So cute, he's edible

I know, I'm a thief. I stole this pic from Jun's blog, but the little kid's so darn cute it's irresistable. She should consider a profession in professional photography. Travel the world, and take photos, sounds good eh?

Fancy earning some extra moolah online?

I'm sure many of you have heard of online schemes that promise you instant riches; 5 digit monthly profits without you even having to leave your home. Work from home! Get rich quick! We usually look upon such schemes with disdain, and ignore them. What if some of them actually DO pay you, and you CAN actually profit from them? Wouldn't you want to know more? Well, I did. And I think I've stumbled upon one of the most reputable paying sites on the net - CompactSurfing

I got all excited over SwissCash, a scheme introduced to me by my cousin Wesley, only to discover with a little research, that the program's probably a scam, and though they might be paying their members now, they probably won't last.

This time, however, I think I found something not only actually pays, but will be hanging around for quite a while. I've no doubts that eventually it'll fold, but for now at least, it's safe.

How does it work? First, you need to invest, or in CompactSurfing terms, buy Ad-Points. Each Ad-point costs USD$10, so to invest USD$50, you buy 5 Ad-Points. These Ad-points will be valid for 9 days in which you'll earn 13% of the amount invested daily. If you leave it as it is, you'll earn USD$8.50 after 9 days, a total of 17%. This will be your minimum earnings.

Every month, you're allowed to "cash out" 3 times with the minimum cash out sum being USD$10. So for example, you invest $50. After 2 days, you'll have accumulated $13 at the rate of 13% a day. Cash out the $13, and reinvest the money into CompactSurfing, effectively starting a second 9-day cycle. These two cycles will then run concurrently, generating an extra USD$2.21 after the end of the second cycle. The figures may seem small right now, but with a little careful manipulation coupled with increased daring as you see your profits coming in, you'll end up making a quite a handsome profit.

Now, like any self-respecting money-generator, there's the issue of referrals. Each referral will earn you 5% of their invested amount. So, let's say you list me as your referral, and you invest $500, I'll earn $25. That's it. I won't profit from your earnings, but with each new investment that you make.

That's about it. So how do you get started? First, you need to register an E-gold account, which works similarly to PayPay and will act as a bank account between you, and CompactSurfing. You'll deposit money to CompactSurfing using E-gold, and likewise, when you cash out your earnings, CompactSurfing will deposit the money into your E-gold account.

Once you've got your E-gold account set up, you'll need a way to get funds into that account. There're many services out there, but the one I'm using is Bank2Gold. How it works is that you submit a "Buy" order form, providing your email address and the amount of E-gold you wish to purchase. The company will then email you with instructions to wire the amount of money required in SGD to a DBS Account. Upon receipt of your money, they'll proceed to update your E-gold account with the requested amount. It's that simple. I tried it today, and the whole process took about an hour.

Try CompactSurfing. I'm in it, with a total investment of a pathetic USD$40. Haha.

Runway Cycling

Anybody went for the National Runway Cycling at Paya Lebar Air Base yesterday morning? Well, I did. In fact, I was already there since Friday setting up stuff. The amount of work involved was - forgive my limited vocabulary - ridiculous. I kept cursing the SAF for having such a stupid annual event. 4 hours of runway cycling when East Coast Park is open 24 hours. Who on earth would want to cycle on a stupid runway?! 6,000+ people, apparently.

The preparation was a sweaty and banglah-like affair, with us manually pushing plastic water barriades(the type they use along the road during road works) a few hundred metres just to serve some miniscule purpose. Back breaking, I tell you. And it was damn de-moralising that after pushing over 10 barricades each, we see people from another squardon happily driving a freaking trailer that transports over 30 barricades ...

What happened on the day itself was an entirely different story. The gates were set to open at 8am, but the guys on duty at to be in position by 4 to 5am. But me, lucky ol me, was part of a select group known as "Cookies". We were to wear civillian clothes and mingle in the crowd. Ostensibly, we were supposed to keep a look out for suspicious behaviour among the participants and to remove them to the duty personnel.

Anyway, the cookies happily woke up at 630am, washed up, and made our way to the fairground. I was on blades and one other guy had a bicycle. The rest were on foot. This narrative is boring me .. so to sum it all up, the bicycle guy and me joined the runway cycling event, which involved blading/cycling along a 15km route that's mainly on the runway. It was beautiful. Haha, I didn't realise my air base was that beautiful till that day.

K, that's all. Lazy Shaun strikes again.

Houri - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Houri - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

BibleGateway.com - Passage Lookup: Isaiah 56:6-56:8

BibleGateway.com - Passage Lookup: Isaiah 56:6-56:8

Musing

Staring at the dusty crossroads looking up at weather-worn signposts, the man in the ragged cloak contemplates his move. As the gale stirs up clouds of dust, he gathers whatever is left of the dirty sackcloth around his emaciated frame and squints up at the signs, trying to make sense of the faded words crudely carved in the wood.

Random blogthing

You Are 70% Boyish and 30% Girlish

You are pretty evenly split down the middle - a total eunuch. Okay, kidding about the eunuch part. But you do get along with both sexes. You reject traditional gender roles. However, you don't actively fight them. You're just you. You don't try to be what people expect you to be.

How Boyish or Girlish Are You?

Photos from Sheena's party at Sentosa

Green

Reading Jun's blog makes me envious. So does reading Shalene's and Janet's. Thankfully Charis doesn't have one. Why am I envious? What do those girls have in common? They're all overseas! Jun, Shalene and Charis are all in Europe, Janet is in America. Angela should be touching down in America about now. Oh, Sheena just came back from London, Jermaine is in Australia where Alvin and Weeli will go in July. Ming Tien spent a couple of months in America working for Cisco.

And Jun went to Rome. She was in the Vatican City. She was in the Sistine Chapel. She saw St Peter's Basilica. Did you go to Florence, Jun? I read a book entitled The Agony and the Ecstasy by Irving Stone when I was 16. It's a biographical novel of Michelangelo Buonarroti. I absolutely loved it and was enthralled by the description of Michelangelo's art. How much he loved the human form, how he loved sculpturing. I devoured the text, and visualized in my mind how the various frescos, reliefs and sculptures look like. I went on to google and found images and virtual tours of them. I told myself I will go to Florence one day. I will go to Rome. And I'll see Michelangelo's David, the Sistine Chapel, and everything that the Rennaissance artists created.

Green with envy, that's what I am! I read about the exchange programs NUS offers. I will have to maintain a CAP of 3.0 and above to even be eligible. I worry about my maths. I wonder if my mum will be able to afford to send me on exchange.

There's so much more than Singapore. Some Singaporeans live thinking that Singapore is the best. Cleaniest, most efficient, most beautiful. Best airport, best transport system, best this best that. Load of bull. The Shanghai airport is nicer than ours. The Hong Kong International Airport is so bloody huge there's a train to take you from the terminal building to your plane. And its design is so much better than ours. Of course, I'm comparing airports built a lot more recently than ours, and that's not very fair. But some Singaporeans go to Hong Kong airport, look around, sniff, and proclaim that Singapore's is bigger. That's self-delusion at its best.

I want to travel. I used to consider myself widely travelled. I've been to China, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Australia, Amsterdam, America, Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia. But most of them I did when I was a toddler. I can't remember a shit about Amsterdam nor Australia. America and Korea I went with a tour group, and being a singaporean tour group, we were rushed everywhere, ate lousy food, had shopping stops, and experienced none of the countries' culture.

I'm a frog in a damp and musty well looking forlornly up at the perfect circle of sky, counting the occasional cloud that drifts pass the well's opening. Somebody save me. And winamp chooses this time to play Ben Folds' Lonely Christmas Eve. Depressing.

Magician Abs

My abs can do magic. 2 of my 6 pacs decided to vanish. I'm now a proud owner of a 4-pac abs with a little flab where the bottom 2 used to be. I can't blame them though; at the rate I'm eating and boozing, I'm lucky I still have pacs.

Just came back from supper with Daryl and Shaowei. $27 worth of dim sum at Gelyang's 126 and some youtiao and soya bean further down the road. I think the upper 4 pacs are gonna bid me farewell soon.

Quotes

"Whoever serves beer or wine watered down, he himself deserves in them to drown."
-Midieval plea for pure libations

“Sometimes when I reflect back on all the beer I drink I feel ashamed. Then I look into the glass and think about the workers in the brewery and all of their hopes and dreams. If I didn’t drink this beer, they might be out of work and their dreams would be shattered. Then I say to myself, “It is better that I drink this beer and let their dreams come true than be selfish and worry about my liver.”

— Jack Handy

The second quote reminds me of Aaron who says he buys original games to support the gaming industry. And that his constant shopping boosts our economy.

More here

Had a bad steak

Went to Bark Cafe with Daryl, Serene, and Qingwei for dinner today. I usually go there only for their excellent Erdinger, but this time it was for food cause Daryl says they serve a pretty decent fare.

Flipped through the menu, and decided on Tenderloin Steak at $15 which is quite reasonable for a steak in comparison to $8.50 for a plate of hor fun. Oh, and of course, Daryl and I ordered an Erdinger Dunkel each.

Serene's pasta came first, and looked absolutely delicious. It was seafood pasta with mussels and prawns swimming in a creamy paste. Yum. My steak didn't come till she was almost done with her pasta, and when it did come, I was shocked into silence while Daryl and Qingwei started laughing.

My tenderloin was tiny. Bloody tiny even for a tenderloin. Nevermind. I closed my eyes and said grace, which is usually "thank you God for the food, please bless it as I eat it" but this time I said a lengthier one. Sigh. Anyway, I cut the steak, and found that it was pinkish. Pinkish without a trace of liquid blood. "Medium", I said aloud. I took a bite, shook my head, and announced, "No, medium-well".

I got the attention of the cute waitress who served us, and asked her if that was supposed to be medium-rare cause it looked a lot more like medium-well to me.

Cute waitress : ya medium-well, oh, oh no I thought you said medium well!
Hungry me : Huh ... so can I change it?
Cute waitress : er ...... cannot, cause you've eaten already(sic)
Hungry me : I don't eat how I know it's medium-well?!
Cute waitress : er er, I go ask the chef
Hungry me : Ok ..
Cute waitress : er, can change, but must wait very long. Can?
Hungry me : hmmm ... okay I'll wait.

-20 mins passed in which Daryl's nasi goreng came and in which he cleaned up the plate-

-steak arrives, served by another waitress-

I cut the steak, and saw .. that .. it .. was ... fucking .. brown. Not a single trace of pink. They served me a damn well-done steak. Damn bloody pissed. I cut the steak into half, and saw that the middle was medium-rare. Only a small portion, about the size of a fifty-cent coin was medium-rare. The rest was well-done. By then I was so hungry that I was close to fainting, so I just sucked it up, and finished the steak, mashed potato, and every single piece of vegetable on the plate. But I was really, really, irritated.

When I settled the bill - which, incidentally, was brought by the cute waitress - I told her that the second steak was even more over-cooked than the first, and she went, "huh! really ah!". Sigh.

-

Went to Pasir Ris Park for beer. I know that the beer there would suck. I know they will water down the beer. Long story of how we landed up there.

I know Tiger Beer doesn't taste as good as Erdinger, but served properly, it's still pretty decent. The beer tonight was horrible. It tasted like shit. And I think I know why. I think they added soda water to the beer. When I took a small sip and left the beer in my mouth without swallowing, I could feel it biting my tongue. It definately didn't taste like how Tiger Beer should taste. Tiger should sue such bars. They spoil its reputation. It makes one think, "World Acclaimed Beer" my freaking ass.

It was a bad night. And now I'm hungry. And irritated.

Ah .. one step closer to heaven. Er, no pun intended.

I finally chilled and opened one of the four bottles of beer my mum bought me from Germany. I had some difficulty opening the bottle, and embarrassingly enough, it was Jasmin who popped it open, immediately filling my senses with the sweet, sweet smell of beer. Good beer.

I poured the beer into a glass, brought it under my nose for a sniff before taking a sip. Disappointing really. I had high hopes for this beer, and the first taste reminded me of Heineken, which isn't exactly on my list of good beers. Anyway, the beer left an aftertaste that was similar to that of Hoegaarden and that redeemed it a little.

A couple more sips, and the beer no longer even remotely tastes like Heineken. I wonder if my mind's playing tricks, or that the beer really needed getting used to, but my glass of kellerbier tastes awesome now. My stomach's feeling a little bloated and my lips sticky from the sweetness, but I'm happy. I've another 3 sips maximum left in the glass. All good things must come to an end, huh.

I know why my bottle of Aktien Naturtrubes Kellerbier tastes so much like Hoegaarden now. Both are high in hop content and have low carbonation. Come to think about it, they even have similar colors.

Yum. One more sip, and the experience would be over. At least it lasted longer than .. well .. a lot of things.

One bottle down, Three to go. And ooh, the bottle's recap-able. Deliciousssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss

Mi Lu Bing's record breaking performance

Health Food

AskMen.com - Beer

Uh huh.

Cryptic Proverbs

If a quarrel with friends feels like a quarrel with your girlfriend, then those friends are worth keeping.

Catch the fish while it is still within the lake. It will be a lot harder to catch when it reaches the sea.

Solve a problem after the anger of both parties have subsided, so that you actually solve the problem, and not boil each other's blood.

Lessons learnt from BGRs can be transposed into relationships with friends.

The proverbs in the bible make a lot more sense than Kheldar's wisdom.

Kheldar's an alias of mine.

When at fault, apologise. Excuses aren't needed.

I'm sorry, Darkness. It'll never happen(or at least to be best of my efforts) again =)

Nothing

It has been a long time since I sat typing about anything, everything and nothing. It even was quite a while before I finished reading a book. I fixed the reading in camp when I finished "Not a Penny more, Not a penny less" by Jeffrey Archer yesterday. I'm not a fast reader, but since I spent the entire day in camp doing nothing but read, eat, and sleep, it really isn't surprising that I finished it. Book review in a word? Mediocre. Read his other books if you're interested - they're a lot better. Try "Kane and Abel", "The Eleventh Commandment", and "As the crow flies".

The last book I read before this was Mario Puzo's "Omerta", after reading his classic, "The Godfather" that got me obsessed over the Mafia. It's strange that only after reading "The Godfather" do phrases like "an offer he can't refuse" jump out at me as I read other materials like newspapers, magazines, and websites.

I have a few movies I want to catch. Mission Impossible 3, Daisy, and hrms, the Zhang Ziyi film..the title escapes me. I don't have the time though. I've started going back to camp after a month long holiday, and I've work that I need to do. On top of it all, I don't have anyone to watch them with.

I went for Justin's birthday chalet this evening, and thank God Japheth didn't bring Geri. Otherwise it would have been couples night again and I'll be left rotting. Being single isn't so bad really; if you're not hanging around attached friends all the time.

Tomorrow, or rather, today's Polling day, where all eligible voters make their way to their respective polling stations and cast their vote - PAP or an Opposition party. Elections is quite an exciting time, especially for a first time voter like myself. Talking politics with my friends is fun, as long as I make a conscious effort to surpress the bigot in me.

I need new shoes, some funky clothes, and a more toned body. I'll settle the first two later when I go shopping with Edwin. Maybe check out House of Japan at Haji lane for clothes, Pensiula Shopping Centre for shoes, and look for a cool bag with Edwin. I told him Chrome's the best, but Weeli says it's impossible to find in Singapore now. Great news for me. Haha.

I'm quite a boring blogger. I type in disjointed sentences. Dry, disjointed sentences. I used to write better though. Let's see .. something I rescued from my old hard disk. An old blog of mine. Oookay, after reading through a couple of entries there, I changed my mind about posting an excerpt. It was my 2004 blog, and I "type like this with no capitalization whatsoever". Ah here's one anyway. Why do people type with no capitalizations?!

happened to glance into a window on my way out of charis' condo and saw two kids playing a card game that looks like uno with the black backed cards and all. maybe they're tarrot cards but ya i like to think of them as uno cards. so carefree. maybe not. maybe they have homework untouched or a teacher's letter tucked deep in their bag thats meant for their parents, addressing the issue of repeated incidents of undone homework. tomorrow may be the day of their big test and they're playing uno. what am i talking about. anyway my point is that i guess at 19, yes the tender age of 19, the word carefree doesnt seem to be very applicable anymore. when will i relax? how can i relax? there's money to earn, jobs to get, businesses to start, boots to lick, people to stab, to scorn, to sucker up to. bahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. the parents of those two lucky kids must be working at least a quarter of their asses off to pay for the condo and to ensure the kids grow up into semi-spoilt brats living comfortably and as worry-free as possible..at least where financial matters are concerned. money earned can never be enjoyed 'care-freely' because there are more money to be earned, datelines to be met, work yet to be done, arseholic clients to handle. oh my oh my..how life has taken on a diff perspective. i may realise it too late, but i have finally realised it. the scariness of it all. the lost..the lost of cliche-ish innocence.

there is status to uphold, even at weddings, can you imagine .. inviting people who _expect_ to be invited but whom you dont really care to be there. its like 'wow so glad you made it! how're u doing man? (you bloody piece of shit)'

Haha here's something about running, which reminds me that I haven't ran in ages. eons. months. Oops, capitalizations. Actually, I wonder if I'm using the word corrrectly.

Now we come to the running. God. She runs so damn fast(ok to me it was fast, shut up weeli i know you run faster.). I think God must be trying to say something by endowing both Charis and the unlucky girlfriend(thats you sha if you're reading this) before her with better er shall we say 'running' ability than me. damn. Gotta train! at least shalene's nice enough to run slowly when she went jogging with me. Charis was merciless, working on the mentality that i would never allow myself to lag too far behind her no matter how fast she runs - my pride wouldnt allow it. haha, she's right! but i employed the same rule i used with weeli; run half a pace behind. This is to ensure maximum period of survival.

And here's one about maths. Which .. reminds me that I'm going to get slaughtered in NUS.

07 march 2002

the brave brain cells in dented breastplates wielding rusty short-swords stood unwavering in the face of terror. math coat of arms embossed in the approximate center of their shields, leather straps creaking from lack of use, yet firm were the hands that gripped them, unyielding, defiant. few was their number, grossly outnumbered by the horde of demons bearing flags on which the words probability and statistics were scrawled.

the page was turned, pen uncapped. the demons charged. shrieking hideous war cries and frothing at the mouth, they charged. our heros too charged, refusing to give in without a decent, honourable fight.

swords broken, shields smashed, breastplates torn mercilessly apart, the inevitable had came to pass. it was slaughter, not a fight, nor a battle, but a massacre of our valiant heros who sacrificed their lives to ensure the escape of their leader shaun, who lived to tell this very tale.

sigh, as you guys would have deduced by now, i almost died in the exam hall. all i can hope for now is that i would not fail too badly, or that there are enough people who did worse than me to warrent a moderation that would pass me -grin-

Here's a quote from my old blog that's quite good

The girl in the omnibus had one of those faces of marvelous beauty which are seen casually in the streets but never among one's friends. Where do these women come from? Who marries them? Who knows them? -- Author unknown

My baptism ..

23 feb 2002

today's my christian birthday. don't know if you guys heard that term but that was what daryl said this day is - the day i'm baptised is my christian birthday. i suppose that means the day i'm officially a christian or something like that. if you people havent figured it out by now, i got baptised today -grin-

A bunch of crap that I'm surprised I took the time to write..

throughout our lives, we establish certain theories on how to live our life, on the quirks of humankind. we come to sudden realisations on facts of life and we learn through experiences that shatter our hearts and tear at our soul. we've been in moments when we want the world to just pause, stop and never move on. when we're holding someone we love close to our bosom, when we're lying warm in the arms of our loved ones. time spent lying on lush green grass, watching the clouds move slowly by, accompanied but the sound of waves crashing against the shore. the scene flashes by, giving way to a picture of a square cubicle, where a person toils unceasingly for the better part of each day, just so that he can survive, feed and clothe himself and his family. his life lacks both splendor and warmth, relationships turn cold, yet he presses on, a lifeless, unthinking machine, working to survive. the varities are endless, from one extreme to another, the thoughts of man perverse and twisted, yet at times illogically kind and warm. there are among us, people who step out of the mundane, secular circle of life. poets, philosophers, religious leaders. different that they are, yet bound by one common element. the unwillingness to live life just as it is, instead searching with their limited mortal mind the deeper meaning of life. on the other side of the coin, we have individuals choosing to live life to the fullest, ignoring the mystical and the obscure, scorning the superstitious. they believe only in their own ability and power:"fate? what fate? things are within my control".

hidden in-between the extremists, among the many others, is the dreamer. lamenting the debauched ways of the world, skeptical of any existance or display of good in the world, yelling and condemning do-gooders to be hypocrites and having some hidden agenda, he himself doing nothing for the needy and helpless. the dreamer sits on his bum, too overcome with indolence to work, yet eager to rise and take arms, protesting against deforestations, killing of creatures, insects and worms.

Okay, that's all.

Once again .. Mi Lu Bing :)