I've been in and out malaysia so many times, I cna count the number of pimples everyone of the custom officials have altogether. No, I'm bluffing. Came back from Grandma's about a week ago. Took the bus that had smoking bus drivers, despite the

NO SMOKING

sign so plainly pasted in the front of the vehicle. Took a few grainy pictures with the phone on the bus, which turned out like this:



Took the car out with Hoon yiyi, then going back to Grand's tmr night. Really hope people will heed the newspapers' advice to not travel on the causeways --- Right, fly AirAsia, you rich Singaporeans --- cos we're moving in! (ooi. sounds familiar) tmr night.



****



I suspect Joe's cam whoring again. Lost that link he passed me thought fiendster.

Till then.

Mother called to ask if the little broher can apply for an ATM card without a parent tagging along. She's busy with work now, and need that card transfer some funds around. I checked DBS's website, tried a couple of their hotlines, but hung up after a while, cos ATM APPLICATION ENQUIRIES isnt listed.

Everytime I had hope after hearing "...speak to a customer service officer...", that bastard-diced call system didn't give a lone option to just speak with someone. Fed up, I rammed my way through to the CashLine option, preparing to yell at the phone person if she direct me to anoher line.

nabei cb. When someone finally took up the time. I explained the situation to him (yesh, it's a him) half expecting his american-accented voice to hang up on me. No doubt he's a bit blur at first, cos I spcifically told him the applicant for the ATM card is above 17, no parent to tag along, so can apply?


"Is the applicant above or below 12 years of age?"

"He's 17, dude," A bit of deja vu.

"Above 17 or close to 17?"

"OORH. So in that case...lemme check for you..."


Then he explained that it's ok. The applicant only need to brng along the IC. Passbook's completely optional. Only need to head down to the nearest office to get it done.

Wow. Surprised. I thought it'll be like another Air India inccident, when i got transfered to and fro, and finally, the customer officer (who sound like she's really Indian) doesn't know what to do anymore, and HANGS UP ON ME. You see ah, I'm impressed by DBS/POSB's efficiency. We got world-class airport, seaport. Now got world-class bank!

Someone mentioned online that exercising on Osim's new iGallop might be taking it a bit too far. I saw the chair a few days ago in Causeway Point while the aunties and ma were shopping for a new food steamer. Emby and Cal ran all over the place, so much so I had to smack her hand when she fell an iron's plug. Abit too over-reactive, I admit, but then kids need to be taught from young what not to touch, what can be touched.

One time, Emby ran into the Osim display sets and nearly mounted (pardon the pun) the yellow chair. Pulled her away, of course. Who knows what the smiling salesmen might do to her she she sat on the yellow cusion.



Went home a few hours later, and saw the advertisment. Hmm..interesting, I thought. ANother commercial came on later lah, so I swept the chair clean off the edge of my brain. Budden the online guy's comments made me do a double flip. Holly matherkow. That chair's rather mean. THe designer meant good, but somehow, it really looks like a humping tool. You know...supposedly one of the karma-sutra thingys.

Oh yeah. The guy was saying something along the lines of : 'Why dont have another version ah? One got a hole in the middle one lor.'

Intriguing?

It's been raining in Singapore for almost a week alidi. Wah lao. At the current rate of rating, if all the rain has finished and goes away, Chinese New Year on the Majulah island will be scorching. You see, winds don't stay at a place. The high pressure winds are mostly located at the centre of a huge hurricane, and low pressure winds are at the sides. All winds in the Southern Hemisphere move from West to East.


A simulated image I grabbed off Hurricane Isabel

It's the cortex, also known as the centre of the eye of any storm, that's the calmest while the grounds at the eye experiences the highest pressure. The sides covered by the white whirling clouds is the area where umbrellas get blown all out of shape, where underwears dont get dry, where girls skirts get blown revealing what lies beneath when they walk on the streets.


I suspect Singapore is stuck here.

Note that not all storms are like that. You see, south east asia is special. We rarely have anything going on in our sheltered corner. The most we have like the rapid passing of a huge storm from north (Taiwan side) to south (below Sumatra) or like the picture below passing between Borneo and Java island of Indonesia, thereafter over to Australia.



It doesn't look set to clear for a good 24hrs. As to how this persistent bad weather can affect everybody, is obvious:


Geologist - They get all hyped. Got data to store into database.

MET (meteorologist) - Guys here will be busy from Christmas period to Valentines predicting all the wrong weather. "Alas got OT liao leh!"

Geography teachers - They desperately try to gather their students to the windows to spot the grey clouds. "Watch out for the cumulonimbus clouds!" (like duh. you're looking at what's under the cumulonimbus clouds lah)

Janitors - Having a heck of a fun day slacking after explaing to their bosses, no matter how hard they try to keep it dry, everywhere will eventually be wet. Why bother?

Discipline masters - "KEEP OFF THE BASKETBALL COURTS, BOYS! THE TARMAC'S SLIPPERY!"

Painters (those who paint houses) - "Aiyah, boss. Today we can nuah (slack) again leh! So wet, even the lizard fell off the wall lor! Liddat ah, your cheap paint walls will have pokadots alidi..."

Housewives - "Don't wash too many clothes horh. No space to hang laundry dry."

Sim Lim Square guys - No visitors because rain too hard. Selling goods at half price. "At least got sell something lor. At most don't add rice to my duck rice. Can save 20cents."

Holland Village hawkers - "Whoah. Flood nia! Complain to gah-ment ah! Wet weather then my big big prawns swimming in rain water. All spoil!

Dumpsters - "Wah piang eh. My rubbish got water sial.."

Cinderalla - "Yay! Wet floor no need to mop floor again. Wet anyway, the stepmother won't tell the difference."

Jin Rong's the bad guy today. I checked this afternoon. Supposed to be enlisted on 9th March. But 7th March's the day his batch's POP (passing out parade).

And it's raining like crazy for the pass week. Which means wet laundry. And wet laundry means undried underwear, which is horrible to wear.

You know it when Chinese New Year is round the corner.



Tickets that used to cost $23 has been raised to $25. Really unjust when the period of travel is nowhere near CNY. Furthurmore, malays seem to be running the company. $2 for ang pao money. Wah liao eh.

I'm sure you heard of the song by i-forgot-who who sang It's all about the money. Partly true. Money can make the world turn from West to East, so America will the the first to see the new day.

That's beside the point.

I've been listening to major media sources like radio and TV (why else would I pay $110 for stupid media license?) Some radio stations like Capital 95.8FM gave listeners the option to call in the station's answering machine to give their piece of mind on issues that were raised during airtime, but weren't able to reach the live show. Djs will then broadcast the callers' messages during allotted times throughout the day. Topics raised were varied, from a certain Dj (carine ang) hanging up on him before he had the chance to say his piece of mind, slamming another guest Dj for speaking only what she (quan yifeng) wanted to say, to criticizing the government for just about everything.

Some comments supposedly to be heard by governmental officials included the big GST hike, increase in transportation fares, IR patronizing rights. That's the more outstanding issues I can remember. People have made it a point to point make their problems affiliated with the government somehow. So everytime you listen to the segment on Capitol 95.8FM, you'll hear: "I think...then I'm [some way or another affected by these bastards nuisances]...so the goverment should do something about this. Thank you. (hangs up)" "I think the relevant authorities (ie the government) should look into grey areas like prostitution in Geylang..." "WHY IS THE GOVERNMENT allowing this law that..." You get the idea.

It's no wonder that the Singapore government has so many members in parliament for a state the size of a red dot on the world map. From the beginning, we have been taught to fish from a small lake, never once in the compulsory primary education when you get chance to create your own reservoir to rear fish and prawns, or to get bigger lobsters from the sea. Noooo. We have to follow the rules. No spitting, no chewing of gum, be kind to your neighbours, no smoking in public. We learn from the fixed education system which narrows our perspective of problems, how we go about solving them on our own, Hell I forgot this point. The government gives a fixed education, and gives a fixed solution set. You WILL follow what I say, when I say. No questions, or you jolly well live on the streets and be bitten by dogs with rabies (very few of them, isn't it strange?).

Now people are requesting the government to do this, to do that, to complaining about this, to bitch about that. Governmental have zilt right to request people not to shut their mouth. The people have learnt that it's the government who will eventually look after them, like it's the government's business to help the people to breathe to eat, to shit. When in times to danger, it's the government who will come to the rescue, give guilds on how to walk away form the situation calmly, to keep their heads when explosions on train stations occur, when double decker busses get blown apart. We need the government to think for us. Even in our geepee essays, we learnt the best way to conclude any argumentative essays with almost a standard answer: In conclusion, its hoped by many that the government will some to it's senses will solve the problem for the people, lest the situation worsens to an unpredictable senario." Full marks for that, dude!

Personally, I feel that it's the older generations that rely too much on the government. The big G is like their official spokesperson, explained like in the Matrix, when the machines (is the government) will farm humans, harvesting them for energy. The humans serve only one purpose: populate the lands, fill up the gaps.

No doubt the government's duty is to be there for us in times of crisis. But we the people of Singapore has to unroot our thinking of government being our everything. We have to think on our feets. Instead of suckling on the government. Give ideas, solutions, instead of pin-pointing the problems, voicing them out and blaming the government for not being fore-sighted enough to see the bug coming through.

The kids world is very very fasinating. They learn anything and everything from their surroundings, never for once thinking what they said might be the most vulgar of all words in their respective tongues.



Emberlynn has a funny reaction when she sees doors. I mean most kids do. Callista used to love opening and closing doors. Emb loves to open and close doors till the adults yell at at to stop.

"Aarpen ear duuoor."

"Sh-aaat ear duuoor."

"Aarpen ear duuoor."

"Sh-aaat ear duuoor," she says quietly to herself.

I tried to correct her when I first heard Emb said that. But peeing is the first priority then cos she was aarpening and sh-aating my toilet door while the zippers are not exactly closed. Ended up I forgot I had to correct her. Until Chee yiyi told me she learnt it from Teletubbies.

Teletubbies open and shut their doors, not close them.

I finally published the Year 2004-2005 post. Check it out if you have the time.

I just finished listening to podcast of mrbrown's Zhng My Car part 4. Thought the AH Hock character sounds weird, until the last part when he reveals his true identity. Then everything makes sense. Aiyoh. Metrosexual car modders should be given more than one dick. If all my car modders sound liddat, then how?

Zhng My Car Part 1
Zhng My Car Part 2
Zhng My Car Part 3
Zhng My Car Part 4

Here's 3 of the four monsters that have been driving the house of Lim.


First PC

Intel Pro 233Mhz
On-board video
ES soundcard
96MB ram
3GB hard disk
Windows 98SE



PC 3, also known as jennifer

Intel P4 2.4Ghz, with 1MB cache
GeForce2 MX400, 64MB memory
SoundBlaster Live! 5.1 working on ALSA emulation
256MB ram, with 753MB virtual ram
80GB + 40GB hdd that's highly unstable hard disk
Debian GNU/Linux kernel version 2.6.12-2-386, Window$ XP pro



PC 4. She'ss called Natalie

Intel P4 2.66Ghz, with (about) 2MB cache
GeForce FX, 256MB memory
On-board sound card. (hint: buy me a sound card!)
512MB ram, with as much virtual ram as it pleases
80GB hard disk
Window$ XP pro


Because PC 2 had been really crapped from day 2 (I'm not kidding, it hung on me after a while), it's been condemned to the storeroom to do its reflection.

I'm not sure if you have been travelling. I travelled alot for the past week. And all hell broke lose when I realized there's beginning to have a last digit other than 0 or 5 on my ezlink card whenever I tapped into or out of the train station.

Upon quick check with the ever-so-unfriendly machines available at all MRT stations, to my utter horror, my child/student concession has already expired on 31/12/2005. And the check was on 1/1/2006. The author is rather slow to see patterns, therefore he realized this fact only when he had already made a train trip from Yishun to Toa Payoh, saw the changes when he tapped the card while getting out from Orchard from Toa Payoh. WTH. 0.83cents for a short trip that's less than 5 stops away!

Paiseh for the belated picture! I just managed to set the phone's email function. I think this tree is strong. It withstood days of abuse by 2 toddlers, and yet most of the balls, the ribbon, the lights and more importantly, the presents, are still intact!

I think the developers ar python should just die. Die die die!



Trying to install FlickrUploadr, then it required Synaptic Package Manager to install a sensible version of python.



So I tried:









Obviously they did a linking error in the packages. Wah lao. Now have to wait for the next package. Till then, I have to manually upload my images to my Flickr account.