Spam (10000)

One day I decided not to manually clear my Gmail spam folder and let it grow. Today, after about 30 days, it finally reached 10000.

If I get $1 for every spam mail I am forced to read, I can quit my day job.

Today is 29 Feb 2008, a leap-year day. I applied leave to run some errands, one of which is to send my car for paint protection re-glazing at Tuffi. After the cleaning, my car looks sparkling shiny.

I also booked a vacation to Bangkok from our favourite tour agent (third time), but we didn't pay the cheapest package, coz Angie wanted to stay at a better hotel. On hindsight, we should have done our DIY package by booking budget airlines and online hotel booking, but guess we're not the adventurous type. In fact, there was one 4-night package at $299 but it was too long. How ironical, we had to pay more to stay a shorter duration.

Today is also the last day of service for our babysitter. My mother-in-law is ready to take care of Mayenne from next week. Initially, we were afraid that the babysitter would not take the news well. But today she told us that she already found a new baby to care for.

I have been personally giving the midnight feed to Mayenne. I enjoy the midnight feed because she would drink with her eyes closed, and after the feed, she would fall back into sleep. It always gives me good feeling watching Mayenne taking the feed restfully, eyes closed. The feeling that I, a Daddy, is doing something right for my baby to enjoy herself. This is also the only time that I can observe her in peace.

While Mummy likes to play and excite her, I like to give her the "silence" treatment. I would bring her to the window and she would watch the vehicles on the road earnestly. Or I would let her play with the toys and I would see how she reacts. I hope that I can make her more independent and have more self-awareness rather than always looking out to others for entertainment. Angie is also trying to train her to be less reliant on us, by leaving her alone on the bed. But it's hard to ignore her persistently loud pleas.

Chester and Chester and Chester

What are the odds of finding someone with the same name having the same hobby in Singapore?

In July 2007, I found a colleague with the same English name as me. In that post, I also mentioned another Chester in my secondary school.

Around 2005 or 2006, I was contacted by someone with the same name who plays in the band. We almost worked together but I wasn't able to commit to his band then.

Today, I found another Chester who does photography too.

To add to the count, there is another Chester in the technological field. If you read the Straits Times Digital Life often, you'll see his reviews regularly. He is Chester Chen.

So, if you want to be musical, or creative in photography, or a geek, try the name "Chester".

But if you want an all-in-one Chester, well, you've got me.

Where Is My Milestone?

Life is like a project. You set time-lines and milestones to achieve targets. And once you attain it, you move on. If you don't meet the target, you evaluate and make adjustments.

At this very moment, I don't know where I am heading. Or rather, I have a few milestones but I have problem prioritising. Doing one means giving up the others. So maybe my milestone should be to establish my next milestone.

Some people doesn't have an issue with this. They are probably enjoying a busy vibrant life. Some people probably doesn't know that they should have one, and their lives are probably in a mess.

I know I need a milestone to keep me going. And I want to decide on my next one quick. Before that happens, all I can say now is:











.

No Country For Old Men

I spent a great Saturday with my wife. We started with breakfast at a coffee shop at Sin Ming, followed by movie at GV Grand. Then lunch at our favourite outlet, Kenny Roger's Roasters, afterwhich we headed down to Isetan Scotts to shop for baby stuff. Finally we drove to Ikea Tampines to get a high chair for baby and popped by Giant for more baby groceries. Although these activities aren't my favourites, it's the company that matters.

We watched "No Country For Old Men" in an empty cinema hall save for a couple of Caucasians. We finished the movie with a big question mark in our minds. Just what is the movie really all about? I went home and read some blogs posted by reviewers and began to appreciate the movie more. I definitely HAVE to watch it again in order to fully appreciate the excellent acting by the entire cast. Really, in this movie, I must say EVERY CAST did an excellent job in bringing out the emotions.

This movie is not for the casual moviegoers. It's very - in Singlish - cheem. In fact, we suspect the rest of the audience haven't a clue when the movie ended abruptly, given the subtle verbal reactions we heard from them. It's the kind of movie that you could never watch at home in DVD because you would be so bored and distracted. The sound design in the movie is very meticulous. In one scene, the actor was calling the hotel receptionist in this small-time hotel in the middle of the night. You can really hear the telephone ringing faintly at the distant reception area. It's an intense experience watching it in a cinema hall.

Good to be Back on Track

After a 4-day celebration, it's back on track to our daily routine lives.

In a way, I'm glad it's over, not that I don't enjoy a break. Actually, it's not a break, as we go house to house to spread good tidings the Chinese way.

I think many parents, with the dads at a higher probability, would rather go back to work than to be at home with the children.

See, the thing with public holidays is that you cannot predict what everyone's doing.

Say, on a normal routine weekday, you know that most adults are at work, and most students are studying. Or during a school holiday period, students would be either loafing at home or at shopping malls or working part-time.

On a long public holiday, however, everyone's MIA. Plus, the SMS gateway is jammed with greetings, that one SMS would take up to 12 hours to get to the recipient.

Anyway, I've always wanted to have a chance to do a photoshoot on the first day of Chinese New Year, shooting at places where it is usually and always crowded. I can imagine doing shoots depicting some end-of-the-world kindda theme where you see no one on the major streets.

I doubt that day will never come. I mean, the shoot.

I hope that day will never come. I mean, the end-of-the-world.

Travel Back In Time With Photos

I was cleaning up my PC folders and found old photos I took in various occasions. Every shot brings back memories instantly.

Digital photography has enabled us to view these photos without the fuss of digging out dusty physical albums stored in some forgotten corners of the store room. Now, all it takes is to click and the images are displayed on the PC screen. Or purchase the digital photo frame that displays digital photos through a photo frame-like LCD monitor.

I still prefer still images to video because still images allow us to let our imagination and memories fill up the missing pieces. Photos are also easier to distribute and manipulate for sharing. Videos, on the other hand, presents the actual motion that denies the need for us to recall what actually happened. It is also more challenging to present it in a viewable format.

But it's always good to have both. I would record videos just for archival purpose ("pardon the shaky hands") while photos are used to present the memories. The photo printer does come handy as I print photos to give to our parents.

And here are some of the beautiful memories of Mayenne, undoubtedly the centre of all attentions. Everywhere we go, every house we visit, everyone's eyes are on her. This blog is not an exception.

Peering out, curious as always.

She loves banging on the computer keyboard, and I had to hold her back from ruining my $120 wireless keyboard.

Montage taken during her feed on mashed rice. She enjoys so much that she sucks on her lips, earning her the "Popeye" look.

Another montage of her exploration with a huge refrigerated Fuji Apple ("cold cold!").

Sinking her mouth on whatever comes in her way.

Reaching out for whatever comes in her face.

Always on the lookout for the camera.

Her first CNY ang pow - received in her sleep.

Let's Rat Things Up!

At the stroke of midnight, as we countdown with the annual TV variety show, Mayenne woke up and cried for feed. We gave her 180ml, 30ml more than usual, and she finished it all. What a great way to usher the new Lunar New Year of the Rat.

Here's wishing all a prosperous and healthy year!

RAM-boh

Today I went to Sim Lim to buy more RAM for my 1-year old PC. The 1GB DDR2-800MHz costs only $39. In comparison, a lower-spec 1GB DDR2-533MHz in late-2006 costs $166.

I also bought an extra DVD writer with Lightscribe capability. Similarly, the latest DVD writer costs only $55, more than half the cost a year back. I have been contemplating for months whether to buy another writer because my current writer refuses to expire. In fact, my older writer, a Samsung CD-RW Combo Drive (DVD-ROM) is still alive and spinning on my backup PC.

It's scary to imagine how some products got so cheap over time, while others simply escalate beyond comprehension - like petrol. But this is simply the result of supply and demand.

Drafted

It seems as if I am not blogging as often, but actually I am. It's just that I did not publish the posts, and so they are left as "drafts" in my blog admin page.

Why did I not post them? Because, quite often, the content you wrote is in a spur of the moment. But as you write, you try to make sense of the information, then you realise that it doesn't make sense. Some bloggers like to blabber stuffs that might not be accurate, and I don't want to add to the misinformation that is already present in the world wide web.

I can never stress enough that NOT all information on the internet is true, because it is so easy to publish information or data, and it's so easy to share and spread a single source of information, e.g. Digg, without needing to verify it.

In the mid 20th century, people generally has lack of information, and so they rely on people close to them to tell them something and they worshiped it.

In the early 21st century, people generally gets information overload, and so they should no longer take every single word other people say.

With the power of information comes the power to choose to believe what you read.

And I choose to publish what I think adds value to WWW.