Texan Revolution Autoshow @ Police Academy

Decided to check out the motorshow held at the old police academy the weekend. Place was packed with car and motorcycle enthusiasts equipped with cameras. Highlights of the event included motorcycle racing:

"Okie guys, last one to finish cleans the porta loos..."



"Eh Macik, mee siam satu mai hiam!"

Professional drifting demos:

"Raise your hands if you'd like to smell more burning rubber!"

"Ole!Let's do this El Matador..."

And of course, no motorshow will be complete without a race queen competition...

"No points for guessing who the sponsors are..."

More race queen contestants...

And even more race queen contestants! But I didn't stay to find out who won though because my nose was protesting from excessive inhalation of burning rubber...

Play Wii for MC!

Just read an article on yahoo news on a new ailment published in the New England Journal of Medicine called "Wiiitis" (wee-eye-tis). Symptoms include sore arms and shoulders as a result of playing long hours without resting.

Similar to strenuous exercises, stretching is very important for long hours of gaming. Warming up before game play and warming down after ought to prevent muscle strains and sores. Plus, taking breaks to stretch your fingers and rotate your wrists should reduce cramping especially when you've got your hands grasping that controller for hours on end.

As a gamer myself, that's my two cents worth.

;)

Anything and Whatever brand extensions

Recently a new line of soft drinks were launched which seems to be very well received. Called Anything (carbonated) and Whatever (non-carbonated), the novelty of this beverage line is that you'll never know what you're going to get until you pop that flap (deja vu Forest Gump and his box of chocolates).

Anything could contain either cola, cola with lemon, apple, fizz up, cloudy lemon or root beer. As for Whatever it's either ice lemon tea, peach tea, jasmine green tea, white grape tea, apple tea or chrysanthemum tea. Demand for both lines seem to be high as coffee shops and food courts seem to be out of them whenever I try ordering either of them.

In view that people seem to like surprises, why not extend the line to include more than just soft drinks? Here's some suggestions to extend the Anything and Whatever line:

Cigarettes: Light up your life with a different flavor in each pack! Choose from reds, lights, menthol, menthol lights, strawberry, cherry, vanilla, kretek and kretek menthol. Comes packed in an ambiguous cigarette pack so you can't tell what's inside!

Paperback novels: Can't decide what to read? Grab a black shrink-wrapped package from the bookshelf and expand your intellectual horizons! Content could range from autobiographies, sci-fi, fantasy, romance, religion, management, etc. Plus, up the excitement level by having these categories published in our four main languages; English, Mandarin, Malay and Tamil.

Alcohol: These will come in black bottles and flavors range from whiskey, tequila, gin, rum, vodka or pure moonshine. Hic! Getting high has never been so thrilling as you'll never know what's your next poison. Better still buy them by the crates for your next party or office function and get wasted mixing up lethal cocktails.

Beer: Duuuude! If you're doing hard alcohol you can't neglect the beer community and vice versa right? Have the cans filled with different ales, lagers and the exclusive chase stout can randomly placed in every carton. Imagine doing shotguns with mystery cans or the 100 club...

And last but not least...

Condoms: Get more bang for your buck with these exciting little rubbers ranging for ultra thick to ultra thin, ultra ribbed, ultra lubed, wasabe or calamaric flavored!

So there you have it! Additional product lines that could be rolled out to sustain the brand when people get tired of drinking mystery soft drinks and decide to opt for the obvious.

D-I-Y Phone Themes

Being the El Cheapo that I am I've gotten round to designing phone themes for my SE K800i. It's quite a therapeutic pastime designing and editing the pics. Plus heaps fun adding in the ringtones and alerts.

Here's one of Optimus Prime:

And one of the Neon Genesis Evangelion series:

Hey, Even Hell's Got a Budget...

This is the result of me finding my old Ghost Rider figure in the back of my cupboard and matching him with the BMX that I bought from the Falcon's Hangar.

A Looong Time Gone.....

It's been a long while since the last post and much has happened since then. Last August I enrolled myself in a post-graduate course in system analysis since my previous jobs entailed managing IT related projects.

Since day one a lot of time was devoted to learning how to code in less than a year plus figuring out how to draw use cases and sequence diagrams. And now, six school projects and five exam papers later, I'm serving a six-month attachment developing an online admin system for a government organisation. I'm nearing the end of the attachment and will be finishing soon.

Anyways, I managed to find some time to meet up with an old school friend at a cosplay event today at the youth park. Also got the dust off my camera and took some pics which I have not been doing in a very long time...






Have to admit, it's my first time at a cosplay event and I didn't know what to expect in terms of photo opportunities. But it was heaps fun though the sun was very uncompromising. Oh well, at least be glad that it didn't rain!

Going Big in New York

The Big Apple that is New York City is really big on having everything big! While walking along Broadway I came across a huge McDonald's outlet with signange as glamourous as the Broadway theatre.

Yep, not only are the serving portions huge, the floor area of this McDonald's could fit a theatre in it. Apart from McDonald's, New York City also is known for:




Big ass video screens surrounding Times Square. Yeah baby, a feast for the senses.



Video screens and billboard ads that go right to the top of the buildings! Guess everyone wants their ads to be seen at Times Square so they're willing to pay top dollar for premium placements.



And even more ads. As long as there's a wall, and if that wall faces on-coming traffic, there'll be an ad.



This is a win-win situation for both advertiser and building owner; advertiser gets prime advertsing real estate while building owner makes a tidy profit leasing out ad space and saves on any need to clean or paint that wall as long as the ad stays there.

Positive Brothers

If you happen to be around Battery Park in Manhattan chances are that you would have seen the Positive Brothers in action. It's hard not to miss them since they'll have their stereo blasting away while they entice the crowd will calls of "Showtime!".

As a group of street performers, the trio never fail to entertain the audience with their agility, flexibility and comical sense of humor.

Manhattan from 86 floors up!

This lovely view of Manhattan was captured from the 86th floor of the Empire State Building around 10ish in the morning.



Initially, the spire of the Empire State Building was meant to be a docking point for passengers travelling on zepplins. However, it was deemed too inconvenient and the concept was scrapped.

Lost in Transit: Heathrow Airport

Arrived at Heathrow Airport in transit after an eight hour flight from Washington DC. The flight was bearable thanks to the wide selection of inflight entertainment channels plus loads of refreshments and food served onboard.

Had an hour's grace before catching the connecting flight back to Singapore which was to last a gruelling 13 hours. Time to hook up the ipod and catch up on some much needed sleep!



And away we go!

For a pleasant journey...

Please board the friendship bus as seen in Independence Avenue...



... or in Georgetown. Also, please do not smoke, eat or drink. Keep your music to yourself and do not assault your fellow passengers or the bus driver, unless you want to end up in a world of shit.



Thank you and have a pleasant ride.

The emphasis of 'FAST' in fast food

This was taken in a MacDonald's outlet in Chinatown, Washington DC. In addition, customers dining in are charged a higher tax as compared to those who take away. Definitely not a place for dating couples unless it's speed dating...

Believe in the leaf redux

Recently this fastfood ad shown below has been put up at selected bus stops:



Its tagline, 'believe in the leaf' has inspired me to come up with a tongue-in-cheek version of this ad:



Enjoy! =)

Bleeeeeeaaaah!

Oh lookie here! Miss Puke specialises in foot, Thai, oil and aromatherapy massage (is puke used in any of them?). Eye catching as it may be, did anyone point out that calling your outlet Miss Puke may not be the best of names especially for such a business?

If you're wondering where I took this, the outlet's located by the side of the Novotel Bangkok, Siam Square. And if you're wondering what the big deal is, check out dictonary.com for the definition of puke.

Do My Shoe Pt 3

Touched up the Balzac logo (finally!)



Also got round to putting in the black to both shoes. I've yet to apply the white paint to the logos and I've yet to decide if the tongues are to be just black or if I should do something else...

Thai Patriotism is No. 1!

Just returned from a business trip in Bangkok where I witnessed a true show of patriotism. I was returning to the hotel from meeting our business associates along one of the roads in Siam Square where the Hard Rock Cafe is located.

It was nearing 6pm when I passed one of the buildings which had a huge video screen which was blaring music videos and commercials. At exactly 6pm the Thai national flag appeared on screen followed by the national anthem and everyone within the vicinity stopped whatever they were doing, stood at attention and faced the screen. Even the motorists along that road slowed down. Once the anthem ended, the area resumed its bustling operations.

To me, this was totally unreal yet impressive as it showed how united and nationalistic the Thais are. Imagine doing this along Orchard Road using the video screen at Lido cineplex. Would Singaporeans be as patriotic as our Thai counterparts?

I saw this sign outside a golf shop at Raffles Place. I'm wondering if these golf balls have been in more holes than me...

Give and Take Back

I've noticed that vendors in food courts are practising a bad habit of "give and take back". This practice refers to the act of putting food on the customer's plate and then reducing the portion by sccoping out part of it and returning that portion back to the counter, and in full view of the customer.

Although these vendors have not committed any capital offense, the more picky customer (such as myself) will feel that our patronage and purcahse is not valued. It's also an open confession that these vendors have really poor estimation skills and are giving us customers a full-on demonstration of it.

There was an incident at a dessert stall where an elderly man had ordered a fruit cocktail. The vendor at the stall scooped up the cocktail from the counter and proceeded to puor it into a take away container. However, before she placed the lid the vendor took a second glance and must have realised that this elderly folk was getting more than what he had paid for and proceeded to sccop up some fruit cocktail from the container and return it to the counter. Imagine the disappointed look on this man's face when he saw what the vendor did. He'll definitely boycott the stall from then on!

Stall vendors have to realise that such actions do turn off the customers even though the plate (or bowl) of food has not reached their trays. If by accident that a stall vendor realises that they have exceeded the given portions then they should be discreet about adjusting it or hell, just let it go and make the customer happy.

Afterall, it's better to have a repeat customer than to lose one!

Self Improvement?

I visited a bookshop during my lunch break to have a look at some self improvement books. When I found the isle, lo and behold! To my surprise, the self improvement section consisted of titles related to the Diablo, Warcraft and Battletech series. Here's a pic of the shelf taken using a camera phone.

Heh! The bookshop must be run by a war monger or someone with a twisted sense of humor. The funniest thing is that the shop's situated in central business district and located in a building belonging to a bank. Would be amusing to see a highly strung-out executive wandering in looking for books related to anger management, sees this and raises hell. Yeah baby! Inspiration to go postal!

Revenge of Mobile Ghetto Blasters

Man, I thought that people blasting music from their mobile phone speakers were bad. But someone had to go up the ante by taking this one step further; playing his entire ringtone collection at the highest volume on his mobile phone on the MRT.

This happened on Friday when I boarded the train at City Hall. From there right up to Yishun I was sitting directly opposite a man who was happily blasting his entire collection of midi ringtones at full volume on his mobile phone. And he must have really loved midi deep deep as the whole passenger compartment was treated to a full variety of ringtones from City Hall up to Yishun with no repeats.

To the dude with the expansive midi collection, I salute you for taking it to the limit! Hail to the midi king baby!

Do My Shoe Pt 2

Did some touch ups to the stencil work with a permenant marker.



Now on to the right shoe. The Balzac logo has been stenciled and will be touched up later.

Do My Shoe Pt 1

I've embarked on a little art project which would be to paint two band logos on a pair of Chuck Taylors. For this, I've selected a pair of full white Chuck Taylors. Here's a preview of the pair still fresh in the box.



There will be one logo per shoe on both the inner and outer sides. That's another reason for choosing this pair as the Chuck Taylor logo is a sewn rubber patch as compared to the normal embossed versions which makes it easy to remove as shown in the picture below. Upon removal of the patch, a little bit of sanding is required to remove the glue that has been used to hold the patch to the canvas.



Okay, now let's get busy. I'm starting with the left shoe and I've just finished stenciling the Misfits logo as shown on the left-hand side (see pic below). I've done this on both sides but this is a rough job. Some touch ups will be in order before the paint is applied. More pics will be posted when they're done.

Public Transport Courtesy

Given that car prices here are ridiculous as compared to our neighbors, many of us have no choice but to use public transport. As a commuter, one gets to observe a lot human behavior and the best time for observations would be during rush hours.

Remember my previous entry where I mentioned about the elderly folks charging their way through the crowd to get their much coverted seats? Well, recently my girlfriend experienced a new breed of obnoxious commuters; the bratty bitches.

These are usually young, pregnant mothers-to-be or mothers with their bratty halfs in tow. They are either mute or too dumb ass to talk. They expect you to offer them your seat when they come round and hover around you like a vulture. Even if you are asleep, they expect you to automatically wake up and offer your seat to them.

So what happens when you don't? Well, for one thing, they don't say a word. They start kicking your feet. They kick and kick and kick hoping that you get the hint. And if you do not comply, they will continue until they reach their stop where they will give you the stare of death before disembarking.

Though I have not experienced it personally (they seem to target other women passengers), what I find really strange is that these passengers seem to have a lot of energy to keep kicking the seated passenger. Won't it be more effective if they just opened their mouths and asked, "excuse me, could I please have a seat"? I'm sure passengers are more inclined to give up their seats when asked nicely. And I'm sure that it's less tiring to ask rather than to irritate others.

High Class Hawker

It's really unbelievable that some hawkers are so damn picky about the type of coins they receive from their customers. I experienced this first hand at a coffee stall at the Amoy Street food court.

I had ordered a cup of black coffee and when it was sent to my table, I proceeded to pay the coffee lady 70 cents, one 50 cent coin, one 10 cent coin and two 5 cent coins. Seeing the change, the coffe lady (CF) didn't look happy...

CF: Sorry ah, we don't accept 5 cents.
Me: Why not?
CF: Very inconvenient to bank in.
Me: Well, that's all the coins I have (opens wallet to show proof).
CF: OK lor, but next time I won't accept.

Wah, can threaten me about paying with 5 cents! Nevermind, since you're so high class I'll buy my coffee and drinks from your competitors as my money is not good enough for you. Besides,I've never had such complaints from the teh tarik stalls or from the other hawkers when I buy my food and pay using 5 cent coins.

Furthermore, your coffee sucks!

Lego Katamari!

I'm really impressed by the folks at Namco who designed both Katamari Damacy and We Love Katamari. Whoever coined the idea of designing a game where players roll a sticky ball to collect items really hit the jackpot for casual gaming!

And if you're a gaming and Lego fan, check out these links here and here.

Mobile Ghetto Blasters

Mobile phones have really evolved from huge self defence bricks (or water bottles as I fondly remember) to small little communication units packed with MP3 players, mobile games and what have you. And with the advancement of mobile technology, people nowadays do not need to walk around town with a boombox blasting their favorite tunes. Instead, they play them via the handset's loud speaker.

And that's quite a pain. I know that the doctors have advised us to avoid listening to music using earphones to minimise damage to our ear drums but do we really need to share your favorite songs with everyone?

No matter how advanced or expensive your handsets cost, the sound quality of a handset speaker should be limited to that of conference callls. I can't recall how many times I've heard "The reason" and "My humps" blaring inaudibly from someone's handset. Seriously, it doesn't do the handset nor the songs your playing any justice.

Worse still, try travelling on a train or bus with passengers trying to outdo each other by blasting music via their handsets at the same time. The winner, of course will always be the beng with a comprehensive collection of repetitve euro-techno MP3s.

Let's get this straight, everyone loves music to a certain extent. But please, don't be too fanatic to the point that everyone's being forced to listen to your music blaring from your handset; having an MP3 handset doesn't make you a DJ! Perhaps this year's courtesy campaign should read something like, "Pass on a little kindness by keeping your music to yourself".

Tales from the Bootleg Boutique #2

I'm very surprised that the neighborhood bootleg boutique has stood the test of time. Maybe because the elections are drawing near so no clampdown or raids will be taking place until after we've cast our votes.

Was there the other day on my way home from work when I overheard a guy telling his girlfriend how he despised people who bought MP3 CDs. However, he went on to tell her that it was okay to pirate software and games...

How ironic! As long as you pirate one of the following; movies, music, software, games or e-books you're still a pirate! There's no such thing as pirating one thing being okay while pirating something else isn't. A pirate is a pirate, no two ways about it. Either way, I doubt he succeeded in impressing his girlfriend with his justifications.

And dude, why even bring your girlfriend to the bootleg boutique?