observing people

After collecting stamps, looking for freebies, singing high-pitched songs and taking afternoon naps, I have yet another new hobby. That is, observing people. When I say "people", I am referring to anybody out there, not just those whom I know.

Like how China people behave on public transport, how iPhone users utilize their device like they survive on it instead of breathing in air or simply how people dress or eat.

When I see somebody, I will start thinking. His past, his background, why is he here? Sometimes, by imagining, I can end up getting some ideas/inspiration for writing articles/stories. So, I make it a habit to study people, people who live in the city.

For example, when I am strolling in a shopping mall on a weekday afternoon, I make it a point to observe the people there. Why are they shopping? What is their job? Maybe it's their day off? Or they are on night shift? Why did they choose to go there during their free time?

Sometimes, before I conclude things about a certain guy, I would end up studying another one within a minute. Even things like why is he buying a bag or why is she wearing sunglasses? My brain asks and answers on its own.

In fact, it's more of a habit than hobby.

Gerontocracy

I was reading a column in Lianhe Zaobao today and chanced upon a new word.

Gerontocracy: 老人政治 (Old people politics)

Lee Kuan Yew? Deng Xiaoping? Or how 'bout Mahathir?

According to Wikipedia, gerontocracy is defined as "a form of leadership common in communist states in which the length of one's service to the party is held to be the main qualification for leadership".

Of course, a  government of gerontocracy is better off than a kleptocracy or timocracy one. However, I reckon that a country will not prosper if it promotes such a form of rule.

The writer of the column mentioned that Singapore is a small country, hence, in order to develop, we must be up to date, remain energetic and robust. That is why we cannot have gerontocracy.

Somehow, he is trying to point out something obvious in a clear yet indirect manner. The writer did not really state the names but most people should be able to decipher the meaning of the whole article.

Go read it on your own to see if you can catch it.

ipad vs ipad

Interesting video. Chances are you will flinch during the part where you hear the "piak" sound.

My life has been rather routine for this week. Repeating the same things over and over again.

Morning. Check stock market. Surf political blogs and news sites. Check stock market again. Talk on the phone with some law firm's staff. Conduct business and company information searches.

Eat lunch at 1.30pm. I usually cannot tolerate my hunger until such a late hour but that does not happen when I am occupied with things to do.

Afternoon. Check stock market. Do a couple of bankruptcy searches. Check if there are any new updates to the political blogs. Attend meetings. Fax documents using a retarded fax machine.

Late afternoon. Continue reading the novel (or fanfic) that I have been following. Will get interrupted halfway if somebody calls me. Do some recording. Look for biscuits to eat.

Night. Check email. Play Fifa Online 2. Brainstorm for ideas. Sleep.

picture of the day

The 2011 General Elections will take place very very soon, most likely within 8 weeks' time. This is because the ruling PAP unveiled 3 new candidates, the first batch of newcomers to meet the press, yesterday.

You can expect two things to happen next. More new blood will be introduced by the PAP and the mainstream media (especially the newspapers) will continue to give full, extensive and wide coverage about them just like today's papers.

News about the 3 new candidates made headline news today, beating the Japan disaster and Libyan crisis to claim top spot in the printed media. In my opinion, I think such news deserves at most only third page from the front of the newspaper.

Now, how can we not label the state media as being biased towards the ruling party? No matter how they try to defend themselves as being free, independent and balanced, the people have eyes to see and judge by themselves.

We should be glad that we are living in a generation which consists of the Internet. The truly free and unbiased area for everyone to read two sides of a story

supermoon

In case you don't know, there was something known as "supermoon" last night. The moon came closest to earth in 18 years hence, the full moon on Saturday night was bigger and brigther than usual.

Here are some pictures of this so-called phenomenon although I can't seem to spot anything special about it.

Twitter is lame

Just when I thought my defunct Twitter account is officially a history in my online life, Vincent appeared out of nowhere to be one of my followers.

Of course, I didn't know about this via logging in to the microblogging site. An automated email was sent to my inbox informing me about this. I think I have so far logged in to Twitter only once this year.

Until today, almost two years since I created an account, I still don't understand the charm about Twitter. Why are there so many people using it?
Especially celebrities, it would be more ideal if they set up their own Facebook page instead of a Twitter account. In Facebook, one can easily add photos, notes and many other stuff on one single platform.

Moreover, the amount of Facebook users worldwide outnumbers those on Twitter so you can expect to get more people who will 'like" you on Zukerberg's innovation than "following" you on the bird website.

In a nutshell, Twitter is a lame thing. By the way, if you are wondering what is my Twitter username, don't bother, I won't tweet anyway.

Went to CMPB for my NS medical checkup this morning. Nothing interesting except that this is the first time I am seeing a doctor who is clad in green instead of white.

Oh and how can I not mention the legendary IQ test? The questions were not really as hard as what I expected but they do kill a lot of brain cells if you spent time to solve them.

That's all for today. I don't want to write a whole lot of useless details like some bloggers.

Tik Tok

It's the Jung sisters! Jessica and Krsytal in one of the SM Town concerts held in Seoul. Fantastic chemistry between the siblings.

Jap Saga

I am sure everybody knows what is going in Japan currently. However, the reactions of people (whom I know) after the disaster was simply retarded, at least on Facebook.

If you had login to Facebook in the last 48 hours, chances are you will see a friend posting links or videos of the tsunami which gulped down buildings and other constructions.

Then, they will add a comment or two which goes something like this "my deepest sympathy to the victims and their families of the Japan earthquake" or "oh, this is so sad!"

Seriously, if something like that happened to Anguilla, Gilbraltar or Norfolk Island, I bet that same bunch of people wouldn't give a damn about it. Obviously, all those so-called "condolences" on Facebook are just hypocritical acts.

People post links and make comments about the disaster because they want others to feel that they are up-to-date and are keeping a close eye on this international news. Sadly, their actions only disgust those who managed to see through them.

Here are some examples of what I mean. They are all my Facebook friends. Sorry but not apologetically, I have to backstab them at this blog.

Friend A mentioned that "it's heartwrenching" to witness this event. You have got to praise her for managing to use such an abstract word when she's already feeling the pain in her heart.

Easily, one can see that she did think for a moment before posting this, hence, showing that she isn't sincere in her comments. And what's with the Japan tour statement in the second line? Very Random.

Friend B is even worse. She is only concerned of her K-Pop idols. Shows how shallow human beings can be even at times like this

Friend C is the worst of all. She can even make use of the tragic events as a Facebook status of not being able to have a holiday in Japan.

Hello? People are struggling there and you are still happily in front of your computer typing your "fake-rantings" about cancelling a potential holiday trip?

As for me, I don't have to say anything about myself. Ren zai zuo, tian zai kan (Heaven is watching everything we do). You don't have to let people know if you've done a good deed.

Hope everybody can lend a helping hand and donate to charity. After all, made-in-Japan stuff has always been there when we need them. Electronics, automobiles, Pokemon, Beyblade and erm, Ayumi Hamazaki? Don't they all originate from Japan?

Man United vs Arsenal

This Saturday during lunchtime, the red half of Manchester will see yet another battle between two old frenemies (friends and enemies). That is, Alex Ferguson and Manchester United against Arsene Wenger and Arsenal.

The hostilities started way back in the 1990's when Wenger was first employed by Arsenal. Since then, the temperature has subsided with both sides showing more respect to each other.

Ferguson has cut down on his mind games with the Gunners as they appear to look less threatening nowadays. Yet, Wenger's men are currently second in the Premier League, the nearest to the Red Devils who are sitting at the top.

However, a match is still a match. Do expect yellow cards, pushings, shovings, slidings and other verbs that are associated to violence to occur on and maybe off the pitch.

Gunners captain Francesc Fabregas has been ruled out for the game while injured goalkeepers Wojciech Szczseny and Lukasz Fabianski are also unavailable.

United will do without Rio Ferdinand, Anderson and the out-of-steam Michael Owen. Do look out for South Korean winger, Park Ji-Sung to return to the squad as he has been a jinx for Arsenal after scoring in his last three games against them.

The main battle should be in the middle of the park where the British clash of Man U's Scottish midfielder Darren Flectcher and Arsenal's Welsh youngster Jack Wilshere take place.

With the game at Old Trafford and the Red Devils gaining the upper hand in recent clashes, expect Arsenal to get knocked out out the FA Cup at this stage.

However, not without a fight. I predict a 1:1 draw for this match with Manchester United finishing off their frenemy in the replay match.

Sorry bro, we won again.

Nanodiamonds

Some researchers in America said on Wednesday that they have discovered a way to attack late-stage cancer tumours. This can be done by attaching a potent chemotherapy drug to tiny carbon particles aka nanodiamonds.

It was first experimented on mice and it was evident that the nanodiamonds assisted the drug called doxorubicin to enter the tumour, usually resistant to chemo, and shrink it.

In the absence of the nanodiamonds, the body rejected the drug and there was no effect on the tumour or it was far too strong for patients to survive in larger amounts of doses.

This research is promising because there is a possibility to use it in humans as chemotherapy drug resistance normally causes treatment to fail in most cancers that have reached the later stages.

It was shown that those animals which consumed a higher dosage could not withstand the force that they all perished before the study concluded. However, when doing it with nanodiamonds, all survived and the tumour sizes were the smallest in the entire research.

Burger King offer

In case you are unaware, there is this awesome offer from "always-the-sidekick-McDonald's" aka Burger King. The offer is only valid on this Thursday, 10 March.

I think all the Burger King outlets in Singapore will be flooded with queues of kiasu people who want to take full advantage of this rare offer.

My Facebook has been rather "dead" for the past week or so. That is because I have started yet another chapter of my life story by starting work last week. I realized that there were many things which I couldn't do or at least dedicate time to do them.

As expected, Marcius was the only one who contacted me ever since the day our last exam in SP. It has always been the case whenever school vacations arrive and I have already foreseen that I might lose contact with them after graduation.

When the time is ripe and I have gathered enough information, I will definitely write about these people whom I will never meet if I was never a student of SP. It is guaranteed to be peppered with sarcasm which I have accumulated within three years.

Anyway, the only thing related to SP which I want to do now is to apply for an alumni card. Got to call them up to enquire more as the information stated on the website is quite confusing (or you can just say that I'm lazy to read).

Last but not least, if you are still guessing what job am I currently in. Well, too bad, please continue guessing.

Eye-controlled laptop

If looks could kill..Yes, that is a fact. What about manipulating something by just looking at it?

This week at the CeBit conference in Hanover, Germany, a laptop which boasts to have eye-tracking technology has been the main attraction of the event. Users can simply scroll up or down a page by moving their eyeballs.

The company behind this innovation is Tobii Technology from Sweden and it has partnered China computer manufacturer Lenovo in this project. The application uses infrared light, mathematical algorithms, optical sensors and some other stuff for it to work.

Users can also enjoy their games with it too where a demonstration proved that a player can destroy rocks by just looking at them. It is also said to be eco-friendly as the PC goes into screen saver mode when nobody is looking at it.

We have the keyboard and mouse for more than two decades, then came touchscreen to join in the party. Now, even the organs which we use for detecting light has been added as another way of navigation.

This technology will only be commercially available at least two years from now as developers are still working on the accuracy of it.

I am just wondering when using this new technology, will Warcraft players need to constantly blink their eyes while playing the game?