Carry your computer data around in style!

Can you tell what this item is? It is a 250GB, 2.5" hard disk external storage device. specially designed in a palm-sized notebook style, enclosed in a leather pouch with built-in USB cable wrapped in a leather strap. It comes with a 5-year warranty.

Users can carry this all-in-one device to transfer their important data because it is super-convenient, fashionable and elegant in style. It is extremely useful for those IT users who are always on the move. It costs slightly above S$100.

A simple and economical "Chee Cheong Fun" breakfast

You can get these fresh "Chee Cheong Funs" from most of the wet markets at S$2.40 per ten pieces. You can buy the sauce and sesame seeds from the same stall usually. A simple and economical DIY breakfast. By the way, every piece is sold for 70 cents at most coffee shops.

Fresh frozen chicken cuts at only S$2.45/500g

There are many ways to cook these chicken cuts - stir-fry, stew, roast and even steam. It tastes good. You can get it at Shop N Save supermarket.

Some quick tips for choosing a life partner

I have been sharing these tips with many singles over the years. I list them here for you to ponder and deliberate over.

• Do not look for someone suitable for you. Instead, make yourself suitable for that someone.
• Do not even venture to think of changing your partner after marriage. Most of the time, you would fail. It is either you accept his or her shortcomings or you don't. Decide upfront.
• Do not look for a partner who is perfect in this imperfect world. When two persons who are half-perfect come together, they would make one-perfect couple.
• Be realistic. Do not be idealistic about expectations.
• Be open. Do not hide things from your partner. It could be disastrous if they are discovered after marriage.
• Look for a partner with the same faith. One can try to be accommodating towards the partner, but for how long? It could be a landmine or even timed-bomb in marriage when children begin to appear in the family.

Needs Vs Wants

In a relatively affluent society, people tend to blur the line between needs and wants, and as a result, they tend to buy many things they want but do not need. Needs are the basic necessities whereas wants are the desires. Take a look at your store room and you might find many white elephants there. Do you recall the many occasions you walked into a supermarket wanting to buy just bread and margarine but ended up with one trolley load of items?

In a recessionary time like what we are going through and experiencing now, people might begin to learn to realise the difference between needs and wants when they are forced to tighten their belts, in terms of spending. In a tight-budget situation, whatever expense item that can be foregone are the wants.

Inherently, people tend to rationalise things, they tend to justify their spending on the wants by rationalising them so that they perceivedly become needs. That will help to remove the guilt feeling that they might be buying something they don't really need. But, the fact of the matter is, they always end up buying things they don't need.

Instead of rationalising the purchases, let's be more rational about our purchases, do not be overwhelmed by emotions and quick impulses. Ask ourselves some hard questions such as "Do I really need it?", "Are there alternatives to this?", "Can I live without it?". Try this in your next shopping trip.

The principles of The New Biology

ADVERSITY encourages CREATIVITY

If you are still holding on to one of those notebook PCs that are about five years old, some of the hardware components might have reached the end of their lifespan. In my case, all the USB ports refuse to function anymore and some of the keys on the keyboard are dead.

To repair the USB chipset on the motherboard and replace the original keyboard, it would cost S$120 and S$180 respectively. So, I asked around in the market and discovered that there was such a hardware called 2-Port USB 2.0 PC Card that fits into the PCMCIA slot that is found in most older generation notebook PCs. I got it for only S$30. That gives me two working USB ports again. Then, I bought an external keyboard for $11.

Now, both the problems are solved and I am enjoying the extended use of my five-year-old notebook for just S$41 instead of S$300. This is certainly an economical solution during bad times. I think adversity encourages creativity, if we apply our creative mind to the problem.

The importance of self-discipline to our success

The instant fame and success of celebrities on stage can easily fool us into believing that success is so instant and easy. Many don't realise the prolonged self-discpline that the celebrities have to put themselves through at back stage. There is a saying in Chinese, "a minute of play on stage takes ten years of disciplined training on the floor." When you go to see a movie you don't see the thousands of hours of effort that went into it. Studies have shown that the single most important factor contributing to the success of musicians is the amount of time they spend practising.

I have spoken to many educators and parents, self-discipline seems to have dropped out of our culture as an admirable trait. Innate talent may be important but is not as vital as sustained effort and application - self-discipline is what really forges success in life.

Tough times never last, but tough people do.

When victory seems impossible, why is it that some people still fight on against all the odds? When others fall to pieces, why is that some people still are in control?

These are the people who have developed rock solid inner strength that gives them the sense of succeess. They can withstand the pressure from extreme circumstances or great odds. This is what differentiates the winners from the losers.

It is important to stay strong especially mentally. When the going gets tough, the tough gets going. Tough times never last, but tough people do. Staying power and patience are just as much a part of inner strength as maintaining your confidence.

Never give up...

"Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time." ............ Thomas A. Edison

Singapore Postage Stamps

Click on the images for an enlarged view.

A world of ADDICTIONS...

While good habits take strong discipline and conscientious effort to form, bad habits simply die hard so easily and without much effort.

As bad habits start to set in and slowly get out of control, then the person would usually be thrown into a state of addiction and he would be living in his own world. When a person gets addicted to something, he or she would find it difficult to get out of it as he or she would have lost control and the addiction begins to reign and eventually ruin his or her life.

There are so many forms of addiction that are prevalent, some since the old days, but some are brand new additions in this IT age. Some of the common addictions are of drugs, glue, cigarettes, coffee, TV, gamings, pornography, vulgarity, stealing, cheating, telling lies and a host of others.

All these addictions are related to the mental and psychological state of the person and that is why the common treatments would involve counselling and psychiatric or psychological treatment. Most of these people are so used to the addictions that they don't even realise that they are addicted, they need help from people around them.

Why plant it when it is to be sawn off?

As mentioned in the plaque above, this Foxtail Palm was planted on the Tree Planting Day during the Clean and Green Week, but why was it sawn off and the plaque fixed on top it? Why was it planted in the first place when it was to be sawn off? Does this contribute to the "Clean and Green" concept?

Start branching out into more areas of interest when young...

The above is a digital photograph taken with a phone camera, that looks like a colour painting. It is a normal tree that started branching out when young.

I think today's children should be given the time and environment to learn and explore more non-academic areas of interest when young, without getting too bogged down by academic pursuits and excellence. There are many more things to life than just studies.

Life is full of CONTRADICTIONS!

I am sure we have come across many contradictions in life. Here are a few:

• As seen in the picture above, a notice is posted at the place where the public is told not to post any notice.
• All the harmful effects of smoking are printed on every cigarette box with disgusting and frightening pictures but they continue to be sold to smokers.
• Doctors are supposed to cure patients, but they administer "poison" to their patients. Check out the label on most medications, there is this word "POISON" printed in red.
• One philosopher ever said, "There is no truth in this world." So, there is no truth in what he said, too.

Look at things on the brigher side...

There are usually two sides when looking at something or a situation. We can choose to see the darker side or the brighter side of it. Those who like to dwell on the darker or negative side would find life miserable but those who choose to look at the brighter side of it tend to live a happier and more meaningful life. So, we have a choice, on which side we want to see things or situations we face in our lives.

The "Heart" Sculpture at IMH, Singapore

The sculpture shown in the picture above depicts the Chinese character "xin" which means "Heart" or "Mind".

The concept of productivity - dual-purpose and multi-purpose

We heard about "killing two birds with one stone" and in Chinese, there is a similar saying, "One action, two outcomes".

This is nothing but the basic concept of productivity. To improve productivity at work or at home, we have to constantly think of how to increase the output while maintaining the same amount of input, or maintaining the same output while reducing the input.

This concept of productivity or better usage of resources has led to the development of machines, equipment, buildings, facilities and products that serve dual-purpose or even multi-purpose. Look around our office or home, it is not difficult to find items that are dual-purpose or multi-purpose in function.

A very conspicuous display of apartment block number

Click on the image for an enlarged view.


As we travel around and through some public housing estates in Singapore, we would have noticed that there are many different designs of block number display, mounted on different facades of the buildings at different heights.

Some displays are clear in the day but not at night, some are covered by tree branches, some have poor colour contrast at night, some are mounted at a height that pedestrians or motorists would find it hard to detect and some are mounted at non-standard facades and it becomes difficult to the public to know where the display board is actually located.

The picture above shows one where the reasonably large-sized block number is painted right at the top of the front facade of the building, facing the main road.

An idea for karung-guni man!

What a way to scrap and dump a huge caterpillar tractor crane just in an open junk yard like this! I am sure it has been dumped there for years and all the metal parts had rusted so badly and surprisingly, no one in authority seems to be taking action to move it away. Perhaps, they could not even identify who the owner was. Just wondering why the karung-guni man did not think of dismantling all the metal parts piece by piece and sell them as waste metals. It might worth a great deal!

Living in NATURE!

Someone seems to be living quite comfortably in this seemingly simple but cosy make-do shelter within the above forested surroundings, equipped with daily living necessities. Click to enlarge the picture and see for yourself the many items available there. Did McDonald's throw away those umbrella shelters? No one happened to be around for me to find out more. This guy is really living in nature.

Simple design before the advent of CAD/CAM

This trishaw was abandoned in the front yard of a home. It might not fetch any useful value now, but notice the piece of labourious art work done, comprising two prawns and a crab, located just above the back rest of the seat. This is obviously a very simple hand design done before the advent of Computer-Aided Design (CAD) and Computer-Aided Manufacture (CAM) techniques.

Enjoy the convenience of modern Living with gratefulness

For those of us who have unconsciously accepted modern living as a given and have been taking things for granted somehow, it might help us appreciate what we have much better if we know that at this point in time, in some villages in some neighbouring countries, people are still using the firewood stove and manual water pump as shown above and life still goes on for them.

In fact, their lives might be less stressful because they need not worry about the monthly water bills or metered gas charges. These are olden day appliances I can humbly claim that I had used before as a boy and that helps me appreciate the convenience of modern living with much gratefulness.

The Woodbridge Bell at the Institute of Mental Health, Singapore

Click on the image below to read the engraved wordings.

"Wu Fu Lin Men" - Five good fortunes at the door

This set of Chinese characters read from the right is "Wu Fu Lin Men" which means "the five good fortunes have arrived at the door." is commonly seen pasted or hung above the lintel of the front door frame of the house. I wonder how many people actually knew its significance and what the five good fortunes are.

According to the Book of History (Shi Jing in Chinese) reportedly edited by Confucius, the five good fortunes are:

1. Longevity,
2. Great Wealth,
3. Good Health,
4. Good Character or Virtue, and
5. Die well.

The Chinese are traditionally and culturally very superstitious towards death, even the sheer mention of it is not encouraged and it is deemed taboo, but here hidden within this Lunar New Year wish phrase, the last good fortune many are wishing for is to die well and surprisingly, this phrase is especially popular during the Lunar New Year period.

I have the feeling that many might not be aware of what "Wu Fu Lin Men" actually entails. Once the contents are revealed, I wonder how many would still like to wish for all the five good fortunes or some might choose to customise the options and pick only the first four.

But, if it were to be "Si Fu Lin Men" which means "four fortunes arrived at the door", then there is another issue because "Si" which means four is pronounced almost similar to "Si" as in death. That is another taboo. So, the best is not to hang this calligraphic piece in future for those who are superstitious!

A Nasi Lemak breakfast for just S$1...

A simple breakfast of Nasi Lemak (rice cooked with coconut milk) typically served with fried fish, fried groundnuts and ikan bilis and a portion of fried egg and chilli paste, wrapped in banana leaves that add aroma to the rice. One packet costs just S$1. If you are a big eater, by all means, take two packets.

A cock and a hen coming face to face...

Two stone sculptures, one of a cock (cock in British English, or rooster in American English) and the other of a hen, camouflaged within some shrubs in a mini-park somewhere in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The run-down appearance could be due to outdoor weathering or it might be intentional to create the camouflage effect, but I think the former seems more probable.

Parking goes GREEN!

Do you see the green poles in the picture above? They are simple and environmental-friendly parking fee payment terminals in Taiping, a town located midway between Ipoh and Penang in West Malaysia.

All the motorists need to do is to insert the required number of coins into the coin slot, depending on their intended parking duration and the clocking meter on the terminal will start counting down. The parking attendants do spot check to ensure honesty of motorists.

In Singapore, using cash cards to pay for parking fees is gaining popularity and is progressively replacing the use of paper parking coupons. This is certainly a positive step towards environmental protection. But, I am just wondering when the parking system would go totally paperless in Singapore.

When it is totally paperless, it means that all the parking attendants would be out of job except for some who may still be employed to inspect on the validity of the season parking coupons categorically used by motorists in the public housing estates.

I envisage that one day, the season parking coupons would be replaced by the cash card as well. It is just a matter of programming the cash card similar to what has been done to the ez-Link card, to indicate that it is for season parking besides the normal ad hoc parking.

The LAST kampung in Singapore !!!

The villages of early Singapore had all given way to high-rise concrete buildings and HDB flats except one which was recently featured in a TV programme and is named The Last Kampung (Village) in Singapore, located at Lorong Buangkok somewhere near the Institute of Mental Health and off Yio Chu Kang Road.

There have been concerns of whether the government would acquire the land for other purposes but the land owner and the residents in the kampung seem to be taking it in their own stride because the land was actually an inheritance passed down from the foreparents and so the descendants being traditional Chinese, are relunctant to part with it for any sum of money, at least for now.

When I visited the kampung with my wife yesterday morning, it was like video fast rewinding for me personally because the environmental settings and features were similar to what I have been through in my younger days. Some of the typically common scenes in kampungs were houses built with 3-foot tall concrete walls and sides of the house were covered with planks and topped with a zinc-roof, coconuts lying on the ground, that fell from the tall coconut trees sporadically grown beside the houses and along the drains, flowering plants haphazardly planted in the front and back yards and besides some pathways, dogs straying around and barking away, birds chirping and singing on the trees and the trademarked sandy and muddy paths especially when it rains, that city dwellers would be most reluctant to walk on.

I feel that Kampung Lorong Buangkok, being the last kampung in this city state, should be preserved for the purposes of heritage, education and tourism. It can be turned into a tourist attraction especially for tourists from the developed countries and serve as a heritage to educate the younger generations about the early history of Singapore in a more experiential and vivid manner rather than just reading from printed materials alone.

I have taken some pictures for your viewing pleasure. Click HERE to view them.