Uncorking

September 9, 2011 Leave a comment

(Photo Taken: A perfect “Made-in-Indonesia” souvenir gift for my drinking buddy, Harshad. Use it wisely, buddy, you need this badly – before and after drinks.)

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Neurowear Vol.1 “Necomimi”（脳波で動く猫耳）

August 25, 2011 Leave a comment


Nice cool headwear that echo your brainwave, giving you the extra body language you need. I am sure it will release more “ears” (Bunnie, Elf etc). I hope “Neurowear” comes up with more uncanny body parts – like the NeuroTail (kinky!) or even colour-changing NeuroHorn. Maybe NeuroNose to detect liars. For me, I would love to put on a big “NeuroWings” to fly!

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Momentos of my Journey

August 21, 2011 Leave a comment


(Photos Taken: 5 short years, 100 over momentos (hotel cards & matchboxes) – little free tokens I took from the hotels where I stayed. They are small and compact. It doesn’t take a lot of space to keep. My favorite cards are from Westin Hotel and matchboxes from Shangri-la Hotel. It is getting more difficult to collect those matchboxes as more and more hotels are switching to “lighters” instead. Also, I have no idea what I am going to do with these match sticks collection. I don’t smoke and I don’t light up candles at home. These matches are sure useful if there is a big blackout. Maybe I shall use them to light up a camp fire for my next trip.)

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Smurfs Soccer

August 14, 2011 Leave a comment


(Photo Taken: Smurftastic Soccer outside Cathay, Orchard Road, Singapore – See that big yellow card? Best to keep your hands off these smurfs. PAPa Smurf won’t hesitate to show you the red card. These little blue things may be our very best/last hope for World Cup Finals in Brazil in 2014.)

Filed under Cool Stuffs, Life in Singapore

The Universal Remote Control “Magic Wand”

August 8, 2011 2 Comments

Thanks to the wizards at the UK-based “Wand Company” (and Valerie who recommended these gadgets) – I was bestowed with more “wand power” tonight. Okay, I must admit the “Harry Potter Fever” is getting a little out of control. First, it was the illuminating Harry Potter’s “Lumos Wand” I received on my birthday. And now, I got myself 2 more powerful wands.  “Let there be light!” I swung the wand and the candle lighted up. “Summon the cold wind!” and the air-con turned on. Amazing!

This is no ordinary wand. Strike the wand and the TV turns on. Swing left to switch the channel. Scroll the wand to control the volume. Swing the wand to turn on the air-con. Swing up and down to control the temperature. Tap the wand to switch on the lights in the house. Double-tap to switch off the lights. Swipe left and right to control the pages on the Powerpoint. The possibilities are endless – You can “teach” this wand to copy any remote control commands with simple gestures. Simple put the wand and the remote-control head-to-head and the wand will record the signals. Imagine putting the air-con, the iMAC and TV controls all into one wand. Awesome!

I hope the Wand Company (visit their website here) can designed more fancy wands with more powerful capabilities (camera, lighter, laser, mini blow-torch, flare pods, lightning rod, fireworks). Perhaps in the form of a walking stick so I can play Moses for a day.

Right now, I got this strange premonition that my wife is going to cast some guilt-stricken spells on me soon. Mmm…I don’t need much magic power to see that “frown” and “nags” coming.


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Magnetic Snap-on SLR Lenses for iPhone

August 3, 2011 1 Comment

Thanks to my friend Sidney – He recommended these handy magnetic snap-on “SLR” lenses for my iPhone. In fact, these lenses surfaced on the internet some 2-3 years ago and are compatible with other mobile devices like Blackberry and iPad 2. I was skeptical about its quality until I tried it on Sidney’s phone a week ago. Surprisingly, the lens produce pretty good-quality image (See below). Unlike the other expensive iPhone lenses (which are bulky and heavy), these magnetic lenses are excellent travel accessories (robust and light). Fixing the lens is super easy – stick a metal “C” ring around the camera and the powerful magnetic lens will snap onto it. The price? It has gone down from USD20 to SGD12.50/lens. Well, it is never too late to own one. A shame that not many Apple reseller shops are carrying these stocks.

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The Great Fakes of China

August 2, 2011 Leave a comment



I remember an amusing story about a Chinese father who bought a Husky puppy from a local pet shop as a Christmas gift for his daughter. A month later, their neighbors called in the police to complain about the dog’s late night howling. It was only then the father realized he was ripped off by his despicable country mate. What he got wasn’t a pure-bred Husky. It was no Husky at all. The pet shop sold him a wild wolf! Imagine that…the pet shop owner actually caught or bred wolf to sell as Husky. (Personally, I would have thought the wolf worth more money that the Husky!) I can’t blame the poor father – Husky and wolf look pretty similar.

Just 3 weeks ago, news about the fake “Apple Shop” in Kunming surprised everyone how serious piracy has become in China. The Chinese has gone beyond imitating goods. Now, the pirates are also imitating the brand experience and services! This morning, Felicia messaged me another fake-look-alike store in Kunming. This time, it is about a fake Ikea.

News from China always amuse me. The Chinese did it again! Nowhere else in the world except in China where you uncover so many bizarre news. Few years ago, the Chinese (without any notice) fired a missile up into space to blow up their own weather-satellite. Of course, that made the American very worried – now that the Chinese has the sole capability to fire missile into space. But the Chinese leader explained causally to the American “Don’t worry comrade, that was no weapon of destruction at all. We just find it cumbersome to bring our satellite back to earth. It is just a simple device we used to do some house-cleaning in space.” The underlying message (or subtle warning) to the American was “Time to move your spy satellite elsewhere. Stop peeping on us!”

Now, the great fakes of China are surfacing. It is incredible! From fake melamine-laced milk to the recent exploding watermelon, the Chinese are just so good in reverse-engineering. (Fake eggs, fake Disneyland and more!) And just 3 months ago, there was even fake ATM machine! Chinese has already mastered in controlling the weather – fake rain, fake snow. It won’t be long before the Chinese flies fake airlines. Who knows, maybe the Chinese isn’t interested in landing on the moon. They are planning to orbit a new moon (with Chang-er and bunny) up in space! Here are some of China’s great fakes.

Filed under Cool Stuffs, Jo's Thoughts

Cosplayers save the show

August 1, 2011 Leave a comment

The Hong Kong Ani-Comic & Game Fair organizers should thank these cosplayers for saving their show. Without them, the show stinks. Small and cheap-looking exhibition stands, poor space management and lacking of big international names, there was little to impress at the venue. Nothing new and spectacular, the only attraction worth watching was the hordes of cosplayers and the shutterbugs.

Browsing and shopping in the show was a nightmare. The exhibitors walled themselves in small pathetic stands and setup barricades to control footfall into their booths (one in one out concept). There were long queues everywhere – especially at those more popular stands. Walking passage was narrow and tight. Time after time, announcements of lost kids and parents were played over the air. It was more of “messy” than “exciting”.

No doubt, the cosplayers were the stars of the show. Some of those costumes looked very real (example: Iron-man, Transformer etc). Posing tirelessly for the shutterbugs, these colorful pretty characters froze the traffic to a standstill.

Filed under Cool Stuffs, Life in Hong Kong

Shredded Pop Icons by Yoo Young-Wun

July 31, 2011 1 Comment

(Photo Taken: “The Power of Art” – Times Square Hong Kong – Made of shredded papers from scrapped magazines, textbooks, catalogs and flyers, these paper sculptures of pop icons are the uncanny works by Korean artist, Yoo Young-Wun.  The artist has a twisted humor in blending east and west icons in his works. From “Obama the Monkey God” to “George the Pope Monk“, the exhibition presented a colourful array of today’s pop identities and brands.)

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Magic in the Clouds – Contrail and Glory

July 24, 2011 Leave a comment



(Photo Taken: Beautiful “glory” (that is the name of the rainbow ring around the plane’s shadow) and mesmerizing “contrail“ (smoke trail from jets) – on my flight from Singapore to Hong Kong. Normally, I would draw down the window shade after the seat-belt sign is off (and watch the inflight movies). I am glad I left the shade up today. I was greeted by some very rare and up-close displays of glory and contrail in the clouds. Certainly a great way to fly!)

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