One of my frequent blog haunts is the one written by al. I enjoy his stories much and dream of travelling on weekend jaunts around some of the places he has been to. Apart from bieng a good writer / story teller, oldy is also an exceptional photographer. Check out his photo essays when you have time. I especially enjoyed the one on his trip to Lake Toba and it very high on my to-do lists when I can sneak a week off work. One of these days, I promise myself.

In a recent post, he mentioned this nice looking set of islands off the South coast of Singapore. Looks perfect for a weekend run out of the country and enjoy a day or two of camping and riding. Seems like a perfect way to go out there and enjoy the outdoors without obsessing over preparations. Must. Visit. A. Few. Islands. This. Year.

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Update: realized that the Grand daddy of exploring biking around Singapore has made a mention of Kundur too.

Sorry guys if you have been trying to comment on this site. By some strange vodoo, some settings were lost and ended up insisting users needed to be logged in.

Everyone is welcome to comment now and I just need you to type in basic info (which should be cached on your browser) to protect myself from spam. House is back in order and ready for guests…

As most should be aware by now, Michael Jackson died of cardiac arrest today.

I grew up listening to MJ and have fond memories of singing along with his songs with my brothers while cleaning up the front porch or washing my bike or other household chores thrown at me by my folks. blasting MJ while working almost transported me out of the job in hand and I would forget when / how the job got completed.

I am a loyal fan and though his latest album Invincible did not live up to the high expectations we  set for him, I found a few gems in them that I do enjoy listening often. I love the fact that he innovated extensively and brought MTV to main stream and at the same time, could stun the listener with his soulful ballads. I personally love his ballads and at times try to ape his singing style (pretty much without any success).

I guess I could try to make a list of my favorite songs but I’d rather forget the list and go back to listening his albums back to back and relive my teen years.

I was really hoping MJ would be able to release another album ad return to prime form once again before he retires but I guess that was never meant to be. But although MJ (The King of Pop) is dead, his music will live on… And if I we you, I would dig out that album in you closet and listen to it again and appreciate the mastery of voice. Or if you prefer watching him gyrating with Naomi Campbell, head to YouTube.

If you have an iPhone or iPod touch, update its OS to 3.0. The spotlight feature for ‘desktop’ search is revolutionary. it is such an ye opener to me, and I love it to search for contacts rather than opening the contact app, looking for the search bar and typing it.

The best part is, when you switch to spotlight, the app opens instantly, the cursor is in the search box and the keyboard is ready. So it reduces a 5 step operation to 1. Insane!

Additionally, I use it to search for music. looking for a specific artist or a song was painful (even though the iPod app interface is very cool and effective). Spotlight pushes the usability with a 1 step operation (2 if you have to scroll).

Really, you got to try it to realize how cool it is.

That was a long while. More than a month I suppose since I posted last. A combination of trouble with word press, lethargy, and lack of things to discuss led to the hiatus.

Recently, I have been impressed by the increase in the number of commuters on bike. Some of them I tend to see on a regular basis, heading towards city for work in the morning and heading back home in the evening. I have been generally glad that people are doing their bit to reduce congestion on the roads and gaining fitness and karma points in the bargain.

That is until now. There are a few regular bike riders at my work place. Most are commuters from a nearby MRT (train station) and ride a few blocks in bat up rusty bikes. Thy seem to have little worry about theft and leave the bike, most of the times, unlocked. I do not have any secure bike parking facility and have been repurposing a lighting mast to secure my bike. Adding to that, a continuous presence of security at the work facility, gives me confidence that my bike will remain safe.

Additional to the lighting mast, there is no other place object I can improvise for securing. I had a nagging feeling, it is a matter of time when I will be challenged for the space. And competition did come. In the form of not one but 2 bikes taking over both sides of the mast. Now I am being orphaned (unless, of course, I find a solution to bring my bike into my work facility ). it is kind of a bitter-sweet reaction I have… On the one hand, it is nice to know that there are others who are biking too and on the other, the consequence of congestion in parking space makes me worry.

Well, may be it is about time, I started to ping the management to look into providing some proper bike parking facilities for the benefit of all… there should be strength in numbers. I just hope I can regain a secure bike park soon…