k r i s a n d r o

Google Latitude is another interesting project by the company and it is basically a location based service that allows users to update their whereabouts through their GPS equipped phones like the Symbian S60s, Blackberry, Android and now the iPhone.

What’s lacking in the release of Google Latitude for the iPhone is that unlike the other mobile devices which has a native app, the iPhone has to settle for a web app that is accessed by pointing your Safari browsers to www.google.com/latitude. What this means for the iPhone user is that your location cannot be updated constantly through a running background application and thus puts a dent in the full voyeuristic capabilities of Google Latitude.

Blame Apple for that as rumours has it that Apple disapproved of the iPhone app that Google made citing the conflicting capabilities of Latitude VS Google Maps as the reason.

But it’s still fun to be able to use Google Latitude to update my location on the iPhone and check out if any of my friends are nearby.

KuKuNehNeh doesn’t own a compatible phone but there are dangers of her checking out my whereabouts if she decides to add the Google Latitude gadget to iGoogle.

Disclaimer: Of course I had no reason to be in Geylang! Google Latitude allows users to manually set their location for users without a GPS. Really!

I have been hit by the flu bug since last Thursday and I am on the way to recovery except the need to blow out the phlegm through my nose every now and then. With the rise of H1N1 cases in Singapore, there was a slight worry from KuKuNehNeh (KKNN) and myself thinking that we may have fallen prey to the epidemic considering that KKNN had the flu before me and she was at Butter Factory a week shy of the supposed outbreak.

I did feel lousy but my temperature was at a measly 35.9 – 36.1°C throughout the period and that was pretty reassuring even though I did read that a large number of H1N1 patients didn’t experience fever.

KuKuNehNeh and I stayed apart for 2 days since the onset of my flu but she longed to see me and missed me to no end (Hey it’s my blog, I say what I want to say. :p) and so I decided to travel to Ang Mo Kio to let her have a dose of her bf.

With flu, a slight cough and a running nose that is out of my control, the best thing I can think of to be socially responsible is to purchase face masks and wear one for the 1 hr trip down from Jurong West.

Boy! Was it an interesting experience.

Besides the obvious lack of comfort of wearing a 3-ply mask in the disgusting, sweltering heat of Singapore, I had to sniff constantly to prevent drowning myself in my own mucus in the covered mask considering it makes no sense for me to remove the mask and blow my nose in the train cabin right?

The social aspect of wearing a mask was astounding. Despite the fact that most Singaporeans are aware of the H1N1 and it’s spread, not one human being I see on the street is wearing a mask except me. It might be just my mind but I swear people give me 2nd looks upon realizing that I am wearing a mask. I get the feeling that they are probably deducing that I am a carrier or I am extremely afraid of catching the virus.

Upon entering the train at the busy Jurong East MRT platform, I was lucky enough to get a seat and guess what? NOBODY sat to the adjacent seats on my left and right. Do bear in mind that the rest of the seats in my cabin were soon filled up and as far as I can see, so were the seats in the other two cabins adjacent to mine. There are people standing all around as the train moved from station to station and still nobody took the empty seats beside me!

I was practically smirking at situation, half amused at the elbow space I got and half amused at the reactions of the passengers around me. It was only until 4 stations later that a brave (or oblivious) man came in and sat beside me.

Very scary meh?

On behalf of Hasbro Singapore, a PR consultant contacted me and offered to send 2 of their newly launched games from Parker Brothers (a subsidiary of Hasbro) to me so that I may share the joy with you guys. One of these games that I got from the mail man was called the Monopoly Deal Card Game.

Monopoly Deal Card Game!

Monopoly, being the most commercially successful board game in the world has little effect on KuKuNehNeh. Thinking about it, she is probably the only person that I know who hates playing Monopoly. So it took a miracle for her to sit down and play a few games with me and it probably helped that Monopoly Deal is actually card game instead of a board game.

Cards that can turn the game around!

The game is played by drawing and trading cards till a player manages to collect 3 full sets of property cards. As simple as it sounds, I actually realized that Monopoly Deal requires less of luck and more of strategy when compared to the board game. With 2 players in my case, the games are short, which lasted around 15 to 20 mins per game and are pretty fast paced. All players get to stay in the game until a winner emerges and players who are seem to be on the verge of losing can actually turn around the situation with a little luck and some strategy. If not for the fact that we had to turn in earlier for the night, we would have carried on playing past the 4th game that we had.

The only cons that I see is that the ‘Shuffle Shaker’ that the game provided seemed to be more gimmicky than functional.

Just say No to the Shuffle Shaker

It was super noisy when I tried shuffling the cards with it and the cards are much better shuffled if I do it manually.

The above doesn’t take anything away from the fact that Monopoly Deal is a compact card game that you can easily carry around to provide a fun and fast paced game for 2 – 5 players. KuKuNehNeh thoroughly enjoyed the game although it may also be attributed to the fact that I lost 3 games to her out of the 4 that we played that night.

Monopoly Deal Card Game (with Shuffle Shaker) is sold at Toys “R” Us and major departmental stores in Singapore at S$21.90. For ages 8 and up!

Watch out for the next game that I will be reviewing from Hasbro!

The organization for Women’s Rights, AWARE, is holding their EGM Suntec City’s Convention Center, Hall 402 this Saturday (2nd May) at 2pm. This gives women a chance to cast a vote of no confidence to the new EXCO whom are mostly made up of Christians whose reasons of taking over the old EXCO were to act in God’s name as they feel that the old EXCO were pro-gay.

Men rejoice! Now is the best time to advise your female friends and relatives to NOT go down to the EGM, and this is why…

Female Christians should run AWARE
6 out of the 12 committee positions are held by Christian women from Church of Our Saviour. Why is this awesome? Just look at their notes on ‘God’s Order For The Family’. Here are some of the highlights!

• The wife is in subjection to her husband
• Head of every woman is the man
• (God’s) will for a young woman is to do 4 things: marry, bear children, guide the house, not be a reproach to her husband
• Wives are to choose the submissive role freely
• Submission means to continually deny themselves and yield the rule to men

 

Men! Good news ain’t it? Since most of the committee is made up of women from a church with such teachings and since they are on a mission for God, it’s going to be great! We don’t need women to have rights. All we want is a woman marry, near us children and not be a reproach to us. All women should also deny themselves and yield the rule to us. Way to go!

So take this chance to stop women from denying the actions of the new EXCO. Better yet, ask women to support the new EXCO. It’s about time the real women take over a Women’s Rights group.

Spread His word! *Guffaws*