Voice Update 17 - Goodbye to SMEs
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No, this is not my last post. It's a farewell to my fellow SMEs.
27 Aug
2010
25 Aug
2010
Still, I managed to catch Pei Cai Secondary students at their Maldives booth. One even tried out a game of congkat with a fellow Korean delegate, Yoo-ji.
We're the Village People!
For one day, we were the Village People.
Or so, as we thought.
I wish we were the ones living there.
It's none other than the Youth Olympic Village.
Various booths representing various countries of the world.
Secondary school students manning these booths.
Delegates walking around.
I had a golden opportunity to speak to C. Kunalan, former Olympian and national sprinter.
The most intriguing point about the Village were the booths.
Each booth represented a different country, with local students at the helm of each booth.
Students from Temasek Polytechnic were seen manning the Singapore booth, by far the largest, for the host country.
All those spoken to expressed their content at such an immersion programme, finding the whole set-up "enriching".
It was such a pity that I had missed going to the Village last week, as the booth for American Samoa has been closed by the time I arrived.
23 Aug
2010
Review of the Samsung Galaxy S
Brilliant graphics form the symbol 'S' upon startup.
Pure sound clarity and loudness is felt there and then.No, this is not any large Hi-fi entertainment set-up.
It is simply known as the Samsung Galaxy S. There has been great hype and talk about this phone ever since its launch.
From the Super Junior showcase promotion to the different kinds of plans exclusively arranged for the phone itself, the Galaxy S could very well be the Smartphone of the Year. But what is it that makes this smartphone so special?
Rather than going into technical details, let me go into the functional aspects of this phone.Display One word - brilliant.
Regardless of where I use it, whether in pitch darkness or under the blazing sunlight, the AMOLED display adjusts itself to a very comfortable viewing level, without any glare or strain on the eyes. The colours of the display are rich - even when I played a music video that featured artistes against a white background (Taeyang's I Need A Girl), the skin tones and other colours were greatly accentuated and enhanced. The brightness of its colours were truly amazing. Sound Both its input and output of sound make this phone a 'must-hear'.
Its in-built speaker at its back, although tiny, emits sound powerfully.
The in-ear headphones provided are also a good tool, moderately canceling out noise in crowded places.
One function to note is the 5.1 Channel surround sound option that comes with its music player and video player applications. This option enabled me to watch short movies on the Galaxy S and enjoy the effect of this plug-in. ApplicationsLet's cut to the chase - no smartphone is complete without its applications.My favourite application would be Road SMS.
This application would prevent me from crashing into tables, trees and other obstacles on the road. Let me explain why. This application utilises the camera and what it does is that it lays over a Qwerty keyboard over a live camera feed, so that I can see the road as well as the SMS I am typing. Talk about saving time on the go. If you're looking into navigating your way through and knowing which landmark is in which direction, an application known as the 3D Compass is just the thing to use.
Again, this application makes use of the camera in the Samsung Galaxy S, so you know exactly where and what you're facing. Finally, the best Twitter application of them all is not the official Twitter app, in my opinion.
Instead, it is Touiteur, pronounced the same way as Twitter, but only in French, is the easiest-to-use, most user-friendly Twitter application.
Just like Tweetdeck, it has multiple tab for its news feed, mentions, retweets and direct messages.
It also has direct connections with tweetphoto, so photos can be automatically attached to Tweets.
It also has GPS geotagging functionality, which enables others to check out your location every time you tweet, so you don't have to hear others ask "Where are you?" Take a good look at the Samsung Galaxy S. The tool we've been using to blog about our experiences for the past week.
Pure sound clarity and loudness is felt there and then.No, this is not any large Hi-fi entertainment set-up.
It is simply known as the Samsung Galaxy S. There has been great hype and talk about this phone ever since its launch.
From the Super Junior showcase promotion to the different kinds of plans exclusively arranged for the phone itself, the Galaxy S could very well be the Smartphone of the Year. But what is it that makes this smartphone so special?
Rather than going into technical details, let me go into the functional aspects of this phone.Display One word - brilliant.
Regardless of where I use it, whether in pitch darkness or under the blazing sunlight, the AMOLED display adjusts itself to a very comfortable viewing level, without any glare or strain on the eyes. The colours of the display are rich - even when I played a music video that featured artistes against a white background (Taeyang's I Need A Girl), the skin tones and other colours were greatly accentuated and enhanced. The brightness of its colours were truly amazing. Sound Both its input and output of sound make this phone a 'must-hear'.
Its in-built speaker at its back, although tiny, emits sound powerfully.
The in-ear headphones provided are also a good tool, moderately canceling out noise in crowded places.
One function to note is the 5.1 Channel surround sound option that comes with its music player and video player applications. This option enabled me to watch short movies on the Galaxy S and enjoy the effect of this plug-in. ApplicationsLet's cut to the chase - no smartphone is complete without its applications.My favourite application would be Road SMS.
This application would prevent me from crashing into tables, trees and other obstacles on the road. Let me explain why. This application utilises the camera and what it does is that it lays over a Qwerty keyboard over a live camera feed, so that I can see the road as well as the SMS I am typing. Talk about saving time on the go. If you're looking into navigating your way through and knowing which landmark is in which direction, an application known as the 3D Compass is just the thing to use.
Again, this application makes use of the camera in the Samsung Galaxy S, so you know exactly where and what you're facing. Finally, the best Twitter application of them all is not the official Twitter app, in my opinion.
Instead, it is Touiteur, pronounced the same way as Twitter, but only in French, is the easiest-to-use, most user-friendly Twitter application.
Just like Tweetdeck, it has multiple tab for its news feed, mentions, retweets and direct messages.
It also has direct connections with tweetphoto, so photos can be automatically attached to Tweets.
It also has GPS geotagging functionality, which enables others to check out your location every time you tweet, so you don't have to hear others ask "Where are you?" Take a good look at the Samsung Galaxy S. The tool we've been using to blog about our experiences for the past week.
22 Aug
2010
Summary of Day 2
Took me a long time, but here goes!
Day 2, the day of the opening ceremony.
The day history would be made in Singapore.
So there we were, at Marina Bay.
Security was heavily beefed up at the place, but volunteers were nonetheless helpful.
I met up with one particular usher, Wayne.
Wayne is an 18 year-old who loves his job.
Guiding people around is just his thing.
He revealed that he has a hobby of buying and keeping street directories every year!
It was no wonder that scores of people would approach him first-on.
We made our way into the Dark Blue sector, the sector on the extreme right.
The view of the city skyline from a whole new perspective was breathtaking.
Being my first time out at the Float@Marina Bay, experiencing the opening ceremony of the first ever Youth Olympics... the thought of it was tantalising.
We made our way down to the front of the stands.
Fans waving their flags jubilantly were the highlight of the event.
The largest flags waved were that of Turkey.
A group of Turkish fanatics were right in the middle of the stands, with the flags flying prominently amid the sea of Singapore flags.
The first main highlight of the opening ceremony was the raising of the Singapore flag.
A new arrangement of the national anthem, Majulah Singapura, was played for the first time.
A great shift from the arrangement I first heard in 2003, which I had been singing to until my secondary school days.
It was also the first time that I felt so much national pride, just from watching the raising of the national flag.
Finally, after so long, Singapore has made its mark in the sporting world.
Another highlight would be the constant "spamming", as Nicolette termed, of fireworks.
Exploding in the air in a rush of colours over a span of four hours, the sheer brilliance of these pyrotechnics got cameras clicking away.
However, the greatest highlight would be the arrival of the torch to light the cauldron.
After much speculation, Singapore's brightest gold medal prospect, sailor Darren Choy was revealed to be the final torch bearer.
Basking in the glory of being the one to light the torch, Darren reached out for the wick and the specially-designed cauldron ignited.
DX
I am an administrator of the Simple English Wikipedia, reverting vandalism and fixing articles. I also do voice narrations for articles on the encyclopedia. I am an avid fan of Korean pop culture and music. My fandom is one of the many reasons for learning the Korean language, which I have attained a basic level of proficiency. My passion lies in writing commentaries and analysing current affairs and giving my take on issues that affect us today.I hope that my blogs, tweets and postings on the Youth Olympic Games can give further insight into the proceedings of such a major event.
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