I’m sure he has a heart of gold.
- alvie.net

This is the story of a guy, who sleeps in the living room. Because he refuses to share a bedroom with his elder sister. Because he always had a room and do not have one now. Because he wants his own private space. Let us call him Wei. On the night of Friday, 24th August, conincidentally the eve of the 2nd Chinese Ghost Festival 2006, something happened.

VIVACE - A italian word for ‘lively’. In SMU, it means torturous weeks of preparations, so that freshmen may either overwhelmed with the great choices of CCAs or pressured by the big brand names in their incredible budget-bursting campaigns. In this 6-hour event, I have planned throughout the 3 months of summer holidays, a campaign that should finally dispel the many opinions students have of SMUSIFE. And after next week, I hope you’ll know what SMUSIFE finally stands for.

Lake House is a movie about 2 people living a couple years apart, being able to communicate to one another and falling in love eventually. Lake House is not a scientific Back to the Future type of movie with warp zones and pod-like travel machines; it is a romance movie. And in the midst of watching the show, I get constantly reminded of a book, The Time Traveler’s Wife. Both movie and book involved a couple trapped in different time zones, trying to create a future together.

The Singapore Advertising Hall of Fame Awards 2006 is organized by the Institute of Advertising Singapore (IAS). In its 8th year, the prestigious awards ceremony acknowledges the excellence and outstanding achievements of the Singapore advertising industry. If you take the MRT to work or school everyday, you probably would have seen posters of many Creative Directors nominated in their CD of the Year award.

To me, I thought it was a one-off award sponsored by SMRT, not the actual Hall of Fame awards. Such irony that SMRT would degrade the brand equity of the entire event by just concentrating on the one which they sponsored.

For more information about the Hall of Fame Awards, visit http://www.ias.org.sg/.

If you’ve been delighted by your iPod, intrigued with your TiVo, or frustrated by your mobile phone, then you have encountered the work of an interaction designer. And an interaction designer, most likely, has crafted the experience we have with many of the products and services we encounter every day. Dan Saffer, a senior interaction designer at Adaptive Path, leads us through an exploration of this emerging discipline. Published this month, Saffer’s new book, Designing for Interaction, is a much-needed primer on the topic, helping us understand the design of interactive systems. Voice talked with Saffer just prior to his book being published in July.

Straits Times - Psychologist Angeline Khoo had heard a lot about video game addiction while working with parents concerned about protecting chidren from the ills of the internet. To find out what made the activity so compelling, she started playing the online game World of Warcraft last December. Before long, she was hooked, playing more than two hours on weekdays, longer on weekends.

“It started as research, but I really enjoy it too. So it’s become difficult to separate what’s work and what’s play,” She said wryly.

Her verdict, from first hand experience: “Yes, games are definitely addictive.”

Genius.

Even beggers needs branding and image.

Three doctors are being investigated by Indian medical authorities for offering to amputate beggers’ healthy limbs so that they attract more money. The Daily Telegraph reported that the doctors were secretly filmed by news channel CNN-IBN apparently offering to remove a leg for Rs10,400 ($355) and were said to be colluding with the crime gangs that control begging in cities. One doctor, from a government hospital in Delhi, offered to induce gangrene by restricting the flow of blood so that amputation became vital. - TODAY