I saw on Japan Probe this article on the world’s first 8000 pixel ultra HD TV.
I’m not very good at identifying how clear or how sharp an image is (and I can’t tell the difference between HD and bluray and .. just a good quality video), but this is so amazing I can tell that it’s fantabulous:
It has been a particularly trying 5 days at work so far* – which makes forum pieces like this one on Today’s online site which suggests that the civil service should reduce its salaries while expanding its headcount extra hard to swallow.
hours after reading the article, that there are people out there that think that way makes me feel really.. i don’t know how to describe what i’m feeling, but a part of it is that the suggestions seem rather unjustified.
for one, it seems there might be some confusion over the difference between civil and public servants. also, statutory boards have more generous salary and bonus packages than ministries.
but those are small quibbles. a quick check on Careers@Gov will reveal that there’re lots of positions available in civil service. it’s not a matter of headcount – the civil service is already operating below headcount, without enough people willing or able to join the service.
and why might that be the case? – a rhetorical question, of course. would not the less generous pay package be one reason? there are non-professional private sector employees who get to go home on time. they don’t stay late at work, don’t have to work weekends and don’t have to stay up late completing time-sensitive work (which may be a specific complaint, but what the hell). and they get a tidy sum, which in all likelihoods are tidier than that which civil servants receive.
i don’t see how reducing the pay for civil servants can possibly achieve the writer’s hope for an expansion of the service, when it’s already unable to reach its current headcount. Plus, there are civil servants and there are civil servants – not all are paid on the same scale. the vast majority seriously don’t earn that much, whereas there are some others who may get an exponentially higher amount. Should a pay review for the civil service be conducted, in all likelihood the results will reveal that the bulk of civil servants should in fact get a pay rise.
*: today is Friday, so why wasn’t it written as “a particularly trying week”? for the simple, unpleasant reason that there is still work that has to be done over the weekend. lots of it in fact. on top of having already put in almost 6 days worth of work as of today. after dinner today was a full 45min of sitting on the couch, just sitting there on twitter and whatsapp, because there simply wasn’t any energy to move or go shower. to read articles like that…. sigh.
and i’m suffering in here.
one would have thought that working from home would be an enjoyable experience. and actually, so far it has been pretty good – i can get up at 8.30 to start work at 9am (unless the internet fails to connect, which it did today, which meant i started at 9.30), and then i can turn off the computer at 7pm, walk a few steps to my room and start watching videos at 7.05pm. not to mention the Glee episode i had over lunch too.
unfortunately, things aren’t so peachy with this weather. we never got around to installing air-con in the house, and oh boy. it was horrible. I was ready to give up on working at 5.30pm cos i was just so sleepy – LKY was right (of course he’s right! :P) when he said that working in an air-conditioned office at around 19 degrees celsius ensured maximum productivity.
it hasn’t helped that the weather has totally made my eczema go bonkers – it looks like another trip to the doctor tomorrow, and i seriously hope he can do something like give me stronger medicine or refer me to a dermatologist.
whinge whinge whinge. i is not happys.
The Singapore River is the most beautiful place to be at night in Singapore. They’ve made it even prettier of late, with additional lights on the various bridges along the river.
The boy took lots of photos by mounting his dslr on a Gorilla Tripod, which begot great pictures like this one:
Having on such tripod, i placed my camera on the parapet on timer mode and got these:
Litter blocking the view! They turned out rather well though, but I preferred not to have trash in view.
The good thing about having a slim camera like my Fuji Finepix J10 is that it was slim enough to fit on the barriers along the river. So I placed it there – out of the way of litter – and got the following:
The photos are still kinda dark, but i really liked the streaks from the bumboats that went past:
The Fullerton Hotel is simply gorgeous..
Naturally, my low-end camera wasn’t the one that took these pictures:
This was actually an accident, a result of the Gorilla Tripod slipping downwards while trying to take a picture:
I also didn’t manage to get any shots of these Ferraris parked at the Fullerton – all belonging to a racing group, as they had similar ‘badges’ on their bonnets:
I believe these – or at least the last one – were taken on a longer shutter speed. Just look at how much light was captured!
Said the boy, while I was explaining that our ancestors the Chinese coolies and samsui women built Singapore:
That’s not very good is it? The Irish built New York.
(-_-)"
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It doesn’t quite register that Tuesday is a holiday. Doesn’t feel like tomorrow will be just one day of work, and then another rest.
I was done with scary rides for the day after what ought to have been at most an exciting Shrek kiddy rollercoaster.
Next door to Shrek-land was more kiddy Madagascar stuff:
I don’t recall what the rides at Madagascar were because the waiting times were still really long! But there was a carousel – on which there were 3 South Asian businessmen….
Look at the pictures above and below. What is it about a DSLR that captures better colour??
The Madagascar area provided a great view of Battlestar Galactica. We spent a long time just standing there looking at the two tracks – Human (upright) and Cylon (some parts upside down) rollercoasters. The Human track seemed rather doable (just don’t go on the Mummy first) as it didn’t seem that fast. The Cylon one was crazy though.
In the picture above, the people will soon have their heads to the ground and legs to the sky as they ride that look. And below, they should have just became upright. The rollercoaster extends a bit further into the background, so it’s bigger than it looks here.
The Egypt area is pretty big too! It’s low and flat..
The view across to New York and Hollywood:
We headed back to The Lost World to watch the Water World show. Apparently the show it’s based on is quite bad, but this show was really good!!
The entrance to the show ground.. and the set below
The amphitheatre was really big. The blue seats are areas where the audience will get wet, and the green seats areas where they may get wet. The guy below with the long tube-like thing – he and his colleagues warmed up the audience with some antics, mainly by pouring/splashing/spraying water on those in the blue zone. They got SOAKED even before the show began!
Some highlights of the show..
One of the bad guys – see the fire from his automatic shooting thing (i wish i knew the name)
The boy took quite a few goods shots – best of all is this fluke one:
It was quite exciting cos there were fights, actors diving into the water (cos they got punched in the face and fell backwards, etc), rope jumps, gunfire, fire, fireworks and more!
It was indeed very smoky towards the end..
We headed back the way we came from – and got a nice view of Madagascar.
And Egypt..
This is one of the rides, where you’re a “treasure hunter”. I dont really understand the rationale behind this ride as the “land rover” goes so slowly, and the “snakes”, “alligators” and “scarab beetles” are not in the least scary. Perhaps this is for the REAL kids.
Of course, I took more pictures of Shrek-land.
The sky had darkened and threatened to rain (thankfully it didn’t). It lent a beautiful effect to the castle and fantasy-world image.
:)
Went to USS on a Tuesday, right after Labour Day last week (my, it’s only just last week!). Realised that
The first view that greets you – pretty similar to USJ and i suspect other Universal Studios too.
Kungfu Panda! We also saw Shrek, the animals from Madagascar, Betty Boop and the Woodpecker over the course of the day.
Our first show: Monster Rock. It had a stupid premise – someone managed to reanimate the “classic monsters” and for a short time each day they perform for people. The most songs weren’t really rock (and they also did Wonder Girl’s ‘Nobody’), the monsters weren’t that interesting (Phantom of the Opera, Frankenstein and his Bride, Werewolf, Weregirl, some female Mummy and Dracula – i was expecting stuff like Incredible Hulk), and the artistes weren’t that good at singing or dancing.
I always like the New York part of Universal Studios..
Me perched snug between the lion’s paws! :)
Next stop was Sci Fi City, which is where the rollercoaster Battlestar Galactica was.
But we went to sit a kiddy ride (at my request) first – it spun around and was quite enjoyable:
Before I knew how scary the ride was, I was all eager to head to the Egypt section where the Mummy was:
The above two are the boy’s pictures – look at the beautiful colour you get from a DSLR! I thought it the top of the push-cart stall was rather cute:
Don’t you think this could actually pass off as Cairo? Perhaps at least in the movies? The lockers for this ride were really expensive – free for the first 30 minutes, but considering the queues (it said 15minutes on the outside, but I think we waited for at least 25min) that’s pretty useless. Thereafter it’s $3 per hour i think!
The Mummy rollercoaster ride was really scary. There’s this part with a sudden backwards movement, and the entire ride is in the dark, really fast, and extra scary because the safety barrier only reaches to your waist from the ground. I was screaming all the way with my eyes closed and had a sore throat after.
We took a walk around Jurassic Park (photo courtesy of the boy), but I was so traumatised after the ride I headed towards Shrek-land instead. (check out that kiddy ride above where you’re dangling from the air! Not scary meh!??)
I absolutely love the look of Shrek-land.
I was so enamoured by it that I took many many photos. The Shrek 4D film is quite enjoyable and worth a go, although they could have well done away with the uneventful “introduction” or shortened it.
Puss in Boots! They didn’t sell much merchandise of Puss – just a few keychains and one mug where he did his whole big simpering eyes look. Pity!
Shrek’s house – up in the upper left corner is his toilet.
Pretty DSLR colours below! *jealous*
We went to sit the Shrek “kiddy” rollercoaster at my request – USS had lots of thrilling rides so i thought we should get our money’s worth. Plus, looking at some of the teeny kids going for the ride, I thought, if they can, so can i!
It was still pretty scary though. I was screaming too, and needed my second lozenges of the day after the ride. The rollercoaster was cute though, with the head and tail of the Dragon.
