Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Donky's LiveJournal:

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Monday, May 12th, 2008
11:04 pm	Long time no post Yes I am still alive because of the transition to my new job role. Being very busy. But that aside something interesting happened today I just have to blog about it. I was at Swensens after a customer presentation today and was sourcing for a cake for my niece's upcoming 1st birthday asst manager: Sir, would you like to look at our disney designs? They are great for kids. me: Sure (browses..) me: Erm, winnie the pooh. I notice piglet is missing in the design. It would be great if there is a piglet design as my niece is born in the year of the pig. asst manager: Sorry sir. We don't have piglet designs. We need to cater to the Muslim community. me:..... (erm... did that actually make sense) Anyway I proceeded to order another cake with another design. Well, I guess a Malay family could always make do with a non piglet design? After all I see that Polar Puffs and Emi cakes, bengawan solos do have piglets in their design as I recall. Pooh bear, tigger and donkey just look so wrong without their good pal piglet. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, August 10th, 2007
12:37 am	昨日 お久しぶり皆さん、 　　昨日、私の国の誕生日です。おめでとうございます。四十二歳です。でも、次の休日は十月です。悲しいね、:(,涙ができた。 　　最近、仕事はちょっとつまらないです。月給は増えないし、ボーナスはない。ちょっと、心配だ。また、就職を探しますか？私は、今分かりません。 　　　 　　この間、携帯電話のリングトンは変わります。今、可愛いの声”電話だよ”のリングトンを使います。このリングトンは最近放送のドラマ”パパと娘七日”の小梅のリングトンは同じです。面白いでしょう？HehHeh. 　　今年、ＪＬＰＴ二級試験を受ける。これから、合格ために、是非頑張ります。受験の作戦計画は決めた！最初、漢字は全部覚えます。次、文字を学ぶ。そして、聞解問題は練習します。最後の練習は読解です。その準備は全部したら、あの試験は絶対合格しようと思います。もちろん、毎日、神様に祈ります。:) じゃ、おやすみなさい。 (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, June 11th, 2007
11:05 pm	Hooray, I am so looking forward to living in the 80s again First, they (ODEX) threaten to sue anime downloaders --> ie nobody is downloading now. With no downloads, there is no point having broadband, lets all switch back to 56 kbps now. I think my US Robo modem is still lying around somewhere. Then, NETS wants an increase. Yay back to cash society. Isn't it great to queue long long at ATMs to get cash to pay for all your daily purchases. Ahh, the nostalgic days of the 80s. Then, Starhub increases sports channel price by 67%. Oh my gosh, no sports channel, cant even afford one and the government want to promote sports when there is no sports on national TV. What a joke. We are going back to mabye the 60s where the only sports you get is the one you create yourself. Hmm other forthcoming possibilities: (1) Increase in handphone prices --> back to public coin phones and phone cards now! (2) Tertiary education --> cannot go into university, back to 1 in 20 with degree now for locals. (3) Increase in transport cost --> walk everywhere now, aah the kampung days... (4) Young couples who cannot afford a home --> Gosh! Sleep in the streets now. Attap houses in illegal areas now. Its so strange but instead of moving forward, we seem to returning to the days of our forefathers! Haiz, what a sad disappointing recent state of events. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, April 4th, 2007
11:39 pm	The ironies of life Regain contact with a friend only to receive news that another has been lost. Life is full of ironies. Treasure the people around you. (Comment on this)
Sunday, March 11th, 2007
10:29 pm	What I look for in a country Jeez, after been to so many countries, my personal preference when linking to liking a country are still as follows (1) Weather (i do not like super hot countries, means even worse than SG), countries with 4 seasons are nice... (2) The food (very impt) (3) What's there to do (In Japan lots, In US they have professional sports) (4) Security (5) Hygeine and Infrastructure, transport (6) Communication (Language) At such, base on the above criteria, my top 3 countries so far are still as follows (1) Japan (the earthquakes are a big concern though, but beyond that within the typical residential area, it is surprisingly quiet and calm, an ideal living environment, ok lets not go into the high-sucidal rates...) (2) Singapore (Yes all the yummy food) (3) HK (I hate the crowds though) Other noteworthies: Taiwan, Malaysia, Vietnam (hey, its clean and well governed, i am very impressed, only problem is the lang and mabye the food might take some time to get use to, as well as I be bored there, but still its clean). As you can see, food plays a very big part. I don't think I can ever survive in Aussie or US (just cannot imagine myself eating those type of food everyday, no carrot cake and chicken rice will die! hey but i can give those up for delicious ramen and tonkatsu don anytime). Transport is a problem also, it just takes damn long to go from one place to another, everywhere is so far. 以上です。 (Comment on this)
Wednesday, February 28th, 2007
7:28 pm	JLPT3 合格します！ My mom called me in Indon and told me this: Listening : 70/100 (Sucks big time, need to work on this) Vocab: 93/100 (Boohoo, no full marks liao) Grammar and Reading 178/200 合計点：341/400 My classmate not human got 378/400.... Next target level 2 liao but need to work really hard on my listening.. (Comment on this)
Monday, February 19th, 2007
10:39 pm	中国新年 皆さん、 　中国新年明けまして、おめでとうございました。でも、今年七月に、消費税は増加しますが、月給は増えない。大変ですね。やっぱり、人間が苦しいですか？僕は知りません。預金口座にお金は毎日減少です。物価は何時でも増える。確かに、今は経済は良いですが、十年後、もっと人は貧乏だと思います。 (Comment on this)
Tuesday, February 13th, 2007
10:56 pm	長い駅の名前 The subject reads a long train station name. An interesting fact, back last year while my friends and I were holidaying in 大阪(Osaka), we came across one of the subway stations that had the name 西中島南方。Sounds easy in chinese, but in 日本語(Japanese)、it reads Nishi Naka Jima Minami Gata.　Read that out in English and realise how long it is. Haha. Imagine the announcer blasting the voice over the train, 次の駅は西中島南方です。 Well he/she/recording has to really say it fast.. In tokyo, there are others long name such as 明治神宮前, which reads Meiji Jinguu Mae on the 千代田線. I can't imagine such long station names in SG. lol... Singapore longest is Bukit Batok or something like that? Haiz, 日本に料理は食べたいです。何時私又日本へ行きますか？分かりません。。。 (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, January 28th, 2007
11:24 pm	Taiwan Celebrity passed away Xu Weilun (Beatrice Xu) passed away today after an accident. I think she is less known to people who don't follow the Taiwanese entertainment closely but anyone who has seen Taiwanese drama should know who she is. And she's still so young. I remember the last high profile incident involving a Taiwanese celebrity was the passing of Zhang Yu Sheng. Again this serves to remind us, how fragile life is. (Comment on this)
Thursday, January 25th, 2007
3:25 pm	Incheon Airport When I visited the newly opened airport in Incheon back in 2001, I was duly impressed and told my mom back then this was one airport Changi can look up to and learnt a trick or two. Look at the report below: SEOUL - South Korea's Incheon International Airport has been named the World's Best Airport for 2006 in a survey of airport standards conducted by a prestigious US-based monthly travel magazine. Quoting the vice-president of the airport company Park Kun Hae, Yonhap news agency reported on Wednesday that Incheon took the top spot in the annual survey conducted by Global Traveller magazine with its 14,000 readers. The survey was done via post-mails, faxes, e-mails and through its website. Among the competitors for the price were Singapore Changi Airport, Heathrow Airport of the United Kingdom, Amsterdam Schiphol Airport and Hong Kong International Airport. Mr Park said Incheon airport has swept various international prizes related to airport service and management since last year. 'We'll further improve the competitiveness of Incheon airport through the expansion of facilities, continued education on officials and a variety of marketing activities,' he said. -- BERNAMA Similarly, not so long ago last year during our trip to Japan, we transited at the infamous now Thai airport, and the experience was horrible. Lousy design, unpolite staff. Told my boss he just waived it away and say it will get better, now this is what happens haha, 死ね！貞子万歳！: BANGKOK - THE future of Thailand's Suvarnabhumi International Airport remained cloudy yesterday as reports surfaced that cracks in the taxiways had cast doubt over its safety certification. The airport has been operating on an interim certificate issued by Thailand's Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) six months ago. The certificate expires tomorrow. The Nation newspaper yesterday quoted DCA director-general Chaisak Angsuwan as saying: 'The best we could do is issue another six-month interim certificate to Suvarnabhumi, but I am not certain if we can do it by this Friday because there are a long list of questions for which we are still awaiting answers from the Airports of Thailand (AOT).' Mr Chaisak said the DCA needed to see a comprehensive plan on how cracks in the taxiways would be addressed. An airline executive, who declined to be named, told The Straits Times: 'We do not have any real answers yet on the issue of the cracks. 'There are a lot of theories, among them that they are due to bad materials, bad workmanship or possibly a more long-term and substantial problem of subsidence.' The airport is built on formerly low-lying wetlands. Airlines yesterday played down concerns over safety. The head of a major regional airline who asked not to be named told The Straits Times: 'Right now, we have a lot of information from different sources, and we are in close contact with the AOT. 'Runway repairs are not out of the ordinary; other airports also have to repair their runways from time to time. If it was a real problem, there would be no flights taking off or landing at Suvarnabhumi.' An independent industry analyst agreed, saying, 'If there was a serious safety issue, airlines would not risk flying there at all.' The AOT's board of directors will meet today to discuss their options. The Board of Airline Representatives, which represents airlines operating in Thailand, will discuss Suvarnabhumi issues at a meeting on Monday. On Tuesday, Thailand's military-appointed Cabinet set up a committee to investigate reports of the cracks. The team from the Ministry of Defence will report to the Cabinet by the end of this month. Suvarnabhumi now faces problems at different levels. The AOT faces a shake-up in its top management, which critics say has mismanaged the giant terminal, slowing the resolution of problems thrown up by poor facilities and interior design issues. Even before the cracks were reported, the authorities were considering moving some airlines back to the old terminal at Don Muang in order to relieve congestion at Suvarnabhumi. The cracks in the tarmac are a different issue, but they highlight the possibility that some carriers will move back to Don Muang while repairs are done. The old airport now only serves official flights and some chartered flights. Seven aerobridges at the new airport may have to be closed to allow repair work, said airport director Somchai Sawasdeepon. Suvarnabhumi is also a political issue, which explains why many analysts and airline executives prefer not to be named in the media. In an editorial yesterday, The Nation underscored this aspect when it said that 'Suvarnabhumi Airport stands as a showcase of...Thaksin-era corruption'. Mr Thaksin Shinawatra, the former prime minister, had rushed the opening of the airport last September. This was partly to avoid opening the new airport during the peak tourist season. But the opening date was also chosen in order to have a showcase event before an election last October that did not take place in the end. Days before the airport's scheduled opening last September, the military ousted Mr Thaksin in a coup d'etat. (Comment on this)
Thursday, January 18th, 2007
10:32 pm	Long Time no post This is the week of ops manning, and we got enough reminders from MINDEF, phone calls. Lets see, 1 email, 2 sms, 2 mindef notifications, 2 phone calls + 1 physical letter. If this is not kiasu I don't know what is, this is a bit overdoing it. Ah 新年始まります。冬のドラマ季節スタト！以下のドラマは見たいです： 一：きらきら研修医 ：小西真奈美さんの第一主演のドラマです！楽しみにします！ 二：エライ所にとついでしまった：仲間由紀恵新しいドラマです！ 三：華麗なる一族：木村拓哉ドラマです。 四：派遣の品格：面白いテーム。。 Thats another 4 for this season, I have yet to finish watching the other 4 which I got last season... sigh. Well on a bright note, I have completed FFX12, and can finally redirect my efforts to start preparing for JLPT2, preparation needs to start now or else I will be screwed. If my JLPT3 cant clear, I can always take it as extra revision. (Comment on this)
Sunday, December 10th, 2006
2:08 am	Army Life 1 week down, 2 more weeks to go. Actually the past week can be considered the less siong of all the 3 weeks, considering the fact I am doing this the 2nd time, so I knew exactly what was going on. However, having said that, my whole body is still aching as of now, due to Thursday digging of the fireman trench. My section would be quite suay, 2 of the trenches will be in the open area with no sun (ie no shade) and the weather can be quite hot you know. It is highly likely that my coy will be "arrowed" for SAF day parade. This is shit as it means almost 2 months worth of weekends burnt. My boss will not like that. On top of this, my weekend lessons will be kinda of disrupted. They did offer a low key in exchange for all the rehersals though. Seems like a lot of shit happening back in the coy. Bad time for reservist as I consider this a crucial period in the company, with the push of the new product, the trg sessions and briefing for the new financial year, all of which I am being left out of all the discussions which pissed me off to some extent but nothing I can do about it. The training sessions are still ok as my colleagues did a recording for me. I did request my bosses to shift the discussions till I come back but not sure whether that can be done. Let's see how it goes. (Comment on this)
Sunday, December 3rd, 2006
9:17 am	JLPT終わった！ JLPT終わった。でも、不合格か合格か、来年二月末に知っています。 今日試験は、多分合格します。大丈夫ですよ。：Ｐ (Comment on this)
Thursday, November 30th, 2006
12:29 am	SIA sucks From Feburary 2007, miles required to redeem free flights to popular areas like Japan, Korea and Aussie are increased. The reason given? To simplify flight charts... yuh right. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 28th, 2006
2:56 pm	Yay. my package arrived today Ordered from Amazon JP. Should have got it while I was in japan about 3 weeks back, but it was not released at that time. Title of the DVD: ブレイブストーリー(Brave Story) website is at http://www.bravestory.net/ ワタルのカストは松隆子さんです。その人は私大好きな女優です。 The movie was about 2 hours. Best of all it came with English subtitles, even though I really didnt need it in certain parts of the movie, but it helped. DVD is region 2 though. The thing I really like about the movie is the rich world created in the alternative universe, like laputa in the sky those type. The ending credit had this mini map, where they sort of revisited all the locations in the movie. I also managed to get Jeanne D Arc to work on my PSP. Yay. Full animated cut scenes and with voice to boot, looks really sleek. Read the reviews from Famitsu, looks good and so far after 2 battles I am impressed. Unfortunately, no news for the US release yet though, doesnt matter to me anyway, I prefer the original voice acting.Other release I am looking forward to this week is the PSP version of Disgaea. JLPT this weekend, cant play too much, then its off to waste time reservist again, after which I will come back just in time to celebrate xmas and make some new year resolutions. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, November 26th, 2006
1:31 pm	悲しいね。 Well, one of my seniors msged me on MSN yesterday and told me a shocking news. It seems that one of our SOC seniors had suddenly passed on and it happened on Thursday morning. Though I did not know they guy personally, but I remembered he was quite a prominent person back in the uni days and a BBS regular, you can say we know each other literally by our IDs in bbs. Treasure the people around you, live is too short. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, November 25th, 2006
8:13 am	Some thoughts Difference between Hong Kong and SG Likes: (1) Well, looks more exciting there, more things to do (2) The char siew there is much better (3) Xmas mood, its everywhere in HK, you can feel it. SG sux, with that pathetic sorry of an excuse of a lighting in Orchard. Total letdown (4) No NS. Ok that beats everything. The BG responded in ST says people go back 2 weeks, I wonder where he got his facts from, or the cronies under him are lying to him. Yuh right, I am going back for 6 weeks this year in total, and the SAF doctrine says can be called up till 40 days (they never tell the public did they, 2 weeks my foot), and they are so cheapskate they burn your sats and sometimes you have no choice and book out on Sundays. Dislikes: (1) It's too crowded, if you tink MRT is crowded wait till u see the MTR (2) A bit expensive to live in, i dare say its nearly on par with Japan (3) Food wise less variety, its char siew, tim sum and ur typical HK dishes. Next 4 weeks will be busy for me, 1 week on leave to study for JLPT Then its off to waste 3 weeks of my life away doing useless stuff in camp. (Comment on this)
Friday, November 24th, 2006
5:46 pm	Just came back from HK I will post more about what I tink abt the plus points and minus points later. (Comment on this)
Monday, November 13th, 2006
1:53 pm	GST up to 7% Congratulations, You have just succeeded in increasing the possbilities of decreasing the birth rate of this country, helping more people to make the decision to "quit" and making life very very difficult. Mabye we will see more people sleeping in the streets in the years to come. 40 % increase, but where is the 40% increase in salary (this is not possible even in the first place). (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, October 17th, 2006
11:48 pm	Blogging here in South Africa (GMT + 2) Doing my support shift here form 2 to 8 am, to cater to the customers in the GMT + 8 - 10 region tough job, but I couldnt sleep in my room anyway. My roommate is snoring like an earthquake. Even with earplugs on, it couldnt save me. A few more days and I be back in SG and preparing for my next trip (to Japan! Yay!). (Comment on this)