If you haven't heard of Carl Sagan then at least watch this series. Please don't give excuses like "no time". Just watch it like your latest soap opera drama or movie. It's an eye-opener.
Nespresso and mycoffeestar combo
I like drinking espresso coffee but I just dislike the mess of making one. A good press is also expensive and difficult to maintain if I don't drink enough. I had thoughts of getting a single serve Nespresso capsule machine while in Singapore but as I am currently staying in a 山龟 (rural) area in Thailand, it will be difficult for me to get the capsules readily if I ran out.
Yes, there are online shipping options but because Thailand taxes heavily on import coffee, it's crazy to even think of getting them overseas and shipped into the country without being slapped by a heavy penalty.Another thing that puts me off is the amount of waste it generates. Yes they do recycle their capsules in Singapore but not here in Thailand.
Those reasons above put me off of getting a machine until I discovered this refillable capsule from mycoffeestar. It's expensive but actually worth it in the long run. I get to choose locally produced Thai coffee which are pretty good. Especially those Arabica beans grown in the North. It's less wasteful and not so much of a hassle then a real coffee press machine. The small Nespresso machine does not leave a big footprint in my kitchen so it's a win win.
Making a cup with a refillable capsule is not that difficult. The only attention you need to be specific is the grind size of your coffee and you're set to go. Grind it fine but not too fine . My experience is about similar grind size like drip coffee.Of course, I still drink Nespresso capsules once in a blue moon or if I want a quick coffee fix or I want to splurge myself. But for my current morning routine. I can easily whipped up a double shot latte with this combo. And speaking of double shot, I bought one more set from coffeestar recently to make my double shots even easier. :P
I am still shooting.
My cameras are still with me and I still shoot but I am even more selective on the photos I wish to share on the Net. Not so much of privacy concerns but one of the reason is because of the sheer volume of photos on the Net. Selfies, groupies, food photos and even my wife is starting to dump photos into her facebook account. I know its a free space to share but can at least edit a bit anot? I see people dump over 200 photos of their travel photos with tons that are just out of focus and underexposed. I know it has been like that ever since facebook has an easier way to upload photos in batches but it's even more serious nowadays and I got a little bit fatigued in looking at a picture on my monitor. Which leads to the 2nd reason why I stop posting to facebook
.
My bloody printer. :P Ever since I got myself a serious photo printer, I printed most of my recent works on my Canon Pro 100 and they are just simply different . A physical piece of paper with my picture on it is 100x better then the same picture viewed on a computer monitor.
Ask those who prints their photos seriously and they will give you the same conclusion. If you really want to appreciate your own piece of work as a photographer then just print it out, print it large (at least 8x10), print it with a proper printer or lab, and you will know and understand why a printed photo is so awesome. :)
.
My bloody printer. :P Ever since I got myself a serious photo printer, I printed most of my recent works on my Canon Pro 100 and they are just simply different . A physical piece of paper with my picture on it is 100x better then the same picture viewed on a computer monitor.
Ask those who prints their photos seriously and they will give you the same conclusion. If you really want to appreciate your own piece of work as a photographer then just print it out, print it large (at least 8x10), print it with a proper printer or lab, and you will know and understand why a printed photo is so awesome. :)
My 3 month hiatus is over.
I have not disappeared or died in Thailand yet. :P I have not been writing anything because I just gave myself a self imposed 3 month hiatus from complaining and personal reason. It's surprisingly not that tough as I have not been writing a lot ever since I quit my job. There are tons of crazy things happened in both Singapore and Thailand during these 3 months that I wish I could write and blog them down for future reference but I was able to choose not to do it.
I even tried to impose myself to have limited access to facebook and twitter. This restricted access to the Net is not really working as I still frequent facebook on my phone to check on latest trends and news almost everyday while I waited at the school to pick up my kids.
So for the pass 3 months, I re-read some books, watched the latest Dr Who (which is pretty awesome), visited some tea and strawberry farms (see pic above), became a coffee addict by getting a Nespresso machine and manual coffee grinder, learnt to fly a small drone (Syma X5c), watched some old Chinese lectures on our ancient Chinese philosopher, self taught myself on rainbow loom charms, signed up with Ello and still waiting for their bloody reply and invite, and completed some home DIY projects.
I think I did more then the list but I guess you kinda guess I am enjoying myself over here in L.O.S.
Hiatus is over and I will try to write more but I guess nobody bothers to read blogs nowadays. Tweets and Facebook status updates are more trendy.
Public Transport in Singapore?
Decided to write a post after all the media hoo haa on this incident in ST.
Rugby: ACS(I) to charter five MRT trains for C Division rugby final at National Stadium
They are people out for blood for this incident. Their arguments are mainly the MRT rail is actually a public transport and why should public utilities be allowed to charter private events. Some silly defenders will say they are chartered buses what. How come got difference meh? Big difference. How so? If we charter a bus, the road that the bus is driving on still belongs to the public and other cars and buses could still drive on the same road. Rails? Not possible in Singapore right? This is because we only have single-way tracks and not multi tracks like other countries. So in short, this incident kinds of like ACS "chopp" a dedicated public road to National Stadium and not allowing other vehicles to use it at the same time. So that's why LTA have the right to be pissed.
But this opens to another observations I see on social media. Singaporeans still sincerely believes we have "public" transport. Sorry to say its all incorporated and privatised during Goh Chok Tong era. SMRT in 2000, SBS in 1997. So is our Electricity, Water and postal service.
So please don't be naive and think that these companies will serve in the best interest of the public. Their bottom line is to make more profits for the shareholders.
Rugby: ACS(I) to charter five MRT trains for C Division rugby final at National Stadium
They are people out for blood for this incident. Their arguments are mainly the MRT rail is actually a public transport and why should public utilities be allowed to charter private events. Some silly defenders will say they are chartered buses what. How come got difference meh? Big difference. How so? If we charter a bus, the road that the bus is driving on still belongs to the public and other cars and buses could still drive on the same road. Rails? Not possible in Singapore right? This is because we only have single-way tracks and not multi tracks like other countries. So in short, this incident kinds of like ACS "chopp" a dedicated public road to National Stadium and not allowing other vehicles to use it at the same time. So that's why LTA have the right to be pissed.
But this opens to another observations I see on social media. Singaporeans still sincerely believes we have "public" transport. Sorry to say its all incorporated and privatised during Goh Chok Tong era. SMRT in 2000, SBS in 1997. So is our Electricity, Water and postal service.
So please don't be naive and think that these companies will serve in the best interest of the public. Their bottom line is to make more profits for the shareholders.
It speaks volumes
when our gahment encourages its people to sell off their homes or houses so that they can downgrade and get some extra cash to survive in their twilight days. This post is about the 76 year old granny begging for her CPF to be returned to her. Instead of just providing a listening ear for her and STFU, the PAP IB or those cynical bastards starts hounding on where she is currently staying now. Why she never sell that house? She rich what.
I asked my wife that day after I read the news. "Dear, if one day we did become poor, should we sell our house and rent/buy a smaller house instead?" She says I'm mad and she would rather die then sell our current house. I asked why? She replied, "It's our 1st house together. I like the location and neigbourhood and moreover our children were born and raised in this house, it has sentimental values that cannot be matched by wealth. Nope, I would die and leave the house to my children rather than selling it!"
I smiled and nodded.
We were not buying a house. We bought a home.
There is no price for home. Period. And I sincerely think the old lady has great sentimental values on that house she currently resides in. If there is money in my CPF, I would rather use that then to sell my home.
I shall repeat again. It speaks volumes of our gahment if they want or encourage its people to sell their homes to stay alive. It speaks volumes.
I asked my wife that day after I read the news. "Dear, if one day we did become poor, should we sell our house and rent/buy a smaller house instead?" She says I'm mad and she would rather die then sell our current house. I asked why? She replied, "It's our 1st house together. I like the location and neigbourhood and moreover our children were born and raised in this house, it has sentimental values that cannot be matched by wealth. Nope, I would die and leave the house to my children rather than selling it!"
I smiled and nodded.
We were not buying a house. We bought a home.
There is no price for home. Period. And I sincerely think the old lady has great sentimental values on that house she currently resides in. If there is money in my CPF, I would rather use that then to sell my home.
I shall repeat again. It speaks volumes of our gahment if they want or encourage its people to sell their homes to stay alive. It speaks volumes.
May 2014. What an interesting month!
WARNING. Long post ahead with lotsa grammatical errors. :P
A brief summary. Besides being the month of my girl's birthday, there was a coup in Thailand that ended the political unrest. A blogger got sued by our PM Lee in Singapore and a big debate about constructive politics between our PM Lee and opposition chief Mr Low.
1st off. Thailand military staged it's 12th coup on the 22th May. Bringing the 6th month of madness in control (somehow forcefully). Although I don't really endorse the idea of such actions by the military but at least so far they have been quite fair in dealing with both parties. The only thing I want to complain is that there are too much censorship on the media. I guess they are worried that the anti-coup camp will stage more protests so they have these draconian laws of anti-coup messages deleted and court martials but I'm afraid this will most probably makes things worst. I'm not going to comment too much on this whole situation as the Thai always says "Please don't comment on Thai politics if you're a foreigner. It's complicated." I still want to stay in LOS so the better of me to STFU :)
Then at the Singapore end. We have a blogger Roy Ngerng being sued by our PM Lee. I was following this thread quite closely as it was damn entertaining. I have to say sincerely I didn't know about Roy (even though I am SO "political"and critical of our MIW gahment) before this whole incident. I did however, remembered that I read one of his articles that was shared by my friend in FB. I didn't dwell too much into it as it was a link from The Real Singapore. :P But at that time, my conclusion was it's just a rant. I do have some knowledge on how our CPF works and there are some good questions on certain aspects but most of them are just bit extreme on trying to get himself into trouble. And lo and behold. He got sued!
So the online mass kind of broke into 3 camps.
Pro MIW camp starts mocking him - this is usual and I forgive them.
Anti-gahment camp supports him totally - a usual response from them too as anything anti gahment must support mah!
Then the 3rd camp - so called pro liberals who always said that they don't take sides (but in fact they do but just do not have the guts to admit it) starts mocking him too - this is to me, a very disgusting attitude and the worst of all. Why? Because these are hypocrites and those who reads my blogs know I hated hypocrites.
Roy may not be factual I agree, he may not be smart or an intellect like you and I. He maybe did it for glory and fame. But at least he dares to speak up. Maybe he is insidious and out for blood against the FAMILEE. But ask this question. Besides getting sued by our most powerful person in the country. What other benefits will he get? He will be punished, condemned and maybe even lose his job and get bankrupt so do we really need to mock him any further? Real pro liberals should instead mock the other 2 camps, the pro MIW and anti-gahment ones. They should not be proclaiming to be pro-liberal and make fun of Roy like "He deserves it." "He's stupid!" "He just want to be famous!" but instead gives sound advice to Roy like "He should be more careful on how he writes. " " One can make his points across without name callings or getting emotional"
My take on the whole lawsuit is that this is one of the worst PR disaster for our PM Lee as if he had been gracious and dropped the case, Roy will not be made as a Martyr in the anti-gahment camp. It's sad actually as this whole debacle, all of us are losers. Our PM becomes a bully, Roy with get sued and punished for something he believes in. And if he is the bad guy like what other people says, he gets his limelight anyway. We, the commoners will not get a full disclosure on what's going on in our CPF.
The last incident was the constructive politics debate in Parliament between PM Lee and WP's chief Mr Low. I read the some of the comments in FB before watching it and people were laughing at Mr Low's Engrish... That's a bit low. For a Mandarin educated Mr Low, what he managed to pull off was formidable. It might be interesting to see how PM Lee debates in Mandarin or Tamil/Hindi. We should do that in parliament as I believe one day with our current intake of FTs, Singapore might really belongs to China/India. :P
A brief summary. Besides being the month of my girl's birthday, there was a coup in Thailand that ended the political unrest. A blogger got sued by our PM Lee in Singapore and a big debate about constructive politics between our PM Lee and opposition chief Mr Low.
1st off. Thailand military staged it's 12th coup on the 22th May. Bringing the 6th month of madness in control (somehow forcefully). Although I don't really endorse the idea of such actions by the military but at least so far they have been quite fair in dealing with both parties. The only thing I want to complain is that there are too much censorship on the media. I guess they are worried that the anti-coup camp will stage more protests so they have these draconian laws of anti-coup messages deleted and court martials but I'm afraid this will most probably makes things worst. I'm not going to comment too much on this whole situation as the Thai always says "Please don't comment on Thai politics if you're a foreigner. It's complicated." I still want to stay in LOS so the better of me to STFU :)
Then at the Singapore end. We have a blogger Roy Ngerng being sued by our PM Lee. I was following this thread quite closely as it was damn entertaining. I have to say sincerely I didn't know about Roy (even though I am SO "political"and critical of our MIW gahment) before this whole incident. I did however, remembered that I read one of his articles that was shared by my friend in FB. I didn't dwell too much into it as it was a link from The Real Singapore. :P But at that time, my conclusion was it's just a rant. I do have some knowledge on how our CPF works and there are some good questions on certain aspects but most of them are just bit extreme on trying to get himself into trouble. And lo and behold. He got sued!
So the online mass kind of broke into 3 camps.
Pro MIW camp starts mocking him - this is usual and I forgive them.
Anti-gahment camp supports him totally - a usual response from them too as anything anti gahment must support mah!
Then the 3rd camp - so called pro liberals who always said that they don't take sides (but in fact they do but just do not have the guts to admit it) starts mocking him too - this is to me, a very disgusting attitude and the worst of all. Why? Because these are hypocrites and those who reads my blogs know I hated hypocrites.
Roy may not be factual I agree, he may not be smart or an intellect like you and I. He maybe did it for glory and fame. But at least he dares to speak up. Maybe he is insidious and out for blood against the FAMILEE. But ask this question. Besides getting sued by our most powerful person in the country. What other benefits will he get? He will be punished, condemned and maybe even lose his job and get bankrupt so do we really need to mock him any further? Real pro liberals should instead mock the other 2 camps, the pro MIW and anti-gahment ones. They should not be proclaiming to be pro-liberal and make fun of Roy like "He deserves it." "He's stupid!" "He just want to be famous!" but instead gives sound advice to Roy like "He should be more careful on how he writes. " " One can make his points across without name callings or getting emotional"
My take on the whole lawsuit is that this is one of the worst PR disaster for our PM Lee as if he had been gracious and dropped the case, Roy will not be made as a Martyr in the anti-gahment camp. It's sad actually as this whole debacle, all of us are losers. Our PM becomes a bully, Roy with get sued and punished for something he believes in. And if he is the bad guy like what other people says, he gets his limelight anyway. We, the commoners will not get a full disclosure on what's going on in our CPF.
The last incident was the constructive politics debate in Parliament between PM Lee and WP's chief Mr Low. I read the some of the comments in FB before watching it and people were laughing at Mr Low's Engrish... That's a bit low. For a Mandarin educated Mr Low, what he managed to pull off was formidable. It might be interesting to see how PM Lee debates in Mandarin or Tamil/Hindi. We should do that in parliament as I believe one day with our current intake of FTs, Singapore might really belongs to China/India. :P
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