31st Dec

He's in the Sims!

YEAH~ IT'S 31ST DECEMBER!

Cold day, slept till 4PM and having a runny nose. Heh. Gotta head off to downtown later and meet my friends for the New Year's countdown and fireworks display! How fun! Thank goodness I snagged a spot in one of my cliques; other cliques were full.

Just the night before, my friend was using my PC and playing Team Fortress 2 till 6AM and while seeing him off later, we managed to prevent a cat from possible risk of its collar catching onto something and choking to death.

Well the 2 cats, 'Snowball' and 'Furball' (we named them ourselves) were wandering 'strays' at my friend's apartment void-deck. Everyday, their 'owner', a thin bespectacled girl, would come over and feed them rice...RICE. Firstly, cats do not eat rice as it doesn't supplement all of their nutritional needs and by feeding them, you make them rely on you rather than use their natural hunting instincts...think: lazy slob. 

Second, the owner was also stupid enough to make an outdoor cat roam about with a COLLAR. Since cats love to hide in bushes, go under cars, scale heights and squeeze through unimaginable spaces, what if the collar get caught onto something..say, a branch or a protruding object? The cat would most likely get injured or suffocate! My friend managed to take off the collar of Snowball. Well...the following 'achievements' would most likely reflect what we're going to do next.

Achievement unlocked! [Collar Remover]

Remove one of the two strays' collars.

Unaccomplished: [Master Collar Remover]

Successfully remove both strays' collars.

Unaccomplished: [Pure-bred Lecturer]

Lecture and instill good cat handling knowledge to dumb owner.

Anyways here's the list of my 10 New Year resolutions ... or rather, wishlist for 2009!

1. Study hard and pass the remaining 5 accountancy papers!

2. Start my driving lessons!

3. Party hard! Clubbing etc

4. Hit 80 on my paladin!

5. Get a new colour for my hair!

6. Get on an exercise regime! (Oh, all too common)

7. Get a new keyboard and mouse for my PC, 1TB hard drive or the Intel i7 Extreme processor.

8. Start internship!

9. Perhaps strike out my single status?

10. Check whether that emo is still being emo or dead changed for the better!

Last but not least, I have to thank my parents for what they've done all these years bringing up me to this age. I have to thank my Dad for being (real) strict when I was younger so that I didn't end up as the common street loafer (scientific name: vulgaris deficio) and my dear Mum that could play along with my jokes, being strict with the cabbage-like hairdo in my younger days (lol, asian parents) and always providing me with the things I wanted.

From here, I wish everyone a prosperous (lets hope so, with the financial mess that happened this year) and a fruitful 2009!

Next post will be in the 1st Jan or later.

summary of 2008

yup

Yeah, what a great 2008 would it be if I could just turn back time and avoid all the crap I've treaded upon for the past few few months. Hmm, let me summarise what memorable events I had.....

1. My ex-bestie outed himself onto me that he was having a guy-guy relationship with one of his besties (which was my friend too at that point in time). Unfortunately, things didn't turn out the way he wanted; the guy he got smitten with was a religious nut who cares way more for non-existent things than actual human feelings, and with his ignorant attitude, didn't know he drove the former to the point of suicide. Till now, that nut still did not get the point and continues to drive the poor guy insane. Severed friendships with them because enough was enough and also, he wouldn't stop BAWWING.

But thinking back, it does give me goosebumps.

2. Proved my Dad wrong as he said I would flunk my accountancy exams. But no! I passed it! Dad got a surprise and I got my game as a reward.

3. Bought Wrath of the Lich King, found it a pain in the ass to slowly level my character once more. My ex-bestie, or rather, that emo kid said he wouldn't play World of Warcraft anymore to my delight. But, suddenly, he went back on his word and bought WoTLK. He ended up as a no-lifer and leveled his blood elf warlock to 80 in a week and kept playing. While he was doing that, I was happily going out with my friends, socialising, being happy and even went on a vacation. Remembered was idle at the Wrymrest Temple when he strutted along on his stupid horse and said 'Oh why hello there", proudly showing off his online virtual gear. 

Oh wow, huge achievement Harrold, huge achievement.

4. Decided to take my own casual time and level my character slowly. Like why hit 80 so fast? Did admit my character lost to that scumbag.

5. Went on a 5 day vacation to Thailand, where I had endless fun and engaged myself in rural culture. Poor guy still sitting at home, immersed in his virtual world. Before the 5 day vacation, went to Malaysia with my other bestie for a shopping and eating trip. How fun!

6. Came back, sastified, spent the past few days going out to have tea with my friends and idling at home, spending my afternoons munching on crackers and lying on my bed reading volumes of Crayon Shinchan manga. (Gee, feels like Shinchan's mother, Misae.)

Conclusion, this was a fun year for me lol....and for that emo-kid...well, I'll try to forget about him next year as he can continue being emo and ruining his social life. Well that's that and happy new year in advance everyone!

John Freeman

John Freeman Remix

christmas!

Yay! It's the festive season! Merry* Christmas!

*Merry as in being merry first before recieving your credit card bill. Also, "being Merry" states that you have to buy lots of useless stuff this festive season in order to qualify for really "being Merry". "Merry" also applies to banks and not excluding private corporations, credit card companies receiving the interest on your shopping expenses this season. Lastly, "being Merry" in the 21st century excludes generousity, thriftiness and love. Everyone is obligated to follow the contractual terms stated.

vacation!

Yeah yeah I know I know, I just posted the previous entry because I read the article from the newspaper after arriving home from the airport....its interesting thats why LOL! I will start blogging about my vacation like tomorrow or so...

....tired...from....the...5 days of...awesome fun!

View a handful of the 400+ photos I took during the entire trip in my flickr album here!

WATCH THIS SPACE FOR THE UPDATE!

school

Was reading the New Paper and saw this really good letter written in by one of the readers...For those foreign readers, well, this is how our education system here works.

Why must children face such study stress?

I refer to the report, "Queueing Overnight For Children's Tuition" (The New Paper, 17 Dec).

Although it is heartening to note that there are self-help groups offering tuition for the needy, the act of queueing overnight shows the extreme lengths parents go to in the pursuit of good academic grades for their children, and it signifies a deeper problem.

The act reveals the underlying desperation and anxiety of parents, and probably even the children, as they sacrifice sleep and leisure time chasing the ultimate Singaporean dream of a straight-A report card.

What these young children do not realise is that once they get caught up in it, it is almost impossible to get out - studying hard and going for tuition classes become even more routine than eating.

Parents do want the best for their children, but unwittingly, they are causing their children pressure.

It is holiday season, but there is no respite from studying as these young students deal with a greater workload of tuition worksheets. Going out shopping or watching movies or even eating possibly induces guilt in them.

We are a nation that specialises in mass-producing a sea of young workaholics, who stop dreaming by the age of 12; who live and work for a future of prestige that is not entirely guaranteed; who seek escape in the weeks leading up to the holidays, but when the holidays arrive, are forced into another world apart from school - a tuition centre.

It is a shame to know that we have become so hungry for excellent grades that tuition centres are in such huge demand.

Studying, tuition, enrichment classes...why would anyone be proud to say he or she spent the holidays having tuition in some classroom with fluorescent lights and a brilliant whiteboard that blinds them from seeing that their lives are out of sync with how they want to spend it?

For those already in the rat race, it is too late.

Poor primary school kids

But for the primary school children, it is just depressing that they have to be weighed down by such pressure.

Studying takes up 12 hours or more of the 24 in a day once it hits crunch time. Energy drinks, coffee and midnight deliveries are rampant. Fast-food restaurants, cafes and Changi Aiprort are full.

The whole world is upon the student. The pressure from his parents, the pressure of his future, the pressure from himself as he re-reads the lines on "photosynthesis" in his Biology textbook, hoping to absorb it like a plant. It is all too familiar.

I remember studying at a cafe in Changi Airport once. A tourist queueing up at the counter inquired about the teenage patrons studying there. After an explanation from the cashier, he scanned the tables, amused. It was quite a sight for him. We sure made a good tourist attraction.

The Singaporean education system has to be changed, before the children feel the urge to flee the country once university calls.

audition

Audition Online....

Like whats with the game? I see the people playing that with their eyes hopelessly glued to the screen and tapping the Numpad on the keyboard furiously, hitting the spacebar periodically. You know, perhaps we could harness those skills by placing them (the Auditions players) in a large office building, with computers having this specially developed application installed on it and make them play. What's the application? Basically its a game like Auditions with a dancing character but this time, it has numbers instead of arrows, so you have to hit in sync with the Numpad. The numbers would be fed to the application from the accounts departments from various companies or data from research centers that require fast manual data entries. 

With such speed and performed by hundreds of people at the same time, manual data entries would be performed at a whole new level! Your local Inland Revenue Service would then process accounts faster! Companies accounts would be tabulated at the speed of light! A whole new industry would be born; the data entry sector! What's more, companies could cut on costs hiring their own data entry clerks by just signing a contract with that data entry company! Also, the data entry company itself wouldn't even worry about idle time due to toilet breaks or lunch because as you know, those people RARELY take a break! How profitable is that!

The only disadvantage is the excessive wear and tear of the keyboards due to the speed and constant use, leading to high maintenance costs. So, a special shockproof and durable steel keyboard which features only the Numpad itself could be used. The players would also be required to wear stress-reducing gloves specially designed for this job or else they will end up with carpal tunnel and rendered useless.....(incurring the cost of hiring a new player to replace the one being displaced.)

That's what I guess those Audition Online players would be good for...ye good olde human power!

braaaains!

My shipments finally arrived lol.

Waha! Yesterday went with my buddy, Derence, to Parklane Shopping Center in the city to do some LAN gaming! One word to summarise it all, 'AWESOME'. We reached there at around 8pm, when we were supposed to meet at 7 (because I was late and Derence got stuck at Somerset due to the extremely conjested shopping crowd). He had been pestering me to play Left4dead for quite a while which I stubbornly refused, thinking its just like Half-Life (and that I've played it before and don't want to replay again.) but I was wrong, Left4dead is indeed a really awesome multiplayer FPS game! It utilizes great teamwork, coordination and also your prepardness for the unexpected.

We bumped into Derence's brother and his friends unexpectedly at the LAN centre, and they were also there to play Left4dead. Oops, sorry, almost everyone in the LAN gaming centre was playing the damn game! Except for a handful of DoTA players, WoW players and that only lady playing the god-awful Auditions Online. Speaking of her, she was so damn inconsiderate and turning the volume to the max in the entire centre; the shrill of the annoying beats could be heard DISTINCTIVELY from the gunfires, grenades, tank engines, arcane magic blasting, etc emitting from all the computers there. Even from the public toilet just down the mall's corridoor, I could hear the damn thing.

Nevermind, lets delve into the topic of the game. Derence and I joined a room in L4D with other players in the centre because his brother was already in a full room with his friends. We played the No Mercy campaign and because the other players didn't stick together, we kept wiping at the last part of the campaign....with the swarms and swarms of zombies rushing towards you. Finally after the round, I got fed up and went into WoW....which unfortunately, didn't make me feel any better due to the awful lagginess I experienced. Apparently, playing L4D makes me just cackle like some nut because seeing the zombies' heads exploding under my gun was just....just so sastifying! (ok that's creepy, LOL)

Anyways, fast forward to the later part of the night, some of Derence brother's friends had left so there were only 4 people in the group playing L4D (the LAN center was still full house at 1AM+ since it closes at 6AM); Derence, his brother, his brother's friend and me. Teamwork then improved greatly and we played 3 more campaigns. Apparently, my poor aiming of the Motolov cocktail for the zombies sometimes causes the bottle to land on my team, surprising them with the sudden sea of fire around them and missing the zombies. Funny lol. On the last campaign, I stuck with the gun I found on the first part of the chapter and didn't bothered to change....until my buddy Derence, who was sitting beside me observing at times, finally got me to change the damn thing. LOL! Quite impressive though, that I lasted through the entire chapter with that, and dealing quite average damage. Hahaha

After the LAN gaming since 10PM+, we left about 3/4AM (forgot lol) and was suffering from a slight bit of motion sickness. Derence too, told me he felt a little bit of nausea which soon later subsided. Took the late night bus service home and ate roti prata for supper over at Hougang.....Everyone got sastified, and headed home. What a day!

Left4dead is indeed addictive! Now I FEEL I wanna play the game again! You guys should buy the game and try, its worth it! I especially love to make the Boomer (a species of the infected zombie which is extremely obese and bloated) explode and see its entrails flying about. Fun lol! Like a water balloon!

Oh, sudden reminder, while walking to the LAN center, I chanced upon lots of 'cosfucks' (people who cosplays so badly)....bad lolita with unfitting hair and a guy who cosplay some kind of animu character ended up looking like Xu Chun Mei, that Taiwanese 'celebrity' that looks awfully hideous. You can google search that name if you want. You know, if there was a Wapanese mod for Left4Dead which replaces the zombies as people in cosplay outfits and the theme set in a 'Japanesey' style....I WOULD SO PLAY THAT. Blasting the heads out of those damn things.

Finally got my shipment! The 'Push button, receive bacon' hooded tee and the 'AWESOME' smiley face pin button on the top of this post. Now just waiting for 2 more buttons to arrive! Next thing I'm planning to get is this T-shirt here. LOL! "WE'RE GONNA FREE THE SHIT OUTTA YOU!"

Anyways, tomorrow I'm heading for my vacation!! Hahah, so gotta pack my luggage later and sleep early for tonight! Therefore, I'm stopping here for now! Will update lots and lots of stuff real soon!

fridge logic

You know sometimes, while doing something or playing a game, you will suddenly realise things that you are not aware of? Like in Mario, do you know that the clouds' sprites are exactly the same as the bushes? Interesting? Childhood kinda ruined? Well, if you DON'T want to get more 'spoilers' (like you realise you are breathing manually?) do not scroll down! (but then without scrolling, you still see the words.)

I got the idea of posting this when playing World of Warcraft and also browsing the World of Warcraft forums. I assure you that this is gonna be a long post!

Fridge logic 1: If we (the players) die from enemy players or attacked by creatures, we could do a corpse run back to our bodies right? Why couldn't Uther the Lightbringer just do a corpse run back to his body or even better, the slain King of Lordaeron just running back as a ghost and then resurrecting? Why can't any paladin, druid, shamans or priests just run to Uther's body and then resurrect him? Since Uther was a paladin and then Arthas being a death knight, Uther could've easily brought him down by bubbling, healing, using Lay on Hands, judging like a nut or simply....BUBBLE HEARTH! Because game-wise, Uther would then really suck being a paladin. Seriously, its like some Death Knight killing some pally that doesn't really know HOW to pally and then says, "lol, im king". Makes no sense right?

Fridge logic 2: Monsters and enemies really don't seem to give a shit if their comrades die, BESIDE them. Because if you kill one of their minions/people, the others nearby would just continue to mind their own business and that is if you're not in 'aggro range'. Like hello, by opening such a goddamn big door in Scarlet Monastery, how can anyone NOT notice! The commotion from the fight at the start of the catheral would've alerted Mograine and pals. But they continue to STAND there giving their sermons to their (fighting) followers. 

Also, why would people leave vulnerable, top secret stuffs lying around? Like blueprints, top secret evil plans and etc? It's like they're INVITING you to kill them and take their stuffs!

Fridge logic 3: If the Iron Dwarves settling in Northrend or the Vrykul living in the villages, they would jollywell know/expect that damn place is full of extremely strong creatures (and also expecting US to infiltrate their villages). But no, they still are inviting us to kill them, letting us burn down their villages/headquarters over and over again and having guards that are equivalent to replacing bank security staff with kids in real life.

Speaking of burning down villages, wouldn't wood burn to ashes instantly? It seems like everything in the game is fireproof (except for food).

Fridge logic 4: Wars are neverending. If everything were to be according to real life physics and logic, Azeroth would've been saved from the Scourge and the Horde would be taking over the Alliance. It had been years and there's no improvement in the Draenei's recovery from the Exodar crash and chunks of debris are still visible. Items that you help to retrieve for quests would 'spawn back' magically again. NPCs are forever lazy and want you to help them do things they could've done themselves.

It's like...the whole world is a stage! I bet during maintenance days, you can imagine the skies in the world opening up and you can see cleaning crew and the maintenance crew on scaffolds. NPCs are like those staff in theme museums, where they are paid an hourly wage to stand there and act, say, historical people. World of Warcraft....is just like a huge virtual theme museum!

Fridge logic 5: Physics. One thing I am quite irked at. A mighty tauren could've easily punted a tiny gnome far into distance with a hammer or carry it using their bare hooves. Like how small is the damn thing and they weigh so light! If given real game physics (like in Valve games or Crysis), gnomes would DEFINITELY not stand a chance! Female paladins and warriors wouldn't be possible too; can you imagine how heavy is a HAMMER made of stone, studded with gems and having a size that is as big as your head? I bet even male humans or blood elves couldn't even swing that!

Rogues cannot be that 'INVISIBLE', its not invisiblity, its just camoflage! Visiblity would definitely be better under the sun and the barren areas like outside Orgrimmar....seesh.

After thinking through, everything makes no sense right? It doesn't even go well with the lore itself! And everything will once again, be a damn gag. Just like real life itself. Anyways, I just did a video for MOM.

malaysia

Had an awesome amount of fun yesterday! My buddy, Derence, suddenly made an impromptu announcement the night before yesterday that the JB trip got resumed! Got a surprise though because I thought it's cancelled for good. Phew. One problem was my Dad changed the money back to Singapore dollars and when I changed for the 2nd time, the rate was lower and thus, I had $7 less to spend.....Mum gave me about $50 to change, so that gave me $121 on the day itself.

We went to City Square, had some (really awesome and fresh) sushi and set lunches that consisted of an Unagi Don for me while Derence had some hotplay with mystery meat. (It's chicken I think, forgot) The sushi lunch was, I think, the best part of the entire trip. For your information, the sushi bar is located at the basement of City Square, right beside a stone grill restaurant. Entire bill was about 110RM, which is equivalent to about $46 back in Singapore and that means it only cost about $23 for a single person! Really cheap and worth every cent! You can see how much we ate from the picture we took.....and all for only $46. 

After eating, we then went to the Cathay cinema upstairs and bought the tickets to the movie, Bolt. Before the movie, we both had some cake and coffee at Starbucks....once again, I still ordered my all-time favourite; Caramel frappucino with a cheesecake to go alone. Heh. 

It was then movie time after coffee. Goodness, I think the most of the cinema audience didn't get the jokes spoken in English within the movie and there was this awkward silence with only a few laughing at the right time. I told Derence, "This is like North Korea". Haha! But anyways, the movie was brilliant! Throughout the show, I was amused by the neurotic hamster and of course, the sarcasm from the cat, Mittens.

When the movie ended, we both headed out and took a taxi to Holiday Plaza, which Derence told me was full of 'electronics'. I had in my mind an impression of 'Funan the IT Mall' back in Singapore but when I went there, it was quite a disappointment.... You can't find a single store selling authentic games! The mall was really old and the security guards carried police batons inside. We both got bored and decided to walk to Pelangi Mall, quite a distance from Holiday Plaza.

Surprisingly, Pelangi Mall was in a way much more better condition than Holiday Plaza and was cleaner. Derence searched for his teeth whitening and compared the prices and then we walked around. Still once again, nothing much interested us in Pelangi Mall and we decided to take a taxi back to City Square. From City Square, we walked to the border customs checkpoint with our passports and went back to Singapore. 

Throughout the entire trip, it was just heaven to me. Apparently, my Dad disabled my roaming IDD for my phone so I got cut off entirely from Singapore. No calls, no messages, no worries about anything back home.....all just focused on having fun in Malaysia. Coming back from the Causeway, you can see everything changing. Laws are stricter, roads are cleaner, everyone under the watchful eyes of the Government here, everywhere are concrete pigeon holes....Back to reality again.

Anyways, on the 15th, I'm leaving the country again....to Thailand! Derence and I discussed about backpacking to Laos around next year, November, where he wanted to visit the school he helped out as part of his school's community service earlier this year. Finally, my dreams of able to backpack tour is realising!

Haa well, will update more later! Writing till here for today. Ciao! Oh, and pictures once again below.

goo

Guess what, the trip to Malaysia got cancelled by my friend at the last minute. Sigh, prepared everything, changed my money and all the plans gone down the drain. But anyways, plans for today are going to attend an Indian wedding, one of my Mum's clients wedding basically.... something new I guess and my friend, James, told me its fun~ Ahahah.

Due to the screwed up plans, I'm not in a very hyped up mood this morning, so well I looked around Steam and downloaded World of Goo for US$19.99. Played since 5AM and indeed as what the reviews said, its REALLY addictive and fun! The story behind the game well, shall not reveal too much, but it basically reflects our world; Consumerism, materialism, marketing, the oil rush, Internet privacy, etc. Gameplay wise is addictive and challenging, graphics are simple yet beautiful and the soundtrack is epic! I'll recommend this game a must-have this Christmas! Cheap and definitely worth every penny!

Shall put you to the video of the trailer for the game before signing off.

whee

Gman and friends doing Chinese Martial Arts.

Met up with my long time friend, Derence, a few days ago. Went for breakfast and lunch for the past few days and reminsicing the good old childhood days. Ah, my neighbourhood really do leave us both lots of memories since primary school days. We talked about our primary school classmates, how silly our arguements were last time and we kept laughing throughout breakfast. We talked about our primary school form teacher, Ms Chua, who keep trying to seperate us in class because we 'talked too much' even to the point of preventing us from hanging out AFTER school. Goodness. Well, sadly, she failed to dissolve the friendship between us and we are still best buddies till now. There were also some bastards in primary school that kept bullying the other classmates and what I heard were that they (the bastards) dropped out of school or either fare really bad academically. Time changes everything doesn't it?

We discussed about how we pranked certain people in the neighbourhood back then, the places we went and explored. How we kept disturbing the Indian cleaning lady on the 2nd floor of our school compound with another of our friend, Xavier, by shouting into the toilet where she resides and then running away, in which soured our diplomatic ties with her and she tried to sabotage us in revenge. The stupid cream-coloured koi fish in the school's pond which I named it, 'Mama Tembu', that we threw the little gravel stones at it (which the fish kept avoiding). Talked about the different friends in our class at that time, Jeremy, Korshim, Kai Yao, etc and many many other memorable incidents. Really an awesome childhood we had.

Looking back, so many things had changed. The Indian lady is gone, our different classmates are now in different paths of life and some of them aren't 'them' anymore, certain areas in our neighbourhood are different from last time....wow. That is why I always emphasize, live as happy as possible because the world doesn't stop for you.

Anyways! Derence and I are going to Johor Bahru, Malaysia, tomorrow to have fun! He'll be my tour guide for the day and we're gonna eat lots of good, delicious, oily and greasy food that's totally different from Singapore. Seriously, why worry so much about calories and stuff when you have only ONE life to sample hundrends and thousands of dishes on this planet. Because in the end, everyone will realise that life, is just a damn gag.

Ah, will write till here! Definitely will update after the Malaysia trip with my friend tomorrow! Ciao~~!

P.S. I'm trying to get Fallout 3 and Mirrors Edge. No, I didn't know Mirrors Edge from the emo kid, I've already knew of it from E3.

morning

Good morning everyone! Just woke up at 8AM in the morning, yawn! The day looks great, kinda clear skies, slight breeze, neighbour's laundries fluttering in the wind...ahh...Excellent weather to ward off emo-ness.

So many errands to run today! Decided not to wait for my stupid package since it's not going to be delivered anytime soon, and I wasted 9 days waiting for it. Later at 8:45AM gonna head to the bank with Mum because one of her investments she had was under both of our names, so to take out the money and place in a seperate deposit account required both parties to be present....pff. After banking, gotta head to my college to pay my college fees for the new term and then drop off my books at the library. Most likely I would finish running my errands in the afternoon, and then going to my little cousins' house. 

I'm trying to avoid heading home early today; Dad's in a sour mood because apparently, his cab he was driving met with a minor accident, causing the front left headlight to be damaged. The company then said my Dad gotta pay $2000 for such a minor damage. Of course, this agitated my Dad and he planned to win this legal tussle which he was confident with. I do agree with him though, such a damage don't even cost freakin $2000, that's like daylight robbery! Sigh, well, this also led to my Dad throwing his typical tantrum and snapping at my Mum or me for no reason... Stubborn. Well I do say my flaring temper when angered is most likely passed down from my Dad. *laughs*

Anyways, I'm gonna go prepare and head out in a few minutes time. Hahah, oh this reminds me, I've been following this blog, Sidewalk Shoes, quite recently and the author posted really interesting recipes up over there. I've tried the Sweet Spicy Glazed Salmon recipe and it sure tasted fantastic! For those having a knack for food and cooking, I recommend going over to her blog. 

Be stopping here now, updatin' later! Ciao!

rejoice!

Yay! The news came in, the protestors are leaving the airport! This means that the vacation is still saved!! Rejoice rejoice! Damn protestors not knowing what they did was ruining the economy and also for themselves...

Anyways, I didn't went to school yesterday because I decided to stay put at home and wait for the postman to deliver the USPS package, containing my 'bacon hoodie'..... Nevermind, procrastinate abit lawl, since it's just like, uh, 2 more days to December 5th. Hees. I spent the entire day sitting at my computer playing The Sims 2, Half Life, Facebooking, watching all the episodes of ONN's Today Now! in the morning (which fooled my Dad), and reading interesting articles on the web. Why all these? Because World of Warcraft's servers are down! Damn it! 

I do admit I spent most of the day playing The Sims 2 and managed to see my Sims living for 3 generations.....quite a big family tree now. Lol. So fun, controlling little people, heh. After getting bored with the computer at around 1pm, I paced around the house, annoyed my Dad's stupid arowana by climbing below the table beneath the tank and popping up from the other side, scaring the fish. Seriously, I hate that fish, its like he's so fucking scared of me everytime I tried to go near it. My previous pet fish that was an Oscar, real intelligent, even lets me pet its head when I was feeding it! Ha, and my Dad calls his stupid treasure a 'juvenile'. Dumb fish.

Later, lounged on the sofa flipping through magazines, changed my hamster's food dish and lounged on the sofa again. Till about nearing 2:45PM, I was still waiting for the goddamn postman and guess what, it's 3PM+ and still no sign of him. Damn USPS, like sending a piece of cloth over is so tough....It's not like my hoodie is a bomb or whatever....slow! Shipping gifts to my pen-pal took only a week (and I sent her this big, fur hat). Now, my package takes more than 8 days to be delivered.

At 4:45PM, decided that I had wasted an entire day, went to my bed and slept till 8PM....Woke up, msn'd with my buddies online, had dinner, did the laundry and well....back to the computer again.

Fuck. The entire day was so mundane! It's like the life of the emo kid, ugh. I told my Mum that I will spend one more day waiting for the package (9 days now), and if it still doesn't arrive, I'm gonna head out and settle my other errands that I'd put on hold for the past few days. Library books are almost overdue and of course, the administrative stuff for my college.

If I get cooped up at home for any longer, I think I might become insane....@@ Well, shall write till here, will update again soon. Always remember to stay happy and emo-free! Oh, I'll leave you to watch the following videos. Ciao!

tea

After taking a hot shower and then enjoying a nice hot cup of tea....ah relaxing, and waiting for the washer to finish up washing the laundry...pff. Shall fire up a post then.

What a enjoyable week! Had my fun and social meters maxed! The concerts, the outings, the events, wow wow, at least it isn't as mundane as a life of a weeping emo kid! Hm, checking the news online recently (I don't watch the TV News due to the amount of crap they shove into your face.), the protests in Thailand's two airports fail to cease! December 15 is slowly creeping towards me! My Thai aunt told me not to worry because on December 5th, it's the King's birthday in Thailand, and since the monarchy is extremely revered, the protests will (most likely) cease and the security forces will roll out. 

Speaking of my previous post about heading to the States as a contigency plan for the vacation, that would be put on consideration. Because after reviewing AirAsia's guidelines, I found that the airline would NOT refund the ticket money by crediting it back to my Mum's credit card but instead, would send us a credit note with the 'refunded' value. The credit note then could only be solely used for booking other flights to another scheduled time or other countries. Like, its OUR money, can't they just credit it back to us? Ah, forget it.

So instead of the US, we might be heading on to Australia, which both of my parents agreed to it. Sigh, gonna see the boring kangaroos and suffering from vertigo due to everyone being upside down. US might be next year or something. I'm getting sick of the protest though, since it's crippling Thailand's economy and also screwing up tens and thousands of tourists' plans. 

Anyways, I'm sleeping early tonight (right after I've hung up the laundry) because I'm going to head to college next morning and sign up for the new classes starting in January. Woo! Just 4 more papers and I'm done with! Oh, and I get a 15% discount on college fees! Just reviewed my internship application and looks like its got updated! Apparently the 'leading European MNC' is actually AXA Insurance, and is located inside GB Building in the Central Business District. Well at least that's a skyscraper. Lol, I hope its the top floors!

Fuck, just went to the kitchen to check on the washer, opened the box containing the pastries that Mum bought just now and staring RIGHT into my face, devoid of expression, was a little lizard. It was like a few seconds of still silence with both lizard and boy staring into each other when the damn creature started panicking. I closed the pastry box, took it out of the window, and no, I didn't hurl the blasted box out of my apartment but instead, gently patted the box by the side so that dumb lizard could get out. Mmmf...well *munches on pastry* what mmf...harm can a lizard do to your pastries *munch*....typical spoiled citizens squirming and squealing just because a harmless little fly landed on your hors d'œuvre....I do admit that lizard scared me at first though.

Also tomorrow is the day when my hoodie and buttons (most likely) get delivered onto my doorstep! Yay! 7 days for the damn shipment to fly across the globe from the United States, and one thing I didn't pay an extra 'premium' for the Express Shipping, was because that 'premium' was too fucking expensive. Stupid USPS and their extra charges. 

Oh and looks like my laundry's done! Shall stop here then, will be updating again!

P.S. Message for someone's new cat (if it could only understand human langauge.)

Dear (New Cat's Name),

Greetings. I'm glad that you've finally found a home for yourself, and also somebody's lifelong companion. But what you are going to expect sooner or later is endless amount of emo, which consists of much bawwing and wrist-cutting. Also, do expect the owner to cry upon your fur for every consecutive night after you have arrived at his house. 

I do admit the above message is unfortunate but by all means, necessary as it prepares you on what to expect, physically, spiritually and also, mentally.  Maybe it's just cruel fate, but speaking on the lighter note, who knows? Perhaps you might find a way to escape the hellhole you will be experiencing! 

I hope you are really prepared for this my friend, and may the best of luck be with you.

Regards,

Andy Low

CONCERT!

Sorry, was so tired the day before I came home that I didn't bother to upload the photos I took during the aids awareness concert, LoveAmplified! I'll dump a few photos first, will start a formal post tomorrow.

Well well, I'll start blogging on the events, 2 days ago. Hm, headed out around 2pm to attend the LGBT forum Jon invited me to. The forum was quite interesting though, the panelists talked about how people with different sexualities cope with their families and most of them, had a great supportive family! As one of the panelist said, "Your parents would accept for who you are, because you're their children, even if they frown upon it at first." The forum was peppered with laughter throughout as the panelists went through some of the funny moments in life. 

After the forum, the group of 4 (Jon, Kyle, one of Jon's friends which I've forgotten his name and me) voted on where to eat. Ultimately, we won against Jon, who voted against KFC.... LOL! "O LAWD, is dat sum delicious chikin?!" Had the meal, and headed off the Fort Canning where the LoveAmp concert was held. Oh, and the weather on that day was so unbearably hot, everyone was sweating like hell and it was worse for me since I was wearing a hoodie. (took off later while nearing Fort Canning Park because it was getting uncomfortable.)

We found a spot on the grass and just sat through the whole concert, using a poncho given by the organisers as a picnic mat. I managed to lie down and while watching the first few introductory performances. I was so tired from the searing heat, climbing the hill and queueing up at the entrance, I fell asleep for a few minutes on the ground. Because of the slope, my legs were constantly slipping and I had to keep folding them in, but I was so tired and my feet accidentally nudged the two 'lesbians' sitting in front of me. Well, I did quickly retract my legs and Jon later told me they stared when I accidentally nudged them. Like, my leg nudging you accidentally will offend you, it was their fault anyways because in front of them was so much damn space and they had to sit so close to us. Dumb women. 

The best performers in the whole show were most probably the Dim Sum Dollies, Hossan Leong and of course, Stefanie Sun. Apparently, Stef got the most fanfare during the concert and we could see a crowd of fans swarming in front of the stage barrier trying to snap a photo of her. Yes, there was the uh, 'Asian Idol winner', Hady Mirza and gosh, he made the worst joke ever! And worse, an inapproriate 'HIV joke' at an Aids Awareness concert! He was saying that what if you get shot in the army, you die, you get buried, become a tree, then to paper, tissue paper and if you are used as a pad as a tissue paper for a lady, the bad thing is that when you are used 'for the front', you get HIV and you die.

...

No one laughed. Like, how is THAT supposed to be funny! Gosh! It was so awkward! Jon said that he was most likely hammered by the Dim Sum Dollies backstage. Oh well. Anyways, speaking of the Dim Sum Dollies, one of the dollies, Pam Oei, performed her standup comedy, 'The Parking Pontianak'. I found one of the perfomance clips in the Esplanade theater on Youtube. It was very similar to this. Hilarious lol! 

Anyways after the whole thing, everyone was beat, one of Jon's friend left and went to clubbing while the rest, Kyle, Jon and me went to the city and got McDonald's. Hahah, real fun. Then Jon went home first because he was already drained of energy, this meant Kyle and I had to walk all the way from Bugis to the heart of the city, for the Nightrider bus. Got home, was having this aching neck, got a hot shower and collapsed onto my bed.

Tiring but worth it! Well, will stop till here. Be updatin soon! Pictures below by the way.

P.S. Jon, quick upload the rest!