catch of the day

Oh went camping and fishing at East Coast Park last Friday. Even though he knows a lot of guys in the Navy who are into fishing, he has never fished in his life. Fishing, in a way, is like golf - you'll never understand why people do it until you try it yourself. So try he is going to.

Thankfully, together with his eager-beaver but just-as-clueless sidekick, he stumbled upon a fish tackle shop (Joe's) along Beach Road the night before. There was this young chap tending the shop who was really helpful. Not only did he help them assembled all they needed at a reasonable cost, he also taught them everything from how to set up the fishing line to tying the hook and sinker in place using a double surgeon's knot, and even casting the line like a pro!

It helped that Oh is talented and quick to learn, of course. His sidekick, though fumbling most of the time, wasn't that bad either. Despite the dark surroundings (it was past 10pm), they managed to set up their tent just beside the beach and put the fishing gear in place with only the help of a small touchlight. All these in between bouts of sneezing attacks as Oh was battling an untimely and dreadful cold!

There was only one other guy fishing at that spot that night - this 30-something Malay guy. There were many other tents around, though, a large proportion of which belonged to other Malay folks. Camping and fishing, it seems, are two favourite pastimes of the Malays.

Oh never really expected to catch anything on his first attempt. So, soon after casting the line and positioning the rod down on the beach, he retired to the tent while his sidekick visited the nearby loo. That was when the Malay guy who was also fishing popped in.

"Eh brudder, got fish lah. Jerking very hard! You better pull it in or your rod will fly away!"

Oh couldn't believe his luck! He rushed out to check the fishing rod. But frankly, he couldn't tell at all that a fish was dangling at the end of the line. Or maybe it had jerked really hard some moments ago but had given up the struggle by now. Not wanting to appear like he distrusted his helpful angling neighbour, he began reeling the line in.

When he saw what he pulled in, he was like, OMFG... There's really a fish! And it wasn't like the sort of small Nasi Lemak fish leh! It was more than 20 centimetres long! (As they found out later, it was also bigger than anything the Malay guy caught the whole night. Heheheh.)

Oh got so excited he ran all the way to the loo to inform his sidekick! And he just left the fish in the pail to die! Thankfully, his trusty sidekick wasn't in a state of delirium like he was and acted quickly to pour some water from the sea to keep the fish alive.

Big fish still struggling to stay alive

Check out the fish they caught. Not bad huh? It made Oh look silly for telling his sidekick not to buy such a big pail, since they probably won't catch anything. Kudos to his sidekick for preparing and hooking up the bait as well. Oh wonders what she did to the bait.

Alas, Oh and his sidekick should have stopped on their first attempt. That would've given them a 100% career success rate in fishing, ha! Their subsequent 4-5 attempts resulted in nothing. Nope, not even ikan bilis. Those sneaky fishes even managed to gobble up the baits without getting hooked!

Pity too, that they had not brought a freezer box. Even with a pack of ice from the nearby 7-Eleven to keep their precious catch from rotting, they woke up the next morning to find ants swarming around the poor fish. So down the trashbin it went.

The next morning

Well, there's always the next time, non?

scsm06

The Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon 2006 is now open for registration. You have until 31 August to get early bird discounts.

And I heard that if you've registered last year, you'll get a code that entitles you to a further 10% discount (valid till 31 July).

Go go go!!

funny videos

Silly but funny videos to keep you entertained:

• Dr Miracles (Coarse Language)
• Suicide Jumper

do the zidane headbutt

The biggest sporting news the past few days is undoubtedly the Zidane headbutt. It has revolutionised the way we greet our friends or exchange the friendly banter. Forget the old pat on the shoulder, follow the great one and do the headbutt!


I wonder how the French will take it if you were to do this in France. But I won't be surprised if you get beaten up, ha!

And here's the real McCoy:


There's even a game you can play!

a gentle note and reminder

It has come to my attention that A Simple Prop just passed its first birthday recently. Well, what do you know. How the months have flown by!

A Simple Prop was born in Friendster Blogs, and stayed a short while in LiveJournal before moving to its current location here in Blogger. I never really believed it could have lasted this long. Like some of my friends' blogs, I was sort of expecting it to die off after some time. It's inevitable for all blogs, non?

But it didn't - as least not yet - in part because there remains a certain sentimental value to it. And that's keeping me going. You might not know it, but this blog has changed my life in a way I could never have imagined when I sat down to write that first post on a Sunday morning back last July.

And no, I didn't turn into some celebrity blogger. I'm not even close for the matter. The readership for this blog has maintained at that estimated 20 people or less, half of which I know personally and the other half, I don't. I could never expect more since I've never sought to publicise it; I've only ever told a few friends about it. Besides, I don't really write anything really insightful or worthy of more attention. In fact, sometimes I wonder why a person who doesn't know me personally would want to read anything here, ha!

I must admit, however, that the impetus to blog has reduced tremendously. Sometimes I feel like I'm posting stuff which nobody gives a damn about. Sometimes I feel like I'm talking to myself. Which isn't that bad, actually. What's worse is that I feel like I'm talking to myself with people at the side eavesdropping. You know what I mean, don't you? A Simple Prop could certainly do with more comments and interaction!

After all, if I'm really into talking to myself (which I'm not by the way), I could've just written everything into a Word document and saved it on to my local disk. Or with pen and paper. Duh.

But of course, I'm not so desperate as to beg for feedback. I'm happy as it is that you bother to read at all. Having said that, it'll still be a nice encouragement for me though! :)

In any case, the white flag is not raised yet. I don't quit that easily, heh!

It has been quiet around here lately, mainly because I was busy catching either sleep or the World Cup. Now that that's over, I'll try to write more.

See you around!

bloggers' fury

I've been following the Mr Brown incident with interest since Monday. While the local media (notably TODAY) and the government are intent on keeping silent on the matter, Singaporean bloggers are outraged and are now working towards drawing the attention of the foreign media.

If you're unaware of what's happened, here's a summary:

It started with this article Mr Brown wrote last Friday. As you might already know, Mr Brown has a regular satire column every Friday on TODAY.

Then on Monday, the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts (MICA) replied with a strongly worded letter.

That threw everyone into a rage, with many people arguing the following issues:

• We do not need to have alternatives or solutions when we have something unhappy to complain about. That's what we paid the goverment to do.
• Being a critic of the government doesn't make one a partisan player.
• The role of journalists and newspapers is to champion issues and campaign for or against the goverment. After all, the local media has always been campaigning for our government.
• Mr Brown's article was published in the Voices section. Everyone has a right to an opinion and the right to express it.
  

Following that, Mr Brown was suspended from his column, and TODAY has decided to take the easy route by doing a media blackout of this issue. In addition, MICA has decided not to discuss the issue further as well.

See the list of trackbacks and comments at Tomorrow.sg for what everybody has to say about this. The Paris-based Reporters Without Borders has also commented on it.

nice try

Some people will do anything to get a public holiday. On July 10th especially. Ha!

[link]

wc final

So this is it. It'll be France versus Italy in the World Cup final. Show me anyone who claims to have seen this coming before the tournament started and I'll show you a liar. In fact, nobody could have predicted this even after the group stages.

Anyway, here are some interesting facts about Italy:

• Italy has conceded only one goal so far, and that was an own goal in the game against USA. This means that no opposition has managed to score against them.
  


• Captain Fabio Cannavaro, who has been a rock in defence and who is now a prime candidate for the Golden Ball award, is only 1.75 metres tall.


• Italy has reached the World Cup final in exactly every 12 years since 1970: 1970, 1982, 1994 and 2006. They won in 1982, so if this is a trend they'll win again this year.

For me, I'm not a fan of either side. But I'll probably be rooting for Italy because Thierry Henry is a blardy cheat!

how to do anything

WikiHow (obviously a derivation of Wikipedia) has some of the most boliao articles on how to do just about anything. And it's amazing how they can write the silliest articles in such a serious manner.

Check out, for example, how to handle some of life's most difficult situations:

• Ask a Deaf Person Out on a Date
• Memorize Pi to the Twenty Ninth Decimal Place
• Look Busy at Work Without Really Working
• Put On Your Socks
• Play Drums (if it were this easy I'll be a rockstar by now)
  

not to be taken lightly

According to this article, smoking "light" cigarettes are not safer than smoking normal cigarettes. One reason was, I quote from the article:

Experts say that people who use lights may, for example, inhale more deeply to get more nicotine, or simply smoke more cigarettes.

Well, they've apparently never heard of the term ceteris paribus. That is, if all else being equal (inhaling the same amount and smoking the same number of cigarettes), lights are surely less deadly than normal ones.

Anyway, they are the experts. I guess all smokers should go back to their Marlboro Reds so that it's easier for them to quit, non?