Do women hate beautiful woman?

I was amused reading this article written by a British columnist Samantha Brick titled “Why women hate me for being beautiful”.

In the column, Brick said that her “pleasing appearance” have been a mixed blessing. She shared with examples of how she have had many treats and leeways from men because of her “lovely looks” but at the same time she felt that she was being ostracised by women because of her “beauty”.

In the concluding paragraph, Brick hoped that as she turned 41 year old, the grey hair and wrinkles will quickly appear so that she could blend in the background. And those women who felt “threatened by her looks” will come to accept her for who she is.

“Wow” was my first reaction after reading the column, then it was followed by this thought - “so this is what it takes to be a columnist, hmmm?" (Just joking)

I must say judging from the photos, she doesn't appear to be particularly attractive, looking from an Asian perception. It could be that she is more charming in real person and we couldn’t tell. 

Also from the tone of the article, she had appeared to be very confident of her looks, too confident in fact that it had came off as arrogant. And I thought that she had no more female friends, but yet those friends she consulted seem to share similar sentiments as her that she had been a victim of her looks.

I agreed that good looking people may have more baggages than the average-looking us in proving that they have capabilities as well. 

But why blame all things on looks and not other factors? I thought that was a pretty shallow observation. Why didn’t she and her friend look at things in a more objectively and critically way? Maybe it’s the way she behaves, the way she talks and the way she carries herself that is offending and not looks.

I read an article about body language before and it states that women in general are more sensitive to reading other communication signs. It could be that her body language had offended people even before she speaks.

I find that to be highly plausible after reading her entry, ok column, in greater details.

She wrote that “…but when you have a male boss, it’s a different game: I have written in the Mail on how I have flirted to get ahead at work, something I’m sure many women do.”

Wouldn’t this tell you something about her character? She is quite an opportunist isn’t it? As oppose to her sentiments, I don’t think many woman flirt to get ahead at work. Many women I know get ahead through capabilities and hard work. Then if she is willing to flirt to get ahead at work, wouldn’t she also flirt to get special privileges, recognitions and earn good impressions from men. She must have done so very often that it had become her second nature in front of other women’s spouses as well.

If she still didn’t get it, it is her flirting antics that are putting women off.

I remember reading this quote from twitter and I think it aptly described vain women like her:

Behind all their personal vanity, women themselves always have an impersonal contempt for woman – Fredrich Nietzsche

The almost ended glamourous era - Goodbye Feng Fei Fei

I had a shock yesterday to read that Taiwan's evergreen superstar - Feng Fei Fei died of lungs cancer. What is even more shocking was how she had died exactly one month ago, but news of her death had only surfaced now in this media savvy time and age.

Feng had left final words with her lawyer to keep news of her death under wrap until the Chinese New Year has passed. It was reported that she doesn't want her fans to be sad during the festive season...

I find this act very considerate, touching and admirable. Sometimes public figures like singers and actors kept lamenting that they are humans too and how they weren't getting enough privacy that they forgot that they have a responsibility to be answerable to their fans.

Feng Fei Fei understands her position and has handled the matter in the best interest of her fans... Maybe that is why she has many ardent fans and followers who are willing to wait twenty years for her return from hiatus.

There is something about stars from the past decades.

I mean look at her performance. It represents the glorious and glamourous age of stars and stardom. People like Feng Fei Fei, Teresa Teng, Leslie Cheung and Anita Mui are not merely singers, but charismatic performers. They are stars. Their mere presence already heightens the performance before they even start singing.

And then take a hard look at the current Asia pop arena,  how many of the singers can really sing, not even talking about singing live even and perform like they do? There are some, but one can probably count them with one hand.

Not sure what is missing, but there aren't any stars from the younger batch of singers. If this is considered as the end of an era, then the last star still shining in current pop arena is probably Zhang Hui Mei.

Maybe there is some truth in this saying after all - Star are born and not made.

Feng Jie, thank you all the many classics and may you rest in peace.

凤飞飞 - 相思爬上心底

Jamie Oliver Food Revolution – Ammonia Beef

Fast food lovers should watch this video and it will put you off your favourite hamburgers as fast as 123. Guaranteed!

I don’t eat beef and I seldom eat fast food. I do believe that the food industries probably do the same with other meats as well in some processed food as well. I probably eaten tons of it.

Looking at this video, maybe it is our doing that this world will be coming to an end, if there were any truth in the 2012 end of world rumour.

May God save us all! Yucks!

Efforts and hard work are intangible…

A brain storming session for one of my individual assignments

Some see it, many do not....

My Birthday Cake 2010

Hee Hee.. My Brother A, bought me a cake from Crystal Jade Bakery like last year.

A Black Forest Cake.

Tasted ok, but he chosen Crystal Jade Bakery cake because they offered a 40% discount after 8.30pm.

Happy!

Anna Wintour on David Letterman

Watch this video of Anna Wintour on David Letterman. I always admired people who can talk smartly. Anna demonstrated in this video how to defuse loaded questions from Letterman without sounding rude or appearing too aggressive.

If only I can talk like her… 

More about Anna Wintour… I like her reply when asked which was her favourite issue - “always the next one” !

Lessons to learn from Anna Wintour

I read this article some months back and thought I need to highlight it. It is about Anna Wintour. God bless, but in case you didn’t who she is, Anna Wintour is the editor-in-chief of fashion and lifestyle magazine – Vogue! (Remember that, please…)

Again, if you did not read my earlier posting or have not heard about the documentary film – The September Issue, Anna had allowed an acclaimed documentary film maker, R.J Cutler to follow her and her team at Vogue from January to August 2007. The significance was that the September 2007 Vogue magazine was the single largest magazine ever published to date – boosting a total of 840 pages.

Cutler shared his view about Anna Wintour in the article. He related somewhat dramatic his observation about Anna to his friend that “Well, you can make a film in Hollywood without Steven Spielberg's blessing, and you can publish software in Silicon Valley without Bill Gates' blessing, but it's pretty clear to me that you can't succeed in the fashion industry without Anna Wintour's blessing."

Interestingly, he wrote that his eight months experience with Anna Wintour could be summed up into four lessons of management.

• Keep meetings short
• Trust your instinct
• Surround yourself with great talents
• Don’t look back

Don’t want to be accused of plagiarizing content, thus please read his elaboration here. I find them all very valuable tips.

However, I do want to discuss about this point, “Surround Yourself with Great Talent”. He wrote “Anna Wintour knows that you're only as good as the people who work for you, that bad leaders are threatened by strong team members, and that success comes from surrounding yourself with the most talented people you can find.”

I must say a lot of “leaders” failed to realise the above point. Many times, you see them getting people who are more likely to follow their instructions rather than someone who could work independently. People are somewhat intimidated by “strong team members”. As a result, they have a team of followers, but with very few thinkers.

Feel free to rebut me if you don’t agree with my observation, but I attributed the above symptoms as them having low self-esteem and too much of an egoistic mentality.

Some lecturers in school for example have no problems of letting students shine in class (strangely they are mostly Aussies), but there are a few who could not stand students of being “too smart”. Like somehow students who knew too much facts would steal their show away.

Not sure if they meant it, but Aussie lecturers would tend to say things like while they try to enlighten students, students had also helped them to understand some things better. You will never hear that from a Singaporean lecturer - They teach and students are to learn, which is technically correct too.

Of course, this is an Asian and Western cultural difference thing. Not that one is more right than the other, but the greatest difference is that one method encourages more participation and discourses, the other is more passive.

My point is that – why can’t people accept that others might know more, or would be in better position to advise them on a certain issue? Why must they see themselves as so high and mighty that only their views are correct? One can insist on their views, but then learnt to take up the responsibilities as well.

Vogue, like they say is Anna Wintour’s magazine. Whether it makes profits or not, the magazine is produced under her direction. She will be responsible and held accountable for the magazine’s sales.

Regrettably, a lot of people just want the talk and not walk the talk. A lot of people can talk too, but it is the walk that make or break them.

At times, I wish I could be as decisive as Anna Wintour…

Please read:

R.J. Cutler – What I learned from Anna Wintour

Ps: To clarify, my hair style was not directly an influence from her…Although like her, I might not change it again. It is the only style that suits me…

Things to Take Away from the 2010 World Cup

I am not a soccer fan. I can never understand the “fun” and “excitement” which soccer fans (like my brother) get from watching 20 men chasing after a ball. I think there are more meaningful things in life that I can spend my 90 minutes on… (:P)

Needless to say, I hardly followed the 2010 World Cup at all.

However, there are some interesting sidelines about this year’s World Cup that did catch my attention.

Ban of the Vuvuzela

According to Wiki, the Vuvuzela or a stadium horn is traditionally used in Africa to summon distant villagers to attend community gatherings. It had since evolved into a symbol of South African soccer. Supporters would use it to make loud and raucous sound to cheer their favourite team on.

Because of the intensity of the sound, FIFA had once proposed to ban the instrument as it is disturbed broadcasting presentation i.e. game commentary. Some soccer teams also blamed the vuvuzelas for disrupting team communication and players’ concentration during matches.

Funnily, the ban did not quite materialize. Instead, the news of the ban boosted the popularity of the vuvuzela so much so that it became something of a cult culture. I remembered that a song was even written about the vuvuzela. People start to explore all sorts of funny things which you can do with it. Apparently, it is not just a sound making instrument. It can be doubled as a mug in which fans can drink their beer from after the match (rather unhygienic if you ask me…).

Vuvuzela manufactors probably benefited the most from this World Cup episode. They exported close to two billion vuvuzela worldwide because of the publicity which they gained from the World Cup!

The Oracles

Nope, not that the ever powerful database system. I am referring to oracle as a person or agency considered to be a source of wise counsel or prophetic opinion, predictions or precognition of the future, inspired by the gods! (Taken from wiki)

My personal opinion – I think this year’s World Cup had been rather pale as compared with previous years’s games. There seem to be a lot less discussions and activities going on. Worse, usual hot favourite teams were out of the game earlier than expected. There is almost a crisis loaming as fans are almost ready to abandon the remaining games…

But wait, something unbelievable happened. News that a common octopus living in a tank at a Sea Life Centre in Oberhausen, Germany named Paul had successfully predicted results of several games hit the street. Freakingly, its accuracy rate was 100%.

It is never good to divulge too much of a secret. Paul’s prophetic talent had almost landed itself into trouble. I read that some Germans were unhappy that Paul had accurately predicted their losses. Some of them took on the street to petiton that they should eat the oracle itself as an act of revenge. Spain, I supposed tried to entertain the crowds further, but saying that they would send troops to protect Paul if necessary.

But Paul is not alone. Apparently, there are many other oracles who claimed to have prophetic visions. One of them is made in Singapore. I suspect that fortune-teller uncle from Little India must have taken some PR courses before. Riding on to the success of Paul the Octopus, he claimed that Singapore very own oracle - Mani the parrot, can predict the World Cup’s result too!

Of course as you can imagine, Mani become an instant hit among Singaporeans after Paul. (Actually, Mani need to zen more as it is not as accurate as Paul.)

Then right after that, Hong Kong’s Deity Wong Dai Xin decided that he cannot lose out to mortal creatures. He also made his own predictions on who would eventually won the World Cup.

The vuvuzela and the oracles had added much needed entertainment and interesting sidelines on the World Cup. They not only directed fan’s attention back to the World Cup but also ignited non-soccer fan’s interest on the game. It is rather fair to say that they had saved the 2010 game from being the dullest World Cup game ever.

Sadly to say that the attention is not on the Spanards who have won the World Cup, but rather the vuvuzelas and the oracles are the clear winner of the 2010 World Cup!

Lily Allen – The Fear

I somewhat think this aptly described what is going on with our society currently.  What is the fear, you asked? Fear of being “unknown” and being superficial.  

The Fear

I want to be rich and I want lots of money
I don't care about clever
I don't care about funny
I want loads of clothes and loads of diamonds
I heard people die while they are trying to find them

And I'll take my clothes off and it will be shameless
Cause everyone knows that's how you get famous
I'll look at the sun and I'll look in the mirror
I'm on the right track, yeah I'm on to a winner

I don't know what's right and what's real anymore
And I don't know how I'm meant to feel anymore
And when do you think it will all become clear?
Cause I'm being taken over by the Fear

Life's about film stars and less about mothers
It's all about fast cars and cussing each other
But it doesn't matter cause I'm packing plastic
And that's what makes my life so fucking fantastic

And I am a weapon of massive consumption
And its not my fault it's how I'm programmed to function
I'll look at the sun and I'll look in the mirror
I'm on the right track, yeah we're on to a winner

I don't know what's right and what's real anymore
And I don't know how I'm meant to feel anymore
And when do you think it will all become clear?
Cause I'm being taken over by the Fear

Forget about guns and forget ammunition
'Cause I'm killing them all on my own little mission
Now I'm not a saint but I'm not a sinner
Now everything is cool as long as I'm getting thinner

I don't know what's right and what's real anymore
And I don't know how I'm meant to feel anymore
And when do you think it will all become clear?
Cause I'm being taken over by the Fear

Stop Staring At Me!

Yes, I am fat. I am unhealthy. I have an unusually big body size. I know that.

But that does not give you the rights to stare at me!

Stop throwing dirty looks at me like I committed some unforgivable sins. I am a human too and I am sensitive. I can feel that you are disgusted with me. Those are your opinions. Does it meant that I do not have the rights to go out?  

Do you know how difficult it is for me to get decent plus size clothing in Singapore? Do you know how much internal struggle I had to fight and put up everyday before I can walk out of that door and face people? If I wore black, I am trying hard to stay low-key. I cannot help that you noticed me… I do not want that kind of attention too. But there you are sneering at me…Like I am some lowly creature and I deserve that?

What is that elbowing your husband or boyfriend to look at me about?How does it make you boost your self-esteem? He would agree with you that I am fat, but it does not make you much slimmer.

So what if you are slim? Given the way that you sneer at people, I wonder why your partner are willing to put up with you. There are people with better character out there, guys!

I am trying hard to do something too. I really am, but losing weight is not easy.

Just yesterday, I happened to chance upon a documentary on BBC lifestyle channel - “Too Fat Too Young”. In it, a little boy told the interview crew of how he was being bullied in school by other classmates with names calling.  The experts explained that he was depressed as a result and kept bingeing because he was stressed and that created a vicious cycle of weight gaining and eventually leading to health problems.

Poor boy. I could see the sadness in his eyes. He does not have much friends too. Another teenager went to a fat camp to try to lose weight and to gain some self-esteem. The camp did help him to be more cheerful and open up. He went back to “real world” and was thrown a dirty look by some girls on street. He felt so much about it and wrote a poem, cried halfway reading it.

I can so relate to them. Self-esteem is not something that we had and when we do have bits of it, someone somewhere just could not wait to crush that out of us. I could not remember how many times I was called names and being discriminated just because of my body size…

Why are you all so mean to fat people? You think we enjoy to be in this situation? Given a chance, we rather be normal, but we are not.

You can don’t understand our plight. Just leave us alone… That is all I am asking. Stop staring at me…

JB In State of Mourning – Shopping Centres not Opened…

People who wanted to do some Chinese New Year shopping in Johor Bahru, please do read the following.

 

Sultan Iskandar Ismail had passed away yesterday, thus the Johor Bahru state is in mourning. Shopping centres like City Square are all not opened for business…

 

If you can read Melayu, the following is the notice which I found at City Square. Can’t really translate what it meant, maybe you all can tell me.

 

Yes, Photosophize had wanted to do some Chinese New Year shopping today at Johor Bahru, but was faced with iron grille instead. Disappointed, but I respect local customs and the fact that they are mourning for the loss of a National Leader.

May all is well soon.

今年の漢字 2009 - Chinese Character of 2009

Japan's annual Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation had choosen a single Chinese character (Kanji) that best represents Japan's situation for 2009. The selection process is also known as今年の漢字.


The Chinese Character which they have chosen for 2009  is:

新
 
It is pronouced as "Xin" which meant "new". Apparently, Japan has chosen this word because of Swine Flu which rampage the country earlier on. It was termed as "新型"（しんがた、shingata), or "new type" flu. Then of course, they had a new government which is termed as "新政権"（しんせいけん、shin seiken).

Over at Taiwan, the Chinese Character for 2009 which best represented Taiwan's situation is:

盼

The character is pronouced as "Pan" which meant hope. Taiwanese after been through so much in the year, hope for a better future.

In Singapore, we do not have such practise of chosing a Chinese character. However, we were told in one of the CNN article that the term of the year for Singapore was:

"BOOMZ"

Well, the controversial Ris Low was chosen to be the most influential person in Asia for year 2009. Not sure what is their criterial, but I think there are more important things /persons that we can remember 2009 for.

Reference:

• http://japanvisitor.blogspot.com/2009/12/kanji-character-for-2009-new.html
• http://www.asiaone.com/News/Latest%2BNews/Asia/Story/A1Story20091216-186267.html
• http://www.divaasia.com/article/6572

King of Pop - Micheal Jackson is Dead!!!

I thought today was an ordinary day, but appeared not. Read this shocking news on Yahoo that King Of Pop - Micheal Jackson died yesterday at about 2:26 p.m. PDT (5:26 EDT) after arriving at a Los Angeles hospital in full cardiac arrest.

Despite all the negetive news, he is no doubt a Pop Icon in World's Music Scene. Many people can do the "moonwalk", but no one would be able to do as well as the inventer, Micheal Jackson himself. It is a pity that he died before he was able to do a comeback to whitewash those negetive news surrounding him in his later year.

I just find his life story, a rather sad one. No matter how rich you are, you cannot buy back past time. I wonder whether he would rather be a normal person with a normal childhood and life experiences or to lead an extraodinary life as a pop-star like he was today.

In any case, I am sure it would not be the last we would heard from him. Like many of the Pop Icon, his legacy would live on beyond his physical life. Be prepared to read more of him in the news.

Rest in Peace - King of Pop!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090626/en_nm/us_jackson

Learning Languages – My Own Experience

From young, Chinese has been my strongest subject. The strangest thing is that I do not know how I did it. I don’t speak Chinese at home – we communicate in Hokkien mainly even among my brothers. Somehow, I would always top the class in Chinese. The highest score I even got for a Chinese test was 108 out of 110 marks in Primary school. I remembered a Chinese teacher actually got a few of us EM2 students who are good in Chinese to pit against his higher Chinese class which comprises of mainly EM1 students. I have never studied their module before, but managed to score 8 out of 10 for the test, while majority of the higher Chinese students scored 6s and 7s. Then moving on to Secondary School, I did not manage to hold on to the top scorer position since it will always be occupied by schoolmates from China and Hong Kong, but I supposed I was closely behind.

Singapore educational system emphasized importance in English Language. Being good in Chinese language does not really meant anything. In fact, you can fail Chinese and still have a way to go, but if you fail English, your school life is over. During Secondary school, my English standard dropped to an all time low. Not that I am blaming the school for my own bad, but seriously our school’s English standard is not as good as the Chinese standard. It got to a point where the whole express class can actually failed English test and the only one who passes is the highest scorer.

The struggle heightens during my O’level year. I do not think that I am at the bottom of the pit, but out of some reasons, the English teacher just likes to pick on me. The whole class English language were “atrocious” as my Secondary Four teacher put it, but I am the only one whom she chose to throw the assignment to the ground and shouted at me “YOU ARE NOT GOING TO PASS YOUR O’LEVEL ENGLISH!!! ”. Anyway, I got a lot of bad blood with this English teacher. I have no doubt that she is biased especially that there were many classmates who have failed and score the same points as me, but she did not singled them out.

Shamed, devastated and more importantly unconvinced of her biased judgement, I am determined to prove her wrong. After my June O’level Chinese papers, I go library at every opportunity to read books and finished doing all the mock tests in the ten year series book. Eventually, the hard work paid off. I was one of the two students who passes the prelim paper in class and was the higher scorer. The English Teacher who had vowed off supervising me looked at me in surprise and even claimed credit that my improvement was (anything but) all her effort. (Disgusted)

However, even then I only managed to pass my O’Level English papers. I managed to get into Polytechnic and had chosen an Engineering course. There were reports to write, but the marks were allocated based on the content and not so much on the English language. I scored rather well for my technical writing modules, but I believed if the lecturers were really particular about the English language, a lot of us will probably fail. You see at that point, we don’t realise that our English may not be on mark until now that I looked back.

Then, I joined my current company. I had a breakdown after few months. All my colleagues’ English were very good and mine was embarrassing bad. I struggled for very long. I went back to the O’level studying mode. I will be at the library every weekend and even brought Straits Times to read. I purposely chose to watch a lot of English shows i.e. dramas and documentaries and I would conscientiously read the English subtitle if I was watching a Chinese show.

To improve the written English, I also made an effort to chat and sms in proper English sentences which irritated my friends. In fact, one of the reasons which I started this blog was to practise writing in English. I used to write more in Chinese for the earlier posts, but switched to mainly English nowadays. Though I have not got much time to go library, but I will probably resume back to the mode if I was admitted into the degree course of my choice.

I have learnt that learning language has no short cut. One need practise. You don't learn to speak and write properly every day, you will lose the ability to use it and will affect your communication in future.

Then recently, I noticed this very weird trend that youngster nowadays have. They speak and write “gibberish” without knowing the consequences. I am disturbed that young people uses improper languages and think that it is cool. The problem with this trend is that youngsters think that it is acceptable because you are only communicating with friends, it is ok. It is in fact not ok. Like I explain, languages have to be practise constantly. If continues, they will one day not able to differentiate between proper language and “gibberish” anymore. In the end, they will come to regret that they did not learn language properly when they started working.

Young people, correct the habit before it is too late.

Examples of "Gibberish":

- Every sentence is ended with "xia".
E.g. Yesterday, I watch a movie xia, it was cool xia, got a lot of action xia.

I wondered whether xia refers to hero in Chinese. If so, there are often more superheros in one conversation than Marvel comic superheros combined.

- Using "De" in written English sentences for emphasis
E.g Very irritating de.

I thought people who write like that tried to sound cute.

- Speak English-accented Hokkien.
Instead of "Go" or hokkien pronouciation "zao", they say "Zhaow".

I am purist. I have problem with people purposely pronouncing Chinese or Dialect with English accent for sake of showing off. It is as if they are trying to act higher class which is disgusting.

- Instead of writing proper English, they write "Internet" spelling

I.e. Dunnoe (don’t know), Wat (What)

One day they will not be able to differentiate which is the proper English spelling...

25 Things about Photosophize

There is this "25 things about yourself" craze in Facebook. One of my friend tagged me in one of her's and I thought she is pretty honest. I tried to draft my own, but stopped as I am concerned of revealing too much privacy for my comfort.

However, I thought it will be "fun" to reveal some things about Photosophize so that readers will have a better idea . So, below is 25 things about Photosophize.

1. “Photosophize” sounded masculine, but I am actually a lady not a guy.
2. I made up the word - “Photosophize” which supposedly meant philosophizing photos. I believed there is a story behind every photo.
3. Majority of the photos that are published earlier are taken using Nokia N73 camera phone. However, my phone is a bit cranky now, thus I am using Panasonic FX10 camera.
4. Am saving up for Nokia N79, but if any camera phone company happened to read this and decided to sponsor me, I welcome all. I will make sure all people know that I am using your product.
5. I would describe myself as curious and creative and love anything related to design and music.
6. I wanted to be a musician when I was young. I thought I can write pretty good lyrics.
7. Dislike arrogant and selfish people. Especially those who judged and looked down on people.
8. My voice is the most beautiful thing that God or whoever had bestowed me.
9. I love to sing and I know I can sing, but I have never won any singing competition before. Hmm… Maybe voice is not the sole criteria.
10. My idols are Faye Wong, Teresa Teng and Madonna.
11. I am rather interested in making short film. I hope to produce my own short film in time to come.
12. Though I love to eat, I cannot eat beef due to religious reason.
13. Also due to religious reasons, I vowed off eating frogs, crabs and prawns etc live living thing. I am not very strict with prawns though as long as I am not cooking them myself.
14. Because of #10, I hope I could be vegetarian one day.
15. Lousy food spoilt my mood and day because we can only eat so much per day, why waste it on lousy food?
16. I used to go library every weekend to read in order to improve my written English.
17. I am terrified of dogs. Would avoid them at all cost.
18. If I was a fruit, I would be durian. Those who can stand me will love me a lot, those who cannot take it, will loathe me.
19. I often offend people without knowing and I can be bossy at times.
20. I started blogging because I got too much spare time.
21. I hate liers and to be taken as a fool sometimes. I might not say doesn’t meant that I don’t know and I don’t mind.
22. As much as people are more educated nowadays, there are still people who looked rudely at fat people especially fat girls. It is very rude to do that, I always make sure they know that.
23. I know streets of KL like the back of my hand, but I never know how to navigate my way in Orchard.
24. My brothers are my most important food critics. They are just impossible to please.
25. I do hope I will be able to find someone who will accept me for who I am. I want to bake him a jar of cookies to bring to work, so that he can have one and thinking of me. :)

If you happened to read this, start sharing 25 things about yourself too. Perhaps we can hyperlink each other's article.

An Alternate Point of View on Local Blogosphere* - Part 1

*the validity of the term “local blogosphere” is still under debate at point of entry

Sometime ago TPJC’s blog asked whether Singapore’s blogosphere was screwed up due to the lack of intellectual content and most readers seem to be only interested in sexual related topics, highly controversial articles and exaggerated artists scandals. The article also suggested that local bloggers played a part in the trend as they had sensationalized their entries in bid to generate high volume of visitors for earning advertising revenue.

I find parts of their argument rather weak and especially the examples they cited are not accurate as it seems to be.

Are Singapore’s Readers really that shallow?

The first inaccuracy was that they cited half of the top ten popular entries on Ping.sg, a community Meta blog for Singapore bloggers, were either sex-related content or entries with striking titles and the entries which were voted by readers proved that they were more interested with sexual related topics, highly controversial articles and exaggerated artists scandals.

Though Ping.sg was supposed to be a community Meta blog for Singapore bloggers, they forget that there are other nationals’ bloggers, like Malaysia and Hong Kong, who have registered with Ping.sg to promote their blogs too. Some of them might have posted the exaggerated content too, not necessary Singaporeans’ bloggers.

Secondly, as pointed out above, readers of Ping.sg can be of other nationals too. It is not accurate anymore to use it as a gage to prove that Singapore’s readers are attracted to shallow content only.

For all we know, there might be a high percentage of Singaporeans readers reading blog articles on topics such as science and technology, but the figures are not made known to us.

On Xia Xue being representative of Singapore blogosphere…

*Shake head…

Firstly, the question was posted to the writer’s “not so internet savvy friends” on local blogosphere and I agreed that Xia Xue’s name would definitely be brought up. However, to go on to add that she is representative of the local blogosphere is just… not accurate as well. I mean have you all forgotten the doyen himself – Mr Brown? The ranking on Technorati and Sgblogs showed that he still has the most visited Singaporean blog. Thus, why would Xia Xue who is many spots below him as being representative of local blogosphere? I don’t recall reading other local blogs of having these many curses and swearing words...

Only Blogs which write about science and technology are reputable…

They inferred Singapore’s blogs lacked of intellectual content and only considered blogs with factual content such as science and technology as reputable and intellectual. I totally disagree with this point of view. In my opinion, most blogs provided alternate point of views on certain issues, there is no right or wrong with one’s point of view and there could be philosophy in simple relations of one’s experience. Then, we also have some people who shared their daily life happenings with others like how one celebrated certain festivals, traditional and street food that is unique to a country are part of culture writing. It certainly does not mean that they are not science or technology related topic, thus they are any less intellectual or reputable.

They have also inaccurately labeled blogs such as TechCrunch, Telegraph and WiredScience as successful because they manage to garner a huge readership base. Those blogs are successful because their content is credible and convincing and huge readership base comes after that.

Also, TechCrunch, Telegraph and Wired Science are not exactly written by amature bloggers. Wired Science has editors and numerous contributors and TechCrunch is managed by two professional bloggers etc and they could almost be categorized as commercial blog. It is therefore not fair to compare them with local blogs which are usually managed by one person. Not forgetting that in America, it is possible for one to earning a living from writing, but one cannot really do so in Singapore.

My view on local blogosphere

Contrary to what they have stated, I believed there are many interesting blogs with good content waiting for readers to discover them. In my opinion, Singapore’s Blogosphere isn’t screwed up, neither are the readers. It is just that the vastness of the blogosphere has yet to be explored and what we are seeing now is the barely scratched surface…

TBC...

Please support - Meowyabear's Spree blog

I do not own the above mentioned blog, but my friend – Jur’s. She is organising a Victoria Secret Spree currently and it is going to end in two days times in fact.

Ladies, if you have things to buy from Victoria Secret, please join her spree! Guys, you can visit the website and get your favourite lingerie to surprise her~ *Wink* ;)

Here is her spree blog link - http://cy-spree.blogspot.com/

*Nope, I do not earn any advertising fees from her by writing this entry. It is purely out of friendship. Batteries not included...

Photosophize's "Advertising Campaign" at Suntec - Song and Laser Dedication System

Well, I spent a little fortune to "advertise" my blog at Suntec Fountain... See video below!

Impressive isn't it? Even better - it's actually free*!!!

How to do it?

Right outside this restaurant that sell Sharks Fin soup, there is this huge metalic dedication station.

As seen in the photo below, the system is named "Song and Laser Dedications". There are two touch screen monitors. One only has to fill in a simple questionaire about themselves and they can then dedicate a song with a special message to someone.

The questionaires are general questions like age group, purpose of visiting suntec and if it is the first time you are visiting Suntec etc.

The touch screen alignment is a little bit off, thus it is a bit difficult to type in your message fast. Nevertheless, I managed to key in my message.

After you hit "send" message, remember to rush off to the fountain area and wait to see your message displayed using laser. See above, it is where people wait to tour round the fountain. The system will then displayed all other messages that they received together. Each of them will be shown twice.

Remember to get your video camera ready and capture that magical moment!


This is what others will see. An interesting display of lasers that flickers and changes according to the tempo of music. The water spray will also differs from one display to another.


Actually, there are a lot of things that you can do with the Song and Laser dedications system. Lovers can declare their vows, interests etc to one another publicly (in fact, that is what my friend did... envy), make a wedding proposal, or if you are in area celebrating friend/family's birthday, one can dedicate a happy birthday message to birthday girl or boy. Well, I do not have anyone to make any declarations then (sad), thus can only pathetically publicise my blog using the system.


Come to think of it, I sort of spoilt market to use such a romantic tool for my blog... Then again, you can't deny that I am creative!


Wait, before you rushing off to Suntec fountain to make dedications. The Song and Laser dedication system is only available on Weekends (Friday, Saturday and Sunday) and Public Holidays. I did not manage to catch the start time, but the laser will end at about 10 pm. So, if you are planning a surprise, recee first to avoid disappointment!


Lastly, Thank You Suntec City for the fun and magical experience!!! Do continue to provide the service until I can make dedications to someone, will you?

*The laser effect is free. Video shooting and post-production services are not included. I edited the footages and added background music myself. :)

The things that makes us a Singaporean, are the things that I love best!

Happened to hear this song titled “Things so Singaporean” from a blog. The tune is catchy and the lyric is very local and humouredly written. One of my favourite line says "The things that makes us a Singaporean, are the things that I love best! ".

Never mind that some of the things mentioned like chomp seats in hawker center are not “gracious”, but you cannot deny that it is a creative solution to a simple problem. I kinda of like the song and can even sing a few lines of it already. In my opinion, I have not heard such a National Day-ish Song that is so easy to sing since “We are Singapore”.

Don't get me wrong. I mean Kit’s songs are nice, but how many of us can sing it in tune? (I can, but I don't know about the rest of us...)

Enjoy!

Responsibilities of a Citizen Reporter and Blogger

Recently, there have been a lot of news about “ungracious” Singaporeans refusing to give up their seats for pregnant women or elderly folks. All these stories are “raised” by normal people like you and I (thus the term citizen) and comes attached with a photo taken using handphone camera , accompanied by an one-sided eye-witness account from the “reporter”.

Actually, when reading these “news” have you all given a thought on how accurate the news are? Frankly, I have not thought of this until recently my brother told me about the plight of his schoolmate.

He told me that one of his female schoolmate’s photo was taken in the MRT and got posted on STOMP. The “reporter” told STOMP that she was reading her notes earlier on her seat then “pretended” to doze off when a pregnant woman boarded the train. Righteously, the “reporter” immediately took picture of the student and reported her ungraciousness to STOMP. Well, people like us would just take the account as it is, but my brother told me the other side of the story.

He and other schoolmates were pretty shocked to see her photo on STOMP and that she was even accused of doing such a mean thing. To people who knew her, she is a quiet and good natured girl and most encouraging, none of them believed she would do something like that. In my brother exact words, he said “she gong gong (hokkien word for blur blur) one, she could not have done such thing. very poor thing … There are people cursing her that she would have no seats too when she is pregnant too…”

Then, it hit me. Seriously, I would believe that the “reporter” surfaced the news out of good intention, but have he misjudged this incident?

People like us, armed with handphone camera who are net savvy and might have blogged, have we also been too haste in judgement that we might have reported an incident wrongly? I mean we might not realised at the point in time that what we see might not the whole truth and unlike professional journalist, we might not have check back with the person and give them a chance to explain their behaviour as well. In a way, this incident make me conscious about the things we blogged and set me thinking how much one should believe with news like that.

Maybe we have not realised that, but citizen reporters and bloggers alike, our writing might affect someone in a serious way. We have to be responsible with that as well. Before we posted anything that might affect others, we should have think twice and observe carefully whether it is as what we have seen. Also, we might want to think in other parties’ shoes on how they can take it if the matter was publicised openly especially in STOMP where a lot of Singaporeans would read it. I mean it is public humiliation after all and not everyone can take this kind of stress. If the person would have been slightly weak-minded and (touchwood) committed suicide, how would you felt if you are the one writing about it? Guilty, very very guilty definitely.

Perhaps, instead of reporting ugly sights and ungracious acts publicly, why not tell the person off straight in the face when you encounter it. At least one gets to hear the explanation off the horse’s mouth. Of course, this might not apply to every situations as there are people who have done something on purpose with malicious intention.

Well, now it appears that blogging and citizen journalism is not a simple task isn't it?

Hmmm...