The Big Scope

The Economic Crunch

2008-10-07T20:13:00.003+08:00

Well it has been quite awhile since I last posted due to certain circumstances. Anyway I am back hopefully I will still able to post stuff every now and then.

I am sure that most of us are face with the constant headlines of economic downturn. Starting from the subprime mortgage crisis to the 700 billion dollars bailout made mostly of the American middle income blood and sweat.

What an explosive display!!!

2008-08-11T12:23:00.003+08:00

I think most of us will realise by now, this weekend was filled with lots of fireworks. The grand fireworks were displayed on the opening ceremony of the Bejing Olympics and of course another course of fireworks were seen on our National Day.

Amidst of all the beautiful displays during the weekend, real explosives were use in Georgia due to a conflict between Russia. Right now, the conflict has become serious as Georgia declare war against the Russian ( An unwise thing to do). So if you were passing by South Ossetia ( Their battlefield) you will see some displays of missles, bombs and gunfire. Now that is one type of fireworks you would not want to be in.

The 7th month

2008-08-03T21:54:00.003+08:00

After two weeks of absence we are back with a comic about the "Seventh Month". I guess most of you will know that the seven month is refering to the chinese lunar calendar and not July. At this month it is said that our netherworldly relatives will step out of the gates of hell to visit their descendants for one sweet month.

It is also at this month where they get their annual allowance filled with hellnotes and coins, seems like an economy is striving down there.

Batman

2008-07-20T15:07:00.004+08:00

Wham!!Bamm!!Whoopf!!! The Batman is back and ready to kick some @ss right in the cinema screens.Honestly, the main draw for me and the rest of us to catch "The Dark Knight" isn't really about the cape crusader throwing batarangs at evildoers , but rather to catch the late Heath ledger in his highly acclaimed performance (lauded by critics) as The Joker.

Batman is well-known for its rouge gallery of villains.The vigilante will not rise into prominence without its interesting array of psychotic ,maniacal and obscure villains.Apart from The Joker , who could forget the fat, bumbling aristocrat ,Penguin or the nasty ,bipolar suffering ,Two-Face. It's the realism of these villains that drew me into the realm of Gotham City.These villains are not crappy mobsters that got mutated by some toxic substance and become powerful beings bestowed with supernatural powers. Not for the Batman, as most of the criminals are just suffering from mental disorders or just wants to do EVIL.

It's a habit that I get be it reading a graphic novel or reading a manga , that I try to relate something from that piece of story into my life. Of course comics will be boring without any exaggeration of powers and snazzy wham blam action.

BLAM!!WHAM!!POW!!!!

Learning languages

2008-06-29T14:32:00.004+08:00

Well in fact this comic was supposed to be part of another blog's entry but for some reason something ridiculous happen. My intention was to use the comic to provide a more humorous view on learning new languages (which is the theme of that particular entry),but due to some unforeseen circumstances those editors did not include my comic with the entry so I am posting this comic in my own blog.

I can probably assume that those guys thought I stole some other guy's web comic and due to fear of copyright infringement they decided not to post it.

About the comic: Learning new languages is certainly a tough thing to do, therefore I intended to poke some humor about this issue.

Just in case you might not understand what is "Wie geht es Ihnen?'' or "Comment ca va", these are the german and french version of "How are you?" respectively.

Diablo is back

2008-06-28T22:56:00.010+08:00

The heavens shall tremble , as evil rises again among the demonic twisted realm of Hell. Hell's army will once again battle against heaven and Man. It is up to us to put on our sweaty and nimble fingers to enter into the fray , instead of standing by the sideline and watch the epic battle in front of our mortal eyes...

Diablo 3 was unveiled today officially at the Blizzard World Wide Invitation (WWI) in Paris today. For those who don't get what's all this hype, many persistent and hopeful fans have waited for eight years after its predecessor, Diablo 2 was released in 2000.It sure takes a hell(pun intended) lot of pain and patience to remain hopeful amongst the many , to continue playing the ladder games in Battle.net,remaining faithful despite the graphics ,whilst comparing it to its counterparts(Warcraft3 and Starcraft2).

Well we'll have to wait for a long time before the game will hit the selves ...so i guess i'll have to stay a while and listen....

And about the comic, Diablo just cast some fire spell on the audience (some very delighted fans worthy of being Diablo's sacrifice)

Planet Summit

2008-06-08T21:50:00.005+08:00

To those who don't know Saturday was World Environment Day , it's a day where we gaze in horror what we humans have done to our planet.It might also explain that blood and oil dripping followed by a chainsawing on a doll's head advertisement ,that has been playing since the start of this week.

Many scientists have been debating over the cause for this phenomenon ,similar to the debate 0ver the random mutation of cancerous cells. Some argued that it was solar variation or the sudden increase in solar radiation of the sun that is contributing to this rise in temperature.While others ,emphasized that it is us that contributed to the rise in temperature by emitting excessive carbon dioxide gases into the atmosphere.

Well in the end , what is inevitable is that global temperatures are rising , time will tell what will befall onto this planet.

Word

2008-06-06T17:29:00.003+08:00

It irks me to see words that are typed in Microsoft Word to be underlined in ugly, squiggly red/green lines,like there is a three-year old kid programming this "underlining mechanism" or something......

If Microsoft Word is trying to alert me about my spelling , punctuation , grammatical and spacing errors , I say they did a good job.

Freedom

2008-06-05T18:07:00.005+08:00

Would you dare to wield a placard and run into the streets to start a "peaceful" protest , after our government decided to increase the price of fuel by 40%?How about the banning of popular websites like Youtube and Myspace?

Singaporeans are indifferent to any forms of protest over certain human "rights" that we innately should possess - free speech,freedom of press and transparency of the government.The recent court case between the seemingly flippant Dr.Chee enjoying his battle with Lee Kuan Yew over a defamation suit, bring about the issue of freedom.We tend to dismiss these "freedom fighters" as a national embarrassment or compare it to a MapleStory player - a person with no life , but what really matters is are these rights really mean a lot to us?

Rights such as free speech are important to us , in order to voice out our resentment over certain issues that might deem sensitive to the government.Without it we would be living in a totalitarian world ,where the government will control your every move. Are Singaporeans lacking any in free speech that Dr.Chee is "desperately" fighting for it?I doubt so , the repeal 337A movement , indicates that the government is willing to debate over controversial issues , homosexuality and sodomy for this instance.

If we have too much freedom over exercising our rights , we will having uprisings and violent demonstrations as a daily feature in our Singaporean lifestyle.Think Indonesia and the scene of Frankenstein and the angry mob.

Enter the Phoenix

2008-05-29T17:43:00.002+08:00

A nonsensical take on the recent successful landing of the Mars exploration rover, Phoenix.
This blog has been rather barren recently , due to the lack of comments in the tag box.Please share your comments with us on the comics we have posted or the issues relating to them.

Even if it is a negative comment.

We won't bite.

My Indiana Jones

2008-05-25T12:51:00.004+08:00

He is the man with the hat and he is back for his lastest adventure, only this time he appears to be older. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of crystal skull started screening yesterday in cinemas island-wide. I have not heard about the reception so far but certainly it will be at the number 1 spot in the box office.

Just to let you know, I am not an Indiana Jones freak. In fact the only thing I ever get close to watching Indiana Jones was my teacher screening a scene about those guys opening the ark. Indiana Jones though has not affected much to my life but it certainly does wonder how its legacy manage to survive for decades, if I'm not wrong, Gunbound still has that Indiana Jones outfit. Yes Gunbound,that 2d sidescroller shooting game....

Apart from all the whipping and chasing scenes, one thing will always remain in my mind, the unforgettable Indiana Jones theme song. Like all theme songs, they provide the initial hype of the movie and certainly bring Dr.Jones back to life even though he is not yet dead.:)

State of fear

2008-05-19T15:37:00.004+08:00

We had quite an unfortunate week even though today is Vesak day. Two major disasters had strike Asia , the first was Cyclone Nargis that hit Myanmar and secondly the Sichuan 8.0 magnitude Earthquake. So we do know that both events are natural disasters that strike the two countries ( China and Myanmar).

The cyclone in Myanmar caused social turmoil in the country. Flooding farmlands, destroying houses that have weak foundations and unhygienic water sources ( problems associated with decaying bodies lying around). The total amount of casualties can be amounted up to 140,000, leaving 1 million homeless. If you actually read the newspapers, you can see how bad situation is. The injured are cramped in hospitals with basic facilities, people are grieving for those who are dead and most importantly the lack of proper shelter and food sources.

Secondly, in the Sichuan province recently, an earthquake hit their land causing many buildings( again with poor foundation ) to collapse. People including students were trapped or even killed by the falling debris. Though the area of effect of this damage is small compared to Cyclone Nargis. Both sides share similar problems, Death, Injured and homeless. With a death toll of 30000 and above leaving many injured, it could be the worst disaster China has suffered in this decade.

However, when comparing with the two disasters, we realise something is amiss. China is allowing the entrance of international rescue squads and aids to help its people. Even the Japanese rescue teams were allowed to help. Myanmar on the other hand, restrict most aids from many countries, especially the United States. Hence, it is obvious that the Burmese are definitely in dire need of help , thanks to its oppressive military government. Up to today I'm still unclear about why the Junta is doing this, although I did come up with many theories (one of them being the military plans to bend on world domination, by building a secret doomsday ray deep in the heart of Rangoon).

The PETA situation

2008-05-04T21:24:00.009+08:00

A friend of mine once made a joke about PETA ( People Eating Tasty Animals). It does really contradicts what those guys at PETA are doing. For those who do not know ,PETA refers to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals .It is an animal activist organization , set to eradicate all forms of animal abuses , to end the suffering of those poor creatures.

Well before we assume that they are doing a good thing trying to help animals and all, there are several criticisms toward this animal activist group. PETA has been famous for its advertisements to promote their message, for instance they usually portray famous celebrities in nude and of course gory images of animals being ill-treated.

We know that PETA is really good at hunting attractive images.So why were they being criticised?

Well a little known fact about PETA is their use of euthanasia to stray animals. That's right folks animal activist killing animals!!!! Most people in PETA believe that mercy killing is best to prevent further suffering for animals. Indeed it is quite an irony for an animal activist group to favour such actions.

Not surprisingly other animal activist group had been suffering a similar plight in their actions towards the animals.In addition, they also view their methods of spreading the message (gory stuff and nude celebrities ) as '' circus '' acts.

Enough about PETA , here is little interesting article I have read:

"2 Scientist have first recorded a footage about a seal trying to mate with a penguin. The frustrated more like confuse seal ''wrestle'' with the penguin for 45 minutes before giving up" clicky this link for the full article http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7379554.stm

That is certainly much better way to promote the message than sending images of headless seals.

Who is at fault?

2008-04-27T21:19:00.002+08:00

The Mas selemat case is the talk of the town again, only this time the issue comes from the Parliament. If you might not have read about the headlines this week then allow me to tell you a little synopsis about the Mas selemat saga. Mr Low Thia Khiang(Hougang MP) consistently hinted that Mr Wong Kan Seng ( Minister of Home affairs) should resign due to his failure in preventing Mas Selemat from escaping.

In fact on Monday, the Straits Times did give a comprehensive article about how Masy escape. It seems so difficult to acknowledge what known to be a first class security system to be breached easily by someone falling off a window.

It is all very confusing to see who is at fault. The minister will be the first to be blamed cause he is the big honcho. The guard will be next in line as he did not know that Mas selemat will turn out to be Michael Scofield(Prison break reference) and somehow never notice his escape.

The math prodigy-turned-prostitute

2008-04-20T21:25:00.010+08:00

You must read the life of Sufiah Yusof in order to understand this comic.There were not many articles this week that I could create a comic. So I have decided to dig up some interesting articles from the previous month. In this case, I have chosen the case of Sufiah Yusof. If you are unfamiliar about her , allow me to shed some light about her life.

So basically this Sufiah girl is a maths prodigy( somehow the child who are labelled as prodigy are either musicians or kids who love maths),she entered Oxford university at the age of 13.Many questioned her father's strict regime that propels her to the university .

So what is this strict regime?. Sufiah Yusof and her siblings were forced to undergo a strict schedule of studying and exercising. Special foods that stimulate rapid brain development were given( definitely not tasty). Socializing and watching TV were forbidden. With all this measures placed on to these group of kids , Sufiah Yusof somehow when berserk after going to the university.

I know that we will be begging Oxford to give us a place, but Sufiah Yusof turning into a prostitute is a contrast to a prodigy. To spark the controversy, she openly claimed that the strict regime made her a prostitute.

So what is the take away note? Basically all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy and no TV makes one a prostitute.

the olympics and tibet

2008-04-13T18:03:00.005+08:00

Things are not going too well for our Chinese friends, as there have been several disturbance to the Beijing Olympics torch relay.Millions of Chinese slammed their critics in forums about how the authorities in Paris or London deal with the protesting.What known to be a significant part of the Olympics,the torch relay,has now become a media circus filled with irated freedom fighters.

Apart from all the shouting of "FREE TIBET" and attempts to snatch the torch from the torch bearer(even trying to assault a handicap tourch bearer).Many people gave mixed reviews from all the ruckus.Chinese condemn the protest by saying that the protestors are putting politics into the Olympics and freedom fighters continue to see the Olympics as and opportunity to catalyse the Tibetian freedom.

It just is'nt right that they use such an event to express the issue.I mean apart from the Olympics being a prestigous sporting event, how effective can they solve the issue by stealing the torch and say''I got the torch now FREE TIBET''.It just does not work that way,but still people actually risk being arrested and assault the torch bearer.

Anyway it just wrong to dampened the Chinese Olympic spirit.People in China actually prepare for the Olympics(some even try to learn basic English).So a good strategy will be let the Olympics pass first then go on with all the things about Tibet.That way will be assured that there will be no Chinese mob waiting to appear at every streets of Paris.

ps :sometimes it is funny to see how propaganda works

Global inflation

2008-04-05T21:32:00.003+08:00

While we are calculating logarithms or seeing new faces this week, articles of food prices increase have been slamming into our beloved headlines.In fact after reading the articles under the Saturday section, I have realize that some Singaporeans splash their money every week on Ben & Jerry ice-cream while some people cannot even afford shelved products.It goes to show how rich some Singaporeans are.

Strangely enough there seem to be a strange reaction towards the inflation of rice prices.
Now, most countries in South east Asia react to the increasing prices of food through riots(In fact the French once had an amazing riot after Queen Antoinette Marie told them to eat some cakes)
Ironically, Singaporeans react to the price hike by buying more products and that certainly could be due to the amazing affluence we have in this country.

Now I'm not trying to say that Singaporeans are rich and being a bad ass.The lack of riots speak for the country lack of freedom of speech. (Come to think of it, buying more products could cause
a shortage of supply hence, causing trouble to the government in a more legal way.)In fact it is more of a portrayal of Singapore's vulnerability to food sources, yes we may be rich and all but that does not matter when majority of our food exports comes from foreign countries.

So if a farmer's kid in China decides to buy a new game for his PSP every week,we are certainly ****.

PS: Feeling rhymy after this post

earth hour : the importance of electricity

2008-03-29T20:31:00.003+08:00

Ironically I'm still using my computer during Earth hour.As I'm typing this post,several cities in the world planned to switch off their electricity supply for an hour.(It begins at 8pm today) Unfortunately,Singapore will not be participating Earth hour but they encouraged people to switch off their main for an hour ,like their foreign counterparts.
Still as I am typing this post, my neighborhood seems like any other Saturday evening,as though no one knows about Earth hour or rather ignore it( I'm guilty now ).
The only way Singaporeans is going to experience Earth hour is a volunteered shut down of electricity which could save an hour of electricity bills(less likely to happen).
Alternatively, a coincidental blackout should occur and save an hour worth of electricity bills but risk complaints from people missing their TV program or lost an hour of charging their Ipods.

Thinking about this situation certainly brings us back to the 29th of June 2004 blackout in Singapore island-wide. That very day gave us a glimpse of our over-reliance to electricity.

PS: A comic about blackout will be very plain indeed

YATTA( i did it)!!!

2008-03-21T23:36:00.001+08:00

Hope you enjoy this comic ^^

Eating beans

2008-03-15T18:17:00.004+08:00

Apart from all this JI terrorist events,we should also read up about the recent news regarding genetically modified foods.I think that if you guys read the Straits Times you will know what I'm trying to say here.
Here are some things the article had point out:
1.Under Singapore's law, food need not require to label the fact they are genetically modified
2.GM food rarely poses a threat to our health ( allegies are one such prominent problem)
3.The main concern is about the long term effects of the GM food
So basically almost everything we eat are somehow connected to an ingredient that has been genetically modified and we may not even know it.
People have since tried to create the best of their products by artifical selection, getting the best gene and making our food tastier or look nicer.
Ever since the advent of Genetic engineering, people make use of this tool to speed up artifical selection,in other words we get to have the tastiest food faster.
In most cases ,people genetically modify their seeds to increase the yields of their products which eventually increase their profits$$$
Therefore one might worry that scientists put its emphasis on the quality and quantity of it's product and this attempt may forego the concern of comsumer's health.
Frankly speaking I have no qualms about eating GM food but I may still need to be aware about the possibilities of a health threat.

Toilet break

2008-03-09T14:42:00.004+08:00

Wow it has been 10 days since the JI Terror suspect Mas Selemat Kastari break out of the detention centre.Ever since that faithful day ,the incident has been the talk of the town.Whether it will be about criticising the Singapore police force lack of security or stuck in a jam while travelling across to Malaysia,we have to admit he has really become a Singapore icon.Now that his face has appeared in every single people living in Singapore,it will be hard being a wanted man.
Sometimes I do manifest some assumptions on where he will be.He could have hide himself up at the rooftops,feasting on offerings in a cemetry or perhaps someone had harbour him :/.But right now we just have to wait until the authorities captured him,although it will be a rather smelly job.

29th of February

2008-02-29T20:01:00.009+08:00

It's leap day!!!!!!Today is the day when there is an additional day on February in the Gregorian calendar.Every year that is exactly divisible by four is a leap year, except for years that are exactly divisible by 100; the centurion years that are exactly divisible by 400 are still leap years. For example, the year 1900 was not a leap year; the year 2000 was a leap year.

So what exactly is the big deal about a leap day? Well people who are born on leap days don't get to see their birthday only after four years other than that there isn't really a big deal about leap day.What about celebrating leap day?The only way to celebrate leap day is to irritate those who are born on this day.Frankly speaking a leap day is just like any other ordinary day although I'm quite shock that most people do not realize about this additional day in February because it isn't a big deal after all.

In my attempt to recycle a piece of paper, we decided to draw our comic on the other side of the used paper.
Obviously you can see some lines and crumples but still it is just another BigScope comic :)

The world we all grew in

2008-02-25T22:32:00.008+08:00

Have you ever think about the day you were born.When our parents smile as they carry a little crying being as red as a beetroot.Our fragile body is under the care of my beloved Singaporean parents.I'm glad to be born in Singapore, even though I have a strange feeling that as a male citizen our identity has been track down until the age of 18 to make sure we do our NS.But as we soon grow older we realize that many of the things we have been taking for granted since day one.
We were not threatened by gunshots and grenades in Kuwait or catching malaria in Africa.The abundance of safety and provision has brought us up since Day one and this certainly make me feel grateful of Singapore.
Not only we know more about the things we have taken for granted.We begin to know more about the world we live in.The daily readings of the newspaper tell us the world we live in has its own chaos and happiness.All this information make me feel motivated to continue living and hopefully do something to help the world we grew in.

Here are some events that took place in the year when I was born(1991):
In 1991 the US commence operation desert storm on Kuwait which mark the beginning of the second Gulf war
In 1991 the first Russian president(Boris Yeltsin)was elected which mark the end of the Soviet Union.
The Soviet Union cease from existence on the 31st of December 1991.After 69 years of reign in Russia(1922-1991)
Mount Pinatubo erupted on April 1991

Well then hope you enjoy this entry

Blood

2008-02-24T14:40:00.005+08:00

Sweeney Todd is a nice musical ,though I don't really fancy the plot much,but you have to marvel at the climate created by the eccentric director ,Tim Burton.
Tim Burton is known for creating dark and gothic films from the weird Beetlejuice to the heartwarming tale of Edward Scissorshand ,potraying characters that are unconventional and twisted.Many might not know him as the director of several batman movies , planet of the apes, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Corpse Bride.
He is also a director of several stop-motion animation films ,one great example would be The Nightmare Before Christmas , where many of its characters are portrayed in a whimsical and goth-like fashion.
Lastly,to those that did not watch Sweeney Todd , it is all about blood.

Japan Hour

2008-02-12T22:15:00.000+08:00

While I was reading and article about why people start to watch foreign tv programs.I manage to spot this quote ''As a country began to lose it's traditional culture due to economic development, people will seek alternative cultures from other countries''.Certainly this quote is relevant to what is happening in Singapore, a least to the majority.People turn on to Western programs, Korean drama serials and you name it,Japanese Anime!!.It seems that the "big-eyed cartoons" has certainly spawn a huge load of fans right here.As Singapore turns itself into a global city our local dramas will be overrun by foreign films.It is indeed a sad scenario yet pointless to rant any further.

I shall present you a little challenge !!!
Try to name the three characters in the (Simplicity) frame of this comic.Kindly type out your answers in the tagbox(no awards will be given :( )