out

today i've discovered a new vice:

ah hah. yea. yup. yes. coffee gum. how awesome right? who would have thought you could combine two of my favorite things into one.

that said, they've still got a long way to go in terms of the flavor. they should also have created products like gourmet coffee gum. how about an espresso gum? or... i don't know, caramel macchiato gum? just a random thought. heh.

anyways here's a view from one of the places i've been to today:

it's a bookstore. actually calling it a bookstore is a gross understatement. to be more accurate, you could call it an ORGY of books. 6 freaking floors of nerd-o-logy to be exact. my head hurts from just thinking about the place.

walking around town is exhausting. actually it's already exhausting enough just walking around in a single mall. and it seems like someone's building a new mall every other day. the rise of capitalism is... mind-bogglingly awesome and appalling at the same time. how often do you get to say that huh?

headed home after a pair of chucks and a scoop of haagen dazs... i love haagen dazs. the most american ice cream you can ever get that doesn't sound anything remotely amercican.

+listening to: neon by john mayer

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one last time

oh where, oh where, can my baby be?
the lord took her away from me.
she's gone to heaven, so i've got to be good.
so i can see my baby when i leave this world.

when i woke up the rain was pourin down.
there were people standin all around.
something warm flowing through my eyes.
but somehow i found my baby that night.

+listening to: last kiss by pearl jam

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cake!

today was fabulous. i slept at 6am in the morning after watching the match between germany and portugal, which also happened to be the first complete match that i've seen so far for euro '08.

and at noon i headed over to weiqin's house to bake a cake. this is my first time baking a cake, and i'm really excited. needless to say, i got so excited that i actually did very little baking and mostly provided moral support for the people doing the actual work.

and also the cake was for che, whose birthday was some time back, but nontheless, better late than never.

here's me enthusiastically supporting the baking efforts

finished product!

here's a close-up

and here's the birthday boy

+listening to: east wes by eric johnson

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goodbye powershot, hello lumix

i've been kinda peeved for the past week or so, because my trusty canon powershot (which is built like a tank) has decided that it's not worth living anymore and hence took it's own life for better or worse.

but i guess the timing was kind of apt, because it only decided to give up its last gasp of life right after its final assignment and not a moment before, and personally that one assignment was worth everything. as i said goodbye to my trusty friend, i'm left with a very pretty piece of paper weight. it's in a gorgeous shade of brushed metallic silver and is just as lethal when used as a weapon to cause personal harm as the day i bought it.

so today i headed down to the pc show expecting a leisurely stroll hunting for a new camera and the moment i arrived at the mrt i knew i was an idiot.


the last time i saw this many people crammed into such a tight space was during a dream theater concert, but i didn't mind then because i was headbanging to my favourite band and sharing the same love for the music as those strangers around me.

it's a whole different story when the people around you are all heading to the same destination and being cut-throat bitches every step of the way. there were people trying to one up each other by getting to the elevator the fastest, there were people trying to ride the escalator even though it would have caused a lot less congestions if they took the 10 steps of stairs instead, there were tall people, short people, fat people, thin people, beautiful people, ugly people... to put it briefly, there were A LOT of people.

so after looking at a few booths, i finally settled on a lumix compact camera that was around my budget and proceeded to evacuate immediately. but having said all that, heading to the pc show does have its merit though: for one the price is cheaper than if i were to buy it from a normal appliances store. besides, the vendors are pretty generous with the freebies too. i got a camera case, two 4gb sdhc memory cards, a card reader and two batteries with the camera purchase along with a host of other misc stuff that i'll probably never use like mini tripod, lens cleaning kit, screen protector, etc.

so you can say that i'm one happy customer (at least for today).


and oh... forgot to buy something for my dad. since when did father's day become such a huge thing? i must be filial, i must be filial, i must be filial...


+listening to: hymn by eddie vedder

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pre-departure, stand in black

woohoo! i'm still high from the pre-departure briefing for uni. kudos to the UIUC singapore students association for organising this event. it was completely the opposite of what i had in mind. the venue where it was held was also a really SUPERB and cozy lounge like place in raffles tower with a SPLENDID view. i just wish i lived there.

the briefing itself took up about an hour with some really helpful info and experiences from current seniors but what i really enjoyed was the lunch afterwards and mingling with all those really cool people. it's such a diverse group too with exchange students and freshmen mixed together but i mostly stuck to the freshmen group.

got to know some people from school who are going to UIUC as well, and i was quite shocked to see some familiar faces! that aside i just felt completely at home for some reason and made some funky new friends. stayed afterwards all the way till 2-ish chatting with the seniors and i'm really looking forward to college now!

and on a scintillating side-note, the men in black beat england in the most definitive of fashions. final score 37 - 20 to the all blacks. this ought to shut all the critics and cynics up for whatever reasons. they've demonstrated today that they're still a force to be reckoned with. and my man for today's test was ma'a nonu.


he's the most divine combination power, pace and skill for an inside center. it's the holy trinity of the perfect qualities coming together as one. the savagery slashing steps, the brute strength and the most exquisite handling abilities, it doesn't get any better than that. it's like seeing a young tana umaga but twice as brutal!

ok, off to watch the springboks cane wales again...


+listening to: aces high by iron maiden

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gangbang season: first blood part II

besides my hair being all white, and smelling like baby powder all over, i'm waaayyy too stoned to care. almost wanted to just let go of my bodily functions on the way home.

the pizza was rancid. one of them was a little under cooked so as usual we made a huge deal about it on the phone and got the same order sent again for free. and by the time we finished ALL the pizzas, i could have just puked right there on the spot.

'nuff said. i'm gonna go crash now.

charlie and mike sluggin it out on fifa. he screams whenever the action heats up but no one understands him. it resembles neither korean nor english. i guess it's some sort of kenglish

3 way pool is messed up... no, seriously

baby powder and white hair, i don't even wanna explain how that started

SICK!

it's a long way from home...

+listening to: nothing

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gangbang season: first blood - Team SINEP!

today was the day that i've been looking forward to all week. you see, all the ntu old skool dudes have returned from overseas engagements (read: college) to reunite once again. and to celebrate this inaugural event, some douche bag decided to sign us up for the champions of the cage football tournament, well at... the cage.

rendezvoused with the boys in the morning at jurong east mrt and hopped on the train. it smelt like someone had just taken a dump. and to my horror, i was informed that our korean rock in defense, wonil-a.k.a.-charlie-a.k.a.-baboon "ji-sung" park was down with the runs or some shit like that which rendered him immobile and unable to play in the tournament. apparently he couldn't stop shitting and vomiting, and was having a fever.

we sort of joked about how he had the ebola virus and we were laughing so hard that my stomach hurt. and the lady sitting beside me obviously couldn't help herself and joined us in the laughing spaz... laughing is contagious after all.

making our way to the cage

arriving at the cage

Team SINEP chilling out before the game

so the match: after such a long absence from the pitch for all but a couple of the old skool members (akash, sam, sutha, me, dan and mike), we actually did pretty amazing. Team SINEP, that's us, remained unbeaten in the group stages!

we were top of the table with 8 points, from 2 wins and 2 draws for a while before being overtaken by another team with 3 wins and 1 loss. still, i'm pretty damn proud that we were the only unbeaten team in our group, and probably one of the few in the tournament up till that point. so Team SINEP proudly advanced past the group stages! (there were 4 groups of 5 teams each and the top 2 teams of each group advance to knock-out).

the pitch

then came the quarter-finals. we were leading the other team 2 - 0 at about half time (each match was 20 min), and looked all set for an exciting finish to advance to the semis. but somehow, the other team scored a phantom goal with 5 mins to go, which clearly was not a goal because it bounced off the upright. the referee was obviously not on our side.

so being the gentlemen we are, we graciously let it go. then it happened again - the referee called for the goal kick but somehow changed his mind and called for a corner, and amidst the confusion, and the mad scramble that ensued, the other team managed to sneak one past our goalie, for a full-time score of 2 - 2.

the group stages

Team SINEP in blue bibs in the quarters

as it was the knock out stage, a penalty shootout followed. there were to be 3 for each side before it went to sudden death. our goalie (akash) did brilliant to save the first shot, which followed by dan converting the first penalty for us. but then it all went wrong for the 2nd shot. what was clearly an awesome save by our goalie, was ruled by the ref as a goal for the other team.

it was not even funny, the ref was only 3 meters away. he must have been really blind. even the other team knew it wasn't a goal. to cut a long story short, we lost the penalty shootout and bowed out in the most ridiculous of fashions.

final score: Team SINEP 2 - Referee 3.

we could have won that game 3 times over but instead were left to cry like a bitch to our mamas. of course anyone could have argued that shit happens sometimes, but then again, 3 times in 1 match? isn't that kinda shitty? and to make matters worse, i missed the crucial penalty that would have kept us in the game, and dan got sent off right at the end for telling the other team not to yell at the referee.

if there was one expression that could sum up the referee, it is our team name spelt backwards.

but overall i had tonnes of fun today. just seeing some of the looks on the faces of the people we beat - priceless. especially when there were always some dust-ups during the matches because all the members from Team SINEP pretty much grew up with a brand of pretty physical football. and c'mon, being the only team whose name actually means something when spelt backwards, that's pretty sweet isn't it?


highlights of the day:

• star striker dan lund scores in every single fixture of Team SINEP
• goalie akash goel ditches his position and ran the whole length of the pitch to score a sensational goal up front after he calmly collected the ball in his box and then proceeded to dribbling past everyone on the other team
• midfielder/defender mike meguid scores a sensual volley from a corner... SENSUAL
• THE man in defence li "X" xi takes 2 in the face for the team and blocks countless other attempts to ensure Team SINEP went through the group stages without a hitch
  

what a hell of a way to kick off the gangbang season. can't wait for tomorrow night's mayhem at yunan corner!


+listening to: shotgun blues by guns n' roses

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stelly, you're my idol

this post is dedicated to stelly-bombelly. she's the bomb when it comes to ASS-KICKING parties. so out of the blue we got invited to her place, again, for the... erm i can't remember how many times actually.

but tonight was the epitome of you-cannot-possibly-top-this. besides the seriously jaws to the floor catered food and bbq, the drinks... oh my, just thinking about the drinks is enough to make me wet myself. there was of course the free flow of punch, which everyone cordially helped themselves to.


and then, there was the evil watering hole, where the wicked gathered to quench their insatiable thirst. there was every type of liquor imaginable for your insane pleasures (okay maybe not every type but still enough to melt your face off), and of course being the polite guest that i was, how could i refuse such an offer.

life's good. really good. the beer flowed freely like water down a stream. jack changed his name to john daniel's because he was so sick of seeing me going back round after round for him. and at least for tonight, the world is triangular to me: there's me, jack/john and mr. beer (unfortunately i didn't get a chance to be acquainted with him because he always came already poured in a plastic cup).

thanks stelly, you're my idol.


+listening to: i'm too drunk to listen to anything

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sunny wednesday

finally a sunny wednesday, albeit a little bit too much at that.

so for the umpteenth time this past few month, i set off to the canadian high commission. this time round though i didn't head back to raffles place mrt afterwards, instead i headed to clarke quay.

i was pleasantly surprised that there was actually a pretty big mall at the mrt station called the central. i've always thought it was a commercial building with a few coffee places on the first floor. so i headed in to look for a place to fill my stomach before i headed to my much dreaded tuition session on wednesdays.

the inside of the place is actually pretty nice. there were these really cool looking stools for people to sit on and you can see the singapore river from the atrium!

and i finally decided on burger king because everything else was either unappealing or way too out of my league. there were tonnes of restaurants in that place though. but i guess on weekdays it isn't really THE place to hang out and the lunch crowd was virtually non-existent. there were a total of 3 people in burger king including me even though it was already 12 noon. i guess this has to be the least crowded burger king in the whole of singapore.

and then on my way to the mrt i was this really cool looking bulldog pup inside a shop. it looked so freaking real that it actually got me there for a moment.


and then i was looking at the pay phones in the mrt station and i just suddenly thought of the non-discriminatory urinals in a public toilet - the different height for people of all shapes and sizes. i dunno if they did it on purpose but it sure looks pretty comical.

i also happened to see a samoa rugby union polo, so erm i had to have it. my pocket is still hurting with that gaping hole. but at least i spent the money knowing that part of the proceeds will go towards developing the future of samoa rugby. the pacific isles are seriously burgeoning with talent but it's such a tragedy that rugby has to take a backseat over there because lots of people are still struggling for basic survival. seriously, if the isles teamed up and formed an "all-star" team, they would certainly make a lot of people sit up and take notice.

fiji alone ranks 9th in the world, just imagine what an incredible team it would make with players from the likes of tonga and samoa as well. when will the islanders realize that it's just not feasible for them to stand up against all the giants in international rugby individually. financially and socially it's just too much of a burden, and it would do everyone wonders if they just had one team under the name of the pacific isles. that could also see the introduction of perhaps another team from asia in future world cups. oh well, things are the way they are...


+listening to: american man by velvet revolver

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victory is sweet

today was a big day, well for 2 schools anyways. but i've always enjoyed a great rugby match any day. so it goes, the A division final between saints and asci.

this year is kind of special though, for the first time ever (i think) it's held at the padang. it's really AWESOME to see a match at padang. if you've never witnessed a rugby match at padang, i suggest you put it down as one of the things to do before you er... you know, expire. well in singapore anyways.



the atmosphere was absolutely electrifying with supporters surrounding all four sides of the field, so i had to settle for the steps of the city hall building, but the view was splendid nonetheless. there was certainly no shortage of drama as a couple of conversions evaded the net behind the goal post designed to catch them and landed the road. one of them unfortunately hit a car. it was great fun to watch, well i guess not so fun for the driver of the car to see a flying projectile coming at him.

anyways as expected asci won. oh well... it was still a great spectacle to witness.

on another note i just saw a great, great movie today entitled The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.


i sort of just watched it out of curiosity because i thought the title was kind of peculiar and i inferred that it's got something to do with diving or something. oh how wrong i was.

first off it's a french film, which totally caught me by surprise (happily surprised; i have a penchant for tasty foreign films). i must say it was one of the most refreshing films i have ever seen, the cinematography, the way the stories were told. it's just so... peaceful and gives you this strange, ambivalent sensation between existence and nothingness.

i would have preferred the ending to be a happy one though, but i can understand why the ending had to be tragic, as it serves as a closure for the protagonist in the film. a happy ending would have made everything seem a bit... cheesy. if you want to see a movie told in a unique way that you've probably never seen before, or have a knack for movies that make your mind run amuck because all your thoughts somehow all seem to be going berserk at once, you simply HAVE TO see it. it might just change your life. no, seriously.


+listening to: crying by aerosmith

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oh cock!

woke up in the morning to the sound of my stomach growling, hence the oh cock.

reason: dinner at seoul garden last night with a diet of pure protein mixed with peach tea and a tad of the absolutely nonsensical stuff they call ice-cream over there.

it was the annual rugby dinner, well actually it was the annual rugby bbq that somehow turned into dinner at seoul garden because i think people were too lazy to cook their own food. and this year's timing kinda sucked, apparently lots of people are out with their moms having dinner. i was wondering why there was a sudden surge in the showing of filial piety, and then i was told it was mother's day weekend.

hmm, so that's why i saw lots of buddha feet on the ground on my way to dinner. i guess it's the one day in the year that people get to make good with their moms and ask for forgiveness for all the sins committed in the past year and hopefully buy them some mercy for the year ahead and the many more sins to come.


anyways other than waiting 2 hours for dinner because of some screwed up dinner reservation, it was all lots of fun catching up with the guys, and just pig out. and then the new leadership was forged and the rest became history. it's really been a great great night, and i hope it's also the beginning of something truly inspiring. and to quote guinness: ... for we are but seconds from greatness. cheers!

+listening to: life by the drop by stevie ray vaughan and double trouble

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wow

wow what a day. seems like my prayers have all been answered all at once. all the shit seem to be behind me.

woke up feeling something is amiss. i looked around and realised it was only 8 oclock. haven't seen the clock point at anything before 9 for a while. and then i realised that my cough is gone. what's left is only a little sore throat. it feels so good not to feel like you're gonna die any minute.

then there was the usual wednesday afternoon affair. alex didn't complete his homework as usual, but somehow this time he actually tried to do like half of it. i was genuinely surprised. and he paid his full attention the whole time. andreas was his usual well-behaved self with homework all done up for me to check, which leads me to wonder how can 2 brothers from the same family be so different.

the highlight of the day was definitely attending my godma's masters graduation ceremony. but before that i had to kill about an hour at PS waiting for my godbro to finish school before we go to the ceremony, and also contemplating whether to buy a t-shirt, which ended up with me recalling that i'm broke at the moment.

so the ceremony was really an eye opener. i saw an indian-american professor whose speech was so hilarious that he'd put russell peters to shame. and then my godma introduced me to her best friend/colleague who's a true blue (no pun intended) french lady but speaks a few languages fluently, among them CHINESE. i swear she speaks better chinese than i do and i was seriously floored, and ashamed of myself. and she's married to a chinese guy who's probably 10 years younger than her. what an interesting mix.

i haven't been this happy for a while, especially talking cock with my godbro. imagine sitting in a room full of "ang mohs" and you can simply make fun of them and say just about anything without giving a damn (we were speaking chinese of course).

i wish i could feel this good everyday...


+listening to: yellow ledbetter by pearl jam

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soothing

awesome news! youtube is down. i don't mean to be a saddist but i can't really stand 90% of the stuff that people put up on youtube. since its outtage about an hour ago, i think the global online community has enjoyed its few precious moments of "silence".


i'm sure there are some very grateful parents out there who pray really hard before they go to bed every night that something like this will happen, so there you go, an answered prayer (finally). mind you it doesn't happen that often. last time something like this happened was in 2006 if i remember correctly. so do make it a point to note down the schedule in your diaries/planners so you can pray/make your sacrificial offerings accordingly. no gurantees though.

today was... soothing. had lunch with a few old mates of mine. it just feels so liberating to be able to say anything, ANYTHING without having to worry about being rude /overbearing /a*hole /insensitive /loud /coarse /ungentlemanly or whatever man. i needed this a long time ago. it's like back in the days in high school. i thank god pat myself on the back everyday that i went to an all guys high school. i dunno what kind of an oppressed being i might have ended up otherwise. you just have to let it all out, freely and without giving a damn about what other people think.

revitalized, peaceful, now all i need is incessant wealth. next time it rains, let it be money please.



edit: youtube is up again at around 10:15pm... the chaos continues, so should your prayers...


+listening to: primal cuts by steve morse band

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dinner

once again, totally random "class" outing! the NS men couldn't join us though, they're all in camp, except yx.

when i heard fish & co for dinner i almost had a seizure, i swear if i eat there one more time i will self destruct. their menu is not just monotonous, it's morbid. if you just ingest the stack of bills that you're handing them every time you patronize them, you'd probably find the bills actually taste better. not to mention their bar is a total money laundering scheme. any shot is $9.90, a bottle of bailey's cost a surprising $140. i wonder if you also get a couple of irish chicks with that bottle of bailey's, or perhaps a gold nugget? okay i shall stop ranting, it's not the first time that i've had something against them, but still i kept going back, albeit involuntarily.


everyone had the free candy floss afterwards. even though there were only 8 people, i think we ate about 14? and that's after we told the waitress one for each of us. but we just kept eating and she just kept making them. they kept the machine right after we were done, heh i can't help but think it's because of our doing.

cheers!


+listening to: i got a woman by ray charles

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can i have a nice day, upsized, please?

life is retarded.

i fell asleep in front of my computer last night trying to get the 'live' stream of hong kong rugby sevens on TVB Pearl to work. can you imagine waking up to the alarm tune of "Uncle Fucka" in front of your computer and thinking "where the F@#% am i???", quite. and don't you dare diss my alarm tone, it once won the Best Musical Performance at the MTV Movie Award.

godamnit i could have been there (this previous post explains why)! okay if i'd heeded my dad's call to maybe go back home for a while after A's, i would have known when the tickets would have been on sale. then i would have stayed until the thing opens or maybe come back to singapore and just go back for the weekend to watch it and then come back again. argh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


and the most agonizing thing is that the 'live' stream is crap. i get approx. 3 seconds of live footage every 2 minutes. i can only wish i am in hong kong now.

it's about 3 hours away from stelly's party/class gathering. and i'm sitting here like a moron staring at my computer screen trying to catch some 'live' action. i came all the way home from school from a whole morning of the scorching sun just for this shit.

but as a whole i'm pretty satisfied with this morning. the new guys are learning fast. and hopefully i've taught them well enough. i really want to see them do well this year, hands on heart.

let's hope tonight is just as fun. can't wait for the gathering later. what i need now is a much desired cool shower to get into the chilling mode.


update: okay only took 1 picture, while we're preparing the cocktail. there's just too much to do (okay, eat...) to waste time on taking pictures. heh.

salut!


+listening to: my guitar wants to kill your mama by frank zappa

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a walk around town

i forgot all about the morning rush hour traffic as i was inevitably stuck in that sticky situation again. getting rubbed shoulder to shoulder, jammed in an mrt train bound for the city.

my intended visit to the canadian high commission was the 2nd time in 2 days. i was there yesterday too, only unaware of something called an "easter monday" for which the high commission had kindly decided to shut its doors to the general public.

don't be fooled by the seemingly intimidating name of a high commission. it's really just a leased space in an office building with 1 counter and 2 police guarding it, much to my surprise/dismay. i would have thought such a vast country like canada could have afforded to fork out some money to at least get their own little building.

and i saw this extremely funny framed poster on the wall. it's entitled "picture perfect", with what i suppose is the french translation underneath it. can't really remember how it's spelt, i can only imagine it'll be something like "lé picturé pérfrénchzsúçkz". anyways it shows various right and wrong examples of passport photos of random people. i can see obviously why some of those are deemed unacceptable: people wearing beanies, sporting sunglasses, head tilted sideways, weird coloured backgrounds, underexposed photos, etc.

and so one of the examples really made my day: it shows this nice lady in a perfectly proportioned photo that looks pleasing to the eye. so i asked myself "what's wrong with this one?" then i looked at the correct example beside it. the only visible difference i can spot is that in the wrong one she's got a gentle smile on and in the correct example she's got this retarded stern shit-face look. puzzled as i was, i read the caption of the photo that explains to you what's the problem. and get this: it says "non neutral expression". i almost laughed out loud. how stupid can these regulations get. i mean so what if you smile on your passport photo? it's not like they can hope to pick out potential terror threats by judging who looks the most shit-faced while looking "neutral". i so wanted to take a picture of it but then i realised they took my phone and mp3 player away before they let me in. only if i had one of those mp3 player embedded t-shirts, i'd love to see how they would try to take that away from me and leave a half naked man running around in the high commission.

but anyways just some random photos:

the elevator in the building is really cool. it glows red for going down, and green for going up! and a cool ceiling to boot!

a water feature outside the building, i thought it was cool as the water is flush with the sides without overflowing so it looks like a huge piece of glass

this is the building where the high commission is at: one george street (that's the actual name of the building and it's also its street address)

so this is what we see from afar that makes up the skyline of downtown

another water feature outside the OCBC building, it also looks a lot cooler in real life

a very cozy street called market street. it really reminds me of the days in hong kong. there's also a great many restaurants along the street, shall go try some before i leave here

i was bored and didn't want to go home so i went to sit by the river. it's really tranquil in the morning because there's virtually no one besides a handful of tourists

clarke quay and its many shophouses

the sun shining right over fullerton hotel

after a while i decided to walk all the way to cityhall because it seemed like a nice sunny morning for a walk. oh boy was i wrong. the sun was absolutely scorching but never mind that, i discovered something really interesting:

here's the shot i took at the padang of the cityhall area:


and here is the official johnny wilkinson desktop wallpaper taken from the adidas website:



now compare the two side by side:

can you say: "WOW"

doesn't it look REALLY similar minus and wide-angle lens and difference in angles? when did johnny wilkinson come to singapore? oh well...


+listening to: another kind of green by john mayer

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