The world is just..awesome?

You can view the description of this picture from my flickr account. Here.

But I would like to think that in a metropolitan society like Singapore, with all the "education" we get and all, you would think that we would bother to stop and help these people (I'm not saying the man in the picture wants charity, but maybe simply for someone to buy his epok epok).

Sitting by the edge of the traffic-light controlled pedestrian crossing, I saw crowds walk past him and some even kicking his shoes (not out of ill-will but out of remiss rather) and overheard this lady mutter something about "being a complete nuisance".

I suppose (some) Singaporeans are too full of themselves (me included) to notice the little disparities that we ourselves choose not to see in society today.

Such as when I was with Ira and Melody at Raffles City on the way home. A partially-blind man (Mr Kumar) bumped into me. He politely asked to be excused and I gave way. I saw him walk into a shoe store and the sales assistant kindly showed him out to the way of the MRT. Still keeping an eye on him, he walked straight just as the sales assistant told him to and despite having a blind stick, oncoming people can just walk straight towards him, probably thinking that Mr Kumar would be the one to avoid those lovely people that have the gift of vision.

In the end, I decided to help Mr Kumar by guiding him to the mrt.

I'm no saint thats for sure. I did (maybe still doing) my fair share of pushing people to get though crowds, blocking the mrt doors to ensure myself a seat during peak hour and maybe once or twice laughing at random schoolboys on the street. But at least have the common decency to look out for people that aren't as fortunate as you or me right? (The visually impaired, the pregnant, the aging, the homeless etc).

Seems like nobody cares about anyone else anymore.

Have a...Seat?

This was taken at the Burger King located in the basement of Raffles City. I thought it might be...well... funny to share with the world (that is 5 readers of this blog).

Well, I suppose anyone could make a mistake like this. "Would you like to (have the) seat down, ma'am?"

The Script - Before The Worst

Glad to see (and hear) there's some real (though its subjective) left in the world. Haha.

Somali Pirates Tell Their Side: They Want Only Money

This is from the nytimes.com -

United States Navy, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

This is about Somali pirates hijacking a "Ukrainian freighter loaded with tanks, artillery, grenade launchers and ammunition".

Quote from nytimes.com:

"He insisted that the pirates were not interested in the weapons and had no plans to sell them to Islamist insurgents battling Somalia’s weak transitional government. “Somalia has suffered from many years of destruction because of all these weapons,” he said. “We don’t want that suffering and chaos to continue. We are not going to offload the weapons. We just want the money.”

He said the pirates were asking for $20 million in cash; “we don’t use any other system than cash.” But he added that they were willing to bargain. “That’s deal-making,” he explained.

Piracy in Somalia is a highly organized, lucrative, ransom-driven business. Just this year, pirates hijacked more than 25 ships..."

--

Firstly, this isn't a really good time to be asking for ransom money now is it? (Hint: Post- financial crisis)

Secondly, if the pirates don't get $20 million, they might bargain for $10 million. I guess even pirates feel the pinch from the results of the financial crisis.

Twilight

I'm reading it.

Bloody Sink at Junct8n

This is the scene of a bloody sink at Bishan Junction 8 Shopping Centre. Its these type of scenes that makes me wonder what goes on before I got there to see it - well in this case, a bloody sink. Did the person have a bloody nose? Didnt look like it. Was he bleeding from the mouth? What happened if he or she was? Did someone punch the person? Did something hit them instead?

Nothing like the sight of blood to get the brain working. Sometimes I wished my synapses fired off as fast as it did during other times (such as PRNJRN class for example) rather than when I am washing my hands after taking a leak.


On another note, I'm quite pleased at the thought of having a cellphone with a in-built camera. It allows you to take such eye-catching pictures on the spot. Such as Autobot Honda (See post below). Or when the time I was in a bus and this rather tough looking fella was wearing a "I'm next to stupid" T-shirt (while sitting next to a rather nerdy looking fella).


Everyone is raving on about the speed of information when it gets uploaded to the net. (Insert long paragraph(s) about how the Internet is the future of Journalism blah blah blah and how the newspaper is dying).

It's true that the newspaper is dying. And the Internet paving way for Information dissemination to be more immediate and relevant.

But what if the Internet failed on us? What if undersea cables failed? What would be fall back on for information? Gossip from hearsay?

There's always a place for paper in these day and age. Why, think about it. You PRINT your emails out to file correct?

I am Brian Cheong and I need to go for a meeting in an hour.

Autobot in Disguise

Incognito

Sian in 4 weeks

It will be four weeks to crunch time (specifically layout). And I haven't sorted everything out yet.

1. Stories to come in
2. Edit
3. Get pictures
4. Design
5. Layout
6. Proof
7. Send to the Printer

7 Steps to finish a magazine. Four weeks to do it.

It's not as easy as it looks on paper (or blog).


On another note, I've finished 3 books in a week,

.Man & Boy by Tony Parsons
.Sold by Tess Stevens
.Crusade by Robyn Young

Edit: (Probably in the next two days) .The Sorrows of an American by Siri Hustvedt

With the exception of Crusade, I'm starting to like autobiographical books. Will probably do a running commentary on the books if I have time. (Well, I tried it with tuesdays with Morrie.)

Shows how free I am when I shouldnt.

Just before

Just before
Originally uploaded by rixban

I would like to think that when i took this picture, it was just another photo i was gonna take to post-process in photoshop. But now that i've looked at it again, by not inclusing the the words that came right after these two (I chose not to include in the picture)... leaves alot more to the imagination to fill.

So comment, what are the words you would like to put after, "Just before".

Well then...

that makes me a disgusting person wouldn't it?

":)"

hype issue 2

This is hype magazine, Issue 2, from way back in 1996.

Currently I'm working on Issue 28. And honestly, i like the grungy design that the first few hype's had. Hopefully i'll work that into my issue.

Wish me luck.