Vantage Point - 20th March 2008
Caught Vantage Point on Thursday at GV VivoCity. Personally, I find the movie is nice but I know of others who do not like the movie at all due to the repetition. I love how they tried to bring the message across to the audience based on different perspective. I love how they leave a cliff hanger at the end of each perspective and visiting it back later at the next perspective. I think back in 2005, Hoodwinked also uses this method.

24th Birthday Celebration - 21st March 2008
Celebrated my 24th birthday with Li Xiang at Mandarin Oriental’s Melt, The World Cafe, on Good Friday. The buffet dinner is SGD$70.00 per head on weekends and public holidays. Ordered an additional 2 glasses of pineapple juice and after paying the bill, I realise it is SGD$12.00 per glass. The total bill amounted up to SGD$164 and the tax and service charge alone is SGD$29.03. Ended up paying SGD$193.05.

The next buffet we are going to try shall be The Line at Shangri La.

Birthday Presents
Li Xiang bought for me quite a number of presents this time round. It is meant for my birthday plus valentine’s day present. I got a Penguin Soft Toy, a little illustrations book entitled “The Secret Of Love“, a Superman T-shirt (she also bought the same one for herself) and a Arnold Palmer Polo T-shirt.

I also gave her an evening purse which is meant for Valentine’s Day. I bought it before Valentine’s Day but she do not want to accept it because her Valentine’s Day present for me is not ready.

Thank you dear for your wonderful presents. Promise me not to spend so much next time ok?
Thank you to my brother and Huimin for the Lacoste Polo T-shirt.

Here are some photos taken using my Nokia N82. I have not used any digital camera to take pictures ever since I got hold of the N82.

Melt, The World Cafe

Food

More Food

BBQ Food

Lor Mee

SGD$12.00 Pineapple Juice

She Finished All The Desserts Alone

Taken At Marina Square

My Presents

Evening Bag For Li Xiang

Birthday Card From My Brother And His Girlfriend (Huimin)

Chocolate Birthday Cake From Awfully Chocolate

Lacoste Dark Blue Polo T-shirt My Brother And Huimin

Trifter has written an article about McDonald’s menu around the world. This article is dated on 19th July 2007 so some of you all might read it already.

After reading it, I find Singapore’s McDonald’s menu is lousy. By the way does anyone here knows whether the Curry Sauce that comes with the McNuggets is uniquely Singapore?

Thanks to Li Xiang for the find.

Whats up with the Internet today? So many major news floating around the Internet.

• Microsoft releases the long awaited Windows Vista Service Pack 1 to Windows Update
• Apple releases Safari 3.1
• Intel officially announced new 6-core processor codenamed “Dunnington” and new Itanium processor codenamed “Tukwila”
• NVIDIA officially launched GeForce 9 - 9800 GX2
• Nokia officially announced N82 in Black
• Engadget played with iPhone Firmware 2.0
• WordPress releases the long awaited WordPress 2.5 Release Candidate 1

Did I missed out any technological news?

UADDit has posted up an article with pictures about Web 2.0 companies workplaces. Featured Web 2.0 company are, Twitter, Facebook, Digg, Craigslist, Mozilla, Joost, Flickr, Last.fm, Jaiku, Linked In, Netvibes and Reddit.

I would like to have the chairs and monitors used by Facebook!

Mentioned: Frro Blog
Source: UADDit: Web 2.0 Workplaces

Theodor Seuss Geisel (March 2, 1904 - September 24, 1991) was an American writer and cartoonist best known for his classic children’s books under the pen name Dr. Seuss, including The Cat in the Hat, Green Eggs and Ham, How the Grinch Stole Christmas and One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish. (taken from Wikipedia).

The latest movie that is based on his children book was Horton Hears A Who. Caught it 2 days ago at GV VivoCity as Li Xiang wanted to catch a movie to de-stress from the tons and tones of assignments. It so happened that this is the first movie we watched in March! That is so unlike us. We used to watch movie at least once every week. Apparently the never ending school work is taking up most of our time.

The movie is pretty short the usual 90 minutes for cartoon animation. It is a very light hearted movie and the ending was even more heart warming. It is definitely one of the better cartoon animations that we watched so far in terms of storyline. I think Wall-E is going to be good too.

Going to catch Untraceable and Vantage Point later this week as it is the long awaited 3 days weekend is finally here, because of Good Friday. I think they should have a Good Monday, Good Tuesday, Good Wednesday, Good Thursday and Good Saturday.

MIX-it-up is a series of technology briefings where the audience can experience a great mix of interactive presentations, cutting edge technologies and real world examples.

All MIX-it-up events are held in Microsoft Singapore office (auditorium) located on the 21st floor in NTUC Building. Registrations starts at around 6.30pm and the event ends around 9.30pm.

The first MIX-it-up session is held yesterday, entitled Mash-it-up. This event talks about Microsoft and Web 2.0, Facebook, Popfly and Windows Live. I was there with Weiquan to support Michael and the Singapore PHP User Group and not forgetting Chris (Michael and Chris are both presenting on Windows Live Services with PHP). I will also try my best to be there for the remaining 3 events provided it does not conflict with my school schedules.

Remaining 3 events are:

1. Build-it-up (9th April 2008) - Developing Next Generation Web Sites with Microsoft Tools
2. Connect-it-up (29th May 2008) - Leveraging on Microsoft Office as a Web platform
3. Hook-it-up (26th June 2008) - Connecting to the Web with Microsoft’s Next Generation Data Services

I think that all these events are held in conjunction with Remix 2008 which will be held in Singapore on the 16th May 2008. I was there in Remix 2007 thanks to Nic. But now he is in Seattle, guess I can’t go this year as the admission cost about SGD$300.

Mash-it-up ended at about 9.30pm. Microsoft ordered some books from its vendor to be given as prizes during the event, but since there are quite a number of left over books and it is placed in front on the stage, it was free for all to take. And apparently I was like WTF, all cluster fucking around the books trying to grab one, I am so disgusted by their actions, I would like to emphasis that not all are Singaporeans, apparently even foreigners does that. And I thought developers are civilized people and this really prove me wrong. The best part is that the book is not exactly new as it is about Visual Basic 2005.

Anyway, after everything, we (Singapore PHP User Group) went up to the 22nd level and into the innovation center. I asked Chris and he told me MS occupy 6 levels in the NTUC building. I was like “I so want to work in Microsoft Singapore” when I saw the room. There was like 3 projection screens projecting from the XBOX 360 and all of us gave a go at Guitar Hero as it just came in a few days ago.

I also played around with Microsoft Photosynth and Microsoft HD Photo (I can’t seem to find a link on it) and it really took my breath away.

Thanks to Chris Ismael and Jocelyn Villaraza from Microsoft Singapore for the Guitar Hero.

Lift Lobby

Counter

MIX-it-up Banner

View From The 21st Floor (Raining)

Innovation Center

This is sent to my email from Terry Peh, no idea whether it is true. But I found it rather interesting, so I decided to share with my readers.

Cancer Facts Part #1

1. Every person has cancer cells in the body.These cancer cells do not show up in the standard tests until they have multiplied to a few billion. When doctors tell cancer patients that there are no more cancer cells in their bodies after treatment, it just means the tests are unable to detect the cancer cells because they have not reached the detectable size.
2. Cancer cells occur between 6 to more than 10 times in a person’s lifetime.
3. When the person’s immune system is strong the cancer cells will be destroyed and prevented from multiplying and forming tumors.
4. When a person has cancer it indicates the person has multiple nutritional deficiencies. These could be due to genetic, environmental, food and lifestyle factors.
5. To overcome the multiple nutritional deficiencies, changing diet and including supplements will strengthen the immune system.
6. Chemotherapy involves poisoning the rapidly growing cancer cells and also destroys rapidly-growing healthy cells in the bone marrow, gastro-intestinal tract etc, and can cause organ damage, like liver, kidneys, heart, lungs etc.
7. Radiation while destroying cancer cells also burns, scars and damages healthy cells, tissues and organs.
8. Initial treatment with chemotherapy and radiation will often reduce tumor size. However prolonged use of chemotherapy and radiation do not result in more tumor destruction.
9. When the body has too much toxic burden from chemotherapy and radiation the immune system is either compromised or destroyed, hence the person can succumb to various kinds of infections and complications.
10. Chemotherapy and radiation can cause cancer cells to mutate and become resistant and difficult to destroy.
    Surgery can also cause cancer cells to spread to other sites.
11. An effective way to battle cancer is to starve the cancer cells by not feeding it with the foods it needs to multiply.

Cancel Cells Feed On

1. Sugar, is a cancer-feeder. By cutting off sugar it cuts off one important food supply to the cancer cells. Sugar substitutes like Nutrasweet, Equal, Spoonful, etc are made with Aspartame and it is harmful. A better natural substitute would be Manuka honey or molasses but only in very small amounts. Table salt has a chemical added to make it white in colour. Better alternative is Bragg’s aminos or sea salt.
2. Milk causes the body to produce mucus, especially in the gastro-intestinal tract. Cancer feeds on mucus .
   By cutting off milk and substituting with unsweetened soya milk cancer cells are being starved.
3. Cancer cells thrive in an acid environment. A meat-based diet is acidic and it is best to eat fish, and a little chicken rather than beef or pork. Meat also contains livestock antibiotics, growth hormones and parasites, which are all harmful,especially to people with cancer.
4. A diet made of 80% fresh vegetables and juice, whole grains, seeds, nuts and a little fruits help put the body into an alkaline environment. About 20% can be from cooked food including beans. Fresh vegetable juices provide live enzymes that are easily absorbed and reach down to cellular levels within 15 minutes to nourish and enhance growth of healthy cells. To obtain live enzymes for building healthy cells try and drink fresh vegetable juice (most vegetables including bean sprouts) and eat some raw vegetables 2 or 3 times a day. Enzymes are destroyed at temperatures of 104 degrees F (40 degrees C).
5. Avoid coffee, tea, and chocolate, which have high caffeine. Green tea is a better alternative and has cancer-fighting properties. Water- best to drink purified water, or filtered, to avoid known toxins and heavy metals in tap water. Distilled water is acidic, avoid it.

Cancer Facts Part #2

1. Meat protein is difficult to digest and requires a lot of digestive enzymes. Undigested meat remaining in the intestines become putrified and leads to more toxic buildup.
2. Cancer cell walls have a tough protein covering. By refraining from or eating less meat it frees more enzymes to attack the protein walls of cancer cells and allows the body’s killer cells to destroy the cancer cells.
3. Some supplements build up the immune system (IP6, Flor ssence,Essiac, anti-oxidants, vitamins,minerals, EFAs etc.) to enable the body’s own killer cells to destroy cancer cells. Other supplements like vitamin E are known to cause apoptosis, or programmed cell death, the body’s normal method of disposing of damaged, unwanted, or unneeded cells.
4. Cancer is a disease of the mind,body, and spirit. A proactive and positive spirit will help the cancer warrior be a survivor. Anger, un forgiveness and bitterness put the body into a stressful and acidic environment. Learn to have a loving and forgiving spirit. Learn to relax and enjoy life.
5. Cancer cells cannot thrive in an oxygenated environment. Exercising daily, and deep breathing help to get more oxygen down to the cellular level. Oxygen therapy is another means employed to destroy cancer cells.

John Hopkins has recently sent this out in its newsletters. This information is being circulated at Walter Reed Army Medical Center as well. Dioxin chemicals causes cancer, especially breast cancer.

1. No plastic containers in micro
2. No water bottles in freezer
3. No plastic wrap in microwave

Dioxins are highly poisonous to the cells of our bodies. Don’t freeze your plastic bottles with water in them as this releases dioxins from the plastic. Recently, Dr. Edward Fujimoto, Wellness Program Manager at CastleHospital was on a TV program to explain this health hazard.

He talked about dioxins and how bad they are for us. He said that we should not be heating our food in the microwave using plastic containers. This especially applies to foods that contain fat.

He said that the combination of fat, high heat, and plastics releases dioxin into the food and ultimately into the cells of the body.

Instead, he recommends using glass, such as Corning Ware, Pyrex or ceramic containers for heating food.

You get the same results, only without the dioxin. So such things as TV dinners, instant ramen and soups, etc., should be removed from the container and heated in something else. Paper isn’t bad but you don’t know what is in the paper. It’s just safer to use tempered glass, CorningWare, etc. He reminded us that a while ago some of the fast food restaurants moved away from the foam containers to paper. The dioxin problem is one of the reasons.

Also, he pointed out that plastic wrap, such as Saran, is just as dangerous when placed over foods to be cooked in the microwave. As the food is nuked, the high heat causes poisonous toxins to actually melt out of the plastic wrap and drip into the food. Cover food with a paper towel instead.

Went to catch Disney On Ice at Singapore Indoor Stadium last Saturday (8th March 2008). We caught the last slot for the day which is at 7.30pm.

We met up for dinner at Bao Luo Wan Xiang located at Plaza Singpura’s basement 2 together with Wayne. According to Li Xiang they also have a branch at Lao Pa Sat but she said that the branch at Plaza Singapura taste much better. Not forgetting the price is very affordable, a bowl of noodle is about SGD$5.00 and the tim sum is about SGD$2.50 for each basket.

We also did try a Taiwan street snack which is exactly like the Japanese Sushi but much bigger, they called it QQ Rice. They use brown rice and ingredients like egg, cheese, turkey and beef. But the pricing is quite expensive, it cost about SGD$4.50 each.

Took bus number 16 and we reached Singapore Indoor Stadium. While waiting for Terry and his girlfriend, we took a walk at Kallang Leisure Park. It has been more than 10 years since I last went there and last time there is a ice skating ring there, now the only one left is at Jurong Entertainment Center.

We did not walk around much but there is a food court and a movie operator there which is not under GV, Cathay or Shaw. I hate the toilet the most, for gents, they use violet lights and for ladies they use some red lights. The lighting makes the toilet so dull and dim. I think there is something wrong with the toilet architect eyes.

Not much Disney’s merchandise is displayed outside and there are very expensive and does not look nice. The show starts exactly at 7.30pm which I like. There are total of 5 sections, I can’t really remember the order of the section but there was Lion King, Little Mermaid, Lilo & Stitch, 101 Dalmations and Peter Pan. After 30 minutes into the show (2 sections later), there is a 15 minutes interval and after that the remaining 3 sections follows. The whole show lasted only 1 hour and 45 minutes even though SISTIC website put 2 hours and 15 minutes (including 15 minutes interval).

Overall the show is nothing special, I would not want to see it again as I nearly fall asleep halfway through the show. And accordingly to Wayne, he told me that the show last time was much better. I am also being irritated by those parents and curators walking around non-stop throughout the whole show.

The Ending

After the show we wanted to walk to Suntec City, but after walking for 45 minutes, we lost our way and have no choice but to take a taxi. We took a cab from Rhu Close to Suntec City and it cost us SGD$6.00. Taxi nowadays is indeed expensive.

We chill out at Starbucks and we talk about housing and how expensive it is to just own a house. Basically in Singapore, you will be paying for your house till you die or grow old and that is what we peasants in Singapore will be doing, while the others just get a few million in salary per year by just talking.

I also explain web development terms to Terry like different between each web programming languages, servers, OSes, AJAX, client side programming. I think his company should offer me a consultant job when I graduate =D

FRRO will undergo a scheduled maintenance on this coming Friday, 14th March 2008.

Maintenance Timing
Date: Friday, 14th March 2008 to Saturday, 15th March 2008
Time: 2200 - 0400 (GMT+8)
Duration: Estimated at 6 hours

Reason For Maintenance
Migration of our servers to REACH Datacenter.

Impact Of Maintenance
All services under lesterchan.net (forums, files, expenses, etc), wordpress.sg, lc.sg and all sites hosted by FRRO will not be accessible during this period.

Contact FRRO
If you have any queries, please contact us at team [at] frro.net.

Sorry for any inconvenience caused.

San Alfonso del Mar is a resort located in the central coast of Chile, frequently noted because of its 1,000-meter long, 19-acre outdoor pool, which holds a Guinness world record. The resort’s large pool utilizes a technology developed by the Chilean company Crystal Lagoons, which uses water pumped from the Pacific Ocean, that is then filtered and treated for supply to the pool.

More pictures and pictures courtesy of KIWIPULSE.

Wikipedia: San Alfonso del Mar

Official Website: San Alfonso del Mar