Creepy spoof of local singer’s hit song goes viral

By Rahimah Rashith | What’s buzzing? – Mon, Mar 4, 2013

 
The parody has garnered over 40,000 views since it was first uploaded. (Youtube screengrab)

A creepy but wonderfully creative parody of Derrick Hoh’s “Forever” is going viral online.

The 4-minute story-within-a-music video entitled “Dead Girl Seeks Meaningful Relationships” is based on the dance-pop debut number by the Mandopop star, who shot to fame in the talent competition Project Superstar.
Last month, his first English single “Forever” climbed onto the Singapore iTunes chart for five consecutive days. And now this wildly popular parody, which has already been viewed 40,000 times since it was first uploaded last week, is sure to revive the hit song.
The creepy spoof echoes his lyrics of eternal love but puts a wicked twist to the idea of “till death do us part”. It begins with a morbid suicide crime scene where a ghost-like lady dressed in white lies lifeless next to a river.
The tale soon unravels into a comical chase for eternal love where the coroner at the crime scene falls in love with the dead body while the misunderstood dead girl looks for companionship elsewhere.
The video, punctuated by several mortified men who all die at the hands of the undead girl, is hilariously original but also horribly creepy. In one scene, her head pops up in the middle of the tub as a man is relaxing during his bath.
Produced by Shaun Koh and veteran comedian Jonathan Lim who also plays the coroner, the video is an homage to the typical horror film scenes of bathroom ghosts, hanging legs, dark alleys and smeared make-up of a haunted being stuck on Earth with unfinished business.
Watch the grim but funny tale unfold.


 


- wong chee tat :)

Tey Tsun Hang to call 17 witnesses in sex-for-grades trial

Tey Tsun Hang to call 17 witnesses in sex-for-grades trial
Posted: 04 March 2013 1724 hrs
     
SINGAPORE: The law professor accused of corruption in a sex-for-grades trial will be calling 17 witnesses to his defence.

Tey Tsun Hang was in the Subordinate Courts on Monday for a closed-door meeting to decide on the defence witness list.

The 41-year-old said he will call five witnesses to testify in the "trial within a trial".

Of the five, three of them are doctors. The other two are Simon Chesterman, Dean of the National University of Singapore's law faculty, and Professor Tracey Evans Chan, Tey's colleague.

Another 12, including Tey's former student and current Assistant Registrar at the Supreme Court, Colin Seow, is expected to be called to the stand as defence witnesses in the main trial.

Tey said staff of NUS law faculty are expected to be called to the stand as well.

A trial within a trial is called to determine the admissibility of Tey's six statements to the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau. Tey said those statements were made under duress and are not admissible.

When the first tranche of the corruption trial ended in late January, prosecution asked for its trial within a trial case to be left open. This is for it to decide if it intends to call any other witnesses.

The defence case for this is expected to start when the trial resumes in April.

From the defence side, Tey is expected to be the first to testify in the trial within a trial. The judge will then decide on the admissibility of the statements and the main trial will begin after that.

The trial resumes on April 1 and is expected to last three weeks.

Tey faces allegations of obtaining gratification in the form of gifts and sex from former student Ms Darinne Ko, 23, between May and July 2010, in return for giving her better grades.

-CNA/ac

- wong chee tat :)

Employers go online to snoop on potential hires: survey

Employers go online to snoop on potential hires: survey
Posted: 05 March 2013 1315 hrs
     
SINGAPORE: Seventy-five per cent of Singapore employers use online channels to perform background checks on potential candidates, according to an online survey by JobsCentral.

The survey was conducted from August to September 2012 among hiring managers and HR personnel in Singapore.

The top three social media sites that recruiters use to snoop on job candidates are LinkedIn (38.4 per cent), Facebook (34.3 per cent) and search engines (27.5 per cent).

The survey also showed that over 60 per cent of employers would reject job-seekers who were untruthful in their resumes or interviews.

The survey also showed that most employers spend less than 60 seconds looking through a resume. Only 4.8 per cent of recruiters spend more than five minutes to screen an application.

More than 50 per cent of employers did not approve of candidates' bad-mouthing
previous employers and sharing confidential company information.

- CNA/ck

- wong chee tat :)

Mapletree's China-focused REIT IPO nearly 30 times subscribed

Mapletree's China-focused REIT IPO nearly 30 times subscribed
Posted: 05 March 2013 2356 hrs
 
SINGAPORE: The initial public offering of Singapore's largest real estate investment trust has been fully snapped up.

Units of Mapletree Greater China Commercial Trust is nearly 30 times subscribed at the close of the public offer.

The Reit offered a total of about 776.6 million units at 93 cents each, raising some S$1.7 billion.

There was strong demand for both the placement and public tranches.

And even the 50.3 million reserve units offered were over-subscribed.

The Reit will make its trading debut in the Singapore Exchange on Thursday.

- CNA/de

- wong chee tat :)

Local PMETs continued to face unfair foreign competition, say MPs

Local PMETs continued to face unfair foreign competition, say MPs
Posted: 06 March 2013 2021 hrs
     
SINGAPORE: Several MPs said local PMETs (Professionals, Managers, Executives and Technicians) continued to face unfair competition from foreign workers, despite measures announced in Budget 2013.

Budget 2013 included several announcements to raise foreign worker levies across the board.

Foreign worker quotas for industries such as retail and F&B will also be reduced.

For the higher-skilled workforce, the Manpower Ministry has said it will continue to tighten criteria for Employment Pass or EP holders.

Mr Liang Eng Hwa, MP for Holland-Bukit Timah GRC, said: "There are clearly still a number of firms that had visibly hire a large proportion of foreigners particularly in the managerial level. You can't help but think whether it is really that difficult to find Singaporeans to fill those managerial positions. These include job roles like HR, finance, compliance, auditing or general admin.

"Or is it a case where some employers or hirers may already have pre-determined mindset that foreigners with international experience can do a better job? More engagements with such employers are necessary so that they gave Singaporeans a fair chance.

"Hence, I agree with my colleagues in this House that some form of market sensing practice, when companies apply for EPs, is necessary. While it may not always leads to a Singaporean hire, at least it made the employers more conscious in their hiring process and to give our local PMEs a chance."

Mr Yeo Guat Kwang, MP for Ang Mo Kio GRC, said: "Employers, as responsible corporate citizens, should abide by values such as fairness. This is the case in recruitment drives. Employers need to play their part to ensure that the qualifications, training and skills required of local workers are the same as that required of the foreign workers.

"At the end of the day, I believe that we need to secure migrant workers with the right technical skills, as well as the social adaptability to co-exist with locals who are their co-workers. This will in turn help us focus on productivity and continuous improvement to build a bigger piece of the economic pie for all to share in, and more importantly to ensure benefits of growth in terms of jobs and salary will flow to Singaporeans.

"One area that the government should into is review the entry-level Employment Pass. We must ensure that employers give fair opportunity to fresh graduates from our local polytechnics and universities."

- CNA/de

- wong chee tat :)

Freeze Top Row in MS Excel 2010 and OpenOffice

Doing some data analysis and I felt there is a need to create a top row and "freeze" it using excel 2010. I provided the screenshot above.

To do so:

Select the top row to be "freeze". Go to View --> Freeze Top Row and it works!

What about for openoffice users?

I'm using OpenOffice 3.4.1 and to do so, there is a slight difference:

Select the row below the one you want to freeze (in this case, the second row), then go to Window --> Freeze.

- wong chee tat :)