Ian On The Red Dot

Stay till the end of this video. Pretty much everything could have gone wrong with what she did. Ouch!

On hindsight, it was obvious this was going to happen. A site dedicated to hooking older women with younger men. But how does a site like this really work? After all, women lie about their age.

via:buzzfeed

This just brought a smile to my face.

Two weeks ago, a bunch of my colleagues and me trained for the lost sport. It is all part of trying to find the lost ring.

The video from our first run is below. I used my mobile phone to capture the event so the quality is much to be desired.

If you’re from Singapore, and part of the team trying to find the lost ring and also keen to train for the lost sport, do drop a comment here.

You can check for events over at Upcoming’s Labyrinth Training Events.

I have never used any of the blog advertising networks so this score is given not based on how well they help advertisers using blogs or how they help bloggers make money. It is about this campaign first started on DK’s blog and which I have noticed on BLOG2u’s main site.

To me, it is one thing to say you are contributing to the community by hosting events for bloggers, it is a way different level when you spend valuable online real estate to promote a worthy cause. One is to keep the people making money for you happy, the other is totally not about yourself or your company.

Some cynics might say this is a cheap publicity stunt. I call bullshit on that.

I don’t know about you, but when I look at the different advertising companies’ main websites, a lot is said.

BLOG2u 1, the rest 0.

Sidenote: I expect the ever self-effacing Paddy not to think too much of his company’s effort but it is something.

Ok. Latest thing getting all the Singaporeans online excited and a little bit ashamed of our country- a possible Patent Troll. I have read through the patent and I think I understand what their claims are. It is amazing that such a patent got through. From reading the discussion over at Hardwarezone, it seems that Singapore’s patent system has a wee bit of a loophole that can be exploited.

BUT, Singapore isn’t unique in this case. We aren’t the only country blessed with patent trolling.

Go to Google and use this query term: patent trolling site:www.techcrunch.com

And from the investigations done over at Hardwarezone, this company may have an office in Singapore but the main characters in this story might not even be Singaporeans.

The patent system may be flawed in Singapore but this isn’t the only country having problems with the patent system. Go do some research and you will find out this is an issue in a lot of other countries which their regulatory bodies and businesses are having a tough time grappling with. Think about it - this patent was awarded in other countries too.

There is no reason for the online community to start using this as a reason to feel ashamed to be a Singaporean or bash Singapore.

Discovered this rather cool and well curated treasure trove of wonderful things via my Facebook newsfeed when a friend’s boyfriend joined a group.

The answer is no. The answer is not always. Here is why.

I read this blog post outing another supposedly racist blogger. There is a general feeling online that if you are a racist blogger, you are immediately more childish and less mature than me a non-racist blogger.

But I wonder. And I wonder. And I don’t think it is always the case.

Why?

Let me defer to my much more intelligent and articulate friend thegreatsze who said it best in this blog post. I shall reproduce excerpts of the post below. I also suggest you read the comments for the post.

Racism is a form of discrimination. There are many kinds of discrimination in this world: sexism, ageism, superficiality, etc. One form of discrimination is not, and *cannot* be more egregious than another. This is simply because they are premised on the same foundation - preferential treatment due to wholly irrelevant (and some might say irrational) considerations. Who is to say that racism is worse than sexism, and vice versa?

It is impossible to live life free of bias. We are products of our environments, and different environments will necessarily produce different prejudices.

If you are against racism, it means that you are also logically bound to be against all other forms of discrimination (since they are of the exact same genus).

Daphne Maia has expressed a crush on another blogger. A while back, another female blogger expressed her crush for another blogger. People…there is a reason it is called a crush. Not a lift. Not a release.

Anyway, why do I say the end may be near. Because love or rather the development of intense sexual and emotional feelings that resemble lust and love between individuals of a group is something that happens in the latter stages of a group’s lifecycle and usually a precursor to the disintegration or fall of the group’s glory.

Why?

Because love isn’t free and equally distributed even if the hippies say it is. The unequal distribution of attention and love has been argued as one of the reasons why hippie communes didn’t survive.

Note: I have been racking my brain about where I read about the group dynamics of hippie communes. I can’t remember. But if anyone of you do, please do leave a comment. Thanks so much!

It has been a joy to see the Ping.sg community develop and I have been living vicariously, and rather well I might add, by following the group’s progress through the forums, shoutbox and blog postings. This next stage of the group’s growth shouldn’t have come as a surprise to anyone.

But why is love entering the group dynamics such a bad thing? It is bad because it leads to the worse things in human nature especially when it isn’t equally distributed and there isn’t reciprocation.

Every group and its individuals will profess to be different. None ever is.

I’ll speculate that we will be getting this over time:

1. Many girls like the same few guys.
2. Many guys like the same few girls.
3. Girl and Guy like different people.
4. Girl/Guy wonder what’s so special about that another Guy/Girl - especially since that joker always post such crap on her/his blog.
5. Feelings of indignation of not getting enough attention.
6. Feelings of self-pity in examining why never get enough attention.
7. Girl/Guy get attached and break up causing massive headaches to the group in deciding loyalty to which party and apportioning blame. One person inevitably disappears from the group after the breakup.
8. Guy/Girl listens over msn/skype/coffee to Girl/Guy who likes another Guy/Girl and wonder, wtf is wrong with me when spending so much time being here for you, your mind is there with that joker who does not recognize your awesomeness like I do.
9. People drift from the group in the absence of reciprocation.

Simply put, life in the group won’t be so simple and carefree once ‘love’ enters into the picture.

The Age of Innocence is over.

Am I sounding the death knell?

Nah.

Just the bells telling people to get ready for the second act.

Good luck guys.

Last Saturday I decided that I will try to make Mondays my ‘watch-movie-alone-day’. Previously I have only watched movies alone at the cinema 3 times - the first time was the re-released version of Star Wars with the new scenes and special effects. The second time was Legally Blonde 2 - I had a free ticket. Emphasis on the free ticket. The third movie was The Cooler.

All of the previous experiences were totally enjoyable affairs. Decide movie. Go cinema. Buy ticket if have to. Watch. Eat popcorn. Go home.

No hassle in having to plan the watching of the movie.

Watching movies alone is really time efficient. No need to spend time coordinating which movie the group of friends want to watch. No need coordinating which date and time. No need coordinating how many tickets are needed; no need checking whether partners are coming. No need booking of tickets to make sure we get the seats we need. Maybe one day Widgeo.us will help solve the problem of coordinating movie outings. I can only hope.

How about just two people going to watch a movie? I have started to increasingly feel that watching a movie is a passive anti-social activity and if I am going out with just one friend, watching a movie is the last thing that should be done especially if we want to catch up. For two hours, all that is happening is both of us staring at a screen. Unless of cause I turn and make comments within a screening which can be pretty irritating - not everyone is that kind of movie-goer. Or if I clap and cheer when something awesome happens like Optimus Prime transforming - which can also be pretty irritating to some people.

How about the gf?

I’ve come to a certain point where I believe that watching a movie should be the last recourse when trying to do something as a couple. While it warms the heart, I think the gf shouldn’t be subjected to watching a movie just because the boyfriend wants to and they want to spend time together - it is a waste of the gf’s time which can be better used for her own interests as well as rest. The only time a couple should watch a movie together is when both parties are interested in the movie.

So, anyway, I watched Indiana Jones 4 last night and I totally liked it. Some spoilers ahead.

1. I liked how I got faked to think they were looking for the Lost Ark from the first Indiana Jones movie. After all, the movie started with the same cavernous warehouse that the first movie introduced at the end. The director was nice enough to toss a bone by showing the Ark in a damaged crate as the movie raced away from the warehouse.

2. I liked the reference to Sean Connery’s Jim Malone from “The Untouchables” when Indiana Jones commented to Shia LeBeouf’s Mutt Wiliams about bring a knife to a gunfight.

3. Cate Blanchett sporting the classic femme fatale hairdo. Nice. I love it when movies make it easy to spot the bad guy.