What (Singaporean) women want

Saw this article in today papers titled “Do Singaporean women expect too much?" and surprisingly, a survey has shown that the below behaviours are expected of our local guys.

Not in order of preference, since all are expected.

1) Open car or restaurants doors

2) carry handbags

3) pick up the tab

4) send them home after the date

5) initiate celebrations

6) dress up for special occasions

Wow. Is this for real? Our local women really expect all these?

Get back to Earth, ladies. If you can find one singaporean guy who does all the above for his partner for at least a year, i will be so willingly banish myself out of singapore (where i am sure females out there are more realistic).

Firstly, i am rather bothered by the fact the women has always strive for an equal status as men yet at the same time feel men should be doing this and that. We men have never wanted us to be equal. We understand that being opposite in sex means that there will be always be inequality. We understand that and are fully fine with it. So lets leave the color combination of the curtains and the sofa to the ladies while we carry on with the broken pipe, get the idea?

Secondly, when a lady expect her man to perform the above mentioned acts, did she sit down and think to herself how she can “live" up to her man’s expectations? Has she ever asked her man (if she has one) what is expected of her?

Sorry, but i think that when a woman has high expectations, its unlikely that she herself is something of a man’s dream. What does a man expect of his woman?

Seriously, down-to-earth guys like me (which are plentiful in singapore) don’t really need a 林志玲. Yes, she looks stunning and is almost our perfect woman, but set too high the standards and we are going to be alone for a very long time, if not eternally. We just need someone who

1) love us and respect our parents

2) looks decent and presentable, anything additional is a bonus

3) share some common interest but let us pursuit our own

4) do not try to change us or our men’s inclination towards toys

5) do well in aspects of life that we can’t. Map reading not included.

See? It isn’t too hard to fulfill all these rite? I don’t expect my other half to fetch my slippers the moment i get home, prepare my bath while i change or gimme a massage after dinner. I get realistic because i know no woman in singapore can do these anymore.

Our local ladies should be too.

I am getting excited over this!

Although i like my current shoot very much, i believe its time for me to move onto something more advanced.

There is nothing wrong with my Olympus SP-500 UZ. Its my first camera that allows me to have some manual control over how i want my photos to be, while at the same time allow me to switch to “Auto" mode and just snap away. I feel that i can use this camera for a long long time.

Yet there are times when i feel that i am handicapped by the shortcomings of this camera. I do not have (much) control over the focusing and this resulted in many blurred shots which i thought are simple enough. This is especially frustrating in still life photography when the camera just won’t focus.

Another shortcoming of this camera is the lack of anti-shake or image stabilizer or whatever you call it. My girlfriend who just cannot hold still can only produce pictures of distorted and blurred lights. I am not that bothered since its basically the same as shooting during range. Learn to hold your breath and you won’t move that much.

Enough of the shortcomings because i still like this camera very much. But what got me excited was the announcement of the new S100fs from Fujifilm Finepix during the latest PMA (Photo Marketing Annual) show.

The S100fs is basically an alternative to people who want to upgrade their current shoot to something more advanced and with more control yet reluctant to move to the DSLR side.

It looks like a DSLR, weighs like one and feels like one too. Which mean this is going to be a big and heavy camera that might probably outweighs a DSLR literally. There is also the manual rings around the lens for one to adjust the focus and zoom if one wish to do so.

But how different is this camera from a DSLR?

Firstly, one would notice that the LCD is tiltable. As far as i know, no DSLR has this yet. This camera also has a single fix lens, and this is a double edged sword. Being able to change lens means one has more flexibility with the range and speed of the lens fixed while a fixed lens eliminates the “dirty sensor" problem that plagues many DSLR.

Scheduled to be released in March this year, i am expecting to see this in the coming IT show (6th till 9th March) at Suntec. Should be retailing for S$1099 but i am sure it will come with a lot of goodies during the show so i may get very tempted indeed despite the price.

Been missing the previous IT / PC shows due to the maddening crowd but i am going for this one for sure.

No post, no guilt

When i started this silly blog of mine, i have no intentions nor plans as to how this blog should develop into. I just treat this as a venue to vent my frustrations, share my joy and let 66.6% of my readers know how i am doing. My blog is not like others where a faithful bunch of strangers would come and read on an occasional basis. Since i do not have a favourite topic that would arouse the interest of the general public, i can understand so.

Sheylara posed on her blog how she felt bad when she didn’t post often enough. I too get that kinda feeling, although sometimes i would think “write so much for wat? nobody is really interested anyway…"

I also shared her sentiments of wanting to snap pictures whenever i see something interesting. When i first started this blog, i would often bring my camera out in hope that something extraordinary would come along for me to write in my blog. Yet when i do see something worthwhile, i hesitated. I am not sure why though.

So how does things look from now on? Where should my blog goes from now?

Seriously, i have no idea. My social circle is not big, my hobbies are limited to pretty indoors and solitary. My work is boring to the core and so is my life most of the time. How can i have enough substance and material for my postings?

I have no idea.

Grumbling

Today has not been one of my finest day.

Firstly, work has been getting increasingly challenging and at the same time frustrating. Its challenging because i have to revamp a whole set of standards and rules for my operators to follow. Frustrating because i have to understand the original version (which was written in rather poor english) and write in a manner that mindless people can understand and follow. It isn’t easy and i just have to do it.

Secondly, just mins ago i wrote a post on how swimming as an exercise, can build up one’s shoulder and chest (pectoral) muscles. I even attached a picture of Joscelin Yeo, our local pride to illustrate the point. Why am i on this topic?

I went swimming yesterday and in the pool, i noticed a lady who had that swimmer body. Well developed shoulder (deltoids) and neck (trapezius) from all that swimming. Nice looking except that this was a lady i am referring to. Yucks.
Thirdly, wanted to write a post on how the new ruling on car ownership will affect the car prices. The number of COEs issued will drop drastically then and thus pushing up the prices even more. $12k for a sub 1.6lit is expensive? Wait till you need to fork out $30~40k for that bloody piece of paper. Welcome back to the age of $100k for Toyota Corolla.

Decided against writing such a post because after all the time spending to understand and write it all down here will upset my already super-sian mood even more. Why bother?

The only thing that can lift my mood slightly is the small piece of paper i am holding in my hands. I got this small present, in the form of a TOTO ticket for tonite’s draw. Now, i have never gambled in the form of TOTO, 4D, soccer betting, horse racing etc and i will never do. Yet just by holding this ticket, i cannot help but imagine what it will be like if i won the grand prize, what i am going to spend on, where i am going and so on. I can also see that the more hopeful i get, the more disappointed i am going to be when the results are announced.

I cannot really take disappointments, so its better that i don’t gamble.

Movie review – 長江七號 (CJ7)

Finally, after two weeks into its release, i was able to catch this latest show by Stephen Chow today.

I always enjoyed watching Stephen Chow. Prior to CJ7, there were the Shaolin Soccer and Kungfu Hustle. Even longer ago most of my peers will remember shows like 西遊記大結局之仙履奇緣, 食神, 國產零零七 etc. Every now and then, we still can remember fondly of the jokes in his shows and especially and classic lines

" 曾經有一份真誠的愛情放在我面前，我沒有珍惜，等我失去的時候我才後悔莫及，人世間最痛苦的事莫過于此。如果上天能夠給我一個再來一次的機會，我會對那個女孩子說三個字：我愛你。如果非要在這份愛上加上一個期限，我 希望是……一萬年！"

So how is his latest offering CJ7?

This show is taking a departure from his usual line of 無理頭 (senseless) antics and is more into family orientated and being heart-warming as well. One won’t see so much of him in the whole show. His son, played by young actress Xu Jiao, is the main character of the show. Also missing much are the usual slapstick humor but there are many references to Stephen’s previous shows.

CJ7 is about this poor chap (Stephen Chow as Ti) living with his son (Xu Jiao as Dicky). Working as a coolie and heavy in debts from his wife’s funeral, he worked day and night to send his son to a prestigious school. He often would tell his son to study hard, so as not to become like him.

Being poor, he has to seek among the garbage to get shoes for his son. Unable to buy the latest toy that Dicky wanted, he found this green rubbery ball from the trash and offered it to his son as a replacement.

Dicky is often bullied in school because he does not come from rich families that many of his classmates do. His form teacher always despise him, much to the displeasure of another teacher Miss Yuen (by Kitty Zhang).

I am not going to reveal anymore of the plot since i think if you are genuinely interested, you should watch this show. Not for the laughter but you may be moved near to the end of the show, something not seen since 仙履奇緣.

Here is how CJ7 fares.

1) Storyline – 25 / 30%

Heartwarming when you see how the poor father and son still can have fun even though they are so poor. Heart wrenching when the the father’s boss and Miss Yuen reacted after the doctor broke the news.

2) Entertainment value – 22 / 25%

There was barely a moment in the whole show do i feel bored. Even though i see less of Stephen, his “son" managed to keep the show lively with her acting. Although this show is meant more for families rather than the usual crowd, there are still some scenes bearing the trademark of Stephen Chow.

3) Cast – 21 / 25%

The supporting cast are very good too, especially 六師弟 (林子聰) as the boss. But the most eye-catching is Miss Yuen. For the humsub in everyone of us, here are some pictures of her.

4) Pace / Flow – 14 / 20%

The pace of the show is alrite, and since the story is kinda short, the whole show is less than 90min. Well worth in my opinion though.

Overall: 82%

After the show, my girlfriend was lamenting how she missed the usual stuff from Stephen Chow’s shows. I missed those too, but i am happy that i caught this show.