Twittering Around

Yeah. So I’m on twitter. Big whoop, wanna fight about it?

Big Whoop. Wanna fight about it?

Twitter could really change the way we communicate. Writing snippets of text in 140 characters could move us in the same direction it moved the Japanese to communicate through their i-mode handsets and later on cause the bestselling novels to be written on and for mobile phones. Perhaps we will see a best selling/followed twitter novel yet. (A twovel?)

So what have I done so far?

- Got an account

- Found interesting people

- Interesting people found me

- Spammers found me

- Tweeted about nonsense

- Ranted about stuff that is of no interest to my followers but I’ll whine about anyway

- Tweeted about interesting links

- Retweeted interesting links

- Used a desktop client.

- Used a mobile client.

- Hooked up my tumblr account to it

- Made an account for my company and use it for talking to other professionals in the same industry. Which has been really useful.

Type of people I follow and follow back if they follow me: witty, tech savvy and generally interesting people.

Type of people I don’t follow back: mlm-ers, make money fast-ers, wealth builders, ah bengs/townies/bogans/etc, people peddling crap, people who don’t have any updates or updates that I can’t read in order to figure out who you are (sorry!).

Most interesting twitter by-product so far? http://cursebird.com/ which is a website that captures and aggregates people cursing on twitter. Although I’ve yet to think of the value of such a site, other than it being an excellent tool for those learning non-native English learners who want to take their language skills to the next level.

Scary insights about Singaporean society? The fact that out of the 100 highest graded tweeters in Singapore, there are FAR TOO MANY mlm-ers, get rich quick pushers & financial freedom peddlers. Yawn.

The best value that twitter has given me? Found that it is an excellent place for learning about events, news, interesting links, technology, etc, etc, etc, increased my knowledge of the world tenfold. I hope it is hear to stay and will not get destroyed by spammers and Aston Kutcher.

Mini Beers

I can’t quite get my head around these mini beers (135ml). The supermarket has them in single cans as well as six packs. I can only imagine they can be included as part of an alcoholic’s recommended breakfast in the place of regular orange juice. They had Sapporo beer as well. Must be a Japanese thing.

Kirin Mini Beer

Singapore Humor

Most Westerners who are new to the country might think that Singaporeans don’t have a sense of humor. That’s only because they don’t GET their humor. After 8 years here I still don’t really get it but I still don’t discount it. Each to their own I suppose. My first experience with it was when, for some reason I can’t remember, I was vacuuming the floor in my office. (yes ang moh do actually vacuum the floor. we’re not above that.)

Me: *vacuuming the floor noises*

Middle aged Singaporean office lady: “Oh look! Singapore’s most highly paid foreign maid.”

Me: Huh?

Middle aged Singaporean office lady: *GUFFAW!*

Random Musings on Mock Tofu

Inspired by George Clooney tofu, it made me wonder about what tofu can actually be made into.

Naturally, we see mock renditions of popular foods in our society such as mock fish, mock chicken, mock pork and mock beef.

Does it actually matter though? It is tofu/soy/etc after all and isn’t meat. So why bother giving it a different name and trying to make it resemble something it isn’t?

Thinking further, we might also see mock renditions of things that are eaten in very small circles, such as mock snake, mock dog, mock rabbit, mock insects, mock bulls-testicles, mock tiger-penis, etc. Would a vegetarian feel queasy eating mock dog?

Now for the killer question… Would you eat something called ‘mock human?’ Would sellers of mock-human be causing a sociological problem or present their product as a possible primer for cannibalism?

What’s in a name anyway?

Typical Ang Moh Trip to the Hawker Centre (By hour)

A typical ang moh trip to the hawker centre by hour of day. (Newton Circus included. In fact, Newton is probably where the following is MOST likely to happen)

8am: Hey mister wanna beer? What! Just breakfast? Kopi ah? Kopi-o kopi-c kopi-kosong kopi-peng?

10am: Hey mister. Good morning! Beer for you? Hallo! Beer?

11am: Hey mister. Beer for you? Beer? Heineken? Tiger?

1pm: Hey mister! Chicken rice? Beer?

3pm: Hey mister! Afternoon beer?

5pm: Hey you! Beer! Which beer you want!?

8pm: HEY YOU HANSOM! ITS TIGER TIME!

10pm: *drops two huge tiger beer bottles on the table* $10! …. (but I never ordered any beer!)

Typical Elevator Conversation in Singapore

Obnoxious elevator man: *poke in the ribs* Hey you. How much you pay for your flat?

Innocent ang moh: What?

Obnoxious elevator man: You renting or buy?

Innocent ang moh: Who are you?

Obnoxious elevator man: How much you buy ah?

Innocent ang moh: Mind your own business!

Obnoxious elevator man: I don’t understand you. How much your flat? How many K?

Innocent ang moh: None of your business.

Obnoxious elevator man: Hey I’m talking to you. How much did you buy your flat for?

*doors open* Innocent ang moh runs away.

More Nuances of Living in Singapore

Typical order of fast food in singapore:

Buyer: One McMeal, no upsize, to go.

McServer: Upsize?

Buyer: No

McServer: Having here or takeaway?

Buyer: Takeaway

McServer: Thank you! See you again!

Buyer: Can I get some curry sauce?

McServer: *passes the curry sauce* Thank you! See you again!

Buyer: Thank you

McServer: Thank you! See you again!

Nuances of Living in Singapore

Reading the kind of stuff that is posted on AngryAngMo’s blog. I’m reminded of the kind of nuances (or sometime nuisances) that I encountered when I first moved from England to Singapore. I guess only an outsider would notice such things that your average Singaporean would not blink an eyelid at.

One of such is the way the people at the grocery store pack your bags for you. It is often painful to watch them struggle to pack things into those plastic bags whilst scanning your grocery’s barcodes at the same time. One major point of note here is that it seems that they have absolutely no training in grocery knowledge, since they always do strange things like pack cooked meat in the same bag with uncooked meat (which you really should not! trust me I worked in a supermarket for 2 years and I know this kind of stuff ).

I might have to blog about other such nuances. There’s loads of good stuff that happens here that doesn’t happen in England too. (such as walking around at 1am without any fear of being stabbed/mugged). More to come…

Olympic Beer

Olympic Beer

Is a big can of win!

Snake

Okay call me mountain tortoise or whatever but I saw my first ever live snake today. Albeit not a massive one it was still a snake!

The other thing to note is that if i WAS a mountain tortoise/hermit/whatever I’d have seen plenty of them before!