Skoob versus I Love Books

The only official e-books stores in Singapore at the moment is Singtel’s Skoob and Mediacorp’s I Love Books.

It’s either these two or the altenative is to get e-books from Book Depository and independent stores or go through a more complicated way in which you fake that you aren’t in Singapore if you’re buying ebooks from Amazon itself. The whole the book is not available in your region thing gets to be quite annoying.

So let’s sign up and see how they are!

Note that at this time of post, I Love Books just launched while Skoob has had a lead start in the business even if they don’t seem to do much right now.

Continue reading Skoob versus I Love Books

The Hunger Games… Vouchers… and Diablo 3?

Like The Hunger Games? We’re holding a competition and an event at the central library!

Yes! The Hunger Games Singapore, Liyanaland and us from the HSWG will be hosting it. Click the picture for a larger version of the poster. Mainly though, you can RSVP for the event here. The competition itself will let you win Hunger Games merch and books. There’s the:

  • Short story contest (500-2000 words) – Tell us how life in the Capitol would be like. Open to all.
  • Costume art contest. Two categories: Above 16 years old and under 16 years old. Design a tribute costume with a short description of your entry. 800px in jpg format.

For both competitions, send it to DENG_Anqi@nlb.gov.sg with the email titled “Hunger Games Short Story Contest 2012” or “Hunger Games Costume Art Contest 2012” by 9 June.

The event itself will be on 17 June from 2pm to 5pm at the central library! Yes. Feel free to dress up as the characters too.

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Win Book Depository Vouchers!

Also, do YOU want to win Book Depository vouchers up to $20? Liyanaland has a competition on her website here for more details on that. Seriously, if you like buying books especially from BD, go look at it since the competition is super simple.

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Continue reading The Hunger Games… Vouchers… and Diablo 3?

May you have an awesome adventure

The listings for May! ALSO, did you get the pun in the title? Eh? EH?

May Adventures!

4 May – It’s May 4th or May the 4th be with you. Star Wars day!

5 May -  Free Comic Book Day! GnB comics will have two guests at their shop! Nicola Scott and Ardian Syaf. Besides that, free comics (duh)! Some titles are quite popular so get them as soon as you can. From past experiences, even if you’re not a member of the store, you’d get free comics but just lesser than members.

Also, the 1st 100 GnB MEMBERS to arrive on FCBD will get 1 Lucky Draw Ticket that will entitle them a chance to WIN an original art piece kindly donated by Nicola Scott !  Alternatively, if you’re going to Kinokuniya, you’d get 20% discount on comics at Kinokuniya and a limited set of free comic books with every purchase.

4-8 MayTraditional Wayang at Pulau Ubin! More details here. The details say that it has free rides to Pulau Ubin and to quote: This is NOT a special performance put up for the public, but a part of the way of life of the residents of Ubin. Here is a chance to take part in a dying tradition.

12 MayEscape from Werewolf Village! This time, it’s tougher than ever! Solve the puzzles and escape from the werewolf village at *scape! Tickets available at Gatecrash, Ticket Cube or SAM machines.

I suggest you go to ticket cube if you are going with a group to make sure that you’d be going to a slot with enough availability for everyone. ALSO, you can only play this ONCE.

19 MayFood Revolution Day! Yes, that Jamie Oliver’s food revolution. We have a Food Revolution Day in Singapore! It’ll be at the lawn of 31 Biopolis Way.

Just check out their facebook event link for more info. What is definite is that you’re probably going to learn how to cook food or eat it.

19 May – International Museum Day! Free entry to museums on this day. That means it includes:

  • Asian Civilisations Museum
  • Memories at Old Ford Factory
  • National Museum of Singapore
  • Peranakan Museum
  • Reflections at Bukit Chandu
  • Singapore Art Museum
  • Singapore Philatelic Museum

26 May (to 27 May)SPORE CON! Besides a convention for analogue gaming, this year we have more  special guests like Sonny Liew, Drewscape and much more. Plus okay, US! The Happy Smiley Writers Group! Come, come! It’ll be fun.

26 MayPandemic! It’s actually brought in by the Singapore Arts Festival but if you haven’t got enough running around escaping from werewolves in the previous week… RUN AWAY FROM VAMPIRES FOR THIS EVENING! It’s at Old School at Mount Sofia and to get up there if you’re using public transport, well, there’s a stupid hill involved.

Everyone describes it as “the stupid hill”.  It says it’s an interactive installation with storyline. The website linked from the Singapore Arts Festival site to their “official” site seems odd though. I’d just stick to the details on SAF’s. Oh! And you have to be at least 16 and above for this.

That’s it for May! If you’ve an event that is exciting or something that is new or different, comment in this post and I’ll update!

The Singapore We’re Not The Usual Blog Awards 2012 – Categories!

Ok so there’s this yearly blog awards that’s happening right now and a lot of people on twitter and such have pretty much said that they don’t fit in any categories (including me).

It’s always the usual foodie/lifestyle/fashion whatever blogs. Surely there’s more blogs than that! If it were only that, I’d be totally bored. So I decided to do this.

No prizes since this would the first time trying this out. Unless by the middle of this whole experimental thing, people start to donate prizes and stuff.

We’ll see then. However, with all the listings, we’ll finally learn more blogs than the usual ones we see in the news/media/linked to us. So that would be pretty neat, wouldn’t it?

For now, here are the deadlines:

Categories submission: 27 April – 11 May

Nomination of blogs: 18 May – 8 June

Voting of blogs: 22 June – 22 July

Alright, now I need YOUR help! I have planned down some categories but I know I might be missing out some, click on read more to see and also COMMENT with your suggestions!

The categories will then be finalized for the nomination of blogs on 18 May.

Continue reading The Singapore We’re Not The Usual Blog Awards 2012 – Categories!

The Nike BFF 5k run Singapore!

So Joelyn and I signed up for the NIKE BFF run at Sentosa. The race village was going to be at the Wavehouse! Around 5200 ladies signed up for the race and it was that kind of day that rained, stopped for a moment and started to rain again. Nike was pretty good since they messaged our phones to tell us about the weather and to see if the race was going to be on.

It was.

Continue reading The Nike BFF 5k run Singapore!

Chickens, fishes and lions! Oh my!

Let’s start off with a few submission calls with deadlines in decending order…

We have The Ayam Curtain which is a an anthology of very short fiction! Short (HA HA) details are that it has to be:

  • speculative fiction in English
  • either 100-150 words or 500 words to 1000 words (there are two categories)
  • written by Singaporeans or residents of Singapore (not necessarily PRs)
  • Deadline is 31 May 2012

For more details, check out their page here.

Continue reading Chickens, fishes and lions! Oh my!