Good ol' LAN-ing

After a series of mostly down and bummer events for the previous week, it was gr8 that I finally caught up with HH over dinner. This was followed with an overnight LAN marathon, with XK joining in our party, something which we used to do in our 4D days. Of course the sore difference is our gaming numbers weren't as large as they used to be (Damn I still can remember the times when half my class would crash the LAN shop in Coronation Plaza!) and it's so hard to play with friends nowadays (work commitment plus the idea that guys our age shldn't be doing this cos it's the world for teenagers!!). And rightly so cos it was army boys and kids who dominated the scene. But I really needed this break or any sort of break...perhaps to forget just how shitty, practical and troubled the real world is or maybe perhaps to re-live the good ol' days in sec. sch of carefree-ness that have long been lost.

Anw rantings aside, some crap stuff on that night. Firstly, I noticed there were quite a number of obese guys in the LAN shop, whom I swear are the perfect embodiment of Eric Cartman and the hard-core obese WoW player in the South Park episode of "Make Love, Not Warcraft"!! HH and I cldn't help but chuckle at that. A short clip to show what I mean...

Secondly, tried my hand in playing Red Alert 3. Always liked trying out new stuff at LAN centres! Crazy non-too-serious C&C fun as always expected from the franchise..


The other game that got us hooked was Left 4 Dead, this new recently released FPS which is incredibly satisfying and engaging. Definitely one of the best games I have tried in terms of multi-player online playing experience. (erm...exclude MMORPGS pls) And of course, who doesn't like blowing up zombies especially after watching movies like Dawn of the Dead and 28 Weeks Later?


A good review which accurately sums up my thoughts on the game

November Babies....and a bit of October ones too?

Celebrated Selina, Tony and Daniel's birthday at Ichiban Boshi and Bakerzin. Was surprised that the girls wanted to celebrate again for the October ones (mine and Simon's) too. We got a belt from them. Very thoughtful :)

And moving on to our cake at Bakerzin...




wAHAHA!!! I did not squeeze Simon so hard hor! Unlike someone..keke..look at the previous photo to see where my seating was...

Our sweet aftermath...Christine always luvs to term this "shit"

Stranded

Gahh!! Can't believe what happened over the past 2 days... It's bad enough to have a very kan cheong spider superior. How is it even possible to call within a span of 1 minute to rush for a fax? I've barely put down the phone, taken out the necessary documents out of the folder and arrange them before walking to the fax machine and here comes the 2nd call!! And I also missed the company lunch buffet cos he said it was urgent that I had to catch the taxi to Jurong Island so as to catch the next internal shuttle bus at 1215hrs or else have to wait till 1300hrs. I think he was not considering the fact I am a hungry person needing my lunch!! Don't really see the point of rushing down when I can finish lunch in Pioneer (a decent company-sponsored lunch buffet!!) quickly and then go. And in any case, upon arrival at Jurong Island, I waited equally long for the 1215 bus and went straight for lunch anw.....so defeats the whole purpose of going "early".

Throughout the journey, the taxi uncle and bus driver was talking cock with me and bemusing the fact that I am the only joker to be travelling during lunch time. The bus driver was crapping on 2nd chances while the taxi uncle decided to buy 4D number from the Jurong Island pass he collected. He even thought I looked someone familiar he drove before! Hmm.....at least they were the people to brighten up my day!

Oh and did I forget to add? On the first day, spider forgot to cater for transportation back to Pioneer for me despite promising so over sms (no way i could leave the site on Jurong Island on my own without the security pass and in any case my bag was in Pioneer)! So that left me stranded behind. Luckily the second day I decided to bring my bag over, and settle my own security shit. No way was I gonna be left behind like that......

Was just thinking....if u are stranded behind, could it mean that you are possibly just an expendable property? I know not all interns are treated really fairly...but put it this way...the moment you are considered expendable property, you probably didn't have a close relationship or even any darn relationship with that person whom you thought would look out for you in the first place....

Bleagh!! Simply hate this....

Change...hmm...Are things so different now?

Can say that I haven't technically returned to NUS even though I am just taking one evening class module. It's been a great first 6 months overseas, and a fairly busy yet fulfilling internship thereafter. Yet somehow can't help but feel that by being absent for a year, things have changed quite a bit. Suffice to say, the world goes on without you, and the winds of change hit so hard that you can't even recognise some things le.

When I talk about change, it's stuff in the news that all look bleak nowadays. If it isn't something about stocks and shares plunging, it's about the recession (read: less likely to hire fresh grads), job retrenchment, pay cuts, or maybe some natural disaster or scandal happening. And I thought news in the UK already bleak enough with definitely some article related to youth crime / stabbing or just how screwy the weather is. How would one ever expect all the shit that has happened, or will probably happen, to hit so hard 6 months ago?

Regardless, change is always inevitable and all we can do is to adapt to it and pine for the best. Hope the situation will not be so awkward into the next year...

SP Season 12 Thoughts

Season 12 of South Park just ended the 2nd half of its run, so here are some quick thoughts to the recent episodes.

1208 - The China Problem
Cartman expresses his fear of the Chinese and thinks they are taking over the world! The opening sequence follows that of the recent opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics, which I thought was brilliantly done. Meanwhile, the boys are concerned over how bad the recent Indiana Jones movie was which I could totally relate to since I watched it in Loughborough, cos George Lucas and Stephen Spielberg completely "raped" him. Literally raped him...

Cartman's nightmare


Omg!! They raped Indy!!

1209 - Breast Cancer Show Ever
An episode where we see Cartman getting bashed up by Wendy for mocking her breast cancer awareness efforts. All the funny things Cartman would do to avoid the final battle (e.g things like getting himself in detention and eating his underwear). The climax itself: of course the final battle between the 2.

Killer Titties on the Loose


Underwear Eating!!

1210 and 1211 - Pandemic - the Startling (2-parter episode)
A classic South Park style story, filled with ridiculous stuff and random shit. Giant monsters show up to destroy the world and the boys are here to save it!! Follows the shooting style of Cloverfield very closely which was really part of the delight of the whole episode.

I'm soooo startled....

1212 - About Last Night...
An episode which left me scratching my head a little. Was definitely related to Obama's win as President of the USA, but over here, he's actually a diamond thief in cahoots with McCain!!! The diamond heist part spoofs Ocean's 11 somewhat but more importantly brings the point that regardless Republican or Democrat, these guys are the ones who run the show!!

Introducing Obama's merry little band!

1213 - Elementary School Musical
Yesh!! South Park finally spoofs on High School Musical!! And they are trying to say how totally gay the whole thing is. Interesting point: in the movies, it's the male lead who wants to sing instead of playing basketball, over in South Park, it's the opposite. The new kid's gayish dad was also the highlight of the episode with his slap-happy antics. And the best part was the finale with the boys doing their very own musical song!

Everyone is Special! The first song and introducing the new kid who looks suspiciously like the guy from HSM

1214 - The Ungroundable
This episode is related to the upcoming vampire movie Twilight. The problem: people always seem to mix up vampires with goths, both their style and fashion and that pisses the gothic kids off! And as usual: Butters lives in his own delusional world by thinking he's a vampire! In that way, he can't be grounded by his father and hence the title of the episode.

The Goth kids get mistaken for vampires

Butters is ungroundable!!

Overall a memorable run for this Season 12. My favourite episode is 1213, the most wackiest episode goes to 1211 while the least favourable one is 1212.

Lambo Lambo

Ever wondered what a family car by Lamborghini would look like? Well here it is...the Lamborghini Estoque concept...though I can't make out the 4 doors and it still looks like one helluva sleek sports car. Looks good though...

A good interesting read: http://jalopnik.com/5057601/lamborghini-estoque-concept-in-full-high+resolution-glory-now-with-details

Body of Lies....Terrorism at work

Wootz!! HR exam over!! Went down to watch Body of Lies at PS with Selina and Simon. When was the last time I actually strolled down Orchard Road leisurely on a weekday afternoon and watching a movie costing $6.50? Damn....must have been ages....

Anw...short vibes about the movie...overall a not too bad action thriller focusing on the war against terrorism. Story's kinda tight, although the action, soundtrack is sooo Ridley Scott (the guy who did Black Hawk Down). Russell Crowe somehow got way way way much fatter here compared to his Gladiator days. Leonardo Dicaprio is reprising his Blood Diamond stint with his more "macho" and less "pretty boy" image with lots of his dialogue laced with F*&^%$!!! Only reason why the show got NC16 is this one scene in the movie where Dicaprio gets his fingers smashed brutally onscreen during his captivity (captured and videoed by sick Muslim extremists) and oh of course if you can't handle the sight of a Chinese couple getting blown up in Amsterdam (during a terrorist attack), then I suppose that's another reason.

Sweded....

Did not know what came over me, but I actually bought the DVD for the movie "Be Kind Rewind". Was feeling kinda pissed that the movie was cut halfway aboard the plane on my return flight home from SEP and I did not get to finish it!! But anw this movie caught my attention at that time cos it had Jack Black in it and it's actually quite interesting. The plot is simple: Jack Black gets magnetized, accidentally erases the tapes in his friend's VHS store and now to cover up, they have to "swede" the movies. These "sweded" movies unexpectedly become popular with the customers.

A short definition of "sweding" from the Urban Dictionary is as follows:
"The summarized recreation of popular pop-culture films using a camcorder, limited budgets, amateur actors and loads of creativity. The process is called sweding. Upon completion the film has been Sweded." Customers are told that they have to wait longer and pay more for these movies cos they come from Sweden, hence the name "sweded"!

Of course they face obstacles along the way and the most difficult one is the task of making the money to save their video store from being relocated. In the end, they rope in the towns-folk in a community effort to make their own movie. While the film is not laugh-out-loud funny, it is light-hearted and kinda heart-warming to see the 2 like-able dudes pull in everyone in their community to make things work.

And not to forget, with the film's release, the Internet was set abuzz with tons of 'sweded" movies created by fans. Some of which I found and enjoyed and I think you can probably relate to are posted below: (Remember...it's low budget and amateurish and I feel that you must have watched the original movie to at least understand and laugh at some of the things these guys do, that's the whole meaning of being "sweded" :p)

Terminator 2


Predator


Star Wars


Jurassic Park


Armageddon


Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring

Lufbra Memories

Omg! I just had to put this up cos it brings so many wonderful memories back, and especially so during this time of mugging and exams. Thanks to Yisi for creating this vid and letting us relive those moments. Sure has put a smile back to all of us Lufbra peeps!

HR Presentation Surprise

Wootz! Presentation's finally over, so I'm gonna put up some of the lame stuff that we produced here just for laughs. Basically we were holding a mock meeting for the Union and below are some of the crappy stuff we injected into our slides! Try to spot some familiar chem eng faces in here!

FYI, the guy right in the middle is our lecturer in charge of the whole module..

Listening in to what our PM has to say...

A mock conference with a sleepy dude...

This pic is a personal favourite! Campaigning for a good cause!

Taking the children out has never been this fun before!

I didn't know Eric was so much taller than Tony....hmm....


And now introducing our short "production" we ran before the actual presentation...if you have been watching local cinema, you would know where this came from....kudos for KW getting the best actor award, Eric for having the best crying scene award, Tony for being the aspiring director, myself for being the sound technician and Aaron for being the logistic support. Enjoy!

Tropic Thunder: My kinda movie!

Watched this crazy movie recently and I like this kinda genre of movies. Those that don't really take itself too seriously and laugh-out-loud kind. Think nearly every character / supporting cast had their memorable moments or quotable quotes. When you have Ben Stiller and Jack Black, can't really go too wrong. :p

Things that I like:

1) Cock up story that sounds quite believable...dumping a bunch of prima-donna actors into the middle of the jungle to shoot a movie only to find themselves involved in a "real" war movie with druggies.

2) Believable starting trailers for the actors, espeically for Kirk Lazarus' gay priest one with Tobey Maguire! Tobey's expression looks damn wrong la!! And Speedman's "Who left the fridge open" cheesy comment in his action sequels.

3) They blew up the director!! Yesh!! He was Brit anw.....oh well..

4) The Chinese / Vietnamese / Flaming Dragons in the movie. Their Chinese was horribly horribly BAAAD! So bad that I laughed like siao especially the little gang leader and the dialogue exchange they had with Lazarus when he was impersonating as the farmer.

5) Booty Sweat. The "I like pussy" black guy who promotes the energy drink who also turns out to be gay. Tony and Peiyi kinda agreed that when they see this character, they thought of me loh.....haha wth.....Jack Black then responds that he would gladly suck his balls before giving a vivid description of it in order to be released from being tied.

6) Tom Cruise...a fat, bald and vulgarity spewing Tom Cruise. They literally put the guy in a fat suit and had him violently dissing everyone...even right to the Flaming Dragon gang....my bro said he and his friends enjoyed that part cos it made them remember their lessons in law when Cruise touched on some International Law Code and scorch earth policy!

7) And of course the star of the show, in my opinion, was Robert Downey Jr, with his portrayal of the black sergeant, and actor that refuses to break character and gets kinda confused in the process. Hilarity ensues. But the best part was his Chinese dialogue exchange with the gang leader that led to him blasting his way through and ending with "I'm a lead farmer, muthaf*&&*^("!

The Lead Farmer...don't mess with him!

Majide!!!!!!!

Just recently watched the whole season of "I Survived A Japanese Game Show" online cos I was at first intrigued when it first came out on Channel 5. It's damn wacky though I thought the games were mild and it's just so like the Japs. The priceless part though comes from the stunned and WTF reactions from the Americans as well as some of their close-mindedness...but can't really blame them cos dun think they have ever stepped out of their U.S.of A in the first place.

Ok so everybody ready? Let's get started!! Haiii.......Majide!!!! (You've got to be crazy!!!)

HRrrrawr!!

HR exam and presentations...it's the exam season and that mugging feeling is heavy in the air, especially so in school.

HRHRHRHRHRHRHRHRHRHRHRHRHRHRHRHRHRHRHRHRHRHRHRHR

Hurhurhurhurhurhurhurhurhurhurhurhurhurhurhurhurhurhurhurhurhurhur!

My take on Ubin Seafood

Met up with relatives for grandpa's birthday at Ubin Seafood. A bit out of the way at Blk 27 Sin Ming Road. Location was beside some industrial estate and the restaurant itself used to be the industrial canteen before renovation. Wow...trust my aunt to find places like this everytime sia..

Anw food-wise, the usual stuff includes fish, crabs, kang kong....zi char style. Selling point was their crab bee hoon, but we did not order that. Went for the crispy pork knuckle instead which went very well with the deep mustardy sauce. Black pepper crab was ok to me...not really a fan of crabs so not sure how to rate it....i'm just happy if i can get to the meat...lol! The fish not very fresh though...and the crayfish tasted funny though it came in huge portions.

Surprisingly, the staff served dessert which was the yam paste with gingko nuts complimentary cos we had 3 tables and was a birthday celebration too. Dessert damn sweet liaoz...but the younger kids seem to like it.....oh well...everytime I go for family gatherings I'm always out of touch with my cousins de...but my aunts were quite interested in asking me abt my return from SEP so at least I had something to talk about instead of the usual "hi how are you / you have grown taller / you got gf" kinda conversation.

Found the foodie review here: http://www.hungrygowhere.com/singapore/ubin_seafood_sin_ming/

Should start asking my aunt still got what places to recommend to eat...hmmm.....

Office Ergonomics......ergo what?!?

Dunno if just recently got a bit older or what but I just can't seem to be relieved of that persisting neck pain. Must be not getting enough stretching in the office when doing work or plain bad posture. So to my surprise, I found out this programme called Office Athlete in the computer network which is basically a software designed to minimize repetitive strain injuries in the workplace by sending reminders and tips to stretch at certain set timings. It also measures the number of keystrokes, mouse clicks, distance your mouse has moved etc. Pretty neat.....tried clocking in for the afternoon and the result: 6000++ keystrokes, 5000++ mouse clicks and 2000 feet worth of mouse distance travelled.........is that normal?!? HMmmm......

Btw ergonomics as defined: the scientific discipline concerned with designing according to the human needs, and the profession that applies theory, principles, data and methods to design in order to optimize human well-being and overall system performance. So that means designing for a better workplace?

Forked on a Birthday

Leading the November babies is Anqi, where we celebrated at Holland V. Actually I was just looking for a dinner and drink with KW...did not expect to "crash" her party!! Anw best wishes to the birthday girl!

Forks for the girls....vote for the best facial expression! (Anqi wins hands / forks down :P)



......RIghttt........

Face to the cake!!

.....which led to a cake fight that saw SY receiving even more dmg than dealt!! Lol