what i do this holidays

all zits, mostly mine, have been digitally removed :D

Zouk Crowd

Yes folks, these are Kiat, Joey, Meining and Vanessa.

Weeli and Japheth

Weeli says:
and yah heavy weights low reps

Weeli says:
dun give big muscules

Weeli says:
i mean.. i personally dun see that

Weeli says:
so i dun think it gives that

japheth says:
i personally see ur muscles as big muscles

Shaun says:
AHHAHAHA

japheth says:
i dont know how u feel bout ur muscles

japheth says:
but i think its big

Shaun says:
AHHAHAHAH

hamster me

sheryl - jeebaboom. nicht jetzt! panic induced amnesia says:
i want a brother
Shaun says:
ok
Shaun says:
i allow u to adopt me
Shaun says:
u can cook for me
sheryl - jeebaboom. nicht jetzt! panic induced amnesia says:
i rather buy a hamster
Shaun says:
clean up after me
Shaun says:
AHHAHAHAHHAHAHA

Nostalgia

My old man's handsome eh. Nice subtle smile.

Rachel would probably flip if she knows this photo of her is on the net. But check out ah beng shaun! There's more..

Cool shades and zippered shirt eh. Haha.

Book and Food

Reading The Bourne Legacy reminds me of why I love Robert Ludlum's Bourne series so much. Reading the Bourne books is better than watching any action movie, especially the movie adaptations of the books that sucked so damn badly I'm sure Robert Ludlum would turn in his grave if he ever watches them.

Granted, The Bourne Legacy is written by a different author, and as it's set in a time after The Bourne Ultimatum, any fan will be able to tell that Jason Bourne would probably be too old to be engaging in the kind of activities the author made him do in The Bourne Legacy. I'm reading it on my mobile though, so I've no idea who wrote it and am too lazy to Google. Check it out, but first read the original Bourne series by Robert Ludlum. Start with Bourne Identity, then Supremacy and end with Ultimatum.

Food. I had a crazy supper - yuan yang + fries with Sheryl and Jeryd at Grapevine, 2 plain + 1 egg prata at RK House, followed by supper 2 with Kiat at Hong Kong Cafe where I had a freaking $5.50 mango dessert and a bowl of bak chor mee at the chai chee bak chor mee store next door.

Craziness. I don't eat in the day though, and I exercise a little each day, so not so bad.

Hm .. what else. Anybody wanna check out the national museum with me? And the toy museum too. And some cheap Brewerkz beer in the day. And watch a couple of movies.

Janet I have to see you soon before I forget how you look like.

F.r.i.e.n.d.s

Weeli, come back soon.

And as you can tell from the photo, there are positions waiting to be filled. Namely, Shaun's Girlfriend, and Jeryd's Girlfriend.

To qualify for the position of Shaun's Girlfriend, please be Cute and Witty.

To qualify for the position of Jeryd's Girlfriend, please .. hm .. ask me for his contact.

Cafe Iguana with the guys

The Submarine in Cafe Iguana packs a punch. I'm high, and I haven't been this high in ages.

Gummi Bears

"Gummi Bears .. bouncing here and there and everywhere." Anybody remember a cartoon with that theme song? It's about a bunch of bears called Gummi Bears and they have a Gummi Berry Juice that gives them magical bouncing abilities when they drink it. I didn't, and made a wager with Daryl and Jeryd with 2 jugs of margarita at stake.

Well. I lost.




And after watching the video .. I remember. Sigh.

overclimb

You know you've been climbing/crimping too much when ....

1) Your fingers hurt while depressing the flush button on the toilet bowl

2) Even your pinkies hurt.

Hah

Your Score: Dr. Robert Chase

55% Eccentricity, 35% Confidence, 35% Kindness

Congratulations, you're Dr. Robert Chase! You're quite the complicated person. While you may seem like a perfectly normal extremely attractive person, there is far more to you than meets the eye. It's quite likely that you've had some unusual experiences in your life, whether it be something along the lines of a stint in seminary school or something along the lines of S&M parties. You are rather insecure, and will often do things you don't want to do to win the good favors of others. While you may seem nice enough, getting ahead and doing what's best for yourself is usually more important to you than much else in life.

Link: The House, MD Personality Test written by freedomdegrees on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

Low Notes

I finished Albert Camus' The Stranger, and it had a poignant end.

I finished the third season of House, and it too, had a poignant end.

And the common strain, Loneliness, arguably man's greatest fear. Everything we do can be attributed to an innate need for company, for fellowship. One might even argue that the worship of higher entities, and the belief in omnipresent deities is a human effort to fend off Loneliness. One fights for higher social standing, for wealth, for power. With this comes company, comes fellowship.

Friends and family, the pillars of our lives. One needs to focus on the people who matter, who truly care, and not waste precious time on those who don't.

A relationship. Having someone unrelated, with no obligation or natural inclination for affection towards you, love you. With this, you feel wanted, needed, alive. For this, people seek love. And with this, we see why it's said, that the greatest love of all, is God's love. A love that isn't earned, sometimes even shunned yet still persists and gently knocks ..

And so, we love. And along comes Lust, and Pride. Pride that proclaims that only people worthy of loving you, should have the privilege of doing so. Lust that disguises as Love, sometimes subtly, sometimes with bribes of Pleasure and Indulgence.

Do you agree with me? Or am I, as usual, bullshitting. =)

Ethics

I have a strong ethical code. -pause- It's framed up and hung in a room in my heart that I seldom visit.

Tout le Monde

Bangs

Somebody kill me. I just graduated to season 3 of House, and guess what, the ONLY babe in the show - Cameron, cut her hair. And, she has, BANGS. ARGH. Somebody kill me.

For the uninformed, I hate bangs. It shaves off a good 2 points off the scale of ten for most girls, and a variation of 0.5 to 1 on others. Argh. Bangs.

I hope Kristen Kruek doesn't sport bangs in Smallville 7. I might just die.

UPDATE: ok fine, 12 mins into the episode I decide Cameron looks rather cute with bangs, different yet cute. Bangs win. She's only the 3rd girl I can name whom bangs didn't massacre. One of the others being Felicia Chin.

UPDATE UPDATE: House is getting better...and better.

Under a rock

Maybe I've been living under some rock but have you guys heard of this?! What kind of bet is that?! And how and when would they release the results? Wouldn't it mean spoiling the book for the punters? Or do the punters even care? I mean, it's the last book, wouldn't you want to lock yourself up in seclusion and not emerge until you finish the book so that you can smugly threaten to spoil the story for your less fortunate friends?!

Blah.

On a side note, I had Hoegaarden tonight. Finally satisfied my beer craving. Programming's a bitch. And I'm going to wild wild wet tomorrow. Oh and there are slots for boardgaming tomorrow night, drop me a msg if you're interested!

What else? I'm still alive, I went climbing, and I missed supper. Or rather, I had a quarter portion of fries for supper. Starving! Room's still a mess. I'm still poor. And I'm still hungry. Yup, thats all.

Good night folks

cranky

im hungry. and cranky.

jeryd says:
im a gentleman
Shaun says DONT HOARD YOUR BEER! says:
_|_

Ah..Beer.....NOT

I had been chilling my can of Swedish beer, Spendrups in my fridge for the past few days in preparation for an impending beer craving. The craving came ten minutes ago, leading me to happily wash my Erdinger tall glass, dry it with a paper napkin and retrieve the Spendrups from the fridge. Ah, beer, I thought.

Aligning the opening of the can carefully at the glass' rim, I tipped the can and watch a steady stream of a rich dark brown liquid flow smoothly into the glass as I gradually tilted the glass to an upright position. With approximately one-tenth of the beer left in the can, I swirled it a couple of times and poured the remaining into the middle of the glass, creating a nice foam head.

Finally. I lifted the glass to my nose and took a little sniff, expecting the comforting aroma of good beer but instead was greeted with a slightly sour smell. Strange. I took a sip, and yes it did taste sour and a little..tangy. My eyes moved slowly from the glass of beer in my hand to the crushed can in the thrash bin. No, it couldn't be. I set the glass down, reached into the bin and retrieved the can.

The neatly printed text at the bottom of the can confirmed my worst fear, the damn beer was expired. 03MAY07. DAMN.

Lesson learnt. Don't hoard your beer for too long.

UPDATE: My Theakston XB Legendary Ale that I bought from Tanglin Mall expired 1 week ago. My other can of Spendrups is expired too. ARGH. I WANT A DRINKKKKKKKKKK

Not my words

What else do women desire in this life but to give maximum pleasure to men? Isn't this the purpose of all their attention to their persons, all the make-up, bathing, hair-dressing and all those ointments and perfumes, as well as so many arts of arranging, painting and disguising face, eyes and skin?

Now, does anything count more in winning them men's favor than their folly? There's nothing which men won't permit to women, and for no other return than pleasure, but it's women's folly which make them delight men. No one will deny the truth of this who considers the nonsense a man talks with a women and the silly things he does whenever he wants to enjoy the pleasure she gives.

So there you have the source of life's first and foremost delight.

-Erasmus in Praise of Folly

Blood

Never date a person with the same blood type as you. Not because of all the type A type B mambo jumbo but let's say one of you has a liver failure. Would the other be romantically obliged to give up part of his/her liver for the sick partner?

Let's say the relationship's heading no-where, you quarrel every other day and you know it's only a matter of time before you call it quits and flee. Then your partner's liver fails. Would you give up part of your liver, a procedure that I'm told can lead to your death, to save your partner whom you're going to dump? Or what happens when after giving your liver, your partner dumps you?

Anyway all these crap is from watching episode 18 of the second season of House. Where, incidentally, Cameron, the only female in the team is portrayed as having the highest level of ethical and moral values along with an almost unshakable faith in the inherent goodness of the human soul.

I'm reading Praise of Folly by Erasmus, and though it's not as easy a read as Oscar Wilde, it does present some interesting view points. Essentially, the book has Folly has the heroine and giving a speech of unabashed self-praise to an audience, and so far, she has been arguing that she, Folly, is the mother of life, and a necessity in its continuation.

randomness is the hallmark of genius

I like bank statements. I never bother to open them but they make great coasters. Of course that means they're really thick, which again is a result of my crazy spending habits. But they make good coasters, that's all that matters.

pumpfest 2007

Yes folks, the last bouldering competition for the year 2007 is over. Pumpfest 2007 left me feeling the same way Rockmaster 2007 did; I need to train more! Gosh, sometimes I think I never learn. How did things go? A picture paints a thousand words:

Yup. Tired and smiling. I enjoyed myself, although I didn't finish a single route. Got my trembling hand on 2 of the ending tiles, but due to -ahem- fatigue and an unannounced vacation taken by my brain, I didn't finish them. Placed 35 out of 60 climbers, with 3 bonus tiles. Shrug, I had fun. And a million thanks to Japheth and Geri who hung around and waited for me, the 50th climber to emerge from the oven of an isolation tent. Japheth's also the photographer who took these great photos.

Bumped into Kenny and Sze gay while I was waiting to do the fourth route. Quite a joy meeting old friends. Lots of laughter that is unfortunately difficult to translate into words. I think I've been reading too much of a certain person's blog and picked up the author's narrative style. I feel bored just typing this.

The night was spent having finger food and beer at .. I can't spell and lazy to google, a German restaurant in vivocity with the school team while my friends celebrated Edwin's birthday elsewhere.

Yup everybody but me. And Jeryd who was taking the photo.

Headed down to party world to join them for KTV and found only the two pairs of love birds, Jasmin + Edwin and Jeryd + Pamela. Promptly fled to Minds Cafe where I played I'm the Boss! with Jianming, Daryl and Qingwei.

You guys should check the game out some time! Play only with close, really really close friends though, you wouldn't want to quarrel with and lose acquaintances over a board game of deceit, cunning, greed, and betrayal. Loads of fun! I won the first game with $54 million bucks but was trumped by the sly Jianming in the second game with $76 million. Don't be deceived by his innocuous exterior man, that guy's a wily fox =D

That's all for now!

Victory!

It's 4am after a hurried shower at the end of Board Game + Margarita night. Every Friday night for the past month or so have been spent at Minds Cafe trying desperately to beat the game Shadows over Camelot and hanging out at Cafe Iguana enjoying yummy margarita and looking out for cute waitress. Singular.

Anyway. We won! Finally! We being Weiting, Jeryd, Jianming, Qingwei and I. Daryl was absent due to his playing the role of a good boyfriend and accompanying Serene =)

Here's how the game looks like:

Click for a larger view!

Pumpfest is in 6 hours or so. =) God help me.

Long overdue

My uncle Henry got baptised recently, or more specifically, on the 6th of May this year. That's good news, and a surprising one for those of us who know him well. He has never been what one would call an outwardly devoted Christian. In fact, he scoffs at prayer meetings, sanctimonious church leaders and gets extremely irked whenever one of the unassuming church folks ask him when he was going to get baptised.

Imagine my surprise when shortly after moving home from hall he told me, "Shaun, I'm getting baptised". I shot him a wtf-look before recovering and congratulating him. He seems a changed man! He's happier, more relaxed, and gave an excellent testimony on the day of his baptism. God took him out of his debts, leaving him with a surplus in his bank account for the first time in many years and a resolve to quit his petty gambling habits like soccer betting and jackpot.

Here's my just baptised uncle and his family. He's the very picture of innocence don't you think.

Hoegaarden is back!

Remember the depressing news sometime last week or the week before about a drought of draft Hoegaarden in Singapore due to the factory in Belgium relocating and finding the water source disagreeable? Well, seems like they've rectified the problem and started exporting to our thirsty, deprived nation once again, must to the joy of Jianming, Qingwei and I :D

We were talking to Midsummer night breeze.

Shaun(to qingwei): We can have the bucket of 5 Frankiskaner beer.
Qingwei: Oh ya, good idea, since no hoegaarden.
Jianming: WHAT?! No hoegaarden?! Then what are we here for?!!
Shaun(to jianming): Didnt you hear about the drought..
Jianming: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Anyway, I took the opportunity to make the two audio recordings for my speech therapy. The English one I did relatively painlessly with Qingwei, and the Chinese one, tortuously with Jianming whose command of the Chinese language is many, many, times mine. It was excruciating for both of us to conduct the 10-minute conversation with me asking every couple of mins "eh what is ___ in chinese?!" and Qingwei laughing in the background. I hope they don't disqualify the recording because of that. -shoots qingwei dirty look-.

Jianming the effectively bilingual PC Doctor

Qingwei the Red. Where's Orange.

I want to go to the PC fair ... but .. all my attached friends want to/went with their other halves. Thanks guys! I'll find someone to go with me! I have .. till tomorrow. gosh. Oh, speaking of tomorrow, it's pumpfest, the last bouldering competition for 2007 and judging from the condition of my body and fingers, I am woefully unprepared.

Gotta run, speech therapy at 1130am then maybe I'll head down to nus for a short climb/swim. Check out Billy Joel's "The longest time" if you have not already. Awesome =)

Met Sheryl for dinner yesterday at Kovan and saw this encouraging sign:



What does the existence of this sign tell us? That SBS Transit deems the general public too stupid to determine the direction a particular escalator is going? The sign is only in English though, so maybe the aunties and uncles who don't understand English have no problem with the escalators, only the educated, or at least those educated enough to be English literate. Or maybe they expect the older folks to take the lift so no point warning them about the scary upriding escalator.

Perhaps some retard fell cause he/she tried to ride the upriding escalator down, sent a complaint to SBS Transit, threatened to sue and all, prompting them to erect that silly sign. So folks, BEWARE, Upriding escalator!

I'm running late. gosh.