Disappearing Act

Had been really busy with renovating new place and then moving in (I'm still moving, can you believe it?  Been months already).  And then preparing for the little one to arrive next week.  The gynea told me that any moment from now, if there is bleeding, water broke or little bear stop moving so much, I have to go to check into the hospital immediately.  So I have started maternity leave and counting down at home.  Infact, I have started maternity way earlier because my boss didn't allow me back to office due to zika virus.  Our office is too near the hot zone, so I've been banned from entering.  No problem with that coz it's easier for me to work from the comfort of my home.  Also starting a new blog to share my life as a new mum and the wife of a cop.

Manny Pacquiao invests in Singaporean Mobile Game Company

This is good news to those who are in the mobile gaming scene.

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Boxing legend Manny Pacquiao has bought into a Singapore-based mobile gaming company.

Manny, who’s just won a Senate seat in the Philippine elections last month, snapped up a small stake in Gtoken, a platform that publishes crowdsourced mobile games, for an undisclosed amount. The parties formally inked the deal in the boxer’s hometown General Santos City in southern Philippines over the weekend.

We’ve reached out to Gtoken for the details of the stake sale and we’ll update this story when we hear back.

Now valued at US$60 million, Gtoken has over a million users to date across Southeast Asia, Taiwan, and China, according to a company statement.

Gtoken’s founding investors include Ivan Lee, a serial entrepreneur whose previous food and beverage company was acquired for over US$73 million. Ivan is also the founder of Raging Bull, a private investment fund focused on tech.

Manny is the world’s second highest-paid celebrity, falling behind his rival Floyd Mayweather in the Forbes’ 2015 list. The two athletes’ epic fight in Las Vegas last year helped boost their rankings. Manny also sourced a part his wealth from various endorsement deals with brands such as Nike, Foot Locker, Wonderful Pistachios, Nestle’s Butterfinger, and a handful in the Philippines.

Editing by Terence Lee

Source: Manny Pacquiao invests in Singaporean mobile gaming company

More coverage:

Yahoo - Boxing champion Manny Pacquiao throws his hat into the startup ring, invests in Singapore'a GToken

Deal street Asia - Phillipine boxing icon Manny ‘Pacman’ invests in Singapore startup GtokenSpin.ph - Manny Pacquaio enters mobile gaming business as investor of Singapore-based GToken
Just posted a few links, you can google and find more links from different sources.

Baby Expo Boss looks down on HDB dwellers

This is super disgusting!!  Saw an article on Facebook (posted by All Singapore Stuff) where someone who purchased a defective baby cot from Baby Expo (address below) was looked down upon by the boss (Vivien). Stay in condo so what?  If you are so rich, stay in a landed property.  Be my boss' neighbour in Ridley Road.  Such an idiot!  I will boycott that shop!

Please see below for the defects on the baby cot.

I wouldn't pay S$399 for this kind of quality.  It looked like some rejected products and it sure didn't help that the shop owner's attitude was bad.

Shop address:
Baby Expo
5008 Ang Mo Kio Ave 5
Techplace 2 #06-10/11/12/13
Singapore 569874

Read actual article here:
All Singapore Stuff
Facebook

Old Papan, Ipoh

Yeah!!  I finally finish my short write up on my trip to Old Papan.  Yah, I'm like 3 months late but can't blame me.  Work's been busy and I'm still figuring out how to make videos using iMovie (I'm a Pinnacle Studio person...not an expert though). Note that I backdate the post to the day I visited the place.

Nonetheless, check out the post here!

Facebook Phishing Scam

Received a message early this morning on Facebook. The sender doesn't even know she sent the message so it's highly possible that her Facebook account had been hacked.  So here's how the message looked like.

ＷＡＲＮＩＮＧ

Our system has received the reports from the other users about the misuse of your account and that may cause your account will be deactivated.
The user gets this warning because misusing one of our features.

To confirm your account, please visit:

http://ilc-new-update.at.ua/accounts09/recovery/

If within 24 hours you do not visit our links, your account is automatically deactivated permanently.

Thαnk you Fαcebook Teαm
█║▌│█│║▌║││█║▌█║
Copyright © 2016™

If you receive something like this, do not click or on it.  Simply let the sender know you have receive this message from him/her and request that the person change her password.  Coz if you click on it, there might be chances that you will be the one sending the same message to your friends.

It's not difficult to tell that this message is fake.  Firstly, the English.  It sucks!  Facebook will not send you a message with poor English. Secondly, the link. It's an external link.  Thirdly, if this is from Facebook, they would have also announced it rather than just sending you PMs.

Just be careful folks!!

Marine Parade Town Council says - You cannot play chess here!

This is hilarious!  So hilarious I thought I should share with all of you.  Marine Parade Town Council has decided that a certain block in Haig Road shouldn't be playing chess as there had been complains about the noise level.  When the poster was first noted, it did not state anything about noise level.  It simply tells the residents not to play chess.  And my thought was "hey, chess is such a cultured game....why cannot play?".  I can only guess that this is a really abstract poster....you need a super artistic mind to be able to 'read' the underlying message.  Chess is like war except that it's more civilised. You kill your opponents in the game instead of killing them in the field. So perhaps, MPTC is trying to use chess to show the residents that war is not right, it depicts violence, bloodshed, war cries, hatred...etc. Thus no playing of chess in common areas probably means no violence?  That's really profound...took me a few days to figure out!

Whoever came up with this idea is a genius but not everyone knows how to decipher a deep message like this.

Anyway guys, let's go there and play mahjong or whacko since chess is not aloud....I mean allowed!


http://www.theonlinecitizen.com/2016/03/marine-parade-town-council-apologises-for-poster-banning-chess/#prettyPhoto

By-Election (Bukit Batok SMC)

So now that David Ong has relinquished his position as the MP of Bukit Batok SMC, there is probably going to be a by-election coming up very very soon (we are just waiting for the date). Some parties have indicated an interest in contesting while one decided not to.

I personally felt that it would be a good challenge if only 2 parties are contesting. One being the defending party and the other being the opposition. I know that Mr Samir is very eager to serve his residents but I do hope he will not join the fun to dilute votes.  SDP, DPP and PPP have also indicated their interest.  I believe the strongest opposition party out of these 3 is the SDP.  The participation of the other 2 parties merely swing votes all over the place and in the end, PAP will still take the ward.  I have nothing against PAP taking the ward but I felt it's high time our parliament has more colors.

WP has indicated that they won't be contesting.  Some of their supporters have encouraged them to contest but knowing their strategy....they will not contest in any area they have no presence in. MP Sylvia Lim has graciously indicated the party's decision to let SDP go for it and I certainly wish other opposition parties will follow suit.  Don't do it for party satisfaction but please do it for the people of Singapore.

On a lighter side....Kim Huat has an urgent announcement to make.

David Ong's (Ex-MP for Bukit Batok SMC) Resignation

This is one very confusing news.  When I first saw that David Ong has resigned due to personal indiscretion, my first thought was...wow, this guy is really accountable.  He is willing to be responsible for his own mistake which is quite unheard of in big political parties (except during elections....and only during elections).

Shortly after, I read from another source that Chan Chun Sing (aka Kee chiu) said PAP took 'decisive action' once it knew about ex-MP David Ong's case.  This got me really confused.  Did he resign or was he terminated from service?  I saw from LHL's Facebook page that there was indeed a resignation letter and a resignation acceptance letter.  So who is telling the truth?  Was David asked to resigned to preserve the party's image.  If not, why did kee chiu say that the party took decisive action?  Does it mean that when it was found out that David had extra-marital affairs with a married woman, he has no intention to resign at all....not until he was asked to do so?

This is slightly different from the Michael Palmer's issue because in Palmer's resignation letter, he did indicate that he resigned because of the affair.  In Ong's case, this was not indicated. Was he not sorry for the what he did?

And then in a recent news, Ms Wendy Lim, the alleged "David's other woman", resigned from the Party. I also learn from social media that it was Wendy's husband who sounded the alarm.  I hope netizens will spare the husband from all the spotlight because seriously speaking, he is the victim and social media peeps shouldn't be capitalizing on him.  Just focus on David and the by-election will do.


Related news:
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/bukit-batok-mp-david-ong/2595896.html
http://www.todayonline.com/singapore/chan-chun-sing-doorstop
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/grassroots-activist-wendy/2603220.html

Endgods: Entrepreneur eyes mobile game changer

Pushing limits with tournament launched for game

He has taken on Crystal Jade and Starbucks and thrived against the odds. Now, serial entrepreneur and Thai Express founder Ivan Lee is girding for another David versus Goliath fight - this time, against gaming giants Electronic Arts, Blizzard, Valve and Riot.

"When I started Thai Express, I was the smallest.  I looked at Crystal Jade, I looked at Starbucks, and I though, 'Wow, these are my competitors'," he recalled.

But such daunting prospects did not faze Mr Lee, 40, who openly acknowledges that he has a highly competitive steak.

He set up the first Thai Express in Holland Village in 2002 and, just six years later, in 2008, sold 70 per cent of his share in the chain for $80 million.

Now, following the overwhelming success of his F&B venture, Mr Lee is setting his sights on a whole new arena - mobile gaming.

"The game business is dominated by juggernauts, like Electronic Arts, Blizzard, Valve and Riot.  We are the smallest," he said.  "So okay, game on, let's compete."

Two-and-a-half years ago, he founded mobile game studio SparkJumpers, with director Randy Prabowo, 28, and development manager Tan Eng Khoon, 33.

Their first game, EndGods, is a strategic brawler, where two players deploy combinations of characters over different lanes to conquer opposing forces.

The company has just launched a competition for the game, called League of Gods.  It has a $100,000 prize pool, and the finals will be held in May at Suntec City.

Mr Lee decided to focus on mobile gaming because of the potential he sees in the ubiquity of handheld devices.

"In a country like Singapore, mobile phones start to become a part of you, almost like an extension of your hand, whereas we're  not at our PCs all the time," he said, noting that the market for mobile games has been steadily growing.

Mr Lee also has a personal interest in the area, as he grew up on a steady diet of video games.  Even today, the serial investor says he plays every day, spending his time on a variety of titles form the Civilisation series to Heroes Of The Storm and Diablo III.

When the trio began developing a mobile game, Mr Lee said that he wanted it to be "easy to pick up, but difficult to master".

"Mobile games can suck up a lot of time, but they mostly lack depth - you can't have competitions, and they're mostly pay-to-win.  I am very passionate about building a game with depth," he said.

The competitive aspect of the game is also very important to him.  "Without the NBA (National Basketball Association), we wouldn't know that you can reverse dunk, and without the Spanish football league, we wouldn't know that you can curve the ball like that.  The pros show you what the game can really be," he said.

In November last year, they organised the first EndGods competition, which has a $30,000 prize pool.  The top prize of $10,000 was won by competitive Dota 2 player Wong "NutZ" Jeng Yih.

The ongoing League of Gods also boasts one of the highest prize pools for a local competition.

The team has also engaged top players from other video games to play EndGods, in the hope that this will push the strategic limits of the game.  For example, Singaporean professional League Of Legends player Wong "Chawy" Xing Lei will be taking part in the League of Gods tournament.

To date, Mr Lee and a group of private individual investors have spent $4 million of developing and marketing EndGods in Singapore, Malaysia and Taiwan.  They have plans to expand to China soon.

The game, which is technically still in its beta phase - it will launch fully some time this year - currently has a player base of 5,000 users who log on at least twice a month.

Although EndGods may not yet be a household name, Mr Lee is certain that this will change in time to come.

"In three to five years, we will be globally renowned," he said.  "When you mention games like Dota 2, League Of Legends, and Counter-Strike, you will mention EndGods alongside them."

Source: Straits Times