my camera is shouting for mercy. no, i am not abusing my camera. how can i be abusing it. it's one of the love of my life. you see, the material of the bag(current bag) is not thick enough to protect the camera, to cushion the shock, hit and bang(T,T). and went internet surfing on a proper bag yet not too expensive( my creative director has a $500 bag to protect his Powerbook, and it's bulletproof, duh~). there above my new bag craze from crumpler.

Been a short week to wrap up this week. thanks to Wesuck day... i mean Vesak day( shitz...terry..i am still under your sms curse). Went to "the sake bar" at 23, Neil Rd last monday. for those sake( this is a japanese word for alcohol) lovers, you gotta pay a visit there. black, cosy ambience with real good japanese dishes, had raw beef. not forgetting, the motive of the visit. S A K E !!!! i used to like warm sake and after this drinking session; i think i've fall in love with chilled sake. the price might be a bit steep for some( me). but it's worth it. i'll teach you a new way to drink sake if we have a chance together.

had a sugar-sweet tues. no~ you all not gonna get the details from me but the picture of the final fantasy of the previous post does said something. *hint hint*

try to wrap present yesterday. as you can see the picture above, that's the end product after mua spending almost the night thinking about the burberry's-lookalike design and which paper to use. didn't get my camera to take a shot as it is stil with my bro. you can call me idiot that i spend so much time just to wrap a CD. no, dickson neither am i a wuss.*wink*

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here's the weekly column of mr brown at todayonline.

Soon, no place to hide from prying eyes

... and be careful what you put in your bag when riding the MRT

In a bid to catch film pirates, ushers at British cinemas showing Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban were issued with night-vision goggles.

Apparently, there are people who are willing to pay a few bucks to watch filmed-in-the-cinema copies of blockbuster movies.

You know what I'm talking about: Those pirated VCDs and DVDs where-where-where the sound and images can sometimes st-st-stutter. And where there are helpful people in the audience who laugh at all the jokes so you know when to do the same, even while watching at home.

And to complete the cinema-going experience, you get to be blocked by the guy sitting in front of the pirate videotaper when he gets up to go to the toilet. Some of these movie bootleggers provide subtitles in eight foreign languages, one of which is the foreign language of English.

I remember watching one of these "artistic" bootleg editions of a movie on VCD. It was the Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and the subtitles were hilarious. When the hero, Aragorn, Son of Arathorn, introduced himself to Eomer, the Third Marshal of Rohan, the subtitle said: "I am Arogon son of Alfred".

Other gems in that bootleg included: "I bring word from Elfron of River Death" (I bring word from Elrond of Rivendell)

"What business did a man and a wolf had ridden a mark" (What business does a man, an elf, and a dwarf have in the Riddermark?)

And my favourite: "Bring your pussy face to my ass" (Bring your pretty face to my axe.)

I am sure they meant pussy and ass in the animal sense. Still, there is no excuse for such errors. I once watched the movie GI Jane at the cinema and in the scene where her instructor is tekan-ing (scolding) GI Jane and asking "Are you pissed off yet?", the Chinese subtitle read: "Have you urinated yet?"

So I suppose even legitimate movies have subtitle problems.

With piracy rampant (and, apparently, with some viewers having no standards whatsoever), I am surprised the British cinemas only issued night-vision goggles. It's easy to imagine cinemas here giving ushers the right to search bags and check pockets.

We are so used to our privacy being put at the bottom of the priority list that nobody blinked when the Land Transit Authority, SMRT and SBS Transit announced that there would be transit security officers patrolling MRT stations and conducting random checks of our bags and pockets. All in the name of security.

I can understand not having dustbins in train stations. it's the same in the London Underground because of the situation in Ireland. But bag checks?

As if to reassure us, we are told that "no body searches will be conducted". Oh, thank you. Because body searches would really be an invasion of privacy. Whereas bags have no feelings. However, "commuters may be asked to empty their pockets". I wonder what you would look for in a potential evildoer's pockets that could not be seen from the outside? Unregistered chewing gum?

Since I am on the topic of chewing gum, who came up with the brilliant idea of taking down information on gum buyers? So, I have to give you my name and IC number to buy gum? Ah, you say, but this gum is medicinal in nature, so it is a controlled item. What? Are you afraid I might engage in chewing gum abuse? Or are you planning to trace any gum found stuck on train doors to the original buyer via his DNA?

Back to the issue of MRT bag checks. We are also told "the police will be called in if the guards catch someone committing an offence".

What does that mean? Would I be arrested if some badly-subtitled Lord of the Rings DVD was found in my possession? Would it be a fashion crime to be found wearing green glitter eye-shadow (especially if I am a guy)?

Look, I am all for security and a safer ride. But where does this end? Maybe we should get everyone in Singapore tagged with Radio Frequency Identification tags, which some people have referred to as "Big Brother in Small Packages".

That way, we would feel warm and fuzzy because the authorities would always know where we are. Hey, if you are not up to no good, you have no reason to fear wearing one of those tags. Besides, they are so small that you could wear it as a fashion accessory!

Or maybe transit security could be issued with night-vision goggles too, so that bodies don't need to be searched, just scanned. And don't worry, they would tell us, the goggles don't allow them to see through someone's clothes, they're only for detecting suspicious bulges.

Here is something to note. You can refuse to be searched by the Transit Authority, but you will have to leave the station. So evil-doers can do one of two things if approached: Leave the station and come back at another time (remembering that these checks are random) or go blow up a bus instead of a train.

Then again, we drive our cars with IU units through ERP gantries that, in theory, can track our movements. We fill out contest entry forms and chewing gum log books without ever wondering where the information goes. And now we may be subject to random bag checks at MRT stations. Life goes on, man. There are no private lives when everything is done in the name of the public good.

I'll take the bus, thank you.

mr brown is the accidental author of a popular website that has been documenting the dysfunctional side of Singapore life since 1997. Those are his PDA and mobile phone in his pocket, the bulge doesn't mean he is happy to see you.