Saturday, June 02, 2012
Truthfully, I was a little shocked when I discovered that Brendan Rodgers (who?) was the new manager of Liverpool. By sacking Kenny Dalglish and appointing Rodgers to suceed him, the Reds' owners have effectively swapped a legendary player for one who has yet to play first-team football in his life.
Fenway Sports Group, the owners of the Merseyside club, view it as a long-term replacement. I view it as a desperate attempt to get any Roberto, Andreas or Brendan to fill the void vacated by King Kenny. Dalglish will always be remembered as a great player but as a manager, he was screwed up. That's why sacking him was the right but painful decision.
Rodgers' face an uphill task at Anfield. His style of play is sort of Barcelona but people like Andy Caroll may be frustrated at having to run around while on the field. Maybe FSG believe that Rodgers will be the next Pep Guardiola, from nothing to literally everything (that can be won in club football).
Swansea, Rodgers' former team, did defeat mighty Manchester City as well as Liverpool last season. Oh, and they did it with a cheap team with playing staff getting the cheapest wages. Compare that with the twenty million Daglish splurged on a Stewart Downing who contributed zero goals in the league.
Being able to achieve success with a budget squad at Swansea, it is logical for fans as well as neutrals to believe that Brendan Rodgers will pull off something bigger with his new employers. Firstly, it will be interesting to see which are the players he will dispense with. Downing looks like a wise choice.
Friday, June 01, 2012
I was reading this article about NTUC Foodfare on page 3 of The Straits Times today. It was reported that NTUC Foodfare's social project, Rice Garden, is extending its $1.99 meals to more than a hundred stalls by 2015.
The article also mentioned that a tasting test for reporters was conducted at its pioneer outlet at Aljunied Hawker Centre yesterday. The picture in the article showed several meal sets, all of which contain rice, meat or fish, egg plus vegetables and are priced at $1.99.
So is it really worth saving that 50 cents or one dollar for Rice Garden? Let's take a closer look at those cheap meals that Foodfare has to offer.
1. Rice. Fried fish fillet. Fried egg. Miserable veggies.
2. Rice. Pork Chop. Fried egg. Pathetic veggies.
3. Rice. Fried chicken. Fried egg. Dull veggies.
4. Rice. Curry chicken. Fried egg. Messed up veggies.
5. Rice. Braised chicken. Braised egg. CMI veggies.
As you can see, other than number five, the rest of the 1.99 meals are calorie-laden where the food are cooked with lots of oil. Not to mention that the veggies were also soaked in oil when they are being cooked in masses.
Instead of steamed chicken or steamed minced meat, Foodfare has decided to come up with unhealthy dishes in the name of helping people to save money. And in case you don't know, the 1.99 price tag only applies to certain groups like senior citizens and NSFs.
The pathetic amount of veggies also won't make much of a difference whether you consume them or not. Plus, all the nutrients would have been killed since the veggies are cooked under pressure in bulk.
Talking about senior citizens, Foodfare doesn't seem to give a damn about their health and only wants to boast that it is some hero trying to help people during tough financial times.
NTUC Foodfare, one of the two commercial cookhouse operators of SAF, is also the culprit behind the nonsense food which is served in army camps and hated by many soldiers, whether regulars or NSFs.
If you are thinking about having your meal at Rice Garden, think again. Is it really worth saving that 50 cents for something that is not beneficial for your health? Might as well eat fast food, the calorie intake is around the same and you get to enjoy it more.
Speaking of which, does the stall really sell the food at a weird price of 1.99? If so, then they have to prepare a ton of one cent coins for every single customer. I don't think there will be anyone out there who is so dumb (maybe Ch!n@ people) who will bring exactly $1.99.
I say, this is just another gimmick by NTUC Foodfare to make the public believe that "we serve we care we share". Pui!
Sunday, May 27, 2012
Some sixteen hours ago, my block, the trees around my block and myself
experienced one of the worst and most unforgettable thunderstorms ever. It was
only three in the morning when winds that are as strong as a hurricane came
blasting right into my apartment, forcing me to wake up from my sweet dreams
and stop the situation from aggravating.
The speed at which the wind was travelling created a powerful
"wooo" sound that will pressurize you to be fully alert. The
energetic air currents kept spraying rainwater at the windows leaving me with
no choice but to shut them tight. Lightning was flashing every seven
seconds like some gigantic LED signboard. My ears had to anticipate for the
thunder whenever a lightning occurs and that was a total distraction.
However, the worst has yet to arrive. My house encountered a blackout! It
was early in the morning when the moon was still shining so a blackout might
not be obvious during then. But that damn meter box (the one which calculates
how much electricity you use) outside my flat got burnt or you could say
exploded. I saw it with my own eyes from tangent fifty-six degrees via the
window (exaggerating) when sparks burst out like a mini fireworks showcase.
I was unsure if my house was the sole victim in the entire block because the
corridor lights were still working. It was also impractical to knock on my
neighbour's door at such a time to check with them. Heck, I would be drenched
by the time I walked along the corridor to the units juxtaposing mine. Left
with no choice, I decided to visit the toilet while continuing to brainstorm
about this thunderstorm.
But, in the end, I was only paying attention to the flashing bolts which
kept discharging from the sky like some mass production taking place. I decided
to ignore everything since I had already tried doing everything and went to
bed. Luckily, I was still able to enter sleep mode and woke up in the morning
to see some uncle fixing the meter box outside my flat. By the way, my block is
featured in STOMP, but not for positive reasons.
.
Taken from stomp.com.sg
Saturday, May 26, 2012
The phrase "there is nothing to hide" recently had a new meaning to it. Enter the Transparent House in Japan, that's what they call it. Japanese architects Sou Fujimoto Architects have built a house which is constructed entirely out of glass. During daytime, this Tokyo-based house offers plenty of light but zero privacy.
It is made up of 21 rooms or platforms. As the house was built on the concept of a tree, all the rooms are connected to one another by movable or fixed stairs, making one think that the whole structure is actually just one room.
The transparent house would be a great choice for family and friends to gather and experience what it means to get exposed without harbouring any fear. But finding somebody who is willing to spend a couple of nights there would be hard.
Friday, May 25, 2012
Visited the Army Open House (AOH) this morning. They call it an organized visit but it is an open secret that they are trying to get more numbers to fill up the place. I am not sure but it seems that the army is emphasizing on comfort these days because there were two buses catered for transportation when one is sufficient to contain all of us.
In the end, everybody was entitled to occupy two seats in the bus and there were still a number of empty seats remaining. We arrived there a little after nine and could only be released at half past twelve. So, what to do to kill that three odd hours? We toured around and saw lots of familiar things which we have been seeing on almost every weekday.
The female secondary school students and some others might tell you that the event was interesting and full of fun. Here is my honest opinion and experience about it. The volunteers, or rather NSFs who are kena arrowed work at AOH, showed little interest in entertaining fellow NSFs like us. They were friendlier towards the students on "organized visits".
I stared at them and they just acted like a mirror and reflected back what I was doing. No smiles, no approach, no words spoken. If I wore a school uniform, chances are one of them will be busy explaining to me the military stuff which they are trying to boast about. Unlike many other units who wore army fatigues, we were dressed in the Armour polo tee but the logo on it gave us away.
After strolling past most of the places, we decided to end the tour by heading to the Singapore Flyer. It was my first time visiting the Singapore Flyer building and it wasn't impressive at all except that I could enjoy the air-con while resting there. Honestly, the best place at the entire Singapore Flyer/F1 Pit Building area was the SF toilet. It had air-con, music, low human traffic and was sparkling clean.
We paced around the circular building for quite a while before going to Subway for a meal and continued resting there. Saw quite a lot of tourists there like the photo-snapping ang mohs, the fascinated-at-everything Indians and of course, the irritating and noisy China people. However, they are completely outnumbered by the sheer amount of soldiers who are, like me, eating snake there.
I cannot really say if the AOH was a success or not because today (and yesterday) is for organized visits. Most of the visitors did not come on their own accord. Let's see what will it be like on Saturday and Sunday. Maybe regulars will be "encouraged" to bring their family and friends there.
If that happens, the organizers are bound to brag "What a huge turnout!".
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Sunday, May 20, 2012
This is a game that can be used to prank someone on his birthday or anyone else on April Fools' Day.
The game begins with selecting a detective, example John, who will find the leader that shouts the loudest. John steps aside first while the rest of the group discusses who the leader should be.
The game master will then reveal the conspiracy to the rest of the people. The victim of this game is actually John which people want to prank on. So nobody or you can say everybody is the leader and the game starts.
The game master counts 1, 2, 3 and everybody starts to shout at the top of their voice. John is given three chances to find out who is the leader that is shouting the loudest. John points to the first person and everyone says wrong.
He points to another person and everybody shouts wrong again. The third and final time, the game master requests everyone to shout as loud as they could to make life easier for John and everybody starts screaming again.
After the shouting had come to an end, John picks another person, say Jane, and everyone including the game master answers yes with exclamation!!! Since Jane is aware of the conspiracy, she plays along and it is now her turn to be the detective.
The game master chooses John to be the leader this time since he managed to get it right as a detective. Jane returns and everybody starts to shout, Jane deliberately points to the wrong person and this happens for during the second attempt.
Before Jane's last try, the game master again asks everyone to shout really loud in order to help Jane. John prepares to yell with all his might and the game master counts 1, 2, 3. John shouts super loud like he was in great pain while everyone else kept quiet.
It is sure funny to see John shouting at the top of his voice by himself. You can make the game more interesting by asking John and everyone else to shout something stupid or vulgar. The game can also be altered to have two victims to shout together.
