2 O'clock Insomniac

Arrgh!!!

2009-09-02T21:27:00.004+08:00

I cringed as I viewed the YouTube link of our island's later beauty pagent export. Where do we even begin. Something must have gone extremely wrong here. Don't we ever learn??

Cringe worthy video

2009-08-14T11:50:00.001+08:00

GeoTagged, [N1.37509, W103.98062]

I couldn't resist snapping this down yesterday. This is courtesy of the haze.

Prata a go go

2009-08-09T14:59:00.001+08:00

GeoTagged, [N1.39469, W103.91267]

Making prata hot dogs. One of the sinful snacks :)

Flickr

2008-10-28T23:07:00.001+08:00

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Amazing!!

2008-05-10T18:33:00.002+08:00

Chanced upon this fantastic video about multi touch interface.... enjoy peeps

Video is a demo of Jeff Han's advance multi touch screens. The company is Perceptive Pixels and it sells these large versions of their touch screens... more can be found here :)

05/04/2008

2008-04-05T22:56:00.001+08:00

05/04/2008
Originally uploaded by John Lyn Rae

Queen and princess in the back seat of the car.:) raeanne's usual expression when confronted with a camera.

Roadside beauty.:)

2008-03-31T02:07:00.001+08:00

Roadside beauty.:)
Originally uploaded by John Lyn Rae

I had this taken from my N95...

Flickr

2008-03-31T02:05:00.001+08:00

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Year of the Rat.... :) New Year New change

2008-02-14T01:17:00.007+08:00

This will be a photo log on what's up this year :)

The day started with a visit to the Leong San See Temple at Race Course Road.... :) It's been a practice in the family to visit this beautifully restored temple on the first day of the lunar new year to pray for blessings for the new year and to pay respects to our ancestors. The visit ends with us enjoying the lovely vegetarian mee sua provided by the temple kitchen...... just heavenly.

That's followed by a trip to our relatives. This year Raeanne's able to participate more :) Check it out...

more to come.......

What gives for 2008??

2007-12-28T02:29:00.000+08:00

It's four more days till the new year and already things are not going so well in Pakistan.... or to put it in a more global senses, things do not bode well for the year ahead.... which explains the title...

What gives?
When oil prices are rising,
Inflation creeping into our lives,
Impending global economic crisis
Facing inbalance in the forces of nature,
Gradual rise in racial extremism and intolerance.
Bouts on irrational human behaviour.......
What gives?

Brings to mind the title of this book that I studied for literature when I was younger,
THINGS FALL APART by Chinua Achebe..... of particular, the poems that Achebe used in the prologue of the book...

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of "Spiritus Mundi"
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

-- William Butler Yeats, "The Second Coming"

What can we possible look ahead to the new year?
Are we seeing the advent of the second coming or has it already arrived.... what then is the second coming? Is it judgement day? or just simply a period of human created turmoil that will eventually engulf us all.....When will it end if it has begun?

All I know now is that I am ever grateful to be able to wake up each alive, next to my wife and daughter.....

Changi Airport Terminal Three...

2007-11-20T00:04:00.000+08:00

We made a visit to the spanking new airport terminal in Changi.... wanted to see how beautiful and huge the place is... and it is huge.
Check out the website for all the new and cool stuff that’s suppose to happen.

Loved the automated skylights.

Departure Gallery

Arrival Hall (Baggage Claim). The center feature is a 5 storey waterfall. The green areas in-between is the “ Green Wall”....

Some family pics :)
Little Raeanne enjoyed the vast expanse of the floor.... that’s our little explorer :)

No Ho Santa

2007-11-17T16:05:00.000+08:00

This story from down under really takes the cake.....
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,311797,00.html

Totally irrelevant form of political correctness.....

Little Miss Mischievous

2007-09-16T01:52:00.000+08:00

Little Miss Mischievous - looking at this picture, you'll be wondering what's going through her rapidly growing brain.... It's probably working out how best to get Daddy or Mommy to pick her up, or give her a Star Biscuit....

Just today I realised how fast she's learn. Most of the time, it's us who will open the can up and feed her the bites. She has not really gotten around the cap, but she knows that once the cap is taken off, she can reach into the can and grab a handful of these treats and stuff it into her mouth.

Mid-Life Crisis??

2007-06-15T11:21:00.000+08:00

Mid-Life crisis?? Me, but that's what Lyn said I'm suffering from a couple of days ago. Maybe I'm just advance in age but I thought MLC should begin sometime in the forties......perhaps the average lifespan of the regular male jock has now been shortened so that now MLC starts a decade earlier....... so much for progress :)

It's my birthday today and I'm all off 35 years old......so much for the first 3 and a half decade of my life. And I am now spending the first half of the day at the local renault service centre...... just to fix a speaker problem that's probably a result of negligence. What irritating is that it took them a whole 20 mins just to pull my car in for checks and in between that time, I've manage to chat with a sales staff and have a cuppa (on them of course)....
Perhaps it's because I work in a similar industry that I am rather sensitive to the service duration. I wasn't too enthusiatic about the time they insist on taking to check on the driver side speakers. 2 hrs??!!.....surely there must be experience staff who can remove and check for faults within an hour?.......even the sales staff agrees wtih that. I told him there is certainly room for improvement, unfortunately I doubt he will take the comment to the management.

It will also be 8 months for Raeanne in two days time.... and she's come a long way since October last year. She's cheeky, temperamental, fussy eater, but above, too cute and endearing to resist.

She only just beginning to vocalise and I am waiting for the day she calls out to papa and mummy......:)

Hellooo

2007-02-27T00:31:00.000+08:00

Raeanne's four months now and she's just getting cuter......:) Managed to catch grab this shot of her laughing.......we almost lost track of time as both of us take to looking after her.

We survived our first chinese new year celebrations. Raeanne came through with flying colours. Pictures uploaded into flickr.

We're taking more photos and videos as she grows older....actually she's now more active and starting to learn to roll to one side. She's also taking more attention to her toys and reaching for them.....just amazing to see her development.

Raeanne trying to turn.....
Raeanne trying to crawl.....

Raeanne and Nanny.........

2006-11-13T23:04:00.000+08:00

Almost a month old now, Little Raeanne is now the most demanding person in the house.....not that we are complaining, rather it's been interesting watching her grow. Mine did she grow. The doc's not gotten her latest vital stats by I reckon she's close to 4.5 kg. I do feel the change when I am carrying her. Either that or I'm really weak. Must be her cos the nanny says she's probably one of the biggest baby she's taken care of.......

Of course when it comes to food, she's really demanding. 2 hours interval no more no less. Drag your feet any slower and she starts throwing tantrums, and I mean real ones. She wails, struggles and when the milk finally arrives, she grows quiet and shuts her tiny mouth. Yup, she refuse to take the milk. Its like she's saying "that's for bringing my food late...."

one thing I've almost figured out is when she's doing her poo poo....she takes after both of us, ie, we strain really hard :) she'll go through this phase where she strains and her face goes all red and after a while, she relaxes contented.....of course it's not always accurate and I've had the "pleasure" on being on the receiving end of one of her daily discharges.....

Anyway, its three more days till she's one month old........we're both psyching ourselves in taking over all the work of the nanny....already we are going to miss her (nanny).

A little topsy turvy

2006-10-23T23:51:00.000+08:00

Little Raeanne finally came back from her 'photo-therapy" stay at the hospital 2 days ago..and since then the house has been a constant hive of activities, basically centered around our little one. Before Raeanne came to being, I had this grand idea that both of us would be able to handle the little tyke....but reality really punch hard, I am lucky that I am not completely knocked out...and thank god for the confinement nanny. If not for her....both of us would not have 'survived'

Countdown begins tonight.......

2006-10-15T15:24:00.000+08:00

We've decided to go ahead with inducing labor. It was a difficult choice to make as both of us had wanted a natural birth process. Unfortunately, the latest scan by our doctor had indicated that the amniotic fluid was on the low side and could possibly mean that the placenta is beginning to deteriorate......

Imagine you living in a nice warm house when one day the plumbing starts to fail, the aircon's no longer working as well and you do not have the keys to get out. Sounds bad I know, just wanted to attempt to describe how baby would feel in the womb....It's not that bad yet, but we would like to reduce the risk to the well-being of the baby, our baby.

It was also a difficult decision as we also had to deal with the idiosyncrasies of chinese customs and fengshui. Given the knowledge of the 'heavens' and 'earth', one would hope that the little one would be born in a auspicious period. Would that not mean that most of the time the parents would have to choose induction over natural birth? If there is a risk to the baby and an auspicious date or time is not in the birthing period, wouldn't there be silly if the parents were to go ahead and wait till one good timing comes around. Who do we blame if the baby is born with a serious health condition as a result of being forced to wait.....

I would respect our chinese heritage and customs, but not at the expense of my child..... so tonight, we are going to the hospital and hoping to receive little Raeanne into the world....auspicious or not.....

Any Time now......

2006-10-11T23:53:00.000+08:00

Any time now.....I cannot believe that we're almost there to greet our little one. 39 weeks ago we were still grasping at the notion of being parents, in the next few days, we'll actually be and still we're still wondering and hoping if we're going to be able to cope and be good pop and mom.

It's actually amazing at how a small little bundle of life can change, or force you to change your outlook of life. Gone will be the days where you have to liberty of doing anything you want, eat what you like and basically live a self-centre life. With a child you'll have to look past all these and tell yourself how you want your child to grow up well, both physically and mentally. Then there are the moralistic ideals that come popping into your head - the child will be well-behaved, caring, respecting the elders and all the stuff that may also have gone through your own father and mother. It's rather like a rolling ball that keeps gathering up colourful patches till one day it becomes a lovely rainbow coloured ball (of life)......

back to reality...the bags are packed, the video cam's ready.....just waiting for little Raeanne to come knocking on our door :)

2006-08-25T00:00:00.000+08:00

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.

Lists Lists Lists......

2006-04-19T00:48:00.000+08:00

Reality struck after the first wave of excitement. It's time to prepare and get things ready and that means lists list list....lots of them.... or rather 2 of them. Mainly Baby's list and Mom's List.....Father's list is practically non-existent. Sad but true...once pregnancy sets in in the family, the male side is relegated to a full-time support role...(but no doubt, an important one!) :)

Already we've gotten some maternity clothes, heaps of advice and stories...oh and not to mention the taboo stuff....so many to collect, so many to filter....Lyn's decided to just go window shop for all the stuff and suss out all the prices before we make the purchases....luckily for us there's a motherhood exhibition coming round the corner, so I guess we'll have to be more than ready by then....
One item I'll like to get is a video camcorder....I'm already looking forward to taking videos of Baby (we're calling it Baby cos we're still in the dark on whether it'll be pink or blue clothes....). Right now, I'm more biased towards a girl....maybe because I feel they tend to be less rowdy...oh well we'll see what's the 'colour' come 22nd weeks.......

Last update:
Baby's healthy and kicking about......and growing fast 8 cm!!...:)

502 Bad Gateway

2006-03-27T22:58:00.000+08:00

Yup, that's what I got when I tried to get into allofmp3.......waiting for it to come online again.

Count down.......

2006-03-16T01:15:00.000+08:00

It's been one roller coaster ride of a month. First I suffered my first accident in my car. I was just driving to the IT show when my car decided to be friendly and gave the car in front a big smack to the rear....his bumper caved in and almost threatened to divorced itself from the car body. My car was fortunate to escaped with two extra eyes to the front bumper. I had to pay a fair amount for repair cost for this incident......I thought that was the end....unfortunately, the entry barrier to my in-laws condo decided to behave like an artist and scratched the car's roof. Blame it on the in-effectual security guard. The company will be paying for the paint and touch-up job....I really hope that's the end of the misfortune....sigh

Eight weeks...that was the age of the fetus as announced by the doctor (Roy). Both of us were surprised. Lyn's was half way through her first trimester. I'n not sure if I am ready for it.......like it or not, I've got 32 weeks to get use to the fact that my life is about to change....Don't get me wrong, I'm happy that we are going to have a baby, it's just the thought of the baggage of responsibilities that comes with it is really scary.....guess I'll have to start reading those baby book and get up to speed.......

Upside to all this - everyone's been extremely helpful....heaps of advice, loads of stories and hand me downs.....we'll need more more more :)

Flip side - you cannot take all the advice word for word....no two pregnancies are the same. We'll play it by ear as we both progress :)

New Beginning

2006-03-09T21:28:00.000+08:00

found out that we may have a new addition to the family. Ask me if I am overjoyed and I will say not. Perhaps more of a cautious joy. There had been a couple of false alarms and we just want to be very sure. Lyn's happy and she's less stress about ever having kids....
I guess we may never ever be ready for our first child. It's frightfully daunting and I am just mentally preparing myself for the day to come.

Nish us luck that its real this time

2006-02-19T23:54:00.000+08:00

Why is it that habits are so hard to break? Its like every time you try something just canes by and screws it up! Somebody must want me to fail....

Hotel Costes V8.....mmmm nice

2005-10-28T01:21:00.000+08:00

Bought a CD compilation today...Hotel costes Vol 8. I was feeling a tad adventurous and decided to have a go at lounge music. This compilation by Stephane Pompougnac seemed easy to listen to when I sampled it in the shop. Turned out to be a good choice. I've since transferred the music into my handphone...:)

Got to touch jerome's new laptop - Fujitsu LifeBook S7021 - turned out not too bad cept it was pouring really bad when we got to their apartment. Dropped the box onto the wet floor, luckily the laptop was quite properly protected....was worried that the harddisk may have suffered some damage when the ominous blue screen came up while booting. That went away after a reboot....why can't MS make error messages simpler for the layman to understand.....don't they know that having a bunch of numbers all over on a blue screen makes people nervous....it's probably a sick joke to tell humans that the computer is sick (going blue).....

2005-10-27T01:13:00.000+08:00

First time in 3 weeks that i have been to the gym....it's has been that long. After three weeks of procrastination and increasing back ache....I had to force myself to go to the gym....I have always wondered how do those health nuts do it....day in day out, it'll be a miracle if I reach that stage....

2005-03-01T20:22:00.000+08:00

It's called wireless freedom....and I'm using it now :) Just goes to show how pervasive technology is in our lives. We're never going to get enough and it will continue to grow and grow till one day, it becomes part of us......

It's a strange feeling surfing outdoors....the thrill is there...as well as the looks and stares that people give you as they walk pass....oh well...I'm doing what they maybe doing if they were able to... Nevertheless, it's been a tough week last and the leftover have manged to spill over this week. Well it's partly my own doing. I procrastinate and let things slide, now I'm paying the price for the slip.....

2004-12-18T18:55:00.000+08:00

Of chocolates and sore throats........

Lyn's down with chocolate induced sore throat and fever. It was sort of bummer as we had arranged dinner with our frens. So here I am cooking dinner for the two of us.....it's porridge stew (porridge with mince pork, bean curd, chicken and cabbage)..everything dumped into the slow cooker as it'll probably be late when lyn wakes-up. I've always found it thereputic to cook although with our working lifestyle, there's seldom any chance to mess up the kitchen. Watching cook shows is the next best thing...Keith Floyd is always cooking outdoors and drinking ; Anthony Bourdain and his wacky food adventures (his epiphanies apparently....) .......yes I am a sucker for good food.

2004-12-17T13:34:00.000+08:00

It's been a almost a week of rest at home for me and I have been really enjoying it. Doing a couple of long outstanding personal stuff and just simply resting and idling at home....my planted tank is now setup, populated with fishes, one set of DIY cooling fans which I am proud of :) I'll post some pics soon. It's going to be a busy weekend with everyone back home. It's just fantastic.

2004-10-05T12:40:00.000+08:00

Gym yesterday was off again. Was feeling the touch of fever and decided to skip it. It's real hard to try to go for exercise consistently and i know that so far i have not been disciplined enough. My back tells me that i have to go soon before it decides to strike and leave invalid. It just pains me to see healthy people around and here i am stuck with a belly threatening to resist the threadmill. :-)

2004-06-27T08:25:00.000+08:00

Nice tulips.....
Posted by Hello

2004-06-27T07:59:00.000+08:00

Am trying out blogging from my mobile. Isn't this cool.

2004-02-22T15:15:00.000+08:00

It's a sunny sunday here and me and the wifey have slept in...only to be awoken by a phone call from a marketing agency selling their revolutionary cleaning device.

Operator: "It's technology invented by NASA, many people swear by it blah blah blah and we would like to send a representative to your house for a demonstration on the equipment. You have a selection of which areas you want us to clean, floors, mattress, sofas"......

Groggy me:" Hmm, I've got a synthetic leather sofa...can you clean that?"

Operator:"Mmmm, sorry maybe you would like to go for the other options?..mattress or floor? How about taking up the mattress option, I noticed in our survey that you mentioned that a member of your household is sensitive to dust".....what, this thing can't even do synthetic leather? yeah I was kind enough to do their survey a week ago next

Me:"My mattress has anti-dust-mite properties, will your cleaning affect it?"

Operator:" We have demoed on several households with mattresses with excellent results, one of the owners was so amazed he bought the system on the spot"

Me:"Hmm impressive, then was this owner's mattress anti-dustmite?" you haven't answered my question

Operator:"don't know, but I think it was anti-dustmite...so would you like to try?"...

Me:"Mmmm, I'll try for the floor then. How long will it take and how many people will be at my place?".....I don't have much options now do I....

Operator:"Thank you, then we'll schedule it next week in the morning....thank you very much."

So there it is.....it's been like this now...phone calls from marketing agencies doing surveys, from the bank wanting to tell you of the fantastic lending rates (which is bollocks BTW...I'd rather have no lending rates).....these are slowing invading our physical and virtual space. I recall watching Minority Report where they had advertisement that catered solely to the person.....soon they may even invade our dreams....

Watched "Something's Gotta give" yesterday and found it quite funny. Jack's butt wasn't really the best bits but he shone...Dianne was great though we never got to see her naked...(those bits were cut to make the N-13 grade, so that the movie can reach a wider audience)..Keannu was actually acting...compared to his superhero NEO in matrix. The soundtrack is wonderful and we are going to get it.

oh, due to the poor business from the avian flu, one of the chicken rice store owner decided out of frustration to give out free chicken rice....guess what, people were queuing up to get his free chicken rice......

2004-02-21T02:48:00.000+08:00

Added in a comments and tracking function today for me and my wife's Blog.....had decided that such functions are necessary to complete the communication process.

The avian flu is mutating and has now spread to pets (cats and tigers/leopards)...wonder how close the zoo was to the infected chicken farm in Thailand....it could mean that the virus is now capable of airborne transmission?? Gosh that would be terrible....there would be another round on panic and paranoia. Frankly, I think it's all our on doing... that the virus has now reach its current evolution stage. How the chickens were kept, fed and treated would have been the most probable root cause of the drastic changes, this kind of thing would have been unheard of in the long long past. Those animals that were culled......were most probably just your carrier and they were the easiest scapegoats.....if only we were to stop and listen to our environment......

2004-02-19T23:40:00.000+08:00

I'm swamped with work and now distraction's come aknocking.......what a day to start off this shortweekend.

2004-02-19T23:37:00.000+08:00

Came back from Shanghai this morning after a gruelling three day trip to China....am supposed to rest, but I just cannot let it go that there's laundry to do and the aquarium water to change....

Notheless I'm to be able to step foot back home. I wouldn't want to spend another day there. The dusty air more than turned me off from that idea. U2's So Faraway so close is playing in the background....now there's the laundry to do.....

I'm just so relieve that I got out of shanghai this morning. I had a taste of the chinese cabbies' version of the F1 and I'm glad to come out of that alive. You see I was supposed to catch the first flight out of Pudong Airport, which is like forty minutes drive from city center of Shanghai. I started out fine from the hotel to the highway, but alas about a quater distance into the journey we caught up with a massive jam caused by a chained accident. Too bad, we had to make a huge detour and to make up for the lost time, my cabby aka 'schumi' decided that trying to mimic Aryton Senna would make his day after all that cursing and swearing during the hold-up. I didn't speak a word throughout the whole journey, I was just praying that the cab will stay in one piece and not turn other cars on the road into obstacles.......

Nonetheless, after all the excitement the flight back to Sing was uneventful, but I did managed to catch "Matrix - Revolutions" on the flight back. Had been wanting to see it for yonks and it was really worth it.....the message is still a tad deep though it really stems from the perfect roundness and balance of all things in the universe. Yes I think its all about seeking balance in the wheel of life.......