CONTEMPLATIONS from a . . . L A O - R E N . . .

(Not Quite) Everything About Japan

2005-08-21T22:49:00.000+08:00

Guten Tag! Wie geht es Ihnen? Auf Wiedersehen.

It's not the first time I regretted taking up German lessons when I was in my first year in Polytechnic. I mean, what's the point of knowing the German language when you have practically NO opportunities to practise it in your everyday life (except maybe to impress the opposite sex over the bar counter with perfect pronounication whilst ordering German beer; on second thoughts, I doubt anybody even cares...)?

To be honest, besides the few basic greetings up there, I'm only capable of reciting 1 to 10 in the German language...
Excuse me, it HAS been awhile since my Poly days, ahem!

On the other hand, if only I had went the more popular route of taking up Japanese instead, my my my, that would be entirely a different story!

First of all, I wouldn't need to endure crappy translations while enjoying my
favourite Anime series. For once, I would be able to concentrate on watching
the Anime instead of reading the subtitles... Hell, I could even
churn out English-Sub Anime series myself! Wouldn't that be great?!

Second, I wouldn't have so much trouble searching for Transformer toys from Yahoo Auctions Japan. Just imagine the time I can save over my current system of viewing every, single, damn item ever listed...

Third, strolling along Orchard and shopping at Takashimaya will be a totally different experience, what with the potential chance of hooking up with those fantastic, yummy Jap gals!

Fourth, ordering food in a Jap restaurant will never be an embarrassing experience no more, not that I'm really into Jap food, but apparently most members of the opposite sex are great fans of raw fish.

And last of all, there's no way a pair of polite Japanese salesgirls could ever gossip to each other in front of you, on how skinny your backside is when you are shopping in Japan, without you being able to shoot back a smart comment in their own language and watching how their face contorted instantly into impossible expressions.

Sayonara!

Being 19

2005-08-16T21:52:00.000+08:00

How does it feel being 19 years of age? Unfortunately, I'm afraid that my memory doesn't stretch that far back...
Today, however, is my youngest sister's 19th birthday (yep, we are separated by a 10-year generation gap, haha!).

MANY HAPPY RETURNS OF THE DAY, SIS!

It has always been a challenge for my 'the-other-sis' and me to decide what to get for our 'kid sis', especially since the both of us seem perpetually broke all the time. This year though, we had a huge sponsor chipping in our , in the form of, MUM!
In the end, we (or rather I) decided to get little sis a brand, spanking new handphone. The poor thing has been using a non-colour brick of a phone since... dunno how many years ago, and I really can't imagine holding that brick next to my ear when it rang when I'm at Orchard Road! I'm pretty sure that many other 19-year-olds out there would very much rather bury their faces in the nearest rubbish bin than to be seen with that thing!

Anyway, we finally decided on getting a Nokia with a budget of about S$200 (big sponsor come out S$100, me and sis come out S$50 each, haha!). So, I was checking out the various phones at Singtel while the b-day girl was sitting comfortably at home, lemonade in hand, surfing the Net browsing at the different models... I was secretly hoping that she'll decide on the stainless steel 6170 clam shell but lo and behold! It's the out-dated 7260 that finally gets her vote! I was like thinking, 'hell! why the f**k did she want a phone with such outdated specifications?!' Why, the 7260 can't even play mp3 tunes for ringtones (by the way, I ain't sure if the 6170 can do that either...)! Good Gracious!

Nonetheless, despite my protests, like my big sponsor said, 'It's not YOUR Birthday...'

That shut me up.

So being the wonderful and obedient male-maid that I am, I dutifully got my queue number to make the purchase, and here it is...

It's exactly 2 weeks ago when I send in my Nikon cam for repairs. I was then told that it'll be ready in 2-3 weeks. I figure that since nobody from either Harvey Norman nor Nikon called during this period of 14 days, the chance percentage of my cam being un-repairable and I being compensated with a D50 is getting just 0.001% above 0%... sighz...

More Transformers news! I got this today! It's a licensed copy of Transformers Generation One 20th Anniversay 25 DVD Boxset from China! Woohoo! There are an incredible total of 99 episodes! Good to last me through 40 odd hours in front of the TV! Yippee! Now wouldn't it be great if they do the same thing to the M.A.S.K. series?!

S I N G A P O R E

2005-08-14T11:54:00.000+08:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SINGAPORE!

Hell, it's already 5 days after our 40th National Day and yet here I am, slow as a tortoise (I prefer tortoise as compared to snails cos slugs are just way too slimy for my taste...), having my own private celebrations when everyone else had already moved on with their lives...

Thinking back, you can't exactly blame me... While most of the population were sleeping late on 9th August, I was already up and running at 0500 hours preheating my ship's 4 huge engines. Yep, we were sailing on National Day, and yep, I was on duty the day before.

Now, just excuse me a moment while I go renew my loyalty vows for my country... hmm, ahem, I wonder where I can go download a copy of our Pledge, I can't seem to remember the whole passage...
... ok, forget it, celebrations are meant to be jolly, and reciting Pledges are, after all pretty serious business... I'll lighten up a bit by singing our latest NDP pop song, good idea eh?! Now, what's Stefanie Sun Yan Zi's song contribution for 2005???

It's being reported finally in today's Sunday Times that our dear old man Nathan the Mr President will be serving his second term as our Lao Da. Gee, free housing right smack in the middle of Orchard Road, free unlimited-number-of-course meals, free chauffeured-driven limousine, free body guards... what more can one ask for?
On a more serious note, I really wonder how our Lao Da took care of himself. It's really a wonder that he's still so healthy physically, and more importantly, mentally at his age; when dozens other old men (and women) are already senile and drooling from their mouths...

My collection of 'More Than Meets The Eye - Robots In The Sky', err, Robots are given a boost this week with the addition of Hard Hero's Unicron Statue. Wider, thicker in depth and just approximately 10cm shorter than my Car Robots' Brave Max (I'm talking about the box in case you are lost...), this is one mean customer indeed! Know what the best thing is? It only costs me USD$69.99! Isn't that a steal?! Unfortunately the shipping charges almost killed me...

The main star, however is my SCF PVC Act 3 Clear Fortress Maximus who's a chase figure. Notice the little transparent guy down there at the bottom right corner? Yep, that's him! That little thing down there complements my Act 3 and currently, I'm just short of the regular figures from Act 6 and the chase figures from Acts 9 and 10.

Besides the giant and the dwarf, I also managed to lay my hands on Kicker with Highwire from OG Bugis at just S$11.90. Makes me glad that I didn't commit myself to the ridiculous S$20 Yahoo Auctions offers.
Robotmasters' Skywarp & Thundercracker actually pretty cool, except for the fact that the box is really crappy and totally cannot blend in with the rest of the RM collection! Sucks!
The last significant addition is the God Fire Sword from JD Productions. It is an almost perfect piece of work besides the fact that it's frighteningly fragile...

What's the best thing to do on a Sunday for someone with an empty wallet? I'm talking about myself lah...
Even though pay day's barely a week ago, yet I'm already broke... sighz... I guess this' as good a time as any to catch up on the numerous anime series that I've downloaded and left rotting within the confine platters of my various harddisks... ciao

Mission Completed

2005-08-06T23:58:00.000+08:00

Nope, I ain't playing Grand Theft Auto or anything like that. silly! Actually, I'm just feeling glad that my ship managed to come back safe and sound from the latest operation without any hiccups.

Many of us do not realise it, but the threat of terrorism is very real. Of course there's really no point in keeping the general public on high alert all the time. That means that the responsibility of keeping our country safe and sound falls heavily on the shoulders of the Men & Women in uniform working hard 24/7 behind the scenes. These group of dedicated people are forever exposed to a certain element of risk, whether they like it or not. Their job practically guarantees that. They have my respect...

Missing out on my weekly dose of Naruto anime makes me fidget all over. It's really not a very bright idea not to air Episode 146 this week... luckily there's still Transformers Galaxyforce. I watched the latest dubbed Episode (Episode 30) today and that more or less swayed my decision to get Hasbro's Cybertron King Starscream when I was shopping @ Metro. The relatively large figure costs S$129 before 20% discount, which makes it S$103.2. However, you'll get a S$5 Metro credit if you bring your receipt to Customer Service. So technically, King Starscream costs only S$98.20, that's S$0.80 cheaper than Toys-Nation listed price of S$99; and of course it's way more troublesome to be lugging the toy back home all the way from Town when I live just 5 minutes away from Metro Tampines.

Besides SS, I manage to get a full set of GF GD-13 Rambles as well. Phew...

S M O K I N G

2005-08-02T18:11:00.000+08:00

The latest initiative that our helpful Government is dishing out to us meek citizens, banning smoking in practically all areas, can only be a good thing. If it ain't, why else would the Gov be embracing it in the first place right?! Chey! Such simple logic! Duh!

For those still waiting for a reason to quit, this is as good a time as any. Just imagine, you'll get to have more $$$ to spend on Toys (substitute that with any other stuff YOU fancy), your skin will become better, your breath won't stink as much, your health improves, you don't have to worry about getting caught when you next dump that butt on the floor, etc, etc... I've seen and known many hard core smokers who have kicked the habit permanently, so I'm slapping BULLSHIT right onto any of your 1,001 excuses...
By the way, my neighbour smokes like, 50 cigarettes a day... maybe that's why he's a retard...

Do not belittle Smokers, condemn Cigarettes instead

I've sent my camera to Nikon @ Shriro House this afternoon. Apparently the problem is not serious enough to qualify it into a piece of junk. Sob...
The idea of owning a D50 has etched itself so firmly into the back of my mind that I don't wanna end up with anything less!

Gee, is it 1800 already?! I gotta get ready for my upcoming operation! I need to slip off from harbour by 2300! Let's hope for peace in the region. Amen to that.

Monday B L U E S...

2005-08-01T22:09:00.000+08:00

Whoever like Mondays raise up your hands...
Good news, I'm gonna treat each and every single one of you pea-brains a smack on your puny heads!

Having been on MC for the whole of last week, dragging myself up, and out from bed this morning had really been quite a chore. Y A W N ! What make matters worse is to finally get myself to work and discovering that the week ahead is choked full of work related events! DARN! Starting tomorrow night, I won't be having a single minute to myself all the way right till Saturday! Imagine that! 3.5 days, or 84 hours, or 5040 minutes of straight, non-stop work. Period.

I think I need to pass motion... Maybe I'll save it for tomorrow though. I'm pretty sure my kidneys, or bladder, or whichever part of the body it is that stores S H I T, is flexible enough to tahan for another day. Haha!

Off I go to my dusty PS2 liaoz. It's about time for me to perform a system check on my not-so-little-black-box to ensure it's still working fine. Cheers... . . .

Me Ain't No BITCH!

2005-07-31T21:50:00.000+08:00

People, I've got a serious problem... exactly what am I suppose to be bitching about here? Hell, this is just the 2nd entry and I'm already totally lost....
Maybe I'm not cut out to be a blogger like the rest of the world is... damn...

... anyway, me thinks I'm recovering well from the really terrible ordeal of having my wisdom teeth extracted... I had it done last Monday and the very nice Dentist very kindly described to me how she's gonna :

cut my gums
pull it up
chuck it to one side
drill my wisdom tooth in half
pull half a piece out
drill the other half-piece to smaller pieces, and
suck the rest of it right out...

That's not forgetting the 3 injections before the whole operation and the 3 stitches I got afterwards...
I mentioned teeth cos I had 2 removed. The top one is a much simpler pull-it-out-with-a-big-assed-plier-with-plenty-of-head-jerking affair. Phew...
In short, I'm really glad that I survived...

I had 3 Mini Cornettos today despite the fact that I'm still suffering from sore gums and an aching jaw whenever I open my mouth more than a centimetre apart... haha! Yippee!

Speaking of food, how many of you people have tried Five Stars Chicken Rice at East Coast Road opposite Holy Family Church? I took up their delivery service this afternoon, and they sucks.... BIG time....

the delivery took 1.5 hours
the chicken portion is so little, is all bones with little meat, not to mention really dry
the cucumber is really hard
the You Tiao is soft and slimy
the rice portion is ridiculously huge! And worst of all,
the bill adds up to S$26.20!

A cool quarter of a hundred bucks for an innocent group of 4 little kids (including myself)... takeaways really sucks! I'm glad we didn't tipped the guy...

I ain't doing too bad a job so far eh? I mean up there, with all the complaints and bitching. I guess I'm a natural when it comes to criticism, haha!

I finally got my Generation 1 Scorponok today! He's a loose buy from eBay and besides missing out Fasttrack's pair of Guns, a loose screw connecting Fasttrack's top to his bottom and a small chip off the Claw Shield, I'm generally satisfied with him. I've in fact placed an order from Reprolabels to get him dressed up in new stickers! I think he's pretty excited about that! Gigastorm is another gem. Totally MISB! Not that it meant anything to me since I opened him up anyway. Haha! The only letdown is the GalaxyForce Phase Ignition book I got from HobbyLink Japan. It doesn't cover all the characters in the series and I'm really foolish to waste my hard-earned dough on it...

That's about it folks. I hope I don't kenna duty tomorrow...

Post Number ONE

2005-07-30T09:49:00.000+08:00

I've always been regarded as the technological geek among my friends. Why then am I starting a blog in the latter half of 2005? It's the year 2005 my dear Lao Ren... Hmm, I guess my dominating era has finally passed.

Looking at things carefully, I admit that I may INDEED be kinda backwards when it comes to the latest electrical gizmos...

my PC is still running on an AMD Athlon 2400xp
my phone is the camera-less Samsung S500
my portable gaming device is the already outdated Nintendo Gameboy Advance SP
I don't even own any portable music devices!!
and my camera is the out-of-production Nikon Coolpix 5700...

Speaking of my camera... the darn thing died on me last night. Somehow or the other, it's totally unable to admit light. (YES! I've removed the lens cover thank you!) I'm glad that it's still under Harvey Norman's extended 3 year warranty though. To be honest, I really hope that it's beyond economical repair, then HN will have to compensate me with another camera at the same purchase value!
That's a cool S$1800+! Haha! I can literally smell the Nikon D50....

Should I get the D50 or the D70s? I find bulky cameras troublesome... maybe I should get the Panasonic FX-9 instead.... NOoooo way! Not another P-N-S camera! Well, so much for the first entry in my spanking new blog!