SO bitten by an insect!

I just received an sms from SO that he is bitten by an insect and that he is presently in hospital.

The doc gave him a jab and asked him to be warded overnight.

My heart skipped a beat. Oh no....Not again.

This is not the first time that he was bitten by some insect and warded in hospital.

I think it happened twice already, or thrice? The last time was about 10 years ago when he was living at home. He was bitten by some creepy crawly and his father sent him to the hospital.

Anyway, this time he told the doctor that he refused to stay overnight.

I offered to go down to the hospital to meet him but the bitch simply refused, saying the doctor would review him in 2 hours time. And then he would come back.

And he asked me not to sms him anymore, cos he wanted to sleep!

I couldn't breath. My heart was heavy with worry. I wondered if the insect bite could lead to some severe allergy.

Hmmm...wondering if I should go down and surprise him at the hospital. But his colleagues are there......and he did not want me there.

Mommies matchmaking session

Gosh, is this for real?

Just cos the PM mentioned it in his speech did not mean people should take it as the holy word.

Frankly, thank goodness, I am not single. And that my mother would not do something like that.

And if she did, I dun think I would forgive her for poking her nose into my private business.

So where's your mommy yesterday afternoon? Matchmaking?

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The Straits Times
8 Sep 2008

Matchmaking meet

They share CVs to find mates for their children at first such event here

By Goh Chin Lian

WITH a picture of her son in her handbag, housewife Wang Lianzhi mingled with some 150 parents at the Speakers' Corner yesterday for a mass matchmaking session.

'My son's 30. He's never had a girlfriend. He's working on his computer all the time and seldom goes out,' explained Mrs Wang, 67. So she decided to play Cupid, distributing his business card to other parents.

It was the first parents' matchmaking session, organised by dating agency Clique Wise which had taken up a suggestion by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. PM Lee had floated the idea of having parents play matchmaker for their children in his National Day Rally speech last month.

He described how thousands of parents in Beijing secretly sought out spouses for their children at such sessions, commonly held in parks, and suggested Singapore parents try it too.

Yesterday, they did. Parents took matters into their own hands, saying their children were too busy for a social life.

Many like Mrs May Jow, 60, came without their children's knowledge. 'I took my daughter's photograph from the drawer without telling her,' she said.

The matchmaking process was simple: Parents exchanged details of their children like age, education and current job, and asked to see a picture of the 'candidate'. Some whipped out passport-sized photographs, others 4R-sized pictures. One parent came with an 8R computer printout of the family posing with the candidate in a graduation gown.

Parents were not only scrutinising the candidate's looks, but also sussing out the candidate's parents to see if they came from similar backgrounds. If all goes well, they exchange phone numbers.

Some parents like Mrs Jow were on the lookout for candidates who matched their children's height and age. 'The age difference should be about three to four years and he has to be at least 1.76m tall,' said Mrs Jow, whose daughter is aged 30 and is 1.68m tall.

Parents hunting for a son-in-law also wanted someone with a higher educational qualification and a stable career.

Said housewife L.H. Heng, 55: 'My daughter has a polytechnic diploma. Her spouse cannot have any lesser than that.'

The session's organiser, Ms Lydia Gan, said the event was held at Speakers' Corner as the older generation was familiar with Hong Lim Park. It was also free.

All Ms Gan had to do was register online with the National Parks Board, since rules were eased to allow outdoor demonstrations at Speakers' Corner from Sept 1.

While the matchmaking session was registered as an exhibition, and not a demonstration, it did draw onlookers like odd job labourer Jeff Tan, 60. He had dropped by after shopping in nearby Chinatown, thinking he would catch a protest in progress.

But there was none. So far, only non-profit group Hearer of Cries has held a demonstration, staging a 10-minute protest against employers who abuse maids.

Mr Tan said: 'I wouldn't come here specially. I work in Changi and I'm living in Tampines. It's too far.'

I was drugged!

I think I was drugged by SO.

I have asked him but he simply denied it.

I have been sleeping more than usual. On Saturday night, I slept at about 3am and woke up on Sunday at 9am.

After breakfast, I went back to sleep from 11am to 5pm!

And all our plans for Sunday was ruined. I had planned to go to a movie but I was simply too tired.

That Sunday night, I slept at 11pm till Monday morning 6am.

And I still felt so tired.

I dun know what SO fed me but I have slept too much.

Winners of the SG blog awards

Below are the winners of the SG blog awards!


Best Youth Blog
Witch Yuki
http://hiroyuki-world.blogspot.com


Best Photo Blog
Eunice Khong
http://travelerfolio.com


Most Insightful Blog
mobeizao
http://blog.omy.sg/mobeizao


Most Entertaining Blog
Jimmy Lee
http://ahshuiworld.blogspot.com


Best Design Blog
Shaun Chng
http://www.shaunchng.com


Best Blog Shop
Miss Loi
http://www.exampaper.com.sg


Best Individual Blog
Jane Chin
http://janechin.blogspot.com/


Popular Choice Awards Winners

1. Shaun Chng under Best Design Blog
ShaunChng.com by Shaun Chng
http://www.shaunchng.com

2. Sparklette under Best Design Blog
only in fairy tales by Veron
http://sparklette.net

3. 阿谁 under Most Entertaining Blog
阿谁的世界 by Jimmy Lee
http://ahshuiworld.blogspot.com

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The Straits Times
6 Sep 2008

1st S'pore Blog Awards

A MARATHON runner and a full-time mathematics tutor are among the winners of the first Singapore Blog Awards.

The awards, organised by Singapore Press Holdings' bilingual web portal omy.sg, aim to showcase bloggers' creativity, and to popularise the form.

Mathematics tutor Loi Wai Ling, 33, won the Best Blog Shop award for her blog, www.exampaper.com.sg . Unlike many blog shops which sell accessories and clothing, hers sells sets of exam questions.

Engineering student and marathoner Shaun Chng, 24, won for having the Best Design.


Winners of the Singapore Blog Awards, organized by OMY.sg (clockwise from top left) Most Entertaining Blog, Jimmy Lee, Best Design Blog, Shaun Chng, Most Insightful Blog, Kenny Lau, Best Blog Shop, Loi Wai Ling, Best Photo Blog, Eunice Khong, Best Individual Blog Jane Chin and Green Apple Award Cheryl Thiam, with their trophies. -- ST PHOTO: NG SOR LUAN

In all, 1,000 blogs were considered, and 10 were shortlisted in each of the seven categories: Best Youth Blog, Photo Blog, Design Blog, Individual Blog, Blog Shop, and Most Entertaining and Most Insightful blogs.

The winners received trophies and a laptop computer. They were given their prizes at a ceremony held at the Asian Civilisations Museum last night.

There's a new browser in town

I am a sucker for new stuff. Especially cyber stuff.

I am glad there is a new browser in town. Anything to break the monopoly of Microsoft.

Personally I have been using Mozilla Firefox and I have not been having much problems with it.

I have great faith in Google products. Their google maps are fabulous. So is their Gmail and Blogger.

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The Straits Times
4 Sep 2008

Google browser shines

It shows off application's features in challenge to Microsoft's Explorer

By Alfred Siew

GOOGLE yesterday showed off a slick Web browser that promises to let users surf the Internet faster. Going by the name Chrome, it could shake up the industry as previous browser wars have done.

Google is eyeing much more: In the same way users access their e-mail on the Web now, it wants them to do their word processing and spreadsheets on a more advanced browser in future, forgoing the need to install Microsoft software.

A trial version of Chrome became available for download on Google's website, www.google.com/chrome, on Tuesday, after the company inadvertently leaked information about it days ahead of time.

In a demonstration to reporters yesterday, Google showed off Chrome's smart features. For example, its Omnibox can predict what search term or Web address the user wants based on his past surfing patterns and those of other users online.

A user looking for Amazon, the online bookstore, may need to type no more than 'Am' to bring up the link to the site.

The new browser also comes with a privacy mode that lets a user surf the Internet without leaving a trail on a computer, a feature handy for those who share computers with others at home.

With Chrome, Google is taking aim at Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser, the browser of choice for three-quarters of Internet users and which is pre-loaded on computers running on Windows.

The last browser war, which pitted Microsoft's Explorer against Netscape in the 1990s, left Netscape beaten.

Battle lines have been drawn now between Microsoft, which made its fortune selling software for personal computers, and Google, which wants to overturn that dominance with online alternatives.

By developing its own browser, Google says it is ensuring that its online applications - alternatives to Microsoft's Word, Excel and Powerpoint - can be run optimally in future.

To show that Chrome was faster than its rivals, Google yesterday set up a computer and compared the time it took to download two Java Web pages using Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer. Chrome streaked ahead, completing the download ahead of its rivals. A webpage with, say, a 3D drawing loaded several seconds faster.

In a video conference with reporters at Google's offices, director of engineering Linus Upson said he expected power users to be Chrome's early adopters.

'But they will tell their friends...and we are confident it will get into the hands of millions of people,' he said. He noted that the browser, using open-source software code, would benefit from add-ons and updates created by the online community.

The question for Google now is whether users will bite. Early adopters such as undergraduate Chin Su Yuen, 22, are already sold. Noting that the software is faster, she said: 'I have opened Facebook with 2,000 items on it, and it took a longer time to load on older browsers.'

Before Chrome, the alternatives to Internet Explorer have been Apple's Safari, Opera from Opera Software and Firefox from the non-profit Mozilla Foundation, which Google helps fund.

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Star features in new browser

GOOGLE has promised that its new Chrome Web browser will be faster and smarter than its competitors, including Internet Explorer from rival Microsoft.

The company is banking on three star features to lure Internet users. They are:

# Omnibox

This is the box where you type in a website's address. It also allows you to write any term, say, Felicia Chin, and it will bring up a list of websites on the actress.

Before you even finish typing, Chrome predicts what you are after by looking up websites you visited previously, and by referencing similar searches by other Web surfers. If you have visited, say, Wikipedia.com, the box also lets you search for things on that website, without typing in its address.

# Privacy mode

If you do not want others to find out what you have been surfing, there is a new Incognito feature. It ensures that traces of your Internet session are erased the moment you exit the browser.

This means things such as virtual 'cookies', which track the items you browse on Amazon.com, for example, are not stored on the computer, so others cannot access them.

# Smart tabs

Users often surf several webpages at once on multiple tabs on their browsers. In Chrome, these tabs run on separate 'processes', so if one website takes up too much of the computer's resources or causes the software to crash, each tab can be shut down individually.

The other pages, loaded separately on other tabs, can continue running.

With current browsers, a problematic website can sometimes cause the entire browser application to freeze up.

A dream of 2 doggies

Last night I had a dream of my 2 dogs.

SO and I were in this cafe and there were these 2 dogs caged right outside the cafe.

I recognise the dogs as Gin and Bell, whom in my dream, had gone missing.

A staff of the cafe was grooming the dogs, trimming their fur, bathing them etc.

So I asked SO to go over and ask how much they cost.

The response was $60 and $70. And I was thinking in my dream, so cheap.

However, SO was like this miser, saying that they are our dogs in the first place so why should we pay?

I was like, just pay for Gin. It's only 70 bucks.

So we got back Gin. She had gone from a silvery ashy silky to a poofy poodle. Well, in my dream, I know it was absurd and I remembered thinking, she turned white out of fear.

We were going to leave Bell in the cafe but after thinking over, decided to buy him also.

He got epilepsy and I dun think he would last long with any new owners. They would probably put him to sleep once he started foaming and twitching.

End of dream.

During the duration of the dream, I was turning and tossing in bed, moaning. Yeah, I was aware it was a dream and yet it felt so real. I woke up at about 4 am this morning and could not go back to sleep any more.

I need a dog

I so need a dog.

It has been about 2 months since my baby Gin died. And since then I have not hug anything fluffy and furry.

I so need a doggie hug right now.

Bell is so frigid, like SO that he growls the moment I carry him.

I want to get Bobby, my mom's dog over right now.

And oh yeah....I have not cried over Gin for some time. But it made me sad when I think of her.

Manila virus

SO spread the Manila virus to me.

I shared a moon cake with SO on sunday and we both used the same knife to eat the mooncake.

And by evening, my throat was all raw and dry and scratchy!

I thought that the bitch had recovered from his bout of flu virus he contacted in Manila and now he had spread the virus to me.

I was so tired these few days, sleeping more than usual.And after these few days of sore throat, I have been feeling better.

Now I would think twice before I share food with the bitch.

He is so contagious. Some weeks back, he spread this high fever to me. I had laid in bed for days, too sick even to move.

Fuglies going to Paris

I was at Watson with SO on sunday.

We were browsing at this hair care products when this 30 something fugly (fucking ugly) stood near us.

He was talking to this senior mature lady, whom I dun think was his mother or relative. Probably his colleague or church friend.

He was boasting to this lady friend that he is going to Paris next week.

The lady asked...And why you going to Paris and what would you do there?

And he was like....for the fabulous shopping...

And then he added....maybe I would send you a topless photo of myself to you.

SO and I were rolling our eyes. And I think so was his lady friend. He was so gay, so flamboyant and loud. And there were quite a few people around who heard that conversation. And that fugly knew everyone was hearing their conversation.

He then told his lady friend...and when I return, I would be all buff and tanned. And with that, he sashayed out of the store, swaying his hips!

Gross! What a show off! Attention grabbing slut!

And why are fuglies going to Paris?

Another fugly I know, who is actually SO's brother went to Paris some weeks back. And SO was biting his tongue in envy! He was that jealous of his bro going to Paris.

And the thing was that fugly did not brought anything back from Paris. Absolutely nothing. Nothing for his mother either. No souvenirs of whatever sort.

Made us wonder why he went to Paris in the first place and why fuglies like to go to Paris.

Nigeria Marriage Scams

Nigeria is like the con city of the world.

And this is not just any discriminating statement. I am not racist or discriminating against any countries but the name Nigeria seemed to appear regularly whenever online scams or cons are mentioned.

That is one of the main reasons that a lot of companies everywhere dun ship to Nigeria. Chances are that they wun get paid. This is backed by bad experiences.

And I repeat myself. I am not against Nigeria, but if I received any email or offers or whatever from Nigeria, I just delete them.

So beware of any cyber stuff originating from Nigeria. Chances are it's a scam.

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New Paper
31 Aug 2008

I want to marry you, send me money

Woman's online search for love attracts 'suitors' from Nigeria. They claimed to be expatriates but asked her to send them money so they could come to Singapore to marry her.

-TNP
Elysa Chen


WHEN a Singaporean woman went online in search of a life partner, she received several offers of marriage. But it was not wedding bells but alarm bells that went off in her head.

The reason: The proposals were from men in Nigeria.

And, rightly or wrongly, the mere mention of the African nation summons visions of scams.

The woman, a 47-year-old accounts executive who wanted to be known only as Josephine, is sure her suitors are con men targeting lonely women with false promises of love and marriage.

They claimed to be expatriates working in the oil industry in Nigeria but asked her to send them money so they could come to Singapore to marry her.

Ms Josephine recently posted her profile on the Singapore Expats forum, hoping to find a man who could commit to a long-term relationship and eventually marry her.

But when she received six e-mail replies from different men in Nigeria, each promising marriage, she became suspicious. She said: 'If I had never heard of so many scams from Nigeria, I would have been thrilled.

'I have never been popular with men and most don't take a second look at me. So, when so many guys were interested in me and telling me how much they loved me by their third e-mail, at the back of my mind, I found it unbelievable.'

'Widowers'

First, these 'widowers' wooed her with poems and showed her pictures of their children. They also spun heart-wrenching tales of how their wives had died during childbirth and told her that she was 'the perfect mother' for their children.

Of course, she had no idea whether the pictures were real. But the stories, because they were so similar, got her suspicious.

Within days of getting to know her, they would ask her for money. Most asked her to send sums ranging from $2,000 to $3,000.

One asked her to buy him a laptop and ship it to Nigeria.

The most frightening request was from a man who went by the name of Houston. He claimed he was from the Cayman Islands and asked Ms Josephine to open a bank account in Singapore so that he could transfer millions of dollars to her.

With wide-eyed horror, she said: 'He could have been trying to use me to launder money.'

Even if she were unaware of Nigerian scams, Ms Josephine said she would not have fallen victim as she finds it 'too difficult to part with her hard-earned money'.

Emotional blackmail

When she did not accede to their requests, the men resorted to 'using four-letter words' on her or emotionally blackmailing her by asking her to send the money for the sake of their children.

One even went as far as to call himself her husband.

Laughing, Ms Josephine said: 'We haven't even met, and he's saying that he is my husband.

'They must have thought that I was one of those airheads whose heart would melt the moment they said they loved me and give them all my money.'

Although she had mentally prepared herself for fake offers, it was still 'devastating' that every suitor ended up asking her for money.

Her sister, Mrs Elaine Wee, 45, said: 'This is the cruellest thing that anyone can do to a single woman. I was so indignant for not only my sister, but all the other women that these men were out to cheat by playing with their feelings.'

Ms Josephine, who has spent about $8,000 on local and foreign matchmaking agencies, has one simple wish: To find a nice, honest man she can go home to after a hard day's work.

Smiling, she said: 'Somewhere out there, there might be someone for me. I'm not going to just give up.'

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SAME CON, NEW TWISTS

iPHONE TWIST

Conmen post advertisements on the Internet to sell iPhones, but unsuspecting buyers end up empty-handed after sending the money. A Singapore student was cheated of $1,600.

EPL TWIST

They pretend to represent top English Premiership clubs. Victims are duped into sending money in the belief that they are paying official registration fees to have a trial at Premiership clubs.

STRANDED ABROAD TWIST

They hack into someone's Hotmail account and send e-mail to people in the person's address book. The recipients are asked to send money to help the Hotmail account-holder, who is stranded during a holiday in Nigeria.

Former Singapore Idol finalist Jeassea Thyidor had similar experience with her Hotmail account.

LONELY WOMAN TWIST

They pose as pretty and lonely women in trouble and ask victims to send them money so they can fly to meet them.