ORDnooblet :)

2010-01-12T23:32:00.000+08:00

Damn. Internship is tiring.

2010-01-09T22:45:00.002+08:00

PECKPOST

So my first time meeting the boss wasn't too bad. He was very nice about everything but his main concern was that I didn't have any accounting experience which is of course justified. That got me really motivated so I bought an introductory accounting book today to get acquainted with all the basics. I'm pretty fired up. Speaking of reality though, hopefully I won't get pwned too badly on monday.

Oh yeah I also went to eat a ramli burger for lunch today with my family. Like everytime I eat very little dinner, around 12 am onwards I start to get these unbelievable hunger pangs that cannnot be satiated by drinking water. And I think about ramli burgers. And I feel even hungrier. Cyclic masochism - it comes and goes. It's like I could kill for one. The one at the Tanjong Pagar railway station was pretty good but my main gripe was that it didn't have BBQ sauce. Everything else was awesome though.

On an unrelated note, I was watching my dad do some x-ray annotations for a jaw operation and I was just asking him some stuff about it. Oral surgeons are usually better known for extracting wisdom teeth or doing implants and stuff (which is all boring) but I think the aspect of my parents' profession that impresses me the most is when they do class 2 or class 3 jaw adjustment surgery. Essentially that means that they align the jaw properly for people that have an over or under-bite. It's a delicate, precise operation which is interspersed with brutality (like when they BREAK the jaw) but the results are damn near life-changing. Like some of their patients look so much better after the op that I'm left in awe sometimes at my parents' skillz. It's like my dad is Pablo Peck Picasso. The gratitude of the patients and their parents is always overwhelming as well. So yeah I do feel respect for my parents sometimes haha.

2010-01-06T15:27:00.003+08:00

PECKPOST

So yesterday night my parents took their accountant friend and his accountant friend (who was arranging the internship) out for dinner. I was there as well, naturally. Both of them used to own their own firms but now they have retired and have boatloads of money. It was nice talking to them because they give out this masterly, "seen it all" vibe but yet at the same time they're totally unpretentious about it. They just laugh about things, talk cock, gossip and tell funny stories about high rollers. Like one of them will say that he found this really cheap TCM masseur in katong who gave excellent back massages for only $22, then next thing you know he's talking about his lonely friend who gave him herbal cordyceps worth 10k ahhahah. Then they'll start talking about high rollers at casinos that bet 50k in laundered money at once, and golf games with "small stakes" of 2k. It's a crazy world out there man.

Yeah so the guy who's arranging my internship is a kindly old gentleman. Very genteel in his ways. But you can smell class on him. He drives a porsche and his food order was damn classy. "I'll have the escargots for starters and the beef on the wagon". Haha compare that to my dad, "I'll have the caesars salad and the mee goreng" lolol. I had never eaten escargots in my life so I shared some with my mum. Well most things with copious amounts of garlic butter taste good so yeah the escargots tasted good. Generally though my family doesn't eat much french food. I've always asked my mum to take me to some sick french place like Les Amis or something and she'd always say "AH YA I've been there before. The food isn't that good la. Duntwan lah". Bah stingy poker.

So yeah my internship is more or less settled. I'll be meeting the boss of the firm tomorrow morning together with the old gentleman (the former boss) and I'll probably start work on Monday. I heard that there are poly accountancy students doing attachments there too so I guess I'll have some people to talk to. Apart from all the learning and stuff I sure hope I get paid too haha. My parents told me to expect NOTHING :/

Oh well the day before yesterday was wally's 21st birthday. We had his birthday at his friend's condo's function room and I met up with some of the class members. It was good to catch up though I don't hold the best conversations when there's a lot of noise around me - makes me as attentive as Beethoven. It was a nice bash with good food and all. Makes me wonder if I'll do anything on my 21st. I got a year to think about it but I've a feeling I'll be too lazy to get anything done.

2010-01-04T00:26:00.004+08:00

PECKPOST

Well good luck to you Lip and good luck to me too. I'll be meeting my prospective boss on tuesday for dinner along with the so-called brokers of the internship and I hope I come off well from that. There's nothing worse than convincing your boss that you're a retard on Day 1.

So the new year just arrived a few days ago and I'm sure everyone had awesomesauce plans on christmas eve. I actually went lanning with my army friends and we played L4D2 till just past midnight. After that we went to eat curry rice. I thought it was really enjoyable actually but then again I can be pretty easy to please sometimes. More like sometimes I prefer simple over complicated simply because complicated has too many strings attached to it. But I'm no angel. Sometimes I get very anal about certain things. Like for example when I was in army and I came home for dinner on Wednesday, I'd expect something nice. If it was boiled fish I'd be like OMFG. I mean home is a refuge man not some place where I eat shitty boiled fish. Pass the fried chicken or pork ribs or something haha. I can drive my mum up the wall just complaining about food sometimes. Hell we have western standoffs over food.

Ah but I digress. So what events in 2009 meant something to me:

1) My grandmas death. It was probably earth-shaking for the whole family, especially on my dad's side since my grandma held everyone together. Towards the end communication was breaking down a lot but I guess kisses and touch always conveyed meaning that didn't need to be put into words.

2) ORD - claimed back my freedom from the dark lords of middle earth

3) Holidays to HK and USA - I was fortunate enough to holiday with my friends and holiday with my family. Both were different but both were good.

4) Friendships in general - I made some good friends, caught up with others.

5) My relationship with my parents - My mum and I have gotten closer (I hope she thinks so too. It would be terrible if she did not reciprocate the feeling :|). I think she's still maturing in her older years and learning to give her children a lot more space. I give her credit for that. My dad's as idiosyncratic as ever and sometimes I feel like doing the people's elbow on him but other than that we get along fine. I can definitely see our relationship improving as I learn more about the financial world and property markets.

That's about it really. So what are my resolutions for 2010? I realise I make too many unrealistic goals so I'm just going to have 4 relatively achievable ones.

1) Work hard in uni and do well. I have not worked at max since PSLE so I'm gonna try to rediscover that spark. Throughout secondary and A levels my studying has been plagued by poor planning and distractions so I always got the feeling that I was stumbling towards the end-goal.

2) Get closer with my family. - Well especially when my sister and her boyfriend move over later this year (he is taking a PhD in geog at NUS).

3) Get a little bit spiritual - church is like the most boring activity of the week for me at the moment so I'll just try reading the bible a bit more and praying more regularly too. And maybe dropping fewer f bombs.

4) Lose weight.

Yep that settles it.

Well the new year has been pretty exciting so far. Yesterday I went to eat 4 seasons buffet with my parents ( new year resolution 4 fail) which was excellent. After that I walked around orchard before going home and then proceeding to sleep for 14 hours straight. My mum totally didn't bother to wake me up for anything. She was like "You needed to compensate for your sleep debt. Yur on holiday you can afford it -beams-". Oh yeah I've been having lots of dreams lately too. Like in America I constantly had dreams about getting pwned for A levels and JC exams and I always woke up relieved. During the 14 hour sleep I dreamt about some road trip.

Anyway I also got a new phone. I got an E72 from Nokia. I decided against the I-phone because I already had an I-touch and I also decided against the HTC Hero because a lot of people say Android has tremendous potential but at the moment is not ideal yet. Another overwhelming factor was that I have no confidence in touchscreen keyboards at the moment. The E72 qwerty keyboard was very attractive to me because I possess stubby banana fingers. All this points to one thing: I am camping for the google phone.

2010-01-03T09:29:00.003+08:00

LIPOST

Well I'm starting work tomorrow, just praying that everyone will be nice and it wont be TOOO boring. Mwahahaha.

Hope everyone had a good new year :D

My holiday season in 10 words:

lobster, dino, ORD, grandma, poker, carrot, AC130, (and because i have to keep this meaningful which i dont normally do) faith, hope, love.

Good times.

2009-12-31T00:12:00.004+08:00

PECKPOST

Well I guess one of the ironic perks of being a dentist is that you get tons of food on festive occasions from your colleagues. It's ridiculous really, the amount of stuff we've gotten. In fact it's killing me just to stay away from all the goodies. We have received several tins of calorie-bursting biscuits of different flavours and 3 whole cakes. One chocolate one from random place (which my mum used as my bday cake), one cheesecake from cedele and one chocolate one from NYDC. My dad was going bonkers because we got so much cake and you can't give dogs chocolate. I'm still holding my mum to her word that she'd get me a chocolate royale cake from goodwood park hotel. Later I guess.

Oh ya we got a dvd player from someone too. Random.

Check out this sick mash-up of 2009's top pop songs. It's excellent. It's like one big rave party

2009-12-29T15:31:00.020+08:00

PECKPOST

So what can I say about my US trip. I had a pretty damn good time actually. It's been quite a while since I've had a long holiday overseas (no thanks to NS. _|_ NS) and I've always wanted to visit the US so I was looking forward to it. Also, I was looking forward to not having to on my handphone for 2 weeks. I get pretty sms-phobic sometimes. Dono why but sometimes when I hear my phone ring im like FUCKARGHHH. Ah but thats not important. So where did I go in the US. I'll just break it down in order of of visitation:

1) Stanford - So my family and my aunts family landed at SF Airport. My sister and her boyfriend picked us up. We stayed at a motel which wasn't too bad. We also went to Costcos which is my idea of a great supermarket. The range and quantity of fresh and dried/packeted/bottled food is unbelievable. Like I can buy random pies off the rack and they taste a million times better than the stuff from NTUC.

OHHO we just stealin some apples

2) HOLLYWOOOOOOD - We pretty much acted like shameless tourists. We were taking pictures with all the stars (on the street pavements, that is :| ) and we also tried to photograph the big HOLLYWOOD sign. I think my dad's decision to bring his cumbersome long range lenses was validated for that 5 minutes. After that we went to Universal Studios which I absolutely loved. The way they create movie sets and special effects is just plain cool and ingenious. Like zomg I saw Mysteria Lane. We sat on all the major rides which didnt cause too much organ displacement but I still screamed through all of them. Simpsons was quite exciting for a simulator. The Mummy was pretty scary but there were no drops and it was quite short. The Jurassic Park ride had a steep slide into the water at the end and we had just eaten chinese fastfood from Panda Express so I can't say I felt excellent after. One thing that really killed me though was all the 3D stuff around. Really burnt my eyes. I cannot even imagine people watching Avatar in IMAX while wearing glasses like that.

Clint Eastwood's hands are massive. I think that's how he killed so many in Unforgiven.

3) Disneyland - Well a lot of people say that your childhood is not complete until you have gone to Disneyland. I concur 100%. This place is the shit man. It's just a world in itself where everyone smiles and you see churro stalls every 20 feet. We covered it in day because we wanted to do Adventure Park the next day. We did all the rides that we wanted to do and it was fun as hell. The good thing about Disneyland rides is that it's very family oriented while still maintaining a certain edginess and craziness so everyone went for nearly everything. Some of the highlights were Indiana Jones, Space Mountain, Splash Mountain (my clothes got DESTROYED here) and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. And if I may add, I trouced the entire family at Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters. I think I got like 40500. MUAHAHAHAHAA. MUAAHAHAHHAHA. We did some other random rides too like Alice in Wonderland and Nemo Submarine where half my family fell asleep in the submarine. My aunt wanted to watch the terribad 3D Show Honey! I Shrunk the Audience which didn't quite live up to its name because there was no audience to shrink in the first place. Oh yeah my sister later jio-ed me to go to Adventureland and have this kickass pineapple drink. It's pineapple juice with pineapple ice-cream and it was just so tasty and refreshing. Mmm -smacks lips-. We ended off with the parade on Main Street which was quite exciting - for a 2 year old child.

If you wore a poncho, you are wise.

4) California Adventure Park - Well Adventureland is something like an add-on to Disneyland. It's smaller but it has some pretty damn big rides. Like seriously rides that will rape jor ass. Like this beast called CALIFORNIA SCREAMIN. It is this mother big, superhyperfast rollercoaster with a ton of steep drops and a 360 circle of doom. I got pwned so hard on this. I was screaming like a banshee on roids. My uncle who sat it out said he could hear me screaming from below. I literally screamed "WAAAT THHHHHEEE FFFFFUUUUUUKKK" non-stop for the first 80% of the ride and by the last 20% I had descended into a slobbering mess of random swear words. I pretty much got served. The other one where I died was The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. When you go to the top, the doors open and you see the park, then the doors close and they drop you in the dark. It's just one of those OH SHIT rides because you don't know what's gonna happen. My cousin held my arm because he was afraid of the dark. I'm kinda glad he did.

I don't know if you can see, but I'm screaming like a little girl.

5) Las Vegas - Well some of the family had really high expectations that they could do a lot of stuff in Vegas but there's probably very little stuff you can do for free there. I quite liked it actually. It's a Sin City with tons of excess and I can see why people like to come here to let loose. The city's an animal. Probably the highlight was the Bellagio Fountains display. There was one choregraphed display in particular that was ridiculously awe-inspiring and hilarious. It was set to the music of GOD BLESS THE USA. You can feel the over-the-top patriotism conveyed THROUGH the fountain. It's like during the closing lines the height of the fountain was literally

GOD..... BLESS...... THE..... USAAAAAA

pwning my mum at the pyramid. She'll be well pleased.

6) Grand Canyon - Well there had been a bit of tension during the trip - it's natural when you have so many people but I think everything dissipated when we got to the Grand Canyon. It's majestic beyond words and I was quite content to just stand there quietly and look at it for 10 minutes. Haha it's sort of like "Omg? how can we quarrel with all this beauty in front of us". My mum said visiting the Grand Canyon was one of her lifelong dreams so I'm glad she fulfilled it

Oh yeah showin some love. Sis' boyfriend btw, not some random guy.

My mum's viking hat sure is distracting

7) Sedona - We stayed in Sedona for a night and the next morning and honestly I wasn't too amazed by the place. There's a lot of rock formations but I didn't really like it because it's very deserty and dry. We also visited a catholic church built into rock which was quite cool but they had some stuff made with twigs in the church and immediately I thought of the Blair Witch Project :X. Hoho but I do remember during the night we went to this Chinese restaurant owned and run by Malaysians. It was super funny because there was a sort of mini-celebration simply over the fact that the staff had finally met some of their Malaysian bretheren (my mum and my aunts family). The convo went something like this in Hokkien:

- cook walks out-

My dad: Hey you're Malaysian too is it.
Cook: Hey hi yeah I am.
My uncle: Hey we're Malaysian too.
Cook: YOU'RE MALAYSIAN? From where from where (anticipation building)
Mum: Perak
Aunt: Ya Perak.
Cook: PERAK? IM ALSO FROM PERAK. OOOOOHH! Which district which district??????
Aunt: Telok Intan
Cook: TELOK INTAN? IM FROM IPOH. HAHHAAHHAAHA OMGWTH WE'RE LIKE FAMILLLLY.
All: OMGWTH YA WE ARE HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHHAH!
Cook: HAHAHAHAHAHA. TOO AWESOME! HOWS THE FOOD HOWS THE FOOD
Uncle: TASTES LIKE REAL MALAYSIAN FOOD. ITS EXCELLENT.
Cook: HAHAHAHAHAH GOOD GOOD!

LOLOL It was crazy man. They were bonding for like 3 minutes just over geographical affinity. They were laughing as racuously as I make them out to be in the convo.

I'm no romantic but Lord knows I try

8) CAR CRASH OF DOOM. Well on the way back from Sedona to Vegas (we were going to watch a show), we got into an accident which could have been damn near catastrophic. Essentially right after my sister made a turn into a road and had started speeding up her rear tyre exploded. I don't mean punctured. I mean EXPLODED like BOOM. The car swivelled hard and then proceeded to do a 1440 DEGREE SPIN (OMG TONEY HAWK ONLY DOES 900) into the sand by the roadside and up a sloped path on elevated ground. Amazingly no one was hurt and only the tyres were damaged. In the aftermath. if the car had gone ANYWHERE else someone would probably have died or something. So that means I could have died haha. When we spun apparently someone saw it and already called the cops. Then some friendly trucker dude who looked like Jesus came to our aid to make sure we're fine. He was like "oh I've seen a lottta crashes like this in my life. You guys are preeetty lucky". The policeman was like "You guys really need to thank you're angels tonight because if you had crashed into that signboard or the rocks it would have been over". So yeah. Hot Damn. We're alive.

i) Pre Accident

ii) Tyre explosion- I was in the front with my sister btw

iii) Car does a spinarooney

iv) Post-accident situation analysis

Tyre of fail

9) Yosemite. Lol so after getting ALL 4 of my sister's tyres replaced we still went on to Yosemite where we saw lots of mountains and had an epic snowball fight where my sister put a snowball down my pants. I was getting quad-teamed so don't blame me.

Even when the odds are stacked against me, I still find time to pwn my mum

10) San Francisco was OK for me. I really enjoyed Fisherman's Wharf and Ghirardelli Square but other than that it was OK. People were getting tired by this time I think.

Chilling at the Golden Gate Bridge

And after that the next day we flew home. So yeah that was the US trip. While we still ate a lot of chinese food during the trip to cater to the older people there was a lot of other foods that I tried and loved like:

- Roscoes Waffles and Chicken. Eat some chiken then eat some waffles and syrup. Surest route to cardiac arrest
-Teriyaki Meatballs from Costcos
- Churros in Disneyland. It's like sweet You Tiao
-Giant Turkey leg in Adventureland
- Mexican Food. We ate this once and I loved the burritos. There was one with French Fries and beef and cheese inside and it was heavenly
- Hawaiian L and L. Hawaiian fast food is awesome. It's sort of like Japanese, Western and Island food mixed all together.
- Diner food in general. Diner food is comfort food. Omelettes, waffles, apple pies, ice cream, fried stuff and chips. Mmm.
- Calamari from Fisherman's Wharf

So overall my experience in the US was really great and unforgettable. Amongst other things, I got to see my sister again which is always nice. Also I got to know her boyfriend a little better. He's a really nice smart guy, a real steady guy whose personality complements my sister's and I think during this trip he left a very favourable impression on my family. We 3 drank quite a bit of beer together too.

Finally yesterday was my birthday. Well turning 20 is no biggie and birthdays in my household are turning out to be a bit of a non-event so it was a quiet day around the house. My cheapskate mum asked me to use a cake that someone else gave to us as my birthday cake. I was like wtf? Birthdays are so not the time to be practical. But they said they'd buy me another one soon so we just used some banana cake haha. They also gave me some cash as a gift. Cash is always good.

2009-12-28T03:38:00.002+08:00

I am back from USA. Firstly, it was enjoyable and awesome for a variety of reasons. Secondly I NEARLY DIED. K more tomorrow.

2009-12-16T00:54:00.002+08:00

WOOOOT. I like disneyland. And universal studios. And costco. And roscoes. I like a lot of things in America.

2009-12-11T19:52:00.002+08:00

Today was exciting! Both in a bad and good way :d

Was woken at roughly 6am by my dad saying that my 'grandma had a heart attack' (mums side), and that we had to rush to the hospital. Given that i slept at 2, i was in the state where you know you really shouldnt be doing anything except sleeping as things might get dangerous. Liek you might trip and fall down the stairs. Or blind yourself with a toothbrush etc.

But anyway we went, now she's in the ICU apparently the idiots (since none of you work in the orthopaedic department in SGH, i hope your parents dont too) had no idea what to do in event of a heart attack, cuz all theyre used to is like bandaging legs and bringing elderly for therapy. I know they probably do an excellent job at that, but whats the use of becoming a DOCTOR or a NURSE and the most basic need crops up ie SAVING A LIFE and you just jack around fumbling with tubes and wires you've learned about in NUS but havent actually foreseen yourself using. I'm no doctor and i'm not sure how it goes, but i find it ironic that a ward that deals specifically with weak elderly suffering injuries or ailments can fail so terribly. I was actually there when 4 nurses utterly FAILED at working the respirator.

So anyway my grandma i think spent 3-4 hours since her heart attack and actually getting on the respirator, (3am heart attack, 7am respirator). Doesn't need a doctor to figure out how messed up that is.

Anyway now she's stable in the ICU so thank God, and i hope she pulls through this okay. Just got to pray alot i guess!

Unhappy things aside, after that was baking marathon (ok not really) at tanneh's place! We ambitiously set out to make 4 things - special choco chip cookies, xmas cookies with weird sugar, carrot cake and strawberry cheesecake. The chocochip cookies surprisingly turned out really good if i may say so myself, with a melt in yuor mouth texture that was ooooooooooo. I think it had to do with the fact that we put 300000 grams of butter in the dough. :D

The strawberry cheesecake also turned out pretty good, i maintain my stand that a close to 1cm thick crust of digestive biscuits + butter + other unhealthy stuff was TOO MUCH but she likes the crust most so oh well. DIdnt have a blender so had to hand pound the strawberries to a pulp, which i enjoyed. Mixed it in with the cheese and made pretty swirly patterns! Not bad considering our first cheesecake attempt was... rofl

Anyway i was like I LOVE CARROT CAKE so we decided to make it. Hardest part was probably grating the carrots T_T rest was just like, mix everything together in a big bowl and pour it out in a pan and bake it. Wish i took a picture of the mixture though it really looked like puke cake mix HAHA. We forgot to seive the flour and all the other powders so had to go on a crusade to crush all the little irritating lumps of death. Again it turned out pretty good, too much icing though and too little nuts.

XMAS COOKIES FAILED I HATE CRAPPY DOUGH THAT DOESNT DO WHAT IT IS SUPPOSED TO DO. oh well the dough sits in the fridge, and she has kindly offered to continue with them when theyre the correct texture.

SO yup that was today my fingers smell of dough yuck.

2009-12-11T00:56:00.002+08:00

So from the 4th to 8th the geog boys (excluding AL) went to HK for a holiday. I thought it was awesome! It's been a long time since I've had so much fun. Some of the places we visited were a little hit and miss but the company made it all good.

Day 1 - JETSTAR BLOWS. I slept through the whole flight. After that we went to The Peak which is one of the highest points in HK. The view was good but it was a little obscured by all the smog. After that we went to the Peak shopping malls and decided we were cheapskate enough not to pay money to enter Mdm Tussauds. Instead we posed for free with the Bruce Lee wax figure outside the museum. We then went to some atas mall. We were eager to try this restaurant which sold congee and dim sum but I guess the congee must be some 7 star abalone scallop black truffle congee coz the prices were redonkulous. We ended up at some sandwich shop and I had a croissont for dinner -__-.

We then took a ferry to the other side of the island to catch the building light show which is held every night. It was kinda cool...for like 10 seconds? Lol the buildings were just lighting up and putting out some lasers to bad music. I just dont see the allure (my mum told me it was MUST SEE. gah). But after that suddenly this fleet of lit junks started floating across the river and we thought it was part of the light show and xy and me were saying oh my man the daily budget for this show must be dam godlike. Turns out we damn dumb it was the rehearsal for the opening for the East Asian Games. We saw Andy Lau lip-synching live too. He had a violinist next to him and I swear she was violin-synching with the music. The Avenue of Stars was actually nothing to shout about but we were finding all sorts of interesting trash to talk about it. Like how Jet Li's handprints like small child. That was Day 1. We walked pretty damn far. I now know how the (Israelites felt in the desert) / (40 X 365)

Day 2 - Ocean Park was a BLAST. There were tons of things to do and I sat on my first roller coaster ever! We started off slow and easy. We visited some cute pandas and some damn ugly goldfish, and then wasted tons of money playing stupid games. Like throwing the ball in the monkeys mouth and basketball hoops. Even though we sucked it was damn fun though. Later on we came back for seconds. XY and wally used their sick M16 skills to win some puny prize at the nerf gun store. Then we proceeded to waste HK$50 on 45 rings to throw on a square patch of bottles. It was fricking hilarious. After a few cautious throws we realised how rapage hard it was so we just spammed like the remaining 40 in 1 minute. And we DIDNT GET A SINGLE ONE around the bottles. All the spectators were like omg -epiphany- this game is impossible.

Later on we took a cable car to the adult side of the park. Lawl we got our clothes wasted at some water ride, then got totally raped at some roller coaster. It was my first roller coaster ever and I was absolutely petrified. I was cursing throughout the whole ride. I was like FUK FUK FUK FUK FUK FUK AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH and wally was like AH AH AH OH NO AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. After that we tried the viking ship of doom and basically everyone on the ship screamed till they literally ran out of scream. Of course my stamina was unsurpassed and I screamed from start to finish even though I was in the middle of the viking ship. Rayner said no kik. The abyss was probably the worse ride in the park. It was like changi airport control tower with a 50m drop to the bottom. However XY postulated that it simulates jumping from a building and might trigger a heart attack in any of us. It was a perfectly rational reason not to go on it. We were juz RARING to go but we had to think of our health jahaha.

Towards the end of the day we went to Stanley Market. I loved this place so much. It's like a mixture of Clarke Quay and Holland Village near the sea and the ambience just makes you feel so comfortable. It has those quaint little shops combined with hip eateries and bars. Needless to say there were tons of expats hanging out. After that I think we went to search for this mango dessert that smoot recommended highly. It was absolutely godly divine. It's made up of mango ice-cream, mango pudding, mango juice and mango slices. That stuff rejuvenated my jellylegs and restored my mojo.

Day 3 - This was probably the most boring day of the trip. We went shopping at City Gate Mall and found out that despite being an outlet mall, most prices were on par with that of Orchard Road. Then again a 30% discount on clothing at Armani Exchange or Burberry would still blow a Hiroshima-like crater in my pocket. Probably blow my leg off. Esprit was one one of the few shops with good deals and wally obliged by going on a fitting room rampage. After that we went to somemore shopping centres before ending the day at the same mango place. Gosh damn I do love mangoes.

Day 4 - MACAU was great though our mood and photographs were slightly tampered by the rainy weather. Macau has a really rustic, historical feel to it although some parts are gentrified and don't look quite as authentic. We visited a few historical buildings and places - many of them are churches. We also went to The Ruins of St Paul's which is super famous. It's just the facade of a church about a metre or two in thickness. The rest of the church was burnt in a fire. Clearly the developers were damn cunning and are probably now burning in hell. The highlight of the day however was at the Venetian, which is one of the most crazy, unbelievably opulent hotels ever. We spent a long time at the casino just watching high rollers throw away thousands of HK dollars. It's a bit surreal and ridiculous really. They just replace their bets like they don't mean anything. Some make a lot of noise but others are silent, observant and nonchalant. Then we saw the fake sky and gondolas. Reality got suspended for a bit.

Overall I thought it was a great trip. The HK people aren't exactly the warmest but you know they go about their ways quickly and efficiently and you can't really criticise them for it. The pace of the city is pretty damn fast. It's like we would be the only people actually standing still on the travelator. The city looks and feels laissez faire. I enjoyed the trash-talking, the talk cock sessions, the serious discussions and all the jokes that were cracked. I hope this isn't the last of the geog boys though. We'll be going our separate ways next year to different unis and different countries with different aims and expectations. Hopefully our friendships will stand the test of time. Hmm hope we'll all be rich :D

GOING USA FROM 11-28th. PEACE

2009-12-03T00:02:00.003+08:00

PECKPOST

Well today my mum took half day leave so we went out to eat some lunch at Big D's Grillz at Holland Drive. The last time we ate the kurobuta pork and wagyu beef it was really really good. This time we only ordered the pork since the beef prices have really shot up somewhat. The pork came out about half just right and half overcooked I think. So while some mouthfuls were just gorgeous others were slightly tough. Me mum and I are just damn fussy about overcooked shit. Well probably you would be too if you paid 28 bucks for it. I think it's because Big D himself didn't cook it. He's outsourced the cooking to some other cooks. Even though the quality was compromised a bit it was still really enjoyable.

Speaking of food I've been trying to lose weight in the past few weeks. While I do admit that I'd probably look good slimmer (Imo Im not really ugly. I think -_-) the main reason is for my physical and mental health. I heard stuff about fitter people being less likely to fall asleep, being more focused and with more mental stamina. I'm a little paranoid about that because those were my specific problems during JC and A levels. And of course the usual obvious hypertension, heart attack and the works. My mum is constantly telling me there's no point in having money if you can't enjoy it coz you have poor health.

So yeah I've been trying to lose weight and at times it really gets damn fucking hard to endure. I've been running, taking public transport more (so I walk more) and really cutting down on my food intake. I swear the last the part is raping my ass so bad. It's like snuffing the light out of my life. I've cut down tons of carbs, sweet fatty stuff, snacks and sweet drinks. To put things in context I used to drink sunkist orange juice EVERY meal lolol and snack like a machine. It's like 2 days ago my mum bought this large packet of assorted Marks and Spence biskits and it's a damn war just preventing myself from taking one. Why I wouldn't even take one? Coz if I take one I'll eat like 20 after that. Also the other day I was in M and S looking for a healthier alternative. Their digestive biscuits are 300 CALORIES EACH. SONOFABETCH. 6 of those makes up my recommended intake for the day? So how much worse are those assorted biatch biskits. Woot ok rant over.

Going to HK with the geog boys day after next. Should be great. After that going US. Good luck and many pities to me trying to lose weight.

2009-11-30T20:15:00.007+08:00

PECKPOST

Well on Saturday I went out with zh and libun in our usual meetup every few months to re-celebrate all the beautiful places in Singapore. We watched Ninja Assassin which was pretty damn awesome.

rains body is pretty damn awesome too.

It's definitely a guy-guy kinda show with a lot of stylized violence and excellent choreography. I don't expect most girls to like this. It's kinda like expecting guys to dig The Notebook or The Devil Wears Prada. But it's one of the underrated action flicks of the year. I mean wtf man dem ninjas blend in the shadows. THEY ARE ONE WITH THE DARK. And rain really looks the part. You can sort of feel the physical effort in his performance. It's epic.

On another note wally and I have cooked a few times at my house since we ORDed. I initially wanted to put up pictures but I'm lazy to find the cable so that'll have to wait. Out of the 4 times we've cooked, one has turned out not so well, 2 of them not bad and 1 mind-blowingly tasty. It's a useful skill to acquire I guess though I admit sometimes my maid is doing some of the chopping.

Today I tried out L4D2 with one of my army friends. It's just an awesome party game. Now you can hold melee weapons and normal weapons at the same time and there are more types of messed up monsters to deal with. There's nothing more satisfying than taking an axe or katana and slicing down line after line of zombie attacks. The chainsaw is by far the most imbalanced weapon in the game but it has limited battery so you don't get it too often. I basically sawed the witch to death which is precisely how they should die.

From the first mission you can tell Valve has put a little more thought into the co-op of the game. There's a tactical dimension to it now. But if you ask me if I'm gonna buy this game, the answer is probably not. Things aren't fun anymore if you take it too seriously (well logically speaking ppl who buy the game aim to get really good at it, have proper tactics to beat expert mode etc.). It's only fun when shit happens all over the place and the tank stomps all over everyone and people are screaming and going batshit in the LAN shop because they're not sure whats happening. I dropped the f-bomb so many times today I felt guilty after.

After that I went home to run. I ran longer today coz zh said I should run at least 30 minutes. Felt good.

2009-11-29T13:18:00.002+08:00

LIPPOST

Im off to australia to eat me some kangaroos!

Last time i was there i drove over one! Although it was already dead!

:D!

On a more serious note have an interview on monday for a 6 month job at PWC. Good time to farm some cash and get some experience hope they dont pay me too little. Im nearly able to book my driving test woohoo hope i pass the first time so i dont look like a loser :(.

On yet another note peck looks like a loser when i put a bullet through his head using my trusty thermal scope. twice. in a row.

2009-11-26T01:12:00.004+08:00

So today I met up with the geog boys for lunch. It was great to see all of them again and to talk about stuff with army finally out of the picture. AL couldn't stay for long because he's interning somewhere but the rest of us went to island creamery for dessert. We talked about too many things to describe really, ranging from awesomely banal to intellectual and serious. And for some reason wally asked the staff to microwave the tub of ice-cream we ordered. By the time we got to the bottom half it had become a sort of decadent broth. Thx wally.

Also Rayna conveniently reserved some seats for his concert next week just before we go to HK. While I've never been a fan or connoisseur of classical music I don't mind filling up comfy seats in an air-con atmosphere for 5 bucks while still giving a friend a vote of support. My track record for sleeping in these types of concerts is pretty enviable. Anyone remember 120th Mozart Anniversary? Because I don't I wuz asleep.

Well when I got home it was already about 7 (we talked for hell long). I didn't feel that hungry then so I ran on the treadmill while watching the replay of fed-murray. After which I decided to mind-rape myself by watching Silent Hill. Well usually I don't watch horror flicks because honestly they scare me shitless but I've always liked the design for Pyramid Head in Silent Hill so I watched anyways. Hmm lets just say I felt spiritually disturbed and deleted it soon after.

2009-11-25T03:07:00.004+08:00

Mm so here I am waiting for the Inter Barca game. It's a big game. If Inter win they could knock Barca out of the champs league which would be sensational. If they draw everyone will say fair result, and if they lose everyone will say whats new. Pretty much the first 20 minutes will tell me the direction the match is headed towards.

Anyway I took my first driving lesson today. I'm taking 3A aka Auto aka I HAVE NO SHAME. It's just plain easier for psychomotor-disabled people like me and my dad also recommended auto because he hasn't had the need to drive a manual in like 10 years? I was reading an online car forum which had erupted into a heated and unintentionally hilarious debate about whether men who take 3A instead of manual are pussies and fail in life. The MCPs really came out in full force that time.

I gotta say for me it's 20% pussying out (as in, I automatically assumed I would find it impossibly difficult) and 80% a logical cost-benefit analysis. But then again one neutral guy made the point that girls don't really care if you drive 3A, they care whether you actually have a ride and what ride. And they would look at your probably financial status rather than your driving license. Fair point I thought. But I don't have girls, money or a ride so this fair point does not apply to me. Touche.

Anyway back to the driving lesson. It was fine really. I think the old man knows what he's doing even though I get a sense that sometimes he's making me go through the motion.

Update the next day: Inter lost. FML.

2009-11-20T01:32:00.004+08:00

Twilight wasn't too bad ya know? As in the plot is pretty thin but even I got momentarily sucked into the romance between the main leads. And if I can get sucked in, then how much easier was it for the millions of female teen romantics to get sucked into the Robert Pattison vortex? Ah I now understand the hype.

2009-11-17T22:39:00.005+08:00

PECKPOST

So yeah. I caved in and bought modern warfare 2. All that shit 1 week ago about being reluctant only applied when I was not in the presence of the game. I saw it at Plaza Sing and my mind got raped immediately. It is some voodoo shit man. Well truth is I've been DYING to play the game and my loyalty to the pro-ded server PC community eroded like a danish butter cookie soaked in milk in the wake of the game's release. Imma traitor I know. Im tainted. Don't touch me yull get my disease.

Anyway Lip and I went to Sim Lim today to look at new phones. I had narrowed it down to 2 options - that being the Nokia N72 or the HTC Hero so I was looking for working models that I could try out. The Nokia N72 looks slick and the interface is really friendly but I still have reservations about the qwerty keyboard. My fingers are damn fat (like F A T) so small keys aren't best suited for me. Like if I type hi on that phone it'll probably come out as ghjuio. There was no HTC hero to sample on the spot and the bottom part looked pretty ugly so I took it off my list. So now I'm thinking whether to buy the E72 now or camp till first quarter of 2010 to see what new models come out. I'm leaning towards the former since my old phone currently makes me suffer much indignity. After that Lip came over to play some mf2. I think he played till his brain stem got fried.

2009-11-15T11:17:00.002+08:00

LIPPOST

Oh wow its back time to hijack it again! Grats to peck for ORD mine's coming in.... exactly 1 month-1day! Although i'm clearing leave already so it doesn't really make much of a difference. Yea i'm one of those that "go batshit" when i have so much time. Like my sis who's finished her exams now she claims all she does is "wander around the house like a zombie". I too kinda feel like the L4D zombie before i'm aggroed by 4 pesky survivors wanting to blow my head of. Just sort of ... flopping around.

But yea at least got a few books (does anyone else think slaughterhouse-5 is A LITTLE TOO WEIRD) to occupy myself with (peck u have to return me my krugman one). And a new phone which i can use to update this blog with gasp. 2 years of non colour, half-band, non camera 0.2 inch screen phones really set me behind in terms of technology so now with my new e71 im like oo i can do this.

anyway i realised 2 years of army has given me a PITIFUL amount of moolah so like peck next year will get a job to farm some cash before i head off to UK.

and since im lazy to give you a list ill put it here, you'll probably check this more than go online. I command you to locate the following blurays when you go to the US:

Rattle and Hum - U2
The Police Certifiable - .... The Police
Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood Live at Madison Sq Garden
Bring on the Night - Sting
Something to be Tour live at Red Rocks - Rob Thomas

Nothing should be above 25 USD but i'll give yo more details before you fly. Thanx! In return i offer you free viewing of the abovementioned concerts when you get back dis time you bring the nachos.

2009-11-14T23:04:00.003+08:00

Woot yesterday I finally watched the last film in the Park Chan Wook 'Vengeance' trilogy Sympathy for Lady Vengeance. While I don't think it came close to being as awesomely unpredictable as Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance or as mind-feckingly intense as Old Boy, I suppose it was the most arty farty of the 3. Which means I didn't like it as much. Also the pro/antagonist was played by that actress from Jewel in the Palace. I..I just can't look at her without picturing her chopping some herbs or something.

2009-11-12T21:07:00.004+08:00

Hmm something isn't right with the world. I always thought my mum was the one consumed by korean drama serials. She was the moth being drawn towards the flame. Then she decided to pull my dad down this slippery slope with her. Well played mum, well played.

Let me give you a little bit of info about my dads background (pre korean serial):

- He sleeps at 9, max 10 every night
- His favourite movie star is steven segal, and distant second russell crowe
- He has dabbled in korean drama before, but never on a regular basis. There was once he found a particular one about a woman and her sewing factory particularly compelling but that's an aberration.

Then this came along:

If I'm not wrong this smash korean hit show East of Eden was showing every Saturday night (oh yeah I remember now. That's coz I couldn' watch any EPL. My dad wouldn't even agree to tape the show. He nided to watch East of Eden).

Then he bought the entire serial from a dvd shop.

The shit really hit the fan last week. My dad and mum were averaging SIX to SEVEN 1 hour episodes a night EVERY NIGHT. Average ending time? 2 to 3 AM. It's like I'm playing COD4 at 1.30 am and suddenly my mum calls me from downstairs and asks me if I want some maggi. How surreal is that?

Turns out my dad is a korean drama tank and East of Eden episodes are his steroids. It's a vicious cycle of doom. The man has no limits and he is on roid rage!! He's been the one telling my mum to tank with him. It's like my mum will be like "it's 1 am raymond tomorrow morning I nid to do an IMPLANTT AT SGHHH!!" and he'll be like "one more" and my mum will fall for his old school charms and acquiesce.

Sunday: My mum said she felt like collapsing LOL. Said now she knew how people could die from gaming. I was like mum dat has no link.

Tuesday this week: They KOed at 8pm

Wednesday: They went out for dinner, came back and hijacked my highly anticipated viewing of Step Up 2: The Streets

Well I think they'll be nearing the end of the series soon. I'm glad that they've found something in common that they both enjoy or could enjoy well into their retirement. But other than that I am highly disturbed and feel that we should purchase another TV effective immediately (we have only one, thats not right).

2009-11-09T22:06:00.005+08:00

PECKPOST

It feels great to ORD. Some people really go batshit when they get their freedom back but for me it was more like a load-off-your-chest kind of feeling. Army has been a useful, colourful but ultimately arduous experience. It tires you and makes you listless. I think 'wasted' is the appropriate adjective haha.

Then again I survived 22 months! And I think I'm better for it. I made lots of great friends and had a good boss. I met a lot of different people that I hadn't been exposed to before. It was a well needed mental break from the burnout that was A levels (albeit a damn fugging long one). Over time my priorities also sorted themselves out - haha that generally that happens when life sort of forges ahead without you. My relationship with my parents improved too. I'm not a delinquent by any measure but without the stress and responsibilities of school you really got more time to just talk and do stuff with them. My mum and I have the most frivolous conversations sometimes. Army also pushed my limits of tolerance and exhaustion. I think I'm calmer when put in times of immense stress. I've also become even more chilled out (if I could get any more chilled out, that is)

Then again this doesn't distract from the fact that I think it's been a waste of my time and life. The time to character-building ratio is low while the brain retardom to time scale is not surprisingly high. A lot of the time you're just simplifying yourself to get your point across to regulars who are stupid, but yet arrogant and completely self-assured. Army politics sorta mirror the real world (to what extent I don't know). It's frustrating because everyone needs to suck thumb no matter what shit goes down and some of the time the direction and source of the shit is arbitrary. I've also grown distant from a lot of my older friends, especially the girls and of course there's the feeling of being left behind as others enter uni and you are stuck in this 2 year limbo. These are some of my regrets and disappointments. They do make you slightly jaded.

Lol enough rumination on the topic. There's too much to put into words. Or more like I'm lazy to think or recount them. I got my pre uni schedule roughly planned out already

Now till 3 Dec: Read some shit, get my brain cranking. Watch some movies. Cook shit with Wally and catch up with friends. I'm still considering buying COD Modern Warfare 2 though I'm on the reluctant side. Infinity Ward really massacred the game for PC multiplayer by taking away dedicated servers. It's also 80 bucks, which is a ripoff. I might give it a pass, though before that I might unleash a heart-wrenching wail of anguish and cry like a baby. -teary eyes-

Dec 4 - Dec 8 - I'm going HK with the geog boys cept AL because AL is a maggotron who pangseh us coz he needs to go to some conference in France where he will learn how to catch criminals and crackdown on life in general. Still should be fun. IN FACT SHD BE MORE FUN WITHOUT AL.

Dec 9-10 - Uh I don't know.

Dec 11-28 - I'll be going to USA with my mum and dad as well as my aunts family. My sis and her boyfriend have offered to drive us around (damn gracious of them) so we'll be going to quite a few places like Disneyland, Grand Canyon, Las Vegas etc. I'm pretty excited about this trip because firstly, I get to see my sis again and secondly, I've never been to US, and thirdly I haven't gone on a big, long holiday in a faraway land for a long time. Then again the budget is tight so we'll probably eat like hotdogs and burgers everyday. Mmm ang moh food. Me favourite.

From Jan to roughly March or April I'll be going on internship at some accountancy firm. I don't know what to expect of it and I hope they don't expect anything of me coz I am an accounting noobhead. Then from then on I'll enter uni for early semester.

There are other side things that I want to accomplish in that time, namely:

- Retrieve my brain from the abyss

- Learn Hokkien. Nothing feels right when everyone around you can speak and converse in it and you can't. It makes me feel like homg I have lost my roots :( Ken I actually call myself a real chinese? :(

- Refine my language. I really got to tone the vulgarities down. I sorta went out of control in the last 3 months of NS and I was really throwing out the f-bombs. Not cool.

- Get spiritual. I'll try on this. No guarantees. Apparently sometime earlier in a moment of weakness I told my mum I'd get closer to God after ORD. Time to pay my dues.

- Driving lessons. I'm not crazy about this even though my parents said I could have a car (1st hand or 5th hand I don't know) but if I have time I'll schedule it in, maybe on the weekends.

- Get marginally fit. I'm getting pwned pretty badly atm. My body is stiffening up like a corpse after working out.

Man I'm done here for the day. It's late and I'm going to sleep. I'll just post up this vid of Aziz Ansari on Letterman talking about Kanye West and Jay Z. Hilarious.

Aziz Ansari on Letterman from Aziz Ansari

2009-04-15T22:34:00.000+08:00

Woot haven't been blogging at all lately. I suppose it'll come alive after I ORD.

2009-03-26T20:04:00.000+08:00

Ah a lot has happened over the past week.

Firstly, my family decided to put Sandy down. My mum and dad brought him to the vet and he passed away quite peacefully. Both my parents were quite sad. I don't know if the other two dogs noticed his absence... they seemed pretty indifferent actually :/

And last Saturday my Ama had a big bash at a restaurant for her 98th birthday. Damn she's old! As the ancient matriarch of the family she has tons of grandchildren and great-grandchildren and when they all come forward to greet her and kiss her she loves the attention . All was good..or so we thought. The day after my mum noticed she was running a fever and wasn't moving so well so we brought her to A & E. Turns out she had a few ongoing infections. I'd say there was too much hot blood in those frail veins. But anyways she's fine now.

Ah and just this week was my branch cohesion. It was pretty fun and interesting. Definitely more than your average outing. We're something like the organizers of this years tiger trail so thats prettty sick. It owns to be the bitch of the division -_-.

Anyway I've been checking out lots of movies over the last 2 weeks. I watched

1) Kung Fu Panda - One of the better animated movies I've seen. Not on the level of Pixar or Shrek 1 and 2 but still very entertaining.

2) Ironman (again) - Love the slick coolness of the show though I maintain that the villain is a little weak.

3) Gran Torino - I really enjoyed this one. Clint Eastwood's chemistry with the Vietnamese boy is really good and the former's portrayal of a jaded, unhappy war vet who unexpectedly gets drawn to the path of redemption is top-notch. The supporting cast could have put in better performances but Clint Eastwood is enough for me. Clearly the ending took some reference from Unforgiven.

4) Cinema Paradiso - I liked this movie a lot. The story of a boy's relationship with his mentor and their collective love of film. A lot of movies are idealized and are not a reflection of life but still these ideals are beautiful.

5) Crimson Tide - I have never actually watched this movie in its entirety but boy it's one of the best action thrillers I've ever seen. Gene Hackman and Denzel Washington play off each other so well and this is the most suspense I've ever felt in a movie. The ending is slightly predictable but Damn the movie is still good.

6) Donnie Brasco - Some of the mafia jargon here really left me bewildered but I really liked it because it shows the less glamorous, gung-ho side of the mafia. It's nice to see Al Pacino not shout and rant.

7) Apocalypse Now: Redux - This was pretty good until the French plantation scene. At that point it became awfully teduous and plain fucked-up boring. My mum and I fell asleep when they actually reached the Colonel's self-made "civilization". We tried to see ending again the next day, we fell asleep again lol. Well up to the plantation part it really showed the damage and craziness of war. Robert Duvall owns as the surfer commander.

2009-03-07T21:14:00.000+08:00

Well I watched Watchmen with wally last night and it was an absolute visual feast. A lot of credit has to go to Zack Snyder for staying faithful to the book. The ending was slightly different and at first I was commenting to wally that it was a little hollywood the way things were so well wrapped up. But on second thoughts, it still captured the essence of the novel in quite a smart way. The ending in the novel also might not have come out so well on the silver screen. It might have been a little ridiculous.

I don't think it was as enjoyable as TDK or LOTR but it certainly was an unbelievable experience. It was a damn absorbing visual orgasm that makes you think freaking hard. The price of peace, the concept of god, the superhero, nuclear war, the nature of life... so many things. At the same time however, I think that those that have not read the graphic novel are going to be overwhelmed and mildly confused by it all. It's not a conventional superhero hero movie and neither is it easy to follow. It's heavily plot-driven and filled with flashbacks and dialogues saturated with detail which the viewer is expected to piece together himself.

Acting wise, Jackie Earle Haley(Rorschach) really stole the show with his twisted, angry (at times sad) performance. The character is already damn cool with his no holds barred, no-compromise attitude but Haley did all that and then made him more sympathetic and less "black and white" than he's made out to be in the novel. Billy Crudup (Dr. Manhattan) did well to portray that genuine detachedness while still coming across as fascinating. The Comedian was pretty badass, Ozymandias was ok and Silk Spectre was by far the worst.

Ah in other news my oldest dog Sandy is quite close to dying. He's about 13 or 14 years old now and quite clearly, he's going to go soon. He can hardly stand up nowadays and when he gets up he can't even walk without flopping down after a few steps. My mum suspects he had a stroke. He can't even get up to take a shit and ends up in his own urine and faeces. It's kinda tragic and painful to see him like that so my parents have been considering putting him down. Personally for me I've never been that close to Sandy. When he was first bought I was only about 7 years old so I never really forged a significant bond with him at the start. It's harder when you try after a few years. He and my dad definitely shared a much tighter bond. I'm a lot closer to Pete and Eddie so if either of those two die, I'll be devastated. But Sandy... I'll probably just be sad.

2009-03-06T01:08:00.000+08:00

I just watched this Korean gangster movie called A Bittersweet Life. It was really good.

I've also watched Stepbrothers, Journey to the Centre of the Earth, Mongol and Shoot Em Up this week. Stepbrothers was pretty funny, JTTCOTE actually exceeded my expectations, Mongol was very interesting and cool. Shoot Em Up is exactly what the title says. It kicks royal ass.

Feels great to be on off.

2009-02-22T19:58:00.000+08:00

This week was really tiring. After activation yesterday I got home by 1. So damn stoned.

2009-02-13T20:19:00.000+08:00

What the hell? The Wrestler is R-21. 3 months I've been waiting for it and when it comes out I can't watch it. I'm hurting man. Seriously the censorship board people are assholes. Crummy douche bags!!!

2009-02-04T21:37:00.000+08:00

David After Dentist

GI Joe SuperBowl Slot

TRANSFORMERS Superbowl Slot

2009-01-29T21:37:00.000+08:00

Holy moly I just watched some videos of this boy singing group Libera recommended by my sister. It is IMBA! Unbroken pure angelic voices are just teh antidote for my troubled soul.

Sanctus by Libera (live version). Watch this one and look out for the soprano boy who sounds like he has a nightingale in his diaphragm.

Sanctus by Libera (high quality recording). This is fabulous. Sounds better than the live one.

Adoramus by Libera. This is a more contemporary recording that sounds like Enya but still BLOWS ME AWAY.

This is another really nice one called Love and Mercy. It's a cover of the Beach Boys

2009-01-27T08:03:00.001+08:00

Well I'm back from New Zealand and it was a pretty cool experience. The NZ army food was pretty imba. Their budget is something like $15 a meal because it's a sign-on army and every 2 days you get to eat lamb or beef. Night snack is a bit like a buffet too. The weather was another story though. It's awesome in the day and pretty treacherous at night. Definitely one of the worse experiences I've had sleeping outfield. The wind was blowing so hard and the temperatures were sub-10. It's alright if you're a tourist and you're sleeping in a hotel room but when water is condensing in your socks and your feet are numbed out like popsicles even in your sleeping bag it feels... disgusting. Surprisingly though, after my feet the next most annoyingly cold parts of my body were my ears. Those thingys are like voluminous little pockets that catch cold air and funnel it to your brain. I did also get brain freeze from the weather alone. Gratz to me.

The actual terrain itself is pretty ok, though it's filled with potholes and stuff. I think I must have fallen down about 6 times during this trip but thankfully I came out unscathed. Probably the worse one was when half my body fell into a large hole in the ground (half my body is pretty damn big so you can imagine the dimensions). But it was none too serious and simply elicited a WTF response and a totally loser feeling. Oh ya there was another time where we had to guard some place in a field of cacti. What the heck was that all about.

Ah but anyway the urban part of Auckland is really laid back and sleepy. The pace of life is sloth-like compared to Singapore. At 730 at night most of the shops are already closed and the hippest areas are probably the casino and the stripclubs. But really I just don't see the appeal in stripclubs. It's kinda sleazy and turn-offing. The tour was pretty alright. Visited some waterfall called Huka falls which sounds damn wrong, and after that took some luge ride down a small mountain. That was really fun but I drove really slowly like a pansy.

Anyway that's all I can remember at the moment. I want to watch red cliff II but I hear that the ending is a piece of shit much like the first one. And I NEED to watch the wrestler and watchmen. Watchmen is coming out 6/3/09 in the US so it can't be long before it comes to Singapore. The graphic novel is probably the most intellectual comic I've read in my life and the ending was just excellent so I'm looking forward to the movie.

And check out this wrestling move. Totally ridiculous and hilarious

2009-01-08T00:24:00.000+08:00

Ah off to Exercise in NZ for 2.5 weeks. I think it's gonna be a bit messed up but it's still nice to get away from unit life for a bit. Lip's going for the same exercise, but I don't know if I'm gonna see him. My sis came back for a week but work's been a beetch so I only went out with her on the weekends. And now she's leaving on the same day as me. bah.

Oh yeah I saw AL today. He crossed over from his camp (just next to mine) and it was nice to meet him and see his one bar for the first time. It was cool and all.

2008-12-29T11:33:00.000+08:00

Hello my relatives have been over for a massive reunion these past few days so it's been pretty hectic around the house. Accommodating close to 30 people is some crazy shit. My TV and gaming time has been a little limited as well. But oh wells it's nice to have a reunion once in a while. It's great to see my mum happy around her siblings and it's pretty enjoyable being with my cousins as well.

Anyway I celebrated my birthday on my cousin's wedding dinner day so in a way it was upstaged. I wasn't displeased or anything. I don't really like being in the spotlight and prefer my birthdays to be private, low-profile affairs. My cousin wanted to go walk at MacRitchie and everyone was afraid she wouldn't be safe so I just tagged along. Holy shit it was really exhausting even though I feigned courage and strength in front of her. We walked like 12 km in 2 hours and now my asscheeks hurt so bad. Like they got mumps or something. I also only found out today that many people wished me happy birthday on facebook. I don't know if fb gives auto-reminders or something but I'm sure all of the well-wishes were genuine so that was nice.

Ahh and I have gotten my new computer! IT IS GORGEOUS!!!! I initially had some graphics card problems but now it's been replaced. Turns out this batch of Palit Radeon 4870s had lots of problems. But now it's fine. YAYAYYYYYYY!!!

I love this video Crush by Dave Matthews Band. Every once in a while I hear a song that I can really classify as a gem and this is just great. It's so relaxed and jazzy and romantic. A few youtube users were commenting that this song is great for taking drugs to ahaha.

Dave Matthews Band - Crush

Mm my sis is coming home today. That makes me happy :)

2008-12-20T10:21:00.000+08:00

I seriously need to watch The Wrestler. There is no other film I want to see this year. NO OTHER FILM. I can only hope that it gets at least a limited release in Singapore.

Oh and inter drew manchester utd in the champs league. It's a good draw even though inter are definitely the underdogs. Either 1) Inter beat Man Utd and stun Europe or 2) Inter lose to Man Utd which is better than losing to a pansy team like Liverpool. I TRUST EMPEROR MOURINHOOO!

2008-12-17T21:18:00.000+08:00

Wolverine Trailer in High Def.

Anyways I'm tired this week. Really tired.

2008-12-14T15:47:00.000+08:00

EGAAAADS! MY LOUSY COM CAN'T PLAY GTA 4 PROPERLY. AND THAT'S AFTER 3 HOURS OF INSTALLATION AND RETARDED DOWNLOADS. -screams in agony!!!!!!-

I know that game publishers these days are trying to be protective of their games to prevent piracy, but really Rockstar has overstepped any reasonable boundary. Overstepped by a mile even. I had to

1) Install the game first (16 gig omigosh)
2) Download Microsoft .NET Frame thingy. ok maybe it was my com's fault.
3) Online verification of Serial Code
4) Sign up for Rockstar Games Social Club
5) Sign up for Windows Live

It is absolutely ridiculous. I read through an entire Reader's Digest and then started on Guinness World Records 2009. 782472 interesting records later I find out later on that my com can't even run the game at lowest settings. NOOOO NIKO I HAVE FAILED JOOOOO. It's a damn tragedy! It's a damn travesty! THIS IS INJUSTTTICCE!!!!!

Yeah I seriously need a new com. I was driving around in the blackness not knowing why I was bumping into things. Then I scaled back the graphics even more and realised I was driving around in a garage and couldn't get out. Hahahaa. It was funny for a while then the game hung '_'

In other news I bought Fallout 3. My com was really on the limit already so the game was a little choppy and you lag when you're out in the open. But the storyline is really cool and interesting. The game is difficult though. I'm not ashamed to admit that I cheated extensively due to the dearth of ammo and med packs in-game. If you play legit this game could last you northwards of 35 hours. Easily. So is the game worth 50 bucks? The answer is NO. Just borrow it from me.

Ya I'm going away to whinge now. Oh ya Hugh Jackman is the new Oscar host and here is the camera-ripped trailer of X-Men Origins. Can't find a good quality one though because the trailer was only attached to the movie The Day the Earth Stood Still. Mm I'm a little hysterical today. Massive disappointment does that to you sometimes :/

2008-12-06T23:42:00.000+08:00

Hello. It's been quite a busy week in camp. Lol my mum told me that the house was attacked by a swarm of bees during the week. The dogs were left outside to dry after their baths and they were pretty traumatized. Pete and Eddie were left unscathed but Sandy (the old, dao one who hasn't responded to me in 3 years) got stung around the eye and I think the area swelled up and got all puffy. I told my mum it's alright because he's blind anyway and she gave me that -_- look. Sandy's always been my mum's favourite dog because about 7 or 8 years ago she accidentally cut him while trying to trim his nails and he didn't retaliate and bite her or anything. Instead he flinched ever so slightly and just whimpered softly. It was one of those cry-me-a-river moments. Anyway he's ok now and the bees were killed by pest control.

And I was talking to Xy today and he was asking me about the movie Twilight. What is the hype with this thing!!?! Men who think that there's a lot of action are going to be bitterly disappointed. This is a ROMANTIC MOVIE. Meanwhile IMDB rating is a mediocre 5.9/10. To put things in perspective, Max Payne got 5.7 and man that movie blows.

Ah nothing much else. I think I ate like 6000 calories for dinner today.

2008-11-23T14:40:00.000+08:00

So while I was out yesterday my parents attended the Benny Hinn Healing Night at Singapore Expo. They said it wasn't quite explosive as the last time but still was pretty crazy. But more disturbing than anything Benny Hinn made some messed up prophecy. He said Benjamin Netanyahu (leader of the Likud parteh in Israel) would become president this election or next election and then he would be killed by radicals. Seriously WTF? Hinn's success in prophecy like my IPPT pass rate. Even pastor Kong during this morning's service expressed his reservations about it and how we should just wait and see. If there's one thing I dislike intensely about the style of american tele-evangelists is that they make stupid predictions that pretty much don't come true. It completely undercuts the religion and makes it look phony. Bah.

Anyway from my lone experience from the Asia Conference, it's clearly not aimed at the normal congregation. Rather it's trying to impress delegates and impress upon them what they "should" be doing for their church. In fact it seems that the sermons are taking a backseat to the showboating session. I'm not saying it's wrong. It's just bloody overkill. For example in today's sermon they had the normal glitzy singing, then the choir, then the orchestra then Don Moen singing again. All this was interspersed with videos. It wasn't commercial but it seemed like an extremely commercial spectacle. fried my brain and made me long for a sermon which is almost always never.

Oh ya Inter beat Juventus 1-0 this morning. I was so damn happy. It was just a great, dominating performance.

And you know, sometimes the army is such a frustrating place. The red-tape, the politics and the inflexible people you meet. Sometimes this is exactly how I feel on Fridays.

2008-11-23T02:08:00.000+08:00

The geog guys had an outing today and I enjoyed myself! Highlight of my month really. We first went to manhattan fish market at plaza sing to eat lunch. I know lots of people say that the place is fabulous and all, but to me the food screamed more quantity than quality. Reasonably good but not stunning. After that we ate some fried mars bars from Chippy's. The dude was pretty stingy with the ice-cream. It was a blob not a scoop.

Yeah after that we went to catch Body of Lies at Vivo (Don't ask me how is it that we didn't buy tickets at the PS cinema, I screwed up). The movie was quite entertaining though it had some flaws that got on my nerves. It's very jumpy from location to location and because of that the plot loses it's fluidity. Also Russell Crowe just doesn't get to shine in this. But I think we all agreed that Mark Strong, the British actor who played Hani the head of Jordanian Intelligence

was definitely the standout. He exuded this incredible coolness and style that screamed "Dunt mess with me I am imba".

Hani makes Leo look like a Pansy

After that we headed over to Carl's Jnr for dinner and to talk somemore crap. Ah geog guy conversations are most fascinating. They range from the incredibly trivial to the dead-serious to the past to the present and to the future.

Yeah and check this trailer out for The Wrestler, which stars Mickey Rourke as a down and out wrestler. It's a sort of parallel of his real life, because he was once a hollywood superstar that ruined his face with plastic surgery (like MJ) and whose career went into downslide. This won the Best Film at the Venice Film Fest and has been touted as a major Oscar contender. Looks unbelievable.

http://www.firstshowing.net/2008/11/20/must-watch-darren-aronofskys-the-wrestler-trailer/

2008-11-16T19:48:00.000+08:00

Woo it was a pretty long week. Went outfield which wasn't too bad, then burnt my saturday morning doing some packing for stores in NZ. Yeah my weekend was pretty boring, just slacking and stuff. However at church today there was some baby blessing service and I saw one of the names. One tod was named ZEPHYR. WTF? HOW?!

Definitions of the word ZEPHYR

1) A gentle breeze (this is as close to a logical reason I can find. They want him to have a gentle disposition?!?)

2) Something that is airy, insubstantial, or passing. WTH. Thats like CURSIN HIM

3) RHCP SONG.

Yeah so that was quite a stunner. Also City Harvest is holding their Asia Conference from Thursday to Sunday. I generally don't sell church events to people but Benny Hinn the controversial yet unbelievably powerful healer is having a 4 hour healing session on Saturday night at Expo. I did a blog post on the first time I saw him do his thing and he smites people like a magnifying glass to an ant. He did some power wave thing and everyone around me except my mum and I fell to their seat (I'm sore about that, I think it was my lack of faith). Even my dad got smited. It was some crazy shit. Sign up for it if you can even if it's just for the spectacle.

2008-11-09T00:25:00.000+08:00

1) Yay Obama won and in that moment of history I was outfield

2) FUCK SANDFLIES. Evolution exists alright? There is no way, no how that god created all the bugs on earth, took a look at the sandfly and saw that it was good. No matter how open or forgiving your perspective is, THAT SHIT IS DEVIL SPAWN.

3) More outfield next week. That is very sad and demoralising.

Haha ok enough whining.

2008-11-01T00:52:00.000+08:00

Hello everyone im back from the land of Suckhampton, exercise Wallesuckby!

Basically the only thing remotely interesting and dramatic is that i got into a vehicle accident where i smashed my tank into another tank at pretty high speed since it was downhill and i couldn't brake. Wasn't my fault tho my periscopes were fogged and there was a blindspot and the guy infront stopped int he middle of nowhere. I didn't get any cool injury though just a HUGE bruise on my left inner thigh. No one else got any serious injury so thank God. Anyway had to write a couple of statements defending myself so i wouldn't get charged or any thing. It's so ironic when in the army, the first thing you worry about when injured is not your injury, but whether or not you'll get charged 'cuz you injured yourself. Plain, asinine stupidity. Anyway, it was pretty traumatising but i'm over it already, will thank God some more for saving my sorry ass.

I'm back yay.

2008-10-26T16:26:00.000+08:00

Well the highlight of the week was no doubt my branch cohesion on Friday. However that was preceded by the lowlight of the week on Thursday evening. Basically the HQ sergeant major had a bit of a rampage. Made us go into push-up position for 20 min and stuff, had standby area at night. Nostalgic stuff. It wasn't that bad I guess, just really sian.

The cohesion on friday was pretty enjoyable. We went bowling and then we watched a movie. Most of us sucked at bowling and that always makes it more awesome. I mean what's the fun in everyone getting turkeys and spares. We need us some gutterballs! After that we went to watch Tropic Thunder. I thought it was hilarious and quite easily the best comedy I've seen this year. Some of the hollywood parody is just brilliant. But I can't say it's a movie for everyone. It's really vulgar so if you can't take that sort of dialogue stay away. Also, you need a good rowdy audience for this because it helps you get sucked up into the momentum and humour of the film. Perhaps one gripe I had was with Robert Downey Jnr's performance as the black guy. He was incomprehensible.

I just came across this music video by Leon Jackson, the winner of X factor 4 in the UK. The song's called Don't Call this Love. His voice is heavenly. It sounds like Buble except much stronger and emotive, with just a little edge to it.

Dont Call This Love - Leon Jackson

2008-10-20T10:38:00.000+08:00

Inter inter inter!

2008-10-18T22:16:00.000+08:00

The week in camp was more interesting than most. There was inter-battery badminton competition which I participated in even though my movement pretty much like a blob of jelly. Just, slow, languid and gelatinous. Yeah but it was fun to get away from office. Plus I won some matches which is always a bonus.

And then on friday I went out with ZH, who's currently studying medicine at NUS and has a pretty hip life. He told me that he didn't know how my fractured finger would ever move properly again and to hear that from a medical perspective was greatly heartening -_-. Haha anyway it was nice to catch up and hear about his multiple girl problems. University life sounds pretty exciting with all the events and social activity, even though I can't say I'm much of a social animal.

After dinner Benson joined us for a movie. Max Payne is pretty shitty. Don't watch it. I knew we were in for an epic fail movie when I noticed it got 3% from rottentomatoes. The vibe that I kept getting was "cheap B-grade movie". It was an uninteresting detective movie more than an action thriller. Max Payne from the game is just so much more conflicted and badass. After that we went to hang out at esplanade and ZH let me listen to some of his band/solo recordings. One i liked, the other not so much.

Yep nothing much else. I'll end off with this awesome explosm comic.

2008-10-12T20:35:00.000+08:00

The weekend was a pretty slow and relaxed one after an unenjoyable week in camp. Army red tape is just bloody lame and overwhelming. Everything needs to be in a certain way, and the reasons never quite justify the effort.

Anyway I watched Wall-E with my parents on Saturday and I thought it was just magnificent in all it's uniqueness. It's great how they manage to convey so much emotion through a robot with so little conversation involved. By comparison the humans seem all that more lifeless. Best emotional development of any Pixar film so far and that's what I like about Pixar - they're risk-takers. They always try to push the bar. The environmental commentary wasn't too overbearing as well. Perhaps the only gripe I have is that the humour early on in this film was very Chaplin-esque. The use of physical humour gets tiring sometimes, though it is always cute. Ah anyway I love the movie.

2008-10-05T19:55:00.000+08:00

Mm I am enjoying my MC. I've mostly been sleeping and watching dvds and it's been really relaxed. In fact I've cut down on my COD 4 significantly because my mum said that a buddy splint does NOT count as a gaming finger. Apparently all the movement could cause the bone fragment to lodge somewhere so when I told her I'd been religiously using the computer she was like o.O. And when I laughed she said "dats not a laughing matter".

Yeah but I've honestly adapted and I've tried out a new addictive game called Peggle. It's 25% skill, 10% tactics and 65% luck and it's bloody fun. My mum and I spent 4 hours on Saturday afternoon playing non-stop and getting to the last level. I think it's great that my mum is receptive to gaming, even if it's just casual games. I think she might enjoy things like this in her old age :]

Peggle owns my world

Anyway, so far this weekend I've watched 3 dvds - Malcolm X, Godfather II and No Country for Old Men.

Malcolm X was incredibly heavy. It chronicles the life of Muslim Black Activist Malcolm X. I thought Spike Lee did an admirable job at making the perspective a balanced one and Denzel Washington did a pretty good job. But still inject yourself with espresso before watching and get a copy with decent subtitles.

No Country for Old Men was a mixed experience for me. I think Javier Bardem fully deserved his Oscar and there were some of the most thrilling, suspenseful scenes I have ever seen but the plot was a little fuzzy. Upon reading some of the reviews I realised I missed out on certain themes as well.

Godfather II was brilliant. Not as breathtaking as the first one but still a great spectacle. I like Al Pacino better with his original voice.

And I'll end off with this youtube video of Ibrahimovic's backheel volley goal against Bologna. It's the best goal I've seen this season in any of Europe's 3 major leagues.

2008-10-05T09:45:00.000+08:00

Yo readers! Haven't been blogging at all lately, but just dropping by cuz I'll be flying to Rockhampton, Brisbane for the dreaded EXERCISE WALLABY from the 5th of October to the 31st. BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

Anyway I have been given specific instructions to ram any kangaroo that freezes in front of my tank down. As in seriously our OC said with a completely straight face "Just bang the f***** down instead if swerving and causing an accident". I was like o.o alright. Somehow i cant bring myself to bang them down tho. They're cute. <3 kangaroo and wombat.

Take care all peck will still be here and solo-manning this blog like a champ (not like he doesnt already). See you!

2008-10-01T14:55:00.000+08:00

Well I was "playing" basketball on Monday (you couldn't count it as playing. I'm atrocious) when the ball stubbed my left pinky. In my defence the court lights were blinding but still, it was tragically noobish. I didn't think much of it because this ball-stubbing thing happened to me in primary school and nothing much happened. And really who is unman enough to angst about their pinky. But even today the swelling was persistent and bruising was distinct so when my mum fetched me I asked her about it and then she insisted that we go to the hospital to check it out.

When the nurse said she suspected a fracture I thought it was kinda funny but my mum was none too amused. As it turned out, my finger suffered a minor fracture. It's like a chip off the side and from the X-ray there's a suspended bone fragment floating around. The MO said he wasn't sure if there was soft tissue damage covering up somemore injuries. At the same time, he wanted to make sure the fragment didn't move somewhere else. So he gave me a buddy splint. What does that mean? It means I can't even try to press the sprint button in COD4. That sucks.

Zz my little finger is practically drowning in bandage.

2008-09-28T23:13:00.000+08:00

The F1 night race was really exciting! Not so much for the driving but rather the sheer number of incidents that impacted the final standings. Best of all I thought the entire look of the race was fabulous. On the outside it looked grand and magnificent, on the track it looked tough and gruelling. It's a great combination. As much as I will run away from singapore in times of war, I do get sucked into these grand events and feel a great sense of patriotism when they impress on an international level. But anyway they should try to improve overtaking opportunities, especially if Singapore wants to compete with Monaco as the premier f1 race.

Massa is an F1nooblet. He got raped by a fuel pipe.

Ah I just got a PSP to pass the time in camp. Some of the guys in my branch kindly helped me with the purchase and put lots of games inside. Honestly I'm not that huge a fan of handheld consoles because of my big clunky fingers of phail that don't maneuver the directional buttons too well but I'm slowly adapting. Ridge Racer is pretty fun. I'm just mindlessly drifting around but it's kinda exhilarating at the same time. Playing Bomberman is also very nostalgic. Along with the PSP I bought a Razor DeathAdder to replace my MX510. Mm I am liking it.

I'm just waiting for the Milan Derby at the moment so nothing much to do. Well I've been reading some blogs and hearing about people and it seems that everyone outside of army is growing up and maturing in life while people like me are kinda regressing and stagnating like a lump of turd. Well to be honest sometimes I don't mind this lull period of NS. Growing up has all sorts of connotations. It's stressful and I'm not sure the lazy biatch in me wants to yet.

2008-09-21T00:59:00.000+08:00

Mmm, I can't say this week has been particularly eventful. Course on tuesday, off on wednesday, had an ok thursday..then a whatever friday. I did however play badminton on Thursday. It was momentous for the fact that it's the first bit of exercise I've done in 3 months. I know that's an ugly, ugly piece of trivia but I guess life isn't pretty.

It's amazing how much a bit of passion can motivate you to move your ass. I had a lot of fun and the exercise part was really just a bonus. Ah but the aftermath was pretty brutal. I'm still hurting all over the right side of my body and I've been hobbling around the house. Ah but that's just karma.

Yeah actually that's about it. Really a whatever week. I'll end off with this video 'Racism in The Elevator'. It's about stereotypes.

2008-09-17T04:30:00.000+08:00

Seriously ffs what's a guy gotta do to get a 3 by 3 inch box to watch some damn champions league. I managed to get a laggy one with greek commentary, which died after 50 minutes. After which I settled for one which was so blur that I could take off my specs and still not be bothered because the quality was already effed. Hell I couldn't tell the black dudes from the white dudes. And then that died. AND THERE WAS NONE LEFT. NONE. And because the damn media in singapore is so EPL-centric, even if I want to pay to watch Inter on tv I CANT. THEY AINT THERE. NO DELAYED TELECAST NO SHIT. I JUST BLOODY MISSED SEEING A ADRIANO GOAL AND HES MY FAVOURITE PLAYER. FUCK.

2008-09-13T22:37:00.000+08:00

Well before today I had never eaten wagyu beef or kurobuta pork. Both are premium varieties of meat well known for their fat marbling (aka high fat content) which makes them extra juicy and flavourful. Each serving is really hyper expensive - at least 70++ per plate for wagyu, plus my parents often complain to me that a lot of classy restaurants' poor culinary skills betray the quality of the meat. So it didn't really make sense to us to specially go out for it unless we were sure it was a great product. As it turned out, the best premium beef or pork any one of us had ever eaten came at a reasonable price. It was from this stall Big D's Grill at Bedok and it was highly recommended by ieatishootipost. The chef actually used to work in a commercial restarant, but eventually decided to start his own stall.

So the Wagyu Angus steak was $40 and the Kurobuta Pork $36. Unbelievable prices for a hawker stall but unbelievably low compared to any competitor on the market dealing in the same kind of product. It's a strange fit but it makes commercial sense. Anyway both were absolutely irresistable. The pork was GODLY. Sweet, succulent and just great to chew. The beef was equally stunning. Juicy, full of flavour and just orgasmically satisfying. I'm really not a steak fan but this one was impossible to resist. I mean the food was a complete class above anything remotely similar that I had tasted. My eyes were opened. I had a matrix moment. Char Siew is garbage.

I wish I could put up the photos but my dad is being a lazy pok and refuses to pass me his camera. Oh well.

2008-09-12T18:25:00.000+08:00

I have caught Grey's Anatomy FEVER! I know most people will be like jeez you noob who has not seen that show yet but hey at least I eventually did get down to doing it. Season 1 was really good! The chemistry between Patrick Dempsey and Ellen Pompeo was teh awesomezl.

There also was one nice song from Episode 8 that stuck in my head simply because it was really apt for the episode. It's Fix You Up by Sara and Tegan.

Haha ok enough fanboyism.

2008-09-10T18:56:00.001+08:00

Here's the youtube parody of Usain Bolt's spellbinding 100m olympic win. The video blows hot and cold but there are some real gems in here. Some people feel that the cocky way in which it was won marred the victory but I think it showcased the sheer belief and confidence bolt had in himself. It was a crushingly memorable performance. It reminded me a bit of Jordan flying through the air with his tongue stuck out at noobs that didn't deserve to share the same airspace.

2008-09-07T20:16:00.001+08:00

Wow I have successfully inverted my sleep cycle in 3 days. Slept at 5 am on Saturday morning, Slept 3 hours on Saturday afternoon, Slept at 4 am this morning watching the US open and slept 5 hours this afternoon. It's really quite absurd but in my defence the afternoon weather has been terrible this weekend. Oh yeah I also met up with the geog boys on Saturday night for dinner. It was nice to catch up with noobs like AL and just talk random things.

Anyway I'm quite sad I will be missing the US open final. The semis between federer and djokovic was quite spectacular. In the final 1 1/2 sets, federer actually hit the kind of gear that everyone expected of him but was never quite delivered this year. He hit an unbelievable slice lob which blew my brains out and he actually matched djokovic for pace. But if I was impressed with federer, I was even more blown away by Andy Murray. His gameplan against Nadal was freaking wicked. It's not something federer can pull off (because of his aggressive style and slower movement) but Murray's positioning, speed and ability to keep the unforced errors low really blunted the nadal topspin. Hope he closes out that match.

2008-09-06T13:28:00.000+08:00

I'm trying Google's new Chrome browser at the moment and I am really impressed with the loading speeds I'm getting! Fastest browser I've seen so far. The bookmarking sidebar needs some beefing up and there are many great things in firefox that aren't here but considering this is the beta, I quite like it.

2008-08-31T00:15:00.000+08:00

PECKPOST

Well as I said we went out for this nice lunch at this restaurant called Wild Rocket at Wilkie Road. It's right next to Mount Emily Park. I had some hazy memories of the area because I had visited Mount Emily Park before as part of my Sec 3 group's venerably outstanding IR project "Beautiful Places in Singapore". Haha that was a shitload of fun. Anyway the food is good if you are open-minded enough to appreciate fusion and you know what to order. The pastas are kinda hit-and-miss. The prawn pasta with Szechuan chilli sauce was mediocre but the beef spaghetti was absolutely stunning. As in I-can-eat-this-forever stunning. The ribeye was marvelous as well. The deserts were quite delightful, especially my chocolate gateau lava cake with vanilla ice-cream.

Well after that we went home and our older grown-up cousin and her family came to visit. She married a Brit and her children are wonderfully extroverted and cute. My 5-year old nephew is also called Daniel and before he left he hugged my waist and gave me a high-five. I won't post his picture up because you'll die from his toddler good looks and oozing charisma.

After that I accompanied my dad to Comex to buy him a laptop and it was a FREAKIN WARZONE. It was packed as hell with sweaty bodies but really if you need some serious new electronic gadgets/equipment (ie not cheap stuff like a ball mouse) you should check it out. The prices are constantly being slashed and the discounts are really attractive. Major, major discounts. Anyway my dad got a laptop costing 1.3k. I thought he needed something that was efficient and fast, but at the same time didn't need to be advanced because he's just using it for basic stuff like hotmail, pictures, powerpoint etc. It's not dual-core but it's good enough. Plus 4 gig ram. Like you need to be either seriously distracted or seriously multi-tasking to use that much.

Yeah now for some random pictures. First, tasty canele's chocolate royale cake for my sis' birthday. Oh lordy thinking about it gives me tummy spasms.

Next - camwhore photos from my family excursions at the eco park.

Charmaine lays the smackdown on the orchid

... and then hugs a tree.

"An apple a day keeps the doctor away" - Daniel Confucious Peck

Oho dad's got something to hide

Maria gets in on the act too.

You know a lot of people have come over to my house and been totally petrified by the size of pete. Truth is he is the friendliest and most affectionate of the 3 dogs. He is a total darling with children. This is my niece playing with him.

2008-08-30T16:11:00.000+08:00

Mmm just went out for lunch with my family. Food was good, company was great, my ama was alive & kicking, couldn't ask for more.

Check out this really nice song Love Remains the Same by Gavin Rossdale. He's Gwen Stefani's husband and lead singer of alt rock band Bush.

Ah. For the moment, I feel contented and zen.

2008-08-25T00:45:00.000+08:00

Heyo. My sis is going back to stanford soon so I'm kinda sad. I very much enjoy her company, her strong sense of irony, her crayzee rebellious attitude and everything else. I mean sometimes I come home from camp and I being pathetically stressed by a desk job, like to be alone. She too, comes back from endless alcohol sessions and wants to be alone (well, actually I leave her alone because she is drunk). But other than that we have good times. Ah whenever I talk or go out with her I rediscover a certain zanyness and edge in my sense of humour. I also feel less self-conscious. She exponentially increases the trouble in my family but also exponentially increases the joy. Lol I'll definitely feel emo when she's gone. Dang that girl.

Anyway nothing much happened over the past week. Last weekend I went to the eco-park with my family, learnt the art of funny camwhoring from my sis, went to eat tasty south buona vista duck rice, watched Once upon a time in America (really good but 3.5 hrs holy cow), the thin red line (full of waffly drivel). This weekend I went to The Line, watched Hard Boiled (not about eggs) which was great and Election 2 which was ok.

I don't know if rayna reads this blog but rayna if you do what kinda admin spec are you becoming? Issit an Assistant Chief Clerk? If it is I look forward to sending you emails like 3SG Teo where is teh fuxing nomenal roll? This is unacceptable. you twat. Don't sms me about it because my phone is a little screwed right now.

2008-08-23T23:07:00.001+08:00

Curses to army half marathon.

Cheers to ...

where the light is (live in los angeles) by john mayer. i splurged 34 bucks on it cuz i hate army half marathon

2008-08-12T20:55:00.000+08:00

LIPPOST

Long since i posted! Came to announce this earth shattering message to peck first and foremost:

I HAVE REDALERT3 BETA INSTALLED IVE PLAYED IT ALL ALREADY

Ok im done bragging for now. Had my birthday family dinenr 2 days early at the airport sakae, which we like becuz the airport is a nice place in general with crisp fresh aircon air filled with happy expectations. Anyway we ate a megaton of stuff cuz my grandparents went (for the first time jap food, they were highly skeptical). We ordered 2 tepenyaki set dinners, 1 aksdjfioasjdf moriawase which was basically grilled sticks of nicethings like mushrooms, scallops, prawns (with pure heaven spread on it which i will elaborate on further), chicken (which sucked big time cuz it was dry and tough) and grilled asparagus wrapped in salmon belly (:D). Then we ordered random fried things like fried scallops, seafood pancake, takopachi, veges, tofu, tuna and salmon sashimi (just a bit).

The 2 tepenyaki set dinners had tons of nice stuff like beef n bamboo clam n foie gras (??? why is it here?? not complaining tho it was alright for a jap place), tiger prawns, mushrooms, more shitty chicken, chawanmushi (grandparents digg chawanmushi), random salads which suck (like vege in ketchup gross). Our table was flooded with tiny itsy plates jap style we really had so damn many plates we ended up stacking like 1000 plates in a pile after we finish some stuff.

Then we ordered the Bomb. The bomb is actually 4 scallopsinshells which is hardly special, but theyre smothered in this PWNAGE ROE THING which is REALLY REALLY REALLY O.O. I ate like 2 and nearly died!!! I really cant describe it but if you ever go its the hotate (scallop) mentai (sounds iffy i know :X ) you must get it. We were even happier when we got our aosduifasdfasjd moriawase thing cuz we discovered the 2 prawns were also covered in creamy roe goodness so we ate more of that and felt really happy. I never knew fish eggs could be so good mmm fish eggs.

Dessert was free green tea ice cream which was ok! I AM DAMN FULL but MORE FOOD AND YAAAYY TOMORROW.

By the way im just back from burning my nat day holidays and the weekend and all. Had imba driving trips like from 7pm to 3 am the next morning, and 8pm to 4am then sleep 4 hours and continue HAHAHA quite thankful nothing scary happened to me in my stupor.

2008-08-11T17:43:00.000+08:00

PECKPOST

Hmm my life is pretty sad and bland so I shall post up more food pictures. Good food excites my senses in a really happy way. It's an event I can while away time just thinking about. Anyway we went to Indulgz (to celebrate charmienepecks bday) on recommendation of xiaxue's blog. Not the most reliable of sources but I just told memum it was from a reputable food blogger. Anyway it was an experience that could have been excellent if we had made better menu choices.

The milkshakes were TERRIFIC. My mum wanting a sugar rush ordered a butterscotch milkshake and my sis needing the usual alcohol fix ordered a Bailey's milkshake. Both were really really really really good.

Caesar Salad. No comment. Leafy greens and more leafy greens? A match made in hell.

Crabmeat and Thyme Soup. I really enjoyed this soup. It's a little creamy, meaty and with some crunchy thingum at the side - totally my kinda thing. My sis didn't dig it but she's a fussypot.

Deep fried camembert cheese with berry sauce. This was a stunning pairing. The cheese is all soft and gooey inside and the berry sauce had that acidic sweetness that just complemented the mild salty goo. We were like WTF - eyes roll back into semi-coma state-.

Cheese fries with beef bolognaise. Now I'm a sucker for cheese fries, but you add in beef bits in? Sheesh you can enslave me with things like this.

Well at this point the meal went a little awry, with some mixed results. Also note that we already had 2 extremely cheesy cheese dishes. Law of diminishing returns for teh lose.

The seafood platter was poor and overpriced. Way too peppery, overslathered with cheese and totally unremarkable.

The ribeye conversely, was fantabulous. It was tender, juicy and of an ample size. My mum, dad and I loved it. My sister did not. But as I mentioned before, she is a fussypot.

Seafood Pasta with white wine sauce. This was a polarizing dish. I can't appreciate wine, so bitter pasta really didn't cut it for me. My sister and mum liked this. Very tastefully done though. They lit it on fire at the start and the pyrotechnics turned us into little indulgz fanbois and girls.

Crispy Pasta. I OWNED this dish. But only for people who like crunchy stuff. Really. More cheese btw.

This one really killed us. TRIPLE CHEESE BAKED RICE. At any other time this would have been superb, but the cheese overkill really pushed me off the edge I was already tethering on. I nearly had stomach failure.

K desert was interesting. I really liked the belgium waffles but my mum and sis did not. The point is, don't go into the thing expecting typical crispy waffles because belgium waffles taste more like cookies. They are thick, harder and more chewy - well just like cookies dammit. I ate 2/3 of this by myself. If that makes me greedy, so be it.

Ice-cream with raspberry trifle. My sister and mum liked the combination. I thought it was ok (relative to the waffles that is). My sister however, complained that the ice-cream was low quality. No doubt this wasn't no haagen dasz standard, but it was pretty decent. I therefore berated her for her overbearing standards.

So I think with some wiser choices, this could have been a great meal. My sis was talking about just both of us coming here to eat sometime. Sounded good to me. And also I am hungry so shall end the blogpost and go have sum dinner.

2008-08-07T00:00:00.000+08:00

PECKPOST

Yeah I had a pretty late night last night because I was watching Inter-Bayern Munich, which ended 1-0 to inter. Then today I went for my branch cohesion outing. We went to the arcade, played some daytona which is always crash-filled and competitive. Then I beat my CPT at virtua tennis 3 after saving 2 match points (which fills me with intense pride and somehow distracts me from the fact that I am 15 ranks below him no less). After that we watched Mummy 3. This one is pretty bad. The action is alright and the yetis kick ass, but really the movie is littered with cliches, bad acting and outright flaws. The plot is SHIT. It's that kind of story that throws in random things to push the action along and comes up with weak reasons for this and that happening. And I know it's not her fault, but michelle yeoh needs to take a break from playing the wise heroine. Like enough with the wisdom beeyatch!

Yeah so after that debacle we went to sakura to eat. It's this international buffet place in orchard and it's pretty good if you're running on an above-average budget. They fry lots of stuff for you and there's plenty of choice of dishes like baked oysters, sashimi, unagi, satay. I enjoyed myself.

Nothing else about my life but I do hear that GTA IV is coming out in Nov 08. So damn excited to kill people and hijack cars once more. I'm buying original for this one because it's definitely worth my cash.

YOU MUST watch this unbelievable video of Christian the Lion. So damn touching. There's just this purity and unabashed passion in the animal's affection that makes me get teary and stuff. I remember watching the movie Born Free (based on this lion) when I was young and I really loved it.

Christian the Lion

Also, David Archuleta's new single is called 'Crush'. It's a very commercial pop single but I wouldn't have expected anything else because it's his first real single. Very nice and catchy.

And I'll end off with this picture off digg.

'Want' (click for bigger picture). Man what a douchebag

2008-08-05T22:36:00.000+08:00

Hi all. You know quite a few people think I'm a real foodie and everything but truth is, my family tends to revolve around the same food circle. Lately we've been trying out new things, but usually we just go to some place where we know we're guaranteed great good. One of them is JiangNanChun, which is this great place at 4 Seasons that serves an ala-carte buffet lunch on weekends. It's expensive, but there is no doubt about the quality.

Omg tasty sharks finz.

Shiny sashimi (I'm not eating all of it I swear -_-)

Customary dimsum. Siew Mai, Ha Gao, Custard Bun, yada yada.

Woot charsiew. Don't lie everyone likes fatty burnt charsiew. That gives you cancer.

Lobsta of the se7en seas with tang hoon.

Pinch me it's lobsta again

Wasabi prawns. I HATE wasabi. Green horse snort. Rest of the family loved it though.

Prawn with lime and nutmeg. This my friend was divine. Totally prawnage. AHHAAhajhshfAH. I just make myself hysterical sometimes.

Omelette with crab. This was actually pretty good. Good call charmaine my young padawan.

Munkey head mushrooms. No one was particularly excited about this, but it turned out to be a real stunner. The mushrooms were crispy and delectable. Pity about the name though.

Duck in pancaeke was kinda whatever. The standalone duck dish next to it was far better. I now know why god rained quail on the israelites instead of duck. Because if they had eaten duck they would have died in the desert with no regrets. DIS IS SUM TASTEH SHIT.

Beef of win.

Unknown meat that tasted good. Pork? I donno.

Crispy noodle with fish. I have a serious weakness for all things crunchy. Seriously I bet you could fool me with tempura pebbles. But really this was fabulous with the sauce.

The mango pudding was pretty good, but it's not divine. That distinction goes to Li Bai at Sheraton. Mango pudding there is orgasmic.

The 2 best deserts. The egg tart pastry was fluffy and light, the custard was warm, soft and smooth with a layer of caramelized sugar on top. The other desert was fried flour sheets with honey drizzled on top. How can something so simple taste so good. We were like Mmm...-munch--munch-....yeh mums...-munch-...10 more pls...

Yeah I love memorable meals. The ambience was great, the room was cosy and I was in the lovely company of my sister. Mm.

Anyway I'll end off with this song Thunder by Boys like Girls. My sister told me their whole debut album was really good. I'm starting to see some sense in her statement.

2008-08-03T01:45:00.000+08:00

I'm tired. It's been quite an exhausting week helping to do invitations for some division event. The turnout was shitty (not my fault), but I did learn a lot in the process. I've just been chilling at home, sleeping, de-stressing. Anyway I lost my phone. I think I left it in my officer's car. If I didn't then what the heck I'll have to get a new line.

Ah tomorrow I am going with my family to eat south buona vista duck rice which I absolutely love. Maybe tomorrow I'll post up some food pictures I've been hoarding.

2008-07-26T22:21:00.001+08:00

Oh Hai

2008-07-25T18:22:00.000+08:00

Argh headache. Yesterday was my sis' birthday. Cake from Canele was ex but really nice.

Ah later I'm sluggish.

2008-07-20T21:40:00.000+08:00

PECKPOST

Wow TDK was really good. Best show of the year so far by a mile. It was seamless, action-packed, twist-filled and best of all it didn't dumb down the audience. My sis didn't think it was nuanced enough but I did. The question of what makes or should make a hero was very pervasive throughout the movie. Also, what I love about Batman is that he's very human. He has tons of weaknesses and internal conflict. Anyway Heath Ledger was great as the Joker. Not oscar worthy but still a creepy, psychotic performance. Really cool. I think as much as the joker is terrifying, he's fascinating as well. It's just his spontaneous no-holds-barred style and his world view that make him really attractive to watch. Yep this was a 9.5/10 for me.

And if there is one show that I think can measure up to TDK this year, it's gotta be Watchmen. Check out the trailer here . It's widely considered the best comic of all time and combine that with Zack Snyder from 300, this could be great.

2008-07-18T21:31:00.000+08:00

PECKPOST

Hi everyone it's been a tiring week. I shouldn't have a right to say that, being a clerk, but still it was. Anyway on Saturday I went to watch Hellboy II with Wally. I was totally drawn into the imaginary world of Guillermo Del Toro. The monsters were just fabulous and I loved the nuance and idiosyncratic nature of many of the characters. But on the other hand the movie didn't meet my expectations (which were exceedingly, exceedingly high) simply because it lacked a sense of epicness about it. In some of the action scenes I wanted a sense of epic struggle, a sense of scale and magnitude that did not come through. Wally rightfully pointed out that the golden army fizzed out somewhat. Anyway I still liked the show a lot, and my sister is wrong for saying it's a stupid show. Dangz you sista.

And if I might explain my last tirade about Red Cliff. I really came out of the movie feeling ambivalent but overall sorely disappointed at the same time. How teh heck is that possible? Well put it this way. The movie totally whet my appetite for the sequel with the way it set up the entire story and the potential it displayed but it totally fails as a stand-alone movie. I don't mean it must have an entire story arc. I mean it's gotta have enough substance and end at a decent juncture. Only 2 war scenes, of which only 1 had anything to do with red cliff. NO NAVAL BATTLE? This story reeked of filler and just gave me the feeling that John Woo had only enough great war scene material for 1.5 movies and therefore chucked this one full of bullshit. Like seriously horsebirth, hunting for a tiger that reminds you of the crafty cao cao, going the long way to explain how your men are united. Either way too long or unnecessary. If I might add, vicky zhao wei is totally redundant. The few (scarce) war scenes were absolutely breathtaking though. A mixture of dynasty warrior rambo kungfu, 1337 strategy and plain interesting attacking/defensive techniques. This movie is a prelude to Red Cliff and it leaves you wanting so much more, so watch it on dvd. The abrupt ending was outrageous. Just unacceptable.

Anyway this weekend I am catching The Dark Knight on Sunday with my family. My expectations are through the roof. Plus the Watchmen trailer should be attached to the movie. It's from the director of 300 and it is based on possibly the best comic series of all time.

Well I got nothing to blog about my life. It's bland and boring. Today I went to some military function and man do officers get welfare. The food was imba. Crayfish and sashimi?!!>! wtuf?

I'll end with this dance video from Step Up 2. Holy Awesome.

2008-07-13T21:42:00.001+08:00

DONT WATCH RED CLIFF
DONT WATCH RED CLIFFDONT WATCH RED CLIFFDONT WATCH RED CLIFFDONT WATCH RED CLIFFDONT WATCH RED CLIFFDONT WATCH RED CLIFFDONT WATCH RED CLIFFDONT WATCH RED CLIFFDONT WATCH RED CLIFF. DANGIT JOHNWOO HAS TRIX US ALL THE BATTLE OF RED CLIFF AINT IN RED CLIFF WTF

2008-07-08T15:35:00.000+08:00

I feel sad for federer. I'm kinda glad I missed the match. And I lament the day that his graceful all-round game loses to the superhuman speed and muscle of nadal. IT JUST AINT RIGHT AND THATS THAT.

And anyway here's one of the various trailers out for the dark knight. This one has more of the joker. I read one review which said that children shouldn't watch this movie because the joker is just too creepy and psychotic. Hmm I don't think my sister will handle this movie very well.

2008-07-02T13:57:00.000+08:00

PECKPOST

Hello I got an off today because my unit was doing a lot of saikang for SAF day. I was a gatekeeper. It really sucked. My gate is next to a rubbish dump which is full of rats and it's just krazy when you're tired and then you see rats fighting in the moonlight. It's kinda entertaining but it also messes with your head. I also had bad skin days for all the rehearsals so during the real thing my friend and I lit like 5 mosquito coils and proceeded to get high on the haze. Seriously though, mosquitoes are biatches and I don't see a place on earth for them. I bet it was the fifth day of creation, it was 2350 hrs and god was trying to make a butterfly and he didnt like the design so he crumpled it up -> Presto the damn bloodsucker was formed.

Anyway in recent weeks I've been watching more artsy movies. This past weekend I watched

The Diving Bell and The Butterfly. It's definitely not that mainstream but it was one of the best reviewed movies of 2007. It's about this frenchman who suffers from paralysis everywhere except his eye. He taps a lot into the memories and imagination and eventually manages to write a book. I would say it's a visually beautiful movie and a thinking movie and the way he was portrayed as an imperfect man was well done. But really I wasn't particularly moved by the movie. Perhaps it was because I have seen The Sea Inside which has similar material. Hmm yeah so not really emotionally affected. Well maybe I've a cold stony heart but I refuse to consider that option -_-.

And then today during lunch I watched Into the Wild, starring Emile Hirsch and directed by Sean Penn. This movie was good.

Man I bet xy will like this film. He quotes tons of authors. It's about this guy who gives up his possessions and goes on a life journey to find happiness. The acting of the entire cast is absolutely top notch and for the most part the movie is always gives me this uplifting vibe. Ask me if you wanna watch it. I got the dvd.

Ah I'll just leave you with this. The Douchiest Phone Message in History. Douche Bag ftl.

http://view.break.com/527579 - Watch more free videos

2008-06-28T22:36:00.000+08:00

PECKPOST

Ok Wanted just plain kicks ass. So far it has been the No. 1 WTF movie of the year. That is in terms of the insane action, smartass humour and the complete disregard for the boundaries of reality. It is one hell of a popcorn epic and a complete unchick flick.

So yeah wally and I were walking around J8 when I saw my cousin June. Yeah she's currently studying medicine at the University of Edinburgh and she was back for some hols or sth. Yeah she's gonna be some research demigod like some of the dudes and dudettes on my dad's side of the family. We're quite pally so I wuz like what you doing in this godforsaken place. She was like I was supposed to meet my BF (wally said she has a hot accent and don't look too bad but really wally she's taken so you pls dont ask me no more about it) but turns out he had something up. She was kinda stranded so I asked her if she wanted to come along to watch Wanted. She watches all kinds of movie genres so it worked out great.

Yeah the movie experience was fabulous. We were half laughing and half in awe at the action scenes. The movie is over the top in every way but that's what just makes it so epic and stylish. Angelina Jolie is really assassin-like (I know she's supposed to be like...an assassin but just sayin). James McAvoy is cool in a dorky Shia Labeouf way except nearing the end he becomes some killing machine. Morgan Freeman is a typical cool old man until he says stuff like Motherf**ker and curls bullets. Haha Einstein would have screamed WTF because it means physics loses to Morgan Freeman.

Yeah after that we went to Macs and had some drinks while conducting the customary post movie discussion. Points of contention include:

Wally thought Angelina Jolie looked old. I insisted it's because she's thin and gaunt. Wally said Hmm
June thought the movie needed some more matrix kungfu. I thought too much kungfu just didn't fit in with the gratuitous gun action that filled the movie. I mean why hit someone when you can shoot him right?
June thought the opening scene was too unrealistic. Wally and I disagreed and I thought it was a double standard because we're supposed to suspend our notions of reality for this kinda show.
Car chase was kickass
IMO loom of fate is kinda stupid. Watch the movie and find out what contraption it is. In retrospect it is completely dumb and must be simply accepted as a necessary plot device.
James McAvoy's boss is hella funny.

Yeah so we had a great time. It's nice to have a girl in the discussions once in the while and June made for nice company. It helped that she's very open to this kinda show which can be a little crass. After that went to church with Wally. Was a little boring but there was some apostle woman who was teaching us how to make moolah. I caught the part about her talking about NOT MILLIONS, BUT BILLIONS!

Anyway Wall E is getting astonishingly good reviews. Apparently the little robot is gonna steal your heart. I can't wait. And I cannot understand why it is released in Singapore on August 28? I mean for crying out loud that's 2 months after the American release. Wtf disney? You got issues with small countries?

2008-06-22T19:47:00.000+08:00

Wow my weekends are booked for movies for the next month. Next week is the Wanted, the week after Hancock. The following week is Red Cliff and finally Hellboy II. All of them look absolutely fabulous. Lip wanna go and watch next week? Wanted is KICKASS. Curved bullets lolwtf?

Anyway I went to watch Get Smart with Wally and Xy on Saturday. It was actually pretty entertaining with plenty of laughs. In fact it didn't dumb the audience down as much as I expected it to. Yeah highly recommended.

My life is pretty much nothing at the moment actually. Same for most guys I guess.

Woo Office Wars

2008-06-15T02:41:00.000+08:00

Hi. This weekend has been crazy because Euro is screwing with my sleep cycle. I stayed up Friday Night, fell asleep at about 4 am, woke up at 9am, slept from 2-4 pm..argh just feel a little zombieish. My sis is back from the states as well. Great to see her. Really sometimes certain family convos are worth having only when she's around. And I have krispy kremes. I win.

2008-06-08T11:44:00.000+08:00

Haha this dude is awesome.

And last night I watched One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

It's quite an old show - released in 1975. I usually have my reservations about pre 1990 shows but this was absolutely terrific. I'm not sure what kind of social commentary it had on themes like oppression, control and culture clash but on it's own it was totally absorbing. The ending just left me and my mum gutted.

2008-06-06T23:24:00.001+08:00

peck chek this out

ive got crisis core chek this cool video out.

2008-05-31T22:34:00.000+08:00

lol i have a pet dog

he is champagne

he has a pet frog

his name is ...

frog

i did this formless verseless poem in 2 seconds

2008-05-28T21:07:00.000+08:00

PECKPOST

Noo I have lost my Call of Duty skills. I really do hate it when you suddenly realise that you've lost your ability to do something. It's like you think it's in you somewhere and sooner or later it'll surface..but half the time it doesn't. Makes you feel helpless. And you know I do feel kinda fearful that in this 2 years I'll lose tons of abilities and intellect and stuff like that. I don't got much in the first place and thats the real scary part -_-. Hot dammit I'm angsty today.

2008-05-28T12:51:00.000+08:00

Woo hoo inter got mourinho!

Yeah that's all in the post because my life has revolved around this piece of anticipated news for the past 2 weeks -_-. Sad.

Yeah check out this video of the musical cats. Mr. Mistoffelees rocks. I like musicals but my parents are pretty stingy with the dough when it comes to entertainment.

2008-05-25T13:37:00.000+08:00

PECKPOST

Heello people. Yeah this weekend has been kinda chilled out. On friday I went to watch Indiana Jones with lip and zhenghong. At least for me, it didn't meet my high expectations. I wanted something a little grittier and dirtier with booby traps and stuff, which the movie lacked. Also felt like the movie climaxed in the middle where there was this awesome car chase. Felt like National Treasure. Yeah it's still great fun but the ending will mindrape you. It's like lollllwtf.

Yeah and then after church on Saturday I went out with wally and xy for dinner. Yeah just chill and talk and listen to xy talking about some Danish dude called kieekegawrd and his analysis of the "teleological suspension of the ethical" when Abraham was gonna kill Isaac. It's like at first you think...well that's interesting...then you realise that people spend their whole lives analysing stuff like this. Then you're like o.O respek.

Yeah anyway check out the trailer for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, where Brad Pitt is in the lead role as a man who undergoes reverse aging. Looks fascinating.

And WATCH THIS INSANE POPPING VIDEO. It is wtf. It is amazing. what the bomb. I mumble incoherently in awe.

2008-05-24T00:11:00.000+08:00

Had a pretty good night out with peck and zhenghong, hadnt had a good talk with them in quite awhile! Felt pretty good just chilling out outside indochine leaching on free band music kakaka. Watched indiana jones which was a total mindscrew and left the cinema with WTF burned into my mind. Its good entertainment but prepare for lotsa O.O moments lol.

Im really glad i get to relax next week and spend time on some stuff ive been sorely needing to spend more time on. :D. I guess one thing good about army's that it cut out all the inane and redundant things you spend half your life worrying/pissying/angsting your life over and make you treasure the stuff that are really important. Oh and another good thing, that it teaches you how to just suck things up and not complain so much, like how id whine about the stupidest things ever. Now i just stare blankly and go uh ok that kinda sucks and get on with life i guess.

Its also a pretty humbling experience, since i came out of jc being an arrogant pr*** but now im at the bottom of the food chain and my classmates are graduating from OCS in december and can send me to detention barracks/ruin my future if they really wanted to. Pretty shitty feeling but what to do what to do. GIC rejected me instantly i guess my lack of mass CCA achievements and leadership/OCS things really showing now where it matters. Oh well thats just me i guess!
I hope its alright with everyone that might have expected something more, i dont really have any excuse really... Sorry!

Take care everyone~

2008-05-22T05:47:00.000+08:00

Woo what a thriller. I am disappointed though because I was rooting for chelsea. And the moment ronaldo missed his penalty my desire for chelsea to win suddenly increased tenfold. And the moment john terry missed I knew it was over and my sympathy for chelsea increased tenfold. So I'm a pseudo chelsea fan at the moment. Well I guess I'm a chelsea fan also because inter wants to buy all their players.

Wtf there are ants coming out of the laptop. wtf.

2008-05-19T20:21:00.000+08:00

PECKPOST

Hmm tons of events have happened this weekend. On friday I had duty so I had to stay over till saturday morning. It wasn't that bad really. Well unless I screwed up some admin. In that case I will get...7 extra duties. Anyway I actually got to put in quite a few hours into reading The Time Traveller's Wife. If there's one thing good about NS is that it makes me read. It's not even June and I think I've outdone my tally for last year...which was like 5 methinks? Lit texts included. I don't mind reading, but it's like a distant 4th behind using the com, watching cable and playing with my dogs. I'm also quite picky when it comes to books and boy am I superficial. Bigger font is a big plus. 1.5 line spacing rules. Just preference.

And today my family and I went out to eat dim sum at Shang Palace. I would say the dishes were hit and miss. Some were superlative, others were letdowns. For the former the Egg yolk custard bun was simply divine. I shit you not they are fit for God. The filling is hot, rich creamy, yeah whatever orgasmic adjective you can think of. But really the beverages were a total ripoff. It's unbelievable. My parents ordered this red date tea thing with longan that they recommended and it ended up costing 8 bucks each. Ok alright maybe it's some gourmet bull. But I ordered a coke. And it cost TEN BUCKS. WHAT THE FECK. And it wasn't no gallon or something it was A CAN O COKE. Jaw-dropping stuff indeed.

Yesterday I watched Billy Elliot and then today I watched The Prestige. Both were superb. The acting in Billy Elliot was brilliant and the emotional scenes were acted out to perfection. Plus it has tons of wicked brit dialogue. The Prestige's plot is really smart. It twists and turns and makes you think. Plus it's about magic and has some great themes like self-commitment and revenge.

And watch these videos of Fred. I thought they were really amusing and funny.

Fred on Valentine's Day

Fred on Mayday

2008-05-17T19:39:00.001+08:00

Alright i shall blog! I havent done so in quite some time doubt anyone missed me tho given pecks 1337 blog endurance skills. Had a shitty week, lost half my saturday etc for a lousy briefing which couldve been done on friday when we were doing lets see absolutely nothing. Anyway my vesak day is burninated cuz ill be in my little tanky driving retardos around to blast up targets with grenade launchers and other assorted weapons of tiny destruction. Oh well. :'(

Went for my GIC scholarship interview on monday! Was pretty cool cuz i got called SIR by the receptionist and im just a lowly private XD. Ahh the joys of a meaningless egoboost. Anyway i hope i get it! :D cuz if i do maybe ill become a pwnage investor and i can compete with peck for leet investment deals and we'll can start a new partnership called Lip & Peck just like Drew & Napier or maybe just Lip Peck like Morgan Stanley or Goldman Sachs. Hmm. Then i cud earn tons of money and buy a psp, a camera, an ipod, and a roundtheworld trip to 5 destinations in a row!!!!

K w/e my bookin times 845 on a sunday T_T.

Anyway i dont hav emuch interesting things to blog about, cept that BIOSHOCK the movie is coming out WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. Big daddy and little sisters fwt.

Getting a free copy of assassin's creed soon peck. Heheh that thing looks uber wanna come over for degen seesion one day? Got lotsa stuff to show off

2008-05-14T20:51:00.000+08:00

Hey it's nights out, so the update will be short.

I just listened to this song by Josh Groban called February song. It's lovely. Check out the video

And here's Carry You Home by James Blunt. I like this song better than 1973.

And finally check out this series of pictures How to properly hug a baby. You know how some animal experts tend to say that it's erroneous to interpret/rationalize animal actions in human terms and subsequently treat them like humans? Like me talking to my dog and stuff is "wrong"? NO YUR WRONG MR EXPERT. DOGIES LOVE CHILREN AND GIVES EM HUGGS

2008-05-10T23:05:00.000+08:00

PECKPOST

Well this week has been alright. I've been learning to be a clerk and my superiors are nice people. There's a TV in the bunk as well so I've been getting re-acquainted with channel 5 and 8. Some of the locally produced stuff is pretty shitty. Like Police and Thief. Like seriously bring back the live audience because I don't know when to laugh.

Anyway I saw this notice in the toilet. SAF generally has pretty bad english but the message had an unintentionally witty pun. It went like PLEASE DO NOT SPLASH WATER. OFFENDERS WILL BE SEVERELY DEALTH WITH. What an awesomely unsubtle threat.

Thursday was my dad's birthday so we had a pretty big meal at home on Wednesday (my night's out). He's kinda old. Both my parents are. My mum and I are getting him a godlike camera for his birthday. You know the Canon E450 that's been showing all over TV? Yeah one notch higher. Honestly I don't know if his ability matches that of the camera. He's never been the aesthetic sort with his shots. Like the "omg shift camera angle 2.8 degrees and tweak lighting mode to tungsten for max contrast" kind of photographer. Oh well since he's gonna use it for forever we might as well get him a great one.

And coincidentally tomorrow is mother's day. I haven't had time to get me mum something but I did kiss her this morning in a heartfelt display of affection. Dats right I'm a big softie at heart. I don't just kiss nobody. Tomorrow night we're going to try this buffet at goodwood park hotel so that should be eye-opening. Actually thinking about it now I clean-forgot about my grandma. Hot damn.

So yeah my com just got repaired. I always have a sense of anticipation about com repairs because it always comes back smooth, efficient and faster than before. It's almost like opening a present. Except this time I was in for a rude shock. My Call of Duty stats were all reset :( . The bastards. Do they know how many people I had to kill to get to level 40? It's just plain disrespectful :( .

And today my parents went around to look at some houses. My dad's always looking around for good investment but he seldom ever invests. He's kind of nitpicky but then again I would be too if I were throwing my money someplace. If there's one thing I gleaned from the outing it's that HOLY MOLY HOUSES ARE EXPENSIVE. The recent boom basically brought prices to a whole new, utterly unaffordable level. Bungalows are like housing nirvana because they're damn near unattainable. And I can totally see why condos are hot because the price range is pretty much the ceiling for most professionals.

Yeah my mum and I just finished watching Night Watch. It's this great russian fantasy-action picture that pits Light against Darkness.

The storyline is a little disjointed but that doesn't take anything away from the fact that it had great plot twists and was hugely entertaining. In fact piecing the facts together was far more fufilling in my opinion. My mum wasn't too keen on watching after seeing that it had vampires that drink blood but at the end even she conceded that it was "a little bit" cool. And that's coming from a woman who banned Harry Potter from the household. I'm glad she's so receptive to different genres of film. She's liked I think about 80% of the shows I've shown her - a lot of them with controversial content as well. It's just great when your parents aren't too old-school and stuff. Like when she calls me newb on the rare occasion I laugh and get all happy inside.

2008-05-07T21:20:00.000+08:00

PECKPOST

Hello. I'm currently at home because it's nights out. I need to leave in like 10 minutes? Yeah monday was my NUS scholarship interview. It was alright, except I totally bombed one of the questions. KO. Fatality. They asked me the question and my brain was like ohfucccccccccccccccccck......ok calm down....OHFUCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCK. Kinda panic overdrive. Ah basically I listed 3 qualities I thought a leader should have, then the bochup prof with the -_- face was like can you list one leader that has all 3 of those qualities. Dammit if I had anticipated that question I would have said rich old and wrinkly. Greenspan, Buffet, Trump. Or rich smart and indian. Mittal, Tata, Ambani.

Mm too bad.

2008-05-04T23:20:00.000+08:00

PECKPOST

Yo everyone I found out I got accepted to NUS biz without having to do an interview. So yayayay I didn't have to waste energy. And then I found out that my interview tomorrow is some NUS scholarship interview...which I didn't sign up for. I mean what am I gonna say when they ask me why I didn't sign up. I wuz lazy? That can't be wise.

And anyway I asked my awesome sis to help me get some movies that are hard to find/rent over here. Needless to say it's because most of these movies are R-rated or have controversial content. Or are indies of course.

She's helping me get

Angels in America
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Leon the Professional
Half Nelson
Reservoir Dogs
A History of Violence
Into The Wild

Can't wait can't wait.

2008-05-02T23:01:00.000+08:00

Aiks my com is in pretty bad shape. It kinda crashed about 3 hours ago. As it turned out I had another XP account on the same com and I could backup my files but the rest has been rather disastrous. It's been stockpiling for a while now.

- It can't detect my soundcard at the moment
- It can't detect my earphones
- My speakers are spoilt
- 4 of my USB ports are not working
- My fan is not functioning properly and is making a racket
- I currently have a fundamental registry problem
- Bah I need to reinstall everything again. Like my printer

I've been considering whether to get a new one. Hmm but I know my parents won't be pleased. It's an awkward time because I mostly use it to game. I think I'll try to get it repaired tomorrow. If that fails then I'll ask.

2008-05-02T00:45:00.000+08:00

PECKPOST

Hello. Turns out I got a stay-out job, and then got re-posted to a stay-in job. It's a real pity but that's just life. I'm thankful for what I have already. They said that I could eventually rise up to become a third sergeant. I guess that's some sort of consolation. My rank has never mattered to me but now I should try to see some value in it.

Yeah the geog guys had a gathering today. We went to watch Ironman which was great. Ironman is kinda imba. He can pretty much destroy the entire SAF. I thought that villain could have been cooler and done more awesome stuff like wreak a city or break people in half but still I was thoroughly entertained throughout. I highly recommend it.

After that we went for dinner and just talked cock at that nice seafront area at vivocity. There were plenty of empty spaces. Mm just chilled out and stuff. It was nice to see AL again after so many months. I'm just so at ease talking to this group of dudes. We're so diverse but yet we somehow fit in comfortably.

And here is COLDPLAY's NEW SINGLE. Violet Hill. On first listen I was a little taken aback by the vibrancy of the song but it has really grown on me. I totally love it. The loud rocking beat of the first 2 1/2 minutes makes the last half a minute sound so damn good (not that the loud rocking beat ain't awesome because IT IS).I rarely buy original CDs, but I'm buying their new one just like I bought X & Y. And apparently Coldplay is providing a free download of the song at the their website for one week. So check it out here

Violet Hill

2008-05-02T00:28:00.000+08:00

Check dis out dis cool i want to stab like that dude. he has kickass name he is called altair

2008-04-29T20:09:00.001+08:00

PECKPOST

Hey everyone. The first trailer from The Dark Knight has been leaked! However it's very poor quality.

I would prefer to see it in high quality before I make a judgment of it but it has definitely revved up my interest for TDK. It's a great trailer. Heath Ledger looks to have put a different twist on The Joker (originally played by Jack Nicholson) and I am digging the grittier portrayal of the villain. Hopefully it's a worthy swansong.

And if you're interested, Guillermo Del Toro has given his first official interview as The Hobbit director and confirmed that Ian Mckellen and Andy Serkis will be back for the film. You can check out his interview here

And btw I am DYING to play GTA IV. But I don't have a next gen console so too bad. It's scoring perfect scores all over the place.

2008-04-27T11:45:00.000+08:00

PECKPOST

Hey everyone. Yeah my parents are back from shanghai and apparently they had a smashing time there. They went to old shanghai, shopped like mad and watched some craptastic zhang yimou musical. Well you know holidays are never bad but lately I've been trying to convince them to go to more awesome countries outside of asia. Like really just go to some exotic place like babylon (wait, does that still exist anymore), egypt or machu picchu or something. Like just someplace LESS CHEAPSKATE. They're kinda old school people that are into the whole I-am-frugal-hear-me-roar thing but sometimes it's just plain ok to splurge on a really great experience.

Yeah and anyway I got accepted to SMU and NTU business. Thank god for that but I'll try to get into NUS first before actually thinking about the choices before me. I'm really quite open to having an undergrad education in singapore before going overseas for my post-grad. It saves a lot of money for my parents - of which some could trickle down to me for other purposes e.g. investment. Anyway I talked to my sis about it last night. Well apart from the fact that 95% of the conversation was spent joking and laughing, she gave some rather reassuring advice. It's nice to know your sister in stanford doesn't tell you going local is for teh luzz or eagerly point out that I have like sasquatch boots to fill. She'll be coming back for 2 months in june for her PSC internship so it'll be nice to see her.

Well today was kinda boring. I went for this NTU high tea thing which was ok. I don't mean to sound cynical, but I haven't been particularly impressed by NTU in anything apart from their uni ranking and credentials. Imo NUS still has a better brand name and I have been more impressed by their presentations/interactions than the former. But still I'm undecided.

After that I went for a buffet dinner at the club. It's not a great buffet but we had to use up a voucher. I felt kind of bored so I did shameless things like kopping tons of MnM toppings to eat on their own, scrapping off the crispy top layer from the bread and butter pudding and trying yeow char kuay with butter. My grandma had a great time tonight. She was eating heartily and everything. I know sometimes I get so very impatient with her but I'm really happy when she's happy. There's nothing like seeing her eat a ton and then smiling and saying she's gonna explode in hokkien. Haha later on she was like how much was the meal and then I wrote $3 000 000 on the napkin and her eyes nearly popped.

Yep thats all then. Hope I get a stay out job.

2008-04-26T09:56:00.000+08:00

The Dark Knight poster kicks my ass.

2008-04-20T20:40:00.000+08:00

Hi people my grandma has been nagging me all weekend. She's relentless. And loud.

Yeah anyway Donnie Darko is probably the first movie to TOTALLY frazzle my brain. I was pretty much clueless as to what was going on and the significance of just about anything in the show. Wiki revealed there was a predestination paradox in it and that was when I knew I was a goner. Intellectually pawned and humiliated. -sniffle- .

And I just gotta post up this pix of Hugo Weaving from the Wolfman set. Is it just me or is this the first time he has looked human? Mr. Smith, Elrond, V...well I still think he's one of the coolest actors around.

And check out these new pictures of Australia starring Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman. Is it beautiful or issit beautiful.

2008-04-18T23:20:00.000+08:00

PECKPOST

Mmm got to book out on thursday night and it felt pretty damn good. Freedom is coveted in these times and when it comes in these surprise packages it feels almost surreal because it's the anal army we're talking about.

Yeah my parents left for shanghai today for a week-long holiday. Some time ago memum was just like 'oh btw we're gonna go to shanghai for holiday'. I was like woah thanks a bunch mum -_-. To add insult to injury, yesterday she was taunting me over how she's gonna eat huge soup-filled dumplings. I responded by saying I'd run riot with the household finances while they were gone. Then she said 'in dat case I won't leave any household finances'. Aiks pwned.

Ah last week I watched The Usual Suspects. It messed up my mind. Go watch it it seriously kicks ass.

2008-04-17T23:41:00.000+08:00

Check out cool screenshot from ingame world in conflict cinematic. woot

2008-04-13T21:26:00.000+08:00

Gah I can't pinpoint the reason but I hate uni talks and any discussion about which uni I should try applying for. I just hate it with a vengeance and it puts me in a pretty fucking bad mood. Common sense tells me it's because it's a hassle and I'm a lazy arse. But it's more than that. Mm I should put my vegetated mind to good use and think this through.