The Leap Year Day

Heh today is the unique day that occurs once every 4 years (mostly). The origins of leap year could be found in wiki. And nope, it's not as simple as once every 4 years because some years like 2100 or 1900 are not leap years despite the year being divisible by 4. The wiki article got more details.

Watched the show 'The Leap Years' by Raintree Pictures. Not a bad show, but not that great either. One of those shows which you wouldn't mind watching on special days (another example is the CJ7 for watching during CNY). Hmm the producers could have done more enhancement...e.g. the guy lying on the hospital bed certainly bears no similarity to 'Jeremy'. What is interesting is the different Singapore sceneries in the movie, and I didn't know about "the n Irish leap year tradition that no man will refuse any request of a lady and invites him out for a date".

For me, my Leap Year day is not that exciting compared to what happened in the movie... it was spent mostly in bed to catch up on sleep :p

Kelly Services' Salary Guide & salary.sg website!

Wah... was glancing thru tomorrow.sg's sites when I came across the Kelly Services' Salary Guide for 2007. Hee for those who want to check out how the market was doing in 2007, this should be useful. Eh but it didn't say whether the salary includes bonus... maybe there would be some details on the website. They even have the previous year (2006)'s guide online as well.

Hmm but the details may not be that useful for majority... I seem to recall that average household income in Singapore for 2007 is not that high despite the income rising to $6280. Err household income... assuming dual income... means people earning about $3k plus on average? Lolz... so who should use the Kelly Services' guide... I dunno... is there any other salary guides around? Seems to recall there is one released by the official authorities?

In the search for that official website, I came across this very very interesting site: salary.sg. It has this function that tells you where you stand in today's society... haiz... ranking takes on a different meaning...zzz. The site even has some top 100 jobs in Singapore for 2007! Hmm btw how much does a blogger earn?

"Jumper" is a crap movie

Watched the movie "Jumper" this weekend. I think it sucks.

Why? Cos' the show focused too much on the couple. So many things are left unexplained, e.g. why the Paladins hate jumpers? Colin, the paladin, said that the power to jump should not be owned by a human and only God should have it, and that jumpers all turned bad eventually... heh... so what exactly is the background for such accusation? More details pls ....zzz

And the equipment of the paladin... nothing much was explained about it. I thought the electric hook thing is quite cool... and that 'power generator thing'... but again nothing much was explained.

I also think the plot should have more substance... common' the main character is acting precisely like a 'himbo' zzz... can add more substance to him? And Griffin's lair... there are so much more that could be explained there... those details on his walls... what are they? So Griffin's parents have been killed when he was a kid... but then who taught him about the history of Jumpers / Paladins? The third jumper who was killed earlier... who is he? Any jumper organisation... etc etc... nthg... zzz...

O.k. rant enough... should have watched other shows and not waste money on this one... :p my fault.

发如雪 by 周杰伦

Yet another nice song from 周杰伦. Honestly though, I am more impressed by the lyricist than the singer muaa haa haa. There is even an entry on Wiki hee! Was at one of the 民歌餐厅 when I asked for an another song 青花瓷 and quite bluntly the person sung it quite badly... lolz... so maybe I should give more credits to 周杰伦... his style is quite unique.

Here's the lyrics for 发如雪. Bit tough for those who want an English translation cos I couldn't find any.

狼牙月伊人憔悴我举杯饮尽了风雪
是谁打翻前世柜惹尘埃是非

缘字诀几番轮回你锁眉哭红颜唤不回
纵然青史已经成灰我爱不灭

繁华如三千东流水
我只取一瓢爱了解只恋你化身的蝶

你发如雪凄美了离别我焚香感动了谁
邀明月让回忆皎洁爱在月光下完美

你发如雪纷飞了眼泪我等待苍老了谁
红尘醉微醺的岁月我用无悔刻永世爱你的碑

rap:
你发如雪凄美了离别我焚香感动了谁
邀明月让回忆皎洁爱在月光下完美

你发如雪纷飞了眼泪
我等待苍老了谁红尘醉微醺的岁月

啦儿啦啦儿啦啦儿啦儿啦啦儿啦啦儿啦啦儿啦儿啦

铜镜映无邪扎马尾你若撒野今生我把酒奉陪

Sometimes I wish we wouldn't be treated like mere numbers

Read the news when someone commented that about 1,000 of top talents leave the country for good. Then the someone mentioned that to stem this loss, this country woo many other talents from around the region, followed by the comment that

'But even if we only keep 30 to 40 per cent and lose 60 to 70 per cent, we're a net gainer,' he said. He said, however, that the Chinese would cease to come in 20 to 30 years' time, when China's living standards rise to match Singapore's.

Sometimes I wish we're not treated like some mere numbers.

The ST forum has a couple of very good comments that explain why people are leaving. To put it simply, in terms of opportunities, salaries, and quality of life, this country can't offer as much compared to some others like US. However, with friends and family here, 'half the battle' of keeping people here is won. So, if the 'top management' of the country stop giving the impression that our own people are 'inferior' to those foreigners, we can easily keep our own talents here.

If they persist in giving the impression that our own people are 'inferior', more people would leave, and one day the 'half won battle of the pull of friends and family here' will disappear, and it will be twice as hard to keep our own people here. He has rightly pointed out that in 20, 30 years time the regional talents may no longer want to come here. Isn't it time then to start keeping local folks in our own land?

And stop telling us that we must work very very hard or else when we grow old no one would take care of us, which adds a lot of anxiety and pressure. The recent changes to the CPF scheme with a stupid name just simply reinforces the idea. At the same time, when they give the message that the country continues to grow wonderfully... take both messages together simply means they want to attract more foreigners while our locals are pressured painfully.

Not many people want to leave their friends and family to settle elsewhere, but people will do so if they start to feel that they are treated like 2nd class citizens in their own country, with pressure mounting frequently. Since the treatment is already that of a '2nd class', then no further harm for the people to work in other countries?

Exploding Sparkling Wine

Originally my colleague planned to have a bottle of sparkling wine (with strawberry pulp inside) yesterday, but cos' quie a lot of folks are not free thus the event was pushed to today.

In his haste to chill the wine, he left the bottle in the freezer... yesterday! When the event was pushed back, he didn't remove the bottle. Lolz, and since it is a glass bottle with gaseous liquid... the bottle exploded! According to the cleaning untie, she heard some 'sound' from the fridge this morning... and in the afternoon she has to clean up this mess. Think she was quite angry abt it...



Not sure if it is because the liquid expanded and 'broke' the bottle, or cos' the gas escaped and buildtup a pressure that broke the bottle... bet some physics students out there would have the answer.

Chinese New Year Day 2

hee hee this CNY is somewhat different... didn't want to go for the usual hectic visits.. (some limited number of visits only) but instead my family spent a lot of time together lolz... yupz I played a lot less online games this time round...

This CNY was also a 'fall sick' period for me where I lost my voice and had some mild sore-throat. So I didn't get to eat as much goodies as usual... haiz my bak gwa...zzz...

And maybe this is also the first CNY when I felt the effect of being in the 30s... lolz... so I guess got to start changing my mindset...online games, long hour of works, and lotsa of partying are somehow no longer that appealing...muaa haa haa I didn't even go for Zoukout last Dec... hmm watching the little fish tank of guppies and baby guppies at home seems more interesting somehow...weird... saw the news that cos' this is the year of the rat, a lot of folks bought hamsters...zzz... hope they didn't discard the pets once the novelty fades.

Well this is only day 2... see if I continue to feel the same till day 15th...lolz. Happy CNY!

Chinese New Year Spring Cleaning

Supposed to do spring cleaning for my room this weekend but wasn't feeling well... so end up slept a lot. Throw some papers away and wonder if I can throw more stuff away... small room means can't afford to have too many things lying around.

Also took the opportunity to clean up my blog a bit... end up it looks more cluttered. Refreshed some of the links... didn't realise that some friends made their blogs 'for private viewing only'. Others have changed 'address' and so it's time for an update. Sometimes I think the online world has too many similarities with the real world... real world people shift house = online blogs change url adds...

oh well... also added the immem widget that I've seen on Zrystal's blog...cool... so I can listen to my own selection while in office :p heh heh heh...see if I have time to clean up my room further during the next few days.