Merry Christmas!!

Sorry I just put this post up today(originally meant to be posted in the morning) as I have to write it accurately and thus need more time…..

Due to the festive season, I had added some Christmas decorations to my banner.

It's Christmas Day and it is raining now at 5 am. End of 2005 is approaching and the New Year will be here soon. I spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day by myself as always, never have the custom or habit to go celebrate these festivals.

Let’s recap the major happenings in 2005 and look forward to the exciting stuff that is coming in 2006.

Major Events of 2005: (The list does not include everything)

1. NKF saga

This saga started when NKF and T.T Durai sued Singapore Press Holdings for an article they wrote on April 19, 2004 but failed and instead led to T.T Durai and the NKF being examined for its lack of transparency in its system partly due to too much power given to T.T Durai which he abused and this led to the public’s outcry after the news has been published, leading to an online petition whereby 43,589 signatures has been collected as of 27 July 2005. This led the government to create a brand new NKF.

2. World Cyber Games 2005(hosted by Singapore)

This year’s World Cyber Games were held from Nov 16-20 and hosted by Singapore and located in Suntec City. There were more than 800 players from 67 countries. The list of games offered were:

Counter-Strike: Source
FIFA Soccer 2005
Need For Speed: Underground 2
StarCraft: Brood War
Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War
Dead or Alive Ultimate
Halo 2

The official World Cyber Games site is at http://www.worldcybergames.com/

Many sites have reviewed the WCGs, one of which is Onishinobi . The post is here.


3. Hanging of Vietnamese Australian Nguyen Tuong Van

Van Tuong Nguyen Thailand–born Vietnamese Australian from Melbourne, Victoria, convicted of drug trafficking in Singapore. In a bid to pay off debts that he owed and to repay legal fees his twin brother Khoa incurred in drug trafficking charges, he attempted to transport Heroin from Cambodia back to Melbourne, but the trip has to take him through Singapore. Whilst at the customs in Singapore, a metal detector sound off when he was passing through the Gate. The custom officers then detained him and noticed a bulge in Nguyen’s back. Upon closer examination, a packet of Heroin was found strapped to his body. Nguyen also admitted to having another packet of Heroin in his luggage. The Singaporean High Court sentenced him to death for trafficking Heroin on 20 March 2004. Despite several appeals by the respective Australian communities to abolish the death penalty, the execution was carried out on 2 Dec 2005. This serves to reinforce Singapore Government’s strict stance on dealing with the drug issue.



4. The Year that blogs were hacked(Xiaxue, Cassandra, etc)

Xiaxue, Singapore’s most popular blogger, had her blog hacked into and deleted on 20 July 2005. This is unsurprising because Xiaxue’s style of blogging employ direct and unrestrained comments also involving expletives – this leads to some people dissatisfied with her and eventually resulted in this hacking. This act has created a lot of attention in the local internet community with people weighing in the morality of the hacking.


Cassandra’s blog had also been hacked into. This time, the hacker agreed to return her blog to her if she came out to meet with him.



5. The first time bloggers were charged over racist statements in their blogs

Two men were arrested under the Sedition Act for posting comments against Muslims and Malays on their blogs. They had been given landmark jail sentences. A 3rd blogger who also wrote racist comments about Muslims, had been given a sentence to carry out a certain amount of hours of community service, in order to correct his act. These punishments serve to give a reminder to the public that racial harmony is a very important issue in Singapore, and any act that serves to undermine the racial harmony of Singapore, will be dealt with severely.




6. Xiaxue and her handicapped toilet blog post

Xiaxue wrote that the loos - bigger and equipped with a sink - were not just for the use of disabled people. If there were no disabled people around, normal people could use it too as these loos are better equipped. These drew a large number of comments from the public, mostly critical of her remarks, but also some supporters. Hair salon Kimage and nail studio Voxy pulled their ads from her popular website after receiving complaints from Netizens about her remarks on loos for the handicapped.




7. Super hot year – Year of Global Climate change

The year 2005 has seen one of the hottest days of the decades. There had barely been much days when there were rain. December has usually been the wettest months of the year but only these few days that were near Christmas has got some cool days, plus only some other days in December.



8. End of Star Wars Prequel Trilogy

Revenge of the Sith had been released on May 19, 2005. This ended the Star Wars Prequel franchise of movies. The prequel trilogy tells the story of Anakin Skywalker, from his discovery by Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jin on the planet of Tatooine to his training to become a Jedi by Master Jedi Obi-wan Kenobi, but eventually to his downfall to the dark side as Darth Vader. The lacking and monotonous performance of Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker especially when having romantic conversations with Natalie Portman, is only some of the few bad points to the movie, but the iconic story of the Star Wars universe is more than enough to compensate for this lack.


9. Year of Copyright Act

In 2005, Singapore implemented the copyright act, which is due to the Free Trade Agreement that Singapore government signed with America last year. This act toughens the stand on copyright infringements. Due to advances in computer technology which makes it very much easier for people to abuse the system and able to share copies of movies and other digital stuff with several hundreds, or thousands of people worldwide, a law had to be created to protect Intellectual Property. As such, the first arrests in 2005 involved 3 people under the age of 20, who had been using a specially configured Internet Relay Chat program to share large collections of 20,000 illegal music tracks with other people online. The second news involving the names of 33 people being submitted to the special branch within the Central Investigation Department for investigation for activities suspected with illegal downloading of music intellectual properties.


10. Pianist who went to pursue music passion overseas leading to the debate on the issue of NS evasion for Singaporeans.

Melvyn Tan, the man at the centre of the recent controversy over National Service evasion, came back to Singapore knowing full well he could face a jail term. He said he was driven by the desire to contribute to the arts in Singapore and see his parents. He was only fined for evading National Service, causing unhappiness among some Singaporeans who are against a fine for NS evaders. This case had led the Defence Ministry to review penalties imposed on those who evade National Service, with the view to asking for stiffer sentences. I believe that the way the National Service should be restructured such that it caters to every individual’s strength and weaknesses, and not be made compulsory for everyone to undergo the same training or vocation. For example, those individuals having skills in creating softwares or hacking may be employed in a special branch of the army. Besides focusing on physical development of an individual in NS, they should also focus on the mental skills of the individual in this information age of modern society.

Interesting things that happened to me in 2005:

1. An earthworm that has many furs crawling on my neck during my EL tutorial with Dr Tan
2. A girl wearing high heels shoe nearly tripped and fell onto me in NUS on a rainy day. Luckily she never fell onto me or else I will fall down and injure my already fractured back.
3. First time I can regain partial control of loss function due to spinal cord injury, but the restoration is only for a few days.
4. The year I started blogging.
5. Upgraded myself with a new DVD writer BenQ DW1640, an external 80 GB PATA HDD, and a TV Tuner Card.
6. The first time I did a school project on reviewing the Matrix with my project mates.


What to look forward to in 2006:


Movies:

1. Superman Returns




America’s iconic marvel comic superhero. Not a movie to be missed. It continues the story from Superman II. It should be awaited to be seen if Brandon Routh can successfully carry over and portray the role that was previously played by the deceased Christopher Reeve. Releasing in theatres on June 30, 2006.

http://supermanreturns.warnerbros.com/



2. X-Men 3



Another Marvel Comic being moved onto the big screen. The 3rd movie of the X-Men franchise. I have high expectations of the 3rd movie because of the inclusion of such characters as Angel, Beast and most importantly Phoenix who had come to possess Jean Grey. Releasing on May 26, 2006.

http://www.x3movie.com/




3. Charlotte's Web



The literature book that I studied when I was in Secondary school. One of the best children’s books that I have ever read. Charlotte's Web is a children's book by acclaimed American author E. B. White. It tells the story of a spider named Charlotte and her friendship with a pig named Wilbur. A live-action/photo real CG animated feature adaptation of E.B. White's "Charlotte's Web" starring Dakota Fanning as Fern. Julia Roberts will lend her vocals in the lead role of Charlotte A. Cavatica, a spider and heroine of the book who goes out of her way to save Wilbur the pig's life by weaving miraculous words into her webs. Releasing in theatres on Oct 20, 2006.


4. V for Vendetta



From the fact that this film is written by Andy Wachowski, Larry Wachowski, has already ensured that this movie will be mostly successful. Why? Because the Wachowski Brothers had created such a great movie trilogy for the Matrix. The main casts of Hugo Weavings and Natalie Portman further adds strength to this comic book adaptation written by Alan Moore. Releasing in theatres on March 17, 2006.

http://vforvendetta.warnerbros.com/



5. Alexander the Great

I can’t say much about this movie yet because not much information had been released for this upcoming movie. The movie has also not been confirmed yet. But the main casts of Leonardo DiCaprio and Nicole Kidman should strengthen the portrayal of the film.


PC Game:

6. PC game Lord of the Rings: Battle For Middle Earth II



This game is the sequel to the previous game of the same name. The first game is one of the best Real Time Strategy games, that I had played because it is able to successfully bring the characters of the Lord of the Rings characters into the gameplay itself. The sequel expands the number of playable hero characters by a large extent. The story now takes place in the Northern part of Middle Earth focusing on the Northern War, where there will be a good and bad campaign. Several improvements have been made into the game, such inclusive of new visual effects in the gameplay itself, and the ability to build your fortress and buildings anywhere on the map as opposed to set locations in the first game. This game will be released on Feb 2006.

http://www.ea.com/official/lordoftherings/bfme2/us/home.jsp