Dear Boss..

How to Draw Nothing

It's not a cat, it's an echidna!

How To Draw Nothing

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Joshua Bell and Kristin Chenoweth performing "My Funny Valentine"

Happenchanced upon this fantastic performance on Channel V the other day. Joshua Bell and Kristin Chenoweth. I'm way impressed by Kristin's vocals, especially the way she manages the transitions. So deliciously smooth when most other singers would break. Perfectly matched by Joshua's playing.

Casuarina Curry

Google Street View is pretty amazing. Here's my favourite prata place. Local and also one of the best in Singapore;-)

View It's a Prata Map in a larger map

Soundtrack for this post? Eat 'Em and Smile - David Lee Roth

Trending Groceries #cider

You know when your local supermarkets and shops never stock one of your favourite things?

But you search the shelves on every visit anyway (just in case).

And when you do find it (even though you weren't really expecting to) you just have to buy it.

And you hope that somewhere back in the warehouse an alarm went off, and the clerks are leaping into action..

Smithers, we're spiking on sales of X. Hurry man, there's no time to waste: Reorder! Replenish! We must never go out of stock again.

Rationally, your "consumer activism" is hardly a blip on the radar/grain of sand in the Sahara. But maybe it's more like tweeting to your grocery manager, and hoping you'll kick off a "trending groceries" list to get their attention.

Well, I thought I'd start a list of my own "trending groceries". Today: cider..

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#1: #cider

So rare to find in Singapore. For the past few years I've been unconsciously checking on every visit to my local NTUC Fairprice.

And then one fortuitous day I found a Pipsqueak 4-pack sitting on the shelf like a poor orphan. I had to adopt it of course, and have been back every week to save more of of it's brothers and sisters.

Information, Knowledge, Wisdom ..

Information is not knowledge. Knowledge is not wisdom. Wisdom is not truth. Truth is not beauty. Beauty is not love. Love is not music. Music is the best...

Frank Zappa (Lyrics to the song Packard Goose on the album Joe's Garage: Act III.)

Most consulting firms have a version of the "Data, Information, Knowledge, Wisdom" point of view, but I've never seen any of them credit Zappa;-)

Customer Satisfaction Poll

Strangely enough, 100% of respondents to this poll reported 0% satifaction..

Captain's Share

Last year, I wrote about Ishmael Wang's blossoming career on the ships within Nathan Lowell's wonderfully realised future universe of inter-galactic trading.

We last heard of Ishmael when he'd made it to full share and there's been an excrutiatingly long silence as we wait to hear more of his story. But Nathan was on a promise - it was coming!

I must admit I was wondering whether the latest installment would keep up the high standards that Mr Lowell has set for realistic, humanist, hard sci-fi. But now that I've started reading ("listening") to Captain's Share, I know my worries are for naught.

If you think it is remotely possible, I'd say that Nathan Lowell has met and exceeded the standards of story-telling that he set with the earlier books in the saga.

If you are not familiar with the Age of the Solar Clipper, I heartily recommend you start way back at the beginning and work through the series - you won't be disappointed! Not only does Nathan deliver intriguing hard science, but the situations into which he places his characters are model studies of human behaviour (and even management science)... not to mention the few culinary tips I've picked up along the way!

Here's the series (so far) in it's entirety:

• Quarter Share


• Half Share


• Full Share


• (an interlude [side story] South Coast)


• Captain's Share

All of these stories are wonderfully available for free download in audio format from podiobooks.com: read by the author in an utterly engaging way that only the creator could muster.

When I say "so far" I really mean it: Nathan Lowell has created an alternate universe/future so compelling and detailed that I can imagine (and eagerly await) many more stories drawing from the rich canvas he has created. So many more possibilities than even the Star Trek and Star Wars franchises ... and probably more in the league of the Dune and Foundation sagas ...