Went shopping for my new job on saturday. not those fancy branded shirts though. i mean what do you expect a poor chap like me to have. especially one who don't owns any shirts, pants and ties. IT's A TOTAL MAKEOVER for the wardrobe. it's not easy surfing through the piles, piles of clothes. and it's pretty dull~ looking...(T.T); i have never realised men's clothes sometimes it's amazing to watch singaporeans to spend hours and hours through sales events just to grab the best offer. and for those who never been to Singapore EXPO, lemme tell~ya they have a BURGER KING there. it's no longer those boring, stench exhibition centre. pretty accessible by car and mrt, sheltered from the bus-stops and mrt station to the halls.


(pictures from strait times)

... people came to ogle, and they pushed, jostled and shoved their way to get the best views. Desperate for a glimpse and snapshots of leggy race queens draping their skimpily-clad bodies on the hottest sports cars in town, the men who turned up in force at the Dreamcars Asia Motorshow last saturday exhibited some rather ungentlemanly behaviour....



In fact, i never went to the car exhibits. not that i gonna pay for the tickets to get in. but i was too engrossed in getting my new attire. according to those who went, there aren't many cars, or not the least fantastic ones. only race queens that always captures every people attention. many young girls with digital cameras( err.. i dunno why i mention this). and some who think too highly of their camera phones, snapping away. i heard from my uncle in taiwan, some race queens actually went nude, with just body-art and stands beside those cars. i'm worried that they might just catch a cold. tsktsktsk. this is really hard-earned money.

what really caught my attention was that wheel-bounded lady stationed herself at the walkway between the mrt and exhibition hall. she was selling tissue papers and singing at the same time. if you listened carefully, the lyrics actually means to ask you to buy the tissue and THEY RHYMES!!!! out of talent appreciation, i bought one.

HEY AUNTIE, YOU SHOULD BE THE SINGAPORE IDOL!!!! *grin*

just too many things happened these few days. too many to digest. too many to absorb. too many to ponder. just too many for a simple, brainless mind of mine. politics, work, heart, love, friends....etc. in full varieties, you name it, i got it. too long to tell. too simple to write. too light to be coloured. too detailed to recite.

those elders i met, or those working ladies i met, or those kopitiam uncles i eavedropped told me a few common things. one of which was that MAN( the gender is male, the one with a magic wand and 2 bells tangling in anatomy terms, in case you asked) have 3 things, and only 3 things; enough to vex them. they are nonetheless women, money and work.

i got a perm job now. in case some of you still wondering whether this bummer is still loithering at his void deck *grin*. so that left money and women. you just gotta earn enough, worked hard enough and money will just roll in. at last women, which is always a fave topic among us, guys is irritating/ teasing this group of mine.

i hope things will work out for the rest of them as well as for me.. c'mon guys, let's cheers as long as the beer pours into the glass. and please~, no shots.

here's a tongue twister for you which i got from my she-twin:

"I slit the sheet, the sheet I slit, and on the slitted sheet I sit."

* wahhahha..*


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a late post of MR BROWN...

Unwanted business spam

Go ahead, promote your company by email, but please ... not at the expense of my time and privacy

FOR years, they told us, the 2 megabytes (MB) or 6MB space in your free email account with the annoying ads was enough. You want more megabytes, you pay some megadollars. So we diligently deleted emails, cursing friends who sent us images that were big enough to print an election banner with, thereby clogging our mailboxes.

Then, on the seventh day, Google said, let there be a Gigabyte! Our free email service will give you 1GB of space. Yes! You heard me, 1GB of space! For those of you who are not computer-savvy, let me put it into layman's terms for you: It is a lot of bytes. Bytes coming out of your ears. Not just mega, but giga. More bytes than your emails will take up in a lifetime, unless you are the sort of person who regularly receives poster-quality images. Or porn.

All of a sudden, our free Hotmail and Yahoo accounts became 250MB and 100MB of space. Wow, thank you very much. It was not a lot of bytes, but it was quite a bit of bytes. It's amazing what a little competition can do. And I did not even have to do a thing to earn it. All I had to do was be a potential eyeball for ads.

I think we all take email a little for granted, and only notice it when it is down. Or when spam, or unsolicited email, swamps us.

Singapore is planning to introduce an anti-spam law to supposedly help us fight this. Hurray!

But before you celebrate, know this: The proposed law will let a business keep sending unsolicited email messages to a person until he tells them to stop. Never mind that spam costs us millions of dollars in lost productivity each year. It is up to you to tell them you want out, because, God forbid, we do not want to stifle e-commerce.

As Mr Charles Lim, principal senior state counsel in the Attorney-General's chambers, points out, we need to balance the need of local businesses to publicise themselves with the wish of computer users who do not want to be bugged by unwanted unsolicited mass-marketing email.

My response to this is — how do I put it in the best non-computer jargon — bollocks.

Come now, if a local business wants to publicise itself, go right ahead. But not at the expense of my time and privacy. If you want to promote your company, spend some bloody money and do it the proper way — like asking for permission from your customers.

It is so easy to dismiss spam as a small price to pay for not stifling e-commerce, isn't it?

Here, how about this idea? We allow local businesses to keep calling mobile phone users to publicise themselves, until the mobile phone users tell them to stop. After all, we do not want to stifle telemarketing.

At 10 to 20 cents per minute per incoming call, it does not look so insignificant a cost to the user any more, does it? I am already dealing with insurance companies and banks calling me on my mobile phone — at my own cost — to sell me things I do not want or need. I even got one call from an insurance company offering me a career. When I said, no, the caller proceeded to ask me if I wanted any policies! Now you tell me I have to deal with this nonsense when I read my email too?

But ... but ... but ... email is free, you say. Look, YOU try deleting unwanted email every day from your mailbox and tell me if your time is free. YOU then try to follow up with another email — on the basis of the proposed anti-spam law here — to each and every one of those loser Singapore companies who sent you their unwanted emails to tell them to stop. Tell me after doing that for a week, if email costs you nothing.

And besides the cost of spending time deleting spam, there are other costs. I get my email on the road, either via my mobile phone or my PDA. Sometimes, when overseas, I have to dial in via a pokey dial-up phone line with the connection quality of rotting cabbage. Every byte costs me money, literally. Money that I am not prepared to pay for some cheapskate business to send me email I did not ask for.

There used to be this clown in my company, who would send out jokes to everyone else in the company. I think all of us have a few of these guys in our work place, who think they are God's gifts to Internet humour. Jokes were one thing, but 5MB movie files of a constipated elephant taking a dump on an unsuspecting tourist is not funny. Not over a dodgy telephone line in a foreign hotel charging by the minute.

It is not like we can turn off our email accounts the way we can lock our letter-boxes — the new ones which only allow a postman with a special key to put stuff in our box — from junk mail. Email is on, all day, or we might miss something important. Like the wife asking you to remember to buy diapers and anti-butt-rash cream for the baby.

I wonder if we, the users, will be allowed to keep sending a business, or government, organisation emails until they tell us to stop. That would be fun, wouldn't it? All 800,000 of us, each sending an email to the CEO of that aspiring e-commerce local company who sent us their spam, until he got his admin to send out 800,000 emails to tell us to stop.

Oh, but that would be wrong, some would say, because the CEO will not be able to read his email because his mailbox would be flooded. Then his ability to conduct his business, or read the soccer results while pretending to be busy, would be stifled.

Right. Businesses who send spam have been warned.

mr brown is the accidental author of a popular website that has been documenting the dysfunctional side of Singapore life since 1997. He does not want any insurance policies or careers, any "free plane tickets" or timeshare holidays, nor does he have any credit card debt to balance transfer. So stop calling his mobile phone or there will be bloodshed. Go ahead, promote your company by email, but please ... not at the expense of my time and privacy.

OH MY GRACIOUS!!!! the haze is back. i was sitting in HR manager office today which has one of the nicest view in shenton way. it's facing this waterplace in front of one fullerton. it's pretty nice like gazing in the blue sky across the waters to sheares bridge. but today was hell. it's hazy, foggy for the whole day. saw the news last night that the forest fire has started in indonesia. currently affected countries are Indonesia(stupid idiots, set fire to themselves) and Malaysia, especially KL.

these forest fire occurs when farmers burnt crops. this technique called " slash and burn " technique. commonly used in third world, less developed countries where less advise or knowledge in reforestation or earth conservation. phew~ so much for being a geography student. i guess i must have thrown a lot things back to the teachers.

on a side note.....

met miss vera on monday. though we supposed to meet up on monday. we bumped into each other on saturday. wahahah, finally..... after so much of chatting, emailing. so much of you read my blog, i read yours. so much of you've seen me and i haven't see you. it's really nice to meet up and do a little catch up. and your sis too. kinda funny. i'm sorry to say this that i have a bit difficulty to catch your accent. but i managed to piece everything together. and i understand what's going on during that chat in STARBUCKS. hope to see you soon when you come back from M-land's capital. it's kinda unsafe and unhealthy there now. take care.

seeing somebody you really care in pain is painful at your own heart. especially when you are helpless. helpless to ease the pain. helpless to share the pain. helpless to shower with love and care. helpess to give support. standing there motionless, powerless, forlorn, indefensible, crippled, disabled, paralyzed......

leaving her subsided to none whenever tears run dry.

.....Now they can see the tears in my eyes
But i deny the pain that lies deep in my heart
Well maybe that’s a pain i can’t hide
’cause everybody knows that i'm torn apart...

-edited from water runs dry-

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MY NEW PHONE CRAZE : Nokia 7610



Key Features

- Integrated megapixel (1152 x 864 pixels) camera with 4x digital zoom for quality prints
- Integrated video recorder with audio function and 4x digital zoom for video clips up to 10 minutes long
- RealOne Player
- Standard and night camera modes and self-timer
- Movie Director - Combine video clips, add music, or change styles
- Created and downloaded digital content (images, sounds, videos) with Gallery storage
- Welcome Demo for a quick start as well as a Help application that guides you through your phone's many features.
- 65,536 color-display, 176 x 208 pixels
- Bluetooth wireless technology and USB connectivity
- MMS, email, and Instant Messaging
- Advanced XHTML browser
- Personalized user interface themes
- Nokia Xpress-on Style Packs


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something to cheer you guys up if you feeling lousy today.

3 Mice in a Bar

Three mice were sitting in a bar talking about how tough they were. The first mouse slams a shot and says, "I play with mouse traps for fun. I'll run into one on purpose and as it is closing on me, I grab the bar and bench press it twenty or thirty times." And with that he slams another shot.

The second mouse slams a shot and says, "That's nothing. I take those Decon tablets, cut them up and snort them just for the fun of it." And with that he slams another shot.

The third mouse slams a shot, gets up and walks away. The first two mice look at each other, and then turn to the third mouse and ask, "Where the hell are you going?"

The third mouse stops and replies, "I'm going home to f**k the cat."

i must say. ian, you looked pretty nice in the mock-mag cover. i just gotten to know from my colleague that there's actually a magazine , PLAYGIRL, in states. popularised among womens and gays. wahoo~!

anyway, was at Charmaine's birthday pool party last saturday. too many photos to post. nearly caused my pc to hang yesterday. for more pix, please refer to IAN's xanga.



i was looking through some photos and saw this pix above. it's the Spanish Steps at Trinitadei Monti Church in Rome, Italy. for unknown reasons(don't ask me why), i feel like getting married at this place. perhaps getting married during winter. having a white/ champagne white wedding. well, gotta work extreme hard in order to get married there. and that will only happened if i have a gf, hmmmmm...

okie i am hallucinating....

There's a lover's moon tonight, as I look back over my shoulder.
All the stars are shining bright, just like the nights when I used to hold her.

I'm dancing with a memory, I wish I may, I wish I might.
Have one last chance to hold her tight

She's out there somewhere.......

under the lover's moon

now that i looked at the photos above. it looked as if it's my farewell party. i'm sorry, evan. i'm really sorry. okie, evan is the one in yellow/ purple flowery top. she is going to south under joining the rest there. sigh~ another one bites the degree. i was late last nite, due to work( oh cut the crap). and in fact i was in my white lycra top. thanks to don't-know-what-happen- stains. i had to borrow a t-shirt from terry.

okie from the group photo. standing( from right to left), that's karen, sheenda( i think), dickson, saye, nigel and terry. sitting( from right to left), that's diamond, evan and evonne.

friday night. was suppose to held the party at Wala walas but ended up at RAKU next door. nigel left early 'cos he got a race today. awaiting for his good news. jeremy and gerry came later. had a chit-chat cum catching up session with the rest before headingdown to zouk. it was just plain hopping around zouk, phuture and velvet. and also a long talk with diamond. it was really a nice talk with her. i say, we should engage into this kind of talk more often.

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ate article of MR BROWN.


the thinking soldier

But do not fret, 30-month NSmen, you can always win arguments against the 24-month guys



FINALLY, National Service is six months shorter. All you young 18-year-old men must be really happy. Those of you who will be enlisting before the cut-off date will get to enjoy only a pro-rated reduction in service. Boo hoo. Too freaking bad, who asked you to be born earlier?

There are many advantages to completing your NS earlier, of course. You get to go to university earlier, you get to eat civilian food earlier and, most importantly, you will get first picks on the chicks. The losers who are joining you in university six months after you will get only the leftovers.

You will also have an extra six months to look for a job. Isn't that fun?

The official explanation for the shortening of NS is that the modern army is a leaner, meaner and thinking army. In the past, you would ask eight men to carry the assault boat, now the thinking soldier will call the professional movers to do it, or maybe call in a helicopter.

I remember what it meant to be a grunt soldier in the past. Thinking was not high on the list of skills they looked for. For example, you did something that was not part of the sergeant's instructions and tried to explain yourself: "But I thought …" The sergeant's reply would be: "You thought, you thought. You thought, he think, who confirm?"

You cannot argue with that kind of reply. Thinking too much can lead to another 20 push-ups.

In fact, I reckon most of the time, the thinking soldier of the past had only two thoughts to think: "Today cookhouse, or canteen, for lunch?" and "Is it time to book out?"

One got so used to not thinking that sometimes one tended to follow instructions a tad too blindly. Like when your sergeant wanted you to hustle, he would say: "Walk, gentlemen, walk." We would realise that it meant he wanted us to run faster, not walk.

However, this kind of reverse psychology fell apart when we went to the swimming pool for our lessons. We would be running along the wet edge of a pool and the sergeant would say: "Walk, gentlemen, walk."

Guess what we unthinking soldiers would do? Yes, we would run even faster, run to our slippery deaths. No wonder they needed more men back then, half of them were on MC for broken heads for running along pool sides, just because their sergeant asked them to walk.

The unthinking soldier ate whatever the cookhouse made. I come from that era where food was not catered, like it is now, but cooked in-house. Those fancy Meals-Ready-to-Eat packs you get in the field now, you know, the ones that have meals like Teriyaki Chicken and Italian Pasta?

Not a chance.

Sardines and hard-tack biscuits (or dog biscuits) for you. Did we think that the food was not exactly fit for human consumption? Did we realise that too many dog biscuits would lead to painful movement of bowels? Never crossed our minds.

At the rate we are shortening the NS stint, in future, NS will be six months long only and all you have to do is to think about being a soldier.

Maybe, there will be this cap with wires you wear and for six months they will download all the information you will need to be the soldier of the future, like military tactics, weapons training and how to swear effectively in Hokkien.

The future soldier will also be able to download the punishment into their brains. You screw up, and the sergeant would tell you: "Recruit Lee! Think of 20 push-ups NOW!" Wah, xiong, man.

I think they can download the military stuff quite easily, but I am concerned that the soldier of the future will be rather shortchanged in the Army's swearing training department. It is a skill that will take a lot of time and human interaction to master, and not something a computer can teach you. You need to spend quality time with incompetent people to pick up advanced swearing skills, I feel.

I think this whole shorter NS thing will lead to two distinct groups. The 30-month NSMan and the 24-month NSMan. And when it comes to comparing how terok our stint was (and every NS dude will always think their NS time was the worst), the 30-month guys will always win in arguments.

24-month NSMan: "Wah, they made us run up the Botak Hill five times in Full Battle Order!"

30-month NSMan: "I served six months longer than you."

24-month NSMan: "Wah, we were out in the rain for three days and three nights in our last exercise. Without our ponchos!"

30-month NSMan: "I served 6 months longer than you."

The 30-month NSMan will always win these debates. See? That's not so bad, right? I am glad I made you losers feel better about being born a few months too early. Now, run along and think about how to make the Government shorten the Reservist stint too. Walk, gentlemen, walk.

mr brown is the accidental author of a popular website that has been documenting the dysfunctional side of Singapore life since 1997. He thinks canteen breaks should be longer. Because longer canteen breaks encourage thinking.

i just got to know one of the most famous artists of the twentieth century is known simply by his last name. Which is a good job because his full name was Pablo Diego Jose Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno Maria de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santisima Trinidad Ruiz Picasso. jesus christ!! who would ever name their son such a long name. as if by naming him this way, you gonna shout out to all ancestors, telling them you have a son!! ( i am just making a guess). and do you think when the priest say prayers before they buried him, by saying the full name; will the ancestors jump out from their graves? or he will rest in peace? i can imagine his soul went, " hurry and finish the prayers, i wanna go to heaven and the body wanna rest in peace!!" and the engraver must be cursing and swearing that he has to engrave such a long name on the tombstone. *bleah*

okie, we shouldn't hit a joke on dead people and religion. i apologised with sincerity.

today, my collegue bought an electronic ion toothbrush today at WATSON's. this is how it works. and it only works with a wet hand, thumb or finger. the battery operated toothbrush will draw negative charged ions to the brushes. and these ions will separated the plague or bacteria from the tooth thus cleaning the teeth more effectively with toothpaste. this is what i called science rules. i was joking with her that hopefully she will not get electric-shock while brushing her teeth. that will leave quite an ugly expression on her face. whaahahaha.....

read canny's xanga and decides to paste this down from a brochure.





- Vitamin A fights free radicals and protects the skin from sun damage. it can also rebuild skin elasticity and enhance smoothness.

- Vitamin C stimulates the production of collagen to keep skin firm and elastic. berris and citrus fruits are rich sources of vitamin c.

- Vitamin E is a potent free radical fighter and probably the most powerful within the antioxidant family. it can be found in abundance in dark green leafy vegetables.

other antioxidant food to opt for include broccoli( a rich source of beta- arotene), grapes (which contain more than 12 types of antioxidants), spinach (a rich source of beta-carotene and lutein) and tomatoes( contains the richest source of lycopene, a very potent antioxidant).

the drinks you consume can also help you fight ageing. red wine is rich polyphenol, an antioxidant that is more potent than vitamin A, C and E. in addition to fight free radicals, it can help skin build up a defensive barrier and prevent ageing. green tea is a well-known antioxidant drink as it contain Catechin, as well as being a rich source of vitamins and minerals.

*phew, rest for 3 seconds*

- adequate mineral intake is also good for skin health. Zinc, for instance can improve lymphatic and blood cirulation, balance sebaceous glands, and maintain skin elasticity. sesame, walnuts, oysters, beef and pork are good zinc zources.

fruits such as apples and kiwis are good for skin helth because fruit acids can stimulate collagen production, which can help maintain skin elasticity.

something interesting from what i got from internet surfing. *grin* if you look closely( sorry the picture is in low resolution. but i hope you can tell what the wordings are.), this joker placed this ad under the changi district. and in his/ her ad detail, it says 5 minutes walk from Jurong Point. i was like huh? for those who didn't know, changi is in the east of singapore and jurong point is in the west of singapore. the fastest drive from one point to another still takes about 15 mins to 30 mins, depending which route and what time.

yo dude/ babe, try harder(lossser~) to bluff your potential buyers.

just you were thinking how your jobs sucks. check out the the pictures above.

i was having this boys' night on saturday. you know, the usual conversations about girls, soccer( i can never can engage into soccer conversation), jokes and the norm " we used to ....". girls has been the fav topic all along whenever someone got to know this new girl. all four of us met this girl. and it seems that 2 of the bros are kinda interested and they are pushing around. let's call them N and T and they are pushing to me and D.

Well, you see, on firday night we actually cheered and toasted to N when he got to know one girl's number. We thought he was interested in her. whereas we cheered for T when he got to know another girl's number (let's call her E). but the weird part is that both of them are interested in E. hmmmm.... and both of them is just "testing water" on saturday night.

i proposed fair game between them. and pls bros, don't ever fall out with each other over a girl whatever is the outcome. that will be just plain stupid. i don't wish to see the history to repeat itself again. ^_^

now a side-story or it might be a juicy gossip. E is actually a reject. A reject from a blind date. This man was having a blind date with E on friday. and for unknown reason, he left her there with us and left. and N, if you are reading this, please don't despise E 'cos she went for a blind date. why don't you see it from another angle that, this man is actually playing cupid? you gotta thank this bastard, i mean this man (opps, slip of tongue...). if he didn't left her there, you won't got to know her. this is probably what most people call fate.


and looking at the pictures below, you know how much i yearn to go for a holiday.



I WANT TO GO FOR HOLIDAY!!!



I WANT TO GO FOR HOLIDAY!!!



I WANT TO GO FOR HOLIDAY!!!

Celebrated Gerry's post-birthday last friday nite at wala walas. Jeremy was in town just in time to celebrate with her. though friday wasn't her actual day. we( me, jon & candice, kel, dickson and jeremy) were planning for surprise. but it backfired when almost everyone of us turned up late. i got late, VERY LATE when i actually knocked off about 9 plus. met dickson in town to get a polo ralph key chain for gerry. jeremy was hounding on us, probably on everyone as well; to get our butts down. 'cos they were there early just to chop seats for us...*aww~*

Received a sms from jeremy, " my gf is crying." it backfired a huge bit when the birthday girl cried. now it's never never a good sign. yesh, dicky i agreed. it's never a good sign when the birthday girl cried. We( dicky and me) got there pretty late after so much of cab-waiting. the old man up there probably heard our desperates and plead that he sent 2 buses to send us there. yesh, took one and changed to another to reached holland v. got a quick KFC dinner before getting wasted that night. hey, i rushed from office.

Sorry, Gerry. though our explainations and reasons is not enough why we were late. we really hope you have a great night.

Nigel & Terry, the other Gerri even Nick & his gf arrived later followed by Jon and Candice. Kelvyno, Ian, Jeremy, Charmaine and a couple of new friends, Yvonne, Tim, Darren were there. Susan & her cousin, Daph arrived later too. got pretty wasted with jeremy's compliments of Corona's, jugs of stella artois and another pint of hoegaarden. it was just plain drowning with beer.

something hits me last friday while have a KFC quickie. it doesn't felt right when you have 3 friends crying in a row in 2 days.

photos are compliments from Ian.

Went house warming at Lip's place last weekend. had steamboat. though his house is not fully equiped with the furniture. we made do whatever we can, whatever our hands land on. As usual, huiling was late. after the dinner, was a game trashing for me. yes me. No Playstation 2, no Winning Eleven, no training. we have a mock-up euro 2004. with the already-in 16 countries/teams, we "tried" to predict who went into the finals. and Lip has been waiting for this day for a long,long time. waiting just to get back at ah song; when ah song trashed him 3 - 1 a year++ back. Lip has trained hard.



our ah song has been arrogant all along( we knew it). and kept complaining he hasn't been playing for very very long. still, he won the matches effortlessly. Huiling got bored and started walking around. she was nice to hold on the pooh bear's cushion and let me took a picture. i was thinking.......should i let her know that roger placed the cushion at ah song's ass when he fart; before passing it to her? should i? *evil grin*



did my euro 2004 logo. not very pro yet. that i know. but just don't wanna plain posting up pictures. well, i got out of quarter-final. France fans ,please don't kill me. it's just game ya *wink*. Roger got out of semi - finals. and semi - final is what lip has been hoping for. but eventually he lost to ah song 2-1 on penalty. Great game. great playstation. yes i also finished up the whole can of pringles. hey,i lost in the beginning and that's nothing else to do. whadeya say.