Author: Grievous

Martini Innercity Festival 08

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dk of Blog2U invited some of us to The Martini Innercity Festival 08 at Clarke Quay on Thursday evening. I guess had FoxTwo been a Blog2U member, he would probably also be invited but 2 drinks wouldn’t be enough to satisfy him.

At the event, DK introduced to us Elaina – whom I believe to be one of the organisers – and if I heard her correctly and got the context right, she mentioned the concept of various cocktails out of Martini is about going social.

When some of us spoke about our impression that Martini is a lady’s drink, Elaina quickly put an end to the misconception by pointing out that Martini is actually more of a man’s drink. She point out that Martini first gained a lot of attention because of James Bond, and therefore there should not be the idea of it being a lady’s drink. I thought she might just be passing on an urban myth but when I am sober enough to check on Wikipedia later, I discovered that she may indeed be right. On hindsight, while it may be just trivial, I was quite impressed that she actually did research on the matter and spoke about it with much confidence.

These are the people dk invited to the event: alice cheong, coolinsights, endoh, jean, nicole, and plaktoz. Most of them, other than endoh, jean and nicole, I have met for the first time. My only regrets is yet again I didn’t chat very much with much of the faces new to me, like coolinsights (Walter), jean, plaktoz (Tianhong) and alice. The photo on the left shows nicole, plaktoz (whom you can see for yourself the effect of the Martini), jean and alice.

They are good company – since we generally concentrated on the event, sampling the drinks offered instead of camwhoring. All of us took the drinks we fancied, for e.g. Teh Halia, Japan!, Mintini, Scary Harry etc, and at times we let one another have have a sip of our drink when we felt they are quite good but none beat the Scary Harry which ran out by the time some of them who still have free drinks left on their access passes tried to get one for themselves.

On the right, you see a photo of dk’s hand holding a Scary Harry – truly the drink of the night. While I am sorry I can’t really remember who the sponsors are and which joints are present there, I know for sure one of the counters serving their own blend of Martini Cocktails is manned by Geek Terminal. I believe Harry’s is also there as well though I am not quite sure.

Anyway Singapore is truly small because I also run into some of my friends from Biz-Era at the event though they are not there for drinking. They were simply there to standby to ensure the IT part of the event works. After all they need some way to keep track of the drinks being given out and make sure no one gets more than their assigned number of drinks, and Biz-Era wrote the software to interface with the database for the event. If I am not wrong, I believe this software also keeps track of the people who will sign up for the $99 offer for 20 Martinis at the event.

After the event, dk, endoh and I went over to Brewerks and got ourselves one more jug of Golden Ale just to meet our alcohol quota for the night. Nicole was also with us to chat and we continue to chat a bit more before alice, jean and plaktoz came over to say good night one more time one their way home.

All in all, it’s a fun event. No pressure and all fun, and I certainly wish the organisers success for this festival which will end on 14 Aug itself. For more details you can visit their site here.

Haw Par Villa Outing [05.07.2008]

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Went to Haw Par Villa last Saturday with Nicole, Rinaz, chillycraps, DK, endoh, malique and his missus, mintea and arzhou.

It was a little worrying when I left home around 1115hrs because it was starting to rain at Jurong and the people I knew living along the AYE and the West Coast were reporting that it is overcast in their area – from Taman Jurong all the way to Alexandra.

I first met Endoh, chillycraps and nicole at Vivocity for a light bite, and then went to the supermart to pick up some drinks, food, and also some disposable plates and cups. It was already 1330hrs when we left Vivocity, in which Mintea has already arrived. We arrived at almost the same time as Rinaz, while the rest arrive at their own time later.

We had fun looking at the statues and making fun of them and we end up playing games – like Indian Poker – in which the punishment is to eat the food. I suspect Old Chang Kee won’t be selling chillycraps any curry puff for a long time as chillycraps is probably suffering from curry-puff phobia from having too much of them and Mintea’s mother’s curry puffs are really good!

Anyway, it is a little sad looking at the place… there are few visitors, and some of the statues appear to be in need of a new paint job. There’s even cracks on some of the monuments. I certainly hope it won’t go the way of that place beside Jurong Lake, called Tang Dynasty City or whatever. [Personally, they should just give that place to me for free and grant me a third license to turn it into an Chinese-theme IR complete with ‘dens’ for Mahjong and Chinese Dominos.]

My only regret is that we didn’t go to look at the Halls of Hell. The sentiment was that we don’t want to ‘pay and go to hell’ , though I personally didn’t accept that but I can’t have everyone wait for me while I am looking at the displays there.

Here are some of the photos I have taken. Pardon me for not having too much people in it… but you can find more photos of us when you check out the links to the blogs of the rest.

Keep the place alive! Save one of our common heritage! Visit Haw Par Villa!!

[ping.sg] The Under-Currents

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There is only one other thing more annoying than the people who had nothing to do with a matter saying a lot things about it just for getting traffic to their site. And that is the kind who are unaware of what has transpired acting self righteous.The screen-capture shows one such individual.

Before I begin, let me point out the fallacy of a so-called social media guru goondu’s argument. First of all, Daphne had commented in the posts I am referring to, and so she does know what has transpired but chose to sit back and did nothing to rein in her attack dog. So does that settles the matter on who is being retarded here? Let me just say I wished your ‘retardation’ can be better applied to flames instead [pun intended].

However, since there will be those who thinks he has a point, I believe it is best I make matters clear, even though I am standing the risk of losing a friend for doing so.

I had not want to bring this matter up originally because others would accuse me of stirring shit. And for the same reason I did not ‘ping’ this post and will mostly use cached copies when linking the articles. But for those who would insist I am stirring shit then be reminded that when you let someone get away with it by saying her remarks are made in a personal capacity, then don’t make any noise when I say something in relative privacy here!

Anyway, I recalled on more than one occasion I argued with chillycraps [cc] over this, at times we probably vowed never to talk to one another again in private due to violent disagreement. I raised the matter again with cc when dk raised hell, and it had made cc quite annoyed. In fact, when I told him about this again earlier, cc said he doesn’t want to hear about it anymore.

But before I begin, let me just say dk and cc both loved the community in their own special way. I admire cc for his forbearance and long suffering – in silence – even though I think cc should just put down ‘the cross he is carrying’ and speak up.

The matter began somewhere in late May, where there was a slew of posts from bloggers about their crush, and on 28.05.2008, someone launched a unprovoked attack on un-named invidual(s). And the reason which inspired this post is found here: see ‘A comment made during the first incident’ .

In the blog post, the labels shallow blogger and serious blogger were used. It left people scratching their heads wondering who are the people being referred to here and in private some of us felt it has created a rift. After all, this blogger has actually asked the people who are unhappy to leave ping.sg.

I was also quite annoyed looking at what was written because I have also on several occasions spoken out against the postings lacking quality. I was under the impression that my private feedback over channels like Windows Live Messenger and G-talk were being discussed behind my back and instead of telling me straight off to end it, this public spectacle is created to send me a message. It was much later, I found out that cc was the one under fire, as he had mentioned on Twitter he wanted to take some time off from ping.sg and return after the ‘Crush Fad’ die off.

I had no clue why Daphne was upset with that, and what she has told this little puppy to make it equally upset enough to be inspired into making that blog post and a subsequent one. I can only guess it was because cc was being like the show stopper. But whatever the reason was, cc and I were even more annoyed with the subsequent post which continues to build a case over a non-existent issue – i.e. the ‘issue’ of ‘serious bloggers making a fuss out of shallow postings’. I initiated a brief flame war with the puppy on Twitter after that.

Subsequently, I believe cc and I separately asked Daphne to meet up with us, and discuss measures on how to clarify the matter and ‘officially’ put an end to it. Daphne refused the moment she heard about an ‘official statement’ to end this. In her opinion, the puppy wasn’t referring to anyone, and thus this is nothing more than a dispute between bloggers and has nothing to do with her. I had the generally impression that her opinion is that since no names were mentioned and only we are the one who openly thinks we are the one mentioned, then it is just our problem and not a community one.

On top of which, even if we are unhappy about it, the matter is already dying off and no one cares anymore. And to emphasize that her decision in this is final, she told me in a private G-talk chat in no sterner terms (not exact words): ‘You can leave if you don’t like it. I have a forest and I won’t give it up to keep two trees. I have work to do and many things like the Ping party to attend to. I am very busy.’.

I was speechless even when I put aside my perhaps mistaken impression that we are close friends. After all, I recall there was once, under a difficult circumstance a long time ago, nocturne had said this to me: ‘Don’t expect any favours from me because we are friends!’ .

But I wasn’t asking for favours. I had expected her to exercise her responsibilities as a community manager to mend the rift. Not to mention one she has caused in her casual chit chat with another blogger. In fact, as a matter of 20/20 hindsight, I would suggest she talked about her pressures when managing the blogger’s community on ping.sg with non-bloggers in future, or like Hillary Clinton said: Can’t take the heat? Leave the kitchen!.

After all, who knows if some trigger happy blogger won’t just take her comments out of context and make a big fuss over it? But as history has proven… Daphne never learns.

好花不常开 [The Good Flowers Bloom Not Always]

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One year ago today, together with Cris (aka the Young Businessman) I attended the ping.sg 1-year anniversary party.

I can still remember vividly that when Cris and I walked up the steps to Geek Terminal, Nicole, with a big smile asked me, “Are you also going to the ping party?”

It was at the party I come to know several memorable individuals, Paddy, and Rinaz, because they were the only two people who acknowledges the presence of this stranger and at the least nodded to me or say hi even when they were in the midst of their conversation. Really, you can tell a person sincerity from their actions!

It was at the party I learn about the shoutbox and took the step to participate. From my participation there, I get to know and met a these great people: chillycraps, DK, endoh, FoxTwo, malique, mintea, pinklittlefigure, and xinyun. (Don’t worry if your name isn’t in here… this isn’t my ‘in-group’. IMy brains just can’t contain so much information anymore these days.)

In my course of participating at ping.sg I believe I may have upset, if not offended these individuals: – Princessa, sylvdoanx, and wishbone. There are probably even more people than these that I cannot remember and all I wanted to do is say Sorry.

In the past one year I have almost lost two other friends, priss and nocturne, as a result of some misunderstanding. I am glad it is settled now and at least there are some common beliefs we share and some common paths we tread.

Looking back… I would say I had fun at ping.sg getting to know the people even though ping.sg has its fair share of warts, ass-kissing-drones and all. And looking back, just like Hadrian’s Legionnaires will hardly recognise those of Marcus Aurelius, the community and atmosphere at ping.sg is no longer the one I used to know.

Like a tree will grow and old branches die, it is time I look forward to a new beginning after this one year. After all, a Chinese wise man once said, “There are no banquets that last forever [天下无不散之延席]”.

Adios!

A Personal Opinion on DK’s Post

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I came back to the office with a splitting headache in spite of the fact I had a great lunch – mutton bryani + a pint of Kilkenny – with a great friend on Friday afternoon. And before I reached the office I had canceled all my ‘Friday lim-jiu sessions’ as I think I want to rest early for the next day’s Haw Par Villa Picnic.

A few minutes after I returned to my desk, my MSN was abuzz with incoming messages about DK’s blog post titled: Are you in the ping.sg “in group”? (The post was a result of a post made here [pic].)

It was clear to me that DK was upset over a particular paragraph in that post. And I could empathise a lot with how he is feeling at this point of time since I was also become pretty upset about a month or so ago over a couple of groundless postings built on top of just one word: shallow.

On looking back at how ‘damage control’ was done over those postings, I could see some similarities.

A comment made during the first incident

can u all pls stop quarreling abt this already?

yes the word ‘shallow’ wasn’t used in any post or twitter, no i didnt create the story, n no im not going to explain anymore right now.

its over. live n let live.

ppl shdnt speculate abt who these ppl were (more than 3) n dont draw ur own conclusions. pls.

kris wrote that post cos he was upset tht i was upset. that is all.

i nvr intended to make a public spectacle of this. in any case, those ppl who think tht the community no longer fits what they r looking for, well, our doors are always open for u if u wanna come back one day.

thats all i have to say, n now i have doubts abt writing my own explanations anymore. i dont want any more eyes on this matter.. really. [source]

A comment made during the second incident

ok.. i believe that it’s time for me to say something. afterall, this huge hullaballoo was created and imagined from something that i wrote.

so here’s my official statement:

i’m going to watch my DVDs 🙂

BYE! [source]

On both occasions, the choice of words created a brouhaha. On both occasions, there were no proper explanation. On both occasions, the step to diffuse the tension by taking up responsibility for a bad choice of words or statements was never taken.

But looking at DK’s case in specific, I think he had it even worse than the first case. At least the comment for the first case had even looked like a plea – if not a demand – to put an end to it. However, the comment of the second case has pretty deftly and summarily dismissed DK. It practically also trampled upon dhope‘s attempt at reconciliation with contempt – though I’ll leave it to dhope to draw his own conclusion. In fact, it almost seems like a deliberate choice in doing so to make almost everyone else who had made a comment look stupid. If I had read further in between the lines, I think I would even detect a smirk in there. And frankly, that’s really not hard to imagine.

But wait, just who the fxxk asked me to imagine things anyway? Maybe I should call 1-800-DREAM-WORKS to see if they have any use for that imagination! But really, no one really cares how I feel or what I imagined anyway. I won’t delude myself that how I felt matters. There maybe those who disagrees completely with how both matter is handled but that’s not the same as caring about how I felt.

By the way, I think it’s better for me to end my post – before I hear the chorus of sycophants and ball carriers saying: ‘If you don’t like it and you are so unhappy, you can always leave. The ‘community’ can always do without you.’

Alternatively, you can just dial this helpdesk number: 1-800-WHO-CARES. (Dial this number too if you think I cared about your counter opinion to what I am saying here.)

Nuff said. Have a great weekend ahead – It’s REAL.

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