This is not for competition, but we just want to do a little extra for our dear visitors. After a few days of planning and construction, finally we finished our own version of “in Plain English” series, which is named by ourselves “WeLoveYOG in Plain English”.

We use this video to tell the story between Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games and WeLoveYOG.com, we described why we created this blog, how did we do for this blog and what’s the relationship between this blog and SYOGOC. Using “in Plain English” style can make our video much more comprehensive and of course, more interesting. Actually we did something creative, we added some interesting sound effects to fit the theme – “youth”.

Urgent to watch this wonderful “in Plain English” video? As usual, recommended to watch under HQ mode.

Plus: The sound track is recorded by myself, sorry for my bad English…

Over the past 40 years, Singapore has emerged from a small fishing port to one of Asia’s most prosperous economies with a gross domestic of US$51,142 per capital which is currently ranked 4th in the world. Its innovative yet steadfast form of economics has given it the nickname the ‘Singapore Model’. Dubbed as a “relatively corruption-free” country with a stable government, Singapore has received zillion praises from tourists around the world.

Some of these wondrous traits Singapore posses have contributed greatly to the conspicuous success of winning the bid to host the first ever Youth Olympic Games. Next year, the inaugural world-class sporting event will be held right here in Singapore from August 14 – 26.

I was exultant but also stupefied after the announcement of the successful bidder. I didn’t expect that a relatively diminutive country with a population of close to 5 million is able to host such an event of world-class standard. As a loyal Singaporean, I will continue to give my replete support by contributing to the YOG community such as participating in most of the upcoming events and promote YOG to whole using the power of social websites.

Here, I’ve compiled a list of 40+ fantastic and gorgeous HDR photographs of some of Singapore’s iconic landmarks. After viewing these really impressive and beautiful photos, you might have a plan in mind to watch the full action of top-notch participants from around the world exhibiting their sports talents and challenging with one another. Hope to see you guys next year!

Sri Veeramakaliamman Temple

Chinese Garden

Changi Airport Terminal 3

Kwan-Yin Temple

Old Parliament House

Chijmes

Singapore Flyer

Sultan Mosque

Singapore Merlion

Singapore Old Supreme Court

Singapore Railway Station

Esplanade

National Museum of Singapore

Stamford House

Parliament House of Singapore

National Art Gallery of Singapore

The Fullerton Hotel

Kong Meng San Temple

Click on Image to Expand

Why your blog deserves to win the Best Overall Blog challenge?

We are very active and zealous in the upcoming inaugural Youth Olympic Games which is to be held next year during the month of August. For the past few months, we have participated in countless events related to the Youth Olympic Games, such as the learning journey to the YOG learning center, Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games One Year Countdown at Padang and the list goes on. For every event we took part in, we will showcase our photos and videos we have taken and share them with people from all over the world – all thanks to Twitter and Facebook. Till date, we have garnered over 10,000 unique visitors (most of which are from the United States of America) and close to 2,000 users following our Twitter feed @WeLoveYOG. This is indeed an impressive feat for us!

What are the unique features of your blog?

As professional tech bloggers and social media experts, we have vast experience in publishing digital media content. Hence, uploading photos and videos and promoting them to the World Wide Web isn’t an issue for us. In this blog, we have implemented some really fascinating and useful widgets such as the Countdown clock and Twitter Status located at the sidebar of the page. Besides these, the blog design is unique, attractive and outstanding. Since the competition is about YOG, our background design is nevertheless related to youth and sports. The usage of a wide variety of bright colors brightens up the entire page and gives users a splendid feeling. Rather than just merely promoting YOG, we tell users more about the sporting event to give them an in-depth impression of what is the first Youth Olympic Games all about.

How does your blog helps to promote the Singapore Youth Olympic Games which will be held in Singapore next year?

The main purpose of WeLoveYOG.com to is to promote Youth Olympic Games to everyone, especially foreigners and also to show our passion and love for the sporting event. Just like what I’ve mentioned above, we make use of external social networking platforms to spread the message about YOG. Currently, we students have over 1,000 friends on Facebook and an astounding 106,000 followers (@TechXav, @XavLur, @WeLoveYOG, @PathOnWay, @ZhouTongMe and last but not least @LiZiTong) on the world’s most popular micro-blogging service – Twitter. In today’s advanced world, using the power of Internet is the best way to promote a particular product or event unlike our older generations which make use of the expensive traditional media.

Of course, by having profiles on social websites isn’t good enough. That’s why creating a blog and publishing pictures and videos enables others to gain a better knowledge about YOG.

How was the overall experience like participating in this blogging competition?

Despite the fact that we are already very familiarized with digital media content, but through this blogging competition, we have learned that teamwork plays a crucial role in our success today. For example, we spent hours traipsing around the magnificent Singapore city skyline, snapping photographs, in preparation for the photography challenge. Although we may be feel enervated after the exhausting ordeal, but we felt a sense of happiness and belonging because we love Singapore and of course supporting the YOG.

Through the competition, we had the opportunity to meet our dear volunteers at the YOG learning center, to be interviewed by a young and energetic guy from SYOGOC and of course proudly be one of the whole YOG community. These wonderful opportunities were exciting as we had experienced Create Action Now! (aka CAN!)

How do you intend to further develop and improve on your blog after this competition?

Of course we won’t stop even the competition is over. We will continue to contribute to the community and promote YOG to more foreigners. We even intend to integrate Youth Olympic Games into a social web platform and we are now working on it, in an aim to allow more people to join our social community. By making use of our abilities and passion, we will do more for the YOG.

Yes, we think we can win because we Create Action Now!

HDR (High Dynamic Range) is a set of techniques that allow a greater dynamic range of luminance between light and dark areas of a scene than normal digital imaging techniques or photographic prints. When applied, it creates fantastic pictures that blur our senses of the difference between reality and illusion.

There is no doubt that last year’s Beijing Olympics was indeed a success. Despite the fact that Tibetans were boycotting and protesting against the staging of the world-class Olympics Games held in China’s capital, Beijing, the international sporting event had scored a great success with the support and help of the whole international Olympic family.

What’s more is that foreign leaders even congratulate the success of the Games. Israeli President Shimon Peres said that the Beijing Olympic Games is an incomparable and splendid global event and presents a glorious new China to the whole world. The Games passed the message of pace and displayed the grand picture of solidarity. He expressed confidence that the Beijing Olympic Games would become a landmark. “One World, One Dream” has got well known and the cold war mentality will be finally replaced by the warm concept of harmony. The grand sports event also put into practice the idea of “environment-friendly, technology-empowered and culture-enriched Olympics” and facilitated cultural exchanges among countries in the world.

As a 14-year-old student at that time, I have also watched several sporting events including the opening ceremony on my cable television powered by Starhub. To my surprise, the opening ceremony was really fascinating and wonderful! It combined several state-of-the-art technologies, traditional Chinese values, and of course the unique design of the Bird Nest to create an excellent impression for the rest of the world. It had caught nearly 4 billion people’s eyes worldwide and this is indeed an amazing feat accomplished by the Chinese!

Due to Singapore’s small population and land size, it is relatively impossible to stage a Summer Olympic Games here. Even though winning the bid to host the first ever Youth Olympic Games may be a peanut to many developed countries such as the United States, Australia, Germany or Japan, but as a Singaporean, I am really proud of my country to have this rare opportunity. Well, in my personal opinion, I think Singapore will achieve success in the upcoming Youth Olympic Games which will be held here in next August. Why? Here are 2 reasons.

1. Singapore as a Youth Sports Hub

Every year, the Singapore Government sets aside million of dollars to groom our local athletes especially the youth. Our niche sports includes table tennis, swimming and sailing. In the recent Asian Youth Games, we have won several gold medals all thanks to our talented athletes. Of course, we should not forget the coaches. Besides spending money to find and groom our young sportsmen or sportswomen, students like us would engage in physical activities such as football and basketball during our school curriculum. There are also many sports facilities in our vicinity so that we need not to travel far to do a workout. I believe that the close connection between the teenagers and the Youth Olympic Games will make Singapore a suitable place to hold the inaugural Youth Olympic Games held next year during the month of August.

2. Different Races & Religions Coming Together To Form A Nation

What makes Singapore different from other nations or countries is that it has a diverse community consisting of various races (Chinese, Malays, Indians and Eurasians) and religions (Buddhism, Christianity, Catholic, Taoism, Islam, Hinduism and the list goes on). It’s rather extraordinary and amazing that we, despite our vast skin colors, have managed to form one nation and one identity. This is also known as racial harmony.

So what does racial harmony got to do with sports? Well, through sporting events or competitions, they enables these youth to come together and share their personal experiences, thoughts and opinions of anything that come to their minds. Besides that, they can exchange cultural practices with one another too, hence bonding them together.

Since most of the Youth Olympic Games participants speak different languages and probably having various religions, Singaporean youth can dexterously communicate and interact with them in 4 languages (English, Chinese, Malay and Tamil) without any much hassle. Of course, it will still be rather perplexing to have a chat with young sports enthusiasts from France and Spain whose native languages are French and Spanish respectively. But at least, collaborating with YOG participants from the United States of America, United Kingdom, Australia, China, Malaysia, India wouldn’t be a problem at all.

After a week of preparation, plus the participation of Singapore Youth Olympic Games One Year Countdown, we recorded lots of useful video clips and finally, we mashed them up into a fantastic and exciting one-minute-video greeting to all the participants of Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games.

Besides finishing wonderful product to take part in Video Challenge, we also learned lots of useful video post-processing skills. Most importantly, we really enjoy the work we did and abilities we showed.

Can’t wait? Let’s watch the exciting video, with the whole world, TOGETHER! Don’t forget, click “HQ” for best quality of view!

See you in 2010!

Welcome to Singapore!

Let’s gather in Singapore!

Yesterday I went to the Padang for Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games One Year Countdown, I got lots of interesting materials regarding the YOG, and also including the most expected booklet –  Singapore 2010 CAN! Digital Media Edition.

Actually we are interviewed by an interesting guy – Ephraim Loy, which is now working for SYOGOC, in this booklet, luckily we are featured for two pages! It’s a chatting history taken from MSN, the tool we use for interviewing.

Can’t wait? I’ve uploaded the photo, let’s enjoy together. The same approach, click for LARGE view.

This is the 3rd challenge of the Singapore YOG Blogging Competition organized by the folks at Singapore Polytechnic. In this challenge, we guys are supposed to design an attractive 1024 by 768 pixel wallpaper that is related to sports, youth or the Olympic values of Excellence, Friendship and Respect. Making use of the world’s most popular graphics editing platform, the Adobe Photoshop, we’ve designed an eye-catching wallpaper by integrating the 3 important and crucial Olympics values into it. Check it out below…to view the larger size of the wallpaper (1024X768 resolution), simply click on it! Thanks for the support!

This is the second part of our competition and in this challenge, participants are required to submit a maximum of 10 photographs regarding the title – ‘Snapshots of Singapore’. Anyway, below are 8 stunning photographs we guys have taken at several iconic landmarks such as Sentosa, Marina Bay and the Singapore Business District.

Check it out and enjoy! If you want to view the large size photos, simply just click the photo, and the lightbox effect will lead you to a more wonderful and enjoyable slideshow.

Singapore Airlines + Blue Sky

Singapore Airlines is one of the world’s leading airline company and it’s 6th in the world for international passengers carried. Singapore Airlines is also the first in the world to fly the A380-800. In this photo, it reflects the livery of Singapore Airlines includes the “bird” (also known as the Silver Kris) logo on the tailfin, which has remained unchanged since Singapore Airlines’ inception, but the logotype and stripes used since 1972 were changed in 1988 to the ones still in use today.

The Merlion + Shining Esplanade

The Merlion is one of Singapore iconic feature. It’s actually an imaginary creature with the head of a lion and the body of a fish. Its name combines “mer” meaning the sea and “lion”. Singapore has two Merlions. The larger one is located at Sentosa island and the another can be found at Merlion Park (which is the one above). In the background, you will be to see Singapore’s tallest hotel – Swissotel the Stanford and Esplanade, the center that contains world-class performing spaces, coupled with a wide range of professional support services and facilities.

The Sentosa + Racial Harmony

Sentosa is a tourist attraction and a popular island resort. In this photograph, you can see a bunch newly-wed couples, children with their families and beach-goers spending their weekends at the two-kilometer beach at Sentosa.

Singapore Pools + Generosity

You might be wondering why are those people queuing up with slips of papers on their hands. Well, they are actually gambling. Of course, it’s through a legal lottery operator called Singapore Pools. TOTO and 4-D are the common legalized form of lottery sold in Singapore.

A TOTO buyer picks at least six numbers, each on a basis of 1 to 45. The winning numbers drawn include six numbers plus an additional number. Four or more numbers on a ticket matching the seven numbers drawn qualifies the buyer for a cash prize. The prize money escalates with the increase in numbers matched.

The maximum allowed matching numbers is six. Thus, if six numbers on the TOTO ticket matches the six numbers drawn, the jackpot (Group 1) prize is won.

For 4-D, People play by choosing any number from 0000 to 9999. Then, 23 winning numbers are drawn each time. If one of the numbers match the one that the player has bought, a prize is won. The 4-D banker chooses the bets with the lowest bet frequencies for the prizes.

Singapore Flyer + Heart of Singapore

This photo is taken during Singapore’s 44th National Day Parade (rehearsal). The actual parade is held on 9 August at the Marina Bay floating platform, in commemoration of Singapore’s independence. For the past few years, it was held at the National Stadium located at Kallang but due to the revamp of the stadium, the location was changed starting from 2007. In the foreground, a sea of ‘red people’ proudly holding the Singapore flag in their hands. Singapore Flyer, the world’s tallest Ferris Wheel can be seen in the background.

National Flag + City

The national flag of Singapore symbolizes a young nation on the ascendant, universal brotherhood and equality, and national ideals. The design is a horizontal bicolour of red above white, charged in the canton by a white crescent moon facing, toward the fly, a pentagon of five small white five-pointed stars. It was first adopted on 3 December 1959, the year Singapore became self-governing within the British Empire.

Nature + CBD

Photographed in the Central Business District, it shows two of Singapore’s tallest buildings – the United Overseas Bank Plaza One and Overseas Union Bank Center. We were quick fortunate to snap a photo of the bird flying across the area.

The New + The Old

This photograph clearly shows two different perspectives of Singapore. In the background, you will see a modern Singapore with a beautiful city skyline filled with many skyscrapers. They have contributed a lot to Singapore’s prosperous economy. However, the shop houses on the right reflects on the old Singapore.

At one time, the Singapore River was the very lifeblood of the colony, the trade artery, the center of commercial activity, the heart of entrepot trade, the vessel of importance, the capillaries of life and the place which was frequented by the secret societies, the coolies who worked for the philanthropist Tan Tock Seng at Ellenborough Market and Tan Kim Seng who was busy filling his godown with the riches of the East.