And so it has come to the end of 2006, once again, its time when most of us will reflect on what we had done for the past year and make new resolutions for the coming year, which we may end up not accomplishing, and then the cycle repeats itself at the end of 2007... Sounds very pessimistic eh?

But hor, I dun quite understand the point of counting down to the new year lei... its jus another day mah... the only significance is maybe you get to write the date starting from 01 Jan all over again with the suffix of 07 instead of 06...

Typically people will start planning how to celebrate new year's eve, which usually includes either one or all the following:
1) Having dinner with friends (which you can do any other time as well)
2) Maybe catch a movie and/or go bowling and/or play pool and/or sing ktv and/or clubbing and/or having BBQ at a chalet (which again you can do any other time as well)
3) At the 11.55pm, people will start pouring booze and waiting for the countdown
4) At the stroke of mid-night, wish everybody in sight Happy New Year, possibly with some kissing and some hugging admist fireworks, depending on which part of S'pore you are in
5) Then the magic is gone almost instantly and its just another day (maybe not just another day but just another public holiday)


I can't even be bothered with coming up with resolutions anymore... Why can't people just decide on what they wanna do and just do it (pardon the Nike slogan cliche) instead of writing them down in some little notebook which will end up being chucked away in some corner to collect dusk anyway?

Nice hor?

We even made our own Xmas tree using stuff like empty beer cans for the trunk and base, the crown of the tree itself was made of vanguard sheet rolled into a cone... Thanks to Miss Leow, X'mas came early to RO:

Our masterpiece, put together by members and volunteers

Happy faces

The hunks of RO

After lessons, the volunteers had our own Xmas celebration at Essential Brews, located in Holland V. Everyone had fun playing Secret Santa, and its interesting to see how much effort was being put in by the various secret santas in choosing presents for the receivers

Merry Xmas!

P.S. Thanks Meilian for her little xmas gift, good to know I have a fan in RO... hehehe

3:25 PM

Ok so tis is a belated post, same as the one that I'm gonna post later, cuz as usual, I'm waiting till I have posted the pix first, and its not easy cuz some blardy earthquake damaged some cables in Taiwan and apparently, its affecting the internet connection in some Asia Pacific countries... hmmm I never know that Taiwan has such a great impact on the rest of the world other than their bubble teas, variety shows, singers and soap operas which had successfully invaded places like M'sia, S'pore, China and possibly Japan.
So anywaes, those of you who had posted pix in blogger before would have already know that its a freaking hair pulling experience trying to post and re-align pix after you have typed a long entry... Someone over at Blogger ought to make it easier for people to post pix, but then again, they may already have done so in the Google version which I have not converted yet... bleah

Back to the Ah Geok's Department's Year End Party, held sometime during mid Dec, at Indochine, The Forbidden City. Its supposed to be a dine and club hangout place near the MOS (note that I used MOS as a reference point cuz I can never differentiate Boat Quay and Clark Quay, much like some people who simply dunno their 左 from their 右) The ambience and decor was quite nice but the food sux big time... We are supposed to have Vietnamese cuisine but they had to put in so much yucky corriander-taste-alike herb that I felt like I'm eating grass most of the time. And they have supper yucky poison like otah with coconut milk... gross...

The emcee of the nite aint much better...He looks like a clown without the white face paint and the red rubber nose, cracks weak jokes and treats us like goons... 'C'mon, you guys are accountants, good with numbers, should have gotten the correct answer by now'... What the fuck? C'mon man, you are the entertainer, you are supposed to be entertaining, so make us laugh already!

The killer program is when Ah Geok gave her speech... as usual she can't speak for nuts, I gave up counting on the number of 'erms' and 'ehs' that she uttered while trying to make out coherent sentences... And I dun understand why she kept mentioning the fact that she's early for this year's function... kan ni na, its social etiquette that you arrive at a function on time ok? Who gives a fuck if you are Ah Geok and we are working in Ah Geok's Department?!?!

The theme of the nite is Shanghai Grand, so we are all supposed to dress like well, Shanghaians in era of '6os...heheh although the program and the food sux, we still managed to entertain ourselves by taking photos...

The last remaining lao chiao MSOs around
Fion and me, trying their best to look like Shanghaians
The latest addition to the family, Andrea and Ng Yong (aka 黄蓉)
Me and Rachel, nice pix hor?
Leng Leng (left), me and our beloved aunties (seated) at FAC
p.s. Although the YEP may not be all that enjoyable (cld be budget constraint la hor), still wanna thank the organising committee for their effort.

Rainy days should be declared non working days coz rain makes people sleepy and reduces productivity. If we are forced to work, then we are more proned to mistakes and more effort will be needed to rectify the mistakes. People will get frustrated and temper will rise.
Everyone knows that anger causes blood pressure to rise and it can be most unhealthy. Not only that, working relationships with colleagues will be strained thus affecting whatever synergy we may have with our working partners.
When we have strained relationships with our colleagues, we stopped going lunch together, people will then feel lonely and soon, will dread going to work. If left unchecked, the situation will be so bad that people start resigning...

See? We should not be working on rainy days.... bleah... I miss my bed

Have you ever had the unpleasant encounter on buses that someone comes along and sits so damn bloody hard on the seats that your ass is thrown like 5 inches into the air before landing back onto your seats again?

Really feel like putting thumbtacks next time the seat next to mine is unoccupied. KNN, how hard is it to slowly and gently sit? Do these morons drop their big fat asses onto the toilet bowl, or on any hard surfaces for that matter, like those cold and uncomfy plastic MRT seats? I dun think so lorz, so WHY MUST DO THAT ON SBS (oh they call them Transit nowadays)BUSES?!?!?!?

If I'm Harry Potter, I would most gladly make them vomit frogs each time they do that, oh but then I'll suffer cuz I would be sitting next to them... Ok, I shall be kind and bestow them with piles instead... hiack hiack hiack

Came across this article where a German teenager who murdered a homeless man after getting drunk and blaming it all on a video game Click here for report.So the question is, should we really ban the media, be it video games, TV shows or print that depicts the slightest element of sex, drug and violence whenever someone claims that a juvenile crime is associated to the media?

The WWE (aka World Wrestling Entertainment) is on the chopping board after the teen claimed that he was influenced by WWE's video game. It's not that hard to find similiar cases in Singapore too. I'm too lazy to go search for reports and facts like some other bloggers but I'm sure you guys would have heard of such cases.
On one hand, there are those who complained that the government is being too restrictive on what we are allowed to see or hear, and that we should be more open to controversial topics now that we wanna attract 'foreign creative talents'. So now, we have taken a small step forward by allowing bar top dancing, although I wonder how is that gonna attract these so called talents. It seems to imply that there will be a sudden influx of ang moh creative directors now that they can see our local gals gyrating on bar tops...

But anyway, what I'm trying to say is that, on one hand, the public wants the government to be more liberated and then on the other, the same public is quick to blame the government for allowing too much unwanted materials to pollute the minds of our young. So if the misconduct of the young is the sole responsibility of the government and the teachers, then what do we need parents for?

And shouldn't the same public be asking for the blood of Walt Disney instead? In my opinion, they are the main culprit in sowing the seeds of violence in our young. You may think I'm nuts, how can seemingly cute and harmless cartoons be compared to the gore and violence of say... wrestling and video games such as Mortal Combat?

Let me illustrate... Anyone with a wee bit of brains will know that wrestling is not real but pure entertainment. Although there's blood spilled once in a while but they always have a disclaimer before the show that tells the viewer that what we see should only be performed by professionals (meaning the wrestlers) and should never be attempted to be tried at home or in public for that matter.
But do you hear the Roadrunner or Tweety Bird say this before they blow the Coyote or Slyvester Cat to pieces with dynamite? And these cartoon characters can never die and can be blown up time and again, cut by knives and daggers, run over by cars... What signals are they sending to the kids? And they are supposed to be cute and harmless? Give me a break...

And soccer, I think it is definitely more violent than wrestling. How many times have you read about riots arising because of foul play (not as in murder but as in unfair play) and poor refereeing? I have at least heard of one such incident regarding a certain goal keeper being murdered after he let in an own goal in a World Cup match. How many times have you heard of fans beating the hell out of each other when their favourite wrestler lost a match?

So, don't point fingers at the media whenever something bad happens, even if the government bans everything that depicts sex and violence, there's always the internet... Parents should actually play a crucial role instead of taking the easy way out of screaming for someone's blood.

p.s. The author has been watching wrestling since young and is fumed at being deprived of his favortite soap opera after the blardy MediaCock stops airing it, but instead keep doing those stupid re-runs of ancient shows.