:D

2009-05-31T01:06:00.001+08:00

I'm moving to www.mephiston1.wordpress.com

2009-05-27T19:22:00.000+08:00

I realise I don't talk much to people now. I used to converse with others quite a bit. Talk to mom, call a friend, but mostly I chatted with people on MSN, 4-6 windows every evening for a good hour at least. Now I find I basically don't talk. I don't tell people how many day went. I don't ask how their day went. I don't say anything. I live in a world without interaction. Life's getting boring. It already is. There's nothing interesting to live for right now.

Days of Melancholy

2009-05-24T11:04:00.002+08:00

Well a good thing about not having anyone come here is I can write whatever I want and not be too worried about people reading it.

It's reached that point again in life. When I'm just unmotivated, slightly emo and really don't feel like doing anything. I read somewhere that people are born with a base mood level. That no matter how much good or bad things happen to that person, after a while they will return back to their base level.

A person who's truly pessimistic and sad and lonely may be happy after winning the lottery but once the novelty of the win has worn off, chances are he will probably return back to his sad lonely self.

Another person who is always cheery may lose a loved one, have his future messed up for him but give him a few months or even a year, when his current situation has settled in and he will be happy again.

It was an interesting piece of research proposing that we may all have been born with a pre-set disposition or have had one ingrained in us during the impressionable formative years. If you think about it that's why your emo friends always seem to stay emo doesn't it?

The weird question is where do I stand? Most days I'm supposedly a cheery person, able to laugh most things off and just be happy. Then again there are many days when I'm just walking around with a black cloud over my head even though good things are happening to me. Like right now I'm just super sian. I don't feel like going out with anyone, I don't feel like even playing video games which is really quite bad. I don't feel like talking to anyone yet I feel I should have some company. This sucks.

2009-05-24T00:43:00.001+08:00

life is getting a tad boring.

What if all you see around you wasn't real?

2009-05-20T22:01:00.002+08:00

What if I told you that everything you see and hear and sense around you was just a figment of your imagination? What if I told you that the real you was all powerful and all knowing with regards to everything earthly? That the real you created this world and limited your knowledge and power into thinking that you have to live the life you are given. What if actually everything you sense is just a facade that is part of the challenge of a game that you play? That you actually have the power to influence everything in your life if only you knew how? That should you unlock the code to how this world works, you would find out that you actually can influence everything in your life and that you can have anything you want? That the real you is just making things difficult so that you have a challenge in this world?

2008-04-15T16:55:00.002+08:00

With my new PSP which I in theory I got for free, my electronics cred has gone way way up. I'm now up there with the big boys owning a console, a state of the art PC, a handheld and an ipod. Of course a handphone is a given this being Singapore. My cousins actually do pretty damn well too. They've got a Wii, Xbox, Xbox360, PS2, PS3 and a computer. Console maniacs with a HD Projector and a 70 inch screen.

Now Playing - U2 - Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own

2008-03-22T00:00:00.003+08:00

Now Playing - U2 - Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own

Too much shit in my life right now. I can moan and whine about a lack of a social life which I can boil down to a few reasons.

The easiest and most guilt free way is to just blame it on someone else. In this case, my parents. My paranoid parents always call at 10ish to ask me to go home. Nowadays most socialising happens after 10. Although it's true that I've reached the age where I can just defy them without fear of consequence, deep down inside I'm a good son and I don't want to make them worry. Not pissing them off also works to my advantage. The reality is more probably that I also don't like to stay out too late because cabs are expensive.

A more probable reason is a lack of foresight in choosing friends. Friends are like long-term investments. You have to pump in time, money and emotions and you have a lasting relationship yielding consistent returns. Good friends can last you a lifetime and will be there no matter what. Perhaps my mistake was always choosing friends that were convienient more than anything. Classmates, CCA mates, church friends, people that I would at least see once a week every week. Then again I have possibly been brainwashed by my mother that always repeats the phrase "friends come and go". This kind of imprinting doesn't exactly do me any good. Subconsciously I probably believe that friends do come and go making a self-fulfilling prophecy that eventually happens.

My SJI class hardly talks anymore. Haven't see any of them for ages. I haven't seen the Scouts for an even longer period. Mostly due to the fact that I did something very stupid in the past that out-casted myself. My poly class never really did hang out together that much because the majority all hung out with friends from outside of school. Being an entire class of guys also doesn't help matters much. The polo guys while fun, limit stuff to the weekdays. The church is under renovation so there's no youth activites and the whole gang I used to hang out with has moved up an age bracket and I'm left behind. Some of the activities aren't the most affordable either.

Basically I'm fucked. It could possibly be that I'm anti-social as I only like to hang out with the same people most of the time. I like familiar friends where you can just speak your mind without fear of offending anybody. Making new friends is fun but also very emotionally draining. I don't make efforts to keep in contact with new people unless I feel a very strong connection which is like hardly ever. Weekends are spent at home, staring at this 19" screen and just rolling along wondering what the fuck I'm doing with my life.

Maybe I'll help Willy run Guerilla Games for both Saturday and Sunday since he hasn't found a 2nd part-timer yet. Extra money is always useful to have. I'm not doing anything on the weekends anyway. At least I can deceive myself into thinking I'm doing something productive. Why stay at home and watch mythbusters or play games when I can do the same over there and get paid for it. I just have to deal with the occasional customer which isn't a big deal. The only question is if I save half of what I earn, where does the other half go to? I don't exactly have much expenses. Earning money working in a games shop to spend it on more games is quite a sad state of affairs.

People have this notion that I'm somehow damn popular. It's true that I do meet up with random people, mostly girls, now and then to catch up. However this is just a handful of people. Like literally one hand's fingers worth and I only meet them every few months to recap whatever's been going on in life. I don't hang out with them or catch movies or anything.

I've always wondered if I'd be satisfied with just a special someone. Like how my brother seems to always have had. One girlfriend, dedicate your weekends to her, do everything together. If you find the right person it wouldn't be boring. You could always try new stuff, visit new places and you always know that there's someone there. Then again I don't know if that will work for me. I've become too used to being alone, doing my own thing and being independent. It's not a good thing.

It also doesn't help that I've been picky with my friends. People who speak chinese most of the time are immediately out. Maybe that's why I haven't made that many friends in poly. Or maybe I'm just in the wrong time and place. Many of the people I've been closer to are a year younger than me. Perhaps I was born a year early.

People always think of a misspent youth as roaming the streets too much, picking up bad habits. A lesser extent of this that parents don't like is going out all the time and spending money, staying out late with people parents don't know and trust and just "wasting time and money" according to them. Isn't the opposite just as bad? Staying home and not learning any social skills, not going out to see the world for yourself, not picking up street smarts? Being so totally naive that you border on being socially retarded? I've got one good example of someone who is like this. Fortunately for myself I haven't reached that stage yet but it really is getting tiring and tremendously demoralizing to face rejection at every turn. I hate it when you meet a new group of people but the body language is closed and exclusive and you ask yourself why the fuck you're hanging around a group of people that are so tight that it'll obviously take you years of pain and hardwork to penetrate.

Right now there is an escape button to all this misery. I have to consider it very carefully though. Since I've alread screwed up my social life with a lack of foresight, a lack of foresight now could very well screw up my ENTIRE life.

I thought I would have failed by now but my brother said he had the fullest confidence that I'd reach at least this stage. Apparently the aptitude and knowledge and motivation is there. I applied for the vocation of SAF pilot since many people in class were applying and I thought why not, just try for fun. I went for the computerized test (COMPASS) and I didn't feel that confident of my performance. Amazingly enough I passed and became part of the 30% that pass this stage.

That number was not made known to me until I went to the interview where I found out what the attrition rates for military pilot applicants are. Out of 6000, they are left with 120 after the medical stage. That means only 1 in 50 people pass the COMPASS test, the interview and the medical. That's 2%. I went for my medical yesterday and I was put through a battery of tests to certify that I'm figher pilot fit. I was honest in all medical declarations and I thought one of my previous injuries would have flunked me out but apparently not. The only thing left is to go back and check my eyeball pressure and my peripheral vision. Two more tests and if I pass those I'll be ready to move on to Australia for air grading if I sign the contract. The eyeball test involves blowing a puff of smoke into my eyes every hour from 8-4. How wonderful isn't it?

The recruitment officer must have been super sugar and honey-coating his words after the interview. Asking me to go and apply for the SAF Merit Scholarship. They award anywhere from 6-12 of those a year, mostly to straight A's A level students. Why in the blazes would they award me, a poly student with a good but not perfect GPA of 3.71? SAF Overseas scholars become the next Chiefs of Staff, while the Merit Scholars end up as base commanders or squadron commanders. Basically the people that have a golden parachute at the end of their military careers. Be one of these two categories of people and you'll have a set path for the rest of your life without having to worry about a thing. The rest of the commoners will slave and toil for your benefit. Sure it rocks having to be the one enjoying all that benefits and I'm pretty sure you'll be oblivious to everything else.

However I have heard stories from people and the SAF is not how it used to be during my father's time. If what my brother says is true, the Local Study Award that is given to all pilots capable of entering a local university based on their own merit is not as good as it sounds The majority of people think that they get to choose what they study but apparently there is clause that says the course of study is determined by the military and the courses are subject to availibility. This more or less means you are going to end up with a degree that could be commerically useless.

Back when my brother was offered the LSA, he rejected it because he knew he didn't want to tie himself down to a 12 yr bond. He was already accepted into law school at the time of the offer and it is stated that those that do law studies will not be allowed to take the Bar exam which means you can't practice which means you just have a piece of paper saying you have a law degree. It's totally useless. My dad wanted him to go for that and to try for the higher scholarships because at that point in time, money still had to be watched closely.

Now however, my parents say that a local education is no problem and there is no reason why I should tie myself down with the air force. I will most probably be accepted into NTU's mech engineering. Without a commerically viable degree, all a pilot can do is fly and once something goes wrong with your health you're going to be flying taxis on the road instead.

Then again if I become a pilot I'm going to be spending extended time away from here which means I can run away from everything. It's not good to run away from your problems but humans are built with a fight or flight reflex. I've been fighting so long and all I've accomplished is to get defeated one after the other. Maybe it's time to run.

In secondary school I said maybe things will look better in poly and I'd meet new people and have fun. In poly I said maybe things will look up in uni and I'd meet new people and have fun. Ten to one that I'll go to uni and say oh fuck.

If I could get a secured scholarship I would sign that pilot contract without hesitation. But apparently you sign the contract while you only apply for the scholarship. You don't know the results of your application until after you sign. And once you sign, you're in their web. If you miss that scholarship you're fucked big time. Why is it all 3 branches of the military are trying to recruit so heavily? Anyone notice that? We are spammed from all sides with army, navy and air force recruitment offers and posters. Anyone notice all this 10 years ago?

I seriously doubt that I had the brains to be a SAF scholar. Sure I'm decently smart but the people there are guys who get what? 6 As at the A levels, and have wide community service portfolios. My qualifications are shit compared to them.

I could have been rambling for the past half an hour or so but at least I got it all out of my system. Maybe now I can go be a hermit in peace. I guess people won't be hearing from me much. I always said it'd take months for anyone to realise I've dissappeared.

2008-03-17T01:44:00.001+08:00

I walk a lonely road
The only one that I have ever known
Don't know where it goes
But it's home to me and I walk alone

I walk this empty street
On the Boulevard of Broken Dreams
Where the city sleeps
and I'm the only one and I walk alone

I walk alone
I walk alone
I walk alone
I walk a...

My shadow's the only one that walks beside me
My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating
Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me
'Til then I walk alone

Ah-ah, Ah-ah, Ah-ah, Aaah-ah,
Ah-ah, Ah-ah, Ah-ah

I'm walking down the line
That divides me somewhere in my mind
On the border line
Of the edge and where I walk alone

Read between the lines
What's fucked up and everything's alright
Check my vital signs
To know I'm still alive and I walk alone

I walk alone
I walk alone
I walk alone
I walk a...

My shadow's the only one that walks beside me
My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating
Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me
'Til then I walk alone

Ah-ah, Ah-ah, Ah-ah, Aaah-ah
Ah-ah, Ah-ah

I walk alone
I walk a...

I walk this empty street
On the Boulevard of Broken Dreams
Where the city sleeps
And I'm the only one and I walk a...

My shadow's the only one that walks beside me
My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating
Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me'
Til then I walk alone...

Somehow I think my life is doomed to be a loner. Lone ranger. Maverick. Soloist. Always on the outside. Watching. Never on the inside. Living life by watching others live it. 2nd grade existence.

2008-03-14T22:30:00.001+08:00

Blogging in french is quite fun. Obviously I'll type it out in english first, save a copy then translate it. For now I need help to translate but I think in due time I should be able to blog in french. Love those french tapes.

2008-03-14T22:22:00.002+08:00

Je pourrais être trop dans la lecture de la situation, mais qui sait. Les messages de votre blog sont exactes Maxine. J'avais pensé que s'il y avait quelqu'un d'autre que vous ne me dire fondées sur l'ensemble des années de l'amitié que nous avons eu. Vous êtes peut-être peur que si vous me dire, nous ne serions pas plus d'amis. J'ai répandu mon coeur à vous tous et j'ai reçu en réponse était un HRMM. That's it. J'espère que je me trompe sur tout cela, mais dans mon coeur que les chances ne sont pas bonnes. Vous trouverez toujours quelqu'un de nouveau. Vous êtes toujours le sélecteur, jamais le selectee.

C'est l'histoire de ma vie. Elle finit toujours comme ça. Toujours. Si ce n'est pas un autre mec qui vient de loin et écarts quelqu'un qui j'ai eu la chance avec ce serait quelque chose, tout n'a pas fonctionné. Vous. De toutes les filles je n'avais jamais été intéressé à vous je me suis senti le plus à droite sur. J'ai eu cette conviction à mener et j'ai effectivement senti que nous aurions pu travailler. Il n'aurait pas été facile au début, mais si nous avons travaillé à cela, il allait durer. Bien sûr, nous avons nos différences, mais elles sont amusantes différences pas celles qui nous apportent.

S’il vous plaît. J'espère seulement qu'il n'a pas à la fin comme ça. Pas maintenant. L'espoir est ma plus grande force et ma plus grande faiblesse.

Le plus douloureux n'est pas vous laisser aller. Il s'agit d'expliquer à mes parents quant à la raison pour laquelle je ne sors pas avec vous plus et pourquoi vous ne venez pas plus. Cette explication sera le ciment du fait que vous êtes allé, et il va mal pire que la torture physique tout je peux m'en tenir à l'objet. La confirmation est solide coup de l'assassinat. Cela signifiera week-ends sont consacrés à elle seule de pourrir à nouveau.

2008-03-11T20:31:00.002+08:00

I'm no one special to you. I've just been deceiving myself that I could be someone special to you. You'll just leave me just like how everyone else has left me. I'm the guy you call when you need computer advice. Free service and advice. When the time comes I help you fix your computers but in any other event you don't remember I exist. After all, where else can you find such a sucker to abuse.

At the end of the day it all boils down to just me and my 10 by 6 ft prison cell of a room. An outcast in my own world. I'm just going to end up being a burden. Extra weight for those who have wings and flight.

2008-03-10T20:54:00.001+08:00

I now understand why people cut themselves and how they bring themselves to do it. If you're hurting so badly on the inside, making the hurt tangible and on the outside alleviates some of that internal suffering. After a while it becomes a way to escape from it all. I still think chugging a lot of sleeping pills is an easier form of escape.

2008-03-10T02:28:00.005+08:00

My life lacks meaning. There's nothing much to live for so I should be dead. Then again there's nothing worth dying for either so I'm stuck. Somewhere along the way in almost 20 years I must have screwed up my life real bad ending up where I am now. I'm pretty sure that apart from my family, no will will notice if i just disappear. No one will care much. I'm an easily replacable friend/acquaintance if I even qualify as the above. I can't say my life isn't comfortable but it is just plain dull. Try as I may to spice it up, it just fails fantastically. After so many failures there is a point where you just give up hope and rot. And pray for miracles that never come. After all I'm nobody. Just another face in the crowd to be randomly killed by a calamity. Another statistic.

I've probably filled a few self-fulfilling prophecies that have resulted in this conundrum but what can I do? Defeatist attitude you might say. True. I'm too laid back to really go for things I want. On the rare occasion where I really do want something and actually have the winning attitude, the conviction that I'm going to succeed in this thing because I want it so bad. The stars conspire against me and throw me down like a speck of dirt and I fall hard. The taste of failure yet again. Possibly I was born in the wrong time and the wrong place. End my misery someone.

This if for you!

2008-03-03T22:26:00.002+08:00

I didn't actually think people came here to read this crap anymore but apparently there are a few who still do. So I'm updating today just for YOU! and YOU! and YOU!. Well actually from what I know there's only one you so yeah you know who you are.

Anyway I'm done with attachment so I'm just bumming around till the Army decides when they want me to report to Resort Pulau Tekong. The idea is to get fit now and have an easier time on the inside. Suffer on my own pace rather than the army's pace. Makes sense right?

I had to go all the freaking way to like Changi Village, Hendon Camp to report for Commando's Vocational Assessment. It's like almost 2 hours by public transport for me. Bus, train from clementi to simei and another bus. Insanity. Honestly the idea of paratrooping does appeal to me somewhat but then I started thinking about other people and I realised this would be a terribly bad idea. My family would definitely be worried for my safety. I can forget about seeing a special someone for 2 years which could end up being 5 years. I don't think I can live with that.

The Air Force has not contacted me yet. I don't think I did fantastic on the pilot test but I'm pretty sure I was quite good at the WSO (Fighter) test. Something about gamer reflexes really helps with the IFF (Identify Friend or Foe) test really well. Twitch reflexes also helps quite alot. I'm really glad I'm like playing goalie for the team. Improves reaction time like mad. Like. Really mad. Love it.

Chances are that I'll just go for a normal BMT, then I'll work hard, try to get to OCS which is so freaking near here and then just serve the two years. Why make things complicated?

In the meantime, I'm going to start working weekends at the video game shop in Serene Center, Guerilla Games. Should be decently fun. Maybe I can finally finish my Guitar Hero if business is slow. Although I really doubt so. The customers are quite fun to talk to actually since the majority are regulars. Weekdays are spent mostly exercising and bumming around at home. Not doing anything really important with my life now I guess.

Who are you?

2008-02-20T23:33:00.002+08:00

I've reached the point where I'm applying for uni, most of the girls I know are either in uni or are applying for uni. The girls in my year mostly went to local universities but then again I don't exactly know alot of girls from my year.

So I've just found out quite a number are going overseas to study like Amelia. (You rich girl Tsk.) But my mom said that unless you go on scholarship, will studying overseas help you to earn more money? Especially when the US and UK are prohibitively expensive, how long will it take you to earn that money back? If your parents can afford it and still live their current lifestyle then I guess no problem.

This whole issue helped me with figure out a bit more on the whole purpose of life and choices we make. It's quite scary how accurate The Sims 2 is in this respect. In the game there is a thing called aspirations which is what your sim wants to do with his/her life. So the reason for that Sim's existance is to fulfill their lifelong want like be a game designer or something.

With so many people in Singapore now being able to afford to go overseas, or get scholarships to go overseas and all the question is whether it would be better to stay here and maintain your friends or pursue your dreams. I mean if you have a set goal like to be the best chemist you can be then you pursue your dream, meet people on the way and then you have a fruitful life. Maybe you won't be friends with anyone for more than a few years but you keep moving on.

What if you don't really have a set goal in life but you've got a real close friend or two you've grown up with and everything. Wouldn't going overseas be kind of a waste? Perhaps if you just go do the same thing together and all. Isn't that what's important in the world? The people who make up the world. Like a church isn't a church without a congregation, a house isn't a home without a family that kind of thing.

I'm just muttering random thoughts cause it's kind of messy in my head now so yeah. Don't quite know what I'm saying. Then again when you go overseas, finish and come back you join back your old friends so it's not too bad. I'm the kind of guy who prefers a few close friends than many shallow ones. So I guess I'm a little affected by so many peopel going abroad.

2007-10-13T00:26:00.000+08:00

You know you are a geek when:

Buying the most expensive graphics card on the market for your computer feels better than sex.
The mouse is an extension of your hand.
You wonder why a menu doesn't pop up when you tap something with your right ring finger.
Your ward for evil goes "In the name of the W, the S, the A and the D. The Up, Down, Left and Right"
You find yourself wishing that you could shoot lighting bolts to fry people who annoy you.
Your entire gaming setup eats as much power as a one-room flat.
You think that the latest graphics look more realistic than reality itself.
You forget that other humans can actually think.
Games take up most of your money. Including food. It's alright, you can use a cheat to buy yourself some in game food. Even better, your character doesn't need to eat. So why should you? (Works for sleep as well!)
You're the best soccer player in the world. Only when behind a controller and a Winning Eleven title.
Things like FSB, RAM, GPU, CL number, OS sound like perfectly normal words.
You play with Microsoft Applications for fun just to see what they can do.
Everybody shouts your name when their computer has a user problem and you pity the computer for having an imbecile for a user while your own PC purrs in contentment.
You have no social life.

You know what? I can't think of anymore right now. I'm pretty sure I had more.

2007-10-01T22:49:00.000+08:00

nessine; strike a match ; hold it to the wind says:
eh you know what ive always thought abt you, that you're just not ready to settle down + you havent found a girl that makes you want to settle down

nessine; strike a match ; hold it to the wind says:
so it's all.. okay here comes a girl, lets see how this goes.. until things screw up and then it's like aww it didnt work out ): okay next!

4 years of friendship and counting. and people think i'm just horny. tsk. misunderstood man..

2007-09-18T20:47:00.000+08:00

Well well. This is post 501. Half a thousand entries in 5 years. That's not too bad. Means I blogged on average every 3-4 days. Anyway, with both parents in Russia on holiday, I've almost survived one week already. That's quite fast. Last wednesday night was the last mom cooked food I had. Her normal tomato based pasta.

Thursday night was beef stew and bread. Friday night was sandwiches I think. Saturday night was leftover beef stew. Sunday night bro and I went out to the coffeeshop.

This week was a little more tricky. Last night and this night I ate San Remo mac and cheese from the packet. Thankfully there's some western style ingredients in the fridge so it's not plain. Throw in garlic, onions, capsicum, cucumbers and tomatoes and it doesn't seem to bad. Sausages and bacon makes it a damn filling meal. I think I get my nutrients too.

2007-09-01T00:16:00.000+08:00

Yeah I know I know. I look damn sharp in the suit. It's the NP blazer I had to wear while being an usher for the CAAS Safety Forum 2007. One good thing was that I managed to meet my supervisor and various colleagues since they were organising this thing. Will get to know them properly come monday when I start work at the airport. My workday transport alone will cost at least $100. Sigh.

Anyway, after the forum I rushed home, changed into something more comfortable and rushed to Comex. Finally picked up my X-Fi soundcard from creative and got $20 off my headphones. I think I got a good deal. This sound card should last for years.

I'm looking forward to tuesday. Dinner with Denise! About time we caught up.

2007-08-30T17:07:00.000+08:00

I'm no longer a mambo virgin! Helps that you know the songs so that when you go for the first time you just need to attach actions to words and you know what's coming.

2007-08-16T23:02:00.000+08:00

The more I read ctrl-alt-del the more I wished I could live a life like that. I mean work at a video games store and basically play games all the time. Sure you won't earn much but hell I'll be having fun everyday. Okay maybe not a video games store. A video games store and computer repair/sales shop in one. Unfortunately in Singapore this will never happen. Why? Because the standard of living here is too high and you'll never live comfortably with that kind of pay and expenses.

I've got exams like in 14 hrs, and another two papers and guess what? I haven't studied and I don't really care.

2007-08-13T16:12:00.001+08:00

2007-08-13T15:15:00.000+08:00

I'm beginning to love this webcomic.

http://www.cad-comic.com/archives.php

2007-07-23T13:26:00.000+08:00

MAMBO!!

Byron and Kevin been influencing me too much. Both know all the moves and songs and both have been sending me the songs. Mambo's a good way to wake up though. Gets you moving.

Well but I'm still a mambo virgin haha. Have to find one day to go!

lubberblubbers

2007-07-17T21:25:00.000+08:00

Byron has no reaction whatsoever.

2007-07-08T23:09:00.000+08:00

http://filecabi.net/video/Jumping_Asian_Carp.html
It's not worth watching the whole thing but it's pretty amazing how they shoot jumping fishes from a moving boat. Then it's just a matter of reeling in.

http://filecabi.net/video/one-minute-paining.html

This is freaking cool. I wish I could do that.

2007-07-02T22:24:00.000+08:00

It's quite fun to be part of the colour spectrum. Especially when it's unplanned. Everybody was feeling green that day. Must be the ice cream. Too filling.

2007-06-24T22:16:00.000+08:00

This picture is the loaf of bread they gave us when we sat down. This is about one-third of what is left when it first came. It is seriously huge and they give one loaf per table regardless of number of people eating. Eating that alone can fill you up.

This is the shrimp starter. You could have told me it was a small tiger prawn and I would have believed you. It is seriously huge and very fresh. The meat is sweet, succulent and extremely springy. The cream sauce with it is just delectable.

The steak knife has a very thick blade. That's my finger for comparision. Most of the stuff looks small in the photos but I can assure you it is not.

This is the $172 porterhouse steak for two that we ordered. It's carved tableside. When they meant for two it's probably meant for caucasian stomachs. My brother, his girlfriend and me finished it just barely. Any more and we probably couldn't have taken it. One good thing about Morton's is that they allow and even encourage you to share. They try to have everyone order something different so you can taste and compare the different cuts of meat. The waiter jokingly said it's a favorite with the ladies. They eat a quarter and take the rest home to eat the rest of the week.

This is the individual portion after the steak has been carved and divided. That is the beef juice dripping from it. The top left dark piece is a small piece of filet mignon from my mom.

This is the bone from the porterhouse steak. It's about two inches plus thick. We took the bone home. The waiter encouraged us to take it back for the dog. Since we don't have one, we're boiling it to make beef stock. You can't buy this kind of beef bones. I think any dog will go crazy if you give it this chunk of bone.

This is dessert, the mushroom thing is actually lemon souffle and it's pretty darn huge. The pastry chef must be a master to get it to rise up so nicely in such a big bowl as well. The white stuff is cream. The souffle is meant for two but it took five of us to eat it and we felt just nice. You could probably eat the whole souffle on your own for a meal.

This is Morton's Legendary Hot Chocolate Cake with a scoop of hagen daz ice cream. The cake has a hard exterior with a hot chocolate fudge interior that just oozes out. Topped with raspberries. Very very rich stuff.

My complimentary slice of New York Cheesecake. Very thick and very creamy and cheesy. Incredibly dense. I took a small bite for taste and brought it home. It's unlike any other cheesecake I've eaten so far. You can taste the cheese but it doesn't overwhelm you. If you don't like cheesecake you could eat this and not realise there's cheese unless you're actively feeling for the taste.

The waiter with my parents and the display lobster. "Barry" I think he said. They have three live lobsters on display to show you. This are Western Australian lobsters and according to my brother, he never saw a single one in the year plus he was there. Seems there are all exported.

This is the display tray of the meat cuts. Top right is the rib-eye, bottom right is the porterhouse steak. Middle lower is filet mignon, The left bottom is strip cut and the top left is T-bone. Can't remember whats the one on top middle. They wheel this cart around with all the stuff on the menu to show you what you are getting. The salmon steak is also a huge chunk. Like a normal sized novel.

This is the dessert tray with all their cakes. The hot desserts have to be ordered with your meal cause they take time to prepare. This are the more run of the mill desserts. Cakes and all.

Me outside the place.

Overall it was a fantastic dining experience. It was bloody expensive but it was worth every cent of it and my dad was happy to bring us and spend the money so all in all very worth it. There were 3 other tables celebrating birthdays as well. It's quite worth going there for a birthday. You get a free cake and photo lolz. The service is top notch. The waiter was attached to our table. First he read out the menu then he presented the items to us. My dad gave him a tip on the side in addition to service charge for the good job. He knew how to moderate the menu and order just the right amount for us. Not too much and not too little.

It is a little out of the way in a small corner on the 4th floor of The Oriental hotel. Amazingly it was full on a Sunday night. Prices are not cheap however, with mains costing from $70 to the $172 porterhouse steak for two. Amazingly we are one of the 3 branches outside the USA and Canada. With Canada having 2 branches and the other three in Hong Kong, San Juan and here. If you like steak, have some spare cash to taste the absolute best steak around, I highly recommend this place. You can ask uberburger to screw off.

http://www.mortons.com/website/index.html

2007-05-24T18:04:00.000+08:00

It's been ages since I've blogged. Never really was one to open up my heart and mind and just rant everything out. Been so dead to the world that there really isn't much anyway. I just accept things and forget about them half an hour later. At least I feel alive in the water.

Stress stress stress. Who would have thought I would be stressed. 3rd year modules are killer modules. The stuff is so damn complicated. How the heck will I be able to understand. Coupled with the fact that I either don't have the time or energy to study, I'm slowly lagging behind in studies again. It's not that there isn't time or energy. It's just that they don't coincide.

POL-ITE is coming up and there's IVP after that. It should be a hell of a blast. I just hope I can cope with my studies. I seriously need at least a 3.8GPA for these two sems to ensure a uni place in NTU. If I keep it up, that and the CCA points should help me get a nice place in a hostel at NTU as well.
Like I would even have time for girls although she is cute.

2007-04-18T22:23:00.000+08:00

Let's see. It's been ages since I've updated this blog. There is nothing much going on in my life anyway. Since school has started my life is basically swim, study, sleep. Like in primary school days. Heh. Well polo training is like Mon, Wed, Fri. So I'm pretty much too tired to do anything else and there's no time for new girls or anything. Haha. Well off to bed.

2007-03-21T22:30:00.000+08:00

You know sometimes I'm perfectly content to sit by myself and listen to other people's conversations and observe how others interact with each other. It can be quite funny at times. Like how this guy can totally get pissed that his girlfriend/sister/wife can screw up his order when in the first place he's mumbling and being fickle and not specific.

It's also good to observe how in some ways the human race has degenerated. With that article recently on how handphones change how we meet because we can call beforehand and go from being late to being on time. What happened to the days where everyone was punctual. Or we can go even further back to the days of knights and chivalry.

2007-03-12T20:50:00.000+08:00

I know when to buy Windows Vista. When I upgrade my processor since OEM versions of Windows are locked to a specific motherboard and processor.

2007-03-12T00:24:00.000+08:00

Only in my wildest dreams and fantasies can I succesfully wrestle and kill a great white shark with my bare hands. 6ft of pink flesh and no natural weapons VS a 21ft millenia unchanged highly evolved super-predator with 5 rows of teeth.

Well apparently those guys at mythbusters managed to wrestle one. I knew they were mad but who knows they're freaking savages!. Well one of them is Adam Savage after all.

2007-02-25T23:26:00.000+08:00

You know I've come across so many people who are always exploring new places to eat, bringing their friends to new places to eat to try "good" food and all. I admit that the food does taste pleasent but sometimes I really wonder whats the point especially at some of the more expensive places. If I could I would rather eat subway everyday for the rest of my life.

I mean look at it, 17 different kind of subs, 10 cold, 7 toasted, ,5 different types of bread and 4 different kind of wraps.

So that makes a total of 17C1 x 5C1 + 4 = 89 different combinations.

You could go 3 months without eating the exact same thing twice! I mean isn't that just lovely. Then you've got choice between cookies and chips and all. If this was like Australia or some other agriculture place, where the food is fresh then it'll truely be heaven. The tomatos and onions were SWEET when I ate in Auzzie and the jalapenos were actually spicy. Just eat simple and fresh and be happy. So much easier on life.

I want to be a mythbuster!!

2007-02-18T21:56:00.000+08:00

I was asking for it. Wednesday, Valentines Day, I had north indian food with the rest of the church people at Omar Shariff at Sixth Avenue. On Friday after the last paper, most of the class went to Sakura International Buffet and we pigged out. Saturday morning I was supposed to swim but it rained so in the end I slept. Afternoon my dad made me eat this damn big ball of Ondeh Ondeh. I didn't really want to eat but he gets pissed off if I don't eat stuff he buys. Which most of the time is some inferior quality thing. He has what my brother calls "poor boy syndrome". Yeah he was poor once, but that was like 40 odd years ago. He still insists on eating all the crap food. Anyway the freaking thing was like maybe as big as a large egg. Then it's glutinous or something and I can't eat glutinous stuff because I can't digest. Dinner he had cooked scallops and crab meatball so I had to eat.

So at night, with my stomach yelling out to me that it couldn't take anymore, I puked my entire stomach contents out. Which probably amounted to at least 2 litres judging by the flow rate and the amount of time spent over the toilet bowl. I haven't puked in a decade and one bad thing about puke is that when you see it, it makes you feel like puking somemore. So the first day of chinese new year was spent entirely in bed resting. One interesting thing to note was that when my stomach was feeling terrible I was asking God to help me relieve the uncomfort and I ended up puking. Which did make me feel better.

2007-02-15T14:59:00.000+08:00

Jimmy Eat World. Love. Somehow there's always a nice emo song to match my mood. Or maybe a hyper one for those days. The chords and lead guitar is fun to play too.

2007-02-14T23:56:00.000+08:00

You know sometimes I wish I could turn back time, go back in time with the knowledge I have now and re-make decisions for the better. Then I think that if going back in time means losing out on my swimming I'd rather not go back in time. So weird isn't it. I enter the water and swim laps, often pushing myself further and faster. To other people it's torture and sometimes in the water I think to myself "Shit this is damn tiring, muscles ache" but yet I continue to swim and complete the set. Then a few hours after I've showered and dryed off, I wish I had done more. Such is the love of water.

Well, I don't think you ever came here although you probably knew it was here...........

It's very weird you know. I'm pretty sure I'm getting enough sleep but I don't know why I'm so lethargic during the day then yet at night, like 11PM while I was taking a walk, I felt so awake, in a state of heightened awareness. Maybe it's the Singapore heat during the day that zaps the energy from me. It would explain why I have energy while in the water. Then again, the nice cool air, quiet surroundings at night is just lovely. During all the time spent in nature, it was a good idea not to make noises at night and instead be one with nature. Oh wells. Army is on the way hello nature.

Two ladies in my life :D - Mother Nature and Lady Luck

2007-02-08T20:00:00.000+08:00

Well fel has officially concluded that I am commitment-phobic. Well that does explain alot so sorry to all the girls I've dated in the past if you felt taken for a ride. Apparently it's a matter of finding the right girl whom I'm willing to push aside other things in favor of her instead of just being a momentary distraction.

2007-01-15T20:53:00.000+08:00

A consolidated list of what songs I'm missing. Two albums and a greater chunk of one. Please someone send me?

Artist
Album
Track # - Title

The Album Leaf
- An Orchestrated Rise to Fall
- 8 - A Short Story, 9 - We Once Were, 10 - Lounge Act (Two)

The Verve
- A Storm in Heaven
- 10 - See You in The Next One (Have A Good Time)

The Hives
- Barely legal

The O.C. Soundtracks
- Mix 6

U2
- Original Soundtracks 1

2007-01-14T23:58:00.000+08:00

I find it very disconcerting to be watching The Day After Tomorrow when our own Singaporean weather is so terrible. I can't remember the last time I swam in warm water. Every single training has had us swimming in chilly water. Not as bad as last month's massive thunderstorms but still cold. It's going to be freaky if there ever is snow in Singapore.

2007-01-13T23:57:00.000+08:00

You know sometimes I wonder if I'm really tired and need the sleep, or if I'm just plain lazy. Then again routine and discipline comes into play, my dad's been waking up at 6 since his Air Force Days which must be at least 30 years ago. Everyday without fail, he'll be up around that time. Maybe I'm tired because I don't maintain a routine sleeping time. It constantly changes especially on the weekends. Last time I had scouts and church activities to make sure I woke up early but they no longer exist. Mass is now later and there's evening mass. I'm free on saturdays so I spend it sleeping. However waking up at 3pm on Saturday gives me zero accomplished work through the day because half of it is already gone. Alarm clocks should tell me when to sleep too.

2007-01-13T00:38:00.000+08:00

I just finished typing a pretty long post and the stupid window closed on me so screw it. So much for trying to update my blog.

2007-01-09T17:21:00.000+08:00

I'm missing these songs and would appreciate greatly if anyone could send them to me.

ash - nu-clear songs - folk song
the album leaf - an orchestrated rise to fall - a short story, we once were, lounge act (two)
the verve - a storm in heaven - see you in the next one (have a good time)
the o.c. soundtracks - mix 6 (album)
u2 - original sountracks 1 (album)

2007-01-08T01:15:00.000+08:00

Lack of self-discipline leads to a crappy life. While I may have the discipline to stop myself from eating crap food that's not nutritous, the discipline that I used to have isn't there anymore. Maybe it's the lack of footdrill. That'll be pretty dumb. I mean I can't sleep at 12 when I say I must sleep at 12 and wake up at 7. There isn't that automatic go to sleep motivation anymore. Alot of people say swimmers are very disciplined. I guess it just applies to the competitive ones who have to watch everything they do in order to maintain peak performance. Sigh. I need a good new year's resolution to lead a better lifestyle. Perhaps the absence on a computer in my sleeping room would do well.

2007-01-01T23:57:00.000+08:00

Some people say I'm pretty anal about my food and diet. During the YA! days it used to be a big joke on how I couldn't take oily or savory stuff before a certain hour and that I only eat cornflakes or bread for breakfast. Well it was a very heartwarming gesture on their part that everyone ate bread for breakfast too instead of buying nasi lemak or something.

Well today's night out made me feel absolutely sick. I pinched a few french fries from Shawn and Jon at Long John's. Had popcorn in the cinema, ate subway for dinner and pinched off more fries from them while having a McChicken. I think it's not so much the food, but the fact that I gave in to temptation to eat the unhealthy french fries more than I intended to. The psychologial grossing out is worse than the physical reality. I felt a head rest on me on the bus. I thought it was you then I realised the scent wasn't yours and the weight didn't feel right. I felt a little dissappointed.

2006-12-17T03:38:00.000+08:00

It's that time of the year again. Christmas time and the new year. It's always around this period of time that I get all emo and sentimental and what not when I slowly start recalling events in the year past. Was I productive? Were things good? Was I an angel to those around me or did I make their lives more miserable?

Sometimes I think too much and over think if there's such a thing. It's going to be a sad year. VC's closed down for now, possibly forever. At least that's what I know since I'm not in Exco or anything. It's like a huge chunk of my soul was shattered and ripped out, with the rest of the pieces slowly falling out. I feel that I lost my soul ever since I entered the polytechnic, where everything seems so dull, where the previous week seemed like a month ago, events of hours past seem like a few days before. Like as if I'm just physically present but mentally absent. Yet my brain still functions and if the situation requires I will know what to do but there's just that feeling that things are so meaningless. It's not triggered by any one event cause you can't just keep feeling this. There are days where things are bright and happy, but once the day is over it just seems like another happy memory that happened in the distant past. I feel like I'm just living my life day by day, individual stand alone episodes rather than an ongoing season.

There is no Christmas mood in me. Today I bought my christmas cards and I have no idea if I'll be able to write all in time. In about 8 days, Catholics and Christians alike will celebrate the anniversary of the birth of Jesus Christ while the rest of the world celebrates the commercial holiday we call Christmas. I don't feel worthy enough to share in the celebrations. Sin tears me away from him and it seems to be fast reaching a point where return would be nearly impossible. Yet there are things that still hold me, preventing me from living a life of evil. Yet I wonder how many out there just use Christmas as an excuse for giving and receiving presents in this materialistic society we now live in and not know the true meaning of Christmas. I'm not as noble enough as to go to an old folks home to celebrate Christmas with the residents there but there are selfless people who do, those rare few who carry in them the true spirit. Maybe I should start doing more good things to clean my conscience.

It's nearly the end of my second year in Aerospace Tech. All my contemporaries are now entering the army and I still have a year to go. I wonder what would have happened if I went to JC. Too many times I ask myself hypothetical questions that will never have a satisfactory answer. Ewen says I should just not think about it. Can't help it if my brain has weird tendencies to think of such things. Just like he thinks of all the wrong comments at appropriate times. I can't imagine what I'll be doing if I didn't go into aerospace. All the aviation things seem so natural, like I'm building up on stuff I always knew, adding numbers to the rough basic concepts I somehow always just knew. Yet it's getting more difficult as the formulas are more complex, the concepts not as straightforward.

I'm possibly just rambling my way through this post knowing how incoherent my thoughts are right now. I'll probably edit this and add somemore later.

I feel dead.

2006-12-05T20:05:00.000+08:00

This is pretty weird. I went to a wiki page for the first time and while reading I encounted this paragraph.

Jared is the guitarist and vocalist of the band 30 Seconds to Mars (pictured at right with Leto in center), along with his brother, Shannon, on drums, Tomo Milicevic on guitar, and Matt Wachter on bass guitar. He is also known for being a complete asshole, and making some of the worst, most pretentious music ever. Fuck him and this band.

Since I was there because a friend asked me to read about Jared Leto, I knew he read the page before so I was like "How come the page so opinionated?". His reply was "How come there's that line? Don't have what."

Jared is the guitarist and vocalist of the band 30 Seconds to Mars (pictured at right with Leto in center), along with his brother, Shannon, on drums, Tomo Milicevic on guitar, and Matt Wachter on bass guitar. The band has two albums: 2002's self titled debut 30 Seconds to Mars (Also known as "Red Planet") and 2005's A Beautiful Lie. They began opening for other bands, and started their first ever

When I refreshed the page I saw the 2nd of the two paragraphs. I know I saw the first one because I copied it over. So weird.

2006-11-17T22:36:00.000+08:00

Now that I've joined water polo I realise I'm pretty much tired every monday, wednesday and friday. The thing is I like to play the game so I tire myself out more than I should. This means I don't have time to really sit down to study at the end of everyday. This is quite terrible. I'll have to find time between the end of school and start of training to study.

2006-11-08T15:37:00.000+08:00

I tell you the strangest things come to me when I'm not fully conscious. Some of them just plain weird, some sheer brilliance and you can throw in the occasional kinky thing for good measure.

So there I was last night, wondering how I was going to fill my time from the stipulated 3pm to 6pm which is when I probably should be warming up at the pool already. Thermofluid lab ended at like 2pm and lucky for me, some of us spent the next hour finishing up our gliders. In any case, I brought my laptop and I realised the current pair of headphones are terrible crap. Only the left side works.

However it came to me during my snooze early this morning that I might have another pair of headphones left with the old discman box. So I wake up and find that I actually threw that box and the stuff in it away some time ago. However I did find the box for that Creative DiVi camera which in my opinion isn't very good but according to photography expert Bryan, it's a good camera. In any case I found a pair of headphones in that box and they are CREATIVE headphones!!! Awesome shit!! Now as I'm plugged in, the bass is clear and everything is vibrant. Awesome I tell you.

2006-11-06T14:41:00.000+08:00

I find it highly irritating that everyone thinks my father can afford everything for me be it IPod or a new bass or whatever. He's never given my brother a silver spoon in life and he never will. My true friends know that even though I live in a three-story landed, that has no reflection on my personal finances.

2006-11-05T21:51:00.000+08:00

Numbness overwhelms me.

2006-11-05T21:46:00.000+08:00

The last session of VC happens today. Other than the thanksgiving mass and dinner on Nov 25th, chances are there'll never be another time where every single active member of VC was present regardless of A or O levels happening this very week and for the rest of November.

The last ever song played by VC musicians was Give Thanks in which it had everybody in tears, guys and girls alike as the stark realisation that there'll never be another group like this for years to come hits everybody. One by one emotions overflow as one after the other, each person starts to tear. If change is supposed to be more good than bad, why are we all crying?

Perhaps one day we'll see the light that someone in greater authority might have seen. There are always at least two choices in life. To choose or not to choose. It holds true for everything else. As for now we all feel the loss and the pain of having to leave VC against our will.

2006-11-02T22:36:00.000+08:00

I must improve my hand-eye-ball coordination. Passing good, catching bad. So end result is still negative. No that does not mean I need to paw lam par. I mean actual polo balls.

2006-10-31T00:45:00.000+08:00

In my 18 years or so of existence, certain quotes and idioms have become quite hardwired into my head either through proven benefits, or by teaching of trusted elders. Among those that are relavent to today's topic are

If you think you're good, there's someone better out there. (Many places)
If you have nothing positive to say, shut up. (Genesius Chan, during my Lower Sec days)
To give and not to count the cost. (Various Lasallian sources)
Always be humble. (??)

It seems netizens everywhere are talking about this RJC girl who made elitist comments and throw in the fact that she's a daughter of an MP and you have a big buzz. She seriously needs to go for some public relations course or something.

Her original post seems so immature and angsty. Instant stereotype would be to classify her under sheltered and pampered child. Possible but I've learnt to make my own opinions instead of believing others and to not pre-judge. However, that being said, if 200 people have the same view, it can be fairly certain that something has to be consistently correct there because after all, if 200 people keep repeating a lie, does it not become an unproven truth? Society defines right from wrong, truth from lies, so it might always be safer to follow the masses else you get stoned. Heh.

In response to her father's quote of "But she wrote in a private blog and I feel that her privacy has been violated"

WordNet - Cite This Source
blog
n : a shared on-line journal where people can post diary entries about their personal experiences and hobbies [syn: web log]
WordNet ® 2.0, © 2003 Princeton University

So going by this definition, anything not password-protected on a blog is available for free reading by anybody and anyone can make comments. Keyword in the definition is "shared". The internet was born with a spirit of sharing and community. For those who don't know, there are thousands of servers around the world running 24/7 that make the internet. If she wants to keep the thoughts to herself it should be on a written diary locked away and not on a blogging website who's server could be in Kamchakta for all you know.

Here's the original blog post

http://forums.delphiforums.com/n/mb/message.asp?webtag=sammyboymod&msg=121090.1

Here's a very good rebuttal (a little vulgar but funny nonetheless)

http://pissedcherub.blogspot.com/2006/10/every-time-that-i-begin-to-feel-that.html

Here's an interesting analogy I would love to have comments about. We all remember the Tammy incident and it being spread like wildfire on the internet. Now the fact in that incident was she took a video for her own enjoyment but had the misfortune to lose her phone and have the incalcitrant thief to post that defaming video online. I always bear in mind before doing something to someone that the person has feelings too.

Okay so she suddenly became very infamous as almost everyone knew of that video even if they did not see it and the worst part was she had all this unwanted attention through no fault of her own. However, this RJC girl (pity the school for taking the loss of image) was really really asking for this. Now she's getting flamed on hundreds of forums and then this pops up.

http://fisherwy.blogspot.com/2006/10/wee-shu-min-i-got-your-bikini-pictures.html

However, the fact that people can be bothered to dig up such dirt on her is a sign that she has at least pissed off people somewhere with her post whether intentional or not. Someone even bothered to create a Sims video spoofing the entire thing.

http://singabloodypore.blogspot.com/2006/10/netizens-want-ang-mo-kio-grc-mp-wee.html

I'm not going to say whether she's right or wrong. Sometimes the idea is there but the execution isn't. However, in the most ardous of situations, it has been proven that the true spirit of the person reveals himself/herself and it is always nice to believe there's more good than evil in the world. Read the sources, and make your own conclusions, I'm giving none.

I've got a shirt that says "Think before you say something stupid and have a cup of shut the fuck up" Don't you just love australian t-shirts.

i wud tink dat now iz teh time 2 made a vari lo crass comment lyk
KUM GONG AH

2006-10-18T22:18:00.000+08:00

First week of school and it's pretty hectic yet screwed up. Due to the haze, it's not advisable to do strenous outdoor activities. Water polo training hasn't started either. Monday we had a ridiculous 3hr break which resulting in us playing about 2hrs of BF2 at the LAN center at the alumni house. Today was the same thing except the break was 4hrs this time. Next week things should be better though. We get alternate wednesdays off once I finalise the timetable with the lecturers and there probably wouldn't be enough time to goof off like that.

Yesterday went to Suntec to talk to the air brush guy and at the same time went to Millienia to get my nike bottle. The attendent is pretty darn cute. So in 3 days of school, I've averaged $7/day and did zero learning instead wasting lots of time in town or playing games. Fabulous.

2006-10-05T19:30:00.000+08:00

I wonder why they call it a rat trap when is hasn't trapped a rat yet. Let me explain. My dad found gnaw marks on the potato that we keep in the outside kitchen. So since this isn't the first time, we called the pest control people and they laid a few rat traps down. Basically it's a black plate with some high stickiness glue on it. Then in the center of this plate there's food that's been poisoned with rat poison. However for the first two days of the trap, all it's done is trap house lizards and lots of dust. Today was different.

My mom screamed while I was playing BF2 and I'm like "What happened?". "There's a dead bird on the rat trap, I'm scared!". At this point I roll my eyes, I mean if it's dead what's so scary about that? So I take a set of tongs that's normally used to handle charcoal and I proceed to throw away that plate. Thing is the bird's actually alive! If feebly flapped the unstuck wing. My mom was like "Throw it away! The bird's going to die anyway!". Obviously me loving nature as it is, no way I'm just going to let an innocent bird die without trying to save it.

I managed to get it free of the glue but unfortunately the bird must have struggled alot because half it's body was covered in glue. So I tried to wash as much of it off as I could. Using some mild detergent and water I slowly peeled off the glue as best as I could. Sure I took quite a few feathers but that couldn't really be helped. On hindsight I shouldn't really have used tap water because the poor bird was shivering later and I had to keep it warm. After washing as best as I could, at least now the little sparrow could walk. Amazing how fragile the tiny body feels. After that I let it warmed up in the sun and fed it some bread.

Doing all that I really could, I let mother nature take over. I put it on the parapat of my rear wall and it promptly decided to hop off the wall towards the jungle. It couldn't fly very well and so landed on the path behind. I left it there telling myself I'll go try see what else I can do if it's there after dinner. Well turned out it dissappeared and I have no idea what happened. Maybe a jogger took it and maybe looked after it? Some other birds came to help? No idea..

2006-10-02T12:13:00.000+08:00

For all those familiar even just a little with dungeon and dragon rules, visit this website for a good laugh. If you're really bored and have nothing to do then maybe you might want to visit it too.

http://www.giantitp.com/Comics.html

2006-09-21T21:17:00.000+08:00

If I'm not careful and with my perchance for disaster in such situations, I could just end up creating the disaster of the year and that wouldn't be very good at all. As with life and all things, the opposite also holds true.

2006-09-18T20:56:00.000+08:00

Some screenshots I've taken while playing Oblivion. Quality seems to have dropped alot during posting.

2006-09-14T00:18:00.000+08:00

Let's see. Starting from the oldest I think there is James/Christian + Terence/Kenneth + Patrick/Peter. So there's about 6 cousins worth of lego there minus off all the lost pices, damaged pieces, eaten pieces??, and who knows what else is missing. If you can see the airplane's roof has been highly discoloured.

I spend an approximate 6 hours in total washing, rinsing then after that I let it dry. Now I've got to start sorting and pack it up. Mom wants the electric train ready by Christmas to put around the tree. That thing hasn't run since I was in primary school. No idea if I can get it to work. I did pass my electrical and electronics module though. Ahahah!

2006-09-10T21:29:00.000+08:00

I was in the cab with Fiona on the way to Church where she gets off and I go on home and we had an interesting conversation. (I wonder if cabs make more money on rainy days.) She was saying about how church and the people in it make her life more vibrant rather than just a jam-packed (or peanut butter if you wish) week of school from Monday to Friday then maybe a day or two of fun or rest before returning back to that. So it kind of got me thinking. It's been almost 3 years since I've joined VC and had my entire life changed. For some of the other people it has been well over a decade already. Today's session talked about our faith which involved the three main pillars of God, Self and Others. Didn't quite consciously realise how important the others part is till today.

John said that many of us were back in part because we wanted to see each other again which is true, many people were happy today at the sight of people long not seen. However because many of us want to see our friends during youth activities, we'll also go for mass around the same timings and so sometimes bits of faith talk appear in chit chat and normally these short conversations are the one that holds the most goodness. Sometimes just a few words about the faith in these small talk conversations speak volumes more than an hour of lecture.

Back to the point is that Church and it's activities are of course for God first and foremost but humans being social creatures (very well simulated in Sims 2) will of course turn any gathering of more than 4 people into a social event (relationship points++). However seems like my parents are not the only ones who are more relaxed when I say I'm going out with the church people. After all, everyone of us in the group was brought up with certain values and have had them instilled throughout the years so there's a certain group aura that seems to catch you from doing the wrong thing. That being said we are still human in varying stages of life with very different needs and wants.

After all, how often do you find a group whose ages range a full decade, occasionally a little bit more. Like seriously, which 18 year old hangs out with a 28 year old. LOL. There are alot of things to be learnt though which is why little kids should be seen and not heard. If most little kids followed that we'd have alot of smart people around today. Just keep quiet, watch and learn. It's a win-win situation. The older people keep young and hip, the younger people mature but not necessarily grow up faster. Never exchanging it for anything else.
The part of the session where Jon came to me and said a prayer. He said something along the lines of me always being there to do God's work, especially the work that many other people would shun, in Singapore terms, 'sai gang'. Never really did think it would have come to the notice of others. My logic being that no one wants to do sai gang so I might as well do it before whoever's in charge starts to scold and point fingers. Saves alot of trouble in the long run.

2006-09-08T20:19:00.000+08:00

I've gotta do something about my nose going off like the 4th of July after an extended bout of swimming. Bad idea to swim butterfly first.

I wanna play Oblivion but I'm too bloody tired right. Ewen said I should get a real social life instead of a virtual one. I pointed out a virtual social life is where you interact with other humans through the medium of a MMORPG. Interacting with AI in Oblivion does not even count as a virtual social life. It makes me a recluse. ZZZ.

2006-09-06T23:47:00.000+08:00

2006-09-06T23:18:00.000+08:00

Here's one of the funny lame thoughts I get when doing my laps. So called auto-pilot when swimming.

Four swimmers A, B, C and D.

The weaker of the stronger was swimming second from right.
The stronger of the weaker was swimming first from left.

C is faster than D.
B is slower than A.
C is slower than B.

So who's swimming where?

2006-08-25T17:24:00.000+08:00

I saw the coolest thing while shopping at Taka with parents today. Jamie Oliver line of Tefal cookware. HOW COOL IS THAT?! It's Jamie Oliver's pots and pans and what have you. With a stainless steel outer with aluminum interior, and with the handle and base of pot/pan emblazoned with Jamie Oliver by Tefal.

I actually spent $150 of vouchers on swimming stuff so let's see what I bought

From Arena:
A pair of white trunks
A pair of bright dark blue trunks

From Speedo
Micro googles
Pool Buoy
Sports towel
Kick board

So cool so cool. Throw in the power paddles I bought the other day and I'm ready to tear up the pool. They are going to come in useful after all. So now that I'm on holiday for 7 weeks seems I should plan a schedule of sorts around these basic things

Swimming
Practicing Bass
NAVY Seal fitness program
Oblivion
Maybe Battlefield 2
Household chores.

Oh wells.

2006-08-20T20:32:00.000+08:00

Yesterday morning was the first exam of three, Strength of materials. After the exam which finished at 11, I went home to chop garlic which John would need later on. Took about an hour to chop a total of why is probably 1 1/2 kilos of garlic. I've never seen so much garlic before and the most amazing part is we used about 3/4 of it. So arriving at John's at about 2pm it was cooking all the way till somewhere around 7+ all preparing for John's pink IC party. You've finally finished NS and good for you!

We watched The Devil Wears Prada there and now I know what's so magical about Paris. As Andy Sachs sits in the car with Miranda and they drive through the streets of Paris with U2 - City Of Blinding Lights playing in the background of the film, the sight is just amazing. As you see the colossal Eiffel Tower in the distance, all lights ablaze, the neon signs of various establishments and the bright lights of signs screaming Prada, D&G, Coach and all the expensive brands I realised why millions around the world want to visit Paris.

Just so damn cool. Oh man.

2006-08-17T18:56:00.000+08:00

Finally I have my new rig. I can now put the following as my signature in any number of techie forums and be proud of it.

Pentium Core 2 Duo 1.86GHz E6300 "Allendale"
MSI975X Platinum
2 x 1GB DDR2 800MHz
Sapphire X1900XT GDDR3 512MB
160GB+250GB HDD
Cooler Master C5 Casing
AcBel 550W PSU
Saitek Eclipse Keyboard - Blue
Razer Copperhead - Tempest Blue
Razer eXactmat
Samsung 940B 19' LCD

Easily lasting for a good four years before having to actually downgrade the settings in applications. When the time comes to upgrade it's just a matter of throwing in more RAM, another graphics cards and more cooling as the E6300 is highly overclockable so whoopdeedoo.

While thinking about this and reflecting on whether it was an impulse purchase I also thought about the discovery show I watched a few days back. Well to settle the impulse bit, considering that I started planning this way early in March or so and the initial cost of the entire thing was well over $4000 the fact that the price has gone down quite a bit is good. I cut out alot of other things which weren't necessary. I'll probably get a Xi-Fi Platinum at the next creative sale then I can plug in my guitars to the thing and record stuff. The cost will be justified very soon.

Anyway the show I was watching was Perfect Disaster: Solar Flare. When a solar flare from the sun explodes, it releases something called the CME which if I remember correctly is some corona thingy that brings an electro-magnetic pulse wave with it. Since it is magnetic in nature it is either north or south. The earth's magnetic field is north in nature and so any north fields will just bounce away from earth, unknown to us. If the field is south however, it will go through the natural barriers and fry all electrical systems on earth, plunging us back to the dark age. Basically a massive EMP bomb. Which is why the development of EMP technology is so scary. The bomb won't kill but it'll plunge everything back into the past. With no electricity that means no sewage systems, no refridgeration or anything at all. We'll be living in the medieval ages once again where everything is mechanical in nature. Hospitals will cease to funciton once the backup generators are exhausted, food will rot all over the place and we humans not able to handle the situation will just cause massive widespread havoc and violence. It could very well be a form of judgement day. Eerie.

2006-08-14T18:07:00.000+08:00

Peter, you find love in a Chance Encounter

Fate, destiny, luck, coincidence — you've got your chips on them no matter what it's called. Perhaps leaning toward the shy side, you're soft on the idea that bumping into someone in the produce aisle is just as good a way to find true love as any other. It's comforting to know that the world has a plan for you, and all you have to do is stay open-minded and ready for it to happen.Whether you're single or attached, you find meaning in the sweet surprises that can come with a relationship, like a note slipped into your jacket pocket, a phone call just to hear your voice, or a home-cooked dinner. Above all, you like surprises and the thought behind them.

Got this from tickle test after seeing it on someone's blog. Just for fun. After all, I'm hoping lighting strikes again for those that know it.

2006-08-14T17:19:00.000+08:00

Hmm let's see. I still remember this phrase from the outdated Interstate series of games. Everytime you look at the map, Groove Champion (what a name!) would go "Hrm let's see.

Anyway, there is one paper this saturday and two more on tuesday and thursday. About 10 days to freedom. Considering I haven't really pushed hard enough yet one wonders if I'll screw this set of papers up. Someone said the GPA required just for NTU Mechanical Engineering is already 3.2 so what the hell. (4.0 + 3.69) / 2 isn't too bad I guess.

Spent like 3 hours of last night reading airplane stuff on wikipedia. Although it can possibly be inaccurate, the amount of infomation is incredible. Jason Mraz plays on winamp and I know I really really should practise my music more so that I can play jazz bass. After that it's just pairing up with an amazing keyboardist. What fun.

2006-08-11T22:33:00.000+08:00

Once again the startling reality around me is apparent. Breakup season is here again. Sometimes the sad reality of Singapore life for a student is that it revolves around exams. Well thats only if you're taking A or O levels. If you are in tertiary education every exam counts so there's not such thing as a last push.

With all the happenings around I'm pretty glad that I don't find myself in such a mess. After all, one doesn't need to do much to get action. All you have to do is pay Lady Luck her respects and karma comes knocking on your door. Youth and recklessness walk hand in hand.

2006-08-06T01:18:00.000+08:00

Choosing the lesser of two evils does not always mean serving the greater good. Odd that it was a movie like Master and Commander: The Far Side of The World that could teach me something like that. Russell Crowe was making a joke about two weevils on the table and after the Doctor choose the stronger looking one, he was heavily rebutted with "You are a member of the Queen's navy, don't you know always to choose the lesser of two weevils?"

Somehow something doesn't feel quite right tonight. Somewhere in me a certain realization is there that I don't quite want to except. Hope's a dangerous thing.

I bought my new swim power paddles today. Doubled my speed. Now if I pair them up with flippers I should be able to do 10 secs for my 50m freestyle?

2006-08-03T21:37:00.000+08:00

I just love discovery channel. One of the more amazing logistical feats in the world is Mumbai's lunch delivery people. 200,000 home cooked lunches delivered to office workers everyday at 12. The tiffin cans are picked up by delivery men from various homes, gathered to one place, sorted and then delivered to office workers, right to the desk at 12nn sharp. The craziest part about it? They have no paperwork whatsoever, every can is identified by a few colours or symbols. That's all. The chances of getting your lunch mixed up? 1 in 16 000 000. Check the record books.

http://www.physorg.com/news70641995.html

2006-07-30T00:31:00.000+08:00

Is it possible to have a set of teeth that is TOO perfect? I mean the kind where its so straight and perfectly aligned that you can probably use as a pair of scissors? After all, it's so obvious that its artificially done but then again who really cares? Should pose this question to Ivan. After all, humans ain't perfect.

2006-07-30T00:21:00.000+08:00

Okay, about time I update this blog of mine. Seriously, what is there to update about my mundane life? Other than the recent board game frenzy (I so want to play dungeoneer), life has just been going to school, actually paying attention and doing work these few weeks rather than just wasting away earlier in the semster. You've got to admit though, reading a book during class time is the lesser of two evils compared to playing computer games. At least reading is a good habit. I just finished "Everybody worth knowing" by the famous author of "The Devil Wears Prada". Can't spell her long surname so forget it.

Waiting for a new rig so I can play BF2 online and get promoted or some shit. Chances are I'll be stuck on Oblivion once I get my new rig. Other than just preparing for exams and the post exams (I wonder if I'll be disciplined enough to train up) there has really been nothing much at all. Boring!

At least I'm having fun with Worms 3D. Try aiming that piece of crap.

2006-07-19T22:31:00.000+08:00

I want to swim faster and longer. I need to purchase hand paddles and a pool buoy so I can do intensive training on my own. I want my new computer. The problem herein lies, with a new computer I will be playing Elder Scrolls 4 all the time so how would I be able to be doing intensive training during the holidays?

2006-07-07T22:37:00.000+08:00

I've got a freaking uneven tan. Apparently 12NN - 2PM suntans don't manifest themselves until about 6 hours later. So I've got a three layer tan from PE clothes, trunks and untanned area. Hope I don't peel.

2006-07-04T15:10:00.000+08:00

Excerpt from today's Digital Life.

Everybody and his mother is playing

Be careful who you talk to in online games. The player on the other side could be your mom. One young boy learned this important life lesson at the cost of his next trip to the mall with his friends.

The youngster, known only as Brion, was having an all-night gaming session, believing that Mom was none the wiser, until he made an innocent post in the offical forum (forums.worldofwarcraft.com) for the popular World Of WarCraft (WoW) game - at 3:30am. Unfortunately for him, mommy is an avid gamer herself and reads the same forum. She spotted her son's post that morning and she was not happy. She decided to articulate her response on the online forum:"Pardon me for hijakcing the thread, here But, Brion - if you don't want your mother to know you were up and on the computer at 3:29 in the morning - DON'T post on a forum that she reads. Busted. Grounded." Pwned. By Mom.

Now isn't that interesting? When mom is more tech savvy than you.

2006-06-29T22:27:00.000+08:00

Peter’s New Rig - Parts Listing from www.hardwarezone.com
ATI Rig

MSI (Microstar) 975X Plantium (Intel 975X) DDR2 667MHz
Support Intel Pentium EE/PentiumD/Pentium4 - 4x DDR2 667 Dual Channel - Dual PCI-E GFX slots @ 8x - PCI Express Gigiabit Ethernet - SATA 3GB/s - Firewire
SGD414.00 - ATI

INTEL Pentium D 940 3.2GHz (2x2MB/Box) 800MHz FSB =Alone=
Intel® Extended Memory 64 Technology (EMT64) - Enhanced Intel® SpeedStep® Technology - Dual-Core provides two execution cores in one physical processor
SGD426.00

CORSAIR 1GB (PC-5400) 667MHz DDR2-667
SGD139.00 x2

MAXTOR DiamondMax 10 200GB (6V200E0/8MB) Serial ATA-II
SGD128.00

LG GSA-4167B Double Layer 16x16x6x Super-Multi Drive (Internal/Box/Ivory) DVD?RW/DVD-RAM Writer
Write 16x DVD+R / 16x DVD-R / 6x DVD+R DL / 4x DVD-R DL / 8x DVD+RW / 6x DVD-RW / 5x DVD-RAM
SGD95.00

ANTEC Super LanBoy ATX Mid-Tower w/o PS
Durable anodized aluminum finish - Clear side window - Front ports: 2x audio, 2x USB - 1x 120MM Fan (up to 2x 120mm Fans)
SGD165.00

ANTEC True550W ATX Power Supply (v2.03 P4 ready)
SGD195.00

SAPPHIRE Radeon X1900 XTX 512MB DDR3 x2
Dual DVI - HDTV Out
SGD999.00 x2

$3699!!!! (Cannot go past $4000)

When I last checked local prices this was what I had. Only a few days old. This doesn't include the $129 already spent on the Razer Copperhead and I have to purchase a new keyboard and 19 inch LCD moniter as well. Obviously those two will amount to at lest $500 so I am way over the budget. If you notice there's no sound card as well.

I can compromise and have only 1 graphics card or get 2 less powerful ones saving me either $999 or $640

SAPPHIRE Radeon X1800XL 256MB GDDR3
HDTV Compatiable
SGD579.00 x2

So the maybe I can get my creative Xi-Fi especially the one with the front mounted drive for you to plug in various audio equipment. They have a 1/4' jack so I theoratically could plug in a guitar and record what I'm playing with the right software. Cool shit huh?

Anyway since I'm not getting it till August at earliest, we pray prices drop and that $999 becomes a $699.

2006-06-18T22:15:00.000+08:00

Curse the asshole who stole my shoes. Pictured above. Pandan Valley better weed out all their low-lifes. Theives, murderers. What next? Rapists? choy!

2006-06-17T23:25:00.000+08:00

Would you believe me if I said I missed you?

2006-06-16T22:10:00.000+08:00

I can finally say, been there done that with an upsized meal as well. Then again nessa stole some fries and drink so it probably evened out to just being a normal meal.

Enlightening day today. In addition to the usual 2.4run plus swim.

2006-06-13T22:43:00.000+08:00

Whats up with this man. On a night when I want to talk to some male buddies NONE of them are online. Sheesh. Who the heck am I supposed to talk running too. Well today's distance count was

2.4km run immediately followed by 400m swim with nice new Asics Gel-Culmunus

The swim was dissappointing. I thought I could push more. Maybe if I eat something more substantial like 2 bowls of rice instead of 3 slices of bread I would have the extra energy to swim further. Drinking glucolin at times like this would be a bad idea because you'll over-exhaust yourself. Once the sugar is all burned up you don't have any reserves left. Not good at all.

Now I'm stuck between deciding to read "The Devil Wears Prada" or "Bass Guitar for Dummies". I guess doing both would be fine but progress would be slow on both sides. Maybe if I can get my eyes off this screen then I'll actually be reading.

2006-06-13T14:17:00.000+08:00

I've finally made the crossover. I switched fom Revconnect to Bittorrent after I found out that Starhub has been packet shaping thus making Revconnect useless. My once 200KB/s speeds are now no longer reduced to mere 200B/s because of that. So with little choice I make the switch to Azureus and I am satisfied. Not only have I managed to download the last two episodes of The O.C., I managed to get many other things that should have been downloaded long ago.

What I don't like however is the bittorrent system. It's good, a very good systen of seeders and peers but it's only possible to get files that are shared by the swarm. It's a moving thing which follows the latest files. Older files are almost impossible to download. very unlike the DC++ protocol and its assorted clients, where everyone shares everything they choose to and only upload when somebody wants that file. In any case, I've solved my problems with that.

Now the next problem. while uninstalling itunes and quicktime, the whole process gets botched and I see "error code -3". Now I can't install itunes/quicktime again nor can I uninstall them either. The whole thing is stuck there. I tried searching the registry and I managed to delete the relavent keys. I got some progress but still no resolution. Pain in the ass.

2006-06-12T19:54:00.000+08:00

I don't know whether today was a good day or a bad one. There were a number of happenings that should be noted and stored in my memory for future experiences but the only question is which?

So I overslept as usual waking only at 11:00am, knowing that I had to be at PS by 1 to meet with the ex-407 people. Unknown to me at that time they had already cancelled it but the SMS had failed to reach me. At least I managed to finish reading "An Accidental Virgin" along the bus ride there so I guess that much was productive. So I called Jon Ong upon stepping out of the bus and I'm informed that it's cancelled. Right.

Then what catches my eye amongst the crowd outside PS is a lone skateboarder who looks pretty decent in skills and I have sudden inspiration to call Wallace to ask where he is. It must be my lucky day as I've walked down the more fortitous path on the flowchart that is our life. Didn't you know? God doesn't control us else the whole concept of free will would be naught. He does however know the infinitesimal paths and crossroads that we take and how one choice here could lead to that happening. So don't come give me the "that's fate" argument.

So I head on down to Far East to go find him, expecting him to be with the CJ people or some or his skater friends and too my surprise I find him with Hayley. Then again I'm not sure why I should be surprised. So at least my trip all the way down to town wasn't a waste. Outside Burger King I find myself looking at an oddly familiar face. I know who she is after a fleeting moment, I've got the knack for names and faces or haven't you realised by now? +

"Dawn?"
"Peter right?"
"Yeah! haha, see you around!"
"Bye!"

While eating I spot Sam Foo in her CJ uniform (the whole CJ's at Far East today I tell you) being her usual self with Moses Ramadass from SJI. Prefect that always closed one eye, thats good. So I send her an SMS asking if she's in Far East because I wasn't quite sure it was her from that distance an angle. I didn't get a reply so I figured either she didn't check her phone or wasn't at Far East. Outside I see her and obviously that short conversation was much longer than that of 4 lines. With good chance she'll be down for PnW this Sunday.

Wallace comments "You know too many f***ing people."
"Not my fault is it?"

So we go do what both of them are in town for in the first place which is to eat Gelato outside Lido. RIDICULOUSLY expensive I tell you, so much so that I refuse to eat even with a fresh allowance in my wallet. Wallace had to be in Holland by 4, Hayley in Macpherson by 5 and me in the pool by 6. So to kill the hour or so we go to Borders where we are presented with the most horrifying sight of all 3 of our lives so far.

A Close Encounter of the Gay Kind
You know the bench near the music section? Past all the music books in that little corner with all the odds and ends of books? We were sitting there reading assorted stuff. Hayl was stoning, not sure if she didn't want to read or if she's illiterate. ;) Then this guy, with a shaved head much similiar to a recruit 1 week into BMT, wearing a tight shocking pink t-shirt much too small for his reasonably muscular frame was reaching for a book carrying a bag in a most feminine manner. The shocking part is his jeans were probably going to drop off his hips if he jumped and since his shirt is small there was probably a good 7 inches or so of bare skin between shirt and jeans. In that 7 inches we are presented with a navy blue, half opaque G-STRING. Yes ladies and gentlemen, you heard me right, this guy was proudly displaying a G-STRING on what I would think is a reasonably tight ass. (Thank the heavens his body was decent, I'd have puked if the guy was fat) So he carries this big stack of fashion books to the bench behind us and promptly drops them drawing the attention of everyone around. The 3 of us have a good time sniggering at the assorted disgusted/shock/EWW expressions of the other people around. As we leave, I take one last glimpse at him and see that thin little blue band up his butt crack. Too bad I didn't have a sausage handy, it would be might fun to stick one in.

On the way home on the 77, as the bus stops at Holland Village I see two people I never would have thought I'd see together, only proving once again that Singapore is a small place. I'm actually glad I don't have a string of exes. I read an article in Cleo before about this girl who shagged probably every steady she had. On the day of her wedding, she in all the mood was too giddy to realise what was coming but her husband-to-be's cousin was her one night stand before. The marriage was called off when the bridegroom was informed by his cousin.

Back to the story, I saw someone who used to hold a place in my heart with someone to whom I was a facilitator. That was quite shocking for me but it didn't affect me at all. After all, the door down that path is shut, locked and with good measure probably barricaded as well. Just as well neither party acknowledged anybody. I'm inclined to think of events that have barely passed and it's comforting to know I've moved on. Quite a long time ago.

Reaching home I spend some time reading. I was supposed to leave for the pool but I ended up being too lazy. Besides I'm being productive because as I sit here I'm burning stuff for Ade who could very well be going Sims crazy after I help her install it properly tomorrow. Then again Ewen's listed out her rough daily schedule which partly determines his schedule which determines when we go kill the Lord of Terror. Wonder if you can stop playing after an hour
Ade heh.

After the very very thought provoking chat with the sister figure in my life, I've gained an insight into the female psyche (so I think) and reading chick lit does help a little. Does anyone own the shopaholic series? We'll see how this little episode in my life unfolds in the following days.

On the way to searching "Bakafish" on youtube.com I chance upon this video on the front page. For all guitarists and bassists alike, this video will either inspire you or make you feel like crying. Have fun watching!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boneScKCGuU

2006-06-10T15:15:00.000+08:00

Fifteen days to go. Fifteen days till I hit the big 18. What would most probably be the second most important birthday in the life of a Singaporean. You're one step closer to being an adult. You can officially learn to drive, buy liquor/cigarettes and watch M18 movies. The most important birthday of course would be your 21st because you'd officially be an adult in Singapore.

I have no real idea what I'm going to do about it. It's on a Sunday so that would probably mean that the day would be spent at mass, then youth activity and perhaps dinner or something. My previous birthdays in my life as an adolescent have been nothing fantastic. I had normally just let them pass without incident, like the day was nothing special. Of course I always felt that little tinge of sadness in the past few years about nobody caring but that was due to a few glaring character defects that didn't exactly make me well liked amongst people.

The past year has been loads better, mostly due to a one fantastic guy who drives a Fiat Dublo when he has it and many others who have contributed to me maturing faster as well. I've realised that I'd only ever had one single most important friend in the two, now three most important circles of my life. SJI, church and now NP. Never was the one to really hang out in one clique and be close with all of them. Church being more family (Bros and Sis' in Christ after all) doesn't really quite fit into any social definition, it transcends that after all. In school environment however it does play a much bigger part. I guess I've always had more fun with one person who mostly shares my interest rather than going out with a group that could potentially take forever deciding things to do.

Little bit of reflection on the people who've made the most impact on my life in the past few years or so there.

So what am I going to do for my 18th? I could get myself roaring drunk till I pass out and stagger to school reeking of alcohol the next day. That will be quite a sight for the lecturers. The so far responsible and able class rep coming to class a drunkard. Maybe I'll just let it pass like nothing is going on again and form some lousy excuse to console myself at the innermost level. Pity that it's the last day before school reopens. Or maybe I'll find some midnight action.

2006-06-08T21:42:00.000+08:00

A little bit of midnight activity wakes the mind and warms the blood. Good for remebering last minute facts.

2006-05-26T17:18:00.000+08:00

Today I went to Serene Center to finally buy Elder Scrolls 4 : Oblivion Collector's Edition. Since the shopowner was advertising it I picked up the guidebook as well knowing that I'm an anal 100% completion person when it comes to such games. In the end my bank account is $116 less. He scrapped the $0.80 and I've got a discount on the next game because I'm a member now.

So mom picked me up to go to Sim Lim to get our computer fixed. The new computer I'm looking at could be costing anywhere from $2500 - $4000 depending on how much my mom is willing to spend. It'll be state of the art, dual processors, dual graphics cards and all. Anyway, I'll have to replace my current power supply and system hard drive because they are old and I know they are acting up already.

Since I'm so pally with the shopkeepers and at ease in that little establishment, I think alot of people get the idea that I work there. I have no idea how many times already people have asked me the price of something, whether I work there or some other question. Most of the time I just answer as best as I can and pass them on to the real owners of the shop. Hahaha! Well, its the nice thing to do because the past few times I've been there, they get all flustered calling their distributors to ask if the latest parts I want are in yet. I love that shop.

2006-05-21T23:52:00.000+08:00

Three musketeers in a Fiat Dublo,
A decade ranged their ages were,
Marksmen highly regarded,
All they did was BANG!

2006-05-19T23:02:00.000+08:00

I've stared into the eyes of an angel and I'm enraptured.

2006-05-16T20:21:00.000+08:00

Isn't it weird how some of the people you'd readily share secrets with are the ones you don't even talk to weekly much less daily.

I just wasted the entire day playing BG2 when I SHOULD have been studying. Hopefully the next three hours or so will be more productive. Coldplay $68. I know where those seats are. I had the same ones for Oasis. Hahaha. If I get the gallery facing the stage I will be pretty pleased though. I'll punch the next British guy that forces me to stand up and manhandles me like what happened at Oasis. Spraying spittle all over us too. I doubt Coldplay commands such fanatic fans though.

2006-05-10T14:19:00.000+08:00

I'm sitting in the school library on the third week of school attempting to get some work done. The knowledge of common tests being BEFORE the mid-term break is a rather motivating factor spurring me on to pay greater attention in class as compared to the previous semster. However, me being lazy old me, obviously missed out some work in class especially when the lecturer is decidedly SQUARE. Having hanged around with one of the most unorthodox people for 4 years in SJI, his influence has without a doubt made me very flexible as well. I'm no stickler for the rules and doing things to the letter most of the time.

So now I'm sitting here catching up on Strength of Materials and just doing other bits of work to practice after a big bastardising session with Uncle Poh Chi. (Zixuan la.) As The Album Leaf plays certain notions permeate into my mind. In any good RPG game you can always choose your player character to be Good or Evil. So I wonder whether your choices in the game subconsciously reflect on true reality. My brother always chooses to go the Evil way first whereas I'll always be taking the side of the Light. Do such in-game choices reflect the OPPOSITE of what you truly are or do they symbolise the core of your existance. Maybe I've got an evil mind with a good heart? Or maybe I'm just plain evil or perhaps a force of good. These things do manifest themselves in insignificant things such as games. I'll have to discuss this one with Ewen. After all, he's the one that taught me about cognitive dissonance. A highly interesting concept that I'm sure most of us have gone through at least once. I'll explain it to you if you need it.

Now Playing - The Album Leaf - The Outer Banks

2006-05-06T22:16:00.000+08:00

I wanted to blog about something but the thought slipped my mind. Maybe I'll remember it later.

What I do remember though is that I'm quite sick of chinese food. I'd be very happy eating sandwiches and pasta morning noon and night. Who asked Mom to raise me up on a Western diet as a kid.

2006-05-04T13:09:00.000+08:00

Anna baby

2006-04-24T23:02:00.000+08:00

And somewhere on Sunday during the session I found a part of me that was missing but could never quite figure out what till it came back again.

2006-04-15T23:56:00.000+08:00

This Is My Life, Rated
Life:	7.7
Mind:	8.4
Body:	9
Spirit:	8.8
Friends/Family:	4.3
Love:	0
Finance:	6.5
Take the Rate My Life Quiz

Your Life Analysis:

Life: Your life rating is a score of the sum total of your life, and accounts for how satisfied, successful, balanced, capable, valuable, and happy you are. The quiz attempts to put a number on the summation of all of these things, based on your answers. Your life score is reasonably high. This means that you are on a good path. Continue doing what is working and set about to improve in areas which continue to lag. Do this starting today and you will begin to reap the benefits immediately. (Read more on improving your life)

Mind: Your mind rating is a score of your mind's clarity, ability, and health. Higher scores indicate an advancement in knowledge, clear and capable thinking, high mental health, and pure thought free of interference. Your mind score is within a healthy zone. This means you have achieved a level of mental balance and harmony consistent with living a healthy, happy life. Continue doing what works, and keep your focus. In our fast-paced world, mental clutter is all too common. Be vigilant in maintaining healthy mental function. Read advice from other quiz-takers on improving the mind.

Body: Your body rating measures your body's health, fitness, and general wellness. A healthy body contributes to a happy life, however many of us are lacking in this area. You have an excellent body score, which means you are incredibly focused on maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Continue in that focus, and your body will remain healthy and strong. Read advice from other quiz-takers on improving the body.

Spirit: Your spirit rating seeks to capture in a number that elusive quality which is found in your faith, your attitude, and your philosophy on life. A higher score indicates a greater sense of inner peace and balance. Your spirit score is dramatic. Continue on your path, do not stray. Continue to reap the rewards which your spirituality brings forth. Read advice from other quiz-takers on improving the spirit.

Friends/Family: Your friends and family rating measures your relationships with those around you, and is based on how large, healthy, and dependable your social network is. Your friends and family score suffers, yet it does not need to be this way. Strengthen your social network by reaffirming old bonds. Seek out new friendships, and they will provide you the reward you need. Try using MeetUp.com to find people near you who share your interests.

Love: Your love rating is a measure of your current romantic situation. Sharing your heart with another person is one of life's most glorious, terrifying, rewarding experiences. Your love score is very low, indicating trouble. There is love out there for you. Seek the advice of wise people on how to go about finding it. Do not lose hope. Read advice from other quiz-takers on finding and maintaining love.

Finance: Your finance rating is a score that rates your current financial health and stability. Your finances are somewhat in the middle, neither bad or exceptional. Keep doing what works for you, and improve what doesn't. Focus on long-term financial stability as your goal. Read advice from other quiz-takers on improving your finances.

I don't know whether to be happy or sad.

2006-04-09T21:08:00.000+08:00

Here's me feeding a kangaroo
The goats kept eating my shirt. Must be quite delicious
At the Fremantle prison. This is what you'll be like when getting flogged
The family at Fremantle bay
This was a tunnel I crawled though in the Ngihli Caves
CHOCOLATE FACTORY!!
Perth Mint
Car being clamped. Law's are strict over there.
A photo of the sign pasted at the driver's window
A Turkish Gozlame I had for lunch. Something like murtabak but much better.

So I went to Perth not really very interested to go and now I'm back wishing I never left. There are just some inherent qualities about the place that makes it so nice. People are all friendly and polite, driving is actually a pleasure, although it's barely a city, it has all the conviniences a city has with the sole exception of public transport. The weather's fantastic, all the food is grown there so it's fresh and the overall standard of living is good. It's slow compared to Singapore and broadband/handphone connections aren't as cheap and everything closes after 5-6PM. It's a stress free life. If you need to always be out doing things you'll be bored to death. But I enjoy nature and I wished I was able to spare a day and just sit around in parks or beaches. Anyway here's a rough summary of what happened.

Day 1- Sunday
It's 1:00AM and I'm sitting in the aircraft that's preparing for takeoff and my eyes are literally popping out. As always, I can't sleep on a plane but I manged to doze off eventually. Touchdown around 6:00 in the morning and man was I groggy. We rented a car and I navigated us to our rented apartment. It wasn't ready yet so we headed to Subiaco Farmer's market to see what fresh produce we could buy. It's quite an experience, tons of fresh fruits and vegetables all there and you can taste before you buy. Peaches were fantastic.

So now that it wasn't so ridiculously early we drove to Kilkenny to visit an old friend of my dad's. He emigrated to Perth almost 30 years ago and is doing very very well. He's got a nice big house with a sprinkler system that works on spring water he dug from beneath his front yard, 2 chickens in the backyard and he's growing all sorts of vegetables and they're all growing incredibly well.

I took the opportunity to use the toilet to put on my lenses and something highly interesting happened to me then. Ask me about it. So I met Uncle Tony, Auntie Kim and their 3rd daughter Catherine. They have never seen me before and if I'm not wrong I wasn't even an idea the last time they met. Catherine just kept feeding us fruits and snacks. I would later learn that she eats around the clock in pretty immense volumes too and yet she's slim but not anorexic.

The entire place is closed on a sunday. No shops are open, only a few food places are operated by skeleton crews and it's like a ghost town. Almost every student there works and there is a minimum wage of at least A$10 I think. Not like the peanuts we get paid here. Basics are more expensive there though. A simple meal would cost you at least A$10 so the general standard of living is higher. You hardly see any adults and practically no elderly at all. We had lunch at Jester's which is a franchised pie place that serves really good pies.

We went back to the apartment and rested till dinner which was at some chinese restaurant at Bull Creek. Before that thought we went to Janderkot Airport to pick up my brother and get a tour of SIA Flying College. It's a really cool place to learn how to fly but the best part is their accomadation. It's a freaking FRAT palace! 2 guys to a room and when we entered my brother's room, his roomie was playing DOTA with the neighbours. Like WTH! The fridge and toaster oven is right outside his room which is right next to the main door. Probably one of the best rooms. The facilities for the place are incredible. A basketball/tennis/soccer court, snooker table, 3 public computers, a full size industrial kitchen with a storage area for everyone to put their personal spices, and a private carpark for them. The kitchen is really the best part. Food is catered 3 meals a day but you don't have to eat that if you don't want to. You can always eat outside or you could cook meals yourself. So when the food is good you hardly see leftovers but when it's not, people start cooking. You spend 9 months in a place like this and its not very far from Perth City. You're not a prisoner either and you can do whatever you like. The thing is if you don't perform obviously SIA will chop you. No wonder every boy wants to be a pilot at some point in his life. I wouldn't mind either.

Day 2 - Monday
The plan today was to go up north to the swan river and visit Caversham wildlife park. It's currently the end of Autumn but its still pretty warm in the day. However you'll die in that place if you don't have sunglasses, the sun's glare is incredible. So we went to the wildlife park where you can see alot of animals but the most fun were the kangaroos and various farm animals. They're incredibly tame but the goats were quite frisky. They kept jumping on me and biting my shirt. I carried a wombat as well and it weighs in at a heavy 18kg.

We went to a chocolate factory and a few winerys as well. Nothing that interesting there. We picked up my brother and went to Harbour town which is one big factory outlet mall. Things there are very cheap but no exchanges and if you can't find your size then too bad. I picked up a few nice shirts there. They also had Electronic Boutique which is basically just a games store. You can buy new games or pre-owned games. I picked up a few cheap new xBox games there. You could buy 2nd hand games as well for a reduced price. All in all, 3 new games for A$80. A good deal in my opinion. Dinner was at Mrs. Maud's which is a famous Swedish Hotel/Restaurant. It really was very good. My brother stayed over this night.

Day 3 - Tuesday
We woke early and headed down to Fremantle Prison and took a tour which was really very good. Perhaps I should post photos of the prison tour. We also visited the Maritime Museum dedicated to shipwrecks and did some shopping as well. Lunch was at Kaili's which is a famous Fish & Chips place and it really is very good. Everything was so fresh. They have alot of second hand bookstores which shows what the people do after hours because most people are home by 7PM and nothing is left open. Dinner was at a cantonese restaurant that was booming because it was the only few left open. It was pretty good as well although it was a little on the salty side. Fetched my brother back. At least I had my Band of Brothers DVD to keep me occupied and I had just bought a A$1 book as well. Brining my laptop was in vain as the apartment didn't have an internet connection so in the end Ewen had to wake up at 8am and help me enroll. Thanks Ewee!

Day 4 - Wednesday
Today we drove all the way down to South West Australia, all the way out of our map boundries. We intended to go all the way to Margaret River town but it was too far away. So we settled for the Busselton area. We visited a cave there, saw a chocolate factory again and a cheese factory. The chocolate factory was the same one as we saw in Day 2 but I just wanted to get free chocolate to eat in the car. At least my mom bought something while I shamelessly piled chocolate in my hand before we left. It really is very good. The cheese was fantastic as well. So we drove back picking my brother on the way and had dinner at Yoshiya Japanese Restaurant on Pier Street. The lady boss is Malaysian and the sole waitress was damn pretty. It's quite amazing as to how many pretty Asian girls are there. I think the food there has something to do with it. And perhaps that they all have a certain class about them. Not like all the Ah Lian's we have here and also the fact that they all speak good clean english.

Day 5 - Thursday
We went back to Harbour Town and this time I found that my Van's slip-ons had my size! Where on monday there was no size for me, today there was! A$45 for a nice pair of comfortable shoes. I had a subway lunch and really, every morsel of food there is incredibly better. The afternoon was spent resting because Thursday night is late night shopping. We went to Westfield carousel which is probably the biggest shopping mall near to us and you'd be amazed at how many people there were. EVERYBODY came out from their houses to just have a night out. You wouldn't have known that Perth could be so crowded in comparision to the previous days.

Day 6 - Friday
After much heated arguments I finally managed to get away from my parents. The morning was spent at the Fremantle markets and before lunch I detached myself to go find Kenneth, Andrew and Rae. First I met Kenneth and the Transperth Busport and the freaking ticket to University of Western Australia cost me two bucks! But their ticket operates on zones so two bucks was a two way thing but I neved did use the return trip. You'll understand why.

So in U.W.A. I followed Ken around and every other person was Asian. You'd be amazed as to how many Asians are studying there with a crazy amount in medicine. Its insane. Ken bought me a kebab which really should be called a burrito I think. I always had the impression that a kebab was meat on a stick with veggies in between cubes of meat. Then again, they call RECTANGULAR football fields OVALS so that could be it. (e.g. Subiaco Oval - Home to blah blah) Anyway, there were 2 guys from RI, one of them who permanently emigrated there as well. Met quite alot of people, many from Singapore or had Singaporean origins. Quite a number had parents born in Singapore but they themselves were born there. The average height of all the Asians in the place was higher too. Better nutrition.

They were playing a game called Assassin and it works like this. Whoever joins the game will be given a target and they will be a target as well. During the 10 days of the game or so, you're supposed to spray your target with shaving cream (provided) as long as the person was not under a man-made shelter (builing etc.). As this is a HUGE uni campus with 14k population and lots of open space, this isn't that easy. Hundreds of people joined and half were gone in the first day alone. You take over the target of the one you kill so in the end there will be a handful of survivors who have killed many. Now the funny part was that two people broke the rules and had bounty notices pasted on the walls. One guy had his photo there and it said "WANTED for assassinating targets before official start of competition. Shoot on sight, target has no right to defend himself." The other one was wanted for assassinating in an unauthorised area (cover). This latter fellow just so happened to be an accquaintence of Ken and we actually saw him! So we chased him and we just picked up other assasins as well. I grabbed a bounty poster and it was damn funny to see people just suddenly start following you and trying to flank that guy. He managed to jump from cover to cover to his class so no spraying. Sad.

And here's a testament to how nice people there are. I met one of Ken's friends, a John Yuen, parents from South China, he was born in Perth. I had just gotten to know him over lunch and all. So just talk and compare life in Singapore with that of Perth. Ken was just waiting around with me till Andrew came and the two of us needed to go up to Karrinyup to find Rae. That's quite far from U.W.A. and we had no idea how to get there. So John offers to drive us, just like that, pretty much total strangers with nothing bonding us except our yellow skin and black hair. In a foreign country it's very easy to make friends with other people of your race. Very very easy. So thanks to him, we reached up north without any trouble and of course I bought him a drink, not nice to just freeload what. Met Rae, sat around talked a while, she had a friend too so she, Rae and John could talk about the education system there while Andrew and I just crapped around like what a rectangle is an oval and other rubbish. The best part was that John fetched us all back partly because it was on his way and partly because without a car you practically can't go anywhere in Australia. So if he's the typical Australian then it really is a nice place to live. (Obviously he's not typical but nice nontheless.)

Dinner was at a North Indian Restaurant near our Victoria Park Apartment and it was fantastic. Really just fanastic. The place was packed.

Day 7 - Saturday
Morning was spent as Subiaco Market again, buying back all the food to bring back. Lunch was the Gozlame you can see above and we went to Woolworth's to buy alot alot of things back. Pancakes in a bottle? I'll go take a photo of it. A DIY Lasagna kit and all sorts of other foodstuff you can't find hear. Their candy aisle is already a quarter of our average supermarket. You can really get lost in the various supermarts and departmental stores they have. The afternoon was spent resting with evening back at Uncle Tony's house where it was dinner. My brother left early as he had an early flight so while my Dad caught up with his old pal, I ended up playing mahjohg with Catherine and the two other girls staying with them while they study at U.W.A. Interesting house and very homely. They play a slightly different type of mahjohg there, only two dice and other minor changes in the rules.

Day 8 - Sunday
Wake up at 4:30AM and get on the plane at 7:45AM. Touch down at 12:30PM and here I am now, ready to sleep.

2006-03-31T23:58:00.000+08:00

So today I went for a cycle at 10:30pm. Ewen came to pick up the xbox and so I took a cycle. Just cycled around the neighbourhood and retune my senses again. There's nothing like the cold air hitting you in the face and waking you up. I like cycling all these familiar roads at night even though I've got no front lamp. I know where the bumps and potholes are so I can predict. Times like this is when you can really think. You brain detaches from the body which handles the aspects of keeping you on the road/path and make sure you go straight while the mind thinks about everything else surrounded by everything just flashing past as I zoom down on my bicycle. It's nice.

2006-03-26T22:29:00.000+08:00

I've got a pretty big burn just above my ankle from Adrian's motorcycle exhaust pipe. I'm an idiot. To think I thought the initial burn was static as well.

2006-03-19T00:59:00.000+08:00

So I went to go see EIC today at NUS Cultural Center. My first impression wasn't that good but then it started to grow on me. It's good music and they really should go release a single of something. The fionnnaaaaa song is stuck in my head. hahaha!

2006-03-17T00:30:00.000+08:00

This is quite overdue. We should all speak engrish!!

http://www.kennysia.com/archives/2005/12/reader_contribu.php

http://weddyswarzone.blogspot.com/2005/12/murder-of-english-tongue.html