Sunrise sunset

I love to take photos of sunrise and sunset at sea. So here's sharing some of them.

Rising sun outside Suva, Fiji.

Setting sun, somewhere in the Pacific Ocean.

Setting sun in the Pacific, somewhere near Midway Island, just before a memorial service.

Hawaii 2003

Some photos of Hawaii (Oahu) when I was there in May 2003.

Pictures of Hanauma Bay, where you can snorkel. Really good place to snorkel, since it is not as crowded as Waikiki Beach.

Talking about Waikiki Beach, here is how it looked like.

And this is how clear and blue the water is... not like what we have in Singapore!

Fedora 13

Fedora 13 is out! And I have managed to install it on my laptop.

The upgrade killed the previous installation of Fedora 12... so I had to do a clean install. But good thing the settings could be preserved by copying back my home directory.

Navy Open House 2010

Have you been there yet?

We managed to squeeze in a visit under the hot weather to see what the open house is all about. The weather was hot hot hot, but good thing the display tents are air-conditioned.

At the open house, you will find ships on display, which you can actually go onboard and walk around to see the inside (and not just look from outside). In fact, one of the frigates, RSS STEADFAST, offers guided tours (but you must ballot for it). Talk about balloting, you can ballot for rides onboard navy ships too. The missile corvettes, patrol vessels and mine countermeasure vessels offers a short cruise outside of Changi Naval Base, tickets available via balloting at the information booth. So if you have never sailed onboard a navy ship, this is the chance to do so!

The display tents showcase what the navy does on a day-to-day basis (naval operations), the people in the navy, and the navy's capabilities (aka ships and other assets like maritime patrol aircraft and unmanned surface vehicles).

Here's our budding next generation USV controller.

And here he is again, learning how to be the officer of the watch of a LST.

Trying to get the Blackberry Bold 9700

It's amazing how difficult it can be to get a phone from Singtel. You would expect that this big telco in Singapore would have gotten its act together to make sure it maintains its market share given the competition, yet that doesn't seem to be the case. Not that the service is bad, but maybe it is the way they conduct business.

I was trying to get a Blackberry Bold 9700 over the weekend. Visited the nearest shop on Saturday, and after waiting an hour at the counter, was finally told by the staff that they are out of stock. I was referred to another shop, which supposedly (according to the staff) has stock available. But it was already late so I decided to go on Sunday instead.

Before going down on Sunday, I decided to give Singtel a call to confirm that they did have stock at this other shop. The staff on the helpline wasn't able to help me with this... she said she will call me back, but she didn't (until today). I called again, this time, I was told that the phone is out of stock.

I emailed them to ask when new stock is coming in, and as of now, still have yet to get an answer. It is amazing that such a big telco doesn't have a proper inventory system that keeps track of what it has in stock and when new stock is arriving.

Farewell, Dr Goh Keng Swee

One of Singapore's founding fathers, Dr Goh Keng Swee, passed away today. Farewell, Dr Goh. Your legacy in Singapore lives on, though.

Happy Mothers' Day

To all mothers, wishing you a happy Mothers' Day.

You can't take a break from being a mother, but at least you can feel appreciated.

Japan's Children's Day

5 May is Japan's Children's Day. It is also known as Boys' Day, since it is the day for boys and their koinobori. One carp is flown for every boy in the household... though nowadays, with smaller families, people don't really follow this rule and just fly as many carps as they want.

Signaling your intentions

I think it is important to signal your intentions, so as not to waste other people's time. When your intentions are unclear, people have to wait for you to take action before they can respond. It is, in effect, telling people that their time is not important, that they can and should wait for you.

I think everyone's time is important. Thus, we should not be selfish. We should signal our intentions so that people don't need to wait for us before they can act.

An example. If you have the option to go straight or turn left when at a T-junction, and there is a car on your left waiting to exit into the main road. If you intend to turn left, signal your intention by using the signal lights. That way, the car on the left trying to exit into the main road knows that you are not going straight, and that he is free to exit into the main road as you will not get into an accident with him. By not signaling your intention, he ends up waiting because he is not sure if you will go straight or turn left.

So respect the time of others, signal your intentions.

Warmer and warmer

It is a vicious cycle.

We have lived for thousands of years without air conditioning. This invention allowed us to change the temperature of the environment to make it cooler than it actually is. We have grown so used to it... yet, what does it really do? All it does is make the controlled environment cooler. The environment outside that controlled environment grows warmer instead (if you don't believe me, just stand beside the air conditioner's compressors when they are running).

As we try to make things cool for us, we make the outside hotter. And as the outside grows hotter, we long more for a cooler environment. We head for environments that are artificially cooled... not realising that these are the places that add to the hot environment outside.

Do we continue to go down this spiral? Or is there a way out?

Foreign talents

Read an article on The Straits Times yesterday on the spouses of expatriates in Singapore. Those who subscribe to the online version can read it.

It reminded me of my neighbours. The wife was sent by her company to Singapore, and the husband decided to close down his restaurant in Japan and followed her here. But he is not wasting time here. He went ahead and found a job at a Japanese restaurant as a chef. I guess being a chef is a bonus for job mobility, since you can probably find a job anywhere in the world cooking meals for others. For those whose talents/qualifications are not so mobile, I wonder what the job market has for them?