rant: Singapore reviewing smoking ban to include more areas

[Category-Sillypore]
pretty ridiculous.
if smoking is that undesirable, ban it.
if gambling is bad, ban it.
if drinking is unhealthy, stop selling it.

first they put this high taxes on it.... then they try to "discourage" by take these dumbass measures.

as usual, as long as "we" benefit both ways.
i don't smoke... but i feel for those smokers man. ciggies that cost 5 times more than anywhere else in this region. now they gonna be tagged as "social undesirables".
we should be thanking them, for the extra taxes.

taking "public opinion" on such matters, just sick of those "ST" reponses.

i'm already embarrassed enough when s'pore kids get out of singapore... and discover "chewing gum is not a drug, you don't need to register to chew."
"We do have evidence to show that non-smokers who are exposed to the smoking environment eventually take up the smoking habit and this is something we want to prevent. We will consult, we will consider all the issues before we move because there are implications."
[link]

pic of da day.

1,2,3,4,5,6,7.... all 7 of you.. if you had defended, you wouldn't need to be protesting...

reading: the dog catcher. alexei sayle.

the dog catcher. alexei sayle.,
originally uploaded by stonz.

another short stories collection by the russian dude.

the first story is better than the whole of the previous book.
so it's good... so far.

spied: rare visitor to my office.

already bought the 4D.... but it shitting all over an enclosed stairway (onto the carpet) can't be a healthy thing. there's this thing abt brain/ nerve damage and pigeon crap; right?

i'm guessing it's injured. if not, it wouldn't allow me to snap such closeup photos on the cameraphone.

rant: growing or shrinking?

[Category-Sillypore]
Singapore's Economy Probably Shrank Annual 3% in Third Quarter

i dunno man.... just interesting to read about something other than "booming", "can expect higher year end bonus"; "lowest unemployment rate in a decade"

[link]

rant: Singapore a matured society and ready for a casino: Dr Vivian

[Category-Sillypore]
mature? i would use the word.. "experienced"

weekly basis (for the english and mathematically challenged; that's Seven (7) days)

• 3 days of 4D
• 2 days of Toto
• 3-4 days of horse racing
• 10 to 15 football matches (almost forgot this)
  

monthly basis

• big sweep

every couple of months

• some sort of charity fundraising (to win a condo or car)

if you can't beat them join them, besides singaporean will just bet with illegal bookies, lose all their monies, pawn their children, turn to drugs, murder their wives.... i digress....

of cos we are more than ready for a casino... bring 'em on!
[link]

rant: 62 is too young to stop working

[Category-Sillypore]
Members of Parliament, union leaders, community group officials human resource experts agreed with the MM Lee that it is a waste to make able people stop working.

It is what many older workers want, and it can help people support themselves as they live longer lives.

His proposal is to let older workers carry on beyond 62 if they want to, but for lower pay because they will not be as energetic as before.
ok. now i'm wondering.... if you are 80+ and still working, should you working for free.
just like COEs, each additional year over 20 years, you pay 10% more. at +20 years... hmm..

i mean... if i'm working at 62... i would blame my useless kids, unable to provide for me. (if i have kids, that is; if not.... blame me useless self.)

[+]

joke: frog humor

A beautiful, well endowed, young lady, goes to her Local pet store in search of an exotic pet. She spots a box full of frogs. The sign says: "Sex Frogs...Only $20 each! Money Back Guarantee! (Comes with complete instructions)."

The girl excitedly looks around to see if anybody's watching her and whispers softly to the man behind the counter, "I'll take one." As soon as she closes the door to her apartment, she reads the instructions carefully:

1. Take a shower
2. Splash on some nice smelling perfume
3. Slip into a very sexy teddy
4. Crawl into bed and place the frog on the bed

Following the instructions exactly, she quickly gets into bed with the frog. Nothing happens. The girl is totally frustrated and quite upset. She rereads the instructions and notices at the bottom of the paper, "If you have any problems or questions, please call the pet store."

She calls and is told by the salesman, "I had some complaints earlier today. I'll be right over." Within five minutes he is ringing her doorbell and is welcomed in.

"See, I've done everything according to the instructions and the damn thing just sits there."
He picks up the frog, stares directly into its eyes. "Listen to me froggy. I'm only going to show you how to do this one more time!"

amem...

amem,
originally uploaded by stonz.

enough said.

rant: give yourself a pap...er pat

[Category-Sillypore]
a pat or a pap?

"The manufacturing sector created many more jobs in the third quarter and Singapore looks on track for a full-year growth figure of between 8 and 9 percent.........Against this background, labour leaders say it's now time for employers to reward their workers for braving the storms during the past few years....... As far as the public sector is concerned, we are reaching out for higher bonuses as economic growth is reaching 8, 9, even 10 percent." [+]

look out... here we go.... good times are here! time for an election. people vote best, when the economy is "recovering" (see how well we have done!) or "slumping" (you need us to do this, do that)

rant: COE vs Economy

[Category-Sillypore]
"COE prices for cars have plunged to their lowest levels in 12 months....The only rise was seen in the motorcycle category - from $602 to $651 - an increase of $49." [+]

of cos, i should have known. our economy is "good times", COE prices are dropping. geeee... genius! i wonder why are people buying motobikes, not cars?

copied: Words women use

FINE: This is the word women use to end an argument when they feel they are right and you need to shut up. Never use "fine" to describe how a woman looks - this will cause you to have one of those arguments.

FIVE MINUTES: This is half an hour. It is equivalent to the five minutes that your football game is going to last before you take out the rubbish, so it's an even swap.

NOTHING: This means "something," and you should be on your toes. "Nothing" is usually used to describe the feeling a woman has of wanting to turn you inside out, upside down, and backwards. "Nothing" usually signifies an argument that will last "Five Minutes" and end with "Fine".

GO AHEAD (With Raised Eyebrows!): This is a dare. One that will result in a woman getting upset over "Nothing" and will end with the word "Fine"

GO AHEAD (Normal Eyebrows): This means "I give up" or "do what you want because I don't care" You will get a "Raised Eyebrow Go Ahead" in just a few minutes, followed by "Nothing" and "Fine" and she will talk to you in about "Five Minutes" when she cools off.

LOUD SIGH: This is not a word, but is a expression often misunderstood by men. A "Loud Sigh" means she thinks you are an idiot at that moment, and wonders why she is wasting her time standing here and arguing with you over "Nothing" .

SOFT SIGH: Again, not a word, but a non-verbal statement. "Soft Sighs" mean that she is content. Your best bet is to not move or breathe, and she will stay content.

THAT'S OKAY: This is one of the most dangerous statements that a woman can make to a man. "That's Okay" means that she wants to think long and hard before paying you back for whatever it is that you have done. "That's Okay" is often used with the word "Fine" and in conjunction with a "Raised Eyebrow."

GO AHEAD!: At some point in the near future, you are going to be in some mighty big trouble.

PLEASE DO: This is not a statement, it is an offer. A woman is giving you the chance to come up with whatever excuse or reason you have for doing whatever it is that you have done. You have a fair chance with the truth, so be careful and you shouldn't get a "That's Okay"

THANKS: A woman is thanking you. Do not faint. Just say you're welcome.

THANKS A LOT: This is much different from "Thanks." A woman will say, "Thanks A Lot" when she is really ticked off at you. It signifies that you have offended her in some callous way, and will be followed by the "Loud Sigh." Be careful not to ask what is wrong after the "Loud Sigh," as she will only tell you "Nothing"

Send this to the men you know to warn them about future arguments they can avoid if they remember the terminology! And send it to your women friends to give them a good laugh!

reading: alexei sayle - barcelona plates

alexei sayle - barcelona plates,
originally uploaded by stonz.

he's russian i think.
heard/ read good things about him.
after the first story, not too bad. quirky dark humour. (and the black merc he crashed into was "princess di"? well. from reading amazon.com reviews) [+]

available from your closest national library of singapore. picked this copy from library@orchard.

a word from our sponsor

click to enlarge

ads for razr,
originally uploaded by stonz.

today's blog entries is brought to you by bt's razr: it's coming....

rant: dammit. darth vader is not a F4 band member!

taken from here

arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! here we go again.
george lucas trying to justify luke's wimpy roots
as a terminator once said: "girly-man!"

rant: Ride the bus or train - and you might win a car

[Category-Sillypore]
"TO REWARD its bus and train commuters, transport company SMRT is planning to give away a car. A Nissan March - minus certificate of entitlement, insurance and road tax - to be exact. It is the top prize in SMRT's inaugural Ride-for-Free Countdown promotion."
only in singapore.
to encourage public transport taking.... we give the top prize of a car. well, well... we have outdone all previous ironies.

"SMRT chief executive Saw Phaik Hwa said the promotion was to reward existing commuters and to encourage people to travel on SMRT's buses and trains."

here we go.... public transport is.... the consolation prize.
"The promotion ends in a grand draw on April 23, with the Nissan March as the top prize. Consolation prizes of a year's free travel on SMRT transport will be given to eight commuters."

and an open admission that "big brother is watching"; 1984 anyone?
what if my ezlink card is not tagged to my NRIC? does that make me a less loyal/ important customer? how are they gonna reward and encourage me?
"Launched yesterday, the promotion is on till April 11 next year. Commuters who make adult-fare trips on SMRT trains, buses and the Bukit Panjang Light Rail Transit (LRT) will have the numbers on their ez-link cards automatically entered into mini-draws. These draws will be held fortnightly at 1pm."


ST link need registration? try bugmenot.com

quote: jobs

taken from gapingvoid


rant: sex & the city (& the neutered male)

older stuff from me.
-----------------

Q: what's worse than watching a season of sex and the city?
A: watching your guy friend watching it.... and him giggling to himself.. and laughing out loud.

this series must be payback for all bad things that men have done...
episodes and episodes of whinny voices... it's like they figured out how to package nagging, digitize it and make sure every household buys a copy and just irritates the heck out of every "normal" human male.

BT's theory on why sex and the city is made for the female form (and neutered males)
5) every episode last 30 minutes. no storyline to follow.
talking on the phone while watching the dvd? no matter. A is still a bitch in the next 200 episodes; B is still the one looking for fairy tale love story.

4) whinny, nagging voices that repeats the same information.... think barney... it's a comfort zone. hey! no need to analyse. no complex storylines. 30 mins of ONE single issue.

3) just in case, someone STILL doesn't get the "issue", they have the narrator telling you EXACTLY what they want you to know. the summary at the end. simple.

2) see points 5, 4, 3

1) you are finally getting my point.

rant: the numbers game

[Category-Sillypore]
older stuff from me.
-----------------

so what's in a number?

....The Singapore Women's Weekly Readership Survey 2003, conducted by Nielsen Media Research with a sample size of 1000 respondents, most of which were women, found that 97% of its readers decided on or influenced decisions on holiday purchases, 96% decided or influenced decisions for purchases of home furnishing or furniture, 88% decided on or influenced decisions on home property purchases and 69% decided on or influenced car purchases....

wait a min.... how true is this? ask the men who read fhm, you will prob. get 99.9% of readers... the 0.1% were caught by their womenfolk while filling in the survey...(under threat and duress)

..... women influenced on all that?.... or is it a case of.... "so they think...."

rant: Singapore Fines GIC Staff For Insider Trading

[Category-Sillypore]
sg yahoo news
theEDGEdaily

"The fines are meted out under a civil penalty action, which does not attract criminal sanction. Under Singapore's new Securities and Futures Act, a person convicted of insider trading can be fined up to three times the profit or loss avoided by such trading."

"The MAS said it brought the insider trading action under a new civil penalty regime, which came into force at the beginning of 2004. A civil penalty does not attract criminal sanctions."

interesting. 18 months > beginning of 2004. how does that compute?

i'm back!

stonz' back.
ignore the "year" of the previous posting. i was only gone... for 5 days.

[Category-Sillypore]
entrepreneurship in singapore
the so-called entrepreneurship in singapore comes in 3 flavours:
a. hawkers
b. pasar malam
c. mlm (multi-level market/ network marketing)

just some random thoughts on this topic. unorganised. shooting off.

1.mentality.society
The mentality of singaporeans; we are unable to accept fellow successful singaporeans.
most frequently heard: "blah! that is nothing new, anyone can do that."
most fequently asked: "why not me?"
we do not take kindly to people who are more successful than ourselves.

why? that is something i can't explain fully.
maybe it is the way the society is; we are surprised abt how people can succeed in this system/society.
this is something that is happening in all sectors. for example, singapore born artiste/singers have to make a name for themselves in overseas markets; before being taken seriously locally.

this should relate to hawkers too.
the simplest explaination is not all succeed. and to a certain extend, we look down on hawkers. of cos every other day, we do see people attempting to start their own food business and closing down within the next 3 months.

2.govt.everywhere
another reason for "failure" in all other career options is how deeply the GLCs have entangled into our society. the pie is limited. and when everyone is trying to grab a piece; pieces never will get very big. ask the GLCs... how many of them set-up a technology company/subsidy during the dot-com boom years.

3.suckers.everywhere
mlm is probably the up and coming career of choice.
due to lack of actual employment opportunities in the market.
IMO, this is why mlm succeed; "suckers"
the perfect career for singaporeans.
the sellers is one happy person, when he find someone as a downline/buyers of his products; the buyers are not exactly happy campers but singaporeans always think positive! we believe we can find more suckers.
too bad, our population is lacking in size, if not, i believe we would see some really rich MLMers. our population size keeps this in check.

4.stalls.everywhere
a very popular scheme for shopping centres to attract the crowds.
a truly waste of human time, but relatively successful.
cos we singaporeans love a good bargain. think of it more of a "fun" thing/ sideline;PLEASE.
hawkers will barely succeed in singapore, not with rentals amounting to a huge part of the business cost.

rant of da day
"hey! we have a great plan. we are gonna privatised, and in 3 years, we'll be listed. then everyone can be a shareholder! what a plan! cheers! (hello public. business has been bad. it's no longer profitable. we need someone to share the burden.)"
regards,
your truly & friendly stat-board.

rant of da day
yo, liverpud fans! houllier has mentioned "we have turned the corner" a couple of times.... doesn't he know that after 4 corners, you end up the exactly the same spot?
elementary maths from my fav french school teacher.....

joke of da day
Recent Medical Research Results have suggested that men should take a look at their beer consumption, considering the results of a recent analysis that revealed the presence of female hormones in beer. The theory is that drinking beer makes men turn into women.
To test the finding, 100 men were fed 6 pints of beer each. It was then observed that 100 % of the men gained weight, talked excessively without making sense, became overly emotional, couldn't drive, failed to think rationally, argued over nothing, and refused to apologize when wrong.
No further testing is planned.

rant of da day
why does a simple movie like harry potter, based on a book that is barely an inch thick, last for 3 hours?

everything is repeated 2 times (or more), in case, you (12 yrs old and below: short attention span) forgot the movie had mentioned it before.... everything needs to be spelled out in full. take for example, [miracle ending] phoenix drips its tears into harry's wound. harry has to proclaim "But of course! phoenix tears is able to cure poison"

they need to add enuff "additional" distractions, so that george lucas can't sue them for copying star wars.

quote of da day
"En su vida, un hombre puede cambiar de mujer, sus opiniones politicas o su religion pero no su equipo de futbol."
(In his life, a man can change wife, his political opinions or his religion but not his football team.)

<#@$#@& of da day>
surprise, surprise. "there are no plans to scrape the EC scheme in singapore"
obviously....we are all trembling in anticipation to queue up for our "choiceHomes".... just imagine the amount of "link-points" you can receive from a single purchase.. *bling*$*bling*$*bling*

url of da day
there's art, and there's boobies art *nudity warning*....

baseless TIPs of da day
@ hdb flats.... RENT, don't buy.
@ who would buy a resale flat when they can just join the "queue" and get one within weeks, if not months. (with exception to the 3 golden rules of real estate: location, location, location)
@ gone are the days of "a mini windfall each time you apply for a new flat".
@ if the govt is bailing out of the business, how good can it get?
@ step aside PCK, the biggest, baddest contractor in singapore has a big spanking HQ in toa payoh (once they stop building flats, what else can they do?)

Homeproud?
how homeproud can you be? watch out home appliances sellers, they are cheap, cheaper and cheapest....and comes with linkpoints.
Note to all parents: please add home-applicance-seller to the list of "careers-you-should-discourage-your-kids-to-have"

tommy cooper(s) of the day
Two Aerials meet on a roof - fall in love - get married The ceremony was rubbish but the Reception was Brilliant.


*drumroll*...


Man goes to the doc, with a strawberry growing out of his head.
Doc says "I'll give you some cream to put on it."


*drumroll*...


A guy walks into the psychiatrist wearing only clingfilm for shorts.
The shrink says, "Well, I can clearly see you're nuts."


*drumroll*...


A man takes his Rottweiler to the vet. "My dog's cross-eyed, is there
anything you can do for him? "
"Well," says the vet, "let's have a look at him" So he picks the dog up and examines his eyes, then checks his teeth. Finally, he says "I'm going to have to put him down."
"What? Because he's cross-eyed? "
"No, because he's really heavy"


*drumroll*...


"Doctor, I can't pronounce my F's, T's and H's."
"Well you can't say fairer than that then"


*drumroll*...


What's brown and sounds like a bell?


*drumroll*...


What do you call a fish with no eyes?
A fsh.


*drumroll*...


"So I got home, and the phone was ringing. I picked it up, and said 'Who's speaking please?'
And a voice said 'You are.'"


*drumroll*...


So I was in my car, and I was driving along, and my boss rang up,And he said 'You've been promoted.'
And I swerved. And then he rang up a second time and said "You've been promoted again.' And I swerved again.
He rang up a third time and said 'You're managing director.'
And I went into a tree.
And a policeman came up and said 'What happened to you?'
And I said 'I careered off the road.


*drumroll*...


So I was getting into my car, and this bloke says to me
"Can you give me a lift?"
I said "Sure, you look great, the world's your oyster, go for it.'


*drumroll*...


Two fat blokes in a pub, one says to the other "your round."
The other one says "so are you, you fat bast**d!"


*drumroll*...


Two cannibals eating a clown. One says to the other "Does this taste funny
to you?"


*drumroll*...


Police arrested two kids yesterday, one was drinking battery acid, the other was eating fireworks. They charged one and let the other one off.


*drumroll*...


A man walked into the doctors, The doctor said " I haven't seen you in a long time" The man replied "I know I've been ill"


*drumroll*...


A man walked into the doctors, he said "I've hurt my arm in several places"
The doctor said "well don't go there any more"


*drumroll*...


My dog was barking at everyone the other day.
Still, what can you expect from a cross-breed.


*drumroll*...


I was driving down the motorway with my bird the other day when we both got a bit frisky and decided to do something about it So we decided we'd take the next exit, but it was a turn-off.


*drumroll*...


I went to buy some camouflage trousers the other day but I couldn't find any.


*drumroll*...


I bought some HP sauce the other day. It's costing me 6p month for the next 2 years.

joke of the day
The Iraqi Ambassador to the UN has just finished giving a speech, and walks out into the lobby where he meets President Bush. They shake hands and as they walk the Iraqi says, "You know, I have just one question about what I have seen in America." President Bush says "Well your Excellency, anything I can do to help you, I will do." The Iraqi whispers "My son watches this show "Star Trek" and in it there are Russians, and Africans, and Asians, but never any Arabs. He is very upset. He doesn't understand why there are never any Arabs in Star Trek."
President Bush laughs and leans toward the Iraqi, and whispers back, "It's because it takes place in the future...."
just doing my part for world peace....cheers!