Merry Christmas!

\o/

Hong Kong, and Reality TV

Ah..Hong Kong.

The place where the chicks are...

No idea why, but Winter wear appeals to me more than anything else.

The jackets...the socks...

Which goes to show that showing off skin is not always the best way to appeal to guys..

However, this past week had something more interesting that the girls in the streets.

Shocking, yes, but it's true.

I'm talking about the WTO demostrations by the Korean Farmers, and whoever else is with them.

Almost every channel had live coverage of their demostrations, which were peaceful, as well as violent, depending on which days you look at.

Peaceful means simply walking down the road, chanting slogans. Or jumping into the icy river, trying to swim to the HK convention center, which is pretty much on a lockdown.

XD

Violent?

Hehe.

That's somewhat..fun to watch.

The protesters clashing with police, then falling back when sprayed with Pepper spray on the 1st day showed that the police had the upper hand.

For that day.

On the second day, the protestors came armed with masks, helmets, and almost anything which would protect them from the batons and the pepper spray.

Needless to say, the police lost control, as 12 riot shields got snatched, as well as a few police batons. However, those shields were returned peacefully, as the protestors' enemy is the WTO, and not the HK police.

However, the main event appeared yesterday.

Protesters clashing with police, who were pretty much over-run, and were on the back foot until backup arrived. Pepper Spray, proven ineffective on the 2nd day, was again, useless. Like one of the radio talk show dudes said, the Koreans eat Kimichu for dinner, and pepper spray is nothing to them. They are used to spicy!

Ropes were used to snatch away riot shields, and steel barracdes were also stolen, used as weapons against the police.

That was, until backup arrived.

While everyone was prepared for pepper spray, they were not ready for Tear gas, which the police fired after pulling back far enough. Water cannons was also used on everyone, and anyone, which included onlookers and the reporters, who were unlucky enough to be close by.

However, after tear gas and anti-riot tanks arrived, the place somewhat quietened down. Everyone was just sitting there, chanting slogans, and the TV channels resumed their normal programs.

However, they were still around late into the night. No idea why.

I just went to bed. I had enough of reality TV for one day.

The wind blows past you....

Even though you are wearing 3 layers, and with a Fleece jacket to boot, you could have been standing naked in the wind for all you care.

The wind sends a shiver down your spine, and it has nothing to do with a loved one licking your earlobe. Your feet starts to grow cold, despite the socks you wear. With each step, your feet screams in pain, as though you are walking on soft ice, barefooted.

Welcome to HK.

And I'm loving every second of it. XD

Getting a computer that is not infected with virus is a little easier than usual. My uncles have their own connection that isn't ancient.

However, 56k connections means that I can't download any animes...>_<

In just 1 year, HK has changed a lot. My jaw literally dropped when my usual bootleg haunts disappeared, due to a raid a few months back. I mean, I could actually step out of the place without my clothes smelling of cigrette smoke, something unthinkable just last year. My favourite arcade, which uses a Pay per hour method, died, forcing me to pay more in order to play games which munch tokens.

Bah.

Anyway, with nothing to spend my tourism dollar on, I think I'll buy a new pair of shoes and maybe the Strike Freedom.

I also visited Disneyland a few days back, and I must admit that it was quite...boring. Only 1 real rollercoaster ride, while everything else was for the kids. Even then, the Rollercoaster ride was NOTHING compared to what I've seen in Disneyland USA.

Expected, of course.

However, thanks to the spinning tea cups, I pretty much got my head spinning for the entire night, because me and my brother were trying to test the...speed of the spins, and hence, we just spun that cup like there was no tomorrow.

Needless to say, I almost puked...

The fireworks display was at 8pm, and that was somewhat the main attraction of the entire thing. Fun stuff, and neat stuff.

All in all, fun, boring, and interesting, all rolled into one.

Time to disappear.

I wanted to have a story before I leave, but I decided to forget it. I've got it half way, but due to my mom exploding (once again), I decided to just save if and **** it.

New banner, and new song. The banner has Kaede, who is from Shuffle. Her development during the last few weeks scared me, some what. She has left such a deep impression, that I've decided to do a banner in her name.

And yes, Shuffle is that good.

I must admit that I'm rather proud of this banner. Took a combination of 3 tutorials, and some messing around to achieve the background I want (via cloning of a fountain, although it looks more like ice now. There shouldn't be a new one for a while, unless I want to make something from Shuffle episode 21, which OWNS. I've also decided not to add the usual border around the picture, partially because I forgot about it, and also, I felt that it clashes with the banner. The words are just your normal Times New Roman font, which I felt was a little better, after you made them blend in with the layers behind. Again, I must stress that I'm proud of this banner, for this is one which I've spent almost an entire night trying to get the colour balance correct (the perfect tone between orange and blue).

The song of (whatever) will be Celtic Legend, by Spaeth, one of my favourite songs. I thought I'll end the year on the high note, since most likely won't be updating this blog till, which is when I return.

Merry Christmas and hope that everyone has a great year ahead!

My computer is soiled!

Argh.

Due to a friend of my mom coming over for dinner, I had no choice but to entertain her daughter.

Since she's 8, Counter-strike, Grand Theft Auto and Call of Duty II is obviously out of question. I have forgotten my user name for Neopests, and I had nothing to play with her.

So, she said she plays MapleSEA.

With no other alternative, short of teaching her the ways of killing pixels, I downloaded MapleSEA.

Which pretty much reaffirmed as to why I HATE Maple, Story, Sea, earth or whatever.

Basically, she just kept stabbing mushrooms and snails for half an hour or so with her pitchfork, with about 10 other users near her doing the same thing.

BBBOOOORRRRIIINNNGGGGG~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Seriously, I grew out of Grind games. Just leveling up for the sake of leveling up has became stupid, once you see past the need to wield a "stronger weapon" or "nicer clothes". If you can't see past that, you will forever feel the need to attack mushrooms 5 hours just to gain 2 levels.

Ah well. It's going into the trash can.
--

MAN U ARE OUT OF CL and UEFA CUP

HAHAHAHAHA.

Bye bye Fergie!
--



XD!

<3 China

Chalet Rush. Kekekekeke.

So, two days after the chess club chalet, I had a chalet with Ron, Sean their bunch of MJC friends. It's pretty much something we have every year or so, even though there wasn't on last year, but back in Coral Days, we had one every....6 months or so?

Hmm...we sure were rich back then.

Before the day even started, I saw Rachel once again. OMFGBBQ? Is the world really that small? And I was just waiting at the MRT steps....amd there she is, walking home after buying some groceries and heading to the library.

A few exchanges of hi and bye, before she left for home, and of course, for Ronald to ask "is that it?"

...

Of course =P.

The first day started off what happens when guys gather togather, mahjong, and simply pizza. After checking in, we decided to "warm up" by playing HK mahjong, and setting the lower end at 3 fan. Of course, that meant half or full colour, which also meant that we would be (usually) be heading towards the end of the wall. After a few games, we decided to head out to Cheers to stock up on food, alcohol and pretty much other nonsense such as Soap, since no one brought soap. Sadly, they only sell soap in packs, hence, we brought roughly a month worth of soap, to be used in 3 days.

Somewhere along the way, Ronald met Hui Juan. Rather damaging rumors regarding me seem to be floating around. Interesting. I need to discuss with my lawyer someday on what to do. Appartently, I have the hots for just about every girl I hang out with.

Insanely scary. Sadly, I am not those who can ride 2/3/4 boats at once. My feet are firmly planted on the deck of 1 boat. Thank you very much. ^^

Anyway, since we are all a bunch of lazy bastards, we simply decided to call for Pizza for dinner. However, with over 8 hungry growing teenagers in the room, 2 extra Large pizza cannot fill our stomaches, and hence, onto Pizza Hut we went.

After a few more games of Mahjong, we decided to head for bowling. Sadly, by the time we reached the bowling arena, the whole place is about to close, since it's almost 1am. We decided to head to the arcade, with me trying to waste an hour playing World Combat, since there are ways to slowly waste time.

Surprise surprise, they simply pulled the plug at around 1:15, when I had just barely finished the 4th stage. Clever move, I would say, since I could have gone on and made them wait till 2am or something, if I'm lucky. LoL.

More mahjong followed as we went back to our room, with a little bit of Bridge tossed in here and there. Soon, some great guy decided that we should play Mahjong with money. Initially, it was 5 bucks, to which I won over $7, plus the $5 which I had.

Then, they decided to go $10.

I must admit, I was rather nervous, since we were playing Singapore style, which meant that any crap hand could give you the limit (5 fans), and played pretty badly for the first round. I mean, I had to pay $3.20 on the very 1st hand.

Then, it became more interesting, as the petty cash started to flow in. You can either get a kitten, and rush for a chicken hand, or wait it out and play it big.

I chose the latter towards the end.

Earned around $4 or so.

By then, it was already 6+am, so everyone headed to bed.

As guys, we pretty much woke up at around 12+ or so, although there are early birds who managed to pick themselves up at 10. Headed to Cineleisure for a bit of lan gaming.

And I still can't fly worth nuts.

After BF2, we decided to try our hand on Counter-Strike:Source. I had some experience with CS:S, but I must say that I am more comfortable on the older versions. For one, I still cannot accept the fact someone crouching down and spamming can lose to someone strafing and shooting. It just does not make sense!

After Lan, it was rushing back since some more guys were "supposedly" coming at 6. Of course, they won't come at 6, but will appear at around 9 or so. Thinking that they won't have dinner, we brought 2 tubs to KFC chicken (Unhealthy, of course, but hey, who cares?). With only 8 person (2 had also eaten something), the dinner was, understandablely, too much for most of us.

After dinner, more mahjong, Daidee with the wine as forfeit, before we decided to bowl. I decided to try my hand at bowling. Initially, I could only get gutterball, because my hand tends to swing towards the left, resulting in the ball moving to the left and straight into the gutter. Once I noticed that, it became a little easier.

A little.

The score after 3 games was 30, 58, 103.

No idea how I got 103. Luck and stuff, but I got the dubious title of being the "Spare king".

Hehe.

Hidden talent? =P

A few rounds of Asshole Daidee followed our Bowling outing. As usual, once I've climbed my way to the top from the sewers, everyone starts to leave. >_>. But I can't blame them, since the match between Chelsea and Liverpool was starting, and Ronald/Sean bet $10 for Liverpool to win.

When the formation screen/subs screen came, we all knew they somewhat wasted their money.

4-5-1 for liverpool, with Crouch as lone striker?

>_>

<_<

Needless to say, everyone went to bed at half time, since the 1st half was boring as hell. It was the correction decision as well, since the final result was 0-0, as expected.

Day 3 came too soon, and before we knew it, we were checking out of the place. Still, I had a great time, lots of booze and lots of fun. Probably one of the best chalets I had in a while. I seriously enjoyed myself, and I pretty much think everyone did as well.

Booze for the win, by the way! I think we drank 2 bottles of wine, lots of mudshakes (I got Sean hooked to it. XD), and some other crap which I probably forgot. No one brought beer though.

No matter.

Training....

Quake 4 and BF2 training sure is tough.

And I still can't fly worth nuts.
--

Went to CK Tangs today because my parents wanted to buy some christmas presents of some sort.

Of course, a guy like me as no business whatsoever doing on the 2nd level of CK Tangs. Heck, I have no business whatsoever in the entire building.

So, I was forced to walk around, trying to attune my femine side, and actually experience looking at Jewellery, trying to grasp the reason why women will spend hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars on accessories such as hair clips and stuff.

The fact that I've not entered anything that sells female items will come into effect shortly.

It seems like the stones on necklaces are the "in" things this year, even though I'm sure I've seen them from like the start of the year or something.

I was rather interested in a hair-clip (at least, I think it is...) that was had a feather on it. No idea whether it's due to my love for birds, but I was kind of attracted to that one.

Of course, the price tag of $80+ did kind of surprise me, even though I had no intention of buying it.

The whole place was pretty much littered with these kind of accessories, allowing women to buy something in order to match the dress or shoe they are wearing.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not against that. I do believe that if you want to dress up, you got to do the whole part, and hence, is rather in agreement to buy something if you really like it, or if you think it will suit a dress/shirt at home.

Of course, if the price is acceptable.

Still, I am left rather...confused as I walked out of CK Tangs.

Perhaps, these things involving women, such as why they need dozens of dresses at home, require some sort of higher order thinking, something which I obviously don't have.

Or perhaps, it's because simply because, I'm a guy.

XD

Hanging some one, enough to make a site ban all users?

http://www.putfile.com/putfile-goodbye-to-singapore.php

Exactly what is the admins trying to achieve by doing that?

I'll copy and paste what I've wrote in the GameFAQs forums:

"From what I gather in their forums, the users don't agree with the admins.

Further more, the admins did NOT say why the aussie citizen was hanged. It's almost as though the Singapore government murdered someone in cold blood. The fact that the law has been around longer than some of the admins had been in the world was also NOT mentioned.

It's saddening to see the world going to such a step. What exactly are the admins trying to achieve by doing that? Gain more hits by the "pro-life" people? More donations by the Aussies? Make the world aware that Singaporeans are "barbaric"?

And, quoting from the forums, if the site is trying to act as a "site of justice", then why didn't they ban other countries which have death penality as well? Sure, you can say that USA uses the injection method, which is painless. Then what about China and Malaysia (Shooting and Hanging respectively). If the Aussie was caught in Malaysia, then would the hoo-ha be in Malaysia instead?

If the site was trying to act cool, I definately think it backfired on them."

First of all, Welcome to Singapore. The laws have been here since before I was born, and before my cat was born. It isn't going to change just because a government has pleaded so. If the Singapore government gave the offender Clemancy because the Australian PM said so, what would that prove? Tons of people, including Singaporeans, have been hanged for trafficking drugs, and Nguyen won't be the first one executed because he was trafficking drugs. People are warned by captains of aeroplanes, and pretty much before they enter singapore via the 3 routes (Land/sea/air) of the penalities of drug trafficking. This isn't a case where you can plead ignorance as a defense. You have been warned, and you still do it.

Second of all, I have been following the Australian Media (Long live the internet) because Singapore did not provide as much coverage on this issue as I would have liked. Sadly, I was forced to turn to places such as CNN or BBC because I found their views rather biased at times. I can't exactly blame them, but, they seem to make the 400g of drugs which Nguyen was carrying to be almost "small". Of course, since we buy sacks of rice at 5kg or 10kg, 400g is probably the numbers we see in Chemistry labs. However, that 400g of drugs can be almost equal to 400 shots, with a street value of over 25k. Do we want drugs to further destroy the society? Of course not, hence the strict laws. Are drugs actually so easily obtainable in Australia, that the people (according to the media, of course) are condamning Singapore because someone is trafficking drugs? I seriously hope not, because I had always believed that Aussie is a rather clean country.

People have talked about using Life Sentence or rehab as a form of..."punishment" for the offenders. It might, just might, work in other countries, but Singapore, according to the cia fact file,

as a transportation and financial services hub, Singapore is vulnerable (to Illicit drugs) , despite strict laws and enforcement, to be used as a transit point for Golden Triangle heroin and as a venue for money laundering

Hence, think, do we want people selling drugs on our streets? Do you want people hiding in some room, smoking weed, or 18 year olds snorting Cocaine during parties? Do you want to see teenagers wasting their lives thanks to drugs?

I think not.

Besides, as we have discussed in our General Paper discussion before, why should tax payers pay in order for people to stay in prison because they brought in drugs? This isn't the olden times, where we can put people to work on the pyrmids. I'm really not for life imprisonment myself, since I believe that it is worse than the death penality. What's the point of keeping a person inside a 4 by 4 box, with the knowledge that he is guilty? Sure, he could be NOT guilty, but what's the chance of that? 1 in every 1000 prisoners?

The Aussie media has also said that one reason why Nguyen was trafficking drugs was because he was "trying to repay the debt of his brother". That very brother was also a drug addict, and he should know better than to traffick drugs. First was the Bali thingy which they blamed the airport couriers, now they say that he's trying to "repay a debt". Please, do try harder. It isn't as though drug trafficking is the ONLY way to earn money. Yes, it's one way, but it's just like saying that you are stealing because you cannot afford to buy the item you want.

Bottom line is, respect the country's laws. If the Aussie government is going to be bitter over this issue, it shows the attitute of the government towards respecting other countries. Yes, the guy has been hanged, and no, he should notbe tried under Aussie laws, because then, any Tom Dick or Harry could come here and murder someone, and get away scott free because his country does not recognise "Murder" as an offence.

Life goes on. Deal with it.
--

Went for my first job interview today. The boss was rather amusing, but he did kind of...creep me out. He could probably calculate the moves I was going to be made and stuff. A good boss, but also, one who could rule with an iron fist.

He said he will call me back. I'll see what happens then.
--

Song of (whatever) switched to Aozora no Namida, by Takahashi Hitomi, which is the Blood+ Opening Theme. The Anime bored me to death, but I wanted to put this song up because it showed the difference as to what a melody can do to a singer who had a great voice. If you recall, she also sang the Gundam Seed Destiny's 3rd Opening theme, one which I disliked (But not as bad as the 4th...). However, I'm glad that she bounced back with this great song, which had a great matching melody to follow her wonderful voice. She is no longer merely shouting the words as she did for the GSD opening theme, but she is actually singing them.

Chess Club Chalet. \o/

After uh... "convincing" my juniors to have a chess club chalet as our farewell party, they finally planned one on Wednesday, complete with a BBQ on the second day to top it off.

And hell, it was fun.

Wednesday started with LAN party with Ron, Sean and gang. My BF skills are still rather crap, since I cannot fly a plane worth nuts, but my CS skills has somewhat...improved.

No idea why. Perhaps the CS gaming with my class removed some rust.

Or perhaps we simply stuck together and played as a team.

Either way, I had to rush back home in order to get my Mahjong set, since Jason said that no one brought anything.

Hence, I had to drag that insanely heavy set to the MRT, hoping to meet someone at 4.

Surprise surprise, Jason came at 4:13, and we headed to barely board the shuttle bus at 4:15, which was totally packed.

The first night at the chalet was pretty much Mahjong For The Win, as I've played for 9 hours straight (No chips too. 1 fan FTL...), ordering Pizza for dinner, and pretty much having my butt superglued onto a chair.

When I finally went to sleep at 4am, I was, unfortunately, disturbed by the 4 juniors who commanded the top of the bunk. I can't exactly blame them, since I was experimenting the effects of Sicillian with Joelson (1. e4 c5). While I could not sleep, I was entertained and highly amused by the stories that the 4 of them were sharing (one of which involved poor Johnny's attempt to participate in the 110 hurdles, in which he could not even jump over 1 of the hurdles.)

2nd day started off with me waking up on the crouch at 11am, with half of the world missing since they have work or something of that sort. Decided to head out with the juniors to play Pool at Zone X (8 bucks an hour? O_o), before getting trashed in Bishi Bashi. I followed by spending the next 30 minutes or so nearly (keyword) completing World Combat. I can't believe how I could call myself a "pro" in that game if I keep losing over 3 lives in the last stage, even though I've improved on the Airport stage by keeping my losses at only 1 life (could lost over 4 lives last time).

Since Yan Bing and Zhi Wei disappeared back to the Chalet, Jun Ming decided to brainwash Sarah into riding a bicycle, with an intention of teaching her. Without much to do since I am sick of cooking for the world at the BBQs, I decided to join in the fun. Thankfully, since Sarah had a little experience with bicycles, she wasn't too hard to teach, especially since I used the "Learn to ride a bike in 20 minutes, NF style" on her. However, all turned out well since she was from NPCC, and all my barking had that sort of "officer's" effect on her (I think). All she needed to do was to learn to balance herself, start pedaling, and whoa, she's flying like the wind.

Only thing was, she lacked a lot of confidence. Everytime she went near the grass, or the edge of the bike track, birds will take flight in fear, scattering in all directions as her shrill scream piecered through the peaceful air of Paris Ris Park. Not that I really cared after a while though, since she managed to ride a bike, somewhat. But hey, I only had an hour to work with, and as I've said, give me an hour more, and she will be performing no-handed flairs over ramps (Flair = blackflip with a 180 degree twist) by the end of my session.

In the strangest of the events, after returning our bikes, I saw HER, walking in my direction towards Costa Sands. Still as joyful and energetic, as usual, while I was still reeling from the effects of 4 hours of sleep the other night.

Still, it showed how small the world was.

Needless to say, my day brightened up considerablely after that. ^^

When we went back, the seniors decided to hog the mahjong table to themselves. Thankfully, I had brought my set, and took the rest of the male Excos into a room to play Mahjong, HK style. HK style means that there isn't any Dogs, kittens, cockroaches or whatever, hence making it much much harder to obtain the "tais", or "Fans", as we call it in Hong Kong. With the requirement at only 1 "Fan", I must say that it can be difficult at times, since you cannot rely on picking up those "bonus" items such as the animals in order to obtain the "access" to win the game. Hence, HK mahjong requires you to actually construct sometime, instead of playing a chicken hand.

However, Keith had Lady Luck licking his earlobe or something that day, since he managed to "Zhi mo", or pick up the winning tile by himself twice.

Lucky....(insert normal swears here).

Outside, the Seniors are playing Singapore style while using my chips and Othello pieces as additional chips, since I definately do not have enough chips with me. At home, I usually have an additional bag of chips which my parents brought, since the style of Hong Kong payment can be rather large (With my relatives, you can pay up to 192 dollars, if you screw up. Of course, we are talking about having a limit here. There are times when even chips won't be enough if you play without the limit).

Of course, chips turns into 10 cents and 20 cents later. LoL. Some one reportedly lost over 10 bucks or something. No idea how that could happen....

The BBQ itself was just, the normal stuff. Normal is good, since it's hard to really make a "special" one (only had one of that back in Hong Kong), and it isn't bad, which is good enough. Plenty of food, as usual, and plenty of talks and drinks.

A few things I've learned though, "Original Japanese Green Tea" is not to be drunk, but has to be used as a form of a forfeit.

God...is that even a drink...? >_<

Also, I've finally removed the cloak of darkness behind the person who was "NightFalcon". I wanted to do it for a long time, and I decided to do it when she was walking back from the BBQ pit to the chalet along, before I told her that she had a nice blog, leading to me asking if she had ever wondered who NightFalcon was.

Hehe. As I've said, I'm the master of the internet. Short of a 512bit encrypted key (32 are getting boring =P), you can't exactly hide anything. Haha.

Fengzhi popped up a few hours later to visit us, and we and Xin Lan headed to the pool side to chat and stuff, talking how time flies, about the "good old days" like a bunch of 80 year olds. XD

But seriously, time did fly pretty quickly. Roughly this time last year, I was at the same place with my class mates, displaying all the traits of a "no-lifer" by holing ourselves in the room to play Naruto on the PS2. This time last year, I was dancing since I got promoted, and not caring about what the heck will happen in my 2nd year in TPJC. Heck, this time last year, I don't think I'm as close as I am with the Exco as I am right now.

How time flies.

The rest of the night was spent by playing games after Fengzhi went home. Can you believe that there's a taxi turning into the isolated Aloha Area at around 12am or something (I can't tell, since I don't have a watch, and I can't tell time by looking at the sky at night. Day time, perhaps). Lady Luck must be smiling at her as well. Haha.

The games went horribily for me. In my case, Lady Luck took a month long vacation, and is still sipping Lemonade under some swaying palm trees in Hawaii when we were playing those "forfeit" games, since I had to forfeit like 3 times in total. The point of those forfeit stuff is to Embarrass yourself. The things I was forced to do was beyond the idea of "embrarassment", and I think I scarred someone mentally for life. The first one was pretty fun though, although I have to act like a total jack ass to the J1s, as I forced to ask them 2 questions, after which I would turn around, walk back into the room, and slam the door behind me.

The other two...

Let's just say I ain't going to say it.

=)

Went to bed at 5:30, before waking up at 7:30 because we had to collect our testimonals in school. No idea why the school can't give it to us when we collect our A Level results, just like what happened in Coral Sec, but hey, this is TPJC, and they screw up everything and nothing.

I was considered to be one of the earlier ones, since only 2 others have came before I did. However, what surprised me was the certificate of merit that was given to me. If I am not wrong, Kok Siong was the only other one in class to receive it.

Interesting, because my class, which had a lot of people in Leadership positions, did not get it. I wonder what I did to get the certificate.....

Ah well.

Mr Koh was the joke of the day though, as he messed up Lan Jie's Testimonal by saying that she had offered Econs instead of F Maths. XD.

However, it's not as though my testimonal was exactly fantastic, since my teacher specialises in the Chinese Language. I loved the one by Miss Tan back in Secondary School, but I guess the one I have will do.

All in all, a pretty fun 3 days. I definately had fun.

Now, onto Monday and more Mahjong Tournments. XD