O Captain! my Captain!

A New Work Assignment

2008-01-25T16:27:00.000+08:00

Today my boss called me into her office to issue me with a new work assignment.

After I came out of the office, my colleague using MSN, asked me what the assignment was:-

What a wonderful yatch, I'm sure it could sail to the moon!

(In truth no yatch was built and I was issued with a boring assignment instead... lol)

Strange Oakley product

2008-01-24T12:17:00.000+08:00

Oakley Medusa Hat (US$500) + Goggles (US$250):-

Militant design with 8-base lens curvature for vast peripheral view, durable Plutonite® lens material with 100% UV protection, Black Iridium® lens coating for precisely tuned light transmission, stitch detailing, and rivets for attachment to leather skullcap (sold separately). For those who pursue defiance without restraint.

Fabric: Hand Stitched Natural Leather.

Medusa Hat:-

Different hair.. I mean "hat"-style lol:-

Locks too long for your liking? Tie it up!:-

The Goggles:-

There's something strange... in the neighbourhood!
Can you imagine someone wearing this in public?
It would make you stand out for sure, but I don't think that it serves any practical purpose...

I'm somehow guessing that those with a Predator fetish would love it:-

Is this really the future of fashion? It might be... In a post-apocalyptic world that is!

Porn Alert!

2007-12-21T10:30:00.000+08:00

Free Porn:-

Getting it on!

Wet dreams...

Another nice picture i drew

2007-10-19T13:51:00.001+08:00

A nice picture I drew

2007-10-12T16:36:00.000+08:00

A note

2006-11-16T23:33:00.000+08:00

This blog has been restored for archival purposes.

- Mr Keating

2 Fast and 2 Furious... for your own good?

2006-08-28T02:00:00.000+08:00

I was driving home last tuesday night on the TPE and admittedly, I was over the speedlimit.
As I was passing a bridge, I saw a traffic police vehicle with speed trap set-up by the side of the road. I was worried about being caught, but fortunately after checking on the 'EDDIES' system (Electronic Driver Data Information & Enquiry System-> click here to visit), I realised I was off the hook.

After hearing about the recent crash involving a Subaru WRX racing a Mazda RX-8 in Singapore in which a 23 year old guy died(driver of the WRX), all of you will be happy to know that I have since resolved to driving slower and watching my speed on local roads.

It was reported that 2 trees were uprooted and the car had also smashed into 2 stationary vehicles. The WRX was supposedly so badly damaged, that it was only the still-intact tail lights which made it recognisable as a Subaru.

Ah well, nothing good ever comes from driving fast on Singapore roads, unless you consider sponsoring the Traffic Police's pay via your fines and summons as a form of charity! Haha..

Anyway here's a video of some guy trying to do 180km/h on Singapore roads(Ulu Pandan according to the description). Watch till the end, because something really stupid happens!:-

Haha! Dumb driver. He couldn't control his turn and his car skidded across to the opposite side of the road(the side that is facing oncoming traffic) and hit something in the process.

Moral of the story? Driving fast on Singapore roads isn't safe, even if your car can handle the power and torque well. This is because local roads are made for certain speeds and aren't as flat or smooth as say, the Autobahn in Germany where there ISN'T a speed limit. Hence if these speeds are exceeded and your car hits a pot-hole or something, it might flip over(touch-wood of course). I've read that our expressways are only made for speeds up to 120km/h, but I know many people have gone over that limit before.

Yeah, cheap thrills. I've gone really fast before too, but I'm not going to publish it here! haha.. That once was enough for me. It just isn't worth it if your life is at risk, unless you just happen to be a cat driving behind the wheel. In that case you would have 9 lives!

In conclusion, if you wish to speed you should do it at a race circuit with the right gear, helmet, fire-proof suit, etc. Circuits have the right facilities, road conditions, not to mention emergency vehicles nearby, just incase any accidents occur.

Note:- This safety message was brought to you by Mr Keating and has entirely no association with the Traffic Police force. He was in no way forced, bribed or coerced into doing so and as such is perfectly fine, in fact not just fine but very healthy indeed! He is currently enjoying his cornflakes at the time of post.

Haha.. Till we meet again!

On being single

2006-08-24T23:07:00.007+08:00

I've remained single by choice even till now.
That's 23 years and counting, everyday is a new record for me.
Friends around me always ask questions like "found a girlfriend yet?" even my mom has voiced her concerns and sometimes asks me why I'm still single.

"Don't you like anyone?"
That is a common question people tend to ask me. When I reply no, they say "you're too picky!" Well that's not completely true. I have met and known many nice and good-looking people since my JC days, yet I've chosen to remain single because of a simple reason.

Chemistry.
Chemistry is more important that anything else. I'm not talking bout the stuff you studied in the lab while you worked with test-tubes and foul smelling liquids after chemical reactions gone wrong haha.. but whether we can communicate on a unique level and frequency.

If I just wanted a trophy girlfriend I would go after the next hot babe that I come across but that has never been the case for me.

I've always been patient when it comes to these sort of things and I believe that they cannot be rushed so I'm willing to wait for the longest time, till I meet someone whom I can share my deepest feelings with, have engaging conversations, appreciates my sense of humour, etc and vice-versa.

Some of my friends think that I have high standards, but don't be surprised that when I ever get attached, she turns out to be the sweet girl-next-door. Sometimes, simplicity can be beautiful.

'Attraction' vs 'Like'
'Attraction' versus 'Like'. I interpret these two words very differently. If you ask me if I find someone attractive, sure I do, alot of times too.

However to actually like someone, I feel that you have to get to know the other person on a deeper level. Afterall, how long can appearances last? Besides some of the best looking people might have the worst characters or might be the least compatible with you, so you never know.

Some people believe that only by going into a relationship are you able to tell if you both are compatible or not. I disagree with this to a certain extent because alot can already be determined beforehand, you just have to know how to go about doing it! However it is true that certain sides to a person might not show till you are in a relationship. I guess that's a chance we all have to take, that's why breakups happen right?

Ah well, this is just my view on this matter. I'm sure all of you might have different ideas, beliefs and concepts too.

"Planning to stay single forever?"
Of course not!
However as I mentioned earlier, I am patient and willing to wait since I've been single for so long and am used to it anyway.

I don't mind getting to know more people in the meantime and expanding my social circle though. Who knows? One of these days whether in the near future or far ahead, I might finally fulfill my destiny and walk the path that many of you have already walked before me- that of which is being in a relationship.

I quote a phrase from a t-shirt I have. It is printed:-

"Stay Single!
Or at least till you find true love."

I bought the t-shirt for fun. However now that I think of it, it really does makes sense.

-

Well that's all for now!
Till we meet again...
From your friend, Mr Keating.

Funniest Incident Of The Year Award 2006

2006-08-13T13:44:00.000+08:00

Funniest Incident Of The Year Award - "The Great BBC Mix-up"

Hilarious!
I must have seen the same video at least 20 times and each time I couldn't help but laugh.. Hahaha!

According to sources:-

"Guy Goma was waiting in the main reception area of the BBC's London headquarters to be interviewed for a position as a "Data Support Cleanser" in the Corporation's IT department.
At the same time, Guy Kewney, a British Internet expert, was in another reception area, known as Stage Door, preparing for a live television interview on the subject of Apple Computer's court case with The Beatles' record label, Apple Corps.

The producer who was sent to fetch Kewney, however, was directed to the wrong reception area. Not knowing what Kewney looked like, the producer asked the receptionist which gentleman was Guy Kewney. She pointed to Guy Goma. He approached Goma and asked him if he was Guy Kewney. Hearing his first name but perhaps believing "Kewney" to be a mispronunciation of his last name, Goma answered in the affirmative.

Goma was led to the News 24 studio. BBC staffers put on makeup, and he was ushered to the television studio, where he was seated in front of the cameras and wired up with a microphone.
Although believing the situation to be highly unusual, he prepared to do his best for what he believed would be his job interview.
-

After the live-recording started and when introduced by interviewer Karen Bowerman as Internet expert Guy Kewney, Goma became visibly shocked as he finally realized the serious misunderstanding that had taken place.

Now aware of the fact that he was on live television and not wishing to make a scene now that the interview had already begun, he simply played along, doing his best (in heavily French-accented English because he is a foreigner with a work permit) to answer the interviewer's questions about the Apple Corps v. Apple Computer case and its ramifications for the music industry!"
-

His facial expressions in the first 5 seconds are absolutely classic! Especially the last part just before he said "Good Morning!" where he shifted his eyes to the left and tried to suppress his smile. The funniest thing I've seen this year!! Haha!
Here's the video:-

(REMEMBER TO LOOK AT HIS FACE!!)

His reply after the interviewer asked "Were you surprised by this verdict today?", was a dead give away!

He actually attempted to explain himself by replying, "When I came, they told me something else and I am coming. You got an interview that's all. So a big surprise anyway."
The interviewer probably didn't understand 3/4 of what he was saying because of his accent and only caught the last part of his reply which was "a big surprise", which she thought referred to his opinion of the court decision in the Apple Vs Apple case!

Here's a transcript of the interview:-

-
Karen Bowerman: Well, Guy Kewney is editor of the technology website Newswireless.

Goma: (Expression of Shock)

KB: Hello, good morning to you.

Goma: Good morning.

KB: Were you surprised by this verdict today?

Goma: I am very surprised to see...this verdict to come on me, because I was not expecting that. When I came, they told me something else and I am coming. You got an interview that's all. So a big surprise anyway.

KB: A big surprise, yeah, yes.

Goma: Exactly.

KB: With regards to the costs involved, do you think now more people will be downloading online?

Goma: Actually, if you can go everywhere you're gonna see a lot of people downloading to the Internet and the website, and everything they want. But I think...eh...it is much better for the development and...eh...to inform people what they want and to get the easy way and so faster if they are looking for.

KB: It does really seem to be the way the music industry's progressing now, that people want to go onto the website and download music.

Goma: Exactly. You can go everywhere on the cyber cafe, and you can take...you can go easy. It is going to be an easy way for everyone to get something to the Internet.

KB: Guy Kewney, thanks very much indeed.
-

Haha! Credit to him though for playing along and attempting to answer the questions to the best of his ability. At least he tried to keep a straight face for the rest of the interview and sounded calm enough!

Guy Goma, you're THE MAN!!
Haha..

An insight: Beauty, brains and material gains?

2006-08-11T16:19:00.000+08:00

This post might be a little wordy, but I assure you it's worth a read and perhaps might provoke your thoughts.

A reflection.
Beauty, brains and material gains?

When it comes to choosing that ideal someone, which of the above qualities would you like to see in a person? Obviously nobody would mind these qualities together. However to be realistic its not very often that you come across someone who possess all of the above and is still available, if they exist at all.

On Beauty.

Humans are superficial.
This is a statement and not a debatable topic, because nature made us this way and we were all pre-programmed in our minds to appreciate beauty.
The only arguable point then, is to what degree is a person superficial?

Then again the often used cliche states that "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder"
Definitely true, I would say.
I'm sure many of you have come across the situation where your friend points out someone to you and says that he/she is good looking, and you would disagree.
Obviously we all have different concepts of 'beauty' and the characteristics of a person that defines what 'beauty' really is to them.

An interesting thing to note is that research has been done before and according to the results(whether conclusive or not) people with more symmetrical features tend to be more attractive.
-

On Inner beauty & Character.

Going past the surface, I personally believe that character is an important aspect of the inner beauty.

However what is inner beauty?
Well I will use a simple example to illustrate this.
I remember during my childhood I read a book by Roald Dahl titled "The Twits":-

I quote from the writer himself:-

"If a person has ugly thoughts, it begins to show on the face. And when that person has ugly thoughts every day, every week, every year, the face gets uglier and uglier until it looks so ugly you can hardly bear to look at it."

In the book, Mrs Twit used to be beautiful when she was young. As she grew older she became the ugly person on the cover of the book! haha..

Well anyway back to my main point and the definition of 'inner beauty'- Humans don't grow uglier as their characters get worse. However they still become ugly to us psychologically. By this I refer to indicators like, avoiding them, not wanting their company etc.
You get my point right?

Sure, everyone doesn't mind getting to know good looking people but once they get past that stage and grow used to/tired of a person's looks, what maintains the impression of 'attractiveness' is a person's character, or at least I believe so anyway.

[Attractive qualities of a person's character]:-

1. Responsibility-
Responsilibity for actions, in work, studies , etc.

2. Reliability-
Supportive, silent yet strong, etc

2. Honesty-
Truthfulness in communication, etc.

3. Kind-heartedness-
Caring, thoughtfulness, etc.

4. Wit-
Interesting humour, etc.

There are of course many different qualities that people look out for and the list could go on and on, but the above would certainly contribute to overall attractiveness.

[Of course there also has to be a list of Turn-offs]:-

1. Quiet-
Obviously if a person is too quiet, how am I supposed to know if he/she is of any substance?

2. Dishonesty-
Untruthful, deceitful. Be brave enough to admit, don't live in fear and regret.

3. Extreme Privacy-
Sure, everyone deserves their own private space. However if there's a 'Keep Out!" sign hanging on every door that people try to open, or everything in your life is like a Top Secret military document then obviously many people will get frustrated, get turned-off and just not bother in the end.

The question then is, would you rather remember someone who is good to look at, or someone whom is of importance to you? If you find that you are engaging in any of the above, you should try to do something about it fast!
-

On Brains.

Through evolution as we grow smarter, we become wiser.
Are Bill Gates, Michael Dell or Sim Wong Hoo good-looking?
I doubt so, but yet they are very successful people. Haha..
I wouldn't mind trading places with them!

Beauty has short-term advantages. However in the long-run, the only way to survive in this material world is to have the brains to deal with it.
People who are engaging and insightful are interesting and attractive in their own right.

Brains are not just about being smart, its about being adaptable and flexible to change with the times. It is about understanding what you are good at and excelling in it.
Do you remember when you were in school, if your teacher told you to "Stop living in your own world!".

Unfortunately that is the harsh truth of reality.
The world never was, and never will be exclusively yours or mine.
-

On Beauty vs Brains.

So which is more important to you?
This obviously differs from person to person.
Personally I feel that the importance of brains supercedes beauty in modernity.

Fret not however, if you are not blessed with the intellgence of Albert Einstein or the ingenuity of Leonardo DaVinci. Your studies may not be that great but neither were Gate's nor Dell's and you might possess talents in other areas.

Through hardwork, you can gain recognition as well and that is beauty in itself.

It is never harmful to have hopes or a dream that you can work towards.

Who knows? One fine day your dream might end,
but only because it has become a reality.
-

Till we meet again!

Crap #2

2006-08-09T22:49:00.000+08:00

You know in my previous post about the parking ticket when I said "That makes 3 so far"?
Well you can make that 4 now... I just got another one yesterday!
How unlucky can that be?

I believe that the Traffic Police and their people who issue fines etc, have a minimum quota to fulfill. Do you know what this minimum quota means?
This will ensure that the Traffic Police receives a guaranteed sum of money/income each month. Apparently they are not satisfied with this amount of 'income' generated that they have to resort to hiring external agencies like Urban Redevelopment Authority(URA) and Housing Development Board(HDB) to do their dirty work.

This is all just speculation but if it is partially true, then where does this money go to?
I don't have a clue, but perhaps it goes to paying their salaries?
Frankly behind that heroic facade that they portray, alot of them are really slackers.
Trust me, only a worthy few really deserve the credit that they receive.

"Sure I probably did something wrong that deserved a ticket."

Stop and think for a moment!
The above statement is what someone would say when he/she has been completely socialised into Society and is now conforming to the ruling authority's construction of rules and regulations.

Yes, the CONSTRUCTION of rules and regulations. Rules and regulations never did exist at the dawn of time. Car's weren't even invented then. They are man made, and they can be changed and manipulated to how the ruling authority sees fit.

Ah well, I guess these traffic rules and regulations probably contribute to us having a decent transport system in Singapore. The jams probably aren't as bad as what you see in other countries anyway.

Happy Birthday Singapore! I never did forget about you!

There's my bit of contribution towards patriotism for you!
Whoever said I didn't love my country huh?
Hahaha..

Well IF these rules and regulations didn't exist, I guess traffic would probably look something like this(watch till the end, you'll see how they resolve the traffic build-up themselves!):-

Can you hear the amount and frequency of people sounding their horns in the background? What a racket!
Compared to the scene above(I think it's from Bangalore in India), when I went on holiday to Japan about a year ago I honestly did not hear a SINGLE HORN!

We'll that's all for now...
Till we meet again!

Crap

2006-08-06T22:00:00.000+08:00

I got another parking ticket today. Shit.
That makes 3 so far!

Anyway here is a funny video with off-the-street interviews, with Americans regarding world affairs. Some of the answers they give are hilarious and down-right silly. However I'm not stereotyping and I guess they probably edited the video to show those people who gave dumb replies.

Here's the video of the interview:-

I've included a transcript of some parts of the video below, have a look!-

-

Interviewer: "Kofi Annan is a drink. True or false?"

Guy wearing cap: "Coffee is a drink!"
Woman: "It sounds like a... Law Firm."

-

Interviewer: "Who is Tony Blair?"

Guy wearing hat: "A skater."
Fat man in pink tee: "Tony Blair is an actor!"

-

Interviewer: "Which countries are in the Axis of Evil"

Fat man in pink tee: "Okay, California, New York, Florida and I believe, Mississippi"

Female colleague #1: "Jerusalem."
Female colleague #2: "Jerusalem."
Interviewer: "Ok there's more than one."
Female colleague #2: "I think all of them."

Jogger: "Ok. I'm abit mixed up over the Palestinians and the Israelis. Which one is throwing the rocks?"

Old Woman: "Oh.. I can't think of the other one. The fellow with the turban thing, I call it a diaper head really.."

-

Interviewer: "What is a mosque?"
Blonde woman: "An animal."

-

Interviewer: "Star Wars is based on a true story. True or false?"
Dude: "True."

-

Interviewer: "What are Hiroshima and Nagasaki famous for?"
Old Man: "Err... Judo and Wrestling?"

-

Interviewer: "How many Eiffel Towers are there in Paris?"
Dude: "I say about 10!"

-

Interviewer: "What is Al Qaeda?"
Man: "Al Qaeda is a suicide group in Israel and in the Middle East where they do suicide bombs and stuff. And the President of it is Yasser Arafat, everybody knows that!"

-

Interviewer: "Where is the Berlin Wall?"
Dude in sunglasses: "Israel?"

-

I really burst out laughing at some parts, the Fat man in the pink t-shirt was obviously talking crap throughout the interview, but then again I think the news crew probably edited it to show all the stupid answers. Haha..

Ah well, that's all for now!

A delayed post

2006-07-28T02:37:00.000+08:00

For those of you who remember, HRM and Marketing papers were on the same day this year.
God bless the poor souls(including myself haha) who took the papers that day and I hope everyone will do fine. It is an experience I wouldn't want to go through again.

I mean who in their right mind would take 2 theory exams in 1 day, especially one as dry as HRM? The worst thing was that I still had a Management Science Methods(MSM) the day BEFORE my HRM and Marketing.

So let me relate to you what happened in sequence, there is a twist at the end so please read on if you wana find out haha..

Day1:-
Time: Approximately 1400hrs(2pm)
When I came back from EXPO(All the way on the eastern side of the island) it was already 2pm.
I was already feeling quite demoralised because MSM was an easy paper BUT I happened to have made several horrible mistakes. It was a paper which I had placed much hope on, in doing well.. but heck, what's done is done.

I was already drained and tired and thought of taking a nap to recharge my batteries because I had not been sleeping properly the previous few nights due to burning of midnight oil for mugging, but I knew I didn't have much time to complete revision for HRM and Marketing the next day so I started to revise Marketing.

Day 2:-
Time: Approximately 0045hrs(12.45am)
Because of time constraints I already planned the topics I was going to focus on long ago but after consecutive days of not sleeping well and cramming, NOTHING I was reading about HRM could go through to my brain. At 1+am I really panicked and wondered if I could pass HRM at all...

Time: Approximately 0330hrs(03.30am)
Finally at 3.30am I told myself I should go to sleep and continue revising the next morning at
7am since the cramming wasn't effective anyway. At that point of time, I had thoroughly revised just 1.5 HRM topics.

Time: Approximately 0700hrs(07.00am)
I woke up and started cramming again and because I couldn't finish at all, I reasoned that even if I went into the exam hall at 10am I would probably leave early because I couldn't write much.

So I decided to stay outside the exam hall while everyone was going in, and I did last minute
mugging till 10.30+. It might sound like a crazy plan at first, but having sat for a couple of theory papers, I've always noticed that quite alot of people leave early(some leave 30mins earlier, others up to 40..) because they couldn't write much.

Time: Approximately 1030hrs(10.30am)
Hence instead of going in early and leaving like 30mins earlier, I chose to spend that 30mins BEFORE the paper started instead so I could mug more. It turned out to be a great decision because when I went in I could answer everything, even
though I had only studied like 5 chapters!

I strolled into the exam hall and the exam administrators were staring at me. I guess they thought I woke up late or something, or maybe they felt sorry for me for reaching late BUT I bet none of them knew I was just round the corner mugging outside.. haha

-

Anyway to summarise, I thought I did pretty okay considering that there was the possibility of flunking it totally. The afternoon Marketing paper went fine too, in fact better than expected.

Now here's the secret: The Secret to a powerful memory! The holy grail of education.. I think the reason why I'm able to remember so well is because I drank 2 bottles of BRAND'S ESSENCE OF CHICKEN one each just before both papers! I'm talking bout the plain black flavour, not those funny flavours they have these days with ginseng and rambutans and durians and all(just kidding!)

-

Post HRM-paper analysis(useful for those who are taking the module):-
Personally I feel 60 marks for HRM is not easy to achieve, but its not impossible.
There are a couple of reasons why- firstly Abdul Kareem's notes aren't good enough. To be honest it's just mostly summarised from the study guide, and when the UOL lecturer Coyle-Shapiro came to SIM, she told us NOT to study from the study guide.
By saying that she effectively made all of Abdul Kareem's notes redundant.

In that case how CAN we score for HRM?
Well the only way is to seriously go through the extra readings attached to the notes. These extra readings were given by the UOL lecturer herself to Abdul Kareem. However not all the information in the extra readings is relevant. So you have to sort out the important bits and pieces of information to use in the essays yourself.

Another tip is to select specific topics to study, for my own HRM paper I went through the examiners report and highlighted the 5 that I figured was important. I told myself that if I could finish the 5 I would study more.

Anyway after I sat for the paper I realised that I could answer the required amount of questions(3 questions) by studying only 4 topics.. Hmm...

If i prepared for those 4 topics from the beginning of the year, I guess I would stand a high chance of doing reasonably well.. haha, but then again its a gamble to spot topics! HRM questions are also topic-combination based so it makes it more difficult to spot.

Here's a pic of the dining table, transformed into a messy warzone during the exam period.

-

Well that's probably all I have to share for this entry!
If you have any questions, feel free to ask me.
The bottomline is if I could survive this nightmare, you can too!

Exercise Uno

2006-07-23T23:45:00.000+08:00

Welcome to Biology class!
Just kidding.. I've never taken biology before.. haha
Today I would like to share with you 2 lower-body exercises that you can do in the comfort of your home! This is useful to couch-potatoes and those who go to work and sit on their chair all day long.

These 2 exercises target mainly these areas:-

The Hamstring

The Quadriceps

The Gluteus Maximus(your butt)

Now that I've explained the above, it's time to introduce to you the 2 exercises. They are called Lunges and Squats. As simple as they may sound or look, they are actually quite effective at toning or conditioning. Other exercises that work these areas include jogging, inclined up-hill running, etc which are basically lower-body workouts and cardio. Squats and lunges can be incorporated into your workout routines.

The following illustrates how these are to be done.

Fig. A:- Starting & Ending positions

This will be your starting and ending positions for both exercises.
Ensure that your back is straight.
For the Squat exercise, both of your feet can be pointed slightly outward so that it is easier to perform. For the Lunges, your feet should be pointed forward.

Fig. B- The Squat

Note: If this is done in the convenience of your home, you can use dumbbells.
However if you have access to a gym, then you can also use a barbell by balancing it on your upper back and doing the squat.

Step 1- Ensure that you are looking forward, both feet are planted flat on the ground and keep your back straight.

Step 2- Squat till your thighs are parallel to the ground(sorry mine aren't really parallel in this pic haha..) and feel the strain, then return to starting position.

Do 3 sets of 15 repetitions.

Fig. C- The Lunge

Note: By doing a longer lunge, you will be focusing more on the Gluteus maximus. A shorter lunge will focus more on the Quadriceps. Sorry my knee got cut off somewhere in the picture.. haha..

Step 1- From the starting position, lunge forward with either right/left leg first. Land on your heel first, and try to get your thigh parallel to the ground with your rear knee almost reaching the floor. You will then end up in the position as in the picture.

Step 2- If you wish to work the Gluteus maximus more, push off the ground using your heel with the direction of the force as indicated with the green arrow. Return to the starting position while feeling the strain on the gluteus maximus on the way up. If you aren't feeling any strain, you are not doing it right.

Step 3- Repeat with your alternate leg.

Do 3 sets of 15 repetitions.
-

That's all for the illustrations!

Now to clear up some myths about muscle-toning:-

Many people believe via hearsay that muscle-toning requires high repetitions with a lower amount of weights. This is true to a certain extent. However if the weights used are too light, then it wouldn't be effective at all.

What you should do in any exercise for toning is to find a suitable weight which would allow you to do 12-15 repetitions(for upper body exercises) and 15-20 repetitions(for lower-limb exercises). The target number of repetitions must be achievable and you have to be able to feel the strain as you do the reps.

Another effective way for muscle-toning is circuit training whereby you do several exercises at different stations without pause, and only rest when an entire set is complete. The rationale behind this is that it involves cardio as well and burns calories more effectively for toning.

If the weight you are using is too heavy and you are struggling to complete even 8 repetitions, then you are doing it wrongly. Instead of toning, this will just build mass and make you bulky. You will still get strong though, but this is simliar to resistance training where people use heavy weights and do low repetitions in order to build mass.

-

Alright, I hope the above information is useful to you!
Happy working-out and enjoy the benefits of your exercise routines!

what a crazy world!

2006-07-01T02:31:00.000+08:00

My life has totally turned upside down since the worldcup started...
It's only been about 30 days since my exams ended, but since the worldcup started I've been sleeping close to 6am everyday and only waking up at around 3pm unless I've got something on earlier...

Are any of you bumming like me? haha... I think I have to work soon though, my dad keeps bugging me to do my internship at some bank. Sigh. There goes my freedom!

Anyway I sorta neglected my blog for awhile, actually I still wasn't planning to blog anytime soon cause I have lotsa other stuff to do (watch worldcup, DVDs I just got from malaysia, play PC etc etc...) but while I was driving after the Germany v Argentina game at around 1.50+ am, I took a pic using my phone which prompted me to blog about it!

(click on pic to see bigger version!)

A car flipped over onto its back! I don't know how it happened though.. but a police car was already there hence the blue-ish hue of the police lights are reflected off the car.
I wonder if the engine is still on, because the lights of the car are still working?
If its a manual car, the engine probably stalled on its own...
Anyway I didn't purposely stop to take the pic.. Haha!
It just happened to be redlight and I was positioned right next to it...

Anyway to respect the privacy of the car owner, I pixelated the license plate.
But those who want to buy 4D, you can come find me and I will tell you the number! It's really quite a nice number. Ay, what a waste... According to the license plate it's an 'SF' car too, means it isn't that old. Oh well, hope there weren't any casualties!

Following up from my previous post, you know about the insects that hatched on my window?
One filial kid came back to visit me, on Father's Day itself!
No, I'm serious!
After I took my bath and returned to my room on Father's Day, I was wondering what kind of bug was sitting on my wall. When I took a closer look, I realised it was one of those that hatched from the eggs!

(click to see bigger version! but I guess most of you won't anyway! Haha!)

I could literally hear it wishing me "Happy father's day!"
At 6am it was still there, so I went to sleep and the next day it was gone.
Oh well!

Haha.. anyway I have other stuff to blog about including some dumb recipes I came up with during the exam period, but that will have to wait till next time...

Till we meet again my friends! Take care and enjoy your holidays!

the healthier choice!

2006-05-16T02:27:00.000+08:00

I haven't updated in awhile, and I've been busy mugging for exams so I guess I ought to let all of you know that I'm still alive and doing fine! haha..
Here are some pictures I took on my new w810i which has a 2.0megapixel camera with flash and autofocus! Ahhh.. the wonders of technologies and the rise of convergence devices!!

I was studying at Bishan CC today and I bought a packet of Nutrisoy.
Looks like the government is really concerned about our health these days and they certainly pay alot of attention to detail! :-

There is your usual expiry date(30/06/06) in this case.

But 'lo and behold! What's that underneath? '18:40' it says!
Does that mean that if I drink it at 18:41 hrs on 30/06/06 I will die?
I didn't know expiry dates have gone into so much detail.

I bet soon they will add seconds in them!
It will be like 18:40:59. In case you don't know the 59 refers to 59secs! just 1 more second before it expires hur? haha.. Better faster drink all that milk you have been storing since last year in your cupboard!
If not you are better off using it as a substitute for rat posion!

Anyway I've been thinking, you know they should invent a type of ink that can change after a certain period of time?
So you see the "Fresh Soya Milk" print on the packaging at the start.
On 30/05/06, 1 month before expiry it will automatically change to "Not-So Fresh Soya Milk". Finally on 30/06/06 AT 18:41 hrs it will read "Hazardous Soya Milk".
Haha! Ah well... just a thought I had..

Next picture! :-

"What on earth is that?!!" I can hear that thought screaming through your mind!(Or maybe some other more crude remarks.. haha)

Well you see those orange ovals? Those are actually the eggs!

You see about a week ago I noticed that an insect had laid 7 eggs on my window, I wanted to leave them alone to hatch so I could see what insect would emerge, but curiousity got the better of me and i scrapped 1 egg off...
So as you can see there are only 6 eggs left and from those eggs, 6 wonderful insects emerged!(I can sense that some of you are already feeling itchy all over.. haha)

Their names are Gary, Barry, Jerry, Harry, Mary and Terry!
And so they hatched on Mother's day itself(this i kid you not) and we had afternoon tea and partied together for a day before they bade me farewell and set off on their journey of life!
Now that they are all gone I feel sad and am at a terrible loss.

Yeah rite. haha..

Anyway if you look closely enough, you can see that I used the cover page for my MSM notes as the background! I had to use something as the background otherwise the light from outside would be too strong and I wouldn't be able to see anything if I took a picture.
If you look closely enough you can make out our lecturer Mr David Quek's name in reverse!
If you are reading Sir, I would like to assure you that I treat my other MSM notes with utmost respect!!

Next pic!:-

I tried hooking up my pc to my plasma tv because I noticed that the plasma tv had an input for a monitor connection, here are the results!-

50-inches of pure Windows XP joy!
Surprisingly the resolution is extremely clear.
Well after hooking it up then what?
You could try playing Warcraft 3 or DOTA for a start :-

Or you could just watch a movie burned onto a CD, which was what I originally connected the PC to the plasma tv for(Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, finally after so long.)

Next pic!:-

There was a thunderstorm one evening and I wanted to try to capture the lightning.
It was really tricky and hard to grab a shot for that elusive flash of lightning but I finally settled for burst-mode which is basically a camera mode that allows you to capture several frames with a single press of the button.

Here are the results!

Before Lightning. All Dark and gloomy...

After Lightning! Nice?

And finally the last pic below:-

I took this pic from my window.
It's especially for you, who will always tell me that it's gona rain COS THE SKY IS RED!
It isn't red la.. really!! It just seems to be because whenever it rains, there has to be clouds in the sky beforehand, and these clouds reflect the light from the streetlamps below, hence the sky looks orange.

If streetlamps were green, the sky would be green,
and if the streetlamps were rainbow, the sky would be rainbow!

See the explanation below:-

Currently it is:

* Red sky -> Rain

What it actually is supposed to be:

* Overhead Cloud Cover -> Street Lamp Reflection -> Red Sky -> Rain

Which ultimately boils down to the fact that it is cloudy thats why it rains, although the reflection from the lamps below does indeed help us to see the clouds in the sky.
Haha.. eh now you don't have to tell me for the 253471th time that its going to rain cos the sky is red!

Just kidding :)

Anyway, cheer up and don't be upset anymore alrite?
Gather your self-belief and confidence!
Here's a quote for you:-

"It is courage, courage, courage,
that raises the blood of life to crimson splendor.
Live bravely and present a brave front to adversity."

That's all I have for now, Till we meet again!
Farewell travellers..

In sync

2006-04-07T16:37:00.000+08:00

Exams are coming soon! I feel the stress, but strangely the anxiety levels are not as high as last semester. Composing poetry is always a good way to destress. However it is not just a matter of sitting down and writing whenever I wish.

It is funny how the mind works, but even the greatest scientists will never know its secrets. Firstly there has to be inspiration, and then thoughts can be in sync and start to flow. It can come at the strangest of times and weirdest of places. Perhaps on the way home from school or even in the toilet under the shower!(yes, i love standing under the shower. A little secret is that I like to read magazines and newspapers and even mug my notes standing there. However I hope that you don't attempt to visualise that situation because obviously, i wouldn't be wearing any clothes!)

Anyway various people might interpret my poem differently, but to me the poem addresses the issue of the Rhetorical question. A rhetorical question is asked merely for the effect with no answer expected, perhaps because there are none.

Without further ado, let me present to you my new poem:-

-

With Reckless Abandon

I Walk and Walk with reckless abandon,
Along a hollow cove at the twilight of dusk
Prospecting for that achromatic treasure,
Which could contain answers of a resolute measure
But all I sighted were shades of uncanny nuances.

I pick up the pace.

I Strive and Strive with reckless abandon,
Down an obscure creek leading to nebulosity
Driving onwards with a subtle gait,
Which matches my enthralling yet unbeknownst fate
But all I found were tributaries of conundrums.

I pick up the pace.

I Run and Run with reckless abandon,
Into a veil of impervious mist that never lifts
Within this labyrinth of uncertainty,
Which I might discover that elusive epiphany
But all I found was unforgiving irony.

Heart pounding,
I continue running,
With reckless abandon.

-

For now, its back to mugging. All of your better mug hard too! Its closer to the end than you think... I can already smell the exam hall and foolscape paper, even though I'm having a blocked nose because of sinus! haha..

Ok, I don't want to stress you all out either so everyone repeat after me:-

"Detress - Destress - Destress!
I'm Happy - I'm Happy - I'm Happy!
No Anxiety - No Anxiety - No Anxiety!"

Ahh... I hope you feel better now haha!
Alright, till my next entry... lotsa luck 4 everyone!

Resolute

2006-03-14T22:36:00.000+08:00

Last night before I went to bed I decided to compose a poem that I hope will serve to inspire and uplift your spirits! This is the first time in 7 years since I've came anywhere close to composing a complete poem, so I hope you enjoy it as much as I did putting what I had in my mind into words.

I haven't really thought of a title for it yet, so I'll just use the first line of the poem as it's title.

A Poem, for you:-

'O Why do you let these tears fall

'O Why do you let these tears fall?
Worry not for we have heard the call!
Rejoice now! The celestial angels have arrived
Be not dispirited but exhilarated! They cheer
As they descend from beyond the infinite sky
To take you under their gentle wing
To relieve you of any existing sorrow
To lead you to the path of sanctity and redemption
Where you can revitalise the very marrow of your soul

'O Why do you let these tears fall?
Worry not for we have heard the call!
Hark now! A gentle breeze has arrived
Be not melancholic but exuberant! She whispers
A visit from stoic mother-nature herself
To caress you with her invigorating touch
To guide you to the garden of serenity
To alleviate you to a hushed tranquillity
Where you can learn solace in its soothing harmony

'O Why do you let these tears fall?
Worry not for we have heard the call!
Hear Ye! Your steadfast friend has arrived
Be not disheartened but jubilant! He encourages
A mountain of sturdiness you can depend upon
To embark with you on a journey of rejuvenation
To be by your side and face obstacles undaunted
To steer the ship towards rosy sanguine seas
Where there exists an unimpeachable island of absolute rhapsody!

-

Reassure you I hope it did, because whenever you are feeling down, just know this:-
That you will never be alone
because you will always have God
because you will always have family
because you will always have friends

That's all I have this time round, till we meet again my fellow stalwart travellers!

Let there be light at the end of the tunnel for those who fight on!

2006-03-10T04:37:00.000+08:00

Well as you know(ok if you don't come here often then maybe you don't know =p)
the side bar of my blog with all the links COMPLETELY DISAPPEARED awhile back...
I'm not sure what happened either. I emailed blogger support but never got a reply.
Ah well, fortunately I found a backup of it in my computer and restored it.

Okay I know I haven't blogged in the longest time but anyway continuing from my previous post(which I can dubiously admit was ~~one year ago~~ last year) the poem is actually from the movie 'In Her Shoes'. Did you catch it in January? It's the one with Cameron Diaz who went to the retirement village and attracted the attention of a bunch of old folks with her skimpy bikini. I know, I know... that's not the best description for the movie but rather than give a boring description of the story to help you recall the movie, extracting a memorable scene from it seems like a better alternative! Afterall if you don't already know, humans remember images more than words!

Anyways for those who are wondering what's been going on in my life recently... Well I haven't been doing much except for mugging these days ever since lectures officially ended. I still go to school rather often and mug till late(till the school library closes). I hope to keep this trend up till the exams in May which is about in 60plus days or so. Then again travelling to school and back home everyday is quite tedious, sometimes when I get home it's already 10pm(yeah the frequency of the stupid bus is really low), so maybe I will try mugging at the study rooms at Bishan CC instead.

The worst thing about the exams is not the distance I have to travel to sit for the paper(it's all the way at ulu EXPO). The absolute worst thing is that I have 3 papers crammed into 2 consectuive days at the end of May! Management Science Methods on the 1st day, and Marketing followed by Human Resource Management on the 2nd day. 2 Qualitative papers on the same day, how bad can it get hur? Even if preparations for the papers go very well, I feel it is difficult to maintain peak performance throughout the day. Better bring a bottle of Brand's Essence of chicken to drink during the break in-between the papers if you are hungry. Yes, food for the mind! Haha!

Blah ok, enough about exams. Fortunately the new season of American Idol is currently showing on television to relieve me of my boredom. Amazing race is going to start soon too!
Another piece of good news is that Arsenal beat Real Madrid and has made it to the final 8 teams!
Go go Gunners!

I have lots to blog but its rather late now so I'll continue another day.
Till then take care and those of you whose exams are approaching, mug hard!

P.S- Fion who is ur mystery friend hur? haha..

Blink

2005-11-09T19:13:00.000+08:00

Today when I visited my blog, I discovered that several cobwebs have sprouted in my absence.
So I got rid of the nasty spiders and got down to the business of blogging.
Lately, I'm starting not to look forward to school anymore. Today is the first time this year I skipped a lesson for no particular reason. Hmm... Perhaps cobwebs have sprouted in my brain as well! Haha..

Staying true to the sometimes literary nature of my blog,
I wish to share a poem by E. E. Cummings re-organised in my own style for easier reading:-

-

I carry your heart with me
(I carry it in my heart)
I am never without it
(anywhere I go you go, my dear;
and whatever is done by only me is your doing, my darling)

I fear no fate
(for you are my fate, my sweet)
I want no world
(for beautiful you are my world, my true)
and it's you, whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

Here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root, the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called Life;
which grows higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

I carry your heart (I carry it in my heart)

-

A poignant piece of poetry many have not heard of before.
Well I think more of you will come to know of it by January. Why?
Patience my friend, wait till the time comes. Afterall, it's barely 2 months away isn't it..

Legalise it, Time to recognise it

2005-10-23T23:30:00.000+08:00

Today I celebrated my dad's birthday by going for lunch at some Italian restaurant.
The food was rather good and I enjoyed an authentic Italian meal right in the heart of Bukit Timah(or rather 6th avenue). haha...

Anyway I don't know if its because of my dad's worsening sense of hearing or my inaudible mumbling, but we had some problems communicating today. Here are 2 incidents that I wish to highlight:-

Dad: "So where did you drive the car to last night?"
Me: "Marina South."
Dad: "What? Go girlfriend's house to do what?"
Me: "....."

Apparently he heard Marina South as Girlfriend's House!! Well, I'm not attached so even if I wanted to go to my "girlfriend's house", I guess it would be an imaginary one haha...
Alright! On to the next incident:-

(In the Italian Restaurant, with the waiter standing beside our table taking our order)
Dad: "So what would you like?"
Me: "The Pork Sausage."
(Dad turns to waiter)

Dad-to-waiter: "One Pork Porridge for him."
Me: "....."

Well this time round, he heard Pork Sausage as Pork Porridge!!!
The worst part is that the ITALIAN restaurant doesn't serve Pork Porridge! Haha!
Alright, okay, I guess its partly my fault too. I promise to P-R-O-N-O-U-N-C-E my words C-L-E-A-R-L-Y next time! And if all of you still do not(I quote from Chris Tucker from the movie Rush Hour) "understand the words that are coming out of my mouth", I G-U-E-S-S I W-I-L-L H-A-V-E T-O S-P-E-A-K L-I-K-E T-H-I-S T-O Y-O-U T-O-O!!

Haha.. okay.. lotsa assignments to catch up on, namely: Marketing, MSM essays. Oh yeah and also a HRM test coming up. Woohooo~!! I love work! Give me more! More! MORE!
Yeah right.
If I ever do become like this in person, please do me a favour and throw me into a mental ward okay? Thank you!!

Well that's all I have this time round!
Till we meet again...

Of Apples and Oranges...

2005-10-12T23:41:00.000+08:00

I had a full day in school today... I felt tired in the morning during HRM but I recovered enough during the lunch break to be revitalised for Marketing.
*School-bell rang!*(rang in my imagination.. haha) and I took a bus home. I was thinking of swimming but I remembered that they are currently servicing the pool and the water looks rather green now. I'm not very sure what they are doing but I asked the guard and he told me not to swim in it otherwise I will get sore eyes.

Anyway I didn't realise how tired I was, till I was watching 'X-Men 2' on Star Movies when I fell asleep on the sofa at 9.45pm. Of course it isn't the first time I fell asleep there but the other occassions were mostly when I watched soccer at unearthly hours from 2.30-5am!

Presenting the topic that comes under scrutiny for today!-

Yes! It is Ikea! I don't know what's in that picture though. Looks like a heart stuck in the middle of the Ikea sign with hands sticking out. If I were to guess the message that the hot-air balloon advert is trying to convey, I would say that it is "I Love Ikea! We will give anyone who sees this advert $1,000,000!"

I was just kidding about the $1,000,000 part. Too good to be true right? All day-dreamers reading this post should buy Toto instead! At least that has a better chance of winning $ than just staring at this picture! haha...

Okay now here's the discussion of the day. How do we actually pronouce Ikea?
(1) eye-kay-uh, or
(2) ee-key-uh(ickier)

Well the proper Swedish pronunciation it is actually '(2) ee-key-uh(ickier)'!
However there are still many people who pronouce it as ' (1) eye-kay-uh'(well, mostly people who are not from Sweden).

So where did the alternative pronunciation origin from?

' (1) eye-kay-uh' is actually the anglicised version of '(2) ee-key-uh(ickier)'. Anglicised means a foreign word or term adapted for English usage(supposedly by Americans who can't really pronouce European terms correctly). At the end of the day, it is not wrong to pronounce Ikea as ' (1) eye-kay-uh'. However, it is also not the authentic pronounciation. It is really up to personal preference on which variant you wish to use, but if you want to pronouce it with more Swedish flair and gusto, then '(2) ee-key-uh(ickier)' is the way to go!

So friends, remember not to correct anyone who pronouces it using either variant. At the end of the day, both are correct but let's just say pronoucing it as ' (1) eye-kay-uh' is more wrong than right! =p

That's all I have for this entry! Till we meet again...

Dive with me, into the depths of the blue Ocean

2005-09-26T23:15:00.000+08:00

Today while I was on my way to school to crash the HRM lecture in the morning, I bumped into a friend at the bus-stop near MacRitchie. We took bus 74 and started talking about the now-extended distance of the bus-stop, from the overhead bridge.

1.

Here is an illustration of how it looks like from an overhead perspective. The blue arrows indicate the direction of the traffic flow. The bus-stop used to be directly under the bridge.
I wonder why they made the decision to move it but i think it was a stupid idea(shame on the Land Transport Authority(LTA) engineers who thought up of such a silly plan!!)

The LTA should sack all of them and give me the job instead for I have a better plan up my sleeves! Haha!!

2.

Above is a simple Vector Diagram illustrating the distance we now have to travel from the bus-stop, to the overhead bridge and then to SIM. The vector arrows are in red to emphasise the path we have to walk.

3.

Anyone who has studied simple Vectors before will be able to tell that the shortest distance between the 2 red vector arrows is *drum-rolls* BINGO!! The green arrow!

4.

Okay to make the plans more technical to impress the LTA people, I have added the angles with specific 45-90-45 degree measurements(on a side note, any human who has measurements like that must look really funny because his/her hips will be gigantic! Haha!) .
Just kidding! *aHem* Now carrying on...

After permission is kindly given to me by LTA to construct the bridge, it will look something like...

5.

*TaDa*!! This!
Meticulous and careful calculations, show that the distance saved from walking on MY bridge is equivalent to us saving 1 Mars chocolate bar worth of energy!!

Sounds unbelievable?
Because it is!
I was just kidding. To burn 1 Mars bar worth of energy you'll probably have to walk back and forth 40 times or more! Haha!!

---

Now moving on...
Today I had lunch in school with Jeremy, Zhixian, Jasmine and Junjie after morning HRM class.
I don't know if its the quality of the food, the ambience, the environment or the stink of the oil-filled air that puts me off but I always seem to have very little appetite in school.

Being the kind soul that I am, I decided to return to this morning's HRM lecture room 3.09 to collect extra notes for someone who is crashing Wednesday morning's HRM. Due to the strict admin checks this week(have they been given a pay raise or something?!) I was concerned that she might not be able to enter the lecture or collect the stack of notes, so I thought I'd do her a favour =p

As I walked into the lecture room I didn't see any box of notes lying around so I went to the store behind the projector screen to check. For those of you who haven't visited that store room before, there isn't much to see except some boxes of notes, stacked up chairs and a pot of gold.
HAHA! Just kidding! There isn't any pot of gold there. Sorry to disappoint all of you but the pot of gold is at the end of the rainbow. I'm sure you'll be able to find it if you ever make it to the end of the rainbow(remember its the right end and not the left side).

Anyway after I picked up the stack of notes I made my way towards the lecture room exit but not before waving to the Pig. As I pushed the handle of the lecture door open I felt that it was rather wet, so I took a glance at my right hand and 'lo and behold! There was a cut and blood was flowing from it like a fountain(I'm serious!). Anyway the blood started to stain the notes and newspaper I was holding so I quickly made my way to the toilet while clenching my fist in hope that no one would notice.

By the time I made it to the toilet almost 3/4 of my hand was covered in blood. Wow I've never held so much of my own blood in my hand before! I always thought blood would be thicker, but it is actually rather fluid. Okay I won't describe anymore incase you all get grossed out and start puking on your monitor before you finish reading this entry!

Anyway I managed to wash off the blood and wrapped my finger in tissue while applying pressure to stop the bleeding. After I got home from school, I took off the plaster and took some pictures of the cut:-

The cut is actually much deeper than it looks here. I could lift up the top layer of skin for everyone to see but then i would have no hands to hold the camera and take the picture. Haha!

Another angle of my finger.

Now the ultimate question is... How am I supposed to style my hair!
Haha! Just kidding! As all the wisemen say- "When there's a will, there's a way."
I'll use my right foot to style my hair in place of my right hand!
What? Did I hear you say that it's impossible?
Well what's Yoga for then?

Anyway I have no idea why it bled so much. The cut is really deep though, maybe it hit a vessel or something! I think it will leave a scar... but scars are for warriors! Brave warriors! One day when I grow old I'll tell my grandchildren that I fought off a ferocious wolf with my own bare-hands and that I was so good that the closest the wolf ever got to me, was to have a nibble on my middle finger. Haha but of course all of your who are reading this now better not tell them about the papercut! Afterall, kids have a vivid sense of imagination ;-)

Anyway I have sufficient empirical evidence to come to the conclusion that *GaSp* PAPER IS DANGEROUS!! It can be used as a weapon and has to be as sharp as a knife to be able to penetrate that deeply into the flesh. Since all Airlines have already banned sharp objects and knives from being brought aboard the plane, they should ban paper as well!

Then how you might ask, are businessmen supposed to carry their documents around?
Well, they should engrave them in stone!!

Till we meet again, my fellow travellers... Farewell =)

Going Orbital

2005-09-22T23:50:00.000+08:00

A rainy day today... It felt so good sleeping. Even the construction next door didn't bother me too much, so I slept till 2pm Haha!

I left my house at 5pm to go to the gym where I was supposed to meet Anthony. I was wearing a singlet and shorts. As I reached the bus-stop outside my house to wait for the 410 bus, a man in his 40s dressed in a dark-blue t-shirt and black pants came up to talk to me. The moment he started talking I felt sick in the stomach... He had gay written all over him!

Fortunately 2 minutes later the bus came, and I thought the ordeal was finally over. But no! he followed me up the bus and after I sat down he said, "Can I join you?". Before I could reply he self-invited and sat down beside me.

This was how the conversation went:-

Him "You are very nice to talk to, very handsome."
Him "How old are you? Still studying?"
Me "I'm 22... Studying business degree."
Him "Wow but you look so young!"
Him "Very nice to meet you."

(Sticks out his hand for a handshake, and being the nice person I am, kindly obliged.)
(He procceds to give me a strange handshake. Not a normal standard one I would expect from an adult, but a combination of 3 shakes.. First is the normal handshake, second he grabbed my thumb, then thirdly slid his hand back into the normal handshake position... It's Like, Totally WEIRD dudeee!!! I was wondering if it was some secret gay handshake..)

- Silence -
Him "Where are you going now?"
Me "I'm going to the gym."
Him "Wah good ah keep fit."
Him "You look fit."

(Then came the ultimate question)

Him "I like to go for massage. You like massage?"

(At this point I was extremely turned off, but I kept my cool and shook my head)

Me "No.."
Him "Oh I see.. Then how? Your friend massage for you?"
Me "err...No!"
Him "You should go for massage... Very relaxing for muscles."
Him "I'm going to Bishan bus interchange. Where are you going?"
Me "I'm going to Bishan Gym."
Him "Oh that's near the interchange right? Why don't you take to the bus interchange then walk over?"
Me "No, no! My friend is waiting for me"

(Finally the bus reached my stop)

Him "Very nice to meet you. Very nice to talk to you!"

After that harrowing experience I quickly got off and walked to the gym but not before turning back to see if he was following me. Fortunately he didn't *pHeW*...

I felt totally disgusted!! I WAS HIT ON BY A GAY!
I have no idea why... maybe it was the hair(the current style I have now), the Nivea deoderant or the unshaven look(no school la, shave for what? haha!) but this incident left me totally dumbfounded. After I met Anthony at the gym, I told him what happened and he gave me an astonished look and then laughed it off... bleah...

Anyway after gym we went to eat chicken rice at the coffeeshop near Junction 8 and went home around 8+ pm. Well, that's all I have to report about today! I hope you had as much enjoyment reading this entry as much as the DISGUST I had recollecting the sequence of events!
MASSAGE?! *pUKE*!!!

It was a dark and stormy night...

2005-09-09T03:20:00.000+08:00

Yesterday I was staying up late to watch soccer in my living room...
The match was around 3am and during that point of time I could already hear the howl of strong winds as they beat down upon my sliding glass doors. It sounded like millions of lost souls were singing a song... a song only possible from the abyss of the netherworlds...
An atmosphere befitting of a supernatural horror movie!!

The match ended around 5am after which i proceeded upstairs to wash-up. By then the song from the abyss had already turned into a disturbingly-angry, full-fledged thunderstorm. I proceeded to check who was online on msn(I saw jenny who probably couldn't get to sleep after a night of clubbing), then I turned off the lights and lay in my bed to sleep.... My eyes were closed but I could hear the pitter-patter of raindrops outside my window.

It was 5.45am.

All of a sudden i heard the noise of dripping water at my door. I flicked on the light switch and walked to the door when i stepped into a small puddle of water. I turned my head up to look and this was what I saw:-

Water was seeping through the ceiling. As you can see from above, the water stops flowing just above the door, starts to collect at that point and then drips down onto the floor.
As I continued to stare at the door while wondering what I should do...

A horrifying scene started to reveal itself to me before my very eyes!!:-

I was rooted to the spot, petrified with bloodcurdling horror. A scene right out of the horror-movie Darkwater! I was hit by a mental block and was completely stumped.
The only thought that was running through my head was "what the hell is going on?!!"

Then just like the water suddenly appeared, it suddenly ceased its flow.:-

I quickly recovered my wits and found a towel to dry the floor. I thought of taping up the area which was leaking but gave up on the idea after awhile because scotch-tape isn't water proof anyway! In the end I just left the towel on the ground to soak up the darkwater in case the ceiling started to bleed again.

I finally got back to bed around 6.20am as the storm continued to pour mercilessly and somehow managed to fall asleep. In the morning when I woke up, I discovered that dark stains had appeared on the ceiling above:-

The stains led to the point where the ceiling was bleeding from...
Below is a close up shot of the dark stains:-

The stains are quite large. The smallest stain at the extreme right already encompasses three-quarters of my hand. Sometimes when I look up at the ceiling I see dark shapes moving about... I do not know why, but it could be my eyes that are playing tricks on me...

Currently, as I'm typing this and staring up at the ceiling... the shapes are starting to take the form of a cross. If you look closely at the picture above, you can see a faint line facing straight down towards the extreme left of the picture...

Is this a sign? I haven't got a clue.

That's all I have to blog about regarding this event. I'll post updates if there are any further... developments.
In the meantime my fellow readers... I bid you a safe and sound sleep...
Goodnight and sleep tight. Very tight.

For you once again...

2005-09-07T02:37:00.000+08:00

Hello...

Hope your foot recovers quickly! I know you are bored to the bone, doing nothing at home...
Remember that quite awhile ago I told you about the scrambled messages in blue at the bottom of my older posts? Well actually, they were meant for you heh... I guess there is no harm revealing the code-wheel now!
Here it is:-

B - A
X - B
U - C
Z - D
Y - E
V - F
S - G
R - H
W - I
T - J
Q - K
P - L
O - M
L - N
I - O
N - P
M - Q
J - R
G - S
F - T
K - U
H - V
E - W
D - X
C - Y
A - Z

*I

Note that for the letter 'I', when it is used as a single letter(for e.g- 'i sdgd') the 'I' translates back as I. However if the 'I' is used as part of a word(for e.g- 'cdfiy') then the 'I' will translate into an 'O' instead.

Happy decoding! If you are suffering from a headache trying to decode it, just imagine the migraine I had while trying to encode it! Honestly... each one painstakingly took me at least 15-minutes or longer to do. Phew... I hope that you eventually do decode them though...

For You

2005-09-06T01:46:00.000+08:00

Hey,

I guess I was abit harsh with my words earlier today. I'm Sorry...
Perhaps I was just being sensitive and over-reacted, but it is only because I care.
I have a soft-spot for you. It has always been there.
I know I will never be as important to you, as you are to me. I knew from the beginning that the closer I get to you, the more affected I will become. More often than not I get disappointed... It is however, not really your fault. Afterall, I need to get used to that right? I don't expect to be someone very significant in your life, however much I wish that I could.

Whatever happens, life has to go on. I've never regretted meeting you and I've learnt so much in the past year, more than you could ever have imagined. Lessons of life- joy, happiness, heartache. I appreciate all of that as I perceive it would be useful to me in future. I also realised that I have to move on, and that has been what I've been doing for sometime awhile now.

Lastly, I would like to share with you a poem.

~
The Crossroads-

The crossroads,
what are they?
A place where two roads meet.
A choice must be made upon coming to them,
to continue on,
or to choose a different path.
These roads can be travelled alone,
but they are best travelled with someone.
Who would I travel with?
You?
~

And to that question, I answer Yes.
Afterall, you still have the jigsaw piece right?
: )

A Tribute -

2005-09-05T23:55:00.000+08:00

Welcome!

Let me share with you the background story of the re-christening of my blog.
I feel that I owe alot to my secondary school education.
It was in Raffles Institution, where the very foundations of who I am toady as a person was laid.
Sometimes you meet certain people in your life that have an enormous impact on you...
I met such a person in secondary 1. He was my form teacher Mr Yap.
He was very unlike the other teachers in school... He had his own unusual methods of teaching. Unusually-unique in a positive way. He reminded me very much of the teacher Robin Williams played in the movie Dead Poets Society, Mr John Keating. Mr Keating too, had his own unconventional methods of teaching which inspired his students to follow their own chosen path of destiny. This inspite of the vise-like grip of an environment of the traditional strict English boarding school for boys and the other wishes of their respective parents.

The school and the parents who had other wishes for the boys wanted to mould them into their own image. Mr Keating encouraged them to search for their own self-identity. There is however
a tragic ending. I've watched this movie many times and it never fails to hit a spot in me. I recommend all of you who haven't seen it to do so, before this classic vanishes forever!

The penultimate scene from the movie. "O Captain! my Captain!"

My form teacher Mr Yap was the one who first screened this movie for us. If you are wondering what "O Captain! my Captain!" is all about, in this movie there was a poem by Walt Whitman titled simply as(well you've already guessed it) "O Captain! my Captain!".

Walt Whitman (1819-1892). Leaves of Grass. 1900.

O Captain! my Captain!

O CAPTAIN! my Captain! our fearful trip is done;
The ship has weather-d every rack, the prize we sought is won;
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring:
But O heart! heart! heart!	5
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.

2 O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up-for you the flag is flung-for you the bugle trills;	10
For you bouquets and ribbon'd wreaths-for you the shores a-crowding;
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;
Here Captain! dear father!
This arm beneath your head;
It is some dream that on the deck,	15
You've fallen cold and dead.

3 My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still;
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will;
The ship is anchor'd safe and sound, its voyage closed and done;
From fearful trip, the victor ship, comes in with object won;	20
Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells!
But I, with mournful tread,
Walk the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.

A picture of the poem.

And so I hereby re-christian my blog 'O Captain! my Captain!'

Life's full of Beans!!

2005-08-26T03:32:00.000+08:00

Ahhh... Beans!
They are the unsung heroes of today.
I looked up the dictionary for the definition of 'Bean' and here's what I got:-

---

Pronunciation: 'bEn
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English bene, from Old English bEan; akin to Old High German bOna bean
1 a :BROAD BEAN b : the seed of any of various erect or climbing leguminous plants (especially genera Phaseolus, Dolichos, and Vigna) other than the broad bean c : a plant bearing beans d : an immature bean pod used as a vegetable
2 a : a valueless item, b plural : the least amount (didn't know beans about it)
3 : any of various seeds or fruits that resemble beans or bean pods; also : a plant producing these
4 plural : NONSENSE, BUNKUM -- used in the phrase full of beans
5 : HEAD, BRAIN

---

Look at '2 a: A valueless item'

A VALUELESS ITEM?!! Oh c'mon, you gotta be kidding me!
Just take a look at what Beans have brought to our lives!!-

BEAN-curd

BEAN-sprouts

Green BEAN soup

Soya BEAN drink

JolliBEAN

Mr BEAN

Emily the BEAN-pole (that's what she calls herself anyway haha!)

From the above, you can see how ever-present beans are in our daily lives!
Beans = valueless? My ass!! *sNoRT*

---

Okay! anyway back to the definition of Beans that I found in the dictionary...
Look at definition number-

' 4 plural: NONSENSE, BUNKUM -- used in the phrase full of beans '

In this context 'BEANS' can be used as a replacement for 'NONSENSE' !
Now for those of you crude people out there who like to use phrases like "You're so full of shit!!" or "You're full of crap~!"...

Well here's some great news for you!! You can replace 'shit' or 'crap' with 'BEANS'!!
This is especially so for the ladies, who are supposed to be more gentle and well-mannered...
So I suppose i will be hearing alot more "You're so full of BEANS!" from all of you instead! HAHA!

Hey wait a minute... I guess if we can replace 'shit' or 'crap' with 'beans'...
That means that, instead of saying "I'm going to the toilet to take a crap."
You might be saying "I'm going to the toilet to BAKE SOME BEANS!" instead!!
HAHA! How strange is that? Weird huh?

Alright, that's all I have for this entry. The reason why I brought up the topic of beans, is because all of this is building up to my next entry! And yes! It is something to do with beans!!
To find out what it is, please stay tuned...
The next entry will be up soon!

well I hope so anyway... =P

Sing to me of the song of the stars. Of Your galaxy dancing and laughing and laughing again...

2005-08-17T03:50:00.000+08:00

Today turned out rather well!
I currently have 1 class a week till September, and I totally love bummin' during the holidays!!
Late nights, lazy afternoons, basking under the sun in the jacuzzi...

Anyways! Had a POA lecture in school and I kinda like the lecture I'm in...
Lotsa familiar year 2 people in the lecture including several members from my OG Storm!!
Of course I thoroughly enjoyed the company I had during lecture today!!
Repeat this sentence in mock surfer Jon Jonsson-like accent, "You guys like, totally rock duude!!" =)

Wierdest incident of the day:- Some genius unknowingly set a pencil on fire with a candle!
Yes, you know who you are! HAha...
Thinking back, I should have taken a picture of that incident!

Achievement of the day:- Repairing the Mop's computer.
Remember the $20 fee! Please CR(credit) to your Accounts Payable!
Just kidding =p

I had alot of fun today & u all are great company, meet up soon again yeah?

Back to the topic of SRC orientation camp, i recently got my hands on several new pictures! Here are some of them:-

Storm! (Click to enlarge)

Me, Syah, Shyam & Diana

---

That's all for this blog entry!
Feeling a little tired today...

One last thing though:-

Something special. Lovely isn't it? =)

Basking in the Moondew... (Part 2/2)

2005-08-10T03:45:00.000+08:00

Welcome back!!
So anyway continuing from the previous post, Part 2/2 consists of material I've collected to update my blog but never really got down to doing it...
Let's get started!

I would like to begin with some quirky MSN conversations I've had:-

A conversation with Kunshan:-
Those who have seen me recently will know that I've got a new cap. Well its the one you can see in the previous post, but anyway I've attached another one below:

Damn I look chubby in that pic.
Anyway!
I was asking Kunshan if my cap was nice and she said it was.

Then I noticed her MSN pic...

I told her that her cap was much nicer than mine!!:

(Reproduced without permission. HAHA!)

Look! It's in fashion too! Everyone is wearing one, and I want one!
Anyone knows where I can buy a sexy, white & hard hat like that??
Haha! Alright I'm just kidding...
On to the next conversation!

A conversation with Christina, my SP during 2004's SRC Orientation Camp:-
This took place not long after ECR 1(Electronic Course Registration), after we had to bid for our modules for the next semester.
Well, this conversation goes to show how typos can make you look really silly!!
Just read on...

*TadAH!!* Here is the conversation, just as I promised to save it and put it on the blog.. Haha!
Baking and Finance... If they really had such a course, I think it's rather useful if you are planning to enter the - BREAD - industry! ahahaha!

My most recent conversation with Jinghui, aka Mop:-
Actually I kinda forgot why I started calling Jinghui a Mop. I think it is because she was mopping the floor at wierd hours(like 3+ am in the morning?!). Most would think that it is a strange thing to do... well, not if you are nocturnal like a hamster! AhahA!

Anyway the last I've heard is that the Mop has blue ears.
She also claims to have a pair of ultra sensitive antennae(apparently now damaged by the National Day Parade fireworks, or so I've been told).

Well I know it is hard to imagine how all that looks like together...
But the last time I checked, Moppy Lee Jinghui looked something like the picture below:

(original picture drawn as it was in msn)

HAHA! Does that look alien or what?!
Ok la.. not alien, UNIQUE is the word.. hahaha! Just kidding la :-p

A few pictures:-

I know I look like I'm riding the bull in this picture...
But don't let the pic fool you!
The only riding going on in this pic is the metal wire riding up my ass, haha!
I couldn't sit properly, that's why you can see my left leg straining to balance my butt as I attempted to 'hover' over the metal wire cleverly disguised as harmless rope!

Ahhh... Now this is a picture I like.

"deeply rooted in thought,
staring out towards the river,
a heavy sense of nostalgia,
an enigmatic mystery..."

Hmmm...
Well, all credit to the one behind the camera!
It would not have turned out the way it did without u haha...

That's all I have this time round!
Till we meet again in my next entry...
Au revoir, mes amis!

Bathing in the Moonshine...(Part 1/2)

2005-08-09T04:25:00.000+08:00

Hello!
Haven't updated in awhile... abit lazy i suppose.. haha..
Anyway these few days i've been sleeping really late( 4+ to 5+ ) everyday, and I've been eating alot of suppers and finishing up my brother's "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince". What a tragic and dark, dark story.

Anyway as you can see, there is a huge block of journal missing between this entry and the previous one, so let me update you about what's been going on starting from the month of June!
I'll be splitting this into 2 entries because it is rather long...
Anywayys.. here we go!

5th June:-
My Birthday! The Sunshiners surprised me and I was totally not expecting it! Thanks once again for the handmade card! It's stored safely in my glass cabinet now!

13th June:-
Passed my driving!! Hurray! Less public transport!
It's not as great as it sounds though...
1. More $ spent on petrol
2. More $ spent on cashcard, ERP and parking
3. More worries about getting fined, demerit points
4. More worries about scratching the car & buang-ing

But heck, who really gives a damn about the above when driving is more fun than computer games! haha!

24th June:-
Lionel Gao's Birthday!
Celebrated with him by having a BBQ gathering at Reina's place.
Well no pics of him on that day so I guess we will have to settle for a pic from his friendster...

Haha! How's that?! Looks like some advert eh??

18th July:-
July birthday celebrations for the Sunshiners!
Happy Birthday to the 4 in the front row!
Jingxian, Jinghui, Karen & Kaijie!

24th to 27th July:-
SRC Orientation Camp at Sentosa!
4 days 3 nights for all OGLs and Gamemasters, 3 days 2 nights for the freshies.
The weather wasn't too good, it rained on monday and tuesday but overall I think they still had fun! Who will ever forget the SP Dance and forfeits they made you guys do during SP Walk eh?

Anyway this year's orientation theme was based on X-Men characters and my OG was called Storm. The freshies who made up Storm are- Jeremy, Joanne, Lionel, Fion, Sharon, Meishan, Vincent, Weixiong, Xianglun, Zhixian, Justina, Alan, Jasmine, Priscilla & Sylvester.

The only Picture I could find of our OG during camp is the one below:

28th July:
Post-Orientation party at a club by the Singapore River called "Home" near Boat Quay.
Some of them had a taste of some of the 'driving skills' I picked up from the movie "Initial D"(those who were passengers in my car on that day, I'm sure u know what I mean! HAHA!)

Anyway here is a picture of some of my OG members including myself and Syah(the OGLs) that night:

3rd August:-
KTV outing at KBox Cineleisure with my some of my OG members!
Below are some of the pics:-

(L-R: Jeremy, Me, Qingting, Zhixian)

(Qingting & Me)

(L-R: Jeremy, Me & Justina)

(L-R: Me, Zhixian, Jeremy & ehhem.. Qingting's Foot)

After KTV, went for supper and had mee-goreng & mutton soup.
Thanks for ur company =)

5th August:-
Chocolate Buffet at Fullerton...
High-quality chocolate galore! The problem is that, the chocolate is so rich that you will feel full fast. The trick here my friends, is to skip the cakes and go for the other stuff like the chocolate fountain, chocolate soup, tiramisu and the many other various types of chocolate i never knew existed.

Check out some pictures below!:

(4 of us, Jessica is behind the camera)

(A selection of the various types of chocolate at the buffet)

(Kaijie and the wonderful CHOCOLATE FOUNTAIN! Now how often do you get to see something like that?)

(Jessica & Me)

~End of Part I~

It's been awhile...

2005-05-27T03:09:00.000+08:00

Hello guys! It's been awhile...
What a smashing 2 days it's been(Wednesday and Thursday)
American Idol finale, The Contender Finale, Eye For A Guy 2,
and finally Star Wars Ep 3 today!!

A little summary of the above:-

[American Idol]
Carrie won in the end. No doubt she has talent, but to me Bo was a winner too.
I guess he finally got the recognition he deserves through American Idol because I believe that he is truly a genuine and authentic performer.

If I were a producer, I think I would really enjoy producing a record with him and that is the highest compliment I can give! haha...

[The Contender]
Serigo 'The Latin Snake' was crowned as The Contender. Somehow I didn't find the telecast of the final bout of boxing at Las Vegas Caesar's Palace as exciting as the dramatised version in the reality TV series.
I guess Sergio deserved to win because he fought really well even with his back against the ring-ropes and he even managed to put in quite afew combos.

Peter Manfredo did not have the stamina to last 7 rounds and I guess that was partly the reason why he lost with a unanimous vote for Sergio!

[Eye For A Guy 2]
I'm glad Shan was finally voted out from the show. I mean everytime he does something wrong, he always acts blur and doesn't even apologise and attempt to come up with a proper explanation. Also, he gave Denise's friends bad vibes by admitting he cheated twice in the past on his ex-gfs.

At the last part of the show during elimination when Denise called Jeff and Wolfgang over to her side, Howard and Shan were left. You all should have seen Howard's expression then!

Haha.. It was one filled with dread and gloom. But Surprise, surprise! Shan was the one who was voted out! Honestly, I thought that he would stay-on because of the song he sang and obviously the big sMoOcH he gave Denise.. haha..

I guess in the end, sense prevailed over feelings.

---

Alright! After hearing out my views on the above TV Programmes, its on to what I did today!!

Finally met Mike and Junior after such a longtime. It was good meeting the 2 hobbits again. The other Hobbit Jon is currently studying in Australia but will be back on the 18th of June! Haha.. After that maybe Merry & Pippin(Jon & Junior), Sam(Mike) and Frodo(Me) can return to 'The Shire' at Europa for some catching up! haha.. of course Smeagol(Gao) is always welcomed to join us! Afterall The Ring has already been destroyed. hahaha!

I met Mike's gf for the first time today! After they left I went to Suntec with Junior to PizzaHut to have dinner. At 8.30pm, I finally sat myself down in the digital cinema with Gao, Reina, Junior and Xiangying to watch the final episode of STAR WARS!!!!

If you all don't know already, I am a big Star Wars fan.
Towards the end, it got really sad. The Jedi were slaughtered after the activation of Code 66. Especially the part when Yoda shook his head and said "Failed in the task, I have."(or something like that). I have never seen this side of the Jedi before.
The side of defeat. That is what hurt me the most, because even in the original Episodes 4-6 the Jedi always seem to have that something extra to overcome the odds stacked against them everytime. Well, I guess when you put episodes 1-6 as a whole, you WOULD get a happy ending but today for me, that was not the case.

---

Okay! Finally on a lighter note, is an excerpt from my conversation with Jenny on MSN(Take special note of the word 'Song'):-

--

02:20:20 __{jEnNy} sends:

Open(Alt+P)

You have successfully received C:\joshua\msn\12 一千年以后林俊杰编号89757.wma from {jEnNy}.

02:24:47 __I'm going where the water tastes like wine! says:

how come i cant play the song

02:24:59 __{jEnNy} says:

i dunno

02:25:03 __{jEnNy} says:

try again

You have failed to receive file "12 一千年以后林俊杰编号89757.wma" from {jEnNy}.

02:25:16 __I'm going where the water tastes like wine! says:

wait i try in other music player

02:25:42 __I'm going where the water tastes like wine! says:

thanks 4 letting mi win~

02:25:48 __{jEnNy} says:

dont wan play liao

02:26:12 __{jEnNy} says:

no thanks

02:27:00 __I'm going where the water tastes like wine! says:

wad no thanks

02:27:01 __I'm going where the water tastes like wine! says:

u stink

02:27:11 __{jEnNy} says:

i bathed mind you

02:27:25 __I'm going where the water tastes like wine! says:

hmph ok fine i take it back

02:27:38 __{jEnNy} says:

humph

02:29:18 __{jEnNy} says:

can you play the song

02:30:23 __I'm going where the water tastes like wine! says:

dun ask mi to draw utility curves now

02:30:46 __{jEnNy} says:

wat is the link

02:30:55 __{jEnNy} says:

oh oh!@

02:30:56 __{jEnNy} says:

hahaha!

02:30:59 __I'm going where the water tastes like wine! says:

hahahahaha

02:31:10 __{jEnNy} says:

LAME

---
Haha.. If you haven't already got it, it is a dumb reference from Mr Ting's Econs class about drawing Utility curves by 'playing the song'.
Alright folks! That is all for now.

May the Force be with you, Always.

Enter The Arena!

2005-05-12T23:32:00.000+08:00

[Current DEFCON Status: DEFCON 3 (Increase in force readiness above normal readiness) ]

Hi dudes & dudettes!

-
Question:
"X can take on 5 different values: X1= Stats, X2= Maths, X3= Econs, X4= Soci, X5= IBM
Calculate the Median."

Using formula Pk= [(n+1)/100]k
To find median, K= 50

P50= [(5+1)/100]50
= 3rd Term.

The 3rd Term is X3= Econs.

Answer: The Median is X3= Econs.
-

Yes! My point is, we have passed the half-way mark of our exams!(please excuse my long-windedness which some of you might interpret as being lame! haHa!)

Similarly, I draw a comparison to the reality TV show I watch on AXN (Channel 19 on SCV)- "The Contender". In short it is a reality TV show Sylvester Stallone produced, everyweek there will be a fight between 2 boxers and the one who loses will be eliminated. This will carry on till there is only 1 Winner left who will be crowned as The Contender.

In each boxing match there are 5 rounds. Similar to the 5 papers we have to take, right now we have completed the 3rd paper. We have gone past the 3rd round and have 2 more rounds to go! It isn't over yet... but don't give up! We are not going to get knocked-out, because I won't let you!! We will press on!!

Don't give up without telling yourself that you have given it your all! Even if we go down, we will go down in a blaze of glory!

I quote from Bill Pullman who played the President of United States of America in the movie Independence Day: -

"We will not go quietly into the night!
We will not vanish without a fight!
We're going to live on!
We're going to survive!"

My fellow friends, Welcome to the Arena.

Drilling me into pieces...

2005-04-16T22:07:00.000+08:00

Hello!

The past 3 days I haven't been sleeping well...
The elevator near my room has been under renovation and as you all know, I sleep really late(4+ am) so when they start working at 10+ am they wake me up with their constant drilling!!
That means I only get around 6 hours of sleep. After the drilling starts(about 10+ am) I will turn myself to the end of my bed, facing away from the noise, cover one ear with the pillow and the other with the blanket and lie there till I feel guilty... haha..

So anyway! Back to reality...
Today I was supposed to meet Jen & Ant at 12.30pm in school to study.
As I was about to leave the house I remembered that my card had no more $ in it and quickly told my brother to switch ez-link cards with me. The problem is he is only 17 this year(and his is the student's concession card) and I'm like 5 years older than him. You know, I sort of regretted this...

Starting from the bus-stop outside my house, I took 165 to the MacRitchie busstop.
1. When I got on the bus and flashed the card (*BeeP-BeeP* it went.)
2. Oh man, I think my ears started to turn red at this point in time.
3. I mean all of you say I look young, but i doubt I can pass off as a 17 year old anymore!

ANYWAY! The journey was alright and I alighted at the next bus-stop to wait for 74.
The journey was uneventful... I was blissfully looking out of the bus window wondering what to eat in school for lunch and listening to mp3 music in my handphone, when all of a sudden at the corner of my eye *GaSP!* out popped a bus-conductor!
He was slowly coming my way and I was momentarily stunned. I started to think about what to do, and this is how my train of thoughts were like(more or less):-

"Shit man! What to do now?! Ok I think I will sit here... But what should I tell the conductor when he asks for my ez-link card? Okay that's it! I will just tell him I swapped cards with my brother!! But his picture is on his student's concession card! How?!"

- 5 secs later & the Devil-in-disguise-as-a-Conductor is now 2 seats away from me -
(Suddenly someone pressed the bell for the bus to stop, giving me a Plan-B!)

"Here's my chance, I'll just get my butt off and take the next bus! Please reach the next stop before the conductor gets to my seat!!"

*PhEW*
and I just made it in time.
In the end I took 3 buses to school, 165 -> 74 -> 154.
What a stupid way to a start day!

Alright, now to other matters!!
Today when I was still in bed at 11am(much to my dismay, they were renovating the lift again. On a SATURDAY! =( Drill and drill and drill! You all can drill yourselves to hell! hahaha!)
I received an sms from Anthony telling me he was already in school!! 11am! I was shocked man... haha... so early!
Oh man, I thought he was really hardworking...
Anyway Jenny reached school before me too and she told me they were in the library.
Hardworking man!!

Just take a look at the pictorial evidence below:-

Jenny, studying hard.

Anthony, studying even harder.

What were you all studying btw.. what? Did I hear you say you were mugging the beautiful inner-walls of your eyelids? HAHA!

In the end, the person that arrived the latest, lasted the longest. =D

Something to cheer you up!

2005-04-13T02:09:00.000+08:00

Hello! Haven't blogged in around 2 days...
Today was a day where my brain was tested to its limits.
Imagine your brain as a sponge, exactly how much information can it soak up?
Well today I had a decent benchmark for mine! I left my house from 8am,
and had Statistics lesson in school from 9am-5pm, then stayed behind to
date Karl Marx to study Sociology from 5pm-10pm!
Man! What a day!!

Well, that didn't leave a deep enough impression did it?
Ok, I shall repeat:-
"Man! What a day!!"

haha... now that had a greater impact! =)
Anyway, I decided to give my brain a rest and do something senseless and silly instead
so without further ado may I present to you:-

[My Conversations With Max Webber]
(Max Weber is a guy we studied in our Introduction to Sociology module)

[ -The End- ]

Well I hope that I have managed to brighten up your day!

p/s: i changed my music! jx please feel free to give ur comments.. haha, you are becoming my music critic! =)
( ce#5: eryl fwoy bjy fiksr, I ewpp bpebcg xy gfblzwls xygwzy cik... )

Apples... Just Apples...

2005-04-09T02:08:00.000+08:00

So, I was thinking to myself what to blog today?
Alright I have decided...
To entertain you with a short piece of literary work from yours truly(that means from me la!!).

-

I awake in a room, a room without a lock or a door. Enclosed without any hope of being let out.
My destiny is no longer in my own hands, though I hope that one day I might still be able to wrestle it away from the merciless and stern grip of Fate. My mind has become nothing but an endless spiralling whirlpool of lost memories in a boundless ocean, through which the only thing that exists is a lonely void of unfathomable darkness.

Yes, I am in a coma- a lost soul trapped within a body.

However for some reason or other, somewhere in the grey matter within my head I am still aware of what is happening at present, though not of what I did in the past. It is strange, without doubt and beyond scientific reasoning that an ordinary man like me whom I assume has led a rather ordinary and uneventful life is experiencing something like this- being trapped in my own head. I definitely feel helpless, as if floating along an empty galaxy searching for answers. For one, I most certainly wanted to find out what my name was, not to mention my past and how I ended up in this bizarrely fascinating encounter with my lost-self.

I looked down and gazed upon my bare-bodied self. Reaching up to feel my face, drifting my hands down- to my eyes, nose, lips and the subsequent sardonic smile that formed on it. Perhaps the smile being an irony in the knowledge of being ever so vunerable and useless, mocking myself for not possessing the wisdom of what is actually happening to me. However being alone here, it is rather pleasant. Appreciating the sentiment that I belong exclusively to myself.

In any case Time neither matters, nor does it exist here. No inspiring and uplifting sunrises, or sunsets which signal the end of a laborious day.

-

Depressing? Yes indeed. Then again it IS only a piece of fiction.
Don't worry my friends! I'm still the sane old me. Pardon the pun. Sane old me, same old me get it?
Yes, no, maybe?
ahahaha!
doh.

Ok, that's all I have to say.
mich, dun worry about things.
When everyone else is gone, I'll still be there.
Even if it rains molten lava, I will wait...

But with a heat-resistant suit of course.
;-)

(ce#4: fry tikjlyc rioy fyzbc ebg jybppc ylticbxpy, xkf ilpc xyubkgy iv cikj ylfrjbppwls uionblc.)

Something poignant 4 u...

2005-04-05T02:27:00.000+08:00

A quote from unknown:-

"I cried today... not because I missed you or even wanted you
but because I finally realised I'm gonna be alright without you..."

So you see, sometimes it's alright to cry.
Better to let it all out rather then bottle it up inside,
Otherwise the knot in your heart will just become tighter and tighter.
We all have to know when it is time to let go...

( ce3: cik piiq gnpylzwz. xkf bvfyj syffwls fi qlie cik xyffyh, piiqg zil'f obffyj okur blcoijy... fi oy, cikj bobawls nyjgilbpwfc blz eilzyjvkp uhbjbufyj oyblg okur oijy frbn yhyjcfrws ylgy... )

What a busy Sunday...

2005-04-04T00:00:00.000+08:00

Hey blog... had school today(on a sunday!!) from 9am-5pm...
It was tiring, but it wasn't all that boring thanks to Dr Steve Taylor's Brit-wit!
haha..

After school me, Kj & Jen took a bus to Lido to meet Ant who rode his bike there. At first we had no real concrete plans to watch a movie. However while walking in the direction towards Heeren, we decided to watch 'House Of Fury'! So we walked all the way to Cineleisure, only to find that the cineplex doesn't screen 'House Of Fury'... In the end we walked all the way back to Lido AGAIN and queued up to buy the tickets... However while queing up halfway, we decided to watch 'The Eye 10' instead!

I would say the movie wasn't bad at all. It was a mixture of dark-humour and knee-jerking(or in the case of Kj, backward-jerking) shocks! Haha..
Well, here's my review in a score system:

Movie: The Eye 10
Genre: Horror
Storyline: ***
Enjoyment: ***1/2
Fear Factor: ***1/2
Worth the $: ***
Overall: ***1/4

That's all for today, UOL-IBM from 9am-5pm tomorrow... Another long day...

( ce: i obc lif grie wf okur, xkf cikj vjwilzgrwn wg bl wjjynpbuybxpy fjybgkjy fi oy! )

Single Ladies...

2005-04-03T00:10:00.000+08:00

Hi!!

Woke up late today and went to McDonalds to study!
Went home and watched Miss Singapore Universe 2005!
I thought that Rebecca Lim was really pretty but too bad her answers lacked depth.
I guess these sort of things need experience and lots of practice, but at least she showed that she was eloquent!!

Today I would like to dispense some tips to all the single ladies out there!
I suppose this entry will be the first of a series.
However please do note that theory and putting theory into practice are 2 entirely different issues!
So if you don't get the results you are looking for, please don't blame me! haha...

So have I got your attention yet?
Then let us begin...

*DISCLAIMER!!: I shall not be held responsible for whatever ways you might choose to employ these methods or the results if they turn out to be embarrassingly negative. However you are most welcome to give me credit if they do work!
-

Tips for the Single Lady:-
How to attract the guy you fancy!

Tip #1- "Please come and rescue me!" (The 'Damsel-in-distress' Method)
This is truly a classic. Remember childhood fairy-tales of a princess stuck in a castle waiting for a dashing prince to come to her rescue? A recent example would be in 'Shrek' the movie where Princess Fiona was stuck in a castle and Shrek had to rescue her.

Well the good news is, this can be applied in reality as well! This is called the 'Damsel-in-distress' method because you are supposed to act as if you ARE a damsel-in-distress! Honestly speaking, most guys have a soft spot for girls who seem to be helpless or lost at times. It could be in-built into the nature of men since primitive times, to want to protect and help someone they see as fragile and defenseless(At this point i must make clear that I am not being an MCP by saying all women are fragile or powerless. That's why I am asking you to ACT as if you are!) It will be even more effective if you approach him for help. In a way it shows that you think highly of him and that might just boost his ego abit.

Apply this method correctly and your Knight-In-Shining-Armour could just be sweeping you off your feet! However, overdo it and the results might be negative instead. So use at your own discretion and caution!!
(A example of this working in reality can be seen in the case of September 11 where Firemen left their wives for 9/11 widows. Click Here to find out more!)

Chance of success: ***
Effectiveness: ***
Ease of utilization: **
Patience required: *****

-

Tip #2- "Look at me!!" (The Eye Method)
Ah the eyes... No not the movie! I'm talking about those in your head!! According to the commonly used cliche, the eyes are the windows to the soul. However cliched it might be, some of it still holds true. You! Yes you the single lady reading this! The good news is that the only asset you have to possess to use this method is(*dRuM-roLL*):

Your Eyes! Whatever colour they might be(blue, green, brown, black, even rainbow) your eyes are the most vital tool of communication.
Give a cold stare and it could mean "Back-off!".
Quick repeated glances might be interpreted as "I think you're hot and would like to get to know you! But I'm embarrassed to publicly acknowledge it...".
An electrifying, yet inviting gaze is another way of saying "Hey handsome, I think you're cute! Come approach me!"

So let your eyes play their part. Don't just use them for plain staring. Employ them in subtle ways to your advantage! It can work just like telepathy! Once more I urge you to use this with caution. Practice in front of the mirror to know what type of signals you are giving to the other party. You might think you are giving a tender-loving gaze but he could see it as a murderous stare!!

Chance of success: ***
Effectiveness: ****
Ease of utilization: ****
Patience required: ***

-

Please do take note that sometimes even the greatest theories, when put into practice, do not guarantee the best results.

Okay, that is all for today! I hope you have enjoyed reading my literary work!
Catch 'ya later!!

( ce: i frwlq cik rbhy lwuy ycyxjieg, xkf cikj gowpy wg yhyl oijy ylzybjwls... )

Classic...

2005-04-02T03:49:00.000+08:00

Hey friends!!
Today I have something very special to share with you...
It is a piece of my history, totally classic!!

It all started when I was looking for a website to host my music file so that I might link it to my blog. I checked a few sites to no avail but finally I remembered that my 'Yahoo!' account was also registered for webhosting at Geocities. I logged in to my account expecting empty space and VOILA!!
What I saw truly brought back some wonderful and delightful memories...

I could feel it... deep in my heart, it was all coming back...
like a Hidden Treasure Chest on a lost pirate map thought never to exist.
Anyway attached below are some of the gems i found!!
Happy viewing!! =D
(Click on the pics so see larger versions!)

Me with the original captions i added 5 years ago, in September 2000!

1aa2... I used to like the girl in the last row, whose head is slightly tilted, in the middle of the pic directly below the aircon. Also, the girl on the left 2nd row from the front. But that was a long, long time ago eheh... =)

Body Movin' ! Gonna Get Down To The Sound So Soothin' !

2005-04-01T03:01:00.000+08:00

"Hello WORLD!!!"

Today I met Mich, Kaijie and Anthony to study at Bishan McDonalds! Mich was there the earliest at 12.15pm, while me, Ant and Kj only arrived at around 3+....
Here's a little known fact: I took a cab down to meet you all todaY!
Okay la... I was late that's why... haha..

Anyway studying was alright today, Mich had to leave at 6.30pm to meet her family to watch Miss Congeniality 2. Jeremy came down at 7pm to join us but we had to leave at 7.45pm for dinner...
Sorry man! Keep you company some other time!!

Kj, Ant and I had dinner at Cafe Cartel. Food was alright but we paid $6.20 for 3 miserable pieces of Chicken Wings! Ant kept complaining that he felt cheated, especially when he tasted his soup, which he then commented was bad, lacked substance, bland, and then compared it to someone else.... hahaHA!! That's about it.

When I got home, explained some equilibium for the Wage-Supply econs. model to Mich, then tried my hand at singing chinese songs!! I recorded 2 of them in .mp3 format! The first is Emil Chau's - 别傻了(Bie2 Sha3 Le4) and the second one is Jay Chou's - 晴天(Qing2Tian1)

So if you would like to hear me make a fool of myself, you can ask me to send u the files!

-

This part is reserved specially for Kj & Ant:
Hey both of you... I had an enjoyable time with you today, especially during dinner.... You know it has really been awhile since I felt so comfortable and at ease. That put me in a good mood! I was happy today, I'm sure both of you were too. I could see the sparkle in your eyes... If time permitted we could have continued talking and talking... too bad it was getting late ya? Hope that this happens more often... Thank you...
For being my friends =)

-

Take a ride in my Time-Travelling Machine...

2005-03-31T03:00:00.000+08:00

Hello dudes & dudettes that have been so kind as to pop by!!

Today was a boring day, nothing much happened...
Afterall what excitement can you have if you stayed at home all day?
Studied some maths today, that's about it.

I watched the Amazing Race today! A suitable topic for this episode would have been "A lesson on stoicism and self-redemption". It was rather interesting, seeing how the golden oldies couple Meredith & Gretchen managed to pull through after their unfortunate accident. They were obviously, the very last to reach the first pit-stop of the epsiode. Fortunately it was a non-elimination round! However they had to give up all their possessions and money and start with nothing for the next round...
In the 2nd-half of the show, the brothers Brian & Greg got into a bad accident as their 4WD vehicle flipped over. They were not injured, but the camera-man was. After this happened, they dropped to last place. However at the end of the 2nd pit-stop were scenes of joy! Meredith & Gretchen made it, and Brian & Greg, well they busted their lungs out in a foot-race to make it to the final slot!!
These 2 incidents were shows of true determination and grit in the face of adversity, with the ultimate reward of self-redemption at the end.

Ok time for something a little more interesting!
I would like to invite all of you for a ride in my time-travelling machine!!

[ Time-Bender v1.0 Alpha ]

(Welcome!)
(Please Input Selections...)

---
Destination: Netball Tournament
Month/Year: November 2004
Location: NTU Netball/Basketball Courts
---

(Please Wait...)
(Data Processing In Progres...)
(Computation Complete!)

*ZzzZZipP-SsWoOoShH*
(At this point of time, please use your own imagination to add additional sounds that you think a time-travelling machine might make, to enhance your aural experience!)

Back to that fateful day... I don't recall saying much to the Sunshine Gang through-out that day, even though I was registered as a member! What's more, I never did expect to take a group picture together with everyone on that day! But guess what!! Surprise! Surprise! I DID manage to get myself into a group pic! Just take a look at this:

Sunshine Gang

Anthony looking like he's trying to explain tactics...
Though my guess would be that he's saying something dumb.
Just check out Jenny's expression!!
Haha...
That's all for today...
Cya all soon!!

Mirror, Mirror On The Wall...

2005-03-30T03:27:00.000+08:00

Hi visitors to my blog!!
I know what you are looking at.
I know you are reading this.
I know WHO YOU ARE!

Alright, alright... actually I don't.
BUT! I do know you are not sitting in front of your computer naked!
(However if you ARE nude, you have just stumbled upon the wrong site because this page does not cater to what your dirty l'il mind is searching for. So instead, you should click here!! *heheheh*)

Anyway every blog, just like an egg, has to have a story of how it hatched... Hatched like a sinister MURDER-plan...

Okay im just kidding! Please do not report me to the relevant authorities!
*AheM*
Kicking off my first entry, I have decided to start a Series titled:-

---

Getting to know your friend better [ Volume I ]

---

Those of you who know me might think I am a kind, gentle soul. Well I am happy to tell you that you are mostly right! Haha... Okay seriously speaking I would like to share with you some of my personal experiences during my younger years(that means the ages between 0~16). However they might not be in chronological order. Are you ready?

*Fireworks!*
*Confetti-Cannon Explosions!*
"Let's begin!"

1. Shop-Lifting

Yes, its a common occurrence. I say occurrence because I would rather not refer to it as a crime in this context(otherwise the next time u see me, you will be labelling me a "thief!". Ok, I don't mind being a thief. A thief of all women's hearts! haha! ok I'm just kidding, I apologise for the digression) I have done it before and I'm sure some of you have too. Hmmm as I recall it happened at the now defunct departmental store chain- Yaohan at Upper Thomson Road when i was around 7 or 8 years old. I decided to buy a cheaper dragonball action-figure and after I paid for it i requested for a larger plastic bag *snigger*. Trying to be inconspicuous and making sure no one noticed me, I proceeded back to the toy-section to take the very-much more expensive action-figured and put it into the L-sized plastic bag. Grinning to myself, I strolled out of the departmental store. To conjure up a plan like this... Yeah I was sneaky alright, a trait i still possess today... But I promise I will only use it for the good of man-kind!

2. Animal Abuse

Okay, I must admit that I really regretted that it took place. Once again it happened during my inquisitive years as a kid. I have no idea what prompted my action but 1 fine day I took a pair of big scissors and brought them out to my garden(yes the very same garden you have seen if you have been to my home before). I lured the neighbour's snow-white fured cat over with my perfect imitation of "meows!" and I hid the scissors behind my then-small buttocks with my right-hand as i beckoned the cat over with the hypnotic waves of my left-hand. Of course the cat did come over.
I bent down. Then...

-sHocK-
-Horror, Horror!-

I swung my right-hand over and clamped the scissors down on the cat's tail!! I swear, it was the first and last time i ever heard a cat scream. I do not know if there was any blood as the terrified cat bolted away like lightning. All of a sudden hearing the noise, a garderner's head appeared from behind the wall(of course I didn't notice that he was around then as I thought the coast was clear). I quickly hid the scissors behind my back again and waved to the garderner. I returned to my house.

Once again I stress that this is an incident which I deeply regret. I am glad the incident is etched in my mind so that I will never do such a horrible thing again. Of course you all know that I am now a reformed, kind and caring gentleman! Thank God for that!

---

Alright! Enough of my morbid childhood tales today. It is getting late and I will continue again tomorrow. Thank you for being the VIPs to my blog's maiden entry!! I hope that you will continue to patronise Mr Keating's blog in future. Au Revoir!(or "Till we meet again!")