random obsessions

sniffles I promised myself not to cry~ /drama queen

2011-07-04T00:50:00.002+08:00

*sniffles* I promised myself not to cry~ /drama queen

Beware: Contains Emo

Is this enough space?

GET OUT WHILE YOU STILL CAN!!!

I think this is the hormones talking but I can't help but feel... I dunno, not sad per se... Maybe a lil kept out of the loop?

1) Friends have other friends they go out and spend time with.
Seeing all the photos of them having fun and sitting at home wondering why I can't be more like them and find friends to go out and have fun with me. Oh that's right! They are out with their friends, having fun.

2) Friends going on holidays with other friends.
Related to pt 1 sorta directly. Seeing all those fabulous vacation photos and wondering how do they find friends who are so happening and go to all those fabulous places and have so much fun with.
But of course, I am poor and the places and activities I wanna go and do cost money--money that The Mother says I do not have. Not helping my case is the f'd up schedule known as my class. Can't blame anyone except for myself there...

3) People are busy when I am free.
Sorta related to pt 1 but on a more official, work-related note. I'm not working full time right now so I'm basically out of sync with the rest of the world. Even if I'm working full time, I always find it hard to ask them to go out with me because I always feel that they'll prolly have something better or more important to do. Or be busy with something else.
And when I finally do ask them, coupled with my terrific sense of timing, I will always happen to ask them out on days where they already have prior engagements.
...I will make a terrible secretary.

4) Friends not really not bothering with me no matter how much I shout--I mean post on FB.
Maybe I'm not funny or engaging enough. Maybe what I post is not relevant to their interests. Maybe I don't even appear on their newsfeed.
Whatever the reason, I can never get people to comment in those fast and furious epic comment threads that entertain me oh so much when I post something.
On top of that, I'm not sure what I did or said, but most of the time, when I joined in those epic comment threads, I will be met with stony silence. Is it because I am not privy to their inner circle discussion? Is it because I'm weird and say things that is inappropriate or unfunny (at least to them)? I always thought I would've killed the audience with those jokes...
Sometimes, they will spare me the humiliation and someone will continue with what they were discussing as if I never happened. Grateful to those who couldn't stand awkward silences but can't help but feel a lil ignored.

/sigh
So conflicting... I like to be around friends but I don't seem to be able to fit in with them as well as others. Most times, I find myself sorta orbiting around their peripheral.
I also don't wanna be labelled as pushy and demand they take me with them even though I want to so I stand in the background and wait for them to invite me. And they don't. Because they don't want to. And because to them, I'm weird, say the most inappropriate things at the most inopportune time, have a lousy sense of humor and is all sorts of crazy. Probably.

Maybe I'm an obnoxious vampire that can transform into a bat. That would explain everything!!

Exclamation of the day: "Really?! She's emoting?!?! I can't tell!!!!!"

2011-06-19T23:24:00.007+08:00

Exclamation of the day: "Really?! She's emoting?!?! I can't tell!!!!!"
Today's exclamation is brought to you by Blake Lively's & January Jones' acting.

It seemed like a good idea to watch Green Lantern and X-Men: First Class back to back. What I forgot to factor in was the badness of the actresses' acting.

Blake Lively/January Jones School of Acting
:) --> :|
:( --> :|
:@ --> :|
<3 --> :|
:S --> :|
:D --> :|
D: --> :|
;_; --> :|

...I could go on.

~~~~~

So. GL first then.

This is it. I cannot hold onto my belief that DC punk'd us and made Ryan Reynolds The Flash instead of a GL now. D: /big no

Hotshot flyboy and his hotrod. Typical.
Urgh... Inability to emote irks me.
Indian tech? Seriously??
Didn't they do that sort of aerial dogfight in Ironman?
Mousy prof with pornstache reminds me of Earl and Discrete Pete. I miss Earl and Discrete Pete... :(
Abin Sur is Jango Fett!
Clancy Brown is ~~Cthulhu~~ Parallax ~~error~~!
Michael Clarke Duncan is Kilowog! (Mmm... Delicious!)
Geoffrey Rush is Tomar-Re?! So zen and mentor-like!
Obligatory training montage complete with what sounds like Eye of the Tiger BGM. I put on the real Eye of the Tiger as the BGM in my mind!jukebox.
Those guardians sure reminds me of the Jedi Council...
I was just asking how can they not realize GL is Hal with a green domino mask on and Blake saw through his disguise and bad attempt to make his voice sound deep and husky--like Batman.
Didn't they do the crowd panicking scene in Armageddon? And Independence Day? And Day after Tomorrow? And Men In Black? And-- ...again, I could go on.
John Stewart is there too?! Where?!?! I can't remember... Must be too unimportant... More of him next film?

And of course, Hollywood cannot have Mark Strong be a good guy for long. He'll be back as the villain we know Sinestro to be in the next film. Urgh... That yellow costume totally clashes with your skin tone. /flaming gay voice

Bro thinks the movie tries to do too much too soon and doesn't have a coherent enough story. Seems like this movie is just filmed to pave the way for the next one. I think it's pretty weak, a gross miscast of RR as Hal and the apparent lack of chemistry between RR & BL is just urgh. Bro and I both can see RR as Guy Gardner instead of Hal Jordan if he really must be a GL. I still want him as Flash though. He'd make a good Wally West--although I can't really see him as a redhead. Maybe that's why they cast him as Hal instead. Lol...

~~~~~

And now for XM:FC.

So many people I know playing characters without names!
James Remar (Raiden!) as US General.
Ray Wise (The Devil!) as Secretary of State.
Oliver Platt as that CIA who helped them. Credited as Man In Black Suit, or MIBS.
Brendan Fehr (that guy from Roswell aka Booth's lil brother in Bones) as Comms Officer on ship of Michael Ironside (BUGS!)
Tony Curran (Invisible Man/Vincent Van Gogh) as another MIBS. WTF WHEN DID HE APPEAR?! I suppose since he *is* the Invisible Man, my not noticing him is justified.

Prof X is douchey. And uses bad pick-up lines. Even though he is a mind reader.
Fassbender reminds me too much of Hamm. Hamm-lite? *incredibly lame pun*
Bacon is starting to look old... Although his energy-reabsorbing powers is pretty nice but saying that his powers keeps him looking young is a lil pushing it. Love the mutton chops though. ;)
Moira does not have a Scottish accent?! Moira is not a geneticist?!?! Moira is a CIA agent?!?!?! WTF movieverse?!?!?!?!?!
I dubbed the guy who fling cyclones Juarez since they don't call him by name a lot--or indeed, at all. Too bad he's really called Janos Quested instead. Meh, close enough.
Bamf-fighting is still so cool! Who was he in Earth-616 again?
Another red-skinned bad guy. There's gonna be another one next month in the form of ~~Elrond~~ ~~Agent Smith~~ Red Skull in Capt A (I still want Captain Awesome to be Captain America though... /sigh).
Speaking of red, the ginge caught my eye again. Rupert Grint lookalike? <3 him more with those awesome round shades. I want one of those! He is Banshee so he'll have a daughter that I happen to share a name with. Heh!
Black dude gets it first man... It's always the black dude.
How did--? Isn't he--? Huhwuhhuh?! Alex Summers aka Havoc, younger brother of Scott Summers aka Cyclops, was recruited first? And apparently an older brother now?! WTF movieverse?!?!?!?!?!
McCoy is so dorky cute! His scenes with Raven are so d'aww... And then he mentioned she looks 20 even though she is really 40. Hmm... Cradle-robbing? Cougar??
Raven morphing into Romijn!Mystique is awesome! They look kinda alike too!!
Speaking of Romijn!Mystique, uncredited cameo by Jackman!Logan is hilarious!
Speaking of uncredited cameo by Jackman!Logan, all the scenes of Xavier-Lehnsherr gallivanting around the world recruiting other mutants is so fun! They look like they are having so much fun too!!
Speaking of them gallivanting, thanks for putting them in the same bed for us, Fox. <3
Pixie girl is Lenny Kravitz's little girl?! Like woah...
Woman in an all-white outfit with skirt seated in a dim windowless interrogation room makes me want her to uncross her legs ala Basic Instincts. Hurhur... Too bad Emma Frost did not do it. :(
Vintage 60s cars are so drool-worthy. <3

Fassbender to Bacon: I agree with you. Unfortunately, you killed my mother.
Me & bro: Prepare to die. XD
Fassbender: *proceeds to kill Bacon with a coin*

All in all, the movie was not too bad. Even if they butchered the hell outta the established canon. I hope the next guy who takes a whack at it will be able to keep up the good work laid forth by Bryan Singer (who also did the ground work for the first X-Men film) and not screw it up like X2, X3 and Wolverine Origins. D:

I want a charming and badass Gambit, not some scrawny wimpy kid! Preferably played by Josh Holloway. XD

I am a hipster way before it meant what it meant

2011-05-24T14:44:00.003+08:00

I am a hipster way before it meant what it meant
...Or I could just be weird. XD

...I cannot help but notice there are an increasing amount of references to hipsters lately and I wondered what all the fuss was about. So I poked around and found this. Little did I know, I'd been a hipster for years! And according to that, I'm only Step 13 & Step 15 away from being a true hipster. Noooooooo... /deny

I know that I'm a smug, selfish, narcissistic elitist wallowing in my own pathetic wit 3 steps in front of the rest of the world because everyone's not caught up with me yet. ~~That's what I tell myself when people don't respond to my blog and Facebook posts. Pitiful but not untrue XD~~

What I didn't know is that it made me a hipster. Damn hipsters stealing my thunder. Everyone's a hipster now. Grrr...

I am well-known for my sarcasm ever since secondary school where that trait earned me many many friends. Everyone loved me for my blunt, biting tact. I tried irony once but everyone took me seriously so I had to tell them I was kidding. And to think, I'm the one who can't read expressions.

And don't get me started on trying to tell them about this show/band/movie. Jess once said "I don't think I would like that because our tastes are different" after I tried to tell her about CSI and a month later, she squee'd to me, "OMG you hafta watch this show! It's called CSI and--" I had to cut her off with an indignant "I know. I tried to tell you about that show before. You said you wouldn't like it because our tastes are different." =__="

I've been to the video store many times when I wanted to find a particularly obscure tv/movie and every time, they'd tell me they don't have it. 3sa sad. :( I had to find them on ebay and worry about getting conned. Again. Or pay a lot of money on Amazon or other similar sites for less worry.

I also spend too much time trying to explain my pop culture references to people and lament at the sad fact that a lot of them don't get it. And I spend more time getting pissed when everyone got it. Gods... I think I spent many movie credits exchanging notes with bro on what our fellow movie patrons got and did not get based on their reaction to the scene and we were both shaking our heads at the ratio.

Even though I am known to appreciate big blockbusters/productions/radio gaga, I do love me some indie stuff. Give me dry wit and mindfuck any day. But I'm too cheap for musicals and theater. If only I was richer...

Which brings me to work. I never really thought about working. The most I planned for was to get through primary school, get through secondary school, get through poly and get a degree. Or two. Or three if I still haven't figured out what I want to do for the rest of my life. XD

But I need money to buy books and gadgets and stuff so I hafta work. :( Who wants to work, right?

And of course, I am definitely not the most fashion-conscious person. It's usually printed tees and jeans for me. I love quirky prints/stuffs with obscure references on them and getting ppl to read off my bossom. XD Unfortunately, Threadless had gotten mainstream and their quality dropped so much that both me and Nat decided to not get stuffs there no more. Not sure about her but that decision still stands for me.

It's hard to find something that isn't mass produced from China here so the part about supporting my little known retailers is pretty impossible. I have no art sense so I don't hang out with those skinny-ass starving artists or get to know them local designers so meh... XD

I also like my flannel shirts and big belt buckles. Bro says I'm compensating for something and he'd be right. I have a lot more to compensate for. More so than all the little ~~girls~~ boys with their male genitalia. I want Wolowitz's belt collection damnit!

Boots, bags and accessories! Since young, I have been influenced by my cool uncle who only wears boots to be cool and wear boots and high tops. So much love for them. <3 I also cannot get enough of bags and accessories (as evident from most of my impulse buys) even though I always use the same bag and don't accessories much. My excuse for the bags? Because it can still be used. And the accessories? Laziness. I can don't buy clothes for months on end but I cannot don't buy bags and accessories if one caught my eye.

And what else? Oh, bed hair. I don't like flat rebonded hair (as evident from all my hair snipping reasons). I like my messy poofy hair. But instead of the hipster stylishly messy, I usually get ugly unkempt. So I snip them short and try again. Rinse and repeat for the rest of my life.

Before I go, I would like to say I liked RDJ before he was Iron Man, Donnie Yen before he was Ip Man and Zheng Geping before he toned up and became the hot uncle he is now. Among other things. XD

Now that I have established my characterization, I shall commence obtaining the appropriate wardrobe to match my newfound label. I wanna go shopping!

Son of Coul, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.

2011-04-30T04:34:00.005+08:00

Son of Coul, Agent of Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement and Logistics Division! <3

Surprisingly little to add before jumping to the movie proper except for me waking up late and needa waste money on cab fare only to find the box office to be full of kids from the neighboring secondary school but here we go~

Warning, super long post.
Also, more importantly, THOR SPOILERS!!!!!

~~~~~

Natalie Portman being gawky and adorkable? Check.
~~Resonable Authority Figure~~ Patient and sensible older man? Check.
Plucky comic relief girl who reminds me a little of a much younger Liv Tyler? Check.
Storm!
Thor falls to Earth!
Boom! Got hit by their storm-chasing van!! Ouch...

Flashback time~
Voiceover!
Ye olde Scandinavian village and some back stories on the Norse mythology.
Frost Giants! Brrr... is it just me or did the cinema get colder when they used their magic Ice Crystal power thing? I didn't know we had one of those 4D cinematic experiences. XD
Cool entrance, bro--I mean, All Father. I wonder if they de-aged Anthony Hopkins digitally, like they did with Patrick Stewart in Wolverine Origins... But they didn't needa do much. He was mostly covered by his awesome helmet.
Ouch eye...
Oh gods... Asgard is all decked out in gold! So bling and tacky!!
Kid!Thor and Kid!Loki. Kid!Thor is such a brat and Kid!Loki did look a lil like Loki... =3
Grown-up Thor is still a brat I see. In a certain light, he reminds me of Chris Evans (eh?!). And in another certain light, he reminds me of Chris Pine (well duh... he *is* Father of Kirk after all). Do all Chrises look alike?
And he's gonna get crowned King of Asgard?! We all know how well *that's* gonna end.
Frost Giants in their vault/artifacts room thing? This will not end well.

Odin: "I name thee--"
Cut to vault
Frost Giants killing guards left and right. Yep, just the two.
Cut back to throne room
Odin: "--Frost Giants"
Bro and me: Did he just name Thor a Frost Giant?! Lolol!!

Loud resounding thump of All Father's mighty spear and a cool metal mecha guard appears and dispatches of the pesky Frost Giants. Cool!
Odin and his sons hurry to the vault. Thor wants to fight like the brat he is. Odin don't want to. They argue. Reminds me of a line in the lyrics of Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own by U2. We fight all the time / You and I / That's alright / We're the same soul.
Loki couldn't get a word in edgewise. Poor Loki... Everyone's so dismissive! Designated buttmonkey? D'aww... *pats*
Is he trying to 挑拨离间 when he was trying to make Thor feel better? Seeing that he's Loki, it wouldn't be that unbelievable. That underlying trace of what feels like real concern is pretty well-played though. :D

And off they rode, He-Man and his Masters of the Universe.
Oh gods... Did Kenneth Branagh bring lens flare along with Father of Kirk from Star Trek to Thor the Movie?! *_*
Hey! Their city coulda been TRON city! Tron, where are you?!
Funky bridge!
Water falling off the edge of the world... Discworld? Will there be 4 elephants underneath? And underneath those 4 elephants, a turtle?? XD

Ooo... Black guy with glowy eyes. The all-seeing gatekeeper Heimdall. I like him!! XD
Heimdall on He-Man and his Masters of the Universe trying to go to Frost Giant Land without permission: You are not dressed warmly enough for where you're going.
Ooo... Spinning golden sphere that is the gateway between 9 realms. Like the Transporter Room in Star Trek! Does that make Heimdall Chief O'Brien?

And they land on the Land of the Frost Giants! Looking very much like Superman's Fortress of Solitude. Hot damn, Mr. B... You sure like to make me cross fandoms.
Poor Loki got dismissed again! By one of He-Man's Masters of the Universe too. They're supposed to be on the same team! No wonder he turned to the dark side. *pats*
Ooo... Bratty. Fight, fight!
Ouch! That's one hell of a frostbite.
Eh?! How did-- Why did his hand--?? *_*
Mr. B sure likes his upside down and underside sequences...
Cool entrance, bro--I mean All Father. Too bad the King of the Frost Giants is adamant about war though. I would love to see them share a pint or two. XD

Thor's in trouble now~~. Expressly disobeying a direct order from his father and king. Odin and Thor argue again. Lol @ Loki's face as he watches the back and forth volley.
Loki is once again dismissed. Very loudly. By Odin himself. Poor Loki... *pats*
Thor gets casted down to Earth without his powers!
Bang! Hit by Nat Portman's Stormchaser van!
...Marvel has a lot of scientist huh?
Bro got tased by poor man's Liv Tyler!
As they drove off to find a hospital, the Hammer that was locked with all of Thor's powers that was taken away from him and thrown down after Thor was casted out landed with a vooooooom.
The locals have fun trying to take the Hammer.
Pickup truck with chain trying to pull the Hammer out? Good luck with that...
And the whole flatbed of the pickup truck got ripped out!! O_O
Stan Lee!
Agent Coulson!!

Hospital. Thor fighting people left and right. I see why they need big guys for nurses/orderlies.
Nat & co finds something interesting in the photos of their storm. A certain man-shaped shadow.
They go to the hospital to find Thor who had escaped his restrains (lol @ poor man's Liv reloading her taser in the van after they found out he escaped), only to promptly run him over again.

Product placement count: uh... a few?
Levi's black jeans. Classic.
Father of Kirk is ripped! I mean, obviously since he is Thor now but still! *drool*
*_*
*_*
*_*
*_--wait what?! Why would Nat Portman be keeping around her ex's clothes? And why would her ex's clothes fit Thor?! Her ex is his size?!?! ...She has a type I see...
Tiny Nat!

Food! Waffles and eggs... Mmm... Delicious!
Lol @ mug smashing!
Ahaha! Cute!! Poor man's Liv after finding out something else landed near Thor's crash site: This is so going on Facebook. *turns to Thor with her camera phone* Smile~
Thor: *biggest cutest smile ever*
XD

When Thor hears about his fallen Hammer, he tries to get a horse from a Pet Store. Lol... Nat offered him a ride out. But an unmarked black van drove past them with her equipments and stuff so she gave chase. They got back to their lab and found everything loaded up and ready to go. Agent Coulson's taken everything! :D Very efficient.

Stories they tell when he was young... You mean Eric is Scandinavian? Dude! I did not realize he's Stellan Skarsgard (whose from Sweden so it's as Scandinavian as they get!) until the credits!! I fail as a fan I tell ya...
Eric also knows a guy who knows a guy who does work on gamma radiation, was contacted by S.H.I.E.L.D. and never heard from again. Of course! He changed his face twice. He's gonna change it again for The Avengers! Poor Bana and Norton... :( I wished Ed Norton had stayed on though... Woulda made The Avengers a gathering of 2 of my favorite actors--minus the 2 Chrises.

Then Thor decides to go find his Hammer still and Nat decides to go with him since all her life's work is gone and she's got nothing to lose. Really? Or does she just wanna sex the man?
So he broke in and Curb Stomp Battle'd his way through the temporary base set up by S.H.I.E.L.D. Very efficient people, S.H.I.E.L.D.
Hawkeye! When bro said there's a cameo by Hawkeye, the first thing I thought of was Hawkeye Pierce from M*A*S*H?! Then I remembered. Lol...
When he reached the Hammer, he could not lift it either! Why, he cried up into the sky. Coz you haven't undergone Character Development yet, silly! XD
Then Agent Coulson gave the order to capture the broken spirited Thor.

Interrogation time~
Coulson tells Thor he made his highly trained men look like a bunch of minimum-wage mall cops and asks Thor where he got his training.
He's not gonna say anything, Coulson. Who would?
Best sequence of the movie! Agent Coulson leaving the room and the mirrored door closed back to reveal Loki standing at Coulson's previous position. And later, the mirrored door reflecting Loki slid open and when it closed, Loki's gone! Nice...
Loki in a modern suit... Yum. Did he raid the closet of Arthur from Inception? The slicked back hair did not help. Or did it? XD
Then Loki BAMF'd to the Hammer site, tried to pull it out but couldn't and decided to walk away pretending to not have tried it in the first place. Lol his face!!

Then Eric came to Nat's aid like Old Ben Kenobi answering the plead from Leia. Oh wait... Nat = Mother of Leia. Hmmmmm...... XD
Anyway, Blatant Lies! And obviously faked ID! But Coulson lets them slide coz he wanna know what's gonna happen next. :D
And the first place they go to after getting out of "imprisonment"? A bar. Of course!

Thor explaining why Eric is stone-drunk: "We drank, we fought, he made his ancestors proud."
LOLOL!!!
Obligatory romance scene.
Thor explaining his world to Nat and watches her sleep.
Morning breakfast! So domesticated.
In this light, with his buffed physique and his trucker flannel shirt, Thor reminds me of Christian Kane. Another Chris! I swear, Chris Hemsworth is like the total embodiment of all the Chrises in the world!! Or at least those in the US entertainment industry... XD

All is not well in the realm of Asgard.
Loki find out he is actually Laufey's son. Blue! I feel like saying BAMF whenever he turns blue. So Alan Cumming! XD
Odin falls into a coma mid-reveal. Was that real concern for Odin even though he just found out he was just a bargaining chip and not Odin's real son?
So Loki became the temporary ruler and the Masters of the Universe--who originally wanted to plead with Odin to end Thor's exile and maybe tell him it was Loki who let the Frost Giants in the first time so that they would wreck some havoc and disturb his brother's coronation--had to ask Loki and was promptly rejected.
And of course the Masters of the Universe plans to go anyway. But how will they get past Heimdall?
Speaking of Heimdall, he summons them just as they were wondering how they're gonna use the Transporter Room--I mean, spinny golden sphere.

Heimdall to the Masters of the Universe: You are trying to bring Thor back? Even though the King forbids it? Good.
And promptly leaves without his sword, sending them to Earth.

LOL!! Whoever said Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. do not have a sense of humor? The best description of the Masters of the Universe! Xena, Jackie Chan and Robin Hood. I wonder what they'll say about the big guy?
The Masters of the Universe: Found you! *happy wave at Thor from outside the shop's glass door*
Cute! XD

Loki found out Heimdall helped the Masters of the Universe to try to get Thor back and Hadouken'd Heimdall with the Ice Crystal Power thing!
And then Loki sent the metal mecha comes to finish Thor!
And then brought forth the Frost Giants to off Odin!

Lol @ other agents asking Coulson if it's one of Stark's.
Lol harder @ Coulson's reply that he don't know and that he (Tony Stark) never tells him anything.
Metal mecha thing made short work of S.H.I.E.L.D. Obviously. He's Odin's mecha.
Then they reach town and the Masters of the Universe tried to fight it but fail spectacularly.
Cool change in orientation, mecha bro!
Then Thor talked to it and asked Loki to spare the innocent people's lives and take his life instead. How'd he know Loki would be listening?! They have special earbud things? Through the mecha? How?!?!
So Loki obliged and the mecha swiped at Thor. And Thor dies. And Nat is sad.
And then the Hammer flies back to Thor! That's one hell of a defibrillation!! XD
Before he leaves, he told Coulson (Son of Coul! XD) that he can consider Thor one of them if they ever need help and turned his attention to the girl immediately. Feels so throwaway, that line. Obviously Thor had more on his mind than putting his name into The Avengers' sortie hat but still!

So He-Man is reunited with his Masters of the Universe again! But they can't go back coz Heimdall is still a popsicle.
But wait a sec! He's melting! And sliced through 2 Frost Giants before opening the gateway in his weakened state. Oh I love the man! XD
Go mama! She took out 1 Frost Giant before the King got to her.
Loki kills the King of the Frost Giants who was trying to kill Odin and was about to be commended and be praised and everyone will accept him as King now.
And Thor flies back to the palace immediately after that and told his mother what Loki did.
And they fight.
And Loki flies back to the gateway and used it to destroy the Frost Giant Land. He also jammed the gateway such that it cannot go anywhere else anymore.
And they fight more.
Loki taunts Thor, asking what made him so weak? Was it the girl? I thought he started turning for the better after Loki went to see him all decked out in Arthur's clothes and told him he could not go back coz Odin did not want him back. More so than any girl. What is love?! ~~Baby don't hurt me~~
And they fight more. Thor finally got the upper hand and was one move away from the finishing blow but instead, he placed the Hammer on Loki's chest. That is some tough ribs, Loki. How come it's not crack when the Hammer is so heavy, you couldn't even lift it off your chest?!
But Thor needs the Hammer to destroy the bridge that held the gateway that was destroying the Frost Giant Land. The gateway will fall off the edge of Discworld if Thor breaks the bridge! No more sonic-booming to Earth for sexytime no more!
Thor does it anyway because it is the right thing to do but breaking the bridge caused them to fall too.
Cool entrance, bro--I mean, All Father. That's some grip you got there, holding onto both of your sons.
Poor Loki! Odin does not think he would've made a good king. No praise from daddy so he lets go of the spear and fall into the abyss with the gateway.

And all was relatively well in the end. Odin and son are finally getting along. Nat and co are still looking for a way to create the wormhole to Asgard.
...Voyeur!Heimdall can see her. I really <3 this guy! Lolol!!

Credits!
Foo Fighters' Walk played. Bro questioned the choice of the song but Mr. B said it was appropriate so who was bro to argue? As far as ending credit songs go, they could've done worse.

Stinger!
Black Nick Fury meets Eric Selvig! Awesome!!
What is this cube Nick is showing Eric? A power source? ZPM??
Ooo...... Loki in the mirror whispers something ("It wouldn't hurt taking a closer look"?) and Eric replies Nick the same thing. OOOoooOOOOOooooo~~~~~

Until next time! Or August for CapA with another Chris!

Post-movie thoughts!
The movie started out solid and ended well but the middle was pretty meh.
Great acting all round, especially from Odin and the 2 Odinson! None of the major characters were glaringly bad and Chris Hemsworth is surprisingly good!! Not too bad for a comic book movie. XD
I never noticed the parallel between Thor the Movie and Shakespeare's Henry V until I read the trivia on IMDB! And the first movie Mr. B directed was Henry V, back in 1989!! Cool story bro!

1s time at a concert where I can see the band so clearly!

2011-04-02T02:52:00.002+08:00

1s time at a concert where I can see the band so clearly!

Bro told me Jimmy Eat World is coming to Singapore in late Jan after he saw it on 8days. I squee'd but was broke so I didn't buy tix then.
Feb came and went.
Late Mar, while filling in stuffs into the log book retrospectively (even though we shouldn't), I had the radio on and they were doing some promo on Jimmy Eat World Live in Singapore. The next day, I heard 3 different instances of people referencing "the middle".

...I had to buy the tix now! XD And I bought it the day after. Had to pay the booking fee even though I was buying it at the Sistic counter in Tampines One. Zzz...

Managed to keep it from The Mother for a day before she found the tix. She said she was about to commend me on my restraint... Until she saw those $100++ tix. /sheepish grin

So on April's Fool 2011, bro and I made our way to Vivo, had Carl's Jr coz we haven't had them in a while and left for Resort World Sentosa, Hard Rock Coliseum. I wanted to go earlier but we ended up arriving only half an hour before the concert. Bro had to dump all the bottles of water I had him carry coz they serve food in there and wanna rob us blind ($3 for a cup of Coke?!?! OMG rip-off!).

It was a small place and the turn out was surprisingly little.But thanks to that, we managed to get quite close to the stage. I picked a spot slightly left of center of the stage (or on the right if you're facing the stage) coz that's where they usually plunk the bass players. I'm totally addicted to bass ~~players~~ XD

Guy started to squeeze me out of my spot even before the concert started. Told him to move away. Urgh... Don't he know that you only start squeezing when the band comes out? Basic concert rules people!

Even though the turn out was less than what I imagined, the crowd was pretty energetic and super "on". Had my bag up in front of my boobs and I'm all set to mosh! Was trying my best not to get stepped on and sprayed with sweat from other bouncing and moshing people. Found a sweet spot where there was a visible dip in heads before me. That dip was formed by a crowd of girls and for that I thank them. Unfortunately, I had to keep dodging the long pony tail of a group of middle eastern teen beauties. Was really tempted to cut it if I have a pair of scissors on me but I don't think I'll do it even if I have a pair of scissors on me. /coward XD Even the band commented on the large percentage of girls that turned up. Why are they be surprised? They are such chick magnets!! :D

They also commented on the humidity. They're from Arizona so the heat is okay but the humidity isn't what they were used to. Frontman Jim Adkins was literally dripping with sweat by the end. We could totally see the sweat roll off his face. It's that close!

They played a few songs from their new album and many old ones. This guy standing behind us knew them all. Amazing! He's such a fan... They sound surprisingly good live too. One of the songs they played was 23 and that made bro very happy (he turns 23 this year). ~~Felt like yesterday when I turned 23 and played that song on my birthday... /old~~ They didn't play Polaris though so me sad nao. /plays Polaris

And good times came to an end. During encore, a bunch of idiot guys started pushing and shoving each other around instead of jumping on the spot like everyone else and they started bumping into people left right and center. Even the bouncers/security guy couldn't get them to stop. Bro was good enough to come and block some of them and I started elbowing and punching anyone who came close to me. Accidentally punched a befuddled guy who was victim to their shoving and got too close to me. Oops... But I apologized to him after the concert so all's good. Bro's bag's zipper was a bit loose and it slid open during the close to 2h of moshing. My PSP and various other stuffs fell out and he stooped to get them. Was really worried he might get crushed by them violently moshing idiots but he came up okay. My PSP was okay too. The casualty of the day was the 2-pin adapter thing and a packet of tissue went MIA. I almost fell over after being bumped by one of them idiots and was offered a slightly safer spot to mosh on by a pair of guys behind me. So kind! /grateful

Throughout the concert, as with any concert, the view was blocked by arms doing fist pumps/finger pointing/ILU signs and arms attached to cameras and phones taking pictures/videos. One good thing about those was that if the view was completely blocked and I couldn't get a direct line of sight of the stage, I could just look at those cameras' and phones' display and watch it there instead.

...I sincerely apologize to the band for having to witness my armpits. Lol...

So after the concert, I wondered if those rolled up bundles were posters and asked someone who had them. Yep, posters for $10. I also bought the album at $25. OMG what was I thinking?! Then again, the booth selling the posters and CD, Macbeth, they helped me get $10 off each tix so I guess I could count the CD as costing $5...? /self-justification

When we left, there were still a lot of people sitting around in the Coliseum so I wondered if there was some special private meet-and-greet thing or they just don't wanna go home yet. The concert did end quite early. Not used to concerts ending before midnight... XD

7-11 at Waterfront station didn't sell Big Gulps coz the place is too small for the machine so we left and went back to Vivo. 7-11 at Vivo didn't sell Big Gulps coz the machine broke down so we bought a box of ice and a bottle of Coke instead. Poured the Coke into the box of ice and drank from the box. They sold cups of ice but we didn't know how much those cost... The box works fine too. XD

...In conclusion, I just hope the band don't feel too bad the turn out was pretty bad and be entertained by our energy and involvement as much as they entertained us with their songs and polite concert banters. It is really one of the best concerts I've been to (not that I've been to that many...)--minus the idiots who think people shoving them away when they got too violent and close were playing with them in return.

Whee... I've done more in a week than I'd done in the past 6 mths! =3

2011-03-26T02:10:00.006+08:00

Whee... I've done more in a week than I'd done in the past 6 mths! =3

Mon: Skipped some rope
Tue: Cooked some spaghetti
Wed: Practiced some swings using the bokken
Thu: Sprinted down the length of the the mini-corridor that leads to my room
Fri: Swam a few laps

~~I know there's still the weekends but already I have done more than I had in the past 6 jobless months.~~

Edited on 28 Mar 2011
Sat: Movie'd with HJ
Sun: Last min meet up with Irene Belle before she left on a jet plane (:S Sorry girl! Didn't get to see you earlier and when we met, I was engrossed with 4gu's Galaxy Tab instead... /feels bad D:). Cycled to the end of East Coast Park.

Now I've officially done more than I had in the past week than I had done in the last 6 months! :D

~~~~~

Also, I'd been trying to make myself wake up earlier this week so I could go swim but the magnetic pull of the pillow is too strong! Even when I'm conscious at 9am, it didn't take much for me to drift off again.

But today, while watching Monday's episode of TDS and TCR in the evening (we intended to watch all 4 days' worth of them at one go XD), I noticed the weather was nice and sunny in a good way and I kept saying I should go out. Was ready to go fly kite at the roof of the multistorey carpark near my house but bro noted that there isn't really much wind to fly it. So I changed plans. Showered, packed my swimsuit, towels and toiletries and off I go~

It's been years since I'd went to Tampines Swimming Complex and boy had it changed! There's a giant mushroom water fountain thing! And a 2nd level deck for people to tan on. And holy crap, the amount of kids learning swimming is huge! I had to keep dodging legs and arms.

Breaststroke was okay but I was out of breath real quick after swimming freestyle. Stamina long gone... D: Because I was out of breath real quick, I stuck to the 1st and 2nd lane closest to the edge of the pool.

So there was this tanned and toned guy at the end of the pool and what I noticed first about him was his distinctive circular tribal tattoo design on his right shoulder blade (from now on known as Tanned and Toned Circular Tribal Tattoo guy or TTCTT guy for short). Can't see his face nor his tattoo that clearly coz I've got no specs on so meh. He was always at the 1st or 2nd lane when I reached the end but when he swam, he sorta glides through the water real fast. But he was always at the end by the time slow me reached.

I had told myself I'd do 5 laps and swim more if I can still go on but after 5 laps, I can't go on. So by end of lap 5, I was pretty out of breath and was lounging by the edge. TTCTT guy chose that time to glide over and asked me if I was learning freestyle. The following conversation took place by the poolside.

TTCTT guy: Are you learning freestyle?
Inner Me: No, I know how to do freestyle swimming. It's one of my worst strokes but I learnt it before. Gods, I can't tell him I'd learnt it before! That's just embarrassing!
Me: Yea, sorta... Ahaha...
TTCTT guy: Well, you might wanna lower your head in the water more
Inner Me: Ya think?
Me: Yea but I'm pretty out of breath to do that
TTCTT guy: Coz your head is a tilted too close to the surface *does hand approximation of my head and body* and it slows you down.
Inner Me: I knew that!
Me: Yea... Ahaha...
TTCTT guy: It's easier if you keep your head parallel to your body.
Inner Me: Yea I know but I can't coz--
Me: Ahaha... Yea, I couldn't hold my breath underwater too long...
Inner Me: I used to be able to do that relatively ok... Gods, all my stamina! Gone!!
TTCTT guy: Okay...
Me: Ahaha...

Silence ensues and after threading some water, he glided off. I decided to try one last lap with my head down like he said and yes, it is easier and faster but it took a lot more effort and I really really ran out of breath faster too. And if there weren't so many kids around, I prolly would've do another 1-2 laps but I've had enough of dodging limbs so I got out, all the while wondering if he thinks I got scared/frightened/shy and got out of the pool right after he talked to me. But that's not it. I gave myself a limit and that limit couldn't be extended due to my current physique and stamina so I got out, not because I got scared/frightened/shy. Really!

Bought donuts, honey glazed chicken drumlets and Gong Cha home. The Mother saw my feast and said me going swimming was a waste of effort if I'm gonna eat all that. Bro heard and whispered to me "Not so. You only went to swim coz the weather was nice". I laughed. Got to the living room and Dad asked me what was my reason to go swim--Health? Weight loss? Swim for the sake of swimming?--and I told him the truth, which was what bro said to me, that I went swimming coz the weather was nice. So me eating all that stuff did not really matter with respect to the reason of me going swimming today. Dad told The Mother that and The Mother was a little miffed.

But all was well.

I did not tan at all under the evening sun and will be getting mighty sore for the next few days but I had fun. And a random guy talked to me! I don't get many random guys talking to me... XD

A benevolent dictatorship? Hurhur...

2011-03-23T04:10:00.002+08:00

Just saw this flash by on Yahoo SG--Did Hollywood star go too far with his Singapore jokes? Or if you have 01min 44sec to spare, click here for the video!

Which reminded me of that one time, when Linkin Park had their concert in Singapore, and after they went back, someone asked them what they thought of Singapore and Chester (I think) said it's like being in Grandma's house--they hafta behave, obey rules, can't curse and swear, can't go too crazy, etc...

Hmm... I don't know if I should be glad they even know this little red dot or be sad they know this little red dot by well-founded stereotypes.

Then again, they are Americans. Oh wait no, Seth Rogen is Canadian. There goes my witty all-encompassing stereotypical blanket comment. :P

~~~~~

Side note: I've been thinking of making a list of movies and/or TV shows that mentions Singapore gratuitously (because any mentions of Singapore in any media is gratuitous) for years now but I'm just too lazy and unpatriotic to do so.

Meh...

O_O I don't even like that guy!

2011-03-14T15:14:00.001+08:00

Last weekend was the first of the quarterly IT show and I was planning to go on Fri but I got lazy and stayed in. Then Saturday came and went. Although Sun is usually the best day to go get stuff, I didn't even think of going as there was lab for the whole afternoon and we usually end labs at around 6-7pm...

Aunt wanted to go with me if I went on Fri coz her laptop and desktop is dead for a few months already but since I didn't go, she called me on Sun to get some tips. Tried to get me to go with her but told her our class might end real late. Said I could meet her for dinner or something after my class if I end early and she's still at Suntec. :)

And lo, all the stars and planets aligned and we ended real early yesterday! Thanks, lab demons! XD

So I reached Suntec around 5pm but she's not even there yet! I thought she's already at Suntec when she called me earlier!! *_* I'm too hungry to start the battle yet so we went for lunch at Ichiban Boshi. Everything is delicious!! I really really love their Chicken Katsu Curry Rice~~ <3

We went around the usual booths and complained about the services of the local telcos, the lack of appeal for Apple products to us (settle down, fanboys!), our mutual love for how stuffs work and how I don't go to IT shows with friends. To be fair though, I don't like to go with friends to large exhibitions coz I'll hafta squeeze through the crowd, wait for them and make sure I don't lose them while on my own, I could be done in less than an hour. And I really don't have much friends who likes gadgets enough to squeeze through the insane crowd 4 times a year.

She wanted to get a desktop computer so we looked at Dell and HP. Decided on the HP set coz we both prefer HP to Dell. She also bought a wireless keyboard and mouse plus the cooling base board thing for laptops coz it spoiled.

She also wanted to get the Samsung Galaxy Tab coz the touch screen is more sensitive than the older iPhones/iPod Touch and she can finally use her fingerprint-less index finger on it. Strange but true.

And so! After almost 7 paragraphs of setting up the situation and providing some context, we arrive the main point of this post. It was at the entrance of the Singtel booth where my aunt was queuing to get her Galaxy Tab when I saw a guy who looks just like this guy in that crazy lame 80-ep TV series I recently ~~finally~~ finished watching. Face to face and everything! That guy I saw IRL is a little shorter and slightly tanner than what I imagine that guy from the show would be like IRL. He even had the same type of haircut and clothes on! *_*

Because I was leaving the booth when he was entering, I took notice of him for only a short few seconds. I tried to go back to see if I could still spot him in the booth for a closer look and confirm that the guy I saw really really exist and looks just like that guy from TV but no luck.

Now, before you chalk this up to like some weird delusion or fantasy, let me just clarify that I don't even like that guy from the show!

...The brain works in mysterious ways... O_o

/cue Twilight Zone theme

キャアアア！！　ありがとう、弟！

2011-03-08T02:04:00.002+08:00

Few months ago, after watching Tron: Legacy and being endlessly entertained by the scene-stealer Castor/Zuse, I went on a mini Michael Sheen kick and watched a lot of his movies. I'd watched the Blair trilogy (The Deal, The Queen & The Special Relationship) back to back. Then I got bored and watched all 3 Underworld movies in a row. While watching the Underworld movies, I kept exclaiming "Assassin's Creed!" whenever Lucian appeaered. Especially during the third and arguably the best one in the trilogy (because of the lack of Beckingsale? XD).

It could also be because I'd just watched a buncha awesome and very cinematic game trailers, one of them being Assassin's Creed. /easily influenced

So I went and read up on that game but before it reached critical mess and made me think of it day and night, bro said Steam had a promo for the games. I didn't wanna get it... Truth be told, I'm not a big gamer and I'm definitely not a big PC gamer. I prefer console and the solid weight of the controller. Being the kind of person that I am, the want grew stronger and stronger but by the time I made up my mind to get it, the promo had ended. Curse my indecision!!

A few weeks ago, while discussing Steam and the games they offer, I told him to tell me if they have anymore promo for the Assassin's Creed series and he chided me for not getting it the first time he told me. Ah ha ha... Ah ha ha ha ha... /天然バカ

Then on Saturday, he told me there's another promo with Assassin's Creed! It's the Director's Cut version with 3 other games--Call of Juarez, Far Cry 2 and Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2. Again, I didn't wanna get it coz it's only the first game and there are 2 other games after that.

Today, when bro got home, he kept telling me to check my email but I'd been checking my email the whole day (f-ing lab reports...). Turns out, he sent the mail to a combination of my hotmail and gmail address. Turns out, he gifted me the promo! XD

And best of all, he told me the same thing fatboyho told me when he gifted me Team Fortress 2--You Owe Me.

After installing and playing through the first memory block, I have come to the conclusion that I really do prefer console games. I kept thinking of how well I would've been able to play it with a controller in hand... D: I just hope they don't have any time-critical stuffs I needa do coz I really suck with the directions control XD ...At least I'm slightly better in AC than I am in TF2

Let's do the Time (and Space) Warp tonight~

2011-02-25T04:23:00.000+08:00

Let's do the Time (and Space) Warp tonight~

Was just thinking something what aunt said years ago.

She said she saw on Discovery that there's this guy who was driving into a tunnel in America in the middle of the night and exited the tunnel in Britain or Europe I can't remember which). At first, he was puzzled as to why the roads and the signs were all different and unfamiliar. Then after asking around he realized he was in another continent. Obviously he didn't have his passport with him and his car has an American plate. Can't explain why.

Interesting story? After hearing it for all these years, I never had the urge to verify it or if Discovery really did air something like that but *shrugs* if she say she's seen it...

Don't know what came over me today though. I went and did a search and found some articles on Scifi, wormhole and time travel but nothing on the Transatlantic driver. Oh well...

This article by Stephen Hawking talked about all three and that got me thinking a little.

Aren't we all technically time travelers? We all travel forward in time linearly, second by second. We just can't travel back, stay in the same moment nor jump forward in time.

We're very lousy time travelers. :P

Why can't everyday be this action-packed and fun?

2011-02-15T02:14:00.002+08:00

Why can't everyday be this action-packed and fun?

Friday
Didn't get a good night's sleep. Could hear parents having breakfast. Could hear bro coming into my room and fire up his computer. I refuse to give up and open my eyes and hot damn it made things worse. The dark circles were unlike how they usually were. D:

Finished watching the first 60-ish episodes of Gintama. All I wanted was to show bro Yamazaki and his penchant for cosplaying as Echizen while playing badminton. That's right. Badminton. Not tennis.

It all started a couple of weeks back when I got bored and started watching Gintama again. I watched til after the Benizakura arc for sure and touched on the Fuyou arc definitely but I wasn't sure where I stopped watching so I watched from right after the Benizakura arc to be safe. Bro started catching bits and pieces while I watched and I am happy to report that Gintama was the only anime that made him stop me from watching it without him. The other stuff I watch, he could live with not watching a few eps here and there but not Gintama. Apparently the crazy OTT meta humor they use amused him greatly. So we finished from 62-201 and now I have to re-watch the front bits so I can show him ep 62 where the Seigaku and Hyoutei players from PoT made a surprise cameo.

And boy was it worth it! Took notice of stuffs that I didn't when I first watched it. Like ep 38, the first time I watched it, I took note of the name and appearance of the Neo Armstrong Cyclone Jet Armstrong Cannon but the second time, I noticed everyone commented on the degree of completion/perfection of the cannon every time the name of the cannon was mentioned. Didn't catch that the first time. :P

あらこれ、ネオアームストロングサイクロンジェットアームストロング砲じゃない? 完成度高いなオイ！

~~~~~

Saturday
Still didn't get a good night's sleep. Heard The Mother puttering about. Heard 4yi come. The Mother came in to ask if I have class (grunted "no" in reply) and asked why do I have the alarm on if I don't have class (grunted "lazy to turn it off" in reply).

The moment 4yi came in, I knew my sleep was over. She has a way of making me abandon what I am currently doing and pay attention to her--be it doing revision, watching shows or in the middle of sleeping. Kinda like how everybody willingly or unwillingly listens and does whatever The Mother says. It's their special powers. D:

Aunt came over because Nanoko wanted to go meet her Maple Story Guild members at Downtown East chalet in the evening and wanted our aunt to accompany her. We played around in Wild Wild Wet from late evening to closing time at 7pm before going. It's been ages since I last played with water and it seems that the triangular bottoms are not in fashion no more. I see real shorts or boxer shorts type bottom. Strange... I feel awkward with my teeny weeny not polka dotted bottom. But that awkward feeling was forgotten and we had fun with the big splash and the slides and the lazy Shiok River. Wanted to go for the Viking-like V slide thing but aunt felt it was unsafe and didn't want to. Poo...

...And I remain relatively untanned. Need to go swim moar! Been saying that since last Oct!! OMG IT'S FEB ALREADY!!! D:

~~~~~

Sunday
Didn't get a good night's sleep. Was half awake almost the whole time I was asleep.

Had some McD lunch with 3yi because I have a hankering for them junk food and she likes to eat said junk food. Yum. :) Thanks for the treat!

Started on Human Target Season 2. Once again, I did not like the 2 new female additions. Is this what they call the anti-vagina bias? JEH still kicks ass as Guerrero though. *thumbs up*

...I don't believe I'd said this here but I will be sorely disappointed if they did not cast him as Spider Jerusalem for a Transmetropolitan movie.

Definitely at least as disappointed as I was when I heard Josh Holloway turned down the role of Gambit. Oh how you could've saved the live-action portrayal of my favorite X-Men... *sigh*

~~~~~

Monday
Happy Valentine's Day and Happy Birthday to Nanako! And Rob Thomas. And a secondary school friend apparently. :P

Four days in a row! Didn't get a good night's sleep four days in a row!! Gods... I might need a real job to switch me back to normal tired instead of restless tired. At the very least, I'd be less poor. :S

4yi bailed out on us even though she was the one who set this up so I had delicious chicken rice at the coffee shop formally known as S11 and is now called BD211, went to Cash Studio KTV with Nanako and was later joined by her sister. She had to leave a little early so me and Nanoko covered the last hour of the KTV session. I need to start doing more cardio... And work on getting the scratchy throaty quality out of my voice. Hurhur...

On the bus home, a teenage boy who reminded me of bro when he was that age boarded with a thick hardcover book from the library with a big heavy backpack asked to take the seat beside me so I let him in. Smacked me on the arm with his big heavy backpack with nary an apology. Yep, definitely reminds me of bro. A more awkward and nerdy bro when he was that age. :\

Watched SNL even though it was Russell Brand and Chris Brown. Why did they have to have Stefon on? I cannot resist a good corpsing and Bill Hader corpsing as Stefon was especially brilliant because of Hader's track record for not corpsing--unlike say, Jimmy Fallon.
Was Russell Brand always this squeaky?
Fake movie trailer for the fake British movie Don' You Go Rounin' Roun To Re Ro made me want to watch that fake movie even though it got a bit long at the end. *_*
LMAO SRSLY @ the Hader-Brand nose pecking!!
Bro's LMAO SRSLY was bestowed upon AOL's spokesman's comment on the buying of HuffPo.
Lil Wayne and Eminem... Not impressed by Lil Wayne but Eminem was pretty good.
Seth Meyer's apparent glee at Stefon's segment is apparent. This is how we know their love is real. Heh heh heh... ;)

Watched Top Gear. Did not know Simon Pegg and Nick Frost were guests so was pleasantly surprised. Man... their bromance is beautiful. I'd be lucky if I manage to find someone like that other than bro in my lifetime. A real bromance? Like, because bro is really my bro? :P

I'ma gonna kill the fool who performed Inception on The Mother!!!

2011-01-18T23:16:00.000+08:00

The Mother was badgering me to go with Dad to buy hair dye for my aunt to help him dye his graying hair because Chinese New Year is coming soon and she wants to get him all nicely done up with a fresh coat of paint--just like our house. Hurhur...
So she bugged me for a few weeks and finally, when I was on my way out to get dinner on Sunday, she caught me and made Dad come with me to go look for the dye. I grumbled, Dad laughed.
Today, my aunt came by to print stuff for her son and she told me The Mother told her to teach me how to dye hair so I can dye it for them next time... Every 3 months when the undyed hair grew out... FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE! ARGHH!!!!! WHO THE F*** PLANTED THAT IDEA IN HER HEAD?!?!

I refuse to be at her beck and call just because my aunt is thinking of moving away and will not be as readily available as she is now, living across the street from us. Gonna fight this with teeth and claws, I swear. But somehow, I bet The Mother will still find a way to make me do it anyway. She always does.

...I am such an unfilial child aren't I? :\

~~~~~

Speaking of hair, I can't believe I haven't ranted about mine yet.

Went to cut my hair on the first Tuesday of 2011 at ICON in Isetan Wisma. Wanted a radical and stylish asymmetrical cut, ended up with Bieber hair. Wanted a radical and crazy weird purple/blue/green dye job, ended up with something my aunt could've done for a fifth of the price. Hair stylist kept telling me how bad short hair would be with my terribly thick, wavy and stiff hair texture and how the weird colors will not last more than a week and the bleach needed to get those weird colors to show will ruin my already terrible hair--of course not in those words but you get the picture.
I knew how terribly thick, wavy and stiff my hair texture is no matter how much I spend on hair treatments--which they try to push on me at $85 a pop. I said no thanks. Didn't care and got her to cut it. Then she suggested quite strongly that I don't dye some weird color. Instead, she did a two-tone layered dye job and it became a mundane sorta brown tone.
Paid $150-ish for everything.

...I am forever being ripped off by hair saloons.

So I finally watched Inception...

2010-12-28T17:09:00.004+08:00

So I finally watched Inception and I don't understand why people say they don't understand it.

Bro and I thought the movie was pretty easy to follow. Given the amount of comments along the lines of "So confusing~" and "I don't understand the movie~~", we were hoping for more mindfuckery. Bro felt cheated. Maybe it's because we like mindfucks so much and we watch a lot of mindfucking shows or maybe it's because people here don't watch that much mindfucking shows and they don't really like mindfucks...

I don't really see what the fuss was about.

Yes, it's a good movie with a not-so-clear-cut plot. Yes, the imagery is pretty and trippy. Yes, I think I can see why so many people ship Arthur with everyone. And hell yeah, the spinny hallway fight was still my favorite scene even if I'd seen it a couple of times when all those commercials that aired while I was walking by. But still! Was it really that hard to follow? Is bro's claim of people not comprehending lateral plot lines true? *_*

~~~~~

And now for some spoilers XD

WATANABE!
The Japanese restaurant dining scene reminds me of that scene in Dollhouse where the Japanese guy was "enjoying" himself up in the Attic.
Oh Leo DiCaprio, your bishounen voice does not have the gravitas befitting of the role you are playing, even if your beard tries it best.
Bad Edith, bad!
JGL is the buttmonkey! *pats*
Oh yeah, there he goes. The Architect who isn't Ellen Page. Goodbye.
Hey! It's Alfred--I mean Michael Caine!!
Juno! Another garang-walker. Hurhur... Oh dear... the implications of Prof Alfred and Genius Student Juno... She's not gonna be the next Batgirl, is she? D:
NOT THE BOOKS!! Oh wait... Huh. So *this* is how it's like to have your mind blown. Epic. XD
Mmm... Flirty Eames... Team bicycle. You will serves us well as comical sidekick since JGL is busy being organized, uptight and prissy.
Nfft!! Leo D almost couldn't squeeze through the tiny tiny gap between houses. Time to lay off the donuts?
Yusuf the Chemist! How does bringing him into the dreamscape be useful? Does his chemicals work in the dreamscape too? Uh, okay... Whatever you say, Word of God.
Ooo... ~~Opium den~~ Underground dream-induction lair is giving me the Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep/Blade Runner emotion-altering drugs vibes...
LOL @ Watanabe buying the whole airline instead of just buying the cabin and flight attendants.
Ho! Production Posse!! Christopher Nolan really likes Cillian Murphy with a sack over his head.
And the con is on!
Reality(?): Plane
Dream Layer 1: LA shootout (Eames to Arthur: "You mustn't be afraid to dream a little bigger, darling." <3) & Bridge drop
Dream Layer 2: Spinny Hallway Hotel
Dream Layer 3: Snow fortress
Bonus Dream Layer: Leo D and Edith's house in their dreamscape.
That building/cliff thing facing the ocean really reminds me of the edge of city in the movie Dark City, another mindfuck movie come to think of it. ~~It was the very first movie tie-in book I'd ever read, by the way. Found it in the sec sch library during lunch and it was so new, I think I might be the first one to borrow it.~~
Oh scenery porn... <3
And jolt! (Back to Layer 3) The snow fortress came tumbling down~ Tumbling down~ Tumbling down~
And another jolt! (Back to Layer 2) Well done son guy! Your father's not disappointed in you. Your father's lurveeessss you. See? He kept your childhood windmill in the safe with the will that will make everything better! D'aww... whispers: It's all in your head!
And another jolt! (Back to Layer 1) It's all up to Jack now.
...Opening scene. CALLED IT!!
WATANABE!!
And we're back. (To Reality?)
Sly sideway glances all round. Cillian's face saying "hey I know you from somewhere" and everyone's walking away, walking away.
Ooo... Top's still spinning... And cut! There's only two ways this could end. One, happy ending in Reality! Two, everything was all a big elaborate dream! Either way, it's still not hard to understand!!
Overall, great use of slow-mo and the song "Non, je ne regrette rien" there...
Did Christopher Nolan really shoot on location for those scenes? I saw Japan, UK, France, Morocco, USA and Canada. If so, major props to the director! Nothing says the real deal like the real deal.

It's Kill Electronics By Being Near Them Day!

2010-12-22T22:02:00.001+08:00

Woke up, fax machine died. People couldn't fax stuff through and there wasn't even a dial tone when I hooked the phone directly to the wall socket. Was careful not to accidentally hit the switch on the multi-plug extension while hooking the phone up but bumped into the switch of the main plug that the multi-plug extension was connected to while I fixed the loose telephone socket connection instead. Fax machine fixed, killed comp and internet. Restarted comp and internet. All was well.

Did some poking on the iPod Touch. A hell lot of respringing and manually shutting it down and restarting. I have long since been used to the Touch blinking. Finally gotten everything that I set out to do last night/this morning despite all the constant restarting. Went to Grandma's place for dinner and tang yuan dumplings for winter solstice. Got home, tried to make the Touch post something on lj. Killed it. Restarted it back up, tried to post again. Success!

(Side note: Blinking refers to the device suddenly shutting off and restarting itself.)

Started printing Dad's stuff. Printer won't cooperate. Tried to find solution online and printer mysteriously worked properly again. Gee... Continued to print. While I was picking up the newly inked paper to flip over for duplex printing, the computer blinked. I wasn't even touching it! I swear!! O_O Hope I can get to the end of printing all of Dad's stuff before something else gets killed by me.

Again... How is it that I am a Walking Tech Bane while being a Miss Fixit all at once?!

Criminal underuse of the titular character

2010-12-17T09:39:00.002+08:00

So much shiny--I mean spoilers to TRON: Legacy

So bro had the bright idea of watching the midnight screening of TRON: Legacy on the day it opens (technically the 2nd day it opens) and I don't see why not so we booked the tickets to the 3D version. Ouch but worth it. Even though it was 5 minutes into Friday, the theater was packed. Don't these people have work tomor--oh wait... December holidays now. Right.

We sat through the inane chatter of the surrounding, ads we've seen before, a few minutes of technical difficulties as they switch from normal projection to 3D projection (I predict a riot--but I was wrong), 3D ads we've never seen before and Gulliver's Travel trailer in 3D before being subjected to a 3D shiny laser light rendition of Walt Disney Pictures logo.

It's beginning! <3 Green words on screen tells us most scenes are 3D but some scenes are shot in 2D and they are meant to be 2D for storytelling purposes and that we should keep our 3D glasses on. Girl sitting to my right pretty much paraphrased the green words to her boyfriend. Bro thinks reading comprehension is a lost art. I am inclined to agree.

Woah TRON poster! I <3 you for introducing it to me, Chuck Bartowski!!

Young Flynn in Real World looks fake. :S Did having a son dampen his douche-iness?

Oh! No... His douche-iness was prevalent in all those clips of him the news covered during his disappearance. OMG KEVIN FLYNN IS TONY STARK?!?!

Happy son's slightly less douche-y but more fake-looking dad went missing. Turns into emo son. Then grows up to be thrill-seeking idiot son.

The bike chase music had Daft Punk written all over it. :D

Ooo... Black Ducati! <3 Please don't let it be the one with the ugly metal bars, please don't let it be the one with the ugly metal bars, please don't--OH THANK GODS NO UGLY METAL BARS!! Those metal bars under the gas tank are hideous!

Douche-y CEO addressing his minions and son of the first movie's douche-y CEO Dillinger. Gods... As if the world needs more douche-y CEOs or Dillingers. (IMDB says he's the uncredited Scarecrow. I say he could be subtly set up as the next big bad.)

...I was kinda expecting to see more advances in technology. Like that pin table thing in X-Men or the air gesturing thing in Minority Report, seeing as we already have multitouch-capable sleek black computing table back in 1982. :P

Ah... Papa Awesome. You have gained much gravitas in your finely matured age. Me likey. <3

Oh the douche is strong in this one! Truly the son of The Original Douche. Son of Douche!

Hey! A pager!! I wonder what numeric code did Papa Awesome receive from The Original Douche...

...Nice. Flynn's Arcade was not torn down after all these years! The phone line's been cut for 20 years but the electricity is still running!! The plot demands and it is made so!!!

Yay jukebox! <3 Separate Ways (Worlds Apart) and Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This).

Does the retro arcade machines accept new coins? ...Apparently it doesn't.

Secret passage, found! Secret lair, entered! Secret important multitouch-capable sleek black computer table, covered in dust! I don't think dust works that way when you swipe at it!!

Ooo... Zap! Ooooo... My 3D glasses are finally working. Shiny...

Damn. I kinda like the guy with half his face deresolutionized. Never to be seen again~

Ooo kinky. Being dressed by 4 vacuum-packed white-latex clad chicks stomping around on fuck me heels in unison. Me likey. <3

...And Young Prince Douche-y wins The Game. Of course.

Hey! That last guy Rinzler reminds me of Snake Eyes--what with his helmet and double-wield light discs and all. :D The placement of those 4 dots on his chest is significant. I know it. *whispers* Tron...

Ah. I was expecting you, The Original Douche. Even though I already know you're not really The Original Douche from the trailer I DID NOT WANT TO SEE BUT WAS FORCED UPON ME BY ANOTHER MOVIE!! *ahem* I guess I'll hafta dub thee The Original Cloned Douche Program!

Nice! Light cycle races have discovered the third dimension since we last saw them.

Ah, Olivia... I was expecting you to swoop in to save our intrepid douche.

Also, I had long pondered the possibility and/or feasibility of having driving controls on both sides of the car--either with one control to swap or slide over as and when needed or two controls with only one side activated each time. Thanks for showing me that it is possible in The Grid.

Oh mountain lair that looked like it's actually inside a dormant volcano! The Original Douche is now The Dude. Guess spending so much time in a volcano does that to you huh. But spending so much time in a volcano does not explain the frock and hood!

Oh gee... I can see the Eye of Sauron from the mountain balcony that overlooks the city The Original Cloned Douche Program built. What do you mean that's not symbolic?!

TOD/TD: So anyone in your life? Wife? Girlfriend?
SoD: No. Just a dog.
TOD/TD: *slightly surprised look*
Me: (as TOD/TD) I'm a cat person myself. *gestures to Olivia looking catty and cat-like*
Me: (as Olivia) Meow. =3

Why does Olivia look so stumpy? I didn't think she looked this stumpy on House. And her being all wide-eyed and innocent is so darn cute! I like her here more than I ever will on House!!

And the Holy Douche is off to find ~~Zeus~~ Zuse.

Dude... Stealing a hood from some homeless man is not cool. No matter how much like a Jedi apprentice it makes you look. Seriously.

Hey it's that white latex white girl from before! Nice brolly... <3

OOO!! I like this one a lot. Tony Blair reminds me of the evil albino twins in The Matrix. He owns the End of Line Club! He has Daft Punks spinning for him! He has a pimpin' transparent Plexiglas cane! He's crazy! He's funny! He's Zuse!! What does it say about me when I always end up liking this type of crazy funny opportunistic lowlifes? XD

Daft Punk continuing to spin in their booth while the fight goes on below is all kinds of awesome!

Son of Douche caught! Olivia fail! Show 'em how it's done, The Original Douche/The Dude.

And poof! Zuse became Coco Crunch! I would like to use this opportunity to point out that his End of Line Club is located very very high above the Digital City of Sauron. Like way above what constitute the cloud level. Like Mount Olympus high. >_>

Oh hey look! A conveniently placed freight train heading for where our intrepid douches are going. I wonder what they will do.

SoD messing with TOD/TD's Zen was funny. Does that mean that TOS/TD will be just TOD again?

Ah... So nice of them to give them some down time to bond with each other. Father-Son bonding, with extra douche-iness. I knew that nice bike is too beautiful and ugly-metal-bar-less to be a contemporary build! Son-pet cat bonding, with extra sexual tension. Father meditating with a nice white glow behind his head. What do you mean it's not symbolic?!

The Original Cloned Douche Program is building an army by reprogramming other programs?! Where have I heard that one before?

The Original Cloned Douche Program addressing his newly reprogrammed army? I feel like calling him Emperor Palpatine and giving in to my anger...

~~The rebel forces~~ Our intrepid douches steals a plane from the ~~Death Star~~ floating carrier that looks suspicious like the one they had in the first movie.

Send in the ~~X-wing~~ light planes! Aerial dogfight! With the trailing block thing behind the planes and turrets and gunfights!

~~Rinzler~~ Tron remembers! Tron got shiv'd by The Original Cloned Douche Program! Tron falls into water! Tron turns back to glowing blue! Ooo... Sequel?

Epic showdown between the user and the program. Can't say I didn't see it coming.

All I wanted was to be loved by you, don't you know? That's why I worked so hard to be perfect, just like you asked me to be! Now you tell me you were wrong and that the world does not have to be perfect. Are you kidding me? Do you mean to say everything I did for you was pointless?! No, I will not have that!! Wait a minute! Your douche-y son and your pet cat girl is in The Beam doing the classic TRON movie poster pose! That's not good!! That means your douche-y son is getting out and he's going to stop me! Noooo~~ Stop dragging me back with your awesome Jedi Force trick! Aarrrggghhhh~~~ (TOD/TD: Come! Let me embrace you in my bosom!!) Oh god you're hugging me! AARRRRRRGGGGGGHH-- *bursts into tiny silicon chips*

*boop*

And we're back in the real world with Son of Douche, downloading everything into a nifty chip like thing that is much too big to be a microSD card from a Nokia phone. Don't they know anything? Apple out-douched everyone in like 0 A.J. (After Jobs) or something. All other brands no longer exist due to lack of douche-iness.

Except for the Douche-COM, Apple's sole douche-competitor. Especially now that Son of Douche wanna take over the company. Apple will be crushed!

Aww... Papa Awesome is the kind of guy you wanna phone in case of an emergency. Or page, since he seems to only respond that quickly to that tiny black box. Or maybe it's a Flynn thing. Papa Awesome is a douche-magnet... His growing gravitas has the unfortunate side-effect of drawing in douches.

Where did Olivia get normal real world clothes? I really hope it's not from The Original Douche's secret crossdressing stash in his office... He would be devastated!

Riding without helmets? Don't they have traffic polices to catch them??

...End scene.

No extras after the credits but the credits are pretty, shiny and pretty shiny. We always stay til the credits end anyway so there!

Side note: I am so glad I watched the original TRON on Wednesday. All the allusions and references!! <3<3<3

Side side note: It occurred to me after I got home that all them computer/technological people are all douchebags. We have The Original Douche, Son of Douche, Son of Dillinger, Tony Stark, Justin Hammer, Facebook guy, etc. Is douche-iness a prerequisite to be successful in this digital age?

It's time for another edition of 3sa being at the internets

2010-12-15T01:23:00.000+08:00

Dear Google Instant,

You suck.

I know I'm a little late to the party but hey, I was busy. You know how that's like, what with you trying to fix what ain't broken and all.

It all started when one fine day, I decided to find a solution to stop Youtube from showing me the "You're using an outdated browser" notice even though I am on the most updated Firefox version. A quick fix and a browser restart later, I discovered you when I wanted to search for something on Google.

And boy was I annoyed.

I'm pretty proud of my ability to type with all 10 fingers and my typing speed (even though they might be somewhat hampered by the fingernails I am too lazy to cut unless absolutely necessary) and I almost always know the spelling of what I am trying to search for. But with you, my typing speed and spelling prowess are moot! I can maybe get in 3 letters before you took over and showed me search links to things I'm not searching for. Worse, because I type fast, I always end up with some alphabets missing in your search text field. Like how "obsession" turns into "obsson" and "snuffaluffagus" became "snulufgus".

Why not just turn it off, you ask? Well, I tried. Damnit, I tried but you just keep coming back. You're like syphilis!

Now I know all you're trying to do is help. But instead of saving me that 2-5 seconds, you made me waste more than 2-5 seconds correcting the typo you caused me to make by not allowing me to complete what I am typing!

So please, Google Instant...

Go curl up and die in a cold dark hole this instant.

Yours faithfully,
Frustrated hyper-typer

OYAKATA-SAMA! YUKIMURA!! OYAKATA-SAMA!!! YUKIMURA!!!!

2010-12-13T02:02:00.001+08:00

Wayhey! I finished Sengoku Basara I & II within 4 days. And 2 of those days were spent waiting for II to be completed! /proud

So I got bored the other day--I think it was a Thursday. Can't remember. It could easily've been a Wednesday--and I decided to dig out my copy of Sengoku Basara I'd stashed somewhere. Finished 5 episodes before bed and the rest of it after I woke up the next day. ~~Technically on the same day since I started after midnight but still!~~ Then the long and arduous wait for Season 2 to finish. And once it's finished, watched all 12 episodes in one go.

How productive!

The Gratuitous English was very gratuitous indeed but I thought ~~Zoro~~ Date (pronounced Da-Teh) turned in some Surprisingly Good English. It was not the usual Engrish at the very least.

There's also a whole bunch of well-known seiyuu so I was pretty much playing Hey It's That Voice the whole time I was watching both series.

I also quite like the Ham to Ham Combat between Yukimura and his Oyakata-sama (see above) and just about anyone who is fighting someone else.

...You know what? I should just leave the link to the series on TVTropes here for you to read.

Of Hardware and Domesticity

2010-12-11T02:01:00.000+08:00

So earlier today, in a bid to fix what was wrong with my USB ports and find out why My Computer did not pick up the external hard drives I'm trying to access, I pulled open my CPU and started poking around. While I'm elbows deep in computer parts and a hell lot of dust, The Mother came in and asked if I want the 2" doll keychain dangling between her fingers. Below is a transcript of our conversation.

Me: No.
TM: Oh yeah! You don't like fuzzy dolls. Since young you don't like them hor.
Me: No, I like fuzzy just fine. *gestures toward my stuffed toys* I just don't like dolls.
TM: Yeah that's what I meant.
Me: *beat*
Me: ...Don't you think it's weird to be asking a person fixing the computer whether she want dolls?
TM: Nothing weird about that. *leaves the room*
Me: O_o

End scene.

The irony. It is lost on her. XD Luckily, bro was around to find it again.

Also, turns out my USB ports are working fine. It's just that the power needed to power the external hard drive was too much for this awesome 4 port Lego brick-esque USB hub already powering my printer, wireless mouse and charging the iPod Touch. Managed to find another USB cable long enough to stretch from the back of the CPU to the table top to connect with the external hard drive and all was right in the world. Still couldn't figure out why one of the front USB port could not be used though. I've never been able to use that since I first got the CPU so I guess it's an inherent thing. :S

I also managed to clean up the inside of my CPU. It was so dusty, I managed to clear out a dust ball the size of my fist. Bro was being bitchy about me dusting and cleaning in his presence, causing his sensitive drippy nose to act up. He also said (and I quote) "Yo mama will be so pleased, what with you bringing out the vacuum cleaner on your own accord", to which I reply "No she wouldn't. She'll just find something else to nitpick". But I have to say, after that round of dusting, cleaning and vacuuming, I feel so accomplished. Lol! Everything feels so clean and new and fresh! Even the speed of the computer seems to be improving!! XD

Twitter has ruined things for me. And I'm not even on Twitter!

2010-12-06T23:31:00.000+08:00

Twitter has ruined things for me. And I'm not even on Twitter! Watch as I pull this pale approximation of a "Retweet" ala Twitter and/or "Share" ala Facebook.

~~~~~

Had fun laughing at this earlier today.

Happy Hanukkah!

Even though the shofar is used mainly on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Also, I knew all of that off the top of my head thanks to watching TDS and TCR.

...I am *really* watching too much TDS and TCR. XD

~~~~~

Also, Twitfail. I exceeded the 140 character limit! I think I'm just physically incapable of explaining myself in 140 characters or less. XD

I'm such a NEET

2010-12-06T03:55:00.000+08:00

Having mostly spent my time sleeping and camping in front of my computer these past two months, bro asked me what am I gonna do the other day. I answered "Nothing". He then went on to clarify with "Not now! I meant with your life, in the not-so-immediate future", to which I answered in the same deadpanned "Nothing".

I also went on to clarify that I am only one hydroponic medicinal weed cultivating and smoking away from being an actual stoned slacker. I'm already watching too much TDS ~~and the obligatory TCR~~ as it is. :D

Damn my inability to obtain drugs locally.

AConflictedGirlSaysWhat? What??

2010-12-02T22:55:00.000+08:00

How is it that I can be Mr. Fixit and a Walking Techbane at the same time?!

I'm the one who does the computer/TV/VCR/DVD player/cable box set ups and is frequently called upon to solve the OS/BIOS/phone problems but yet I still have the uncanny ability to kill/maim/slow down CPU/laptops/mobile phones and make software/programs/apps go all wonky.

I killed bro's sturdy non-camera phone which had served him for a good 2 years while he served in the army just by touching it.

I caused a friend's MacBook to slow down and then hanged itself. It never froze and he never had to restart it all the while he'd had it until I used it briefly that day.

I have discovered many a glitch in programs no one else complained about and the IT department had no solutions even after checking what I'd checked before going to them except to reinstall the program (which I could've done on my own if I *had* the program installer).

And don't get me started on the amateur software written by someone for our use during a lab in school. Killed it so often I had to turn off the sound to stop the sudden THUNK Win XP likes to make whenever it encounters an error.

I like me some gadgets and electronics as much as the next guy. I know my way around the hardware and software--even if I suck at programming (no logic flow XD). But alas, my love for them are not reciprocated.

*sigh*

Day 1 of the last year of my first quarter-century of my life

2010-11-30T02:51:00.001+08:00

Ah... Quarter-life crisis. I was expecting you.

Thought I should list some stuff to tally what I have and haven't done with my life.

~~~~~
I have:
Finished Kindergarten.
Finished Primary School.
Finished Secondary School.
Finished Polytechnic.
Finished University. (Woot!)

Worked a few part-time jobs.
Worked as an intern.
Worked my first full-time job.
Quit my first full-time job.

Been to Malaysia.
Been to Thailand.
Been to Hong Kong.
Been to Taiwan. (Twice with family, once with ALZ)
Been to Lyon for work. (With work people)
Been to Paris for play. (On my own after Lyon work trip! XD)

Learned to cycle.
Obtained Gold for swimming.
Failed Piano Grade 3 but passed Grade 4. (Lost interest. And although no one told me anything, I'm pretty sure I'm a talentless piano player XD)
Gotten Standard First Aid certification. (But it's expired for like at least 10 years now...)
Obtained my driver's license on my third try. (If at first you don't succeed, try try again. There is no helping inherently lousy driving skillz though.)

Built CPUs for both bro and myself.
Laptop. (Didn't really need it but it's used by bro more nowadays)

PS1.
PS2.
PSP. (On loan indefinitely to bro)

Sony portable FM radio. (Old skool yo!)
Panasonic portable CD player. (On loan and then forgotten to get it back from cousin)
Sony MP3 player. (Bar of soap!)
iPod Touch. (Apple, I am disappoint.)

Too many TV shows/movies/vidoes/books/comics/CDs/songs. (And yet, it's never enough! /magpie)

~~~~~
I haven't:
Studied for MCAT.
Tried to qualify for med school.

Re-qualify for my Standard First Aid cert.
Tried to qualify for lifeguard cert. (Shiong...)
Saved enough money to start bike lessons.

Bungee jumped.
Sky dived.
Base jumped.
Skied.
Skinny dipped.
Whitewater rafted.

Been to America. (LA! NY! Midwest! Hawaii! And Canada along the way)
Been to UK.
Been all over Europe. (I'm looking at you Dublin, Amsterdam, Holland, Munich, Berlin, Madrid, Monaco, Rome, Vatican City, Geneva, Zurich, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Prague, Moscow and just for the punny, Budapest in Hungary. Hurhur...)
Been to Australia. (And New Zealand along the way)
Been to Mediterranean Islands.
Been to Japan. (Tokyo! Shinjuku! Kyoto! Osaka! Okinawa!)

Loved.
Been loved.

~~~~~
I'm still:
Doing a part-time B.Sc.
Not looking for a job even though I really should.

Not waking up early enough.
Not going swimming/running/exercising enough.
Struggling with the rollerblades.

Haven't finish watching/reading/listening to all the TV shows/movies/videos/books/comics/CDs/songs I own.

~~~~~
I haven't really lived, have I? :S

Was supposed to write this yesterday but I got a little distracted

2010-11-02T19:22:00.001+08:00

I am officially out of job for a month and a day.

I have spent most of my month and a day at home. Sleeping at 5am, waking at 1pm, surfing the net, reading fics and watching TDS & TCR clips from 1pm to 5am (except for all the times my presence is required in classes and/or outside). I remember less than a week after my first day of unemployment, bro commented on how quickly I fell back into my old ~~pillaging~~ ways of sleeping late, waking later and doing nothing all day. I concur. I was not surprised at how easily I let myself fall back into my old ways but I am a bit disappointed at how I don't have the motivation to do what I told myself I would do when I finally break free. Like go swimming. Or skip some rope (well to be fair, I did skip some rope the other day). The inertia is strong in this one.

It wasn't until 22 days after my work stoppage that I was suddenly jolted into thinking, my, it's already 22nd of October. Everyday seem to blend together. And not in a nice trippy way. It's all a dull monotonous drift. And since that day, I have been trying to wake up earlier and getting out of the house by 11am to go anywhere. Ended up sleeping at 5am and waking at 1pm and not getting out of the house coz it's sort of after 11am.

Need.
Motivation.
Now.

...How?

Oh, and also. Bought books from Kino. Bought books from Amazon. Bought radio/remote thing for the Touch (yay radio!). Watched 3 movies in one day. Wrote a fic. Accompanied aunt to A&E. JB'd my Touch (yay pirate!). Really need to finish my essay.

Never have I felt such disdane over a service I use so often

2010-10-27T16:17:00.002+08:00

Dear Windows Live Messenger 2011 (Wave 4),

You suck.

I know you're trying to unify our online world but have you ever stopped to consider that some people don't want to unify their online world?

Remember Google Buzz? Remember the hate pouring from all sides except for one angle? Maybe you've felt a bit of the radiating hatred yourself--oh wait. Now I remember. You were busy MAKING WLM SHITTIER.

My Facebook friends don't need to know what I put on my Messenger. My Messenger friends don't need to know what I put on my Facebook. I don't use Twitter so you can't screw things up for me there. Ha. Ha.

First off, why'd you remove our ability to change our display name on Messenger? I hafta go to my email account settings and change it so that not everyone will know what my full name is. You know how much information can be gotten with just a full name? Apparently you don't. Coz Bing sucks too.

And why'd you remove the handwriting feature? It is one of the more useful feature of Messenger. Now I hafta go to MS Paint or another graphics program to draw a simple molecule or circuit diagram, save and send it to my friends when I need to ask for their help instead of just tabbing to the handwriting screen and draw there directly.

I don't have a webcam so you can't screw things up for me there either. But apparently, you put a lot of work into the video chat and video message support. What can I say? I don't like to see my face anywhere near me, not even on my face. Too bad for me, eh?

One thing I haven't really gotten to playing around with is the contacts. Coz I don't have new friends and don't feel like making some just to test that feature out. Did you take out the add-contact-to-Messenger-equals-add-contact-to-Hotmail feature too? How about groups? Did you take out the arrange-Messenger-contacts-in-Hotmail-into-groups feature also? Well??

Now that the new features are mostly complained about, let me backtrack and complain about an old feature a little. What's up with the scene? I can never get the dimensions right and when I got it to look OK to me, it'll look screwed up on my friend's chat screen. I have long since given up and just decided since I can't see what my friend sees, I don't hafta care about how screwed up it looks to them. But still! It'll be nice to have like a preview of how it looks like so I can tweak the scene to match perfectly.

Finally, after all the hate, I would just like conclude by saying I really like the 4 little colored squares that lets me choose my status when I hover over the taskbar icon on a machine running Windows 7. Not sure if the feature is *ahem* featured on Vista (UNCLEANNNNNNNN) or XP (unlikely) but I thought that's a nice touch.

Ah well... Winding down now. I don't know why I bother sometimes. All my anger, like every post I make, will forever be lost in the obscurity of the blogosphere anyway, never to be heard from by the people who put out WLM. But if any of you WLM developers happen to chance upon this post and read it, I would just like to ask for you to please make WLM not suck.

In the meantime, can we downgrade back to the old WLM 2009 (Wave 3)? Can we still get the program to reinstall the old one? Please??

Yours faithfully,
Angry WLM user

We need more functioning lunatics in this world :D

2010-06-11T04:10:00.006+08:00

We need more functioning lunatics in this world :D

But first, some history:
Way back when the movie was officially greenlit and has pretty still pictures to show for, I caught wind of it on 8days and made a note to watch it when it came out. Mainly because there's Liam Neeson and Bradley Cooper looks so much like Hugh Jackman in that shot.

Then I went on a Star Trek kick and watched TNG. Lt. Reginald Barclay was introduced in one of the episodes and went to do some more digging and found out that he was actually Howling Mad Murdock in The A Team TV series! Dwight Schultz acting neurotic was thoroughly enjoyable. Dwight Schultz acting all-out crazy must be brilliant!

Then a few months past until the summer movie blockbuster season is back. Started making a list of movies I wanna watch during this period and The A Team came up again.

And then the promos started. For weeks, I would walk past the giant wall of A Team poster in the MRT station and I would look up to see a giant Sharlto Copley and think "he looks like one of the Wilson brother". It's the squint/nose combo I think... And he's gonna play Murdock! Given that he's only ever been in 1 movie prior to this (and it's a movie I'm quite curious about after hearing all the good things people say but never really quite found the time ~~and motivation~~ to sit down and watch), I dug out the copy that I got months before and watched it. All I can say is "Wow..." And I ain't the only one who thinks that! (click here)

After that, I really can't wait to watch The A Team. Sharlto Copley's manic energy would translate brilliantly into crazy too!

And today, my wait is over!

~~~Warning: Truly spoilery here! Look away now!!~~~

Hope that's enough spoiler-space. XD

*ahem* Let's begin.

Qui-Gon Jinn's brilliant use of a firing pin!

Cheap man's Hugh Jackman in a bunch of tyres!

Qui-Gon running from Somewhere in Mexico to Somewhere Else in Mexico on foot!

Me trying not to smack myself on the head the moment the words P I T Y tattooed on new Mr. T's left fist appeared onscreen!

Me actually smacking myself on the head the moment the words F O O L tattooed on new Mr. T's right fist appeared onscreen!!

Why does Qui-Gon's Ranger tattoo look newer than new Mr. T's? Did he get it re-inked recently??

The woman they rescued never get heard from ever again!

Wikus acting crazy! I <3 him so much!! Bonus: smarty glasses!! <3 I cannot resist The Megane.

Oh dodgy CGI!

Helicopters are not supposed to do that! You fail Physics forever!!

So that's how Mr. T got his fear of flying...

Nightowl II lost weight and looks a bit like Michael Westen in Burn Notice especially with that Kevlar vest and shades on!

Did Jessica Biel's mouth get bigger? Also, she looks better in period costume (I feel).

Best use of accents ever! Also amusing is how they go about gathering stuff. I half-expect duct tapes and paperclips to be involved but that would be copyright infringement so no. D'aww...

Oh dodgy CGI!

Best use of airbags ever! I wonder how many airbags are necessary to be used as flotation devices for containers in real life...

New Mr. T gets lied to!

BIG BOOM AND THEY'RE DOOMED! As expected!

Oh demotions! Boohoo...

Middle judge's nametag says Carnahan! I wonder if the left and right judges' nametags say Bloom and Woods, the other 2 credited writers.

The Great Escape!

Best use of "So _____ walks into a bar" joke!

Best use of a tanning booth! Hot damn cheap man's Hugh Jackman's well-fit. Those abs... *_*

Best use of custom carplate! And hair. Lots of hair. *_*

Best use of 3D movie screening!! The A Team theme! REGINALD BARCLAY!?!?!?! O_O Now I really need to get it when it comes out in DVD to find out what the other names on that movie-within-a-movie are...

Smart army boys are smart.

New Mr. T lied to and drugged!

Why don't they just drive out of the way? Maybe to the left. Oh I know, to the right!

Flying tanks in the sky! Best use of tank turret and ammo. Why do they stock the tank with ammo when it's being transported in a plane anyway?

Oh regroup time!

Best use of rappelling as a plot device. I also like how the trailers I'd seen previously didn't really show much of what happen from this point on.

Photo booth couple fight! All those chances for a headbutt wasted!!

Oh dodgy CGI!

Blatant lies!!

Is that flashback really necessary? Really?? =____=

Oh more regroup time!

Best passport mix-up ever!

"You speak Swahili?!" "You don't??" XD <3 muchly!

New Mr. T lied to and drugged again!

"You're supposed to catch him after you jab him!" "*pause* Ouuu..."

This is the start of a beautiful ~~relationship~~ friendship... Hurhurhur...

More prep work!

"Overkill is underrated" = Best quote ever!!

Life lessons as taught by Qui-Gon Jinn.

Being reassured by the crazy one is very reassuring!

Oh I know what that metal thing is for!

Oh really really dodgy CGI! Did they hire the BBC CGI team for this movie?!

Wikus = pilot. New Mr. T = driver. I wonder who has a boating license between Qui-Gon and cheap man's Hugh...

Best use of ketchup packets ever!

Sane Wikus is strange...

Status Quo Is God! (click here)

Was wondering where was Dwight Schultz since him and the original Face had cameos and bro pointed out that he's German Doctor #1 as listed in the credits. No... I don't remember any German doctor's in that scene... And oh wait, post-credit scene! Dwight Schultz is rather well-kept for a man of age 62 =3

Oh oh! Fun fact! Dwight Schultz's and Sharlto Copley's birthdays are only 3 days apart. ~~And my birthday is 2 days after Sharlto Copley's... Wonder what that says about me... XD~~

And of course, since my brain was checked at the door and my apparent love for OTT crazies clouded my judgment, I want sequels! It was a fun, albeit hastily cobbled-together ride. I didn't realize 11 different writers had a go at it until after I got back and did more poking. That would totally explain the schizo feel of the movie.

So, bring on the sequels! And make sure only 1 team of writers work on it this time, ok?

Oh post-movie knowledge! Bad guy Pike is one of the script writers!!

Edit (13 Jun 2010): My Head A Splode! (click here) Both Dwight Schultz and Sharlto Copley were 36 when they played H.M. Murdock. O_O

~~~~~

And remember kids, always stay til the end of the movie credits mmkay? XD

I finally found 1 thing I'm looking for!!

2010-05-22T22:40:00.011+08:00

Not to say that I found everything I'm looking for but I'll take what little triumphs come my way...

So was having a late instant noodle dinner out front with dad and TV and this ad came on. That ad had been haunting me for years coz the English song that it used was rather nice and breezy, if a song could be considered breezy. Just a hint of melancholy and is well... haunting! And for the life of me, I could not find it.

When I first heard it years ago (at least 2 years ago coz I remember being at home studying for exams while still in NTU), I tried my best to catch the lyrics and find it online to no avail. I even used my SE Walkman phone's awesome TrackID app to record and send a sample over the very expensive phone data thing but they couldn't find it in their database. I think I even posted a thread on the channel's forum asking about the song but no replies.

Today however, I strained my hearing to catch barely 2 lines of lyrics. Not putting too much hope into things, I googled (on which I played Pac Man on this afternoon--fun stuff!) and lo! I found it!! And imagine my surprise when I found out it is not by an angmoh but by a Chinese. A Taiwanese called Europa Huang. Don't let the name fool you. He's got a great voice. :D Click here for his website.

The song is Over the Way

Lyrics:黃建為
Music:黃建為
Arranger: 吳金黛&黃建為(吉他)

The sunshine's come, the flowers dance along the river, the mountain.
It's cold in the stream, I jump in and swim, being a dreamer, saying nothing in words.

Approaching to a child, ignoring the crowd.
I hear my heart beat, it's so real.
Nameless song, I've sung it over the way.

And maybe I'll be alone to be on the tramp with the moon.
So you empty the roads leading the craft for truth.

Yai yai yai ya

'Cause I don't have wings to fly so freely like birds in the sky.
I'll have to let go of mind to soar in the wind and smile.

Approaching to a child, ignoring the crowd.
I hear my heart beat, it's so real.
Nameless song, I've sung it over the way.

Distracting myself from proper work again

2010-05-18T02:08:00.001+08:00

I am not being regular in jotting down the chronicles of my life. Ah well...

School: Lab test later today (I say today coz it's 1.41am and I really should be sleeping now) and prof only put up the postlab answers for exp 13-19 ytd morning. Screwed! Exam next week and there are still tons of stuff I'm not getting into my noggin. Double screwed!! Not helping my case are watching characters get screwed in compelling shows and reading how Doc Banner gets screwed over and over again in The Incredible Hulk Vol. 3. I cannot resist a good screw (pun totally intended). Nor can I not get addicted to something whenever it gets close to the exams. I really should discipline myself. Then again, that's what The Mother was doing for all of my life so I didn't have to. Never did quite learn how :P

Work: Had been cabbing to work the whole of last week coz I couldn't wake up on time. Too tired... Now broke. I took time off for exam but not for lab test, thinking that I didn't need it but seeing as how the prof only put up the answers for the last half of the lab up ytd morning, I think I need more time so I took some. Was supposed to meet with our DD to talk about the proj ~~tmr~~ later today but I guess small boss hafta go by himself then. Really didn't wanna pull such a last min thing but for the sake of scraping some marks back. The 2 MCQs didn't help my case. T_T

Home: CPU almost burnt down. Was happily watching stuff and suddenly smelled burning. A quick sniff told me it originated from my tower and I did what anyone with a CPU that smells like burnt circuit boards do. I turned everything off and unplugged the cord immediately. After the burning smell died down, I couldn't resist and cracked open the case to see if there are any lasting damage. Luckily there isn't any. Since the tower was open, I did some dusting and cleaning and soon, I had to bring in the maid to do a clean sweep and mop of my room. Gods, the amount of dust bunnies hiding in dark corners in my room (not including the ones I evicted from my CPU) was enough to scare even my bro. Heh... He even admitted that. All because the maid did not bother to pull boxes out to get to the tough corners. I suppose that's how they are. I wouldn't wanna do more than what I could get away with if I'm on minimum wages either. Eventually I decided to just leave the tower ungutted for all to see. More air flow that way, eh?

...Gotta warn the kiddies not to poke their sticky fingers around though. I will break them if they break my CPU.

Tumble & Fall

2010-04-26T01:14:00.002+08:00

It's been a while since my last post about the iPod Touch. 8 months to be exact. And in all of these 8 months, I had the ~~mis~~fortune of not being able to bring it out with me everywhere coz I don't wanna subject myself to all the extra pokes and prods of base/camp security--known to others as NSmen. So I left it at home and only brought it out on weekends after I got it properly dolled up in the form of a screen protector and a back cover thing.

That arrangement had served me well until last Wednesday. I had a whole week of no base or camp visits so I thought it'd be a good time to bring it out so I did and for a few days, it was great. I managed to finished the final few episodes of Brotherhood Season 2--would prolly still be stuck at S02E07 if I didn't bring it out this week. But on my way home on Wednesday, after I ignored the Citibank credit card hounds that were waiting to ambush me outside Tampines MRT station and holding up the universal talk-to-the-hand palm-to-the-face gesture to one adventurous young salesgirl, I don't know how--prolly something to do with my adjusting of the dangly earphone wires or something--but I dropped my iPod Touch. It took a tumble and skidded a few inches on the screen and I let out a sharp yelp. And a loud exasperated "Fuck!". Why couldn't it have fallen on the back cover instead? *sob* Now there's a scratch on the screen protector and I just saw a crack on the back cover today.

Another 4 months and I can proudly proclaim to not have dropped that piece of electronic device for a year! A whole year! What a momentous event!!
(In case you don't know what my track record is like, just for comparison--my last brand new hot-off-the-rack electronic gadget thing was my SE G700 Business edition non-camera phone and that lasted what, a week before I dropped it and grazed a corner. So yeah.)

...I bet the hounds were laughing at my plight and the girl would be thinking "serves you right for 'talk-to-the-hand'-ing me". :'(

Whee... Exhausted...

2010-03-13T03:22:00.002+08:00

From my lack of any post in recent months, I guess you--my dear audience of zilch--can deduce that I'm real busy. From work, from school or from something else altogether.

The long and the longer of it

Work: Rushing Project A since last Dec, estimated to finish rushing in Mar. Now that it's Mar, just when I thought I could take a breather, Project B decided to become active. I couldn't take it anymore~! I want a long long break from work!!! T_T Snuck in 1 day of MC and 1 day of leave on Tue and Wed but is still completely unrested because...

School: Which genius decided that writing 5 lab reports within 1 month for a part time module is plausible, please stand up so I can aim my sniper scope at you better. =_=" It's not like we are full time students ~~enjoying life~~ studying in aussieland. Nor are we rich kids who don't have to work during the day. To top it off, exams will come right after that. So I have 1 weekend to finish 2 reports before the deadline, 1 weekend after that to finish the 3rd and 4th report and 3rd weekend to finish the last report before I can study on the 4th weekend. The time of this lj posting marks the start of the 2nd weekend and the commencement of 3rd and 4th report writing. But I'm gonna hafta pull another midnight fuel combustion because...

Home: IT show from 11-14 Mar, Kino 20% storewide discount from 13-21 Mar.
Few weeks before, my comp was being slow witted and noisy. Mom complained of burning smell but I didn't smell anything. Almost-psychic aunt said to backup my important stuff before it really dies so I did. (I just hope CPU dying will not affect the other harddisk coz I still haven't backed that one up yet D:). Few days ago, I gave my mouse a firm slam coz it was laggy and refusing to work properly and lo! It died. To be exact, the left button died. Me and bro took the mouse apart and found that the left button was still in working order but it just won't work. Had to convert to using the right button for left click and scroll button for right click. Using a modified left-handed mouse with a right hand is a rather peculiar sensation. Not too bad actually. It's always good to shake things up a bit. I would use my newly-configured left-handed mouse with my left hand if not for the fact that I'm just too right-handed. Anyway, my point--I needa add "mouse" to my list of things to buy at IT show when I go on Sunday.
Also, my quarterly Kino sweep is here again. Promised Nanoko in Feb that I'll buy her books when the next 20% comes along in Mar and the moment we entered Mar, she texted me to ask when's the 20% sale. Lol... She and her sis will come over tomorrow and we'll go! (Hope I can wake up in time :P).
So yes, you can see how I might not use this weekend for report writing optimally. T_T And yet, I always still manage to find time to watch...

TV: Thanks to CPT at work whose offhand mention of his recent secure-age of some Star Trek series, I found myself getting all the movies (coz it's the smallest in terms of file size), TOS (coz it's the 1st in a long line of pointy ears) and TNG (coz I'm really taken to Data since way back when and I don't know why). Lucky for me, CPT at work got DS9, VOY and ENT so between the two of us, we have the whole set! Except for the animated series. I violently reject the animated series on principle. Gotten the 3 series he had last month but I still haven't lent him TOS and TNG yet... I'm such a selfish person. Teehee... I kinda jumped the gun a bit and started watching movies no. 7-10 and then went on to TNG coz I don't know if I can handle THE "LARGE HAM" KIRK. *_* The SHAKESPEAREAN HAM is no better but I can get distracted by his shiny. XD Oh! On the topic of distraction...

Internet:
TVTropes Has Ruined My Life. I cannot stop reading and linking from it, nor can I stop quoting from it. Me and bro are even MST-ing with phrases from it!
Also, I still can't figure out Twitter. But that's ok. 140 characters are not enough to express the oddities I meet IRL or my thoughts when ~~I don't wanna do proper work~~ I am bored. A little tempted to become one of those YouTwitFace just so I can follow @neilhimself, @StepHenFry, @PhoenixLP and @BrentSpiner... D: Maybe after I get a smartphone ~~that isn't borne from a fruit~~ that works--remind me to relate the tale of my idiot phone another day.

…I really can’t do “short” can I? MSWord counts a total of 4546 characters (with spaces). That’s more than 30 times the twit’s limit!

Collective update from 17 Dec 2009 til now (coz nothing interesting happened before 17 Dec)

2010-01-02T19:16:00.007+08:00

Collective update from 17 Dec 2009 til now (coz nothing interesting happened before 17 Dec)

...and this is why I do not twit

2009--
17 Dec: Last class of the year. Went to Play on Les Night with Shaf and HueyJinJin. There weren't nearly enough people and I wasn't nearly drunk enough to hit on other girls. Mum flipped out on bro coz I didn't tell her where I was going and what time I'll be home. Note to self: Get drunk moar.

18 Dec: HJ got free tix to Avatar 3D so we went to Great World City to watch it. I need to get contacts or a small glasses frame. That 3D glasses does not sit properly on my nose. X_X The effects were pretty and the story was decent. What I can't wrap my head around was Sam Worthington's supposed American accent. Or he was one of those people to signed onto the Uncle Sam Marine Corps and got his citizenship after his tour? KTV at Cineleisure with HJ, Vanessa and Vanessa's boyfriend til late. Had great fun. Note to self: Need to make other people sing moar.

19 Dec: Slept in. Got woken up by new baby cousin. First of many weekends. Guh... Baby has renewed my hatred for progenies, spawnlings and children.

20 Dec: Another day of sleeping in and waking up to baby's persistent cry. Aunts kept asking me what will happy if baby is actually mine (since Mum had me when she was my age this year). Guh... I bet the baby will be out our 7th floor window very soon if it were to be mine.

21 Dec: Went to work. Went home for lunch. Self-declared half day. Wheee... I'm just asking for it. Where's my letter of termination already?!?

22 Dec: Had dinner at Suntec. So cheap it's unreal! Dad called to say Mum wants me home to eat glutinous rice balls but we can't! We're going to sit around and drink alcohol! Went to Stereo Lounge and it was completely empty. Bit of a downer but at least that means we can go home earlier.

23 Dec: Busy bird today. Flew to camp. Flew back home to bathe and change. Flew back to office ~~just to send 1 email~~ on a cab that brought me round the long way and cost me significant amount of both time and money. Went to John's wedding thinking that I might miss the first 3 dishes but didn't coz they haven't even started yet so phew. There's this SMS service thing where people can text in at no additional charge and the message will be displayed on the screen. It's humanity's idiocy at its best. It felt like some forum by the end of the night. Lol... Take it offline dude...

24 Dec: Half-day today but I went to base to look at the project that I'm being phased out of lately but since my buddy isn't back yet, I thought I could use this as an excuse to not spend the day at the office. Went to base and went to eat with Mum at the overpriced Manpuku Jap Gourmet Town. The okonomiyaki was surprisingly nice. Never had that much cooked cabbage before... Mum saw a bunch of boys in pixelated green and lamented how other people's Ah Bing Ge get to go home for Christmas but her Ah Bing Ge did not. =3 Went to Marina Barrage at night to countdown and we ended up playing Monopoly Deal til about 3am. DW sent PQ back home coz she's going to M'sia the day after and we went for prata opposite Beauty World with Nigel before DW sent us both home.

25 Dec: Reached home around 4 or 5am. Bathed. Slept for most of the day and was woken up by cousin and aunt at around 3pm. Not too shabby. The bunch of cousin set up their laptops and used our computers for Maple LAN party. I forgot my login ID and registered email so I didn't join them. Poked around the internet til 4am and went to bed.

26 Dec: Woke up by the same aunt at 3pm again and WTF I'M LATE FOR VANESSA'S BIRTHDAY PARTY! Lol... I need a proper alarm clock. Preferably the solid metal kind--like the IKEA one. Speedily got ready and chiong'd cab down. Good thing too. Not sure if I really wanted to duke it out on such a rainy day. The cab fare was terrific though.

27 Dec: Slept in late, mauled around at home and poked the internet all day. Same old, same old. Cousins were still at it today. Ah well...

28 Dec: Took off today coz I just know I'm a goner the Monday after Christmas and I was right. Met up with Zaid to get his external hard drive to swap some anime and watch Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes. I need a separate squee-post for this movie. I'm serious. Watch this space. XD

29 Dec: Got to work. Go for breakfast. Checked a bit of email. Go for lunch. Checked the same bit of email. Go for tea break. Checked email for the last time. Go home. A typical day in the office. Met up with bro and aunt and uncle to watch Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes. I can still fill a separate squee-post on top of the first squee-post I still need to put up for this movie. I'm still serious. Keep watching this space. XD

30 Dec: Thanks to yesterday's complete boredom and lack of work, I self-declared off and lo! People keep calling to look for me. I have the best timing ever. -_-" DW asked if I'll be watching Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes few days ago and when I told him I'll be watching it on both 28 and 29 , he rejected my offer of watching it with him today coz he fear for my sanity (and his life). *pats* He really should know his life is forfeit the moment he was born and that my sanity is long beyond all repair. Went to Sim Lim with bro instead and we both still haven't found what we're looking for. Unbelievable! Went to Iluma to have lunch-cum-dinner at The Manhattan Fish Market and oh my arteries. Was feeling rather guilty about binging out on such high cholesterol-y food when I really can't afford to ~~non-monetary wise~~.

31 Dec: Went to office but since it's a half-day, I went to Orchard Kino to look for KHR light novels. One of them had Ryohei and Hibari's side story and I WANT THAT TO THE EXTREME!! Too bad they didn't have it. Ordered it and will now wait for good news. Had lunch with bro at Breeks and the service was rather... self'd. We waltzed in, sat ourselves, took the menus off the shelf ourselves, went up to the waiter for him to take our order, I waited for almost half an hour to see if anyone will take notice of our tiny table full of empty plates before we gave up and called for someone to clear our plates and serve our desserts. The massive Massive Attack was prolly a mistake coz after we paid and left, we went to Far East to catch a cab since I was running late--feeling queasy all the way--and while in the cab queue, I couldn't hold it in any longer and rushed off to the toilet to empty my gut. All of it. $30 worth of lunch down the drain. Good thing too coz pretty sure if I were to not empty it there, $30 worth of lunch would be emptied on the cab instead. So got home, got ready and we went to Sentosa Palawan Beach for the countdown. Played cards, ate junk food, drank some alcohol, stared at the bright bright moon, all the while being surrounded by noisy Indians who likes to do the Xena War Cry (tm). In an attempt to be cheeky, I brought my dick-light out and lucky I did coz we forgot to bring torchlights and the light sticks were too small and thin. My dick-light became our sole beacon, our flashing lighthouse on our 2-mat island. We would've stayed til sunrise if not for the deceptively fat drops of rain that fell on almost everyone of us that ended quite quickly. Went for McD breakfast at Harbourfront Center instead and went home.

2010--
01 Jan: Reached home at 7.20am (thx to PQ meeting her cousin who lives in Tampines at the taxi stand. They just got on the cab when I'd already reached my house.), bathed and slept til 8pm despite dad's attempt to wake me at 7pm. Watched LotR: RotK on TV a lil and went to bed at 4.30am. Totally screwed up my internal clock all in the name of fun and games.

02 Jan: And here we are. Cousins came over for another round of LAN party but our strength is a little short. Note to self: post squee-post.

Wishing all a belated

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

Long, tiring but fun-filled and fulfilling weekend

2009-12-01T01:49:00.002+08:00

Thanks to Hari Raya Haji on 27 Nov, we have a long weekend and here's how I'd spent it.

Warning: Wall of Text!

27 Nov

Had hi-tea buffet at Lao Beijing in Plaza Singapura. That's a lot of Chinese chives and shallow/pan fried food...
Had chestnut cake. Delicious but lacking in something. Something I can't put my finger on...
Got some interesting presents too. Got $100 Kino voucher, a deck of R-rated poker cards, a mug with cows in various coital positions and the main event: a dick-shaped translucent lamp with lights that change color! ~~I made me clique go into a sex shop for the first time! When I asked bro "Don't people go into sex shop out of curiosity anymore?", he answered "They never do. 'cept for you of course."~~
Wanted to watch 2012 but GV Plaza Singapura is almost all filled so we took some group pictures with the poster instead.
Went to Dynasty KTV--famous for its *ahem* side ventures--to sing til 10.30pm. I managed to yell my heart out to Shin Yue Tuan's Tian Gao Di Hou in the most impressive and not-out-of-tune way. That's really a toughie. Whee... Gods know I love those screamy rock song but damn if I have to sing them all. I'd shred my throat to strips permanently after just a few hours.
Left my bag of toys besides the poster T_T. Lucky for me, one of the sharp-eyed guy saw it and took it for me. I only realized I left my presents back in PS after I got to Dynasty. >_<
After the KTV, everyone was beat and went home. Except for lz, dw and me. We felt it was still early and since lz and me both really wanted to watch 2012 and dw didn't mind driving us home after the movie, we stayed behind to buy tickets. Went from The Cathay to GV PS and back to The Cathy again. Didn't really matter which cinema we go to in the end as we all ended up with tix for 2nd row from the screen. Movie was a blast but like most movies, you gotta leave your brains at the door.
dw drove lz home and asked if I wanted to drive his huge SUV home from lz's place so I did. It might be because that vehicle is gonna get scrapped soon... that's why he was so bold to let me try. Lol... As expected of big cars, the brake needs to apply more pressure and the braking distant is longer so gotta brake earlier and the gas needs to apply more pressure and the acceleration is slower so gotta press more. But the seats are high and I can finally see what's going on on the roads even when I didn't really adjust the mirrors properly! XD I like big cars for their high seats... *has short body*
Reached home around 4.30am I think...

Warning: Potential movie spoiler!!!
What's with John Cusack and being casted as a limo driver? First in Identity, now in 2012...
What's with John Cusack and being casted with Amanda Peet? First in Identity, now in 2012... Woah, deja vu.
2012 showcased his l33t driving skillz for Russian guy Yuri's limo, Woody Harrelson's camper van and Russian guy Yuri's Bentley...
Sasha can be a male Russian name so does that mean that TF2 Heavy is teh ghey when he refers to his beloved weapon as Sasha?
Russian guy Yuri's young bodyguard-cum-pilot Sasha is in Eastwick with glasses and a Nikon D50 camera... <3 megane-kun
Captain of the ship where all the main cast are in is Hollis Mason aka Nite Owl I in Watchmen! *_*

~~~~~

28 Nov

Went for dinner at Dian Xiao Er in Vivocity. Another round of sinful yet delicious Chinese cuisine. The ribs and Peking duck are yummy. Felt overdressed when I saw my friends...
Finished dinner bit early so we went to get some drinks at Food Republic on the top level where the Christmas tree is. Same tree deco was used last year.
Finally went over to St James. Why is it that my friends from work are only free around end Nov? Happened last year too. Attendance this year is sorely lacking though. But that's ok coz we have other people coming over. hj was so on when I told her I'm going to St James on Sat and asked if she wanted to come along. She even got some friends to come with her.
We had a few glasses of drinks at Boiler Room, saw some performance and teasing from the house band/entertainers and went over to Powerhouse for some insane dancing, went back to Boiler Room when our legs got tired 1 hour of straight dancing later and danced some more to the 2nd round of house band performance. My ears were still ringing when we left...
Teehee... Before we left for Powerhouse, this handful of slightly older Caucasian men couldn't find the bathroom and wandered to our little corner thinking that there's the WC. They asked where was the bathroom and I pointed to the other direction and one of them said he liked my style. I had on my black pageboy cap, swirly earrings, long grey Dolman top/short skirt by bYSI and a black shorts underneath coz I'm chor loh like that. One of the guys from work said "eh... older angmoh man leh... Your kinda guy. Go after him la!" XD
The MC/rapper for the house band seems to have taken a liking to our corner too coz he'd wandered over to our side of the stage a few times and tried to talk to us a bit while performing on said stage. Could be because of hj with me beside the stage and all the other lovely ladies with us and not just me I suppose... :)
Fun times. Hope us old fogeys didn't bore hj XD. Reached home around 4am and my ears were still ringing.

~~~~~

29 Nov

Got woken up by The Mother(tm) at 10 plus. Knees still hurt, ears still ringing. She tried to drag me to Singapore Expo for Sitex. We needed to get another LCD TV for my comp coz my previous one died 10 months after the warranty expired. I had to use back the one we got prior to the previous one. That TV screen is massive! With it on the table with my keyboard and mouse, the viewing distance is too short and I felt like my myopia will shoot up to 1000 degrees or something so The Mother(tm) bought my previous one to replace the one prior to the previous one. Talk about circular. So I grunted that I'll go down later to get what I want and she left for Sitex with dad to get my TV. She called again to ask if I'm ok with a 23" coz the difference was $100 and if I'm
Finally woke up enough to go down. Got out and made at least 8 laps of both exhibition halls. Helped aunt buy RAM and wireless keyboard and mouse set. Bought some more DVDRs coz I eat them for breakfast and I'm running low. Bought a laptop.
On the first day of the 24th year of my existence, I finally own a laptop!! Even though I really don't need one!!! And I'm totally broke!!!! Woohoo!
The story behind my wanting a laptop started with me finding out that I still have around $300 worth of prorated flexi-benefits claim from last year and since they don't let us carry over the benefits, I might as well spend it on something. But what can I spend it on? Insurance? I don't buy insurance. Travel expenses? I can't go on a vacation while taking me part time. Spectacles? Maybe, but mine is still working fine (is considering getting those transition lenses though... Maybe I'll use this year's flexi-money for that). I know! IT products. I can get an external harddrive, an external DVD burner, more RAM, maybe even a laptop! Don't need camera, don't need camcorder, don't need printer.
When bro comes back from camp and The Mother wants to use the computer, I'll end up with no computer *is sad*. Coincidentally, bro was whining for a laptop to play WoW ~~by left~~ in base with so I thought I'll use last year's flexi-money and we'll split the cost. That was the plan in September during the previous IT show. Good thing I decided to wait it out. Now I can happily say I have completely skipped past Windows Shitsta and plunged into the newly-launched and most-likely-still-buggy-but-hopefully-is-better-than-Shitsta, Windows 7! So far, I've heard good things from people who is it now so I'm hopeful. XD
I had to prompt the boy who sold it to me for some freebies that I need (like the keyboard protector and cleaning kit) and when it came to payment, he said he'll give me a cooling fan and I said what about the cleaning kit? I don't reli need the cooling fan. On hindsight, maybe I should've left out that last sentence and insist he gimme the cooling fan like a typical Singaporean. *shrugs*
I didn't expect the whole set of stuff to be so heavy! Had to call dad to pick me up.
Got home, had a slice of durian cake =3 and fix up, tune and test the TV.
Now to install Windows 7, Norton the annoying Security Suite and Microsoft the useless Office... Really hope Norton the annoying and Microsoft the useless works properly with Win7.

Warning: Contains emo

2009-11-23T02:58:00.001+08:00

Last Friday I got a call from Jess in the morning (after senior bitch called me earlier that morning informing me of events that are gonna take place next Tuesday. Still can't figure out why she can't tell me on Monday instead of calling me at the ungodly hour of 0845am. *morn!zombie*) informing me of the arrival of Gokusen The Movie to our local theaters soon and whether I wanna watch it with her. I said no coz I didn't finish watching Gokusen The Series and I'm anal when it comes to these sorta things.

So we went on to chat about what is going on in our lives. She said she's at Bedok to get some money or stuff. I said I have an exam later that day and that I'm not really prepared for it. She said I shouldn't worry coz I always end up getting good grades if I don't study. I told her she just jinxed me.

So after the paper (of which I am able to use all my fingers to count the number of confirm correct MCQs and is fairly confident I'd gotten the essay questions mostly correct), I thought back to what Jess said earlier that day and to all the times I'd taken exams.

I *do* end up getting better grades for papers I'm more worried about and less confident in answering correctly.

...So in line with that realization, I'm gonna get sucky grades for the paper I took last Friday.

Stars and planets all align to make this a terrible day for me...

2009-10-25T00:18:00.001+08:00

Stars and planets all align to make this a terrible day for me...

Or, 50 38 things that ruined my perfectly balmy (read: extremely hot and humid) Saturday:

1. Morning lab
2. Being late for morning lab
3. Running out of RE buffer and restriction enzymes during morning lab
4. Pushing fellow ~~female~~ classmates who tried to snatch the vials of RE buffer and restriction enzymes that the lab tech got for me out of my hands even tho I'm not done with them yet coz I told her I ran out of RE buffer and restriction enzymes and she got some for me and told me to pass to them when I'm done
5. Pushing fellow ~~female~~ classmates who did not even bother to say a simple thank you after successfully snatching the vials of RE buffer and restriction enzymes that the lab tech got for me out of my hands after I'm done with them.
6. 10 missed calls within 10 min from a number I do not know at 2am
7. 10 SMS in what looks like Vietnamese within 30min from the same unknown number at 2am
8. 3 SMS within 10min from the same unknown number at 2pm
9. Singtel guy not being helpful when I told him I'm getting a bunch of calls and SMSes from some stranger and told me they could do call tracing for me (min 2 days, $5 per day)
10. Singtel guy not being helpful when he told me they can't block calls or SMSes from that number.
11. 5 SMS within 15min from the same unknown number at 4pm
12. 5 consecutive calls to said unknown number to express my displeasure and wish for them to stop calling/SMSing me
13. Non-English speaking woman on the other line hung up on me all 5 times
14. Non-English speaking woman on the other line turning off the phone subsequently
15. Non-English speaking woman on the other line refused to answer my call after that.
16. 8 SMS within 30min from the same unknown number at 6pm
17. Needing to get help from my uncle-in-law's friend's Vietnamese wife to type an SMS that says "Stop calling me. Stop SMSing me. I'm not who you think I am."
18. 6 SMS within 20min after sending that SMS that says "Stop calling me. Stop SMSing me. I'm not who you think I am."
19. Is seriously considering call tracing and letting Singtel earn even more money
20. Is seriously considering calling the police and make a mountain out of a molehill
21. Not sure if this constitutes to harassment in a court of law
22. Not sure we even have a law pertaining to harassment via telecommunication
23. Need to pay for all the SMSes and calls to and from the same unknown number
24. Phone's SMS inbox getting full
25. Phone getting laggy coz of only 1000+ SMSes
26. Tried to backup phone
27. Sony Ericsson PC Suite hanging and dying on me
28. Had to restart phone
29. Restarting phone = lose all contact details but not phone numbers in SIM card
30. Had to ask who is who based on phone numbers again
31. Tried to update phone software
32. Instructions on update software application does not work
33. Update software application hanging and dying on me
34. Tempted to get Win 7 upgrade after a few days of pondering even though initial assessment of upgrading to Win 7, while positive, might end up inconveniencing me when it comes to getting existing programs to work on it properly
35. Found out Win XP-->Win 7 upgrade require clean installation, which also means will definitely inconvenience me as will definitely require reinstallation of all existing programs currently in use
36. Blew $147 on 3 "dresses" or more appropriately, oversized sweaters that could be worn on their own
37. Blew another $65 on accessories just to make it >$200 for lifetime membership offer
38. Heard bro's voice in head saying "Gods!! You are such a woman~~" in that spastic manner only he can do

How disappointed with you I am, iPod Touch

2009-08-24T14:47:00.003+08:00

Thanks to the lovely Vanessa, I have gotten meself a 32GB iPod Touch at the low low price of SGD$580. I know, I know, for that price, I coulda gotten meself a 32GB iPod Phone 3GS but what for? All I wanna do is use it to watch videos and surf the interweb. I can't use it at work coz there's a camera and if I were to take out the camera, it'd become an iPod Touch anyway ~~(but if you want to get technical about it, it'd become an iPod Touch that can make calls)~~. 'Sides, I would hafta *pay* someone to *take out* a part that they could use in the manufacturing of another iPhone. Oh the irony.

So I've had it for 4 days, played with it twice and I have already found a few simple yet essential flaws that should not've been there in the first place.

Let the ranting continue. (You can stop here if you like)

1. Why can't we just drag and drop files directly into the device instead of going through iTunes? I can't put in pictures without syncing the entire folder! =_=

2. Why can't we rotate the photo on the device itself? Now I hafta go back to the folder, rotate it and sync with the thing again. =_=

3. Why can't we see the animated GIFs being animated? They only show the first frame of the gif. =_=

4. Why can't we have FM receiver on the device? It's not really that big a deal but I'm old skool like that. 'Sides, our local radio stations don't have internet streaming anymore. I've now gotta consider whether to get those FM radio extensions accessories for it now... =_=

5. Why can't we turn wifi on or off simply by touching the wifi icon at the top left hand corner? I'll forget to turn it off and leaving it on sucks energy. =_= Plus, I'm worried about the security of my shit.

6. Why can't we see exactly how many percent our batt has left by touching the battery icon on the top right corner? All we know is the vague agaration (approximation) of how much we have left graphically. =_= Would be great if they could tell use how many hours/minutes we have left but that's just asking too much.

...I just realized something. My Sony Ericsson G700 Business Edition--a phone that brings me another set of problems altogether--is able to do all 5 stuffs that I wish my Touch can do. *sighs*

Next up, list of stuffs I need to get/do:
1. Protective case and/or cover
2. Screen protector
~~3. Video converter~~
4. Tetris
5. Bejeweled
6. eBuddy
7. FileMagnet
8. Yahoo! Launchcast radio
9. Find AutoFill setting on iTunes
~~10. Bookmark websites~~

Busy busy day

2009-08-09T01:52:00.006+08:00

So I was woken up after being smothered by jess's boobies and shaf's laughter and we went for McD breakfast before sending jess to see my family GP for MC coz shaf "convinced" her to take MC and miss work so that we can hang out for the whole day. Unfortunately, I'd already bought tix to watch G.I. Joe with my aunt and 4 cousins in the afternoon so her MC is more for snuggling with her fiance instead. :P Sorry girls.

So we went for the movie and it was surprisingly entertaining! Might be because I am watching it for the lulz and I got what I paid for. XD

Potential spoiler alert!!!

For the whole duration of the movie--117min to be exact, bro and I managed to MST it and used more than half a dozen pop culture references.

We referenced Starship Troopers (the original one), Stargate, Stargate Atlantis, Star Wars, Doctor Who, Prison Break, Scarlett Johansson, Red Alert 3, Team Fortress 2, Transformers... On hindsight, we should've also referenced The Karate Kid during the dojo scene. Lol!

...You don't watch a G.I. Joe movie for its plot, do you? I don't fault such movies on plot. The shoddy CGI and cheesy lines were what I'd expected after watching the trailer so I try not to fault the movie on those either. I think I should applaud the CGI people for making the effects look as shoddy as the props. You don't get dedication to continuity like that anymore.

One thing that didn't really work for me was the flashbacks. It's quite disjointed to be cutting back and forth between the past and present especially since we could've done without some of the back stories. Gave us a little bit more insight but ultimately not essential. Bro also had some problems with scenes that weren't necessary and they aren't even flashbacks. There really are a lot of scenes we could've done without...

They also gave some crap reason on why Snake Eyes does not speak but seeing as how often people change characters' back stories in movies (yes, I'm talking about you Fox), I won't blame them. Personally, I like his um... more *widely* accepted/known reason on why he doesn't speak because I'm a sadist like that.

Cameo alert for Brendan Fraser. Aunt said he was a rather memorable character even though he appeared for like a minute or so and had about 5 lines. You can't help but be drawn to him. Lol... Some people just have presence like that. Unlike me. *draws circles dejectedly on the floor in a dark corner*

So after the movie, I was telling bro how they actually could do another 2 more sequels at least since most of the characters' back stories wasn't explored and we have Snake Eye's adolescent and pre-movie years to flash on extraneously.

End potential spoiler alert

After the movie, we went to grandma's house and had some dinner and I was itching something fierce for a karaoke session. Rounded up my aunt and ~~another~~ 2 cousins and we went to the rather new Cash Studio at the top floor of the old Princess building at Bedok Interchange. Clean and tidy, good selection of songs, friendly staff and reasonably priced. Floor's a bit sloped coz it used to be a cinema and there were more stairs and steps than necessary. We screamed our lungs out for all of the 3 hours we had the room for--satisfying stuff. Everyone's throat was sore so we had some drinks and satay at the nearby hawker center and chatted before we realized it's already midnight and the last bus home was leaving soon.

Haven't had this much fun since... well... I can't remember. But that's only because I have worse memory than a goldfish.

Deadpool, is that you??!!

2009-07-14T20:54:00.000+08:00

Zaid linked this to me and all I can think of while watching it was whether the guy doing the narration really *is* Deadpool...

In other news, Variety announced that Ryan Reynolds has been casted as the new Green Lantern and Theophilus from ComicBookResources said he/she is "envisioning a Conan O' Brian "in the year 3000, all comic book leads will be played by Ryan Reynolds" bit." I agree with that so much that I'm stealing that quote as my MSN nick!!

Oddly though, I can only find Variety as the only source of this confirmation. Nothing official was released and imdb does not list any actors or actresses in The Green Lantern (2011) entry so I'm not gonna think too much about that "confirmation".

...RR as The Flash, yes. RR as GL, not so much. There's a really good fan-made trailer for GL starring Nathan Fillion floating around somewhere in the net. Cap'n Mal as GL--do want more than Wade Wilson as GL!

Planning and doing are two different actions...

2009-06-16T00:34:00.001+08:00

Planning and doing are two different actions... Or, I went to the IT show to get a RAM and I came home with a sound card and a busted up headphone & mic set.

(Goshdarnit, I feel like I'm writing the title for a Gintama episode... =3)

So I went to the IT on Saturday with the intention of getting some DVDRs and maybe some RAM or a PS2 memory card since the old one is starting to save corrupted data.

First stop, PS2 memory card. There was a small pile of PS2 controllers on offer but no memory card in sight so I asked the girl standing besides the cart if they sell any PS2 memory cards. She asked me "PS2??" with a slightly disbelieving look on her face and I said yes. As if to confirm her disbelieve, she asked again. Lol... I think I chuckled when I replied yes again. She finally gotten past her shock of someone asking about that bloody ancient console and said no. Gee.. that was an amusing 10 seconds of my life right there. What a great way to start my trawl.

Next up is RAM shops. Real cheap stuff but I already have 4GB that isn't quite dead yet so I figured I can hold out until it actually dies and get new ones. It's not like I can't get it elsewhere at around the same price anyway. There goes my plan.

After that, I spied the discs shop and noted that the DVDRs are f-ing cheap now. So are external harddisks. Tough choice...
Pros of DVDR: don't hafta worry about it crashing on me and losing a lot of data (it's 4.7GB max)
Cons of DVDR: hafta worry about disc degradation and eventual obsolescence of technology (think laser discs...)
Pros of external harddisks: small size, big storage
Cons of external harddisks: prone to crashing (hafta be gentle and cannot drop it), will need to recover a large amount of data if spoilt/crashed/gone kaput/met its maker
...I think I'll stick with DVDRs for now. Or until they come up with a shock- and crash-resistant drives that is able to store data for eons.

My circuit around the convention hall alerted me to the Creative booth and I thought maybe I should check out their sound card. I love Creative's sound card. I'm still using the one that was with me since 2 CPUs ago. It's still working great! Barring the I-kill-your-CPU-if-you-screw-me-into-your-mobo and the variable-sound-level-without-adjusting-the-knob problem. The new (and only) entry-level sound card on offer is actually an upgrade of the one I have and it comes with a headset with mic. The guy was pitching it (the headset with mic, not the sound card) like it's the best thing in the world. Riiiight... I'll think about it first. Ended up buying it from the same guy before we left.

Also, bro made the stupid mistake of assuming we'll be gone after we get some PSP memory cards. We being me ~~and bro~~ and my aunt ~~and her family~~. Bought the 8GB memory card at the first store he saw even though I asked if he wanted to take a look around since the first store always jacks up their prices. Turns out, there really *is* another store further in that sells 'em much much cheaper. Paid an extra $10 at the first store coz of the assuming. Sucker... :P

We also got 2 rows of those multi-plug power sockets with surge protection for our computers coz with the amount of electronics we have hooked up and the amount of paper products lying around said electronics, I swear, if my room ever catches on fire (touch wood!), it'll bring the whole street down with it. D:

So we got home, rewired everything to our new surge protected power sockets, plugged in the new sound card (the audiophile in me wept joyously) and realized that the freebie headphone and mic is actually all damaged. The lil teeny bits of plastic holding the headphones to the adjustable headband thing was broken so I now have a tiny headband, a mic attached to one of the earphones and 2 earphones that needs to be held to the ears by hand. Aunt said if she's going back to the IT show the next day, she'll go change it for me but she didn't go so the busted up headphones are still sitting in my room.

I really couldn't bring myself to go down again just to change a piece of shoddy manufacturing that I don't even use! Maybe if I had more principle... I would insist they change one for me as a matter of it.

What do you think? Should I start scrounging for some princples and get 'em (the store that sold me the sound card, not the principles) to change a new set for me?

When was the last time you did arts and crafts?

2009-05-05T23:37:00.001+08:00

Was poking around Deadpool Bungle today and saw this lil gem. Seeing as I needa pop down to LC Kino to get fatboyho his MCAT book anyway (which is like 3 inches thick or something... phew...), I figured I'll get meself some card stocks and make a whole legion of cubeepool while I'm at it.

Took me close to 2 hours to get one done.

I know... It's a pathetic time but what can I say? I suck at arts and crafts. Mum came in and ask me what I'm doing with the scissors and penknife and I showed her what the finished product looks like. She laughed and said "Oh, you are making a robot! I was wondering why you reverted to a primary school kid again." Fun times. It's really been years since I last did anything remotely related to arts or crafts.

...I actually printed 2 templates out. Think I'll leave the other one for bro to do when he gets home since his arts & crafts is better than mine. Or when my urge to get my legion of cubeepool up and running. Whichever comes first.

I have finally found a good reason to be an engineer

2009-05-03T23:22:00.002+08:00

For years, I had taken up engineering as my field of studies but I have never once thought of a good reason why I should be an engineer...

Until now.

XD

Next, to adopt babies from Zimbabwe

2009-02-08T22:21:00.001+08:00

Next, to adopt babies from Zimbabwe

I bought a book from Kino 2 Fridays ago and was peeved to find out that the book was not in the best of condition. Damages include 2 straight lines down the spine that arises from people reading the book and bending it back all the way (I hate that by the way, bending books all the way to the spine and leaving creases in the spine), bit of a dog ear at the bottom of the book and a bit of a dent--also at the bottom--like the book had fallen and landed on a sharp edge perpendicular to the book itself. I know they aren't really big damages but still, I feel a bit cheated out of my money. I paid the full price for a slightly knackered book. I want a refund. Or at least an exchange. Maybe a lifetime membership to make up for my trauma. :P

So on Thursday, I decided to write in to Kino to tell them and ask about their exchange policy--see if I can get my exchange done. I really want that book. It's a fun and interesting book called QI: The Book of General Ignorance. And because I have as much faith in big corporations as I do in the government, I made a mental note to call them up once their office opens the next day. To my pleasant surprise, they called me back! Just minutes before I pick up the phone to call them, they called my mobile and told me that they had received my email and I can go down anytime to do an exchange for the same book, or if the book is not available, I could change it for something else. Brilliant! There is hope for big corps yet!!

Was joking with bro and natjie that of course Kino hafta let me get my book changed. They would've lost at least $500 in profit annually if they didn't. I would never buy from them ever again. ;) It might not be much but every penny counts in times like these.

Anyway, since I'm only free on Saturday, I went down with bro in the afternoon. On our way there, I was thinking how the book is really the victim in this whole ordeal. It didn't ask to be damaged like so and now that the person who bought it realized it is damaged, it is gonna be returned to Kino who will in turn pass it back to the supplier and who will then pass it on to the publisher who will ultimately chuck it into the recycling bin or something. And none of this would've happened if the person who bought it weren't so picky and wanted a brand new perfect copy of itself. Felt a bit guilty about that, being the cause of the demise of the book. Felt weird feeling guilty over the fate of an inanimate object. O_o

And guess what? We arrived only to find that there is no copies of the book left! Searched the shelf, none. Searched on the book-finding computer terminal, none. Asked the girl at the English books info counter, she told me there is only one copy left and that I should try my luck at that shelf that I'd searched and that if it's not there, someone else must've taken it or had bought it already. Right. Sounds like something every salesgirl says when you ask them for something--only more polite and with more details.

Again, joking with bro and natjie that they kept all the copies to make sure I can't do the exchange.

In a way, I'm a little glad that we couldn't find a fresh copy of the book and did the exchange. I won't have to carry the guilt of condemning a perfectly serviceable book to the depths of literary hell just because it had a bit of creases and bends. Told bro about it and he said to me: Aww... you have just saved a book. Are you gonna go shag the sexiest man on earth and adopt babies from third world countries now? ~~(To which I nodded vehemently and said I would like that. And he continued with)~~ But not before breaking up his marriage and be judged by a lot of people because of that. ~~(To which I answered I wouldn't mind if that means I get to shag the sexiest man on earth.)~~ XD

So in the end, we wasted 2 hours of our Saturday just looking through books and buying none. The Korean chicken thing with the chili and the Four Seasons durian pancake thing at the basement is delicious though.

General observations

2009-01-25T00:31:00.002+08:00

As you can tell from my lack of posts lately, I've been busy ~~and lazy~~ these few weeks. I'd been meaning to post this early though.

I've observed something quite a while ago... The people at work are a rather touchy-feely bunch. My buddy in particular is someone who likes to touch people on the arms, point very close in people's faces and general invade people's personal space when talking to them.

I can't blame them for being touchy-feely now can I? They just happen to really love human contact but I don't. So being subjected to their brand of friendship is a little--uncomfortable.

I've never been touchy-feely. Jess had been trying to get me to hug her back for all of 10 years ~~rather unsuccessfully~~. I've long suspected that it could be because I was brought up in a family that isn't affectionate by nature and therefore not used to such displays. We don't hug, we don't kiss, we don't exchange 'love you's when we leave the house or end phonecalls. It wasn't until I'm 18 that mom started dispensing hugs freely and that really wigged me out a bit. But that's not to say I abhor touch or anything. I'd rather be the one initiating the touch, is all...

Another thing I noticed a while ago was the people at work really like to discuss relationship stuff and/or match-make single people--which really annoys me because I'm always one of the subjects of interest seeing as I'm single. But unlike the other single people, I'm not actively looking to be un-single.

This had always been the problem since I was 12. Everyone's out to make sure everyone else gets hitched so that said everyone can have their boyfriends/girlfriends and not feel guilty about not being single. At every stage of my life, whenever I enter a new institution or had a change of environment, everyone would be doing that and I had to inform them none-too-kindly that I am not interested in so-and-so or so-and-so or so-and-so enough times for them to leave me be.

Don't seem to work with Jess though.

Why does she bother asking my in the first place anyway??

2009-01-06T16:24:00.003+08:00

I get blindsided everyday

A number of years ago, we were going through a massive furniture replacement period for the whole house and I bought the loft bed from IKEA which I absolutely loved.

A few years ago, I salvaged a sofa armchair from the set that was gonna be thrown away as the leather had started to crack and tear and shifted it into my room.

Many months back, mom started nagging for me to throw away that armchair as "it was taking up a lot of space" in my room. I didn't think so. Bro--who practically lived in my room and only retreating to his room just to sleep--didn't think so either. Outvoted, she proceeded to nag at me every now and again to get rid of it but I didn't.

2-3 months back, mom started to drop hints about how the loft bed is getting old and she should replace it with a normal bed for me. It didn't take long before she gave up dropping hints (as I am the biggest Captain Oblivious you might ever meet) and asked me straight up and in my face if I wanted to change beds. I said no again. I really love my loft bed and it's such a space-saver. It was the reason why I could afford to haul a sofa armchair into my room in the first place. Again, she tried to involve my bro into this and bro thinks my loft bed is a good idea and she got outvoted again.

Finally, last month, she started the topic of mattresses and I casually mentioned I would like to have a firmer one as the old one was getting soft and she dragged me out for some mattress shopping that weekend. So we ordered one of my choosing and went home. When she got home, she had a brainwave and ask me if I wanted to change the loft bed as the new mattress was really heavy and would be hard to change on a loft bed. I didn't think it was such a big deal so I said no again. We'd gotten on fine with the old one, what's so different with the new one?? O_o

Last Friday, I came home and the first thing she said was "the mattress (is of a) wrong size" and I was puzzled. Didn't we order Super Single like we always did? I'm pretty sure my bedsheets were all Super Single. It turns out, my old mattress was a Single but it was thick so we had to fit Super Single sheets to it so it wouldn't keep riding up the edges. The next thing she said was "I'd ordered a new bed for you". And I got a bit hysterical. Why does she bother asking me in the first place if she's just gonna do what she wants anyway?!?! I might not be so pissed if she had said "I'm gonna change your bed and there's nothing you can do about it. Muahahah..." all those months ago. =___= Jess asked if her asking me if I wanna change was just for formalities sake and I'm inclined to agree.

So okay fine. Nothing I can do about it anyway. The mattress is already in the other room and the bed is coming whether I like it or not. We set about planning how should we shift the furniture in my room and came to a conclusion that deferred slightly from what she had planned. The bed would be somewhere in the middle of the room instead of at the corner, with the headboard facing the door. Then she said there'll be a board at the foot of my new bed to block the unsightly underbelly of my new bed which will be stuffed with my junk and me, my bro and my aunt who happened to be around and helped came up with our new floor plan were all O_O. I asked if we could change to one without the board since the bed will be in the middle of the room and the unsightly junk can and will be seen from all angles unless there are boards on all sides of the bed. Mom said it can help block dust. Bro and aunt and me went O_O again. Sure, it blocks dust from the foot of the bed. What about either side of the bed?! Dust can't gather through the exposed length of the bed apparently. So fine, she said she's gonna go check if she could change the bed for me on Saturday.

Which means I'm gonna finally get the lesser of two evils. Woot. Then she told me to stay at home to clear out the room on Saturday and Sunday--even though I'd already told her I'm gonna go shopping for new clothes on Saturday and Sunday. Her reason was that if she were to change to the boardless bed, there is stock so she can get it delivered earlier and I need to clear out the room in preparation. =_=" I said we'll see how it goes. If she manage to get it delivered earlier, we'll clear out the room on Saturday and Sunday. If not, I'll go shopping.

Obviously, we stayed home for the weekend, cleared out some drawers and cupboards, took apart the loft bed, reassembled the loft bed in another room, took down shelves, put up shelves somewhere else, shifted tables, rewired computers, shifted cupboards, shifted drawers, repainted one wall of the room as it was purple behind the shelves that was taken down and my room is apple green. I kinda like that random rectangle of purple against the rest of the apple green wall but mom wouldn't have that abomination and commissioned dad to dig around for green paint. He found a can of Spring Green, which is sort of the kind of newly-grown-grass green. Not apple green but close enough. And the whole wall was uniformly colored, not just the rectangle of purple so she gave it her ok.

She'd arranged for the bed to be delivered on Tuesday and gotten my aunt to come by to receive it but on Monday, aunt's boss told her to go to another location at the last minute and I found out I had to take half day leave. Oh well. It's *my* bed. Then she dropped another bombshell. The bed being delivered will still have the board. WHAT!!?!?!? Didn't I explicitly tell her I don't want board at foot of bed? O_O!!!! This is getting frustrating. She said the guy told her there is stock for that type of bed and she exclaimed "and you wanted me to wait another 2 weeks for it??" so the guy agreed to deliver next week. WTF!?!?!!? I don't care if there is stock for the bed with that board. I want a normal bed with 4 legs and no boards except for the one at the head. I might have mentioned I'm going to take an axe to that footboard.

It is now Tuesday and I'm waiting for the delivery guy to come by with my bed. ...I wonder what shocking revelation will be waiting on the other side of my door when I get home tomorrow.

Edit: Apparently I don't hafta wait til tomorrow to have my side blinded. Called the shop up at 1730 and found out that the factory side cocked up and thought the delivery guy got the bed for delivery even though the delivery guy didn't physically get the bed out for delivery. What a waste of my leave. The bad news is aunt still can't come by as she is posted elsewhere and I can't take another half day leave coz I have something on at work in the afternoon.

It would've been a properly big accident

2008-12-20T01:17:00.002+08:00

So I drove to the airport with mom to send off some relatives earlier today and we were almost flattened by a trailer due to my incompetency.

Drove up to the junction and stopped to turn into the expressway. Mom was saying how I should look carefully coz the cars waiting to turn the other way is rather tall and we couldn't quite see what is beyond them. Oh like I don't know that... All the cars had cleared and there was a period without any cars coming through so I looked. The cars on the other side are stopping at the light a distance back so I thought I was in the clear and made my turn. And I saw a pair of headlights coming towards me. O_O

I was stopping and mom gripped my arm and told me to quickly go through and I froze. I was a little hesitant coz I'm pretty sure there's enough space for the trailer to maneuver past but she kept telling me to go through so I floored it. Trailer horns blaring and we managed to cross in front of it and avoid a collision by a hair's breath. If I had accelerated a fraction of a second later, I would definitely not be here writing this. O_O

Now, I have to explain. I would usually wait til the green arrow appears coz that particular junction is really horrible but I guess seeing the car beside me go through made me think I was really in the clear so maybe that why I did what I did and went for the turn. In my defense, the trailer was pitch black. All I could see was a pair of headlights. We should lobby for all heavy vehicles to be sprayed with reflective paint on lime green or something. O_O

Mom also was a bit puzzled as to why she told me how dangerous it is and to watch out for oncoming traffic. I've driven through that junction dozens of times and she's never said a word about it before. O_O

So we got up the expressway and still feeling jittery, I almost missed our exit so I quickly looked and decided to cut across 2 lanes of thankfully rather empty traffic. Sliced across the little triangle road markings and ran over some bumpy light reflectors on the ground. Heart was pounding like mad! If the cars behind suddenly decide to speed up, I would be bumped from behind and I might not be here writing this. O_O

Got to the airport on frayed nerves, had some time for my heartbeat to return to normal and parked, chronicled my terrifying drive to buddy from work who had some first-hand experience of my terrifying driving skills (albeit on a smaller, less catastrophic and very much less fatal scale), fatboyho and bro, sent relatives off and all that. Buddy told me to not drive ever again. fatboyho asked for details. And bro didn't even reply.

Got back in the car and set off home. This time I'm taking it real cautiously and on one of the S-bends leading up to the expressway, I'd come to appreciate how well dad's Honda Accord handles. It's a rather wide bend and I was going rather slowly (~60km/h), I admit, but the steering was brilliant. I managed to turn real smoothly through the left and right hand bend at a speed that is "legal" on most road--that means no one will blast their horns at me for going too slowly. But other than that, I think I took the "taking it cautiously" a bit too far. Third outer lane and I'm going 70-75km/h when the speed limit was 90km/h. But I slowly rolled on while they overtook me left and right and finally managed to cut to the inner lanes when I get the chance.

Got home safely. Tried to park the car but almost hit the front of some idiot Nissan driver who parked its nose too outside and there was another car coming up so I had to shift and park at another lot coz I take a long time to park. Phew. I had to burn some joss sticks to thank my gods and ancestors for looking out for me today. This is the worst bit of driving I've ever done since I got my license 3 years ago.

Even worse than that time where I drove to grandma's house without turning on the headlights.

Even worse than the pickup truck I drove around base freewheeling instead of using engine brake (I thought I was quite OK, seeing as how the last time I drove a manual car, it was for my driving test, but buddy from work was real panicky and him being a good driver and all, was able to pick out all my bad driving skills so if I were him, I'd panic too. Lol!).

Even worse than that time where I rear-ended the row of concrete blocks in the company's car thinking that there wasn't anything there (Since it was an automatic car, buddy from work let me drive it but we didn't even get out the gate before we realize there wasn't much fuel left. I turned us around and while I was reversing, buddy went all panicky and asked me what I'm doing and then *bump*. Whoops. Too late. I didn't even realize there was a row of concrete blocks lined up there O_O).

...Now I wonder if that fatal-accident-that-almost-is wouldn't have happened if mom did not mention how I should watch out for oncoming traffic. I might've just continued to wait for the lights to turn red and the green arrow to appear like I always do.

Or not.

O_O

Couldn't resist...

2008-12-14T04:11:00.002+08:00

I am so sick of my long rebonded straight and frankly not "me" hair so I made up my mind and decided last month that I'm gonna cut it this month--in time for Christmas, New Year and next January's Chinese New Year.

Told mom that few weeks ago and she just nodded. Didn't even put up a fight this time. Said I would just go even if she said no anyway--which I will, obviously. :P

Thinking back, the last time I cut my hair short was early this year. Before Chinese New Year. So that's almost 1 year's worth of growth from somewhere around the ear to the shoulder blades.

Keywords for haircut this time are short, stylish, layered, not butch, not girly, not bob.

~~~~~

Hairy business
So yesterday, while out for dinner with zaid, I popped by Wisma Atrium's Isetan basement where ICON by Shunji Matsuo is and asked if I need an appointment for a haircut. Guy at the counter didn't answer my question and asked me if I wanna cut it now. I said tomorrow (which in chronological term means today) and he asked me what time. Sounds suspiciously like making an appointment to me but I gave him a time. Then he asked if I'm just cutting or if I wanna do other stuff to my hair and I said just cutting it. And we're set.

2.30pm. Half an hour after my appointment. I arrived back at the place and got ushered in to an empty seat. Had to evacuate that seat less than 5 minutes in because someone else was originally at that seat. Alright. Had to wait another 15 minutes before anyone bothered to tend to me but that's okay. I'm late, they're busy, I'll be patient. *deep zen breaths* Flipped through a 2 month old Her World, saw some pretty pictures, read some interesting article about how girls should react to her man's weird kink--which isn't really weird at all imo. I can come up with weirder kinks and my man will be the one who will benefit from *that* article instead. There's some hot tea for me while I wait but I'm rubbish at drinking hot stuff while it's hot so I'd just left it there to cool a bit.

Anyway, finally my stylist for the day Katlyn came over and after plucking at a few strands of my dull boring hair, she asked me if I'm cutting it short instead of just trimming. I said yea and she warned me about how my hair will be poofy and hard to manage again coz of my natural wavy locks. Really impressed by her observation skills, I have to say but I just shrugged and said "that's okay. I'm sick of straight hair." So she looped off about 4 inches of my hair and told me to wait for someone else to wash it while she went away--clutching my bunch of recently chopped 4 inch hair. Kim Jong Il better be grateful for it.

The girl who washed my hair was rather good at it. She didn't tangle strands of hair on the 4 earrings on my left ear, she didn't scrap my scalp off with her fingernails and everything sounds like how they should sound like in dry land after she's done with me--as opposed to underwater after some newbie hairdresser got water in your ear. She commented about how thick my hair was as her usual one pump of the shampoo bottle wasn't enough to wash it. Even after getting 4 inches looped off. I replied with how long it took for it to dry off and we had a lil bit of chat on how I dry my hair off--naturally of course. I'm too lazy to break out and plug in the hairdryer.

Went back to the seat and after another 5 minutes of waiting, Katlyn is back and she got to work fast. As hair fell around me at a rapid pace, I tried to imagine what I'd look like after she's done while sipping my warm tea. Amazing feat, drinking tea while your stylist cuts your hair. I had enough sense to not drink it while she cut my fringe. Lol... Made some small talk about the length of my hair I usually keep. There's a pattern. I cut it, it grows out long, I cut it again. The last time I cut it, it was because my hair got really out of hand. I didn't bother cutting or trimming it for almost 3 years (couldn't find the time really). Practically a cave(wo)man then. Enough people had asked/told me to do something about it so I did. Lol... I loved those waves though. Looks wonderful from behind. Not so much everywhere else.

Although she's real quick with her scissors, she'd taken the time to tell me what she'll be doing next--cut the back, trim the sides, cut the fringe after hair's blown dry, styling with wax etc. Just as she's done, she quipped "Shed 0.5kg right there. Feeling lightheaded yet?" and I grinned. I like how this is shaping up. She gave me some pointers on how to style it and when I complained about how my hair will poof out the side but not the top if I don't use any hair products, she said "that's why I'd thinned down the sides more and poof up the top for you". Ooo... She also suggested I could come back next time to dye my hair to bring out the layers more and we're done! Didn't even try to push some hair product on me!! All over in one and a half hours.

So despite my initial feeling of "being absolutely pampered" and "loved" and "well cared for", I'm rather happy with everything.

Keywords that can be used to describe my new hair style: short, ~~some might consider it as stylish~~, layered, butch, not girly, not bob.

4.5 out of 6 is a pass in most countries.

~~~~~

Back home...
After I got to grandma's house, grandma thought I'd tied up my hair when I first walk through the door. She was peering at the back of my head for a full minute before she believed I'd really cut it all and it wasn't her eyes playing tricks on her. She also asked why I didn't keep the bunch of hair they cut but since I didn't tell them it's for Donald Trump, I just told her to wait another year for it to grow and I'll remember to keep that bunch when I'm sick of my hair this time next year. :P

One uncle asked who'd upset me that much to make me go do such a drastic change. To which I replied humorously (but truthfully) that people had guessed my age to be 24 and 26. Not flattering when I'm younger than that. I blamed the auntie hair.

Another one said I look butch. No arguments there.

Another another one said I look like Stephanie Sun. To which I replied with a "I'm not skinny enough" and gained a few laughs.

My funky aunt came in and the first thing she exclaimed was "OMG fugly!" Lol!! Thought she would like this but apparently not. She said the back of my head was flat but that could be because I'd leaned against the wall on the train back and the back got flattened.

Bro didn't like it either. Said I'd leapt from auntie hair to veteran butch hair--to which I replied I'd rather have veteran butch hair than auntie hair. He never liked any of my haircuts because, well, it's me--his sister. Of course he's gonna diss me for it. =3 He'd always preferred girls with long hair. Since kindergarten! He wouldn't admit it of course but we all know he does. ;)

Dad had expressed his thought on my radical snips few years ago so he didn't comment on it now. Here's what he said those years ago.
Dad: As long as you don't go shave it all off (implying nunhood), I'm fine with anything.

Mom commented that this is the first time I came back from the saloon without complaining. =3 She also said I look like a boy and that when I said I wanna cut my hair, she's thought I'm gonna trim it a bit. Maybe snip off a few inches. She'd never thought I'd cut it so short. Lol! Obviously, she didn't like it because she subscribes to the old school train of thought of "girls must be fair-skinned and have long hair". Like her. I'm enjoying the tan I got from going on-site and the newly-shed 0.5kg of extra weight just by going under a pair of scissors.

I can't say I'm bothered by mom's non-approval because we never seen eye to eye. What she likes, I don't like. What I don't like, she likes. *pause* Except for sardines and passion fruit bubble tea. We love those.

I think I'm in love...

2008-12-06T20:01:00.000+08:00

So I've been on this Top Gear kick lately and I've been spending a lot of time watching TG but of all the sport cars they'd featured, I'd never felt any particular stirring in my head, heart and groin. Until now.

The Spyker C8 Spyder.

It's not the best in terms of performance, granted. Ferrari and BMW and the likes can do much better but the thing I like most about it is the interior. Ferrari and BMW and the likes can't beat that! It's brilliant!! Look at that gearshift! *_* I'd never fallen in love with a car at first sight. The last time I had a tiny flutter in my stomach was when I saw the Lotus Elise but this is a full-on rock concert.

Unfortunately, I don't like the two air vent hole thingie on each side of the car but I don't think I really care. I'll be spending much of my time *inside* the car anyway--if I ever earn enough money to own one.

Wrestling with a fish

2008-12-06T02:04:00.001+08:00

My first fishing trip today! I went fishing for the first time in my life!! I'm 23 for a week and this is the first time I fished!!!

Uncle's been saying how he should get me to go fishing with him to train up my patience and I said yeah, I wanna go fishing too. We finally manage to find a day after all these years. Whew... So we went to the Pasir Ris Park fishing ~~pond~~ place. Lol...

Didn't do so well today. Caught 3 fishes only. Had fun casting the line and reeling in 2 of them fishes though. I lost to a fish. Lol... Couldn't quite wrestle it out of the water so uncle stepped in and pulled it out with me.

Embarrassingly, I kinda dozed off near the end of the 3 hours. There weren't any bites for us and the rest of the people fishing in the pond with us about 1.5hrs into our session so it got boring. Hee...

In other news, on our way home, I saw a white Lotus Elise on the road. A Lotus! I was just telling dad last week how rare it is for us to see a Lotus on the roads and I saw one today! XD

It's just latex...

2008-11-29T18:33:00.002+08:00

Taking a quote out of Shaf
"This should've been my 21st birthday~!"

The mates at work threw me a birthday bash yesterday at Boiler Room at St James Power Station. Partly as an excuse to get smashed, partly to watch the stand-up comedian on stage on Fridays.

So we got there before 9pm coz the cover charge is waived before 9pm and a glass of Johnny Walker Black Label + coke later, they brought out their 1st sabo trick. A condom.

Now, I've already complained to them about the oiliness of the condom when they put forward their plan of making me drink from it a few days ago and made them wash it out before they do it. So my buddy went and wash it in the toilet, with many guys watching him do it and he filled it up with more whiskey and coke.

Surprisingly, the 3 other girls sitting beside me would not even touch the bulbous latex balloon (which looks like a brown brinjal) and my buddy had to stretch across for me to stretch across to take it.

Odd... It's just latex. It's not even used.

So anyway, few poses later, they poke a small hole at the tip for me to drink from and it was a disaster coz I didn't wanna hold the filled condom straight up as the contents might spring forth and cascade down my face and I couldn't hold it the other way coz the end that was tied up leaks. So after 3 failed attempts to get it up right *ahem*, we gave up and squeezed everything into a cup.

Next up, the stage. The back of the place was having a rowdy celebration and the guy asked if it's someone's birthday and got some enthusiastic replies. My bunch of friends started shouting from our table too. So he rounded up all of us birthday babies on stage and asked some silly stuff and taking cheap shots at us. What's most funny was what he did to the birthday guys. The gropes and the kisses and the pseudo-going down on his knees part. LMAO!

I didn't get what was so funny about him though. I mean, sure he's good for some cheap laughs but I was expecting something more from the way my friend went on about his shows. I guess Jess corrupted me with all the stand-up comedian shows and raised my imaginary comedy bar for them.

Afterward, we went around the adjacent rooms in St James and at the end of the night (or morning), I haven't really drank that much. I totaled to be about 2.5 glasses of coke and whiskey so that makes it around 1.25 glasses of whiskey neat. No wonder I didn't feel any buzz.

But after what happened the last time, I'd rather not experience that nauseating sensation again.

The people there were saying how I'm such a good sport for doing their dares but they really weren't much were they? :P

As my buddy says "What does she *not* dare to do? She's already almost broken a door coz it's locked by those stupid card-access. She's already had a shouting match with the boss less than 3 months into the job. She's even sneaked something she wasn't supposed to bring into 2 places already!"

...Which brings me to the question of what *do* I not dare to do?

Stop kidding yourself, woman =3

2008-11-16T02:13:00.001+08:00

So I have been watching a bit too much Top Gear lately and all the cars and heady imaginary petrol smell was getting to me. And randomly, a thought came to me the other day--maybe if I stop playing racing games with buttons, I might be better at it.

...The next thought that came to me was "Stop kidding yourself, woman! You suck even when you drive a *real* car."

Lol!! I couldn't even lie to myself properly. I simply can't deny the fact that I don't drive often enough to be any good at it and I generally suck at any game that requires hand-eye coordination--even the simple move-and-jump types. Bro always compare my dexterity to a cow's. Can't really fault him for that. ;)

Some things just don't belong

2008-11-10T20:42:00.000+08:00

Some colors are perfect on some things... Like red on a Ferrari, yellow on a Lamborghini, navy blue on a BMW, or silver on a Mercedes, black on a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo and ~~as much as it pains me to say it seeing as I'm not a big fan of both the color and the car~~ white on Honda Civic Type R.

And then there are some that really don't. Like lime green on a Lamborghini (Don't laugh. I've seen it before. =_=) and slightly less blinding, pink on a Nissan March C+C. But what got me to post about the colors of cars instead of the nice wedding dinner I went to last night is this--

A Land Rover with a Nissan March orange paint job.

Now that is 3 shades of wrong. I literally pointed at that abomination and yelled rather loudly (to the amusement and annoyance of my companions) at how fugly that is and how that paint job alone had single-handedly questioned the possession of good taste in Singaporeans and tarnished the reputation of Land Rovers everywhere.

On its own, Nissan March's orange was already pushing the limit of my sense of style and artistry (which isn't really that great if my aunt had any say about it...) but they've gotten away with it because the car itself is small and cute. On something that big and lumbering, it is just begging to be laughed at. All it needs are black stripes and I can call it Garfield's automobile cousin who was hit with the ugly stick a little bit too much.

...But I happen to like Land Rovers (and Garfield) so the only proper thing for me to do is exclaim my indignation at that hideous piece of work.

Call me old fashioned but something that rugged and 4WD should never be in anything beyond the darker spectrum of blue, green or gray.

Eventful Sunday

2008-11-03T00:26:00.000+08:00

Beyond used
As dw had taken the same lab I'm taking now, I got him to send me his answers which I'd copied from--I mean, checked my answers against. :P

So 1-2 weeks ago, I realized my bench gets crowded when I'm not around. And it took me a while to realize that the reason why people are crowding around my empty seat was because I had absentmindedly left my lab notes with answers on them and they were accidentally-on purpose peeking at them. So ok fine. Since they were so discrete about it, I let them off. But I did mentioned rather loudly about how everyone is copying everyone else answers and that if one of them got their answers wrong, we'd all be screwed.

One of the people who were craning their necks to peer at my model answer was the group besides mine. (FYI, there's 3 in a group.) And today, as I left out 1 question, I turned to ask if they knew the answer to it.

One said she didn't do it yet.
A while later, I asked them again and this time, the other one said they were copying his answers.
Okay fine... Once more for good luck. I asked them again a little later. And this time, the last one said she'd handed it up already.

*pause* ...You mean you didn't know I still don't have the answer to that question after you're done copying his answers even though I asked him while *you* were copying his answers and therefore couldn't tell me the answer before handing it up after you were done copying his answers?

*pause* ...Maybe I shouldn't have been so kind and generous... It's a dog-eat-dog world out there apparently. No such thing as helping out your fellow classmate anymore.

*pause* ...I'm really kinda disappointed in people in general after this morning charade.

~~~~~

$10 Chinatown KTV from 2-7pm on a weekend!
So I went for the KTV session Joshua from work organized and despite my initial misgivings, it turned out to be rather fun. The bunch of them were all crazy buggers who are really not shy and since I have found out long ago that as long as there are other people who would be silly together with me, I can and will get all high and hyper with them as well. Screamed a few rock songs to let out some of my earlier frustrations.

Among the xiao kias (crazy kids) as I affectionately call them were the bunch of us from DSTA (previously from NTU EEE) and this guy who was a friend of one of the guy from DSTA (previously from NTU EEE). And it turns out, he was the same guy who me and lz and qx know as Tight Tee Guy. He would always turn up in this really small tshirt--it's like almost 2 sizes too small--and on most days, we would get the full view of his hard nipples. Which is disturbing actually... What's more disturbing was how close to me he lives. It's literally across the street, to the left/right of the road--depending on which road you crossed.

On a less disturbing note, there was like a free flow of selected drinks for members too so it's very value-for-money. Spent less than $10 on a 5-hour activity.

~~~~~

OMG Coincidence Day
So obviously, I had to tell lz about TTG and as I told her where I was and what I was doing this afternoon, I realized she was doing the same thing too.

We both had KTV from 2-7pm at that cheap Chinatown KTV and we both had dinner at the nearby hawker center. We even ordered the same food from the same store. But what's amazing is how we managed to miss each other despite all these coincidences.

I was on the 3rd floor while she was on the 2nd in the KTV. And we were on different sections of the hawker center.

How did that happen?! O_O

brit, tv & brit tv

2008-10-31T23:22:00.003+08:00

Doctor Who 2010
The Christmas Special this year is titled "The Next Doctor", with David Morrisey aka Ripley Holden from Blackpool. Also starring in Blackpool was David Tennant aka Scot-detective-guy-who-ran-off-with-Mrs. Holden aka DI Peter Carlisle.

And more pressingly, David Tennant had recently announced his stepping down from the Who mantle.

...And my first reaction was "Holy Moses, Ripley Holden's taking over the Tardis from Carlisle!"

Holden: J00 took wifey? O_O I'ma taking j00r Tardis nao!

~~~~~

Life on Mars (US) on 8days
So SingTel's mio bought a full page in 8days promoting the shows that are available now and Life on Mars (US) caught my eye.

*pause* It's the pornstache. I'm a big fan of the pornstache. I have a whole photobucket album devoted to pornstaches.

And so after digging a lil into it, I remembered that the US series is actually a remake of the UK series. So I checked and lo! It's the Master--I mean, John Simm!!!

So naturally, I told bro about it and I think my exact description was as follows:

Life on Mars (UK)-->Dude... I'm tempted to get this coz of Master!Simm and the pr0nstaches...
Life on Mars (US)-->...and I'm tempted to get this just coz of the pr0nstache...

His reply to me was "Damn... now you're making me wanna watch it too."

So we're getting it and will be watching both the UK and the US series soon. Hopefully. If we have time. =_=

P.S. Another series that migrated from the UK to the US is Eleventh Hour.

P.P.S. This US fall TV season seems to have a lot of people and shows from across the pond... (more than last fall TV season??)

~~~~~

Also, further prodding linked me to Philip Glenister aka the other famous dude on LoM(UK) and I was like "hmm... Glenister... sounds familiar... Isn't that the last name of the guy that played Ash in Hustle?"

And yes, my fountain of useless entertainment trivia was spot-on again. Ash aka Robert Glenister is his older brother.

...which brings us to...

~~~~~

Hustle 2009
After suffering through Series 4 without the heart and soul of the series, Mickey Stone is back! So's Albert and my favorite Ash. =3 Pity Danny and Stacie won't be around though...

~~~~~

Weird Crush
So something totally coincidental happened the other day.

I was bored and randomly thought "Hey, what's the birthday of that guy with the crazy hair on Top Gear? The one voted No. 1 Weird Crush 2007 in Heat Magazine". Still don't know where that came from since the only contact I've had with Top Gear was the Top Gear mag dad bought a couple of years ago and that episode where David Tennant wore that brown velvety suit thing. The magazine is nice, glossy and has a great looking car on the cover and the show is funny as hell and I remember thinking "I'd vote for him" when the tallest one--Jeremy Clarkson--announced the winner of the "Weird Crush" award. O_o

And then, a day after I found the birthday of James May (16 January... Capricorn... I can see why he got the nickname "Captain Slow"...), fatboyho linked me to a video where they melted steel using a solar furnace and as I was watching the video, I was like "...didn't I just look up James May yesterday?" O_O

A few more eps of Top Gear and some columns written by him later, I realized that the choice of his words on the show were uncannily similar to the way he wrote his columns so the only logical conclusion is that the script-writer for the show is a great faker of literary style. ;) *thumbs up* Lol!

~~~~~

...I've also come to realize how much I missed my poofy hair...

Pretty sure people who knew me before September 2008 will remember my utterly fugly and stubborn locks. There were times when I just couldn't be bothered with it since no amount of combing will tame it and cutting it to whatever style (be it short or layered) will eventually end up looking like it was before I'd wasted good money at a saloon.

But despite the bed hair on pretty much everyday, I liked it. I liked how no amount of combing will tame it so I could just do away with any proper combing. The "poof" of it makes my hats look good. I couldn't wear any of my hats now coz my hair's all flat and straight and flat hair + funky hat = oddity.

:( I wanna chop my locks off and grow 'em out like they were supposed to...

~~~~~

The Middleman's Big Radio Promotion
After abstaining from radio airwaves since my FM radio broke years ago, I've been rather musically-deprived. So I logged onto Power98 today and listened to the radio online and guess what? They are promoting this new show called The Middleman on one of the local cable channel.

The thing is... I had been trying to get people to watch The Middleman for a few months now--since the start of their quiet summer premiere ~~June of this year~~ actually. Summer TV season is known for its lightheartedness and they are always great mindless fun to watch so having The Middleman--the epitome of lighthearted mindless fun ~~this year~~--start its glorious TV run then was sheer genius. Or great corporate planning.

But I have mixed feelings about a great TV show being promoted on radio. More people will know about it and eventually, they will be "popular" and will lose much of their appeal.

Seriously... On one hand, I would love nothing more than informing people of wonderful understated shows but on the other hand, I don't want said wonderful understated shows to lose their quirk. That's the only thing that sets them apart from all the generic shows out there...

me = bad hostess

2008-10-05T02:42:00.002+08:00

Uneventful Friday

So cousin Qiuping (fellow cow and a damn tall, slim and pretty girl if I do say so myself =3) from Malaysia came over yesterday with her boyfriend on a cruise ship with people who bought the package from the tour agency company she works in. Uncle Cody picked her up from Vivocity and went over to visit grandma before coming over to my place to drop her stuffs off. Aunt Zena came over later to take over the host position after Uncle Cody goes off to work.

Couldn't make it to pick her up since I'm working and all (was a lil too late to take a day off... this is what happens when I don't plan ahead. Lol... To think that she took a day off to pick us up when we went to Malaysia last month. Sorry girl!! :( )

And they couldn't make up their mind as to where they wanna meet me so I asked them if they wanna go Singapore Flyer after I get off work (we haven't bought the tickets and it'll be quite a mad rush to go down to the Flyer after work for me) or go Orchard Road to walk around a bit(they've been to Orchard too many times and the price range is a little out of their budget. Mine too, truth be told. Lol...) or we could meet up and shop around Tampines Central (closest to home and has pretty much everything that they might wanna buy). Ended up opting for the most logical choice and just when I was preparing to go home, Aunt Zena called up and said we're going to Tanjong Pagar instead. She'd been telling me about this great little shop called Jing Hua that sells delicious minced meat noodles and dumplings (even more delicious than the famed Ding Tai Fung) but we haven't got the chance to go so what a way to kill two birds with one stone huh?

Didn't think that the testing would overrun and since we finish at 5.30pm on Fridays usually, I said I'll meet up with them around 6.30pm. Plenty of time right? The testing ended at 6pm and I told them I'd reach around 7pm since I'm gonna take a cab but it was the TGIF rush hour and traffic sucks more than usual. Reached Tanjong Pagar at 7.30pm.

Poor mom, aunt and the couple... they had to shop around Chinatown for a lil more than an hour while waiting for me. By the time I arrived, they were famished and legs were aching. Especially mom's. She really can't walk for too much. Lol...

The food--as my foodie aunt had promised--was delicious. Yes, it is indeed more delicious than the famed Ding Tai Fung. It don't look like much but the meat is fresh, the food is tasty and we were able to finish a bunch of them without feeling sickened by the oiliness that comes with most Chinese cuisines. Even the famed Ding Tai Fung fell prey to the oiliness. The 5 of us had the minced meat noodles, dumplings (14 pcs), pot stickers (10 pcs), hot and spicy noodles and soup and Sichuan veggie and sliced meat noodles. Aunt suggested we go for just the desserts next time coz all the times she's there, she couldn't find space in her stomach to fit desserts in. They have glutinous rice balls and some Chinese pizza thing that has garlic chives and meat and seafood. Sounds disgusting but I love the weirdness of it. Lol...

~~~~~

Eventful Saturday
Woke up early today coz Uncle Cody's coming over to go down to have Jalan Sultan Prawn Mee together. It's really been a long while since we last went there. Even before dad's bypass, we didn't go eat there for a couple of months (years?) but the last time we went, the portions had shrunk. Well, the portions are still small today but at least it weren't shrinking at the rate it was all those months (years?) ago.

Qiuping and her boyfriend Eddie's friends joined us for lunch and we had barley with the prawn noodles. Yum! Had to dine and dash coz I had class later.

During class, I was blindsided by a dull and throbbing pain on my left temple, tightness at the back of my head and my right temple was trying to get my attention with a small but annoying voice. The inter-cranium pressure feels high. Couldn't really tell if it's a headache, migraine or something other than headache (coz it doesn't feel like a headache to me. Just real tight. Like my brain's swelling inside my skull or something.). Bro says that as long as it hurts inside the head, it's a headache. =_= gee... Didn't quite know how that came about but it got better just as the ah beng contractor of a lecturer/teacher was going into the last part of the lecture. He gave us 2 additional exercise to do but I went off before he gave the answer. Hindsight says I should've just stayed for another couple of minutes and not have so much doubt in my head right now. =_= I also ended up missing a stop on the train and had to double back. The time taken prolly amounts to me staying behind and listening to his explanation. =___=

Met up with everyone at One Fullerton and had Coffee Bean's new hazelnut ice blend with whipped cream. Sucked down about a quarter and decided to spice it up a little with cinnamon powder. Yum! The cinnamon complemented the hazelnut perfectly. The only thing that I can complain about is how the ice blend was supposed to be a coffee ice blend but I couldn't taste any coffee in it. Either that or I was mistaken about the coffee. Lol...

Apparently, they went to Bugis and Sim Lim Square while I was neck deep in chemical compounds.

After the little pit stop, we made our way over to the Singapore Flyer (finally!) and took a shuttle bus from City Hall (near Funan IT Mall) to the Flyer site. Coz we were a little pressed for time and couldn't afford to wait for the next shuttle bus and coz the bus had a no-standing policy, we had to squeeze 3 person into 2 seats and 4 person into another 2 seats. I ended up on my cousin's lap and since I'm getting heftier due the good life I'm leading, I decided not to put my whole weight on her and supported myself a little with arms gripping on the rails and legs taking some weight off. Ended up with jelly legs by the time the long and bumpy half hour ride was over. I could literally feel my legs spazzing and I had to move real carefully without bending my knees too much just in case they give out completely.

So we went on the Flyer and the 30 minute long panoramic view of the CBD area is rather pretty. Shiny lights everywhere. Unfortunately, we couldn't take good pictures coz the lighting wasn't good and we didn't have pro cameras with us. It's a right pity coz at the top, we were able to take almost everything--including the cranes that are constructing the Integrated Resort. I'd always wanted to take a picture of those cranes when we were driving down the highway there but we couldn't stop in the middle of the road just coz I wanna take a pretty picture. It would've been real great too. There's this real sweet spot where I could totally take an award-winning picture from--right in the middle of the road divider. Lol... Ah well... A right pity. So I took a bunch of shaky moving lights and blue faced people (capsule's lighting was blue). Feels like the twilight zone or X-files or something. Lol...

The first thing I did when we got off the capsule was to make a mad dash for the washroom coz my spastic colon decided to start spazzing the moment I enter the capsule. I'd gone to the WC before we board but couldn't qualm the rumbling gurgle my stomach had been doing since shortly after we left One Fullerton. Felt a little better after the mad dash but the rumbling gurgle continued, albeit at a gentler pace. Given the time frame, it musta been the hazelnut ice blend with cinnamon powder and whipped cream.

Gurgh... I feel like Franky when he's doing his coup de boo. Which reminds me of that time when I was watching OP and I realized that I'm actually Franky. Lol... I run on cola and spend money freely and extravagantly--always end up spending everything and never saving a single cent for myself. And now with my spastic colon, I can do his attack too. D:

Digression over. So after getting off the Flyer, we went to have steamboat dinner at Liang Seah Road, around Beach Road area. The Chong Qing steamboat is always full and we were lucky to find a place for 8 people within the hour. There is a choice of 2 soup bases in one pot so we had the normal non-spicy chicken base and the medium spicy base. The medium spicy base is actually super damn hot base to me. Lol... Good thing the lime juice and water chestnut juice are free flow. I finished like a glass every 5-10 minutes. Me and Uncle Cody piled on the meat and even though I didn't feel like I'd put a lot into my belly, I'm pretty sure I'd eaten quite a lot. D: I really should start exercising soon. Crunches for half an hour everyday at least. I feel so fat and pudgy, it ain't even funny. Can't stand the nua-ness! Rawr...

Spelling FAIL!

2008-09-16T22:12:00.000+08:00

On some days, you'd be lucky to catch one typo from a magazine you happen to read.

Well, on some days, you're just plain unfortunate. I caught 2 typo/spelling mistakes halfway through reading this week's issue. This isn't the first time I'd noticed such blatant errors and nor will it be the last. Not that I'm complaining or anything--no wait, I am... what happened to the very useful spell-check? Or are they too good for it now? I fear for the future of our entertainment magazines. (LOL! I typed "feer"! *is subconsciously adapting to bad English*)

Hmm... I should have a separate tag that says Engrish or something. Lol...

Aver-ready
Beisdes, I like to go to the bay-side

Stuffed to the extreme and miss my poofy hair to the extreme

2008-09-14T18:02:00.002+08:00

Hair:

So after the third Virgo (mom, zy and esther-mama) complained about my crop of messy poofy hair, mom finally had enough and made me go straighten it. Got dragged out of bed at 10am this morning and down to the saloon at 11 plus only to find that the shop mom wanted me to go wasn't open. Went to the one next to it instead. Mom kept asking me in front of the hairdresser if I wanna do it and I'm like "I don't wanna do it at all but you're the one who wants me to do it so do you want me to do it here?" and she nodded sheepishly.

Spent 3 long and arduous hours of sitting in the ~~rather comfy~~ chair. A couple of highlight-worthy scenes was the lady boss drying the back of my shirt for me and offering me a drink and the hairdressing dropping the hairdryer on me and the lady boss gave me a bottle of shampoo and conditioner for free after that.

So after the second time the guy rinsed off my hair, I was leaning forward in the chair coz the back of my shirt was a lil damp. The lady boss asked me why aren't I leaning back so I told her my shirt's a lil wet and she'd took up the hairdryer and started drying it off apologetically. Asked me if I wanted something to drink too and since it's gonna be another hour or so more, I said yeah ok. I thought she's gonna give me a glass of water or something but she went out and bought a small bottle of OJ from the adjacent grocery store. =3

Next, the hairdresser guy was blow-drying my hair and his hand slipped coz of all the moisturizing stuff they slap on my inherently dry hair. It landed on the part where the neck connects to the shoulder coz I managed to twist away a lil (would've landed on my head if I didn't...) and it hurts. Accident and all so oh well. The lady boss gave me 2 small bottles of their shampoo and conditioner but on hindsight, maybe I shoulda asked for a discount or something. Lol...

Me: Before straightening
Me: After straightening

Vote: Before or After? Which looks better?

The first thing I thought of when I looked into the mirror was "Uwaaa... Nico Robin...". Bro told me not to insult her. Lmao!

~~~~~

Food:

So after flattening my hair to epic proportions, I went across the street and bought Botak Jones. Their famous Fish and Chips is delicious but their Cajun Chic is a lil iffy--but I like it just the same. Haha... Was a lil caught off-guard when they started calling for a Miss Tressa instead of Theresa. Lol...

Got home and after finishing that up with bro, we had mooncakes. Since it's the Mid-Autumn festival today. Workplace's got sales of mooncakes with good discounts so I'd bought durian mooncakes, cempedak mooncakes and mango mooncakes from Goodwoodpark Hotel and champagne white chocolate mooncakes from Raffles Hotel. Yum! Even though the champagne white choco mooncakes tastes more like white choco mooncakes without champagne and the snowskin mooncakes are all sticky and melty and gooey. My 20/20 hindsight tells me I should've bought the rum and choco mooncakes from Marc and Leonard instead. I can feel the rum on my tongue after I bit into the choco. Ah well...

So stuffed now! I had one and a half Mos Burger with natjie and buffet dinner yesterday too. So gonna turn into a pig tomorrow. A pig with ugly hair. Lol!

Fun ways to spend 1.5 hours

2008-08-21T23:47:00.001+08:00

So I woke up twice in the morning to puke my guts out coz of those irritating dry coughs that make me heave. Finally gave up on sleep and woke up at 9.30am and self-medicate with dad's cough syrup. Worked for a while and felt pleasantly buzzed and sleepy by mid-afternoon and most of the evening.

Mom came home and at the mention of wanting to get coconuts to help with my sore throat, she felt my forehead, did the mom thing and nagged at me to go see a doctor. Since, y'know, I'm going to Malaysia tomorrow and they'll never let me get pass the customs with my 37.6 Celsius fever and my hacking my pharynx out. So I did the daughter thing and stalled as long as I could, popped some Panadol Extra and told her they're just gonna prescribe paracetamol for my fever anyway. Still, mom-thing >>> daughter-thing and at the urging of my mom, dad and grandma, I went to see the family doctor (who--during my last visit earlier this year--commented that I haven't been to his clinic in "quite a while". That is doctor-speak for "years". What can I say, effective self-medication and a baka-fortitude keeps me away from docs.)

I ended up in the clinic at 8.30pm, the last patient of the night. Damn there's a lot of sick people today. And lo! Paracetamol for fever. Gee... Another few buncha pills for sore throat, stuffed nose and cough. =__= I could've told her that and saved myself 1.5 hours of waiting... No wait, I did. =_____________="

When I exited the back door of the clinic coz I'm the last person and all, mom and dad were in front of the clinic. Mom was freaking out and saying (screaming) how I didn't take my phone out with me and how they can't find me and all that. I was like, I'm charging my phone so I took James' and she turned her arrowhead to the bro. "That boy! I went in and asked him to call me if you called me and he didn't think to mention that you've got his phone?!?!!?" Lol...

She's got my grandma all worried and my aunt wanting to push out her bike and do the neighborhood patrol. Dad quietly mentioned how she'd almost called the cops to file for missing persons. Like they'll bother with someone missing for 1.5hrs. They don't even bother about people missing for 23 hours. =__=" Gee...

So what does this teach us kids?
$27 can buy you 4 types of drugs (including paracetamol for fever), 1.5 hours of precious wasted time and a truckload of worry from 3 different matriarchal heads.

In which plain dumb luck didn't work

2008-08-14T22:36:00.000+08:00

So I was offered a chance to go for the face-to-face interview for TAPS program with EDB & Genentech coz someone couldn't make it for the interview today. (see Genentech post)

I couldn't quite remember what they asked and what I said but they did asked a lot of behavioral interview questions. I realized that I don't have much experience in a lot of things. Lol... I've never had some major problem that could showcase my problem-solving skills. Or maybe there are problems but I don't think they are really problems at all and therefore I can't really describe said problem in proper details.

Really... Thinking back now, I don't think I've had any major setbacks to talk about. Lol... Lucky me aye?

So they called me at a bit after 5pm to tell me that I wasn't selected for the program. Dad was all like "I knew this was gonna happen coz they called you in as backup coz someone canceled and they're afraid they don't get enough people" and mom's like "you can take DSTA now that they don't want you in USA anymore", secretly pleased with my being bound to Singapore and in her control I suppose. Aunt was like "Man... you're too uptight coz it mattered too much to you. You should've let go and go through the interview like it doesn't matter... like with DSTA". Coz the last time I went for an interview that mattered (see SGH post), I didn't make the cut either.

Oh well... sadness muchly. I kept sighing and moaning and groaning and bro was irritated by it. Haha... I guess I'll just hafta sleep it off and wake up to a better tomorrow.

Sleep = Reset

Status update 1: Jobs

2008-08-03T20:51:00.001+08:00

1. Of chances missed

When I'm free, they don't call me. When I'm busy, they decided to pick that period of time to call.

Last month, because I ran out of money to spend and got scolded for holing up at home to stop myself from going out and spending money I don't have, I decided to take a part time job with DHL as their temp admin assistant, doing the usual data entry and stuff. Boy, was it exhausting.

So on the first day, to avoid making a bad impression, I turned my phone to silent and left it alone since y'know, no one calls or sms me much anyways. So! Here's the killer.

The phone rang. Because the number that called me came from an area near DSO, I thought it was them and kept calling them back every hour for the next few days to see if I can reach them again. I only got through to them during lunch time a week later. T_T It was from NUH asking me to go down for an interview. The HR girl said she'll help me get another appointment scheduled but it's a month and still no word.

Guess my not picking up the phone the first time made them think I wasn't interested.

~~~~~

2. Of chances rejected

My first proper interview was for a totally unrelated-to-my-course-of-studies job as a Logistics Trainee with Kinokuniya and after half an hour of talk-cock session, I left their office feeling rather jolly even though I know I have very little chance at getting it.

Happily thinking that if that's what interviews are, I would do ok for the others to come. Hopefully even ace the one after this, which would be SGH's biomedical engineer.

Few weeks later, a letter came and told me that they regret to inform me of my not being chosen by them for the job. Oh well. Never really wanted that one much anyway. Just trying my luck if no one really wanna hire me.

~~~~~

3. Of chances lost

Thinking that I would do just fine for the SGH interview, I went in there brimming with confidence since, y'know, I *had* studied for it for a good 6 years of my life.

And I meet my match.

Out of the 3 interviewers, 1 of the guy intimidated me and kept snorting at my answers. Peeved and feeling crushed, I fumbled and didn't display my usual level of confidence. Didn't answer their question as well as I should've and went out of the interview room totally crushed. I can literally see my chances go down the drain.

I think I sealed my fate when I couldn't answer the standard interview question of "why should the company hire you?". The intimidating snorting jerk asked me why should they consider me when there are tons of people out there with more experience than a fresh grad like me. I should've acted like the jerk he is and answer him "if you don't hire me, I where got experience??" or at least "if you don't hire me, you wouldn't know what I can do for you." *sighs*

Consolation from friends was that SGH only wants to hire people with experience but that brought me little comfort.

~~~~~

4. Of chances wasted

I also applied for the EDB-Genentech training scheme where if selected, I will get to go to Genentech's HQ in USA for a 12-18 month training and a 2 year bond back in Singapore. Great deal right?

I had completely pushed it out of my mind until one fine day, the HR girl emailed and called me all the way from USA to tell me I'm selected for the preliminary phone interview. I jumped and said yes of course. IMO, I didn't do very well during my phone interview conducted on a Saturday morning.

They asked scenario-based questions like "describe a scenario where you do not agree with the group and what you did to help the group despite of it" and "tell me about a major setback and how you solve it". Truth be told, I couldn't think of any major problems or setbacks in my life coz really, the probs I'd met, I either solve it very quickly or I got around the problem.

They also asked technical questions like "what is a protein?" and "if the flowrate is 10l/min, how much water will there be in an hour?". I got so stunned by the protein question coz the last time I had to remember the definition of a protein, it was 6 years ago during Biochemistry.

So thinking I probably didn't make it, I went about my days as usual and then, I got another email saying I'm selected for the 2nd round of interviews! OMG YAY! I rejoiced.

...Until I found out that the first module of my part time degree ends on 14 Nov and the training program starts on 1st Nov. And since I'd already paid for the admission application and the first module of the course, that means mom wouldn't let me cancel the module and I wouldn't be able to make it for the training program. And therefore, they had to canceled my 2nd interview and placed me on the backup list--which is code for chances slim to none.

I didn't even get to know if I had a shot in USA or not.

~~~~~

5. Of chances pondered

At the prompting from Chee Siong (he says people there are gonna quit once they get their 13th month bonus in August), I went to see if there's an opening in DSTA and applied online. Got called back a few days later--literally few days seeing as I applied for the post like 3 days before. Then again, they could've called me back from the previous time I applied for DSTA. I kept applying for the same stuff at the same companies so much I couldn't keep track anymore. No matter, I was happily stunned and went for it.

I got through the interview ok... Didn't feel as uncomfortable as I did during the SGH one. One of the interviewer was real talkative and our session overran for about half an hour. The guy before me also overran so I got in later than my scheduled time.

They asked why do I apply for a non-biomed engineering job when I major in biomed engineering. (Why do companies like to ask that? Biomed companies ask why I didn't apply for other engineering jobs and non-biomed companies ask why I didn't apply for biomed jobs...) I told them biomed is a very specialized company and the people who are in there don't wanna come out so there isn't much chance for people who are fresh grads to go in. And that even if they are hiring, they'll want people with experience. I told them about how most of my friends from poly are working in the biomed sector already but they are holding lower rank and lower paying positions--which prompted them to smile and comment on how I'm overqualified. Which I hafta agree, really.

They asked me if I would do something non-biomed related and I'm thinking "I wouldn't apply for the job if I minded, would I?? O_O" but I said some of my friends from the same (biomedical) major in NTU EEE are holding jobs that aren't biomed related either and I gave some examples of companies they work for.

They asked me a lot about my attachment work too. And I told them about the stuffs I had to do. Along the same line, they also tried to deter me by saying that the testing would require me to go on-site and crawl all over the place and I'm like "yea yea... attachment also testing..." and they're like "but testing inside aircon mah" and I'm like "no lor... it's hot. The baggage area of the airport is at the back and it's got no aircon". They also say I might hafta get myself dirty and I'm like "no problem. We had to crawl down tiny dark dirty tunnels to follow the baggage conveyor lines."

Also, when they mentioned that there might be testing on-site and on-site means at the airplane or if the ship or submarine sails, I might be out to sea for a week or so and my inner voice gave a little whoop of joy. XD Happiness! Haha...

And here comes the pondering.

If I take this, I'll be stuck in DSTA for 3 whole years. 3 whole years to complete most of my part time deg modules and no relevant biomed work experience. But if I don't take this, I'll be stuck in DHL for another 2 months. I could, however, wait to see if I take the place of some poor sucker who dropped out of the EDB-Genentech program.

Choices choices...

Just because it's comic con doesn't mean that you should dress funny--no wait, it does. =___=

2008-06-30T00:37:00.001+08:00

Just because it's comic con doesn't mean that you should dress funny--no wait, it does. =___=

I missed the first day of the 1st annual Singapore Toy & Comic Convention held in Suntec yesterday. Then again, I didn't wanna go to Singapore's first ever toy & comic convention at first. For all teh l0ze sg can be, I decided to go check it out after conflicting comments by dw who complained about how it failz and zaidbot who beamed about how he got a nice cool gundam robot for $30 less than the usual selling price.

So at zaid's recommendation, I woke up bright and early today and got there at 10.30 to start queuing for the Be@rBrick freebie thingie. There's already a hell lot of people there--which makes me wonder if they really did camp overnight. Saw a whole bunch of *pause* interesting people while queuing--like this girl with her lightning quick reflexes (she was playing Tetris on Nintendo DS and all I could see was bricks rotating in a fraction of a second. So win!) and this other girl who came to join her boyfriend in the queue wearing 4 inch high stilettos and uber short shorts and how every guy in the vicinity turned their heads following her every lengthy leg movements. Gee...

Also in the queue, I realized that I cannot be considered a hardcore fan/otaku/geek yet. I do not possess neither a PSP nor a DS. I don't even own a GameBoy--those are my bro's. *le gasps* Shocking! I know!! XD Everyone else in the queue had one or both of them portable gaming console.

So luckily, although there were a lot of people, there were more freebie bears so we (zaid joined me about half an hour later after I got to Suntec) got one each and we're off to get our redemption passport book.

Apparently, we needa go round the hall and get chops from different booths and we can get more free stuffs. Redemption time is 2pm and 5pm fyi. Zaid missed out on the Bandai giveaway yesterday coz he got there too late and there's no more passport for the day. Poor guy didn't get his free robot.

We got registered, we got our passport and we're off to tour the facility! And collect chops of course. I did the bumblebee and buzzed around snapping random stuffs that catches my eye while zaid dragged me to each booth to get our passport chopped.

For those who are interested, here's the link to the pictures I took today
Pardon the lousy shots. I shot them :P

Lunch was a series of detours. We were debating over McD or BK and since I had McD yesterday and he had BK yesterday, we decided to go Millenia Walk for Long John Silver but when we got there, we don't see any LJS. The directory don't have LJS. So we went back and ate at McD even though I've had McD yesterday coz there's a coupon for McD that came with the comic con guide. Cheapskates that we are, that's to be expected. =3

After we got back from lunch, we queued for the 2pm redemption and boy was the queue long. It went from inside the hall to way way way outside the hall, almost stretching across the entire 6th level. We needa get another chop and a number from the officials so that we are authenticated like Windows XP and we don't queue in vain. Good thing was zaid was already in the queue so all I had to do was get the chop and number and waited for less than 30mins before I got my stuffs. 2 decks of magic-the gathering card (prolly some lowly starter deck) and a magazine from chuangyi.

After the redemption, there's some cosplay competition on stage so we stayed and watched. The contestants' costumes were okay (except for the cross-dressing Cloud Strife. Nice sword but a shiny purple dress?? Seriously!) but when it came to the Q&A and talent showcase part, I literally star-eyeroll-star. No really. I literally said star-eyeroll-star out loud. That's how bad some of them are. I get that they are staying in-character but some of the answers and the way they answer is just--dare I say it, retarded. Pretty sure some of you guys received my text message about how my fandom was ass-raped by them fanboys and fangirls in costumes. I groan and wept tear of shame at the type of anime/manga/gaming fans my country produces. I didn't take any photos coz I was too far from the stage--and also coz I don't wanna subject my eyes to such torture again. The only thing that salvaged that event was the afro dude and his funky dance. Wish he put on some Hammer!pants (aka MC Hammer's parachute pants, for the uninitiated). That would really put him right at the top IMO.

Walked around some more and went to queue for the 5pm redemption at 3.30pm. There's already like 100+ people queuing already. O_O I couldn't find the end of the queue at first coz everyone was just standing around in a line against the glass railing outside and it took me 3 tries to find the right one. Read a lil while waiting and lo! I'm not the only one not playing a psp or a ds. Someone else was reading too.

I realized I still can't be considered a fan/otaku/geek yet even though I partake in fannish/otaku-poi/geeky activities such as joining the long queue for anime/manga stuffs much earlier than other non-fan/otaku/geek people. Although I'm not the only one not playing a handheld game console, I was however the only one to read an English book. A novel about the British navy, Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin called The Fortune of War. A period piece set in the early 19th century. A thick book that had nothing to do with anime nor manga. All others who was reading had in their hands either a comic, a manga, the comic con guide or the chuangyi freebie.

One booth that I kept returning to was the Wii booth. I was drawn to Guitar Hero III on Wii. *starry-eyed* The controller is really shaped like a guitar! I kept going back to that booth and stood there for an extended period of time while fingering the imaginary buttons on my imaginary guitar as someone else played it. Really tempted to try it out but as zaid'd pointed out, my hand-eye coordination suck. That's why I play turn-based RPGs. Lol... Don't think I can handle letting so many people see me being so lousy. I'll just hafta save enough money to get one and practice at home--with only my bro to laugh at me. Haha...

Speaking of bro, I was just talking to him a few weeks back about a pick-and-guitar-neck-combo Wii controllers. Coz the guitar-shaped controller now is small. Tiny. Puny. Fit only for small children, fuzzy animals and me. Haha... I've seen grown men reduced to a hunched little ball as they try to work their magic fingers on the tiny neck and body. So my proposal then was to make a pick that picks up on the player's strumming motion and a guitar neck with the buttons on them to press. That way, it doesn't matter how small the actual guitar is coz the neck is not connected to anything (maybe except for a sling around your own neck) and the body is replaced by a guitar pick.
((...Actually, I just wanna be able to say "With this pick, I shall rule the guitar/music/entire/Wii world"... Lol!))

FINALLY!!! The real point of this post.
Another thing I saw at comic con is the amount of people wearing strange and downright godawful stuffs. And I'm not saying the cosplayers coz they put in tons of effort into their costumes and they are *supposed* to look odd. I saw a guy with 2 strips of purple hair extensions. I saw a girl with fishnet stockings that are torn in the worst possible way in at least 4 places. I saw a girl wear red knee-length socks which is the same shade as her red shiny ballet flats. I saw a guy try to pull off goth but ended up looking like a wannabe. I saw a girl wear fuzzy hand warmer/sock/fingerless glove things--like the one I have, only with less metal and more fur.

People, please. Just because this is comic con doesn't mean that you should throw your good fashion sense out the windows. Sometimes, some things can only be pulled off by some people. And more is *not* better, no matter what anyone says.

I sometimes wish I had a high speed camera or at least a camera with a faster shutter speed to capture all these omfgwtfbbq moments in life. Or a harddisk in my brain like the people of GITS do. That way I can just download what I see and show it to you guys.

All in all, the 1st annual Singapore Toy & Comic Convention wasn't really that bad. Guess the theory of not expecting too much and you won't be disappointed still holds true. :P

Job application makes me angry...

2008-06-24T23:10:00.001+08:00

Job application makes me angry...
You do not wanna make me angry...
Coz when I'm angry, I will blog.
grrr...

I'd just spent 60 very vexing minutes trying to apply for a job with PSA. I gotta fill in their online application form and they require me to fill in every single subject I'd ever taken and what grade I got. And what else? The text fields they gave me to fill in the subject title are so damn limited! Half of my subject titles are long and winding to sound real important and all that so I can't even fill in the complete subject title at all. I had to resort to abbreviations. Abbreviations that I hope confounds them so utterly and completely that they'll have no idea what I'd studied. As zaidbot says, serves them right. :P

So okay, I filled in everything and saved at every page and when I'm done with the arduous task of filling in both my poly and uni subjects and grades, the bleedy session timed out! All those subjects and grades I'd entered during the past 30 minutes were all gone!!

a;slkfja;slkfja;slkfja;sldkfjsdl;fk!!!!!!!!
*bleep*bleep*bleep*bleep*bleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep*

*deep breath*
Fine. Stupid lil pieces of s***... Nothing I can do about it anyway coz that's how they do things around here. So I filled in my subjects and grades again--this time making sure that I saved after every section just in case they timed out on me again. And they decide to time out on me when I'm filling in my extra-curricular activities section. O_O *bleeeeep*

*deep deep breath*
Okay. Fine. I'm used to your bloody session timed outs by now. Re-enter my ECA stuffs and submitted.

With a bellyful of grievances, I decided to "inform" the company about their idiotic application system and what did I get?
Page cannot be displayed

ROTFLMAO!!!!!!
*wipes tears from eyes* Priceless!!!!!!!

In which online advertisment is FTL!

2008-06-19T20:22:00.001+08:00

In which online advertisment is FTL!

There are some online ads that are nice--funny even... and then there are the annoying ones.

I'm really irritated by the www.bloodseason.com online ads by FOX Crime. I know what they're trying to show but that weird sound is just... irritating!

Will someone turn off the bloody sound!?!? Or at the very least give us the option of turning off the bloody sound? I don't wanna hafta listen to my mp3 on the computer and hafta hear that odd moaning sound in the background.

Gawd.

Not my day damnit

2008-06-15T18:30:00.001+08:00

So jess called me up yesterday asking me to lend her my skirt so I said ok, come down to pick it up yourself. Then she tried to make me bring it down to her at the airport where she works coz she's pulling double morning shifts and double night shifts and she's dog tired.

*pause* But she's the one who wants to borrow my skirt. O_o Why do I hafta deliver my skirt to her at her convenience when she's the one who wanna borrow it?

~~~~~

A friend from DIP held his wedding reception today so we went (qx, lz and me). It was a nice reception. Good rendang. Yum. Lol...

So when we reach there, guy A from DIP is already there so we joined him at the table. Guy B--also from DIP--came a lil later and seeing familiar faces, joined us too. But instead of sitting at the empty seats with Guy A, he pulled up a chair beside me. WTF? Okay, never mind. He's entitled to sit wherever he wants. Fine. So I did my best to ignore him and give monosyllable grunts when spoken to. Guy A had to leave early so we're left with annoying Guy B.

During the reception, he kept trying to engage us in small talks but his talks and our talks are on completely different topics. I don't know how he can talk like we're on the same topic but I guess some people just have that amazing ability. @_@

Then when we are leaving, he stood up and left with us. WTF?? Why is he leaving with us? He said he was going home and asked where we were going. The 3 of us were planning to go down to the Levi's warehouse sale at Aljunied and after we say we're going, he said he'll join us. WTF?!?! WTF is this guy following us 3 girls around to go shopping for?!?!?!

So I asked him right there and then why is he following us, 3 girls who are going shopping, and told him straight up that I don't want him to come with us and he laughed, saying how he likes my straightforwardness--unlike most chinese girls. WTF?!?!?!?! I said in my coldest cruelest voice that I don't like him liking my straightforwardness. qx and lz were both blanched when I said what I said... like most chinese girls would but I don't really care. I don't want him around.

When we reached Aljunied, he got off with us and I told him to go home and not come with us but again, he laughed and followed us just the same. WTF?!?!?!?!?! After saying what I said in such plain English, he still don't wise up and leave me alone. He's worse than Iggy. =__________= At least Iggy knew to back off.

Since he wouldn't stop following us and I can't stand being around his company, I told lz that I'm not going to the warehouse sale anymore. Not with him around anyway. So I turned around and got back on the train and went down to the pc show at suntec to help get a hard disk for my uncle instead.

Even after such a huge anvil of a hint, he still don't back off and stay away... that's prolly the only thing for me to do to get myself out of his presence. Even if I really did wanna go to the warehouse sale with lz and qx. :(

~~~~~

So at the pc show, it was crowded and messy like always. Felt a bit better after I bought my dvdrs(100pcs imation dvd-r tower for $39~ woohoo!), a 500gb seagate sata hdd with sata cable for $140 and my uncle's 320gb seagate ide hdd for $99. Would've gotten him the 500gb one but they don't have stock. Oh well...

Came home, mom saw my spoils and launched into her typical self-righteous speech about how I'm not bring in money and still spends money so extravagantly and how she's afraid of lending me money to study for the part time degree that I wanna take and how she worries about me not paying her back, etc. The usual stuff.

So I said, "if you're so afraid, then I'll go get a bank loan myself". Wrong thing to say coz that triggered another self-righteous speech about how she's trying to teach me the folly of my money-spending ways and how dare I act so high-and-mighty to her. =________________=

I'm gonna go bathe, curl up in bed and stay that way until today is over. :(

Chronicles of the merlion drunk

2008-06-06T03:20:00.000+08:00

There are many types of drunks in this world. There is the talkative drunk, the confessional drunk, the silent drunk, the weepy drunk, the giggly drunk, the can't-tell-if-they're-drunk drunk, among others. And there's me--the merlion drunk.

Mom don't know this (SHH!!! =3) but it all happened yesterday, when I went drinking with jess and shaf at Clarke Quay. Me and jess went to Gotham (Block A 3rd floor) to wait for shaf first coz she gets off work around 11 plus. There's a 1-for-1 offer on all jugs and so we got 2 jugs of bourbon coke to pass our time. There's also the lovely dance troupe Odyssey. They are hot =3

The thing is, before the Odyssey (heehee... The Odyssey...) started their performance, jess finished her jug and I drank like half a jug in 1 hour. I offered her my half-jug and she declined so I had to finish $11 worth of bourbon coke. Therefore, by the end of their short performance, I was totally tipsy and more than a lil high--more on the verge of being wasted, except I still know what's my name and where I am. Got groped repeatedly by jess too.

The clock struck midnight and shaf came. We got out of Gotham and went to meet her at the entrance of MoS. I stumbled out of there in a relatively straight line and less than 2m down, I threw up. Spectacularly. I prolly brought out both my lunch and dinner in that dustbin beside the fountain. I recall vague commentaries from people sitting around the fountain about how "that girl's puking her guts out". Way to go, Captain Obvious-es. Good thing they have a toilet nearby for me to wash my face and rinse my mouth.

Went to MoS, danced more than I ever will (where'd all my inhibitions gone?). Got groped again by jess--she's just taking advantage of me in my drunken state. I knew it. =__= shaf got groped by jess too and she hasn't even had a sip of anything alcoholic yet. Puked again while shaf was getting herself something to drink. Vodka lime was it? I remember something pale and murky. They offered but I declined. Don't think I can handle any more alcohol that night. Don't think I can handle any more bobbing to hiphop tunes if it's gonna make me turn my stomach inside out like a frog can.

So we left MoS a lil later. Bought water at 7-11 and attempted to sober up at Liang Court's McD. That's like the 3rd McD I've been in within the last 24hrs. As much as the potato-flavored salt known as McD fries is loaded with carbohydrates that is useful in countering alcohol in my system, I couldn't bring myself to eat any--lest I puke again. I'm tempted to get dramamine the next time I go clubbing but dw made a valid observation by pointing out how pills and alcohol don't really mix. Right. Got it.

Jess had fun messaging and calling people she know. I think her entire circle of friends now know that I upchucked after a jug of bourbon coke. =_________=

Caught a cab home and shaf commented how this is like the earliest she'd be home after clubbing. Sorry for being such a lousy drunk. Heehee... I really thought I could hold my liquor since I don't feel any buzz after like 2-3 glasses of the usual JD & coke. Well, apparently not. :P Think I'm gonna stick to 1 glass per club from now on.

Got home, bro complained how I stank of my poison and other unidentified odor that he'd rather not identify so I went to bathe. Asked him today how bad I smelt and he rated it 7 or 8 out of 10. Guh... I didn't smell a thing at all but he's been known to have a keener sense of smell than I do. Do alcohol screw with sense of smell? Which also means that I moshed in MoS smelling like bourbon and vomit. Guh... That's embarrassing. I'm really gonna stick to just 1 glass per club from now on. 1140ml of bourbon coke in less than 2 hours is pushing it ~~upwards and outwards... from my stomach to my mouth~~. =__=

Didn't notice the message lz sent at midnight until I got home but couldn't be bothered to check my results before I have a good night's sleep. Slept around 3am praying I wouldn't get a hangover and got woken up at 9.30 to check. Woohoo! I got the best grades I'd gotten throughout my 3 years in NTU. Got a 2nd class (lower) honors for my trouble. Was expecting 3rd class or 2nd lower but would be happy to get away with a just pass, so I'm ok with what I'd gotten. lz was disappointed at not getting a 2nd upper despite having 3 A's this semester. Said she's gotten too many C's for her A's to cover. Well, I'd gotten more C's and D's and less A's and B's than her so I deserve to get a 2nd lower (or *pause* lower... sorry, bad pun :p).

Brought maid to wire money back home. Her younger bro's tuition fee for the semester is hanging in the balance. Turns out, Mary Grace is quite the talkative one. She's also rather inquisitive and isn't shy in asking question to satisfy her curiosity. Her birthday's 5 days after bro's and like him, she's terribly afraid of heights. Said she held onto the window grills so tightly when she first had to clean our windows (we live on the 7th floor). Squeezed her eyes shut equally tight too. Lol!

Went to Downtown East's new E!hub's Kbox for some quality song-butchering with aunt and cousins. 2 hours isn't really enough but I guess the opening promo and the giving out of FOC member cards are a rather good deal. Mom met up with us after our KTV session for dinner there. Food's not as yummy as I'd hoped but it's a decent filling meal so not really complaining. :P

And finally, I leave you with this. Not quite there yet--based solely on the fact that I remember enough to account for my night out yesterday. Hee...
You know you're a drunkard when...

In which, the engineer chickened out...

2008-06-04T14:51:00.002+08:00

Well... I got so far as to go to school on time, braving shiny heels and painful blisters. I even handed in my resume and got a queue number for the interview but in the span of 1 hour, they only managed to get 3 interviews done. And then, they've got this presentation thing on so they'll not be interviewing for at least an hour. By then, both Jess' (who was there as my moral support) and my stomach were growling from lack of breakfast so I told her that we should just go for lunch and fuck the interview.

The long walk from the interview place (NTU Education Wing... who knew there's such a place? Lol...) to McD had my poor feet all painful and blistering (even after all the tape and band-aids I had on. I'm so close to just wrapping my whole feet in surgical tape =_____=) and I literally can't make it back to the interview place anymore.

So I went to drop off my report's appendix--the one I cleanly forgotten about last week :P and we went to Jess' house. Her mom's got a bad case of piles and seeing as how she'd woken up so early in the morning on her off day to accompany me, I thought I should pop over for a while. That, and the fact that she insisted.

On the way home, another pang of--I dunno, regret?--hit me and I kept thinking I should've just stayed there and go for that damned interview instead. Since I'm already there, I might as well go through with it, right? Well, that was what I'd thought too but I dunno... the combination of hunger and irritation (at making us wait while they do their lil presentation) got to me I guess.

At least they got my resume, right? It'll be like all the other times I sent in my resume. Never getting a call back to arrange for an interview.

...*sigh* Really shoulda just brought bread or something... Really shoulda stayed, shouldn't I? :(

What's an engineer doing applying to be an editor?

2008-06-04T03:58:00.004+08:00

So I will be putting on my best game face on and best foot forward to try to convince a panel of people from Singapore Press Holdings why I'm perfect for the job as a sub-editor even though I'm graduating with an Electrical and Electronic Engineering degree and no writing sample/portfolio to show for.

Seemed like a good idea at that time since I do the editing on the reports of almost every project I've ever been on, I spot punctuation mistakes a mile away, Google is my bitch, I can't help but sigh at how inversely proportional the popularity of the internet is with the usage of proper English, I like researching on random stuffs, I'm a spelling-Nazi and more often than not, I have this insane urge to correct people's work. Among other things.

But here's the kicker. I will be up against the entire mass-comm school and even other crazies like myself from other faculties. The employers--they're not gonna just take my word for it and they'll definitely not hire me based on my degree coz my degree is "not relevant". It's happened before. Back when I was applying for my degree, I couldn't get into a Chemistry program coz my poly diploma wasn't relevant. It's all about relevance here. I hate that about our society.

The thing is, I really wanna go in, do the interview and succeed but chances are I'm gonna be rejected right there and then. So seeing how I already know I'll fail, I'm having second thoughts about going for the interview in the first place coz, c'mon, who sets themselves up for failure anyway? Who sticks their necks out for the other party to slap the other cheek after slapping themselves on one already?

Everyone's telling me to go in and try even though everyone knows that I wouldn't be successful. Why? It's not like they really believe me to be capable of being the sub-editor of the biggest newspaper publishing company there is anyway.

The most I'm gonna get out of that interview is an experience--of rejection.

Mini life update + High rate of coincidences

2008-05-01T01:57:00.004+08:00

Everyone's signed up for the very popular Mid-May Taipei Summer Vacation Tour
There's a missing post but... Well, I found out that another friend--this time from uni--is going to Taipei a day before us. She's gonna leave Taipei to go to Hong Kong after the 21st (which is also the day we fly back home). Wow. What is this, Taipei Summer Vacation Tour? Including me and lz, there's like 3 pairs of people going to Taipei during mid-May.

~~~~~

I hate you, Infostealer.Gampass
Found out I got a handful of viruses last Saturday. I'm not sure if it's caused by my finding if there is still a Hard Rock Cafe Taipei or some other cn sites my uncle might have visited but I've got it. And I didn't bother to clear it out of my system coz Norton blocks them. But somehow, my brother's WoW account was hacked (password was changed without his permission and his account was flagged for some illegal activities--I asked him what sort of illegal activity. In-game sexual harassment in the form of butt-pinching? Laundering money was the most probable cause, but not before gibbs!smacking me) and he had to inform the admin people over at WoW. So that's it. That's the last straw. I spent 2 days running all sorts of programs that detects and deletes spywares, malwares, viruses etc. and another day to confirm if our comps are totally and completely bug-free. Norton is useless. =__="

Is suffering from internet-withdrawal. Must...... download... NOW!!!

Note to self: run bug-detecting-and-deleting programs on comp in safe mode after unplugging it from the network and internet.

~~~~~

Mallrats in Vivo
So after yesterday's paper (last paper of my uni year! Woohoo!!!), my bro and I went to Vivocity hoping to score some free cones from Ben & Jerry's and waddiya know? Long queues. All the way out onto the scorching open-air roof top thingie. End up not queueing and walked around Vivo a bit. Found the "My Name Is Earl" soundtrack at Sembawang Music Center... Woohoo! It's been awhile since I bought something that I could download off the net--well, I *found* a download link for it but I can't download it. So I bought it instead. $19.90... not too bad.

Had Carl's Jr. before we leave. That fuglzzy (fugly+fuzzy) orange creature they sell at ActionCity is not as nice as the one that reminds me of dw, sold many months ago at Heeren's ActionCity.

~~~~~

Mallrats in LC
Then I almost blinded my bro when we went to Liang Court coz the walk from Clarke Quay MRT is on mostly unsheltered grounds. Since natjie said there's a 20% storewide sale for their anniversary, we went there, twirled around a couple of times, came out empty-handed. Not surprising since my bro and I like English books more. LC's renovation's getting along quite nicely too. Forgot to go tour Meidiya...

Note to self: bring family to try the curry rice in Meidiya. Yum!

~~~~~

Mallrats in The Cathay
After LC, we went to The Cathay's Gramophone. And as natjie helpfully pointed out, there's a B&J store there too. But damn, the queue is long. It's so long, it'd trailed all the way down from their store on the 3rd floor to the 2nd floor. I saw a bunch of students lining up like The Cathay is their assembly hall or something.

Found a bunch of classic flicks that bro is interested in in Gramophone and I told him to write it down somewhere and remind me to get them when we get back. Didn't find anything that I must get and that is saying something. I always end up with something from bookstores and music stores. Maybe it's coz I'd gotten the MNIE OST in Vivo so I don't need to buy something there? Lol... Speaking of that, I can't find the MNIE OST in Gramophone. Curious...

Sidenote: They were playing Alvin and the Chipmunks... A cleanly-shaven Jason Lee with 3 fuzzy singing and dancing chipmunks and my bro missed it. Or maybe he'd chose to ignore that commercialized work of fiction like he always does. Either way, I pointed it out to him and made him go right up to the LCD TV on display. Lol...

~~~~~

Mallrats in Orchard
So we went to Kino after leaving The Cathay cone-less and CD-less, hoping we won't leave book-less this time.

We found "Son of the Witch", sequel to "Wicked"--the one about The Wizard of Oz, only different. Bro was thinking of getting it after he finished "Wicked" but never gotten round to it. Still didn't get it this time coz there isn't 20% sale. And if my calculations are correct, there should be a quote-unquote Summer Blossom Sale either this or next month. Kino's 20% storewide sale had turned from a rare annual event to a decent biannual event and to a common quarterly thing now. He was also considering getting the other graphics novel, Lucifer but it's a bit hard on the wallet so we'll hafta wait for the 20% again. And I had a brainstorm. My offhand comment about how it would be hilarious if we found View Askew stuffs at the graphics novel section got my bro thinking and lo! There *is* something by Kevin Smith for his View Askewniverse. So we keep looking up and down and left and right at the shelf that the Kino book-finder system said it is at but we didn't come up with anything. So I gave up and was about to go find the good people of Kino to order myself a copy when my phone rang.

Caller was zy and he's asking about the previous Keroro manga--whether it is the 14 or 15 coz he'd forgotten which one he'd gotten. So I told him I'll go check and I brushed past this couple at the Keroro manga shelf and I found myself face to face with a Keroro vol. 15 waving right before my eyes. His other hand was still on the phone, talking to me. Said something about how he'd thought there's like an echo or something when I'm talking to him coz the manga section and the graphics novel section are adjacent to each other. Who knew? Our first and last paper were on the same date too. He also mentioned he'd been thinking about who would be in kino with a members' card coz his card expired months ago. Which sets the stage for him to borrow my card for the members' 10% discount.

More importantly, that girl with him is his new girlfriend. The one that I had speculated about a few weeks ago coz his msn nick was all lovey-dovey. The one whose existence was confirmed by dw a day after my speculation. Lol... She's tall (almost as tall as he is with her 1" heels), kinda pretty (if not for that acne problem. A pity really...), kinda severe-looking in the primary school teacher sorta way (or it could be her dress. I had a teacher who likes to wear that type of dress) and younger than us (both me and bro thinks she looks older than me but my only bro... my only *younger* bro looks older than me. Lol...)

So after bidding them goodbye, I went to finally get my order settled and the good people of Kino called another good people of Kino to find that book for me. The bottom is a lil ruined but it's the last copy and as my bro so eloquently points out, they're prolly not gonna bring it in ever again and who knows if their overseas store can find another copy. We then went on to speculate why they had the book in the first place coz it's based on indie movies that are so obscure here that the number of Singaporeans who watched "Clerks", "Mallrats", "Chasing Amy", "Dogma", "Jay and Silent Bob Strikes Back" *and* "Clerks II" might be a grand total of 2--yours truly and yours truly's parents' second spawn. So I shrugged, paid for it and left for Borders.

Sidenote: Bro's classmate--who was one of the good people of Kino--waved goodbye to him with a knowing smirk as we were leaving. I seriously hope she don't think I'm his gf or something. That's just odd. Being mistaken for your own younger brother's girlfriend. Lol...

At Borders, I had just entered the DVD section when mom called and asked if we wanna go grocery shopping at Pasir Ris and since Pasir Ris have a Ben & Jerry's too, I said sure. We could go try our luck again.

~~~~~

Mallrats in Whitesands
The first thing that I saw when I exit the Pasir Ris station is how many people in the B&J queue there is. 3 strikes, yeeeerrrrrrrrr out! I officially gave up. And since we reach Pasir Ris earlier than I'd expected, we went to McD and waited.

I went on ahead and try to find seats while bro bought coke for us and when I found one, the table for 2 was missing a seat. So the kind people of McD found a seat for me and since I was standing while waiting for the kind people of McD to return with one, I saw this guy who was attached to the same office as I was during my Industrial Attachment--aptly dubbed My Personal Social Hellhole (see the intern tag). We weren't even on the same team and I got along with him better than my own team. Wow...

I was deliberating if I should go up and talk to him when my bro returned with coke. Deliberated some more and finally made up my mind to go over and chitchat a lil when my mom called to say she's here.

First thing he asked me was my hair. Lol! I kept my hair tied up during attachment coz I know how messy my hair is and I'm working in a construction site. And today, he'd seen me in my full crown-of-poofy-hair glory. Prolly amused him to no end. Haha... Poor dude will be having his last paper the day after mine, which means--in real-world time--today. Then he asked if I'm here with my friend and I told him I'm with my brother. Gave a slight dramatic pause and added "My younger brother". His surprised look amused me to no end. Haha... Had a nice chat with him and wished him good luck with his paper and his job interview (he's gonna try to work for PSA. A lot of people are. Is PSA really that good? I only know that the allowance is good, s'all...) Prolly shoulda gotten his email or phone number or something... Too forward? But I only wanna get to know him as a friend. Not really interested in short guys :P Now that I think about it, I don't even know his name. LMAO!!! Gee... And I was saying how I got along with him better than my own team. Haha...

Sidenote: Another thing that amused me to no end is the shock on mom's face when I told her the guy in McD is a Malay. He looks damn Chinese though... More cina-looking than even zaidbot. Haha...

We were on our way down to NTUC when I was hit with a bout of hiccups and I opened a bottle of OJ and drank from it without paying (yet). Mom frowned upon my action, most prolly thinking that I'd picked this bad habit up from my aunt who does that all the time but I didn't. Well, the action was inspired by the aunt but if I wasn't having those killer hiccups, I would pay before drinking but I *was* having those killer hiccups so I did what I did. Mom tried to scare me by saying how they'll get people to catch me for stealing and I pointed out the flaw in her logic by saying they can only catch me if I leave their premises without paying but since I'm still within their premises, as long as we pay for it before leaving, we're fine. She huffed and walked away.

Thanks for paying my university tuition fees, Mom. That's what you get for putting me through college--a truckload of headache and a long string of rebuttals.

So we bought our groceries (the cashier auntie keyed in my half-finished bottle of OJ and passed it back to me, telling me to finish it before it got warm coz it won't taste as nice. LMAO!! How'd she know it's me who drank it?? Do I have like the drink-stuff-before-paying face??? Hmm... Well... I *do* look like the aunt that does that all the time... Hahaha!) and we went home. After weaseling in 2 more pints of B&J ice cream. We still have one at home but the cone-less state of our existence made me bitter and vengeful. I will eat you all!!!! Rawr...

~~~~~

Sing Sing Sing
So today, went for ktv session with pq, sc and zy from 2-7pm. We were supposed to meet at City Hall interchange at 1.30pm but I got out of the house 15min late so logically, I'll be 15min late and I informed pq accordingly. Turns out, I arrived at the station 10mins before our official meeting time and when I informed pq accordingly again, she laughed and said my powers of estimation is spoilt. Which, given yesterday's Pasir Ris incidence, I'm inclined to think that she's right. Lol... I always overestimate the problem so that people will know the worst-case scenario.

Got warmed up and had tons of fun screaming to Aerosmith's "Don't Wanna Miss A Thing". I swear, that song is a must for ktv. Screamed to Linkin Park's "Numb" MTV without any guiding lyrics coz I can't stand the fake MTV they put on for English songs. I thought I'd have some trouble with the lyrics coz it's really been awhile since I last heard anything by LP but not a hitch. Not even a single hiccup! Wow... Bro says it's one of those things that stays with you for life--like riding a bike and playing mahjong--and I hafta say, I kinda agree with him.

Future plans:
1 May-->SLS with parents
2 May-->pool with natjie and lz
6 May-->FYP oral presentation + report hardcover bind + Cuppage ramen
8 May-->clubbing with jess and hopefully shaf
9 May-->recover from clubbing with jess on her birthday.
12 May-->Ironman with zaidbot coz it's his birthday and I owe him his anime, threadless tshirts and Welbilt cds.
15 May-->Watch out Taipei, here we come!!!!

Shalom, homme.

2008-04-24T21:36:00.001+08:00

Too lazy to recount what happened yesterday so I got natjie to do it. I was on a roll, baby! I made so much crack-ass comments, bad puns and impromptu ad-libbing I can't recount now. Might hafta do with the not sleeping the night before... *shrugs*
First part of her post is about me~

Also, shaf called me geek today. Never been called geek before. Been called weird plenty of times but not a geek. She'd gotten a bunch of old DOS games and when I told her I found this old DOS game last month called Treasure Mathstorm, she was like "What!?!? MATH???" and said I'm such a geek. Lol...

What can I say, I am a closet geek.

I just realized this last night...

2008-04-20T18:04:00.001+08:00

I just realized this last night but I haven't slept in my own bed for 4 days. Yesterday was the 1st time I slept in my own bed since my first exam paper last Tuesday. D:

Was off to grandma's house from tues night to thurs afternoon so that's tues and wed nights accounted for. Spent thurs and fri night watching My Name Is Earl while studying in the living room so that's all 4 nights.

I did sleep on fri afternoon on the couch and thought that sat was fri. Decide it's time to pass out and not study on sat night--which was yesterday night--after tripping over my words for the 7852418632nd time. Huh. That would explain this longing and nostalgic feeling as I made my way up my loft bed. Gee... =__=

tv addiction during exam period

2008-04-19T10:27:00.000+08:00

I dunno... I guess I'm a sucker for punishment. And for lighting my ass on fire. But thinking back, every time there's a test or exam, I end up watching shows. Continuously. Until all the eps that is currently available (to me) is watched. I'd cleared at least 1/4 of my stash just because of all the exams I'd had.

And this time, it's worse. I manage to finish 4 seasons of Stargate Atlantis in less than a week and 2.5 seasons of My Name Is Earl in 2 days (3rd season's only half-aired). I dunno if it's coz there's a bit more time than I had in the past to study (4 modules this semester as opposed to the average of 7 the previous few semesters) or I just like the feeling of my ass on fire before I do anything productive, I ended up with 2 completed series on my hands in less than 2 weeks. Last time, I'd only got through one series coz well, I had 7 modules to study for.

...Gods... I am so dead. Starting to think that being trailer trash ain't that bad after all. At least there won't be a cpf to start with, as opposed to paying back both my cpf education loans to my mom's cpf account and having no money in my cpf account by the time I clear the loans and is eligible to buy a house and paying for the house *and* having no money in my cpf account again after paying for the house, which will be around the time my kids hits college age and they need my cpf for their education loans.

I put too much thought into the cpf thing, I know, but that doesn't stop it from sucking. Why isn't anyone doing anything about it? *sigh*

Rough Paper, Street Kings and Idiot Kids

2008-04-15T19:30:00.003+08:00

Rough Paper
First day of exams. First paper of the last semester. The beginning of the end.

And I screwed up by not studying everything like I should and listened to some half-ass tip. Cost me 13 marks coz I had to leave it blank. I mean, ok, so this paper is based on how well you bullshit but I need facts to work on my bullshit. And I didn't study that entire topic so what d'ya know? No facts = No bullshit. Well, no *good* bullshit anyway. :P

And the rest, well, let's just say I got enough bullshit to cover the 3/4 of the island--I mean paper. Hope that counts for something.

~~~~~

Minor Spoilers: Street Kings
So the 1st paper was a morning paper and we ended around 11am. Me and lz went to have lunch at the temporary Chinatown market near Outram Park MRT (yummy almond paste that is not too sickeningly artificial and sweet) and caught a movie at The Cathay at Handy Road.

Couldn't quite decide which show to watch based on 8days, so we went down to The Cathay and see what they have. Robert Downey Jr. as Ironman? Sadly, not out yet (but the trailer looks good~~ *drool*). 2 sisters vying for the queen spot beside King Eric Bana? No thank you from both of us. A father telling his daughter about the 3 women in his life and making her guess which is her mother? Boring~, says lz. Louis Koo as the next kingpin? I say "Gods no". Story about cops *and* Hugh Laurie? Oh yay! Lz likes cop movies too. So we bought tix for Street Kings.

And now, without giving too much away...
It could be because I finished 4 seasons of Stargate Atlantis in less than a week but the whole time, all I could think of was how the right-side profile of Keanu Reeves looks like Joe Flanigan. With not so great hair and even worse shirts. ((Joe Flanigan's got great hair and great uniform/shirts in SGA =3))

Sucre! I mean, Amaury Nolasco is in there too. Nice to see him again. Which reminds me, I should really catch up on Prison Break. Kinda didn't wanna continue around season 2 midway.

The first scene Hugh Laurie appears in is in the ER, pulling open the curtain and announcing his unwanted presence loudly. And by saying he's an insurance salesman but we all know he is not. Again, all I can think of was "House, meet cop!House". Just less snarky. Oh and more vulgarities too. Lotsa f*** being tossed around. And Whitaker calls him "Jimmy" in one scene. Lol!!! The camera angle is not too flattering for him in this movie though.

The last bit of Forest Whitaker with the crown speech is Last King of Scotland all over again. Even though I've never actually watched LKoS but yea... the vibe is there. Lol...

(Edit: Forgot to mention Chris Evans earlier. He's a McGee--a leaner, better looking McGee. Probie-rank, new to the job, eager to proof himself and that haircut totally fits... :P)

It's a rather drawn-out affair, Street Kings. Me and lz were both like... "gods, when will this get to the exciting part? Or even better, end???" Story's good but pacing's off. All in all, tolerable.

~~~~~

Idiot Kids
And so, after the conclusion of the movie, we were dog tired and went home separately (duh). So I waited for the bus and fell asleep on the bus all the way home. Was raining and got off the bus to a crowded bus stop. As my stop is at TPJC, there are naturally a buncha JC kids around. So I made my way across, moving out of the way as much as I can when I saw this girl in particular, talking animately with her friend and not looking in my general direction (basically she had her head turned away from me). I made an extra large effort to siam her coz I have a feeling something's gonna happen that involves her. So, effort--any larger and I would be out on the road being drenched. I left like an arm's length of space between the two of us and stupidly thinking that I'm safe, I crossed. And she took this exact moment to point at something across the road to her friend. And we ended up with her finger on my right cheekbone--exactly an arm's length away.

LIKE WTF!?!?!?! I KNEW SOMETHING IS GONNA HAPPEN AND I MADE AN EFFORT TO PREVENT IT FROM HAPPENING AND STILL, SUCH SHIT HAPPENED. WTF DO THEY TEACH JC KIDS NOWADAYS ANYWAY??? HOW TO POKE PEOPLE IN THE FACE WHILE TALKING IN A CROWDED BUS STOP????? GODS!!!!! OPEN YOUR FUCKING EYES!! IF NOT FOR THE WHOLE SITUATION BEING SO FUCKING HILARIOUS, I WOULD FUCKING KILL YOU. I KNOW WHERE YOU STUDY. ¬___¬

Ahem. So, I'm pretty sure everyone's dead on the floor laughing right now. I just hope my cheekbone don't bruise. That's gotta suck. Finger-shaped bruise on cheek. Hmm...

What is the name of this course?

2008-04-04T11:10:00.002+08:00

So I had my quiz today and from what I'd heard last semester, this course's quiz is a tough one. Only one person passed last sem. So was feeling a lil worried. Even the lecturer said so himself--that if he have half the class passing his quiz, he'd be really happy. And since I'll most likely fail no matter how hard I study, I took things easy. Just read through everything, took note of the formulas and all that.

And what do you know? The quiz was a killer. It killed me with laughter.

The first question is the title of my post--Write down the name of this course. He'd even provided 3 blanks and told us that there's 3 blanks so there's 3 words in the course name. O_O
The second question is to write the formula for the renal impulse output response and sketch it. Like... I didn't integrate everything but I'm pretty sure I got the basic formula correct. And the graph should be the one I drew.

And he said no one got his quiz right. ¬__¬

But the thing is, he'd only concentrated his quiz on the renal part and not the respiratory portion... Does that mean that respiratory portion is not important? But he'll have 2 questions for exam while the other lecturer have 2. Which still means that he'll likely have 1 on respiration and 1 on renal.

Oh woe... Gotta concentrate my energy on writing lab report which is due on monday... *sigh* Weekend, burn. Again.

P.S. Turns out, he's right. I got everything except qn 1 wrong. I wrote a wrong term in the formula. A fucking one alphabet difference caused me the whole chunk of marks. And the graph is wrong too coz I drew the impulse retention response instead of the impulse output response as the qn asked.

SADDDDD....

Note to self, do not listen to other ppl when they say I got it right. Coz I always end up getting it wrong when they say i got it right.

Just like MCQ. Only with the MCQ, I cannot listen to other ppl when they say I got it wrong, coz I'll end up getting it right.

P.S.S. Maybe that's why he gave such an odd face when I nodded when he asked the class if it was an easy quiz. Lol...

the most united group ever!

2008-03-19T02:37:00.000+08:00

So there I was, sitting in the cold tutorial room, alone, after lunch, waiting for my lesson to start. The one that had irregular schedules but mostly adhere to one lesson every two weeks. Hasn't failed me now so I didn't check the schedules before going to class. And after a whole of 5 seconds, I realized something was wrong. No one had came into the room. That's not possible. There were always people in the room earlier than me--even if I'm 10 minutes early that day (almost always late other days). Besides, the group that was supposed to present today should've been there to set up and prepare......wouldn't they?

So patiently, I sat til the official start of lesson and I heard the voices of two of my group mates outside the door. They were asking each other if there was class this week when they entered and when our leader asked if we'd checked the schedule, all 3 of us shook our heads in unison.

A few minutes later, while leafing through my file of random papers and notes, I found a piece of paper. Printed on it were the date and question and group 2 (our lecture group) will be having the class next week instead of this week. LOL! Right at that moment, our 4th member entered the room. She too did not check the schedule and had just went to class coz we didn't have class last week but we had one the week before. Talk about coordinated!

We waited til our final member lz came into the class and the group is complete. All 5 of us silly folks were the only ones who thought there was lesson this week!!! Had a good laugh over that. What are the chances of all 5 of us not checking the schedule? Coz seriously, if one of us knew, everyone will be informed--that's for sure.

=3 *giggles* Fun stuff.

update on life for the past few days

2008-03-11T21:56:00.003+08:00

I'm never gonna do any sales jobs ever again! Or so I'd said...
Been doing a promoter job for Sony for 4 days from 10am to 10pm for the recently-concluded IT Show and boy was I pissed.

First day in, we had to ask the sup what were we supposed to do and he got someone else to brief us. Someone who was more knowledgeable about LCD TVs than video players. Okay, never mind. I know a lil about DVD and BluRay players so no probs yet.

Second day, not too bad. Getting better at sales pitch but still had less people buying from me. Can't help it since I had two prettier girls working with me. Ah well... Life'd always been like that so no big deal there.

Third day, a Saturday. This is the start of hell. Gawds... I got bounced from one cashier to another coz apparently I'm not supposed to cash out stuff from one cashier and the other had told me to go over there. WTF! I had to go back and forth for at least 5 times. The poor customer lugging a big printed followed me back and forth for 3 times before I told him to just stay put while I go check out what exactly should I be doing.

Hey, I'm trying to help you guys earn money here. Treating me like a beach ball isn't helping my wanting to work hard. And one of the cashier had been giving me--just me, not the other two girls--shit for 3 days already. I've had it. The indignation was too much and I had a few tears shed over the rubbish known as management even though I know it wasn't worth it. Pissed off! If they weren't paying me something decent, I would've just walked off and went home. Maybe that's why the pay was a lil higher than other promoter jobs in the show. It includes promoting and taking shit from people. Still not enough to qualm my anger though.

Clocked a few hours of sleep and felt better on the fourth day. Sunday was the last day of the show so it was bad. Messy, crowded and bad. But it was less frustrating than the third day coz the stupid cashier was too busy to give me much shit. She still manage to find time to give me shit though.

Every time I go over to her, she'll be very impatient in asking me for the barcode even though I'm already looking for it. So I one-up-ed her and gave her the barcode before she asked. So she scanned and the customer paid before she realized the customer wanted delivery. And then she scolded me for letting her scan the cash-and-carry barcode. Like, how the fuck would I know that is your cash-and-carry code. So I told her as it was and the customer turned around and calmed me down. Gawd! The customer was doing the calming-down instead. I would've fumed more if not for that twisted scenario since usually, it's the customer who was pissed off and the promoter had to calm the customer down.

And since the other girls had better luck closing sales, I was in charge of manual labor jobs like taking out and packing the players for customers. The best record was 6 customers and 8 players being sold at the same time. I had a bunch of people behind me as I led them to the storage area to collect their goods. I feel like a tour guide. Lol... Apologies to all those people whom got their players without their free HDMI cable. In the confusion, I'd forgotten to pack quite a number of the cables in with their players. Sorry!!!

Also, about the pay. It was set at a per-hour rate without commission so the rate was quite high. And then, lz replied with a pissed off "Why should we bother keeping count when we don't have commission???" when she was asked how much we'd sold on the first day. To our surprise, one of the manager offered $5 for each player we sell as incentive on the third day to try to get us to sell more. Which also means that if we sell a $80 player, we get $5 and if we sell a $1500 player, we still get $5. Isn't much of an incentive is it? =___=

That was my second IT roadshow gig and it was after the show that I'd recalled screaming about how I would never do any more promoter jobs at roadshows after my first gig with Acer selling laptops a few years ago. Lol... I never learn.

~~~~~
Sir? You got the wrong deadline.
So first day back in school on Monday. Good news is that the draft that was due on Monday had been submitted a week ago coz our prof messed up the deadline. =___= So we'd actually slogged through the term break for something that should be handed up yesterday. But it's a good thing coz that means we don't have much to do this week while everyone is rushing to meet their (extended) deadline.

~~~~~

Irritating guy, get away from me.
So still on Monday. During our lab session, I got pissed off at the computer coz the computer can't find my thumbdrive. All 3 computers I'd tried can't read it. And nat can't get the program to work on her Mac. And lz and qx can't figure out the program. So I suggested we break for tea. And then this guy started packing up, saying he can't get things done there either and wanted to join us. WTF?!?! 4 girls going for tea to gossip and talk trash about things only girls can know and one big guy tags along. So I asked him in my pissy-bitch voice "Who said you can come? Did we invite you to join us??" and guess what his reply is? He said "That doesn't mean I can't tag along." WTFFFF!?!!??! So he really tagged along and us 4 girls can't gossip and talk trash about things only girls can known with him around. I gave him shit all day--so much so that he asked if he'd done something wrong to warrant such hostility from us during lecture when we didn't sit with him. Like, Captain Oblivious?

He obviously can't get subtle hints from the other girls and not-so-subtle hints from me so I told him straight up on msn when I got home. I told him that sometimes, girls just wanna gossip and talk trash with other girls about girly stuffs and when a guy--especially a guy who "tagged along" without their expressed permission--joined in, the girls can't gossip and talk trash with other girls about girly stuffs anymore. And that irritates them. And me. So please look at the situation and not tag along. No reply from him since then. Lol... I wonder if it's coz he's still offline (the newer version of msn messenger can deliver offline messages) or he can't think of what to say.

Can anyone out there tell me what is going on in his head when he decided to join 4 girls for tea?

~~~~~

Can't you see that fucking long line of queue??? Queue up behind!!"
So I was waiting for bus at the interchange this evening and this guy just came in from another empty queue line and cut right in front of me--albeit discretely--coz there's a break in between for people to go to the other queue or get out of the queue. I waited for him to get out of his spot before me for about 15 seconds and when he made no motion of getting out, I asked if he was queueing in the line that we're in and he nodded. :@! I told him none-too-kindly to go queue behind, all the way to the back. Rubbish! I ain't gonna stay quiet if you cut in before me. So I quickly moved up front and filled the gap to prevent another incident.

And then, a woman came in and did what that guy did but she cut in after me. The guy who used to be after me didn't give any indication of asking her to move behind so I didn't care either. If he's ok with it, so will I.

But seriously people, like, long queue for bus? Queue up! Some people won't speak up but some will. Don't think you can get away with it!! I've been pushing people out of queues when they cut in front of me since secondary school so don't mess with me. =___=

sheep sheep baaa

2008-03-06T00:48:00.001+08:00

So a flustered zhen called me earlier asking me how she should be throwing her literature review in her report. But the thing is... her project is a series of mini-projects and how do you write one literature review for a whole bunch of mini-projects? So I asked her if she'd read some papers or books for each of her mini-projects and had written some sort of background based on those papers and books in the chapters of her report related to the mini-projects and she did. So what's the big problem then?? She's already got her lit review... in mini-chunks w.r.t. her mini-projects within her project.

And then, she told me she'd heard we should write 50 pages at least coz everyone wrote at least 50 pages and that the page limit for the main body is 100 pages so she write a bunch more and got her report up to 50 odd pages now. But the thing is, there isn't a minimum number of pages in the official rule. So why should we be worried about the number of pages?? I only have about 40 pages from intro to conclusion but I think I had all that should be written. I have my background, I have my analysis, I have my results and discussion. I can't think of anything else that should be added that is relevant. Irrelevance is easy and that is prolly what was added into most reports just so they can hit the 50-page mark.

Maybe I'll do that too if my report got returned... =3

the clarity of hindsight

2008-03-05T00:42:00.001+08:00

Presentation today could've gone so much better. So many different things that I could've done and/or said that was different but I didn't coz I was too nervous over being the first speaker and the prof didn't really help matters.

When asked how long I would take for the presentation, I answered 4 minutes and when he asked above or below, I did the honest thing and said below. Coz I've never really manage to clock a more-than-3.5-minute timing when it came to presentation before. Which wasn't the answer he was looking for.

Well that sucked. Bully for me...

And during the presentation itself, someone's cellphone went off. Loudly. As if I weren't nervous enough aye? So without missing a beat, I told the class in the pinched and pissy voice to please turn off their mobiles.

I am not amused. Neither are they.

And then, halfway through the presentation, much disturbances was heard at the back of the class and true to the pissy bitch persona that I'd put on subconsciously, I asked the bunch of em "what's so funny back there??" before continuing with my presentation.

That was bad! That was *bad*!!

...It was smooth sailing from then on but I kinda got my momentum back a lil too late but oh well. Can't say I didn't engage the audience now can you? Lol... Talk about informal. Seems like I'm not cut out for formal situations.

My childhood game had been found! ^_^

2008-02-25T23:15:00.001+08:00

Back in primary school, I used to play this math computer game on the PCs provided during recess and turns out, my bro has the same fond memories of that game as I do. But, the tricky thing is, we both can't remember what that game is called.

So after many years of searching and looking, beebs on Yahoo! Answers asked about the same game I was looking for 3 days ago and lucky for her (and me), someone answered. And for some fluke reason, I took to looking for that game again today (even when I'm supposed to be doing my fyp analysis and report). T_T

The game is called Treasure Mathstorm!! Yes!!!!

AU RPS incest idea... Damn muse...

2008-02-16T19:28:00.000+08:00

So I was chatting with jess the other day and we talked about Santana's song with Chad Kroeger and how I have taken to calling Chad Kroger my Personal Jesus Christ (like, the first time I saw him in the "How you remind me" video? The first thing I said was "Holy Christ! Literally!!" O_O)

jess mentioned that PJC did something to his hair. Of course I demanded to see it and so the girl showed me the video of "Into The Night" and like whoa, short straight hair. We both agree he looks a little like the older brother of Alex Band from The Calling with that hair.

And then~ Out of curiosity, I went to read up on Alex Band on wiki and look what I'd found!!
"He was chosen by Chad Kroeger to perform on the Carlos Santana single "Why Don't You & I" Originally, Kroeger wrote and sang on "Why Don't You & I" for Santana's Shaman."
Like, PJC helped his lil bro launch his solo career!!!

Of course, my brain-in-gutter took that up to a whole new ~~slash~~ level and I'm stuck with an idea I can't get rid of. Or get it out of my system.

Happy Chinese New Year!!!

2008-02-07T03:44:00.000+08:00

So I spent the eve of the eve of Chinese new year (5th feb) watching fireworks with Li Zhen, Peiqi and Irene at Esplanade. Singletons unite! lol...

Then we went to the new year displays by the (Marina) Bay since it's so near. We wanted to look for Chinese zodiac statues they put up but we don't know where it was so pq asked for our "instinct". Mine was wrong. =___= I thought it was on the left but it was actually a lil to the right in main area at the center.

We took some pictures, chatted a lil and went home. Irene drove and we had a jolly time turning round Temasek Boulevard and then again in Geylang. Plus, we took a longer route back to zhen's place. Lol! And to think I'd been to all those places before...

I really know which exit to take but I'm not 100% sure ~~and Irene seemed to know where she's going~~...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Then, I spent the eve of Chinese new year (6th feb) driving my mom, bro, aunt + her 2 kids to my grandma's place. Without dad. \(^_^)/

I can't believe I drove all the way to grandma's house without turning on the headlights! Stupid bro riding shotgun kept quiet on the trip there and the bugger said he's waiting to see when I'll realize I didn't turn it on. Is very DANGEROUS desu!!!!

And then, at the car park, I just had to go pick the lot beside a van. It's a bad angle and no one can see me coming out of the lot. Of course, headlights' still not on so it's my fault really. And I was wondering why they can't see that I'm reversing in and out of the lot. BLOODY BUGGER BRO!!! *Gibb!smacks his head*

The light literally went off ~~in my brainz~~ when I got in the car for the return journey. WTF! O_O Took a rather short time to park the car back home. Bro was joking about how his first moments into the lunar new year will be sitting in the car, waiting for me to park but we managed to get home just as the countdown started.
All in all, it's a pretty decent drive--even without the headlights on. Lol!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And I spent the first 2 hours of Chinese new year (7th feb) at a temple where people move erratically and hold their bundle of joss sticks horizontally at belly level instead of above their heads vertically.

Like, wtf people? Common sense?!?! Vertical = rain of harmless ashes on clothes and/or other people's hair. Horizontal = stabbing someone else with the burning pointy end of your joss stick.

...And people wonder why I think so lowly of people...

My kidney~~~

2008-01-31T01:17:00.000+08:00

So, career fair @ NTU yesterday. Full of people trying to make a good impression and dropping resumes at the booths looking for work even before they graduate. Many PostIts and pens were given out, among other freebies ~~which I didn't get~~. But that's not the point of this post.

The point of this post is how I got assaulted by a big blue paper bag from behind. Kinda like those from boutiques where it's large, long and very stiff.

This lady pushed her way past me in the tiny crowded walkway between booths and the sharp corner of the brand new paper bag stabbed me in the small of my back. Right where my right kidney should be.

So I made a big dramatic cry of "Ouch! The pain!! Gods my kidney!!! She stabbed my kidney with her paper bag!!!!" in the middle of the abovementioned tiny crowded walkway and no one batted an eyelid. It's like I'm in another plane of existence altogether!

...I got stabbed by a paper bag. I'd lost to a well-placed poke by a paper bag. But really, what chances do I have against it?? I can't win. Lol...

Letter of the week on 8days (again)

2008-01-28T19:51:00.000+08:00

So I wrote in to 8days the second time after that last time about that Korean heartthrobs article years ago (my Korean heartthrob of choice is still obscure and hardly known locally) and this time it was about the record-breaking tendencies of Singaporean youths (mostly students).

((The editor's note on my letter was about how they don't known whether to agree with me seeing as how there are students reading their mag. I seemed to have conveniently forgot to mention I'm a student myself. Heehee...))

I've only ever written in twice and both times, I got Best Letter. ^.^;;

...I'm beginning to think that intelligent and articulate people don't bother writing to 8days. How can I of mediocre language skillz (ENGLISH HAS NOTHING ON ME!!!!!!! *runs around waving a bunch of quill feather pens*) be selected for best letter both times??

((...I lost my first letter of the week mag... 20/20 hindsight tells me I shoulda scanned it and kept the mag >.<))

They broadcasted Classic Who in Singapore before! grin

2008-01-21T01:12:00.000+08:00

So I was watching Doctor Who Confidential yesterday ~~illegally~~ and my dad saw the opening sequence and was like "Ah! Doctor Who! It's about that eccentric doctor who goes around saving the day."

Yes, Doctor Who has been around for decades (no surprises there) but I was mildly surprised coz the only way he'd have known is if he'd watched it on TV all those years ago. And since cable isn't popular to people before the 90s, the television channels were still free-to-air broadcasts.

But again, the surprise wasn't really at Doctor Who being shown here but how they'd shown in on free-to-air channels back in the days and not now. We never have any good, proper British English shows on our local English-speaking free-to-air channels now!!

The only way we can watch Doctor Who (and other brilliant British English shows like Hustle) in Singapore is to first sign up and pay for cable tv, pay for an upgrade for their digital set-top box and then pay another fee for their digital channels package which includes BBC Entertainment and 21 other channels I'll probably never watch.

I just *love* how the world revolves around money. Don't you? =______=

*Edit: Dad also mentioned how me and bro had switched to watching British shows now that the WGA is on strike. But we'd always liked British shows. We just don't get much chance to watch it, is all... T_T

The perilous world of teh internetzz

2008-01-18T00:35:00.000+08:00

So I'd recently logged into my spyke_166@yahoo.com yahoo mail and lo! I found something I shouldn't have. Apparently, someone accidentally used my yahoo email to sign up for Friendster and they are asking me to verify my email. So I did the logical human thing and tried to log into that new & foreign account that I did not register for.

Turns out that guy's from The Philippines by the ID of hayukito. And since I obviously do not have his password, I asked Friendster to send me via lost password option. And to my surprise, they sent it to me! Like wtf lol!! They just sent it to me without question!

I had since closed that account.

~~~~~

And then I saw that I have a new mail on the yahoo homepage mail thingie so I logged in again and lo! I found another thing that I shouldn't have. Sitting in my inbox is this email by some Russian sounding person from bizrateshop.com saying that my account is past due with a Christmas surprise for me. Like wtf lmao!!

It gets better. That email was addressed to spyke_12@yahoo.com. spyke_12 and spyke_166. That's like a hundred and fifty-four numbers away from each other. Yahoo failed math.

So that's it. I don't think it's right for them internet people to be so lax when it comes to online security so I wrote them (yahoo & friendster) a feedback. Don't really think it'll be of any use but hey, it makes me happy.

~~~~~

To yahoo:

I'm not sure if this should be a flame or an angry feedback to the yahoo! mail management but I've had many emails that do not belong to me sent to my spyke_166 account.

The first instance was when I received an email asking me to verify my Friendster account. I most definitely did not register an account in Friendster with this email address but here I am with this email. Out of curiosity, I was able to log into the account using the lost password email sent to me. I had since closed the Friendster account.
I had sent an email to Friendster informing them of this security breech.

And today, when I log in to check my mail, I found an email that was sent to spyke_12@yahoo.com sitting in my inbox. How did an email sent to spyke_12 end up in my spyke_166 account?

This incident did not inspire any assurance in the already-dubious internet. I hope you will take note of this feedback and strengthen the security of yahoo! mail systems.

~~~~~

To Friendster:

I'm not sure if this should be a flame or an angry feedback to the Friendser management but I've had an account activation email sent to me via Yahoo! Mail (spyke_166@yahoo.com) regarding an account I did not sign up for.

As I'd already own a Friendster account under a different email, I did not see the need to create another account and most definitely did not register an account in Friendster. So out of curiosity, I tried to log into the account but since I obviously do not have the password to this new one, I opted for the lost password to be emailed to me. And to my surprise, I got the lost password email & was able to log into the new account.

I had since closed the Friendster account (hayukito from The Philippines) and I had sent an email to Yahoo! Mail informing them of this security breech.

This incident did not inspire any assurance in the already-dubious internet. I hope you will take note of this feedback and strengthen the security of Friendster's system.

~~~~~

There is just so much win in teh 1ntr4n3tz that I have no words for it. Gawds.....

Here's to walking away...

2008-01-12T03:51:00.000+08:00

Yay for today. My very first Uni chalet was surprisingly fun but today's post isn't about the chalet. It's about how our dear beloved lizhen formerly known as vivi has finally stopped thinking that she's the one at fault and she's the one who's bad!

...Too bad it took a confirmed piece of gossip and some concrete clues to make her walk out of that self-depreciating downward spiral.

The low-down: guy breaks up with vivi and had listed all her bad pts in that breakup meet up and left her feeling down and wondering if she was that lousy in all her past relationships. Cue emo spiral. Cue mood swings when alone.

A little bird told me that guy was seen with another girl ~~who is not vivi~~ at hall 16 ~~which is not his hall~~ couple of weeks before their big breakup meet up but it was all hearsay and I can't confirm anything so I kept my otherwise big mouth shut.

Then a few days ago, I got to know ~~most of~~ the full story. Either the guy seduces the girl or the girl seduces the guy. No matter, guy had another one on the side and is bidding for time to break up with vivi. Cue list of ~~overexaggerated~~ bad things vivi had done.

So at a chance moment in the chalet, I manage to break the news to vivi of what I'd heard few days ago to vivi and she'd manage to get the story from my source.

...And she's finally thinking that she's in the clear. She's not the one in the wrong.

It would've been better she didn't hafta use that piece of news as a reason to stop questioning herself but it'll be hard to break the cycle without a bit of external input I suppose.

~~~

She'd brought up an interesting issue just now though. How do one know when/where/who to put their trust on?

So I told her about how I'd taken to thinking everyone who is human has an ulterior motive in the things they do/say. It'll be easier on my poor naive heart if I'd prepared myself for the worst but not matter what I think, I end up trusting them.

I have this problem with answering questions that anyone pose to me without much thought put to it. And more often than not, the answer I give ended up being used or is the confirmation that they were ~~dreading but~~ looking for. Speed of mouth >> speed of brain kinda does that don't it? :P

No matter how much I prepare myself for it, I'll end up with a slipped tongue and many sore and bruised egos.

So she says she should try to do what I do. But that's not really the same as not trusting at all. I mean, even though I do try to put up as much wards and shields as possible, I still end up trusting them and a major slip of tongue.

...What I haven't told her was how I judge trust in others. I was about to tell her that my way of judging trust, I put my trust in other people with just the right amount of doubt and caution to make sure my hopes aren't dashed. Sure I trust them people but I also trust them to break my trust. If they do, it'll all be within my expectations so nothing lost there. If they don't, then well, I'll be pleasantly surprised and pleased. And keep em around for life. =3

Bad thing about that strategy is I don't let anyone in close enough. I don't really have someone to kid around and name-call like she does. I don't really have someone to turn to for consolation and other random girly touchy-feely moments. I mean, sure I have friends who are great fun to hang around but I realize they don't call me by any nicknames. You will only give someone an affectionate nickname if you're really close to that person. And like, with a name such as Theresa, there's so many syllabus to play with but not one of em actually gave me any nicknames. 3sa came about when I was bored and coming up with different ways to shorten it. *I* had to come up with my own nickname. How sad can that be?? Lol...

...I sure hope she don't stop trusting people just because that's how I do things. She don't needa take off her rose-tinted glasses just yet.

I'd left mine back in my 2nd year of secondary school.

2008-01-05T20:12:00.000+08:00

After reading an entry (click here) on how doctors lie on death certificates to hide the true scale of the toll from hospital infections, I was reminded of my recently deceased god-grandma's death cert.

Mom showed it to me a few weeks after her godma's death and the official cause of death was listed as pneumonia. But what caused the pneumonia in the first place? What caused the thing that caused pneumonia that caused my god-grandma's death??

From the stories I've heard previously, my god-grandma caught an infection while in the hospital for a replacement surgery for her knee. A fairly straightforward operation but shit does happen. So shit happened and this happened and that happened and pneumonia happened and the ultimate end happened.

Bro commented on how people could sue for millions if the truth every got out but unless you have at least a few tens of millions, you ain't gonna be getting your millions from the lawsuits.

...Unless you decided to take the bribe. In which case, you don't really need the few tens of millions to threaten to sue.

Turducken for Christmas?

2007-12-25T02:38:00.000+08:00

So I was out today with Vivi (also known as ah zhen as of late) on Christmas eve and she's telling me how one of our girl friends Peiqi was saying how she'd never spend Christmas at someone else's home with a turkey and a logcake before. So I said turkeys are for Thanksgiving too--right around my birthday =3

And I told her how you can stuff a chicken and a duck into a turkey. A Turducken basically. She gawked at me and accused me of kidding her. I mean, I'm for serious! I'm telling the truth! Cross my heart and all...

And then, I told her how someone managed to stuff 10 or 17 different birds into each other--can't remember if it's 10 or 17. Which probably isn't the right thing to do after she accused me of kidding her but it's the truth! Really! I'm not kidding.

Look! I've got proof! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turducken#Variations

Heehe...

2007-12-21T20:17:00.000+08:00

Machine + Human Failure

So we got screwed again. For FYP. Typical really. It had gone down somewhat like Ore-sama had predicted. Lucky I told nat not to schedule for anyone to come down yesterday.

So we got back to school yesterday and checked the system. Internet down. gdaqsys won't open. Like omfgwtfbbq!!! Matlab's command history shows the last key was entered on 14th Dec... which is like last Friday... which is like 5 days before we went down.

LIKE, YOU BLOODY BASTARDS CAN'T JUST SEND AN EMAIL OR SMS TO TELL US THAT THE SYSTEM IS DOWN AND WE WON'T BE ABLE TO FUCKING USE ANYTHING UNTIL AFTER THE BIRTHDAY OF CHRIST?!?!?!?!??!!??!

@#$%^&@#$%^@#&(*$%^$%$@#%%&*

And today, the real agenda for going back to school is to have McBreakfast with Vivi. No really. We woke up like 8am in the morning and got to school around 9.30 just to have McBreakfast. We also sorta confirm the system being unable to work with the lab in-charge and like, that man can talk cock. He kindly informed us that every time a new FYP group comes in, the system dies at least once.

LIKE, YOU CAN'T BLOODY WELL CHECK THE SYSTEM BEFORE ANY FYP GROUP ENTERS THE LAB??!!?!?!?!?

@#$%^&@#$%^@#&(*$%^$%$@#%%&*

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When not on form, do not play pool

And today, unable to do anything, we went over to botherbotherbother Vi and since she needed help for her OpenGL, nat helped out. I just sat around and look at logic flow. But with my own logic as base... well, you know the rest. :P

Being decidedly unuseful, we left NTU and went to play pool at this newly opened pool hall at Katong Shopping Center. Quite a good cheap place to play in the afternoon away. sodiumion's been playing pool for 3 out of 5 days already but it's addictive and we wanna hustle like SPN's Sam and Dean. Dean mostly. <3 Sam can get by with his puppy eyes easily.

Today just isn't our day. We spend the first 3 minutes sinking the first ball of the first game. Like, totally a bad omen. I kept missing my shots and shooting em crooked and nat managed to do a couple of jump-shots--the cue-ball-completely-missing-the-numbered-balls-and-right-into-the-pocket type. It's an incredible feat on its own actually. Who can jump-shoot balls right into the pocket like that!!

*_* It's times like these that I wish my brain was androidized like those in Ghost In The Shell so I can record everything I see and hear and playback and mass-send em to everyone.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
omfg... That scene's cute but like seriously... ghey old men?? O_o

I brought out Saiunkoku manga book 2 to read on the way to school/back home and towards the end of the book, it's like omfg... ghey old men! Like, really old men. Like wrinkly 80 year old men.

There's a scene with this younger man with this dying old man and the old man is telling the younger man how they'd spent 50 years together and all that jazz and the younger man is telling the old man how he loved him and all that mushy stuff AND THE YOUNGER MAN STUCK HIS WHOLE FUCKING HAND THROUGH THE OLD MAN'S CHEST AND THERE'S THIS GLOWY FIREFLY-GLOW LOOKALIKE GLOW!!! O_O Much ghey very old men love desu.

And there's a cute scene with 2 other old men. Slashy tones and nothing graphical (like who would actually wanna see 2 really old foogies go at it?! o_O) but it's cute! Really!!

Here it is!!! Clicky clicky~

triple whammy screw-me day

2007-12-12T00:05:00.000+08:00

It's gonna get long like all my other rant posts so I'll be a good blogger and separate em nicely.

~~~~~

So nat got her friend to come be our guinea pig help us today and that her friend of hers have like the most flexible, stretchable minutes and seconds that I've ever seen.

From meeting at 9am to give her a lift from Kembangan to NTU, to oversleeping and ETA in NTU at 11am, to finally showing up in NTU at about 12.30pm.
Well... beggars can't be choosers.

~~~~~

Our lab in-charge Dr Yu picked today to decide to come in and solve our data reading problem that had been going on for like at least 2 months now. He had actually wanted to do it yesterday but we had zaid all gelled and hooked up so he wisely backed away.

So he came in with 2 person from the local g.tec branch to check out our stuff and uninstalled and reinstalled and did all sorts of rubbish to the computer. And ended up with us being unable to get data that had been recorded these past week. On top of that, the 16-channel data acquisition device is being recognized as having 17 channels and the notch filter default changed from 50Hz/60Hz to 58Hz/68Hz.

Like, wtf am I gonna do about the extra 1 channel??!! I can't take it out of the recording and I can't hide it coz they did not have the option for more than 16 channels! And, even if Dr Yu says the 58Hz/68Hz could actually be 50Hz/60Hz, how would I know if that's true??!!??!! What if we start recording with it and it really is doing filtering at 58Hz or 68Hz?? THE WHOLE POINT OF NOTCH FILTERING IS TO REMOVE POWER LINE INTERFERENCES AT 50Hz OR 60Hz! =_=

~~~~~

Unable to do anything today, we got out of school at 2.30pm and wanted to go scream our lungs out at a ktv near her house but when I called to check if there's any available rooms, I was informed that the next free slot is at 5pm. Like wtf...

So nat suggested KBox near Parkway Parade (which is also nearby). What do you know?? They closed. Everything was getting torn down. =__="

~~~~~~

Bad things *do* come in threes, people. Poor sodiumion though... she's got an extra 4th whammy with her Matlab. Mac laptops, no matter how l337 and <3<3<3 and awesome they are, are forever the bane of engineering students. No one makes engineering programs run on Mac OS as readily as XP and it's harder to look for pirated stuff for Mac too =P

As I'd always told everyone, I'll only get a Mac after I graduate and is out of the engineering field. Preferably if I'm in the journalism field. I'll be put those googling skills to good use now wouldn't I? Lol...

It's been a while

2007-12-10T20:14:00.000+08:00

It's been a while since I last posted on the stupidity of people I meet on public transportations.

This morning, in a rather packed train, after standing to my left for like a whole of 7 stops, this Indian guy decided to move in and began squirming and snaking his way to his right (a.k.a. where I was standing) and settled right in front of me. With his ass grinding my bag which I had slung in front of me.

...My bag feels so violated. But it *is* a crowded train so all's okay.

This evening, in another rather packed train, after standing slightly behind me for a whole of 3 stops, this Chinese girl decided to move in front of me and began squirming and snaking her way past my left and settled there. The train decided to do the jerking thing they like to do when people are not properly balanced and the girl stepped on my left slipper while trying to regain her balance.

Good thing my toes weren't in the way of her stomp. But she said sorry so all's okay.
...Then she decided to play her PSP without holding onto anything and I fear for my toes.

And I reached my stop and got off onto a rather packed platform, queueing to get down the escalator to make my way down and this China lady kinda cuts in from my left while yapping nonstop like the China Chinese lady that she is and started to make her way IN FRONT OF ME. So I also kinda make my way to the front of her not-so-discretely and she had the nerve to keep bumping me from behind.

...All is not okay. So I ignored her bumping and got onto the escalator before her. The bitch. HA!!

Gave myself one helluva big present...

2007-11-30T01:32:00.000+08:00

It's my birthday~ And I partied like it's my birthday~!

Jess popped over on her off day (aka my birthday aka technically yesterday) and we had coke whiskey, bailey's irish cream, whiskey neat, her mom's wonderful lamb curry and ben 'n' jerry's chunky monkey. <3 muchly desu!!! It's so nice to just hang out and chill after not seeing each other for so long. Tried to convert her to Moyashimon with its cute opening and ending. I hope it works... Lol...

Ordered like a huge platter of sushi, kentucky fake chickens and donuts (thx bro!) for dinner. Yummy~. Had tons of fun with cousins even though they are noisy and I can't study with em in the house but it's nice to get together with em.

Here comes the lousy part. I fell on my way home after sending my aunt's stuff across the road for her. And scrapped my knee and palm. And kinda sprained my elbow. The dominant right elbow. Which sucks coz now it hurts like hell when I move it and I can't bend my arm for more than 90 degree and I HAVE MY LAST FUCKING PAPER TOMORROW!!!!!!!!!!! Goddamnit... I had actually crossed that lil dip in the concrete path on my way there. Can't believe I tripped over it on my way back!! Grrr... And to think the day was going so well too...

So now I'm a fake lefty. Hope my 腕がぁぁぁ～～ *does tezuka pose* gets better ~~immediately~~ tomorrow...

4 down, 2 to go

2007-11-26T21:36:00.001+08:00

Even though the paper today was almost as bad as the previous days (I left like almost 25 marks worth of questions blank) but strangely, I don't feel the need to rant. At all.
It's kinda like I'd ascended onto another level of existence where how well I do in the exams don't matter anymore since no matter what I do, I'll still not be getting good grades.
I suppose some might call this state of mind giving up but this isn't giving up, is it?

~_~

Today is "Get Screwed Day". Have you gotten screwed yet??

2007-11-20T21:32:00.001+08:00

!@!@#@$%%!@#$^
Got screwed by the other fyp group using the same lab and equipment as us.

I thought we had settled the schedule problem last week when the bastard agreed to our terms. WE EVEN LET OUT THE LAST FEW DAYS OF THE SECOND WEEK. AND THEY AGREED!!! Well, *he* agreed.

Turns out, his partner the girl wanted to go for this camp thing during 3rd week and she'd told him BUT HE'D STILL AGREED TO OUR TERMS OF LETTING THEM USE THE LAB AFTER THURSDAY OF THE SECOND WEEK. Said something about not being able to stop her if she wanna do things her way and all. SHE'S YOUR BLOODY PARTNER!!! DON'T GO AGREEING TO OUR TERMS IF YOU HAVEN'T SETTLE WITH HER GODDAMNIT!!!!!

Poor girl. She's got no choice but to skip the camp and work with what they have while the guy goes on holiday DURING THE TIME WHEN WE TAKE BACK THE LAB FROM THEM!!!! She got screwed by her partner... Seriously.

~~~~~

!@$#%^&$#%&%@$@#@#%
Aunt got screwed by her office. A simple question turned into a shout fest coz her boss isn't feeling peachy. She got screwed by her school OM & principal before she got screwed by her office. Which sucks for her.

She wasn't in the wrong when she asked for PO from her office and when the stocks will be arriving but the manager that answered her call just assumed everything was out of order and it's all her fault the stocks are not in. Like, a bookshop auntie will know when the stocks will be arriving.

=_= Middle-management sux.

~~~~~

!@#$^!@#$%^#$%^*(%^&*
Cousin got screwed by her ex who called her and held her on the phone for almost 20 minutes. Me and my aunt kept getting her to hang up and the two of us shrewd women spoke up real loud asking her to hang up and that even if he calls, she's not gonna go back with him no matter what he tries. Lol...

Irritating boys should be shut out of your lives completely and immediately.

~~~~~

!@$#$%^&#$@%$$^@$#%!@$#^%$
Gonna get screwed by Iggy? I don't think so.

He messaged me with the info for a meeting with the 4906 lecturer at 4.15pm tomorrow afternoon. I say afternoon but it's evening in my personal time clock. Like, I'll need to get out of the house by 2.15pm to make it down to school by 4.15pm. And by the time I get home... well, let's just say I wouldn't be seeing any sun after 2.15pm.

LIKE, WTF!?!?!? I LIVE LIKE FUCKING 2HRS AWAY FROM SCHOOL WHILE YOU LIVE *IN* SCHOOL. LIKE, WHO THE FUCK WILL WANNA WASTE THAT FUCKING FEW HOURS??? LIKE, IT'LL BE A WASTE OF MY FUCKING TIME IF IT'S A SHORT MEETING.

Bloody hell... What is up with today?!!?!?

Guh... I'm saddened by the youth of my nation

2007-11-16T18:07:00.000+08:00

Was reading 8days, and they were talking about Beauty or Brains with the contestants of this reality TV show about the beautiful people in campuses around Singapore (Hey! Gorgeous), asking if they are himboes or bimboes.

To which, most of them answered with "Oh, I'm not a himbo/bimbo. I scored As and Bs in my O-levels/A-levels/exams".

*gum-smacking valley girl accent* Like, duh~~~~~ I'm so smart coz I scored As and Bs in my papers~~~

So. Their definition of having brains is being able to score in examinations. Which is kinda stupid in its own way coz what if they are only good at scoring in examinations but failz0r in life? Does that mean that people who are pretty/handsome and didn't do so well in school BUT is capable of less academic tasks and thinking are himboes and bimboes??

What about those who are unpretty and didn't score As and Bs in their O-levels/A-levels/exams but winz in life?? Oh wait. They are called the rest of the human population.

...It's people like them that makes people like me look stupid coz of age-group association... Guh.............

今日は災厄だな...災厄だよ...

2007-11-15T00:37:00.000+08:00

*sigh*
HRM paper today. Technically, it is an easy paper... if you know what to write. Which I don't. And I think I'm one of the few who do not know what to write. At all... Which sucks coz I really don't want to repeat that module...

~~~~~
*sighs*
Received news on the passing of my mom's godmother after HRM paper today. She was having trouble with her leg for a few years now and a few days ago, she went for this operation and kinda took a turn for the worse. I was supposed to go visit her in the hospital on Sunday but mom said the aunts and uncles will be riding with her and there isn't enough space, so I didn't go.

Yesterday, mom got home looking all broken up and I overheard her telling my dad she's afraid that god-grandma won't make it, and that god-grandpa didn't wanna see her and that if he don't see her, he might never get another chance.
Which kinda applies to me too, I guess.

This is not a good year for me... Dog died. Dad heart bypass. Some distant cousin died of terminal leukemia. And now my god-grandma... haiz... I will miss her and her delicious roasted cashew nuts...

I am reminded of something my Poly clique once said about me. They were talking about deaths in the family and everyone was sharing their stories of their relatives' passing and I was real quiet. One of them was like "ah... 3sa's so quiet... Didn't have much deaths in your family right?" All I could do was laugh awkwardly and shrug it off. Not that I'm complaining or anything. I really didn't have much experience with death back then. Even now actually.

...I really don't want that experience...

~~~~~
*sighss*
On another note, I was channel surfing and I stopped at Arts Central. They were showing Cowboy Bebop. Tell me if you won't stop, please. Lol...

This is like the second time I saw an episode of Cowboy Bebop on Arts Central and both times, it was the episode with that Penguin-esque guy and the carnival theme park Space Land.

While watching it, I remembered the scene from a few years back when I first watched it on TV--I was at this chalet with my poly friends and I was bored so I channel-surfed and Cowboy Bebop was showing and that episode aired. Everyone in the room was like "O_o why are you watching this??" I can't find a good answer to their question. I can't ask them to sit down and watch it coz that episode really is kinda too artsy-fartsy for them and they don't really appreciate the film noir style of the ep. Even though the series is 最高! The bestest best!!!

Haiz...

I should pull my Cowboy Bebop out of storage and re-watch everything again. ((Which I'd done like 2-3 years ago... XD))

腐女子 and 夕暮の虹

2007-11-09T19:19:00.000+08:00

BL <3 in Genshiken 2!!!!!
<3 Genshiken 2 ep 5 muchly desu!!!!!!

So much yaoi~ So much BL~ So much LOVE!!!!! lolololol....
It's great how they had this gay fantasy scene for the Fujoshi(腐女子), Ogiue-san. Fan service だよ! Getting to see all the other characters in Genshiken being prettified and BL-fied. And the last part... hawtz だよ!

ヤパリ...　見てと聞こえては違うだった...

But I can just see all the guy audience cursing and swearing. Well, deal with it! You guy otakus had one whole season of MOEEE~~~. It's our turn now! Lol...

((edit: was talking to a friend about that famous ep and what a coincidence!))
pix of the chat screen

~~~~~~~~~~

pix of 夕暮の虹: The Evening Rainbow

Was on my way back home after this quiz (Stupid me! I got the right answers again but then... Haiz... Self-doubt is my MCQ curse!!) and was feeling rather angry with myself. But the evening sky had such a great color and it bathed everything with its gentle light and made the sights I see everyday looks so nice--beautiful even. So I took a shot of the place just for the heck of it coz we don't get such pretty-looking colors in our skies much.

And when I got off at my stop, on the overhead bridge, I saw this tiny sliver of a rainbow (see link above). I did a double take. I had planned to take another shot of the sky when I get on that bridge and there's a rainbow waiting for me! Lucky!! Lol... To make things even better, my mp3 started playing For Fruits Basket by Okazaki Ritsuko. Talk about setting up the mood.

That really made my day.

Celebrating 100th post with post on Pansexuality

2007-11-05T01:38:00.000+08:00

Celebrating 100th post with post on Pansexuality!!!

So a friend and I were discussing sexual orientation over at her blog post (it was meant to be her birthday post but somehow it got side-tracked... as always :P)
So I mentioned pansexuality and that piqued her interest. Basically, anything goes but somehow I think she got the wrong idea about it.

Quote from wiki:
Pansexuality (sometimes referred to as omnisexuality) is a sexual orientation characterized by the potential for aesthetic attraction, romantic love and/or sexual desire for people, regardless of their gender identity or biological sex. This includes potential attraction to people who do not fit into the gender binary of male/female implied by bisexual attraction. Pansexuality is sometimes described as the capacity to love a person romantically irrespective of gender.

Keywords being: sexual orientation, love a person romantically irrespective of gender.

Yes, aesthetic attraction is mentioned but if it's just like "oh pretty! I like...", that's not really pansexualism at all. That's just the Magpie Syndrome (I suffer from it too! Lol...). You'd have to love and be in love with the other party (men/women/alien with 16 tentacles *shrugs*) like you would your heterosexual/homosexual counterpart/boyfriend/girlfriend/partner/mate/significant other, even if sex is not involved.

It's true that sex is not a must in this equation but if one is not willing to have sex with either biological sexes/genders/alien species, then clearly there isn't enough love/sexual attraction between the two to consider oneself a pansexual.

If one is just claiming to be pansexual coz one like pretty things/people... that'll just giving people everywhere the wrong impression of being a pansexual.

It all boils down to sexual attraction. And well, even if one says one can love other women/aliens but cannot bring oneself to have sex with women/aliens, one clearly is not attracted sexually enough to women/aliens to really be considered a pansexual... can one?

Sorry if this seems like I'm really hung up about this coz, well... I am hung up about this.

Suzumiya Haruhi no Halloween

2007-10-31T23:02:00.000+08:00

Today, on the joyous All Hallows' Day, I have finished all 9 books (so far) of Suzumiya Haruhi light novel series. In traditional Chinese no less.

I'm more of an English novel reader but I'd like to think my Chinese is decent. I'd bought the Trinity Blood light novel series translated from Japanese to traditional Chinese a couple of years before and I couldn't bring myself to read it for more than 2 days (put that off until I got so bored during my attachment and finished that one book in a week's time).

But with Haruhi, I finished the 1st book in the record time of 3 days--2 hours back and 2 hours forth on the train to school everyday. I was super amazed by my speed as I'd always considered myself a slow traditional Chinese reading when it comes to whole pages of words. This consistent speed carried for the other Haruhi books (except for book 7 coz so much thicker than the rest...)

Woot!! *does a lil jig*

why do I remember weird dreams lately??

2007-10-17T23:35:00.000+08:00

I hafta clarify, I don't usually remember dreams. At all. But then.......

(1) Foo Fighters
I forgot if I dreamt before or after my bro mentioned FF's new album a couple of weeks ago (if it's before, I'm psychic!!) but I dreamt that I was in a mall and the members of FF were there. I saw a bored-looking Dave Grohl, in his fully bearded, long shaggy haired self (I really liked him better cleanly-shaven with short hair... reminds me of sam rockwell. Lol...), and I can't find a blank page in my notepad when I tried to get his autograph.

Fumbled, panicked and made rubbish small talk but got his signature in the end. Got all the other member's autograph too (lukewarm response from them too) and had a great chat with my favorite member--bassist Nate Mendel. The dream kinda ended when they had to go prepare for the mini mall concert starting soon.

Which reminds me... the last time Linkin Park was in Singapore way back when, I had the chance to go backstage and all. And there, only my favorite member--bassist Dave "Phoenix" Farrell made an effort to chitchat a little more with me. (*blush* commented on how my LP tee isn't the same as the others... so kind of him. *hug* My 20/20 hindsight told me I should've offered my tee for his tee after the concert ended. >_<)

The rest of 'em just looked sheepish and couldn't be bothered with this lowly fan from Singapore. *eyeroll*

P.S. Linkin Park's coming to Singapore again in Nov. Can't make it as the day after their upcoming concert is my first paper for my finals this semester. Guh......

~~~~~

(2) Rude China(wo)men
Had this dream last night. I dreamt that I was playing around with a friend's laptop at some canteen-like place during recess (?) and all of a suddenly, while I turned away to talk to my friend, this two china women squeezed their way past me, sat down in front of the laptop and started using it like it was theirs to begin with.

So I got pissed and kinda asked them what they were doing & whether that laptop is theirs in a not too friendly tone. They had the nerves to retort "it ain't yours either". Seriously pissed. So I turned to my friend and gave him the "wtf are you doing, being so quiet? Go get your bloody laptop back yourself!" stare and he got them back by saying that's his laptop.

They were far from happy but they stayed where they were, jabbering and complaining and I've had enough. I yelled "SO RUDE!!!" at the top of my voice.

...Which was when I realized it was 7am and that I had really shouted at the top of my voice in my sleep. Strange thing was, the loud piercing China women's voices were still ringing in my ears right after I screamed. It was like, a second after the scream that the voices died completely.

~~~~~~

Anyone can do a dream-reading for me?? Lol...

sighs I am entering the grown-ups world...

2007-10-03T04:18:00.000+08:00

I don't really get why ~~most~~ some people will go out of their way to avoid giving me straight answers.

Situation: me asking some other guy(s) doing a project on similar theme on what is their direction in their project coz we shouldn't really go in the same direction even though we are doing similar theme. And they (2 of 'em dickheads from 2 different groups) hemmed and hawed and avoided my question with all sorts of random PR crap that the lecturer had already told us before.

...They had the nerve to ask about mine.

So I gave them a vague, general answer but still... I can't help but feel that I had given them more than they had given me.

Like, we only have another week to finish the report for the project. I don't have the time copy your idea, you ignorant fools. Not that they'll be great ideas anyway. -_-"

...Whatever happened to the times where everyone is frank with everyone and no ulterior motives are hidden behind words and smiles?? I want it back.

*yells* Give it back!

I am highly amused by people taking public transportation today

2007-09-25T22:52:00.000+08:00

I swear... sometimes, the most entertaining form of passing time while traveling home is the people traveling home with you. ((see July 20th 2007 entry))

The lady who didn't sit down
So this lady was standing right in front of me (like, very very close to me even though I'm sitting and she's standing), reading her book when a seat beside me was freed. She was very quick in moving to the seat (seeing as how close she was standing in front of me) and to my surprise, she stood before the seat instead of sitting down. She waited a good 10 seconds before sitting down beside me.

A friend suggested she was actually waiting for the seat that was just vacated to cool before sitting, which made sense. But still... weird!

That ignorant girl!! I am ashamed...
Pfft... I can go on for days about this girl.

Confusion does not equal sophistication:
She was telling her friend about the animes she's watched and how she don't like those popular fighting shonen (boy) animes like One Piece or Naruto. She said she watched Bleach though. Which is as popular, fighting and shonen as they come. But hey, to each their own.

Next she said she likes the shojo(girl) type with the romance and the lovey dovey and the flowery flowery pink bubble background. Suggested Tales of Saiunkoku and kinda threw a bucket of ice cold water over her friend's head by saying her friend might not be able to get it with the recent Odex problem here and that the show is more sophisticated.

But to my knowledge, Tales of Saiunkoku is about this gay emperor who turned straight from the awesome powers of the female protagonist. Of course, the rest of the imperial guards and man-servants and court ladies fell in love with her too.

Her Uni life vs Her Life Before:
Then she went on to complain about how her only entertainment before university was playing PS2 games and now that she's in uni, she can't do that anymore. Like, I managed to finish Suikoden V just recently (when I'm in my last year in uni) didn't I?

I don't get her.

Her Poly life vs Other People's Poly life:
So the girl, turns out, she went to both JC and Poly (in that order). She talked about her current project report and was bitching about how she didn't have any good friends from Poly because everyone's cutthroat and backstabbing. There's even a guy who copied her report word for word and handed it up. Luckily for her, the lecturer knew about that guy's antics and penalized him instead.

But, isn't that what people do in JC more often than Poly? Seeing as how many of the "cream of the crop" went into JC instead of Poly (heard many horror stories about JC students. Didn't wanna go to JC coz of em) and how the JC people in uni stabs people's back and cuts people's throats, I would say a fair number of em comes from JC. I had the bestest bunch of friends in my Poly days!!! <3 you guys!!! (not that my only 2 friends from secondary school and my uni friends are not good of course. Hee...)

(Interesting side note: she's gotten into this lil accident back in Poly when she kinda screwed up the making of a paracetamol tablet and like, the machine totally went off and shut off the making and released noxious fumes and she was gagging and choking. From then on, she is forever known as The Gagging Drama Queen Who Screwed With Paracetamol. Okay, so that's the title I gave her but you get what I mean. :P)

The punk guy who listens to girly songs
This guy in punk getup was blasting his iPod through his puny earphones while he was standing a few seats away from me, so much so that I could (and did) actually tap along to the bass line. (I <3 bass. *pause* Not the fish!!) And when he sat down beside the lady who didn't sit down instantly, I heard what he was blaring. Kelly Clarkson's Behind These Hazel Eyes. Imagine my amusement. I literally cracked my face open grinning at that.

Cody's Handmade Leather

2007-09-21T22:53:00.001+08:00

Cody's Handmade Leather
http://handmakeleather.blogspot.com/ (pardon the english :P)

Pimpin' my uncle's handmade leathercraft. Go take a look and if you see anything you fancy, give me a ring or send him a mail.

((I <3 my cow-skin vest-shaped key pouch!!))

i iz stoopidz desu

2007-09-19T19:21:00.000+08:00

i iz stoopidz desu

So I had my Forensic Science quiz today and I hafta say I was kinda overconfident when it came to the subject ~~CSI ownz me!~~.

BUT!

During the quiz, because of the class being such a huge one (There's like easily 1000 students taking the class), there's a lot of chitchat and discussion, all kept to low volumes of course. So naturally, my friends did that too and I asked them the answer to one question that I don't quite remember. I have my own answer but wasn't sure if it was the right one. And they gave me an answer that was different from my own.

So I changed it.

After the quiz, took out my notes and checked my answers. Found out that my 1st answer was correct and that I filled in the wrong on. So I asked them again. They all gave the correct answer and said that that's what they told me.
OMFG! I'm the only one who got it wrong?!?!?!!? !#@!@#$%!@#$%^&*@#$!@#$% Damnit!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am so stupid. I should've stuck to my answer instead!!!

T_T

......

Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!