Wish all Holidays Fall on Thursday

30th May 2007, Wednesday

The overall mood on this final day of a busy May is a jovial one...
How can I not be? It's mid week yet it felt like the end of the week as tomorrow's Vesak Day holiday..
Even the Friday beckoning seems like a half-hearted one with the weekend just preceding that...I won't have the luxury of time to fully start on my process, meaning Friday would be a soul-less carcass seeing the day goes by...literally the week really ends for me today...

Last evening IPT did take a toll on me as they decided to proceed with a CAT test (i.e. just an IPPT to gauge how well we can perform) at 8pm after the introduction which expectedly end a good 1 hour plus later for the entire lot of 100 plus of us...
We were made to run that 6 rounds around the track which even prolong the out-pro timing...
I got home by around 10pm and had my dinner at a timing meant for supper..couldn't get myself to sleep till half past the midnight thus only managed to creep out of bed by 7 this morning...

Then again it could be I was having such a nectarine-sweet dream about the newly-crowned Miss Universe from Japan, Miss Mori Riyo...
She is not the most gorgeous of the finalist in the annual beauty pageant held in New Mexico City this year but she does have the charisma to carry off the title... Miss Korea was one of the last 5 looks perhaps much prettier, only there's a high chance her nose is being surgically altered...
A strong representation from Asia in the final 15 with 4 (together with Thailand and India) shows the Oriental looks might be back in once more... except Singapore might never unravel our own myth of getting a beauty queen fit to make it into the top three of the premier competition, let alone winning it...

Also got the news from Foo that the lead vocals of the popular 90s J-pop group, Zard, Sakai Izumi died of a tragic accident on her way to a hospital to treat her cancer...
It's pretty sad to end a life that way especially at such a tender age (ok she's still in her 40s but still too young) as well... now there should be a Zard best album awaiting to be released again by the unscrupulous money-generating company...

Will be anticipating to watch "Maison Ikkoku" the live-action dorama special from TV Asahi this evening...
The year was 1995...Monday and Tuesday late nights were never the same when Channel 8 (god blessed) decided to telecast the anime series which propel manga-ka Takahashi Rumiko to her stellar status... and the main character Godai was the loser we could so relate to...and Kyoko the apartment manager was the dream girl for me and my buddy...
Without fail, we would shrug off any weariness we carried for the start of a school week to start up till wee hours of 1 am just to continue the long (96 episodes) series and followed the journey of Godai to successfully win the heart of Kyoko, fending off adversaries like the dashing tennis coach, Mitaka...
We'll chat about the storyline even though the anime series was actually a good 10 years back then...
We'll memorized those enchanting OP & ED themes such as "Ci.ne.ma" and "Begin the Night" from Picasso...
Ultimately we will envision ourselves as Godai, and his uphill mission to get the girl of his dream, rejoicing when he actually got it...
As such, this series played a crucial role in our early otaku days and will always be well cherished by the likes of us...

The live action had Itoh Misaki, who will always remembered as Hermes from "Densha Otoko" as Kyoko which to me doesn't seems too ideal but then if you ask me who will be suitable to step into this massive role, I will be stumbled as this sacred role shouldn't be taken out of the fantasy anime context as of most gem anime series...
As for Godai, I have never seen the actor before but he sure doesn't have the Godai feel to it...
Nevertheless this special couldn't come in a more suitable time and let's hope it can live up to the animated counterpart...

Japanese word of the day: ビューティー・クイーン (Beauty Queen) Well at least Jessica Tan still looks better than Miss Malaysia and Miss China

Vegetarian Heroes

28th May 2007, Monday

On Friday we got rocked by a couple of news about fellow colleagues at work...
One of our most studious and least flashy (also absolutely nonchalant without a murmur of any ill-treatment of work or company) rocked the department with his resignation, designated in July...
His reason was that the everyday routine stuff was too "dead" for his liking and he will be moving to something else with more live in it (make it an over dosage of it) as an educator..
The rumors had been sprouting for a couple of weeks now by the inauspicious tandem of Shitty Green & His Beautiness but his e-mail verified the claim...
Which is why our supervisor has been pretty keen to go through her list of prospective replacements and spared whatever precious time for interviews...One of the candidate being my colleague LF...
The story will unravels as time comes as who will be the faithful one to be the replacement for Beautiness to "sabotage" with....

Speaking of story... I have completed watching the 1st Volume of a American drama series with perhaps the best storyline ever... "Heroes"..
The finale ending at episode 23 was a well-rounded one with no Lost-style bloody cliffhanger which leave fans hanging and the same hordes of fans, badly disorientated by the story (i.e. Lost) and abandoned the show...
Meanwhile NBC prime time feature had the conclusion which they have been roasting up for the previous 22 episodes...
I was stranded on episode 17 for a while, so that my missus could catch up my pace...
So on Friday evening, we opened that bottle of wine my buddy and his lass got for us when they came over a fortnight back as well as a pack of Ruffles Sour Cream chips to get ourselves cozy in front of our wall-hung LCD TV to begin our adventure till the end of the beginning of the apocalypse of New York...
However after going through 3/4 of the wine (which contains a mere 9.5% alcohol level by the way), my crimson-faced wife started to lose her soberness and did the next best thing, dozed off...
Fed up by her failure to see my effort to finish up the series together with her, I marched on towards the end by myself only to be succumbed by my drowsiness...that is after watching that cool episode 21 which see Hiro and Ando teleported themselves to 5 years in the future when the apocalypse of New York did happened and the future Hiro became a vigilante for their kind against an American government who sighted them as monsters under the leadership of President Nathan Petrelli...
Peter with that scar on his face and hooking up with Jessica (now a stripper) was much like Neo from the Matrix especially his execution of all the powers he had attained over the years upon interaction with other special people like him...
I continued the final 2 episodes on Saturday and was awe-struck by how well the story was tied up and how all the characters come into the whole picture...There was even a sneak peek into the next season's storyline...

Feeling a state of emptiness with the conclusion of a show which avid fans like myself, Foo and Chan had to patiently anticipate for at least 4-5 months, I left for La Tendo, hopefully I could share my woes with the rest...
However the main attention at the store was about how Tian Tian managed to fend off a supposedly stalker, smitten by her and seriously not in the right state of sanity as he would squat in front of the shop to just gaze at her...Man, there sure are some basketcases out there...
Karen arrived from her class and she and Eng Kiong mentioned about getting their portable game console.. for her a NDS Lite (smart choice, girl) for him a PSP perhaps...
However I unleashed my own white jewel box and introduced them to "Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan" (since they were fiddling with the Taiko game on Chan's PSP) and instantaneously they are sold...
In the matter of minutes, Karen vindicated her choice for a pink NDS lite while EK suddenly abandoned his plan for PSP to switch allegiance to the Nintendo counterpart and even Chan who under the impression that his brother might want this, joined the bandwagon...
Then everyone agreed to head down to AMK Hub where EK know of a game shop who they have been distributing figurines to, to see if they could pull a special deal...

Before that, we were joined by Yanhui who arrived from her own shopping spree to dinner at Fortune Center for an organic dinner..literally...
It's a rare diner offering vegetarian cuisines made with organic vegetables with the likes of "Golden Pillow" (nice seed breads with fillings of vegetables and delectable sauces) and Salad Soba...
As you should guess by now when the word "organic" comes into the picture, things will not be cheap...

At this juncture, I am already in the midst of my "Heroes Withdrawal Syndrome" and kept citing Heroes reference in my conversation, which led the rest to a state of irk...

By the time we got to AMK Hub, it was around closing hours for many shops but that didn't encourage the crowd to subside...
We headed straight to the game shop and was prompt to pick up 2 NDS Lites at a pretty good price and the next destination..my place...

my La Tendo clique has yet to grace my pad and this must be the most queer occasion to do so, as they wanted some NDS roms to allow them to start fiddling with their new consoles asap...
Beside the foursome, Ferris too made an appearance and putting the games into each micro SD card was as easy as I citing reference from "Heroes", and before you know it you have 4 NDS Lite hook up on Wi-fi engaging in a tag-team Ouendan action and it was something fresh for me as only in "against mode", you will see a few sequences not to be seen in the "Hitori Ouen" option...
It was near 1am when I finally duplicated copies of the ROMs for all 3 and we parted ways to have a good rest with EK & Karen having to wake up for badminton at Clementi and Chan and myself at our swan song in CSC...

It wasn't the best swan song ever...
If last week's sales was pathetic, this week just takes the cake...
By 3pm, my net sale was just a wretched $2 from that "ah pek" who speaks gibberish and I had problem understanding...
Meanwhile Chan was able to clear some items previously deem as un-sellable...
TW dropped by in the afternoon to acquire his Gundam FIX Figuration and had a brief time, hanging out our booth which didn't do any good to our business anyway...
It was only till the end of the day when we tried our best to rid of those loose figurines with much deflated prices and the usual scalpers came and did us (esp. myself) a favour by purchasing alot of loose female figurines like a true blue Moe-loving otaku would...

It was time for a celebration for that past 4 weeks of sales with garner us a few hundreds even we spent many times more for those items eons back...
I gave Ek a call and check whether he and Karen would be interested to join us for dinner...which means..yes..more VEGETARIAN...
The nearest eatery which offer food without any meat in it would be Ling Zhi restaurant at Far East Square...
After some consideration, we decided to indulge ourselves with the mushroom hotpot with a la carte buffet which buffers the time the duo will take to close the shop and travel down...
The spread and array of mushrooms and other mock meats truly suits the Tom Yam soup and tonic soup we had chosen...then those sumptous tim sum and finger food..
Our digestive systems are calling out for a break before they arrived our table with the excessive air conditioning and didn't eat too much but we all agreed it was good food...expensive but good...perhaps too expensive for a simple dinner...
But the talks about Stephen Chow classic movies, Romance of 3 Kingdoms and Buddhism studies can wreck endless laughter which my missus nearly buffed out with a Chan's joke...

So 2 evenings without meat..good for the health but the gorging is not...we ain't Heroes afterall...

Japanese word of the day: 菜食主義者 (Vegetarian) I wonder how can leafy delicacies be actually be more expensive than actual animal carcass...

Want a Little More out of This Life...

22nd May 2007, Tuesday

The title of this post seems a bit heavy for today's mood...heehee
I am fully contented of my current status, just life been getting stagnant and I am yearning for a bit more excitement to spur me on for the next few months...

The past 2 weekends with my buddies surely brought back great memories we had at our prime... those precious (at times precarious) gaming session which these days would be hard to come by due to our work commitment and personal lives with our other halves and family...
But inside, I was just glad we remained compadre after so many years with some of them seeking studies overseas or focused their lives with work of greater passion...
At the end of the day, the Wreckers will remain the wreckers... just that now the degree of wrecking havoc to people's lives has been well truncated...
I would fancy a get-together dinner one of these days with our other halves, but doubt it will be realized as simple as snapping the fingers...

Of course, my La Tendo clique will be within the vicinity all these times when the Wreckers aren't available... However our weekly badminton sessions' attendance seems decimated...some are losing interest, perhaps not too into waking up that early on Saturday or Sunday... Karen's birthday dinner was attended by mere 3 persons, could this spell that our group is disbanding?!
Highly unlikely... in sync with our otaku lifestyle is sure bandied with the rise and fall of La Tendo and our presence will continue to set the place ablaze...heehee
EK did moaned about how his own brother and Vinny hadn't been able to spare more time to see how the place is run on more regular basis...Making excessive order of a certain items, resulting in over stock of unwanted goods just ain't doing the shop any good...
Perhaps they should quit their day job and concentrate on the long-term well-being of the shop..but I doubt any of them would oblige...saying that those 2 must be somewhere in Toyama, Japan now, bringing school children to experience the "Yakigake! Nihon Tamashi!!"
I foresee the store should be well going into their 4th year of existence, just perhaps need to sort out some supply and price issue, not to appease fickle-minded ingrates which form the majority of the collectors locally but to sustain themselves even better in this limited market..
As for myself, I doubt I will ever wanna get into this business, it would just kill my passion for my figurines..

Back at home, had a few spats with my missus for the week or so, usually about her absent-mindedness and losing track of time... But those are just petty tiffs which resolves themselves over time...
However I do feel I am not committing enough to be a good husband and at current juncture, I doubt a baby would do us any good either... I need to really mature a bit more and consider when would be the best time for the next phase of life...seriously would any good father be too engross in playing PS3 with his chums and neglect his wife and children at home?? I think not...
Perhaps we need some romance in our lives again....I would always think of an escapade elsewhere or recently an idea which I had conjured to get a room at Ritz Carlton for the National Parade this year which would be held at the floating display at Marina...

A daily habitual necessity of mine had recently verified to be an infringement of our stringent law... Like other fellow lovers of that habit, we would curse and swear of the government robbing of our rights..but in the end of the day, it is still a major legality issue...
Thank goodness for alternatives on the internet to sooth that agonizing loss...

A week from now I am beginning my first IPT...
I don't fancy the idea of 2 of my weekday evenings been preoccupied by wretched sessions at Khatib camp to huddle with our pathetic cases like myself, struggling to clear that much-irked IPPT...
I had to do it for the sake of not going back for RT which would be of more sessions and involving my precious weekends...
At least for IPT, I need not sneak off from work at the awkward timing of 4 plus to make it in time at 6pm...

The current work landscape hadn't be the most illustrious.. The current project is cursed and the ideology had persistently haunting us these past weeks... Even things that had never gone wrong went wrong, subjecting me to be doubted by my supervisor about my working ability which I gut-wrenchingly hated...
However as I tried to make amends, I did something else wrong this time which really ticks me off as I am still conceiving the plan for a promotion next year...
Every performance counts and we know it...
However certain personnel in our department might be making a surprise departureo soon while some others who ought to be going will never be gone...
BY's daily whining about how busy she is and how the bosses been driving her crazy is not helping the cause and with my morale etched in the groud, it seems to be the final nail in the coffin...
But then it is the same ol' BY we grown accustomed to...
My current mood at work would be just plain jaded and not that I seek challenges but I seek recognition (kinda irony since the bonus has just passed)

On local front, there's a big hoo-haa about the approval to set a F1 racing track in the heart of our city and we can now join the likes of such exotic locations such as Monaco, Tokyo, Melbourne, Rio de Janiero as one of the selected few for the money-generating extravaganza...
The 5.25km racing course spans the Marina-Esplanade-Suntec area which in years time will be the main magnet for the bulk of tourists coming to our sunny island...F1 racing, Casino and a huge Ferris Wheel... well with the night skyline the entire place possess now, I think we are roasting nicely to be a alluring tourist spot...

Finally had an injection of nostalgia recently...From talking about Italia 90 with Faruk at the gym just now to reading Zero's narration of growing up as a part otaku part sci fi geek, which reveals our ol' comic haunt, Collector's Comic at Lucky Plaza where blood-sucking Carlos would entic you to buy his comic then suck you dry...There's a store known as "Pretty in Toyko" (or was it another name) where we used to get CD compilations of J pop and anime tracks at a time where J-pop CDs were almost non existent till the emergence of Tower Records and then HMV...man those were the days...

Then recently I spotted this girl I had a crush on back in my freshman days in NUS...
She should be at the shared facilities department since I saw her emerging from the basement.. I believed she noticed me as well but I just tried to be oblivious of her presence as it seems pretty awkward back then and perhaps now...
She had aged a bit and doesn't seems like that bubbly lass I was enchanted with...In the end, it seems like it was a blessing in disguise not to hook up...
Perhaps it's just appeasing myself or perhaps god is smiling on me but a few of those lasses I had crushes on seemed to turn out rather adversely down the years compared to my current squeeze.. :P

Japanese word of the day: 熱に上げる(Crush) I believe I even had a crush on the janitor back in those desperate days

Sleep,,That is What Need..Yeah..

21st May 2007, Monday

Another week has gone and passed, for me slightly in a lackluster manner, but nevertheless the weekend was a good time to catch up with out friends...
I dragged my heavy feet and a heavier heart to week this Monday morning as the sky seems to open up after a brief showers just before I reached my workplace...
It highly seems probable for me to doze off after lunch today, not that I am losing sleep over Man Utd's bitter lost to Chelski in the FA Cup finals...
Haven't caught much of a wink on Saturday let alone forty winks due to the all night PS3 pillaging at CS' place, and no time to recuperate the day after...

Friday was pay day and a few of us went on a celebratory mode in commemoration of the performance bonus awarded with this month's pay by dining at the N.Y.D.C branch at Holland V...
The day didn't end too smoothly as the poor results from a recent project sent my supervisor into doldrums and Shitty Green's current project surely seems like a malignantly-cursed one with all the problems encountered thus far...

My folks left for Genting Highlands and some jackpot bonanza over their horizons on Friday evening while I tried to allow my missus to catch up those episodes of "Heroes" which I had completed before we could both move on to the finale of this current season together, obviously it was to no avail as she fell into slumber before the guy could say "Previously on Heroes..."

It was at Bishan Sports Complex this week for badminton and the attendance was shoddy...
Though my missus accompanied me for it, the likes of Vincent (attending to the sick Miyano beleaguered by a bout of food poisoning requiring hospitalization), Chan (at work), Bryan (most probably too lazy to wake up in in time) and Karen (in the midst of her birthday festivities) are absent...
I had only like 4 hours of sleep, thus understandably not in prime condition for much badminton action, not that it would guarantee me a victory anyway if I was in prime mode...meanwhile the rest seems more interested in those gymnastic children at the other side of the hall...
The crowd at La Tendo was pathetic for a Saturday standard but the lack of new items could be the cause of it...

I met up with CS and Foo at AMK Hub by 5pm as agreed upon... After a rather Singapore-quality Jap cuisine for dinner, we went stock up on the bites and beverages for our night of tireless gaming while I called on my buddy to ensure he could leave from dinner with his lass and her dad prompt enough...

By no time, we got to CS' pad where new luxury gadget items were being displayed but the star of the night has to be the newly acquired PS3...
My game enthusiast buddy got his sleek new game console as a bundle with 3 other colleagues and manage to get (at this juncture) a pretty good deal...
With an interface very much like PSP, some cool features would be the wireless online connection for the playstation network, a full store of downloadable game demos (and even movie trailers) for you to sample before deciding whether to buy it...and even a little PS3 community platform (much like The Sims) for you to make friends with other PS3 users called "Home"...
While waiting patiently for TW who didn't managed to appear by 9 as he previously mentioned, we went through the list of demos CS downloaded...
We had hell of a time racing through rough terrain and getting us killed with a racing game and trying to restrict the number of rubber ducklings killed in "Rub-A-Dub"...
The guys were over-critical over my performance was a ninja in "Ninja Gaiden" and we finally end as a pair of war veterans in the first shooter game "Resistance: Fall of Man" which resembles alot to the Xbox 360 title, "Gears of War" but much easier especially I can get the grip of the game later through the night...

TW finally made his due appearance by 10 and we left little time for small talks before engaged in some ATP action with the Sega made professional tennis game where you could choose the likes of Roger Federrer, Miguel Nadal, Lindsay Davenport or Maria Sharapovia...
It is also perhaps the only game where all 4 of us could hold a game controller and use individual characters...
We only got into the exhibition mode where randomly the 4 of us picked 2 opposing teams of double and slugged it out in a 6 matches tie...
TW's obssession of using Juan Carlos Federer maintained throughout while CS' rabid dislike for Foo's James Blake (baldie) character was hilarious...
We even went far enough to clone 4 Sharapovias for a game and totally lost grip of concentration in a long, mind-sapping game...
But it was all fun especially the game even had small training matches like playing bingo in tennis style...

As Sunday morning beckons, a few of us got knocked out by fatigue and in no condition to drive us home, so the likes of myself and Foo just stayed up all the way clearing campaigns in Resistance, shooting down chimera for the fun of it...
It was around 7 plus, before we decided to call it a day and when I got him I could barely pry my eyes open as my worried-stricken wife who called me at 5 am to check my whereabouts since I promised I would surely be home before dawn breaks...

After breakfast, she drove me down to CSC though with refrain from sleep, I was easily ticked off by the fact that she could not fasten her pace as I got to my booth late again when the guys are already close to finishing setting up...
Business was bleak which i hadn't expected as I thought it might be just shy of pay day for many..obviously I was wrong...
However the lack of activities in the selling front, didn't made me fell asleep when I most needed it...and after a last burst of sales, I managed to clock just over a hundred bucks to be the top seller for this week...
Our swan song promises to be one to beat previous sales records especially for Bryan who is adamant to maintain his prices and usually unmoved by bargains...

I tried contacting Eng Kiong to check whether Karen's b-day's dinner is still on since it was in jeopardy with Vincent and Reedy requiring to pack for their Japan tripthe day after...
Without managing to get him, I just assume it was cancelled and since the rest didn't seem interested in going, so home I returned and finally get the sleep I needed before he called and asked whether I was already on my way to the restaurant...
Maybe we could make it up next Sunday, for a celebratory dinner for out great concluding sales...we could on hope for...

Japanese word of the day: 2 日 (2 days) I wonder if I had the physical condition to remain 2 days without sleep these days...

Wine Connoisseur

14th May 2007, Monday

Another long dreadful week has been initiated and with the return of Mr Shitty Green Pants, the term "breathing down your neck" becomes a norm once again..sigh...
It cast BY with such chronic fear that she reported sick today..(actually just a mere fever)..
I was a buzzing bee for a bleak Monday with almost no time to slack...unlike a certain Beautiness who starts mending strained relationship with his fellow colleagues...no way in blue hell it will work with me...
Now he is planning a house-warming gig for his new love nest with his Hubby to announce to all of us (who already knew btw) that he is gay afterall...

Anyway enough about this wicked entity, I had a pretty eventful weekend once again...

I stayed home-bound on Saturday getting ready for my buddy's visit with his lass, showcasing most importantly to Mom who had seen him grown into a man as he is...
I had been meticulous with squaring up the place and ensuring the couple had a cozy time around to a state that my missus amiss and think I am treating my friends with such unprecedented priority and perhaps treating her side of friends rather indifferently...
Prejudice...she is right on the mark..
Fortunately my wife knows how to play her part to appease me and before long, the duo arrived by mid noon with impeccable timing to dodge a dodgy shower and prompt to indulge with the spread we had prepared on the dining table.
For her, her favorite Japanese beer, for him mere root beer, foamed with ice-cream just as we love it since young...he's still a wimp...
As we shared laughters with our wretched past, Mom returns with a pleasant surprise with a stalk of carnation in commemoration of the Mother's Day the next follows...
It is apparent Mom has higher opinions towards this saccharine damsel much more than some of my buddies' other halves, of course being the same enthic group helps the cause...
After some meddling of the NDS lite wi-fi connection and scarring Peiling's brain with my infamous "visual" photographs, we then decided to head home with my buddy for savory of some of his father's Italian wine...
His brand new off-peak mobile, a Subaru R2 which toiled through the highways with the combined weight of me and my wife acting at the rear, got us to Eunos in no time and the new member of the household seems to get acquitted with the things and home and start serving us with some sweet red wine which UB40 will sing about..
His parents and younger sister eventually returned and we had a rosy time playing with the fmaily dog, Happy while my missus tries to solicit the idea of introducing the tasty Italian wines to her Italian colleagues who had been finding quality wine from their homeland in vain...
Son we were been ushered home by my buddy who sent his lass to Clarke Quay, an apparent reversal of lifestyle from her own boyfriend who prefers glued in front of his game console on Saturday night.
Speaking of which, that would be exactly what well do next Saturday with our ol' wrecking crew which got me buzzing as I am typing this...

Mother's day Sunday and off I went to CSC for the second week at our booth which turns out to be pretty fruitful for all of us with eveyrone reaching a 3 digit figures by the end of the day but I could not hold on to that amount after spending a huge chunk on a mere figurine after been enticed by our friendly fellow seller, Gary as well as spending quite a bit on grocery at Cold Storage...

One of our buys was a pair of wine glasses to better consume those tasty red wines complimentary from TW's old man and we are starting to treat our wine better to bring out the best taste, as it is advisable not to warm the wine with the body temperature permeating from your hands, so wine glasses are the best choice to serve the best of the vineyard..
I even bought a costly piece of blue cheese to savour with the red wine,,gosh we are accustoming to be such wine connoisseur...hopefully not worsen into alcoholic anoymous

Last evening we caught "Priceless (Hors de prix)", the new French movie starring my favorite French actress Audrey Tatou (perhaps the only French actress I know).. This time our talented and petite Tatou portrays a gold-digger Irene who's life was vindicated to live off rich old chums before meeting a posh hotel bar-man Jean (played by a very Mr Bean-like Gad Elmaleh) who masqeraded as a wealthy man and woo Irene into bed before popping the bubble a year later.. by then he became smitten with the social escort and willing to dish all his life savings for the progressive profligate till he was forced to be a escort himself... A nice romantic comedy with the usual French quirkiness which I enjoyed..I am beginning to fancy classy European movies than brainless Hollywood blockbusters these days....

Japanese word of the day: ワイン ~wa-i-n~(wine) A little is good for health, a lot you might need to look for Pierre Png for a healthy liver

Web-Slinging Thru' the Weekend

7th May 2007, Monday

What a hectic weekend it had been even though I had fully anticipated it...
Rest was inadequate and the beginning of a 5-day work week for the first time in a month's time, I really hope I could get means to revitalize myself, perhaps like those wonder beans in Dragonball series...

Anyway the weekend began on Saturday when I pried myself out of bed by 7 something to get ready for another La Tendo-style leisure badminton session though the prospect of travelling all the way to Clementi surely would put off some but not us I supposed...
Then again by the time I got there, no one was in sight and I thought I might had mixed up the date before seeing the likes of Vincent and Reedy waltzing down from the nearby multi-storey carpark...
The big news of the week would be one of the member recently fell out of love...which we all agreed to kept that in low profile, taking that person's feeling into consideration...
Vincent meanwhile was eager to get Karen to got for match-making...something smells fishy here though his own niece, Tian Tian who has that lesbian tedency was screaming at her own uncle to coercing Karen whom she fancy (more as a confidante more than anything else) to find a partner and might result in her been neglected...My life is a bewilderment at times...

I started wandering about the town area as I ventured under the glaring sun towards Ngee Ann City, first to get some manga supply from Kino and then meeting up with Chee to pass him some figurines I got for him which he had intended to find from Kao Hsiung but no avail...
It's good to chat up with my partner from the ICT once again despite majority of the conversation was proceeded in Hokkien which I am not that well versed of..
He started whining about his work and I whined about mine but generally just catching up life after the sickening trip to Taiwan...Life is surely sweet back home...
After that it was a trip down to Sim Lim Square to pick up some DVD-Rs before returning to La Tendo once again when the likes of Chan and Bryan who did not attended the badminton session in the morning made their grandeur appearances...
With the show at Vivo(gay)city starting at 9.20pm, a few of guys decided to made an early departure towards Harbourfront while the girls stayed put to take a trip on Brother's car...
The huge shopping mall seemed well decimated in size when it was flooded by locales who felt spending time just shopping around this supposed in-spot located just off Sentosa was the best they could conjured for a Saturday evening...
Resulting in us desperate to find a place with seats available for the entire group of us and finally we had to settle for some overprice and remotely savory halal food...
We also dropped by the only figurine shop in the entire mall which located just outside the cineplex and was well aghast by the high quantity of bootleg items on sale and they still got the cheek to retail at such exorbitant prices to sap from unsuspecting suckers...it's a cruel world out there...
Finally our first visit to this Max theater with supposedly the biggest screen in Singapore...
Our seats were like 6 rows off the front and we were beginning to feel the strain on our necks due to that massive screen and a very rigid chair...
There was alot of room space which is good but the air conditioning was blasting at full volume which is bad...
After 20 minutes of commercials with some interesting trailers in between (a trademark of this particular cinema company), the show began and surely the 3rd episode of the wildly popular Spiderman series was full of high adrenaline rush moments when Spidey caught up in a web against some of his toughest nemesis...
But seriously the story was bleak with all the goodie-too-shoe style of informations enough only to keep the kids interested... And whoever mentioned that Tobey McGuire was a good actor ought to be shot and he tried to spice up the show with the black Spiderman transformation John-Trovolta-Saturday-Night-Fever gimmicks...
The only good thing from the show was Topher Grace (Eric from the 70s Show) and the pretty actress portraying Gwen Staci...After this , no more Marvel-inspired superhero flicks for me...Batman is another different story altogether...

On Sunday morning, the missus took way too long to put on the make-up and myself too left too many things to pack at the final minute..We got to CSC by 11.30, leaving me barely half an hour to prepare before I had to be off to Singapore Art Museum for Selina's solemnization ceremony...
Our Wonder Festival exclusives surely drew some attention but those prices we slapped on our items will need some truly diehard collectors to be willing to spend...
We made it to SAM in time for the ceremony to start and Cheryl and Foo had already arrived... The crowd roughly made up of colleagues and friends, and we do see some familiar faces formerly of NUS but it was the appearance of Tay-chan's youngest brother which took us aback...
The world indeed is a small place as he happened to be Selina's former colleague and was duly invited...
As the Justice of Peace, or the officer supposed to officiate the ceremony arrived, our lucky couple made their appearances with Selina in a rather provocative gown and Kevin in his sleek suit..
My missus and I had went through the same ceremony a year ago but it seems to us that theirs looks to be much longer with even a self-composed oath from each to present to each other..
Selina in her fumbling manner is still the same even on her big day but she sure looks blissed which is a good outcome after her past turmoil with her health issues...
Then the buffet began and the 4 of us engaged in a conversation mainly about our ongoings and about Cherly's own solemnization ceremony in November which seems to be on collision course with our autumn Japan trip..
After some nice food meant more for a teabreak rather than lunch, we were off back to CSC, this time with Foo coming along as my tokusatsu loving wrecking buddy wanna check out what's available now after such a long hiatus from the scene...
Back to the booth, it seems like I did have some earning but well short of what I had anticipated... Meanwhile Bryan sold of our of his supposedly best seller Ignis and he seems satisfied for the day and Chan was got the top earning for the day and surely he deserved it...
The remaining time before we close store for the day, some collectors friends dropped by for a chat as the main topic surrounds a particular store-exclusive gashapon set which seems more limited in quantity than expected...Some are adamant to collect them all despite the price became sky high now...
Meanwhile my missus spent her time looking around the place and actually spent money on a clothing which brought a frown to me struggling to meet my own target of earning (of $1000 for the day..fat hope it may seems)...
We then vamoosed back to home to pass the car to Dad while we had to drive my in-laws to the dinner at Commonwealth as my father-in-laws is still barred from driving till his court case is done and over with...
My missus had difficulties with his brother's Toyota VIOS especially it's manual clutch and she even went up the kerb during a turn into the hectic Commonwealth Avenue...
Her old man kept selling her the idea of getting a Toyota Rush if she was getting a car, and I must say she is surely born into a automobile crazy family and her DNA is blossoming well as it seems...

The dinner was pretty sumptous especially the specialty coffee pork ribs and at a reasonable price of course it been her colleague's stall and the location ain't the most accessible as well...

The coming weekend seems as hectic but I relish the prospect of my buddy bringing his lass over on Saturday evening and had the devious thought of stocking up Japanese beer which the lady will fancy...

Japanese word of the day: くも ~ku-mo~(Spider) Never into the web-slinger, not even my comic collecting days...

Jump Ultimate Stars Ain't an Easy Game...

4th May 2007, Friday

The greatest thing about starting a work week on a Wednesday would be the fact that it would be the weekend before you know it...
This weekend is buzzing with activity with the usual badminton sparring session, a La Tendo gang's "Spiderman 3" bonanza followed by the initiation of the May "ka-chhiiiinng" sale at CSC and Selina & Kevin s' solemnization ceremony and a pre-Mother's day dinner all on Sunday... I would be cursing on Monday again for not having enough rest over the weekend...

Over the past 3 days, I was having a mixed feeling of not doing what to be done in my personal aspect, work-wise it's okay as everything seems smooth sailing...

Wanted to spend sometime on my webpage for the past 3 evenings but either slack on bed and eventually dozed off while eyes fixated on the LCD TV on the wall or just having a ball on my NDS...
By the way, I was allured to the pearl white console for the purpose of Super Robot Taisen W but after 20 rounds I was pretty bored by the turn-base robots-galore strategy game... Instead I became well captivated by the Jump Ultimate Stars which feature 300 over characters from 41 well-known Jump manga series which I am well versed of for sure...
The whole idea of unlocking character after character while going through world by world was enthralling to me as I became a child unearthing treasures along an adventure...
My buddy mentioned about the concept of a 2D fighting style in a enclosed area wasn't that appealing but the idea of upgrading your characters and placed the respective manga captions or komas into the spreadsheet to come out with the best combination to go through each round without any hassle was really interesting...Of course the prospect of teaming up characters from beloved manga like One Piece, Naruto, Slam Dunk, Dr Slump, Hakuto no Ken, Shaman King, Yu Yu Hakusho etc surely has a nostalgic feeling in it as they pay homage to each characters ability and skills...
There are several round when your task ain't just about defeating your enemies but breaking walls within a limited time period or using a lame character to shy away from attacks from the likes of Goku and Vegeta from DBZ...which is almost impossible...
Last evening I was stuck at one round using a pre-made deck with only one battle character, the relatively weak Anna from Shaman King as she tried to defeat the likes of a tag team of Freiza from DBZ and Dio Brando from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure which got me too caught up into action and grew out of pique with the inability to clear the round with the pre-set requirements...
I dunno about seasoned gamers, but the egomaniac in me just need to clear every single round possible even the usage of cheat codes or faqs or guides I wouldn't mind...
But while I was on my throne in my umpteen attempts to use wits in order to gain victory over the deadly duo, I became a well-erupted volcano which my family including my missus wouldn't wanna be within close proximity of me...
It is the same scenario for Football Manager or something, I just couldn't control that inner rage in me when I simply can't clear a particular round...
I need to keep a tab on my temper but it's easier said than done...

I had wanted to crept out of my sweet slumber at wee hours Thursday morning to catch the 2nd leg of the UEFA Champions League semi-finals between my beloved Man Utd and AC Milan, hoping to witness a historical win for the Red Devils to enable them into the finals against arch nemesis Liverpool who splendidly dismiss the pompous Mourinho and his Chelsea the night before..
Then again I don't subscribe to the sports tier for my cable and somehow Channel 5 was too inadequately poor to finance any Champions League action, let alone a live telecast of the match...
In the end, my team was routed 3:0 at San Siro, and was eliminated in the worst fashion possible and if I actually was up to witness their lackluster performance I would be incensed...

Perhaps this rosy Friday evening would be a great opportunity to finally get down to work on my webpage..of course the Jump Ultimate Stars will be there to entice me as always...

Japanese word of the day: 激怒 (Rage) You would if you are beaten by artificial intelligence one too many time...