Watch this video - although the footage is more than a couple of decades old, it was only released recently.  It made me cry and I believe you will cry too! 

It’s an absolutely touching story right?  Thanks to Otterman, my heart feels really heavy now. 

The touching video is one thing.  The story of George Adamson is another.  It also left me teary-eyed.

I had heard of Adamson a long time ago when I was in school, but had never really bothered to find out in detail what he did.  I wished I had, as at that time, Adamson would still be alive and the stories would have been more current (if you know what I mean).  I vaguely recalled reading about his death when he was brutally murdered by poachers, but it didn’t affect me at all then.

But after reading so much today through the endless links on the internet, I feel really sad and pensive.

How can anyone ever measure up to him?  Why can lions, an animal of a species so different from us, trust Adamson, a human, so much, while many of us can’t even trust our own brothers (I’m not even going to mention fellow human beings)?

Sigh!  Such is life, huh?

And now, I can’t get the theme from the award winning movie Born Free out of my head (I remember hearing this when I was really little):

Born free, as free as the wind blows
As free as the grass grows
Born free to follow your heart…

I remember how the song and its music always made me feel as if I’m some place else - it made me feel a breeze, transporting me to the long green grass of the African savannah and its huge open spaces.  It’s little wonder why John Barry has won awards after awards (can’t help digressing here - but he’s one of the greats).

I’ll see if I can order the DVDs for Born Free and other Adamson stories on Amazon, and spend some teary hours watching them with my family.

Incidentally, the lion is Little Guy’s favourite animal and I hope he gets inspired by Adamson!

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Can’t drink at work?  With the iPhone, you can!

(The iPint application is developed by Carling.)

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I’m quite surprised at now my blog is turning out.  I’m not really into techie stuff (although I was once in the IT industry).  But I find myself increasingly drawn to news and information on technology.  Ok, maybe not the heavy duty stuff, but still tech stuff, you know.  Go look at my archives for several other posts on technology.

This post mixes religion and technology.  I had to highlight these products because I think that they are just too cool!

1.  The Radio by Ewa Bochen

2.  USB Digital Bible thumb drive keychain

3.  Black Cross MP3 player

4.  Virgin Mary thumb drive

5.  iPod headphones

6.  iBelieve (love the name!) MP3 player

Hallelujah!

Amen!

(Photos are from  fotos.eluniversal.mx

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In the dark of the night he came… and swept me off my feet…

Sigh!  It was nothing like that at all!  The Dark Knight made several appearances at Takashimaya’s Toys department on Friday and Sunday.  Little Guy and I braved the evening peak hour traffic to catch the last five minutes of his appearance on Friday.  We are super diehard fans.  Ok, ok… I think Little Guy was converted by me, as at his age, his resistance level is, like, zero?  And how can a kid resist superheroes and their toy versions?

It was worth the rush and the cursing and swearing (under my breath, of course) at the bad traffic situation.  We were both blown away by the Batsuit (even though it was not the real thing).  The Dark Knight did look formidable and Little Guy needed some coaxing to finally go near enough for me to snap a picture of them.  I certainly did not want to have to go home with nothing after the big rush through the horrible traffic conditions!

For wearing his own Batman mask and being such a good sport, Little Guy was rewarded with a Batman goodie bag by the minders of The Dark Knight.

Kids were not the only ones who took pictures with the action hero.  Several adults were also staring in awe and had pictures taken with him too.

One guy, I think I can safely say that he is Singaporean, quipped ‘Hey, I’m taller than you!’.

I swear, if I were the one in the Batsuit, I would have hit that guy below the belt (you know the region I’m referring to!).  Why couldn’t you just be quiet?  Yes, I agree that the guy in the Batsuit is not as tall as we expected Batman to be, but he looks miles better than you, you overgrown geek!

I missed out on the photo opportunity with my favourite action hero as Little Guy cannot handle a camera yet.

But guess what?  Big Guy, after hearing us gushing about The Dark Knight, decided we should go meet him again on Sunday.  This time we went in comfort, with Big Guy as our chauffeur.  There were no cursing and swearing, and all of us had our pictures taken with The Dark Knight.

We were surprised too, that this Dark Knight was different from the one we met on Friday.  And yes, he is much taller and an equally good sport (posing and all). 

The range of Batman merchandise was also on full display just next to the photo-taking area. I decided on getting Little Guy a Batman t-shirt instead of a toy (most of them cost above my toy budget). Just wished they had the t-shirts in adult sizes though; after all, The Dark Knight is certainly not a movie meant for little kids?

Batman has sure come a long way and so have the merchandise that come with the character.  Look what I found selling, or rather, sold, for USD 55 on e-Bay:

 

The Dark Knight must be wiping his brows in relief that he did not end up as a squirt toy.   What were they thinking when they commissioned this?!

Ouch!!

Now, these are the kinds of Dark Knight toys that I want!

Super cool, right?

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Madonna’s back with Hard Candy, her eleventh studio album.  Pushing fifty, this hot mama shows no sign of stopping, does she? 

I’ve been following her music since her Holiday days.  Those were the days when some reviewer (from Rolling Stone magazine, if I remember correctly) commented that she sounded like a constipated goat bleating.  I did agree with him, but what the heck, her music and image were infectious.  And let her bleat for all we cared, she would probably just last a few years, or so we thought.  But how wrong we were!  She is still here, and stronger than ever, in more ways than we detractors ever imagined.

And oh, I became a fan too.  I think I was gradually converted as she changed and re-invented herself with each album she made.  Personally, I feel that the biggest change was when she took on the role of EvitaThat was finally when she learnt how to sing!  Her voice became richer and clearer, with a texture that is definitely not of the constipated-bleating-goat kind.

My favourite Madonna album of all time has got to be Ray of Light.  I can’t decide which track is my favourite, though… tough call!

I have not heard all of her tracks on Hard Candy, but I thought 4 Minutes with Justin Timberlake and Timbaland (I like Justin Timberlake - his first album was great), was just, well, ok, so-so.  And  I did not like the video at all. 

Then came her latest single Give it 2 Me.

When I first heard it, I did not like it at all.  It sounded, so… so… retro.  I could not start describe it - I thought it sounded older than retro, if you know what I mean.  But it kept playing on radio and it grew on me, and yes, I like it now (and the video too)!  To me, it’s brave, crazy adventurous, and really just doing what she wants, and not giving a care about what the younger ones might think about the overly retro beat and arrangement.  Comments on the internet have ranged from brilliant; to some calling her an old hag, asking that she retire.  Some teenagers (they identified themselves as seventeen year-olds) gave it the thumbs-up, while some preferred the Oakenfold remixed version, where there is no trace of anything retro.  But I found this version rather dull - lacking in character and a sense of adventure.

One bad thing (at least for me), though, is that it suddenly dawned on me yesterday, why the beat and arrangement made me feel uncomfortable the first few times I heard Give It 2 Me.  Those of you who are old enough, and can recall watching Wang Sa and Ye Fong skits on TV with your parents, might remember them moving their (the comdedians’, not your parents’) shoulders up and down to such music?  Remember?  Too bad I can’t find any videos of them doing that.  But they were simply hilarious.

But back to the diva, well, Madonna, I believe that I can safely say that if women hate you, they must be jealous of the wonderful body that you possess (and also your dancing skills).

I hate you!

Just kidding!  Keep going Ma Madonna!

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I’ve read many reports about the increasing number of foreigners working as service staff these days.  My encounters with them were so far limited to those in call-centres employed by banks and several Filipino ones working in restaurants.

The most memorable encounter was at a Thai restaurant in Marina Square - it was staffed, I think, by an all Filipino crew.  I felt weird eating Thai food, being served by Filipinos.  I can’t understand why, because it should feel the same eating Thai food served by Singaporeans, right?  Wrong for me!

I had several foreign talent encounters all in a row today.  I went to the post office to get some packages weighed and posted.  And who should serve me but a young Chinese guy with the surname Yang.  I was thinking, ok, so now they are also working at such places

Next, I went to Bossini and picked up some clothes for Little Guy, and I was served by a Filipina (I think) whose accent made me go, huh? when she asked if I had a DBS credit card.

That done, I went to GNC to get some supplements.  I was served by a trainee from China, also surnamed Yang.  The strange thing was that her tag had her name and (China) right beside it.  Why did they need to do that?  I wonder…

So it was a day of foreign encounters.  When I boarded the bus home, I half-suspected that the driver’s a foreign talent too.

Looks like we have been surrounded, left, right and centre.

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I had always thought that an umbrella would make a good weapon for self-defense.  Well, I’m half-right - an ordinary umbrella would not do.  We’ll need The Unbreakable Umbrella!

Check out this video demonstration given by Thomas Kurz.

This umbrella is used by the Presidential Security Group (PSG) of the Philippines President, so says The Real Self-Defense website, with pictures as proof too.

I found the video hilarious, particularly the part when the umbrella was used to split the water melon.  Kurz, dressed in cool, all black clothes, whacking the life out of the punching bag, and splitting the water melon somehow made me laugh out loud.  But with a price tag of USD 180, this certainly wasn’t supposed to be funny.

Now I know how Aunt May in Spiderman 2 managed to hold on for dear life with her umbrella.  She probably had one of these!  Hmm… and no money to pay rent?  Looks like Peter Parker is not the only one in the family with a secret?

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It’s really not easy being a policy maker, but it’s not easy being an ordinary citizen either.  Things can get confusing at times.

We are encouraged, amongst many other things:

  • to have more babies
  • to work for as long as we can
  • to look after our elderly parents

Having more babies

When you have babies, you’ll have to find someone to care for them, right?  We have options such as hiring a maid, a nanny, or putting them in infant or child care centres.  Or if we are lucky, our parents, parents-in-law or other immediate family members may be able to help (see later comment on working as long as we can).

Being a mother myself and having many friends who are parents, having a maid is almost always the last option.  I don’t have a maid and most parents do not feel comfortable leaving maids at home alone with their babies.  Plus, maids do not offer valued-added services such as reading, singing, etc, etc, basically the many things parents do when they spend time with their beloved children.

Then there are infant and child care centres.  I put Little Guy in an infant care centre when he was a baby as I had little choice then.  Let’s just face it - even if they increase the number of such centres a hundred times, the problems facing parents will be the same.

Babies and young children fall sick easily.  Feedback from mothers everywhere shows that it is very common for their children who are placed in such centres to fall sick EVERY month for months on end.  I can attest to this, as it was what happened to Little Guy until he was much older.

Now, when your child falls sick, you cannot send him/her to the care centre and so you’ll have to apply for leave to stay home to take care of him (let’s just stick to him here, ok?).  Most of the time, he’ll take at LEAST two days to recover.  This also usually means that you have to be away from work at very short notice (and for a few days at that), and not all bosses are understanding.  Even if they are, you’ll feel bad about it when you need to do this too often.  Things are worse if you have a deadline to meet, are in the midst of an important project or are due to hand in that report on THAT day.  And things always happen altogether at the worst possible time, don’t they?

That is only the falling sick part.  With their fixed hours, everyday is a mad rush between child care and office and vice versa, at the end of the day.  Most child care centres do not serve dinner, and so it’s another mad rush home to cook (and other housework).  Get a maid, you say (again)?  Well I’ve heard (horror) stories of maids that’ll warrant a blog dedicated just to them. 

Infant and child care centres do have their advantages, as the caregivers there are trained to handle and guide the children.  That’s also why some people put their children at the centres and still have a maid at home, for household chores and for when the children fall sick and cannot go to the centres.  But having both these child care aids is not something many people can afford.  Even if they can afford it (probably by working as long/hard/whatever as they can), is this what they would have ideally wanted?  Is this really the way people want to live if given a choice?

I’ve read many interviews in the local newspapers about how some highly successful women manage family and career without any trade-offs.  I say either they are lying or are delusional.  Are they close (emotionally) to their children?  How can you possibly compare the relationship between a child who spends much time with a stay-at-home parent and one who sees either or both of his parents for a few hours at the end of the day?  Quality time, you say?  Stop kidding yourselves, lah.  When the children are all grown up, I think that’s when such high-flying parents will feel the vacuum that they created years ago.  And probably then, their children will only want to spend quality time (a few days a year) with them too?

Working as long as we can

Still on children, I dare say that MOST mothers would love to be able to quit their jobs to look after their children if they can.  Some simply cannot afford to do that, while some can afford to, but are not willing to give up the material gains they will have, if they keep their jobs.  Still there are some who heed the government’s call to work as long as they can.

Like I was saying, it isn’t easy and it’s confusing.  We have people working till they are old and bent over.  Some of these people need to work to live, while some just want to keep occupied.  We have people writing to the newspapers, feeling sad about the many elderly toilet cleaners that they have encountered in Singapore.  They feel that it reflects badly on the Singapore government and society.

Sometime back, in an article about China workers working as cleaners and dishwashers in our coffee shops and food courts,

Shandong native Zhan Xiuhua, 30, a cleaner at AMK Hub, said he was surprised to find that his colleagues were in their 60s and 70s.

‘In China, employers will hire only those in their 40s and below. But here, people can work until they are in their 60s or 70s. It’s good in a way, but I don’t understand why their children are not supporting them,‘ he said.

My mum will have said Bingo! to the last part of the statement.  Being elderly and fragile, she had been in and out of hospitals.  Many times, she has encountered patients who bring their maids along.  These maids sit beside the patients almost the entire day, tending to their every need.  It’s nobody’s guess to know that they do the same at home.  My mum always asks Where are their children?  Where are their children?  Have children for what?  My mum is for the notion that elderly parents should be tended to by their children.  I feel that she has the right to expect that, having slogged almost all her healthy adult life for us (and so do most other parents, I believe).

So, if we want to be a good citizen and heed the government’s call to work for as long as we can, we

  • cannot rely on our parents or immediate family to help care for our children (most parents are more comfortable with placing their children with family)
  • will not have time and energy to care for our aging parents.

I’m sure there are many other downsides.  But can you see the cycle?  Your parents are too busy working to help you out when you start a family.  You are too busy working, starting a family, and supporting the family you started, to look after your parents.  Everyone is busy working for as long as they can.

My mum says the government is encouraging the aged to look after themselves (by working for as long as we can) and asks what has happened to the Asian values that the government extolled some time back.

I’m confused - have more babies, keep working, women going back to work (and other confusing things that they want from us), then what?

I took the easy way out - just when the government was encouraging us to work for as long as we can, I quit my job.  Big Guy and I are just happy to have Little Guy and no more.  Big Guy is also looking at a possible overseas posting.

Damn Darn!  Aren’t we model citizens or what?

P.S:  If you think this is a super long rant, you are right.  And excuse me if the points seem disorganized - I’m confused and unsure how to voice them in an organized manner.

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The robots from Boston Dynamics are simply fantastic.  Take a look at the videos of two of them (BigDog and LittleDog):

Go to their website for other equally fantastic robots.

For some reason, I got the creeps while watching them move.  I mean, if I were out for a walk alone and encountered these, I’ll probably go all weak and pass out.  The way they moved made them look like breathing, living things!

It feels good to see how far technology has come (pity about the whirring noise, though).

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With the recent increases in ERP rates and in the number of ERP gantries getting on many people’s goats, I surfed about, to see if there was anyone who sees the lighter side of this.

Mr. Brown, as usual had something to say about this.  Check out his ERP Drift podcast some months back as well.  Hilarious stuff! 

And then there were these from rayz ong, on The Evolution of ERP:

ERP in 2010:

ERP in 2015:

More ERP gantries will also mean more occasions for ERP cash card violations as well.  So do be careful ah, don’t contribute any more to what you should not be contributing to in the first place (IMHO). 

I also came across an innovative service by SingTel:

And yeah, What’s more, your ERP administrative fee is reduced from $10 to *$4. So you’ll be saving too!

So ERP is good for businesses (that’s what the Minister said), and if you violate it, you can save by using the SingTel service.

It’s kind of difficult to accept - money coming out of our pockets to pay toll is good for us?  Make nice, nice roads and tunnels for few cars to use?  Erect those super ugly ERP gantries to spoil the image (literally) of our garden city?  The Fullerton area is marred forever by the ERP gantries.

Oops… rant, rant!

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