No Roots

Budgeting for Teens

2009-05-29T12:56:00.005+08:00

These are the resources used in my recent presentation.My Inspiration...Young & Free Alberta: Shoebox BudgetDownloads:Budget Work Sheet (PDF 50k)Presentation (Powerpoint 4.5 Mb)Try This: Youth Budget Calculator

I've Kinda Moved

2008-02-29T16:49:00.001+08:00

Of late I'm doing more things here: A Restless Mind

Never Buy a Cat

2008-01-27T17:21:00.000+08:00

There is no need to buy a cat - ever.If you want a cat, get one from the SPCA. In Singapore you can also go to the Cat Welfare Society or better still, visit Phyllis' place: Paw Pledge. She is housing over 300 cats rescued from around the island. A number of the cats she houses are listed here.If you like cats but don't feel you can give a home to one right now, then do this:1. Visit Paw Pledge

Digital Photo Frames Snob Warning

2008-01-17T12:20:00.000+08:00

I recently picked up a digital photo frame on an impulse. A guy in my office has one that looks pretty good so I grabbed one at the checkout counter of the computer place where I was buying a new external hard drive.I like the concept but the one I got really sucks. It constantly displays a clock in one corner (there is no way to turn this off), the picture quality is low, the shortest view

Blogger Captcha

2008-01-17T11:41:00.000+08:00

Is it me, or has the Blogger captcha for blog posts gone wonky? I have to retry the captcha 2-3 times before it accepts my entry these days. And I know I'm putting the right letters in. I've had friends verify this.It's borked.I wonder if Blogger will notice when the number of people asking to have the captcha removed starts to increase.

Network Safety and Monitoring

2008-01-17T11:10:00.000+08:00

The quest continues. How do you make your machine safe on an open network?Well I actually got an answer from Commander Chris Wagoner over at All Experts:All you really need to have is a good firewall, a good virus software, and one or two malware programs. I use AVG Anti-virus Pro, Spy Bot Search and Destroy (free), AdAware 2007 (free), and Tiny Personal Firewall. And I run them religiously every

Hiding Your Computer from Ping

2008-01-17T10:41:00.000+08:00

As part of my quest to figure out how to run an open home network safely, I've come across this useful tidbit worth passing on:The Sygate Firewall (amongst others) has a vulnerability.My IT put me on to this (this is a funny guy who is Chinese but speaks with a Russian accent because he comes from some far off province on the Russian border).Your computer should be invisible to "pings" (messages

Bond Stuff: New Issue Shorts

2008-01-15T14:10:00.000+08:00

File this post under "sharing expertise few people want."As I'm in a position where I have to train a new recruit to understand the business I'm in, I figured why not post about the most basic topics as there may be others out there who want to now...When a company (aka "Issuer") issues a new bond, typically the bank arranging the deal will sell more bonds than the company issues. For instance if

The Heresy of Free Airwaves

2008-01-15T13:35:00.000+08:00

Security guru Bruce Schneier did a piece a while back about how his home network is not locked: Steal this Wifi.The bottom line for him is that his computer should be secure on any open network outside the home so why not open the home network? The man has a point. But of course the obvious question is: how do you secure your computer for an open network?Simply asking the question gets people

Singapore Credit Card Info

2008-01-14T00:01:00.000+08:00

Shamelessly stolen from here.POSB Everyday Credit CardSP Services/StarHub - 1%SPC Petrol - 5%Carrefour - 5% - up to 10% (Fri) sometimeWatsons - 3% - up to 6% sometimeKFC Home Delivery - 10%UOB One Card (qtrly period)$30 cash rebate for at least $300 for three consecutive months...$80 cash rebate for at least $800 for three consecutive months...Citibank Divdends CardUp to 5% - Cash in cheque for

Take My Stuff

2008-01-13T23:58:00.000+08:00

I've upgraded my high-tech freecycling to a community web app anyone may use:http://stickyrice.dreamhosters.com/It's kinda in the testing phase right now. I don't expect this to be widely used but it is handy for freecyclers who don't like to deal with a lot of mail.

Great Presentations Online

2007-12-05T12:17:00.000+08:00

The experts in action: Is There Life After Death by PowerPoint? (4min)Very funny look at major PowerPoint mistakes. A quick one to warm you up. TED Talks: Sir Ken Robinson: Do Schools Kill Creativity? (20 min)There are a lot of fantastic talks at this website but this one is my favorite. His pace and use of humour is brilliant. This is as good as it gets.Steve Jobs: Keynote Address 2006 (1h12

High-Tech Freecycling

2007-12-03T09:29:00.000+08:00

I'm a bit fanatical about not wasting things. "This is perfectly good" is a phrase I have applied to 10 year old shoes with holes in them as well as an ancient MP3 player I can no longer sync to my PC. I cannot bear to throw anything away.But I am happy to sell-away, give-away and recycle.Of late I've been into Freecycling. This a way to give away your used stuff by offering it to people on the

Messiah by Heart

2007-12-03T09:13:00.000+08:00

On Saturday evening we (the SSC) performed Handel's Messiah. This is pretty standard fare for choirs but in this case we did it without scores ie no music... by heart. Oh and by the way if you are late tuning into my life, this isn't some rinky-dink little church choir we're talking about... This is the Symphonic Choir and people were paying to hear us either succeed or fail gloriously.To make a

Online Travel Resources

2007-09-23T17:37:00.000+08:00

Not tested but worth looking into before my next trip:Travel Videos: http://www.travelistic.com/ Travel Blogs and Planning:http://realtravel.com/http://www.unearthtravel.com/http://www.virtualtourist.com/http://www.travbuddy.com/http://www.mytripbook.com/http://www.everytrail.com/http://www.vcarious.com/http://www.triporama.com/http://www.zopto.com/http://matadortravel.com/http://www.jauntlet.com

VBA Word Macro: Shorten Lines

2007-07-18T13:30:00.000+08:00

I created this VBA macro for Microsoft Word so that I could insert paragraph returns at suitable places in a doc in order that each line was no more than 80 characters (so that when I send it to bloomberg it formats properly).I'm sure this could be prettier but then again I don't hack for a living...http://blog.stickyrice.net/wordmacro/Some key words...wdCharacter, If Selection.Text = Chr(13)

Indo Today Stylesheet Bookmarklet

2007-02-01T11:03:00.000+08:00

To make you know who's site more readable...plus lets you right-click. WORKS IN FIREFOXDrag or copy this to your favorites: IndoStyle

Diego Stories: What God Hears

2006-10-30T14:47:00.000+08:00

Another Diego story.Margo Reports:On Sunday we were in church and the guy doing the part of the service where the mass reponds was singing off pitch. It was so bad even my tone deaf husband could hear it. So we all started giggling and looking at each other. When I tried to get Diego to join us in our laughter, he smiled at me and said "Yes but it is still music to God's ears."

Secret 9-Point Formula to Financial Success

2006-10-12T12:56:00.000+08:00

An article at MarketWatch suggests that the best financial advice you can ever get comes from Dilbert. 'Dilbert' deserves the economics Nobel outlines cartoonist Scott Adam's secret nine-point formula to personal investing as revealed in "Dilbert and the Way of the Weasels.". "Everything else you may want to do with your money is a bad idea."Make a willPay off your credit cards Get term life

Roundup: Online Digital Photo Albums

2006-10-12T12:34:00.000+08:00

FlickrFree: 20 MB monthly upload limit / 3 photosets Pro account $25/yearNetworking through groupsMost popular photo sharing site on netPowerful user interfaceTablo | FeaturesFree Unlimited storageUnique themes with integration of textCan be used in combination with Flickr for photo displayMy Photo Album | Features Unlimited Free Storage and Albums Voting & Comments Photo and Video Sharing

7 Do's and 7 Don'ts of Office E-mail

2006-10-11T18:45:00.000+08:00

7 Do's: The BasicsMake sure the subject clearly relates to the purpose of the messageClearly state the action you want the receiver to perform in the first sentenceClearly state when you need a replyBe as brief as possibleProvide the necessary data and/or documentsOnly send the message to relevant recipientsBefore sending, run the spell checker and grammar tool and re-read7 Don'ts: The

Who else is on the Notorious Markets List?

2006-10-10T09:15:00.000+08:00

There have been numerous reports that allofmp3.com is at the top of the "Notorious Markets List" - that meaning that the market are notorious, not the list. But who else is on this list? Does it really exist?It does. The list, compiled by the Office of the United States Trade Representative, identifies markets which do not protect Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) thus permitting counterfeiting

Ray Anderson on Sustainability

2006-10-08T10:24:00.000+08:00

Diego Stories: Sunday School

2006-10-01T14:45:00.000+08:00

Another Diego story.The boys were asked if they liked Sunday school. Diego, of course, replied in the affirmative. Matteo (8) rolled his eyes and gave a long reply:Church is sooooo boring. Everying is "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus." Take a look around you. Do you see Jesus anywhere? If you think Jesus is going to help you, you are DELUDED. He doesn't even exist. Sheesh!Margo, the boys' mom, has serious

Diego Stories: Who Did It?

2006-09-15T14:41:00.000+08:00

Another Diego storyMatteo and Diego got into a religious discussion...Diego: Do you know why Jesus died?Matteo: The village people killed him?Diego: No! He died to save us. For our sins.Matteo: Oh. You mean he committed suicide?Diego: NO! It's your sins that killed him. YOU killed him.Matteo: Hey! I did NOT kill him. How can you accuse me of murder? I didn't murder him. I wasn't even BORN then. I

Diego Stories: A Role Model

2006-07-30T13:14:00.000+08:00

While generally adults are supposed to be role models for children, with Diego it's usually the other way around. I learned this first hand.I accompanied Diego and his dad to a choir audition. The kids auditioned 3 at a time and when Diego emerged, I asked him how he did. Then I asked about the other kids who went in with him.Me: How did the other boys do?Diego: OK I guess.Me: What about the fat

Bookmarklet: Enable Right Click and More

2006-06-28T10:24:00.000+08:00

Here is the mother of all "enable bookmarklets".Ever go to a site where right click has been disabled, or perhaps drag and select or view source? This bookmarklet restores everything. javascript:(function(){var events='onmouseup,onmousedown,onBeforePrint, ondragstart,onselectstart,oncontextmenu'.split(',');for(var%20i=0;i

Super-Fast 2: Delicious Bookmarklet

2006-06-20T12:34:00.000+08:00

This is a spin on John Resig's bookmarklet which I could never quite get to work on my office IE.This bookmarklet will tag a page in delicious without you having to load the delicious tag page. This speeds up the process considerably. How my bookmarklet differs from JR's is simply that (1)it prompts you to input the tags and (2)doesn't close the page upon bookmarking.JR's bookmarklet called for a

Career Stuff You Should Know Before You Need To Know It

2006-06-14T21:18:00.000+08:00

No matter how brilliant you are nor how fantastic you are performing in your job, one day you could find yourself out on the street due to corporate cost cutting, office politics or any number of unanticipated threats to your career including some guy trading out of his living room who just made your company bankrupt.In order to prepare for such an event, you need to keep track of your ongoing

CSS: Works in IE but not Firefox?!

2006-05-23T18:41:00.000+08:00

So you've put together a template that looks great in IE. But when you check it out in Firefox it's a mess! Are these bugs? Purists will tell you that the Firefox is reading the CSS right... it's your IE that is wrong. Whatever. The point is you need a fix. But before going to a lot of work, make sure you have the latest Firefox installed as previous version have bugs you needn't waste time

Gunung Lambak

2006-05-22T10:06:00.000+08:00

Gunung Lambak is a hill (read: very small mountain - 510m) near Kluang in Malaysia. It's a good day trip for trekkers out of Singapore - which is what I was this past weekend.The trek was rated easy - this is rather misleading. It is relatively short but the upper part of the trail is very steep and much of the climb involved scrambling on all fours instead of hiking. Pictures from this guy's

Raw Foodie Singapore: Green Bags

2006-05-12T16:42:00.000+08:00

One problem with having a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables is that they can spoil and there's wastage. Many foods ripen and spoil due to the release of ethylene. For detailed info about this process see here.There is a solution in the form of ethylene absorbing bags. The most well known brand is Evert Fresh but these are not available in Singapore. There was another brand called Ever Fresh from

Missa Solemnis: Into the Air

2006-04-24T12:07:00.000+08:00

I breathed a song into the air,It fell to earth, I knew not where;Henry Wadsworth LongfellowOn Saturday I performed Beethoven's Missa Solemnis with the SSC and SSO. Missa Solemnis is a challenging piece of work. Besides being regarded as one of the greatest choral compositions, it is infamous for the technically difficult singing required in the third movement, Credo. I spent a long time

vCJD: Incidence of Mad Cow on the Decline

2006-04-17T16:50:00.000+08:00

If you haven't got Mad Cow yet, it's likely that you'll get away with all those Big Macs you ate in the 80's.Deaths from variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob diseaseBSE was initially recognized in cattle in the UK in 1986. It is estimated that up to 400,000 cattle infected with BSE entered the human food chain in the 1980s. The epidemic in cattle in Britain reached incredible proportions: by 1993 more than

Veggie or Organic Omnivore?

2006-04-10T17:39:00.000+08:00

There is metabolic variance within the human species which means that there is no one diet that will suit everyone.- Andrew P A very pragmatic rebuttal of Stephen Byrnes' Myths of Vegetarianism is offered by mystery man Andrew P. Although I am definitely an omnivore, I found AP's article valuable. Instead of getting into the usual unsubstantiatedarguments offered by many vegetarians (and more

FRS Robot Judging 2006

2006-03-17T11:53:00.000+08:00

I spent two days this week as a judge of the FIRST Robotics Singapore (FRS 2006) competition. This is a fantastic experience which is great fun and I would recommend to anybody. Teams will be awarded their prizes today but I wanted to give my own special mention of some of the participants who grabbed my attention.Hua Yi: Cyclopeantency SensationAll the judges were impressed with these guys. They

Going Raw in Singapore

2006-02-27T11:10:00.000+08:00

Recently I've moved to a "mostly raw" diet. To facilitate putting together tasty gourmet raw meals, certain tools are recommended. Finding these in Singapore was no easy job. So here, for those interested, are the fruits of my research. Note that all prices are in Singapore dollars:DehydratorsEzidri - You can buy this from Tangs or direct from the distributor in Singapore, K-Industrial. They have

Harry's Boat Quay

2006-02-14T07:57:00.000+08:00

Singapore isn't exactly famous for good service but Harry's took the cake last night. A number of dishes that my party ordered were not available but they didn't bother to advise us of this fact until the kitchen was closed and it was too late to prepare substitutes. This left 3 out of 11 of us without food. When we ask them to make repairs, the manager on duty generously offered to allow us to "

Bogus E-mail Messages

2005-11-30T11:13:00.000+08:00

One of my major pet peeves is bogus e-mail spam. They are the body of factually inaccurate e-mails in circulation which broadly fall into the categories of funny, sappy or alarmist. There are few people that find these things as annoying as I do, except, perhaps, those poor souls accused of writing the stuff. I want people to know that I take care with my writing, and try to keep my standards

Gay Genes

2005-09-20T21:13:00.000+08:00

I've got to get this post out of my system... the gay gene thing.I was interested to see this comment at the bottom of a "scientific" blog post:While on the subject of press reports, I can't resist repeating the classic headline from Sunday's über-tabloid, The News of the World: 'Cocaine Kate's 3-in-Bed Lesbian Orgy'. (The 'Kate' is Kate Moss, in case you hadn't guessed.) Nothing to do with GNXP,

Rehearsing with John Nelson

2005-09-20T11:08:00.000+08:00

Last night the choir worked with John Nelson for the first time. Lim Yau has been preparing us for Elijah these last few month but has now handed over the reigns.Usually when another conductor takes over from Lim Yau, we only get him for one rehearsal or less prior to the tutti rehearsals with orchestra and soloists. However Nelson is taking us for two full rehearsals before the SSO joins us. To

Picking Fights

2005-09-13T13:46:00.000+08:00

God the Pachinko PlayerIt's time to come clean. I've been bashing Intelligent Design a lot lately and I'm starting to feel bad about it. It feels like being mean to small helpless animals. Of course I realize that some of these poor creatures aren't so helpless and actually run the American government. Still it seems nasty to pick on simple folk. They know not what they do. As for my own beliefs,

Sex & Music: The Power of the Baton

2005-08-24T13:46:00.000+08:00

A musician I know, who shall remain nameless (you know who you are) said recently that "a well sounded chord by a chorus of voices is better than really great sex." The point was made to emphasize where music fits into his hierarchy of priorities and no doubt pleasure. It is a sentiment that probably few would agree with (great sex, after all, is so elusive) but really we should not be

Make Your Own Podcast

2005-08-05T11:35:00.000+08:00

You've been a listener, now you're hooked and are ready to try create your own:Beginner's GuideHow To: Good Guide for Mac UsersMastering PodcastingSykpecasting: Interviews via SkypeEquipment: Heavy DutyBasically you need to acquire the following skills:Putting together interesting contentPresentationRecording and editing of wave filesRSSPromotion (getting your podcast out there)My general advice

A Visit to Suburbia

2005-07-26T12:49:00.000+08:00

What I did on my trip to Suburbia:Watched the following TV programs (amongst others):OprahJudge JudyDr. PhilCNN Headlines (which I've learned talks a lot more about fashion than CNN International)I saw commercials for:Incontinence padsHerpes medicineWhite blood cell booster for chemotherapy patients Drugs to make your dog smarter(All available by asking your doctor/vet or going online for home

The Gauntlet of Civilization

2005-07-07T22:51:00.000+08:00

or.."Cell Phones Don't an Advanced Civilization Make"A Reaction to London...Scenario One:There is a zen koan about The Thief Who Became A Disciple. A monk when asked to testify against a man who stole from him, said he gave freely thus there was no theft. The thief was touched and became his disciple.Now what if he hadn't been a thief but a murderer? He would have killed the teacher before

Love The Plateau

2005-06-24T15:44:00.000+08:00

I remain a relative newbie at choral singing. I could do this for another 10 years and I'd still be a novice compared to most of the people in the choir who have been doing this their whole lives. Still, having been at this for about 2 years now, my awareness and understanding is starting to grow. When I started I was just trying to keep up and do my best to respond to the conductor. But now I

Noteworthy Composer for Choir

2005-06-21T22:39:00.000+08:00

This blog entry details how I use Noteworthy Composer ("NC") as a tool for choral practice. To learn more about Noteworthy Composer, visit their website here. NC is a simple program that lets you "compose" music on a computer by typing in notes using your computer keyboard. It also has the ability to open midi files and extract the music in those files into a score!!!What a lot of people don't

Instant Guide to BitTorrent

2005-06-21T21:37:00.000+08:00

This is yet another very quick guide to technology for friends!What is BitTorrent?This is a way of sharing files between computers over the internet ("peer-to-peer"). In some ways this is similar to Napster or Kazaa ie you use a piece of free software to download files from other users and they can upload from you. The difference is that instead of downloading an entire file from one other person

Elijah Part 1: Demiurge 1 – Baal 0

2005-06-04T17:39:00.000+08:00

The Creator God of the Old Testament, the Demiurge, was generally regarded by Gnostics as not the genuine ultimate God who is the source and "the depth" of reality. Since the God of the Old Testament is jealous, vengeful, judgmental, and undoubtedly masculine, [...]. Kelley L. Ross , Ph.D.Enter the story of Elijah brought to life by the music of Mendelssohn as an oratorio. Elijah is an old

Children's Philharmonic Choir

2005-05-15T19:14:00.000+08:00

There were two ladies and a man. The two ladies ran the audition. The man just helped us relax... he pushed my shoulders down 'cus they were too tight. I saw him the week before conducting [at the SSO Beethoven's 9th concert]. I recognize him from his hair.Diego Encarnacion, 9The Children's Philharmonic Choir had auditions today at the YMCA. If you're interested in having your kid try out,

Podcast Basics

2005-05-14T20:38:00.000+08:00

For all my friends who still don't know what a podcasts are and/or how to get them.1 - Get the iPodder software here: http://www.ipodder.org/directory/4/ipodderSoftware You don't actually need the software to listen to podcasts - they are simply MP3 files. This just faciliates subscribing to podcast feeds and syncing with your MP3 player.2 - Get the content here: http://www.podcastalley.com/

Hedgies & Charlies

2005-05-14T12:14:00.000+08:00

Once upon a time all you had were Soros, Merriweather, the Charlie Chans of this world and some Nobel Laureates. Now there's a trillion dollars in hedge funds each trying to make 20%. The whole banking system doesn't even make $200bn a year so it's impossible. It's not going to happen.Charlie Chan, 13 May 2005

Ode Post Mortem

2005-05-08T15:32:00.000+08:00

Ode Post Mortem SSC 25th ANNIVERSARYBEETHOVEN'S CHORAL SYMPHONYDATEMay 6, 2005FEATURINGSingapore Symphony Orchestra Lim Yau conductorLim Yan pianoTamara Matthews sopranoGraciela Araya mezzo-sopranoPaul Austin Kelly tenorJohannes Mannov bassSingapore Symphony ChorusThe Philharmonic Chamber Choir, SingaporeSingapore Bible College ChoraleHallelujah Chorus PROGRAMMEBEETHOVEN- Choral Fantasy (19')

The Mechanics of Making Music

2005-05-03T14:08:00.000+08:00

This Friday, May 6th, we (the choir) perform Beethoven's 9th as well as his Choral Fantasy. Last night was the first rehearsal held at the Esplanade (usually the SSC rehearses at the Victoria Concert Hall). As usual, I arrived early in the hopes of catching the orchestra rehearsing. There is nothing more aurally exhilarating than listening to the SSO when you have the Esplanade to yourself. I've

Don't Blink

2005-04-25T13:54:00.000+08:00

Blink was touted as one of those "must read" business books. It is written by Malcolm Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point, which was brilliant and I recommend highly. Blink however was not so impressive. It is one of many books that is essentially a compilation of stories which, presumably, support the author's thesis.Gladwell relied heavily on the anecdotes – so much so that they frequently

SETI: Calling Collect

2005-04-24T23:09:00.000+08:00

I have a peeve about SETI. SETI searches the airwaves for a call from ET. Although most scientists agree that odds are in favour of intelligent life out there, as yet we haven't found evidence of it.As it happens, we humans don't bother sending a signal out ourselves. This is because of (1) the energy and thus cost involved and (2) the payback would take several thousand years so why bother.Well

Dark Matter

2005-04-24T21:27:00.000+08:00

This week on Hardtalk Extra, Gavin Esler interviewed Michio Kaku, a string theorist who discussed the theory of the Multiverse and how our present universe is expanding too rapidly and will one day freeze over. No worries, there is a chance that we could make our escape through a wormhole into a baby universe if we could just figure how to get through a black hole without being reduced to a

The Red Pill

2005-04-17T23:27:00.000+08:00

If you'd told us the truth, we would've told you to shove that red pill right up your ass.Cypher, The MatrixWhat if I told you that you had the choice between (Red Pill) learning that the matrix, which underlies our modern way of life, is an illusion or (Blue Pill) carrying on enjoying the illusion? Well this is about the Red Pill. You can choose to take it or not. But the fact is that the Red

Comfort Cows

2005-04-16T23:27:00.000+08:00

In a lot of countries, you can drive out of the city, and soon you are in farm country and can see gangs of cows loitering in the fields. Kids in Singapore haven't been able to experience this... until now. Comfort is doing a promo campaign which involves planting these colorful cows everywhere. It seems in fact that the cows are multiplying as there are more each day... Perhaps this can explain

Salmon and Cedar

2005-04-10T21:59:00.000+08:00

Sunny my reflexologist was here this afternoon. This involves a lot of massage oil, some aromatherapy and me moaning occasionally and saying "tong, tong!" which is Chinese for pain. Sunny doesn't speak much English and that's usually the extent of our conversation. But seems he knows enough to be able to communicate that Lan Shui's wife had his first baby (and just remember: you heard it here

Another Quake in Indonesia

2005-04-10T18:33:00.000+08:00

It's about 6:33pm and a tremor just hit Singapore. I'm writing this as the lights are still swinging around. We don't get much in the way of tremors unless soemthing sizeable hits Indonesia like last week. Watch this space... Update (1 hour later):Well we got another shake at about 7:15pm - just a bit weaker. The original quake has now been registered at USGS at a magnitude of 6.8. The second one

Out with the Old

2005-04-10T00:12:00.000+08:00

Health Warning: I'm about to ramble...For all of you who have been reading this blog (and I mean all three of you) you will note that my blog has had a facelift. And as we're talking, I apologize to everyone who wrote me at my gmail account. I don't know what possessed me to use that as the contact address for this blog other than perhaps, at the time, I was chuffed that I got an account. But

A House of Cards

2005-04-07T13:01:00.000+08:00

The markets have been messy lately. First there was the outlook revision of General Motors. On 16 March S&P changed GM's rating from BBB- stable to negative flagging a potential move to non-investment grade; Moody's followed with a downgrade to one notch above junk. The credit warning resulted in spreads widening on GM and in turn funds everwhere began selling their Emerging Market positions.

The quake could cause a "widely destructive tsunami"

2005-03-29T09:15:00.000+08:00

This from the Beeb: Huge quake hits Indonesian coast Power blackouts and major panic ensued, local officials told AFP news agency. The US Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said the quake could cause a "widely destructive tsunami" and it was felt as far away as Malaysia. The quake was felt across the region with people in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, some 500km away, evacuating high-rise

Earthquake: 12:09 am

2005-03-29T01:07:00.000+08:00

Well we just had a tremor. It always starts the same way (in my vast experience of 3 tremors). First I think the people upstairs are being too damn loud. We're talking over zealous sex here. Then I realise the floor is moving and reconsider the cause of the banging.The quake, 8.2 on the Richter scale, was here:2.3N 97.1E - NORTHERN SUMATERA, INDONESIAThe good news is there is no risk of Tsunami

How to Earn Good Net Karma: The Laws of Narma

2005-03-28T13:23:00.000+08:00

This morning I realised that I have way more ear wax when I'm in Singapore than when I'm in Canada. Gross but true. Not 5 minutes later, while surfing for something else altogether, I came across this:Wet, sticky earwax is more common in hot, moist environments.I find this weird cyber serendipity happening to me a lot lately. The force is with me. But why? Being able to find stuff easily - or

I haven't been this cold in 2 weeks

2005-03-21T15:37:00.001+08:00

I'm back in Singapore having spent the last two weeks in Toronto. Although it was around zero Celsius for my entire trip, thanks to modern heating I was never cold. However I'm now sitting at my desk and my extremities are turning blue due to over zealous air conditioning. Time to go run my hands under warm water... again.It's a sunny day today... I can tell because when I was outside this

How To Interview

2005-03-02T18:39:00.000+08:00

I've just finished interviewing 20 candidates from NUS, SMU and NTU over the past week. I now have some views on this subject! Here are my suggestions...First - a few specific tips:1. Be on time! Being late may screw your chances irreparably.2. Guys: don't wear an earring. Personally this doesn't bug me but upon canvassing my colleagues, a LOT would disqualify you on this count.3. Dress smart

On the Inside of an Icon

2005-02-19T23:03:00.000+08:00

This week I went to Sydney for business (photos). This largely involved lying in my hotel with food poisoning but that's another story. As I was in town, I had to check out the Sydney Opera House.On Thursday I went to see Carmen in the Opera Theatre along with a lot of pensioners and a few tourists (the average age of the audience was about 65). The place was packed and with tickets going at $220

Smoke Scream

2005-02-10T23:36:00.000+08:00

For over a week, the smell of smoke has rolled in after dark. During the day, the skies are clear and the air smells fine. But at night, when the temperature drops, the winds seem to shift and smoke blows in from Sumatera. This has given me and several of my friends sore throats and for the last three days, my lymph nodes have been throbbing. It sucks. Of course there is NOTHING in the newspaper

Recycling in Singapore

2005-02-09T11:04:00.000+08:00

Singapore is the ideal place for a national recycling program. You would simply mandate that everyone recycles (as in Canada) on pain of egregious fines (fines are big here) and in a short time you'd have over 90% recycling rates. But that doesn't happened now. Is it because Singaporeans are among the laziest people in the world?So where does all the waste in this country goes... Into landfills?

Why Do People Share?

2005-02-08T10:33:00.000+08:00

Economists have not always found it easy to explain why self-interested people would freely share scarce, privately owned resources. The Economist, 5 Feb 2005I find it amazing that this question is being asked. Perhaps it is because the question is posed wrongly. It should be, Why do people freely share their creations? Because people create. We love to create. The desire to create can outweighed

CA 125 Happy Ending

2005-01-28T14:17:00.000+08:00

After my friend's initial scare with elevated CA-125 levels, she had a CT scan which was negative for swollen lympnodes. So fast forward 1 month and she did another blood test. This time her CA-125 level had increased from 68 to 101. Well 101 is usually her lucky number but not this time. Panic. It's worth pointing out here that one reading higher than the other doesn't mean there's been an

Scary Gifts

2004-12-22T11:19:00.000+08:00

Christmas came early for me this year. I had a bad scare last week. My dearest friend got some bad results back from her health screen. Ultrasound and X-ray detected a mass on her right ovary and her CA-125 tumour marker (for ovarian cancer) was 68 - twice the acceptable level and 7 times normal. She made an appointment with a gynie. I consulted Google, of course. It wasn't comforting. Ovarian

ResponsAbility

2004-12-15T23:36:00.000+08:00

I can't really spell. I blame it on phonetics and french immersion. Nowadays I can hide my disability with a spell checker. Once upon a time I couldn't. In university, I was involved in a student rally that turned into a bit of a fiasco. We were trying to keep school fees from being increased. I was in charge of getting the posters done so I ordered a few from a student run poster company. On

Glag Post Mortum

2004-11-22T00:52:00.000+08:00

The SCC Performed Janacek's Glagolitic Mass on Saturday 20 November.I woke up with a bit of post concert depression yesterday. It wasn't as bad as in the past though. Perhaps I wasn't as attached to Janacek as Mahler (highly possible), perhaps I'm getting used to it (maybe) or perhaps I felt we did a better job at nailing this one (we did) so I could let go without regret.In the end, everything

Autologous in Singapore

2004-11-08T11:11:00.000+08:00

Despite many people assuring me the opposite is true, you cannot store your own blood in Singapore. They will only do autologous transfusion for a designated surgery. Long ago I studied the prevalence of O Negative blood in Singapore. Many of the links there are now dead but the bottom line is, there are not a lot of people with O negative in Singapore. Plus given that they will now not accept

Smart Ass

2004-11-07T23:26:00.000+08:00

Pampers' latest claim: their diapers will make your baby smarter. Pampers are claiming that because their diapers can sustain "5 wettings and still permit baby mobility", they will help the baby's development. Supposedly the more a baby moves, the quicker his/her brain develops. The alternative, of course, is to no wait 5 wettings before chaning the poor kid's diapers.

Bye Bye Zone Alarm

2004-10-27T20:45:00.000+08:00

For the second time, end the Zone Alarm Pro trial period and moving back to the free version has messed up my system. So I decided to uninstall the thing once and for all. I've run the uninstaller though I'm on notice from various sources on the web that it's pretty sticky and a number of annoying files get left behind. When I rebooted after the uninstal, my Explorer default font size had been

Adamantine Fate

2004-10-16T10:14:00.000+08:00

After much searching, I have found it... The words to Janacek's Glagolitic Mass is here: MŠA GLAGOLSKAJA. This saves me typing it out in order to have a handy one pager for practicing. With far too many consonants and a famine of vowels, ancient Czech is a bit of a tongue twister and takes some effort to get used to. But that is the job at hand! The SSC is performing this November 20th. It's

By Any Other Name

2004-10-15T13:59:00.000+08:00

My meetings this week had me in conversation with a guy called Bunny and another called Boopsie. The guy called Sue has nothing on these two. There's only one place grown men (or grown women for that matter) can have such names and still command the respect of their high powered positions... The Philippines.

Too Nice

2004-10-11T18:07:00.000+08:00

I don't know how to take it when someone is really nice to me. When someone is genuinely, selflessly nice, I kind of fall apart inside. I just got off the phone with a colleague of mine. He is a relatively young and extremely successful managing director at my bank. He has been promoted and is now moving out of Asia. I called him on a deal, and he took the opportunity to thank me for my help

K-mart Air

2004-10-02T21:54:00.000+08:00

I was flying biz class from Toronto to Vancouver on Air Canada this evening. I was reading Eats, Shoots and Leaves and was right in the middle of the chapter on the misuse of the apostrophe (usually in cahoots with the letter S) when dinner was served along with a little irony. After the meal came an announcement that for $2 you could buy desert. That seemed chincy but I'll expect anything on a

In Toronto

2004-10-02T04:28:00.000+08:00

I'm on the last day of a two week trip to North America. It started with a week in New York where I had some meetings for work. Manhattan was a crazy place to be last week with Bush in town staying around the corner from me at the Waldorf. There were about 20 cops per city block and dozens of secret service camped out at my hotel (The Palace). After that it was 4 days in Ottawa - pretty, quiet

Home is a place that doesn't exist

2004-09-14T10:09:00.000+08:00

I have a dream of living in a house in a cool climate. I have a big kitchen where in my minds eye, a large earthenware bowl of fresh salad sits on an old wooden table before a late lunch. The shelves are lined with jams, pickles and preserves. There is half a loaf of bread bought that morning on a little indulgent trip to the local bakery. It sits on the table next to the salad along with cheese

On Auto Surgery

2004-09-07T11:47:00.000+08:00

After forcing myself to get loads of rest over the weekend, my tinnitus has subsided completely... well as complete as it gets. The very faint high pitched whine is still there at night if I listen carefully. Otherwise I can enjoy total silence. And as for the horrible little bubble in my mouth, I finally effected a permanent cure by hacking the whole thing off with a pair of nail clippers then

Is Google your doctor?

2004-09-04T11:17:00.000+08:00

Google is my doctor, but for anything of concern, I always get a second opinion because Google is a bit of a quack. For instance I recently asked Dr. Google about a small mouth ulcer on the inside of my lip. It's been there 3 weeks and appears set to stay. I searched on lump, translucent, purplish, hard, clear, mouth, ulcer, blister, canker... Google's diagnosis? Mouth Cancer. It was pretty

How to cure Tinnitus

2004-09-01T08:51:00.000+08:00

I have tinnitus. It first hit me when I was 30 after I'd not been sleeping enough for a period of about 2 weeks. I was also very unhappy with my job and stressing out over a career move... plus I'd been drinking more than usual (for me that meant going from nothing to getting drunk once a week with friends from work). My system was under a lot of stress. Previously I had suffered from TMJ

My WWF Moment

2004-08-23T11:17:00.000+08:00

On Saturday afternoon I ended up being sent to hospital with a possibly broken neck. Not good. That I'm sitting here now typing this means it turned out OK but at the time is was rather frightening.I went to an offsite for work on Saturday at Sentosa. It consisted mostly of sports which were meant to encourage team spirit. This included volleyball, soccer and a very strange rugby-American

One last chance for Olympic cash... I mean gold

2004-08-20T10:50:00.000+08:00

I've lost my brief interest in badminton. We had such high hopes for dear Ronaldo to win the $1m bribe prize and bring Singapore a gold medal. After a brilliant bashing of the 1st seed in the first round of the tourney, he walked over some big white german in the second round but then completely choke in in a 15-10, 15-1 defeat to some guy from Thailand - a country whose athletic fame comes from

The Olympian 5 Ring circus

2004-08-17T11:04:00.000+08:00

Olympics coverage in Singapore is a rather sad affair. Firstly, it consists largely of badminton and table tennis with cursory glances at other sports that Singapore has no hope of qualifying for. Secondly, it only comes on at 11pm for an hour long recap... unless of course you are gainfully unemployed and free to watch the live broadcast of badminton matches at 2:30 in the afternoon. Watching

Home Again

2004-08-05T14:03:00.000+08:00

I've been in Canada for the past two weeks. Being there was nice... getting there and back was no piknik. I thought it was bad enough that I had to spend 8 hours in JFK waiting for my connecting flight on the way to Toronto... but on the way back, Air Canada got to Newark 2 hours late and I missed my connecting flight. That meant I had to entertain myself at the Marriot Newark for 24 hours as SQ

1965

2004-07-17T19:34:00.000+08:00

It's Saturday evening and the show has started. At this time of year, for 6 weeks, I get a free aerial show every Saturday. It starts with the choppers: 3 chinooks fly over the basin about 400 meters from my flat. One is dragging a huge Singapore flag. About 2 minutes later, 5 fighter jets fly over the National Stadium, right by my condo. The whole building buzzes to the roar of engines. It's

What a View

2004-07-16T10:57:00.000+08:00

I just thought I'd share a few pictures of the show mother nature has been providing me lately.It rained most of the week with mornings looking either like this:Or like this:I suppose if I had nothing better to do at 7:30 in the morning I could have waited around for some lightening to dramatize the shots... As it stands, I've always got something better to do at that time: sleep.The rain was

Grumpy Fit and Fat

2004-07-15T19:01:00.000+08:00

I’m feeling grumpy. I just through a wobbly over the e-mail because my job is to stop people from being stupid and they’re being unusually stupid today. Plus I had to have one of those “difficult” conversations with someone on an HR thingy and I hate that. I am also sore – but it’s a good sore. It’s DOMS - delayed onset muscle soreness. In other words, I went to the gym yesterday and had a good

Clutter

2004-07-12T10:50:00.000+08:00

According to Einstein, matter in the universe is a constant. Therefore, shouldn't clutter be a constant? It is, after all, a major source of matter. Matter can of course be commuted into energy according the all great formula E = mc2. Extrapolated, this implies that as my clutter builds up, my energy levels decrease. In fact, the total energy in the universe should decrease but of course

Frozen

2004-07-08T11:36:00.000+08:00

There's an urban myth that illegal Mexican immigrants were being found frozen in the middle of the Southern California desert. How could anyone freeze in the heat? Answer: they were hiding in the wheel wells of jumbo jets, freezing to death and then falling out on a landing approach. Welcome to my wheel well. It's raining again. So I'm freezing my butt of in my office because the aircon cannot

It's raining again

2004-07-02T09:38:00.000+08:00

I thought we'd have to wait until October for the rain to wash away the smoke. But we've had unseasonably wet weather the last few days - a mini monsoon so to speak. The monsoon just means the rainy season. It's very different from a typhoon which can blow away buildings and cause floods. It's the beginning of the typhoon season in Hong Kong. But here in Singapore the monsoon, which starts

Keep the Homefires Burning

2004-06-27T01:01:00.000+08:00

When I stepped outside today the smell of smoke was strong. But even inside I can smell it now. It seeps through under the doors and between the window seals. I like the smell. It reminds me of autumn and burning leaves. It reminds me of a time when there were seasons. September was always such a wistful month. Returning to school meant getting older... and even when I didn't have school to