Singapore Idol - Last 5 Contestants

Singapore Idol is left with 5 contestants. Hady Mirza, Jonathan Leong, Paul Twohill, Jasmine Tye and Joakim Gomez. Who will be eliminated? Who will be the next Singapore Idol? It's hard to say.

If I can choose, I will choose Hady Mirza because he's good. Yet if you are good all the time, it's hard to impress the masses the next time round like what Ken said. We'll see how the whole thing develops.

Jonathan is good mainly because of his low and deep voice - something some people find nice.

Paul, he still covers his eyes every now and then. Eyes are important where the singer connects with the audience. You shut that and you end up building a barricade between you and the audience.

Jasmine is the girl-next-door kind of person. She's bubbly and nice. Song wise I would say okay.

Joakim has the looks. I would feel that he has much more of looks than songs. I sort of sympathise with him as he's receiving quite a lot of pressure from the public. People hate you and want you to be out. How sad that is.

Who would be eliminated? I would say Paul. I am not against him nor for him but he seems tensed, lost and sick. He seems to have lost his energy and his performances are kinda like a graph with a negative gradient. This will happen only if Joakim's large pool of fans continue to vote for him. Singapore Idol seems to be like an are-you-popular contest. I guess after all, it's a popularity contest ain't it where the masses vote for the contestants.

Tags: Hady Mirza, Jasmine Tye, Joakim Gomez, Jonathan Leong, Paul Twohill, Singapore Idol

Week's Wick: Failed To Impress

Failed To Impress

To impress his date, the young man took her to a very posh Italian restaurant.
After sipping some fine wine, he picked up the menu and ordered.
"We'll have the Giuseppe Spomdalucci please," he said.
"Sorry sir," said the waiter.
"That's the owner."

Tags: Blogging, Blogs, Dates, Failed To Impress, Memes, Relationships, Weeks Wick

The Carnal Nature Of Man

Romans 7:19
For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice.

There are times when I want to do good, but I can't. Like the giving up of seats in buses. It's a good thing, but I guess I can't do it most of the time. Why? A childhood incident where someone jeered at me for being a "goody-two shoes". I didn't think that it would affect me until this day. After that incident, I somehow find it harder to give my seat for someone else for the fear of being jeered as a "goody-two shoes" again.

Yet at times, the evils that I will not to do, that I practice. Talking behind others and being envious for the things I don't have; I am not spared from these. I know it's not nice to do them, yet it just happens.

Romans 7:24
O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?

Yes, there are times when I feel remorse over certain actions that I have done like finding out later that a certain friend was hurt by what I said and a certain someone had to do extra work because of me. It's during these times that I feel very bad. Guilty.

Romans 7:25
I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!

He is the way, the truth and the life. He is the answer to this problem. I must learn to let him be the Lord of my life. Not just in words, but in actions also. To completely rely on Him for guidance and not on my wisdom.

I know that He loves me and wants to help me from this wonderful passage:

Romans 8:31-39
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? 33 Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written:

“ For Your sake we are killed all day long;
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”

37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Lord help me to be a better person.

Tags: Christian, Reflections, Romans 7, Romans 8, The Carnal Nature Of Man, Thoughts

Inner Beauty

Someone once asked me whether inner beauty is really appreciated in today's realistic society. This is what I have to say:

Just ask the people around you.
Look at what the media portrays.

He is the one with the masculine body and tall stature.
She is the one with a curvy body and big eyes.

Who cares whether he has a kind heart as long as he has a photogenic smile?
Who cares whether she is generous so long as she's slim and tall?

I beg to differ.

His smile may be nothing more than a pretense.
Her figure may shadow a cold heart.

It's easy to find a body sculpted to perfection, but it's otherwise to find a heart moulded to perfection.
The first has a temporal value that fades with time, while the other grows and learns with each passing day.

It's pointless to look glamorous and pretty without basic courtesy.
A heart of gold is worth more than a face of gold.

It's normal if you don't look like Hollywood stars. So long as you are kind and nice to the people around you, that's all that matters. This is my opinion and stand: Inner beauty beats outer beauty. To each his own.

For another post on a similar issue, you can click here. This post touches on Female Beauty.

Tags: Beauty, Campaign For Real Beauty, Confidence, Inner Beauty, Hollywood, Outer Beauty, People, Self-Esteem, Singapore, Society

Week's Wick: Practicing Doctors

Practicing Doctors

Do you like it when doctors are referred to as practicing?

Tags: Blogging, Blogs, Doctors, Medical Field, Memes, Practicing, Weeks Wick

Aches, Flu And Sore Throat

You wake up to a new morning feeling bad and giddy. Your body aches and your nose is stuffed. You go to the toilet to brush your teeth. Feeling that there's something at the back of your throat, you force it out in a gargle-like technique you learned from the senior citizens of the community and spit out whatever it is. Lo and behold, on the sink there's a thick yellow phlegm with patches of rusty red. It's not puberty nor is it your birthday. It's a flu and sore throat.

Replace the "you"s with "I"s for the above paragraph and you'll pretty much understand why I placed the facial cream (instead of the toothpaste) on my toothbrush. I realised my folly when it looked different. Thank God that vile cream didn't enter my mouth. If it does...this would be even more interesting. As you've guessed by now, I ain't having a great morning where birds chirp and the sun smiles at you as portrayed in books for little tots.

I have a bad ache, flu and sore throat which is something you won't want over the weekends. You can always rely on these three stooges to ruin your day.

Tomorrow I am expected to go to camp (National Service) as there are some things I have to do. Hopefully I'll recover by then.

"Wishing Steph a speedy recovery" ~ Steph

*Update*

Now my younger brother has green phlegm. I better lock myself up lest some viral outbreak occurs, like those in Raccoon City only without man-eating zombies, hideous dogs and a main character who never seems to get infected even when bitten.

"Wishing Steph and Steph's brother a speedy recovery" ~ Steph

Tags: Aches, Flu, Raccoon City, Sick, Singapore, Sore Throat

Blog Mad's Big Things

I've been seeing this notice for quite some time in Blog Mad. It's been there for like 2 months?


More bonus credits? More traffic? Conversion of credits into real cash? Whatever it is, I know it's gonna be great even though it's taking a long time. I've been using Blog Mad since the start of the year and I find that it's one of the best traffic exchanges. I love the 1:1 ratio it gives.

As for the "big things", I wonder what it could be...

Tags: Big Things, Blog Mad, Blogging, Traffic Exchanges

Week's Wick: Positive Thinking

Positive Thinking

My friend thought he was not gonna make it. Then he started thinking positive. Now he's positive he's not gonna make it. ~ Sammy Shore

Tags: Blogs, Memes, Positive Thinking, Quotes, Sammy Shore, Weeks Wick

Daily Top Voted Blogs Again!

I came back home from my duty and I saw this. It's the second time I've seen my blog being voted in. I was tired and all but seeing this made me realised that at least people enjoyed reading my blog. The tiredness seemed to go away. This is better than coffee :)

I would like to thank all who voted for me :D

Tags: Blogs, BlogMad, Daily Top Voted Blogs, Duty

School Boy

Yesterday (National Day), I was at Jurong East MRT Interchange to meet my friend. I was walking towards the elevator when this lady with a ponytail approached me.

"Hi, are you a school boy?"

She was a saleswoman. I was rushing for the MRT that was leaving in a few minutes time. So I politely said a "No" and smiled.

Now the thing is that she called me a school boy. In the MRT, I was thinking, why would she call me a school boy? First, I am in NS (National Service). Second, school boy sounds like something you would call a primary/secondary school kid. Is it because I am wearing bermudas and a t-shirt? Nah, my friends wear that and they weren't called a school boy.

Anyway, I reached Orchard and told my friend this incident. Her explanation was that I looked young hence she mistook me for a school boy.

I guess that makes me a "school boy corporal".

(If you were that lady yesterday, I am sorry but I had to rush, so no offence yah? Oh yah, thanks for the school boy compliment.)

Tags: Army, Corporal, Jurong East, MRT, National Day, NS, Orchard, Singapore, Saleswoman

400th Post

This is my 400th post. It's nice to know that I have been blogging for the past year and am still doing it. It started as a hobby and now I am documenting interesting thoughts and stuff in my blog. Who knows? Maybe I can show my kids this blog one day and tell them many stories...

Tags: Achievements, Blogging, Posts, Family, Stories

Week's Wick: Age

Age

Age is mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter.

Tags: Age, Blogs, Memes, Mind Over Matter, Weeks Wick

Christopher Tin And Civilization 4

If you've played Civilization 4, you'll know that in the main screen there'll be this song. When I first heard it, it sounded quite "tribal", but it was only later (after the chorus and all) that I realised that it was actually quite nice. So I went to google about it and I found Christopher Tin.

From his site, you can find two songs from the popular Civ game. The first is "Baba Yetu" (the main menu song) and the second "Coronation". Both songs are cool. Here's an excerpt from his site with the two songs.

Baba Yetu (from Civilization 4)
The opening menu music from the highly acclaimed Civilization 4 features Talisman A Cappella, the award-winning singing group that Chris used to music direct. The lyrics are a Swahili adaptation of the Lord's prayer: "Our Father, who art in heaven..." This version is the original 'Composer's Mix', as remastered by award-winning engineer Casey Stone. It's available as a free download: our only request is that you email Chris if you like the song, and want to hear more like it in upcoming album projects.

Coronation (from Civilization 4)
Another track from the acclaimed Civilization 4, featuring another performance by Talisman A Cappella.

Surprised huh that "Baba Yetu" is the Lord's Prayer in Swahili? I was surprised at first too. Go and listen to both songs, they are nice.



Update on 29th January 2007:

I have decided to place the music and lyrics of this song here for the convenience of those who would like listen and sing along.

CHORUS
Baba yetu, yetu uliye
Mbinguni yetu, yetu, amina!
Baba yetu, yetu, uliye
Jina lako litukuzwe.
(x2)

Utupe leo chakula chetu
Tunachohitaji utusamehe
Makosa yetu, hey!
Kama nasi tunavyowasamehe
Waliotukosea usitutie
Katika majaribu, lakini
Utuokoe, na yule, milelea milele!

CHORUS

Ufalme wako ufike utakalo
Lifanyike duniani kama mbinguni. (Amina)

CHORUS

Utupe leo chakula chetu
Tunachohitaji utusamehe
Makosa yetu, hey!
Kama nasi tunavyowasamehe
Waliotukosea usitutie
Katika majaribu, lakini
Utuokoe, na yule, simama mwehu

Baba yetu, yetu, uliye
Jina lako litukuzwe.
(x2)

Lyrics taken from CivFanatics Forum.

Tags: Baba Yetu, Christopher Tin, Civilizarion 4, Coronation, Game Music

Say Cheese Without The Blink

Have you ever taken a photo with your friends or families and realised that you didn't look nice in it? I know that happened to me many times. At times, I was not ready, looking somewhere else and worse, I blinked!

You may say that it's just a blink, but if nature and chance were really against you then, the photo may turn out with you sleeping while standing. It's weird to see someone sleep and stand, but it's even more weird to see someone sleeping, standing and SMILING! I don't know about you, but if I were to meet someone like that on the road, I'll be scared.

So what do you do when you found out that you were "sleeping" and smiling in that photo? Once, I tried to photoshop it. Sadly, I look better when I was "asleep". The eyes were kinda disproportionate, I accidentally smudged my nose, making it look like a blob on my face, and my face had a freckles explosion. In short, it was something I will never put in my Friendster photo profile.

It was then that I tried to tweak my eyes to look like those in japanese animes. It turned out to be a freaky picture. Japanese anime eyes are too big for normal humans. Don't know what I am talking about? Well, try these steps:

1. Clench both your fists.
2. Place both your fists in front of your eyes.
3. In that position, try talking to the people around you.

Now do you know why it's too big? I don't understand how it started out. I mean eyes that take up half of the space on your face! I guess it only works in japanese anime and not in human-land.

One piece of advice, try not to blink during your wedding photo. Your kids may ask what's so funny when you stand and sleep.

(Picture taken from Ads of the World)

Tags: Blink, Photography, Photoshop, Say Cheese, Taking Photos