Monday, May 30, 2011

Microstock: A Raise at Shutterstock

Well, after many long years, finally I received an email today from Shutterstock, saying that I have reached certain cumulative earnings, and now I have been promoted to a higher tier of the pay scale.  Congratulations to myself! :)  No matter what, it is still a milestone, and it is still something to celebrate :)  However, the problem is I seldom have the time, nor the once upon a time passion to photography anymore.  I still have photos from my Egypt and Jordan trip almost half a year ago, lying in the computer harddisk, waiting for me to bring them out for daylight.

Time to work harder, to get back my mojo?  Life is beautiful, and photography is one fantastic way of having the wonderful moments frozen in permanent memory.  It is great joy to see your work being appreciated by someone out there, putting your wonderful photograph to good use.  

Sunday, May 29, 2011

Know Your Casio Watch

I got my Casio Protrek watch long time ago, and the watch has a lot of functions that I hardly use.  You tend to forget about how to use the functions after a while.  Today, as I was trying hard to find my user manual of the watch, I bumped into this page on the Casio site where you can download all the user manual of different models.  Check it out here.

It is the very first time that I got to know that the model number of my watch is right on the back of the watch, at the top right hand corner.  There are either 4 digits or 3 digits, depending on what kind of Casio watch you have.
It is really useful for someone like me who is not so good at keeping all the fancy user manuals. :)




心在淌血

心在淌血, 心如刀割,这都是小说里常见的写法,用来描述一个人的伤心。除了少年不知愁滋味,为赋新词强说愁的那些日子,从来都认为只是作者的夸张,为吸引眼球的取宠之举。 直到。。。今天, 我的心在淌血。

有人拿了一把尖刀,对着你的心脏插下去,白刀子进,红刀子出,血就象喷泉般汹涌而出,你会不痛么?  而凶手则站在你的面前咧着嘴笑, 恐怖么?凶手还是你最信赖的人。 好了,这也是我的夸张而已,我好好的,没破没烂的, 不过受了点刺激。  一张热面贴到了人家的冷屁股上去了,都怪自己一厢情愿,别人不领情。 好了, 现在碰了一鼻子的灰,也该清醒了。  尊重别人的决定,那是我不可以改变的,做好自己的本分,那是我可以改变的。

写下来了,就放下了。 不要再为无谓的事情而烦恼, 继续努力吧。

Saturday, May 28, 2011

RSAF Open House 2011

After 3 long years, this year there is another Republic of Singapore Air Force Open House.  We arrived at Hougang MRT station at around 8.40am, to catch the shuttle bus from there to the airbase.  The queue was really long, winding around the bus interchange one big round.  The number of shuttle buses seemed quite insufficient.  They didn't stream in, they slowly drove in, once in quite a while.  At 10.40am, we managed to take the shuttle bus and arrived at the air base.

As expected, the air base is hot.  The temperature was high directly under the tropical sun, and we counted us lucky in the sense that it was a cloudy day today.

At 11am, there was the aerial display, put simply, the air show.  I must say it was a bit disappointing as we didn't really see much.  After the wonderful F16 took up, it dived directly into thick cloud so thick that we couldn't see it anymore.  Then we saw Apache attach helicopters, Hercules transport helicopters, and some ground vehicles moving around, not knowing what they are.  Other than the deafening loud noise from the fighter jets, the impact of the show was really little.  Totally unimpressed.

By 12.30pm, everywhere was crowded.  Long queues everywhere and the mobile phone network is also jammed.

We decided to leave, and again, there was a long queue at the shuttle bus queue.  I think this year's logistics is really not that good, and they obviously underestimated the number of people that might turn up.  I hope they can do a better job next time.  Anyway, that next time may be 3 years later.

Well, of course, after 3 long years from the last RSAF open house, they have something new to show.  And that is - F15SG.


Here is yours truly posing with the F15SG.  Look at that Merlion logo, don't you think it looks like a tourist icon more than a military coat of arms?  Anyway, it is up close and personal :)

Pirates of the Caribbean 4 - On Stranger Tides

An impromptu decision to go over to JB's City Square on a Friday night to watch this latest instalment of the popular movie series.

Captain Jack Sparrow is still as humorous and quick-witted as before.  The story is not too twisted and not too unpredictable.  They also introduces a mermaid and a missionary in this episode to spice up the love part of the movie.  The mermaid is indeed beautiful and the missionary is handsome, good for people who are ogling for beautiful ladies and handsome men.  Part of the sure success formula of a successful movie :)

The movie is about 2 hours long and it offers audiences of 2 hours of entertainment.  As I watched it in JB, the cost is RM12, which is around S$5.00 going by today's exchange rate.  It is really good and cheap entertainment.  The only downside is that the guy on my right and the lady on my left both talked on the phone for a while.  It was annoying, but still not too bad.

My rating: 3.5/5 

Sunday, May 22, 2011

一路上有你



旅途中听到了这首歌。  心中很感激这么多年来在我生命中留下足迹的许多贵人们。 就用这首歌感谢我生命中的贵人吧。

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Singapore General Election 2011 - Results

When Singaporeans wake up these morning, they wake up to a slightly new world.  There are still only two opposition constituencies, but there are now 6 opposition MPs.  Opposition lost long time strong hold of Potong Pasir, by less than 150 votes!

In Joo Chiat, opposition lost by less than 400 votes.  For all the other wards, almost all have seen a decline in support to PAP.  And then PAP lost Aljunied GRC.  With that, PAP lost 3 ministers.

I am quite surprised with this development.  In the last GE, Aljunied was already a close call, and Mr George Yeo was already the leader for that ward at that time.  It was only some last minute effort that swing the opinion in favor of PAP and then they won.  Why in the last 5 long years that PAP did something to heal that scar and change people's impression on themselves?  What have they been doing in the last five years?

The results of this GE is going to impact on PAP's policies on certain issues.  There are a few that I can think of:

1. Foreign workers/Foreign talents.  This is one hot issue and Singaporeans are very unhappy of.  I can foresee that in the coming days, it will be harder to get PRs and Singapore citizenships.

2. Inflation, esp COE and HDB flat prices.  Of the two, HDB flat price is the bigger issue.  So many young Singaporeans are having difficulties in coping with the high cost of HDB flats.  It has been made known to me by more than one friend that they had waited for more than 3 years, yet they couldn't get even a chance to get a new HDB flat.  Anyway, both new and re-sale HDB flats now are very expensive, way out of the reach of young Singaporeans below 35.

PAP will have to be more humble and pay more attention to Singaporeans' views in the future, not just those scholars.  My opinion is that many holding high office in the government now are from well off families, and they simple have no idea of how ordinary Singaporeans live.

To me, I think PAP has done a reasonably good job, but there are areas to improve.  Our oppositions are still  not very mature, and lack of solid track record and don't demonstrate their capability to govern the country effectively.  They have many sweet candies, and it is in great doubt that they can deliver the candies.

Saturday, May 7, 2011

Singapore General Election 2011 - Polling Day

Today is the polling day of Singapore General Election 2011.  Polling is a breeze.  Walked just two blocks away from my own, showed the officers of my ID & polling card, ushered into the polling station, given the ticket, made my choice, dropped it into that paper box.  That's it.  Less than 3 mins, everything was done.

People waited for 5 years for these 3 sacred minutes today.  Polling is a breeze, but also a sense of helpless.  It really doesn't matter which party you vote for, you know who is going to win.  The parliament is going to be filled with the people you have seen year after year.

Am I again the same old people?  Not really.  If they do a good job, why not?

Let's see what history Singaporeans are going to make on this special day.  Let's see, let's see.

Friday, May 6, 2011

Singapore General Election 2011 - Cooling Day

Today is the day before the polling day of Singapore General Election 2011, today is also the so-called 'cooling day', for voters to cool off and enjoy some peace before they finally decide who to vote for.

Cooling day, indeed it is very cool.  No more campaigns, no more loud speakers, no more rallies, no more visits from candidates.  Anyway, I didn't experience any of that for this GE, cooling day or not.  I have not met any of the candidates in person.  In the past, candidates would wake up early early in the morning and go to MRT stations to shake hands with people.  This time round?  I didn't see any man in white, nor in red, nor in any other color except the usually rush-hour crowd.  Neither the ruling party nor the opposition seem to bother about people in this constituency.

Tomorrow is the polling day.  How do you vote when you have no idea of who your candidates are.  Even worse, I don't seem to know any of their policies, if there is any.  Media reports are nothing more than some totally useless comments, arguing about something really trifle.

Tomorrow is the polling day, cast your vote carefully, to the one you can trust.  However, if your candidates don't bother about you, who should you trust?