3 Jul
Check out this classic Xinyao song which was banned from the radio for over 20 years:
Too old school for your taste? Here’s a more updated version with pretty girls and cute guys for the social media generation:
Since many young Singaporeans can’t even carry a proper conversation in their Mother Tongues now, will dialects die out here eventually?
3 Jul
A nurse has recorded the most common regrets of the dying, and among the top ones is ‘I wish I hadn’t worked so hard’. What would your biggest regret be if this was your last day of life?
1. I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
“This was the most common regret of all. When people realise that their life is almost over and look back clearly on it, it is easy to see how many dreams have gone unfulfilled. Most people had not honoured even a half of their dreams and had to die knowing that it was due to choices they had made, or not made. Health brings a freedom very few realise, until they no longer have it.”
2. I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.
“This came from every male patient that I nursed. They missed their children’s youth and their partner’s companionship. Women also spoke of this regret, but as most were from an older generation, many of the female patients had not been breadwinners. All of the men I nursed deeply regretted spending so much of their lives on the treadmill of a work existence.”
3. I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.
“Many people suppressed their feelings in order to keep peace with others. As a result, they settled for a mediocre existence and never became who they were truly capable of becoming. Many developed illnesses relating to the bitterness and resentment they carried as a result.”
4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
“Often they would not truly realise the full benefits of old friends until their dying weeks and it was not always possible to track them down. Many had become so caught up in their own lives that they had let golden friendships slip by over the years. There were many deep regrets about not giving friendships the time and effort that they deserved. Everyone misses their friends when they are dying.”
5. I wish that I had let myself be happier.
“This is a surprisingly common one. Many did not realise until the end that happiness is a choice. They had stayed stuck in old patterns and habits. The so-called ‘comfort’ of familiarity overflowed into their emotions, as well as their physical lives. Fear of change had them pretending to others, and to their selves, that they were content, when deep within, they longed to laugh properly and have silliness in their life again.”
8 Jul
I was invited to Singapore Blog Awards by OMY.sg. This is the 6th edition and there was a total of 7 special awards, 10 main awards and 2 celebrity awards.
Evelyn Kuek
Hosted by the amicable Evelyn Kuek, the special awards was given out first and there are as follows;
Panasonic Best Beauty Blog
Love is Eternal – http://www.renzze.com
Pinkbuble In Da house – http://pink-buble.blogspot.sg
Ribbons, Rainbows and PixieDust – http://www.elaine73.blogspot.sg
Panasonic Best Cooking Blog
Celestial Delish – http://www.celestialdelish.com
Panasonic Best Eco-Challenge Blog
The Lazy Lizard’s Tales – http://lazy-lizard.blogspot.com
Glossi Best Modelling Blog
Love is Eternal – http://www.renzze.com
JBL Best Pop/Music Blog
Mint.Music – http://mintleong.sg
Levi’s Best 501 Interpretation Blog
Claire’s Flair – http://www.claires-flair.com
Qoo10 Best Online Shopping Blog
mitsueki’s blog – http://www.mitsueki.wordpress.com
Singapore Blog Awards 2013 Main Categories Winners
The show continued with the main winners as follows:
Panasonic Best Photography Blog
Travelgraphy – http://travelgraphy.wordpress.com
Exabytes Best Individual Blog
Working With Grace – http://workingwithgrace.wordpress.com
Levi’s Best Fashion Blog
JustJaslin|Fashion Blogger – http://www.justjaslin.com
Nanyang Optical Best Lifestyle Blog
Scissors Paper Stone Blog – http://www.scissorspaperstoneblog.com
Best Family Blog
Sakura Haruka – http://www.sakuraharuka.com
Best Food Blog
Johor Kaki Food Guide – http://johorkaki.blogspot.sg
Best Travel Blog
蓝天白云数格子 – http://mylovelybluesky.com
Best What-The-Hell Blog
俊凭|一个声音部落格 – http://www.lonelyclass.com
Best V-log
ninjagirls.sg – http://www.youtube.com/user/ninjagirlsSG
Best Microblog
Spin or Bin Music – https://twitter.com/spinorbinmusic
The two Celebrity Blog/Microblog awards goes to:
Panasonic Most Popular Overseas Celebrity Blog/Microblog
Alien Huang 小鬼 – https://www.facebook.com/aes.alien
Panasonic Most Popular Local Celebrity Blog/Microblog
Jeanette Aw 欧萱 – http://www.facebook.com/xuantasy
Besides the numerous blog awards, there was also a Best Dress Award where contestants dressed up according to the theme 60s Fever.
Group Photo of the Winners
A final photo of all the winners of the night. Congrats to all the winners as well as all the bloggers selected to be in the top 10. Final thanks to OMY.sg for the invite. Hope to participate in this award show again in 2014.
For more photos from the event, please visit http://www.flickr.com/photos/chin/sets/72157634509634187/
20 Jan
A solo project written, directed and animated by Kaleb Lechowski, R’ha depicts an alien race who is being interrogated and ‘motivated’ by a machine.
Lechowski is expected to travel to the US to get some meetings to turn his ideas into a feature film.
12 Nov
L-R: Me, Ai Sakura and Joanne-Marie Sim
I was invited together with 10 other bloggers by Canon PIXMA and omy.sg to their “Be Festive, Be Creative” workshop where 30 parent-child pairs learned how to make festive-related 3D photo frames, party hats and a wall clock using Canon Creative Park.
Ice-breaker game of Rock, Paper and Scissors
Hosted by Joanne-Marie Sim and Ai Sakura, the kids quickly warmed up with a game of paper-scissors-stone using their hands and bodies to signify each item.
Parents and Kids showing of their 3D projects
Although tiring, the parents and kids definitely enjoyed their afternoon making handicrafts judging from their enthusiastic cheers and smiling faces at the group photo-taking sessions.
Credit: Photo via Kaman of kamanbaby.blogspot.sg
The blogger group also enjoyed ourselves thoroughly!
At the workshop, Canon also showcased 4 new printers as well as My Image Garden, Canon new image management software.
Canon PIXMA MG4270
PIXMA MG4270
The PIXMA MG4270 offers an exciting array of features and functions that goes beyond expectations for a standard All-in-one Photo Printer
The printer WiFi connectivity via IEEE802.11b/g/n allows you to print photos or PDF documents wirelessly from your iOS or Android devices easily via AirPrint for iOS devices or Canon mobile printing app ‘Canon Easy-PhotoPrint’.
Using the new PIXMA Cloud Link, printing from our online photo albums is quick and easy. You can access your photos direct from the printers itself without the need for a PC. It also supports Google Cloud Print, which enables users to print Gmail messages or Google Docs from their smartphone or tablet.
The Full HD Movie Print feature lets you produce high quality photos straight from your home videos. Simply play and pause to capture any frame to print.
In addition to printing photographs, an easy PhotoPrint app now let you scan any image or document and send it to any smart phone or tablet device giving you flexibility when you need it most.
My Image Garden
My Image Garden is a new software from Canon which can help you in three different ways.
1. Organise
Launch My Image Garden from your desktop and it would find your photos for you. With the date stamps from your photos exif data, My Image Gardens will placed your photos into a calendar date view. From there you can categorise and organise your photos based on events.
2. Recognise
You can also organise your photos by person by using the face recognition feature which lets you simply organise the images on your computer by person. Once recognise you can made a priority list based on the faces on the people you print the most.
3. Personalise
My Image Garden also acts as a creative coach. The software offers creative template in various colour combination and patterns for your photos projects automatically. The software also includes Fun Filter Effect like ‘fish-eye’, miniature effect’, ‘toy camera effect’…etc, which you can apply to your images which could only be achieved by special lenses. The software also include simple image correction by using the Auto Photo Fix tool.
For Facebook users, Canon has also released Print Your Days, an app nested within Facebook to help users print Facebook photos of your friends and family. Print Your Days also help users create powerful collages using one of 24 background themes. Users can add text and fun photos effects.
https://www.facebook.com/CanonPrintYourDays
PIXMAtown
www.canon-asia.com/pixmatown
Imagine a place whee you are inspired by everything you see. That is life in PIXMAtown because you cannot help being creative. Download template and have fun with all sorts of crafts projects. Be inspired by contemporary artists. In PIXMAtown, you are part of a creative community.
Creative Park
http://www.canon.com/c-park/
Canon Creative Park
Creative Park can be access by everyone online and offers a library of projects to helps you create and presents, from invitations to amazing 3D paper models. Have endless fun making personalised gift or create amazing origami and 3D paper sculptures.
PIXMA owners can also access Creative Park Premium showcasing exclusive projects template, artwork and images from famous artists all for free. Catch a sneak peek of Canon Creative Park Premium here.
http://www.canon-asia.com/creativeparkpremium/
With My Image Garden and Creative Park, you can stop worrying about managing your photos but instead of how much fun you can have by Being Creative Because You Can.
2 Nov
Weta Workshop team up with Air New Zealand to produce this Hobbit-themed air safety video in anticipation on the increase in tourism after the movie The Hobbit.
3 Apr
I was invited by OMY.sg to Domino’s Pizza’s launch of their new Incredible Meals menu ranging from $20 to $100. Miss Linda Hassan, Domino’s Marketing Manager started the session with their new menus and highlighted Domino’s 4 key unique selling prepositions (USPs).
Domino’s Pizza is so confident of their USPs that they will offer you a voucher if they do not meet the 30 minute delivery or 15 minute takeout timing.
With their cash-back no question asked if you feel that their pizza is not up to par as promised and nett pricing (no GST), Domino’s Pizza is definitely the place I would think of for my next Pizza take-out or delivery.
Miss Linda Hassan continued with a walk-thru of Domino’s Pizza online order portal. Ordering online takes just 4 quick steps if you already have an account.
Domino’s Pizza is also the first Pizza restaurant to introduce a GPS (Great Pizza Service) tracker so you can track what stage your pizza is at when you order online.
Besides the many varieties of pizza, Domino’s also offers 11 different types of side orders. With so many types of pizzas and sides, we were spoilt for choice and had a great time testing and tasting the many pizzas and sides.
Of special mention is Domino’s Pizza Chocolate Lava Cake at $6.80. At such a low price you get a moist chocolate lava oozing dessert cake. They are currently offering this at a 50% discount if you order online.
Kudos to OMY.sg and Domino’s Pizza who hosted a bunch of nosy bloggers to such a great presentation and pizza feast.
The next time you feels the hunger pangs, either head on down to the nearest Domino’s Pizza, call Domino’s at 6222-6333 or log on to their website at www.dominos.com.sg to place your orders.
One caveat though; Domino’s does really have to update their database on their delivery areas. They do not deliver to both my home as well as my workplace which coincidentally have a Domino’s outlet just opposite within view.
6 Dec
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wWIE6DkQZA
Singapore Army recruitment might worked if they too show the truth.
4 Jul
Lynn, Amber and I took a day trip to Segamat, Malaysia on 30th June 2011 so that we could take the last train into Tanjong Pagar on our return trip. I had planned for this trip a few weeks back after coming to this page in Facebook.
Besides this train ride, my only other time on a train was in 2006 during my trip to Laos. As I was sitting at the door-way (picture above) watching the scenery goes by, my passion for train journey was renewed and told myself I could do this more often. Doing this means going to a train station and get tickets to nowhere in particular like what we were doing today. I have almost no idea what we were going to do in Segamat nor any knowledge of what we could do in Segamat besides that friends tell me durians.
The other things that occurred surprising to me is that besides my family and extended family who were taking this journey with me, there seems to be no regular people around us. I mean I work as a civil servant, Lynn is a IT, my ‘in-laws’ (yes we were traveling together) are office desk-jobs and in retail sales, all very regular. Here is a summary of the people I met in our carriage:
These are but a few of the people I met on the train and the others are no less superstars in their own right. Where are all the regular people?
More photos on my Flickr page:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chin/sets/72157626981670517/
Next Stop, Chin 