can't it get any better?

after deciding for quite some time, dara and i finally decided to celebrate her birthday in batam. since we are super broke, sucked dry by our school having to pay school fees almost once every 3 months, this is the only cheap place we can go. both of us haven't been to batam and thought its a good place to chill out by the beach and relax.

we took a ferry from vivocity harbour. this was pretty exciting for me since i havent been on a ferry since i tink i was 10. anyways it was pretty mind blowing as dara being as adverturous as she is decided to sit at the open top upper deck of the ferry where we can 'smell' the ocean and enjoying the sea breeze. i am prone to being seasick but i guess it did help cos i didnt end up puking or perhaps i no longer get sick at sea?

anyways the hotel was way out into the rural suburbs of batam. when we reach the resort, we had no idea where we were and i guess the people were not very accommodating towards us. the guy who accompanied us kept knocking at our doors asking if we would like to use his 'taxi services' instead of the resort's. he insisted his was cheaper.

dara and i are more of city chicks and not really beach bums. firstly she didnt enjoy tanning and it didnt help much as there are not many guest in the resort. it was CREEPY, if you know what i mean. i guess now we know why they offered this resort at such a cheap price and at a buy-1-get-1 day free promotion. it was quite a disappointing holiday as it wasnt as we expected. the resort's facilities were not up to standard. we have learn our lesson to not be cheapskate and save more money to go to bigger cities like taiwan and japan...

online or print?

Grandparents and parents generally have the habit of reading the newspaper over a cup of coffee in the morning. I was first introduced to The Straits Times at a young age by my parents, who strongly encouraged me to read to improve English and be more in-tuned to the daily happenings around the world.

Online vs print version

For the past few years, with a surge in technology many readers source for online editions of newspapers resulting in a decline of print edition. I am one of these converts. The biggest advantage of the online version is that it is convenient, portable and free. I can easily access the online version anywhere on the internet or on my phone and not get my hands black and dirty. The online version also has better graphics and it is easier to find the stories that interest me. Important information can be found quickly as some of its content is summarized. Readers can go to the ‘popular stories’ column and read more interesting stories.

Online version provides timely up-to-date information. Breaking news are being uploaded almost immediately, unlike the print edition where you will only receive news on the next day. Backdated stories are also stored on the website for at least one week. This means I don’t need to read the paper daily as I am assured that backdated news can still be found on the site. Frequently, The Straits Times replicate stories found online published by Reuters, Associated Press, The New York Times, Guardian Online and Los Angeles Times. Therefore, instead of buying the paper, I can access these websites to read the stories. Moreover, global warming is a big issue in the world today, with the decrease of print media, we can ‘go green’ and save the environment.

Of course, there are disadvantages to the online version. I have noticed that the full version is not available online. Strait times charge readers for access to full print material, similar to the print version. For the free version, you can only access a limited amount of stories or only half the story is available for readers. Then again, there are so many websites available, I won’t pay $15 a month for the online subscription. Online versions lack advertisements. This is because the online version only features one or two ads at the side bar. Therefore, sales and bargains available at departmental stores will be missed out.

if you ask me, i would prefer the online version. since i am frequently out of my house, i can view news 'on the go'. not having to flip through the big bulky newspapers.

match mate in heaven

valentine's day this year happen to fall on CNY itself... what are the odds of that??!!

imagine not having a date to accompany you on this year, and ultimately having to face comments from aging relatives (aunties and uncles) dying to match make you with some dork.

more and more people are taking part in match making. in singapore, there are numerous sites with different packages for you to choose from. just google match making then tons of website will pop up.

some places offer special packages like matchmaking at the movies where you can catch a movie with your 'date'. recently, SDU also came up with several packages, trying to make match making more appealing. apparently now you can go to the zoo, go clubbing or sing karaoke to find your perfect mate. i personally know a few of my friends that have previously went for match making but to no avial.

despite attempts to make matchmaking more interesting, i have absolutely zero interest in this form of meeting someone. i believe it should be naturally by fate. no doubt match making works for certain people but i definitely am not part of this minority!

Generation Y = Generation Me?

lately more and more people are using social media. not only is it used to connect friend A to friend B, companies have also started using it. there is a saying if you dont have it you are so out of it. here an article i wrote on generation Y (my generation) using social media and how does it affect us? for better or for worst?

The study by Youth Pulse found that 92% use MySpace or Facebook regularly while 84% go online more than once a day. Generation Y believe that social media is great for personal and professional branding which will be facilitate success in a competitive world.

More than half surveyed also believe that social networking sites encourage self-promotion, narcissism and self attention. As we live in a competitive world, many already experienced symptoms of narcissistic personality disorder. We are brought up thinking we must be narcissist to survive.

Narcissism is a problem that can range from being discourteous, such as disregarding curfews and blasting noisy music. It may also lead to failed marriages and abusive working environments. Instead of being successful, all these confidence may lead to antisocial behavior.

“College students have clearly noticed the more self-centered traits of their peers – it’s fascinating how honest they are about diagnosing their generation’s downsides … And students are right about the influence of social networking sites – research has shown that narcissistic people thrive on sites like Facebook, where self-centered people have more friends and post more attractive pictures of themselves.” Jean Twenge, an SDSU Psychology Professor and co-author of The Narcissism Epidemic: Living in the Age of Entitlement

As the future generation are more in-tuned with technology, more can upload pictures of themselves via iphones and become more self indulgent. People are careful and deliberately post photos to market themselves as quirky and appealing people. For example friend A will post pictures of herself at a club having fun with a lot of friends. She would want to show the world that she is fun, happening and spend her Saturday night with lots of friends. With social media, a person can control how they want other people view them and project a ‘perfect’ image of themselves.

in a blink of an eye its fast approaching xmas. time really flies. i must say i really like this part of the year where the whole of orchard road is lighted up, feels really festive. what i enjoy doing is going around taking photos of xmas decorations unfortunately this year i dont really like the design. i dont know it just doesnt appeal to me however what i quite like is the ion xmas tree. me and my friends started snapping pictures in, out and around the tree.


we took many photos, i extracted out the best!


my friends and i... here's me in the middle:)we're trying to do some artistic shots

oh well, we got hungry after our intense phototaking and headed down to MOF for some quick dessert


i enjoy the desserts at MOF its not too expensive,unlike other places, and the best of all it taste good and the presentation looks fabulous! the service is great too! i cant say much about other dessert joints thou... wish i could post more pictures but unfortunately the decorations this year just didn't excite me

anyways xmas is also a great time to come up with creative names and artistic decorations for log cakes. take for example i came across some cakes from bakerzin, a whole load of cake names that sound so 'christmasy' i appreciate the creativity but i have no idea how each flavour will taste like!


and here is also an interesting cake given by one of my suppliers from work


log cake from delifrance. looks so good, dont know where to start!

here's all i have for today...merry xmas to all my friends out there!
this is my private blog but it just feels so good doing a shout out! hohoho!

manga, anime, cosplay, action!

I am not a big fan of anime nor do I know much about cosplay. However, watching a school video on how cosplay is also available in America was an eye opener for me. I begin to wonder: since US have a fair share of audience devoted to this ‘sport’, Japan would definitely make a bigger deal out of it – since it was originated from Japan.

It was by chance that I happened to be at Suntec Convention Centre on Sunday, where this event called ‘Anime Festival Asia 2009’ (AFA) was held. Pockets of young adults and teenagers streamed to level four where it was an outlet for all cosplay characters to parade and flaunt their well made costumes and heavily made up face. Some even carried weapons such as guns, sword, and even umbrella as props.


I was soon immersed by tons of anime characters, posing for the cameras in their anime groups. It was like they have just stepped out from an anime time machine, where every minute it churns out new anime characters. Many were so engrossed in bringing out their characters that they started role playing, using their weapons to fight against each other, the good imagined that they were sent to abolish the evil. It was really an exciting experience for me.


Singapore had a similar event last year. It was the first Anime Festival Asia, held in 2008 to celebrate and showcase a wide selection of Japanese Pop Culture. This year, it promises to be bigger, better and braver. Participants strive for one thing, which is to become the Regional Cosplay Champion and to win a pair of tickets to Tokyo! These characters are judged based on quality, difficulty and how accurate the costume looks from the actual anime character. There are also points for character skit, team effort and performance. There is also a special prize category where they can win Embroidery Sewing Machine. I guess with the sewing machine they can sew more outfits for the next costume?





Isn’t it great that we can see Japan’s pop culture without having to splurge on expensive air tickets? I look forward to this event again next year, and who knows I may be so inspired with an anime character that I may find myself cosplaying!

just flush it!

recently my left ear has some hearing some strange cracking sounds, so i decided to leverage on my company's excellent medical benefits where i can simply present my staff card and i am entitled to see the doc for free! so i went to the doc's last week to check out on whats going on with my ear.

when i went into the clinic, mr doc used a torch and pointed it into my ear. he was like 'OMG your ear is all jammed up!' me being worried since its my ear, asked him what is wrong and he explained that my left ear is jammed up with ear wax harden from God knows when. strangely, my right ear is clear. hmmm so it got me thinking yeah that is really strange, shouldnt two ears be as equally as jammed up? i was told to return 3 days later and drop wax solution into my ear to soften the wax so he can 'flush' it ('it' being the wax) out.

so i went home and did as told and went back to the doc 3 days later. when it was my turn, strangely the doc seemed more awake and excited when i told him i am here to flush my ears. he smiled and assured me it wasn't going to hurt. true enough it didnt hurt but as he placed the water into my ears to flush the wax, i felt as if water was running into my nose and up into my brain. it was the strangest weirdest feeling. i felt giddy after the process.

when he finally manage to get e wax out of my ears, he was like 'what the ...., it looks gross, is it an... an insect?' when he said insect, my head felt heavy. i looked at the wax and it did look a little bit like an insect with some lines across the wax. ewwwwwwww so gross! i felt like all of my hair stand on my arms stand, then he said 'maybe not insect la' and he used my wax and scare the receptionist at the counter, and the receptionist squeaked in disgust...

i was so embarrassed i dont think i will ever return to that clinic again... so much for not digging my ears!