More offthemark!

The (lack of) logic.

Overheard in office today:

[phone rings]
A: Hello.
B: Hello, is Mr Tan there?
A: Sorry, Mr Tan is not around.
B: But his mobile phone is off, so he must be in office.
A: !?!?!?!?!?!?!

someone seems to be lacking in logic here.

(all names have been changed to protect the guilty illogical)

how stupid can you get?

From SoccerNet: Man in court accused of throwing phone at Rooney

A man appeared in court today accused of throwing a mobile phone at Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney.
---- Rest of article truncated ----

I mean, how silly can you get? There are methods to trace mobile phone ownership, and whilst workingforthegovernment does not condone the senseless act of pitching an object at any person with intent to cause bodily harm, surely there must be more sensible objects to throw at said person - most importantly, objects which are not tracable to your good self.

Really.

From www.offthemark.com

Today's Featured Blog!

Not that it's a regular feature, but this caught my eye recently.

http://studentssketchpad.blogspot.com/

Spam

Does word verification prevent spamming? Anyone care to share experiences?

all good things must come to an end...

Looks like my MC is running out. Only 3 full days left before I go back to work. Hopefully I settle back in quickly.... before I post out.... hehe.

Seen Online

"A flashlight is a carrying case for dead batteries."

Wise words indeed.

upsize? downgrade!

Got a call from CPC this morning. Apparantly nobody bothered to tell me that my downgrade to C9L2 went through 11 days ago. Bah.

Therefore this means that..... I will be re-vocationed to ASA - a.k.a. clerk. Where? When? Who knows? Stay tuned...

Classic Meets Cuba

Went for the Klazz Brothers and Cuba Percussion concert on Monday evening at Esplanade Theatre.

The concert was a one-night, 2h extravaganza, touted as "Classic Meets Cuba", but in reality a showcase of some of the quintet's other works as well, both from their "Jazz meets Cuba" and "Symphonic Salsa" albums as well as new pieces which may or may not appear in their fourth album, tentatively entitled "Mozart meets Cuba".

The five musicians, who are:
Kilian Forster (bass)
Tobias Forster (piano)
Tim Hahn (drums)
together making up the Classical-Jazz group formerly known as the Klazz Brothers

and
Alexis Herrera Estevez (timbales and bongos)
Elio Rodriguez Luis (congas)
together forming the Cuba Percussion group,

got together in Cuba by chance, and the rest, as they say, is history.

The concert was an exercise in contrast. The many contrasts seen (and heard) include:

- the jet-black background giving prominence to the all-white suits sported by the quintet
- the abject difference between the classical instruments and the Latin percussion set
- the dynamic control the group exhibited, clearly and seamlessly contrasting the loud tutti sections against the softer solo sections where the group would cut back to allow a single instrument to take the lead.

and others.

The group's forte is in its ability to take popular pieces and play them with a distinctly Latin, or Cuban feel. This is in no small part due to the two Cuban percussionists, who, despite being 2 out of 3 percussionists in a band of 5 members, manage to blend in effortlessly with the other instruments. The repertoire of easily-recognized pieces, such as favourites from Beethoven and Mozart, was well-received by the audience, and the short introductions provided by Killian Forster were both humourous and engaging.

Random sound bite: "The next piece is an original ballad written by Tobias. He wrote the ballad while thinking about a lot of things, but he could not find a name for it. He considered naming the piece after scenery, love, and even erotica, but he could not make up his mind. Finally, he decided on a name, and he will now play for you, 'Ballad Number One'."

What is left to say is that I thoroughly enjoyed the concert, and am waiting eagerly for them to release their fourth album.

However, the cincher of the night was when we saw the non-existent queue forming at Via Mar for the autograph session. We had initially not wanted to attend the autograph session, fearing crowds and citing the time, but when we saw all of five people milling around, we had to join the queue. Finding ourselves without any merchandise for the players to sign, we went to Gramophone to pick up the concert flyers which we then presented for the players to sign when they appeared. The wait was approximately 20min, which was fairly acceptable considering that the artistes had a prior committment to attend a reception for ABN-AMRO cardholders (ABN-AMRO being the main sponsor of the event).

The result of that being that I am now the proud owner of a Klazz Brothers and Cuba Percussion autographed flyer. Obviously, I have had it laminated.

Attack is the best form of Defence

According to Rio Ferdinand, the £(obscene amounts)-rated defender, quoted from the Manchester Evening News in Soccernet:

"'I understood where the United fans were coming from about the whole contract issue and a couple of goals for me in the derby would well and truly put it all to bed. In fact I would take one goal,' he told the Manchester Evening News."

Hello? You're being paid to defend, not score goals. Others are being paid £(obscene amounts) to score goals. You're being paid £(obscene amounts) to prevent the opposition from scoring goals, you n!tw!t.

Unveiled: The Singapore Army's Most Dangerous Weapon

Quoted from http://rockson.blogspot.com/

Army most dangerous weapon is not tank not gun, is the blur f*** with the tank and the gun, understand?

(workingforthe)government warning: the abovementioned website contains language unsuitable for impressionable young minds and others of similar nature. viewer discretion is advised.

Comments?

Teachers' Day and all that...

Today is being teachers' day. we, the citizens... and workingforthegovernment.blogspot.com is wishing that all the teachers may be having a very happy teachers' day.

In other news, RJC student is being sighted in uniform today. Today, is being a school holiday due to the aforementioning teachers' day. It is puzzling why said student would be choosing to be wearing his uniform.

War...

Confucious he say: War not determine who right. War determine who left.

/me ducks.

Katrina, Talim and all that...

Firstly, condolences to all affected by mother nature and her temperament.

Ever wondered how typhoons and hurricanes are named? And, what is the difference between a typhoon and a hurricane?

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutnames.shtml gives the naming convention, which, apparantly differs between regions of the world.

As to the second question, the good people at http://www.usatoday.com inform us that

-quote-
Hurricanes are tropical cyclones in the Atlantic Basin (Atlantic, Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico) and in the Pacific east of the International Date Line.

Typhoons are tropical cyclones over the northern Pacific west of the date line.

Tropical cyclones in the South Pacific and over the Indian Ocean are just called cyclones.
-unquote-

There you have it. Somewhat like the elevator and the lift, the serviette and the napkin, the basement and the cellar. And so forth.