Siao Lang Geng (Asylum in Hokkien): December 2006

Saddam Pens His Farewell

Saddam has beautiful handwriting, doesn't he?

Excerpts from a letter in the name of Saddam Hussein, posted on a website earlier this week:

I call on you not to hate because hate does not leave a space for a person to be fair and it makes you blind and closes all doors of thinking and keeps away one from balanced thinking and making the right choice…

I also call on you not to hate the peoples of the other countries that attacked us and differentiate between the decision-makers and people…

Dear faithful people, I say goodbye to you… Long live our nation… Long live our great struggling people… Long live Iraq, long live Iraq… Long live Palestine… Long live jihad and the mujahideen.

SADDAM HUSSEIN
President and Commander-in-Chief of the Iraqi Mujahid Armed Forces

His words are hauntingly similar to what Yoda

said to Luke Skywalker

in Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back

Run! Yes. A Jedi's strength
flows from the Force. But beware
of the dark side. Anger... fear...
aggression. The dark side of
the Force are they.
Easily they flow, quick to join
you in a fight. If once you
start down the dark path, forever
will it dominate your destiny,
consume you it will, as it did
Obi-Wan's apprentice.

Don't the insurgents in Iraq staging a war that is seemingly endless, reminiscent of apprentices of the dark side?

Yoda's words are in stark contrast to what Vader

said to Luke later on in the movie:

Obi-Wan has taught you well. You
have controlled your fear... now
release your anger. Only your hatred can destroy me.

Kena Tricked by Man at Used Handphone Shop

This is the letter i sent to TODAY by e-mail:

A couple of weeks ago, I sold my old Nokia 7260 handphone to a used
handphone shop at Hougang Central.

The person manning the shop offered to buy my handphone for $90. He tested
my phone using his SIM card after I agreed to his price.

He tested the phone by making calls, taking pictures, etc.

After testing the phone, he claimed the phone's access was blocked and
required a security code.

I didn't remember keying in any security access code at all. I tried
several access codes to unlock the phone but to no avail.

The man then said they would need to send the phone to Nokia to be reset
so the phone could be accessed.

He claimed that Nokia charges $25 for this service. As I was in a hurry to
rid myself of the phone, I reluctantly agreed to slash $25 off the $90
price he had first offered.

I didn't suspect anything fishy then. It was only on the following day
that I figured out it could have been the man at the shop who keyed in the
security code while testing the phone.

By doing that, he had tricked me into thinking it was I who had locked the
phone and he was able to slash $25 off the offer price.
I would like to caution those who intend to sell their phones to beware of
such tricks.

A seller can't detect such a fraud unless he stands right beside the
shopkeeper to see what he's doing on the phone.

Since no customer is allowed to step behind the glass display case
housing the phones to see what the shopkeeper is doing on the phone, he
might want to insist on getting the latter to position the phone sideways
so that he can see what is being done.

The next safe alternative is to trade in your old phone for a new one at a
direct retail outlet run by either M1, SingTel or StarHub.

Man Goes Berserk in Office

Many thanks to my blogger buddy 老星洲 who brought the following amusing video to my attention.

Man in video goes mad after the printer toner spew black powder at him. I suppose he could afford to act out his anger and retaliate in frustration because he's got another job waiting for him elsewhere. The only other type of person who can afford such an antic is the boss' son. It's okay too if the man himself is the boss.