It may have been raining, but that didn't stop me (though it did delay me) from joining almost a hundred other people from trooping down to Lenovo at Lorong Chuan for the seventh Social Media Breakfast outing. Instead of a hall, we were gathered in... the pantry! Well, at least the drinks were easily reachable.

The topic this time was to listen to a few case studies around social media marketing. As someone who's participated in a few of such "social media" events, I was eager to learn from the other side of the table.

Felicia from Text100 presenting on "Search for N". I don't read claudia.sg so I didn't know about this campaign. #smbsg7 11:58 AM Sep 19th from mobile web

First up was Text 100 to present a Nokia case study. This was around the "Search for N" campaign to launch the N97 phone. Organised as a treasure hunt, clues were seeded through blogs like Claudia.sg. Winners would then win the phone. I had no inkling of this particular campaign, but from the results, I'd say that Nokia was pleased with the results and publicity.

Express in Music talking about music personalisation. Something about composing and sales. I'm still trying to figure it out. #smbsg7 12:12 PM Sep 19th from mobile web

Instead of a case study, the next presenter, Express in Music, described what it did. I wish I had more to say about it, but I can't. And from some of the tweets during the presentation, it seemed like I wasn't the only one who shared that view. From what I gathered, it had something to do with end users creating their own music for a campaign because music is more intimate. And then they could sell the music... or something like that. Like I said, I'm at a loss here.

Around this time, Daryl Tay had to quieten the noisy folks at the rear of the pantry. I guess people were just too lazy to walk out to the driveway to chat.

Waggenner Edstrom up next. Long intro, probably used up half their allotted time! *lol* #smbsg712:28 PM Sep 19th from mobile web

Melvin Yuan started his Waggener Edstrom team's presentation with a long, somewhat rambling introduction. Anyway, the team then went on to present about last week's Twestival, in which they succeeded in collecting donations amounting to about $17,000 for the Children's Cancer Foundation. They also touched on Kiva.org (as an example of the power of micro-financing) and an HP event.

Brandtology introducing itself. No specific case studies? #smbsg7 12:41 PM Sep 19th from mobile web

Like Express in Music, the next two presenters didn't provide anything specific in terms of case studies, but were more like an introduction to their services. Brandtology described their business of monitoring sentiment, giving the example of looking at the online chatter around four blockbuster movies this year. Kelly Choo also said that he would be giving away a free self-painted Twitter bird. (The part about giving away a bird generated sniggers around the room.)

Ammado introducing itself. Platform to support the cause you want. Again, no specific case studies. #smbsg7 12:53 PM Sep 19th from mobile web

From what I learned, Ammado is a (U.S.-based?) platform that allows charities to collect donations. Corporations and organisations can also purchase vouchers, which can then be used to donate to any Ammado-listed charity. The service seems to have launched in Singapore, though the freebie voucher for SMB attendees was in U.S. currency. But as a friend remarked, it's a mystery about how it generates any revenue.

Blogathon case study on now. Eager to know how Tangs benefited from it. #smbsg7 1:04 PM Sep 19th from mobile web

Finally, the team from Lenovo, Intel and Tangs presented what Derrick Koh promised to be the "best presentation" of the day. They screened two videos from Blogathon, the 24-hour event at Tangs that had 10 bloggers staying awake to do stuff in the shopping centre, while getting their friends to vote for their favourite. Based on what they shared, it seemed like this event was all about generating awareness about... blogging? I don't know. Tangs apparently didn't fix any target in terms of sales or dollar return on investment, which I thought was unusual behaviour for a retailer.

After that was the food and networking moment. I caught up with some folks whom I hadn't seen in a long time. Almost everyone joked that we only meet at such social media events! Anyway, it seemed like people weren't staying for long, with most leaving within 10-15 minutes of the presentations' end.

What I liked about this SMB was that its continuing use of a fixed agenda suggests that its maturing beyond just a "talk cock" session. I'm sure there are those who prefer the old format (and thus were making all the ruckus during the presentations with their chatter), but this current format seemed to work in bringing in new attendees.

With that in mind, I thought that the venue was a letdown. The event announcement said that the place would be larger to accommodate the growing numbers, but it was actually quite small. And with two kinds of attendees (those who wanted to hear the presentations, and those who wanted to mingle), a venue that allows different activities would have been appreciated.

Unfortunately, even with a proper agenda and venue, it would still be up to the presenters to make attending SMB worthwhile. I was promised case studies and got only half of that. The rest came across as marketing spiels. And preparations were clearly inadequate, with presenters needing to fiddle with the sole laptop between their presentations.

Of course, it isn't easy to organise an event like this, especially from a logistics standpoint. And as SMB continues to grow, I guess details like these will be worked out eventually.

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Technorati tags: bloggers, case studies, gathering, Lenovo, marketing, networking, social media, Social Media Breakfast Singapore

Back in Hari Raya Haji of 2008, I trooped down to a photography studio near the old Rex Theatre to participate in a fun little "grassroots" activity that would eventually become christened as "Bloggers' Calendar 2009". It had been organised by a group of bloggers who openly invited any other blogger to have his/her picture taken.

We were given timeslots according to our birth months, so at the appointed time, I showed up at the studio. The photoshoot itself was held in a fun and casual manner. We did some serious shoots and some wacky ones. We tried different positions and played with angles.

But what was supposed to be a ten-minute shoot stretched into an hour. Not that I was bored in the intervening moments. Among other things, I hijacked Daphne's Plurk, attempted to set up a (modded) Wii, and helped to buy lunch for those who were there.

All that happened about a month ago. The Bloggers' Calendar 2009 was "officially" launched on the fourth day of the new year with a dinner party. It consists of cards for each month, contained within a plastic case (like a CD jewel case). It cost $6 each, but for the glossy output, I think it was worth it.

An online version of the Bloggers' Calendar has also been made available. There's talk that it will include some interactivity. Okay, I guess that'll be cool. For me, what I really enjoyed was how this thing was done by a group of people who just wanted to have fun together. No ego was (apparently) involved and no corporate sponsorship was entertained (there was a serious discussion among the participants about sponsorship).

I suppose this will continue to be an annual occurrence (as long as resources remain available). I think it'd be nice if more people could participate. I had invited (through Facebook) other bloggers, including Mr Brown. Alas...

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Technorati tags: bloggers, Bloggers Calendar, calendar

On a bright and sunny Saturday morning, I went down to the Asian Civilisation Museum to attend the third Social Media Breakfast. This must be the swankiest venue ever for such an event. The previous SMBs were at small cafes, so this was definitely a leg up, especially in terms of first impressions to new attendees.

Aside: the ACM could do with better signage to tell people that it is the friggin' Asian Civilisation Museum. I only confirmed the location because of a small sign that had a write-up on the history of the building (complete with a dried-up bird dropping on it).

I arrived half an hour late, though still fashionably early for a Singaporean event. I chatted with a few familiar folks and met new ones, November and "Min-tea". There was also food galore, and I helped myself to egg sandwiches, chocolate swiss roll and grossly diluted bandung.

At about 11am, things kicked off... in a manner of speaking. There was a round of introductions from Daryl, the organiser, and Walter Lim from the National Heritage Board. Then, the theme of the day was recapped, which, if I remember correctly, was about how and why bloggers could be engaged for mutual benefits.

Or something like that, because things didn't go according to plan. So people just went back to doing what they did at previous SMBs, i.e. chat and mingle and eat.

BTW I wonder if anyone has the contact of the girl at left (without glasses)? Her name is Emily, but I didn't get her contact information. (And yes, I'm an idiot for not doing so.)

The only on-topic conversation that I had was about the relationship between blogs and old media, i.e. newspapers, TV, etc., and how/why blogs could rise above the noise. And I was also advised to start using Facebook "like the other 90% of people".

I didn't really notice the time till I saw that chairs were being stacked up. People had already started leaving at around 12:30pm. An hour later, there was just a handful of us left. Those who attended could supposedly tour the museum for free, but I chose to skip it. Besides, Chinese propaganda doesn't really appeal to me... though on hindsight, it should. (I've since found out that the finalists of the Omy blog awards had a guided tour, those lucky "devils".)

I think it's a good development that such so-called "social media" events attract the turn-outs that they do. One person mentioned: didn't these attendees turn to new media because they value their anonymity? I think that's a myopic over-generalisation. We "social media" blokes are human beings, and human beings are, at their core, social beings. While some people can live their lives as hermits, the greater majority of us still yearn for human contact.

New media simply makes it easier to create and maintain such connections. I personally would never have met any of these people if not for the connections built up through Internet services. So I don't see anything wrong with identifying ourselves publicly, if it helps to foster greater social connectedness among individuals.

Read about the first Social Media Breakfast, held at Frujch.

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Technorati tags: Asian Civilisation Museum, social media, Social Media Breakfast Singapore

Early this morning, I went for something called the "Social Media Breakfast". It was held at Frujch at Singapore Management University. It was scheduled to start at 9am, so I courteously showed up (relatively) on time. Of course, the bulk of the attendees turned up half an hour later. I shouldn't be surprised.

I met a couple of familiar faces, but also some new ones too. Also reacquainted myself with one other person whom I had met on a professional setting previously (and reconnected through Facebook just a few days ago). We had a good time chatting about Internet usage across the region. Fascinating and insightful stuff!

Breakfast turned out to be brunch, and consisted of sandwiches, lemon-orange squash and some cakes. Some of the others also played air hockey and pool, but I spent my time chatting and checking out some sites.

The weird thing of the event -- to me anyway -- was that we were given small stickers with which we could "tag" others. It worked the same way that online tagging does, except that this was in the physical world and we had to write the tags in pen! I didn't tag anyone, but was tagged twice.

I don't know if this will become a regular affair or was a school project for SMU's "Social Media" course. I think such networking events are good practices, but require organisation and location.

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Technorati tags: Social Media Breakfast, networking, bloggers

It'd been a while since the few of us bloggers had met up... oh wait, it was at Angela's birthday party in November, which I didn't attend because of class (and I couldn't skip it because it was the all-important last class where exam tips are given out).

Anyway, Christmas was coming, so that was as good a reason as any to meet up. Besides, we'd be losing another person in our circle too (come January, Kelly would be on an overseas posting). We arranged to meet at Jeff's house. The last time we met there at Chinese New Year, we spent the time playing mahjong and poker.

This time -- and since some of us had just gotten Nintendo Wiis -- we had our very own Wii party! We met at Jeff's house with Wiimotes and Nunchuks in hand. I didn't bring any of my games since Jeff already had copies of them. Anyway, it's not like I had a lot to start with.

With so many of us, we focussed on multiplayer games so that we could all play together. We played tennis, then bowling, then moved on to WarioWare: Smooth Moves, then back to tennis and bowling, before ending with Super Mario Olympics.

While the games were fun, I have to admit that it's difficult finding multiplayer games that anyone can start playing immediately. WarioWare required some experience in order to know how to work the Wiimote. Experience with Super Mario Olympics also provides the player with an edge.

Some videos: tennis 1, tennis 2, tennis 3, boxing between Chin and Lynn, boxing between Eddy and Kelly

BTW it was supposed to be an afternoon of Wii and mahjong, but in the end, we only played with the Wii!

After playing for about four hours, we left for Ang Mo Kio to tuck into some crabs at Mellben Restaurant. We left in two cars and the first group arrived at 6:30pm. We were told that our crabs wouldn't be available till 8pm, so we resigned ourselves to our fates. At least, we got a table early!

But as luck would have it, food started appearing at 7pm. By 7:30pm, even two of the three crabs were on the table. Cameras snapped away, as if we'd never seen crabs before, haha!

We were done just past 8pm (when the food was supposed to start arriving), then headed on our way home. Unfortunately, some folks still have to work on Christmas Eve!

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Technorati tags: bloggers, crab, Mellben Restaurant, Nintendo Wii

This evening, I surprised a few colleagues by saying that I was going to Zouk. Since I'm not the type who goes there, especially on a weekday night, I had to explain that I was attending "Flash Forward" (which I called a "geek party").

Flash Forward was purported to be a night of drinking, dancing and discussing the future of gaming, virtual worlds, new media and Creative Commons. Instead, it was just another excuse for a social networking (as in the real, physical, offline social networking, not Facebook/Friendster/Ning/what-have-yous) session between different groups of people.

Yes, there were a few people talking about Creative Commons, but it was mostly just meeting familiar faces and being introduced to new ones. At least the entry and drinks were free, so I've no complaints there.

I met Brennan (who's enlisting in the naval diving unit tomorrow), Bernard (who came with his girlfriend), Choon Keat (whom I finally revealed to be working with his wife), Coleman and Preetam (from Tomorrow.sg and the Web Standards Group), U-Zyn (creator of Ping.sg), Nicholas (from TDM), and my sis. And got to meet a few other folks too, like Priscilla, a young lass who's a Tomorrow.sg moderator and working in Mindef(!).

I didn't stay for long because of an early morning the next day. In the end, I don't think I learned any more about Creative Commons than I did before tonight.

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Technorati tags: Flash Forward, Creative Commons, Zouk

After my first offline experience with Ping.sg at its first anniversary party, I figured that it couldn't hurt to attend a gathering. Right down to the last minute, I still wasn't sure if I would be going.

In the end, I showed up at about 3pm at Miss Clarity Cafe at Purvis Street. I sauntered in to the far end of the joined up tables. (A few of us would later joke that you could tell who came earlier by their seating positions.) I think there were about 15 people there.

Some of the others had ordered food, but I'd already eaten, so didn't feel like eating again. Anyway, that could've been a blessing in disguise, since the few comments about the dishes that I heard weren't very positive. So I ordered a hot chocolate, since it was a cool day. It tasted more like melted Cadbury chocolate. Maybe they used the Cadbury-branded hot chocolate powder? Either way, I didn't find it milky enough for my liking.

I listened in on most of the conversations around the table, while talking occasionally with Ridzuan. It was only after Eujzin came over that I started to talk more. (Yeah, I could've walked around the tables, like some of the others did, but chose to warm my seat.) And then the conversation flowed even more when Daphne came over to join us. We talked about blogging and finding a job and a certain geographic neighbour. Yeah, it was fun stuff.

As expected, digital cameras were whipped out and photographs were taken, especially after everyone was done eating. And finally, the gathering came to a close at about 5:30pm and we went our separate ways.

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Technorati tags: Ping.sg, bloggers, Miss Clarity Cafe

A few of us met for dinner this evening at Botak Jones Toa Payoh. It was my first time there, let alone at any Botak Jones outlet, and it was surprisingly only about a five-minute walk from the Braddell MRT station.

I ordered a Double Botak Burger, which turned out to be a bad choice. There was nothing wrong with the meal per se, in fact, it was quite yummylicious. The problem was that looks were deceiving. In spite of the apparent small size of each of the two patties, it was practically impossible to finish them plus the bus plus the coleslaw plus the fries.

On the other hand, it was a good kind of full feeling in the stomach. The kind that made me just wanna sleep off the digestion period. (I did doze off on the way home.)

The main purpose of the gathering was a celebration-cum-sending off of one of the gang. He landed a job at a company that was hailed as the best place to work in the U.S. Good for him!

Why did I use the word "convergence"? Because that's what was used in the email to organise this gathering, ha.

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Technorati tags: Botak Jones

It was a morning of cycling and exploration at Pulau Ubin. The last time I was there was about 15 years ago, and I was glad to see that not much had changed. The island still retained its rustic feel, resisting most efforts to "modernise" it.

The cycling trip was organised by Pedal Ubin. A friend had come across the group and suggested joining the next trip, which was this morning. We arrived at Changi Jetty at 8am, took the ferry to the island, then put down $10 for a whole-day rental for a bicycle each.


We nearly missed the rest of the group, because we had mistakenly thought that the meeting point was at the Information Kiosk, when it was actually at the Volunteer Centre. Fortunately, we found out in time. About 40 other people had already congregated there, including some families with young children.


We broke up into groups of 10. After a brief orientation session at the ex-basketball court, we proceeded westwards. First stop: Sungei Jelutong, the river that "cuts" Pulau Ubin in two. We were taught about the many uses of mangrove plants, from providing firewood to desalinating water to -- and this had been drummed into our heads three years ago -- acting as a natural breakwater against tidal waves, especially those caused by a tsunami.

We were also told the importance of the sluice gate in managing the height of the river. The current at the gate was so strong that, even though the rest of the river looked calm, we could see little fishes struggling to swim against the flow. A guide recounted how a girl who had been kayaking there was pulled through the gate, hit her head on it, and passed away.

Before leaving for the next stop, we saw a few mudskippers and tiny crabs along the river bed. The crabs could only be noticed when they scurried about, and even those were for brief moments, so it seemed like we were seeing things.

Along the way to Ubin Quarry, the guide pointed out a fig tree. He told us about how the fig is both a flower and a fruit. I personally have never liked eating figs, but that didn't stop me from looking at one that had been split open -- or getting sticky sap on my fingers!


At Ubin Quarry, we were treated to a very... still... lake. Of course, being an old granite quarry, any water that accumulated there, for example, from rainfall, couldn't flow anywhere. Neither was it affected by tides. As a result, the water made for an eerie mirror of the sky and surrounding forest. The authorities had fenced up the area, but adventurous explorers had already made a hole in it. We were, of course, advised to stay away. Years of mining with dynamite had resulted in cracks in the surrounding land, so it didn't exactly provide firm support.


We cycled on along the road, then turned off at a gravel track. This area had apparently been filled with soil that was extracted during the construction of the underground MRT network. And in the midst of this was a peculiar, yellow shrine called "German Girl Shrine" (that's what the sign called it too!). According to the guide, the story goes like this:

During World War One, the British rounded up any Germans who were living in Singapore. This included a Germany family that lived in Pulau Ubin. Frightened, the young daughter ran away in the middle of the night... and never returned. Villagers found her doll, dress and other accessories (and maybe her body too). These items were placed in an urn, and a shrine constructed for the girl. Since then, though the shrine has moved from place to place in the island, it is still visited by devotees who seek blessings and good fortune.


That would be one of several stories of the island. We hiked down to the coast, where Pulau Ketam was visible to the left, behind some fishing huts. There, we were treated to another story:

An elephant, a pig, a frog and a crab decided to cross from Singapore to Malaysia. Unfortunately, none of them made it. The elephant became Pulau Tekong, the pig became Pulau Ubin, the frog Pulau Sekudu and the crab turned into Pulau Ketam.

While at the coast, we were also taught the importance of not throwing litter into the sea, especially plastic, because such debris inevitably wind up along beaches and other coastlines. And since plastic takes hundreds of years to decompose, the pollution builds up, which could make the environment toxic.


After a short break, we cycled on to the Thai Temple. Apparently, a monk from Chiangmai walked all the way down to Singapore, then decided to set up a temple on Pulau Ubin. And this monk apparently still lived in this temple. Whether the story was true or not, I thought it was pretty remarkable to find such a place there, especially since it had its own postal code!


We cycled further along a gravel path to arrive at our northernmost destination. From here, we had a good view of Johor Bahru... from behind a metal fence. After the events of 9/11, the authorities had erected this fence to make it difficult for illegal immigrants to enter the island, and then Singapore. The coast guard had also stepped up patrols, though we didn't see any while we were there.


After that, it was on to another quarry lake, Kekek Quarry or HDB Quarry (because most of the granite mined there had been used to construct HDB flats). Again, somebody had made a whole in the triple-lined fence, which allowed us to step onto a small patch of empty ground. The water level had risen much higher, perhaps due to the recent showers, so we couldn't step out to the platform. While we were there, a curious terrapin swam up, and one of my friends lured it further in by feeding it bread. This gave us some good close-up photographic moments. (Yes, we were certainly urban dwellers who oohed-and-aahed over nature!)


This surprisingly brought us to the four-hour point, meaning that our trip had officially ended. Time really flew while we were having fun cycling, exploring and learning. We stopped by the drinks stall at Sungei Jelutong for coconut juice and to cool off. Due to its prominent sign, visitors are more likely to know this stall as "Y u so like that?"


Opposite this drink stall was another view of Ubin Quarry. This one was special because we could see a white rock formation that apparently resembled the Goddess of Mercy. So much so that, yes, there was a shrine. The formation was unlikely to have been sculpted purposely. That meant it was formed through mining activities, which meant dynamite explosions. Sheer luck or divine will?


And that was it for our trip there. All in all, it had been an enjoyable learning experience. There's still so much to see and know at Pulau Ubin. It's probably the last true kampung (village) in Singapore, and I think it'd be a shame if the rest of the 50 villagers left the island. Of course, it'd be an even bigger shame if the island's natural beauty was razed in the name of modernisation.

Now, I just needed to get some rest and go easy on my tired legs.

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Technorati tags: Pedal Ubin, Pulau Ubin, cycling

Long story short: I watched "The Phantom of the Opera" tonight. It was 2.5 hours of good theatre and music with the usual bunch of bloggers (hey, do you guys still blog anyway?) and my colleague (because we had extra tickets) (actually, they had extra tickets (due to a ticketing system foul-up), so that's how I ended up joining them).

I've known the music since my secondary school days because my sister had a tape recording. I even bought one of the songs (forgot which one though!) from iTunes. However, I've never had a chance to see the musical acted out, not even when it became a Hollywood movie.

So this was my "virgin" screening of the musical, and I must say that I enjoyed it a lot. While I thought that the lead actress' ("Christine") voice sounded quite soft (or maybe it's just my hearing), it was the lead actor ("Phantom") who really stood out. His voice was strong, powerful, and his character was both flawed and honourable.

And, of course, because he had the whole "Casablanca" "give-up-the-love-of-his-life" ending. Tragic love stories always get to me.

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Technorati tags: The Phantom of the Opera

I joined a few folks for karaoke this evening. Before that, we had dinner together. When we had all arrived, we started chatting among one another. And for some reason, these people who would normally speak English chose to use Chinese. To the point where, at one moment, I asked in exasperation, "Why are you speaking in Chinese???"

Yes, I probably sounded like a good ol' "banana" at that point.

Karaoke -- invented by the Japanese, popularised by the Chinese, (seemingly) shunned by the Malays and Indians. Karaoke is so Chinese that it is a Chinese elite's dream come true (if it isn't already) -- a common location where Chinese customers are served by Chinese staff using Chinese language in a Chinese community and everyone sings Chinese songs in a Chinese-decorated environment.

Well, at least in Singapore anyway.

On another note, my repertoire of Chinese songs has expanded to include "老鼠爱大米" and "童话", of which the former elicited a "Yuhui is singing in Chinese??" remark from one person, ha.

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Technorati tags: karaoke, Chinese

I'm starting to develop the notion that the newspapers, or at least The Straits Times, don't like to quote from named individuals from the Web. In general, when it needs to quote something from an online source, it will use individuals who are pseudonymous, anonymous, or use ambigous names.

Take this example:

The Sunday Times had a short write-up about reactions to the Miss Singapore Universe evening gown. It lifted three comments from my Tomorrow entry. One was by anonymous, another from "Destini", and the third by "Julian W" (Wong? Wee? Worthington?).

But when ST does feature named online individuals, it tends to focus on popular ones or typecasts them, the latter of which garnered a strong criticism from an online buddy.

I smell an agenda... Oh no, I don't mean that ST is setting the agenda, heaven forbid another mrbrown incident. But it seems like it's perpetuating one to the unsuspecting, disconnected public.

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Technorati tags: bloggers, newspapers, agenda

As had been promised, tonight was the post-wedding bloggers' gathering. The eight of us gathered at Carl's Junior at Marina Square. Meeting time was between 6 and 7pm. Dinner didn't start till... late.

We were promised messy burgers. We got big burgers.

And we remarked about a certain Carl's Jr cashier who should earn Employee-of-the-Month Award. Here's my encounter:

I placed my order with her. She asked me if I wanted a medium or big drink. I looked at the cups, and somehow answered "medium". She gave me this big cup. I quickly said, "Can I have the smaller size?" So she replaced it with a smaller -- but still quite big -- cup. The bill came to fifty cents more than what was stated on the menu. She said that the menu price was for a "really small" meal. I wasn't thinking too clearly, so I walked off with my not-small meal.

Later, we realised that the meals truly are big, and we should've stuck with the "really small" meal. Only one of us was smart enough to do that. The rest of us are, erm, hereby enlightened.

Therefore, when at Carl's Jr, do this:
After stuffing ourselves full with calories and cholestrol, we proceeded to Starbucks for drinks, paid for by our guest-of-honour and his wife. We talked about army stories, bloggers convention/conference, triathlon, French airport officials, etc. Really, you needed to be there to follow our conversation.

Hmm, my entry seems very left-brain. Maybe someone else will have a better recount of the night.

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Technorati tags: bloggers, dinner, Carl's Jr, sales

Since I'm not supposed to blog about someone's wedding, I can't tell you about how I slipped into the sanctuary one minute before the bride entered, or about the very beautiful ceremony (or the boo-boos), or about the buffet lunch, or the cameraderie with fellow bloggers, or our photos.

Instead, I'll talk about our karaoke session in the afternoon. We had been planning one for the longest time, but there were always scheduling conflicts. This time, the stars were in alignment, so we walked to the nearby KBox.

Our session lasted from 1:30pm to 5pm. I lost count of how many songs we sang. Almost all of the songs were Chinese. That's one thing that makes me feel weird about going to karaokes: it seems that people tend to sing Chinese songs.

I don't have a problem with Chinese songs. I listen to the occasional Sinopop, e.g. when it's played over someone else's radio. And I've attended enough karaoke sessions to memorise "小薇" (I think those are the characters), though not the more fun Hokkien version. I also learned that I liked "Superstar" from Taiwanese female pop group S.H.E. after an ex-colleague sang it, haha.

So given my limited knowledge of Chinese songs, I always feel like the odd one out when I sing my selection of English songs. Which can lead to the occasional bout of boredom. Of course, I could either increase my repertoire.

My playlist of the day: Air Supply's "All Out of Love" (accidentally keyed it in), Eric Clapton's "Wonderful Tonight", "小薇", Andy Williams' "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" (but gave up halfway because of the stupid video), Hoobastank's "The Reason" (darn it, I can't reach the high notes!), and t.A.T.u.'s "All the Things She Said".

And then it was a two-hour bus ride home.

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Technorati tags: karaoke, bloggers, Chinese

After an aborted attempt at karaoke before Chinese New Year, a few of us bloggers finally got around to organising a get-together. We were to meet at Settler's Cafe at Clarke Quay (really North Canal Road opposite the Speaker's Corner at Hong Lim Park).

Angela and I arrived slightly before 2pm, and even though the outlet was supposed to open at that time, it remained closed until about five minutes after. Such is Singaporean flexi-time that even establishments observe lateness.

Jeff joined us later, followed by Kelly and Eddy, "the host and hostess" because they made the reservation. We selected our package ($48 for six drinks, snacks, and two hours of gaming), ordered our drinks, then selected our games.

BTW Settler's Cafe is a hang-out place where you can play non-electronic games, e.g. board games, card games, etc.

We played:

1. "unknown name of card game"
   We are given a stack of cards with four "suits" corresponding to four different types of fruit (e.g. banana, grape, etc). Each card shows between one and five of the fruit (e.g. one banana, two grapes, etc). Each of us receives an equal number of cards.
   
   Going around the table, each person lays out a card. When there are five of a fruit showing (e.g. two grapes from player A and three grapes from player C = five grapes on the table), the first person to ring a bell gets all of the cards on the table. The objective is to gain all of the cards.
   
   I admit that I have a slow reaction. In the end, it came down to between Eddy and Angela, and Eddy finally won.
   
   
2. "Apples to Apples"
   This was probably the most subjective game. In the box are two stacks of cards: green and red cards. On each green card is an adjective (e.g. "important", "charming", etc.). On each red card is a noun (e.g. "Atomic bomb", "John F. Kennedy", etc.). Each person gets seven red cards.
   
   Going around the table, a person will be the "judge" and show a green card. The other players will then pick one of their red cards which they think best matches the adjective. The "judge" then decides which red card should win. The person who gave that red card wins the green card. The winner is the person who wins a certain number of green cards.
   
   Given how the winner is determined by the "judge"'s impartiality, wit and command of English, it is no wonder that I didn't think much of it. And no, it's not because I didn't win.
   
   
3. "Dawn Under"
   Each player is given fourteen "vampire" cards, facing down save for four. Each player also receives three "garlic" cards with a colour representing the player. Each vampire is a certain colour (e.g. red, white, etc.) On the board are several "graves" covered by "stone slabs". Each stone slab has a colour (e.g. red, white, etc.) or a rat.
   
   Going around the table, each player turns over a stone slab. If it has a colour (e.g. white) and the player has a vampire of that colour (e.g. white), then the vampire is placed in the grave. When a player has played his four face-up vampire cards, then he can reveal another four more from his deck.
   
   If the player doesn't have a corresponding vampire, then he can choose to place his garlic card in the grave.
   
   If the slab is a rat, the player can also choose to uncover the immediate surrounding slabs. The rat slab is then replaced by one of the extra slabs and it is not played again.
   
   If the grave is already occupied by another vampire, the player gets a stake. If a player collects three stakes, the other players give him one of their vampires each. If the grave has a garlic, then the one who placed that garlic will give a vampire to the player. If the garlic belongs to the player, then he receives a vampire from each of the other players.
   
   After a slab has been revealed and the corresponding action taken, the slab is replaced. The winner is the one who gets rid of all of his vampires.
   
   I quite enjoyed this game because it really is a memory game, since you have to remember which slabs have been revealed and what lies beneath. I'm pretty sure that a computer version could be programmed...
   
   
4. "I'm the Boss!"
   Another board game, this time about wheelin' and dealin'. Each person plays a character. At the start of the game, each player holds five "bargaining" cards. Each card has things like "send someone on a trip" or "stop the action" or "I'm the Boss!"
   
   Going around the table, a die is rolled and a token is moved to a square. Each square states how many investors are to be involved and the number of shares in play (e.g. 4 investors and 5 shares). On some squares, specific characters may also be mentioned who must be involved in that round.
   
   Then the bargaining begins because of the unequal number of shares. Any player can say how many shares he wants, and to back his statement up, can play one of his cards (e.g. "send someone on a trip" so that player is out of the negotiation) or negotiate with the other players. The other players can, of course, play their cards to get the upper hand.
   
   Once a deal is arrived at, each player then receives some money corresponding to the number of shares (e.g. $2 million per share). About every alternate round, the amount per share goes up by a million dollars. The objective is to earn the most money.
   
   Initially, since we were new to the game, we would make bargains like "okay, you can have two shares, we'll all get one each". But later, some of us got greedy, e.g. "I want all of the shares and you guys get nothing", which would inevitably lead to bargaining and jockeying. There was never a round where someone got all of the shares, but there were one or two where a few of us ganged up against another player.
   
   If it sounds confusing, that's because it is. But isn't the game of business confusing? Anyway, when all of the money was counted, and even though I thought I had made some bad negotiations, I won.

Chin called about an hour after we had started to ask where we were. It turned out that he had gone to the Holland Village branch, so he didn't join us. Stephanie stopped by later and joined for the last two rounds of "I'm the Boss!"

And then our gaming hours were up, so we just hung out until after 6pm. Eddy and Kelly left for an evening appointment, and the rest of us took a taxi to Marché for dinner. We thought that the fare would come up to the same as taking a train or bus. Haha, stupid youths.

We ate, talked cock, pondered what to do next, and in the end, we went our separate ways at about 8:30pm.

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Technorati tags: bloggers, Settler's Cafe, gathering, games

I met a few folks for dinner and drinks. It had been a while since we'd met altogether, so Stephanie suggested it. And since there was a new watering hole in town, she thought that we should check it out too.

We met for dinner at Food Republic at Wisma Atria. Food Republic, in spite of its name, is just another food court in a shopping mall. Therefore, it is crowded and noisy. There were lots of people waiting for a table. Haha, good luck. Fortunately, Chin had arrived early and managed to snag a table for us. I was the second-last to arrive at about 7:30pm.

Aside: I could've been slightly earlier but took a quick detour to see the new Apple Centre at Orchard. Two-second verdict: more on-hand testing of computers and iPods, pretty much the same in everything else.

One interesting thing about Food Republic: there are waitstaff pushing push-carts around the area, selling drinks and snacks. Very 1950-ish. But I imagine that it's quite tiring to jostle with the crowds.

We left about an hour later and made our way to The Balcony. Along the way, we stopped by a Motorola stand because Angela wanted to lust at the pink Razr V3.

The Balcony, as the name suggests, is a bar that is designed like a balcony at the side of The Heeren. Like a balcony, it is also open-air, so we were "refreshed" with cigarette smoke and vehicle fumes (it's near Orchard Road). Coupled with Singapore's weather, number of people (I estimate its capacity to be 150), and large pillows, and it is quite a hot place to be ("hot" in the sweaty-and-sticky sense, not the drop-dead gorgeous meaning).

We scored a place that was actually reserved, but if we agreed to leave by 10:30pm, then we could occupy the space. While other customers had to sit on hard chairs surrounding a small table, we had a white cushiony area surrounded by large pillows. I ordered a Bailey's, my first time drinking it, and it really is like chocolate milk!

Yew Jin and his fiance stopped by for a while, long enough for us to take a group photo. He also gave us some chocolate biscuits all the way from Down Under.

Chin treated us to drinks before leaving. Thanks!

I also ran into Inex. What a small world!

Unfortunately, the night ended on a rather downcast note. Angela downed a quarter glass of her Graveyard drink and felt its effects when we got up to leave. For the next hour and a half, we accompanied her as she slowly recovered. On a personal note, I got to talk with Jeff a bit more. While waiting for Angela at a restroom, we talked a bit about religion and philosophy. He raised an interesting argument which I hope I heard correctly:

We all know that the Earth is warmed by the Sun. Suppose a person believes that the Earth is warm because of geothermal heat. Because his belief is wrong, should he be denied the heat as the rest of us?

It was after 12:30am when Stephanie and Jeff sent Angela home while I took another cab back.

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Technorati tags: bloggers, gathering, The Balcony

Last night, I joined a few bloggers for drinks. Actually, most of us were the volunteers from Bloggers.SG and we had organised a get-together between ourselves. Then it became a whole Bloggers.SG organisers-and-volunteers reunion, and all the free drinks that go with that.

Okay, a bit of background. As I mentioned, a few of us had talked about meeting again at Hideout, that watering hole in town that is frequented by local blogebrities. I think the first person who mentioned this was Angela just before the doors to Bloggers.SG were opened. Then I mentioned it in my shout-out post-conference entry, though I don't know how much of that played a part in this gathering. Then Angela mentioned it again, together with Stephanie.

Around this time, the organiser-in-charge-of-volunteers, Sondra, had emailed us that the organisers wanted to organise a thank-you get-together for the volunteers. Someone mentioned to her that we were already organising our own get-together. Then one way or another, our gathering became the thank-you gathering.

Yes, you Bloggers.SG organisers, you piggy-backed on our plans! *grr* *gnash* haha

Hideout is located at Circular Road, and that road was in the press about a month ago because of the number of "health centres" that had sprouted up there. Now, by health centre, I mean "massage parlour", and by massage parlour, I mean "brothel". Yes, you can get a decent massage, but the objective is to get laid... according to what the papers report.

So while walking to the pub, which is about in the middle of the road, I decided to count the number of health centres. I could only spot two or three. There was another health centre/massage parlour, but it looked legit from its glass walls and rather open concept layout. No, I didn't go in.

However, there are a lot of watering holes at Circular Road, and these don't seem sleazy. I did notice an exclusive Gentleman's Club. The last time I saw one was in New Orleans. I couldn't tell what went on in the club, because it was on the second-storey of the shophouse. But there was a middle-aged decent-looking female bouncer sitting at the foot of the stairs, and I think by the word "exclusive", you need some kind of membership to get in. Maybe I shall explore it another time, when I'm feeling gutsier.

But yes, the pubs there seemed above the board. Maybe the papers were making a hoo-ha about the sex thing.

I arrived at Hideout at 9:30pm, thinking that there would only be a handful of people since the supposed meeting time was 9pm and this is Singapore-time. Turns out that bloggers are a different breed. There were already about 10 people there: Sondra, Angela, Stephanie, Yanying, Jeff, Yew Jin and his female friend, and Brendan (I think that's who it is, didn't really talk to him), and my sister and brother-in-law had just arrived. Most of them had arrived promptly at 9pm! I ordered the Miyagi Special, named after the local blogebrity. It's a sweet drink made of cranberry and blackcurrant and vodka. Nice and sweet!

Angela, Stephanie and Yanying kept asking when mr brown and Mr Miyagi would show up, especially the latter. Poor Sondra didn't have a ready answer. The three girls were like schoolgirls who were waiting to meet their newest pop idols, with eyes all a-flutter.

I didn't do much talking, just listened to the others. But then, I didn't think the place (or any pub, for that matter) is conducive for talking due to the relatively loud background music. And I have a soft voice. Sometimes I think I should smoke just to make my voice deeper. But I shouldn't smoke, so I won't.

The only person i talked to was Yanying. I had noticed a book sticking out of her bag: "History of Languages". I resisted from saying anything like "Wah, so cheem!" because I feel that such statements make the other person think that they may be typecast or treated as outcasts. Does that make sense? Anyway, I asked her about it and she said she was interested in languages, but the book wasn't really what she was looking for.

Angela and Stephanie whipped out their cameras and started blinding us with flashes, though they didn't allow their own faces to be taken. However, Angela, Yanying and I did an impersonation of the three monkeys "See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil" for a photo. I'll have to get that photo. I wanted to bring my camera too, but only remembered about it while at work.

The barflies showed up later and then it got really noisier. And then this photographer guy with a huge professional camera (who may have been a barfly) started taking pictures of us. Ordinarily, I wouldn't mind letting my picture be taken, but in this case, I felt revulsed by this invasion of privacy, so I hid my face where possible.

mr brown showed up around 11pm. We teased him because he went around to meet other people who were at the bar before coming to us finally, even though he was a conference organiser and we were the volunteers. He bought us a round of drinks (I had plain ol' Coca Cola), then chatted with us. He also told us about his job: he comes up with the sitemap for his clients' websites, then pushes the job to his employees. It's that easy??? Mr Miyagi showed up later and we sang him a birthday song. He joined us and chatted for a while.

I finally left at about 11:30pm and decided to explore the other half of Circular Road. Of note, I found another health centre and one interesting pub. This pub had glass walls, but the women standing outside were in these short tight tops and super-short denim shorts. I happened to look at one of them and she asked if I wanted to go in. I shook my hand and walked on. From what I could glimpse inside that pub, it was like any other pub, i.e. people sitting around and drinking. So I don't know what role these woman play, besides attracting male clientele.

Having recced the area to my heart's content, I jumped in a cab and returned home.

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Technorati tags: bloggers, gathering, hideout