"wǒ xiǎng zǎo diǎn dāng wǔ nǚ"

Recognizable? If the above sentence rings a bell in you, then you had probably watched yesterday's episode of the Channel 8 drama serial, Together. Or at least heard of it from the trailers

After watching about 8 minus 1.5 episodes (due to exam preparation commitments), I can conclude that it is not as bad as what I thought it would be. You cannot blame me for thinking that way at first though since the scriptwriter was the same as the one from The Little Nyonya

The scenes, dressings, props and everything else were all quite realistic. As if Jeanette Aw and co. had really went into a time capsule that brought them back to a time when television was a sacred thing

Although it is not the best drama of 2009, I am sure that it will be better than The Little Nyonya. By the way, it was only until yesterday did I realize that half of the six main characters were from China

It is clear that the TV station wants to groom Zhang Zhen Huan since he was presented with a lead role in favour of Yuan Shuai who only given a cameo appearance in the drama

Jeanette Aw appears to be a favourite for blockbuster dramas. Zhou Ning can start knocking on the door for a place among Mediacorp's seven princesses with a strong display in the show. Talking about the seven princesses, I can't help but think of Fiona Xie

She has left Mediacorp, for good. Will there be a new number seven to fill in the void left by Xie? This question seems a bit unanswerable at the moment. Fiona Xie was actually poised to play the role of Jinhao which was later given to Eelyn Kok because the former had some reasons

To find out more, grab a copy of the latest i Weekly now. Wow, I am doing some free publicizing for Mediacorp!
8:59 PM
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Due to the (slightly) overwhelming response, I have decided to return to action one day earlier from my leave

As recently as just one day ago, iPhone fans and potential fans of this what's so good gadget are spoilt for choice. The only-verbally-emphasizing customer service M1 and the loser of the EPL broadcasting rights war Starhub have started selling the Apple product since yesterday

Naturally, people believe that prices will drop since competition has increased. I discovered that Mobile 1 has the lowest subscription price at $36 per month after doing some research

Starhub's plans are a bit more costly than M1's one with $38/month as its cheapest deal. Singtel's least expensive package comes at $39 a month. Looking at the deals from all three telco companies, I can conclude that the orange and green players offer more amount of data than the red one

Although, the Singtel-dominated iPhone market has finally become history, I don't think there will be a sudden iPhone craze among local consumers here. There are several factors we can consider

Firstly, if a person is a mad and insane iPhone fan like Korean actors' supporters and their idol, he would have already bought one for himself a long long time ago. Will he wait for more than a year to do it? Probably not unless if he is really insane. Singtel has already wooed many customers to jump ship since it launched iPhone

Secondly, Apple is slated to release a newer version next year. I think it is in June. Launching iPhone during this period is not a very wise choice by Starhub and M1. Consumers who have yet to make up their minds might end up waiting until next year before purchasing one

Thirdly, people who are "half-fans" of the iPhone will have already decided whether to buy this smartphone by now. Either they have already signed up with Singtel because of the positive comments they heard from friends and family members who are users or they decide on a no due to negative feedback

Clearly, it will be difficult for M1 and Starhub to lure this group of people to be one of their subscribers. Overall, Singtel is the real winner although many people can argue about this point

So have you made up your mind? If not, how about a useless cooling-off day to calm yourself down?
5:09 PM
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I will be on leave from 6th to 9th December. During then, there will be no updates for this blog. I will be back in action on 10th December, Thursday. Feel free to continue tagging. Well, you know, it is coming to the end of the year, so people are starting to clear their leaves

Oh yeah, and who says bloggers are not entitled to anuual leave? We are also humans and work for almost the entire year thinking about what to blog for you people to have an enjoyable read

Do not miss me. If you do, then I suggest you dig up those older posts in the archive to read them again
7:46 PM
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This morning, I looked out of my kitchen window and saw three workers painting the opposite block. My neighbourhood is having some upgrading works currently for your information

I looked at them doing their job and for that moment, I could sense their hardship. Leaving their homeland for a foreign place to provide a better life for their families. This made me ask myself, how does the outside world look like?

I have never been out of Singapore for the past eighteen years and eight months of my life since I was born. My passport is still waiting for its virgin stamp and it is still waiting patiently after expiring for more than two years. The furthest place which I have ever been to away from my home is Pulau Ubin

I have yet to travel overseas in my life so far. Not an easy feat to achieve considering that I live in an era where budget airlines are a reality and travel agencies come up with affordable holiday deals every now and then

Looking at those workers, I told myself that although I was more lucky then them as I was born in Singapore, I have something which they don't. The experience of physically in a foreign country

Ironically, I am in the top three among my Facebook friends in the Geo Challenge game but people still think that I am a lousy liar when I told them about the 18 year record I hold. I don't feel ashamed about it, instead I am proud that not many people of my age can match this record of mine

I have to hear from a Filipino friend that Malaysia had extremely big paos and learn from a Chinese classmate that Langkawi was a beautiful place. I can only read about these places in the papers and look at them on TV

Zero. I have been abroad for zero times. However, I have no intention of breaking this zero currently. I hope to preserve this magnificent zero at least until I complete my National Service. But I can't even guarantee if I will be posted overseas during my two year stint

The only fascinating night scene which I can think of is Marina Bay. My impression of markets are wet, "a bit dirty" and run down although many others around the world are of a complete difference. I take security for granted because the police here never fails to protect us

I still love my country of course but there is still one unanswered question. How does the outside world look like?
7:40 PM
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Prime Minister Lee Hsein Loong has come up with a cooling-off day-an extra day before polling day itself during which campaigning will be disallowed for voters to calmly make an informed decision

Will cooling-off day really make voters cool down? No.

Will it be fair to the opposition? No.

Will it benefit the PAP. Yes, and of course.

The only thing opposition parties can do during the cooling-off period is to cross their fingers, and even then they have to pray that the PAP does not use the mainstream media to "campaign" by announcing government news as an excuse

PAP has always target a high standard for itself at every election. Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew once described it as a freak result if the ruling party was unable to win at the 82 of out 84 seats it currently has in parliament

Using the state media to crush their opponents is a routine that never fails to happen in every election. This latest introduction by the government cannot be thought of as merely just a day for voters to reflect and ponder

Mass rallies and displaying party logos in public are not allowed but news reporting on the election in the mainstream media will not be banned

The People's Action Party might be afraid that the charisma of enthusiastic speakers at rallies will move the neutral group to vote for the opposition. An extra day of cooling-off may work in PAP's favour as they can attempt to "re-influence" these neutral voters

Even the Prime Minister's son admitted that the opposition rallies were more exciting during the 2006 elections

Another area which may be pivotal to the addition of the cooling-day is the internet. New media did not play a major part three years ago but with the emergence of Twitter, the growing popularity of Facebook and the high viewership of Youtube, we should not underestimate what change it can make during the next election

PAP's presence in cyberspace is still not yet really felt. However, articles on the internet from bloggers could help the opposition in some way. Whether the internet will also cool down of cooling-off is still a big question mark

The one part which I find it most puzzling is that why only one day? One day or rather twenty-four hours won't make a difference for those who have already made up their minds long ago. Obviously, cooling-off day is proposed to cater to those who stand in the middle of nowhere

You do not use one day only to decide where you want to buy a flat at or determine which course you want to study at an institution. The group of people who have not decided their votes are usually those with less knowledge about the happenings. In the end, they may still choose the PAP after using one day to think and have a mindset that the ruling party is more reliable

The pressure will be on PAP. Anything less than status quo (82 seats) will be disastrous for them. The media will haunt them, people will lose faith in them, the opposition will have more confidence and I will be laughing out loud like a wild fire

Only when it is not cooling-off day, of course
11:00 AM
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Today was a productive day. Thanks to all the walking and talking I did. Thanks to Zhiteng for making me flex my leg and mouth muscles so much today. He and his typical...I can't think any noun to fill in the blank but well here's what happened

He needed to print his movie poster for the IWGD module. He borrowed Melvin's thumbdrive to copy his file over for the others to help him burn as a softcopy is also required. Melvin and co. thought that Zhiteng only wanted them to burn for him and assumed that he will settle the hardcopy part by himself

Zhiteng also assumed that Melvin and co, will print his movie poster for him since they were going to print theirs out too later. So both parties had their own assumptions and communication broke down

While Zhiteng and I were having lunch at the foodcourt later, Melvin and co. arrived and were holding the printed out and laminated designs of their movie posters. Zhiteng thought that one of those was his

Alice and I browsed through them and Zhiteng realized that none of them looked familiar. Upon asking Melvin/Nicholas (can't recall who was it), the truth was unveiled and I really wanted to laugh at Zhiteng

Never mind, Zhiteng decided to borrow the thumbdrive and print it by himself. However, Melvin told us that the printing area had no lamination service while the place that has a lamination machine does not have colour printers

We decided to go to fourth level of the library where there was both printing and lamination services. But we stoned in front of the computer at the printing zone because we don't know how to use it and no one beside us bothered to lend us a helping hand

So we walked all the way from the library to Foodcourt 3 just to print that piece of damn paper and had to wait for about ten minutes for the three morons dressed in formal attire over there hogging the computer to finish their nonsense before it was our turn

Plugged into USB drive, opened folder, clicked on the file and print, scanned Ez-Link card for payment and waited for the printer to "vomit" out the paper

Then we went back all the way to Foodcourt 2 for the lamination thingy. The auntie working there used to be at T15. Finally, the the paper was laminated and we had to again walk back to Foodcourt 3 where our class was

Oh, I forgot to mention that while walking to and fro around the school, I was complaining about my weariness and scolding him about his attitude, well, in a friendly manner of course which explains why I flexed my mouth muscles so much

Thanks Zhiteng for making me do some rigorous exercise today. or should I blame him?
8:26 PM
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Gold price has hit a record high. It is now above $1215 USD per ounce. The precious metal's value reached the $1215 mark just a day after crossing the $1200 mark for the first time ever

According to the media, gold has broke numerous records for the past weeks because of fears about inflation and the increasing moves by central banks to diversify assets away from the dollar which has since weakened against Japanese yen and the euro dollar

So, in a nutshell, if you have any gold jewellery which you do not/cannot/cannot be bothered/think is too old fashioned to wear, bring them to a jewellery shop to sell them at a high price. I suggest People's Park Complex, anyone?
5:48 PM
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Today I thought of a question. A few questions. A few difficult questions. Questions which seem un-answerable. They are all related actually

If someones screams in a deserted place and nobody is there to hear, is he considered making noise?

Or if a tree falls in a jungle and no one is there to hear it, is it considered causing a loud sound?

How about the phrase "wasting your time"? If you played video games for the whole day but managed to achieve a high level or high score, is the time used considered wasted when you could have done something else like house chores?

If a person jumps into the water and swam for three seconds before stopping and just float himself in the water, is he really swimming?

Let's see if you can answer them
3:40 PM
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