So happy!!! Friday off!!! Go run and stomachache...

Woke up this morning, ready for work. I check my mobile and read the SMS send last night. Turn out that I am ask to go on off day today! Now I can proudly shout TGIF!!! Thank God Its Friday!!!

Since I had my breakfast without realizing I could have slept through the morning and its only 7.30am after reading the SMS. I decided to go for my 18km training run from my home to Sembawang Park and back.

Not a good morning for the run when half way through it started to rain. Rain become drizzle and drizzle turn to mist thus I continue to run towards Sembawang Park again. Suddenly I got a stomachache, the late night chicken rice and this morning breakfast of egg and bread from the churning up down left right. I have to find a washroom! Turn out that all the toilet in hawker center/kopitiam are far from world class!!! Got toilet, no toilet paper and for those that had toilet paper, you have to pay 10 cents. Damn, I don't even carry cash while running, let alone coins.

Don't know if it is their way of deterrence people from bombing the toilet or what but its totally ridiculous. Imagine dining at the hawker center/kopitiam and suddenly need to do big business and found there is no toilet people....that can be desperate situation depend on the "pressure".

Almost cannot tahan and almost breaking my limit (no joke) when alas I saw the big yellow M!!! Yes, MacDonald....a world class franchise, I'm confident they have toilet paper!!! I was not disappointed....air conditioned toilet, clean seats, lots of toilet paper and air freshener. Kudos to MacDonald for saving my running day.

The rest of the run was pretty good. Strangely after releasing the big burden inside me, weather become sunny and I could run better. Competed the 18km route without any incidents. I sure hope the hawker center/kopitiam in Singapore wake up their idea not for free visitor like me but really for the food patrons. PLEASE HANG SOME TOILET PAPER!!!

Isensemedia a.k.a Wen-Portfolio 2008

I have know this friend of mine since Secondary 1, more 10 years ago if my age math did not fail me. We went on to Nanyang Polytechnic after passing our O-Levels and took a course in Digital Media Design. Due to family financial issue, I had to quit the course after 2 years to sign on as an Air Force Senior Technician and continue my education under a government sponsorship program. My friend continue on in the course and graduated from this design course.

Since than I had been keeping track of his work through the online portfolio he publish. To be honest, it was not that fantastic in the beginning however his photography works are pretty good back than. I believe its been 8 years down the road since his portfolio went online and the improvement is really evident when I compare now and than. Recently he design and publish a website for Hitachi

http://www.hitachiconsumer.com/microsite/ultraslimlcd/index.html

As a supportive friend of his work, I have decided to share with all of you his online design portfolio name "Isensemedia". He will be heading to Doha, Qatar this month where a pioneering design company had hired him. He will very likely miss all the nice Singapore food especially those that contain pork in it. However it will definitely be an enriching experience for him to work oversea and hopefully my dear friend strike a breakthrough in life during his oversea stint.

http://www.isensemedia.com/

Old Base Badge, New Command Badge and Zelda Emblem

Our old base insignia badge still looks stunning and meaningful even after decade of use. Its immediately understood what all the pictorial shapes, colors and arrangement signifies. There is no need for a third person explanation of what the Sembawang Air Base badge mean at all. The up pointing red dagger stand for support of the Army (the badge now look like a Commando camp badge), the Anchor stand for support of the Navy, the Wing stand for the Air Force and the 4 rotorblades in the center tell people that we are a Helicopter Air Base...the only one in Singapore."Dare and Will" sound really "garang" isn't it? Sometimes, I find that our old base badge look similar to an emblem of a game that carries a long history in the gaming world.



Thats right... it kinda looks like the emblem from "The Legend Of Zelda" series.



This is our new badge which I just got it today. We are no longer call a base, instead we are call a Command now. I think the Big Yellow Eagle stand for the Air Force protecting Singapore island thats in blue. The gradient black and white in the background simple said we work around the clock, 24hours to defend the land or in humorous term...No Day No Night (say it in Hokkien).

Saturday afternoon in East Coast Park

Woke up really late today, at 1.30pm. I guess it was all due to the late night outing with colleagues for section farewell cum promotion dinner, supper with girl friend and playing Final Fantasy Tactics on my Nintendo DS Lite till 4am. I felt a bit guilty Friday evening time was not spent on my studies and the exam is just around the corner, in October.

Yet all that late night and late wake up did not change my weekend plan of roller blading at East Coast Park. Its been ages since the last time I was there. Think it was a Chalet gathering the last time I visit East Coast Park. East Coast Park is actually an excellent place to roller blade in Singapore and the numerous rollerblader in the park is a living testimonial of its popularity. Its Saturday and this place is filled with people! From cyclist to rollerblader to big group playing team building games and finally lots of family and couples just enjoying the afternoon. Weather was excellent this afternoon even though a few dark clouds passes by overhead.

By the way, since its a park, most car park are free. So I guess that also make the place an attractive weekend rest and relax location for Singaporean. Its nice to just roller blade along the coast line or lazing around the beach observing the ship, the South China Sea and the land (i think its Indonesia) far far away. One of the most interesting attraction I discovered was the Cable Ski Park, a small lagoon where you can hold on to a circulating cables over head while ski boarding around the lagoon. Ramps and rails are located around the circuit to perform stunts. Have not found out the cost yet but it sure looks fun.

Honestly, I would have stayed at home to study and miss out today outing at East Coast Park if my former colleague did not ask me out for a chat. We arranged to meet at Big Splash Star Bucks at 4.00pm however I got so carried away with rollerblading and the deep blue sea that I venture too far from our meeting point and have to spend 30min just to get back to Big Splash. Its most unlikely that I would even initiate meeting up with people from my work place but since he had make the first move with an invitation and I have actually respect the contribution he have done for our section... it will be really inappropriate to "siam" the meeting just because I wanna stay at home to study.

Our conversation revolve around the common topics of our work since we came from a common work background in the past. We exchanged our working principles, style and experiences. Got to know his view about our working environment and how a poor leadership result in conflict and ultimately his voluntary departure from our department. Turn out that a lack of understanding and support of people around, the absence of the human touch at work will ultimately breakdown even the most determine spirit in a person.

A few thinks I realize about leadership from our conversation...its the possession of foresight to look many steps ahead of current situation so as lead the team to make preparation and build foundation instead spending too much effort at a later stage to react to situation. Next is the good observation of people around, to bring out the best of them and to cover each other weakness with strength. We had a long conversation, almost 2 hours...the longest single seated conversation I ever had with a colleague and I have to respect the time and trust he gave me today. Learned much but still much to be learn.

In the evening, I met my sis and her colleagues. They just happen to be there for a impromptu BBQ session. So I dropped by to join them. I knew all her colleagues since we all were in the same tour group in Japan. Unfortunately the BBQ was cut short due to strong wind that threaten to blow all the food away. Its great to meet up with my sis and her colleagues, hearing them talk about people with poor work ethics and office politics while enjoying the free food! hahaha...very cheapo of me to say that.

While driving home....it rain...super heavy rain. It seems like this Saturday was specially made for me. Great weather, good conversation, roller blading, BBQ with friends and only poor weather when I'm heading home.

The Blue Dragon Foundation

I am planning for a backpacking trip to Hanoi Vietnam and maybe Ho Chin Minh City in January 2008. So far, I have only been skimming along the surface of my research with no concrete itinerary of where I like to visit other than hanging around Hanoi itself. The thought of a renting a motorbike to ride around the country came to my mind and thus I googled the subject, hoping to find forums or website of people with similar experience. Turn up a couple of website in the search and surprisingly, there is this motorbike rental company by the name of "VIP Motorbike Rental" that is working in conjunction with "Blue Dragon Children's foundation" to provide disadvantaged children of Vietnam with free training and job as a mechanic. As I further explore the various link on this website...

http://vietnamtravelnotes.com/2008/06/12/motor-bike-rentals-in-hanoi/

... I learn that many poor Vietnamese children are either conned and than trafficked to big cities around Vietnam exploited as child slave, long hours of work and without pay. One of "Blue Dragon Children's Foundation" mission is to rescue this children, bring them under the care of the foundation with education and job training and ultimately break them out of the poverty cycle.

Blue Dragon Children's Foundation

Well I will most likely be renting a motorbike in Hanoi to travel round the city for a day and definitely will be renting it from VIP Motor Bike Rental in support of Blue Dragon Children Foundation and its children. Right now, I will be adding a visit to Blue Dragon Children Foundation as part of my itinerary in Vietnam.

My fish tank, a social experiment

2 years of neglect to my clown loaches, leaving them in a big, empty fish tank and with no proper food. No wonder they are losing their distinctive black strips. With their welfare in mind and also to replace a boring big tank of water with an attractive aquarium of biodiversity, I spend S$80 to revamp my house aquarium.




This is my very novice attempt at recreating a natural environment for the fish and more importantly the 8 Clown Loaches that have survived for almost 4 years. Just sand, rock and some cheap water plants to add some greenery to it. Water changed weekly and treated with GEO-LIQUID popularly advertised as a natural water treatment solution that even monkey will be able to maintain an aquarium.

Current resident in the aquarium are 8 Clown Loaches, a horde of Neon Tetra, some Guppies, 1 very big Albino Suckerfish, 1 fighting fish and numerous prawns thats in charge of cleaning up dead fish that sink to the bottom. More than just an aquarium, it was a water-life social experiment of some sort.

First experiment involve food. Turn out that all the fishes in the Aquarium are so well fed that they are already mentally conditioned to relate food to my hands moving around the fish tank. Its really interesting to be able to control where they swim with my finger. Fish don't have a sophisticated brain like human. They probably know only 4 things, eat, sleep, run away from danger and finally mating which is a rare sight. I think human being too are sometime like fish, our brains are conditioned to work everyday for the sake of a stable income. The money is the finger that leads us in circles.



Second experiment involve adding in a fighting fish a week ago. I was told that Fighting Fish only fight among their own species and is absolutely safe to be added into an existing aquarium as long as only 1 of their kind exist in a tank. It proof to be partially wrong for the Fighting Fish seems to have a invisible sphere of territory around it. Whenever a fish enter that invisible zone, the Fighting Fish will not hesitate to chase it away. A few unfortunate Neon Tetra however were killed in the occasional confrontation. Thus a Fighting fish is still a Fighting fish no matter if its alone or not.

Third experiment was a test to find out if my Clown Loaches love to eat prawns. I am always interested to keep some Red colored shrimp in the aquarium but fear that it will be eaten up by the Clown Loaches which are known to eat snails and prawn. So I brought some cheap prawn (A dozen for a dollar) and use them as guinea pigs. Its been 3 weeks now and the population of the prawn did not dwindle. Instead the prawns have grown slightly in size since they are always consuming the poor fish corpse, casualties from natural cause or killed by fighting fish.

Finally, I learn not to buy adult size Neon Tetra. Not only are they expensive (1 for $1), they are mostly at the end of their life span so they die pretty soon. I brought 50 smaller size Neon Tetra for $6 and all survived.