friend-less :(

of moving house yet again

2006-02-17T03:23:00.000+08:00

All right, I'm moving again, and this time to my own webhost!

Feel free to carry on reading over there, a coupla new entries've already been written.

A final farewell to friend-less dot com, and the start of keinism.com!

of moving house?

2006-02-12T03:47:00.000+08:00

It's been going on for quite some time, but I'm giving the thought of moving to my own webhost some serious thinking this time. Blogger's really laggy at times, and I lost one of my entries after publishing it. Lost i.e. I hit the publish button, successfully published, and wala! It vanishes into thin air a coupla minutes later. Whaddahell?

Having serious trouble justifying the cost of registering a domain name and the webhosting though, just for a space of my own. Man, this sucks.

Maybe if I just scrimp and save harder, set aside like a hundred bucks every year hmmmmmmm. Shouldn't be too hard.

After all, pageviews've been dropping these days, and what I write is more for me own benefit rather than anyone else's viewing pleasure ;p And not that anyone else'll be too affected. The brother's been busy coding his arse off on the school projects and juggling work to even think about blogging; seems that his writing fervor's died off alot sooner than mine.

Think, think, think!

of murphy's law.

2006-02-11T01:10:00.000+08:00

Came across this post on Murphy's Law(s) on What ever you want, baby and after browsing thru the actual Murphy's Laws site, I concluded that the original postulation has taken a hell lot of variations since then ;p

For example,

"All the good ones are taken. If the person isn't taken, there's a reason."
(Food for thought; so maybe that's why the babe at the other table's by herself.)

"When the lights are out, all women are beautiful."
(Something that's damn true in dimly lit places like clubs as well, lol.)

Or this one ;p

"To err is human, but to really foul things up requires a computer."

These few are absolute classics though:

Murphy's Law of Thermodynamics
"Things get worse under pressure."

The Murphy Philosophy
"Smile . . . tomorrow will be worse."

"In nature, nothing is ever right. Therefore, if everything is going right ... something is wrong. "

Hilarious :)

of the adventures of soggyman

2006-02-09T17:58:00.000+08:00

It's been a wet and gloomy Thursday, and I hereby announce me new title for the day: Soggyman! It's unbelieveable how I've been drenched/soaked/etc repeatedly in a single day. Sucks :(

Heading out to CGH for my appointment in the morning, and I got caught in an unexpected downpour. Apparently it was unexpected only by yours truly; the mother had predicted it b4 I left the house, but being ~~a stubborn and lazy arse~~ an optimistic individual, I decided to try my luck. Trying to dry yourself with paper towels in the toilet is a next-to-impossible task, as I discovered later on. Oh well, at least the rain had petered down by the time I started going back.

The second round came in the afternoon, when I thought that the rain'd finally stopped. Time for gym woohoo! Was happily pushing the bike out to the lift and.. shit. Rain yet again? Too late for regrets, I thought I could like y'know, act garang and brave it out. Outcome? Totally, uberly, ultimately soaked when I signed in at the gym; good thing I'd worn a windbreaker and brought a change of clothes (although they'd gotten a little wet as well.)

*insert interval of using the hairdryer to blowdry the spare clothes, giving a sheepish grin to the gym instructor (who was prob wondering what the hell I was up to)*

And you'd thought that would be enough but noooooo, the blardy rain hadn't stopped by the time I was done with gym, and I had to head out to Tampines Central to meet some friend (who flaked out later).

*insert interval of using hand dryer to dry hair (yes, I was that desperate)*

Was cycling home after waiting for an hour or so of wandering, and I was thinking idle thoughts.

"Hmm.. big-ass puddle of water on the road, and it's like right beside where I am now."

".. it'll be kinda shitty if I get splashed just because a passing car's driving too fast eh?"

".. nah.. can't be.."

I was just about to complete that line of thought with ".. that suay right?"

Right before I got to that part, a fcuktard promptly zoomed by and dumped like 99% of that puddle on me.

.. damn, but I was too surprised to even feel pissed for the first few seconds. The next few seconds, I felt like walking up to the arsehole's car and bashing his face in. But after calming down, I concluded that rearranging his features wouldn't dry my clothes anyway. Hell, even walking up and giving him the finger would be a colossal waste of time and energy, so yeah I'd might as well go home and get changed.

And that's all for today, I've had enough of being a damp rag. *rolls eyes in disgust*

of more CNY greetings!

2006-02-08T11:12:00.000+08:00

As usual, image from 不想长大的S.H.E (which is actually S.H.E's actual blog.)

of something tasty.

2006-02-07T01:42:00.000+08:00

Ordered these from Cher earlier on, just received it in the evening and had me first bite just now over dinner. Hmmm.. goot I say :)

Feel free to have a try if any of you ever drop by my place ;p
(If there's any left.)

Now that I'm done with the advertising, time to head for sleepyland; Z.

Hmm, then again I should start writing something against V-Day, just to balance things out. There's this other entry on Mirror of the Soul that's funny :) Quit remembering St Valentine's Day, and start celebrating Saint Auxentios Day!

of minor tweaks, a wee bit more.

2006-02-02T22:52:00.000+08:00

Some minor changes if you haven't noticed it ;p

- The default Blogger navbar at the top's gone, if you noticed. I found this site that had a CSS tweak to remove that, all fine and well.

- The font for the posts have been changed too, more compact look now. ~~that's guaranteed to make you squint till yer eyeballs come off.~~

- I removed the background music some time back, after realising that Firefox actually plays the damn song upon page load instead of upon user clicking the play button. No good, so goodbye.

I'd contemplated switching over to another template altogether, but nahh. Another time. I still prefer my daft white layout for now.

Now that these've been settled, time for a few interesting pics of the day.

Hebe! :D

"Sometimes we put up walls. Not to keep people out, but to see who cares enough to knock them down."

This was gone from PostSecret by the time I remembered it, and I had to sift through Technorati for a fellow blogger who'd saved this image. So achingly true though; who truly cares enough to look over those emotional ramparts of ours, those walls of solitude?

"you will never love me the way that I love you."

Another PostSecret contribution; you should really check it out. Full of messages from the various unknowns who mail in, all so expressive in their own way.

That's all for today. I didn't think my CNY was really worth a post, so nope zero details on these past idle days.

Laters.

of CNY greetings.

2006-01-28T14:57:00.000+08:00

Image courtesy of 不想长大的S.H.E

Chinese New Year greetings a la S.H.E!

And yes, this pic looks grrrrrreato :D

of a minor op.

2006-01-27T18:01:00.000+08:00

For those who've noticed that unsightly bump near me eyebrows for the past months, yes it's a cyst not a pimple. And it's been irritating the heck out of me, so I finally went ahead and removed it at the hospital. (Blardy lucky I signed up for the Aviva hospital coverage plan last year, else I'd be paying thru me nose for this.)

I'd originally thought that it'll all be just a walk in the park. You know, something like walk in and thirty minutes later I'm out, free and easy. The procedure certainly didn't sound like it was that hard. Make a cut, remove all the pus, sew it all back up and we're done; something like that.

In reality, I had to go the full nine yards. Deposit my valuables, change into hospital gown, wait, shuffle off to the operation area, wait, read some magazines before it was my turn. Approximate waiting time in all: close to two hours.

*No pictures for this post; my camera was somewhere inside along with me other possessions during the op. I wish they'd recorded the entire procedure on video though, it'll be interesting to see how it was actually like.

So I got to lie down in the operating theatre again, two years after my dental op long ago. Bright cheery glare of the spotlight, tied down with a team of hospital staff. All for removing a damned cyst, geez. I guess I got what I was paying for.

Then.. came the painful part. Personally, I don't really mind injections. However, I'm absolutely against multiple injections in a short time. The operation area got like six injections at once, whee. I was tearing while it was going on, the feeling ab-so-lute-ly sucked. Damn but I hate local anaesthesia. It reminded me of the other time at dental, when the dentist made several injections to me gums as well, and the aftereffect? My lower jaw was literally numbed, and I walked around the house with me lower lip feeling like it'd turned into a gigantic German sausage or something. You know how lousy it feels when you can't even close your mouth to stop the saliva from escaping? Yeah, it felt that bad.

This one was thankfully fast, after all the waiting. My eyes were closed, and I could only hear the surgeon talking.

"Knife." I certainly didn't feel the cut, numbed as I was.

"Forceps." Trying not to imagine what exactly was being done.

"Sucker." (Insert whining noise as blood and pus was sucked up.)

And before I knew it, the entire thing was over. A row of nice black stitches, some antibiotic cream applied over it and that's all there is to show.

Happy Chinese New Year to me, Z.

of a movie review: memoirs of a geisha.

2006-01-24T00:20:00.000+08:00

Caught 'Memoirs of a Geisha' just now w/ SJ jie @ Cineleisure, and hmm. The level 9 cinema's kinda small, but quite a bit of legroom. Not too bad, I'd say. The sound system's way overpowered though. Go to theater 10 if you ever want to catch a fright flick with your girl or something; the sound's guaranteed to make her jump at the slightest trigger ;p

About the movie? That's another thingy altogether. Sometimes it really sucks to read the novel beforehand. This movie might've been way more enjoyable had I left the book alone, Z. I was totally demoralised by the time five minutes or so of the show had passed, and things didn't really get better, only worse. Slouched further and further in my chair, and got prepared to be disappointed.

But well, as usual novel-to-screen adaptations are subjected to time constraints, and textual expression is way different from visual. Some things you can empathise and feel, from reading. To bring the same effect out using film is totally another issue altogether.

BUT.

To my dismay, the story's been thoroughly shaved, and certain liberties taken with the plot to make it fit. Things like General Tottori as Sayuri's danna being totally out of the picture, Nobu's gift of the stone to Sayuri, and his promise to become her danna if he ever requested for the stone. The emergence of the angmoh general (?) and his involvement in the well-being of Iwamura Electric, hmm. I certainly didn't remember any fire in the Nitta okiya (correct me if I'm wrong on this), and the magnificent scene where Sayuri threw the Chairman's hanky away left me gaping. At the plot change, yes; not at the great scenery.

Another subtle plot change was the blatant highlighting of the Chairman's desire towards Sayuri/Chiyo. Every now and then there'll be this look on his face, and the unfinished sentences, blah blah blah. In the novel it was like a bombshell when the Chairman revealed his intentions, really hit me by surprise there.

Brainwipe mode, and Nobu becomes unexpectedly outspoken in the movie, declaring his fondness for Sayuri, whew. Whaddahell. It makes for a more interesting movie experience though, so I supposed that's a good thing.

The good thing about the movie was the great effort made in details, you could feel like you were really watching life back in that era. Thumbs up to that, truly rich and vibrant experience, especially in Sayuri's dance performance. That certainly wasn't anything the book could capture, and only the movie could've brought it to life.

Overall? Not too bad a movie, if I close an eye and take into account all of the limitations. I'm just happy I didn't burn a weekend ticket on it, phew.

This goes to show how bored I was.

Saw these shoes @ Beetlebug. Not too bad, hmm.

Side view.

Bought this pair in the end though : ) Eyeballed it some days back, snapped it on the HP and.. came back for it just now.

Tampines is turning into a playground? Hm.

of some new jay mvs.

2006-01-22T03:20:00.000+08:00

Roaming around and saw these the previews for these two MVs up for viewing, so : )

The theme for 霍元甲 (Jet Li's upcoming movie if I'm not wrong) and 黑色毛衣 respectively on this page, so happy viewing!

of being bored.

2006-01-20T21:00:00.000+08:00

This is just a post to show that I'm still alive, nothing else. Arites, maybe the fact that I'm bored as well, as you can see from the caption.

I'm kinda inclined to share some educational techie articles here, but I seriously doubt the people who click on our blog would bother reading detailed articles on IPv6 security, the new AMD Athlon 64 FX-60 processor, the different types of DVD media that're available in the market, learning more tips and tricks in Windows XP, creating graphical passwords but yeah.
Bottomline is that who'd bother reading all that crap? So there; check 'em out if you're bored, ignore if you're not.

In further updates to our reality@home, I've tried to get Diablo up and running on the home network, but apparently there's some glitch I haven't figured out yet. I've enabled IPX on the network, and the frame type is the same *but* our two PCs can only create separate games and not play in the same one. WTF? More troubleshooting when I'm bored; this sucks.

End of post for now; I'm gonna continue looking for tech articles. Geek mode : )

*Update: finally dug up this other article by David H. Freedman about how truly insecure our networks are. Interesting revelation heh.

of the bangkok trip!

2006-01-16T18:38:00.000+08:00

Arites, I'm back from the Bangkok trip ;p To be precise, I've been back since yesterday, but I was too busy unwinding to actually start on this entry. All in all, I took 175 stills and 7 videos with the mobile. (The figures alone declare my shutterbug mode, heh.) Discounting ~~X-rated~~ unglam shots and boliao pics, it boiled down to 40 odd pics. There's some which S hasn't passed around yet, so these'll be all for now.

First day - arrival
It was a blustery morning when we left Singapore for Bangkok, and man was I happy to see the sun over there. The days before the trip were simply nothing but rain, rain and more rain. Crap.

In the words of the journal entry on my notebook.

".. It's certainly been a long time since the last air flight; @ least the problem w/ the ears're gone. There's a slight bout of queasiness on the stomach tho, although pretty much under control @ the moment.

Exhilarated? Hardly ;p It looks like a field of clouds from the window, cottony and fluffy. One could almost imagine that you could bounce on 'em. Too bad there isn't a camera handy, brr. My mobile's off.

The two ladies're busy sleeping as I write this, & I'm kinda bushed as well. Yawn. Does the aircraft look flimsy or what? Hmm. Now I can relate to what Jack Ryan always feels about airplanes.

Time to start on my book; it's ETA 1245 (THT) later."

The plane that brought us to Thailand in one piece.

A bloody long queue, before we could get out of the airport. Sucks.

On the cab to the Asia Bangkok Hotel ;p Passing under a highway.

Checking in at our hotel. That took me quite awhile; more waiting.

I found this caption extremely amusing; talk about misleading instructions.
There's no keycard needed at all. Apparently, you could leave your key with the hotel staff, but all you needed to do to get the key was to say your room number and your name. We were really skeptical about the security involved in that, so we ended up lugging the key everywhere.

This one was kinda funny in its own way. Anti-Money Laundering Office?
It reflects the reality of the place, that such a big building would be needed to house this department.

Discovery Centre, our first stop. See the EGV at the top? There really is a Golden Village cinema there, gees. More on that later.

The girls went into this stationery shop and got trapped inside for quite some time, ooh-ing and ahh-ing over all the things inside.(You would too, if you're someone who likes cutesy writing papers, memos and stuff like that.)

It's inside MBK shopping centre, so keep an eye out for it if you wanna buy stuff on that.

B$235 all-day dimsum buffet? That's like less than 10 bucks per person, woah.
That poster alone stopped us in our tracks.

The start of the dimsum flood ;p Good food.

S asked the waitress for chilli, and this was what we got: all possible types of chilli. Talk about customer service.

Chomping away, hard at work.

The movies there cost like B$120, still bloody cheap. We caught 'Just Like Heaven' over there, and yes it's still a stupid thing to watch movies over on a holiday but who really cares :)

The theatre was big. Rephrase that, it was big.

This was the second movie of the night, a Thai production.
We certainly couldn't understand Thai, but the subtitles were there, and we were game to try anything so ;p

S had to show the picture of the movie poster taken on my HP to buy the tickets.
After that, we looked up and saw.. ah.

The name's actually written up there: 'Khao Niao Moo Ping'.
It's a film about a young girl and her puppy, really really lengthy flick with a sad ending; they got separated and the girl died in the end. Good show for the dog lovers, and it sorta showcases the plight of dogs in Thailand I suppose. But I was so damn bored in the middle, I fell asleep and realised later that I hadn't missed much. But hey, you're looking at the guy who fell asleep while watching LOTR:TTW.

One interesting thing about watching movies over there: right before the movie starts, everyone will stand up to pay respect to the King while a short video of King Bhumibol is shown. We were stunned during the first movie, and rushed to our feet (a la monkey see, monkey do mode) before we realised what was happening. I was better prepared during the second movie ;p

Interesting T-shirt caption isn't it? Too bad I didn't buy it in the end, sighs.
They only had L, and large is a little too big for me.

Taken at the connecting walkway in the MBK area: LS and S.

Same position, me and LS.

That was more or less how the first day ended.

Second/third days

The pics here are kinda mixed up, so here we go.

Dying on the beds after a hard day of shopping.

Taking the BTS to Chatuchak market, it's their version of our MRT.

Some of the stuff being sold at the market there; look at the size of those eggs, really bite-sized I tell you.

We didn't spend too much time there, since the girls didn't seem too interested in the second-hand stuff sold there, and we left early. I didn't get to see the pets being sold there, argh! :(

One of the urinals in the Pontip (I think that's the name) shopping center.
I was kinda wondering at the purpose of the cut lime inside.
Disinfect? Smell good? Whatever.

KFC, Bangkok. Look at the plates man. Look at the knives and forks!
It reminds me of the KFC in my younger days ;p

I should've taken this glass home or something. KFC is good :)

Fried grasshoppers, bought from a roadside stall.
I was curious as to how it tasted like, heh. Crunchy but not much else.

Elephant on the loose! The handlers were offering bags of cut bananas to feed the elephant with. I didn't try that though, hmm. Wasted.

Platinum Shopping Mall. This place's over at the Pratunam area, and man is it big or what? We spent like an entire day over there, and we couldn't even cover all the shops before they started closing.

Note: alot of the shops begin to close at 5pm.

Coconut time at the food court upstairs.

Fried glass noodles. Look at the composition of the noodles, 50% bean sprouts?
Too bad for the bean sprouts, they remained uneaten till the end.

Yet another wasted one. I should've bought this T-shirt :(

Tired girls. I like this shot, best of all the ones I took IMO.
It has a very natural feel to it. They didn't agree though, heh.

Tired me and S, taken with a long arm.

B$19 hotdog! There was a B$15 hotdog at another place we saw, but I forgot to take a snap of it. Bangkok seems to have a hotdog culture or something, there's places selling hotdogs all over the place.

The holey coconut :)

The consummate skill of S, Queen of Coconuts. Look at the flesh coming out in a single piece, whistle.

We caught the Calypso Cabaret at our hotel as well, not too bad a performance I'd say. Too bad there's no live singing, but lip-sync instead.

ahkein with the performers, #1.

ahkein with the performers, #2.

The three of us with the "star of the show" (as S says it). He's really funny and expressive :)

Foot massage after that, weeee. Relaxing.

The sum of me purchases, all laid out on the bed.

4th day
Waking up early, S and I heading down for the hotel breakfast while LS washed up and got packing. And while checking out, who do I see in the lobby? My manager :)
Apparently Asia Bangkok's a favourite among everyone eh.

On the cab back to Don Muang Airport, you can read the sign up ahead if your eyesight is good. Then again, maybe not.

Shit happens yet again. Our flight was first delayed, and then we got this: a veritable throng of disgruntled individuals all waiting for their turn. We waited half an hour here, pooi.

Waiting to enter the damned departure gate.

Boarding the plane at long last.

And finally.. Changi Airport :) Back in SG once again.

of sucky weather and recent whahapperns.

2006-01-10T22:49:00.000+08:00

Quite a few of the blogs I read have been ranting about the weather in general, and I figured it's time for me to hop onto the bandwagon as well ;p The heavy rain sucks! Good for snoozing at home of course, but not when I've like a gazillion things to do, bah.

Like the other day when XQ and I were running to and fro SLS and Tampines getting his uncle's PC all ready; the rain only contributed to the downtrodden mood. It took us the better part of an entire day, but that part's more or less settled for now.

In addition to that, we cobbled together a working PC (contributions of computer parts from various quarters) for the brother, and the wireless LAN at home's running fine, encrypted with WPA, and the bloody file-sharing on our network's done as well. It took me awhile to realise that my firewall was blocking access from the brother's PC; dumb. The performance of BitComet's still a little doubtful though. Phew, big load off the to-do list I'd say. LAN gaming at home in future ;p

I'm still tired though, even after sleeping a solid 12 hours today. I'll be overseas from Thursday, so expect to see a few choice pictures in the next week after I return ;p Busy day tomorrow!

*Minor note to everyone: I'm still in hermit mode, so don't expect to see me outside anytime soon.

of why nerds make good boyfriends.

2006-01-04T02:01:00.000+08:00

Even I'm not inclined to agree with that, but this article's pretty interesting ;p Kudos to YT for linking it on her blog.

Haffun reading!

of the 2005 AAR.

2005-12-31T19:18:00.000+08:00

What's AAR, you ask? Just some term I picked up in a Tom Clancy novel years ago, and something ahlong and I used quite often in our idle kopi sessions last time.

(Anyway, AAR = After Action Review.)

Every year that passes is always filled with change, and this year's been no different. How've the changes been like? I dunno man, this I think I gotta review my entries to be sure. So hold on for a bit while I read back (yeah, I admit to having the occasional bout of forgetfulness at times too) and hmm..

In no particular order, here we go.
- First concert ever. Mayday rocks! :)

- Experienced my first musical too.

- Thanks to YC's invitation, watched my first Christmas musical.

- Enjoyed the feel of my first movie out on the Padang. Starlight Cinema's fun :)

- ~~Wasted~~ Spent my first ever entire evening at Chinese Garden, taking pictures of the Lantern Festival displays.

- First semester of the degree course. So far so good, hrm.

- Started regular gym sessions @ SAFRA w/ XQ.

- Managed to keep in touch with some people, lost track of some others. Can't really be bothered these days, bah. Tired. Screw everything.

- Flunked my driving test (and retests), awaiting renewal of my FT so that I can continue to ~~give more money to the instructor~~ retake my damn test.

- Finally saw an end to the monthly free movies. This sucks.

- Managed to increase my alcoholic tolerance yet again, through regular drinking sessions at XQ's place.

- Began playing bridge on a regular basis. (Which kinda explains why there's this cushion of a King of Spades sitting on my bed back home, and no I didn't buy that.)

- Life being turned topsy-turvy, in some obscure manner. Once again, I reaffirmed the fact that females = trouble.

- Lotsa great times with me kakis :)

- A good year for birthday presents; most of the friends ~~hated~~ liked the stuff I bought. *Looks at empty wallet critically*

- Deciding that I shouldn't waste that much time and effort on others, and should just idle productively on my own stuff. (Idle productively, hmm.. oxymoronic.)

This list's kinda murky, but whocares. Onwards to 2006 in a few hours' time :)
No clearly defined goals for the coming year, only to better myself with each year that passes.

Happy New Year people :)

P.S. And crap, how could I forget this one! The all important . that I received recently. All the best to y'all :) Best news of the season.

of the new books!

2005-12-31T02:23:00.000+08:00

I had $30 worth of Kinokuniya book vouchers (thanks to SJ jie for the Christmas present!), 20% discount coupons from the 8days mag, and Knife of Dreams's small paperback edition hasn't been released yet.

So.. I got this.

Neil Gaiman's American Gods.

I was planning to buy Smoke and Mirrors at first, but nah. Short stories aren't my type. Between American Gods and Neverwhere, American Gods won out. Next time man, next time round I'll get ya.

And this.

Memoirs of a Geisha.

Time to read it before the movie comes! I've only read like three chapters so far, but it's an interesting read. I'm trying to slow my pace of reading and try to visualise the various scenes depicted inside. Makes for better appreciation of the book, I think.

New food for the bookworm :) The queue at Kino was horrendous yesterday though, brr. Lucky XQ was around, and he scouted around for the shortest queue.

And I still had a $5 gift voucher from Borders. So hmm.. I got this.

Crying Out Love, in the Centre of the World VCD.

I'd wanted to catch this one the big screen initially, but as usual.. I-couldn't-find-anyone-to-watch-it-with-me-and-it-went-offscreen-yet-again. Blah. Finally finished watching it in the afternoon, and it's every bit as good as I expected it to be. Now I regret not buying the DVD version, argh :(

of free speech?

2005-12-29T02:17:00.000+08:00

I've always liked reading Diary of A Lucky Singaporean. The articles are always written about how grateful we should be to our government for doing such a wonderful job of running the country; and yet the tone says something else entirely. Sarcasm at its height, if you ask me. And of course it makes for a great read, if nothing else.

This particular post made me take a second look, however. Wow, a ruling against expression of free speech? Hmm, no comments, lest this post be known as incendiary and I get slapped with something from above.

Just something for y'all to read and note eh?

of genesis: a corporate version.

2005-12-28T02:23:00.000+08:00

Found this in a mailing list. It's good :)

---

In the beginning ........... there was The Plan.

And then came the assumptions.

And the assumptions were without form.

And the Plan was completely without substance.

And darkness fell upon the face of the staff.

And they spoke to their Section Heads saying: "The Plan is a bucket
of crap and it stinks"

And the Section Heads went to their managers and said: "It's a pail
of dung and none may abide the odour thereof".

And the Managers went to their regional managers and said to
them: "It is a container of excrement and it is very strong, such
that none here may abide by it".

And the Regional Managers went to their Directors and said: "It is a
vessel of fertiliser and non may abide by its strength".

And the Directors went unto the Managing Director and said: "It
contains that which aids growth and is very powerful".

And the Managing Director went unto the Chief Executive and
said: "It promotes growth and is very powerful".

And the Chief Executive went unto the Chairman and said: "This
powerful new Plan will actively promote the growth and effeciency of
the company particularly in this area".

And the Chairman looked upon The Plan and saw it was good.

And The Plan became policy.

of coming home this christmas.

2005-12-27T15:28:00.000+08:00

I hadn't written anything about this previously, due to the lack of pictures. But that little issue has been addressed, so here we go :)

Before the performance started. YC, MY and ahkein.

A day before Christmas Eve, I'd attended a Christmas musical at Bethesda Cathedral (titled 'Coming Home') at the invitation of an old friend. And the performance was really good, I could see the effort behind the entire thing. A musical IMO, is never an easy thing to pull off, and there has to be like tons of rehearsals to get the entire flow going smoothly without a single hitch. It's my first time going to a church musical too, and I can honestly say that it was a great experience.

The entire cast of the musical, post-performance.

The musical focused upon a modern Singaporean family, where the son in question (Keith) succumbed to the temptations outside and left his family, after a heated argument with his father. In the end when he had nothing left, he finally repented, returning to his faith and his family. The return of the prodigal son, so to speak. A simple story, but suitable for Christmas nonetheless.

YC on his first solo performance. Great singing I must say :)

After the performance. YC and ahkein.

YC's father, together with us.

I'm glad I came for the musical too :)

of the crowded boxing day.

2005-12-27T00:38:00.000+08:00

Crap, I didn't even know it was Boxing Day till XQ told me about it just now -.- It makes for a good title anyways, I'm kinda runnin' outta ideas these days.

Disaster mode #1: The brother shows why it is not good to splatter perfectly good chicken breast meat liberally with half a bottle of seasoning, when the bottle's instructions read "sprinkle".

Disaster mode #2: CP's lasagne at Cafe Cartel Marina Square, which resembles a puddle of bak chor. Where'd all the lasagne go? Hrmmm..

Ooo, complimentary log cake. Miniscule log cake at that.

Favourite of the day for ahkein: fish 'n chips for the dentally infirm. (I just had my dental on Friday, brr.)

Funny faced thingy. Looks like me?

of the christmas eve (updated)

2005-12-25T01:07:00.000+08:00

Woah. Before I go on about anything else, thanks to all the people who sent Christmas SMS greetings out to me; I really appreciate the thought :) People like Adri, Qinglong, Alvin, Nerissa, Isaac, Ellen, Linda and I dunno who else, I've like deleted all the SMSes. If you did send a Christmas SMS, you're on this list.

Despite my grave doubts, I caught The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in the end, and yes, it was everything I expected it to be. Great effects, lousy actors. Not that I could do better, but I seriously believed that Mr and Mrs Beaver (and Aslan as well) acted much better, compared to Edmund and Lucy. Brrrr, sucks.

And since I've been gulping red wine almost nonstop for almost six hours, it's kinda miraculous that I'm (once again) sober enough to do anything and everything. This really sucks at times. I wonder if there *is* a time when I can actually get drunk, brr. The concept of being drunk once again stupefies me.

Group photo with the guys, over at S's place.

Merry Christmas to one and all! I'll be working on Sunday and Monday night, so enjoy your off days people :)

*For the friends of the brother, he's been out at Sentosa for the entire Christmas Eve, and collapsed into bed when I finally managed to crawl home. If he doesn't reply to your messages, don't worry, it's not your fault ;p

of the long today.

2005-12-21T02:29:00.000+08:00

Reached home after working last night, prata with the brother. - Meal #1

*insert KO period of 2 hours*

Woke up, grabbed a bite before heading down to Ben's place for haircut. - Meal #1.5

Had early lunch before the haircut. - Meal #2

*haircut in progress*

The finished haircut :) I like it.

Lunch again with Ben after that. - Meal #3

Sudden bout of physical workout right after that. Chinups, dips, pushups = tired.
Which led to the later blood donation being an extremely fast process, I suspect. I filled the entire bag in like four minutes? Gee.

Refreshment snack at HSA - Meal #3.5

McDonald's with XQ at Pasir Ris - Meal #4

Basketball, followed by impromptu grocery shopping @ NTUC, and dinner of porridge after that - Meal #5

Bridge with the usual group till way past midnight :)

Whee, long long day. Nonstop eating fest, I think that's what kept me awake. Something to the order of food = energy = stay awake.

What your face should look like, when you lose at bridge.

What the winner's expression should be :)

of love conquering all.

2005-12-20T00:03:00.000+08:00

Methinks this strip is fcukin' hilarious ;p

More to be found at the PBF archive.

of kein's christmas grousings.

2005-12-18T22:44:00.000+08:00

So hrmmm, it's a week to Christmas, at long last. Not that there's anything exciting lined up my alley (unless you count being in the office as a thrilling adventure, bah) and it's more than likely that I'll end up at home on the eve as well. What is Christmas anyway, other than a over-commercialised event to encourage ~~unnecessary splurging~~ sharing and exchange of gifts.

And a couple of people did ask me about what I have in mind as a Christmas present. Not that I have any details in mind though.. *scratches head*

DISCLAIMER:
Everything listed below are stuff I'll buy on my own time eventually, so feel free to ignore all of it. Gees, I thought I could skip this part but seems like 'tis better to get this part down, so at least people don't get mistaken about me trying to wring presents out of the friends who read this. Yeah, so don't be scared off and not meet up with me eh? Bah ;p Talk about lousy attempts at entertainment as usual.

Now that the disclaimer's done, let's get on with it.

Here's an impromptu list:

1. (Top of the list) Money!
Cheques, PayPal transfers, local bank transfers, cash, I accept anything and everything. Money addiction period now.

2. A new wardrobe.
To the people who've been to my room, you've prob noticed that my current one's lacking a door. And believe it or not, my mother did the dirty deed. It's way too expensive though, so kinda low priority at the moment. Having the wardrobe always half-open kinda makes life easier anyway ;p

3. A DVD writer and DVD-Rs to go.
This was just something that popped into the mind by accident, seeing as I've been using hand-me-down CD-RW drives from morit for the past few years at least. No small thanks to him that I've been able to backup anime series :)

4. DVD version of Perhaps Love.
Good show, what else can I say?

5. DV RS-MMC for the mobile, 512MB.
I'm gonna get this bugger before Christmas! SLS here I come ;p

*To the confused, DV RS-MMC stands for Dual Voltage Reduced Size-MultiMedia Card. It's a smaller version of the current MMC, and supposedly sucks less of the HP battery when in use.

6. DVD version of the LOTR trilogy, extended version.
This is a perpetually postponed item on my priority list :) I bash the urge right back down whenever I see the price tag.

7. A pair of inline skates to start learning on.
Yet another pricey thingy.

8. An MP3 player, 512MB at least.
This is something the brother wants. Recording songs onto the MD's driving him nuts. It already turned me off a long time ago ;p

Come to think of it, anyone interested in buying my Sony MD?

9. Sound system for the room.
What I know about hi-fi systems prob isn't even worth knowing, so I'm not even keeping an eye out on this. Besides, why bother with this when I can listen to songs on my PC?

Ah, but this brings inspiration for the last item.
(I decided that ten was already an excessively long list.)

10. Creative Audigy 2 ZS.
This thingy looks good. I'm putting my 5.1 speakers to waste right now, since my old SBLive! card died on me a few weeks ago and I'm squeaking along on a miserable 2.0 speaker arrangement right now, since the onboard sound chip doesn't know anything else.

Righto, that's it. Am I a materialistic arse or what? Random (and neverending) wants like new clothes, accessories, shoes, bags will be sated when I head off to Bangkok in January. Which reminds me, it's less than three weeks away. Crap.

.. I wanna head off to the KL Mayday concert! :( Damn my timing, I'll be in Bangkok at that time, ARGH. This sucks.

of disturbing news

2005-12-13T21:03:00.000+08:00

Across the Causeway, that is.

I was kinda shocked when I read of this happening over at Malaysia.

Image source from www.orangeous.org.

Gees, assault and robbery? The stitches on the guy's head is really a warning of how bad things can get over there.

of mayday's final home concert! - part 3

2005-12-12T21:28:00.000+08:00

Yeah, the long awaited post!

.. but nah, I'm not gonna post pics. Check out Blinkymummy's post, she has like tons of pics that're way better than mine. Posting mine would be an utter disgrace in comparison, to say the least.

And hmm, here's KingMeng's take on the concert! He has like a flood of shots, more than enough to satisfy any raving Mayday fan I say.

So there. Full stop! Maybe I'll post 'em if I ever get into the mood, but that'll be like two pictures or less.

of mayday's final home concert! - part 2

2005-12-11T13:35:00.000+08:00

Just changed the song being played because it particularly reminds me of the concert last night (because of the dance in the MV). Mayday was trying to get everyone to dance to the song, without notable success though ;p Our seats were too cramped to allow much moving around, and Singaporeans are famous for being a stiff-necked bunch anyway. Blasting this song on the PC as I'm typing helps me to remember a little of the mood from last night :)

It certainly was a great experience, jumping/yelling/screaming/singing and moving along to the song, watching the performance up live is really something that can't be compared with the concert DVD. There were some buggers who managed to sit down and watch the entire performance calmly though. It's like fcuk, it's a Mayday concert! Stand up and have fun! How the hell do you listen to one like it's a damned cello recital by SOS? But yeah, it's their money who really cares.

(Note to self: never forget the lightstick next time on a concert, my hands were idling last night.)

My seat was at row A1-4, which was supposedly the second category, but I was actually in the 4th row from the front? Wow. I certainly didn't expect the seats to be that good :) The seat was slightly left though, not really center so I supposed that's the difference between the Cat 1 and Cat 2 tickets. Bah, who cares. Thanks to LS for using her points to get a 20% discount on the ticket, so we ended up paying like $102 for a $128 ticket. The boom camera was kinda irritating though, swinging left right up down to capture the bloody audience.

Still not in the mood to post photos though, I'm in neutral gear right now. Just feel like idling the entire day away. Wait for part 3 of this post, I'll throw the photos up on that one. Whatever pics that look interesting, that is ;p

of mayday's final home concert!

2005-12-11T01:12:00.000+08:00

Just got home after walking back from the concert. Yes, it ended close to midnight, and the damned taxi queue was ridiculously full, I couldn't flag a cab anywhere so that's it.

A good way to sum the concert up? I'm-so-sorry-you-didn't-catch-it :)

Saw Ellen (whom I hadn't seen in years) and bumped into a few of the basketball kakis before the concert. I wonder how many other friends went, hmmm..

Pictures when I'm free, but don't expect any good stuff; all of 'em were taken with my N6230i and they suck in general.

I should be feeling top-of-the-world euphoria after experiencing such a great event, but I'm feeling like I got dogshit caked all over my shoes and pants instead.

Bah, feels like shit literally. Fcuk the world yet again.

of being pissed.

2005-12-10T00:23:00.000+08:00

And yeah, I hate irresponsible dipshits who don't give a damn about punctuality. Someone should start a national campaign to shove those losers' heads up their arses and wake their bloody idea up.

That's just one of the reasons why I'm feeling so pissed though.

Argh, fcuk everything.

of yet another great movie this year.

2005-12-08T02:18:00.000+08:00

Caught Perhaps Love's sneak preview @ Lido today w/ XQ and WY, and.. wow. It's definitely one of my top 5 for this year's picks :)

Checkout movieXclusive's review if you're interested.

Personally, I liked the way the movie was made. The parallelism of relationships between the roles in the movie they were shooting, and reality. The constant going back and forth between the supposed movie scenes, and reality, and the past. The scene when Jacky Cheung folded his arms in mid-air, and fell down. Takeshi Kaneshiro calling Zhou Xun on the phone, and the eloquent silence that followed.

Another positive would be the musical elements in the show. It's been so long since I've heard Jacky Cheung sing in another musical other than Snow.Wolf.Lake, and he delivers this time as well. What can I say, great music throughout the film. Hmm rephrase that; Ji Jin Hee sang pretty badly but well, it's not like Mandarin's his mother tongue so ;p The music really carried the mood of the film throughout.

All in all? I won't mind watching it again :) And this goes out to Mr Yang if I don't see you on MSN before you read this post: WATCH IT! No regrets for sure.

of meeting old friends.

2005-12-07T02:21:00.000+08:00

Amex sent me this nice looking flyer in the mail, promising that I was "in for a very merry Christmas..."

NOT. (I was mildly disappointed to discover the lie later on. But yeah I'm just kidding; whoever needs a damn credit card? I'm already splurging enough as it is.)

And woah, apparently I was eligible for a first year annual fee waiver *plus* a special Christmas rate of 3.88% p.a. for half a year if I signed up for their line of credit now. But it was written in the small print of the application form that I had to have like SGD$30,000 annual income to be eligible.

Yeah, I know Amex's disappointed, but so am I, so am I. I wish I earned in excess of 30k p.a. too :)

*junks flyer into the nearest plastic carrier for mass disposal later*

The previous day was spent recovering from my lack of sleep during the weekend (I had like a total of 7 hours' sleep from Friday to Sunday), but I managed to drag myself down to Raffles Place to meet some friends from my past HOTL3 days; Adri, Aloy and Fulin. Carl's Jr seemed like a much better choice when we took the damn weather into consideration, and it was quite an enjoyable meetup all in all. I hadn't seen Fulin and Aloy since my poly days, but the conversation seemed to fall back into place easily enough, grins.

The later part of the afternoon was spent trudging around the city with Aloy, since Fulin had to head off to a job agency. Checking for a waiter position with Balaclava @ Suntec, giving Aloy the once-over tour of the revamped Marina Square, getting lost in Kinokuniya (ever seen a couple of fellows walking three complete circuits just to get to the fiction section? Nodsie, I was the idiot leading the way), me checking out Orchard's NLB for the first time, me trying out the wanton mee at Heeren under Aloy's recommendation (really good I'd say, gotta eat it again next time), and keeping our eyes peeled all the while for ~~pretty girls~~ visual entertainment. Ping ping! Stoned at Mark Lee and crew doing some recording at the Heeren, got bored after a few minutes and left, pfft.

There's some other stuff like us hitting the lottery by reaching Sony-Ericsson's helpdesk at bloody 1515hrs (when it was due for stock taking at 1500 hrs.. great), gawking at Gundam modelkits on sale @ OG, buying me new earring and an Esprit tee, meeting NZ+MS for dinner after their ACCA papers @Bedok 85 (after surviving my two-hour meeting at the office, pooi), meeting LS before walking home, yakking with the brother, watching the Jay concert DVD, troubleshooting my damn MSN (and finding out some moron'd set an unknown proxy on me HTTP settings) but bah. too many details, and I'm lazy to cover it all.

Suffice it to say that it's been yet another busy day :) And yeah, now I know someone whom I can walk around with to eyeball books, girls, walk around with and not get bored, harhar. Too bad Mr Aloy's heading back to OZ in a few months' time ;p

*collapses into bed after an all-too-mundane entry*

of the exam results

2005-11-30T21:36:00.000+08:00

My exam results just came out today! (And I didn't even know that until a colleague woke me up from sleep with his phonecall, exclaiming about results being released zz..)

And..

:(

But it might not be what you thought. Just to elaborate things further..

Not too bad I'd say. Let's hope the rest of the subjects in this course're that easy, heh.

"Just be yourself!"

2005-11-29T22:42:00.000+08:00

Q: "How can I get the girls?"

A: "Oh, that's easy! Just be yourself!"

Probably the most cliched advice you have heard in your life. But you can't say it's totally wrong.

Because it is true.

It's just that most people have heeded it literally, without giving it any second thoughts.

"Keep on waiting, that right person for you will appear someday!"

"Just be yourself, because someday a girl will like you for who you are!"

RIGHT.

If you've followed what they've said exactly, you are only digging your own grave.

Think about it: If "Just be yourself" works, then you wouldn't be in this situation now. After all, you HAD been yourself for the past X years, haven't you?

Either the information is wrong, or you have misread it some way. It couldn't be the former, since it has been validated by so many others.

This begs the question: What does "Just Be Yourself" REALLY mean?

Two words:

Self-improvement.

That's right, self-improvement. But isn't that a totally different meaning from "Just Be Yourself"?

You see, "Just Being Yourself" is not about simply being the same old you.

It's about becoming the 'you' that you really wanted to be.

If you've always wanted rippling muscles, hit the gym.
If you've always wanted to sing like a pro, take up classes.
If you've always wanted to be slim, start exercising.
If you've always wanted to be a confident guy, learn how to.

The logic is simple: If you want something good, you have to be qualified first.

Let's look at women: Do you think women followed the "Just Be Yourself" rule? You decide.

- They spent hours making their hair, applying make-up, pampering their skin before going out.

- They spent thousands of dollars on accessories, clothes, shoes, bags, make-up, diet pills and anything they can find in order to make themselves attractive.

- They read up on women's magazines that analyses men inside out, with tips on how to attract them.

You see, women had been self-improving since puberty.

While we were having eraser fights, collecting Dragonball Z trading cards, ~~discovering the secret of internet porn~~, watching Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in malay subtitles on TV2, and burning insects, girls were busy absorbing information from women's magazines.

But why did they want to self-improve at such a young age?

Because they wanted something good (i.e. handsome guy, slimmer body, beautiful hair, better skin, prettier face, etc.) and they had to work for it.

That pretty girl in your class didn't become pretty by 'just being herself.' She went through alot of hard work before becoming attractive. Don't forget, every girl had gone through an 'ugly duckling' period before.

You are still in the 'ugly duckling' period. It's now your choice to decide whether you want to become a handsome cob, or live comfortably as an ugly duckling.

P.S. For the ignorant, a cob is a male swan.

Coloured bubbles, anyone?

2005-11-29T12:43:00.000+08:00

A man has finally discovered the secret to creating colour bubbles, not easy mind you.

It took creator, Tim Kehoe, 11 years in collaboration with an expert in dye-chemistry, Ram Sabnis, to create something the world has never seen before: Zubbles.

Apparently, it's so good that Popular Science has decide to do an exclusive report on him. Here's an excerpt:

"Sabnis's solution was to build a dye molecule from an unstable base structure called a lactone ring that functions much like a box. When the ring is open, the molecule absorbs all visible light save for one color—the color of the bubble. But add air, water or pressure, and the box closes, changing the molecule's structure so that it lets visible light pass straight through. Sabnis builds each hue by adding different chemical groups onto this base.

"Nobody has made this chemistry before," Sabnis says. "All these molecules—we will make 200 or 300 to cover the spectrum—they don't exist. We have synthesized a whole new class of dyes." Sabnis also impressed Darlene Carlson, a former 3M chemist who helped Kehoe and his partners write the job ad. "What Ram did was an extremely difficult bit of chemistry," she says. "Somebody without his experience in dyes would not even know where to start."

Without the lactone structure (a phrase Kehoe had never heard before Sabnis presented it), Kehoe might have toiled in his basement for many more years and never made the dye he needed. Yet without Kehoe's obsessive dedication and belief in the idea, the project never would have been funded. And without his years of experimentation, Sabnis's dyes would have slipped straight down the walls of the bubbles."

Definitely takes alot of determination and courage to pursue a dream that seems impossible, IMO.

Colour the world with your dreams, Kehoe!

of a new fastfood (?) restaurant

2005-11-29T00:04:00.000+08:00

Dunno how many of you have seen this place before, but it's my first time yesterday hmm. Seems to have opened only recently though. (Or have I really not been to Orchard in a long while?) Pepper Lunch's situated opposite Yoshinoya in Takashimaya S.C., in B1 if I remember correctly.

Anyway, the food really doesn't seem too bad, although you can expect it to be pricier than the average price tag of fast food; maybe somewhat in the range of Carl's Jr?

(While waiting for the food.) And here we have contestant #53 on display!

Erwin's dinner: beef rice something or other. Heard it's quite good, although I didn't sneak a mouthful. "Hurry! Turn it over!" The pan's still bloody hot when served, and apparently part of the fun's turning the food over to 'cook' it.

Hamburger steak with egg, my pick of the day! The waitress rattled a stream of instructions, which I didn't catch the first round. (or the second round either)
Apparently, you're supposed to spread the gob of butter on the meat before flipping it over to cook.

Anddd then, add the garlic sauce that's on a small bowl beside. (That's the teeny 'lil thing hiding behind the rice.) The hamburger's quite good seriously, although a little soft (it started to go to pieces when I poked at it with my utensils, brr.) Quite filling, on the whole. About $15 for my meal, complete with drink. (Drink's a little teensy though.) Quite a good place to eat, if you don't mind spending a wee bit more.

Note: quite possible that you'll have to queue to get in on weekends, but yeah it's worth the wait ;p

A street performer in imitation of a statue. He's really good though, didn't move a single muscle ;p

of this morning's taxi driver

2005-11-25T22:52:00.000+08:00

So it was a lousy rainy morning just now, and I was yakking with my cab driver of the day. And as it turned out that he was pretty knowledgeable. The average driver I met with tended have their eyes glazed over once I mentioned I was in the IT field, followed by a slight pause and ".. orrrh IT ah. money good hor?"

.. good my arse.

Anyway, the morning driver not only knew of the different fields in IT, but had heard of my university, could discuss about various probable health issues that arose in your later years when you did not get sufficient rest. And after that, he launched into his theory of how a country used different means to 'capture' the spending power of foreign expatriates (or foreign talent for that matter) who came here to work and send money back.

All in all, pretty enlightening morning. Too bad I was too tired to listen, bleh.

of a fateful twist

2005-11-24T03:30:00.000+08:00

Yeah, so the title sounds dumb and corny. Who cares, I'm kinda tired ;p Just walked home from Pasir Ris in fcukin' 37 minutes, and that's super duper fast. (I doubt I can beat this record anytime soon.)

Alrightey, so for a short review of the performance. It's my first time watching a theatre performance, so I was sortof going wide-eyed at everything around me like some kid in a candy store.

The obligatory narcisisstic shot, before the performance began.

The place is great, IMO. The acoustics were great, and I could hear the performers clearly despite my lousy (i.e. cheap) seat. In addition, I had a relatively unobstructed view of the performance. Of course, that opinion only lasted until an auntie with a curly puffball hairdo decided to plonk herself infront of me, and I had to sit really, really straight up to have a good view. Crap.

Before performance: my front view. Circle 2, row JJ.
Extremely high, extremely back: this is what you get for $48.

To my right. It must be fun being an usher; get to watch all the performances for free, and get paid while doing it, bleh.

And.. to the left. Look at all the empty seats. That's how many people I had to stand up to let pass. *rolls eyes*

One thing about the seats though; I reached there way too early, and ended up having to stand up frequently to allow the other fellows through to their seats. Irritating, especially when I had to repeat my act twice more during intermission -.-

Note: you might want to bring a book or something to entertain yourself during intermission, if there's no urge to visit the restroom; kinda boring while waiting.

About the performance? It's really captivating to watch the thespians in motion, and my respect truly goes out to them. Imagine having to sing, dance and act in a performance that lasted a total of two point five hours, gees. It must really be draining, when you think of the fact that there's no bad takes allowed. IMO, they really performed flawlessly :)

The set was really cool as well; it's actually a house being rotated for different scenes. Interior of the house, the outside, the terrace and the side entrance, bloody well constructed.

Halfhearted shot taken of the performance; the rest of the time I was too busy watching. See the red thingies to the left and right? They're Chinese subtitles for those who can't catch the dialogue.

The music and dance choreography was like whew.. excellent too. Totally blew me away. More of a musical than an actual play, but the story elements were nicely executed as well. Hmm, then again, it's also a murder story with light-hearted local humor injected, and it should appeal to the local masses greatly :) Really funny, I kid you not. I was laughing pretty often at the dialogue, and especially at Ah Si's solo singing portion about killing chickens.. oops spoiler here. And one thing, I really admire their vocals. Gee whiz, if you told me to sing like that I'd probably burst from the effort. Their projection's way powerful, and I was really touched by the musical portions.

If this is how good a local production can be like, I wonder how the really expensive international musicals are :) Conclusion? It's been a educational experience, do catch 'A Twist of Fate' while it's still on! Time for me to sleep soon, brrr.

of a disappointing potter movie.

2005-11-22T21:10:00.000+08:00

And I've *finally* caught the Goblet of Fire today at Suntec; right after like 99% of the people around me have caught it. Funny why the theatre's almost full even on a weekday afternoon, Z. Doesn't everyone have anything else to do other than watch this bloody movie? (Then again, I should ask myself the very same question.)

Lots of distractions in the theatre today though; stupid kids discussing the movie in (very) loud whispers, and mothers tending to their noisy kids. And a female beside me who got extremely irritated at me. Why? Simply because I forgot my seat number, dropped my pouch and made her miss like ten seconds' worth of movie advertisements (yeah wow, big deal) while I was squeezing past her to recheck my seat, retrieve my stuff blah blah blah; yeah you get the idea. I wasn't really feeling guilty though.

Disclaimer
Before you start reading my comments, it would be wise to note that I am a bit of a purist when it comes to novels being converted to screenplays. Leave too much out and I'll start ranting and raving, like now.

Lord of the Rings, IMO was a good piece of work: retaining the feel of the book while keeping it to a manageable size. This movie reminded me of Star Wars Episode III somehow. It looked like the director took a chopper to the book and hacked it into pieces, refitting the shreds into a mere two and a half hours. Extremely rushed, many scenes skipped. One example was the misunderstanding between Harry and Ron: it dragged on for quite a bit in the book but in the movie? Poof, best friends again!

Another thing I disliked was Dumbledore in this movie. He was extremely out of character, and was shouting like some loudmouth throughout. Brrr, whatever happened to the stern and wise Dumbledore of the book? I always had this image of him being laidback, in control and seldom raising his voice, and blah this happens.

And Mad-eye Moody's image certainly didn't fit in with my mental one as well, especially the eye. Whaddahecks, strap-on fake eyeball? He wasn't maniacal enough for my taste too.

Some minor plots in the movie were altered also, one example was Neville handing the Gillyweed to Harry instead of Dobby. Another obvious one would be Barty Crouch Jr appearing early in the story at the Riddle house (?) as well as his all too obvious act of shooting the Dark Mark into the sky at the Quidditch Cup. Once again, where the hell did Dobby (and Winky) go?! Dropped into some black hole for the duration of this movie, bah.

The Pensieve subplot also got compressed into a single scene, something I didn't especially like as well. Rita Skeeter's role got downplayed, and her ability as an Animagus wasn't even revealed. Barty Crouch Jr's escape from Azkaban wasn't explained, and Dumbledore didn't even bother explaining to Harry what Priori Incancatem was. (Like the movie audience would know whaddahecks it meant. "Ooooo Priori Incan-something! What's that ah?")

And for people like PR who thought that the ending was unnecessarily abrupt.. actually it wasn't. It's just that too much got skipped in the middle, so the ending became like "woah, and THAT'S the end of the year?!"

Unneeded screen time was spent on Harry's flight from the Horntail, and his bathroom encounter with Moaning Myrtle; excessively unnecessary IMO.

Well, enough of complaints I suppose. Everyone can bitch, but it's not easy making a movie. In terms of bringing the book to life, the movie did extremely well. The level of detail is amazing, and the movie does manage to keep you on the edge of your seat at some points. The rest of the cast have been good at bringing their respective characters to life.

But I only have one word for it: sucks.

Shots from yesterday; exhibits at the Esplanade main hall.

Today's lunch; nasi ~~bryani~~ padang @ the PSA building. Looks good, tastes not too bad too.
Ms E was an absolute paradox while eating it though ;p Weather too cold, so she was busy shiverin'. Food too much chili, so she kept burning her tongue and had to have something cold. (You could hear the hiss as the fire on the tongue was being extinguished.) But still feeling cold, and yet couldn't drink something hot 'cus of the food. Pretty funny, all in all :) Talk about having a literal love-hate relationship with your food ;p

of an upcoming new experience!

2005-11-22T03:05:00.000+08:00

Under recommendation from ZL, I'll be watching A Twist of Fate on Wednesday night :)
(Although I'm watching from like one of the cheapest seats available, bah.)

Nevertheless, it should prove to be a whole new experience. Defffffffinitely looking forward to it :)

Rule of thumb for living my life: "Never hesitate to try something new, 'cus you won't know what you're missing out on!"

of learning how to blade

2005-11-20T00:12:00.000+08:00

I'm never ever gonna rent the blades at East Coast again. My left foot has a nice circular blister that's larger than a 50-cent coin now, after like a mere two hours, and I was limping. And the blades were wheezing and creaking so hard throughout, you would've thought that they were at their dying breath. I was blading with the certainty that everything would somehow fall apart and I'll end up walking back.

Well, that aside. I still pretty much suck at blading. (Or inline skating if you want the official term.) Not gonna disgrace myself out in public until I can skate decently, brrrrr. Until then.

of a beautiful morning

2005-11-18T05:03:00.000+08:00

Just two pictures of the early morning view in Genting, courtesy of Shan and her numerous attempts to send the photos to both my Gmail *and* Yahoo accounts; sorry! My stupid Yahoo! account did get the mails in the end, but it was like 5 a.m. heh, sucky mail server.

I thought the pics looked really great, don't they? :) (but the resizing sorta killed the beauty somewhat, nevertheless..)

Haven't seen NZ and Shan for weeks now, 'cus they've been busy mugging/working/not-sure-what-else, and it feels it's been ages since I last saw 'em.

Don't feel too left out arites, 'cus you aren't! Not this Saturday at least :)

of a surprise birthday visit!

2005-11-16T03:40:00.000+08:00

Together with YL (aka the leongster) and S..

Sneaky preparations before execution of covert operation: Exercise Candlelight.

All ready to go, a quick snap before we went up :)

Tada! But ah.. oops. The birthday boy's already expected it all, what a failed surprise :(

XQ and us, taking one for the record. Happy 24th birthday!

Murderous intent on his unsuspecting cake?

S and her own (belated) birthday cake, courtesy of YL.

And it came to be that the lurking evil arose..

Protesting, "noooooo not me!"

Exchanging smirks before the dirty deed, heh heh heh.

"Don't you come any closerrrrr!" She wailed.

Alas, S still ended up with cream on her face :) *snigger*

Giving the cold fishy-eyed stare while we cleaned her up.

#1: a properly posed photo before all hell broke loose.

#2: so we started weird poses, and lay to the left. (OUR left, not yours mind.)

#3: .. and to the right.

#4: howwww, they all dowan to friend me liao :(

#5: bleah!

#6: dunnowhatyoucallthis!

#7: stoppppppp! Talk to the hand(s) ;p

S & XQ, birthday boy extraordinare.

Halfway through the drinking; S & K.

S & YL, who was already feeling the heat from the red wine.

Various legs for sale; scrawny, meaty and otherwise.

"I AM THE CONQUEROR OF THE UNIVERSEEE!" XQ roared, and a shining aura surrounded him.

.. while we looked on, bored.

Woot, positively scary pic?

And that's the end of it all :)

Oops.. nearly forgot one last one.

This event was sponsored by.. XX Cuttlefish!

of 天才 and 蠢才

2005-11-14T23:52:00.000+08:00

And Ms E was complaining on MSN about the unusual number of musical 天才s around her, and it made her wonder if they were not actually 天才, but that she was a 蠢才 instead.

(Self-bashing for her after that: Do not disturb.)

Idle talk talk talk after that, and after we typed the same things simultaneously, I was kidding about great minds thinking alike, and was reminded of this strip.

(Copyright Slamdunk #20, 井上雄彦)

Caption: 莫非,我们两个是... ... 天才？ (果然没错...)

I love the art :)

And I typed something like: 难道我们都是.. 天才!

She was sent laughing off her chair at that, prolly 'cus of the earlier 天才蠢才 stuff ;p Pretty funny tho', how aptly it fits the entire topic haha.

And of course, the fat fell into the fire, after I snapped that particular strip from my book and showed it to her.

And she laughed so hard, she prolly rocketed through the ceiling and into outer space, thanks to 樱木 and 宫城's silly expressions.

And so it came to be that another satellite joined those many others orbiting our planet; imagine the amount of laughter (and energy expended) to do that. The other satellites were very happy to have someone to entertain them though, since none of them had nice eyelashes and sing well heh.

*Disclaimer: part of the above crap = figment of me imagination, if you haven't realised that by now. Not very funny though, sigh. My attempts at humor are seriously pathetic.

of the time it takes to curl hair.

2005-11-13T14:59:00.000+08:00

So we'd just finished watching Flightplan (not really worth a weekend ticket, I'd say) and Cineleisure B1 was having some Miss FreshKon Singapore walk-in contest, and you (i.e. females obviously) could get a free makeover and photo shoot.. IF you bought the color lens right then. Quite a good buy I'd say, two pairs of monthly disposables for $45.

So I acted devil's advocate, LS ended up buying the lens and went for the makeover as well. The guy originally told us twenty minutes in total for everything; it ended up more like twenty minutes for waiting, twenty for makeup, another twenty for hair, and about ten for the photo shoot. ('cus I was ranting to the staff about how we were rushing for time, bah)

Very, very.. very long wait after that, an hour and a half at least. So what else could I do in the meantime? Idle, walk about, ~~ogle the other girls who were posing for the photo shoots,~~ yak with the staff there.. and of course. Continuously call and apologise to the rest of the guys who were waiting for us to have dinner at the Esplanade; big oops. I've always been a stickler for punctuality, and this time? Seriously screwed up, argh.

Being bored, I took some photos of the makeover process obviously, but hmm.. released without express permission of the subject. *coughs*

(finally) Getting ready for the makeup.

Doing the ~~eyebrows~~ eyelashes. Looked painful, I was half-wondering if it actually was, hrmm.

Finished with the makeup, half-time while we were waiting for the hairdo part. Yet another wait, big Z there.

(finally, part 2) Getting to the hairdo. I felt ready to faint when I saw what the guy was doing though; using the curling iron to.. curl the hair, what else? He wasn't too good with the thing though, and I'd guessed he wanted to do (nearly) her entire head in curls. That meant? Die lor. It took like forever, and patience (mine at least) ran out at some point after that -.-

*inwardly sighs* Look at the resigned look; my face had something like that plastered on too, brr.

Express photo shoot, pose #1.

The photographer yakking away, saying how he wanted the pose to be like.

So this is something like what he wanted, I suppose?

The leongster said this photo pretty much sucked and I shouldn't put it up. But gimme some credit la wakao, I did wait around for an hour or so, so I should display my mugshot at least, bleh. One shouldn't remain behind the scenes all the time.

Then again, I suppose it was worth the wait. LS did look very different, didn't she? That, and the fact that I got an eyeful on how makeup's done. Now if only it didn't take that long..

And after the mad rush down to the Esplanade, we finally met up with the other guys; we were supposed to be celebrating S's birthday, oops. No photo taking at the dinner place (since I was busy wolfing down food and making sure we left ASAP) but rather at Haagen Dazs, our next stop.

Various shots coming up, mostly captions tho'. Can't be bothered to write too much after all that earlier.

LS and S.

Derek (with his ever present raised middle finger during photo taking) and ahkein.

XQ, ahkein, Nick and Derek sprawled across the middle. S commented that this pic reminded her of our past days in secondary school, and I'm inclined to agree too. Just the feeling, hmmm.

Kiampa bin, as the leongster put it.

Birthday girl S and ahkein. Straight after the looking at this one, I grumbled about this pic looking like a showcase of Haagen-Dazs; note that the subject seems to be the ice cream counter behind -.-

(Perhaps the photographer in question was feeling hungry.)

Group shot #1.

Group shot #2; this one really looks very good IMO. I'll have to consider printing this one out.

Birthday girl and the upcoming birthday boy in a few days time :) XQ's smile looks good here, doesn't it?

All ready to start dipping on the fondue!

Different location, same expression. We were lounging outside the Esplanade after that, grins. Harry's music proved to be too loud for talking, and not entertaining enough for us so we exited after a short while. Give me Wala Wala anyday.. argh.

Did I say that I really liked the photos taken yesterday? :) There were some that I absolutely hated though. Using flash makes my braces stand out like mad, argh. ~~Every pic where I looked like crap was not uploaded.~~

I.hate.my.braces!

That's all for now; let's see if I manage to get any shots later at Tao's. Going down to listen to Ms E and the other singers perform, comments later!

of random rambling

2005-11-11T23:17:00.000+08:00

And once again, it's come to a point when I don't really see anything amusing or noteworthy enough in the happenings of recent days (unless you wanna hear how I devoured the entire collection of Bleach anime and manga episodes)

Kon! Current favourite character in Bleach haha :)

I was looking through some older posts of my usual reads; one of them and another made me think for awhile.

Why do I blog then?

To keep alive memories of the days that I'm living now? (So that I can look back and wince in agony at past days of totally uncool sleaziness.)

A testimonial of my existence then, as evidence that I once lived? (If only footprints are that easily left in the hearts of others, bah.)

If only there was some way to document the entire journey. I look back at buildings and the surrounding scenery that once accompanied me through different stages of my life. Despite the nostalgia that comes with a single glance, and the unbidden urge to take a walk into those spots.. I never do.

The people who were with me through those times have moved on in their own separate windows of life, and it's never gonna be the same without them. These places merely serve as a reminder of times long past, and harden myself for the road ahead.

And of course, a silent appreciation that these places still stand. Some parts of my childhood have already been erased by the ceaseless redevelopment of our efficient nation, and only exist in the dusty corners of my mind.

Things like the evenings spent at my grandparents' place, when I looked out onto the open spaces in front of their block. The setting sun casting shadows on the kids playing soccer at a nearby field, while others yelled and ran about the playground. Sunlight reflecting off the (undoubtedly murky) slow waters of the Kallang River, and elderly couples walking about in an unhurried manner.

(Meanwhile, one of my grandparents would call in Teochew for me to come to dinner, as I strained to look over the parapet. Of course, I pretended not to hear.)

Now? All I see is an ugly multi-storey carpark, and more HDB flats. Do I love the view or what, gees :) All in the name of progress, indeed.

of the first november post.

2005-11-03T03:06:00.000+08:00

Haven't been posting these few days, prolly 'cus I've been busy with either:
- catching up on sleep whenever I can
- stoning at the office
- grunting at the gym acting like a monkey on steroids
- playing bridge into the wee hours of the day

Pick either of 'em; likely to be correct.

Cycling seems to have become fun all over again, and I'm like whizzing all over the place on my bike these days. Two words; beats walking :)

Meanwhile, I'm like thinking of learning how to blade. Having trouble finding a suitable used skates though, I'm on a tight budget here hmm.. bah.

Too many potential activities, but limited time and moolah. Scuba course, vocal lessons, blading yada yada yada you get the idea.

Argh, which reminds me once again: this week's work schedule sucks big time.

of a relaxing saturday : )

2005-10-31T02:49:00.000+08:00

I was too tired to write all these yesterday, but I really enjoyed myself on Saturday :) No photos for now, since I haven't uploaded 'em yet.

Saturday noon, lounging lazily at the beach with S, XQ and YL (aka the leongster). Main activity of the day? Bridge: a truly excellent way to pass the time of the day.

Spent like hours sitting/lying there playing away, before deciding dinnertime was up and about, and we cycled down to Changi Village for dinner. It's not like I get to do this everyday, so it was great fun to me at least :) Then we were like the mobile bridge brigade, playing bridge wherever we happened to stop at.

It was a long and tiring day, I tell ye. Happy tho'.

of a long forgotten line.

2005-10-28T03:25:00.000+08:00

"... I loved you once. Yep, I know I'm a fool. But do you truly understand why? I hope you do, 'cus I still don't."

I was really surprised, and kinda shocked when I saw this sentence appear on PR's diary. It's been so long ago that I'd nearly forgotten it all; that I was the one who originally penned that line.

Not sure what I'm talking about? Head down to iam tandem and download the PDF then. A lengthy read, but well.. if you're bored it should be pretty amusing : )

Rolling Bomber Special

2005-10-27T12:23:00.000+08:00

Although this isn't new, and you don't know what Power Rangers are(wtf?), I guarantee it's still hilarious. Starring Shingo Katori of SMAP.

Some preview shots of the film

Click here for the link!

(I think this short film can be found in SMAP's DVD, 'SMAP SHORT FILMS')

of the zorro sequel

2005-10-27T02:09:00.000+08:00

The Legend of Zorro opens today, and ahkein has already watched it. Two words: great show! :) I really like the action scenes, all so nicely choreographed; Zorro's fights look like something out of a Matrix movie. We were laughing away at the corny one-liners as well, cheesy humor works as a good complement I suppose. Not too bad, it's definitely one of the better movies out there right now.

But be warned, for potential movie-goers. Apparently, GV has this new policy in place now. For Wednesday shows (which are supposedly $7), an extra $1 will be charged if it's the first week screening for that movie. So.. I kena chop and paid $8 for a Wednesday flick, pui.

of the other carl's jr

2005-10-24T22:29:00.000+08:00

The other Carl's Jr outlet at Raffles Place, near Cecil Street. Much smaller outlet compared to the one at Marina Square, diners are advised not to sit outside when eating alone.

.. imagine walking inside to get a drink refill or more ketchup, and returning to your table to find a flock of marauding pigeons pecking away at your food.

Yep, the pigeons seem to be that ballsy all right; I had to literally wave 'em away with one hand while chewing on my fries.

of the promised land.

2005-10-22T00:02:00.000+08:00

Here's a nice article I got in my email. I really think the guy makes a hell lotta sense, so enjoy! *heads back to revision*

The Promised Land

I still believe in magic when it comes to "matters of the heart."

But only if the approach is sound and founded in reality, not
fantasy. The bottom line is we are all basically after the same
things. We all want to be loved unconditionally, and told
everything is going to be OK. It's just that we all go about
attaining these things in different ways.

One of the sad and brutal realities of life is that true love is not
a birthright. It is possible to "fall through the cracks" and never
cross paths with that special someone during our brief journey
through this life.

It's oh so easy to write a laundry list of what we want in a mate.
The true test of character, however, is to be able to look in the
mirror and use that same laundry list to assess ourselves. Are we
our type's type? Or is our "type" simply a fantasy person who is
always "out there" somewhere but never materializes?

I've talked to dozens of women over the years and asked them what
their "type" is. They usually proceed to describe this sort of
wonder man who is a hybrid of JFK and James Bond. I then ask them
if they've ever dated someone like this. The answer is no. I then
ask them if they've even met someone like this and, of course, the
answer is no. In other words their idea of what their type is has
nothing in common with the reality of what's attainable for them in
this lifetime.

As my father once said to me, "To meet the right person you must
become the right person." I think I'm finally starting to
understand what Dad meant by that simple yet profound statement.

At some point, hopefully sooner than later, we all might benefit
from applying a more realistic and sensible approach to the pursuit
of love. That moment will come at different times for each of us.
Because at night, when we lay our heads on our pillows and face our
moment in the dark, we only have to be honest with one person,
ourselves.

As the days and weeks and years pass us by, the state of the dating
scene is only getting more challenging and pathetic. Probably the
greatest culprit is the misuse of the "C" words. There's a
destructive trend in our society that confuses chemistry with
compatibility. (Hollywood has sold us a lie.)

I'm starting to think that there's another "C" word that's even more
important than the previous two: Companionship.

In the final analysis I don't believe there are any absolutes. The
thoughts and opinions I've expressed here are both fluid and
ever-evolving. I suppose it all starts with "hello" and, from
there, let's all have faith that the hands of destiny will lead us
to the promised land; a place where fantasy flirts with reality and
magic is still alive.

Geoffrey Ross

of yet another complaint for the Nth time..

2005-10-21T23:49:00.000+08:00

.. about my bloody braces.

Have I ever mentioned that I hate 'em? Well if I haven't, yeah I officially declare it once again: hate.my.braces

Bear with me, or skip this post. I just had my dental appointment, and this is one of those days when it hurts like hell. Hurts so much to bite, I wish I could just rip the damned things off right away.

And yep, the bloody things totally screwed up my dinner. I could only chew with the extreme right molars, and my mouth was restricted by rubber bands so I could only open it up like 2cm. IF there's even 2cm. Add a sudden attack of gastritis, and I was in total bliss just now.. NOT. Even the food at Jack's Place just now tasted like crap, ugh. But man, was I a delicate eater just now or what. It was like the first time in years I ate in such a prim and proper manner.

Hate my braces, argh. Fcuks.

of nocturne

2005-10-18T18:14:00.000+08:00

***EDITED: seems like some of the lines were wrong. I've changed it to meipoh's version, from jay-chou.net as usual.

Nocturne (or 夜曲), one of the songs in Jay Chou's upcoming album.
What can I say, great lyrics :)

Sidenote: if you're interested in listening to the song, can head over to Junwei's blog (a friend of the brother) to catch a earful. I see no sense in providing the same song when someone else has already done so :)

作词：方文山
作曲：周杰伦

*一群嗜血的螞蟻被腐肉所吸引
我面無表情看孤獨的風景
失去妳　愛恨開始分明
失去妳　還有什麼事好關心
那鴿子不再象徵和平
我終於被提醒
廣場上餵食的是禿鷹
我用漂亮的押韻形容被掠奪一空的愛情*

啊烏雲開始遮蔽夜色不乾淨
公園里葬禮的回音在漫天飛行
送你的白色玫瑰　在純黑的環境凋零
烏鴉在樹枝上詭異的很安靜　　
靜靜聽　我黑色的大衣　想溫暖妳
日漸冰冷的回憶走過的走過的生命
啊~四周瀰漫霧氣
啊~我在空曠的墓地
老去後還愛你

#為你彈奏蕭邦的夜曲
紀念我死去的愛情
跟夜風一樣的聲音
心碎的很好聽
手在鍵盤敲很輕
我給的思念很小心
你埋葬的地方叫幽冥

為你彈奏蕭邦的夜曲
紀念我死去的愛情
而我為你隱姓埋名
在月光下彈琴
對你心跳的感應
還是如此溫熱親近
懷念你那鮮紅的唇印#

那些斷翅的蜻蜓　散落在這森林
而我的眼睛　沒有絲毫同情
失去你　淚水混濁不清
失去你　我連笑容都有陰影
風在長滿青苔的屋頂
嘲笑我的傷心
像一口沒有水的枯井
我用最美的字寫
描繪後悔莫急的那愛情
Repeat #,*

of yet another packed sunday.

2005-10-17T01:49:00.000+08:00

And here we go; a boring account a la I-brushed-my-teeth-ate-slept-and-shit-today format.

Early morning: Trying to sleep after work last night. Interrupted by Brother Meng, who came by to return me my A40, creating enough noise to send suicidal impulses to the brother (who was trying to snooze next door).

Late morning till mid-noon: Cineleisure's K-Union, attending Echo Music's internal music showcase with the leongster, under invitation of Ms E. Relaxed and enjoyed listening to the various renditions by the Echo students :)

Checkout the leongster's account for a more detailed recap and more pictures; he managed to cover pretty much everything I wanted to say. Howeverrr.. Ms E sang considerably better at the KTV I went the other night. Prob a bad case of nervousness, her performance suffered considerably today. Let's look forward to a better act the next round! :)

I managed to snap a few using Ms E's HP Photosmart, not sure how they turned out though. Sigh, indoor shots are tough cookies to chew without a tripod. Should've brought my A40 along today. *rolls eyes* Now do I realise the beauty of having complete control over the aperture and shutter, instead of relying on preset modes.

The rest of the day: Rain, rain and more rain. No more swimming, no more basketball. Life is crap.

Night: Changi Airport T1, dinner w/ NZ and Meishan. Ended up playing Cashflow on NZ's laptop while waiting for a flight to arrive.

Late night: On my way home, distracted. Watching a snail beneath my block, extreme boredom.

Past midnight: Losing sleep blogging, duh.

of a cycling friday, part ii

2005-10-17T01:15:00.000+08:00

Here's some of the photos, as promised. There were like 600 odd photos taken in all by the hardcore photogs, did I mention that earlier on in another post? I forget.

Anyway, here's some of it i.e. the decent ones. I look like a half-digested dog's dinner in most of my pics, ugh.

On our way to Ubin!

Standing around, waiting for the treasure hunt to begin.

This one was taken on my HP; fooling around on a bike one-handed while trying to shoot the two of us isn't easy ;p

Checking out the pics on my HP after the end of the treasure hunt, taken without me knowing.

A closeup of the above pic; suddenly I seem to have long eyelashes too. (?)

Playing cards with the colleagues after the treasure hunt ;p

A shot of the people at my dinner table :)

Getting ready for a group photo after dinner, candid shot.

I was kinda narcissistic, so I ended up cropping the above pic. Looks great isn't it?

Laughing at one of the endless group shots.

With my colleagues. This is what happens when you resize an image of SLR quality; everyone end up looking like ants instead of humans.

Nice beach shots; the good thing about using an SLR -.-

Leaving on the bumboat!

That's all!

of unacceptable crap.

2005-10-16T17:11:00.000+08:00

I was reading Jan's entries last night, and came across a link to her other blog about a previous relationship.

Began reading and hoo man, is the guy some work of art.

A few excerpts:

"He beat me up real badly...
All i could do was to juz cry & let him get over and done wif it..."

"Before i knew it,
I was thrown head first against the wall...
The ordeal begun...
and i emerged wif scratches and bruises on both my arms, wif a big bump on my head."

"We had a quarrel which left me standing at his doorstep for the entire afternoon.
When he finally opened he door & we talked...
He screamed his ass off at me again... and... Slam the door hard, onto my hand.
Dun recall much about that part. I figured that i fainted & he carried me in.
I woke up on the couch. He apologise... again.."

Three words, WTF?

I may not be the perfect gentleman or an expert when it comes to romance, but one thing I'm not into is definitely physical abuse. Jerks like that should be shot, castrated or both. Then again, I wonder why people like that constantly manage to get more unknowing victims; prob all the sweet talking and romantic stuff, shrugs.

of today's random shots.

2005-10-14T00:52:00.000+08:00

Boredom while waiting for the MRT.

Random shot of ahpoook & ahkein, bleh.

Woah, the brother's holding a bag of humongous chips! Bus stop near Yio Chu Kang MRT.

Ang Mo Kio Hospital! Where the grandmother's residing at the moment.

A shot of the grandmother and ahkein.

Nice graffiti done near the swimming pool under construction: Spongebob Squarepants, ugh. Of all the cartoons..

There was this part where a mother was wheeling a kid in a pram, while his (much much much) younger brother ran ahead. Kinda comical if you'd seen it, since the kid on the pram was like oversized for it, and the one that was supposed to be wheeled was walking instead. Topsy turvy world we live in eh?

We'd actually spotted a dead bird hanging on a wire at the top of the Tampines Sports Complex, but alas the HP camera has no zoom and therefore.. no pics. Too bad.

All the odd stuff we see when we walk around, but the camera's not always handy.. alas.

Test Recordings

2005-10-12T01:25:00.000+08:00

Just made a test recording of Jacky Cheung's 我真的受伤了 a few minutes ago, and I think it's by far the best recording I have done, considering that there is no warm up/practice session beforehand.

Well hell yeah, I am proud of it! :)

Click here to download and listen!

Before you get too disappointed, let me tell you that my rendition only lasts for 12 seconds. After all, it's just a test.

And in case you haven't noticed, this is the poook posting.

On a side note, I've uploaded a test recording of kein and I singing Jacky's 你最珍贵. Initially, we intended to do a recording just for fun, but it turned out that our voices sounded oddly similar.

Looks like we are from the same factory after all, despite being a different model.

Click on the links below to check out our test recordings:

poook
kein

of the corpse bride

2005-10-12T00:17:00.000+08:00

Finally managed to catch the Corpse Bride w/ Adri, and the theatre was like three-quarters filled at best. I'd already heard of the unbelieveably short screentime, but the show was good nonetheless. Especially liked the morbid humor captured in the dialogue, so very characteristic of Tim Burton. The music composed by Danny Elfman stood out very much too; it sorta reminded me of those old Quest For Glory computer games I used to play back in my younger days, with the Russian-themed music. It's a simple story, but yet everything fits together nicely at the end; an ending not totally unexpected.

After the show, Adri was commenting about the weird movies we'd caught so far.
- A documentary: March of the Penguins.
- An outdoor movie: Alot Like Love, Starlight Cinema @ the Padang.
- An insanely short animation: Corpse Bride.

Anymore odd films to recommend? Hmm.

Checkout Johnny's review on Corpse Bride. IMO he wrote a pretty good analysis of the flick :)

of wisdom teeth

2005-10-11T23:22:00.000+08:00

I was reading about WX's wisdom tooth extraction just now, and it reminded me of my own toothy tale; maybe I should write it down here. It's not like I've anything else to write about at the moment. (Then again, there's always Corpse Bride hmm. We'll come to that later.)

I'm not sure if it's still in practice now, but during my time in NS, it was quite the norm (among my NS buddies at least) to have the wisdom teeth pulled before we hit our ORD. This was to sort of 'extend' our leave period, so that we wouldn't need to go back camp unnecessarily. After all, we were leaving the bloody place soon, so why not?

Secondly, wisdom tooth extractions cost a bomb outside ;p Some people like to think of it as such; "Don't fix it if it ain't broke." Me? I'd rather remove all of the bloody buggers before they returned to haunt me (and my wallet) in future, while the costs were still subsidised. Yep, subsidised a.k.a. FREE. Now you begin to understand :O

My experience was more special, in a way. I was planning to start on my braces back then, and that alone required me to extract four teeth. Add the four wisdom teeth to the plans, and I ended up looking at a total of eight teeth being removed in a single go. Yep eight, you read that right. Don't wince :)

I was slightly more fortunate though, since I got the option of going under general anaesthesia instead of remaining awake under local anaesthesia. That meant that I would blackout under the chloroform, and awake with the entire thingy finished. It definitely sounded much better than the stories I'd heard from me friends, who were ranting about keeping awake for hours while the dentist poked, drilled and pulled at their senseless jaws.

So the day of the operation came, and I got wheeled into a room with a bunch of people at the ready. Wires attached to various parts of the body, and then a nurse put the mask on me, telling me to breathe deeply. So.. I took a deep breath, and I concussed right away heh. Powerful stuff, I tell you.

The next thing I knew, I was sitting up, being wheeled out into a ward. My mouth was full of cotton, and I was in pain. Big time pain, at that. It was about the only time that I yearned so much for painkillers, and that's saying alot. And all the time, I was like spitting blood out, changing the cotton wads in my mouth, repeat ad nauseum.

(Now we come to the slightly funny part, so don't fall asleep yet.)

So I was busy spitting blood, and another guy got wheeled in. Judging from his age and the cotton in the mouth, I presumed he was a kindred soul i.e. yet another NSF who had his teeth pulled. I waved a hello at him, and he replied in kind.

He pointed at himself, and held up four fingers. Four teeth pulled.

(I smirked internally at that point. Four teeth only, wanna compare?)

I pointed at myself, and held up eight fingers. Sorry brudder, I win this round.

He could only shake his head in disbelief. I expect he was trying to imagine his current level of pain, doubled at that :)

Moral of the story: always get your damn wisdom teeth pulled before you leave the army, it saves all the undue grief (and money) in later years. I was shaking my head when I saw the amount WX paid for her single extraction, and mentally multiplying it by four. Hmm..

of atheism

2005-10-10T21:14:00.000+08:00

Came across this site while checking out Pascal's Wager, and it looks interesting :)

The Rejection of Pascal's Wager: Central Thesis

Religion to atheism, hmmmm..

of mayday live!

2005-10-10T00:13:00.000+08:00

Mayday (or better known as 五月天) was down performing live at Orchard today, but I missed it! :( From what I heard, they performed quite a few of their new tracks just now, argh. Looks like I'll have to wait till the concert before I can watch them.

A friend of mine was down there with her sister though, and managed some shots.
Credit goes to Ellen for the below pics :)

Yanming, the percussionist.

Shin, lead vocal.

See you all at the concert! *makes handsign too*

of a cycling friday.

2005-10-08T23:41:00.000+08:00

I spent the entire Friday (i.e. yesterday) outside, running from place to place.

A quick gym session in the morning, hastily hitting the weights for less than an hour.

Heading down to the office to get a lift to Changi Village, a decent lunch (courtesy of a senior colleague, grins) and a short boat ride down to the main event of the day, Pulau Ubin :) It's a company outing thingy, me is a night owl instead of working office hours, and so I seldom interact with the rest of the company. Upon my arrival at Ubin, I was eyed with great curiosity, like some ten-eyed eight-legged crossbreed of a human being brought out to display. Grrrrreat.

The people were friendly enough anyway, and I got to know a few of the colleagues, put some faces to the names I'd been seeing on emails for so long. Not a bad trip, I'd say. I had fun cycling around, getting rained on, playing cards, and having a good dinner at Ubin. Ubin hadn't changed too much since my last visit two years back, unless you count the resort. On the downside, I didn't have time to go Chek Jawa for a quick look either, brr. Not that I had my A40 along anyway -.-

I won't be posting too many pics yet, since most of the nicer pics (I assume) were taken by my colleagues, who were boasting digital SLRs. Let the professionals do their work, I say. Me? I only managed to snap a few hasty ones with the HP while balancing away on my bike. ;p

Tada! This one turned out nicely, despite the fact that I was cycling at a pretty brisk clip as I took it.

The night was spent boozing away at XQ's place, ugh. I've never claimed to like alcohol, and I suppose it'll never be an acquired taste for me. Nevertheless, it was a night with some fun parts, where we were laughing our guts out at some joke or other.

I can officially affirm that I have a blackhole in my digestive system though; ate at Ubin, had nasi lemak after that at XQ's place, two MacDonald's double cheeseburgers and half a packet of mixed vegetable rice that his dad bought. Add the amount of liquor that I'd drunk the entire night (include the Heineken from Ubin) and ugh, man. Where did all the food go?! : (

of the name.

2005-10-07T02:33:00.000+08:00

So I had been sick, and decided to break my nice squeaky clean record and get medically certified (aka MC) at my local clinic, shuffling my way down to the place I hadn't been to since my NS days. Heck, maybe the doctor's even forgotten who I am.

The new nurse took a look at my scribbled name, and began talking after she found my patient record.

"Kein? The problem with names nowadays, you all do it by yourself. Do you know that it won't be accepted if you're baptised?"

I was rendered speechless for a second, since it was like "What's it to you lady? Do I look like your son or something?"

Nevertheless, I simply smiled and replied.

"Well, it's my name."

She came back for a second round.

"Do you know that this name isn't even in the Bible?"

I resisted the urge to shove my slipper into her gaping mouth. In my mind, I was like "SO?" Man, what was her problem? Did I even mention that I was a Christian? I'm not even a fellow Christian and there she goes off rambling rambling rambling with all her talk. *rolls eyes*

She should save her preaching for someone else who'll listen to her though; talking to me is like yakking to a stone wall or something.

In reality, I simply kept a neutral expression and nailed my mouth shut. When you've nothing good to say, shove it.

of being mistaken.

2005-10-05T17:38:00.000+08:00

So the idle banter with my taxi driver this morning went yada yada yada, and then it came to the money question.

"你不是新加坡人啊?" (So you're not a Singaporean?)

I confirmed that I *was* indeed a down-to-earth Singaporean, and asked in return (suspiciously if I might add):

"你为什么会这么说?" (Why do you say so?)

I thought only the brother hit these weird questions about nationality, while I got the ones about age; guess I was wrong.

"哎呀, 你说的话听起来不象吗." (Oh, that's because you don't sound like one.)

Damn, I got mistaken for some Chinese foreigner just because I spoke English and Mandarin without a trace of Singlish? I know I certainly look Singaporean enough, brr.

To correct her misaligned perception, I proceeded to fall back into mainstream Singlish, and regaled her with my none-too-shabby repertoire of cling-clang shing-shang phrases. I pulled out all the bells and whistles; all those "walao", "ya la it's lidat one", "you know hor", "beh tahan" (and many other Hokkien grunts and snorts which I decline to include here) so that she would be convinced of my nationality.

Well, she seemed satisfied with my talk after my performance; but made another misconception right thereafter.

She thought I was born in 1988. -_________________________-

Hello, even the brother's born in 1987, geez. I got mistaken for some snotty wet-behind-the-ears 17 year old kid?! I guess I do look young. Damn damn damn damn damn young at that; this one beats all my previous records. And yeah, I get mistaken for both my age and nationality in a single morning.

Grrrrrrrrrreat.

of being sick.

2005-10-05T00:37:00.000+08:00

I.am.sick. : (

*heaves big sigh of disappointment*

Physically sick, not mentally sick.

(Then again, I might already be mentally sick, for all you know bleh.)

of the cinderella man.

2005-10-03T21:54:00.000+08:00

Caught this movie on Saturday night (or rather, Sunday morning), and I've to say that it's one of the few flicks that is definitely worth the $9.50 price tag :) Great show! Russell Crowe and Renee Zellweger comeout tops in their characterisation, and I like the flow of the movie.

But no, I'm not gonna write a lengthy review here when someone else has already done such a great job. Checkout A Nutshell Review's take on the movie.

For those who haven't caught it, big oops. It should be disappearing from the local big screen soon, so you might want to wait for the DVD or *ah hem* it. It deserves to be caught at the theatre though, but hmm not like we've any choice over the matter eh?

of a mental note.

2005-10-03T01:28:00.000+08:00

On the MRT, watching the scenery amble by. It was early Saturday evening, and I was doing my best to doze the entire way back home then. Going for school earlier in the day had been a very bad decision on my part.

Sleep was left behind, as I was entertained by the family that stood in front of me. A boy with his younger sister, and a father dressed casually in a tee and berms, with waistpouch to match. The father was cheerfully playing along with his kids on the MRT, chuckling one moment and pretending to be stern the next. The kids were giggling away at that, and continued to act out their nonsensical games, without much regard for propriety or decorum.

I watched the father at play; so unreserved, so happy with his children, and I pondered, hiding a faint smile that tugged at the corners of my lips. Yet another moment when I wish I had my camera with me, to capture the emotions of that particular instant.

Sometimes, watching simple things like these are enough to make my day a happy one as well.

Mental note: if I could be like even *half* of what that father is (ten years down the road perhaps), I'll be more than satisfied :)

of blatant advertising

2005-10-02T13:34:00.000+08:00

A spot of advertising for a friend of mine ;p

IF you're interested in getting someone to provide makeup services on those special events (you know what I mean la, weddings graduation whatever-else-you-can-think-of), feel free to checkout Winsome's Makeup Artist page. Do checkout her online portfolio, and see if what she offers is what you're looking for.

Dunno if there's a discount on the prices tho', you'll have to ask her ;p

of lotsa different flavors!

2005-10-01T01:02:00.000+08:00

An impromptu ice cream fest @ Andersen's, Marina Square.

These two buggers arrived first; a fondue single (above) and the banana split (obvious). Four flavors of ice cream in all; mint, strawberry, chocolate chip (not too bad a choice, it's not too sweet unlike other ice creams) and fruit of forest (nice one too) flavors. (I'd recommend eating the mint with the chocolate sauce, 'cus it's too.. minty.)

LS, rushing to snap pictures of the ice cream before we started eating.

Candid shot.

All laid out prettily, slurps.

The waffle's with rum & raisin, my favourite ice cream flavor :O The waffle sucked big time though, prob one of the worst waffles I'd eaten so far. Hard, thin, overly sweet maple syrup, the only good thing was the big scoop of ice cream.

An overhead bird's eye view; prob what a housefly'd see.

There was a family seated beside us, and the mother kept peering over in our direction to gawk in disbelief; we assumed it was because of the sheer amount of icecream that was on our table. ;p Maybe she was going 'tsk tsk' inside her head, at the youngsters who spend such a bomb on trivial things like ice cream. (While being envious, secretly wishing that she could splurge frivolously as well.)

"ARH, here I come!" *slavering jaws*

Just kiddin'. I'm a delicate eater ;p (Sometimes.)

---

And oh, it's Children's Day already! The brother's already screaming and cursing at the kids that'll be out eating tomorrow, 'cus he's currently slaving away as a waiter :) May all kids grow up to be less of a pain in the arse, this I fervently hope.

of innocence

2005-09-30T11:12:00.000+08:00

So there I was, strolling my way back home (I had all the time in the world after all), and there was a bunch of kindergarten kids playing their nameless games, giggling and clapping while a teacher looked on.

NOMB as usual, so I just watched while continuing to walk by. Visual entertainment, y'know? Watching children at play is always kinda fun, if you get what I mean.

And just when the kids joined hands to form a circle, another young 'un (who was sitting nearby) got onto his feet and scrambled over as fast as he could, wanting to join into the fun. A place was opened, and he joined hands with the rest, laughing.

Now, if only we could see acceptance like that everyday :)

of angels and demons.

2005-09-28T14:55:00.000+08:00

Dan Brown's Angels and Demons.

I'd bought this bugger a few days ago at Citylink's MPH; they were having it at 20% discount, and that boys & girls.. is definitely a bargain much better than what I could possibly find at any secondhand bookshop, considering the condition. (I didn't manage to get a dust jacket tho'; they didn't have one that fitted the paperback, oddly enough.)

A short review then. I didn't exactly devour this one like I had for The Da Vinci Code, but this one proved to be an enjoyable read as well, with the fast-moving pace and nonstop twists and turns in the plot that keeps you just wanting to go on to the next page. This one took me about three days 'cus I was preoccupied with my damn assignments, whereas The Da Vinci Code was wolfed down in less than two. The power of schoolwork, I give you that.

The protagonist (or main character, as you would have it) is once again Robert Langdon the symbologist with another sultry female lead, racing against time to save the Church this time. (After all, romance always goes hand-in-hand with heart pounding action, isn't it so? Part of the formula of a gripping story, I'd say.) Their enemy is the supposed long-defunct Illuminati, but resurrected once again in a bid to annihilate the Church once and for all, with an anti-matter bomb no less. Interesting mix of religious symbology and technology :) I especially like the way all the clues in the book were interpreted, fitting the symbols together with the Illuminati.

I remember reading reviews from other sources, where people have commented on the inadequate background research that Dan Brown has done on his books, and the fictitious stuff that he seems to have concocted to create an exciting plotline. My opinion? I'm not really caring if what he wrote was true, shrugs. It's supposed to be a fiction novel, spare me the whining about authenticity. *rolls eyes in disgust* It's an interesting read, and I'll definitely recommend it to anyone who wants to have a go.

Feel free to borrow it from me if you want to, but return my book in one piece please :) It's barely a week old.

of an unfunny joke

2005-09-27T19:38:00.000+08:00

So there I was having dinner just now, and the mother was talking about something she heard just now.

"Boy, you got girlfriend liao ah? The grocery shop auntie downstairs said she saw you meeting a girl downstairs some days ago."

I paused, and pondered for a moment. I'm not really into the habit of meeting girls at my void deck, if you must know. Then I remembered that I'd met the ex the other day.

"I think that auntie was referring to that day when I met C to get mooncakes la."

"C? who's that?"

I had to applaud my mother's short-term memory. Then again, the mother remembered her by the Chinese name, so I tried it.

"LP la."

"Ooo.. that girl ah! Is she the one who came over the other day?"

My sigh of relief got stopped halfway; she'd mistaken C for someone else. I rolled my eyes inwardly.

"Nooo.. LP is my ex-girlfriend la! The one who used to come over in the past."

"Aiya, that one ah. And I thought you so fast got girlfriend liao, still bring her over to the house when no one's around. But LP very nice ah, still give you mooncakes blah blah blah.."

.. you have to hand it to my mother; I think she's growing desperate for grandchildren or something. Seriously 不好笑 -.-

For the helpless romantics

2005-09-27T01:59:00.000+08:00

Happened to came across this website while browsing Friendster just now. I would recommend it for the helpless romantics ;)

Well, even if you're not a helpless romantic (like me), this will still prove to be a good bedtime read.

(Minor spoiler. Highlight only after you have visited the site.) To be honest, I totally believed that it was a true story AND it was written by a girl until I clicked on the "About The Author" page. Imagine my surprise.

Nevertheless, he's pretty good at using metaphors and putting emotions into words. And for something that is imaginary, he has definitely done a good job. Especially how he reveals each piece of the story layer by layer, like peeling an onion.

Note: In Chapter 7, there's a hidden code waiting to be deciphered.

Jacky(main actor) sent 8 SMSes to Joanna(main actress) in a single night, and told her that there's a hidden message with the SMSes that he just sent her.

Here's all 8 of them, and I quote verbatim:

1) "I’m sorrie if I say anything wrong… u will still come for the appointment, won’t u?"

2) "Let me fetch you on that day, okie?"

3) "Only you can help yourself. come on, reply a yes…"

4) "Vent your thoughts to others please… it’s the only way out. "

5) "Ease your illusions! let me help…"

6) "You’ve gonna come for it!"

7) "Only you… yourself can help yourself…"

8) "Understanding yourself is most important…"

Took me less than 5 minutes to decode it, and I was grinning like a Cheshire cat after that. Corny answer.

Anybody wants to give it a try?

of 我真的受伤了

2005-09-26T01:16:00.000+08:00

窗外阴天了音乐低声了
我的心开始想你了

窗外阴天了音乐低声了
口中的棉花糖也融化了
窗外阴天了人是无聊了
我的心开始想你了

*电话响起了你要说话了
还以为你心里对我又想念了
怎麽你声音变得冷淡了
是你变了是你变了

灯光熄灭了音乐静止了
滴下的眼泪已停不住了
天下起雨了人是不快乐
我的心真的受伤了*

重复*

我的心真的受伤了

I hadn't remembered any nice songs from this particular album of Jacky's, but as usual.. I was proven wrong. Or perhaps it's just that I had listened to it at a different time and age :)

I like the guitar accompaniment, and the way Jacky's vocals blend with it. And of course, the lyrics that make you go sigh and feel all sad inside.

of the sentosa weekend

2005-09-25T00:35:00.000+08:00

Friday and Saturday had been spent over at Sentosa with the guys.

I *was* going to put pictures up, but apparently I look like a hardened piece of dogturd that's been left in the sun for several days. So, no pictures this time, just to prevent all of you people from throwing up.

No lengthy descriptions either, 'cus I still feel fcukin' blur from lack of sleep.

Why am I writing here then? I don't know either. ;p

Update #1:

I *was* going to post some of the resized pics up, but for some reason or other Blogger refuses to host my images. *sucks thumb* Another time.

Update #2:

After repeated attempts, the server grudgingly gives way; bah.

One of the rare shots on us playing basketball, courtesy of Shan. (Yep, we're one of those weirdos who head out to Sentosa for basketball, so shoot us.)

"1." "2." "3."

Arms 'n legs up in the air now.

The hear-see-speak no evil mascots in a new package.

ahkein, S and XQ, all decked out in nerdy specs.

ahkein, with an old schoolmate he hadn't seen for years :)

Tried to roll my eyes in disgust, but got found out.

Bleh. ahkein, LS and Mia Seng.

Pretty thing, isn't it? The only thing I bothered to snap with the HP camera :)

That's all for now, more pics when I get hold of more.

of why milo and bananas don't mix.

2005-09-23T02:14:00.000+08:00

And this is why you shouldn't dip a banana into Milo.

Aftermath, after the banana the brother was dipping into Milo broke, and promptly floated on the mug.

of marketing talk, part deux

2005-09-22T06:19:00.000+08:00

An upgrade of the diamond-encrusted 'time machine'; a flushing system to suck you into oblivion, and a plunger incase you get stuck? Man.

Dilbert never fails to crack me up :)

Food for Thought (continued)

2005-09-21T02:30:00.000+08:00

- "Courage is being scared to death -- but saddling up anyway."

What defines happiness? Wealth? Looks? Fame? Power? That may be the case for others, but it's definitely not my cup of tea.

To me, happiness means doing what you like, what you want, and what you dream of; not being bounded by expectations, criticism, or influence.

For instance, fashion trends. What's the current fashion trend for guys? Piercings, tattoos, hairless legs, tote bags, and everything pink.

For example. just look at tote bags:

What the hell? Next thing you know, they'll be introducing purses to package our balls up.

Anyway, I digress.

My point is that most guys will freak out upon seeing this kind of bag, but will still feel complied to purchase it.

Why? Because of pressure. Peer pressure, media influences.

"Wah, you still using that backpack ah? Not in fashion liao lah, uncle!"

"Buy lah! I also going to buy one later!"

"No one will laugh at you one lah! See, everyone also using!"

And so they buckle under the pressure.

In other words, they are not buying because they really want it. It's because they want to please others. For the sake of being popular. For the sake of fashion. They don't feel uncomfortable, because they are not alone. Those before them have not been condemmed, so they feel that it's safe to follow suit as well.

Definitely not me.

I don't follow fashion trends just because 'everyone else is doing it.' I only follow fashion trends when I feel comfortable doing it, and I know I'm doing it for just myself. Not for others to judge, and not for others to criticise.

Friends around me would have noticed that I stopped wearing pink for quite a while now. I decided that pink wasn't really the colour for me.

People may say that I'm clueless about fashion, but I can safely tell them that I'm happy with the way I am now.

This doesn't apply to fashion alone. It applies to everything else in life.

Put yourself in priority before anything else. If you feel unhappy doing something, then stop doing it. No one can twist your arm into doing anything.

The most important thing is yourself. If you don't care about yourself, no one will. Everyone is too busy with their own lives to babysit you.

Food for Thought

2005-09-20T01:46:00.000+08:00

- "Always leave some room for disappointment."

Definitely a piece of advice that I would give to everyone around me.

On a lighter note, here's some food for thought for the guys:

Attraction is NOT a choice.

A woman can't 'choose' to be attracted towards you. It is the same reason as to why we feel attracted towards some girls and repelled by others.

A woman's attraction for you is usually formed within the first few interactions.
If she does not feel any form of attraction towards you, then there's NOTHING YOU CAN DO.

No amount of gifts, dining, messages, or effort will ever change her mind.

But why are there guys who can still successfully woo her a girl through gifts and effort? Is it because of:

(A) She finally realised that her Prince Charming from the fairy tales will never come. Welcome back to reality!

- or -

(B) She's sick of dealing with all the cheating bastards and liars in her life. Hence she wants a transparent and harmless nice guy for a change. (eg. You.)

- or -

(C) "Since the guy I love doesn't love me, I should be with a guy who loves me more than I love him. That way, even if the relationship fails, I won't be too affected. And I can still get all the emotional support I need."

- or -

(D) She just felt obligated to grant you the status of being her boyfriend for all your persistance.
Translation: Pity.

If anyone gets upset, keep in mind that I'm just generalising here. (I doubt they would read this line anyway, because flamers would only read what they want to read.)

Which reminds me of another thing that I just mentioned to a friend, J, today:

- "Judge a female not by her words, but by her actions."

(A better way to describe this would be being 口是心非)

(Footnote by kein: Couldn't resist adding this part. Women = TROUBLE) Fun tho'.

of marketing talk

2005-09-19T20:13:00.000+08:00

Now, why would I want to use a time machine which moves me an hour into the future, but requires a paltry sixty minutes to operate? :)

of names and numbers

2005-09-18T19:52:00.000+08:00

What your name means: Numerology.

You entered: C*** T** K*** Kein
There are 15 letters in your name.
Those 15 letters total to 68
There are 7 vowels and 8 consonants in your name.

Your number is: 5

The characteristics of #5 are: Expansiveness, visionary, adventure, the constructive use of freedom.

The expression or destiny for #5:
The number 5 Expression endows with the wonderful characteristic of multi-talents and versatility. You can do so many things well. The tone of the number 5 is constructive freedom, and in your drive to attain this freedom, you will likely be the master of adaptability and change. You are good at presenting ideas and knowing how to approach people to get what you want. Naturally, this gives you an edge in any sort of selling game and spells easy success when it comes to working with people in most jobs. Your popularity may lead you toward some form of entertainment or amusement. Whatever you do, you are clever, analytical, and a very quick thinker.

If there is too much of the 5 energy in your makeup, you may express some the negative attitudes of the number. Your restless and impatient attitude may keep you from staying with any project for too long. Sometimes you can be rather erratic and scatter yourself and your energies. You have a hard time keeping regular office hours and maintaining any sort of a routine. You tend to react strongly if you sense that your freedom of speech or action is being impaired or restricted in any way. As clever as you are, you may have a tendency to make the same mistakes over and over again because much of your response is glib reaction rather that thoughtful application. You are in a continuous state of flux brought by constantly changing interests.

Your Soul Urge number is: 8

A Soul Urge number of 8 means:
With an 8 soul urge, you have a natural flare for big business and the challenges imposed by the commercial world. Power, status and success are very important to you. You have strong urges to supervise, organize and lead. Material desires are also very pronounced. You have good executive abilities, and with these, confidence, energy and ambition.

Your mind is analytical and judgment sound; you're a good judge of material values and also human character. Self-controlled, you rarely let emotions cloud judgment. You are somewhat of an organizer at heart, and you like to keep those beneath you organized and on a proper track. This is a personality that wants to lead, not follow. You want to be known for your planning ability and solid judgment.

The negative aspects of the 8 soul urge are the often dominating and exacting attitude. You may have a tendency to be very rigid, sometimes stubborn.

Your Inner Dream number is: 8

An Inner Dream number of 8 means:
You dream of success in the business or political world, of power and control of large material endeavors. You crave authority and recognition of executive skills. Your secret self may have very strong desire to become an entrepreneur.

---

The Birthday Calculator.

The Life Path 4 produces the most trustworthy, practical, and down-to-earth of individuals; the cornerstone members of society. The goal of this life path is learning to take orders and to carry them out with dedication and perseverance. You always demand as much from yourself as you do from others, and sometimes a lot more. You have the kind of will power that is often mistaken for sheer stubbornness. Once a decision is made, it will be followed through to the conclusion, right, wrong, or indifferent; you are very set in your ways and determined to handle things the way you are so certain that they should be handled. Your tenacity of purpose and ability to get the job done borders on obsession.
You are an excellent organizer and planner because of your innate ability to view things in a very common sense and practical way. You are a wonderful manager with a great sense of how to get the job done.

Loyal and devoted, you make the best of your marriage, and you are a dependable business partner. Friends may be few in number, but you are very close to them and once friendships are made, they often last a lifetime. The number 4 is solidly associated with the element of earth from which it gains it strength and utter sense of reality. You are one of the most dependable people you know. If patience and determination can ever win, you are sure to achieve great success in life.

The negative side of the 4 can prove dogmatic to an excess, narrow-minded, and repressive. A lot of skin-deep people turn you off, and you lack the tact to keep your feelings from being totally clear to all around. Additionally, the negative 4 has a bad tendency to get too caught up in the daily routine of affairs and often misses the big picture and major opportunities that come along once in a while.

---

Harhar, not too sure if it's all true. What do you think?

of a friday night out.

2005-09-17T09:33:00.000+08:00

Visiting the grandmother at TTSH.

Cousin Noelle & the grandmother.

Think it's quite obvious what I did after that; been a long time since I'd done KTV on a two person basis heh. Fun tho'.

Arrival of NZ later on, and our attempt to swallow the microphones whole.

Slept over at NZ's place after that. (Couldn't bother taking a midnight cab.)
Slept on the bus home in the morning, and staggered my way home.
Slept again, skipped classes. (Decided that rest was infinitely more important than listening to two people yammering for five hours and above.)

Footnote: I'd posted this up early morning, but the images simply refused to be displayed, so I saved the draft instead. The solution? I'm not sure either, but they sortof miraculously worked again so.. ;p

2005-09-16T15:58:00.000+08:00

of dinner, and the starlit cinema.. not.

2005-09-16T03:28:00.000+08:00

Went for dinner at this place called Waraku (near Marina Square) with Adri, just to have a taste of sukiyaki. (I'd never tried it before, bleh.)

Adri with her kakiage udon; ultra oversized bowl isn't it?
She looks positively miniature beside it ;p

(Sidenote: the above pic looks weird 'cus I cropped it; had to perform emergency surgery after I screwed up.)

(Note to self: Never take odd angle pics with the HP camera.)

Getting the raw egg ready for the sukiyaki.

ahkein with his katsu curry don, which turned into a disaster later on.

A closeup of my food before disaster struck; yes it looks like soup but that's actually curry. Not sure why it looks so watery on the camera, hmm.

Sukiyaki! Beef, tofu, veggies, mushrooms n dunnowhatelse. The main focus of the thing's beef of course, but since the beef's in limited quantity, no choice eh? The beef's really slurpz though. We checked with the waiter, and were quoted like $6.80 per 100g of additional beef.

.. sua. Next time round I'll smuggle beef in my bag and cook it there ;p

A grand shot of all the food.

*THIS* is the disaster scene. I sortof forgot howmuch curry there was in the bowl, and absentmindedly mixed the soft Japanese rice with the curry. Ho seh. In the end the rice were all swimming in the curry, and I got sick of having to fish my rice out of the curry pool. :( The rice and chicken tasted really nice though, before I got sick of the curry.

Finally finished eating, burps. Adri & ahkein.

Shots of the restaurant exterior; I feel like I'm doing free advertising.

We went for the Nokia Starlight Cinema after the meal. Today's the first session, and since ladies got free entry with every ticket purchase, it's not too bad.

(For the people who whine about the prices and say you can probably go watch another two movies with a single ticket price, shhhh. To me, it's about experiencing different stuff, not about the price.)

And it's yet another outing which required me to hope fervently for good weather, ugh. Luckily everything turned out fine in the end :) No stars though, like what Adri pointed out; the skies were a cloudy grey.

Two thirds through the movie.. raindrops started to fall. We'd packed our stuff and gotten an umbrella out incase it really started to rain, but yeah the rain backed off, phew.

And yep, I'm glad I caught Alot Like Love just now. It's a really great movie! :) Not to mention the fact that watching it on open grounds felt really fun, a welcome change from the usual row-by-row cinema seats. The backdrop of open skies and the commercial buildings against the movie screen somehow enthralled me as well. The returning echoes of the movie sounds from the surroundings were incredible too, felt like we were in a cave or something, laugh.

I would've gone again tomorrow if circumstances had permitted, but oh well. Some things in life're out of our control, bleh.

A lousy shot of the movie screening, from our spot. HP cameras can never be trusted to take good night shots, since the so-called night mode is merely a tweak of the ISO settings (to 100 I suspect).

of receiving results.

2005-09-14T03:45:00.000+08:00

My mom was a ventriloquist and she always was throwing her
voice. For ten years I thought the dog was telling me to kill my
father. - Wendy Liebman

My therapist told me the way to achieve true inner peace is to finish
what I start. So far today, I have finished 2 bags of M and M's and a
chocolate cake. I feel better already. - Dave Barry

Some assorted shit which I thought was pretty funny, before I start, bleh.

I got my first assignment results back! A High Distinction for the HTML one, and a Distinction for the crappy other one! Happiness; it's been a long time since I've passed anything decently. :)

Alright, end of post. Just wanted to register my happy mood here, blah. Back to PHP!

of a lantern-filled evening.

2005-09-14T01:40:00.000+08:00

Weeeeeeellllcome to Chinese Garden: Lantern Safari! Bah, big deal.

We were walking in, and two guys with SLRs (i.e. expensive bloody high end cameras) were jabbering in a language which sounded like English.

Hardcore photog: "You should be using the *insert inexplicable term*, because you're taking *insert another incomprehensible term*."

ahkein: ".. " *Mouth gaping, and walks on in silent laughter.. because he didn't understand a single shit of whatever he just heard.*

Dinosaur lanterns! Definitely more than these few buggers, but I wasn't planning to open a dinosaur gallery here so bleh. I took these dinos because I liked the way they were reflected on the water :) The blurred line between reality and fantasy.

(Skipped the African savannah lanterns entirely; I'm not into lion/giraffe/blahblah stuff. B-O-R-I-N-G.)

These pics might've be just a *bit* miniature after i resized them, oops.

I like this one :) There was a family nearby when I was adjusting the shutter, and the papa was trying to get his boy into flapping his arms. How else? I was bemusedly looking on, camera forgotten as the daddy vigorously flapped his arms along with the boy. Somehow I don't remember my old man doing that.

Ostriches and dunno WTF else on the trees; undefined.

Example of a super miniature: there's an owl perched on the 'tree' to the left, if you look closely.

Assorted cartoon figures, pretty kewl eh?

These buggers were close to the entrance/exit of the carpark. Too many people milling around, lousy shots. :(

Supposed celestial maidens lining the bridge, welcoming the filthy humans? ;p

I suppose this has to do with the Mooncake Festival eh? Maidens flying around the bloody moon heh.

Malt candy! In so many different flavors leh. Blueberry, honey, strawberry, kiwi.. *rolls eyes in disgust at kiwi malt candy*

This was done by a lady over there. Damn kewl I tell you, she did all the candy in like less than a minute. A few twirls here and there, and the shape's all done. Took a video but yeah, I won't be putting it up bleh.

Red red lighting; does it look like a scene from 'The Maid'? (That local movie, yes.)

A closeup of the candy lickin' hantu; boo.

The chao ah beng sucking his malt candy.

The batteries died on me when I tried to set the timer and take a photo together with LS. Initially, I was like "Nevermind, 道高一尺魔高一丈. You think you can stop me?" I took out my spare batteries and carried on.

.. the spares died on me like a minute later. Fcuks man. 一山还有一山高.

Translation notes.
- 道高一尺魔高一丈. Interestingly enough, the Chinese believe that evil will triumph over good, instead of the other way round. That's roughly what it means. Very, very very roughly. I'm not a Mandarin tutor, spare me.
- 一山还有一山高. You may be good, but someone else's even better. Deflating thought, this one.

I'd bought the tickets at a discount, so it was kinda 'why not'? It's been years since I last stepped foot into the place anyway, and it's something different from the usual movie/food routine isn't it? Chinese Garden was a little far though. We were inside for less than two hours before leaving, and we did make a complete circuit alrite?

Reason for leaving quickly #1: the variety wasn't sufficiently interesting enough to engage me for two hours and above at least.

*photog babble starts*

I had fun with the A40 too; something I hadn't done in quite awhile. All of the shots were taken without flash, so I had to tweak the settings a little before that, something like 0.6 - 1.0s for shutter and F2.8 for aperture. Having no tripod was an absolute torture though, I was scrambling for stable surfaces all over. Stuff like fake boulders, railing posts, tables, cigarette ash holders. ~~and even LS's head~~. The downside of taking night shots I suppose. All in all, I shot sixty-six images, and only half failed the mark, quite a decent percentage actually. I had expected more than half to be blurry images, from past experience. Only put twenty up here (after QC-ing) though, and it's already a damn long post. Damn, I haven't made such a long post in MONTHS.

*photog babble ends*

Recommended campanion if you're thinking of going: insect repellent. I did have a bottle in my bag, but Ms LS absolutely refused to use it despite being bitten several times while I was like "huh, got mosquitoes meh?". Maybe it's just some philosophy of hers that insect repellents I buy don't work at all, and so would be a total waste of effort in application, blah.

Reason for leaving quickly #2: So it was leg/thigh slapping mode for LS the entire evening, oops. Alas, let us flee, before she loses like a pint of blood or something!

I was still pretty curious at the zero mosquito bite record though; maybe I smell so bad that the mosquitoes were repelled by my ultimate stink wave. Or perhaps it was my jeans ;p Do the mosquitoes there only attack at leg level then? Odd.

We took our time catching forty winks on the MRT after that; it was a long way back home.

(.. it took me nearly two hours to finish this post. WTF?)

of blardy school assignments (again)

2005-09-10T01:09:00.000+08:00

ARGH! they.are.back.

Both my assignment 2 specifications were released over the course of the previous few days. Actually, yesterday and the day before to be exact. :(

It's been a long time since I've touched SQL, and I'm like a total loser at PHP. Let's hope that I get out of this one alive, brrr. Thankfully, the specs seem easy enough; session tracking and the usual add/delete/update records for database. I'm reusing the interface from my last assignment, and the lecturer's even provided us with the database schema, two steps saved. *phew*

The other assignment's another piece of crazy shit, and I'm hoping that the exam doesn't turn out to be anything like this. I was like :O when I saw the assignment, something like "WTF is THIS? I haven't even studied that far yet." Nevertheless, it should take less than a week to lick this one, so I'm gonna be like dumping two weeks of time on the PHP one first.

One good thing's that I have almost a month's time to finish both up (concurrently of course). Chiong ah.. Z. I'm supposed to be stressed, but here I am, lazing my way through the day. Weird.

of being well-rounded.

2005-09-07T22:06:00.000+08:00

(This was something that came to mind some time back, but I'd left the draft in the mobile to rot until just now, when I finally noticed it, waiting to be completed.)

I remember something (from my long ago days of poly education) that we were supposed to be well-rounded additions to the Singaporean workforce. Of course, well-rounded i.e. being technically competent, reasonably articulate and able to handle our fair share of communication and presentations within and outside the company.

These days, reality seems to paint a different picture before me :)

Who gives a damn if you can't speak English that any average human being (without two generous helpings of earwax stuffed up his head) can understand? So long as you're cheaper and willing to work the same load, hello and welcome. Even if you mumble like what my granddad used to sound like (without his dentures that is), and can't interact effectively with your colleagues, it's fine! So long as you're technically competent and cheep, 'tis not the end of the world man.

Not being obviously biased or racist, but merely pondering what advantages Singaporeans have over foreign talent. And that, is still a big question mark to me right now.

of a square brain.

2005-09-04T20:50:00.000+08:00

What every guy should be doing, instead of whining like a wuss.

I really like their comic strips, no kidding on this part. Think I should really link their site on my sidebar sometime, hmm. Meanwhile, check SquareBrain.Net out :)

That aside, I've been reading this other blog, titled Singapore Serf. It's mildly intellectual but really intriguing (to me at least), so those looking for entertainment of the mindless kind might want to skip it.

of the packed weekend.

2005-09-04T01:36:00.000+08:00

Late night coffee talk with the other guys, until 3 a.m., with Choon Lim entertaining us with a mind puzzle. The ending was kinda gross though, when we finally finished with it. Doing that after only sleeping an hour the previous night and a morning gym session is tantamount to suicide. I'm grateful to be still alive, bleh.

Incidentally, the Levi's warehouse sale was a joke. There's no need to regret about not going, if you were thinking of doing so. I went there after gym, and left within half an hour. Cheap stuff, but no real bargains. Half the stuff looked like they went thru either the grinder, a rabid and hungry dog or something similar.

Had a haircut too, but sorta impulse thingy. It was raining yeah, me had no brolly and so me thought haircut would be a good way to pass the time. So me is looking like some NS kid right now with short spiky hair, but too bad no slope la ah. Slope and no sideburn will be really overdoing the NS look. Short short hair, easy to style with wax :)

AJ XII! Found this pair at Peninsula Plaza in between classes, and size 11 is available, mwahahaha. Too bad it's $239, pui. Rather buy from eBay, fcuks.

It's odd, but I'm really beginning to like classes actually. Both of my lecturers're not really perfect, but I'm coming to appreciate their good points. One fellow is really lousy at giving lectures, but he is good at what he does, which is web programming. He's good at explaining concepts, debugging on a one-to-one basis, but not to an entire class at once yeah.

Initially, I kinda disliked my other lecturer 'cus of his blardy accent. As the days went by however, I got used to it I suppose, and it's actually quite educational to listen to him talk. He's really good at giving lectures (which means that I haven't actually fallen asleep out of boredom yet) and talks about of stuff which are out of the book, supplementing the lecture slides with stuff that he came up with himself, to facilitate better understanding. I usually leave after the 1.5 hour mark on his lectures, but today I was like half-tempted to stay back and listen further. But yeah, too bad I still left, heh. No sir, me can't stand 2.5 hour lectures.

Hopped down to Comex for two days straight. Fcukin' people mountain people sea, I tell you. I think that going there this year was a big mistake, Z. And best of all? I didn't even buy a single damned thing. Brrrrr. Ah well, least NZ got his Linksys WRT54G router (sucky security configuration), I bought Beng his LG DVD writer (since he was busy working), and LS signed up for her Singnet ADSL there (finally). Looked for Mr Meng there, who was busy promoting his blardy Viewsonic LCD monitors, and accompanied him for dinner on both nights, damn.

And thereeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee goes my weekend! Oh well, there's always Sunday basketball to look forward to.

绝对SUPERSTAR 俊扬

2005-09-03T23:11:00.000+08:00

What can I say? His singing skills are really good. Breath control, pitch, expression, vibrato.....there's nothing much to pick about his skills!

Except for the fact that he really sounded like JJ Lin Jun Jie.

Creepy. If I'm not wrong, he's the main singer for the theme of the 3g drama series <<天。。使我爱你>>. Now, I always assumed that it was JJ who sang the song.

Until I came across his FC Blogsite (so they call it) today. Some guy from a forum was recommending the song, "Guardian Angel," and hotlinked to the Blogsite.

The moment I heard the song, I almost freaked out.

HE SOUNDED EXACTLY LIKE LIN JUN JIE! (the first few seconds)

Creepy. Aside from that, I believe that he will definitely do well in the Mando Pop industry. So check out Junyang's FC here ---> 绝对SUPERSTAR俊扬FC BLOGSITE

I especially enjoyed listening to his rendition of Liu Wen Zhen's Liu Shui Nian Hua (流水年华) No wonder he got the highest marks for this song that night ;) His voice is really suited for the sentimental genre, agree?

of a different thursday dinner.

2005-09-02T01:02:00.000+08:00

It's not often that I get to have dinner outside with the mother and brother. For most of the people I know, it'll be like once a week at least or something. For me? It'll be a bloody miracle if I do eat on the same table with 'em once a month. (The official figure right now's somewhere between five to ten I guess.) What with the mother at me working at night half the time and me flying out of the house on my off days, the habit of having a proper dinner at home seemed incredibly hard. But yep, the brother's much better at staying at home in comparison. Financial constraints and the need to revise blah blah, y'all should understand.

Anyway, we were sort of post-celebrating the mother's birthday just now, at this ramen place in Century Square. (Considerations for the pocket, me kinda broke ugh.)

Candid shot of the brother, shot #1.

No comments on this shot; I was too busy hiding my smirk at the mother's pose, damn actcute mwahaha.

The fun part about having a camera phone; it's really been ages since I've taken a photo with them :)

The mother seriously doesn't look a day over fifty, however. And yes, the brother and I look like we're less than three years apart; damn the contact lenses. Damn my glasses. *rolls eyes*

Sidenote #1: to those who've seen my brother when he was younger; big difference eh? I wonder why contacts don't do the same for me, sigh.

Sidenote #2: to Miss E; look closely.. not twins hor! Definitely a world of difference ;p

of the penguins today.

2005-08-31T23:32:00.000+08:00

Caught March of the Penguins with Adri today, and I've got to say it's one of the more interesting documentaries I've watched up till now. French narration nonewithstanding, (I'd have preferred the English version but NOOO, Singapore doesn't have it! English first language my ass; what the hell) the movie was still understandable, with English subtitles to boot.

It's also gotten me wondering on how exactly do the bloody penguins survive, with such a high mortality rate. Penguins horlan (and not contributing to mating) on their way to the mating zone, eaten by underwater predators, chicks dead in their eggs before hatching, starving to death, frozen by the chill winds, eaten by hungry predators, blah blah. Walao, and it's not like the penguins can have multiple births or something, it's a strict single egg laying thing. Madness.

The baby penguins look real fluffy and cute though, with their grey feathers. Adri was predicting that the stores'll be coming out with the plush toys to capitalise on the mad rush of newborn penguin lovers. ;p I think I'll go into selling fluffy baby penguin toys as well if I had the capital.

Yeah, anyway. Go watch it if you haven't, bring your female friends along and watch them squeal at the cute lil penguins. On a weekday though, no sense spending $9.50 on a damned flick that's less than two hours. I'm strongly against paying so much dough for a movie nowadays, brr. Talk to the hand, movie cinemas of Singapore. Me definitely not gonna give you the satisfaction of earning a weekend ticket's price from me err.. heh unless of course, I kena forced to watch bleh.

of marching penguins.

2005-08-30T23:45:00.000+08:00

March of the Penguins; caught it yet? It's my turn tomorrow! :)

Check out the trailer at the official site.

细听難過

2005-08-30T04:16:00.000+08:00

A song from 品冠's latest compilation, titled 后来的我. It may be just me, but all the new songs are very, very typical of his singing style. I like the lyrics for this particular one, however.

我難過
歌手：黃品冠作曲：品冠填詞：瑞業編曲：洪敬堯

離開你家樓下我就這樣被夜吞沒
對你撂下的狠話這一刻變成燈火
明明沉默　怎麼看似在笑我假裝沒牽掛

躺著看寂寞用巨大的房子裝下我
牆上的時鐘分秒不差聽不懂我的難過
等不到你的回答一個人站在角落
忘了抬頭藍天廣闊

＊我難過　每一次愛過最後都錯過
　(我難過　這一次愛過也錯過)
　還掙扎　雖然你的冷漠已給了我懲罰
　我難過　如果祝福對你是個解脫
　請放開那繩索
　讓拔河的我能在最遠處倒下＊

我忘了是醒來還是一直都沒睡過
摺好的想念在床角應該比我暖和
豎起耳朵還竊聽到回憶在撥弄我頭髮

我用腳步能算出這房間的長和闊
怎麼走出沒有你的明天卻一點也沒辦法
你說不是因為它把自己塞進角落
愛情不要那麼複雜

重复＊

我難過　是不是愛過更明白錯過
告訴我　有沒有不許你離開的一句話
我難過　明天醒來孤單的你和我
在這城裡生活找到幸福嗎　一定偶爾會聽說
在這城裡生活你還幸福嗎　我只想靜靜聽說

of birthday presents

2005-08-29T20:58:00.000+08:00

So Meng got his present yesterday (well ahead of his actual birthday) and he seemed pretty pleased with the 80GB hard disk. So pleased that he called everyone who'd chipped in, and proclaimed his undying love (?) for them. Spare me the love, I say.

Erwin, on the other hand suggested that we shouldn't buy each other presents, since it was so blardy difficult to do the collection of moolah everytime. (It certainly took him long enough to realise that, considering the fact that we'd been buying presents for years lol.) But hell, who cares about the money part? I'll still be buying presents for the rest until.. I dunno. Until I become too disabled to even do that I suppose, hiaks.

I was getting alighting at a bus stop just now when I noticed this JC couple talking at a bus stop. Uh huh, so what else is new? Juvenile romance certainly isn't. I ignored them and walked off to SAFRA. A good two hours later, I walked back to the bus stop.

.. they were still there, fondly talking. Couldn't bear to leave each other for the day I suppose :)

实在是太厉害了。

of those buzzing buggers.

2005-08-29T02:02:00.000+08:00

I, am tired. Very, very tired.

Tired enough to yawn barely ten minutes after I entered the office, yawning so wide that I could probably swallow a baby whale whole and not have to burp after that. *shows gaping jaws* And I've been yawning the entire night, even as I'm typing right now.

The first assignments from school have been happily dumped back to the unit advisors, and I'm blissfully rotting for now :) I'm half-wondering if I'm actually prepared for the exams though. Rot rot rot rot rot. Bah, you wish. Somehow life for me never seems to consist of idling, ugh.

Earlier in the day, the brother and I took an hour or so out of the house (at my suggestion) and sat down somewhere outside in the neighbourhood, simply enjoying the breeze. You'd find less stale air in an unopened crypt than our house; it's a bloody furnace on days like these. And so, we talked. Talked of idle affairs, and others not-so-idle.

Stuff like the recent plague of mosquitoes that's been invading his room, and the assorted bites he's been getting on a nightly basis. He's been entertaining thoughts of either torching his entire bedroom so that the nasty little buggers could be roasted, or simply wearing earplugs to sleep on a permanent basis just to escape the buzzing of the mosquitoes. Army stories from ahkein, about the amazing swarm of mosquitoes I had to fend off during my guard duty at the PLC live firing range. Seriously crazy bloodsuckers, those $#^%@%#$. Immune to both insect repellent and mosquito coils; sibei hardcore.

If only everyday can be as peaceful, hrm.

Sian ah!