Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Things to Do In Singapore

Feeling bored in crampy, small Singapore? Refer to this calendar of events for the goings-on in town!

(Ed: I'd need to update this with some interesting content, but for now, this will have to do)

Update:

Digital Art & Technology Exhibition
Event Dates : 10th Nov 2007 to
1st Jan 2008
Time of Event : 10am to 6pm (Tuesday to Sunday)
Venue: : Singapore Science Centre
Category : Exhibition

New Year Resolutions

Merry X'Mas to one and all! As the year wraps up, people start taking vacations, go for holidays to refresh and recharge, and take stock of what they have done for the past year and what goals they have for the year ahead. Some of us may want to perform an annual life audit like our very famous Mr Wang.

Thanks to all for your support and stopping by my blog all this while. You know who you are, lemme know who you are! For those who said they will read, but didn't show up, I know who you are too :P. But no worries alright?

What are some of the most popular pages on my blog? Here they are, in no particular order:
I'm quite disappointed that my tourist guide to Singapore was not found by anyone. I think it's a pretty good writeup! (But then again it is outdated).

Yes, we all know what they say about new year resolutions, after so many years of my life, this is the first time I am thinking about some serious resolutions.

I do have quite a lot of things to blog about, but have been lazy (and busy) to keep up with everything.

For now, let me start with my new year resolutions.
  1. Build up sources of passive income (path to financial independence)
  2. Keep regular sleeping hours (i.e. sleep by midnight and wake by 7am)
  3. Have better time discipline and stop procrastinating. (this one is hard)
  4. Spend money prudently, invest money wisely.
  5. Improve my financial planning (this is related to building passive income). (yeah, insurance agents and FPs will come a-knocking :D)
  6. Spend less (frivolous) time on the computer. (I REALLY mean it!)
  7. Improve my organizational skills.
  8. Improve my people skills.
I've also been wanting to do this for years - digitizing and posting a few of my essays written in school that I was quite pleased with. Not that these will be of any literary merit or be accepted by the New York Times (or even by *gasp* The Straits Times). Let me just list them out for my ailing memory's sake.
  • Urbanization Essay (1994 GP Prelim Essay)
  • Satire (1997 Rhetoric 105)
  • Root searching in Guangzhou (广州)
Look out for them.

PAYM Youth Policy Forum @ Tanjong Pagar GRC


Topic: Are there increasing opportunities for youths to develop their careers in Singapore? What are they?

Date: 19 January 2008, Saturday
Time: 2.30 pm to 6.00 pm
Venue: Velvet Underground, Zouk

Guest-of-Honour Associate Prof Koo Tsai Kee Minister of State, Ministry of Defence Adviser to Tanjong Pagar GRC Grassroots Organizations

* Register for the Forum now!
Just send your details (Name / NRIC/ Occupation / Contact Number) to tanjongpagarforum@gmail.com with the subject title: “PAYM Youth Policy Forum” to sign up.

Closing date: 31 December 2007, Monday

For more information on the forum, please log on to www.paym.org.sg

Update: I kenna arrowed to be one of the note takers again. Should have brought my laptop along and let my incessant typing irritate the hell out of the panel speakers and guest-of-honor.

Thursday, December 20, 2007

what is Linux??

This should not be in Comsul since it is more interesting than technical (or should it?).

A pretty Taiwanese singer 萧萧 has done a promotional event for Ubuntu Linux, and she is asking on her blog what Linux is.

Haha ... thanks a lot 萧萧, even though you are not a Linux user, it's gratifying enough that you are interested. But all the better, since an artist should know about the products that they are endorsing.

I shall leave you with a picture to whet your appetite ...

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Finger Painting

Err ... I didn't realize that this post was left blank (until I received notification of a comment left on this entry) as a result of a botched attempt at email submission of attached pictures! Apparently Blogger (Google) is not so advanced yet.

I received these finger painting pieces via email, looked good enough for me to try to forward the email to my blogger posting email, but unfortunately, the attachments got thrown out of the door.

Alright. Enough of rambling ... here they are, enjoy!

(Updated Dec 20, 2007)





Saturday, December 08, 2007

Consolidation

After so long, it's time for me to get my stuff in order.
  • Consolidate my music library (in progress)
  • Photos
    • Gather all the digital photos
    • Gather all the print pictures
  • Books
    • Catalog all the titles
  • Email (in progress)
    • Gather all mails from all ages into one place
    • Both personal and work
    • My preferred format is IMAP (dovecot on Linux)

Sunday, December 02, 2007

New Book - The Fountainhead

Having decided to continue my journey with Ayn Rand, I've been looking for one of the other books besides Atlas Shrugged - The Fountainhead.



I've searched high and low for this one. I didn't try Borders or Kinokuniya, instead trying the numerous second-hand bookstores in Singapore. Last week I made calls to all such bookstores that are listed on the Internet, and all are out of stock, or they are not even familiar with Ayn Rand. Are these books really so popular that they get sold out all the time? Or are they so esoteric that shops don't bother to stock too many, unlike titles like Kite Runner which seem to be flooding every shop.

This past week I made many trips (due to my bad memory) to VivoCity (and by gosh, it is really a city, because it has EVERYTHING! You can practically LIVE inside there!) and by chance, the friendly computerized store directory (sponsored by VISA) told me there is a SAN Bookshop when I tried to look for "books" (PageOne was not the first result). So off I went to the far corner of the complex, only to find the shop, but not the book. "It's sold out, may not come in for another 2 to 3 weeks." "Okay", I said. "Could you let me know when it arrives?". "Sure!" and I left my name and number.

Just TWO days later, I received a call, "Mr Cheng, your book has arrived. We shall reserve it for 3 days only." Darn, I was going for Sitex that day, Library@Orchard closing on Friday, leaving only Saturday free to collect the book.

So off I went on Saturday after finishing my chores at home - mopping the floor, tidying my room, cleaning my desk, and messing around with my MP3 player - by then it was almost 5pm! Fortunately, the book was still there, with my name stuck on the cover :). I happily paid the $18 for it. It's a six month lease, but I'm not sure if I want to return it. Like the girl at the bookshop told me, "usually people who read such books won't return them - they will have them for keeps".

So kudos to SAN Bookshop (Vivocity)! You have made my day/week/month/year. Not forgetting, that I got my TWO copies of Atlas Shrugged from SAN Bookshop (Suntec) too!

SAN Bookshop Vivocity: #02-130 Vivocity, 63769332.
SAN Bookshop Suntec: #03-30 Suntec City, 63342326.

I shall post their carrier design later. Oh, and they wrap the books nicely too! THANKS! :-)

The End of a Chapter

Library@Orchard, one of my favourite haunts has finally closed its doors for the last time on November 30, 2007. I'm sure many a library lover who has spent some good times here would miss the place. We look forward to seeing it reopen it's doors 'soon' in 2010.

I remember fondly hanging out here after work on some Friday evenings when I just don't want to go home, catching up on the books on programming, networking and browsing through the magazines for interesting reads. Incidentally, the other places I frequent include Kinokunia two floors down, and Borders further up/down Orchard Road.

The library organized a Moving On party in the library premises, where there are food and drinks, bands, magicians, etc. I left work on-time to attend this event (for which I have registered two weeks in advance), but was caught in a jam at City Hall MRT station caused by a purported service disruption from dunno-where, and I arrived after the opening ceremony. This is truly once-in-a-lifetime opportunity where all the rules in the library are openly broken - loud music, eating and drinking in the library and taking photos (is that disallowed in the first place?)



I took this video with my mobile after being chased out of the library. This documents the symbolic act of closing the doors for the last time. There was still a large crowd which I doubt would disperse anytime soon, and so I took my leave.


I leave you here with a few other links to other blogs covering the closure and this event.

Simply Jean
  • http://blog.simplyjean.com/2007/12/01/st-tearful-farewell/
  • http://blog.simplyjean.com/2007/12/01/libraryorchard-video-series-magic-shows/
  • http://blog.simplyjean.com/2007/12/01/a-golden-globe-award-moment/
Ian
  • http://onthereddot.com/ian/2007/11/20/libraryorchard-moving-on/