//beconfused

Now we are seeing more things in the Singapore television. A decade ago, women used to be clothed more and Singaporean who watch television only in their lives wouldn’t have known bikini was ever invented.

Today, we see women cladded in bikini in beaches, girls wearing sexily in clubs and now - Ann Kok flashing her legendary pokémon padded Triumph 3/4 Maximizer (according to Mr. Brown’s blog).

(Ann Kok shows off Triumph 3/4 Maximizer.)

They’ve always been talking about Ann Kok’s assets. I’ve seen the magazines, she supposed to have big ones according to a certain magazine that have images of Fiona Xie regularly. So now, you have a clear view already. I think it’s taken from drama serial - Love’s Ambassador. See the original GIF image here, I re-encoded it so that it’s smaller in size for easier viewing.

So I guess Singapore really is opening up. First, it’s sex education. Then, there’s Priscelia Chan being raped in some Chinese drama serial scene. Then, there’re drama serials with girls swimming in bikini. And then social escorts from China. Then it’s mistresses from Vietnam. Now there’s Ann Kok showing off a bra.

And, today, we have FHM, Maxim and recently - S.N.A.G. (Sensual New Age Guy). Soon, we’ll probably see photobooks of Fiona Xie, Ericia Lee and probably, hot-mama Zoe Tay. And later, perhaps - just perhaps - we’ll get to see image videos of Mediacorp artists acting cute, playing volleyball with the video cameramen, released with a photobook, a 15 minutes commentary about how hard was it to pose and a minute of bloopers.

Oh, you just wait. Just wait and you’ll see all of these coming to a bookstore near you.

By the way, as much as I know how to convert videos, I am not skilled enough to use HTML to make the player embed nicely into my web site. It looks kinda wrong. When I view it with Opera, Firefox and Internet Explorer, it all looks different!

Can anybody teach me a nice way of embedding videos and will have a consistent look between browsers? It would be great if codes are provided too, hehee… [By the way, I am looking for a non-Flash solution.]

It appears to me that my reading materials are boring to most of my platoon-mates. Most are not interested in what I bring, with the exception of 8 Days and Lime magazines.

The popular magazines that my platoon like are:

* FHM Singapore
* CHIP Singapore
* 8 Days (local entertainment and lifestyle magazine)
* Lime (teenage entertainment magazine)
* Men’s Health (eat more carrots, they say)
* Maxim Singapore
* Stuff Singapore (no nude girls posing with XBOX360)
* PC World Singapore
* First (for the movie buffs)

They don’t like the Newsweek, Discover and Forbes magazines that I bring. They always snatch my 8 Days though. Another guy brought Time regularly - wasn’t welcome. I brought The Economist once too, it wasn’t popular. Finally the Pioneer magazine which is the army magazine - well nobody bother bringing except me and I never take longer than 5 minutes possessing it before it goes the the trash bin.

So I questioned, “news aren’t nice to read eh?”

They want football (as in soccer, not American football) news. They want news about English football leagues. They talk about Manchester, Chelsea, Liverpool and Asernal. I don’t really know who’s better because everyone tells me a different thing.

So what about news as in the ongoings around the world? They cite The New Paper - a local daily tabloid. I like to read it once in a while but I think I skip too much of the paper that I might as well just go directly to the columns and entertainment sections.

The New Paper reports the touchy and touching stories of the Sigapore heartlands which both men and women enjoy (probably respectively). And often there’ll be some murder case, mostly in Malaysia.

I can’t really get myself interested in such news actually. I’m just not interested in other people’s lives, you know. Things like families not being able to pay electricity bills just ain’t particularly interesting. Yes, I pity them but I just am not interested in reading about other’s misadventures with finacial management.

And worse is that I always have this feeling of being sadistic when I purchase a copy of The New Paper to read about the misfortunes of people. It comes back to a simple question - why does one read? To enrich oneself and for pleasure. It’s like purchasing a paper to read about other’s misfortunes and the paper really does sell.

If it’s for enrichment and the understanding of the less fortunate among us, the whole idea is good generally. We read and find out that we’re fortunate. Doesn’t this kinda make you, er, happy? And knowing the unfortunate is there may make you feel sad - but do you try to help them in anyway after reading?

That’s why I don’t really like to read about people’s misfortunes. I know I wouldn’t really help them and I just feel bad engrossing myself in a two-page article of a girl being raped and murder, accompanied by huge headlines and full color murder scene illustrations.

Well, of course, this is just my opinion, you can rebutt if you want to. It’s kinda written in a rush so forgive my post’s structure.

First day that I spend after the end of Basic Military Training. It felt good really.

All of a sudden, I just wake up in the morning feeling so free. Unfortunately, this feeling of freedom won’t be long. I will be back in the national service after a week.

I am kinda hoping to get a vocation that deals with people. Service vocation, they call. I don’t want to service those bloody vehicles that is nearly impossible to clean. What I mean by service is to provide a service to people. It is quite impossible I get this vocation though.

Anyway, whatever vocation I get, I would just accept it unless it causes trouble to my health. I don’t really care what I do in national service actually.

I spend most of my time reading stuff. I read Newsweek, FHM, novels, Time magazine, Straits Times, 8 Days, Lime, computer books, Stuff (Singapore version) self-improvement books. I just keep on reading to make myself feel that I am not wasting time. But I do have to admit that half of what I read is considered wasting time since it is not really beneficial. Oh well…

I especially like reading magazines. Entertainment ones. The FHM magazine is quite a fun magazine actually, it’s not just the women that are inside. FHM tends to ask really dumb questions to the girls and it gets kinda boring actually. I like their other articles, it’s well-rounded for men. 8 Days is great too, I always like reading that. I read Lime too, but I always have the feeling Lime articles are rather pointless. Sorry Lime editors, I just don’t know what is the point of the interview most of the time.

Newspapers and news magazines are definately something that would be useful. I do read them quite often. I prefer news magazines but dislike the importance they give to United States. It’s always Bush this Bush that, I don’t think there is a news magazine that publishes an issue without the bushy word within the first 15 pages.

I like technology news but I don’t get much of that in the army. I read Digital Life, PC Magazine and Stuff just to be entertained by the new stuff that’s coming. The Singapore edition of Stuff doesn’t have naked women with Santa hats covering their nipples with new gadgets - it’s non-adult.

Books are great source of mobile entertainment. They are the only ones that can be stuffed into the army uniform. I go everywhere with them. I read Artemis Fowl, Totto-chan, Cashflow Quadrant and more whenever I am free. I remember I brought this Totto-chan to read during the throwing grenade session. I just went there to read. I read and read then go and anyhow throw the grenade no where near the target and went back to read Totto-chan.

I haven’t been scolded reading books during free time. But it really tires me out as I didn’t rest enough. I always get tired during their activities and feel sleepy everytime. Some people say I am too ‘blur’ - as in too unaware of what’s happening. I am just too tired to be aware. Strangely, I don’t get tired while reading stuff though.

The next day after I booked out of army, I brought my girlfriend to work in the morning. So call ‘brought’, I don’t have a car you see. I basically accompany her to work. It’s been a while since I seen her so I went to work with her.

(Borders book store.)

And after she reaches her work place, I went to Borders in Orchard.

Borders is nice place. I actually prefer Borders to Kinokuniya. And also, I have to admit that I am a cheapskate.

Borders has lots of books and magazines you see. Sometimes they are not wrapped in those plastic wrappers. I happily find a seat and took out to read the books. Kinokuniya, on the other hand, wraps up many things and have lesser chairs.

I read books like Freakonomics, Newsweek, New Scientist, NewMan and some book about the design history of Penguin books.

They are not wrapped and I went to read them for free. Yes, I am a cheapskate. Most of the time, I’ll just flip through the magazines and return them. I subsribe to Newsweek so I don’t need to buy, I just want to look into the magazine. As for New Scientist, it’s too expensive for me to subscribe and I only read less than a quarter of it. NewMan is some men magazine that I find boring. I almost fell asleep while flipping that magazine. And I thought men magazines are supposed to be exciting.

As for Freakonomics, it’s a great book. Very interesting economics explanation inside. I can’t buy the book because it is too expensive for me. It costs SG$35.90 from Borders I believe. It is hard cover. I actually went to Borders with the intention of getting something to bring to the army. I went home empty-handed in the end. I guess I’ll just go to Borders again when I leave the army 1 week later to complete the book. Yes, I know I am a cheapskate.

Perhaps Manchester United didn’t play fair.

Red is the colour if winning is your game

THE Washington Redskins, Manchester United and the Welsh rugby team have all been playing with an unfair advantage. Just seeing their red kit is seemingly enough to cow their opponents into submission even before a ball is kicked.

Russell Hill and Robert Barton of Durham University in the UK tracked success in four Olympic sports: boxing, taekwondo, Greco-Roman wrestling and freestyle wrestling.

Of 441 bouts, reds won 242 and in all four sports reds triumphed in more contests. And the red advantage was higher in close encounters: 62 per cent of red-garbed competitors won these. The same is true in soccer. Five teams in the Euro 2004 competition who had predominantly red in one of their two kits all did significantly better while wearing red, scoring around one extra goal per game.

Human competitors might experience a testosterone surge while wearing the colour, he (Barton) says, or feel submissive when facing a scarlet opponent.

Source: New Scientist (From issue 2500 of New Scientist magazine, 18 May 2005, page 16)

Well, I guess it’s time all football jerseys use the color red. I won’t be surprised that after a more thorough research, all sportmen would select red as their official color.

I have been reading a lot more than before. When I am free, I usually am reading. I read magazines, magazines such as 8 Days and New Scientist. I like them a lot, I wish I can get a subscription of New Scientist but the last time I checked - it’s too costly. As for 8 Days, it’s just an entertainment magazine that my brother buys and I stole it to read.

I read newspapers too but I am never fond of them. I prefer the internet. I like the idea that you can dig out related articles so easily. The thing I really hated about newspaper is when I read an article, I can get lost quite easily. Especially political articles.

Take the news about Tony Blair’s government “sex up” the dossier for example. The news leads to the departure of 2 important fellows in BBC. What I saw in the news in this top editor in BBC left the company and a tiny chunk of text describing here and there what is happening.

Actually, I don’t know what the hell is happening. Who is this reporter ‘Andrew Gilligan’? Who is ‘Dr. David Kelly’? Was it a suicide? What makes him a whistleblower. What did Blair do? Who is Lord Hutton and what’s a ‘Lord’ anyway. Every thing is just linked up. But how? I have no idea.

And when I read the newspaper, I really have no idea. It’s just a short introduction, you need to know what is happening several months before. The newspaper somehow require you to have a prerequisite or some sort. I doubt that I would understand anything if I were to read the newspaper.

The internet, however, is different. If you read a news article and have absolutely no idea what the hell the article is talking about, just search for related articles. There are search engines that would search for news for you. A bunch of related news comes up and you don’t even have to stick with one news web site. You can hop all around the web reading the same news reported by different people.

With a newspaper, you need to keep in touch with the news closer or you’ll just not understand it later. In the internet, you can slack back a little, wait for the news to unfold and if you find it interesting, you still have a chance of backtracking to previous news articles to learn more.

I once told my uncle that I prefer reading news articles in the internet and my view points. He thinks a newspaper is essential and better. He then continued that it’s my fault that I don’t follow the news because I am supposed to read as much as possible from the papers.

That’s fine. My uncle and I approach news differently. He reads everything which is very good. I read selectively. I am interested in science and technology news. I am interested in business news too. I read news about the companies whose products I use. I read about Sony, Nokia, Panasonic, Compaq etc.. Entertainment news are great too even though they don’t really teach me anything except the fact that you can divorce and get married unlimited times.

You know what’s cool? Now the word ‘cool’ has like a billion meanings. Anything can be cool. This morning it was raining, the air is cold. That’s so cool.

Then I board this bus and the air-con is cold, that’s so cool too. So how to look cool?

I proudly revealed ‘New Scientist’ to the people sitting just right opposite me. They took a glance and looked back and they quickly turned away. Oh man, this is so (nerd) cool!

I flipped open the magazine to this page with a pretty computer illustrated image that looks kinda cool. The article is about superstrings and cosmic strings. [No g-strings.] They talked about dimensions and stuff, frankly speaking the only thing about ‘dimension’ that I know of is that the Battle of Middle Earth game we bought last December is in 3D (3-dimensional graphics).

But who cares? You just got to pretty that you’re reading a magazine. Flip to the page with the most sophisticated graphics. You see this page with some sand dunes in page 8 of New Scientist’s December 18 issue? Flip away, it’s not as cool to view sand dunes, dude. People would think that you’re reading National Geographic or something.

I would recommend readers of New Scientist December 18 issue to read page 24 which has this nice graphic of - wait, let me check - er, optical computer part crystallise in bacteria. [Please do not question me about crystallization; I only know they make crystals.] Or just some super string theory stuff you know.

The rule of thumb is to just flip to a page that has a nice graphic and a bunch of text that seemed so never-ending. Just stare at the page as long as possible and start thinking about what to eat during lunch. Now, let me get back to reading about really cool solar cells.