the latest in pick up lines?

got this off theory.isthereason. basically, a new startup, hitchoo has come up with a dating service, which from what i understand, involves me(the person with the hitchoo card), giving the card to someone whom i fancy. when that person receives the card, he/she is free to go online and check out my details on the hitchoo website.

sounds like a nice plan, protects your privacy, and because it's an agency, hopefully there'll be some sort of quality control. plus, the onus is more on the person whom you gave the card too.. allowing the card giver a bit of a 'cop-out' from the whole courage factor of chatting someone up. some might argue it's more fuss free, others might say it's a cheap shot.

i still like my moo cards. they sort of contain my online details, plus they are highly personalised, which is what i feel the hitchoo cards lack. one could receive too many hitchoo cards and they'd all look the same wouldn't they? perhaps they could do personalised cards.

anyway, which brings me to my next point. most of my profile information is found on myspace, friendster, facebook, and of course my trusty blog.. now tell me.. do you need to check out with a dating service if i'm legit? hahaha.. no, because i can be cool like that.

not that my moo cards have helped me in the dating field, but i know my colleagues were somewhat impressed. and you would be too if you'd seen my previous post about it. check the photostream out here

death, how do we part?
i wasn't really musing for a topic to write about, but i suppose this one found me in a sense. it's been a rather morbid week with the passing of wayne thunder, then another sudden passing of Corey Nonis from Singapore's pioneering art-rock band, Heritage over the weekend, right after they received the Compass Award for Excellence in Songwriting. Although i didn't know these guys personally, the shockwaves could still be felt throughout the music community, and you sort of feel a sense of loss that the collective has just lost some of its greatest players and influencers.

while i felt the disparity of loss, i wasn't exactly moping or crying in my sleep. however, when the husband of my nanny when i was a kid, passed away on sunday night, and i attended the work this evening and looked into the coffin to see a 'peaceful' but lifeless figure, i guess it wasn't loss that gripped, but the finality of death that somehow seemed tangible. how it takes away, and all that remains is a memory.

i'm not going to wax lyrical about this, and i guess i started thinking about my own folks and how my own parents probably have another twenty more years to go or if they're lucky (or unlucky, depending on how you look at it),another twenty five to thirty years on this earth. and i guess that will strike me the deepest, because we're talking about the folks who've stood by you and your decisions, and saw you at your weakest as well.

and then the pastor conducting the funeral service, made a timely reminder of how this isn't the end, do you know where you're going?

tragic fatal comedy
it's late, but i came to tell you that i'm still alive and i hope to be tomorrow. i just heard that the Heritage drummer passed away on friday night, which is mind-numbing because this comes after the passing of wayne thunder. seems like a lot of drummers are leaving us behind.

we're not machines
i come home after a bout of dinner and drinks with close friends at the end of the work day. not charging my mobile or my ipod the day before, i started today with a half tank for my most trusted mobile devices. at the end of the day, their batteries are drained from constant use that have helped fuel my life. and i recharge them now, so that i can draw from them tomorrow.

is there a better source of energy that needs no recharging, that is renewable and everlasting?

Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."
- John 4:13-14

The Spirit and the bride say, "Come!" And let him who hears say, "Come!" Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.
- Revelations 22:17

With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.
- Isaiah 12:3

ZOMG

how in the world do you keep calm aftr watching something like that? ZOMG ZOMG ZOMG ZOMG ZOMG ZOMG ZOMG ZOMG ZOMG ZOMG ZOMG make ZOMG

anyway, my thoughts on Blogout 2007? it was nice meeting all these other bloggers, because truth be told, i have been content maintaining my own little cottege blog for the fair few who like what i do, but i suppose some folk have bigger dreams than that. i'd like to think that i have a fairly spiffy blog that contains some of the latest features of web 2.0, but it really isn't optimised a whole lot. as you can see my technorati tags have been rather tempremental and thus, i don't get the visbility that some people get.

which sort of brings me to my next point about.. the efficiency of tools. however, nothing is more effective than just remembering this: harmlessbananas[dot]blogspot[dot]com. i think that's the best way, the best form of advertising, that people remember your URL and speak it, and mention it in everything that they do. like yongfook[dot]com, or small penis.

maybe i've over sensationalised web 2.0 a bit, going back to basics, let's have people remember our URLs for a change -)

back to Blogout 2007. i had more fun chatting with other bloggers and understanding how they think and how they see the world and the blogosphere, there are somethings that are not conveyed thru a blog than they are better in real life, and to me, that was my highlight. sure there were high fangled web devices, live tweets and webcams, but here at harmlessbananas, we've done those too.. and the problem is getting people excited about it right? i mean, not many people were moblogging either. but it was good celebration of tech and ideas. i feel i've successfully demonstrated the power of mobility with twitter and the moblog posts from yesternight. so, i'm glad.. and if you were part of the experience, i hope it jogs your creativity at the massive potential in mobile technology.

Yay! Another live moblogging event. Success!

Hahaha.. Advertising myself. Plus i got a cool polaroid taken of me.. Yay! Make happy!

Well.. The event's winding down and there's some lucky draw going on now

Very interesting, we're talking about blogging ethics right now

Talking about the digitat divide

We're at Blogout2007! This is us moblogging live from the event. So all of you who said we Couldnt make it, but we did..

before the world rushes by
i know i'm a bit late with this, but i'd like to just take a moment before everything flashes by, 'lest we forget



Wayne Thuder passed away on 21st May 2007. he was the sound of thunder behind the drums for one of Singapore's most influential rockbands, The SunS and The Boredphucks. and though they've moved on from it, i still see ai sio kan mai as thequintessential rock anthem for any singaporean. it doesn't get any more balls out than that -) thanks for the inspiration over the years.

we don't deserve second chances
first things first, some fun along the streets of singapore. courtesy of the AtotheYuen.



this is floopin' awesome! if you ever sit in my car, i will so have to do this as well!

in other news, i will be attending the blogout! conference tomorrow from 630pm.

since my laptop is down, i'll be moblogging back here, thru jaiku and twitter. hell, i'll even do pictures and maybe do a proper writeup on what went down.

so do sign up for twitter and add me if you want to receive live updates straight into your mobile phone via SMS.

yeah oh yeah oh yeah

in another life, i should have been playing brutal, crushing guitar riffs like nick zinner in a nu-wave punk band like the yeah yeah yeahs. but i guess i settle for the low-end joy of leeson

explaining the little things in the sidebar
well, i finally did a little housekeeping with the sidebar, so hopefully it's easier to navigate and isn't as confusing. also, the font size is bigger so you don't have to squint. i would agree with anyone who wants to agree that, that's a good thing. a better thing even.

one thing that you, my dear reader, might want to take not of, is the addition of both twitter and jaiku. it's a bit of a social experiment as much as it is trying to stay in touch with the folk that matter. so, if you somehow feel inspired to add these lil widgets to your webspace, they can greatly enhance both your online and offline experience.

twitter
this is the simpler service of the two. basically you just sign up for it, and you'll be given an account which is sorta of like a blog space. your posts appear in the space they provide, in my case www.twitter.com/litford. the cool things are that, one you update the page, you can also create a feed on your blog (like i have) which acts as a megaphone system. now, here comes the clincher. it's SMS compatible, meaning that whatever contacts you have on your twitter account, if they enable (by default) receiving updates via SMS, any updates on twitter will be sms-ed to them as well. PLUS you can SMS to twitter and they will update your page and everything else as well, including sending the update to all your contacts at no charge to your mobile provider because you are using a service of twitter. if you think that's cool, sign up for it and add me to your contact list!

jaiku
jaiku can probably be considered a souped up twitter. it works the same way in that you can update your status via mobile phone, but in jaiku's case, if your phone isn't a smartphone, you won't receive updates on your mobile, and only via email. so it's sort of limited in its megaphone functions. However, the cool thing about jaiku is that you can enter your personal feeds into it and everytime you update your feed, if your configure jaiku, it will broadcast your update to all your other contacts via email or their own jaiku profiles. you can treat this as a sort of moblog as well that people can browse your profile and see all the jaiku's you've made thus far. very useful as a sort of pinging function. it would be cool to get it, plus the finnish web design is quite spiffy.

that's all! hopefully you'll find the sidebar easier to navigate! plus.. i should be moving to wordpress pretty soon, or at least i'm gonna start blogging more professional opinions on a new platform as opposed to maintaining a personal blog. so look out for that!

eight A.M muses
life is probably too random for us to maintain any sort of control over it. imagine you were a grain of flour, and you believe with all your heart you would be eventually become a piece of unleavened bread (a noble choice). but as you're being mixed with the rest of the other ingredients, you realise those ingredients aren't gonna shape you into a piece of wholesome unleavened bread. instead, you get mixed with eggs and yeast and other decadent ingredients that you realise you are turning into a rich buttery cake. and maybe what else you don't see, is that the baker's using your purpose to bake a beautiful wedding cake.

the echoes of your heart
it's actually from a song, i just can't remember who the singer was. hmmmm, why am i so tired tonight. i guess i'll have an early night.

OMFG Starcraft II has been announced!
shut up. don't ask questions and just go here. or at least watch the video here:

Holy bat spoons batman! This apple pie was made in 1996!

when did i find love, when did it find me?
a hidden place


hyperballad


pagan poetry

hallelujah, for the lost are found
OMIGOSH! after six long weeks, my shipment of moo cards finally came in thru the mail!

step 1: receive the package and still excited heart


step 2: rip away packaging to reveal spiffy packaging


step 3: pour cards out like a maniac


step 4: be narcissistic and check your details


media solutions? what the heck is that? hahaha!

anyway, i've been dying to show this animated gif which i saw on a forum and just had to share it with the rest of you. it really is frickin' awesome!

masters of the universe
Hey folks!

I've come back in awe and inspired by what this crazy one-of-a-kind artist can do, and just so thankful that he actually came down to Singapore and gave us something interesting to look at =)


this is me right after he finished his work and getting my very own 'pose' with the drawing. plus, i'm not even touching the drawing! hehehehe


this is what the correct perspective shot is supposed to look like.

anywhere else, like this one from the side will look like this:



Julian Beever 'plugging' himself into his own drawing. (On a sidenote, the new Nseries N95 mobile handles 3.5mm jacks for your headphones! very nifty)


A master at work. wow, how does he actually 'see' things from this perspective?


some folk who came to check him out. any of you sg_ljers in there? *heh*



Julian Beever being interviewed by the Ngee Ann Polytechnic publication, our voice box


Yes, I had to take a photo with him. I don't usually get to meet famous people, so hopefully this will change =)


and finally Julian Beever leaving his mark in Singapore. Thanks for making it so memorable!

Julian Beever was invited by Nokia Nseries as part of their Arts Outreach Program

Catching Julian Beever at his exhibition space as he explains his concepts to the crowd. I'll sort pictures of his work later when i get back. Moblogging rocks!

3D Anamorphic Pavement Artist, Julian Beever in Singapore till the May 17

The world renowned pavement artist, Julian Beever is currently drawing outside Raffles City, Singapore till May 17, 2007. This is the first time Julian Beever is drawing in Asia and he was invited by Nokia Nseries to celebrate their new multimedia smart phone, the Nseries N95. The public can enjoy his art when it is completed after May 17.



read more | digg story

My mother and my son. Ahem.. I mean my nephew, but a mother can dream cant she? Why am i speaking from my mom's perspective? Haha!

love your computer!
okay, i thought this was reeeaaally funny, and i love the 90's style html coding and cheesy graphics that flash incessantly in your face!



check the link out here: what has become of computers?

it's in conjunction with the nokia nseries n95 launch, as well as the wireless adventure.

well, i haven't really been much of a nokia user, but i really love the celebration of old tech in their video -)









do me a favour and help spread the word if you enjoyed it as much as i did -) or at least like telling your friends that people dressed up as computers and going thru retrenchment is a funny thing -) heh

kill me adrian, kill me again, with love

dear yuen, why do you do the things you do? but we all had a good laugh, and love you all the same and more because of it. -)

in case you didn't know, yuen found himself drinking a bowl of chocolate sauce from a chocolate fountain at the buffet. any reference of pain, dying and death were made in reference to this one act of bravado.

What is contentment?

Attending my first press conference where Intel is launching the new Centrino duo and pro chips for mobile laptops. Mobility is everything these days and so is blogging on the fly!

one last thought before i go to bed
i think i'm starting to miss perth. the friends, the wide open spaces, the breeze, the cool alfrescos, cuppacinos, beer, the beaches, the gigs, the little corners tucked away but found at 1am in the morning, the blokes who'd laugh about anything, the frosty toilet seat, the dogs that play in the garden, the silly convertible that took me everywhere, the way time seemed to stand still on a good day. yeah, take me back.. three more years. i'm starting to feel the effects of it right now.

silly things don't bear witness
oh well, the weekend's over. things don't feel like they've changed in anyway. i suppose that's a good thing? off to bed.

Wow, my friend is an astronaut! I have such cool friends

when the scars and stars fall and tear our bodies down
omigosh, i wish i had more moments of brilliance like this. a couple of things that make you sit up and notice, that there's a beauty this world has to offer. or at least not make the living so painful.

what am i babbling about? well, what have i not been babbling about? this blog is filled with psychobabble. sometimes i wonder after more than three years of blogging, what personality does this 'lil space have to offer those that come by. do you take something away, or does it just take up space in your life, one more clutter among the junkyard of your heart.

i feel a glorious sensation when i listen to bjork's "dull flame of desire" from her new album volta. it's easily one of my favourite songs right now, it's majestically simple with electronic toms thumping the background, royal horns and painfully stricken vocals (courtesy of bjork and antony) that seem to want to break out of their prisons as they strive for release. amen. easily making it's way into my 2007 compilation.

Graffiti art, how naive..

long walks along the beach
because the most cliched things mean something

i've actually more or less decided that i'll wear a 'uniform' to work once i get down to buying 2 more sets of the same white shirt i currently have now.

why fuss about what to wear to work everyday when you can wear the same thing? it doesn't matter, it'll still look good, plus there'll be a sort of consistency to it. in an agency full of creative people who are constantly trying to reinvent themselves, maybe i 'reinvent' myself by being constant. in that sense, you might be the only different one if you're the only boring one.

well, i know that doesn't look quite as good in writing than it did in my little 'bright idea world', but all i wanted was to not need to fuss about trivial things with consistency and good materials, and also pay a certain homage to the nerdy clerk-ish guy with thick black glasses that you see in 1930's era cantonese films. indulge me.

My colleague bought me something nice today. rather apt considering i like all things banana-sy, i had to make it harmless and to jeannie i'm also a muffin.

pebbles, pavements and hurried folk
wow, when the weekend comes, it comes like something fast and whooshing. in true diary fashion, though i hate it as much, i had lunch with yuanheng, worship practice, dinner with my folks cuz it was my dad's birthday, that was at pontinos, i met cherylin aka xiu jie and my other housemate, peivn, plus the other folk who were there, notably eben, that was at harry's in boat quay, and then i met yuanheng again for supper at the maccas near our place.

so, my brain's already shut down, but i suppose i needed to document my life just to have a running record of daily events.

Wow! It's someone's birthday today! I hope you like your present! A spiffy cheapskate blog mention!

super saturate my soul
if i may, explain in further detail the significance of the previous post. of course i do not have anything against ugly, or beautiful people. in fact, one asks who set the standards of what beauty is? of course, perhaps on a primal instinct level, there is something in us that makes us look for 'good genes' in our partners, and perhaps over the thousands of years of cultural building and stereotyping, there are more 'qualitative traits' we look for in the opposite gender.

anyway, aside from being a disposition toward gender or cultural issues, as much as i applaud various media forms to question openly the significance of having skinny, socially accepted forms of beauty, on the flipside i think some of us are making too much of a ruckus over the whole thing about beauty, that beautiful people on the inside become ugly on the inside as well.

sometimes, some things don't need to be said all the time. i leave it to your discretion.

There will always be beautiful people. Ugly people should get over that.

you really don't look that good with makeup on
maybe i think that after a few pictures of myspace browsing. why don't i just go to bed now? it's late, and i have another day of work tomorrow. i'm glad the week's passing by rather quickly. in fact, not meeting people after work is awesome. it really makes me well rested for the weekend when we like to part-ay (not in the actual sense, i do a lot of nerdy things like play bass or drive around doing errands).



turn the pages, find a word or two. we need to read to stay alive, and find the morning dew.

stranger than you
i had a good day. i woke up late, had a good lunch, jammed with my friends, had dinner and did a bout of tv watching. not bad for a public holiday, so much so that i don't have any philosophical rants to go on about. you'll have to pardon me for that, life isn't always that complicated.