Denial - My favourite Past Time

Guilty as charged..

2011-08-01T18:35:00.002+08:00

I'm suppose to write a story about my trip to Mulu recently, but something (not just procrastination, but that's most of it) is stopping me from doing it. The excuse is that I need to be in the right mood to write. At the moment, I can't find the mood. I don't know why. In fact, I've not had the mood to write for over a year now. Must be because my life's so boring I can't even entertain myself by writing. Which is sad.

So I guess at some point, before I completely forget all the stories that I had from the trip, coupled by more trips soon to come, I should start writing. I should.

I should

But I procrastinate so well....

:D

Retail Theraphy...

2010-02-09T20:13:00.000+08:00

It helps.

Really.

But only for so long. Haha. At least I'm not swapping one pain with another, as long as I control the amount I spend.

Must find really cheap things to retail theraphy for..

:D

A thought like no other

2010-01-19T12:25:00.004+08:00

Hmm.. It's been more than 3 months since my last post. Clearly I have much less to write these days. Should find something to do in life so I can write about it.

What a sorry excuse to give myself.. haha

In any case, I have recently thrown a question at myself that I'm not sure if I know the answer, if I can answer and if I will ever answer.

Just a short reminder to self and the random people who come across this entry, I have always tried to resist the 3 things I feel this world is too reliant on:

Money
Other People
Procreation

Having said that, whatever I have in life today I try to stay away from an old chinese saying, literally translated as "Even in Death I Don't Care". As much as I believe this world is evil, the earth is dying and humanity is but an ideal, I still cannot completely forsake humanity and that I do keep whatever semblance of it that I have in me, in me. So in wanting to do that, I will need to not lose hope in humanity.

Unfortunately, my belief that procreation is process that I wish not to partake contradicts that faith in humanity. By not procreating, I rescind the duty of ensuring the human race survives. Yes, 6 billion or more other people can do it on my behalf, but this is about me, remember?

My theory on kids, or not having them, lies mainly in the current state of the world which, without a whole lot of planning and backup plans, means that every new life I help create is forced upon living a life of most difficulty, especially morally, without the known option of not having to live now (they may prefer to live later, or earlier.. :P) (for those who believe in reincarnation or similar theories, you could argue that the soul made the choice to live before they were born again, but as I don't quite believe in reincarnation, and I personally feel I wasn't given a choice to be born, I'll stick to what I know clearly for the moment). I don't like that, not giving each newborn child that option. It gets even worse when the parents didn't consider things that way and chose to procreate out of sheer ignorance, or selfishness (the desire to procreate is strong within humanity, like it or not), making the life that comes anew facing so many more obstacles that shouldn't have been there had the new parents to be made conscientious thought an effort to prepare themselves and their soon to arrive newborn.

Yet, the decision, or the lack of effort to procreate, ultimately means that person has given up on life. That person technically, through the very decision to not procreate, decide that there is no hope for humanity and nothing that comes forth from them can change it. By believing the process of parenthood and the upbringing of a child in these difficult times unworthy of a risk that the new life can grow up to make a diffierence in the world, small or large, means giving up on life. Not giving another life a chance to live, by not procreating, means giving up on life.

Painful thoughts those are. I still believe ignorance is bliss, even though I keep choosing not to, despite knowing I can, at times, be ignorant and be blissful. At this point of time I have a thousand and one excuses to defend my lack of progress in not giving up on humanity, but I know as time goes on, I will have less and less excuses to use and even less time to make ammends.

A short life will help.

Unfortunately I keep getting this feeling that the maker doesn't plan to let me die young without me conscientiously trying.

I don't actually want to test that feeling, either.

What a great way to start 2010...

Shoot me....

2009-10-12T13:34:00.002+08:00

For I am the messenger..

I didn't actually get shot literally, but I sort of felt that way.

Last Friday I noticed one of my colleagues doing something that broke company policy and through a sheer lack of judgement, I decided to tell them directly instead of doing it anonymously via the many channels that my company provides. Now, usually I do it anonymously (yes, I find these instances every now and then..) but with this colleague I had the impression that they would understand it was the wrong thing, appreciate the heads up and proceed to do the right thing.

Unfortunately for me the experience wasn't even close to that. The first few words back included, "You should know me better. I'm sad. Are you going to complain? I don't want to get into trouble." No thanks to an internal messaging system at work, the colleague had the cheek to post comments meant for other people to me, which included, "He wants to know what I'm going to do. Which leader I am gonig to speak to. He still wants to know." When I told them they've posted on the wrong chat, there wasn't a slightest hint of regret or sorry in the reply. "I'm not a technical person. Yeah, it's a mistake." Rude?

It's not the end of it. In my note to this colleague I explained my concerns, where the company policies were broken and that if they did not do anything to report/correct the error, I would. That, somehow turned into me wanting to 'complain'. Sigh. (see why it's never a good idea to tell colleagues directly their errors?) by the end of the day I got an sms to explain that they are taking steps to migitate the problem. It also came with something along the lines of " I wished you'd had told me there and then if you knew I did something wrong so I could correct it immediately. If you knew you were going to complain anyway..."

So there it is, the messenger shot dead. Granted, not exactly the most subtle of messengers but not supposed to be shot nonetheless. Even if I could have told them straight away (which I couldn't, as I wasn't completely sure and by the time I was, the 'situation' was beyond rectification. But does anybody care?) it wasn't my responsibility to help them avoid non-compliance. They needed to help themselves first.

Oh well. Nothing pays as well as doing the right thing. I'll remember to not trust the person whom I have observed to have breached company rules to act lawfully and just raise all my concerns anonymously. It's not so much the fear of retribution I try to avoid, its the fact that the person(s) involved would never (ok, highly unlikely) appreciate being told their wrong, late. oh, somehow it's my fault, and not theirs...

Of Friends and....

2009-09-30T09:21:00.002+08:00

Well, the whole lack of it..

For those unfamiliar of me, I have few friends. At the current moment I count 3. But then again, friends for me are people that I can really call upon in my hour of need and that I know, despite all our differences I will not have any problems spending time with them.

The funny thing is that, I realise (awhile back, actually), none of my friends belong to the same ethnicity as I am.

A quick aside, as I live in Malaysia, where there are several major races and countless minor ones, despite all our hoo har on being a mutiracial nation, people as they have all been have a tendency to stick to their own kind. So Malays hanging out with Malays, Chinese with Chinese, etc. Common; Expected.

I am Chinese. Of the 3 I call Friend, 1 is a Malay. Another a mixed Indian-Sarawakian Bumi( Bidayuh I think...uh oh.. not good). The last one is a Sri-Lankan Chinese mix. I have no Chinese friends. I had one during my school years but as I grew older and started working, I became more and more distant from my own ethnicity as ever. No wonder I have problems attracting chinese females. :D

I do not feel bad at the lack of Friends, as I always feel that friends should be far and few as these people require alot from me to keep. If I have too many Friends, I lose the ability to contribute to the friendship as I would want to/need to and then they all just turn into mere associates/acquaintances.

I just feel so weird sometimes that I am so far off the common grid I need to tell myself its true. Oh, its true...

Possibly My Greatest Flaw...

2009-09-25T07:51:00.000+08:00

Quote:

“Until you make peace with who you are, you’ll never be content with what you have.” Doris Mortman

But I'm too content with what I have!

Sigh...

Is it time...

2009-09-18T09:28:00.003+08:00

to spill the guts out?

I'd say not quite, but it needs documenting anyway so here goes..

Prologue:

In June 2008 I just changed roles within my company and got introduced to a colleague who was rather health savvy. Through our interaction I was challenged, or encouraged, to consider reducing my weight. The key highlight of this encounter was how over a period of less than 4 weeks, I was influenced from 'Living to Eat' to 'Eating to Live'..

Note, for those unaware, I am somewhat of a glutton and find food rather irresistable. It didn't help that my childhood was one of poverty, so having food to eat more than that to stave off hunger was a luxury, one I never miss. To me, free food was always good food. Beggars can't be choosers......

I weight approximately 108KG before I caved in and asked my colleague to act as my dietician.

This first month:

The plan was to monitor what I eat. I've always overeaten, especially during lunch and dinners. Anyone who's ever seen my plate of mixed rice for lunches would comment on the mountain of food I had. So part of the gameplan was to change my food intake.

There were the usual restrictions. No oily food, deep fried dishes and fatty meats. Rice, my core intake daily, became rationed. Vegetables were changed to be my main food source. I was given a visual picture of splitting my plate to 6 portions; 4 for vegetables, 1 for meats and 1 for carbohydrates.

It was tough. But I was motivated and it was nice to have someone else care about my weight. I dug deep and got stuck in.

I recall losing about 2-3 KG the next time I weighed in. Cool stuff.. :D

The following months:

Progress was good but it was slow. At around 30+KGs overweight, I had a lot to do to even reach the border of an acceptable BMI.

As I manage the changes to my food, I was given stricter regime. Lunch remained the same, but dinner was to be made of significantly more vegetables than anything else. I for one loathe cooking, not so much because it taste awful ( I can't cook, but can eat most things I cook, however horrible the taste) but more for the time ratio between preparing the meal and actually consuming it. For me, the time required to prepare a meal should not exceed the expected time required to consume it. Else, it's really a waste of time. Luckily for me, my self prepared dinner menu included baked beans, (canned) tuna, bread and a variety of salad vegetables that required very little cooking, if at all. So I could get dinner ready in less than 10 minutes.

Even bread was rationed, especially on my weekends where I do not go out to eat. 2 slices for breakfast, 4 slices for lunch and 3 slices for dinner. No dumping loads of stuffs in between the slices ala Garfield; I'm allowed only light spread of olive oil butter or some tuna chunks in water. My food, overall was as bland as the word could be defined. Fortunately for me, I have very little issues eating bland food; As long as they aren't bad and giving me digestive issues, I'll eat it.

This went on for a few months. My weight loss were a little more apparent, dropping down to low 90 KGs by October 2008. Still far from safety, still a long way to go..

No more free consultation:

Unfortunately for me I have a thing about messing up with good things that happen to me and by October I lost my free 'dietician'. however, I was already getting used to the routine of avoiding oily food, rice and eating more vegetables. While my motivation dwindled with the lack of push from an external party, in addition of the pressure of delivering results so that my caretaker's efforts weren't in vain, I managed to keep myself in check most of my meals. I do end up with an occasional splurged of sinful food; A kuey teow goreng here, nasi lemak there and a Carl's Junior in between. But I have now gotten used to mixed rice with no rice, much of a surprise to many vendors seeing this big man not want rice, let alone add rice..

It's fun to surprise people sometimes, especially doing something completely unexpected.

By the end of 2009, I was hovering around mid 80s. Still having work to do, but at least I'm not way out there in terms of obesity..

Epilogue:

I'm now see sawing between 78-82 KGs these days. I'd like to drop down to low 70s or even high 60s, but that isn't going to happen until I will myself to exercise. Yes, I lost around 30 KGs by just watching what I eat. Not something that everyone can do, especially if they aren't way overweight in the first place. In my honest opinion, it only works for people who over eat all the time and are way obese. If you're just looking to get a better weight than your already good weight, work out.

My Joys:
1) Not having ankle and foot problems that, according to my orthopedist, was due to my weight.
2) Getting to wear pants 6 inches smaller.
3) Getting better mileage from my car.
4) Being able to jump, run and more or less stretch around without feeling utterly tired and overworked.
5) Discovering almonds as a snack. (Oh, yes, even my snack menu got changed!)
6) Learning to be more observant with food packaging and ingredient details. Not exactly an expert, but better than what I was before (as in oblivious).
7) Ok, it just feels good to not be overweight by a lot.

My sorrows:
1) Still having a bulging tummy (exercise you lazy bum!)
2) Getting all sorts of random people saying I've lost weight. I don't need you to tell me something I already know.
3) Losing motivation to keep up the work so that I can be fitter for my upcoming Go-Kart race.
4) Having a newly bought 'slim fit' shirt still in my closet because of the bulging tummy. Sigh..
5) Craving and missing oily food.
6) Seeing food for their 'sinful' content and not their taste value.
7) No longer able to maximise a buffet meal!!!!!!

May I keep this up for years to come and one day wear that shirt without looking like a fool!

Oh, and stop telling me I've lost weight! Because I haven't, at least not for the past 4-6 months!

A Complaint of sorts...

2009-09-07T09:36:00.002+08:00

Well, considering that I did call and there was a file created, I'd say it was more a formal complain than not...

2 weeks ago Shrek was due for his regular servicing and I took him to the regular workshop I go to. He was closing in on 20K KM but more importantly it's been 3 months since he got a makeover and since the last service he has taken me to Kuantan, Singapore and Cameron Highlands in between the usual commuting around the city.

Now for a Viva, I only need to service the car once every 10K KM after the 1st 10K KM, but me being me and generally letting people do their job with minimal fuss, I've failed to realised that the servicing @ 10K KM was only for 5K KM and not for a full 10K KM. On my 15K KM service, which was in May 2009, I let them serviced it for yet another 5K KM seeing that it would be weird to go from 15K to 25K when the distances should be every 10K (20, 30,...).

The main issue was the engine oil, which depending on the grade used, would last either 5K KM or 10K KM. Clearly my past 2 service sessions Shrek only got the 5K engine oil. This time around I made it a point to ask and to insist on getting the 10K KM engine oil so that my servicing schedule will be as per Perodua specs. it turns out the 10K engine oil cost only RM 15 more, but if I had to do the service again in 3 months (10K lasts 6 months), I'd have to fork out another RM 120! Realising what seems to me as an exploitation of the unlearned public, I made it very clear before they took my car that I am to be given the 10K engine oil.

About an hour later my car returned. To my horror they gave me the 5K engine oil! The woman manning the counter had the cheek to say they had no more 10K engine oil! They didn't even have the decency to let me know BEFORE they decided to go against my wishes. As the job was already done and I would like to think that they did DO the other things as required during each service, I paid up but not before telling them I'd never go there again.

The next day I decided to just vent my frustration by calling up Perodua to lodge a complaint. After telling my piece and asked to fax over the receipt, I thought that was about as much as I'd hear about this issue. To my surprise, the same Customer Service Rep rang me back the next day to follow up and they called me again a day after to update me on the case! Maybe Perodua isn't as hopeless after all?

While I wanted to get a written apology and something done about the way I was exploited (which, yes, at some point I was at fault too for being ignorant), they manage to get the service centre to agree to change my engine oil to 10K for free. Unfortunately, the service centre didn't seem all too happy about having to do this and in the call with the supervisor at the service centre I felt there was much disdain from him.

I manage to get my engine oil changed last week. I'm still mulling whether to still write in officially since I still feel that the place is a con job (not so much in the work, but the scheme) and now I have to find myself another service centre to visit by February 2010.

In the meantime, I hope Shrek feels good as new, even if I haven't been all that nice to him...

The Great Discovery... (Part 3 of my recent Singapore trip)

2009-08-04T13:26:00.003+08:00

Now, where was I?

Oh, so dinner was done and over with and finally I got to my ex-boss mother's home. You see, my ex-boss has been living and working in Australia for quite awhile so she doesn't actually have her own place in Singapore. Her mom's apartment/condo is a 3 bedroom unit which has a rather huge dining area adjacent to the living area. Initially I expected myself to sleep in the hallway since my ex-boss did allude that her mom's place isn't all that big and only had 2 functioning bedrooms (the 3rd room, I noted, turned into a store room per se). Through sheer luck/kindness my ex-boss offered to sleep with her mom so that I didn't have to be 'tang cheong' (living room guard..:D).

Aside from the rather poor water pressure of the bathroom, the place was nice enough to give me a good night sleep for a day of adventure tomorrow. I believe the poor water pressure was down to the externally installed water heater, which IMHO has been known to reduce water pressures tremendously.

In any case, I woke up earlier than my host the next morning. After freshening up, I took their advise to stroll around the beach across the road (err, expressway..) The edge of the island was acutally about 1KM away from the apartment, so off I went for an extended early morning stroll. It was nice to see quite a number of people also having their walks, jogs and cycles early in the morning. before long I reached the beach.

To my surprise there were quite a number of camps all around the beach. The beach isn't all that good; Imagine a coastline next to a city and it being a public beach should give you an idea how 'nice' the beach is. Yet, there were easily 20 camps around that beach stretch and I could see even more along the coast. For a nation known for it's kiasu-ness (fear of losing), it's a wonder so many have atuned themselves to nature...What's left of it, at least, in a City like Singapore.

Unfortunately for me my stroll was shortlived as before I began turning back the sky decided it wasn't too happy I saw so many campers and decided to cry. So I ended up having my 2nd shower within an hour of each other. Soaked from tip to toe, I arrive back at the apartment having to bath again. luckily by then my ex-boss was awake and all that was left was for us to wait out the rain and then begin our road trip for....Singaporean Food!

While waiting for the rain to stop, I voiced my pleasure at seeing so many campers along the beach. My ex-boss then explained,"Those aren't campers. Those are squatters!"

:O :O :O

I mean, wha the f? So much for the people being close to nature and all that fluff. These blokes along the beach are the hardcore poor that you never see in the City. They camp around there, with their kids et all and use the public toilets to perform their natural hygene requirements. Explains why here were so many clothes hung out to dry..

Anyway, by the time my shock subsided, so did the rain and off we went for breakfast at Tiffan...Oops..Got carried away there...First stop was some hawker food court somewhere in the city (err, I'll confess I didn't take enough notes to recall where are the places that I went..). There were several suggested food to try, but in the end I decided to go with the crowd and ate wantan mee. There was a long queue for the food so I figured so many people couldn't be making such a big mistake. Unfortunately, the wantan mee was just so so. There was this porridge stall that was quite famous, unfortunately the hawker has gotten rather arrogant and weren't about to be bothered to hasten the orders. Refusing to wait, I skipped trying that as well. The good thing, however, was that I see Teh Tarik served in that food court. Looks like I'm really not that far away from home.. :D

After breakfast, we moved over to the middle of the city where a nice garden was keep sheltered from the bustling concrete jungle. It was actually quite a huge place and the walk around it was refreshingly green and polution free (to the levels that my limited senses could detect). Halfway through the garden it decided to rain again and we had to take shelter for almost half an hour. We weren't alone in that shelter. There was some other groups and one of them was a bunch of kids maybe 13-15 years old. It reminded me of the days when I joined such excursions in school. Ah, the good old days...

When the rain stopped we strolled around some more and hadsome close encounters with my close relatives.....Monkeys..As always, they knew not to mess with me since I'm clearly the BIGGER relative... :D

Before long it was lunch time and off we went to another food court. There I found what was my favourite meal throughout my weekend trip; Pig liver mee soup (something like that). The liver was cooked just about right leaving a little bit of rawness and tasting rather delicious. There was suppose to be some famous 'nasi lemak' thee as well but my ex-boss noted that it seems to have changed owners. Neverthless, she tried it anyway and found the food to be somewhat lacking.

By the time lunch was over we decided to walk around that area to see if we could find a nice place to sit around and have coffee/tea. While we didn't manage to find a suitable place, i did end up finding a bakery shop which sold almonds cheaper than Malaysia!! I get my almonds around RM 34 per KG and they were like selling them aroun SGD 11 per KG!! No surprise I took 2 KGs home with me.. I still haven't finished the first pack. Have to limit 1 KG a month or I will clearly overdose on almonds!

After which we decided to drive over to Dempsey Hill (ah, I remembered one!!) to have some tea. My ex-boss' stint in Australia has turned her into a coffee connoisseur of sorts where cafes served much better coffee at affordable prices. Starbucks? Junk coffee.. :D So at Dempsey Hill we decided to try one place where the name of the shop suggest it was Australian. I'm not so much of a coffee person, but I couldn't resist trying my childhood favourite drink...milkshake.. :D As always, the shake finished way ahead of the coffee. In any case the coffee was still not up to par, despite it being more expensive than Australian coffee. I'm just glad I haven't the need for coffee.

Now all this time I have my usual online commitments with webdota and I have been looking for an opportunity to get online. Unfortunately, my ex-boss mom's place isn't wired, so I don't get free access over there. Throughout the day we have been keeping an eye out for cybercafes, without much luck.

Dinner was nearby the apartment, opposite the local shopping complex. Yet another food court and this time I went for fried kuey teow. It was indeed yummy, though maybe too wet for many's taste. Unfortunately, either I've overkilled on 'bad' food or my tummy just didn't agree with the kuey teow, within an hour I had to purge. Luckily the shopping complex's washrooms were decent enough for the, erm, job.. :D
Oh, and no luck with cybercafe. Despite me knowing full well there are cybercafes in Singapore, unfortunately I was in the wrong parts of the island and asking a middle-aged female to help find a cybercafe especially when she's not been in the country for awhile was just looking for a needle in a haystack.

In response to that disappointment, I ended up buying myself 2 stacks of CDs; A collection of Betthoven's more popular piano sonatas and a collection of Mozart's better known compositions. The reason I bought the sonata CDs was because it had Waldstein, which I've been yearning to hear again ever since my cassette version was no longer playable. I still hear it's 3rd movement in my head everytime I brush my teeth. :D It also had some good sonatas, like Appasionata and Pastoral (unfortunately I'm not good enough to actual name the sonatas proper..) as well as the ever so famous Moonlight. Digressing a little bit. I can't imagine my piano teacher not knowing Moonlight's first movement even though I ccould only play the right hand!! It's so freakingly obvious! How could someone learn music upto diploma (I'm assuming she's properly qualified to teach, hehe..) and not have heard of it before???!!!!! Anyway, back to the CDs, the Mozart collection was bought mainly because it had Piano concerto no.20, a piece I've been hunting, too since my cassette versions broke apart. Funnily I stil find the cassette versions better than these new versions, for all the pieces I'm familiar with, despite the cassette versions being supposedly inferior recordings/technology. Could be the impression to a teenager that last much longer than it should..

So as much as I insisted on not buying anything during this trip, I failed to keep to my 'restriction'. After dinner and a should tour around the mall, back we went home to the apartment.

The next morning I didn't take another walk to the beach. Instead we walked to a nearby food court for breakfast and this time I had prawn mee. Unfortunately, I think prawn mee's in Malaysia are better. After breakfast and packing up, we headed to our last destination for an early lunch. Yet another food court, this time I had pork internals soup. I have to admit it's nice that pork is readily available, since it's sort of my second preferred meat (Beef steaks still takes the cake).

Then came time to return home. On the way to my last meal destination, I was somewhat instructed the way that should lead me home. However, poor memory and over reliance on my internal ability to find y way around led me to taking a long way around instead before getting to the correct highway that will lead to another expressway that leads to another expressway that eventually leads to the border..hehe..

I thought Iwould make good time since I arrived at customs around 12.30pm. Unfortunately, it seems like I wasn't the only person feeling like crossing the border at that time. An estimate of a couple thousands other drivers also thought the same. While exiting Singapore was quite a breeze, trying to get into Malaysia was another matter. It took me longer to get out of customs Malaysia than it took me to get from my food court in Singapore to the Malaysian border! With my anxiety that I've been offline from webdota too long and my eagerness to get home before dark, I nevertheless had even more trouble keeping to the speed limit.

Many a time I had to tell myself to slow down as on occasions Shrek was propelled upto 140 KM/H!! I'm sure Shrek had some joint pains after the drive. Having mentioned that, I arrive safely and intact (else how on earth do I write this??) by about 6.30pm. I drove almost 1000KM over that 3 days. Good fun. Should do more..

That concludes my somewhat elaborate retelling of my recent Singapore trip. Because my access card still has credit and I still have a couple of dollars worth of parking coupons, I'm probably going to drive down again the next time I visit Singapore, which would probably be next year. Hopefully next time I won't need to drive alone.

Nope, This Ain't....

2009-08-03T15:43:00.002+08:00

part 3....

Will need to digress a little bit.

Just survived a trip to Kuala Kubu Baru for some white water rafting. Organised by my company's sports club, I essentially went for free.

A quick setup. I actually did my first white water rafting 4 years ago in Kota Kinabalu and frankly speaking, I recall I had such a torrid time I vowed never to do it again. I fear large body of waters and do not like adrenaline rushes. But for some unexplainable reasons, the moment my company anounced this event, I signed up without even a blink.

That I lived to write this meant that I survived the event. It was much easier this time, for many reasons. The main one was not because I was wiser (that term really escapes me...) but because (IMHO) my raftmates and I were so hopeless and out of sync the guide decided to get more help each time we were about to pass through the rapids. That, as well as this time us being allowed to 'sit in', which basically means enjoy the ride while the guides do all the hard work keeping us alive..

My raft had 6 participants and 1 guide. From the beginning of the ride, my guide was giving us quite a hard time as he tries to whip us into discipline to no success. Some rafts had 2 guides and no prizes for guessing there were some complaints as to why they get 2 while we only get 1. After going through a couple of rapids, at one point our guide were heard to be so disappointed with our workrate he said it 'embarasses the government' (spoken in malay).

This did not go down well with most of my raftmates and they continued to find fault with his attitude and delivery. They complain his technique and wanted to train him on how to motivate us better. They were basically to used to the positive encouragement methods employed by American companies. I tried to explain to them that this is the Asian way; If you suck, you suck. Period. No sugar coating. No anxiety over how we may fail to handle the humiliation of being told off. The truth, nothing less. Get over it.

Unfortunately, the rest of the 'crew' couldn't see the light of day and they had little good things to say about the guide. I pity him and them. Him because his good work isn't valued. Them because they can't handle the truth. By the time the whole thing was over, he finally explained why he as so hard on us at the beginning. Rafting is an activity that each raftsman (and woman) needed to contribute to ensure the safety of the raft. Without concerted efforts, the whole experience would either be lacking; the guides will chose to take us through easy rapids; or extremely dangerous if the guide decides to let us capsize. Them being the experts, surviving a capsize would be all in a minutes' work. But for people like us, who do this sport once a lifetime maybe, the whole thrown overboard experience can cripple a person...It can also kill...

Nevertheless, everyone of our 50+ participants lived to tell the horror stories of being thrown overboard, raft capsizing and all the bumpy rides over the rapids. As for me, I managed to stay inside the raft all the way though half of the crew did get thrown overboard...Which is cool...

I should do this again...Someday. Hopefully the next time it will be a good crew of raftsmen (and women) who will not be to frail to get a good whipping or two. Only then will the experience be one that is worth remembering for good...

Shrek and I....(part 2 of recent Singapore trip)

2009-07-29T09:30:00.003+08:00

getting lost down under..

Ok, not so down under and Shrek wasn't lost. Just myself. Driving in an unfamiliar territory (this mini island called Singapore...hehehe), I had with me some googled maps as well as some internet directions to get to my ex-boss' place. Dinner was scheduled around 7pm, so I had a good 90-100 minutes to get to the other end of the island. Which, is way more than enough..

Unless you get lost..During peak traffic period. It didn't help that the internet instructions were somewhat ambiguous, or required some basic knowledge of Singapore roads. While I have been to Singapore multiple times, this is the first time I am driving down on my own, unassisted/guided. Ok, minimal assistance.

Anyway, right out of the Customs area I had an immediate crossroads which thanks to lack of split second manoevering I didn't take an exit I shouldn't have. I ended up driving along the highway and eventually saw signboards that was familiar (as in noted in the internet directions) and began familiarising myself with the acronyms for Singapore hgihways. Off my head, they have PIE, CPE, errr......Only 3 weeks and I am already forgeting details.. Sigh. A sure sign of growing old.

Back to following internet directions, I manage to get onto the next highway without much glitch although I was travelling way under the permitted speed limit. Clear indication of a noob in the city. Nevertheless my next direction got me in trouble. From what I can recall, I was suppose to stay in PIE (and expressway) but it referenced Toa Payoh. Silly me thought that I needed to exit it and found myself off PIE and inside Toa Payoh surburbs. Took me a good couple of minutes to realise things were amiss as I couldn't find anything relevant to my next direction. An sms to my ex-boss to indicate I am lost and I proceeded to double back onto PIE. Had I any local street knowledge I would have been able to exit PIE much more ahead rather than where I left off, but alas, noob is as noob be...

Returning to the expressway I was again conned (by my silly self) to take the next exit, I think Paya Besar...(something like that) as it was indicated in the directions. Unfortunately for me, it was again just an indication that PIE would cut through that area, but I wasn't suppose to get off the expressway. This time I realised my mistake much sooner. Unfortunately, before I could make an appropriate (and somewhat late) change of lanes I had this Singaporean car honking me for my late manoever. I mean, the light was red and besides him, there were no other cars. Clearly Singaporeans have little patience. Especially this bloke. He even proceeded to move to the lane on the left to level wih my car and give me an eyeball. Funnily, he exited far left when the lane I was on proceeds to the right. Jerk.. :D

After a good turn or 3 I returned to PIE and told myself, no matter what happens I'll stick to this expressway until the very end where it's suppose to exit to CPE (another expressway). All the while I keep seeing signboards that say I'm headed towards Changi Airport and for all the wrong reasons I kept having the idea that Changi Airport is on the west side of the island while I'm suppose to be heading east. Internally I was torn, with my gut telling me to change directions but my brain saying enough gut moves, just stick to the plan.

Luckily for me at the end of the expressway was clear indications to the CPE and this time it gave me the option to go away from Changi Airport. So I figured my gut was right anyway (despite later realising how wrong I was). My next instruction was even more confusing. I was given the address as Marine Vista, which, by Malaysian standards, sounded like an condo name. Unfortunately, it turns out to be a road name for a smaller road.

The exit I was directed to go to didn't get me directly onto Marine Vista but the turning before it. The reason was that I was coming from the east, the exit directly to Marine Vista only existed if I came from the West (which would cause further confusion later). I could already see the scores of high rise condos around me and felt confident I was near, but I just couldn't find anything that would lead me closer to my destination. Time to use up my last helpline; Call the ex-boss.

Informing my position wasn't all that difficult, except that my ex-boss thought I came from the West, not East. So I supposedly overshot and had to exit back to the highway and move backwards (in terms of the directions, I was exit right, but from my perspective, I needed to exit left...) So I did exactly that and turned up even further from my destination.

I rarely feel lost. I felt DAMN LOST now. The only thing I had going for me was this internal sense of direction which I trusted (yeah, even boasted too) very much. From a complete lost position, I felt I was further off than initially suggested and took a risk to just drive on the main road that I was on. I thought to myself, "I'm going to need a little luck now." Time to score some critical rolls with my luck/direction score/skill. I believe I did, as somehow I saw the signboard Marine Parade, which was something mentioned in the additional instructions that came by after I got lost the second time.

Driving along that road I realised now that I have gone a full circle around my destination; As in instead of overshooting the first time, I undershot my exit, only to then reenter even further away from my destination because of the misconception of my position relative to my destination. I then drove aimlessly pass my destination only to find my way around.

So luck aside, I found myself on the other side of the road where my ex-boss was waiting for me. Initial plans were for me to drop off my luggage before we head to the dinner venue; my time spent groping around Singapore meant we'd have to go straight away and leave the 'lets check out the place much later'. Here comes the other funny part.

I'm been holding out that my ex-boss was a lady all through my writing I believe. If I let on about it earlier, then my bad. But for me to deliver the punchline now required me to indicate that it's a she. A brief description is that she's a somewhat typical chinese female in her forties, I believe. To make things easier for she decided she would wait for me at the main road nearby the bus stop outside the condo (or apartment? hmm...). I've seen my ex-boss before and my impression of her was as she is. Middle aged chinese female. For the fact that she was once a lawyer and worked in the same 'field' as I do now gave me the impression her attire would be somewhat...Old fashioned?

So there was this female which was in shorts and sleeveless with pony tails standing my the side of the road and in my erred mind I go,"Now where's my ex-boss? She said my the bus stop? Better drive towards the bus stop and look." I didn't give that youthful hip looking lady a second look!

Luckily there was a bus in front of me, so I stopped and waited for the bus to leave before seeing if this was the right bus stop. As I stopped my ex-boss rang me but disconnected immediately before I picked up the call. I was confused. Suddenly I realised there was that very same female I dismissed as some young chick running towards my car ( I think with arms flailing) and it finally dawn upon me..."That's her, you silly boy!" My ex-boss asked if I even saw her in the first place and I could bring about telling her I did but dismissed her as some teeny bopper....

I sure get my fair share of embarassing moments everytime I travel..Once she got on the car it was much easier to get to the dinner venue as she could direct my way. While she's not been in Singapore for awhile, she definitely knew Singapore much better than the noob me.

Dinner went as planned and food was so so. It was a beach side restaurant and 8 of us had a simple and talkative dinner. By 10pm ish the restaurant was asking for last orders, signalling it's time to go. Suprisingly no one decided to go drinking. I guess aside from the attires, everyone was rather homely type (or didn't want to show the crazy side of things to the people there...Alcohol does that, you know...)

A short drive back and we decided to have a quick teh tarik first before entering the condo area as parking before 11pm was by hour, after 11pm was until the next morning. Parking in Singapore is quite expensive. It seems like over the years teh tarik has become quite a norm there, so we found ourselves going to a nearby place for it. A short chat to update latest work stuff (mainly bitching about some colleagues and their incompetences...:D) and it was time to get back to the condo.

Oh, I haven't seen it yet. I should describe it. But I'm way past the number of words per post...So it'll have to be another time then!

Next up: The Condo, The Food and the Great Revelation!!!! :D :D

About a ....(Part 1)

2009-07-16T09:49:00.003+08:00

trip down to Singapore last weekend....

Well, looks like I've been able to keep up with traveling to that country that I supposedly so loathe. The people, in general, at least. The country is actually quite ordered and nice.

In any case, enough talking about same old same old...The trip down last weekend was quite different from the previous trips...Here's a few reasons:

1) I was driving down...ON MY OWN...(Ok, I went with Shrek..But I'm sure he doesn't mind me not actually counting him... :p)

2) I wasn't there on business or for some event that I was in some way a part of. I was going there with no other reason but to eat...Eat..and EAT!!!

I actually had some photos taken, but somehow I failed to get around uploading the pictures. So when I do, maybe revisit this and have some silly fun on the silly pictures I take (hint hint, I don't think there was anyone in the pictures..).

Now the main excuse for me to go down was to join in a farewell dinner of my ex-boss, who, while was quite unfortunate to be retrenched by my company and inadvertably realised how despite all the talk about employees being important et all, realised that in times like these (yes, my company is affected by the whole economic crash in the USA) everyone's so busy covering their own ass they forget to do the decent thing; retrench people with dignity. They shy around the subject, make it all hush hush yet when the shit hits the fan, they act as though they didn't know it was coming despite being informed like aeons ago. Earlier in my working life I still believed that sometimes leaders/bosses don't get the news that we expect them to get as much as we expect them to, but over the years I've come to know that a leader that's ill informed is a poor leader. A good leader tends to get information from various sources and when dealing with retrencment/downsizing, if they're not part of the plan then they would have contributed in it. Hence, they would have KNOWN..

Back to my ex-boss, who unfortunately only rejoined the company around 2 years back so would only get a small package, initially took the news quite hard. As with anyone who is forced to undergo a change in their lives, especially when in comes to losing a source of income, she was quite unhappy with the news. But over time she saw the better side of the news. Coupled with the fact that despite being told to go within 1 month of the announcement, she was asked to stay for another 6 months, giving her more time to clear up the stuff and look for another job. While she has yet to reemploy herself, I hear she's lined up good prospects and wishing her best of luck. In any case, she's enjoying the extended holiday where the only reason it will end is because she chooses too; Not because the annual leaves approved only so much or something needs to be done back at work...

Oops. Supposed to talk about the trip..hehe..

Now dinner was on a Friday and for some reason the Singapore Government decided that they'll let cars from Malaysia drive over for free if it's from 5pm to 2am daily. Why? I don't know. Maybe they want travellers to not come into the city during working hours. Since getting past Customs at 5pm would be just nice for me to reach dinner time around 7pm, I had to time my drive nicely so that I do not arrive in Johor Baru too early or too late.

For those unfamiliar, the drive is from KL - JB - SG and the distance is around 400KM thereabouts. I racked up a good 900KM for my whole trip. Which was good exercise for Shrek. I expected the drive to take about 4 hours bar any jams along the highway. I left my office (yes, I ws working on Friday) around 11.45am and decided to eat lunch along the highway. At first I wanted to have McDonalds at one of those drive through outlets, but I missed the outlet along the highway and ended up with 2 buns instead. I bought a Snickers bar, but didn't eat it until I reached the causeway.

The drive down was largely uneventful. Trying hard to abide by the speed limit and keeping to the fact that I needed to arrive at the causeway after 5pm, it was quite a carefree drive. Shrek doesn't go very fast, so at 110KM/H he was quite worked up but stable. I had 2 short stops along the way, mostly to relieve myself and to change from shoes to slippers. Do not drive long distance with shoes unless they're superbly comfortable..Have mercy on your right foot...

Despite all my attempts to be on time, my inner anxiety of being late made me arrive Johor Baru by 4.15pm. With time to kill, I went petrol kiosk hunting so that I have a full tank when I cross over to Singapore. Luckily for me, I'm not restricted by Singaporean laws that require the petrol tanks to be of a certain amount when crossing over, either way...Unfortunate, for the very fact that I didn't reasearch JB at all, I ended up driving round and round the city eventually ending up at the same petrol kiosk I spotted on the opposite side of the road. Then I decided to make another big round before going towards the malaysian Immigration complex as I prepare my travel towards Singapore.

It wasn't after 5pm, however. But as much as I wanted to save SGD 20 by crossing over after 5pm, I was getting jittery waiting for time to pass by. I clearly have issues staying put. So I crossed the Malaysian Customs 20 minutes ahead of time. Nothing much happened except I notice that there were a large number of cars stopping at the side. I guess I'm not the only one intending to not pay. Eventually a traffic police came over to 'encourage' us to move along and stop waiting.

Passing through Customs in Singapore was quite a breeze. Luckily from there onwards I DID research...Somewhat...Now, if only even having some directions and a print out of the way to meet my ex-boss I'd not get lost....

But then again, I expected to get lost since I'm driving in a foreign country for the first time...... :D

.....To Be Continued...

Not so much an Epiphany

2009-06-22T08:25:00.003+08:00

I was driving back early last Friday from work. Early as in around 4.30pm or so. The intention was solely to avoid the jam.

Taking my usual route, where at a point I will be on a 4 lane main road, I was flabergasted that there was a jam. I was on the second lane (from the right) which was one of 2 lanes that leads to the next road on my way back home. The other lane that also leads straight to the next road for me was the fast lane, which at this point wasn't moving all that fast either. The 3rd and 4th lane were options, but near the end of the road I would have to cut back in and in a jam, that's generally not a nice thing to do.

But who says I'm nice? :p

But my ability to decide on what lane to swerve into was limited by the fact that 2 vehicles in front of me was this big lorry obscuring my view. Without the ability to see further up front, I could not really tell if the lanes on my left were actually freer and would be feasible to take those lanes, at least all the way until the end. I could only see the cars zooming by, but without photographic memory i couldn't tell for sure if I've seen those cars before and that my slow crawl towards the end of the road, at some point I may have actually took over them. I manage to check that the fast lane was moving slower than me at the moment.

Throwing the idea of taking the left lanes so that I can get out of the jam sooner and staying on the same lane and just waiting it out, I failed to capitalise on all the opportunities that came and went to take the left lanes. Eventually even the car in front of me left. Now I am directly behind the lorry, further impairing my view up ahead. I have been on the lane for over 15 minutes and was still awhile before I reached the end of the road. Usually this stretch takes less than 3 minutes to get through, now it seems like it's taking forever. My impatience got the better of me eventually and I ended up not taking the left lanes, but taking the fast lane when I noticed that the car I was tracking was no longer around or behind me.

After a 30 minute crawl it seems like the whole thing was a result of an accident way in front..

So what's with the epiphany?

Here's life, or a situation. There are typically a few ways I can get through life/situation; The unpreferred way(slow lane), the tried and tested way(s) (middle lanes), or high risk way(fast lane). Depending on what type of person I am and also depending how I wanted to get through life/situation, I would be in the lane you're most comfortable.

But what happens when I'm caught in a jam? When the lane I'm on isn't progressing the way I expected it? I'd look around and see if the other lanes would give me a better option. Now, the standard expectation is that the slow lanes will always be slow and the fast lane will be faster. But in a jam, I'd never know really. Depending on what's causing the jam, what is the fastest lane could very well be the slowest, and vice versa. That's what looking further ahead helps. As well as looking at other options.

There comes the next stumbling block. What if that BIG FAT LORRY is right in front of me? I can't look forward and can only assess the lanes (options) based on what I can see beside me (present) and behind me (past). Will I take a risk? If I do, which risk will I take? More importantly, will I be indecisive and spend too much time wondering if I should switch lanes (options) and end up spending too much time getting stuck behind that BIG LORRY?

Now, there's no telling that the other lanes will be faster, aside from what I can judge now and what I know of the lanes before. So I could very well switch and end up in a bigger jam that I did before. But the moral of the story is that if I don't try them out, I'll never know. All I'll ever see is this big fat Lorry blocking my way and for all I know, the whole jam could have been because of the lorry. I couldn't see in front, how could I tell?

In conclusion, life can be like a drive down a road. When in a jam and there's no telling if the lane you're on will get you to your destination (in time), assess your options and make a decision quickly. More importantly, once the decision is made, stick to the results and quit blaming/regretting the decision. If the choice garnered a poorer result, reassess; Switch lanes again if you have too. The only thing that would have happened was your continued attempt to find the best lane. Unless you're happy being stuck behind the big fat lorry...There is nothing wrong with being happy...:D

I'm happy behind the big fat lorry in life, but not when I'm driving.. :D

45 days ago...

2009-06-15T08:41:00.003+08:00

Was my last blog entry...

I just haven't been feeling like blogging. While that's shoould mean that things aren't stressful or depressing for me, it unfortunately isn't. Just that the depression is cope-able......

In any case, a chance meeting with good old Barry after like maybe months....was truly enjoyable. Though I'm not so sure about his significant other..hehe...We actually went to a Japanese restaurant that, in my recollection, was probably the first Japanese restaurant I went to. I also recall that he was the one who brought me there, back a good 12/13 years ago..

The good old days. When money was scarce but all the experience was enjoyable. Where travelling hours on busses were acceptable and having to wait 15 minutes isn't such a waste of time...

Now I may have more money but I have lost my patience, lost my appreciation for many things I used to...

Need to keep those feet firmly planted on the ground....

Oh, another person quoted that a person should be focusing on the revenue, not the expenses in a way to obtain what they want in life. Well, that only works for things that you can buy with money and it will be a never ending cycle of always wanting more because you keep on wanting to get more. That school of thought, while seemingly positive and progressive, leads people to a never ending cycle where needs are never met. I still prefer the 'pessimist' school of thought, where it's not about getting all that you want or the endless pursuit of them, but a decision to curtail those wants so that life can stop somewhere. Because while our thoughts seems endless, our lives aren't. There's no point having and endless search and hunt for things when I can't stop and smell my flowers.

I'd rather have just one pot of flowers, but I spend the rest of my time nuturing and admiring that one pot of flowers. I don't want to be going after a plot of land, acres of flowers yet never have the time to enjoy the beauty of the flowers since it's a never ending task to maintain those acres of flowers. Oh, having other people maintaining it for you may seem to be the answer, but if you aren't the person doing it, then those flowers really don't belong to you. You own them, but they don't belong to you. For the ones spending their sweat and blood are the ones actually doing the work, not some hotshot manager pointing the fingers to have things done....

hmm...I should have another go at positive thinking sometime...But not today..Today I should continue working on my pot of flowers...

A Losing Battle...

2009-04-30T13:47:00.002+08:00

Today must be one of the worst days of my emotional life.

I feel like caving in..I feel like giving up.

I feel like there's no more reason to keep going on. Not the way I wish to.

I feel I am lost and will never be found.

I fear I am losing resolve, that I'm cornered without a way out.

I don't want to fall, I don't want to lose. But I don't think I can take it anymore..

Time to let go?

Oh, in case anyone reading this gets really funny ideas, I'm trying to not have to date...:P

Sarcasm..

2009-04-23T14:43:00.004+08:00

To some, I've too much of it. To others, I've not got enough..

I've always been a quick thinking person, especially as a child. While it was easy to dismiss the child's nasty remarks as naive and innocent, somehow my remarks seem to always cut straight to the point and hurt people. Around the age of nine, one time my family decided to visit my grandfather's orchard. Now this isn't your nice orchard where you've got gardeners and cleaners plus nice infrastructure for people to rest and relax. Nope. This is your 'in the woods' and poorly run type of orchards. Typically, our visit there wasn't much for fun but to work. There were plantations to care for, weeds to pull, shed to clean and develop.

It was pain. I couldn't fathom what on earth I was there for if all I get to do is sweat in the sun and work for no apparent reason other than my parents or grandparents telling me so. Typically, me being myself, I abhored these visits and I doubt I made any attempts to hide my displeasure. So on one fine day at the orchard, I quipped back at something and my mom told me,"why do you always say things without going through your head?"

Now I've heard that a thousand times before and in the past, I couldn't understand what it meant. But this time, it somehow dawned upon me that I always voice my opinion without really caring how it would make other people feel. That, and my lack of tact meant that everytime I spoke truthfully, someone gets hurt. Yes, the truth hurts especially when it's not laced with kindness and compassion. Since then I started to become slowly, but surely, a thinking communicator instead. What I didn't realise, was that by me slowly forcing my words through my head before they came out, I now lack the ability to be straight to the point. Instead of spear like accuracy, I began developing twist and turns in my words, sort of in my own way to hide the bare truth.

But the sarcastic part of me never really left. It just got shafted to my inner self, my subconcious. Every now and then, at times when I have least control of my thoughts, those pointed sentences come out thick and fast by the time it's over I am labeled rude, disrespectful and what not. I wasn't even a teenager yet...

Over time I ceased becoming a person easy to anger yet easy to make friends, but I started to become more recluse and introvert. Yes, I used less sarcasm, but that was because I talked less. When I do talk, I take such a long departure from the point that I either confuse or bore people. Oh yes, I agree I was boring. That's the price I had to pay to not hurt people.

Then in my days in the university, where most people begin to find themselves and what they want to do in the future (yes, some kids have their future all planned out. But for lesser beings like me, it takes much longer (and sometimes never) to find one's true calling) I had a weird conversation with an associate while hanging out at a hobby store. In that conversation, I think there was alot of dissing of certain players both for their behaviour and their poor results. The associate stated,"No matter how bad the person is, they too have self-pride. We shouldn't be bashing them up so thoughtlessly".

Again I was reminded of what my mother used to say about me. The funnier thing was that this statement came from an associate who isn't exactly the kindest person in the world. Yet he, truthfully or not, found it relevant to cut people slack. Again, I do not recall any of our personality strikes being lies, so they were just plain truths that hurt. Being upfront about it, hurts.

There lies the issue with sarcasm. Or at least when people complain about my sarcasm. Wait, the stories incomplete.

So reeling of 2 insightful statements to remind me that not everyone can handle the truth (yeah, I knew it before A Few Good Men did..:p), at one time I was helping out with a M:tG event. It was back in 2000 and KL was hosting its first ever Grand Prix and they needed people. I happily volunteered as I was no good with the game, but ruleswise I was ok. I also passed my level 1 judge test there, despite not really scoring the required passing mark, so it was all good then.

What I want to mention was one of the nights we had dinner at a nearby restaurant. The main organisers from the US were also holding an Invitational event running concurrently with the GP. That dinner, they also invited the Invitational players. One Gary Wise (only those aware of M:tG would know the name, if you've been playing long enough..:p) was seated opposite me at dinner. In one of the conversation, something came up and most of the people had a good laugh but I was clueless. I got a nice remark from Gary," You're not very good with Sarcasm, are you?"

Here I go "what?" in my head. All my life I've been blasted for being too sarcastic and here someone's telling me I'm not good enough? How rude! But that's besides the point. More importantly, I realise that sarcasm is only good for people when they don't get hurt but when they do, it's bad. The problem is, most of the time my sarcastic remarks happen IS when the person's around. Not behind their backs. It's not like I'm lying about them. I'm just making obvious, without the shadow of concealment, the plain truth that hurts. For that, I am crucified to no end.

Well, too bad people. You've got to learn to handle the truth because everyday you have to face it. Laced with kindness or not, the truth will hurt you. It's just whether you have to face the pain in front of people or in hiding. If you have a problem with me telling in your face what the truth is, then don't let me find out the truth. I aim to pull no punches. Same goes if you know of my truths. Spare me no leniency and just fire away. Fair game, this sarcasm.

I'm done trying to say nice things to people so that they don't get hurt.

Fireworks...

2009-04-20T09:13:00.002+08:00

Bored and tired of playing Dota, I stepped into the living room hoping to entertain myself by gazing into the idiot box. It was around 8.30pm and the idiot box was showing rather idiotic things. I wonder why I pay the monthly fee these days since the shows are rather crappy over weekends. I don't watch on weekdays you see. But if I were to cancel the subscription my mother would probably give me an earful since she's at home all day (except for weekends...)..

Even while playing Dota in my room I've been hearing someone talking as though there is a party nearby. Dismissing it as probably one of my neighbour in my 24 stories apartment (or condominuim, but I don't want peple to think that I live in some really expensive place because the place is not that expensive, or classy, at all) hosting a party, I just kept ignoring the noise I hear in a futile attempt to find some entertainment via the idiot box.

Then I hear explosions and looking out my balcony I see bright colours. The explosions persist and then I realised someone was letting off fireworks nearby, around the construction sites of the semi-detach houses at the bottom of the hill my apartments occupy. Without much thought I instinctively opened up the grill to my balcony (yes, eventhough I live on the 22nd floor, it pays to be careful with home security as there are people who would climb into balconies that high up just for an easy break in) and stepped out to have a closer look.

I've watched fireworks before, but in most instances they are at least a few kilometres away and I'm usually on the ground. This time, I am at a height where the lights go bright and the loud booms are resonating throughout my apartment. The fireworks went on for a good 3-5 minutes, all the time I just stood there and witnessed the spectacle. Realising the show was finishing, as well as my proximity to the fireworks, I was somewhat worried that the finishing act might just reach me. Indeed the final blast was huge and far reaching, but luckily it didn't shoot across as far as I was worried about.

That, made my Saturday Evening. Sunday was still crap, however.

Though I want to note that while I still don't see why people like fireworks all that much, after all, it's just lights and loud noises, seeing one so close and so unexpectedly have reminded me how beautiful fireworks can be. As well as how life can spring surprises in the most unexpected of ways. The next time I hear noise like parties, I hope they have fireworks too. This time I'll try to record it on camera.

Dream, Dream, Dream......

2009-04-17T14:22:00.002+08:00

Absolutely no idea what brought me to come up with that header, aside from the fact that every other header I wanted to use seemed like something i've used before. So here's to disjointed headings. Wait, that doesn't really work since the heading's quite complete, just that it has nothing to do with the nothing that I'm about to nothing about. Is the 'Nothing' closing in on me? Where's my own luckdragon? Heck, i could do with a little bit of luck these days..

Aside from having cheat pains at irregular intervals, in which the GP claims to be me just anxious or depressed (which is true on the later count), I'm every bit the same person as I was the last time I posted. I don't have much to talk about, my life's an utter bore (having said that, it's boring to me. it might not be boring to you, but to me it is so here's to writers right...) and I've littel reasons to post much here.

Work environs hasn't changed though I'm getting better interaction with the colleagues seated near me. But otherwise, same old same old. I'm tired of whining about work, so let's move on the my personal life.

I've been thinking about blogging on certain topics. Marriage and Divorce, Straying Men, the State of Economy in my Country (this is extremely risky as I could get myself hauled of for no reason..:p), My Sorry Life....etc.. But some how the topics just seemed either too sensitive (really, sensitive? For me?? :p) or I just don't think I have sufficient know-how to write about those topics. So I'm kind of having a writer's block recently.

I could rant about my failing heart and my constant state of depression, but that's a little too revealing. Enough to mention that my constant battle with age and the interesting things that comes with it are failing; To a point I'm almost at a loss to what I'm to do.

So enough babbling incoherently even on a blog. Let's try to get some semblance with the header/title/subject.

I recently dreamnt of a death of a person dear to me, yet even in the dream I felt so little over the death I wonder will I ever mourn the way other people do. Wait,...boring..let's try again.

I still dream to one day write down my 3 piano concertos, 2 symphonies, 3 overtures, 1 violin concerto, several piano scores and other ocherstral works. If only I'd spend less time with mindless automated activities like computer gaming and start writing. Wait, I've mention this severa times too. Broken recorder am I not?

Ok, dream. C'mon. I can do better than this.

Oh, I have a new dream car. It's known as a Mini Cooper. (not sure if I've mentioned this before...) Not any Mini Cooper (though in essence, actually, any Mini Cooper will do...:p) but one that's pimped to look like a Kelisa. I recall being asked why would I want a car that cost near half a million ringgit be pimped to look like a car that cost a tenth of it. Well, imagine being looked down upon by other drivers on a slope/highway/traffic lights thinking that they'd overpower me anytime. Then before they'd see it, vroom! I'm off and they can kiss my a$$!!! Haha. I'd still lose out to those big big luxury cars or even the sports ones, but hey, where I am, I'd probably beat around 85% of the other cars...:D

Now that's 1 dream that is new. My other 2 dreams, well.......

Maybe one day if I'm drunk I'd end up posting them here...But I can always delete them...muahahahahahahah

Now back to my boring existence...

New Toy for the Big Boy!!!!

2009-04-01T08:18:00.001+08:00

My Digital Piano has arrived!!!!!

Yippie!!!!

It's not much, but sure cost me quite a bomb....

It even has recordings in it and some interesting selections indeed!!

Can't wait to go home tonight and continue pounding on the keys!!!

Oops...

A little useless post this is....:p

When I Laugh, (or Smile)....

2009-03-31T12:53:00.003+08:00

When others won't, for clearly the situation doesn't warrant the humour/laughter....Most of the time it's not because I have a sadist view of most things (thought at times, I do), but simply because there is very little I can do about it.

Going back abit. I'm getting quite a lot of slack from people who know me but don't know me all that well for my ill-timed laughter or smiles. Most people write me off as being some sicko finding fun out of other's misfortune (yes, I smile/laugh at other people's misfortunes. But I laugh at my own significantly much more..) Oops. Wait, Saint Saen's Organ symphony just ended. Going to put something else on..Brahm's Tragic overture is next..

Now, where was I? Ok, so I laugh when things go wrong. Or something bad happens. It's not that I am insensitive towards the situation, but throughout my years I have turned into a person almost impervious to grief by bad luck/misfortune. Or, at least, I don't show it.

Wait, let's jump around a bit and confuse myself and anyone insane enough to read this. Take this example that happened over lunch. This new waiter serving at a food court came over to take me and my friend's orders. I wanted my good old teh tarik (pulled tea with milk) and my friend ordered Milo Ais (ice) kurang manis (less sugar). The waiter promptly went off and returned a few minutes later. In his hands were Teh O panas and Teh O panas Ais (that's tea wihout milk, and another with ice). Two completely different drinks from what we ordered. Ok, if you're not from my region/locale, the orders don't seem that different, but where I am from, they shouldn't make these mistakes. But they do.

After clearly stating the drinks we ordered and have the waiter return the drinks for correct ones, my friend commented that I seem to be enjoying myself with the waiter's incompetence. His clue was the smirk on my face. While he agreed that I wasn't in anyway making hell out of things and giving the waiter a hard time, I seemed to like the whole muck up. To him, I was having fun. But I wasn't. Fortunately for me, his comment was both blasé and direct, allowing me the opportunity to explain (Not many people allow others to explain things that seem weird to them but in reality it isn't. OR, they just find it weird. PERIOD). So I explained that my smirk wasn't because I enjoyed it, but it was just me not showing my frustration to the whole mess of things at the waiter whom I know, or believe, was new, foreign, and untrained. The reasons why he gets the job is because (most) restaurant/food court operators in my country are so selfish and profit-minded that they prefer to hire foreign labours to do jobs locals can do simply because it's probably at a fraction (possibly even a tenth) of the cost of locals. It is also not helped that locals here find jobs like that( waiting tables at coffeeshops/food courts) either demeaning (yes, (many) uneducated people in my country believes they are due a desk job that pays them well without them requiring to use much brains) or too low paying, making the bosses sometimes having no option but to look for job hungry foreigners who would take any job that will pay them ANYTIME.

So the whole muck up, while to some part, was the waiter's fault, in many ways, it wasn't. Nor will it help if I turn hostile and give the guy a good shouting or two. I still wanted him to bring me the drinks I want, and preferably not contaminated. So my response? Withold all the negative energy in me, try to it work out with the waiter and hope that he gets it right the second time. Oops. Tragic overture ended too. This is longer than I thought. Schumann's Piano Concerto it is then.

There you have it. A common occurance where you have me smiling (at times laughing with myself) when most others would either show their annoyance or anger and react negatively. I'm not saying that I am so capable of controlling my anger and all that saintly stuff. I don't. Nor do I try to. If showing anger, annoyance and frustration, in my honest opinion, gets the message across, I will, without hesitation, give it to you/them/it. Just ask the many poor sods that tried to telemarket me. But in many instances, these emotions/reaction just doesn't do the right job. So, instead of making everyone feel bad, I'll just make myself feel bad. By doing so, most people think I'm some psycho. (Which, on a different vantage point, isn't so far off bulleye :p)

The next time you see me laughing or smiling when you don't see how it can be funny, don't immediately think I'm having a good time too. I'm just not showing it. On other note, I do find it hilariously interesting how in a span of 3 months, I know of 3 persons whom I am not related to to have died. By my theories, while death is inevitable, they tend to happen over much longer periods of time; not so frequently. Must be me..

I'm Broke, By the Way...

2009-03-30T09:42:00.003+08:00

The weekend's been quite interesting. For those familiar with me, interesting is the word I use too often as proxy to more accurate but potentially deangerous terms like; Boring, Ridiculuous, Silly, Incompetent, Unacceptable, Mess, Useless, Annoying, etc......You should get the drift.

But this weekend was interesting in essence. It was expensive, however..

I'll start off with my 2 hour trip to Sunway Lagoon. Now, I've never been much of a fun-park guy, mostly because I haven't the heart to take all the crazy G-Force they are all aimed and putting the human body through. But as with many things that hurts my heart, it has such a shoddy memory of pain that for some unknown reason I felt like doing all those crazy rides. It didn't help that my company decided to arrange the trip free for people like me (who are members of a club in the company). That, or the fact that I'm now 30+ makes me realise that if I don't try them now, I probably never will.

So after some kiddie rides I took the ship like ride that moves like a pendulum, but eventually goes all 360 when the momentum is just enough to reach the apex and fall over. Half way on the ride my heart was already giving out and I could hardly think reasonably. I couldn't scream, not sure why and all I could think off was how to survive the ride. Eventually I just focused on the floor of the 'ship' and didn't even dare to look out when I could tell I was upside down. When the whole thing was over, I couldn't wait to get off the ride. I had this weird sensation in my heart which said pretty much, "DON'T TRY THAT AGAIN"..Gladly...

After that I took some other rides and shot some paintballs. By noon I was ready for lunch and left the park soon after. Note to self: Do not ride crazy rides. Do not do them alone.

Funness...

Now what has that got to do with me being broke? Broken, maybe, but broke?

Well, yesterday I did some scouting for digital pianos/keyboards. The problem I have now is that my keyboard at home is not touch sensitive, i.e. light touch or hammer the keys I get the same sound and loudness. For casual playing that's actually good, for my piano lessons it's not good enough. I have been putting off securing a new keyboard for awhile, but with the sound of the old keyboard getting worse, I'm losing drive to practice.

So at the end of the scouting session I signed my life away for a new digital keyboard. It arrives tomorrow. Luckily for me the makers have realised a market for small digital keyboards for beginners like me that cost half as much as the bombs of normal digital keyboards and nowhere near acoustic pianos. Still, in this economic environment, I'm broke...

Oh, a quote from myself I told my (ex) boss, " Interesting Developments, Without Much Developments"....

Yet Another Bites the Dust....

2009-03-23T09:58:00.002+08:00

Interestingly, 2 persons I've known of at work has since passed away.

One via suicide, the latest one suspected to be murdered.

My whole workplace is a gloomy place to be for the moment.

Yet all I can think about is how my Danny Murphy and Micha Richards picks for Fantasy Football turning out to be great picks!!

I don't quite know these 2 individuals that have passed away, but I have worked with them and even shared meal times with them before. Both are female, by the way. While everyone's thinking about the ordeal the latest demised would have went through hours before her time (consideirng current speculation involving foul play), I can't feel the slightest for her.

It's not the first time I felt this hollow in me. Last year a known associate lost her mother and when informed, my thought was solely on "yet another where I wouldhave to fork out money if I turned up at the funeral. I shall pass". In my memory, the closest persons who have passed away while I was mature enough to understand the passing were my grandmothers. Yet, I don't recall ever shedding a tear for either one of them. Granted, I wasn't close, but..?? Really??

I don't know, maybe if in the time my immediate family members or my parents, that time I might actually feel it. But for now, I think I'm unable to feel sad when a person dies..When a person dies, here are my immediate thoughts:

1) They do not need to suffer in life anymore
2) If they died young, that means they've done a whole lot of good for their god to take them away.
3) I don't want to go to the funeral as I don't want to pay
4) Wonder how did they go?
5) Will they realise (their soul/spirit) they are dead? For the dead that don't know/accept that they are can really give the living problems.

While I now believe going to a person's funeral is some sign of respect, I can't see myself going to one anytime soon. Unless I've some work to do...

:p

It's Been a Month!!!

2009-03-11T13:15:00.002+08:00

Since I last blogged!!

Oh my, words escape me.. No, really, I really have little to blog. I wanted to write about educational choices and work happiness but realised the post was going from nowehere to, well, nowhere..

I'd like to blog about bread making but unless I just want to write about how crap my attempts have been, there really isn't much to write about.

I'd like to write about my love life............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................(still don't get the hint??)

I'd like to write about work but there isn't anything new to blog about..

I'd like to write about my progress with piano lessons but progress has been slow. Aside from a serious consideration (despite the poorer economic conditions) to purchase a touch sensitive electronic keyboard that should set me back around RM 3000.

I'd like to blog about any other thing, but really.......

I guess the only thing worth looking forward for the moment is this concert I'm going to go in 10 days time..Should be fun...

Hope it's fun....

Shaking Hands...

2009-02-10T08:59:00.004+08:00

Literally, shaking hands. As in 2 right hands phyisically in embrace in a show of gratitude or just greeting.

So what gives with the topic? Well, I am generally a non-physical person, to an extent even handshakes are avoided. As greetings I'd say the occasional hi, or even just a raise of a brow signifies the standard 'yes I see you and acknowledge your presence' indication when dealing with people. Of course, in more official situations, i.e. at work, I'd follow the customary expectations. However, I still flinch whenever I have to deal with visitors from abroad whom tend to have rather elaborate hi's and bye's.

Having said that, Last Sunday I probably shook more hands (and all different set of hands!) then I have for the past, erm, 20 years?? Oh, I guess I'm ahead of myself here.

Before going on, I should do the customary shout out to my friend who, after 2 wedding receptions, should now be officially married enough for the previous generation to accept him to their fold and stop treating him (and his wife) like single people. :P In any case, long be your marriage, fruitful (pun intended) and fulfilling (that just came out of a blue). Enjoy being on the giving end of all the nasty marriage jokes. :D :D!!

Ok, back to shaking hands. Ok, maybe not.

I have recently developed a fear of weddings and, well, most social gatherings that I have basically put up a huge sign saying, "Ignore me for wedding invites!" (it's invisible, but they know its there...). I have skipped a number of weddings since acquiring this phobia so much that even my mom is annoyed as she too has had to turn down some of the invites from my relatives as she doesn't want to go there alone (I offered to drive her but not attend, you see...:p). With this friend's wedding, the crux was that it was in a format of a buffet, rather than a sitdown, therefore I actually could turn up, feast and leave without saying a word. (Almost makes me feel like a wedding crasher/free-loader with an invite...:D). But as I have told everyone who wanted to invite me to their wedding, I would prefer to be involved/helping, but if I'm just to go (and in Chinese weddings, to go and pay; which after last weekend isn't clearly true anymore, but you'll see..) then I'd rather not. The phobia is the real reason, but I don't think anyone would believe or accept I really have one. They'd rather accept that I'm a stingy (little doesn't fit me very well) big %^$*%& who just wouldn't pay up when someone I know gets married.

So luckily for me my, friend decides that he probably needs some manual labour who'd be free (and even pay for his own transport, hahaha!) so he decided to ask for my help. Initially I had a very simple assignment for his wedding; Ensure a certain area in the parking lot was reserved for the in-laws. When the kompangs (traditional malay timpani/tramborine of sorts) sounded, my duty is done and I'm free to wine and dine...Ok, no wine, but dine or more correctly, lunch...as I wish. Unfortunately, due to some technical reasons the parking area wasn't cordone off and by the time I arrived on Sunday morning, I was jobless..

Ok, since I wasn't getting paid, jobless would be a little off. Assignment-less. But I was already there and even given some pin-up thing (I don't know what it's called, but its meant to be pinned on my shirt) to identify me as one of the 'workers' (While I'm writing this I'm getting some really distracting influences I just can't make up better words...sigh...). The next thing I know I was asked to help ushering.

All of a sudden, from me assigned to doing something I relish (yes, telling people "NO, YOU CAN'T PARK HERE" is something I relish doing), I ended up being the (few) guy greeting every guest coming to my friend's wedding. I was not, of course, prepared in any way for the task at hand. Suffice to say I spent the first 30 or so minutes avoiding the guests in someway so that I don't have to shake their hands. Eventually, I just got used to the gesture. It was also easier when some of the guest were mutual associates of ours whom the parents ( the other people ushering the guests) weren't familiar with.

By the time the kompangs sounded, (which also included the expected delay of the arrival of the bride and groom..) I have somewhat gotten into the groove of shaking hands. Not to say I'm now a 'shake hands' person, but on that day maybe I was. I'm back to being me, ofcourse...:P

That, explains why shaking hands is the title of this post..

Oh, before I forget, it is no longer just the Chinese who practice giving money when attending a wedding reception. Even this wedding (he is Malay) the practice was quite apparent. While some still turn up with presents, a vast majority of the guest gave moeny (or small envelope of something, which could very well contain some love letters, secret messages and even recipes of the unspoken kind...:p But I'll just assume they are cash). So eventually weddings will be business transactions. I.e. I'm getting married, I'll come up with the capital to host a reception and everyone I invite will help pay it off. I'm guessing this was definitely NOT the reason why people host wedding receptions in the first place, but by pracicing the giving of cash, it will sooner or later turn into one.

Why do I care? I'm neither getting married nor attending a wedding reception (which I am expected to pay for) anyway???

The thing about domestic helpers (aka maids)...

2009-01-19T15:42:00.003+08:00

But in my opinion, from the stories I hear from colleagues, more like legal slaves....

To be frank, I don't employ one probably because I don't earn enough to afford one and luckily my mom (who lives with me, haha!) is willing to help out with the household management. Most of the time I (and my other siblings) contribute financially as and when funds is required. So I haven't experienced the 'luxury' of having someone non-related do all the work 24/7...Or more or less that way. I do, however, have cleaners coming weekly to do the standard household chores over several hours. That, is somewhat affordable.

So I shouldn't complain when other people CAN afford hiring/employing another person to do the whole household administration for them. It's an improvement in quality of life for them, and provides employment for the hired help.

For sheer economic sense, in most instances these hired help are non-local. While Malaysians are still cheaper than many countries (which explains why so much work gets moved here, as well as why I have a job..), labour cost of a Malaysian is unfortunately more expensive than most Malaysian can afford. Hence we go plundering our poorer neighbours. Unfortunately, them being our poorer neighbours, are not as educated as Malaysians. But the rise in Quality of life (and to some extent, better currency), attracts them by the loads.

So many Malaysian families get to play employer, even when they don't own a business but jobs which may have more than 10 bosses who could dictate their work/play hours everyday. The cool part is that since their all foreign labours, aside from the need to either survive through the red tape of employing one or paying off to expedite the process (note: this is merely speculation. I have no proof you can PAY OFF to expedite the process), they have very little 'employer' issues which they have to deal with.

No Annual Leave, Medical Insurance, Accident Insurance, Off Days, Allowances, Sick Days, Promotion, Pay Rise, etc.. They hire them with 1 fixed salary, and that goes on for as long as the 'maid' sticks around. (Ok, some more reasonable employer may give salary increases, but, really, who am I trying to bull?). The 'maid', considering that they 'live in', basically begins work when they wake up and do not stop until they sleep. You can argue they get to rest as and when the chores are done. But if anyone of us working for a proper company is on call 24/7, we're WORKING. Hence so are they. Even if they aren't actually doing work (Not that all of us actually work throughout our 8-9 hours daily either...)

Not only do they not have to deal with all things an employer should be mindful of, because of the amount of financial commitment involved, they also go to an extent to control the lives of these maids. Who they speak with, what they do when they're not at 'work', what they do with their money, how they dress, etc. I can understand that they are merely looking after their own interest; to ensure that the one person they rely on so much to support their 'improved' Quality of life, they need these maids to do nothing but care for their family and households and have no intention on furthering their own interests.

So if you're a foreign maid of a poorer nation than Malaysia employed in Malaysia, you can forget about going out to meet people and new friends, meeting old and known ones, falling in love, getting married, getting laid, having hobbies, personal time, etc... Unless your 'employer' is ok (or in some cases, involved...:p) OR, you have to do it hush hush. As with all secret rendevouz, they rarely become anything good for any party, except maybe...Maybe the parties involved.

So looking from a 3rd party's perspective, I see the hirers as slavers and the hired, slaves. Why so? Because the hirers do not offer the same, or somewhat equal amount of freedom that they have to their hired ones. While the hirer can go about doing all things that we, as human beings, believe is our right, the hired seemed to have signed that right away. When the hired do, at some point decide to do these things (falling in love, getting married, wanting to do something else other than being at 'this employers' beck and call), the hirers cry blue murder and act as though they never had it coming and deserved so much more for all that they've done for the hired.

If all proper companies did that, we'd all be slaves, no? (Ok, for the select few that actually have jobs. Does not apply to does whose job is to employ people. :p)

As I mentioned at the start, all this dawned on me after hearing the many sob stories of my colleagues who do employ maids (I seem to be calling them all sorts of stuff, but they all should mean the same thing). When their maids runaway, or leave, they have all these sob stories to tell. But when you listen to how they actually treat their maids, you'd wonder who in the right mind would have stayed? I mean, yes, the opportunity to work for them is an upgrade of quality of life..But human nature dictates that we will always want better, and other things. These maids are no different. Back where they were maybe they couldn't find enough for 3 meals, so working abroad is godsent. But once they're here, 3 meals isn't quite enough. They will see there is more out there. As much as they may (or may not) appreciate what these employers have done for them (like saving them from the hell hole they were before), it's counts for almost nothing when it's no longer enough. We, appreciate our current bosses/employers for giving us this job. BUT when someone/something better comes, are we going to say no and stick around anyway? (yeah yeah, those who know me would say that I'm one of those who might stay...But I'm not being discussed here...)

NO. AND no one in our right mind would say we are evil and ungrateful (ok, maybe sometimes, but generally speaking....) Yet these maids are thought off as such.

I pity these maids. At the same time I pity the employers as well. Some of them are really nice people. But once they experience the power of being able to dictate a person's life (and they are not kin...), they lose sight that their maids are as much human as they are with the same needs et all, only less fortunate. Treating them any less makes them devils in disguise. If only they'd realise that.

But then again, that's just me seeing from the outside. I'm sure if I were in their shoes I'd probably end up doing the same thing too. Which is why if I can I'd rather not employ a maid (IMHO, having cleaners come periodically doesn't count as they're a service, not employed by me..:p) I now see how appropriate it is when I was a child to help out at home, even when most of my peers were happily playing outside or with their console games.

That's all the rant for the moment.

Never Underestimate the Kindness of Humanity....Final Part of HK Trip

2008-12-30T14:51:00.003+08:00

This isn't much of a epilogue or anything, but just a few things I'd like to write before I completely forget the HK trip and wondered what I did the first week of December in 2008.

The most important thing is that I'm really thankful and grateful of my host in HK. He has been so accomodating and helpful in making the whole HK trip possible. As I've mentioned earlier, I don't actually know him all that much. But the trip has given me a chance to know him a little more and really, even now, I still don't quite get what made me deserve such a good host. Now if only my future trips abroad I'd have such great host as well, I'd travel a whole lot more..

At the same time, it makes me think that when it's my turn to play host, I'd have his standards to meet or exceed, which is quite alot. It's not really so much of the free lodging and meals (he did buy me a meal here and there), but more to the whole 'hosting' ettiquette which is most impressive. I don't really know how else to say it, but a whole lot of thanks.

Secondly, I'd say that if given a choice (and no skin allergies to boot), I wouldn't mind living/working in HK. But I wouldn't want to raise a family there, as it's just too fast I think. Yet to think they've got so many people living in such a small place. I saw so many teenagers out at night at Mong Kok, I wonder if the parents could have some control to where the kids go. With everyone using the trains/subways et all, travel is too convenient, I believe. Respect to those who dared to be parents in HK (for those who actually made a thoughtful decision...)

Thirdly, be prepared to walk a whole freaking lot when travelling abroad. I didn't, hence the knees. Also, bring allergy medication just in case.

Lastly, Nothing beats being able to drive. To think I dodge that for 29 years...Such silly silly boy...

Ok, enough blogging for now....Hope this will be a good read in times to come.....

Sin is IN...Part 6 of HK trip

2008-12-30T13:29:00.004+08:00

Ok,

let me check where I am again..I've told about the days in training, the day without training and the day going to the buddha and back.

Instead of going straight home after a tiring climb up the Buddha's hill and then a ride to the edge of Hong Kong to an unfamiliar fishing village, it was around 6pm-ish and my host suggested we go to Mong Kok. Initially i wanted to go to Mong Kok because I was there with my guy colleagues on Thursday and found a Camel shoe that cost less than RM 200. However, because I got myself a jacket that day, I decided against further spending in an effort to avoid going on a spree.

So we took the train back to Kowloon area and boy, was it a packed train. Now, in the past few days I've been in Hong Kong, all the while the trains have been well occupied but not crowded. This time, however it was. To the brim. I guess that's what happens when you take the train from one end of the line to almost the other end of the line.

About 45 minutes later we arrived at Mong Kok. Other than hunting for my shoes, my host wanted me to try out the street food which is kind of famous in HK. While the shoes were hard to find, the food was not. The sky was already dark, but the streets were brighter than ever. Hong Kong sure knows how to use electricity.

Now I know street food is not healthy. I also hear people say 'chou tau fu' is not healthy either. But if you're going to be in HK once every 10 or so years, without really knowing if you'll ever return in your lifetime, too bad for health. I went for the broke. I had 2 pieces of 'chow tau fu', grilled squid, fish balls and even some gizzards. Yum. Sinful, but who cares? (Ok, you weren't expecting any OTHER kind of sin, were you? ME? That? how can??) But that wasn't the only sin I committed that night. Oh, just like to comment that there were probably as many kids/teenagers as there were adults on the streets that night...Scary...

My host was constantly on a look out for new games for his PS3. In addition, he is a collector of miniature robots, like Gundam and such. HK is like a haven for people with that interest as they seem to be selling them everywhere. So while I was limping my way through Mong Kok (by now my knees were killing me softly. It's nice that for the first time it's my knees giving me aches and not my feet. I DID WALK ALOT, you know...) we went around the area looking for toys and games. To think we're both over 30. Anyone believing in the New Testament stating 30 makes a man, man should rethink as we're both hardly men. (Ok, he's probably more since he's got a wife and kids to boot. No offence to the wife and kids as I don't literally mean they get booted like Beckham from Fergie or Bush from the Iraqi journalist, but you get my drift).

So one of the shops we stopped by actually sold PC games. Another quick aside, I've been looking for this PC game Neverwinter Nights 2 for a long, long while. There's lots of it sold in Malaysia, but they're not original. They don't sell the original in Malaysia (or my lousy hunting skills found nothing) and I can't buy them online as they don't ship to Malaysia (they won't let me download them either..zzz). So here was I, finding a copy of the game, in it's original form. I was hoping it was and incompatible copy, as most, if not all games in HK are in Chinese. A quick ask and the shopkeeper told me the one on display is the ONLY ENGLISH copy he has. I asked my host if I should buy and his reply was (somewhat like this) " You're asking a gamer. I don't wait until it's old so that I buy them off cheap".

Suffice to say my credit card had another charge from HK for about HKD 290. This game was more expensive than my jacket, mind you...(Sorry to disappoint anyone expecting more juicy 'sinful' stories. hehe). After that, I told my host I'm not getting the shoe as I didn't want to bust my budget. I actually could afford it (I actually manage my credit card quite well, mind you..:P) but as the other day, key to stemming a spree is to stop short from starting it.

The rest of the day/night was relatively uneventful. No, I didn't bathe in cold water again as I already knew how to operate the heater by now. Oh, it's still bloody cold.

*******

Saturday was a slow day. My host I guess had a long night as I slept much earlier than he did. By the time he woke up it was already afternoon.

The plan was lunch, then Star Ferry. HK still has this ferry service that gets people from the island to Kowloon, at only HKD 2.20. As usual, its not exactly light speed when you compare to the other transportation services available. But it was quite crowded as well. I mean, I'm not the only tourist you know..

I'm thinking and thinking and I can't recall what I had for lunch. It was something, I guess. So we went to the Star Ferry after a train ride. The ferries look a little old, but it was still fun to ride. I mean, at HKD 2.20, who cares?

That's me posing inside the ferry. Must have done something right since my eyes returned. Wonder if doing sinful things have anything to do with it?

That's a picture I took while I was on the ferry. I have no idea what it is or where it is, but of the other pictures I also took, this looked best.

Alighting on the other side, we were just next to Harbour City, another huge shopping complex. Oh, I must have forgotten to mention, HK is just one big shopping complex after another. No wonder the people earn so much, since retail theraphy is probably the most convenient one they'll find to kill the stress/blues.

I wanted to show more of the majestic deco the entrance had, but again poor skills *whisper* (equipment) let me down. There was a cruise ship docked nest to the complex, but the picture had my host in it so lack of photoshopping expertise meant that picture got the cut (the irony, hehe..)

A lot of walking and window shopping later, we decided to walk to the nearest MTR station, which neither of us knew where it was. Asking the locals only got us in the right direction, but somehow we seem to miss the nearest station anyway and walked all the way to the next one. By now my knees really, really hurt but somehow being on a holiday kind of helped me keep walking.

My host needed to get some movie tickets for the next day, so we ended up stopping somewhere in the middle of the MTR line and went to yet another shopping complex. The only thing worth mentioning was how my host proved to be a Sony faithful when he bought a Sony camera after asking several stores and finding the cheapest one. No, he didn't ask about other brands, just Sony.

It was getting late, so it's time to return home. My host suggested dinner near the apartment as there's suppose to be some nice 'low mien' for me to try. I also finally caved in and tried HK's chilli oil. It's like sambal in Malaysia, except that it's oil. Just oil. (Ok, some colouring and maybe chilli, but mostly you only see oil). I also bought some egg tarts from the restaurant we had dinner with, since everyone said their egg tarts were good. Me? So so only.....hehehe

Oops. Somewhere between the night on Friday and the night on Saturday, I returned to Sogo to buy some 'wife biscuits' (lou poh pang). It was the only biscuit I knew it's kind of HK specific and because I bought it for my Singapore colleague on Wednesday night while he went clubbing, I had some experience in getting 'that'. It was funny as I started of asking for a box of 'wife biscuit', but noticed there were other things there that wasn't too expensive. (The 'wife biscuits' were HKD 4 each. A box holds 6). So I asked for 1 each of 2 other kinds of biscuits, only to try them after a short while and found them nice. So I brought my host a round back to the same shop so I could get more biscuits. Last I checked, they were a hit back home. I obvious didn't buy enough. Unfortunately now I don't know what they're called either..hahaha..

Back to Saturday night, after dinner, my host asked if I wanted to check out the club house. Inside they had an indoor pool, 4 bowling alleys, snooker, pool, badminton courts, tennis courts, some space for boardgames and most importantly, a music room. If only I knew! I'd have sneaked in and destroy the piano!! muahahahaha. He did ask if I wanted to bowl, but by now my knees were close to giving way so that option wasn't taken up. I probably saved myself some humiliation anyway...

There was a picture taken outside his apartment compound, but it looks a little out of focus (my skills are bad, but my hosts are.....ahem...:P). Back in the apartment, we played Winning 11 and I got trashed. Well, he did have the PS3 and all I have is some rundown PC. Besides, I have the dexterity of a klutz.

******

On the final morning in Hong Kong we did what all hongkies love doing. It's 'yum cha'. That's just people visiting a nearby reataurant, order a pot of tea and then random dim sum to spend the day. my host says some older folks actually spend the whole day that way. To think the restaurants make it a point to cycle through customers as fast as possible, I guess it's not happening in a 'yum cha' place.

What I do like about HK dim sum is that the ingredients are really good. They use large prawns for their 'har kau' and in most of their dim sum, you don't get this feeling of being cheated with inferior ingredients. Its the expectation there anyway, and as with the rest of HK, the expectations of quality and service is way higher than I am used to. Not like I mind one bit, but definitely hope the standards can be met back home.....alas.....

As I was about to leave, I couldn't help thinking that I never tried their 'siew yuk' as well as Burger King. With my plane leaving at 3.50pm, I knew if the airport had Burger King then I'd have time to taste it. So as I leave the dim sum restaurant, the sight of them hanging the 'siew yuk' to dry just did it for me. before you know it, I had a takeaway of 'siew yuk' (which cost me HKD 44). I had plan it to complement my Burger King as lunch, but, as you'll find out later, didn't quite work out.

It's time to go. It so happened that from my hosts place there is a bus that sends me all the way to the airport for a meagre HKD 22. Also, it's a double decker bus!!

I tried my level best to take a proper photo of myself on the bus, but that's just as good as it gets. I got on the bus at 11am, expecting the ride to take an hour or so. However, since it was a Sunday there was hardly any traffic and the ride was faster. But, as highways are and always will be boring, so was the ride. Luckiliy some random person decides to sms me while I was on the way, so that kept me busy for a while. :)

I arrived the airport slightly before 12pm and proceeded to check in. Little did I know that the ground crew was going to offer me a seat on the plane departing at 12.55pm! I was worried that my 'siew yuk' would be a problem, as it's neither properly wrapped or can I eat it straight away as I was still quite full from breakfast. The crew thought nothing of it and before long, I was racing away to the customs to avoid missing my plane! (I know I should have waited for my own plane, in that way no rush at all, but really, who wants to wait in the airport for 3 hours??)

All that rushing meant 2 things; 1) I couldn't eat my 'siew yuk', so I'll have to take that back home. I hope customs doesn't decide to have a look, as they might not fancy the smell or the sight. 2) My Burger King!!! :(( I had no time to queue for a Whopper as the time it took me to get to my terminal was longer than I expected. Burger King is a big miss for me.....:(

The flight back was a complete non-event except for the fact I already planned to watch Dark Knight on the return flight, only for them to have a broken copy of the movie on board! I ended up watching X-Files, which was crap. sigh..

5 hours after departing and saying goodbye to HK, I was back home again.....

It has been fun, so i'll list my thoughts and learnings in the next post!

A day to waste away in HK....Part 5 of the HK trip

2008-12-30T09:05:00.007+08:00

It is now Friday, 5th December 2008. My host has an early morning meeting at work, so I am to follow him to the island in the morning. As I've always been, I'm an early riser when I'm not at home (even now, when I'm at home, I wake up too early, I think...) but my host was not as early as me. When he did wake up, I was already playing with his PS3 :D. He asked me if I used the heater to shower the night before, so I told him I didn't (and he had a good laugh). Luckily for me he forgot to turn off the heater overnight so when I bathed in the morning I didn't have to do cold water!

Since he was running a little late for his meeting, he showed me a place where they have nice beef noodles so that I can try them for breakfast. Now, the morning before my pork chop with tea came to about HKD 30, so imagine my surprise when my beef noodles only cost HKD 15! So I got itchy fingers and decided to order a bowl of beef balls as well. The beef balls were quite big and there was around 7 of them I think, but.....The beef balls cost HKD 19! Should have just stuck with the noodles.

I had time to kill after breakfast and it was quite awkward to eat without something to read. I did hope to get some free paper near the MTR station as they generally do give them away the previous mornings, but this morning I had no luck. Also, my knees were getting worse so I kept having to find pathways that did not include stairs down.

Since I had time to kill while waiting for my host to finish with his meeting, I decided to do a little exploring around the area until my knees gave up. I walked and walked and walked so much I found myself at the shopping complex of the next station, which, is none other than City Plaza. Seeing that I've walked a little too far, I tracked back just in time to meet up with my host who finished his meeting.

Now the plan for the day was some tram rides and a visit to the giant Buddha in Lantau Island. These trams are old and still run through the HK island, so I thought it'd be nice to hop on one of them. It only cost HKD 2 per person anyway. Aside from it's slow pace, it did provide an opportunity to see HK island. Though with my limited view, all I see is shops at the ground levels and losts of apartments above them..Everywhere..

That's taken from a tram.

After we got off the tram we took the train to Lantau Island where the Buddha thing was at the last stop. The train ride was somewhat uneventful so much that I think we both dozed off. We got off at the last stop and was surprised that there weren't any clear signs to lead us to the Buddha. Seems like everyone in HK knows how to get there, so don't mind the tourist. My host hasn't been there either, so we had to walk around a bit before finding the cable car stations. Hongkies call it 360, which is what it's named anyway. Don't know how that name came to be.

Arriving at the cable car station the prices to get on the cable car was quite steep. HKD 96 return. If you wanted to check out their display rooms, then it's HKD 130ish I think. Since neither one of us were keen with the showrooms/display rooms, we went for just the ride up.

The cable ride was interesting enough. Had a good view of the HK airport too.

Unfortunately my photography skills betray me. I'd like to blame the camera too, but since it isn't mine, better not say too much else I might not even get to borrow it the next time.

Oh, the customary..

Don't ask me where my eyes went. I don't know. Didn't notice it when I took the picture and don't know how to photoshop it. Too bad.

Arriving at the place, there were some shops laid out along the pathway, which supposedly used to be the village. Funnily enough we decided to have some icecream, despite us being about 300-400 feet above sea level and in Winter. A short trek later here's the giant arch to welcome tourist

Here's the hill next to it

Now, this Buddha is strategically located right up the hill (not up that hill, but the one I'm on, which you'll see better later), so there's a couple of hundred steps to climb before being within proper distance to take a picture. At the foot of the steps, there's this thing

Which I really don't know what it was. It was huge, so I figure worth taking a picture off.

Now for those who read my Batu Caves adventure, here's another Ego trip for me. Know that I had knees that were in pain. Yet suprisingly, I had no problems climbing the stairs, unlike my happily settled host, who needed several stops before we reach the top. Dejavu for me, except that one is already married while the earlier one (in Batu Caves) is getting to it.

Here's big old Buddha. Don't ask me why, I don't know. I do know that there's suppose to be an inner sanctum of sorts within, but you'd have to have paid for vegetarian meal below before they'd let you go in. Surronding the Buddha is these six

Aside from these 6 sculptures and lots of tourist, there isn't much to describe or to take photos off.

Then came the real problem. You see, while I have no problems going up, my knees have a problem going down. Don't ask me why, I don't know either. I just know they hurt everytime I go one step down. And this is 250+ steps down...

Pain....Real pain..

Though for some reason after the steps me and my host still feels up for some more travelling. Earlier in the day we meet up with some of my host's colleagues before we got on the tram for a short breafast. In the discussion, there was talks about this fishing village that sold salted fish. While I'm not the type to buy souveniers home for random people, I am the type to buy food back if I can and salted fish was a good option. In the conversation they mentioned it's just a bus ride away and closeby to the '360' thingy. So after we returned via cable car, the fishing village was our next stop.

The bus itself was rather ordinary and the ride was kinda boring. Suffice to say dozing off was yet another preferred pasttime. About an hour later we arrived only to find it IS, indeed, just a fishing village.

There were no nice lights or was it bustling with people. It was quiet and there was a fishy smell in the air. It took us less than 20 minutes to explore the whole place. Randomly picking a store, I bought 2 salted fish and then we were back to catching the bus ride.

Even now, I still wonder why I spent 2 hours, HKD 23.60 (bus fare) just to buy 2 salted fish worht HKD 50. Silly boy..

But the day isn't over. Ok, the day is, but the night was still young..(hehe, if you think something indulgent and sinful is coming up, you are correct!)

But then again, this is still me doing the writing, you know.....

Now the adventure really begins.....Part 4 of the HK Trip

2008-12-30T08:01:00.004+08:00

And I waited...

Ok, I didn't really have to wait too long before a smiling familiar face turned up around 6.50pm-ish. It did look like a flabbier face than I last remember it, but being chinese and what they say about growing horizontally once married is an indication of happiness in life, I thought nothing negative of it.

Oh, in any case, yes, my host, a Malaysian working in Hong Kong, did turn up. (Hereon referred to as host as I'm not sure he'd like it so much if I name him). He just finished work, or to be more accurate, he's on half day leave. A brief hello (like we meet each other everyday) later I was asked to re-enter the MTR as we were going off to his place which is near a MTR station. (Unfortunately, I can't for the life of me remember the station. It's in Kowloon though...)

3 stops (I think) later, my host asked me to disembark and lo and behold, his apartment is right above the station. Like, really, above it. Some 20 odd stories above (I also forgot what floor, sigh..Growing old I say..) Interestingly getting from the station exit to his apartment lifts required us to go through 3 'gates' which he doesn't fancy much but I think it's good security. A bit of a walk around the area later and a ride up the apartment lifts I find myself at his home.

It was a nice 2-room apartment, though for a person used to Malaysian sized apartments (and one living now in a 1500 square feet(sf) place) you'd find the apartments small and expensive. His was just shy of 800 sf, but cost a whopping HKD 3 million! Ok, so HK real estate is a killer, if you don't know by now. But his apartment is very convenient and has great facilities too (unfortunately, he only showed them to me on my final night there.) Luckily for me his wife and kids have recently returned to Malaysia, so I didn't have to sleep on the couch. Unfortunately, however, nothing really beats sleeping in your own bed at home, so I still had some adjusting to do. Not to mention the cold. So so cold (Ok, it's only because this dumb bloke hasn't spent near 0.01% of his lifetime in any climate other than hot, humid, Malaysian like weather (Singapore's no better), so winter IS a PROBLEM). Oh, I also had rashes ALL OVER MY BODY.......

Enough rambling. Dropping off my luggage, we went to dinner at a standard HK 'restaurant' which is much like coffee shops in Malaysia except its the same dudes that serve you drinks that serve you food. One day a Malaysian should go there and bring them the concept of owning a place, sell drinks and have loads of other blokes sell food for you. I don't recall what I ate, but it wasn't anything spectacular. As it was already getting late, we ended up walking around the complexes there and my host decided to drop by a console game shop to get his latest fixes.

You see, I didn't know that my host was quite an avid gamer. He owns a PS3 at home and has several PSPs for him and his family. So suffice to say I was never short of entertainment whenever we we resting at his place. This is turning into a great holiday! Muahahaha

Oh, a quick note about the bathroom. It's like this cool bathroom even though it's quite compact with bathtub and shower. Considering it was cold, I obviously needed hot water. But while I was getting ready to bathe, my host was having an 'in-depth' conversation via skype with his sister and I couldn't find myself to trouble him and ask how to activate the heater. So there I was, already shivering in the cold, bathing in COLD WATER!! brrrrrrrrrrrbrrrrrrrrrbrrrrrrr....

So, I'm not going to spend 3 nights 3 days in HK playing console games, am I?

Seen from my bedroom window...

2008-12-30T07:58:00.000+08:00

The adventure begins!....Part 3 of the HK Trip

2008-12-26T14:28:00.005+08:00

Thursday morning and for the first time me and my chinese colleague decided to grab some authentic HK breakfast. You see, during the training we couldn't because we had this muslim colleague to be 'thoughtful' of, but for this breakfast we kinda made it known we weren't going to settle for anything BUT non-halal food. I think he ended up having instant noodles. oops. I had pork chop and 'nai cha'! Yipee. Unfortunately 'nai cha', which is the equivelant of a 'teh tarik' in Malaysia, doesn't come close to as nice. I miss my country already..:(

Now, a little bit about my 'friend' in HK. Well, to those that know me know that I have few friends, if any, at all. I'm just not all that friendly, I guess. My loss. This guy I got to know from playing Raw Deal wrestling card games. Over time, we had some trades and with the game dead and him moving to HK, he asked me to caretake some of his more expensive cards in a hope to liquidify them. Number of cards i've sold? NONE. hehe. He also offered to host if I ever decided to visit HK. So i took up the offer.

Now aside from his HP number, I have no other way to contact him. No email, no work address. I didn't even know where he lives! My colleagues in HK keep reminding me to find out where he lives so I can plan how to get to the airport on sunday but all I could tell them is I'd only find out when I meet him. I won't deny the whole time in HK I contemplated the possibility he might not turn up where we were suppose to meet on Thurday evening, leaving me relatively stranded and having to fork out more money just to find a place to stay and not get targeted by crooks who could obviously tell that I'm lost. I just kept telling myself,"My life is never that interesting..."...

Anyway, it was still a while before I would meet my host. I decided to tag along with the 2 guys to Mongkok which was where they'd be staying that one night. After seeing them lug their luggage all over HK (I kept mine in the office, as it is near where I'd meet up with my host later) and checking into a very 'space efficient' room, I wondered if I'd even have a place to sleep the next 3 nights. We then decided to go shopwalk as they seemed keen to find some items to buy back home. Me? I'm not buying nobody nothing but me. hehehe. I wan't even planning to buy anything for me as I didn't know if the items were cheaper in Malaysia.

Funnily, we stopped by a Bossini shop and they had this green jacket at HKD 199. Now, did I fail to mention it's winter over there? I did have a jacket, which I've worn the last 3 days, but getting another would be nice. The other guys just kept saying to buy it as it's cheap. I wouldn't be able to tell. So I asked the salesgirl to get me and XL or bigger, in hope that I'd get to check it out. Instead, they found the size I wanted and proceeded straight to the payment counter. I'm not that fast, you know...(nevertheless, I do own a green jacket now....)

We had McDonalds for lunch but I forgot to ask them what was pork. Dang. My muslim colleague only had fries. How sad. More walking later and I realised that all of a sudden my knees hurt. Mostly my left knee. So I called it quits and proceeded back to the office before meeting up with my host.

After grabbing my luggage, I proceeded to do this...

Man, that was stupid. SEETOOPEED. But I still managed to get a picture of my utter stupidity. how smart is that? hehe. Yeah, I laughed myself. I just couldn't do it out loud as I was putting on a pitiful face so that the MTR person could help me out. Suffice to say I didn't make that mistake anymore in HK, or well, any other place I plan to go to in the future..

Me and my host we to meet at one of the MTR stations at 6.30pm. I was of course, early (Malaysian time? What's that). So I waited. Oh, did I also mention that the last time I met him was in February? So I don't remember his face all that much. by the time 6.30pm came and went I told myself if he doesn't turn up by 7pm, I better get ready for a contingency.

And I waited...

and waited...

The Training Days...Part 2 of HK Trip

2008-12-26T11:07:00.003+08:00

Now the time I spent in HK while on training wasn't much of a story. It was a 2 full day training. While breakfast and lunch were provided (we weren't told initially..) dinner was a free for all (to my detriment). I took the 9.50am-ish flight out of KLIA with Cathay Pacific and found their services not much different from MAS or SIA. (Air Asia still sucks, but then you get what you pay for...) But my return flight....(later, later...)

When we touched down, I had this feeling since there were 3 of us, one of us is going to have luggage issues. I was right. Luckily it wasn't me, but the other guy (one of the 2) got his luggage delayed and only got his luggage at 4am in the morning the next day. Fortunately, the HK Airport personnel were quick to advise about it and tell him what to do. Such great service!

We took a cab to the hotel. Cab metre begins at HKD 16 for 2KM and each 150 metres is HKD 1.40. (Compared to Malaysia, where it is (should still be) RM 2 for 2KM and then RM 0.15 every 100 metres. I think.) Hence then I assured myself converting back to RM each time I spent would be a nightmare.

Speaking of which, I only brought HKD 700 in cash, when everyone was already complaining HKD 1K isn't enough. So how do you think I fared? Hehehe

Once arrived at the hotel I promptly checked in. I then observed something. In HK, they are willing to commit 1 person, or more, to just stand around acting like human information counters. At the airport, in the hotel, at the subway, everywhere. IMPRESSIVE!! Because the way I see it, why waste the cost of 1 (or more) human resource when you can easily just set up a PC to do that? One time cost, rather then a recurring cost. There are more 'service' oriented culture I see in HK. More of that later.

That night I had planned to have dinner with my colleague in HK, so a phone call later and off I went to HK office in City Plaza via the MTR (forgot what it means). I ended up late, however, not because the directions given to this place I know not was hard to follow, or I just got lost, but I realised it's cold out there and I had to return to the hotel to grab a jacket. Dinner was uneventful and I didn't do much walking on the first night as I was rather tired.

The next morning I woke up with rashes all over my legs and arms. I thought the bed was maybe dirty, but it looked clean. Eventually. after only returning to Malaysia, I realised that it was because I had an allergic reaction, probably to the air (HK is rather hazy) or the weather (my first winter!). Oh well. Fortunately the itchiness wasn't all that bad until I got back home.

So from my hotel I got to the Causeway Bay station

Then headed to Tai Koo where the office is located relatively above it

Hmm. Pictures look funny. But they are proof!. Haha!

On the way to the office i get to go through this shopping mall and they decided that the 3 blokes who followed that star that lead them to the newborn baby looks like

I personally doubt they're that huge, if they even existed. Ok, i'll not get into the whole farceness of Christmas less I get hauled up by the church. hehe, luckily I live in Malaysia, where things like these don't get the officials attention. :P

Aside from meeting people from the company from various countries, having catered food, the only other thing worth mentioning was that on the Tuesday night during dinner, I had Kobe Beef at a Japanese Restaurant. That meal cost HKD 605!!!!!!!!! Just the beef alone! It it was a small portion! Not worth it I tell you (and I'm living to regret ordering that meal now....But that's another OTHER story...:( )

Then, when we decided to walk the streets to do some window shopping, I decided it was getting to late (it was 9pm me thinks) and I decided to find my own way back. Unfortunately, while doing window shopping, I allowed my 2 chinese educated colleagues to lead and completely forgot to remember signs and roads to find my own way back. After walking along a major street up until I see it linking up to the highway, I realised I was lost. Yes, ME, LOST. A little too late to join the cast but hey, better late then never. So I turned back and lo and behold, I was just heading in the opposite direction. No wonder I felt I was going further and further away. All this time I was wanting to pee too. But no, my pants were dry even when I returned to the Hotel. Not getting something embarrasing here..But wait, I have just the right thing...

Fast foward to Wednesday night, when all is said and done, me along with 3 other colleagues decided to go up Victoria Hill. A cab ride, a tram ride and waiting until night time, I saw

Sorry, pictures kind of fuzzy. Too much electricity used, my camera get's overloaded..:P

Then on the way back...

That's me on the tram going downhill. I wanted to snap a shot of the train going downhill to show the degree of slant, but alas, amateur cameraman ME couldn't do it. I want to blame the camera, but then again, who'd believe it?

The rest of the gang decided to visit the pubs and nightspots nearby so I left them for dead..I mean, left them to return to the hotel. Luckily, me and my somewhat absent sense of direction found myself crossing a bridge, walking through a park, a building and then some before finding the train station. I still managed to get back before everyone else, so....Not lost this time around..hehe

So the training is over and the paid hotel stay is over..What's next? Where the real adventure begins!

And so it begins....Part 1 of HK Trip

2008-12-26T10:44:00.003+08:00

I.e. Prologue..

But then again, it's not as interesting as my Raw Deal adventures in Singapore, so I wouldn't really go story like. But I do have more photos and will try to recall as much as I can.

Here goes...

PROLOGUE:

About 4 months back I was asked to volunteer for a 'team' in my company which has recently seen some people 'leave'. I was keen before, but back when it was first introduced in 2005 I was in a sorry state (I think if you check my 2005 entries you'd find out why) so I passed the opportunity then. So now that it's done a boomerang, bandwagon I jump!

Little did I know each new member of this 'team' needs to go through a 'start up' training of sorts and it's only conducted by the 'specialists' in the field. That training is to be done in HK.

What? No dance of joy? I get a trip to HK and no dance of joy? Ridiculous!

Considering the times we are in now, me being in an American company meant that trips like this were bound to get axed. (I have since gone and returned, so you should now that it didn't..) There were 4 in Malaysia going and 2 of the guys have already started to plan to take a day's leave to venture around HK on their own. At first I wasn't keen as I really don't know what I'll do there. I'm not much of a traveller, you see. But as time went by I got pressured into making most out of the opportunity (and since I've gone and returned....You know the drill). I then tried to reach out to one of the guys I got to know via Raw Deal, who, as things have it, is now working in HK, hoping for some free accomodation for that 1 day's stay. Accomodation is expensive in HK, even if you aren't all that picky (Ok, I wasn't ready to stay 3 nights at a 4-5 star hotel on my company and then go backpacking for 1 more night.)

Several weeks past and my SMS to that guy never got replied. Then on a fateful lunch hour last month, he called and asked if I was indeed planning to go. he even offered to host me more than just one day, if I wanted. Flustered, I asked to stay until Sunday (Oops. Training starts on Tuesday and ends on Wednesday. Monday was to travel to HK. Thursday, had I not extended, was to return back to Malaysia. So if I leave on Sunday, it would be 3 full days on my own.). He said ok. So from someone who was suppose to not spend any personal time in HK (compared to the others) i am now the one staying the longest!

Oh, just to side track a bit, while I was in a limbo waiting for his reply, I did try to get my other colleagues in HK to 'host', but I guess it was not meant to be. I have no qualms, however, as you'll find out!

After 8 years, I once again get an opportunity to go to HK. I will however, promise myself to not make that big boo boo 8 years ago and remember that I should at the very least TRY to have a good time even though I'm not paying (all) of the expenses! (For the days I was on my own, I was ON MY OWN...In case someone I don't expect to see this sees this...:p)

Well, time to talk about the trip....(Gotta rack up some post counts!)

So far, so good?

2008-12-12T10:11:00.002+08:00

Well, I haven't blogged in a while. That's because I spent the whole of last week in Hong Kong, which I have taken photos and 'eventually' will post it up here.

For the moment, here's a quick update:

1) HK was fun and enjoyable. Not without setbacks however, but could easily have had more..More on that much much later.
2) Me as a boy gamer was fed a nice meal in HK...Also more on that later..
3) Liverpool is on top of the league, yet I don't feel all that happy. Must be because past history shows that they've been there before, but not after X'mas....
4) I've unresolved personal issues. Wait, that's always the case, no? haha
5) I'm still lazy with practise. With the current financial situation, spending RM 5K+ on a piano isn't exactly spend thrift and wise...Oh, what have I gotten myself into this time???
6) Work has been....Unproductive. Need to find that zest at work again. Thought I found one then some managerial bloke decides my Kobe Beef is too expensive...Wait, this is again part of my HK experience...
7) It's funny how sometimes you don't really need to know someone a whole lot to be a whole lot nicer to them. I was on the receiving end this time and it's a weird feeling. Again, this is yet another HK story.

Looks like I have lots to tell about my HK experience. Hopefully I'll find time in between beating the crap out of Heroes 5: Tribes of the East to post the pictures et all..No, I shouldn't do all that at work......Really....zzzzzz

Not so many weeks ago...

2008-11-21T09:48:00.006+08:00

I actually, finally, made it to......

Batu Caves!!!

Now, for those unfamiliar, Batu Caves is somewhat of a tourist/religious place on the outskirts of KL, where I've been living all my life (and now too even though I'm technically in another state) which being a KL-ite, I should have been several times before in my lifetime.

But me being me, I've never, I mean, not ever, set foot on that holy ground until now..Or in proper timelines, 20 days ago.

This place isn't really big, but it does have a really big statue supposedly in gold (at least it looks like it, though I can't fathom why on earth humanity would waste so much gold on such a big thing, which makes me belief it could just be the colour...). Now in case I myself forget when I was and what I did there, here's some photo evidence (and no, I didn't do no photoshopping since really, I don't know how....yet...)

That's me in my overused Lord of the Rings T-Shirt..Which I got free from Comics Corner...hehehe. Oh, The pidgeons were to busy scurrying for food they ignored me as a potential toilet....:P

That's the statue I was talking about. Now as you can tell, thanks to non-existent special effects, I look smaller than the statue. Really, I'm bigger.. I mean it.. Really..No, don't believe?? Dang....I did try....:p Oh, notice the step all the way up? That's the main 'tourist' thing, climbing the stairs. I was there with a friend, so was this bunch of primary school kids. Unfortunately taking photos of random kids I know not off may result in some paedophilia trigger somewhere on the internet had I posted it so I decided to not take any of their photographs as proof. You'll just have to believe me that there were these kids around. Why are they so important that I had to mention them? Wait for it....

Oops. Said it too soon. I did catch them on the background of this photo. I repeat, that was unintentional (now where's that sod of a camera man I relied upon to take my photo WITHOUT the kids in it...Gonna give him a good hiding!) In any case, I'm right at the bottom, preparing my ascend and these kids were already running up the stairs. Now, it's just 272 steps, so surely it's not a problem. (yeah right. Tell that to the fumbling cameraman going there with me!)

Much like the story about the hare and the tortoise, the hare (those pesky school kids) ran quicky up the summit while the tortoise (Me. My friend couldn't run even if he wanted to, haha!) slowly went up one step at a time at an appropriate pace. While I didn't really required any stopping (it is really just 272 steps after all...), we did end up taking some breather so that the other 'young man' can catch up...As for the kids? needless to say, much like the tortoise eventually catching up to the hare and finishing first, the kids ended up puncturing midway top half as I expected. Wisdom does come with age sometimes....hehe

Now this was me right after the steps. I don't look tired one bit (shhh). As for the other guy...well...How many times can I use him as a target of ridicule in one blog entry (err, plenty..But in real life I'll probably get 2 girly slaps, 1 chick kick and a Widow's Peak to boot, since he like's Victoria so much..:p). Anyway, the cave looks quite impressive and there are several Hindu idols/gods to worship ( I think, I maybe wrong since I didn't really find out for sure). We venture deeper into the cave and here are 2 more photos of the view from within.

Oh wait, what's this?

Well, I guess it's nice to see a relative even in these places. Unfortunately being related and all, it knew I had no food to offer hence the disappointed look away..:-(

After we were glad we 'conquered' Batu Caves, we decided to take an unplanned visit to the caves next door, aptly named dark caves (I think. haha). Now this was a cave which is riddled with bat poo (I don't recall the proper term, too bad) and cockroaches and it stinks, but we figured since we're unlikely to ever make a trip to Batu Caves for the rest of our lives, might as well. It's a paid tour by the way. RM 35 for an educational trip. Again, thanks to the poo and the roaches, do not venture if you can't take the perfume...I mean, fume....:p

The cave was nice and all and we were given a quick lesson on caves and why over time the cave turned into what it is now. Luckily they allowed us to take pictures at one spot inside the cave. They call it the 'air-cond' area. That's because this part of the cave is smallest in diameter and with a nearby entry to the cave provides air that fizzes through the cave more quickly there than anywhere else we get a really cool breeze constantly. Hence the temperature there is lower. Oh, more photo..

Yup. That's the poor bloke who got conned into being the scapegoat of all my snipes on this blog entry. Thank you for volunteering. It was nice of you to go through all that and end up becoming target practice. At least the pidgeons avoided you too!

After we exited the dark cave, which, by the way, is called so because if we we to lose our torchlights inside the cave we would be in pitch dark. Really pitch dark. Ok, so dark cave visited, Batu Caves conquered. Next?

Time for me to pitch a trip to Gua Niah, the world's largest natural cave ( I think....haha!)

So who's interested??

Mamma Mia!

2008-11-17T11:16:00.003+08:00

Watched it last Saturday. It was funny in the sense it was a movie I wasn't all that keen to watch but I seemed destined to watch it anyway. Over the course of a month since it came out, I seem to be in a position where I would be and then I wouldn't be watching it. But now I have. So what's the verdict?

The verdict is that it was an entertaining movie. Not because I am an Abba fan, I'm not. I only know 1 of their songs by heart and it isn't even their most catchy tune. I have no idea why I know that song. All I could remember is that my elder brother about 16-18 years ago had the lyrics and since then I've more or less still remember the lyrics. Which song? 192116518 2018152116518.. hehehe...

Why the movie was so entertaining was for several reasons:

1) I believe the biggest reason is because I've always wanted to write a musical. Ok, want and actually being able to do it is 2 completely different things. I always toyed the idea of telling a story with just the songs. I would turn my life into a musical if I had better way with lyrics but no thanks to my poor command of English, I always find myself repeating the same old lines. Which is boring, since the music always seems new. (ok, the music seems new because I can hardly recall the previous ones since they were all impromptu).

2) The young woman playing the daughter of the lead actress had such a great voice. Reminds me of the time I felt so buoyed by hearing female choir singers. But this was just one person. Still, I guess i'm a sucker for good voices, or at least, voices that appeals to me. I'm sure my mom would never like Amy Lee, but I admire her voice to no end.

3) The movie was a no brainer to some extent, though it did have an interesting dialog. I didn't enjoy watching Pierce Brosnan try so so so hard to sing in tune however. He did managed, but you can tell he was in pain. hahaha.

Now my problem is getting Abba out of my head. Some of their songs can be quite, timely and it doesn't help me when I need to have my mind thinking about other things.

Time to listen to Tragic Symphony again...:p

YES!!!!!!!!!

2008-11-10T11:07:00.001+08:00

I've finally gotten a soft copy of Schubert's Symphony no.4 in C minor "Tragic"!!!!

Listening to it as I type....This is going to be a lifesaver in my times of troubles....And what troubling times indeed it is...

Now I need to get my hands on Mozart's Piano Concerto no. 20 in D Minor. Bizet's Farandole (proper copy). I should be able to complete another CD of angst recovery, similar to my Evanescence CD.

Hmm, I might live after all.....hahahaha

Interesting developments at work...

2008-11-03T12:48:00.002+08:00

For those who were clued in, I'll mention it here quickly. I am not retrenched (yet)....I've seen enough information that makes me feel somewhat secure of my not too distant future, so all's good so far.

HOWEVER.....Aside from knowing I will have a job for the short term, I've noticed a drastic change in the atmosphere of my office.

It started on 2 fronts. One is a strained relationship with a colleague of mine which I believe is due to irreconsilable differences. Now that's fine with me, but let's keep business, business, please?

The other stems from the fact that with the recent changes in my company, knowledge of what's to be can be both powerful and dangerous. Where I sit, as a large group, we are one. But on a smaller scale, I'm dwarfed by a larger team of 4 women who's boss is also a woman. Oh, I'm a one man show with a female boss too. A different female boss. As their boss is located in KL (mine's in Australia, btw.) they got news of the changes first. When the first person came in, she was shivering and ended up giving me some idea of what was told. Me being me, that's as far as it goes. I think she was reprimanded by the other colleague (see above) to not discuss it as it wasn't public knowledge yet. Now, I've been expecting these changes for awhile as I've been clued in as much as I can by my boss in Australia. So I kinda expect this to happen. Not so much of a news to me, the new's I'm to hear from my boss later in the afternoon was by far more....intriguing.

So they go about not talking about it but in their casual conversation they didn't have a problem hinting it left, right and centre. Take top and bottom too. Or maybe I was just sensitive. In any case, my boss calls and while what I can say now is that I was told I'd be safe and I was told I'd be joining the bigger team soon as a new construct of sorts. Jolly good news...Until recently, that is. But what I didn't know was that the other team's communique was of a lesser extent. They know about them and that's it. They know not about our larger larger group and it's fate. I do. So it made sense for me to not allude much but just plain keep my mouth shut.

But I couldn't. The news was so big for me I had to talk. So I went to talk to a senior manager in my company (yes, as senior as it can go where I am based) and spilled my beans. A good 30 minutes later it wasn't so bad but I still was a little sore. Oh well, change sucks. Get use to it..

Then a few days later, their boss called for a meeting which at first didn't involve me. Now, I'm used to them doing things without me. As bad as it feels, if it ain't my problem, don't get involved. But it turns out the meeting was to find out if one of them spoke to me about what they know and obviously the boss is not happy. And, that colleague of mine (see above, haha!) later hinted they think I spilled elsewhere. Which I did, but only to someone of a much higher level. Is that wrong? Funny though, I'd have my boss tell me things too, no? They're not the only ones with access to the news, you know....

So I denied it and acted dumb. While the official announcement was still a way to go, the team gleefully incorporated what's to be in their casual conversation. And they have the cheek to want to find out who told me??? Gosh, I'd have to be dumb AND STUPID to not find out at the rate they were going. Wait, probably being dumb wouldn't help. Deaf, maybe...

So I got pissed and started alienating myself that day. Just that day.

Since then, I keep getting this feeling they've convened and decided to treat me as I have. Now I'm feeling more and more alienated from that bigger team than before. They'd talk, ask random questions and I'd never get involved. I sometimes try to join in, but it feels so uncomfortable. They would talk across the room but all that's been said is for everyone but me..

Now, I wouldn't give 2 hoots if we were still going to be 2 different teams of a larger department. But in a very near future, we will be ONE BIG FAMILY. I already feel like the bastard son. Now, that's bad business.

Maybe I'm just sensitive. I've alienated myself before but I've not felt that they cared. Now it seems like it's up to me to do something about it.

I'll have to wait for news about the new construct to know what my next steps are.

So much for me predicting them would leave the team first, since they've been complaining about their work since the day I joined. Initially I figured everyone's got complains, but....Anyway, I still feel I'll last longer than any of them. But changes have a way of fast tracking plans...

In any case, it's not the first time I'm left on my own. Story of my life. Get used to it.

Oh, just want to mention that there are actually 3 certainties in life. Death, Taxes and Change.

Random thought when I can't sleep

2008-10-30T08:11:00.003+08:00

What happens if I get a heart attack and I've got only moments to reflect on my life? What would I have been happy to have done/not done and what would be my regrets?

Regrets:

1) Not leaving my legacy of the musical pieces in my mind. I should really start writing them down but procrastination and a severe lack of theory is making it tougher and tougher. Not to mention I think because I'm stil keeping them in my mind for so long, I have lost the ability to make new ones, as I keep going back to my previous melodies/themes.

2) Not having visited Gua Niah, which frankly speaking is the only real place I want to visit. Mainly because it is/was the largest natural cave in the world and it's right smack in my own country (though seperated by the South China Sea).

3) Not finding someone to love who will love me. For the man that I am and the woman that she is.

4) Having my parents live past my life. This I believe is the worst thing a normal child can do to their parents. Normal because a child that is already doing drugs, crime and what not would have done worse and those, somewhat isn't normal anymore.

Joys:

1) Not having to go through yet another heartache, after heartaches. Lazy yes, but then again, I'm not known to be able to handle my emotions anyway.

2) Being able to claim my insurances having only paying for it for about 1 year. Hahaha..Too bad I can't use any of the money.

3) That I have survived the urges of being evil and being materialistic. However as long as I still live, I will continue to fight against these influences.

Hmmm, looks like I have fewer joys than regrets..

Need work...Lots of work..

Procrastination....

2008-10-28T08:57:00.003+08:00

is my answer to impulsion.

I've always known I've been a rather impulsive person, despite my overall nature of being an 'anal planner'. As much as I like to plan, many things that I do happen at the spur of the moment. In the past I've always thought this was down to my weird mood swings. Recent events, however, has led me to realise this:

When I'm not Impulsive, I'll Procrastinate (infinitely, or maybe close).

Harsh words even to myself. Of course, for the things I must do, I will. But many things in life aren't always 'must'. Even eating, sleeping, drinking, in most instances, are a 'can' and not a 'must' until a very last moment.

I'll give some examples.

I currently live quite a long way from the city and my home is really quite nice to stick around on weekends. So unless I have something major that I must do, I wouldn't even go out, even to buy food for meals. Occasionally I'll get these impulse to go out somewhere. For that moment, if I decide to take it up, I will go. But if the decision is delayed (either because where I want to go to or who I want to go with isn't as decisive), then moments later, I will just retreat back to my previous condition and no longer wants to go anywhere.

Another example would have been my dream trip to Japan. I've thought of it many times, but everytime it's all thoughts and no action. Subsequently nothing comes out of it and these days, I'd rather not think of it knowing full well I won't do anything about it.

Now at some point I would say that I just lack the drive to do what I want to do, but I've also realised that if I had done everything I wanted to do on an impulse, I'd done many things I'd regret or even suffer in consequence. So in essence, my abilty to procrastinate has, one way or another, saved me from so many really silly decisions and actions. Of course, it has also made me miss so many opportunities and wasted so much time. But then again, not like actually pursuing those opportunities would have made things that much different. Potentiallity isn't the same as reality.

Having said that, I read an article by this M:tG designer/writer who I like reading alot and his most recent 2 parter was about his wedding. Oh, his wedding is way cool, for those who can appreciate a break from tradition. Unfortunately, for most people, the article would not make much sense as he intertwines his wedding story with M:tG design story. But in case you're curious (as I would), here's http://wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/mm/10 (it's part 2 by the way. You can get part 1 from the article link). Now I'm not talking about getting married here, but in his article he said that designers (or im my case, me), should learn to trust the gut. I would take that as trusting the moments I go on impulse. But how do I do that?

I guess that would probably take me even more years though by then, I'd probably have no gut feel to go about anymore. At least I could boast of the many things I didn't end up doing. How's that for positivity and seeing glasses half full??? hahahaha

At work..

2008-10-22T13:03:00.003+08:00

and obviously not working...

This countdown (which incidentally, is now down to 5 days) is taking it's toll. After next weekend my life may change drastically, or may not change at all. But until that time is over and done with me, I'm in limbo.

Having said that, why let something as major as that ruin my current life (which, in reality, I wonder if I have one)? While I don't have much to blog about (actually, I have nothing to blog about..:p) I could run through some simple updates just to bide time.

1) I did meet up with that guy last Friday. He hasn't changed one bit. Looks, talks and acts the same. Drives the same car too. He has, however moved to his own landed property and while he hasn't switched jobs (not just company, but jobs! Where do you find people like that these days??) he has travelled much further than I have so kudos to him. It was a relatively quiet dinner since well, we're both rather socially inept guys..haha..

2) Not progressing as I should with my piano lessons. Not helped that I am not practicing enough as well as not having the right tools for practice. Looking out now for a reconditioned piano hoping to find a lucky break. The funny thing is, if I do get my piano, I'll have to lose my King sized bed as I have no more room in my room! (Oh yes, sleeping alone in a King sized bed can be, erm....spacious...:p) Which means more costs! This is going to get expensive.

3) Getting tired with the bugs that I face with NWN2. Looking more and more likely to buy the original so that I can get online patches and support. I want to finish the story..WANT.....zzzzzz

Tasol folks....

Network Marketing banes...

2008-10-17T09:54:00.002+08:00

as I try to catch up with old pals.

Recently I've been dogged with this notion to catch up with people I used to know and maybe get an idea on how their lives have evolved. I don't remember most people in my past, but those I do I end up having a curious notion of 'what happened to you?' in me.

The only problem is, at the same time, everyone involved in Network Marketing is doing the same thing too. Calling up long lost friends, pals, colleagues, classmates, you name it they'll call it..Making me suddenly operating much like them and also having difficulty getting an appointment. How sad.

Well, again I would like to state for the record, Network Marketing is a scam!! (in most instances, anyway). I could never (yes, never) bring myself to actually get involved in Network Marketing because my conscience does not allow me to do so. So for anyone who reads here and knows me in real life, take note...(and be easy on this introverted guy because I don't make appointments a whole lot and the slightest obstacle turns me off big time..)

Haha, so anyway, for this guy I had to explain clearly I have no intention to sell him anything. We're meeting up today, if he doesn't feel like I'm lying. Though I can't be since really, I wouldn't have a clue what to sell him.

Candies anyone?? :p

Too many things...

2008-10-16T08:49:00.002+08:00

too little time. Or I'm just spending my time too much on the wrong things.

I haven't been practicing, which is bad since I'm paying for the classes. But recently I managed to find myself a installable copy of NeverWinter Nights 2 and since then, well, my life's been a CRPG. Which is bad since me being me, over-indulgence with PC games has a way of altering my life to become, well, un-life? Hahaha. Zombie would be a better term. So while I work on breaking that habit, I also end up working hard on finding copies for its 2 expansions. Yes, things couldn't get any worse....

Add that to a need to wrestle again....

On a side note, I'm finding people to make a trip to Batu Caves with me..hehehe. Looks like I'm not the only KLite that's been here yet not done that (visit and climbed batu Caves ridiculous amounts of steps). Hopefully that happens in a near future, like end of the month/beginning of next month. Otherwise like all my trip plans, they get suggested and then like most dreams, get forgotten.

Oh, while I'm at it, countdown now is 10 days and counting. :(

Not pulling my weight..

2008-10-13T09:02:00.001+08:00

Pun unintended, I think..

I'm a little annoyed with myself that I'm not practicing enough for my piano lessons. Feels like I need a whip of sorts to get me to spend at least 30 minutes to an hour daily just playing on the keyboard making senseless tunes. Oh well, that's what happens when you start late...30 years late...zzz

On another note, 12 days and counting.....

A Day to remember,

2008-10-10T20:10:00.002+08:00

a time to fear,
an hour of reckoning,
of wishes held dear.

A moment of joy,
peace and clarity.
A future that questions
" is there destiny"?

The past 72 hours has been, simply put, interesting. A see saw of events has put me in a position where I truly enjoyed what I have around me and realised so much more that being happy for now is more important that expecting to be happy in the future. I recently coined a life motto, "Expect Nothing, Hope for Everything" however certain events led to me scrapping it after a short while. But now I believe that it still holds in me.

And in 2 weeks I will know how much I've grown...

A routine kept...

2008-10-03T11:33:00.002+08:00

a routine lost.

I managed a trip down to Singapore earlier this week. 2 days 1 night to be exact. Luckily for me I didn't have to pay for my transportation and lodging this time around as my boss decided that my input on location was worth the RM 1000 the trip would relatively cost. To explain how much I actually spent on my own (and even this I've been told to claim from the company), I brought around SGD 150, left over from my previous trip and returned with SGD 120. Ok, I didn't shop because I really couldn't tell if the things there were cheaper than Malaysia as I was very much thinking in terms of SGD instead of RM when I was there.

To illustrate, I spent SGD4 on a hot choclate and SGD3.50 for a sandwich for breakfast without flinching. This happened even before I was told to claim for all my meals not paid on corporate card (Yes, I have one that can only be used when I'm on business. I wished my company would require me to travel more....Muahahaha). Only after being told by a local that I have good taste (without realising at first the 'good' meant 'expensive and extravagent') I realised I spent almost RM 20 for breakfast!! You wouldn't see me spending that much for a sandwich and hot chocolate for Breakfast in Malaysia!

Now, what did I lose? Well, for those who've known me long enough and recall my older, older posts, I have this thing for Singapore's Burger King. I just think it's so much better than the local ones. MUCH BETTER. So much better that I have, without failure, always had at least 1 serve of the Whopper before returning to Malaysia. Unfortunately, this time around I was busy maximising opportunities to try new food. Procrastinating getting a Whopper until the very end. On the last meal of the trip, I stumbled upon a Brazillian restaurant (called Carnivore, which should have rang a bell). Since I couldn't find a French restaurant I thought I'd just try it. To my surprise they were serving set Buffet meal where they hawk their barbecued meat around and in the end, I had more meat that 1 meal than I had the entire month of September! (They served beef, pork, lamb, chicken and fish. Fish was poor eventhough they served Salmon). By the time I was done, which took me less than an hour, I was so full I couldnt' bring myself to buy a Whopper for later.

Hence, I now have broken my chain of always getting a BK Whopper each time I go to Singapore. As it has been recently, over the past few months, I've broken quite a number of my rules and chains, which, while some have been uneventful, others have brought a good change to my life. Maybe it's time to set new chains/rules? Hmmmm.

On a side note, someone I know recently started blogging (she started much longer ago, but back then I wasn't in the mood to 'layan', hehe). However, in her blog there was no opportunity to comment, so that somewhat loses it's appeal abit. But I must say, she does write well.....

Coming up next....

2008-09-26T08:14:00.002+08:00

A haircut
Carwash
Everton VS Liverpool
Trip to Singapore
Hari Raya Aidilfitri

Trip to Singapore???

Yeah, I've finally managed to get to travel overseas because of work, though it's only a 2 day trip and on really tight budget ( I offered to take the coach). At least I still make it to Singapore once a year and I have SGD 140 to spend away. Though with my current eating habits, I'm not sure if I should visit Burger King....yum....uh Oh....

The other problem would be that my return will be on the eve of Hari Raya, which means I'm putting myself at high risk of being part of the statistic. Since I'm not driving, I can't be blamed since I'm not in control. So if it's time to go, it's time to go, no?

Anyway, still need alot of work on my 4th finger on my right hand. No strength at all...Practice practice practice......

Oh, dunno why I've been getting this insane drive to actually hang out this Friday Night. It's driving me nuts. Luckily for me, I have no one to go out with..hehehe..

Of long trips to find food you can get next door (almost)..

2008-09-23T07:40:00.002+08:00

Warning...Non-Halal post ahead....hehehe

Before that, a quick update on class last weekend. Still the same teacher who I have to speak in Cantonese with. But this time it was better an communication wasn't as tough. So maybe I should give it a go for 2 months. I paid for it anyway, hahaha. It's funny she asked me to get a songbook of sorts which was aptly titled, "Piano for Adult Beginners". It it, voila! It had June by Tchaikovsky (which looks harder than it sounds...:-( ) as well as Moonlight Sonata 1st movement (which, if I was only required to play with my right hand, I would have breeze through easily, haha!)

In between are loads of songs and compositions, which, IMHO, some are simplified. But then again, it's not like I can play the originals anyway. I can't even play the actual Traumerei....Sigh...

Ok, so last weekend an much delayed trip to Klang to find some authentic Klang Bakuteh finally materialised. For those unfamiliar, Bak Kut Teh is hokkein for Spare Ribs and Tea. The meat is pork by the way. Though I'm not exactly a fan of spare ribs (unless you debone them for me, haha!) the meal has evolved to include a host of other goodies like lean meat, fatty meat, mushrooms, etc. and above all it's yummy yummy soup. So having sampled quite a lot of this, I figured surely the one in Klang, where Bakuteh is famous for, should be better, if not best?

It's nice to know people in far away places anyway..hehe. Klang isn't exactly far like Mars far, or Australia far, but 60KM of driving on a highway is far enough for me. Anyway, so this colleague of mine brought me to this renown Klang place which is suppose to be THE ONE for Klang people. The ones I went before are relative knock-offs.

So after picking him up from his home (which, on another side, is a pretty nice place and quiet too...) we had to drive another 15 minutes or so and the place is called Pandamaran Town area (he keeps on repeating "Sin Chuan" in mandarin but me and mandarin just don't mix, hehe). Then after confirming which stall it was (yes, despite it being such a renown eatery, it's actually just a stall beside the main road.) we sat down and he ordered. FYI, do not go there without a hokkien speaker. They will treat you like a nobody. Then my colleague explained that the owner would insist that the soup has to be at the right mix before he'll serve, so everyone will actually wait, even if it is for an hour, for this guy to serve. Luckily for me, we arrived in time for the first serve so we didn't have to wait too long.

Oh, did I mention that for Bakuteh the main thing for me isn't the meat and tea but the soup?? Well, you're not getting much of that here. They don't even give a bowl of soup. The bowl where they serve the meat consist of about 5-6 spoonful of the soup and that's it. You can't even ask for more soup. When your order more rice, they'll give you about 2-3 spoonful of soup..That's it, folks...

It was nice, in terms of taste. But I wouldn't go there if I want to drink Bakuteh soup....

I would go there again, if I find the right company. Going there on my own? 120KM of driving to have food I've already tried? Don't think so.

Ok, that's all I have got to say about Bak Kut Teh. Now I need to find motivation to practice what I'm taught. Somehow paying for it only motivates me to turn up to classes, which is not enough...

By the way, anyone want to donate me a piano???? :D

A jinx no more?

2008-09-18T07:48:00.000+08:00

Interestingly, I sat through the entire Liverpool Man Utd match last weekend and it seems my jinx is over. Or is it?

I really wanted to leave the match actually, more so when in the 3rd minute, due to some non-existent defending from Javier Mascherano, Liverpool were a goal down. With me was Azmin and Andy and boy was Andy happy I stayed while Azmin was really wondering why I'm still around.

But somehow I watched on. Ok, I'll blame it on inertia. I do have a problem willing myself to do things when I'm not doing anything at all. So sitting down and having my eyes fixated on the TV was about as much I could do then.

But strangely enough, Edwin Van De Sar (the Man Utd keeper) decided to do what I've always hoped he'd do. Make a howler. From a deflected shot across his goalmouth, he decided to palm the ball onto an incoming Man Utd defender who could do nothing as the ball cannons off and rolled into the net. Liverpool 1 Man Utd 1. Things seem to be changing?

A long and ardous battle on the field later, Ryan Babel, who I couldn't understand why he didn't start, was substituted in. Before that, a Man Utd legend of sorts, as well as one of the few Man Utd players that I actually liked, was subbed in. He was Ryan Giggs. In his prime he was one of the most dangerous left wingers ever. On last weekend however, he wasn't exactly in his prime or playing all that well.

From a failed attempt to clear, Mascherano made something out of nothing of Gigg's insistent to let a ball run free, stole it, released it to Dirk Kuyt who happily passed it to an unmarked Babel and...!!!!

!!!!!GOAL!!!!!!

Liverpool 2 Man Utd 1!!!!!!

Everyone in the restaurant (bar silly Man Utd fans, ofcourse..:p) roared with approval (and for me, relief). That was in the 77th minute. The next 20 minutes or so was extremely anxious and I was actually telling myself that a draw would still be acceptable.

But in the end, the score stayed and Liverpool finally beat Man Utd after 9 meetings!!! Looks like we don't need Danny Murphy anymore!!!!
hahaha

That was fun, though I can't say so much about the rest of my weekend.
On a side note, last Saturday's piano class had a new teacher, who spoke to me in Mandarin!! Eventually she got the notion I don't understand mandarin (me not responding to her question would have made it obvious, no? :p) and she used cantonese instead. Maybe I should ask for an English speaking teacher. Otherwise I will have communication issues....:-(

We shall see.

Oh, bad piano habits that I have.

1) Play without proper tempo, usually too fast.
2) Keep raising my fingers away from the keyboard.
3) Tense posture.

Better start practicing!!!

Run in on a crowded road...

2008-09-16T10:36:00.002+08:00

Isn't exactly the nicest thing to happen in a jammed up road. I have to admit I wasn't the nicest driver yesterday and in no part faultless, but hey...

Anyway, I was at this jammed junction and I saw an opening on my right lane so I dived in. I got honked by the car behind, who decided he was having none of it and went parallel with me on my right. Now, me with a Viva (which is a small car) against his Wira, which is a crappy bigger car, as well as me having no mood to be nice, I just don't see how he can actually muscle his way. Yes, he's got the bigger car and in most circumstances, the bigger car wins. But in a jammed road, the small car thriumphs since I need much less room to make any manuevers.

At first we went head to head for several metres, eventually I overtook him and took the lane. He then proceeded to go to my left but still wanted to wrestle me out by overtaking me. Our side mirrors clashed and luckily for me my side mirror is retractable manually so a few hits just sends it out of position but does not dislodge it. I still kept the lane. Then he came at me from the left again, wound down his window and started to hit my side mirror again. Had a quick look and could see a rather angry driver shouting expletives. I decided to ignore him and he eventually overtook me from the left only to signal left again as he obviously needed to go onto the lanes on the left. There was a clear road up ahead so he was obviously just acting like a angry child..haha. Eventually I found enough room to overtake him and nid him adieu while he remains stuck at that part of the jam..:P

Funny thing was that it's fasting month and well....Which got me thinking. Since I have no religion, I cannot sin. Unlike him/other. Especially on this time of the year. Well, even if not at this time of the year, I cannot sin. I can however go against the law and feel bad thanks to my conscience.....So if anyone is on the road having a go at me, they're just wasting their time. And they've just lost a lot of brownie points with their gods..hahaha. Not that it matters really, since in most religion, repentance is more of a show than a mental decision. hmmph.

After I finally reached home I assessed that my car wasn't damaged except for the mirror, which was already damaged in the past anyway. No point keeping the car in tip top exterior since that would just make it a car dying to get scratched.

In conclusion, don't mess with me as I can do what most people without sinning, cannot do. Doesn't make me a better person, just one with less worries about my afterlife. :P

And the weekend went....

2008-09-09T13:01:00.003+08:00

Ok...

Class was only for 30 minutes and the temp teacher (seems they've asssigned me a teacher but she no-show) taught me the ultimate basics in piano playing. Before I knew the 30 minutes was up.. Disappointed.

Now I just need to practice playing with both hands on my run-down el-cheapo keyboard.

Otherwise weekend was a miss mostly. Didn't do much of what I should be doing, mostly because I was, well, afflicted. haha.

Hopefully this weekend the real teacher shows up and I can get going on learning how to play properly.

Targets/Goals - Traumerei 1st. Moonlight 1st and 2nd. It'll probably take me eons before I can play the 3rd piece because it's just so so fast..

Another Target/goal - Find myself an affordable piano.

This is going to take awhile.....

Update!

2008-09-03T13:25:00.001+08:00

Piano lessons starts this weekend!!!

Hope I don't take too long to get my fingers snappy!!!

Epiphany

2008-09-02T07:39:00.005+08:00

Now, I'm not saying some extra-terrestial came to me and gave me a good hiding. Though I'm pretty sure that'll be what I get if indeed any one of them were to visit me. Yes, I haven't been a good boy. Why do you think I get no love during Christmas? (Because you don't celebrate it you dungu!) Oops.

So what did happen?

Well, in an effort to understand my chances as well as improve my odds in one of my recent pursuits of the fairer sex (Ok, I can't be in denial all the time, right? :p Though worry not, by the time I write this I'm back to being me..haha) I decided to speak to one long time friend and 'master of sweeping feets of the ground'. In our conversation he made light to me something that, in truth, is blatantly obvious. But you know how at times you just need to be told what you already know? It's an intricate and delicate timing and more often than not the timing is off. However, this time around the same old tune struck a very loud chord and voila! Eyes opened.

You see, a very obvious explanation to why I fail to attract any female of my liking is that I obviously go for the uncommon ones. However, despite my higher/different (I'd like to say lower, but then again, who am I kidding?) expectations, I have nothing to offer. How my friend put it; I am not good looking (to say I'm average looking would be a bonus but that doesn't help either), I am not rich nor aspire to be (and won't ever be, haha!), I am not intelligent to an extent it radiates around me (you know like how really smart people really smarten people kind of thing..), I'm not funny (Ok, as much as I disagree on this point, as I do believe I am, until I realise the only person laughing at my jokes are myself and my family. That basically means I AM NOT FUNNY..), I'm not good in bed (well, no one really knows that yet, but.....Well, no one will probably even know...haha!) and I have nothing exceptional/impressive to attract the uncommon types.

So in order words, I AM NOT GOOD ENOUGH. While I don't feel as though I was stabbed a thousands times over when that dawn on me, it did hurt. In addition, my lack of any ambition basically means that neither of those traits above would be enhanced in the furthest of future.

Lastly, all the things I do now can only be enjoyed by myself. I have no activities that require another person to participate to make it fun.

With all the inputs to the formula the resulting end product is......I am doomed alone.

Oh well, that doesn't even surprises me or anyone else I'd think.

So..........You don't call it an epiphany unless you do something about it, or something good comes from it right? (Well.....There is that thing about me being in denial.....)

So, barring from blogspot deciding to get hit by viruses and losing all my post, including this one, let me state what I am going to do with myself.

1) I will lose weight
2) I will learn how to play the piano
3) I will finish writing the pieces in my head

I haven't got a plan yet, but I am getting details very soon (yeah right..) and hopefully I will have new stuff to write here. Kind of a checklist where myself and everyone that reads here get to keep track of how I'm doing.

Must not lose sight of the destination. Even if I chose to drift in the ocean, I shall drift to the sound of music.

An unexpected Gathering..

2008-08-25T08:42:00.003+08:00

Last Saturday I met up with the guy who made the MMORPG that I play, WebDota at SS2. For those who didn't know, yeah, it turns out he's Malaysian (yes, he). Let's see if I can pan out what happened in little over 4 hours to a full fledge blog post.

Prologue:

Around 2 months ago over some forum thread at Webdota, another Malaysian player known as ninja (whom I have come to know watches RAW as well..hehe) sparked up a thought to invite the creator of WebDota (WD), formerly known as LoD (he's real name I shant reveal as it isn't all that relevant here anyway..) to Bak Kut Teh (those unfamiliar with this Malaysian Chinese (or maybe just Chinese) activity, it's basically Chinese Tea over a meal of rice and Stew Pork). Why or how escapes me now, but back then it was a thought, not much a decision. Fast forward a couple of weeks, LoD decides to announce that he intends to end the free playing game at a milestone round 50, (currently at Round 46), which will mean very soon I will be a very very bored employee during work hours (at least until I finally decide to actually spend all 7.5 hours DOING WORK at WORK...Maybe.....Maybe...)

My first thought were to ask him out to a drink and bombard him with all the intrusive and invasive questions as to why he wants to quit, as well as finding more on what he does to keep the game going at the moment ( I actually managed to ask alot that day, be the key intrusive personal questions were sparred as there were other people there which made me think the answer may not be as forthcoming as I'd hope). He countered with a gathering of sorts, allowing other Malaysian players in our area (that would be Klng Valley). At first I was skeptical, due to me being the ANAL PLANNER, a gathering has some measure of planning to it. He took it away and all I had to do was turned up (kind of, I did end up having to pick up 2 guys from a train station...). Before you know it a thread was created to get players to RSVP for the gathering.

Making the Gathering (hey, look. it's got the same initials as Magic: the Gathering...hahaha):

Unfortunately Bak Kut Teh is pork, and where I live if the gathering is to be open to people in my country, then it's just common courtesy and logic to pick a 'Halal' venue so as not to sideline our muslim associates. So the venue got changed to Murni in SS2 PJ. At first I didn't have a clue where it was, but knowing that it's SS2 meant I was pretty sure I could find the restaurant irregardless as I'm very familiar with SS2; It's a big square block of shoplots with many eateries and cybercafes...How could I not find the place?

As LoD decided to pick up the tab, the decision was to limit it to 8 persons (he went on to advise it was a gimmick to actually get people to commit, as anopen invitation will take forever as oppose to a 'VIP' availability, but I'm to cost conscious to see it that way, haha!) and the thread was soon balooned with post of people who wanted to go, wanted to go but can't, did not want to go but wanted to spam and just plain spammers (actually spamming could apply to any of the previous categories of people too). The good thing was with a deadline in place, there's only so much spamming to happen before finalising the VIP list (oh yeah, people still spammed the thread AFTER the thread's purpose was done. Go figure...)

By the deadline only 7 confirmed. Myself, LoD, Ninja (the other guy, hehe) and 4 others RSVP (Gabrial aka Gaybrial (I call him Gabby in writing..haha), Zeifer, BumbleStreak and Karb. The date of the gathering was now set to 23rd August 2008 at 6.30pm. Another side topic, some of the WD gamers in Indonesia has started a gathering thread for more than a year, I think, but has not really managed to make it reality. So I was driven to drive a wedge to their 'efforts' by making the Malaysia gathering happen in a shorter time. In fact, just making it happen was a big plus. Oh, because of that, I needed photo evidence. So I tried to get some of the other attendees to bring cameras (me and my dislike to be photographed made it hypocritical for me to bring a camera). Since I had some 'ferrying' duties, I figured it would make sense to get someone else to bring cameras. Besides, I was trying very hard not to 'PLAN' the gathering.

On that day, 23rd August 2008.....:

I was to pick up Ninja and Gabrial at Asia Jaya LRT Station at 6pm. I arrived slightly after 6 with Shrek (that's my car, haha!). Gabrial was already waiting there, while Ninja was still, well, practicing ninjutsu? (as in not around, unseen, late...) After some not so comfortable introductions, I realise that Gabrial was rather green (hey, matching colours!!) with regards to the city since he's just here to study. Wish I got to go far far away to study..:-( ..Oh well, did I mention we waited.....And waited....And waited.....For a cool (yes, it was quite cold that evening too...) 30 minutes. We couldn't reach his phone and he wasn't replying our SMSes, so i left without him. A short drive after we were in SS2 and my phone rang.

Zeifer, who was getting there on his own, needed some directions on how to get to the place. From me! Hahaha, had they had all known I was going there with a lose image of where I think the place it, they might have decided against asking for my directions. I gave him what I could in terms of how to get closer to our venue and bid him good luck. I needed it too. Missing a turn, I had to go a circle around one part of SS2 just to get back on the same road as the venue. My phone rang again. This time it was LoD asking if I was there yet. I hate being late, but it wasn't really my fault! :-( I told him I just parked and would see him at the venue.

Upon reaching there I saw this geeky guy who didn't quite look like LoD (he posted a picture on the forum) but wasn't sure, so I called him again. he picked up the phone. I scoured the area and no other Chinese guy was picking up a call. Where on earth was he??? " I'm waiting inside the car"......Duh...And so there were 3 of us. Shortly later Zeifer found his way after speaking to me again (this time I was already there, so my directions would have been better, me thinks) and the gathering was 4. Yes, 4. Out of a possible 8 which 7 RSVPed, only 4 actually turned up.

Ninja had an unfortunate accident of switching off his mobile phone completely and not remembering his pin. So instead of spending time with us he ended up spending time at a mobile phone shop. When I finally saw his SMS and called him about it, I couldn't but help laugh at the unfortunate event. I'm not sure if he realises I laugh at these things, not because I intend to demean but they're just humourous, are they not? These random coincidences?

Bumblestreak turned out to be a minor and was not allowed to go by his mom. This was school holidays and he explains he's been going out so much the mom wanted him at home. Too bad, so sad...hahahah. (Whoever says I'm not evil just DOES NOT KNOW ME!!)

Karb? Who? Well, no offence, but this was the guy who posted least and hardly made an impression he really wanted to turn up. To me anyway..

So 4 guys and a mamak store. What do you think happened? Some random facts:
1) We were all in glasses (contacts people, contacts...zzz)
2) 3 Chinese 1 Malay (All Malaysian, so huat???)
3) 30, 25, 22, 20. Go figure what those figures are. No, it wasn't the body measurements of some hot chick there, since I don't think those numbers describe much of a hotchick. Try harder...)
4) The conversations were mostly in English (poor Gabrial. Name of an Angel but had to speak in a somewhat foreign tongue...:p)

Gabrial's foreign nature were telling as he couldn't decide what to order in a Mamak!!! Feels like I'm having one of my foreign country guest. hahaha. Though I'm sure in time he will get accustomed to this Malaysian culture...Everyone else was rather comfortable. Gabrial and Zeifer ordered Roti Hawaii (per Gabrial had beef, pineapples and some other stuff I can't recall) while LoD had Clyapot "Lou Shee Fun" (some kind of short, fat semi-transparent noodles). By the speed LoD ate it, either he really eats slowly or it didn't come out very good. I'm still under oversight of my dietician, so most, if not all the food there were off-limits. I ended up with 2 Teh Tariks and 1 Mango juice/punch/something....

We started of with some customary introductions (hmm, wait, I don't recall introducing myself and what I do..hehe, I must have talked too much about myself then so much so they didn't need to ask about me...:p) and I asked LoD about the cost to maintain the game. I also asked about the things he needed to do to keep the game going, stopping short at the technical bits as I knew nothing of those sorts. Then most of our conversations were on the game and the gamers.

Before we knew it was 9.30pm. A short photo session later (Must have for photo evidence!!) we went our seperate ways and maybe we'd gather again in the future..Maybe.. You know these thing....All talk......hehehehehe..I dropped off Gabrial at the same station and realised I couldn't find anyone to watch BPL with. So I went home.

Epilogue:

The pictures have since been posted. The verdict's out....Someone commented I didn't look as 'big' as I say I am..Well......hehehehe..Not to say I don't like that...hehehe..

It was a good meet up and hopefully there's more. It's funny how internet acquaintences aren't as different normal acquaintences......

It's also nice to have a story to tell compared to my recent posts here....hahah

For those concerned...

2008-08-20T13:14:00.002+08:00

Never fear...I'm not the title of my blog for no reason..:P

But yes, pain is the order of the day.

Excerp from a song I like:

Sparkling grey, through my own veins....

Anymore than a whisper, any sudden movement of my heart.....

And I know, I Know I have to watch them pass away.......

Just get through this day....

**************************

Must get through this day.......

In a moment of depression

2008-08-13T09:09:00.002+08:00

What better thing to do than to sing myself to death?

I holed up in my room, put on the music and found out I could still remember close to all of the lyrics of the following:

Going Under
Bring Me to Life
Everybody's Fool
My Immortal
Tourniquet
Imaginary
Taking Over Me
Hello
My Last Breath
Whisper
Sweet Sacrifice
Call Me When You're Sober
Lithium
Snow White Queen
Lacrymosa
Good Enough
Breathe No More
Last Song I'm Wasting on You

Need more work remembering:
Like You
Further Away
Missing

I also know now how straining it is to the vocal chords to sing all of them in one go. Salute to all the performers in concert (those that aren't lip syncing).

A lot of water helps.

Ok, it's sinking in...

2008-08-11T08:27:00.001+08:00

Doom approaches.

Life Sucks.

Monday, what great timing.

Will I survive??????

A month too far...

2008-08-02T16:02:00.003+08:00

Hmm, no idea why on earth I had that title..Maybe if I kept on writing I'd figure it out. Sometimes even I don't understand how my brain works....hehe

I'm actually at work on a saturday and tomorrow I will be too. I actually have work that I don't mind coming over on a weekend to finish. I guess I'm relishing the responsibility my new role places on me...Though the fact that I'm blogging when I should be working means that all the above is crap..hahaha

After some further thought, the title actually is not appropriate for this post, though much much more appropriate in my other blog. Oh well. I can't afford to reveal too much of the inner me here unless I want to kill myself. Literally.

Ok, now that I'm determined that suicide is not part of the agenda, let's get on to some updating:

1) I've wrecked my car. Not exactly totaled it, but I've aged it significantly by doing something really stupid last weekend. I drove half way around town with my handbrakes on!! Ok, I'll use the excuse that the handbrake lights didn't come on, but as excuses go......Oh, and it's called Shrek. Maybe a little small when comparing other cars, but as a 'person' about the size of Shrek.

2) Work's good especially when I'm getting a good dose of support from my boss. Also helps that I still feel I'm doing something with a purpose and with justification. Though like the previous roles, the novelty eventually goes away and the usual politics come into play. Nothing last forever....

3) Did I mention I'm on a restricted diet? Hmm, not too bothered to check what I've posted before, so I'll say it again. I'm on restricted diet. Has been enforced since end of June, though I have caved in every now and then. But not that bad I hope. I'm to weigh myself tonight to see what the progress is like. Remember, Expect Nothing, Hope for Everything. In this case, no, I'm not hoping to lose 100kgs as that would basically reduce me to a pulp. Yes, a pulp. A real pulp. Though dropping under 100KGs would be lovely. Nah..Not going to happen..:p

4) I'm becoming more and more unable to stay up late. Which means I AM getting old. Well, 10 years and counting. Life begins at 40? Hell no!! Life ends at 40...hahahahahaha (explains why I'm not properly insured...:p)

5) I'm trying to play some kind of sports regularly but looks like nothing is working. Can't swim, can't trek, can't play badminton and futsal games are just a little too far. I have another game tomorrow, though I'm not sure if I want to go. I still have unfinished work you see...

6) I want to drive to Ipoh. Wearn, if you see this, I'm going to be knocking on your door sometimes soon. A night away from KL should be fun. Boring and fun. Though with my food restrictions I'm not sure how much fun from feeding I'll get. First things first, I better burn some better music for the 2 hour drive..:p

7) Webdota is annoucing that it will cease in a month or so time. I am not sure what I'll do if I don't play that anymore..Maybe crims? Nah...I'll have to call up the owner and take him out for a drink to convince him to keep it up..hahaha...Maybe he's getting married?? Hmm, to find out.:p

Tomorrow at noon I will have exactly 10 years left to find me someone to move into the next phase of life with me. As that time reduces, so will my reason to live. For I only need to be living for myself for so long.

Life is good; and Life goes on as long as I still want too...

Eh?

2008-07-25T09:54:00.001+08:00

Why am I trying to post here???

Because I don't feel like working???

A new Motto in life

2008-07-22T13:14:00.002+08:00

Expect Nothing. Hope for Everything.

Sounds very much like a person who leaves everything to god/fate but coming from me, who has no religion and strongly believes the creator doesn't need/want to interfere, I'm not leaving things to god/fate. Just that in life when one expects, failure hurts and success only meets expectation. With hope, everything that comes true is a joy to happen; Every failure is just another day in life.

In other words I'm trying to be even happier than I already am, which really isn't really that happy.

Oh well, just wanted to document this.

I actually exercised....

2008-07-02T18:31:00.002+08:00

by going hill trekking last Sunday.

Man was it tough. 7 stages and I didn't even make half way. Around 2.5 I was already exhausted to death and felt my legs giving way and my lungs collasping. I need to do this more I think...

Should I also mention I'm kind of in a diet? Someone I know volunteered to provide me some dietary advise which failure to follow will result in their wrath....Which at this point of time is the last thing I want to experience. Though in the future, you never know. Maybe once just for the experience, eh? :p

This other guy's blog I read said that ultimately the blog is for the readers, in otherwords YOU who actually read my blog. Funny thing is for me, the true customer is myself. Granted, if I only wanted to write this for my own reading pleasure I should have a private journal (which I do, hehehe) but even this one I more or less write it for my own sake. Sometimes yeah, maybe for others if they are keen but down the line, prior to my demise, I'd probably find time to have a visit down memory lane by reading this AND my other blog. Should be fun. Painful, but fun.

........(1 minute of silence since I don't know what else to type)

Hmm...Adios then....

Trying to blog more....

2008-06-26T11:41:00.003+08:00

Is such a chore...
Since I'm a bore...
Really low in lore...

Trying to be happier.
In these days so much darker..
Petrol prices higher..
Income not much better...

Friday's ready to rumble..
At Night we all tumble..
In shop not to far from shambles..
Enough of this mumble jumble..

This weekend something nice..
Should happen to my life..
Though that would make it twice..
My weekend's being nice..

But until it happens..
Will keep my options open....
Hopefully don't get summoned..
By some idiotic person....

Now I'm done with this cheap shot..
at rhyming these lousy lot..
I hope it will not...
Stop me from talking rots....

hahaha..Yeah, random nothings...Sorry

Winds of Change..

2008-06-20T14:41:00.003+08:00

No, not quite the Scorpion one..Though taking into consideration how the Euro 2008 has been, there's some winds of change Happening.

So glad France and Portugal are out. Can wait for the loser Italy to get kicked in the balls too.. Lucky **** to make it to the next round..

Recently someone bugged me to write again..But I don't know what to write about, really.

I've moved to a new job in my Company, but other than the title I still seem to be donig what I do....not working.

Even as I type this at 2.43pm local time I'm sleepy and can't get back to my work cos it keeps sending me to sleep.

I'm still playing that Webgame but I'm beginning to lose interest...Haha, but it's still something I use predominantly to keep me awake at work..If I ever get caught i'm sure goinmg to get fired.

I am in the process of acquiring some....ahem..wheels...Hopefully very soon. Despite my country's decision to increase the price of fuel I've found out that mobility at a faster rate is becoming more and more important. Wonder if it's anything to do with my limited mortality as I close in on 75% of liveable period as an individual.

Now what else can I blog about? Hmm, nothing I can state here, I think..Haven't got any nice stories to tell. Maybe in a near future?

A friend of mine got engaged and didn't even tell me until I unwittingly called him while he's 'at it' (as in during the engagement ceremony, you dirty little ***) so I'm a little dissapointed. But it's not like I do these ceremonies well anyway, so I guess it was a blessing in diguise. He's getting married next year...

Hmm, beginning to feel a tug to leave a legacy behind..Guess what I'll be leaving???? Well, maybe you'll find out soon.....muahahahaha..Or I'm just talking rots because I'm running out of ideas..

Another superb change in my life would be if I get drafted to play spin doctor for a nasty politician.. Too bad such a career is non-existent where I live, at least I believe not for my type. I'm also likely to change into a monster. But changes are good, no??

Ok, I'm obviously depressed today. It's one of those days...Will blog later...Like...later....:p

I guessed I didn't....

2008-03-14T13:54:00.004+08:00

Continue that post I made in Jan...How sad..

I've since moved in, stunk my room with my manly smell, bought a new PC and setup a wireless connection so 3 of us siblings still stuck under the same roof can all surf online for whatever our reasons may be without asking each other off the PC...

I've also added another webgame to my repertoire, TheCrims, though in this game I don't mingle with other players but another friend of mine who seems to have similar liberties at work (during and off) to play online games and discuss about whores, drugs and breaking the law over the company lines. One day we're so going to get caught....:D

I have also been driving regularly.....Oops, I actually made it public!! Hehe, somehow the ones which I fear would find out I have a feeling don't visit anymore. They've not commented nor have they indicated they still read this sparsely posted blog..For the few who do, mucho gracias and NO, I DON'T OWN A CAR SO DON'T EXPECT FERRYING SERVICES....(yes, I am not and never aspire to be a gentleman, so sod off...haha!!)

Liverpool's having a fine run, hopefully we continue to pick up points and above all, beat Man(f)U(kced) for once in like centuries!! (ok, maybe they did beat them sometime this millienia, but it feels like centuries to me!)

WebDota still takes a bit of my time, but I've gotten to a stage where I don't quite rank top 20, but do keep my arse out of harms way enough to have some fun playing.. I also have deviced a strategy that avoid being targeted in the beginning...(it's known as being fat, I tell ya!)

I realised that I can't play FIFA type games anymore with some competency as the controls have gotten more complex and for one with nigh zero hand-eye coordination, even beating amateur level is a chore...Go figure...

Biological clock ticking aside, let me remind myself and anyone who bothers to read, I'm closing in to the last 10 liveable years of my life. Once I hit 40, if I don't find anything much worth living for, well.......(Don't worry, suicide is not an option...Though hiring a hit for myself don't really count as suicide, right??? :p)

Work's kinda crap for the past few months, but I think I'll post that another time...Let's see if my near endless patience over incompetency, failures and missed opportunities actually hit a limit, or can I go ever lower??? Time will tell.

Sometimes I just need to be told what I already know. Now to find someone or something who'd play that part for me...

I have moved!!!

2008-01-31T13:07:00.000+08:00

I no longer live in the small apartment I mentioend previously. My apartment now is slightly bigger, though with the amount of rubbish me and my family have a tendency to accumulate over time, it's just a matter of time before space becoems a prime commodity...But now I'm too sleepy to post somemore...

Will continue this later...

Setting the house on Fire....

2008-01-31T12:37:00.000+08:00

Been so busy I haven't had time to post a couple of things that happened to my life recently..Well, here is one of them..

A few weeks back while I was preparing to move to a new apartment, I set my current apartment on fire. Well, not exactly the kind of fire you see on TV where the whole place burns up, but it was significant enough to remind me to always check what's on the bottom of my pots before I place them onto the stove.

You see, it was late night and I realise that I needed food. So I popped 2 frozen Roti Canai (some kind of bread) onto a pan hoping to heat it up nice enough to eat. Without bothering too much on the task, I placed the pan on the stove, light it up and then went back to my internet game (Webdota, if you haven't noticed).

A couple of minutes later I smelt something burning and looked behind me. Yes, my kitchen stove and my PC was less than 7 metres away. To my horror, a fire of about 3 feet was burning right out of my frying pan. Now, in most instances such a fire would not happen, as the pan has been used on that stove a million times before. Yet this time the fire was no joke. What they say about the smoke being worse than the fire is true too. The thick black smoke was really scary.

My first thought was to disconnect the gas from the stove, starving the fire of fuel. But it kept burning. I moved all the flammable items around it to avoid burning up more things, but that pan looks like a real fiery mess. Shouting fire wasn't something I thought I'd ever do for real, but that night I shouted fire alright. The rest of my family came out to see and no one was laughing at the fire..Suffice to say it didn't look like stopping.

Luckily the stove was next to the sink, so ample water source was available. However, I guess I panicked and worried that dousing it with water would cause an explosion of sorts, so it took my mom to actually interfere and douse the fire with a spalsh of water..

That was it. One splash and the fire died. Rather anticlimax, I'd say, but really, I'm glad it ended prematurely. Else I'd had to move out sooner than expected, with a fraction of the possesion since they'd all be burnt already. With the fire gone, we noticed a ring of burnt plastic around the stove. I basically placed the pan which was resting on a plastic potholder which stuck to the bottom when I placed it over the stove. It got burnt to ashes and the pan is now as black as charcoal.

Over the next hour or so the black smoke blew away, leaving the conditions at home back to normal, if you don't miss the stove and the pan...

Life lesson - Always make sure it's just the pot/pan you're placing over the stove before you start the fire. Else, gas isn't the only thing fueling your fire.....

Nothing to Blog....(change to few habits of mine)

2007-12-10T18:20:00.000+08:00

Most probably because I have a tendency to write things I feel, yet find things I feel not safe to blog, thus not having much material to blog about. Also add the fact that I find most everyday happenings not worth blogging even though I should enjoy every minute of my life even though I'm not enjoying every minute of my life.

Hmm..I am my own shrink. How cost effective.

I haven't checked my previous post so I haven't an inkling how long since I posted (I could check rather easily but since when wasn't I a lazy type? Let's just assume it was quite a while back...) Ok, so this fat bum lazy boy has nothing to blog about except how he is trying to think positive over things that aren't so positive..Looks like I need something else to type today...

Let's talk about my habits then...

1) Small mechanical devices, shun me! - I have a tendency to destroy small devices, if that's what I should call it. For example, the remote control is usually one item that get's wrecked by me. I like to toy with the battery compartment by opening and closing the lid until a time when the lid falls off and goes missing, or the lid falls off and goes missing. Usually that happens when I'm not around but due to my constant opening and closing of the lid it tends to lose it's simple 'lock' attribute no thanks to wear and tear. Also the following things should be kept out of my idle hands; Pens with springs, torchlights, tupperwares, small toys (you have no idea how many toy cars I've wrecked.. Explains why I don't drive?) and a host of other small items which should fit the bill.

2) Laughing when I should cry - Well, not just crying, but anger, frustration, dissapointment and a host of other negative feelings. I laugh when I experience them. Not so much because I am sadistic and evil (which, I don't deny I am...capable of) but more to the fact that I've grown so accustomed at not being able to show those emotions that I channel them all into smiles and laughter. Nobody minds seeing a smile you see. They do find it annoying when I laugh hysterically at the most ridiculous mishaps so the hyena like laughter is reserved for the most improbable turn of events like erm, like, slipping and falling, a bad knock to the joints, a broken glass/plate, spilling something somewhere, misplaced keys, etc.. Things most people get to shout and scream..I laugh. Really. I do eventually or sometimes show real anger, but due to lack of practice (hehehe, yes, even showing anger needs practice) I seem to no longer be able to show a kind of anger that would worry/scare anyone off. Sad, since no one will be taking me seriously soon (if not already now).

3) Playing the Balancing Role - You see, if it isn't already obvious ( for those few who actually come back and read me rant about me..), I am actually as negative a person as anyone can be.. (Ok, I haven't committed suicide, not attempted it, so I am not as negative until I am dead..) But, when I am in a discussion or when I am talking to someone, I tend to play the other role; If you're a positive person I will throw in negative comments; If you're feeling down I'll try to help you get your spirits up (NOTE: TRY) I don't know why I do it, or if everyone else does it, but I don't seem to have a consistent stand on things. The only thing I try to consistent on is the right for each individual to decide what they want to do in life..But even that it's getting harder and harder these days to NOT attempt to influence another person to do something that I feel is right, or that the action/decision benefit myself to some extent.

4) Fixing Other's language - Well, most of the time it's English, since it's what I think in, speak with and write in. The only problem is that, my English is merely passable at best. Add that to the high number of people who dislike being corrected on the spot/email this habit have a tendency to get me in people's bad books. But I don't want to stop doing this, for I believe I'm simply doing others a service (yeah right, I BELIEVE THAT.....)

5) The number 7 - I just like it..You've got a problem with that?? (now, how do I find 7 habits of mine that won't get me into hot soup???)

Looks like I can't for the moment. I'll probably come back and add somemore habit in the future...Yeah, I like reading my own posts and would come back ot this one sometime in the future.....If I remember......

What???

2007-10-29T18:17:00.001+08:00

It's been 40 days since I last posted???

Holy........Looks like blogging is beginning to lose it's appeal.. Or I just don't have much to write for myself to reminiscence. Ah well, considering how boring I am, how much could I write out of sheer crap??

Quick updates:

I'm getting a lot more work now due to my own silliness by taking ownership of a particular system at work. Hopefully it pays off by landing me another job.

Having said that, I recently applied for another job. My interviewer was a manager that shares the same first name (english name, but we're both Chinese) and made it the most stressless interview I've ever been... Too bad he isn't the final decider if I get the job or not...Even then, he might not hire me...I think he thinks I'm making a mistake...:P

Talking about mistakes, I've recently gotten to know some people via the web thanks to my Webdota activity. As always, its easy to find friends and relate to them, but it really takes an argument, a clash of egos, a sudden change of mood and opinions to really bring out what each person really is/are/were/am....I'd like to note though, to any/all those who actually read this (which, for them moment, I think is just myself), I BLOODY WELL KNOW WHAT I AM AND AM NOT AND DON'T NEED SOMEONE ELSE TO TELL ME WHAT I AM. SO STOP TELLING ME WHAT I ALREADY KNOW. It's good to get that off my chest...hahaha

Speaking of being pissed, I'm kinda pissed that Randy Orton, whom while I have as one of my permanent wrestlers which I will collect for Raw Deal but sincerely thinks the guy is too dumb to remember his lines, is WWE Champion. Dont' get me wrong, Cena's been having it for FAR TOO LONG..But Cena needs the title. Without it, his storyline sucks and dunno, I just thinks that he needs it. Randy on the other hand, with stupid Edge now in SmackDown and injured, is the Number One Heel wrestler. He doesn't need the title. He doesn't deserve the title. He just needs to continue being EVIL and dumb. Ok, so I don't like Randy as WWE Champ. Luckily, Batista on the other hand is the World Heavyweight Champ and defeated the boring oldtimer that never wants to retire..wait, sorry, not referring to Ric Flair...but Undertaker. Finally. It took 2 Batista Bombs but they were woth it...Undertaker couldn't even sit up after the first one...

Did I mention bombs??? Oh yes, I did..But I've not nothing to relate to about bombs, so let's digress.

This saturday I will be going to my 3rd consecutive saturday night concert at MPO. Unfortunately, this season started off poorly by making the Gala Concert invitational and I WASN'T invited (considering that I only buy season package of the cheapest tickets, there shoudn't be any reason why that is HARD to believe, but hey, I'm a paying customer too.. For 4 straight seasons!!!) and only went to my first concert 2 weeks ago listening to some Russian composer's pieces which were rather difficult to follow (am I or am I not making my sentences a might to long?? :p). Since then and the concert that just happened over the weekend, I haven't hard much 'good feel' after the concerts..Maybe because I was distracted...Or that I wasn't distracted (sorry, this is an inside joke for myself). In any case, this weekend's Scottish Symphony by Mendelsohn should bring be back to life...(hint Dunhill advertisement)

Bringing me back to life......If I was dead before
Needs more than oxygen.......More than Nature's Law
Though I look much alive........Still contributing as a man
I'm so much dying inside....Wish I could hold your hand

Random attempts at poetry..I suck...:P

Ok, enough random rantings..Back to reality...

Something out of Nothing...

2007-09-20T17:49:00.000+08:00

Is what I'm trying to do here...Yes, I have absolutely no idea what to write about but since when has that stopped me from writing 200-300 words telling absolutely nothing?

.....................................................................................

Wow, 2 minutes and still no idea....

Let's just go cheap and update what I've been doing the past few weeks or so, that should rack up some word counts...

1) Last round's WebDota I finally made into top 20 while the round was still ongoing. I previously managed rank 7, but that was a few days after the round was over and some of the ranked players either dropped or became inactive. So some achievement for me..Yay...Boo... 29 and I'm still into gaming. If word got around to the elders of my society, they'd be drilling me with all the age old sayings of life, marriage, kids and future so I'll have an earful of boredom for like, several days. Luckily for me those elders either are, well, in another plane or the only one left I don't quite give 2 hoots what he has to say.

2) Finally getting to do some project work at work and now I seem to lose interest with what I do. Maybe it's time I change environs....Maybe it's time I do something that required me to WORK 40 hours a week. I'll blog much much less since I can't do it on company time, but hey...For guys like me, career satisfaction is at good as it gets, no?

3) EPL and Fantasy Football. Since my PC crashed when my brother returned to visit from Qatar last June, I've not been able to have my own personal entertainment so I've been having to wrestle the home PC (which is connected to the internet) from my brother recently. It's a daily ordeal; Sometimes I win, sometimes I sleep..hehe, go figure. So no football manager games has forced me (yeah right, like I needed to be forced..) to join some online Fantasy Football games. Not 1, but, 2...no, 3...nope...6..I have 6 different teams in 6 different fantasy systems. (my inkling for 7 should drive me to find another team) Yahoo Fantasy Football, Yahoo Champion's League Manager, Nokia Football Manager, Premier League Fantasy Football, Soccernet Champions League Fantasy and UEFA's Champions League Fantasy. Now where do I find that 1 more???? hmmmm..I wonder if I get more busy with work will I be able to keep up with the jones....

4) House Season 3... The times when I had to sleep but didn't fell like sleeping made me watch House Season 3. Actually, it's more like I want to watch it so I didn't sleep. I still think Season 2 was the best, and the quote," Read less, watch more TV" is my favourite. Season 3 (I've not finished, by the way) is not as original as Season 2 as I feel some old themes reoccur with a slight difference of, characters? I understand from mr. Mark Rosewater (he's the Design dude from Magic: the Gathering that I like to read weekly. He has a weekly article over at M:tG.com. He writes much much better than me too) that series and sitcoms need to keep most of it's content the same and just change a little so that the audience doesn't lose the familiarity thingy, but, I dunno, it just feels like the stories are now being reused.. Having said that, House continues to be House, someone we all love to hate. Not to mention you can't beat the sarcasm...

5) What is happening to Raw Deal??? I haven't spent a single cent on the latest expansion and no longer have the urge to do it..I know all it takes is one visit to the gameshop and lo and behold, I paid rent but dunno...Am I losing that passion I have for the game? Will there be no more annual trips to Singapore for the Qualifiers? I still watch wrestling too, but even their stories are becoming tiresome these days and there are much less things that make me laugh these days. For the people that know me, finding it hard to find things to laugh about, for me, is BAD NEWS...

6) Talking about laughing at things, recently my department just grew from 2 person to 5 person team. Now, in the past my 1 colleague, being a veteran and a mother of 1 daughter, has little to bother with this madman of a colleague of hers and thus I have little need to explain my idiosyncrasies. But now I have 3 OTHER mothers in my department and my random demonic laughs now need to be explained or removed from my work environment. I am not pleased, of course, nor will I likely care...But you see, I'm still trying to write something out of nothing, so I think I got like 70 words out of this???? Hahahaha...

7) Recently on one of my friend's birthday I sent him a late late but on time birthday SMS with no reply. Now this guy I've known for over a decade, through his years when we took buses together, when he could drive but did it like a girl, then sitting on the navigator's seat while he drives half/three quarters asleep; From his girl chasing days to his chased by girls days, to him being steady for 7 years, him splitting up and him being in and out of relationships; Now obviously he should be with his significant other on his birthday, (else I'd give his significant other a good sounding or 2) so for him not to be able to reply that day is acceptable. But it took me 3 days and me calling him to find out he has no credit on his handphone. Lame. Real lame. Oh well, I guess I'm just sensitive over nothing. But damn lame..

I guess friends come and go and when the friendship has ran it's course over its useful years, it just dies away. I've never been able to keep friends for that long anyway, so I end up making new ones every now and then therefore there is absolutely nothing to complain. But it does makes me envy people who have friends from childhood all the way till their deaths....How lucky. They should cherish that all their lives.

As for me, it's not like I didn't know I'm in it for the long haul, alone. I'll get over it...I think...hahaha....

Under Attack

2007-09-20T16:57:00.000+08:00

Non- Me related. Looks like my blog has received some unexpected attention recently. Not that I mind, since what's a blog without readers?? Erm, a blog??

So fire away with your comments if any though I'm unlikely to respond to them here since, well, I scarcely can recall most of what I post here without reading them again...

Speaking of which, I should post more now that viewership has increased at least by 30-50%...(yeah, that's how much a couple of readers is worth...This blog shucks...:P)

So what Should I write about?

Ah well....

2007-09-06T19:03:00.000+08:00

I guess the trip wasn't worth mentioning.

Things getting busier at work with more challenges coming in. Hopefully I'll cope, but I don't , I might just break down here....NOT...

Erm, what else should I update...Haven't been involved in Raw Deal for awhile. If I don't gt back into the game I might as well as plan to quit it..But the cost would have been tremendous to leave it, not that I haven't done it before..I still have unopened V:TES packs....sigh

EPL is back and my Yahoo Fantasy Football Team is absolutely shite. I wish I could do better, maybe by picking less players on a whim and doing more research....Maybe...

The only thing that I'm happy for, as in really happy is to find a weekly futsal game that I could join. It won't be enough to keep me fit, but surely gives me an opportunity to stretch my fat-laden muscles..I so need to workout...Haha...Wait, I'm suppose to deny that...

Oh well, life goes on....Wish myself luck for the next 2 months....

50 cents...

2007-08-03T14:06:00.000+08:00

Shouldn't have made that 'In Da Club' song...It's running through me head a lot today, or just the opening verses...

Yeah, it's mah B'day...Relatively boring so far...Which shouldn't be suprising considering how my birthday's have been for the past, erm, millenia...

Tonight will have a dinner with Roy & KE (and Hubby, hahaha), but till that happens, so far it has been a eventless birthday...

Which is somewhat rare considering my birthdays have always borne grave news....At least to me...

Tomorrow I embark on a journey up north with a group of people I hardly mingle with. Why I'm doing that? I dunno. Maybe I finally felt bored enough and decided mingling with people I hold little interest in is still better than no human interaction. Besides, having someone drive me to Penang isn't always a bad idea....

Still have very little to write about...Maybe because it's in between EPL seasons, with no international competition to sate the football appetite....

Ok, maybe will blog about the trip up north...see how first...

Uber Quick Update

2007-07-05T19:14:00.000+08:00

What I've Been Doing - WebDota, Dota...Nothing Else

What I've not Been Doing - Blogging...Duh..

What I didn't Know I've done - Nothing....No luck here.... :p

What I've learned to DO - use smileys....No thanks to WebDota..:D. :-) :-( :-< :-O X-(.....many more

What I Have Done Finally - Had a meal in Jogoya...Nothing spectacular IMHO except for the size of the buffet line....I mean lines...

What I Might Not Realise I've Done - Stood someone up...hahaha

What I Wish I Could Do - Not Have to Work..Someone give me RM 5K-10K a month please...:p

What I will be Doing Tomorrow - Trip with siblings to Taman Negara = Feed Mosquitoes

What I Forgot to do - Withdraw cash

What I Shouldn't have Done - Sign Up for Pool in my company when I suck....:-(. Also shouldn't have gotten that 1 free ticket to watch harry Potter....It's going ot be a lonesome night....:-(

What's Looking Good - my weight....It's growing...:P

What's Really Looking Good - Kiera Knightley??? :p

What's Really Looking Good and Related to Me - ?????????

Losing the Blogging Feeling...

2007-05-28T18:42:00.000+08:00

Quick check. Last blog entry 27th April...That's one month's exodus from here...Not good.

It didn't help that I didn't have much to write about recently...There are things to write, but writing them may result in personality suicide..So I'll digress.

Now, what have I got to blog today?

A little update in my life. Last Friday my company had a bowling tournament. Ever since I joined 4 years ago, I haven't missed this annual tournament, so no prizes for guessing that I was amongst the first few to sign up. The way this noob/amateur tournament goes is that there's always a group competition (best of select number of players' points total) and best individual players. Now (Telling the story like most women would..), I've never really been a good bowler, averaging about 100 points per game with a lifetime high of maybe 180 or so..Yes, I'm le'suck in bowling...Many others as well (as you'd know later!) So as always all I wanted to do was to get 2 games of free bowling, lousy but free dinner and a chance to spend fun time at companies' expense..Oh, may I note in the past the individual and team events were seperated..i.e. "Those who are good or think too highly of their bowling" would join the individual competition, while the random others would partake in the team event. Yes, no prizes for guessing team event scores are relatively low..This year however, singles play for team as well and vice versa.

Ok, on to the event. It's supposed to kick off at 6.30pm but knowing us Malaysians, it didn't start until 7.30pm...While waiting, I had the decency to begin a chant, "we want food" to subtly hint to our organisers we were hungry..Subtly because if I was obvious I would have gone for the food directly! Food was horrible. Chicken cocktails, chicken nuggets, sandwiches of the el'cheapo type and random local pastries was what dinner would be. No refills too. (Wonder why I would complain about refills if I didn't like the food? Then you don't know me at all, hahaha!)

Back track half an hour before, it was time to input our names in the play roster. I'm commonly known as Benjamin Lam, but that night I felt like using a nickname given to me by my CCG circle, Judge Ben, so I changed my name to just initials JB. When asked what it meant I said Johor Baharu..Ok, I wasn't that keen on giving them the whole story of how I play M:tG, judge M:tG, quit it, played Raw Deal Wrestling, etc...Until I got coined the name JB. Not to mention there were 3(at least) different Benjamin's in that gaming circle and I wasn't actually big enough to qualify as Big Ben (there was a bigger Ben). The small Ben nickname obviously went to someone else.

Looking at my team's players I was quite sceptical we'd do well, but then again I never expected any podium finish anyway. Oh, there's only 4 teams in contention, so you would guess what my expectations were on not getting podium finish. Now this other team, known as Fumo Blue (mine is Conquerors while the remainnig 2 are Blazers and....and....the other team...) had this pro looking player who hits quite a strike. Halfway playing the first game (we would have 2), I noticed he was playing 2 different games and that....wait, this part of the story shouldn't be here...

FYI, on friday I had a sore thumb. On my left hand. I'm left handed. It's actually an infection which recurred despite 2 weeks ago I finished all the antibiotics the GP gave me and it receded. Well, on Friday it appeared again. It was painful too. I was sincerely considering not to play. However, looking at how my team lined up, I felt compelled to do my bit to help score some points. I figured besides a handful of regular players, most of us were either noobs or noobs. Therefore a contribution of 100 points per game (200 in total) would serve well in the team competition. So I played through the pain barrier. Literally..

Ok, back to the game. So this pro player was playing 2 games, which isn't fair at all so I complained. In more respectful and honourable situations, you'd expect the organisers to disqualify the 'cheating' team, but alas, it was not to be. All I managed was to get that other game's score ignored for team totals...bah..

My first game was ok, scoring at 122 despite no strikes.. I was still adjusting to the game and getting the right throw angle and using the correct bowling ball, so 122 is actually quite good. For the second game, the pro player I was mentioning, started off with a strike. Then another strike. Then a turkey. Then his fourth strike consecutively for that game. Then a fifth strike. Then his lane had technical issues which delayed the game for almost 10 minutes. Needless to say he lost his rhythm. he still ended up with a game high of 204.. As for me, did I mention he was bowling to my left and that he always bowls just before me? You could say I was under pressure, but the truth is I wasn't. I'm just not competitive enough to fight the big boys. On the other hand, the smaller ones, the ones who love the gutter some what, they are by feeders.

Now, as I was saying, I had a sore thumb. Add that to an unfit body, I was not throwing straight at all. I was even having difficulties sparing. Then I hit a chord. Everytime I walk up to the lane, as I carry the bowling ball, I would sing one of Evanescence's songs somewhat aloud. I would not finish singing the song, so in the next frame I would sing the next song. I do take pride in knowing 10 out of 11 songs in Fallen so I had enough songs to sing for my 2nd game. Worse comes to worse, I'd just sing the 2 songs I know from The Open Door. No problem. You'd probably not believe it had any effect, but my second game score was 184. I had 1 turkey and I believed only failed to spare in 2 frames. In those frames I failed to spare, it was because I forgot the lyrics of the next song...Haha, losing memory after all.

So I had a game total of 306, which as I mentioned earlier, with most of us being lousy bowlers, it was enough to get me 2nd place. (The pro player got first, of course!) Still not bad for an unfit, injured noob I think. Not to mention, I should play this game more often. It's fun, burns some calories and makes me look like I'm loco...I mean, nutty.

So that was last Friday..See, so much easier to blog if I had something to blog about...

Oh, I have nothing to say about Liverpool's lost in the Champions' League Final except, out of luck...

Do comeback sometime...

(Do anyone of you get what I meant by telling the story like a woman would?)

What I haven't been doing:

2007-04-27T11:28:00.000+08:00

1) Driving
2) Building Wrestling Decks
3) Updating my Resume
4) Summing up effort and courage for the.....next..
5) Composing (hmm, should really be doing this and not all those hours playing PC games)
6) Going to the movies...

I know it's an imperfect list, but I can't find a '7' that's worth mentioning...

What I have been doing, on the other hand.....:

1) Playing online/multiplayer games....Bad bad bad....But but but......(DOTA!!!!)
2) Following European Football like it's the only reason I'm alive...Ok, not as fanatical, but as bad as can be without being fanatical (i.e. I won't stay up at 3am in the morning just to catch a semi-finals match...But if Liverpool is in the final, I.....nevermind..)
3) Trying to own a house....Though bad luck has it no banks will loan me money, sob...

Wow, can't even find the fourth thing I'm doing....What a ridiculously boring existence....Not that there's anything wrong with that.....hahaha....

Random post huh?

Of Romantic Movies....

2007-04-13T08:27:00.000+08:00

A quick aside....I noticed that most (if not all) the romantic movies that I find nice are actually those where the female protagonist is one with wit, intelligence and more common than not, 'strong-willed'. (shall not also highlight pleasing to the eye too!)

The funny thing is, I haven't had the good fortune to actually know such a female in my life, not so much to be romantically involved with (those reading this blog often enough should know that never happens with me) but to at least know they truly exist.

I guess they probably do in more established planes, i.e. one of the rich and famous, or one of the extremely intelligent circle. However, for folks like the me, we only get to know such beautiful creatures in the movies, which gives them an even more angelic mien since only in our dreams do they exist.

I wish I am living in my dreams rather than reality then....

On another side note, here's Evanescence's Good Enough:

Under your spell again,
I can't say no to you.
Crave my heart and it's bleeding in your hand,
I can't say no to you....
Shouldn't have let you torture me so sweetly,
Now I can't let go of this dream
I can't breathe but I feel...Good enough,
I feel good enough for you.

Drink up sweet decadence,
I can't say no to you,
And I've completely lost myself and I don't mind,
I can't say no to you...
Shouldn't have let you conquer me completely,
Now I can't let go of this dream
Can't believe that I feel good enough,
I feel good enough...
It's been such a long time coming, but I feel good.

And I'm still waiting for the rain to fall,
Pour real life down on me.
'Cause I can't hold on to anything this good enough...
Am I good enough for you to love me too?

So take care what you ask of me,
'cause I can't say no.

I can imagine being in this position with one of those angels.....

Way overdue....

2007-03-29T17:50:00.000+08:00

Ok, it's now more than 2 months since I started the Singapore adventure, so I better finish it off or even I won't remember the details.....So where were we???

After making the blunder of the millenium; head between my legs, we strolled out of the tournament area and headed back home. Our mission was to go to the Chicken Rice shop we patronised last year. Emil, Loco, Ahmad, Azmin and I decided we could walk there (actually, I was just walking aimlessly, still distraught over my own stupidity). Unfortunately, due to poor sense of direction, we ended up heading out of Suntec Complex like headless chicke...cocks..Hmm, just trying to get the gender right.

So the Anal Planner gets a little ego boost when everyone looked a little lost and I got to lead them out of trouble again. In no time, we were back in familiar territory and I basically had the whole route to the Chicken Rice shop in my mind. People should just learn to accept I have better sense of direction MOST of the time. Aftr 15 minutes or so of walk, we arrived at our destination only to find that the shop is closed. On a Sunday. Nice business decision. With that, we proceeded to the Bugis (something something, I don't recall the name) Complex to scour for food. Burger King was somehow no longer an option, Moss burger was a non-favourite and the other fast food just didn't cut it. For some illogical reason (other than being sick of Fast Food), we wanted to find the food court. Yes, food court. A place we normally wouldn't go to in Malaysia because it's just expensive hawker food.

As usual, I (ok, others may remember this differently, but this is MY BLOG, so the story will FAVOUR me...bleh!) led all of us to the food court which was jam-packed. It took us more than 10 minutes to find a seat. When we (as in me, Emil & Loco) did, we decided to toy around with Azmin & Ahmad by not directly signalling them we've found a table so they stood around looking like lost scouts for another good 5 minutes or so before they finally spotted us. Food was so-so. After food, we stopped by a bookshop and Loco bought a magazine. I don't recall the name, but it was one of those for MEN magazine. I think you can't get it in Malaysia types. Go figure. Getting back to the main floor (did I mention the food court was at lower ground?), Emil, Loco & Azmin needed to look for a money changer. While they went looking, Ahmad and I stood just inside the complex looking over the fountain area. There we spotted a teenage female probably no older than 16 wearing really revealing clothes. Now, no offence, us being all male, it should be a sight for sore eyes. But it wasn't. The problem lies with this girl wearing really low pants/skirt (I can't remember) that showed a little too much of the butt crack. Trust me, it looked horrible.

Side show aside, eventually they found the moneychanger (they took like, 30 minutes or something?) and we begin to plan for our route home. At the entrance, I had an urge to get some Moss goodness so while everyone (Ok, Ahmad doesn't smoke while Azmin is a closet smoker) was smoking outside, I lost some SGD for some rice goodness (ok, Moss(is this the right name?) isn't that nice after all.). From there, we needed to indentify the direction home, so the best person to do it was no other than myself (OK, I'm trying very hard to forget my biggest gargantua mistake here, so cut me some slack, will ya?). In no time we were back to familiar ground and the passage home was clear.

15/20 minutes later we were back to our Inn. With Ahmad and I now staying at the dorm, we got our stuff and went straight to 'book' our beds. I had this inkling they didn't note down our bookings, but I couldn't be bothered anymore and decided if they realised that our night wasn't booked, I'll kick up a super Customer Dissatisfied Storm and force them to let me stay for free. Wait, I already paid up last night....hmmmm....Luckily they didn't try to evict us.

That night we played some Big-D and because I insisted on not gambling, they didn't as well. 5 packs of expensive 7-11 bought crackers and 1 bottle of liquor later, we had enough of Big-D and returned to the dorm. Ahmad chatted up some new guest in the dorm, followed by Azmin, Loco & Emil ( I couldn't give two hoots, or I'm just shy...I think your guess is as good as mine). Midnight almost arrived and we decided it's mamak time. For some unknown reason, we decided to venture further than our comfort zone and explore the area around Little India...At 12am in the morning...Geeze, no wonder people get in trouble when overseas...Nevertheless, 5 men should be able to keep each other safe, even though we were in a foreign area, so we walked...And walked...And walked....And walked...And walked...And walked...And walked..............Ok, we probably just strolled for like, 15 minutes, but without a real sense of direction (where they wanted to go I have not been before, so I can't get to a place I don't know) it felt REALLLLLLY long....We finally reached the area they wanted to go, but somehow couldn't get the food we wanted. So we walked some more.....(you insert the walking bit here) before finally settling down on what looked like a place with Wrestling on show (not enough of it already??) and then ordered some meatballs or something and fries. Oh, they had beer too.

Some 20 minutes later, I think, 5 sleepy heads decided enough of this late night hangout, it's time to go back and sleep. I may not know how to get where we were, but I sure knew how to get back. If I was on my own, I would have reach the Inn in probably 10 minutes tops...But you know how fast tipsy sleepy men walk....Wait, if I was alone, I wouldn't have ventured so far.....Oh well..

Fast foward to the next morning. Again the first to rise (yeah yeah, who gives a shite if that's not true), I freshened up ahead of the others and after we were all done, we went over to get some bread and jam. Unfortunately we failed to buy fresh ingredients for Emil to cook for us, though I doubt he was in the mood anyway. Breakfast was a non-event and not long after we met up with Herman at Bugis station (yes, just under the Bugis complex) with of course more walking and 30 minutes delay. Next stop to no one's surprise (except maybe Emil & Ahmad) we headed towards the same 'hidden' bus station we found last year. A hop on a bus and minutes later, we were at the customs. Someone got stopped by the Customs again. Do I need to say who??

The other five of us (now is Ahmad, Emil, Herman, Loco & I) had to wait for Azmin to get closely acquainted with the Customs officers again. This time they took him to the room and he returned after awhile. (No one dared ask what happened inside. But I'm sure Azmin will tell you all about the horror stories that he experienced....hahaha...) Aside from asking him to pay for lunch, nothing else was worth mentioning. We soon reached Larkin and within seconds had tontos trying to get us to take their bus to KL. Thinking that Herman should be a old hand (since he travels to and fro KL-Singapore monthly) at identifying good busses and cheap ones too, we let him handle the haggle. He did, getting us a bus leaving very soon (which turned out to be 30 minutes later) at RM 30 and supposedly non-stop to KL too. Loco, in particular, was very outspoken in reminding Herman about this. In the end, we stopped not just to have a short break, but we went into Seremban too. if you know Loco, you can guess what he would do in response to this (No, he didn't play any counter spells nor fast effects that removed passengers...err, creatures...).

One hour late, I think, a long ride on the bus and me watching Herman play Tekken on the PSP (which looked so good I feel like buying it for myself!) we finally arrived in good old Puduraya. From there, as though we've truly had enough of each other, it was rather quick that we decided to go our seperate ways. Actually, I think I was the one who broke off from the group fast. I'm not sure what the rest did, but I tried hitching a ride with my sister who works a few blocks away ( I work there too..) to no success. I took a cab in the end.

That's the end of my Singapore Adventure. I learnt some really nasty lessons, got to travel with a bunch of guys who were quite fun if only I played my part and I'd say was quite a success planning wise. I can't wait to do this again next year. Hopefully the dwindling turnout isn't going to put an end to the Qualifiers in Singapore....Unless we can grow fast enough in KL to get one of our own??

Oh, let me remind my disclaimer. All the names are fake. Really. If you don't believe it, ask Ahmad, Andy, Azmin, Bryan, Emil, Herman, Loco, Michael Toh & NebNeb...They'll confirm these aren't their names....The TRUTH......

Learning the hard way...

2007-03-14T18:21:00.000+08:00

Is something I try my level best not having to do. The trick is to be able to learn from other's mistakes and accept that not all things could have been done better. The problem of course is some people have a thing with wanting to prove they can be better, in which case they will most likely learn things the hard way. Unfortunately for me, sometimes you can't avoid it and learning this way surely leaves a permanent impression (not to mention the amount of people who will remind you of your mistake!)

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2 cabs and 10 minutes later, we arrived at Suntec Convention Centre. As this was my third time, I was on autopilot and proceeded directly to the tourney venue. The venue this time was smaller compared to the past 2 years; The latest expansion of Raw Deal left it's mark in Singapore with many quitting and some saying that this was their swansong before letting their cards go on cheap, which is excellent for us from Malaysia. Unfortunately I forgot to do the enough wheeling and dealing to gain from this 'sale'.

As usual, first thing we do once we arrived was to complete our decklist and register. No prizes for guessing who registered first! Just for the fun of it, the 'lovebirds' in the photo are Azmin & Andy while NebNeb is just behind that much despised Evertonian known as Ahmad.

Our final Malaysian player was Michael Toh, who thought he could drive to Singapore at 2am in the morning and play in a tourney when he arrived. It's no surprised he didn't exactly win much and dropped out after awhile; Not before convincing the Organiser to grant him the prizes for 32nd to 48th placing (he was number 49th, which is the number of players that day). We made up a sixth of the total turnout, which is our biggest yet. To commemorate this and thanks to Loco for bringing a camera, here's the Malaysian Contingent 2007!

For the fun of it, since all the names are fake anyway, from L-R:

Andy"Rowdy Piper" Putra, Michael "Batista" Toh, Emil "Ken Kennedy" Ali, Me "Mr. PPV" la, Bryan "Leader of the Peepulation" See, Lo "Stacie Kiebler" Co, Azmin "Victoria" Mohd Khalib, Ahmad " Al Snow" Farith Ismail & last and (not) least Neb "Edge" Neb...

Because I've taken so bloody long to reach this stage of the trip, I don't recall all my matches anymore. I'll try to relate what I do:

Round 1: Largest Athlete in Sports Entertainment

It was supposed to be a walkover and walkover it was. Taken out by huge new REVO manuevers, my MrPPV eventually pinned since I had limited reversals and he kept pummeling me over and over again. 3 Manager Interferes and 1 Fury of the Storm wasn't enough to handle all those collosal manuevers. 0-1

Round 2: ????

I won this match, but I can't recall who I played against....1-1

Round 3: ????

Can't recall either, but won. 2-1

Round 4: Rowdy Piper

Luckily it wasn't Andy's, else he would have known the problem with my deck. With Piper's ability, I had no other option but to let him go ahead by 10 fortitude before my Let Me Get a Shot In would be usable. After that, it was relative smooth sailing for me against him since I had manuevers he couldn't reverse. Unfortunately, again due to my lack of omni reversals, I was running out of defence and have yet to kill him off. With 10 or so cards remaining in my arsenal I got hit by a Claw which I reversed illegally with It's Great to be Back Here. My opponent didn't realise it until he hit me again with Claw; This time the spectators help us both realise our mistakes. Knowing that, a final Apply Illegal Leverage after the Claw would have finished me off, but luckily he didn't have his Apply. I won. Just (and illegaly to some extent) 3-1

Round 5: Bobby Heenan

This was a round I should have won. My opponent went first turn Pump Kick. Later he went Clutch, Apply & Boston Crab which I took all, without realising a timely Undermine the Competition would have ended his turn when he 'Applied' me and leave him with just 1 fortitude. I didn't and after recovering a bit I couldn't kill him off as he continued to recur. Enforcing Rikishi, in the end he kept on hitting me with The Brain until I ran out of reversals. I lost, quite stupidly (this is still not my worst mistake!) 3-2

Round 6: Hurrifriends

At this point I thought I've missed the top 16 cut, with Diversity rules enforced and another Mr.PPV ahead of me. Not to mention no playtest with Hurrifriends before, so I have almost no idea how to deal with this. Luckily the deck relies too much on the Manager to draw an ungodly handsize; Without it (thanks to Unscripted), the deck was doomed. Needless to say, I won. 4-2.

That was it. 4-2, 17th position and second best as Mr.PPV. Or was it? By some stroke of luck the top Mr.PPV had decklist issues and got DQed. Hearing this ( I was about to leave the premise), I quickly went to see the Organiser to explain that as the next Mr.PPV and higher positioned player, that top 16 spot should be mine. He agreed and so for the first time in 3 years I made it to the elimination rounds. Happy and nervous, I was obviously ill-prepared for the occasion and it told in my next match.

Last 16: Paul Heyman

Herman told me this is the most experienced Paul Heyman in Singapore and I should not underestimate him. With a starting hand of 2 That's Broken, I could hardly believe myself since I could search for another one with R-V-D, making it so easy for me to find my Sidewalk Slams (TB) which reverses foreign objects; Heyman's main manuever type. Knowing he will enforce Cole and over time strip my hand of reversals, I went truly aggro from get go and it was a matter of time before I had control in the match. With his manuevers easily reversed with 2 hidden Sidewalks and 1 Elbow to the Face, I hit him with one last Trademark Finisher and he had no cards in his arsenal. He is count out. I win. Then I said, "Go". My opponent gave me a surprised look while I was busy thinking how to pin him next turn. Only during his turn did I realised I had already won, but it was too late. He flipped in Duchess of Queenbury Rules and recovered from the count out. Now that he has recovered, I eventually got pinned by the most obvious way; First Blood Match stipulation. My fairytale trip to Wrestlemania was over.

I had won but in the end I lost. While me playing in the eliminations wasn't really deserved, you know what they say, "Make the most out of every opportunity you get. You never know when you'll get the next one". I didn't and thus this is me learning from the hardway. Last year I learnt to NOT go to a Qualifier without playtest; This year I learn that Count Out COUNTS!!!

Oh well. The rest finished not as good as I, though I doubt they expected to do as well as I. Higher you climb, harder you fall. Just for fun's sake, here's Loco with all his Manuevers on the table losing to the Home Team with just 2 Judo Chokes(TB) on the table. He's since promised to tear every Judo Chokes(TB) he sees in play.

Will finish of the last part of the Singapore trip in the next post. If you see me and feel like making me go all mad over you, feel free to remind me of my greatest tournament mistake.

A Little Faith...

2007-02-26T19:31:00.000+08:00

Goes a long way, or so they say. Unfortunately, I am with little faith (if not none at all)...

We reached Serene Centre with the rain pouring on us. That Saturday, it was raining throughout the day...More drizzles, really, but still annoying for 8 men and no umbrellas. As we reach the shop, there was a weekend tournament just about to run, so several of us decided to hop in. I was reluctant to show my Mr. Pay Per View (PPV) deck, so I used my Eugene deck instead. Andy, Bryan and Azmin also played ( I can't recall if Herman did or didn't) while the rest went scouting for cards usually unavailable in Malaysia. There was a wave of quitters in Singapore, due to the disinterest with the latest expansion, Raw Deal Revolution, so some cards were going cheap (as low as SGD 2) when it would generally cost RM 30 in Malaysia. Ahmad found his 'No Gimmicks Needed' too. But he got one too early at SGD 5 when later there was this guy with a page full of them (a page has nine cards) selling at just SGD 2. Emil was also having a field day, buying as many foils on the cheap as he could afford with the Singapore dollars he brought with him. You could easily imagine him; Look at your wife/girlfriend/female friend's face after a day splurging at a discount sale for countless 'not needed' items and that's exactly what Emil's face looked like . Of course, he'll tell you he needed those cards....

It was a 4 round cut top 4 tournament. I don't recall who I played, but I do remember being killed in 1 turn by Ken Kennedy (Emil's deck tomorrow) and making it to top 4 on a 2-2 result. This result and the countless first turn victories Emil had made him confindent of his deck, a little too confident maybe, but I'll talk about that later. Suprisingly, of the top 4, 3 were Malaysians. Andy, Azmin & myself were against 1 sole Singaporean kid, but we lost. Better said, I lost to him in the Finals while Andy failed to stop him in the Semis. Feels like 4 years ago when I came down for the Lord of the Rings Singapore Qualifiers held also in Serene Centre, where I lost in the Semis. While we were playing, Loco dropped by, NebNeb went shopping, Ahmad scoured for free commons and uncommons and Emil was the happy shopper.

By the time the tournament was over it was after 7pm, getting myself another (useless) Spinner Belt in the process. Our group stayed at the magic number 8, since Loco replaced NebNeb. When we left Serene Centre, it was still drizzling. Must have been a very depressed sky over Singapore. 2 cabs, about SGD 10 and probably 15 minutes later, we all arrived back at the Inn where we dropped off our stuff and went looking for dinner. Now, unlike last year where we had a Halal Chicken Rice shop to go to, this time we had to look around the nearest shopping complex since we already had Mamak food in the afternoon (what type of food do you think was readily available in Little India?) Passing through the food court, which we realised sold pork, there were suprisingly many of us hoping to get Burger King. Luckily for all of us (me the most), there was just one located at the lower ground of that complex. Gleefully we all made our orders; I had one Whopper and one Turkey Bacon. by that time it was closing to 9pm, I think, there was no one else but us in the restaurant. Loco brought his camera and we took a group photo.

Finishing our meals, we return to our rooms/beds and began our last minute preparations. Herman helped me out with fine tuning my PPV deck while the rest were working on theirs. I was visibly annoyed when several people came over and asked me to lend them some cards; I've mentioned they should tell me earlier, not while I'm fixing my deck. I guess they just didn't realise how serious I was about doing well this year, after an awful performance last year. Once I was happy with my build (which was flawed, but I'll tell the story when I get to tomorrow at the Qualifiers), I went to the reception to check up on the bookings.

Now, I originally booked 2 room for day 1 and another for day 2, but late confirmations resulted in me calling to book the other room for day 2 as well. My mistake was that while all other bookings went through the internet (via email), my second room second night booking was not. As the result, there was NO BOOKING for the second room second night and NO EMAIL to prove it. Another lesson in making sure everything is in black and white, no matter how reliable people say they are. Without the second room, myself and Ahmad had to take the dorm for the next night and Loco and Emil had to lose the 'Presidential Suite' and move over to our room. From that moment on I no longer liked the place; Cheap it may be, but for them to be so defensive that it was my error and not theirs, they obviously need a lesson in Customer Service.

With the lodging issue resolved, I returned to the room and slept, since I expect to be the earliest to arise the next day. There's this reliability that boys on trips can't wake up on their own. That or me being the Anal Planner. I heard the boys went out later and had some drinks before calling it a night.

Snoozing for 30 minutes, I finally woke up about 7am. No surprises I was the first to freshen up (I'd like to say I woke up first too, but then they'd probably say they were awake even earlier, just lazy to really leave their beds..). After knocking on the 'Presidential Suite' and storming into the dorm to wake up the rest, we noticed Bryan was missing in his bed! Assuming he may have found a better bed elsewhere, we weren't too concerned. Eventually he was discovered (yes, discovered!) at the small sitting area at the front of the Inn. It seems he was so busy working on his deck that he slept there..(Nobody really believes him, though...I don't...Must have had a 'great time' last night and couldn't get to his bed on the first floor dorm, haha!)

Registration for the tournament begins at 9am, so by about 7.45am I was already concerned everyone isn't ready. Most of us moved ahead anyway so that we can quickly make our breakfast before moving along to Suntec Convention Centre, where the tournament was held. The lot leaving Sunday night (Andy, Bryan & NebNeb) also had to check out. Reception was to open at 8am, but not until 8.15 did the receptionist (another lady, not the nice Chinese girl, whom I didn't like at all as she was the one who insisted I made incorrect bookings) wake up and opened the reception.

I had my bread with Margerine & jam, while the rest have eggs as well. Azmin & Bryan did some omelette/pancake with bread in eggs, which looked rather yummy. But me being me, so much hassle for food just isn't worth it (unless someone is doing it for me!). This other guest at the inn liked what they were doing with egg and bread and duly did the same. Guess you'd learn things anywhere, anytime! Loco and Emil were the last to arrive there for breakfast. Loco had this coke bottle which turns out to be mixed...with alcohol. I had a sip and luckily didn't have more. Unfortunately I would make the sillest mistake anyway, sober or otherwise.

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Next up, journey to the 2007 Singapore Raw Deal Qualifier and to the silliest mistake in Raw Deal gaming of my life!!

And the Blind now SEE.......

2007-02-23T17:12:00.000+08:00

We arrived early at the backpackers...There was this random white guy who was outside the entrance (it was locked electronically so we needed someone to let us in from the inside. We eventually got the passcode though). Seeing so many of us he remarked that the inn is full. The Anal Planner (a ridiculous nickname I recently acquired) retorted, "I've already made bookings..." Random white guy duly shut up. (see the advantages of planning ahead, punks??)

Getting inside, the receptionist was a 'nice' chinese girl which took Azmin less than 1 second to start doing his thing on her (no, Azmin never managed to get laid, if that's what you're thinking, There were seven of us, remember? He'll have to wait in line, haha!!)(Ok, most of that caption was untrue, so you decide which part!). We were told that check in was at 12pm, but we could place our luggage at the store. Oh, and we could also cook our own breakfast if we wanted as breakfast was inclusive. In the store were more luggage AND an insane amount of bread (loaves) with Margerine and Jam (No, they're not already ready to eat!)... Oh, did I mention? Inclusive breakfast - only bread with margerine and jam plus your choice of 3 in 1 coffee or tea bags. Anything else, buy yourself. What were you expecting from a Backpacker's Inn??

There were already a bunch of people near the kitchen, so half of us decided to look for our friendly neighbourhood spider...sorry, mamak store and the other half chose to wait and wash their eyes...Actually they waited in line so that they could use the kitchen for a free breakfast, but really, the sight all around.....hmmmm (would have used yum, but after awhile, yum became normal, so maybe not.) I was part of the group that went food hunting elsewhere; the view while nice, doesn't particularly interest me, especially if I'm hungry. So 4 of us ( Brian, Emil, NebNeb & I) went around the block and found something we could call home, a mamak store. A couple of Roti Telur's later, we were well fed. The other 3 (Ahmad, Andy & Azmin) stayed and had their first meal on the Inn.

Returning to the Inn, we were informed that we will be located at another building (the old one) and we have to wait till about 12.30pm before we could see our abodes. With a couple of hours to kill, what do some of us do? Chor Tai Ti! (they stayed off the monies though, I doubt gambling would have been allowed). Fast forward to moving into our rooms/beds, my haste resulted in me choosing the first available room only to have Emil pick up the 'Presidential Suite' of the Inn, a double bed + single bed room with attached bathroom. Myself and Ahmad shared one room (just like 2 years ago) and Emil had to wait for Loco, his roommate. The others moved upstairs where the dorm was and the bathrooms and toilet (there were 2 toilets, but the if you close the outer door toilet, you can't access the inner toilet) were too. (un)Luckily, Emil later complained that the attached bathroom had no hot water (mine had no attached bath, by the way). Once settled and accepted that you get peanuts when you pay peanuts (i.e. SGD 24 per night), we contacted our resident RAW DEAL agent/trader who's Malaysian but working in Singapore, Herman.

Funny thing is, he doesn't know Little India much. So it was quite a task to coordinate meeting up with him since I didn't know Little India myself (now that I've spent a weekend there, I would have little problem moving about). After several phonecalls ( I haven't used the public phones for awhile since I owned a mobile phone...Reminded me of my school days where I'd call my friends with a public phone for hours at one go....) we finally met up and proceeded to have lunch, which was just next door! All of us were too hungry to find anything nicer so Nasi Daun Pisang (I think..) at SGD 3.80 it is!. After lunch, Herman suggested we head to a regular Raw Deal retailer to scout at decks and maybe play in a local tournament. We all agreed and Serene Centre was our next destination.

To get there, however, we had to go on 2 cabs. Little India isn't really a developed area, much like Petaling Street in KL, so we had to walk to a nearby shopping complex to hail our cabs. Now, to think we're in Singapore, were they have laws against chewing gum, you'd think that they'd insist on people hailing cabs at proper taxi stands and not 25 metres away from a bus stop just around the corner of a road. Well, that's where we had to queue in an invisible line to hail our cabs. As if it isn't already apparent that Singaporeans are a kiasu (not willing to lose) lot, this elderly (not that old, around late fifties. Looks frail but physically quite alright) man jumps queue by moving ahead of the (invisible) line and hailed the cab ahead of us, all eight young, big and strong (ok, the strong part maybe a little exagerrated, but the big part applies to a number of us) men. How do you beat that kind of kiasu-ness??

Apart from that mishap, eventually we managed to get on our cabs and Serene Centre is next....But this post has gone a little to long, so to be continued...ok..

The Not So Blind leading the Rather Blind...(Still about the Singapore Trip)..

2007-02-12T20:27:00.000+08:00

A little background before I continue the story about the Singapore trip. I've never been at The InnCrowd Backpackers inn. Last year me and Azmin found this place on the web, but because we had a female in the party and only had 4 persons travelling, not to mention there were no more rooms available and we had less than 3 weeks to plan for the trip...(ok, sentence structure sucks, but intentional). So this year I took the opportunity to get everyone to buy in because I was too lazy to find other lodging and at just SGD$18, it is a steal! (OK, rooms cost more, but there's a reason why you're sharing 16 to a room, right?!) Since no one wanted to do the dirty work, I successfully 'bullied' everyone into accepting cheap lodging but share sleeping area with strangers (which in the end I'm sure they didn't mind!). Ok, enough background.

We finally 'escaped' customs after the officer decided Azmin was no threat at all, despite his flirtatious efforts. Making our way to the nearest bus stop, I couldn't recall which bus we needed to take to the Woodlands MRT station. Someone had to ask a local (Azmin I think, it was a girl he asked too!) and off we go boarding the next available bus. Since we just arrived in Singapore, most of them didn't have loose change (coins) and for some reason no one wanted to ask me for some. I had like, a pouch full of coins? Anyway, we boarded the bus and frankly speaking, I was trying to recall how I got to Bugis Station 2 years ago with Ahmad alone, so my memory was rather dusty. Luckily the last destination was the MRT station, so it was easy to act like I knew it was the stop all along (though I had a feeling they already guessed I was going on hunches).

Getting off the bus, we made our way to the entrance when an important question was raised....Breakfast??? I suppose with 7 on tow, there had to be people who's been in Singapore more often than I, so it was decided that breakfast it is but not at Burger King (Have I not mentioned that I intend to have Burger King Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner & Supper??). So Burger King(BK) breakfast was a failure...We stepped out of the restaurant, around 70 metres away from the MRT entrance and right in front of us was a SAM (Self Automated Machine, I think) unit. Andy, who recently got a new job that had a small reference to the machine, looked on with interest. No prizes of guessing the other 6 (I knew about SAMs so I wasn't looking on like them) looked on as interested as Andy having no clue why on earth he was looking at it. After a couple of minutes, it finally dawned upon them that WE (as in Andy and I) knew why we were looking at it and it had nothing to do with the trip or that the device was cool.

Aside from BK, there were really no other options for food if they were looking for cheap ones (in Singapore, where???(you all can shoot me later)) so we finally ended up heading to the MRT without feeding. After a little indecision over which line and stop (at the MRT, because I couldn't remember precisely), we bought our tickets (again, no one asked if I had spare change). While attempting to get into the platform, a guard noticed Emil with his trolley bag and proceeded to do a random check on him. Since we had this camaraderie going on we decided to wait until his search was over, not realising our bags aren't that much smaller than his. So one 'random' check became 5 'not random anymore you stupid Malaysian travellers forcing me to do more than one check when you all should have just proceeded to the platform while I check on your friend' check. We missed the train by mere seconds and had to wait around for the next. In between, a jibe here and there over who's fault is it anyway that we missed the train.

Once on it, it was a whopping 10+ (if I recall correctly, it should be 13) stops before we reach Bugis station. Originally the crowd was ok, and NebNeb managed to get a seat early while the rest of us stood. After awhile the crowds grew and we were almost experiencing a sardine-like scenerio. I must admit though, at least the MRT had good ventilation and conditioning, so even with the crowd I didn't feel warm/hot...No pun please...After nearly an hour on the train and a change of lines, we reached Bugis station. We then had to pick either of two exits (right or left, since I cannot recall the street names) and with me not deciphering the map as quickly as they expected, they chose the exit instead.

Now, I know it's a little braggy, but I've always had a better sense of direction. Than most. It's not absolute, but close. In GURPS terms, Absolute direction was a 5 point advantage, mine would probably cost 4. (GURPS is an RPG system, in case you don't know...(Role Playing Game)) So exiting the station, I/we found out that the other exit would have been closer, but nonetheless I found the direction that we needed to travel. I did have the map, but no maps would do any good if you couldn't read it. I also find locations faster/easier when I'm moving alone and ahead, much like a scout. The problem is people tend to think that I'm being cocky by moving ahead, so at times I have no choice but to slow down (not to mention they're slow followers, so maybe I am cocky after all!!!)

15 minutes, 6 blocks or so and lots of tired legs (8 pairs to be exact), we finally found our InnCrowd Backpackers inn!!! Hooray.....

But the troubles don't end there......

(Next up, life in a Backpackers Inn...Thank god I didn't have a camera or I'll have to really control myself from taking illegal photos!!)

What do you do when you're on a Night Train??

2007-02-06T15:35:00.000+08:00

Playtest of course!!!!! (OK, in case you didn't notice, this is basically part 3 of the Singapore trip 2007).

Andy, NebNeb & Emil went for the bunkers (i.e. night beds). Me, Azmin, Bryan and Ahmad decided to go el cheapo and pay RM13 less for seats. Bryan and Ahmad were sharing a row, so no issues for them. Azmin happily explained that he had a cute chinese girl as company, who unfortunately alighted well before I could bother to go validate his story. My guess it has something to do with his ability to rest his head on his OWN shoulder and in the process sound like the train. In other words, he has breathing issues while asleep. (Or, he could have been naughty and the girl left him the first chance she got. It was a multiple city stop train, anyway...)

Myself, I had to share with an elderly who was about my size bar the height. Let's just say later that night I took the first opportunity I got to takeover empty seats further behind so as to allow both of us sufficient sleeping area.

Once we settled in (except for me), we proceeded to commune at the cafeteria which is located in the middle of the train. This was where 2 years ago myself and Ahmad went GOLDBerg VS FBI head to head like 7 times throughout the night. This time however, we had backup. Suprisingly there were quite a number of passengers also using the cafeteria. There was a Korean family, several other local families, some groupies and of course, us (who took up 3 out of like 11 tables). Not that we cared, though Azmin and his Diva Victoria may or may not have gotten a stare or two with her, ahem, image. Andy tweaked his Big Freakin' Machine to much more devastating success, while we faced Emil's Ken Kennedy for the first time. Unluckily for KK, my Eugene top-decked a DTTAH (Don't Try This At Home, that's a card, btw..) with a 4 card draw while Mr. PPV just looked for it with my R-V-D. We playtested for a number of hours (we started playtesting about 11pm, I think and only ended about 3am..If my memory serves me right) eventually leaving just myself and Andy still having some attention to continue playing.

Oh, did I mentioned I left my paid seat in search for a cosier seat elsewhere? By about 4am some passengers alighted of and I hostile tookover their seats. Later the officer came over and asked for my ticket again, presumably knowing there shouldn't be anyone in those seats now.

Also, did I mention that this trip was almost cancelled because we had fears over the flood situation? Actually, I was always confident the train lines weren't affected, but this NebNeb was worried sick enough to post (where else but on YFF) and question my insistence on taking the train. Almost made me tell him to sod off, but he is after all the funny looking stranded guy in the VIOS ad (I got it right this time around!!). In any case, either it was too dark (which I believe is the case) or there weren't really any flood at all down south. I had this conspiracy theory that the whole flood thing could be a Wag the Dog plot, you know, the movie which had Dustin Hoffman play a Hollywood producer who helped the US Goverment into cooking up a non-existent war to divert the public attention from the President's misdemeanors? Anyway, a little fast forward, it seems the floods are as real as it gets, so apologies...

The train was suppose to leave KL Sentral at 10.00pm and arrive at 8.20am. Despite leaving late, we actually arrived early in Singapore, which I believe is about 7.30am? Before I close of this post (which doesn't finish off the whole trip story, actually), I should mentioned that Azmin, much like me, needs to get married. That way we cease to become a danger to ourselves while we attempt to get lucky (and I'm not even talking about sex, haha!) You see, while lining up for Singapore Immigration, Azmin spotted the only youthful looking female officer amongst all the boring and old male officers available. So he swiftly moved over to that line, I presume for a closer look. 2 more persons to go, the lady actually changed shifts! So all that waiting almost went to waste, but lo and behold, yet another youthful female officer took over! (though I'm quite sure Azmin would have preferred the earlier one). Not to mention, when it was finally Azmin's turn, that previous officer was still around, hanging out for god knows what! However, Azmin's flirtatious nature got him into some inconvenience when some roaming officer (male, of course!) decides to take interest in his passport and took over. I blame his multiple visits to Indonesia, but I think the truth is he could be hitting on that officer's girl!! Haha!. So after like 10 minutes it was decided they didn't have enough to hold Azmin, so he finally got through Immigration.

As for myself, I had the arse luck of waiting behind some Vietnamese passengers, which I thought would hold up the line, only to move to another line where some Indian family's passport got extra scrutiny, making me having to jump back to my previous line, at a lower queue. (So patience isn't exactly always my virtue, ok!)

Enough about the train and passing thorugh Immigration, on to trying to find our lodging!

..........

One week before Train Ride....(Continuation for Singapore Qualifiers 2007)

2007-01-30T15:11:00.000+08:00

.....One final mini tournament to prepare us folks going to Singapore. I played Mr. PPV and handed Bryan's Leader of Peepulation deck to some random dude because Bryan was indecisive at what he wanted to play (you'll hear later more reasons why he's got second thoughts).. I lost my first game to the Peeps deck because I, erm, cheated...Well I didn't really cheated, I just played cards that I couldn't have played in the first place. I didn't make the play-offs, but surprisingly the other deck did and it won me a title belt.

That night, Azmin, Andy and I had a little chat on what to play and we pitched to Azmin to play Victoria BASH instead of Torrie Wilson. However, most of the time at the Mamak Azmin was so preoccupied with another patron sitting next to us that I doubt he agreed with much proper thought. Admittedly the distraction was, somewhat distracting, but...Nevermind..

Later Bryan confirmed wanting to use my deck, but wasn't too happy that I demanded 50% of whatever that he won in Singapore. Azmin didn't have any issues at all, but Bryan waited until Monday and several sms before agreeing to my demand. OK, I'm not a charitable person, but that should be obvious, no?

We have opted to travel to Singapore via the Friday night train so that we'd arrive early Saturday morning in Singapore, giving us ample time to bump our way to our Backpackers Inn @ Dunlop Street. I'll talk about the Inn when I get there. Oh, there was this little miscommunication invloving Ahmad, Dawn & myself.

You see, as of Friday night (One week away from Tourney weekend), I haven't gotten confirmation from Dawn she is joining. All of a sudden, while happily enjoying Liverpool's win over Chelsea, Dawn sms me to find out the details AND this was Saturday night (I've already told everyone to confirm the night before...) Prior to that, while I was having the nicest afternoon naps, Ahmad decides to tell me that his father will not be joining us because he had a wedding to attend. I instead heard it as he was bailing out, so I told Dawn she could take Ahmad's place. Lo & behold, Ahmad rings me to tell me it was his Dad alone that won't be going to Singapore, not this workaholic who's about to leave the company in a week but still working until midnight. Eventually I had to do one more booking for Dawn who, decided to opt out on Wednesday. Too bad the cancellation agreement applies, and Dawn, i'm still collecting..haha!

Back to going to Singapore...or the lead up, actually. With less than 5 days to playtest, everyday (except Thursday, because I had to pack) I met up with some of the blokes to do some playtesting. Azmin unfortunately had a system crash in the office which could have scuttled his trip, so to make up for it he had to work late throughout the week and thus no playtesting. Emil had to juggle between home & hobby, so since hobby is taking over his weekend, he'd have to let home have his weekdays. As for the rest, I don't quite know why they didn't playtest as often (Let's not wonder why workaholic Ahmad didn't playtest at all).

Come Friday morning I decided to...131129147518. ( I can't really type that in full view as I might get in trouble). So instead of working, I packed my stuff (I slept on Thursday night instead of packing). After that and several post on the YFF (Yahoo Fantasy Football, the other thing I do at work, haha!) it's time to head out and leave the country!

Ok, enough background details. Friday night came and we decided to meet up at AmCorp (our hang out place..Everyone needs one of these places..) at 8.00pm. Azmin had his parents send him (considering his age, I'm not sure it that was boon or bane. I'll assume it's boon for now..) to KL Sentral, where the train is; Loco already traveled to Singapore in the morning because he had a gig that night; myself, Andy, NebNeb & Bryan was at the shop on time. As always, someone must be late. So no prices for getting who. By 8.30pm I insisted we make a move before we ended up missing the train too, but luckily everyone managed to get to AmCorp just before we headed off.

Then a startling discovery occurred. No, everyone had their passports. I brought along the tickets that I bought earlier on Wednesday. Ahmad, who had Andy build him an Al Snow deck, forgot to bring Al Snow's feud "No Gimmicks Needed" which was rather critical to his deck being viable. This after being reminded throughout the week to bring it. This after I was asked to bring the superstar specific cards to Andy on monday, only for him to tell me he's got everything from Ahmad. In other words, if you're looking for signs, this was it. Ahmad Needed No Gimmicks (eventually he paid SGD 5 for it in Singapore, when he could have owned one for SGD 2..So, Ahmad, what'cha gonna do now with 2 "No Gimmicks Needed?" now?). While waiting to board the train, I grabbed myself the 'supposed' Big Fish sandwich from KFC of which big it ain't while the rest got tickets and stuff. Unfortunately we were a little early and the train ended up late. So the guys decided to 'Chor Tai Ti' on the floor while waiting for the announcement to board! Here we have a bunch of, well, people who officially can't gamble playing with your usual deck of cards. At some point I must insist I wished the officers would drop by and go overzealous on them (there was no money involved, but since when has it ever stopped overzealous people?) just to get to see the drama, but luckily I'm an unlucky guy and before long it's time to board the train.

More to come.......

The Road to Vic...I mean Singapore Raw Deal Qualifiers

2007-01-30T14:21:00.000+08:00

Ok, the weekend came and went and gave me nightmares. That don't mean I won't shoot myself here just to put things on record. Having said that, I'll do my usual thing and provide an in-depth recollection of my trip down under (ok, not that far under, just Singapore) and the misadventures that I had. Oh, less I forget, this story relates very much to Raw Deal card game and WWE (you know, the wrestling programme..)

Disclaimer: Names mentioned here are not their 'real' names to protect their sensitive lives and dignity (obviously I intend to diss anyone and everyone I could think of), not to mention to avoid lawsuits that's being brought upon many bloggers...

On to it!

err....where do I start???

Ok, about 4 weeks ago I got an SMS from Fiezan that the Singapore Qualifiers were to be held on 28th January 2007. Now, Fiezan, who's a resident tournament organiser and probably amongst the top 3 in terms of Raw Deal card collection size, have consistently....failed...to make...the EVENT...TWO YEARS RUNNING ( the Qualifiers began in 2005) and since last year has shown much promise that he would pass the red tape of being a government servant wanting to visit another country having to need the Minister's approval to go. I didn't believe him at first, but eventually the tournament details were posted online and I had to believe it now. With that, the planning for yet another ROAD TRIP began..

The usual suspect of last year confirmed to go. That's myself and Azmin. He's also a two time tripper (with the most recent one, we make it 3 for 3). He had some slight problems at work, but got lucky anyway and managed to get leave approved (we planned to return on Monday, so a day's leave was crucial to our plans). He did however, had some other problems that cropped up that prevented him to actually focus on playtesting his deck, but that's another story....

Nex to confirm was the other top 3 collector (one could say he has the most, but I must protest), Emil. The past 2 years I wasn't really sure where he was, but from the first to now, this dude got married and have a baby girl, so I guess that somewhat explains why he was non-present the last 2 trips. But he is confirmed this time. So that makes 3.

Oh, in case you don't read the bias, I OBVIOUSLY think I HAVE the BIGGEST RAW DEAL card collection amongst my peers...But then again, I am HHH...I mean, bias...

Then word got out that I was willing to 'sacrifice' my own time to make the logistic arrangements and 'recruiting' road trippers. For awhile, we had about 10 persons saying they wanted to go...Alas, in the end we had 8+2...(Why plus 2? Find out later)..

The other road trippers were (in no order since I can't be bothered to think of one..)

Andy - Went the first year. Second time gave a miss because he had trouble getting leave (actually I think he just had jitters playing in a big tournament, but I can't prove it...). This time around he was determined to make it, even to the extent of sacrificing leisure by returning Sunday night and working Monday morning. Now this is determination, unlike a certain someone I'll diss later on, haha! Oh, he's well known as the Pirate, who'll con any which way to win....Quite unfortunately that didn't help his performance much on Sunday..

Ahmad - Went first year, missing second year. Now this guy practically gave up wrestling for better nights in the office (He sleeps there...). So when all of a sudden I'm informed he wants to go, I was quite surprised. But he was an excellent playtest partner during my first trip, so having him around couldn't be anything but fun..Of course, midway he informs his DAD wants to come along , so he could shop in Singapore (no, I don't think the game appeals to middle-aged men, yet). Fortunately a wedding cropped up and Ahmad was home free (for the moment).

NebNeb - Now this guy's been overseas the last couple of years, so this turns out to be his first (hopefully not his last). Not much I can say about him, though I do admit now I wasn't convince his Edge was tournament viable (bleah!)

Bryan - "I want to go". "I can't go because of CENSORED reasons". "I may be able to go because I may have a sponsor" (I can't tell who the sponsor is because I'm sure us being MCPs I'll get killed in the soonest future...). "Singapore Online!" Those were some of the things that he said in the build up to the trip. Other than that he has a New Year's Resolution of staying single. I don't know why anyone would need a resolution to do that. I've been single all my life!

Loco - He was there last year, but not the first. For those who read last year's edition, we had a spat over some things. There was a spat this time to, but is was leading up to the trip rather than on the trip itself..

Lastly there's Michael who decides to be superman and drive to Singapore Sunday night (so he isn't really part of the Road Trip) and Herman, who's a resident in Singapore but recently been helping us out (Ok Emil, so he helped me out a little more with the Fifth Year Anniversary card....Jealous???)

Oh, there was Dawn, who went the first 2 years. But things came up and she decided to cancel within 72 hours from departure date. I still aim to collect the dorm bed booking fee, since I can't get it refunded!

If you're wondering about Fiezan...Well, let's say he's got more than just red tape wrapped around his perfectly shaped body (they say round is a shape too, correct?) I think he's also got Green, Blue White & Black tape on him...Wait, that's Magic: the Gathering colours....Nevermind...In the end he's A NO SHOW....

(Continues to ONE week before we leave...)

It's Time For the Great Singaporean BASH!!!

2007-01-24T13:01:00.000+08:00

For those who don't know, the heading is a parody ot a RAW DEAL wrestling card...

It's the time of the year again, where I make my trip down to Singapore and try to get a free trip to WrestleMania....

This year suprisingly the travelling group has increased (last year was 4), but I'll give the details as I write it over 2 centuries and several posts...

I'm also planning on using a most unorthodox deck, one that I am most proud of to pilot...

On other note, I'm a couple of weeks to finally getting my own insurance coverage, which will mean more commitments in the very near future...Yes, I DON'T have a personal insurance now, nor am I keen on anymore...

Also, i'd like to officially announce here that one of my 10 things to do is now accomplished...Which one exactly??? Go figure, haha...

In addition, I'd like to congratulate Liverpool for winning 2-0 against Chelsea at Anfield! Woo Hoo!!!! (and condolences to Man United who lost to Arsenal twice this season...Muahahahahahaha...)

Lastly, consideriing I haven't posted for a while, again......At least I still do, and aim to continue doing so fore.........ve...................Better not commit to the impossible...

Would you believe it???

2007-01-24T12:56:00.000+08:00

For a couple of weeks I couldn't sign on to my own blog because my company barred the site. My company has this firewall thingy that basically helps it's employees from visiting 'bad' sites; somehow my blog ended up being BAD....

At last, they've come to the realisation my blog is relatively harmless....I guess i'll stick to not naming my company less I get blocked off again..

Updates next post!

The whole new year.....

2007-01-11T12:46:00.000+08:00

So I spent 2 weeks (one each year) doing nothing but being sick and playing PC games....

NeverWinter Nights 2 is sufficiently addictive, though at some point I felt the first installment was better...Then I realise I can get all my followers to stay put (and out of trouble) while my main character tears through the city...It doesn't help the fact that my PC (as in personal computer, not Player Character) is becoming obsolete, so displaying more than 4 moving objects in pretty good graphics is more than my system can handle. Hence why it was key to be able to ask all my companions to stay home while I go hack'n'slashing...

Wait, this is about the new year, not about my NeverWinter 2 experience...(will try to put up a different post later....way later...)

Hmmm, I didn't go to any X'mas party because the stingy part of me realised that spending RM50 for booze to bring to the party when I rarely drink so that I make up for the 'entrance' fee wasn't worth it. Last year (2005) I went to the same party (ok, not the same since it's another party held about a year apart, but same host and location) and stayed until the next day afternoon. What did I do? Drank a couple (no beers, as always), endure some amounts of cigarette smoke, lousy music selection (I obviously have differing taste compared to the host and his peers) and after that, slept on the floor. So all that isn't really worth RM 50, really. And no, i didn't really got to know much new people because, well, it may be my fault for not networknig but that's just how it is...Any surprises I gave that party a miss in 2006??

There was another party for the new year that I also gave a miss. It was suppose to be a reunion of sorts as a lot of the people I used to work with (all have since left the company I'm still stuck in) as well as having a number of people still working with me (nobody works for me, so with me is the only term I can use). There was the lure of good food, but again as with most parties, there is an 'entry' fee that I wasn't too keen in paying. So I conveniently forgot about it too...

Suffice to say I am not a party person. I don't mix/mingle well, don't hold proper conversations (less you're as sick and sarcastic AND talk about weird topics like me, it's unlikely you'd find me worth talking too), don't get drunk (others insist I have, but they haven't the slightest clue) and don't do funny things to get people's attention. So as much as a party bores me, I bore parties too. You could say me and parties, mutually exclusive...

And 2007 took over. No new year resolutions, other than a need to get fitter than what I am now. Tennis is something I'm planning to do, since a court is conveniently placed inside my Apartment grounds...All I need is another player, 2 racquets and a good number of balls. Tennis balls. I have the racquets and balls. If only that friend of mine will turn up as regularly as I hope. Any other takers?? Thursday nights are tennis night....

Some people continue to query when I'm going to start driving....Well, if I don't own a car, how shall I drive? On the range?? I wished they'd stop asking, as my answer will always be that I have no car to drive, and thus no need to know how (even if I eventually may or may not know how to, that will still be the answer). Until a time if you see me on the driver's seat and actually steering a car away, I DO NOT DRIVE.

For those who have been reading this blog for the past couple of years, my yearly trip to Singapore is coming up. It's brought forward this year, on Jan 28th, so I'll have yet another story to tell, and hopefully it won't take me 2 months to wirte it. Still better than a bloke I know who went to England and NEVER completed his story...bleh..

Lastly, before I close of my first post this year, I've come to a realisation............... That I have no realisation.....Haha....Life is good, and Life goes on...(Splinter)

My Own Amazing Race...

2006-11-20T19:32:00.000+08:00

Ok, not my own. Last Saturday my company had a treasure hunting event...(omit personal stuff and move to private blog)...I basically disowned my own team and joined another team as that team had better, erm, attractions...Or so I thought, which I was dead wrong....

In any case, I actually got drafted into a good team. It was a balance of sorts; Of 4 persons;

2 male, 2 female,
2 fit, 2 not so fit (I'm not so fit),
2 wise cracking, 2 not so wise...

One thing though, all 4 of us were quite resourceful..And at the end of the event my team actually came runner's up. This after realising we had at least 7 incorrect answers...The sad thing was that the winning team consist of 4 men who, IMHO, are generally DIVA males in the company...Not that they're gay, (thought one of them is rumoured to be), but they're just diva-like at work, in a world much of their own....Or maybe it's just me who's jealous...Whatever...

(I can't write anymore, it hurts...)

All this time...

2006-11-20T19:29:00.000+08:00

(that's about 90 minutes of working time) I've been humouring myself reading my private blog...I must admit I am mentally insane, and emotionally challenged...Ingredients of a ggrreeaatt mind!!!!

Yippee...

Ok, being nuts aside, I feel shite the past weekend...

Wait, I actually have something to post......

Tomorrow is Doomsday....

2006-11-13T19:44:00.000+08:00

Just a gentle reminder to self that tomorrow one of the milestones of mylife is crossed, and hopefully successfully...Else I'd have to do it all over again...It's one of the 10 things I need to do, and this is one of the more easier ones, I think.....

Blogging has somewhat fadded amongst my peers, and for that reason I've stopped somewhat too..Even my other blog have not been been updated for a couple of months now..I guess I have fewer emotional issues these days...But with December around the corner, that might change...

Funny, I hope I would stop being childish and be a man once in awhile...That way I won't miss that moany oppoetunities.....But that's just me, so leave or live it.....

Maybe more later, my right thumb is somehow sore....

Quick Funny

2006-10-23T13:49:00.000+08:00

Actually, the video's quite long. It's really fun, especially if you're tuned to the Call Centre Industry..

http://callcentermovie.com/movie/movie2.html

Oh, don't worry, it's PORN safe...

Ten Reasons For Not Accepting a Counteroffer

2006-10-20T17:27:00.000+08:00

Haha, someone forwarded me this today:

1. What type of company do you work for if you have to threaten to resign before they give you what you are worth?
2. From where is the money for the counteroffer coming? Is it your next raise early? (All companies have strict wage and salary guidelines which must be followed).
3. Your company will immediately start looking for a new person at a lower salary price.
4. You have now made your employer aware that you are unhappy. From this day on, your loyalty will always be in question.
5. When promotion time comes around, your employer will remember who was loyal, and who wasn't.
6. When times get tough, your employer will begin the cutback with you.
7. The same circumstances that now cause you to consider a change will repeat themselves in the future, even if you accept a counteroffer.
8. Statistics show that if you accept a counteroffer, the probability of voluntarily leaving in six months or being let go within one year is extremely high.
9. Accepting a counteroffer is an insult to your intelligence and a blow to your personal pride, knowing that you were bought.
10. Once the word gets out, the relationship that you now enjoy with your co-workers will never be the same. You will lose the personal satisfaction of peer group acceptance.

After reading it, I thought:

Top reasons why I think people accept counteroffers..

1) They needed the money. The new job stats were inflated to make them look good.
2) They were trying their luck and got lucky. You can't say no to luck, can you?
3) They never did have that much of a good relations with peers anyway, so who cares?? I'm getting higher pay!
4) They do plan to leave in 6 months..In the meantime, enjoy the given extra spending power..
5) Obviously they thought they could play they bosses like pawns...With the counteroffer, they proved it..So, better the devil you know (and can manipulate) then some new devil that you don't know!
6) They don't care where the raise came from. Someone's gotta pay anyway, why me??
7) Promotion?? What promotion?? Why work in a decision making position and earn peanuts (for that position) when you earn the same pay with your current position. No thanks, you can have the stress and lousy pay...

8) THEY HAVEN'T READ THE REASONS ABOVE!!!!!

Ok, I have nothing better to do at work......NOT!!!

I'm confused....

2006-10-17T17:15:00.000+08:00

recent events have put me through a phase where I'm confused with what I want....

I've lost significant interest in card games...I need to revivie it, but I'm not sure how (telling myself it has cost me a bomb should help, but....)

I've lost interest...No, I've not lost interest in someone, which is a major issue. Bridges burnt don't grow back. Period..

I'm not having any luck with Liverpool...Watch them they lose...Don't Watch them they lose...

And my body aches in places I didn't even know could, since i'm not doing anything...

I think my time is soon, more reason for me to get myself insurance....

And I'm no closer playing Moonlight with both hands....Not in a million years.....

sob sob

latest updates

2006-09-27T16:20:00.000+08:00

Ok,

quick and short. What I've been involved in the past couple of weeks:

1) Playing 3 different online soccer manager games....Should make it 4..Add NFC to it..at least can hope to win some jerseys....

2) Just got the latest Raw Deal Expansion..Looking forward to upgrade RVD and play with Andre the Giant....Go 100 card decks!!!!

3) had a brief encounter with the third kind..OK, more like with the Magic Organised Play people...it seems like the door is available for me to return to judging. Provided I can still pass the exam....Hmmm, studying again, anyone??? While I do enjoy judging, doing it again after such a long departure (it's been 3 years).........Dunno..Still contemplating (you indecisive freak!)

4) Still don't have a license to drive a car....but went go-karting last weekend and found driving quickly without caring much about others was somewhat fun..Somewhat because on the first lap I got sandwich between 2 cars only to have the guy behind hit me and flew off the track..Ok, a little exxagerrated, but it did got off the track like about 2 sec or so...Doesn't hurt now, but over the weekend it was quite painful....Really...

5) I'm replaying NeverWinter Nights, with new characters classes; Sorceress, Monk and later Cleric....No other social time left/required. Enough said....

6) I'm finally debt free.....NOT...At least one of my ongoing debts are finally gone...My own B'day gift for 2005 is now fully paid for...And it was one heck of an expensive gift.....And no, it wasn't a car.. I'm not driving anybody anywhere anytime at alll...

7) Did I mention the last time work is catching up?? Well, it's now even worse...Not anybody's fault but my own...I just have to stop asking for more.....No more Being Oliver for me...sob sob..

8) Haha! I have 8 points!!! Betcha never thought that could happen! I've decided that I need to do something about by exponentially increasing weight.....First thing is to halt the increase...From last week, i've been giving myself a curfew of no solid after 8pm.....The only porblem I have now is that I have a Chinese wedding dinner to attend this weekend...how how????

I need help, i know......You wanna help??? Haha

Reminiscence WrestleMania 21

2006-09-12T18:35:00.000+08:00

I just love the trailers, don't you???

http://www.freewebs.com/jonoswrestlemaniavideos/

Touching?.....

2006-09-01T12:44:00.000+08:00

I can't believe this, but I actually find Unfaithful, by Rihanna, really, really good.

Ofcourse, I've always been a sucker for songs with heavy piano accompaniment. That, and a really nice tune (though somewhat simple) should make it good.

What peeves me for liking it is because of it's lyrics. The song is basically about a girl feeling guilty for two-timing her boyfriend, with the boyfriend's knowledge. The fact that the guy (somewhat) condones it makes it even sicker (ier...whichever). I mean, look, if you're male and you know your girl is "happy with another guy"; And, with most (not all) affairs, it's usually all about...erm...How could a man live with that???

Of course, the fact that the girl is feeling guilty to the extend of implying that she's killing her man, is some consolation, but nowhere is she indicating she planning to stop the extra-curriculum activities....She just sounds like she wants to ditch her guy to save him all the pain. Though the ditch is going to hurt too, but at least that should be the last..Should be....

Yet despite knowing the lyrics (I have a softcopy, haha!) I still find the music soothing. Something must be really wrong with me....

And I love Evanescence latest single. Can't wait for the album...

More ANGST for me!!!!

Hiatus???

2006-08-25T19:19:00.000+08:00

Ok, so I haven't blogged for awhile.....

Why I haven't blogged:

1) Someone actually asked why I haven't. So out of defiance, I didn't (Who says I'm not a dumb kid at heart?)

2) I really had nothing to write about. (What about this year's birthday?? How did that go?) (God knows, God cares...)

3) I've been busy with work. Not something I've associated with since May 2006, however things have picked up and once again I swallow more than I can chew...( I just don't think that sounds right...whatever...)

4) ( You're gonna somehow cook up 7 reasons, aren't you?)

5) Someone stood me up from a trip to UK...OK, lie. I just missed out on an opportunity to get a free trip to UK. The issue obviously lie with the fact that I don't have an hourglass figure...No, lie too. I wouldn't have really been able to go, though if the opportunity did lie with me I'd throw caution to the wind and spend every single cent I had there....And I'm still glad he got to go...Too bad he couldn't get the REAL person he wanted with him..(No, what you updated in your blog isn't the whole truth!)

6) EPL is back!! Bigger than ever!!! (OK, how on earth does this explain you not writing from 2/8/6 till 18/8/6? EPL only really started on 19/8/6!!!)

7) 9 81225 1851121225 14152089147 512195 208120 31513519 18513152051225 31215195 119 1 1615191992125 1851191514/524321195.

So that's why I didn't write....Because I was just plain l......shhhhh, nanti saham luput! (that's malay for 'drop in stock value'...OK, something like that).

& I still can't think of anything else to write. Maybe next time....

I felt like Oliver....

2006-08-01T10:06:00.000+08:00

Prologue 1:
Oliver as in Oliver Twist. The orphan in a story about how someone without family can still find one in the old world...Something like that. Made famous with the musical with lyrics, " Food, glorious food!" At least that what I think...haha.

Prologue 2:
My company is going through restructuring and thus to pacify those affected, we had an Annual Dinner last Friday. We haven't really been having Annual Dinners as one-big-happy company, so this obviously had quite a positive response from my collegues.

Venue:
Mandarin Oriental...The venue already indicated that the company decided it was worth splashing money to their employees (I've since stopped using the word 'staff' because I am dirty minded..So sue me). But don't trust my word for it, visit the hotel yourself and make up your own opinion..

Theme:
Black Tie - Optional. Yup, that's what's written, printed and dead set. Black Tie - Optional..I wonder what that really meant. I mean, if you don't want to pressure attendees to wear expensive Tux and dresses, just have a fine print that says compliance to theme not mandatory for attendance...Trust me, if you know where I work, you'd expect them to be able to use big words like that...So much for expectations. Now, focusing literally on the theme, I wonder if it was to get people to turn up in colours other than black, i.e. orange, green, pink, purple, etc...Unfortunately, it was mostly (boring) blakc that night...

The Whole Damn Show (Reference to Rob Van Dam, haha!):
We had Sarimah Ibrahim (I think that's her name) as host, and for some reason she mentioned her marital status as part of her introduction. Must have gotten word that people in my company don't hold their beer well and will...You can guess the rest..Though I don't think that's true. Most of the people who drink in my company do hold thier beer..Just not when combo'ed with hard liquor....And heavy smoking...I was originally (spelled ORIGINALLY, under no circumstance forget to type the I after the R) expecting some can can dance when I sneak peek the agenda a couple of hours before. To my dissapointment was just several scantilly-clad ladies and 2 men strutting their stuff on old Moulin Rouge...I mean on stage. They danced to Lady Marmalade, which really, Black Tie? No wonder they mentioed optional. It was only black tie in attire, not in nature. I mean, Black Tie means official, professional, serious stuff, no??

There rest was your standard stuff, Country Manager attempting to inspire with speech, standard employee performance, one karaoke session gone bad (they really couldn't sing, but since they were leaving, everyone gave face) some Malaysia Idol reject (a bit harsh, but if you didn't win...) and lastly Ferhad with his gropes and boring sexist performance. Yes, I don't like Ferhad. so sue me. (erm, one day that might just come back to haunt me..haha) Not to mention a jury selected best dressed male and female that the crowd had no influence on. They just annoucned the winners..Boring.....

At the end there was no final speech, no big hoo hah, no sea of tears....Just another Annual Dinner

Sight for sore eyes?:
Ok. No prizes for guessing I didn't turn up dressed ot theme. I went collar T & slacks, extremely pale in comparison with the host of Tux's, Blazers, Jackets and such, but who cares? I wasn't winning best dressed anyway.. (Ok, the first 10 minutes was tough, because I now understand the feeling of being out of place. But after that, everyone is more interested in everyone else, and I dived into the crowd like I didn't exist..Fine with me, haha!)

Ok, the girls weren't hot wearing less than bikinis (can't say much about the dancers though...) but the obvious choice for an evening wear, If Ya Have It, Flaunt It! If Ya Don't, Flaunt It Anyway!! Despite the 'colder' environment, ladies seem HellBent (I'm impressed with the number of cards and card mechanics I have in this post) to show skin, at the very least those above the...breast. Not too much legs though...

Last but not least, Food, Glorious Food!:
It was an eight course dinner, which really was just 6 course with 2 dessert. The food was so-so, with one issue; The decided it to be more 'service oriented' by serving us our portions, and each person onlu got one. Eventually I had to Ask For More (no, I'm not advertising for Pepsi here) if I wanted seconds. Sound like Oliver? At one point they messed up one course when they put old dishes onto an unfinished portion (those wasteful punks!), when I did an Oliver they had to find some other table's portion for me.

Epilogue:
I didn't stay for the second round because I don't. I didn't even take a single photo because, well, I just chose not to. Not somethnig I need visual aids to remember.....

When I can do music I can't do lyrics...

2006-07-28T09:46:00.000+08:00

So this is lyrics in progress.....haha...Yes, I have nothing better to do...

I'm trying to find out,
What my life is all about,
Yet everywhere I turn,
I only crash and burn.

So now I'm standing still,
Though much against my will,
Fear has kept me from moving,
Despite while here I'm dying.

I really want to fly,
To feel the wind and cry,
For once my body feels,
And know that this is real.

I'm still at where I stand,
I just can't understand,
Why don't I feel alive,
Why do I feel deprived.

I know it's in my mind,
Look harder, I will find,
The solace that I seek,
And not all is so bleak.

I really want to fly,
To feel the wind and cry,
For once my body feels,
And know that this is real.

One day I will know that I have lived despite I'm dead,
Until that day I'll keep on breathing,
And when the time has come for me to face that which I dread,
I wish with me is just but one thing,
you....

History unrepeated..

2006-07-24T12:15:00.000+08:00

For the past 2 years history repeated itself....

In June I would have the time of my life, by July I would feel like shit...

Coming to this June I was worried it might happen again, so I somewhat made conscientious efforts to avoid that from recurring. I did as much as I could to not find something overjoyed for (World Cup wasn't really all happy for me..England got kicked out by the undeserving Portugal, remember?)

I still won myself a Wrestling tournament at the end of June (which I have done for the past 2 years, if anyone noticed..) but I didn't win this time because i was lucky (which is one hell of a source of joy) but because I.........Cheated...

Ok, so 3 years after I became the all-righteous Magic:the Gathering judge I am now a player who'll cheat to win..Blame the late Eddie Guererro on that please. Like he said, "if you didn't lie, you didn't try.." Ok, so that sentence can be intrepreted in many other context. I didn't like do a Mike Long (edited accordingly) and kept some cards under my thigh. Nor did I have more prematches than I should, carefully interchanging them as required...I simply chose not to highlight the obvious, which many who have played Magic with me would agree. i like to state the obvious, when other forget about them..

I still do that in real life, you know, telling others obvious things when their common sense eludes them. Not many people can accept it, but I do my part in making life simple and straight forward..I don't do it with my words, but my actions are relatively straightforward...Choose to read between the lines (of my actions, not my words.. My words almost always have double, if not more, meanings) and you'll miss my true intention...

Back to not having history repeat itself, so the lack of sources of elation has resulted in no need to be in anguish due to the lack of it in July..And come August, please, please not have another shitty Thursday...Let it pass without event nor encounter, which is fine by me, but have easy on me...Don't give me more headaches and heartaches... (wait a minute...Not's like the 'person' who decides this would read me here, would 'it'? haha)

So life goes on...And hopefully I'd scraped through the rest of the months in relative safety.....