Today I solved a mystery. During my flights I always observed the in-flight display showing the flight route. And during my flights to the States, I always wonder why the flight route was an arc towards Russia and Alaska instead of flying straight across the Pacific ocean.

Wouldn’t that be more expensive & time-consuming to fly a longer route? Flying closer to land for safety and emergency? Airspace issues? Wind support in the route to fly faster?

In fact, the plane was flying the shortest route, just that the line became curved when shown on a flat map. The phenomenon is called the Great Circle. I managed to find a Great Circle Mapper, and plotted the route from SIN to SFO.

Presto! Adding the fact that I had to stop over at ICN or HKG, the path became so much like the ones I took. It also means if there was a camera looking at me here facing SFO, and zoomed out of Earth so much that I could see the straight-line route on the globe surface, I would actually see Alaska along the way! I couldn’t have imagined it since my mind was stuck with the regular flat map. (and I wonder if anyone else understands what I am describing…)

Now I’m satisfied I actually took the shortest distance.

Having just came back from a extended working trip I’m trying my best to fill in my experience, at the same time juggling workload.

But things are just getting complicated.. just seems to be going against me.. I am mentally drained.. emotionally drained..

Song of the moment: 陈洁仪 – 天冷就回来

I’m looking out for a new phone recently as my current phone has only dualband; I’ve downgraded from an early Symbian to S40 previously coz of the (first) phone I lost. I took a look at what I wrote in my wishlist:

Candybar phone, light, thin with bluetooth, memory card, cable to PC, simple camera, GPS, wifi/3G, Java, no stylus (this model does not exist!)

I probably wrote this some time back, as such models are in existence already! For example the just released N78 Singtel is promoting now. Maybe not thin and light enough for today’s standards, but I think it is compact enough to be sooo feature-packed. What I didn’t specify in that list are price and design of the phone. By the promotion ($288 2-yr plan, or $0 with trade-in & higher plan) price is really quite worth it for such the entire suite of features.

BUT, too bad, the design is really way out. The look of the phone is pretty good, but the buttons are out of place! I can’t reach the ‘C’ button at all without shifting my grip on the phone. That’s quite a minus to me, the reason I dislike stylus is because I prefer a 1-hand operation, and shifting like this is not good for 1-hand; it’ll slip off easily. The keypad is also not big enough or well separated, unlike my current one which I can do some operations without looking (I can select snooze, off alarm, go to inbox, and other tasks by just feeling my phone while asleep now)

Looking at other phones in the N-series they’re quite close to “my” specs, so hopefully one comes that meets all my requirements or miss the insignificant features. Upcoming 6220 classic (Q308?) have almost the same features as N78, appears to have better buttons, but no Wifi. I’m still considering if Wifi can be dropped with this feature set, its like… I have to pay for surfing? IM? Use GPS with maps? Replace with GPRS/3G? Maybe its even more practical as I need not be in a hotspot, but the charges need to be reasonable. Finally, the price of the phone needs to win me over…

Just watched 綜藝大哥大 showing magic show, and really amazed by some of them. I am especially attracted to street style magic, rather than the stage or majestic style where crafted props are involved. With the props you can make things happen, but I feel street magic is more challenging due to the close proximity of the audience and the angles they can see you from. In addition it should cause non-prepared objects go into a seemingly impossible state, right before your eyes.

And they have formal magic studies (Harry Potter anyone?) and discuss terms like “misdirection” and “penatration”. In the show the magician pushed a bottle cap into a wine bottle, from the bottom. The mouth of the bottle is smaller than the cap, so there is no obvious way the cap can get in, and when its in it was checked: you can’t really pour it out. Second was even more amazing, he borrowed 3 rings from the audience, and interlocked them together in his hands. Really cannot imagine how he did that. But he did it.

No need for playing cards or magic wands to amaze me.

I got to take back my comment that said I’ve no cable, coz just last night, within one hour, I’m on Starhub CableTV! There was a door-to-door offer for a 4-month 50% off contract of CableTV, with Sports channel free (for Euro Cup), all setup fees waived.

Well, if you look directly at my family needs, we don’t really watch a lot of TV, we don’t watch soccer, so it looks like a waste of money. But actually I’ve been waiting for them to approach us to sign up CableTV, so that we become a HubClub member. If I’m not wrong the discounts we get actually offsets (likely exceed) a basic CableTV package, so we might as well get it. Also, the new mobile discount scheme can give us up to 25% considering our household has 3 Starhub Mobiles. Adding to the point that my dad’s monthly bill alone exceeds $100, this shaves at least $25 off monthly. (Guess who’s paying his bill?)

Previously I did receive a call to ask us to subscribe, but when I asked him to send us the details of the promotion as it was quite confusing over the phone, he agreed but didn’t. So he blew a chance. Now with a good offer knocking at my doorstep, installed within an hour, at 10.30pm, some people might just call this “the work of God”… (the 10.30pm was significant to me because the previous Starhub Internet free installation had to take place in the day, and I had to schedule it on a weekend a few weeks later)

One bad point about this is I have to reteach my parents how to use the complex remote control. I whipped up a large-font instructions and channel list for them, but it’s likely they’ll take some time to catch on.

Now I’m wondering my house will become a campsite for Euro 2008, or maybe I’ll now stay home everyday and watch Discovery, National Geographic and Animal Planet…

I finally caught Ironman with angdao today. With only 2 screenings on a Saturday I believe its ending soon. I was famished after the show, and we decided to try out the crab bee hoon that angdao’s colleague recommended near his “future home”. Sorry there’re no photos at all, so concoct your own mental images.

The stall was a regular coffee shop stall at the void deck of a HDB block. We had to order before we were allowed to seat. We were told by angdao’s colleague that we might need to wait for an hour or so, but I think we were lucky we reached early and there were many empty seats still. He was right because just about 10minutes later the queue started to form and they had to wait for seats.

And so we were lucky to be served in about half an hour. 1 whole crab in a claypot, milky soup and bee hoon underneath. The soup was very crabby (tastes of crab) and the bee hoon was the 鱼片米粉 type. The crab had a good amount of meat. They offered a variety of other side dishes, I saw many people ordering the 小馒头s, but we only tried the bee hoon only (and a 油条rojak). Glad we didn’t order more, cos I was very full after the whole event. angdao did also comment the teh si kosong was surprisingly good.

We were quite “impressed” with their “customer service” as well, they knew what the customers wanted and needed and provided them.

1. When the queue formed up to be longer, they shifted the entire queue out to near the car park area, to facilitate staff movement within the coffee shop and breathing space for the queue-ers.
2. They allowed a guy to take a big table to wait for his friends, but when they never came after many minutes, a staff politely advised him to give up his table first for people in queue. The guy obliged.
3. There were 3 basins in the toilet (more than typical coffee shop) and each basin had a big bottle of soap (dishwasher actually) for handwashing. What everyone needs after a crabby meal.
4. Most amusing was in the midst of our meal, one of their staff stepped out with a whistle and a loudspeaker. She blew the whistle loudly into the loudspeaker, and shouted “CAR PARK 来了!!!”, and you can see many people scrambling to the car park. I’ve seen kopitiam people shouting when the pontianak comes, but this is the first time I see a formal version, with whistles and loudspeakers, as part of their “operating processes”.

A few spoilers: Firstly, there was a little ant in the soup when it came. Not sure which stage it got into the soup, but probably the last cos it was floating right on top. Secondly, at the end of the meal, a cleaner attempted to “chase” us off when she asked if we are still eating and prompted us to bill. It was probably OK as there was already a long queue, but when angdao said we wanted to finish our drink before billing, she didn’t proceed to clear the dishes, even when she has already offered to do so.

Overall it was great; good food, organized operations, meaningful service, and deserves a 4/5 from me!

Mellben Seafood
Add: Blk 232 Ang Mo Kio Ave 3 #01-1222
Tel: 6285 6762
Bus: 166, 169 from AMK Interchange

Nice song, and I like the way different people sing it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5BxymuiAxQ

Didn’t like the music, but I enjoy the first few buses alot. I admire the creativeness to make use of an existing component to illustrate a new idea. Such as the first bus in a bus. SBS has this too, but its the back view of the bus. The kissers on the door, smoking picture using exhaust pipe, bendy toothbrush using bendy bus. The rest sucks.
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/787885/painted_buses/

Nature that I will probably never get to see in my life. The photographers are fantastic too to be able to capture these shots. Of all I hope to see 13. Mammatus Clouds the most.
http://listverse.com/science/20-amazing-and-unusual-weather-phenomena/

I was on my way to work this morning, walking from the bus interchange to my office. Along the way, there is this 2-direction 3-lane straight road I had to cross, and vehicles along this path usually run fast and furious. There is no traffic light near enough, nor were there barriers in the middle of the road, so it is typical that everyone just waits for a chance to get across the road.

While I stood on the pavement waiting for traffic I noticed this sort-of drunk, unstable and wobbling from side to side as if trying to maintain balance. Then it happened. A black sedan car hit right on, and I could hear an obvious audible ‘BOM’. The body was flung to the next lane, and the wheel of the van on the other lane ran over it. The black car didn’t brake or slow down at all, it just hit and run. The vehicles were quite fast, and there were other cars behind which quickly blocked the view so I didn’t even get to see the car number plate.

I didn’t know what else I could do, so I decided to eat vegetarian for lunch.

Poor bird…

For those who don’t know Mandarin (probably none reading my blog), the title means “asking for directions”. I don’t know about others, but I keep getting 问路ed by people.

I just got asked again by a lady before I reached home just now. Few days back I got asked by an (educated) Indian man trying to travel from Clarke Quay to Farrer Park. And to think I didn’t really want to go to Clarke Quay that day — I was going to Orchard via Dhoby Ghaut when I overshot the NEL by a stop. Ended up “helping” him while waiting for the train back.

I still recall there were many times both tourists and locals ask for directions when I worked in town, especially before I cross the junction between Merchant Road and Eu Tong Sen Street. Once my colleague and I pointed in exact opposite directions when asked for the nearest MRT station, because Clarke Quay and Chinatown was just as far in both directions. Most memorable was a falungong member who had a big wooden signboard hanging on his neck asking where the Supreme Court is, near Furama Hotel. We were wondering if he’s going there to support a case hearing, and only realized later that we accidentally pointed him to the Subordinate Courts direction instead of the Supreme Court…

Maybe the reason is one of the following…

1. Everyone gets asked the same number of times, I’m just oversensitive.
2. I look like a map.
3. I always stand beside the map.
4. I look like I 混 everywhere.
5. I look friendly, helpful and approachable.

Maybe I’m just oversensitive.

I called up CPF to enquire the process for applying WIS for my mum. Actual conversation have been condensed for easy-reading.

Me: The application steps involve doing some registration followed by contribution of a sum of money to Medisave, how I can verify that she will receive the WIS payout, before the deadline of 31 March?

Helpdesk: She’ll know when she receives a letter in late April, followed by the payment in about May.

Methinks: (Maybe you didn’t hear my date…)
Me: She wants to check that she will receive the payout for doing all these troublesome things, and so that she can react to confirm it before the deadline is up.

Helpdesk: Don’t worry, you’ll will know once we receive the letter. The letter will specify when she will receive the payout and how much she will receive.

Methinks: (You’re not address my concern…)
Me: Is there some sort of confirmation to assure her she will receive the WIS after these procedures, before the deadline is up, so that she can find out what she missed and do it before the deadline of 31 March?

* more minutes of ding dong *

Helpdesk: OK, ok. I’ll check for you. Please hold on for a moment…

*music*

Helpdesk: Sorry to keep you waiting, but there’s no sort of confirmation that you can get. You can trust what I tell you and you will get your WIS.

Me: OK I guess I have no choice. Maybe this can be a feedback that some service should be available to assure WIS applicants that all the stuff they did will be translated to a payout.

Helpdesk: Actually you can appeal after that if you do not receive it, but it’ll be a case-by-case basis.

Methinks: (you’re not getting the point of “troublesome procedures”…)
Me: Yeah, but I’m not the one applying and she already feels doing all these is troublesome enough. An appeal would throw her off totally. So can you feedback my point to the WIS committee?

Helpdesk: OK, for your feedback you can email it to wis@alreadyturnedoffatthispoint.gov.sg … … …

Me: *interrupts* OK since I’m telling this now why not you just send up the feedback for me.

Helpdesk: Oh because you have to do it through the Internet then MOM will also get the notification and … … …

Me: OK OK never mind, I’ll drop the feedback then. May I suggest then you improve your feedback channels then…

Helpdesk: Er…

Me: Thanks for your help. Bye.