as 2008 winds down...

...it's time for a bit of introspection and reflection on the year that's coming to a close. this year has been one of ups and downs reflected in tremendous upheavals globally...my own top three 2008 moments were:-

1. the election of the first african-america president - the impact of this event cannot be over-emphasized...the echoes of america's slavery past are now firmly put to rest by the fact that a descendant of such slaves has reached the highest office in the land...now as 20 jan 2009 approaches and barack obama takes on the onerous "job", the world watches and waits...he's got a helluva lot on his plate...i hope that he's up to it...
   
2. the tsunami of doom and gloom in the global economy - momentuous to say the least, frightening in its intensity and impact...the sheer lack of market oversight and lax controls was a prime factor in this economic crisis and much has to change in the years to come...as the economy lurches about like a boxer on wobbly legs, everyone cringes in fear of more bad news to come...have we seen the bottom of this trough? i fear not...but i am hopeful that things will stabilise and we may see the light at the end of the tunnel by 1st quarter 2010...*fingers crossed*
3. singapore scoring its first olympic medal in 48 years...when our ladies table tennis team took the silver in the finals against the chinese juggernaut, i was rivetted by the spectacle...not since rome 1960 did singapore manage such a feat. even though there are rumblings of discontent due to the fact that the ladies are "imported" (as they were chinese players), it does little to discount the sheer grit and countless hours of training that they did in singapore plus their assimilation into singaporean life...screw the naysayers, i say!

on the personal front, i am glad and thankful that my job is not at risk but am cognizant of the fact that i need to work even harder this coming year to "combat" the effects of the slowdown in the economy which will inevitably impact the work that the company gets...work harder, work faster, work smarter!

i am profoundly thankful that my marriage is going ever strong but am aware that i should not be complacent and take her for granted...we have to get back to the walk.

i am thankful for friends both old and new and i am glad that i have reconnected with lost acquaintances which hopefully in time to come, will "mature" into closer friendship...

i am thankful that i have this blog to rant/rave/post crap/vent...in doing so, i find that it clears my mind and allows more coherent thought...hard as it may seem to be believed...hehehe...

so, as 2009 beckons, i look forward indeed...thanks for being there, readers...

aiyo...RIP

what a terrible thing to happen...

Girl dies after father drops TV on her head

A four-year-old girl died after her father accidentally dropped a television on her head as he carried it downstairs, an inquest heard. Emily May Hughes died on Christmas Day after suffering "a catastrophic brain injury" in what the coroner called a "tragic accident".

Coroner Andre Rebello described the accident as "every parent's worst nightmare". The inquest was told the family had bought a new TV on Christmas Eve - a day in which they went shopping and visited friends.

Mr Hughes installed it in the first-floor living room then carried the old "heavy, deep, bulky" widescreen television downstairs into the children's play area. Emily, who was the youngest of four children, liked to take the Nintendo DS she shared with her siblings to a quiet place to play it alone. But unbeknown to Mr Hughes as he struggled downstairs, she was lying on her stomach at the foot of the stairs.

In a report by North Wales Police, officers told the inquest Mr Hughes accidentally bumped into her, dropping the television and pinning her head down. "He completely lost balance, fell and tried to push the TV away from the child realising she was there but it landed on her head, pinning her. He immediately got it off her."

more HERE.

HORNy creature runs amok...

...sounds like a certain curly fella i know

Jealous rhino goes on romantic rampage

A runaway rhinoceros created chaos at a zoo in South Australia after he broke out of his enclosure to look for his wayward mate.

The 18-year-old white rhino, called Satara, smashed through the steel bars of his pen on Sunday night and led zookeepers on a 12-hour chase through the grounds of the zoo. It is thought he was jealous of another bull who had been paired up with his female mate across the road.

Two tranquilliser darts failed to control the three-tonne beast and when he approached the electrified perimeter fence, keepers feared they would have to shoot to kill. Fortunately, a third sedative shot calmed him down and he was taken back to his enclosure.”

Vid below

don't you just hate it when...

...this happens to your anus?

what an astounding photo!

This award winning image shows the extraordinary moment when a lemon shark gazed into a lens with an apparent cheeky grin.

Showing a close-up of a lemon shark’s face on the surface at sunset, it was recently selected from more than 20,000 photos as winner of the Oceans division of the international Nature’s Best Photography 2008 Windland Smith Rice Awards. Amateur photographer Bruce Yates, snapped the aptly named ‘Cheshire Cat Grin’ photograph in July last year in the Bahamas.

read more HERE.

i'm listening to...

...DEEP by Binocular...a tender moody and somewhat ethereal love song...think i first heard it on The O.C. soundtrack...can't find much information about them though...




Binocular Lyrics
Deep Lyrics

erm....warped thoughts here...

it's a miracle!

how? did he "hold his breath"?????

Goldfish survived for 13 hours out of tank

Ginger the goldfish has performed a “Christmas miracle” after surviving out of water for 13 hours. Barbara Woodward was shocked to find an empty goldfish bowl before she went to work on Monday morning.

The previous evening, her pet goldfish Ginger had been happily swimming around inside it. She looked all around but could find no sign of Ginger. But after returning to her Hucclecote home 13 hours later, she found the missing fish alive and well behind the sideboard.

“I couldn’t believe it, it was a real Christmas miracle,” said Mrs Woodward, 61.
Ginger was given to Mrs Woodward as a birthday present in August, and recently had been seen jumping out of the water a lot. We thought nothing of it,” said Mrs Woodward. “Apparently goldfish jump when they need more oxygen, so he obviously jumped out.”

After finding the empty bowl at 7am in the morning, Mrs Woodward had a look for Ginger, but he was nowhere to be found. It was only when she returned from work around 8pm and moved the sideboard, that the fish bowl was on, that she found him.

“When I found him behind the sideboard I even got the box out to put him in, I was expecting him to be dead. I picked him up with a spatula and his mouth started moving, I couldn’t believe it. I put him back into the water and off he went. He was swimming fabulously!”

Gavin Gurnell is a vet at Severnside Veterinary Group in Coleford. He said he has never come across a case like this before. “They are hardy creatures and will last a little longer out of water than other fish, but I would be very surprised if a goldfish would last more than 10 minutes out of water.”

be careful what you wish for

oOoOoOoOo

aiyo!!! someone should be shot!

why? see HERE.

a special program for tonight!

see it?

alamak!

An elderly Florida lady did her shopping, and upon returning to her car, found four males in the act of leaving with her vehicle. She dropped her shopping bags and drew her handgun, proceeding to scream at the top of her voice, “I have a gun, and I know how to use it! Get out of the car!”

The four men didn’t wait for a second invitation. They got out and ran like mad.

The lady, somewhat shaken, then to load her shopping bags into the back of the car and got into the driver’s seat. She was so shaken that she could not get her key into the ignition.

She tried and tried and then it dawned on her why. A few minutes later she found her own car parked four or five spaces farther down.

She loaded her bags into her car and then drove to the police station.

The sergeant to whom she told the story…nearly tore himself in two with laughter. He pointed to the other end of the counter, where four pale men were reporting…a car jacking by a mad, elderly woman described as white, less than five feet tall, glasses, curly white hair, and carrying a large handgun.

a rude awakening...

d'oh!!!

WARSAW (Reuters) - A Polish man got the shock of his life when he visited a brothel and spotted his wife among the establishment’s employees.

Polish tabloid Super Express said the woman had been making some extra money on the side while telling her husband she worked at a store in a nearby town.

“I was dumbfounded. I thought I was dreaming,” the husband told the newspaper on Wednesday.

The couple, married for 14 years, are now divorcing, the newspaper reported.

more HERE.

scarlett johansson's got spirit...

...she's baccccccck and looking mighty fine indeed...at the premiere of the new flick THE SPIRIT...aiyo, i need a cold shower...quick!

9

...looks pretty damn good...it's an animated feature based on a short film by Shane Acker and takes place in a world parallel to our own, in which the very legacy of humanity is threatened.

A community of fully mobile rag dolls living a post-apocalyptic existence find one of their own, 9, displaying leadership qualities that may help them to survive. The conflicted but resilient community includes 1, a domineering war veteran; 2, an aged inventor; 5, a stalwart mechanic; 6, a visionary and artist; and 7, a brave warrior.

The title role is voiced by Elijah Wood (Frodo in LOTR), with Crispin Glover, Jennifer Connelly, John C. Reilly and Martin Landau, amongst others, lending their voice talents...and also produced by Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov (Night/Daywatch).

Something that I will be anxiously waiting for...

dumbass

why oh why???? stupid fella

Failed party trick lands Swedish man in burns unit

A Swedish man’s attempt to impress his girlfriend on Friday night backfired, putting him in the hospital with serious burn injuries and facing allegations of endangering the public. The woman told police in Västervik in south eastern Sweden that her boyfriend poured gasoline over his arm and set the fuel on fire.

“It obviously didn’t go well. He burned his arm and other parts of his body and was in a state of shock,” said Kalmar police spokesperson Reine Johansson. “Don’t ask me what the point of the trick was supposed to be.”

The 33-year-old man was taken via ambulance to the hospital in Västervik. According to police he will likely need specialized care at the burn clinic of Linköping University Hospital.

Following the failed stunt, the man is also under suspicion for negligence which endangers the public. Police add that they have no reason to believe the man's burns resulted from actions other than those described by his girlfriend. “We haven’t been able to talk with him yet; his condition is too bad to allow it. But we naturally plan to do so as soon as possible,” said Johansson.

more HERE.

any empirical proof...

...that these work??

never had this problem...

no, not for me...

safety first

a math whiz @ work...

I was riding to work yesterday when I observed a female driver cut right in front of a pickup truck, causing him to have to drive onto the shoulder to avoid hitting her. This evidently angered the driver enough that he hung his arm out his window and “flipped” the woman off.

“Man, that guy is stupid,” I thought to myself. I ALWAYS smile nicely and wave in a sheepish manner whenever a female does anything to me in traffic, and here’s why……….

I drive 48 miles each way every day to work. That’s 96 miles each day. Of these, 16 miles each way is bumper-to-bumper. Most of the bumper-to-bumper is on an 8 lane highway. There are 7 cars every 40 feet for 32 miles. That works out to be 982 cars every mile, or 31,424 cars.

Even though the rest of the 32 miles is not bumper to bumper, figure I pass at least another 4000 cars. That brings the number to something like 36,000 cars that I pass everyday.

Statistically, half of these are driven by females. That’s 18,000 women drivers! In any given group of females, 1 in 28 has PMS. That’s 642.

According to Cosmopolitan, 70% describe their love life as dissatisfying or unrewarding. That’s 449.

According to the National Institute of Health, 22% of all females have seriously considered suicide or homicide. That’s 98.

And 34% describe men as their biggest problem. That’s 33.

According to the National Rifle Association, 5% of all females carry weapons, and this number is increasing.

That means that EVERY SINGLE DAY, I drive past at least one female that has a lousy love life, thinks men are her biggest problem, has seriously considered suicide or homicide, has PMS, and is armed.

Flip one off? … I think not.

really?

at first i thought this was a shopped photo.....but it turns out that this is actually an oarfish! frickin' huge!

to learn more about it, see HERE.

impressions of australia...

...the movie, not the country lah...finally caught hugh and nicole yesterday arvo...and here are my thoughts

1. sweeping vistas...shot like a tourism ad
   
2. fabulous settings...the outback is stunning in its glory
   
3. pretty good pacing...didn't feel the length at all
4. cliched and stereotypical characters...the alpha male drover...the uptight yet maternal english rose sarah ashely...the leering baddie...you name it, you got it...
5. major eye candy in the form of the uber-male hugh jackman and the ever-delicious nicole kidman (what fantastic calves she has...oooh la laaa)
6. thinnish plot which lurches around somewhat drunkenly
7. cheesy and campy in parts...not exactly a bad thing actually...made it real fun to watch...especially the kangaroo part (gotta see it to appreciate it)
8. felt a bit like 2 movies in 1...
   

epic? nope. a crowd-pleaser, for sure...overall, a 7/10 at best for me...

ps: brandon walters as nullah is the heart and soul of the whole story...what a debut! crikey!

trailer below

"lucky" tourists???

what are the odds????

'World's unluckiest tourists' witness three separate terrorist attacks

Jason and Jenny Cairns-Lawrence, from Dudley, West Midlands, were in central Mumbai last month when the Indian city came under siege from Islamic militants.

They were also in New York on September 11, 2001, when terrorists flew two passenger planes into the World Trade Centre, bringing down the twin towers and killing almost 3,000 people.

And four years later they were in London on July 7, when terrorists blew up three London Underground trains and a double decker bus, resulting in the deaths of 52 commuters.

Mrs Cairns-Lawrence, 26, said: "It's a strange coincidence. The terror attacks just happened when we were in the cities."

Mr Cairns-Lawrence, 42, said: "I would say that Mumbai sprang back to its feet faster than New York or London. New York took almost a week to come back to normal. But Mumbai was back to its usual business from day three. It was just amazing."

more HERE.

looking for love

the trials and tribulations of a man...

The Journey

When I was 14, I hoped that one day I would have a girl-friend.

When I was 16 I got a girlfriend, but there was no passion, so I decided I needed a passionate girl with a zest for life.

In college I dated a passionate girl, but she was too emotional. Everything was an emergency; she was a drama queen, cried all the time and threatened suicide. So I decided I needed a girl with stability.

When I was 25, I found a very stable girl but she was boring. She was totally predictable and never got excited about any-thing. Life became so dull that I decided that I needed a girl with some excitement.

When I was 28 I found an exciting girl, but I couldn’t keep up with her. She rushed from one thing to another, never settling on anything. She did mad impetuous things and made me miserable as often as happy. She was great fun initially and very energetic, but directionless. So I decided to find a girl with some real ambition.

When I turned 30, I found a smart ambitious girl with her feet planted firmly on the ground, so I married her. She was so ambitious that she divorced me and took everything I owned.

I am older and wiser now, and am looking for a girl with big tits.

i'm listening to...

...the piano and guitar version of GOOD IS GOOD by sheryl crow...this is a more spartan arrangement (naturally) as compared to the actual single release version and it allows her voice to take centrestage...i love the lyrics of this song...so poignant...




Sheryl Crow Lyrics
Good Is Good Lyrics

luck...

case 1 - lucky! that the tree was in the way...


case 2 - really lucky! just millimeters away from disaster for that chap!


case 3 - damn bloody lucky! that they didn't get splattered all over the place...what were they thinking??? good grief...


case 4 - sheer dumb luck that it was on sand! bugger was shot off like a stone from a catapult!


case 5 - holy crap lucky! possibly the luckiest man on earth that day...