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Finally, details on the Biathlon!

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Whee! Heres the juice:

Hi All!
Thanks for your participation! Just a gentle reminder…

Date: 2nd of July 2005 (Saturday)
ReportingTime: 9.00am
Venue: Singapore Polytechnic Swimming Pool
Registration Fee: $5
Contact Person: Amelia 96864138/ Liza 94761462

Things to bring:

  • Swimming Attire
  • Running Attire
  • Sports Shoes
  • Sunblock (optional)
  • Extra clothing
  • Toiletries
  • Indemnity Forms
  • Registration fee $5
  • And a Smile 🙂

Just pop by our registration booth on Saturday! 🙂
For those who are under 21 years, please remember to bring the indeminty form with your parent’s signature.

If there should be any queries, please feel free to contact any of the above contact persons.

Cheers,
Amelia

See you there folks!

Company- Step One.

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DESIGNO SHINGJI Logo

I have always longed to run a company on my own, maybe its the desire I have in my blood to be a boss of my own. So after some long homework, gone down to the ACRA at international plaza in the morning to do some enquires, consulting & preprep work for my registration & administration for the design company I am starting, called DESIGNO SHINGJI. The person who attended to me seemed suprised though- a 21 year old in front of her with high hopes to set up & run a company, contray to the usual crowd of business people she would usually see aged 30+ to middle aged people do. The company name is derived out of my middle name Shing Ji, from my full name.

This company aims to focus on 3 main things: innovation, design & engineering (INDENEERING, pronounced in-de-neering, you can call such design engineers “indees” a suspected derived “callsign”) in creating design on one of a kind industrial product designs from the mouse you are holding in your hand right now, to the cars we drive in the future. Till I finally get the rest of registration done up & the business finally running, its still pretty much a one man army now as things are still starting up so till I get myself known & get more cilents, then thats where the fun part starts, expanding!

Batman Begins

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Coffee with Cous Gordon

Met Cous Gordon at around 6.30pm at Shawhouse Jade, its one of the few hangouts outskirt of town where we are sure to get movie tickets for the hottest blockbusters no matter what the occasion. I remembered catching LOTR on opening day here with the theater only 2/3 filled there while all cinemas along Orchard are like full-house for all time slots till the following day.

For dinner, we doggie bagged subway-wiches which we smuggled into the cinema to eat. Overall, this movie I guess compliments all the other batman movies & fills the gap by focusing on the birth of Batman, just like SW, Episode III. I think this is one of the best Batman movies ever made to date. Not a bad show overall (& I think it can even provide good competition head on with Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds) no wonder its like No 1 in the US & SG box office for about a week now. All in hand, I just wanna drive home the tumbler vehicle… & like jump from to roof to roof on our HDB flats… vroom, vroom.

Hung out for some coffee at the nearby Bugis coffee shops before taking 197 home around 11pm+. Amazingly is the number of new steamboat stalls along the beach road area, maybe should drop by there to try someday to try.

Busy busy!

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If I am not wrong, Initial-D opens today islandwide, you definitely can’t miss it with the trailers running on loops on TV mobile, sure bores anyone to death on the bus. But I haven’t caught Batman begins yet!

Busy busy busy, though mid-week (or kinda) I guess the highlight of this week is struggling with some indigestion from the buffet last weekend… strange never had this indigestion feeling before, maybe the food there is bad or something.. yuck! Even during training, I can feel my stomach growling at almost every other step on my runs… Mmmm gassy! Not to mention releasing enough methane gas over the past few days to sustain maybe a small BBQ or sort. Its just whoa… long! ahem… for the record dudes! But otherwise to the benefit of others, its amazingly, odorless.

Dad & Sheena kinda got some stomach discomfort too or sort, so its official that the bug was caught from a dinner we had together or sort, with all possibilities pointing towards garden hotel’s buffet. Mum was rather helpful at recommending indigestion tablets for us to try on top of charcoal & whatsoever “diarrhea” medication. Being a rather solid veteran with indigestion tables herself, she always up promoting its effectiveness. Then she would go on hagging about intestine problems, vitagen & IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) in Singapore, stuffs I think, she read up recently from the latest issue of Straits Time- Mind Your Body. Despite this, my other personal feat for the week is that of catching up & going for makeup lessons I’ve missed last week at school, while I am on leave for ORD clearance at camp. Feels suxxy getting up earlier than the rest, to slave additional hours in the lab before lectures or tutorials…

I’ve got homework to do!! argh!! time, precious must not argh! wasste… Personally sundays are actually my untouchable days, otherwise a “family day”. A day spent relaxing by the pool, clocking my new competitive swim time & to catch up with unfinished work if needed or just relax on lazy afternoon in time for the work day tomorrow…

Line up of activities for the week:

  • Friday: Meetup, dinner & movie (maybe batman returns) with cous gordon, sure friday.. ok, subs on for dinner then. Eat fresh!
  • Saturday: Track & Field gathering at Sentosa, so its maybe lunch with mum & gang, then poof! to Sentosa for the afternoon, hope it would be sunny! whee Beach Volley! Frisbee! Kayaking!
  • Sunday: (TBC) Dom wanted to watch Initial-D, then maybe lunch/dinner thereafter so I guess sunday may be free for it, furthermore I still own him money for cine tiks from the last meet, so hes more of less up my neck on this. This one would be free for him, ahem I mean on me!

Looking back, I didn’t say it won’t be fun, but it is packed! Busy busy busy…

Sheena’s birthday cum father’s day cum my ORD dinner

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Dinner at garden hotel

Haha yea, its a universal celebration. Its amazing how my parents can think of such ingenious ideas such as squeezing in all our celebration events into one, at the same time, (I think) having an excuse not to have so many dinner celebrations. The dinner was at our “lao di fang” (old place) as mum suggested, Garden hotel – a place where my mum once worked as a teenager. Its still around & she met some of her old friends, who are still amazingly still working there like for 2 over decades since mum left the place. Old times, old friends, new catching up.

As we expected mum kept bragging about the times she worked here on this ancient land, which department/area she worked, how the building was improved/ extended/ renovation/ reworked till its present state. Blah blah blah. The food there is not bad, with free flow of lobsters & white wine. If you are a person who loves lobster or can’t get enough of tempura, this place is for you. The buffet has an international spread, with a relatively large spread including a steamboat section, very value for money!

The funny thing is their “payment on seating policy” – strange for the waiter kindly approach you suddenly with the bill, then its like: “umm I didn’t call for the check sir…” as I thought. But its their restaurant policy, asking you to foot the bill once you’ve seated. Ummm as I thought: are you all still gonna provide service once we paid? & so as they did… Moreover, their desserts rock! & I simply love their cream puffs, not to mention the choco coated ones, yummy! even the self help ice-kacang & ice cream are good.

The only thing that needs improving is maybe the need to isolate the food to an area as food serving areas are actually like spaced out on a 50 square meter area, walking from area to area for different cusines. The Jap & local cusines are located near the lobby, while the western, seafood & desserts in the coffee house & BBQ food by the pool side. All over the place! But its good for digestion anyway.. walk walk. Its a good dinner for 3 events. Till then lets not give mum & dad another chance to hold such mega-all-in-wonder events again. Its just too convenient!

ORD Loh!

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Off to camp, off the camp one last time!

And there I was, driving off to camp after school, drivin’ off to camp after school – one last time! Whee, can’t believe the day had finally arrived when I get to officially be out of the army. Haha bye bye guys, bye Sungei Gudong camp, bye armour, for now… Mmm cos once armour always armour? ATW, you all had been a nice bunch. Especially on my last few walks around company line where everybody, all the troopers & officers alike, pounced up upon seeing me on me: SERGEANT Shaun!! ORD loh! thanking me & wishing me all the best for my ORD while some actually queued up to shake my hand, as NSFs one last time. The feeling is so unreal, but otherwise, actually real. While I didn’t walk out of camp after my admin clearance, as I drove into camp, I can just imagine shouting out & punching fists in the air once people step out of camp gate this very last day of service. After showing our newly posted camp MPs & RPs our new Pink ICs upon exit that is! ORD Loh!

ORD Loh!

And so this marks a new phrase of life for me, & new challenges lie ahead. Many asked me what are my plans ahead, I will always bleakly reply, “carry on studying loh.” But I guess that pretty vague as most of you regular readers here would know that I am actually schooling in Singapore Poly presently, doing my diploma in Mechanical engineering, something I would want to do in University as well. While being unable enter local universities to do my degree, (which I am actually supposed to do but set back due to my lousy grades at “A” levels). I however, got accepted in various universities overseas, such as Monash & RMIT universities in Australia, I guess the education system there is not very result orientated, which I prefer, not like the drone muggers -attack of the study clones in Singapore.

But as it turned out to be, neither me, nor my family can afford the annual $25000 fee for 5 years on a engineering-design double degree program, not to mention the same 4 years for a single engineering degree. Yes I am aware of study loans, but looking on a broader picture, I do not want to tie my parents in on a debt. Furthermore if so, I would wish to repay parents the school fees after my degree, knowing that is actually too far fetched & expensive for me, its not worth even considering. My plan is to study 2 1/2 years for my diploma on a scholarship & enter NUS to further my engineering profession. Though lengthy, its the best I make of currently & is the most cost effective choice, as fees are not only subsided, but overflowed with bonuses by possible scholarships. Oh well, till then I guess I would end today’s entry here, dinner’s arriving heard mum got an ostrich surprise… Mmmmm

Review of budget x50v VGA out cable from PC-mobile

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As we all know, one of the main features the x50v has is the ability to output video (or mirror) its display onto computer monitors or projectors. Perfect for students like me offering presentations at school or projects. However, that’s one of the main problems we dell consumers outside USA face- lack of accessory variety. Living in Singapore, literally all dell hardware here are limited to what Dell, Asia pacific (DELL AP) have to offer. As quoted by a Dell AP staff on the phone, “sorry, we do not stock the vga cable for Singaporean customers & it is so for all the Asia Pacific countries we are responsible for. However if you have relatives or friends staying in the states, you can get them to purchase it & ship it to you.”

Darn! No presentations for me? so as I thought.

Then there’s always the site pc-mobile offering third party alternatives. It came as a surprise- I didn’t expect them to come out with x50v accessories as they usually specialise in handphone accessories. Pc-mobile is a hong kong company, popular for notoriously adding a 3.5mm audio jack to almost any mobile handsfree in the market so that high quality headphones can be used for music instead, which I too, ultilise. (& a guess this site is widely discussed about by forum members here too)

Upon order, basic non-expedited airmail delivery took about 4 working days. The VGA cable is on the left, the cable on the right is an additional retractable USB sync cable I purchased with the intent for use on my axim as a PnP storage device for storing homework & stuffs.

Price factor
PC-mobile is retailing their version of the VGA adapter for $28.50USD compared to dell’s official VGA cable for 79 bucks, a steal? maybe.

Built
The unit is relatively solid & well constructed, the male port which plugs into your axim is made from a very smooth light plastic (not rubberised like the dell’s official plugs) and the metal connectors make a small rattle when given a shake, giving it a kinda hollow feel, but otherwise ok.
(various photos pictured together with USB sync cable)

The retractable USB sync cable (PRX50) & VGA cable pictured togther.

Like dell’s cable theres a seperate power plug where you can use to power your device during a presentation. Its a 5.4+v type port, so it charges your Axim even when its ON during your presentations.

Testing/video quality
Upon hooking up to my viewsonic VE155b test monitor, of course without using any third party software with mirror mode on (portrait) the monitor displays the PPC 640×480 screen centered on the monitor.

One thing to note is that your PDA will run VERY SLOW with mirror mode on. Text input have delayed input response, together with menus. You need not have the vga cable plugged to experience it, just turn on mirror mode in your x50v settings for the feel.. laggy!

So this pretty much limits the x50v to basic PIM & the running of programs utilising very little processor load. No large screen gaming or doddling dudes!

Conduits Pocket slides/Pocket slideshow
The highlight of VGA out is presentations right? here how it looks like in portrait mode:

Strangely though, both pocket slides & slideshow are unable to detect any output in “settings”, limiting me to a mere vga res out on the monitor.

However, with third party programs such as clearvue, you can range the output from 800×600 to even 1024×768.

Maybe someone who used the dell cable with clearvue can shed a light on this case. Can the cable be detected on your side too? I believe it should be the same (not detectable) as the cable serves to only transmit vga data to your monitor. Detection for Pocket slides, etc if I am not wrong is only for use with programs such as margi-presenter-to-go or generic VGA out cards which uses the flash slot instead where hardware detection is eminent for function.

BetaPlayer 0.096
Playing a test Xvid video at 30fps (400×300), strangely with intel 2700G decoder enabled, live video is only shown on the monitor, nothing on the x50v’s screen. There is an obvious visible drop in frame rate, otherwise still watchable video. Selecting Xscale decoder option, yields opposite results. However, selecting the “Raw frame buffer” option allows me to play video on both screens, but with great reduction in frame rate & occasional freezes/jumps on the video.

You can download a test video I took (save target as, about 2.3Mb Xvid compression) in raw buffer mode. Though its captured at 15fps on my powershot, but you can more of less see the differences in PDA & monitor frame rates & the noticeable long pause somewhere in the middle of the video.

Landscape Mode
This is when your monitor recognize the output from your PDA is reverting its display to 4:3 landscape VGA, thus utilizing all the monitor screen estate:

Initially the picture displayed in the screen sticks out of the edges of the monitor with some of the right edges covered, this is so if vga cables/pins are of lower quality & they would distort/shew images formed on the screen. But as it turned out to be, my monitor image is just mis-aligned & an auto-adjust on the monitor pops the whole display back on center, showing all edges. Not a problem.

The missing PDA video playback is the same for Windows media player as well, only video is played on the monitor, but with relatively smooth playback. Guess processor load is too much to even render video on the PDA screen.

Powerpoint slides look excellent in landscape mode, though still in VGA-res output mode. As shown on this test powerpoint presentation file I cooked up in 5 seconds…

Battery Life
I guess that due to similarities & make of the pc-mobile’s & dell official cable, battery life differences between them would be negligible in this case, even if you consider different quality cables & materials used. Battery life is tested to be approx 2 1/2hours on the 2200mah battery I am using from 100% charge to the appearance of the “main battery very low” message (4%)

Conclusion
The plus point of purchasing dell’s official bundle is the inclusion of clearview software, which allows you to output video at desired resolutions. That’s a software plus, hardware wise both products are very similar, with reference to this review. I guess price is the main selling point of the pc-mobile cable, being about 3 times cheaper. Furthermore I am sure there are other cheaper & alternative software to clearvue, which in turn allows any x50v user to ultilise the power of vga output at a great bargain.

Pros

  • Low price & quality build
  • Conforms with Dell’s OEM design.
  • High software & hardware compatibility.

Cons

  • No bundled software, especially for presentations.

Track & Field

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Track & Field

I guess this would be my first post on track & field in SP. Its a bi-weekly CCA on Tuesday & Thursday, where we not only get to run ourselves crazy, but jump & stretch ourselves dumb too. Not a bad combination for running freaks like us. Our coach was previously from SMU & the group of us are split into our various “specialties”, i.e sprinters, long-distance runners (long-d), throwers, etc, with me on long-d of course!

Ok, onto events, first things first, I would like to share about an event- a friendly bialthon coming up next month, the 2nd july. Its a charity event organised by South West CDC, the South West Biathlon 2005 for the disabled. Anyone can sign up, so feel free to do so as its for charity (a $5 registration fee is required, also going to the proceeds of the event). Its kinda like a Para-olympic event where disabled youths will get to participate in the event together with able-bodied people like my track team & me as friendlies within the same team, in the competition. It would cover a 400m (8x50m swim) & a 2,5km run after that.

I clocked 8x50m breaststroke last sunday at the local pool with a timing of 11:48.00 on the first try & 10:33.03 on my 2nd run after a good warm up & stretch. My 2.4km timing stays at around 10:20 for keeps, so a 400m swim & 2.5km biathlon event would take me roughly 21-25mins to complete, excluding the intermission/changing parts between events.

Woohoo, 3 more day to ORD, 10 more minutes & its 2 more days to ORD!

Short after school leisure

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WCRC pool

Today started as a lazy tried day. Didn’t expect to play pool after school. Recapping, think didn’t get much sleep yesterday or so, busy with work, play & things like that. No wonder I saw myself dozing off most of the time this morning in class during my first mechanics lesson of the day. The person sitting beside me Wenjun, always seemingly oblivious to my regular head whip lashes here & there though. I guess thats me without morning coffee… Eventually turned to myself to a dosage of Ricola sweets to keep my blood glucose saturated up till the next tutorial. Telling myself, man I must sleep the moment I reach home dude.

Lunch was at food court 4 again, this time with the girls joining us, the class seems always to be in pieces every breaktime, with few large groups here there & a few loners, some MIAs. Went to photocopy the class list I’ve been working on the past week, finally its done, with some errors… darn. Then the girls suggested going to play pool after school. haha you must be joking… I didn’t expressed much interest in going at first, partly as I haven’t played pool since god knows when dude! since I enlisted in the army? 2-3 years? Furthermore I can see myself sleeping on the table when I am there. But since its like so sad, like no one wanna go, so why not join in add to the numbers & cheer the group up abit?

Helpin" out!

Strangely I was much more awake after lunch, we decided to stay for out last class before heading out. At our last class, our ThermoFluids tutor, Mr Low is on his 3rd shirt & pants for 3 weeks, yes don’t ask me, he changes his attire once a week… Furthermore he managed to beat his previous record in covering 3 pages of lecture today from the previous 1 page. His radius of attention is still sadly about 1-2m around him. So anyone who talks or falls asleep outside that radius is completely invisble to him. During the tutorial, my classmate Luke raised a question on the IDEAS module which sparked me to dig up an idea I thought this morning at breakfast- when I was one with bread, cakes & morning tea. I believe & I guess ideas can come out of nowhere or out of the blue.

Whats more I thought of a “rather innovative” hybird 17″ LCD monitor I think is not to hard to construct, with the exception of a prototype costing about $650 at least. After missing one bus & catching the other, only to unlight like miles away from our destination, we finally made out way to west coast recreational center for yea, pool! Played 2 rounds of 3v2, me being in the “2” but we won 2 out of the 2 pool matches we played anyway. Left early for home as I had yet to settle some unfinished army projects, leaving the guys to continue their 2v2 match on a table.

Chauffeur for the day

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Driver for the day

You can always expect something when dad leaves home on a saturday morning to work, on overtime. Strangely commuting to work by bus & leaving the car parked at home. Sure enough, mum later approached me asking: “shaun the car’s ours & I’ve got an assignment for you: I need you to drive us around the place today” Today as in yesterday, Saturday. Oh darn. Next thing before I know, I am am on my way from home to granny’s at Ang Mo Kio for some “special lunch gathering” with me as the chauffeur… After a good lunch at grans, it was so good that mum doggie bagged some food to be brought to Dad at his workplace as lunch, whos gonna do that? Me of course, sadly. So off from Ang Mo Kio we headed to Pasir Panjang, where my dad works, talking about personal deliveries… A long 15km + journey to delivery some nicely packaged food complete with china cutlery included. Thats first class dude, fit for a king? or dad who was just starving at the gate as we are about 1 hour late past lunchtime. duh!

Since its about 2pm++ We decided to drop by nearby Ikea for some shopping & stuffs. Parking is unusually easy due to the strange lack of cars, (usually adding to congestion) in Ikea considering it being a Saturday. Got a paper/note holder & some racks to keep my room & homework organised. Dumped our stuffs into the car before hanging out at the opposite AnchorPoint for some grocery shopping at cold storage & stationary. Its not long before its 4.30pm when mum called dad asking whether he needs to be picked up after work. & yes, cos he is not used to taking the bus! So its back to Pasir Panjang, then off back to Ang Mo Kio for Part II of granny’s special – Dinner! But before that, as all mums who just can’t take a miss of the grocery bargains. We found ourselves none other than at Ang Mo Kio’s premiere bargain market- Ang Mo Supermarket, where we spent the next 1/2 hour or so joining her in her indulgence, before settling down for a coffee break at the nearby coffee shops.

Line Dancing
Line Dancing @ AMK
Cold storage's cold selection
Cold storage’s cold selection
Dinner at granny's
Dinner at Grans

They are having some interesting line-dancing event in the area too, a social event you can’t miss but hilariously watch how clumsy people can be! Later spent the night at grans after dinner, only to leave at about 8pm+ to head home, this time its dad’s turn to drive, I was too tired from a whole day of driving! With 1/5 of the fuel tank emptied today & about close to about 100km travelled today, dropped by office-1 whole salers at Bukit merah to get some printer ink cartridges before calling it a day at home.

Luckily I didn’t have to pay for any petrol… :mrgreen:

Obliged, obligation

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SP's Engineering Territory

Well, I was once asked whether I am a compulsive blogger or one who is just obliged to blog. I guess obligation is more of a part of me. I see a blog as an event diary or sort, not a daily requirement. Furthermore I guess majority of people who keep physical diaries don’t necessary input entries everyday right? only specific events, like now!

Anyway, back to my grandfather story: Its the 2nd week of school, life is good & its 6 days to ORD! yea! I remembered entering the army with relatively good hopes & prospects, but at the same time, daunted but the explicit fact of tough army times ahead. After 2yrs 4mths, things have greatly changed. I see things in a different perspective now. Though tough, its good training I’ve got, & given! as a specialist taking my own troopers as well. With this, the day that all of us wish to come upon is right before us now, (refering to my group of army specialists). And there before us: 170605 – though ORD is a happy day, but its a day where we leave behind our friends, slackness, co-workers, inkchek & OC behind & move on as part of life- a funny mix of happiness & sadness, the feeling of leaving eagerly, yet wanting to stay… strange… Its just strange!. I am gonna miss my tri-weekly 9km camp running route & top-notch gym facilites, cos the gym at SP just SUX! They don’t even have pectorial machines, free form cable machines & even gym balls! ARGh!! the humanity!

ThermoFluids?

Class life in poly is very very different from that in JC. We got to know not only our lecturers & classmates better but got to learn too, some loopholes & exploits in the system here & there, which I would like to keep hush-hush for the moment whee! *snicker*. Theres even a day where we get to come to campus just for a single 2 hour class! Pity those who take public transport longer than 2 hours per trip to get to campus! In JC we get a typical school day starting 7.20am & ending 5pm, with 2 hour breaks in between. In poly, its like inversely proportional to that of life in Junior college.. argh! inverse proportional? maths talk! whats coming to me??

I guess adjusting back to campus life is quite an easy transistion to me being a previous JC student. Furthermore the army had made me more of an extrovert able to mix & be a motivation figure & face large crowds without much problems. But I guess old habits are there to stay- bi-weekly or so I would transistion into my “mug-mode” aka “duh! nerdy study mode duh!” slaving myself in the library for hours with recommended references provided by our lecturers duh! Well, its one of the effective ways of securing a distinction right? duh! Anyway the only reason I am here is to go to University right? so gotta work hard. Ace all the way dude… mug mug mug… play play play… mug mug mug… borrow all the library books AH-AHA ALL YOUR LIBRARY REFERENCES ARE BELONG TO ME!! HAHAHA, renew, renew, renew…

*sniff*

The sgblogconspiracy, my first poem

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In the deep dark shadows of area blog,
Lies the conspiracy of the blog
Struck in the world of Tomorrow(sg)
Joinly headed by agent B,
Head blogging agent in brown
Smack you with his lightsaber you may
Till his minions bow before him they may
Readers alike, feeders or nay
Till the rise of Bloggers.SG you say.

Outgrown it’s luncheon is spam
Drenched in it’s seeping oil
Assaulted comments it may be
Till no end the robots strike
May it be bayesian, the distant light,
Stop the flight, this endless plight

Free speech you say, then what’s moderation?
Tied is the unspoken voice of Hong Lim
Limited vocalisation
Daily right on chest
Recited, the democratic place we build
Speech blown in the distant wind,
Never spoken but keyed
The power of connectivity
Till this life, millions will read

The winds of change it shall be
The sgblogconspiracy.

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