My new distraction...

It's been just over a week since I returned from Kyushu and I know my blog has not been getting many updates. Two main reasons really. (1) I'm in the finish-busy-period-so-now-I'm-super-slack mood and (2) I'm getting hooked on AoC (aka Age of Conan).


My days were kinda filled with catching up on all the movies I missed while I was away in Japan as well as catching up with friends. I've really been on a movie-watching and lunching/dinnering craze. My nights have been filled with the new MMORPG, Age Of Conan.

It's been some months since I kinda stopped playing WoW coz I was getting kinda bored of it. Things in my guild had gotten a little messy, so when I left the guild, I lost interest in the game. I still like WoW but I think I'll give it a break until the launch of the new expansion, Wrath of Lich King.


Age of Conan is the new MMORPG which is supposedly for more mature gamers (that's MATURE... not necessarily OLD.... heh...). It's reasonably fun so far. After playing for about 5 days, I'm up to level 16. That's still kinda low coz I think the action really starts after level 20.

The graphics for AoC are quite different from WoW. It's definitely more detailed and the combat is kinda bloody. I don't know if I really like this style of graphics. I'm not so much into realism. I think WoW is fantasy/cartoony enough to hold my attention and interest. And since WoW is not so graphics intensive, my laptop and old PC ran it reasonably well. For AoC, I had to upgrade my PC and even then, I'm only playing the game at a low to medium graphics level. Scary.


I'll give it a month of two to see how AoC shapes up. I think Wrath of Lich King is due for launch later this year. So I have up till then to see if I remain hooked on AoC.



Other than that... it's the off-peak season right now, so I'm thinking of taking a holiday. Can't decide to go to my always-favourite USA or try something new like Taiwan or maybe even Cambodia. Tough choices. :)

JYSS Photos Uploaded!

Yep! I've uploaded the photos for the JYSS Geog Kyushu Tour.

You can click the album link on the right or here (to access the entire album).

BVSS Photos Uploaded!

Hi all, it's nice to be back. Have been busy catching up on (1) sleep and (2) food!

I've enjoyed yummy horfun, vietnamese noodles, hainanese pork chop and more since I've come back. Next... laksa and chicken rice!

It was really nice to meet up with some of you from JYSS at the airport. Thanks for coming to receive me... sniff sniff.

I've uploaded the pics for BVSS. You can click the album link on the right or here.

Junyuanians... gimme a day or two more! Will upload the pics as soon as I can!

It's almost over!

Yes... finally time to go back to Singapore. I love Japan, I really do... but doing three tours in 2.5 weeks is really quite tiring. Cannot wait to sink my teeth into some shiok local singapore food!

Although tiring, I must say that I have been very fortunate to have three pretty fun groups. Each group was fun in their own way and the challenges were also very different.

The last group is from SJIMB. Thanks for the fun memories guys... and stop calling me u-noe-what!!!

Another tour... over

Blogging from my room in Hakata Fukuoka. Another group departs tomorrow and another group is arriving at the same time. I don't remember ever having such an exciting schedule of tours. Usually there's a day or two of rest before the next group starts. Must admit I'm feeling a little burnt out. Must push on for one more group! Kanpatei!

I'll be saying good bye to JYSS tomorrow. Thanks for a really interesting trip... I don't think I've done so much adventure work in a Japan tour before! I will try to upload the pictures when I get back or maybe I might pass a CD of the pics to your teachers. All the best! And I hope we will bump into each other some time soon. Here's a picture to remind you guys of my 500+steps of suffering. :-)

From Amakusa, Kyushu...

It's been a really busy two weeks since I last blogged. I'm right now in Amakusa in Kyushu, the first time I've visited this place... and I'm almost finished with the second tour group. One more to go! I'll blog a little more when I return next week.

For now, here's a BIG HI to the students from BVSS who might be dropping by my blog. Hope I didn't make your life too miserable! heh.

I will upload the photos into my Flickr account when I get back to Singapore. Thanks for the memories and I hope to see you all soon!

Silly Notices

I'm sure many of you who take the NEL have seen this notice at the escalators in the stations. Everytime I see them, I can't help but snigger coz I think the notice does make some silly implications (OK, I know my implications are statistically wrong, but hey... as long as I'm happy...)

Well, if 8 out of 10 injuries are cause by improper use of the escalators... does it mean that 2 out of 10 are caused by PROPER use of the escalators?!! That's not very assurng.

The next one is a bit sillier.

If 5 out of 10 injuries are by passengers not holding on to the handrails... doesn't it mean that 5 out of 10 injuries are also caused by passengers HOLDING on to the handrails?!! Heh. So it doesn't really make a difference whether I hold on to the handrails or not, right?

So, in the end, we are told that in order to help, we should (1) ask the elderly to old the handrails. I wonder why, since statistically, the possibility of injuring yourself is the same whether I hold on to the handrails or not. and (2) we should ask the elderly to use the lifts! lolz. So next time, whenever we see an elderly attempting to use the escalator, we should go up to him/her and tell him/her that he is not allowed to use the escalator. Might as well ban them from the escalators right? lolz.

OKOK, I know I'm just making silly implications. What to do? Nothing else to do when taking the trains mah. So think of stupid things lor. :-)

Indiana Jones & The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

I've been itching to catch this show since it opened on Thursday. Yep, I'm not one to wait. So once, my crazy week was over, I couldn't wait to pop into a cinema today to catch IJATKCS. Lolz. That's quite a mouthful. IJATKCS is a sequel 20 years in the making. Has it been worth the wait?

Storywise, I think it's pretty much in the similar vein as the early Indiana Jones movies. Two weeks ago, I made an effort to rewatch the original movies to remind myself of them. As I sat through the movie today, I think Spielberg has remained quite true to the original flavour of the IJ movies. So story-wise, time has been kind to the franchise.

Moving on to the actors.... heh... I must admit that as much as I was impressed with Harrison Ford doing many of the action sequences, I couldn't help thinking...boy, is he old. lolz. It's been 20 years and I think it shows. He's no less entertaining. But at times, I felt it was a bit of a misfit. Shia Labeouf does a pretty decent job as Indiana's son. Yeah, we all know he is probably being groomed to take over the Indiana Jones franchise and although he doesn't really do much in this movie, I think the scenes he were involved in were done pretty well. The other main actor in this movie is Cate Blanchett as the evil russian scientist. I felt she was kinda corny. Her accent really sounded weird but oh well, I didn't go to this movie expecting academy-award winning performances.

I want to say a little about the special effects. I have to say that there were a few scenes which really blew me away. The first one was the atomic bomb mushroom cloud. Phew. It was awesome and scary. The other happens near the end. I won't say more as I don't want to spoil the ending to anyone who is reading this review. But I was really glued to my seat when the final mega-effect scene unfolded.

On the whole, IJATKCS is a fun show. Don't expect deep plots. Just go expecting a roller coaster ride. I still enjoy the clue-solving moments. I like to think of IJATKCS as a big budget version of the National Treasure series. Watch it. I don't think you'll be disappointed.

A Crazy Week

Phew. The last week and a half has been quite a ride. It's two weeks before the school holidays and all the schools going on tour with us have asked for tour briefings during the part one and a half weeks. In the last week alone, I've had to conduct 5 briefings in 5 days. That has been quite a challenge. Briefings entail preparing briefing notes, briefing kits, and also the powerpoint for the actual presentation. Being the perfectionist that I am, this has meant working right up to the last minute, trying to perfect the presentation. It has been very very challenging and given that I am quite a slacker... heh.. (especially since I stopped working full-time), it has required tremendous willpower to temporarily restrain myself from my usual worldly pursuits! Yep.. NO MOVIES in the last 10 days! Yep... that's TEN days without visiting the celluloid chambers! Believe me, that took alot of effort on my part. heh.

Anyway, I've been really lucky to have some part-time help in office to prepare the stuff for my briefings. Having gone through the past 7 briefings (it was 5 in 5 days and 7 in 10 days), I am quite proud to say that I think I've done reasonably well. I wanted to do more than the usual boring tour briefing and I think I've improved on my presentation through the last 7 briefings. It's quite satisfying to know that I have managed to do some different things and that I have received pretty good feedback from the teachers. The other thing that has been exciting for me is the opportunity to address students during the briefings. It's been almost 20 months since I left teaching and I really do miss interacting with students in a classroom-like environment. I think conducting briefings has been as close as I could get for now to a classroom environment. Yeah, I do wonder if I should return to teaching again. Perhaps if the time and opportunity is right...

Well, one more week and I'll be off to Fukuoka for almost 2 weeks. The week ahead is gonna be real busy as I finalize the details of the tours I have been organizing for some schools. Then it's off to Kyushu with my first of three tour groups. I'm trying to think how to make my tours different from the normal tours. Gonna definitely try to think out of the box as I plan to lead the three tours.

The next three weeks should be challenging... and very tiring! Sigh, less slacking for me...

A Nostalgic Ride

Wow... Boarded bus 93 outside Queensway Shopping Centre and realised it was a NON-Aircon bus! Haven't taken one in a long time.

A great start to Summer Blockbuster season!

Last Friday was a very satisfying day. Watched two movies and ended up being thoroughly satisfied with BOTH movies. It seems that the Summer Blockbuster season has officially started!

IRON MAN

IRON MAN is an excellent movie. The trailers were pretty interesting and I was a little afraid that expectations would be too high and the movie would be a disappointment. I am glad to say that I was not disappointed.

Robert Downey Junior totally fits the role of Tony Stark/Iron Man. He not only seems to look the part, he also plays the role convincingly well. There is a certain playfulness and innocence with the way he explores his new found armour and it's a joy to see him flying through the air. The other roles are played quite well too. Gwyneth Paltrow is also a pretty fun Pepper Potts. She doesn't try to overact and plays her role in an understated yet convincing manner.

The story is fairly straightforward. There weren't many surprises but the story did move along briskly and at least there weren't too many silly plotholes or ridiculous storylines.

But who am I kidding. The real star of the show is the armour and special effects. This is a techie's dream-come-true. From the cool 3D computer interface effects to all the little hydraulic/mechanical parts of the armour, every moment was a moment in techie heaven.

Iron Man was a throughly enjoyable show. In the list of superhero movies, I would say it would be second to Spiderman 2, but definitely beats Spider 1, Spidey 3, Hulk, Superman and the newer, darker Batman. It was a fun ride. Don't hesitate. Watch it now.

HAROLD & KUMAR: ESCAPE FROM GUANTANAMO BAY

I wasn't expecting anything much from this movie. I didn't watch the first one so I didn't know what the story was about. But since I was in the mood for something stupid, I decided to go for it. I know it's M18, so my apologies to the under-18s, but if you are of the required age... this show is hilarious and certainly worth watching.

This show is pretty no-holds barred. H&K really does make fun or anything and everything. But I think the one thing that raises it above crass humour is that it makes fun of all things American. Hollywood usually makes fun of many racial stereotypes, but in this movie, the minorities (ie. Korean and Indian) make fun of American stereotypes. It's kinda refreshing.

Harold & Kumar is good fun. But it might not be everyone's cup of tea coz there is lots of talk of weed and sexual humour.

Review, Review, Review, Review (That's 4 Reviews)

OK, have watched plenty of movie so here are some quick reviews of the last few. Actually, not sure if I should continue with these reviews coz I dunno if anyone reads them even. So, maybe if you do read them, how about saying something in my cbox so I can decide if I should continue doing them or not.

NIM'S ISLAND - I didn't really go to this movie with much expectation. I caught it simply coz there was nothing else to watch that day. I have to say I liked the movie in a weird kinda way. It was certainly quite childish, but I knew it was supposed to be, so that helped. I didn't take it too seriously so I didn't have an issue with Nim (the girl star) talking to the animals. I also liked how Jodie Foster didn't take herself very seriously and played a very funny author suffering from agoraphobia. Movie can be a little slow at times, but on the whole, an enjoyable, childish movie.

FORBIDDEN KINGDOM - Oh my goodness, how wrong can a movie get. Not much more wrong than this, I can tell you. This was supposed to be the ultimate showdown - Jet Li vs Jackie Chan, but it was just a big comedic attempt. What did they do wrong? (1) Do literal translations from Mandarin to English. Since when do we enter the Gate of No Gate to return to the Land of No Land where you Love of no Love exists? (2) Make the ancient chinese act like they had bilingual lessons in school! Since when did the chinese people of olden times speak english? American english no less! Come on, this was an obvious attempt to pander to the americans. When will Jackie take more pride in his own race. (3) An american kid as a hero in a chinese movie? OMG. To be fair, he did a decent job, but the whole idea is plain stupid. (4) Bad & sad Chinese stereotypes. The Jade Warlord and all his minions had a heavy does of eyeshadow. Don't ask me why. And the Jade Warlord spoke like some kuniang! And I loved it when the Jade Emperor (supposedly the king of the chinese gods) asks the ang mo kid "What is your request? Please?" SO POLITE!!! Like the Jade Emperor was some servant. This movie failed miserably as an action/kungfu film. If you are looking for a comedy, this is it.

THREE KINGDOMS - This is one complicated movie. They did try to give it a sense of scale and some of the battle scenes were not bad. But a poor script with a poor handling of the main characters left you wondering who was who and who did what. Kinda sad coz I know this is supposed to be an epic. It wasn't lousy. Just didn't live up to what it could have been.

STREET KINGS - This movie was kinda watchable. Nothing fantastic, which is a slight disappointment considering that Forest Whitaker is in it. Sadly, Whitaker overacts in this film and channels his 'Last King of Scotland' role too much. On the whole, this wasn't a bad movie, just a forgettable one. Felt just like a longer TV episode of the typical cops & villains show.

Buzzing Cashier

I never caught a proper episode of this show. Most of the time, I'm catching up on Last Comic Standing or something else. I finally remembered to set my Hubstation to record it tonite and for the first time, I watched a full episode and I must say I really enjoyed it very much!

First off, Kym Ng and Quan Yifeng are unbeatable as comperes. I've seen some of the other shows with the other mediacorp comperes and no one, not a single one, can compare to the chemistry of these two clowns. They are so witty and they can really play off each other. I don't think I've laughed so much at a mediacorp show in a long time.

Secondly, the concept of the show is really good. I heard it's loosely based on some english programme which I've never seen, so I don't really care. The basic idea is to go to a hawker/food court stall which is not doing well, offer to let the chefs undergo expert mentoring by some pro-chef and then see if they improve. This week's episode was so heartwarming I almost wanted to rush out to the food court stall to buy something from them to support the owner! The owner is this quiet, unassuming, humble man who was basically selling some mass produced char siew, roast pork, etc. So, he basically started learning from scratch how to make char siew and roast pork! He was so earnest and willing to learn and accept criticism. My heart really felt for him and his wife. I am so going to drop by cineleisure to try their char siew! In contrast, I think 2 or 3 weeks ago, I caught a bit of this hawker centre couple who were literally arguing and accusing the producers of the show when things didn't go too well.

It seems next week is already the last episode and I've missed the last 10 episodes. This might actually push me to try out mobtv so that I can catch those 10 episodes!

Great show!

My Toenailsectomy

I finally decided to go see my GP and get my toe nail sliced. I can't believe it, but it's been almost 2yrs since I first started having problems with an ingrown toenail on my left foot's big toe. 2 long yrs.

I've had countless visits to the podiatrist. Endured countless excruciating nail snips. Grinned through the toe infections.

I couldn't bring myself to go get it done coz I had heard that it was really painful. Well, I'm glad to say it wasn't painful at all. heh.

My GP first spent about 15mins injecting my toe at various points with a local anesthetic. When my toe finally lost it's feeling, he started working on slicing about a quarter of my nail off all the way to the roots of the nail. Basically, the idea is to stop that part of my nail from growing back every again. After about 10mins, it was done. He showed me the part he sliced off. I was quite tempted to take a pic for this blog, but kinda decided it might not be in very good taste to show a bloody nail. heh. Would have been cool though.

Anyway, he wrapped it up tight and good and now I look like those cartoon shows where they wrap a toe/finger until it looks a huge lightbulb. The local anesthetic started wearing off about 2 hours after the cut (which is about 1.5hrs ago) and it's starting to throb.... it's obvious that the pain is finally going to show it's true face.

Been warned about possible excessive bleeding. Doctor says it might even drip through the dressing.... (still can't decide if he was scaring me for fun or if it's true...) Thankfully, dun see any blood for now.

Glad I got it done. Hope I don't have this stupid ingrown toe nail problem again.

RIP Dear Friend

Today is a sad day.

After many many many years of good service, I have decided to let my favourite sleep-time-t-shirt go to the great clothes drawer up above. After many attempts at mending and patching (as you can see below), I think it's time to just let go. *sniff*

If I patched it anymore, it would probably be made of an entirely new T-shirt anyway. *sob*

It was one of my earliest BIG DOG shirts. It was one of my favouritest BIG DOG shirt.

Good bye. I will miss sleeping in you.

True or False?

There Brand's Essence posters have been posted up everywhere. The implications are obvious. But i wonder how true they are. If it's true that the two kids drank that chicken essence, at least it wouldn't be too bad. But if they didn't, then it's such a sad reflection of the unethicality (heh. my word) of the marketing industry. And what are we teaching these two 'top PSLE students'? The reality of false marketing and whoring themselves out to any company who is willing to pay?

Kinda sad, isn't it?

Nostalgia

Heard they were relooking into the redevelopment of the old capitol again. Hope it works out this time. So sad to see this icon wasting away. They've been talking about its redevelopment for years. Don't really know why it's been held up. I have many fond memories of the place. People of my era who've been there would undoubtedly remember the beautiful mosaic design on the ceiling. If memory serves me right, it was a mosaic of the zodiac. The last movie I watched there was MEMORIES, an anime that was being screened during the Singapore Film Festival. Can't quite remember when that was. lolz. I hope it can be brought back to its former glory. Maybe as a theatre/cinema. But please please PLEASE dun let it become some mall.

Patapon Demo

Okok, i'll try not to spam anymore Patapon stuff. But for those who have never tried this game or don't have a psp, you can try a PC demo version here.

Try it out and see why I'm so crazy over it.

Patapon (PSP) & Hot Shots Golf 5 (PS3) - Videos

Couldn't help it. Here are two youtube videos of these two great games!

Patapon Video


Hot Shots Golf 5 Video

Patapon (PSP) & Hot Shots Golf 5 (PS3)

My new distractions.... PATAPON (for PSP) & HOT SHOTS GOLF 5 (for PS3).

I hesitated with buying Patapon when it first game out coz I couldn't figure out what kind of game it was. It struck me as a 'lemmings-type' of game so I wasn't to interested at first. But recently, Play-Asia had an excellent sale and I manged to get the game (together with two other oldies) for less than S$35, shipping included! (I bought Caesar IV for the pc for S$7!!! Game shops are still selling the game at over S$60!).

Anyway, Patapon is an excellent game. It's basically a rhythm type game where you hit the PSP buttons in certain rhythms (so far, i've only need to learn 4 rhythms) which will then decide how the little characters (called Patapons) will behave. It's like playing the drum on a dragon boat or the war drums in those olden battle scenes. The animation is quirky and fun and the game is simple to pick up but kinda hard to get the rhythm just right. I've only started playing the game for a couple of hours and I'm hooked. If you like rhythm type games, Patapon is not to be missed.

Here's a silly trumpet mini-game where you copy the tree's rhythm to get him to drop stuff from his branches. Much like collecting dandruff. heh.

Below is an awesome battle scene which I have to reach. Given the interesting variety of troops, it's gonna take me some time to reach such a level I'm sure.


OK, my other distraction is Hot Shots Golf 5 for the PS3. I've never really liked golf video games. Always thought they were kinda stupid. But after playing the demo on the ps3 last year, I couldn't wait for the english version to be released. Maybe I'm getting... old... sigh.. but that's another story... I find HSG5 pretty relaxing to play and I really like the cartoony style graphics. It's not too difficult to pick up the game either.

The characters are really funny and animated very well. Love the little touches like all the special effects when you get the timing just right!

My slight complain is that I believe the graphics for the scenery can probably be much more awesome and realistic given the power of the ps3. But, then again, the game as a whole is interesting and the graphics do fit the style overall.

So there you have it. Patapon to keep me occupied on the bus/train. Hot Shots Golf to keep me occupied in my room. :)