Writing for Metblogs has the potential to be the most rewarding experience in your entire life. It’ll make you rich, famous, good looking, will help you lose weight, make your clothes fit better, and get you a super good deal on a new car. It will make you the most well known person on the entire planet. Yes, each and every one of you. Really.

OK maybe not. Actually those are all lies, but it’s fun at least. The truth is Metblogs is the largest network of locally focused blogs on the web, covering almost 60 cities around the world and we’re looking to add a few new bloggers/writters/authors to this fine site. If you wanna know more about us check out this wikipedia entry but it’s kinda boring so I won’t waste time repeating it all here again. If you wanna write for us, here’s the scoop:

• All author positions are volunteer. That means you don’t get paid.
• You must live in (or very near) the city you plan to write about.
• Anything you post must relate to the city somehow. That means you shouldn’t post a movie review, but talking about going to see a movie at a local theater is fine.
• There’s no requirement for how much you can or should write, but we ask that if we set you up as an author you make about 3 posts a week.
• You can post about things you love, you can post about things you hate. It’s entirely up to you

Additionally, because of our global network, there’s plenty of options for things you write to be read by people all over the world. Interested? Want more details? Post a comment and we’ll be in touch!

At 8pm on the 29 March, 2008, millions of people in some of the world’s major capital cities, including Copenhagen, Toronto, Chicago, Melbourne, Brisbane, Tel Aviv and Manila will unite and switch off for Earth Hour.

This year Singapore will be part of this global effort organized by the WWF to attempt at making a statement in energy conservation. Apparently Sydney did it in a big way in 2007 by going as far as switching off all the lights on the Sydney Harbor Bridge for 1 hour! The efforts in 1 hour on 1 day reduced Sydney’s energy consumption by 10.2% for one hour, which is the equivalent effect of taking 48,000 cars off the road for one hour.

Earth Hour is not the only such effort in the world where you have Lights Out America in various cities in the United States and Candle Night Project in Japan and Taiwan.

Now Singapore’s organizers are calling for more people, businesses and government from Singapore to be involved in Earth Hour and get them to turn off their lights for one hour at 8pm, March 29, 2008. In fact, their efforts even appeared in the press today! What more, to join the ranks of Sydney Harbour Bridge, Singapore’s Suntec City is going to turn off the multicolored lights on top of the sails above the convention center from 8-9pm! So don’t be surprised. There’s no black out. It’s Earth Hour!

Of course you don’t have to sit in the dark. Here are some ideas for things you can do for one hour without light:

1) Join a lights out party!
There are several held around Singapore. Turn off all the lights in your house, grab your family and head on down to these venues to join in the fun. An hour away from the computer is an hour with humanity!

2) Go for a night walk
There are several nature areas and parks in Singapore where you can go for a nice stroll with your family, children, friends or partners. Quite romantic! How about just take advantage of all the street lights we have and read a book in the void deck for an hour while enjoying the night breeze?

3) Stargazing
Enjoy the darkness and admire the stars with a group that has organized a stargazing session at the field in front of Chinese Garden.

4) Go camping!
Grab your children and family and go on an adventure camping on the beach! There are many islands and beaches in Singapore where you can camp at for free. If not camping, maybe you can grab a big group of friends and have a BBQ or campfire on the beach while getting them to turn off all the lights in their homes!

Here are more things individuals can do. Find out more on the Earth Hour Singapore blog. Many of the metblogs cities are also responding to this call for Earth Hour. Check this list out.

The search for Singapore’s happiest person is on.

In conjunction with “The New Science of Happiness & Well Being Conference” being held from 16 - 17 April 2008 at Singapore Expo, a leadership consultancy firm, Global Leadership Academy, is looking for the happiest person in Singapore.

Global Leadership Academy Pte Ltd (GLA), a Singapore-based leadership-consulting firm, is launching the first-ever Search For Singapore’s Happiest Person, a two-week campaign starting on 16th March and ending on 30th March. The Search is held in conjunction with The New Science of Happiness and Well-Being conference which is taking place on the 16 - 17 April 2008 at Singapore Expo and Convention Centre.

If you meet the following criteria, you may just be this person!

1. Singapore citizens above 18 years of age.
2. Happy smiling disposition – others feel good to be around them
3. Ability to be happy no matter what life presents them with
4. Has a strong sense of community and belonging – family and friends
5. Stays consistently happy – not up one moment and down the next
6. Contributes to society by bringing happiness to others

Any Singaporean, Singapore PR or resident of Singapore of any age, can nominate a Singapore citizen for the title of Singapore’s Happiest Person 2008. Anyone nominating a candidate should write a short description (300 and 1,000 words) on why their nominee is a model of happiness. Nominations via email should be sent to happiest@simply-happy.com by midnight 30th March. More information can be found here.

According to the official press release, Singapore being voted one of the most stressful places to live in has prompted them to search for this search for happiness.

Meanwhile the conference will be open to public via ticket sales but unfortunately I am unable to find any such details online. Even the Singapore Expo link is display errors. What can we learn from a conference about the science of happiness and well-being? Perhaps a lot. I am very curious to find out who the happiest person in Singapore is. Surely not one of us who’s caught up in the rat race. Which enlightened soul would this be? Some how I imagine a white haired grandpa or grandma who lives the simple life. What do you think the happiest person in Singapore would be like? I can’t wait to find out!

Next tuesday is the Chinese Mid Autumn Festival and already if you have been to Clark Quay, would have spotted the light up and festivities along Singapore River. For me, I live near Chinese Garden which is decked out in its annual lantern parade but unlike Singapore River, charges $12 per entry. Still, passing by at midnight on the MRT last night had me captivated.

But honestly, what is Mid Autumn festival without mooncake?
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Paparazzi Monkey strikes again. This time conveniently on the campus of NUS.

Today was the filming of Hey! Gorgeous, the varsity pageant reality TV program that seeks to find the school hunks and babes across the universities and tertiary institutions in Singapore.
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With the ongoing Speak Good English Campaign, there have been many government initiatives set up to promote this idea. Besides the regular banners and posters, the newspapers have also taken it up with the weekly “English as it is Broken” column, where readers are encouraged to send in pictures of instances where ‘broken’ English has been used. Examples include a Fishball Noodle stall with a large sign stating “Fishingball noodles”, and a warning road sign which states “Dead slow, Live children”. I personally chuckled when I saw the sign, as I thought that the guy who came up with that had a twisted sense of humor indeed.
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Singaporean’s favourite pastime is queueing up afterall. At any drop of the hat, if we can find a good excuse to queue up, we will.

I must confess that I’m a novice queuer. I’ve never truly indulged in the Singaporean art of queueing. But this time, with Borders enticing people with a free Hedwig Owl plush toy for the first 500 people who collect their pre-ordered Harry Potter 7 book from them has got succumbing to temptation.

On 20 July, I will be queueing outside Borders from the early dusk till 7.01am on 21 July 2007 when Borders opens its doors at Wheelock Place for the launch of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I’ll be queueing with a friend who has decided to bring a sleeping bag and camp over that day while I’ve got a full strategy planned out since I have to rush off to an event by 730am!

I really don’t want to be number one in line. Number two would be good enough for me. *grin*

Would you be queueing up at Borders too? Leave a comment!

19 July 2007 Update:
For those who were unnecessarily alarmed by my “kiasu”-ness (read: overzealous competitive scared-to-lose attitude), I have gotten word that OFFICIAL program for the countdown to launch of Harry Potter 7 at Borders begins at 5am.

According to the Borders mailer, festivities start at 5am and include: free face painting, free balloon sculpting, quizzes, cheerleaders, games, countdown to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows release, costume ‘best dressed’ competition, Unlock the Gold winner prize presentation, giveaways, movie screenings, magic storytelling and live music!

Sounds like a blast but friends and I have decided to bring Harry Potter 6 for a reread so we can launch straight into Potter 7 with a mind fresh of where we left off last!

Although it’s silly now but I just found out that I no longer have to rush off at 7.15am so I actually don’t have to queue anymore but i’ll still do it anyway because it’s the last chance you’ll ever get to queue for Harry Potter if you never done it before like me!

New York, London, Johannesburg, Rio de Janeiro, Shanghai, Tokyo, Sydney and Hamburg are eight cities that will be attempting to promote the cause of saving our earth using the global reach of music and a 8-city concert.

If you are interested, you can take part in this global activity by joining in the call at http://liveearthpledge.org/answer_the_call.php

On another note, it is interesting that the language that one gets when one clicks on the Singapore flag on the page is Malay ;)

Still on the smog alert, I am determined to find out if the west really possess a worser air quality than the rest of the island. Here I am sniffling in my morning sinus which I had since young, growing up in the West near industrial estates, and my perpetual allergy to dust in the air - could this be a result of poorer air quality?
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Emerald Hill at daylight

Originally uploaded by Liangcai

I brought a student from Carolina around town today, and one of the places that I first took her was to Emerald Hill. Once a Peranakan Settlement area, this place has since been redeveloped by the authorities into one of the main nightlife spots in the Somerset/ Orchard stretch. People still live there, except that most of them are expatriates and those who can probably afford the high cost of living in a prime area. I once walked past the area at night and I saw rows of BMWs parked outside one of the houses, as their drivers mulled around and chatted amongst themselves. Welcome to the life of the rich. The picture looks pretty tame and quiet in the morning, but this area becomes a bustling chillout area and night. It really comes alive.