Johann Low

木曜日, 12月 30, 2004

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A clash of 2 tetectonics plates under the Indian Ocean has already taken over 100,000 lives and more left unaccounted for. It is so depressing and disheartening to see bodies and bodies being piled up, or those floating in the sea. Bodies with hands bent with frozen in the face of death. When I saw them on TV, I thought they were mannuquins...cos they were so pale and their hands all frozen and bent in some angle...

For those who live in wells, this earthquake which measure 9 on the Richter scale is so powerful it made the earth wobble on its axis. It also changed the map for Asia. Almost every hour, the death toll will rise.

I estimate the death toll to be ard 300 000. By tonight's the toll is already 11 8000, by tml evening, the toll shld be ard 200 000. Now I am thinking of 300,000 is too lenient an estimate. There are still thousands of bodies rotting in the sea, some might be swept away to the bottom of the sea..some might be swept to the other corner of the earth, like the Navy accident where some of the bodies were never found.

Anyway I am proud SG have been extrememly helpful in times of charitable needs as everyone can see during charity shows. I juz made a donation of $10.00 via a call. For Singtel users,

-For a $10 donation, call 1900 112 1226 or *1226
-For a $50 donation, call 1900 112 1227 or *1227

Singtel will not charge any administrative charges on these calls and sms.

The affected areas like Indonesia and India are desperately short on clean water,food,shelter and medication. With polluted water and mosquitoes...then comes dengue and malaria...I certainly do not hope to see the figure to climb to 500,000.

elow at 1:33 午前 | (0) comments

土曜日, 12月 25, 2004

[Lunch @ Fullerton]

Got quite a treat at Fullerton Hotel Singapore on Thurs. Nope it was not some pre-X Mas treats but it was a "hotel inspection" My manager asked me and one of my other colleague to go. It was supposedly to be a Japanese buffet but turned out otherwise. When we reached there, we were greeted by the Business Development Manager of Fullerton, a well-groomed, polite, tall and not bad looking Japanese ( if he has thicker hair, better looking still) He came to my office once and he brought some chocolate cake which costed $10 a slice (sales partially donate to Red Cross)

I am fine with the Japanese food but then somehow, we switched to Italian instead because International buffet was full and Italian seemed to be the most empty. Initially I was not quite too impressed with the food in there. Almost everything looked alien to me and certainly not appetitizing. Being a Singaporean pumpkin, I have not seen most of the food there before. Anyway there were alot of cheese and I do not fancy cheese in my food. The same goes for my other colleague.

Upon looking at the menu for the main course, I again have not a single clue what they were except for the word Salmon, spagetti something..the other main dish is something with mushrooms. I could not make up my mind again and so in the end, I followed what the Fullerton manager ordered, the salmon dish.

Now for the appetizers, I had some sweet milky pumpkin soup, one piece of weird tasting bread, a bun which I did not eat, one slice of roasted ham. The ham was ridiculously delicious. Then came my Salmon. I was quite surprised and I was expecting spaghetti with salmon but it was not !!! Served on a dish was one whooping chunk of roasted/baked salmon sitting on a small slope of some sliced veg.(looked like mao2 gua1 dong1 fen3) The salmon tasted heavenly, it was full of fats, the skin above was baked to a crisp. Even my manager (also Japanese) commented on the size of the salmon.

Anyway we had to eat with forks and knives which was never my forte. It was troublesome cos I am a hawker center/takeaway person. In fact, I have not (i think) dined in a restaurant which required me to use knife and forks before. HWHAHAHAHAHAHAa...the fatty salmon was too soft to be cut by the knife and I observed on how the Fullerton manager cut his..First, he sit the salmon on the side with the skin facing out and he cut the meat. WHAHAHAHAHHAAaaaa...so mafan to eat one meal, so I though. WHAHAHAHAHAHAHAaaa..Wah lau, I feel so sua ku!!!! Well I'm a poor man, I dun dine in posh restaurants. I prefer cheap and delicious food in hawker centers. I prefer Chinese food to anything else, give me a plate of wanton/shrimp dumplings noodles anytime, I rather perspire in a hawker center than to be so concious of myself in a "high class" enviroment.

Then we went to shoot photos of the various hotel rooms with my manager's $1800 semi-pro Sony digicam. The rooms came with internet access thru TV with a wireless keyboard. The basic rooms even have PS1 in it. I will be impressed if they have PS2. ahahaa. We did not see the Governor's Suite but was told that it cost from $6000 a night. 4 times my pay for one night's sleep. Well, they have Bang & Olufsen stereo leh...We also went to the ballrooms...which starts from $900 per table=translated to only for the sons and daughters of well-to-do families. There were spas, yoga, massages rooms at the lower floors, not to mention meeting rooms.

Kaoz...everything is so blardy exp. I suspect the piece of fish I ate there was already like $50? I rather have a $3.00 wanton/shrimp dumpling (with extra noodles) or mixed veg rice or a plate of piping hot Hokkien noodles.

elow at 5:53 午後 | (0) comments

火曜日, 12月 14, 2004

[---->>>>>>-->-^--^--->>>>................]

Made myself to take the train to Marina last evening to avoid the usual evening crowd in the mrt stations in town area. While on the return way back, seeing the hordes of well-dressed people standing at the station's glass gates awaiting the train to bring them to their home. I wonder, everyday, almost everyone is busy with their work, rushing through deadlines, projects, keeping up with their schedules. I am wondering where do all these bring them to? Does all the toil will bring them a better future? Bigger house? Bigger car? Financial freedom?

It is all in the system. Everyone is in one system. Fixed and rigid. Conform or you will be wringed out of society and been seen as an outcast. Morning-work,afternoon lunch, evening-go home dinner,bath,tv,sleep. Almost everyone is so caught up with their work that they failed to appreciate and enjoy life. We might as well be machines.

Well ytd was hell, there was one crazy Japanese who made a booking for 6 different hotels for his period of like 6 days here. So it means that he is changing hotel everyday. To think he has even paid up today..........wtf?

elow at 11:26 午後 | (0) comments

日曜日, 12月 12, 2004

[tasteful ads.]

2 recent TV commercials caught my eyes. One is the Sony DV Cam, the other is the Heinekin beer where the people inside dislocate their arms and joints and twist n turn like no other. Then suddenly I see The Canadian Pizza TV CM. What a huge contrast. I particularly like the Sony DV Cam, I have not seen such a beautiful CM for yrs. The music is excellent. There is so much of this element called concept in it, which is clearly lacking in many locals' ads. Concept is not profitable or worth the money spent buying the air-time for most local companies.

The Heinekin beer's CM is interesting and eye catching, obviously CG enhanced. The music is nice too. Play any of these 2 with the Canadian Pizza CM and......well anyone will see the difference.

Ever since homegrown Creative Tech's beloved Uncle Sim wanted to dominate the digital music industry from Apple. The marketing strageties and gimmicks are really one of a kind. Put these aside, the series of "creative" ads are also...a stark contrasts to their brand name. The Shaolin monk, the Indian with the huge ear and one other...I dun see any connection with their ads to their products. Mayb it is abstract?? I dunno, maybe...

Creative is virtually copying every move made by Apple with the exception of one thing, innovation.

Tonight's Star Awards is quite pleasant without the shocks n out of this world's speeches. We have 3 mothers on the way. haha..quite heart-warming. Boobylicious Fiona Xie was out of the Top 10 this yr..hahaha..well, for next yr, we will have more familar faces when the traitors came back. HWHAHAHAHAHAHAa..and Sharon Aw will be kicked out for the best compere's award, WHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAH...anyway her custome was ugly.

Fann's hair was ugly red, ugly boots,Zoe was too plain..Fiona Xie was less than 5 min on the screen, she has grown too skinny to be noticable. Huang Biren's makeup was overdone, Ivy Lee's eyes makeup were horrible. The prettiest is prb Ow Xuan, Pricillia Zheng. but too bad they got nothing.

elow at 11:54 午後 | (0) comments

月曜日, 12月 06, 2004

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Working in a Japanese based company has been my dreams since I got interested in Jpn culture and its language. So there I am now, working in a travel agency which deals with Jpn clients ONLY. Moreover,my manager is a Jpn so I will need to speak Jpn everyday and listen to his instructions. But not all is going well.

Even though I studied Jpn for 3+ yrs, my profiency in speaking and listening is fcuked up, thanks to my previous sch which did not emphasis in speaking and listening. Reading and writing I am still oke but honestly my level has dropped quite abit from the 2.5 yrs in army having depression and suffering the after-effects of it.

Speaking, listening, writing relatively simple Japanese is still oke. But there are times when my Jpn manager will explain full force in Jpn and I will have trouble catching up.
-_-; Furthermore, my boss (a Singaporean) and another colleague's Jpn are so fluent that it really put me to shame with my standard. Ah well, hope it will improve with them, if they let me stay there long enough.

If my performance in Jpn is not good enough, I certainly hope they will let me get my pay chq at the end of this month so that I can buy my POWERMAC HWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA

My imagination can be so real that I can feel as if it is. And most of the time it is about bad situations. I can imagine to the most excruciating details, the exact feelings. Thus there was a period when I was standing on the verge of sanity and insanity. Things are better now, with prayers that is.

elow at 1:11 午前 | (0) comments