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With all the tragic news coming out of Asia in most particularly India and Thailand at the moment it might have been easy to overlook this piece of news from Singapore -

Singapore jails 3 for kangaroo T-shirts.

Reuters - Thursday, November 27

SINGAPORE, Nov 27 - Three Singaporeans were jailed on Thursday after being charged with contempt of court for showing up at Singapore's Supreme Court wearing T-shirts depicting kangaroos in judges robes.

Isrizal Bin Mohamed Isa and Muhammad Shafi'ie Syahmi Bin Sariman were sentenced to seven days' jail, while Tan Liang Joo John received 15 days imprisonment. They were each ordered to pay S$5,000 in costs.

Tan is the Assistant Secretary-General of the opposition Singapore Democratic Party, led by Chee Soon Juan.

The three had worn the T-shirts at a court hearing in May to determine the damages that Chee Soon Juan and his sister Chee Siok Chin were to pay after being found guilty of defaming Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and former leader Lee Kuan Yew.

Singapore's attorney-general said in bringing the case to court the trio had "scandalised the Singapore judiciary".

Singapore bans gatherings and protests in all public areas without a permit except Speakers' Corner, the country's equivalent of the historic free-speech haven in London's Hyde Park.

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20081127/tap-singapore-kangaroo-c3bb44c.html

Dance Free

A couple of weeks ago I had to leave the dance class early and gave my entry ticket to a friend. The next time I saw him I had a funny feeling, and he said to me that he has good news. I had won the free class, call it intuition or esp or excitement, I am not sure yet I got to dance for free, which I thought was cool.

Okra

Something I have never seen in the supermarket before - Okra. In an attempt to overdose I cooked these three meals over a week. All were delicious.

Chicken with okra served on spinach rice

Corn rice with grilled okra and grilled spiced chicken

Grilled Cajun chicken served with okra fried rice and eggplant in tomatoes

Pasta Disasta

Well not quite, I am practicing to be a journalist. I made pasta often as a child and remember how much fun it was. So when I saw a pasta machine (roller and cutter) at a fairly cheap price I thought why not.

So I prepared the dough with eggs and flour and proceeded to knead it into a nice ball. I always feel that there is something enjoyable about preparing food, I am not sure if it is the dough between the fingers or the reward from working hard. I let it rest, wondering what is the right time to wait. After about 1.5 hours I rolled the pasta out. I was a little frustrated at first as the machine did not want to stick to the bench. Yet, after a while I worked out how to get it all done and from there was able to make some fettuccine.

I waited until dinner time (which was about 4 hours away) and went back to cook the pasta. It had all stuck together again and needed rolling. It went much smoother this time and went straight into the boiling water. Taking a little longer to cook than packet pasta I was able to clean up and prepare a sauce. I was feeling hungry and a little lazy so I went with a simple garlic and parsley sauce with cheese added on. I found the pasta tasted a lot like egg noodles (not surprising since they are the same). The sauce gave the pasta a much needed boost. Next time when I make pasta will definitely move away from strands towards shapes. Now, got to go and find out how to make pasta bow ties.

Pasta in 8 steps

Yahoo vs. Google

I have mentioned how Google modifies their logos for celebrating special events, yet I just noticed that Yahoo does it sometimes as well. Here it is a Halloween standoff.

Was I in a movie?

It is a good time to be a Liverpool fan. Not only did they beat MU for the first time in a while, they also comprehensively sent a message to Chelsea on the Weekend. Unfortunately news that good was hard to keep secret, and when I got home to watch the replay of the game knowing the result detracted a bit from the game. Overall, i found the game exciting to watch, and I feel confident that next year a large hangover might be required.

Lately I have been getting back into salsa, and tonight I went to the school which confused me so much previously. This time I am not so confused, or maybe I am and don't know it yet. Anyway, on the way back I walked home and came across a situation.

As I approached with shopping in hand, I saw 8 men. Big men, mean looking, all in bomber jackets laughing and talking, no I think it was acting,,leaning against silver cars. All the cars were the same make, and looked like two men per car. There was something odd about them, I noticed at any one time one of them was eying me as walked. As I walked I felt a constant glare the kind that said don't look here, unless...

There was definitely something in the air, a vibe or was it more like a stench. The stench was one in which the prevailing mood was we don't give a .... A new car pulled up, exactly the same as the others, two guys in "the uniform" got out and started talking, non threatening yelling, and catching up. Both these guys glanced in my direction with a serious get out of my way look. Then I saw a bulge in the pant leg, and another quick look revealed a holster or something on the belt. I just felt like I had walked onto the movie set of Training Day or another cop drama as the cops were waiting to GTA some one's butt tonight.

All I know someone is going to get it tonight.

Its in the Game

I am not one usually for politics, yet I would like to see Obama become the President of the USA. It would be good to see the first black president in the US and CTU come into the action. I bring this up as this year their seems to be large amount of American politics in the news, more than I can remember anytime previous [I might just be more aware now :)]. One story I read this morning said that political advertising has proved itself to be in the game.

How the Obama ad appears in the Xbox 360 racing game Burnout Paradise.

In other US news, one of my favorite DJs (DJ Z-Trip) had some parties to change. He released his mixes to the public along with some pics. Listen here http://downloads.djztrip.com/Z-Trip_ObamaMix.zip (84mbs). A mix of hip hop and other pop songs with a political bent. Some nice Bush outakes.

From the website:

Recently, Shepard Fairey and I threw some fundraisers for the Obama campaign. We called them "The Party for Change". (If you don't know who Shepard is--among many other things--he is the one responsible for the image on the right).

I've been wanting to put the mix I've been doing at these shows online, in hopes of spreading the word to people who need to hear it most. So, here it is:

http://djztrip.com/obama/

I encourage you to download it and pass it along to anyone you think should hear it. Feel free to burn copies, share it with friends, family, co-workers, strangers, and especially anyone you know is on the fence about this election. I'm also putting out a radio friendly version, in case anyone wants to broadcast it.

Please share the message. Educate those who may not know what is really going on. There is still time.

If you, or anyone you know, isn't registered to vote, I encourage you to make it a priority and fix that before it's too late. This election is WAY too important for anyone to not get involved. If you need more information on how and where to register, vote, or participate, please check the links below.

I honestly feel if we make our voices heard, this time WILL be different.

Peace,

Z-TRIP

For more Information, check out these links:

The Official Obama Campaign Site - http://barackobama.com/

MoveOn.org Political Action Group - http://moveon.org/

Rock the Vote - http://rockthevote.com/

OBEY - http://obeygiant.com/

Z-Trip News, Downloads, More - http://djztrip.com


http://downloads.djztrip.com/Z-Trip_ObamaMix.zip