Pooiii....

29th July 2005, Friday

21 days to go to my Japan trip...

Started of the day in a pretty uncomfortable note.
I had to rush for my usual direct transit train and lost a bracelet which I bore a deep sentimental value for since I bought it in Hiroshima back in the year 2000.
It has been a constant companion/accessory of mine as I go for work but it had been tattered for a couple of years now and it took me several attempts to hold it together till recently it's destined to reach the stage in which I could not wear it anymore; thus with my senseless scurrying for the train
Without it wrapping my right wrist, I sort of feel a sense of emptiness...Just gotta look for a replacement in Ueno come August...

During the journey, I felt the effect of my sudden burst of muscular activities. Within a jammed pack train, with my headphones on trapping the heat in my brain, I started to feel nauseous, rapidly losing my breath and starting to lose orientation...
I wouldn't want to pass out in front a group of strangers nor would I wanted to do a "Merlion", staining innocent by-standers with vomit consisting the coffee and instant noodles I had for breakfast...
Fortunately I was sitting down instead of standing up which could be much more detrimental to my conditions; so I took off my headphones, leaned a bit forward, gulped in a consecutive mouthfuls of breath..with oxygen molecules introduced to my lungs and eventually my brain, while the air con of the train carriage starting to chill me down, as I starting to regain my consciousness...what a close shave..phew

It's the 3rd and final symposium day, so more stuffing of buffet teabreaks and lunch..
Beside so we did actually attended a fair share of the presentations by some of the P.Is inour institute, JxMMy kept himself in our lab, mugging himself with work as he usually would with Lush 99.5FM playing from one of the PCs for our equipments, he sure had that ecletic musical taste (not that I don't enjoy the new age songs and nu-jazz been broadcasted by the station anyway as the girls said he would listen to classical symphonies to trance to 80s retro to Mandarin Pop to Hip Hop so on and so forth)

The main talk we wanted to listen to is by Se-Ban himself which was the 2nd last talk of the day at around 4.30pm which by then after teabreak, did recieve lukewarm receptions from a miserable number of audience...
We thought he would focus on the past genomic projects we had played a part on but he started rattling about the Tedrotoxin residing within the skin of Pufferfish and kept blabbering on about that
(after the first part in which he kept mentioning the word "genome" for like 78586476535476576 times)
It was near the end when there would be a slide the PIs would usually acknoweledge the staff member and other aides...
Not only did he not mentioned out lab, he didn't list the names of his faithful lab technicians especially the one slaving well over a decade for his black ass..
He did mentioned a particular one (whom we did not fancy too much due to her poor attitude) we loved to call "Uncle" because she(he?) had such masculine features....
It was rumored that she would buttered up Se Ban (as well as giving him a weekly (or perhaps hourly) dosage of blow-jobs) to attain that "applein his eyes" status...
She got commended for doing the least work while the rest are just been mentioned as "the rest of the staff"..
I felt solace that I am not working under him..if not I would really "poooii" (spit) on that darn neckless head of his...
But the thing that disgusted me the most is his band of loyal servants in which JxMMy is included would carry on slogging for him relentless for not one single pinch of acknowledgement...what a bunch of suckers....

Last evening we had a shock result in "Rock Star: INXS" when not one but 2 formerly hot faves been knocked out at one go...
The band felt that "Butterfly Girl" Heather and Daphna just lacked that X factor to be the chosen one for their lead vocals...despite their heart and soul performance of their songs ..
Jessica being the 3rd one with the least vote went scot-free once more for the 2nd week in a row...
What a twist but it just made the competition much more exciting and tense...Game on guys...

Japanese word of the day: つばを吐く　~tsu-ba -wo-haku~ (Spit) Love to spit on the face of Se Ban anyday man...

Big Movements in August

28th July 2005, Thursday

22 days to go for my trip

Came into work this morning and first thing to recieve an e-mail from our supervisor to have an impromptu and informal lab meeting by 9.
The last time such a notion was put up, it resulted in that explosive confrontation with the girls which is why it is natural for them to speculate what could be the information to be dispensed...
But I doubt it would be a berating session especially not when me and JxMMy were involved as well, and this is most uncharacteristic of her...

One rumour which sprouted at the beginning of the week was the imminent arrival of a new colleague whom YM had spotted our supervisor interviewing him on Monday...
Well everything is just fabricated information, unless it came from the horse's mouth...

So in came our supervisor and top of the agenda was the fact that a fellow research institute based in San Francisco, known as JGI had invited Se Ban and her over to have a look at their high thrugh operation methods which we could emulate over our side (yeah right)
And the most unheard-of thing actually happened when our institute actually agreed to endorse a couple of lab biologists to attend such an overseas expedition under company's expense as well as the absence would be duly covered under conference leave which has no effect on our precious annual leave..

Guess who the lucky representation from our lab...oh come on, you should know...
It's none other than our highly-regarded (and esteemed) lab manager, Mr JxMMy D!!
Kinda figure he is all psyched up for the trip as it would be an eye-opener for him and perhaps his virgin trip to the States...
His passion continues to run deep....deep deep down....

Well I am pretty muted by the news as none of us would actually doubt about the selection as he is perhaps the one invisible in Se Ban's eyes as well as a person fit enough to hug his LP (testicles)..
good the both of them would have a great time hugging each others' LP in the trip which last a week and a half.
But the timing of the trip sure cannot be more coincidental to fall between 15th August to 23rd August which is when I am about to fly off to Japan myself..meaning there would be no one holding the fort here for the service..
I'm very sure deep within, JxMMy hope he had the Ninja "Jitsu" like Naruto to split another him to stay behind in Singapore..what a sucker...

In fact August would see a topsy-turvy, wild movement of personel over our side...
With JxMMy and our supervisor gone for their visit and me to Japan..don't forget that LF would be moving to her new lab and BY who coincidentally (what a day of coincidence) going for her job interview today, could be quitting by then.. But most probably still serving her 4 weeks probation before moving on...
YM herself would be absent during mid August as well to invigilate the progress of the upgrading of her flat...
So basically we are down to our skeleton crew..no wait, there may be no crew at a certain day at all...which is an absurd occurence..

But the speculation of a new colleague could be all so true as the Old Hag in Admin actually considering to hire new aid in our service and this particular fresh graduate from NUS named Bobby could be on the verge of joining in a matter of a week or so once he finalised his contract details... so he could be a solution to be around to run the show
But then Rome wasn't build in one day and there are plenty to impart to him before he could run the show on his own..so that would just had to figure somehow while enlisting help now and then from the girls whom themselves are not too well-verse with the service side.

The biggest coincidence was when LF mentioned if the machines are down we could always call upon our trusted vendor technician, Chua till JxMMy mentioned even the vendor company would be all be on a company retreat..oh gosh all hell would break loose during that period..heehee

So it is a big question mark on what August might bring in terms of work but on a personal note I would be really busy with JxMMy gone in the week before my own departure...
well looking at another way, I would be reigining in my own domain without the need to him to spoil my trip days before I am shuttled to my wonderland...and with work occupying my week then, before I know it I would be flying off...yoohoo...

With respects to the trip itself, my lass gave me a call during my lunch break conveying a message excitedly she acquired from a colleague of hers who had returned from his own Japan trip.
It seems like JTB office in Singapore actually cater the service to reserve entrance tickets to the Studio Ghibli Museum in Mitaka.
This was a venue we both been yearning to go when we started drafting our travelling itinery in the first place but could not find an agency who can cater the reservation service locally unlike in Hong Kong or Taiwan.
So it was indeed an uplifting piece of information and I wasted no time to double confirm that with the JTB saloon housed in Takashimaya...

In the latest edition of "Rock Star: INXS" last evening, *DAMN! When I'm linking the URL I actually got a sneak peek of the results which I supposed to find out later..DOUBLE DAMN!!*
Anyway last night's round was blatantly sub-standard as many could not carry themselves well...
J.D.'s cockiness is drawing some unfriendly glares from the likes of Brandon, Mig and Marty but he is still throwing his weight around and was highlighted by Gary from INXS during their workshop to curb that cockiness...
It did not help when he chose Queen's "We are the Champions" as his performance track last night which he had problem carrying it through as it was evident from the rehearsal with the supporting band and he ran out of idea to re-arrange into something fantastic as he had did in the last couple of weeks.
After failure to hassle Jordis to exchange their song selected (Jordis had actually wanted to pick "We are the Champions" before been hushed off by the adamant J.D), he was left to do an awful rendition of the Queen classic..
He was not alone last night as many did lacklustured performances of their own, including previously hot faves like Daphna and Heather (who blamed onher illness as well as the usual suspect of Deanna and Jessica. Even a great performer like Brandon was struggling with his rendition of Squeeze's "Tempted".

But the consistency of Jordis, Mig, Marty and even Ty who was criticised for his theaterics was great with REM's "Everybody Hurts"...

So this week botttom 3 to me have to be J.D, Heather (or Jessica) and Daphna...we'll see who will be eliminated today...watch this space (actually no tomorrow's blog) for the answer...

Japanese word of the day: 留守~ru-su~ (Absence) Not many of us will be present in August.

Passion Runs Deep...

27th July 2005, Wednesday

23 days to go to my Japan trip...

Midweek already and really glad time tickles past in such speedy fashion as I can't wait for July to be done and over with...

This week has exceptionally been tired...perhaps I had been in front of the PC screen for too long for the past fornight, trying to do as many updates to my webpage as possible before my trip as well as too captivated with "Shinsengumi", feeding myself with a daily dosage of 2 episodes, anyway I'm coming to the tragic end of the downfall of teh Shogunate, the disband of the vigilante group as well as the death of many of the characters I held so dearly... which was why after my tear-jerking experience of Yamanami's hari-kiri in office last week, I also was very much saddened by the death of Heisuke, the former captain of the 8th regime when he decided to confront his former comrades to death in a case of misunderstanding when his leader, Itoh was slained by some hot-blooded members of Shinsengumi for defection from the group to form his own...

Last night once agin witnessed another treasured member of the group, Gen-san, the captain of the 6th regime died after mutiple gun-shot wounds he sustained while protecting the adopted son of the Buerau Chief, Shuhei...

The "Nakama" spirits is really burning inside me, man....

I also managed to download some Japanese pop music variety show such as Pop Jam and "Hey! Hey! Hey! Music Champ"...
I caught a X'mas special quiz from I think 2000 or 2001 featuring artists like Morning Musume, Da Pump, Amuro Namie, Hamazaki Ayumi, Gackt, Chemistry and ELT engaging in a trivia quiz with the winner entitled to win an air ticket to the States...
Somehow the Japanese always know the winning formula to spice things up and make the most mundane show seemingly engaging...
You would never had guessed that it was stoic Gackt who went on to grab the prize with his cold but affirmed answers... which was much surprised by the audience as well one half of the hosts, Down town, Matsumoto...

Well now you know what had been keeping my weekday nights alive and cut down my slumber time...

Anyway just want to highlight a behaviur of my dear (and much loathed) colleague, the one and only, Mr JxMMy D....
I mean it is noted about his stoicism as well his cabinet full of adamant antics and gimmicks which can really irk his co-workers...
I also did mentioned before his passion for work itself and live his life for it, which is you model employee of the year pedigree....

Seriously I always would speculate whether when he is off work, on leave or overseas vacation, would he be pondering about what new methodology to concot when he is back at work again..

His daily routine includes stepping into the lab, lock up his personal belonging in our cabinet and start work, stop for lunch for an hour or 2, then work relentlessly all the way till 6 or over (I wouldn't know since I would be home, watching TV by then)

I have nothing to be ashame of..we have a set of duties to accomplish daily, once it's done and no blips or glitches along the way, we are liberated to do whatever we want such as "eat a bit of snake", surfing the internet, chit chat so on so forth.
But for JxMMy, he is constantly keeping himself busy with some new ideas to "improve" the flow of work... all except some trivial chores which he refrained himself from touching...
In light of his full-stream initiativeness, he is regarded so highly by our supervisor and perhaps the company itself... that I have no qualms of..
The rumour about the "under table" income supplement of 10K should be justified with his hard work as well
And of course he would hog the limelight at all time, stealing the thunder from his fellow workers (yours truly included)...
I had tried to supercede him once awhile but he just seemed to be able to create more features such as surfing online for extra information as well as putting query to experts around the world and clipping the entire discussion into an e-mail which he would mass-mailed to every mother's son around to make people putting him so high up on the pedestal...

But seriously what's the motive behind his action?
Is he trying to impress his employers and hope for higher pay? well I'm sure he had established that and could take the foot off the pedal a bit but he is still adamant to his usual activities...
Is he trying to acquire more knowledge so as to attain a higher educational level such as a degree, Master or Phd? well if that's the case, he would have to leave a service lab like ours and go under any other established lab and take up a project on his own..but really doubt he would leave at this junction...

So I presume in the end, it's down to that pure passion which is almost unseen and unheard of in our line of work I feel (this is just an opinionated comment without any basis)...
Kudos to JxMMy...he sure deserves all the praise and regards he got

But for me been an average lad with little aspiration, my workrate would be proportional to the pay I recieved every month..as long as I am up to my task and responsible for my own role in my workplace I guess I won't venture into anything unnecessary...
Which is blatantly why we 2 can't get along especially with our contrasting ideology...

Last X'mas, while he went for leave till the brand new year, he wrote about treating our work seriously as it is an important aspect to science itself..
I agreed but at the same time snubbed his comment within myself...
I doubt if the same note was to be written, the same reaction would be given

Perhaps in the end, he would be the survivor of it all but I couldn't live with such pretenance that had that much passion as him, and whenever the girls claimed that I am losing by a yard to him..
I would always replied, "I don't intend to win him in the first place".

Japanese word of the day: 熱烈な~ne-tsu-re-tsu-na~ (Passionate) JxMMy's for his job runs really, really deep...

Gauging Your General Knowledge

26th July 2005, Tuesday

24 days to go to my Japan trip...

I was woken up by the constant roar of thunder as well as the splattering of rain drops on the walls and window panes...
It was the perfect weather to snuggle and curl within your blankets and continue smittened in your slumber but then it is still a Tuesday morning which I was supposed to get up and going for work.
The nice cool weather is good but the whole storm is more of a hindrance for the usual process of commuting to work.
I was fortunate today to have Dad ferrying me to the MRT station as he "smuggled" a truck back from work after his overtime last evening.
With the rain showing no sign of subsiding, the trip was very much slowed down and I, as expected missed the shuttle bus into my workplace and had to fend the weather and strolled towards the building...

A busy morning with an extraordinary barrage of samples to run which would be a persistent fashion ...
Got an email from my Iwate host apologising about his late reply and enquire on what we would like to do at Morioka...well that has really not been worked out till we are there for sure...

My buddy at Osaka had the best time with the "Natsu-matsuri" (summer festival) and watching live fireworks display...
Well in fact there was rumoured to be a firework display at my constituency as well in conjunction to the National Day celebration, but it seemed to be a made-up urban legend from Ferris who kindly smsed me about it...
I was half-heartedly waiting to see a color-litted night sky but I was too cooped up in my room watching my series and doing up my webpage...
Well no fret as there would be a series of fireworks festival held by the Marina Bay area in the coming month, which would be a spectacular extravaganza of course you had to skewer yourself among the masses to have a good view of it though...

Had an interesting article on the Today paper by an English teacher, Denyse Tessensohn who are irked by the critical level of General Knowledge her class of newly-titled local teachers possessed within them...
But seriously with the hustle and bustle of our pace in this age and time, I really doubt many would had that spare time to find out more about any other trivial things unless they had to go find out (such as doing a thesis, presentation or perhaps trying to join "Singapore's Brainiest Kid" to meet the gorgeous Cheryl Fox)

Personally I don't hone myself to possess a good level of General Knowledge but I'm sure in my younger days when there was limited media attraction like Playstation, or the internet (Hell, TV only began on Saturday at 1pm with "Sesame Street"), we spent sometime reading some books of trivia information (much thanks to Bookworm Club as well as the thousands my poor parents ploughed into a set of encyclopedia which ended to be used to balance un-even table legs somewhere in my household)

And looking at the younger generations these days I really think they are more interested in mugging for their exams or smsing their friends or anything else youngsters love to busk in these days...I doubt they would bother about trivia and general knowledge...

So looking through the list of questions at the front page of the article, let's see if I would have any knowledge myself:
1) "What's Angkor Wat?" Should be that ancient relics in Cambodia and classied as one the heritage (if not one of the 7 wonders) of the world.
2) "What is Socrates' role in history?" Hey isn't he one of Pele's old Brazilian team-mate which is so dominant in the 1970s World Cup... he even had an equally talented footballer brother, Rai (no not with the Future Son)
3) "Name a single novel by Alexander Dumas -senior or junior." I give you 3: "The 3 Musketeers", "The Count of Monte Cristo" and "The Man behind the Iron Mask".
4) "What's the name of the third in the trinity of Hindu deities after Brahma and Vishnu?" Bala? Muthu? Rajagopal? Banu?

Okay time to do some googling...
1) Yes I am right about Angkor Wat...
2) No Socrates is not a Brazilian footballer as I thought but an ancient Greek philosopher who was the first in his era to had the guts to question everything and everyone and even offended the leaders of his time which sentenced him to death nonetheless.
3) Bingo, hit the jackpot about 3 literatures by Alexandre Dumas, pere (father in French).. (Well because those were the 3 most successfully adapted into Hollywood big screen)
4) Yikes... the third of the Hindu deities is Lord Shiva, oh please forgive my plain ignorance.

There you have it , I got like 50% of this mini trivia test...but I wonder how the people around me would fare better if given the same test...

Now let me give you a simple trivia question what's the full annotations for DNA?
If I don't know this I should be encamped in the deepest chasm of hell and be sodomised with pineapples by Adolf Hitler...

Japanese word of the day:知識 ~chi-shi-ki~(Knowledge) Always good to bear some general knowledge, never know who you can impress..btw DNA stands for Deoxyribonucleoside...

Watashi no Nihongo taihen hetana....

25th July 2005, Monday

25 more days to my Japan trip...

The final week of July and it definitely seemed to me as the longest month in a rapidly-moving year of 2005..

Dialled to the Mori household last evening at around 9 pm (supposedly to be 10pm in Iwate,Japan).
I assumed that it would be high time Hiroki would be around after no joy of contacting him via his home number earlier in the afternoon.
However little that I realise my "happening" former host would be partying till wee hours on a Sunday evening, the day preceding a new work week..
Oka-san picked up the call and after made known to her who I am, she urgently handed over to Oto-san who was by the side.
The latter supposedly a government clerk in a neighbourhood hospital tried to struck a conversation with me as I briefed him on my schedule from Tokyo to Morioka next month...
Generally he got down the important information about my arrival train and time as well as the date we would be lodging with them..
However as we delved further into the conversation, he told me something about "sharing a same room" but I don't know with who..so I just replied in a hush, "Hai, wakrimashita" or "daijyobu"...
I also wanted to let him know I had actually sent an e-mail to Hiroki last week but he had yet to reply me but that piece of information wasn;t relayed too well...
Nonetheless it would always be reassuring for the head of the household to welcome you over with hospitality...
But surely I would be in dire needs to brush up whatever Japanese conversational skill I had residing within me...

Back to work, a pretty sombre day to just do some usual Monday schedule and I had a few administrative stuffs to do for my trip as well...
Seems like BY had taken leave to attend a job interview she had informed me earlier in the month, and it's highly probable she would get it with her confidence and finesse in putting herself over (in which is sort of lacking in the other 2)..I think the most probable stumbling block would be the pay which I highly doubt they would actually raise the bar to 3K a month for a diploma-holding personel..well hope I'm wrong.

Back on the domestic front, Sis came back from her short Kuantan trip... she sure is having the time of her life with a few trips overseas this past year...
Meanwhile the crisis within my lass' household seems to escalate a little as I called her to bid good night yesterday, she lied that she was at home when it was apparent she was outside.
And it seemed she had followed her mom and brother to search for his father whom had not been home a while now.
I know she would mutilate me like what Hannibal Lector would do if she found out I'm disclosing this here but I am really concerned about her well-being as her family really meant the world to her...
Well it seemed fine when I called her a while ago, so at least my worries had been alleviated, but for the time being I guess.

Japanese word of the day: 日本語~ni-hon-go~ (Japanese) Man I really suck in it...

Live action Comdey Night

24th July 2005, Sunday

26 days to go for my Japan trip...

This very day marked my first abled reservation of Shinkensen tickets, which is exactly a month before the actual date which is the suitable time-span deemed ok by the online system to do so.

Came back this dawn at around 3 plus after an impromptu karaoke session to the La Tendo clique....

Well some of them were supposed for a movie night out for "Fantastic Four", but suddenly Vincent and Eng Kiong got a sudden struck of the singing bug especially the former began crooning in front of the unwilling audience (me, Karen and Chan)...

This cause was supported by the arrival of Miyano as well as Ferris and his girlfriend, Annalisa (whom he formally introduced to us)..
I was at first supposed to me my girl at Bishan but promptly beckoned her to join us since it had been eons since the last karaoke session together...

In the end with a roll-call of 9 interested parties (Chan and Matthew adamant that they would not be interested in going for karaoke), we proceed to the K-Box at across the road at Paradiz Center for a night of fun crooning and entertainment as was about to unfold...

The ecletic selection of songs include Japanese enka, 80s Cantonese pop, Hokkien rock songs, typical Mandarin pop as well as English oldies...

My lass really immersing herself into the thick of the action, especially she could release her stress from work, indulging in songs of her fave singers and of course, 5566..
Ferris was a veteran in the karaoke scene especially in the karaoke lounge franchise with his selection of tunes and composure while his gf was fading in the background well entertained by everyone the entire night through..
Karen and Eng Kiong were well there to have sizeable portion of singing duties while Tay chan did possess a good voice in doing songs by Wu Bai and Power Station...
I once again surprised others to be able to go up to certain high notes as well as delivering a couple of J-pop tracks (though miserable, K Box did nonetheless possess some Japanese tracks)

But the main feature of the night would be Vincent and Miyano who is high on entertainment value especially Vincent with his strange selection of songs like Canto tracks from George Lam, Bee Gees' "Massacheusetts", and even a tribute to Theresa Teng....
It was the Theresa Teng- songs that drew my wildest burst of laughter as Miyano would be mumbling on the background, saying we should all hold respects for the deceased and Brother (Eng Kiong) should instantly "eject" the song , all these while Vincent was engrossed in his singing and unmoved by all the unnecessary commentaries by his wife until EK eventually did ejected the song...
The whole night through they also were the livewire in the room, prompting everyone to get into the mood, walk up to the screen to re-enact the MVs, or blocking lyrics, surely full of antics which make it so fun to go for karaoke session with them...

Our session lasted till 2 plus in the morning till we felt it had to come to a conclusion despite Miyano was still hogging the mike with John Lennon's "Imagine"...

With a croaked voice, especially my girl, and a lighter wallet after footing our share of $29 each for me and my other half, we proceed home in cab (what else), reeling from the night of laughter and in dire need of sleep..

Japanese word of the week: カラーオケ~ka-ra-o-ke~ (What else) Vincent and Miyano surely held the true Japanese spirits of having fun in the box much unlike the usual stern sitting around to enjoy each other's singing.

Never Grown up

22nd July 2005, Friday

28 days to go to my Japan Trip...

Guess where is the unsafest place on earth now...Afghanistan?..maybe...Iraq?..definitely...
in fact the entire Middle East...actually the world is an unsafe place to reside in now..
But it would have to be London... exactly 2 weeks after the last bombing of transport system which left a casualty of 56 dead and 700 hundred plus wounded, yesterday another bomb scare hit 3 train routes and bus in central London once more, sending the entire capital of England in a jittery mood...
Fortunately only 1 person was hurt as the bombing was of much subdued magnitude...However the British government would crack their head about how another terrorist attack could break out as they are just at the wake of the last devastating one...

On this final work day of the week, it marks the final official work-day for LF with our laboratory as she would be starting out a new journey in a newly set-up lab 2 levels below us...
The fickleminded girls were having an oxymoronic time as they were urging her to leave for greener pastures yet lamenting that they would miss her antics...
On a personal view, LF would more be remembered for her irregular mood swings, irritating antics and acid tongue...
Not too positive aye... well all the best for future endeavours and hope you be a bit more matured in your relationship handling and interpersonal communication skills...

JxMMy at the meanwhile had kept himself busy the entire day through to solve some niggering problems with our normal functioning process..
Seriously I had never seen anyone with so much passion (muted one though) and initiative with his work.. just for that our meager company should award him some kind of awards..iof course if the rumours were right that they had been giving him extra 7K of pay under the table, I think heought to work like a muted ass (the animal kind) for the company...

One of our past attachment student, Rapheal (not his real name) who would be joining the NUS School of Medicine in the coming week dropped by to had another "fun" day with the girls who had been polluting his pristine-white mind with their explicit adult talks.. obviously he love every moment spent with them that he kept coming back for more...
Our resident mommy-boy had also a bad habit of his own, sharing dubiously unhumorous and "cold" jokes... but that's a trademark of his that would get accustomed to anyway
Well let's hope our future doctor would still bother to remember us a few years later after he had been deeply etched into his medical community and got "brain-washed"...

As for myself, I haven't had that sense of initiative like JxMMy so on a day like this with nothing much to be kept busy with, I would dabble on my webpage creation or searching for information for my forthcoming trip or even watch "Shinsengumi" on my PC...
In fact yesterday while watching the episode titled "Death of a Friend" which showed one of the cornerstone of the early development of Shinsengumi, had to commit "harikiri" (committing suicide by slitting own belly) after going "AWOL" which signifies defection as well...
He had been prepared for it and gladly took his life so as to galvanise the group into a more cohesive unit..
I was struck by emotions as well as Kondo and the rest watched painfully with the slow passing awya of a good friend..even the usually opposing Hijikata, had a wretched weep with Kondo after his true emotions were been unleashed... I was been taken aback with such upheaval of emotions and tears nearly rolled down my cheeks as well but I tried my very best to constrict my tear gland from allowing that scenario to happen, not in front of JxMMy...
Man I really really love this show...sigh..too bad I knew about the outcome of most of my favorite characters...

The outcome of "Rock star: INXS" last evening made 2 of my 3 predictions right for the 3 with the least votes...
Jessica and Neal were actually joined by Tara (who I thinking is definitely walking on a thin line with 2 straight weeks not been voted by viewers).
Neal went suicidal with "Suicide Blonde" as his vocals ability was deemed incapable to carry the band...despite he got that much stage presence..


yikes yet another guy gone..seriously not that I'm sexist but I really feel INXS needs a male vocals instead of a female one...
Meantime, J.D. really pissed the likes of Marty, Brandon and Mig with his comments about while the rest of the contestant were trying to learn the INXS songs, he already knew by heart as he loved them so much..kind of boot-licking which was not appreciated at all...
But personally, J.D. is like the manager of Chelsea FC, Jose Mourinho.. He can be pompous and arrogant because he got what it takes to back him up...

The latest article on the TODAY paper from Mr Brown delved on how he remained as a kid that had never grown up, still indulged in collecting Star Wars figurines and listening to John Mayer...
He is after a guy in his 30s with a family and 2 kids..which really made me feel I'm not alone ..in fact I feel guys generally never really will grow up... In all seriousness, they would always be interested in collecting something..be it cars, electrical appliances or even toys...
At least many friends of mine shared such a trait..anyway love the final line:

Yeah, it's cool to be a kid with a job and a salary.

So true indeed...

At the meantime, another local celebrity blogger, Xiaxue had a pretty rollercoaster week...
Her blog had been hacked and posts and whatever lavish format it used to be had all been deleted, and she is not in mad pursue of the hacker..well that's the consequence of hogging the media limelight for so long...well I never read her blog...just a lot of angst and cursing and yes not to forget "whining"... I don't know her personally so don;t feel oblige to take a peek.. also maybe because am pretty freaked out to discover a lot of the pictures she had uploaded had be digitally altered by Adobe Photoshop...she sure had a horde of crazy fans (/hackers) smittened under her skirt with her self doctored pictures...
She could always take solace that she is lined up to be on the next Class 95 Blind Date, propelling her to the next level of celebrity status she yearns to busk in...
Sure is a great opportunity for her ardent readers to have a personal dinner date with her...but I doubt she would be able to "Photoshop"ed the pictures that would be posted on the Class 95 website after the entire event took place and been uploaded...
Got to go..need to check out how to register for the "Blind Date"....

Japanese word of the day: 子供~ko-do-mo~ (Kid) I don't wanna grow up, I'm a Toys R Us kid....

Life as a Lottery ticket... a lot of miscues

21st July 2005, Thursday

29 days to go for my trip

Toto, the national lottery comes in a twice weekly basis, on Monday and Thursday...
It is the next best thing that could happen to Mom than 4-D of course...
She has a knack for numbers and had no problem recollecting the winning numbers for a few weeks or so, even instigate the pattern of the numbers released..
It seems like the grand prize money for Toto has been snowballed to around 5 million or so after 2 consecutive grand prize without any winners redeeming, so I'm sure mom would definitely been on a lookout for some auspicious numbers (do not query on her source) to make up a total of 6 + 1 special number to see whether she could finally hit the jackpot.
Well as mathematician (and some frail, unsympathetic Maths teacher) would say in view of the chance of probability and permutation, to get a winning set of number from 1 to 45 would means a astronomical probability.
Which is why acknowledging my wretched life, I just feel queasy to part with even $1 to have a go at it...
But with the snowballed prize money of 5 million, no single soul would not be moved (even the now-disfuncted CEO of a certain charitable organization); but seriously I do not have real inspiration for the lucky numbers...and I do not have telepathic power like Jean Grey or Cable from "X-Men" to manipulate which number balls are to be picked...
Anyway i doubt that would deter around 98% of the local population to keeping tab of the winning numbers this evening...

Seriously (in a utopic way) if I really hit that jackpot of 5 million, what would I do with it?
Minus away some tax here and there, there should still be a good 4 million plus or so...which in recent context would not account much.. (the most a packet of roasted peanuts)
But instead in splurging on condomimum and the latest convertible coupe, I think I would really save a bulk of it, and perhaps take a fraction for investment which I really would be clueless to begin with..
But top on my agenda is to clear my loans (study and housing), and of course marry my girl...banquet at Ritz Carlton or Fullerton should be a breeze...
Then a round Japan honeymoon duly follows which would be the epitome to the whole wedding bonanza...
Follow by renovation and acquring new furnitures and electrical appliances I have ever wanted.. I feel it would be smarter to splurge on something you can use regularly than a weddnig banquets which you had no time to dine peacefully and hear complains from squabbling relatives/friends...

But as mentioned I still gotta work and so will my future wife as 4 million would deplete in no time if not used wisely and left some for savings...

Oops, gotta stop building castle in the air...not that you ever care (hey that rhymes..)

Last evening, the 2nd week of "Rock Star:INXS" saw some of the favorites didn't perform as well...
Ty, the punk-style black man, did The Killers' "Somebody Told Me" which didn't impress INXS as they find it is too theatrical
The sultry Daphna did Joan Jett and the Blackhearts' "Hate myself for loving You" sounded just like the orginal, without any creative input in it...
Neal, the sexy guy, sang off-key in Bryan Adams' "Summer of 69" which did him no favour even he was playing guitar as well...
An the Avril-Lavinge lookalike, Jessica who sang Jimi Hendrix's "Purple Haze" which as bassist Garry Bear said is "interchangable" to her previous performances...

But one thing J.D. once again was irresistable with his own arrangement for Alanis Morrisette's "Hand in my Pocket" and really start to impress me (and surely the rest of the audience) with his talents...
I also am rooting for Mig, the only Austrailian mate, who managed to conqueor that tongue-twisting "Walk This Way" by Aerosmith & Run DMC...

So I'm putting my bets down that the 3 with the least vote tonight would most probably be Jessica, Neal and maybe Dana (who was unfortunate as she could not feel for the song she performed, "The One I love" by REM and the audience could not feel for her performance too).

Japanese word of the day: 宝くじ　~ta-ka-ra-ku-ji~(Lottery) Never believe is infatuated with it because I detest losing...

Blabbermouth...

20th July 2005, July

It's duly time to begin the countdown...

30 days to go for my trip....

Spent a good of today (while I'm not busy with my work of course, just in case people think that I constantly loafing around) gather all the subway and station maps for Osaka and glad to manage to got a few useful maps after a fruitful search..
The only problem now it's apparent that JR trains do not run within the city of Osaka extensive, much unlike Tokyo, meaning I might actually need to pay for transport despite holding on to a JR railpass by then... But it seems basically would be travelling northwards to Umeda and downwards back to Namba where our hotel is for intensive shopping... perhaps dropby Tsuruhashi to see that "Shinseikai" Tower... man I'm so geared up to fly off at this current moment...

That aside a little episode fell out at work today, and yes you guess it correctly, it unavoidably involved JxMMy D...
Last week I was informed by the girls who got that piece of exclusive scoop about Has, my old NUS course-mate whom I introduced to join the Seban's lab a couple of years ago, threatening to resign due to the ill & unfair treatment she received from no good S.O.B. himself who compounded her with much more workload since the departure of Di a month ago while the remaining laboratory biologists still maintained with their usual chores instead of been distributed evenly the work to be done...
Fustrated she confided with Eliz who was pretty close to the girls at the side, that she is contemplating of leaving her post even to the extend that she has yet to find a new job elsewhere...
Do note the key-word here is "contemplating" and not an actual decision...
The word spread fast and not too long the girls gave me an insight of the situation.

So yesterday in a rare chat with JxMMy (even much more rare than once in a blue moon) about work and projects (what else do you think we will discuss? my Japan trip? God forbidden no!) and since I knew the animosity towards Seban was well acknowledged and shared among us I just leaked the information about Has' imminent departure to JxMMy..

Little did I knew, not too long after I had realised that the blabbermouth, tactless assfreak would proceed to ask Has personally...
My goodness what is wrong with that man?
If anyone would ask, it should be me cos I am afterall the culprot that lure her into this hell-hole...
Yet I knew when certain circumstances can get sensitive especially when she has yet had a firm decision on that...
Has of course was well stunned by JxMMy's knowledge since it was her most inner secret which she thought she had confided in Eliz and no one else... so of course she confronted the latter for telling the girls about it (which she would assume where JxMMy got the info from), which led to Eliz confronting the girls which with the flow of the vicious cycle fell back on me to tell JxMMy about it...

Though the situation was not as bad as it seems, and Has might had react a bit out of pique and would be fine after a while, it just simply showed what a tactless, insensitive blockhead JxMMy can be..I rest my case...

Japanese word of the day: 不正の言葉~fu-sei-no-ko-to-ba~ (Wrongs Words) JxMMy always say the wrong things at the wrong time.

The Cooling Effect

19th July 2005, Tuesday

One more from now I would be all gear up for my "nihon ryoko"...but 31 days from then today, I just gotta stick to my daily routine as once again back to work after the 3 days sabbatical...

For the last few days our island has been enveloped within a state of cooling atmosphere due to the monsoon rain and storm much unlike the humidity my dear friend is suffering from in Osaka...

Well we had been abused by a long overdued arid weather for like months now (since the start of the Lunar New Year), so we are much thankful for this nice barrage of rain and especially strong, cool breeze...We must also be thankful we aren't at the brunt of mother's nature twist of fate like in certain parts of Taiwan, been tormented by bad weather due to typhoon... well I am expecting no less from my forthcoming trip as I had experienced last year the typhoon Japan can be receiving as well...

One very interesting article from C/Net regarding the top 10 downloads in the past 10 years..
Well with the world now so much connected with the internet, such freewares are well been adored and appreciated by users worldwide, which is why the likes of ICQ, Winamp, Winzip, Firefox, Acrobat Reader etc. have been so popularly use.
Looking through the list, surely shows advant garde softwares to bring so much joy and convenience over the years...
Well I have used like 7 of the 10 featured and sort of able to relate to my own history of dabbling in the cyberspace:

I think it all started in 1998 or 1999 when my household finally got a Pacific Internet Dial-up subscription plan.
At 56kps that time, it was well enough to maintain my random web surfing and occasional downloading of mp3s (which is well legal back then).
Of course with the explosion of mp3s back then, I like many would download free players like Winamp as well as Sonique both which are well adequate and loaded with a library of downloadable skins to lighten up the environment a bit.

Chatting was like the "in" for a few years at that time with "Internet Relay Chat" been the most popular. There were also chatrooms where I met some of my closer friends now (the DJ Su fanclub days). But ICQ has to be the most important tool to own as it enables every mothers' sons in your list to get a clue of your status (i.e. confirm your existence as well)...
We can chat in our self created ICQ chatrooms, transfer and share files and for me even confess my adoration to one of my million targets via the messaging tool....
Over the years many softwares like Yahoo Messenger and now MSN Messenger has tried to dislodge the grand master of them all..
I guess I would still be using ICQ regularly is not for the high processing memory it needs as compared to MSN...

Winzip (and eventually RAR) and Acrobat Reader are essential tools because without them a bot of files cannot be accessed.
Real Mediaplayer was really cool to watch all my J-pop/J-rock MVs in at a fraction of the size needed to encode videos in avi in the past. Even now Mediacrop radio is endorsing RealPlayer to broadcast their online airplay with increased stability as compared to the past.

Come on, everyone is almost well guilty of using "peer to peer" softwares at certain point in their internet records. I was too late into the Napster but used it's successor Kazaa pretty much when I was at the transition stage from dial-up to broadband.
Finally I found my calling when limitless selection of anime series were made available using a certain P2P tool known as bittorrent, the rest is history...

In 2003 I bought my iPod which is a prized asset of mine for now because as Tower Records said, "No Music, No Life".
The free media player included in the package for Windows environment was MusicMatch Jukebox which was a sucky tool because of the difficulties to arrange the playlist in the fashion you want, as well as deleting songs you don't want from the hard disk.
But when recommended to use a Windows-friendly iTunes, i was exhilerated with the ease of usage because iPod & iTunes are a pair made for each other unlike been a strange bedfellow with the MusicMatch Jukebox.. Not only now I can do all I mentioned above, I can easily encode the tracks with Chinese or Japanese wordings which is another feature the jukebox could not provide.

Modzilla's FireFox web explorer exploded into the scene 1 or 2 years back and gosh it had really manage to dislodge Netscape and even IE.
The rarity of pop-ups was well appreciated but before I switch over domestically I used to have security problem as well as Java problem with my IE but in FireFox all are solved...
Really like the "Open in new Tab" function, surely allows one to open many webpages without the same number of applications to overload the task bar...

Talking abuot Pop-ups and spywares, one always have to cautious on the vicious invasion in this time and space, so Ad-Aware is supposedly a cool software to prevent those but I had been using Spybot since introduced by Loke years back, and I'm please with it, so it stays since...
Of course there is a need for a good Firewall tool as well as Anti-virus software but free downloadable ones are very hard to find as usual...

Last but not least, Skype is supposedly a revolutionary internet telephony program which would cost peanuts (sorry not the 600K type) as compared to actual overseas call. My buddy used to urge me to get this going since he doesn't have easy access to telephone over at Osaka..But it didn't realize and we find MSN Msger more than adequate to keep in contact, so didn't get that as well

Hmm..there you go..just don't know what kind of convenient freewares are available in the next decade which can be as out of this world as their predecessors have done...

Japanese word of the day: インターネット ~in-taa-netto~ (Internet) how crucial it is to my life

二人の時間

18th July 2005, Monday

A very simplistic day in which I spent a chunk of it with my girl which had been way overdued...

I already planned to apply for a day of medical leave as I still had a good 13 days of it for this year to spare (by the way it was also my only MC in my 3 years of working life at my current workplace as I was illusioned that by keeping my MC records sparkling clean, I could get better appraisal and thus more bonus...I'm such a dork...)

Well a lazy Monday not helped by the torrential monsoon season which was why my lass was reluctant to creep out of bed till like way past 10....her fatigue gathered over the previous week was in need of some recuperation indeed...
I had already kept BY informed about my absence for today as been in first at work, she should be the most ideal to keep our supervisor informed. I also crept up at around to buzz a sms to JxMMy to highlight to him, "Hey, it's your day alone, treasure it...masturbation-boy!"

The doctor around my neighborhood which was under the insurance plan had become sort of a haunt for this year...with the fact that I only require to pay $5 for the medicine minus the hassle of the long queue usually found in the polyclinc, it was well worthed it...

My 3rd consultation bundled with the 1st 2 did not last more than 10 minutes I guess as I tried to convince him that I assumed that might be some inflammation of my cervical node and the recurring migraine... well he read me like a book as the symptoms subsided for today and I was well and healthy..he did issue me a MC anyway...Hope he doesn't think I'm malingering or something.

As the rain got bigger, we were struggling to get back home straight, so we just wander around Northpoint from which my lass engaged in a little shopping spree as the place weren't as crowded on a soggy Monday morning as one could expect...

Back home I cooked up some instant noodles as we had ran out of spaghetti to serve with the pasta sauce my mom has prepared..and it surely goes well with the durain feast straight after, as my uncle from M'sia was kind and considerate enough to acknowledge the fact that some of us impaired with the transportation mean to go into our durain plantation for some durain feasting, thus prepared a box of the nice, succulent, well refigerated delight...

We then had a good talk about our forthcoming trip as well as her family crisis...
She also wanted me to reciprocate the fact that whenever I asked her to join me and my friends for like some dinner or a show, she would duly obliged but in my case, I usually show reluctance...
Me bad... I think I would try to spare a thought for her on that..I guess

She left in the afternoon with an evening planned with a workout session at her fitness center as well as her meeting for her sidelines...but it was sure a worthwhile time spent together for a while now....

Japanese word of the day: 彼女~ka-no-jo~(Girlfriend) I am a lucky man to have mine.

Ugh..Not Again

17th July 2005, Sunday

Spent my Saturday morning with my lass but not too long for her to have a good rest before her last working day of the week...anyway would see her a good deal of time tonight...

Went to my weekly pilgrim again, this week without the likes of Ferris, Chan and Eng Kiong who were most probably had the time of their lives down at Kowloon, Hong Kong then...

With the meticulous Matthew and the blithe Vincent at the helms of things, things can get quite out of hand especially on a crowded Saturday afternoon , and with the new "C3 Hobby" promotion which is giving out $1 voucher for next purchase upon very $10 spent, a lot of confusion is bound to happen as occured with $100+ unaccounted for at the end of the day....

Loke was there to help them set up some wireless network so that they could share internet connection to KJ and guys at "Tri-angel Toys" as well as Jeremy at "Muffled Monsters"...Karen came as well pretty late in the afternoon..
I took the opportunity to update the guys about my little proposal plan during the forthcoming Japan trip and hope to find sometime for celebrations when the few of them are there after the Wonder Festival....
Karen went a job interview at Animax as program coordinator most probably in view to find some market resarch as well as planning probable program schedule for that anime network..very interesting job which she claimed that a couple of interviewees even knelt and begged for the job desperately.. as for her the cut in the pay package to about 1K less was too hard for her to swallow...so she had to wait for the 2nd interview before deciding.

Plenty of new stuffs arrived in stall and I had to curb my temptations for get a few items, perhaps due to save more money as well as the fact that I would be able to spend on those when I'm in Japan, anyway the allure of the figurines was once again too hard to resist...

The main aim today was to collect the 2nd part of the "Shinsengumi" series from Tay-chan which he was supposed to pass it to me a week ago which he had forgotten..
So with full intents, I dropped him a SMS to remind him about in the morning and fresh from the last episode I had just watched in my 1st part, I was in full anticipation to go on a marathon today as Kondo and gang decided to exterminate the harmful threat of Serizawa which resulted in the establishment of Shinsengumi....
Therefore when Matthew handed me the discs I accepted it with maximum gratefulness till when I was back home in the evening to find out Tay-chan missed out the 1st disc of the 2nd part..URGH!! And I could not continue my series till perhaps later on today as I assigned my lass who was attendinig Japanese language class around the area to pick it up on my behalf...

My parents were off to Johor Bahru in the midst of twilight to attend the 80th birthday celebration of my paternal eldest auntie, leaving us home to fend for ourselves with a big pot of spaghetti..
And yes I have confirmed to take a day of MC tomorrow as mentioned a couple of days back..well planned perhaps..aye
Caught with my buddies this morning...over MSN messenger as well as via phone....
TW was well smittened by the galore of new figurines produced by the big figurines companies like Kotobukiya, Kaiyodo, Max Factory and Good Smile Co. with me providing the "poison", especially he had the luxury of Namba Den Den Town to supply him with his needs and wants...
Meanwhile, a long-awaited call from CS who is in the midst of completing his driving lessons so as to prep him for his practical test on the 10th of coming month.
He also beckoned me to join him the world of the MMORPG "Guild Wars" which he described to be the number 2 thing to occupy his life at the moment (the 1st being the quality time he need to spend with his girlfriend)...
I really doubt I had that kind of time to spend playing online game at the moment, but we'll see...

What a way to spent my serene, peaceful Sunday afternoon with the Republic of Singapore Navy summoning me back all the way to Changi Naval Base to have a good look of how I have became as well as donning their spreadsheet of attendance list with my elegant signature..UGH!!!
I assume that the recall activation was done for the year with the one in March..but no..my unit had other plans to gave an impromptu one on a nice July Sunday like this...
Well everything turns out well as I met up with a old BMT/Navy friend, Lee whom I have last encountered in March as well..
He was kind enough to give me a ride home since he himself is living in AMK, not too far from my place..
He had to rush down from work as he was in the middle of his shift.. We had a good chat update on our jobs, the latest NKF fiasco, politics etc...
And the fact that he is working in the same company as my girl, it's good to hear another point of view of how degenerative their workplace can be...
& of course a comfy ride back sure beats a long, tiring ride of the 3-Tonner truck which was the sole transport service they provide us with...

Japanese word of the day:失望 ~shi-tsu-bou~(Disappontment) the moment I tried to transfer the episodes of the Shinsengumi onto my hard-disk only to realise I'm short the episodes I badly wanted to watch.

My lass's dilemma...

15th July 2005, Friday

End of the work week already and on personal, not a very productive and fulfilling one...
Perhaps been mentally eaten up by the anticipation of going for my vacation..

Don't know why feel like my right cervical node (the lymph node located behind the jaws, above the neck) would have a transient pain coming on and off, accompanied with a bout of migraine on my right cranium as well..well if the problem persist would maybe visit the GP coming Monday..and hopefully spend a bit of time with my lass...

Talking about my girl she seemed to be bothered by a few issues on her hands...
Firstly a quick resolution of whether would she jump ship to another company of the same nature or remains at her current post...
It seems like she has been pretty fustrated with the incompetant management at her side for a while now and the window of opportunity was opened to her when the company she used to attached to during her school days came calling for her service...
In fact her Korean mentor then also "head-hunted" her to come under his wings as he decided to start up a brand new semi-conductor manufacture company in Singapore...
The last choice was an appealing as she always has high regards and respect for her Korean mentor. The stumbling block is the fact that to get the start-up company onto the right track, it will translate to endless hours of slogging which my girlfriend is uncomfortable about especially now fresh from her Kuala Lumpur seminar, she has a well rejuvenated belief to succeed in her sidelines, so as would not be tied down doing shifts for the rest of her working life, and eventually might strain relationships with her family members...

The decision now swings to the original head-huntee but a piece of advice from the same Korean mentor gave a rude awakening of the other company is actually a carbon copy of the situation of her current status..full of blinded office politics and restricted opportunities to acquitted with new technology which she is always craving for...Thus with that in mind, she just would stay put for a few more years, at least she would have to go through the hassle of staying afresh in a brand new environment while allowing her time to focus on her sidelines even more...

Now the job issue aside, it seems like her family which is on the brink of breaking up could actually suffer the brunt of her parents' marriage which is already on the rocks...
Her dad could virtually stay away from home for days with working as his excuse while her mom just buried herself in her own job and seemed unmotivated to ressurect her fledging marriage...
Her 2 younger brothers seem to be more interested with their own well-beings, leaving her to fight a lone battle to restore her shattered family unit..
Well there's actually so much she could do especially now with her tight schedule.
In fact her main aim now is to be the emtional pillar in case her mother would actually break down..
I felt sad for her, and hopefully my presence and support could be enough to see her through the ordeal and hopefully the "surprise" I'm going to present to her could be a catalyst of better things to come....

Well as mentioned yesterday, Wil was the one ousted from "Rock Star:INXS" despite a pretty cool rendition of INXS' own hit, "Need You Tonight" but seriously that guy is a dead log on stage.. a bit more well suited for jazz singers like perhaps Micheal Buble...

The final charity concert went on as well despite the resignation of the shamed CEO with her board members but they refused to canvas for donations...
But the Taiwanese compere who had been an ardent ambassador seemingly was fuming as he muttered his parting words, "You all can forget about the number to call for donation but I will always remember in my heart, and that's the most important"...
Well it seems like the chapter would come to a close now, but is it?

Japanese word of the day:　仕事 ~shi-go-to~ (Job) My girlfriend has a definte anwser of which one she is choosing.

WHAT?! Gold-plated Water Tap?

14th July 2005, Thursday

There had been a furore and an uproar for the past week regarding common folks who was outraged to discover a certain Non-Government Charitable organisation who are always holding fund-raising shows on local TV (from 1 per year years back to about 7-8 shows a year) as they sought as much funds to support the herd of kidney patients under their care...

Unknowingly, the CEO of the organisation sued an established medai company for libels over an article published to reveal the lavatories of the main office well lavished with toilet bowls costing 1K each as well as gold-plated water taps...
As they are a non-profitable organisation, all the money incurred came from our donations...
During cross-examination in court, this particular CEO was been coerced to give accounts of his own pay package and expenditure under the company's account...
The fact that he was paid like 25K per month with 12 months bonus for the last couple of year as well as been ushered on first class flights when attending overseas seminar or business engagements was the time bomb that exploded as donors all over the island was irate about what supposed to be good money to be donated to the financially-crippled patients suddenly became money to pay the CEO and his board of directors..

Disucssions were spread like wildfire in all local forums, letters of complaint been sent to newspaper to voice their dismay.. Some more affected donors who made monthly donation via their bank accounts decided to stop doing so... The worst hit would be a fund-raising concert supposed to the 3rd in line to raise funds for cancer victims...
Over the previous 2 Sundays, our kind-souled Singaporeans had already raised aorund 10 million dollars and they would be hoping for another 2-3 million this evening..but I think would be an uphill task after such a fiasco
Some donors even wanted to cancel their donations over the last 2 weeks...
Some enraged public even went to the extend to vandalise the building circumference walls with "Liars!" in both Chinese and English

The situation worsened when the public was made known that a year of treatment fee for the patients accounted to 31 million but the patients themselves had to to cough out 24 million of it..meaning the organisation only covers 7 million or so and yet their CEO got around 1.2 million with pay plus bonuses...

Personally I was already disenchanted by the non-transparency of the organisation, so I never bothered to do any donations, and eventually my friends and family also distanced from this particular organisation and aligned with a monastery-ran hospital which seems more in need of funds (at least they do not have reserves enough to last 10 years)
In fact I was never a charitable person..because I'm just plain selfish, enough said...

Well seems like the online petition which was signed by close to 30000 local residents (me included) could be the finishing blow to make the government realised the people meant business...
As the CEO and his directors stepped down from pedestal (latest scoop), the government would form an interim management team to tide the organisation through and try to win back the trust of the people...
What timing when there would the 3rd concert tonight which might see prospective donors shunning it altogether...

That aside the 1st official round of "Rock Star: INXS" was simply exhilerating last evening..
Everyone was fabulous with their well rehearsed performance even Susie who forgotten her lyrics the night before did well with a Blondie number and the "seemingly possessed" J.D. hit the jackpot with his own arrangement of the Papas & the Mamas' "Califonia Dreaming"...
Actually there were a few fave been focused on such as Brandon, Jordis and Ty, and I also fancy the only Australian in the competition, Mig who was shamed by the band the night before with Nirvana's "Smell Like Teen Spirits" which is really no his thing...
But among the roses was the only thorn which I felt is time to go:



Wil Seabrook who did Jesus Jones' "Right Here, Right Now", half-heartedly and as the band and Dave Navarro said he was just crooning for the ladies and could not feel for him.. and he was just mundane, standing there motionless with his mike stand, really lack the showmanship as a rock singer...
I'm pretty sure he would be one of the 3 to the one awaiting elimination after public voting...

On a lighter note, I discovered a single nostril hair within my right nostril which grew in a unruly fashion which tends to tickle the circumference of my nostril which is very irritating...
I had zero tolerance for that irritation and would kept fidgetting with my nose...even tempted to scratch my nostrils but not a pleasant scene in the public which looks just like I'm digging for "gold"...
Damn..just got to isolate the "culprit" and remove the root of it all...

Japanese word of the day: わがままな~wa-ga-ma-ma-na~ (Selfish) yes I am one selfish guy, so bite me MONKEYBOY...

I Want my MTV...

13th July 2005, Wednesday

Take referance from the mid 80s hit by Dire Straits which signify by the coming of the MTV age then...
I myself has been a MTV kid growing up on my usual dosage of music videos which are always enthralling to watch...
I still remember Wacko Jacko was way too cool (and yes a bit suave with his dances that I have to agree) in the MVs of "Beat It" and "Bad"
As well my very first fave pop song back in 1983 I think with Tears for Fear singing on the cliff with "Shout", as well as amazed that how A-HA's "Take on Me" had been conceptualised and made...

But recent MTV programming has gone too wayward... especially the Hip-Hop/ R&B flesh-feast MVs been churning any other moment can be to a state of irritation.
MTV can be a true indication, a benchmark of the pop scene these days and what young MTV generations are yearning to see.. & the last few years Hip Hop is definitely been on the rise, perhaps at the peak...
Never a big fan of such music genre, furthermore watching skimpy & scantily-clad women dancing (with notion of seducing) horrendously ugly Hip Hop stars like 50 cents & Nelly can sure be a nauseating experience which I would exchange for those bubblegum boyband pop anyday...
Now even MTV shows have been adjusting to such pattern with Americans (with their well-chiselled bods) would frolickinig around in some shows which have no complete sense except to become foreplay for their sex rampant eventually...
And there was this show "TRL (Total Request Live)" always have some of this obnoxious Hip Hop dimwits coming to the show with endless adorations from their equally dimwit fans (remind me of JxMMy at this point) and during their conversation would always goes like this:
"Well this is how we dig in, with our playa and our blink blink..YEah..you know what I mean"

"NO! I don't know what you mean!" This is what I wanna rebuked if I was the host, because their words and phases no complete sense, man...

Beside the hordes of dimwit Hip Hop artists, MTV recently had been inculcating viewers to pursue the lifestyle of the rich and famous... and yes dumb...
Since the initiation of the world's most dubious reality show "The Newly-Weds" which kept tab on the married life of pop stars Jessica "I can't differentiate tuna with chicken" Simpson and that lead singer from 98 Degrees, which amazingly became a cult hit for MTV programming, MTV been trying to produce more of such shows which simply waste your precious minutes of life away with their non-substantial conversations...
Britney Spears and current hubby, Kevin Ferderline should have their own version of "Newly Weds" soon..
Then there is Jessica's baby sister's "The Ashlee Simpson Show" which I caught one episode last night which bears dangerous remifications as they are prompting American youths to fulfill their dream as recording artistes just like that...I love the part when on her European tour, she was been bombarded by British DJs with some common knowledge questions which she couldn't anwser a single one at all.. such as "What is the capital of Spain?" and "What does Condelezza Rice do in the American Government?"...
She was left red-faced while her companion was brooding all these while for the torment Ashlee had to endure..
come one Ashlee stop been a dumb blonde, go read some papers and be updated of your current affairs...
Well there have always been dumb popstars..the biggest has to be Mariah Carey...who else...
When been asked how she felt about the passing of the late King of the country Jordan, she replied,
"Oh no, he was a good man, in fact I met him recently, he was a great basketball player..."
She was thinking about Micheal Jordan all these time.... dork....

Riding of the success of hotel heiress and socialite (what do they do anyway? socialise?), Paris Hilton and her friend, Nicole Richie's "The Simple Life", MTV also created a show about the daughter of fashion designer Tommy Hilfinger (did I mentioned she was butt ugly?) who did nothing but splurging their wealth on boutiques and weeping over guys who ditched them...oh no, please stop...
But I'm very sure youths of America would be religiously tuning in to indulge in their own dream of become a wealthy heiress who can get anything with a simple beck and call..

Reality TVs have been enjoying much success over the years, starting with Mark Burnett's "Survivor" fulfilling dreams of average Joes & Janes for their few minutes of fame while casting them in some out of this world situations...
But somehow it got blatantly stale after a while, so back to the drawing board to cook up more exciting TV series...
Last evening I caught the premiere of the latest Mark Burnett's brainchild, "Rock Star: INXS"
Think of it like "Survivor" meets "American Idol".. Since the death of their front man and lead vocals, Micheal Hutchence, Australian rock band, INXS had been in frantic search of a new vocals, and this programme would serve 15 hot prospect on a platter for their selection...
It's not easy been a rock vocals.. you got to be charismatic on stage while with a huge voice to do live shows..(yes lip syncing aka Milli-Vanilli style is a "no no")
So in came 15 contestants (mixture of guys and ladies) selected by the band members themselves to slog out and vy for that elusive spot...
What a fresh idea, especially when one aspiring rock artist could actually front a legendary band like INXS...
As DJ Flying Dutchman from our local radio station "Class 95FM" mentioned in his show, one could never imagine a lady fronting INXS, not me at least...
But the contestants were good especially when they had to do an impromptu performance in an hour since the show started in front of thousands of audience which can be a daunting task for novices...
Jane's Addiction & Red Hot Chilli Pepper fans' would love the fact that guitarist Dave Navarro is one of the judge and host of the show as well, and he was pretty candid with his comments but the first pereformance by many did really impress both the pros and the audience...
But in the end one had to be eliminated, and this certain girl Dana who did a dreadful rendition of "Knocking on Heaven's Door" was picked instead of a Susie from Toronto who completely forgotten her lines despite been the very last one to perform...
Been a rock fan myself, I really dig this show as you can see some of most classic rock tunes been performed by a prospective INXS lead vocals..
Well if this show really pull off, it sure will rejuvenate the career of this band whom I think has peaked in the 80s and 90s even before Hutchence's passing.
I'll defintely be tuning in for the next show tonight when the remaining contestants were presented with a designated song to perform, so with time to prep, more is expected from them for sure...

In conclusion, I still watch MTV, especially the Taiwan channel which becomes my only avenue now to update me a bit of the J-pop scene, but even in my fave music genre, a certain Kumi Koda is emulating the hip hop divas in the States with over-exposure of her cleavage..no wonder such a husky voice like hers can make it...sex do sell man...

Japanese word of the day: 番組~ban-gu-mi~ (TV Program) still in such of some good ones to watch, man I'm such a TV Buff..really need to go outside more...

Clean Slate of Health

12th July 2005, Tuesday

Things are definitely getting rosy for my Japan trip with my hotel lodging in Tokoy been secured by Mr V himself but he always had listening problem and because I failed to double-confirm in the first place, he mistook that my check out date was on the 23rd when it was supposed to be on the 24th, luckily he mentioned it is very probable that he could extend another day for me...
Just glad I got that settled and at a much better pricing as quoted from the internet..yoohoo!

Last night marked the season finale of the fervently-followed "Desperate Housewives" (even though I'm pretty sure "Lost" pipped it as the most watched primetime Ch 5 series now), as we are revealed the deep dark secret of the late Mary Alice Young who really did kill an ex-drug addict under her care, Deidre who sold her son (who becomes Zach Young) to Mary Alice & Paul years back.
But when the latter came sober from her addictions and demanded to start afresh with her flesh and blood, in the fit of moment the Youngs murdered Deidre which kept many avid viewers to the edge with the progession of storyline..
Meanwhile Rex van de Kamp passed on with heart attack leaving Bree (my fave housewife) devastated and in grief...even then there was a cliffhanger at that point ...

Well all in all, I would really miss these fumbling troop of housewives to entertain my stale Monday evenings with their antics and skeletons in their closets..

Over on Ch 56 (E City), the TBS Japanese dorama, "Hotman 2" would be coming to an end by tonight as well and boy has it evolved into the Japanese version of "Party of 5" (without the irritant known as Scott Bailey and boobelicious Jennifer Love Hewitt of course)...

Man I'm such a TV buff (cum couch potatoe)....

Anyway I'm sure alot of Singaporeans would be indulged in all sorts of health supplements or ailments to keep their body healthy and function properly...
Vitamin pills, calcium or iron tablets, aloe vela juice, Omega III-contained powder or pills, Tongkat Ali (more of an aphrodisiac)..and even now fat reduction pills like Extrim & Xando and of course protein and peptides supplements for those into body building...
My girl who has been dabbling with her MLM thingie for a while and had been quite keen and receptive to try some of their health products such as fibre and vegetable supplements which I did really help her with her daily bowels movement..
She also chastitsed me to take Vitamin C pills especially with her recent purchase of a single bottle of 100 tablets, of nice motive of course, so as to build my immunity especially we are so close to our impending Japan trip...
I'm actually more concern about her frail health..but seems like her healthy lifestyle and cocktail of health supplements did wonders for her little by little...
Now I just got to remind myself to down 4 Vitamin C tablets each day...(so far could only remember 2 a day)...

Meanwhile my parents had been rhapsodic with their new-found hobby, of concocting our own fruits vinegar to be consumed daily for improving our digestive system and overall bodily functions as well...
We had been on strict daily diet of apple vinegar (with honey) for a while now; but with their recently-acquired knowledge about fruits fermentation, now you will see jars and jars of sliced apple innoculated with lemon and brown sugar for 2 full weeks of fermentation and instant vinegar for consumptions...
It wasn't all that bad tasting, in fact does taste a bit like fruit wine, but much milder and less intoxicating...
But things started to get over the top as she started to add dried longan flesh into her concoction, wonder how that would taste ....hmm...

On my way home, spotted the deputy director of our institute in charge of administration, more affectionately known to us as "Old Hag" alighting the MRT...proceeding back to the institute..I couldn't have mistaken..that horrendous fashion sense, that god-owed-her-10-million-bucks wretched prune face..even if she is vaporised into ashes I'm sure I could recognised that "toilet attendant auntie" persona of hers...
What baffled me is that she could be earning tens of thousands a month, she couldn't afford to take cab..come on afterall you are still a respectable vice head of a renowned research institute...
She just took frugalness to a whole new level...

Japanese word of the day: 丸薬 ~gan-ya-ku~(Pills) Everyone just gotta pop a few every other day for healthy living...