RunForFunds 2007 - D'Joy Children's Centre

It's the time of the year when I bring up RunForFunds to everybody's attention. As I have mentioned earlier, the SuperFriends of RunForFunds will be running the Standard Chartered Bank Marathon and will be raising funds for several projects of which D'Joy Children Centre is our main focus this year.

Click here for my previous entry.

So anyway, mirroring the RunForFunds latest blog entry, we would like to showcase D'Joy Children Centre in the form of a pictorial.

Again, I would like to ask all readers and fellow bloggers to plug this on your respective blogs or simply via word-of-mouth and come get to know D'Joy Children Centre as well as the RunForFunds project.

If there is anyone who wishes to make a contribution (monetary and/or volunteer services), please drop me a note and I will link you up with the right people.

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1.  Entrance to D'Joy.  Level 3 @ Block 1, Maude Road.

2.  Main hall.

Like I shared, the place is extremely clean and tidy, credit to the staff of D'Joy.

3.  Door to classroom.
If you look carefully, the place needs a fresh lick of paint.
The door frame needs some repair too (and the kid needs to get out of my way ....hahah !!)

4.  Classroom facilities
are extremely basic.

5.  Main activity (dining) hall.
From what I understand, most of the furniture has not been changed since Feb 2001 when the centre opened.

6.  Mini library section.
I feel new books and kid's magazines will be a welcome addition.

I wish I could take more pics that tell a better and more compelling story of the important role that D'Joy plays to these kids in the neighbourhood despite having basic facilities.

But alas, I'm still struggling with the use of my idiot-proof camera :-)

I'd encourage you to visit D'Joy to check it out and explore how you can render assistance.

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- Voxeros

1. JesuaFreaK left...

Friday, 30 November 2007 1:06 pm

Are u back in singapore alr ?

2. JayWalk left...

Friday, 30 November 2007 5:28 pm :: 

JF: Not yet but soon! Why? Miss me har? Or want to jio me cheong Thai pub har? :P

The Cambodia Dragon Boat Tragedy

It was in the news where 5 of our boys drowned when their dragon boat capsized.

There were representing Singapore in the dragon boat race held in Cambodia's Tongle Sap.

I shan't go on and write about what happened as they have already been covered by the papers.

Instead, I am writing this at the request of Lancerlord who is asking everybody to embed a song on our blogs as a remembrance to the five boaters, who lost their lives while flying the Singapore flag.

This song (Back Home) was done by one of the victims, Reuben Kee and it happens to be his last piano solo piece. The song will be played here until the end of the week.

Farewell, Chee Wei Cheng, Jeremy Goh Tze Xiong, Stephen Loh Soon Ann, Poh Boon San, and Reuben Kee En Rui.

May you rest in peace.

p.s. As requested, this is a call for all bloggers to play this song on their respective blog at least through Thursday, better if forever to remember them by.

. HTML Code to Embed Song: [Copy the code below and paste as html in your blog] <embed AllowScriptAccess="samedomain" WIDTH="200" HEIGHT="50" TYPE="audio/mpeg" hidden="false" src="http://www.ridzuan.info/tianhong/BackHomePianoSolo-ReubenKee.mp3" AUTOSTART="true" LOOP="false"></EMBED> [Copy the code above and paste as html in your blog] Notes: 1) Set loop="true" if you want the song to repeat indefinitely. 2) Set autostart="false" if you do not want the song to automatically start playing when the page loads. 3) Set hidden="false" if you want to allow the reader to see the control panel of the media player. .

Image Credit: http://www.straitstimes.com
Song File Hosting Credit: http://www.ridzuan.info

- Voxeros

1. hiaoauntie left...

Monday, 3 December 2007 2:24 am

oh mine, this piano piece by reuben is so beautiful, can't help it, my tears just flow.... so sad

2. JayWalk left...

Monday, 3 December 2007 4:26 pm :: 

hiaoauntie: Yeah, it's quite a pity that his talent was so short lived.

Girl 60 vs Boy 3

Tycoon's Eldest Free After Buffet Assault On Boy, 3South China Morning Post - 24 Nov 2007

Click To Enlarge

I read with disbelief on the South China Morning Post that a person who is 60 years of age would bully somebody as young as 3! That is 20 times!!

Won't paiseh one meh?

Anyway the person is question is Jane Ho (Please do not click to enlarge), daughter of Macau's casino mogul, Stanley Ho.

I was thinking that a person of her stature would have at least a certain minimum level of civility, than to resort to petty tactics like stomping on a little kid?

Yes, the kid was probably no angel either. How often do we see these brats running amok all over the place, unsupervised by their parents and causing a public nuisance? I would dare speculate that the kid was being kuai lan at the time of the incident that evoked such a violent reaction from Ms Ho.

Still, stomping on a kid's foot? Notice I used the word "stomp" while the newspaper article used "step"? Me exaggerate? Let's put it this way, had it been a gingerly step, you think Ms Ho would be hauled up to court for that?

I am not saying that the kid is without fault but the punishment (stomp) does not fit the crime (trip). Ms Ho's reaction could have been a spur of the moment madness. A brain fart. A gush of shit to the brain. Still, with all the shit and fart to the brain, I wonder how anybody is able to hantam a kid as young as 3?

Her rationale as I have highlighted above, was beyond belief. I mean like, WTF?

Imagine this visual where you are standing face to face with a 3 year-old. How do you hantam a kid who is barely taller than your knee?

Coming back to the kid, let me just say "Welcome to the modern era where the kids rule their parents."

Afternote: RedQueen has rightly pointed out that Ms Ho was suffering from Schizophrenia, as mentioned in the article. Schizo sufferers are known to have a higher probability of violent behavior.

So here is my question that I pose to one and all.

Was it just the kid's arse luck to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, thus giving Ms Ho the benefit of the doubt. Or was this Schizophrenia thing just some fancy mambo jambo cooked up by her expensive team of lawyers to get her off the hook?

You tell me.

Image Credit: http://www.scmp.com

- Voxeros

RunForFunds 2007 - Running My Last Marathon For D'Joy Day Care Centre

It's the time of the year where RunForFunds will once again run the Singapore Standard Chartered Bank Marathon and raise funds for the needy.

Below is the latest entry of the RunForFunds blog which I am mirroring to help spread the word.

As usual, I am appealing to all my friends as well as fellow bloggers to help spread the word via a plug and/or mirror of this entry, or simply word-of-mouth to create awareness of this project.

We hope that we are able to a) raise funds to continue our current projects. We skipped a year last year as we have sufficient funds to last a full year i.e. we only raise what is needed but not beyond. It is better to keep the house lean and clean, rather than having a fat reserve and end up with bad housekeeping like the recent spates of big charity scandals and b) inspire our fellow members of the community to start up similar projects and help more people beyond RunForFunds' limited scope and resources.

Cheers.

p.s. Please let me know if you have plugged this on your blog so that I can add you to the list of appreciation in the coming Thank You For Supporting RFF entry.

---

Yep, folks, I've decided to join the obese couch potato club.

But seriously, this year's 42km run could be my 5^th and my last.

2 major reasons:

1. The arrival of my baby daughter in Nov 07. Those of you who are parents can empathise with me. Where got energy to train between round the clock feeds (for the baby, not me)?

2. I'm using more ko-yok (medicated patches) than an 80 year old ah pek. I cannot but admit that age has finally caught up.  My temple, I mean  … body, is approaching ruins (like Angkor Wat). I've become rather injury prone and it take me longer to recover from muscle aches.

Coupled my promotion to Papa-dom and demotion to Ah Pek-dom, the demand on my time training for the marathon becomes too much. (I typically have to spend an average of four 2hr sessions each week training for the run, 6 months a year).

Ok, enough of my sob story …. Who knows, with blue pills and animals parts (yep, the unmentionables), I'm may be able to run the full 42km in 2008.

Now, on to RFF 2007.

This year, unlike other years, my Superfriends and I will be running to raise funds solely for D'Joy Children Centre @ Maude Road near Mustafa Centre.

Why D'Joy?

• D'joy runs day care services for up to 120 children from ages 2 to 14 from the Jalan Besar neighbourhood.
  
• They cater to children from low income, single-parent or dysfunctional families. A number of them are referred by the MCYS (Govt agency that oversees social welfare amongst other things), social service agencies and schools with problems ranging from social behaviour, learning difficulties to physical and emotional abuses. 

• D'joy receives no operational funding from the Government. Finances are raised through the nominal fees charged for daycare services, donations from well wishers and charitable organizations.  However, the centre has struggled to make ends meet.

• The facilities are basic and to me, rather run down. Budgetary constraints limit the maintenance work that can be done. Recently, I found a good Samaritan in my friend Jerry O' Sullivan, who mobilized other good Samaritans to repair leaking toilets, rewire the lights and other repair jobs for free.

• If D'joy doesn't stay afloat financially, the good work that is done there ceases. The children lose a safe haven and will be left to their own devices and may be exposed to undesirable influences outside school.

Click here to see D'Joy's write up by Donna Tsang, Centre Director.

This year I look forward to your generous contributions to help D'Joy.

I am cognizant of the fact that the funds raised may not keep it afloat long term if the finances are really that dire.

However, every single day we keep underprivileged kids off the streets is a cause, I feel, worth giving to.

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- Voxeros 

Maximise Your Potential Award Ceremony (Sept 2007)

Update from RunForFunds.

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The combined Maximise Your Potential (MYP) ceremony for Geylang Methodist Primary School (GMPS) and Secondary school (GMSS) students was held on 8th September 2007.

This year, we celebrate the event with the presentation of the MYP awards to 10 GMPS Students and 6 GMSS students.

The conference room burst at its seams as parents, students, RFF sponsors streamed in.

You'd notice that this year, unlike past years, there are not individual photos of the recipients.

The reason: My resident photographer couldn't come due to work commitments.

So with the help of a stand-in photo-man (you know who you are, haha!) and a lot of photoshop magic, I present you with pics below of 2 teachers who are instrumental in the structuring and execution of the MYP programme since its inception in 2004.

Jessie Soh with GMPS student Jackie Thng

Theresa Thong with GMPS student Karin Low.

I'd also like to thank Ms Hazel Kaan for administering the MYP award for GMSS since 2006.

MYP will continue to receive top priority for RFF sponsorships as it impacts young lives where it matters most and makes a real difference to charting the future paths they take.

- Voxeros

Need A Pen To Get A Pen

Today's Dilbert strip reminded me of a story that MeePok once told me about when he was handling a case a few years ago.

It was part of the RunForFunds effort where he was helping some old guy to apply for financial/social assistance from the latter's grassroots agency.

Obviously, the old gentleman was in financial hardship which prompted the application in the first place. I supposed due to his lack of education qualifications as well as age, all he could, at best was to secure the odd job assignment here and there, sporadically.

Now, I can understand the concerns of the assistance agency whereby they have a duty to safeguard against fraudulent applications, which is rather prevalent, especially in some countries where people try to abuse the social security system even when they are economically stable.

So this agency said to the old gentleman that he needed to produce an IR8A (annual Return of Employee's Renumeration) form to verify that his income was indeed below a certain level in order to qualify for assistance.

Here's the problem. Being an odd job labourer, he didn't have the IR8A form as most of his income were most likely paid in cash on a daily basis. Hence no paper trail for verification.

Here's the kick in the nuts. No IR8A form. No financial assistance.

Despite numerous appeals to the agency's common sense, nothing seem to enter the grey matter of these red tape pen pushers.

It was certainly one of those WTF moments.

I didn't get the outcome of this case as it was still ongoing when MeePok related the story to me and we haven't talked about this since. Perhaps MeePok can update us on this case in the comments section?

Image Credit: http://www.comics.com/

- Voxeros

Black Spots On White Paper

Click To Enlarge

Anybody want to make a guess what the above is? I deliberately made it small so that it is harder to guess as a normal sized image would have easily given away the answer.

Anyway, click the image to enlarge and find out.

Due to quality inconsistencies in the ZhongShan sub-contractor factory, I am finding myself going up and down more often that I would have wanted. It's a 90-minute journey up and a 90-minute journey down. If you are heading back in the late afternoon / early evening, get ready for the massive traffic jam at the HuMen Bridge which means gawd-knows-if-your-bladder-would-hold-up.

So coming back, one thing about this ZhongShan place is that it is flies galore. You have these bugs flying all over the place. The paper you see in the image is a "fly paper" where it is coated with sweet smelling sticky stuff to attract the flies. Once the flies land on the paper, they are stuck for good and one less fly to bother you in the room. Unfortunately, as far as making an impact in reducing the numbers, one would be sadly disappointed for there are THAT many of these guys buzzing in the air. I guess this is more of a psychological comfort to see as many of them meeting their demise on the paper as possible when in your mind you know it is not making much difference in reducing the overall numbers.

What you see on the paper is about an effort of less than 10 minutes. You open a fresh sheet of fly paper and you leave out in the open, the paper would immediately still filling itself with black dots.

Eeeeeeeeeeee....

- Voxeros

1. nadnut left...

Wednesday, 21 November 2007 1:44 am :: http://nadnut.liquidblade.com

eeeeew. super big fly! brrr

2. JayWalk left...

Wednesday, 21 November 2007 9:36 am :: 

nadnut: Pretty normal size lah. Probably looked big due to the zoom in effect of my camera. Anyway, it's better for them to be on the paper than anywhere else.

3. JF left...

Wednesday, 21 November 2007 10:38 am

why dun u try smearing both sides with paper and throw the paper at them.... mebbe got better results ?
PS: ur verification can be simpler boh...aku tak mathematician or statician....jin tough

4. JayWalk left...

Wednesday, 21 November 2007 11:08 am :: 

JF: Too much trouble to have to throw the fly paper at them. I think it is less of a hassle if you are able to leave fly paper down and pick it up at the end of the day and dispose the sheet-full of flies.

Besides, smearing both sides of the paper dirties your hands which means a trip to the washroom. Again, troublesome.

The anti-spam verification is much easier now loh..... we used to have to quote Pi to 25 decimal places, calculus differentiation and integration, numerical analysis, just to name a few.

Mai hiam lah...

5. Chocolate gal left...

Wednesday, 21 November 2007 9:08 pm

A big word... EEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeekkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk...
So disgusting.. Made me itchy..

6. JayWalk left...

Wednesday, 21 November 2007 11:32 pm :: 

Chocolate Gal: Yeah. Tell me about it. Eeeee.....

7. Chocolate gal left...

Thursday, 22 November 2007 12:00 pm

**Scratch scratch**

8. JayWalk left...

Friday, 23 November 2007 10:00 am :: 

Chocolate Gal: Bad idea to scratch. Wait later you break the skin to expose a fresh wound. Then the flies would swoop in while you were asleep and lay eggs in them. Soon you are going to get maggots crawling out of you!

Dumb TV Layout

What is wrong with this image that I captured off the TV?

If you just look at it without the audio, probably nothing. I was walking past the TV in the morning where it was screening the news and I started to watch. For a while, I really catch no ball as the newscaster was talking about something totally irrelevant to the image presented before me.

I hadn't taken notice of the words at the bottom and at first glance, I thought it was some drug bust but the audio seemed to be talking about a certain trade mark. It took me a while before I realised that the image on the TV has absolutely nothing to do with the news reported at that time.

I calculated the area of the screen dedicated to while was being reported i.e. the audio part and it roughly accounted for 20% of the screen while the drug bust image took up 75% (the remaining 5% was the clock reporting the time and the scrolling ticket tape at the bottom).

The news station was Ta1wan's ETTV News and my gawd, it was really really bad programming.

Whoever responsible ought to be shot!

This is absolutely BAD TV!!

- Voxeros

1. LD left...

Tuesday, 20 November 2007 8:47 am :: http://littledowager.blogsome.com

if there is another thing wrong with it, I would say... INFORMATION OVERLOAD.

2. JayWalk left...

Tuesday, 20 November 2007 9:02 am :: 

Little Dowager*: Yes I agree. However, given that we are in the age of the internet, I also have to say that people these days have a much larger propensity to take in more information than the past.

Whether the information received are useful or relevant, remains a separate question.

3. aloe left...

Tuesday, 20 November 2007 10:20 am

cos the person in the drug bust is a celebrity mah. U know how they like to broadcast every teeny weeny bit of news and how they esp. like to broadcast news on celebrities, then u will know why they do this liao.

4. JayWalk left...

Tuesday, 20 November 2007 11:06 am :: 

Aloe: I think you missed my point. I don't have a problem with celebrity reportings. My beef is that if you show the celebrity news on the screen (or at the very least majority of the screen), then godammit, report the celebrity news instead of talking about something else that is totally irrelevant i.e. you report what you are showing on screen.

Is simple logic soooo difficult for the folks at ETTV?

Condom Hair Band

I was laughing my ass off when I read this news report in the South Ch1na Morning Post (13 Nov 2007).

Imagine hair band with free application of hair gel!

There's Something About Mary!

Ok ok... so perhaps the slimy icky texture wasn't spunk that one would straight away imagine (imagine that smell on your hair! mmm......).

Perhaps it was something more subtle like lubricant?

---

Girl 1: Gee.... I like the strawberry smell on your hair! What shampoo do you use?

Girl 2: Nah... I use condom hair band. I got a banana flavour one in my purse. You want?

---

Actually, the idea of lubricant on the hair band isn't that bad an idea.

How many girls have had the trouble of yanking a few extra strands of hair when they pull off their hair bands?

Ouch right?

So imagine now that there is lubricant for the hair to smoothly slip out of the hair band. Ain't that a great product idea? Throw in some aloe vera extract, ginseng extract, protein (the amino kind) and vitamin B2 into the mix and you have a condom hair band that is actually healthy for the hair!

I can see the new branding now....

Consperm Confirm sure sell like Portuguese Egg Tart, Donuts and Bubble Tea all rolled into one!

Any venture capitalists out there interested in investing some seed money?

- Voxeros

1. nadnut left...

Monday, 19 November 2007 2:29 pm :: http://nadnut.liquidblade.com

eeeew. special hair gel man.

2. Mr Moron left...

Monday, 19 November 2007 6:18 pm :: http://bearswithlaserspewpew.blogspot.co

won't the hair band be very flimsy?

3. JayWalk left...

Monday, 19 November 2007 7:36 pm :: 

nadnut: I hope that make the hairbands out of factory rejects instead of recycled ones that they send people to retrieve from other's people's garbage. Double eww!!!


Mr Moron: Welcome to the blog. Flimsy? I haven't the faintest clue.

4. okiedokie left...

Tuesday, 20 November 2007 9:18 am

i was listening to radio a few wks ago & the DJs were talking about various usage of condoms other than its intended function; and one of them was actually using it as hairband. Reason being condom is rather elastic... but the DJs' recommendation of coz is not used condoms but new ones: just tie a knot with the 2 ends to form the 'hairband'....
Ch1na's manufacturing reputation is bad enuff already & this comes along...

5. JayWalk left...

Tuesday, 20 November 2007 11:11 am :: 

okiedokie: I can see the instructional pamplet that come with the hair band.

"When in emergency, untie knot."

6. JayMaster left...

Saturday, 15 December 2007 4:31 am

They're easy to recycle...just turn them inside out and shake the f**k out of them!

Excuse Me, Is Your Car Halal?

BBC News - Malaysia Firm's 'Muslim Car' Plan (11 Nov 2007)
 
Read this in the papers yesterday with much intrigue as well as interest.

Har? An Islamic car? (Hey rhymes!)

And who better than our favorite Malaysian Proton to produce it?

I already have like 1,001 Proton jokes, I am getting a lot more popping into my head even as I type.

However, given that there is a little bit of religion involve in this, I better lock them up for fear of getting history's first ever Fatwa on a blogger.

Click here to proceed*.

* MSN me or email me at voxeros[at]hotmail[tok]com to obtain the password.

Image Credit: http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk

- Voxeros

1. aurore left...

Thursday, 15 November 2007 9:01 pm :: http://aurore.vefblog.net

hello Jay...happy birthday Faith !!! hum the good nice cake..and I love draw behind her, can I take your photo to put in my blog to show my friends your lovely daughter..Kiss

2. JayWalk left...

Friday, 16 November 2007 7:42 am :: 

Aurore: Sure. Be my guest. :)

3. aurore left...

Friday, 16 November 2007 5:43 pm :: http://aurore.vefblog.net

thank you dear, everybody say "happy birthday" to Faith ! she's lovely kiss

4. akk left...

Monday, 19 November 2007 1:41 pm

hmmm...does it mean that if Muslims don't get the islamic car if it's available, then they are not religious enuff?

5. JayWalk left...

Monday, 19 November 2007 7:16 pm :: 

aurore: Thanks!

akk: I have no idea. I don't even know the need for one to begin with.

Happy Birthday Faith!

Faith is 5!!!

Well, it was a week ago but I only got the pictures until today. Sigh...

- Voxeros

1. nadnut left...

Tuesday, 13 November 2007 1:47 am :: http://nadnut.liquidblade.com

happy bday faith! she's so pretty! she's gonna be a heartbreaker!

2. Red Queen left...

Tuesday, 13 November 2007 10:02 am

Wah your daughter so PWETTTY!!!!... Can I introduce My Ah Mal to her? Hahahahahah eh, how come the cake got all kind of cartoon character one... damn cool leh...

3. JayWalk left...

Tuesday, 13 November 2007 10:52 am :: 

Nadnut: Yeah.. not to mention super high maintenance one.

RedQueen: As a good friend, I say better now lah. You may think your Ah Mal is very good with the ladies, but this Super Carrot Chopper trumps your Super Buaya wor...

4. Red Queen left...

Tuesday, 13 November 2007 1:55 pm

Wahkaus how can u say my son super buaya... takes one to know one hor.... hahahaha so what carrot chopper.. Women are all carrot choppers, ie ME...

5. hiaoauntie left...

Tuesday, 13 November 2007 6:02 pm

big girl already... becoming more and more pretty

6. JayWalk left...

Wednesday, 14 November 2007 9:07 am :: 

Red Queen: Indeed they are....

Hiao Auntie: Yeah. Her hiao-ness is starting to kick in and wants to keep long hair now. We'll see how she looks one year from now.

7. aloe left...

Wednesday, 14 November 2007 11:32 am

oo... Happy Birthday to Faith! =)
erh.. I think my niece started her hiaoness much earlier than your Faith.... Go out, must change and chose her own clothes. hair must grow long long. Shoes must select... and she's only 4... aiyoh....

8. JayWalk left...

Wednesday, 14 November 2007 11:47 am :: 

Aloe: For Faith, the second word she uttered after "papa" was "bag". "mama" came in third.

9. aloe left...

Thursday, 15 November 2007 10:26 am

ok, Faith wins.... LOL!

10. JayWalk left...

Thursday, 15 November 2007 11:11 am :: 

Aloe: Yah. The future hubby loses. :(

11. Ruok left...

Wednesday, 28 November 2007 11:21 am

Thats one heart-breaker you've got there. :)

12. JayWalk left...

Wednesday, 28 November 2007 6:57 pm :: 

ruok: Yeah. I pity the boys.

The Open Letter To The Prime Minister

I got to Catherine Lim's open letter to the Prime Minister via mrbrown's blog entry on the same topic. It struck a very deep chord with me and as I read on, I realised why. It was the very same sentiment when I wrote The Red Dot Awakens back in July 2006, at a time when our dear mrbrown got canned from Today Newspaper for an article that got rebuked by the Ministry for Communications, Information and the Arts.

The open letter may be long but I urge everyone to spend a little time to read it. The abject fear that I spoke of was covered in the later section of the letter and was put across much more clearly by Ms Lim:

"...the ‘out-of-bounds markers’. These are rules which stipulate what Singaporeans can and cannot say should they choose to criticise the government. The effectiveness of the markers is derived from their being deliberately left undefined and unexplained, for two obvious reasons. Firstly, it allows the government to have its own interpretation of each case as it arises, to suit its purpose. Secondly, since no one knows when or whether the markers are being overstepped, everyone plays safe by practising self-censorship, which can be a more effective curb than direct censorship."

To the Gahmen, I say it was a move well played as even I couldn't shake off the fear if you recall all the  please-don't-butter-my-ass disclaimers at the bottom of those entries that touched on the Gahmen.
Anyway, I am glad that people out there share my sentiment and especially someone like Ms Lim, whose words speak louder than most of us. We speak up for the good of the Gahmen and the country. All we want for our Gahmen and our country is for them to be better. Otherwise, we would have just pack our bags and give up.

For what's it's worth, I do hope that the Gahmen would take off their blinders and for once, take a good look around. Going straight forward all the time may not necessarily yield the best path.

Image Credit: http://www.travel-earth.com

- Voxeros

Announcing The Arrival Of MeeKiaTah

For those who have been following my good buddy, MeePokTah's blog, you would have realised that he hasn't updated his blog for the longest time.

Truth to be told that other than his busy work schedule and marathon preparation, he was also getting ready for fatherhood.

So here's the good news and I am happy to announce the arrival of MeeKiaTah at 7:50am this morning. According to the proud father, baby girl is a fiesty one coz she cries very loud one.

MeeKiaTah Gey Hiam?

Anyway, after I sent my heartiest congratulations, I asked MeePok to faster hurry register MeeKia's name everywhere. Gmail, hotmail, yahoo, skype, www.meekiatah.com, blogger, blog-city, etc.

Must early early chope mah. Tio bor?

- Voxeros

Cut Eye

I went out drinking with customers last night and this is my left eye, 24 hours later. Swollen till the swell overhung my eye and a cut above it. Bar fight? You should have seen me schooling the other 17 guys!!

No. Unfortunately, not that glamourous.

I lost the fight against the car window.

Cock story, come to think of it.

The place that we were was pretty bad a far as the conditions of the road is concerned. If you can call it road to begin with. Apparently they were building a flyover bridge right in front of the drinking place and all the surrounding area were in shambles. I supposed that they wanted to finish building the bridge first before attending to the surrounding areas coz if you do up the surrounding roads first, you are going to destroy it with all the heavy machinery trudging over it everyday that you would need to do the roads a second time.

So what was supposed to be road in front of the drinking place was now a dirt track all lumpy and pot-holed.

I got there late and the customers were already there. I even had to eat dinner while drinking inside. Lucky the place had a kitchen and I got fried rice and soup.

Fast forward to censor cut the story short, I managed walk out of the building on my own (I think we polished off about 8 bottles of white Spitland spirits and 6 bottles of red wine) but once I closed the car door, I headed straight to lala-land.

Like I said earlier, the road was really bad and there were no street lamps either. I supposed they will fix that as well when the flyover bridge is up.

Well, I was in my friend's Spitland-brand SUV (read: ZERO suspension) and it literally hugged the road that would have made the Formula 1 cars proud. We went over every nook, every knoll, every pothole and the car was rocking and twisting like like a bucking bronco on ecstasy-ketamine cocktail.

Fortunately, that to me was rocking the baby's cradle where I fell into even deeper sleep. I supposed what happened was that I slumped towards the car window and the car twisted in the exact opposite direction with such a force (it was a deep pothole in the dark) that I smashed my face into the window (or the window smashed into my face?).

So here's the chain of events for you to put one and one together.

Head swayed towards window > Window rushed towards face > Whack! > My glasses literally flew into my cousin's hands, sitting next to me > Glasses' metal frame before flight departure whack! > My Eye > Get Cut, Bleed, Swollen > Glasses' metal frame bent all out of shape > Pain (yeah, reaction a bit delayed then) > Howled > English profanities > Everybody in the car blur > Re-swear in Hokkien > Everybody goes orhhhh...... > Bent my glasses back into shape > Put it on > Go back to sleep > Reached home > Get out of car > Get inside house > Koonz.

I didn't realised the damage until this morning when I felt my left eye throbbing. I also realised a piece of skin about the size of a 20-cent coin dangling from the knee all bruised up too. Where did that come from?

Oh yah. I also found strange things in both my pockets in the morning too.

- Voxeros

1. Red Queen left...

Wednesday, 7 November 2007 9:17 am

Wink at me for what? U and I got no use for it hahahahaha :P

2. hiaoauntie left...

Wednesday, 7 November 2007 10:09 am

*******! hey, wat r u trying to tell everyone.....

3. Kelly left...

Wednesday, 7 November 2007 12:16 pm :: http://www.kellchan.blogspot.com/

U so 'colorful' ah!

4. JayWalk left...

Wednesday, 7 November 2007 9:02 pm :: 

Red Queen: Oh yah... I forgot. You don't use it one.

HiaoAuntie: Let's keep this PG-13, shall we? You have a very vivid imagination indeed.

Kelly: HiaoAuntie is not call HiaoAuntie for nothing. So now you know.

5. Rachel left...

Thursday, 8 November 2007 1:00 am :: http://www.xtralicious.com

ooooh i know what strange things liao!! Naughty!

6. JayWalk left...

Thursday, 8 November 2007 7:47 am :: 

Rachel: Lies! Lies! All lies!!!

7. hiaoauntie left...

Thursday, 8 November 2007 12:36 pm

vehemently denying wrongdoing is proof enough.... we understand, jay.... ur secret is safe with us

8. Rachel left...

Thursday, 8 November 2007 12:52 pm

Hiaoauntie: Bwahahaha!!

Jay: see? we all know you. Bwahahahah!!!

9. Red Queen left...

Thursday, 8 November 2007 12:59 pm

With his reputation, not hard to guess what it is mah.... Jay admit it lah...

10. Winsor left...

Friday, 9 November 2007 2:07 am :: http://winsor.blogspot.com

okay I understood everything from the summary in red... whew..

11. JayWalk left...

Friday, 9 November 2007 8:57 am :: 

The Three Witches Of Eastwick: Bleh.

Winsor: Just read it slowly like as if it was a slow-motion replay lor.

12. Red Queen left...

Friday, 9 November 2007 12:04 pm

hmm On behalf of my sisters, thank you for the compliment hor.. Didn't know we look like Michelle Pfeiffer, Susan Sarandon and Cher......

13. JayWalk left...

Friday, 9 November 2007 1:24 pm :: 

Red Queen: So which of the 3 are you?

14. Red Queen left...

Friday, 9 November 2007 2:42 pm

:P U say leh...

15. JayWalk left...

Friday, 9 November 2007 3:35 pm :: 

Red Queen: Probably Pfeiffer since she is most red. Cher is a black and Sarandon is possibly a brown.

16. Red Queen left...

Friday, 9 November 2007 9:35 pm

U color blind.. Michelle Pfeiffer is Blonde, Susan Sarandon was the Red Head and Cher was the Raven Haired one....

17. Rachel left...

Friday, 9 November 2007 10:23 pm :: http://www.xtralicious.com

wah... michelle pfeiffer is damn hot sia...

18. JayWalk left...

Friday, 9 November 2007 11:09 pm :: 

Red Queen: You silly girl. Who is talking about their hair colour? I was referring to the colour of their personality. Pfeiffer is a fiery hot red, Cher is gothic black and Sarandon is a mellow warm brown.

Rachel: Yeah man.. check her out in the movie Star Dust. Hawt!

19. Rachel left...

Friday, 9 November 2007 11:41 pm :: http://www.xtralicious.com

I saw the show liao. It's GOOD and she's HAWT.

OK then I must be Sarandon. Sweet warm and mellow. :)

I Want To Ride My Bicycle

Well, this entry is not about the song by Queen. Instead, I am talking about the recent article on British newspaper, The Telegraph (web edition dated 31 Oct 2007), that I chanced upon an article about a man charged in court for trying to have sex with his bicycle.

Yes.

Bicycle.

HOW THE F*CK (no pun intended) DOES ONE HAVE SEX WITH A BICYCLE??!!
It got me up (again no pun intended) all night trying to figure out how to screw (what is with all the puns?!!) a bicycle?

Doggie style? Reverse cowbike? Helicopter?!!
Er.... coming from the perspective of a guy hor, where do you stick it in ah?

I can see it in the headlines now if this were to take off like donuts in Singapore (at least donut got hole)...
"Man Castrated From Severe Bicycle Laceration"

"... 'I was trying to change gears when I kena kiap by the chain.' Cried victim."

On another note, here's the other thing that baffles me. The guy was caught in the privacy of his own room which by the way, was locked.

Hello? Privacy? Hello? Hello?

Yes, it was a bit on the perv side but at least it was done behind locked door and not out in the public like maybe the Singapore Triathlon? Ooo..... mass bicycle orgy there......

So imagine the guy thinking, "I get busted for "loving" my bicycle when you ladies break into my room without consent, and I am the bad guy?"

I think the 2 cleaning aunties confirm must be sour grapes case lah. Imagine a guy would rather do it with a bicycle than a possible three-some tandem with the two of them. If I were one of the two aunties hor, I will also du lan one lor.

Anyway, I will never listen to Anita Ward's You Can Ring My Bell the same ever again. I will also never read mrbrown's bicycle blog the same ever again.

I am damaged goods now.

News Link: The Telegraph (31 Oct 2007) - Man Who Had Sex With Bicycle In Court.

Image Credit: http://www.savingadvice.com

- Voxeros

1. aloe left...

Monday, 5 November 2007 11:17 am

arh duh! How to do it with a bicycle? Got *ahem* hole *cough* meh? Got friction meh? got PLEASURE meh? And becoming a sex offender cos of this... poor thing leh...
Reading the article.... How the H*ll does one do it with PAVEMENTS?!
*faint*

2. Red Queen left...

Monday, 5 November 2007 4:06 pm

Proof that men would do anything to get a screw..... and MEN would screw anything Animated or Inanimated...

3. JayWalk left...

Monday, 5 November 2007 6:38 pm :: 

Aloe: I have been pondering over the very same question myself for the longest time.

Red Queen: I think the game is pretty even among the sexes when it comes to screwing inanimate objects (getting screwed from the female perspective). Dildo anyone?

4. hiaoauntie left...

Tuesday, 6 November 2007 12:08 am

i think the bicycle f his backside coz i can't figure any other way out (or in, pun intended)

5. hiaoauntie left...

Tuesday, 6 November 2007 12:16 am

hey, i used to like that song Ring My Bell... my schoolmate changed the lyrics and she sang and did an interesting dance "you can press my buzzer, buzzer, buzzer, press my buzzer......." and she really pressed her buzzer (tits) as she sang... hehe she was quite a comedian (i was like that siao too during school days)

6. JayWalk left...

Tuesday, 6 November 2007 11:19 am :: 

HiaoAuntie: Please tell me which school is that. I am soooo not going to send Faith there.

7. hiaoauntie left...

Tuesday, 6 November 2007 9:06 pm

my school good wat??!!! you dun agree???? we were veri fun-loving and crazy.....and that was not all.... one day this same schoolmate found a pail and a mop in the school toilet and proceeded to act and sing like Carol Burnett in The Carol Burnett Show, a comedy show.... i dunno if you remember this show, in the closing act on every show, Carol Burnett would appear at the end as a dirty, drag woman with a pail and a mop and start mopping up after everybody was gone... well, one day (i wasn't there) this girl was doing the Carol Burnett act and skipping class and the teacher came to look for her and caught her.... siao liao.... okie i digress, this has nothing to do with bicycles

8. Chocolate gal left...

Tuesday, 6 November 2007 11:16 pm

I think i got to agree with hiaoauntie that he must have use the handle for the s** aspect... Or imagining that the bicycle is a sexy babe? I am really really speechless by this news.... >_<

9. JayWalk left...

Wednesday, 7 November 2007 1:54 am :: 

HiaoAuntie: I never say no good what.... ok ok.. no good for Faith but good for me. buahahaha...

Would you believe that while I know the Carol Burnett Show, I have never watched it? I wasn't allowed to watch TV when I was kid except weekends.

Blog Milestone

The stats for the blog for the month of October 2007 was a surprise and a pleasant one at that.

It's a new high with 18,725 unique page views and a bandwidth consumption of 979.37 MB.

Fortunately, I doubt if it is any time soon that I have to start paying for extra bandwidth should it exceed my quota of 2 GB. I supposed the "Tomorrow I Not Free Lah!!" helped.

Yeah, it may still be an insignificant number compared to the usual popular blogs who probably get those numbers in a single day (or maybe by lunch time).

Still, it's not like this is a competition or anything. I am just marveled how readership has grown since my NTUVAX email list days (subscription base : 23 people) back in the early 90s.

I guess it fun to look back at the path walked from time to time.

So anyway, a big thank you for staying with me and Walking with Jay on the Walk of Jay.

Image Credit: http://www.jupiterimages.com

- JayWalk / Voxeros

1. Red Queen left...

Friday, 2 November 2007 8:59 am

Wah why so keh kee?? So Can we Trip you while walking with you ahahahaha

2. OLLie left...

Friday, 2 November 2007 1:20 pm :: http://ooohlah.lah.cc

Wooo.. I'm contributing to 30 unique page views per month.. hahaha..

3. JayWalk left...

Saturday, 3 November 2007 9:14 am :: 

Red Queen & Ollie: It's a long walk ahead of us and it is always good to have company. :)

4. barffie left...

Saturday, 3 November 2007 11:09 pm

Darn. I wished I had so many readers. *MOAN*

5. JayWalk left...

Sunday, 4 November 2007 9:28 am :: 

Barffie: Readership stat is just a number and nothing else. It's just an indication telling you that someone out there is reading what you are writing.

Be it 23 people on my old NTUVAX list or 18,000+ views last month on the blog, I am equally happy.

I supposed writing regularly helps as it gives people a reason to come back everyday for the latest entry.

So stats comparison is meaningless if you get what I mean. More importantly, I am reading you.

Stupid Microsoft Windows Prank

Ok folks. Look at the above picture and tell me what's wrong with it?

Yeah... that's right. Windows96 does not exist. I just use photoshop, copy out the "9" flip it over and paste it over next to it.

Why suddenly talk about this out of the blue?

I was reading Winsor's blog entry about his grief with Vista that triggered off this post.

Well, all these started with the recent release of Windows Vista and how folks were griping about how badly it sucked. Even Microsoft themselves admitted the shortcomings by offering a downgrade option back to Windows XP. Great. A big roundabout back to starting point. Why bother to move in the first place then?

This is a throwback to slightly more than a decade ago when Windows95 was first launched. It was super unstable in the beginning and had all sorts of drivers compatibility issues. It took 3 years to get everything ironed out when Windows 98 was released. Even then, Windows98 took another couple of years to tie up all the loose ends with the release of Windows98SE (SE = Second Edition). In between, was the Blue Screen Of Death (BSOD) that everybody had to endure.

I remember stepping into the office each morning in my first job where the first thing that we did each morning was to turn on the PC to let the boot-up process run where the above intro screen would show up for a minute or two before the actual interface come on.

Things were pretty bad then where we get BSOD on a daily basis or even 2 to 3 times within the same day if we were lucky. Whenever, we hear a groan, gripe or a profanity (Hokkien if it were a lady colleague), we knew someone has gotten BSOD-ed. That fateful day when I decided to pull the prank, I nonchalantly mentioned that I no longer get BSOD anymore.

When asked, I would say that I upgraded to Windows96 already. Of course nobody believed me until I turned on my PC and show them the boot-up screen. They were dumbfounded (back then the peeps weren't very tech savvy) and my IT manager (this one also IT idiot despite his position) was furious! No only did I install unauthorised software, it was a system software to boot (no pun intended)!

After that, everybody was bugging me for the installation CD-Rom for the alleged Windows96.

Heh heh.....

Fast forward to 1999 when I was transferred to a new division with a brand new set of colleagues. As I have said earlier, Windows98 wasn't stable until the second edition came along. Again, I modified the start-up screen and came up with Windows99! Heh heh... got these guys a second time (Yeah. Still not very savvy yet but the IT manager was smarter liao).

So anyway, coming back, I noticed a trend that Windows95 took about 3 years to get things right. So did Windows98 and WindowsXP that needed to get up to SE and SP2 respectively before anyone stopped bashing their heads into the keyboard.

Windows Vista? Well, I think it will be the same and so I am hanging on to WindowsXP for at least another 2 years or so.

What about you?

- Voxeros

1. Gary left...

Thursday, 1 November 2007 5:17 pm

eh.. i got no choice as it was the school requirement that everyone get the latest laptop with the latest software which is vista.. we are the first batch to get it.. and really, nothing to shout about.. those older batches were complaining but the complains are unfounded of. now i got an end to end of OS.. my desktop is ancient win95 while my laptop is vista.. hur hur hur..

2. JayWalk left...

Thursday, 1 November 2007 7:05 pm :: 

Gary: Well, there's MS-DOS before Windows95. I supposed if Vista came with a brand new machine, it is less harrowing that someone trying to upgrade to Vista from existing hardware.

3. Eddy left...

Thursday, 1 November 2007 11:53 pm

Use a mac lor...heh. Don't worry, I'm not one of those Mac evangelist(how to spell?). Mac also got BBOD. Beach Ball of Death when they hang.

4. JayWalk left...

Friday, 2 November 2007 12:39 am :: 

Eddy: I have considered switching to Mac once but all for about 30 minutes (that was during the time of the Machintosh I) before I gave up. I realised that I was too deeply entrenched in PC that it is impossible for me to unlearn Windows and relearn Mac.

5. Eddy left...

Friday, 2 November 2007 11:16 am

Well, don't have to choose either. Can use both OS at the same time.

I'm in a cross platform situation right now. Mac at home, PC at work. So far, no major problems. Anyway, I saw my colleagues's Vista Laptop. Looks good, but slooow. So, you correct to wait. Heh.

 

6. Sly left...

Friday, 2 November 2007 5:25 pm

I know some companies still using Win 2000 with service pack 4.

7. JayWalk left...

Saturday, 3 November 2007 9:17 am :: 

Eddy: Well yeah but it's too much of a hassle and besides, I don't see any thing that I need to use a Mac when a PC does as well, though a little more grief.

Sly: My office is still using W2K SP4 for it's stability. We are not ready to move up to WinXP yet.

8. Paddy Tan left...

Sunday, 4 November 2007 10:34 pm :: http://www.bak2u.com

Vista to XP is an upgrade not downgrade. Man, this Vista is really bad. Have to go XP then can get things moving.

9. merryfeet left...

Sunday, 4 November 2007 11:35 pm

As with eddy im at the cross-platform too. Yup Mac got that BBOD but, it only happened when I was using my secondary school's iMac about 4 years ago. That one harddisk got dunno how much artworks left behind by graduated seniors can, so not Mac's fault. :P

My friends should be in the same situation as Gary, they all wanted to buy laptops with Vista installed. But I got a Mac and a free upgrade to Leopard instead. *cheeky grins* Nothing unsatisfactory has happened yet.
Yups, i think should just hang onto XP for a year or two more. it's functioning well as a desktop at home for me at the moment, albeit spywre problems.

10. Winsor left...

Monday, 5 November 2007 8:03 am :: http://winsor.blogspot.com

woah. yeah man. They took forever to get it right. My office runs on a 95 which is quite okay, except for the fact that it hangs itself with too much pressure - bad HDD sector. haha!

vista is getting manageable, but it's irritating when they keep asking me for permission for this and that which is quite crappy. It's like an additional confirmation which I have no need for when I know what I'm doing.
and yea, thanks for the linkage, when its just a short posting. :D

11. JayWalk left...

Monday, 5 November 2007 9:06 am :: 

Paddy: I think the problem with Microsoft is that they are in such an hurry to launch their product that they don't care if it is ready or not. Launch first, patch later. >.<

Merryfeet: Have you upgraded to Leopard yet? I heard it is pretty good. I supposed Microsoft was trying to launch Vista ahead of Leopard given that we are approach the Christmas sales peak. I think the plan backfired. No?

Winsor: I supposed there is no such thing as a perfect OS except perhaps the OS/2 Warp? Even my hp's Symbian OS hangs from time to time albeit much much less frequent than Windows of old.