Advertisment

Sometimes it is convenient to associate one thing with another to achieve your objective. For example, something that brings good feelings can be associated with something that you are trying to sell. The good thing you are associating with it has very little to do with what you are selling, but the advertiser knows that associating them together helps nudge the potential buyer into opening his wallet. And as the saying goes, a fool and his money are soon parted.

KFC is known for deep fried chicken that is delicious, but terribly oily and fattening. Oily and fattening are 2 words that will never appear in KFC's advertisement, for they will only remind diners of what is bad about them. Instead, you will find other words such as delicious, finger-licking good and great taste. That is still ok, at least they are being truthful and attracting the customer with direct attributes of their product. But when they start mentioning that one of the secrets to a healthy lifestyle is to use fresh food in their ingredients, it seems that they are stretching it quite a bit.

Healthy lifestyle is one of the phrases I would not normally associate with fast food. When I eat fast food, I know that I am committing slow suicide, but I do it willingly and happily. They have found a way to overcome this stigma by linking their fried food to the freshness of the ingredients. How much of the nutrients in chicken will degrade in slightly less fresh chicken, I wonder. I only know that this is a more important issue in fresh vegetables and fruits, which are painfully lacking in a typical KFC meal. The only issues I know regarding fresh meat is taste, not nutrients. It takes a leap of imagination and creativity to link healthy lifestyle with KFC. Must have been one long brainstorming session.

Are there any who dig in happily thinking of the benefits to health that they are reaping from their deep fried fresh chicken?

Seen on a car's windscreen

Be kind to animals, go vegetarian.

I've got a better one - Be kind to vegetables, don't eat. Be kind to your fellow men, stop cannibalism.

I like these better:
Baby on board
Child of God onboard
If you can read this you are too close
Sex instructor, first lesson free - you still win even if your lesson is lousy

They are among us!

I saw an Autobot today. The logo was on a black Hyundai driving towards Orchard Road. I have been seeing guys walking around in Decepticon t-shirts for months, but did not take them seriously. But there is a vehicle with that logo! Is there a secret war going on in the midst of us and we are just now aware of it? This is after all the year 2005, the year when the Autobots would win the war and reclaim Cybertron.

Will we be seeing fighter jets with Deception logos soon?

Autobots Decepticons

Get to know yourself better

Interesting quiz, found the link on Tetanus's blog. Go try it yourself.
http://quizbox.com/personality/test82.aspx

Your view on yourself:

Other people find you very interesting, but you are really hiding your true self. Your friends love you because you are a good listener. They'll probably still love you if you learn to be yourself with them.

I listen. But good listener? Dunno.

The type of girlfriend/boyfriend you are looking for:

You are a true romantic. When you are in love, you will do anything and everything to keep your love true.

That is simple enough and true enough.

Your readiness to commit to a relationship:

You are ready to commit as soon as you meet the right person. And you believe you will pretty much know as soon as you might that person.

Yep, though I don't believe in the one person destined for me, I believe I know a good match when I see one.

The seriousness of your love:

You are very serious about relationships and aren't interested in wasting time with people you don't really like. If you meet the right person, you will fall deeply and beautifully in love.

It's not just about BGR, but with friends in general. Either deep or nothing.

Your views on education

Education is less important than the real world out there, away from the classroom. Deep inside you want to start working, earning money and living on your own.

I enjoy my study days, but independence is much more important.

The right job for you:

You have plenty of dream jobs but have little chance of doing any of them if you don't focus on something in particular. You need to choose something and go for it to be happy and achieve success.

I know what I want alright.

How do you view success:

You are afraid of failure and scared to have a go at the career you would like to have in case you don't succeed. Don't give up when you haven't yet even started! Be courageous.

Sigh. I'm trying. Half a year more and I will shoot for it. 30 years of housing loans. How?

What are you most afraid of:

You are concerned about your image and the way others see you. This means that you try very hard to be accepted by other people. It's time for you to believe in who you are, not what you wear.

Why is this so?

Who is your true self:

You are mature, reasonable, honest and give good advice. People ask for your comments on all sorts of different issues. Sometimes you might find yourself in a dilemma when trapped with a problem, which your heart rather than your head needs to solve.

That sounds like me, or who I think I am. Maybe I should get someone to do a test that evaluates what they think I am. Forget it. See 2nd last point.

Link a song

I have heard it being said before that pop songs are not particularly creative, that they are too similar. I thought it was all bullshit, can't they tell the subtle differences between them?

And then someone comes along and managed to form a new song from 23 Chinese pop songs, using 1 verse from each song. The tunes link up surprisingly well.

http://flash2.1ting.com/znew2/200503/12/9.swf

It's amazing.

Initial D live movie

The action is good, even when I was only 2 rows away from the screen. Even when I had to strain my neck for 2 hours to watch the movie. Drifting on Mount Akina is really possible! I had seen the CG version in the anime, but to watch real cars drift on the actual roads is something else altogether!

Live movie adaptations of such wildly popular comics can be roaring successes, or they can fall flat on their faces. The live action movie is a summarised version of stage1, 2 and the stage 3 movie. It retains the feel of the anime and doesn't take too much artistic license. The bored driving of Takumi, the excitement of the spectators at the races, the love story of Takumi and Mogi. Takahashi Keisuke has been dropped along with a few other characters and the idiocy of Itsuki takes on a life of its own. But it's still good.

There was a bunch of NUS hostelites from KR Hall in their windbreakers and shorts. There was a girl in the first row who kept exclaiming how handsome and cool Jay Chou was. Yes. he has his own page at Wikipedia too. Cool!

It's a dog's life

In Singapore, it is generally not allowed to paste your own notices on the walls or pillars. If you paste a piece of paper advertising your service as a tutor, for example, you will get a call from your friendly town council asking you to remove it. You are not even allowed to paste over the noticeboards of the town councils, even if they have been bare for a long time.

Cold Storage provide noticeboards near their cashiers, and you are allowed to paste your notices on them. So the notices entertain shoppers as they wait in queue and the noticeboards fulfill their purpose in life, and people get a platform to post. It's much easier to post these days, with numerous forums, free classified ads services, your own blogs, webpages and all, but it's still amazing what you can learn sometimes.

"Jacky needs a new garden." There's a photo of a dog with its tongue hanging out.

"Find a new home for Blackie." Another dog.

Gosh, what's it about a dog's life? I have to work hard for the next 30 years to pay off mine, and it doesn't come with a new garden. Can someone find a new home for me? Four legs good, two legs bad, in another way.

SPG unmasked

Sarong Party Girl has been in the news recently, her mug shot on today's Straits Times and she was interviewed over her nude photo posted on her blog. It was her own nude photograph, and her fans got to witness for the first time if she is really as hot as she claimed to be. What's ST trying to do, printing her URL on the national paper, inviting 13-year olds to look at nipples when they are allowed only after they reach 21?

I had stopped following her exploits for a while already, her romps with white skinned men getting boring after a while, though she continues to experiment and to try out new and unconventional things that can be pretty shocking. Such as her bondage games, her search for a sugar daddy and her nonchalance at letting neighbours see her almost naked. It was fascinating at first, but it got to the point that I was wondering, is this all that there is? Of course she would write more about her sexploits on this blog and stay away from other aspects of her life that would still be interesting (probably), but focus too much on one topic and it inevitably gets dull on the senses.

There are many other local bloggers who post about their more rounded lives that are more fun to follow than hers. You want a good and sensuous read? Try Tetanus, though he might not be posting as much in that category for a while. His writings are still heartfelt as ever. Fiona is back, the girl who is amazingly honest and open about her (much more balanced) personal life, complete with pictures of herself so that there is no way you will mistake her for someone else. Calm One has ceased to post at his blog. A voice of reason among the sea of hormonal teens. There are many more gems on the local blogging scene that are worth reading too. It need not focus on how cool you are and what morons everyone else is.

Xiaxue was on the Channel U chat show last night, hosted by Xu Zhengrong and Quan Yifeng, on the topic of pre-marital sex and the changing moral standards of the society (I think). She sat on the panel of youngsters who gave their views that they follow their feelings, they know their limits and are willing to bear the responsibilities of their actions. The older folks (20s to 402?) had a man who took a firm stand on keeping sex strictly within the bounds of marriage, to the point of being offensive towards the youngsters. There is a distinct gap between the traditional values with their restrictions, and the go-by-feeling-and-think-later attitudes of the young. The other 2 members on the "older" panel, a DJ and a teacher, are more enlightened and tried to find a balance between feeling and self-preservation.

Sometimes traditional values serve the purpose of preserving the society that lives by those values. Feelings can lead you to live a bright and spectacular life. It can also be brief if you are not careful and if you lack the necessary wealth, health and brains you need to enjoy and take care of yourself. Values can be boring, but they preserve the society so that the people can collectively improve their lives. Need the values be boring? I think Mr Brown is having lots of fun with his family, as is Faith.

I'll be getting married in half a year's time. It's not just a matter of following my feeling. It is also a path I have consciously chosen, because I believe that some things are worth working for, worth committing oneself to.

paperwork

Paperwork is killing my brain cells... minuting down the previous meeting... compiling lists of things to discuss for the next... calculating the remaining budget... followup on procedures... sending out change requests... getting manpower to photostat a book (cannot just delegate coz nothing will move. wah lau!)... chasing colleagues for their inputs and documents... chasing infra to recover the failed server...

life as a programmer is infinitely easier and more immediately satisfying... code and get it to run, pass a set of tests and your job is done... immediate gratification... more pride because you know you can deliver...

but life is never so simple... and he who is unable to manage will be managed... unless he lives as a hermit... and personal space is already getting more and more scarce... there is no other real option... but to learn to manage... it used to be kill or be killed... now it is manage others or be managed... the new jungle... which has been around for donkey years in fact... and is unescapable and unavoidable... all that a person can ask for is a respite from the pressure... not a permanent escape...

The problem with piracy

... is that you cannot be totally sure you are getting the right stuff.

A friend passed the soft copy of Harry Potter book 5 to me some time back, which I have started reading only recently. Towards the end of the book, it occurred to me that I should verify its authenticity by googling for it. I found a number of reviews and analysis on the plot and characters that you can find in book 5, which I did not find in my version. Hmmm.... looks like I have been reading a fan-fiction version of it, and a very well-written one too. Other than the explicit content, I have no reason to think that this is not the real stuff. Filled with adventures, rivalry between houses, heroism, desperation, history of magic, a trip to the ministry of magic, magical incantations, even a dueling club, a non-hardcore fan like me (or a twit like me) cannot tell the difference.

Looks like piracy doesn't pay does it? But who cares, this fan-fic is as good a read as the real thing, as thick and with as many twists. And I don't mind having spent the time reading the wrong book because it is as good. And I got it free. I also have the authentic version, verified against the hard copy in San bookstore. I will be reading that soon.

And it introduced me to the fantastic world of HP fan fic, which I doubtless will not have the time to explore. Just check out the romance category, which is filled with endless permutations of who will end up with who. Is it Harry and Hermione, or Ron and Hermione, or Harry and Ginny, or....

Energy Fan Girls

Energy is a boyband from Taiwan. They held an autograph session at the shopping mall below my office. Their fans are the uniform-wearing variety. Not JC uniforms, more likely secondary, or maybe even primary.

These kids have a lot of energy. Some had been queueing up since Monday at the MRT station's exit! When I got to office at 9AM, I was amazed to find security guards making them queue up outside Coffee Club on the sealed-off road. After lunch, I fnd them sitting behind baricades at 1AM in the hot sun, some with umbrellas. I wonder if any ambulances had to be called in. Our building management conducted a firedrill the week before, and we were complaining about having to stand in the sun for 15 minutes around 10AM. The things kids will do for love. I hope none of them had piles from sitting for hours in the sun.

By the time I left the office in the evening, there was already a crowd in front of the stage. Finally moved them into air-con! Hope it's the same group that were outside, who got there earliest. If those who got there later went straight to the stage in air-con comfort, then it will be most unfortunate for the poor girls.

Boss was telling us that this is normal, that he also cut out photos of his idols and pasted them into his dunno textbook or notebook when he was their age. I was a little horrified. Somehow I had a little problem mapping his face to those adolescents and imagining him doing the same things. For the sake of retaining my sanity, I shall refrain from writing any more on this topic.

Addicted to exercise

I'm an endorphin junkie. Strenuous exercising releases endorphins into the brain naturally and gives a good feeling. I almost always feel better after a session of running, stretching and working with some light weights in the gym.

I felt on top of the world. I felt at peace, confident that I can take on the world, that I can finish the projects tasked to me. I feel as though I can do project management and take on the politics and human problems that come with it. I feel like I can challenge management and steer the project to a successful outcome. Such high-induced delusions can be dangerous.

If I go to sleep now, I will wake up a very happy person. If only that state of bliss can last until Friday night.

Dead tree documentation

Spent half an afternoon poring over old documents to see if they are relevant to what I'm doing. Some of these things really should be properly scanned in and archived so that they will not be lost over time.

Hard copies tend to be locked up and kept by a single person who does not bother to read them. Centralised storage of hard copied tend to fall into disuse because it takes effort to approach the person in charge of storing the documents and searching through the dead trees. Keeping in soft copy on the network is the way to go, just as the Internet makes information much more accessible than the library.

Some people will say that the documents should be properly handled and stored, but try to discuss in detail about how to preserve and share them out and they will clam up and keep quiet. I believe very firmly that if something is important enough to you, you will do something about it. It's the acid test of whether something is significant enough to you that you preserve it instead of letting it drift away. Whether you really believe in what you preach, or if it is just propaganda.

Using students to scan them in is an option, but cannot be too chek ahk and make 1 person scan all of them in. It's too mind-numbing and demoralising. Perhaps 1 book each, or 1 day each, rotate among the students. It is all within reach, I'll see if they really believe in what they preach.

IT systems are never totally bug-free, that I can understand. But when you have bugs in your documents? In your hard copy?? A colleague opened his cabinet and found a beetle crawling among his papers. A living, breathing, crawling bug. All of us felt like fainting. Nope, it's not a bookworm, it's a bug. At least soft copied will not have beetles crawling around.

Friends in need

I'm very thankful for the new friends who keep volunteering to help me with my wedding preparations, and those who will ask from time to time how my preparations are. The old friends who called me up to offer to run through the activities with us, and those who are more than willing to help out when asked.

Some say it takes a crisis to see who your real friends are. I find that a wedding also has a way of drawing people nearer. People whom you otherwise won't have a chance to meet actually made an effort to travel to meet with you. Some are cool about it and gave the impression that they did not really want to be involved.

Perhaps those who have actually gone through it themselves are more willing to help, knowing how tough it can be for the inexperienced to go it alone. Hey, this is the first time we are doing it! But already I'm filled with admiration for those who have helped with numerous weddings already and are still more than willing to pitch in and help.

There are still lots of things that we need to do, and time is drawing nearer. Somehow we will manage to finish up, as countless others before us have managed to do. Perhaps we really should take a project management approach towards this and add in schedules, resources, tasks, stakeholders and all that stuff.

Note to self: make lots of lists when I get home. I need at least the milestones and key personnel also.