Just finished typing my cover letter and resume for the job which I am applying for. I am quite certain that I will be the one who get it given my credentials (not trying show off here). It comes with a contract and I hope to join by the start of March.

Since my NS medical checkup is quite late compared to most people, I think I will not enter Mindef's holiday resort for at least the next seven months. Speaking about the medical checkup, I realized that those who went had lots of stories to tell people like me who haven't went. It's as if the checkup was more exciting than the army life which awaits them.

Some say the IQ test (or whatever you call it) is lame, there's no right or wrong answers. Others tell me that there are correct answers and you will know them at the end. Some said the blood test was terrible. Others boasted that they didn't feel anything.

Some think that the results are not accurate. Others believe that the system is screwed up. Some wonder why they are PES A when they aren't fit. Others make a big fuss when they expect to get but did not get PES A.

One thing for sure, however, is that the test is a waste of more than three hours of your life. By the way, mine is on the 18th March.

It's a Great Great World

Lunar New Year is arriving and together with it comes a whole lot of new movies being released in cinemas. Those joining in the party this spring include The Green Hornet, Homecoming and Shaolin.

However, there's one film which distinguished itself from the rest by desperately doing promotions via "sell hard" tactics. It is none other than It's a Great Great World.

Since it is a production of Mediacorp, the sole TV station of Singapore, you can expect lots of "free" publicity for the movie on Singapore's free-to-air channels.

Not only are there TV commercials which let you have a couple of glimpses, there's even a 30-minute variety show hosted by the film's actors which debuted last Thursday on Channel 8.

Now, let's take a look at the cast. Upon first glance, it looks like a rare occasion where all artistes gathered together for a blockbuster. But look closer and you will say "Where's Fann Wong, Zoe Tay, or even Jeanette Aw?"

Indeed, It's a Great Great World is made up of Mediacorp's second-liners and outdated actors except for Bryan Wong, Kym Ng and Guo Liang.

Even Joanne Peh, the sole representative of the 7 princesses in the film, had a rather dull year in 2010 after being pushed down the pecking order by Jeanette and Rui En.

And if things didn't look that bad, do note that they even had to rope in singer Olivia Ong to play one of the characters when any other female actress could do the job without a sweat.

The truth is, It's a Great Great World is a platform for Mediacorp to "make up" to its acting staff whom have faded in colour or weren't given much opportunities to shine.

This movie was created with a very strong sense of commercialism, aiming at attracting the older generation to buy tickets and rewind their memories. Since the idea is already there, why need to look for the top artistes?

It's a Great Great World looks more like it's a Great Great Wayang.

Asian Cup final preview

As a human being who has natural black hair and eats rice on a regular basis, how can not talk about the final of my continent's biggest football event? Oh yeah, I am referring to the ongoing AFC Asian Cup.

Japan and Australia are two of my favourite Asian teams (but I still love Singapore the most) and it is indeed torturing for me to predict the score with an objective and neutral view.

A goalless stalemate looks like the most probable result with the game stretching all the way to penalties. The Japanese goalkeeper, Eiji Kawashima, would turn out be the hero of the night.

I predict Australia to lose on penalties since the Japanese players have more experience in taking spot-kicks on big occasions.

And so, the Asian Cup will return to the land of the rising sun after more than six years. South Korea just have to continue "hwaiting" like what they always like to say (although I don't know what it means).

PTN Lunch

Yesterday was the first and probably the last time that I stepped into the restaurant in SP. Tan Toh Seng, my personal tutor, decided to organize our once-a-semester Personal Tutor Network (PTN) lunch there.

My group consisted of me and about four others. We dined together with the other group which includes Nas, Zhiteng etc. who are under another tutor.

Speaking about those two guys, it's been a long time since the three of us walked together. Yes, just the three together in our standard formation of Nas and I in front with Zhiteng following our butts.

It's also been a long time since (majority of) my year 1 classmates are together. Even Tan Toh Seng used to be the lecturer of one of our year 1 modules.

The atmosphere this noon really felt nostalgic, as if we are just freshies when we are about to graduate in reality. Of course, there were some school politics and stuff which changed us but we are still erm, comrades? (Did I use the right word?)

People aside, it's time I move on to food. Melvin and I went for four rounds of the buffet, the highest record among all of us. Actually, it should be five if you included the dessert.

Food is not bad but I'm not sure how much was the cost per person. The area was packed with tutors and their students today so the restaurant staff were a bit screwed up somehow as demand exceeded supply.

In a nutshell, it's was a pleasant dining experience there. All SP students should frequent it at least 2-3 times during their poly life. Just make sure your wallet is fat enough.

Toilet no kamisama

Toilet no kamisama!!!

Awesome Japanese song of the decade. It has a story within the story it is telling. Make sure you can spare 10 minutes of your life to watch the MV.

Challenger misleading advertisement

I contemplated purchasing the thumbdrive at right bottom corner of the above picture. It is a current festive offer by the Challenger store at IMM. $8 for a 4GB drive does seem like a good buy although you have to be the first 38 customers as stated.

However, I wasn't sure what does the 38 refer to. Are there only 38 thumbdrives which are selling at $8 or the first 38 customers per day get to enjoy this offer.

So I called up the Challenger store there to enquire. The guy on the other line was hardly customer-service oriented. Maybe it's because I'm not a customer or Challenger is just like Acer.

Anyway, the guy informed me that the $8 offer I was asking about was only for members. Signing up as member costs $30 for 24 months. Of course, he got scolded by me on the line for the misleading advertisement.

Luckily I called them up before heading down or else it would have been a fruitless trip. I think everybody should boycott Challenger for the false information they provided in the advertisement. They look more like challenging themselves to get more members.

Asian Cup semi-final preview

Let's have some analysis on the ongoing AFC Asian Cup. Only four countries are left fighting as the tournament enters the semi-final stages.

It is sad but inevitable that the East Asian brothers/neighbours, Japan and South Korea, have to play each other for a place in the final. The other semi-final game will see dark horse Uzbekistan taking on mighty Australia.

The sushi-versus-kimchi match is no doubt the one to look forward to. J&K have always been the face of Asian football until Australia decided to move from Oceania and become a member of the AFC a few years ago.

In my opinion, if you were to compare player to player between Japan and South Korea, I think the Samurai Blue are technically better. In terms of attacking power alone, the Japanese are already a level above their opponents.

However, I think Seoul will be the city full of celebrations after the match ended. Tokyo will be filled with faces of disappointment.

Both teams have shown great determination in the quarter-final games.

Japan came back twice from behind before scoring the winning goal in the last minute. And they had to play with one man down for about thirty minutes. South Korea managed to withstand Iran, another Asian powerhouse, before scoring in extra-time.

South Korea to edge out Japan 1:0, the goal should be a messy one or maybe an own goal by a Japanese player.

Uzbekistan can portray themselves as strong and courageous in front of the media but they should know that they are doomed. Australia is far too good for a fight.

Tim Cahill, Harry Kewell and Brett Emerton are all at the age where there is an equal mix of pace and experience. Uzbekistan just don't have anyone to rival these stars based in Europe.

Cahill alone (as a striker) is already superior enough to make life difficult for the Uzbeks. Maksim Shatskikh, the former Dynamo Kiev player, is the only name that is worth mentioning in the Uzbek squad.

Should be an easy tie for the Socceroos. They might even test out a couple of young players in the match. 3:0 to the country of kangaroos.

I betrayed Blogspot today. I created an account at wordpress.com. As I am currently working on a self-hosted Wordpress site, I needed an API key for the Akismet plugin to be activated.

The only way to get a free API key is to sign up for a Wordpress account so I was left with no choice. But the only thing I did inisde the Wordpress admin panel was copying the API key.

Ok, I did create a Wordpress blog as well since it is required. It is rkoc.wordpress.com but there is nothing there except a beautiful background which I searched for.

However, the thought of migrating from Blogspot to Wordpress did hit me while I was in the process of creating my account. It shouldn't be hard to move all the archives over to another platform.

I reckon that I will stick with Blogspot for the time being, at least until the fourth quarter of the year. Or maybe I might just start a second blog with "wordpress" in the domain name.

TOC gazette

As expected, The Online Citizen's appeal to the Prime Minister to reconsider gazetting the site as a political association was turned down.

It was indeed very naive and silly of the founders and chief editor of TOC to appeal to the small Lee-der. If they thought that the PM would change his mind so easily, then they must have believed that Michael Jackson is still alive.

The general elections are coming and it is not surprising that TOC has been 'offered" the chance to be gazetted. In fact, TOC should be mentally prepared that such things do occur since the identities of their writers are all exposed.

The Prime Minister's Office requests TOC to submit the identities of its staff upon the gazetting and you should know what that means. TOC has until next Monday to decide.

Either, The Online Citizen ceases to exist on the Internet by being shut down or obediently accept reality. Most likely, the latter would happen since closing down is equivalent to surrendering.

Anyway, I do not think that the government would hinder with TOC's operations after it becomes a political association. Unless they make defamatory comments which are suitable for suing (typical men in white style).

17 Jan

Seriously, I think I am the only remaining person from Tanglin who blogs on a regular basis (at least 3-4 times in a week). Before I started this blog, I used to click on names of people I know from blog to blog, sometimes ending up in a friend's friend's friend's site.

Now, I am left with clicking on the links of this blog's archive section, re-reading what I had wrote about in the past. Even those from SP, all of them are pretty finished with their blogs. I don't even check them out now.

Melvin said he will update at least once a week when he revived his blog few months back but that was a big lie. I do not read blogs of celeb bloggers like Xiaxue or the head-to-toe-all-plastic Dawn Yang.

So I am only left with the Straits Times website as my only choice. Not that bad after all, at least you can learn a thing or two from their good English.

Art

I drew this some time ago and since this blog is lacking of pictures, I decided to post it up for you to admire. Do not ask me what is it about. This is called art. You know what's art? Art is just art. Understand?

Minimum Wage

During yesterday's Parliamentary debate, the minimum wage policy issue was discussed and as expected, the men and women in white sang in unison like an orchestra. They opposed implementing a minimum wage to aid low-skilled, low-waged workers.

Only the opposition and Nominated MPs stood for it to be adopted. Lim Swee Say, the secretary-general of NTUC, mentioned that "a minimum wage will always end up being the maximum wage for low-wage workers".

They will not get any increment since employers have already paid them the legal amount which might be more than what they are worth.

Obviously, Mr Lim thinks that every industry works the same way as the government, where ministers' salaries increase every now and then regardless how much they achieve or screw up.

The labour movement in Singapore favours the Government's Workfare scheme which pays CPF monies to low-wage workers. Mr Lim "swee swee" say that that's the Singapore's version of minimum wage.

How can we compare Workfare scheme and minimum wage when the latter is your take home pay while the former is just invisible cash which goes back to the government via CPF?

Wake up fellow Singaporeans, vote for change, vote for a better future, vote for the opposition!

4D

I have some 4D numbers which are forecasted by recognized sources to be the winning numbers this month.

It is up to you to believe me or not so don't look me up for a whacking if those digits did not open.

Here we go.

1489
2345
2348
2567
5789
0357
0369
0578
0589
1237
1249
0128
0139
0157
0158
0268
0269

In my opinion, you should not buy all but pick some which you feel you are comfortable with. Also, if you had been buying 0350, 0737 and 8688 and had never win before, forget about these numbers. This is because they have never been drawn since year 1986.

10 Jan

I walked past Foodcourt 3 and realized that there were a few new food stalls. The newbies included Japanese and Korean cuisine plus fast food chain Burger King.

I had chicken ramyeon from the hangug-ui stall. The queue was long and sluggish. I think it's because it was their first day at work so the staff were a bit blur here and there.

There were three people standing at the cashier when only one would be adequate. Also, Marcius asked for an extra serving of beef and the cashier guy seemed a little shocked by his request. He had to consult his colleague about the order.

The portion of noodles was too little to satisfy my stomach. I finished the entire bowl in about two and a half minutes. I had to buy two curry puffs later at 4pm to keep my stomach from growling.

Marcius also complained that the amount of rice of his beef set was not enough to occupy the space in his stomach.

Zhiteng had the hot pot rice aka bibimbap. The popular Korean dish where rice, veggies and meat and chilli paste are thrown into a bowl made of stone. That's was the only one which looked filling enough.

Too bad, the stall doesn't sell jajangmyeon, a dish that I always see people eating when watching Invincible Youth.

SP Open House 2011

SP's Open House as well as Spinnovex came to an end last week. Again, as the typical rebel, I am here to make some comments and complaints just like last year.

Where did the money used for organizing the event come from? (I always ask this question)

Why did the organizers put so many plants around the school out of a sudden?

Will those plants make a difference to whether a students wants to have his education at SP?

Why are the toilets always the cleanest during this part of the year?

When will those nice-looking robots stop being brought out once a year for display? So uncreative.

Where did half the number of benches disappear to at block T12A?

Just to make way for some publicity stuff?

Alright, at least it was not so noisy this year because the plaza has been converted into a skate park so part of the exhibition was shifted to the newly opened block T11.

It was a right move for the exhibition to be held elsewhere so that human traffic to and from Dover MRT station will be smooth.

Time to engage my principal in a "Meet-the-Principal" session. Hmmm, but I have yet to see my principal in school after nearly three years as a student there.

Breakout

Breakout will have its final episode aired later tonight. Of the recent three year-end blockbuster dramas Channel 8 has broadcasted, I think I can relate to Breakout better because I live in that generation.

The (overhyped) Little Nyonya in 2008 and 2009's Together all had settings which were a few decades before I was born. Overall, I think it is the best show among the three which all have Jeanette Aw starring in them.

The characters have depth, the actors and actresses acted with good technique and there is some humour, something which is crucial in my perspective.

Perhaps, the plot is the only thing which can be improved on. It is not strong enough, the conflicts created throughout the story are not forceful enough to bring the audience "up and down" while watching.

In a whole, it still merits a place in my list of favourite Channel 8 dramas and this list doesn't have much names either.

What should some of the Premier League clubs do during the current January transfer window. Let's see.

Manchester United

They are currently sitting at the top of the table and have a strong team at the moment. Alex Ferguson doesn't seem interested in signing new players either. However, if there is one player that Man U should approach, it's gotta be their former superstar David Beckham.

Beckham is currently looking for a European club to take him on loan before the MLS season starts in March. Man U need a right-winger since Antonio Valencia is injured and Park Ji-Sung is on Asian Cup duty with South Korea.

Golden Balls (his nickname) would fit as a good backup for Nani who is the only available right-footed wide man at the moment.

Chelsea

The Blues need to shore up their defence if they want to finish higher than the current 5th position they are stuck at. Werder Bremen's Per Mertesacker is a good choice to consider.

He has good height, a strong header and possess lots of experience. The drawback, however, is that Mertesacker has a history of frequent injuries.

Arsenal

Manager Arsene Wenger is not really fond of signing players during this time of the year. Well, he did buy Russian Sand King, Andrei Arshavin two seasons ago but expect the Gunners to be quiet again like last year.

What Arsenal should do is to retain the services of their playing staff. Offering new contracts to influential players like Samir Nasri who is still undecided about his future.

Who says Arsenal needs to buy? They just need to pull some young kids out from their youth academy if they require some players.

Manchester City

Anybody who can kick a ball straight.

Tottenham

Yes, they want Beckham. Beckham wants them too. But is this "want" a necessity? Their impressive midfield of Luka Modric, van der Vaart, Aaron Lennon and Gareth Bale is currently peaking.

The sudden inclusion of a 35 year-old Becks will only disrupt the chemistry of the team. Harry Redknapp has denied that signing Beckham is a commercial decision but this world is full of lies.

Maybe they should offload wingers David Bentley and Giovani dos Santos. The pair may rediscover their form with more playing time while on loan to another club for half a season.

Liverpool

They need a striker, good enough to replace David Ngog and form a formidable partnership with Fernando Torres. The Reds are eyeing Emmanuel Adebayor, the Manchester City forward who has slipped down the pecking order.

City demand Liverpool to pay Adebayor's full salary of £160000 a week before they let their man go. This may prove to be an obstacle so I think Liverpool should look elsewhere in France or Germany where there are many other quality strikers.

They also need a winger and have targeted Hamsburg's Eljero Elia. However, I want them to get Bolton's Korean winger Lee Chung-Yong as I want to see an Asian player at Anfield.

They can also consider CSKA Moscow's Japanese free-kick master Keisuke Honda for the search of a striker.

Oh and last but not least, get a new manger.

If you think little red dot Singapore is a modern fine city lying on the tip of the Malay Peninsula, think about Malaysia.

Starting on January 1, shoppers throughout Malaysia will have to be "fined" 20 sen ($0.08 SGD) for each plastic bag in supermarkets on Saturdays. The suay ones living in Penang will be "fined" every day.

It appears to be seen if this move by the Malaysian government will produce a positive result. I am already predicting that there will be a backlash of people flooding supermarkets on Sunday since Saturday's a fine day!

The authorities who enforced this rule should remember that plastic doesn't and will never harm the environment. It is the way people use it that matters the most.

Stopping people from using plastic bags is not going to be a long-term solution for a country who wants to go green.

Maybe we should follow Switzerland's style of imposing fines on those who throw away too much rubbish from their houses.

new year resolutions 2011

Here we go again, it's time for some useless new year resolutions which we completely forget about by the time we flip the calendar to February.

World Peace

Last year, I wish for this to happen and stated that it's never going to happen. True enough, it'll never happen. If it happens this year, that means I do not have to serve my National Service. Wait long long lah.

Get back the money which I used for investments

I dumped out a considerable amount of money from my POSB Kids Savings Account (it's just my normal account) two years ago for investment.

People always ask me "Raymond, do you really play the stock market?" and some will ask "What is the duration for investing?"

I hope this post makes it clear now. Also, the answer to the second question is quite straightforward. Let me ask you back, if you are a doctor and you use 1 day to teach me surgery, do you think I can succeed?

By the way, I will surely get back more than what I gave so don't worry.

My novel can be completed in the first half of the year

It's still a long way from the finished product. Not a single person in this world knows what is it about. I am taking things slowly, looking for inspiration every night before I sleep.

When it's completed, I might not post it on this blog depending on the situation. But if I decide to, then you people will be the first to read it exclusively.

Rest assured, it will be a good one, if not, the best among all my writings.

Change the blogskin
I am considering this. The current chicken blogskin is more than two years old. However, changing blogskins are an ultimate waste of time. You have to sort out all the crap which the html codes give you.

Blog more often

Having said that, I can already foresee that 2011 will be a busy year for me. I think I will may not be able to update this blog so regularly like before. But I will never forget or abandon it.

Strike lottery

Ok, who doesn't? And make sure I win at least a 6-digit amount, not twenty or thirty dollars enough to only buy a Giodarno shirt.