I woke up this morning, with the dreadful realization that I failed to skype my mum as promised. Oops. Shall call later.

I was supposed to get up earlier to accompany to help Edward’s cousin , Hye Jin, move some stuff as she was getting married to some rich guy (and they were going to move to some swanky apartment in Gangnam, the most expensive part in seoul). Her place was near hongyik university, so we went there to take a look.

Hongyik University is an uni known for its arts students, something like La salle school but also reknown for their girls, according to Edward. “Not as good as Eunhwa, but good. Better than yonsei”

I want that flower girl, ha.

It was their convocation day (Yonsei’s was today too) so there were lots of people selling flowers…immediately 四马路 ca came to my mind.

Edward, my korean friend.

If you are wondering what we were doing with the swivel chair, it was actually supposed to be moved to another place. We were walking around the streets with the swivel but it was handy because we got eat toast at the roadside while seating on it, much to the amusement of the roadside hawker.
Morning toast by the roadside. Rating: ok, actually all breakfast taste the same to me. Becos my tastebuds only wake up slightly before lunch. Toast with omelette and a little ketchup..which seem a bit weird to me. Hmm.

We made our way to Hye Jin's apartment and we helped to transport her sofa bed, wardrobe and some other furniture onto a truck mover but I was rather clumsy, not too used to moving stuff lol. Nevertheless, we were thanked for a decent job and were invited to attend her wedding on Sunday. “Dress code is tuxedo” Dots..where to find? Haha, I have to scavenge for some black cloth and see if I can make it.

We followed the truck mover uncle to Gangnam and Edward pointed to me the places of interest like the Han River (where the Host resides), Seoul tower and tinted vans which transported actors and actresses. We deposited the furniture at some storehouse at some apartment, which I only found only during lunch that it turns out to be his uncle’s apartment, and his uncles owns the entire building. -.- wtf man.

We took a train from Gangnam and went to Coex Mall.

Coex..its a place for exhibitions and conventions but it resembled more of a shopping mall, with lots of shops, boutiques and restaurants. We did window shopping. I was surprised to know that they even had Giordano in Korea, the prices are rather expensive ($80 for bermudas, !!)but I have to admit that the clothes are much nicer and the selection is much wider. I think girls will go crazy la but thank god, I’m a guy with a watchyourexpenses system working within me. Damn tempting.. but I must resist..maybe until I get to Myeongdong. Fyi, regarding the pic on the left:the girl's hand in the advert displayed on the huge mobile is Kim Tae Hee's.

We headed to a restaurant called Omu Tomato where they served omuric (omeletter+ rice), which didn’t sound very fascinating to me. The queue was quite long and we waited about 20 minutes. I ordered some chicken leg omurice and it was tangy with its barbeque sauce, cheese and the egg wrapped fried rice was accompanied by some side dishes like kimchi ???(its ? and not Unicode,cos I dunno wads the name) cubes and pickles. Awesome possum. I am running out of adjectives soon. Lol

Heres the pic:My leg omurice,nice.

After lunch, we took the subway from Samseong back to Hongdae and we took a bus back home, the Korean public transport is rather efficient, that is if you know where you are heading. With transfer (from Mrt to bus), you don’t have to pay the bus fare if you have the transportation card. F ezlink man. Smrt should learn from them.

Once back, he fixed dinner (curry rice with his mum’s preserved vegetables) while I blogged lol. I feel damn paiseh but he insisted that he needed no help. The salted preserved leaves, i think its called gunip went well with the curry gravy.

After dinner, we headed to the public bathhouse for a scrub. Damn shiok. But sorry hor, no pictures because nudity is not permitted on this blog. We stripped to our birthday suits and after the initial awkward giggling (just me), we proceeded to the hot water bath to soak ourselves. I wept silently for the loss of numerous sperms who were boiled alive and who would have gladly opted for more glorious death.

After immensing ourselves in a steaming 'cauldron', we went into the sauna (with herbs), which resembled Gobi desert with the corpse of a unfortunate Chinese medicine trader, who lost his way in the desert, because I thought I detected the smell of burning flesh and herbs.

The objective was to ‘burn’ our skin and make it ‘chao ta’. . Next, I was guided to scrub away the dead skin at the shower area. After scrubbing hard, you’d be amazed and disgusted at the same time, at how dirty your skin can be. You can see the dead skin rolled up with the dirt to form noodle like strands of grime.

My friend does it once a month and therefore, he gave a ‘wOw’ when he scrubbed my back. 22 years of dirt leh. No la. Actually I am exaggerating. Haha.

Next, we headed to the cold bath and the cold ,dry sauna. And we repeated the same thing. It was one of the most refreshing shower I have ever had, second to the shower after coming home from BMT.

There were elderly folks sleeping in the restroom after their scrub and it was common for people to stay overnight there. And they do have those eggs that they often feature people eating in Korean dramas.

We grabbed some water, drinks, apples and Pocari sweat at a nearby supermarket to replenish our dehydrated fluids from the bath and headed back. And I am blogging while he is mugging some micro economics shyt (some hardcore cheem economics stuff with giffen goods and double demand curves and Korean scribblings).
That’s all for now. Signing out. 비군해요 ..

Seoul!
Wow, these two days have been a rush..with little time for me to spare. From now on, I will just blog whatever that comes to my mind, so please pardon my haphazard thoughts, recollections and poor grammar. I will try to cover a day in this entry.

I left Singapore with many well wishes from my family and friends, thanks to all :0
At the airport,I was surprised to meet Pamela (VJ schoolmate) and my RI classmate, Xunming , didn’t know that they were a couple now. And they were sending off their friend who was also leaving for ….Korea. Haha, it’s a real small world.

It turns out that there were four other SMU students who were bound for the same flight as me, 3 were heading to Korean Uni (Yonsei’s friendly rival, think ACS vs RI) and another girl was going to Inha University for exchange.

The flight was pretty smooth. Although I couldn’t sleep well on the transit flight, even with the stormy weather, the dreamy silhouettes of the Thai stewardess, and an enlarged bedspace for me to lie down as my other seat was unoccupied) .

After arriving at Incheon airport,I very 厚脸皮的 tag along the Smu clique, haha. But moving along as a big group was more efficient. And they had a Korean friend from Inha Uni to welcome us..well actually just the Inha exchange student la. She was pretty…helpful, she provided me directions to get to Sinchon after dispatching the Smu people to Korea Uni (their time was tight as they had to rush for be on time for their orientation) I spent my limousine bus ride, weighing my loss of not exchanging contacts with Miss Inha..

Oh my entries are going to sound so bimbotic from now onwards.

It was a long and excruciating bus ride.. because I was worried if my Korean friend, Edward, would dua me and leave me wandering the streets of seoul. 七月 Qi’ Gue’ in seoul is not fun la.

I lugged my fuckingheavy luggage across a stretch of road to Sinchon subway to establish my contact with my Korean friend, Edward. There were four pay phones and only one worked. Korea is too advanced in telecommunications, they don’t bother to repair their payphones, cos only noobs use them,lol.

My fears were unfounded after I reached him on phone. And he took a short while from his house to get there. It was good to see a familiar face in an alien environment.

We decided to take a cab because my luggage was too hard and too uncool to be seen moving along the streets of happening seoul. It was a decent place to stay. Well most Korean students stayed in one-room apartments like these. Those poorer students stayed in haksuk-chips (boarding houses with thinwalls, where you can hear your neighbours having ‘funtime’), which thankfully I have been spared after I was moved up from the waiting list for international dorm).

I placed my luggage at his place and we went for lunch because our stomaches couldn’t take it anymore. My first meal in Korea was settled at a traditional Chinese restaurant and we ate chachangmyun at my request, haha.Chachangmyun
The real thing definitely owns the instant noodles that they sell in Sg. My plate was left with a puddle of watery sauce, cos apparently I lack skill and its something to do with my 'spit', saliva, thats what Edward told me.

After noodles, we both had an icecream because the heat was a little overbearing, their hottest month is August, which is around Sg’s temperature. I had a Jaws icecream (resembling a shark), gray coloured icecream with strawberry filling inside. Nicee. But got no picture because the weather was too hot so the icecream melted too fast. Haha.

We proceeded to settle some admin stuff: opening a bank account at Woori Bank in Yonsei campus. The campus is large and beautiful, its like a nature reserve, their buildings are sort of like those ang moh universities. I’ll do another entry about the campus another time. The girls are synonymous with the beautiful campus, rich with elegance and excellence. Lol.

We walked around the streets of Sinchon, with him as the tour-guide pointing out interesting sights and aspects of the Korean culture. Sinchon is like a yuppies area with lots of eateries, pubs and shops for people to chill, grab a drink, watch pretty stuff strut around, chit chat. There are lots of students around there because of the nearby universities like Yonsei, Ewha's Women, Sogang, Hongik, and Kyunggi. Its like SMU area multiplied by 5 times and a lot of more human traffic and lovely , quaint shops thrown in. Soon I forgot about Miss Inha and I was immediately assuaged when I looked at the throng of passerbys in Sinchon. O beautiful seoul ^-^

Btw my friend told me that he wanted to go Ewha women’s university to do a local exchange but subjects couldn’t match. Aww.
He told me in a serious tone: “Winston, Ewha students are the best.”
I was puzzled because I always thought that Seoul university students were the elites.
It took a while for me to realize what he was referring to. Their students were the cream of the crop. Korean beauties. Best that the nation has to offer. Lol.

We went for a quickie at Krispy Kreme after walking around for some time. That was a real sweet day. My eyes were satiated ffrom the eye candies and my mouth from the sugary coated glazed donuts.

After that, he invited me to join him for dinner at his best friend, Ricky’s place, also within the Sinchon area. Ricky is also from Yonsei and he just got back from a year exchange in Netherlands. And they were discussing relationships stuff (which was real funny) and they switched occasionally from Korean to English and back to facilitate my poor understanding of Korean. The original plan was to fix dinner at his place but they couldn’t decide what dish to whip up and they even consulted their mums lol.

Moments later, I fell asleep at Ricky’s place after watching TV from the computer about a competition of starcraft gamers (they were bubbling excitedly about that particular classic match which was screening but much to their disappointment, I wasn’t into starcraft..).

I woke up and they told me that they decided to go Sinchon because they couldn’t come up with a dish, so we went to eat tteokbokki(떡볶이. Then we went to grab some beer at a grocery store and Ricky suggested that we head to a forested area in Yonsei for our drinks. We sat there, talked, swatted mosquitoes and tried to interpret some funny looking sculpture. We hastily finished our beer as the mosquitoes started to congregate in numbers around us as if they were preparing for an orgy.

After light-drinking, we plodded back home and Edward tried to find some entertainment for me. “Let’s watch movie?” He recommended “Memories of Murder” and I recommended Bourne Ultimatum, “ok,let me go download” he replied . I was provided a demonstration of the sick downloading speed of their wired network. 5 mins for a 700mb+ movie on p2p. Another 5 mins for CD2. Ccb. Maxoline Ultimatum. No wonder they don’t need to go cinemas to watch shows.

But…I was damn shagged and I fell asleep shortly, 20 mins into the show..because of the sightseeing and lack of sleep on the flight.

And seoul…that was my first day in seoul.

Finally, I finished packing everything into my humongous suitcase..i think I brought lots of xtra stuff like swimming trunks and even bak gwa, which might come in useful for barter trade since I heard pork is expensive in Korea. “One LG Shine Hp for 4 slices of 美珍香 bak kwa, deal?”
Ok crap aside, my mother passed me enough medical supplies to save several lives. I bundled enough cables to tie peoples’ limbs up and maybe some spare to double up as a whip haha.
Had a hard time closing my suitcase with all that stuff but I still can’t rival Borat and his chicken.

I had a checklist to record the items that I was bringing over to make sure that I didn’t omit anything. Over the past few days, I have been doing a mental checklist of ‘the last xxx” that I wanted to do before I go over.

I had my last sicko ktv session.
I had my last supper last night.
I went to catch my last movie, or rather my first, Bourne Supremacy at Cathay with my brother.
I drew my last facebook graffiti the other day before my hand was overstrained and died out on me.
I watched Tora Tora gold for the last time in my sanctuary before I transferred some over to my laptop, in case I am bored over there. ;)
I walked around town to imprint into my memory my last impression of Singaporean girls, so that I can make a fair and accurate comparison with the Koreans. Btw the schoolgirls seem to have the idea that shorter girls equate being hotter, heh you don’t need to show all to look good. Primary sch girls these days resemble sec sch girls of my time, sec-> jc girls and from the way some jc students strut around with their makeup and elevated assets (I dunno why the butt always stick out,hey I am not a perv).. wa, I have to double check if I alighted at Aljunied man. How times have changed.
I played my last dota game minutes ago…and I lost. With a new razor copperhead somemore. Wtf. I feel like a disgraced warrior..

After writing so much, I just realized that I sound as if I am Lincoln Burrows accepting his impending doom in the gallows. Maybe I might be a suitable candidate to answer the Sunday Times Life ‘what's your last meal going to be?” question. Haha. I am really peeved and disgusted by those pretentious people who quote all the haute-dishes just to flaunt their wealth and epicurean, exotic taste.

UUuu, “I would like to have King Escargots with Caciocavallo Podolico, truffles and Foei gras at this Muddy Grass restaurant and as for the desert, I would prefer the delectable Curry Ice cream from Ben and Curry’s, as for drinks, I would love the Absolute LL (Liew Lian), a durian cocktail prepared by the finest cockstir-rers of Bukkekehehe.”
Yucks, I doubt the food they quote even taste nice.

I’m a heartlander and my list is pretty simple: “I would like to have my Defu lane prata and mee rebus, with a bowl of Hougang laksa and a plate of oyster omelette from Old Airport Road.” Eat till shiok and no regrets. 

All systems go! I am ready.

Mood: Excited.

旅行的意义

The preparation to exchange has been an arduous one. I planned it quite a well back.. prior to entering university. Picking up basic Korean phrases from phrasebook, watching Let’s Speak Korean series, chionging k dramas and the love for the language and culture served as a reinforcing cycle to strengthen my desire to get my butt there.

Quite often people ask me why I wanted to go Korea? (probably thinking to themselves: just go for a tour there la. Go there exchange for fuck)
Here’s the few standard answers that I always generate.
To get my dose of plastic surgery and come back 200 pounds slimmer and hopefully handsomer.
To look for BoA, my abject object of fantasy since my hormonal raging teenage days.
To eat chachangmyeon everyday. Haha.

While there’s pretty much of stereotyping we do of the Koreans and I hope to find out more about this intriguing bunch of people and discover more about them and about myself. Travelling is a moment that comes when we are out of our element and allows us to see, or feel, or think, anew. The fact of the matter is that one of the main wellsprings of travel motivation is the ambition to achieve a certain kind of distinction. To go where few have gone, to see what few have seen, to have done what few have done. I would really love to explore a different side of Korea. I’ve already seen the ‘tourist’ side of korea. It would be meaningless and a waste of money if I live my next 4 months without doing anything that I can do in Singapore or that I have already done in Korea before.

Anyway here’s really what I hope to achieve there. To improve my Korean, to become more independent, to just let loose, and not be bound by curfews, academic stuff and indulge in some wild fun. The only word in my head now is hedonism. Haha. Hmm let’s see how it works out.

I was on the bus today and I overheard a bunch of HIHS (Holy Innocent Primary School) kids talking:

Fat kid: 老师这样晚才release 我们..
Small kid with specs: ya lor, 很lol leh
Kid with chubby girlfriend: I thought Lol 是 laugh out loud?
Small kid with specs: Lol 是left out later.

Wa.Kids jargon nowadays so happening. I feel damn left out.

Ok I have decided to return to blogger to blog. The main reason being..vox.com doesn’t allow non-vox users to comment. After two years and I am still irritated with blogspot’s image posting. Damn annoying. I gave up after cross posting about 3 posts from vox.

Facebook
Yesterday, I was reading the ST article about facebook and I thought to myself, why are we so caught up with all these social utility stuff like friendster, myspace, theneighbourhoodfuckiforgotthename, staticnamedatabase etc or for that matter, blogging.

Why do people spend an inordinate amount of time on them, replying responses, doing graffitis . Its fucking addictive because its like doing something and shouting to the whole world that we are doing it? Maybe it isn’t much different from people uploading their sex videos on youtube.lol
Or like adult maplestory, except that the foodfights replace killing creeps, social groups replace guilds/clans and gifts replace purchasing lovely outfits for your online id.

It essentially encourages users to seek the quest for popularity and is an ideal haven for narcissists, camwhores, braggadocios, posers, stalkers and not to forget: kaypoh aunties/uncles who enjoy scavenging for something juicy to serve during mealtime talk:
“EHH… XXX just poked xxx on Fb leh!...”
“huh?! Isit? I tot being poked = being ….ed already?”
“Yah”
“I didnt noe they two..OMgzz!”

I am so guilty of displaying the traits of each abovementioned. Lol.

On KTV and Teo Heng
Just got back from yet another wild ktv thrashing session @ Teo Heng.

It takes lots of chemistry and camaraderie to come out of ktvs, feeling like we have just conquered world and accomplished something great. I don’t profess to be a good singer (in fact I’m a noob-in-training) but I must admit I have k-buddies who can sing really well.

If we were to trace our ktv history..it goes quite f….a…….r. We started visiting ktv outlet at Delfi orchard back in our JC days as a class when ktv was still largely associated with lubsup bars and sleazy ktv hostesses. Then Ktv became a hot phenomenon and kbox, partyworld started opening many outlets and everyone began jumping on the bandwagon.

We sang often enough to know where certain songs could be found, which outlets have pirated MVs with midi sounds, out of sync lyrics or wrong MV images, and which drinks served at XX have to be avoided at all costs.

When we are in most comfortable state, we are able to unleash our potential like that big-bad-fox in Naruto, which otherwise lay dormant / underdeveloped during perfunctory and sluggish ktv sessions with strangers/ mass group ktv sessions, which I prefer to absent from nowadays. It becomes another boring session where everyone chooses to err on the safe side, selecting all the ‘wont go wrong’ songs to sing. Yawn.

The real fun only begins when people start to attempt insane delivery of songs. It doesn’t matter if you are able to pull it off; it’s the effort that counts. Hackneyed as it may sound: If you never try, you will never know.

We were able to produce some remarkable duets and occasional miracles like small dolphin wails (cos its mini 海豚音s, not fully developed yet haha) amidst all the confusion: visceral falsetto shrieks, guttural lascivious wails and inevitable走音s.

All in that mystical room number 10 at Teo Heng KTV.

Tonight.
We sang ‘My Way” around 6 times. or 7? We lost count. Lol.
We repeated songs from gary's n jay's repertoire to perform some PK. (PK= Player kill, in which we tried to outdo each other.)
We sang and we donned our pseudo 4 heavenly kings personas. Aiya but I think my Jaky is a flop, ha
We sang until our adjourning Ktv neighbours (some ang mohs) gave us the WTF-these-guys-r-doing look as they exited.
We sang until Teo Heng closed and wished we could continue till the break of dawn.

Alas, we are unable to escape our short-lived destiny like all successful groups, bands. I was touched because they all made it despite late lessons, sore throat and early lessons the following day, since it was our last sicko session together before I return to Singapore in Dec.

We ended off with our 4 men, PK , eclectic version of 不能说的秘密, which we recorded on Junping’s hp along with some other tracks. Haha.

不能唱的PK - 郑兴论剑，何时再战？十二月十号房。不见不散。

P.S.: Gabriel, thanks for fetching all of us back :)

Revisit and random thoughts.

Pondstar ah Pondstar.
Its an funny feeling revisiting this very first site where I first started scribbling a little of my thoughts, feelings, pieces of memories. I was re-reading my old entries, way back in 2004 when I was writing about hwa chong girls which I saw on bus trips to camp and army regulars who pisssed me off during my army days. I remember I used to cringe when I read through some of the stuff that I wrote. Hah.

Two years. Thats a long time. Enough for people to clock 1500km if you run 2.4 km everyday. Enough for people to achieve considerable academic success. Enough for some to have a few girlfriends and maybe get a couple of fucks. I dunno.

I was thinking about how much I have changed after JC.
Matured? Nah.
Cynical. Yes.
A little more disillusioned about the society and people.
Pondstar.
Still the same old me, no grandeur dreams of becoming some entrepreneur or saving the world.
Wishing only to be a small shining star in a small pond.

Life is one fucking tiring rat race.
We compete with our friends and our imaginary foes for cheese.
We erect mazes for ourselves to run around in. When we can just relax and chill and enjoy some cheap cheese together. Maybe I am just a lost, disgusted rat in this convoluted and relentless race.

Best and Sickest KTV Session ever had.

It began with an innocent sms from Gabriel “ Tmr ktv u can?”
After several sms exchanges, we decided that couldn’t wait until tomorrow and headed down to Teo Heng.

(Teo Heng is a remote budget KTV outlet located in the Katong Shopping Centre and no, its not a lub-sub ktv)

The start of every KTV is always boring. Everyone needs time to warm up. Frankly speaking, we weren’t exactly in the best state for ktv and I was starting to regret a little. Gabriel had only recovered 70% from his 9 hr overnight KTV hangover (9-6am), Junwen was still sore from his union camp cheering, Junping was tired from scolding his disciple during tuition. And I was suffering from an acute stomachache due to watermelon & 28 weeks later (but that’s another story for another time).

I am not exactly sure where we started to hit the right notes. I suspect it was around the medley of 信乐团 songs, then we were on fire. We went crazy. We infected each other. And like the saying goes, the rest is history.

If it’s possible to get drunk from singing, we probably did. We were in an inebriated state from all that yelling, screaming and falsettos that we generously laced our songs with.

Gabriel was shouting ecstatically that he managed to do his highest ‘Oh’ note (ever attempted) singing 沉默玩具. A truly Eureka! moment.
Junping was delivering his MC Hotdog song with his slick rapping skills. I still think he’s the best rapper I have seen in my KTV sessions. Lol.
And Junwen was doing some amazing harmonizing and hitting some really really high notes. (I wished my music vocabulary was more than these, haha)

We outperformed beyond our wildest expectations, song after song. If you ask me, I think Superwoman sounds bland on my iTunes now after hearing the one with the amount of variation we injected into it. Haha. Awesome.

We stripped songs and raped each stanza and line, doing our own 编曲 , playing with deliberate pauses, R&B, hiphop and rap versions, singer imitations/signature styles, head voices and godly whistle registers (not done by me, haha..i think jw and gab managed them comfortably in their fully unleashed form).

We were acting so smirk and contemptuous, deriding our poor neighbours who were singing (did-i-hear-张栋梁?) sappy love ballads and brushing away songs with remarks like “No kick!”. Then Junping decided to pose us a challenge.

I think we are ready lah. "杨陪安 我相信. "
The killer song, which no one ever attempts, unless you really want to sound and look really silly - hunched over, clutching your balls and struggling to fire off some impossible notes beyond your body. Junping managed to be on par with 杨陪安! but we only lasted for a while. Maybe the next time we will be able to clear the entire song.
We finished on a ‘high note’ with 曹格's 世界唯一的你 .
I wished we had it recorded and uploaded on youtube or something. Wad a pity.

This entry is probably going to sound like lots of hogwash and hot air but this has to be documented because to us, it was simply one of the best and sickest and most memorable KTV sessions that we‘d ever had. Sick_o!

Windmill
Feeling extremely bored during the hols, I decided to assemble a windmill woodcraft.


Windmill Woodcraft
The assembly was supposed to be idiot proof and required only minimal effort. However, I failed to consider the country of the manufacturer and was having a hard time smoothing the rough edges with the tiny, thin. flimsy piece of sandpaper that they provided. After rubbing for around an hour, I think the paper was less than an mm thick and I could feel my fingers burning from the friction.

After assembling the pieces, the windmill looked really plain. So I decided to colour it. I dug up my poster colours which were all either in powder form or caked. So I went to buy a palette and a paintbrush, and tried to beg for some varnish from an auntie from a hardware shop but she refused to give me. Nvm. Stingy people will never make good businessman. No wonder the shop always look so empty. Ha.

Painting gives me great joy. For some reason. Its like breathing life into something.

When you paint you're really in the moment, so you're not thinking about anything that disturbed you from years ago or any anxious thoughts about the future.. like whether your next supper is going to be the last. You trust your subconscious when you paint, applying slow tedious strokes and making decisions along the way and it’s just a huge thrill.

Here's the finished product. With One Piece characters :)

It started innocently. With my virgin title. For the past two years ago, I find myself
spending an inordinate amount of time huddling in front of my television and my
dvd player soaking up Korean dramas.

I’m addicted to korean dramas. I cant do without them like how Koreans cant live without kimchi.

I cant remember exactly how many I’ve watched. Heres some that I recommend,
노란손수건 (Yellow handkerchief), 상도 (商道) ,이도(医道）, Hotelier..ahh theres just too many. For complete listing, please find me. lol. By the way, I’ve only completed a fraction of what my mother has watched.

A look at my mother’s stash. Bags and drawers are filled with serials.

Actually theres another layer behind which is concealed. This is only part of the total
asset she has. The rest are in transit (on loan to relatives/friends/neighbours)
Definitely more than the *ahem* collection I have. I figured out that the
combined property of my mother and my aunt might actually be enough to set up a
mini Korean drama rental store.

I was surfing around when I came across a site which highlighted the draw factors of Korean
drama serials and why they rank superior compared to HK and Japanese drama. The
heydays of Japanese and HK drama serials are over. I don’t even want to talk
about our local dramas. It makes me ashamed and cringe whenever I look at their
clichéd dialogues, hackneyed and shallow plots and atrocious acting. I’ve bold
out the factors that have been identified as the factors which led to the rise
in popularity of Korean dramas.

Purely and emotionally portray love, friendship, tragedy, loyalty, respect, and general
family values.

Not to forget their heart wrenching love/life stories. Eg. Glass shoe, well portrayed historical
figures such as대장금(Jewel in Palace) and injecting novel themes: the successful
rise of a female, which is rarely covered in historical genre, and the elements
of traditional food and medicine.

“Zoe Sister, Sorry. O Please dun cry. Come have some of my rice cakes…”

Highly romantic stories of people beating the odds to find and experience true happiness.

Personal favourites: Love at Harvard, Full house

Relatively little violence and sex.

True for the sex part. After all the dramas are meant to be family shows so they don’t do it in
front of kids. As for the violence….the husbands/boyfriends/males always seem to
get bullied, beaten and verbally abused by their female counterparts
(girlfriend/mothers/stepmothers/grandmothers/classmates…).

Cliffhangers, cliffhangers, and more cliffhangers from one episode to the next.

I've learned that complicated plots full of pathos and high drama are standard. Korean writers
seem to know how to write cliff-hangers. They tease, they titillate. You cant fall asleep without finish watching because you are still worried about the plight of the poor little girl. My daily limit to 2-3 episodes per day always end up becoming 4..&..5& 6, which explains why I always end up like a zombie in camp the following day.

Each Korean TV mini-series refreshingly has an ending. No Season 2, no sequels, etc. Most
series are between 10-20 episodes (each episode = 60 minutes).

I’m watching a 118 episode one right now. I think my mother is watching a 190+ episodes serial.
Erm..maybe they were referring to the mini ones.

Korean actors and actresses are BEAUTIFUL people.

Fully concur. Then again more than 75% of them went under the knife. But who cares. Beautiful.

Beautiful (and unforgettable) musical scores.

You know that you’re hooked when the opening/ending theme just keep going on and on in your
head. It’s a syndrome. You go oo lala lu lala haju ola hadada kadada haju lada..hey hee ah..hee e ay when you watch Jewel in the Palace. You go la la la wo wooo.. da la da la when you think of the perfect girl in Love in Harvard. I don’t know about other Korean drama junkies but I sing them secretly (mainly composed of undecipherable pseudo-Korean character syllables) when I’m walking
alone. That is the power of Korean dramas. Ok back to my DVDs.

Janus Migration Completed.
I have decided to abandon blogger due to the below reasons
1.I cant count the number of times of posts mysteriously vanished after posting.
2.Superlag.
3.Limited functions and unorganised.
4.Troublesome to host songs.
5.Its time for something new.

My new blog's address- http://www.wretch.cc/blog/pondstar for whoever who reads this blog. Feel free to write in the guestbook. I'm still in the midst of doing the layout though.

Was allowed to fall out early today so I decided to catch a movie with my camp mates. There were several movies on my i-wan-to-watch-badly list, namely Dick & Jane and Fearless and Womb Raider. Oh, and I not stupid too.

"Dick and Jane I didnt feel like laughing today.

I not stupid 2. I didn't have any girl to bring along to lend my shoulder to cry on. Lol. Crying with a bunch of guys seemed pretty gay.

Womb Raider. I had to head to Chinatown to squeeze with a group of ah peks in a rundown theatre. Furthermore, I have yet to reach the legal age."

With much woeful reluctance, I mentally struck out the movie from my list.
That leaves Fearless, Huo Yuan Jia..

And it didn't disappoint.

Fearless reveals how Huo Yuan Jia restored the pride and glory of the Chinese during the early 1900's from the intrusion and invasion of the Western powers and the growing Japanese power, where they have been calling the Chinese 'the sick men of Asia.'

The punches, kicks, blows exchanged were so well choreographed and beautifully executed by Jet Li. That just left me gasping and gaping in awe. His fluid movements and flawless executions make Jackie Chan look old and ready for his retirement. Tony Jaa's stunts seem uncouth and kiddy in comparison to the traditional and refined moves delivered by Jet Li.

I love the opening scene. A British boxer, a Spanish swordsman, a Prussian soldier - three formidable fighters step into the ring, and one after another, Huo Yuanjia defeats them all. Chinese martial arts style. Definitely kick-ass and feeds the Asian ego when you see the ang moh exponents get clobbered by Huo Yuan Jia. The fighting scenes in his swan song are going to go down in the annals as one of the greatest Chinese Martial Arts film. So impressive are the
scenes that I now rank them ahead of Zhang Wu Ji thrashing the various menpais
with their own menpai skills in Yi Tian Tu Long Ji ,and Yang Guo and Xiao Long Nv practicing Yu Nv Xing Jing in the bushes in Legend of the Condor heroes.

The movie also showcase the past of Huo, who was then a proud and arrogant fighter who wanted to make himself the one and only invincible fighter of TianJin. His arrogance and past victory from the competition indirectly led to the death of his mother and daughter who were killed in brutal revenge. If I'm not wrong, I think Jet Li also incorporated some elements of Buddhism into the movie.

Huo Yuan Jia - A fighter, who represents Chinese martial arts to a nation; A man, who fought his way out of darkness and into history. And so has Jet Li.

Mahjong Craze

I used to think that mahjong was a leaden, insipid game designed for stodgy old folks and the wealthy tai tais to occupy their vapid time while waiting for their deaths. Its more irksome when coupled with the shuffling of the ivory pieces every time people 'wash' their tiles after games and the constant silly shouting of pong , gang and hu. I dismissed mahjong because of the fatuous, clownish and uncouth behaviour that's characteristic of mahjong playing. Therefore, I never bother to pay attention to the gameplay until I was introduced to the game at my grandaunt's house during Chinese New Year visiting.

It was only then that I realized how wrong I was. The rules and objective were briefly explained and basic gameplay was taught to me. After a few games, I managed to have an inkling of how the game was played. My uncle told me that one can tell a person's personality by how he plays his tiles in a game of mahjong. Whether the player is a conniving, sly bastard son of a Pinocchio, or whether he is square and predictable.

Expressions are extremely important. One must learn how to conceal one's joy or disappointment. I can picture Michelle Yeow telling Sayuri her protégé aka Zhang Zi yi, " A true mahjong plrayer can makte a man peee in his tracks with a single look. "

Armed with the little experience and inflated confidence, I decided to look for people to challenge. I went online to chat with some of my friends who were mahjong enthusiasts to fix a game with them. Soon enough, the trio were ready. I logged out and went to join the game.

I told them not to give me chance and go soft on me just because I was a newbie. I was eager to test out my new found knowledge. They sniggered at me.

"No problem, bunch of arrogant people. Lets see whose intellect and brains are more powerful."

They stacked and distributed the tiles with lightning speed like how they do in those Hong kong gambling shows. I stacked my tiles gingerly and pressed the sides of the snake shaped tiles clumsily in a weak attempt to get them up in vertical fashion.

Having set my tiles in place, I examined my tiles with the intensity akin to a pervert staring at the tiled wall separating his room from the shower-room of his pornstar neighbour.

"Wahahaha, 清一色 all numbers series, in ascending some more. Not bad for a beginner. You guys are all going to die. Wait till I get my tile, then good game already."

Adrenaline was pumping in me as I waited in eager anticipation for my final tile. Several rounds went by. Evidently luck wasn't with me. I still saw no signs of the tile which was the final key to the riches. Worry began creeping at me. I felt my perspiration trickling down my neck, my chest and into my navel. I was contemplating whether I should stop waiting and play other patterns instead. By pattern, I mean the bamboo or the tong.

"HU LE 胡了" Oh shit. Someone got his tiles before me. 十三么 WTF!!!!!!!!! -$8000! Great now my account has just entered into deficit. I think my face became whiter than a geisha for a moment.

The winner began laughing awfully loud. His screeching laughter sounded awfully familiar like 曾志伟...Phew, lucky thing I'm only playing Celebrity mahjong明星三缺一. If not.. I cant imagine the damage it would have done to my almost non existent savings. Looks like I have practice more. Oh, 洗牌啊 Next game!

Dog Ear!
Time to hit the books again!

Some bull

I was flipping through the chinese horoscope of the cow for the Year of the Dog for 2006 when i came across the disposition of the people who are born in the year of the cow.

"The character of the Cow is steady, conservative with strong inner self and has a sense of responsibility. He has a good creditability and honors his word. He is loyal and worships one principle. " Hmm, I like to think that I possess those traits.

"He enjoys being in a serene environment and has the temperament of the Cow. " I dun need a serene environment. I just enjoy idling around.

"Sometimes, it is hard to get along with them.He will be able to listen when he has calm down. "
Cow People like me are rather obstinate. They just refuse to acknowledge that they are wrong even when the facts are presented. Maybe we are even worse than mules.

"He is diligent at work, but will only be able to finish his task only under instructions. He does not have the courage to try out new venture. They do not have the patience and courage to earn too much money. Hence, the Cow works hard and silently. "

Heres my interpretation of the Cow:
A thickheaded, servile and bovine creature which only knows how to slog. He derives masochistic pleasures from the throes of constant flagging and dragging plough across the fields, chained to the cumbersome yoke, which he has gradually grown accustomed to. He knows that he is not like the hens n cocks who just mate and lay eggs. Nor is he like the gregarious parrot who knows how to carry the farmer's balls and talk himself out of situations. Hence, he has to work.

Sometimes, he dreams briefly about lovely pastures and sexy cows with milk-dripping nipples but often dimisses his dreams quickly with guilt for harbouring those lazy and filthy thoughts. He thinks the dreams he have are akin to the pile of manure that he just defecated. Full of bullshit. Hastily, he shakes his head to jolt himself back to reality. He lifts his eyelids desultorily to glimpse at the afternoon sky.

The sun continues to blaze at the field.

Fucking hot weather, he thought to himself. Cant wait for nite to cum.
Sure and steadfast, he continues to thread through the fields, hoping that every step he takes will draw him closer to dusk.
He mumbles and grumbles but never voices his complaints. The woes of the moo goes unheard because he is afraid of incurring the wrath of the farmer and disrupting the harmony.

Suffering in silence, quietly beneath the scorching sun.

Was clearing my cabinet during my room spring cleaning session today. Its amazing when you look at the paraphernalia of junk goods and useless stuff that i keep- scrap paper, half written letters, printouts of song lyrics, several outdated copies of I-magazines, Newman (which I tot featured not-too-bad photos), broken stationery which still exhibited some aesthetic value, smelted mentos covered with ants, Econs handouts which I forgot to distribute to my class because I misplaced them (zzz).

I discovered some buried 'treasures' amid all the junk. Dug up my sec 1 chinese file. Lucky thing it hasnt been devoured by silverfishes. 1998. 8 yrs...wad have I done during this 8 yrs?!

My file's content page. With my assessment and test papers that I'm proud of. Probably the only subject that I truly loved during my school days but the O lvl results disappointed me.

Used to spend inordinate amout of time decorating and writing those journals/ random musings for my Chinese teacher to grade. A pity most of the pieces have been "kidnapped" from my file. Up till now, I still do not know the whereabouts of the pieces that were originally meant to be sent to publishers.

One of the remaing inferior products.

Found a tabloid newspaper which we did as part of our English assignment. Enjoyed doing groupwork during those years, especially during brainstorming sessions where people churn out all sort of wacky and wicked ideas.

I've noticed that the older I get, the more cluttered my cabinets and drawers become. I become more reluctant to discard useless items that just take up space even though they serve no practical purpose. Its like these objects still retain some soul, a part of me, within them. I dunno. Maybe the sentimental self just wants to retain a part of history that I've experienced.

Time seems to flow in a different dimension after you pass 18. The gigantic clock seems to tick faster. You get the feeling that you have to clutch onto these little pieces of mementos before your memory of the past starts to fade out of existence as you draw towards adulthood.

First blood

Anyone who plays DOTA loves first blood. When a player's hero executes the 1st hero kill of the game, he/she will get extra 200 gold and also the "First blood" verbal acknowledgement. They are some players who go to all costs just to gain that first blood satisfaction. It feels damn good when you get the first kill, especially when you blast your audio speakers and listen to the sound of 'First blood' reverberating throughout your room.

Everyone loves coming in first or being first. First to spear the joystick into the altar at the break of dawn of Chinese New Year , first to board the bus. First in the queue to be served the lousy food in the camp canteen. Sometimes, I wonder what's the obsession with being first? Is it due to the 'kiasu' nature of Singaporean? Perhaps the winning mentality has been deeply entrenched and infused to us since young, given the competitive society that we are in, that it has become a subconscious part of us.

Some people enjoy setting records by doing crazy things like downing 50 bottles of Guinness stouts just to get into the Guinness record or becoming the first Asian to scale 7 greatest peaks in the world. They brand their acts of temerity as a form of challenge and purports with loads of silly reasons. Just ask Annabelle Chong why she wanted to do the feat of having sex with 251 men in 10 hours. Alas, I've heard two women have broken her record. Its standing at 500 men now. Records will always be shattered because there will always be crazier people than you.

I saw a piece of depressing news in Today yesterday. It reported that vaginal reconstruction is now widely embraced and the most sought after plastic surgery. They can even tighten the muscles there and reconstruct the entire hymen from scratch (not that scratch) with hymenoplasty aka revirgination. No flaws. Just like a squeaky clean virgin even though you have seen more than a thousand visitors to your abode. I reckon the word chastity will be removed from the dictionary in no time. Hymens no longer = authentic virgins. :(

Maybe being first is not so necessary after all.

Fixing the pieces

Spent the day trying to assemble the thousand pieces jigsaw. Its supposed to be a Bleach family picture of the 13 shinigamis. There are only six of them in this puzzle. Theres still another seven of them in another 1000 puzzle waiting for us to fix them up after the great fall.
Hopefully we can finish this by tonight and move on to the next. Then we have to find a way to get this up onto the wall..still need to shop for a decent frame...and also pump in money to get the frames.... sigh. ..Hobbies like these are real costly.

Dun fuck around with Std

I should have heeded advice and not taken the risk. There's a threshold to the amount of deterrence that protection can provide. Now, I'm afflicted with this terrible, chancrous, itching rash that's all over my body.

I cant pinpoint the source which triggered the rash to swarm my entire body. However, I suspect its an allergy either to the medicine I took or the excessive wine/ alcohol which I consumed during Christmas. I believe it's the latter because my body has a low tolerance level towards alcoholic drinks. This disgusting rash is depriving me of my sleep and causing my body to twitch wildly in the office.

I used to have a rather severe case of eczema. For those who dunno what is eczema, it's a skin condition due to excessive reaction by the immune system producing inflamed, irritated and sore skin. I'm sure you've seen people with flaky, raw, bleeding skin. I call it the crocodile skin. That's why I liked reptiles when I was young because I thought I resembled them. Trust me, it's a mentally and psychologically troubling disease. You have to cope with the stares, your torn self esteem, your own anger/frustration, the 100s and 1000s of weird concoctions and remedies 'guaranteed' to cure your condition (but always fail to work) and the worst part, the itch. Luckily for me I managed to grow out of my condition when I hit puberty.

The itch is infectious. It begins with a minor prickling sensation. Your hand slide down to assuage the itch., by generating some friction on the skin. That little action is enough to spark off a disaster to your poor skin and bring about a severe case of dermatitis. The more your rub and scratch, the redder the patch starts to become and you start to derive a sick form of pleasure from the scratching of your skin. You start to intensify and accelerate your clawing strokes but you are oblivious to these because you are experiencing a semi-orgasmic-scratching pleasure. The blood starts to flow and stain your nails. You don't care. Not even the flowing blood can stop you from prolonging your pleasure. In fact, the pleasure is heightened with the addition of fluid since it serves to lubricate the friction. However, just like every wonderful moment must come to an end, your end comes when your hands get too wet and the metallic iron smell of your blood hits your nose. The aftermath is enough to make your feel a little guilty and giddy. When you raise your hands and you notice that it's all bloody. You dun even want to bother examining your wound. All thanks to that little itchy bitch.

Misaki Itoh!!

If beauty could be described any other way, it would be Misaki Itoh.

Japan is a living testament of age-old tradition, co-existing rather awkwardly with all the trappings of a rapidly developed modern society.

Avant-garde art and staid flower arrangement. Zen Buddhism and hedonistic lifestyles. Sumo wrestling and baseball. Heavy metal rock bands and the Kabuki theater. Geishas and Av industry. Its really all these complexities that make Japan such an interesting and wonderful place to tour.

More photos-

Day 4 http://www.flickr.com/photos/45619702@N00/sets/1653376/show/

Day 5 http://www.flickr.com/photos/45619702@N00/sets/1669576/show/

Our Japan Hour

The next few entries are going to be combined entries by my brother and I, chronicling about the sights and fun that we have experienced in Japan.

We'll be uploading the travel photos in segments due to the limited capacity of flickr and the lack of time.

PLs NOTE:
Language May Offend: Contains language that may be offensive to some groups, (i.e. sacrilegious language such as OMG; expletives.)

Coarse Language: Contains profanity, threats, slurs, sexual references or sexual innuendo.

Crude Content: Material or humour that is unrefined or coarse and that may be seen as harsh, rude, or offensive.

Ok With that in mind, you can safely proceed to the album ->

Day 1,2 http://www.flickr.com/photos/35973497@N00/sets/1627489/show/

Day 3 http://www.flickr.com/photos/35973497@N00/sets/1634359/show/

Click on the above link, a slideshow will pop out, pause the slideshow immediately and use the back/forth button to view. Click on the image to minimize the images so that the captions are visible.

My five days leave is over in a blink of the eye.. Why isit that time always pass so quickly when we are having fun? If only I have the power to control time...
Ok, now I only have 7 days more left to enjoy before I return to my boring and hectic workplace again..several hours before i reach the land of the rising sun!! :)

SaW II

I just watched Saw 2 with Junwen at Plaza Sing yesterday. A must-watch show this yr (not many good shows this yr though..harry potter, chick little kid flicks sux..heard one more chronicles of gnn coming out :( ).The pace was fast moving and the plot was brilliantly pieced together albeit a few minor flaws. I discovered that watching violent flicks is pretty similar to porn, the more u watch the more u wan to see. You get desensitized by the gore and blood on film. Plain tricks like tomato juice will no longer suffice for the hardcore viewers.

Overall, Saw II' s effects were rather convincing. However, certain scences were toned down (either our Edward Censorship Scissorshand was at work again or the producers wanted a lower rating to have a wider viewership). I particularly enjoyed the twisted/ dark humour that were evident throughout the show, peppered by wicked puns.

The movie opened with a scene of a man with a venus-flytrap like contraption filled with black nails over his head, ready to snap once the 30 minutes is up. He is supposed to look for the key, which has implanted just beneath his eye. Our mastermind utters in his video: ".. So listen carefully. The hint is this: It's right before your eyes. How much blood would you shed to stay alive, Michael? Live or die... Make your choice.
How ironic and yet how true. Isnt it sometimes in life when we are trapped in a shitty quagmire like this, we are forced to carry out desperate measures and actions in order to survive.

"Why is that we're only willing to do that, when a life is at stake? "

"You see, the knowledge of death... changes everything. If I were to tell you the exact date and time of your death... it would shatter everything. "

I give a 7.5 for this show. 2.5 more if it had nudity/sex :P

Sore.

The aftermath of yesterday was terrible.

I still have the dull ache in my balls and ass. All thanks to my adventurous counterparts who decided to detour from our normal route and head to Changi for a different experience...

It must have been the close and rough contact that did me in. And the lack of proper protection.
The one that I had was small frame but robust and lean. I can still vividly picture him rubbing up against me, harder and harder as we moved together. His body writhing and quivering below my sweaty body. My arms pushing him down as my legs pumped faster and faster. After a while, the lethargy and strain started to gnaw at my muscles but the thirst and drive was far greater. We had to make constant adjustments in our positions to minimise the pain and keep ourselves comfortable.

We made little hisses and gasps and moans as we approached crest after crest. We never stopped even when he got wet and stained my inner thigh as I rode him as rough as I could.
If only I was a girl, I probably would have developed a vaginus (vagina+anus) by now.
The consummation was a surge of ethereal earth shattering euphoria as we stopped and screamed at me as I panted over him.

I was totally burnt out after that. Red skin, sore butt, bloated stomach after a surfeit of coconut juice and a 54 km bike ride (East coast-Kallang-Changi-East) in my personal guinness record to keep-what an exhilirating way to spend a saturday with my uncle, brother and cousin.
Right now, I have to go look for a water bed to rest my sore bottom and abstain myself from any lower body movements in the next few days.

I'm so happy todayy!!!!!!!!!!!. I finally passed nmy driving test... i've never been so happy for like -none- in the past two yrs..
I noe for others its n easy feat for them but for me, its possibly the hardest test to pass :X
I rather retake 2 psles/ a levels than to retake another driving test.
YEAAAA ! &(^___ ^)(*_){_+
think its my most bimbotic post so far lol
:DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

Groundhog Day

Its on rare days like this that i cant sleep on the bus because I'm thinking too much abt unnecessary stuff, wondering abt the future, reminiscing abt the past and fantasizing abt unrealistic ideas.

Sometimes I wished that there will be some device to capture these random fleeting thoughts and ideas, possibly designed like a thumb drive that can be inserted into the belly button to tap on these thoughts. Apart from serving as the receving end of the umbilical cord, it basically stays on as a defunct recess for accumulating dirt.

Speaking of orifices, which reminds me of this orifice advertisement. Its about an indian girl who lacked money to pay for birds and how our benevolent and moneyed Richard gere noticed her plight and paid for a flock of birds to take flight.

"i'm sorry. This is only enough for one bird." "Many birds bring good *uck".Apart from the miniscule sexual connotations and the pompous flaunting of wealth which reeks of white man superiority and dominance, I'm starting to get tired of watching such ads. The first time is awe. The Second time is interesting. Many times is simply annoying. The advertisors/advertising company probably dont understand the mental torment caused by the constant bombardment of the ad televised on TV mobile. Great. Now its playing again.

An Nsf's life is not much different, especially mine. Its like groundhog day everyday. Every morning, you wake up to the disgusting alarm clock sound of your handphone. Trying to shakeoff the grogginess from your somnolent zombie self. You proceed to dress up in the army uniform in a mechanical fashion. You begin to question yourself about individual existence. MaybeI m just another clone like Ewan McGregor seeking for the Island.You smile to yourself in the mirror and say in the most positive, convincing manner: fresh day for fresh shitwork.

Exit house. Walk past the auntie running past the bend. Its the same bend and same auntie.Everyday. Without fail. Walk past the old man walking his dog. Eh, thats euphemistically speaking.To put it crudely, its releasing his dog to shit/piss outside his residence.I look forwardto his daily shitty grin and the poodle getting out its poo. No wonder they say the pet usually takes after the owner.

After avoiding the puddles and mines, i'll reach the bus stop,where i wait for my 74 bus.Its amazing how the brain works to imprint the faces and idiosyncracies of each and everycommuter that board the 6 am bus. I wonder if they bother to register my face:-like a character in their ? life who comes on in clockwork precision.

You take the place as the omniscient observer on the bus. You know where the bespectacled office worker's favourite seat is, the stop where the middle-aged lady will alight, and of course, where your favourite HCJC girl's boarding and alighting points. The occurence of the latter is one of those few events that will register a blip in the otherwise horizontal, below baseline curve.
Your body suddenly becomes tense when she boards the bus. You become self conscious and concerned with even the most minute movements. You want to get a little attention yet you want to remain inconspicuous. How ironic. You do the weirdest things: pretending to gaze at the scenery outside (knowing that its pitch black), stealing a few furtive glances at the girl, peering from the reading medium strategically poised toact as concealment. Shes as deadly as Medusa, one glimpse at her, I'll be transfixed, mesmerized,stoned.

I'm not quite sure whether this is wad people call sick voyeuristic beahviour or craven infatuation but i suspect its a bit of both.

The heart sinks with disappointment as the girl alights from the bus. The sadness lingerseven as she has left. ok, time to concuss and look for the girl in my dreams,its a 50.50 chance.Wish me luck. Night. Before its another day tomorrow.

Made me mad.





He who sacrifices his conscience to ambition burns a picture to obtain the ashes.

Been playing this addictive game know as Harvest Moon for the past week. This is ten times better than Sims. Basically, you play the character as a farmer and you are supposed to eke out a living, gain the townfolks trust and increase popularity, prosper. Your aim is to make enough money to get a house, a big bed and get a girl to start a family. Its so wonderful because it incorporates farming-rearing animals, cultivating crops (high end and the inferior crops), fishing, mining and strategic planning.


Busy logging. No time for blogging.Check out my golden axe! -->

You can also sow seeds of discord among ur rivals to increase ur love meter with ur partners.

<=Thats me sleeping with hot chicks in the barn.

Country comfort! How i wish i could lead a carefree, uninhibited lifestyle like this in some remote, rural area far away from this place...

Been hearing people sing the cadbury ad song these 2weeks.
I dun really find it amusing. Rather, i m disturbed by the thought of the world being chocolate.

Wouldn't it be nice if the world was la la
Children will be smiling with faeces on the faces
Ride your butt across the toilet seater
Get it out and navigate the ooze.
And if a guy came up and tried to bite you
Shit could say "I'm chocolate I invite you"
Wouldn't it be nice!

Scary.

Tsk. tsk. This Star Wars have brought about companies to market their products as SW merchandise as an attempt to boost their sales.

Cheapo Toys can be found together with meals. I even saw a kid trying to propose to Chewbacca with an onion ring. M&m has also employed Vader& friends to grace their cover. The white rapper (Eminem) who probably wanted badly to be on the sweet wrapper, would never have guessed that he lost to a lightsaber.

I'm still waiting for local hawkers to come up with their Master Otah, coconut leaves with fish paste completed with lightsaber-inspired coloured toothpicks.

However, I'm unfazed by their products. I have been working to launch my ne plus ultra Star Wars utensil collectibles set. On the Light Side, we have the Jedi who burns with passion AH-NEh-Kin` (damn fast) Frywoker, who can send enemies 'frying' within minutes upon contact. Caution! May turn to the dark side if left unattended or neglected. Luke(warm) Frywoker, his less capable son, and the lovely Queen Spatula comes free with this set.

How can we forget the Dark Side? Dun worry.. I have managed to steal the best steal to forge the legendary Darth Ladle (containing 18% chrome and 10% nickel) which can easily stir up troubled waters when fuelled with rage. Along with it, I have also created the dark and dangerous Sieve Lords. Needless to say, they are renowned for their Force drain techniques to drain every single residue from your fluids. Muahaha..

I am starting to think that I have a mild tendency towards masochism. I like to pile myself with loads of work and kill myself in the office. I actually enjoy the flooding of the phone calls, with four phones ringing at the same time. I look forward to the inundation of the mailbox each day I step into the dusty, filth entrenched, musty smelling office. I love embracing all the poisoned coated arrows, which deals more venomous poison than the combined poisons of the dart frog, box jellyfish, Venomancer and Naix, which for some reason just seem to gravitate towards me. I cherish every sleepless night that I encounter when I close my eyes and count sheep but I just cant sleep because every damned sheep has my camp's warrant officers' face on it.

I am enthralled by my beloved commanders. No pun intended. I am so fascinated by the lexicon and vast amount of vocabulary that they possess. Every moment I spend with them, I feel so enriched and satiated. Bit by bit, I learnt complex, multifarious hybrid words like 'jurisprudiction' , 'enbus', 'deconflict' and 'uncontactable' by the hard way - pure rote learning and sheer memory work. It was no easy feat, I had to break my rigid mindset to force myself to imbue these 'wonderful' word gems into my brain and it took even more effort to convince myself that these people are more deserving of an A for General Paper than me. My very intelligent RSM have told me that these words are so esoteric that even Microsoft office and conventional dictionaries have difficulty grasping the profound meaning. Like what my RSM told me, "u dun stupid la, u never heard of 'outsourced' arh? Wah lan eh, still say u JC somemore? dont be trick by these little red waves, lubbish its just lousy programming!"
Bows humbly.

O how I respect the venerated RSM and Commanders! Just like Rock Lee And Gai Sensei in Naruto. U are my Gai!

Gai: "Lee!!"
Lee: "Sensei!!"
Gai: "Lee!!"
Lee: "Sensei!!" (hugs and sunset and beautiful waves)

Recently, I have been living my life quite aimlessly.

Coming back from work (i like to think of ns as work cos i makes me feel better) , playing some kiddy game called Maplestory. Its gameplay is pure simple. You jump around like Super Mario to kill cute creatures who poke your ass (your character will jump with an astonished expression when you walk into them, like they just sodomized/fucked you (depending on your sex)). They have a wide range of creatures and creative variations. Small mushrooms, Orange Mushrooms, Green top Mushrooms, Horny Mushrooms, Gray Mushrooms, Mushroom King. (the only colour that is missing is red because the similarity to part of the male anatomy is rather patent) Sure sounds like a brainless, asinine game. Sad to say, i have a soft spot for stupid games like this. And so do many grown up guys and girls.

Armed with their imaginary wands, sticks, online cliques, dicks clicking furiously at mushrooms, snails and monkeys. People rushing to collect whatever shit that drops on the floor and squabbling over the rightful claim to the offals of the creatures like some houseflies hovering over viscera and trimmings of a butchered animal.

After a week of cold maplestory treatment, i have managed to quit the addiction. Thankfully. Phew. I wouldnt wan my life to be controlled by a bunch of jumping mushrooms.

Just finished rolling two big plates of glutinous rice balls for tomorrow. Its a challenge trying to get all the balls of the same size. I wonder if human ones were created in the same fashion.. whoever the one rolling the balls might be..Must be tiring, trying to alter individual ones to make them all look the same.

Now, I am just waiting for my life to get busy..as the nigh draws near.. and the new beginning awaits..

Sigh.I dun noe why i am dreading this month so much.
maybe i am down wif end of the yr blues. i hate growing old. 19. wad a fcked up age.

I hate driving.
I hate myself even more.
I wan to destroy all the cars in the world.

I am tyoung wif my eyes close now necaise i am simplu to tired recently.
My facial muscles are so tired that it feels like a thousand kg ponderous weights are attached to make my muscles sag. I suspsect it resulted from smilnig too much of my sycphanyic smile of mine. I am so tired that i have stoped surfing pon for a record of four days. Tired from trying to read too much. cramping three books in two army days. cos i am owing the library cops. Tired of reading between lines. Tired of life. Tired of the expectations that pple plaece on u. Tired of societal pressure.
If all this is ka(a term for someones destiny, taken from Stephen King's Dark Tower series.)...

Then.
FUck ka.
Fuck cars.

I am awake now. Its amazing how vulgarities heightens one's mental acuity. One more shoddy post in my blog.yea.

It was one of the worst thursday in my life.
Thursday used to be good. Especially in the army. because they served Western in camp.
Until Singapore Idol finals came.

I watched wif much horror when i heard the swarmy grinning idiots name announced as the first singapore idol. My entire family was devastated. My father was silent as he mourned the death of an honourable title which shld have been conferred on the other worthy opponent. My mother was stricken wif hysteria and she was on the verge of breaking down, wif occasional shrieks of"why sly will lose?. WHy?" My bro was choleric, i witnessed whatever pathetic remnants of propogranda that had been injected to sustain racial harmony crumble right in front of me.
He blasted a quote-of-the-day remark with much ire, "******,****(its in dialect so it cannot be displayed pls download the latest win service language support patch for xp) I didnt watch so many episodes of Singapore idol just to watch a ***** win. More undisplayable words."

As for me, my family has already echoed my sentiments. All of them.

Geography textbooks have taught us that Singapore is only 625 sq km. Getting anywhere is not difficult with our efficient transport system. My big wonder is - with the excellent accessibility in our city, why are there still so many local undergraduates living in student hostels?

http://www.funkygrad.com/estyle/displayarticle.php?artID=396&subcat=mylife

hilarious article..but i cant guarantee the accuracy

Still going strong: After 50 years, on a day which could have been about savouring the past, MM Lee is still looking to the future and talking about how the PAP must continue to dominate the electoral landscape. CAption in todays paper.

--BREAK-----I STRESS the contents below bears completely NO relation to the article mentioned above. If u attempt to make a connection. its a chargeable offence. So DUN.

I never really doubt the theory of evolution.in fact, I used to think that orang lauts (these antediluvian sea faring folks of SEA south east asia which we study in social studies in primary school) originated from the orangutans. The illustrators of our textbooks depicted these early singaporean inhabitants as hairy,tomentose,shaggy like creatures. Its hard not to make connections, isnt it? Until today, i still subscribe to it.
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Quote of the day:

He who laughs last,didnt catch the joke

Why do people do visit them? Some people do it so that they can perfect their skill and do it for their girlfriends/wives in the future(hey who doesn't like a 'skilled' guy) ..some people seek for their services to cure their boredom, there is also the copycats who do it out of pure curiosity.
For me, I did it after some serious deliberation ..they were thousands of reasons, some childish, some inane, why I did it but Ill rather keep that to myself. Lots of people have already done it at a younger age..and I guess I didn't want to be mocked by my competitive psyche within me.

I grabbed n stuffed the blue coloured bill before setting out. It had gone beyond my own interest but rather to just get it over and done with. I have to mentally condition myself before each trip. The experience is always this chafed feeling interfused with the dreadful anticipation. I pray to the skies every time before I leave house that I will come back unscathed and unsullied. The elusive image of moths flitting and escaping from a hellfire burning beneath keeps coming to me like a phantom of the mind...

I'm surprised I'm still alive...
A moth getting burned by the flame usually dies;
If not, it goes back for more, and it's back to the risk.
However, like a moth, I shall strive.
I am intrigued by the flame...
I'll get burned and go for more;But there's a hope
I'll fly through safely.No pain, no end to my ardor.
Help me this desolate fire is driving me insane

I have visited the place countless times. People standing in the alleys and some leaning on their cars. Bald uncles digging their noses in a grotesque fashion and eager girls clad in whorish/ semi decent dresses. The heat is unbearable and its not surprising to feel the sweat trickling down the loins.

The cash is exchanged and the session is soon over. Some people come out feeling satiated and satisfied, well spent. The nauseating sessions and surfeit has left me cloy after the initial awe and excitement of being able to toy with a real life specimen.

I am sure many Singaporeans know of this place. Of course there are other designated areas set aside by government to control the services but this place is the most convenient place for me to get my regular sessions.

In the place to be. Learning to drive at Ubi.

Happy3Friends

Just went downstairs for the condo resident committee meeting. I went down as an extra representative from my family. Only for the highlight of the event-the refreshments segment.

I gingerly selected two of each available on the buffet table to board my Noah's stomaark. Eating and walking around, pretending to look interested and concerned about the state of my residence while i was contemplating about wad game should i play later. meetings are really shitty stuff, they are boring, trite and useless. It just exists so that the secretaries have their minutes to write and to placate the souls of irate, garrulous aunties and always complaining uncles. I dunno. Maybe i am just a mugwump. Like unapathetic Huckleberry Finn who enjoys sitting on the fence.

Having filled my stomach,I took the lift up, wondering how uncouth a singaporean i was. Out of nowhere, a few cute kids dashed in with plates of food. One resembled the spotty or squeeky some-squirrel looking creature in Happytreefriends. They were laughing and talking about their mum's diabolical plan to transport the food from downstairs to their dining table.
They reached their floor and i made no attempt to press the lift door for them. If only the lift door closed on them..then i will be able to extricate their plates of food from their mangled bodies for my supper....

Twu Bi Twu Bi Twu Bi do...Twu Bi Twu Bi Twu Bi do..La la ala allal alalala ....

Zhang3Feng
i used to regard this venerated old man called zhang sanfeng with much reverence becos he managed to withstand temptation of hottie guo xiang in the chronicles of Jingyong COndor trilogy. On the other hand,I was never really impressed by his taichi skills. It was a whole lot of bull tt never made sense to me.

SLow CAN beat fast?

I dun believe.The moves are always executed slowly in an exaggerated and laggard fashion which makes people wonder if the moves are dilatory tactics to fool the opponent.

I have been proven wrong recently. The art of taichi has transcended beyond the martial skill. Its yi or the quintessence has become an important point of reference in our modern society just like how the suntzi art of war has been dissected and desecrated by corporate firms to teach people how to become shrewd moguls.

Taichi actually has this famous set of moves known as the 13 Kinetic Movements of Taichiquan.This 13 moves are further split into the 8 Men (Eight doors) and the 5 BU (five steps). Unknown to members of the public, some of the army personnel are actually crouching tigers:-extremely well versed taichi exponents who choose to lie low.

Heres a rough runthrough of the moves i have secretly acquired from their manuals and peeking through the door slits when they are in the meeting room. Difficulty-indicated by *

8 Moves
Peng (ward off) Once an arrow has been shot in the direction, move quickly to ward off the imminent danger or attack.*
Lu (Stroke) Stroke someones ass (the potential guy whos absorbing the damage) i.e sing praises abt his work efficiency **
JI (Push) With a half-jovial half-serious tone, push the responsibility/arrowto the unsuspecting victim **
An (Press) Finishing move, apply firm pressure and use your rank/power to complete the execution.***
Cai (to pull suddenly) In army lingo,they call it "pull stunt",eg performa highly dangerous move to escape the arrow. Extremely dangerous.****
Lie(Twist) Cock and bull story.Twist facts and fabricate the most convincingyo-grandmother-got-something-on and dog-eat-paper stories. Excuses. **
Zhou(Elbow strike) Yet to comprehend. CHEEM.
Kao(lean against) Use your connections as trump cards. Like saying "my commander ask me do this. you wan me to do this new thing for you better ask him first."

The last five moves are Advance, Retreat, Survey left, survey right and guard center. Basically, it describes how one should move ard to avoid attacks/ dodge arrows.This in short is the essence of the 13 Shi which should be useful for survival in the modern pugilistic world of today.

Today is 15/8 which is the Mid Autumn festival aka Mooncake aka Lantern festival. Today also happens to be the first day off that i have taken in the army. Today I just recovered miraculously from my disgusting flu, which nearly marred my day.

Musings
Read this article in the Straits Times today abt mooncakes. claiming that there are novel mooncakes with special flavours. like durian and yam. Yawn, so uninteresting. doubt they will smell or taste nice. I am still patiently waiting for mooncakes with curry paste and belachan to be launched.

Saw a teacher bringing a group of kids from the kindergarten near my house, Sunshine Kids, for an outing..in the park. It was early in the morning, the sun was blazing and it was extremely bright. And the most astonishing part was that the kids were holding battery operated lanterns!
The battery lanterns looked so fucking weak in the sun. I am very tempted to use the word dumb to describe the whole act but i would like to think that i am a very kind person.

I still prefer the old paper lanterns, those cheap china flowery patterned ones with the invisible "highly inflammable" imprinted on it . I remember the naughty kids who loved to bang into those little kids with feeble sticks and lanterns and watch sadistically as the kids weep pitifully while holding onto their charred-beyond recognition lanterns and cane.

Then there is always a group of other races pple (i dun like to mention names) who try to join in the fun by burning and lighting stuff. Burning grass and candles. How stupid can they get. Sometimes i think the haze we get is also the result of some people somewhere burning vegetation for fun too. Maybe somewhere up there, Chang-er is weeping for the stupidity of some of mankind.

Sometimes i wish that i am Legolas, then i can become a marksman and get my money and the lovely badge for range. Pretty busy these days. Trying to make myself busy too..dun noe for wad reason too. probably just trying to make my life more interesting and maximising my time that i have. A ship in harbour is safe but thats not what a ship is made for. Starting to appreciate quotes nowadays. Dunno what the fuck am i writing but i think this sort of shitty rambling is the result of little thought and little time. I fed a cat in camp.

Anyway jackie chan police story is coming out. I hope the show is nice as the catchy song he sang in the trailer. SOLID. Funky papa trying to look happening. Love his glasses. reminds me of those cheap glosssy ones sold in departmental stores. when i was young my mother will always ask if my bro and i want a pair of those. ahah. so cool.

Everyone is ashamed of something, if u are not, then u are not being honest wif urself.

Syphilis

I dun mind the increase in testosterone level. I dun mind hairy legs. Pimples is the dermatologic EVIL of puberty and it's a strident clamour from the body to announce to the entire world that one is pubertying. A terrible affliction, not only capable of the ruination of the rosy cheeks, but also undermining one's self/ body confidence. Its punition from the creators of the body- u get ur semen, for in return u have to absorb these pimples. Like ugly installments.

For some people, they are just PLAIN lucky to escape it: - free from the blemishes we all know and loathe. Some will get only a few benign ones on their faces. The rest will get the 'generous' load of whatever shit that the rest didn't claim. Unfortunately, I belonged to the last category.

In secondary school, I was doing fine. I escaped unscathed all the way until Sec 4. Then I became arrogant and started making fun of a classmate who had a spectacular geography of pimples on his face. The volcanic terrain with its island arcs, spewing spurts of pus and swelling. For my meanness, retribution ensured that I could appreciate the similar geography on my mirror.

My glandular machinery began to go totally bananas. Pimple city. Its impossible to escape. washing the face 5 times a week or taking dozens showers a week, trying every cream and nostrum known to modern science, didn't help much . A loaded pizza with rich toppings of blackheads. I probably could have been the mascot for pizza hut.. and do something like bursting a pimple and let the pus flow out with the oul, with jingles going " Stuffed Crust Pizza!!!"

Over time, much of it has receded, with some leaving pitty marks or potholes to mark its existence and also as a form of grim reminder to my foul mouth.

Thought of the day:
do monkeys have pubic hair?

Nightlife in Singapore is like throwing a party in a house with your parents.

how true. picked up a book from my sergeant major's table and finished it in one reading. titled Invisible Trade- it was a book by Gerrie Lim which offered to shed some light on the sex industry in Singapore, namely the high class escort girls, ktv hostess, the mamasans, the call boys and to the lower end of the spectrum the prostitutes.

Frankly speaking, to me ,there isnt much distinction between these classes. there is no point sounding so euphemistic or pretentious. sex is sex. an escort girl may engage in intelligent or witty conversation, talkign about haute couture, wine or culture but still end up having sex. They are cultured vultures that all, with their cut throat prices. a prostitute gets straight to the point. up on the bed. Ultimately, all boils down to a cold cash exchange of body fluids, devoid of emotions.

Did extract morsels of information here and there from the book. although most of it i already knew, in theory. I bet most singapore know abt the facts in there too.This is all theory shit. Only exploration will get me further.
I felt ashamed when i read the accounts of the escort girls who are specially procured to render their services to the rich and powerful and the horny men. All these take place behind the closed doors of expensive hotel suites like ritz and shangr. I never knew Singapore as a large transit point for sex. Schools didnt teach us that sex trade in Singapore has always been flourishing because of Singapore's ideal geographical position and the confluence of the international air flight routes.

How little i know of my country. sigh. I really should explore more. I'll make that my objective for this year. interested Fellow explorers feel free to drop a comment.