My England is very powderful

They have something against me

2008-11-30T05:54:00.000-08:00

Birds, that is. We have a feud, and so far I have been hit so many times with no chance to strike back at all.

This is the 3rd time my car was bombarded in as many days and prior to this, I have washed my car twice. What is wrong with these things?! I swear birds have a thing for black cars. It must look like a huge black commode from up there amongst the branches. So inviting is the colour that they, like a parent to a child at a pit-stop in the middle of a long drive, say "just relieve yourself here since its convenient, even not you might not get another chance in hours!" I always survey the surrounding cars when I get splattered and my theory holds true. Only black cars get targeted. And I never get to run over any of them.

Enough of birds. I hate birds. Anyway, just want to post some photos I took during a recent class outing to Sentosa. I know, it does seem weird that a 29 year old is still gushing about his class outing, but hey, I really love my class!

Pretending to be high and mighty

Not exactly the most flattering shot, but one for posterity, lah!

Sentosa, in all its artificial glory, is still quite a nice place to chill out, especially on weekdays. Thank God for school holidays :)

Alright, till the next time!

Singaporeans are the weirdest

2008-11-27T00:48:00.000-08:00

Why do I say that? We're the ONLY people in Asia (probably the world too) who would use packets of tissues to reserve a seat. We'd gladly stand in a queue to buy the most famous Nasi Lemak, Yong Tau Hoo and we'd nearly always dig our noses when we're stuck at the traffic light. Really!

I have been observing this behaviour for a long time. Just the other day, while I was stuck the one of the traffic lights at Yishun, I decided to look into my rear view mirror to look at the driver of the very nice Mitsubishi behind me. An auntie-looking woman. Digging her nose. I stared transfixed as she deftly manoeuvered her pinkie into the innermost crevices of her nasal tract. I decided that staring was rude so I shifted my attention to the Vios on my left. A middle aged guy. Digging his nose. This one is a little rough but he seemed to be enjoying it. I briefly wondered if he is masochistic. Ok, I shouldn't stare too. So on my right now. What's the guy doing? Digging his nose too! I mean what are the chances of that happening?

My next endeavour is to find out which finger the favourite of those who enjoy the occasional booger harvest when driving. So far its been the pinkie (no prizes for guessing!) but I'd like to be conduct my research a little longer, just to be accurate. If you spot any more of our fellow country men indulging in perculiar activities, do not hesitate to let me know!

Let's move on to Grammar shall we?
Today we'll focus on Pronouns. Pronouns are words which are used to replace a noun that already was mentioned in a sentence. An example would be "Kim (noun) is very choosy when it comes to food, as she (pronoun) would only eat certain kinds of vegetables and meat".

Unfortunately (or fortunately?) there are 7 kinds of pronouns, which serves to confuse even the best of us in the early stages of learning. They are: Personal, Possessive, Reflexive, Demonstrative, Reciprocal, Interrogative and Relative pronouns

Personal Pronouns
This is the easiest one and you probably have used them without even realising. These include: you, me, they, them, it, we.

Possesive Pronouns
As the name suggests, it helps convey possession. These include: yours, mine, their/s, our/s, his, her.

Reflexive Pronouns
Reflexive meaning going back or referring back to the earlier pronoun or noun used in the sentence. An example would be this: "I (personal pronoun) managed to find the place myself" (reflexive pronoun) or "Tom (noun) did this all by himself (reflexive pronoun)

Demonstrative Pronouns
These pronouns tell the distance of the subject from the speaker. Some examples include: this, these, those, that

Reciprocal Pronouns
These are used to show actions done between 2 or more persons. "Each other" is used when there are 2 persons. "One another" is used when there are more than 2 persons.

Interrogative Pronouns
These are used to ask questions. Some examples include: who, whose, whom, what, how

Relative pronouns
These are used to join sentences or clauses that refer to the same thing or person. Some examples include: Who, whom, whose, which, that
Relative pronouns are a slight problem to those who do not know the rules governing its use.
Who, whom and whose are used on humans, while which is used for animals or non-living things. That can be used with both ways.
Who is used when referring to the subject or object of a sentence.
Whom is used when the object receives the action
Whose is used to signify possession.

This sums up today's little lesson on pronouns. In the next entry, I shall go a little deeper as to how to use personal pronouns by showing you some sentence examples. In the mean time, have fun!

what's wrong with the weather?

2008-11-23T05:35:00.001-08:00

The weather has been quite erratic lately. It would be scorching hot in the afternoon and raining heavily in the evening. Perhaps the global warming doomsayers are actually telling the truth...

Anyways been meaning to update but have been procrastinating. :P First things first, I couldn't help myself and the girlfriend got me another domo! This one's a keychain, so I could bring it wherever I go. Alas, they only come in 3 sizes, or I would definitely get another. Heh.

Another new toy I acquired is this -

In case you're wondering what it is, its the HKS exhaust I have been eyeing for some time. Bought it second hand from a car forum. I really like the bassy sound it produces when I drive it hard. The ah beng car nut in me thinks it adds a whole lot more street cred to my car :P

Here's how it looks from the back -

Cool eh? And my worries about how it will affect my fuel consumption came to rest yesterday as I achieved the best fuel consumption ever! For those of you thinking of buying a car (really there's no better time than now...$2 COE!) the Honda Jazz is it. It's small yet spacious, fast enough for city traffic and yet only sips.

The year's coming to an end and I can't help but be reminded of my age. My buddy all the way back from primary school also got himself a new toy too, except he isin't really a toy.

He's his newborn son, Ethan Tan Hong Rei. This is the son of a guy who proclaimed at age 21, that he would not marry till age 40 as there are just too many girls to sample. Reality is, he got married at age 26 and is now a proud father at age 29. It's funny how your life really pans out. As for me, I can't see myself a father yet. Soon, but not that soon.

That's about all the updates I have for now. Since its the school holidays, we'll just take a short break from Grammar this time. Till the next entry!

New addition to the "family"

2008-11-06T06:56:00.001-08:00

Sorry everyone for not really updating the blog since the first post. Life has been mundane at best and with the exams approaching, its not exactly what I would like it to be.

Well, today is different. And this is the reason....
In case you're wondering if I put chocolate M and Ms on a piece of toasted bread and made the mouth with some jam then I must say you haven't been quite up to date with the times. This, you see here, is Domo-Kun, a mascot for the Japanese TV station NHK.

You must think its ugly and Pooh Bear is cuter. But its precisely its ugliness which makes its so cute and adorable looking, which proves the dictionary definition is spot on! Anyways, the plush Domos sold in Singapore are ridiculously expensive. We bought the small one for 29 dollars and its the size of a human palm. The bigger one was specially "flown in" from Japan, thanks to an ex colleague of the girlfriend and it cost about 25 dollars. I don't think the difference in price is due to the Yen appreciating but rather the Singaporean distributors trying to fleece us. Despite that, its really money well spent. It might sound really weird but I have never been so fascinated with a cartoon character like that. Perhaps I really like ugly stuff (does not apply to the girlfriend!).

Tomorrow is another work day but thankfully the weekend is finally drawing near. Plans for the weekend? We're celebrating our 1 year anniversary and where I am going for dinner on Saturday is going to be a surprise. I'm certainly looking forward to it!

Before we say TGIF (Thank God Its Friday), I hope to continue where we left off with regards to Grammar. For this episode, we'll talk about collective nouns. What are collective nouns? These are words use to group nouns, namely people, animals or things. Let's field a few examples (highlighted in red):

For people, we have, a bevy of beauties, a cast of actors, a team of soccer players, a class of students

For animals, we have, a colony of penguins, a school of fish, a herd of elephants and my personal favourite, a murder of crows

For things, we have, a network of computers, a ring of keys, a wealth of information and this very special one, a wonder of stars

Collective nouns are singular most of the time. This is because the group is viewed as ONE unit. Therefore we use the singular is or was . Eg - The cast of actors is not too happy with the director.
An exception would be when you want to refer to the individuals or parts of the group. In this case, we would use the plural are or were. Eg - The network of computers are breaking down one by one due to the increased load caused by overuse.

Alright, till the next post!

First post - migrated from www.chicanery4sg@wordpress.com

2008-10-29T19:38:00.000-07:00

My first post

Why am I here? Wordpress is quite sucky as it doesn't allow me to change to codes much like other blog platforms. Since blogger is the most versatile, therefore here I am!