you're SO intellectual!

the new paper is the perfect newspaper (no i shall not make any puns about it being a "rag") for the five minute bathroom break. ok so it's not that new (it was launched 20 years ago actually), but I was curious about the new design revamp that they just came out with.

however, what really caught my eye was the cover story about "Sassy singles end up dating Mr Fright". That's all well and good. I am a strong believer that you shouldn't NEED to be in a relationship to satisfy society's expectations and Ms Candy Soh, a 27-year-old preschool teacher managed to give pretty decent (albeit expected) answers about what she expects out of a relationship and a potential life partner.

kudos to her.

but a quote by the second interviewee, a 29-year-old legal assistant, reduced me to a shaking ball of laughter and tears right there in my office lavatory. she's been on blind dates and dated men she trawled off IRC (great place to meet men honey!!) but didn't seem to be able to click (pun intended!) with them.

the kicker was when she proclaimed to "enjoy intellectual films like A Beautiful Mind and Forrest Gump" and bemoans the fact that "some men don't try to understand these movies." I sure am glad she's holding these men up to such lofty expectations.

perhaps she should consider speed dating to draw in better male specimens?

the big picture

while the boston globe has always had pretty good photography, it is nice to see them taking another step in showcasing good work.

While they may have had that shady freelance photographer contract but at least they are now doing something "noble", that is simple but oh so effective.

the big picture site shows pictures how they should be viewed. BIG.

something that i will definitely take into account when planning the revamp of the ST's photo microsite.

chillin' like a villin'

ok.. i meant "villian" "villain", but i don't know how to make it sound right if you are reading it instead of hearing it.

there is something very nostalgic about sitting at the micky d's at funan surfing on my laptop waiting for ah seng and ock to arrive for lunch. ok maybe there wasn't wireless.sg during my freelance days (when i got to sit around doing a whole lot of nothing more often than not)

i feel like the total gadget geek i am, sitting here with a computer, phone, ipod and a real book (to add a touch of good old fashioned intellect) and i have to say i am liking it.

liking it a lot actually ;-)

i'm also excited about the fact that today is my last day of classes. it will be nice to get back to a normal one job schedule!

MMmmmm Booze.....

slumber

i am so glad that i am passed the phase where i needed to get sloshed at least twice a week to feel that me life was complete.

i don't remember making an ass of myself countless times, but it seems that ever ex-college mate of mine, ex-colleague, ex-army buddy (you get the point) seems to have a story about me that i don't remember!

that. is. not. a. good. thing.

thank god that i did all that BEFORE the advent of (affordable) digital cameras and cellphones. the drunk pictures of me are all either lost or locked away in the dark recesses of my film archive, and for that i am grateful. however this guy really got the raw end of the deal.

not only was he caught on google street view (a godsend to me in nyc, and hopefully coming to singapore at some point), but he was also in front of his mother's house.

he didn't whine too much about it, but just enough for google to blot that image off their site. too bad he didn't get there before thisislondon.co.uk got to it first.

so the next time you decided to excessively imbibe, be sure to pass out in a somewhat more private location eh?

eye opening

abi sent me a link to a story that touched her to the core and induced waves of sadness within her. a feral child she said, a story of the girl in the window

so i click it and find out that it's from the st petersburg times out in florida and that the person who shot the stills for the story is none other than my old friend melissa lyttle. my red team mate from back in the day at the eddie adams workshop, the woman who tells fantastic stories with her pictures and the person i've been perpetually envious of and yet very proud to know.

she has a passion for her work that i could only dream of. she writes:

"I wish my brain had an off switch.

I can't sleep. I can't help but lay awake, thinking about a story Lane and I have been working on. It's going to be published in 12 days.

It's a tragic story, but ultimately, one about hope. Though, in a meeting last week, Lane's editor summed things up by saying that this is a story about what happens when a child isn't loved. Somehow that resonates.

I want it to be done right.

I wish I was still making pictures of Dani. Still working it. I can't help but wonder if I did enough. If I've told this story fully and to the best of my ability. Wondering if the family will be happy with the results. Hoping it'll do some good, somehow.

My worst fear is that I haven't done it justice.

I'm drawn to stories like this. It's what I'm most passionate about. In a way I'm dealing with my own demons. Trying to reconcile with the past. But it's not about me.

I want it to be perfect. For Dani. After all, it's her story. Not mine."

- melissa lyttle

i want to write about the girl in the window, but my limited writing skills would not be up to the task. i implore you to read the story and also view the multimedia slideshow. an amazing story, by amazing journalists.

i'd almost forgotten why i got into this job in the first place.

thank you melissa for reminding me.

china: the new milli vanilli

blame it on the rain? nah, just on china i think.

it was funny how the editors sitting around the morning news meeting yesterday were astounded at how so many young singaporean-chinese were identifying with the beijing games, and vicariously soaking in the glory of china's triumphant blaze of glory on the world stage; the opening ceremony of beijing 2008.

looks like the motherland has let them down again. seems that the "glorious firework footprints" were nothing more than a high tech sham.

hey, they cite safety as an example, "We could not put the helicopter pilot at risk by making him try to follow the firework route," said an advisor to the Beijing Olympic Committee. a bit of a stretch, but an excuse we MIGHT be able to swallow.

but this?!?!?!

one of the cutest kids in china didn't quite have the voice to pull it off, and the kid with the voice of an angel turns out to have a chubby face and uneven teeth.

why choose one when you can have both?

shades of milli vanilli and ashlee simpson, not in front of a live studio audience, or even the english speaking world, but in front of an estimated 4 BILLION views across the globe?

that is a mega ouch, and no matter how you swing it, it damages your credibility no end. we wanted to believe, but i guess the beauty of china, at this stage, is still only skin deep.

bygone tech-brands

"napster subscribers fall" says the news article on the bbc.

napster! when was the last time i heard that!? probably in university when it was still easy to 'steal' music. this got me thinking about tech brands and phrases that were virtual bywords in the last decade that we hardly hear of anymore.

napster (of course), netscape (remember navigator?), eudora (gotta love email!), telnet, leonis (the nus server that i had early access to thanks to my elder sis who went to school there, oh, and the PRE-GRAPHIC interweb i might add), earthlink, aol, winamp, mIRC (the client, not the actual chatroom interface), gopher, animated gifs, friendster, lotus 1-2-3, word perfect, ms-dos, california games, kazaa, limewire, ws_ftp, illustrator, pagemaker, ICQ, askjeeves.com, quarkXpress, lynx, IBM's OS/2 Warp (damn that is OLD school),wordstar, dbase, strongbad (how i used to crack up to trogdor the burninator!), bryce 3D, myst...

the list is endless...

i am in a bit of a nostalgic mood, so if you have any other programmes, applications, games etc to add to that list. feel free to tack it on!

space filler: woof woof on the roof

ahhh... i miss new york.

where's the impetus to blog?!?

it's so weird, we're totally wired, and perpetually online, and yet it's getting harder to blog.

part of the reason (as mentioned before) is obviously facebook, but there are also other excuses, like my thinking that no one reads this anymore (not that I blame them, heck, I've been out of fashion for YEARS). Do we really want our status updates (there! the bad influence of facebook again!) in bite sized chunks or would we rather actually find out how people REALLY are (erm.. as far as blog posts go that is.)

really makes one wonder.

I should just post a shitload of new pictures :)

correction, I should really TAKE a shitload of new pictures.