Does free calls to any mobile or landline from your computer sound too good to be true?
It isn't. With Gizmo Project, you can call mobile phones and landlines in 60 countries for nothing more than what you pay for your internet connection. These 60 countries include Singapore, Malaysia, the USA, South Korea, and the Vatican, in case you would like a hearing with the Pope.
This is the deal: the call is free if the person you are calling is registered with Gizmo and has included their numbers with their profile. To call, click their name in your contact list, choose the number you want to dial (landline or mobile), and hit "dial". The call is completely free. Accounts also have to be active.
I have called my sister's US mobile (and spoken to her answering machine four times). I've also used it to call mobile phones in Singapore. The reception is not as good as computer-to-computer (for e.g. skype) but it is comparable to one of those cheap calling cards. But who bothers? the call is free!
I tried telling my buddy who has a fiancée
In other places, Gizmo project is said to use less RAM than Skype. I still like Skype a lot for the oh-so-crisp sound, more so now that they have fixed the video problem. It is one powerful and amazing programme. But Gizmo project lets you call mobile and landlines for free, taking it to a whole different level.
Go download now!
Technorati Tag: Gizmo Project
Monday, July 31, 2006
Free stuff I cannot live without: Gizmo Project
blogging big fish
(As a side note, it is interesting how the different personality types think about to-do lists. If you are familiar with the Myer-Briggs test, `J' types see to do lists as an agenda, `P' types see to do lists as a reminder of things they have to do in the future. Guess which I am.)
I think I've been putting it off because I don't really know what to say about this book except to say that it is about myth and myth-making. This guy (see I can't even remember the guy's name!) makes his dad into this giant of a hero to compensate for the lack of communication between them.
Myth-making is not something that comes to me easily. When I tell a story, it is usually fairly factual like this: "Never cycle over bougainvillea because you will puncture your tyres," rather than something fantastic like this: "Man, you should see those thorns on that bougainvillea that ripped a huge gash in my tyres.. they were longer than my index finger and sharper than a steak knife.." You get the idea.
I had a wonderfully eccentric friend in school who was like that. She told a damn good story because of her ability to make a myth out of real life. Of course you never know how much is true and how much is exaggeration, but does it matter?
That's what `Big Fish' suggests, that life is a blend of story and fact.
Remember that friend who tells a great story? She now works in Chicago as a journalist.
And now I have blogged big fish. :) Read More!
Sunday, July 30, 2006
if you really want to know
i'll tell you what i've been thinking about this entire weekend.
B: Hey look at the moon!
Me: Yeah, it is 13% tonight. It is waxing.
B: *snigger* Bikini wax? or Brazilian?
Me: Whatever! Waxing, as in the oppositie of waning, as in not-yet-gibbous.
B: Heeheehee. The moon's waxing! heeheehee.
Me: *exasperated*
(so we started competing to see who could think of the most waxing terms)
Waxing and waning
Candle wax
Waxing legs
Wax lyrical
Wax my car
Wax my surfboard
Wax my shoe (to prevent blisters)
Wax the floor
Waxy leaves
Bee's wax
Wax musuem
Waxen complexion
Waxed paper for baking
Ear wax
And the clincher:
Werewabbit says: "You're waxy."
Saturday, July 29, 2006
why i'm thinking abt maps in the first place
An intriguing passage from Jeanette Winterson's Sexing the Cherry:
THE FLAT EARTH THEORYRead More!
The earth is round and flat at the same time. This is obvious. That it is round appears indisputable; that it is flat is our common experience, also indisputable. The globe does not supercede the map; the map does not distort the globe.
Maps are magic. In the bottom corner are whales; at the top, cormorants carrying pop-eyed fish. In between is a subjective account of the lie of the land. Rough shapes of countries that may or may not exist, broken red lines marking paths that are at best hazardous, at worse already gone. Maps are constantly being re-made as knowledge appears to increase. But is knowledge increasing or is detail accumulating?
A map can tell me how to find a place I have not seen but have often imagined. When I get there, following the map faithfully, the place is not the place of my imagination. Maps, growing ever more real, are much less true.
And now, swarming over the earth with our tiny insect bodies and putting up flags and building houses, it seems that all the journeys are done.
Not so. Fold up the maps and put away the globe. If someone else had charted it, let them. Start another drawing with whales at the bottom and cormorants at the top, and in between identify, if you can, the places you have not found yet on those other maps, the connections obvious only to you. Round and flat, only a very little has been discovered.
Sexing the Cherry, Jeanette Winterson, 87-88
Thursday, July 27, 2006
a map of the brain
Smole is a smart cookie. I checked out "motor homunculus in the brain cortex" as per her instructions in her comment, and was completely thrilled with what I found.
The primary motor cortex is one of the principal brain areas involved in motor function. (See blue in Figure 1a on the left)
Every part of the body is represented in the primary motor cortex, and these representations are arranged somatotopically (i.e., organized in a point-to-point representation of the surface of the body)-- the foot is next to the leg which is next to the trunk which is next to the arm and the hand.
The amount of brain matter devoted to any particular body part represents the amount of control that the primary motor cortex has over that body part. For example, a lot of cortical space is required to control the complex movements of the hand and fingers, and relatively less space is required for the trunk or legs, whose muscle patterns are relatively simple.
This disproportionate map of the body in the motor cortex is called the motor homunculus. (See Figure 1b on right)
What an amazing map.. It is a Western diagram of how body parts are linked together, as compared to the Eastern reflexology diagram of the foot in the earlier post.
The next time I grab a pen to write a note, I'm going to spend 10 seconds in awe, and thank God that we're fearfully and wonderfully made.
(Graphics and info from brainconnection.com)
A different representation of sensory and motor homunculus. Click on picture to read captions. Better images found here.
(No wonder lovers like to kiss and hold hands!)
Asics GT-2110 vs Asics Jr. GT-2110
I like my Asics GT-2110. It fits great, but it is a pretty pricey shoe. I put down $140 for my current pair.
While browsing in the local sports shop, I discovered a possible match for me: the Asics Jr. GT-2110 for kids. I saw a pair at World of Sports and it was retailing for $89! And they have my size! To compare the adult and the kid version, I put one on each side and walked around a bit.
The kids' one did not feel as comfortable but I suspect that it had nothing to do with the quality of cushioning (as the salesman said) but with the inferior sockliner. These are the specs of both shoes:Asics Jr. GT-2110
Features
GEL® Cushioning Systems
AHAR® Solid Rubber Outsole with Stitched Toe Cap
DuoMax® Medial Post
Full Length SpEVA® Midsole
Benefits
Provides maximum rearfoot and forefoot shock attenuation
Extended toe cap helps enhance durability
Provides stability and shores the midfoot
Enhanced midsole durability and cushioningAsics GT-2110
Features
Impact Guidance System (I.G.S.®)
DuoMax®
SpEVA® Midsole Material
Space Trusstic System™
Benefits
ASICS® design philosophy that uses linked componentry to encourage optimal gait while allowing for natural foot movement from heel strike to toe-off
Ensures that the shoe maintains proper support for the foot during the critical transition from heel strike to toe-off
Provides superior shock attenuation along with a cushioned ride and enhanced durability
An advanced system that creates a pocket between the Trusstic System® device and the midsole, allowing for greater midsole deformation and more efficient foot function
It is hard to understand what these specs really mean. The way I understand it though, you get as good a cushioning with the Jr shoe as with the adult shoe, but you don't get any of the fancy high-tech stuff like IGS, PHP, Space Trusstic System, etc. The Jr. shoe also comes with an extra-large toe box (which looks horrendous and is completely unnecessary for me). I think they think that teenagers bang their toes into things a lot.
Anyway, I'm going to file away this thought until I need it.
(note: for those interested in the Jr. shoe, I wear a size 5 or 5.5 in adult and the size 6 in kids was almost too large for me.)
Specs below
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Anatomy: East and West
Still on the idea of maps and reality, Eric's comment inspired me to pull out two graphical representations of the human foot, one from the West and one from the East. Which diagram is more real?
West
East
Interesting isn't it, that the diagrams reinforce what Richard Nisbett writes in The Geography of Thought, that Westerners are interested in dissection and detail, while Asians are interested in how things are related to one another?
a map of my world
Woke up this morning thinking that it was Saturday and then realising that it is only Wednesday and that I still had more than half of the week to go. It is a crummy sinking type of feeling that makes you want to hold your pillow and sulk.
I want to draw a map according to my reality. According to my reality, my home in Sptw Pk Rd will be very large with lots of detail, while places like Africa, Japan, Korea, Alaska will be tiny with very little detail. It will include the places I have lived in and visited, memories translated into a two-dimension map. Because what is a map except a representation of reality, and what is reality except that which is experienced?
I wish I had more artistic ability!
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Mizuno Wave Run 2006
0550 | Woke up, made coffee, got dressed
0609 | Walked to train station, ate 3.5 Jacob's breakfast biscuits on the way
0621 | Arrived at train station
0623 | First train arrives
0643 | Alight at Kovan Hub
0730 | Flag off! Lots of people jumping the fence.
0815 | I stress Smole out cos I keep going faster. Smole says, "Go ahead."
0836 | Finish! Upslope at the end.
0930 | Collect lime-yellow tshirt
1120 | Breakfast at Han's, back home for nap
1505 | Pirates of the Carribean!
1800 | Dinner: unagi, chawanmushi, salmon, tempura, fluffy white rice..
2100 | Home, the end of a lovely day
more pics to come. (moi-carine finished this run 16th in 2004)
Monday, July 24, 2006
Saturday, July 22, 2006
Never cycle over bougainvillea
Because it will puncture your tyres. Both my tyres went out after I cycled over some branches of bouganivillea that was being pruned. Don't be deceived by the sweet pink flowers, it has thorns! Had to push my bike 5.6km home. Fun fun.
Rather deserted in the morning. I saw a number of interesting birds in the marina south park. Too bad I don't know what they were. They were reddish brown and looked like hummingbirds.
Took a break here and read a bit, until it got too hot.
More pictures below.
Friday, July 21, 2006
Speed is my middle name, baby
How could she have known how prophetic this was going to be two years down the road?
I am surfing on 1500kbps dedicated bandwidth and it is fast. Five minutes into, and already there are six tabs open in my browser, all fully loaded. What bliss! How sweet and fast are your feet on the plains!
I rename you Cheetah. Of this addiction there shall be no end.
Standard Chartered Marathon 2006
I'm signed up! I'm signed up!
Woke up early today so I could go for the launch of the Standard Chartered Marathon at Raffles Place Park. Brought my direct mailer with promotion code for a 20% discount (paid $33.60) and signed up for the FULL MARATHON ON DECEMBER 3RD 2006!
die die die die die die....
This is the terrycloth towel I got for being one of the first 100 to sign up at the launch. (Note to self: Must stop taking pictures with the webcam which has LOUSY RESOLUTION. Must resist how easy it is to take pictures with the webcam, and use difficult-to-use camera instead. Resistance is futile!)
Anyway, I repeat:
die die die die die die die....
To date, I've signed up for three races (and done none) with the dim and fuzzy notion of my increased fitness in the very imminent future. haha!
Wish me luck!
Thursday, July 20, 2006
flickr news
flickr is down. i'm going to join the contest to see if i can win a pro account to go with my broadband. :)
i think i know who you are
I form opinions of the bloggers I read just from their blogs. Some
bloggers I'm very fond of – I don't mean I'm fond of their writing,
I'm actually fond of who I think they are.
Smole told me today that I am more cynical in this blog than I am in
real life. It surprised me because I don't remember being
particularly vindictive, apart from that brief episode with Ms
Anthrope. It'll be interesting to compare a "real" friend's opinion
with a "virtual" friend's opinion, and perhaps somewhere in between
you'll find the real misnomer. (haha, I love the irony of that
sentence!)
In any case, all this narcissism is making me sick.
Read More!Wednesday, July 19, 2006
are you an sgrunner?
you've simply got to read joan's about page.
in fact, non-runners should read it too.
it is very inspiring.
my consuming soul
If you were like Saul Bellow's Henderson, wealthy and plagued with a
voice that said, "I want I want. I want!", you get to be in a book.
If you were poor like mis_nomer and had that tormenting voice, all you
get is an inexhaustible list: breakfast, garmin, broadband, macbook,
macbook, Bali, flat, you... where each ticked off item generates
twenty more, spiralling ever out of reach.
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
have you met the mother of virtue?
Do ADSL modems make little beep beep sounds while they are connecting to the internet?
I buckled and got broadband this past weekend, 1500k unlimited, which means that from Friday onwards, I will be tethered to the internet 24-7. Friday! It only kicks in on Friday! I keep trying my luck every evening to see if they've connected me early, but all I've been getting are errors:
Modem connection faulty. Please check your connection.
Username and password is incorrect. Please re-enter and click "Save and Restart".
Please check your calendar. It is only tuesday. Your connection will be activated only on FRIDAY, AFTER 5pm. Thank you.
The mother of virtue is patience.
That last saying was something my older boy cousin wrote in my autograph book when I was 12. Whatever possessed me to get my cousin to sign my pink autograph book I don't know. This was the boy cousin whom I played two-on-one football with in the corridor of my grandparents' flat, the cousin who made me cry when he beat me in chess, the cousin who teased me when I thought the sanitary pad advert on TV was about tissues, the cousin who later told me about how incredibly happy he was about getting married, AND the cousin I accidentally walked into while he and his wife were making love (I didn't see anything).
We go back a long way. You know, now that I'm thinking about it, his cryptic autograph entry may possibly be my only encounter of this obscure saying I've had in my life, ever. But it obviously stood out from the run of the mill roses is red violets are blue something something something and so are you variety that I can quote it to you lock stock and barrel to you sixteen and a half years later. Crud, all this patient living is making me old.
I don't have problems with patience. I am so patient I can compete with a sloth and win. I am so patient that I am contemplating naming my broadband connection Godot. I am so patient that on most days, I can't remember who or what I am waiting for. I am so patient that I can carry on with this train of reasoning forever.
Please excuse me while I go check on my modem again. Thanks. Read More!
time for some links!
milktea has published her birthday gallery 2006! and colin has got a compliment!
gwynne posts a picture of her breakfast! did you know that accountants ate pens and a hole puncher for breakfast? neither did i.
jim posts a sweet picture of the 7-layer cookie! it looks like our multi-coloured, multi-layered nonya kueh, just italian. (thanks eatingasia for pic)
i'm into pictures.
Monday, July 17, 2006
where body and heart meet
Wearing a GPS watch makes me smarter. For one, I made the startling realisation during my long run this weekend that I can only be at one place at any single point in time: a precise latitude and longtitude on the map. So figuring out where the body is is as simple as strapping on a watch, but as eric and joan point out, what does that really mean anyway?
Alfian wrote an extraordinary love story between two men titled "This Was Where: Weilong and Derrick: A Topographic Diary" that explores this idea between heart and geographical space. He says:
We are going to make a map of a certain relationship. It will be about the determinism of urban spaces, the inscription of narratives on architectural space, intersections and vanishing points...
I read this a long time ago via Tym's site, and it is a mind-boggling good love story.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
Part 10 Read More!
Saturday, July 15, 2006
where my body is
i am here, 1°16'28.92"N, 103°50'9.96"E, at an elevation of 135m above sea level.
Read More!Friday, July 14, 2006
Breakfast
Teh tarik and thosai. They give me a plastic fork and spoon because i am chinese.
Thursday, July 13, 2006
i am singaporean
I am singaporean because I can hear a dripping tap from two rooms away. In fact, if you leave the tap on while you soap, I will not be able to keep myself from reaching over and turning it off, even if I'm in a country that has more than enough water for everyone to take seven baths a day.
I am singaporean because I am a genius at doing multiple choice. If all the choices are in Chinese and I cannot read any of them, I can still whittle it down to the right answer by analysing its "pangs".
I am Singaporean because I carry a bottle of water. And tissues. And an umbrella. And the ubiquitous mobile phone. Not failing to mention that I get my mobile phone stolen once every two years.
I am Singaporean because I know the difference between teh, teh-O, teh-C, teh-peng, teh-O-peng, kopi-gao, kopi-siew-tai, kopi-chino, milo-dinosaur, milo-godzilla, ta-chiu; and I have drunk and loved them all.
I am Singaporean because I keep my plastic bags and have never ever bought a trash bag. Oh, and I keep red rubber bands too.
I am Singaporean because I am rich enough to have no want, but poor enough, or screwed enough, not to be able to buy my own place.
I am Singaporean because sometimes when I read mrbrown, it makes me want to laugh and cry.
Technorati tag: iamsingaporean
Meme started here; inspired by this.
More on measuring distance
Remember the botanic loop? If you sign up for a free account at www.motionbased.com, it gives you the option of exporting it out to Google maps, which gives this:
Google gives the furthest distance by far!
The loss of reception at MacRitchie becomes even more apparent when I overlaid it onto Google Earth.
Did you see me swimming through the reservoir at one point? :)
It is obviously cooler and better if motionbased.com had Singapore maps loaded up, but they don't.
Taking stock
You know, I've never been the kind of person who had to work hard to get anywhere. I have an erratic intelligience which sometimes finds itself coinciding with a lucky break, and then I find myself where I am, happily disposed.
Once in Junior College, my buddy (who is now earning big bucks in a government institution) was so worried about me being too distracted by church and friends and yada yada yada that she actually brought it up to the Chinese teacher in front of the entire class once. It was sweet of her but of course at that point of time I thought that I was focusing on the "important things". I probably also thought that it was my God-given right that life should be smooth-sailing and effortless, as it has proven before.
I've ended up in lots of really cool places all by lucky breaks, or in my more religious moments, by "the hand of God", because it would seem miraculous otherwise.
So, I don't know what makes me think that I can buckle down and swim against the flow now, and make something of myself. It makes me very scared to think that I am all alone, and that perhaps this potent coincidence of luck and smarts won't follow me, and I will be so depressed that I will curse the day that I was born.
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Mumbai train bombs
My first thought when I heard about the train bombs was: "Oh my goodness, is pop in India right now?" I'm glad to see that she wasn't on that train, and that she is alright. (I think.)
We are so inundated with terrible news that we only "feel" it when it hits close to home: someone we know or somewhere we've been before, and suddenly we think, "It could have been me," as if that makes the tragedy so much worse.
Terrorism really brings out the worst in us.
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
A run, distilled
The map on top is drawn from an electronic map, while the breadcrumb trail below is generated by the Garmin Forerunner. Using MapEdit, I get a total distance of 7.7km. With the Garmin Forerunner, I get 7.35km. I'm not sure why the graph registers 7.6km instead (see graph below). I assumed it was the "resting distance", but I've noticed a discrepancy even in cases without it.
The Garmin also gives me my pace and the elevation of the route. Check out the pace on the upslope!
The four spikes are where I stopped at traffic lights. The Garmin Forerunner was set to autopause at a walking pace (you can configure your walking pace under profile), and autolap at 1km. There is a distance alarm at 5km.
The Garmin works great as long as you can get a signal. If you run under the trees and lose signal, the Forerunner recalculates your distance and average pace when you get back under a clear sky with the assumption that you ran in a straight line.
For example, you can see the stright lines where I lost reception in the breadcrumb of the 5km boardwalk route at MacRitchie (see route below). For some reason I lost reception on the way there but not on the way back.
Garmin registered 4.49km for that run (4.9km on graph). What's up? The resting distance on that run was 0km too. Hmmm.
The Garmin connects with the computer via the serial port. Although that is a old-fashioned way of connecting, if you're running out of free USB ports like me, it may be a good thing.
Obviously I haven't figured out the Forerunner yet and there are still some things I'm confused about. But I still think it is spiffy that I can wear something on my arm that speaks to satellites in the sky. Read More!
The Geography of Thought, by Richard Nisbett
tinkertailor wrote about this book in February this year, and it has been on my "to read" list ever since.
Richard Nisbett sets out in this book to show how Asians and Westerners think in completely different ways. For example, take this seemingly simple question: which two of the following three words should be grouped together?
panda, monkey, banana
If you're Asian, you'll probably chose monkey and banana; if you're Western, you'll probably choose panda and monkey. When I read this teaser on tinkertailor's blog, I was intrigued and so asked all of my Asian friends this question. All of them chose monkey and banana. Why?
Tinkertailor doesn't tell you, but I will. The reason why this is so is because Asians tend to see the world in terms of relationships (monkey eats banana), while Westerners tend to see the world in categories (pandas and monkeys are animals).
Westerners love to categorise. A dog is a mammal and so is warm blooded and produces milk. Asians are less curious about categories than in how things are related to one another. For example, the Chinese once thought that the movement of the stars affected important events on earth and so they studied the movement intently. Yet when they realised that the stars moved in predictable ways, they completely lost interest, and thus failed to produce a model. While the Westerners were the first to model the stars, the Chinese were the first to realise that the moon affected the tides on earth, a relationship that the Westerners overlooked.
How Asians and Westerners view the individual is different too. While the Westerner thinks that being distinctive and unique is very important, and that the personal agency of an individual is pivotal to happiness (take for example John F Kennedy's paraphrase of the Greek definition of happiness: “The ancient Greek definition of happiness was the full use of your powers along lines of excellence”), Asians prefer the collective. An early primer in America starts with "See Dick. See Dick run. See Dick run and play.", while an early primer for the Chinese starts with "Little brother is sitting on big brother's shoulders. Big brother loves little brother."Nisbett concludes that no one is completely Asian or completely Western. He does experiments where he manages to succesfully "prime" those from Hong Kong to a Asian or a Western view either by showing them pictures or by reading them passages. I suspect that this is true for me too. After a fairly long visit to the US, I come home frustrated about having to live at home, and with an itch to "grab hold of life by its horns". When I first step on US soil after living in Singapore, I get boiling mad when I perceive US officers being rude to my parents.
If you are dating someone from the other side of the world, or have friends, family, or business there, it would be good to read this book. It explains a lot of misunderstandings, and as tinkertailor says, I wish I had read this earlier.
Find it in the library here (Singapore) or here (the rest of the world).
(Why Europens sing at soccer matches and Americans don't, the individual vs. the collective. Link via daryl)
Read More!
Monday, July 10, 2006
Your vote, please
I need a cheap getaway for 2-3 days. Preferably a nice hotel/ resort, either a beach or a town to walk in, and somewhere that does not feel like Singapore. Which of these do you recommend?
1. Malacca
2. Desaru
3. Bintan
4. Batam
5. KL
Or perhaps something else altogether?
surprise
To princess milktea,
on the joyous occasion of her twenty-seventh birthday.
We send birthday greetings,
and a picture that we hope will please her.
best happy birthday wishes,
mis_nomer
i am singaporean
mrbrown's "i am singaporean" podcasts are tear-jerkers. Dang it, even his wife has made her own podcast.
Read More!Saturday, July 08, 2006
until the salty tears come
Everytime I hear the strains of a piano on the radio, I think of you, and something aches deep inside me, resonating outwards till the salty tears come. I can see you sitting there, in the living room, fingers running over the black and white keys like a magician, as you got better over the years. Yet, even when you got so good that you could yell from the other end of the house: "That's the wrong note, you're playing a G# when it says A#!", you still wanted me, your tone-deaf sister, to tell you that I liked your newest musical invention.
I do like it, very much.
Read More!Friday, July 07, 2006
mrbrown's column axed?!
Rather shocking news when I looked at tomorrow.sg. I read that mrbrown, who writes a column for the newspaper Today, has had his column axed indefinitely after the officials at Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts reacted strongly to his article: Singaporeans are fed, up with progress!. Minister Lee Boon Yang wrote:
"mr brown's views on all these issues distort the truth. They are polemics dressed up as analysis, blaming the Government for all that he is unhappy with. He offers no alternatives or solutions. His piece is calculated to encourage cynicism and despondency, which can only make things worse, not better, for those he professes to sympathise with..."
I read mrbrown's article and I felt it was rather run-of-the-mill too, in agreement with Mr Miyagi. Is this the stuff you get axed for, or is it just because mrbrown has been too prominent and too influential on the ground recently, what of his "persistently non-political podcasts" and the wildly popular "mee pok man", and they've decided that now is as good as a time for reproof?
I like mrbrown. I think he is an honest man who writes in a humorous way. I also believe that he is loyal and patriotic to Singapore. If he didn't love Singapore, how could he poke fun of it in such a poignant way that makes you want to laugh and cry at the same time? If you cut off all that is painful, sad, and contradictory, all you are left with is a whitewashed nation without a soul. Then you will fill the headlines with: "Why are our youths apathetic?" and you will have no answer. Read More!
Palm Zire 31
But otherwise, I've been having fun learning how to use it. The most useful thing for me right now is that it hotsyncs perfectly with my Microsoft Outlook Calendar where I keep all my work appointments and meetings. It hotsyncs with tasks, notes, and the contact list as well.
The bible reader with daily readings is neat too (download royalty free versions from www.olivetree.com). There is a built-in search engine that is useful if you can't remember a reference to a verse. You can write notes linked to specific verses and retrieve them later; you can bookmark verses for easy reference; you can even download John Wesley's entire Journal if you wanted to.
The best game is potello, a palm version of otello. I think I downloaded this one from tucows.com. You can play with the computer or play with a friend. Hours of entertainment! tucows.com has an array of programmes you can download at your peril.
The downside of the Zire 31
- No documents to go included in set-up. Documents to go allows you to read and edit Microsoft office documents (word, excel, powerpoint) on the go.
- Non-intuitive placement of databases. I downloaded three versions of the bible. One ended up in my expansion card (path: palm/launcher) and the other one in the handheld. I can get the one in the SD card out by copying it into my computer, but the one in my handheld is visible in the info section, but un-beamable. Maybe I haven't got the hang of the palm's insides.
- Low screen resolution
- Non-user-replaceable battery.
- Expansion slot for SD card included.
- Hotsync capability to Microsoft outlook
- Lots of fun programmes in basic setup: expenses, notepad, real player.
- Cheapest usable low-end palm in the market, with colour.
Thursday, July 06, 2006
Microsoft does marketing for the Ipod
funny video that originated from the folks at Microsoft.
King of the dunghill
I am the king of the dunghill
don't mess with me
I've got minions under my p'wer
as far as the eye can see
I'll send this one to do this
Another one to do that
If I lose a few in the poopyness
I'm sure it's a fate well-met
I'll make decisions far-ranging
Always outsourcing to the best
My territory stretches to the far flung flings
Of my poopy, cruddy, scoopy mess
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
Running Season
It is scary like anything to have the marathon looming at the end of the year and being as out of shape as a deflated inflatable couch potato. Today is July 5th! That is 5 months to race day - December 3, 2006.
The plan is to get into 10k shape by the Mizuno Wave Run (Jul 23) and into half marathon shape by the Army Half (Aug 27), and go from there. It is daunting.
(As a complete irrelevant side note, I didn't realise that I put on one sock and one shoe, before tackling the other sock and the other shoe. I thought I would be the kind who would put both socks on, then both shoes, that being the most sensible thing to do.
I suppose the way I put on my socks and shoes is the way I eat a plate of food -- a little bit of meat with a little bit of vegetable with a little bit of bread, then back to the meat. My friend J eats all her vegetables before starting on all her meat, and I bet she puts on both socks before both her shoes.
So how do you wear your shoes?)
Tuesday, July 04, 2006
King of the dunghill
I shouldn't have laksa for breakfast. It makes me fiery tempered.
But maybe it wasn't the laksa. Maybe it was the colleague who called this morning.
Maybe it was his stupid insinuations, his wanting to take over the decisions in my job, and his thinking that his department is the most important in the entire stupid organisation.
What does that make him, the king of the dunghill? And I am a lowly footman.
Monday, July 03, 2006
My out-of-control imaginary budget
I've been spending too much money. I bought the Garmin forerunner 201 a week after l got back ($240). Then I lost my shoes and had to get new running shoes ($141).
My buddy got me new leather shoes for work because my old ones were hairy ($59.90). And l aquired a brand new Zire 31 ($288) and a 256MB sd card ($15) as a gift.
I bought a 1GB sd card for my buddy's new Treo ($38), a multiflash card reader to replace the one I gave my sis ($10), as well as various household items ($16.90). Not counting two weddings this month ($220),two races I plan to join ($28), and ($800) to the parents, this is just an in-the-red month. :(
All of this consumption is making me sick. I resolve for the month of July:
1. Only bread & butter for breakfast, or nothing at all.
2. Only rice with vegetables for lunch.
3.Only hawker or food court or $3.50 worth of food for dinner, or better, where possible, persuade mum to cook.
4. No taxis. Ever.
5. No Sim Lim. No electronic gadgets. No lusting after Macs. No software.
6. Cycle to work.
7. No drinks at meals--only water.
That should do it. :) I feel better already. (I wrote this on my Zire at 2am last night)
One fuzzy bird I saw this morning on the way to work
Sunday, July 02, 2006
the fowler's snare
her bone juts through
white between her flesh
raw and bloody pink
caught in metal snare
she used to try to tug
against her broken wing
summoned by a dream
of blue and whistling wind
but dull now are her thoughts
dull her desire to dare
her wispy dream laid to rot
while caught in fowler's snare
what a song she will sing
that day of sweet escape
a quiet word he will speak
and metal snare unmake
fly! high above the trees
the clouds the sun the sea
discover anew the p'wer of wind
and what it is to be truly free
(ps 124:7; rom 8:2; jn 8:36)
Marina South
Yesterday I sprung out of bed at 6:30am and decided to bike to Marina South since I couldn't fall back asleep anyway. It was a really lovely morning -- Marina South was deserted except for a middle-aged man with two unleashed dogs, a few campers who spent the night, and two lost teenage cyclists who looked really put out that they could not get to Esplanade from Marina South. I saw them flagging a cab later and trying to fit both their bikes in the back. Poor things. If only they just lived the moment and took the oppourtunity to sit by the sea and forget about their savanger hunt for a while, then they would see what I soaked in -- the rising sun reflecting off the ripples, the quiet of the morning, the fresh air that goes straight to the heart.
I took the Garmin Forerunner on my cycle, and was quite pleased with the improved reception this time round. The Forerunner told me that I cycled a total of 12.4km in 51mins there and back, with a mazimum cycling speed of 24km/hr, and an average speed of 14km/hr. Pretty nifty. As usual, I lost reception over Shenton Way. I must go again, before Marina South becomes One Giant Casino.
Saturday, July 01, 2006
Weekday vs. Weekend
When I wake up on a weekday and I feel sleepy and lethargic, it is not for want of sleep.
Because on the weekend, although I sleep much later than on a weekday, I wake up earlier, and am usually raring to go.
Read More!
