This guy brings his laptop around, checks the charts in class, talks and breathes stocks. He makes big bucks. He makes A-grades at the same time. He makes the previously-mentioned Lydia wear mini-skirts and go gaga over him. He is the man. Peace out. PS: Jason, you might want to check his blog. ^^

To continue from where I left off earlier, I always seem to be 5cents to 10cents short of making the amount that requires of any purchase. Out comes my note and in goes a new avalanche of coins to add to the nearly-men.

Following up on momentum, as Jx says, makes a whole lot of difference between making it within 3 weeks or pursuing vainly for 3 years. I have since followed up with 2 unreplied messages over the weekend. I'm not sure what's she is up to, but for the consolation, she once told me that she is hardly contactable while she's studying, and when I asked why, she commented that her hp is switched off during her mugging. Well, I never expect her to be that exaggerating.

Is that they say his and byes at such regularity that it has become a switch in their brain nerves and muscles to put up a hand or raise an eyebrow automatically when they see one. It's almost robotic. All these happen so fast that before you can think of what else to say, both of you have walked past each other. And in the circumstances where you've got to say something, partly because the situation calls for it but largely because both of you happen to be stationary, you say strange and silly things.

(Prata shop. 3am)

He - (waving at me) Me - (raise eyebrow to acknowledge, continue eating prata) He - 一个人读书啊? Me - 没有, 在吃 supper. 要回了. He - OH. 你住 hougang hor? Me - 没有, 我住 Hall 5. He - Orh.

(The above conversation took place without any duhs or diaos. Pretty straightforward exchange of words without the other party realising what the crap he or me is talking about) It takes a fair amount of time to turn into friends from acquaintances. At the same time, I wonder how long of non-contact does it take before once-good friends become acquaintances.

They choose to night trade when it's Friday, when I least expect them to OT, when I'm most tired and extremely deprived of sleep, when I did not bring anything but a boring article to kill my boredom, when I'm eagerly looking forward to catching Tong Xin Yuan but inside of me is a pair of extremely uncomfortable boxers (because clean underwears have mysteriously run out of stock, again!). Thou shall not complain though (although apparently I just did), because weekend is here, and there's a lot to cheer, although the exams are near, at the end of the year, but there's nothing to fear, because we're all in gear, so before you drop your tear, let me sing you this jeer, as if I'm Shakespeare. Hee.

As usual, today's work ended at 6pm, for the, let me see, 6th consecutive time and 8th time out of 10 work days. Hell. Shuang. They pay me everyday. I say bye to Nina at 6 everday. "Hold on ar, I check for ya whether there's night trading. Everyday you come here for 2mins and then you go home," Nina teased me in her one.word.by.one.word.english.language. "Actually, it's less than 2 mins," I told the manager, Bee Leng. "NO!" cried out the sole trader in the office. He hasn't been able to trade because his mate has been away. "You are sooooo lucky!" Sock Lin commented. "I wonder why they hire you," Bee Leng laughed. I wonder too.

This morning, I dumped a weekful-load of laundry into the machine and got totally pissed with myself when I got them out. Reason being, the hairy and furry black jeans [do you call it jeans?] was inside, so... Damn. Everytime I got into such chores-related mess, first thing I'd do is to call home and get my mum into the thick of the action. "Huh! 咳哟, 我忘记教你怎么洗这种裤." Wa lau eh. Why never teach me? Haha. But it's quite common sense la, and I knew it was in the laundry as I was dumping them in. I simply couldn't care shit when I am plain lazy. Amongst the obsolete shirts now include a nice yellow polo that Chriss told me look nice on me. So I'm feeling very dui now because I don't have many nice clothes anyway. More importantly, the 2 working shirts that I bought expensively from G2000, are now full of black furs sticking from everywhere, on either sides. Good lo. I have got a long night ahead of me now. Masking tape equipped. Sigh.

Oh man, 武侠片 doesn't get any better than this lo! Loads of punch in the storyline plus the 'wow' swordplays in this 2-plus hours film simply rocks la! Originated from the story, 七剑下天山, these seven swords truely fascinate me and their respective heros have me wishing I were them. Every sword has a history, and so does their owner. Fate pairs the two together and as the saying goes, 剑在人在, 剑亡人亡. But they won't 亡, 'cos they damn kick arse. The baddies could only sweat sword-holes with these people around. Oh-ho! But I must admit their chinese language quite sucky, and Leon Lai's acting abit screwed up. Nevertheless, the x-factors in the rest of the cast plus the excellent 外景 often associated with Tsui Hark more than make up for it. Excellent!

She was very nicely dressed up with faint makeup, sweet smiling as always. The kinda smile that will 'float' you and make you forget the anxiety that comes with waiting for her. It all started very coldly. We talked about what's been cooking in our lives, and stuff. It got weird sometimes and I would fidget, touching my face every now and then, putting my hand into the pockets to fiddle with the hp, etc. I had repeatedly told myself to stay natural and be less polite. Because I'm simply not used to being polite. OH. Ok, we were soon back to suaning each other over dinner, which is pasta at Bakerzin, recommended by Jason. We then shared a 'coffin' cake over dessert. The food is all nice and the ambience is just right. We got lucky because we got the last place by the sea. Damn thankful for it. And did I mention that she's a damn nice person to talk to. Good tempered, well-mannered, always smiling. It's just so comfortable chatting with her. There was kind of a 状况 along the way. Her relative got into an accident and her mum is sorta demanding her to go back and visit the hospital. She stayed on, and although we left for home earlier than what I had planned, I was really appreciative. Serious. We strolled back slowly to the MRT, walking against the night breeze. She began to talk about her past, and I was quite taken aback by some of her revelations. She's the 'nice nice angel' kinda person I would have imagined but then (hur hur) she has got the audacity to do certain things that I was not even doing at that tender age. But then again she shrugged them off with an innocent look that will make anyone think that she did nothing wrong. She allowed me to accompany back to her home without much fuss. A cab ride and a few sms-es later, I'm still relishing the nicest evening I had for a very long time.

The links on my sidebar are ever increasing. There is this basic need for blog reading within me that ranks up there with food and sleep. In Maslow's terms, blog has become a psychological need. I live, sleep and breathe blog these days. Animal instinct they call it. Give me a laptop with internet access and you see me toying around the blogs in my sphere. A pity that people seldom post when exams are coming. Old Roy has ended his blog, and has somehow omitted me from his new one. Darn. You don't get to go to his new blog if you haven't been tagging his tagboard. Class participation, he says. I fail these participations everywhere lae. So I blog myself and read myself lor. Self entertainment. I got lotsa it, fortunately. Recently Weihao showed me this Google Earth thing which is ultra cool lo! I took like an hour or so to locate my home, which strangely is always clouded with mist or fog on satelite pictures. Nevertheless, I managed to marked out the nearby landmarks and for those living in these areas, you must agree with me it's quite damn clear right. There there there. Ed: Am forced to resize and cramp the picture within this small frame of my blog la. Save it and view it on the PC for clarity. The resolution quite good la. Anyway, I linked some interesting articles that I have been poring over recently. Blogs have effectively replaced the need for newspapers, I think. Here here here.

• Calvin & Hobbes lovers, check out this article that reveals all-time great Bill Watersson and his quiet take on fame. Check out the book that contains all the strips from the first to the very last. Extracted from Tym.
• 'Kill the television, keep the shows' reveals the low-downs on television. Extracted from Tinker Tailor.
• Jack Thompson, the famous attorney who openly condemned video games comprising of sex and violence is challenging the public to develop his violent game that will require the player to go on an ultimate killing rampage that kills only game developers. HA. He claims that 'The Sims' are pornographic (when your Sims make out and the scene blurs) and 'GTA3' is encouraging people to kill police. I like the part about killing with baseball bats. That's my favourite weapon in GTA! Extracted from Squarebrains.
• Onto soccer, Neil writes an interesting Scottish view to the demise of his World Cup team. Funny guy this man is.
• Local comic sensation En & Hou (who appeared in a recent Friday's Weekly issue) is at it again. This time, RGS, RI, ACSI, RV and MGS peeps find themselves on a deserted island in 'Lost' style. Fantastic work!

That's all folks. Back to my readings!

A few days back, Weihao and I were chased out at 2am by two guys wearing bike helmets with walkie talkies blazing instructions to them. Apparently, we were illegally preventing the closure of the seminar room, thus triggering an alarm that alerted everyone else but us. A day later, we were sweating it out in the mosquitoes-infested canteens trying to figure out what I had really missed out from the numerous lessons I had missed. It appears to me that the things I remembered in class are not more than the new names that were introduced to me. Nevertheless, our fellowship remains strong. Kenny, Lynette and Yiwen just as hardworking, Tim just as crappy, Fai just as sarcastic, Antonio just as mysterious, Xiaohan just as sleepy. And a few miscues. Beng Keok remembered wrongly as Boon Keng. Jianliang seen as Jialiang. And a few laughters. Yiqiang being the funniest of them all. AS USUAL, every class will have the TURNOFF of the year. This time being the lonely Lydia always trying to find a friend, always slanting her eyes to catch a glimpse of what the fellowship is doing, always trying to eavedrop and hopefully join in, always looking at you disgustingly, always trying to get your number and then your MSN and everyone's else, always turning you off. She yucks me totally. Alright, enough of the 'tipsy lady'. Class is ending soon. The exams are coming, as if it's not yet a known fact. It's time to show what stuff we're made of exactly, man. Meanwhile, let us sing a long and enjoy this very moment. I say, let the games begin!

"Hey big-guy, watch my freaking mouth move." Big-guy looks at my mouth as they open and close to the words, "No smoking, fucker!" The kaypoh crowd starts to gather. For all the publicity that the new non-smoking campaign has tried to achieve, there are simply too many law-breakers and too little law enforcers. If the law enforcer happens to be not around when the law is broken, who do we turn to? Don't look at me. "Don't kaypoh la, mind your own business!" Smoke gets into my eyes. I see that it comes from Big-guy. However, "no smoking lae.." often turns to a deaf ear. But there's no mountain too high, no aeroplane that me can't fly. To make this island a smoke-free place, I shall leave no stones unturned, no bad leafs unchup. Plucking out the half-stub from his mouth, I extinguish the burning butt against his flaming face and hold him by the toe. [awesome strength I have. they don't call me superdude for nth, y'noe] Then I march off, left right left, giving his balls a good squeeze once in awhile. Oh yay!

Slowly, but surely, I'm dying from the suffocation that the words in Tax are trying to incur onto me, as huge chunks of words with absolutely no appropriate forms of punctuation or paragraphs whatsoever, try to form any relationship, however small it may be, into this increasingly congested head of mine, not forgetting the amount of other stuff it has to digest, and it still doesn't want to stop, forcing me to read 8-10 times for every uber long sentence, because the things in that not-so-guiding Master Tax Guide are so full of nots and excepts and unless, so much that I can't make out which is real or false, oh dammit!

A good part of yesterday was largely spent on recce-ing. Yesh, we actually did that, but then I suppose when it appears that you have done your homework, it just shows how much the thing means to ya, ya?* Onto Ah Pek, going out with him is like tickling myself. He is so full of jokes that you laugh and smile and laugh. Then the face cramps up and you don't feel like laughing anymore but he is so good at it. Then some jokes get repeated or overlap and it gets less funny, but it's still funny and you gotta smile, although less vigoriously, but you wish you could get a break from all this smiling because your face's all cramped up and you simply feel like crying. What the hell? But it still beats reading tax. Argh! *Hell, I'm starting to talk like her, ya?

This is the best place to study laa! My heart sunk when Nina told me there's night trading activity tonight. Yesh, I still zuobo, but then the past few days have been 4pm - 6pm and considering that it is Friday and nobody likes OT on Friday and so..urgh! "Sooo, you just grab any empty seats around and do nothing till 11pm," smiled Nina. One of my in-game characters happened to be called Nina too. Nice names are always befitted on friendly personalities. I've been expecting this since Day 1 so it's a good thing that I've brought my tax stuff along. And goddammit, the middle office is such a great place to study lo! Damn big office with less than 5 people around. And the soft broadcast of some news station make sure that this office is not eerily quiet. Plus a PC with internet connection and no MSN means that reading stuff on edventure will go undisturbed. And the 2 mega 17" screens means that I can read my notes and statues online on 2 separate screens, referring back and forth. Damn cool la. I can't believe anyone will pay crazy money for someone to come in and do nothing. Okay, I did something. I'm reading my tax at never-before enthusiasm! Then there's the pantry just behind me, making sure that I will never go hungry. Aha, there's another 2+ hours to go before this office closes. I'm making full use of it man!

Poh's loss is me's gain. I've taken over his post, be it temporarily, till the end of Oct. The thing here is that I've got to work every weekday from 4pm - 12am in Rabo Bank. The job scope - to stand around as a neutral party in their night trading activities, which I assume is Forex. The plus - the pay's a cool $9 an hr, $7.20 nett of CPF deductions!! And the really cool part is that night tradings are not a norm and most likely take place 2-3 days in a week, but my timesheet writes 4-12 nevertheless. Cab fares fully claimable. And basically all I have to do is zuobo there, and quoting Poh, you get lucky most of the time and knock off at around 7-8pm. I know, I must be crazy to do this. But then again, I will go crazy if I reject this. This is an opportunity, I see. I played my move correctly, I hoped. The money will be put to good use, I will. Digressing from the topic, yesh she agreeeeed! Alas, it's only a date, big deal right? Now I need all the help in the world. Actually, I only need Jason's input. He's the S'pore know-it-all. Hotspots, my friend. Don't tell me TCC at Raffles lae!

Film maker Martyn See was threatened with prosecution over his short 26-min film about opposition leader Dr. Chee Soon Juan. It makes the whole situation so unjust and unbelievable that people with power are abusing it in order to prevent the issue from spreading out. But then again, the more you try to prevent the cat out of the bag, the more we are determined to get it out and question it. It's like extracting a part of a chinese novel I've read some years back, I think it's 韦小宝, where some writer wrote something to honour the fallen Ming Dynasty when it was the Qing Dynasty in ruling and the Qing Emperor went on a killing streak and massacred the whole lot of Han writers. Whether it's a documentary or a public speech, it just doesn't make sense to call the police in and prosecute whoever is badmouthing the gahmen, when no violence or racist remarks are involved, and at a time when the PM is requesting Singaporeans to be more open. I saw the movie and I can firmly say that there's nothing wrong with it. I wonder why the gahmen is so worried about it. Sometimes when you try to hide something very hard, it shows that you are indeed guilty of something ya? FYI, the film is quite well-received in other international film festivals. It's a movie that desperately needs to be screened. Get it from me if you guys want a look. Quote:

There are only 3 ways to keep the sheeps in line. First, you must rule by fear. Second, the sheep must be deprived of the truth - they must keep their heads down and not look up. Third, you must punish the sheeps that move out of line. And of course it won't hurt to have a few raging dogs running around.

Very true. The point is, are we the sheeps?

SBS buses will always leave in abundance when I most needed them. And they always do so with me watching helplessly at a distance just exactly impossible for me to fly off in huge bags and sprinter's speed. And then it will always rain when soccer's the main programme for the day. But before that, the 6 of us will discover that our favourite street court has been beautifully renovated and locked. It's like..urgh!! But give it to us that we always have a way with being suay - We played in the rain, under extreme conditions and slippery floors, with frictionless shoes and fragile fingers.

Suspected mum - 刚才跑去哪里? Me - 踢球. Mum - 踢球!?!? Me - ... Mum - 就知道你跑去踢球. 一大清早就偷偷出去. Me - ... Mum - 手刚刚好又踢.. Me - ... Mum - 踢球不要这么 hiong hor? Me - Orh.

I always have a way with my mum, I think. Aha!

Phew!

I supposed I had just given her the gift of her life. I don’t know, but from the looks of that uber-long ‘thank-you-and-I-like-it-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-much’ sms, it sounds that me had given her the real deal.

When my heart was furiously contemplating defeat and juggling between the ‘give’ and ‘dump-it’ options, I’m glad I had chosen the former.

While that doesn’t mean anything at all [it would be foolish to think otherwise], it has certainly brought a smiling mood to myself, knowing that she had smiled her way through the colored sketchbook I had done for her.

She mentioned about me owing her a drink. What could that mean? Hmn. Sometimes I really wonder if she means all the things she said.

[This is a Thursday night post] For every soccer-fanatics out there, please go and watch Goal! for the love of the game lar.

Santiago Munez is a poverty-stricken guy with an outstanding talent for soccer. His deft touches and dribbling ability caught the eye of a British scout, and the unbelievable journey to play in the fantastic St. James’ Park thus began.

It is inevitable that you find some parts of the movie familiar and close to your heart, largely due to the common dream of most footie lovers in performing the football extraordinary. Everyone wants to score that last minute free kick that Becks did for England. Everyone wants to win that penalty after a long dizzy dribble. Everyone wants to step up to center stage and perform in front of the gal of their dreams. Everyone wants to nutmeg [ole!] their opponent-in-love or simply knock his teeth off in a tussle for the ball. And everything appears in this awesome movie. Ohhh! We share the same sentiments ‘cos we no ordinary Saturday’s couch watchers. We are footballers! Aha.

Ng Eng Juan came in with a solemn face and started to give out papers with questions on them, making the whole situation looked like a mock test kinda.

The eager ones would then put all their belongings ‘cept their pencil cases and calculators on the floor, with which NEJ responded with ‘Gotcha!’.

What the hell!

He simply likes to play these games, isn’t it?

Which then triggered my mind off, because I seen a surprise quiz theory somewhere. This person, I forgot the name, suggested that no surprise quiz can be more surprising than this theory. Ok, I suggested that. But consider this scenario:

The teacher told the class there would be a surprise quiz next week. The surprise is not so much of the 'out-of-nowhere' kind but more of the ‘you-don’t-know-when’s-it’ kinda.

To which this guy suggested:

If the first four days pass by without the quiz, then the quiz must be on Friday, but that would not be a surprise anymore, so it couldn’t be on Friday. If it can’t be on Friday, and the first 3 days pass by without the quiz, it will have to be on Thursday, but then again it will not be a surprise. So if you work it backwards, the eventual surprise is that there won’t be any quiz at all next week!

Awesome!

Good lord, we are a mere 33 days from the start of the exams.

Let’s see, if I were to complete the projects on hand in 7 days, I will have 26 full days to prepare for 4 hardcore mods that I have little idea about. Which runs down to less than a week for each mod. What the…

Whoa whoa whoa. That’s very little indeed. So what am I doing here?

NB: I’m far from convincing - that time is running short here. Nabeis.

Sun Sand Sea Originally uploaded by dPx..

Toying around with photo tools and blogs should probably be the last thing to do in the midst of this increasingly stressful period of work, quiz, projects. But then again, the temptation to get away from them all and explore the coolness of the coolest things on the net is far too err, tempting, to resist. This time, am trying to blog directly from Flickr, the most comprehensive online photo album on earth, cept the fact that it is limited in functions unless of course you pay US$25 per year. The good point is that you choose a photo that you want to blog along with and viola!, it will appear on the screen with all your types. You don't even have to resize it! But then of course it is not everything, considering that all the while I have been uploading pictures through HTML codes that I have forced myself to learn and understand. Anyway, that's all for a test entry. If it goes successful, and of course it will be successful if you see this entry, perhaps I will be using this function more often. Erm.

Tomorrow is the AB Thorsten board meeting, where I am required to present a conclusion that we have discussed over 2 weeks in 4mins. What the hell. My mouth got to move at bullet speed to achieve that. Was practicing the speech the whole day, mumbling to myself and looking weird.

PS: Jason, paiseh for nope-ing ya bochup-ly in the sms today. Gotta work laa. Next week man.

This man is every reason why anyone should watch Wigan v Bolton over any Arsenal, Man Utd, Liverpool or Chelsea matches.

No words can describe the aura in him.

History is made. While checking with Singnet whether I am applicable for the iBook offer they had made with its 10Mbps plan, I noticed the amount of internet hours my house was clocking against time. 737hrs and 23mins. Which runs down to 24.579hours of internet activity per day. Yesh, we have achieved more than we can possibly achieve, er, scientifically-wise? Perhaps the greatest evidence that we actually have more hours per day than we originally thought. Hmn.. On a personal note, this is value grabbing at the very best. I bet Singnet hates us.

Am now blogging from the comforts of Microsoft Word. Am forced to do so because the formatting tools have shut down totally on me. Quite cool, I must say, since Word has a better array of formatting tools and Blogger doesn’t, but quite unnecessary since I always blog on my favourite Trebuchet font which Blogger has. Then again, I wonder how wingdings will look like in my blog. Anyway, back-to-back victories for Blackburn. Quite unbelievable and also almost impossible but for late Kuqi’s strikes. And, no combination of booze and winning 11 this weekend, since Kevin has taken the option of celebrating people’s birthday, leaving me, Jx and Ah Pek with double Buddy Meals at KFC at Causeway Point (of all places). Also leaving me another $40 poorer with a pair of leather sandals (I bought a $50 laptop carrier on Friday). But then again, poor means nothing now because I am poor enough so being poorer don’t make sense here. And since this moment of poor-ness is only temporary, I mean, hey, I’m accountant la. Tie Fan Wan, y’noe. Saving on a pair of $40 sandals won’t make me more able to buy a flat in the future k? And so I splurge.

Now now, the thing about this Blogger For Word thingy is that no pictures are allowed. Knn. Wanted to post a picture but can’t. Argh.

Okay, the place’s set. All guns’ blazing. Chalet’s set on the 30th and 31st Dec at Aloha. Amid all the discussions and huge debates, it seems that the gals will not be joining us after all. Got word from Diana that we guys are too messy. Wa lao, reputation chui! Some of them read this blog. Tell me we not chui. At least, tell me I not chui!