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i didn't manage to get my ultra-shuai wakeboarding photos from peizhen. neither did i manage to get my disgusting centre-parting photos to post along with this blog. but like what jx said, i hardly post photos anyway so i shall make do with a post on my cable-ski trip to batam last week.

then again, i dun really know what to write about without photos.

my first mission on the boat ride to batam was to keep dawn entertained so that she would not get sea-sick. and tada~ i succeeded in keeping her occupied. but she still went to smoke when i had to relief myself.

upon arrival, the lake was flooded and i could barely see where i was standing. due to the increase in water level, we were much closer to the wiring above and thus the cables were longer which made the ride kinda tiring.

when we were on the way back, the boat floated all the way from waterfront to the next harbour. it was literally floating. i meant without engine running. it was so damn slow... and they call themselves "batam fast".

i was asking joejee if anyone boards from waterfront city and alights at this other batam stop and he said he never see before. as luck would have it, the floating boat was actually down. and all of us had to alight at this other batam stop to change to another boat. me and my big mouth...

$90 gone but it was a great fun trip.

would i go there again? yes. minus the fun, there's still the babes. =)


after much contemplating due to the amount of money i'll be spending and the amount of time i'll be taking, i've finally decided on a period and duration for studies in japan next year.

just when i was about to confirm, the potential jobs almost put a halt to my plans. thankfully (ironically), the job wasn't what i had wanted and so my plans to leave for japan remained intact. and just when i finally submitted the application and was about to make the initial deposit, i realised that the japanese yen had risen from 70 to 61.

i decided not to make the deposit first.

now that the yen has showed signs of weakening, i'm hoping it falls back to at least a 69 if not 70. i need the good rates... it's really a heartache to see so much of your own money being reduced just 'cause some traders you don't know decided to stop doing carry trade in the yen.

let's all pray together for the yen to fall.

it's all for the good of japanese economy...







and my pocket.


The tendency for humans to compare is not uncommon in any aspect of life. When we think about the number of times we hear the phrase, “it’s not fair”, we realise it has become a habit of sorts; one that creeps unknowingly in the back of our minds and leave our system through verbal communication when we least expect it.

The enmity between the IQ and EQ-faction has been ongoing probably since both concepts came into existence. The question now is which is more important in this new millennium?

Paper qualifications have been of great importance at least since the time I was born. The 1990s batch of students went through what was known as the workbook/worksheet-syndrome and the importance of having good qualifications was repeated so many times to us that the reverberation is still ringing in my ears today. Indeed, having good paper qualifications is important. And that is an understatement, especially in a society that constantly chants “meritocracy” like ours.

It is a disturbing issue that the only measurement of meritocracy is reduced to paper qualifications, especially for those who have no work experience to speak of. I recall a wave of articles published not too long ago that reported on job applicants faking credentials in their resumes. In spite of his working abilities, a certain management-level employee was dismissed from his position. The situation is understandable as agreed in the contract; in the event any false information is provided, the applicant will be terminated from service. However, it exemplifies a form of social stigma that many might have overlooked. What was the motivation for the action of the applicant?

We have been so obsessed with paper qualifications, we do not stop to think how many hopefuls we have denied of any chances at any work. The EQ-faction would exclaim in agreement. What is the use of having a high IQ when one has poor EQ? The sad truth is IQ has been about the only basis the world has been using as a tool for employment opportunities.

Today, the government encourages entrepreneurial spirit in youths. For entrepreneurs, paper qualifications may not be as important as opposed to, what the Japanese call, the salaryman (one who draws monthly salaries from their employers). At the very least, no one is there to judge your IQ before you are allowed to start your own business. And an employer with high EQ would be greatly loved, at least in my opinion.

In this Facebook-ed era, people my age are so concerned about poking our friends to make sure they remember us and hope that they throw a few hugs at our direction, we seem to be making a significant, albeit gradual, shift from the IQ-faction to the EQ-faction. And it is in this movement that we reach some kind of balance when the movement is not complete.

Let’s face it. None of which is more important than the other at any time, this millennium included. IQ gets you to the interview and EQ gets you through it. The age-old war between IQ and EQ never ceased, and it probably never will. At the end of the debate, we would all hold hands and say it is best to have both. But not everyone gets to have the best of both worlds. Remember, it’s not fair.


when someone gets hospitalised...

A: are you going to visit him?
B: i don't think so...
A: wah lao... he's your friend leh

when someone gets married...

A: how much ang pao you give?
B: $40
A: wah lao... he's your friend leh

when someone has a gf...

A: are you going to pick her up?
B: i don't think so...
A: wah lao... she's your gf leh

a gesture is only significant when voluntarily done. not when it's expected of you. from old times, a lot of things were done from the heart. as people do that often, it becomes a norm. when things become a norm, people are expected to do them. when people are expected to do them, they lose significance because they no longer do it because they want to. they do it because they are expected to.

don't take anyone's actions for granted just cause you expected them to do it. don't expect anyone to do anything.

expectations kill.


i caught 女人大主意 for the first time and happened to see a well-known local blogger on the program. for the first time, i agreed with what she said. when you're a bimbo, you wouldn't even worry about not having a brain because, you don't even have the intelligence to see the importance of intellect. you'd probably be too pre-occupied about your looks.

being called a bimbo is a compliment.

it's like being complimented for your physical appearances. except with a little more info about your neurological state.


was showing michelle what an ergonomic keyboard looks like and came across this...



how the fuck do you type with this?

it's neither qwerty nor dvorak!


was reading stomp forums some time ago talking about the orientation games in universities. some screwed up mind used modernity as a reason. some even more screwed up mind thinks sexual promiscuity is a sign of a modern society.

where's the correlation?
fuck...


had a taiwanese friend visiting for the past 5 days. 4 rather, if we disregard the day she departed which was this afternoon. it was a good few days... albeit few.

we settled at timbre @ the substation some 2 days ago, grabbed a couple of drinks each and some pizzas while we drowned in the melodious music amidst the melifluous hums of overdinner chats from the diners. some 2 drinks later, the red bull effect wore off and my eyes grew heavy and i decided to get some rest on the table. as i tried my best to sleep, i could hear the conversation going on between gemma and guang.

「你说你要听个故事...」

the precise timing could be felt. being too conscious of my own presence - pardon the irony - i tried to switch the voices channelling in from the occasionally musical tone language they were conversing in to the music the disc jockey was playing loudly from speakers a reasonable distance away. as much as i tried, i was unable to rest my mind. the texts ran through my ears as if there was a funnel plunged so deep into my ears, the vibrations hit my eardrums before they could even leave the other end. my mind began processing the story. my right shoulder began to hurt from the awkward position i rested my head in. i tried to reduce my movements to avoid interrupting their conversation but the pain was a little worrying to bear. so i shifted as natural as i could till a welcomed rendition of beyond's 海阔天空 sounded. i rose and darted my eyes towards the mini stage. there was no doubt the malay vocalist sang it in cantonese. nevermind the inaccurate enunciations. it was marvellous. i loved his voice.

from there, the plug was pulled and i sank myself back into the sea of music and pleasantries the amplifiers were churning out. the conversation at the very same table i was at blended into the atmosphere as if they never left. nothing else went into my ears for the rest of the night.

till the 2nd set ended, the conversation between them went on. i felt left out and stared all over the place hoping the band would come on soon enough to stop the tentacles of uneasiness from perforating my weak skin. i knew it wasn't gonna happen that soon and i began to sing along to the songs the dj was playing. except that i couldn't sing most of them. this feeling was horribly familiar. before i knew it, i was thrown a question from the 2 previously engaged interlocuters i couldn't reach.

「这世界上有单纯的爱情吗？」

「什么是单纯的爱情？」i wondered. i never got an answer. just an example of a love-routine. i began to think of the question paige asked me some time ago.

"does looks matter to you?"

and as this question came to my mind, they dove back into their mini conversation. the moment a name from the story was mentioned, i knew the circle was closed. i was pushed back to the outer circle. out of the small talk. out of the crowd. out of everything around me. my only circle was the music the band played. i prayed. come back now.

i wanted to voice my opinion...

「这世上所有的事情其实都很简单，是人把它变得很复杂。」

but i decided to hold my peace. afterall, the only thing i knew about the conversation was the テーマ - the protagonist's love life. a day later, i got a chance to voice it flowing from another conversation. whether or not the intended recipient knew where to place it was of lesser importance. somehow, i knew it would end up where it should.

sometimes during our "lameshit" conversations, i could sense something peering out of the apparent laughter gemma appeared to be relishing in. some kind of emptiness. it felt dry. this trip seemed like a search for solace.

some 2 days earlier, we sat at cafeiguana along clarke quay. through the conversation, it was obvious she's a knowledgist. she reads quite widely and talks social stuff. engages in debates relating to societal workings. something i enjoy discussing with people. but we never really had the chance to talk about those things. partly because i take time to understand the very same terms i use in english in perfect mandarin. but i came to an awakening. i have great difficulty articulating my thoughts at times, and i get frustrated when i can't get my points across. i don't like to lose. what more to myself. i get pissed when i end up with a "nevermind" just 'cause my words don't exit the way they form in my brain. i digress. gemma seems to be one who lets things get to her too easily. maybe she needs to learn to let things go a bit.

but these few days was a huge mirror to myself. as much as i appear to be unconcerned, there's this insecurity issue that needs to be addressed. i need to be in security.

or i need to shave the bits between my brows. too tight.

thanks to gemma, i see more of myself now...




the student visa application has arrived! welcome to japan~


for some reason, the debate about having a casino in singapore disappeared. i don't know how. it does appear that everyone's not really interested in what happens. or maybe we just know that voicing out is pointless because the big brother always has a justifiable reason that we cannot refute. or is it that we just want to act as if we are concerned.

at the end of the day, why does it really matter?

it's like the mas selamat incident. it was like an enormous issue but in spite of the unsolved case of the missing person, and a dangerous one at that, everything went back to normal. it's like it never happened and the posters disappeared. did he really escape? are we too unconcerned?

getting back, i guess having casinoes is really fine. even if the $100 entry fee is imposed, we can always stick to visiting genting. at the end of the day, we are making money off the foreigners and then sending it to malaysia.

we never seem to be fair to our own. having to pay for casino entry, having to pay more for an SIA flight... and i have run out of examples. = =

i believe having casinoes is really good for the economy. in spite of the belief that chinese are compulsive gamblers, i'm not expecting a lot of chinese to be visiting our casinoes. i'm guessing more russians will be spotted. the recent food festival in russia saw consumers snap up the local dishes like laksa and chicken rice exhorbitantly priced at over $50. they are so rich, it doesn't seem to matter to them. it appears that they are the biggest spenders in the world. maybe i should get some russian connection and work over there.

be sure to spot me at the roulette table when the casinoes open at sentosa in 2009. i'm sure the russians don't play that back home. at least not their own version.


my acer batt couldn't be charged since a few weeks ago but i didn't send it for servicing as i guessed that my warranty had expired. today, when i sent it for servicing, i realised it only expired last week. i could've gotten free parts replacement.

what the heck was i thinking?


was selling my mininote to a chinese woman. initially we agreed on 600 but for some reason, she asked for a lower price. i could've said 590...

i said 580.

what the heck was i thinking?


something about this statement tells us being old and gray is not lovable and being loved when you're old and gray is the exception.

we are such insecure beings we require affirmation every now and then.

will you still love me tomorrow? i will.




i mean i will still love me.


unlike many people, i take msn's default mode settings at their most literal sense. for those who do not know here are the modes and what they translate to when i use them:

online: i am in front of the pc available to chat with you anytime
busy: i am in front of the pc doing something so you may need to wait a while before i can chat with you
be right back: i hardly use this mode because i will be back soon enough to check on your messages
away: i am NOT at the pc
in a call: i am really in a call though i seldom use it unless the call is expected to take long
out to lunch: i can be eating or buying breakfast, lunch or dinner and i can be out or at my pc. either way, it's inconvenient to be typing i guess but i'll try my best to reply if i am at the pc
appear offline: i don't use this mode because this is instant messaging software, i reiterate, NOT spyware!

thank alvin for this post coz he smsed me to ask why i didn't reply him in msn when i was in away mode. now you guys can save on ur smses! =)