In this week’s newsletter: The possible revival of IT trade fairs in Singapore, using Google Gemini to create pointless selfies, and how to communicate with your heart (literally). I also share two unlocked NYT articles that you should like. Meow!
Can I share a hard truth about writing a newsletter? Unless you have a content team doing research and churning out material for you, you can run out of things to say. I declare that I don’t have any intelligent-sounding insights to share this weekend, so let’s get straight into what I wrote in the past week:
🔷 IT trade fairs may have come back to life in Singapore. Last weekend, I found out at the Comex fair why it’s so hard to find a branded laptop on e-commerce platforms now. I also snagged the Creative Pebble Nova at a really nice price. It has replaced my Audioengine A2+ at my work desk.
🔷 I dislike pointless selfies on LinkedIn, but I’m very good at making them with AI (or with my camera). Google’s new Nano Banana (or is it “nano-banana”) imaging engine can do some really funky stuff.
🔷 Please communicate with your heart. Literally.
🔷 Here’s my initial experiment with Google Whisk on using text to create visuals. The experimentation led to today’s Meow Meow Meow visual.
Shameless Spiel 1: The Straits Times published a story on our GO-FAR (Going Overseas for Advanced Reporting) trip in Mae Sot, Thailand! This annual trip is the highlight of our journalism module at the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, Nanyang Technological University Singapore .
Shameless Spiel 2: The Straits Times Masterclass in Generative AI is now available for Mandarin speakers! I’ve been brushing up on my Mandarin since 2016 and I figure that I’m ready to put my Chinese lessons to good use.
Happy Teacher’s Day! “A good teacher inspires you to become a continuous learner, someone genuinely curious to keep exploring on their own.” Thank you to Workforce Singapore for doing a write-up on me for Teachers’ Day 2025!
Unlocked NYT Stories
I have 10 free stories to gift each month, so here’s this week’s serving:
Brené Brown Doesn’t Want to Be Your Self-Help Guru Anymore
Habits to Remain Injury-Free, According to Physical Therapists