Seeing that 2 of my contacts in MSN have fallen prey to the new MSN virus, I figured that I should write about it. The modus operandi of this virus is that it sends an offline message containing a link to the MSN contacts found in the host account.Once the contact clicks on that link his/her account will be compromised and the bot located in the server logs on when the MSN user is offline to further propagate this virus. So to keep yourself safe, don't click on any links sent to you as an offline message. In fact do not click on any files sent to you unless you verify with the MSN contact. Take note when receiving files from people you're not familiar with. Always perform a scan of the file. Try to back up your critical files whenever possible. A virus attack is often very damaging and you can spend a lot of time trying to recover your files.
I have had backdoor trojan before and its rather frightening because the hacker can actually control your computer remotely. When you find your typing being overwritten or your drives opening and closing by themselves it is most likely you have fallen victim to this. The only way is to disconnect from internet and run a full system scan. You will also have to change your passwords.
Kaspersky Antivirus software is rather effective and I would recommend it as a good protection for your computers. Although it can be slightly irritating at times, it does its job well.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Thursday, March 27, 2008
My very own Sous Chef
Hear ye! Hear ye! Ol Ed has found himself a new pad with 4 other dudes. Too bad there aren't any girls around =(. Destiny has yet again denied me of some female company for this semester. This time round the housemates are older, most of them being at least 24 and doing their postgrads except for one 22 year old. And yup I'm the resident fossil again at the ripe old age of 32. Once again I have taken in disciples for lessons in cooking. This time round I have got 2 housemates apprenticing me. Makes me feel kinda like the Master Bai Mei from Kill Bill Volumes. Haha! So over the past week I have imparted breakfast dishes, chinese stirfrys, pasta dishes and steak. One of the guys is so enamoured of good food now he's beginning to search the web for recipes to hone his cooking skills. The other day he came in after his meal of seafood marinara and said "Ah..zhe jiu shi sheng huo.." In French that would be C'est La vie aka That's Life. I'm a true beliver of leading a quality life, maybe because my job as a quality chemist rubbed off on me lol. Seriously why eat a plate of horrible food when you can eat a meal of much better quality?! And so I just had to rescue them from a dreary student's life of bland & unimaginative meals!Onward to culinary greatness! How did I do it? Seduction with plates of steaming steaks, flavored rice and sphaghetti. Like what my housemate said "Pao mian shi wang shi le" meaning "Instant noodles is a thing of the past".
People have often asked me that since I cooked pretty ok and have a great interest & knowledge of food and drink, that why I'm not opening an eatery or restaurant. When you open a restaurant, the economics come in. That's when the soda bicarbonates comes in to soften beef of inferior quality, the half eaten lobster shells going back to the pot for tomorrow's lobster bisque and roast chicken leftovers going into the curry. I'm have a humanitarian nature, I cant do this to people. If I open a eatery it will have to be on my own terms and with a significant amount of capital because I'm not compromising on quality. Eventually I will open a beach pub cum eatery serving quality meals. A place where you can have real roast beef sandwiches with a good Belgium/German beer and bask in the warm glow of the sun. It will be a pub where you can eat crispy bbq chicken wings with a tangy dip sauce and zone out with a cocktail. Soft music help people drift off an oasis of calm. However I need my first pot of gold or some financial support so I'll need day jobs.
It is my dream to give people and myself a piece of paradise. Life is too short for wars, famines and poltical repression. A mere 70 years shouldn't be wasted on these acts. I always recall how happy people are in the company of good friends, great food and drinks. Life should be good and even more wonderful if I'm able to offer people that. I'm not going to just sell good food , I'm going to sell fond memories. That'll be my life's business!
People have often asked me that since I cooked pretty ok and have a great interest & knowledge of food and drink, that why I'm not opening an eatery or restaurant. When you open a restaurant, the economics come in. That's when the soda bicarbonates comes in to soften beef of inferior quality, the half eaten lobster shells going back to the pot for tomorrow's lobster bisque and roast chicken leftovers going into the curry. I'm have a humanitarian nature, I cant do this to people. If I open a eatery it will have to be on my own terms and with a significant amount of capital because I'm not compromising on quality. Eventually I will open a beach pub cum eatery serving quality meals. A place where you can have real roast beef sandwiches with a good Belgium/German beer and bask in the warm glow of the sun. It will be a pub where you can eat crispy bbq chicken wings with a tangy dip sauce and zone out with a cocktail. Soft music help people drift off an oasis of calm. However I need my first pot of gold or some financial support so I'll need day jobs.
It is my dream to give people and myself a piece of paradise. Life is too short for wars, famines and poltical repression. A mere 70 years shouldn't be wasted on these acts. I always recall how happy people are in the company of good friends, great food and drinks. Life should be good and even more wonderful if I'm able to offer people that. I'm not going to just sell good food , I'm going to sell fond memories. That'll be my life's business!
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Back in the Land of the Dreaming
Took a hiatus from blogging and now I'm back. Here I am in the land of the Dreaming again. WTF?! Land of the Dreaming... what the heck is that?! Well the Dreaming is a a term used by Australian aboriginal people to describe relations between the spiritual, natural and moral elements of the world. It relates to a period before living memory or experience - a time of creator ancestors and supernatural beings. Yea and before you say anything, white man don't own this piece of land down under no Sir/ Madam the original owners were the aborigines. Captain James Cook was an invader to the native australian aborigines like Columbus was to the American Indians. Thousands of aborigines were driven out of their ancestral homelands and forced to become slaves. Yep and thats Australia's dark beginnings as a British convict colony, but whats past is past and with the new times the Australians are beginning to look into the aboriginal rights. And that is cool.
Anyways these days I'm kinda marooned in a cheap motel with no internet access until the 8th when I can finally move into my room down in Kingsford. Apparently the previous tenant needed some time to pack and scoot off. So these few days I had to survive on Maccas, sandwiches and pasta from the UNSW eateries and instant noodles. Gonna cook myself a big bloody steak when I get to the kitchen! The weather's been dissappointing, its been god-damned warm and I was expecting a cool autumn coming in when I arrived. Apparently according to the weatherman there's been a warm front which is bringing in a week of warm weather to NSW. The bad thing, I packed thick clothes for autumn and winter zzzzz....... The good thing is eye candy in the form of skimpily dressed babes.Nice.....
As I wandered about UNSW in this Week 0 busy with subject enrolment and getting a renewed student card, I was surrounded by truckloads of freshies parading themselves on campus. Saw a couple of them who had their feet tied together and were trying to climb the stairs to the library. Public humiliation, pretty funny stuff. Reminded me of my Army days when instructors called our names, called out the time while we had to position our arms in the correct positions like clocks and if we failed we were given 20 pushups. Orientation Seniors were dressed in yellow T-shirts and were leading group tours around the campus. Gave me the impression of chickens leading chicks to the academic slaughterfest. The walkway from the main entrance to the stairway of the upper campus was crowded with the stalls of the different clubs and societies trying to sell themselves to the freshies. It was like some medieval gauntlet the freshies had to go through. Me being a moldie scuttered to the shaded sidewalks and alternate paths to escape the hard selling seniors.
This semester is even shorter than the last as UNSW cut the term by 1 week so basically next week we'll start Week 1 and end with the exams in late Jun. Pretty fast I would say. Graduation ceremony would be late July at Shangri La Singapore. Hopefully I'll be able to join that session! Shouldn't be a problem considering the fact that I'm only doing 4subjects this semester, compared to the 6 I did last semester. Ok time for lunch! Will write some more again soon!
Anyways these days I'm kinda marooned in a cheap motel with no internet access until the 8th when I can finally move into my room down in Kingsford. Apparently the previous tenant needed some time to pack and scoot off. So these few days I had to survive on Maccas, sandwiches and pasta from the UNSW eateries and instant noodles. Gonna cook myself a big bloody steak when I get to the kitchen! The weather's been dissappointing, its been god-damned warm and I was expecting a cool autumn coming in when I arrived. Apparently according to the weatherman there's been a warm front which is bringing in a week of warm weather to NSW. The bad thing, I packed thick clothes for autumn and winter zzzzz....... The good thing is eye candy in the form of skimpily dressed babes.Nice.....
As I wandered about UNSW in this Week 0 busy with subject enrolment and getting a renewed student card, I was surrounded by truckloads of freshies parading themselves on campus. Saw a couple of them who had their feet tied together and were trying to climb the stairs to the library. Public humiliation, pretty funny stuff. Reminded me of my Army days when instructors called our names, called out the time while we had to position our arms in the correct positions like clocks and if we failed we were given 20 pushups. Orientation Seniors were dressed in yellow T-shirts and were leading group tours around the campus. Gave me the impression of chickens leading chicks to the academic slaughterfest. The walkway from the main entrance to the stairway of the upper campus was crowded with the stalls of the different clubs and societies trying to sell themselves to the freshies. It was like some medieval gauntlet the freshies had to go through. Me being a moldie scuttered to the shaded sidewalks and alternate paths to escape the hard selling seniors.
This semester is even shorter than the last as UNSW cut the term by 1 week so basically next week we'll start Week 1 and end with the exams in late Jun. Pretty fast I would say. Graduation ceremony would be late July at Shangri La Singapore. Hopefully I'll be able to join that session! Shouldn't be a problem considering the fact that I'm only doing 4subjects this semester, compared to the 6 I did last semester. Ok time for lunch! Will write some more again soon!
Friday, October 26, 2007
Fast Foodie
A junior of mine is going to New York soon for a year or two. Being of the non-cooking type she has requested me to put up some easy to cook recipes so here they are:
-Rezzle's Juicy Beef Burger-
This takes up probably 15mins or less of your time if you have the necessary ingredients. Why beef burger when you can get it at all fast food outlets? Well the "beef patties" that we get contain only a small portion of beef and a large part are really fillers which are cheap and make up the bulk. Its junk food. Real beef patties on the other hand are wholesome nutritious stuff.
Ingredients: minced beef, salt, pepper, 1 egg, onion, tomato-basil sauce, plain flour, Turkish rolls or any bun, tomato, lettuce and mayonnaise. (For the ultimate version you will need fresh button mushrooms, garlic and balsamic vinegar.) Basically these are simple day to day ingredients.
Steps: Slice a few strips of onion and dice it. The amount depends on how much you like onions. Throw this into a bowl with minced beef, crack an egg into it and start blending. Pour in bits of flour to make it into a soft dough-like consistency. Put it 2 tablespoons of tomato-basil sauce. Add in salt and pepper. Those who are more into flavor may want to blend in some Worchester Sauce into the patty as well so that it tastes even better. Mix it up till its slightly firm. Take a portion with a tablespoon and roll it into a ball with your hands and flatten it but not too thin ( about thickness of two fingers or 1 and a half depending on whether you have fat fingers or not). Prepare a hot frying pan with oil and lay it on. 1min on each side to brown it nicely (the interior and center will still be somewhat pinky don't worry), take it out and chuck it into the microwave for 1.2 mins. This will give you a juicy patty. Most burger joints just grill the patty totally and this makes it dry out real easy. Using my method you will produce a juicy patty instead of a dried out hard patty. Even non-cooks can make a nice burger with this method. The next step is to just put on the patty , slices of tomato and lettuce plus add some mayonnaise to the veges. Wala! Juicy beef burger express mode. The more lavish ultimate version is to exclude tomato slices but throw in a stir-fried mushroom mix. For those with an extra 5mins do the following: fry some garlic and throw in sliced button mushroom, fry till mushroom bleeds water, add salt, pepper and balsamic vinegar to taste. Scoop and lay on the patty before adding the lettuce. No need to add mayonnaise if you have this mushroom mix. For those who are really gourmets you may want to apply some butter to both sides of the bun and toast it lightly on a pan.
-Rezzle's Yummy Fried Rice-
This is a cheaper alternate version of yangzhou fried rice. A fast meal as well. A classmate commented on how restaurant-like my fried rice is. Hehe yea well I like quality in my food if I can help it. Plus it doesn't take too much time.
Ingredients: refrigerated cooked rice, luncheon meat, onion, mixed vege(peas, carrots, corn), prawns, 1 egg, salt, pepper, soya sauce and sesame seed oil.
Steps: Dice the onion, just a small palm bit of onions will do. Fry diced onions till its fragrant, add luncheon meat and fry till its slightly crisp, throw in prawns and fry till they turn orange white. Throw in rice and fry for a bit . Beat an egg in a bowl and add it in. Stir quickly to coat the rice in egg evenly. Throw in mixed veges. Add salt, pepper, soya sauce and sesame seed oil to taste and stir well. The important thing is speed here as most of the frying is done on high heat so don't dilly dally. Stir fast and don't let the stuff burn.
- Chicken Mushroom Bee Hoon soup-
Refreshing asian style bee hoon soup is a nice choice on hot summer days when your appetite isn't good.
Ingredients: shitake mushroom, chicken wings, Knows Chicken cube, Bak Choy, fried onions, soya sauce, sesame seed oil and ginger.
Steps: Heat a pot of water, bring it to a boil and add bee hoon. Upon softening, empty the contents of the pot into a sieve and rinse bee hoon with cold water. Set aside first. To another pot add water chicken wings and ginger, bring it to a boil and then lower heat to simmer, add the Knows chicken cube. let the soup simmer for half an hour. Meanwhile take garlic fry till fragrant and add shitake mushroom. Fry it it bleed water add salt , pepper and soya sauce. Set it aside. When soup bas is ready add bak choy and cook till it softens to a light translucent green. Add in bee hoon and shitake mushrooms. Taste the soup if not tasty add soya sauce and salt till its right. Also add pepper and sesame seed oil. Finally throw some fried onions in and there's your lunch.
-ABC SOUP-
Traditional Hainanese light soup.
Ingredients: Chicken wings/ Pork ribs, carrots, potato and onion.
Steps: To a pot of cold water add chicken or pork, bring it to a boil and then lower the heat. Throw in potatoes, onions and carrots. Just cut them into fish ball size bits will do. Cover the lid and simmer for 1 hr.
-Rezzle's Juicy Beef Burger-
This takes up probably 15mins or less of your time if you have the necessary ingredients. Why beef burger when you can get it at all fast food outlets? Well the "beef patties" that we get contain only a small portion of beef and a large part are really fillers which are cheap and make up the bulk. Its junk food. Real beef patties on the other hand are wholesome nutritious stuff.
Ingredients: minced beef, salt, pepper, 1 egg, onion, tomato-basil sauce, plain flour, Turkish rolls or any bun, tomato, lettuce and mayonnaise. (For the ultimate version you will need fresh button mushrooms, garlic and balsamic vinegar.) Basically these are simple day to day ingredients.
Steps: Slice a few strips of onion and dice it. The amount depends on how much you like onions. Throw this into a bowl with minced beef, crack an egg into it and start blending. Pour in bits of flour to make it into a soft dough-like consistency. Put it 2 tablespoons of tomato-basil sauce. Add in salt and pepper. Those who are more into flavor may want to blend in some Worchester Sauce into the patty as well so that it tastes even better. Mix it up till its slightly firm. Take a portion with a tablespoon and roll it into a ball with your hands and flatten it but not too thin ( about thickness of two fingers or 1 and a half depending on whether you have fat fingers or not). Prepare a hot frying pan with oil and lay it on. 1min on each side to brown it nicely (the interior and center will still be somewhat pinky don't worry), take it out and chuck it into the microwave for 1.2 mins. This will give you a juicy patty. Most burger joints just grill the patty totally and this makes it dry out real easy. Using my method you will produce a juicy patty instead of a dried out hard patty. Even non-cooks can make a nice burger with this method. The next step is to just put on the patty , slices of tomato and lettuce plus add some mayonnaise to the veges. Wala! Juicy beef burger express mode. The more lavish ultimate version is to exclude tomato slices but throw in a stir-fried mushroom mix. For those with an extra 5mins do the following: fry some garlic and throw in sliced button mushroom, fry till mushroom bleeds water, add salt, pepper and balsamic vinegar to taste. Scoop and lay on the patty before adding the lettuce. No need to add mayonnaise if you have this mushroom mix. For those who are really gourmets you may want to apply some butter to both sides of the bun and toast it lightly on a pan.
-Rezzle's Yummy Fried Rice-
This is a cheaper alternate version of yangzhou fried rice. A fast meal as well. A classmate commented on how restaurant-like my fried rice is. Hehe yea well I like quality in my food if I can help it. Plus it doesn't take too much time.
Ingredients: refrigerated cooked rice, luncheon meat, onion, mixed vege(peas, carrots, corn), prawns, 1 egg, salt, pepper, soya sauce and sesame seed oil.
Steps: Dice the onion, just a small palm bit of onions will do. Fry diced onions till its fragrant, add luncheon meat and fry till its slightly crisp, throw in prawns and fry till they turn orange white. Throw in rice and fry for a bit . Beat an egg in a bowl and add it in. Stir quickly to coat the rice in egg evenly. Throw in mixed veges. Add salt, pepper, soya sauce and sesame seed oil to taste and stir well. The important thing is speed here as most of the frying is done on high heat so don't dilly dally. Stir fast and don't let the stuff burn.
- Chicken Mushroom Bee Hoon soup-
Refreshing asian style bee hoon soup is a nice choice on hot summer days when your appetite isn't good.
Ingredients: shitake mushroom, chicken wings, Knows Chicken cube, Bak Choy, fried onions, soya sauce, sesame seed oil and ginger.
Steps: Heat a pot of water, bring it to a boil and add bee hoon. Upon softening, empty the contents of the pot into a sieve and rinse bee hoon with cold water. Set aside first. To another pot add water chicken wings and ginger, bring it to a boil and then lower heat to simmer, add the Knows chicken cube. let the soup simmer for half an hour. Meanwhile take garlic fry till fragrant and add shitake mushroom. Fry it it bleed water add salt , pepper and soya sauce. Set it aside. When soup bas is ready add bak choy and cook till it softens to a light translucent green. Add in bee hoon and shitake mushrooms. Taste the soup if not tasty add soya sauce and salt till its right. Also add pepper and sesame seed oil. Finally throw some fried onions in and there's your lunch.
-ABC SOUP-
Traditional Hainanese light soup.
Ingredients: Chicken wings/ Pork ribs, carrots, potato and onion.
Steps: To a pot of cold water add chicken or pork, bring it to a boil and then lower the heat. Throw in potatoes, onions and carrots. Just cut them into fish ball size bits will do. Cover the lid and simmer for 1 hr.
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Reports for perpetuity
Blah seems I have been typing reports & papers forever... zzz. My fellow gamer Harri from Finland remarked:" Wow you live on MSN" to which I replied "Lol yep, typing reports for perpetuity...the current flavor is Nuclear Magnetic Resonance. Like some?". Kinda sick of writing after that whole chunk of technical typing. Unfortunately I still have 1 paper, 1 project and another report to deal with plus there's this axis of evil they formed with the abnormally hot spring weather in Sydney. It was like 33 degrees Clesius in my room yesterday. Can't imagine what summer would be like, but my bet is on 42 degrees at least. I took 6 subjects this semester...pretty stressful, thats why my coursemates & housemates think I'm nuts. Thanks to the unrelenting academic workload, entertainment's been on the low side. Still it's not all dark and dreary, theres always Heroes Season 2 yea! Watched the 1st and second episodes: 4 months later & Lizards. It's still as cool as ever and they upped the hotness factor in the new characters of Maya (played by Dania Ramirez), Yaeko( played by Eriko Tamura) and West (played by Nick D’Agosto).
The premier episode opened to a lecture by Mohinder Suresh about the virus affecting people who possessed the mutant gene. The lecture attendance was pathetic and amongst them was a balding middle aged man who approached Suresh for his autograph on his father's book. Suresh pinned him to a wall, upon realizing he was from The Company. The Company guy persuaded Suresh to a tea session and subsequently offered Suresh a position in the Company to perform research on the virus. Suresh commented on how expensive the research would be and the guy transmuted a teaspoon into gold right before his eyes and quipped "Let's just say we have our private Fort Knox." How cool is that?Mr Midas reborn!The only other person I know of who can do this sort of alchemical transformation is Mr Durai. Transmuting charity money into gold taps, can't beat that! And seeing how he can get a job in Dubai despite his ongoing trial only testifies to his power as a superhero. Anyway back to the story. The premier also shows Hiro going back in time to 1671 where he finds himself in the middle of a battle outside Kyoto. There was a group of guys shooting at his childhood hero Takezo Kensei. Stopping time he saved himself from a barrage of arrows and teleported away with Takezo Kensei and his horse. Wow he's getting good at timespace manipulation! The rider turned out to be a frightened impostor hired by the real Takezo Kensei to divert the attention of the bandits while he hid and tried to snipe their leader with a crossbow which would have earned him a bounty. As the real Takezo Kensei berated Hiro for fouling up his plans he reveals himself as a gaijin (caucasian or foreigner) from England. Hiro realises that his childhood hero was a little different from the heroic figure he had admired. In fact he was no more than a mercenary alcoholic who fights using underhanded means. As they made their way ahead they met up with refugees from the village of Otsu which Hiro had learnt from legend that Takezo Kensei saved from a group of wayward samurais. At this moment Yaeko the swordsmith's daughter gave Kensei a slap and took away his katana yelling at him for failing to save the village as he promised. The roguish Kensei was disinterested and just lifted off a gourd of sake from a refugee's cart and gulped it down. Hiro anxious that his arrival may have altered the timeline urged Kensei to fight for the greater good and rescue the swordsmith, for his efforts he got punched in the face. I feel Eriko Tamura who plays Yaeko is a good addition to the cast, there are too few chio asian girls around in american entertainment scene. For a 34 year old Eriko looks good and a decade younger than she really is!
Claire Bennet and family had relocated to Coasta Verde, California to lead a normal low profile life away from the Company. Changing their surname to Butler, Claire was instructed by Noah(the adopted father who is an ex-company man) to stay low and not attract any attention to herself. He himself went to work in a copy shop and was constantly harassed by a male bitch of a manager. Later it became known that he and Suresh were plotting to destroy the Company and Suresh was to infltrate the Company. At school Claire met this guy West who was beginning to hit on her and had peeping tom tendencies. Guess what like Claire's biological daddy Nathan, West can fly as well. The premier also introduces Maya and Alejandro, a pair of twins from Dominican Republic on the run to America. Seems that they were wanted for murder and the reason is shown when Maya exhibited a lethal power which killed a truckload of latin americans on their way to the Mexico border. Maya is seeking a cure as she had read Chandra Suresh's book Activating Evolution. She believes that Chandra Suresh may hold answers to her accursed abilities, unaware that the good scientist is dead. Regardless of that Dania Ramirez who plays Maya is totally hot! She didn't look half as good playing Callisto with that horrible hairstyle and stupid face tattoo.
Matt Parkman who has the most boring and irritating ability of hearing people's thoughts had moved to NYC and passed the detective exam. Finally....and he had to use his powers to do so. Quite pathetic. Of all the characters, Parkman seems the most redundant but in fact he is relevant simply because he represents the underachieving everyman and I guess that imparts a sort of depth to the whole Heroes theme that all sorts of people can be special. Molly Walker who had survived from episode 1 after being cured with Suresh's blood serum was under his adoptive care. Parkman was in the middle of his divorce from his adulterous wife Janice. However something was going on with Molly, she was having tormenting nightmares daily from an unknown person and kept drawing the helix symbol and falling asleep in class. And then Nathan Petrelli and Peter Petrelli. Nathan survived the explosion and has become an alcoholic, he blames his mother Angela for his brother's death and is disgusted with her scheming evil plan. He drives her out of his apartment and as Angela leaves the apartment she finds a photo of herself with a helix sumbol in red drawn over her face.It was a deathnote signifying death of the marked person in 24hrs. Kaito Nakamura (Hiro's father played by George Takei from Star Trek) received the deathnote as well and arranged to meet Angela on the Deveraux building loft. Kaito is soon murdered by a guy wearing a hoodie who pushed him over the loft. The murderer disappeared without leaving a trace. Meanwhile Peter was found in Cork, Ireland in a container by a gang who was supposed to find a stash of ipods in that particular container. Peter had one of his hands handcuffed ,was without a shirt and wearing a necklace with the helix symbol. As one of the thugs tried to hit him he shot a ball of lightning and hurled the guy outside the container. The other 2 thugs shone their torchlights on his face questioning who he was and where the ipods went to. It appears that Peter is suffering from amnesia.
What I think of episode 1: Good accounting of the various characters and nice new additions. Especially the babes Maya and Yaeko! A bit sad they killed George Takei so soon. No respect for the SF icon! I want to know what happens to Micah though , I love his technopath powers. Unlimited credit and atm withdrawals wooo! Wish I have that power! That's what makes Heroes and lotteries tick isn't it? Life is about hope and dreams, without which we are but ashes adrift in the wind.
The premier episode opened to a lecture by Mohinder Suresh about the virus affecting people who possessed the mutant gene. The lecture attendance was pathetic and amongst them was a balding middle aged man who approached Suresh for his autograph on his father's book. Suresh pinned him to a wall, upon realizing he was from The Company. The Company guy persuaded Suresh to a tea session and subsequently offered Suresh a position in the Company to perform research on the virus. Suresh commented on how expensive the research would be and the guy transmuted a teaspoon into gold right before his eyes and quipped "Let's just say we have our private Fort Knox." How cool is that?Mr Midas reborn!The only other person I know of who can do this sort of alchemical transformation is Mr Durai. Transmuting charity money into gold taps, can't beat that! And seeing how he can get a job in Dubai despite his ongoing trial only testifies to his power as a superhero. Anyway back to the story. The premier also shows Hiro going back in time to 1671 where he finds himself in the middle of a battle outside Kyoto. There was a group of guys shooting at his childhood hero Takezo Kensei. Stopping time he saved himself from a barrage of arrows and teleported away with Takezo Kensei and his horse. Wow he's getting good at timespace manipulation! The rider turned out to be a frightened impostor hired by the real Takezo Kensei to divert the attention of the bandits while he hid and tried to snipe their leader with a crossbow which would have earned him a bounty. As the real Takezo Kensei berated Hiro for fouling up his plans he reveals himself as a gaijin (caucasian or foreigner) from England. Hiro realises that his childhood hero was a little different from the heroic figure he had admired. In fact he was no more than a mercenary alcoholic who fights using underhanded means. As they made their way ahead they met up with refugees from the village of Otsu which Hiro had learnt from legend that Takezo Kensei saved from a group of wayward samurais. At this moment Yaeko the swordsmith's daughter gave Kensei a slap and took away his katana yelling at him for failing to save the village as he promised. The roguish Kensei was disinterested and just lifted off a gourd of sake from a refugee's cart and gulped it down. Hiro anxious that his arrival may have altered the timeline urged Kensei to fight for the greater good and rescue the swordsmith, for his efforts he got punched in the face. I feel Eriko Tamura who plays Yaeko is a good addition to the cast, there are too few chio asian girls around in american entertainment scene. For a 34 year old Eriko looks good and a decade younger than she really is!
Claire Bennet and family had relocated to Coasta Verde, California to lead a normal low profile life away from the Company. Changing their surname to Butler, Claire was instructed by Noah(the adopted father who is an ex-company man) to stay low and not attract any attention to herself. He himself went to work in a copy shop and was constantly harassed by a male bitch of a manager. Later it became known that he and Suresh were plotting to destroy the Company and Suresh was to infltrate the Company. At school Claire met this guy West who was beginning to hit on her and had peeping tom tendencies. Guess what like Claire's biological daddy Nathan, West can fly as well. The premier also introduces Maya and Alejandro, a pair of twins from Dominican Republic on the run to America. Seems that they were wanted for murder and the reason is shown when Maya exhibited a lethal power which killed a truckload of latin americans on their way to the Mexico border. Maya is seeking a cure as she had read Chandra Suresh's book Activating Evolution. She believes that Chandra Suresh may hold answers to her accursed abilities, unaware that the good scientist is dead. Regardless of that Dania Ramirez who plays Maya is totally hot! She didn't look half as good playing Callisto with that horrible hairstyle and stupid face tattoo.
Matt Parkman who has the most boring and irritating ability of hearing people's thoughts had moved to NYC and passed the detective exam. Finally....and he had to use his powers to do so. Quite pathetic. Of all the characters, Parkman seems the most redundant but in fact he is relevant simply because he represents the underachieving everyman and I guess that imparts a sort of depth to the whole Heroes theme that all sorts of people can be special. Molly Walker who had survived from episode 1 after being cured with Suresh's blood serum was under his adoptive care. Parkman was in the middle of his divorce from his adulterous wife Janice. However something was going on with Molly, she was having tormenting nightmares daily from an unknown person and kept drawing the helix symbol and falling asleep in class. And then Nathan Petrelli and Peter Petrelli. Nathan survived the explosion and has become an alcoholic, he blames his mother Angela for his brother's death and is disgusted with her scheming evil plan. He drives her out of his apartment and as Angela leaves the apartment she finds a photo of herself with a helix sumbol in red drawn over her face.It was a deathnote signifying death of the marked person in 24hrs. Kaito Nakamura (Hiro's father played by George Takei from Star Trek) received the deathnote as well and arranged to meet Angela on the Deveraux building loft. Kaito is soon murdered by a guy wearing a hoodie who pushed him over the loft. The murderer disappeared without leaving a trace. Meanwhile Peter was found in Cork, Ireland in a container by a gang who was supposed to find a stash of ipods in that particular container. Peter had one of his hands handcuffed ,was without a shirt and wearing a necklace with the helix symbol. As one of the thugs tried to hit him he shot a ball of lightning and hurled the guy outside the container. The other 2 thugs shone their torchlights on his face questioning who he was and where the ipods went to. It appears that Peter is suffering from amnesia.
What I think of episode 1: Good accounting of the various characters and nice new additions. Especially the babes Maya and Yaeko! A bit sad they killed George Takei so soon. No respect for the SF icon! I want to know what happens to Micah though , I love his technopath powers. Unlimited credit and atm withdrawals wooo! Wish I have that power! That's what makes Heroes and lotteries tick isn't it? Life is about hope and dreams, without which we are but ashes adrift in the wind.
Sunday, September 9, 2007
Much ado about CPF
This was taken from one of the online Singaporean forums. Some interesting facts and figures on the workings of CPF. I figure Singaporeans need to read up on this issue to fully understand what annuity effect has on your money. Thanks to Scroobal for the following information:
I do realise that not many people are not aware how CPF functions. Here are couple of points. More than happy if folks out there can correct if the understanding is wrong.
- CPF Board is an accounting and administrative body. It plays no part in managing CPF funds for investment purposes. By law it is not allowed and neither is it equipped. There are exception which are Insurance schemes where funds are relatively small.
- In 2006, out of current members' balance of $125B, $108B are in long term deposits
- The $108B was handed over to MAS in return for Special Issue Goverment Securities. This is where it disappears into a black hole as I can't it in the MAS financial records.
- The interest received in return was $4B which makes this about 3.7% interest return.
- The CPF Board determines the interest for this investment but the methodology is not revealed. However the interest given to member balances cannot exceed 2.5% unless approved by Minister of Finace. The methodology for determining member interet is well known and published in their website.
- By this arrangement, technically if the $108B yielded 20% return via investment, the Govt is not obliged to declare a bumper bonus and has never done so. It has never returned anything higher.
- Granted that CPF balances are guaranteed by the Govt, and a fee may be order to acknowledge this but retaining excessive profits is basically placing an indirect tax on the returns.
- Financial Report also shows that surplus income of CPF Board gos to the Consolidated Fund and this amounted to $66M in 2006. This is despite CPF performing a number of functions for various Govt bodies and which are only billed on a cost recovery basis.
From the above, one can surmise the following
- Additional returns no matter how high are retained by the Govt
- Someone is making management fees from the funds invested
- In view of the indirect tax, CPF members incur higer rate of taxation.
- Did the money given out on the eve of elections come from these returns
- If from the onset, all returns from investment are returned to member balance via higher interest minus of course management and guarantor's fees, the compunding effect on the balances would have been tremendous over 25 years using an accepatble Global Pension Fund as benchmark
Some interesting tidbits
- Academic in Universities in the past were allowed to run their own Provident Fund which was managed by OCBC. Wonder why the special allowance. To many questions from smart people and to buy their silence. One wonders
- No wonder the selfemployed and businessmen never found CPF attractive
- Admin and Intelligence Service now and the rest of the Civil Service in the past were on pensionable service and therefore their opportunity cost was lesser. Certainly no motivation to improve the CPF system as it does not affect them.
I bet my bottom dollar that the investment returns retained by the Govt over 48 years in total was higher than the returns given to CPF members.
Is the current scheme morally wrong? Is this a bad deal facilitated by legislation? Will transparency help address misconceptions and wrong perception? Is there room to improve?
Sunday, September 2, 2007
Chardonnay 2006- Jacob's Creek & Tesla
Yesterday's dinner consisted of a roasted chicken drumstick and baked pizza stub. The meal was paired off with a Chardonnay 2006 from Jacob's Creek.This winery is a pretty well established brand and is located in Barossa Valley, Melbourne. Aside from the trademark cream of Chardonnay it's really sweet and has a bit of melon, color is light pine with a slight tinge of green. Low acidity and tannin on this wine , aftertaste is weakly lingering. Went well with my chicken drumstick. For 8 AUD no complains but I've had better chardonnays. It only gets a 6.3/10 from me. Was looking for the Old Bastard brand but didn't manage to find it so I settled for the chardonnay. The next grape I will hop to will be Riesling, my personal favourite.
Did some reading on my quality management subject, got a bit bored and started surfing. Did a google on Tesla. How many of you have heard of him?Tes who you ask? Nikola Tesla, contemporary of Edison and Einstein; is one of the greatest contributors to modern science. Unfortunately he was kinda weird and pissed off JP Morgan who financed his experiments. Eventually he died poor and forgotten. Sad... Heaven makes sport of men. Especially those with exceptional talent. If it weren't for this guy there would be no A/C power, radio and a host of other engineering contraptions. Tesla fits exactly in the mold of the mad scientist, but he was a humanitarian with a hatred for war. He envisioned free power for all which was the reason why the businessmen stopped financing him.
Tesla had some interesting concepts on electromagnetic waves and he believes that FTL(Faster than light) is possible. He puts forward that scalar waves travel at 1.5c. I have similar sentiments that FTL is definitely possible. Although I think the Theory of Relativity is a beautiful explanation, it has also limited us severely in terms of scientific progress. Recent years have seen only a few leaps in terms of theoretical physics and it seems that relativity has this dampening effect. The fact remains that there are unexplained UFO cases that seem to violate our known physics and Tesla's explanation seems a plausible platform to expound on the possibilities of these gravity defying flight patterns of the UFOs. Logically if UFOs exist and are unexplained then there are 2 possibilities: 1)they are of alien origin 2)they are man made. If they are of alien origin some form of FTL is very likely possible. Secondly if they are man made, there has already been a breakthrough in gravity manipulation or some form of advanced field propulsion.
It will be a cosmic joke if we are the only sentient lifeform out of the 200 billion stars in Milky Way. Given that we believe evolution spawned humans through chance and natural selection, it works out too in terms of probability that aliens are really not that far fetched. Interesting thought isn't it? Perhaps one day we can live life amongst the stars sipping a Chardonnay 2006 with an alien friend.
Did some reading on my quality management subject, got a bit bored and started surfing. Did a google on Tesla. How many of you have heard of him?Tes who you ask? Nikola Tesla, contemporary of Edison and Einstein; is one of the greatest contributors to modern science. Unfortunately he was kinda weird and pissed off JP Morgan who financed his experiments. Eventually he died poor and forgotten. Sad... Heaven makes sport of men. Especially those with exceptional talent. If it weren't for this guy there would be no A/C power, radio and a host of other engineering contraptions. Tesla fits exactly in the mold of the mad scientist, but he was a humanitarian with a hatred for war. He envisioned free power for all which was the reason why the businessmen stopped financing him.
Tesla had some interesting concepts on electromagnetic waves and he believes that FTL(Faster than light) is possible. He puts forward that scalar waves travel at 1.5c. I have similar sentiments that FTL is definitely possible. Although I think the Theory of Relativity is a beautiful explanation, it has also limited us severely in terms of scientific progress. Recent years have seen only a few leaps in terms of theoretical physics and it seems that relativity has this dampening effect. The fact remains that there are unexplained UFO cases that seem to violate our known physics and Tesla's explanation seems a plausible platform to expound on the possibilities of these gravity defying flight patterns of the UFOs. Logically if UFOs exist and are unexplained then there are 2 possibilities: 1)they are of alien origin 2)they are man made. If they are of alien origin some form of FTL is very likely possible. Secondly if they are man made, there has already been a breakthrough in gravity manipulation or some form of advanced field propulsion.
It will be a cosmic joke if we are the only sentient lifeform out of the 200 billion stars in Milky Way. Given that we believe evolution spawned humans through chance and natural selection, it works out too in terms of probability that aliens are really not that far fetched. Interesting thought isn't it? Perhaps one day we can live life amongst the stars sipping a Chardonnay 2006 with an alien friend.
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