E V E R Y D A Y . B E A U T I F U L . P U R P O S E F U L
November 10, 2012 Leave a comment
(Photo Taken: Already in town – Meet Lego Santa at Times Square, Hong Kong. This is awesome! Can’t wait to bring Elkan there next weekend! Elkan and Felicia were there last night! They love it! Congrats Times Square, you never fail to surprise and impress us, year after year!)
November 10, 2012 Leave a comment
Behind every love story, there is always a twisted version. The minute I received these candid photos from Joey, I decided to publish them into a beautiful movie storyboard. I thought of an uncanny tale of a “38-year-old golden virgin” and “Sinderella” plus “hangover”. Surely it is one epic love story – as twisted as Twilight. Your hearts & show must go on. I bet Lionnel and Joey are speechless right now (after seeing this stunning post on my blog!).
October 27, 2012 Leave a comment
(Photo Taken: Fishy Night – Halloween Week, OceanPark, Hong Kong)
October 27, 2012 Leave a comment
It is ghost-hunting season. Tracy and I had a date with Jaslyn (the official 141st HK Visitor) 3 months ago to see ghosts. We intended to bring Jaslyn to the most popular haunted hill in Hong Kong – OceanPark. However, Tracy stood us up chicken out at the very last minute and Harshad stood in for her.
The legendary OceanPark was quite a let-down. It looked low-budget, unexciting and very boring.There was hardly any Halloween atmosphere at all. Gone were the thick misty paths, ghostly sounds, scary characters and haunted light effects. The park used to be dim and errie at this time of the year. It was so bright and “clean” – there was nothing to keep the visitors frightened. It felt like walking along Queen’s Road Central at midnight. For the very least, the park owners should create more eerie effects for visitors in the queue. (The background music outside the haunted houses was that annoying Gangnam Style track! How scary can that be???) There was no suspense and zero fear factor. I noticed there were lesser “wandering ghosts” terrorising the visitors this season. The ghosts didn’t feel scary – they looked more like comic characters. Jaslyn thought we brought her to some cosplay theme-park.
Nevertheless, I had 2 very great ghost-hunters tonight. We explored 2 haunted houses and that was enough to freak the hell out of Jaslyn. We also took a lot of photos with “Tracy-possessed characters”. The climax of the night wasn’t any Halloween-related features. It was PSY-Double (topless with a pair of man’s boobs) plus a couple of hot sexy Korean girl/box bands wannabes who saved the day. Something is certainly very wrong at OceanPark. What a ghostless and soulless night. I guess it is time to vacant the park and haunt hunt elsewhere next year.
October 25, 2012 8 Comments
Whatsapp is becoming annoying. Almost too stalker-friendly. I don’t care if all my friends, business contacts are using Whatsapp. I have deleted the app and switching over to Viber. Even WeChat or QQ are more user-friendly.
What’s wrong with Whatsapp? First of all, it is not travel-friendly. Whenever I travel, I carry 2 phones. Whatsapp is tagged to a unique telephone number, therefore, my contacts have to know which account they need to send messages to. Skype or Facebook Messaging do not have this problem as it is cloud-based communicator.
Second, Whatsapp “time-stamp” your last online status. This is the most annoying privacy-intrusive function! I have no idea why the developer wants to include such a feature. But it is a disturbing tool for stalkers to track one’s availability. You can disable the “time-stamp” function but the app will still reveal your online and offline status. Without you knowing, anyone can check if you are active or not. This function is stupid and should be disable permanently.
Last night, a friend of mine was chasing me for some stuff. At 2am, he buzzed me and I didn’t want to answer his call. He left me a very disturbing message in my Whatsapp – “I know you are still awake…cos I can see you online”. WTF?!!!! That was the last straw for me. I deleted the account today. (Honestly, he is not the first one who abused Whatsapp!)
Lastly, Whatsapp scanned your contact list and displayed their names automatically. However, it doesn’t check the “locality” and the “accuracy” of these numbers. For example, John is my friend in Singapore and his number is 9876 5432. When I travel to Hong Kong, this same number 9876 5432 will be displayed as “John” in my Whatsapp contact list. However, it is not the same “John”. If you didn’t specify the country code in front of all your telephone numbers, Whatsapp will automatically link you up with the local number displaying the same name. Now, that is dangerous and it happened to me.
Last year, I was chatting with a complete Hong Kong stranger cos’ he appeared in my list as “Hock” (cos he shared the same number as the real “Hock” – I didn’t list the country code number in front of his number). Anyway, this idiot stranger whom we all mistaken as “Hock” chatted with the group for a long time. It was only after 9 months later when I chatted with the real “Hock”, he couldn’t recall any single dialogue he chatted with us. It was only after a quick call with the real Hock when I realised our group of friends have been chatting with the fake one. Of course, I blasted that jerk for his dishonestly. He thought it was pretty fun so he acted along. To avoid another mistake like this, I have to update the “country code” in all my Singapore and Hong Kong 8-digit contacts.
To me, Whatsapp started off as a convenient tool across different platform – IOS, Blackberry or Android but it is not the only app that offers that. What’s painful is its lack of privacy and inconvenience for traveler like me. As I started reading about its security issues of not encrypting our private messages, I believe I had enough.
So, I am deactivating my Whatsapp account today. I am not going to save money by losing my privacy. (It is not entirely free anyway as it uses data-plans). I am now on WeChat, Viber and Skype (which offers 256-bit AES encryption key). Anyway, most of my wiser friends in China don’t Whatsapp, they QQ/WeChat instead. Well, for those who want to know if I am sleeping, active or inactive, try calling me instead. Stop spying my status cos’ you can’t now.
October 23, 2012 Leave a comment
Today is a very special day for one of my brothers. Scott, my dear playboy comrade from Singapore, married Zoe – a very beautiful, caring and loving girl from Hong Kong. This is one special day that I have been waiting for a long long time. Life is just full of surprises. This is the reason why God brought Scott to Hong Kong. “It was so unreal, I couldn’t believe Scott’s finally married”, I told Harshad and Tracy at the church this morning. For so many years, Scott has been waiting for that very special girl. I guess it was a Scott-Joe Curse, none of his previous girlfriends he introduced (to me) last long. They were great girls but they weren’t fated to be his special one. So, I made a pact with Scott 2 years ago when he tried to introduce his new girlfriend to me. I told him “Bro, I am not going to meet your girlfriend. I will only meet your wife!”
This morning, I finally met Zoe for the first time. There she was, walking down the aisle with her daddy. Zoe is gorgeous and wonderfully beautiful. There is something about her. She is certainly the one who is able to tame this brother of mine. Scott and Zoe are perfectly made for one another. I feel so happy for both of them.
Something else in the church caught my attention – a statement marked on the side of the matrimony desk. It says “This Do in remembrance of Me.” A simple vow that marks the beginning of a great journey of will, commitment, strength, faith and love. The statement reminded me of the day when Felicia and I said “We Do” – Scott was there for me. And now here, my heartiest congrats and wishes for Scott and Zoe. And may you two remember this special day and time – 11:45am – your new chapter begins.
October 21, 2012 Leave a comment
For years, Hong Kong has been blasting us with their most infamous phase “Delay No More” by GOD (Goods of Desire). Finally, someone in Singapore has created retaliated with our very own Super Pun “超级白”! Thanks to Singapore’s top designers Casey and Eugene, they got me a very special limited edition SuperWhite T-shirt. Best of all, I got my favourite serial number “Box 2 of 100”! I promised the designer to parade his t-shirt in front of the Hong Kong Victoria Harbour! Bet I am the first to glorify this in Hong Kong. Sadly, only the Singaporean, Malaysian and Taiwanese would understand this pun. I love the disclaimer printed on the packaging – it says “Sworn by Generations. Use with care.” Hahah.. so true. My dad and my Ah Beng buddies will love this! I am looking forward to their next edition!
If you wish to own this very special Made-in-Singapore Limited Edition T-shirt (Price: SGD35), chat with the friendly creators at SuperWhite @ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WeAreSuperWhite. Enjoy the video below!
October 21, 2012 Leave a comment
Imagine having a bowl of goldfish without the hassle to maintain it. The water is perpetually clear and there is no need to feed the fish. Yes, such pet exists and it comes with a hefty price tag. If you can afford to pay HKD36,000 for a goldfish, head down to Harbour City today. (Seriously, I almost paid for one until Echo pulled me out of this magical fish gallery!)
Japanese artist Riusuke Fukahori is here! His 3D goldfish art is legendary. I was at his gallery this afternoon and I overheard some old ladies’ funny conversations about the goldfish artworks. “Ai yoo…this artist is so sick. He made a live sample out of this poor living fish!” I can’t blame their ignorance, his paintings are so amazingly realistic that they are easily mistaken as real fish in resin. No wonder the old ladies walked away in disgust, these are marvellous optical illusions.
Riusuke Fukahor’s works are now on display at Harbour City (Level 2, Gallery), Hong Kong from 18th Oct to 5th Nov 2012. Check out how he painted those realistic fish, watch the youtube video below:
October 21, 2012 Leave a comment
40 hours of Echo – Just 10 minutes after I said goodbye to Tracy at the airport, Echo arrived! She filled my quiet weekend with lots of chattering, shopping, eating, sake-drinking and wee hours category III movie! (Hahaha, she wasn’t that delighted when Harshad and I got her to watch 3D DG-style porn with us last night!) Can’t believe we did so much during her very very short visit! I managed to convert her to switch to Android platform. And she saved me from burning a big hole in my wallet when I almost bought that “magical HKD36,000 fish” today. Good to have Echo around when Baybay is away. Now she is back in Shanghai. Waiting for the next Echo, my friend!
October 2, 2012 Leave a comment
Absolut Vodka has done it again! Here is one rare opportunity to own a “one of its kind” edition bottle design. This October, Absolut Vodka launched 4 million exclusive uniquely-decorated bottles for sale in 80 global travel retail markets. Every bottle is unique – no 2 bottles are identical. Each comes with its unique serial number. What a truly amazing and remarkable marketing feat! I just got mine – 3 unique bottles! (thanks to my good Taiwanese friend, Chen, and Tracy who bought these from Changi and KL Airports respectively!). Get yours today for only SGD27. With 4 million different designs, you be spoilt for choices! This special edition is only exclusive in travel retail. Check out the making of Absolut Vodka “Unique” video.
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