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It was a dark and stormy night.

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old days - new thinking

brings back memory wherever you are, and wherever you're from....

but if you are from some place where lives are like the singaporeans' lives in the 40's, then you may not appreciate the reason the these things bring back lots of happiness to the people in their 50's and above...

thots are always rooted back to a point when you begin to think.....

standard - my ass

evolution works the same way - the main theme that runs throughout evolution is THE FITTEST SURVIVES(like the asses of the horses in the story below)! so whatever human is capable of doing is the result of his fight for survival - like man likes fat-ass ladies, for their productivity, like gal likes strong men, for their healthy genes... sexual pleasure used to be a means to lure the couple to copulate for procreation, but now it's become an end in itself.

human has made an ass of himself - by just going after the ASS!



Traceability of standard


"Railroad tracks.

The US standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet, 8.5 inches. That's an exceedingly odd number.

Why was that gauge used? Because that's the way they built them in England, and English expatriates designed the US railroads.

Why did the English build them like that? Because the first rail lines were built by the same people who built the pre-railroad tramways, and that's the gauge they used.



Why did 'they' use that gauge then?

Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools that they had used for building wagons, which used that wheel spacing.

Why did the wagons have that particular odd wheel spacing?

Well, if they tried to use any other spacing, the wagon wheels would break on some of the old, long distance roads in England, because that's the spacing of the wheel ruts.

So who built those old rutted roads?



Imperial Rome built the first long distance roads in Europe (including England) for their legions. Those roads have been used ever since.

And the ruts in the roads? Roman war chariots formed the initial ruts, which everyone else had to match for fear of destroying their wagon wheels.

Since the chariots were made for Imperial Rome, they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing. Therefore, the United States standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches is derived from the original specifications for an Imperial Roman war chariot. In other words, bureaucracies live forever.



So the next time you are handed a specification/procedure/process, and wonder, 'What horse's ass came up with this?' , you may be exactly right.



Imperial Roman army chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the rear ends of two war horses. (Two horses' asses.)

Now, the twist to the story:



When you see a Space Shuttle sitting on its launch pad, you will notice that there are two big booster rockets attached to the sides of the main fuel tank. These are solid rocket boosters, or SRBs. The SRBs are made by Thiokol at their factory in Utah.

The engineers who designed the SRBs would have preferred to make them a bit larger, but the SRBs had to be shipped by train from the factory to the launch site. The railroad line from the factory happens to run through a tunnel in the mountains, and the SRBs had to fit through that tunnel. The tunnel is slightly wider than the railroad track, and the railroad track, as you now know, is about as wide as two horses' behinds.



So, a major Space Shuttle design feature of what is arguably the world's most advanced transportation system was determined over two thousand years ago by the width of a horse's ass. And you thought being a horse's ass wasn't important?

So, Horse's Asses control almost everything...

Explains a whole lot of things, doesn't it? "

400mm - evening light

gobekli tepe - authority

golbekli tepe, the oldest temple? that, nobody could ascertain. was it built as a temple? if yes, was it the first? surely, the builders of these high-tech structures were not simple, and they could not have reached this kind of complexity overnite.

the question, what could have been there, before gobekli tepe?

why built it?

who had the authority to command the people to build it?

awesome work - simple set up

like walking in a treasure trove, he found beauty beyond imagination.....
how did he do it? read on ...

to this link

400mm - birds and such

shibo - the foreign talent

shibo, the koi expert from bangladesh, has been working in the koi farms of singapore for more than 10 years. he's now living here with his wife, no child yet.

koi's are his children. he knows all the in's and out's of any koi.

he asked, "how much you pay to clean the pond?"

"120."

"ok.... just let that guy do it. i actually charge more."

"how much?"

"200."

"why so much?"

"i come with a helper and do a thorough job, sucking up all dirts in the pond. look at your fish well-being, and advise you on what to do if your fish is sick....."

- foreign talent in another field.

good food - multi-lovers

the best vietnamese spring rolls is here.

but for tonite's dinner, the main course is pork knuckle, for the occasion of oktober fest. but instead of beer, they order a bottle of red wine.

stephen joined them half way, when he was waiting for his to-go.

but vietnamese spring rolls they also order.

it's not the fried type, it's rolled with fresh rice skin, filled with herbs and shrimps, and the bite is springy and the taste is herby.... dipped in sugary chilly source, it's just superb.

he doesn't remember he tried anything like that in any of vietnamese restaurants he had patronised.

when the food is good - it's like making out with a new lover every time you sink your teeth in it!

ring.... can i talk to.....

"yes."

"i'm sharon, from cimb. i would like to let you know, our bank is having a promotion..."

before she could finished, he interrupted, "about bank loan?"

"haha.... you are right, but you could access our money line...."

"no. thank you." he hangs up.

this the 5th time in a day he received the same type of call from 5 different banks... what's going on?

did somebody out there tell the banks that he needed a loan?

to make some quick bucks - taiyilong is the way to go.

johny english - 2 wrongs = 1 right

the show is the english version of the hongkong slap-stick stephen chow comedy. it is entertaining and rejuvenating.

johny makes 2 wrong equal to one right.

that takes a good portion of what we call luck.

changes - wary?

changes will come. face them.

he told him, "jerry told me there will be changes next year."

he said, "well, not surprising."

he said, "are you wary?"

he said, "how? there's being changes ever since, especially after the new guy stepped on board. anyway, we need to adapt."

mako - a lawyer

he said, "it's the duty of the sale committee has to do its due diligence and sell the property to maximise the value of the property and to sell it at the proppep.... time, what's the word used in the law, mako?"

mako, "appropriate?"

"no.... something like propoe...."

"PROPITIOUS!"

"yap. sell it at propitious time. when is the right time to sell, i don't know. nobody knows, you have to look at all the circumstances and come up with the decision whether this the right time to sell... or conversely, any event that may present itself not the correct time to sell." the lawyer continued while mako resumed taking down notes of the conversation.

mako, a bespectacled, 30-year old boyish looking young man, is fresh from law school. he has been attending meetings and signing sessions of the enbloc deal for quite sometime now. he also replied thru emails of questions put to the law firm by the property agent and the sale committee.

he looks serious always and a bit tired tonite. also you can sense he's a focus person, a sort of walking dictionary type, a rainman kind of disposition.

after the meeting at 10pm, he with his loaded back-pack rushed out of the building to catch the bus for home.

boy, he sure looked tired, and mechanical!

change - fear

There's the inert urge for change, but there's also an equally fear factor for it.

when you are the change initiator, you want it for the better. when you are the change target, you fear for the unknown - when you do not belong to the inner circle of the change initiator.

the most important thing of any organization is boss-subordinate rapport. so when change happens, the subordinates do not suspect the motive of the change. many times, office politics get the upper hand when changes are introduced. instead of making changes for the sake of the company's betterment, they are made for the sake of the individual's political capital to raise/firm-up his position.

lone wolf - ?

wolf - who wants to be the lone wolf?

he's out of his pack - searching for his prey, his sleeping partner and had nothing but the long nite.

the lone wolf has all its freedom, loneliness and irrelevance.

it's that irrelevance that makes the lone wolf so nonconforming.

the wolf is lives for its own life.

general's wife - the general

"oh, look! there's general's wife. the general has the midef limousine, and driver to drive him around, while his wife has to drive herself in a suzuki swift."

"but she's driving the general motors at nite!"

agm - again

agm again - but this time he learnt from the last when by the time was out of the meeting when it ended at 1am, there's nothing much left in the buffet supper served on the basement floor. this time he and his fren got down to the basement just after 10pm, and lo and behold, there were people already started eating the potting hot teochew porridge.

he came to the meeting late, so he could not cast his vote.

although there's lots of heat on the office bearers of the club, and this time two were thrown out by vote of no confidence, and some were insinuated of corruption, people still came forward to render services to the club in the various position. there was still much contest for all the positions except only one candidate for the club treasurer.

the chairman of the club chaired the EGM(normally the president does so), before the AGM started, to discuss the no-confidence votes fir the incumbant presidents, treasure, the tender comm chairman and another GC member..... and he did a good job in controlling the order of the meeting. attendance was a new record of over 1200.

the management did a lousy job in the preparation for voting of the resolutions. they missed out voting ballet papers for two of the 7 reso. if anyone need to be sacked, the angmoh gm should get his butt kick in the first place.

koi - the graceful eater

koi, the fish that opens its mouth big when it eats!

the ponds were with all types of kois. the size don't matter so much, but the fish own presentation.

they bot 11 - mostly small ones, with a couple of medium ones.

the fish guy will quarantine them for a week.

grace returns in abundance.

zhou lingfei - the aura continues?

zhuo lingfei - luxun's grandson - he read about him quite sometime ago. that was his book 《三十年来话从头》, written almost 30 years ago. it was about his 30 years' life in china.

now 30 years later....

周令飞，鲁迅长孙，周海婴长子，社会工作者、国际大型文化活动制作人，1953年生于北京，1969年北京景山学校毕业，1980年出国深造，赴日本富士电
视台进修电子媒体。

　　周令飞：父亲说我最像爷爷

　　周海婴夫妇共育有四个子女：长子周令飞；次子周意飞；三子周令义；女儿周宁。其中长子周令飞因近年开拓“鲁迅”之名的事业，最为大众所熟悉。

　　周令飞脾气相貌最像爷爷

　　周令飞现在的职务是上海鲁迅文化发展中心主任。该中心成立于2002年9月，法人代表是周海婴。近十年来，周令飞主要从事鲁迅传播与普及的文化公益工作，举办“鲁迅文化讲座”和评奖等活动，整日为“鲁迅”之名而奔忙。而此之前20多年里，他一直生活在中国台湾，和台湾太太生有两个女儿。1999年到2001年，因一起官司周令飞留在了上海一段时间，这成为他后来接棒“鲁迅”之名的事业的契机。现在，人们看到浓密的眉毛、一字胡的周令飞总会说句“太像了，简直就是活脱脱的鲁迅先生！ ”周令飞也很喜欢自己的胡子，从1969年当兵便开始留起。常有人问他是不是刻意去模仿爷爷？周令飞说完全没有，“它就是自然长成这种形状的。 ”周令飞不仅长相酷似鲁迅，连脾气性格也几乎一样，他的父亲周海婴说：“这是典型的隔代遗传，和他爷爷一样，他自己认准的事情，非要达到目的不可。 ”

尽管如此，周令飞也曾经有过被祖父盛名所累的感觉，那加在名字之前的四个字“鲁迅长孙”足够沉甸甸。周令飞曾对媒体说过：“我小的时候，在学校里，人家都像看珍稀动物一样到我们班上看我。每次学到爷爷的课文，同学就会对我说："是你爷爷写的。 "口气很羡慕，但听多了，我心里就变得怪怪的，总想逃脱出来。 ”1979年，以第一批自费留学生身份到了日本。由于他的身份特殊，所以尽管是自己出钱，最终以公派自费的名义成行。因为“如果说鲁迅的孙子自费留学，太丢脸了。 ”

支持子孙自由发展

也因此在对待自己的子女上，周令飞保护的比较紧，他不太愿意让人知道孩子是鲁迅的第四代孙。

但是让人意想不到的是，周令飞的女儿周璟馨却因为在台湾热门综艺节目《我猜、我猜、我猜猜猜》参与评选“名门千金”而成为了网络红人。当年22岁的周璟馨出镜，在节目中透露“我的曾祖父是鲁迅”，该视频当时在网络上一度热传。并因表示对曾祖父鲁迅认识不多而遭到网友抨击。此后，周海婴在各地演讲时表示，如果孙女想要进娱乐圈，只要是正当的职业 ，家里是不会反对的。并表示：“我倒觉得，她这样反而是直率真诚的。如果她大谈鲁迅精神和文学价值，倒反而显得很不自然。何况，鲁迅后人就必须成为鲁迅研究专家吗？这个要求似乎并不合理。 ”

周海婴曾表示过说，父亲曾写过一句话：“孩子长大没有能力的话，可以做一些小的工作。不要做空头的文学家。 ”也因此对于周海婴选择理科专业，母亲从未干涉。受家风的影响，周海婴也让自己的孩子选择自由发展。对于“子承父志”的思想，周海婴说：“子为什么要承父志呢？外国很多艺术家、美术家，就不让自己的孩子继续自己的事业。”“用自己的意志强加于孩子，我觉得非常残忍。 ”

维权道路上，周令飞现在轻松多了

2007年，周海婴联合周令飞撰写的一篇《鲁迅姓什么》中，他们直指如今的鲁迅已改姓“钱”与“权”，痛批一些人打着鲁迅的幌子大发其财，一些部门利用鲁迅的名号动辄垄断。周令飞开始接起“鲁迅”知名的维权之棒。周令飞表示：“鲁迅家属在鲁迅事业的发展过程中是不能缺席的，我们必须要有一个合情合理合法的位置。 ”对于“鲁迅是属于全民族的，他的一切都是属于全体老百姓的，已经不属于家属了。 ”这种说法，周令飞有话说：“鲁迅生前留下了很多精神上和物质上的遗产。精神上的遗产可以是全民族的，但是物质上的遗产，按照继承法是由后代来继承的。往往人们认为精神的东西是很伟大的，物质上的东西是庸俗的。一个富人赚了钱之后，他把财富留给了后人，后人继承他的事业、继承他的遗产是理所应当的。可是父亲出面保护祖父的遗产，由于牵扯到鲁迅，就有人说三道四，这是搞双重标准。 ”周令飞说，“一个伟大的精神领袖、思想先驱，他的东西就只能停留在精神领域。我觉得这么想是不对的，他的某些东西还是实际存在着的，不能避而不见，还是可以继承的。 ”毕竟，在鲁迅家属眼里，鲁迅首先是一个人，是自己的父亲、祖父，然后才是国家和社会的符号。

在对鲁迅的维权中，周海婴和周令飞的父子之情变得更加深厚。周令飞说：“在维权的路上自己反而觉得轻松了，因为过去的压力，我好像觉得有一个包袱，我的祖父是鲁迅，我觉得好像不成器，我做事做得不好，好像给他丢脸，那今天我来做传播和普及鲁迅的工作的时候，第一我没有私心，第二我完全是付出，还是我自己掏腰包的，第三我做的事情是还原一个真实的鲁迅。所以我觉得这些事情很有意义。” 记者 陈妍妮

death - web properties

he has the idea about this for sometime now.

what happens to one's web contents when one passes away? is there any web will that one can make? how to trigger the will?

you can set up a webpage(webwill). the registered will-maker have to
1. put down his real name, and other particulars
2. put down the person he want to be his "beneficiary"
3. put down other people he wants them to know, what he has done in the net
4. put down all the websites, user id's, nikcs, passwords.
5. put down the instruction he wants his beneficiary to do with the websites/contents
6. put down his "frens" that he wants to inform of his demise
7. write his own obituary

question : do you trust this website to give them your userid's, nicks and passwords?
ans: since you already trusted websites that have your emails, etc, so why not one more website?

will trigger:
1. the webwiller has to check in this website at least once in certain period(determined by webwiller)
2. if he did not check in within that period, webwill will send out an email to his designated email account to ping his presence. if within one week, no reply, send another one, send one more if no reply. by by the third email. no reply, will release his personal web property info to the beneficiary and inform all the rest of his frens of his demise.
3. also put an obituary on the webwill page.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - When you die, does your Facebook account die with you? Or that online photo album? What about your iTunes playlist, blogs or tweets?

Laws in the United States and elsewhere are vague on the fate of digital rights to online accounts after death, leading to complications and legal wrangling for survivors who want access to the online services of the deceased.

Legal experts say it's unclear who owns what in the Internet 'cloud', and that in some cases the user agreement for email or social networking sites terminates when a person dies.

In the case of online photo albums, 'those photos are yours and you have a copyright, but the problem is if you upload them to a site like Shutterfly, the property you own is now stuck behind a licence', said Nathan Dosch, a Wisconsin attorney specialising in estate planning.

caterpillars - run again

after the rain, caterpillars run on teh pavement this morning.

looks like seeing them out many times this year than the previous years.....

or has that been always the case?

ship - shape

start to pump irons in the morning, for the muscles are getting loose. threadmill, golf and walk do make the body and spirit stronger, muscle building is important to keep the body in shape, and the spirit enhanced. but this takes time and consistency.

mid autumn - hazy moon

mooncake festival market in albert street, at the eve of the mooncake festival saw quite a big crowd. he bot 2 pomelos for $5. took some pictures. they had durian mooncakes and pomelos at the eve of mooncake festival.

tonite, the mooncake festival arrived, the moon was kind of shy, she has been hiding in the hazy clouds before 10pm; there's fires in sumatra, and the winds carried the haze to this little red dot - psi 62, burning smell in the air.

no lantern, no fire sparkles this year.

little india - acting big

sunday, when the people come out in hoards, and when the atmosphere is aromatic, when there's a sense of antiquity and familiarity of home.... all the more he wants to come here to be part of it all.

abu takes his off day and meets up with his frens in little india.

he wants to ask his fren to help him to get a gal fren.

his fren, loman says, "my fren, you came here not long. better take care of your work first. then think of women."

but he says, "my fren, i know. but you don't know, i'm a man of real needs, i need a woman before i can work good. i beg you to help me."

"my fren, i see what i can do..... see, there's a gal across the street, go and approach her."

"how?"

"my fren, go tell her that you are new here, and you need a gal fren."

"so simple? will it work?"

"my fren, simplicity always trumps acting big! try it and you will see how simple the world is!"

sungei road - much business about old-stuff

pictures taken with pentax k-x, chinon 50mm, m42 mount, stopped down to f8-22 to get the depth of field due to m42-k adaptor limited in focal range(cannot focus to finity) and also with very quick-dirty focusing, in crowded street.

talk about business - the sungei road old-stuff market is seeing people-mountain-people-sea..... maybe part of it is because they shut down most of the area for development,only pitt road and a couple of its branching lanes are opened for business.

"three dollar, three dollar.... " the lady shouted to push the sale of the old jeans. she has been there for many years.... so have those shoutings.

thru the years, he bot a few old stuff from there, an old number cruncher, some weights, some dvd's.... and he has been looking for a first-generation mobile phone, those biggies.... he found a couple of really-run-downed ones, not the one he likes.

today he was out for the biggy again. he met a middle-age couple who were also looking for the biggy. The man said, " this is my gal fren, we have been looking for the taikotai for sometime now. If you get one, let us know, we would like to pay high price to buy from you."

"Why you want the phone so badly?"

"You see, a few months ago, before i knew my gal fren, I was still very single, so was my gal fren. my weekend pastime was coming to sungei road, looking for old stuff, and so was my gal fren's. i came to sungei road, one weekend. i was looking at the taikotai in one stall. the seller wanted $100, i haggled a bit. he wasn't willing to sell. the gal beside me, who was eyeing on the same phone, gave the seller $100 and got the phone. i was quite pissed off. but what could i do, the higher bidder gets the deal. i asked her why she undercut me in the deal. she said, if she didn't do it, she would live to regret for it - like what she had experienced in her love life.... the topic turned to love life.... and we clicked and i befriended her, she's my gal fren now! we felt the taikotai we have must be lonely, so we are looking for another one to keep it in company."

so sungei road is not only the market for old goods - it's also a market for older singles to get hitched.

for some, sungei road is a road to the future built on the past!