Last Blogger Post

Switched to Tumblr. http://theexsoldier.tumblr.com/

Haw Par Villa

Went for a visit to the Haw Par Villa. It used to be a famous tourist attraction, but over time people has forgotten about it. The last time I was there I was still a child, so this visit is really a walk down the memory lane. I tried to search for some of the statues that I saw previously, but I couldn't find most of them. I think the park is not opened fully. Nonetheless, I really enjoyed by visit there. A pity that the "Ten Courts of Hell" is not opened due to power failure. That was supposed to be the highlight of the day.

Reward

Now that she's here, she's treating me a cup of peppermint green tea with pearls!

Tired

So hot and tired and she's still not here.

Response to Article - Unnatural Living

I read the article titled Unnatural Living on The Straits Times (11/07/11), where they talked about whether keeping of animals captive is beneficial to the animals themselves. I am a firm supporter of keeping the animals captive.

People always talked about animals losing their freedom and their hunting instinct if held in captive. I personally feel security is more important than freedom. What is the point of having the whole world to run in, if there is a real threat of losing your habitats, being hunted by legal and illegal poachers, or simply a lack of food available? I believe there are studies shown that animals living in captive actually live longer then those in the while. Unless there is a possibility that a country is willing to stop developing and leave huge pieces of lands/ seas untouched, these animals faced real life-threatening issues than freedom.

As for the loss of their hunting instinct, let's not forget that human beings started out as hunters too. But throw a random human being into the jungle now with no technology, no medical facilities, will he be able to survive? Yes it is sad if a lion do not know how to hunt, but again between this and the fate of the Tasmanian Devil, I'll choose the former.

On the issue of animals in captive being made to do trick for performances, I see it more for a practical senses. Performances draw crowds, and crowds bring money. I believe that taking care of animals takes a lot of resources and having performances helps to bring in some income. Treat it as a job for the animals, they work, they get rewarded with treats and get fed. Isn't this what human beings are doing?

To conclude, I feel that the world has develop so fast, that it is not possible to hold on to the idealistic thinking that we can still leave the animals in the wild. Human beings have the responsibility to protect the other species of animals, and the best way is to keep them captive in an artificial environment. I do agree that however the environment should be as conducive, and as similar to nature as possible. These animals also needs to be treated with respect. Even if they are to be trained for performances, they should not be abused if they cannot learn specific trick.

Ex-Soldier-to-be

I'm being presumptuous here, as I will not be officially called an Ex-soldier until January 2012, nonetheless I'm quite excited, and to a certain extent, emotional over my soon to be changed status. Come this January, I'll be serving my last In-Camp Training (ICT).

Can't say I like the Army. While others always like to talk about their active days, I'm just glad it's over back in June 2001 when I "ORDed". The two and a half years was stretched across four years, since Dec 1998. While my college friends are still enjoying their life after their A levels, I got called in barely a month after the exams. I still bear a grudge over that.

Nonetheless I think I changed a lot because of Army. Before that the focus was always to study. In the Army, books is the last thing on my mind. I took on a leadership role for the first time in my life, I made friends with vastly different background and life experiences, I got scolded by sergeants, CSMs, PCs and OCs. All these experiences strangely make me a more confident and open person. I also got the nickname "Lion", which not many people know the real reason. They all thought it was because of my hair.

Sinced I ORDed, they called me back almost every year for ICT. No matter what I still don't like Army Training, but it became a chance for us to see our friends, and a getaway from our work. And the yearly IPPT is continues to be a nuisance. After I finished my last ICT this coming January, there will be no more IPPT, no more green uniform and helmet. I don't think I'll miss the Army, but I'll definitely treasure the memories I had with it.

She's hungry

Fish and Co. vs Manhattan Fish Market

Just had dinner at Fish and Co. Had a Seafood platter for 1 and a Mushroom salad. She prefers Manhattan.

Still super mad

How do u sleep if your heart is like on fire?!

I am so mad!!!

The house phone rang. I assumed the caller to be her dad, usually that's the case anyway. She insisted it is from some agents. I dun wan to answer, since it's definitely not for me. In the end, she answered and turns out to be some stranger. Ok so I'm wrong, but she dun have to show me a super Dulan face right?! Wa lau eh! I hate that kind of face lor!

Fat but Fit

I may be fat, but I'm still fit. I just completed a physical fitness test this morning, which I thought I'm definitely failing. But against all odd, I passed! haha.. I am Superman! Hell yeahh!

Make your Firefox run a little bit faster

This article is not written by me. It is just a trick that I stumbled onto online, and thought it is really good.


Note: You must have a (preferably fast) broadband connection. If you have dial-up, stop reading, forget it, pipelining isn’t for you.
Also, if you don’t use Firefox, please download it. You won’t regret it:

In normal Microsoft fashion, Internet Explorer doesn’t support pipelining (even IE7)

1. Open a new tab in Firefox (Ctrl+T) and type “about:config” (without the quotes) in your address bar.
2. In the “Filter:” search box, type “network.http” (again, without the quotes.) You don’t have to hit enter.
   • Look for the “network.http.keep-alive” setting and make sure it’s set to “true”. If it’s “false,” double-click that line and it will change to true.
   • On the same page, look for “network.http.version” and make sure it’s set to “1.1″
3. Now clear out the Filter box and type in “pipelining”
   • Look for “network.http.pipelining” Right-click on that line, and click on “toggle” and be sure the value is set to “true” (or double-click to toggle values.)
   • If you’re on a proxy, look for “network.http.proxy.pipelining” Right-click on that line, and click on “toggle” and be sure the value is set to “true”. If you don’t know if you’re on a proxy or not, just set it to “true” anyway. It won’t hurt anything.
   • Lastly, look for “network.http.pipelining.maxrequests” Right-click on that line, click on “modify” and set the value to 8. You can set it anywhere between 1 and 8. If you notice your internet is acting weird after this, try decreasing this value.
4. Keep in mind that this may not agree with some web servers, and therefore break the webpage. I have not personally experienced this yet, but this feature is still in testing, and that’s why it’s not set to “true” by default.

There you have it. Ignore the sites telling you to set the value to “30.” Those same pages will also tell you to create a new value called “nglayout.initialpaint.delay” and to set that value to “0″. All this does is start displaying the information on the webpage sooner. nglayout.initialpaint.delay does not make your page load faster. In fact, it can make it load slower; especially on slower connections. If you create this value and set it to “0″ you will notice the page beginning to render right away, but it will take longer to finish completely.

Read the full article here. http://egonitron.com/2007/05/25/the-truth-about-the-firefox-pipelining-trick/

Making good use of time

It has been two and half week since the so-called break from work, though I still went back to office till last Tuesday. Nonetheless, it's Wednesday again, so I did have one week break. While officially I do not need to return to office in another two weeks (one more week of break and another week in the Army), technically I only have this week to really enjoy myself. I wish I have the power to stop time.

Should I just totally relax and ignore all work, or do some work now and then till I return? This is always a dilemma for me. I'm more inclined to do the later. Blame myself for not clearing all work before the break, now they are always at the back of my mind. Did some house chores today, nothing much, just made a soup and did the laundry. Will probably have the rest of the day off after this. Hahaha..

Bangkok

Just flew back from Bangkok, and I thoroughly enjoyed my stay there! Things in Bangkok were really cheap compared to Singapore. Food, transport, clothes, shoes.. No wonder everyone loves Bangkok. Visited the various shopping haven such as Chatuchak, MBK and Platinum Mall. Enjoyed Chatuchak and Platinum Mall the most as they have more men's apparel. Can't find much things to buy in MBK though.

I also had a glimpse of the famed night-life of Bangkok, passing-by the numerous bars in Patpong. That place felt quite sleazy and unsafe, but who am I to judge. An eye opener nonetheless.

Already looking forward to the next Bangkok trip!

X-men: First Class and Captain America: The World's First Avenger

Two Movies that I really want to watch. =D

 

Tonnes of things to do

So many things to do over the next three weeks. But the thing that I would like to do most is to reduce the temperature by 10 degree celsius!

SUPERDOG

Now that he had left, I kinda miss all the different things he used to do.
Like how he will stand with his hind legs on my stomach, fore legs on my chest, trying to inspect what I'm eating..
Like how he will shrink his body away from me if I try to bear hug him.
Like how he get all excited trying to hump my legs..
Or the way he stretched himself, the way he rolled his tongue, the way he hides under the table, the way he cringes when u massaged him, or the way his leg fidgets when being scratched at the side. He has done so much for the family. Without him the family would not have been so close the past 9 years.
Goodbye my brother, hope u have already found new friends, and are running free and real happy right now.

Self doubts

Sometimes I wonder whether I'm doing badly in my job. I love my new roles, but I'm sometimes overwhelmed by the accountability. I'm willing to try and fail, but how will the others react if I fail?

Office Superman

Saw this online.

Good side of my job

Watch my cadet went on stage to receive the SPF-NPCC badge. Was happy because I think he deserved it, happier because I saw how proud his mother was. Think I must have done something right too.

blogging on the go

Now trying blogging on the go. Crashes once already.

Part-time civilian, Part-time Superman

There are so many things I need to do everyday. That's why I am superman.

What does Facebook's Post Impressions mean?

Post impressions tells you how many times your post have been seen throughout Facebook (on your wall or on people's own walls).

How to sort gmail by attachment size??

Well, there's NO way to do it. Full Stop. Unless you wan to import your emails to your computer email client like Outlook.

Otherwise, if you are like me, who just want to delete some emails with attachments that you do not need anymore, you can search your gmail with the key word “has:attachment”. Then, do a manual scan down the list for large but useless attachment. This is the most direct way I believe.