Kevin's Journal

Thick and thin... till the end...

2008-08-09T16:36:00.000+08:00

yeah, its been a long time since my last post. But I saw this in my inbox and I thought its so nice and meaningful that I just gotta share it with those who matters... you! (Thanks Darren!)

This is interesting. Try it out !

Why should the wedding ring be worn on the fourth finger?
There is a beautiful and convincing explanation given by the Chinese.....

Thumb represents your Parents
Second (Index) finger represents your Siblings
Middle finger represents your-Self
Fourth (Ring) finger represents your Life Partner
& the Last (Little) finger represents your children

Firstly, open your palms (face to face), bend the middle fingers and hold them together - back to back
Secondly, open and hold the remaining three fingers and the thumb - tip to tip
(As shown in the figure below):

Now, try to separate your thumbs (representing the parents)..., they will
open, because your parents are not destined to live with you lifelong, and have to leave you sooner or later.
Please join your thumbs as before and separate your Index fingers (representing siblings)... ., they will also open, because your brothers and sisters will have their own families and will have to lead their own separate lives.

Now join the Index fingers and separate your Little fingers (representing your children)... ., they will open too, because the children also will get married and settle down on their own some day.

Finally, join your Little fingers, and try to separate your Ring fingers (representing your spouse).
You will be surprised to see that you just CANNOT....., because Husband & Wife have to remain together all their lives - through thick and thin!!

Please try this out......... ....

Yes... through thick and thin... for all our lives...

Johnny's Back...

2008-03-02T16:19:00.000+08:00

Just felt like posting something to perk myself up.

Riot, Thundersteel. Ah....

You've woken up the... demon... in... me...

2007-10-04T05:22:00.000+08:00

Drowning deep in my sea of loathing
Broken your servant I kneel
(Will you give in to me?)
It seems what's left of my human side
Is slowly changing in me
(Will you give in to me?)

Looking at my own reflection
When suddenly it changes
Violently it changes (oh no)
There is no turning back now
You've woken up the demon in me

Get up, come on get down with the sickness
Open up your hate, and let it flow into me
Get up, come on get down with the sickness
You mother get up come on get down with the sickness
You fucker get up come on get down with the sickness
Madness is the gift, that has been given to me

I can see inside you, the sickness is rising
Don't try to deny what you feel
(Will you give in to me?)
It seems that all that was good has died
And is decaying in me
(Will you give in to me?)

It seems you're having some trouble
In dealing with these changes
Living with these changes (oh no)
The world is a scary place
Now that you've woken up the demon in me

love is... life is...

2007-09-28T09:48:00.000+08:00

i just feel like ranting... so bear with me...

1 Corinthians 13

Love

1If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

...I know these verses well, since I was a young boy, too young to know about true love. But now that I'm much older, I'm still none the wiser. I think I might even have taken a few steps back. I thought I didn't know what true love was when I was a boy. But now, I realize, it was when I was a young child that I have manifested real and genuine love... from the heart.

All these love that many people speak of these days... it all seems like more like moments of lust, desire, possession, jealousy, romance, pretence, and lies. Selflessness, humility, kindness, forgiveness, and sacrifice... too few and far between.

We succumb lust, to the lure of cheap thrills. We resort to lies, to self and to others, so we can get away with it. Ignoring the voice of good sense, we choose the winding path of lies and disloyalty instead. The good times we once had, and the purity of our heart, have all but disappeared.

We chose to dwell on the fleeting physical beauty of a person, while looking past the inner beauty glowing from within; a beauty that grows even more so with the passing of time... We desire the thrill of romance and sweet talk, over the baggage of daily chores that comes along with love.

I find myself guilty of so many things... things that I know are wrong, but yet I can't rescue myself from it. Do I even know myself anymore? What is the meaning of love, and is this "love" good enough for anyone anymore?

Sometimes, I just have the wildest thoughts of leaving it all behind, going away to some snowy mountains, and just be a hermit, meditate all day, and experience true emptiness, nothingness, and peace. Yet, sometimes, I felt like going off to some disaster ravaged land, to help the hungry and the sick, to experience true self-sacrifice, compassion, and love. Am I running away from it all? Or is it just me wanting to seek and embrace the meaning and purpose of my existence? When will I ever have the courage to do all these?

When I think of the emptiness that some people faced, and then of the suffering of people and children in many parts of the world; Those who were born with mental or physical defects, and those who continue to love and care for them; Those gave up all the time of their life to work for and help the less fortunate... I have so many things to be thankful for!

To each his own, so draw your own conclusions... but for me, to love others, you have to first love yourself and cherish yourself... to help others, you have to first help yourself, and not to abuse yourself!

Mizuno Run 2007

2007-07-22T23:00:00.000+08:00

damn it. typed a page full of stuff about the run above, and the network happened to be down when i hit preview and spell check. what a waste of time, multiply should have the autosave feature like blogger! anyway, to summarize the few hundred words that i typed.

rain, wake, run, mud, water, wait, run, wait, run, finish, eat at changi vill, kayak, home, sleep.

Transformers... more than meets the eye!

2007-07-01T20:29:00.000+08:00

Went to watch Transformers Digital on Friday morning at Cathay Grand. To me, this is now THE theatre to catch major blockbusters with lots CG and sound effects. THX, unblocked view, comfortable seats, ambient temp just right, big hall, humongous screen. Simply the best! The digital version also allows better visuals with no signs of grain and ghosting in fast action scenes.

So how was the movie? Let's just say that ct sat thru the entire show without ever grabbing my watch and asking me her usual questions like, "is this an epic?", "how long is the show?", etc. In fact, she did not shuffle in her seat or talk to me at all! After the show, she was "transforming" here and there as we walked out the hall. And she's been asking for me to bring her watch the movie again! If my big kid loved it, your kids will love it, too! In short, it doesn't feel like you sat thru 2.5 hours worth of a show, that's how enjoyable it was.

(Skip this paragraph if you haven't watch it as there may be spoilers!!!) As for me, I think the movie is very well put together. When I hear that they decided on using Peter Cullen to act as the voice of Optimus Prime, I know the producers were at least trying to make a movie for all the long time fans. When I hear Prime's voice, it sends shivers down my spine! Optimus Prime is, and forever will be, the ultimate Transformer and the most revered Autobot. He may not be the most powerful, but his charisma and compassion makes him the most respected Autobot leader among all. The build-up before introducing all the robots was pretty cool as well. They didn't rush to bring out all the robots, and when they did turn up, WOW, I was almost in tears! One of the Autobots, I think either Jazz or Ratchet or Ironhide, was doing a "Freeze" in the middle of his transformation! I must also praise the script writers, for keeping to the real Transformers soul, where most Decepticons are generally more powerful than Autobots, and resist the typical Hollywood formula of the good guy usually being better. Here, you actually worry for the good guys as they literally got torn apart and blown into pieces! However, two things that I thought could have been done better is, some of the Transformers doesn't look as distinctive as I would like, making it difficult to differentiate who's who. Other than Prime and Bumblebee, and Blackout, Barricade, Frenzy, and Scorponok, the rest are pretty difficult to identify in fast paced action sequences. The second thing I don't quite like is... although the movie was pretty funny, there were just too much of cheesy jokes(the wacky parents) and slapstick(Agent Simmons, and Frenzy, who can be deadly, but was overused as comic relief and got cut up by a girl with a chainsaw!?!).

Regardless of the downside, I think they were very brave to take on this project, as, due to the broad spectrum in terms of different age group of the fans (I watched the original series as a kid, including when Prime was Orion Pax on Cybertron), from the original Gen1 to the Japanese anime styled Beastmasters series (with I totally abhorred), there are bound to be groups of fans who will not be happy with the way certain things are done. I think the producers did a fantastic job, good enough that I want to see more of Transformers! And Megan Fox! Oh mamamamaieee......

The pains and joys of driving

2007-06-28T23:02:00.000+08:00

These days, you really have to consider carefully whether you want to drive downtown to catch a movie. Include some makan, shopping around, and maybe some Black Forest Freeze at Coffee Bean, you can end up paying a small fortune for the toll and car park charges. Which makes me think, is it worth it to pay so much for just leaving a vehicle in a lot doing nothing? If you include the ERP toll charges, the money is good enough to pay for another person's movie ticket and black forest freeze!

But sometimes, that's the price you pay for wanting to have a little bit more luxury and comfort. I don't think its more convenient than taking public transport in Singapore. The buses and train services are already pretty efficient, and I hate searching and waiting for parking lots in malls. I do enjoy driving, but although the costs of owning a car is slowly going down, the costs of using it more than 'made up' for it. Rising toll, fuel, and parking charges, plus insurance and taxes. Makes it necessary for one to really consider why buy a car? Need vs Want. The heart, or the head, which one will you follow? Haha!

Now, back to the car. After the 5k oil change and another 3k or so of mileage, the car seems much more responsive, pick up seems to have improved as well. For a small capacity sedan, I think its performance is already very admirable. Moreover, its pretty frugal, and that translates to more direct savings. Having a CVT transmission means we don't get the 'surge' when we 'step on it'. But I must say its just a matter of getting use to it. Plus its damn smooth since there are no gear changes.

Parked side by side to the outgoing model, this ash-black beauty definitely looks more curvaceous and has more 'road presence', whatever that means, ha! I like the wide-eyed headlights, and both the front and back lamp clusters have just the right bulges at all the right places. The vehicle is not too long, so its quite easy to park, and at the same time, interior space is quite good, the flat rear floor giving ample leg room for the rear passengers. Boot space is generous without giving the car the 'honda city' look.

Although its not a performance car, it handles itself well when I put it through its paces through some winding roads and a lot of hard acceleration. The electric powered steering gives ample feedback, and the tyres grip the road without any hints of losing traction. Road undulations and irritating humps doesn't trouble the suspension, since its tuned more towards comfort rather than sporty handling.

All in all, nothing to complain about, except the ever rising costs of toll and parking!

Pillar - Frontline

2007-06-26T00:54:00.001+08:00

Catchy riff. Powerful lyrics. Not bad at all...

Overloaded

2006-12-26T00:39:00.000+08:00

Sorry, I've neglected you.

I've been so overloaded with work that, sometimes, I feel like I'm being exploited. I'm doing the work of an engineer, but not getting the pay of one. Favoritism is alive and real. Some people just have to tell the boss he's giving up, leaving, and the next thing you know, he's rewarded with a promotion.

Sometimes I regret rescinding my resignation letter. I should have hardened my heart and left. I would be much busier, but paid much better. Now, I'm three times busier than before, getting less money due to some allowances being taken away, less rest days, more 'take home' responsibilities.

I'm beginning to get the hang of it, though. Time to get back to basics! Gotta give myself more time to relax, to de-stress, to unwind...

Time to go back to the sun, sand, and sea...

Huo Yuan Jia 霍元甲

2006-02-04T00:17:00.000+08:00

After Fun with Dick and Jane yesterday, I went to see Fearless today.

The plot is predictable. But what made this movie worth my money is and fight scenes and the fact that it's based on one of the most famous chinese martial arts heroes who left a lasting impact on the chinese people.

As usual, after watching a movie based on a historical character, I searched the internet and dug up all the juicy stuff about him. The site that best describe his life and the JingWu philosophy will be the chin woo or 精武 organisation site which I believe is the most accurate I can find. It also mentioned that the early Chin Woo Association in 1920 sending the "Five Northern Dragons" to spread it's influence in Singapore and Malaysia, cool!

The movie also matches the historical description that Huo was lethal and decisive in combat, taking on many at once, and often breaking the arms and hands of his opponents, all the while remaining un-defeated.

Today, Chin Woo Association 精武门，has branches all over the world, in Europe, America, Japan, Asia, even NZ and Canada!

Tragically, like many other heroes, he was killed by dispicable means, poisoned by his enemy (his Japanese Doctor, who also was a Judo teacher) and died at the age of 41 (or 42 as mentioned in the film) after Huo broke the hands of ten Judo practitioners who rushed him together.

Another surprising find was that a Chin Woo Grandmaster Lin Bo Yan (1903 - 1990), besides teaching wushu, had actually taught Chinese and Geography in Chung Cheng Middle School in Singapore in the 1940s!

And for what it's worth, from this site about Mi Zong (Lost Track) style, it also seems that Huo's great-grandfather Huo XuWu was taught the Mi Zong Boxing style by Sun Tong.

All I can say is, 霍元甲大侠，请受小人一拜！kowtow

Number one, no more/ Seven Swords

2005-08-05T10:42:00.000+08:00

Finally got to rest after a hectic week at work. I'm gonna catch Tsui Hark's Seven Swords (七剑) later. Ever since Crouching Tiger- Hidden Dragon, there's been a good supply of these wuxia (武侠) movies surfacing. I'm quite happy with what I've seen so far, the likes of Hero, House of Flying Daggers, are quality productions with fantastic plots.

For quite some time now, Cathay's Orchard Cineleisure has taken over Shaw's Lido One as ~~the~~ my number one venue for my weekly movie event. Although none of the halls are as big as the gargantuan Lido 1, they have soundly(pun intended) beaten Lido 1 in all other aspects-

THX sound system - I don't know what happened to Lido 1, but are they still THX certified? Cathay has been making claims that their Cineleisure multiplexes are the only THX certified ones in Singapore, so does that mean Lido 1 has lost it?
Unblocked viewing - the hall's gradient and seat height is excellent. Even if the hyper-tensed bloke in front of you sits fully upright, you are unlikely to have your line-of-sight to the screen blocked. Unless, the bloke in front of you is Michael Jordan or Shaq O'Neil!
Air Conditioning - they got it just nice! Not too warm, and definitely not too cold! In some other theatres, I could've swear that I'd stepped into a container for freezing meat!
Washroom - yep, they got a loo, a toilet, whatever you choose to call it, right at the back, inside the hall, the bigger ones got 2. No need to run all the way out of the hall to a common toilet, and miss the most climatic scene of the movie!
Nice mix of retail outlets - although the building is not as big as Plaza Singapura (where GV plaza is) or Shaw House(where Lido cineplexes reside), they still manage to squeeze in a good mix of retailers, sports stuff, music, food, fashion, to keep both the guys and girls happy.
Human traffic - well, this is what my colleague said, not me! There's a 'nice' flow of human traffic there...blah blah blah!

So, there you go. I can't wait to see Donnie Yen in action again. He is a true martial artist, fights hard, can clown around, can be deadly intense just the same, and he speaks fluent cantonese, mandarin, english, and probably french as well(since his family is in Canada). I expect the movie to be a little hectic and requires a lot of imagination, what with the original cut being about 4-hours long! So it helps that the official website gives alot of background info and history of the characters and of course the swords. I hope Tsui Hark won't overdo those superman flying around stuff, and I hope it will have a gripping plot like Hero, and the color and romance like Flying Daggers. And quoting Donnie in an interview with China Times, I'm pretty positive that I won't be disappointed.

“I love Tsui Hark, love Seven Swords simply because of its level of realism. I don’t like movies in which the people can fly. Nowadays, due to the abilities of the actors, stunt doubles have to be called in or special effects employed even for not especially sophisticated action, while understandable, I do not support this.”

But, the best way to truly enjoy a movie is not to read or believe in any reviews (they are, after all, just the opinion of one or two individual), and to go with ZERO expectations.
Seven Swords, here I come!

An Afternoon at the Theatre

2005-07-19T17:40:00.000+08:00

"I am going to start injecting..."

"I am starting to cut, tell me if you feel any pain..."

"Knife."

And there the surgeon goes, cutting me up like a sirloin steak, rare.
Since he's working on my back, I can't see what he's doing. But, that's the thing, you see. Although I don't feel any pain, thanks to the local anesthesia, I can still feel the sawing motion on my skin, and the feeling of my skin being stretched and held apart so they can see whatever is under my skin. Whatever they're tugging at, I can feel it!

The nurse, not hearing anything from me, came over to the front to check, and asked if I was ok. I must say that I'm quite impressed by the nurses. While waiting for the surgeon to arrive, they were chatty and attentive, making sure that I feel warm with the ultra comfortable heated air blanket, which blows warm air at me through very tiny holes. They talked to me like they've known me for years, and I talked to them like they're my mother.

After working on my back, which went quite well and was over in less than 45 minutes, he proceeded to work on my arm.

This time, I can feel more pain during the injection of the LA, probably because the skin on the forearm is much thinner, thus the needle will get into the muscles beneath more easily. Although my face was covered, I can still see what's going on from the reflection on the surgeon's spectacles. I can see the dark red muscle tissues contrasting against what is by now my very pale skin. An assistant surgeon or someone like that was helping the surgeon to keep the incised skin parted.

Every now and then, the surgeon will say things like,
"Vein..." (I hope he meant to avoid it)
"Scissors..." (oh man....)
"Knife...." (what, more slicing?)
"Oh my god..." (What!?!)

"What!?!", I thought to myself. I tried my best to see from the reflection what it's all about, but all I can see is still the rare sirloin steak like colour.

Thank God, all in all, the operation was over in about 2 hours or less. The nurses and doctors of Tan Tock Seng did a good job. The nurses and staff were polite, gentle, patiently repeating what they told me again and again when I acted like a blur sotong. I was offered Milo and crackers before and after the op. Two different nurses asked whether I waited long, and they made sure I made good use of the huge blanket they provided instead of just hanging it over my shoulders. When I had to wait, even for just a few minutes, they made sure I am seated and comfortable.

I must say, I have spent much longer hours in a polyclinic without getting half as much done. But then again, at the polyclinic, I'm paying peanuts to hear the doctor tell me something I know. Here, we're talking thousands.

"Is one week mc enough?"

....mmmm.....

Olivia

2005-07-16T14:21:00.000+08:00

Just heard Olivia talking and singing in a radio show. Very good and clear voice, and there's a very airy sound to her singing, the type audiophiles would love.

Glad to know that another local singer is making big in outside of Singapore, this time Japan.

Gotta check out her music, after I'm done with my assignments!

S2SJ.com
Artist page
Blog

2005-06-25T20:53:00.000+08:00

The Giordano girls? Eh? What's the Puma doing there?

World Harmony Run 2005

2005-06-21T00:21:00.000+08:00

Went for the World Harmony Run on Saturday morning with ct. Met the usual faces we come to expect at MR. Sukaimi, Phillip, Alex, just to name a few, but where's David? Was so looking forward to run with him.

NMP Eunice 'Wheel of Fortune' Olsen was there as the Guest-of-Honor. She didn't run though, but her very beautiful and sporty mum did. She was running ahead of us almost throughout the whole trail part. We only managed to overtake her towards the end. Way to go Ma'am!

We didn't continue running the 2nd leg as ct was already wheezing. I think she started off too fast, not giving her body enough time to warm up.

We followed some of the organizers down to the Ceylon Sports Club to wait for the runners while having our breakfast. We then ran with them for a short distance(?) to the Civil Service Club(?). It was getting pretty hot already.

After lunch and some rest, I didn't join them for the next few legs cos I was feeling a bit sick and drowsy. Slept in the mini-bus instead.

We decided to follow Phillip's plan to join them for the final leg of about 10km instead. Starting from the Sri Senpaga Vinayagar Temple at East Coast Road, via Nicoll Highway, all the way down to the Merlion at Esplanade Drive.

It was 3plus in the afternoon and the blazing sun was beating down on us like hell. I've never ran in this kind of condition for a long time since my army daze. I felt like puking blood! But I managed to pull through by keeping my pace at a comfortable level, slow and steady. Although my right hamstring started to tighten towards the last 200 metres or so after a series of stairs up and down. But at least my knees held up well, thanks to the knee sleeves I had on, I suppose.

Before this run, I was seriously contemplating to take part in this year's marathon. But now, I think I have to reconsider. I don't think my skinny legs can take it anymore! Guess I'll have to train and run more and see how it goes.

Next, looking forward to the Milk Run and the Olympics day run or sumthing like that...

some pix

kboxing day

2005-06-21T00:04:00.000+08:00

(Click on the pile of pix to see details)

Had a fantastic session of chicken-slaughtering with 4 pretty nurses at kbox the other day... we sang our hearts out and it was all good, despite the insanely cold air-conditioning and the rashes appearing on my face due to a reaction to some medicine I took.

A day at the office, a day in my life

2005-06-15T22:37:00.000+08:00

(Click on the pile of pix to see details)
Received an sms from my boss, asking me to go jogging with him and gang again tmr. I'd love to, and would have said yes. But I've already agreed to joining ct and her friends for yet another karaoke session, this time at Kbox. Hope I won't 丢脸，but, really, I've forgotten a long time ago what shy or embarassing means.

My boss, Ben, is a really strong runner. Last week, we were with CL, Lio, and Ben. We jogged at a rather good pace for around 5km. Ben's stride was shorter than mine, but he seemed to glide along effortlessly, even picking up the pace towards the end. I stepped up a gear, too, but couldn't really keep up cos I dun know how much further I was from the end point. I have this weird mental block whereby I can only sprint towards the finish line if I know how far away it is. (CT ran more than 10km from Yishun to Woodlands to join us. Frankly typing, I don't want to see her run too much cos she's losing too much weight!)

Next time, should we take the same route, I will fare better.

Today, me, my boss Ricky(yes, I have so many bosses above me, and no more men below me), LK, and Heng, were taking farewell pics with MP. It's a pity she's leaving us so soon cos she's really very goofy and cool at the same time. I've never seen her lose her cool or raise her voice, and she is always genuinely nice and friendly to everyone. Hope she'll move on to better things and that she'll stick to being her true self.

Sometimes, I feel so lost. One by one, those colleagues whom I also regard as friends had left or are leaving, moving on to greener pastures. Me? I'm still here in my "comfort zone", lacking the courage to break away from it.

But, looking on the bright side, at least I still enjoy the things I do at work and off. Running, going to ktv, catching movies, and even my struggles with part time studies, are adding much flavours to my life. I've never had so much fun since my school days, haven't been so sociable and talkative for quite a while now.

I know ct is having some trouble adjusting to all these changes. She's so used to seeing me shut myself indoor, facing the pc whole day, or go swimming alone, keeping to myself all the time, that she's understandably quite alarmed by the smses and the phone numbers of my new friends and classmates appearing in my mobile.

Tell me, how can I make her understand that she can never be replaced?

MIA

2005-05-14T22:59:00.000+08:00

Oh my! Haven't been blogging for quite awhile.

It is true that I've been pretty busy lately. For my friends who cared enough to keep coming back, only to see the same old same old, I'm so sorry! I've been busy, lazy, distracted.

Working a 5-day week, really takes a bit of getting used to. Lectures, tutorials, and assignments. Needless to elaborate.

But I'm glad that I finally found the time to go running last saturday with ct. We ran for about 5km, and I even have the ability to open up my pace for the last 200 metres. Thanks to the knee sleeve around my left knee, I felt no pain after the run. Must do it again, soon.

Also picked myself up to go see some movies again. Kingdom of Heaven, Infected, Amityville Horror, all pretty good. I even got the tickets in advance to watch this coming Saturday's Starwars III. Can't wait!

Last, but not least. Grandma got transfered from a normal ward to the icu yesterday. Went to see her again this morning. Hope she recovers soon.

KLIM 2005 pt.1

2005-03-07T15:43:00.000+08:00

KLIM 2005...click on pile of pictures for the full set.

What a rush. It all could've started so wrong for us. We were in a cab, trying to make it to the train station before 10pm. Luckily for us, we got a crazy driver who thinks he is Schumi, and the traffic on that night was quite smooth.

Sukaimi was calling me on my cellphone a few times.

Kevin, where are you? The train is leaving, they are closing the gate!

Stress! We felt like we were in the amazing race! We were just outside the train station and the taxi was like taking forever to make the u-turn. Thank God, we still managed to get there and boarded the train about 5 minutes before it started to move.

We were greeted by Sukaimi and this guy David. I will talk more about him later.

It was my first time taking the KTM, so I was looking forward to it. We got the cabin with the bunker beds, and I must say it was pretty comfortable. Ct and myself decided to bunk together and very soon, I was off to dreamland. The ride wasn't too bumpy, and the shaking from the train actually helped put me to sleep. I was only interupted when ct woke me up to switch sides cos she was feeling cold. As usual, we didn't bring any sweater or stuff to keep us warm. Didn't sleep too well after switching sides, it was cold indeed.

We arrived at KL in the early morning and took a cab to the hotel. Read more about the rest of the day at Sukaimi's blog.

It was a relatively uneventful day, except for when I received an sms from MINDEF about a notification of activation!

My heart almost hit the floor! I had forgotten to notify MINDEF of my overseas trip! Technically speaking, I was still safe since it was less than 24 hours after I had enter Malaysia. But still, if the activation was immediate, I would have to rush off to take the next bus back to Singapore to report.

I called back the number to check, and, fortunately, it was a notification for in-camp-training in September. Man! Of all the days, they had to choose this day to send out the sms! You have no idea how much of my brain cells died there and then.

Later in the day, I went to the humongous Berjaya Times Square and wasted no time in finding an Internet Cybercafe to notify MINDEF about my trip. Phew!

Meanwhile, Sukaimi was pretty busy, taking care of his family, calling and getting calls from people he's supposed to meet, and also waiting for Fd's arrival, so ct and myself had lots of time to spend together with our dear friend David 'the boss' a.k.a. 'handsome elite runner who is member of MR25'. You know Oscar from Sesame Street? David reminds me of him, only this is Oscar on steroids, lots of it.

I've known him for less than 2 days, and already we were trading blows verbally whenever we talked. The way we 'compliment' each other, anyone who didn't know better would've thought we had been 'friends' for many years. Ct was litterally holding me back from verbally poking his eyes out, heheh.

But honestly, I really enjoyed his company. He was quite animated and very chatty. And he is also rather comical in the way he moves and talks. He also gave me the opportunity to practise my sarcastic remarks and verbal swordplay. Haha. It's a pleasure to meet you David!

To be continued....

To KL for KLIM via KTM

2005-03-03T18:19:00.000+08:00

Will be off to the train station in a few hours.

Ct's running the half-marathon, and I'm going to the mega-mall for shopping...

Yeah, we're switching roles. She's gonna do all the sweating and panting while I get the most unenviable task of trudging the malls.

It's gonna be lots of fun, food, and laughter I'm sure. And we're gonna meet up with some of our blog friends.

I just have one little concern. I'm not so familiar with my new Panasonic Lumix DMC FX-7 yet. Time to read up the manual, I'm afraid.

NUS Biathlon results + pix

2005-02-27T13:09:00.000+08:00

NUS biathlon 2005

The pictures are out, click on the pile to see them. Oh, I've already told my mother, that chubby girl kicked me waaahhhhahahahahhh.....

The results are out as well, see them here.

We didn't do too badly...and my swim timing was, thankfully, not the worst, too!

NUS Biathlon Relay

2005-02-21T05:25:00.000+08:00

Woohoo! So happy. I did it! And I didn't come in last!

Ha! A comedy of errors, really. I'll put up some pics when I get them from Fd(thanks for shooting my shack face, again!).

Poor Sukaimi...I think he had to really push himself because I took so long to finish the 800 metres. He told me it was faster than what I did last week during the trial swim, but I thought I took forever. We don't know yet, our actual timing, but I think they should be posted on the website soon.

Had a very late night, slept at 5:30am coz I'm installing stuff for ct's laptop to get it up and running so she can finish her assignment. Too bad she couldn't make it, wished she was there.

Woke up around 7:15am, and while preparing to leave home around 7:45am, Sukaimi sms me. He's already there! He's worried that the carpark will be packed, like what happened during various events held at MacRitchie Reservoir. As it turned out, we worried too much. As most of the participants are still students, the carpark was not even half full.

Reached Palawan beach around 9:15am, and was slowly making my way to Tanjung beach, soaking myself in the sun and sight yawning away, when Peter Lim caught up with me from behind, good to see this superman again.

We were grouped with wave 8, meaning we'll start around 12 plus. By around 12pm, I can barely keep my eyes open, so I laid down on the ground and slept. 15 minutes later, Sukaimi woke me up. It is time! Man, I felt so lethargic. Feels like I've slept for years.

Being the very first organized swimming event for me, I guess my lack of experience shows. Thinking that I'll be relatively weak, I stayed at the back during the start. As the airhorn blows, I realized that I've made the wrong decision. There are quite a number of slow starters who didn't run fast to hit the water and started swimming breast strokes the moment they hit the water!

I was having lots of problems getting past them due to their very wide frog kicks. One young chubby girl caught me right smack in the middle of my solar plexus with her power leg. I got so winded by it that I too started swimming breast strokes like her. Well, as teh saying goes, if u can't beat them, join them, lor!

So I was alternating between freestyle(whenever there's room for me to go fast) and breast stroke(whenever I need to see where I'm heading and when I feel like it), and I soon re-lived their pros and cons.

Maybe I'm too used to swimming at the pools, relying on the lane markings. Whenever I swim freestyle, I'll tend to veer towards my right. Many times, I ended up hugging the rope which mark the lane.

I also found out the hard way, that I wrapped the timing chip strap around my left ankle too tight. After it got wet, it felt even tighter. On my way back during the 2nd round, my problematic left foot started to have cramps. As it is, my kicks were already inconsistent and weak. With the cramp, I'm practically swimming with just my arm propelling me. Sigh....

As I 'raced' toward the swimmer's exit line, Fd took a few shots of me and my shack face (as usual). Haha, I looked like I was crying (no wonder Pear was pointing at me and laughing as I walked towards him). I think I took about 22 minutes, according to Sukaimi. For those elites who trained for this event, they would've finished their swim 10 minutes ago and ran another 2km! Damn weak, me.

But, as promised (and hoped), I didn't finish last among the swimmers. I think there's a few behind me, among them the power-leg chubby girl(my solar plexus still hurts like hell after the swim and I almost vomitted), and a very big but cute chubby man (I wonder if he is ligo's boss?!).

I chatted with Pear awhile as I catch my breath, and Sukaimi ran so fast that we missed his finishing! I think he made up for a lot of my lost time with his run, well done Sukaimi!

Oh, all the usual faces were there. I also got to know who rainbow is (ct was trying to describe to me but I just cat match any face to the name). Well, she's this sweet little girl called rainbow! I think her chinese name is 彩虹, which literally means rainbow. Nice to finally meet you!

Despite my poor finish, and my shack face (heheh), I really really enjoyed this event. I know I'm capable of doing better. I just need to be more serious about it and put in more time and effort to get better. Who knows, maybe I'll take part in the full bi next year?

The Artist

2005-02-18T18:28:00.000+08:00

Cruising along the highway road
The wind in my hair, the dirt on the road

Through the clouds the sunray breaks
Beyond the horizon twilight awakes

The Artist wields his mighty brush
Swift and bold yet warm and lush

Paint the sky with shades of violets and blues
With magical tints of crimson hues

As darkness falls, the shadows fade
I wish that dusk will a little longer wait

Chinese New Year rant....Then....and NOW...

2005-02-18T17:11:00.000+08:00

Then. As a child, I've always looked forward to the Lunar New Year.

I will always wake up very early and take the morning papers and slot them under my parents door, and besides wishing them a good morning, I'll also wish them 恭喜发财，身体健康。 Or 'gong xi fa cai, shen ti jian kang', meaning great wealth and health.

I will also ask them, throught the door, for permission to open up the goodies, the bak-gua, the peanut cakes, and what-have-you.

This is also a time when we get to see many of our relatives and friends. People whom we only get to meet once a year, mostly. My siblings and I will enjoy greeting all our uncles and aunties with well wishes while we get what we deserved, ang-pow, a pat on the head, and your usual stuff like Wah, so big already ah! and Aiya, look just like your father!

We, the kids, will then stuff ourselves with all the delicious goodies and play with each other while the adults talk about everything under the sun.

Now. We, the kids, have all grown up. Many are married, with children, and maid. The adults back then are now old folks. They still chat with each other like the good old days, everything under the sun. But we, the grown up 'kids', do not really chat like how the adults do back then. My cousins. I knew them since we were young. I know they are my cousins. But there is this awkward unfamiliarity. It's like I'm meeting strangers whose name I know. But I don't feel any warmth from them.

I remember visiting my aunt and my cousins at their place 2 years back. Arriving at their place, my uncle and aunt came to greet us at the door and welcome us in.

My cousins were sitting around the table having a card game. I moved towards them, shook each of their hands, and wished them well. After that, they just sat back down and went on with their game.

How rude. Is this what your parents taught you? Is that what you have learned from all the expensive education you had?

Maybe they are shy, I'll give them the benefit of a doubt.

So, last year, I decided to pay them a visit, again.

Maybe it's my luck or something, but the exact same thing happened again. They were still huddled around the table, playing their card games, not even budging their asses to at least receive their guests.

I've had enough. I just walked past them like they're never there and just sat down on the couch. I talked only to the real adults, and left after 15 minutes. I could've confronted their disgraciousness with a few carefully crafted verbal jabs and jibes of my own, I'm totally comfortable with that, but refrained from doing so out of respect for my uncle an aunt. Kids these days have no manners, no sense of proper conduct.

Back at my parents', I told them what happened, and I said that I'll never visit them again.
All these festive visitations have lost it's meaning and purpose. It's becoming more of a drag, a torture.

The Chinese people used to value kinship very much. And proper etiquette were observed, even with enemies. Well, apparently, not any more.

With all the technology that's suppose to make the world smaller and bring people closer, the lack of real strife and hardship has, once again, made the chinese like grains of loose sand.

I remember seeing my grandparents and parents visiting my other 'grandma' every year. They will be sooooo very glad to see each other again and will hold each other's hand as they say their hellos and goodbyes. And they are not even blood relatives, but I can tell from the look in their eyes that they are beyond that.

You see, they went through the war and escaped from the clutches of the enemy together from China to Malaysia and Singapore. They were seperated at times, their brothers and sons died as a result of the war. And they lived, at one time, knowing that this very day could be the last they see each other.

The bond between them is thicker than some blood can or will ever be. But sadly, this type of bond will be hard to come by these days. People are too busy, living and building up their own lives and accumulating wealth.

'Blood is thicker than water?' Yeah right.

NUS bi-relay prep

2005-02-14T18:22:00.000+08:00

Been kinda busy lately, going back to swimming in preparation for the NUS Biathlon relay which I'm taking part together with Sukaimi. I am, of course, not running. My left ankle still keeps torturing me, but I hope swimming will keep my body in shape and my joints well oiled while waiting for my ankle and knees to recover.

Friday - did some sets with the dumbell, just some bicep curls and also worked the shoulders a bit.

Saturday morning - did some Hindu pushups and Hindu squats. These are extremely effective workouts that make full use of your own body weight to strengthen the various muscle groups. Much more effective than your normal pushups. But I didn't do too much of the squats as my knees still felt weak. For more info about Hindu pushup/squat and how they're done, see here.

Saturday evening - Went for a swim at the pool to get myself accustomed to swimming with aching muscles! Picking up the pace as I go.

Sunday morning - Went to Tanjung Beach at Sentosa with Sukaimi to do a dry run on the actual place. Of course, I didn't stay dry. I'm suppose to swim 2 rounds between the 2 breakwaters, each round giving me about 400 metres. I asked Sukaimi time me. The first round was kinda tough. As usual, I'm not much for warmups so all I did was put on my goggles and run into the water and dived straight in.

The water was pretty murky so I had to rely on landmarks to guide me, taking a quick look during the split second I turn my head to the right to breathe. But I soon found out that I was heading off course because I was swimming alongside the circumference of the breakwater, which is not straight. Instead of facing the 2nd breakwater, I was facing towards the open sea! I tried a few times to re-adjust my bearings but I still keep having the same problem. It's like I'm swimming in a zig-zag pattern!

So for the remainder of the 1st lap, I swam a modified version of the freestyle, kept my head above water all the time so I can see where I'm heading. My kneck and shoulders felt so tired. I'm no stranger to swimming in the sea, but, suddenly, the seawater had never tasted so salty before.

After the 1st round, 400 metres only, I was so very exhausted. Took me about 12 minutes. Not too bad I guess, for my 1st time, swimming in zig-zag pattern like a housefly without head.

But at least I know now the conditions which I will be swimming under. I completed the 2nd round in about the same timing, I think, all the while getting my self accustomed to the waves and the currents. I didn't kick much during my swim, I don't know why. I know that I need to kick well if I want to improve my timing, and to prevent overworking my upper body.

Sukaimi then went running, after ct had left first.

I rested for about half an hour, then put on my goggles and did another round. This time, although I'm already quite tired, it actually felt easier and less tiring. I just kept my focus on the swimming part, getting my strokes and kicks right, and just roughly used the sun and the landmarks as navigational guides. I still needed to adjust my bearings every now and then, but I'm not too worried about it this time round cos I know that there will be lane markings on that day and with so many swimmers doing it all at once, I only have to follow the splish-splash of the water. Just need to be careful about getting kicked in the face by the front swimmer.

I completed the 400 metres without feeling as breatheless as the first time round, and at a better and more consistent speed, too.

I'm just aiming to do below 30, so TLR don't have to run so hard to catch up!

Constantine

2005-02-09T18:31:00.000+08:00

The Aviator is interesting.

Hotel Rwanda, good.

I've booked the tickets for Constantine, tonight midnight.
For this kinda show, it's gotta be Lido1... THX, baby!

When You Divorce Me, Carry Me Out in Your Arms

2005-02-07T17:47:00.000+08:00

Received this in my email at work some time ago. The IT guys has been sending out mails reminding us to clear out the old mails and junk in our Lotus Notes mail. Guess I better do some housekeeping and take out the trash. But this little piece here is no trash! Many of you may have read it already. But I like it enough to want to put it up here, you know, for future reference, who knows?

Some parts of the translation may sound awkward, so for those who can read chinese, go for the more accurate chinese version below, as some gist of certain expressions may also get lost in translation.

When You Divorce Me, Carry Me Out in Your Arms
By ~~Cai Zhi Heng~~

On my wedding day, I carried my wife in my arms. The bridal car stopped in front of our one-room flat. My buddies insisted that I carry her out of the car in my arms. So I carried her into our home. She was then plump and shy. I was a strong and happy bridegroom.

This was the scene ten years ago.

The following days were as simple as a cup of pure water: we had a kid, I went into business and tried to make more money. When the assets were steadily increasing, the affection between us seemed to ebb. She was a civil servant. Every morning we left home together and got home almost at the same time. Our kid was studying in a boarding school.

Our marriage life seemed to be enviably happy. But the calm life was more likely to be affected by unpredictable changes.

Dew came into my life.

It was a sunny day. I stood on a spacious balcony. Dew hugged me from behind. My heart once again was immersed in her stream of love. This was the apartment I bought for her.

Dew said, You are the kind of man who best draws girls' eyeballs. Her words suddenly reminded me of my wife. When we were just married, my wife said, Men like you, once successful, will be very attractive to girls. Thinking of this, I became somewhat hesitant. I knew I had betrayed mywife. But I couldn’t help doing so.

I moved Dew' s hands aside and said, You go to select some furniture, O.K.? I ve got something to do in the company. Obviously she was unhappy, because I had promised to do it together with her. At the moment, the idea of divorce became clearer in my mind although it used to be something impossible to me.

However, I found it rather difficult to tell my wife about it. No matter how mildly I mentioned it to her, she would be deeply hurt. Honestly, she was a good wife. Every evening she was busy preparing dinner. I was sitting in front of the TV. The dinner was ready soon. Then we watched TV together. Or, I was lounging before the computer, visualizing Dew's body. This was the means of my entertainment.

One day I said to her in a slightly joking way, suppose we divorce, what will you do? She stared at me for a few seconds without a word. Apparently she believed that divorce was something too far away from her. I couldn’t imagine how she would react once she got to know I was serious.

When my wife went to my office, Dew had just stepped out. Almost all the staff looked at my wife with a sympathetic eye and tried to hide something while talking to her. She seemed to have got some hint. She gently smiled at my subordinates. But I read some hurt in her eyes.

Once again, Dew said to me, He Ning, divorce her, O.K.? Then we live together. I nodded. I knew I could not hesitate any more.

When my wife served the last dish, I held her hand. I’ve got something to tell you, I said.

She sat down and ate quietly. Again I observed the hurt in her eyes. Suddenly I didn’t know how to open my mouth. But I had to let her know what I was thinking. I want a divorce. I raised the serious topic calmly.

She didn’t seem to be annoyed by my words, instead she asked me softly, why? I’m serious. I avoided her question. This so-called answer made her angry. She threw away the chopsticks and shouted at me, you are not a man!

That night, we didn’t talk to each other. She was weeping. I knew she wanted to find out what had happened to our marriage. But I could hardly give her a satisfactory answer, because my heart had gone to Dew.

With a deep sense of guilt, I drafted a divorce agreement which stated that she could own our house, our car, and 30% stake of my company. She glanced at it and then tore it into pieces. I felt a pain in my heart. The woman who had been living ten years with me would become a stranger one day. But I could not take back what I had said.

Finally she cried loudly in front of me, which was what I had expected to see. To me her cry was actually a kind of release. The idea of divorce which had obsessed me for several weeks seemed to be firmer and clearer.

Late that night, I came back home after entertaining my clients. I saw her writing something at the table. I fell asleep fast. When I woke up, I found she was still there. I turned over and was asleep again.

She brought up her divorce conditions: she didn’t want anything from me, but I was supposed to give her one month’s time before divorce, and in the month’s time we must live as normal a life as possible. Her reason was simple: our son would finish his summer vacation a month later and she didn’t want him to see our marriage was broken.

She passed me the agreement she drafted, and then asked me, He Ning, do you still remember how I entered our bridal room on the wedding day? This question suddenly brought back all those wonderful memories to me. I nodded and said, I remember. You carried me in your arms, she continued, so, I have a requirement, that is, you carry me out in your arms on the day when we divorce. From now to the end of this month, you must carry me out from the bedroom to the door every morning.

I accepted with a smile. I knew she missed those sweet days and wished to end her marriage with romantically.

I told Dew about my wife's divorce conditions. She laughed loudly and thought it was absurd. No matter what tricks she does, she has to face the result of divorce, she said scornfully. Her words more or less made me feel uncomfortable.

My wife and I hadn’t had any body contact since my divorce intention was explicitly expressed. We even treated each other as a stranger. So when I carried her out on the first day, we both appeared clumsy. Our son clapped behind us, daddy is holding mummy in his arms. His words brought me a sense of pain. From the bedroom to the sitting room, then to the door, I walked over ten meters with her in my arms. She closed her eyes and said softly, Let us start from today, don’t tell our son. I nodded, feeling somewhat upset. I put her down outside the door. She went to wait for a bus, I drove to the office.

On the second day, both of us acted much more easily. She leaned on my chest. We were so close that I could smell the fragrance of her blouse. I realized that I hadn’t looked at this intimate woman carefully for a long time. I found she was not young any more. There were some fine wrinkles on her face.

On the third day, she whispered to me, The outside garden is being demolished. Be careful when you pass there.

On the fourth day, when I lifted her up, I seemed to feel that we were still an intimate couple and I was holding my sweetheart in my arms. The visualization of Dew became vague.

On the fifth and sixth day, she kept reminding me something, such as, where she put the ironed shirts, I should be careful while cooking, etc. I nodded. The sense of intimacy was even stronger.

I didn't tell Dew about this.

I felt it was easier to carry her. Perhaps the everyday workout made me stronger. I said to her, It seems not difficult to carry you now.

She was picking her dresses. I was waiting to carry her out. She tried quite a few but could not find a suitable one. Then she sighed, All my dresses have grown bigger. I smiled. But I suddenly realized that it was because she was thinner that I could carry her more easily, not because I was stronger. I knew she had buried all the bitterness in her heart. Again, I felt a sense of pain. Subconsciously I reached out a hand to touch her head.

Our son came in at the moment. Dad, it’s time to carry mum out. He said. To him, seeing his father carrying his mother out had been an essential part of his life. She gestured our son to come closer and hugged him tightly. I turned my face because I was afraid I would change my mind at the last minute. I held her in my arms, walking from the bedroom, through the sitting room, to the hallway. Her hand surrounded my neck softly and naturally. I held her body tightly, as if we came back to our wedding day. But her much lighter weight made me sad.

On the last day, when I held her in my arms I could hardly move a step. Our son had gone to school. She said, Actually I hope you will hold me in your arms until we are old.

I held her tightly and said, Both you and I didn’t notice that our life lacked intimacy.

I jumped out of the car swiftly without locking the door. I was afraid any delay would make me change my decision. I walked upstairs. Dew opened the door. I said to her, Sorry, Dew, I won't divorce. I'm serious.

She looked at me, astonished. The she touched my forehead. You got no fever. She said. I moved her hand off my head. Sorry, Dew, I said, I can only say sorry to you, I won’t divorce. My marriage life was boring probably because she and I didn’t value the details of life, not because we didn't love each other any more. Now I understand that since I carried her into the home, she gave birth to our child, I am supposed to hold her until I am old. So I have to say sorry to you.

Dew seemed to suddenly wake up. She gave me a loud slap and then slammed the door and burst into tears. I walked downstairs and drove to the office.

When I passed the floral shop on the way, I ordered a bouquet for my wife which was her favorite. The salesgirl asked me what to write on the card. I smiled and wrote, I'll carry you out every morning until we are old.

要离婚，你再将我抱出家门吧

妻结婚的时候，我是将她抱过来的。那时我们住的是那种一家一户的平房，婚车在门前停下来的时候，一伙朋友撺纵着我，将她从车上抱下来，于是，在一片叫好声中，我抱起了她一直走到典礼的地方。那时的妻是丰盈而成熟的娇羞女孩，我是健壮快乐的新婚男人。　

这是十年前的一幕。　

以后的日子就像是流水一样过去，要孩子，下海，经商，婚姻中的熟视无睹渐渐出现在我们之间。钱一点点地往上涨，但感情却一点点地平下去，妻在一家行政机构做公务员，每天我们同时上班，也几乎同时下班，孩子在寄宿学校上学。

在别人看来，生活似乎是无懈可击的幸福。但越是这种平静的幸福，便越容易有突然变化的机率。

我有了她。当生活像水一样乏味而又无处不在，哪怕一种再简单的饮料，也会让人觉得是一种真正的享受。　

她就是露儿。　

天气很好，我站在宽大的露台上，露儿伸了双臂，将我从后面紧紧抱住。我的心再一次被她感情包围，几乎让我无法呼吸。这是我为露儿买的房子。　

露儿对我说，像你这样的男人，是最吸引女孩子的眼球的。我忽然想起了妻，刚刚结婚的时候，她似乎说过一句，像你这样的男人，一旦成功之后，是最吸引女孩子的眼球的。想起妻的聪明，心里微微地打上了一个结，我清楚地意识到，自己对不起她。但却欲罢不能。　

我推开露儿的手，说你自己看着买些家具吧，公司今天还有事。露儿分明地不高兴起来，毕竟，今天说好了要带她去买家具的。关于离婚的那个可能，已经在我的心里愈来愈大起来，原本觉得是不太可能的事情，竟然渐渐地能在心里想像成可能。

只是，我不知道如何对妻子开口，因为我知道，开口了之后必然要伤害她的。妻没有对不起我的地方，她依旧忙忙碌碌地在厨房里准备晚上的饭菜，我依旧打开电视，坐在那里，看新闻，饭菜很快上桌，吃饭，然后两个人在一起看电视，或是一个人坐在电脑前发会儿呆。想像露儿的身体，成了我自娱的方式。　

试着对妻说，如果我们离婚，你说会怎样？妻白了我一眼，没有说话，似乎这种生活离她很远。我无法想象，一旦我说出口时，妻的表现和想法。

妻去公司找我时，露儿刚从我办公室里出来。公司里的人的眼光是藏不住事情的，在几乎所有人都以同情的目光和那种掩饰的语言说话的时候，妻终于感觉出了什么。她依旧对着我的所有下属以自己的身份微笑着，但我却在她来不及躲闪的一瞬间，从她的眼神中读出了一种伤害。　

露儿再次对我说，离婚吧何宁，我们在一起。我点头，心里已经将这个念头扩到非说不可的地步了。　

妻端上最后一盘菜时，我按住了她的手。说我有件事要告诉你。　

妻坐下来，静静地吃着饭，我想起了她眼神中的那种伤害，此刻分明地再一次显出来。突然间觉得自己有些不忍，但事到如今，却只能说下去。咱们离婚吧，我平静地说着不平静的事。　

妻没有表现出那种很特别的情绪，淡淡地问我为什么。我笑，说：不，我不是开玩笑，是真的离婚。妻的态度骤然变化起来，她恨恨地摔了筷子，对我大声说，你不是人！

夜里，我们谁也没理谁，妻在小声地哭，我知道她是想知道为什么。但我却给不了她答案，因为我已经在露儿给我的感觉里无法自拔。　

我起草了协议给妻看，里面写明了将房子，车子，还有公司的30股权分给她。写这些东西时，心里是一直怀了对妻的歉疚的，妻愤愤地接过，撕成碎片儿，不再理我。我感觉自己的心竟然隐隐地有些疼起来，毕竟是一起生活了十年的爱人，所有的温柔都将在未来的一天变成陌路一般的眼神，心里也有些不忍，但话一出口，毕竟是来不及收回的。

妻终于在我面前放声大哭，这是我一直以来想得到的，似乎是释放了什么东西一般，几个星期以来的压抑的想法都随着妻的哭声而变得明朗而坚决起来。
陪客户喝酒，半醉的我回到家中时，妻正伏在那里写着什么。我躺在床上睡去，醒来的时候，发现妻依旧坐在那里。我翻个身，再沉沉地睡去。

终于闹到了非离不可的地步，妻却对我声明，她什么也不要我的，只是在离婚之前，要我答应她一个条件。妻的条件简单，便是再给她一个月的时间，因为再过一个月，孩子就过完暑假了，她不想让孩子看到父母分开的场面，而且，在这一个月里还要像以前那样生活。　

我接过妻写的协议，她问我，何宁，你还记得我是怎么嫁过来的吗？蓦地，关于新婚的那些记忆涌上来，我点头，说记得。妻说，是你将我抱进来的，但是我还有个条件，就是要离婚了，你再将我抱出这个家门吧。这一来一去，都是你做主好了，只是，我要求这一个月，每天上班，你都要将我抱出去，从卧室，到大门。　

我笑，说：好。我想妻是在以这种形式来告别自己的婚姻，或是还有对过去眷恋的缘故。我将妻的要求告诉了露儿，露儿笑得有些轻佻，说再怎么还是离婚，搞这么多花样做什么。她似乎对妻很不屑，这或多或少让我心里不太舒服。　

一个月为限，第一天，我们的动作都很呆板。因为一旦说明之后，我们已经有很久没有这么亲密接触过了，甚至连例行的每周两次的做爱时间也取消了，每天都像路人一样。儿子从身后拍着小手说，爸爸搂妈妈了，爸爸搂妈妈了，叫得我有些心酸。从卧室经客厅，出房门，到大门，十几米的路程，妻在我的怀抱里，轻轻地闭着眼睛，对我说，我们就从今天开始吧，别让孩子知道。我点头，刚刚落下去的心酸再一次地浮上来。我将妻放在大门外，她去等公交，我去开车上班。　

第二天，我和妻的动作都随意了许多，她轻巧地靠在我的身上，我嗅到她清新的衣香，妻确实是老了，我已有多少日子没有这么近的看过她了，光润的皮肤上，有了细细的皱纹。我怎么没发现过妻有皱纹了呢，还是自己已是多久没有注意到自己这个熟悉到骨头里的女人了呢。　

第三天，妻附在我的耳边对我说，院子里的花池拆了，要小心些，别跌倒了。

第四天，在卧室里抱起妻的时候，我有种错觉，我们依旧是十分亲密的爱人，她依旧是我的宝贝，我正在用心去抱她，而所有关于露儿的想像，都变得若有若无起来。　

第五天，六天，妻每次都会在我耳边说一些小细节，衣服熨好了挂在哪里，做饭时要小心不要让油溅着，我点着头，心里的那种错觉也越来越强烈起来。　

我没有告诉露儿这一切。　

感觉到自己越来越不吃力了，似乎是锻炼的结果，我对妻说，现在抱你，不怎么吃力了。妻在挑拣衣服，我在一边等着抱她出门。妻试了几件，都不太合适，自己叹了口气，坐在那里，说衣服都长肥了。我笑，但却只笑了一半，我蓦然间想起自己越来越不吃力了，不是我有力了，而是妻瘦了，因为她将所有的心事压在心里。那一瞬间，心里紧紧地疼起来，我伸出手去，试图去抚妻的额角。　

儿子进来了，爸爸，该抱妈妈出门了。他催促着我们，似乎这么些天来，看我抱妻出门，已经成了他的一个节目。妻拉过儿子，紧紧地抱住，我转过了脸不去看，怕自己将所有的不忍转成一个后悔的理由。从卧室出发，然后经客厅，屋门，走道，我抱着妻，她的手轻巧而自然地揽在我的脖子上。我紧紧地拥着她的身体，感觉像是回到了那个新婚的日子，但妻越来越轻的身体，却常常让我忍不住想落泪。　

最后一天，我抱起妻的时候，怔在那里不走。儿子上学去了，妻也怔怔地看着我说，其实，真想让你这样抱到老的。　

我紧紧地抱了妻，对她说，其实，我们都没有意识到，生活中就是少了这种抱你出门的亲密。

停下车子的时候，我来不及锁上车门，我怕时间的延缓会再次打消我的念头。我敲开门，露儿一脸的惺松。我对她说，对不起露儿，我不离婚了。真的不离了。　

露儿不相信一般看着我，伸出手来，摸着我的头，说你没发烧呀。　

我打开露儿的手，看着她，对她说，对不起露儿，我只有对你说对不起，我不离婚了，或许我和她以前，只是因为生活的平淡教会了我们熟视无睹，而并不是没有感情，我今天才明白。我将她抱进了家门，她给我生儿育女，就要将她抱到老，所以，只有对你说对不起。

露儿似乎才明白过来，愤怒地扇了我一耳光，关了门，大哭起来。我下楼，开车，去公司。

路过那家上班时必经的花店的时候，我给妻子订了一束她最喜欢的情人草，礼品店的小姐拿来卡片让我写祝语，我微笑着在上面写上：我要每天抱你出家门，一直到老。

Coke is it?

2005-02-07T17:15:00.000+08:00

Coke is it,
originally uploaded by spyzter.

Check out some uber kewl ballistics images shot by spyzter. You got illuminated light bulbs, a bar of soap, and crayons. Lovely.

The full set here.

24 hours Running For Help pictures

2005-02-03T23:47:00.000+08:00

Oh, forgot to post this, better late than never.

The pictures are out, go here to access the links.

G'nite.

Egg vs. Stone 以卵击石

2005-02-03T19:55:00.000+08:00

A little late with jumping on this, but you see, I hardly read the papers anymore and I usually don't care much for politics and politicians. But I do do some sort of reading, like dropping by some brown glob every now and then to see wazappenee...

To me, to be a successful politician, besides being talented, bold, and brilliant, you've got to have a mean streak, ruthless, and to be willing and able to achieve your goals by any possible means.

The chinese call it 不择手段 or, loosely and literally - not being selective of the methods.

So it's rather amusing when this young history honours student Jamie Han took a jab at the all-conquering MM Lee about his iron hand and his iron gauntlet. Summore daring enough to sneak in the word despot into it.

Waaaahhhh.... Very brave, but also quite naive, la....

He may be semi-retired or whatever but he's never gonna let some young punk take a swipe at him without reply. Actually, it seems to end up more like a little spanking.

Come on, lah.... the guy got how many years experience....? Up against MM and his superhigh forehead...how to win?

It's like tiny little David squaring up to Goliath, only this time David has only got the sling, but no rocks, stones, or even marbles to hurl at Goliath!

more about it here

Handicapped mouse

2005-01-31T13:06:00.000+08:00

Ever used a mac and find yourself struggling with that one button mouse and felt awkward and handicapped, like something's missing?

Ever wonder why Apple chose to fit all their macs with single button mouse as default? (yes, plug in a 2-button mouse and it will work just fine)

Well, I did, and I just found out why, after reading this article.

For everything that happens, there must be a reason, right?

奇异世界

2005-01-28T11:33:00.000+08:00

The only place where you can dream, living here is not what it seems.
Ship of white light in the sky, nobody there to reason why.
Here I am, I'm not really there, smiling faces ever so rare.
Let's walk in deepest space, living here just isn't the place.

Stalks of light come from the ground, when I cry there isn't a sound.
All my feelings cannot be held, I'm happy in my new strange world.
Shades of green grasses twine, girls drinking plasma wine.
A look at love, a dream unfolds, living here, you'll never grow old.

Don't you hear me call? Ooh

Iron Maiden - Strange World

JPMorgan Chase Corporate Challenge 2005

2005-01-26T15:54:00.000+08:00

Date:	Wednesday 27 April 2005
Time:	6.00pm
Venue:	The Padang, Singapore
Type:	5.6km corporate run

Official website
Registration Info

This is an event you have to sign up as a minimum team of 4 men/women or 2 men/2 women. But, as what ct did last year, you can also sign up through your friends company.

Since I'll be registering myself and for ct too, if anyone out there wants to participate and don't mind running under the 'Chartered Semicon' banner, feel free to contact me. I'm sure my company captain Ron Dickinson would love to have more people to join us!

In preparation, I'll give my knees another week of rest. I'll probably then do some swimming and light jogging at the nearby Yishun Stadium track so there'll be less impact on my knees. Guess I'll have to learn to 'like' running round in circles, or ovals, if you will. I'll limit myself to 2.4km to 4.8km and build from there. Maybe faster shorts and slower longs.

If I want to be able to enjoy running even when I'm much older, got to learn to pace myself, got to learn to love my knees!

24hrs, 150km

2005-01-24T13:48:00.000+08:00

the 24 hour run was a success. Many able bodied women and men joined TLR in various phases of the run.

We joined in for round 1 and stopped to put up a banner ct made near the Long Beach Seafood area for maximum exposure.

We then found the time to set up our tent and the bbq pit and went on to prepare the drinks and food. But around 2 plus or so in the morning(I lost track of time haha), when he decided it's time to eat, he asked for tapioca! Me and Pear were wondering where to find such things in the middle of early morning. I remembered seeing someone holding a cup of mashed potatoes when I was buying ice earlier in the night, so me and Pear went shopping at 7-11. But, alas, the machine churning out the stuff was all sold out and all we got was some miserable buns to go with the hot dog.

Philip ran his heart out and his knee started to give him problem. So I drove him back home to rest.

We then sent Pear and ct's niece back home in the morning and we took a shower and bought lunch for them. We told ourselves that we won't be running, but then we saw him quietly heading off for his 11th round on his own, we just couldn't tahan anymore, so ct and me started running after him, with the chicken rice still fresh in my tummy!

The great Peter Lim and the cool as cucumber German Chris soon joined us. Bravo to them, who already did so many rounds since morning but yet found the strength to run under the extremely hot noon sun. Thanks to people like them, TLR was never lonely throughout the run.

Too bad my knees was giving me too much pain to even jog properly, I did about 7km and simply couldn't go on anymore. But this 7km was one of the happiest 7km I've ever done.

Finally get to meet the faces behind the names like Chew, who ran with TLR even though he just pulled his back muscle the day before. 'Tahan', Pear, Philip, who made time out of their busy schedule to run with him. Peter, who kept going even when he's seeing stars and his special Titanium 'talisman' he lend to TLR. Carine, who ran in the night with a cardigan/sweater on! Chris, who, for an 'ang moh', is truly heroic to run even in the hottest part of the day. And many others, who's name I don't know.

TLR and FD's family, friends, and those who help made a difference (Husnah, Haris?, Zul & Co., Emily, the multi-lingual and smiley emcee whose name I didn't catch, the students of JJC and another school(?) who did all the dance and cheers.

For me, the most amazing thing is, TLR didn't sleep throughout this 24 hour (more if you consider the time he spent awake before and after the run). In fact, while I was driving him back to his place, he could barely keep his eyes open.

By the time he reached home, he could barely walk and keep his senses awake.

Very well done brother! Rest well now. You deserve it!

untitled

2005-01-22T01:19:00.000+08:00

Ran for about half of the 1st round and put up CT's banner near the halfway point. Since i'm staying overnight, i think I'll reserve my knees for later when most of the brave runners running alongside him have to go. Some of them are working tomorrow! I'll run with him then, so he won't be running alone.

Here comes the PAIN

2005-01-18T01:26:00.000+08:00

I offered to buy drinks for ct and Luqman just before the match started during the Tiger Cup finals 2nd Leg.

As I make my way down the stairs, I felt like I was hit by lightning.

The pain in both my knees almost caused me to black out. It took me like an eternity to walk down about 20 steps. I can see people staring at me, probably wondering why this joker here is taking one step at a time with pauses in between, like an old man in his 90's.

The moment I got out of sight from all the staring eyes, I started to descend the stairs backwards. Less pain this way. But by now, I know that I will not be able to join the shoving crowd and get those drinks back to my seat. I made my way back slowly to the seat.

My old enemy is back.

Have not felt this much pain in my knees since the army days. Only back then, it was just the left knee.

This morning, the doctor wanted to give me mc, but I declined. He then gave me some pain killers and muscle relaxant, and a referral letter for some physiotherapy at SGH.

He also told me that I should stop running the way I do and turn to low impact exercises like swimming.

Bah! Tell me something I don't know, doc.

If that's all you can tell me, why do we need doctors? My grandmother can tell me that!

So far in my life, of all the doctors and specialists I've seen, NONE of them had told me what is wrong with my knee. Is it the lateral or medial meniscus (my chief suspect), the collateral ligaments, or the anterior or posterior cruciate ligaments, or is it my ear-drum?!? None of them ever mentioned to me any of those words. None of them ever gave me OPTIONS other than what kind of painkillers or ointment I want. What is this nonsense? I've had physiotherapists who told me more.

I'm gonna take Mau's (who came in 4th in the SWIFT run) advice instead. Lay off for a few months, go for physio-treatment, then build up the strength with some weight training, and work on from there.

I'll be back.

Sore Loser

2005-01-17T23:50:00.000+08:00

Witnessed for myself last night how the Lions completed the task of winning the 2nd Leg of the Tiger Cup Finals with a professional performance against the speedier and more skilful Indonesians.

I'm glad that they didn't 'park the bus' in front of the goal-posts. Instead, they made full use of the flanks and the speed of Indra Sahdan and Itimi Dickson.

And sure enough, ever the player for the big occasion, Indra scored in as early as the sixth minute. The whole stadium erupted. Haven't felt this kind of atmosphere since the Malaysia Cup days.

Just now, one of my colleagues, who's from a friendly neighbouring country, said to me,

"So how come Singapore never declare one day public holiday?"

Of course, I can sense sarcasm when I hear it.

"What for? It's not the first time we've won it. Your country won something also, can declare half day."

"Cannot la, must get some foreign players first..."

There you go, I knew he was waiting for the moment to say this.

"Oh, you mean like France? That's good what, learn from the best!"

"......."

Yeah, silence. I thought so, sore loser.

Yet another bloke who can't accept the fact that a 'tiny red dot' has the resolve and will to out-perform a much more populous nation. (Indonesia has over 200 million, the 4th most populated country in the world, while Singapore has less than 4.5 million. Their coach, Peter Withe, even mentioned in the post-match conference that they'll have to start scouting for new blood amongst the 5000 or so footballers in their country. Scary!!!)

Luckily, not all of his fellow countrymen are like him.

At least the Indonesians are gracious in defeat. Bravo.

Wrong Category

2005-01-16T13:39:00.000+08:00

I am very happy. I achieved the goal that I set out to accomplish. That is, to finish the whole 10km of the SWIFT run without stopping or walking.

I was off to a bad start as my mp3 phone was getting funky with me. The headset connection coming loose and what not. I can see the Pear, Philip, and last guys disappearing in front of me while I walked and fixed the problem. I finally gave up trying to put the thing in the holster attached to my left upper arm and ended carrying it in my hand throughout the run.

I completed the run in about 70 minutes. This timing is about double the time it took for the men's veteran who finished 1st for his category. This long haired Indian guy passed me by like the wind close to the halfway point. Running like the he's walking on air, like he was gliding past everybody. And I had a 15 minutes headstart over him!

Soon after that, the boys (under 18 I think) were passing me by. At about 3 quarter of the 10km, I saw Philip running past me. I don't recall overtaking him in the first place, but he mentioned later that it was at one of the earlier upslopes. I tried to keep up with him, but my knees just wouldn't listen to me.

By now, I was running up slopes and skipping down slopes, allowing my right leg to take most of the impact. I tried to maintain my pace, so at least I won't finish last for the men's category. I felt like I belonged to the veteran's category, such was the slow pace which I was running at.

I was expecting at any one time that someone from the women's open category will overtake me soon. Luckily for me, it didn't happen.

I think I'll have to sort out my knee and build up it's strength before even thinking about the next 10km run in future, and to improve on my timing. I'll definitely make plans to run this very same route again and try again next year.

Next up, the Tiger Final 2nd leg!!! Yes!!!

Running for Help!

2005-01-15T22:30:00.000+08:00

Click The Logo Above For More Details

Tomorrow morning is the Swift Northern challenge. I'm planning to run, for the very first time, with music plugged in to my ears. I hope the heavy metal music pumping out through it will give me the added adrenaline I'm gonna need.

And in the evening, it's the Tiger Cup Final 2nd Leg, Singapore vs Indonesia. I'm so looking forward to it. It's been a long time since the National Stadium has been packed to the max. Can't wait.

Last but not least, see the pic above? Click on it. Find out more. Come join us next Friday!

Ok, gotta catch some sleep now so I can wake up early for the run. Adios!

bz doing nuthin'

2005-01-14T15:51:00.000+08:00

yesturdey vurz er bz dey fore mey.

accepted ct's invitation to join her in her bio lecture. she's been telling be lots about how girls these days dress up for school, that i gotta see for myself, so see for myself i did. well not that i didn't know seen enuff already, but here's an open invitation to get off my lazy butt n go out for a half-day of fun...why not?

well ya ct u were right, my eyes were bz, wide open n scannin', yeah, but then if they were not, how are they gonna see? yeah u were rite ct, young pple nowzadaze but hey, u don't call them young pple for nuthin' rite?

i remember my daze in da campus, where the wardens hunted me down like a dog. the very well endowed half-chinese zarinah T, instead of lookin' out for me like the rest of my frens would've, was busy lookin' at how i eat, next thing i heard zarinah gasp with her eyes wide open and b4 i knew it, i was already flanked by wardens 'long tall' and 'short bald'.

of course, they couldn't make me remove my cap. we talked, calmly and softly, like men do. the result was a nice little appointment to see the vp.

well, to make the long short, we talked about tennis, balls, and ways to hit them balls. and of course, the small matter of having to have my locks of strength shorn.

what the heck, they'll grow, again.

digress i did.

so u c ct. girls, women, they flirt, all the time. men, we just oogle. it's our own little way of paying u ladies a little compliment.

oh i hear ya, i know. they know when the guys are watching. and i wasn't born yesterday u know, i know when they know, and girls they are not stoopid too, they know that i know when they know i know they know they are being watched and that i know that u know i know u know i was watching too.

our strength is also our weakness. blame their parents and and law of natural selection for girls getting prettier and men getting more beast like. but please, don't blame God or Charles Darwin. u should know better. u study bio now, don't u?

it means somethin', but little. it can mean alot, too. it means that God, after having created man first, realized the flaws, and, base on the very same blueprint, created a newer, prettier, and superior version, of man.

and that version is, YOU.

recce in the dark

2005-01-14T15:10:00.000+08:00

Ah...5 days break away from work.

In what was part of a preparation for Sunday's Swift Northern Challenge Run, my dear ct took me and Luq on a leisurely walk around the route we'll be running so we won't make a wrong turn on the day.

After collecting our dri-fit Tees with a big 'SWIFT' printed on it, we started walking the whole 12km or so of it. It was already 6:30pm when we started.

ct showed us the tricky roots, trunks, and rocky trails she ran over and over for the ultra, and I must say, I wouldn't have made it through if I had ran. Come Sunday, it's ONE round only, in the opposite direction.

We were having a good laugh and our spirits were high upon reaching the midpoint, the Golf Link. We were saying how it was like entering paradise after seeing hell. I was doing cartwheels and demonstrating how to fall in style in the event of a failed attempt at executing a somersault, a la Agu Cashmir. The sun was setting at that time, and the place was so tranquil and picturesque.

Then comes the supposedly endless boardwalk, according to ct according to Sukaimi, but it was over pretty quickly, where got endless? Must check with my bro next time I see him.

Then darkness descends upon us. We were in the thick of it, without the sunlight, and with the moon waxing crescent (11% illuminated on 12 Jan according to this), and with the trees blocking out that little bit of what's left, it was pretty damn dark. So, the 3 of us took out our mobile phones to help us see what we were walking on, with me walking in front of them both so they don't see the silly grin on my face.

Those 2 behind me were saying things like, "What's that noise?", "Did you hear that?", and "Is that someone singing?". I just said, "whatever's out there and the noises you hear, are because they are running away, afraid, cuz we are the intruders!". Of course, I'm talking about the monkeys, squirrels, lizards, and crocs, silly.

Took us almost an hour to get out of it. And we were saying, "Cars!", "HDB flats!", and "Lights!". Heh, it was fun.

Now all that's left ahead of me is the little task of repeating what we did at double the pace, half the time, on an early Sunday morning...hear that now, legs?

1st run 2005

2005-01-07T20:37:00.000+08:00

Planned route and distance

Actual distance covered

Took the MRT all the way down to the Harbourfront near Sentosa. Wanted to run from there back home in Yishun. I wanted to see how far I can go running in the afternoon.

This time, I'm wearing my Adidas Climacool Adventure shoes, just to have a feel how well it can handle hard ground. Reached the start point, applied some 'Fastum' gel on my knees and calf, but I would later regret this cuz it seems like I'm allergic to it and till now, I'm itching all over and there's rashes everywhere on my body...

Anyway, off I go after applying the gel. This time, I started at quite a quick pace. Passing by Mount Faber and very soon, I hit Bukit Merah Road. From there on, it's all the way along the main road. In no time (about 45 minutes) I passed Queensway Shopping Center.

But from then on, the run took a turn for the worse.

There were construction works going on all along Queensway, and at one point, I had to clear a rather steep slope on the tarmac due the the cement pavement being cordoned off. It was quite dangerous with all the big trucks and buses and I kept looking back to check. By the time I reached the Queensway SCDF camp, I started to feel tired.

From the junction of Queensway Shopping Center all the way down to Adam Road were a few traffic lights which seem to take forever to turn green for me. For the up and down slopes, it was all run-walk run-walk. My pace was getting slower and slower.

Thought I could grab myself a Gatorade or Pocari Sweat at the BP petrol kiosk at Adam Park to replenish the lost salt in my body to prevent cramps, but it was under renovation since SPC has taken over.

By now, my left ankle is complaining non-stop. My running posture began to change as I'm not toeing off correctly, overworking my knee and hip. I tell myself that no matter what, I must at least reach the halfway point, McRitchie Reservoir.

So I run-walk run-walk again all the way to the MR carpark/toilet. Took me 1 hour 40 minutes, about 12km plus. Too slow. Did some cooling down and stretching before applying more of the FASTUM gel on my ankle and knees. And it was at this point in time that I realized my face has rashes appearing all over it.

After a long rest of about 45 minutes, I started brisk walking again for 5 minutes to warm up. I started running again, blocking out the pain of my joints from my mind when suddenly, my left thigh started to have cramps so bad that I had to stop to pop some painkillers/muscle relaxant.

I really wanted to finish what I planned, so I walked to a petrol kiosk opposite Thomson CC to get the Pocari Sweat. But by then, it was too late. Further attempts to start running again brought about spasms of cramps on both legs, the one on the left thigh being the most painful.

In my mind, I was thinking about the feat that ct achieved. The ultra. 52.5km over a period of 12 hours, over much tougher terrain, amazing. Respect!

I called it a day and took a bus home. This is 5km short of my previous run on Christmas morning. Must do better next time.

Gotta get myself some Glucosamine and Chondroitin Sulphate to help repair my joints...

1st movie 2005

2005-01-07T10:58:00.000+08:00

Turns out, the very 1st movie I watched in 2005 is also the very last one I watched in 2004.

Went to catch Kung Fu Hustle again in City Square J.B. with Fox. Again cuz what I watched in Singapore was dubbed in Mandarin, and I really wanna hear them with their original voices. But I must admit after watching the Cantonese version that the quality of the dubbing was so well done that the differences were barely noticeable.

Even though I'm watching it for the 2nd time, I still laughed at the jokes and got thrilled by the action. It's really a very good movie.

Before the show, we were hunting high and low for Genki Sushi, and we actually went to Sushi King at the basement to ask the girl at the door where the hell is this Genki Sushi, muahahaha. Dumbfounded, she just looked at us and said she doesn't know. We managed to find it later at the 4th level and ended up stuffing ourselves with sushi, teriyaki chicken and the works till we can barely move.

Back at the island, met up with ct and stuff ourselves with some hot and spicy tom yam and beef noodles at Siam Kitchen. Not bad.

But now I know one thing. Tom yam, beef, salmon, and eel, they don't really get along that well. Since last night, my stomach has been complaining!

Outside, the weather is fine, cloudy, temperature around 27degrees celsius. I feel like going out for a run. But I'm also thinking about the beaches at Sentosa...

1st post 2005

2005-01-01T14:01:00.000+08:00

A very sombre and numb way to kick off the new year. Cold, wet, grey...

Looking at this and this, one can understand why. My heart goes out to these poor folks, but I can only remember them in my prayers.

Planned to run from Yishun to Sentosa on New Year's Eve night, but aborted the idea due to the non-stop rain. My adrenaline was pumping and I was so ready just thinking about it... looks like I'll have to do it after the Swift 10km Northern Route Challenge.

The year 2004 really flew past like a blur for me... I can hardly recall what happened.
I thought I just watched Return of the King and the whole LOTR movie marathon in 2004, but ct reminded me that it was actually in 2003! So what did actually happen in 2004 for me?
Some highlights will be...

JP Morgan Run (turning point for ct)
The New Paper Big walk
Sheares Bridge run
Cookie attacking us and being caged and taken away (sad...)
Meeting tlr for my 1st terawih prayer
Trekking with tlr, fd, and ct from MR to Bukit Timah
ct running the ultra!!!
Running from Yishun to Orchard on Christmas morning
oh, and both my sis got married and got jobs finally haha

So what can I expect for the year 2005? This is gonna be a busy year for me. And some of my personal hopes and plans are as follows...

Going back to studying, to successfully juggle work and study
Pushing myself further and faster in my own solo runs
To fully recover from my injuries
Participate in more official and professionally organized runs
To finish at least one Marathon
To run the next Ultra-Marathon
To get back to SCUBA Diving again

I don't remember ever having any new year resolutions, but maybe it's good to have one this year, looking at the amount of 'firsts' I have in my plans.

And my new year resolution for the year 2005 is... "To be a better man...."

Happy New Year!

2004-12-31T10:17:00.000+08:00

When Death Came From The Sea

What does 135,000 look like?

In Cash, Not Kind

2004-12-31T09:10:00.000+08:00

More about the Dec 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake/tsunami here.
Photos Packs 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 (Source: Neowin; Hosted at Cryptome.org; contain graphic images)

The sky over here has been crying almost non-stop for the past few days and nights, probably over the death toll, which is now 125,000 and counting.

Many kind hearted souls around the world are taking action by sending stuffs they don't need to the various collection centres around the country.

But many of the relief agencies like Red Cross, SPH(Singapore Press Holdings) are now saying, if you really want to help, contribute in cash, not kind.

The Singapore Red Cross began its policy of collecting cash only after the 1999 Turkey earthquake after receiving tonnes of items 40 days late, which were not suitable or needed at that time. It had taken more than a month to collect, sort, pack and ship.

Not only does it take time, effort, and money for all the logistics involved. If the supplies turn out to be useless to the victims, it also cost time, effort, and money to dispose of what will be tonnes of garbage. So instead of helping, our kind efforts could end up as big headaches for those already busy people.

In short, to help, cash is best.

You can read more about in-kind donations at charitywatch.org, or just flip the local papers to read about what the victims really need.

God have mercy on our souls.

Singapore Government website: Crisis & Emergencies
Google's tsunami relief and resources links

What is a tsunami?

2004-12-29T23:15:00.000+08:00

If you're at the beach, and you happen to see that the sea water has suddenly receded from the coastline so much and so quickly that even fishes and other sea creatures were left stranded without water on the seabed, RUN!!!

With the death toll as of now at 66,000 and rising, it's really a very depressing and unforgettable way to mark the end of the year 2004.

What makes a tsunami so deadly?

In deep water, the energy of a tsunami is constant, a function of its height and speed. Thus, as the wave approaches land, its height increases while its speed decreases. A tsunami has a very long wave length (in the order of 100 km), which makes it act as a shallow-water wave. Since the speed of a shallow-water wave is , where $g$ is the gravitational acceleration and $d$ is the water depth, a tsunami in the open ocean can obtain a speed of about 700 km/h. While in deep water a person at the surface of the water would probably not even notice, but the wave can increase to a height of 30 m and more as it approaches the coastline and compresses.

More about it's definition here.

I could be wrong, but, from the above description, it seems that by the time anyone's able to guess that a tsunami is about to hit them, it may already be too late to really run very far.

Given that a tsunami travels at about 200 m/s in the open ocean (yes, that's 200 metres per second, although it starts losing speed but gaining height as it hits the shore), and a bullet fired from a weapon, depending on the bullet's shape, calibre, and various other factors, flies at about 180 - 1500 m/s... well you can imagine the rest...when a wall of water hits you at speed, not much difference from flying into a concrete wall...

Just when you think things cannot get any scarier, there is the megatsunami...

The forces of nature are formidable indeed.

More about the Dec 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake/tsunami here.

2004-12-29T00:23:00.000+08:00

Decided to recce a possible running route from work back to home. This road runs parrallel to the MRT line all the way from Kranji to Yishun. Used the odometer from outside TECH Semiconductor and it shows about 10km travelled upon reaching Yishun. Double checked using the route calculator from Streetdirectory.com and it's about right. The bad thing is that there are just too many traffic lights and junctions along the way.

MR25 ultra

2004-12-26T09:25:00.000+08:00

I'm at work right now, so this will be a quick one.

At this moment, CT and TLR is at MR running the MR25 ultra.
CT just called me about 45 minutes ago upon completing her 1st round. I sent her there in the morning, a bit late, she started around 0710hrs. She also took the wrong route, which is about 2km longer!

Each round is about 11km.

One more round and she would have already overtaken what I did yesterday. Cool huh?
Furthermore, the terrain is much more difficult, off-road with lots of slopes.

As of now, she still has about 9.5 hours to achieve her goal of above 50km.

All the best Ct & TLR!

UPDATE: It is now about 2210hr. The run is over. CT is already in bed now. She told me she felt her calf muscle 'jump' when walking back to the endpt. I suspect an acute muscle tear. She's sort of limping right now, and she mentioned getting punk grrl over tomorrow to help her run errands. Fed her with painkillers and vitamin C, E, and Omega3. And apply an ice-pack to the pain. Look out for her blog update tomorrow!

Christmas 2004 Morning Run, Yishun~Orchard

2004-12-25T18:23:00.000+08:00

Christmas 2004 route : Yishun to Orchard
Finished work on Christmas Eve morning. Went for a very quick and short run with CT towards SAFRA for a swim. Wanted to test my Adidas ClimaCool Adventure shoes without any socks. Mistake! Got blisters on my right foot as a result. But it wasn't too bad.

Slept from afternoon till around midnight, while CT has punkgrrl for company. When CT woke me up, they were already waiting for me with Lamp Chop, salad, baked potatoes, and grape juice on the table, complete with candles for 'effect'.

After 'dinner', they turned in around 3am, while I surf around for a while.

Very soon, I got restless. I needed to get my ass off the bench. I needed to hit the road.

So, being as silent as I possibly can, I packed my hydra-pack, mobile, and wallet. Nike cap to keep my fringe off of my face, NB singlet, adidas tights and shorts, short socks to go with my NB900 shoes. Time to test them on hard roads. No music player for me, me no like thing dangling out of ear when running. Let me hear the sound of nature, and traffic, of course.

Started running at about 5:35am. This is the hardest part. To get out of Yishun itself seems to take forever. The long stretch of Avenue 2 plus Lentor Avenue is a long straight flat road, so luckily for me, it was quite easy to clear. I ran at a very very slow pace because I was hoping to conserve energy and see how far I can go. I sipped about a mouthful of water every 10 to 15 minutes and also when I have to stop for a while at traffic lights to keep myself hydrated and cool.

By the time I hit the Yio Chu Kang Road Junction, it was already about 6:20am, about 6.5km from my start point, that's about 45mins. Yishun done, time to tackle Ang Mo Kio.

Passed YCK MRT and Anderson Junior College without much difficulty as the road was level. But after that, there was about 700 to 800 metres of inclination of about 10 to 15 degrees. And towards the end of the down-slope, I had to walk, my left ankle and right knee was starting to hurt. I would later find out to my dismay that the whole stretch of this road all the way up to Marymount Road would follow this pattern, up down up down.

Took me about 20minutes to run through Ang Mo Kio and Bishan Park and hit Marymount Road. There were parts of up and down slopes when I was forced to walk. It's about 6:40am, getting brighter. My breathing was already pretty steady and relaxed, but my left ankle and right knee was starting to take center-stage.

Marymount Road was worse. Because of part of it being the Braddel Road flyover, there was a rather steep inclination of about 20degrees towards it. I was really struggling, and I was about to cross the road and run over to MacRitchie Reservoir Park and call it a day. But then I know that Thomson Road is just round the corner and from then on, Orchard Road is not too far away. So I persevered, hit Thomson Road, and head for the Mobil petrol kiosk (marked X on map) to get myself a Pocari Sweat and a Snickers bar for 'breakfast'. It was about 7am. I took my time to finish up the Snickers and the Sweat, and at the same time massage my knees and calf. Then I realized that I'm feeling cold! I rested too long, about 20minutes. The idling plus the cold drink and the morning breeze are cooling down my body temperature too fast and I know that's not good if I want to continue running.

So quickly, I picked myself up and started off again. OUCH! My right knee! PAIN! I know I need to get my body warmed up quick. So I started to walk briskly. After about 10minutes and a few tries, I can start jogging again without too much pain. 7:35am.

By about 7:45, I was at the junction between Novena MRT and the Revenue House. I know I'm near. Thomson Road done, time to do Newton Road.

Midway through Newton Road, my right thigh muscle started to feel a bit tight. I could sense a cramp coming, my hips were begining to ache. I started to walk and tried prevent the cramp from taking place. I was thinking to myself, "that's it, I'm gonna have to end my run at Newton MRT". Then this middle age chinese guy came running from behind me. We looked at each other and he waved and wished me a Merry Christmas and ran past me. I waved back and said the same. Suddenly, my right thigh seemed fine, and the energy from the Snickers and Pocari started working. I break into a run and tried to follow the man's pace, but then he turned right whereas I'm heading straight.

Within minutes, I'm already at Newton MRT. My limbs felt like they were about to break. But I can already smell Orchard Road from where I was, I'm not about to come all the way here just to stop at the door!

I pressed on and finally saw Mr. Ronald McDonald sitting outside Pacific Plaza. 8am. I sat down, took off my cap, and took a picture of us. Then I crossed over to Wheelock place and gave CT a wake up call before having my breakfast at Mac. The 3 of us then met up and proceeded to Sentosa for some fun in the sun.

That's it. 2.5 hours of pain and pleasure. About 16.6 km. That's not even a half-marathon! I'm taking way too much time to complete that distance! Hopefully, I can get my injuries sorted and improve on my timing in future.

This run also confirmed a few things for me,

Stamina/endurance aside, physical strength and condition is just as, if not more, important
Mental strength is essential in order to push your body to do more
A little encouragement from fellow runners works wonders
Some planning and strategy is good
Lie to yourself a little if it helps
Pocari Sweat is nice (no gas!)
Singapore is really tiny!

I think what helped me to push myself to run through the pain barrier and finish my objective here is that before I started, I alread got the whole route mapped in my mind. Divided into sections, they became many mini targets and were much easier to accomplish, rather than a straight point A to point B.

Everytime I felt like quiting, I'll tell myself to at least finish this section of the run. But when I reach that target, I'll tell myself that the next destination is not too far away and quite easy to complete. In my mind, I also try to visualize the section to be shorter than it actually is.

My next run will hopefully be less painful, and I hope to reach Sentosa. With luck, my joints will recover and get stronger, and I can work towards the marathon next year.

Pocari Sweat! With this, at least I can force a smile.

Need some more energy, fast!

Reached the endpt finally at Borders

2004-12-25T09:01:00.000+08:00

Blogging from mobile. Just ran from Yishun to Orchard Road. Inclusive of the half hour stop to get Pocari Sweat and a Snickers bar from Mobil Thomson, I took 2 and a half hours. 530am to 8am. Merry Christmas.

Burn some rubber, slowly but surely

2004-12-23T13:34:00.000+08:00

I have been lazy. My posts are getting shorter and updates, less frequent. But working 5 nights straight can be quite tiring. But since I'll be free again tomorrow morning, I shall be a bit long winded here. (Well maybe not as much so as some of my fellow bloggers)

Tonight I'm covering for my colleague Wilson so he can go back to his home town and celebrate Christmas. I can't wait for my off days to come. The sun, sea, and sand are calling out to me! And I feel the need to run, badly!

I use to be the one who will go out for a run on a whim. Now, ct seems to have caught the running fever. She's been running, with or without my company, farther and farther each time. In fact, she runs very poorly when I'm with her, coz according to her, my presence gives her too much pressure! And her pace and stamina has improved by leaps and bounds.

Looking at her now, you'd never guess that she has asthma and used to 'run' like a granny with a hilarious 'baby step'.

Now? Boy, she's doing 10km ~ 12km runs on her own just coz she wants to! Although her pace is slower than mine, she is doing longer distances than I ever did, at a rather steady pace. I don't remember doing any 10km before... I think my furthest was about 8km.

Right now, she's preparing herself for the Ultrarun this coming Sunday. It's no chicken feat, you have to do so by first finishing what would be a marathon, it only becomes an ultra once you pass the 50km mark, according to Sukaimi.

This run is different, and better in a sense that you only run as much as you can, as fast or slow as you like to, within 12 hours. You can rest, eat, or drink when you feel like it. I wish I can join her, but I have to work on that day. Maybe it's a good thing, not having me around to pressure her. I'll support her in mind and in spirit!

I asked her how far she thinks she can cover in 12 hours? Her guesstimation based on her trial run yesterday morning is about 44km. But she's hoping to push herself a little bit more to hit the 50km mark. You get a free T-shirt and you would have just ran an ultra instead of 'just' a marathon! A mere 6km more, go go go!

So how did a sickly, pessimistic, asthmatic girl become so super in less than a year?

I believe the turning point was when she joined me in the JP Morgan Chase Corporate Challenge. Ever since then, she never looked back. I am so happy and so proud of her!

Now, I can't wait for the night to past. I need to hit the road, burn some rubber, and see how far I can go.

Shiny Happy People

2004-12-19T15:10:00.000+08:00

Went to McRitchie Reservoir again this morning. Just wanted to do some light exercise and laze about, maybe continue reading Fish! while lying down on the grass. The weather was perfect, the breeze blowing gently, the 'mood' is in the air. After a few minutes of stretching, the itch got to us. 'Let's run', says CT. And off we went.

After a morning's worth of trekking yesterday, we decided not to stress our tired legs too much this time, choosing to run on the wooden planks that our Gahment erected along the perimeter of the reservoir. Other than having to slow down and avoid the people strolling abreast each other, this route is much much more easier to run. No up and down slopes, no rocky and muddy terrain, no risk of slipping on some loose rocks.

Halfway through the route, there were a few monkeys sitting around, enjoying the view. On my way back, I passed by them again, and saw this cute little one lying down while the other 2 groomed him. They were so adorable that I can't help but stop to take a picture of them. And they did well to maintain their pose even as I moved up close. Say 'Konica!'.

After our short run, which I'm guesstimating to be about 3 plus to 4km give/take, we lepak and read the books we brought along with us by the water while waiting for Sukaimi to finish his expedition to the hidden Japanese shrine/temple with his MR25 buddies. There was a family near us, reading the papers and discussing about the news, and this man and I believe his brother was trying to teach the daughter how to fly kite, but it seems like it ended with just the two of them having all the fun while the girl just watched. I dunno why but I really enjoyed being surrounded by the peace and harmony of it all.

We just talked to Sukaimi yesterday about a 'running boom' happening right now. Yeah, noticed that too. Even before we got to know him, ct n myself joined my company in the JP Morgan and Chase corporate run, the turnout was so overwhelming that it exceeded their expectations. They don't have enough certificates and t-shirts for the runners and had to send them out later by mail or by other means.

And now I look around me, there are groups and individuals running everywhere. Mother and daughter, father and son, friends and colleagues, girlfriend and boyfriend, fit hunks and hot babes, they're everywhere. You know they enjoy what they're doing, coz you can see the 'glow' on their faces. Shiny happy people holding hands...

relakzing

Trekking fun

2004-12-19T01:03:00.000+08:00

It was everything we hoped for. Fair, breezy weather in the 1st half, downpour in the later part of the morning. Sukaimi has a nice write-up here. I'll let the pictures do the talking, go here.

CT making our poor frens doing the 'jump' again

Joggers everywhere...

Crazy horse at it again, the uncle must be thinking 'siow si bo?'

As you can see from my facial expression...I'm rather used to it oredi...

Casshern...

2004-12-16T16:32:00.000+08:00

After scanning through the latest trailers at Apple's QuickTime trailers site, I just realized that there are so many good movies coming soon.

Casshern is now showing at Cathay Cineplexes. Just watched the trailer, and it looks good. Some mixed reviews from IMDb users, but I'll watch it anyway. Got to have the soundtrack and the DVD too!

Fight evil while listening to heavy metal mp3

wow...

Finish whatcha started

2004-12-15T03:58:00.000+08:00

Wanna know how to achieve inner peace?

Easy. Just make sure you finish what you started. Do it, it works.

Talk about finishing what you started, my dear bro TLR and I talked about trekking through the Mandai forest with the girls, namely fd n ct, who knows, maybe pg too? I'm thinking of asking 5d, LS, n maybe mt too! The more the merrier. TLR already has the day's plan all worked out, so I'm only left with the simple task of executing it. Sounds like fun. God willing, we'll finish the whole thing by afternoon coz my mum is expecting me to bring her to watch my long lost cousin in concert in the evening. I don't really listen much to local chinese music but then my mum already hinted very strongly that I should ferry her there, plus it's a good chance for me to see my cousin again, so...

Ah, but I digress.

I'm sooo looking forward to the trek. Should be a walk in the park (albeit a long one). I've never seen the trail before so it's good that I check it out before attempting to cycle or run the same route in the near future.

After tonight, I'm off for 4 days, so I'll be catching Wesley Snipes in Blade Trinity later while ct n Elliot watch Bridget Jones clowning around with those two blokes. Nah... I'd rather watch Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy and their bitter sweet love stories.

Right now, I'm dog tired. I'm out.

Dawson vs Hayek vs Kruger

2004-12-11T07:58:00.000+08:00

Watched a few movies in the past few days.

1st up was Alexander. I read so much about his exploits in children's story books when I was a small boy, didn't know that he was gay till I watched the movie! Of course, we don't expect kid's story books to delve into issues of sexual preferences, so I can't blame them. Like many of Oliver Stone's films, I left the cinema a bit confused and thoughtful at the same time. This guy here almost conquered the entire known world during his time, drove and stretched his weary men to their limits, and achieve all that he did when he was only... well... around my age now!

I don't know why some reviewers and journalists are comparing this film with Troy, as they are quite different. Troy has lots of action and battle sequences. But Alexander has more drama and talking scenes showing us the growing tension between Alexander and his mother, father, his men, and his lovers (Rosario Dawson! What a babe!). So being quite different, I can't say it's better or worse than Troy. Maybe it's the script, and the way the story was laid out. In typical Stone fashion, complicated. *

Next up, After the Sunset, starring Pierce Brosnan and Salma Hayek! Lovely.

Very much like The Thomas Crown Affair, but with Salma Hayek!

Now go and catch Salma Hayek cavorting au naturel with Mr.Bond on the beach. *

Then there was National Treasure, which I've been looking forward to. Diane Kruger, who was Helen of Troy in Troy, is the female lead here.
After a slightly slow start, the story shifts into the higher gears and from then on, it's a rollercoaster ride. Although in the end, it turned out to be more Indiana Jones instead of going back to really try to make sense of what all those mystical symbols and what not are supposed to mean, overall, I think it's quite an enjoyable movie. *

Got my new High Sierra Wet Hydration Pack in preparation for our planned trek through the Mandai/Bukit Timah forest with Sukaimi, which, according to him, should be about 21km +/-.

Morning Run

2004-12-05T15:19:00.000+08:00

Went for a short run at McRitchie Reservoir this morning. I tried to keep my pace constant throughout, but on our way back, I was panting like a dog! I really need to build up my stamina and strength. The up and down slopes were killing me. And I only ran about 5km or less.

But the shoe turned out alright, able to help me regain the grip after almost slipping on some loose gravel. And it didn't feel too hot or heavy either.

We were talking about running the inner route in future, which stretches about 11km at least, not sure if it's a round trip so it could be more. It should lead us all the way to the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve pass some lakes, reservoirs, and jungle trail. Sounds like fun.

New Balance 900

2004-12-05T01:51:00.000+08:00

Finally got the running shoe that I 'need' today, cos I couldn't find what I wanted anywhere.

After some swimming, sun and sand at Sentosa with CT & our little punk grrl, we went shoe hunting at Bugis Junction.

Adidas has a sale on with 30% off most items. But after trying out a few pairs of trail and road shoes, I find them all too snug, especially from the heel to midfoot area. Apparently, this is an Adidas trait, and, after googling around, the Running Times website did mention that Adidas shoes do have a narrower fit. I have a rather low arch- almost totally flat-footed, plus I over-pronate moderately, and just standing with those shoes on, I can already feel the arch support pushing hard against my feet. And, in a long or hard run, that means PAIN. That's just too bad cos they looked really nice plus I think they make the most well ventilated shoes, and with 30% off, they're a steal. Mmm, I wonder why is it that my Adidas ClimaCool Banshee Adventure shoes doesn't give me these problems.

So I moved on to World of Sports and finally tried out the New Balance 900. And man, what a difference in comfort! The shoe is very light, rather wide with a low center of gravity(which also means slightly less insole cushioning compared to the Adidas), the arch is not high like the Adidas yet gives just enough support and comfort, forefoot feels extremely flexible, and it comes with spongy 'sausage' like laces which looks nice and makes it difficult for the laces to loosen on its own. The dark blue, grey, white, and yellow also complement each other nicely. Bought them at $127, 30% off the list price. I'm very happy with my purchase. I'll be meeting Sukaimi tomorrow at McRitchie Reservoir to try them out. The route I'll be running is a mix of mud, gravel, and road, which I believe the not too conservative outsole tread pattern should cope well.

just what I needed is now mine, this is the exactly the colour I ended up with.
Here's an overview and some reviews.

Here's some other useful info I found at the Running Times Shoe Guide 2004 site.
Short reviews of the shoes I need and want.

Useful list of reviews and recommendations of Manufacturer and models based on pronation factor.

Road shoes vs Trail shoes explained.

Make Love Not SPAM

2004-11-30T14:57:00.000+08:00

Are you sick and tired of SPAM? (Unsolicited Commercial Mass Email or simply Junk Mail) Feel like letting them have a taste of their own medicine?

Well, if you got bandwidth to spare, or, better still, if you are subscribed to broadband with unlimited access or bandwidth, you can now help fight SPAM more aggressively!

Internet portal Lycos has made a screensaver that endlessly requests data from
sites that sell the goods and services mentioned in spam e-mail.

"Every single user will contribute three to four megabytes per day," he said, "about one MP3 file."

If enough people download and use this screensaver, it will help 'waste' the bandwidth of those sites selling products advertised through SPAM, making it expensive for them to operate.

I downloaded the screensaver and installed it. Nice animation, showing the names of the sites being 'hit' and various other info like their geographical location. Runs as a screensaver when my computer is idling, zero performance hit. Finally a screensaver that does something. (I'm not too much for helping SETI look for ET)

Check out the site and download the thing over at makeLOVEnotSPAM... as reported by BBC.

[EDIT]: Apparently, some time after this posting, the site got hacked, displaying a message written by the hacker(s). At the moment, the site is still down. If you want the file, just send me an email. Just click on the 'email me' button near the bottom part of the sidebar.

Smart Bombs... Away!

National Treasure

2004-11-30T01:51:00.000+08:00

I'm really looking forward to this movie, along with Immortal. All these mystical stuff are really so facinating.

After watching the trailers of National Treasure, it really makes me wonder why the 1 dollar bill has the pyramid plus the all-seeing-eye, etc. Then I chance upon this entry which describes in detail what it all means. Now I know! Be sure to read the comments as well.

Somehow, after reading about the US note, it reminds me of the presidents of the US, past to present, which reminds me of... this?

Fogging a fluey fish out of water

2004-11-29T13:31:00.000+08:00

ARGGHH...

I think I'm ill. A flu-bug must have bitten me. But better the flu-bug than the mosquitofly thing that spread the deadly dengue. Yes, no thanks to the rainy weather giving them mosquitoflies nice places to breed, the gahment here is trying it's darndest best to nip it in the butt. Spot checks, fogging, and what not.

I actually wanted to soak myself in chlorine to kill my flu-germs-bacteria-things at the SAFRA 'country club' just now, but found out when I reached there that they open late at 11am on Mondays. My guess is that they are doing their weekly clean-up after Sunday, the family day, where all those uncles, aunties, and their young ones relax themselves in the pool and help neutralize the chlorine level with some specially formulated ammonia...

So now, instead of me relaxing in a chlorinated jacuzzi, I'm holed up inside my home while those 'storm-troopers' are fogging the whole neighbourhood. They are right outside my door even as I type this, my cats are scrambling for cover, frightened by their stun-guns. This is the first time I see them go round fogging all the flats, floor by floor, instead of just the ground level. Has the situation gone that bad?

I think this fogging is gonna take me down sooner than killing those commando mosquitoes. I'd die a happier man soaking in that chlorinated jacuzzi, give me the ammonia anytime...

80 beached whales, dolphins die in Australia

2004-11-29T11:50:00.000+08:00

Oh no, not again...

as reported by Straits Times Interactive.

2004-11-28T00:43:00.000+08:00

This I Need

2004-11-28T00:39:00.000+08:00

This I Want

Daewoo on ma hands

2004-11-26T11:19:00.000+08:00

Saw the Hollywood remake of Taxi yesterday. It's your typical feel-good comedy. Jimmy Fallon was pretty funny in an off-beat goofy kinda way. And some scenes were so hilarious, with Queen Latifah goofing around with Jim. It doesn't come close to the original French masterpiece by Luc Besson, but it has it's moments.

Don't really like the girls though. What are they flaunting? Skin and bones? And some parts, they are suddenly speaking English among themselves?

Anyway, if you got nothing else to do and want to have a good laugh, the show is alright.
Oh, and if you got a Daewoo car, you've got to catch this movie!

Note: From this post on, I'm not gonna openly rate the movies I watch, cos one man's meat is another's poison, I don't want my liking or disliking of a show to cloud anyone's judgement before they watch the movie. Many a times, after reading bad reviews about a movie, I went on to watch it anyway and I tend to disagree with the reviewer's opinion. So if you are really interested in how I rate them, just hold your mouse pointer over the *

Happy Week

2004-11-25T02:24:00.000+08:00

This past week or so has been the best I've ever had in a while.

Watched some great movies, I'm enjoying a good week at work, and now I'm having another 4 days break. Yahoo!

CT is busy getting herself involved in running and stuff and daring to do things without the need to have me around, like the Mizuno Wave 10km run she just did. Check out some pics they took of her. I think she's Edward Scissors-hand's sister or something...

I just love it when I see my dear enjoying life and having fun. Hope she'll keep it going even when school starts next year. Healthy body=healthy mind=attractive person!

Ok! Time to get back to some running and swimming! And movies, of course!

If things go as planned, I should be going for a morning swim later and hopefully a movie. My colleague said Bride and Prejudice was horrible, so I think I'll give it a miss. Maybe I'll go for Taxi instead. Can't wait for Immortal to screen...

Grateful

2004-11-20T22:51:00.000+08:00

Are you grateful to be alive?

Are you thankful for what you have? Or are you too concern about what you think you need, what you think you should have, or simply with what you want?

Are you abusing the time you have in your hands? Are you abusing yourself, and those who love you? Spending too much time with your earthly possessions, and so much effort in persuing them?

What if you were told right now that you have only a day left to live? 24 hours, maybe less.

What would you do? How would you choose to spend your remaining hours?

Saw

2004-11-20T01:45:00.000+08:00

Went to see Saw just now.

Saw the movie, that is.

Erm... pardon my poor Ingrish. I try again. I just finished watching the movie titled Saw.

This is some great movie making. For something that's shot in just 18 days, with no need for expensive special effects or some over-paid super-idols to carry the movie or some big name director to call the shots, this is the kind of movie that's worth my time and dime! 9/10.

Saw 2 has been announced. And Alexandra Bokyun Chun is such a babe.

Halfway through the movie, 2 men in blue came in to frisk the theater with their flashlights. A few minutes later, another 2 came in to join them. I made sure that my cadbury bar which I smuggled in was hidden well out of sight, just in case. Nah, maybe they're just looking for a big rat, must be.

Music discovery alert: From FIFA2005 soundtrack~ "Take Your Mama" by Scissor Sisters, best song of the lot. "Augen Auf!" by Oomph!, Rammstein soundalike but nice song anyhuay. "Brooklyn is Burning" by Head Automatica, feet tapping muzak!

Next Up: Birth, Taxi, Aishwarya Rai... oops, I mean to say... Bride and Prejudice

2004-11-19T13:49:00.000+08:00

Oh no, another dive accident...

Reminds me of 2 close calls I had on my dive trips at Batam Indonesia and the Rainbow Warrior wreck in New Zealand.

My dive buddy was, who else, my dear ct.

In Batam, halfway throught the dive, at about 12 meters deep, I looked away for a moment and the next thing I know, she was no longer beside me. Visibility was poor but I managed to spot her about 3 meters above me, ascending leisurely. I tried to catch her attention by waving frantically, but she was looking up, where she was heading. I tried shouting at her, but underwater with a SCUBA mouthpiece in my mouth, only God can hear me. I tried to catch up with her, but rapid ascensions are a definite no no in SCUBA diving.

When we surfaced, I asked her why she didn't stick with her buddy like how we were trained, she said she couldn't see me. But how do you explain that I can see you ascending? I think she just felt uncomfortable and scared and wanted to ascend. That's ok, very normal, and to discontinue the dive is correct. But the proper way to do it is to inform your buddy and ascend together. No matter what, never break the buddy system!

In New Zealand, we were exploring the famous wreck of Greenpeace's ill fated Rainbow Warrior wreck. Visibility was good, but the current was rather strong and water at the surface was choppy. Plus at 18 meters deep, the water was quite cold. This time, ct stuck well to my side, and I made sure that I'm always holding on to her. But I ended up having to pull her through the current all the time cos she got tired pretty quickly. Very soon, I find that I'm getting tired too and my oxygen was being used up almost twice as fast as compared to her's. I signalled to her that we should cut short our dive and ascend. She was already too tired to swim and I'm running out of oxygen fast due to all the extra 'work' of pulling her weight. It was thrilling, but the danger was real.

We need more dive hours to gain more experience. But dive accidents can happen to even the most seasoned divers. And when it does happen, it is often fatal.

The NE monsoon is almost over, anyone care for some S.C.U.B.A diving?

Another Perfect Day

2004-11-18T21:49:00.000+08:00

In line with how IMDB rates the movies, I will from now on rate movies I watched on a scale of 10.

Just came back from The Incredibles, and I must say, what a fantastic show! Great plot, funny and interesting characters, superb animation by the incredible talents at Pixar, and some amazing voice acting that really fleshed out each of the characters' personalities. A wonderful joyride not to be missed. Better than Antz, A Bug's Life, and Finding Nemo, and probably on par with Ice Age, losing only in the tear-jerking department. 9.5/10 for exceeding my expectation. Would have been a perfect 10 if not for shows like LOTR, Matrix, and 5th Element.

And Lido 1 remains the undisputed KING of all cinema halls in Singapore. THX baby! Although GV's excellent online booking system will eat Shaw's for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Oh, and throw in Supper, too. Yeah, it's that bad.

Also went to watch The Forgotten yesterday. The story had potential, but I felt the trailers gave away too much. Hard as I try, I could not help but correctly guessed what the fuss was all about. But I still find it rather entertaining in some ways, although the terrible sound system at GV Bishan Hall 2, the drilling noise from the renovation works, and giggly/chatty/restless teenage school kids almost made me wanna leave the hall. But I stay focused on the reasonably gripping storyline instead and in the end... oh, I'm not gonna spoil it for you. Watchable, but very soon you'll forget lah. 6.5/10.

Oh, my dearest little sis has quietly put up her blogz, check out Zephyr & In Loving Memory in my Blogroll!

Now I need to get a good rest. Slept at 4am this morning for about 3 hours and went for a run at East Coast Park, yeah, I feel great!

On the way there, the Class95 DJs were talking about what we Singaporeans think about the quality of life here, and whether we're happy about it. Well, take away the high expectations and the pressure we receive at work, I would say I'm pretty happy with it. Like what the Flying Dutchman said, right now, he wouldn't trade it for anywhere else in the world!

This I agree.

Take this morning for example. Nice sunny weekday morning, the locals as well as the expats, both male and female, were either having a nice stroll, jogging, walking their dogs, in-line-skating (usually referred to as Rollerblading), and cycling. They were having the time of their life! Just like I was!

After my little run, had breakfast at McDowell's, sent our nephew back home, took a shower at his place, join my colleagues for lunch at The Rice Table (didn't like the service that much), catch a movie, walk around Orchard Road. Almost a perfect day. Well it's just that when I'm back at work, I have to really focus, deal with the pressure, and know that I'm doing it so that I can look forward to yet another perfect day...

Women of Substance

2004-11-09T22:47:00.000+08:00

Was googling around the web while listening to Kevin's mishmashed(in my icq profile, I once stated that I speak some Yiddish, well there you go, don't ask me how and where I learned it coz I donch know) playlist when this rich voice suddenly broke the monotony. The song is In The Glade, sung by... Milla Jovovich?! That model/actress and... singer?

Just to be sure, I googled up her name and, indeed, the song was sung by her, and there's many more! I was already pretty impressed by her performance in The Fifth Element, one of the many movies she acted in. I know she is this beautiful Revlon model. And now, she is a singer/songwriter, too.

She just became the most talented model in my little red book.

Oh, and I just found out from Miyagi's blog that, besides Hossan Leong, he seems to be old buds with Steph Song too... what the.... this chow-corprer... maybe I should ask him if he knows my DJ/songwriter/singer cousin who goes by the monicker Jiujian, or Q-Ken (believe me, his real name sounds alot nicer), kinda lost touch with him for years now. Oh, but I did asked if he's friend with Amy Cheng, my biggest fan

Faster! Faster!

2004-11-04T16:23:00.000+08:00

Went for a run with ct yesterday before breaking fast, feeling inspired by Sukaimi of the roadburners. Sharon de Costa from The Straits Times actually contacted Sukaimi, wanting to feature the roadburners' blog in a weekly column like what they did for Miyagi's, but for reasons best known to himself, he turned it down.

We planned out a 5 km route and started the run at about 6:10pm. That should give us more than enough time for a very slow jog, just in time for us to cool down and break fast.

As I've laid off running for more than a month, I decided to jog at ct's pace, also taking into consideration that this is the first time I'm running while fasting. About 2km into the run, I was beginning to feel pain in both my knees, but I told myself that as long as the pain is not too unbearable, I will not stop. Then ct suddenly slowed down and showed me the 'V' sign. Turned out it's not for 'victory' but for 'wanna pee'. Alamak, why didn't do it when I reminded her so before we started off 10 minutes ago? 500 metres later, I waited for her for about 5 minutes outside SAFRA country club, trying not to let my body cool down too much.

She contemplated taking a shortcut. I told her to go ahead, but then still find her jogging slowly behind me. For the next 2.5km, I was able to pick up my pace after my heart rate and body temperature went up again.

Quite happy that after a long layoff, I was still able to finish the run with just some minor pain in the knees. I started very slowly and was still able to almost sprint the last 100 metres without feeling too tired or breathless. I think ct picked up her pace too towards the end, coming in only a few minutes later. But then 35 minutes to run 5 km is rather slow, we need to improve on our pace! Let's see, for myself, my personal best timing for 2.4km was 9min 21sec. So, for 5km, I should be doing it in about 20 to 25 minutes.

That means given 35 minutes, I should have ran another 2.5km more!

three words

2004-10-24T10:40:00.000+08:00

Sat through about 2 hours worth of Wong Kar Wai's 2046. It was raining outside, the cinema's air-conditioning was on full blast, and my knees were in pain.

It's a very slow paced and deep movie about relationships. And my interpretation of it can be summed up in three words; fate, timing, choice.

Reminds me of a time when I was in an active friendship/relationship with a few girlfriends. But at the end of the day, I had to make a choice, and in the process, break a few hearts. Granted, Wong's movies are not for everyone, you either love it or hate it, so I could be biased when I give it a 8/10.

Should have put on my longjohns, would have enjoyed the show much better.

When Animals Attack

2004-10-22T15:06:00.000+08:00

Yesterday, Cookie, a cat I gave to my sis Serene, was put to death, by my own decision.

"So what do you want to do with it?" The pet handler asked.
My heart almost stopped, but I had to make the call, I can't risk having such a powerful and unpredictable tomcat staying with 3 old folks anymore.

"Put it to sleep..."

Siti cried, my sis cried on the line when she heard it from me. But we all know it was inevitable.

Whatever happened took place so fast that I'm not sure if I got it all down correctly.

After ferrying my grandma and mum to the dentist, we decided to drop by their place for awhile. Cookie, as usual, greeted us with some whining and grumbling, as if to chide us for being away so long. We all know that he must have missed Serene, who got married and moved out about 6 months ago. I played with it for a few minutes before settling down to read the papers. Cookie then went over to Siti smell her feet, then her bermudas, then her blouse. We know he can pick up our own cat's scent coz Allie, my fat cat, has been sleeping on it for the past day or so. But this is not the first time so it's nothing unusual.

Siti and mum then decided to look at some stuff in Serene's vacated room. Next I know, Siti was calling out, Kevin Help! Kevin Help! Cookie is biting me!

I got up and walked over to the room, thinking that the cat is probably playing with her, but what I saw next shocked me.

My mum was running away from Cookie, after being badly scratched on the leg by him when she tried to stop it from biting Siti. The cat chased after my mum and pounced on her, clinging on to her right arm with it's razor sharp claws, scratching and biting her at the same time. She flung it to the floor in pain. Immediately, I tried to lift it up by the fold of skin behind it's neck and shoulders with my left hand, as this method is known to relax cats. But, apparently, this cat has forgotten how to relax. It spun around forcefully, biting and scratching my wrist, causing my grip on him to loosen. Then it pounced on me, this time clinging on to my right arm and sinking it's fangs into it. I now know that this is no longer the Cookie we knew and so loved, it has lost it's mind. I thought of flinging the cat out the 14th floor window but couldn't make myself do it, having watched it come out of it's mother's womb right up to this day, 7 years later, so instead, I just bit my lip and bear with the pain, grabbed it by it's torso, and pushed it, back first, into a pile of junk, at the same time shouting at Siti and mum to get out of the room.

At that moment, the cat went berserk, clawing away at my right hand viciously. The pain got to me again as I quickly released the cat. It jumped out of the rubble and started to approach me again. I told my mum to remain still as I retreated slowly out of the room with Siti behind me. I shut the door behind it so that my mum is isolated. But now I'm being cornered by it, every sound and movement from us was deemed threatening. My concern now is for my wife hiding behind me, and my grandma, cooking up a storm in the kitchen, oblivious to the severity of the situation. I tried shouting at her to unlock the door and gate and lock herself in her room but, being partially deaf, she couldn't hear me. I guess ignorance truly is bliss! She later saw us cowering in the corner and even tried making some noise and calling the cat! I used the universal hand signal to tell her to keep quiet and to shut herself in the room. But she didn't get it.

After about 15 minutes of standing motionless in the corner, Siti called 999 using her mobile. The operator must have thought we were joking, but she said a despatch is on the way anyway.

I then shouted at my grandma to switch off the TV, and then told her to leave the gates unlocked for the police and shut herself in the room. Hearing the word police finally made her realize that we were facing a dangerous beast now. She finally did as I said.

After another 15 minutes, the police finally arrived. 2 men in blue. I told them to grab a few big towels as they managed to distract the cat. Cookie then started to turn his attention to the newly arrived strangers and started to move slowly towards them. Quickly, I asked Siti to get in the room to find me a towel. She got me a big, quilted blanket. Even better. Slowly, we closed in on Cookie and cornered him into the toilet. The cop tried to capture the cat with the blanket but after about 15 minutes, they too gave up. Without the right equipment, it was just too strong and risky for us to do it safely.

After a few phone calls, I got a number from the SPCA, and they gave me the number to a guy named Francis, a professional pet-handler/problem-solver. He laughed at first upon hearing that the police were involved but said that he will be here anyway, with the proper equipment, I reminded him.

Half an hour later, this tall specky guy came, with a pvc pipe with nylon loops at both ends and a cage in his hands. According to him, he's been doing this for 15 years, so he should have seen it all.

The loop was slowly manoeuvred around Cookie, who was at this time screaming loudly at this new threat and pooing uncontrollably out of fear and desperation, and with a quick tug at the other end, choke-held the cat around it's neck. It's attempt to scratch the pvc pole and to break itself free were in vain. Francis quickly stuff the cat into the cage. It was over in about 5 minutes.

He said that in his 15 years, he's never seen a domesticated house cat gone so crazy like this. Must have been due to the pent-up sexual urge over the past 7 years, noting that it wasn't neutered. Maybe it's trying to protect it's owner's room from unfamiliar people with other cat's scent on our body. He said that this is a very dominant tomcat, judging from it's ferocity and its bulky and round head, and it will probably kill the other male strays in the neighbourhood had it been let loose. Then he asked me the dreaded question.

With a lump in my throat, I told him my painful decision, and said our last goodbyes to Cookie...

Damage assessment. I have mostly lacerated wounds mostly caused by the cat clinging onto my arm and tearing away with it's hind legs, plus a few puncture wounds from it's fangs. Some minor cuts and bruises on my legs and knees when I struggled to hold it down.

Mum was worse off. Cookie took a chunk of her skin off her arm, about the size of two 10 cent coins, and we can see the flesh and the fats from the gaping wound. Took 5 stitches to patch it up. Her right leg also has a few scratches about 5 to 8cm long.

$80 for Francis, $20 for SPCA to put Cookie to sleep, $135 for patching us up. But money was the last thing on my mind then... poor Cookie...

On my way back from the clinic, my car also ran over a bird. So I guess that's 2 lives I've ended now in just one day...

Rest in Peace, Cookie...

oh, I forgot

2004-10-18T11:39:00.000+08:00

ManU held again, that's 2 draws at home and 3 away now...

Liverpool fought back from 2 goals down to win 2-4...

Charlton and Newcastle practised hitting the woodwork and shooting at the guys on the line...

Everton's season still going strong...

Middlesborough getting stronger season by season...

Chelsea finally got beaten...

Arsenal gunning for record 50 wins...

come what may, there's always time for sports and stuff, now back to being depressed...

rockbottom

2004-10-17T22:05:00.000+08:00

i just had the worst day of my life

Watz Happening

2004-10-17T08:24:00.000+08:00

Quite a few things happened in the past few days. And I've had many mood swings, much like what the ladies call PMS, haha.

I've been having 2 repetitive dreams for the past few. One is a nightmare, the other one sweet as honey.

In the nightmare, I have this very cute and adorable kitten whom I've grown to love. But it has this malady or curse that will turned it into a humongous, gargantuan monster with green eyes and veins popping out all over the place every once in a blue moon. I fought it bravely, but it was a tough fight. Coz I know this monster was actually the very cuddly kitten, so how can I kill it? I was trying my best to buy enough time so that this monster will somehow turn back to the kitten, and maybe I can find a cure for what ails it. I will try forever, or die trying.

Sometimes, I can almost understand why some people chose to stay single, and some turn gay or lez.

Well as for the sweet dream.... It's xxx rated and really too explicit to put up here la... I'll leave it to your imagination, muahahahaha.

Sometimes, I don't understand how people can stay single without a soul mate, or turn gay or lez.

I'm also very glad that I've met a bunch of fellow sports-lovers, and ran into an old friend.

It started out when someone named Sukaimi of the roadburners left a msg on my wife's blog. Followed the url and found out that they are actually a group of healthy living and fun loving runners who just love to run. Check them out! Its amazing, the feats that they have accomplished, like the 120km round Sg island run, its unbelievable! Next year, I'll join them for sure. We've exchanged contacts and agreed to take part in some team events, soon. I'm a waterboy, can help in the swimming part, I'll leave the real hard-work of running to them, the elite, haha.

Also, from the roadburners blog, saw Wendy's blog. She is a cyclist and loves to participate in cycling events. Since she's Malaccan, her melayu is very cim. I think my CT will gain much when she gets to know Wendy, can improve her pidgen bahasa melayu(baku, malaysia, whatever!), heheh. She's been bugging me to get us a pair of bicycles for years after she gave her's away and mine got stolen, but, due to a lack of 'motivation', I've not done so.

Leonard-me-Ken-ChinWee

Remember Ken, he was the mastermind behind the 'distraction' for my guitaring deficiencies during a talent-time competition, and the lead-guitarist from my 2nd band! We've lost touch for a few years now, but we ran into him yesterday evening at PS. He's still very much into writing his own stuff now with his current band, and took part in competitions like Asian Beat and even got into the semi-finals! Good for you Ken. He even asked out of courtesy if I'm willing to play drums for him again should his drummer have problems. Heheh, sure Ken, anytime. Double pedal, paradiddle, even sing, just like old times, no problemo!

So, battling monster, sexy dreams (or izit real?), the sporting vibes are back, the musical contacts surface again... it's gonna be exciting!

Shut Up, Kevin!

2004-10-14T14:32:00.000+08:00

Sometimes, I should've just kept my mouth shut, or my hands tied, in this case. In an email convo with Sukaimi, I mentioned in passing my affinity to swimming. Next I know, he was telling me that he needs a swimmer to join him in either a biathlon or triathlon relay event, closing the sentence with "can you kev?"

If you can see me now, you will probably think that I'm a flea infested ape or something. Cos my whole body is itching for such a challenge. And all the scratching in the world won't help.

Can I?

I can't answer that, yet.

But, shall I? Will I?

Yes! Yes!

I almost signed up for this year's event on my own, but thought better of it, cos I know my weakness is in running, and, without devoting any time at all into training, I am just lying to myself.

I used to swim almost everyday. Zero impact, whole body workout, no sweat, low cost. Just lovely.

And I had once cycled from Farrer Road (borrowed a friend's wobbly bicycle there) to West Coast Road to meet my friend Mansur, then together we pedalled over to East Coast Park for a BBQ party, then its back to West Coast with him, before riding alone back to Farrer again to return the bike. I cycled on the road with an unsteady bike, young, fearless, but foolish.

But comes to running, I've lost alot of my endurance. Even short distance, the best I could ever muster for 2.4km was in my NS Army BMT days, at 9mins21secs. Nowhere near good. Moreover, with my sore left toe and loose knees now, no way I can do it.

So now the ball is in my court. Registration closes in 2 days. Event takes place in 16 days time. Swim 800metres only. Sentosa some-more.

Can you Kev?

(just shut up and do it, kev)

Roadburners

2004-10-13T13:00:00.000+08:00

Just made contact with one of the Roadburners, Sukaimi. Very humble guy, and in my book, that's Cool, with a capital C.

He invited me to join him on another 10km run, this time at MacRitchie Reservoir. Thank you, bro, but I'm not sure man.

Let's see. In the past few months or so, what have I (not) accomplished?

April: The JP Morgan run, I really pushed myself. A pity I forgot to time myself properly for the 5.6km run cos from the time the air-horn blared, I spent about 10 good minutes trying to get to the starting point proper. There were just too many 'fun walkers'. I guesstimated my time to be about 30 mins or so of running time. That's not too bad for 5.6km of hop-scotching and zig-zagging through those walkers, strolling abreast their friends and blocking the way of those serious runners. My hips and ankles felt like burning from all the lateral stress.
May: The New Paper Big Walk was much better. It was about 7km plus, down from the 10km or so due to the big hole at Nicol Highway. We completed it in about 45 to 50 mins, no jog or run, just very brisk walking. But my hips and ankles are still feeling abit sore from the JPM run, well at least my knee was ok.
Aug: Nike Run. Decided to give it a miss.
Sept: Terry Fox Run. I couldn't even make it. Work. At least I am represented by CT.
Sept: Sheares' Bridge Run and Army Half Marathon. Planned to run the 12km even though I know I'm working that night. At the 4km mark halfway up the slope of the highway, my knee, right instead of left, felt loose. Pain. Decided to run 5km only. The remaining 1km plus or so was the longest I ever took to do 1km. My body is weak, my mind, feeble. I have let my friends, family, and myself down. I almost felt like performing the harakiri.
Oct: Singapore-Johor 2nd link run. Signed up for it, but, damn, why must all the runs be organized on Sundays, which I work? If I were to take leave for each of these runs throughout the year, there won't be enough of them! So I decided to give it a miss again. Different event, same excuses. Work, poor conditioning, blah blah and blah.

So, you see, Sukaimi. Eager as I am to join you, I think I should follow my head and not rush into it. I plan to go back to more running during my days off, to build up my strength, endurance, and confidence again. And I must do it alone. I am my worst enemy, my greatest rival. I hope one day, I'll be good enough to join the roadburners.

Superman flies again

2004-10-12T13:25:00.000+08:00

Yes, I'd like to look at it that way.

A true fighting spirit, a Hero, his spirit can now finally fly free, forever, away from the wheelchair, those life support systems, and that cruel thing called FATE. I'm glad, but not without a tinge of sadness...

I remember it like it was yesterday. Just 7 years old, going to the movies was, for me, a super-major event. It was at Capitol Theatre, I was a dwarf among the super-massive crowd waiting to get in. We got the circle seats, what I would call a big balcony, and that means an unblocked view of the super-humongous screen, a birds-eye-view of those below us, and the majestic dome of Shaw's Capitol Theatre above, one of its kind in Singapore. Unforgettable...

You fought a good fight, and lived a life worth remembering. You will live on in my world as Superman. Thank You Christopher Reeve. Thank You Superman, for all the great memories. Au revoir.

Can't sleep well? Well, start by sleeping less!

2004-10-10T07:11:00.000+08:00

I just read about someone wondering about having more hours in a day.

Well, may I suggest that, like me, he starts off by sleeping less! Some experts believe that it is actually beneficial for those suffering from insomnia. And my own personal experience tells me that it will improve the quality of your slumber, especially if you are a light sleeper who can hear an ant sneeze in your bathroom even while asleep.

Of late, I've been turning in early in the morning, anything from 3am to 7am. But I slept so well that I can't hear the phone ring, my SMS alerts, door-bells, my cats wrestling, my neighbour's dogs barking, and no dreams or nightmares. I wake up after no more than 7 hours of almost being in a state of hibernation, where all my senses are fully rested and refreshed, and finding myself able to last longer and do more.

When it comes to sleep, its not the quantity, but the quality that counts.

Oh, talk about sleep, it's time to wake her up. Another long day for her. Mmm, breakfast at McDonald's! Sounds good...

24hrs Swenson's

2004-10-10T06:00:00.000+08:00

Ya, in my dreams, that is. It's past midnight and I'm thinking about ice-cream? After sending 'fresh grad' Azlina to Sengkang and 'lucky girl' Lulu back to her posh River Valley Condo, it's already close to 1am. What ice-cream? 7-11 have la.

But after seeing her tackle the super-long Q and standing whole day, must bring her somewhere to makan. So we ended up at the Prata place at Thomson Road. It was rather packed, so no choice, park the car abit further. This 2 Prata shop side-by-side, but how come one so bloody packed, while the other one like, ok only har? Never mind, we'll come on a weekday to try the packed one next week.

After we're done, we know why. The food is not bad, but its nothing fantastic also, that means... the packed one must be damn bloody good, right!? OK, next week, die-die must try!

Goose Down! Goose Down!

2004-10-09T22:49:00.000+08:00

Drove down to the Expo to fetch her and some stuff she's buying, quilts, pillows, bolsters. Bolsters? Why in the world she wants a bolster for?
When I was younger, I could never sleep without one. But for the past 8 years, I never needed one. What for? I have something much more satisfying and interesting to hug, plus, its warm!
Then again, there are some really good deals here. You have pillows and protectors that are anti-everything. Dust mites, fungi, germs, you name it. And the pillows are 50% goosedown, who cares what makes up the other half. And only $10?(Use to pay a few times more for these) You accept plastic? I'm gonna get me a truck load of them! Yes! I just saved myself some money by spending some. Now Let's go for some Swenson's icecream to celebrate!

Morning Rush

2004-10-08T19:49:00.000+08:00

Slept at 3am and woke up at 6 this morning to a flurry of activities. Felt like I was running about with my bed still attached to my back.

1st I sent the crazy one to Singapore Expo for a little stint. But not before some nice bedroom exercises. Reached there too damn early, none of the eateries were opened yet, so I decided to head down to Bedok nearby for a quick one before sending her back there again, 25minutes to and fro, kopi, kaya bread, half-boiled egg.

Next, I went on down to Wisma to send the damn Sony NetMD for a checkup. Sony stuff use to be synonymous with quality. Well, not anymore. This damn thing costs me around 500 bucks, and its been nothing but pain for the past 2 years or so. I should have done my homework before I got this thing, what with all those ATRAC3 format nonsense, the klunky software, and the dodgy docking station. Why does Sony always come out with their own proprietary formats? Remember the doomed Betamax? It says it'll play mp3, but I only found out later that it only does so after the software has imported and converted them into its own atrac3 format. A waste of time and resources. They were not opened yet when I reached there, so I went over to Citibank to drop a cheque and walk around Taka and Wisma. There were so many schoolgirls in uniform walking around. Is that what they do these days? Go window shopping before heading for class?

Popped by the Hello shop for a looksee. Wow, the Samsung E800 looks good, tiny, handy, and is a dead ringer for a certain Siemens phone. Also saw the Motorola Razr V3, awesome! Too bad they locked it in the display case so I can't tell if it feels as good in my hands as the Samsung.

Back at Sony, the girl asked me if she should set the agreeable repair costs at a threshold of 160 bucks before having to call me. 160! Hell no! I thought at her. I'd rather spend a little more money to get a solid state memory player or something with expandable memory that plays real mp3 files plus many other formats superior to your bosses' damn atrac3. Of course, I politely declined, giving the very sweet girl an edited version of my thoughts. "Whatever the cost, please give me a call, can? Who knows, if it costs too much to fix it, I may consider getting another one of Sony's latest and bestest!", I patronizingly said. After a little bit more of chat and laugh with her, I decided to look around the shop and see what are Sony's latest and bestest.

SAB100, SAB200, SAB300, DAV-SR2... man! From around 500 SGD to a little above 1k, you get a DVD player with built-in decoder and amplifier, complete with 5 speakers and a subwoofer! Clean, simple, uncluttered. Suddenly my Kenwood separates look like pieces junks, a blast from the past, a monstrosity that appears in my worst nightmares. Damn it, I'm gonna get rid of the wood and get myself one of these shit.... wait ... didn't I just cursed and swear at them for a certain piece of junk? Oh but these fall into a different category, Kevin. No buggy software to deal with, no silly conversions and imports, plus they are value for money, for 1 grand you can't even get some cellphones, Kevin. Oh no, now I'm talking to myself.

Walked around abit at Tangs and Far East Plaza, before I headed down to Tan Tock Seng Hospital to pass some 5up3R K0Nf1d3N71AL documents to HR's Shanti. CH's future depends on it. Oh, there's this Smart Car I saw parked outside Tangs, really small and cute! But I still think the Daihatsu Copen is nicer.

Next up, lunch and papers at Burger King. This nice elderly lady at Far East handed me a flyer from BK, some Alaskan Wild Salmon Burger. Yeeee-ummy!

Megadeth has released what is supposedly their final album, The System Has Failed. Read an article about Mr.Megadeth himself, Dave Mustaine, the man who is forever angry. Have not been following the Heavy Metal scene enough lately to know that he had a severe nerve injury to his left hand. Doctors said he'll probably never be able to play guitar again. But look at what he's doing now.

Right. 2pm. Usually, at this time on my days off, I'd still be in bed. Now that I've had my lunch and read the papers, maybe I should go for a movie... carpe diem!

Days to Remember

2004-10-07T07:18:00.000+08:00

Today is a good day to remember. Remember the messy looking girl I mentioned in an earlier post? Well, I've now known her for about 14 years or so now, and this is how I met her. Almost like a in a movie, if I may say so myself.

8 years ago on this very same day, we signed a contract. Something we thought would never happen. But somehow, things fell into place almost all by themselves, everything worked itself out. It is a very long story so it'll have to wait.

Since my CH is now loafing around waiting for her 2 year course to commence, she's actually trying to make herself useful by giving tuition and taking up some part-time job. Now she knows what working late till 11 plus and arriving home past midnight feels like. But I think it's good to experience as much in life as possible while we are still young and able, doing different things.

Let's see. Since my primary school days till now, I have grabbed every single chance that come my way to try out different jobs.

Selling "mah piew poh!" in the evenings door to door in old HDB blocks
Worked as your friendly neighbourhood newspaper delivery/payment-collector boy
Worked in a furniture factory
Waitering in Chang Jiang Shanghai Restaurant in Goodwood Park Hotel
Waitering at the Poolside Steamboat Buffet Restaurant at Allson Hotel
Worked at Toys'R'Us at Forum Galleria doing everything from housekeeping to cashiering
Warehouse Store asistant at Motorola
Data entry clerk
A Pizza Hut Delivery Guy I was
A short unsuccessful spell as a Part-time Insurance Agent
A supervisor in a company manufacturing CDs
My current job

Unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, I have been slogging away at my present job for 7 years plus. As long as my CH is enjoying her favourite past-time of job hopping, how can I afford to do the same? I wish I have the resolve and boldness of someone like Mr.Miyagi to venture out to do my own thing.

One day, when I have no debts to settle and no bills to pay, I will probably join discovery channel or maybe those whacky guys at Greenpeace and lead a more dangerous life.

Heart of Steel

2004-10-02T18:16:00.000+08:00

GODS OF WAR I CALL YOU,
MY SWORD IS BY MY SIDE.
I SEEK A LIFE OF HONOR,
FREE FROM ALL FALSE PRIDE.
I WILL CRACK THE WHIP WITH A BOLD MIGHTY HAIL.
COVER ME WITH DEATH IF I SHOULD EVER FAIL.
GLORY, MAJESTY, UNITY
HAIL, HAIL, HAIL.

Heart Of Steel
~ Manowar, Kings of Metal

Build A Fire A Thousand Miles Away
To Light My Long Way Home
I Ride A Comet
My Trail Is Long To Stay
Silence Is A Heavy Stone
I Fight The World And Take All They Can Give
There Are Times My Heart Hangs Low
Born To Walk Against The Wind
Born To Hear My Name
No Matter Where I Stand I'm Alone

Stand And Fight
Live By Your Heart
Always One More Try
I'm Not Afraid To Die
Stand And Fight
Say What You Feel
Born With A Heart Of Steel

Burn The Bridge Behind You
Leave No Retreat
There's Only One Way Home
Those Who Laugh And Crowd The Path And Cut
Each Other's Throats
Will Fall Like Melting Snow
They'll Watch Us Rise With Fire In Our Eyes
They'll Bow Their Heads
Their Hearts Will Hang Low
Then We'll Laugh And They Will Kneel And Know
This Heart Of Steel Was
Too Hard To Break
Too Hard To Hold

Stand And Fight
Live By Your Heart
Always One More Try
I'm Not Afraid To Die
Stand And Fight
Say What You Feel
Born With A Heart Of Steel

Thrill of the Hunt

2004-10-02T17:49:00.000+08:00

I've been busy lately, night and day, running like a headless chicken down poorly illuminated halls and corridors, chasing dumb meat, and getting spooked by fiery fiends that come out of nowhere. Take that, you fugly mutha****in son of a bitch!

And my adventure I will share with you should I emerge victorious from this hell of a hole. But do remember me in your prayers should you not hear from me within 2592000 seconds...

True Colours

2004-09-30T21:19:00.000+08:00

Ran into an old friend/colleague of mine recently. Stopped for a short chat, your usual small talk, and goodbyes. Once upon a time, this guy use to call me everyday and night, when he owes banks money which he can't pay and he's receiving letters from the banks' solicitors threatening to krupt him. He was desperate. I can honestly say that at that time, I was in deeper shit than he is, the difference is I live within my means and I managed the "shit". But I'm not one to see a friend in need and turn a blind eye, so I agreed to lend him some money out of my own very limited resources.

What happened next is unreal.

We were at work, so he said he'll drive me out now to a nearby ATM so I can withdraw the money. Fine. We walked to the carpark, and there he was with his sporty black Honda Civic with nice sports rims shining under the moonlight.

"Nice set of wheels", I said.
"...."
"how much per month?"
"800+"
"Can you afford that with your current situation?"
"....erm... I can't do without it, I have to send my mum for medical appointments"
I was like, hello, your mum goes to the doctor everyday? Ever heard of a thing call taxi?
"So when can you pay me back the money?"
"......."
"?!"
"..............."
"OK, just call me and let me know when its convenient for you k?"
nod

A few months later, he got a fat retrenchment package, cleared his debts with the banks, and totally disappeared for awhile. It was like complete radio silence. Till now. He was chatting away as if nothing ever happened. Obviously, he has chosen to conveniently forget that he owed me. Why do people keep doing these things, pretending as if something didn't happen. If he had been up front with me and tell me he can't or won't be paying me back, I would have gladly written it off there and then, no problem, no grudges.

As the saying goes, A Friend in Need is A Friend Indeed. How true.

When they needed help, I'm more than willing to go out of my way to do whatever I can, doing all the fetch and carry, spending time and money on them, even if it means burning a small hole in my pocket. But what is truly amazing and disappointing is how easily these friends forget when they don't need you anymore.

I always felt that the true measure of a person is by how he reacts when he makes a mistake, rather than by the mistake itself, cos everybody makes mistakes. Do you admit the errors of your way and make a sincere apology? Do you pretend you did nothing wrong? Or worse, complicate things by trying to convince yourself and others that you are the victim instead? (I have this one weird experience, but I hope I won't be forced into telling it here)

But at the end of the day, you get to see the true colours of someone before its too late, I think it is resources well spent. Good riddance, I say.

Running in a few hours

2004-09-26T01:45:00.000+08:00

I'll have to be up and running in a few hours time and yet I'm still here typing this... Looks like I'll take a few hours to finish the 12km if I stay up any longer.

Anyway, thought of doing a movie marathon today to prepare myself for the run but I under-estimated the weekend crowd. I really didn't know which movie was pulling the crowd. Jacky Chan's new movie, or was it Milla Jojovich's Resident Evil? I checked RE, even single seats were all taken. So I ended up watching Seeing other People. Not a bad show, I give it 7/10. Its a sex comedy about having flings or meaningless sex with total strangers, quite funny. Slightly better than the Korean horror movie The Ghost, which wasn't too scary except for a few nice twists towards the end. 6.5/10.

I'm just done watching Rock Star starring Marky Mark (Mark Wahlberg) and Jenniffer Aniston. How the hell did I miss this on the big screen? I remembered waiting and waiting for it but I can't recall it being screened? Anyway, it was so cool watching real rock stars playing the band members. Zakk Wylde (Ozzy), Jason Bonham (Bonham, son of Led Zep drummer), Jeff Pilson (Dokken), and Blas Elias (Slaughter) as the drummer in the tribute band. And the figure hugging fishnet thing Aniston was wearing? Man! I give it 7+0.5/10. 0.5 bonus for JA's outfit, heheh. Of course, I have to suppress my grin and put on a stoic face, cos my crazy horse was sitting right beside me.

Stayed up a little longer just to catch all the EPL goals. Arsenal, Chelsea, MU, all won by a single goal. Liverpool scored 3. Although I think all 3 were more or less deflected. While Baros worked hard and Luis Garcia was lively, I thought Cisse was a sissy. He whined too much. If this goes on, he'll just be an expensive Heskey, no more. Better buck the **** up Cisse.

Those wild and crazy dayz

2004-09-24T19:27:00.000+08:00

I always look back at my years spent in Ngee Ann Polytechnic with much fondness and disbelief. I chose the polytechnic over junior college knowing that I will have alot more freedom to do whatever I want, and I don't have to wear no stinking uniform.

The campus is just like a meeting place for us to decide where to go and what to do next. Since attendance were not taken during lectures, we can safely skip them. Tutorial classes, we have to attend, or risk suspension after the 2nd love letter.

I remember times when I'll be so engrossed in playing foosball (we called it table-soccer) that I skipped a whole day's worth of classes. Sometimes I'll head downtown for movies with like-minded friends. But one of my favorite past-time must be jamming; getting a few guys together and play music! Earnest and Simon on guitars, Caleb on bass, and me, drums. We also switched instruments every now and then just for fun.

Those days in the late 80's, big hair rock like Bon Jovi, Poison, Cinderella, and Firehouse were the in thing. So most of the time, we'll try to play their songs. And then one day, we decided to take part in the talent-time competition. We know the Malay rockers will be playing those popular stuff by Guns n' Roses and Bon Jovi. We needed something different, something fresh. Simon was working part-time at a CD store at that time, and we took the opportunity to sample some of the new bands and albums. Choirboys... mmm... never heard of them, but we pop the CD and hit play anyway....Baby! Bingo! We found our song. Run to Paradise. An unknown but melodic pop-rock tune that'll get your feet tapping away. Listen to it here or a live clip of teh song here. Lyrics. (the damn CD didn't come with the lyrics then, I had to listen and take them down word for word)

Next comes the planning.

Simon wanted to take part in the solo category as well, so we thought that it'll be to our disadvantage should he sing twice in front of the judges, so they decided that I'll sing and play guitar instead. No problemo.
Guitar solo. I'm not much of a guitar player, and Earnest, at that time, wasn't too confident of executing it. That means I'll have to juggle between vocals and playing lead guitar. Very risky. Plus, we know that the Malay bands' guitarists will easily eat us for breakfast. Our only chance against them is decent, comprehensible vocals and a catchy tune. Solution - we got our good friend, Ken, to get a group of his buddies to attend on the night of the competition. At the point where I finished the bridge and hit the guitar solo, Ken and Friends will start standing up, shouting and clapping to distract everybody and drown out my weak guitar solo. Heheh. Brilliant.
Contingency plan. A 2nd song. Just in case. I could get a sore throat or something on that day and can't sing or, maybe the judges and audience will be so impressed that they'll ask for an encore. Heh, you never know. So, we prepared yet another obscure but totally catchy song. Don't Worry Babe, by Singapore's local band Energy. It will have Earnest on vocals, Simon on lead guitar, Caleb bass, and me drums.

Right, all set. Maybe its because of all the planning, I wasn't nervous at all, even on that very night. Strangely, Simon seems a little stressed and asked if I have any spare drumsticks. "Sure", I said, I always carried 2 to 3 pair of them in my bag everyday.

Long before our turn, I was roving around behind the audience and there was this 3 girls singing some chinese song and prancing around on stage in their mini-skirts (there is also this messy girl with a camcorder who kept shifting about blocking my view). One of them was ssoooo cute that right after they were done and also days later, I actually approached her to ask for her name and to chat her up (I was quiet, but never shy). She was, of course, shocked and flattered. But it didn't really result in anything cos I was too busy with other targets then. And damn! The Malays are actually pretty good, playing Guns n' Roses and Bon Jovi stuff. But their vocals were rather strained when they tried to hit the high notes.

Backstage, there's this messy looking girl with a camcorder again*, filming around while everyone waited for their turn. Wait, its our turn! So there we were, standing under the spotlight. I can't see a thing with all the lights on us (found out after the show that my sis and her friend came, also a girl whom I admire was also in the audience). That should be a good thing. And here we go.... strum, strum, strum...strum.... Baby! Oops, damn, the previous contestant had switched off the microphone and I didn't do a mic check before I started. I had some training in classical guitar, violin, and drums, but none of those, our planning included, told me about checking if the mic was turned on! I quickly switched it on. I'm still cool. Midway through the song, the audience erupted, there were some laughter, some gasping, followed by loud cheering and applause. What the... Ken! I'm not into my guitar solo yet! Turned out Simon had really dropped one of his drumsticks! Good thing he kept the beat going with his remaining stick while picking up the spare I passed him, while Ken and gang reacted quickly enough by cheering and applauding. I managed to go through my guitar solo as planned, slightly out of tune but I'd bet that other than the Malay rockers, the judges and most of the audience won't be able to tell. That is one of the reasons why we picked an unknown song in the first place.

Backstage again, we were glad that it's over. Despite our comedy of errors, we were happy that we did it. We just wanted to enjoy the experience and we never thought of winning anything at all. And we were all laughing and joking about what happened on stage. Then it came. One of the organizers came to us and said that they had forgot to plan for the time when the judges are scoring for the contestants and that the audience are getting bored. She asked if we would like to play another song to kill some time. We just looked at each other and said "Why not?"

This time, without any pressure, and with the experience we just gained not too long ago, we actually went out and had more fun than Run to Paradise. The judges were there too, watching us. And I can see them talking among themselves, pointing at me, and then at Simon, then Earnest, probably noting that we had swapped instruments and vocalist. I think it added up to our advantage. Friends later told us that we actually sounded much better doing the 2nd song!

At the end of the day, we came in 2nd. 1st place went to an excellent group who did Caravan of Love, a cappella, a la The Housemartins (Fatboy Slim Norman Cook use to play bass in this band, and singer Paul Heaton went on to form Beautiful South after The Housemartins' demise).

But, like all rock bands, we later split up due to musical differences. Simon wanted to improve his instrumental skills further so he went to play bass for a Malay band. Caleb was so impressive on bass that my Malay friends actually enquired about him and asked him to play in their band. Earnest signed up for guitar lessons at Yamaha to improve his lead guitar skills. And I went on to join another band with Ken, Leonard, and Chin Wee. Their drummer, as I was told, was simply not hard-hitting enough and was sacked. We played much heavier stuff like Metallica and Megadeth for a few years and, of course, went our separate ways due to musical differences, again. What did you expect?

*This messy looking girl would later change my life forever, so it deserves a separate entry, soon.

Spot On! But, Oh NO...

2004-09-22T01:04:00.000+08:00

Now now now, wadideyetellya? I predicted that MU will beat LFC 2-1, and I got it spot on! If I was a punter, I could've won myself some spare pocket $$$. I'm not much of a gambler, I only buy the occasional TOTO when my boss pisses me off at work, know wadeye meen? But I really need the cash now, having only received 600 bucks or so for last month's misadventures. In short, SAF is not paying me because of my ICT deferment no thanks to my MC due to my sore toe, my employer is not paying me cos they expected SAF to re-imburse me for the days I'm supposed to be in green uniform protecting Changi Airport or Jurong Island from terrorists during the 911 period. As a result, neither side paid me. So I guess I'll have to eat grass for the next 30 days. 600 bucks is not even enuff to pay for half of my insurances. Mmmm... maybe I should go dig out that old guitar and do some busking in some Orchard Road underpass.

Now back to football. When I saw Gerrard limping off before half-time, I almost wanna turn off the TV and go back to sleep. I gotta work 8 to 8 in a few hours time! But then, what better chance to see how the new Liverpool, with Xabi Alonso, Luis Garcia, and Cisse/Baros, respond in times of adversity than now? So I kept my eyes peeled and sat through the match. As the 2nd half goes on, I find myself moving closer and closer to the TV set. No kidding, Liverpool is actually putting together some good attacking moves. Although not as fluid as a team yet, this new Liverpool certainly looks more exciting and dangerous in attack. Xabi Alonso shows that he can pass it just as well and is not afraid to "get stuck-in" either. He'll have many more chances to strut his stuff, now that Gerrard is inflicted with a foot injury which could rule him out for up to 2 months! I hate the word Metatarsal.

Touching on injuries, I hope my sore big toe will be able to hold up when I go for the Sheare's Bridge Run this coming Sunday. As it is, I still can't bend my toe, an injury which is already a month old, but since I'm only doing the 12km instead of the full or half-marathon, it should hold. I already missed the Terry Fox Run 3 days ago, one which my Crazy Horse took part in. So there's no way I'm gonna miss this one. And I have the S'pore-Johor 2nd Link Bridge Run to tackle in 2 weeks time, so I'll keep my fingers crossed!

Actually I intended to laze my days off away at the beach or something. But judging from the weather for the past few days, I don't think its such a good idea anymore. Actually, I really do love the rain. Back when I was 12 years old, Senthil, my Indian classmate, will call me up whenever it started to rain heavy, and we would cycle all over the neighbourhood and play in the rain like crazy kampung dogs, rolling on the ground. Alas, these days, we have the deadly soil disease and the high lightning strike rate to contend with, it won't be half as fun anymore. In fact, the high number of fatalities in Singapore have made it deadlier than SARS or the bird-flu. Growing up as kids is not as fun as it used to be. What in the world is happening to this Earth?!? What on earth is happening to this world?!!

Let's Vote!

2004-09-19T21:43:00.000+08:00

Man, its been a while since I last felt inspired to yak. Seems like I'm living to work so that I can continue to live, to work... what the hell am I toking abt?!? Anyhoo, I'm just glad that I'm not the ambitious type. If I can settle all my liabilities tomorrow, I'll probably join Discovery Channel or do some social work for a living. I'll gladly accept the pay cut. But then again, there are people out there who can't even find a job! So why am I complaining? On work days, I work, eat, sleep. On off days, I sleep, eat, go out, sleep. I'm too lazy to even play my favourite games anymore.

OK, enough of those nonsense. Let's talk about some other nonsense instead. Singapore Idol. Watched the wildcard show a few days back, and well, what can I say, if you don't have it, you don't. Some of the contestants claimed to have listened to the judges and worked on their diction and what not, blah, they still delivered ye same olde crap. And since I've ranted previously about how ridiculous the voting system is, I decided to throw a few votes in Sylvester Sim's way. Hey, if you can't beat them, join them! Besides, Sly is the only rocker in the group, his voice is rather unique, and he's the underdog! I SMSed a few votes, not knowing that CT had already voted a few times using my mobile, too. Sure enough, Sly got through. Let's just see how far he can go.

On the other hand, Nana was a big disappointment. She sang a slower song, but it only goes to show that her energetic voice is not versatile enough to inject enough emotion into it. I've always said, its much harder to sing a slow song well. Not surprisingly, she wasn't chosen to proceed to the next round.

Tonight, or rather, tomorrow early morning, I gotta wake up at 3am to watch MU vs Liverpool. There is no way I'm gonna miss this. It'll be interesting to see whether Rio Ferdinand's return will do any good to ManU's comical defense. But of course, they can be scary when they are attacking in full flow. Liverpool, with their new boss and new exciting players from Spain, will no doubt give Liverpool more options in attack. No longer do they have to rely on Michael Owen alone. Cisse, Baros, and now Luis Garcia are all exciting and eager to prove their own worth. But I have a feeling ManU will win this by 1 or 2 goals, cos Liverpool is without the Devil's nemesis in Danny Murphy. The last time out, I told my colleague that Liverpool will beat MU if Murphy plays. Sure enuff, Murphy scored the winner from the spot. But this time, I'm gonna let my head rule my heart. MU to win 2-1. God forbid...

Oh man, its time to go to bed! Gotta wake up in 4.5 hours time! And work after that.... 2 more days of work before a 4-day break.... ahhh.... the beach beckons....

Singapore Idol - a Crock of BS

2004-09-09T23:05:00.000+08:00

Just watched Group 3 of Singapore Idol perform. What a load of crap! No, I'm not talking about the contestants. Having taken part in my school talent-time before, coming in second, I know how they feel. There are lots of very talented singers and performers out there, who are courageous enough to sing in front of a live audience and on national TV.

What I don't like about the Idol series, not just Singapore Idol, is that THE VOTING SYSTEM SUCKS!!! The fact that any one person can vote as many times as you like totally defeats the foundation behind any voting system.

How did Nana and Beverly, 2 of those who can truly sing, got left behind while blokes like Jerry and Taufik got through? Good thing there are the wild cards, otherwise...

Back to the lousy voting system. Now, picture this;

Dude A - Super good looks, tall, dark, and handsome, extrovert and has many friends, but sings off key.

Dude B - Average looking, fair, skinny, and a little short for a guy. Quiet, but sings like an angel.

Comes the time to vote.

Dude A has 3 friends (for easy comparison) voting via SMS for him. Each of them, being young and adept at texting, sent 10 SMSes voting for Dude A. That's 30.

Dude B, being a quiet introvert, has no friends supporting him. But his performance was so impressive that he impressed many viewers, none of them know him, but they still decided to SMS once to vote for him. For simplicity, let's say 29 total strangers each voted for Dude B once, that will still only give him 29 votes.

So who goes through here? The guy who has only 3 buddies voting for him. The guy who looks good but can't sing! Now how fair is that? Of course, the producers and people behind the show knows this, but why aren't they doing anything to change it? That's right, $$$. Don't ask me how, but I don't think its hard to figure out who stands to gain when thousands, if not millions of calls and SMSes were made in such a short period of time.

During American and World Idol fever, there were already outcries over the flaws in the voting system. There are reports of phreaks who can swing the votes however they want or jam the phone lines if they want to. Softwares to turn your modem into a voting machine. And, in this report, even terrorists and the FBI somehow got involved.

And to add fuel to the fire, if what was reported by The New Paper on 15th August 2004 was true, many of the "auditions" in front of the judges were actually rigged. The really awful participants did auditioned, but not in front of the 4 main judges. Hell, they never even got through the very 1st audition for them to even meet the 4 celebrity judges. They, the celeb judges, supposedly read out scripts to suit the "occasion" so that everything will be edited and made to look as if it took place in front of them, when the actual auditioning was done by other producers/judges.

Yes, the world of entertainment and showbiz, it's all a farce. Like my father used to chide us in Cantonese, "Din-low zou hei, sor-low tai hei", meaning "the mad puts on a show, the idiots watch them". How true.

Crazy Horse

2004-09-04T22:58:00.000+08:00

After walking around North Point and then SAFRA this afternoon, we decided to head over to Jurong East to check out the Creative Fair to see if there are any good deals.

Upon reaching JE MRT, the queue waiting for the shuttle bus was so long. Siti suggested we walk. I didn't think it was a good idea at first cos I'm not too sure if the track under the MRT track is the right way to lead us there, but since there's a nice breeze blowing, why not?

Turns out that the rather deserted track is the right way, and we were enjoying our walk very much. Too much. Like a free-spirited wild horse seeing open fields, Siti was singing out loud the Judas Priest song playing on her portable MD and was running here and there like crazy, oblivious to the occasional passer-by. Well, I'm not surprised, but it made me laugh anyway.

The Creative Fair did have some very good deals, and I almost threw $400 to buy some speakers and stuff. But after doing some mental calculations and giving my impulses some time to subside, I decided that those things were what I want, but not what I need. So we left the place and went over to IMM for food and some shopping instead.

Found this tiny food outlet in a little corner called Red Ginger. Place is a little cramped but the food was good. I'll be back some time to sample the rest of their stuff.

Then we went to Daiso, the $2 supermart, to get what we need. Spent only $14 for some household items. That's a savings of $386.

Well, tomorrow is back to work for me. After such a long break, I kinda missed the action! Enough of bumming around!

Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle

2004-09-03T23:18:00.000+08:00

Just watched Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle at Bugis, oh man, I think I laughed so hard I hurt my pancreas! Reminds me of Night at the Roxbury, difference is that H&K is way way funnier.

I wasn't interested in this movie at all in the first place as I was planning to watch the Korean spook show Face. But due to the late show time, I had to follow my master's choice. And I'm glad I did.

Boob counts and crude jokes aside, its really a non-stop fun ride with these 2 jokers. Something like After Hours, where so many weird and stupid things happen in one night. The non-stop jabs at racism and drug abuse are so hilarious. Of course, they are not to be taken seriously.

It's just a self deprecating crude comedy poking at everything it can think of, sort of a joy-ride through a tunnel where you can see all these idiots doing stupid things.

I don't know why, but being Indian (India-Indian) seems to be the "in thing" now cos like in The Terminal, there are quite a few situations here where the joke is on the Indians again, and its intensely side-splitting!

A good way to waste a few bucks and your hour-and-a-half. 4/5.

Stepford Wives

2004-09-02T22:51:00.000+08:00

Well, the movie wasn't too bad, considering that some of the best actors and actresses around are in it, like my Christopher Walken(Cool!), Bette Midler, Nicole Kidman, and Matthew Broderick. The photo to the right was taken of a billboard using my babe's cameraphone. The result was surprisingly good, maybe because of the billboard's lighting from behind the picture. Ok, back to the movie itself.

The show was pretty predictable, but it has its moments. It was quite entertaining and funny, and comes with a message, too. Not as funny as The Terminal, but then there was never a dull moment. Although I didn't like the ending too much. It felt a bit hurried and lacking in ideas.

But watch it on a weekday and it'll still be worth your money. Just don't expect anything ground-breaking or standards setting, it wasn't meant to be. Its just a light-hearted comedy with a good moral message. 3.5/5. The 0.5 is for Kidman's facial expression and the guy who played the gay, he was damn funny.

Mixed Emotions

2004-09-02T16:08:00.000+08:00

Yesterday was my 33rd b'day. Thanks to all my family & friends who remembered.
But really, I don't even celebrate my own b'day. It's just a good time for me to see who are the thoughtful ones who cared!

It was another jolly good day for me, as usual. I decided to get the less pleasant things out of the way first.
Which brings me to my overdue speeding ticket. Paid the $300 fine, double from the original $150 (not $120, I was mistaken), and agreed to the damn machine that I am CONVICTED in court for speeding (so does that mean that I am a criminal since I have a criminal record now?). @#$%....OK, calm, cool, steady. I'm not gonna let this ruin my day. It's nobody's fault but my own. I'm not gonna be the kinda person who always have to put the blame on someone else, even if its my own fault. Just walk on Kevin.

Sent Siti for her facial, then proceed to my favourite past-time. Movies. Yeah! We got lucky too!
Read what ratings I gave the movies here.

Before that, I also paid a visit to the consex shop at Bugis Village. Why only for those above 23? Thought you're considered an adult at 21 and you are free to do what you like? So in Singapore, its different?

Now I'm getting ready to go out for another movie! The Stepford Wives.

Always by my side

2004-09-02T15:53:00.004+08:00

I have 5 adorable cats.

And my favourite is Allie, the temperamental fat cat from hell! She is always around and about when I'm at the PC. She dreams a lot when she sleeps. Limbs twitching, growling and mumbling, lots of REM (rapid eye movement). Just so adorable!

A very creative and fun short film

2004-08-31T16:54:00.000+08:00

Come across this video called Party Hard. It was all spontaneous and its so funny that I think it beats a lot of other short vids I've seen lately.

Better with broadband cos its quite a huge file, but its worth it. Go here for the scoop.