Don’t be alarmed. This is not Minister Mentor, Lee Kuan Yew’s own personal facebook profile, but a special facebook page for famous politicians. You can show your approval for these politicians by becoming their supporter on facebook.
To see the full list of politicians, including Barrack Obama and Wen Jia-Bao, you can visit HERE.
I tried to search for our current Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong and Senior Minister, Goh Chok Tong, but both were not on the list. I guess all the other politicians in Singapore still have a long way to go to attain the kind of global status MM Lee has achieved.
As part of the Singapore Food Festival, the two most famous competitive eating athletes in the world, Joey Chestnut and Takeru Kobayashi will be facing-off to see who can eat more satay. To spice things up, there will be a Singaporean representative chosen to compete with them too.
If you don’t know who the two of them are, check out the video below showing their face-off for a hotdog eating competition last year ( WARNING: Don’t watch the video if you are eating something now):
Date：27 July 2008 (this coming Sunday)
Time：4pm – 7pm
Location：Robertson Walk
From now till 27 July, omyis also running a online guessing contest, inviting netizens to guess how many kilograms of satay Joey Chestnut and Takeru Kobayashi can finish off together this Sunday. The 4 closest predictions will win food vouchers from Old Chang Kee, Carl’s Junior and Pie Kia. You can visit here for the details or submit your guess directly here.
I found this set of very useful “Anti-Telemarketer Script” from Junkbusters and have modified it slightly to suit Singapore’s context. I do not think there’s a similar Telephone Consumer Protection Act in Singapore’s Constitution to protect us from such spams. Although we can’t sue the telemarketers, we can still scare them off with a series of questions, build to intimidate.
Next time you meet a persistent, pesky telemarketer using one of their lame scripts on you, you can use this anti-telemarketer script to get them back at their own game.
Here goes:
1. “Are you calling to sell something?” (or is this a telemarketing call?”)
2. “Could you tell me your full name please?” (note: ask the person to spell it out alphabet by alphabet, and make sure they are enunciated clearly - do this for all other steps for optimal intimidation impact)
3. “And a phone number, residential/office adress?”
4. “What’s the name of the organisation you’re calling for?”
5. “Does that organization keep a list of numbers it’s been asked not to call?”
6. “I would like my number(s) put on that list. Can you take care of that now?”
7. “And does the company you work for also make telemarketing calls for any other organisations?” (If they answer no, skip the next question.)
8. (If yes) “Can you make sure your company won’t call me for any other organisation?”
You may need to ask to speak with a supervisor if they sound lost. When you’re ready to let them off, you might close with “Is it clear that I never want telemarketing calls from anyone?” and just say goodbye. If you feel like making them pay, keep going:
1. “Will your company keep my number on its do-not-call list for at least ten years?”
2. “And does your company have a written policy that says that on paper?”
3. “Can you send me a copy of it?”
4. “What’s your supervisor’s first and last name?”
5. “What’s your employer’s business name, address and main telephone number?”
6. “Are you calling for a tax-exempt nonprofit organization?”
7. “Is this call based on a previously established business relationship?”
According to her IMDB biography, Gloria Chee was a graduate from the pioneer batch of Film, Sound & Video (FSV) program, Ngee Ann Polytechnic, Singapore, and was the first FSV graduate to direct a full-length feature film (Smell of Rain (2006)).
She’s quite a seasoned filmmaker isn’t she?
Do you know she is also the same Gloria Chee who was recently bombarded by netizens for ripping off a Japanese TV ad for a National Day Parade (NDP) video?
Initially, I didn’t want to comment on this issue as I thought she might have been some newbie filmmaker being exploited by the NDP committee for cheap labour and unreasonable timeline, given that she mentioned only receiving a honorarium as a token of appreciation for her work.
However, when I googled her name… no lei… Gloria Chee is not an amateur hor!
For the benefit of those who do not know about this incident, here’s the full article from my paper:
Mon, Jul 14, 2008
my paper
Netizens slam NDP video as Japanese ad rip-off
THIS year’s National Day Parade (NDP) videos for its theme songs have sparked off some controversy online.
A contributor to citizen media website Stomp, Daniel, felt that some scenes in the videos were copied from a Japanese television advertisement for The Children’s Foundation. He said that although the NDP videos are not exact copies, some scenes, like that of a child painting, seemed very similar to those in the Japanese ad.
Daniel said: “I think this is unoriginal and uncreative, especially for our NDP.
“I feel that any national projects should be original and not recycle concepts already done by other countries.”
NDP video is three minutes long and depicts various everyday scenes in the lives of Singaporeans, such as children colouring, a boy courting a girl and a man running up the stairs in a block of HDB flats.
These scenes are interspersed with those of Singapore Idol 2006 winner Hady Mirza singing the theme song Shine
For Singapore. Joi Chua performs the Chinese NDP theme song Qing Kong Wan Li.
Among others, Daniel pointed out that scenes like those of children colouring and paying attention in class are very similar to those which can be seen in the Japanese advertisement.
A video of the 11/2-minute Japanese advertisement was uploaded onto Google Video in April 2006.
It is stated on the site that the advertisement was created by the Japan Ad Council.
Netizens who commented on the post on Stomp mainly felt that it was the fault of the advertising company which had been engaged to create the video.
Contributor goolen2001 said yesterday: “National Day advertisement also want to copy other advertisement? Shame on you.
Goolen2001 added: “The advertising agency wants to earn money only. Lazy to use brain.”
Fellow contributor krankiepants said: “It’s sad to see such things happening.”
However, pbcjohn79 defended the video’s creators: “It is an honest mistake. Let’s move on.”
But jacksparrow2 disagreed strongly: “I think it is serious as a lump sum has been paid to make that video.”
Well, you have to see it for yourself to know what I am talking about. Visit here to see it!
Cool isn’t it?
I like the subtle details on the gradient text colours to make the penguin looks 3D. Here’s a screengrab preview for those who need a little prompting prior to clicking on anything.
I generally prefer Asian movies as compared to Hollywood fares due to the cultural similarities we share. A good case in point - I can’t understand why in ang moh movies, the guy and girl can have sex then discuss about whether they love each other the next morning while it’s the other way round for Asians.
Check out the trailer below if you don’t believe me:
My favourite Hong Kong actor, Tony Leung Chiu-Wai (Zhou Yu) is starring in it. The director is veteran filmmaker, John Woo. There’s also the dashing Takeshi Kaneshiro (Zhuge Liang) and the stunning beauty, Taiwanese supermodel, Lin Chi-Ling (Xiao Qiao). Added to that, talented actors like Chang Chen (Sun Quan) and Zhang Fengyi (Cao Cao). What more can you ask for in a blockbuster hit?
I watched it with my friend, Melvin last Thursday at the Gala Premiere, courtesy of the my paper movie night event. The screening was a VivoCity and I was taken aback when I saw the place jam-packed with movie fans all the way from the second floors upwards!
There was a large crowd, even by the sides of the red carpet leading into the cinema from the elevator
More people… who are they waiting for?
Obviously not the mediacorp ’stars’ who were being interviewed on stage, like this guy, 715, here. I mean, the people were crowding OUTSIDE the cinema, not at the stage. Why ah?
There are even drummers deployed to further warm up the anticipation for the real stars.
And here she is! Lin Chi-Ling in person! (I am sorry I can’t get a better shot)
Once she graced the stage, cameras started snapping away like crazy. A far cry from the half-baked stars earlier on.
Three of the main actors (L to R): Lin Chi-Ling, Chang Chen, Zhang Fengyi
Director, John Woo fielding interview questions
The entire ensemble of the real stars for the night (L to R): Lin Chi-Ling, Chang Chen, Zhang Fengyi, John Woo and his wife.
BTW, Melvin was damn hilarious… he totally KNOWS NUTS about the Three Kingdom story! OMG! I thought he was joking with me when he asked me during the movie, “Who’s Cao Cao?”, “Which is the three kingdoms?”
One good thing about watching Red Cliff was that the storyline so intrigued my friend, Melvin, that it inspiresd the self-confessed “banana-man” to go read the translated version of the classic literature.
For parents who have problem getting their children to learn chinese, maybe you can also consider taking them to watch Red Cliff?
Oh, and one last note - for John Woo fans, the answer is YES, there were a lot of scenes with white doves again in this movie.
My best friend, Mark (Shithead), and his girlfriend of 10 years, Meiyen, got married on 8 June, 2008. I went to take a look at their new condominium unit at Woodlands some weeks back.
The first thing I noticed when I step into Mark’s room…
His HUGE Transformer toys collection!
He always maintained a keen interest for retro toys like G.I. Jone, Mask and Transformers since I knew him in primary school. Somewhere along the 20-odd years we known each other, he decided to concentrate his spending power on solely Transformers.
Check out these pictures… (btw, this is only 1/3 of his entire collection, the rest are still in his old house)
omy did a vodcast interview with him on his Transformer collection. You can view it HERE.
Okay, I know I am a bit WOLS… but I came across the Lao Zha Bor rap music video on youtube and thought it will be interesting to share with everyone as it’s really hilarious!
In case you don’t know who Lao Zha Bor is, she is the elderly actress who acted as Fann Wong’s mother in the Jack Neo movie, Just Follow Law. She shot to Internet stardom when she talked about maintaining a blog called “www.laozhabor.blogspot.com” in the movie and it really existed in real life.
Here’s the original rap music video starring Lao Zha Bor:
There’s no denying that hyper-local, citizen journalism website, STOMP is one of the more influential Singapore websites shaping the local Internet community lately.
Controversial and loud, the people who loves it swears by it as a daily read while detractors who hates it, refuses to click on the site ever and cringes whenever they hear the word “STOMP” being uttered.
In any case, I was still quite surprised to find a professional-looking “AntiStomp” hate site. The layout looks eerily similar to that of Stomp, except this site seeks to “Stomp the Stompers” and get them at their own game of citizen journalism.
I think this is an interesting development. I always think it’s an achievement of sort when you attain “hate-site-status” on the Internet. It means you are well-known. At least famous enough for detractors to bother operating a hate site whose sole purpose is to promote negativity about you. Just look around, most famous bloggers like Xiaxue and Dawn Yang all have their hate sites.
I will honour the day whereby someone start a “anti-alvinology” blog. Since it’s not going to happen anytime soon (due to my lack of fame); it explains why right from the start, this blog has another secret co-author, Antialvin - the evil nemesis of Alvinlogy.
I attended the “Doing the Karen Cheng in Singapore” event last Saturday with Rachel, at Indochine’s Forbidden City. It is a simple fund-raising event hosted by popular Australian blogger, Karen Cheng and her husband, Andrew to raise funds for the Singapore Red Cross.
The public is invited to grace the event to “do the Karen Cheng” together with Karen Cheng herself. By “doing the Karen Cheng”, it means posing in front of a mirror and taking a self portrait of yourself with a digital camera, a pose popularised by Karen Cheng on her blog.
I bumped into Kenny Sia and a bunch of friendly Nuffnang bloggers at the event which attracted a respectable turnout for a spontaneous web viral campaign with no much mainstream media publicity.
Actually, as mentioned in a previous blog entry, this was what inspired me with the idea of “Doing the David Gan”, as a tribute to one of Singapore’s leading style guru, David Gan.
Here are some pictures from Saturday:
Take 1 of Rachel doing the Karen Cheng with Karen Cheng
Take 2 of Rachel doing the Karen Cheng with Karen Cheng
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