The coolest part about Heroes is…

…when Hiro Nakamura meets Peter Petrelli

Em is coming in less than 30 working days!

How cool is that?

Local product from Singapore?

I am talking about locally produced food product and not those crappy Uniquely Singapore local souvenirs/gifts!

Anyhow the story begins with me telling my labmates that I will ask Em to bring some chinese ham (rou gan) for them to try. So then one of my labmate suddenly asked me if I could get some local tea for him and local in the sense that the tea is locally produced/fried/processed so that the flavour is special (and perhaps exotic?). I then told him almost all food products in Sg are basically imported since the geographical conditions (not to mention the space) is not viable for cultivation or anything.

Then suddenly, something struck my mind! I though of NEWater- the only thing that Sg locally produces! So then I told my labmate we have Aqua Nouva produced by reverse osmosis using reclaimed water (more realistically, sewage water). “You want some?” I asked! No prize for guessing his reaction…

Anyhow the take away point is, I remembered when NEWater was announced in Sg, everyone went “Awwwwwwwwww”. Things like “A man’s pee is another man’s drink” and “Sai Chwee” were daily coffeeshop talks at that time. Then (if I remember correctly, I could be wrong), our brilliant gahmen came out to say that NEWater is very clean and that such water is very common overseas and we SINGAPOREANS should overcome this psychological barrier. So apparently its not just us but everyone in the world huh! I really love our brilliant gahmen coz for every policy they made, they always have something to pacify the blur peasants.

Bus strike as a side effect of Freedom

The other day there was a bus/metro strike again! My friend found some announcements on the websites that says:

“ATM staff (drivers on underground trains, on trams and buses, the station agents and the worker on the connection service that runs between the San Raffaele hospital and Cascina Gobba M2 station) who decide to strike may be absent from work from 8.45 am to 3.00 pm and from 6.00 pm to the end of the service. The ancillary parking staff, the radiobus service staff, the workers in parking areas and the line tutors may be absent from their foreseen work during the day. Every individual employee has the right to strike at their discretion, so it is not possible to predict how much the service in the whole ATM network may be affected.”

On one hand, I was pretty frustrated because I had to leave the conference earlier just so that I could get home. However, I also realised how free this country is. People here have true freedom of speech and action – workers are free to form their own unions and to make decisions about their own welfare.

So if given a choice between status quo (where almost everything and anything require a permit) and a truly free country with occasional strikes, what will you choose? I’ll take the latter, anytime.

(Io Sciopero = I Strike)

My Italian labmate know Singapore for…

1. Chewing gum ban. Another few labmates asked why this ban and I told them it was because of the vandals with gums and dirtying the floor/bus seats with gums. “Its CRAZY!”, they replied.

2. Highest ministers salary in the world. Someone asked me how much exactly and I told them after the recent April 2007 hike, its about 1.5 million euros a year. “Its AMAZING!”, they replied.

Anyhow, I do agree that Sg (in particular, our gahmen) is a crazy and amazing city/country. In difficult times like now, where inflation (CPI) hits the roof, our gahmen not only is not helping but instead brush it off by saying “buy cheaper stuff“. You guys give yourself payrise while we peasants have to lower our standard of living? Wtf is this?!? I am really interested to see how long more peasants can tolerate this kinda gahmen.

(Shall we eat this daily to save money, minister?)

Funny video about msia…

What? You mean Singapore has no social welfare?

I was at this mini conference on Inflammation and Cancer this week and managed to meet up with the rest of Integramm students (all of different nationality!).

So anyhow I and a Hungarian gal had a conversation that goes something like this…

Hungarian gal (Hg): So is Singapore a rich city?

Me: Erm, what do you mean? How do you define a rich city?

Hg: I have the impression that Singapore is filled with skyscrappers. Are the people rich?

Me: Yep alot of tall buildings, its a very big city or very small country, depending on how you see it. As for the people, the rich are very rich while the poor are very poor. There is a huge income gap in Singapore and its widening!

Hg: Ya, this is also a rising problem in Hungary and perhaps in most parts of the world.

Me: Ya, but the problem, IMHO, is worst in Singapore since we do not have any state social welfare. So the poor are really literally poor whom I refer to as “$260/mth” Singaporeans.

Hg: What? You mean Singapore has no social welfare? I didn’t know that there are actually some part of the world without social welfare! So what do the people say about this system?

If I had an internet connected computer with me, I would have shown her this, this, this, this, this, this, and this.

So much for the quote in the article published in The Star, Malaysia on Nov 3, 2007, huh? (link)

“Mr Lee Kuan Yew has said that Singapore is not only a developed country, but occupies ‘the top half’ of the First World.“ 

(adapted from blueheeler’s blog and original picture source from Helmer Aslaksen)

Mother nature is so amazing…

Things just changes suddenly! All the leaves seem to drop overnight and all the fog arrives the next morning!

Anyhow, I hope the temperature continues to be this cold and even colder in Dec (my labmates say last year was a warm winter) so that hopefully there will be snow for Em when shes here in late Dec!

Shorter is better?

I remembered about 2 years ago I bought a domain name that goes something like flip-that-old-cranky-brown-small-journal.com. My buddy Jeff Tiong saw it and commented that I was sooo0o stupid to buy such domain name and allowing godaddy.com to make easy money out of me.

Recently, google bought the domain g.cn and that got me into thinking of buying a SHORT domain for myself too! I was thinking perhaps something like j.sg, jl.sg, and jliu.sg. Wonder how much will such domain name cost.

Anti-Nuffnang Site?

I finished all my tv shows and was sooooo0 freaking bored that I went through various blog listings the whole night so as to find something interesting to read. Actually, I should be reading my Italian textbook and doing my hw though.

Anyhow, I happen to come across this anti-nuffnang site. I thought only xiaxue or stevenlim will get this kinda anti-blah blah blah site.  Its werid that nuffnang also get this kind of “why-nuffnang-will-fail” site. This dude really went all out to make personal attacks on the company and founders. 

I somehow feel that such anti-blah blah blah site only happens in Sg? Maybe the tendency to screw someone or see someone being screwed is really in the blood of Singaporeans! Anyhow, the moral of this story is, we should all be nice to everyone and not screw each other (Em’s teaching!).