Finalists for Singapore Blog Awards 2013 Unveiled!

The 190 finalists for the sixth Singapore Blog Awards have been unveiled. Voting has begun in fervour, with bloggers rallying on their own blogs and leveraging on various social media platforms to garner support.

Organised by Singapore’s leading news and entertainment portal, omy.sg, the award is presented by Panasonic this year, the second year the global brand has been fronting this exciting campaign to engage the online community.

The winners in the ten main award categories this year will stand to win a trip to the Northern Territory, Australia as well as a trophy designed by Singapore’s most expensive living artist, Tan Swie Hian.

The list of finalists saw a good mix of old and new faces in the blogging community. Some blog highlights include:

• Best Food Blog finalists: A vegan blogger from England (http://www.hungryangmo.com/) and a dedicated Johor food guide blog from Malaysia (http://johorkaki.blogspot.sg/) 
• Best Family Blog finalists: this category saw the most increase in registrants from last year. Two interesting finalist blogs feature self-drawn web comics on parenting (http://www.gingerbreadmum.com/ and http://www.peipeihaohao.com/) 
• Best V-log finalists: Last year’s winner, the adorable primary school student, Dr Jiajia and his brother (http://www.youtube.com/liangjiasun) faced off against a slew of strong v-loggers new and old, including a YouTube channel dedicated to cosplay (http://www.youtube.com/user/elpheal) and one featuring four adventurous Japanese girls, living and working in Singapore (http://www.youtube.com/user/ninjagirlsSG)

Here’s a fun video by the Ninja Girls:

Winners for the Singapore Blog Awards are determined by a combination of online voting (30%) and professional scoring (70%) by a panel of independent judges appointed by omy.sg. 

The theme for the event is “60s Fever”, in line with this year being the sixth year of the Singapore Blog Awards. The award ceremony will be held at the chic Shanghai Dolly club in July.

Official hashtag on Twitter and Instagram is #omysba2013. 

Voting is now open till 23 June 2013. Visit http://sgblogawards.omy.sg for more information. Voters stand to win attractive prizes like speakers from JBL.

The Singapore Blog Awards is part of a series of events branded under Social Media Fiesta (http://project.omy.sg/social-media-fiesta), an omy.sg social media initiative.

Why am I plugging this?

If you really don’t know, I am part of the organising team behind the Singapore Blog Awards since the inaugural award six years ago. 🙂

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Parenting with Pampers – Part 1

I am not exactly the best father in the world, but whatever good stuff I can impart or provide for my one and a half year old son, Asher, I will try my best to do so.

Same for my wife Rachel who switched to teaching over her journalism career in order to spend more time with Asher during his formative years.

Together with four other parenting bloggers, I am given the chance to try out Pampers range of ultra dry diapers: Pampers Active Baby and Pampers Active Baby Pants while at the same time, share some simple parenting tips.

You can read the other parents blog posts via omy Blog Club.

My first parenting post will be on potty training.

We started Asher young, from when he was less than one year old. He was taught to gesture to us if he needed to pee or pass motion.

Later on when he learned to say simple words like “niao niao (urinate)” and “put put (pass motion”, we teach him to articulate when he needs the potty. Alternatively, we may also ask him if he need to “niao niao” or “put put” and see if he shakes or nods his head.

It helps that we bought him a small portable potty that he can mount on his own.

Currently, he is trained to use the potty before and after meals; before we go out; and when we arrive home. This builds up a routine which Asher can adjust to.

He gets lazy sometime and will refuse to use the potty even when he needs it. This is where we have to be really firm with him. Rachel’s approach will be to mollycoddle him. I will just strip him and plant him on the potty.

If he can sustain a dry diaper for a whole day, we will praise him for his effort.

When we are home, we sometimes use cloth diapers, while disposable diapers like Pampers are used exclusively when we are out.

We have been using conventional sticky-tape fastening diapers mostly. With the Pampers Active Baby Pants, Rachel and I can now experiment on getting Asher to take off his own pants to use the potty. I think Asher now knows that a soiled diaper is not something desirable. A few days ago, he pinched his nose and told my mum “chou chou (smelly)” after he soiled his diaper while they were shopping at a mall. 🙂

Singapore Blog Awards 2013 – Blog Your Way to a free trip to the Northern Territory, Australia!

Last Friday (5 April), the annual Singapore Blog Awards returned for the sixth year with more exciting events and prizes. Bloggers stand to win a trip, inclusive of air tickets and accommodation, to the Northern Territory, Australia, among other attractive prizes worth a grand total of over S$35,000. 

Organised by omy.sg (www.omy.sg), Singapore Press Holdings’ leading bilingual news and entertainment portal, and presented by Panasonic, the Singapore Blog Awards honours independent content producers who devote their time and energy to create and maintain informative and innovative blogs. 

There is a total of ten main categories, two celebrity categories and seven special categories. A complete list of award categories can be found on the official website.

This year, omy.sg introduces the “Best Microblog” award, a brand new addition to the ten main categories of Singapore Blog Awards, created to acknowledge the increasing popularity of short format blogging platforms like Twitter and Weibo.

The two celebrity categories, “Panasonic Most Popular Local Celebrity Blog/Microblog” and “Panasonic Most Popular Overseas Celebrity Blog/Microblog”, will be determined entirely by public voting.

The seven special categories are organised together with different sponsors, challenging bloggers to participate in specific blogging assignments to make the Singapore Blog Awardmore fun and engaging for everyone.

For instance, finalists in the “Panasonic Best Cooking Blog will be required to showcase their culinary flairs and those in the “Glossi Best Modelling Blog” will be required to best model and showcase Glossi eye wears. 

Other special categories include “Panasonic Best Eco-Challenge Blog”; “Panasonic Best Beauty Blog”; “Qoo10 Best Online Shopping Blog”; “Levi’s Best 501 Interpretation Blog”; and “JBL Best Pop/Music Blog”. 

Lee Kuan Fung, Head, Chinese Newspapers Division Digital Strategy, Singapore Press Holdings, said: “Blog content is diverse in nature, fusing written text, still images, as well as videos to bring about a dynamic reading experience. Leveraging on the advent of social media, bloggers are now able to propagate their content to wider and more diverse audiences. As the Singapore Blog Awards enters into the sixth year, omy.sg‘s commitment to reward and develop outstanding independent content producers remains and is more resolute than ever.”

Nomination and registration is now open till 10 May, followed by a voting and judging phase which will end in June. This year’s Singapore Blog Awards will see a series of exciting events in the months leading to the finale event in July. These include three bloggers’ workshops hosted by Panasonic, various movie previews with Shaw as well as a slew of other engaging events organised with sponsors.

The theme for this year is “60s Fever”, in line with this year being the sixth year of theSingapore Blog Awards. The award ceremony will be held at the chic Shanghai Dolly club in July.

Members of the public can log on to the official site (http://sgblogawards.omy.sg) to nominate their favourite blogs. Bloggers can also participate directly by registering themselves for the Awards.

The Singapore Blog Awards is part of a series of events branded under Social Media Fiesta (http://project.omy.sg/social-media-fiesta), an omy.sg social media initiative.

Movie Review – Ghost on Air《靈聼》

Fans of horror movies, are you ready for “GHOST ON AIR”?

你准备好《灵听》了吗？

GHOST ON AIR 《灵听了》is a made-in-Singapore ghost movie, starring famous local deejay and artiste, Dennis Zhou Chongqing (周崇庆) as a spooked deejay who tells ghost stories on air. The movie is produced by Merelion Pictures and directed by Cheng Ding An.

Trailer:

Synopsis:

A Radio DJ driven to desperation, resorts to telling ghost stories on air, but what if the stories were all not fiction?

“Ping Xiao, a two time “Most Popular DJ” award winner, is suddenly robbed of his successful morning show slot. Jealous at seeing a younger DJ taking his place, he forces himself to conquer painful recurring memories of his deceased girlfriend and tells the ghost stories that was written by her on air.

With each painful memory he endures, he regains a small step to his superstardom. However, as he is about to claim his reward, he begins to realize that the stories were not works of fiction, and maybe it wasn’t him telling the stories all along…”

“两度“最受欢迎DJ”的品孝，失利被调到了午夜班。眼红年轻的新人取代自己的位子，他迫不得已回忆起与已故女友的点点滴滴，在空中述说她生前所写的灵异故事。强忍着内心一阵阵的痛，他一步步地夺回自己所失去的。然而，正当他要坐回巨星的宝座時，他赫然发现他所述说的灵异故事并不是虚构的…”

Pardon me if this review for Ghost on Air《靈聼》is a little biased. The movie director is an old friend and is it only natural I would wish a friend’s movie do well at the box office.

I watched the movie on 30 April at the Shaw Preview Theatre during a special preview for a group of omy bloggers. We were greeted by the very sincere movie director himself, who made a surprise appearance to interact with everyone before and after the screening. You can check out the bloggers’ reviews on omy Blog Club. 

Movie director, Cheng Ding An (in black suit) together with a group of bloggers

In the movie, you will see the lead actor, Dennis Zhou take on a challenging dark and serious role, very different from his usual comedic performances.

Former Nominated Member-of-Parliament, Eunice Olsen and famous Malaysian radio deejay, Gan Mei Yan, also plays supporting roles in the movie, spicing up the big screen.

Overall, I felt the production standards for GHOST ON AIR was definitely a notch above Ding An’s directorial debut, KALLANG ROAR THE MOVIE (2008).

There were some who expressed disappointment over the movie’s short 90 minutes run, for me, it was just enough. To begin with, the movie was already paced pretty slowly. If it was to run any longer, it would appear somewhat draggy for a otherwise straight-forward story line.

It’s a bad cliche to ask Singaporeans to support local movies for the sake of supporting the Singapore movie industry which is still in its infancy stage. I think we have grown beyond that. If a made-in-Singapore movie is bad, no amount of cajoling based on national pride and patriotism is going to save it at the box office.

GHOST ON AIR 《灵听》is not one of that bad movie that deserve to tank at the box office (in my opinion). Yes, there’s room for improvement for the young director and movie crew, but this movie is a pretty respectable effort.

The movie will be a treat to horror movie fans as well as fans of radio deejays, Dennis Zhou and Gan Mei Yan. For the latter group, you will get to seeing the two famous deejays test their acting skills in serious roles, beyond their usual comical appearances.

GHOST ON AIR 《灵听》will be showing in Singapore cinemas from 17 May 2012 (this Thursday). Be sure to catch it!

omy.sg and Wanbao Festive Gourmet Food Trail – Ngee Ann City Crystal Jade Palace (义安城翡翠皇宫) and Swissotel Merchant Court

In a special collaboration with eight well-known restaurants, omy.sg and Lianhe Wanbao, together with veterian food critic Ah Lun (黄卓伦) will be bringing a group of readers on an exclusive festive gourmet food trail for four consecutive Saturdays.

Each week, a group of 80+ readers will visit two restaurants together with Ah Lun to sample their Chinese New Year and Christmas special dishes.

Other than eating, participants were given the rare opportunities to meet with the restaurants’ chef who answered their questions and even shared a few cooking tips on the spot.

Last Saturday was the first event. omy Blog Club bloggers, Stephanie He, Jeanine Quee and Jacqualine Chan were invited to join Ah Lun for the food trail. I was there too as a working staff.

We visited Ngee Ann City Crystal Jade Palace (义安城翡翠皇宫) first for a Chinese New Year meal and Swissotel Merchant Court next for a Christmas meal. The festive bells and whistles came really early for me this year!

To find out more about the event, you can read the bloggers’ reviews; omy.sg’s event report or watch omy.sg’s vodcast coverage.

The Chinese New Year menu at Crystal Jade Palace consists of:
发财鱼生~ 三文鱼大捞生 Salmon Yu Sheng
盆满钵满 ~ 皇宫金装鲍鱼盆菜 Peng Cai
鱼跃龙门 ~ 过桥活鱼 Fish Soup
贺岁双仙 ~ 椰香仙翁米+酒香脆皮煎堆 Desert Platter
Surprise Dish – 八宝饭 Eight Treasures Glutinous Rice

At Ngee Ann City Crystal Jade Palace

Yu Sheng to start the day - 发财鱼生~ 三文鱼大捞生

Getting ready to lo hei

Lo hei aftermath

Peng Cai! This pot alone cost $428 - 盆满钵满 ~ 皇宫金装鲍鱼盆菜

Everyone was very happy when the Peng Cai was served

The Peng Cai was individually portioned so everyone gets a taste of everything inside

One serving of Peng Cai, with abalone, oyster and other expensive new year goodies

One of the stage games

Crystal Jade chef demonstrating how to cook a fish soup dish - 盆满钵满 ~ 皇宫金装鲍鱼盆菜

Individual serving portion of the fish soup

Jacqualine and her husband making a Chinese lantern

Chinese lantern making contest - the little boy won

Surprise Dish - Eight Treasure Rice

Individual serving portion of the Eight Treasure Rice

Desert - 贺岁双仙 ~ 椰香仙翁米+酒香脆皮煎堆

The wonderful Crystal Jade Palace chefs who whipped up the feast

The Christmas menu at Swissotel Merchant Court consists of:
热汤 ~ 花椰菜羹 松露油 Pumpkin Soup
前菜 ~ 凉拌园蔬 蜜冻梨 Salad
主菜 ~ 烤火鸡卷 杏果馅 Turkey Main
甜品 ~ 圣诞布丁 香草雪糕 Christmas Pudding
Surprise Dish – Entire buffet floor was opened to participants

Getting everyone seated at Swissotel Merchant Court

Pumpkin soup - 热汤 ~ 花椰菜羹 松露油

 

The salad - 凉拌园蔬 蜜冻梨

Turkey main - 主菜 ~ 烤火鸡卷 杏果馅

Stage game where we got one participant from each table to dress up as Santa Claus

Christmas Pudding - 甜品 ~ 圣诞布丁 香草雪糕

The Swissotel chefs

Surprise Dish - the buffet line was opened to all participants! Very generous of Swissotel, but most cannot eat anymore.

The last time I worked on the food trail events, my waist grew thicker by quite a few cm, thanks to the endless rich feasting for 5 consecutive Saturdays. There is really such a thing as an overload of good food; not that I am complaining! 🙂

If you are interested to join this food trail, registration is still open for the remaining sessions on 12, 19 and 26 Nov at $108 per pax or $88 per pax if you register in a group of 2 or more.