MBS

Decided to check out the new Marina Bay Sands on Christmas Day. To my surprise there is a small ice skate ring inside the building just beside the foodcourt. There is also boat ride in a canal along the shopping mall aisle. The casino occupied most of the place (3 levels).

Practise and practise....

I have been practising on photography using my D3000. I'm learning how to control aperture so that I can take some nice photos. I just learned how to use f/5.6 to make main object sharp with a blurred background. The shots turned out not bad....

SCMS

Just finished 10km run this morning. First the underpass leading to Esplanade was so crowded, it took about 10mins to reach start point. Then there is these waves that break participants into 4 groups for different start time. Which means if you in the last wave, you have to wait for your turn to start your race. Guess what the wait is 45mins after the scheduled 7:45am start time. The morning sun is killing people and many slopes become a challenge. But I survived the run.... Will do it again next year!!!

Ngong Ping Cable Car

Some more photos - Hong Kong

Night View of Hong Kong

Just came back a trip to Hong Kong and Macau. We went up to The Peak to check out amazing night scenery of Hong Kong. This is great opportunity for me to test out my DSLR to capture a night shot. As a beginner, I just found out it is quite difficult to take a good night shot without tripod. D3000 don't have live view and making thing slight complicated for a person who used to point-of-shot to DSLR's eye view. Here are first few night photo shots took from The Peak and from Kowloon island. Btw, the air pollution is pretty bad (PSI:115 on the first night we arrived).

Nikon D3000

I bought a Nikon D3000 camera last week. It is entry level DSLR camera and comes with kit lens of 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G AF. The sale guy was quite relunctant to sell it to me as he is afraid that I might not have passion to continue with photography. We talked and exchanged our views and an hour later I learned several tips about photography from him. Haha...

Here are the first few photos I took using Aperture priority mode to blur background and bring foreground into focus. Welcome tips from everyone...

The Birthday Song - Corrinne May

Don't worry about that extra line
That's creeping up upon your face
It's just a part of nature's way
To say you've grown a little more
Trees have rings and thicker branches
Kids shoes get a little tighter
Every year we're getting closer to who we're gonna be
It's time to celebrate the story of how you've come to be

Happy birthday my friend
Here's to all the years we've shared together
All the fun we've had
You're such a blessing
Such a joy in my life
May the good Lord bless you
And may all your dreams come true

So light a candle on your cake
For every smile you've helped create
For every heart and every soul
You've known to grow a little more
A few more pounds, a little more grey
Don't count the years just count the way
It takes a little time to go from water into wine
Don't ever lose the wonder of the child within your eyes

Happy birthday my friend
Here's to all the years we've shared together
All the fun we've had
It's such a blessing
Such a joy in my life
May the good Lord bless you
And may all your dreams come true

Microwave 'sotong' crackers

I love seafood crackers either fish, prawn or cutterfish. Fish crackers are fish flavored chips that puff-up when deep-fried. They are very addictive once you started eating I bet you can't stop it. Although I love eating but I hate deep-frying them. Because the kitchen gets very oily after that and you have to spend time cleaning up the whole place.

Today I found an alternative way to puff the crackers, that's using microwave oven. Yup, just place the crackers on a bowl into microwave and set the time to a minute or so. Wohaha, you get your puffed up crackers just like how the usual deep-fry way. No more hassle, no more clean up. They actually taste as good as normal one.

Spinning Class

Never imagine spinning class can be so tiring. I thought it was just riding the stationary bike, how could it possibly be so demanding. Today I went for the Spin 1 class again, this was my third times going for spinning class since my friend introduced it to me. I was quite confident that I could keep up with the pace of the class and will be the weakest among the class. But to my ulmost surprise, 15 minutes into this class, I already sweating non-stop and my energy has already drained up. Anyway I survive through this class and will definately need to work on my stamina.

There are 2 level of Spinning class, Spin 1 and Spin 2. According to class description on TrueFitness website, Spin 1 is Highly recommended for those who want a solid foundation in bike set-up & cycling technique. While Spin 2 program is proven to be one of the most well-received fat-loss programmes thus far! Simple yet hyper-challenging! (Ok, I shall see how is my progress...)

mp3 website

July has been busy month. I finally packed and moved out from Jurong's house to new place in Choa Chu Kang. Packing is so tiring. Having staying at current house for more than a decade, can't imagine I have accumulated so many stuffs that I need to pack. I decided to choose to alternative, just get rid of them. I like the new place. It's cozy. It has good view and very windy too.

Found this website which provide mp3 download for free(www.beemp3.com). I got little skeptical and decided to check on the term & conditions. This website doesn't host any the songs that it displayed. It just indexes files which are located on remote servers which the website has any connection with or control of or association with. The best thing is I'm allow to paste this video's code on my blog. Go check out this blog....

Download this mp3 from Beemp3.com

iOS 4

I upgrade my iPhone to the latest operationg system software released by Apple (iOS 4). There are many new features introduced by this new OS. One of the major changes is multitasking is now supported. Folders function is cool. The camera also comes with 5x zoom capability now . But some of the apps still not supported by 4.0 and crashes in this environment.

Marathons

This month I signed up for 2 marathons, Shape Run 2010 and Standard Chartered Marathon Singapore 2010. Shape Run 2010 is on July 25 and SCMS on Dec 5.

Shape Run's route is different from last year. We will be running from Nicoll Highway to Stadium Road to Stadium Drive and back to Nicoll Highway. I decided to do 5km this year. Getting bored of doing 10km. As for SCMS, no choice have to do 10km.

Mark your calendar, come and support if you are free!

Happy Birthdays My Friends

I had an awesome reunion cum birthday celebration with my old schoolmates Ah Leng, Pek Giok & Joanne last night. We had seafood dinner at fish farm and later adjourned to Joanne's place for birthday celebration. The last time I met Ah Leng was 8 years ago on Joanne's wedding and for Pek Giok, it was more than 15 years. Yup, that's long. The amazing thing is all of them still look the same as they were young. Hardly any sign of aging on their face. Wonder what secret they have behind keeping young.


Delicious Birthday Cake


Pek Giok & Joanne


Happy Birthday Joanne


Happy Birthday Pek Giok

iPad new ad

Still waiting for iPad to reach here...

Opera Mini on App Stores

Opera Mini is officially approved for iPhone and iPod Touch on 12 April. It is available on App Store for your download. With data compression up to 90%, this is could be fun to surf the web in faster speed.

iPhone OS 4.0

Apple held an event to preview next iPhone OS 4.0 on April 8 just a few days after launching iPad. So, what's on iPhone 4.0? Here are some of features shared in the event.

Multitasking
Finally we get to see the multitasking on iPhone. Apple uses 'services' to realize multitasking. There are 7 services available Background music, Voice over IP, Background location, Push notifications, local notifications, Task completion and Fast app switching.

Folders
I like this drag and drop UI intelligent naming feature on folders. As you download more apps, flipping page by page to get to your app become tedious. OS 4.0 allows you to drag an app over another app and immediately a folder is created. The name of folder is automatically suggested using group name of app. This cool!

Mail
4.0 offers unified inbox which support multiple mail exchanges account. You can have fast switching between your inbox, can organize your email by thread and also open attachments with apps.

iBooks
Free distributed Winnie-the-Pooh. This app is similar to iPad.

Mobile iAd
This newly announced advertising platform could be a great opportunity for iPhone developer to generate income. Over 1500 APIs has been released during this preview for developer

Apple's iPad is out

iPad looks cool. Wonder when will it be in Asia's store?

Received this email today. I find it appropriate to express my current thought. Not sure who is originator of this email. I give he/she the credit for writing this inspiration letter can encourage more people to look at their life differently.

學會做三件事

人一輩子有"三天 "，即昨天、今天、明天。

昨天與今天之間有扇後門，今天與明天之間有扇前門。

這"三天" 中"今天 "最重要。

過去的事情就讓它過去吧，

明天的事情等來了再說吧，

最要緊的是做好今天的事情。

要想過好今天，要學會做三件事。



第一是 "會關門"。

把通往昨天的後門和通往明天的前門都關緊了，人一下子就輕鬆了。


第二是"會計算"。

要學會計算幸福。

有的人本子上記的全是困難和問題，從來沒有記過幸福。

有些人對自己做對的事情一件也沒記住，對自己做錯的事情記得特別牢，徒增了許多煩惱。


第三是"會放棄" 。

請牢記："先舍後得，舍了才會得，舍了一定會得"。




學會說三句話
第一句話："算了。

"錢包被偷了，算了；

電視機燒壞了，算了；

骨頭摔斷了，算了；

眼睛瞎了，算了。

對於既成 事實，最好的辦法就是接受。


第二句話：" 不要緊。

"不管發生什麼問題，一定要學會說"不要緊" 。

一生都要樂觀，天塌下來有高個子頂著。


第三句話：" 會過去的。

"有一句俗語" 天不會總是陰的。

"別憂愁，一切都會過去的。



學會三種方法
三樂法。

就是助人為樂、知足常樂、自得其樂。

三不要法。

一是不要拿別人的錯誤來懲罰自己，

二是不要拿自己的錯誤懲罰別人，

三是不要拿自己的錯誤懲罰自己。

年齡減十法。

舉例來說，假如你今年78歲了，

當別人問你多大年紀時，你應該回答：我今年 68歲。

不要小看這種方法，它有明顯的煥發青春的功效。



心態年輕，人自然會顯得年輕

Scary sticky experience

A horrible thing happen to me today. I bought a new tube of super glue to fix my shoe. The edge of my shoe came off due to prolong wearing. I thought of this intelligent idea to glue it back.

Since it is a new tube, I need to assert force it open. This looks like a simple task to me but without paying much attention to it, I accidentally press it too hard and suddenly too much glue spilled out. Next thing I noticed there are glue on my fingers, shoe and floor. I quickly pulled out a piece of tissue paper to wipe out glue from my fingers. Guess what happen next, the glue bonds with paper onto my fingers. This is so horrible, I have glue and paper stuck on my fingers, I tried to wash with soap and water but it doesn't work. It won't come out. I started to panic as I can feel my skin start to dry out and the glue is making my fingers uncomfortable.

I need to find a method immediately to clean up this mess. Thank goodness for the search engine aka google; I manage to find a remedy. Here the steps to get super glue off your skins.

Step 1
Do not attempt to tear or force apart the glue. This could rip your skin. (Hmm, this is what I have been doing for last 5 minutes when I got into this mess)

Step 2
Apply nail-polish remover to the area. The chemical from nail-polish breaks down the bond.

Step 3
If there's a lot of glue on your skin, soak the skin in nail-polish remover to dissolve the bond.

Step 4
Clean the area with soap and water after removing the glue.

Step 5
If you don't have nail-polish remover, soak the affected skin in warm, soapy water.

Step 6
Slowly roll the skin to work the bond apart as the warm water soaks through. Continue doing this until the skin is free of glue

Finally, I managed to remove those glue and tissue paper from my fingers. Thanks to high technology and science. They are so important to us. Haha

News about Citi

Japan OTP

It's been 10 years since I came back from my Japan Oversea Attachment Program with Fujitsu. I was attached to Fujitsu R&D department for about a year. While I was there, I get to travel around Japan. I missed Tokyo and I missed those great memories that I had with my Japanese friends and attachement friends. I was fortunate to be attached to a lady supervisor who speak english very well. I'm happy that I still stay in contact with her. Her name is Yamada Ayumi san.


Yesterday, we had a gathering to mark 10 years since Japan. Here are my friends who went to Japan together with me. They are attached to NTTDoCoMo and Panasonic.

News from CTIA Wireless 2010

Top 50

Here is the 50 most admired companies from the survey done by FORTUNE.

Rank Company
1 Apple
2 Google
3 Berkshire Hathaway
4 Johnson & Johnson
5 Amazon.com
6 Procter & Gamble
7 Toyota Motor
8 Goldman Sachs Group
9 Wal-Mart Stores
10 Coca-Cola
11 Microsoft
12 Southwest Airlines
13 FedEx
14 McDonald's
15 IBM
16 General Electric
17 3M
18 J.P. Morgan Chase
19 Walt Disney
20 Cisco Systems
21 Costco Wholesale
22* BMW
22* Target
24 Nike
25 PepsiCo
26 Starbucks
27 Singapore Airlines
28 Exxon Mobil
29 American Express
30 Nordstrom
31 Intel
32 Hewlett-Packard
33 UPS
34 Nestlé
35 Caterpillar
36 Honda Motor
37 Best Buy
38 Sony
39 Wells Fargo
40 eBay
41 Nokia
42 Samsung Electronics
43 Deere
44 L'Oréal
45 AT&T
46 Lowe's
47 General Mills
48 Marriott International
49 DuPont
50 Volkswagen

Test your IQ, here is the story, 3 friends went to a restaurant to have a meal. After the meal, they decided to split the bill. The total bill is $25, so each of them came out with $10. Three $10 total to $30 and after minus $25, they are left with $5. They took back $1 each and gave waiter $2 as tips. While walking to the car park, suddenly one of them who looks very serious in his thought turn to his friends and started to complain and claim that his friends cheated $1 from him. So, how could this be possible? Let's examine his case. First, each one came with $10 and took back up $1. Therefore, $10 minus $1 equal to $9. This means total bill should be $9 times 3 equal to $27. Plus the $2 waiter's tip, it should work out to be the amount equal of $29. Aha, mysteriously missing $1. So, what do I miss here? Can you figure how could it happen? Well, the answer is BODMAS.

Recommended Reading

Time to get some education. Recommending Mario Bartiromo's new book '10 Laws of Enduring Success' for your reading pleasure.



Mario Bartiromo is the familiar face on CNBC, she is a anchor and host/managing editor of Wall Street Journal Report on CNBC network. She shares her knowledge and passion for business news and life in this new book.

I already read the expert and it already caught me thinking about the questions like Where do I want to be in five years?, How can I beat the steorotype and be the only me? and How to create your own measures of success?

W.TV

Last night I tried out this W.TV (手机电视) app developed by Rumtel Communications Technology CO.Ltd. This app streams TV program from most provincial TV stations, popular Movies and updated Drama in China. It also provide the daily news update from local and oversea channels.



It comes with features like Live Videos, Categories, DVD Videos and Topic Videos. It also include browse featured videos and browse categories videos functions which you can use to browse through the available videos. What I like about this app is it allows me to download DVD videos and watch it offline. Go check it out!

Agilent LC Calculator

Agilent Technologies just released a free liquid chromatography (LC) calculator for iPhone and iTouch on app store.



It was designed to quickly determine flow rate and back pressure under a variety of conditions and column dimensions. The LC Calculator app includes hundreds of Agilent column configurations and other method parameters to improve chromatography.

Having said that, I know nothing about chromatography and since this app is created by my company, why not just post in my blog for your reference.

Get Well

It's been a week I'm down with flu, sore throat and cough. The antibiotic given by the doctor is not affective. My cough is getting worse. This cough is so irritating and it's making me feel so fatigue. It also disturbed my colleagues in office. Gosh, hope they still able to concentrate on their works. Plenty of rest is what I need at this moment.

Stress stress stress

CNY holiday is finally over. Time to get back to work and there are so many tasks waiting for me. Think of them make me stress. I need better time management to complete these tasks by this week. Stress stress stress...

iMSN

Finally someone has decided to release the free version of MSN for iPhone. The name is iMSN, was released on 13 Feb 2010 by Global Agent, Inc. It's pretty much the same to the web based Windows Live Messenger that we use as part of our daily social networking. It also comes with emoticons too. I kind of like it compare to ebuddy or Palringo instant messenger. By the way, this app is also compatible with iTouch as both are on OS 3.0.