Poke My Mon!

What I plan to spend my money on this year:

2012-02-03T21:35:00.000+08:00

1. Apple iPad 3 (when the initial few months of mad crowds and persistent out-of-stock-ness has subsided and I find something to do with my iPad 1 - I just want the retina screen and something thinner and lighter!)

2. Blackberry Bold 9900 (or some other new fancy phone that will replace my iPhone 4 once my plan ends in June)

3. Apple iTouch (assuming I change to a Blackberry, I'd need something small to take over all those apps on my iPhone that cannot be replicated on the BB. Although I do currently have one already, it's an old model and, on top of not having a camera and retina screen, the battery life is ridiculously bad now)

4. Sony NEX-5 (been wanting to switch to a micro 4/3s camera for quite a while now and, after scouring through several reviews, this one looks to have the best image quality - and looks pretty good too! It's really expensive, though, and kinda low in my priority list of would-likes, so it probably won't land up in my hands)

5. Trip to Australia (one of my besties is getting married over there so we're flying over - and climbing a mountain - to attend her ceremony! ~~So expensive means no ang bow for the newlyweds ok!~~ So, since I'm there, I'm planning to go on a tour around the country with good ol' Xiang Wei and check out prospective grad schools. This is going to be the main, confirmed, wallet hemorrhager)

6. Speaking of wallets, I've also been looking for one forever! I apparently have tremendously quirky tastes because, after trudging through several malls, I have yet to find one that looks sturdy but presentable, has a coin pouch and is in a price range that won't bankrupt me and totally negate my need for one. Anyone have any suggestions?

I'm pretty sure there are going to be loads of other things that will continue to fill this list. Of course, I'm not some insane spoilt ~~impulsive~~ (this one I totally am) brat so I'm not going to kill myself getting every single one of the above (except for the Aussie trip, which is pretty much confirmed). I'm actually quite content with what I already have (and rightly so). Still, it wouldn't hurt to have some things to save up for, no? Or, GET SPONSORSHIP FOR WHEN/IF MY BLOG INEXPLICABLY BECOMES FAMOUS?

Dong dong chiang!

2012-02-01T01:19:00.000+08:00

A thousand apologies for the lack of updates again!

Unlike previous semesters where the first few weeks were for coasting and the action (i.e. intensive readings...reading and writing) only started to pick up when tests and essays drew near, this semester has been blaring from the get-go.

I have somehow, through my infinite wisdom, managed to pick a combination of modules where I have to be studying almost every day just to keep up with the readings I need to cover before class (and not in the I'm-so-studious-and-prepared way, but more like a I-need-something-to-say-in-class-if-not-I'll-forfeit-my-participation-points way).

Still, nonetheless, I have decided to take a break from all that studying ad nauseam to do a ~~short(ish)~~ (not that short after all!) post! And because I~~'m kinda lazy and don't want to write too much~~ know you all love photos, this is going to comprised mainly of my CNY shots!

WARNING: PIC SPAM AHEAD

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The action started on the Sunday before the first day a.k.a. CNY Eve, with reunion lunch at my maternal grams'...


The sumptuous spread whipped up by my grams' and her domestic worker. I always love eating there!


My grams' vegetarian dish, which has been a favourite of mine since I was a kid.


The cereal prawns the domestic worker fried (baked?). Notice something?


The little things at the sides are rabbits, quite intricately (and simply, after looking at it closely, which makes it all the more amazing) cut. Not totally appropriate for the new year but very cute, nonetheless. And as a rabbit, I'm not complaining!

The non-stop dining continued at night, at reunion dinner with my paternal grandparents'...

My (maternal) grandmother's patented yu sheng, which she so kindly prepared for our dinner at my paternal grandparents'. This is one of the dishes that I look forward to every CNY. She's made this into some sort of gastronomical artwork, she has, what with the high-quality ingredients (which she buys in industrial bulk) that are always generous and varied but inexplicably proportionate. Best yu sheng I get the chance to taste every single year.

On top of the incredible yu sheng, which pumped our already-filled, lunch-loaded stomachs to the brim, my grandad also went all out with the steamboat. Since he had moved to this new place a few days' prior, we had decided to forego the usual restaurant mad rush and have steamboat instead. He seemed to have just about cleared the entire steamboat section at some supermarket.

I don't actually have that many shots of CNY itself (which was spent at my maternal grams'), since, despite the fact that I'm such a warm, outgoing ~~nut~~ personality online, I'm actually pretty shy in real life and I thought it'd be kinda weird to be snapping away while entertaining relatives I don't really know all that well. So, you don't get any shots of people or even of the fantastic piles of snacks I was busily scarfing down but you do get a shot of one of my beautiful opening hands at what would turn out to be the main activity of the day...

Ok, so it's not as fantastic as most hands that actually get blogged about, but this is about as good as it gets for me.

Day 2 saw my family and I once again stuffing ourselves silly, this time with my paternal side, at the Sakura buffet at Science Centre. Once again, no photos of non-close family members but here's a shot of some of the food I took (this was actually the first time I was full after polishing off only one plate at a buffet, thanks to the excessive pigging out the past couple of days. So not worth it.)...

In my haste to post this up on Instagram and keep my phone so I don't look like some anti-social child-of-this-generation glued to my phone that all the adults always love to complain about, I, instead of filling in the geotagging manually, tapped the first option on the list, not realising that I was declaring to the world that I was...

...in the girl's toilet. Damn you, random Instagram prankster! And damn you, Instagram, for not displaying geotags in full!

That night, I met up with my BBBHBs for some much-needed catch-up time (despite having spent an enjoyable supper the previous night at West Coast Park's McDonalds with Wai and Kim commiserating about the ugly behaviours we encountered on public transport) and, of course, more food...

And finally took some shots of actual people!

With the unglam (but free!) tub that we had used to lao our yu sheng...

Sans unglam tub but with uneven lighting...

And finally a shot that everyone was happy with!

Although my CNY this year felt pretty short because I only spent time at my maternal grams' for a day (instead of the usual two) and school/work started for everyone on Wednesday, it was still a pretty awesome time of food, fun and catching up. Oh and on Friday, my cell had another yu sheng lao-ing and, while I don't have photos of that (because how many pictures would one need of randomly coloured messes that look like a unicorn got nauseous anyway?), I do have one of the entire cell (that was present), taken with the camera perched precariously on Yi Hang's staircase...

Ok, so this post ended up being way longer than I expected. And this is one of my first mega photo spams too! I feel like such a pro blogger now, only without the huge readership/amazing photoshopping/advertorials/comments. Still, for all the five of you who read this (and not even regularly)...

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR! HAVE A BLESSED YEAR AHEAD!

In 2012, I resolve (goal) to...

2012-01-03T18:41:00.000+08:00

As I was ~~pottering around not thinking of any resolutions~~ busy attempting to end my year well this past week, I came across this article which highlighted the difference between goals and resolutions. Basically, goals are specific achievements/events that operationalise a target state (e.g. "I want to drop 45kg by the end of the year") while resolutions are more permanent changes to our lifestyles that don't stop once we reach a certain target ("I will eat greasy foods only twice a week").

The article mentions that goals are great for causing happiness (witness my joy when I realised that I had fulfilled several of the larger goals I set for myself last year), but that they can also be easily discouraging unless the setter is able to determine which life changes should be goals and which should be resolutions. The key, apparently, is to only set goals that are attainable (which I'm apparently good at, given my track record from last year ~~or maybe I'm just good at sandbagging~~). Also, they should be limited in number so as not to overwhelm or detract focus.

Thus, without further ado, here're my (attainable, limited number of) goals and resolutions for this coming year!

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Goals

1. Read at least 35 books (in 2011, I barely reached the halfway mark to my goal of 45, and this year seems like it's going to be even busier)
2. Save at least S$3600 (it's only S$500 more than last year, which might seem little considering I now have a semi-stable income year-round but I'm anticipating several big, unavoidable expenditures this year and hey, realism is the key word right?)
3. Pass my IPPT
4. Make sure my CAP stays at least at 4.3
5. Get on the Dean's List at least once
6. Run in at least two 10km race
7. Bring at least two non-/pre-believing friends to church/a church event
8. Get promoted from trainee to Grade 1 therapist at work

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Resolutions

1. Do Quiet Time every single day, circumstances allowing
2. Go for a church service every single week, circumstances allowing
3. Go for cell group every single week, circumstances allowing
4. Go for Children's Church every single week (even weeks I'm not serving), circumstances allowing
5. Exercise at least three times a week (at least 45 minutes each time)
6. Eat fried/fast food at most twice a month

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Unquantifiable general things to work on

1. Watch my anger and make sure that I walk away from situations and things that might anger me, and avoid reacting impulsively; also, to watch my words and think before I speak
2. To act/react with love and kindness to every single person that comes my way
3. To make sure that the way I live my life is a good living testimony
4. To make sure that my behaviour in private is congruent with my behaviour in public
5. To practice sound financial planning and control and to not spend impulsively
6. To stop coveting and be content with whatever I have
7. To eat healthily and in moderation

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If you know of these goals and resolutions, do help me stay on track throughout the year, especially if I look like I'm going to forfeit one of them!

2011: A Review.

2012-01-01T23:53:00.000+08:00

This is it! Gabriel's superdupermegaginormousTL;DR review of 2011!

To be honest, as the year was proceeding, 2011 hadn't felt terribly interesting nor memorable. In fact, with the monotony of being firmly in the middle of university life (school changes usually being the major source of excitation) and an ever-increasing work load, I hadn't paid much attention to the year at all while it was going on (unlike some other years marked by distinct life changes like, say, enlistment).

Once I actually set about thinking about the events of the past twelve months, though, it became increasingly clear that not only had a lot taken place, but several of them were of a generally positive nature and that my blessings had been pretty bountiful.

So, what did I do in 2011?

In 2011, I...

-Joined two ministries in church (from a starting point of...zero)

I first took up assistant cell leadership in my own cell (which later became full co-leadership in the second half of the year) and also began to help out in the children's church and both roles have been tiring but ultimately fulfilling as well. Plus, I've been blessed to work with lots of people who are passionate about serving Christ and so talented in so many ways.

And, it's really true what they say: God blesses you in other ways when you serve - though I had never been as busy as this past year, I also enjoyed the best results I've had in my NUS life up till now. Which brings me to my second point...

-Did pretty decently in school (by my, admittedly middling, standards)

While I still ended the year firmly ensconced in the second-upper honours range (which, while not actually all that spectacular, is pretty much all I can muster), I did get a first-class average for the two semesters I had taken, not to mention bumping my A count (and finally in psychology modules too, finally proving to myself that I'm not adequately proficient only at everything outside of my major). I'm finally Asian! I don't actually have any idea how I did it because I totally approached everything the same way I had done for the two years prior.

Still, to all freshies and sophomores struggling in school and thinking that you missed your best chances for decent grades, it gets better!

-Had a pretty kickass Chinese New Year

Four consecutive days worth of activities, including mahjong, relatives, snacks, cell visitations and the zoo! Infinitely more exciting than CNYs of yore.

-Survived my first ICT

Admittedly it was only a four-day reservist consisting almost entirely of administrative headaches but still, that's one cycle down. Nine more to go!

-Chaired a camp committee

Prior to heading the camp committee for my church's young adult camp, I had never ever even helped out in any way in any camp before. In fact, I've pretty much been allergic to camps all my life and have fastidiously avoided them at all costs. Still, the experience was an exciting one filled with challenges and was definitely an eye-opener. Not something I'd ever touch with a ten-foot pole again but definitely something I'm going to remember for a long time.

Thank goodness I had a fantastic committee (who, admittedly, did about 95% of the work but hey, leadership is all about delegation!) and thank God that the camp itself went pretty smoothly and that everyone had a ~~great~~ enjoyable time.

-Got my first permanent part-time job

Ever since I had heard about this behavioural therapy (for autistic kids) job from Rhonda several years back, I had been wanting in on it. It's entirely relevant to my field of education (not to mention the exact aspect of it I want to specialise in professionally), provides lots of real, practical experience and I get to (hopefully) help children grow up more adjusted as well! Plus, it pays decently too. So, when I heard from her that there were vacancies (and that I finally had the adequate qualifications for it), I leapt at the chance and passed the interview! It's been a challenging ride so far and I'm pretty far from perfect but it has definitely been a huge learning experience and I can only hope it gets even better.

-Made some pretty big purchases

I've never been one for practicing much financial restraint and, while I didn't add any game console to my (needlessly expansive/expensive) collection this year, I did get myself a spanking humongous guitar (which has, alas, been banished to a decrepit corner of my room) and the Amazon Kindle (which has received a considerably higher amount of attention).

-Ran in my first race in two years

Nike Run 2011, oh yeah!

-Went for my first holiday with friends since Taiwan (WHICH WAS BEFORE NS)

A six-day eat-shop fest in Hong Kong with the cell group members which proved to be pretty bad-ass. Pictures and a recap of my trip coming soon! It was a pity, though, that my fragile, old self fell so deep into sickness that my memory of the week following my return to Singapore is tinged by a mucus-y haze.

-Caught up with plenty of old friends

Too many friends and too many occasions to name, but you know who you are.

-Made plenty of new ones

From cell mates like Jasmine (who gave me the most awesome present ever) to project group mates like Irene, Selene and Michelle to my brutha' from another mutha' Xiang Wei, it's been a year of awesome fellowship and I pray that 2012 will be even better.

Oh, and I came back here!

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Resolutions for 2011 (completed ones in bold, partially completed ones in italics):

-Read 45 books
-Save $3000 (haven't closed my budget for last year yet but, if I'm not wrong, I'm actually in deficit so this was pretty much a farce)
-Pass my IPPT
-Do quiet time every single day, circumstances allowing
-Go for church service every single week, circumstances allowing
-Attend every single cell group meeting, circumstances allowing
-Join a ministry in church
-Bring at least three friends to church
-Run in (and complete) at least two 10km race
-Get on the Dean’s List at least once
-Stay in the second upper honours range
-Get a cumulative cap of at least 4.3
-Go overseas for a holiday at least once
-Finish a beginner’s tennis course
-Finish an intermediate tennis course
-Finish a beginner’s Japanese language course
-Finish a beginner’s vocal training course
-Eat fast food no more than twice a month (some months I did it; others were trainwrecks)
-Exercise at least three times a week, circumstances allowing
-Get a semi-regular part-time/freelance job

So, while I didn't fulfill every single resolution, the ones that I did were pretty huge, no?

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Looking back at 2011, it's been a way wilder ride than I seem to remember (I guess being really busy actually softens the general stress of the year) and, while I'm sure there were times that were less than pleasant, the fact that I can't remember any huge boo-boo moments on hand while being able to think of so many huge blessings would point to the notion that, overall, 2011 had been pretty awesome.

I can only thank God for all the wonderful blessings He has heaped on me and pray that in this coming year, as I continue to seek and serve Him, that He will draw me closer to him and meet my needs the way He has done the past year and that I'll be able to do greater works for Him.

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ps. I wanted to do photo montages for several points I made above but, seeing as it's already 2012 and I'm already running so late for this post, you'll just have to make do with individual photos from several of my friends' Facebooks as well as from past entries on my blogs. I'll do a better (and earlier) job next year, promise!

What the past semester has come to.

2011-12-20T12:55:00.000+08:00

So, the exam results for the past semester were released this morning. Having been pretty nervous about receiving what I was sure were going to be subpar results (I had left an entire essay question blank in one of the modules!), I tossed and turned the whole night, drifting in and out of sleep, jumping every time my phone vibrated with what would invariably turn out to be some discount-coupon email.

And then...I totally slept through the actual SMS with my results.

Still, here they are:

Pretty surprising and unexpected, especially for social psychology (the afore-mentioned essay-free exam transcript I submitted)! The previous semester, having gotten slightly more As than usual (i.e. I actually had some), I had joked that my goal this semester would be to not get Bs and lower. Little did I know that I was apparently prescient!

Alas, my CAP for this semester is probably still not enough to land me on the Dean's List (since it's, if I'm not wrong, exactly the same as my CAP for last semester) but I'm not complaining, especially since I expected so much worse.

Of course, the credit definitely isn't mine. Praise the Lord for His providence and blessing!

How I met bankruptcy.

2011-12-12T21:59:00.001+08:00

APOLOGIES FOR THE LACK OF UPDATES! I came back Hong Kong about a week back but have been sick ever since and, with different symptoms manifesting every day since, I've literally been too tired to even do much on the computer other than stare vegetatively at some show or other.

Look out for a huge-ass HK post (or perhaps several smaller-ass ones) coming soon but for now, here's a look at why I'm so ridiculously broke this month!


Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom from Jipaban's Black Friday sale - about S$43. At least S$2 cheaper than from anywhere else, with free shipping!

All those expensive entrance fees in Hong Kong, not to mention all the food and daily stuff. More on that coming soon!

My shopping haul from HK: a black Eastpak-ish backpack, a...man-tote thingy from H&M, some shirts and a cardigan from the Esprit outlet at Tung Chung, the entire range of basic polos from H&M (so much cheaper than in Singapore!), a cheap iTouch case, a Nike coin pouch, a Starbucks tumbler which I've been wanting to get for a while (again, cheaper than back home) and two pairs of sneakers from Crocs outlet (yes, Crocs, judge away!)

And...my most expensive load of all. An expensive Kindle case (not to mention the Kindle itself, which has been in my hands for barely a few months) and several blu-rays from the Amazon Black Friday Sale. I haven't even paid my friend for these yet but the shipping alone looks like it'll kill. Oh well, that's if the fever I'm having now hasn't had its chance by then.

Righteo, until the next time, stay tuned!

Maniacal about pasta.

2011-12-01T01:00:00.000+08:00

After the busy day I had (more on that in the last post), not to mention the fact that I had just showered after getting my hair ~~cut~~ shorn, I refused to head out for dinner and convinced my mum to order in instead. Since I'm not touching fried food till Hong Kong (because exam period has already left me so heaty), we had to settle for Pastamania (which my mum likes anyway), which I'm not totally a fan of but which I don't abhor. ~~Anyway, mum was paying for it.~~

The online ordering process was a breeze to work through (even faster than the McDonald's one) and I placed my order within a few seconds. An annoying thing, though, is that there was supposed to be a verification email sent to me but I never got one and had to call a hotline and then got redirected to the West Coast Plaza branch to check up on my order. Plus, for the fact that my place is so near WCP, they sure took a pretty long time (about 1 hour 15 mins, if memory serves). The packaging, itself, was quite cute though.

When I saw the packaging, I was a bit disappointed. I remembered that, for a period of time, the pasta and sauce were served separately and it looked like they were back to serving it together (which would have made it all soggy and gross by the time it reached me). Upon closer inspection, I noticed the two separate...notchy thingies in the cover.

They still come separately! They're just packed together into one package, which is kinda cute. Amazingly, despite taking so long, the sauce (gravy?) was still pretty warm.

I don't know whether if it was just because I was hungry, but the pasta tasted way better than the usual fare I expect from Pastamania. Plus, I remembered that the last time I had it delivered, there was barely enough sauce to even cover all the pasta and it ended up tasting distinctly homemade (my version of homemade, which is a terrible standard to match). This time, however, there was so much sauce that my spaghetti (which was a deceptively filling serving) was swimming in bolognese and I even had excess after I had finished the portion! The pizza, alas, was a tad soggy by the time I got to it.

Still, this ended up being way better than any delivery from Pastamania had any right to be.

ps. This is not an advertorial for Pastamania. They genuinely seem to have improved!

Busiest day of the month.

2011-11-30T23:04:00.001+08:00

Normally, the day of my final exam for me would involve furious memorising right up till the moment I step into the examination hall, followed by an immense period of doing nothing much at all and just chilling for the rest of the day after.

Today, though, was a bit different. After my 9am paper, I headed almost straight for work (work! Right after my final exams! I feel so...industrious. Like those inspirational Kitchen Soup stories about poor university students taking on a gazillion jobs to make ends meet but somehow still making first class honors...only without the gazillion jobs and first class honors), stopping along the way to have lunch, pick up some stationery and return a book for my mum at the library and borrow more. The rest of my day went something like this:

Ok ok, I know that most of those tasks I checked off don't actually require all that much effort or time but it's still a pretty monumental list considering how sloth-like I usually am! I even got my hair cut!


For once, the dude at the salon took heed of what I asked for and cut it really short! Good value for S$2.40 but I'm not sure it was the wisest choice to head to Hong Kong looking like an army recruit. And yes, those are my swim trunks in the background. This is so gonna go viral and end up on one of those Failblog sites.

As you can see, I'm attempting to finish the last item on my list now before having some R&R before a day of packing tomorrow and flying off!

Hopefully this will tie you all over till I get my wifi connection in HK or come back to Singapore!

Welcome, welcome!

2011-11-25T22:47:00.001+08:00

So, in case the point of the previous post wasn't clear, I'm now back here for all my blogging adventures (or, to put it more aptly, my blogging mundanities)! Two years ago, I coughed up some for my very own domain and webhosting but it didn't work out so here I am, back at where I belong.

I'm really glad to see that Blogger has undergone a huge makeover since I last used it and it's looking pretty cool now (loving the whole Google cross-app aesthetic synchrony, even if my Gmail layout is currently a hot mess) so I'm pretty excited to use it.

So far, this blog is looking pretty sparse ('cept for the backlog of embarrassing entries from years back) and simple, and it looks like it might stay like this for a little while longer since I'm still having exams (and will be jet-setting off to Hong Kong for a much needed vaykay straight after) but, not to worry! It'll all be set up in the coming few weeks.

In any case, welcome to my ~~new~~ ~~old~~ new blog and I hope you'll stay with me for the ride! Also, stay tuned for entries about my escapades in ~~The Pearl of the Orient~~ ~~The Jewel of the Seas~~ The Land of Eating and Sleeping!

ps. I know some of you are just yearning to read some of the posts that I've made in the past two years and, since my hosted blog will close mid-December, I've imported all my two years' worth of posts to my old, free Wordpress blog. Tried to import it here but apparently the file size is too big. So, go check it out there if you ever feel like reading one of my undeniably witty, delectable literary nibblets!

And so...

2011-11-12T15:18:00.001+08:00

...the prodigal son returns.

The last one.

2008-01-28T20:16:00.000+08:00

I have to admit. I'm not Mr Brown, I'm no Mr Miyagi and I definitely am not Xiaxue (or even Xialanxue, who admittedly garnered several page views as well).

Back 30 posts or so, I decided to venture into blogger (after having left this service years ago) because, despite the secondary school tween feel to it, the system offered me a chance to earn money from my typings through nuffnang (which promised adverts if your daily readership is over 20 unique hits and money earned from displaying these ads).

After a few months of blogging here, it's quite obvious that I will probably not be earning any money from this little writing thing of mine.

I guess maybe it's cause my content is not sensational (because I'm a coward at heart and because I, like, seriously apathetic towards anything remotely resembling adult and mature), my life is mundane (and that's all I blog about because, for me, my blog is a journal of my life, not an outlet for me to vent my as-yet-non-existent political/philosophical/whatever-other-cheem-thing feelings) or maybe my writing just plain sucks (I have to admit, my English has deteriorioieroated tremendously since I've started serving the nation).

Whatever the case, my daily readership tracker on nuffnang has shown pretty dismal results since the beginning of this blog and, for the last week or so, no one had visited this blog at all (which means I'm now writing to air, which is kinda weird).

Thus, I have decided to stop trying to make my blog some kind of commercial venture which I can earn money from and get loads of sponsors and what not. Perhaps someday I'll be able to maintain a website with an immense readership and amass some fanatical groupies but for now, I guess I'll just be realistic. It's not about the money; it's about my cathartic rambling about my uninteresting life.

While blogger offered me the chance to earn money (a chance which I'll admit I haven't grabbed particularly well) and wordpress offered me a host of cool features, I think at the end of the day, the most appealing blogging service is still livejournal. True to its name, it gives a very diary-ish feel, has loads of customizable options of its own, comes with some pretty nifty features (hello, friends filter and fake cuts) and, of course, communities.

So, since I never truly left LJ (I continued visiting it daily, if only to read my friends page, with all the updates from all the communities I'm in) and I guess it's time to go back.

2008-01-26T12:12:00.000+08:00

97 words

Touch Typing

2008-01-25T21:52:00.000+08:00

It was supposed to be yet another Federer vs. Nadal finals, especially for the Fed looking at the way he's been blazing through the rounds so far. Alas, out of the final four, these were the two who did not make it to the finals. As a great Federer fan, it's quite sad to see him get deterred from breaking Sampras' record (and kena beaten in straight sets some more). Still, since Novak is my second fave touring male, I'm all Team Djokovic! Haven't seen that Jo-Wilfried Tsonga play before but I'm all for anyone who can beat Nadal (who I can't stand). So, er go Team Tsonga too?

A very unexpected finals but oh well. At least the winner will be someone new.

2008-01-23T19:38:00.000+08:00

Ok so it actually turned out much better than I expected. Granted I still failed by a lot of and there're still some stations I can't clear (or at least clear totally) but I've managed to overcome my biggest obstacle (which everyone else has been able to do from the start) as well as clear some which I'd never thought I'd be able to.

And this comes after not having gone for SOC training for several weeks. But anyhow, woo for today's random surprise improvement (or, more likely, huge amounts of luck)!

Definitely won't pass the test this Friday but here's hoping it'll be good practice and that I'll keep improving and not deprove back to my embarrassing state.

***

This Saturday, Converse sale!

***

In sad news, I read that Heath Ledger, star of Brokeback Mountain and portraying Joker in the upcoming Batman movie, has been found dead in his apartment. It's sad. Such a young talent gone out so early in life. Leaves behind a wife and a young daughter some more.

2008-01-22T20:55:00.000+08:00

There are times in the army that really make me feel shitty about myself.

I'm pretty bobo (aka totally useless) when it comes to anything physical, a point which has been highly emphasized in my life so far as a soldier.

I still can't clear my IPPT (when friends who entered army failing like me have now gone to get silvers and golds) and not for lack of trying; I barely (and I mean barely) passed my ATP and CCT packages, both of which are supposedly pretty easy to pass; I'm not terribly great at driving my AFV and even worse at maintaining and servicing it; and even when it comes to simple things like folding a smart 4 just the right way or wearing my beret without making me look like a failed chef, I'm quite terrible at it.

And tomorrow morning, I'm going to have to go through my most hated activity (and the one, of course, that I'm the lousiest in) for the first time in weeks and, to ice my poisonous cake, I'm going to have to embarrass myself in front of many, many people, including some of my new sergeants, none of whom have seen me "in action" before.

Awesome. Just awesome.

2008-01-20T00:18:00.000+08:00

It's been a really excellent day, filled with little surprises, a fair bit of fun and lots of cheap bargains. For your viewing pleasure, here was my accidental-cheap-spends-day:

-After a particularly punishing gym session for IPPT training, I reached home only to engage in several matches of Wii tennis and then real tennis with Rhonda and Wai. Terrible game (at least for me). Don't think my lack of any form of tennis skill has ever been so ridiculously evident as today. My arms ache even now.

-Headed down to IMM with Wai to meet up with Yu Fen. We waltzed around Giant(s?), getting awestruck by the amount of cheap and good (we presume) stuff one can get there. For example, Fen bought this pack of mini muffins which were fantastic, tasting like fluffy (and, surprisingly, un-jelak) danish cookies in muffin form. The hooker of the deal? Ten of them only cost S$1.99!

-We also saw pretty decent looking bicycles going for S$50+, which is a really attractive deal especially since I've been wanting a bike for quite a while (although, realistically speaking, I won't really have much chance to use it so not going to actually act on my spendthrift impulse for once).

-The gang got me belated birthday present in the form of a table fan for my room, which is something we all agree badly needed it. It's now sitting on my platform, cooling the heck of me. While I may have been there for the purchase and thus know the price, I definitely approve since it's a pretty good value-for-money deal. Thanks yeah, pals!

-Took the (free) IMM shuttle bus down to Clementi MRT to meet Adelene for some K-ing. Wai, Adel and I spent the next four hours screaming our lungs (many times almost literally) and the best thing is we had a promotional discount on top of a happy hour discount on top of a student discount!

-For dinner, Wai brought us to this little gem he found in a coffeeshop in Clementi central. Called e-meals (perhaps without the hyphen; can't remember), the set meal they have there includes a hefty serving of rice, copious amounts of (actually really tasty and not too spicy for me) curry sauce, a pretty meaty curry chicken, a sunny-side-up egg (I think. I can never get all the different styles of eggs right) and a taupok drenched in the usual dark soya sauce. The entire meal? Cost S$1.90.

Warning: Long, mundane post ahead.

2008-01-17T20:31:00.001+08:00

So last night I was trying to blog but the cyber corner closed just as I was checking my RSS feeds for the past few days and, alas, my amazing blogging skills were hindered from their true destination!

I was pretty excited about blogging yesterday because I saw an advert in the papers earlier in the day which had me jumping up and down (well, in my mind. Physically I was too busy being tired and aching all over to do any jumping or otherwise strenuous physical activity).

Y'know, I've always wanted a masters, partially (I'm ashamed to admit) because I always felt that a bachelor's degree is so everyone-has-one (not that I'm slamming graduates. I know how much hard work it takes to get a degree and I might not even be able to get one myself) and a phD always felt a bit too over, if you know what I mean (although I would love to get one some day if I had the finances and the brains to). To the superficial teenage me, a masters seemed a good balance between coolness (not too geeky yet not too common) and intelligence. Of course, the fact that a masters degree warrants higher salaries was a huge plus point too.

As I grew up (losing the teenage but, sadly, not the superficial part of me), I came to appreciate the true value of post graduate studies not only as something economically viable and also a sort of IQ status symbol, but also as something to further enhance and better one's self both emotionally and mentally (for doing these kinds of studying is surely taxing). Plus, with the competitive nature of Singaporeans and the ever-increasing need for certification and qualifications, a masters is almost a sure-need to land a cushy job by the time I grow of age.

As everyone close to me would know (especially since I don't ever stop yakking on about it), I hope to someday be a practising clinical psychologist with my own child psychology clinic and a side job as a behavioural psychology researcher. Unfortunately, even as of a few months ago, the highest form of education available for psychology in Singapore (not counting those correspondence courses and private institutions) was a basic degree which, while still respectable, is not enough to warrant me a job as a professional psychologist, or so several people told me.

Nonetheless, I signed on for the degree programme at NUS and, more trying to comfort myself than anyone else, wildly proclaimed that I would complete my degree, hopefully get a scholarship and then go overseas to pursue a masters in a related psychological field. Thus, I would not only get my masters, I would also be able to fulfil my dream of living in a foreign country for a few years!

Of course, realistically speaking, I know I'm not terribly gifted academically (or in any other areas of my life, I realise) and a scholarship is probably wildly wishful thinking, which would mean that, if I really wanted to pursue post-graduate studies abroad, it would prove to be a huge financial burden on both my parents and myself.

And, after typing such a ridiculously long and long-winded diatribe, my point is? Well, just in time (well, actually several years ahead of time) to save the day (and my parents' pockets), the very school which I have signed up for my basic degree course has announced that they would be having their very first masters degree in psychology programme!

Yup, NUS's Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences will be launching their masters programme this coming year. Not only that, it's a masters degree in clinical psychology, which is the most practical (I would imagine) field in Singapore.

I am officially excited (and thinking wishfully again, I'd bet).

***

In other news, I think I've broken my neck, or at least sprained it. It's aching and sore all the time and sometimes when I look downwards (to read lar, sewer-for-brains), I get sudden sharp spiking pains at spots. Eek.

***

In other, other news, I would like to put a tagboard on my blog since the comments feature of this blog seems very lacklustre (not to mention disused, hint hint).

Unfortunately, as I have no doubt demonstrated in the past few months, my intellectual capacity has gone totally down the drain with the lack of any usage of my cerebral material and I have apparently lost the ability to play with html codes the way I used to be able to in secondary school (not that I was any techno whiz then but at least I could put up a tagboard successfully).

So, if any kind soul out there would like to help poor old 20-year-old me put up a tagboard on this blog, please drop me a message somewhere and help me with it. I promise exciting gifts (for ie. a shoutout on the best blog in the world aka pokemymon)!

2008-01-12T18:49:00.000+08:00

After 80 hours of solid gameplay (which included lots and lots and lots of breeding, backtracking and changing of team members and even entire teams), I have finally finished the Elite Four in Pokemon Diamond in which was a supremely anti-climatic battle. But it was cool to see a shiny Pokemon (which has a 1 in 8000+ chance of appearing in any game) in Bertha's team. Just wish it was a wild Pokemon so I could have caught it but ah well. It was even a Pokemon I liked and would have loved to have.

Now, onto the National Pokedex and getting my real all-star team.

eta@9.45pm: National Dex, complete. Woo!

2008-01-11T21:13:00.000+08:00

I hate raised parking lots that are so much higher than the ground. Almost hit a car man. Freaked the hell out of me.

2008-01-11T19:38:00.000+08:00

I've come to realise that the subscriptions I took to Time and Newsweek magazine weren't really great purchasing decisions on my part. Lured by the fancy advertising and speech as well as the it-looked-cool-then free gifts, I am now stuck (and paying huge moneys, including an additional $62 this week, which was definitely NOT in my monthly budget) with two magazines which, albeit well-produced and written, just doesn't pander to my still rather teen-ish magazine literary taste. I'm just not that into current affairs and such.

Plus, I still haven't gotten a single copy from my subscription to National Geographic, which is the only magazine I'm confident, from past history, of actually enjoying. Anyone interested in taking over my subscriptions? I'll give it to you at cost price, minusing off the price for the past few month.

On the plus side, after a hectic morning, I received good news about my work and, on the way home just now, I saw, in one single drive home, two huge rainbows in the rather beautiful, downcast, cloudy skyline. Awesome sight that was.

2008-01-05T19:11:00.000+08:00

This is the best fan-made spoof of any show I've ever seen. Awesome stuff.

2008-01-05T15:19:00.000+08:00

Finally got Pokemon Battle Revolution. And? My well-raised Floatzel single handedly swept (and I mean, swept) a team comprising of Gallade, Salamence and Flygon!

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

In 2008, I will

[Quantitatively]
-Read at least 55 books
-Save at least S$3500
-Finally pass IPPT
-Get a silver for IPPT
-Clear my SOC
-Do my Quiet Time every single day
-Attend church every week unless I have guard duty or some other appointment not within my control
-Be able to play 20 worship songs on the guitar
-Watch a Japanese show and understand at least 30% of the native dialogue
-Make my tummy and love handles disappear

[Qualitatively]
-Learn to control my temper and not get so easily angered/frustrated/irritated
-Be more sensitive and conscious of others' feelings and needs
-Eat more healthily (ie. cut down on canteen breaks)
-Stop procrastinating so much
-Stop staying up late for no reason and sleep more
-Be more conscientious in my work and stop making so many careless mistakes
-Practice sound financial planning
-Be contented with what I have and stop always hankering for more
-Learn to think before I speak
-Learn to think, period

In 2008, I will actually try to keep my resolutions.
HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

2007-12-31T21:20:00.000+08:00

In 2007, I

[1st half Of year a.k.a. Bye bye NP]
-Started the year as a busy polytechnic student serving my attachment with TriMedia Publishing, rushing out an issue of Hype magazine as well as editing and managing the online portal UrbanWire
-Got my driver's license (Class 3A) on my second try (yes, I am that lousy at driving, apparently), unaware of the fact that later in the year I would get a whole different type of driver's license
-Started to work with ns.sg, blogging on a weekly basis on their ns40 portal
-Went to Naruwan for some scenery-ogling and celebrity-stalking (alas, the latter was a failure) with Lynn and Grace
-Graduated with a diploma with merit as well as an SPH journalism award (hey I don't get to blow my trumpet often since I don't have much...erm...trumpets to blow so just allow me this one time ok?)

[2nd half of year a.k.a. Becoming Defender of Nation]
-Got into Orion company in BMTC
-Made a pretty awesome group of friends (a.k.a. Platoon 3 Section 4; special shoutouts to Kenneth, Wee Siang and bed buddy Wei Hong!)
-Underwent (apparently) gruelling physical and combat training
-Passed out in a relatively smooth parade (especially compared to what I've heard from some of my friends about their POPs)
-Got posted first to the navy and then back to the army, to 40 SAR, Keat Hong Camp in particular
-Learnt to be an AFV operator (a.k.a. driver) before getting transferred from Cougar coy to Bn HQ
-Attended Bronson's wedding

[Tech-talk]
-Got my DS Lite (can't remember whether this was late '06 or early '07)
-Got a new camera, Casio EX-Z1000
-Got my PSP Phat (at a price that I could have gotten a PSP Slim at just three weeks later, I might add)
-Got a Creative Zen 8gb (which I'm still trying to sell, any takers?)
-Went back to Apple and got the iPod Classic 80gb
-Cancelled my (terrible) Starhub internet connection and signed up for a Singnet broadband line instead (which I now hear is, following in Starhub's footsteps, giving a free upgrade from 6mbps to 8mbps next year so yay that!)
-Got the Nintendo Wii I've always dreamt of as a freebie from signing up for the line
-Got a new phone, got another new phone, got a third new phone and sold that one and the first one

[Go figure]
-Read 43 books (top of the list? Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner)
-Watched 34 movies
-Changed blog twice (yes, only)
-Vomitted once (running up a steep slope and immediately following it with 20 push-ups, 20 crunches and 20 tuck jumps isn't great for the stomach, I tell you)
-Can do 4 pull-ups max (again, yes, only)
-Have spent more than S$5000 (I'm sure), most of it on either gadgets or food or impulse buys that I end up regretting, sometimes a permutation of the three

-Had a year with more changes than any other and survived it, a significant feat especially for someone so scared of changes like me
-Had a blessed, wonderful, fun-filled, fantastic year

2007-12-30T01:25:00.000+08:00

Congrats to newlyweds Bronson and Belinda on a smooth wedding and best wishes for a fantastic, God-blessed and everlasting marriage!

***

Walking is really tiring, man.

After the wedding, Aaron and I met up with Wei Jian to catch I Am Legend (surprisingly good, despite all the negative reviews from friends).

When the movie ended at 7+pm, we decided to go get some dessert but because we couldn't decide what we wanted and we had no idea where to go, we went from sauntering around Marina Square to the Bugis library, to Bugis Village then round and round the shops before settling finally for food at Cafe Cartel at 10.25pm. We actually, literally, walked nonstop for a whole three hours!

Totally crazy man. No stopping or even much resting at all. Plus I was walking around in a long sleeved shirt. My legs are aching like mad now man.

2007-12-25T21:41:00.000+08:00

Oh. My. Gosh.

Lucy Hale, my favourite American Junior ever, plays Robin's sister on How I Met Your Mother. That's awesome.

Plus, How I Met Your Mother marathons rock. I watched like 14 episodes today and I didn't even get bored or the usual marathon fatigue I get even when I watch shows I love.

Awesome.

***

Weight after lunch on Sunday: 58.4kg

Weight today before lunch: 58.7kg

Weight today after lunch but before cake: 60.4kg

What the.

Anyway, that's why I just had a wholemeal kaya sandwich, a pineapple tart and a fragrant pear for dinner today. I don't care, I'm gonna run until that weight (and the not-really-from-beer belly) is gone.

And no, it's not muscle weight I put on, contrary to what people keep telling me. Not been doing enough exercise to even keep any muscle, let alone add more.

2007-12-25T00:19:00.000+08:00

To all readers (all three of you),

Have a very Merry Christmas! May you have a blessed day ahead!

For all my fellow siblings in Christ, don't forget to remember the real reason behind why we're commemorating this day! I know I almost did. Heck, I almost forgot it was Christmas at all (in my mind I just kept thinking of these few days as a long weekend break. Didn't truly occur to me that THE Christmas is here).

2007-12-22T10:44:00.000+08:00

The iPod Classic's battery is fawesome.

After watching an entire 1+hour movie and an episode of a(n awesome) comedy (which would have reduced the battery life on my iPod Video from full to a barely-there red sliver), the battery indicator was still going at a solid 70% green. Woo!

2007-12-20T22:55:00.000+08:00

Woohoo! This has been a great two days for my gaming life.

First the Gii, and now? The new Prince of Tennis game for NDS, Driving Smash Side Genius, is out! Woo!

eta. Darn. It seems that, unlike the previous game which was a very straightforward tennis fighter with helpful English texts, this one has much more features and RPG-ish elements and, unfortunately, they are almost all in Jap except for random snatches here and there. This is one of those times I really wish I had endured with my Japanese lessons instead of dropping it after the first course.

2007-12-20T17:02:00.000+08:00

I. Am. A. Genius.

Despite the fact that I cannot even connect my computer to the internet properly, I have somehow managed to connect my ~~Wii~~ Gii to the Singnet broadband connection using the wifi function. Go me!

Now I can shop for old classics on the Virtual Console! (Not that there are many games I would pay money for. Just wish they had Gamecube games as well).

eta (@9.41pm): Yay! I managed to get my NDS's wireless to work as well! (It's supposed to be really difficult to connect it to a Singnet connection but I did it!) For a moment there my NDS and Gii could connect but my computer couldn't but I managed to figure out the reason why and now everything is online!

2007-12-19T22:54:00.000+08:00

"Eee! What's this on my floor?!" my mum demanded. I ran into her room, thinking it was some cockroach or something that I would have the "pleasure" of clearing up. Then, when I first laid eyes on what was on the floor, she gave a small laugh. My mum's awesome. She told me she would collect it on Friday but did so this afternoon to surprise me.

Surprise me with what? Well, lying there on the floor (and later on my room ledge) was the newest member of my family:

The Nintendo Gii! (Yes, I'm still continuing my trend of embarrassing narcisism)

While it didn't come with Pokemon Battle Revolution as I had hoped, it did come with Spiderman: Friend Or Foe and Big Brain Academy, both of which had pretty good reviews. Plus, of course, there's the free pre-packaged Wii Sports.

Amazingly, after I had set it up (super easy to set up so kudos to Nintendo!), I wasn't the one who played it the most. While I dabbled a bit in the tennis and bowling segments of Wii Sports (both of which were dismal), my mum was the one having the most fun, whacking golf balls and hitting spare after spare in bowling with aplomb. Plus, she's much better (and obviously enjoyed it way more than I did) at Big Brain Academy, which is filled with minigames to make the worse of my super addled and lagging brain.

In any case, awesome!

2007-12-15T22:05:00.000+08:00

The awesomeness that is Saturday (part 2):

-Throbbing pain finally went away.
-Internet going at phenomenal speeds compared to last time (although it sometimes does not load a number of pages inexplicably and I have to refresh them).
-Borrowed seven new books from the library, including the last three books in Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising series, another Diane Duane wizarding novel, two Piers Anthony Xanth novels and Tom Parker Bowles' Year Of Eating Dangerously, which I thought I would have to buy since it's pretty new.
-On that same topic, found out that several of the newly released books that I've been thinking of buying are in fact available at various libraries and that, while they're all on loan now, I can just wait for them and thus save money!
-Dinner at gramps was awesome. Every dish was a fave of mine (except for some random vege dish made of cauliflower and weird bean pods) and they all tasted lipsmackingly great. It was further topped off by a fruit dessert of crunchy (if seeded) grapes and super sweet pear slices.
-Went for grocery and toiletry shopping with mum and ended lugging bags of stuff home, most of which are mine. I got a new shaver (which is actually the same as my current one, only not covered in mould and other gross looking substances), a Thirsty Hippo and air freshener for the locker and even some cool Oral B dual action toothbrushes for future use. As you can see, I suddenly find joy in getting toiletries. Watson's turns me on. It's weird.

Later?
-Beancurd from Jollibean for dessert
-Reading of my several books
-Writing of a new ns.sg blog entry
-R&R until bed time

Woo!

2007-12-15T16:56:00.000+08:00

Sometimes having too many gadgets in one place isn't a good idea. Other than the obvious fire safety hazard the many, many, many power plugs etc. pose, there're also other issues like messy (and ugly) wires, too many remotes, the gathering of dust everywhere as well as the question of whether I actually will end up using them.

So today, we had somebody from Singnet come down to fix up our new MioTV set top box as well as our new broadband internet (which I'm using now and which is much more stable, albeit much more expensive, than Starhub's connection. Singnet's price plan is damn lousy but Starhub's connection quality is even lousier.) While the internet connection was set up fine (and I'm proud to say that, techno idiot though I am, I managed to figure out how to set up the damn thing without any explanation from the dude) and the MioTV box too, the phone line (yes, I now have a residential phone line) seemed to have a problem.

Despite the fact that the letter Singtel sent us said that the line would be activated yesterday, we weren't able to make or receive any calls with that number today, receiving number non-existent messages at first followed by engaged tones. So, while mum set about phoning Singtel and asking for help, I decided to make myself useful and use my newly honed techie skills (which, for any other normal person, is probably something that can be picked up instantly but hey, I'm a mass communicator, not an engineer!) to remove the cable TV box from my room and fix it up in my mum's phone, since she watches cable TV way more than me and I have to make space for my incoming Wii anyway.

So while I was at it, I decided to do a bit of advanced spring cleaning (being an NSF doesn't allow much time for cleaning up before the new year yeah) and clear out the gadgets in my room which, while cool to have, are not very much used by me. In my little exercise, I removed my DVD player, the afore-mentioned cable set top box and even my mini hi-fi which was located next to my bed, leaving the official gadget count in my room now down to my PC (which I use for DVDs and music anyway), my laptop and my television (which can only receive free-to-air channels now). Despite the fact that I've moved all the fancy stuff out, however, I feel much better about my room now.

The ledge on which these machines were on now looks much neater and cleaner without all the jutting out gadgetry and horrifyingly messy and dangerous tangles of wires; I have space (not to mention sufficient power points) for my Wii when it comes and, to top it off, I now only have one remote control to be worried about, instead of the previous FOUR. Woo! Cheers to no more fire safety hazards!

It's been a good Saturday man, what with a relaxed but stimulating PT session this morning, the installation of a (promisingly) stable new internet connection, the clearing out of my room and the promise of good food later at my gramps. Now, I'm just hoping for the darn phone line to work (not that I really care about it much, though) and for the incessant dull throb at the back of my head (which has been plaguing me since I came home and which two panadols haven't helped) to disappear.

2007-12-08T23:43:00.000+08:00

So, after a whole morning and afternoon of trying, nearly an entire hour of being forwarded by helpdesk to helpdesk, 20mins of time that Nessi and I will never get back as well as more trying and trying, I finally managed to get the transaction thing to work just that once and I paid for my new iPod Classic 80gb!

Then, more trouble. The one I wanted to get was the black one but Suntec's Epicentre branch told me that they're out of stock and that they would only have new stock next week, which is when I might have to stay in camp and won't be able to collect and the week after might be too late.

So, instead of getting the black, I opted to get the silver one instead (which was what Suntec's branch had in stock). Turned out to be a good choice after all. Just like the previous generation, the black one looked really good at first glance but repeated looks and feels revealed the main flaw - that fingerprints and moisture marks are super obvious on the black one.

Then, after a pretty sumptuous dinner with mum at Muthu's Curry, I headed down to Marina Square to get the dude who did my screen protector installation the last time around (and did a pretty darn good job, I might add) only to find out that the shop has closed for good! So, I had to opt for the almost $8 more expensive but almost identical set of screen protectors from the Epicentre. Thankfully, the dude who helped me install it there was also pretty good at it and there're no air bubbles or anything (which is what I certainly would have made if I tried to do it myself).

Sadly, the $9.90 Bagman pouch I wanted to get for the iPod, which I saw right at the start of the day, from some random shop around the corner from the Epicentre, was unavailable by the end of the day when I wanted to get it because the shop was closed. So damn suay lar. But never mind, I shall go get it tomorrow when I go out.

As you can see, it's been a day of mixed happenings. Good things have happened (a pretty decent tennis game in the morning in good weather, being able to get an iPod again, having a good dinner with mum, getting the screen protector in the end etc.), there have also been some annoyances (like all of technology, like the shop selling the pouch which closed an hour before its supposed closing time etc.).

As you might also be able to see, I'm writing in a rather amatuerish, terribly unpoetic writing style (full of the secondary-school what-I-did-today style of narrative) but that's just cause I'm so knackered from lack of sleep and walking around non stop between Suntec and Marina Sq. the whole day. Do forgive me for the jarring read.

Oh yeah, as to why I decided to change mp3player so soon after I just got my previous one? Well, to cut a long story short, while the Zen is, like I mentioned in my review, a really good mp3 player with a whole slew of excellent features, in the end the allure of the iTunes management system just lured me back. Plus, of course, the fact that this one has like 72gb more space. Oh yeah and cause I finally got the discount I wanted (and which I couldn't get a few weeks back, which is one of the reasons I decided to heck it and get the Zen in the first place) because apparently being a member of DBS iBanking gives a 15% off all iPods this month.

So now I'm looking to sell my Zen for a decent price. Got Wai to help me put up a posting for it on his online site but if anyone wants it feel free to drop a comment here or contact me somehow. Will post up a full post about its features and what I'm selling when I can actually think and write properly.

2007-12-08T11:03:00.000+08:00

Technology (or rather, the internet) really hates me.

Last night, I tried to register my Yahoo! Auctions account to be able to sell items instead of just buying them but for some reason they refuse to acknowledge my credit card number.

This morning, I've been trying to get the iPod Classic 80gb from the DBS iBanking website at a great discount (long story about the new mp3 player; wait for another post) but somehow I keep getting connection errors and stuff. And it's an online only purchase some more.

Plus, I've been trying to access my pay slip online and it refuses to load for me.

Urgh.

2007-12-02T22:09:00.000+08:00

Y'know, every week before I book in, my final few minutes in my house are always filled with melancholy.

For some reason, I have this inexplicably deep sadness whenever I'm just about to leave. And I'm not kidding here. It's not just some oh-I-have-to-book-back-in-again kind of grudging sadness, it's full blown depression.

What I feel every week is akin to the type of feeling you have when you know you're leaving some place forever, like say you're moving to another country (or even another part of Singapore) permanently. Which, y'know, is kind of weird seeing as I'll be back in the house in just a week's time. But still, my mind (and heart) apparently work in mysterious ways.

I don't understand the origin of this feeling but heck, it's damn saddening when I have to have it every single week.

2007-12-02T21:14:00.000+08:00

Random points for a random Sunday night before booking in:

-Virtua Tennis 3 (PSP) is the most awesome game to play when you got time to waste while waiting for a file to finish loading and while waiting for the water to boil so you can cook your instant noodles dinner.

-Sunday nights seriously pass way too fast.

-Using a Creative mp3 player and having to manually manage your files (because the programme they included sucks) just makes you appreciate to the fullest the wonder that is iPod+iTunes synchronisation.

-While I still do think it's a bit overrated (I mean, every review I've heard of it is positively GLOWING), I nonetheless do enjoy How I Met Your Mother quite a fair bit and I think the cast of characters is awesome man. I'm totally a Ted.

Just wish I had a Barney (hilarious and cool best buddy) , Marshall+Lily (cute attached couple who are both good friends with me) and (very importantly) a Robin (super hot and intelligent girl who's into me) in my life.

From left to right: Barney, Lily, Marshall, Robin, Ted

(Picture taken from http://tv.yahoo.com/show/38167/photos/1)

2007-12-01T23:09:00.000+08:00

And so, seeing as I was just complaining in my last post about overeating and putting on weight, irony would have it that this post would be about the fancy new foods that I tried out today. Nonetheless, I will muster on (or should that be mustard on?) and tell you about my gastronomical adventures (one pretty good, one utterly horrid) today.

I'm not sure if I mentioned this before but recently Bukit Gombak has seen quite a number of new food outlets popping up, most notably a Thai takeaway snack stall and a mini food court of-sorts at the MRT station as well as a donut shop (in the vein of Donut Factory et al., only cheapo looking) opposite the road, which got me a little excited. Gombak was becoming more hip!

So, today, after a week of waiting, I decided to head down to the donut shop to try out what they had to offer. Not having much expectations (especially after tasting the "donuts" sold at that donut shop at White Sands), I was pleasantly surprised.

Ok so the box was quite cheapo looking and the name leaves a bit to be desired but, hey, it's what's inside the box that matters most right?

Weijian took the blueberry flavoured one (rather fancifully titled "The Blue Dimple" which, of course, we both immediately referred to as "The Blue Pimple") before I could start snapping but here are the rest. The one on the top left is Coco Crunch; on the top right is the apple flavoured one; the one with the pink swirls I think is some strawberry chocolate thing (not sure since Wei was the one who ordered and ate it) while the with the pangsai-looking white puffs on top are banana flavoured.

Out of those I had the coco crunch, apple and banana ones. The banana flavoured ones, while not having much of a banana taste, still tasted really good, freshly baked and all (or whatever process donuts are made by) and the cream, which I initially thought were decorative and not actually constituting the banana part of the donut's name, slowly leaves a wonderful lingering banana aftertaste as well as a cute (well at least I think it's cute) cream moustache. It's kind of like the donut version of "Got Milk?". Got pangsai-looking banana cream?

The apple one had really cold apple fillings on top, which I'm not sure was the original intent (McDonald's steaming hot apple pie fillings are still the best) and the serving was a bit too generous, to be honest, but thanks to the large serving, it left a very fragrant apple taste on the donut itself which, combined with a thin coating of sugar, made for a delicious-if-sinful few bites.

The coco crunch one, alas, was a bit disappointing. Perhaps it was due to the fact that I ate it last and only after buying it for quite a while, the coco crunch(es?) on the top of the donut were all soft and laohong-ed which is sad, considering they were supposed to be the main star of the donut. The floury part of the donut (aka. the below section), though, was as tasty as the previous two, solid and full but not hard or starchy.

Sadly, after getting all excited about there being an actual good donut shop near home, my mum arrived home with news (aka. gossip) that the shop would be closing down on the 10th. So fast lar! It has barely opened for a few weeks. Darn it man.

For dinner, we (that is, Wei, mum and myself) decided to have some McDonald's delivery (after all, can supposedly win $10k right?) and I discovered that they have some new gourmet meals so we decided to try that.

Mum and I had the grilled chicken chop set while Wei went for a forest mushroom pasta (again, no picture of that cause he started eating it before I even settled down to eat mine).

What can I say? It was quite a horrifying experience.

The chicken, while decently chewy, was deceptively meagre (despite what you see in the picture above, they were actually very thin slices with a substantial part being fat), the gravy was watery and tasteless while the potato slices were way too mushy and tasted distinctly artificial. In fact, both my mum and I commented that it tasted like airplane food. It even comes at airplane food prices! At S$11 per set, it was pretty much a rip-off, man. Should have just ordered a burger or something. The packet of fries that I shared with Wei (for which I paid S$1+ for) was way more satisfying than this atrocity masquerading as chicken chop.

Oh well, guess I'll have to start dieting tomorrow instead. Or next week. Or something.

2007-12-01T01:03:00.000+08:00

Ok I seriously need to stop eating so much.

Due to my new PT schedule (which is way less demanding and frequent compared to my former one), my current work scope (and the nature of my workplace) as well as the much more numerous opportunities I've been given to snack and munch away on unhealthy junk (a blessing, of sorts, that I have exploited to full potential), I have now ballooned (well, where it's most obvious, anyway), am less fitter (not that my original state of fitness was anything to shout about) and have a huge hole in my wallet which comes from me contributing much of my monthly pay to the canteen store owners.

My smart four, which used to fit very snugly and, well, smartly, is now uncomfortably bulging (in, as I mentioned, the most obvious places) and tight. And that's just when I'm standing. I fear that, if I continue this way, some of the buttons might just pop out one day when I sit down.

Need to start enforcing my own food discipline as well as implement a more stringent and tougher OTOT PT programme. (Although, like I mentioned in the last post, my status now is still very unclear and there is a high possibility that, in a week or two, I might not even have to worry about overeating since I might not have the privelege to anymore.)

2007-11-28T20:01:00.000+08:00

Other than having to wake up at an earthly hour, slipping off my vehicle (which has caused a rather painful abrasion on my right arm as well as a huge bruise on my right thigh) as well as a few not-so-pleasant calls in the afternoon, this has had to be one of the best days I've had since I've entered the army.

A PT where I got to be in control of what I wanted to exercise and at my own place, a day full of snacking on unhealthy junk, a more relaxing pace of work (as compared to the killer last few days) where I actually enjoyed the work I was doing and time passed pretty fast and a night off to have a filling, tasty dinner with mum at home.

It's too bad this is probably one of the last times it'll be like this. I have a huge feeling that my current situation is not going to remain so current anymore. But anyway, like what everyone has been telling me, I'll just enjoy it to the best I can while it lasts.

Oh yeah and people! Comment! Don't make me feel like I'm blogging to a non-existent readership (although that might well be the case but hey, gotta be optimistic yeah?) leh!

2007-11-25T21:34:00.000+08:00

Hello, my name is Gabriel.

Whether you have found this blog because you're one of my friends IRL (in real life), was redirected here from my Livejournal or just stumbled here while you were blog-hopping and/or web-surfing, welcome to Pokemymon, the place where I'll be writing down anything of fancy that happens in my (usually very mundane) life or whenever a thought strikes me (which, if you're one of my friends IRL you would know, isn't very often).

Well, whether you know me or not, let me just bore you a little further and give you a brief idea of who I am (why brief? Cause there really isn't that much to me, I'm afraid. What you see is pretty much what you'd get).

As mentioned, my name is Gabriel. That's me in that photo above, trying to be all cool and dramatic (which is something that I do often, mostly in vain). I'm a very normal (or so I'd think) Singaporean Chinese (for any foreign readers, that does not mean that I am, nor is my country, located anywhere in China) who's just left behind my innocent and sweet teenage years (although some of my friends might be inclined to disagree with the adjectives I used) for the prime-of-life 20s.

Having graduated from Ngee Ann Polytechnic with a diploma in Mass Communication a few months earlier, I am currently serving my nation, defending my people, protecting my land (etc etc.) as part of the army. In the (slightly distant) future, I'll be taking the Arts and Social Sciences course at the National University of Singapore, before embarking (hopefully) on a career of child psychology as well as tertiary-level lecturing.

In my free time (which, in recent months, is depressingly low), I like to read and, when the mood strikes, write. I love the young adult, fantasy and comedy genres, my favourite authors (meaning I'll read and rave about any of their books with utter biase) being Terry Pratchett, Piers Anthony and, like most other ex-teens, J.K. Rowling. Of course, while my tastes usually veer to the light and fluffy (I've even a closeted chick and dick lit fan), once in a while I indulge my (limited) intellect and read something a bit more substantial like The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (which, admittedly, isn't even that brain-requiring but hey, if I wanted to read something cheem I would go get a textbook yeah?).

I also occasionally read comics and manga, most notably the Prince of Tennis series, which I was and, still am, very crazy about.

Like most people my age, I also indulge myself, whenever I can, in TV, movies, music and games. To attempt to garner some random readers and lure unsuspecting web-surfers, I am going to just list out some of my favourite shows/movies/singers/games in the hopes that people searching these terms on any search engine would be directed here by their bad luck (see if you can discern, among my list, which are shows, which are singers and which are games): Prince of Tennis, Bleach, Pokemon, Arrested Development, American Idol, 30 Rock, Whose Line Is It Anyway, America's Next Top Model, f.r.i.e.n.d.s., Avatar The Last Airbender, Heroes, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, How I Met Your Mother, Kelly Clarkson, Phantom Planet, S.H.E., Zhang Zhen Yue, Barenaked Ladies, Chris Tomlin, Hillsong, Avalon, Gavin Degraw, Carrie Underwood, Sun Yan Zi, Kutless, Natasha Bedingfield, Liang Jing Ru, Lin Jun Jie, Heroes of Might and Magic, Mario Kart DS, Virtua Tennis.

(Of course, this isn't anywhere near exhaustive a list of my favourites but, off the top of my head, these are what I came up with).

I also profess to having an intense liking for tennis and try to follow major tournaments whenever time (and television channels) allows. Players I love to see in action include everyone's favourite Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Justine Henin and Ana Ivanovic. Being a fan of the sport, I also try to play it whenever I can, although what I purport to be playing as tennis usually doesn't even look anything like the actual sport, being the total untalent I am at sports.

Oh yeah and I'm also slightly obsessive when it comes to order and some people (including myself, at times) have described me as mildly obsessive compulsive, what with my inexplicable need for symmetry in everything I do as well as an almost unhealthy penchant for making lists out of everything I can so don't be surprised to see that some (or many) of my blog entries will be comprised of lists. Hey, if anything, it makes it easier to read right?

Anyway, that's about all that there is to know about me, as far as I can think of, at the moment. So, hope you have an enjoyable time here and do leave a comment once in a while (especially if it's something along the lines of "wow your blog is awesome!!!") if it strikes your fancy!