How Many Sweets Did Ken Buy?

“Jim bought some chocolates and gave half of it to Ken. Ken bought some sweets and gave half of it to Jim. Jim ate 12 sweets and Ken ate 18 chocolates. The ratio of Jim's sweets to chocolates became 1:7 and the ratio of Ken's sweets to chocolates became 1:4. How many sweets did Ken buy?”

For those who don’t know, the above is one of the questions that appear in this year’s PSLE mathematics exam. Chance upon it in a blog questioning why questions are set so high for this year PSLE. It took me (an engineer!) around 10 mins to read and understand the problem and another 10 to solve it in a NON-examination environment, using simultaneous equations and algebra. To think that the Primary 6 kids have to solve it with the clock ticking and not allowed to use simultaneous equations and algebra, using only model diagrams and unit methods. No wonder kids are so stressed today… Not easy to parents these days.

Btw, the kids this year are allowed to use calculators during the exam. Yeah… like that helps a lot. -_-". Dun ask for the answers to the question. Solve it yourself or click on the link above

Gentle Giant

Check out this dog. This dog or wolf to some is own by a goldsmith shop near my parent's place in Jurong. You can imagine the size of it from the size of the Jack Russel standing next to it.

Though it look intimidating, turns out it is a gentle giant. The owner just went out of the shop and he just sit there waiting for his owner to return. Both him and the Jack Russel just wait at the door for the owner to return. Even with curious onlookers passing by taking pictures of him, he just sit there quietly, ignoring it all.

iPhone Goes Orange

The Big Red Machine no longer have exclusive rights to sell the iPhone. MobileOne aka M1 finally get the rights to sell iPhone. Three of my colleagues have own it and after playing around with it, I got to admit I changed my views of iPhone. With my handphone going haywire this week together with the fact that my M1 contract is ending next March, it might be a good choice as my next phone. But on second thought, I may get the HTC HD2 below by then...

People That Make You Go -_-"

Some funny conversations heard...

Shopping for Manuka honey with Angie
Angie: What's the difference between the normal Manuka honey and the raw one?
Salesgirl: The Raw Manuka honey is raw while the normal manuka isn't
Angie: -_-"


A colleague of mine got a call from some sales people
Caller: Hi, is this XXX NRIC 7498273D?
Colleague: Yes
Caller: I need your NRIC to verify your identity
Colleague: -_-"""

We Are Still The Same 50 Years On

I remember our PM Lee Hsien Loong's National Rally this year mentioned that our country have transformed over the past 50 years that it was unimaginable then. Well, I have to agree with him that yes Singapore really have change a lot over the last half a century.

Somehow I feel that all those change only happens on the surface. As the old saying goes, "the more we change, the more we stay the same". The city skyline may looks different now, but I feel that underneath the beautiful scenery, we are no different from what we are in when we are still an English colony

Then, our population consists of mostly immigrants. We have the Chinese from mainland China, Indians from India, Malays from neighboring Indonesia and Malaysia and of course the westerners here to seek fortunes. Compare to the Singapore society today, we are more of less the same.

Walk into any food courts, hawker centers or shops and most of the time, you will be greeted by a Chinese national. The streets and construction sites are filled with Indians workers. High positions in professional sectors are taken up by angmohs. Like our forefathers, the Chinese national will gather at Chinatown while the Indians at Little India during the weekends.

Given these circumstances, it's not surprising that the recent figures from the Department of Statistics shows that 25% of the population here are non-Singaporeans. As for the 75% supposingly Singaporeans, 64% are local Singaporeans with the other 11% being permanent resident.

With the increased in "Foreign Talents" coming in couple with the continuing falling birth rates, I have to agree with DK that we, the local Singaporeans, are going to be out numbered soon. So did our country really changed?

Something To Queue For

I tell you. If Singaporeans have a favorite pastime activity, it definitely must be queuing. The longer the better. Singaporeans have affection with queuing. We queue for 4D or Toto on draw day, for that bah chor mee stall shown on TV last night, for 3 days in advance for some condo open house and we definitely queue for cheap sale or lobang.

Remember the Great McDonald Hello Kitty Doll queue? Singaporeans not only queue for it, we literally fought for it with one of the McDonald's outlet glass door shattered under the weight of the pushing crowd. In the end, the police have to step in to control the queue. That's how passionate Singaporeans are with queuing.

Well the latest queuing craze is here. It's called the "Change Your Ezlink Card Before the Deadline" queue. This is the sequel to the "Be The First to Have the New Ezlink Card" queue. And the most hilarious thing is, in between these two periods of crazy queuing, nobody and I mean NOBODY bother to go change their Ezlink card.

We are given more than a year to change the cards, but most of us just ignore it. Change early and miss out all the fun of sweating and getting frustrated plus enjoying cramps in our thighs for standing for long hours in the queue? No way.... Furthermore, we get to take a break from our work by taking leave to queue for it. Yep, must wait till last minute to do it for the long queue to form.

Oh... By the way, seeing that our nation like to queue so much, LTA decided to extend the Ezink replacement deadline to let us enjoy an additional week of queuing. Hurray!

How Far We Have Leap Forward

Attended an Intel seminar today and they show us this video reminding us of the technologies we use yesterday. Bring back all the memories of the tech we used to use while we laugh at them now. Reminded us how we have advance over the last decades especially after the start of the Internet age.

Reason Why I Support United.

Last night derby match vetween Man United and Man City is a classic. It's also re-enforced the reason why I supported the Red of Manchester.

When your opponent just scored a 90 min equaliser, most teams will probably deflated and played out for a draw. But no... not Man United. Not especially when Sir Alex is around, we will still attack. And last night reward us for that mentality.

The team will never give up a lost cause. As long as the ref have not blown the final whistle, the team will keep going at the opponent. It's luck when you scored last minute goals to win or draw. But doing that season in season out shows the never say die attitude.

We'll never die, we'll never die,
We'll never die, we'll never die,
We'll keep the Red flag flying high,
Because Man United will never die.
"The Red Flag" chant of Manchester United

Oh for those complaining the kelong referee adding so much stoppage time. According to Match of The Day calculations,
Added Stoppage Time: 4 mins
Man City equalizer celebration: 56 sec
Man United substitution, ref have to add 30 sec
Total: 95 mins 26 sec.
Winning goal was scored on 95 mins 27 sec. So that was virtually our last attack. And mind those Man United haters. During the added time, Man City have the right to attack us and try to win the game. Not as if only Man United is allow to play during those times. They choose to defend negatively for a draw while we choose to attack for the win. And we were duly rewarded for our bravery and effort. Nuff said...

No Different Than A PC

It's so sad when you are not treated like a human being but more like an asset. This is what has been happening at my company. Engineers are being moved around to wherever there is a need.

We are not being asked or checked whether does we have the qualification. Just like a PC, we are unplugged from one place; plug elsewhere and still expected to function normally. It’s not an excuse that you are not familiar with your new role.

It's not surprising that more and more of my colleagues are leaving the company when a suitable opportunity comes along.

Food Fight!!!

When they are not busy suing Singapore over a rock in the sea, our Malaysian neighbor will be thinking of new ways to mah-lu themselves in the international scene.

The latest is the Malaysian Tourism Minister, Ng Yen Yen, claiming that a number of local dishes like Hainanese chicken rice, Nasi Lemak and Bak Kut Teh belongs to Malaysia and neighboring countries are stealing their dish and promote it as their own. She even claim that Chili Crabs is created by Malaysian. HELLO! Chili Crabs is an invention by Singapore, OK!

It all started with the row with Indonesia over the use of a Balinese dance in a promotional spot for a TV documentary series on Malaysia. Now Mdm Ng has started a race by countries to grab every culture and claim it as their own.

The poor stupidity in making such a claim by a Minister shows the quality of the government over there. Such makes our Ministers look like geniuses.

P.S. By the way, as some netizens claims, there is one dish that is definitely Singaporean. Mee-Siam Mai Hum... :P

Alphabet Song

I am going cross-eye soon. A customer at work have a licensing issues with the fonts they are using and requested that we find another similar ones. Hence, I spend the past 2 days checking on fonts, analyzing the individual letters. With so many fonts, it is quite a tedious task. Bloody hell gives me a bloody headache. Why can't they just opt for another font or buy the licensing? Sigh....

Madonna Tribute to Michael Jackson Speech

Madonna kick starts this years MTV Music award with a touching and true tribute speech to the King of Pop. As I have pointed out earlier, we have abandon him when he needed us the most, only to regret when we are left with only memories of him.

Liability Cap for Lost Credit Cards

Finally, banks here are willing to cap the liability to $100 if our credit card is lost or stolen. All along credit cardholders have to be liable for the amount charge to the card even though the holder has reported the lost of the card. The previous rule is so unfair to us. Shows that these banks only concern about getting their money back without any empathy to the credit cardholder.

It is only after New Paper ran a series on credit card fraud where it is found that retailers failed to check if the buyer matches the credit card info did the banks willing to change to this new rule. The findings by New Paper holds true as recently I use my newly issued credit card to make a payment. I realize that I have forgotten to sign on the back of the card as verification purpose. To my surprise, the cashier just takes the card and proceeds to charge it without even flipping the card to verify my signature on the receipt. Where are the security checks here?

According to the news report, retailers were reluctant to bear responsibilities for credit card fraud. This is a load of bullshit. I fiercely believe that retailers should bear the responsibilities for the loss. They are the ones who allow the use of credit cards in their shop, bringing convenience to their customers. Shouldn't they help bear the responsibility as well if they are complacent in enforcing the security? What's the point of setting up all the security measures when the most critical people in the setup are so lax in enforcing it.

In my opinion, we must at least get the cashier to bear if not all but part of the liability cost since they are the one who did not conduct the proper checking in the first place, resulting in losses to both the card holder and the bank. This is the only way to get the retailers to feel the pinch and get them to be extra careful when handling credit card transactions.

Angie BBQ Birthday

Continuing on Angie's Birthday on Sunday, we decided to have an impromptu BBQ session in the evening near a beach. As we have a disposable BBQ kit, which we bought for some time, there isn't a need to book for a BBQ pit.

Hence, after having our breakfast, we went to NTUC Fairprice to grab some chicken wings and frozen satays. We also bought a cauliflower to fried as a side dish. We also thought of making some BBQ prawns as we have some extra in the fridge. Serene says she will cook some fried rice just in case some of us gets hungry. Since it is just for the fun of it, we did not buy too much food.

We went down to Pasir Ris beach beside Coastal Sands Resort around 5pm and found ourselves a nice sheltered area. Kwan Siang bought a cake as desserts. We decide to celebrate Serene's daughter, Phoebe birthday as well since it falls in the same month.

Though it is a simple session, it turns out to be quite a happy occasion. Sure beats going to some fancy restaurant for dinner. Together with the cake, we actually ate quite full. :P

From Angie BBQ Birthday

Ah Chiang’s Porridge 阿昌粥

It was Angie Birthday yesterday. Early in the morning, I brought her to Toa Payoh Central to have Ah Chiang Porridge for breakfast. Came to know about this porridge franchise from Sheylara's blog. The place served real traditional Cantonese porridge. You know those gluey, starchy type of porridge, which by the way is also Angie's favorite.

The porridge is tasty enough without little or no soy sauce. The porridge is smooth and light and prepare just right. Angie had century egg porridge while I have the sliced fish one. In addition, we ordered a place of Yu Sheng (raw fish salad) though I am the only one who ate it. Somehow Angie doesn’t fancy it as much as Japanese Sashimi.

Other than porridge stuff, the place also sells various pig organs soup. But the real draw here is still the good old fashion Canto-style congee. Will definitely go back to try the fish belly / fish head porridge after reading this.

Dual Sound For Hong Kong Serials?

We can watch French movie in French.
We can watch Korean show in Korean
We can watch Japanese serial in Japanese

So why can't we watch HK drama in Cantonese??? I don't see there are any difference between the above and Cantonese. They are all foreign language. Ok, someone points out that Cantonese is dialect. Characters in Jack Neo movies spew Hokkiens, Teochews and Singlish. Those are dialects so why can't the same rules apply for HK movies?

Many of the jokes in HK movies or dramas are better appreciated when spoken in their original language. The favor is lost when translated to Chinese. Furthermore, sometimes the dubbing is plain horrible where the Chinese dubbed voice totally mismatched the artistes looks.

If it is a must to have Chinese, can they at least make it dual sound? The serial can still be shown in Chinese but viewers can switch to the Canto language audio channel if they want to. They have been doing that for the Japanese and Koreans dramas, so why not for the HK ones as well? Is this too much to ask for?

There Are Fierce Girlfriends...

And then there are the really fierce ones. Thank god my wife is not one of them and certainly not like this.

She just likes to bite... T_T

See the public reaction here

Full Day Sat for OPC

woohooo...Finally the news came. This is one of the reason why I buy a OPC. Now I can drive on Sat full day n no more that pesky paper OPC coupons. Although I need to pay a $100 administrative fee and my road tax will increase by a bit, it is quite acceptable. Cheers for all OPC owners

Reserved Seats Sign

Took the train to town this morning. When I board the train, I notice that though most of the seats are taken, the priority reserved seats are left empty.

Maybe Singaporeans are starting to become more gracious. Maybe the PCK video helps? Or maybe it's the little reserved sign that deterred people from taking the seat. Whatever the reasons, I am not sure will it stays like this especially when the train starts to become more crowded.

Folding Plug H 264

Can't wait for this to be available in the market. Why didn't someone think of this sooner? For all the slim electronics we are seeing these days, we are still stuck with the cumbersome 3-pin plug. It is such a pain, bulging out of our bags.