Big Quake

Didn't know Taiwan had a few earthquake as bad as 6.7 on the richter scale. It broke 5 cables under the sea and disrupted the internet access at work today. Not knowing, I even called IT dept up to ask why they had blocked access to all the public email sites.

On the taiwan cable news, one poor old lady lost 8 members of her family in the crumble. Quite terrible. The cctv recordings show very violent shakings. It is scary Taiwan lies along the cracks of the plates. Isn't it strange that catastrophes have been happening on boxing day?

I can still recall the last quake I experienced at home. How long ago was that? I amnot sure now. It feels quite recent. I was in the middle of a shower then. In those terrifying moments, I was caught in the dilemma whether to run out in suds half-naked or continue to rinse off and dress properly. In the end, modesty and hygiene won. Was it fear of embarassment won over fear of death, or simply the practical mind concluded either choice made no difference since I live on a high floor. Fortunately in that case, all was more alarm than danger and I suffered nothing more than a comic experience. Still, those flitting feelings of terror reminded me of how fragile we are under the wrath of nature.

One sister gave some tips to keep in mind in the event of a quake:
- doors go out of shape and can block escape. Open all your doors even if you decide to stay put indoors.
- draw your curtains to block glass that shoots out during shattering.
- bring a pillow along to shield yourself from falling debris

They are new to me. There's probably more. The only one I know is to hide under the desk.

Picture Editor

Have a photo to edit but don't own any photo editing software? Fret no more. Pixer lets you edit your photo online. Just upload it, then choose the options to crop, resize, apply all kinds of fixes. Nifty!

Pampered

I was taken aback when one day the office manager plonked a pack of fruits on my table.

Surprised me: "what's this??" [first thought - I didn't order anything, do I have to pay for this?)

Office manager: "Your healthy pack. We give out every fortnight."

Company sponsored. Something to do with a eat healthy programme or something. I haven't received such generosity at work in a long time. Not since the dot com days...a distant memory. I felt somewhat overwhelmed.

Some days later, a colleague send an email blast out to everyone: "I was on two weeks leave and informed everyone but what do I come back to when I returned? Fruits left fermenting and rotting on my table..thanks for letting me know how much you love me."

Some of us joked at coffee break, we will have to go help ourselves to the fruit gifts ("steal") left on tables of colleagues on leave. Maybe that will keep them happy.

Yeah, go poke around the desks of people on leave. Sheesh.

Wrap them up

This must be my most lazy Christmas preparation ever. 60 new cards and only one sent out. Bought no presents. The rainy weather didn't help the mood for shopping.

No choice, I was forced to prepare the early xmas gift exchange that was going to happen at a birthday celebration. I rummaged through my box of "extras" made up of impulsive shoppings in the past especially gotten on travel trips, the regrets, the freebies that come from large buys, yet to open purchases. There are also forgotten gifts bought way in advance, like..er..years back. I will tell myself not to forget the next time but I forget again and run out and grab something new. Luckily for my friends, I don't have the habit of re-wrapping unwanted presents and pass them on. Can't bring myself to do that without guilt.

Maybe this was good. I finally have to deal with these many forgotten stuff. Well, some are fairly decent (like the usb thumb drive), many are clearly below $10 (embroidery jewellery box, retro bracelets, etc). Okay cheap. So, to prove (or rather comfort the receiver) that it is the thought that counts, I decided a little more effort should go into dressing up the packaging.

After some digging around, I discovered almost forgotten ribbons bought at Spotlight. I have tons. Also found these handy set of paperbags. Fished out my gift wrap book, armed with scissors and lots of tape, I got to work. Squeezed my creativity juice. Boy, it zapped as much energy as battling the torrential downpour to shop.

parking Idiots

This is a good one about parking idiots in Singapore:
http://parkingidiots.blogspot.com/

Don't forget to snap those you come across and send it to the parkingidiot@gmail.com to put on the site to share with the rest of us.

Same yet Different

I last saw him just two months ago but he has already changed so much.

Kit Returns

Kit and his body guards arrive home tonite. He is full of smiles, pink in the cheeks and starting to be shy of strangers. His favourite action is shaking his head.

High Over New Domino Ad

A relative forwarded me an interesting email (thanks! Useful relatives are nice) to this awesome Honda commercial featuring parts of two disassembled cars painstakingly set up to produce the domino effect. What you see is entirely filmed with no computer digital manipulation involved.

Here is some the background on its production which I reproduced from the email, with some..urm..major edits (snipping off repeated details):

" The film took 606 takes. On the first 605 takes, something, usually very
minor, didn't work.

They would have to set the whole thing up again. The crew spent weeks shooting night and day. Only on the last 606th take did everything come together as planned. By the time it was over, they were ready to change professions.

The film cost six million dollars and took three months to complete including full engineering of the sequence. When the ad was pitched to senior executives, they signed off on it immediately without any hesitation - including the costs.

There are six and only six hand-made Honda Accords in the world. To the horror of Honda engineers, the filmmakers disassembled two of them to make the film. On the new Accords, the funky windshield wipers have water sensors and are designed to start doing their thing automatically as soon as they become wet..
Everything you see in the film (aside from the walls, floor, ramp, and complete Honda Accord) is parts from those two cars. The voiceover is Garrison Keillor.

When the ad was shown to Honda executives, they liked it and commented on how amazing computer graphics have gotten.

They fell off their chairs when they found out it was for real."