USS New York on her Christening Day

Bow Crest

USS New York
New York (LPD-21), the fifth ship in the San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock, is the sixth ship of the United States Navy to be named for the state of New York. The ship was designed to deliver a fully-equipped battalion of 700 Marines.

Casting the Bow Stem
Steel salvaged from the World Trade Center wreckage has been used in the construction of New York. The shipyard and Navy inspected the steel and found that it was of sufficient material strength so that it could be incorporated into the bow stem of New York.

“We’re very proud that the twisted steel from the World Trade Center towers will soon be used to forge an even strong national defense,” said New York Gov. George Pataki. “The USS New York will soon be defending freedom and combating terrorism around the globe, while also ensuring that the world never forgets the evil attacks of September 11, 2001 and the courage and strength New Yorkers showed in response to terror.”

On 4 August 2005, the LPD 21’s bow stem with its World Trade Center steel was erected into the main hull and will forever lead the future USS New York. The complete bow was erected into place in March 2006.

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Anyway the other day I was on iTunes store looking for new music and I happened to stumble upon this song: When the Stars Go Blue. What caught my attention was that it is a song sang by The Corrs and U2’s Bono. The 30 seconds preview was what I needed to declare it My Current Favourite Song and My Current Most Played Song!

Did a little research on the song and found out that it’s orignally by Ryan Adams and it has been sang by many other artises including Tim McGraw. Among them, I still like the Corrs + Bono version best. Below is a clip of the song performed by The Corrs and Bono at Live 8. Enjoy the lovely clip!

Youtube link.

In the wee hours of Friday, a semi-conscious me somehow happened to step on my spectacles (Oakley Jack Knife 4.0). Yes, my full body load on it.

As I tried to restore its badly bent frame to the original shape, the fishing line that holds the left lens broke; and the lens was dislodged. From the looks of it, it was goner. Time to make a new pair of specs. To make matters worst, I do not have my spare specs with me. (Oakley Wiretap) Although I didn’t have high hopes for it being repaired, I decided to head down to my optical shop to try my luck.

Piece by piece I took out my Jack Knife. The salesperson took a quick glance and told me, “Ohh, this one. No problem.” What a relieve.

I ask her how long would it take. She said 20 minutes. (20 MINUTES!) Then I asked her how much would it cost. She told me it’s under warranty, free of charge. GREAT!

20 minutes later, they restored the frame into its original form (albeit some scratch marks from the clamps), changed the fishing lines of both lens, tightened the screws, cleaned the silicone nose bridge padding. My specs were as good as new!

I felt so good to have bought Oakley. For the high price that I pay, it comes with quality, durability and a lifetime warranty.

Humanclock is a project by Craig D. Giffen. People from all over the world submit pictures with certain times on them. Every minute there is a new picture telling the current time.

Also, check out this FedEx clock. Just in time is the message of this advertising banner, which won a Gold Lion in the Cyber Lions category in Cannes 2005

Interesting!

Love this song :)

Youtube link.

Here’s two qoutes from one of his most recent show: Marco’s Great British Feast. It’s a very inspiring show by the way, I highly recommend it.

“… If you caught a fish every time you went…You’ll get bored. That’s the beauty of it…”

“…I never get nervous, I leave it to the people around me…”

Russian food ain’t that special after all. I still prefer their vodka =)

Fuller’s London Pride. Love the rich, creamy taste. It has a subtle sweetness to it too. Available at Ice-Cold Beer

Youtube link

After reading an article on PopSci, I’ve learn not to put the blame on those torture bringers. According to the article, it has been scientifically proven that they are sub-consciously unaware of what they are doing. Yes, they are in a distorted reality while doing their “thing”.

Here’s an excerpt:

After a number of acoustic tests, the researchers discovered that most of the singers who couldn’t follow a song’s pitch and timing fell into the first of two phenotypes: they were tone deaf yet blissfully unaware of it. The remainder of the poor singers had no trouble judging a proper note, yet were unable to hit it themselves, and knew it.

Read the rest of the article to find out more.

Had a awesome day at the Paintball field today with the Orion guys! It was what I needed after a dull, mundane week.

Nothing (well almost) beats the excitement, adrenaline and camaraderie of Paintball!

If any of you guys are intrested in trying out paintball, head over to Red Dynasty Paintball. Affordable price packages and really friendly staffs.

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

Top Gear Season 11 preview montage

Didn’t really get the storyline, but I was quite impressed by the visual effects.

No itinerary today. Had Wanton noodles for breakfast at our favourite Chinese eatery, and we went to Embarcadero.

The Embarcadero is the eastern waterfront roadway of the Port of San Francisco. Bought a basket of strawberries from one of the many fresh produce stalls there. It’s probably the best strawberries I’ve eaten! Big, juicy and best of all sweet!

Seb found a perfect spot by the pier, overlooking Bay Bridge. We sat there for over 2 hours, doing nothing else, besides eating a beef pie and some Mexican food Seb bought.

Short day. I think we pretty much have San Francisco covered, except for places where we have to drive to get to.

After dinner at, guess where, our favourite Chinese eatery, we went back to our hostel to chill.. Maybe get some beer later.

Going back home tomorrow! “YAY”!

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Woke up very late today.. Think I had too much to drink yesterday.. So we skipped breakfast and headed to Moscone West for lunch. They have my favourite WWDC food today - Thai Beef Salad. It’s so good that I ate 2 servings!

After a satisfying lunch, we hopped on to MUNI Line 30 from 3^rd St and headed to Chestnut St to began the first leg of our tour today - Palace of Fine Arts.

The main dome of Palace of Fine Arts is currently under restoration works. So it’s quite a pity that Seb did not get to see the most spectacular feature there.

For the uninitiated, the Palace of Fine Arts was built in 1915 as part of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. It was designed by Bernard Maybeck, who took his inspiration from Roman and Greek architecture. To find out more, visit here and here

After PoFA, it’s the walk along Crissy Field towards our next destination - Golden Gate Bridge. The weather suddenly changed. It’s so cold and windy that I was kinda regretting not bringing my jacket along. And the fog was so thick that the Bridge was totally hidden from view.

Braving the cold winds with only my T-Shirt and Jeans, we finally got to the bridge. Although I’ve been here last year, I’m still awe-struck by her scale and engineering marvel. Furthermore, the thick fog gave her an almost completely different look, kinda surreal if you ask me.

We decided not to walk until the middle of the bridge because we might just die of cold before even reaching there.

MUNI Line 28 brought us back to 4th St where we had our dinner at Jack-in-the-Box. Sirloin Cheese Burger with Bacon, delicious but definitely not health food.

What shall we do tomorrow? No idea yet.. We shall plan over brunch at Henry’s.

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Breakfast was at a Chinese eatery. First part - TOTALLY SUCKED. It’s so sucky that I will not even bother to mention it. Then Seb decided to order some proper food (dim sum), which incidentlly made our breakfast nicer.. Anyway, thanks Seb for the Birthday (Singapore time) breakfast treat! :-)

Rest of the day were spent shopping and touring (instead of attending session at the Conference). Seb and I each bought a very exquisite holder for our iPhones at Crate & Barrel. We then went to Westfields. It’s a shopping mall which kinda resembles our Paragon, with all the luxury brands under one roof. Besides shopping, I finally get to try Jamba Juice! After watching it featured many times on David Letterman’s show, I got to try it at last! Refreshing, fresh and great taste. Maybe I can bring the franchise to Singapore.

Seb then went back to the hostel to sleep, while I went to Alamo Square (again). I just love that park.. With some time left, I ventured further west to Golden Gate Park. Nothing much there besides being a park.

Evening time came and it’s time for the highlight of our trip - WWDC08 Apple bash! Great food, booze, weather and Barenaked Ladies! They are AWESOME! Wonder how much to hire them for my own party. The only thing lacking in the party was….. you guessed it, girls! Ultimate sausage (geek) fest. But heck! Seb and I enjoyed ourselves.

LOVE SAN FRANCISCO!

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Breakfast today was Subway Melts. (If you noticed, our breakfasts are getting cheaper by the day.. That’s cos we are running out of money). After that, I headed over to Moscone West for my first session for the day - Controls, Views, and Animation on iPhone. Not too bad. Seb went to shopping instead and bought a pair of shoes from Aldo (nice buy I must say).

After lunch, we went to another session that was only added today - Push Notification Service. This new service from Apple is one of the major features in the coming release of both the iPhone 3G and Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard). In general, it allows applications to send notifications in the form of badges, alerts and sounds asynchronously to the iPhones. Pretty impressive.

Deciding that we had enough sessions for the day, we took the Muni (Line 21 from Market St) to Alamo Square, to visit the Painted Ladies. Great view of SF from up there, nice cooling winds, adorable dogs running around, beautiful scenery - Awesome.

Dinner was at Mel’s Diners. I had Patty Melts, which is sort of a sandwich + burger. Seb had breakfast for dinner - Eggs, Steak and Toast. Afterwards, we headed back to Moscone for the Apple Design Award ceremony. It’s kinda like the Oscars for Mac OS X applications. This year they had 2 categories - Mac and the iPhone. Some of the winning applications were pretty impressive. A few of my favourites are: Squirrel for the Mac and AOL Radio for the iPhone.

Tomorrow’s the fourth day of WWDC08, which means it’s Apple Bash!!!!!! WOOOHOOO!!!

(My camera died while we were at Alamo Square. So no photos and videos until I get them from Seb’s camera)

Breakfast today was at a French bistro - Eggs, bacon, toast and coffee.

After breakfast Seb went sight-seeing while I went for a session at WWDC, which was totally boring..

After lunch, we headed out to the streets. First stop was Coit Tower. Basically nothing much up there.. Instead, the journey to Coit Tower was much more interesting. One of the many things that made me fall in love with San Francisco is the beautiful houses here. Walking along the undulating streets, admiring the architectures, enjoying the cool Pacific Ocean breeze… Awesome!

Next is a walk down hill to Lombard Street, the crookedest street in America. Been here last year already, so nothing exciting.

Fisherman’s Wharf is next.. Again.. nothing exciting here again. By the time we finished touring Pier 39, our legs were giving up, so Seb and I decided to take the Cable car back. Though I’ve been here last year, but I never took a ride on the cable car (Can you believe it?!). US$5 for a leisure ride back to the hostel - totally worth the money.

Just before heading back, we went to hunt for the World famous dish that is only available outside of Singapore - Singapore Fried Noodles. And we found it at a Chinese restaurant. The version we had had curry powder in it, quite tasty though.

Not plans for tomorrow yet.. Probably plan it over breakfast at our current breakfast haunt - Mel’s Diner.

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