Random stuff again:

Christmas Eve was spent watching Dogma. If u are a christian, u'd not want to watch Dogma on Christmas Eve. Totally wrong, but yet totally funny.

Speaking of "Dog"ma, brought Happy to west coast park to frolick in the dog run area with Muffin. Here's a shot of the 2 buggers. I dunno y i look like tt.

Christmas with dogs, quite a nice idea.

My to be sis-in-law Adelin whipped up a pretty sumptuous meal for us. I ate abt half a turkey, 2 large pork ribs and a whole bunch of other crap. Plus plenty of red wine. Good stuff.

Steak at Jack's Place was pretty turn off. Never go out to eat during festive season. The food is cold, vegetables dun look like vegetables, no hot plate, and everything else was just bleah. CMI.

Sushi Tei's pretty ok, u can't really screw up sushi. Just that the price isn't right. So unless it's a free meal, i'd really prefer not to go there. Fortunately my bro gave us a treat. Sashimi salad is probably the only bang for the buck item there. I have to say the food quality is better, but i'm really a quantity person.

2am dessert bar is a pompous place where u eat posh desserts which are introduced by the chef when they serve u. To me, i dun really have to know what u did, cos a pudding-looking thing is a pudding to me, even tho u called creme bluble or smthing. Desserts are presented French style, tho delicious, do not really justify the price and the hype. Go only if u need to impress a chick. But again Shirui treated me, so i shan't complain.

Lunch with Louis today at Pontian's wanton mee at the 5-head market in my area. I just love tt stall somehow. Fried wanton with mayo is quite the shit. I can eat tt all day. Anyways we spent abt half the time talking about game design and ideas, tho i doubt we'll get to anywhere with pure talk. But some really interesting ideas were being thrown ard, and it's funny how we share the same common frustrations when games fall short of expectations.

I've sorta found my calling, which is to program stuff. I like to do midi programming, i enjoy my computing module in NUS, i enjoy all my stats modules tt involve some programming. Programming probably not at the language level, cos it's all characters and it's baffling how to convert text into graphics. I prefer programming at the GUI level, where it's simpler and more elegant tho with much more limitations. I can live with limitations btw, tt's y i can live with GP5's midi capabilities. It's not exactly how i want it to be, but it's close enuff i suppose. At least the general audience is fooled.

Results is out. I think i faired ok. What i did spend this sem doing? Let's see: Playing lotsa SWAT, playing lotsa basketball, close to zero guitar, and spending lotsa time travelling from home and back. Yes i did study, tho probably not for nonlinear programming. Shit ass module. But it's ok, at least everything else pull back for me. My projected min 3As din disappoint at least.

Anyways i dun really like to talk abt results. It's just something u have to move on quickly. Cos the nxt challenge is coming right up. Whether u succeed this time doesnt really matter. U just have to keep going till the end until this period is over. Then u start work and it's another jungle out there.

So to those who din do very well, live with it. Make a promise to yourselve to work harder next sem. Yes u might not be very smart, but i believe 80% of it is due to the fact tt u are resisting the idea that u can do it. I'm facing this with guitar too. I keep telling myself tt i can't shred. But i think tt if i think positively enough and work at it consistently, it's gonna pay off somehow. So the same goes for u guys.

To those who did very well, but is very gloaty abt it, dun be too complacent. There's still 1 more sem to go for those doing 3 yrs, and 3 more sems for those honours pple. It's still pretty much an open fight.

Shannon got his deserved A for SOM. I stuck to my end of the deal and gave him a kickass MIDI to submit. So he scored for his mid terms and there u have it, the brilliant A. I dun bullshit abt my MIDIs.

So to Miko and Jason, good luck for ur SOM. If there are any other ppl interested next sem, feel free to approach me.

But i only help friends, or pretty girls.

Random stuff:

I caught the Slingers live at the Indoor Stadium. Good stuff, and it's free somemore. The only shitty thing is we can't bring our own drinks inside. Pfft. Skills-wise, Slingers are still not up to par with the Aussie teams, but they have good hustle, which is pretty important if u are a weaker team. Tactics-wise also not as good, and we have a weaker bench too. But it's ok, the scoreline was pretty close(90+ vs 100+), so it wasnt as lopsided as i thought it would be.

The only gripe is that there's too little people to support the guys. And the audience is just not enthu enuff. U need to shout DEFENSE together to scare the opponent ma. The emcee also quite cmi, so yea, can't do shit abt it. Dear NUS friends, the matches are free for us to watch. So just go SRC office and grab AS MANY TICKETS AS U LIKE and go down to support the Slingers! It's great fun, and the Slinger girls are DAMN HOT la!! Ya tt day they were decked out in mini skirts. I love mini skirts la!

Had a dinner with Shirui's bosses. Just a small affair, cos her company's only got 5 pple, so + partners ended up with just 8 pple. Chinese restaurant at the top of pan pacific hotel. Hai Tian Lou's the name. I realise angmohs like to think that there's a meaning to every single chinese phrase they see. Hai Tian Lou means Sea Sky Restaurant. It means shit. McDonalds means nothing either, it's just a name of a loser clown.

Anyways, it was quite an uncomfortable meal, cos everyone's in the workforce already, while i'm just a young punk trying to fit in. So it was hard for me to initiate conversation, and half the time i dun really get the business talk. To make things worse, i dun speak in pseudo-Californian accent like Shirui does, and i am unable to catch what they say too. So just smile, and laugh along. If u dunno, act like you know, and most importantly, dun get caught stupid!

But the food was good. So no complains, just have to be more prepared next time. Attune the ear to their style, speak their style, and know their shit. Just because u live in SG, doesnt mean u have to be completely clueless abt surfing. U have to be knowledgeable when u deal with angmohs, cos they are. I reiterate: Dun get caught stupid!

And i realise 1 thing, Singaporean Chinese like to accommodate to everyone. If the Indian guy can't understand me, i will speak in weird accented In-glish to respond like: "Vere joo vanna go?". For PRCs, i'll roll my words alittle, and add in the little er2s behind certain words. It's so weird. Y can't we have others to accommodate us, and speak in lehs and lahs? And it's only the SG chinese. It's disturbing, but there's nothing i can do. It just kicks in when it happens.

Brought Happy to Xueli's house to meet her golden retriever Muffin. Muffin's 1 mth older than Happy, and significantly bigger sized. But Muffin's a pussy dog, and is very afraid of Happy, who's much more aggressively friendly. So for half of the meetup, Happy was chasing Muffin around the house, try to smell Muffin. We just watched while they ran in circles after circles after circles. Stupid dog chasing scaredy dog.

Muffin's damn smart, and is very friendly too. He's just afraid of other animals, which is weird. He can play dead, jump on command, do handshakes and lotsa other nifty tricks. And he's very responsive to people, which is totally unlike Happy. Happy will only come to you when he wants to play with you. Fortunately tt's about 80% of the time. Otherwise, if he wants to ignore you, he will ignore you.

Here's a pic of the 2 buggers together (it's tough getting them close together cos Happy will wanna sniff Muffin, and Muffin will struggle to run away)

Look at how small Happy is compared to Muffin. In 1 mths time Happy will become as big. And my problems will increase proportionally. Muffin's unleashed btw, cos he's a guai dog. Happy's leashed of course. How can we afford to let him run around? He'll rip up the house!

Sorry no Happy pics this time cos this is a serious post.

To all my dear friends, please watch yourselves whenever u are going home at night. Especially ladies, the trampier u're gonna wear, bring more weapons, like umbrellas, pepper spray, police alarm, or whatever. When u go home late at night, dun call anyone or listen to music while walking back. Be aware of your surroundings. Get an escort to bring u home. That's the best bet.

Jeans good, skirts bad. Boyfriends that bring you home good, boyfriends that tell u to go home urself can be dumped.

Anyways here's the reason y for the sudden reminder to everyone: An Indian worker was being attacked by 3 guys with sticks, and was robbed of his possessions. This happened within 50 metres of us while my group was chilling out. Of course at tt distance we couldnt make out the exact descriptions of the assholes, and they ran away before we could really react.

Indian guy was apparently calling his family, and the 3 guys just ganked on him. So he was caught totally unprepared. But true to the Indian spirit he was a fast runner, so he escaped with minor injuries.

Please take note that this attack is totally random and unplanned, so it can happen anywhere and anytime. 3 guys on a guy, at most he gets beaten to pulp. 3 guys on a girl is a totally different story. So ladies pls take care of yourselves. I know it's very tempting to dress sexily to seduce your next potential golden tortoise, but u might attract the wrong targets too.

So again, take care of yourselves.

Shirui got stalked before, her sis got stalked before, Miko got stalked before too. And today Indian guy got owned. Shit is happening.

Anyway, i'm semi-pissed tt i did not react fast enough, and correctly. But it's ok, it's a lesson learnt. 1 indie to take the bullet for the team to today. But nxt time, my grp will hunt the mofos down.

I hate it when the peace in my neighbourhood is disrupted.

Fuck.

Finally finished up "You Wanna Be A Star" today, tho i feel tt it can still be further improved in terms of pitching and the guitar playing. But aiya, i'm abit lazy, and the weather contributes to that, so this shall be it for the moment. And yea my fingers are heavily blistered after doing all the humongous bends in the solos. Shld have used lighter strings.

Anyways here's the link (beware of ultimate cheese):

http://www.soundclick.com/util/getplayer.m3u?id=2874218&q=hi

Enjoy!

(Edit: Forgot my compulsory 1 Happy pic per post. Apparently this tactic really helps reel in the chicks)

After my old 2wire modem/router fizzled out abt 1 month ago, i decided against buying the newest 2wire router, cos it costs a freaking 280 dollars. So being the cheapass i am, i got a Linksys one for abt 100+. After installing this shit of a router, i realise there's alot of weird stuff going on behind our backs.

Apparently, this router likes to disconnect itself periodically and connect with a different IP. Im using Singnet btw. So with a different IP, different things happen. So far, here's all the scenarios tt i have encountered:

- 1 particular IP will always disconnect itself in like 2-3 mins and then reconnect again and dc again. Makes it impossible to surf without pulling our ur hair.

- 1 particular IP will bar me from hosting WC3 games. Which sucks.

- 1 particular IP will allow me to host WC3 games, but it will disconnect everyone during the loading screen.

- 1 particular IP will bar me from using BitTorrent. I can have like 100 seeds but the shit wun download.

Somehow i cannot comprehend how networking works, or IT for tt matter. Seems like the things u do today doesnt really apply tml. And i tot computers are logical systems. Somehow they dun work logically to me.

Logic = what works today shld work tml, ceteris paribus.

If u have no idea what ceteris paribus means, it means all other things constant. Shit, i'm using Latin in my posts! I shld not act like pompous angmohs who they think "oh my English is so power, so let's use some cheem latin french words."

No bona fide, no laisse-faire, no words in italics! Pompous shitheads! Yea especially newspaper writers. If u wanna use Latin, write in Latin, and not drop some here and there machiam u very power. Fuck urselves!

Anyways i dun get why people like to msg me in Facebook instead of having a proper conversation in MSN. Issit becos we have nothing much to talk abt? Then in the first place y bother initiating a "conversation" in Facebook. I find it totally ridiculous, but have to go with the flow ar. This is called manners. People tok to u, u reply.

So pls, if u want to talk to me, do it via MSN. And if u havent talked to me in like 3 yrs, then u suddenly msg me, i will suspect you! Cos u either need my help, suddenly find me extremely attractive and want me to get in your pants which in tt case i will say no unless u are extremely attractive too, or u are totally bored which in tt case i cant help much cos im a boring person too.

Unless u say u got something good for me, or u wanna come and see Happy.

And here's another pic of Happy. I decided to put 1 up everytime i post. Oh he's barking for lunch now! Hungry ghost.

Warning: Wordy post but there's a pic of Happy at the end of the post. So either perservere, or skip all the bullshit (applies to key only)

I hate it when pple say things like "Wah, din know u listen to Chinese songs! Wah, din know u listen to pop music!" It's very insultiing, cos firstly it makes me seem like a rock-metal freak who can't listen to anything without electric guitar, and secondly, it makes me seem like i totally missed on the 90s pop explosion.

Fuck you all! You all have no idea how much shit i listen to. So stop assuming as if you know everything abt me! No one knows me but me!

Anyways to up my pop credentials, i've been obtaining plenty of pop music via technological means. Let's list my loot:

'N Sync - Greatest Hits: Meh not really my favourite boy band. I like "This I Promise You" though.

Michael Buble: Not really pop. But pop enuff lar.

Maroon 5 - It Won't Be Soon After Long: Pop rock, fav song is "Makes Me Wonder". Not really a strong album tho.

Britney Spears - My Perogative: Plenty of recent shitty hits: "Toxic" "My Perogative", and plenty of classics like "Lucky" and "Sometimes". I'll take the old Britney anytime.

Blue - Best Of Blue: Blue is one of the better boybands ard imho. Good songs, good looks, and there's one black dude there to offset the racial imbalance. Fav: "Sorry seems to be the hardest word"

Backstreet Boys - The Hits: zOMG la! I'm totally a BSB dude lar. BSB is the way to go if u want to sing to ur loved one. "I'll never break your heart" "I'll go anywhere for you" "Now let me show you the shape of my heart" "As long as you love me" Wah lau. Killer to the max.

Aqua - Aquarium/Aquarius: Barbie Girl anyone? Lene Nystrom is the bomb! I'll pick "Turn Back Time" and "Happy Boys & Happy Girls".

Savage Garden - Truly Madly Completely: Gay dudes they were, but the music was good. The guy tt doesnt sing is actually the genius at work, while darren hayes was just the supposed eye candy to draw in the crowds. Fav: "I Want You" "To The Moon And Back"

Spice Girls - Greatest Hits: No one can forget Spice Girls lar seriously. And Posh is so hot la. Omg la. With the boob job she became hot x2 la. Boobs + Legs = killer. Songs wise, not bad all the hits are there + some filler new songs which i think quite cmi except for the video, where all of them starts stripping. What a brilliant way to sell your music. I shld start working on music videos instead of writing songs. Any aspiring models wanting to make it big? Strip for me!

Vengaboys - The Party/Platinum Album: Sorry Daniel, but i had to let out this secret: Both of us bought the Vengaboys album. AHAHA. Tt's like a total cardinal sin for prog rockers! But ya, Vengaboys is so infectious tt it actually subconsciously coerced me to buy their album when i was in sec 4. And the funny thing is i dun buy albums one la! Amazing la, they managed to cheat my 16 bucks. Boom Boom Boom Boom, i cheated your 16 dollars!

And then there's some other usual metal rock stuff tt i'm supposed to listen like:

TSO - Beethoven's Last Night(epic prog album)

Taj Mahal - Music Fuh Ya (this guy is quite amazing. Go Wiki)

Radiohead - In Rainbows (as always dunno what they are singing/playing. And they rake in the millions)

Atreyu - Best of Atreyu (emo meets metal. think A7X)

Alterbridge - Blackbird (Less melodic 2nd album)

Scissor Sisters - Ta Dah (Interesting band. Abit dancy, abit happy, abit joke-ish)

Foo Fighters - Echoes Silence Patience Grace (Nice strong songs, typical FF. Getting more angsty as they age)

Andrea Bocelli - Vivere (Gotta listen to what this blind guy is all abt)

Jay Chou - I'm Busy (Good album. Varied styles, good introduction to his music)

Pantera - Reinventing Hell (Overhyped Metallica-ish band. I hear nothing exciting sadly)

Now for the random moments:

Just ate CQYD with Bah Kwa. Interesting combination, how the sweet sauce of the Bah Kwa complements the sesame soup of the noodles. Sinful sinful sinful. I could eat Bah Kwa all day seriously.

Went Gal's hse to sort out her computers. Apparently the files and folders are everywhere, and to consolidate them is tricky, cos there's 3 users. Anyways the bottomline is: Always keep all your own stuff under 1 folder, like Chang or Chang's Documents. Then u have subfolders like pictures music blah blah. Nice and neat. And not like Mike's folder which has a subfolder named Mike and then another subfolder within Mike/Mike tt's named Mike. So tt's like C:\Mike\Mike\Mike! How ridiculously egoistic is tt!

The rainy weather is pissing me off seriously. Can't swim, can't ball, can't run, can't wake up, can't keep my feet dry when i go for lunch. If i could, i would wage war on nature.

Some pple cannot get the fact tt nobody gives a shit abt them. Like JQ, who keeps asking if his shooting has improved, and this and that. Seriously, nobody watches when u play lar. Just shut the fuck up and play, and stop acting like a loser. So everyone pls, nxt time dun ask me if u have improved in some way or whatever. I wun notice, and i wun care. Unless i notice and i find it extremely disturbing tt u became god overnight. So pls be confident of yourselves. If u are shit, pls be confident abt being a pile of shit at least. Take pride in being who you are.

Which also brings to a pt, tt most pple are selfish buggers, concerned only abt the self, and self interests. Which in turn leads to one being a snob, a snob to everything tt doesnt concern him/her. Not good. Being a snob shuts urself out unnecessarily. At least in my proud opinion, knowledge is key.

Ok i did not disappoint, here's a freaking cute pic of Happy. He's been a good boy lately. Or maybe cos i dun interact with him tt often for him to try something funny. Stop biting my shorts u furry idiot!

Bought 2GB of RAM today to juice up my PC. So far i dun feel any big improvements yet cos my com's already pretty blazing, even tho it's close to 7 yrs old. Tho now i can run more VSTi simultaneously via Cubase, which means more different sounds and probably can try some ambient shit.

Nowadays, i dun really play much guitar, cos i've pretty much focused my energy back onto basketball. Which is good, cos basketball is my first love, and guitar is something tt i did while i was in limbo. Not too worried abt losing my guitar "skills", cos expressing yourself is all you need when u play the guitar. They say BB King can only play 5 notes, and he's one of the greatest blues player of all time.

Have u spent more effort in expressing yourself thru your instrument?

I really feel tt i've up-ed my basketball game lately. Now i play more of a team-oriented style: If i have a really good scorer in my team like LCS, i'll pass the ball more to him, set up screens, draw my defender away from the basket to open up the defence.

If my team doesnt have a good scorer, i'll try to take more shots, get the defence all on me so tt my team mates can be open for a easy pass. More movement off the ball to get the defender busy and to create open space for myself.

Defense-wise usually i'll try to take the toughest guy in the team and try to shut him down. Deny passes to him, front him, box out. If the guy's tall, then i'll box more and jump less, front more and go for more steals. Fatter guys, i'll rely more on speed and reflexes. If marking a short guy, i'll keep a bigger distance to prevent him from cutting, and use my hands to cover his passing lanes.

Sometimes, i can't do it all. If the guy scores, he scores. We'll have to move on and try again the next possession. People just get too caught up with the fact tt they are blocked, or got stolen, or got outrebounded. It's like a form of humiliation for them. But to me, things like tt happen all the time, and it doesnt matter. As long as my team wins eventually, it doesnt matter if i got blocked 10 times or not.

It's all back to the basics. Young people nowadays have all the talent. But zero basics. They can jump real high, run real fast, have a great body. But they can't play as good as they could be. And their lack of basics clearly shows when i play with them.

When i was in sec sch, no one taught me basics, cos i wasnt in the basketball team. When i was my JC captain, there's no time to teach basics, as the competition period was way too short. And in NUS, i was already supposed to know my basics. So i was quite handicapped as far as my basketball life goes. But at least now, i made some effort to work on them, and there's been some good results.

Somehow we've just gotta put whatever we do down for a while, forget all the things u've learnt before, and try to work on the little bits that you used to think was boring and unimportant. You'll be surprised how much improvement u'll gain.

Basics basics basics.

Shirui's yoga centre is filled with pple tt think tt pretty girls are usually stupid. Here's the scenario:

Shirui paid 700 dollars for 48 lessons in a year. So stupid dumbass hardseller tries to sell her another package, which basically equates to 600 dollars for another 48 lessons. But this is how tt idiot calculated. "See since u attended 11 lessons already, tt means u have 37 left. Plus 48, tt means u have 85 lessons. 85 lessons at 600 dollars, tt's 7 dollars per lesson. What a great deal!"

Yea right. Shirui's a mathematics graduate for goodness sake! Did the salesperson really think she can fool my darling? It takes a stupid person to think tt another person is stupid.

Alright gtg.