TED - The Naughtiest Teddy Bear I've Ever Seen! But He Is Cute

Courtesy of omy.sg, managed to catch the Premiere of TED (in Singapore), the MOST popular teddy bear in town. Directed by Seth MacFarlane whom brought us the popular Animation TV series, Family Guy, since 1999. Thus, adult-theme slapstick jokes are expected. By the way, he is also the voice of Ted.

In fact, I was so immersed in the movie and having fun-time with the character of Ted that I have almost forgotten that he is just an animated figure. How I wish I am John [by Mark Wahlberg] and having Ted as my buddy ;-).

No doubt, he is foul mouth and cheeky in the movie but hey, this is a M18 [Matured18] movie, thus, adult theme is expected. Even though he is the naughtiest teddy bear in town now but he is still LOVABLE. Can't wait for the sequel to be released next (in the pipeline)!

Brief Synopsis of TED:

"As the result of a childhood wish, John Bennett's teddy bear, Ted, came to life and has been by John's side ever since - a friendship that's tested when Lori, John's girlfriend of four years, wants more from their relationship"  

Posters/Stills of TED:

Bonus Poster: With me as a cameo :-)

Trailer of TED:

I hope you can catch it in the theatre near you (as long as you are 18 and above in Singapore) and LOL like I did!

Cheers!

The Past, The Present, The Future And The Problem

Don't worry, I am not going to write about the grammatical problem in the past tense, present tense and future tense. Following strictly to the theme of my blog, I am going to write about how we should live our life in relation to the past, the present and the future.

If you are a frequent visitor to my blog, you will know that my motto of living an happier life are:

1. We can't fully control the external factors but we can always control our reaction towards the incident/issue.

2. True believer of living in the moment as past is history and future might never come.

3. There are always 2 sides of the story, so, why don't look at the bright/positive side?

Actually, this post was inspired by one of the article I read, entitled "Living In The Here And Now" that was published in the "60something" column on Saturday's (25/08/2012) The Straits Times (Singapore) [Author : Richard Lim]. It was an interesting yet meaningful article that will set the  readers pondering on how to live a better life.

There are a number of thoughts, quotes and anecdote which are relevant to the theme of my blog and thus like to share it here (extracted from the article):

"Letting go is about no clinging - and it can be a person, an idea, an object or in the Zen context, the grasping ego"

"We are so busy reliving our yesterday and trying to live our tomorrows that we miss living today" 

Following is an anecdote that I read sometime back and I loved it, I guess the author too: 

Two monks, one a senior and the other a junior, were walking along a narrow mountain path when they came to a muddy puddle. Across the puddle was a young women who was stranded because to step across it was to have her new ankle-length clothes soiled.

'Could you help me?' she asked the monks.

The senior monk strode across the puddle, lifted the women and carried her across to the other side. After he had let her down, she thanked him and went on her way.

The two monks too went on their way. But the junior one seemed disturbed. He could not shake off what was on his mind and after walking for about a mile, he finally blurted to his senior 'I thought we monks are not supposed to touch a women's body. But you did with that woman earlier'.

The latter said 'I let her down a mile back. Why are you still carrying her?' 

The illustration of the story. Loved it!

Hope you like my sharing and let's living in the here and now!

Cheers!

My SMILE Quotes

My facebook friends constantly commented on my photos that I have a cheerful, sincere and down to earth smile. To be frank, I was not like that 2 years ago. That's before I quit my previous job. Then, I tend to be less confident in my facial expression (including smiling). Thus, even though I am generally an optimist, I just kept it to myself most of the time and rarely snap any photo with "proper smile". 

So, why the sudden change? I attributed this change mainly to the quitting of my 16+ years company in 2010 as well as the the passing of my beloved dad in the subsequent year. It just strike me hard that life is really short and we should not take thing too seriously (internally as well as externally). I told myself that the best medicine is to keep a positive mindset as well as an happy face. With the smile, it will go a long way. Since then, I have been trying to keep a "crow's feet" smile (don't know what is this? Google it or check out Guy Kawasaki's book : Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions). Also, I am trying to promote/influence more friends to do the same (be it online or offline) as I am pretty sure that all sincere smiles are priceless and it's the true currency for happiness.

Following are my 3 original quotes which are inspired by the SMILE theme:

Cheers!

Powerful And Inspiring Animated Drawings From RSA

Today, I've chanced upon a valuable discovery and I am so eager to share it here in my blog. As a blogger whom like to read and write, this discovery is priceless! The interesting part is that the source of this discovery is not from the web or friends but through my company's employees conference which I attended today.

The gems that I've discovered is RSA (The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce), a registered charity that uses a combination of critical thinking and debate with cutting edge research to promote the arts and encourage social progress. What catches my eye is the RSA Animate video that was shared by the speaker (CEO of WDA Singapore) during the conference. The animated drawing covering the topic about Drive (debate about whether  rewards drive performances?) simply blown me away. It's powerful and amazingly interesting.

In fact, I just can't believed my eyes that such a serious and important topic can be covered in such an interesting way. I saw the vision of the animator and his amazing skill. I think seeing is believing, check out the RSA Animate video, Drive, below for yourself and let me know what you think?

If you find this video interesting and eager to see more, check out Cognitive Media (which is the media partner of RSA) for more similar videos.

Cheers! 

8 Hints That You Are Suffering From Smartphonism

Don't bother to google the word "smartphonism", you won't find any result there. I've just created it for fun and as most of you might already know its definition, it simply means addiction to smartphone. If you ask any of your friend or family member what is the one equipment that they cannot live without, I think smartphone will be in the top 1 or 2 places. In fact, we are more addicted to smartphones than we thought we are.

So, how do you know whether you are addicted to smartphone? Through my personal experience/observation, following are the 8 hints that you can rely on (these are not scientifically proven and thus just for casual sharing):

1. The first thing that you do when wake up in the morning is to check your smartphone (this is excluding turning off the alarm, if you are using smartphone's alarm feature);

2. When you are communicating from Point A to Point B (including walking, i.e. as long as you are not the driver), 80% of your time is viewing/checking on your smartphone;

3. When your phone is in silent mode, you will constantly check on your phone to ensure that there is no missing incoming notification;

4. When in the gathering, you spent more time "communicating" with your phone than the real human being sitting in-front or next to you;

5. You find that it is a big deal and insecure when you forgot to bring your smartphone with you when going out (thus, you MUST find a way to get it back in the shortest time possible);

6. Whenever you are in an environment/place that is not smartphone friendly (i.e. you need to turn-off the smartphone e.g. inside the theatre, formal meeting/dinner etc...), you felt uneasy as you can't check your smartphone as regularly as you usually do;

7.  You have the inclination to check your mobile social media sites (mainly facebook, twitter) frequently (like every few minutes once) so as not to miss any update from friends;

8. You try to swipe on anything comes to sight that looks like a monitor or screen to you (do take note that not every monitor/screen is swipe-able at the moment, not yet!);

So, above are my 8 hints for smartphonism, do you have any other hints to share? Do share it in the comment section.  

Cheers!

10 Awesome Optical Illusions From Istvan Orosz

TGIF! It's time to relax and let down our hair once again. 

Today, I am going to share something that I find it interesting and amazing, the optical illusions. These are the works from Hungarian artist, Istvan Orosz, famous for his anamorphosis (defined in Wikipedia as: a distorted projection or perspective requiring the viewer to use special devices or occupy a specific vantage point to reconstitute the image). 

Hope you enjoy them like I do.

What made these anamorphosis awesome (or eerie) is that there is a common object hidden in all of them..Don't believe me? Go back and watch carefully! Manage to see the hidden object? What is it? Do share your findings in the comment section.

Cheers!

Sudoku - The simple yet intelligent number puzzle

Sudoku, the popular and addictive number puzzle game was made popular by a Japanese puzzle company, Nikoli. It became a hit internationally in 2005 and never looks back since. Many online Sudoku websites, "How To Sudoku" books and mobile applications were spawned from this simple yet intelligent number game.

In case you are still clueless, Sudoku is actually a simple 9x9 grid that is divided into nine 3x3 blocks. The rule to play is also very simple (yet it will test your reasoning and logic sense). Usually, some numbers will be provided upfront, the objective is to fill the rest of the remaining grids with numbers only from 1 to 9 in a way that no number repeats itself in any block, column or row. 

The difficulty levels of Sudoku are determined by the following:

1. What numbers are provided upfront

2. How many numbers provided up-front and

3. Placement of these numbers?

It is a fun game that can be played individually or with a group of friends (the one completed the grids in the shortest time will be the winner). So, are you ready for a challenge to test your number quotient? Check out the free sudoku online.

Cheers!    

Latest Viral MV from Psy - Gangnam Style That Sure To Make You LOL

It's already mid-week now and tomorrow (9th Aug 2012) is Public Holiday here in Singapore. To be exact, it's Singapore 47th National Day. So, it's time to let our hair down earlier this week instead of waiting till Friday!

HAPPY 47TH BIRTHDAY, SINGAPORE!

To help you do that, I am sharing herewith one the the latest hilarious viral video from youtube. Actually, it is a MV from Korean Singer, Psy, and the title of the song is "Gangnam Style". Sorry to tell you that I don't understand what it means but who cares? Forget about the lyric, forget about the song (quite nice actually), just enjoy this hilarious MV especially on the dance move involving the kid and in group. I've watched it a couple of times (today alone) and still LOL during these scenes!    

If the above MV is not your cup of tea, maybe the following photo might be able to do the job:

Cheers!

SPECIAL : Website That Resolve Single Conversion Problem

Everyday, there are many websites and blogs being launched with the aim to provide solution for a particular problem (or a set of problems). Along the way, the sites are getting more graphical and are incorporated with more multi-media elements like photos, animation and videos etc.. so as to spice up user experiences. Of course, the ultimate question is how effective are they solving the problem in question?

Recently, I've chanced upon a very simple website that aimed to solve a single conversion problem, which is from feets to meters (and vice-verse). I must say that this is one of the simplest User Interface I've ever seen for a long time but the point is it does serve its purpose well, which is conversion of measurements. Simplicity is IN as less is new more.

In fact, the name of the site is also very direct to the point i.e. convert meters to feet.

So, have you ever came across any similar interesting site that trying to solve a single or micro problem? If yes, do share your findings here. 

Cheers!

Second Serving of The Dark Knight Rises

Courtesy of omy.sg and Domino's Pizza Singapore, managed to catch The Dark Knight Rises for the second time (within a week).  Even though it's a long movie with more than 2.5 hours play time (164 minutes to be exact), I still enjoyed every moment of the show. In fact, I managed to unravelled some myth and clues during the second serving (which I have totally missed out when I watched it the first time). I must say that this finale of Batman Trilogy (under the tremendous direction of Christopher Nolan) is a true classic and it will be remembered for many years to come.

Besides able to meet up with fellow bloggers and enjoy the movie together, Domino's Pizza has generously giving out goodie bag with limited edition of The Dark Knight Rises items which  comprises of:

1. 3 giant movie posters of The Dark Knight Rises

2. Limited edition of The Dark Knight Rises glass

3. Limited edition of drawstring bag

4. Limited edition of The Dark Knight Rises sticker booklet  

5. Free one regular pizza coupon (worth SGD22.80)

Following are some photos taken before, during and after the show:

'Domino's Pizza's promotional balloon

Friends from omy.sg and Domino's Pizza were busy setting up the tickets collection booth and goodie bags

Representative from Domino's Pizza Singapore is giving her welcome speech

The Dark Knight Rises glass and drawstring bag (limited edition) 

The Dark Knight Rises Movie Posters

Once again, thanks omy.sg and Domino's Pizza for the treats and great movie experience, hope to participate and share such similar servicing again in the future. 

Cheers!