Tom Yam Goong

Happy Halloween, my lovely blogders. It's an unearthly hour for me to be blogging. But not to worry, my mental and emotional health is sane and stable. No sweet young thing has broken my fragile heart, not that there is anyone to break it in the first place.

Warning: Some Tom Yam Goong spoiler below.

I just came back from the movie, Tom Yam Goong. The movie was rather like Ong Bak, with an indestructable main character who's a one man show, single handedly dislocating the joints of armies of villians. Not my kind of show. Anyone who knows my previous nick knows my favourite character from 絕代雙驕 is 小魚兒, not 花無缺. I much prefer the main character to be sub-par fighter, but one who uses wits to overcome the enemies.

Anyway, before the movie began, i was following the guys around to look for some drinks in Carefour. There, one of the guys pointed out to me, cartons and cartons of Coca Cola (fortunately, my sweet tooth binge-ing came the day before). And looking at the cartons that were stacked together with something else, i can't help but think back about the data-mining lessons i had, like how people who bought beer were likely to buy diapers. Don't ask me for the correlation, i'm not eloquent enough, in writing, to answer that.

Stacked together with Coca Cola was cartons of Jim Bean Bourbone Whiskey. Quite evidently, the correlation between the two was Bourbone Coke. I didn't know the drink was such a favourite until a couple hours ago.

Anyway, the show ended well into two am in the wee hours. I thought years of late night gaming studying would have made me understood what midnight hunger was. But i kind of forgotten about it and when the show ended, i was ravenous. Yvonne asked me if i was gonna blog or sleep when i reached home, well.. i guess the answer is neither, coz i began scavenging for food the moment i was home.

Well, all in all, Tom Yam Goong is a show to watch if you're looking for slick moves akin to Jackie Chan movies, with the reduction in female inferiority which always seem to be prevalent in Jackie's movies.

My Rating *** (out of 5)

One week break

Yippee, i'm going on a one week break. I'm so excited. And i still wanna marry Ponz Goo.

argh.. the dull throb in the head is back.. and i can't blame it on lack of sleep, for i slept a full tweleve hours last night. Maybe too much sleep brings the headaches too : (

I'm not an IT person

I have finally found my true calling. I was never meant to be in the IT line, nor was i meant to do programmming. Rather, i was born to be an actor, acting in roles like Zorro from Legend of Zorro. Then i would be able to kiss Catherine Zeta-Jones more times than i could count and if i died, i would have died a happy man. Gosh... i want to marry her too!

Took a cab home just now. On the way back, the driver answered a phone call. From the smatterings pieced together, it appears that his friend was calling him about making an overseas trip. The driver quickly agreed, saying his own last trip was very good. Then just as quickly, he becomes crest fallen when his friend says he is travelling with his family. The driver says, "i'll consider and let you know."

Then they went on and the driver started saying, "Clean.. sure clean one. Clean anot is you yourself one mah."

What the hell...

Now, i take a neutral view about prostitution and pursuants of such services, it is a personal thing, i contend. But how could the taxi driver's friend bring his whole family abroad, wife and possibly children, so he could have some nookie with a service provider!? Have that guy no decency?

Bish. That guy's teeth all fall out.

Is that a bracelet?

In case anyone for any reason (like u got knocked in the head or something (come to think of it, i'm not referring to anyone by the knocked in the head, i'm speaking generally)), want to give me some gift, then please... please do not give me a watch. Nothing will replace my Nokia brand watch. I have no need for watches, i do not need to tell the time, thus explaining why i would never achieve anything, and i will never wear a watch. Sorry.

Shh.. dun tell anyone okie?

Me and my lil manipulative persuasive wild ideas, i got my boss to give me leave for wednesday and friday, and if nothing goes wrong, i'll have a huge ego boost to my powers of manipulation persuasion. Though you might notice that there was a compromise on my part, i'm going to work on monday.

Hmm... ego boost is no good though.

My colleague just told me that she knew why i wanted to take leave. I was wondering how she would know why i wanted to take leave when i didn't even know myself. After some afterthoughts, i figured that she thought she knew why i wanted to take leave because my day of the year is just round the corner. It would have been likely the reason why i wanted to take leave except that i've pretty much forgotten about the day myself.

Oh... the simplistic reason for taking leave is that having two public holidays in a week is just too good an opportunity to let slip without taking a long rest.

Just as i did last year, i'll leave you, my lovely, kind, generous, benevolent, smart, handsome and pretty blogders a wishlist. Last year i asked for world peace and got a world of relative peace. Asked for a 1.7 million two seater personal submarine and got one that was priceless.

My wishlist this year:
- World Peace
- Freedom From Religion
- More Sleep
- No Starvation In The World
- More Funds For Medical Research
- One New Laptop (lol, i'm devious, this might be gift-able.)

In case anyone is wondering, my next trip would be around 21st november plus minus a couple days.

My lil update.

19 October 2005, one week ago from today, my Nogum meme has claimed one more unsuspecting victim as she too begins using the term Nogum in her post. Muahahahaha...

Huh?

Oh the evil laugh. Muahahahaha >:)

It's a fine day in Nogum City today, except for the rain. Not much news in babe report as i was busily unconscious catching up much needed sleep. Missed, today's daily does of cartoon though, mobile Tv was missing.

Having fewer stuff to chat with Little miss Tv these days, which is kind of a sad thing. Received a sms from 大家姐 at close to midnight a couple days ago which says i was on her mind. Kind of fell from the heaven when it turned out that it was a forwarded sms that more than just me received.

For those going overseas this holiday, just go and don't come back i mean go and come back for national duty.

Just as Gloomy Afternoon is trading EQ for IQ, i'm losing IQ from lack of sleep and having a non-existent EQ, i don't have much of AnyQ left in me. Unless its a queue instead, of which i'm always the last in line, the left behind. Omg, alliteration! I feel so much more eloquent liao.

And yes, my blog has taken a slight detour around the usual "Omg! i want to marry so and so" kind of inane stuff but sadly widely loved (imo) by majority of my blogders. But i cannot let people slip into a fantasy-cal world while doing nothing.

Oh well...

Flying Spaghetti Monster

I am stunned. I had always thought that the Invisible Pink Unicorn is the one true god, but i was wrong. There is irrefutable evidence of the existence of one other god. The Flying Spaghetti Monster revealed to us recently by Bobby Henderson. With ten million believers world wide, the truth of Flying Spaghetti Monster cannot be denied.

Also of interest is the correlation between global warming and shrinking number of pirates as shown in the graph below.



As we can see, "there is a statistically significant inverse relationship between pirates and global temperature". We now know that science is faulty and evolution is nothing more than a fairytale.

Blessed is the Noodly Appendage.

another of my weird ideas

This is going to sound weird, but i'm serious. If i ever got into an accident, and fell unconscious, could someone, anyone, quickly take a cotton bud and start cleaning my belly button before i regain consciousness?

Couldn't i clean it myself? Coz everytime i clean it, if feels like i'm poking my finger right into my stomach, kind of "Eeee" (and no, i do not get orgasms out of it)... I clean it by running water over if, but not scrubbing it, so there's some kind of accumulation down there. So i figure the only way to get my belly button scrubbed without feelings like i was stabbed by a dagger is to do it while i'm unconscious.

SPAN Cover

SPAN (Singapore Polytechnic Alumni Network) sent me their monthly/quarterly/yearly (i have no idea how often they send it) alumni magazine to me recently. On the cover is none other than...



Actually, i have absolutely no clue who she is.

But i wanna marry her!

Grrrrrrrrrrr. I am angry... Very angry...

What would i do if i had all the time in the world?

If i had all the time in the world, i would do everything but acheive nothing. Did i say that or did someone else say that? Hmm...

Another day of my life

The night before.

Mum yells out to everyone, "Oi, the bananas over ripe liao, faster eat them up."

The next evening.

I yell out to my brother "Oi, i though ma said the bananas over ripe liao, how come this one taste funny, like not ripe enuff?"

"That's a new bunch."

Oh well.. another day of my life.

A reply to a comment

Hi Mr Wang,

"Dr. Tiller's experiments to demonstrate the effect of mind over matter began by imprinting electrical devices with a specific intention. The imprinting was done by four experienced meditators, people who Tiller says were "highly inner-self-managed people."

Then this device — imprinted with the intent — was wrapped in aluminum and sent by overnight shipping to a laboratory 2000 miles away, where it was placed beside the "target experiment" and turned on."

Here's my skeptical perspective of the experiment. The following is my wholly biased, unscientific, unproven, purely opinionated, puposefully hypothetical, and maybe rhetorical view, so Dr Tiller, don't sue me if you ever read this.

From those two paragraphs, we see assumptions taking place where the validity of the assumptions themselves were the intent of the experiment. Why was the device wrapped in aluminium? Was there some assumption on that part? These "highly inner-self-managed" people, what did they exactly do with the device? And whatever they did, did they do it in a controlled environment? Notice how the experiments are wholly not replicable by non-"highly inner-self-managed" people. Who counts as "highly inner-self-managed"?

(Haha, one of these days i'm going to get my own phd, the obstacle called "i'll never make it" aside, and then people are going to say "Look at lbandit, that scrub of the universe, even he has a phd.. Doesn't say much about doctorates and writing books that sell does it?")

Mr Wang, i'm sure you have your reasons for past life regression hypnosis. My guess is that you want to know your spirituality better, for your journey in your "spiritual path" (quoting you : )). I'm not going to dissaude you or anything, considering the recent sedition cases and "freedom from offence" thingy, which to me seems more like empowerment of speech for believers of theism. So i'm not sure asking anyone not to believe in something is sedition or not. Well... the law does not seem to protect minorities without religion.

Anyway, just a couple of points regarding hypnotism. I'm sure you know about them too.

1) The human mind is very malleable.
2) In a hypnotic state, a person has increased susceptibility to suggestions.
3) Even not in a hypnotic state, the human mind has been shown to be affected by suggestions. (No references to any clever doctorates here, but you can grab plenty of case studies off textbooks.)

What about horoscope or tarot reading? They do seem less invasive. Personally i won't want to mess with my own mind. In any case, what ever you do, keep the Straits Times articles' critique going : D

Best wishes.

Kali Kuey

I got a serving of kali kuey (hokkien: curry chicken) recently. For those who doesn't know, the chinese funeral in Nogum City often provides food for the visitors attending it, and among one of the foods that is usually served is the kali kuey. So the next time someone says, "Wua qia le jiat kali kuey" (hokkien: I treat you eat curry chicken), don't be so excited about the literal interpretation.

I like hearing gems of wisdom from the elder generation. More often then not, they say something that my hungry curiosity would feed on greedily. Information like which part of China the elders are from, who lives in which part of the world, the fact that me and my brothers are not married despite of age, the legal onslaught from particular so and so, and Christianity. It is sad though, that meeting with these ai ya (canto: distant) relatives usually only results from having to eat kali kuey. Actually, considering the number of hops, they aren't really ai ya relatives.

And yes... Christianity. Or rather, Christianity and joss sticks. Before i continue, i'll talk about the first two of the ten more commonly accepted commandments (there are more than just ten commandments), which serves as the most common reasoning used by a Christian for not holding joss sticks.

1) Thou Shalt Not Have Any Gods Before Me
2) Thou Shalt Not Make Graven Image

Grammer? Shouldn't it be "Graven Images"? Not really. Its because commandment two is a part of a longer part. Sometimes i wonder why Christians like to accuse me of lifting verses out of context from the bible. Let's look at commandment two in context.

"Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments." (Exodus 20:4-6)

It is not accidental that the part about "...for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me..." is dropped from the commandment. But that is digression.

There is alot more to explore as to what exactly graven image consist of. But that's beyond the scope of this post. Using the commonly accepted interpretation of what a graven image is, i dare say that there is no god or anything spiritual, in any religion or lore that indicates that there is a god that look like a couple of pieces of joss sticks.

In commandment one, aside from the consequent inferred that there are other gods than just God, let's look at the full context of the commandment.

"And God spake all these words, saying, I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me." (Exodus 20:1-3)

In its full context, the commandment is laughable. Egypt? Quit clearly, the first commandment did not apply to most of us. But let's forget that for a moment and use the commonly accepted interpretation of first commandment. I'm sure no one is going to believe a deceased is a god. So paying respect to the deceased could hardly be considered as having a god other than God.

So there is really nothing in the bible that says a Christian cannot hold joss sticks and pay respect to the dead. In fact, there is most certainly nothing in the bible that dictates that a follower should go to a funeral and act as if his soul is purer than everyone elses' (holier than thou attitude). Please... surely your god is not so petty. Even i, an atheist, have more faith in your omni-merciful god.

When in Rome, follow the Romans rule. If you're not going to show any respect, then don't go to the funeral at all.

Girls with rabbit teeth.

A couple days ago, after a dinner with Winston (SDU Guy), coz my colleague asked me to join them. Partly also beacuse Ariel was going to be among the group, oh wait, i shall digress.

Before the dinner, my colleague was telling me that Ariel wasn't really that pretty, with the usual accusations of make up etc. The human mind, being as malleable as it is, I began to suspect that what she said could be true and that i was mistaken. Me being open-minded incidentally also means me being easily influeneced. So that day, i was there to confirm whether Ariel was pretty or not.

Then after the dinner, a couple days ago, i asked my colleague why she said that Ariel was not pretty. Coz she was quite obviously gorgeous. And then the usual attack the straw man tatic surfaced. She said i like girls with rabbit teeth, considering Ariel and that someone previously. Not a quick thinker, i thought, that there might be some truth to it.

Until i realised that Yeat Yee and Yinyin both dun haf rabbit teeth wat : s

Harry Potter part WHAT is coming to town?

I just realised today that i missed Harry Potter, Prisoner of Askaban by more than a year... NOOOOoooooooooooo *hands reaching out from oblivion*

Here i am waiting for part three to start showing and they tell me they're gonna show part four soon. Somehow, i feel like i've been living at the top of a mountain. Top of the mountain not equal top of the world though..

Does anybody haf the vcd or dvd to let me um... help you check for scratches so that i could um... be more prepared to watch part four Goblet of Fire?

God does not play dice. Neither did Einstein.

"God does not play dice"

Excerpt from Infidels. All emphasis my own.

"Albert Einstein believed in God. Do you think you're cleverer than him?"

Einstein did once comment that "God does not play dice [with the universe]". This quotation is commonly mentioned to show that Einstein believed in the Christian God. Used this way, it is out of context; it refers to Einstein's refusal to accept some aspects of the most popular interpretations of quantum theory. Furthermore, Einstein's religious background was Jewish rather than Christian.

A better quotation showing what Einstein thought about God is the following:

"I believe in Spinoza's God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with fates and actions of human beings."

Einstein recognized Quantum Theory as the best scientific model for the physical data available. He did not accept claims that the theory was complete, or that probability and randomness were an essential part of nature. He believed that a better, more complete theory would be found, which would have no need for statistical interpretations or randomness.

So far no such better theory has been found, and much evidence suggests that it never will be.

A longer quote from Einstein appears in "Science, Philosophy, and Religion, A Symposium", published by the Conference on Science, Philosophy and Religion in Their Relation to the Democratic Way of Life, Inc., New York, 1941. In it he says:

"The more a man is imbued with the ordered regularity of all events the firmer becomes his conviction that there is no room left by the side of this ordered regularity for causes of a different nature. For him neither the rule of human nor the rule of divine will exists as an independent cause of natural events. To be sure, the doctrine of a personal God interfering with natural events could never be refuted, in the real sense, by science, for this doctrine can always take refuge in those domains in which scientific knowledge has not yet been able to set foot.

But I am convinced that such behavior on the part of representatives of religion would not only be unworthy but also fatal. For a doctrine which is to maintain itself not in clear light but only in the dark, will of necessity lose its effect on mankind, with incalculable harm to human progress. In their struggle for the ethical good, teachers of religion must have the stature to give up the doctrine of a personal God, that is, give up that source of fear and hope which in the past placed such vast power in the hands of priests. In their labors they will have to avail themselves of those forces which are capable of cultivating the Good, the True, and the Beautiful in humanity itself. This is, to be sure, a more difficult but an incomparably more worthy task..."

Einstein has also said:

"It was, of course, a lie what you read about my religious convictions, a lie which is being systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it."

The above quote is from a letter Einstein wrote in English, dated 24 March 1954. It is included in "Albert Einstein: The Human Side", edited by Helen Dukas and Banesh Hoffman, and published by Princeton University Press. Also from the same book:

"I do not believe in immortality of the individual, and I consider ethics to be an exclusively human concern with no superhuman authority behind it."

More of Einstein's comments on religion are available on the web at http://www.stcloud.msus.edu/~lesikar/ESR.html (Link broken). Of course, the fact that Einstein chose not to believe in Christianity does not in itself imply that Christianity is false.

No leather shoes while proselytising

Hadn't been visting Sandralicious (her blog that is) since i last OT-ed before going to Hong Kong. Popped over today and saw that she had pinned up this gem.

Um... no babe in bikini you lewd lovely blogders : p If you read it, you'll understand why i like it so much. Gosh i love this girl.

Oh well... remember to leave your shoes at home before spreading the 'good' news : D

Please... if you're male, don't touch me while speaking to me.

I wrote quite abit about my dinner with winston and company yesterday. But to be politically friendly, since there is a high probability of them coming to this blog via my colleague's mulitply account when she shares her photos, i've deleted it.

So i'll just talk about a little bit. At some point during dinner, Winston, who was sitting beside me (i had to be so suey), touched my hand and asked me if i wanted to join their movie outing to watch 40 Year Old Virgin even when he knows i don't want to. And then when i said i didn't want to, he asked, "Why you so boring, what do you do on Saturdays", and all eyes were on me, i don't know about anyone else, but i prefer to make conversation rather than make announcement.

Now what was so wrong with the above paragraph? The poly guys might catch it, in any case, i'll show the empahsis in the following paragrah.

So i'll just talk about a little bit. At some point during dinner, Winston, who was sitting beside me (i had to be so suey), touched my hand and asked me if i wanted to join their movie outing to watch 40 Year Old Virgin even when he knows i don't want to. And then when i said i didn't want to, he asked, "Why you so boring, what do you do on Saturdays", and all eyes were on me, i don't know about anyone else, but i prefer to make conversation rather than make announcement.

I don't know how to put this elegantly, but... knn DON'T EVER TOUCH ME to speak to me unless it is neccessary (and even so, touch to get my attention, and stop touching when you've got it, don't continue touching when speaking to me) or unless you're female.

Winston talked something about cost benefit analysis regarding roller blading and salsa. Which i have something to talk about. But i'm too fired up with the touch me not thing... I'll talk about it another time. Ciao.

Corpse Bride

Went to watch Corpse Bride yesterday. Seems like the crowd of movie go-ers is getting lesser. The last movie, 神話 had only my aunt, taekawndo kid and me. Yesterday, only taekwando kid, my brother and me showed up. The staples are of course, my cousin and i.

For those of you who have not watch Corpse Bride, please do, its a very nice show.

Warning : Corpse Bride spoiler ahead.



Its kind of a tragic love story. If you've watched Phantom of the Opera, you'll probably know why i love Corpse Bride.

The show begins with an arrange marriage and the bride and groom hadn't met each other. They were rather apprehensive at first but slowly, the beginings of the stirrings of love made their way into their hearts. But there was one problem however. The groom couldn't memorise his marriage vows well enough to get married.

And so he goes off into the woods, repeating, reciting trying to get it right. He reaches the site where corpse bride resides (still inanimate at that time) and manages to get the marriage vows right, slips the ring onto corpse bride's finger and in the most accidental fashion gets married to corpse bride instead. "Til death do us part" : )

A love triangle then arises, the bride, groom and corpse bride. And the ending? Watch it : p

Personally, if i were the scripter, i would have made some kind of a twist on the "Til death to us part", but then again, the simplicity of the plot and storyline is refreshingly appealing. Not everyone appreciates complex cartoons.

I don't want pay $$ to watch a movie about a 40 year old virgin when i have first hand experience at being a 27 year old virgin.

Gosh... i need more sleep. A little about my colleague's friend Winston, the SDU guy who claimed that i would never get any girls. This guy runs his own SDU-themed outings. Man, someone should commend him for trying to do his national duty...

Oh... just in case anyone doesn't know what the Nogum City national duty is, our guys in charged told us that we should get tied down married and produce liability kids, so that we could repopulate the city. Liabiliy without getting tied down is not counted. A mother and her daughter is not considered as a family unit. And oh... SDU is a gahmen operated matchmaking service for degree holders only (you don't find this requirement inane?). Think it acronyms Sexually Deprived Users or something, i don't know.

Frankly, i have no idea why we need our national duty. Afterall, we could always rely on foreign talent. These people could do my job, live my house and marry my wife. There is nothing that i can do that they wouldn't do. Except National Service. Though we should differentiate between what i cannot choose not to do and what i want to do. And also except mandarin literacy. But i also not mandarin literate wat, i failed my chinese mah.

Ok, enough digression, back to the man of the day. His SDU-themed outings are extremely similar in that he gives a name/title to an outing. Like 'Friendship' Dinner. Next i'll be hearing Fellowship of the Spoon, Ten Thousand Leagues Under the Table, and JRR Tolkien and Jules Verne is gonna sue me. Maybe i should start naming my toilet trips. Tushee Journeys, Volume 1 Chapter 1.

It seems that Winston has been asking my colleague to ask me to join them in their SDU-themed outings. All in the name of broadening the social circle and make more friends, no? Well, i figure that he percieves me as the quiet and guai (obedient, not a fair translation though, guai is so much more meaningful) type and that i would have friends who are girls who are of the guai type to intro to him. Given that data collection points him as targeting favoring guai-type girls.

Allo, if you want i got a couple of fire-hot ass-kicking angels to intro to u. But... they are in the form of magic cards muahahahaha... Huh? What was i saying? Oh... the evil maniacal laugh muahahahaha >: )

I would have like to join his outings more often. Just to know more friends, seriously (um... read the comma). But their topics of conversation, not that i have anything to say no matter the topic, is only either about dating stuff (eg. speed dating, sms(s)) or me having an image that would not get me any girls which is further reinforced by Dancin' Kid always saying that she'll sign me up for some makeover entertainment show, which is not exactly flattering, which in harsher words is downright degrading, thanks but no thanks. I wouldn't mind Queer Eye coming over though, just give me a plasma Tv and i'll even pray to God.

I would have thought that such kind of group outings would have progressive topics, rather than staying stagnant. What is more distressing is the recent movie outing. It is as if the movie industry was bought over by SDU. The movie outing proposed to watch The 40 Year Old Virgin.Even the movies they watch have to be dating-themed. C'mon... surely The Corpse Bride would have been a much better choice.

It's just... pukey...

Couldn't that guy think of something more refreshing? Like seafood dinner or something, where people can actually see how others eat crab (style plus personality deciphering with which parts they pick, thereby leaving which parts for the others [Unless they're so rich that they're having one crab each...], bonus if you pick the pincer for the girl you like), peel prawns for the persons they like and all the lovey dovey what nots.

To end off, i'll quote from my daily dose of cartoon. Um... i've forgotten the exact words.. It goes something like, "We must always be curious and questioning. Only then will we learn and move forward.". Or something to that effect, oh well...

In case anyone wants to nitpick, what do i mean by we when it should be i, well... me, myself and i, three wat.

Leave denied

I tried taking leave for 31st oct, 2nd nov and 4th nov, so that with the public holidays on 1st nov and 3rd nov, i would get to rest nine days for only three days of leave. Submit my leave form and boss looks at it, and said, "Hey! Your colleague is also on leave those days."

She didn't really want to give me the leave, and but didn't want to say it outright, yet another of those push factors in the company (by being not saying things upfront despite the smallness in numbers, one would have expected otherwise in small companies), and waited for me to say "Okie loh, then i dun take.".

Well... i may seem like i'm ok with everything, but i am not a pushover. I just said, "Dat means wat?". Then my boss said, she'll think about it later. Bah... internal administration was never important to her...

One might say that it is quite logical that two persons working in the same department (we've got departments???) cannot go on leave at the same time. It would seem logical until the day that would come where my colleague quits her job. She already hates it with a passion, and she'd even told me when she'll be leaving.

So when she leaves, and i'm the only guy left in my 'department', does that mean i cannot take leave at all? What a load of crap.

And to anyone who wanna tell me that if i'm the only guy left in the 'department', it would make me more valuable, please... that's not the case. It only means more work for the same pay, not more precious-ness on my part.

Bleahz, maybe i should quit at the same time as my colleague. I'll like to see the expression on her face. Can anyone tell me if suddenly all the employees quit together, whether it is a sue-able thing?

Don't laugh at drink stall aunties

Ok, never laugh at people when they're making you your drinks... The drinks stall auntie in the canteen, of late, is always accusing me of laughing at her for making mistakes. The funny, imo, exchange between the drinks stall auntie and the girl in front went somthing like this;

Auntie : "要喝設麼" (Want to drink what?)
girl : "Teh C" (Tea with evaporated milk; Don't ask me why 'Teh C' uses evaporated milk while 'Teh' uses condensed milk)
Auntie : "Plastic ah?"

By plastic, the auntie meant to ask whether the girl wanted to drink in the canteen or wanted it to go in a plastic bag. But the girl seem not to understand what 'plastic?' meant. The auntie seeing confusion, tried again.

Auntie : "妳要Teh C還是要Dey C?" (do you want Teh C or Dey C), she asked pointing at the fridge.

Now... Teh C and Dey C sounded exactly the same to me. So i thought maybe the auntie was referring to refrigerated Teh C in a can like nescafe in a can. Though personally, i've never seen Teh C or Kopi C in any sealed packets or cans.


More confusion.

To resolve the confusion once and for all, the auntie opened the fridge door, reached into the fridge and pulled out a packet of 'Daisy' milk.

Oh.. and today's coffee taste kind of bitter.

Project Penniless

Project Penniless is an interesting project done by SMU students to test the willingness of Nogum citizens to hand out small change.

Personally, if i were in the project, i would have implemented a little more controls to try and make it more like a science experiment than an adventure. But what they are doing is still of notable mention. It would be interesting to look at any formal reports and/or statistics that comes up.

Link brought to you by Cowboy Caleb via Tomorrow.sg

Traffic Sandwich

Gosh, what a morning. It began with showers and i went to work again in my get-me-fired-coz-i'm-bochap garb, kicking sandals and t-shirt and all. Well, i didn't want to get my shoes wet, and kicking sandals in long sleeved shirt just looks weird. Um... kicking sandals is a variation of a direct translation from "kicking slippers" in canto, it juz means wearing them. Haiz.. i miz 家姐 (sister) and Yinyin.

I boarded my usual bus 105, but there was something terribly wrong with it. All the usual people are in it, thus indicating that the time is correct, that i should be punctual. The paralyzing problem was that it didn't have a mobile Tv in it. No, it's not "yeah, no big deal", its actually, "NOOOoooooooooo" and hands stretching outwards away from oblivion.

Not having mobile Tv meant that i was going to miss my daily dose of cartoon. This cartoon which i've been following on the mobile T, 0630 to 0700 every morning, or atleast tried to follow until i was sent to hiong gong (hong kong), is about an alien frankenstein and an academic couple who are no longer a couple because the girl lost her mind and doesn't remember the guy and the guy blames it on the alien frankenstein and the alien frankenstein has a sort of connection with the girl and helps the human race to fight off invading progressive aliens and the guy has since joined with a military group whose purpose is to defend Earth against aliens and drives a robot that looks like a gundam, except less colorful, and oh... the girl calls the alien frankenstein "Mr Elf".

And the bus was one of those bus whose doors have to close ten times before it could really close. Now... that's really me thinking in mandarin, coz you don't close doors, you shut doors...

Anyway, i thought the bad morning was over and a bright new, not so sunny and some more raining day was gonna begin, until i boarded my next bus, bus 91. No not bus 91A, 91A is 15 minutes later than 91. And yes, that means i'm going to office earlier than my already early time.

Somewhere along the road from dover road to NUS, i have no idea what the road is called, there was a huge congestion. It's like there's an internal counter inside of me. When my head finishes doing, say 100, sleepy nods, and i wake up and find that i'm still not at my destination, then i know there's something terribly wrong with the traffic.

Looking over to the other bus, bus 95, i can only begin to imagine the frustration of the NUS students, having to wake up so early in the morning so that they could be punctual for their 0800 classes only to be served traffic sandwich a mere couple hundred meters from the campus.

Then one ah pek in front of me got agitated by the non/slow-moving traffic and stood up. And that was that, he stood up and nothing else happened. He didn't rip off his clothes down to the underwear and turn into superman. He didn't turn green and bulging and started ripping the bus apart in anger. He didn't press the bell to get off to start walking. And no, the bus didn't move any faster either. Maybe if he laid down and started doing sit ups, maybe that would help...

Dance for me?

Warning, 神話 spoiler ahead.

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

I watched 神話 yesterday, the show does not appeal to me personally. The show's storyline revolves around reincarnation, something that i'm not a big fan of. But i'm ok with that, movies are movies after all.

What irks me is that at one part of the show, where Jack (acted by Jackie Chan) is in some place, called Dasar i think, and had to spar with this Dasar student who wielded two light swords. To show that Jack, in his past life, was very proficient in his medium sword, the cinema shows Jack in olden garb and fighting another person, someone who wielded sword and shield.

What's dissapointing here is that the two swords fighting style is being replaced with a sword and shield fighting style, which is vastly different. We don't need to be martial artists to recognise that the difference would result in very different fighting style, for both agressor and defender.

Of course, one could argue that the offhand sword could be used for parrying, but the reason for using a sword instead of shield for parrying is that it gives the capability for nitōichi, think katana and wakizashi.

Then one might argue that the shield could also be used in the offensive, by making a shield bash, turning it into a "sword, shield as one" technique. However, given the size and shape of a shield, it definitely loses in elegance when used in the attack as compared to a second sword.

Plus, Jack managed to disarm the student of both his swords. Disarming a strapped on shield would have been difficult if it didn't involve lobbing the limb off or smashing it into splinters for being a wooden shield.

And for most parts of it, the show displayed the fighting between Jack and a sword and shield wielder. Not a martial artist myself, it looked to me like a less dangerous opponent. I mean, he has less sharp and pointy things, no?

The nice part was when Concubine Li, gosh i love jap girls, danced for Jack. When miss Li said she wanted to dance for Jack, and Jack being only the general in hierarchy, told miss Li that only the emperor himself is fit to look at her dance. Then miss Li said, "這舞我只為你而跳". And then miss Li dance for Jack, not with.

Anyone wanna dance for me?

Lose me in a lifetime?

I just finished watching a movie called "How to lose a guy in 10 days", which i borrowed quite some time back. The show was kind of stupid, considering the crappy storyline.

The storyline was about a guy and a girl. The guy had to show his boss that he could make any girl, and so happen to be this maincast girl, fall in love with him in ten days so that his boss could entrust him with an advertisement about diamonds. How lame could that be? And the girl had to write an article for a female magazine. The article was about how to lose a guy in ten days, and to write such an article, the girl had to find and then lose a guy in ten days... Doh!...

And then like all lovey dovey, sickening, crappy, pukey, hate them all but still watch them all love stories, the girl and guy miraculously loves each other happily everafter. Why do i feel so much cynisim in that statement...

Hey, anyone wanna lose me in ten days? Here's the deal, if you can't lose me in ten days, i'll be forgiving and let you try losing me for a lifetime : D

Photos from Hiong Gong

This is the customer's cutomer's (customer of my customer) building. Its a college and the classrooms are in the different levels of the building. When there's a change in classes, students are likely required to travel between floors to attend another class. And i tried using the elevators during the slightly non-peak hours, and having to stop and many of the floors, vertical movement within the building was excruciating.


Pictures of the hotel room for the first night. The first night was spent at a more expensive hotel room. Look at the alluring bed beckoning to me, "Sleep, sleep it said. And the toilet. It has a remote control for... i don't know for what, i didn't fiddle with it. Didn't want to be the first hotel guest to drown in a toilet bowl.


The picture speaks for itself.


The handprints of the celebrities ranged from Stephen Chow to Yam Kim Fai. Even director Tsui Hark's name and handprint were among the plagues.


Some girls tried to pose for me (or so i assume). In a hurry to snap them, my fingers were more shaky than the normal shaky. Note one, if i am going to take photos of girls right in front of them, i should simply put the flash on rather than try and be sneaky, because snapping in their face is not.


Hong Kong Island taken from Avenue of Stars.


The big buddha.


A view from the top of the stairs to the big buddha.


Wisdom Path, which is some distance away from the big buddha. I think not many people know of this sight.


Kowloon plus Hong Kong Island taken from 山頂.