Need to write

Running my fingers across the keyboard of my Dell, I can't help but think how my brain's turning to mush. I'm too lazy even to blog, can you believe that? Actually where Shaun's concerned, that's not so unbelievable.

I'm going to have to reinstall my windows. I have a 'friendly' copy of windows installed on my laptop, and even after changing the product key to a valid one that I got from a certain tall, be-spectacled and floppy-haired source, I'm still facing problems! MSN 7.5 and above refuses to connect, SQL server 2000 and 2005 refuse to install, and Visual Studio 2005's installation file can't even be opened! And all these is due to some "Software Restriction Policy" that my automatic Windows Update must have downloaded and installed without me knowing. For the curious, I turned on automatic updates because I couldn't access the windows update page.

I'm going to have to format my C:, reinstall windows and all the other necessary applications like photoshop, itunes, winamp, flash, dreamweaver. Blah, just thinking abt doing that makes me tired. All the warez and crack hunting all over again. Cracks for winrar, winiso, kaspersky. And I have to back up my bookmarks.

Oh, and those who're emailing me on my characterchrist.org email? Stop. The domain expired .. and now my email account's unaccessible. Anyway the only two who email me there are Shalene and Jun.

I'm receiving $900 from the government. Jackson once told me this is called putting a candy in front of a kid and biting his backside.

I noticed while on the bus to AMK that there're a lot of upgrading works going on in Hougang. Work is being done to beautify the estates. Mini gardens with attractive plants and benches that have more aesthetic than practical values. I wondered if the works are timed such that when GE comes, they'll be in the final stages nearing completion, and the residents will be able to see the work their MP has done with their money. Residents of opposition wards will also be able to see through envious eyes how their fellow citizens are having their estates beautified and upgraded, with their money.

What happens if the PAP does win the 2 seats that are currently occupied by the opposition? What happens if the entire cabinet is filled with PAP members? I don't think the PAP's bad or incompetent. Our leaders are intelligent, and not visibily corrupt. Or even if they are, most people aren't affected. Of course, this is just my view, and admitedly I'm quite ignorant about politics and economics. But what if our is PM is an ass, would it be too late then to fight for a change? And what change? Would there be a qualified opposition to take over the country's reins? I was shocked to read that Chiam See Tong's damn old. Haha, I can't remember his exact age, but "damn old" is about there. What happens when he's gone? What happens when the brilliant people who lead our regime are gone? I'm no history student, but declines of empires aren't usually pretty, are they?

Anybody know who our DPM is? It's weird reading his name in a news article and not recognising it. And now I don't even remember it. Maybe I should be blogging about a subject that I'm more familiar with. Beer. No, girls. No, I don't know much about beer, and even less about girls. Programming? I totally suck. I shouldn't be outputing without first getting proper input. That means I should be reading more.

Mi Lu Bing has its own fan club. Haha, it's quite funny. Naturally, I joined it. I even did the Flash movie that's on the main page. And all while I'm supposed to be reading up on SQL Sever stored procedures, ADO.net, etc etc etc. In my defense, I did try to install Visual Studio 2005, it didn't work. Which reminds me that I need to reinstall windows. Argh.

SMS B11 to 71199 to vote for Mi Lu Bing.

Sheena was talking about Morton's. A meal for two will cost about $500. Half a grand, man. It's depressing. I'm leaving for camp in 2 hours, 45 mins. That leaves me with about 2 hours to sleep. Good night, pals.

SM Goh concerned Potong Pasir, Hougang residents will lose out on upgrading

Channelnewsasia.com

Mi Lu Bing's Audition Video

Sorry the video quality's horrible, but the sound's not bad =)

Mi Lu Bing!

Life is Wonderful

Isn't a song entitled "Life is Wonderful" supposed to make you feel energetic, optimistic and full of zest? Something like DBS' commercial "Life is Beautiful". However, Jason Mraz's "Life is Wonderful" sounds kind of depressing to me. Or maybe it's cause I just watched Smallville again.

Smallville freaking breaks my heart man. And now we can't blame Clark for being a wimp. Now we admire his resolution, and the pureness, if i may say so, of his love for Lana. He knows that telling her his secret would endanger her, and it has been proven - sort of. Sigh.

I have the mathematical ability of a primary school kid. I'm entering Uni in august where I'll have to be more than proficient in JC level maths and more. How the fuck am I going to survive? I can start studying now, but how am I going to cram years of work into a couple of months of part-time self study?

Happy 21st Birthday Junmei =D

Sympathetic?

Remember the Johari Window? Remember me complaining that no one thinks I'm sympathetic? Here's a conversation in IRC between Weeli and I back in 2003:

Phobos is me, and DoubleFin is Weeli

[02:37] [02:37am] [ phobos ] im a man of compassion
[02:38] [02:38am] [ DoubleFin ] [02:28am] [ phobos ] im a man of compassion <----------

with a twist
[02:38] [02:38am] [ phobos ] im just nice.
[02:38] [02:38am] [ phobos ] haha
[02:38] [02:38am] [ DoubleFin ] ok shaun get real..

Chances are, nobody will get the joke again right?

-

Back to camp tomorrow .. sigh.

The entire gang at Sahara Bar, minus Timothy and Sheena who were .. well .. on the way.  

The whole gang. Supposed climbing buddies, however the the only one doing any sort of real climbing is Weeli. *grin* 

Sheesha buddies. I seem to always put on a whack-me face when I'm posing for a pic with Jeryd. I wonder why.  

Of course, drinking was a must. Pardon the lousy beer .. 

Nicodemus from Mi Lu Bing. Remember to vote for Mi Lu Bing on Channel U Superband! They're performing this saturday 25th march at suntech fountain of wealth. Be there! 

The ridiculously strong Weeli the Fin 

My wonderful cousin Jasmin :D 

The Music Genome Project

A group of incredibly nice people came together and produced the Music Genome Project. Pandora is built upon that project. Enter the name of an artist or a song, and Pandora will generate a "radio station" that plays songs that are musically similar to your entry! It's a great way to discover new artistes that you'll otherwise never hear about!

The songs are of excellent quality and in my 2 days of usage, I've not encountered any lags or jerkiness. Best of all, the service is free! All it takes is a free registration that includes entering a random zip code, and you're on your way! Of course, the service will soon be ad-supported, meaning that advertisements will be displayed on the page, which, incidentally, is a brilliant money generator as most people will leave the page on for hours at a stretch, allowing hundreds of ads to be displayed in the process.

Get FireFox, open Pandora in a tab, and use the other tabs for your browsing. Great, eh?

-

In other news, I fell twice while blading today. Not injured, no, but they were embarrassing falls in front of crowds. Not that anybody will be watching me, but my ego that has been fed by years of arrogance and cockiness was badly hurt *grin*

Qingwei and Jia an across the table. Haha, the serving staff was so sucky we didn't want to ask them to take a photo for us 

Daryl and I at Billy Bombers 

A Submarine night cap

"3 All-Star burgers, all beef, all medium rare. 1 B-52 burger with potato salad, and a side order of cheese fries with extra toppings of american chilli and bacon. 3 cokes and a glass of ice water"

My All-Star was passable. Only one of the double-yolked sunny side up was perfectly runny, the other already hardened, so points off for that. The cheese was unmelted, so points off for that too. The beef was red, but not bloody enough for my carnivorous tastes, so points off for that too. Apart from the above, my burger was pretty good; not up to the high standards I have for the All-Star, but better than any other peasant burgers(sometimes my bigotry disgusts even me *grin*).

Daryl's All-Star was more of medium than medium-rare though, and that sucked. The service we got last night also sucked. It was rotten. We left not a cent behind. Not even 5 cents tips for service as crappy as what we got. I don't expect servitude, but when the customers are more polite than the serving staff, then something is very wrong isn't it?! It was almost as if we owe them money, which, hrms, technically we do don't we - the bill.

Anyway, dinner was good, and I was left feeling so full I was tempted to unbutton the top button of my jeans. We then adjourned to the inter-continental hotel for some B-52 bombings of our own *Grin*.

Now that our stomachs were sufficently lined with grease, and our hungers more than satisfied, Qingwei, Jia an, Daryl and I walked down to The Labyrinth for the highlight of the night .. muhahaha .. booze, sweet, sweet booze.

Stopped by Cheers for playing cards.

Jia an to Cashier: Do you all have playing cards?
Cashier: No
Shaun: (points to the stacks of cards on the shelf behind the cashiers) There, got cards what.
Cashier: Oh I thought he said bank card.
Shaun: What the FUCK is a bank card?! (Qw and Daryl walked out)
Cashier: Don't know, that's why I said don't have.
Shaun: ..........

Once outside, Qw chided me for being "fucking rude'. I was shocked. Haha. Yes, I'll make a conscious effort to be a nicer guy.

The Labyrinth. The best seats we managed to get was a 3 seater sofa with 2 upholstery stools, one that can be moved against a partition that then functions as a back rest, and one that is opposite the sofa with no back rests whatsoever. Jia an and I got the sofa, Qw, the partition stool, and Daryl the no-back-rest stool.

Decided on a bottle of Absolut with Lime and Cranberry juices as mixers. And then the Bridge games commenced. Drinks were good, bridge was good, then .... Qingwei started complaining that his seat was uncomfortable, and proposed a Bridge Tournament that consists of 4 games. The 2 people with the highest points after 4 games will get the sofa seats. Haha. What followed was endless laughter as Qw lost game after game, ending up moving from stool to stool for 4 Tournaments .. 16 games! Anyway to give that guy credit, he finally got his sofa seat. Haha.

We emptied the vodka with Daryl and I raring for more. A quick check with a waitress if they have Submarines, and .. they do! Both of us happily ordered one each. When the drinks arrived
, however, I had difficulty locating the shot glass in the beer, cause, there wasn't any! The tequila was already mixed with the beer! It tasted pretty good though, so no complains.

Ok, that's about it. We played "7-up" and um, "chai quan" that seriously stressed my intoxicated brain. Intoxicated, but, not drunk! Haha, there's a difference. Shared a taxi, and that's the end of the night.

-

I wonder if political parties in any other country run kindergartens. Singaporean kids are exposed to the PAP since age 5, where we(or at least I) innocently thought that it was a school. My grandmother used to say it was "time to go to PAP".

The uniform was also in the party's colours - blue, white and a red tie. The party's logo is also displayed prominently outside the kindergartens and I think we used jotter books with their logo as well. Can't really remember.

Just wondering. Does the PAP pay for the operations of the kindergarten from their party fund? I wonder if the WP or some other party can start a kindergarten.

Here's their website

Disaster

Suba, at Millenia walk, was filled with yuppies, and so crowded we couldn't find seats. We then tried Paulaner. Full, too. DXO was deemed sucky by popular vote, and MoMo was out cause Weeli didn't want to club. The Balcony was then chosen, and Dekang drove us there.

After having our IDs checked at the entrance of The Balcony, we were admitted into another yuppie-filled bar - except that this time, unlike Suba, there was NO music. We sat around a Jacuzzi that seemed to serve no obvious purpose apart from occasionally emitting whiffs of vomit-smells. Against my better judgement, I agreed to have a share in 2 jugs of house-pour instead of trying a Guiness Draught. Total wallet damage came up to $13 per person, and there were 6 of us. Drinks were mediocre at best, and the lack of music really irked me. The vomit problem was solved by moving to a cluster of window-side seats.

I was hungry half the time, and didn't really enjoy myself. Daryl tried unsuccssfully to order a Submarine cause, well, they changed the menu, so the great tasting Submarine I had during my last visit to the Balcony was now, unfortunately, unavailable. Now, how bloody difficult is it to make a Submarine?! You have the tequila, you have beer, you have a beer mug, and a shot glass can't be hard to find cause they serve shooters .. so .. WTH?! We left.

Next stop, The Labyrinth, a pub near park lane that Daryl says is good. Made a pit stop at the indian coffeeshop beside the place where I had a $5 mutton mutabak - or at least that was what I ordered, though any mutton present must have been both invisible and tasteless.

The Labyrinth was a cosy little place with Hoegaarden on tap. But, we arrived at 2:40am and their closing time was ... 3am. Great. Daryl had a tequila pop, Jia an a test-tube baby, and me, half a pint of good ol Hoegaarden. Sigh. Ending the night with a good beer really made everything slightly better.

TOMORROW. Tomorrow, the quest for a night of good drinking continues, after an afternoon session of blading in ECP, and a grease-aplenty dinner at Billy Bombers. Tomorrow will be different. Tomorrow, the gods of wine, beer, and all drinks alcoholic will get their satisfaction.

Today

Today's the day. The eagerly anticipated beer fest has arrived, and it falls on to me to decide on the watering hole. I'm inclined towards a club, where we can dance after getting sufficiently doused on alcohol, but Weeli has recently repented of the clubber's ways and joined the ranks of non-clubbers.

I decided on Suba, a new pub that's being featured in almost every local publication I came across(which, seriously, isn't many, but..). Decided on it cause:

1) It's new
2) There's supposed to be good music
3) They serve 5 different beers on tap *GRIN GRIN GRIN*

We'll be meeting at 1030pm later. Let's hope all goes well. There're also Balcony, Eskibar, Brewerkz, Indochine, and several other choice pubs to choose from .. hrms.

Sigh, God of wine, beer, and all things alcoholic, please do not be the devil in guise.

Underworld 2 : Evolution

Evolution. The word should have turned me off. But fond memories of the first installment lured me to watch my first movie of 2006, Underworld 2. And ... it sucked!!! Haha. Granted, Kate Beckinsale looked hot as usual, and the unnecessary sex scene was made good cause of that. Anyway, talking about the sex, the director must be masochistic or something to have such a scene. Or maybe the script writers were the sadistic lot, and the director didn't have a choice.

Celine and Michael had a relationship based pretty much on physical intimacy. They obviously weren't very close emotionally, but happily fucked and tongued at any possible opportunity. -i'm so happy you didn't die- tongue tongue. Most normal couples would have hugged I think. Especially considering that they just went through a gruesome battle and were covered with blood.

Erm, I just realised that people who didn't watch the movie would have no idea what I'm talking about, so .. go watch it? Haha, the plot isn't fantastic, the villians were retarded pussies, and the wittiest lines in the film were no match for even the plainest Smallville ones, but Kate Beckinsale's hot, and the gore's over the top for crazy guys like Japheth.

The lines are really cheesy though. On second thoughts, watch Smallville instead. Let me try to find some cool quotes:

Chloe: I know how much you've dreamt of having a bland, mundane, generic life, but being normal is highly overrated. Besides, it makes my whole sidekick role a lot easier if you can bring super-duper strength to the table.

-

Clark: I wasn't born anywhere near Smallville. In fact I wasn't born anywhere near this galaxy.
Chloe: Okay, okay, so that would then make you like an...
Clark: Yep.

-

Lois: I took this career test in some magazine - it said that my perfect job would be disc jockey.
Clark: That would make sense - you certainly talk enough. There won't be any dead air.

-

Lex: Just because you have the same blood running through your veins doesn't make you family.

-

Clark: "There are two girls in my life. One I happen to like but the other one just revealed her crush on me"
Lex: "Let's say for the sake of argument that their names are Lana & Chloe"

-

Hrms, I could go on all day. I love that show - apart from the fact that the producers are sadistic buggers. More quotes here.

Now, back to camp .. to wake up tomorrow for .. RT. Bloody Brilliant. But when I book out on Friday .. it's boozing time. =)

Stand by for .. more Mi Lu Bing promo! Haha, remember folks, 9th April on Channel U. Vote for Mi Lu Bing =) 

Yes, here I go again.

Standing amidst waste and squalor, the prodigal son contemplates his return.

Sin is squalor. It is filth. Yet, Sin is also attractive. And being in the clutches of Sin for too long a time breeds inertia, a resistance to change. Perhaps the knowledge that salvation's a prayer away lulls the mind into sinful complacency. The problem is that the longer one wallows in the pit of Sin, the harder it is to crawl out.

With Sin comes the price of being distant from God. He cannot stand sin, and he who sins knowingly and without seeking forgiveness cannot stand in His prescence. I fit that bill. I can't remember the last time I read the bible for the sake of seeking Him, praying because I want to bare my soul to Him, or living like I know I should.

The armor of God rusting in the corner of the pit, engulfed in layers of negligence.

The weaker one's spiritual life is, the more vulnerable one becomes to the lies of the devil. The weaker one gets, the easier it is to stumble. Flaws in others become amplified to hide the flith in one's own soul. Impatience and arrogance take root, and form a barrier between man and God. Faith is forgotten, doubt reigns supreme.

To reach out for the tirelessly extended hand, to partake in His grace

You can't love someone you don't know. And you can't know a person unless time is spent together. Which, is precisely what I'm going to do now, before I join the rank of sanctimonious hypocrites I claim to detest. Heh, waitaminute, that thought isn't so right is it?

Bliss @ Punggol Park

Shalene's recommendation left me staring enviously across the table at Daryl's bottle of Hoegaarden. I just took a sip from it, and it was comparatively better than my own glass of Stella Artois.

My Stella Artois arrived in a bottle, and being the beer connoiseur wannabe that I am, I asked for a glass. The helpful waitress came with, of all things, a tiger mug, and proceeded to pour the Stella into the mug. My poor Stella was then placed in front of me - foamless. There wasn't a foam head! Images of beautiful Erdinger with gorgeous foam heads flashed passed my mind, and I wished immediately that I was in good ol Bark Cafe and not Bliss.

Let us digress a little to Bark Cafe where they serve Erdinger off the tap, like in Marche. It's a little expensive at $12 per pint before tax, but the quiet ambience and exceptional service more than makes up for it. Oh, and it helps that they know how to properly serve a beer. Drinking an Erdinger there is an experience that ought to be savoured at least once every few days. =)

On a brighter note, this weekend has been declared BOOZING TIME! Wooohooo! Two nights of boozing. I'm so excited, I can hardly decide where to go, and what to drink! So many choices, only 1 liver!

Jianming's happily in Bangkok, so it's just Jia an, Daryl and I. Maybe Jasmin will come along. That beer freak. Haha. Now, kids, this is a classic case of the stove calling the kettle black. *grin* Anybody wanna come along?

Johari Nohari

Remember the Johari window link that I posted up some time ago? Here are some funny excerpts from a msn conversation with Daryl. Don't shoot me if you don't find them funny though ..

3/2/2006

1:55:00 AM

Requiem of a dream

Shaun

if only there was alcoholic, i would click it 5 times for u manz

3/2/2006

2:14:11 AM

Requiem of a dream

Shaun

fuck, they dun have gultony

3/2/2006		2:19:33 AM		Shaun		Requiem of a dream		nobody thinks im "sympathetic"
3/2/2006		2:19:35 AM		Shaun		Requiem of a dream		am i such a mean guy
3/2/2006		2:19:36 AM		Shaun		Requiem of a dream		haha
3/2/2006		2:19:46 AM		Requiem of a dream		Shaun		HAHAHAH
3/2/2006		2:20:07 AM		Requiem of a dream		Shaun		your sympathy is one i'd rather not have lor
3/2/2006		2:20:07 AM		Requiem of a dream		Shaun		its mostly for the less intelligent
3/2/2006		2:20:22 AM		Shaun		Requiem of a dream		hahahahhahah
3/2/2006		2:20:37 AM		Requiem of a dream		Shaun		hahaha
3/2/2006		2:21:19 AM		Requiem of a dream		Shaun		i mostly detect it in the form of "Its not his fault lar, i think he's just slow/stupid/retarded.
3/2/2006		2:21:37 AM		Shaun		Requiem of a dream		hahahahah
3/2/2006		2:21:43 AM		Shaun		Requiem of a dream		damn

Anyway, the links are here for positive traits and here for negative