"Gorudan Wiku wa.."

31st October 2005, Monday

First of all, HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!
We don't celebrate such a morbid holiday in Singapore unless I am into cosplay/ costume party at some happening pub/club/ discotheque...but that wouldn't be my forte anyway...

Struggling to wake up on time this morning for work especially without my mom's "human alarm clock" function...
No hot mug of instant coffee with sumptous breakfast to freshen me up after another toiling weekend, instead just Post's "Banana Nut Crunch" cereal with Marigold HL milk for me to gobble down as soon as I could to vamoose towards Bouna Vista in your usual hectic Monday Madness Morning...
I was really lucky to just dodge the rain as I enter my workplace...

So how did I spent my weekend without my parents around...pretty much the same as the week before...I managed to complete watching the 1st season of "Lost" and boy what an intriguing ending which had many open-ended notes for viewers to crave upon before the next season (anyway it is already into the 5th episode of the 2nd season in the States now)...

Things like:
- What is inside the hatch that Jack & the rest blasted open?
- Who are these "the others" on the island? Do they actually exist?
- Who are the people who kidnapped Walt, Micheal's son?
- Will Jin, Sawyer & Micheal survive from the attack on the sea?
- Will Charlie be succumbed to the allure of heroine he found from the wreckage of the plane?
- What's the real deal with the "French chick", Danielle?
- Will Said & Shannon actually make out in the coming season?

I can wait for the answers myself but i felt it would be much better going on marathon to complete seasons by seasons..but since the show is showing like once every fornight in the States, i would need like another 40 weeks before the season 2 would come to an end...bummer...

Anyway the strong characterization and witty dialogues beside all the mind-boggling mysteries shrouding this island really make you hook on to the series and no one character is unlikable from the wise John Locke to the gritty Said to the charismatic Jack to the confused Charlie to the sexy Kate to slutty Shanon and the whiny Claire....

I used to really dislike Jin (Daniel Dae Kim) but he is a man trapped in such painful situation, you can't help but to empathize the way he handles his wife and everyone else...

But my fave is..no not the rolly-polly Hurley with his cursed set of numbers but Sawyer...yah...he rocks man...perhaps been a big fan of WWE made me into such anti-hero type of guy..and that unspoken triangle between himself, Kate and Jack sure filled the TV screen with so much tension, as McDonald's would say... "I'm Loving It...."

I had mentioned that this week is an unprecendented "Golden Week" for working Singaporeans if you are willing to take 3 days of your annual paid leave, you can enjoy a full 9 days off...which many would binge on and fly/sail/drive off to a short escapade which people like Ferris, YM and my parents had done...

Back in the year 2000 when me and my wreckers buddies went for our trip to Hiroshima, my Japanese won't as that jyozuu (good...not that it's THAT good now anyway) but that talkative side of me just could not contain itself and I made that passing comment that would haunt me forever...
I was trying to inform TW's host family that a lot of Japanese would actually travel to Singapore for a tour during their own golden week (actually not a supported fact anyway)

It goes like this:
"Golden Weeku wa a lot of Nihon jin (Japanese) ga Singaporu de iimasu (or did I say arimasu)"
Man...it makes no complete sense at all but miraclously they understood (or pretended to understand me to shut me up)

So that's a blast from the past for me...heehee

Back at work today, I got a nice birthday gift from my supervisor (as anticipated)... under wrapped, it looks like an envelope..so I presumed it was vouchers...phew..sure beat some weird clothings that the girls dreaded (I myself had received a couple of shirt which the statement "not my style" would be even too kind)
The gift wrapping wasn't too intricate and neither was my unwrapping skill..but I was glad to find out that it was an envelope containing 4 vouchers fo Golden Village movie tickets...
Which means it entitled me 2 movie date with my lass from now till May 2006...I'm guessing one would be the highly-anticipated "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" and the other one would either be "King Kong" or "Chronicle of Narnia"...

The usual Monday morning routine kept me pretty busy plus some stuff I needed to do on behalf of the absent YM and Lance; then JxMMy had to shadily drifted over and "advised" me not to do something as some problem with the machine on Friday and that since I had cleared the database of the machines, he could not re-retrieve the samples of some affected users...oh great I don't usually do the clearing of database but when I do this happened and gave JxMMy to piss my morning off...but fortunately not enough to ruin my day...

Like myself Bobby is actually looking forward to the consecutive days of rest; but surprise surprise, Mr JxMMy D won't be taking Wednesday and Friday off...which is his usual way to plan his ample amount of leave around public holidays...

I was informed by Bobby that the Monash Uni girl I mentioned days back that was here for job interview actually had decided to sign on (is job market really that bad?!)
Then Bobby raised the concern on whether ths girl is pretty looking which BY rebuked that it should be the fact she can work efficiently should be the main priority...
Sorry girl, I'm with Bob this time... firstly I most probably won't work with her, secondly even if she ruined everything, we always had the budget for her to start all over again..
Therefore I really wouldn't mind a nice eye candy to make working life a bit more colorful (cos JxMMy already darkens much of it)

Lastly BY was saying she need to write out a wishlist of what we could give her if we chosen her name for the X'mas Gift Exchange we played yearly... hmmm...which dawns on me..it's that time of the year again...what should I get for my lass? and do I have the budget for it...

Sigh..anyway at the meantime let me busk in the carefree 72 hours to follow...

Japanese word of the day: 休み~ya-su-mi~ (Holiday) We are going on a summer holiday...and I am the Peter Pan of pop...yada yada

The Same Old Brand New Me

28th October 2005, Friday

Sorry for the cheap "A1" boy band referance for my title...but today I feel brand new, raring to go enjoy my next few days before my ICT... I will have like a good non stop 168 hours to just indulge in things I love best like doing up webpage as well as go on anime marathons which was long overdued...

My parents would be leaving for Yunnan in China this evening (actually wee hours into Saturday morning) but they decided to just sleep over in the airport terminal to save on the taxi fare... will definite miss mom's cooking despite she had cooked enough spaghetti sauce enough to feed the entire Somalian needy population... Really do hope they had a nice trip, that too was long overdued for them...

Despite feeling brand new, I am still the same old me when I elegantly flunked my IPPT yesterday afternoon.. After scoring 4 and 5 points respectively for the "Shuttle Run" & "Sit up" station (it's a sin actually if you don't nail those 2) and dramastically clinch 0 point each for "Standing Broad Jump" and "Chin up", my all time adversaries which I would never ever be able to defeat...
The good thing is this time round they actually gave the option for those who had already failed the test because of the static stations to bypass the "2.4 km run" (and welcome into the open arms of RTs).. I was a in a douldrum whether to run it since I was mentally prepared to do so but chicken out in the last second as I felt not worthy to do it and humiliate myself in front of the fitter individuals... well the good part is the IPPT ended pretty early (and prematurely) for me and I could get home slightly earlier than normal working hours...

There was a very bad thunderstorm (perhaps the most electrifying literally in recent years) in the evening, and no better and safer way than to snuggle in the warmth of your bed & blanket (or perhaps your loved one) and watch your fave programs on TV than putting yourself at risk of getting thoroughly drenced and a high chance of being electricuted when you are somewhere outside...

Back to work today, it's Alicia's last day in her 1st attachment stint, and she looks pretty chirpy as compared to the past few days when she was always downcast, dejected, bored and of course sick due to flu...
Went to lunch with them at NUS science canteen and there sure was some prominent changes since I last visited perhaps 2 years back regarding surrounding scenery and some amenities like a POSB ATM machine which was non-existent during my time... but one thing is still the same... THE FOOD STILL SUCKS!!..

Coincidentally we saw Rafael dining with his medical cohort mates and thought he was snobbish to not acknowledge our greetings as I thought he would change after a good half a year with the Medicine Faculty..but he eventually did came & said hi in his usual apologetic way...

The others bought an impromptu farewell card and gift for the departing Alicia which I had not thought about in the first place but find fitting to chip in when she gave each of us a self-created thank you card (except for JxMMy whom she had not spoke to throughout this past 4 weeks)..guess she won't be coming back to thsi mundane, routine facility of ours again...

Well really looking forward to the "golden week" next week...woohoo.. TGIF!!

Japanese word of the day: 同じ~o-na-ji~(Same) Something never change in me for always...

Something I Loathe...

27th October 2005, Thursday

Just a quick post before I leave work slightly earlier today, unwillingly of course to attend an event which I have loathed since I knew of its existence... Individual Physical Proficiency Test (or more affectionately known to us as IPPT)....

Individual Physical Proficiency Test (IPPT) is a standard physical fitness test to gauge the basic physical fitness of an individual. The IPPT is a standard physical fitness test designed to test the basic components of physical fitness and motor skills of an individual soldier....yada yada yada

Since my schooling days when I would know physical fitness is definitely not a forte of mine and passing it would be as hard as the Singapore National Football team making it into the World Cup...
In my NSF days, it was used as a guage to warrant each individual soldier its rights of enjoying certain benefits like off-days after a tiresome overnight duty; this left a very tard taste in my mouth for more than one instance back in my Navy days...
Now in my post-NSF era, I was always reluctant to attend such proficiency test and managed to shrug off any of the call-ups back in my University days with studies as my main excuse. But now in the workforce, such an excuse cannot be replicated and no other viable excuse available for me to fabricate...
While for many others (especially the fitter ones), it is a chance to nail $200 or $400 of extra cash with the level that they maybe able to attain, I would actually contemplate of giving our Ministry of Defence the money each year just to get me off the hook...

I do think its important to work out to keep a healthy mind and body (of course I never practise what I preach) but to pass such a high ordeal would be "Mission Impossible"..even in my fittest condition state during my BMT, I could not bearly pass the test, so what makes you think I would conqueor, now closing to 30 years of age...
Chin-ups and Standing Broad jumps having been the killer of mine in the past and continue to haunt me unless I am medically clear to avoid that 2 stations (which mean I won't even need to take the test)..too bad I had no medical history to ward me off such a test that serve as an annual travesty to mock my incompetance...

I had attended the Remedial Training (RT) early this year for not able to clear the test within my last open window period, and I am expecting the same case for this year which I would have to serve that 2 months of training to compensate for my failure.. Fortunately the training center is just a stone throw away from my house, which sure takes some bites off the entire deal....

At work, our supervisor mentioned about interviewing a prospective new colleague who is a fresh graduate from the famous Monesh University..which makes us ponder on whether such calibre would wanna do such routine work like we are doing now...

Finally my domain name has been resolved, so now you can just type: "http://www.gashaponrakuen.com" and walla, you can enter my official webpage although it should take me a while to upload all my files through the ftp...but at least it can be done now...
However a niggling issue that was oblivious in my "pop-ups galore" free web host but very prominent with this new web host is that in my html files, if I typed "JPG (in capitals)" for the picture files extension and the actual file extension is "jpg (in small letters", the pictures would not appear as it should in the past...really perturbing and it requires plenty of patience to correct each error and "patience" is almost non existence in my personal characteristic profile...

Last but not least got a letter from my unit with the itinery for the 1 and a half week ICT which includes an IPPT (yes again) on the 1st day which is a Friday and sailing for the following week throughout..yikes...never expected that...
It's been 2 years since I last board a naval ship to the sea and onboard the locally-made LSD, sea state is almost negligible, but how do I keep myself entertained during the off watch hours during the 4 nights out at sea...plus I can keep in contact with my loved ones...bummer
Talking about things I loathe....but not as much as IPPt of course...

Japanese word of the day:　大嫌い　~da-i-ki-ra-i~ (Loathe) Yes I think I loathe IPPt and everything SAF more than JxMMy...then again JxMMy adores whatever I hate

You Reap What You Sow

26th October 2005, Wednesday

My Tuesday evening ended a couple of *sniff... sniff* unwilling goodbyes.

Firstly finally caught the final episode of "Densha Otoko" and all I can say this 11-episode long dorama has to be my all time fave dorama with the likes of other romantic-loser series of its genre like "101 Proposal" and "Bus Stop"...

While there was a happy ending at the 1st quarter of the show and more hilarious day-dream of Kazuya-san, the latter 3/4 really focus on the importance of the BBS to Tusyoshi and his army of "nakama" on the forum and how it really served as an important medium for lonely & socially out-casted bunch which is the same case in reality. I myself had been dabbling in chatroom and forums myself over the past few years and they did helped one make more friends and possess as many pros as to the cons underlying the masquerade...
The teary goodbye of the lot from the A-channel "Single Man" BBS was really heart felt and the 1000 posts countdown as well as the graduation-train ride scene was very moving but I was really choked during the part when Tsuyoshi was on the cab to the hospital when hoaxed by Kazuya that Saori had been admitted due to injuries when Sambomaster guest-starred to play the ending theme, "Sekai wa Sore wo Ai to Youbun daze", dedicated to Densha himself for inspiration to many with his never dying love for Saori..that part was really moving me along

I am now in desperate need to watch the 30 minutes special ending....ugh...

I also said my last goodbye with my hair dresser for the past 3 years, affectionately known as "Zhu Zhu" from the salon in Marsiling.
I stepped into the salon, asking for the cropping of my crowning glory with the forthcoming ICT in mind as well as warranting me a good 4 months before I will go in search of a reliable yet affordable hair dresser to carry on Zhu Zhu's legacy...
Wish she would do house-call, I wouldn't mind add in $2 for the travelling expenses..heehee

Anyway now with a new and square hair-do which raised many eyebrows at work today and touted as "freaky" from my sis, I think I really look like Yao Wenlong from that local drama on Ch8 now, except much beefier, and yes more hair as well..heehee
Now just hope they would fixate on the fact that I still have some brown strands among the black area on top....

However the trip for the hairdresser also brought an unfortunate incident when my water bottle wasn't tightened properly and the remaining water leaked and wet my bag which was fine except I had a copy of my "Death Note" manga which I have yet finished reading well soaked now..GMD!!
Luckily my prrrreeeeeccccciiiiiioooooouuuuuuusssssss..... portable hard disk with all my important documents is intact and working find, if not I guess I would go ballistic and decimate any living soul with my wretched whining and pouting.....

This morning on the way to work, BY and I were both too late to hop onto the 7.50 am feeder bus and that's when she gave me an insight on what others felt about our ex-colleague, LF...
I'm pretty sure I had stated more than once that I wasn't her biggest fan as well and sometime the way she talks, behaves or handling people and situation are a bit overstepping the line and uncalled for...

I was at the brunt of her foul mood twice a couple of years back when I thought I was just doing our usual routine of joking around...

During the move to the new workplace back in mid 2003, she was in charge of orchestrating the move of our lab and she transformed into a irritating temptress back then, irking both me and YM especially when she just burst out loud in front of plenty of other people from our lab when she could not find the properly packaing box for some important stuff...

Recently she had officially became a sight for sore eye to a colleague of ours, R, who was in charge of the teaching facilities when she obviously got his nerves when she popped by his lab to borrow some apparatus for her new lab... she perhaps just lack that basic courtesy that people binge on and thought her relationship with R was close enough to act such unruly...

Of course there was that famous "pointing her finger & slander" JxMMy case... but since the victim felt nothing out of it, we'll let that rest.

But recently she has managed to step on the tail of one of our attachment student, Lance when she came to borrow something (I was present to witness it as well) when she started instructing him about some lab practises which aggravated the lad (I know I would as well since you are not the one supposed to be teaching me; then who died and gave you the right to come and incommode me like you owned me)
He wasn't buying too much of her from the first impression and went back to his poly as well as her alma mater to do a check up, and found out that in fact she wasn't so well-liked even back in her poly days as well...and guaging by her behaviour now I can understand why...
BY and Ym also started to feel queasy with her presence ; also because she started ignoring people even within the same office building for no apparent reason...

I had warned her before in a X'mas card well-wishing to curb her aloofness but somehow not heeded at all...well as the title applied, you reap what you sow....

Anyway this just in while I was typing this post...my old secondary school classmate, Shuhui, who is a tall and attractive female friend of mine (pretty rare in my book) as well as an air stewardess (SIA somemore, even much more rare in the same book of friends of mine) will be getting on the same wedding bandwagon next month..but luckily (or should it be unfortunately) due to my ICT commitments...if not I would be able to grace the occasion with perhaps the prettiest bride ever, beside my own of course...

Oh yeah in the same bandwidth, my mom had managed to consult her cousin, the expertise in choosing auspicious date for wedding and it is advised that we hold the wedding in October instead of November as it would be for my own bliss in the future so we better heed that despite I know my lass would want the November 25th badly...bummer....

Japanese word of the day:人気 ~nin-ki~ (Popularity) Beside my cold, unfriendly face towards those I don't know and don't bother to know, I should be much more popular at work than LF... or am I just disillusional?

Get Things Going...

25th October 2005, Tuesday

Got to work slightly earlier in order to avoid that wretched situation yesterday as well as helping YM with the project as she really needs in during the early hour before the attachment students arrive...

She gives me an exclusive news about her which she told me not to disclose, so I shall keep to my words, but looking at the fact that she surely miss BY's presence at work and complains now and then about how inflexible the job routine can be these days, one could easily postulate what she would do...

Finally my domain under Connect Internet after I called to enquire about the delay of the activation e-mail been sent to me. Although it might take a day or two for my domain name to be resolved, I think I would be pretty busy both at home and at work, whenever free time available to upload all my stuff to this new domain...getting excited over it...

Spent the whole of last evening, rearranging the repertoire of mp3s I have in my iPod and boy I must say 15GB is really not enough for me. I had to remove some older tracks which I did not even have back-up data to accomodate some new J-Pop tracks which i had acquired for the last few weeks and it really take awhile to search for what songs I would be interested in and what I would not touch for once on my playlist. All the arranging really spent my entire Monday evening...

The finale for "Densha Otoko" is out and can't wait to watch the happy ending, hopefully with a twist as we will watch how Saori forgives Tusyoshi for disclosing their entire tale on the BBS which at first really irks her. Then of course the sleaze part is whether Kazuya would actually hook out with Saori's mom who went in her place for the arranged marriage meeting....SLEAZZZYYYY...
Now I just wish they would post the special episode as well....

Well latest update on my wedding thingie as overheard from my mom's conversation with my aunt on the phone was that the date would be finalised only when the parents from both sides meet and talk about the little issues like dowry and whatever the female party would wanna swindle..I mean demand from the groom's end... so we'll wait and see for the actual date to begin the preparation process...

Japanese word of the day: ~i-ki-ma-sho~ (Let's Go/Proceed!) to do stuff you wanted to do badly...

Plain & Simple

24th October 2005, Monday

I swear I had depart from Yishun at the usual time and even rushed for the train that was seconds from shutting its doors and move on...
Then it was baffling I was still terribly late for my usual schedule this morning. For the first time, my train which was supposed to made it to the middle track in the Jurong East station for a change of passengers which would be heading the opposite direction; had to wait for 2 consecutive trains (usually just 1) before the train could safely enter the platform without any incidence of colliding.
With my own two eyes (as well as thousands of pair of eyes from my fellow passengers) we see a train from Boon Lay, proceeding to the Pasir Ris direction with only 1/4 of its capacity shut us out just before we could maraude our way into the empty carriages.
The next train was well packed, plus we were further joined by more transitting passengers and I totally gave up on squeezing like sardine just to savour for that few extra minutes when the next train was just 2 minutes away.
However the next train was jam-packed too since it is a Monday morning rush afterall.
The situation was not help that the morning sun was blazing at a high 34 degrees Celsius outside and the air conditioning of the old train was not suffice to keep each and every passenger cool enough. My stomach was aching like hell during the trip as well, therefore you could not expect me to be in such a chirpy mood to kick start my work week...

The weekend was pretty productivein regards with what I was supposed to do....

Went down to La Tendo and for the first time in weeks, met Chan who I hustled to accompany me to the Kino branch in Bugis as my lass had commanded me to get some magazines (including some which can give us ample information about holding a wedding locally) while enjoying the members-only 20% discount offer.
That evening we challenged each other on how much everyone would spend for that faithful day. Chan won hands down and he answered all my doubts about his recent activities (cutting down on purchase as well as selling some of his stuff online) as he was "storing power" during his sabbatical for the past few weeks just to pay for the stuff he got on that day which accounted to around $550!!
Even my total receipt for the past month fell much short from that amount alone.... There's no way I can and would dethrone the king...heehee

My lass spent the Saturday evening at my place and even cooked her own style of spaghetti for our dinner despite she even admitted, could go alittle easy on the amount of onions added and the brand of the sauce she purchased was a wee bit too sour.
We had a little discussion on how we wanted to proceed with our wedding arrangements and she felt a bit suffocated with the lack of time.
She felt it was too rush for her to handle and she definitely needed expert's advice and help in an unchartered region for both of us (it helped when her god-sister/ cousin is a part time wedding planner)
As for myself I kept insisiting I wanted something just plain and simple, but I think that would be the common mentality shared by all grooms-to-be.
The magazine had a nice and nifty checklist of what the couples should prepare and take note of. It stated we should start planning as early as 18 months before the big day...yikes... a bit too long I guess
But now high on the agenda would be fix a date which I would entrust my mom with her superstitious..I mean auspicious know-how to decide whether 25th of November (which happens to be a Saturday) would be an ideal date as my girl felt marking our 6th anniversary together as our wedding day would be great...
Once the date is engraved on the stone we could go sought for a restaurant for the banquet (yes a restaurant instead of a hotel, as she wants to stay at Ritz Carlton and holding a banquet there would be something for the upper class/socialites)
That would take a while but hopefully to be done before this year ends as usually September to November would be the peak period for wedding banquets, therefore better be the early birds, so as to catch the worms.

Meanwhile concurrently I have to oversee the renovation of our love nest (basically the master bedroom of my current place).
We had so many good idea to efficiently utitilise the limited space available for us to put a king size platform bed. a state-of-the-fart- I mean art wardrobe, a work station for my PC and other stuff as well as some nice, ambient lightings as well as a showerhead in the toilet which Dad had plans to do in the first place for us.
Dad's expertise in this area would be a great help and now had to source for a reliable and affordable contractor to let our dream room comes true.

We also had an agreement about saving on our owns to meet ends needed for the whole affair and we both felt with all the money needed to fund the wedding and renovation, we should push back the honeymoon to a year later, since we intended to enjoy the nice orange color fo Japanese autumn to begin with.

Despite looking forward to everything into place, we would be in a rush against time which is definitely not on our side; plus I sensed a clash in ideologies between me and my lass.. As I just want a wedding plain and simple for our loved ones to share our joy, she wants one that it would bring her great memories forever...can't blame her, all brides would want that as well

Spent my Sunday watching the 1st season of "Lost" which Chan had burnt for me eons ago but got stranded with the storyline as I could not find the remaining episodes from 16 onwards which my sis' beau had duplicate for her as she was not home the entire day, slogging for her project in school. I was watching via the PC which graphic card had a TV outlet, meaning I could not use the PC during the show; prompting me to do something I had stopped doing for like 2 months or so now, that was to take pictures of my toys collection and through meticulous photo-shooting I hope to garnish my new webpage (in the new ad-free domain) with better quality photographs.

Talking about the web-host, they had yet sent me an e-mail to confirm my order but they did gave me a call just a while ago to double-check my requested domain name.

Lastly my parents would be going for their China escapade this coming weekend, meaning I had to scrap rubbish bins for food remains/left-overs for the next week or so..heehee
But they aren't the only one going places...
Tay chan is still taking his aged parents on their very first visit to Japan while Karen intends to bring her mom to her dream destination (Japan as well) in December which she requires a lot of information and guidance from me about it
Ferris will be departing for South Korea (actually should say Korea since no one goes to North Korea for holidays anyway) to fulfill his own "Da Chang Jing" fantasy with his lass
YM will be going to Phuket with her boyfriend during the "golden week" next week despite my umpteem claims that the beach is very well haunted now as claimed from the tabloids.
Finally I am going...to my ICT next Friday..yoohoo...relive my Naval sailing (assfreak!!) days..damn

Japanese word of the day: 簡素な~kan-so-na~(Simple) Just a wedding trip to Cancun, Mexico in the middle of Hurricane Wilma would be just fine for me

Telepathy

21st October 2005, Friday

Don't you just wish that you have that innate ability within you so that you could read the minds at your own will of others from time to time?

I had just finished the 6th volume of the ultra Shounen jump manga series, "Death Note" which delves into the mysterious being of modern time grim reapers or death gods which accidentally left their killing tools in the human world and see how destiny paved its way when unscruplous human beings got hold of this "death note (notebook)" which could bring about a catastrophe as that person would random kill people he deemed correct for himself.

But the essence of the story really lies in the mind games between the super detective, "L" and the lead character at the 1st few issues of the story before the latter let free of his death note as part of his plot to murder "L". Some corporate guy was endowed the note and began killing at free will to the advantage of his organisation. Then alot of story involves the ultra-intelligent lead (who had transiently lost his memories of his ability) and "L" uncovering the culprit's identity and playing mind games with those whom they thought would help them along the way.

There were alot of guessing of what the other person in thinking especially between the lead character and "L" that makes this story so extraordinary. A highly-intelligent manga series which at times I felt can out off some casual readers who would just a light-hearted read.
And I took a good 2 weeks to slowly absorb the content of this volume 6 which can tell how wordy the series can be...

I'm pretty sure people would read me like a book easily. I am as usual a very shelfish person and alot of things I do always lead to me reaping some rewards at the end. "Always gain and never lose" has always been a motto of mine. However if I am to adopt that mentality too ferverntly it would tend to deter others from me.

For a while now I am wishing I had the ability to read the minds of some people around me, so as I would not be perplexed by some of their actions.

One of them is Chan. He had been working really hard with "overtime" work on Saturdays which was why I only see him like once since I came back from Japan.
He had also been selling a lot of his toy collections and heard been involved in some kind of e-commerce stuff with his friends.
It makes me wonder whether is he in some financial predicaments, perhaps he is trying to get a new apartment that would cater to his and his family's needs.
When I asked him on MSN last evening, he just simply mentioned that he is clearing his stuffs 'cos he is running out of space, a valid and cruel reason known to all toys collectors.
Well as mentioned before he can be a bewildering person to predict (he makes Foo so much more like a normal human being), so the best is to leave him as he is.

It took me a good 2 years and a half to clearly understand the big myth known as JxMMy D and how passionate he can be when dealing with his job which is why he is always doing things that he did.

But now I had a new engima in the being known as Bobby....

He has been working with much zeal but no zest... He is eager to learn as much as he could such as the intricate details of the machine and software functions as well as the analysis of the results we produce... He has that enthusiasim to pick up the way of the trades from the grand master of all, Mr JxMMy D who is always eager to impart his skills (this guy has no reservation when spreading his knowledge which clearly indicates his nature of not afraid to be displaced from his pole position).
However from Bobby's aloof expression at times, I sensed that lack of passion shared with his mentor as he is very much like learning every by the motion, like he is forced to arm himself with the knowledge that might or might not come to aid in his future career ahead.

Personally, I am more into routine work, and stick to the rules and not as keen to learn beyond my scope. During my free time after I had done with my work, I would basically indulge in the various interests of mine via the PC or internet. Of course the pair of JxMMy & Bobby shed a very bad light on me who seems like slacking in front of neutral preposition. I have thought of follow suit but just can't be a wee bit interested. Shame on me but luckily if the pair is a scheming dup, I would be ousted from the lab in no time.

Perhaps I think too much but I couldn't help to shudder at the thought, no when I have yet find a much greener pastures. That is why I do hope I could read the mind of Bobby, whether he is thinking of getting out when his current contract runs out (as he had find our work too routine for him ) or is he a wolf in sheep's clothing....

Japanese word of the day: 思想~shi-sou~ (Thoughts) And they said its hard to understand women...

All Lined Up.. Revisited

20th October 2005, Thursday

Let us take a peek of my agenda of stuff to complete within this time period...

Last evening was really a great accomplishment on my side, as despite in a half-groggy state, I managed to finish the entire "Gundam Seed" anime series (perhaps that's the reason for being groggy).. well the climax was really something I must say but the deaths of several key characters put me off and Kira Yamato, the lead guy was the next biggest whiner in the anime scene since Shinji of "Neo Genesis Evangelion"... oh yeah his supposedly twin sister just wanna hook up with any man available as well, that slut...

I am also on the verge of completing me travel video project. I had managed to encode the 3 parts of my tour video into DVD formats, and by burning them on DVD media this evening I can put that chapter to a close.
I must say I think I had improved once more in my editing (and of course the nice songs that accompanied the images played a big part) but the video shooting is still appalling and a serious warning to future viewers, to bring along sea-sick pills or baff-bags, cos you never know when you will really get nausceous.
I am also somewhat disappointed with the contents of our video, which can be a bore at times... so prepare some fluffy pillow as well to doze on while watching it

With that 2 aside I pretty much had covered some of the stuffs I had set myself out to accomplish and I should be acquiring my web host account latest before the weekend (a pretty good deal from Connect Internet which offers 1GB of space for just $9.95 per month, as I always felt 500MB is a bit of a constraint and some of more attractives offers for 500MB is just $2 shy of this offer. Of course I would have to foot $19 more for the domain name and $20 for a one-time setup cost)
If that is coming in place I should be able to upload my online travelogue for everyone's viewing pleasure (which should be a wee bit more interesting than the video I swear)

I can then also start to update on my toys collection which I had been longing to do for now and that "golden week" in early November which I had 3 full days of rest before my in-camp training should serve as an excellent buffer for me to do much uploading...getting all upbeat just visualising it

The last part of my agenda was preparing for my wedding and if you ahd read the earlier posts this week, that was well in place and need a serious talk with my bride of course on this weekend... alot boils down on whether she would be happy about all the arrangements, so she ought to make some crucial decisions.

Japanese word of the day:　完成した~kan-sei-shi-ta~(Completed) Please don't ask me to complete the sequel to "Gundam Seed", the famous "Destiny"...

Embarrassing Moments

19th October 2005, Wednesday

I'm sure everyone has their skeletons hidden within their closets, including a whole truck full of embarrassing moments in which they had to endure in their lifetime, I had my fair share of those which I shared with my colleagues during lunch today, more on that in a while...

Feeling really drowsy the entire day, perhaps the usual midweek lerthagy, of course the cool weather this week from the torrential rain did not help the cause at all...

Lance is back to work today, as he felt a tinge of injustice with the fact that he was obliged to come to work for 5 days a week as part of his final year project when he doesn't get paid a single cent (Note: Alisha gets paid for even her one month of service) while his course mates who are doing their final year project back in their poly just need to report to work only like 3 days a week; of course it does not go down well with him.
In addition, the work here is disturbingly routine and one can get more easily before he/she knows it.. Lance knows, Alisha too, but it's too late for them to regret about their fate....

JxMMy is back too but felt out of place having been missing for the past 1 and a half days. I feel he should really take the entire week off, to tend to the needs of his ill-stricken spouse but JxMMy is staunch about making his presence felt around here or else his horde of fans would be utterly disappointed...
Anyway before we knew it, he is back on leave in the afternoon...well he have still like 50 odd days of leave to clear?
Even if he ran out, our supervisor would gladly offer him many unaccounted off-in-lieu...

During lunch today, everyone "ta-pao" (pack lunch) back to eat at the lounge area, including BY; and we had a hearty chat including me feeling disgusted for Lance who wretchedly spent $4.50 for a pathetically small "kosong" prata and a paper-thin egg prata but came with a pack of rendang curry... Unanimously, we both felt it definitely does not justify that cost...

We chat about some embarrassing moments we had experience and here are the 2 accounts which always dazzled the girls especially on how I respond to that ultra-awkward situation:

1) Back in my JC days, we have the useless GP (General Paper) lectures. Seriously everyone knew the lectures had simply no aid to our GP results and a blatant waste of 2 hours of our normal cirriculum weekly. Many tried to "ponten"*(skip) the lectures which force the HOD to enforce the attendance sheet for each lecture. Anyway there I was attending a lecture by this pig-head GP teacher (she was really quite a nice teacher, by my JC's standards, but just had that bloated pig head, I think even she knows it). It was Monday evening then, and I had a long day including a pretty tiring physical training session in the morning.The lecture hall was cozy (most probably because of the absence of air conditioning which was always the case back then) and her rumblings gradually became a remedy to cure even the most serious case of insomnia and eventually my eyelids got heavy and I dozed off...

Then I felt a nudge from the person sitting beside me and when I opened my eyes, I could see the pig -head teacher pointing my direction, broadcasting to the entire lecture hall containing at least half the population of students in my level, "that boy over there, please go and wash up your face..." She did not lambast me or anything, nothing malicious and stern about her approach but enough to be make me the joke within a very mundane 2 session-long lecture...

I did not particularly felt the brunt of the whole embarrassment, just rubbing my bleary eyes and indeed went to wash up before trying to keep myself awake for the remaining of the lecture.

However a good thing was there no one remembers about that incident after the lecture because no one remembers my presence back in JC anyway....

2) Back when our workplace was situated behind NUS and NUH, I will always source for free transport from Bouna Vista MRT station and often resorted to taking free rides on NUH shuttle buss or the staff feeder bus. Everything was smooth for a while when I hitch a ride on the latter till the authorities got complains from the staff themselves that the bus was always full and they suspect a lot of "illegal" hitch-hikers were the cause of that.

Thus the bus driver then had to ask for identification of the people hopping on board of the bus...However I didn't know of the new ruling so with my headphones on, I cooly slither up to the bus only to be halted by the driver, exclaiming with a sound of irritation and impatience, "Aye..pass..pass".. Looking bewildered but fully understand my predicament, I acted as if I started to look for my pass but was irk by the fact that I may had forgotten to bring it along with me or misplaced it while I slowly alight the bus and made my way to take the normal public transport

The girls were amazed by how cool and unaffected I was when dealing with such incidents that put one such awkward spotlight, but seriously the best way to handle it was to treat it in such muted way rather than what they say to "dig a hole in the ground and hide within the abyss and never see the daylight again" as they would die of embarrassment...

Japanese word of the day:恥かしい ~ha-zu-ka-shi-i~ (Embarrassing) There are more embarrassing stuffs I had experienced in my last 26 years of existenece but I would have to kill you if I tell you.

Roll Call

18th October 2005, Tuesday

A quiet day at work (as usual now without the rumblings of BY around) but JxMMy took an urgent leave for today once again due to her wife's ailing health... Lance (the male attachment student) just AWOL..way cool, always love him for adopting such a slacker mode... our supervisor herself tries to clear leave for these 2 days but she was visibly around the place till lunch...

Taking the opportunity of JxMMy's absence I had a nice chat with Bobby at our own domain about everything from IPPT to NUS life to how he would cope with her girlfriend becoming a full-fledge teacher..
Meanwhile YM looks so lacking in lusture, and really pin to the fact that she is missing the presence of BY at work, though they still meet often when waiting for the bus to work or during lunchtime.

Anyway the entire admin was going frenzy for today as they are half-expecting the arrival of a VVIP... give you a hint, he is the one that rules our country and I'm not talking about Mr President, go figure...
Actually he was supposed to take a tour around some of the much more glistering, nicely-packaged research institute (including BY's new workplace which is touted as "The Star of our organisation") but there might be a tremendously remote chance he might want to use the latrines over at our side; that was enough to drive Old Hag and his Motley crew to prepare everything (red carpet, confetti, streamers etc) for his unexpected arrival this afternoon, and totally shut off the lobby area between 4.30pm to 6pm. Meaning they would be discontinuing the operation of the elevators and shut off the card access doors of staircases...This prompted a furore from the various personel in our workplace about "trapping" us in for the day...and I am contemplating whether to make my escape before 4.30 before they officially shut us in..all for nothing at all...

The nuptials bug been eating my inside for a second day in a row...
Had a chat with mom about my holy plan for next year which of course she and Dad would approve unanimously and vociferously; but she laid down some "rules to the game" that gave me a tight slap into reality..
I had not included dowry into my budget...and I seriously prayed my future mother-in-law ain't those vicious, money-hungry vampire that is awaiting to suck her son-in-law dry of his bank account.. But then on the verge of divorce, she would just be up for anything.

Secondly she would request a certain number of tables for the banquet and the "ang baos" collected from those relatives and friends will defintely be going into my mother-in-laws' pocket..OUCH
I mean that to me is ok unless she requests for 19 tables when I have only plan for 20

But come to think of it, 20 tables (as emphasized by YM again this morning) may not be enough for us...

Let's do a roll call (of an blueprint of the guest list)
1) The host family table (where my family, her family and we would be sitting)
2) My paternal relatives - 2 tables
3) My maternal relatives - 4 tables (or maybe 3)
4) Her maternal relatives - 4 tables (maybe 3)
5) My parents' friends - hopefully 1 table
6) My colleagues - perhaps 3/4 table
7) My buddy's TW and his family whom have watched me grow up - the remaining 1/4
8) My Japanese clique and buddy CS and girlfriend, QTee - 1 table
9) My La Tendo Clique - 1 table
10) Our common NUS friends (after much scrutiny) - 3-4 tables
11) Her colleagues - 2 tables
12) Her other friends (including her sideline) - 2 tables
13) Miscellanous 1 table (better be prepared)

That gives us a grand total of 24 tables...yikes 4 more than prior calculation

And the fact that if a table cost around $700 (for good food), add a bit of GST and service charge as well as charges for the peanuts, servettes, decorations and liquor (damn you drinkers, I don't even wanna drink in my wedding, what makes the rest of you wanna get drunk and ruin my night?!)
should come up to around $900 per table

*Gulp*...where am I gonna cough out that extra money... maybe can put our honeymoon on hold first till the following year since we actually planned to go in 2007 anywhere, that should grant that extra $7K to play around and hopefully I can recoup some back from the "ang bao" money, but I am not hopeful of much... more mulling to do

Last evening, there's a new Japanese dorama premiering in E City (SCV Channel 56) known as "Fugoh Keiji", starring the very subdued kawaii actress known as Fukuda Kyoko..
It is about Fukuda being the grand-daughter of a tycoon and influential figure in Japan becoming a polic detective and made used of her absurd amount of wealth to crack cases...
Sounds absurd...it's from the same guys that gave us the "Trick" series... But despite having such an interesting plot, I feel Fukuda and her supporting cast pales in comparison to the likes of Nakam Yukie and Hiromi Abe from "Trick"...
However Fukuda was well suitable for that gullible, simple-minded damsel born with a silver spoon in her mouth and her acting once again is null and all she could do is to attract testerone-filled male fans with her bright eyes and deep anterior cleavage she was endowed with... she is definitely no. 1 idol for guys in a soft porn flick..hubba hubba

Japanese word of the day: 呼ぶ~yo-bu~ (Invite) There are plenty of people I need to invite to my weddings...

Deadline: 1 Year

17th October 2005, Monday

Yes back to another brand new work week after very much subdued by the fact that 48 hours of the weekend once again vanished with the blink of the eye... Need not carry out anymore experiment or hypothesis, it had been well proven by every living soul I know....

This week begins with a twist despite BY coming into our office this morning, her sole interest was to pick something up (including the anime VCDs she requested from me) and not to kick start the week together with us. Bobby, being the most junior and supposedly-versatile member of the lab was shifted back to help out Yimei with the project, meaning he was required to report to work as early as 8 in the morning, unlike his favored 8.30 time slot. However from the girls, his reputed standard when working on their preps now is almost identical with the attachment students, and he had a tendency to fade to black and oblivious with any errors he had committed. Nonetheless, he is a good worker overall.

The thought that I had been harbouring for this entire day was actually to fulfill my plan from the start, to get my wedding done and over with by next year...
As for the exact time, I guess with all the traditional auspicious thinking as well as hoping to make it for autumn in Iwate for our honeymoon, I think next October would be a good time.
And if we can't find an earlier time to go to the Registry of Marriage, we might as well add into the mix when we are going through the traditional stuff.

I feel I would lack the lusture for all the preparations if it was dragged too long and with the fact that my lass' mom is so adamant to move out of their current flat it would be best to expedite our wedding proceedings so as it would not be a hassle if she had to settle to a new location before officially move into my place...

Now the big problem lies in how am I going to raise the money for the wedding ceremony...

Let's do the calculation:

1) Wedding Banquet (20 tables) - $14,000 (if each table cost $700)
2) Wedding Gown, Photo album, car rental & whatever not - $4,000 (should be able to get something not too lavish yet not too frugal)
4) Honeymoon (Autumn in Hokkaido & Iwate) - $7,000 on my part alone
5) Registry fee, and other niggling cost - $3,000
6) Room Renovation and acquisition of furniture and appliances - I guess around 10K but I will try to split with my lass which she has planned to do so to begin with, so $5,000 on my part

Ok you can easily do the calculation and you need no schizophrenic mathematician with a "beautiful mind" to sum it up, I will at least looking at around $30, 000 to commit into the entire project...

I had an almost guaranteed source for $10K, and it was rumoured that I could advance some money from the insurance (life/saving??) my mom had been paying for me for a good 10 years or so now, which I hope would be around $8K or above
Which means I need to raise $12K myself in the next 300 over days myself which can be an astronomical sum for someone who has a pretty extravagant hobby and earning peanuts crust particles...so savings would play a very important part and hope I win 4D/Toto/ Big Sweep soon (even when I don't even play)
Of course the good news that my study loan would be coming to an end in June next year, but I will only have like $1,600 ($400 X 4) more in October, a pathetic 10% of the sum...
So I better pray for a mega-special bonus package in April but i forsee should be around the same as this year's of 1.75 month but I would be very glad to have that by then...

We'll see if I could really raise the money for the proceedings by then, and whoever reading this and have like a good $20K to spare a good pal/buddy/friend/acquintance of yours (and not infringing any legal barriers), please let me know ..yah of course those pesky financial planners/ advisors... I need you to give me money soon and not the other way round...

Japanese word of the day: 三万~san-man~ (30,000) I wish I just need 30000 yen instead of S$30,000 for my wedding

Changes Galore

16th October 2005, Sunday

Ugh in the span of a week, so many changes, big and small are going to happen to my life, and everyone should know that I am the last on earth to be comfortable with changes...

On Monday I would go on to a workplace with the stark absence of BY which might takes a while longer to be accustomed to than anticipated..
However my former colleague did had a sudden interest in Japanese animes when she smsed me yesterday, enquiring for the availability of acclaimed anime series like "Full Metal Alchemist", "Samurai 7", "Gun Grave" & "12 Kingdoms", so we might still keep in touch often...

Got an latest info from mom that my friendly neighborhood hair stylist (firstly just normal $10 per cut saloon and it's like miles away in Marsiling, so not that much considered a neighborhood joint) would be shutting down their operations by the end of this month which means I need to seek a reliable barber to manage to know my "usual" style with a wink of the eye and charge a moderate sum of $10... perhaps it's time to go for the F4-long hair style...

My lass stayed over last evening as she promised to go through a mini "Densha Otoko" marathon with me till the wee hours but she dozed off in the middle of episode 3...
She had a heated arguement over the phone with a supposedly-fragile-state mom of hers over the issue of keeping their HDB apartment when her parents officially divorce.
It would really be a hassle to just shift to a new place and she would want to take over the co-ownership of the flat from her father by taking up a bank loan to pay the money-driven father the lump sum..
However a visibly disenchanted and very obstinate mother was adamant to get rid of the flat that brings her such hurtful memories, which leads to a clash of ideas and drove my lass to painful tears at the end of the conversation...
Sigh... it's something I once again had no way to resolve the issue on my part but I'm 100% behind my lass to retain the flat as the close promixity of our places made it easy for us to keep in touch with her family at all times even if she shifts over after our marriage...

Even in "Densha Otoko", the in-born Otaku, Tsuyoshi decided to make a heart-wrenching change when he gave up all his treasured games, figurines, and whatever items that bore his otaku trait as he assumed it might be his persona that irk Saori who decided to keep a distance from him after the last incident...
I could really feel for him when he had to give up something so dear to his heart to fight for something else he might not even stand a chance to win (Saori's affection)...

However not all changes are dreadful for me ...

At La Tendo, they acquired a nearby unit to keep as store for their gargantuan lump of stocks which their current store area would never be able to hold.
WIth the shift the operational store front became much neater and presentable, and we, the La Tendo clique got a better place to hang out as well as helping them with packing of their new stocks like Ferris, Ferris' brother, Bryan, myself and even Karen at the later part commited our entire Saturday afternoon in doing.
I also spent close to $200 in the process at the end of the day...yikes....doesn't help when they had a huge shipment on the day I received my pay

Mom also got me a nice heat-retaining lunch box...more like a cylindrical soup holder rather than a lunch box...well my caring mother was very concerned about me eating cold food for lunch every working day...that is definitely a good change....

Japanese word of the day: 変化~hen-ka~(Changes) One change I wouldn't mind having, is having a larger wage package...

さよなら、私の仲間

14th October 2005, Friday

Just came back from the farewell lunch for BY who would be leaving for her new workplace starting on Monday...
We were supposed to give her a treat but it turned out that we were joined at lunch by 2 sales personnel from a vendor which we had order an entire bulk from who gave us the treat in the end..hey I'm not complaining at all man...heehee

Anyway without BY in the lab, something would definitely be amissed as her presence would be tremendously missed...

Being the eldest among us, she was always the guiding "elder sister" in terms of work and private matters as well, always give fitting advice as we had expected from her...
She became the unanimous leader among the girls as being the most vocal; but always ended shedding bad light on herself as she was labeled as the "instigator" or the "rebel" from the Hag or our supervisor...

However what we would sorely missed about her is her sense of humor and behaving at times she is still a teenager such as downloading pictures of her favorite male actors like Brad Pitt or Christian Bale or going ga-ga over Final Fantasy VII after I had passed her the "Advent Children" movie..
She could do very good impersonation, regardless some distinct characters in our workplace or adopting that Indian accent which kept us entertained for so long.
The way she chastised certain people is also a fave of ours and commonly spread her "acid tongue" to the rest of us.
I think guys especially would enjoy talking to her, as she is not reserved to indulge in any topics even explicit or embarrassing stuff, unlike other girls would be just "shy shy" to even talk about going to crap...

Being an animal activist, she always advocate for the good cause in saving the animals in the world and could go for days, lambasting about the incorrigible animals trade or pollution to our mother earth. Her cats been the love of her lives would always been mentioned to us on how cute they actually are, though to me, all cats look the same...

On the work front, she is one mean, green working machine and could do alot of things at a quarter of time of what many could do, due to how she trained herself over the last 11 years working here. She also bears the most knowledge in a lot of processes and is the one everyone turns to for instructions or guidance...

To me I would miss someone who I would drop over to complain freely about JxMMy or any injustice within our workplace (believe me, there are alot)
I will also miss someone who can chat about classic 80s rock with...someone who would be heading the same direction home at the same knock off time which is much earlier than the rest as we always report early to work.

I think she would find it hard to accustom to a new workplace for the beginning especially the difference in working hours...

The one who would miss her sorely would be YM as BY has always been the closest confidante and tag team partner at work, and she tends to rely on the latter over many matters, and now her channel of support would be working in a building just across ours as a green horn but carries with her a great working spirit and years of invaluable experience...

I guess she would be joining the rest of lunch often in the future but since I always pack lunch for work, I wouldn't see her that much..
Nonetheless I do wish her all the best for future endeavours and spread the joy she had always bring to us over the years...
She will always be a part of our team despite her absence....

Japanese word of the day: 離れる~ha-na-re-ru~(Departure) of a great companion at work.

The Young Upstarts

13th October 2005, Thursday

Caught episode 6 of "Densha Otoko" last evening and what a roller coaster ride it as for our resident otaku-hero, Tsuyoshi as his relationship with his beloved "Hermes" (Saori) was about to enter another stage when Saori admited finding him attractive and even offered to walk hand-in-hand with him which is a clear indication of her affection towards our male lead as this brought much joy within the BBS community yet they felt sad that "Densha" might leave them once he managed to woo his "Hermes"...

However on the eve of his confession of his feelings for Saori, he went to a quiessential comic festival with his usual otaku kahkis only to be spotted by Saori who was sunk into extreme disappointment about the fact that Tusyoshi had lied to her repeatedly as her previous flame had done so as well, hurting her badly emotionally....

Well as typical Japanese dorama, the 1st few episodes had the viewers been shown the struggle of a budding relationship and when all seems well (usually between episode 6 or 7), some factors would be introduced to wreck the entire, only to put our hero/heroine into a difficult situation to recoup back what he/she had lost at the same time building up into the climax...

Anyway episode 7 is now sitting nicely in my hard disk, and I was compelled to watch it immediately....

By today we had that pair of polytechnic attachment students with us for a week & a half...
They had been attached to the girls with the project, and despite at times they proved to be a liability instead of an asset; their presence sure spice up our working environment a little...

Alisha - The 2nd year Singapore Poly student as quoted by my supervisor been "very matured for her age". Indeed at the tender age of 19, she has already envisioned a long road of research for herself. A health conscious girl, she chooses her meals meticulously. She is very serious with her work as well, despite only attaching with us for 4 weeks only, she had been religiously jotting down whatever she had learnt and interested in every single equipment and procedure we had within our lab.

Lance - The final year Ngee Ann Poly student doing her 3 months final year project/ attachment is your typical slacker, always adopting that "take-it-easy" mentality. His interest in console games and anime made it very accessible to just chat with him. He also enjoys what typical street-smart guys of his age would do like pubbing and very advanced and developed in his thinking as well.

With this pair around, for us who either in out mid or late 20s, we would be exposed to what young people are thinking about nowadays and despite not been too excellent in their studies, they had everything well thought of for their futures and pretty matured when handling situations...

Of course, we can always chat up anything under the sun such as horrific sexual fetishes, voyuerism or criticising famous people and people working in our company as we usually do so anyway...and now we even thought of a new nickname for JxMMy...known as the "Helmet" (or Lego-style hair) as his hairdo had been for the last quarter of the century (with an old class photograph BY had would verified so)...

Well the fun would actually be lasting if tomorrow isn't BY's final day in our company....

Japanese word of the day: 若い~wa-ka-i~ (Young) The younger generations are not as horrendous as we thought they would be

Eyecandy or Sight for Sore Eyes?

12th October 2005, Wednesday

I was totalled worn out last evening and was supposed to enjoy the latest episodes of "Tsubasa Chronicle" and "Bleach" which I had highly anticipated in watching (especially the latter with the 2 hours season finale); but drowsiness slowly overwhelmed me as I was catching 40 winks as the show progressed and waking up, bewildered with the storylines...Angered with my succumb to sleep I rewinded the show to better understand the actual story, only to fall into slumber once more. I did managed to complete the "Bleach" episode on the 2nd rewind but my focus was not really there to absorb the story....

This morning on the morning show with Glenn Ong & Flying Dutchman on Class 95FM, the "bros" focused about a male entity that had drove the ladies (especially the aunties and housewives) wild with his smile and presence, the one and only Bae-sama...Bae Yong Jun...As they implored on how this Korean actor could create such unsurpassed phenomenon in the entire East Asia...
His new movie, "April Snow" will be hitting the theaters this week and hordes of fans would be making the beeline outside the cinemas for the premiere (like real)

The lads on the air wondered what makes Bae-sama ticks and endowed him as a female-alluring sensation...
Was it that stoic and one-dimensional smile that captivated the hearts of all his female fans?
Was it that pair of glasses that is the window of this soul that make the fans' flustering to adore him and kissing the very ground that he walked?

Seriously I'm no banter for this Korean megastar...and I find his masterpiece dorama, "Winter Sonata" a bore, having caught the pilot episode myself...(not even remotely compelled to watch the 2nd episode)

But was gutted me is this madness that swept everywhere he went from Singapore to Hong Kong to Japan to Taiwan as if he was a living aphrodite that would be the very answer to woman's ultimate fantasy and orgasm...

His acting like that wry smile of his is really one dimensional, and there are 2868456845635746456087890780680867979567858659689769079685453452452676596969
Japanese actors out there that could kick his butt in terms of charm and appeal (Kimura and Fukuyama anyone?!)
well then again I can never understand the mentalities of the deprived aunties anyway...
There was one reported case in Japan when a 71 years old grandma who would travelled from her countryside to Tokyo on her own despite objections from her kids and granchildren, just to catch a glimpse of her idol...man this man got very detrimental effect...keep your mothers away from him!!

On the same note, my colleagues (the girls) and I would always be baffled by the success of the very Taiwanese boyband that my lass adored...

These 5 lads, 4 actually since one member became almost non-existent once he hurt his spine during a game show eons ago, had such huge following in Singapore alone and my girl would religiously attend all their events and missing a concerts would be unthinkable for her...
But seriously they are very overrated in terms of their singing, acting etc. etc.
The most irksome fact would be that they would always project themselves as the most alluring guys on the planet, unparellel to anyone else..but hey their gullible and "blinded" fans would be quick to back their claims...

But similar to Bae-sama or the Taiwanese boy-brats, all those busking in media spotlight would always have people who idolises them as well as people would hated their guts and cynical about their success...However one should always follows what my lass does, by being oblivious to anyone throwing brickbats about their beloved idols, even from your truly...

Japanese word of the day: アイドル~ai-do-ru~ (Idol) I would exterminate anyone who claims my beloved Takako as a "flower vase" in the doramas she acted in...

Best Comedy of the Year

11th October 2005, Tuesday

As mentioned caught "40 Year Old Virgin" last evening with my lass at our neighbourhood cineplex and it was one "$14" well spent on my part..

Given it's "M18" rating, no irritating brats were permitted to spoil the entire movie for us; and despite our show was screened at 9.05pm on a Monday evening, I was pretty surprised to find half the theater full with audience hoping to unlock the secret on how a 40 year old electronic store stocks manager trying to get laid with the help of his Motley Crew of friends...

In the States, to be still remained a virgin at the age of 30 is already as rare as unearthing fossils or remains of dinosaurs let alone 40...
But what the show was trying to tell the audience was that a relationship was not all about sex, sex and more sex...
There was a lot of American parodies which if you are not as inclined to American humour you would not understand fully the essence of the scripts like in the case of my girlfriend as well as the two girls sitting directly behind me, kept involved their little doubts (cum commentary) over certain parts of the show while their friend still got the cheek to tap on my shoulder to ask me to lower the volume of my laughter...anyway it was not long before I was "floored" by a few more outrageous scenerios in the movie...

My favorite has to be when Andy (the lead character acted by Steve Carrell) was immediately ushered to bed to have a"good time" with his crush and date, the hot grandma from the "ebay" store. Being a virgin he of course had no knowledge of putting on a condom which resulted in his awry experimentations with the condoms his date provided like blowing up into a balloon and tried fitting on only to had the balloon bursting onto his "balls" or using the extra large one to wear it over his arm altogether....
However they did not get down with it as planned as the lady's daughter "crashed" into the bedroom, claiming that they can't have sex when she herself was not allowed to have it...
Meanwhile when the bewildered boyfriend of the daughter saw the opened wrappings of several condoms, and even some condoms' carcasses on his feet, he was totally been blown away by the high libido of Andy as he begged the latter, "you gotta teach me man..."
That was the one scene that drove me and my fellow audience into unstoppable laughter...

Being M18, there were alot of sexual referance and vulgarities (dished out mostly when Andy had his chest hair shaven by the Japanese wax-mistress as well as the 2 ill-bitching sales personnel in Andy's shop which hated his and his friend's guts...one was an Indian, the other Pakistani...they made the Indian hulk in front of me very entertained the entire show)
There were also a few risque scenes of a woman masturbating, several glimpses of pornographic movies been screened as well as a big-chested woman Andy met in the "Date-pa-alooza (Date a Loser)" lunch hour who was pretty theatric with her speech that she accidentally had a "nip slip" from that revealing v-neck blouse she was wearing while Andy kept hinting her in a less discreet way of her "wardrobe malfunction" but to no avail...

The cast was generally unknown and many touted Steve Cassell who was a resident in "Saturday Night Live" and the "Getting Politically Correct with Jon Stewart" show as the next Jim Carrey; but he was not too into slapstick like our rubber-faced comedian but it was through his serious and poignant acting that drew the most laughters from the crowd...
I only recognised a certain Paul Rudd who acted as one of Andy's colleague, Dave who just could not get over the split-up with his girlfriend as he was in "Friends" as Phoebe's boyfriend, Mike.
The colleagues were really funny but the hated boss, Paula was really something as she kept hinting Andy to "bang" her once she found out that he was still a virgin...even mentioned her sexual experience with her Guatemalan (wow it was the 2nd day in a row I mentioned that Central American country) gardener, Javier...man that was classic and Cassell's expression was also true solid-gold moment...

After watching it, I think wouldn't mind watching it again, perhaps getting an orginal, uncensored DVD for this movie...

Oh yeah by the way did I mentioned Andy the virgin collects a lot of toys as well? man...he is like the American "densha otoko"..heeehee
However in the end his girlfriend sold all his collections to raise half a million to spend on the lavish wedding ceremony they had...

The movie still was a great experience for me but for my lass who stayed over last evening, she was not too upbeat for the lack of sleep as she kept waking up in the middle of the night wondering what time she had to wake up...poor girl....

Japanese word of the day: 笑う~wa-ra-u~ (Laughing) Can't stop myself when watching this classic piece of comedy

Bickering over Nothing

10th October 2005, Monday

What a weekend it had been... condolescences going out to the 40.000 victims and families of the South Asian Great quake in Pakistan and India as well as 1,600 trapped in a massive landslide in Guatemala...while there was jubilations to countries like Holland, Italy, England, Croation, Serbia & Montenagrio, Angola, Paraguay, Ecuadour, Ivory Coast and Ghana for successfully making into the World Cup next year in Germany.

For me it hadn't been a rosy Sunday at all...

I was looking forward to a nice time to spend with my lass after not seeing her for a week or so now, but being Sunday evening, it could be a bit mundane and with Monday on the brink of arrival, one's spirits could just not been lifted...

Everything was fine as her fatigue from the late night shift on the night before was well evident as she dozed off while I showed her my latest anime infautation, "Keroro Gunsou"...
As she woke up, she then brought up a question that would never failed to make me tick (for now at least)..no nothing to do with her fave Taiwanese boyband despite that would make my blood boils as well...
She asked me whether I am free to accompany her for a seminar held by her MLM company on Tuesday evening...
After so many failed attempts when I would instantaneously rejected her offers with so many impromptu excuses and reasons, she would continue be so persistant (reminds me so much of Kenneth)...
This time I would ran out of excuses or at least grew tired of cooking one to reject her, that I told her what she did would be a great career opportunity but is not a wee bit appealing to me as no one knows myself better than me and I feel I would not be cut out to go down that road which she had been trying to educate me with the trillions of success stories told (or concoted) by their publications..

Then I got a rude awakening that she had always been one pretty career-minded and ambitious, hoping to work her way up the ladder to live a lavish lifestyle, without any worries of financial burden for the rest of her life...

As for myself, a simple life as I am having now is all too fine by me, which badly reflected on myself as one been too easily contented with life...

She then brought out a valid point that there would be no career now regarded as an "iron ricebowl" and my job would be on the verge of disposal anytime once the economy calls for it...
We always hard to lay the foundation or at least a back-up plan once that happens...
Which is all so true but I would be those that would be in panicky when come to that stage, sad but true

That is exactly why I tried to be as frugal as I can to save from scratch, making a mountain from a molehill which irks her time and again when I got too conservative with my expenditure...

She kept insisting that she wouldn't want us to go down the same path as her divorcing parents (last checked, they will definitely be filing for divorce but could be a turn of the tale) as they would throwing constant brickbats on one another due to mounting financial problems but I felt it was more than that, for e.g her father's high tendency for infidelity...
I told her I would never let such a thing happened to us down the road... for sure there would be whining now and then about money issues but it would tends to be resolved by itself, perhaps just tightening the shoestring budget here and there would do magic...

This led to the night been really miserable for me at least as I promptly sent her home, as she could sense I was not myself, suggesting perhaps I could be drowsy or something...

The whole issue had been unceremoniusly been over-magnified but it did showed the gulf in our mentalities towards our futures and perhaps the fissure in our relationship with such contrasting school of thoughts....

I mean this is afterall the woman I am going to spend the rest of my life with, so I want us to share the same ideologies and assume ourselves as an unit...

But the end of day I think I am just been selfish and never spare a thought for her...

sigh somehow these few days been feeling pretty low and even contemplate are we that compartible afterall...but eventually rubbish myself on thinking this way as I doubt there would be another woman on earth that would tolerate me at the end...

Let's hope things get mended as soon as possible and our relationship is back to that rosy state as before...

Japanese word of the day: けんかする~ken-ka-su-ru~(Quarrel) Had a small tiff with my lass which made me feel pretty low on this Monday

Reacquitance at the end of the week

7th October 2005, Friday

So it was a topsy-turvy, roller-coaster week at work when anything and everything would happen to most of our precious machines as well as unusual amount of submissions from the masses ..Fortunately with cooperation with the service technicians, we are finally able to get all 4 machines up and running and most importantly be able to clear our backlog accumulated over the few days by the end of this weekend.

I had been dozing off pretty early in the evening this couple of days, and I felt the reason could be down to the Gundam Seed series which I had been trying to focus on, but they are such great sleep remedy that can possibly put the most hyperactive kids to sleep in the matter of seconds (much more effective than Tsubasa Chronicle), no wonder Karen warned that it would get a bit dry and mundane in the middle.
However the sleeps had not be so soundly that I would wake up fresh and ready to go in the morning as I would wake up in the middle of the night during wee hours to off any electronic appliances I might had left in operation.

Watched the 5th episode of "Densha Otoko", and I was really moved by the storyline when Yamada tried hard to ward off a niggling stalker of Aoyama, only to find him as loser as himself and through empathy, he made the stalker turned over a new leaf...and the relationship of our resident otaku and his dream girl progressed into another stage..urgh can't wait for the remaining 6 episodes of the show...
Talking about losers, there was one 40 year old loser hogging the box office in the States about his chronicles to get laid which really roused my interest especially I had caught the trailer yesterday...The problem is getting my lass to find time off her packed schedule to accompany to catch in sometime next week.

Been contemplating about whether to join some my old 1st-3 months JC mates for dinner this evening. It was initiated by the usual guys (including Boon Hoe who just left my company 3 weeks before) and perhaps the only person I would wanna meet is the girl that had seriously stolen my heart during that time and perhaps the very first girl I actually made known of my affections for through snail mail that is. She is now happily married to an businessman-like uncle instead of hanging our with a loser-like uncle myself..good choice indeed.

Well I did heeded my lass' advice to step out my hermit's shell to embrace the reaquittance efforts made my old JC friends from a full 10 years back...

Of course with the dinner was scheduled at 7 at Plaza Singapura and I had an hour to go, so took refuge at La Tendo naturally..heehee

It was a pretty successful effort to reunite the alumni despite an apparent lukewarm response but those that are suppsed to appeared had done so...
The theme for the night naturally shifted to marriage and more adult topics such as applying for flats and cars especially with the likes of Peixing and Weiliang hitching in the coming months, and the likes of Weiyao and my old flame completed their R.O.M

It was great to see all of them especially with those I'm not too close with been sieved out and my previous love interest looked well blissful in finding her Mr Right and well closed an episode for me as I'm just glad she managed to find happiness in the end. We didn't get to talk much as the boisterous bunch was more interested with catching up with everyone's lives with Peixing and Angela been the usual instigators and me and Guozhong provided much laughters for the rest of the night. She had to leave early with her hubby picking her up so leaving Angela once again the solidatory rose among the thorns.

We proceeded for a drink at a fast food branch where we went down the memory lane getting in touch with nostalgia as we tried to recollect how everyone met and what we actually did back in our 1st 3 months stint and paid tributes to those who did not had the honour to join us tonight.

So in the end it was a great experience to meet up with some old friends but not when they started distributing "crimson bombs" in the form of invitation to their wedding banquets...ugh...

Japanese word of the day:　結婚をする　~ke-kkon-wo-su-ru~ (Getting married) a whole bunch of my friends are, better save up for the "ang pao" money...

Bound to Forget something...

5th October 2005, Wednesday

Unless you had been living in a hole you had burrowed underground, you should have known that there was a few suicide bombers shroudded with insane, irradical thoughts and exploded themselves in a restaurant in Bali, Indonesia over the weekend...which brought a death toll of 22 to follow them down the graves..seriously this terrorism shit is not "in" anymore man... perhaps the terrorist should pick up some sports or even gambling..something to take their minds off things like bombing up themselves into pieces to make a statement.. As for people now fearing of going to nice resorts like Bali or Phuket with their lives in jeapody. well shit can happen even back in your little well/ barrow/ den/ whatever..so live to the fullest man!

Ok enough of those depressing stuffs that newspaper been harping about for like ages now...

The island was well soaked in torrential showers this morning and in the process of rushing off to work, I had forgotten to bring along my handphone...which isn't really such a bad thing as I'm not into sales and no one would be in the right frame of mind to sms me or call me during office hours unless some bank staff trying to sell me some new unit trust/ check-line etc. or some fruad time-sharing companies who called to say I had won 24 rolls of Kodak films and expecting me to go down to perhaps Ulu Pandan to collect them personally when I am already into digital camera these days...
Coincidentally, it was last Wednesday when my lass left her handphone at home while she had a packed schedule to meet her clients, and her poor brother had to be the phone receptionist to keep track of any messages...

But when rushing off to work, one bounds to forget something..for me wallet, handphone, keys, iPod, umbrella and my bento (as well as a few spray of eu de toilette) are some of the stuff I definitely need to bring but always tend to forget one thing or another..perhaps one day I would even forget to wear my jeans to work...yikes
well like a Jessica Simpson's song I heard from radio recently, it ran a pretty risque lyrics which goes like "~nothing but my T-shirt on, I never felt so beautiful~~"
Well I could feel the way too if I had forgotten my jeans to work..heehee

Back to work, today is much less eventful as yesterday which is why I could be typing this post leisurely at 2 plus in the afternoon... then again i'll do it when I'm busy anyway.

On a more spirited note, I finally started on my travel video last evening which I had stated to be top on my agenda for now.
It wasn't a smooth ride to begin with as I was a bit rusty with the Ulead 3D Cool to work out a nice animated title for my video as the same for the one done 2 years back.
Then I had problem letting my new PC to sense the presence of the video camera, which led me to plug/unplug the 1394 firewire line a few time, and even did the classic "blowing the dust off"...

It finally did sensed the video camera and while using DV Studio to capture the video we had taped during the trip. It was ok for a while before the software went cranky and shut on me a few time without any apparent reason. However I did managed to get around 40 minutes of the 1st tape into my hard disk which already requires around 6 GB of space...of course with 128 GB to spare, I had nothing to worry about...

Well I feel slowly the groove will return and I should finish the video in no time unless "Dungeon Shit" came calling...

Japanese word of the day:忘れる ~wa-su-re-ru~ (Forget) Always bound to forget to bring something important to work...maybe tomorrow my underwear

What an Eventful Tuesday at work

4th September 2005, Tuesday

A wild frantic day at work started in the morning when I discovered the results for the previous night's runs did not churn out desirable results for both our own project as well as the service side, and then I assumed the role of Kindaichi (which always a role favoured by JxMMy D himself) and realised that the problem could be the swapping of the position of water with ethanol during the clean-up step which I could be the culprit for the mix-up...so we spent the morning trying to rectify all the problems while braced ourselves from a furore from those disenchanted users for the failure of their results which suprisingly did not occur. However it was through such a fiasco that me, JxMMy & Bobby starting to forge into a workable unit...

Yesterday one of the machine had a laser failure which could see down for a while but the demand just kept rising especially from with the fiasco in the morning and came at all fronts..

We got a surprise request from a certain lab from our rival research institute which we would duly accept as part of the shared facilities. However there would be lot of tacky issues I had to settle which should be preoccupied for the next couple of days...

The 2 new attachments are starting to assimilate into the workflow from the girls which ain't hard especially the way they welcome a new-comer before gnashing them in shambles once they felt the newcomer had turned heels against them..heeehee..Of course the hotly contested topic nowadays is that blatant showing of affection of LF towards Bobby despite the fact that the latter is very well attached...
The girls had been baffled by her behavior and thinking since she had shifted to the new lab, and by choosing to dine with Bobby and the attachment students outside instead of eating in with the girls made it more obvious that she had stepped into a whole new zone which they feel legitimate to make comments on..
Well as long as Bobby's marital status still reflects "single", LF could always tries to be uncoventional and sough the risque route and indulged in "dangerous liaisons" with either attached or married men (as rumored), perhaps it would be more exciting.

Well anyway this turned out to be a busy Tuesday at work for everyone of us...

Japanese word of the day: 多忙(Eventful) What an eventful day at work it had been...

All Lined Up

3rd October 2005, Monday

One start of the week in a long while which I don't feel lerthagic to kick start everything. However for once, Bobby was ahead of me to arrive to work as my time at the loo took a bulk of my preparation time...

We had a couple of attachment students over here and from our supervisor they are just in a long series of attachement students our lab would be taking in, as she hopes that they could be a short term fill-in for the departing BY in terms of manpower... However from the girls at the rate things are going now, with YM and Bobby around, they should be enough hands to settle the daily project stuffs even if BY was to leave in a fornight's time while JxMMy & myself are good enough to take care of the service side.

So guess how I spent my Sunday when my lass did not pay a visit due to her own obligations..?

I played "Dungeon Siege II" the entire day and I could now safely say I am sort of addicted to it..Thanks CS, for ruining all my planned schedules..sigh..Psst..if you are reading this, perhaps my days of joining you in "Guild War" should be sooner..heeheee

ahem..anyway the game which we used to known as "Dungeon Shit" was pretty ok at first but got really captivating as I entered "Act II" and some interesting secondary quests that got my head cracking on what to be done, in accomplishing them would give me a sense of satisfaction which I haven't had for a while since I don't do gaming as much these days..sure a great way to heal that all-wrecked ego of mine... especially when I used cheats and trainer and yet I managed to be defeated....damn

But one thing was very true from the IGN's review is the haunting soundtrack & sound effects which is top draw...


This is the culprit to make me discard all my other plans

But wait before been caught into such unwanted wrath, I was supposed to accomplish a hefty list of tasks:

1) Do my online travelouge...one of the few things I had managed to accomplish, all except the online part as I am in douldrums whether to get a domain that wouldn't failed on me and by using ftp, should at least make uploading thousand over JPEG files a breeze

2) Work on my travel video, this I kept procrastinating... firstly from waiting for my new PC to set up to correcting my DVD writer error..now everything is ready to go, but I do not feel inspired enough to edit that 2 hour plus of video taken during my Japan trip which I did back in 2003 in a matter of days despite using a muc inferior PC and having to edit 5 hours of stuff back then..one word..I had grown lazy...

3) Uploading pictures and reviews of my toys collections... Actually I am quite eager to go back to my vibrant days of doing my toys review, but once again securing a permenant domain seems like the stumbling block and that kills a bit on the enthusiasim. But I could see myself getting back to do that once I had settled my travel video which leads to the point of when I would be finishing my video...crikeys....anyway if I am to do a single review a day I think I had collections enough do reviews for a good 4 to 5 months...double crikeys...

4) Finish watching all the anime I had. I had watched 20 episodes of Gundam Seed DVD borrowed from Chan...not Seed Destiny but the 2003-2004 prequel and I couldn't relate to anyone in that show... as I find the lead, Kira Yamato, a whiny sleazebag who wouldn't think twice to sleep with his best friend's women (alas Rick Springfield) and the story about the war between the naturals and coordinates aren't too appealing to begin with... luckily the dames in the show are quite sweet and i think I would continue watching and see how this series managed to left many in spellbound...

Beside that I still had plenty of other series to catch up:

1. Wolf's Rain, TW gonna kill me as he had lent me this series way back in 2003 and I had only managed to watch 4 episodes. But look promising already. 22 more episodes to go
2. Samurai Champloo. Watched 3 episodes I was quite into the story (as of all Samurai/Ninja fare available) 23 episodes to go.
3. Fullmetal Panic. The original series, another one lent by TW back in 2003 and only felt I should watch for the purpose to enjoy "2nd Raid". 26 episodes to go.
4. Azumanga Daioh. I thoroughly enjoyed "School Rumble" and many said it followed the style of Azumanga so now I had to watch all 26 episodes of it to see whether that is true.
5. Cowboy Bebop. This Sunrise production is highly raved in the anime scene and I got both the series and the movie but yet find the time to enjoy it all.
6. Ragnarok the Animation. Always love RPG style storyline, got this and it looks promising, but not yet even begin to watch a single episode of the 26 episodes long series.
7. Naruto. Ferris lent me the entire 150+ episodes to date and thought I had the free time like Karen who could finish anime series in the matter of a night.

I still have episodes of "Basilisk", "Trinity Blood", "Kamichu!", "He's my Master", "Ichigo Mashmallow", "Tsubasa Chronicle", "Bleach", "Konjiki no Gash Bell" to be contempt with as well week in week out, so you can figure out why i am struggling with time management...And I still got the cheek for wanting to watch the likes of "Mai -Hime-", "Tenjo Tenge", "Berserk", "Eureka Seven", "Erementar Gerard" etc...shame on me

5) Planning for my life...yes the big M thingie..got to start planning now especially the full budgetting 'cos I am not born with a silver spoon in my mouth with wealthy parents to cover my entire expense and should emulate a university mate of mine, Bernard who had started planning since his college days and did not think twice to commit 60K for his whole wedding get-up ..cool but I rather spend a huge portion of that on re-decor my place.. well really have to sit down and do proper planning with my lass soon...

Once again I was hoping to have 48 hours a day for me to utilise but by then I would most probably indulge 47 of it on playing my "Dungeon Shit"....heehee

Japanese word of the day: 怠け者~na-ma-ke-sha~ (Lazy) to start on my video editing project