Life For Rent

Unfortunately things are not going too well for some that we know.

Isaac has a colleague who’s husband had a fall and suffered a head injury. He flat lined for quite a while and although they managed to resuscitate he wasn’t breathing neither did he have a pulse when they found him. The lack of oxygen to the brain and head trauma are very bad combinations and results in a poor prognosis. From what Isaac told me, his heart is too weak currently to undergo any further treatment. His head may still have internal bleeding but there seems to be a vicious loop. If they increase the pulse rate, the bleeding in the head may intensify and he may need an emergency surgery to drain the blood. If they perform surgery to stem the bleeding his heart may get stronger but since it is so weak now he may not survive the surgery. These are just my guesses but what is clear is, he hasn’t regained consiousness. No one knows the extent of the head injury till he wakes up. He may never wake up, or even if he does he may be a vegetable. He was a life guard who keeps his body fit. He was preparing for the Stan Chart marathon run over the weekend. I guess the only thing we can do is to pray for him and Isaac’s colleague. I told Isaac to tell his colleague, to keep talking to the husband. Try to stimulate recovery. I believe if a person has a strong will to live, he will pull through. So while he’s fighting for his life, a voice although seemingly unheard, is in fact heard by the brain and that is what I am counting at.

We will never really know what goes on in her head.. If things do not improve, should she issue a do not resuscitate (DNR) order? Is it better this way? Tough decision.

I certainly hopes he pulls through, with minimal damage to the brain. *sigh*

I have an epal too whom I chat via our internal email. Oh.. she works in the US under the same organisation as I’m in. There are a few Mark Lees around although I appear to be the only asian one. There was another Mark Lee, a friend of hers who began working the exact same day as I did and so she emailed me by mistake actually. Since then we have been writing to one another. I miss having epals but one is just right I feel. She isn’t doing too well herself as something from her past is coming back to haunt her. You know how it is like, like a cockroach that won’t die. She wishes he will disappear forever but unfortunately there are people in this world, who were born purely to make your life a living hell. What do you do with these people?

*sigh*

Speaking of patches for apple, here it is just fresh out of the oven 10 mins ago. Highlight the link and use CTRL C to copy.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304829

The island-wide internet war has probably just begun. M1 is going to roll out their broadband packages next Wednesday. Singtel and Starhub have been doing this for quite a while but let’s compare the difference:

- You only need a pager sized modem to plug into your laptop. You can go online virtually anywhere as long as it is within their cellular coverage. That is pretty much everywhere isn’t it? Even in the MRT? But not in lift shafts maybe. The pager sized modem is loaned free.

VS

Singtel and starhub need to plug the modem into wall jacks.

- Prices begin from $22. Pay $38 for speeds up to 1.8Mbps which is 3.5 times as fast as Singtel’s $33 package

Welcome to the 3.5G! Prices across the board will probably fall so you may want to wait and observe instead of signing up 2 year or 28 month prices especially if the contract ties you down with a fixed price. As long as you realise, a 2 year contract with freebies is everything to gain and nothing to lose for the provider while we as consumers have everything to lose, then you’re alright. Also, my tip for you is not buy into carrots that easily. If the freebie is what you want or need, then it might be a good thing. But do you seriously need another photo printer or a laptop when you already have one? A good laptop, OS and all installed can go for under 1K (eg, look out or 1 day sales from BEST) so do you really want to sign up for a 28 month package that ties you into the plan? What if 1 year down the road internet package prices fall by half across the board? That is what many customers of a particular BB ISP is complaining about now. Don’t trap yourself! We Singaporeans are known for queuing overnight for free things and spend $10 on something they don’t need but bought it anyway cause it is 1 for 1.

Oh yes, Starhub is upgrading the speeds without any charge from December. I think there is a date for it. Can’t quite remember. You gotta check their website for details. On the said date, just turn your modem off and on again to enjoy the new speed upgrade.

Let’s see what is in the news these days. Calling all MAC users! Once upon a time you thought you’re virus proof. Not anymore.A new spyware for Mac OS has been detected that doesn’t exploit a flaw, but takes advantage of a feature in the OSX to run each time an application is loaded. My advise to Mac users is to not have a false sense of security that they are immuned to attacks. Blame it on your fellow Mac users cause as the numbers go up, attackers are gaining interest in this ‘new’ market. Besides, client applications like Safari do not have as much security built in as compared to IE and Firefox etc. You may complain IE sucks but it does have a lot more things built in. So you can imagine the impact for Mac users, especially for zero day attacks. Remember to keep your Mac patched and practice safe computing. This includes all you Windows users too!

I am sure you would have heard about phishing by now. Stealing bank account numbers, pins, etc. One of the most famous phishing attacks happened on Ebay’s customers where people were fooled into ‘verifying’ their particulars with a fradulent website. This has gone onto VoIP now. People are calling and they already know your credit card information for example, and they want you to verify the security code. DON’T!

Remember, the fundamental policy against phishing attacks is the same. Be it from VoIP or emails or whatever the source. ALWAYS enter/verify information from the right source. How? If you are doing internet banking from DBS, go type www.dbs.com.sg in the browser. Don’t be lazy. Don’t start clicking on links out of sheer laziness. It will COST you. Same goes if an email ask you to call a number. I can send you an email asking you to call 6xxxxxxx (heck, put in 1800 in front anyway) and you will hear voice prompts E XACTLY like say… starhub customer service. Just that you didn’t call starhub, you called me and you just gave me confidential details. Should I say thank you?

You do know where 62353535 goes to. If I gave you another number would you call that? Or is 62353535 easier and everyone knows what it is. If you can’t be fooled by someone you know, why let someone you DON’T know fool you? It just doesn’t make sense. It is plain stupidity. The papers are doing a great job reporting cheating cases. No you are not supposed to go ‘tsk tsk, so poor thing. So old so stupid kena conned like that..’. You say that, you’ll be the next one. LEARN from other people’s mistakes.

Be a skeptic. Everything is false until proven true. That is just so me.

Maybe that is why I enjoy security. hah hah! People like me can never become creative director for Gucci.

No, not even for crocodile underwear.

Spare me the fake-cake wedding
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Tan Dawn Wei talks about what disses her off during a typical wedding. Quoted from the article:

- Anyone who’s been to at least five Chinese wedding dinners has earned herself enough stripes to be an authority on What Goes On At A Chinese Wedding Dinner.

- More annoying than that, they’ve become nothing more than just a big, elaborate show that not many of us actually enjoy watching.

- Spare us the cheesy dry-ice effect, half-hearted yam sengs, styrofoam-cake ‘cutting’ (please, everyone knows it’s just knife to the slit) and DIY slide shows done to pop ditties from boybands that no longer exist.

- We don’t need a picture of ourselves at our table with the toothy couple either. Save your stamps and don’t send it over.

- And what’s the point of popping a champagne bottle and making a big display out of pouring it down a glass pyramid when none of us will actually get to drink it?

- And where’s the cake you just cut? How come we don’t get to eat that too

- Another pointless exercise at Chinese wedding dinners: multiple gown changes.

- Hate to break this to you, oh beautiful brides. But honestly, no one’s keeping score and no one cares if you go through 10 outfits because you bought a cheap bridal package in Johor Baru, or the beads on your dress were painstakingly hand-sewn by an army of 300 seamstresses from a Third World country.

- Besides, being absent from your own wedding for half the night to change into your assorted costumes – that’s not the trait of a good host.

- Nobody remembers the run-of-the-mill hotel banquets and standard menus of cold dish/shark’s fin soup/roast chicken/steamed fish/braised mushrooms/fried rice/red bean soup. (Oh gee this is what I had during the last wedding I attended! Was the writer there too…..)

- Okay, I don’t have a dream wedding that’s been swirling in my head for when – and if – the day ever comes and if I don’t need to appease the parents or the in-laws.

- But I know I’ll want it to be festive, personal, surprising and, most importantly, fun.

———-

Wow. Dawn sure can bitch. But not as bitchy as we chao ah kuas hahaah.

But honestly. I attended just that ONE chinese wedding, and I felt like it was the same as the last one I attended when I was like 10. It was between my dad and his new bride back then. In any case, being to just this one wedding this year (Jan 1st) felt like I have been planning weddings all my life.

You know what, I have become so allergic to all these customary chinese thing that I am beginning to think I am racist against my own race and customs. Dawn (the writer of the article above) and my best friend Colin has the same thought in mind. They don’t want the cliche thingie and all. Colin has to have formalities still cause he will have guests from churches and all (he has already booked me as emcee for the night. Can’t I be DJ for the night instead?!??!) but he doesn’t want a wedding just for show, which is what many weddings of today are like. It is so PLASTIC.

What is the point of being PLASTIC if you are going to blow a sum on a once in a lifetime wedding. Yeh, once, supposedly.

Oh I forgot they earn the money back through ang pows and they record the amount so in future when the giver (or their children) gets married, they will get the same amount back. Most of the time they are suppose to earn a profit from a wedding, so much so it seems people don’t mind getting married more than a few times these days.

Enough of all that bull. Let’s talk about.. ahem.. ME. For a change…

You can be darn right I don’t want to walk down an aisle with that cheesy smoke effect and the wedding march in the background. Oh come on, those are for the straights (heterosexuals)!. Sorry I couldn’t help it but I think it is true. No style, no nothing. Okay I admit I was just like that too. Actually I have very poor fashion sense. But who said you need to have a good fashion sense? If you don’t have one, find someone around you who does and can help you. Duh. Use your blain!

Don’t show what you don’t have. Flaunt what you have. No one needs to know that you begged your mom’s cousin’s brother in law’s nephew’s girlfriend’s brothe’s gay boyfriend for help. You look good, and that is all that matters. Period. By the way, thank you Princess rach mei mei and my dear dear for their help. My sense in fashion is finally improving and you can bet how ‘gay’ I can look. So for gays who wanna be in the closet and all, it is very simple. Even if you are ’sissy’ and everyone calls you gay, just wear crap stuff and no one in the circle will think you are one. *L*

I’m juz kidding on the above of course. Once a gay always a gay. And most of us can smell another most of the time. Except this Jack I know. I didn’t manage to smell anything off him and given another chance I still won’t be able to smell anything. I am dead sure.

Back to the wedding thing anyway.I have described what I WON’T have at my wedding. But what would I have? I guess I usually leave a lot of these to my dear dear. Even when it comes to house designs and all. All he needs to do is to present what he wants and if I can visualise it I’ll do a ‘yes’ if I’m happy with it. I’m not that hard to please, but I do like the effects achieved through proper lighting, a good home network perhaps and comfy loungy areas (don’t necessarily have to have big sofa sets that just collect dust). I am fussy about the bed though cause we spend so much time in bed (1/3 of our lives sleeping, in case you are thinking of something else) and it is so important we do get a good night’s rest. So that is how I am like.

For weddings, if I really had the money, I’ll fly all my guests to the country where it’ll all happen. Flight and accomodation all inclusive. The person I know chose New York though somehow I think my dear will like Paris. heh heh.

It does cost a lot yeah but I’m only flying the few special ones to witness it all. Indeed I am a pretty private person who doesn’t like to invite ‘everyone I know’. Another thing about chinese weddings? The bride and groom doesn’t even know half the people who attends the wedding, cause they are all from the parent’s work place/church/(fill in relevant place) that they don’t even know. So a marriage becomes like a block buster, for everyone to see. Not for me. I’ll do the 10 or 20 people only. That’s my ideal number.

I’ll want to plan the whole wedding too. Rather, me and my dear plan the wedding and hopefully, surprise all our guests on that day itself. I don’t understand how a gay couple I know who celebrated their wedding at this SAF Changi chalet, had their friends plan it instead. So on the wedding day they simply ‘attended their own wedding’. It just doesn’t make sense. I found the whole thing quite ridiculous actually. What are they supposed to be? VIPs to their own wedding? WOW. I am SOOO impressed.

Unfortunately even if I could fly everyone abroad, not all of them may be able to make it. We are such busy people aren’t we. Even if I give them 2 years notice I don’t think it will work. How will my wedding be like eventually? Where? When? I guess you’ll know in time.

For now, if you are going to plan another boring wedding that begins from 7.30 and must end by 10.30 cause the chinese restaurant closes by then, I will appreciate it if you could leave me out. But if you’ll invite me out to dinner or something, I’ll congratulate you in person with a nice gift for you and your new partner

Oh I just remembered I have an invitation to a malay wedding this Sat. It’s by one of my ex trainers. He was the one who turned the fat me into the current me. Sorta. I just don’t understand why malay trainers love to focus on their pecs but that is for another day.

Meantime there are loads to do. Finish up my project. Prepare for exams within the next month. Lots of things to do long term too which requires quite a lot of planning as we go along. I told Isaac, life has just started to begin for you. When we are ready, life will begin for both of us.

Together.

The mystery of the 13th month bonus
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Some argue it is not a bonus. So what is it?

A long time ago, the British get paid weekly. Singaporeans are paid monthly (and we still are). But for us as we are paid monthly and each month has 4 weeks, 12 months x 4 weeks = 48 weeks. But a calendar year has 52 weeks and hence we have the 13 month so called bonus.So is that really a bonus?

The war has begun!!!

The roads leading into orchard in all directions are jammed! This is true even at 9pm. I remember year backs when I watched to watch a midnight movie during Christmas I found myself stuck in traffic and had to go for the 2am one instead. Orchard road is packed I tell you. And it will get worse leading into Christmas day itself. But it will be good for my dear dear. More sales. More $$. Hopefully.

What’s sauce for gander is too saucy for goose. M1’s ‘come home early’ TV ad with sexy woman is too hot for some

—-
I refer to M1’s current “come-home-early” television commercial.
A young man is lured out of his office when he feels the heat after receiving the picture of a sexy woman on his cell phone telling him to “come home early”.

While the objective of trying “to promote and improve the status of women” has been the endeavour of many organisations, the Singapore Council of Women Organisation being one of them, this “come-home-early” TV commercial has re-established the ancient notion of women.

It flushes out the efforts of these organisations with a television commercial that finds its way into all households.

It portrays the woman as a temptress rather than promote the idea of advanced telecommunication.

The ad merely advertises a woman making sexual advances. Undeniably, the sexual connotation of this commercial is explicit.

It is unfortunate that this commercial passed the approval of the relevant authorities. It is the product of lustful advertisers eager for commercial gain. It is done at the expense of feminine sensitivity.

So all you men out there be warned that the next time your girlfriend or wife tells you to come home early, it may not be the hot soup she’s beckoning you for. It’s for something more saucy.

Christina Yew Lan (Ms)

——————————-

Quite frankly I knew it was a matter of time something like this came in. Apparently there are many old virgin women in Singapore who get jealous with all the attention and intimacy a better looking one can get. Let’s face it, sex sells. I don’t think there is anything wrong with the commercial and it does stick in a consumer’s head which is the intended outcome. What does Ms Christina expect? A sing-along jingle for M1? This is not Sesame Street, hello???

And what is with the ‘all you men out there’ all about? Oh I’m sorry. So she is someone who delivers hot soup day in day out and is part of the statistic that says ’some’ singaporeans have sex once every decade, or when their **** grows cobwebs, whichever comes first.

Maybe I should use what the forum people always use. Let me try:

“I urge a certain breed of women to shut one hole more and to open the other more frequently.”

Awwww… don’t get mad at me cause I’m a MALE… *rolls eyes*

I don’t despise women. I despise women who act virgin but behave like a whore and slut among the men.

By the way, the proof of exploit is shown below:

http://www.info-svc.com/news/11-21-2006/rcsr1/

It didn’t work in my corporate environment but if it did for you, then you would have your username and password sent to the attacker in clear text. Remember in reality you won’t be led to goggle.

There is a flaw reported in Firefox and perhaps IE 7 too. In simple terms what can happen is if you store your username and password into the browser (for blogs, etc) can be sent to an attacker.

Firefox is more vulnerable to this attack via the Password Manager component while it is still possible for IE 7, it appears a little more difficult.

No patch is available yet and the interim recommendation is to delete all usernames and password stored in the browser and to avoid saving such details.

Let’s run through an article in the ST forum today:

Many Singaporeans have a healthy lifestyle and keep their homes spick and span. No one litters at home and no one walks in the house with dirty shoes.
But some people do not give a thought to keeping the environment outside their homes clean. Doesn’t the external environment affect our health too?

The premises at Cold Storage in Kovan Heartland Mall are cleaned before opening time and it’s a pleasure to shop in the supermarket.

When I saw a little boy throwing litter into a shopping basket, I pointed out to him the litter bin. His father glared at me and asked aggressively, “Is there a problem?” I was dumbfounded. So was the cashier.

If littering isn’t a problem, there would be no anti-littering laws. I wonder what other values taught in school go down the drain because parents do not reinforce them.

Some parents let their children stand on the counter while they pay the cashier. I feel the heartache of the cleaners. And shopping trolleys are used to carry children with their shoes on. I have second thoughts about putting my groceries in the trolley.

More shocking was an elderly woman at NTUC Fairprice in Thomson who put her dog in the trolley while shopping. When I told her it was unhygienic and she had to be sensitive to Muslim shoppers, she said her dog was clean and she could not leave it outside the supermarket.

I suggest that the supermarkets put up rules for shoppers to keep their premises clean and hygienic.

–

Can anyone guess which line disses me off the most?

It is this one : “I suggest that the supermarkets put up rules for shoppers to keep their premises clean and hygienic. “

As much as I appreciate people offering suggestions to the problems they highlight, no suggestion is better than a stupid one. It is stupid. What rules do you want to be put up? “No dirty boots allowed.”? Or “No pets allowed on the floor or in the basket or in the trolley or anywhere in the compound.”?

Rules will be infinite. And Singaporeans don’t read that much. I do read rules and laugh at them. I don’t read instructions however. I think I wrote about it once. Say you wanna buy a drink from the vending machine. Do you select the drink first and then input the money or the other way round? It really depends, some machines use the former method, some use the latter. You have to read instructions BEFORE carying out the action. Evidently, I don’t. In UK all of us tried to buy coffee at the vending machine and we were supposed to select sugar/milk preference BEFORE making the drink selection. We did it the other way round (I guess in Singapore we are used to having pre programmed selections like “Coffee” and “Coffee with sugar” and “Coffee with Milk” and “Coffee with milk and sugar”. Just for 1 selection, we need 4 buttons. In the very same vending machine (well, a newer and better one that we have) they have selections of up to 10 drinks. How cool is that? Something we probably won’t see here. And when we make a mistake we blame it on the machine that it is stupid when the fact is we are the ones who didn’t read the instructions. hah hah. My classmates and I laughed over the incident. It took 3 people to have bitter coffee for the rest to learn the procedure. How stupid can we be.

Lately the issue of littering has been the buzz word. Did you know throwing tissue onto the table or plate before leaving your seat at the hawker centre is littering? Honestly, I didn’t know. I thought littering was about throwing things on the floor, hiding them in corners etc. Perhaps i could define littering as “leaving unwanted objects behind intentionally”. I had the same problem with jaywalking. I never knew walking across a traffic light junction with the red man was jaywalking. I had to define jaywalking for myself. If I were caught and I truly did not know it was an offense, should I be liable? Who is liable? Me? Government? Parents? Society?

Everyone blames society. “It is not my fault neither is it yours. It is society’s fault.” Everyone does it, it is the norm, hence it is their fault. Look at the article above, where the father scolds someone for suggesting something to the boy. What sort of values do we really have? And what are we really teaching?

My mom I have to admit, has very unorthodox teaching methods. Ask my dear Isaac!

I remember she told me in the car before when she threw tissue out of the car window while it is in motion “In Singapore cannot but in Malaysia can.”

Or how bout this. “Swimming pool cannot pee. But in the sea, can pee. Shit also can. Cuz it is open.”

Is she right or wrong? I don’t know. Technically she is correct. But logically?

Let me give another example about Logic vs Technicality.

John is gay.
John likes men.
Susan likes men.
Therefore Susan is gay.

-Is the above true, false or non conclusive?

How bout this one -

Monday comes before Tuesday.
Wednesday comes after Tuesday.
Therefore Wednesday comes after Monday.

True? False? Or non conclusive?

The thing is, one can get very confused. As a kid, adults used to scare me by saying “police will catch me”. So now what do we do? When there is no policeman, we can do what we wanna do. We all know littering is wrong. How do we know? We are closet litterers. We litter when we think no one is watching. Those who litter balantly are just beyond hope. But seriously, most of us would just do it out of convenience. We have litter bins everywhere. I can tell you, in other countries bins are not that many. Yet people will hold their litter in the hand till they find one. Here, I see parents yank litter out of their children’s hands and throw it onto the floor on their behalf. Wow.

Honestly, I am sick and tired of rules. I have had enough of them. If we say society is to blame, then the key to changing everything around is society itself in my opinion. Not fines, not education from the government, not CWO.

Forget rules that is what I call a “wallpaper” now that’s on every wall. The more rules one has the lesser the other reads and the less effective it will be over time.

If we are in the train, and everyone automatically moves in, would I wanna stand alone near the door and be the odd one out? Most of us won’t. Some will and enjoy the free space. There are all kinds of people but I’m referring to the majority of the population here.

In Australia, few will dare under pay bus fares. If the conductor comes up and you don’t have the right fare, you can be sure you will be scolded, embarrassed and shouted at for everyone to hear. The whole bus will know you cheated. Whether intentionally or otherwise. If you didn’t know the fare you could ask. So ignorance is not a valid reason and you’ll be screwed a second round for being stupid. Society there isn’t going to cheat on fares. And over time, no conductor will need to scream at a commuter. Over time it becomes a norm. Do you wanna be the only one who doesn’t pay the right fare?

Over here it is hilarious. People love to cheat their fares. Cause the conductor will take your farecard (in the past) and walk towards the machines and punch in a new ticket for you and then return everything to you with a thank you. Why should they even do it in the first place. If I were the conductor and I had it my way I’d say “Get up and get a new ticket or get off the bus. Your choice.”

But of course it is not going to work here and I will probably be fired. So when one is not firm, how do we expect rules to work? You can find me all you want. Honestly if I get fined for littering I am going to be pissed when I see someone else litter and not get fined and for every dollar they fine me, I am going to litter (pay back!) another 10 fold.

Is it just me? Or is it the way we really think here. Sure I won’t throw flower pots out of the window(this is dangerous, vs littering without causing harm) nor will I throw litter in front of police man, but when there is no one around.. guess what I will do?

Touch your mind body and soul and think. What would you do?

Society is the problem. But the problem is also the cure.