give it a self propelled speed of 10 kilometers an hour movement without towing.
The firing platform, when fully deployed, support the howitzer using a tripod mechanical structure. Firing loads are transmitted to the ground through this tripod, isolating the hydraulic cylinders of the platform, which provides for greater reliability.
The FH2000 can be fitted with a series of sighting systems from optical to electro-optical. These sighting systems can be linked to the fire control computers. The breech mechanism is semi-automatic & it opens automatically during counter recoil. An electronically controlled and hydraulically powered flick rammer rams the projectile into the barrel chamber with high consistency.
I heard from my Sergeants yesterday when we booked in for a few hours just to put our stuffs, they said that there will be no more road march because soldiers in the Artillery believes in technology to drive us to the battlefield, however, due to the fact that my specialisation is FH2000 155mm, the people in my entire course would need to be very fit and efficient in terms of physical fitness (IPPT) as well as combat fitness (Standard Obstacles Course).
Have I even mentioned that my entire course only has (2 detachment) 16 people? I don’t know we are lucky or unlucky, because all other specialisation (e.g. Mortar, Gunnery, etc) has far more intake than this. None of my SISPEC BRAVO mates went to the same specialisation as me though…
Well, is there any kind souls out there who are willing to enlighten me by giving me a rough idea of the general differences of being a Artillery FH2000 Specialist, compared to being an Infantry Specialist in the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF)?
Throughout your education you will have to write many essays, and while the subjects and the occasions may vary, the basic formulae shown here will help you write a strong essay under a time limit.
Know the material. The first step in preparing to write an essay is to read all the material you need to know about the topic. Take notes and read over these notes regularly until you have knowledge of the topic, or print off prewritten notes. Make sure you have enough information available to you to know what you are writing about.
Relax. Especially if you are writing an important essay, or an essay in an exam, it’s vital that you relax before you start to write. Breathe in and out a few times and take a few minutes to read and think about the exam. You are more likely to write a good essay if you are composed and focused on the task in hand.
Read the question. Know from the start how long your essay is supposed to take you, the expected word count and any other instructions. Make sure that if a specific font or word size is specified that you use it, and keep the word count in mind as you write.
Analyse the question. Look for tell-tale words. E.g. ‘state’, which means to present the main points in a logical order. Other words to watch out for include: list, enumerate, trace, summarise, review, discuss, criticise, evaluate, justify, show and explain.
Work out how long you have to write the essay in, and set up a schedule. If it’s due in a week, prepare to write the plan tomorrow, write the essay over the next two days, leave a day free and then proofread and edit.
Jot down some ideas. Spend a few minutes figuring out exactly what you want to say and formulate these into a plan. This helps to make sure you don’t repeat yourself, and that anything you do say is relevant and precise.
Start with a strong first sentence. Don’t waste time composing a long introduction, simply state your main points clearly within your first sentence and use the rest of your essay to back yourself up.
As you’re writing the essay, periodically check the question to make sure you aren’t rambling. Don’t pad your essay with unrelated information, and make sure you aren’t repeating yourself.
Don’t panic. If you are running out of time or things to say, remember that you can list the points you want to say and this will show that you did have the knowledge to answer the question. Don’t rush, or try to ramble or cram, as this could undermine the rest of your essay. A simple one sentence conclusion emphasizing your main point should be a sufficient to sum up if you become too stuck.
Edit and proofread. Re-read over the essay, the next day if possible, and revise and edit. Check for spelling mistakes, grammatical errors and inconsistencies. Make sure you re-read after you’ve done your editing, to check the essay still makes sense and still answers the question.
I have this song for quite some time, but all along didn’t pay enough attention to listen to it. Today when I randomly play songs, I realised that this song is very nice & the lyrics is very meaningful.
I have attached the player & also, the lyrics, hope you guys like it!
The 18 years old teen not only bragged about how Singaporeans can only afford to buy branded goods from flea markets, she also mocked those who have retake their ‘O’ levels.
STOMPer Ewong wrote in an email to STOMP on the following,
I came across this blog owned by a 18-year-old girl.
She boasted about how much she knew about branded goods and how some Singaporeans are only able to purchase these items from flea markets.
Not only that, she boasts about how easy ‘O’ levels are and mocks ‘O’ levels retakers.
—-
source: stomp
What’s wrong with this generation of people nowadays uh? I just can’t believe it… we really have all kinds of people in our society uh? Seriously, I don’t understand what is in their head (brain).
An activist group, known as Anonymous, who was protesting against the Australian government’s proposals to apply filters to internet in their country, has now temporarily blocked access to key Australian government websites plans to continue its cyber attacks, as confirmed by BBC News.
A representative of the group said that around 500 people were involved in the attack. They were using an attacking method known as Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS).
DDoS is illegal in many countries including the United Kingdom. There is no indication that the attack was carried out from within Britain. DDoS attacks typically call on machines in many different nations, making them hard to trace, thus hard to defend against.
The sites were intermittently blocked on 10 and 11 February. The action has been condemned by various bodies including the Systems Administrators Guild of Australia (SAGE-AU) and Electronic Frontiers Australia.
A man, calling himself Coldblood, told BBC News the following,
All it takes is a few people to basically send junk traffic to their websites which is causing them to be offline. The people who are currently attacking (the government websites) are planning to keep doing it. It will probably keep happening until either they get bored or it gets sorted out.
The sites are currently back online but the domains of individual politicians, including that of Stephen Conroy (minister for broadband, communications and the digital economy), were among those targeted.
What is actually happening is that the group – Anonymous is protesting against Australia’s plan to apply a country-wide filter to block certain content in 2011.
The Australian government has said that trials have shown the filtering technology to be 100% effective in preventing access to designated sites. The banned sites would be selected by an independent classifications body guided by public complaints, Senator Conroy has said.
He said the aim of the filter is to make the internet a safer place for Australian children. Speaking to the BBC, Coldblood said that the activists did not support the creation of illegal content but that banning it would not tackle the issue. Coldblood said the following,
If something is illegal which is done on the internet the government should try and prosecute them, if they ban it it will just appear somewhere again. What they really need to do is go after the people who are making this content.
They staged cyber attacks on Iran following the election protests and have publicly protested against the Scientology movement. This was sparked after the Church of Scientology requested the removal of a clip from YouTube featuring Hollywood actor Tom Cruise.
Coldblood says that,
One of our main missions is against censorship on the internet, the group had not had any direct contact with the Australian government.
However, SAGE-AU replied that the attack was “the wrong way to express disagreement with the proposed law,” and they continues to say the following,
The impact of DOS attacks is frequently felt less by government agencies than by system administrators, many of them SAGE-AU members, who are responsible for managing websites and servers.
Regarding the YouTube in Australia, Senator Conroy has also contacted Google requesting that the company begins to filter YouTube content in the country.
Google says that while it complies with the laws of the individual countries in which it has a presence, it would only investigate and consider removing content after receiving a “valid legal request” about something already posted on the site.
“We first check that the request meets both the letter and spirit of the law, and we will seek to narrow it if the request is overly broad,” said a spokesperson.
“YouTube is a platform for free expression. We have clear policies about what is allowed and not allowed on the site.”
Many people may not agree, but care for soldiers means tough training. However, the training have to be reasonable and has a purpose. During my stay in SISPEC Bravo for my BSLC course, I really learned a lot.
When talk about military aspects such as fire movement, harboring drills, patrolling mission and stuffs like that, I’d say that I really learned a lot for the fact that my Platoon Commander (PC) in SISPEC Bravo is 2WO ROSS. He is really skilled, knowledgeable, respectable, and most importantly, inspiring.
He taught us many useful things which other people or platoon didn’t get to learn, such as the fire movement that he taught us – it’s very different from what we learned during field camp; reason being (I personally interpreted) that the one we learned is the “model answer” which is written on the book, which is theoretically correct, whereas the one which he taught us is the “real answer” which is applicable in a real fight/war, which is the most logically correct version of fire movement. Whatever movement he takes, he explain to us why, and all of them are so logical, we can easily remember them by heart without memorising (unlike the “model answer”).
He called himself the “Pain”. Which is rather true, he can be the most scary “Pain” which you would never have expected – all other platoon would be sleeping on groundsheets at 6pm while all of you are high kneeling with field pack over head, then later eat dinner already go to a vegetable & dig shell scrape in pure darkness, & eventually sleep at 1am
However, all his punishment and scoldings are very reasonable, he don’t punish us for nothing. He is actually a very nice guy and treat us very well, with a lot of welfare if you’d realize.. he has a reasonably high standard in mind and want us to meet it, once we meet it, we’re good soldiers in some sense; all these bit and pieces actually help us a lot.
He’s only “Pain” when we did the wrong thing (come on, if you hide at one corner and rest for hours during Wanderer, of course you deserve to get punish), and during trainings (come on, think about why his trainings are all so efficient, unlike all other conductors which somewhat repeats the “wait to rush” & “rush to wait” cycle).
I respect him a lot & am actually quite tempted to request to stay back for ASLC and stay in 2WO Ross’s platoon, as that’s the way I could learn as much as I can. However, since I’m posted to the School of Artillery and it’s located at Khatib Camp (very near my house!!), and I discussed with my father, he don’t want me to be in infantry or guards at all (I got scolded for even wanting to discuss >.<), thus I dropped the idea.
Nonetheless, I will always remember what he told me during my PC Interview – he told me something which inspired me a lot; I can’t remember it word by word but the meaning is saying something like this,
No matter what vocation you are, or be it an officer or a warspecs, just do your best in everything you do, touch your heart, put in the effort, and don’t be a cow which only move when being smacked, move awhile then stop, waiting to get smacked again. Always try your best, you’re not at your limit if you are still able to consciously ask yourself if you’re at your limit.
For that, in my future vocation in Artillery or whatever/where ever I will be posted to, I will always remember his words deep by my heart, to always put in my best in everything I do, take initiative, perform leadership, be efficient, do my best in all that I do, put in the effort and BE A MAN, DO THE RIGHT THING~!!!
I have successfully passed out from SISPEC BRAVO and is posted to the School of Artillery as my next destination!
Frankly speaking, I’m really very surprised when I’m told that I’m posted to the School of Artillery; I have been expecting ASLC (Advance Section Leaders Course) all along! But the surprising thing is that there are really a lot of people being posted out to unit and courses such as CBRE, Fitness Specialist, and Military Police, which I thought are super hard to get in.
Through this 8 weeks of BSLC course, I really learn a lot of things about army, and many other things. Many people learn how to march, how to shout, how to sing army songs & etc during BMT; but for me, I learn all of them during my stay in SISPEC Bravo.
During BMT, I relied too much on my buddy and we always try to avoid all the stuffs and hide at one corner, keeping a low profile together. Whereas in SISPEC Bravo, I step up and try my best to do all I can, no matter how hard or how troublesome the task is, just like how I handle my projects during my Poly life and how I am going to work in future when I’m in the working society.
Even my friends whom were in the same BMT platoon as me last time and same SISPEC Bravo company as me now, told me that I’m very different =x this shows that I have been really successful in keeping my profile low last time :p
Anyway, we’ll all be reporting to our respective new unit/institute next week. I’m so going to miss all my platoon mates and section mates, especially Wei Jun, Samuel Leong, Joel Zhou, Han Keat, & Guan. They have always been really helpful and we’ve done alot together.
Nonetheless, to the whole platoon:
ALL OF YOU RAWKS, BECAUSE WITHOUT ANYONE OF YOU, 54TH SISPEC BRAVO PLATOON 4 WILL NEVER BE THE SAME AND WILL NOT BE THE BEST PLATOON THERE EVER WERE! THANKS ALL OF YOU FOR ALL THE MEMORIES AND FUN THAT WE ALL SHARED TOGETHER~!!!!
8 weeks is not very long, but it’s not short either. I really enjoyed the days we spent together as a platoon. I really hate farewell session, yesterday while I was saying goodbye and getting contacts from most of them, I actually retreated to one corner to wipe my tears =x
To some others, maybe they won’t feel as much if they always stay with their session mates in their bunk. For me, I felt that I don’t only belong to section 1, I felt that I belongs to PLATOON 4. There are nights where I spent hours with other section, playing games with them & etc; such as MONOPOLY~ right section 3?? haha~
I sincerely hope that everyone had a good time in this 8 weeks, and I hope that they would be doing well and excel in everything that they are going to do in future, be it their next vocation or even future days; wish them well and hope that there would be a moment where all of us could meet up again as the best platoon there ever was!
Final Fantasy IV was first released in 1991 on the Super Famicom in Japan, and had been ported to the SonyPlayStation , WonderSwan Color, and Game Boy Advance and eventually, a full remake on the Nintendo DS; which is exactly what I want to review about.
The epic story of love, betrayal, and redemption is reborn better than ever in glorious 3D.
Something unique about Final Fantasy IV is that players were not given a few generic heroes and tasked to stop the evil wizard and save the world; instead, they were introduced to a wide assortment of realistic characters who struggled with complex adult issues such as love, hate, honor, duty, betrayal, and redemption.
Now, this epic saga has been entirely remade in 3D on the Nintendo DS (as compared to all other remake, which are 2D), and whether Cecil, Kain, and Rosa are new faces or old friends, this is one adventure that you shouldn’t miss.
Cecil is a man with a dilemma. Though bound by his duty as the lord captain of the Red Wings of Baron to serve his king and country, his conscience is heavy with the sins that he is committing in their name. The formerly loving and caring king who took Cecil in as a child and taught him the ways of the dark sword has become a sinister and greedy tyrant who covets the sacred crystals of the world for reasons unknown.
Upon returning from a mission to Baron’s friendly neighbor Mysidia, in which Cecil and his men were forced to steal one of the crystals like common thugs, he finally dares to question his king’s motives. For his insubordination, Cecil is stripped of his rank and sent on an errand north to the village of Mist, where his destiny is revealed to him and his journey of atonement begins.
Throughout his quest, Cecil is joined by a number of intriguing characters: Kain, his best friend and a dragoon of considerable skill; Rydia, a summoner capable of calling the legendary Eidolons to her aid, and many more. Together, they represent some of the most diverse and thoroughly fleshed-out characters in the long history of the Final Fantasy series.
Though class-specific abilities aren’t anything new, in this DS remake you now have the power to customize your characters by giving them additional abilities called augments. Augments can be found throughout the world, given to you by leaving party members, or even stolen from certain enemies, and they can do everything from passively increasing stats such as HP and MP to granting class-specific abilities like darkness or recall to normally nonqualifying characters.
A majority of the bosses require very specific strategies to defeat, and the uninformed will likely perish several times in these encounters before they grasp how to claim victory. Even if you’re a seasoned veteran who knows all of the tricks, don’t expect things to be simple; some bosses have changed just enough to throw you off of your game, and all of them are a lot tougher than you remember.
Besides the radical addition of the ability to customize your party, several other minor gameplay tweaks have been made. The characters in your party now share their thoughts with you on the menu screen, offering personal anecdotes and potentially helpful advice about the current situation.
Final Fantasy IV is easily among the best-looking 3D games on the Nintendo DS. The heavily stylized characters are impressively expressive, from the manner in which Cecil broods as he reflects on his guilt to the way that Rydia hops up and down and waves her hands to get your attention at a shop when you find something that she can equip.
Now that dungeons are rendered in three dimensions, there is a vast sense of size and depth (particularly in the final dungeon) that wasn’t previously there, and it makes your journey seem that much more awe-inspiring and epic.
Although it has been rereleased several times throughout the years, this full remake of one of the most celebrated stories in video game history is in many ways more poignant and impressive than it was all those years ago, despite minor irks with the voice acting.
With a cast of memorable characters and villains, a more accurate and authentic translation, a new skill – customization system, and a few important new story elements that help to better explain key plot points, this is the definitive version of Final Fantasy IV that everyone should experience.
YES! Finally… I can’t believe I did it! I seriously feel damn touched when I get to know about my results. The process is hell, but in order to get the outcome I desire to achieve, I must go through the hell– there is no escape.
In Chinese, we have a saying, 一份耕耘，一份收穫, meaning the more effort you put in, the better the outcome will be. This sentence has always been a pushing momentum for me in anything I do.
I step into Gryphon (BMT) as a zero fighter in pull up (basically does 0 pull up) and 13 minutes runner for 2.4km, due to the fact that I got my GOLD in NAPFA in the early 2009, and have never exercised much ever since, as I’m busy working and having competitions etc, all the way until enlistment into army
I have been training hard, been 4 months plus already, I have finally achieved my first GOLD! hahaha! Damn happy when I heard that my timing for 2.4 km has achieved gold standard xD
As for SOC, I have not been able to pass Swing trainer (Monkey Bar) ever since BMT days – imagine all the weight being added onto my body (I don’t know the exact weight, but anyhow also can count around 8kg being added on? Helmet, SBO, full 1litre water bottle, rifle…), I just can’t complete swing trainer.
But when I’m in SISPEC, I managed to train until I pass it already, but I just can’t meet the timing. We need 10 minutes 30 seconds to pass. However, my so called personal best is 11 minutes 16 seconds. I thought that I could never pass my SOC.
However, yesterday we had a final retake on SOC before we end our BSLC – I’m very thankful to all my friends whom have been supporting and encouraging me throughout the entire rundown, without them, I would not have the mentality to finish the entire SOC rundown!
Later that day, I heard that the SOC timing is out and being put up on the board already, I went over to see it… my timing was 9 minutes 36 seconds – I passed SOC! OMG! I can’t believe it~!!!! I have never thought that I could pass it! At that moment, I can feel the tears of joy filling up my eyes, the feeling is indescribable.
In life, we need a target, an aim that is worthy enough for us to work towards it; something which could make us takes every step towards it and move on.
However, this target must never be one which can be easily achieved, one has to really put in effort and time just to barely have a sight of it, yet still can’t reach it… but don’t ever give up! Continue to work hard, and you will get nearer in achieving it as long as you believe and have faith in yourself, that’s what I always do.
Time flies, I felt like it was as though yesterday that I was enlisted to Bravo company for Basic Section Leader Course (BSLC) training, but the fact is that 4 weeks had already past and there’s only 4 more weeks to go!
I really like my section mates, they are really nice and helpful – in fact, the whole platoon is full of helpful guys! No wonder they are all in SISPEC They really take initiative and do things for everyone, not just for themselves. It’s always nice when people help each other and get things done together, it’s much more effective and time saving – well, that’s team work!
Speaking about team work, I went through the 4 days 3 nights field camp this week, it was quite a challenging week if you’d ask me; when I was sitting down on the wet and muddy ground in the rain, I asked myself,
“How did I even managed to survive through the 6 days 5 nights field camp in my BMT days at Tekong??“
I was then recalling back on what my buddy (TJR) told me back then… I remembered that I was too shack out after the 12km fast march, the digging of shell scrape right on top of concrete, huge & thick roots and ground full of stones, and got tekan like hell on a muddy ground which my whole palm actually sink into the mud when I am in push-up position; TJR and I were walking to the latrin area, and I was so shack and has no morale at all, every steps I took I feel like falling out.
My buddy, TJR gave me a punch all of a sudden and scold the hell out of me… this punch and the things he said motivated me to move on. I managed to survive through my field camp! That’s why whenever people ask me about my army life, the first thing I’ll always tell them, is that I’m super lucky to have the most amazing buddy there ever was~!!
Okay back to THIS field camp which I went through by myself, without TJR. Whenever I feel like giving up, I thought of what he said to me and the punch he gave me. Whenever I see anyone looking shack or anyone having low morale, I would encourage them, cheer them up, because I know how they feel, I know the feeling of one person sitting there, stoned and having a shack face – their morale is low and it’s still dropping! They’d want to fall out when their morale reaches zero.
Anyway, in this field camp, I learn a lot of new stuffs from 1SG Max, and many others. I felt that I have grown up once again, becoming even more confident than before that I have once again conquered another field camp and learn so much new stuffs. Thanks people!
Well, there are still so much more things for me to learn in future. Next week would be yet another hell week full of high key events, if anyone could have make it in the past (since all specialist went through them), so could I!
Last but not least, just in case some people still doesn’t know – my batch is the last batch of cadets in the School of Infantry Specialist (SISPEC), in future, the school’s name will be changed to Specialist Cadets School (SCS).
First of all, I’d like to wish everyone a very happy new year 2010! Hope that all of you would have a great year ahead!
Well, have you guys thought of any new year resolution? Something new and different that you want to achieve in this coming year?
I have my own resolutions in mind already. This is the first time ever that I made myself think of a new year resolution, because I find that goals may be goals, but if you don’t set it high yet practical and make yourself work towards it, you will never get there.
And to make it a resolution for 2010, means that I would have to reach my goal within that year! Another thing that I learnt in army – giving timing makes people work more efficiently.
One thing for sure about me that I definitely know it myself, is that I’m a changed person starting from year 2010; maybe army changed me. I don’t know for those who don’t know me well, but for those whom have known me enough, in time, they would see that I’m a changed person.
If you’d ask me, I’d say that I find myself more mature, more able to face unexpected difficulties, more capable in handling stress, and is definitely more able to look at things with an open heart.
I find that I’m looking at things at a higher level now – well at least when I compare the “level” that I am now at and where I was few months ago, I’m indeed standing higher now, and my eyes is still looking up…
One last thing – hope my injuries would recover soon! (Left ankle sprained, right foot swollen)
With a blink of eyes, one week have past already, I can’t say I have totally adapted to life in SISPEC, but I’d say that things’ gonna be really very different this time.
It’s just the first week and I have found myself having responsibility – not like in BMT, just simply be a follower throughout and not given chances (corridoor cleaner for 9 weeks LOL); here in SISPEC, I’m officially assigned as the Store IC, which makes me like a storeman, a lot of miscellaneous things for me to settle, such as not enough books, field items etc. I still remember I slept at around 12.30 midnight last wednesday due to all the calculation and stuffs regarding the stores..
And also, I’m helping my buddy take up unofficial section IC role (such as to march my section to cook house & etc), and I got to learn the commands now. It’s quite tough to pick them up and use them immediately, I still remember I “Halt” my section when they land on their right leg (suppose to be on left leg), one of our company’s warrant officer saw, then ordered us to march one round around the parade square (which is damnnnnnn big).
Basically we do what our sergeants’ used to do for us last time when we are in BMT. It’s more responsibility and more work. And I heard that Bravo is the toughest company in SISPEC, and what’s more is that I’m in Platoon 4, the toughest platoon among all & also, we have the strictest PC whom have very high expectation on us.
Hope I could do well!
Cheers~
P.S. – I’m booking in later tonight because I got 24 hour guard duty starting tomorrow early morning! Bad luck eh, first week already assigned guard duty already… LOL…
Tomorrow is my first day in SISPEC, I really wonder how it would be like? Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE that I know, and have served re-service before, are telling me how fucked up it is to become a sergeant. Seriously, I’m kind of depressed already… in the first place, I’m upset already. Now it’s even worst.
Less than 10 hours of “freedom” left! Oh man… I really wish that time will stop RIGHT NOW & I can do more stuffs before booking in again. Damn sad, there are so much things that I wanted to do! Oh come on, Friday is Christmas Day! & I believe that it’s gonna be a lonely & meaningless Christmas once again.
There are many people who are so enthusiastic about Christmas and are so excited about it; they even go to the extend of celebrating it, like organising friends gathering, watch movie or even eat steamboat dinner together. To me, it’s just another normal day, just that it’s a public holiday, and I might get to book out from camp because of it? ;/
Okay, back to SISPEC. I was packing my bag a while ago, and I was like.. oh my god. SO MANY THINGS TO BRING. As stated in the instruction, bring EVERYTHING that were issued to you during BMT. Seriously a lot. I manage to put almost everything in the duffle bag, which includes many clothes, parade boots, LBV, helmet, running shoes etc.. it’s super scary.
I really pray that I am not being put in platoon 3 or platoon 4, because their bunks are in level 4 and 5 – seriously, I’ll go mad carrying those stuffs up the stairs ._.”
Tomorrow meeting my friends take MRT to boon lay & then share cab go there.. hope everything goes fine and we’re there in time, if not earlier.. I’d rather reach early than late. hahaha. Gonna see a hell lot of my other friends there as well, looking forward to see them after such a long break
Let’s pray that I get to book out on thursday ba, since friday is a public holiday. lols.
Have it been two months already? Or more? Yet it still hurts so much; why is it that some people are just so awesomely incredible that they can get over absolutely anything, as though there’s no blood flowing within them? Do they even felt anything? Do they felt sad about anything at all?? Or is it just that they can overcome anything that they are not bothered about..?? Well, if you’re not bothered about something, of course that something won’t make you felt upset or making you frown over it… it’s a fact. A very sad fact…
SAF has posted me to SISPEC, trainee to be Infantry Leader. I just managed to get into somewhere I don’t wish to go~ don’t congratulates me, I’ll murder you! =.=|||
My aim has always been to either get into OCS or be a MAN, I don’t wish to get into SISPEC course and stuck in the middle… okay, not really stuck in the middle. It’s like, I know what does sergeants do, and I don’t like to get myself into THAT position; I believe that most NSF sergeants know what I meant… :/
For those who don’t know what is SISPEC, the following is for your information:
The School of Infantry Specialists is a military training centre for specialists in the Singapore Army. The school is situated in Pasir Laba Camp.
Trainees who enroll at SISPEC first have to go through the Basic Section Leader Course (BSLC) where they are taught basic infantry skills to command an infantry section. Upon graduation from BSLC, the soldiers will be sent to the various formations in the Army for specialized training in their respective fields.
Those who are selected to serve in the Infantry and Guards formations will remain in SISPEC, where they will undergo the Advance Section Leader Course(ASLC). Besides these two courses, SISPEC also conducts the Platoon Sergeant Course and the Company Sergeant Major Course.
The SISPEC’s BSLC is a challenging course that grooms fresh graduates from the Basic Military Training Centre into future leaders. The course trains and equips soldiers with infantry skills and knowledge to command an Infantry section. The trainees are required to go through the Confidence Obstacle Course and the Advance Obstacle Course, which demand both physical and mental toughness. The BSLC ends with a 28-km graduating road march in full battle order.
Okay, back to topic. As far as I know, most of my platoon mates got into SISPEC as well, the number of people who got into OCS (Officer Cadet School) is super limited… are they really so strict in the selection of trainees? Damn it~
Monday early morning need to report to Pasir Laba Camp with EVERYTHING we are issued during BMT somemore.. oh my god.
I don’t know what to say/do. haha. Anyway, looking forward to see my platoon mates & fellow friends there!
The railway company in Japan is to install special cameras on its Tokyo commuter trains to help deal with the problem of groping on public transport, which has become more and more serious these days.
All these cameras are to be fixed on the ceiling of carriages on the Saikyo line, which is known for attracting sexual predators, which has a record of more than 2000 complaints for groping every year.
In a survey, four out of five women report being molested on public transport, and it has been serious until an extent that there are women-only carriages in some trains! Amazingly uh?
I don’t think Singapore has such problem – reason being our MRT trains are not THAT congested, I don’t know if it’s true or not lah, but then again, I think Singapore women would definitely yell or scream if they were being touch And also, not much people are so daring I guess.. unless they are really desperate of course… LOL.
Gryphon Platoon 2 had our first ever BBQ gathering on the 10th December 2009, I’m really glad that the attendance is pretty good!
It was really super fun lah! First of all, the venue – Si Lie provided us with the location, which is the Pottery Jungle, chinese writes it as 世外陶源, which means somewhere very peaceful and nice, as though it does not belongs to the outside world.
I think it’s pretty true, like what he told us previously, “It’s a kampong” – at first we still thought that he was just kidding about the “kampong” thing :p The place is really amazingly peaceful and is full of nature! Si Lie brought us for a short “excursion” to the back of the pottery jungle there, we walked on hill routes as though we were having field camp in civilian clothes, it’s quite cool!
The whole place is totally thumbs up except for one flaw – the mosquitoes there are frigging desperate~!! Worst than tekong’s mosquito. But actually can understand them lah, in tekong, every batch got over thousands fresh new human blood let them suck, over here damn limited
In fact, most of us were amazed that there are still such a nature preserved place around & exist in Singapore. For those who want to know the name of the place, it is Lorong Tawas, very near Nanyang Technological University (NTU).
Together with this post, I’ve uploaded some of the group photos, do feel free to view the full photo album (with over 250 photos) if you guys are interested in how much fun we had!
These are some winning tips from “The Tug Of War Association”; Enough said, here you go:
#1. Put the big guys in the back, usually as you start to lose, the guys in the front are the first to give up, so keeping them in back i think would be best. Also, a good coordination of your grunts works well, it can make or break your team especially if you’re at a disadvantage. (Formation of the team matters)
#2. You need to all pull hard at once so that you can get them off their feet. Maybe count down from 10 and then on 2 or 3 (as to trick them) pull as hard as you can. (Something to play with the mind)
#3. Don’t wrap the ropes around your hand. (It will affect your blood circulation and make you not able to last)
#4. The largest person on each team should be the anchor. This is the person who is at the end of the team. (Putting the correct person as the anchor is essential)
#5. Lean back the maximize amount that you can; If you were in a tug-o-war standing straight up against someone leaning back, you would most likely lose if all else was equal. Therefore, leaning back is an advantage. Maximize it. (Skills & techniques is the key to win)
#6. Constant pressure on the rope is better. If your opponents do the old “1-2-3 pull” routine, you will have an advantage during their down time. (Make use of their routine to your advantage, apply extra pressure when you know they are going to execute the “pull”, and pull when they are counting)
I slightly modified some of them though, to remove some repeated stuffs and added my own comments in italic fonts.
All of us have been waiting for this day ever since the day we enlist; which is to graduate from the Basic Military Training Centre and move on our career as a soldier.
Seriously, the feelings is quite mixed up. I’m damn happy, because my next vocation is most likely not an on-course trainee anymore, which means I won’t get tekan for nothing & etc, and can learn more useful stuffs as a soldier? Get higher rank than recruit (which is basically no rank)?
But again, I’m damn sad because I’m going to go separate ways with most of my friends, section mates, platoon mates, & my buddy. Not forgetting my commanders as well. I’ll surely miss them a lot. Although it’s just a short 9 weeks, it’s damn short compared to other people’s BMT period, but the bond is there.
Frankly speaking, looking at how other platoon is like, make me feel that my platoon is super bonded. Most of them don’t know each other, and they were separated into many small cliques and the most they know is their section mates (quite weird uh)?
Unlike my platoon, we know each other, we chat & have fun together, in fact, I’m going for a BBQ session awhile later also, where most of the platoon mates are going as well. It’s a BBQ host at Si Lie’s house.I’m quite looking forward to it. Although we just POP yesterday, but it’s a totally different feeling for this gathering
I got a lot of photos but lazy to upload. Wait till I upload then put up ba
Finally… POP soon! We have been rehearsing everything like mad; it’s damn shag! I never expect the rehearsal to be so shag, especially when we didn’t march the 24km beforehand! I can’t believe it man… well I guess it’s because of the sun, which is freaking strong and killing; everyone looks “red” after we move on to a shelter.
Last friday there was this rain which is so heavy that most of the roads in Tekong were flooded with water, a wonderful looking parade square seems to become a mini fish pond, hahaha. Especially when we were having our so called “last book out”, so all of us were carrying many things (which includes our field pack PLUS a very big black bag) as we need to bring out EVERYTHING that we brought in in the first place, and also excessive items that were issued to us previously.
Due to the fact that it’s raining heavily, we have to walk the sheltered way which has limited space and it’s a bigger curve compared to we march there ourselves, as a result, we require more time and is seriously rushing… so everyone were trying their best to walk faster.
Just imagine the situation:
Super heavy rain
Roads flooded
Soldiers carrying many bags which looks like they got one month supply of stuffs inside
Soldiers’ face all look so shag & is rushing to the ferry terminal
Powerful right? haha. It looks like we are evacuating out of the island after we won the war, and tekong island is sinking!
Till I blog again, cheers.
What meant to be yours will be yours, there is no way you can avoid it. What meant not to be yours will never ever be yours, no matter how hard you try to get it.. that’s life.
First thing first, for those who doesn’t know the meaning of 2012, it is actually referring to the fact that Solar Storm is coming on the year 2012. And no, I did not make this up; NASA announced this and it was even published on the newspaper few months back!
Back to this. Why is the “2012″ word so magical? Because whenever I think or talk about it, nothing good happen. And yes, I’m risking again by blogging about it; perhaps I’ll get scolded or something later when I book in back to Tekong
Since “2012″ is the “End of the world”, and it gives a feeling of “doom” or perhaps also “impossible”. Thus it’s not a very good thing at all.
Many good things I used to have would comes to an end when this word is mentioned.. I have too much real example already. Like recently, I told my gf that I want to watch the movie “2012″ (damn, I should not mention the magical word), then in like a week’s time, she broke up with me.
Maybe it’s just coincidence. But then again, last time everything okay, I mention the “2012″ thing, then H1N1 suddenly from nothing becomes something? As in, from not that critical, suddenly becomes more and more critical until so many cases were found, even Singapore also got people get infected by it?
And now that I think about it, my last break before POP has come to an end too, I’m going to book in tonight! Oh, damn it. I’m suddenly so used to civilian life that I don’t wish to go back to army life already!
I did not exercise at all, been keeping myself occupied by playing the Stardom 2000 (明星志願2000) game that my good brother, Man Chun, has lent me. Thanks bro~ the game is damn good!
Yesterday finally get to meet up with Rong Yao, Man Chun, & Wei Kian! The 4 of us are the survivors of our secondary school clique, whom still remain to keep in contact with each other and meet up time to time!
As recommended by Rong Yao, we went to watch the movie, Ninja Assassins, at Yishun Golden Village today. Seriously right, I totally never heard of the existence of this show before eh. Though it only came out today, but still, it’s hard to never even heard of the show’s name before right? :p
Nonetheless, we still went ahead and watch it. It’s quite a good movie! The fighting scenes are impressive despite the fact that they ARE quite bloody. The main character, Rain, is damn cool, and very fit! His appearance is rather different in this show, it gives a very different feeling. Well, go watch it and you will know what I meant.
After the movie we went to have dinner at the usual coffee shop. We chat about a lot of stuffs, especially army! Rong Yao’s company is super close to mine, we even did our route march together yesterday, but we only discovered that recently! :p Then Man Chun’s company is damn far away, but he does very different stuffs compared to us since he’s in PES C, whereas Wei Kian is going to enlist next year, hope by then we can give him good advices on army stuffs!
After dinner went to Man Chun house to borrow game from him. Seriously, I don’t know what to do tomorrow, so if I really got nothing to do tomorrow, at least I got game to play uhs? haha.
I only know that I’m too used to a different lifestyle for too long already… I’m so not used to the sudden change. But nonetheless, I’m trying very hard to adapt to it. I’m really trying
I have to accept life, accept the fact, and really learn to let go and to accept things uh. haha. This is life man…
Many things has happened in my life these days; so much that I don’t know how to talk about.. don’t know how to start on.
Ever since my enlistment to the army, my life has been twisting around. There are both good moments and bad moments… good moments that make me happy until I can’t stop myself from laughing and smiling, bad moments that made me cried and felt emo over it as though there is no tomorrow…
There are like 3 more weeks to POP (Passing-Out-Parade) on the 9 December 2009. Seriously don’t know how my life is going to change again. Life is indeed a sinusoidal curve with its crests and troughs; to put it simple – life is full of ups and downs.
I hope I could endure through all the tough moments of my life… it’s hard. Really hard. But I guess there are no other choice other than to endure all of them! I must work hard!
Everything would get much better if there’s a friend, or someone who care, standing by my side, supporting me, giving me the power to endure through everything. Just a simple tap on my shoulder will do! Even a simple “Go for it!” or “You can do it!” would helps alot.
I’m halfway through my Basic Military Training (BMT) life! 6 weeks down, 4 more weeks to Passing Out Parade (POP)!
No more field camp, yay! I can’t believe I make it through the 6 days 5 nights field camp – it rained everyday!
Finished my Individual Marksmanship thingy, the live range.. I’m a marksman! 31/32; my biggest regret is due to aiming at the wrong board and thus one shot off away from full marks!
Finished my Hand Grenade thingy as well; my once-in-a-life-time throw of real grenade! I didn’t managed to hit the target but at least I didn’t get blank or threw it out of the range! xD
Finished my SIT TEST yesterday as well, it’s rather fun! I don’t know how well I fared, but I guess it’s not that great either. Let’s hope for the best!
Now I’m left with Individual Physical Proficiency Test (IPPT) and Standard Obstacles Course (SOC) and that’s all!
Tomorrow onwards will be a hell full of physical trainings; let’s hope that I can handle them well!
It’s a miserably and awfully bad weekend for me, as I only get to book out yesterday night, immediate took a cab home and only reach at almost 10pm.. =.= so late already.. then today nothing much as well.. basically stay home and rot! Waste life
But can’t be blamed, no one is free on Sunday… sad! Anyway, I’ll be booking in soon again.
Tomorrow is the day! The 6 days 5 nights field camp.. which is said to be the “halfway-through” checkpoint of BMT (Basic Military Training) life.
Many friends whom have went through it told me that it is pure suffering especially when it rains; quite true I guess, since I won’t really get to bath or change clothes during those days, and I don’t like the feeling of being totally drenched until my uniforms are heavy, and my boots is full of water stored inside… =.=
Anyway, tomorrow is my 5th week in army, which is officially my WEEK 4 (the enlistment week is WEEK 0) of my BMT life (my POP/”graduation” is on the 9 December 2009).
Many people are asking me – how’s army life? Used to it? Well, I must say that don’t really like army life. There are good and bad. Good that we are being trained to be a real man, to be independent and to do things we don’t used to do. Bad thing is that it is super hard to learn things. Especially the lectures.. I’d really be delighted if they could just print the lecture notes and pass them to me to study instead of the frigging 2 hours lecture, which is a total waste of time.
But cannot be blamed.. our sergeants tried their best to explain, but seriously, they are either my age or younger than me, and has no experience in teaching, so most of the time I totally don’t understand what are they driving at. and the practise is to say “Yes” and “Outstanding” in army. Never ask question unless you want to sarbotage yourself?
Thus so far most of the lectures are total waste of time. Try to understand when there are practical lessons then.. there are alot of things which they ASSUME that everyone know. Such as the commands they shout when marching, how to tie the knots etc. They thought everyone are from NCC or NPCC (Uniform groups). But no, I’m from Basketball team last time. So there are so much more things that I have to find out by myself, either that or I seek help from friends.
Life has not been very nice in there. The trainings are tough. At least for me, they ARE tough. I remember that I really cannot keep up with it during the 1st 2 weeks. then slowly now can manage already… but still not doing well yet. Or at least, I expect more out of myself. Must work hard already, I don’t want to be a loser, I don’t like the feeling of being at the bottom, looking up at everyone who are standing up there.
I strongly believe that determination is the key to success, as long as I don’t give up, and keep trying, I can make it through.
One thing I hate the most is that time flies when I’m in human world, and time crawls so frigging slowly when I’m in the Tekong…
Okay that’s all, last but not least, hope that it don’t rain and I don’t shit in the following 6 days!
As mentioned in post topic, I’ll be away in Tekong until around 24 October 2009, serving National Service (NS) in the enhanced batch, Basic Military Training Camp (BMTC) School 1. Thus won’t be updating frequently or until 2 weeks later!
Technology really do advance faster than anything else, recently there were 3D movies being launched and is showing in cinema theaters, and even new 3D TV technology are available now!
Sony has did it again by releasing this new single-lens camera able to capture 3D images.
The majority of existing 3D set-ups use two-camera systems to record images tailored specifically for the left and right eye of the viewer, whereas the new camera takes a single image that is split by mirrors and recorded on two sensors, resulting in a “smoother” picture, according to Sony.
Viewers will be able to watch the 3D images using special polarised glasses. Without them, they will just see normal 2D television, according to the firm. This camera is especially good in capturing sporting events.
The new camera is one of a number of developments being put forward by the firm, which hopes that 3D TV is about to take off.
This week, the firm also opened the doors to its European research labs to show off a different 3D camera technology for recording football games.
The technology uses three fixed cameras to record the entire football pitch. The images can them be mapped and, using software, create a 3D view.
There have been a number of forays into the 3D market, pioneered by the film industry.
In 1953 The House of Wax became the first commercial 3D movie. However, the early technology caused unsteady images that induced nausea.
A second attempt was made in the 1970s, using stereoscopic images that required users to wear red and green glasses; while the image was steady there was considerable loss of colour quality and it also failed to take off.
The latest revival, dubbed “The 3D Wave” kicked off in 2003 with the release of the film Ghosts of the Abyss.
Users now wear polarized glasses – rather than the standard red and green spectacle – with the resulting image “fooling” the brain into thinking it is 3D.
Meanwhile, the technology to capture in 3D – or create a virtual 3D image using conventional cameras – has also been getting cheaper and is now affordable by some traditional TV and satellite broadcasters.
In 2008, the BBC broadcast the world’s first live sporting event in 3D, beaming back an England vs. Scotland game from the Six Nations to a cinema in London.
In addition, the corporation’s director of London 2012, Roger Mosey, said there were plans to capture some of the Olympics in 3D. He said the following,
We could, and I believe should, capture some of the Games in 3D. Nobody would expect the Games of 2012 to be comprehensively in 3D because the technology will be nothing like widespread enough; but it would be a shame not to have any images of London that were part of an experiment with what will be one of the next big waves of change.
However, Fergal Ringrose – editor of Europe’s broadcast technology magazine, TVB Europe, told BBC News that Sky was in a rather unique position and that the majority of broadcasters were still reluctant to embrace 3D TV. He said the following,
Very few broadcasters are in the position to control the entire process. We did a reader survey on 427 broadcasters across Europe and asked them if 3D TV was on the horizon. Only 15% said yes, and another 20% said they were looking at it as an option. That’s somewhat underwhelmin.
What do you guys think? Would 3D TV take off smoothly in these couple of years? Or would it still be a great challenge? :p
Cheerios~
P.S. – Counting down, 4 more days to army enlistment!
Michael Jackson’s This is it” captures Jackson like you’ve never seen him before. “Michael Jackson’s This is it” will only be screening for 2 weeks from 29th Oct and pre-sales for the movie tickets will begin early Oct in Singapore.
There is this problem which lies in me – (1.) I concern too much, and (2.) I always elaborate on situations even before people ask me to do so. Let’s go into each items:
1. I concern too much – To put it simple, Ithink too much. This can be both good and bad.
Good in the sense that I always plan ahead, and is able to react to it when things happen. Bad in the sense that I think too much, and at times, a simple matter also can become complicated.
It’s like for example, when a group of people are going to zoo or to picnic, I’ll be the one who brings umbrella. Good is that if it rains, I’ll have an umbrella! Bad is that, go zoo or go picnic, why bring an umbrella? It only makes the bag heavier and it’s not like it surely will rain!
2. I always elaborate on situations even before people ask me to do so.
If it is phrased nicely, it means that I always think about the whole situation before I tell someone about it. As in, when someone ask me something, I don’t just give them a one liner answer – “Yes” or “No”. I will explain to them before they even ask for the reason.
If it is phrased badly, it means that I always beat around the bush and don’t go to the main point – “Yes” or “No”, which is also true.
However, on such situation, I’d say that different people has different preference. Some people prefer me to go straight to the point and tell them a “Yes” or “No” answer, where most of the time, they are not interested in the reasons for my answer. Yet some people would actually expect me to “automatically” explain on situation and the reason of me having that answer, without them asking further.
Conclusion: humans are hard to please! HAHA.
Well, that’s why I say – actions speak louder than words! If words is not the way for me, then I’ll just go for actions then!
Not forgetting the promise that I made to you… actions speak louder than words. Just wait and see
Look at this photo. I find it really inspiring. It seems to me that my goal in life is high up there, I can see it, definitely, but vividly. So near yet so far…
I have always been worried about my future. Some friends always tell me not to worry, and tell me that my future is bright, given what I have achieved so far. However, I felt that those are just small achievements which of course, I could be proud of, but they are definitely not something which I should felt contented on.
I’m not there yet; my goal is still far, far away…
I’ll continue to try my best in everything I’m going to do next though, hope I can make it! The immediate next thing that’s right around the corner is National Service (NS)
Hope I can do well in there bah! Three cheers for wenbin! :p
In this internship working at Microsoft, I don’t earn a lot, which is true (Developer Intern, what you expect), but in the first place, I don’t intend to work there for the money. It’s the working experience that matters to me. It’s not like everyone could get to work as an intern at Microsoft – I got it because I was lucky.
Many people are asking me – since I’m an intern, what school do I come from? As in, which school sends me here. The fact is that I am a graduate from Nanyang Polytechnic, but I’m here in Microsoft NOT because of them; I mean, they don’t send me here.
I’m here because of Imagine Cup 2009. I was one of the competitor in MashUp category and eventually won the 2nd place worldwide as a Singapore representative, then Ms Pratibha Kumar, Academic Developer Evangelist of Microsoft Singapore, offered me an interview to work as a Microsoft Developer Intern for 2 months while waiting for my NS (National Service) enlistment (For those who don’t know, it means to serve the army).
Well, I’m really thankful that I got the job. I learned a lot of things here – really a lot; so much that I am so so so so glad that I was offered this job! If not for this job, I would not get to touch on Silverlight, write so many guides about it, create the Imagine Cup 2010 Poland website (stay tune to ImagineCupSg website, it’s going to be uploaded soon!), attended the “Introductory to Silverlight” training course, develop the Sliding Block game Silverlight application, and many other things!
And the most important of all, get to meet so many new friends – Eugene Fabian, Dennis Chung, Clarrise Ng, Suhui, Kah Meng, Dobson, Ji Ren, Si Le, Yang Lin, Chun Siong, Zi Han, Chewy Chong, and others! They are all very nice & friendly people, and very successful people (means that they are on a totally different level from me, they are so high above…), but they are all very humble and are happy to share they success stories and experiences with me, which are definitely inspiring!
I hope that one day, I could be able to reach their level, be successful like them. I learned a lot of things in life from them. Oh ya, some very interesting things that I learned – to be PROACTIVE! And another thing which is definitely something I lack now, and have to keep in mind & pick it up, which is PQPA, stands for Precision Questions and Precision Answers.
Okay, back to the topic – tomorrow, 25 September 2009, is my last day of internship at Microsoft Singapore. I’m sad!
I’m so going to miss my colleagues like hell! Been lunching, chatting, playing (occasionally, RAINBOWSIX. LOL) and working in MIC (Microsoft Innovation Centre) together with them everyday, it’s almost like a habit to me already. It’s really fun. Well, sometimes do felt stress about work, but still, all the fun with them has already covered up all the stress I had.
It’s really fun working with them! My internship ends tomorrow, but I strongly believe that my friendship with them will not dies off!
Many people will walk in and out of your life, but true friends leave their footprints in your heart.
As mentioned in post title, I’m going to be officially enlisted for National Service (NS) in 15 days’ time, on the 07 October 2009!
I’m feeling quite mixed up, both looking forward to it & also wish it don’t come so fast! I hope that I’m not the only one whose having such mixed feelings huh? haha!
Come to think of it, most of my friends (Ng Wei Xiong, James Yeo, & many others) has finished their Basic Military Training (BMT) already! Congratulations man!
Soon, it’s going to be my turn! Oh man. I’m so excited! I can’t wait to divert my attention to army life – no need to care about work, no need to care about technologies (which advances much faster than I can learn), no need to care about many things – just purely focus on the trainings and excel in what I’m going to learn in there!
Okay, I guess I’ll enjoy my freedom for this two weeks first, since my enlistment is still 15 days – no, almost become 14 days already (30 minutes more). hahaha!
This week is my last week of internship in Microsoft! I’ll start to post tutorials and guides on Silverlight soon I guess! And most probably I’ll share with you guys the Sliding Blocks game which I have created, currently still researching on how to add some other features into it.
For the past three days (14 Sept to 16 Sept), I have been attending this “Introductory to Silverlight” course at Microsoft Singapore, where we did hands-on labs & learn about the basics and slightly more advances stuffs on Silverlight. The training materials are provided by Microsoft & the training is conducted by Avantus.
There were like around 13 or 14 people who attended the course; they comes from all areas – project manager, .NET developer, programmer, etc. I really enjoyed interacting with them, they are all friendly people. Knowing that I’m going to enter NS (army) soon, some of them shared with me on their experiences in their army life, how is it like, and some interesting stuffs.
And also, some of them know that I’ll be stepping into the IT Industry (most likely) in 6 years’ time (2 years army, 4 years university), they asked me why would I want to go into this area and what plans do I have in mind. They also shared with me on how are things like in the real IT industry, since they are standing inside now.
Big thanks to Li Shan, a very experienced developer, whom helped me a lot during the course, as the labs were not very straight forward (not spoon feeding like what we did in polys ), whenever I’m stuck, he would help me & he taught me how to use several useful functions available in Visual Studio 2008.
Lastly, I’d like to thanks Maya for conducting the course, and Li Shan, Liu Li, Rav, Zhi Wei, Ei Khiang, and fellow others who have attended the course together!
AND super big thanks to Mr Eugene Fabian (boss!!) for getting me into the course
Today is a very special 090909 – 9th September 2009! I personally like the date very much too, it’s very special. We don’t get to see such a date every year
What’s going to come next year is 101010 – 10th October 2010, then will be 111111 – 11 November 2011, which is even more cool; then lastly, 121212 – 12 December 2012; after that I don’t think there will be such dates anymore. We should be glad to see these days in action, as our future generations won’t have such chance
Back to the 090909, I find that it is really very meaningful, especially when put on top of the fact that I’m a chinese – 9 is pronounced as “jiu”, 3rd vowel sound – which means something like “long” in terms of time, which can also be interpreted as “eternity”; thus many couples choose to get married on this day.
I seriously really envy these couples whom got married on such a wonderful date, I sincerely bless them to have a marriage of eternity
Let alone 090909, I don’t think I’ll be able to get married on the 101010, 111111, nor 121212, which is really a pity to come by those days yet missed them.
Oh man… my National Service (NS) enlistment is on the 7 October 2009, which is just one month away from now, and I’m encountered with such a horrible disaster… I’m doomed larh! Arghs. This is really giving me serious headache…
I can’t believe I actually did it. This is something I expect the least – I never expect it to happen at all~!!
So what actually happened? I GAINED WEIGHT! Don’t laugh, this is a very serious matter!
After being in Polytechnic, my fitness dropped a lot & when I was about to graduate, I really trained hard until I reach the stage where I got GOLD for my NAPFA fitness test, and at that time, I was 69kg.
However, after graduation, I kind of slacked on my physical trainings as I was busy over the Imagine Cup 2009 competitions and stuffs; then after I’m back from Cairo (Egypt) after the competition, I started working as a Developer Intern at Microsoft, office hours… thus not being able to exercise much!
Not forgetting that almost all the “sundays” are having bad weather (raining) in the morning & evening recently, which I don’t know why. It’s so “just-nice”, just right when I want to work hard for my physical fitness.
Anyway, I’m, 74 kg now! Can you see the big gap?! I find myself so FAT now! All right man, it’s time to work hard for my physical fitness and get myself fit before enlisting into the army! My plan is to go jogging early in the morning daily!
Well, it is sooooooo much easier to say than done!
Last week, I watched the 3D version of the movie, “The Final Destination“. Although the movie is not really up to my expectation, the 3D effect and experience is rather new for me, as it is the first ever 3D movie I watch
Frankly speaking, I don’t really like the storyline – it’s not very organized and there is no surprises at all. Every single scenes of the show can be easily guessed and all is expected, which is rather disappointing.
I read review of the show, and the genre of the show is “Horror” – I was expecting something scary and thrilling, but somehow I personally don’t really group it as a horror movie, it’s more like a mystery or gross (Opps) movie.
Well anyway, people who like to watch horror/mystery movie would probably enjoy the 3D version of this show
Many years ago in a small village, a farmer had the misfortune of owing a large sum of money to a village moneylender. The Moneylender, who was old and ugly, fancied the farmer’s beautiful Daughter. So he proposed a bargain.
He said he would forgo the farmer’s debt if he could marry his Daughter. Both the farmer and his daughter were horrified by the Proposal.
The cunning money-lender suggested that they let Providence decide the matter; he told them that he would put a black Pebble and a white pebble into an empty money bag. The girl would Have to pick one pebble from the bag.
If she picked the black pebble, she would become his wife and her father’s debt would be forgiven.
If she picked the white pebble, she need not marry him and her father’s debt would be forgiven.
But if she refused to pick a pebble, her father would be thrown into Jail.
They were standing on a pebble strewn path in the farmer’s field. As They talked, the moneylender bent over to pick up two pebbles. As he Picked them up, the sharp-eyed girl noticed that he had picked up two Black pebbles and put them into the bag. He then asked the girl to pick a pebble from the bag.
Now, imagine that you were standing in the field. What would you have done if you were the girl? If you had to advise her, what would you have told her?
Careful analysis would produce the following three possibilities:
The girl should refuse to take a pebble.
The girl should show that there were two black pebbles in the bag And expose the money-lender as a cheat.
The girl should pick a black pebble and sacrifice herself in order To save her father from his debt and imprisonment.
Take a moment to ponder over the story. The above story is used with The hope that it will make us appreciate the difference between lateral & logical thinking.
The girl’s dilemma cannot be solved with Traditional logical thinking. Think of the consequences if she chooses the above logical answers. What would you recommend to the girl to do?
Well, here is what she did ….
The girl put her hand into the moneybag and drew out a pebble. Without Looking at it, she fumbled and let it fall onto the pebble-strewn path Where it immediately became lost among all the other pebbles. She said,
Oh, how clumsy of me… but never mind, if you look into the bag for the one that is left, you will be able to tell which pebble I picked.
Since the remaining pebble is black, it must be assumed that she had picked the white one. And since the money-lender dared not admit his Dishonesty, the girl changed what seemed an impossible situation into An extremely advantageous one.
If there’s one thing a hippo doesn’t like it’s being interrupted while having lunch. This unlucky guy in Uganda runs for his life after disturbing a hungry beast having its favourite meal of grass.
Above picture: The man saunters casually past the hippo as it chomps through the long grass
He fled as the angry three-ton beast – which can outrun a man – charged at him.
Above picture: Look out! The hippo turns on the man after being disturbed while eating grass
The man, armed only with a walkie-talkie at the Murchison Falls National Park, somehow managed to escape on this occasion.
The hippopotamus is one of the most aggressive creatures in the world and is often regarded as the most ferocious animal in Africa. Hippo jaws are capable of biting a 10-foot crocodile in two.
Above picture: Running for his life: The man flees as the hungry hippo charges at him. Hippos are some of the most aggressive creatures on Earth
They regularly attack humans and boats. Despite their stocky shape and short legs, they can reach speeds of 30 miles per hour and can easily outrun a human.
They are the third-heaviest land mammal. Males can weigh up to 4,000 lbs and measure 17-feet long. Adults think nothing of taking on crocodiles, which often live in the same pools and rivers.
Above picture: Faster than Usain Bolt: At 30 mph, hippos have a more impressive top speed than the fastest man in the world. Bolt can only reach 29mph
——
Facts about Hippos
Hippos have killed more people in Africa than any other wild animal
Their gaping yawn is actually a threat, displaying long, thick canine teeth that can bite a boat in half
They are the second heaviest land mammal after elephants, at up to 4,000lb and as much as 17ft long
The creatures, whose name is Greek for ‘river horse’, can stay under water for five minutes
Today I watched the movie – The Proposal. It’s a really nice show, which explains why its tickets are selling so fast, compared to other movies.
It’s a really nice movie which could make you laugh like crazy for a moment, and then at times make you keep quiet and listen, put yourself in their shoes.. and then laugh again! Cool huh?!
The plot is rather interesting, most of them can be guessed but some are quite a surprise; But definitely, there are several hilarious scenes in the movie that makes everyone in the entire cinema theater to sudden burst into laughter!!
Here’s the review by IMDB (Please skip this part if you’re afraid of spoiler):
Margaret Tate (Sandra Bullock) is the executive editor-in-chief of a book publishing company, Colden Books, who forces her assistant Andrew Paxton (Ryan Reynolds) to marry her in order to avoid being deported to Canada. He grudgingly accepts, under the condition that he is promoted to the position of editor. When the government investigates, the two are forced to spend the weekend with his parents in Alaska in order to sell the lie. The family suggest they could marry the same weekend, and they reluctantly accept. They start to fall genuinely in love as they spend more and more time together. Because of this, during the wedding ceremony, Margaret decides she cannot do this to Andrew and confesses the business arrangement in front of everyone–including the immigration officer handling their case. She is then told that she has 24 hours to get back to Canada, and thus goes back to New York to pack her things. Upon doing so, however, Andrew shows up at the office and confesses his love for her in front of the entire office staff, proposing marriage all over again.
When high-powered book editor Margaret faces deportation to her native Canada, the quick-thinking exec declares that she’s actually engaged to her unsuspecting put-upon assistant Andrew, who she’s tormented for years. He agrees to participate in the charade, but with a few conditions of his own. The unlikely couple heads to Alaska to meet his quirky family and the always-in-control city girl finds herself in one comedic fish-out-of-water situation after another. With an impromptu wedding in the works and an immigration official on their tails, Margaret and Andrew reluctantly vow to stick to the plan despite the precarious consequences.
AND the ending is a happy one! What more do you wish to see in a movie? :p
Three technology heavyweights are joining a coalition to fight Google’s attempt to create what could be the world’s largest virtual library.
Amazon, Microsoft and Yahoo will sign up to the Open Book Alliance being spearheaded by the Internet Archive. They oppose a legal settlement that could make Google the main source for many online works.
The Internet Archive’s founder Brewster Kahle says the following,
Google is trying to monopolise the library system, if this deal goes ahead, they’re making a real shot at being ‘the’ library and the only library.
Back in 2008, the search giant reached an agreement with publishers and authors to settle two lawsuits that charged the company with copyright infringement for the unauthorised scanning of books.
In that settlement, Google agreed to pay $125m (£76m) to create a Book Rights Registry, where authors and publishers could register works and receive compensation. Authors and publishers would get 70% from the sale of these books with Google keeping the remaining 30%.
Google would also be given the right to digitise orphan works. These are works whose rights-holders are unknown, and are believed to make up an estimated 50-70% of books published after 1923.
Comments on the deal have to be lodged by 4 September. In early October, a judge in the Southern district of New York will consider whether or not to approve the class-action suit.
In a separate development, the US Department of Justice is conducting an anti-trust investigation into the impact of the agreement.
Summer, usually a slow time for search, has given Microsoft something to smile about: The company’s Bing search engine gained market share.
Microsoft’s share of the U.S. search market grew slightly in July, while Google and Yahoo experienced slight declines. Of the 13.6 billion U.S. searches conducted in July, 64.7% were conducted through Google sites, a 0.3 percent point decline from June, according to ComScore. Yahoo sites in July served 19.3% of those searches, also a 0.3 percentage point decline from the previous month.
Microsoft Bing’s search share increased by half of a percentage point in July. Its gain accounted for most of what Google and Yahoo lost. Microsoft sites served 8.9% of U.S. searches last month.
As a percentage change, Google’s search query total fell by 4%, Yahoo’s fell by 5%, and Microsoft’s increased by 2%. Ask and AOL accounted for 3.9% and 3.1% of the search market in July, respectively.
ComScore’s search share figures do not include searches related to mapping, local directory, and user-generated video sites. While any gain is good news, Microsoft still has a long way to go. In February, prior to Bing’s launch, ComScore put Microsoft’s share of the U.S. search market at 8.5%.
In terms of worldwide search market share, Google processed 78.45% of all searches in July, according to NetApplications. Bing had 3.17%, behind China’s Baidu (8.87%) and Yahoo (7.15%). Not only does Microsoft have a lot of ground to cover before it draws even with Google, but it also faces a competitor that isn’t standing still.
Google last week unveiled a developer preview of its new Web search architecture called “Caffeine.” The search leader clearly has no intention of letting Bing’s gain go unchallenged.
I remember that time when I was with my friends at Tampines, we saw some interesting games at the game shop; we wanted to buy it, but don’t know if it worth the money. Thus we wanted to go online to check for the game’s details. However, my phone don’t have WIFI, only has GPRS. So we checked the details and bought the game etc…
At the end of the month, I almost cried when I look at my phone bill! O_o” it was so expensive! I complained to me friends and one of them laughed at me, and told me that I should have used WIFI to search instead; using GPRS from phone to surf the internet is purely silly!
He then recommended me to sign up for the SingTel BroadBand on Mobile Youth Plan, which is the first broadband on mobile for youths! I was shocked when I hear that, guess what?
I didn’t know that such offers even existed in the first place! >.< I didn’t believe him at first, until he gave me the official website to see at www.singtel.com/youth.
(Click on image to view enlarged version)
It is an exclusive offer to students and NSFs only! Since I am going to be enlisted to army in this coming October, this is exactly what I’m looking for!
With this youth plan, I can relax and surf the internet whenever and wherever I am, be it watching videos on Youtube, check for movie time and slots, using search engine to find information on projects, chit chatting with friends on MSN and many more!
And the best thing is that I don’t even need to hunt for WIFI spots! I can stay connected through seamless internet wherever I am! Wahahaha! Cool right?! xD
Not only that, after you signed up for this Broadband for Mobile Youth plan, your SIM card will become so godly – you’ll gonna love it if you have a laptop! Because all you need to do it just to slot it in to the portable modem provided to you, and then plug it into your laptop to enjoy the seamless wireless network access!
This wireless network access is not only fast and stable, it is not bounded by any school firewall, just imagine yourself being able to play Maple Story or AuditionSEA or even Dragonica in school! Because you are not using the school’s network which has very restrictive firewall!
Also, you would be able to surf the full fledge website when you plug it into your laptop instead of surfing from your phone – this is especially useful when you often surf social sites like Facebook, just like me!
To be able to get yourself connected to seamless wireless access is just so great isn’t it? To be able to do online streaming and watch Naruto with friends at chalet or at the beach, don’t need to connect to the very limited and slow network access while at school, can meet your friends to do project at places with no internet access such as parks, gardens, & etc. Wow… the thought of it just makes me felt so excited!
Simply log on to www.singtel.com/youth to find out more details about this exclusive offer! Oh yeah, you get a chance to win F1 tickets worth $596 each, and there are 4 pairs available to be won! xD
What are you waiting for?! Let’s go sign up at any SingTel Shop and pay only $14.50 instead of the usual price of $29.00 per month! Whoohooo~!!
Live Life Online. Yet another way you can express yourself freely!
I love to share, and I always believe that nothing is impossible in this world! I blog about everything under the sun! Visit my blog often & you will know what I meant! :D
It’s really very nice!
An activist group, known as Anonymous, who was protesting against the Australian government’s proposals to apply filters to internet in their country, has now temporarily blocked access to key Australian government websites plans to continue its cyber attacks, as confirmed by BBC News.
And also, not much people are so daring I guess.. unless they are really desperate of course… LOL.
