Blog Action Day 2009: Climate Change

This year, I have decided to participate in the Blog Action Day, which focuses on climate change for 2009. You can read more about it here ~ www.blogactionday.org.

Every year, climate change remains an important part of global environmental topics and this year is no different. In Singapore, the National Environment Agency put up its own climate change programme with the slogan, "Fight Climate Change, Conserve Energy, Save Money". You can view the website here ~ National Environment Agency.

Climate change affects humanity in a number of ways. It can range from the change in weather temperature to rising sea levels to increment in cost of food. In relative to Singapore, a change in weather would meant we are getting hotter days/nights and rainier storms. This could have an adverse effect on our health, causing us to suffer from heatstroke or colds and flus.

As for cost of food, we citizens are affected directly in the pocket as we import most of our food from outside countries. Climate change can cause vegetation to wither and die, thus resulting in lesser food and pushing up the selling prices for these vegetables and fruits. Even life-stocks such as meat and fish are not spared either.

This in turn will cause our cost of living to increase and our disposable income will be affected. When that happens, consumer overall spending will decrease and in turn our national GDP will be affected and reduced.

From this we can see how a tiny change in temperature can escalate into serious national problem. When that happens, it could affect the whole global environment. That is why we need to address the issue of climate change urgently in order to prevent such a scenario from happening.

What we can do on our part as a ciziten of this Earth is to use more efficient ways to use energy to reduce our carbon footprints to help fight climate change. NEA provides some little tips that can help us in our daily lives so that we can help in the cause of climate change. There is also a little energy challenge booklet that can be downloaded for more tips on energy saving tips.

For my own part, I use fan to cool my room instead of an air-con unit but I don't own an air-con unit in my house anyway. I also use energy-saving light bulbs for lightings in my house to reduce the energy usage. These are the small little things that I can help to contribute to fight the climate change.

What about you? Please help to do your part in whatever you can to help save our mother earth. We only have 1 mother earth and it is up to us to save it with our own efforts.

Perseids for Google Logo

I was browsing through the web earlier when I came across Google's new design for its logo. It looks very interesting and upon clicking on the picture, I was brought to a search page containing everything on the Perseid meteor shower.

Google Search Home Page (click on the image to enlarge)

Live image of the Perseid meteor shower (Credit: NASA)

According to NASA's page, this is an annual occurance that can be seen in the North America. The Perseid meteor shower is so-called because it appears to radiate from the constellation Perseus. This meteor shower seems to appear mostly in the Northern hemisphere. Well, I suppose I won't be able to see this kind of phenomenon in my part of the world. Singapore is situated directly in the centre of the Earth and that means we miss seeing lots of interesting stuffs that goes on in the atmosphere. I really hate that.

So the only way to enjoy these phenomenons is to go to websites like NASA, where pictures were taken using the latest technological equipments to capture that precious moment in the sky. The universe is such a wonderful entity that continues to thrill us non-stop with its display of works such as meteor showers.

I have never seen a meteor shower before and I heard it's really amazing to see it with your own eyes. Aww... I really wish that I could be in North America right now to see the Perseid meteor shower.

Oh man, my life sucks. Big time. =P

H1N1 Flu Situation Gets Worse in Singapore

Foreigners can be such a pain in the ass sometimes. They think they are so great when they compare themselves to Singaporeans but in reality, they are not better than any one of us here either.

Take the recent H1N1 cases for example. 1 German researcher came back from the US and 1 Indonesian man came back from Melbourne with flu symptoms yet they behaved irresponsibly by going out in to the public to spread their virus.

The German man is particular nasty. Not only he went back to his office for work, he also went shopping, attended a concert and even attended a French ambassador's function party. All these were done BEFORE he finally called 933 to admit himself to the CDC. This guy is so audacious! Who the hell does he think he is? The King of Germany?!

For the Indonesian man, he also went to do some shopping before he admitted himself to the emergency department at Tan Tock Seng Hospital. It was also reported that both had already developed the symptoms way before they flew back to Singapore. The only symptom that failed to arise at that time was fever, otherwise both guys would have already been quarantined long time ago.

These two irresponsible guys should be exposed to the public so that we can be aware of them and be certain not to go near them. The Ministry of Health should issue a health warning and a fine to them for exposing the public to health risk.

We should not be lenient on them just because they are the so-called foreign talent. Anyway if they are really foreign talents, it's obvious that they don't place any importance in our country at all. Going around the country and spreading the H1N1 virus at the same time only tell people that they are idiots. I, for one, would not have any sympathy for these guys and they should be repatriated back to their own countries and be barred from entering Singapore.

Who cares about Germany and Indonesia anyway? It's hard to be understanding towards these guys when they had obviously enjoyed themselves before surrendering over to the health authorities. Damn them to hell.

What could be worse is that if the shopping that they had done was actually at the recent PC show at Suntec City? That would have been a major disaster since there are lots of people who had attended the show.

Now we are facing the prospect of getting more people infected and thus the Ministry of Education has decided to extend the school holidays so as to ensure that students who have been abroad to afflicted countries do not spread the virus further.

Looks like there will never be an end to this whole saga. More people continue to go overseas despite travel advisories issued by the government. People are stubborn to the point of idiocracy.

Oh well, I can't be bothered about it anymore. Just give me the names of the two big idiots that I mentioned earlier. Damn them.

So Pissed Off At A Stupid Door!

I can't believe my eyes today when I received an email from my boss, complaining about me not closing her office door before I left for home after work. See what she wrote in the email below:

--

I just came back from CCK, my office aircon is on and door is opened.

Understand that before I left, XX's thing was in my office and thus I did not close my door.

In future, before you leave the office, pls ensure my aircon is off and door is closed.

Thanks!

--

For the record, I am not a secretary, just a lowly-ranked admin assistant and this is the kind of treatment I get from my boss. I get the feeling that she looks down on me. It's pathetic, isn't it?

You could say that I am totally not used to this kind of thing at all. In my previous job, there was no separate room specially to cater to my boss. We all share the same office room and it's an open concept. Hence, doors never come into the picture unless you are talking about the main office door.

Ok, I admit I forgotten to close her door but must she make such a hussy fit about it? There's no valuables in her room. On top of that, the executives in my department has the tendency to use her room for their mini meetings and they always left the door open after they left. So does that mean I am solely responsible for the closure of the stupid door?

It's just a door. If I remember to close it, fine. If I don't, is there a need to make a big fuss about it? Bah!

Anyway I have just closed and LOCKED the door since she won't be coming to the office for 2 days. It definitely would not be fair to me if I had already closed the door and the executives left it open after that. Damn them anyway.

One more thing. She actually made the effort to come back to office after working hours just to check her room. She sent that email at 6.42pm, a time where most people have already logged off work.

I don't know how my boss' mind works but it is definitely not in the right working condition. I am already trying to stay out of her way in order to avoid trouble but it was all in futile. Maybe she might come in this evening to check her fateful door again.

Ahhh whatever. I might just blast that door away, knock down the walls so that she won't have a room anymore.

Bleah!

H1N1 Influenza A Hits Malaysia

Now the recent H1N1 influenza A has reached much closer to home, with Malaysia reporting its first case about 2 hours ago.

A 21 years old male student who had just returned on a trip from the United States on 13 May had fallen ill yesterday. Laboratory tests confirmed that it was the H1N1 flu virus that caused the illness.

With that, Singapore is now going to be more alert in its fight against the flu virus as so far no cases have been reported yet. But with the virus hitting so close, it would only be a matter of time before the virus finally hit us since Malaysia is only a river away from us.

However I believe we can and are able to fight against the virus as we have already been well-prepared when the virus first struck in Mexico.

We just have to be more vigilant in our stringent screenings of patients who visit GPs and travellers who have just returned from affected countries. So far 33 countries have reported cases of the virus striking but the fatality is only about 65, most of them in Mexico.

That means the virus is highly contagious but is not life-threatening at this stage. Oh well, after the SARS episode, companies are much more aware of the health situations around the world. My company is no exception either and we have purchased many medical stuffs to stock up as well as for our frontline clinical staffs' usage.

Now all we can do is wait for more news from WHO to track the progress of the virus.

Jackie Chan Insults Singapore

The latest hoo-haa about movie star Jackie Chan has landed him in hot soup. His mouth, known for spouting off nonsense, has found its latest target in a tiny country, Singapore.

It was reported that he said that Singaporeans have no self-respect and even mocked fun of its legal law. Despite that, the accuracy of the report is yet to be determined as it's published in a tabloid paper in Singapore, the Shin Min Daily News. That paper is known for publishing rubbish sometimes. Once it even claimed that Ayumi Hamasaki had contracted Aids even though that rumour was false.

Nonetheless, the Jackie Chan fiasco has spread over to China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Established papers like New York Times and The Wall Street Journal carried reports of his rude comments on the internet as well as on print.

He alleged that the Chinese people doesn't know how to handle liberty and hence needs the government to step in to control the people. Many Chinese are still angry at him and a group was even set up in Facebook to exile Jackie to North Korea, though it was mainly a tongue-in-cheek reaction to his comments.

In any case, I won't be watching his movies anymore since he's obviously a star with wrong morals and thinking. If he ever comes to Singapore, we had better be sure to quarantine him so that he won't start infect other people with his thoughts. Muawahahaha!

Funny Ad in Britain

According to Yahoo News, a British man was fed up at his wife's nagging and put up a sales ad for his wife.

"Nagging Wife. No Tax, No MOT. Very high maintenance -- some rust," wrote the man and surprisingly, he got quite a number of offers on the ad.

Needless to say, the wife gave him an ear-bashing but is said to see the humour side of the matter as well. Life can get very stressful sometimes and both parties must be more accommodating in these trying times so that things won't fall apart.

Well at least for this British man, he did managed to get himself into a hilarious situation but things ended well, I suppose.

Whoa! AIG gives out generous bonus!

According to Yahoo News, troubled financial group AIG is reportedly giving out millions of dollars out in bonuses to its employees. This is after the group has received massive bailout money from the US government.

"After pumping some 150 billion dollars into the crippled insurance giant, the US government earlier this month unveiled an additional rescue plan worth 30 billion dollars."

That's hell a lot of money spent on rescuing AIG and now they are spending it all on bonuses. See below quote:

"Bonus payments to thousands of employees totaling "in the hundreds of millions of dollars" are to be given out, the daily reported."

The damn stupid firm already reported huge losses and it is throwing out money again. See how much losses it incurred:

"For the fourth quarter, AIG announced a loss of 61.7 billion dollars -- the biggest ever for a US firm in one quarter -- pushing up its net loss for 2008 to 99.3 billion dollars."

American International Group CEO Edward Liddy deserved to be sacked for allowing such a misappropriate HR measure to be approved. So the whole world is going into a limbo just because he don't want to risk the mass exodus of senior employees leaving the company.

Well those senior employees don't deserve the money if they can't act in the best interests of their clients. The clients are leeched dry of their money while all these senior employees could possibly be enjoying their high-flying lives at their expense.

AIG don't deserve to be rescued and the US government should buy it out and turn it into a state-owned firm to stem in the losses. AIG is indeed a huge shame in the financial industry and there are possibly more firms doing the same thing. Such a financial crisis has never occurred before on a large scale that threatens the global economy.

What on earth are those stinking Americans thinking? Money to fatten their pockets? Aren't they rich enough as compared to the rest of the world? Why do they want more money? Human beings are very greedy creatures. Enough is never enough.

Oh well. It can't be help. I am also greedy, though not to the American's extent. Living within one's means is very important to ensure that one don't fall into debts unwittingly.

How the US government is going to sort out this AIG mess is still a big question. Surely they can't be pumping in more money into the firm? How much money is actually needed to prevent the collapse? If it collapse, does the rest of the world dies? Maybe. I don't know but it sure seems like a big deal to keep it surviving.

If that's the case, they better stop wasting money and start to keep its money rather than earning. I suppose we will not see the end of this economic crisis any time soon. The impact could possibly be felt for years before things will get better. If that day will ever comes.

NTU Lecturer Stabbed by Student

Finally the unexpected thing happened in Singapore.

The first case of a student stabbing incident has just occurred in Nanyang Technological University this morning.

--

AN information engineering professor of the Nanyang Technological Universy is undergoing emergency operation in hospital after he was allegedly stabbed by a final year student in his office on Monday morning.

The professor, Prof Chan Kap Luk, was in his office when the male student stabbed him with a knife in the back and arm.

After the attack, the male student, who was in his 20s, slit his wrists and jumped.

The body of the undergraduate, believed to be an Indonesian Chinese, was found at the foot of the seven-storey School of Electrical, Electronic and Engineering building.

NTU students returning from their mid-term one-week break were shocked at the double tragedies which happened at about 10.30am on the sixth floor, where the offices of the lecturers are located.

The School of EEE is next to the School of Communications.

Prof Chan, who is in his 40s, is said to be the supervisor of the student in a project.

--

These are the kind of things that only happen in western universities like last year's Virginia High Tech University. Yet times are changing these days.

The only difference is that the nationality of the culprit is Indonesian Chinese, and not Chinese, as speculated by many internet users in forums. The cause of the conflict is yet to be determined but this news will definitely be sensational in Singapore for quite some time.

We are used to seeing such killing news originating from USA or UK or even in Japan, the nearest country to South East Asia. Now we are facing the exact same thing in our own land, albeit without the thrilling factor of guns, the most common choice of weapon among such suicide killers.

Let's see how the news will pan out for this particular case. For all we know, we might never get to the bottom of the matter.

Merlion Hit by Lightning

According to news reports, the iconic Singapore Merlion was hit by lightning during a heavy rain spell yesterday afternoon.

Straits Times picture.

According to witnesses, the lightning bolt was seen to strike the Merlion's mane and sent debris flying all over.

The Merlion was shifted to its current location from the mouth of the Singapore River and remains an important aspect of Singapore's identity.

Looks like nature is fair and square and has no qualms about striking anything in its path. Now the Merlion is undergoing repair works as reported on the news just now on Channel 8.

Humility greatly needed in Singapore

I have been thinking a lot after reading this interesting article in TODAY newspaper yesterday. I duplicated the article below for easy reference:


--

A hit of humility

No excuses, no hesitation, this man of meagre means lives by his principles and wouldn’t shirk responsibility

11:57 AM February 12, 2009

Richard Gomez

LIFE is strange — an unfortunate accident can lead to a memorable experience.

Just before Chinese New Year I was returning home when I was involved in an accident. I was about to enter the CTE from Ang Mo Kio Ave 3 when my car was hit from behind by a pick-up truck. The impact flung my car forward but I managed to pull off into the road shoulder and come to a stop without any further mishap.

I sat in my car for a few seconds, considering my response to the usual tirade one has come to expect in such situations in Singapore, such as: “Why did you stop so suddenly?” or “Why did you reverse?” and then got out of my car.

I felt thoroughly ashamed of myself when the driver approached me and asked if I was hurt. I was dumb-struck when he repeated his question. It dawned on me that he was really concerned about my well-being and was not going to find excuses for his momentary lapse.

I assured him I was not injured. He then volunteered to pay for the damages, stating that he was entirely at fault. He asked me if I minded sending the car to his friend’s workshop. I readily agreed and he then led me to the shop in Sin Ming and gave instructions to his friend to do whatever was necessary and to bill him for it.

He then hauled the contents of my car — golf clubs and cart — into his pick-up and insisted on driving me home.

On the way he disclosed that he was a vegetable delivery man and worked 14 hours a day, seven days a week.

He had occasional days off but worked longer hours during Chinese New Year. I asked him how he could afford to pay for the repairs and he said: “I make mistake I pay, I use bonus to pay.”

I was now close to tears. Here was a person with minimal education and meagre means, demonstrating the highest principles, while around him people with ample means are involved in devious schemes to further enrich themselves.

I made up my mind at that point that it would be criminal on my part to allow him to pay, and told him so. He resisted initially but then gratefully accepted.

Mr Chua is worth his weight in gold to Singapore. He amply demonstrated to me that honour and principle are not necessarily related to education or status. Many of our affluent citizens could take a page out of his book.

Mr Chua made me realise what Oliver Goldsmith had in mind in The Deserted Village when he said:

Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey,

Where wealth accumulates, and men decay.

Princes and lords may flourish, or may fade;

A breath can make them, as a breath has made:

But a bold peasantry, their country’s pride,

When once destroy’d, can never be supplied.

It is my fervent hope that we will start appreciating the value of people like Mr Chua to Singapore.

--

It is such a profound article with a serious thought-provoking issue that makes me feel so humbled. The writer is right in saying that we ought to take a leaf from the delivery man's book.

Such a display of integrity is indeed rare in Singapore. Most of the elite people in Singapore don't give a damn about us peasants.

We are often overlooked just because we don't earn the kind of money that they are earning. Even a Member of Parliament called us lesser mortals, downgrading our morality as well as humanity. A fellow blogging community immediately grabbed hold of the offending terms and wrote an article on it here.

We peasants, or lesser mortals in the MP's case, may not earn as much money as them or have as high status as them, but we do have our pride and integrity. We do not resort to name-calling, especially if we are going to be of the same high position as that MP.

Elite people such as the MP should learn how to be a human and learn integrity. Money and status doesn't mean everything. In society, we shouldn't divide ourselves into higher mortals and lesser mortals. Aren't we all belong to the same countrymen after all?

Looks like this is not the case here in Singapore. So I better steer clear of those higher mortals lest I get ridiculed by them.

Grrr...

Whoa! Teachers get caned in Tanzania!

According to this BBC News article, 19 teachers were reported to have been caned in Tanzania, under the orders of the District Commissioner.

Reasons given for the caning were that the teachers were blamed for being late or not showing up for work and not teaching the official syllabus.

Looks like it's quite difficult being a teacher there. On top of that, these teachers were caned in front of their students. That's the highest form of humiliation that can ever be inflicted on a teacher. How are the teachers going to gain back their students' trust, if that's even possible?

If that were to happen in Singapore, how would the public react?

Wow! It's the Year of the Cow

Time passes by so quickly and before I know it, it's time to usher in the Year of the Ox and send away the Year of the Rat in the Chinese lunar horoscope.

The Rat year has not been very good and it's all the same usual stuffs like the Sichuan earthquake, Mumbai bombings, Myanmar tsunamis, global economic crisis, tainted milk crisis and many more. It seems to be more happening than any other years.

Be it the English year or the lunar year, it's all the same. Disasters one after another, never stopping to give us a breather in life.

Will the new year usher in a change of fortune? For the Singapore Flyer, it seems to be the case. News reported that the Singapore Flyer, which had been closed for a month due to technical fault, has been reopened today, just in time for the lunar new year.

As for me, so far nothing significant has happened and it's quite a disappointment. This year I decided not to take the initiative to approach Moonie and Queenie to go out on the first day of the lunar new year, as was the case in previous years. I want to see if they would approach me instead. Yet I was disappointed when they truly did not bother to contact me. Guess our friendship is nothing more than just words. *sighs*

So I went to pay house visits to my mum's relatives, though I was hoping that I could stay at home for the whole day. I have no mood to go anywhere this year. My mum can be quite a kancheong queen sometimes. Most of my relatives don't pop in for visits very early, except for one of my coousins.

My mum wanted to catch this cousin in order to see her daughter, so she woke me up rather early. Me being me, naturally I dragged and lazed about in my bed to avoid getting up. Still, sometimes mothers' powers can be hard to block out. *grins*

In any case, we didn't manage to see that cousin in time. The travelling alone took up quite some time as I lived in the east and my relatives live in the north.

Frankly speaking, my holidays are usually quite boring and I don't have many exciting stuffs happening. But today I almost came face to face with a guy that I never want to see in my life again.

My mum forced me to do house visit to this particular aunt and her son had once did something very bad to me. Hence I had never wanted to see him again. The past few times that I went to her house, he wasn't around as he had been either put away in a boys' home or in jail.

However, today he's no longer in jail and didn't even went out with his stupid girlfriend. Instead he stayed at home and slept. Well I wished that he could go on sleeping without waking up but my mum's super loud voice had woken him up.

It was a good thing that I felt bored and had tuned in to my iPod to watch one of the InuYasha's movie. So my hair had hidden my face and thus, I won't have to see that guy, even if he's standing close. It was an unbearable time, waiting for my mum to finish whatever chitchat she had and that we could quickly head home. It certainly felt like hours to me.

During the whole time, I never turned my head in his direction and never llifted up my head even though my shoulders were aching. When my mum finally decided to leave, it was such a huge relief and I quickly stepped out of the house to get my shoes and leave.

Phew. I am glad that I didn't get to see his face so that I won't get nightmares. Hmmm, probably it wouldn't hurt to see how he looks like after all those years in jail. I heard from my mum that he was once caned 14 times for drug trafficking offences. Oh whatever. This guy gives me the chills.

So I managed to survive my first lunar day without any problems. Time to get back to my InuYasha.

See ya!

And a Happy Chinese New Year.

John Travolta's Son Died

I was just watching Entertainment Tonight on Channel 5 earlier on and its headline for the day was on the death of John Travolta's son, Jett Travolta.

According to TMZ.com, Jett passed away on 3rd January 2009 after he suffered a seizure fit when he fell and hit his head in the bathroom while on vacation. Videos of the young Jett was shown on TV and the little boy looked so cute.

John Travolta with son, Jett.

Travolta was visibly seen trying to contain his sorrow while appearing strong for his family. He had tried to revive his son using CPR but it was too late for the boy. His wife, Kelly Preston, was reported to be crying non-stop after she learnt of his death.

May Jett's soul rest in peace and condolences to both John Travolta and his wife, Kelly Preston.

Merry X'mas!

Merry X'mas and happy holidays! I went to celebrate X'mas with my friend and just got back home. I will do an update post of my x'mas gifts later. Well, not that I have received a lot of gifts but then, at least its better than nothing.

Cheers!!!

Tales of Beedle the Bard is the Fastest Selling Book for 2008

According to Telegraph, J K Rowling's latest book, The Tales of Beedle the Bard, has just become the fastest selling book for 2008.

The Tales of Beedle the Bard – mentioned in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the latest book in the wizard boy series – sold 367,625 copies in the first three days after publication on December 4.

It is apparent that her fans are still very supportive of her even though she had wrapped up the Harry Potter universe. That includes me as well. So I am very happy that her latest book has done so well, especially since it's going to be sold for charitable purposes.

Till to date, I still can't bring myself to read it as I want to prolong my reading period as long as possible. Then I won't have to let go of Harry so fast. Weird, isn't it?

Anyway, let's savour the book's success for now, before another new book comes in to take away the feat.

=)

iPhone 3G Glory

Now that I am starting to get excited over the iPhone 3G (i know it's a long time), I am keeping a lookout for any good iPhone 3G deals from Singtel.

In the meantime, I can only goggle at these iPhone 3G pictures:


















There are even talks of a red iPhone that might be released by Apple in conjuction with the holiday season as well as to boost the sales for the PRODUCT(RED) charity project.

I wonder what are the next plans that Apple has for its red-hot product. Last time, it used to be its own iPods, now its overtaken by its own iPhone. Things are certainly looking more and more exciting now.

For the consumers, things can only get better.

Twilight Gallery

For those who are wanting more of Twilight's cast, I have found a gallery which has quite a number of pictures which mostly includes Robert Pattison and Kristen Stewart.

Click here for the site.

Most of the pictures are taken on the set of Twilight and some of them featured light-hearted moments between the 2 main leads. A sample is posted below:




So go feast your eyes on the pictures and hopefully more pictures of the movie premiere can posted online too.

Kudos to the web!

Twilight Phenomenon Unique to USA

I was browsing through Google for some various pictures of Twilight the movie when I came across this gorgeous picture.



This is an example of a Twilight Phenomenon. An excerpt taken from wikipedia is posted below:

--
A Twilight phenomenon is produced when unburned particles of missile or rocket propellant and water left in the vapor trail of a launch vehicle condenses, freezes and then expands in the less dense upper atmosphere. The exhaust plume, which is suspended against a dark sky is then illuminated by reflective high altitude sunlight, which produces a spectacular, colorful effect when seen at ground level. The phenomenon typically occurs with launches that take place either 30 to 60 minutes before sunrise or after sunset when a booster rocket or missile rises out of the darkness and into a sunlit area, relative to an observer's perspective on the ground.

This phenomenon usually produces a cloud of green, blue, white and rose colored hues which takes on a corkscrew appearance as it is whipped around by wind currents. It is seen within two to three minutes after a launch has occurred. Depending on weather conditions, it could remain in the sky for up to half an hour before dispersing.
--

The above picture was taken at Tranquillon Peak in northern Santa Barbara county. The twilight phenomenon lights up the night sky over Vandenberg AFB following the launch of an unarmed Minuteman III missile on Sept. 19, 2002.

Only a small percentage of the malfunctioning missiles would create this twilight phenomenon as most of them would have been destroyed by a Range Safety Officer.

Nonetheless, it's truly a sight to behold if I could be there to witness it first-hand. That would be so spectacular. We could never have this kind of sight in Singapore as our army do not fire missiles so openly. Even if they do, pictures such as these would probably have been destroyed before they could be circulated.

For now, I can only envy the beauty on my laptop screen but that's enough.

=)

Twilight director won't return for Sequel

According to this report, Twilight's director, Catherine Hardwicke would not be returning to direct its sequel, New Moon.

It was quoted as saying that due to timing differences, Hardwicke had to bow out of the commitment. Some say that Summit Entertainment wanted to do the sequel as soon as possible, given that the current Twilight movie is doing extremely well at the box office.

For Hardwicke, whose previous films include Thirteen and Lords of Dogtown, had the highest opening ever for a female director when Twilight made nearly $70 million in its first weekend. It has grossed over $138 million in three weeks.

Twilight will officially open in Singapore on 18 December 2008 and that's when I will be watching it along with maomao. She's very excited over the movie though she has been claiming otherwise.

So for me, it remains to be seen whether the film is really that good or I should just concentrate on Harry Potter, whose next film release will be in July 2009. Boy, that's such a long, long time. Warner Bros better catch up quickly if they want to beat the Twinkies in their movie debut. Hee...

=(