Insane Trash Bidders

I cannot believe an empty gourmet dog food can from Parish Hilton's rubbish is on eBay and has fetched around US$1.5 M.

Other items up for bid (still owned by Paris) are a used toothbrush, an autographed postcard and a fan letter to the celebrity heiress. The highest bid as of 30 June 2007 was for the used toothbrush -- US$285.

There has been so much drama surrounding the life of this woman. Why does everyone want a piece of her? Let us give her and the world a much needed break.

In the mean time, I will continue to use my old toothbrushes to clean my sneakers. Any takers? My old toothbrushes rub bristles with branded shoes...

Paris Hilton raises the global standard for mug shots. Where are the pouty lips, baby?

High Tech Birthday Gifts for Myself

With approx 115,000 people checking out this year's IT Show at Suntec Convention Centre and around SG$2m sales on Day 1, I can't help but be part of the action last Saturday.

For the 2nd straight year, I got myself a laptop, again as a birthday present.

My Acer Aspire goes on semi-retirement (still figuring out what to do with it) while a Compaq Presario V3000 receives my preferential treatment. I'm tired of having to deal with the slowness of my current laptop and its inability to provide me all of Windows Vista's features so I will do a major repair on it after I set up my new unit.

I'm publishing the specs so I can refer to it in case I need to resell my Compaq next time. Don't ask me what they mean, I hardly have a clue. Haha.

• AMD Turion 64 X2 Mobile Technology TL-56 and 512kb+512kb L2 Cache (1.8 Ghz)
• 14.1" WXGA High-Definition BrightView Widescreen Display (1280x800)
• 160 GB (5400 RPM) Hard Drive
• 1024MB DDR2 SDRAM (2 Dimm)
• nVidia GeForce Go 6150 with shared graphics memory
• LightScribe Super Multi 8x DVD+/-RW with Double Layer Support
• 802.11 a/b/g WLAN & Bluetooth
• 5-in-1 Digital Media Reader
• ExpressCard/54 PC Card Slot
• Expansion Port 3
• 6-Cell Lithium-Ion battery
• Windows Vista Home Premium
• Altec Lansing Internal Speaker

I got it for about SGD1,600 inclusive of extended warranty. Not bad.

I opened the package and burst in laughter when I saw the warning on the plastic. Yes, yes, I will not do that.

I also purchased an HP iPAQ Travel Companion rx5700 so I can keep busy while I'm traveling.

I end this entry with a photo showing greeting cards I got from Singapore Airlines PPS Club and Esprit. Esprit is giving me 20% discount on my birthday month. Unfortunately, no free flights from SQ (but still fortunate to still be in PPS until September 2008).

Miss Universe 2007

Borrowing some of the lyrics of Chumbawamba's "Tubthumping"...

I get knocked down

But I get up again

You're never gonna

Keep me down

Miss USA's embarrassing slip during the evening gown competition of Miss Universe 2007

She landed in the Top 5.

The predominantly Mexican audience were rather unforgiving. Blame it on US-Mexico border tensions and radical immigration reforms by the US. Against American policies or America in general?

I never expected Miss Japan (Riyo Mori) to win. I guess she felt the same way too.

Riyo Mori's mouth opened 25% wider than usual.

But I'm glad this year's winner came from Asia. We should really have good representation for our region in the top 15 every year.