Fried Tofu and a few minor updates

The fella in the center is Domo-Kun, supposedly a fried tofu from outer space. Cute eh? OK down to business, I've finally gotten the entire Age of Empires 3 series, the original Age of Empires, The War Chiefs expansion and the Asian Dynasties expansion. Been playing it whenever i have the time and so far I've got nothing but praise for this game, simply perfect, can't wait to go back and challenge the rest. Have picked up more and more injuries since my return to the soccer pitch, basically an increasing collection of bruises, scratches and abrasions on my right leg and both elbows. And now i think I'm coming down with some illness, pray for a speedy recovery i will.

It comes and goes.....

Christmas has just come and gone, albeit a rather quiet one since my grandmother was afflicted by stroke. The usual family gathering which has never been quite the same since last year when she was brought low by stroke, till that time i always thought of my grandparent's as "immortal", omniopresent like they would always be there, this incident obviously showed the immaturity of my thinking. This might be the inappropriate time for me to dwell on such dark thoughts but i feel that during this festive season and the last few days of 2007 it's a good time for me to reflect on everything which has happend, a time to remember the people and the events which have shaped the path which i am on now. During this time of the year my grandmother would make this dish called "tang-yun", a sort of chinese and peranakan fusion(my grandmother of course took the liberty of adding extra peranakan like ingredients) dish where all the grandsons would come together and help out. As time passed i was the only one who would still go over and help her out every year. Since her stroke attack which left her incapable of doing much of anything this dish was never made again. One day i plan on making it again, maybe next year or the year after next but i will definitely make it again.

The End of an Era

The Seventy-Six has finally arrived and it's currently festering inside it's box. I have no intention of swapping out my sim card yet as i still don't feel like changing my phone(gotta adjust the settings on the new phone and such, all rather tedious work which i'm trying to put off for as long as possible). So there you have it, the days of the 6260 are numbered, it is the end of an era. It's been a great run, a good four years of rather error-free service and although I've finally got the Seventy-Six i suddenly don't feel like changing my phone anymore.

For now.....

Drink, drink, soccer, drink, club, drink and did i say more drinking? Yes that's exactly what i've been doing since i came back, lots and lots of drinking(i bet there's more alcohol in my blood now than blood), clubbing and soccer. Just played my first proper game of (street)soccer on Sunday, not a very good game for me if i might add although i did pull off some very good saves, but it was just not good enough. I expected as much since the last time i played was a good 6 months ago, and as a result my movements and senses were quite stiff. There's going to be a field match this Wednesday and i hope i play much better then(basket, almost everyone has switched over to the new addidas F50 boots whereas i'm still sticking with my good ole' Predator "Dragon" boots). Supposed to meet some of the other(chinese) chaps from 4E3 on thursday, a small reunion of sorts, but this is as of yet unconfirmed. Then on Friday Brendan wants to go out and quaff a few as usual, with Andrew,(maybe) Ivan and the other ex-Taylors people. Saturday is pretty much the same only difference is that i'm going clubbing with the Upps. Well i don't plan on going out to club and drink for the whole duration of my vacation(as much as i would love to), i already went for a job interview at a job agency last week(due to my mum's incessant nagging) and within the half hour they called me back and said that a few banks were interested and that they would call me back after they finalised everything. Now am i good or what? Aside from the fact that i have no intention on starting work till January.

360-ing

Bought two new games for the 360, Need for Speed: Pro Street and Ace Combat 6: The Fires of War. Two very good buys if i might add, real good for keeping the boredom at bay when I'm stuck at home. First up is Need for Speed, and like all car enthusiasts and players of driving simulators i have to admit that i had very low expectations for it. After having played games like Gran Turismo and Forza which are two very superb driving simulators i have to say that the Need for Speed series is sorely lacking in terms of realism, challenge and detail when compared with these two games, until now. Pro Street is by far the most impressive Need for Speed title in this long series, it certainly trumps Carbon and Most Wanted in terms of detail, challenge and realism. When played in "King Mode" you almost feel like you're playing Forza instead of NFS where you have to actually brake into corners. Gone are the days where you can take a corner at over 100, now the standard is a more realistic 60 odd. And no more reckless driving by those unskilled drivers who only depend on speed to win a race. Crash into a wall or another car? There goes your body panels and windscreens, dented and shattered. Miss a turn and go over a curb? If you're lucky you get away with some dents and scrapes on your bodywork, if not your car flips and it's all over. And whats more the car doesn't "auto-repair" at the end of each race, either you pay for it with cash or trade in a marker. The price you pay usually depends on how badly you messed up, total your car and you usually have to foot a hefty some to get it fixed, usually almost costing as much as a new one. So how good is the new Pro Street? Well driving simulator purists will still say nothing comes close to Gran Turismo in terms of realism and challenge, but for the everyday casual gamer or beginner i say it's good enough. The only fault i can find with the game is that it does not offer the free garage anymore where you can select 20 cars and modify them to your liking, which i have to say was one of the main factors why people purchased the last two NFS games in the first place. Another point is that it's hood designs are rather limited this time around with those which they have offered being rather repulsive. Next up is Ace Combat 6, a classic amongst console fighter simulators. While not being the best one out there it has a nice and simple game play and a good collection of fighters. While it's storyline is as good as redundant it tries to make the game have more dept than your usual "shoot em' all down" kind of simulator. In terms of realism it's as real as pirated DVDs which already speaks volumes, graphics wise it's quite OK except for the part when you fire off a missile which looks very distorted. A decent game for the casual gamer but don't expect much more than that.

Home. Again

So here it is my first post since coming back home. Just a short one as i just came back last night and have not really been up to anything yet. The laptop has been assembled but is for the time being redundant as my useless internet connection and ridiculously unreliable wireless router have seen it fit to refuse my right to the internet. So here i am at my old, cranky, not as unreliable but still unreliable and ancient desktop lamenting on the perils of a crap internet connection. The 360 has been dusted and broken out and all i need to do now is get me some new games before i can get started on gaming again. So here's the itinary for whats left of the week, going out to quaff a few with Brendan tonight(Friday the 7th Dec) and then the day after there will be the event which everyone has been waiting for, Suj's annual party(Saturday the 8th Dec). Seriously wonder who's the lucky bastard whose going to get shat wasted this year, definitely won't be me i promise you.

Home

Going back tomorrow, 6th of Dec, SQ228, 17:00 flight(Melb time). Due to the rather unfortunate event of John leaving his house key's at home we were locked out after having dinner and as such my MP3, Descent of Angels novel and the Microsoft Office 2007 which i borrowed is all impounded. So first thing i have to do in the morning is call up the locksmith to confirm the 8am appointment and then head off into the city to collect my stuff. I also hope to have breakfast with what's left of the group before i head back to Box Hill and settle my final preparations. I now pray that the locksmith turns up on time at 8am sharp tomorrow and that my flight back home will be a good one, preferably next to a nice good-looking girl(must be single of course). So this is my last post of the year from Melbourne, I'll see you fellas next year then, till then Good Night, and Good Luck. And remember kids "Drink, but DON'T!, get drunk".

Oh Shat.....

OK here's the deal, my much lauded and favoured laptop has gone off the deep end on me again(yes it has happened before). As such I've lost a years worth of Uni work, pictures, music, anime, movies, saved games and the list goes on and on. I have just managed to get msn and the other essentials updated and running so that my laptop won't be an idling piece of scrap. And now i must begin the painstaking process towards laptop normality.....Windows Media Player 11 is still a tad cranky as it takes an awful long time for it to recognise the codecs which are needed to run my anime. Ah well at least IE7 and Live Messenger are back on.....And if this isn't proof enough for me to get my hands on a new XPS i don't know what is. So if any of you bums out there are reading this give me suggestions on what kind of program your basic computer should have, oh and I'll need all your blog addresses again.

Supreme Boredom

I am seriously supremely ultimately bored.....Most of the people who made life in Melbourne rather tolerable have already headed home, the ever cheerful and perverted Xander, the car fanatic and perv-in-training Sibu Angkau and most of the kids. So which poor sad souls are left here? Well unfortunately for me this year i'm part of this dreaded list, then theres John(uncle) who isn't going back to M'sia for one reason or other and has decided to stay in Melb and find some employment so that he can rack up some cash while everyone is away. James as usual is still left here followed by Ryan and the girls. And here's the departure roster for the week, James leaves on Tuesday(Quantas, ah ha ha), Alicia leaves on Wednesday(SQ), I leave on Thursday(SQ, bloody hell screwed up my planned 1st Dec derparture.....) and Ryan on Sunday(MAS). God knows when everyone is going back but if your flight out of this miserable place is not within this week then good luck to you. So here i am stuck in my spartan room going on and on about not being able to get home sooner, truthfully a delay of five days isn't much, but then missing out on five days of possible clubbing is a bit much. The delay might have been a tad bearable had a certain factor not have flown off last night. Every minute spent here is a damn waste of my much treasured leisure time which could be better spent in Singapore along with my rather good friends. Heck i've known all of those nuts on average a good 6-7 years already, with the longest being 12 years and 14 years. We've been through some seriously crazy shit at times as well. Most of which usually involves pranks, fights, getting drunk and escaping from possible reprecussions in one piece. Sure some might act like jackasses at times but after going through all that wild crap we just let these kinds of things pass. So having a reunion with them at the end of the year where we can all get together and remember the ole' times and catch up is always something to look forward to. Cheers to great friends and Patricians. Oh and a few SJI fellas too. And Quacker's if by any chance you're reading this again i'm surprised that you can give such sound advice, and thanks.

Groups. Why?

Been bugging me since last year, the thing with groups and people being left out. Was out having dinner with "The Kid" today, at Chom Chom as usual. Were talking bout' the usual stuff, cars(well only i was going on and on about that), games, murdering people, random wanton acts of violence, military stuff and the glorious past. So we were just talking about such random stuff when we drifted back to talking about the old times, and i forget what we were talking about but suddenly he said something like "Oh forgot I'm not part of your group". Now hearing that being said aloud for the first time really struck a chord with me, as we all know i feel that if there's some occasion to be celebrated or a gathering to be had for whatever reason the more the merrier. Unfortunately the people who think this way are a pathetically few minority, and now i ask this question, why is this the case? Sure i know that people and their groups usually try to limit the amount of friends so that there will be a balance of sorts and that those with a ridiculously low self-esteem of themselves will feel that as the group gets larger the less time there will be for his friends to pay attention to him. Now i will proudly state that i was never tight with any group, me being a wanderer as such, i only joined if asked to and am not thick skinned enough to impose myself on others, so of course there were often a many times where i was left out. It's like "Oops sorry we forgot about you", but of course i take such petty things in my stride. If my presence is not wanted than it will not be there. Besides if i really wanted to be arrogant I'll say things like "You should be thankful that I'm lowering myself to your status to interact with you". Friends. This is what they call themselves, but they will not call you out if they feel that your presence will be inconvenient for them in any way. Friends. This is what they call themselves but they will not offer you assistance if they feel threatened by what you may accomplish. I've had kinder enemies than these kinds of useless friends. In fact I'm ashamed that i even thought of such distasteful people as friends, like how the hell did they get pass my screening? If anyone should be accused of being arrogant it should be these kind of screwed up people who will only talk to you whenever they feel like it. Jumped-up shits. Then of course there are those who feel that as they are older they have the right to talk shit to you. OK, you little prick you might be a bit older but i can bet my arse your sad life has been a right bed of roses, gone through what i have before you accuse me of being anything little shit. So to groups i say a right FUCKING NO! The thought of leaving some of my friends out sickens me and tarnishes my honour. To the kids i don't belong to any group, and if any a group i wanted to be a part of it would be yours, the kind where age doesn't matter, the kind where more is always merrier.
"Keep a closer eye on your friends rather than your enemies, because only they can stab you in the back, and it would most certainly hurt more"

My patience is waning

I personally hate it when people try and tell me what to do, or when they have that "Oh my way is the best and proper way and everyone should follow it" kind of attitude. Not like i am unreceptive to suggestions or criticisms, it's just that you should never overstep people's kindness and patience, in this case mine. As everyone back home(and a certain few here) would know i have a very short temper, always quick to the fight so what i have achieved since i came to Australia is quite monumental. As a former Patrician whenever an argument came up or if you had a bone to pick with someone it'll usually degenerate into a good ole' fashion fight, which is the way some of us still like it instead of all that pansy like dialogue. Like what was said during the good ole' days, "fight first, talk later". I mean if you have a problem spit it the hell out and don't try and act all nice and understanding, my simple reply to this kind of people is for them to go screw themselves. And to those people who try to act all considerate when all they're looking for is an excuse for their deficiencies or just using it as a cover for their own benefit I'll say grow some bloody balls. If you screw up admit it, if your main goal is to benefit yourself don't make it look like you're trying to be considerate. People who call me arrogant? You don't even know what arrogant means so go fucking read it up in the dictionary again. Think I'm too vulgar or uncivilised? You just don't have the fucking balls to say what is on your mind pussy. All you can do is beat about the bush. In fact if you don't like so many things about me why bother at all? Fuck off. Want to judge me and force some advice onto me? Go look into the bloody mirror first. Normally I'd open a can of whoop ass already, but this time I'm showing restraint, you could be my friend or whatever but overstep the line and pay the price. And trust me it's a high price to pay. You might think I'm just talking big, all talk no action because of how i act all the time, but when the gloves come off don't blame me if you get hurt.
"A man without honour is less than a dog"

A Lack of Sleep, An Apparent Excess of Free Time, But for how long?

Ah Ha, a very long name, but in reality not much will be written. Wasn't able to get a proper rest since the events of last Friday as one thing led to another. Missed the last bloody train on Friday, Saturday and Tuesday and as a result had to stay up the whole night waiting for the first train in the morning. I am most definitely moving into the city next year, already got the go-ahead from my parents too. Hope this lack of sleep doesn't cause me to fall sick or anything. And since the exams are over I've got some free times on my hands which is being wasted in Australia. There's really not much to do here, play LAN with the kids, out for dinner with the group, watching a movie and going to Crown pretty much sums everything up. Ryan had initially planned for the lot to go fishing but apparently something seems to have thrown a spanner into that as well. I sure as hell am not going to stay put in Box Hill as I'd probably die of boredom if i hung around here any longer. Wonder if going back to Singapore would change anything? Ah well I'll find out when i get back, i just might be bored enough to go looking for a job again. The main attraction would still be Suj's (legendary) annual party! Quite possibly the most entertaining night of the year as every year someone gets shit drunk and runs riot all over the place. Hah last year Suba got so frakkin' wasted this is what he did. First he "accidentally" threw a cup of alcohol at Cabi which crapped up his brand new polo t-shirt. Then he ran into the kitchen and scared Suj's maid out of the house(she ran off to his Aunt's place down the road). Then he vomited in the hall and we carried him off and dumped him on Suj's bed, big mistake as he vomited all over the bloody bed also!(damn sad for Suj man, think he had to buy a new mattress) After that we dragged his arse out into the hall, stripped him down to his pants as his shirt was by then thoroughly screwed by all the vomit, wrapped him in Suj's rather expensive carpet and hauled him off into the maids room where he spent what was left of the night. If you were there yourself I'm sure that you would have wet yourself laughing too, although the part where he started foaming at the mouth was a bit worrying though.....well that's what you get if you drink on an empty stomach boys and girls.

Completing D

Just a short one for ye fellow car lovers and Initial D players, i've finally completed Initial D 4 after such a long while. It was a close battle and i won the 86 at Tsukuba outbound by the tightest of margins. Kudos to my ever awesome S2000 AP1, a great car, whose driver is as of yet still not good enough. With the completion of the game i think i'll revert back to the ole' Integra DC2, just need to change it to manual and i'll be all set. On another note, after testing out the S15, R34, MR-2 and the RX-8, i have finally chosen the RX-8 as the S2000 successor, as in terms of speed and handling the RX-8 has a much better feel. So there you have it, Integra Type R DC2, S2000 AP1 and the RX-8, a formidable line up it is.

Note- With this the entire RX series of cars is now in play, Brendan on the RX-7 FC Savannah, Xander on the RX-7 FD Spirit and my RX-8.

Done Deal

The exams are over, friends are returning home (or for some already left), another year is drawing to a close and merry mayhem is to be had. Sibu Angkau leaves on Sunday midnight, and trailing behind him would be I with my morning flight on the 1st of December (supposedly, could actually be earlier if things go well). I think Ryan and Roaldy leave a week after my departure. So it'll be a right (approximately) three months of LAN-less fun where my life will finally be uplifted from the depts of prepetual LAN based enjoyment. Of course i don't intend of partying my holidays away (as mentioned earlier, straight drinking is off-limits already), i'm probably going to end up getting a job again and trying to fatten up the ole' bank account again. And with the amount of shopping i have planned out i'm seriously going to need it. I have miraculously gotten the green light to go ahead with my 'Modernisation' program which involves me replacing/refitting my electronic devices. As i have planned out all of my electrical devices should remain in service for at least four years before i set about looking for a replacement. This means that my good ole' 6260 and ZEN Neeon MP3 are soon reaching the end of their service life with me. The replacement for the 6260 has already been chosen, the N76. It met all of my requirements of being a clamshell 'flip' phone, 3G and it has to be a Nokia (the operating systems for the other brands just confuse me). Quite the few requirements isn't it? Now the MP3 player poses more of a dilemma, i've recently been eyeing the new iPod Touch, a very sleek device with awesome touch screen interface. But my brother has been bugging me to switch from my ole', sometimes cranky and rather worn out ZEN Neeon to an iPod classic, and for some reason my mum seems to back him up. Now its not like i don't want an iPod, its just that it has two rather irritating traits. First is itunes, so bloody complicated to use, miles apart from the simple and clean drag and drop system of most Creative MP3's. Than theres the price, which is definitely more ex than a ZEN by a fair bit. But Creative MP3's are sorely lacking in the design sector. And i'm trying to keep the cost of the replacements to below $600. Another hefty piece of equiptment which i plan on switching out is my faithful laptop, which although does not meet the prerequisites of being at least 4 years old (special consideration should of course be given to computers) with a spanking new Dell XPS in red. This of course has not been approved yet but i hope i can soon strike some sort of deal with my parents, guess i'll have to let my results do the talking again.

Note- The lot of us had steamboat at Ryan's place last night, and of course the usual rowdy humour and fun ensued. Thanks for dinner and such last night Ryan, and of course thanks for putting up with my usual craziness (it almost got out of hand with the drinking).

Another Resolution, Another Rule, Another Lesson Learnt

Damn my age is seriously starting to show. Getting high so fast from so little, goes to show that my (supposedly) legendary alcohol tolerance is coming to an end. Well good for me anyway, this time helped me to gauge where the line was and not to step over the boundaries of it. Not a moment too soon anyway, i still acted like a dolt, but at least not as big a dolt as on previous occasions. At least now i know when i should call it quits and to throw in the towel. The last time around i limited myself to five glasses, but i think this time I'm going to completely abstain from downing straight anymore. It's bad for the health, it's whacking off my brain cells and I've finally lost that alcoholic feeling. So to hard liquor, i say no more. There I've said my piece, and to anyone i may have offended last night in my drunken stupor, you have my sincerest apologies and i kindly request that certain of my more embarrassing moments be forgotten, and since i personally only remember 50/50 of what happened last night try not to bring anything up eh? MUA HA HA HA HA!

Things to do

Uwahh, 2 more weeks till i return home on the 1st Dec. There're still 2 more hurdles to get over though, the Stats exam on the 21st and Accounts on the 22nd. So far my examination campaign has been rather dreadful as for some reason i can't seem to bloody focus on my studies, curse my wandering and ill-disciplined mind. I don't even want to talk or think about the fiasco which was the first 2 papers. As such i'm definitely going to throw in my lot for these last two papers and like what i told Roaldy sometime back, if you're good at something don't aim for a HD, but go for the unheard of full marks. And thats exactly what i plan on doing. On another note Xander has already left (on the 14th, Wednesday) for home and as such Melbourne has become a quieter and less lively place. So even if the exams are over there won't be much for to do untill i return home to SG. Well if there's any consolation at least Ryan and the kids are still around (i won't count the bloody Angkau since he's leaving on the 26th, punk bitch) for a few more rounds of CG. Which reminds me, i've got to shut that bloody Angkau's mouth up, him and his crap-arsed Savannah.....Guess i'll have to teach him a real lesson before he runs off home. That being that here's my top 10 list of things which i'll do as soon as i reach home (mind you this being on the day itself, i've got a morning flight on the 1st and when u factor in the fact that Melbourne is 3 hours ahead of Singapore i'll touch down around 3pm SG time)

My (as of yet unconfirmed) Top 10 Things To Do When I Get Home

1. Break out my 360
2. Go to Grandparent's place
3. Go and buy new games for the 360
4. Go and buy manga at Kino
5. Go clubbing with the Upps
6. Go clubbing with the ex-taylors gang+Brendan
7. Go and have a drink with Ian and the "Lighter" side of ole' 4E3
8. Go gym
9. Resume playing weekly soccer with the Upps
10. Go savour the finer things in life

(Side Story- On another note i'm rearing to go back and challenge some fools at Initial D Stage 4 back in SG, i wonder if they're as crap as i think they'll be!)

"Gotta Knock A Little Harder"

From the soundtrack of Cowboy Bepop The Movie: Future Blues.

Gotta Knock a Little Harder

Happiness is just a word to me
And it might have meant a thing or two
If I'd known the difference

Emptiness, a lonely parody
And my life, another smokin' gun
A sign of my indifference

Always keepin' safe inside
Where no one ever had a chance
To penetrate a break in

Let me tell you some have tried
But I would slam the door so tight
That they could never get in

Kept my cool under lock and key
And I never shed a tear
Another sign of my condidtion

Fear of love or bitter vanity
That kept me on the run
The main events at my confession

I kept a chain upon my door
That would shake the shame of Cain
Into a blind submission

The burning ghost without a name
Was calling all the same
But I just wouldn't listen

The longer I'd stall
The further I'd crawl
The further I'd crawl
The harder I'd fall
I was crawlin' into the fire

The more that I saw
The further I'd fall
The further I'd fall
The lower I'd crawl
I kept fallin' into the fire
Into the fire
Into the fire

Suddenly it occurred to me
The reason for the run and hide
Had totalled my existance

Everything left on the other side
Could never be much worse that this
But could I go the distance

I faced the door and all my shame
Tearin' off each piece of chain
Until they all were broken

But no matter how I tried
The other side was locked so tight
That door it wouldn't open

Gave it all that I got
And started to knock
Shouted for someone
To open the lock
I just gotta get through the door

And the more that I knocked
The hotter I got
The hotter I got
The harder I'd knock
I just gotta break through the door

Gotta knock a little harder
Gotta knock a little harder
Gotta knock a little harder
Break through the door

Au Revoir.....It's been a good run.

I have recently acquired a new car for Initial D, the Honda S2000 (AP1)(Manual). Been running it quite a bit these past few days, trying to get the feel of the manual transmission and to the sensitivity of the steering. Not to mention its more capable engine. Like what Brendan said, there comes a time where you can't do much more in an automatic and this is that time. Not to mention the point of saturation where the ole' Integra can't really keep up with any of the more powerful models which them other players are sporting today. To prove this point my rather decently tuned Integra was beaten by a stock S2000 which Brendan drove. Maybe it just wasn't my day as my mood was never really there, try as hard as i may but to me it was blatant revelation that it's time was up. True you can never really master your car if it's on auto and i would like to come back and switch the Integra to a manual after i've mastered the intricate and delicate art of gear shifting. But for now i need to keep up with the competition so the Integra will be officially put into semi-retirement at the end of October and the S2000 will be the new number 1 car. It's going to take some time but i'll make sure i master the manual transmission before i go back to SG. It's been a good run Integra, but i think it's time for a change.

This is War. The Feud. Vulgar no more.

A series of 3 shorts about what happened during the passing week.

"This Is War"

This was my reply to lil' john's cries of bully and cheat when i gave them no quarter in Dawn of War: Dark Crusade last week. Now i will humbly state that though i might have played the game since it's first release in 2004 (for ye oldies who still remember the original Dawn of War) i am still very much a novice at it. I will readily state that there are many amongst my friends back in Singapore who could very easily hand my ass to me in under 5 minutes. Tim for example has done it before. I do however know that the key to mastering the game is speed, the most decisive factor in every game but even more so in this one. You do not play DoW like other strategy games where you can amass a huge army and slowly slug it out with the other opponent. In DoW you need to strike fast, and strike hard. In fact no game should last more than 15 minutes and i normally attack within 5. Now the way lil' john likes to play games is to slowly build up a huge force and try to slug it out with the enemy in a war of attrition. This is absolutely the wrong way to play DoW and in fact any other strategy game. You do not need huge armies and massive armada's to defeat the enemy, a small elite troop specifically applied to critical targets will just as well win you the game, which is how i usually play. With 3 squads of marines i swept through Roy's base and John's base in under 10 minutes. They were ill prepared with little or no troops to oppose me. John then promptly went on to start his usual whining about cheating, bully, gang bang, etc, etc. And if i remember correctly he was the one who shot his mouth off at how good he is and wanting to challenge me. Fool, i may not play the game very often, but in terms of experience I've got loads more than that upstart who didn't even finish the campaign, the ultimate test of skill where the rush is always the key to success. And i completed it in hard mode. And from what James has told me he does not count that defeat and wants a re-match. Fine with me, I'll crush him slowly this time, just the way he likes it.

The Feud

This is something which has been festering for some time already, a cancerous cell within a body of friends. Now we all know that Roaldy can make quite a jack-ass out of himself sometimes, OK most of the time (ah ha ha ha) but it seems that his overbearing personality is starting to rankle another of the equally stubborn sort, Brendan Tong (aka sibu ang kau). Although I'm not exactly certain of what has happened (i don't live in the city and as such am not around 50% of the time besides I'm more of a stand-in for NYH who is busy wasting his life serving the country, which i will also have to do soon, out of sheer patriotism and because the government is holding $75,000 of mine hostage) it seems that Brendan's patience with Roaldy is fast wearing thin. There was the Camry case, the Dinner case(s), the Foosball case and most recently the Birthday case (actually Brendan was rather pissed off with everyone there). I will only comment on the Foosball case as that was the only one where i was present. Roaldy magically came up with this "no-hacking" rule which meant that the players in the mid-field cannot score goals. His theory was that mid-fielders should pass the ball to the strikers as the strikers are supposed to score the goals. Another argument was that if you score from the mid-field it is purely through luck and chance as you never expected to score from there in the first place. I am of course a reasonably fair person under the depths of the ever constant torrent of vulgarities which i spew out and will forgive him for making one of the most retarded comments which i have ever heard as he is quite foreign to the real game of soccer. Number one, any player can score a goal in soccer, as long as the ball is in the net it's a goal (unless of course a foul was committed or it was offside) . In fact goal-scoring is typically a shared duty between mid-fielders and strikers. The great Peter Schmeichel, a former Manchester United (probably the best ever) goalkeeper, has also scored a few goals in his career. I myself as a goalkeeper and defender have scored that all too miraculous goal once in a blue moon. Secondly, no goals are ever scored by accident (except of course own goals), everyone who takes a shot at goal no matter how outrageous a shot it is intends on scoring. He keeps insisting that i learn to pass to the strikers in order to score as i have a knack for scoring from midfield which obviously pisses him off. All in all i feel that everyone is welcome to have their own opinions about things but they should never try to impose it on others. Roaldy of course has a slight tendency to try and impose his views on others and likes things done his way, feeling that it is "the best" and "proper" way of doing things (a good trait to have if you're a lawyer, but as a person you're asking to get whacked). But it's not like Brendan is any saint himself. In a way you can say that both of them have similar traits, although at varying intensities of course (like magnets, similar people tend to repel each other i guess). I will abruptly conclude this unsightly matter by saying that everyone should try to be accommodating with each other, within a reasonable extent of course. Nothing will be gained through feuding, simple dialogue will more often than not solve such problems fast enough and not leave a sour taste in the mouth.

Vulgar no more

This is of course the story of me trying to get rid of my bad habit of spewing out vulgarities as soon as i open my mouth. Now Brendan, Xander and the kids find this rather strange and feel that something is amiss (with those two coming up with rather strange conspiracy theories). I would just like to clarify that i am not doing this to appease anyone and I'm just trying to find out what effect not saying vulgarities would have on my day. As we can see from my performance last week quite well in fact. I whooped the lot of them at Foosball, blitz through DoW (although the competition was rather lacking) and won the Initial D challenge. I have come up with the theory that by me releasing my daily torrent of vulgarities i am scaring away all my luck and good fortune, not to mention what that amount of shouting does to my throat and concentration. As such the vulgarities will be toned down permanently. So for those who rely on my daily rantings for amusement you'll have to find it somewhere else you sad bunch of.....Besides i have a funny feeling that the vulgarities are contributing to my current and prolonged singlehood.....

Gotta Knock a Little Harder

Been having some sort of a writer's block lately, for no particular reason it just seems that i have run out of subject matter to write about. You'd think that with all the crap that's going on in the world as usual such as the Myanmar crisis and the excessive use of violence by private security firms in Iraq would have provided me with some good material to expand on and write about but sadly the ideas just won't come up. I have actually written a brief draft of my views on the Myanmar crisis but am reluctant to finish it and post it up as the Myanmar crisis is too large and complicated to some up in one post as there is a sod of a large amount of background material which needs to be included to make much sense of the situation today. I might however post it in a few parts, if i ever find the time and motivation to do so of course. I feel that the source of my writer's block comes from the fact that i have not read any good or new novels for the better part of 2 months. The last novel i read being the 2nd Gaunt's Ghost omnibus, "The Saint". I try not to bore the arses off people by writing about my rather routine and increasingly boring daily schedules as my life is simply that uninteresting, such is the life of the single man, single and deprived of his beloved alcohol. In all honesty i haven't had a decent drink since i krunked myself with the Upps the 2nd last Saturday before my return to dreary Melbourne. Now that was some serious shit.....imagine losing consciousness at 8pm and waking up the next day at 8am. Now that was wild, and apparently i caused some real damage as well in my drunk and violent state. The last thing i could remember was drinking mutton soup before my whole world went dark. Now what happened that night i will never remember but it seems that the whole lot of us are banned from ever going to that restaurant again, and apparently i gave my dad a good one to the face in my drunk and homicidal state, much to the amusement of my mum who found that rather hilarious while me dad on the other hand was reasonably pissed. After having imposed an Inquisitorial Edict upon myself after that unsavoury incident it seems that the drinks are slow to come. Well i had a couple when good ole' Morgs came over, a few bottles of rather unsavoury Carona, some red wine of unknown vintage and good ole' Chivas. Nothing too heavy as the lot of them didn't feel like pushing the limits of safe alcohol consumption then. The next time after that was when Sharad had just returned from Adelaide and i met him and the rest to see Jack perform at the preview of MANIFEST 2007 (which i also attended over the course of the next two days, an excellent two days it was!). Then after that it was off to the Union Bar at Melbourne Uni for a few jugs of beer (forgot what it was already.....but it was during happy hour and we got a good deal at $12.50 per jug!!). No more drinking after that till John's birthday party where i only had 1 bottle of Carona for honour's sake as i was rather ill at the time with my voice giving way and all, not to mention a rather horrendous runny nose (which resulted in me postponing my performance when we sang K that night, but I'm sure there will be other times). And since it's already the month of October, the days where i can get illegally drunk are fast ticking away.....and i plan to krunk myself one last time before i take a back seat and let them young'ens take over. Of course i might just think twice about that with the exams being so near an all. Well aside from that not much to add, oh and one last thing, i have been trying to limit my excessive usage of vulgarities these past two days and it seems to have worked quite well if i might add. The only problem is that Brendan and Xander find it rather weird, a Kenneth devoid of vulgarities. And it may be true, after having used them all that much often vulgarities have become very much a part of my character, not a very good trait but nevertheless it was a clear an obvious sign of my direct and and outspoken personality, not being one to beat around the bush with trivial niceties an all. A direct result of my forgoing the use of vulgarities is my rather good form at Foosball and Initial D where i scored some very good wins and comebacks. (MUA! HA! HA! HA!) Not to mention me blitzing my way through Dawn of War: Dark Crusade yesterday with my Midnight Drakes Space Marines. To tell you the truth i was rather shaky as i have not played the game for the better part of 3 months, but the kids, especially lil' john, were no match for me as i was the more experienced player and i play it like how its meant to be played, under 15 minutes blitz style) were no match for me. So there you have it, a Kenneth who limits his alcohol consumption and vulgarity production drastically, and you begin to wonder "What the hell has happened to Kenneth?"

(Side story- Brendan issued me a challenge that if he and Xander could win me at Initial D three times consecutively i would have to change my car and switch over to using manual transmission. The courses chosen for the challenge against Brendan were, Akina Uphill, Irohazaka Downhill and Tsukuba Inbound. Courses chosen against Xander were Akina Downhill, Irohazaka Uphill and Tsukuba Outbound. I promptly handed their asses back to them and kept my Integra Type R DC-2 (automatic). WHOOP PAH!!)

The month of October.

CHEE BAI LAN JIAO! It's already October! How fast it seems time goes by this year. October means many things to many different people, for the Germans, Oktober Fest, a month of wild lager chugging which i plan to attend sometime in the future. But for me, October heralds the beginning of the end of a rather lacklustre year, and of course the coming of the long-awaited big 1-8. Not to mention the exams, which will of course be preceded by intense cramming. I can safely say that this year has been a rather quiet one, with many characters missing from last year's portrait. The loud-mouthed and insane Nyh, the unassuming Andrew who seems to be good at everything and good ole' alcohol guzzling Brendan (the Indian one) all of whom are "proudly"(more like cursing and swearing their bums off.....) serving the state in NS. Then there's Morgan, the Monkey Sage, who after making a rather disastrous and i must say ludicrous decision to further his studies in Malaysia finally seemed to remember that he does in fact have a fully functioning brain and that he should give himself a better chance in life by going back to Australia to study. However he seemed to have gotten himself rather lost and confused and ended up in the wrong frakkin' state, instead of Melbourne he ended up in Queensland. So, life has pretty much quietened down abit without these troublemakers around, not to mention gotten a lot more dull. Of course the next time these fellas come over,it'll be my turn to go back for god-damned NS, althought i can safely assume that not many people will even notice i was even there to begin with, although the sudden vacuum of vulgarities might leave the barest hint of my existance to begin with. So we have the month of October, 3 more months left to 2007, 4 more weeks left to my first paper and approximately 2 months before i return to Singapore. Again i wonder what new adventures await me when i return, will i encounter stranger and more insane characters, will there be a "fateful" encounter of sorts? That of course will be a thing of the very near future, the current matter at hand is to of course get myself wasted, one last time, my final act of insane illegal drinking, before i'm finally 18. Let me savour what little of this youth remains, and then after that i guess i'll have to take life more seriously. And of course it'll have to take me more seriously too. And after the drink, it's time to do the cramming of my life, to study like i've not done since the days of the legendary 'O' Level cramming sessions, greater even than that, because this time the stakes are much higher, because this time my future is well and truly on the line. I pray then for the strength and wisdom, to do what must be done.

Damnable illness.....

Frakkin' hell, there goes my record of not falling sick for an entire year.....And if memory serves me well i was sick around the same time last year also.....Must be something to do with the monumental increases in stress levels due to the ever daunting end of semester exams. So it began with a sore throat on tuesday after i had some rather dubious chocolates left on the table in the kitchen. Since it was so minor i thought that an uptake in my water consumption levels would do the job. I developed a runny nose on wednesday which seemed to have taken over the sore-throat. Thinking that it was nothing serious i decided not to do anything. Than on thursday i was hit by the full force of the nasal problem and the sore throat. Immediate action ensued and i brewed up some chinese herbal tea which is reputed to cure sore throats and took a clarinase tab, effective stopper of colds. AND on friday it seems that i developed a fever as well, so i woke up, downed two panadols, had my herbal tea and went back to bed, only to wake up sometime in the late afternoon to head to the city. I downed another clarinase tab as soon as i got back and promptly went off to snooze. Did roughly the same thing when i woke up today, one clarinase and herbal tea. And i'm praying to God that i'm miraculously cured by this evening as i have to attend Ah John's birthday dinner and sing 'K' with him after that.....Very hard to do in my present state.....

SPECIAL REPORT!

The next post will be a review of MANIFEST 2007, which is the Melbourne ANIme FESTival. 3 rather good days of anime filled madness and mindless spending. Loads of pictures which i took will also be on, all of them of random people dressed in anime/Japanese inspired fashion (got to wait till my fething internet gets up to speed again of course.....). Well as much of an anime fan i am, it's the first anime festival i've ever been to, Singapore of course being the tight-arsed boring country it is does not have such things (the farked up government will probably say anime is bad for the youth or something like that because its too violent, contains explcit content and other bullshit like that and that we should just all let ourselves be brainwashed by the chee-bai lanjiao government). Either that or they do have such things but its been so watered down to keep things nice, clean and politically correct that it is simply not worth my time. I am of course still ranting about the jia-sai 'ODEX' case, and it seems that the director of that company has come out to apologise for his statements and clarify that he was mis-interpreted. For those who do not know what statement he made, he was bragging his arse off on some gaming site that he spent the entire day fining people with much relish, or some shit like that. HOW THE FETHING HELL CAN YOU MISINTERPRET SUCH A BLATANT COMMENT DICKSHIT! Of course if any of the authoritites or if this gay-bastard of a person ever found out what i wrote about on this site i'm sure the freaking pansy will call his dickless lawyers and serve me with a, what was it again? $1000 or $2000 fine? Like the one you sent to that financially disadvantaged family eh small-balls? Ok, looks like i got a little carried away here, so look out for the MANIFEST 2007 SPECIAL post, should be in next week.

The Day After.....

Yes, I'm back after a long absence in the blogging scene. Think it's been two weeks? Well explanations and excuses abound i will simply add that i have somewhat lost the inspiration to put my thoughts in words due to the simple reason of me not having read anything new in ages. As much of a writer i am, my inspirations not only come from everyday events, things which i observe, but they also come from things which i have read, Ala novels and newspaper articles. In truth i have much to write about, for example i have been watching Today Tonight for some time now (well at least when i have the time to, which mind you is not very often). And i have come across many stories concerning cults in Australia, the kind which perverts Christianity for the sake of revenue. Such cults can of course (this is of course a personal deduction) be traced back to such "Christian" things as "evangelical" groups (another American invention) or (again another personal deduction) "praise and worship" groups. Now let me get one thing straight first, many people seem to think that the whole faith/religion itself is Christianity, this is of course false, like Islam, Christianity is broken up into many different and confusing groups. Oldest and most original of these groups is of course Catholicism (which i proudly am). So basically (to make things much easier) there are the Catholics, and the rest are Christians. Now to make things even more confusing Christians themselves are divided into many sub-groups, most notably the Protestants and the Methodists (for all i know they could be the same thing). I consider these two the most credible of the Christian groups, as they are the oldest and are actually not very different from Catholics (aside for the major fact that they do not give thanks to Mother Mary), because it seems that any freaking retard who starts spouting about God and pretends to have known him personally can start a new Christian cult, which is of course extremely worrying. These cults are usually started by degenerate individuals, damned heretics off to make a quick buck by taking advantage of the blind and unbelievably naive and stupid faith of people not possessing as many brain cells as they should. For example, one such cult 'down under' claims to help you converse with 'guardian angels' and ensures you a sure ticket to the pearly white gates, for the small fee of your entire life savings of course. FREAKING HELL PEOPLE ACTUALLY FALL FOR THIS SHIT! I personally thought that there was a limit to stupidity, like a rather obvious line which screams "DO NOT FETHING CROSS!". I am of course very much mistaken. No wonder the Muslims laugh at us and (some)seek to (suicide)bomb us into oblivion, they view us as (sadly they too are unable to differentiate the differences between Catholics and Christians so anyone wearing a crucifix is fair game, either that or as long as you're a caucasian) vile infidels who think that religion is the best revenue generating institution since hospitals and law-firms. Some amongst them seek to give up their lives in the name of Islam and Allah, some amongst the Christians seek to spruce up their lives by making money off God's name. The ultimate irony of it all. Not that Catholicism are without their 'black sheep', there were the 'infamous' Crusades to retake the Holy Lands, the Spanish Inquisition and most recently cases of child molestations by Catholic priests in America (i am starting to see why some Muslims call it the 'land of satan') have thoroughly sundered the name of Catholics all over the world. Of course my suggestions on how to prevent such cases happening is to re-instate the office of the Inquisition in the Vatican (it might very well still be there). Where they regularly scrutinise the faith and mental health of priests all over the world, a daunting task it might seem, but for the sake of religion it is but a drop in the sea. As for the cults, they should simply be made illegal. (My personal solution would of course be a rather quick and violent one involving heavily armed men, for if you have read about some of these cults and their vile acts, I'm quite sure you'll feel the same.) I will again state that what i have written here is rather vague but follows the general elements of truth which i have discerned from the various articles which i have come across, while now exactly in-dept, they are usually quite accurate. Of course if you have rather too much free-time for your own good you can of course look it up on the net yourself, regarding the evils of such heretical cults.

Digital D.....

Oops, i meant Initial D. I have finally, and sadly enough degraded myself to the level of those poor lifeless chaps who own those 'fancy' Initial D cards and think that they're "the shit". Mind you this was all done rather impulsively and of course with some insidious whisperings from the ever devilish and perverted Brendan (whose most recent misdemeanour is to "accidentally" grope girls on "crowded" trams.....). Well whats done is done, and if you're wondering what "ride" i got it's the Honda Integra Type R or better known as the DC-2 to those car fanatics (which i am slowly but surely becoming also). The colour is of course red, which is somewhat my favourite. Brendan on the other hand persisted with his akua-chia ways and got the Honda Civic Type R EK9 in yellow. Xander got his card a while back, and he got an RX-7 SPIRIT R Type A FD3S FR TURBO in yellow, not a bad car actually, thought its a little too wild on the handling for my tastes. I know "Small" John's got a Mitsubishi EVO9 but i can't quite remember what Kit has.....And since i got the card i've been playing it at least 3 times a week so that i can tune up the ole' DC-2. I of course also have the intention of raising my driving skills in the game. So far i've got a new spoiler, rims and exhaust, all from MUGEN, the company which race tunes Hondas. Then i've got a stage 4 intake/transmission system and stage 1 handling and electronics, a tad bit unbalanced, but nothing which can't be fixed by a bit of nifty driving, which i do manage to pull off on occassion.....So far the only stranger whom i've beaten after getting challenged was this kitted out EVO9 on Tsukuba, and i've had my ass handed to me in all the other races. Just last week some butt-fucker smoked me on my suppossed speciality, uphill, wet, night, Akina. Of course he was driving a rather snazzy S2000, modded to a good extent, and the stock S2000 is already killing the DC-2, i never stood a chance. When he crossed the finish line i was a good 350m away. So far i've only completed one track, Akagi, i still can't beat Takumi and his 86 on Akina and the fella with the MR-2 in Irohazaka is proving to be harder than i thought.....

Woke from dreaming, Another lyrical post

Simply put, i don't feel like tackling any serious issues now or care to elaborate on the monotony of my rather reasonable but otherwise barely tolerable life. So without any more deliberations, here is Woke from dreaming, the final ending theme for the anime series Gunslinger Girl, if memory serves me well. As you might have already realised this is the second time i have posted the lyrics for a song featured in Gunslinger Girl, it has quite simply one of the best soundtracks i have heard so far, and it has a great story line to boot. A very well thought out and planned anime which i highly recommend to all interested in anime. So here it is, performed by The Delgados, the same people who sang The light before we land.

Woke from dreaming

Woke from dreaming but it took convincing
I was shaking screaming I was still alive

And you were picking strangers by the side of roadways
Little little let the danger unfold
You can do what you do if you think you'll take it
You can do what you do if you are that way inclined

Suffer with silk as the pressure's tighter
You have skin pale as milk with the pressure on
My heart is getting heavy and my hands are weak now
Hatred lifting and I'll start to weep now
You can do what you do if you think you'll take it
You can do what you do if you are that way inclined

Just for a moment can we take a little time
Just stop for a moment can we make this moment mine
I've tried to let go but I've never had much to say
Take a day take them all now
Just for a moment can we take a little time
Just stop for a moment can we look inside this mind
We try to control but we never quite know what's there
We will kill if we need to

Singularity, and a little extra.....

Yep, it's official. I'm the last man single, among the good ole' Upps and Downs clan of course (or as the new condensed version is called, The Napoleon Brothers). You can already tell the heat is on me, in fact BL and Sagathi are planning on starting a bet to see if i can get attached by the end of the year. Well if anything, good luck to them on that, all i know is that someone is gonna make a big loss. Here's a congratulation to good ole' Sagathi, took you long enough eh. Well if anything i can safely predict my situation won't change anytime soon, what with those bums valuing the starting bet on my love life a shoddy $30 (bloddy hell, it can't possible be that bad right.....well i suppose i should be happy it isn't a negative.....). As is my fatigued mental state now, i simply do not have the resources at hand to pursue any form of relationship and have resigned myself to letting love find me if it so desires. Besides chances for proper female interaction are few and infrequent. As is my current state, i have absolutely 0 friends at my current Uni, after half a year of shit and still nothing, (for some reason the people there are not very receptive to conversation, and those few international students there tend to gravitate towards their own lot, no such luck for me there, i'm the only bloody Singaporean around) so you can plainly see that relationships are at present not in the cards at hand, heck they're not even in the fething deck. Bloody anti-social swinburne people.....Well the only thing that can salvage this crap-arsed situation is simply blatant and obvious divine intervention (and trust me God has obviously more important things to do, like stopping the entire human race from self-destructing their miserable selves.....). So now i fervently pray that i can transfer to a more "human" university next year (and damned hell more convenient, perferably located in zone 1.....). As for my non-existant love life, i will simply concede "As God Wills it." I shall now leave you with the lyrics form the song The Light Before We Land, opening theme for the anime Gunslinger Girl (series 2 will be coming out sometime next year!).

The Light Before We Land

In cases such as these I'd like a hand
Don't wake me up without a master plan
With sight and sound becoming fragile
Don't you understand?
When things that once were beautiful
Are bland

And when I feel like I can feel once again
Let me stay awhile
Soak it in awhile
If we can hold on we can fix what is wrong
Buy a little time
For this head of mine
Haven for us

In truth there is no better place to be
Than falling out of darkness still to see
Without a premonition
Could you tell me where we stand?
I'd hate to lose this light
Before we land

And when I feel like I can feel once again
Let me stay awhile
Soak it in awhile
If we can hold on we can fix what is wrong
Buy a little time
For this head of mine
Haven for us

Before we let euphoria
Convince us we are free
Remind us how we used to feel
Before when life was real

And when I feel like I can feel once again
Let me stay awhile
Soak it in awhile
If we can hold on we can fix what is wrong
Buy a little time
For this head of mine
Haven for us

The Princess of the Moon

Well this was a song i encountered when i watched a certain anime, UFO Princess Valkryie (trust me i was damnably bored). All in all it was a rather kiddish show, not something i would usually watch, but this song really struck a chord with me, so here it is now. It's a japanese song so i have taken the liberty of translating it (albeit rather loosely as my rudimentary command of the language is shabby at best). I think the original title was Princess of December but i have decided to call it Princess of the Moon as we all know that the Japanese language does not properly translate into English all the time (not to mention my crap command of japanese) and due to the fact that this name seemed more fitting for the lyrics. So without further ado:

"The Princess of the Moon"

A Princess sings at a black moon,

"Oh, illusive lover come with me into the night".

The two become the wind and travel among the stars,

Watching the scenery untill they awake from their dreams.

The two are the eyes of the heart.

The Princess thinks "Where is the Key?",

"Where is the key to lock this moment for eternity?".

The transient Princess sleeps at a black moon,

The illusive lover lives in the same shadow.

In reality they become memories and fade into the darkness.

The sadness of the now ending morning,

The parting couple are the death of the heart.

The Maiden commands, "Throw away the key",

"Throw away the key to the disappearing and transient shadow".

The Monkey has left the building, For now.....

That's right, after a fun-filled week of mass-mayhem n perversity Morgan The Monkey and Wei Loong have finally and sadly left for Brisbane and Tasmania respectively. They arrived last monday on the 13th, but due to my academic commitments (bloody lectures and tutorials.....), i could only roll over on the 16th, thursday. But trust me we didn't even waste a second. We had the usual on thursday, lots of CG (Lan), topped with a serving of Battle Gear4 and a hopeless go at the dastardly drum game. Of course the usual group meals followed. And that was just the warm-up. On friday i rushed off to the city immediately after my tutorials to join morg at roaldy's snazzy apartment to talk crap and listen to their questionable guitar skills (i joke, they're seriously not bad). Then it was off to join the "little one" and brendan and crew over at CG. We didn't really get far as we were all too damn hungry and promptly moved ourselves over to the much vaunted "Singapore Chom Chom" restaurant. The main attraction followed shortly after as we headed off to sing-k. And yes even lil' james went. So the night was spent singing ourselves hoarse (morg and i were constantly singing our asses off, and james left shortly after 12, i think). The lot of us then headed off to chinatown for some seriously late night/early morning-supper/breakfast (it was around 4am). Then xander, morg, brendan, ryan and i went to the arcade for some late night Battle Gear (ryan doesn't actually play so he just stood around and spectated). The day finally ended after that with me taking the first train (5:30am) back to good ole' Box Hill (which is my home for now). Saturday was as hectic as ever, i woke up at around 1 and promptly showered n dashed off to catch the 2pm train to the city. This of course resulted in me being late for the lunch at roaldy's place (of course i was still earlier than the girls.....). After lunch, the guys went to CG at the behest of james (as usual) while Alicia went off to buy the tickets to Die Hard 4.0 (yes i know it came out in Singapore a long time ago) with Wei Loong in tow. So after getting my ass handed to me again at StarCraft the lot of us headed down to central to catch the movie. And i must say it was smashing. After the movie was the usual dinner followed by a tad bit of CG and such. Sunday was a bit more reserved, at first, with me only turning up at 5:30pm to force brendan to go to church. After that it was off to Jie Yi's and Alicia's apartment for steamboat. Everything was good and proper till we were done with all the eating (truthfully neither the sushi nor the agar agar gave me any stomach problems so i guess their cooking still borders on the edible, but to give them credit i'll concede that it was reasonable.) and good ole' morg suggested we play the dreaded truth or dare. Now i'll cut to the chase, the Singaporeans (ala Alicia and i) were rather invulnerable to it untill somewhere near the end she had to choose the wrong number and got it. After that everyone knew it was only a matter of time before my vaunted and amazing luck faltered. However as most of my comrades in SG will know i am quite immune to the game as i am simply the best liar there is (not that i had to lie for that question anyway) and i can keep a straight face in the most damnable of hilarious situations. And i am also capable of feats of great insanity. As displayed when i had to lick the tip of the bottle that morgan had drank from (saliva and all) and had to drink/eat a raw egg. All without hesitation. So that wild night finally ended with the guys (xander in particular who single handedly washed all the dishes) cleaning up. I as usual had to bunk in at john's place and had to wait for the early morning train home again. As usual all good things had to come to an end, albeit temporarily, and both of them left on monday afternoon. I made it a point to come down to the city to play a round or two of foosball with them before seeing them off.

In Blood, The Corrupt Shall Pay

It has recently been brought to my attention that people who download anime are being fined by a certain company in Singapore. The company "ODEX" which is an importer of anime into Singapore has obtained court orders forcing Internet providers to give up the names of subscribers who are accused of downloading anime "illegally". And i must add, where money is concerned, Singapore is the easiest nation in the world to obtain a court order. This small part of the story already brings up many issues, one of which is the privacy of it's citizens. It seems that our nation cares not for the privacy of its citizens whenever money is concerned. Getting such a court order in most other nations (ala USA and the like, aka Western DEMOCRATIC nations) would have been rather hard to say the least. In fact if memory serves me well (and my grasp of fundamental law) don't they need hard evidence before a court order can actually be obtained? Hmm.....all the more to question the methods which have been used to obtain such an order. And all the more to question the way in which the legal system in Singapore works. It is quoted in The Straits Times (a wholly government owned newspaper, in fact all the media sources are government controlled, except cable of course) that "The recent hearing was held in a closed chamber session, so few details of the case are available publicly." Now doesn't that just sound, hmm....what's the word for it again, oh yes, suspicious? And this is just the tip of a colossal ice berg. "ODEX" is also demanding a settlement from the "accused" of up to $5000 and a promise to stop "illegal" downloading. If anything should be illegal it's this "settlement". Never have i heard a case where such a thing has occured. They also state that a simple settlement of $1000 would suffice for those with financial difficulties. How "charitable" of them. I wonder if the fucking idiots who run this organisation of the damned have ever thought that these unfortunates are downloading such things because they cannot afford it in the first place? Are the poor now expected to give up their passions because the rich demand them to? It seems that above all else, Singapore has now become a country for the rich, where the poor will forever be expected stay in the cycle of poverty. If anything this heavy-handed method is the most ridiculous one ever. A warning should have been good enough as it would deter the "accused" from downloading anything as they would now know that their actions are far from secure and private. Besides the products that this "ODEX" provides is far from satisfactory. For one they're still in the VCD formats, who the shit buys VCD's anymore?And some of them have been dubbed to chinese or english. Would i want to fething watch JAPANESE anime if the characters are farking speaking chinese or english? I think not, if anything it isn't original anymore. And for those that are in japanese some of them only have chinese subtitles. I suppose everyone who watches anime is now expected to be extremely proficient in chinese? No wonder the quality of the english language is going down the loo in Singapore. And there is also the strong point where they don't bring in anime that people actually want to watch but some crap-arsed titles. And new titles released are few and infrequent. Not to mention there is also the risk of censorship by our oh so vigilant censorship board. Now tell me, would anyone in their right mind want to purchase such sub-standard goods? If anything the only case that should be made is against "ODEX" by the consumers association of singapore on their sub-standard goods. While some citizens of certain nations are afraid that their respective home countries are fast becoming surveillance states, there is already one such nation in existance, and that's Singapore. If the courts can easily issue such a court order over such a small matter which is an obvious and blatant invasion of the right to privacy, what else are the courts capable of? On just one such occasion, someone was arrested for posting some derogatory remarks on their blog. It seems that the freedom to think and to express our views privately will soon be all but just a dream.
"Why kill the heretic? Rather, why not?"

MAJULAH SINGAPURA

It's National Day in Singapore today, the 9th of August. Still remember what National Day meant to us NCC folk. Months of frakkin' drills in preparation for the parade which each respective school in Singapore is expected to hold (This is not the main glamourous one mind you, it's actually held on the 8th of August as the 9th is a public holiday). And i am proud to declare that for 4 consecutive years in a row (2002-2005, well from the time i joined and when i left at least, don't know about now though), NCC-Air St.Pat's has been the guard of honour for each and every parade, be it National Day or Founder's Day. And i am again proud to declare that i've been in each and every one of them, for what it's worth. The first time i took part in one of these was way back in 2002, when i and the rest were just buck-privates. Some of us were chosen to join the guard of honour unit because NCC-Air at that time was grossly under-manned. A real break in tradition as Part A's (sec 1's) are not supposed to be part of the guard of honour unit, but due to a shortage of manpower and as we were just as good as the older chaps we got the job. And we did it damned well. Well i'm not that much of a patriotic person but the least i could say is this. Cheers to a good future ahead for Singapore (more importantly for us).
"MAJULAH SINGAPURA!"

Alas, it begins.....

Well, today was officially the start of Semester 2 for me and i have to say it looks like my incredible luck seems to be faltering yet again. Well i guess i have been over abusing it quite a bit lately.....so in hyper-condensed mode here's my weekly timetable, Tuesday 12:30-18:30, Wednesday 11:00-19:00, Friday 11:00-12:30. So there you have it, classes three times a week again (not that i'm complaining, although i would have preferred if they moved the Friday tutorial to Thursday.....) and for those wondering the classes on Tuesday and Wednesday are punctuated by breaks (about one and a half hours long on both days to be exact). Subjects taken this Semester are Financial Management, Statistics and Research Methods, Computer Accounting Systems and MacroEconomics. Well the main frakking problem i have with this timetable is that classes on Tues and Wed end too farkin' late. That combined with the university's apparent disdain for adequate street lighting makes the 10+ minute trek down the hill to the train station all the more an adventure. Aside from the fact that mortal danger can be found at any wrong footing. Not to mention the extremely fethed up train system only has trains running every half an hour. Which means that i'll most probably have to get on the 19:25 train home tomorrow, unless of course by the Grace of God or through the sheer and utter incompetence of the Melbourne train system (the more likely case i must say), the 19:05 train gets delayed and i manage to get on it. So theres a basic summary of events thus far. I must add that though the Semester has just begun i'm already planning my trip home at the end of it (goes to show how much enthusiasm i have for my studies eh). And another thing, today during Stats & Research Methods lecture the lecturer asked us to come up with a sentence with the word "population" in it, write it out and hand it up. The sentence i came up with? "This is a sentence with the word "population" in it." Don't think they were really pleased with that, well i was feeling rather bored anyway.....On another note i have just realised that oh great puritus Ian has linked this site as "His Excellency The Lord High Inquisitor's Blog". Much honoured by this i must add, so in view of this i will be converting this Site of Free Speech and whatnots to an Inquisitorial site. Here's a standard Inquisitorial line i used to dish out (maybe i'll start doing it again.....)
Purge the Unrighteous. Cleanse the Unclean. Kill the Impure.

Just for fun.....

The many variations of Afro Ken.

SUDDENLY!.....huh?

Yes you saw right. I have decided to renounce my maniacal drinking tendencies. "GASP! OH MY! HOLY FU**! etc.etc." Bet that's what a lot of you chaps thought when you saw that earth-shaking and bowel loosening news. But yes, sad as it may be for those liqour parlours which i used to frequent, i will be as mentioned before, limiting myself to just 5 glasses of alcohol per night, JUST 5. Now, some of you might, and have asked me the size of these glasses and as i have replied it will depend on how i feel that day. Now when i say "feel", i don't mean such petty emotions as happy or depressed, what i meant was whether i felt like drinking a lot or not. So, for example, i could limit myself to just 5 shot-glasses for one night, while i could drink 5 jugs on another. Now, i'm sure you would all like to know why the sudden change, well a good reason is that i'd much prefer this minor inconvenience than having to replace most of my internal organs in a couple of years time, which i have to say would most likely be rather unpleasant, and a literal pain in the arse. That and because i made a rather startling discovery that when extremely drunk i tend to become a homicidal maniac, or in simpler terms, murderously violent. As was the case when i tried to stone a cop car, smash my brother's laptop, etc.etc. So there you have it, no more wild drinking for me folks. Just 5 glasses, thats all. On another more depressing note, i am finally back "down-under". And surprise surprise, the first thought which formed in my mind as soon as i got off the plane was "Screw this, i'm taking the next flight home." And with this thought in mind, this post will come to a close.
"I'm just a simple guy, but i'm not going to get high this time."

BY THE ORDER OF THE HOLY INQUISITION

INQUISITORIAL EDICT

AS OF 22ND JULY 2007, I, JOHN-PAUL KEN, FORBID MYSELF FROM THE EXCESSIVE CONSUMPTION OF ALCOHOLIC SUBSTANCES. 'EXCESSIVE' MEANING MORE THAN 5 GLASSES OF ANY SORT OF ALCOHOL.

THOUGHT OF THE DAY

"A MIND WITHOUT PURPOSE, WILL WANDER INTO DARK PLACES"

Accidentally in Love, The Past

"It's a strange post, something many would not expect me to publish, this in due to my apparent lack of humanity, well whatever it is i'll just have to ask whoever is unfortunate enough to be reading this to bear with it, because it might just give u a tiny insight to who i used to be."

This post might be a tad late (actually a few hours to be exact), but due to extrenuating circumstances i can only begin writing it now. Well, the day was Wednesday, July 18. As usual i woke up with my usual trademark line, which is simply "What a fucked up day....." (so much for waking up bright and cheery i'd say.....haven't done that in quite a while actually). To be more exact i was forced out of bed because i had to go over to my grandparent's place to look after my grandma while the maid took me grandad to the doctor's. As it is in my family such notices usually come at the very last minute, more often then not, the very last second. So you can already imagine the foul look (as bad as the time phipps puked on my hand as i tried to restrain him from causing mortal injury to himself by drunkenly flinging himself into the farkin' drain.....) on my face as i dragged my miserable arse out of bed and hurled myself into the shower. Well, it was rather routine after that (well would have been if i still spent 100% of my time in Singapore), dashed off to me grandparent's place (quite literally in fact), hung around until my cousin came to "change shifts" with me and then it was off to BL's place. Fastforward to 9pm where Naren (aka BL aka Bala aka Theven aka.....ah screw it la, bloody fella has too many damn names.....), Neeraj/Sagathi and I had dinner at some hawker centre at Toa Payoh Lorong 7 (at least i think it was lorong 7.....). That was when i saw "Her" again, and as usual i was stunned, because that was just how beautiful she was, it just stunned me, and i just sat there with my mouth open like some dumbarse. And lo an behold, she was sitting just a table away with her friends. Of course my reaction was quite something after seeing her after so long (if you feth-heads in aust. had seen it i'll bet you'll laugh yourselves wet, to the point of shittin' yourselves if i'd known better). Well you can just imagine what Naren and Neeraj were doing, Naren was laughin' his nad's off and Neeraj changed seats to get a better look at her (well it never hurt to admire beauty, i guess). And that was that, we left after dinner and headed down to Naren's block to just sit n' chat 'bout da old times. She was as beautiful as i first saw her, 3 years ago. When asked by Neeraj why didn't i go talk to her i simply replied "Catching a glimpse of her is more than enough", and besides, i didn't actually know her also. Well seeing her after so long is nothing short of a miracle, and i'm extremely thankful for it. And like what i said, "It's not everyday you get to see beauty of such an immense magnitude." Well with that the night came to an end, and i walked home beneath the star-filled sky, with an immense grin on my face, because seeing her, simply made my day. I know i sound like some simpleton but, that was just how it was, the simple sight of her made me extremely happy.

Here's some shit line i thought up on reflection to my first seeing her during confirmation camp (some church stuff ye ignorant non-believers) 3 years ago, just for laughs i'd say.
"I know i'm in confirmation camp, but i didn't expect to see an angel."

I, Jigoku

For those wondering, 'Jigoku' means 'Hell' in Japanese, well sort of, i guess, almost 100% sure it is.....Well anyway, for those who've been wondering what I've been up to since my rather obvious and rather pleasing disappearance from your miserable lives, rest assured, I'm not exactly having a smashing time either. Well, it's marginally better than the perils down under, but still far from ideal. Work as i have explained to some before will always be work. There's no such thing as whether u enjoy it, find it interesting, find it boring, etc, etc. At the end of the day we do it for the money, because money puts food on the table (it also gets you the table in the first place mind you, but i suppose anyone with an affinity for carpentry could easily enough build one from scratch but i digress), so although i find accounting/auditing breathtakingly boring, it is the path which i have been shoved upon so there's that. Trying to turn back now would of course be bordering on the suicidal. So i shall plod along and hope that i don't slip and fall into hell by accident, it's a long shot but i'd still like to try and get through them pearly white gates among the clouds. When it's time to go of course (which is hopefully not anytime soon, but as i tend to say when devoid of any smart arse comments, "As He wills it"). Well, for all the "minor" troubles, there have been of course brief and sparse moments of the funnies. Let's recount the events of the past weeks. Went to weekly Novena with Greg and Andrew, soccer with the Upps on most sundays, a minor shopping spree before the increase in GST, and of course went to watch Transformers with BL and Neeraj/Sagathi. This is of course a brief summary of events, most recent of which was when Clarence, James, Roy and I went to, guess what, play LAN again at Bugis. And guess what i saw at the arcade there, Initial D Stage 4!! Damn was it fine, the screen was a flat screen LCD display! Awesome graphics abound! Goes to show how backward good ole' "down under" is, true to its namesake. And this is where the post ends, reviews on any new anime, movies, games or books/manga which i have encountered will be in an up-coming post, followed closely by a special National Day special (the Singapore one that is), where i shall write about what pisses me off about the country (most of which have to do with the "garmen", aka P#P, aka Men in White, aka Braindead society extraodinaire). For now i leave you with a line which i have adapted from the anime which has most recently captured my attention, Jigoku Shoujo, The Girl from Hell.
"When you die you'll fall into the pits of hell, but that's after you die of course."

Back in the Singapura.....

That's right punks, i'm back, and livin' it! Well, considering the fact that i'm trying to tone down the alchohol consumption a notch, not much drinking will be done while i'm back, so entertainment will come in more subtle forms. Such as, meeting up with old friends and chatting, playing my 360 to the max, playing soccer, eating as much of the finer things in life as possible and plain and simple relaxation. Forward to reality, not much of this has happend yet. I, as previously stated, started my job at my accounting tution teacher's account's firm on Monday. Work starts at 08:30 till 18:oo. Not bad considering that my previous job lasted from 13:00 to 02:00. And it consisted of hard labour. Well, my job consists mainly of testing accounts for accuracy and casting, or matching balances. Although it doesn't sound much, it usually takes me one day to complete these tasks, which mean i go through 1 firm a day. Rather painstaking and tedious work, not to mention repetitive as hell. You have to sift through piles of invoices to match them with the recorded information in the general ledger. Sales testing is relatively straight forward, that is if the accountant who prepared the information is rather competent and organised, and if he isn't, well good luck to you. As i have encountered once (and hopefully only) an extremely disorganised set of accounts will take you a much longer time to test. In fact it took me twice as long. (to be more detailed, what i am doing now is not accounting per se, but auditing, which is part of accounting, on a more advanced level of course, you usually learn this in year 3 of university) Purchase testing is the hard one. And extremely tedious. I won't bother elaborating anymore as it is utterly boring. All in all rather reasonable work. (i most definitely won't state how much i'm getting paid here.....) So thats how the first week of my holidays has passed for, work from 0830-1800 everday, i had dinner with Naren, Neeraj and Gomez followed by some late night LAN on tuesday. And dinner with Nyh and Brendan at Swensen's Plaza Singapura on wednesday (where we spent a rather exorbitant amount). Nothing much planned out for the rest of the week, some shopping perhaps followed by soccer on sunday. No wild parting or anything of that sort for now, just simple relaxation.....oh ya, Brendan enlists for National Service (NS) this friday.....take care you drunk nut, and try not to hose the wrong person.

Shooting Stars.....A memory

This was some time ago. 2-3 years back the whole upp clan had a BBQ at east coast park, if memory serves me well it was after a soccer match, AND it was the last day of exams. Needless to say a monumental sum of alcohol was involved, in fact i marinated the chicken wings with Absolut Vodka! Exquisite. Well, the whole thing lasted from around 2pm? to 9pm? Throughout the course of it, much mayhem ensued. A wild dog came around and scared off nirmal, cabi was thrown and rolled about in the sand, etc etc. So while we were all walking back to the bus stop, i think it was bala, i, gomez (i think he was there), raman and a few others decided to test if cabi was drunk or not. So we promptly pointed to a flashing red light in the sky (anti-collision lights on a plane in actual fact) and shouted " EH CABI SHOOTING STAR LA!". His reaction? He promptly looked up and said "where?where?" (it took him quite some time to see that bloody obvious light in the sky.....) And when he finally managed to see it he replied "eh ya lar, shooting star!" And we were all like "WTF!AH!HA!HA!HA! FELLA IS HIGH MAN!" So we decided to try this out on another likely "high" person, suj. So we did the same thing to him and expected him to give us the same reply, unfortunately, this is wat he said (ok shouted to be exact) "SHOOTING MY BUNDE (bunde meaning "ass" in punjabi) STAR! ITS A PLANE!" It was not the expected reply, but it was HILARIOUS as hell! We still managed to deduce that he was "high" after he kept shouting instead of talking and kept on seeing his arch-nemesis gil raj all over the bloody place and wanting to, and i quote, "BREAK HIS FACE!" After that he started shouting at strangers and tried to pick fights. And then there was raman who called me spryt and sean, well sean (sean spryt is actually one person mind you and in this case he suddenly became two people). When we finally reached the bus stop, raman started freaking out about seeing ghosts an all since we were opposite our school, which is a rather famously haunted place. AND THEN bala and i had to take the same bus as cabi and raman, 13, as they were falling the hell asleep all over the place and we felt obligated to make sure that they at least got off at the proper bus stop, although taking this bus meant longer travelling times for us. I end this post now with something my dad always tells me, words of wisdom i tell you
"Drink, but don't get drunk."

Homicidal Tendencies included.......

Another fethed up week where i barely got any decent rest and had to stay up for A WHOLE FARKIN' NIGHT AGAIN! Funny how a group assignment eventually ends up as a solo assignment, FOR ME! 'CAUSE MY FUCKTARD GROUP IS COMPRISED OF DOLTS, LAZY BASTARDS AND PEOPLE WHO HAVE NOT BE PAYING ANY MOTHER-FUCKING ATTENTION IN THEIR CHEE BAI LECTURES AND TUTES! EITHER THAT OR THEY'RE TOO FUCKING "BUSY" TO MEET UP AND DISCUSS THE FUCKING ASSIGNMENT, BUSY WITH WHAT? PA CHIU CHENG AH? NIN NAO HIA.....FUCKING DOLTS THINK THEY'RE THE ONLY BUSY PEOPLE AH? THIS IS UNI DAMN IT, NOT PRIMARY SCHOOL YOU DICKHEADS, OF COURSE YOU'LL BE BUSY! So heres what happend, after a massive breakdown in communications where everyone seems to be soo busy with something, they decided to do whatever they wanted instead of using modern technology such as the phone to communicate and delegate the work efficiently, fuckin' retards. Then for some reason or other they e-mail me whatever they've done and expect me to compile a report from their nonsense. Which turns out to be pure and simple crap. I could have done a much better job than the SHITE they gave me even in my fething sleep which has MOSTLY ELUDED ME for the past 2 weeks. And then there was this one member who seriously warranted a fethin' 12.7mm anti-material round to the balls. I respect the fact that he bothered to meet up with me and try to sort out some parts of the assignment, aside from the small fact that he knew NEXT TO NOTHING about writing a performance report (for those who are wondering, this is an accounting assignment where you need to write up a performance review report for a company) and i had to basically spoon-feed him step by step on how to complete his part of the assignment, what the fuck, i might as well have done everything myself. Which i did have to do in fact. When the rest of the bastards sent me their work only did i realise the full extent of the shit that their incompetence has gotten me into. ALMOST EVERYTHING THEY DID WAS NOT UP TO STANDARD! THEY COULDN'T EVEN FORMAT THE REPORT CORRECTLY! So i had to clean up their shit and basically try to salvage as much of their crap as possible in the hopes of decreasing my monumental workload. I spent 2 bloody nights vetting and re-writing the report, in fact i only finished it half an hour before the due time. And then the dumass mentioned previously turns up and almost fucks up everything while i was about to print it. He tried to combine all the different word docs into a single doc so that he could number the pages easily, but i don't know what the fuck he did and he jumbled up all the tables, figures and paragraphs. FUCKIN' SMART ARSE! Only after forcing him to get the fuck away from the pc and letting me handle the rest did i avoid getting all my hardwork destroyed by that incompetent bastard. He then muttered something about needing to number the pages properly as that was the way reports needed to be done if not marks would be deducted. BIG WORDS FOR SOMEONE WHO DIDN'T DO SHIT! I MEAN IF I DIDN'T BOTHER TO CLEAN UP THEIR MESS THEY WOULD HAVE ALL GOTTEN A FUCKIN' ZERO EACH! Like what a friend of mine once said, "My blood pressure is skyrocketing!" What i would give for a katana now......the word "dismembering" comes deliciously to mind.....Blood....A lot of Blood...And now here is something completely unrelated to this post, for all you folks who are wondering what significance the name has to me, the only way you'll get the full story out of me is if you ask me after a particularly heavy drinking session, only then might i tell you. And i have to say it is a damn good story! (heres the name again, and yes there is no 'w'). Here's a line from one of my "works in progress", the first 2 are already up on monkey man's blog.
"Now we are on different paths, and i make my way towards Restarting."

Prelude.......to the remembrance of Faith

Thank God! After calling up the Dept. of Infrastructure and speaking to my case review officer, i managed to persuade him to let me off just this once! Now i don't have to pay that $158 fine! However things did not go smoothly at first. I had earlier mailed in my appeal against the fine but it had been unsuccessful. I thought that all hope was gone after receiving the reply and the prospect of parting with $158 which could be better spent on my daily expenses over a period of 1 month did not bode well. In fact i resolved to pay up the fine today, so as soon as i got back from class, i went to take the Infringement Notice and was about to leave for the post office when i discovered that i did not even have a single cent on me. Which was damn depressing. I would never be caught back home in SG without cash on my person. So here i was, sitting alone in my dark room (i forgot to raise the blinds), without so much as a dollar on me. I then thought to myself, "Why don't i try calling the fella?", maybe there's still some hope left! So i called up the case review officer, briefly but clearly stated my case and voi'la, all done, in no more than 5 minutes. I honestly thought that there was no escape from the long and bastardised arm of justice this time, i thought that the impossible luck that got me through countless scrapes and wild adventures had finally worn out. How wrong i was, looks like there's still some of it left! Of course it wasn't luck alone, seems that someone or someone's up there is looking out for me as usual, and whoever they are thanks a bunch! Keep up your constant vigilance. The week seemed pretty bland at first, although Brendan's planned visit almost raised the mood up a bit, there was still that underlying anxiety there, the darkess which refused to go away, which threatened to draw me in. It's been there for some time now, biding its time, waiting for the perfect time to strike. There is that, and there are also the many things which i have to worry about, "How am i going to find a group to complete my major accounting assignment when i hardly know anyone?", "How am i going to finish my management assignment due in next week? How do i even begin in the first place?" However, this small incident of not having to pay the fine anymore has made me remember this most ancient and effective of solutions to my problems which i have recently forgotten. Have faith in God and all shall be well. Sounds easy, sounds simple, not quite. All i have to say is that if you trust that you have done the right thing, if you have done something to the best of your abilities, have faith in yourself, that you will succeed. Also have faith in God, for ultimately without his blessings our works will be all undone. Do your best, and He will take care of the rest!
"What is Faith? Faith is trust. Faith is belief. But most importantly, Faith must be accompanied by deeds. For Faith without deeds are just words. And words alone are worthless."