Anyhow Blogs

The End of One Journey is the Start of Another

2010-05-31T17:04:00.003+08:00

Been a long time since I updated. Since I have nothing better to do between spamming resumes and kicking butt in DOTA, I suppose I should revive this almost dead blog.

GRADUATED... unofficially for now.
Part of the reason why the previous post was dated 5th February. [What? It has been THAT long already?] It's a miracle that blogger didn't just delete my blog all together. Anyway, I've been super busy since February. As if 2 assignments for each of my 5 modules wasn't enough, [luckily maths didn't have assignments] they had to throw in an additional Final Year Project too.

Practically became lovers with my laptop for these 3 months, it being the first thing I look for when I wake up and the last thing I turn off before I go to bed. And that is crazy even by MY crazy gaming standards.

But it's finally all over now. And I finally have some time to breathe. In fact, lots of time to breathe now. Reaching the end of your study life is like a double-edged sword. On one hand you feel relieved that it's all over, but once the joy of closure dies down, you suddenly realise that you are effectively lost with no direction or goals to focus your efforts on.

Speaking of exams, I suppose my dream of getting straight As is probably still just gonna be a dream. The papers this year were full of unexpected stunts from the examiners, even though we are the last batch of students taking these modules before they do a major overhaul of the subjects. I'm suspecting that it's a big conspiracy that they are trying to make more students fail this year so that they have to retake the modules that we have taken, which will probably not be available to the next batches of students, hence have more modules and thus squeezing more money from us.

Anyway, failure is not an option for this old man. And definitely not something that I will be expecting to see on my result slips. I'm still praying for a repeat of my past 2 years straight A results, but the possibility of a couple of Bs popping up is very very high. Hopefully they won't prevent me from attaining my first class honours. Hopefully...

Anyone wants to employ me? I'll be a good little employee. I promise.
Been spamming resumes to potential companies in the IT sector hoping that one of them might decide that they needed someone like me. So far I have only secured one interview, which was 1 day after my final paper no less, but since then they haven't gotten back to me and I've almost given up hope on them. Anyone have any job lobangs for a fresh grad looking for a web development or systems development job? Or even better a job in the gaming industry? [Yes, I'm that shameless, blatantly advertising myself in the open]

Almost all of those IT companies I've seen so far are looking for a person with at least 1 or 2 years experience in the relevant fields. Hello? In that case who is gonna hire us fresh grads? And were are we supposed to gain 1 to 2 years experience in an industry that requires minimum 1 to 2 years experience?

Boredom. The Brother of Invention.
Since Necessity and Laziness have taken up the mother and father roles, I hereby add 1 more member to the Invention family. Boredom. When you are sitting at home, sick and tired of spamming resumes but at the same time don't really feel like playing games, you start to imagine. And imagination begets invention. Ok, granted this is not something entirely new, and I have done this many a time, but still, creating something out of nothing is still considered inventing.

Since I suck at the art of, well, art, I've become more inclined to prefer using a mouse rather than a pencil. On a computer screen u can adjust the angles of shapes and lines and have that all important ctrl Z undo function literally at your fingertips. Not being a student of language nor arts, I understand that some people might feel that both my drawings and literature suck. Well, too bad. I like killing time by drawing random stuff on my computer. And I love making poems out of my drawings. It gives that additional spice to the picture you know.

So without further ado, I present to you my latest creation. The Fallen Angel.

My Last Dance... For Now

2010-02-05T20:18:00.002+08:00

SIM DWZ Dance Crew will be collaborating with NUS to bring you a talent extravaganza 'Emerge 2010', which will be held on the evening of 13 March 2010 at Zirca [The old MOS]. Please do come down and support if you have the time. Tickets will be going on sale soon!! And this would probably be the last time I'll be dancing for awhile. After this I'll probably go find a cave somewhere in Bukit Timah hill and hide there with all my books and notes until the exams.

It's been a long time since I last blogged. As in really penned down what is happening around me. Nothing much to really blog about anyway. Life is getting monotonous. Dance seems to be the only colour left in my life. And even that last glance of the rainbow is gonna disappear soon.

I've passed down my duties as the Finance Manager of the club. And the Zirca performance will probably the last performance I'll be doing with the club before I graduate from SIM. Hopefully, with my first class honours. Jiayou DWZ. you've got much younger and talented dancers than this old man now. Not that I had any dope-ness to begin with.

Other than dance days, the only thing that I see every day from the moment I wake up to the moment I fall asleep is my laptop screen and the pile of books and notes on my table. 5 assignments down. But there's 5 more to go. Not forgetting my Final Year Project. And I haven't even started studying for my exams yet. Which are like just less than 3 months away. Life? No, it seems I don't have one now.

I'm a perfectionist. I hate being second-best. But in actual fact, I'm just a Jack of all trades and a Master of none. With so many things piling up, I hope I can keep up to my own expectations. And yet I still can't find the speedy, confident stride that I used to have in the last 2 years. Maybe I really AM getting old. Why do I feel like the more I try to climb higher, further back down I fall?

Had good fun with the crazy DWZ people at yesterday's Zirca practice at The Sail @ Raffles Quay. But behind the facade of all the smiles and laughter, there's still something eating away inside of me. Don't ask me what. Cos I would love to know the answer to that question too.

I think it's time to change my blog song. Been quite awhile since I've been playing "Dance With My Father". Just love the raw emotions from these songs. If only I could be able to sing them with my body. So I'm going to change it to my current favourite song, "Papers" by Usher. Yes, I love emo songs. So bite me.

I don't recognise the person staring back at me from the mirror anymore. Can someone help me find myself?

The Last Leaf

2010-01-23T14:38:00.003+08:00

Welcome to the Year 2010

2010-01-21T13:30:00.002+08:00

Have been really busy recently with school work, dance and other stuff to update my blog. 2009 has been a year of many ups and downs and as such I can't really decide on whether to call it a good year or a bad one. But one thing's for sure, I finally got my iPhone. Yeay.

Been feeling rather down these couple of days. I'm drowning in my assignments and project but I can't seem to find the motivation to get going. Why is the final lap always the hardest and most tiring? What ever happened to the simple joys in life?

Even dance doesn't seem to be able to perk me up anymore. Zirca performance is coming, and I should be getting more hyped but that's not the case. I can't find the motivation to push further, to word harder, to get stronger. Sometimes I just feel like I'm boxed up in a huge glass box. Being able to see everyone stroll past but at the same time feeling so alone in my own restricted freedom.

Maybe it's that time of the month again. Maybe I'm just PMSing. Maybe I'm just thinking too much. I don't konw why but I always have these random sudden bouts of emo that will just come right out of the blue and get stuck in my head for a few days. I guess this is one of those times. And so far the cure has been just to leave the emo kid alone long enough until he wakes up and realises that there no point feeling this way. And suddenly the emo boy will transform back to his former cheerful glorious self.

Strength is not a measure of power when you are at your peak. It is a measure of will when you are at your weakest.

Singlish - The Most Efficient Way To Use Words

2009-11-13T15:45:00.003+08:00

La Li Leh Lor Lu. Sounds familiar? Take a short walk down the busy streets of Singapore and you will easily notice that Singapore has it's own very special language that is totally unique to any where else in the world.

We're talking about Singlish lor. Singaporeans, living in a multi-racial country with residents that cover the complete colour range from white to black and everything in-between, love to mix and match anything and everything that they can get their hands on. Be it food, language and even clothes, which can sometimes go horribly wrong.

Just like our infamous local dish 'Rojak', the Singaporean version of the unhealthy salad, where anything and everything from fruits to condiments to deep fried stuff is chucked into a single bowl and tossed about for a few minutes then magically it becomes a ready-to-serve local specialty dish, Singlish is the result of thousands of years of perfecting the art of mixing and matching all forms of languages to be able to express ourselves in the most efficient way possible.

Here are a few comparisons of how Singlish helps everyone save their voices.

[And for those of you who do not know of the word 'chim', it means 'very profound']

English: "Excuse me, may I borrow your pen for a moment?"

Chim-glish: "Sorry to interrupt, but would you be so accommodating as to furnish me with your writing apparatus for three winks?"

Singlish: "Paiseh, lend ah!"

----------

English: "Is anything bothering you?"

Chim-glish: "My intuition is telling me that you are showing a hint of agitation as a result of some disconsolate events."

Singlish: "Ho Seh Bo?"

----------

English: "Come on! You know it won't be as fun without you!"

Chim-glish: "Don't be a killjoy! Your participation in this event is highly anticipated."

Singlish: "Go lah!"

----------

And of course, what language would be complete without our all time favourites, the swear words

English: "Fuck!"

Chim-glish: "Holy Mother of God!"

Singlish: "Sial Lah, Kan Ni Na Beh Cao Jee Toad Bye Bye Macham Barbie Pondeh~!"

Blogblast for Peace

2009-11-06T14:40:00.004+08:00

It's time to fly your peace globes high and proud!

November 5, 2009
The Peace Globe Gallery

(Dis)Order In Court

2009-10-20T03:50:00.003+08:00

Here's something from an email I received recently which managed to tickle my funny bone. Seriously, if these people can become lawyers, I think I can be the next President of the USA...

These are from a book called Disorder in the Court, and are things people actually said in court, word for word, taken down and now published by court reporters who had the torment of staying calm while these exchanges were actually taking place.

_______________________________________________

ATTORNEY: Are you sexually active?
WITNESS: No, I just lie there.

_______________________________________________

ATTORNEY: This myasthenia gravis, does it affect your memory at all?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: And in what ways does it affect your memory?
WITNESS: I forget.
ATTORNEY: You forget? Can you give us an example of something you forgot?

________________________________________________

ATTORNEY: What was the first thing your husband said to you that morning?
WITNESS: He said, 'Where am I, Cathy?'
ATTORNEY: And why did that upset you?
WITNESS: My name is Susan.

________________________________________________

ATTORNEY: Now doctor, isn't it true that when a person dies in his sleep,
he doesn't know about it until the next morning?
WITNESS: Did you actually pass the bar exam?

________________________________________________

ATTORNEY: The youngest son, the twenty-one-year-old, how old is he?
WITNESS: Uh, he's twenty-one.

________________________________________________

ATTORNEY: Were you present when your picture was taken?
WITNESS: Are you shittin' me?

________________________________________________

ATTORNEY: So the date of conception (of the baby) was August 8th?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: And what were you doing at that time?
WITNESS: Uh... I was getting laid!

________________________________________________

ATTORNEY: She had three children, right?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: How many were boys?
WITNESS: None.
ATTORNEY: Were there any girls?
WITNESS: Your Honor, I think I need a different attorney. Can I get a new attorney?

________________________________________________

ATTORNEY: How was your first marriage terminated?
WITNESS: By death.
ATTORNEY: And by whose death was it terminated?
WITNESS: Now whose death do you suppose terminated it?

________________________________________________

ATTORNEY: Can you describe the individual?
WITNESS: He was about medium height and had a beard.
ATTORNEY: Was this a male or a female?

________________________________________________

ATTORNEY: Is your appearance here this morning pursuant to a deposition notice
which I sent to your attorney?
WITNESS: No, this is how I dress when I go to work.

________________________________________________

ATTORNEY: Doctor, how many of your autopsies have you performed on dead people?
WITNESS: All my autopsies are performed on dead people. Would you like to rephrase that?

________________________________________________

ATTORNEY: ALL your responses MUST be oral, OK? What school did you go to?
WITNESS: Oral.

________________________________________________

ATTORNEY: Do you recall the time that you examined the body?
WITNESS: The autopsy started around 8:30 p.. m.
ATTORNEY: And Mr. Denton was dead at the time?
WITNESS: No, he was sitting on the table wondering why I was doing an autopsy on him.

________________________________________________

ATTORNEY: Are you qualified to give a urine sample?
WITNESS: Huh.... are you qualified to ask that question?

________________________________________________

--- And the best for last: ---

ATTORNEY: Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a pulse?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: Did you check for blood pressure?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: Did you check for breathing?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: So, then it is possible that the patient was alive when you began the autopsy?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: How can you be so sure, Doctor?
WITNESS: Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar.
ATTORNEY: I see, but could the patient have still been alive, nevertheless?
WITNESS: Yes, it is possible that he could have been alive and practicing law...

________________________________________________

Now somebody tell me why am I studying IT again??

Bored In School

2009-10-07T13:47:00.002+08:00

Time now is 1.50PM. I've been stoning around in school for about 1 hour and 20 minutes so far. And yet I still have another 2 hours or so to kill before heading over to the dance studio to help out with the junior classes.

Current Status: Dying of boredom,

And the worst part is that this entire cycle will repeat itself for at least another 8 weeks or so. 8.30am morning lectures suck. Getting up in time for morning lectures suck even more. Even with such an entertaining lecturer as my Maths lecturer, I still managed to almost fall asleep during the lecture.

Someone save me from the endless 4 hour breaks and sleepy lectures that are stillt o come in the following months.

=============

Current Status: I think I'm going blind

My eyes are failing on me. Everything is getting blurry even at close distances and these eyes of mine get tired and fatigued so easily. I was diagnosed with mild astigmatism about half a year back but I think it ain't 'mild' anymore.

I feel as though I'm turning into a vampire with a ghastly fear of sunlight. My trusty sunglasses have become a must when stepping out of home in the mornings or afternoons.

I wanna go for lasik to cure my eyes of these irritating symptoms but I don't have the money to do so. Any kind souls out there willing to sponsor me a lasik surgery? I promise I'll be a good boy after that.

=============

Current Status: I really really really really need to change my phone.

It is proven. Having the same phone for more than 2 years is not a good idea. Firstly, you kinda get bored of the phone and seeing all your other friends switch to touchscreen phones with cool games and applications doesn't help this cause one bit.

Secondly, due to this fact, phones these days are designed with the notion that it will not be used for more than 2 years. And hence the battery and hardware kinda have a lifespan of 2 years too. Take my phone for example. Leaving the house with a fully overnight charged phone, a friend calls me on the MRT. Yadah yadah yadah, we go on for almost 15 minutes and suddenly what do I hear? 'Duu nuu noooooo' a.k.a. the low battery alert for nokia phones. Looking at the screen confirms my worse fears on discovering that the battery life bar has only 1 bar left.

In fear of spending the rest of my day without a usable phone, I quickly end the call. Then as if by magic, half an hour later, I whip out my phone again to see that apparently ny jeans pockets have some sort of static current running through them as the battery indicator has suddenly gone up to 3 bars.

I've made up my mind, I'm going to get an iPhone 3GS. Even though it's gonna cost me a bomb. I really ~~want~~ NEED that phone. Oh, kinds souls looking for needy people in need of extra cash are kindly welcomed as sponsors too.

Handwritten

2009-10-01T01:37:00.002+08:00

Eye Spa

2009-09-29T00:57:00.004+08:00

A treat for my eyes. first time trying Face Shop's famous Raspberry Roots Collagen eye patches to eradicate my panda-like eye bags. Like Tim said, "you can feel it being absorbed when you put it on". Yeah, it was something like that, but maybe I wasn't paying too much attention to the absorption process cos I was too busy gaming.

Let's just wait and see if it really does wonders for the eyes.

P.S. Please ignore the bloodshot eyes. Been awake since 6.30AM today for morning lecture.

Under Maintenance

2009-09-27T23:21:00.002+08:00

No, not my blog, but me.

Age is catching up with me. And it's showing. I used to always have a healthy lead over age in the race of life but recently it seems that either I'm getting fatter and slower, or age suddenly kicked in the NOZ and is gaining on me. Fast.

So yesterday I decided enough was enough. Made a trip down to Bugis and bought a couple of facial products from Watson's and Face Shop. Got a bottle of Simple moisturising facial wash from Watson's and a few packets of Face Shop's famous eye bag terminators, Raspberry Roots Collagen Eye Patch, which came with a free after-wash facial mask. All in all, the total damages set me back around almost $100. But $100 is a small price to pay for beauty right?

Also, I bought a new pair of Nike shoes online for the 2nd time yesterday. It's such a beautiful design that I'm not going to tell you guys how it looks like until I receive the package in around 2 weeks time. I was actually looking for another design but I feel in love with this shoe the moment I saw it. Well, technically pipi was the one who saw it first and showed it to me saying that it suits me, but it was still love at first sight.

Can't wait for my package to arrive. Counting down the days everyday. It's so cool and unique that I'm pretty darn sure that the boring Singapore shops will never bring it in from the States. And the best part is that all in all the shoes plus shipping only cost me a total of almost SG$140 dollars! A small price to pay for something way too cool. Now all I have to do is to to get through another 13 nights of restless waiting and day-dreaming of my new shoes. Breathe Colin, Breathe...

Student Week Performance- Day 1

2009-09-26T02:45:00.002+08:00

*If you can't hear the music, click on the youtube logo and watch it in youtube*

After months of training it was finally time to step up to the stage once again. Good job DWZ! We did good!

Lucky Strike

2009-09-12T23:09:00.004+08:00

Just a short one today.

I don't know whether to call it luck or misfortune. As I was walking down Orchard Road towards CineLeisure, a freaking treetop sniper decided to do some target practice. With me as the target. And boy was he a sharpshooter.

That piece of shit [literally shit!] landed right smack in the middle of the shoulder sleeve of my crampler bag that was slung across my right shoulder. I don't know whether to be pissed that he had to choose me out of all the people walking under his tree or whether to be thankful that it didn't land on my white T-shirt.

And for those who believe that getting hit by bird shit means that you're luck in on an all time high, here are 4 random numbers for u to go bang on.

4216

I won't mind accepting commission if it really comes out tomorrow.

Top 10 Most Irritating Habits Of Singaporeans

2009-08-30T23:26:00.004+08:00

Been pretty busy with school/dance/work/FYP these few weeks, which explains the lack of inspiration [and not to mention energy] to maintain this wilting blog. But something happened this afternoon that really gave me a wanting to post an entry here.

As we all know, Singapore is a very unique Country. A country that people of all skin colours call home. A country governed by a 'fuly-democratic' and totally 'unbias' body of politicians called the PAP. A country that put the words 'singlish' and 'kiasu' into the english vocabulary.And because we are so unique, obviously we will see many unique individuals with uniquely quirky bad habits which just don't make sense to others. And this post is dedicated to these people.

Top 10 Most Irritating Habits of Singaporeans

No 10: Bringing baby prams onto public transport during peak hours
Don't you just love the feeling of having your butt cheek bounce off that of a total stranger while desperately trying your best to keep your balance and not make a clown out of yourself by falling down? It's already so packed during peak hour commuting and yet some people have the cheek to push their baby prams onto our already sardine-packed public transport.

Oh, not to mention that the 'baby' in the pram sucking on that bottle of milk is fully capable of running circles around an old man with a walking stick. And don't even get me started on those 'twin-prams'...

Unless you are a single mother working in a company with a heartless boss, I would suppose that the lady would still be on maternity leave if the child still hasn't learnt to walk by himself. So if you' on leave why are you snatching public transport time and space with the people rushing to and from work?

No 9: Leaving the last piece of food untouched on a shared table
A typical sight at any dinner table. Everyone will be happily munching away at the dishes presented UNTIL someone grabs the 2nd last piece. Suddenly, either the dish that they had all been enjoying all this while suddenly turned moldy and was growing hairs, or they are leaving the last piece of food as an offering to the 'hungry ghosts' of this 7th month.

Nobody will ever take the initiative to finish off the last piece even when the waitress comes to clear the dish and asks if anyone wants the last piece. And most of the time it will be the person who has been eyeballing the final piece for the longest time who will eventually 'sacrifice' himself to help finish up the last piece so that the waitress can clear the empty plate.

Someone please tell these people to stop acting all magnanimous and just finish the last piece of food without all the acts so we can get down to starting the next dish?

No 8: Reading newspapers over other people's shoulders
One of my personal 'favourites'. Reading the news of someone else's newspaper over their shoulder. Although you might think that it's too small an action to be noticed by the person who actually bought the newspaper, let me enlighten you now. IT IS DAMN FUKING OBVIOUS AND IRRITATING.

Reading over someone else's shoulder makes the holder uncomfortable because
1. He paid to read the news. You didn't.
2. He's stuck between being a kind person and opening the paper wider so as to make it easier for you to read it, or be a bastard and just keep the paper opened just enough so that ony he himself is able to make any sense of the black text on it.
3. He doesn't know if he should ask you if you have finished reading so he can turn the page.

This is just one of the things that just pisses people off. Newspapers nowadays cost less than your average public transport trips. So please just get yourself your own copy if you really need to satisfy your curiosity for information during your trip.

No 7: Playing 'Where's EZ' with their bags at public transport gates
Another typical sight you see on public transports in Singapore. People turning their bags upside-down, inside-out, trying to find the right position of the bag where the EZ-link card in the bag can be read by the scanner.

Not only does this slow down the entry/exit from your lane, it also slows down the entry/exit of neighbouring lanes as people going out have to give you more manuvouring space to flip your bag around, as well as slowing them down by that few milliseconds that they take to stare at you, wondering what you are doing.

Is it really that difficult to open your bag and take out that damn card just before you reach the gantry?

No 6: Blasting music from their mobile phones
A favourite with the Mats. Turning on their mobile phone ringers to the maximum volume and blasting their music where ever they go. Yes, you have your right to listen to whatever music you fancy. Yes, you have the right to playing whatever you want, on whatever volume you wish on your mobile phone. But I also have a right to tranquility and peace within my own personal space.

Unless you invent some kind of soundproof forcefield that allows the user to be oblivious to all sounds outside the bubble, I do not enjoy the same kind of music as you, I do not enjoy the same kind of designs and I do not enjoy having my peace and quiet broken, especially when i'm asleep.

There IS an invention called earphones. Maybe they're just too dumb to understand how to use them.

No 5: Keeping the toilet seat dirty
I don't know if this is true for the girls, but from the guys point of view this is really one habit that I personally cannot stand. Everyone knows that the toilet seat of every toilet bowl can be lifted up if you're not using it. Toilet seats are meant to keep the asses of people who want to take a shit clean from the germs and bacteria of the toilet bowl.

However, it is not unusual to find stray droplets of pee, cigarette burn marks, footprints or any combination of these 3 elements on a public toilet seat. This of course defeats the purpose of having a liftable toilet seat in the first place.

And because of this inconsiderate toilet-goers, we are forced to waste more toilet paper by laying a layer or two of toilet paper over the entire toilet seat before we get down to business as an additional buffer from germs.

Is it really that hard to take half a second to lift the toilet seat up before you starting to relieve yourself? And the worst part is that most of the time it is not only 1 cubicle that is affected. Trying to find a clean toilet seat is practically impossible unless you are patronising the restrooms of some posh restaurants or shopping malls [you know, those that have the toilet attendant to put a warm towel over your shoulders and build those complicated towel towers, and of course expecting a tip from you]

No 4: Using lifts for 1-floor trips
This is another one of those habits that I can never understand the logic behind. Some people just love to make use of lifts. Even if it's just to transport them 1 floor higher or lower within the shopping mall.

Why would anyone waste 5 minutes waiting for the lift to reach the floor which they are currently on, 30 seconds to squeeze into the lift [assuming there is a crowd], and another 10 seconds to squeeze their way out of the lift when they could have just made use of the escalators beside the lifts to obtain their objective within less than a minute? Not to mention having to squeeze with the rest of the people in the lift vs the comfortable ride they would have on the escalator, as well as the huge amount of other people's time you're wasting.

Unless the office or shopping mall doesn't have a working escalator or you are physically disabled to the point where taking the escalator is a torture to you, I do not see the need to use the lift to move between adjacent floors when the escalator is just a stone's throw away.

No 3: Parents who allow their kids to run amok on public transport
Don't you just hate it when kids mutate into chimpanzees, merry-go-rounds and car alarms on the public transport right in front of their parents eyes and those parents just have their butts rooted to their seats and do absolutely nothing about it?

These kids usually make a nuisance of themselves by swinging round the metal poles or playing catching throughout the entire train carriage, Not only does it irritate the hell out of the other passengers on the train but more importantly, it stops me from getting my all important beauty sleep while on the train.

The children probably don't deserve to be punished as much as their nonchalantant parents. The children aren't in the wrong if the parents don't tell them that what they are doing is wrong. These parents should be bond and gagged to an mrt seat and have 10 irritating screaming children run circles around them for 1 whole hour. If they still don't understand why the public transport system should not be used as a playground, they should be permanently banned from taking public transport in Singapore.

No 2: NATO [No Action, Talk Only]
MRT/Bus fares increase? COMPLAIN. Taxi charges increase? COMPLAIN. Not getting through the auditions for Singapore Idol? COMPLAIN. But what do we do after we complain? We just 'guai guai' carry on with our lives, accepting the increased MRT/bus fares, increased taxi fares and harsh criticism from Ken Lim.

Never once have we put any action in the direction of our complaints. Perhaps we are just too protected by the government. Perhaps we are just not outspoken enough. What ever the case, that's just the Singaporean way.

And the No 1 most irritating Singaporean habit: Kiasu-ism
The entire concept of kiasu-ism can be summerised in one line. "What other people have I also must have".

Need an example? What about the MacDonalds Hello Kitty craze a few years back? What has become of those whitish kittens with fish bowls on their heads that were so hot during that period? I believe my sister once had the entire collection displayed on her shelf in our old home. Wonder what happened to them when we moved house? They were all THROWN AWAY because they were all collecting dust.

Ask anyone on the street whether they would want to buy a pair of hello kitty dolls in mint condition for $20 and chances are they would give you an outright flat NO. So what was it that mad people go crazy to the point of waking up in the wee hours of the morning just to go queue up for that damn toy?

Reality check. It's not the toy. It never was. It was just because SOME people wanted the toy. These were probably the die hard Hello Kitty fans who collect these stuff. And given the Singaporean kiasu attitude, if someone else wants it, I must have it too. And hence starts a vicious cycle of wanting and having that engulfed the entire island.

It's the same for branded stuff like LV bags and Gucci wallets. Why are people crazy enough to pay $800+ for something that you could easily get with $100 and still have change for a good meal? Just because other people have it. As it's literal translation reads "scared to lose".

So there you have it. The Top 10 most irritating habits of us Singaporeans. But without these habits, we wouldn't be Singaporeans either. So let's just give and take some and everyone will be happy. You give, and I'll take. This is the first time that I've actually used the "SAVE NOW" button on blogger to save this post as a draft not once but 3 times throughout the week just to finish up this entry. Another proof of how little free time I actually have on my hands nowadays...

Our First Catch!

2009-08-15T22:31:00.002+08:00

I could never understand why some people are willing to spend $10 trying to get that tiny soft toy in those UFO catcher machines to bounce down into the prize chute. Even spending $2 for 2 unsuccessful tries within a minute pisses me off to the bone. That's because that $2 could have lasted me at least 10 minutes on any other video machine within the arcade.

If you understand how the UFO catchers work, you'll definitely not want to waste your money on these dastardly coin-sucking inventions. Yes, you DO have a chance of using a single dollar to win yourself something that would easily cost you around $9.90 at your local minitoons shop, but don't forget that you have and even HIGHER chance of spending $10 and walking away empty handed. I'll gladly buy it off the shelf anytime thank you.

Any machine that you find in the arcade is DESIGNED to be profitable. Do you think they would happily line up so many of these machines if everyone could just catch something worth $10 with just $5? So here's the science of these evil robots that love to feed on the emotional ~~stupidity~~ weakness of the female species.

Those 'claws of fate' are programmed to only allow a 'proper win' only once the cost of the toy has been covered and they are already earning some profit. A 'proper win' is one where the claw actually brings the toy all the way to the prize chute and drops it straight down into your awaiting hands.

If you are observant enough, you'll notice that although the claw has a gd grip when it goes down to 'grab' the toy, after it raises all the way up, there is always a slight jerk. And believe it or not, the claws are PROGRAMMED to loosen their grip when they reach the top, unless the 'proper win' counter has been hit. This loosening of grip coupled with the slight jerk is a sure-fire way to ensure that the toy will always drop from the claw. If you're lucky enough to be playing just when the counter hits, then all I can say is good on ya mate. But let me tell you, that counter is usually at least double the price of the toy you're getting.

The rest of us unlucky people will have just have to depend on more luck to determine if we are going to win a prize. This comes in the form of the direction of the bounce of the toy when it hits the playing platform from the drop. If you're wearing red underwear, are carrying a rabbit's foot keychain and wearing a four-leaf clover necklace, maybe, just maybe, that toy will bounce right into the prize chute. Otherwise, you can go look for that machine attendant to request for the toy to be replaced in its original position as more often than not, it will bounce AWAY from the hole.

However, it just so happened that yesterday, Friday the 14th, was a lucky lucky day for us. After loads of pestering, she finally managed to drag me to 'waste money' on one of these machines. But amazingly, that round faced chip n dale soft toy decided to bounce right into the chute on our first coin! And that's not all. Little did we know that with every win comes a chance to 'roll the dice' and win another toy.

It was essentially the same thing, apart from the fact that this time the toy you're catching is a soft toy dice and the claw doesn't lose its grip. So we managed to roll a 'one' and win ourselves another mini mickey mouse toy. All this with just $1!

Unfortunately, girls being girls, our $0.50 toys became $2 toys after a total of 3 more unsuccessful attempts. But the best part has yet to come. As you should know, when you catch a toy, you are allowed to exchange it for any other toy within the same machine. After asking me a gazillion times whether the round head mickey or round head chip was cuter, she finally decided to stick with the squirrel.

But after a movie, shopping and dinner, she dragged me back to the machine and asked the attendant if she could exchange it for the round head mickey toy. He was a little reluctant at first but finally gave in after a bit of coaxing. See, if girls don't even know what they themselves want, how can they expect us guys to know what they want??

Emo-ing

2009-08-11T12:18:00.002+08:00

Been listening to sad, emo songs these few days, and it has undoubtedly has had an effect on me. Listening to the lyrics of the songs sometimes make you feel that the world is closing in on you. Especially this song 'Dance With My Father'. The memories of the Danzation Family segment just come pouring back whenever I hear the song. It just makes your eyes teary and makes you wanna go run and hug someone dear to you.

Recently I've been feeling a little lost again. Seems like I'm having PMS. I kinda get this feeling of lostlessness a couple of times throughout the year. But the strange thing is that it doesn't only come during down periods, but somehow it just randomly picks a sudden moment to instill all those negative karmas into me.

Just came back from my first official reservist ICT on Friday night. Normally people would think that reservist is just a 1 or 2 week procedure where everyone just goes through the motion, counting down each day as it goes past. However, my reservist was nothing like that. Has anyone ever heard of reservist personnel putting on camo for outfield? Just a small example of how 'on' my reservist was. And the reason? Both the Commanding Officer and RSM are regulars trying to climb up higher on promotion the ladder.

But anyway, I managed to 'siam' the entire outfield experience and enjoy 3 days of 'holiday chalet' experience, waking up at whatever time I want and spending the rest of the day in the air-conditioned company office while jostling for the only 2 internet-connected computers in the office with 4 other people.

How did I do it? Well, let's just say I tried to stop 2.5 tons worth of heavy equipment on a giant trolley going down a gentle slope with the back of my right ankle. Amazingly the only damage was a giant blue-black and slight abrasions on the back of my right leg. Army boots are gooooooooooooood man.

Just listen to the lyrics of this song. Heartbreaking.

Luther Vandross - Dance With My Father

Back when I was a child
Before life removed all the innocence
My father would lift me high
And dance with my mother and me and then

Spin me around till I fell asleep
Then up the stairs he would carry me
And I knew for sure
I was loved

If I could get another chance
Another walk, another dance with him
I'd play a song that would never, ever end
How I'd love, love, love to dance with my father again

Ooh, ooh

When I and my mother would disagree
To get my way I would run from her to him
He'd make me laugh just to comfort me, yeah, yeah
Then finally make me do just what my mama said

Later that night when I was asleep
He left a dollar under my sheet
Never dreamed that he
Would be gone from me

If I could steal one final glance
One final step, one final dance with him
I'd play a song that would never, ever end
Cause I'd love, love, love to dance with my father
again

Sometimes I'd listen outside her door
And I'd hear her, mama cryin' for him
I pray for her even more than me
I pray for her even more than me

I know I'm prayin' for much too much
But could You send back the only man she loved
I know You don't do it usually
But Lord, she's dyin' to dance with my father again
Every night I fall asleep
And this is all I ever dream

Happening Day At Work

2009-07-12T23:24:00.002+08:00

For those of you who still do not know, I've started part-time work for Nike retail and am currently based in the uptown shopping district of Singapore that is called Paragon. The people are friendly and the working hours are flexible, just the kinda job that I like. The only down side is that the hourly rate kinda sucks.

So anyway, on my way to work, I boarded the MRT at Simei and saw this group of Cosplay models in the same cabin as me carrying some laptops with an Asiasoft sticker on it, probably coming back from the cosplay event at Downtown East yesterday. And one of the girls looked suspiciously like my friend Kanny, only that she seemed slightly taller.

So throughout the journey I was stealing glances at her, trying to figure out if she really was who I thought she was, but at the same time not wanting to 'throw face' by asking her and being mistaken. She return-glanced me a couple of times too but I think she was too busy entertaining 'tiko' strangers chatting her up on the train. Throughout the journey many commuters took turns to chat her up, treating her comrades, a guy and another girl also in the same set of cosplay suits, as if they were invisible. Somehow I could sense their 'pissed-offed-ness'.

So after my interesting ride to work, I reported to work at 1pm and was surprised by the number of staff in the shop. We had a total of 5 staff working today, which is a huge leap from the usual 3 staff on a typical Sunday. And as usual, it was very packed at times and totally empty sometimes. Didn't really notice the time and after a while it was time to meet Tim for dinner.

Here's a little surprise for those of you looking for a budget meal in Orchard Road. Go try out Lucky Plaza's basement canteen! The food there is surprisingly good and cheap. No wonder it's usually packed with office workers and maids on their off-days. So far we tried the pig organ soup and the nasi lemak stalls, both of which are actually quite good. We plan to try out all the stalls soon.

And the fun starts after dinner. I was sent across Singapore's most famous road to Taka outlet to relieve a staff since they where shorthanded. And just less than 1 hour after I stepped into the Taka outlet, I was assigned the task of collecting a pair of shoes from Wheelock outlet. So I took a stroll to Wheelock Place and back, enjoying the sights and sounds of a busy Orchard Road on a typical Sunday. So as of now, I have been to 4 outlets within my working span of 2 weeks. Not bad for a newcomer no? It really felt that I was at Orchard Road shopping today instead of working. If only real work was this exciting every day...

The Start of Everything

2009-07-01T01:26:00.001+08:00

Sorry for turning into Hairy Whodeeny and pulling a disappearing act for almost 2 weeks. Recently I've seemed to have lost the motivation and creativity to come up with interesting blog posts about my mundane everyday life. However, recently there have been some major changes that might be worth blabbering about.

iPhone

1. School is [re-]Starting Soon
Having spent slightly more than a month rotting away at home after the exams were over, the time has come again to open the floodgates of knowledge and drown my poor brain in the tidal wave of university education. Although only 2 modules of my course will be actually starting in July, it still means that it's no longer considered 'holiday mood' and I'll have to start using my brain again. Argh.

iPhone

2.I just got a part-time Job
Been searching [rather lazily and without much conviction] for a part time job since the start of the holidays and I finally found one... just as the holidays are about to end. I'll be working as a measly retail promoter at Nike. The only saving grace is that it will be in teh uptown market that is the transit of Changi Airport Terminal 2. So for those of you who want to visit me, u can either drop by during my lunch break, or buy a cheap air ticket to KL and you can admire my excellent work ethic for as long as you want.

iPhone

Sometimes I do wonder why an undergrad would be working at a simple retail store that would need no more than a secondary school qualification. However, those of you who know me would know that most of the time there IS a hidden agenda. You see, after working for more than 3 months, staff are entitled 40% staff discount on all products in the store. Going on a massive shopping spree with that discount would probably 'payoff' the low hourly rate I'm getting.

iPhone

3. I just got my hair cut
Ok. Totally random and NOT interesting at all. But at least it's still SOME sort of news...

iPhone

4. The Nation has managed to drag me to the Gallows
In the form of having to serve my Reservist. 2 whole weeks of boring army drills, countless hours of digging mud and probably setting up of fences and 'toy minefields' will make anyone stupider.

iPhone

I tried to defer like I did last year but this time I didn't have sufficient ~~excuses~~ reasons to be deferred from this shit. So I'll end up having to spend 2 miserable weeks on the other end of Singapore thinking up ways of how to slack and chao keng. But the worst thing is that I'm going to miss a total of 4 lectures while I'm in camp. I'm going to solely blame the government if my final year results get screwed up.

iPhone

5. I'm going to be a quarter-of-a-Century-old soon
Yup. The big day is coming very soon. I think age has finally decided to wake up from its slumber and catch up with me. Eye bags, crow's feet, dry skin, pimples, china-brand broomstick quality hair etc. All signs that boy is actually turning into a man, an OLD man. Oh and if you read this blog post very very carefully, you might just catch a glimpse of a hint I've hidden somewhere in the post on what you could get me for my birthday present...

New Mouse Finally

2009-06-16T20:28:00.004+08:00

After many months of struggling with the problematic connection problems of my slightly more than a year old wireless mouse, I've finally put my foot [and my money] down and trotted over to Challenger to get a new one.

Grabbed one off the shelf that attracted me the most, with its red matt finishing. So I proudly present to you, the newest addition to my computing family: Prolink wireless laser mouse!

It was the last red one on the shelves

The USB plug is so tiny and cute. It's supposed to be left in the USB slot when you bring your laptop anywhere

It's soo teeny weeny you could almost forget that it exists!

Do De Rubber Duck

2009-06-09T20:40:00.002+08:00

Brings back so many memories~~ Everyone get on your feet!

My Aching Body

2009-06-08T10:42:00.002+08:00

Am I Benjamin Button? So far, 2 relatively distinct people have commented that I look younger than the last time they saw me. Shouldn't I be happy that I'm 年年十八岁? Maybe I really do age backwards? Well, the truth is I'M GETTING OLD.

My outer facade may look like it's forever young, but the cogs and gears inside of me are telling me otherwise. Just a few months ago, before the start of my exams, I had to fall-out of Ah Soon's taekwondo class halfway during training. A class that consists of kids all below the age of 18, excluding me of course. Perhaps it's the fact that I haven't had any form of strainous exercise in a long time. Or perhaps it's because I was trying too hard, thinking that I was still the cocky kid with the lightning fast legs that was some 10 years ago. But the fact that I had to fall out due to over-exertion in a class meant for 16 year olds still can't be changed.

And just a few weeks ago, on one of my irregular rollerblading trips at East Coast Park, I had to stop for a personal timeout after just slightly after an hour of casual-speed blading. During my glorious youthful past, I could go on for hours without even needing a sip of water.

And just last week, I went back to dance after almost half a year of inactivity. And I totally sucked! The already top-stiff me was having additional isolation and psychomotor problems, not to mention panting heavily throughout the entire session. When I woke up the next morning, it felt like the ceiling of my room had collapsed onto me while I was sleeping.

I had aches in my arms, shoulders, back, waist, thighs and even in my butt for some unknown reason. In fact, these aches are still existent even as I am typing this entry in. Even a simple task such as pulling up my shorts after a visit to the toilet takes a massive 5 to 10 seconds to complete.

I've always known that I'll probably die early because of all my unhealthy habits, but I never expected the degeneration to start so soon. I really need to find the fountain of youth. Just a tiny sip will do...

First Case of H1N1 in Singapore Confirmed

2009-05-27T17:01:00.002+08:00

My reliable sources have confirmed that a 22 year old Singaporean has been the first Singaporean in Singapore to be diagnosed with the H1N1 virus. Read here for more details:

From my always reliable sources

So what do we do now? Number 1, we can all run and cower in fear, lock ourselves at home, refusing to go out even to buy daily necessities or even meals, living on various flavours of instant noodles for the months ahead. Or, if you're like me, you cash in on this brilliant opportunity.

1. Shopping centres, movie cinemas and similarly people-packed places will become ghost-towns as most of the kiasu Singaporeans will probably do exactly what I stated above. Hence this will be the perfect time to take a leisurely stroll down Orchard Road to find that piece of clothing that you've been looking for, without having to worry about shoulder-packed crowds or irritating aunties snatching that last piece from the rack just as your hand is about to reach for it.

2. Always wanted to have that famous chicken rice at Chatterbox but always too lazy to make a booking 2 days in advance? Well, now's the time to stroll in on a weekend afternoon lunch hour and calmly choose a comfy table from all those empty tables presented to you. Give it another few more months and shops will start getting desperate by slashing prices and giving crazy offers and promotions just to get the crowds coming back again. And thats the time to strike hard and fast.

3. Be an entrepreneur. Cash in on this epidemic by creating makeshift surgical masks or thermometers and sell them for $10 a piece. The gullible silly-poreans will queue up like the hello kitty craze just to get anything that is currently sold out. And believe me, masks and thermometers are as sold out as sold out can be. Another option would be to steal all available tamiflu tablets you can find from all clinics in Singapore and start a black market. Anyone wants to be a millionaire?

Oh and if anyone on the public transport ever pisses you off, all you have to do is to point at him/her and scream "Stop coughing on me!" to instantly get death stares directed at your assailant.

Retail Therapy

2009-05-23T21:58:00.003+08:00

So the exams are finally over. Time to pamper myself a little. Went out for some retail therapy for most of the afternoon, chalking up a total of $146 worth of damages within 5 hours.

Yeah, I know I shouldn't be spending money when I haven't even found a temp job that will earn me back that money, but it's always nice to pamper yourself once in a while, especially for a job well done.

My first item of the day was this light-orange hoodie that I spotted at the Uni Klo branch in the newly opened Tampines1. This was my first purchase from this Jap shop that seems to be so famous every where else except in Singapore.

And it really seems that they cater their clothes for the individual markets they are in. From my reliable sources, I heard that 80% of the clothes in the Uni Klo shops overseas consists of funky printed tees, and obviously that's how they got famous for being Japan's top casual brand. But come down to sunny old Singapore and you'll notice that 70% of the entire shop consists of boringly plain tees, simple printed-pattern polo tees and such. Only a small section was devoted to what made them famous in the first place.

Luckily I managed to find some treasure within this small treasure cove...

Ain't it a beauty? And in my favourite colour too!

Next up was a seemingly common tee that I'm sure most people have seen on the chests of others...

Look familiar? Some of you might recognise it as the tee sold at Levi's . But on closer inspection...

And having this tiny little change resulted in the tee only setting me back by $10. And I swear the tee is pure purple in colour. I only just realised that my phone camera does not capture purple.... Another reason why I want an iPhone.

The last contestant of the day was a difficult decision. Kinda liked it at first glance but was slightly put off by the price of it. But after walking around for an hour or so, I decided that since today was supposed to be a reward for myself, spending a few extra dollars can't hurt right?

So we headed back to the perfum section of BHG [by the way, does anyone know what BHG stands for?] and I got myself a Hugo Element gift pack...

That consists of...

Hugo After Shave Balm...

Hugo Shower Foam...

and of course, Hugo Element 60ml

At a reasonable price of only $86. And I only realised this when I got home...

The cute salesgirl also gave me 2 free samples without even telling me!

Light-Orange Hoodie: $49.90
Purple Levi's Look-a-like: $10.00
Hugo Element Gift Set: $86.00

The satisfaction of pampering yourself: PRICELESS!

The Time Is Now

2009-05-22T11:28:00.002+08:00

Exams are over. The results have already be confirmed once I left the exam hall. They only haven't been inked down by those grumpy lecturers in the UK. Now it's their turn to work and my turn to play. My only worry is whether I'll be able to keep up the perfect record of straight As. 3 out of 4 of the papers shouldn't be a problem getting that elusive A, it's only one paper that I'm worried about. Oh well, all we can do now is sit back, relax and pray for the best. I must believeeeee...

Yesterday I found out that staying at home all day does not constitute to a fun and relaxing day. Even though I was on the laptop for almost the entire day, the only thing I was doing was:

1. Clicking the MouseHunt horn every 15 minutes

2. Checking the facebook homepage for interesting updates I can like/comment about every 2 minutes

3. Alternating between playing Word Challenge and Bejewelled Blitz, depending on the waiting time remaining for the next MouseHunt horn.

4. Playing with my Rubik's cube.

Yes. Say it. I have no life. I totally agree. It was freaking boring and many a time I would just slump on my bed, sink in and sulk for 15 minutes, until my timer sounded.

But today will be different. I have promised myself that I will be stepping out of the house no matter what. Even if nobody wants to go out with me, I'll just make my way down to ECP for a nice solo rollerblading session.

Which leaves the only unanswered question, what company in the right mind would want to hire me for a temp job when I have to 'fulfill my duties to the nation' at the end of July, which leaves me with an effective available working period of only slightly more than 1½ months. Anyone got any job lobangs?

It's The Final Countdown... Du Duuu Du Duuuuu. Duu Du Duut Dut Duuu...

2009-05-19T12:45:00.002+08:00

Last paper tomorrow. And it's the scariest of them all. Probably going to take a miracle to get an A for this one.

You know you're fucked when questions can come from any page of a total of 165 + 127 = 292 pages of course guides. And I mean ANY page. Apart from the standard topics that make up about 30% of the total paper, the rest of the questions of the past year papers of 08, 07 and 06 have totally ZERO link to each other and not a single one was repeated. Even a crystal ball won't help to spot questions for this one.

Which means I have approximately 24 hours to get every single word that is printed on those 292 pages of text engraved into my failing short-term memory. And everyone knows I don't have a short-term memory.

My self-written notes for this subject is 3 times as thick as my notes for the 2nd hardest subject and yet I still feel there are some possible topics that I haven't covered that might come out for the exam.

Also, does any kind soul have any part time jobs that I can take for about 1 month after my exams? Yeah, I can only work for about 1 month after my exams although I'm going to have like a 3 month break. Why? As our nation why she has to pull me back for Reservist even though we all know that nobody in the right mind would bother to attack Singapore. It's too bloody small to be of any importance and even a mis-aimed nuke that hits Indonesia would wipe us completely off the map.

So why waste 2 weeks of my precious time?

3 Days To Freedom

2009-05-17T21:09:00.003+08:00

It's the final countdown... 3 more days and I'll be free from the shackles of education for at least 2½ months. The only setback? I'll have to go for stupid reservist duties at the end of July.

Been Home Alone for 2 days now as the rest of my family have gone to enjoy themselves at Genting, inducting me as the king of the house. However, I haven't been home much either way so I don't feel much of a difference. I does feel kinda lonely to know that you're the only person sleeping in the entire house at night.

Half Time

2009-05-12T21:54:00.002+08:00

2 Down. 2 to go.

A brief respite of 1 week. No make that 5 days, before the battle continues. The first punch was pretty unexpected. Really got sucker-punched by it. And cos of that I don't know if I can keep up with my perfect record.

Luckily the 2nd round wasn't that tough. In fact, I think I did pretty well during that fight. I believe I should have won that match quite comfortably, but we can only wait and see.

I still have another 2 fights next week. Against the heavyweights this time. Must... train... my... brain... more...

New Way To Train Your Abs

2009-05-10T17:05:00.003+08:00

While studying I discovered a new method of getting that illusive 6-pac that all guys dream of having. And it doesn't cost a single cent too! All you have to do is to sit in front of your laptop/study table/notes for at least 5 hours with minimal standing up to go to the toilet and other misc activities... and after a while Voala! A couple of lines from those washboard abs will magically appear on your tummy!

See those red lines that magically appear from doing absolutely nothing? Incredible right?

However, the results are only temporary and those abs will disappear into oblivion once you start moving about like a normal human being for a few hours. No matter, at least you get the joy of having some abs for an hour or so.

Ok. I bet you can tell by now that i'm superbly bored out of my logically thinking mind.

Exams Are Here

2009-05-10T02:05:00.002+08:00

Exams officially start tomorrow. Not very confident of getting my As this time. Just can't seem to get the answers into long-term memory. Looking at the questions, they kinda ring a bell about something you read before about that topic, but you just can't seem to pick out the exact details from that cloudy mess in your head.

Time to wake up! It's crunch time. Today will be the last day to prepare for myself for the battle that lies ahead. It's not a battle against the other students, it's a battle against myself. Disappointment lurks in the darkness. It's time to prove to yourself that you can do it. Not for them, not for her, but for the man in the mirror.

Good Studying Day

2009-05-05T19:45:00.002+08:00

Woohoo! Today is a good day. I managed to finish off 4 Past Year Exam papers in 1 afternoon, all this while having sporadic chats on MSN and turning back to catch a mouse or 2 in MouseHunt every 15 minutes. And this was all done in a matter of 5 hours! How's that for efficiency?

My flu is getting better and so is my concentration. Cleared off 1 subject of revision, and we're down to 3 more. But first, tonight we'll have some Rest & Relaxation to prepare for the battle again tomorrow.

Oh ya, due to overwhelming pressure of my friends, I've started MouseHunting on facebook. And as most of you should know, once I start on a game, I'm always soar through the ranks at incredible speed. So all you MouseHunters out there, beware! Cos anyhow's coming to get'cha!

Perfect Timing

2009-05-01T19:17:00.003+08:00

Just 1 more week to the exams and here I am falling prey to that irritating flu bug. What immaculate timing you have. With 1 side of my nose permanently dammed up by the fluids inside and my throat signalling a hint of soreness today, I just wasted 2 whole days that could have been used to study.

Yesterday was feeling totally drained and sickly so I ended spending half the day and night sleeping. Today I was feeling less feverish but my throat started to get sore throughout the day. Tried to study but the brain just won't accept any information being presented to it. Kinda like a memory road block where you toatlly know and understand what you're reading but nothing seems to stay in those stupid memory cells. Close the book and you can't remember a single thing you've read.

hopefully tommorrow things start to get better or its straight to the doctors after dance practice. Only 1 week away, but why am I not the least bit anxious? I know I haven't studied enough. Right now I seriously wouldn't mind trading in my sense of smell if I were never ever to get any nasel infections or illness that have been bugging me my entire life. Does the devil accept nasel contracts?

Hurray! My Laptop is Back!

2009-04-29T21:55:00.003+08:00

Finally my HP laptop is back where it should be, on the table in front of me. I have been living in semi-misery for the past few days with the old Acer laptop. Even to the extent of affecting my gaming due to the fact that the wireless connection would just fall asleep at irregular intervals. But at least now everything's back to normal.

Yesterday was the last lesson of the year. No more lectures, tutorials or labs for the rest of the adcadamic year until exams are over and the last year of my uni studies start. So from now until the exams, 2 weeks from now, I'll be flying solo. Lucky for me the study engine has just began to warm up and the NOZ should be kicking in anytime soon. I foresee a couple of subjects that I would have a hard time maintaining my A average for but that just makes it all the more worth the challenge right?

Study not because you have to, but because you want to. Believe me, it makes a whole world of difference.

My Laptop Died On Me

2009-04-24T01:42:00.002+08:00

Stupid HP laptop died on me this morning. Seems that it thinks that the network card within it that is used to connect to the wireless network is missing. Or rather, it doesn't even know that it should exist. And the strange thing was, that it was still working fine just 8 hours ago the previous night.

So anyway, now I'm stuck having to use the 'family' laptop, which is supposed to be placed in the living room for my parents use. The one with loads of problems and requires loads of 'special treatment'.

The one that easily overheats and will suddenly give the "black screen of death" if not cooled with the aid of an exteral cooler.

The one that only has USB ports on the right side of the laptop, which is the side where I have to plug my wireless mouse adapter and also the side where the mouse is. Causing me to knock into the adapter ever so often when switching my right hand from the mouse to the keyboard.

The one that has this quirky habit of losing the wireless connection due to pressure on the area where the wireless card is located, which is also the area where my left palm rests, causing me to 'float' my palm above the keyboard when I'm using it.

I think a picture would better explain the situation.

This is what I mean by the 'floating' hand

The good people at HP will be collecting my faulty laptop tommorrow, [technically TODAY, since it's already past midnight] and it takes them up to 5 working days just to replace 1 stupid card. So I guess I will have to continue this special treatment for another week before I can get my precious back.

Well, at least it's more motivation for me to stop using the laptop and concentrate more on my studies. Exams are around the corner, but I don't feel any urgency at all. I realy need to start mugging soon. Oh, and by the way, I've uped the ante a little, challenging myself not just to get a B grade average, but instead to keep up with my first year results and graduate with straight As. Should be chicken feet if I could just get myself to start studying soon...

Enlightened

2009-04-19T21:11:00.004+08:00

Ever wondered why Tampines One was named Tampines One? Today, a friend enlightened me.

Notice that it has the same naming convention as Changi Airport Terminal One? So this is to provide room for future expension. In 5 years time, Tampines Two will be coming up, with better facilities, with more exclusive brands such as Gucci and Prada opening their doors to neighbourhood richies.

Who knows, within the span of the next 10 years, maybe even Tampines Three would be built. Oh, and of course we can't forget about Budget Tampines! The entire shopping mall would have no air conditioning, with a self-service concept where there will be no service staff but rather rows of cashiers at the exit waiting for the customers to bring their self-picked products over to make payment. Also, there would be no eateries in Budget Tampines, but only 1 single stall selling Instant Noodles. If you want to shop at night, remember to bring your own torchlights as lightsticks will only be supplied to the cashier counters.

Now that you have been enlightened, go ahead and pass this information on to the next generation.

Getting Too Old For This

2009-04-18T09:47:00.003+08:00

Went down to Ah Soon's tkd class last night. I think age might finally be catching up on me. For the first time in a very very long time, I had to fall out and take a break during training halfway through as I was beginning to feel faint and weak after just a few rounds of kicking.

Maybe it's because I haven't been exercising much these few months. Or maybe it's because I did not hydrate myself enough before the training. Or maybe it's because I over-exerted myself by ensuring that I got in 100 kicks in 60 seconds for both legs. Or maybe it was the fatal combination of all these factors.

Whatever the case, I felt really weak and faint and had to fall out halfway through class. the last time that I remember myself falling out from a class is during our hardcore tournament training where I took a fall and landed on my butt bone, after which I felt the exact same effects as last night. And that was almost 4 to 5 years ago.

But in any case, I still managed to recover from that minor lapse in performance and to return to the class for the sparring session. And after all these years of inactivity in tkd, only 1 thing's for sure: I STILL KICK ASS.

I may not be as fast or accurate or powerful as I used to be in my prime, but judging from the standards of the type of tkd training I see going on in CCs nowadays and the quality of the students produced, I have no doubt that I can still go kick for kick with any one of those fighters out there.

It's amazing how the hunger just comes back once you are able to get a clear hit to a worthy opponent's head. And to top it all off, I still managed to execute a couple of my trademark spins and dodges almost perfectly, albiet a little slower than what would be expected of me in my prime.

But kicking ass also comes with a price. Although my arms and legs are still considered seasoned from all the tough training in the past, I unknowly brought back a few souvenirs after the training. My right arm was quite badly bruised although I didn'r really feel much pain. And this morning the bruising became more obvious and it hurts a little when I press on it. But still, it's a small price to pay for being able to get a good kick on someone's head. I haven't felt this 'shoik-ness' in a very long time.

Ouch!

Ode To Darkness

2009-04-17T12:22:00.003+08:00

When many a day passes you by,
you feel the sorrow slowly building inside.
Sometimes you just have to stop and sigh,
and wonder if life is just a big fat lie.

When others take a look at you,
they see someone who is never ever blue.
An enigma who seems to know no fear,
and has yet to shed a single tear.

But taking a look at the man in the mirror,
a feeling of emptyness builds from his gut and liver.
As the glow from his eyes dissipates,
he seems ready to resign to his fate.

The path ahead loams into the shadows,
and he ventures ahead as the wind mellows.
Even without a single stream of light,
he vows not to give up without a fight.

For through the darkness he must go,
in order to reclaim what's left of his lost soul.
To be able to find what was lost,
he was willing to pay at any cost.

For true happiness he has never found,
even with all his friends and toys around.
As the shadows consumed his sense of sight,
he also lost sense of wrong and right.

An empty shell he has now become,
Feelings of joy and pain were all now numb.
Created to be one of the best,
he now falls apart creating one big mess.

When You're Bored

2009-04-14T21:59:00.002+08:00

When you're bored at home with nothing to do, no motivation to study and no friends to play online games with, there's only 1 way to kill the boredom.

fmylife.com

A freaking funny website that has tons of self-posted situations posted by real people who should really should think about suiside to solve their problems. And don't worry, although the name suggests it, there's no porn involved. Well, no graphical porn at least.

Rain, Rain Go Away

2009-04-12T13:16:00.002+08:00

Wanted to go rollerblading at ECP from Wednesday, but it seems that the gods disapprove of my idea. It has been raining every single afternoon, making it impossible for me to be enjoying myself on wheels at ECP. And as I look out the window again today, I see droplets of water falling across my 4th storey air, AGAIN.

I'm supposed to starting my hardcore studying next week, but I guess I'll have to steal 1 afternoon from next week when hopefully it doesn't rain to make my way down to ECP. Since when did April become a wet month?

Being cooped up at home definitely has visible resulting effects on a person. My study concentration span has dropped to a mere 15 minutes from the previous 2 hours. I feel damn restless but at the same time damn nua. Where you get the feeling where you don't want to do anything but at the same time you feel a ball of energy bouncing around inside your rib cage and you have no way of expelling it.

I need something to throw this extra ball of energy into. But the damn rain is keeping me away from anything that I can think of.

The Last Lap

2009-04-09T12:46:00.002+08:00

Finally handed up that bloody assignment with the rest of the gang last night. Now it's time for the final lap. No more assignments for this acadamic year. Exams are lurking within the span of 1 month. I need to get my studying cap on soon, but it ain't going on before next week. For the rest of this week, it's time for Rest & Relaxation.

Finally had a good night's sleep 2 days ago. I slept for 12 hours straight, from 3am to 3pm, which I think was well deserved since I have been rushing that damn assignment well into the night as well as waking up early for 9 to 5 revision lectures on previous days. It was so bad that on Tuesday night, there was this burning sensation in my eyes everytime I closed them. If that's not a sign of tired eyes I don't know what is.

Today is the opening of the newest mall in Tampines, aptly called Tampines One. I would go down to explore the mall a little, if not for the fact that I know the typical kiasu Singaporeans will flock down on the first opening day like ants to syrup. I just wanna know what shops and activities are available at the mall, and not to grab any great opening day bargains. Therefore, I suppose I would only go down after all the hype has died down, maybe I'll drop by next week.

The few things that I hope they have are more guys clothes stores [The total number of decent guy clothes stores in Tampines Mall and Century Square can be counted on my 2 hands], some pool place and a bowling alley.

Oh, and no matter what you all say, I'm still addicted to iPhone. Sleek and stylish is enough for me.

My Addiction

2009-04-06T01:18:00.003+08:00

I want it so bad. I Think about it day and night. If only I could get my hands on one. But alas this dream seems so far away with so many barriers in between.

I want an iPhone. But firstly, it's already freaking expensive, and the best part is not only don't I have the $$$$$ to buy something that costs more than what some people have in their bank accounts, my entire family are loyal supporters to M1!! Which makes it even harder cos of that damn exculsive distribution rights of Singtel. Even if I could convience PiPi to to let my use her plan to get the iPhone, I would still have to rob a bank to be able to pay for it.

Anyone generous enough to buy me my birthday-cum-christmas-cum-new year present?

Sleepless In Simei... Again

2009-04-02T19:46:00.002+08:00

Was being a good student and trying very hard to do my last assignment for the year last night. Started from 9 plus after I woke up from my evening nap and my fingers were fixed on the keypad of my laptop for almost 7 hours straight.

However, I didn't manage to get much progress. But I knew I was close to completing that part of the question. So close. But yet, I couldn't seem to get the spark of genius to fill in the last few holes in my program. I tried, and I tried. Even to the extent of spewing vulgarities into thin air out of frustration. It was only 1 small part of a question. I should have been able to see the answer clearly long ago, just like any of my other programming assignments.

But yet this one was different. Because of her, I broke my perfect record of handing up all assignments on the school's local deadline. You see, the assignments have the previledge of being flown over to the UK where they will be marked by balding, be-spectacled ang moh uncles and aunties seated beside their fireplace, with some beams of yellow light swivelling about from a bulb attached to the ceiling above. Well, maybe I'm over-dramatising a little, but you get the picture.

So anyway, assignments have 2 deadlines, the first is the local deadline, where the school will collect and collate all assignments to be flown over and mail them over in 1 big cardboard box. However, those who have not completed the assignments by this local deadline usually have another 1 to 2 weeks after the local deadline to personally courier those stacks of 20 page reports over to the UK themselves.

And as it turns out, I've been stuck with this assignment for almost an entire week without any signs of progresss. Lecture nots haven't been helpful in determining the logic of the codes and even the Internet didn't provide much help about the topics. Seriously, even the Internet has no clue? Well, I guess this proves how many people in the industry are really using such irritating programming languages.

So there I was, struggling to find the right mix of codes through all the syntax and logic errors, periodically cursing at the stupidness of the program, which only tells u which line the error is on, without telling you what is wrong or how to solve it. I finally admitted defeat at 4.30am. With my brain filled codes and a frustrated heart, I decided to try to get some sleep cos I was supposed to wake up early the next day. Like in 3 hours time.

However, after flipping and tossing and sweating on the bed for almost half and hour, I suddenly had an inspiration. Jumped out of bed, turned on my laptop and started to furiously bash the codes into the program. AND IT FINALLY WORKED!! By the time I finished finalising and debugging that program it was almost 6.30am. Finally I laid my rested soul on the bed and immediately fell asleep, for a whole 45 mins.

But it was one of the most satisfying 45 minutes of sleep I've had in a very long time. So now let's hope that another spark of inspiration will come along to help me complete the rest of my assignment tonight. And hopefully at a much earlier time. Lightbulb, it's time to work your magic...

Dinner In The Dark

2009-03-28T22:06:00.002+08:00

went down to my favouritous casual dining place for dinner during earth hour. Eighteen Chefs at Simei EastPoint. As part of their efforts to participate in Earth Hour, they switched off all the lights and everyone enjoyed their dinner by candlelight.

I came down a few seconds too late and ended up having to sit outside as the last table inside had just been taken up. But at least I managed to partake in the countdown to switching off the lights... 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1... Happy Earth Hour!

Their service staff were decked out in funky gear created by lightsticks. One guy had green lightstick glasses while the cute cashier girl had yellow lightstick mickey mouse ears. There were also the bigger, thicker, non-bendable versions of the lightsticks provided on every table as well as candles floating in glasses to ensure that customers don't stuff pasta into their own nostrils.

Had my usual Tangy Tomato Chicken Sausage Cheese Baked Pasta student set meal while sharing the table with a chinese guy-indian girl couple and 2 sec school girls. Midway through my meal, a young malay kid dropped his glass of dessert just beside the table, resulting in a masasive shattering sound and an awkward silence of 1 whole second. But the strange thing was, the parents of the kid didn't even scold or attempt any form of physical punishment on the kid, but instead just gave piercing stares right through the little guy.

If it was a typical Chinese family, the story would have been entirely different. First, the kid would have gotten a massive scolding followed by some slaps on the hand or butt by his typical chinese mom, followed by some grumbling and lecturing by the typical chinese dad.

But anyway, I managed to snap a few shots after the couple left before making my way back home.

Candlelight Pasta

My futile attempt to capture the candle flame no.1

My futile attempt to capture the candle flame no.2

Looks like a scene from some cheapo ghost flick.
Please pardon the messy hair.

On my way back after dinner, I spotted a massive crowd outside the main doors of Eastpoint. There was this percussion performance going on, by some all Malay group. Haven't you noticed that Malays really like to drum on random objects to create ~~noise~~ music? So anyway, this group was no different, apart from the fact that they had proper percussion instruments such as drums and those round things with the bells on it that go "ching, ching" when you hit it on your hand. [Sorry, suddenly just forgot what they are called]

So there they were happily drumming away in their own world and the beat was almost enjoyable. Then they finished up the song and invited the audience to try their hands on the instruments. At first I was tempted to go up and try one of the drums but after seeing and hearing all the kids rythemlessly whack on the rest of the instruments, I decided that I would rather save my ears from the torture and just head back home after buying dad's dinner.

So here I am, back in the comfort of my peaceful, air-conditioned room, 1 hour after Earth Hour, finishing my blog post and having totally nothing to do on a Saturday night, after spending the entire Saturday doing nothing except breaking highscores on facebook. I need a life. Can I borrow yours?

Earth Hour: Saturday 28 March 2009, 8.30 - 9.30pm

2009-03-27T22:33:00.003+08:00

I'm sure many people have heard about Earth Hour 2009. It's a global event that is aimed at increasing awareness of the effects of global-warming on our planet. To be a part of this movement, all you have to do is switch off your lights from 8.30pm to 9.30pm tommorrow, 28 March.

But have you ever wondered how much impact switching off the lights for 1 hour would make? Well, for starters, switching off a typical fluorescent lamp in your house for 1 hour would save 100 watts. Multiply this by the 1 million votes the campaign aims to gather, and you would get an overall saving of 100,000,000 watts of power, which would be enough power to sustain the entire New York City for 12 whole minutes. How's that for an impact.

Sure, you might be a drop of water in the ocean, but try hard enough and the ripples that you make will be felt continents away. So stop contemplating. It's just 1 hour. Vote Earth. I am. Besides it would probably be a great spectacle to see an entire city in total darkness. As my blog song says: Make a change. Start with the man in the mirror.

The Light Beckons

2009-03-25T20:23:00.002+08:00

2 more days to Assignment 4 deadline and the end of my assignment headaches for this acadamic year. But I'm still stuck with 1 last assignment which I still have totally no idea how to get started.

It's so irritating when you have all the ingredients in the palm of your hand and yet have no idea how to cook them up to produce the meal you want.

I see the light at the end of the tunnel. But yet I'm rooted to the ground. I need to be enlightened. Maybe going up to the mountains to meditate will give me a clue on how to start...

What Recession?

2009-03-20T14:27:00.003+08:00

Singapore is going through one of the worst recessions in its history. My ASS. Woke up early and headed down to the Adidas Sale at Singapore Expo this morning. Arriving at the Expo at 1040am, knowing that the doors open at 11am, I was expecting to be one of the first few to step into the hall. I couldn't have been more wrong.

It seems that the typical Singaporean kiasu syndrome is back, stronger then ever. When I reached, there was already a queue from the entrance of Hall 5 all the way to the Donut Empire kiosk near the entrance of the Expo from the MRT. Not sure what I'm talking about? Here's a graphical representation for those graphical-minded people out there...

The Queue

See the people facing away from me? That's the TAIL of the queue.

The Sale was happening at Hall 5 for your info. And I'm only outside Hall 6 after half and hour of waiting

Finally got into the "Hall queue" after almost 45 minutes

But sad to say the Sale was hardly worth the queuing. The only thing that barely caught my attention among the entire sale was this white basketball shorts. Other than that, the rest of the items there were, how do you say, B-O-R-I-N-G. Even the sneakers section couldn't hold my attention for more than 2 minutes.

So in the end I only ended up walking out after 1 hour of queuing, 10 minutes of shopping, 20 minutes of wondering aimlessly amoung the carts of seemingly identical clothes/jackets/shoes and 10 minutes of queuing to make payment, with a pair of $59.00 white basketball shorts that set me back by $25.00 and the best deal of the day, a FREE black Adidas plastic bag. Wow.

That's one reason why I am not an Adidas fan. All their products look like they were photocopied from another Adidas product, only differentiating itself from its predicesor by having an additional splash of paint here or an additional icon there. Why would anyone want to wear something that 20 other totally unrelated people in Orchard Road would be wearing on the same day? As a quote on some T-shirt goes "I'm not different. You're just all the same."

And after looking back at the infamous picture of the last IT Show over the last weekend, I am forced to repeat myself...

WHAT RECESSION?

Race To Witch Mountain

2009-03-18T00:56:00.002+08:00

Watched Dwayne Johnson, as he prefers to be called now, in another disney movie, Race To Witch Mountain. Story plot was ok, as only imaginative Disney storywriters can come up with. And this time, Dwayne was only useful while in the cab, and a couple of fight scenes. Other than that he was just a nice visual addition to the scene.

Been feeling rather *seh* these few days. Not really sure why. Maybe it's the weather. Maybe it's my lack of sleep. Been feeling restless at home, physically tired even though I haven't been exercising in a long time, and today even got a slight headache and neckache.

I need some rejuvination. I need motivation. I need a drink from the Fountain Of Life.

High Definition Photos Out Now!!

2009-03-13T21:56:00.004+08:00

Woohoo! Finally got hold of the High Quality shots from the photoshoot. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves... Click them to view them at full size!!

Group Photo

Playing In The Lifts

My Favourite Shot!!

My Attempt at 7

Credits: Koh Sze Kiat

Thanks for the wonderful shots man!

In The Limelight Again

2009-03-12T15:23:00.007+08:00

Went for a fun photoshoot with SIM photography club on Sunday with a few of my Dreamwerkz friends. All in all I think we spent almost 3 hours snapping away and the resulting photos did not disappoint. Still trying to get my hands on more photos, but in the meantime here are a couple for u to enjoy.

Something's Not Right

2009-03-08T02:12:00.001+08:00

Feeling very Emo today... Shall not elaborate...

Headshot!

2009-03-03T16:35:00.003+08:00

Is this a sign of things to come?

Prelims are starting tommorrow, I'm stuck in my room with a nose that thinks it's competing in a marathon, and I just read about the Merlion being struck by lightning.

Yes, you heard right. If you haven't been reading the news, Singapore's iconic attraction has been stuck on the head by lightning, leaving a hole on the top of its shiny white toupe. Mother Nature sure has a sense of humour.

With the current economic crisis and recession rearing its ugly head, what better way to reassure Singaporeans that everything will be fine than blasting a hole through the top of our national icon? But wait, it gets better. Heavy rain last night and during this afternoon should have ensured that the insides of the Merlion have been throughly 'cleansed' of evil spirits.

Most people say it's a bad omen, that something is about to get worse, with all fingers pointing to the economic crisis ahead of us. Some say it's a wake up call, telling Singaporeans not to be overly dependent on the government. I say it's a sign that tall, white people are more prone to be struck by lightning than their shorter asean counterparts, judging from the fact that nothing has happened to the shorter, smaller copies of the merlion around the rest of our island.

The 'ang mohs' will the ones feeling most of the pain of the recession, whereas we just have to endure the tremours and aftershocks that come from the opposite side of the globe.

As my grandmaster Oogui used to say "You must believeee..." Believe that we will get through this bad time. Believe that I won't flunk my prelims horribly. Believe that assignment 4 can be completed on time although the deadline is only 3 weeks away...

Damn, I got a lot of believing to catch up on...

The Longest Days of My Life

2009-03-01T22:12:00.002+08:00

Just spent the 2 longest days of my life this weekend... Doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. And it was freaking tiring i tell you.

Try spending 48 hours not doing anything. And by anything, I mean ANYTHING, except the human necessities. No touching your computer or laptop, no reading of books, no forms of usage of your mobile phone, which includes talking or playing games on it, no watching of TV or listening to the radio. The only 3 things you can do is eat, sleep and bathe.

Even sleeping for 2 consecutive periods of 4 hours seemed like a nightmare. I really don't understand how people can spend their time doing nothing, even with your other half around.

S.H.E. @ Eastpooint

2009-02-23T19:10:00.002+08:00

Went down to Eastpoint for lunch on Saturday afternoon. To my shock, I spotted a queue at the most remote side of the mall, the side which only had motorcycle parking lots and air vents from the Pet Safari. At first we thought it was some sort of free gift giveaway or maybe even some semi-popular Singaporean superstar making a guess appearance. Boy were we wrong.

Upon entering the sliding glass doors of Eastpoint, we discovered that the queue was starting from the stage in the middle of the mall... Snaking all the way to the outskirts of the mall. And the reason? S.H.E. was in town for an autograph signing event.

Everyone in the queue was desperately holding on/buying off the shelf any item remotely related to S.H.E. so that they could get upclose and personal with the stars and get their initials on whatever products they brought along with them. The queue was freaking crazy. It snaked from inside Eastpoint to outside the glass doors, across the BK outside and back to the remote area beside Pet Safari. Words don't do justice to the queue so here's a picture of how the snake was formed...

And yes, 1 person was the size of 1 dot on the picture. And each row consisted of at least 3 people squeezed together. It's freaking amazing what Singaporeans will do to get a simple autograph from their idols.

Anyway, I felt Selina was the prettiest that day, although she had the heaviest make-up on. Hebe basically gave up on her pretty, sexy look when she slashed her hair to shoulder-length and even worse, made it a bob. Ella was cute but not really my cup of tea. I wonder how long the queue would be if superstar Jay Chou were to make an appearance in our tiny island. Maybe the queue would go all the way to Johor?

A Video For Valentine's Day

2009-02-17T01:23:00.001+08:00

Ever wondered what would happen if you forgot to buy a present for your valentine?

Happy Valentine's Day

2009-02-14T12:06:00.003+08:00

The world's greatest global con is here again. 99 flowers at $190, dinner for 2 at $120, packed crowds everywhere and prices of everything goes up while the quantity and quality of what you get drops drastically.

Valentine's Day is just another day, what makes it so special that everyone has to show how much they love their partner by spending ridiculous amounts of money for things that would probably cost less than half the price 2 days from now?

If you asked me, I'd rather save the $190 on the flowers and spend that extra money on a nice little restaurant with cosy ambience. Showering love and gifts on Valentine's Day is never a good indicator of how much a person loves his partner. If he spends a bomb on you today and doesn't bother about you for the rest of the month, is that truely called love?

I'd say the true lover treats valentine's day as just another regular day, where in each regular day he shows his affection and undying love for the partner without the need of motivation from any special occasions.

Oh, and thanks dear for my VDay present.

My New Sony 8GB ThumbDrive! In Orange!

Happiness

2009-02-12T21:47:00.003+08:00

Happiness is like a crysal ball. Someone dropped it from the sky and it shattered into a million pieces, scattering across the entire world. One by one, everyone started to pick up pieces of happiness. Some picked up many pieces while others only managed to get a few. However, one thing is certain. No matter how hard you try, you will never be able to attain complete happiness. The key is to appriciate the beauty of the pieces in your hand instead of wanting pieces that you do not have.

A beautiful quote from the new movie "Looking for A Star" starring Andy Lau and Shu Qi. Valantine's Day is coming. Hope all the couples out there learn to appriciate the pieces of happiness that they already hold in their hands.

Broken Singlish

2009-02-09T00:57:00.003+08:00

Everyone know that 90% of Singaporeans can't converse in good old proper English without adding a little spice of Singlish into the mix. But I realised that there was more entertainment value not in Singlish and how it is broken, but rather the funny mispronounced english that we often hear on the steet so much so that some of us don't even notice that its not supposed to sound that way.

How many of the words below do you know the actual english words of?

1. sack-ker-ter-ree

2. blastic bag

3. gah-men

4. zee-lo

5. lumber

6. ab-ba-lon

7. all-lady, oh-lady

8. any-body

9. ling-ger-ree

10. many-zer

11. belly, valley

12. car-rer

13. ass-que me

14. or-so

15. car-four

16. probrem

17. lay-lio

How many could you make out? Scroll down for the answers and the RIGHT way of pronouncing them

1. sack-ker-ter-ree -> secretary [say: sec-ket-tree]

2. blastic bag -> plastic bag [say: plus-tick bare-gge]

3. gah-men -> government {say: gav-er-ment, less emphersis on the er]

4. zee-lo -> zero [say: zee-row]

5. lumber -> number [say: numb-ber]

6. ab-ba-lon -> abalone [say: ab-ba-lon-eee]

7. all-lady, oh-lady -> already [say: ol-ready]

8. any-body -> anybody [say: any-birdy]

9. ling-ger-ree -> lingerie [say: lon-ger-ray]

10. many-zer -> manager [say: man-age-ger]

11. belly, valley -> very [say: vair-ry]

12. car-rer -> colour [say: caa-leer]

13. ass-que me -> excuse me [say: ex-scues me]

14. or-so -> also [say: all-so]

15. car-four -> carrefour [say: car-fuu]

16. probrem -> problem [say: pr-orb-blem]

17. lay-lio -> radio [say: ray-di-oh]

Which ones have you been mispronouncing all this while? Own up...

Gone in 15 Minutes

2009-02-07T00:48:00.002+08:00

Went down to the Nike Expo sale on Friday morning. Good thing that we went down early. Arrived at Singapore Expo around 9.55AM on the first day of the sale and there was already a stream of people flooding into expo hall as the doors were opened. Quickly got a transparent trash bag from the staff there and went in to look for treasure.

This time I won't deny that I was one of those typical kiasu Singaporeans who I often complain about. Hey, but at least I didn't go there BEFORE the opening time to queue up! So anyway, there were so many people with so little stuff to buy. you really had to adopt a "See. Like. Buy." attitude. Think for 1 second more and another person would have took the last piece off the rack.

It was so fast that I practically finished my shopping within 15 minutes. The range of clothing there were just merely above the acceptable level and the shoes section mostly focused on running shoes. I only saw like 4 sneakers on sale in the entire expo hall. Most of the center racks contained bits and pieces of accessories, which were the main buys of the sale.

In the end I spent $65 within those 15 minutes. One of my fastest shopping sprees ever. But I'm actually quite satisfied with the "junk" that I manageed to pick up from that giant rubbish bin.

Basketball Shorts $20
Ankle Socks $5
Gloves $15
Wristbands $5
Water Bottle $10 each

The Satisfaction of getting stuff that the latecomers would never know existed
PRICELESS

New Glasses~!

2009-02-02T16:28:00.002+08:00

Just bought a new pair of glasses since my eye-sight degree changed again. My right eye was reduced from 375 to 300, but it showed signs of slight estigmatism. =(

So anyway, since my old glasses were to plastic-y, I decided to opt for a metal frame with full rubber leggings this time. After many months of revisiting the same shop looking for stylish metal half-framed glasses, I think I finally hit the jackpot this time.

Really love my new glasses even though I get a little dizzy from wearing it cos my eyes are still not used to the change in degree and focus. I think I look damn smart can! Smart and Cool. Don't take my word for it, have a peak for yourself!

Top-down side view of my new look

Full frontal shot! Damn chio can!

I told u I look damn smart! Even in a shabby old singlet!!

(More Than) 25 Random Things About Me...

2009-01-31T16:20:00.003+08:00

Someone tagged me in this Random MeMe on facebook. So I decided, what the heck, let's just copy the whole chunk onto my blog. At first it was suppose to stop at 25, then I wondered how many more points I could add until my mind finally went blank. So here's the extended list of 25 Random things about me...

1. I am confident, sometimes overconfident.

2. I am NOT short. You guys are just too tall.

3. I am a Cancerian Crab. Hard on the outside, but tender and soft on the inside.

4. I am a wooden block. People say I have low EQ. I say I have NO EQ.

5. I am a thinker.

6. I love bright colours. My favourite colour is orange.

7. I like to be in the limelight.

8. But I keep to myself most of the time.

9. I have attained the highest level of the "1 ear in, 2 ears out"-jitsu.

10. I believe... in myself. And so must you. "You must believe...." (aka Master OoGui from Kungfu Panda)

11. I have the gambling luck of a banana in a chimpanzee enclosure.

12. I am not a fighter.

13. But piss me off enough and there will only be 2 hits. "Me hitting u, You hitting the floor."

14. I can solve the Rubik's Cube.

15. I can juggle, sometimes.

16. I hate losing.

17. I am not a conversation starter.

18. I can only tell 'cold' jokes.

19. I am very, very, very picky when it comes to clothes. Did I mention very, very picky?

20. I cannot live without games.

21. I cannot sit around and do nothing, not for even 1 minute.

22. I eat junk food when I'm bored. Loads of it.

23. But I'm very particular of any signs of tummy fats.

24. I think my left eye is short-sighted while my right eye is long-sighted.

25. I cannot stand lazy people with no self-discipline.

26. I is very good at English and has a astounishing vocab. I is just don't liking to shows off.

27. But my spelling sucks.

28. I can down an entire can of soft drink in 1 go. Without burping.

29. I can burp at will.

30. I like to sing. Both english and chinese songs will do.

31. I sing in the shower.

32. I like to dance.

33. But I think I suck at dancing.

34. I dance in the shower too.

35. I am not afraid of falling.

36. I am not afraid of creepy crawlies but I hate that squishy feeling when u squash one.

37. I need a tan.

38. I am a gaming fanatic.

39. I have owned the old-school Nintendo, GameBoy, GameBoy Colour, GameGear, Sega Genesis, Sega Saturn, Playstation, Playstation 2 and XBOX.

40. Then I found out about online games and the rest is history.

41. My laptop is part of me. I can't live without it.

42. I'm not rich, I just have a lot of stuff.

43. Style and practicality are equally important to me.

44. I cannot draw a nice, smooth and squiggle-less circle to save my life.

45. I hate it when people are better than me at things that I think I'm good at.

46. Speed is my forte. And sometimes my weakness.

47. I live by the 'Just-In-Time' policy.

48. I am a very light sleeper. I wake up on my alarm clock's FIRST beep.

49. I have a sensitive nose.

50. I had childhood asthma when I was young. Thankfully I outgrew it.

Ok, I think I shall stop here or I'll never be able to finish my assignment that I'm supposed to finish by tonight. Feel free to redo this quiz and tell me (More Than)25 Random Things about yourself too.

Merry Chinese New Year

2009-01-30T18:59:00.002+08:00

It's the year of the Ox. Which means that I am no longer "fan tai sui"-ing. For those english speaking people out there, "fan tai sui" is a term that the chinese always use to describe a year of bad luck. Every year, certain zodiac animals of the lunar calandar will "fan tai sui" because they so-call pissed off some big shot god or something to that extent, and therefore will have a bad year ahead of them.

People who "fan tai sui" usually go down to temples to pray for their safety and forgiveness for the year ahead during the first few days of the Chinese calandar and have to go back to give thanks for a safe year at the end of year.

Looking back, it did seem that there were many unfortunate incidents that happened to me last year. I don't know if you can call them unlucky events caused by the gods or just plain old bad luck. I do know however, that I have the gambling luck of someone would would probably be very well-liked by the gambling den owners and loan sharks.

As the age old saying goes: "When Indians get together they sing and dance. When Malays get together they eat and talk. When Chinese get together they gamble."

Every Chinese New Year, no matter which corner of Singapore you go to, you will find Chinese gathered together around any form of flat, surroundable surface with either a deck of cards or a box of mahjong tiles, trying to double the amount of money in their wallets. As such, although I know I'd be better off memorising the serial numbers of the notes in my wallet, I have no choice but to be obliged to join in the fun, which usually results in me going home with shallow pockets.

Although I'm a sceptic that doesn't believe in the existance of luck, or more specifically unluckiness, it has been tested and proven time and time again that my hands are not ment for gambling.

I still remember an experiment I once did when I was bored. Spreading a deck of cards face down on my bed, I drew out 4 random cards hoping that they would be "big" cards. What did I get? 2, 4, 5 and J.

Now for the second test. After reshuffling the deck, I again drew out 4 random cards in hopes of them now being "small" cards. Any guesses for the results? 5, 10, Q and Ace. That's a double confirmation of my 25% drawing accuracy on any random game. And yes, it has stayed true for many decades.

But being the overconfident bastard that I am, this lifetime streak of "bad luck" has not really affected me much throughout my life, apart from distancing me from my money. Maybe it's because I've never taken luck into consideration in anything that I do.

My philosophy in life has always been "If you want something, give 101% effort in achieving it. And do it in style." If I really want to do something, I will only put in all my effort to get the best possible result or not do it at all. As I always say, I don't do half-fu*cked things.

I don't believe in luck, but I believe in chance. Luck is when you hope to strike lottery by buying $100 worth of ToTo tickets during the Chinese New Year Ang Bao draw. Chance is the entire flow of events that allowed you to have that $100 to spend on your ToTo tickets.

Instead of buying 200 ordinary pick ToTo tickets and checking them against the teletext results screen until you get papercuts all over your fingers, I would rather take the chance to invest that $100 in something that would definitely reep benefits in the future like taking up a course or buying something that you like. It doesn't have to produce monetary gains but at least you get a sense of achievement from that $100.

Some people have all the luck, while others just stand by the side in envy. But don't forget, luck may not be fair to all of us but chance is always fair.

Here's another example. Some people might have the luck of having rich relatives who give them $50 hong baos every chinese new year. You might not have that luck but chinese new year is always a chance to collect hong baos. Make an effort, visit more friends and relatives, be nice to your relatives so that they will give you bigger packets next year. And you will find that that $50 hong bao will soon be peanuts compared to your stack of $4 hong baos.

And that's my Red Packet Collection for this year

Facial With Miss Tjio

2009-01-22T00:50:00.003+08:00

Went for my virgin facial at this place called "Ja'zz The Skin Perfection" some where in a remote part of Singapore called Spottiswoode Park Road. Well, it's actually not that ulu cos it's just a 10 minute stroll from Outram Park MRT station but you gotta know how to get there.

Anyway, the facial was fun. I never knew they could do so many things to improve the entire outlook of one's face. From the typical applying facial cream to professional facial massaging to using some funky high-tech machine to apply some special lubricant and massage your face.

They had this mini-vacuum like machine that was used to remove the whiteheads and blackheads by sucking them off my face. It kinda felt like when you stick one of those transparent, round sticky plastic things that sticks on a wall onto your skin and pull it off forcefully, only smaller and repeated many, many times.

There was also this machine that had a metal plate that was to be placed on your back with direct contact with your skin as well as a roller-like erm... roller that was used to apply some lubricant and massage my face. The roller was said to produce radiowaves and it got warmer and warmer as the massage went on. Kinda felt like I was bathing in my shower with the heater turned up to the maximum. The heat was just slightly below unbearable so I managed to sit through the entire treatment without asking her to stop. Good thing I always bathe with the heater turned up to the max.

I really felt like I was in one of those TV shows where they love to show the horendous before picture with some person with some funky skin/facial problem and then film the entire process of that person getting treated before showing the fully maked-up complete with powder and concealer to prove that the treatment works wonders. Only in this case, there were no cameras, no hosts and no before and after mugshots.

I did see a bit of uplifting of my face about 45 minutes into the treatment when the masseuse passed me a mirror to see the difference of one half of my face as compared to the other. [She had been working on the right side of my face for the first 45 minutes] However, it was nothing like those overly exagerated results depicted in those beauty shows.

All in all I was quite impressed by the service and I even managed to fall asleep to the sounds of birds chirping and flowing waterfalls with a creamy mask and supposedly cucumbers or tomatoes atop my eyes. [Its kinda hard to differentiate between cucumbers and tomatoes using closed eyelids] She even gave me a quick but enjoyable massage when I was waken from my slumber.

Thanks again to Tjio who was waiting outside the entire time while I was revitalising my face. I gotta treat her to lunch or dinner or K one of these days.

New Song

2009-01-16T21:20:00.002+08:00

Bleeding Love by Leona Lewis. I get goosebumps everytime the song reaches the ending chorus...

Round 2... Fight!

2009-01-14T16:54:00.002+08:00

Assignment 1 has been handed in, and suddenly I realise that I'm left with 16 more days to the deadline of assignment 2. And guess what? I haven't even flipped open the assignment book. Ready. 3, 2, 1... Flip! Tada! Ok I have finally started to start on my assignment 2.

16 more days, minus 2 days of chinese new year celebrations, minus 1 day of classmates' birthday celebration outing, minus 2 saturdays of school + dance practice, minus 1 day school + dance practice tommorrow.

16-2-1-2-1 = 10 days to complete 4 assignments. Oh... my... GAWD.

The Eye of the Storm

2009-01-07T22:02:00.002+08:00

Assignment 1 has been submitted. It will fly all the way to London to be marked by some old lecturer who's probably balding and has a failing eyesight.

Is this the light at the end of the tunnel? Or is it just the calm before the storm? I prefer to think that I'm exactly in the eye of the storm right now. The bad has just passed, but the worst is yet to come.

Watched Ip Man [say eep ma-ann] yesterday and I was sort of inspired to go back to the martial arts scene. Kinda missed the days where I would run circles round my opponents. But age has probably caught up with me, slowing my speed tenfold and leaving me breathless after just half a hour of training when I went down to Ah Soon's class a few weeks ago.

My notes for all subjects have been long overdue, but I just can't seem to get the engine going. It's been choking on games, dance and other leisure activities. Gotta clear up that stutter soon, cos once assignment 2 deadline rears it's ugly head, I'm gonna be neck deep in my overdue notes again.

Ok, I know this post is very random, but my brain is acting quite random nowadays. It's time to pull that schoolboy anyhow back out from the closet...

Deadlines Due

2008-12-30T19:43:00.003+08:00

3 days away. I'm still on schedule. If everything goes well, I can finish everything and get all those reports printed out with 1 day to spare. However, assignments ain't my biggest worry right now.

Something else has been way overdue. But I've only just realised it recently. This will be one heck of a hurdle to clear, but no matter how hard it seems I believe I can overcome the odds.

Sometimes its not the decisions we make, but those that we don't that hurt us the most. Time doesn't heal wounds, it only covers them up with a layer that can be peeled off, revealing an even deeper gash than before.

Tis The Season to Be Jolly...

2008-12-25T03:21:00.004+08:00

...Fa la la la la, la la la la. Twas a wet and stromy Christmas this year. Practically rained for the entire day. Danzation is over, Christmas celebrations are over, now it's time to activate the turbocharged engine. Its the final lap to assignment deadlines on 2nd Jan 2009, which means I have exactly 8 more days to finish 1.5 assignments.

Aim to finish off the JAVA report by Saturday and then chiong the most hated assignment of Software Engineering and complete it with 1 day to spare. After tommorrow, I will shut myself from the world for 7 days straight. Don't bother asking me out during this period. The answer will be a big fat "NO" straight in your face.

And as usual, to keep up with tradition, I shall wish each and everyone of you...

HAPPY CHRISTMAS and a MERRY NEW YEAR!!

Danzation 2008

2008-12-20T01:15:00.002+08:00

Woooo~ Today's show was a blast! I hope everyone enjoyed themselves. We got great feedback about our item! Our long hours of practice and rehersals have finally paid off! Good job Dreamwerkz and all the rest of the dancers. Today's show was great, let's make tommorrow's show FANTASTIC! Woohoo~

[Facebook is gonna be flooded with photos after tommorrow~!]

anyhow (Away)

2008-12-14T23:43:00.002+08:00

Been gone for way too long. Now I know why my sister's blog achieved the same number of hits as mine within 2 weeks. [Mine was up for nearly 3 years!] But anyway, my blog doesn't need an avid fan base or anything like that. [You won't get slashed with a kitchen knife by a crazed fan if you don't have any fans to begin with]

So these few days have been pretty much the same thing day in, day out. Wake up, go to school, go to dance practice, dinner-cum-last-min-shopping, rush home, rush assignments, sink into bed like a lifeless zombie. Rinse and repeat.

Finally cut my hair again, even though it is already damn bloody short, cos I can't stand the grass-like flat top that my previous hairdresser gave me. Hopefully this new hairstyle can last me at least until my Danzation performance.

Talking about dance, lately I've been seeing my dance people more often than I've been seeing my parents. Performance is in a week's time and we're still only halfway there! GAMBATE Dreamwerkz~ We can do it! Gotta practice till we even see the steps in our dreams.

Ok, time for me to get back to my assignments. My table is in a freaking mess. Notes and textbooks everywhere. But it can't be helped. References need to be made all over the place. If only there was an easier way... Maybe burning and drinking all of them might help. Now where's that lighter?

Crazy Night Out

2008-12-06T04:30:00.002+08:00

A short little post while waiting for my hair to dry so I can hit the sack... For a measly 2 hours before having to wake up for school again.

Anyway, enjoyed ourselves to bits with the crazy people from Dreamwerkz. From eating to drinking to playing games that lead to drinking and even singing, the laughter was non-stop.

Our poison of choice

Look! Cute little piggys. Although one of them looks more like a bulldog!! Wanna learn how to make these cute little critters from a flat piece of paper? Scroll down for the answer!

And this is how baby paper piggys are made! And they grow up way too fast too... The age old mystery has finally been solved!

Ok hair is semi-dry, I'm gonna KO now. Outz~!

Happy 1st Of December

2008-12-01T21:34:00.002+08:00

Yippie, it's the 1st of December. Which means I have only 32 more days to complete and submit my 4 assignments due on 2nd January 2009. Why am I fretting? I still got a whole year to finish them right?

Completed 1, logically completed another, and now I'm stuck with the 2 killer assignments and nowhere to go. Got loads of Christmas celebrations coming up as well as Danzation all jammed packed into the month of merry-making. Hopefully I can finish my assignments on time.

Self-Entertainment

2008-11-28T13:27:00.002+08:00

This is what I use for entertainment purposes when school work gets too boring at home... You can tell that I was really bored at that time...

Official time: 1 min 48 secs

Still a long way from my target of 1 minute...

Working Hard In School

2008-11-25T15:05:00.002+08:00

Had some free time before tutorial and was obviously too bored so I took out a blank piece of A4 paper and started to get to work on...

My Froggy Family

The Leaping Tower Of Pizza

Yes, even that tiny little spec of dust is a folded paper frog. And the most amazing thing is that the entire family was created from a SINGLE piece of A4 paper. Makes you think about the great things our kids are learning schools these days right?

And have you wondered what I would look like if I was short [yes, I know I'm already short, I meant SHORTER] and fat? Well, here's a glimpse into the future 15 years down the road after I give up on exercise, dance and life in general...

Well, at least I still have my baby face...

A New Word A Day

2008-11-18T21:19:00.002+08:00

English is a funny language. Sometimes it doesn't sound English at all. We recently learnt a new indian word that can actually be found in an English dictionary.

Verticalbar

You have to say it old loud 10 times fast to feel the effect. And from that word, another eng-dian word arose...

Noneedthebar

We learn a new thing everyday right?

I Might Be Dying Soon

2008-11-08T23:31:00.002+08:00

Cough. Flu. Starting to get feverish. And that is after 2 days of eating anti-biotics, among other medicine. I tried to take a nap to no avail. Kept tossing and turning and coughing on my bed every 15 to 30 seconds.

I sound like an old man who's going to die of TB. With a running nose.

Global Peace Globe Day

2008-11-06T22:12:00.003+08:00

Read more about this massive online movement here.

LOST

2008-11-05T22:48:00.003+08:00

There has been a massive flu bug going around these days. Lecture halls have been flooded with erretic coughs and sniffles. And it seems that one of those pesky germs found its way into my body.

First it started with a sore throat and nothing else. So I thought nothing of it and carried on with my daily schedules. For the next few days it was nothing more than a random throat irritation that came and went. However, it was probably all the BBQ food from my sister's birthday chalet that did me in.

Had a horrible sore throat the next day, and subsequently went on to lose my precious voice around yesterday evening. My cute, high-note-hitting pitched voice turned into a husky yet very unsexy bass, kind of like those tikopek uncles u spot at the void decks. And along with it came an irritating cough.

Went to see the doctor today which left me feeling damn pissed about doctors nowadays. I left my house around 1145am and arrived at the clinic slightly before 12, and printed clearly on the clinic's glass barrier was the opening hours, 10am-1230pm. But guess what? I was told that the doctor was not in! And so why is the clinic even open if there is no one around to help cure the sickly? So I patiently asked the 'nurse' [actually an old auntie] what time the doctor would be in. And her reply? "Afternoon lo". Having already put in so much effort to voice my previous query, I decided to come back in the afternoon.

After having my lunch and killing a couple of unwasteful hours doing my assignment, I arrived at the clinic at the stipulated opening time of 2pm only to find that the shutters were sealed shut. Being the patient and forgiving person that I am, I calmly sat down at the side and waited for the 'nurse' to make her reappearance at 2.15pm. And guess what? The doctor was still not in! I guess doctors nowadays have the luxury to come to work at whatever time they please. And to add to my dispair, I was informed that he would only be coming back around 3.30pm! So I had to drag my sorry ass back home again, for the 2nd time.

And when I finally went back at 3.45pm to see the doctor, after waiting for about 10 minutes, he diagnosed me within the timeframe of 3 entire minutes. Woot. Wait for 3 hours to see the doctor for 3 minutes and pay 48 bucks for the medicine.

So anyway, that was my first time [and hopefully last time] seeing the doctors at Simei. But my frustrations did not end there. When i came back, my wireless router started to give me problems again. I have been contemplating of buying a Gaming router for some time now and this was the last straw. Slipped on my jeans and headed down to suntec eLife to get my new router, which I spent the last 1 hour setting up and configuring. Now everything's fine and dandy. let's hope that this new gaming router doesn't give me similar problems as my old one or I'll condemn the brand forever. Andbody up for some gaming?

Happy Holloween!

2008-10-31T22:04:00.004+08:00

How did you spend your Halloween? Well, mine was spent at home alone, trying hard to be a good boy by finishing up my notes. Alias the demons within got the better of me and I ended up playing games after finishing the notes for 1 subject only.

I really just can't seem to get back into study gear since the start of this semester. Apart from nodding my head in agreement with the lecturers with my eyes closed and my brain in dreamland during lectures, I just can't seem to find the motivation to focus on writing my notes at home.

Maybe its because I gave myself an ultimatum that from the start of November, I will have to get back into study mode and really hit the books. Everyday. So today might be the last day of having time to enjoy the sights and sounds of Internet-land and therefore I'm allowed to slack for a bit right?

Anyway, back to topic. Have you ever wondered what it would be like if Singapore really did officially celebrate Halloween? I mean right now its only the clubbers who go out of their way to dress up as Suicidal Students and Dead Brides and visit unsuspecting clubs for trick or treating. If Halloween was really a national event in lil old Singapore, I suspect we would have a strange mix of weirdly-absurd Singaporean innovations.

Here are some situations that you would only be able to find in Singapore:

1. Counting Candies
Similar to Chinese New Year where older people give younger generations ang baos, at the end of the day, parents of children who go trick or treating for candies would most probably ask their children how many sweets did 'this person' give them, so as to regulate how many sweets to give to 'this person's' kid the next year to avoid being shortchanged.

Oh and people would most probably would not want to get too close to those families who have armies of children in their ranks, so as to save on giveaways during Halloween. Those poor kids would probably even get rationed sweets from those families whom they did actually visit.

2. Scary Costumes
There would probably be many clever and innovative people out on the streets when it comes to costume designs. Here are a few ideas that would probably only work in sunny Singapore.

- The Carpark Warden [A.K.A. Fatima] :
Ever so skillful at keeping out of your field of vision with the ability to come and go in the bat of an eyelid, she is feared by one and all who has driven a vehicle in Singapore for her lightning fast fingers and the ability to leech you of your money when you least expected it.

- Monkey God, Thousand Hand Guan Ying, Fox Spirit etc :
With the wide variety of Taoist and Buddhist deities and demons, each Singaporean should be able to uniquely choose any one of them without having fear of other people having the same costume. It would be like the 7th month all over again, but this time you can actually see those 'ghosts' prancing about.

- Mas Selamat [Most-wanted Man in Singapore] :
He walks with a limp on his left leg and is hated by all NSmen for making them do 24/7 prowling of Singapore. I'm sure nobody will have problems recognising your costume with his face practically plastered to every bus, bus stop, train station and shopping center. However, we do advise the public not to be too perfect in this costume design as you might end up having to explain yourself to the SWAT team of Singapore.

- The Ah Pu Neh Neh [A.K.A. The Bangla] :
You'll need lots of Kiwi shoe polish for this one. Stereotyped as the dirty, perverted construction worker of Singapore, most people relate them to molest, rape and robbery cases in Crime Watch as they would relate rabbits to carrots. It seems like we left out the Banglas in our "Harmonial Multi-racial society". Did we really forget them or was it a ploy all along by the Singapore government?

- Mr Lee Kwan [Who?] :
The biggest bigshot in Singapore. Single-handedly responsible for making Singapore what she is today, this man holds all the cards and every Singaporean would tremble and get sweaty palms if he were to ever get in close proximity to the normal man. He might even have my blog removed completely if I were to say anything inappropriate about him.

3. A mountain of Sweets
Halloween would be the favouritest day of any kid living in a Singapore HDB flat. All he would have to do was to knock on every door of his 12-storey HDB flat and he would probably get enough sweets to feed all of Africa's starving children for a year. But knowing the typical Singaporean, most families would probably leave their houses in the early morning and come back in the wee hours of the night [Or at least pretend not to be home] to avoid having to donate sweets to these meddling kids.

The only people who would probably gladly give out more and more candies without expecting anything in return [yet] would be the dentists and doctors. Knowing full well that they would probably earn back more than 100% of their expenditure when the parents rush them to the doctors for tummy upsets or to the dentists to cure that toothache.

4. The Great Halloween Sale :
Shopping malls islandwide, who have ongoing sales all year round, would probably make full use of the occassion to increase their profits by having some Halloween Sales with reduced pricing on items that have totally no link to Halloween, like clothes and bedsheets. On the other hand, items which are specifically for Halloween would have their prices jacked up tenfold, forcing unwilling customers to part with more of their money as the day of scare approaches.

5. An Excuse to Save Electricity :
With the price of electricity going up again many people might consider living in darkness [or maybe just with candles] stating that they are 'getting into the mood of Halloween' by turning off all the lights [but leaving the air-conditioning on]. It would also be the only day where an islandwide power failure could be dusted off as a spectacular governmental attempt to entertain the general public. Heck, they might as well sound the national defense siren which can be heard from every corner of Singapore as a prank to scare the citizens. But as we all know, our law-by-law government will never do such things in the name of fun.

After reading everything above, do you still think that Singapore should celebrate Halloween at a national level? I'm having second thoughts already.

Oh, by the way, I've gone international. Found this picture of me on a banner is some weird country [going by the unreadable language], probably Russia or something. I didn't know I had such a wide audiance...

Just kidding! It's just an edited picture from photofunia.com. Oh, and I realised I am seriously lacking of self-photos on my new lappy... Now where is that camera...

Heat Wave

2008-10-29T13:16:00.002+08:00

The weather is horrendous. I thought that the end of the year should be overclouded with showers and thunderstorms in equatorial Singapore, however it seems that the rain gods have decided to take a long vacation overseas.

The sun has been beating down on us for the past few days, relentless in its quest to fry a few more brains. Each time I step out of the shower, my sweat glands start going into overtime again and I immediately feel like jumping right back into the cold shower water. It's become so bad that I even have to resort to turning on my air-con in the afternoon and sitting topless in front of my lappy with my fan, which is just beside my lappy, blowing directly into my face.

I really cannot imagine how it feels for those traditional Muslim ladies to be all wrapped up in black while walking along Orchard Road in the mid afternoon with the sun beating down on them. R.E.S.P.E.C.T. personally, I would rather die.

Things are also heating up for the dance team. We'll be having a performance on the 19th and 20th of December at Ngee Ann Polytechnic called Danzation, which is a collaboration of Ngee Ann Poly's dance troupe with dance clubs of various schools in Singapore. For those who are interested in attending this event, please drop me and email at anyhowblogs@gmail.com or SMS me ASAP so I can help you book the tickets. Tickets are priced at $15 per day and the event starts around 7pm on both days. This will be my first performance since joining the SIM DreamWerkz and I hope it will be a good one for all of us. To find out more about Danzation, head on down to their official website: danzation.blogspot.com

On another random note, I was wondering why Tennis is the only sport that does not follow Mathematical order in its points system. All other competitive sports that we can think of start from 0 and have a standard index of increment... except for tennis, which goes by 0-15-30-40. And who's great idea was it to replace 0 with the word LOVE? Since I'm back early today and have nothing better to do with my life, I just had to go and google for the answer... And here is what I came up with...

*Note: The follow excerpts are lifted from online websites, therefore I shall not be liable for any information that is deemed as nonsensical or untrue.

USELESS FACTS No. 461: The Strange Point System in Tennis

The word 'love' was probably used instead of zero because love comes from the french word l'oeuf. L'ouef means egg, egg symbolizes nothing, and zero means nothing.It is assumed that is why love is used as zero. Another explanation for why 'love' is used as zero is because love means egg - and an egg looks like a zero. The English missed pronounced l'ouef as love.

The strange points system is probably from when the games were first played, in medieval times. A clock face was used on the court.. each time they scored a point the clock hand would move a quarter. When it got to sixty the game was finished.
So the scoring was: love, 15, 30, 45, and then 60. Instead of what it would usually be: 0, 1, 2, 3 and then 4. Which ever person got to 60 and scored 4 points first would win the game. After a while 45 got shortened to 40 and people stopped saying 60.

And for your reading pleasure, here's another useless fact:

USELESS FACTS No. 45: A cockroach will live nine days without its head before it starves to death.

Stolen!

2008-10-24T14:35:00.003+08:00

Some irritating person has stolen my comfy Teva slippers that I have been wearing for almost 4 years. And being the unbiased and evidence-based person that I am, I deduce that this could only be the work of some bangla construction worker [or more affectionally known as APNN] that has been waking people up in the early hours of the morning with the consistant knocking and drilling above my flat. And the best part is that he even had the decency to leave his colourful plastic japanese slippers 2 metres away from my doorway shoe shelf where my slippers used to be. What a "thoughtful" thief.

He better not let me spot his wearing my comfy slippers under his smelly feet, or I'll make sure that one side of my slippers will end up in this asshole's asshole and the other down his throat so he can start kicking himself from the inside.

On a lighter note, we had great fun on Po's birthday on Wednesday. Started the night with dinner at Sushi Tei where we had great food and good laughs and continued to party the night away at St James Powerhouse. So here are some photos 'borrowed' from facebook...

The birthday girl and her cake

Me with the birthday girl

Everyone enjoying their dinner

Contestants F1 to F7!!

And now, M1 to M5 with the star of the day

And the party continues at St James...

Welcome to the Alcohol Appreciation Club

The Clubber's version of Rojak

The Rojak Man

Everyone had a blast and by the time I reached home, I was only able to catch 2 hours of shuteye before having to drag my ass out of bed for lecture the next day...

Hope you had a fun 20th Po. May you stay pretty and sexy for many years to come!

Lost Is A Kind of Feeling

2008-10-21T23:53:00.002+08:00

Recently I've been feeling very lost. I don't know why but I just can't seem to piece together the usual fun-loving, hyperactive me that most people know.

I can't keep awake through entire lectures even though I slept almost 10 hours the previous night. Given that most of the class is agreeing with the lecturer in their dreams too, but that doesn't mean I should be sleeping too right?

I feel that I don't match up to the expectations of the dance team, and that I'm letting them down. I have always dreamed of being a part of a dance team, but now that I'm in one, I just can't seem to reach that bar. The only thing that I can do now is try harder and hope for the best.

I don't get the same kicks as I used to while playing games. In fact, everytime I turn my laptop on, I feel an emptiness in my gamings. I don't feel the urge to train my levels on MMORPG games, and I even feel bored while beating people silly in dota. The only other feeling I get is frustration when people are beating me silly back.

Maybe it's because of the lack of friends. The games that meant the world to me now feel so empty without the usual people whom I used to see ever so regularly whenever I log into the game. Now gaming has purely become an activity to kill time instead of an addition. [I don't know if it's good or bad, but it sure doesn't feel nice]

I know I'm supposed to start on my assignments ~~soon~~ now but I just can;t find the mental strength to pump in my full effort and attention into getting started. And everybody knows I don't do things half-heartedly.

Someone please help me find the old me that everybody loves because for now, I can't even recognise the man in the mirror. Find me a purpose, return me my motivation, rekindle my fire. Somebody, anybody...

Back From the Dead

2008-10-03T17:22:00.002+08:00

Sorry for the lack of updates. Been too ~~lazy~~ busy with school work and other stuff to have regular updates. School as really taken a toll on me, with 8.30am lessons almost everyday including Saturday lessons.

My schedule's been pretty much jam packed with lessons/tutorials/labs/other activities so much so that I've been having a hard time fighting off the Z monster in the afternoons, which has never happened before.

Oh by the way, I have successfully attained a spot in the SIM advanced dance team after going for their auditions, although they say that I'm still under probation. This means that my already super packed Saturdays will be even more packed with dance lessons taking up most of the afternoon hours. This means that i will have to forego some of my tutorials and labs that are held on Saturday afternoons.

now I fully understand what people mean when they say "So many things, so little time." Guess this means I'll have to work doublely hard to make sure that my grades don't suffer, which effectively means less time for gaming. *sob*

But enough about me, let's talk about some other more exciting stuff. Pipi's sister is going to ROM her marriage tommorrow morning and i'll be there to see it happen. Not really sure what i'm supposed to wear though. Am I supposed to go in formal attire or can I just don a T-shirt and jeans, or even better still, wear my dance gear down because I have dance class after that.

Oh, and I just remembered I was tagged by my dear cousin to do this... And I've got a feeling I'm going to regret it at the end of the quiz...

01. What have you been doing recently?
Trying to keep awake in class. [Rather unsuccessfully]

02. Do you ever turn your cell phone off?
No. But nobody ever calls me anyway.

03. What happened at 10.00am today?
I was sleeping in a van on my way to class. [Where I slept again]

04. When did you last cry?
Please do not ask me anything that requires the use of my memorybank more than 2 weeks ago... I might get brain damage due to my hort-term memory loss. No, seriously, I really don't remember. People say I have low EQ, I say I have NO EQ.

05. Believe in fate/destiny?
Definitely. Fate is for people who are dreaming about something that would most probably never happen. Destiny is for people who have no goals in life.

06. What do you want in your life right now?
The ability to stop the clock... And maybe to split myself into 4.

07. Do you carry an umbrella when it rains, or just put up your hood?
I don't do umbrellas. And I don't do hoods. I just go by Johnny Walker's slogan "Keep Walking".

8. What's your favourite thing to have on your bed?
A human bolster... Pipi!

9. What bottom are you wearing now?
Levi's 512 jeans. With a superman belt. I'm going out soon.

10. What's the nicest text in your inbox say?
Some chain SMSes about friendship and love. I never read those.

11. Do you tend to make a relationship complicated?
Nope. I'm a simple and straightforward guy.

12. Are you wearing anything you borrowed from someone?
Nope. I don't borrow. I take.

13. What was the last movie you caught?
Err, didn't I tell u not to test my memory... Argh... I feel a headache coming...

14. What are you proud of?
Everything that i'm good at. Hence the shirt 'I declare myself Mr YaYa Papaya'

15. What does the oldest text message in your inbox say?
my sis using my dad's phone to tell me to turn off her laptop for her.

16. What was the last song you sang out loud?
Loads. I always scream my lungs out when I'm doing solos in my car.

17.Do you have any nicknames?
Ko-lin, anyhow, yaya papaya, coco. I think there are more but they just never told me.

18. What does your last received text message say?
good nite.

19. What time did you go to bed last night?
1.30am? That's considered early by my standards.

20. Are you currently happy?
Try having a schedule that requires you to split yourself into 4 persons. Would you be happy?

21. Who gives you best advice?
I don't really need advice, so I don't really listen to advice. As master Wugui said 'you must believeeeee....'

22. Do you eat whipped cream straight from the can?
That's on my to-do-before-I-die list.

23. Who did you talk on phone last night?
Nobody. I don't do phone conversations.

24. Is anything bugging you right now?
That I'm going to be late because of this stupid quiz.

25. What/who was the last thing/person to make you laugh?
My schoolmates, talking about my schoolmate.

26. Do you wear toe socks?
Nope. But I love ankle socks.

27. Who was the last person you missed a call from?
Pipi.

28. Have you ever had your heartbroken?
Doesn't really happen much when you got no EQ.

29. What annoys you most in a person?
Being too emotional.

30. Do you have a crush on anyone?
No, but I love to crush cans... does that count?

31. Have you ever done cocaine?
Nope. I don't even smoke when 99.9% of my friends do. What do you think?

32. What is the colour of your room?
White. The colour of purity.

33. Would you kill someone you hate for a billion dollar?
No. I'm a lover, not a fighter. And a billion dollar coins would probably crush me to death too.

34. Do you believe in the saying of : talk is cheap?
Yup. Action speaks louder than words. So just do it.

35. Who was the last person to lie in your bed?
Me. Duh.

36. Who was the last person to hug you?
Pipi. Double duhhh...

37. Did anyone see the last person you kissed?
Erm, unless I've been in a relationship with an imaginary person for the last few years... Either that or everyone else in the world is blind...

38. Do you have a life?
Yes. And no.

39. Have you ever think someone died, when they really didnt die?
Does almost killing a person count?

40. What is the reason behind your profile song?
Dance dance dance!

41. Who was the last person you saw in your dream?
Memory.... failing.... system... shutting... down....

42. Last time you smiled?
A few hours ago at a casting.

43. Have you changed this year?
I change everyday please. It's not like I don;t have clothes to wear.

44. What are you listening right now?
My parents playing their oldies karaoke songs. Oh carol.... I am but a fool...

45. Are you talking to someone when you doing this?
Is talking to myself counted?

46. Do you walk with your eyes open or closed?
Do you have a brain? Wait, don't answer that...

47. Is there a quote you live by?
If it ain't done with style, it ain't worth doing at all. - Jazz from Transformers

48. Do you want someone you cannot have?
Too many to count...

49. Have you ever played an instrument?
I can play the organ! The one with the lights on the keyboard telling you which keys to press next.

50. What was the worst idea you've had in this week?
Doing this quiz...

51. What are you doing last night at 11pm?
Gaming.

52. Are you happy with your love life right now?
As if I'd say no...

53. What song best describe your love life?
no idea.

54. Does the person know that you like him/her?
Err, no, we are just sleeping on the same bed by coincidence.

55. Who always make you laugh?
Everyone. I'm someone who's easily amused.

56. Do you speak other language other than English?
Chin-na, a bit of malayu, hokkien guas, counting to 10 in Jap etc

57. Favourite website(s)?
My gaming websites.

58. What's your middle name?
[its a spacing between Chang and Qing]

59. What are you doing tomorrow?
Going to ROM ceremony, dance class, morning lecture, afternnon lab. Most probably only 2 out of 4.

60. What do you think you are like?
I said it before and I will say it again. "God made me perfect, he jsut made everyone else taller."

61. Who will you choose to die with?
Nobody. I don't want to drag anyone down to hell with me.

62. Where have you been today?
East, West, East, and now West again.

63. What game do you play often?
Dota, Cabal. Which takes up about half of my life.

64. Who are you missing right now?
Nobody.

65. If you have to choose between friend and love, who will you choose?
I'm a greedy person. I'll take away both please. Thank you.

66. What are you doing right now?
Rushing to finish this quiz.

67. Which primary school are you from?
Qiaonan. No not Tao Nan. QIAO. QIAOnan.

68. Name 3 colours that you like?
Orange, Black, Yellow.

69. What emotion you like to show?
o.O [big small eyes. Somebody should make an emotion for this]

70. What is your life to you?
Enjoying every minute and living each day like it's your last.

71. If you have something troubling you, what will you do?
Take it by the horns and settle it ASAP. Either that or commit suiside.

72. Who did you last chat in msn today?
Classmates in group chat every night.

73. Who do you admire most?
The man in the mirror. minimum of 5 minutes everyday.

74. Which month are you born in?
July

75. How are you feeling right now?
Tired. Been out the whole day and this quiz shows no signs of ending.

76. What is the time now?
18:33. I'm SUPER LATE.

77. What kind of person do u think the one who tagged you is?
What can I say, she's my cousin. We have similar blood flowing in us.

78.What colour did you use to dye hair?
Ash brown. Once. Might never do it again.

79. Why are you doing this test?
Because I needed to kill time but the quiz went into overtime.

80. What do you do when you're moody?
Beat up my bolster or beat up online opponents in games.

81. At which age you wish to get married?
27-28.

82. Who is more important to you?
Me. Without me everyone else will not be important to me.

83. If today is the last day of your life, what will you do?
Stop trying to complete this quiz and go do everything on my to-do-before-I-die checklist.

84. Who is the person you trust the most?
Pipi.

85. Do you believe in seeing a rainbow after a rain?
I've even taken a photo of it.

86. If you have a dream come true, what would it be?
World peace. Oh wait, wrong show. I wanna be happy till the day I die.

87. What is your goal for this year?
Get straight As again and grow to be one hell of a performer in dance class.

88. Do you believe in eternity love?
No, but I love singing Forever Love by Mr Wang LiHom.

89. What feeling do you love most?
Being good at something and being recognised for it.

90. Do you really think its Global Warming now?
Yes. A few years later even roads will be air conditioned.

91.What feeling do you hate the most?
Overly EMO people.

92. Do you cherish every single friendship of yours?
Of course.

93. Do you believe in God?
Of course. He made me perfect, what's there not to believe in him?

94. Who cares for you most?
Family, Pipi, best buds.

95. What do you think is the most important thing in your life?
Having fun.

96. What will you bring when you fight?
My crazy reflexes and unmatched speed.

97. What have you done regretted doing in your whole life?
I don't do regrets.

98. What would you feel if no one no longer cares for you?
Fuck them. i can care for myself.

99. What if your boyfriend/girlfriend two-timed you?
Nothing much, Maybe i'll just 8-time her back...

100. HOW DO U FEEL NOW?
Pissed that this quiz is taking so long.

Pass this quiz to 10 persons that you wished to know how they feel about you pass to people that have blog only.

to hell with rules. I tag everyone who has managed to read my boring quiz until here. Yes, that means you, you, you, and you. And YOU too!

Who is no.6 having relationship with?
The good thing about breaking the rules is that you don't have to complete what comes after the specified rule.

Is no.9 a male or female?
See what I mean?

If no.7 and 10 are together, will it be a good thing?
Man, I'm good.

What is no.2 studying about?
How many more of these are there.

When was the last time you had a chat with no.3?
Boring...

What kind of music band does no.8 like?
How would I know.

Does no.1 have any siblings?
Refer to the previous question.

Will you woo no.3?
If she's model-pretty and flithy-rich I might consider.

How about no.7?
Same logic as previous question.

Is no.4 single?
Yes. It is a single digit.

What is the surname of no.5?
Numbers don't have surnames.

What’s the hobby of no.10?
Or hobbies...

Finally done... Got to go now. Super Dee Dupery lateness.

Back To School Once More

2008-09-16T12:16:00.002+08:00

It's the start of the school term again. Which means...

It's time for the Top 10 things I Hate About School

10. Lesser time for Cabaling.

9. Lesser time for Dotaing.

8. Lesser time spent at home.

7. Lesser time with Pipi.

6. More time wasted travelling to and from school.

5. Saturdays will be burnt in school too. [Yes, Saturday lessons suck big time!]

4. More time spent trying to maintain the grades.

3. More sleepless nights spent chionging assignments.

2. Increase in expenses since they removed the FREE tea-break culture of SIM.

And the number 1 thing I hate about school is...

1. Lessons start at 8.30am in the early fuking morning!! Which means I have to wake up at 6.30am!!

Gotta rush off to school again, so I shall end this post with a video of one of my dance class sessions in school. Hopefully you don't puke while watching it. Can you guess which one is me?

The Giant and My New Addiction

2008-09-09T12:19:00.002+08:00

Went prawning again last week and this time we really hit the jackpot. There was a slight drizzle when we were making our way down, but just minutes after we arrived it turned into the mother of all storms. Not only was it raining cats and dogs, but elephants and pigs too.

Anyway, the rain didn't turn out to be such a bad thing after all. That's because most people wouldn't want the hassle of travelling down in such bad weather just to catch a few prawns. Which actually meant we had almost the entire pond to ourselves. And boy did we make full use of it. I think we caught like almost 50 prawns in total? I really lost count, but just look at the number of shells and heads on the table and be amazed for yourself.

And not only did we catch loads of prawns, PiPi even managed to catch a gigantuous prawn that should have been living in the pond for a few million years. And the best part is that she didn't catch it by the mouth, but rather she managed to hook onto one of it's giant claws and slowly yank the whole thing out of the pond. The ~~prawn~~ lobster was even bigger then my plam! Take a look for yourself!

And apart from that, I recently have become an addict. I have to have it everyday, at least 3 times a day, or else I'll feel very lost and letagic. Every time I see I will have that deep urge from the bottom of my gut to go make use of it. So I'm going to openly admit to everyone now that I have an undying obsession for...

I just can't leave it alone after learning how to solve it! My current fastest time is 2 minutes and 36 seconds. And I will not stop until I manage to do it within a minute! Yes, you can call me a geek for all you like, but I'm addicted to the Rubik's Cube!

Oh, and 1 last thing,my results are out and amazingly I managed to get straight As for the first time in my life since Primary 1. Hopefully this trend continues through my 2nd and 3rd year, although I get pissed everytime I look at my new timetable cos it's a Tuesday to Saturday school term with loads of go-to-school-for-two-hours-and-go-home kinda periods... Zzzzzz...

A New Personal Best

2008-09-02T13:34:00.003+08:00

Just a short little post this time round. Went bowling with Eric and Lily last week and amazing I managed to get a new personal best even though I haven't touched a bowling ball in almost 2 years!

Freaking 198!!!

Even I was amazed that I actually did so well. Oh, and for those who don't know, yes, they did put my name as crystal because I use a female character in a game we play and she's called crystal.

I still can't believe it... 198.... Wooooo~

The [Longgggg] August Issue

2008-08-05T13:08:00.003+08:00

So many things have been happening in August and it's only the beginning of the month! I wonder how much more of this kind of excitement I can take before I die of a heart attack.

1. Hungry Ghost Festival

Yup. It's that time of the year again. Where you see/smell incense and hell notes being burnt at every corner of your HDB flat. For those who live in the mountains, the ghosts in hell are supposedly let out for a holiday on planet earth every 9th month of the chinese calandar.

Having being tortured and starved for the rest of the year, they are deemed to come out with an empty stomach, hence the phrase 'Hungry Ghost'. And that's the reason why everybody who believes in this [I don't] starts burning incense and leaving offerings around the block, praying for the ghosts to leave them and their families alone and give them peace.

Having being dragged downstairs by my family to burn the offerings, I discovered a few weird loopholes in the system. Since everyone is burning gazillions of hell notes [the largest denomination I've seen so far was a stack of 50 million notes] to the ghosts, all of them should be gazillionaires by now. So how is it that they still can't afford to buy food down under? We even have to burn paper 'cloth' for them to make clothes? You're telling me that a stack of 50 million can't buy you a pasa malam quality underwear?

And since inflation is so high down there, we're not helping them buy burning gazillions more every 12 months. Shouldn't we just burn less, or even phase out the current monetary system they're using right now and replace it with a new one? Then we would just have to burn a single piece of 20,000 note every year.

Another unusual sight was the burning of 'coins'. Since everything down under requires trash bags of money to be bought, what's the use of burning 50cent coins to them? So they can show off to their friends that they have a useless 50cent coin that can't even be used to buy a strand of hair?

Come to think of it, this Hungry Ghost Festival is really quite interesting if you start to criticise every single detail in their system...

2. PRSS Homecoming

Attended my old secondary school's Homecoming celebration last Saturday. Wasn't really interested in going but some smart alec went to purchase the ticket on my behalf anyway. So I ended up going down to Tampines to attend Pasir Ris Secondary School's Homecoming.

After all these years I still don't understand why it's named Pasir Ris Secondary School when it's obviously located in Tampines. Furthermore, it was the first neighbourhood school to be set up in Tampines so there couldn't have already been another Tampines Secondary already there. Anyway, meet up with a few [countable on a single hand] good friends from the Taekwondo club [whom I would also be able to meet easily even without the homecoming] and of course my favourite teacher-in-charge, Hu laoshi.

I forgot when she became the in-charge for the Taekwondo club but the impression she left on me wasn't that of any physical activity. As most of you would already know, I was a A1 Chinese student until I reached Primary 4. That's when my self-proclaimed artistic talents kicked in and I started drawing nonsense during chiense classes. Obviously the results suffered and I was never able to catch up ever since... Until Hu laoshi stepped in.

She was my Chinese teacher in secondary 3 and 4 [don't ask me how I managed to survive all the way to sec 3] when my chinese was as attrocious as my spelling. Noticing my poor understanding [or lack of] of the suject, she forced me to stay back 2 or 3 times a week after school for 1-on-1 tuition.

At first I hated it and tried all means and ways to avoid the extra tuition, but soon I realised that it actually helped alot. Her english wasn't PhD level but she would always try her best to translate and explain the meanings in english for me. This carried on from late sec 3 until the end of sec 4 when I took my O levels. And guess what? My chinese turned out to be one of the subjects included in my L1R5 calculations!! Don Play Play ah~

So here's a heart-felt shoutout to Hu laoshi in thanks for all the help she has given me, although I know she will never read this post.

3. 080808 8 million ToTo Draw

On 8th of August 2008, there will be a special ToTo draw with the top group prize of 8 million Singapore dollars. My lazy dad asked me to buy some ToTo numbers for him whie I was out to lunch at Eastpoint. This was the first time I was buying ToTo, but knowing my gambling luck, I should have just kept [and earned] the $10 bucks as any gambling materials that go through my hands would probably end up on the losing table. However, I also secretly hope that the numbers I bought will win him something as I would most certainly have some commission to gain.

For those punters out there who haven't bought your 8 million ToTo ticket, what are you waiting for? And make sure to give me some commission if you do manage to win anything. Even a te dollars would suffice, I'm not a greedy person.

4. Return of the Brothers

A couple of good friends have been temporarily desserting Singapore during the past month, only to come home back recently. One left for Hong Kong on a university exchange programme for a month or so to get gay with the Cantonese Mickey Mouse, while the other ran away to Vietnam to visit his brother and bring back a wife.

And because of this, our dota sessions have come to a complete standstill as we become noobs without the full team's presence. However, come this weekend, everybody will finally be back in Singapore and we can finally own as a team again. I'l be waiting anxiously for that day to arrive.

5. Why Girl's Blogs > Guy's Blogs

I have this deep impression of an article I read somewhere around the net but I'm having trouble finding the actual article right now, so here's a self-enacted version of what i can remember.

----Girl's Blog Start----

Today I went our with my dearest girlfriend XXX to the nearby coffee-shop for dinner. We just had to have our favourite [[insert favourite food]] which we haven't eaten in the longest time!

[[Insert picture of self with a cute pose]]

[[Insert picture of self and girlfriend with cute poses]]

[[Insert picture of favourite food]]

The queue was freaking long can! We had to wait for almost 20 minutes before we even got a chance to order our favourite [[insert favourite food]]. Whie waiting, XX and me saw this girl in front of us with damn long and silky hair! She must have just rebonded her hair recently.

[[Insert picture of backview of silky-haired girl]]

[[Insert picture of self trying to touch silky-haired girl's hair]]

How I wish my hair was as healthy as hers! I would give anything to have hair like that.

[[Insert picture of own frizzy hair]]

[[Insert picture of girlfriend making fun of own frizzy hair]]

Oh! And when it was almost our turn this rude old auntie just cut our queue right in front of us and even made the 'zheeq' sound when we looked at her! Stupid old auntie, how I wish I could slap her face, but I'm not the violent type so we just stared at her while she ordered and talked loudly about how rude some people can be.

[[Insert picture of backview of old auntie]]

[[Insert picture of self and girlfriend making faces at the old auntie's back]]

Some people really have no manners at all. Ok! Time for me to take a shower! Will blog again next time!

[[Insert picture of self in home clothes with tongue sticking out]]

----Girl's Blog End----

Now here's the Guy's version of the same day's story....

----Guy's Blog Start----

Nabeh! Today lao CB cut my queue!

----Guy's Blog End----

Now you know why girl's blogs always have higher hits then guys?

Updates are in Order

2008-07-28T13:08:00.002+08:00

Had a belated birthday celebration for the 3 babies born in July with my classmates over the past week at the glassy Fish And Co in Douby Ghout. Had lots of fun there and did a bit of catching up since everyone was busy with their own lives.

They got me a shiny batman T-shirt from DC Heroes. I'm too lazy to take a snapshot of it so if you wanna see it you gotta catch me wearing it. But just as I got a new Marvel T-shirt, my spiderman T-shirt was ruined in the wash.

I don't know how or why, but my golden spider print came out of the wash all crumpled and stuck together. On closer inpection, it had patches of silver on my precious spider. Luckily it still doesn't look too bad and I think it's still wearable even to town areas.

We also went prawn fishing again on Saturday. This time we couldn't catch as many prawns as previously [maybe due to the lack of beginner's luck] but we saw somebody hook a giant prawn from the pond. The length of the prawn could be compared to the length of my forearm! It was bloody big! Will upload the photo when I'm not feeling so lethagic [is that how u spell it?]

And as usual I'm now blogging because cabal server is down [again~]. This time it seems like somebody is trying to hack into their server because there's no notice of maintenance and just all of a sudden the game hangs and even the website cannot be accessed.

But the time came just right because I'm going out in a littlel while. Ok this is a damn boring post. I shall stop here until I find more inspiration to write more not-so-boring posts...

Reservice is...

2008-07-17T22:04:00.001+08:00

A fyking waste of time...

From Pawning to Prawning

2008-07-15T15:03:00.003+08:00

I'm back again! Did you miss me? Lots of activities happening these few weeks, with some friends going overseas and some coming back to Singapore. Time is really not enough to do everything you want to do with the people you want to do it with.

So anyway, the group of us went prawn fishing one of those weekday nights where we had nothing better to do with our lives. Bored people included were timmy, QingQing, wenz, eric, lily, kim, xiang and of cos pipi. Being the 'suah ku' that I am, this was my first time prawn fishing and we even had to make 2 u turns on an empty main road to get to the carpark, which I missed on the first try because of too much nonsense happening in the car.

When we finally reached the place, it was quite crowded with about almost 15 to 20 people snatching for the prawns in the pool. But the amazing thing was that I was the first one to catch a prawn! Just put my line into the pool for like 10 seconds, felt a bite, and vua-la~! A live prawn trying desperately to free itself from my shiny hook.

However, it seems that it was only really beginners' luck for me. Because after that magnificant catch, most of the other prawns in our basket were caught by pipi. She even kept scolding me cos I kept letting the the prawns get away with free bait, which was chicken liver by the way.

So anyhow, here are a few pics that I snapped during the few hours that we were there trying to hook some prawns...

One of the fattest prawns we caught during the night

Wenz waiting for his bite...

Eric the man showing us how to unhook the prawn.
Look at those manly arms!!

Timmy trying to look cute while waiting for a bite

Lily waiting for her bite. So pro, only need to use 1 hand!

Here comes the man to check on his girl's progress...

Kim and Xiang sharing their rod.

Kim: Is it sinking yet? [refering to the float]
Xiang: No.
Kim: Ok.

I heard they had this conversation many times...

At the end of our prawning, we got to enjoy the spoils of our victory...

By reaping what we sowed! Or in this case, cooking what we caught!

Yummy. They were delicious. With free butter and salt provided too!

Our huge prawn with claws still attached.
Did you know prawns had claws? I didn't!

And so we have it, a successful and filling prawn fishing outing!
Let's have more again next time!

And I leave you with a new found everyday use for the remaining prawn heads left untouched on the table...

Toothpicks!!! *Burp!*

The Coming of Age

2008-07-07T11:45:00.003+08:00

Another year gone, another new wrinkle on my face. Could you believe that I forgot my own birthday? When my friend asked if I wanted to work over the next 2 weekends 2 weeks ago, I agreed without giving 2 hoot about it. And therefore I ended up working through my entire birthday yesterday.

Anyway, do you ever get the feeling that age is catching up with you? I have always been ahead of the wrinkle race by a mile due to my dashing boyish charms, but recently I think I tripped on a rock and mr Age actually managed to close the gap.

Previously whenever I asked anybody to guess my age, they would give a soothing answer of 17 or 18. But recently whenever I ask the same question, i seem to always get the '20 plus' answer. No doubt I AM 20 plus, but I've never been used to being recognised as a person of my own age. Well, at least now I can rest assured that those bouncers won't look at me with suspicious eyes anymore.

Whoa! I just received something from a courier...

After opening the Wrapping...

My new present from the thoughtful Ah Soon!!

Wa... Branded sia. Favourite colour somemore!

Looks good on me!! Thanks Ah Soon!

Wow. This was really a surprise for me. Totally unexpected. Leave it to the thoughtful Ah Soon to be able to pull off something like this. Really appriciate it.

Missed Me?

2008-06-24T12:25:00.002+08:00

I'm back!!! Did anybody miss me?

The PC Show job was kinda boring. I don't understand why Sony would want to put 1 massive dealer booth on the 3rd floor and another smaller booth from a different dealer on the 4th floor with all the other brands. Wouldn't it be better to just concentrate everything on the 3rd floor booth?

Anyway, sales was horrible. I even remember seeing empty counters with NOBODY enquiring about our products or even walking past the counter on Saturday night around 7pm, which is considered to be a peak hour for this type of show. Worked my ass and throat off for the 4 days and I think we each only got a pathatic total pay of a little more than $400 bucks.

A reminder to anyone that goes to any sort of IT/PC/Electronics Show/Fair. Please remember to check out all the booths before making your final decision, even if it's the same brand. Just take a moment to be kiasu and ask about the current promotion because the offers for both the booths were different and I would say that people who bought from the 4th floor got the better bargain.

So anyway, been busy Cabaling again these few days [which explains the erratic updates] but sad to say that the server is now undergoing maintenance *SOB*[which also explains why I have so much time to write this blog entry]

Well wishes going out to Alvin and Shawn who are 'migrating to India and never coming back' as stated by Alex. Haha, no, they are not really migrating to India, they are just spending a month or so over at Hong Kong on a University exchange programme. Hope they have a good trip and come back with nice little souvenirs [took me forever to get the spelling right] for us when they return.

As for lil'o me, I will be killing time by work at the gigantic Gianty Giant at Tampines over several weekends selling HP printers this time. The basic is good and there's commission too. And hopefully I'll get to bump into a few familiar faces. So remember, if you're free during the weekend and have abosolutely nothing else better to do, get your ass off the couch and come down to Tampines Giant and visit me! *Hint* *Hint*

And to close it all off, I finally received the final product of my first print ad shoot. Well, actually I received it last week but I only have the time to upload it today. So behold, the newest face on your Today newpaper, which was published on Friday of a few weeks ago. And before you start complaining that my eyes are freakishly small, take into consideration that I had to act cool and relaxed while the 4pm sun was glaring directly into my eyeballs.

click it for a bigger view

Long Time No See

2008-06-09T17:44:00.002+08:00

Sorry for the lack of recent updates. Pretty much been Cabaling the whole holiday away, apart from the small other activities that have been going on. So here's a quick catch-up from where I left off till today's current status.

Cable Ski-ing@Batam

Finally managed to get a chance to go cable-ski-ing in Batam during the previous week. It's bloody cheap as compared to the one at East Coast Park. In fact, I only spent a total of about SG$100.00, which includes a whole day of cable ski-ing, lunch, dinner and the ferry and bus rides. Compare that to the per hour charging of the one at East Coast Park.

Anyway, although I have tried wakeboarding before [only once!!], I couldn't seem to get the hang of it at the start. Kept doing faceplants into the water as soon as my butt left the safety of the wooden starting platform. However, because of my highly adaptive senses, I was soon ski-ing my way around the pond after a couple of hours.

But 1 thing I realised is that cable ski requires much more arm power than wakeboarding. This is because of the sudden increase in pulling force when the cable is whipped around the corners by those metallic spinner thingys. Whereas in wakeboarding, the pressure on your arms is always consistent and you are the one who decides when you want to have more or less tension.

We practically spent the entire day whisking around the pond and fooling around with the grind and quarterpipe slopes. So much so that 1 week after, I have only just recovered from the peeling of my face due to our dear old sun. My head looked like an atlas for 2 whole days. But I do love the new tan though.

Kung Fu Panda
Went to watch Kung Fu Panda after a friend's birthday celebration dinner at Marina Square. And I've to say that I've never laughed so much in a cinema before. I don't know how they managed to pull it off but there was a genuinely funny scene almost every 5 minutes, and I'm not talking about those corny moments when the directors expect you to laugh but all you can say is 'errrrr....'.

That panda was really fat and funny. And we came out of the cinema with a new catch phrase "You must BELIEVE...", as said by the great Wuu Guii shifu. I won't provide any more spoilers for those who haven't seen it yet, but all I can say is you won't regret watching this cartoon in the movies.

PC SHOW
I'll be working at the Sony booth again this coming PC Show [12 to 15th June] so if you're interested in getting any Sony products, don't be shy and come on down and let me earn commission off you. Haha. I'll be there from Thursday to Sunday and if I see anyone I know who bought Sony products from the show but didn't go through me... Heads are going to roll...

Well that's all for now, it's time for me to get back to my gaming. Cya soon. I will try to update after I come back from the PC show.

Singapore Food Festival

2008-05-27T21:05:00.002+08:00

Just came back from Expo with pipi. Today is the last day of the Singapore Food Festival and we just had to go down and get some bites.

All in all we spent a total of $20.00 on our dinner tonight, within 1 hour in the great big hall.

4 for $3 Steamed 'King of Siew Mai' Siew Mais

$3 for 10 deep fried snacks from DoDo (pipi pronouces it as Do-Do [say Du Du)

$2.50 for a packet of very oily but very shoik Chicken Rice [pipi's main course]

$2.50 for a bowl of Singapore Laksa [my main course]

$2.50 for a bowl of Superior Shark's Fin Soup [complete with crab meat]

$2.50 for a cup of orh ni (yam paste w/ ginko nuts)

Supposedly $3 for a supposedly delicious packet of tako balls that we didn't manage to find while heading back to the entrance

$1 for a bottle of Honey Lemon Drink. On the bottle, it states 'Ingredients: Honey and Lemon' Wow. Really? I would have never guessed!

Grand Total: $17.00 + $3.00 for the tako balls we couldn't find
= $20.00

Now I need to get some exercise to get rid of the extra kgs I put on tonight.

Missing for too long

2008-05-25T22:46:00.002+08:00

Sorry to be missing for so long. It seems that the more free time I have, the more I feel lazier to update my blog. But just for those readers out there who love to frequently have a quick 'kaypo' session into the happenings of my life, here are some of the things that happened during the past week.

1. Blading Session with Uni Classmates at ECP

The entire gang of us went down to ECP for some blading on Thursday afternoon. Since I was the only one who knew how to blade, I sort of became a make-shift blading instructor. Boy, a life of an instructor is not easy, just getting all of them from the blade shop where they rented their blades to the beginner zone, which was like only 10 meters away, was a challenge.

I had to support them one by one down the badly designed floor plan [which intelligent chimpanzee thought that it would be good to make the most direct and accessible path from a skate shop to a beginner zone a freaking slope with uneven floor tiles?] and ended up sweating even before the actual teaching began.

I think all of them fell at least once but most of them picked it up quite quickly, except for the girls who were terrified of letting go of the railings and almost had their hands glued onto the rails for the entire 2 hours. The only way to make them let go was to temp them by dangling a Big Gulp in front of them and persuading them to leave the rails. [Sort of like dangling a carrot in front of a horse]

I suppose everyone had a good time although going home with some blue-blacks is unavoidable. There was only 1 major fall where one of the girls landed on her bum and she actually cried. Not those 'Ah Gong! Don't die!' sort of crying but more of the 'Why you bully me...' sort of crying. At first we all thought she was just joking until we saw the tears trickling down. Well, that's what you get for always threatening people with 'I cry ah!'. i guess she didn't read "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" story too well.

So anyway, after we returned our blades, we were treated to an imprompto stand-up comedy performance. This indian guy from the skate shop was trying to order KFC for the staff in the shop and it was freaking hillarious. I could only suspect that he was talking to another indian who just happened to have a strong indian accent. Firstly he kept correcting the operator's english by asking him to pronouce it without the indian accent. He was like "No, it's fish burger, not vish burger." And then he had trouble describing the store location to the operator. I don't know if the operator was a primary school drop out or he hasn't stepped out of the call centre for 20 years, but how could you not piece together the location when provided with the following details:

- Store Name
- Carpark * [I forgot which carpark he said, but he said a letter]
- Location relative to MacDonalds
- Location relative to Lagoona Food Centre

I think the entire interchange lasted a good 20 minutes or more before they finally confirmed the order and ended the call. Indians making fun of Indians are always funny. But try that when your not an Indian and be prepared for a beating.

So anyway, after our on-site entertainment, we headed to Bedok 85 to have dinner. Had the usual stingray and 'orr-luak' and chicken wings before making our way home.

2. Bad Stomach

Don't know if it was the dinner at 85, but the next morning I woke up with a stinging pain in my tummy. A trip to the toilet produced watery results and I was behaving like a snail for the rest of the day. Luckily I had some medicine stocked up in the cupboard and was feeling better at the end of they day.

3. CABAL

Because of peer pressure from my classmates, I have started on a new MMORPG game called CABAL. It's sort of a 3D version of maplestory but with less training involved. The experience you get from killing mobs is very little compared to the experience you get from completing quests. So the main objective of the game is to complete as many quests as you can, rather than having to stay in the same area for millions of hours hitting the same bloody monsters just to level up. Right now I'm still the lowest level among my friends but trust me, being the 'GameBoy', this will not hold for long.

4. Birthday Celebrations

Celebrated 2 friends' birthdays today with a lunch at Tampines Swensens. After that we headed down to Kumpong Chai Chee CC for some KTV. Although the rooms are considerably small, you can't complain much because it's $8 freaking dollars for 4 hours of singing and includes 1 free drink! However, this offer is only available to students. Being a student does have it's perks. Had loads of fun singing and laughing and basically just talking crap with them in that tiny little room.

After that we headed down to Bedok 511 to have dinner and finally back home for some well deserved rest. So here I am, finally pulling myself away from all the leisure activities to update you guys on my boring life.

Let's Get the Party Started

2008-05-17T16:37:00.002+08:00

Exams are over! Yippie. And I think I should have no problem securing my first 3 As of my free Taiwan trip. [Read here if you don't know what I'm talking about]

Now the next problem is what to do for the next 3 to 4 months before school re-opens. Wondering if I should get myself a temp job or just wait in blind hope that more castings come my way.

Was out for almost 18 hours yesterday, celebrating Alvin's birthday. After a stupid TVC casting at Henderson Industrial Park where I was asked to act as a young man, dirty old uncle and wheel-chair bound ah pek all in 1 casting, I headed straight down to Simpang for some pre-peak hour owning. It's so freaking cheap before 5pm. 3 hours plus only cost me like $3 as compared to the $6 to $8 that I would have lost had it been the normal peak hours. We need more morning/afternoon sessions guys.

After that we went down to Ministry of Food @ Bugis Junction for dinner. Had my spicy meso ramen as usual, which was nice although I felt the one at Marina Square was slightly more spicy and had more kick. Oh, and their desserts kick ass. They even have small pieces of paper individually printed for each dessert giving you tips and trick on how to fully enjoy that dessert. But be prepared to queue up for a long looooooooong time if you go during dinner time. I think we waited for almost 45 minutes just to get a table for 6.

After dinner and and a very long discussion on where to go and what to do, we finally concluded to watch the new Thai action female version of Onn Bak, "Chocolate". It was a great beat'em Up show with some crazy fight sequences but I think the director of this show has no conscience.

Yes, the show proudly states that no stunt doubles were used in any fight scenes [which was mostly talking about that girl being able to kick your butt i reality], but they failed to mention that no dummies or safety nets were used in the production too. The director actually had real stuntmen fail from 3-4 story high apartment ledges, bounce off the lower ledges and smack flat onto the concrete pavement below, all with just a safety line tied to his back. Which, by the way, landed the poor stuntman in a hospital. And how does a safety line prevent internal injuries from bouncing off ledges in mid air?

Anyway, after the movie, we headed down to Cyrus at River Valley for more owning.When I finally reached home after breakfast it was almost 7am. The time when people wake up is the time when I go to bed. But surprisingly I woke up around 2pm today. Maybe I'll go catch more Zs after this post since I got nothing better to do anyway.

Next activity to be planned: Regular blading at ECP to work on my tan...

Time to PARTY~! Almost

2008-05-14T11:44:00.003+08:00

One final paper to go tommorrow. After that it's time for some major partying. Let's list down all the stuff that I need to do after tommorrow's paper...

More DOTA! AMD League coming soon! [24/25th MAY 08 @ Cineleisure]

Rollerblading! Hopefully I can finally get my abs back out with the help of my tummy strip

Get my tan back up!

Wakeboarding@Batam! Missed out on the previous trip due to exams!

Shopping! Shopping! Shopping! I need some retail therapy! I need to find that illusive surf shorts!

Might go and make a new pair of glasses. The current one is too kiddish to be worn outside the house.

Catch up with a few old friends.

Apart from all the partying, there's still a couple of admin stuff I need to get settled too.

Get deferred from reservice by hook or by crook

Hopefully to get more jobs. More jobs = more $$$$$$

Buy something expensive for PiPi. Been a long time since I spoilt her. Although I always believe girls should not be spoilt, but once in a while is ok.

And all this within the span of only 4 to 5 months? So many things to do... So little time... And I'm quite certain the list will continue to grow as the days go by.

But right now its back to shreading up the past year exam papers and frying them to a crisp so they are easier to swallow down. Now where's that frying pan?

A Hidden Talent

2008-05-10T20:55:00.005+08:00

Was kinda getting bored of studying for my next paper when I discovered that I had an unbelievable hidden talent...

I think I must have been a black-robed ninja assassin in my previous life. Has any one seen that segment on Ripley's Believe It or Not, where this old guy throws a sewing needle through a 1-inch think glass panel to burst the balloon on the other side? Well, I'm thinking I have that amazing talent too.

Look at this...

I made a hole in a piece of paper...
And the amazing thing is I only managed to successfully do it on the 1st try.
The other crease marks are evidence of my subsequent failures to repeat my prowless.

Here's the close up...

And here's the weapon of choice... My G-TEC PEN!
[With the cap on too!]

And here's a re-enactment of how I discovered my killer instincts through random nonsense...

Holding the pen like a deadly poisonous dart, the assassin picks his desired target...
A piece of paper that is lying innocently on his bed, unaware of the eminent danger

And with an almost instantanious recoiling and striking motion, the everyday object becomes a deadly weapon in the right hands...

Resulting in a brutal attack that leaves a permanent scar on the victim.

It ain't as easy as you think it is. Try it to believe it. I dare you.

Half Way There

2008-05-09T21:17:00.002+08:00

2 papers down, 2 more to go. At least the killer paper is down. But strangely it wasn't that deadly on the braincells, but rather more deadly on the hand muscles. Trying to write continuously at break-neck speed for 3 straight hours is no easy feat. Oh, and try doing that while thinking of answers to compare and contrast questions.

Oh, and I just received some fantastic news. Will be keeping it a secret until everything's done. The Luck of the Leprechaun must have followed the green clover Nike sneakers that I just bought all the way over the ocean right here to lil old Singapore... Stay tuned for my big suprise!

2 Good to be True

2008-05-06T19:21:00.005+08:00

Just finished my first paper today, and it was really out of my expectations. I expected that I could easily gurantee 70 marks for this Maths paper, but amazingly, I came out of the exam hall with an almost guranteed 90 mark score. Either the paper was that freaking easy, or I am that freaking smart. I'm guessing the 2nd option.

Oh, and when I came back home today, the mailman had delivered something to my doorstep.

Yes, a big brown box! Woohoo! Any guesses on what's inside??

Woo!! 2 smaller boxes! Wow, this is so exciting! I bet you can guess what they are from the boxes...

Yup! My nike sneakers that I ordered online last week arrived today on schedule! All the way from US no less.

After many fruitless attempts to find a nice pair of Nike sneakers within the confines of our little red dot, I finally decided that enough was enough and opted for the web option. Although slightly costly for small orders, due to the freight costs, sneakerhead.com offers a wide variety of assorted brands of shoes for anyone and everyone. And their delivery is freaking fast! I placed my orders on Saturday and the goods arrived this afternoon!

Here's more of my new rides...

Sooooooo nice right? I can't stand it! And i bet not many people in Singapore has this design cos I don't think it was ever introduced here.

Pipi's shoes are cool too! And I love her box.

Another unique pair of Nike shoes to be spotted around town.

And they even come with matching replacable red shoe laces.

Another item striked off my 'Wanted' list...

And they only cost a total of around SG$300, which includes the freight. That means on average SG$150 for a Singapore limited editon cool ride, although mine actually costs more than hers, but what the heck! Woooooo~

Going Crazy

2008-05-02T18:24:00.002+08:00

Exams are just around the corner. And I think I'm going mad soon. So many formulas to remember, so many definitions to memorise, so many explanations to understand...

And this madness is apparently obvious from the way my table looks like now...

I heard there's a Chinese theory that if you burn all the books and boil the remains in water until only a single cup of water remains and drink it, you will gain all the knowledge included in those books. Or at very least a really bad stomachache...

Maybe I should go test out the myth...

Ice Cream Madness

2008-04-30T11:56:00.002+08:00

Yesterday was Ben And Jerry's 'Free Cone Day', where they gave out free ice cream to anyone who could be bothered to queue up like a typical Singaporean auntie who spotted free tissue giveaways.

Since we were bored out of our wits after yesterday's revision lecture, which almost put half the class to sleep, the whole gin gang of us went down to Cathay to get ourselves some free ice cream.

I've heard about this free cone day quite a couple of times before but I have never been bothered to have a look-see to see what it's like. Well, yesterday was the day I lost my 'Free Cone Day' virginity. And it was a shocking experience too.

As we all know, Singaporeans are suckers for FREE giveaways but who would have expected the queue to span a whole 2 levels of the building? Yes, I'm not kidding. The queue started from the Ben and Jerry's shop [duh~] on the 3rd floor, and extended all the way up the escalator, and around the entire 4th floor of The Cathay. There were even temp staff hired just to manage the bloody queue!

The Ticket to Fame

The Dragon Queue

B&J Staff hard at work

Although it looks nasty, the queue actually moved relatively fast. Our entire ordeal merely lasted slightly more than half an hour from the point where we joined the queue until we finally got our ice cream. Oh, and it's so sickening to see Singaporeans not even reaching for their wallets when being asked to donate any amount for some charity at the counter before getting their free ice cream.

A normal B&J ice cream would easily cost around $2, and some people just couldn't even be bothered to take a peek into their wallets for some spare change. These people should have been given just the cone without any ice cream. Who? Me? Of course I donated some money! A whole dollar to be exact.

So anyway, we all managed to get our free ice cream and lived happily ever after.

Yammmmmmmm~ Seng!