Justin Jap

Act Chio Only

2011-09-13T09:01:00.001-07:00

I'm so bored I'm resorting to emulating Ah Lians with my version of high-angled duckface camwhore shots. Great start to my trip to Penang lol ;P

Blogger App

2011-09-08T20:40:00.001-07:00

Testing out the new (and long-overdue) official Blogger iPhone App. Seems pretty dumbed down so it shouldn't be too hard to use it. In all honesty though, the only reason that I still have my Blogspot is because there's a sentimental value attached to this damn thing.

Best Summer Superhero Movie Yet

2011-06-05T00:49:00.001-07:00

For a movie that was made within six months, X-Men: First Class surprisingly exceeded my expectations. Maybe it was the lack of marketing, or the fact that when they did market the movie, it seemed as though they passed the job on to amateur, failing design school students (take a look at them here). Either way, it left my expectations for the movie really low. That was probably the biggest reason why the quality of the movie shocked me (in a very positive way).

The Good

Considering that the film was initially planned to be "X-Men Origins: Magneto", much akin to X-Men Origins: Wolverine (watching it was like forcing myself to eat a packet of already-cold fries - soggy, unsavory and ultimately disappointing), it stayed true to its original idea with a strong focus on Erik Lehnsherr/Magneto and his relationship with Charles Xavier/Professor X. The Hellfire Club also finally gets its long awaited exposure to the mainstream crowd, though the choice of characters that made up the club (as well as some of the ones in the X-Men) was questionable, but more on that later.

I think it was genius of the writers to tie the film's storyline with true historical events. What if mutants were realy involved with the Cold War? Imagine that! The 1960s setting also allowed the actors to be decked in stunning, colorful 60s fashion, which is a nice change from the black leather costumes (BORING) that everybody donned in the first trilogy.

Michael Fassbender made the portrayal of Magneto his own with a strategic balance of irascibility and delicacy, a sharp contrast to Sir Ian McKellan's hard and jaded depiction in the original trilogy. James McAvoy's Charles Xavier is equally commendable for the combination of youthful charm with a wizened disposition. The two of them created truly memorable versions of the classic duo, and showed that superhero movies could have a softer side (never have I seen two grown men cry so much on screen). Aside from the two leads, Kevin Bacon, Jennifer Lawrence and Nicholas Hoult as Sebastian Shaw/Black King, Raven Darkhölme/Mystique and Hank McCoy/Beast respectively, gave stellar performances.

Kudos to the producers for putting so many easter eggs in the movie! [SPOILERS: YOU MIGHT NOT WANT TO READ AHEAD IF YOU'RE A FANBOY/FANGIRL AND HAVEN'T SEEN THE MOVIE YET. JUST SAYING. BUT I KNOW MOST OF YOU WILL READ IT ANYWAY SO... MEH. HIGHLIGHT THE BLACK SPACE BELOW TO TO SEE IT.] I had several fanboy moments gasping at the reference to Lockheed (Kitty Pryde's pet dragon) when Moira was staking out in the car outside the Hellfire Club, the appearance of William Stryker (as one of the heads at the CIA lololol wtf), the blink-and-you'll-miss-it shot of little Ororo Munroe during the Cerebro sequence, the surprise cameo of Hugh Jackman as Wolverine (in a Japanese bar, perhaps a reference to the next Wolverine movie?) who provided the best single use of the f-bomb allowed for PG-13 movies, and an even more surprising cameo by Rebecca Romjin (the fan-favorite Mystique from the original movies).

The Blah

For a movie that gave us great male leads, it severely fell short in that aspect for the female actresses. Rose Byrne had three main expressions as Moira MacTaggert: shock, anger, disbelief. Also, WHY WAS MOIRA MACTAGGERT PORTRAYED AS AN AMERICAN? She was one of the few Scottish characters in the comics that really stood out and made an impact in the X-verse (even in her most recent appearance as one of the multiple personalities of Legion - refer to Age of X).

However, that wasn't the worst decision made about the movie. The worst idea was casting January Jones as Emma Frost. After the horrifying association of Emma Frost with Silverfox (as the latter's sister) in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, the producers decided to f*ck with the character even more by giving Jones the leeway to ruin the classic White Queen with her bad acting. Yes, Emma Frost may be a big-tittied blonde in the comics, but she is also the HBIC of all HBICs. She's one of the most manipulative characters in Marvel history and has risen to such high prominence in the past decade that any other depiction would be a giant slap in the faces of everyone who has read any X-Men comic in recent years. And what a slap in the face January Jones was. Aside from her ditzy, dumb-blonde speaking style (which is completely uncharacteristic of the Emma Frost all fanboys know and love), Jones was completely one dimensional in her acting. All she gave was pretty while delivering her lines monotonously with a blank stare. Even Barbie from Toy Story 3 was more believable, AND SHE WAS CGI. If there is to be a sequel to First Class, they'd better get another actress who can give more than just cleavage and mug.

As a huge fan of the comics, I felt that some of the other characters could have been chosen more carefully. The inclusion of Azazel and Riptide in the Hellfire Club was baffling; it felt like they were there for the sake of their skill sets (yay, more special effects!), namely teleportation and whirlwind manipulation. Azazel's introduction to the comics in 2003 was widely panned while Riptide has only been fodder. Angel Salvatore and Darwin didn't do anything for the movie either. Again, they were most probably chosen because of the characters' potential for the excessive usage of special effects.

Verdict

Other than the minor problems presented by certain character portrayals, the movie was generally very satisfying with a strong focus on Erik and Charles' relationship while introducing lesser known characters to the mainstream, non-comic book reading folks. Comic book fans will be satisfied with the various easter eggs littered throughout the movie while everybody else will enjoy the story and the new perspective it provides to some of the better-known characters.

I dare say that this is the best superhero movie since The Dark Knight. The studio was confident enough in the X-Men brand to not shoot the movie in 3D (like most blockbuster movies since the 3D craze), so you won't be facing the choice of "should I spend/waste another $3 on top of the already incredulous price tag for a movie ticket". Go ahead and watch the film. I guarantee you won't regret it.

Shangrila February 2011

2011-02-28T22:00:00.000-08:00

Had a blast performing this past weekend at Shangrila @ The EndUp in San Francisco :) The crowd was amazing! It felt really good to be on stage again. Many thanks to all of my friends and fans who showed up for my show. For those who didn't manage to make it because of various reasons, here are the videos:

Firework

F**k You

Lotsa Love,
JJ

Hot Mess + F Bombs = Bad Teacher

2011-02-23T18:16:00.000-08:00

Like I'd mentioned in my Green Hornet review, Cameron Diaz should not be acting as the "hot chick" anymore but here we are: another movie of her about on her "hotness". Dear Producers, CAN YOU NOT SEE THAT SHE'S HECKA HAGGARD AND FUG NOW? Also, why pair her with Justin Timberlake? Didn't she and JT have a history together (they broke up in 2007 if I recall correctly)? Is this some kind of April Fools' joke? OT: I think I speak for everybody when I say that Justin Timberlake should return to making music because the last time he released an album was way back in 2006 and a follow-up is long overdue. This, and cos JT can't act to save his life. Who can forget his bland performance in The Social Network?

Complaints aside, I think it might be a pretty funny movie, mostly because we get to see Cameron Diaz hit in the face by a dodgeball and also because we get to see Jason Segel's ballsack. But I'll most likely be waiting for this mess to end up on Netflix instead of paying to see it in theaters.

I Love You 爷爷

2011-02-15T20:00:00.000-08:00

I would greatly appreciate it if you could all please pray for my grandfather.

Thank you kindly.

Born This Way Hay

2011-02-15T06:00:00.000-08:00

This crazy bitch.

Don't you think you're taking the whole "born this way" schtick a little too literally with the egg metaphor? I personally found it rather tasteless and blah. You're Lady Gaga for goodness sakes. Try harder. I was half expecting you to emerge in a velociraptor/Godzilla baby suit, but you came out with a pink ponytail, some shoulder horns and an egg yolk(?) hat. You went to the MTV VMAs in a meat dress and this is the best you can do? Wow. I think your knack for gimmicks may have run its course. If you wanna do something, go all the way. Don't be a tease, like how Britney Spears is with the daily, 5-8 second long "teaser" clips of her Hold It Against Me music video; IT'S ANNOYING AND HAS ACTUALLY KILLED ANY SEMBLANCE OF EXCITEMENT I HAD ABOUT THE VIDEO. I digress. Back to Gaga.

I'm sure by now most people have compared Gaga's Born This Way to Madge's Express Yourself a million times and more (Madge's people even uploaded her 1989 clip of Express Yourself to YouTube right after the debacle started, hur hur - see this), so I shall not talk about it further. Here's what I gotta say about the song though: you don't declare your song an anthem until the people decide to crown it so. It's really contrived and unnecessary. Oh, and PS: Asians don't like to be called "orient"; it's derogatory and very offensive. Just FYI. The next time you spend 10 minutes writing a song (which she apparently did, see this), double check on your language; you're a role model after all.

On the bright side, this song marks Gaga's sort-of departure from her dark era of Bad Romances and Alejandros. In some ways, it reminds me of Michael Jackson's Black or White, in the sense that it tries to encourage people to look away from their differences and embrace diversity because "baby I was born this way". It feels like a good middle ground between her The Fame and The Fame Monster era. I do miss the good ole days of her singing about dancing and poker faces though. She was so much more fun back then.

Truth

2011-02-14T20:29:00.000-08:00

As we grow older, we develop a greater propensity for lies and deceit. Sometimes, we lie so much that we don't even know where the truths end and where the lies begin. The blurring of fact from fiction is so powerful that even the best men and women can't tell the difference. Why has honesty become so cheap? Is it really easier to live with the burden of a lie than to come clean with the truth?

I'm still looking for an answer to that.

It is true that sometimes it's easier to lie about how we feel to get the reaction we want - some people call it white lies, I call it bullshit. Somehow, it's easier to dole and receive bullshit because we've become so caught up with our lives and accustomed to fulfilling our selfish need to satisfy our "me me me!" To sit down and examine the truth seems so far-out. Lying is the easy way out, but not necessarily the right way.

I've still yet to come to terms with how I've dealt with certain situations in my life, but I know that lying is definitely not the be all and end all of it. I know, but I still do it anyway because it's always convenient to blame it on my human nature instead of having to deal with the reality of circumstance.

In fact, the hardest thing anybody could do is to be honest, to express how they really feel.

23

2011-02-10T00:00:00.000-08:00

Another year

Another year older

Another year wiser (hopefully)

Another year happier with myself

Another year to be thankful for

Another year that has come and gone

Another year for me to laugh and cry

Another year to be grateful for the lessons learnt

Another year for me to learn to live and love

Thank you to all who have come into my life

Who've taught me to be a better man than I was before

Stung by The Green Hornet

2011-02-07T10:03:00.000-08:00

Have you seen the trailer? If not, watch it. The good parts are pretty much all in there.

What It's About

Basically the premise is that Britt Reid (Seth Rogen), party boy and good-for-nothing, inherits his father's newspaper, The Daily Sentinel after the man dies from a bee sting in his own garden. He meets and teams up with Kato (Jay Chou), his father's go-to guy for cars and coffee (yes, coffee), who also happens to be somewhat of a brilliant engineer, scientist and martial arts expert. Together, with the advice of Reid's secretary Lenore Case (Cameron Diaz), they blow up meth labs and pick fights with the gangs of LA in an attempt to appear as villains to the press so as to infiltrate the criminal underworld. They inadvertently rub the kingpin of LA, Chudnovsky (Christoph Waltz) the wrong way and he tries to kill them, climaxing in an elaborate fight scene between the duo in the Daily Sentinel building.

The Good

The script was fun and entertaining for the most part, kudos to Rogen for his contributions (he did co-write the award-winning Superbad afterall). Waltz did a good job in portraying the jaded kingpin of the LA underworld and the fight scenes were very well choreographed. It was also a nice surprise to have James Franco cameo at the beginning of the movie.

The Blah

3D, 3D, 3D. I don't know why so many movies are made "3D" nowadays. Is it for the receipts? Does an additional $4 on every ticket make a difference? Or is done simply to show off "Hey, we can do this cool shit with his eyes! Check it out!" or "Hey look at this other cool shit we can do with the lights!"? I mean, c'mon, most of the movie wasn't filmed in 3D. And for the parts that were (aka the fight scenes), they were mediocre, save for the ending credits that actually looked pretty amazing in 3D compared to the rest of the movie.

The Nasty

Where should I start? Hmmmm. Let's talk about Jay Chou's acting. One word: FAIL. Seriously. Whose bright idea was to cast this joke of an actor who only has one (yes, ONE) facial expression i.e. the perpetual frown, to act in a big budget Hollywood movie? Granted, he's a great musician and singer, but he can't act to save his life. I cringed every time he delivered a line and I stifled my laughter when he tried to emote. Actually, I think I LOLed in real life for a couple of times in the cinema.

Also, I'd like to know who decided that Cameron Diaz should play the role of the "hot secretary"? She was hot fifteeen years ago, not anymore, and probably not ever again. I mean, she was nominated for "Most Desirable Female" at the MTV Movie Awards in 1994. Yes, 1994. Damn, now I feel old. She looked real haggard and washed-up in the movie, and I actually felt bad for her. Poor thing. Dear Ms Diaz, please say no to roles like that in the future. You need to move on from the "token hot blonde" roles cos you don't fit the bill no more. Just sayin'.

Should You See It?

It's really up to you. If you're up for some mindless fun and can put up with bad acting (since Jay Chou is in almost every other scene), this is the movie for you. If not, wait for it on Netflix. Just don't watch it in 3D.

Ri-Session

2011-02-01T23:56:00.000-08:00

Maybe it's the superb management team behind her, or maybe it's because she's too hot to be ignored. Regardless of the reasons, you can't deny that Rihanna's one of the world's biggest stars right now. Granted, the radio stations over-play her songs (on the Top 40 stations, you can literally hear Rihanna songs played almost every five minutes), but that's only because they're so catchy (yay for a great song-writing and promo team!)

The trick to having increased radio presence is to do it the Rihanna way - release a couple of singles at once. See how she did it with "Only Girl In The World" + "What's My Name" and again with "Raining Men" + "S&M"? Genius publicity move. Ok, back to the topic: how many girls can pull off a Ronald Mcdonald-ish hairdo and still look sizzling? This girl can.

Today, she debuted the video for her latest single "S&M" and I'm lovin' it. I love the cheeky and playful concept of the video, especially her costume changes. Like her album title, it's loud, in your face, and it's unadulterated, risque fun. Definitely NSFW and NSFK. Check out some of the screenshots of her various costume changes:

I also liked how all the pseudo-journalists were chained up, S&M-style. Very kinky. Nice allusion to the life of celebrity, where photogs and paparazzi restrict freedom and trap celebs with their presence. Her team did a great job in making fun of the world of celeb stalkers with the chains, whips and costumes.

And who doesn't love seeing Perez Hilton being RiRi's b*tch? Seems like he got into the role pretty easily. Heh. Anyhoos, I'm sure it's every Perez-hater's dream-come-true!

Enough talk from me. Check out the video for yourselves and tell me if you like it (or hate it). Enjoy! :)

Hello Again

2011-01-31T22:58:00.001-08:00

It's the end of January 2011, and somehow I decided to revive this ancient blog. Maybe it's because I'm a sentimental man. Maybe I just can't let go of something that used to fascinate me so much (remember the good old days when we actually had to play around with HTML to make our blogs look pretty?) Also, I can't believe this blog has survived for 7 years!!! Still wondering what I should be doing with this though, seeing how I've already got a Tumblr and Twitter account that are more frequently updated than this antique of a webpage. I just find it very wasteful to be wasting such a prime (it's prime to me) piece of web real estate. Hrmmm... Should I make it a talky blog? Should I do reviews? What do you think I should do? Leave your suggestions in the comments!

Sleepy Kitty thanks you for your time :)

The Day I Celebrate Thanksgiving

2010-11-25T16:12:00.000-08:00

Today is Thanksgiving. It is the one day of the year that the Americans have put aside to give thanks for all of our blessings. Personally, I am thankful for all that has happened for and to me this year. Being able to come to the US to further my education has been nothing short of a dream come true. I am also thankful for the close friends that I have made here who have been taking good care of me. Being alone and away from home is more taxing and difficult than you can imagine. I'm truly grateful for all of the wonderful help I've been given along the way. I'm also thankful for my parents, for without their love and support, I wouldn't be where I am today.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving! :)

Dear Hater,

2010-02-20T19:41:00.001-08:00

Yes, I'm actually dedicating a post to you. I don't understand why you choose to repeatedly post flaming comments anonymously on my blog or what's going on in your head. You need to know that:

1) I've dealt with much worse in my life,

2) so I don't care if you don't like me because I don't know who you are anyway.

3) Besides, all of the comments are moderated. Every single one of them. I simply delete the hate,

4) so if you hate me, it just means that you care enough about me to do something about it.

5) Or maybe you just want the attention?

If that's the case, do leave a name and an e-mail address, or even better, a postal address. I promise that I will keep in touch with you. Or if you'd like, I could share the information with all of my friends here. I'm nice like that.

But I'm sure you have better things to do with your time. So stay in school (or at work, if you've already dropped out of school), read more to improve your general knowledge, and do some exercise every day. It'll help to clear your head and allow you to make better decisions the next time you feel like flaming me or anybody else behind the facade of anonymity.

Sincerely,
Justin

An Open Letter To Apple

2010-02-14T21:02:00.000-08:00

AN OPEN LETTER
TO APPLE (THE COMPANY THAT SELLS iPODS AND iPADS, NOT THE FRUIT THAT HIT ISAAC NEWTON ON THE HEAD)

February 14, 2010

Dear Apple,

As a loyal customer and fervent fan, I applaud your innovations and the constant improvements you have made on your software as well as your hardware products. I fell in love with your brand at the introduction of the iPod in the early years of the new millennium, and subsequently, have come to know and love your products: I am an avid user of the Macbook, I entertain myself with my iPod and I stay connected with my family and friends through my iPhone.

You have managed to remodel essential consumer technological products such as the MP3 player, the laptop and even the mobile phone by repackaging them as niche, simple and clean gadgets that appeal to the average consumer. That’s ok, because who wouldn’t want to walk down the street plugged in to their iPod or talk on their iPhone, having an image of superiority and sophistication? But now, you’ve gone one step further and rehashed your own product while claiming to have birthed your “most advanced technology in a magical and revolutionary device”: the iPad.

Yeah but…. what? When rumors of the Apple tablet started circling in the technological world, many experts theorized that Apple, the same company who came up with the industry-changing iPhone, would produce a tablet computer that would once again bring about an industry-wide ripple effect. But instead, we were introduced to an enlarged version of the iPhone/iPod Touch (depending on whether we’re talking about the 3G or non-3G capable versions, but it really doesn’t matter). How revolutionary.

Secondly, the name. What were you thinking when you came up with “iPad”? I don’t suppose that there were ladies on the project who thought that it was an odd name for the device and didn’t sound it out? I know that you probably want to keep the associative rhyme (like “iPod” and “iPhone”), but any word that is synonymous with a female hygiene product isn’t exactly ideal in making a good first impression, unless you are actually trying to break into that particular market, which you obviously aren’t.

Thirdly, iBooks is hardly a new concept (much less a feasible selling-point for the iPad). Excuse me while I attempt to refresh your memory. If you do a little search in your iTunes store, you will be able to find the “Stanza” as well as the “Amazon Kindle” App for the iPhone and the iPod Touch. These Apps work exactly like iBooks by giving users the ability to download entire books onto their devices, but I’m sure you already knew that because you probably approved of those Apps for the App Store yourself. I have henceforth assumed that the above mentioned Apps would be facing their demise (along with my collection of e-books) when iBooks is up and running, lest you prove me wrong.

Lastly, please stop congratulating yourself on innovation. You're making your fans (ie. people like me) look like douchebags. Thank you.

Sincerely,
Justin Jap

One Month Later

2010-02-03T11:56:00.000-08:00

And here's how long my hair has gotten in the past month ;) I've been coping rather well in the US so far. It's been a trying period of adjustments, but I think my body and mind has finally been able to adapt to the surroundings here. Allowing your brain to fester for three years and throwing yourself back to the books has not been an easy task, but I'm getting there. I'm just glad that I'm not doing this alone.

I'll have a proper post up this weekend, so stay tuned.
In the meantime please be safe, wherever you are.

xx :)
Justin

Romance

2010-01-14T15:52:00.000-08:00

“I love you, and because I love you, I would sooner have you hate me for telling you the truth than adore me for telling you lies.” - Pietro Aretino.

Everybody wants to find that special someone that they can hopefully spend the rest of their lives with like a Disney fairytale ending. But life, however, works rather differently. Falling in love and being in a relationship requires more than just Cupid's arrow and a damn good shooting arm.

The Day I Talk About The New School Year

2010-01-05T16:43:00.001-08:00

I'm finally back in school after three years of non-academic activities (ie. NS + Work + Idol). It's definitely a fresh start and I've never ever looked forward to studying so much in my life. Going through so much in the past couple of years has definitely helped me grow as an adult and it's given me quite a different perspective about school-life in general. I really appreciate it more now.

Although it's getting colder every day, I'm beginning to get used to it. The 30-minute walk to school, the botak trees by the roads, the buying of groceries at Whole Foods, the quirky teachers and students in school, the mucking around in the bookstore, are all very refreshing and exciting for me. My professors really make my day. I have a quirky Physics instructor who has an odd tic of saying "...here, ok" at the end of every sentence. And my English instructor who grew up in a circus used to be dressed up as a clown as a child.

I can't say that I don't miss being home and being close to my family and friends, but I've decided to embrace my new life here. I know that I still have people who care for me, who'll miss me and who'll welcome me back with open arms, but the time is now for me to embrace my present, and to secure my future. I miss you all, but I will be back very soon. Even before you know it.

The Day We Entered 2010; A Reflection on 2009

2010-01-02T23:06:00.000-08:00

And so we've said farewell to the crazy, amazing, heartbreaking, exhilarating, unpredictable year that was 2009. We've all had our triumphs and failures, but through it all, we've definitely learned and grown wiser from all that has happened.

Personally, I've taken so much out of it without actually expecting to. In the beginning of the year, I managed to land myself a job at a recruitment firm, without which I would've never have experienced life in a back-stabbing, hypocritical yet educational corporate landscape. There's really more than what meets the eye.

After I left my job, the next highlight of my year was the Singapore Idol experience. Going into it with a "let's see how this works out" frame of mind, I somehow managed to beat the odds and made the Top 12. The friends that I've made, the love that I've been shown and the priceless experience that I've gained through the process has been nothing short of amazing. Yes, I may have had to defer my studies for awhile for the show, but in retrospect, I wouldn't have had it any other way. There are some things that money can't buy and this was definitely one of them.

I know that I usually don't stick to my resolutions (like 99% of the people I know), but here's mine for the 2010. Hopefully I'll be able to stick to it this time round.

"Time to reach out, time to be who I am."

I guess I can do that now.

The Day We Crowned Our New Singapore Idol

2009-12-28T09:34:00.001-08:00

It's been a long and winding journey, but we've finally reached the end.

Congratulations to Sezairi for winning the title. You've worked so hard to achieve this and you truly deserve your achievement. Kudos to Sylvia for putting up a good fight. Your elegance, poise and beauty is simply captivating (that, and your quirky personality, and that "busok" face I'll miss so much). You were both amazing last night.

It's been an honor to have shared the same stage with all the beautiful and talented people I've met in the course of my Idol experience, and last night's explosive finale was a fitting cap to the end of another exciting and fruitful year.

Here's to new beginnings, and bigger things to come.

The Day I Took A Day Trip To SF

2009-11-25T13:17:00.000-08:00

What do I like about San Francisco? Everything! The people, the food, the weather... It's very lovely here. This is where everything and anything goes and people down really think too much about it.

Homeless people? Check.
Crazy evangelicals? Check.
I love the hobos. They're really quite harmless actually (unless they actually come up to you and start screaming jibberish with a bloody mouth, that's when you should run in the opposite direction; it happened to me yesterday).

One thing you need to know about California is that public transport here is nothing like what we get in Singapore. It's definitely light-years behind our EZ-Link and one-bus-every-5-minutes system. There's a reason to that though.

It has been rumored that during the fundamental development years of public transport, car companies bribed the government to keep it a "car culture" here. So maybe that's why most people here have to drive to get around (and also why cars are so cheap compared to what we get in Singapore).

Yesterday was the first time I took public transport in the US. My friend Ben drove me and his cousins to the nearest BART station (the Bay Area equivalent of the MRT), where we boarded a train to San Francisco. As you can see in the photo on the right, the ticketing machine is not so different from Singapore. The only difference is that if you don't have exact change for the tickets, it'll dispense a card with the extra credit that you can save for use on a subsequent trip.

Here are some photos before, during and right after the train ride.

And here's a short tour of the SF ferry terminal (I apologize for looking so haggard).

Here's where we went for lunch. When we arrived, there was already a snaking long queue outside the diner. According to my very reliable sources (ie Ben and his cousin Marcus), this is the go-to place for burgers at the ferry terminal.

And I was not disappointed. After queueing up for nearly 20 minutes under the hot, hot sun (yes it's actually hot in the day when you're under the sun), I was finally able to order my brunch which was a huge meal consisting of:

1) Wisonsin Sourdough - With grilled mushrooms, bacon, cheddar cheese, mayo & BBQ sauce on grilled Model Bakery sourdough

2) Garlic Fries - fries tossed in garlic butter & parsley

3) A giant chocolate milkshake

With my orders taken, I paid and was given this peculiar looking device. Call me a FOB (fresh-off-the-board), but I really haven't seen anything like this before. I only found out later that it works like a pager and is used in most major self-service restaurants in the US. This is how it works: When your order is ready, the device lights up and vibrates, and you'll just have to go over to the counter to collect your food.

Here's my lunch (or at least a semblance of it). Unbelievably delicious. On a side note: My appetite has become insanely huge since I got here. I think the weather may have something to do with it. The cold weather + my metabolic rate = nightmare for my waistline. Thank goodness I brought my running shoes here. I've never enjoyed running more!

After lunch, we walked around quite a lot to walk off our very heavy lunch. It's almost dinnertime here so I'll let the rest of my photos do the talking. Enjoy!

PS: Guess who I bumped into at a random Urban Outfitters outlet?

MJ!!!!!! :D (We didn't take a photo together, so I'm using a really old, pre-makeover photo when we first got into the Top 24. Haha...)

The Day My New Room Became Habitable

2009-11-23T15:47:00.000-08:00

<==== En route to LA!
Well, I'm actually back in Cupertino. Hehe. My short trip down south was really fun though, mainly because I got to catch up with old friends and managed to get quite a lot of the necessary stuff that I'll need for my stay in the US i.e. a study table, side-table (to be put next to my bed), study lamp, chair. Check out my Tweets from the past week for more details ;)

So this is how my room looked like after I moved all my junk into it (before I set-up / arranged / beautified everything). It was a great mess, and you know how much I don't like untidy stuff. So the boxes were opened, the furniture was assembled, and the bedsheets were changed. With help from Huaxia and Tao Tao, my room was transformed into someplace habitable. Ah.

And this is what it looks like now. Nice? :)

Now, let me take you guys on a short tour of the apartment!

The Day I Land In The US

2009-11-16T17:21:00.000-08:00

HEY Y'ALL!!!

After a long, dreary and dramatic flight from Singapore to Hong Kong, and Hong Kong to San Francisco, I'm in the US! In all honesty, I don't enjoy long haul flights. This particular trip was no different. In fact, it was slightly less enjoyable due to a couple of factors:

WARNING: PICTURES BELOW MAY BE DISTURBING FOR SOME READERS

1) Disgusting Lavatories

I only use the loo twice on my trip, once from SG to HK, and another time from HK to SF. The very first time I stepped into the cubicle, I was greeted with the what I can only describe as a scene from a nightmare. I shall let the pictures do the talking.

There are visible signs in place reminding users NOT to throw anything into the toilet bowl, but people still insist on doing it. It's either stupidity, or plain apathy. No prizes for guessing what's what.

The disposal bins were NOT full but some buggers just didn't want to push it in. Why, people, why.....?

Toothpicks. In. The. Sink. UGH.

2) Business Class Drama

There was a journalist from the Business Times who was supposed to be flying in the SIA Business Class (see the alliteration I did there?) but due to some major screw-up in Hong Kong, his seat was usurped by a non-Singaporean couple who had apparently only targeted him and begged him to give up his seat to them FOUR TIMES just because they said that they couldn't sit apart. How in the world is it possible to oversell Business Class tickets? That, I will never know.

Needless to say, the poor man had to fly no matter what (he had an important conference in SF), hence he was placed next to my mother and I for the HK-SF leg because that was the only seat left. FYI, we were sitting in the Economy section (about a $5-6K difference in ticket price compared to Business). Needless to say, the chief air-steward was incredibly apologetic and came over to our seats countless times to ensure that the said journalist would not spontaneously combust out of frustration and anger due to the unjust treatment.

Therefore, my sleep (which totaled to about three hours) had been constantly interrupted, no thanks to the air-steward. Oh, did I also mention that our HK-SF flight was delayed for about 30 minutes because of said couple? They were the last to board and yet had the cheek to saunter onto the plane ala VIPs. Bloody hell. Karma will not be kind on them. Just wait and see.

In other news...

I GOTS BYE-BYE GIFTS!!!

I got a couple of really nice farewell gifts prior to departure! My friends are so sweet la. Many thanks to Dennis as well as Jerome, Claudia & family. I really appreciate it. *big hugs*

Stay tuned for more updates!

Lotsa Love xx :)
JJap

The Day I Share A Sneak Preview of HTC Tattoo

2009-10-22T10:37:00.001-07:00

Guess what's coming to town? :)

Stay tuned for more updates!

The Day I Talk About POCC

2009-10-13T08:15:00.004-07:00

POCC is short of Power Over Cervical Cancer, a movement by The Society of Colposcopy & Cervical Pathology of Singapore to help raise awareness about the disease and to reduce cervical cancer rates in our country.

Some Facts About Cervical Cancer:

1) Cervical cancer refers to cancer originating from the cervix, which is the lower part of the womb (uterus) and is often called the neck of the womb. It is the 6th most common cancer among women in Singapore and the 3rd most common gynaecological cancer. About 200 new cases of cervical cancer are diagnosed every year.

2) Before cervical cancer develops, precancerous changes occur in the cervix. These precancerous changes, which usually do not have any symptoms, can be detected by the Pap smear. Precancerous disease of the cervix is easily and effectively treated, thus preventing cervical cancer. The disease is caused by a common virus known as human papillomavirus (HPV). However, it is important to note that not every HPV infection is destined to become cervical cancer.

3) Early cervical cancer may not have any symptoms. The most common symptom of cervical cancer is abnormal bleeding, such as between periods or after intercourse. Often there is also a smelly vaginal discharge, and in women who have had their menopause, there may be some new bleeding. Women who have had their first sexual intercourse at an early stage or who have had many sexual partners, or have partners who have had many sexual partners, have a higher-than-average risk of developing cervical cancer.

4) Smoking also increases the risk of cervical cancer.

5) Precancerous disease of the cervix and early cervical cancer can be detected by having regular Pap smears. In Singapore, this should be performed every 1-3 years in sexually active women aged 25 onwards.

6) Incidence of cervical cancer has declined significantly due to increased Pap screening. Maintaining a healthy lifestyle, getting regular Pap smears every three years for early detection and with appropriate treatment the risk of developing cervical cancer can be greatly reduced.

7) It is now possible to prevent infection against cervical cancer through vaccination. When you are vaccinated, your body creates specific defenses against the virus so that you can be protected, should you come into contact with the virus.

Please come and support this event!! Visit http://pocc.sg for more details.

How To Get There:

I will be performing "I'll Be There" at the POCC Jam.
Hope to see you guys there! :)

2009-10-02T02:18:00.008-07:00

Hello Blogosphere, it's been awhile. A long while.

I haven't felt the need or the urge to blog for the longest time, what with Facebook, Twitter and even YouTube (cos of my YouTube page), but I've decided to come back because nothing beats penning down your thoughts in prose. Yes, 140 characters is never sufficient when you need to rant or talk about certain issues (I'm looking at you, fail whale aka Twitter :P).

As many of you may already know, I'm one of the Top 13 of Singapore Idol this season, and it's been a wonderful experience. I've got to experience and learn about how the show works and at the same time, made friends with a bunch of very beautiful and talented individuals. My journey may have ended this week but it's definitely not the end for me. I will continue to make music, but that will have to go on the back-burner for awhile because I'm starting my life as a college student.

To my fans, I'd just like to say a big THANK YOU for all of your love, support, encouragement. I wouldn't have made it this far without each and every one of you. Also, fret not because I still have my Facebook Fan Page and YouTube Channel where you can keep in touch with me and my music. Plus, I am still be involved in the upcoming President's Star Charity Show (11 Oct 2009, Sunday), the Singapore Idol Finale as well as the New Year's Eve Countdown party. So I'll be around. :)

In the meantime, I'll leave you with my performances from the past couple of weeks on Idol:

Singapore Idol Piano Show #2 - So Sick

Singapore Idol Spectaculars #1 - Heartless

Singapore Idol Spectaculars #2 - Together Forever

Lotsa Love xx :)
JJap

The Day At Sunset Bay

2009-07-29T21:05:00.002-07:00

Last Saturday, Gabrielle arranged an intimate dinner for the group of us at her mum's restaurant at East Coast Park (check out their reviews here. It was really fun to have great food with even better company. Can't wait for our next get-together!

The Day I Talk About My Genting Trip

2009-06-30T08:54:00.000-07:00

This is long overdue.

I realized that I've been too lazy to blog, no thanks to my new love, Twitter. And so, instead of posting tl;dr paragraphs that may bore you to death, I decided to make a slideshow that includes all the photos that I've taken during the trip. This is what I call the magic of iPhoto '09. Simply upload photos onto iPhoto, select a theme for your slideshows, export & voila! You've got a made-to-order video for viewing pleasure.

Enjoy!

The Day I Share A Video For My Tweeples

2009-06-17T00:55:00.001-07:00

Like I promised, here it is (if you haven't already seen it).
Thanks for all the love & support! :)

The Day After Pink Dot

2009-05-17T08:45:00.001-07:00

Last November, one man stood up for what he believed in, and like minded individuals stepped up and gave him a hand. We believed in it and spread the word. Six months later on 16 May 2008, we made it happen and history was made.

Over 2500 people turned up to participate in making a stand against misinformed prejudice and discrimination. It was heartening to see a collective of gay people and their friends and family, straight and gay, turning up and showing their support for the freedom to love and the freedom to be loved. The reality was this: the weather was horrible, and yet people still turned up in throngs to make a statement.

I didn't actually feel it until the events started and saw Hong Lim Park come alive with sincerity, happiness and genuine love. When you're surrounded by everything that represents what you believe in, it really hits home. No words can begin to describe the amazing feeling of being understood and embraced. The formation of the Pink Dot was like an unspoken declaration, of emphatic unity and our collective hope for a better, more inclusive future.

It was a moment that I'll never forget.

I am proud to have been a part of Pink Dot and what it stands for, albeit only having played a minuscule role as a volunteer on the actual day of the event. I feel that by giving as much as I can to something I believed in, nobody would be able to take it away from me.

Today is also the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHO). May 17 was chosen as the day of the event because homosexuality was removed from the International Classification of Diseases of the World Health Organization (WHO) on May 17, 1992.

In the words of Neo Swee Lin, "We are born alone. We go to our graves alone. But there is no reason why any of us should have to live alone in this life." Support Pinkdot. Support the freedom to love. I look forward to the next Pink Dot and more in the years to come.

The Day I Pledge My Support For Pinkdot.sg

2009-05-01T07:19:00.004-07:00

To find out more about Pinkdot.sg and pledge your support, please visit the official website here.

I'm making a stand.
Are you?

The Day I Talk About My Malacca Day Trip

2009-04-26T19:36:00.013-07:00

The day trip to Malacca was a rather eventful and fruitful one. I managed to discover and learn more about Malacca in a day than I have on all of my previous trips there collectively. You really do learn more about a place by walking around and interacting with the locals instead of driving through the streets and passing by everyone without so much of a second glance. Since this trip was mainly for the purpose of sending Mummy on her business visits, I spent most of the day with Dad. As I barely hang out with him anymore, I felt that it was a good opportunity for the two of us to bond.

1) Coconut Milk + Gula Melaka + Crushed Ice + Kachang = Cendol

Our first stop was Tan Kim Hock. It is Malacca's most famous tourist pit stop for a pick-up of durian dodol (durian flavoured sticky cake) as well as the state's renown gula melaka desert, cendol. I ordered the normal version while Dad had the durian one. Personally, I found the cendol a tad too sweet for my liking, and the coconut milk that was used didn't taste very fresh. The durian cendol was basically what I had, except that is was topped with mashed durian dodol. Nothing particularly spectacular.

2) Pose, Snap, Snap...and Scene

After the refreshing dessert, I told Dad to leave our car at Tan Kim Hock cos we've never actually walked anywhere in Malacca before except in the shopping malls. He was hesitant at first because he felt bad for parking there and not buying anything but I reminded him that our 2 bowls of cendol cost 7RM (at that point he went "Oh ya hor.") And off we went. We walked along the old shop houses and marveled at how Malacca has managed to keep the "colonial feel" of its ancestors handiwork.

And you know how trigger-happy my Dad is when he's with his camera around (and how much of a camwhore I really am). So I shall let pictures do the talking:

3) Somewhere beyond the sea...

Along the way, we passed by the Maritime Museum and decided to pay a visit to it since we have yet to set foot in there before. And at 3RM per person, it wasn't too expensive. It was very informative and detailed how the control of the Straits of Malacca had changed hands from the Portuguese to the Dutch and ultimately the British before the eventual independence of Malaysia. More photos:

I love this shot!

I approve.

View of the canal from the museum.

Daddy is a camwhore too!

...and he thinks he's the next Jack Sparrow. Not.

4) Jonker Street

After the long walk, we headed back to our vehicle and drove towards our next destination in search for our lunch: Hainanese Chicken Rice Balls. Before long we found ourselves cruising along a stretch of road that vaguely resembled out Chinatown back home. We were in Jonker Street (also known as Jalan Hang Jebat). The buildings were very well maintained and filled with many antique shops.

The Geographer Café

A shop selling their local brand street-wear

Entrance of the Hokkien Huay Kuan (福建会馆)

As we were happily snapping and jalan-ing, we came across a stall selling what we were looking for and proceeded to have our lunch. What we had was this: 9 rice balls, Hainanese steamed chicken, lotus root and chicken feet soup, stir-fried vegetables of the day, and home-made barley water. And guess how much it cost us? Only 14.80RM (SGD$6.40)!

Before

After

You see, grown men don't waste food! We are gluttons! I actually prefer our local Hainanese chicken rice to the rice balls tough. The balls have an...acquired texture to it. I guess novelty is novelty, eh?

5) Chilling & Passing Time

Well-fed boys need to rest, and so we did. Daddy drove us to Mahkota Parade (a very old shopping centre which I've been going to everytime we visit since I was in Primary school) and we sat our fat-asses down at Starbucks for 2 hours. I have never in my life seen any Starbucks as empty as the one in Malacca. Maybe it's because one drink costs 13RM and for a Malaysian who works and spends in RM to spend that much on coffee is actually pretty ridiculous.

Emptiness...

6) Sayang Sayang

Our usual dinner-place (Ole Sayang) was closed, as they usually are on Wednesdays, so we went hunting for a new Peranakan restaurant. Mummy's sharp eyes almost immediately caught sight of one called Manis Sayang in the parallel street. The food there was actually better than Ole Sayang's (in my opinion)! Their cendol was heaps better than tan Kim Hock's. It had a more balanced flavour and they used very fresh coconut milk, so it was really delicious. Will definitely pay them another visit the next time I'm there.

After dinner, we headed straight for the Causeway and managed to make it back to Singapore in less than 3 hours. I enjoyed myself tremendously (good food does that to me). It would've been better if I wasn't down with conjunctivitis though (see the last photo for evidence of my red-eyes). And that's all I have for today.

Till next time.

Footnote: All of the photographs were taken with my iPhone.

The Day I Get A New Running Companion

2009-04-14T19:40:00.006-07:00

Guess what the mailman just brought it?
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My brand new iPod Shuffle!!!

Ok, I understand that some of you might think that I'm being decadent, by the fact that I already have an iPod and and iPhone, but I'll vouch for myself and say that this is perfectly justifiable. You see, I like to run. On top of that, I like to run with music. I used to run with my bulky iPod, and thereafter my iPhone after I got it (yes, my iPod has become a glorified...portable hard-drive), but they're both pretty heavy to lug around. That is why I purchased this pretty baby after much deliberation.

Besides,

...it was made for me. We are destined to be together.

HAHA! I'm kidding. In case you've been living under a rock, engraving comes free with any online purchase of an iPod. If you look closely in the photo above, you'll see that my name is stuck together. Likethis. Somehow when I was keying in the words to be engraved, the website wouldn't accept "Justin(space)Jap". It was only after I played around a little more did I realize that Apple does not accept any vulgarities or (seemingly) derogatory words for engraving. So I guess my last name is a derogatory term. So now you can scream "JAP YOU!" "Don't be a JAP" "Get the JAP outta here!" etc and still feel as good as you do when spurting any other obscenity.

We learn something new everyday.

Blair approves of my iPod, and is very excited as well.

The Day I Talk About A Lazy March Weekend

2009-03-15T18:00:00.000-07:00

After a long week of slogging away at work, the weekend finally came for me to simply let loose and bum around like an aimless vagabond. Having said that, I've come to realize that my favourite form of de-stressing isn't working out; it's pigging out. Well of course I like to hit the gym and go for runs and go for swims to let off steam and to get my mind off things, but gluttony really is the world's greatest pleasure.

Pigging Out Day 1: Saturday with Jorge

I met up with Jorge for tea (and then some) on Saturday afternoon and we did what we did best: EAT. Alot. Without th need for much deliberation, we headed to our first stop, Barcelos Flame Grilled Chicken. During our previous trip to Vivo, we decided that we'd pay a visit there on our follow-up trip because of the enticing aroma of grilled chicken that actually drew our attention away from Ben & Jerry's (which is directly opposite BFGC).

The 2 of us waiting impatiently for our food to be served.

[Insert Imaginary Photos Here]

The photos of the food were really really lousy. Hence the no-picture above. Man apologies. Anyway, the chicken was absolutely delicious and the meat was of pretty good quality. The sides (we both chose the "spice rice"), however, were a tad disappointing. Too dry and too salty. Should've gone with my gut and paid $2 more for the wedges. Hmph. Maybe next time.

Following that, we sauntered around to let the food go down. Then I came up with the brilliant idea of going to awfully chocolate for their world-famous (ok, maybe not "world" but it's definitely famous) "黑" (pronounced "Hei") ice-cream.

We contemplated between getting a scoop versus getting a pint ($3.80/scoop, $11.80/pint) and eventually settled on getting a pint.

And I immediately regretted that decision after the 1st spoonful.

Not because it wasn't nice, but because it was really sweet. One mouthful = immediate satiation of the sweet tooth. But somehow, the two of us managed to finish the entire pint on our own. Mind over matter!

The pint of "黑" in the hands of a very delighted Jorge

Digging in, savouring and leaving behind the remnants

For the rest of our day, we didn't eat anything else. Lesson of the day? Too much sugar kills your appetite. Take your desserts in moderation.

Pigging Out Day 2: Sunday with Norris

At the Paragon outlet

Maybe it's because we went to Phuket together, or maybe it's because we both share great (gastronomic) memories of Thailand. Cos everytime when Norris and I meet up, we'll somehow end up eating Thai food. Sunday was no different. I think we can safely say that ThaiExpress has become our "usual dig".

He was craving the authentic Thai Crab with Vermicilli while I wanted to have Pineapple Rice. And so we did.

When the food came, we realized that it wasn't completely authentic because they used soft-shell crabsinstead, but nonetheless it was delicious and had just enough of "wok hei" (or "锅气", as the Cantonese like to call food that's stir-fried quickly under high temperatures in a traditional wok). My pineapple rice was a pleasant surprise as well since I didn't expect there to be so much seafood in it. It came with a side of frechly diced pineapple and a generous serving of fish, squid, prawn and a light sprinkle of golden raisins.

Boys are happy when they're fed

To end off the meal, I had a cup of ThaiExpress' singnature dessert, Chendol.

The only difference in their Chendol compared to the ones we have elsewhere is the addition of red rubies on top of the existing condiments in the usual recipe of the dessert. It gives an added texture and an extra crunch that accentuates the smooth, silky coconut milk and sweetness of the gula melaka. Deeply satisfying with every mouthful and the perfect ending to a rich, warm meal.

After finishing up with our meal, we took a stroll along the main stretch of Orchard and gues what, even Juicy Couture picked up on my pigging out weekend theme!

Juicy Couture Lollipops

It's actually just a marketing gimmick that they had today in association with the SPCA Flag Day that was going on as well. Still cute nonetheless, doncha' think?

The Day I Talk About Random Stuff From The Past Couple of Weeks

2009-03-11T23:40:00.005-07:00

1) Mummy's 50th

The day began with lots of drama. First of all, my genius of a dad completely forgot to get my mum anything. So when she woke up on her birthday and found out that he hadn't prepared anything for her, well, you can imagine the rest. Thankfully, she has an amazing son (thank you, thank you, hahahahahaha). Anyhoos, somehow I managed to buy her a present together with my dad (so we can say that he prepared it for her), book her favourite restaurant (Jade Room @ The Fullerton) and ordered a lovely cake, all that in the span of 4 hours. At the end of the day, all was well and we had a pretty enjoyable evening.

Some pictures from the night:

2) Core-Based Trees @ Crazy Elephant

Last Sunday evening, my band the Core-Based Trees performed at Crazy Elephant. It was my first time in singing at a pub/bar and overall quite a good experience. Very different from performing on-stage where you're so far away from the crowd. The feeling's very electric. To all my friends who came down to support us, I just wanna say a BIG thank you! Hope you guys had a great time (cos I did) ;)

Bandmates (from left): Jin (Bass), Chris (Keyboard), Nic (Guitar), Yen (Drums) & me

Other photos from that night:

3) Ryan Tedder ought to be shot

Kelly's latest album, "All I Ever Wanted", came out last week. Like every other Kelly fan, I got my hands on it knowing that I wouldn't be disappointed since it was reviewed by many critics to be her best album to date (supposedly, since she has Max Martin, Howard Benson, Ryan Tedder etc etc attached as the album's producers).

However, I have huge bone to pick with Mr Tedder. The songs that he co-wrote with Kelly sounds all too similar to his previously penned hits. If you don't believe me, take a listen to Already Gone. Sounds familiar? Cos it has the same base as Beyoncé 's Halo! Why? COS BOTH SONGS WER PRODUCED BY TEDDER!!! How bout Save You? What? Oh, it sounds uncannily like OneRepublic's Say (All I Need)? Well, COS IT PRETTY MUCH IS!

So much for originality.

The Day I Talk About Hitting Adulthood

2009-02-15T08:13:00.005-08:00

- Warning: Image Heavy Post -

Every February, my schedule is packed with birthdays galore. This year is no different. However, being an '88 baby means that many of my peers are hitting/have hit the big 21, which translates into bigger parties and greater indulgences. I recently celebrated my very own 21st birthday as well as attended several of my peers and I must say, it's been lots of fun catching up with old friends and really memorable.

Kenrick's 21st

Kenrick (being characteristically Kenrick) threw his party at Sentosa. The evening began with a small gathering for dinner at Il Lido and ended with drinks at the Amara Resort Villas. JJ came along for the night's activities and we all had a ball of a time.

My first impression of Il Lido definitely a good one as the food was fantastic and their service was impeccable.

The villa was pretty nice, quite different from the one-room suite where Jevon threw his party a year ago even though it was in the same resort. Money makes a whole world of difference. Anyway, there was more than sufficient booze and balloons at the post-dinner party for all the guests.

*GASP!* - My 21st Birthday

The party was insane. Thankfully it's my last birthday party in Singapore for the forseeable future. Note to self: NEVER. EVER. PLAN. YOUR. OWN. PARTY. You end up running around alot, making sure everything's perfect so as to make everyone feel at home. That said, it was a pretty amazing one. For the first time in my entire life did I actually did have so many people coming to celebrate my birthday with me.

Photos with my guests:

Also, I got 4 out of the 9 items in my wish-list! Talk about "wishes coming true"! So here's a shout out to all who came: THANK YOU ALL SO VERY MUCH! My party wouldn't have been such a success if not for your presence and support. I can't love you guys enough. XXOOXOXO!!! :)

In retrospect, I thought that turning 21 would affect me in a very big way but in actual fact, I feel no difference at all. Maybe age is truly just a number.

The Day I Share My 21st Birthday Wishlist

2009-02-03T18:21:00.005-08:00

Due to popular demand, I had no choice but to make this wishlist for my 21st Birthday. Yes, some people still don't know what I want even though they've known me for a really loooooong time. So here goes:

1) agnes b. Lock & Key set

21st.
Legal freedom from parental supervision.
The official age of adulthood.
Ability to vote (in Singapore).
Of age to purchase and consume alcohol (in the US).

This necklace from agnes b. symbolises all of the above statements with a simple combination of a lock and key, and it encompasses all of the responisbilies that come with adulthood beautifully.

2) Bally (Shoes) - Sarne

A white, dark zircon and sand coloured sneaker in calfskin and suede.
Classic Bally with modern touch. FYI: my shoe size is US 7.5 :)

3) Pedro Soft-Supple Leather Messenger Bag

My office bag has been almost completely worn out and I need a new one. This is in my list for purely practical reasons.

4) Pedro Lifestyle Messenger Bag

It's pretty. 'Nuff said. :D

5) Apple iPod / iPhone Dock

One of the many accompanying accessories that used to come with iPods / 1st-gen iPhones that somehow became an optional novelty item that is sold seperately nowadays. Damn Apple and their money-making schemes.

6) Bose SoundDock iPod Speakers

My stereo has officially retired from every single one of it's functions (yes, including the basic radio function) and I am currently resorting to blasting my music from my Mac to lull myself to sleep at night. Not very energy efficient you see. Which is why this would be a great addition to my room.

7) Diesel DZ7043 Watch

I don't own many watches, but I've been eyeing this baby for quite awhile now.

8) Nintendo DS (Gold)

I've always wanted a Gold DS. But my search has been pretty futile cos it's the limited Zelda edition. Nevertheless, it'd still be nice to have one for my birthday if some kind soul manages to find one for me.

9) Western Digital - My Passport Studio

This 500G portable hard-drive is not only sleek and compact, it's also formatted for use with Macintosh systems. With this, I won't have to worry about not having enough capacity for the backing up of all my photos, videos and songs.

And last but not least, the most important thing that I want is...

10) BIRTHDAY CARDS!!!

Keeping my fingers crossed. ;)

Footnote: In case you're thinking that all the gifts that I want are too extravagant, let me remind you that this is my birthday wishlist. The operative word being wish. Heh heh.

The Day I Discovered Kidz Bop

2009-01-08T04:23:00.007-08:00

Remember the days when we had nice, simple, I-love-you-you-love-me-BIG-HUG entertainment off the simple but useful invention called the television when we were little? With the advent of the internet, YouTube and the exponentially increased percentage of celebutard-wannabes (no thanks to the cultural epidemic known as reality television), an entirely "for children only" website that's pseudo-MTV has arrived!

Welcome to the age of Kidz Bop, where children also have the opportunity to dress up, video-whore and become instant online superstars! Check out their video section. They've even got music videos of the latest Top 40 hits, featuring an all-children cast with their all-new re-recordings of popular songs such as "Pocketful of Sunshine", "Breakaway", "Take You There" etc etc.

Ok, my sarcasm ends here.

In my opinion, this brings scary to a whole new level. Somehow I can only imagine paedophiles enjoying this "delectable" selection of child-prey. Parents in this day and age should be really careful about what kids are up to online. Portals like these may be fun, but also pose as a high risk platform for predators. I wouldn't ever allow my kids to be put at such risk.

My parents should be thankful that we didn't have broadband back in the day.

Blair does not approve.

The Day I Have New Hope

2008-12-22T07:02:00.002-08:00

My very own "Treaty of Versailles" has set sail. The hope that was lingering beyond the horizon has now surfaced and I can see again. 15 January. A new home for the new year.

Tick tock tick tock. :)

The Day I Talk About The Frustration With My Current Predicament

2008-12-17T07:09:00.004-08:00

Some of you may know that I've been moving into my new house for quite awhile. You may wonder, "Why is Justin still moving after so many months? The hell is wrong?" In actual fact, by "moving" I meant "moving" the boxes that were packed from my en bloc back in August into my new house. I haven't actually moved in for good and obviously haven't started staying there yet. Truth is, I can't. Therein lies my frustration with the entire fiasco.

Here's what's been happening and why I'm being driven up the wall:

1) The Constant Delays

Construction of my new place was planned to begin in March of this year, but no work had begun until June came rolling by. Being 2 months away from my impending displacement from my old home in Lorong Chuan, I knew it was impossible that the contractor could be able to finish the A&A on time. At that point of time, we had signed a contract stating that my new place was scheduled for completion by the end of October.

Before we knew it, it was already the end of October and the house was still a mess (the roof wasn't even up yet). So we were once again promised that work would be completed by mid-November (after my ORD). That day came and as expected, we still couldn't move in yet. The contractor/engineer/whoever the fuck was responsible for this shit) had not even signed up for our water and electricity permits. Then came and end of November and now, it's already December 17th.

2) Crashing with Extended Family

Ever since the en bloc, my parents and I have been staying with my grandparents (who share their house with my aunt and 2 cousins). Imagine this: We are now sharing a three room condominium, with each room progressively smaller and more pathetic than the next, and there are only two toilets (of which only one is a common toilet because the other one is reserved only for use by the geriatric couple). Six people, one toilet.

To make things worse, I'm sleeping side by side with my parents on two mattresses (which we join together to make one slightly bigger mattress, and have to pack up to put it into one corner of the room every morning after we wake up) in the smallest of the three rooms. I'm not a claustrophobe and already I feel like a caged animal. I wonder how I would be able to deal with this if I was actually claustrophobic. This is why I actually preferred staying in camp more because at least I had a bed of my own there. So much for ORDing.

3) A House Is Not A Home

Even though the new place is mostly done up, it is still inhabitable due to some unapproved permits which the people in-charged of are not doing anything about (or if they are, I have yet to see any action taken nor have I heard any updates about it). This, coupled with the fact that the interior design has not been done (ie the yet-to-be-built build-in wardrobes, dry kitchen, wet kitchen cabinets) makes it absolutely impossible for my family to stay there at all. So yes, I may be able to step into my new house, turn on the lights, run the tap, but it's only just that: a house.

This fuckery has caused me to be unable to spend my final Christmas in my own home in Singapore before I depart for the US next year, and now it seems like my final Chinese New Year (for at least the next four years) may be affected too. Honestly, I'm too tired to think about the minute details now.

I guess my Christmas wish for 2008 won't be coming true.

The Day I Review "Circus"

2008-11-24T07:47:00.007-08:00

If there was one person who could pull off two consecutive "comebacks", it's Britney Spears.

Slightly more than a year ago, the popular media hailed the announcement of the release of her much awaited new album Blackout as the magnificent comeback of the tabloid-ridden former Pop Princess. Then her life began to unravel, starting with her critically panned performance of "Gimme More" at the 2007 MTV VMAs.

Along came her very public mental meltdown, the loss of her children's custody, plus the widely publicized psychiatric rehabilitation and her placement into co-conservatorship of her father, all under the glare of the unrelenting paparazzi. The cloud surrounding Blackout hung around like a curse. The catchy and well-produced ditties on the album were overshadowed by the flood of negative publicity.

However, things seem to be on the upturn. Having rebuilt her image from her head-shaving, umbrella-wielding, paparazzi-smashing days, she is once again being portrayed in a positive light by the usually-vicious celebrity gossip sites. With a brand new album waiting in the wings, plus a cover of the December issue of Rolling Stones, the bitch is really back.

Circus is complete with a great mix of radio-friendly hits and dancefloor anthems, very much like Madonna's latest offering "Hard Candy". Unlike the sexually aggressive undertones of Blackout, Circus is sweeter and more subtle, and it's packed with easily digestible pop.

As we all already know, the lead track "Womanizer" made it to the top of the billboard charts, a first for Britney in close to 10 years as her only other single that made it all the way to number one was her first hit "Baby...One More Time" back in 1999. The title track (which has been confirmed as her second single) is very hip-hop influenced and reminiscent of "4 Minutes", reflecting Britney's ever increasing influence from Madge. In "Kill The Lights", she declares herself no longer the Pop Princess, but "now the Queen of Pop", which is a very bold statement indeed.

Then there are the ballads. "Out From Under" (a song originally covered by Joanna Pacitti and can be found on the horrible "Bratz" movie soundtrack released earlier this year) is a beautiful but understated ballad of escape, while the vocally tampered "Unusual You" (but not the the extent of Cher's "Believe") has her expressing how amazed she is at a lover who doesn't hurt her.

But for every such subdued and touching moment on the album, she springs a surprise with a blast of almost psychotically upbeat bubblegum pop, like "Mmm Papi", a catchy, over-the-top ditty thatcan be interpreted as either a sarcastic swipe at an ex-lover or being borderline incestuous ("Mmm papa love you!")

Overall, the pop grooves are smooth and nimble, the electro ambience unique and addictive, the ballads understated and emotive, the packaging playful and attention grabbing. On the whole, it is a very well-produced album with a great variety of songs. Let's hope this will last.

You can listen to most of the tracks on her new album here, with the exception of some bonus songs that are only available with the purchase of the album.

The Day I Recount My Eurotrip

2008-11-06T08:33:00.000-08:00

After a long absence, I am finally back. With the convenience of Facebook, I seem to have neglected to update my blog. That's the fickle reality of technology. Like fashion, one day you're in, and the next you're out. But no worries, my blog is here to stay (not that I can say the same about my Friendster account heh heh).

I've just returned from my 9-day trip to Amsterdam and Paris, and I'm completely and absolutely smitten with Europe. The architecture and culture has opened my eyes to a whole new world of sights and sounds. It's definitely a place I'd love to visit again.

Departure & Amsterdam

Prior to my departure, I was involved in a singing competition called A Shot to Fame, and once again I was paired with Marcus. It was probably my last time joining a singing competition with him and most likely my last singing competition. I think I've outgrown the whole lights-and-fame thing. It's just not what I want anymore. Time to get serious about the rest of my life.

Anyway, on to my trip. After the performance, I immediately made my way down to the airport. Thankfully I didn't have much luggage with me so all was good. Only one check-in bag and I was off to Amsterdam!

With my cousins Xavier and Shelia before my departure

On the plane before take-off

Looking completely stoned after 13 straight hours on the plane

The arrival walkway at Amsterdam's Schipol Airport

1) THE Hotel

My hotel, Citizen M, located right next to the airport

It's probably one of the world's first high-tech hotels that requires little to no help, and there isn't even a proper reception counter at the check-in area! Instead, they have about 6 computer terminals where visitors can do their own idiot-proof, self-service check-in and check-out. What you need to do is really simple:

1) Pick a room card (or two) from a dish right next to the terminals
2) Key in your name and confirmation number on the touch-screen
3) Pick your choice of room
4) Tap the room card (ala EZ-Link) at the terminal

And voila! You've checked-in. The same process is repeated for check-outs.

Aside from being highly-technologically equipped in the reception area, the hotel's also very high tech in many other ways. One of which would be the availability of four Mac's at the lobby area, free of charge. Wi-Fi connection is also free throughout the entire hotel building. I say this because for the most part of Europe, even though they have Wi-Fi in many open areas, much akin to our Wireless@SG, it is not free of charge.

Moving on, the rooms. The rooms are so frickin cool. All rooms are linked to Phillips' Moodpad system, in which the lighting of the entire room (bed, toilet, walk-in area) can be tweaked to suit the user's moods. Other than the tech, it is also efficient in the use of space and fully equipped with a King-sized bed for a good night's rest.

My room (from top): view from the door, mirror with dryer and washing basin, king-sized bed with tv on the left, shower cubicle, pee-/pooping cubicle

2) Amsterdam Centraal

After settling in, I made my way down to Amsterdam Central for sightseeing! One thing I noticed about Europe (at least from what I've observed in Amsterdam and Paris) is that public transportation is hella expensive. And I'm not factoring the cost of taxi travel. Which is why I purchased a day ticket (12.95€) which allowed me to take the train (once, to and from Central), and unlimited bus and tram rides (yes they have electric trams too!) for the entire day.

The train

The platform exit

Walking through the Central area, I was greeted with the beautiful architecture that dates back at least two centuries, as well as an abundant number of shops ranging from the local brands (eg. Hempshopper, the canabis/marajuana/weed and mushroom store) to the more familiar international super-brands (eg. ZARA, Diesel, H&M). The alleys were packed with street-side food stalls as well to suit the cravings of any foreign tastebud. My favourite? The world-renown Dutch fast food, the patat. Or Fries, as we call it in English. They serve it in a cone with a variety of toppings, including ketchup, mayonnaise, and the German favourite, curry-ketchup (the name explains itself).

From top: view from outisde the train station; weed shop; open area; random "posing" artist as a Gorilla; a monument that resembles a huge, white erected...you know; a weekend carnival; one of the rides at the carnival; flower shops;

From top: The snack machines with snacks starting from 1€, the patat stall, and me holding on to my precious cone of fries!

After walking around and familiarizing myself with the streets and their respective names, I headed over to the Van Gough Museum (12.50€, no student concession =/). No photography was allowed in the museum though. Needless to say it was a very well-designed building and the paintings were nothing short of spectacular. Van Gough's art vaguely reminded me of the paintings I did when I was a child. I was not an expert painter, mind you, but I loved to sign my pictures with big bold letters after I'm done with it. Most of his paintings are signed in a very child-like manner, with the alphabets being very specifically scrawled out at the bottom corners of his work.

A pond in front of the Van Gough Museum

3) Amsterdam Canal

The following day, Mummy joined me in Amsterdam after her business trip in Den Bosch (North of Amsterdam in Eindhoven), along with Auntie Rose, her ex-colleague and old friend. Since I hadn't gone for the tour of the Amsterdam Canal, we decided to go for it even though it was a rather wet and gloomy day. It had been drizzling since the early morning. Anyway, the ride took about one hour, and that was when I realized that the canal was soooooooooo long!

Shots from the boat ride. The sky sure was dull that day...

After the ride, it was simply too cold to walk around so we decided to find a nice, warm restaurant to hide into to be safe from the cold. And knowing Mummy, she had to find some Asian restaurant for an early dinner. And so, there we were:

4) RLD: Red Light District

That night, we took a walk down the famous (or infamous, if you'd like to see it that way) Red Light District. It was still drizzling a little, so we were all still pretty much freezing to death (I'm from tropical sunny Singapore; shoot me). But we were only there out of curiosity. After all, the Netherlands is well-known for it's famous legalized prostitution. Like it's been described by many who have gone before me, there were the little cubicles with prostitutes in it. Some were pretty hot, but most of them were not. As we were walking along the stretch of brothels, I noticed something odd. In between the sex-holes were boutiques selling high fashion home-grown labels. I didn't know why until I returned to the hotel, Googled about it and realized that there was this programme called "RedlightFashion Amsterdam". You can read more about it at the official website here.

The Red Light District with it's unique "flavour"; note the pseudo Moulin Rouge that's actually a nightclub. Heh heh.

The boutiques that are part of RedlightFashion Amsterdam.

Bonjour Paris!

After a pleasant short stay in Amsterdam, the three of us checked-out bright and early and headed over to the train station at Schipol for our ride to Paris. We rode on Thalys, the European train operator which provides services to Paris, Brussels, Cologne and Amsterdam (the track used is shared up with Eurostar as well, and that can bring us to London via the Channel Tunnel).

From top: our train from Amsterdam to Paris; the interior of the train cabin; scenery along the railway; random lady sitting across me who kept kicking my feet while she was asleep

We were greeted with exceptionally good weather upon our arrival. There were no strong gusts of wind attempting to chill our bones dry, and the sun was flying high in an almost cloudless sky. Pretty day but we did get pretty lost trying to find our way to the hotel. Google maps told me it was a 20 minute walk away from the Gare du Nord station, but it took me 45 minutes to figure out where I was going before we finally arrived at our destination.

Our Thalys train arriving in Paris!

Gare du Nord station

1) Parlez-Vous Anglais?

Getting around in France is extremely frustrating for a tourist, especially if you're not well-versed in French, or like me, you're almost completely useless when speaking in their native tongue (yes yes Jerrick, go ahead and mock me. You know you want to). However, my saving grace came in the form of my friendly Time Out™ travel guide, from which I learnt simple French words and phrases that proved to be a whole lot of help. Here's what I used all the time:

Escusez moi (es-ku-say muah) - Excuse me
Parlez-vous anglais? (pah-lay-voo ong-glay) - Do you speak English?
Pardon (pah-dong) - Sorry
Si vous plait? (see-voo play) - Please?
C'est combien? (say kom-bian) - How much is this?
Merci (meh-ah-see) - Thank you

They're really very proud of their language, which is not a bad thing if you see it from their point of view. So the next time I'm going to France, I'm picking up at least some conversational French. I hate feeling helpless.

2) Parisian Monuments!

Like any other sane person who visits from far far away, I dragged the two hapless women around to visit the must-sees of the charismatic city. Now I won't go into too much details (cos I know you people nowadays love to see.more.pictures instead of reading plain black letters), so I'll let the photos do the talking:

- Basilica of the Sacré Cœur

Hidden high up on a hill in Montmartre is one of the stops on a tourist's (as well as a Catholic's) pilgrimage. The Basilica of the Sacré Cœur (Church of The Sacred Heart) was completed in the year 1914, 41 years after construction began. The unique thing about the Basilica is that it has the Blessed Sacrament in a monstrance on the altar that has been on display since 1885 (123 years!!!), and a perpetual adoration has been observed ever since. This is why there are many ushers within the Basilica to maintain orderliness and and silence in reverence of the host.

- Église de la Madeleine

Also known as Madeleine Church in English, this magnificent structure served as a temple in glorification of Napoleon's army. We observed many stalls selling flowers along the stretch of the building. And on the Northern face of the Madeleine, the steps are covered beautifully with flowers (didn't manage to get a decent shot of the flower-covered steps, so none to share. Sorry....)

- Place de la Concorde

The weather wasn't too good on our second day, so when we visited this historic site where Marie Antoinette, King Louis XIV etc. met their end at the guillotine, we were slightly drenched. As usual, there's nothing more I can say about the architechture other than the fact that it's beyond pretty (and that damn pillar sticks out like a...sore thumb! I meant to say sore thumb! :P)

- Notre Dame de Paris

Just so you know, there are 10 million "Notre Dame's" in France. Ok, I exaggerate There are 8 in France, and 7 more in the rest of the world. The real thing was exactly like how it looked like in the 1996 Disney movie (sans oddly-dressed French people, and definitely no sign of a hideous Hunchback), and I was swept off my feet at the sight of it's tinted glass windows. After a long morning of walking about on a semi-empty stomach (we always stuffed ourselves silly at our hotel's breakfast hehe), we headed off to a nearby café for lunch, and we had:

Carbonara pasta, French onion soup, sausages with frites and pumpkin soup. Yummmm....

- Louvre

The place made famous by Dan Brown's controversial novel "The Da Vinci Code". The home of the Mona Lisa. Yes, the Louvre (pronounced "loof"). With an affordable entrance fee of only 9€ (it's 10 times larger but 3.50€ cheaper than the Van Gough Museum!!!), you can burn your day away staring at the numerous sculptures, paintings and even Egyptian mummies (if you've got the guts to) in this world-renown museum. The exhibition halls are quite maze-like, and it's quite easy to get lost within the building. I know that because I was stuck in the Egyptian exhibition hall with the mummies for about 20 minutes before I figured my way out.

My lunch at the Louvre: a slice of pizza, a bowl of pumpkin soup and a bottle of Perrier (14€). Super overpriced.

The Mona Lisa. It's so...small?

Posing FAIL. The damn bronze sculture poses better than me. :(

- Eiffel Tower

It'd be a dream come true to take wedding photos at the Eiffel Tower innit? What's more for me to say? *swoons* It's soooo incredibly charming in real life... More photos!

Shots taken from around the Eiffel Tower, of the Eiffel tower, on the Eiffel Tower, and the wax-statuesque champagne guy who's at the highest level of the tower.

- Arc de Triomphe

The Arc stands in the centre of the Place Charles de Gaulle. It is at the western end of the Champs-Élysées. The triumphal arch honors those who fought for France, particularly during the Napoleonic Wars. I didn't want to queue up for entrance into the Arc because the human chain was inhumanely long, but from what I've heard, on the inside and the top of the arc there are all of the names of generals and wars fought. And a very special thing about the Arc is that underneath it is the tomb of an unknown soldier from World War I, with an eternal flame burning burns in memory of the dead who were never identified.

3) Paris Holds the Key to Your Heart! OOH LA LA!

And I thought I wouldn't be watching any shows cos they were so expensive. But I did. Auntie Rose and my dear mother decided that it would be a waste if we visited Paris and did not catch any of their amazing cabaret shows. According to trusty sources (ie tour agencies), the Lido was more of a modern performance show compared to the traditional and made-to-movie Moulin Rouge. Therefore, we each poured 140€ for the dinner plus show tickets at the Lido.

Formal dressing required for the evening, but Mum and Aunt Rose seemed to think that dressing down was a good idea for our fun night out. No photography was allowed for the show, so I couldn't capture all of the heart-stopping action on stage during the show.But if you're interested, they've got their website right here if you wanna check them out.

4) Shopping Shopping SHOPPING!!!

After Auntie Rose's departure, Mum and I took the RER to Val d'Europe, where the factory outlets of La Valée were located. It was there where my mother's inner shopaholic beast was unleashed. We walked and splurged, walked and splurged the entire day till nightfall. Very eventful, but also very exhausting.

Places we've seen and the things we bought (not all are pictured).

5) Versailles

The following day, we visited Versailles, another town in the outskirts of Paris. It is famed for it's castle of Marie Antoinette, as well as the enormous stretch of garden behind it. The King must have really loved Marie Antoinette, because the very first thing to greet us at the castle was a huge gate completely plated with gold. Y'know how they roll in the past: gold = love. More gold = more love. After our photo-op at the Chateau, we headed off to find a nice warm place for coffee and we found...

McCafé! The McCafés in France are really more well furnished than their counterparts in Singapore. Not that I'm dissing our own local outlets, but it's a fact. Hell, they give Starbucks a run for their money. What I love about them? They sell my favourite macarons! =)

On our way back to Paris (it was Halloween), there was this really adorable little toddler who kept glancing up at Mummy while we were on the train. He had azure blue eyes and matching blue spectacles that just went so well together. So adorable!

Au Revoir Paris!

After 9 days in Amsterdam and Paris, I finally had to say goodbye to Europe. It was short but definitely sweet. I'LL BE BACK!

The Day I Share A Heroes Spoiler

2008-10-13T03:41:00.007-07:00

Coming up in episode 7 of season 3....

Claire and Elle beatdown? I can't wait!!!! :D

The Day I Share Something About Pseudo-Feminism

2008-10-11T21:53:00.004-07:00

Once again, it is proven that we need a third party to give perspective on what's happening at home. At least that's what Americans seem to need. A UK news report on the recent Vice-Presidential Debate in the US talks about how Sarah Palin has (in the writer's words) "lowered the standards for female candidates and political discourse". I couldn't agree more.

Like how Tina Fey has (albeit with much exaggeration) portrayed her, Palin truly becomes increasingly adorable when cornered. What's with her penchant for winking anyway? Is she trying to justify the fact that people have been going online and calling her a MILF? Is she trying to flirt with the audience so they won't notice how incoherent most of her statements and replies are? It's as if she thinks that the "average Americans" are really so stupid. Oh wait, I think she does.

Also, in the VP debate, she dug up some really old smears, saying this about Obama "Some of his comments that he has made about the war that I think may -- in my world- disqualifies someone from consideration as the next commander in chief..." "Some of his comments about Afghanistan and what we are doing there supposedly- just air raiding villages and killing civilians. That's reckless." After which, FOX News headlines her comments under "PALIN: OBAMA COMMENTS DISQUALIFY HIM FOR COMMANDER IN CHIEF".

In my opinion, a leader who doesn't acknowledge the pain and suffering from air raids that kill innocent civilians in allied lands puts the troops at risk for revenge attacks. The are innocent people that lost their lives because of the US military, to ignore it and sweep it under the rug stokes the idea that Americans view Muslims as sub-human. One can only be forgiven when his wrongdoing is acknowledged. And with the McCain/Palin mindset, it is pretty much certain that Bush's legacy will be continued for at least the next four years, should they win the Presidential elections.

Obama has been on the national stage for close to two years, yet there are some people who still say that they do not know him. Palin on the other hand has only been on the national stage for six weeks, yet there has yet to be anyone saying that they don't know her. Also, Obama has spoken on many issues in the past two years whereas they've only gotten a hand full of interviews and speaches from Palin. So what's going to happen next? Only time will tell.

Click here for the full article from The Guardian.

This post is brought to you by the flirtatious wink.

The Day Of My Last Weekend Duty (EVER)

2008-10-10T22:09:00.003-07:00

We have finally arrived near the end of my service for the nation. YES.
And today's my last weekend duty! (Actually, more like today and tomorrow la but whattheheck) So anyway, I just made an interesting discovery last night. We have our very own Gossip Girl ripoff in sunny Singapore!

Known only as Kaypoh Girl, this new young thing (or things, as many have speculated that more than one person runs this delightful, juicy little webbie, and I suspect that it's not even written by a girl/girls) is only about a month old. Go check it out if you're really bored. For the real deal, remember that a new episode of Gossip Girl airs every Monday, 8/7c on the CW (which is available for viewing off surfthechannel.com soon after heh heh).

To the producers of Gossip Girl (if you happen to chance upon this blog): For the love of God, please do something about Vanessa's hair. Crimping is for the 80s and little children's sleepovers, not, I repeat, not for your grown-up token Hispanic girl on the show. And please please please get new clothes for Chuck. Or burn his wardrobe so he'll need new clothes. Cos orange, purple, (and most recently) green suits are not made for human eyes. He's not a Teletubby.

Anyhoos, I've got a long boring day ahead. Thank God there's Candice Bushnell, Natsuo Kirino and Sylvia Plath to keep me company. To the rest of y'all who are enjoying your freedom during the weekends, have fun! I'll be joining you guys before you know it. ;)

The Day I Talk About "Eagle Eye"

2008-10-01T06:39:00.004-07:00

How long has it been since I last went for a movie with my Indonesian cousins (no Andrew, you don't count; you're a once-removed cousin :P)? Hmmm, since never. So anyway, we went out together today for a movie since it was the Hari Raya holidays and I had no plans for the day.

Movie Review: Eagle Eye

Once again, Shia LaBeouf is the leading man of an action film produced by Stephen Spielberg. With Constantine (well he was Keanu's sidekick, so I guess it counts), Transformers, Disturbia and Indiana Jones under his belt, one would think that he'd be consumed by the genre already. However, he manages to provide a very solid performance as a government fugitive on the run due to the manipulation of a sentient, government-created computer security system that went rogue. With him is Michelle Monaghan (from this year's romantic comedy Made of Honor), who provides the movie with a maternal touch without being overly whine-y and stiff. However, the show's true scene stealer has to be Rosario Dawson , who portrays a special agent for the US Air Force. Her delivery has never been so good since Clerks II (IMO her parts in Death Proof and Sin City didn't do her acting chops justice).

Without giving too much away, the movie is somewhat similar to the premise of the Terminator series (Terminator, T2, T3, The Sarah Connor Chronicles), sans robots from the future but plus manipulation of humans by a computer system. It's relatively well-paced and gives a very real "what if?" feel by providing the audience with a scenario where technology become too smart for its own good.

To end off, I'd like to wish everyone a very Happy Childrens' Day (no matter how old you are, cos everybody has a kid within)! And Selamat Hari Raya Adilfitri to all my Muslim friends!

PS: And to you Emmanuel, HAPPY 20th BIRTHDAY! It really was nice meeting you this morning for brunch. :)

Till next time, xoxo.

The Day I Talk About The Return Of Grey's Anatomy

2008-09-22T06:30:00.004-07:00

It's the fall season and all the TV shows are coming back in the new, post-WGA Strike era! And guess what I found on YouTube about the latest season of Grey's Anatomy?

It's a spoof, obviously. But Jimmy Kimmel's pretty good, being able to pull this off. I may just start watching Grey's again. Heh.

The Day I Remember Why I LOVE Tina Fey & Amy Poehler

2008-09-15T04:51:00.000-07:00

'Nuff said. :)

The Day of Rants & Musings (I'm Stuck In Camp, I Can't Help It)

2008-09-13T00:40:00.003-07:00

And once again, the time has come for me to be on duty again this weekend. And by weekend, I mean the entire weekend (Saturday and Sunday back to back. Woohooo!) Oh joy. I've got alot of things on my mind, so this is going to be a very random, rapid piece of rant, rant and more rant.

1. From A to B to C to...
I've been serial dating for quite awhile and I think I should stop. It's not healthy (emotionally, at least) and it'd probably be good for me to take a break.

2. Room Dilemma
Ok, so here's the deal. My place is not ready yet, but it will be soon. And I'm torn between making my entire room Japanese-style and getting myself a tatami bed or simply buying a normal queen-sized mattress and doing up the room "love shack" style (red & black walls and all). Need suggestions.

3. Love In Dis Club
I HAVEN'T GONE CLUBBING IN 2 MONTHS.
I neeeeeed to (as Mariah puts it) shake it off.

4. Sarah Palin IS NOT Hilary Clinton
I may not be American, but I have been following the run-up to the US elections quite religiously, and I'm sick and tired of hearing people saying that Sarah Palin is like Hilary Clinton. Obvious differences aside (Palin's Republican, Clinton's a Democrat), Palin is the complete opposite of Clinton. She's an anti-choice feminist who's pro-abstinence and marriage (yeah and her *cough*pregnant*cough* 17-year-old daughter is what?), in favour of drilling in the Artic, doesn't believe in teaching evolution and is against gay marriage. Plus she hunts (as in shoots animals) and is in favour of the extension of the Iraq occupation by US troops. Basically, her political stance is no different from McCain.

Which is why I think it's a huge joke that the Republicans have resorted to pulling the gender card. Do they seriously think that ~~American women~~ the Hilary-supporters are so stupid that they'd vote based on gender alone? That's really quite patronizing and tokenizing. And sexist.

5. End-of-year Holidays!
Hmmm. Who wants to go to Hong Kong and/or LA with me? Probably going in early November or late December.

6. Performing Live
I really really reaaaally miss performing. The glare of the stage lights, being able to share my voice with other people, the adrenaline rush of being on stage, the post-performance applause... Everything about it. Ah well, I'm probably doing a gig soon. Keep your fingers crossed.

The Day of Long Overdue Updates

2008-09-01T03:51:00.005-07:00

The past couple of weeks has been nothing but crazy, crazy crazy. I've finally packed and moved and I'm sorry if I haven't been able to catch up with everybody since my return from Thailand. August has been a helluva month. But no worries, I've got some updates coming right up:

Jerrick's 20th

In the midst of all the craziness and surrealism of moving out, I managed to take some time off to attend Jerrick's 20th Birthday celebration at the very cosy Pepperoni's (located just down the road from NJC in Bukit Timah). It was a small affair, and I had to opportunity to catch up with some long lost friends (namely Victoria, Daniel, Aaron and Wan Jin). Jerrick's going to fly off to the UK in mid-September, and I know I'm really going to miss him.

The private room

Doodling on the table top

Clockwise from left: Victoria, Jerrick, me, Daniel

The huge-ass family sized pizzas enough to feed at least 5 people

The Birthday boy and his nice cake (of course it's nice cos I bought it! Hahahaha....)

iPhone 3G

I know this thing has been around since July 11th in the better parts of the world, but unfortunately for us, it's only just hit our shores last weekend. Dad and I arrived at hello! Comcentre at around 8.45am last Saturday (cos we booked the 9-11am slot), not expecting any queue cos we assumed that the crazies would've gotten their iPhones the day before. But we were wrong. Once we got there, we were greeted by a looooooong line of fervent Apple fans (and probably some "novelty seekers" here and there). On the bright side, Singtel did a great job in dealing with the queue and we managed to purchase the phone within 25 minutes of our arrival.

Some photos of my new 16G, glossy, white-backed baby:

My new new love. :)

Au Revoir Laurel Park

And the time has come for me to say goodbye the the place where I've built my life and nurtured fond memories of for the past 12 years. The deadline for moving out came before we knew it, and to mark the occasion, I had a small gathering as a goodbye gesture to my beloved house. 人生无不散之宴席。Didn't make it less difficult for me to say goodbye, but it was nice while it lasted.

Some photos of us vandalizing my room on the last night:

If it ain't broke, break it. :P

Goodbye my old home. You were great.

The Day I Caught "Kallang Roar"

2008-08-18T07:25:00.003-07:00

Just got back from Balestier's Shaw Cinema for a free preview of a homegrown movie, Kallang Roar. Many thanks to Class 95 for the free tickets (and many thanks Yas, I LOVE "LOVE SONGS"!!!)

I must say, I'd gone in with little expectations of the movie but it turned out to be quite a heartwarming show that really encapsulated the lost Singapore spirit that was once in all rage during the late 70s where soccer was the hot topic. Kudos to Lim Kay Siu for his heartwrenching and convicting performance as the impartial and patriotic coach. His acting was impeccable, and so was his on (and off screen) wife, Neo Swee Lin. Although the rest of the cast was generally made up of unknowns, their debut acting effort should be applauded.

The screenplay was well paced with interlaced moments of solemnity and comedy. However, they producers could've put in more effort in picking the child actors, specifically the one who portrayed the young Fandi Ahmad. He was overacting a tad too much. Nonetheless, it gave us all a good laugh.

Give the movie a shot. You'll be surprised at how far our local film-makers have come.

The Day I Return From Kanchanabury

2008-08-11T23:40:00.002-07:00

I'm back.

The entire trip truly ended with a bang with our flight being delayed for close to 24 hours due to a cracked windcreen. A cracked windscreen. Go figure. Damned JetStar Asia. Anyway, will update bout the entire Thailand/Kanchanabury/Sai Yok Camp experience once I get all the photos ready.

Moving on... Heroes Trivia!!! As we all know, the new season will begin on Sep 22, so the hype is definitely building up again. And guess what I found on YouTube? A clip about Kaito Nakamura's (Hiro's dad) powers! Check it out:

Can't wait for Volume 3!!!!!!!!!

The Day I Leave For Thailand

2008-07-13T03:05:00.002-07:00

And so I'm leaving for Thailand again. But this time, I'm not going on a holiday. The Army beckons. Heh. Will really miss Singapore and the people I love (at least for the month that I'm there). To all who are still here, please be well and be safe.

Lotsa love! Will update once I'm back. =)

The Day @ Recess

2008-07-03T18:06:00.002-07:00

RECESS was a blast!

Many thanks to Tammi and Isaac for their hard work. Good job you guys! PLAY should really spin more R&B. Does get the crowd movin' and groovin' more than usual. K, shall cut the bullshit and just let photos do the talking (photos courtesy of our beloved Jiexin):

The Day Of Our Semifinals

2008-06-30T06:10:00.004-07:00

We didn't make it to the finals, but it was a good race nonetheless. Nothing feels better than team spirit and camaraderie. My very first race season was indeed a very memorable one. Hopefully I'll have more opportunities to make more memories. =)

The FLUS team

Team cheer

Our semifinal boat (I'm the 2nd last from the back)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

St James last night was phenomenal, confetti, balloons and all. Great music (oh George oh George OH GEORGE... Haha) and great company. Couldn't ask for more.

PS: Thanks for making me so happy. =)

The Day Of My First Race

2008-06-28T07:41:00.003-07:00

The butterflies in my stomach
The unconditioned nerves
The adrenaline rush
The Neanderthal shouting
The post-race body ache

It was all very amazing.

We made it to the semi-finals!
One (hopefully two) more race(s) tomorrow.

So stoned. Need sleep.

The Day I Had Dinner With Kok Wei

2008-06-21T23:52:00.004-07:00

Kok Wei's back from India!!!

Met up with him for dinner last night after training. It's really good to have him back. No need for long distance sms' and waiting by the phone for replies anymore. Now I can just call him whenever, wherever (omg I sound like some M1 advertisement)!

Training's been exceptionally tough for the past week, but it really helped me improve as a rower. Really really wanna win something next week. It'll be very good for the morale of the team. More updates soon. Gtg for training now.

The Day Cancer Hit Too Close To Home

2008-06-19T05:48:00.002-07:00

Sometimes when life deals you a lousy hand, you gotta make do with it.

After work last evening, I got a text by a close friend, "I've been diagnosed with lymphoma". Not exactly the five words that makes your day. Like taking a slap in the face, I was stunned for the moment. A couple of years ago, my uncle was down with colon cancer. He was 52. But it still didn't prepare me for this. How can you prepare yourself for something like that anyway? As the night progressed, it began to sink in: my friend had cancer.

He had just turned 20.

Cancer is a cruel disease that not only eats into the body of a person, but the entire soul and being of the person as well. It pains me to know that he's going through this unwanted chapter of life that was forced upon him, but there's nothing much I can do other than to pray for his full recovery. The only thing we can do to combat the festering evil of cancer is to have faith. Faith in God, in technology, in optimism.

The Day of Random Rants: Monday Blues

2008-06-09T04:58:00.004-07:00

1.
Woke up this morning and had a shock of my life when I faced a monster in the mirror. I HAVE EYE-BAGS. Can somebody please recommend me some good and effective patches/creams? Need it stat.

2.
Why is it that every time I help some people do something at work I just get taken for granted? It's really not that difficult to say "thank you" you know. Sometimes I wonder whether it pays to be nice.

3.
I have a weird medley of "Take A Bow", "Damaged" and "I'll Be Lovin' U Long Time" stuck in my head. Imagine Rihanna, the Danity Kane girls plus Mariah screaming and bitch-slapping the shit out of each other in your head. That's how my brain feels.

4.
My nose still feels kinda funny. I think my sinusitis is back. Damn. Might need to poach a fluocinolone spray from somewhere. Heh.

5.
Just called home and mummy told me she had an apple for dinner. I told her "An apple = appetiser, not dinner." Was quite shocked and angry with her. Dieting really shouldn't be so extreme. Damn those celebrities and their Slimming Centre endorsements! *tears up Olinda Cho's picture in the newspaper* Called dad to make sure he gets mum some proper food for tonight. Now how am I supposed to leave them behind next year without worrying? And I thought it was supposed to be the other way around.

6.
To you: Thanks for last night. Even though we only met up for a short while, you really made my day. =)

7.
Can't wait for Friday! If only everyday was a weekend...

The Day I Talk About My New Love:

2008-06-06T01:02:00.003-07:00

The iMac

Got this baby about a week ago and I've been so in love ever since. It's got a huge-ass screen (20"), flawless sound quality, beautiful colours and it also packs a mean processor in a tiny, shiny body. Plus, no lags, no hassle (3 wires only, down to 1 when I get my hands on the wireless mouse and keyboard) and almost idiot-proof. What's there not to love about it?

The Day I Came Back From Phuket

2008-05-26T06:45:00.002-07:00

I'm back from my weekend Phuket getaway! =D

It was truly a relaxing, stress-free trip out of the country. I ate my fill of my favourite Thai dishes, had some pretty exciting first-times, and most importantly, bonded with Norris and strengthened our friendship. Will now try to recount my journey as accurately as I can.

Day 1

After checking in at the Budget Terminal on Saturday morning, we headed over to T3 for breakfast (it's so much more atas and cosy haha). We had breakfast at Ya Kun with my parents and my little cousins were there too. Poor things had to wake up so early to accompany us to the airport.

Ok, so here's the deal: we aren't supposed to take photos on/of the runway. But I did. It was a really lucky shot cos right after I snapped, the security guy motioned menacingly at me (with killer eyes and flailing hands) and warned that no photos are allowed. Thank goodness he didn't ask me to hand over my camera. Lucky me.

We were really lucky cos for both our flights to and from Phuket, we got the seats by the emergency exits. In case you don't already know, that just means that we've got extra leg space compared to the other passengers on usual seats. And the best part? I'm pretty short, so extra leg room = a whole lotta space to stretch. This was one budget flight experience well worth the ticket price.

That's our ride from the airport to the hotel. We had a whole minibus to ourselves! Totally had a "Lifestyles of the rich and famous" moment.

Our hotel room at the Baumanburi Resort.
It was quite well-furnished but I didn't like the location of our room. We were living right next to the fire escape and didn't have a pool-facing view. Instead we were looking right at the water tank. But we were only staying in the room in the night cos we were out most of the time so it wasn't too much of a problem.

Lunch at the Savoey restaurant along Patong Beach. We had the traditional Tom Yum Koong with seafood and Green Curry with Beef (served in a fresh coconut). It was good, and it eased our famished stomachs as well as recharged us for our next act of the day...

Tanning at Patong Beach!
The beach was so packed! And there were tons of ang moh's (who were mostly not in the best of shape)! And Patong Beach being a tourist area, we had to fork out 100B each for our tanning chairs. The sun was strong, and the sea breeze was soothing. Because of that, by the end of 2 hours, we were charred and had to get ourselves some after-sun moisturising cream from the nearby Watsons store.

Our dinner was consumed at this really cosy little restaurant just across the road from Savoey, right in front of the beach. We actually caught sight of this little gem during lunch and decided collectively to go check it out. And I couldn't be happier for having given it a shot. The food was wonderful, and the service was impeccable. To top it all off, the view of the beach from the restaurant was just jaw-droppingly good. It's really a must-go for all visitors!

After dinner, we walked around Bangla Road to allow our bloat to go down. There we witnesses first-hand how touting really can get extremely out of hand. We had touts shove offers for "Tiger" (Thai-girl) shows and cabarets in our faces with every 5-steps we took. And things didn't turn for the better when a couple of trannies (I have nothing against them, god bless them) started grabbing us and asked us to take photos with them (and by doing so we'd have to pay them a substantial amount in tips). We ran away as fast as we could, of course, but it was still a pretty harrowing experience.

How bout a trashy photo for good measure?

They even have a bar with such a sleazy name. Talk about in-your-face.

AND THERE'S A FRIGGIN SHOPPING CENTRE THE SIZE OF VIVO IN PHUKET!!! Our eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.

Following the walk, we went for drinks at a bar next to Banthai Hotel. The live band were playing pretty old songs and we didn't really enjoy the music, but the Korean tourists there really brought up the mood with their crazy-dancing antics. Just wanna say that I really like this photo because it really captured the colorful mood of the evening.

Day 2

The next day we went for our day trip to Phi Phi Island! We took a fast craft and boy was the ride a bumpy one! We visited several islands throughout the course of the day, namely Maya Island (the island on which they filmed the Leonardo DiCaprio movie "The Beach"), Phi Phi Island and Kwai Island. Along the way, we even got the opportunity to go snorkelling (my first time!!!) and played with the fishes! But my favourite island out of all of them had to be Kwai Island.

Kwai Island had the best beach! There was even a little lagoon around it which had corals and fishes that would swim around you playfully. After a good tanning session, nothing beats having an ice-cold coconut to cool off. Mmmm...

We patronised the same restaurant we did a day before for dinner of Day 2, just because of all the above mentioned plus-points. This time, however, we managed to catch the sunset at the restaurant! It was so so sooooo beautiful. Almost poetic even. We ordered a plate of fries to munch on before dinner and the cute thing was that they gave us tiny dessert forks for the fries (see the above picture for photographic evidence). The best thing of the night was of course the traditional Thai-style vermicilli with prawns (pictured). We had wanted the vermicilli with crabs but sadly, it was beyond our budget. Nevertheless, it was very savoury and we fell in love with the restaurant all over again.

Day 3

And we were soon whisked back to the airport and homebound. The Phuket airport is really run-down. And I thought our Budget Terminal airport was bad. If you put them side by side, our BT actually stands out by a mile. But I guess it isn't fair to compare something so old with something so new.

What really shocked me, though, was the slip-shod way out boarding passes were done. They didn't even have the decency to print our names onto the card. Instead, they have a cut out of our names from what is obviously a flight nominal roll and pasted shabbily with scotch tape. Very chachat. Urgh.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I really enjoyed this short trip. It has broadened my views about the Thai people and showed me the intensity of Phuket's tourism industry. But I'm very sure I will be back in Phuket in the near future for another visit. Can't wait for next time! =)

The Day Boon Turned 21

2008-05-14T23:06:00.004-07:00

The past week has been pretty awesome. Tiring (as you can see from the eyebags in my photos below) but thoroughly satisfying. There were also a couple of firsts: it was the first time I've had training two days in a row, and it was my first experience at The Mind Café in Boat Quay.

I managed to make it to the race team after the crazy 500m time trial two weeks ago. Last Saturday, we had our first additional training at Bedok Resevoir. Being the noob that I am (compared to the rest of my teammates who have more experience than me), I was under constant scrutiny by Lele (our coach). It wasn't a bad thing though, cos she corrected many of my mistakes. Yes even after 6 months, I still have some problems with my rowing technique. Ah well. To err is to be human; I'm not a robot after all. The following day, training resumed at our usual Kallang spot. Altogether, the two days were quite tiring, but I found it immensely satisfying. Maybe I'm just a masochist. Heh.

My first time at The Mind Café was an eye-opener. Granted, I was never much of a board-games person. I'd rather be sitting in front of my computer YouTubing, or out and about town. But the Café changed my whole perspective on the board-gaming culture. I always thought of board-games as the last resort in the list of entertainment choices, especially so when you're stuck at home with unwanted company (eg. the times when you meet relatives whom you only encounter during special occasions). But I was wrong. The ambiance of the place was very cosy, and the high ceiling lit up the whole space, enough to make claustrophobes feel at ease. The main draw of the place was of course the huge selection of board games, ranging from the universally-known ("Monopoly", "Game of Life", "Cluedo"), to the obscure ("Compatibility", "Sabotage"). Basically, any conceivable board game you want, you can get.

Anyway, I was there for a reason, and that was to celebrate Boon's 21st Birthday! His mum had kindly booked a table for 10 and I was one of the "honorable invitees" to the party. We drank, ate and played "Compatibility" as well as "Sabotage" (games which I've never heard of before until I saw them that day). Basically it was good, fun bonding. Sadly I had to leave early due to training, but I had a lot of fun nonetheless.

I think the café could very well become my new favourite hangout. Hmmm.

Some photos from the little get-together:

(Clockwise from top left) Meifeng & me, Boon & me, Jiapei & Meifeng, (group shot) Jiapei, Meifeng, Me, Boon, Erwyn, Ker Min

Phuket this Saturday! =)

The Day We Haarto-ed

2008-05-06T05:30:00.002-07:00

It's been awhile.

Met up with Kitson, Shaun, Meifeng and Tammi for dinner at Chomp Chomp tonight. The last time I actually saw Kitty and Shaun was waaay back in February, so it was really nice meeting up again today after such a long while. I can still vaguely recall the days in JC where we would hang out together in between classes, bitching and moaning about everything under the sun. Oh, those were the days. Time really does a whole lot to your social landscape if you don't hold it under tight control.

After dinner, we made our way to Haarto for yummy gelato! I love Haarto! They've got the best milk tea gelato around! Imagine this: your teh-c in frozen form that melts into a cool yet satisfying cream concoction as soon as you put it into your mouth. Nothing can beat that!

The lot of us at Haarto. Clock wise from left: Kitson, Shaun, Me, Tammi and Meifeng

Tammi's flying off to Paris tomorrow night! I'm gonna miss her ALOT (at least for 3 weeks). But I've got my upcoming Phuket trip to look forward to. The sun, the sea and the beach. Mmmmmm. Nice. Just thinking about it makes me all excited already. Can't wait!

The Day Someone From The Past Came Back

2008-04-22T05:35:00.004-07:00

"I know what I did was shit," you said.

You let go
Without a reason and a trace
Of love or hope
I used to see in your eyes

But the darkness lifted
The first light broke through
And I started to pick up the pieces
I thought I could never find
Again

I closed the open flesh
I dabbed at the fresh blood
I buried the love
I thought I was safe
Again

But once more I was ambushed
In my own home
And the wound reopened
And the blood flowed
And the heart stopped hiding

Again

I don't know why there wasn't a proper closure to that chapter. I don't know why you came back out of the blue, or how you came back to the place where I've closed you out from. I don't know if I should indulge in this feeling of hopeless hope, if I should hang on to this loveless love that I thought was gone for good.

Most of all, I don't know if love is enough.

Should I give up
Or should I just keep chasing pavements
Even if it leads nowhere,
Or would it be a waste
Even if I knew my place
Should I leave it there

~ Chasing Pavements by Adele ~

The Day I Went For The SFF08 Closing Show

2008-04-07T01:28:00.002-07:00

The annual Singapore Fashion Festival ended with a bang with Calvin Klein's Sping/Summer 2008 collection. I arrived at Orchard after training in a very shabby get-up (a loose shirt and striped pants), looking like a yuppie who'd just stepped out of an office in Shenton Way. Thankfully Tammi was around. After purchasing and draping a scarf, I looked much more presentable.

In a lovely shade of blue

The collection was not really amazing, just ok. What caught my eye were the sandals that the male models were wearing. Very very chic (and very very pricey, I'm sure). The ladies collection was plain and simple, and I didn't like the luminous pink that was used for some of the pieces.

The really hot sandals

"Urgh" pink

Anyhows, we were both satisfied because we caught the models that we wanted to catch, namely Emma Pei and Sheila Sim. Emma Pei is the new up-and-coming Chinese supermodel who has appeared on international catwalks for couture houses and designers including Alberta Ferretti, Andrew Gn, Antonio Amaras, Cacharel, Dries van Noten, Miu Miu and most recently, Dior's Haute Couture Fall/Winter 2007. Sheila Sim is currently the top model in Singapore and has recently been selected as the face of London-based Singaporean designer Asley Isham's international ad campaign for Fall 2008. I like.

Emma Pei

Sheila Sim

So hot. Anyway after the show ended we were approached by some SFF staff and her camera crew to do a spontaneous post-show interview. Let's just say that neither Tammi nor my answers to the questions ("What did you like about the show?" "Which is your favourite part of the Calvin Klein collection?") were particularly coherent. Which is why I'm keeping my fingers crossed that our interview will be cut from the final product. Still crossed.

More photos:

Us sans Yuran (he was doing dressing)

I loved Tammi's dress!

This year's MasterCard commercials didn't make any sense. At all.

After that, we went for drinks at NYDC and then I headed off to meet Emmanuel and Tammy (hers ends with a "y", not a "i") at St James. Nothing really fabulous or out of the ordinary, but the music was good. All in all it was a pretty exciting and fun-filled day.

Can't wait to go personalise my paddle tomorrow!

The Day I Had Lunch With Emm

2008-03-28T01:53:00.004-07:00

It was a pretty boring day today. But I'm glad that I was able to spend time with Emmanuel during lunchtime because very soon, he's going to be enlisting and time with him will be scarce. Oh those were the days, the days of pre-enlistment freedom. Time seems to glide right past you when you don't notice it. Anyways, the theme of our lunch today was "We Love Hong Kong".

Chicken Noodles and dumpling Dumpling soup

The wait for lunch was surprisingly non-existent because the food came immediately after we ordered. Usually when I go there for lunch with my parents on Sunday, we have to wait up to half-an-hour before our food is served. I guess it pays to eat there on weekdays instead. The Cantonese-style chicken noodles were yummy as usual, but the dumpling soup was a tad too salty. Ah well. With great company, everything else doesn't really matter.

Black Sesame paste and Almond paste with Glutinous Rice Balls

After lunch, we headed down a couple of shophouses for dessert. He had black sesame paste with glutinous rice balls while I had the almond paste one. It's been so long since I last had such dessert and it somehow reminded me of the authentic Hong Kong dessert stalls that I haven't patronized in a really long time. It's about time I went there again to visit. Heh.

After lunch, we walked around a bit and ended up at Clark Quay. Aimless, we just sauntered through The Cannery area and moved onto Central. Sadly, we weren't really in our photogenic state today and all our camwhoring pics turned out pretty bad. But I did manage to salvage one relatively decent looking one:

Here's to our friendship and to the bright future ahead! :)

The Day I Went To T3

2008-03-27T09:39:00.006-07:00

Advertisement

The new SONY T20 has smile detection features! It has never been a better time to catch smiling idiots and wannabe-clowns! Just point your lenses at a wide, toothy grin and it will automatically take snapshots again and again! Case in point: Daddy (see picture above).

Ok, moving on...

I had to go down to the Immigrations building to collect my new passport this afternoon. But the good thing is that I've got no more fear of frequent passport expiry renewals! YAY! Really loving the feel of the new biometric passport. Mmmm mmm.

In the evening, I headed down to the Changi Airport T3 for the very first time to pick mum up and had dinner there. The foodcourt was huge! Then again, everything there was so spacious! Even the walkways were long and (almost) empty.

My dinner. Grilled chicken, Indonesian style (yes underneath all that black gravy mess is actually a pretty succulent piece of chicken).

Mum and Dad shared noodles. So romantic right?

And onto the tour of the gargantuan T3:

The amount of ceiling space and walking space is immense. It makes T1 and T2 look like the ugly and claustrophobic stepsisters. Speaking of ceilings...

The ceiling's made up of many strategically scattered and angled metal plates. From what I heard, the ceiling has openings that act as a skylight during the day to conserve electricity by reducing the usage of electrical lighting. Very artistic and very ingenious as well.

The departure hall looked like a futuristic setting from some Hollywood movie. Elaborate lighting aside, the architectural design is really classy. It gives an illusion of grandeur and space (and that place is damn big already, so this makes it look even bigger). Size does matter indeed. It's a truly magnificent piece of man-made eye candy.

And the underneath the "halo" is actually a Crystal Jade restaurant! I checked out the prices just now and boy was I surprised. Prices are definitely steeper there compared to it's other outlets, but it's surely worth the moolah for the dining experience.

The arrival hall baggage belts. Palm trees and suspended vegetation. So niiiiice! I know I'm gushing, but I really can't help it!

This was the only thing that I didn't understand. I know that Singapore has been touted as "The Garden City" for god-knows-how-long, but a mechanical flower? What, is that supposed to be alluding to the fusion of natural beauty with technological advancement? It just looks so wrong amidst all the natural flora and fauna.

Besides the surroundings, I found that the toilet was pretty intriguing too. Do you see anything different about that urinal compared to the normal ones we use at the shopping malls? Look closely. If you're observant enough, you'd see that little speck smacked on the southern region of the pee pot.

It's actually this:

A fly. No, not a real fly, but a printed fly. My guess is that it's for aiming purposes since we (men) can be pretty careless when it comes to peeing. And you know what happens when we go off aim. Yup. Gross. But it's pretty interesting to see that on a urinal though. Maybe the other public toilets around the island should start adopting this idea.

That's all for today. Hopefully more interesting stuff happens tomorrow so I'll have something to share.

The Day I Went to Marché

2008-03-26T03:21:00.004-07:00

I went back to camp on Monday and was pleasantly surprised that I would be on off today till Friday. Left camp this morning and sent mum off to the airport. After that, I met up with my Dragonboat buddy Kok Wei for lunch.

We walked around Vivo for a long while before settling for Marché, which I've never been to. Ok, I wasn't exactly new to the whole "Swiss marketplace dining" experience becasue I've been to V'llagé, but I must admit that Marché serves a better selection of cuisine, albeit being uncannily similar to the Heeren clone.

The two partners in crime. He's a bottomless pit. I'm pretty sure he can eat more than a cow (no offense haha).

Our very delectable lunch. I had Rösti with garlic pork sausages, which was really tasty because cheesy potatoes (Rösti) + sour cream + salty, peppery sausages = burst of exciting flavours. Mmmm mm. Kok Wei had grilled stuffed pork with a side of mash and gravy and we shared some seafood Spanish rice (forgot what it's called) and stir-fried vegetables.

We decided to milk the trademark Marché cows after lunch as a form of exercise.

It was pretty fun hanging out with Kok Wei outside of training. It's hard enough to find a friend you can connect with, much less one who also has a listening ear. Anyways, we've got a physical test coming up this Sunday before training. Whoooo~~~ Should be fun.

Will try to update again tomorrow. Ciao!

The Day I Took Leave - Day 1

2008-03-14T10:02:00.007-07:00

Today was a wonderful day!

After the past couple of weeks of craziness at work, I've finally managed to take leave and have some time for myself to do the things I want to do. Had a great time hanging out with Ker Min and Tammi at Sentosa this morning. And tonight, I had my first drink with Daddy (I usually only drink with friends). Lotsa photos today cos I got my NEW BABY, the Sony T70!!! Now I can go all trigger-happy with everything! =)

Morning @ Vivo/Sentosa with The Girls

My Angels (short of one heh heh)

Our pseudo-wedding photoshoot pose

Squashing my head between two ginormous monstrosities (I'm kidding...)

My first time at VivoCity's Superdog during lunch

The 8th Deadly Sin: Chilli Cheese Fries

Ker Min doesn't like to smile next to me :(

BIMBOTICA! Notice the bright light above Tammi's head in this shot? Yup. Ironic.

Tams and Ker Min: The Imitation of Britney's C*nt (Part 1)

Yours truly and Tams: The Imitation of Britney's C*nt (Part 2)

I'm trying to act anorexic while Tammi's acting bullimic. She obviously beats me hands down at improv, as you can see. Hrmmm.

Supper @ Holland V with Dad

Dad said he hasn't really tried Mexican food before, and neither have I (well, at least not in Singapore), so we went ahead for Cha Cha Cha. It's so catchy, I feel like saying the name over and over again! "Cha cha cha... Cha cha cha... Cha cha..."

Complimentary Nachos on the house. Love love LOVED the salsa! Yummm...

Dad and I toasting with our Lime Margaritas. It was really really strong. I think the bartender was out to kill us with the generous amount of tequila. And don't ask me why Dad looks like he's scowling in this particular photograph. I don't know why either.

Our first dish: Spring Rolls with Chicken and Beef filling
It was interesting to have meat-filled spring rolls. Never tried it before. The avocado and sour cream dips went surprisingly well with the rolls.

Our second dish: Shrimp Salad
After tossing everything together, I took my first bite and was greeted by a sudden feel of dining next to the ocean. The shrimp reminded me vividly of seaside seafood dining. Very sedap.

The final dish: Apple Empanadas with Vanilla Ice Cream
Basically empanadas are mini apple pies. Nothing very special about it, just the exotic name. What I did was scoop a little bit of ice-cream onto the piping hot empanada before devouring it in a mouthful. You can try doing that with the McDonald's apple pies and probably get the same feel.

It was really special to have the father-son bonding time tonight. Haven't had the chance to do that for quite some time. All in all, it was a long but fulfilling day. Shall go to bed now. More updates tomorrow! =)

The Day I Talk About !@#$%^&*

2008-03-01T03:26:00.006-08:00

Disclaimer:
The below post will be expletive-ridden and explicit.
Reader discretion is strongly advised.

Something hit home while I was on my way out from camp this morning: I have almost if not completely lost any ounce of self-censorship that I used to possess when it comes to anger management. By anger management of course I mean the process of translating internal rage into spoken words aka swear-words.

What made me notice this was this scenario:

My little cousin Xavier was sitting on my lap while Dad drove us out for breakfast. Then out of nowhere a silver Honda CRV cut into our lane without giving any signals. My very first instinct was to scream "CHAOCHEEBYEEE ANY-O-HOW CUT LANE YOUR FATHER'S ROAD IS IT?!?!?!" But of course I didn't do that. I couldn't, not in the presence of my parents, and certainly not in the presence of my 8-year-old cousin. But the very fact that my first thought was to shoot vulgarities at a guy who will not be able to hear any of it scared me.

It's a very serious problem. After enlisting, I have unknowingly and unwittingly transformed into an uncontrollable expletive-spewing punk.

Gone were the days of the Justin that had the manners to "translate" his swear words into PG-13 vocabulary.

Fuck = Fish
What the fuck? = What the toot?
Wah lau (Hokkien for "My Father") = Wah lieu
Cheebye (Hokkien for "Cunt") = wait, I didn't even use to say that.

You get the severity of the situation now?

Nowadays it's full on wa lau's, fuck you's, cheebye's, nah beh's and whatnot peppering my sentences. I'm subconsciously making swear words part of my vocabulary. The expletive usage in my day to day conversations in the Army has conditioned me to become less aware of the need to self-censor. It's a very dangerous thing, this whole swearing-in-your-face business that the Army runs on. And the after effects are very real.

I don't want to end up being a cuss-bucket ultimately. That's one thing that I don't need to bring out of my Army experience.

Ah fuck...

The Day I Talk About Helping Strangers

2008-02-27T06:19:00.002-08:00

I was on my way home from dinner with Wang Hao today and I helped a cerebral palsy guy onto the MRT. Contrary to my misconceptions about the majority of Singaporeans, the people around me actually gave way to the wheelchair-bound man while boarding the train. I guess that for every rude and discourteous piece of shit out there, there is somebody with a heart.

Helping that man onto the train sent my mind into deep thought about helping people who need it. I realized that for too long I've been absorbed in my own selfish needs and wants, and I haven't been giving as much as I used to.

Coincidentally, Wang Hao and I were just talking about getting involved in community work again once we got out of the army. It's been long overdue and I think it's time I started giving back again.

The Day I Think Aloud About Love Triangles

2008-02-15T19:11:00.005-08:00

I don't understand how some people can be in a three-way relationship and think that it's perfectly normal.

It's not.

The Day I Celebrated My Birthday

2008-02-11T02:41:00.000-08:00

My 20th Birthday was a BLAST!!!!

Actually, any birthday after last year's horrible nightmare of a "celebration" would be great. Oh, I can so vividly that fateful day. A little more than a year ago, I was stuck on a little island called Pulau Tekong doing my very first field camp. I was wet, cold, tired and to top it all, down with a nasty nasty flu. Fast forward a year into the future, I'm happy and contented with status quo.

The past week was really Birthday week. Kenrick and Timothy (3rd Feb), Samuel (6th Feb), Marilyn (7th Feb), Gloria and Terence (8th Feb), Jevon (9th Feb), Me (10th Feb).

Anyway, I went for Jevon's party at Sentosa on Friday. Met lots of new people and had quite a good time there mingling. Sadly, I got a little too intoxicated and "Merlioned" in the impeccably clean toilet of his suite. Ah, the cons of drinking too much.

My only photo with the Birthday boy looking less-than-amazing in my drunken stupor.

Had a cozy family dinner with my parents at Manna Korean Restaurant at Amoy Street on the eve of my birthday cos it was the only time during CNY when we weren't visiting or had any visitors over.

The Korean spread

At Amoy Street with Mummy after dinner. The night view was amazing!

My relatives came over for lunch yesterday and we took the time to cut the Birthday cake in their presence. It was a small but jovial affair, just uncles, aunties, grandparents and cousins. If only those in Indonesia had come to Singapore for CNY.

The two women who have seen me through my childhood: my paternal and maternal grandmothers.

In the evening, I went to St James Powerhouse for a party together with my DB mates and Emmanuel (who brought Rayner along). I must say that the music was pretty disappointing but I had a great time nonetheless cos IT'S MY BIRTHDAY AND AIN'T NOTHIN' GON'A MAKE ME RILED! Was high but thankfully not drunk. Bumped into Bryan and Charles there (surprise surprise!) and hung out with them as well.

Bryan, Me, Raphael, Emmanuel, Rayner (sorry but half your face was out of the photo)

On the podium with Bryan and Raphael

It was a wonderful Birthday adn I'm pretty sure I'll make the coming one (the BIG 21ST) the most memorable one of my life.

Sometimes when you have no expectations, you can be pleasantly surprised when things turn out to be really good. =)

The Day I Talk About CNY 2008

2008-02-09T00:53:00.000-08:00

I'm feeling really emo today and I don't know why. Must be the lack of sleep. Yes, that's it.

The time of the year has come again where little children are the happiest people in the world while their parents fret about moolah and formalities. Yes, the Lunar New Year descended on us early this year and I'm here to talk all about it.

Back in the day when we were mindless little spawns of our parents, the Lunar New Year meant lots of candy and a bountiful heap of cash in little red packets. Now, it's just one of the seasons in a year. I guess the childhood allure that the celebrations once had for me has been lost along the way while growing up.

The only good thing about CNY is probably the gathering of relatives that we seldom get to meet due to our time constraints at school and work. It's always nice to sit down and talk with a long-forgotten (ok, maybe not long forgotten, but almost) relative. That and the ang pao's, of course. Even though money can't buy me happiness, it can buy me a whole lot of stuff to make me happy. Heh. Hehe.

I was pretty sad this year though, cos I realized that it's probably the last CNY I'll be celebrating in Singapore for at least the next 4 years. Ah well. 人生无不散自之宴席; People come and go. And I just happen to be the one who will be going away.

I shall make full use of what's left of my time in Singapore and not leave with any regrets.

The Day I Go CD Crazy

2008-02-02T22:20:00.000-08:00

The past week has been pretty mundane because after awhile, you realize that work is basically more or less the same day in day out. The only interesting thing perhaps is what I noticed when I got myself heap loads of CDs.

Been on a DIVA craze lately and out of the five albums I bought, only 1 was not from a solo female artiste (the 5th CD's "Devils & Angels" by Mêlée). The four ladies are namely Leona Lewis, Delta Goodrem, Alicia Keys and Celine Dion. What spiked my interest after actually sitting down with the records was the similarities of their CD covers.

Here are the album covers:

Leona Lewis' "Spirit"

Alicia Key's "As I Am"

Delta Goodrem's "Delta"

Celine Dion's "Taking Chances"

Now let's see all four together:

Seemed as though it's the latest trend to volumize your hair and smack a front shot of your big mug on the album cover. Ok, maybe not so for Celine. Well, I can fix that.

Here's Celine before:

And here she is after:

Ta-dah! Fixed. Don't we love conformists? :)

Now let's take a look at all the big faces together...

Ok, enough about the album covers. Let's get into the details:

Leona's "Spirit" was good, as expected. Her hard work on it has finally paid off and she's got quite a few gems in the album that are probably going to become number 1's, namely "Homeless", "Better In Time", "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" and "Footprints In The Sand". However, I find it rather disturbing that "Here I Am", which Leona co-wrote, sounds eerily reminiscent of Mariah's "Hero" (which Mariah co-wrote). Take a listen and you'll know why. Girl, It's time to break out of the "Mariah" shell and be yourself!

Alicia's "As I Am" was passable and not as amazing as her "Songs In A Minor". Her two singles "No One" and "Like You'll Never See Me Again" are catchy and radio-friendly, but besides that, the only other tracks that match up are "Prelude to A Kiss" and the feminist-fuelled "Superwoman".

Delta's self-titled third album was surprisingly good. She's tried out many genres in this new record and her tone of voice sounds as sweet and clear as ever. I can't really put a finger on which song I like best. But if I had to, I'd say it's "Believe Again". "Believe Again" is a very Kylie Minogue-ish dance track complete with her coos and vocal acrobatics, not very Delta but it was very well-done anyway.

Celine's "Taking Chances" was a huge disappointment. Other than her title track, most of the album was full of country and rock songs that didn't really suit her style. Her saving grace came in the song "Skies of L.A.". It's a very plain, simple song that can be easily overlooked, but Celine did a wonderful job in putting a tangible touch to the song's underlying emotional message. Overall it's one of her worst albums but I'll give it to her that she at least experimented with different genres (but the results were "ermmm...").

Going for training now. Here's wishing y'all a great Lunar New Year in advance! More updates after CNY (and my Birthday)! =)

Lotsa love!

The Day I Talk About The New Year So Far

2008-01-28T01:56:00.000-08:00

It's been awhile.

The past week has been a crazy emotional roller coaster. Trudged through many downs and even deeper downs with the stress at work and outside of the workplace. But what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger. So there.

The weekend was thankfully better than my dreadful weekdays.

Caught Joe Wright's latest movie "Atonement", starring Keira Knightley, James McAvoy and relative unknown Saoirse Ronan on Saturday evening. It was a rather depressing movie revolving around a lie of a jealous 13-year-old, Briony (Ronan) that that resulted in a chain of events that changed the lives of two blossoming lovers, Cecelia (Knightley) and Robbie (McAvoy). Beautifully directed and impeccably scored, the movie is definitely deserving of an Oscar for Best Picture at this year's awards ceremony. Not a movie you should be watching if you're on a date though.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sunday was great as well. The kids in class were very cute as usual, and I finally managed to communicate them at their level. Seemed like it wasn't so long ago when I was 10 myself. DB training was wonderful because the weather decided to be kind to us. Even though dark clouds loomed overhead for the whole afternoon, we were spared from a thunderstorm. Working out and challenging myself mentally always makes me feel good.

Met up with Tammi and Jiapei after training at Arab street for dinner and shisha. I was brought to a really cosy Egyptian restaurant that I never would have found on my own if not for the girls. Quite an experience I must say. Nice food (which took damn long to be served) and ambiance. I'm definitely bringing people there in the future.

The peculiar but titillating Hibiscus drink that I tried. Unique and light on the tastebuds.

My Lamb Kebab. Light and not overly pungent. Really good stuff. Yummm!

Jiapei's Chicken Kebab. Had the identical dressing as my one. I guess all kebabs are served the same way. The chiken was juicy and not overdone. Sidap...

Forgot to take photos at the shisha place though. Sigh. Shall remember to do it next time.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After lunch today, I went for my virgin Boyzillian wax session at StriP. I thought about all the times that I'd been brutally penetrated by 16G needles "voluntarily", and it was comparatively less painful. Now I can finally go sunbathing without worrying about unsightly body hair sticking out at the wrong places. If you're thinking of waxing, do check them out at. More info can be found on their official website.

Sautered past Nike by B.I.R.D on my way back and saw this (Shaun, this is just for you):

Kobe's new shoes!!!

Aaaaand Kobe's face on the doors!!!

It's back to camp tonight. Oh joy.
More updates next week!

The Day I Talk About Differences

2008-01-23T05:51:00.000-08:00

Pieces of a puzzle make up an
Amazing picture
All so small
Distorted and unsure
Differently shaped and painted
Of similarities that are hard to find

When two pieces collide
Different they may be
Can fit together cos they
Were meant to be

Sadly not all are pieces of
The same puzzle
Some try to find the perfect fit
But have to sieve through a thousand
To finally meet

What pieced together
Might come apart
When forces pull in
Separate ways

Sometimes ever after
Never happens

The Day I Talk About The Sand And The Beach

2008-01-20T05:06:00.000-08:00

First of all I'd like to say that this post is long overdue. The events that I am about to write about occurred a week ago (sorry for my delayed posting, been crazy busy)

Siloso Beach!
Haven't been to Sentosa in a really long time, so I thought it'd be great if I paid it a visit. Last Saturday, I decided to go for a nice beach tanning session. So I dragged my best buddies along. It was my first time taking the new tram ride from VivoCity to Sentosa as well as my first visit to Café Del Mar. Really really fun. I finally have a nice, delicious shade of brown!

With Tammi at Café Del Mar

Barbequeing under the hot sun @ Del Mar

Will be updating more soon. Gotta rush back to camp now. Once again, another long week to dread (oops I mean tread) through. Sigh.

See ya.

The Day I Say Goodbye to 2007 & Make Wishes for 2008

2008-01-01T04:33:00.000-08:00

I know this came one day late, but I've planned to do this beforehand, so I'm gonna do it anyway. This year has been a hell of a ride. I've been all the way up and I've also fallen all the way down. But life's like that. Nobody enjoys status quo; Change is necessary.

1. Becoming a Full-Time National Serviceman

It was one of the defining moments of my life. From the moment my head was shaved, I was branded to be of age and loaded with the responsibility that every adultolescent male in Singapore has carried since the conception of the Army 40 years ago. I've never experienced such a myriad of emotions ranging from incredible loneliness to indescribable fulfillment within the short span of a year in my 19 years of existence. I've carried a friend on my back, willingly allowed people to stick needles into me (vice versa), and jumped from an airplane that's 1000 feet in the air. I hope that the coming year would also be filled with such expriences that allows me to reminisce about for life.

2. Diagnosed With A Possibly Life Threatening Disease

I was diagnosed with hyperlipidimia in late August and my life took a huge turn because of that. I never felt more vulnerable and useless in my life. It was then that I realized that health was truly the most important thing anybody could ask for in this life. Deciding to look at it optimistically, I changed my diet and everything started to look more positive for me. Remember, what you eat determines how long you live. So choose wisely.

3. Tried Out Something That I've Always Wanted To

I started Dragon Boating this year and it has been nothing short of amazing. I've always wanted to try it but never have actively sought out a team to join. Now I have. It seemed almost idiot-proof initially, but when I actually got down to rowing, I realized that it's more that just dip and heave. Technique, power and team-camaraderie are crucial points in the sport. I'm really enjoying it. Can't wait for my first race. As for the five rowers lost recently in Cambodia, my condolences to their friends and family as I know your loss came suddenly and tragically. They will live on in the spirit of the sport.

4. My First Whirlwind Romance

It was unexpected.
It was mutual.
It was enjoyable.
It was memorable.
It was heartbreaking.
I never thought that such a thing would ever happen to me, but it did. If you're reading this, thanks for everything that we've had. It was so special. Even though it did not work out the way I'd desired, it was an experience that I will cherish and remember for life.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The New Year has come and it is time to say goodbye to 2007. It was great while it lasted. In 2008, I have some things that I wish to be able to fulfill. So here goes:

1. End my stint in the Army peacefully
2. Apply successfully to my desired College
3. Eat well, sleep well
4. Work out consistently and conscientiously
5. Record new songs
6. Save enough to backpack at the end of the year
7. To be a responsible Sunday School teacher
8. Win a Dragon Boat race
9. Learn the guitar
10. To perform on stage again

To all my friends, I'll try to update my blog more frequently. Many apologies for my lack of posts in December. To everyone, thanks for being there for me in 2007. Have an eventful and memorable 2008!

The Day I Talk About Appreciation

2007-12-01T05:10:00.000-08:00

We never truly understand what loss means until the ones closest to us leave abruptly.

On Thursday, we celebrated the Commando 38th Anniversary. In the opening speech by Col. Lam, he told everybody present to observe a minute of silence for one of the five deceased dragon boaters who was a former officer of the formation. It was a long, morose five minutes and that got me thinking: must there be a tragedy before we slow down from whatever we're doing to appreciate those around us?

More often than not, our lives revolve around trying to fulfill our physical needs so much so that we tend to neglect the nourishment of our relationships with others by the form of appreciation. How many times have we actually told the ones who are close to us just how much they mean in our lives? How often do we show our appreciation and acknowledge their existence? Are we so blinded by our obsession with rising vertically in life that we pay no heed to our stagnant horizontal interpersonal development?

I'm sure that we are all guilty of certain forms of neglect for those around us. We constantly take people for granted with the mentality that "we can always talk some other day". But some times that "other day" just doesn't come, and it'll be too late for regret by then. Completing tasks, performing well at work, striving for our personal goals etc can only get us so far in life. At the end of the day, what matters most are the people who've touched you and whom you've touched.

It's not too late to start appreciating now.

When you get home from work or school to the warmth of your home, with mummy's home-cooked meal waiting impatiently for you on the dining table, give her a hug and tell her how much you love her. When daddy makes an effort to crack a joke, no matter how lame it may be as Dad-Jokes are, put on a smile and appreciate his effort. Cherish every moment that you can spend with the ones who matter to you.

I certainly don't wish to hear nice words about myself only at my wake. They would be empty and worthless by then.

The Day Of Movie Reviews

2007-11-10T02:20:00.000-08:00

After weeks of movie-fasting, I have finally gone on a movie rampage! I've caught not one but two movies within a short span of two days! Two movies! One cost $9.50 (stupid of me to catch it on the eve of a public holiday), the other cost $9.00 (weekend price). I am so broke. But to tell the truth, both movies were worth their respective ticket prices.

~ AFTERSHOW REVIEW ~

Movie #1: Lions For Lambs

Director: Robert Redford

Starring: Robert Redford, Meryl Streep, Tom Cruise, Andrew Garfield

Synopsis & Review:
Set in the post-911 climate, the movie explores media responsibilities on political agendas as well as the human sentiments and costs of the "War on Terror". Streep is outstanding as usual in her portrayal of a revered but weary journalist, while Cruise plays the role of an ambitious senator with much charisma and conviction. Redford himself takes on the role of a professor of Political Science who tries to reinspire an apathetic star pupil (Garfield) who has lost confidence in the American political system.

The tone of the movie is obviously anti-Republican and is overly talky and disjointed. It is very heavy on its political agenda and gets too preachy as the show progresses. The outstanding performances of Reford, Streep, Cruise and newcomer Garfield are overshadowed by its choppy intercut sequences. However, it is a very good movie as a prelude to discussions.

Rating: 3/5

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Movie #2: Stardust

Director: Matthew Vaughn

Starring: Charlie Cox, Claire Danes, Michelle Pfeiffer, Rebert De Niro, Sienna Miller, Mark Strong

Synopsis & Review:
Based on the novel by renowned author Neil Gaiman (Sandman, Anansi Boys), the story revolves around a young man named Tristan (Cox) who wants to win the heart of Victoria (Sienna Miller), his beautiful but cold object of unreciprocated love by going on a journey to retrieve a fallen star, personified as Yvaine (Danes). Also in search of the star are Lamia (Pfeiffer) and Septimus (Strong), for by consuming a heart of a star can guarantee immortality. Along the way, Tristan and Yvaine encounter and ally themselves with the eccentric Captain Shakespeare (De Niro) and encounter various interesting and unforgettable characters.

The show is well balanced with light and intense moments. It provides the awe-inspiring fantasy that usually attracts children, but also contains elements of more adult nature like murder, black-magic and adult jokes. After a couple of months of clichéd summer blockbusters targeted at testosterone-charged male teens, Stardust is a breath of fresh air. Grown-ups and children alike will enjoy this magical tale that will definitely stay on their hearts and minds for a long time to come.

Rating: 4.5/5

The Day I Talk About Leona Lewis

2007-11-05T01:26:00.000-08:00

My life has been revolving around divatism lately. First of all, myself. I realized that I have been quite over the top recently (and especially so when there's alchohol in my system) and it scares me. So no more drinking until further notice. Secondly, Mum (who is always a little over dramatic about everything, but I love her anyway). We got into a big fight a couple of days back about something really stupid (my fault actually). Last but not least, my new favourite female singer, Ms Leona Lewis.

Leona's the first female winner of X-Factor (a UK reality show similar to Idol) and she will finally release her debut album on the 12th of November. As Simon Cowell's favorite protégé (right now), her star is surely shining bright.

Simon Cowell: "Leona has the opportunity to be a major, major world wide star. We are not going to make an album quickly, we are going to make the best possible album and try and make everybody proud who voted for her. We have found a British girl who is up there with the Mariahs and the Whitneys. So I take this very, very seriously."

Note the above emboldened quote. She has, without a doubt, an amazing range as well as emotions, but has yet to step out of the shadows of other well established divas. Case in point: her whole image and performing mannerisms. Don't you think that photo above bears an uncanny resemblance to someone we all know and love (ok maybe not love, but we all know who she is, that's for sure)?

How bout a picture for good measure?

Is this a shocking similarity or what?

Let me illustrate my point further below.

MUSIC VIDEO BREAKDOWN: LEONA

Welcome to yet another episode of MUSIC VIDEO BREAKDOWN: where the fun begins after Music Videos are screened! Today our focus is on X-Factor 2006 Winner, Leona Lewis and the music video of her latest single, "Bleeding Love". The plot of the video is simple: A guy cheats on three different women, who each find out about the unfaithful Cheater and in turn fall into various depictions of heartbroken depression. Girl #3, however, is revealed to have a boyfriend that runs in on her passionate make-out session with the Cheater. The video is interlaced with shots of Leona singing in a variety of poses a la Mariah Carey.

I found many similarities between the two whistle-ranged divas:
(Pictures below are taken from "Bleeding Love" and "We Belong Together" respectively)

#1: They Like To Sit In Similar Poses

Leona cross-legged

Mariah cross-legged

#2: They Like To Lean Against The Wall

Leona sprawls against the wall

Mariah leans against the wall

#3: They Like To Lie Down

For comfort

For her fat ass

#4: They're Wet

"Raindrops keep fallin' on my head *drip-drip*..."

"I can make it through the rain..."

#5: The SIGNATURE Pose

Who's ripping off who?

If I could write a letter to Leona, I'd say:

Oh Leona Leona LEONA, you need to get yourself a new pose (as well as a new everything else), because ripping off poor ole Mariah's not gonna get you to the top. You need to be bigger and better than that yesteryear Christmas Cake! You gotta bring more to the stage! Cut your hair, dress down and go without the make-up, and you'll be a completely different person!

Love you long time! :)

XOXO,
Justin

I swear if they continue this mimicry, they'd one day end up like Britney and Madonna:

"Yo ass is older than mine!"
"Well yo ass is FAT!"

Or something like that.

The Day I Talk About Gimme More

2007-10-12T21:51:00.001-07:00

Britney's latest single Gimme More is like a metaphorical drug. Like SexyBack, when heard at first, it sounds cloying and repetitive. But on subsequent tries, the song really starts to grow on you, and you realize that it's the repetitiveness ("Gimme gimme more, gimme more, gimme gimme more...") that makes it so irresistably good. Makes me wanna groove along to the beat every time I hear it.

Song-wise, I really enjoy it. However, Britney's performance of it has been pretty disappointing. By now, I'm sure everyone has either seen or heard about her amazingly dreadful "live" performance at the recent 2007 MTV VMA's. If you haven't seen it, please do:

Bitch couldn't even be bothered to lip-sync properly! And she looks very confused. Like "Where am I? Maui? Why are all these people looking at me?" confused.

But thanks to that performance, we've got parodies like this:

It's hilarious!

Oh, did I mention she's got a music video out for it as well? It's just as confusing as her behaviour! Basically, she's showing just how schitzo she is in her messed-up, disillusioned head.

It starts out with her looking as cute a button like her former self during her Baby One More Time era that it's scary. Horror-film scary. Makes you think "She looks like that now? Seriously?"

Pretty and innocent-looking. Kinda like Ashelia from FF XII. But we know that's not the real her now, is it?

She's got herself a couple of BFFs (aka lackeys) too!

Looking at them kinda reminds me of the Stepford Cuckoos. And Ursula from The Little Mermaid:

What an uncanny resemblance!

Anyway, that's not the main focus of the video. And neither is this:

"Every time they turn the lights out..."

The main focus, everybody, is...

The pole.

Britney's getting upstaged by a pole? Bitch is seriously losing it, credibility and all! Sadly, that's what happens when your dancing pole is slimmer, shinier and brighter than you. Case in point:

Specimen Screenshot A

Specimen Screenshot B

She might as well have been hawking the damned pole!

The video's so dark and all-over-the-place that most of the time, all we see is her hair and her flabbylicious body.

Oh Britney, come on, is it so hard to show your face once in awhile?

*gasp* Gyaaaah!

The Day I Talk About Moving On

2007-10-05T08:54:00.000-07:00

Changes. That has been a pretty big thing in my life recently. As most of you may already know, prior to going to Brunei, I was given the red light by doctors for the trip. And I ended up getting me attached to the Medical Centre for the duration of my company's trip.

Now, I've been officially posted out of my company and the battalion. I went back today in the afternoon to collect the rest of my things and to say my final goodbyes. Sadly when I got back, no one was left except for the duty personnel in the office. I really wanted to see my friends again, but I guess it was for the best.

I wouldn't say that change is bad; I've always believe that in any given scenario, there is definitely something positive for me to hold on to. In this case, a new place and a new environment would surely allow me to mature and better myself, and to grow as a young adult.

Moving on is always difficult.

On a lighter note, I caught Heroes episode 2!

[SPOILER ALERT!]
In the latest episode, we discover more about Takezo Kensei's history in feudal Japan, as well as the repercussions of the explosion at the end of season one. Still in 1671, Hiro dons the mask of a drunken Kensei to save Yaeko (the swordsmith's daughter). We also discover Kensei's power of healing (or is it the fan-speculated immortality?) as he heals automatically from a fatal arrow to the heart.

Mohinder Suresh is pulled deeper into his deception with The Company as he is sent to Haiti to heal the Haitian of the same virus that killed his sister. However, his mission is foiled by the memory manipulation of the Haitian, who returns to the US to find Noah Bennet.

Noah Bennet reveals to his wife that Isaac Mendez had left behind eight paintings which depicts yet-to-be-fulfilled prophecies, but he only possesses one (which painted the death of Hiro's father, Kaito). Simultaneously, Angela Petrelli is attacked by the same man (who killed Kaito) while in custody, only to be saved by nathan and Parkman in the nick of time.

Peter is still suffering from amnesia in Ireland, and rediscovers his abilities when he tried to protect his captor's sister (who helped him clean his wounds and could possibly be his love interest for this season) from two attackers, fatally killing them.

Maya and Alejandro are still on the run in hopes of travelling to the US. We then find out that Alejandro's abilities not only prevents Maya's powers from manifesting, it can also undo the effects of her power on the affected victims.

Claire continues to have problems trying to act ordinary and has an antagonised relationship with West in school due to his presumptuous attitude. At home, Claire's curiosity leads her to cut of her own pinkie toe. Unsurprisingly, it does grow back in all its boney, cartillage, bloody, muscular glory. To her shock, she notices West looking in from the front door. As she chases after him, she only finds a copy of Chandra Suresh's book lying in the driveway, cleuless to the fact that West was just hovering directly above her.
[END OF SPOILERS]

Other than Heroes, my other favourite TV show is Chuck.

Top: Major John Casey, Sarah Walker
Centre: Chuck Bartowski
Bottom: Morgan Grimes, Ellie Bartowski

Synopsis (thanks Wikipedia!):
Basically, Chuck is a socially awkward twenty-something who works as a computer expert at the Nerd Herd at his local Buy More, a local electronics retailer, with his best friend, Morgan Grimes. Chuck's sister, Ellie, is a doctor who is constantly looking out for his best interests and wants to help him find a girlfriend.

On the night of his birthday party, Chuck receives an e-mail from his former Stanford University roommate, Bryce Larkin, who was a CIA agent. When he opens it, he unwittingly downloads an entire server of sensitive data, once only private to the Government of the United States, into his brain.

Both the National Security Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency want the intelligence returned to them and dispatch agents of their own, Major John Casey and Sarah Walker, respectively, to retrieve the data. As Chuck experiences flashes of memory activated by certain subliminal triggers, he must use the knowledge he now possess to help the government thwart assassins and international terrorists, thereby upending his previously uneventful life.

Chuck's decision to keep his newfound occupation a secret from his family and friends and to live his life as normally as possible forces Casey and Walker to establish an uneasy alliance with the shared goal of protecting Chuck at all costs.

It's really good! A must watch!

The Day I Went Grocery Shopping And Talk About Coinicidences

2007-10-03T07:44:00.000-07:00

I had dinner at my grandparent's place just now. Before leaving, my aunt passed me a couple of canned tuna that my dad bought but forgot to bring home in a plastic bag. Since I needed to grab some necessities for my daily usage (and consumption) in camp, I headed off to the Cold Storage opposite the condo at Heartland Mall to pick up some granola bars and fresh milk.

Then, I joined the really long, hypothetical express queue (hypothetical because the big, bold "express" is a HUGE oxymoron) with my few items in hand. Before I knew it, I was one customer away from the cashier lady who looked like she kill me with her gaze (she was shooting daggers at all the customers. I guess it kinda works out to long queues=more customers=pain in the butt. Oops, I'm digressing) .

Cashier: "You need a bag?"

Customer-in-front-of-me: "Er, ya."

Cashier: "Sir, do you have 10 cents? It's Wednesday. You have to pay for your plastic bags."

Customer-in-front-of-me: *drops coins into the coin box*

I'd totally forgotten that it was "Bring Your Own Bags" Day today! To make things worse, I had no cash on me and only intended to make my payment by NETS. JUST THEN, I remembered the two cans of tuna hanging idly off my wrist in an NTUC plastic bag.

Phew.

When it got to my turn, I just told the lady to dump the items into my bag while consciously avoiding her stare. Y'know, I really hate it when strangers look at you with the odd killer gaze. It sends shivers down my spine. Brrrr....

Anyway, I got out alive.

Must keep a mental note when going shopping on Wednesdays... Must must must...

The Day I Talk About Live The Dream & Heroes

2007-09-28T00:53:00.000-07:00

I'm gonna be on duty tomorrow. Sigh. Gotta book in tonight.

Anyways, I've decided that I'll talk about Singapore's latest Idol-esque rip-off reality tv show, Live The Dream. If anybody's even bothering to watch it, it's only because of the three eye-candies who host the show. Thay are namely the former MTVAsia VJ Utt, MediaCorp resident hottie/actress Michelle Chia, and Girl-Number-10 Andrea Fonseka whose claim to fame was from yet another reality show rip-off, Deal or No Deal.

That aside, the show sucks. I haven't exactly been a fervent follower of the show, but I did catch it a couple of days ago. It seriously lacks talent! So they claim that it's not an Idol rip-off cos of the incredulous age limit (participants have to be 25 and over) and the promise of varying genres. But look who's in the semifinals. For the solos: two bar-singers (Robert Sunga and Fendi), a Joakim Gomez-who-can't-dance-to-save-his-life (Victor Tang), and a wallflower (Shauna Simon). For the groups: four rock bands (After The Rain, Revalina, Catsinecradle and By Definition).

I'm all for entertainment, but the "entertainment" stops at the point when whatever's entertaining becomes annoying. By annoying I mean annoyingly bad. Take Victor Tang for example: He's a pretty ok looking guy, but when he opened his mouth, I thought the tv had switched itself to a live telecast of a grade school talent contest, and a bad one at that. Take a look/listen for yourself. No offense, Vic, but you should really consider other career options.

I'll probably not be watching this show anymore due to it's inherent lack of entertainment value (oh my ears! MY EARS!). But there's one show that I'll definitely be watching. And I'll keep watching. And watching. And watching...

Yes, Heroes is BAAAAACK!!!

I just caught episode one last night. It's so good! Basically, instead of following it's season 1 theme of "Ordinary people with extraordinary abilities", it's gone all "extraordinary people doing ordinary things".

[SPOILERS AHEAD: YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!]

We are taken back four months after the season 1 finale, where the Bennetts have relocated to California and became the Butlers, where Molly Walker has been adopted by (the newly-divorced) Matt Parkman and Mohinder Suresh, where Hiro is still stuck in feudal Japan and finds out that his hero, Takezo Kensei, is British. On the Petrelli front, Nathan has became an alcoholic after Peter's disappearance post-apocalyptic-BOOM-in-the-air. Unknown to him, Peter's actually alive but he suffers from amnesia. He is found by a bunch of thugs in Ireland, mysteriously chained on the inside of a cargo crate.

Three new Heroes are introduced: Maya and Alejandro Herrera, a pair of twins from Honduras on the run for accidental murder. Maya has some sort of uncontrollable viral power that kills people around her while Alejandro's powers act has her power's suppressant. They are trying to travel to New York to find Chandra Suresh for help, but they don't to know that he is already deceased. The third newbie is West, Claire's new classmate with the ability of flight. He will most probably be Claire's love interest this season, judging by their on-screen chemistry thus far.

[END OF SPOILERS]

Can't wait for more of Heroes!

The Day I Talk About The Past Week

2007-09-23T07:56:00.001-07:00

Life at the Medical Centre has been quite an eye opener. I always thought it was a really easy job, watching my seniors plod around in the air-conditioned building (24/7 air-con!), laughing and joking all the time. That all changed when I actually started working there myself.

Air-conditioning may seem nice when you're stuck under the hot sun, but it's not so when you're in it the whole day. I guess it's part of the eternal paradox about people not ever being satisfied with what they have. Nowadays, I basically wake up in an air-con room, work in an air-con room, eat, watch tv, even sleep in an air-con room. The dry air does get to you after awhile.

Aside from the air-conditioning, life has been pretty good thus far. I've learned a lot from my seniors (eg. working the computer system for all kinds of admin stuff, giving jabs, drawing blood etc etc etc...) and made a couple of new friends at the same time. But every night before I fall asleep, I always think about my mates who're in Brunei. I can't help it. I really really miss them. Sigh.

On Friday, we had our "cohesion day" where most of us from the Medical Centre went out together for a movie, Underdog. It's possibly the worst movie I've ever seen, akin to the horror that was Glitter and Son of the Mask. Basically, I think the Straits Times movie critic (I can't seem to remember her name off-hand) ought to be shot for giving it a passable review, because it definitely failed miserably in my opinion. It's unforgivable superhero clichés and bad puns were obviously made for movie-goers with the intellectual capacities of empty fish tanks. Please please please do not watch it.

On a happier note, I met up with Emmanuel today (it's been too long)! Here's us doing The V (in honor of V-Beck) and other assortments of poses on our way home:

I had a pretty nice long-weekend. Hopefully the following week will be just as good, if not better.

The Day I Talk About My Recent Life Changing Events

2007-09-12T03:28:00.000-07:00

As you guys might already know, I collapsed during one of my training sessions bout a month ago. That's when I realized that my body's breaking down. After the incident, I was sent for further check-up at the National Heart Centre.

The doctor diagnosed me with possible PVC (premature ventricular contractions) and made me go for a blood test. When the lab results came back, imagine my shock and surprise when I was told that I had hyperlipidemia (it's basically high cholesterol in doctor-speak).

Look at me (in a recent photo I took with Dad. Please excuse my horrendously huge forehead.):

Do I look like I have high cholesterol?

I don't look it, right?

But I do.

The doctors could very well put me up as the poster child of this dangerous disease.

If I ever end up endorsing something like that, I'd die crying.

Anyway, because of the possibility that I may collapse again and not be so lucky the second time around (like the 25-year-old, fit-as-a-tree Captain who collapsed and died of heart failure about 3 weeks ago during our Army Half Marathon), the doctor and my superiors feel that I shouldn't take part in any strenuous activities. And that's why I've just been posted out of my company and sent to serve in our medical centre instead. I start work there tomorrow when my fellow friends fly off to Brunei.

Sigh. I'll really miss them.

This also means that I am not going to be able to get the red beret anymore. After so many months of slogging through training, it is a rather disappointing prospect. Right now, I just want to focus on getting well and not die young. I've got so much more to live for.

The Day I Talk About Rihanna

2007-09-09T04:03:00.000-07:00

I used to hate her, but am now totally CRAZY about this woman.

Rihanna and I had a love-hate relationship because in many ways, we both share something in common: a huge forehead. I didn't like her in her Unfaithful days because she oh-so-blatantly displayed her montrosity of a head like this:

Had her hairline been any higher,

Princess RiRi of PocolocoLand. Grandma would've been so proud.

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I mean, ok, we all have different perspectives when it comes to beauty, but when you've got a huge-ass forehead, it's definitely not beautiful. Thankfully, our dear little Princess RiRi finally saw the light (or her stylist, maybe), and decided to shelve that ten-thousand-head for good.

Compare Little Miss Unfaithful...

...with Madame Umbrella...

...and tell me, how did a monstrosity suddenly become an elegant lady? I'll tell you why. It has (almost) everything to do with the hair. When Princess RiRi decided to chop off her unglamorous locks, she boosted her career. Well, that and also when she stopped singing about being a cheating slut and started cooing about opening her arms and sharing her umbrellas (the "umbrella, ella, ella, eh eh eh..." really sticks in the head).

By the way, I can almost swear that she was thinking about her grandma when she was singing:

"I don't want this 'do anymore..."
Grandma would've told her to shave her hair off.

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Anyway, I'm totally crazy bout her now, especially after watching the music video of her latest single, Shut Up And Drive. She can shake that booty a'ight! (And shoot a seductive smile at the same time)

Here's RiRi biting her glove. So HOT (with her forehead covered)...

On a side note, have you noticed that her latest hits are filled with repetitions? Eg. "Umbrella, ella, ella, eh eh eh, under my umbrella, ella, ella, eh eh eh..." and "Shut up and drive, ive, ive ive..." Maybe that's why they stick in the head somewhat annoyingly.

To end off, here's a collection of her from bad to hot:

Miss TenThousandHead to Lady FiveThousandTead to total HOTNESS

Grrrr.

The Day I Dish Some Dirt on The HEROES World Tour

2007-08-28T02:10:00.000-07:00

As most of you may already know, the cast of Heroes is coming to Singapore this week. The whole ensemble won't be here, of course, as most of them are still filming for season 2 (which premiers on September 24th on NBC in the US). Four of them, namely Masi Oka (Hiro), Ali Larter (Nikki/Jessica), Greg Grunberg (Parkman) and Sendhil Ramamurthy (Dr Suresh), will be in town for the Heroes World Tour to promote the release of the Heroes: Season 1 DVD as well as the new season of the show.

Hiro Nakamura, Nikki Sanders, Matt Parkman and Mohinder Suresh

When and where will they be? Well, I've got the dirt right here, right now. Here's what I know so far:

- Their gala dinner will be at The Four Seasons Hotel (Singapore), which is also where they will be staying at.

- Their meet-the-fans session will be at VivoCity on 31st Aug 2007, from 2pm to 5pm.

For those who are going there, please don't be empty handed. Bring along some Heroes memorabilia for autographs and always keep your cameras at hand to snap photos of them. Because we can hardly get our hands on any Heroes stuff over here, what I'd suggest is that you guys go print out some photos of the actors from the screen shots of the show (if you wanna get their autographs). Photos are available free online at NBC's official website. Alternatively, just use Google.

The Day I Talk About Saying Grace

2007-08-27T05:38:00.000-07:00

I'm on leave today and tomorrow! No I didn't choose to take leave; We were all forced to, or should I say, we weren't given a choice. Ah well, that's the army for you.

What I did while on leave today:
- Helped Mum out at the office with her e-mails
- Caught hairspray with Andrew D
- Bought sh*t-loads of comics

Onto my topic for the day:

I remember very vividly my first childhood mealtime prayer, which goes like this (with a rhythmic harmony) "Thank You for the world so sweet, oh hum, thank you for the food we eat, yum yum, thank You for the birds that sing-a-ling-a-ling, Thank You Lord for everything! Amen!"

It was such a cute kindergarten mealtime Grace.

Just had dinner at home with my 'rents and as usual, we said grace. Maybe it's because my mind is usually elsewhere when we say grace, but it was my first time actually taking note of what Mum said. "Thank You God for giving us these food. Please bless the food that we are about to eat and the people who have prepared this meal. Amen."

"...and the people who have prepared this meal" means herself! And herself only! I wanted to burst out laughing so badly.

I didn't, of course. I'm a good son.

The Day I Talk About My Cousin's Korean Girlfriend

2007-08-14T20:08:00.000-07:00

My cousin Jowett came back to Singapore recently for a visit after years of studying in Australia. Along with him was his latest accessory: a Korean girlfriend. I don't know if this has anything to do with the Korean craze that's taking over Asia these days.

Gina & Jowett

Of course I'm kidding when I say that Gina's an "accessory". She's more than that. She's like the perfect housewife. By that I mean she's got all the 3 C's required: cook, cleaner, caretaker. Do you know that she randomly whips up good food with anything she can find in the kitchen fridge? And just the other day, I find my laundry folded perfectly 5 minutes after I brought it into the house (I had to rush off to the toilet, which explains why she had time to fold). The only thing that bothers me about her is her craziness for kimchi (Korean-style pickled vegetables in lots of chilli and garlic). According to Jowett, she needs to have her kimchi with every meal. To me, that's just scary.

[The following parts of this post in red will be what I suppose Gina is thinking.]

Before they went back to Indonesia, my parents (plus me and my other cousin Lenny aka Clara aka whatever-name-she's-using-nowadays) brought them out for a nice seafood dinner at East Coast Park.

Gina likes crab

What is black thing on crab? Oh? Is black pepper?! No squirt on me! My clothes pretty. Hair nice to flow in the air. Black pepper make dirty...

Gina loves Jowett

I love Jow! I love wind blow my hair! Make me more pretty! If only got kimchi here, food taste very better.

Mum, me, Jowett, Gina & Lenny

Kimchi!!

I swear that's exactly what's going through her mind.

The Day I Almost Died

2007-08-04T04:32:00.001-07:00

Just some updates over here today. Not really in the mood to blog much. Last Tuesday, I collapsed during one of our training sessions. Thankfully, I'm still alive and well. The doctor's saying that it's probably some heart problem.

Please pray for me.

The Day I Talk About The Body & Piercings

2007-07-21T22:09:00.000-07:00

I used to have 2 piercings on my right ear. But it was short lived. When my parents noticed it (and they only noticed it one week after I had it), they yanked it straight out of the side of my head.

That was 3 years ago.

In case you're wondering where I was once/want to get pierced, it's the "industrial" and "lobe" sections of the ear. Here's a diagram for your reference:

Just recently, I've been thinking about getting the same spots pierced again. It may be just another "in the heat of the moment" thing, but I still feel like doing it anyway. However, this time around, I sought my parent's advice on it before I did anything. As expected, they gave the whole "we gave birth to you not to let you do whatever you want with it and we have the final say and no we don't like you to have piercings cos only gays do it" argument.

This brings me to my topic today: Does your body belong to you and you only, or do your parents decide what you can/cannot do with it?

I feel that parents do have a say, but only to a certain age. You don't see your grandma telling your parents what not to wear, what not to do etc. What I'm trying to say is, when you've reached a certain age, what you do shouldn't to be dictated by your parents anymore. We need to be able to make our own choices. But of course the same doesn't apply to your parent's warnings about the vices in life (drugs, unsafe sex etc); it's for your own good.

Back to my point about getting body piercings: just how lame is it that I'm not allowed to get piercings because it's associated with homosexuality? I mean, fuck, it's the 21st century already. What's up with the stereotyping? I can't understand why they have to think the way they do. It's really difficult for me to condone such backward, stunted viewpoints.

It's a royal pain-in-the-butt just thinking about this.

The Day I Talk About "LoveStoned / I Think She Knows"

2007-07-07T00:29:00.000-07:00

Justin Timberlake has never failed to surprise me with his MTV's. Remember the swift dance moves that transitioned from his N*SYNC days and into his solo career? I do. But it seems like he's kinda lost his groove recently. Maybe it's the stress of an über-successful album? Only God will know. His latest video "Lovestoned" basically promoted his tight schedule by the means of a low budget, made-for-the-sake-of-making thing that's supposed to pass off as an MTV.

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It starts off looking like this:

"Is that his heartbeat?"

Then it changed and became a series of complicated DJ pulse/beat waves you'd see on your old hi-fi sets (plus the "lousy graphics" effects faulty tv's have). And it's got Justin's face in it! I found it quite innovative that he fused his dance moves with the beat-like graphics so that viewers won't notice the lack of effort he's put into making this video. Kudos to the crew who did the effects.

Justin loves to stare, even when he's just lines and waves.

...and he fades away!

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Unlike his other videos, there were no appearances of girls in this, except maybe for this one and only unknown female:

Who is that? (Notice those lips!)

I'm guessing that she's either

1. Jan Dick

Look at those lips!

2. Whitney

Look at those lips!!

3. Jaslene Gonzalez

Look at those lips!!!

4. Jessica Biel (his new flame)

Look at those lips!!!!

One thing's for sure: He's definitely into "The Pout" (think Cameron Diaz).

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I was pretty ok with the video all the way until the ... / I Think She Knows Interlude part. If it's not annoying, I don't know what is. Here's the deal:

If I wanted to watch something that looked like that, I'd play songs on my Windows Media Player (which I don't use cos I only survive with iTunes now) and watch the visualizations. That is if I really am that bored. Which is never.

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Speaking of boredom, Justin finally emotes his song title towards the end of the song.

I think he's lovestoned...

...stoned stoned stoned stoned...

What the hell is the grey place he's in anyway? A stone?

This vid really leaves much to be desired.

The Day I Talk About My Airborne Experience

2007-06-30T08:17:00.000-07:00

I'VE FINALLY JUMPED!!!

After living through the long, harrowing waiting hours in the aircraft hanger that followed with the feeling of disappointment when our jumps were cancelled, we finally made our first jump on Thursday. A total of 4 jumps were made over Thursday and Friday. Even though it was tiring (think walking about 2km with a really heavy load), the experience was unforgettable.

The MC1-1C Parachute that our lives were hanging on. Literally. That's not me by the way. I Googled this off the net.

Before boarding the C-130 (the aircraft we used for our first 2 jumps), I had a mental picture of my legs trembling uncontrollably when I stood at the jump door. Much to my surprise, nothing of that sort happened. Instead, I just stood at the door thinking "What the hell, let's just get over with it" and pooffft!, out I went. I can proudly say that I've rode on a slipstream before, and it's pretty damn fun!

Drifting down from the sky was very different from what I thought it would be too. I never knew how quiet it was up in the skies until then. You have the whole world to yourself for about 1 minute before reality hits you. By reality hitting you I mean hitting the ground, which still hurts even though you adopt a so-called "good landing position". But it's all worth it.

Seriously, if any of you get a chance at parachuting, DO IT! It's a once-in-a-lifetime thing that's worth every bit of sweat and pain.

The Day I Talk About "Never Again"

2007-06-22T07:08:00.000-07:00

I was really looking forward to going airborne this week. Much to my disappointment, both our two jumps this week have been canceled due to terrible weather conditions on our jump days. Hopefully the weather clears up next week or we'll never get to pass out.

The celebrity that I'm giving cover treatment today is Kelly Clarkson. I realized that I've never really done an MTV review before, so I'm going to try my hand on one today. Kelly's "Never Again" has been stuck in my head for a pretty long time now. It's heavy with drums and cymbals, signaling her deeper foray into hard rock, which is her far cry from her original soulful sound. The MTV's pretty different from her previous ones, telling a really angry and somewhat confusing story.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kelly's basically screaming about how pissed off she is when she discovers she's being cheated on by her boyfriend/husband/"who-is-he?". Throughout the video, whenever she sings the word "face", there's a big close-up on her, guess what? Face.

"Say it right to my face!!!" face

Face. Again. "Face" should be the new "Vogue".

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In the song, she asks her supposed ex-boyfriend if it hurts to "see her face everywhere?" I'm wondering if it's because her face is so big, that's why he sees it everywhere?

Kelly says, "NEVER AGAIN WILL I KISS YOU!!!"
I'm thinking "thank God".

"Me wants eat you! YESSS! SEE MY FACE EVERYWHERE!!!"

Not sexy.

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Speaking of sexy, she does try to look sexy in a few scenes. Namely the ones where she's groping the K-Fed lookalike who's acting as her boyfriend/husband/something. One wonders why she picked someone who looked like K-fed to star in her video. Maybe it's a Britney jibe so she could go around telling her girlfriends, "Hey, everyone's like making fun of Britney and K-Fed right? I did it too! I like got this model from like somewhere and he like just totally looked like K-Fed! Like totally! Isn't it like totally like cool like?"

K-Fed.

Here's sexy.

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She's even done the whole touching-my-hair-cos-it's-oh-so-sexy move. Tyra would be so proud. I couldn't contain my excitement so I went ahead and made a .GIF of that timeless pose.

"I'm FIERCE!"

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Kelly was really all out to cash in on pop culture in this one too. Methinks that she's coveting Marcia Cross' role in Desperate Housewives. Here's why:

Bree

Bree (with awesome, shiny earrings)

Methinks she's channeling Sadako too!

One so pale should get out more.

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I'd say this video's pretty entertaining cos we get to see the many faces of Kelly (from rocker to emo to housewifey to ghostly, wow!) and watch her ridiculing herself repeatedly (think "Face"). "Never Again" certainly sends out one very clear message: Messing with Kelly (aka cheating on her) would make her face appear everywhere. So don't.

"I'll eat YOU up LICKABLE!"

She scary!

The Day I Talk About First Times (Part II)

2007-06-09T07:57:00.000-07:00

The last time I had a "First Times" article was waaay back during the beginning of my Basic Medic Course. This time, it's about something slightly different. I have recently embarked on a new journey to a new camp for yet another course: the really physically demanding BAC (Basic Airborne Course).

First Time #1: Carrying A Parachute
Remember the first time you saw the Red Lions jump out of a plane thousands of feet in the air during the annual National Day Parade shows on TV and thinking "The parachutes on their backs look so cool!"? Well, that's what I thought too, until I actually had to carry one. First of all, it's nowhere as cool as the ones you've seen on TV cos it's a static jump chute (meaning that we don't actually have to yank the rip-chord off the chute when we exit the plane; the canopy is automatically deployed when we jump out). Secondly, it's less aesthetically appealing cos of its fully camouflaged prints. Lastly cos it weighs a bomb (if I'm not wrong it's more than 15kg). Talk about back-breaking weight.

First Time #2: Falling Down On Purpose
Yes, you read it right. We fall over front and back, left and right deliberately. But only during our landing drills, of course. It basically involves a series of coordinated leg and body movements that makes us fall in a given direction. This is done to equip us with the knowledge of proper landing techniques when we land in various wind conditions. Now, imagine yourself falling down with a 3kg helmet on your head. Imagine doing this fifty times and visualize the post-drill muscle aches on your neck, shoulders and butt. Ouch.

First Time #3: Calling everyone "AIRBORNE!"
This might not make sense. On the first day of the course, we were told to end our responses and verbal comments with a loud "AIRBORNE!" in order to keep our morale high and to be accustomed to shouting. Instead of pausing and then shouting the word "Airborne" like this: "YES SIR! AIRBORNE!", we shout everything together. In essence, we end up calling all of our instructors "Airborne" because our replies all sound like this: "YES SIR AIRBORNE!" "NO SIR AIRBORNE" etc. So basically all our instructors are known as "(insert rank here) Airborne". Which is quite confusing cos we hardly call out their last names and hence don't quite remember them. Can't really fault us. Heh.

The Day I Talk About Heroes

2007-05-22T20:17:00.000-07:00

First things first: If you guys are wondering what I'm doing at home on a weekday afternoon, well, it's because I'm FINALLY ON LEAVE! But it's just for 4 days though. Still, it's better than nothing.

Today, I feel like I should pay some attention to my favourite TV show, Heroes. The first season just ended it's run on Monday night (US time
) and it was a blast! I absolutely love every episode of the show. For those of you who haven't caught up on the craze just yet, here's a quick run-down of the show and it's major characters.

The show begins with ordinary people waking up one day to discover that they have extraordinary powers. Their common antagonist is a man named Sylar, who kills people with special abilities and eats their brain in order to acquire more power. The first season revolves around the premonition of a bomb going off in New York that will decimate the people living there and how the heroes try to stop it.

Characters:

Peter Petrelli

Power absorption

Hiro Nakamura

Teleportation, space-time manipultaion

Claire Bennett

Regeneration

Nathan Petrelli

Filght

Nikki/Jeccica Sanders

Superhuman strength

Isaac Mendez

Clairvoyant visions (which he transfers into his paintings)

DL Hawkins

Intangibility

Candice Wilmer

Illusion casting. Works for The Company.

Noah Bennett

Clare's adoptice father. Works for the ever-mysterious Company.

The Day I Talk About Unforgettable Movie Kisses

2007-05-18T07:14:00.000-07:00

I've realised that my recent blog posts have been pretty incoherent and boring, so I've decided to write on an interesting topic today: movie kisses. As you already know, sex sells. In almost every movie nowadays, there's bound to be some sex or suck-face scene just for the sake of titillating our (erotic) senses. Here's six of what I feel are the most memorable suck-face movie scenes.

#6: Great Expectations
Starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Ethan Hawke

What's more seductive than a kiss at a water fountain (known to most of us as "water coolers")? Gweneth Paltrow really steamed up the screens with this kiss. Very memorable kiss cos it vamped Estella up, reinventing her as more than just a woman who plays with a man's heart.

#5: Batman & Robin
Starring: George Clooney, Chris O'Donell, Uma Thurman

It was dissed by the fanboys and agreeably the worst portrayal of the Gotham Dark Knigh and his amazing sidekicks. Critics called it "Trashy movie", "Disgrace of the Batman franchise" and such. Personally, I agree. If not for the comical reinterpretation of Poison Ivy, the villian with the poisonous kiss (played by Uma Thurman), I doubt anyone would even remember it. I thought the "death" kisses in the movie were really funny (in a weird way), that's why it got on this list.

#4: X-Men 3
Starring: Hugh Jackman, Famke Janssen, Halle Berry

This picture makes me wanna say "Phoenix and Wolverine sitting on a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G..." Well, aren't they? Sad that he killed her at the end of the movie. They looked pretty good together.

#3: Brokeback Mountain
Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Heath Ledger

It was Hollywood's first über hyped up gay movie with an Asian director. Hyped up as it was, I didn't think it was as great as many people said it was. To each his own eh? It got on this list plainly because of the hype.

#2: Spiderman
Starring: Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst

The ever cult favourite kiss got #2 on my list because it was one of a kind. Seriously, in which other movie did the male lead kiss the female lead hanging upside down from the ceiling (other than the lame "Epic Movie"-type ripoffs, of course)? I'd say it's definitely one of the most unforgettable kissing scenes ever.

And now it's time to reveal who's at the top spot...

In 5,

4,

3,

2,

1...

#1: Titanic
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet

Absolutely classic. Who can ever beat the "Jack, I'm flying!!!" scene from the movie that propelled Kate and Leo into superstardom? My favourite suck-face scene of all time.

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And that's all for tonight. Hope you guys enjoyed it. Gotta head back to camp tomorrow morning for fire piquet duty. Sigh. That's NS life for you. :(