Post 137

Let's see....

This will be my last post. However, before I terminate this blog here, I would like to share a final few useless points.

1. This blog is ending because I realised that my "fellow victims" were actually the spies. Great. I could have killed them anytime, but no. I let them go. And now the idea is getting old and lame. Lame is not me, therefore I am cutting off here.

2. Every post has a unique title. They may follow a theme, but all of them have unique names. Go ahead, see all of them.

3. I got into blogging because I was emo. Just check the date. Very few of you would know why. Honestly. Now I am stuck blogging because I use more brains blogging than playing CS. It's like GP practice, you know. Rather than spray-and-pray violence. I still like it, though.

4. Spies ARE still everywhere. I know. I'm one of them. Don't we all spy on each other? Even stealing a glance without other people's knowledge is spying, because they don't know you're looking at them. Hence spying.

5. This is the last useless point.

Goodbye.

Please click here.

This is it,

I need a new title.

No, this blog does not suck. But when I look hard at my title, I realise that it does not reflect my state of mind any longer. Besides, this blog pretty much is all about what happened in 2oo7. It has no relevance in 2oo8, and it makes me sounds like a paranoiac. A paranoiac is close to being an unstable person. Since I am of sound mind, I therefore cannot bear an unstable reputation, although I somewhat do. Never mind that.

Anyway, I am building a new blog and thrashing this one now, and there's nothing you can do about it.

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S'pore and Georgetown

I think an end-of-year entry is quite due, but I will do that somewhere around tomorrow-- i mean, later today. Hopefully.

In the meantime, I have just returned from a tiring trip down Georgetown. Now I realise that it's not such a small world out there after all. There are so many differences between S'pore and Georgetown.

1: You order your food in Hokkien in Georgetown. In Singapore you use plain, old, English. Barbaric compared to refined, smooth Hokkien.

2: You can't tell the kopitiam aunty "Sui Kam Peng" in S'pore and expect her to know what that is (It's lime juice in Hokkien, by the way). Heck, when you order "Gyu Don" (which is Japanese for a beef rice dish) from some Japanese stalls in S'pore, they go "HUH?", forcing you to look through the menu for something that is in their vocabulary.

3: In Georgetown, you can take S$2 and have a hearty lunch. Food and drink, and spare change too. In S'pore you're lucky if you can buy 1 plate of chicken rice with that S$2.

4: People in Georgetown have given up on traffic lights. They just chiong the roads. People in S'pore go to pains to find a crossing, because there are so many of them anyway. And the timings are so good that you could shuffle your feet and still make it. Personally, I prefer chionging. It makes you feel like you're building your judgemental skills on a daily basis. Kinda like walking up stairs to get stronger.

5: Drivers in Georgetown are better than S'porean drivers. Actually, thai drivers have mad skillz, but since I'm not talking about Thailand, Georgetown will do. But they're still better than S'porean drivers. In S'pore, everything is laid out so systematically, almost robotically. There isn't much judging for drivers to do. So when there is a need for quick thinking, their brains stop, and instictively avert the disaster, doing whatever seems best, which usually means swerving into someone else's way. Blasting of horns ensue.

6: Slums don't exist in S'pore. Everything must be in tip-top shape so that the country can reach maximum efficiency. Next thing you know, we'll be importing Japanese scientists to build us humanoid robots to do a day's work in an hour. But it's nice to see back-alleys for a change in Georgetown. I mean, people live in slums because they obviously can't afford better houses. They have to eke out a living. Hopefully they are honest workers, unlike blue-collar workers who go around office-politicking.

7: Squatters don't exist in S'pore either. Which is a good thing, because we don't want people claiming land by virtue of having sat there for a decade. But some squatters own chickens, and there's even a squatter fishing near Georgetown. So they live honest lives too. It's the principle that counts.

And the thing which makes Georgetown better than S'pore, no matter how lousy you may think it is...

8: The Char Koay Teow. You cannot deny it. It rox.

Well, it is 3.15am now. Too bad I cannot stay up like this anymore soon. Good night, spies. You should go to Georgetown. I'll provide the cannon. It will be a great show.

Christmas.

All I know is that Christmas is 7 days away from the end of the year.

And that's all X'mas means to me. You would know why if you know me well enough. Which you probably don't. Aw.

Once again, I am short of time because I leave blogging to the last minute, so I have to cut off here. Good night, spies.

Still Standing

Going to Malaysia has taught me a few things. For instance, You can have a solid meal for S$1. Being a tourist feels good.

It appears that guys and girls of my age alike all want partners. That's not shocking news because I can testify to the 'calling'. What I am wondering is whether it is practical to foster a relationship when our occupation is listed as 'student'. Is it practical?

As students, we have studies to worry about. Duh. We also interact with one another, and will always find someone to take a fancy to. Please take a fancy to those people, because no one can stop you. However, we should not take it too far because that's like jumping into the deep end. Gah, I sound like some nagging parent.

On the other hand... your good friend is a convenient study partner. I like the idea of study partners. Both benefit, both get the good grades, and both become better friends. Compare that to closet muggers, who don't make friends whilst mugging without anybody to talk to. Closet mugging is therefore a cause of nerdiness. Do you want to be a nerd? I doubt it. Therefore, having a good friend can be quite beneficial for your studies.

But having a good friend also means that you are all the more compelled to buy him/her a gift on their birthday, on Vday, etc. Wallet burned. You would also feel compelled to help them in things which may not fully benefit you. Time burned. You lose time and money, but you feel good about it, and that's all that matters. You feel good. Right?

And that's what this world wants now. Instant gratification. They want to feel good and they want to feel good now. Instant coffee mix. Instant noodles. Everything is instant. They even have instant chicken rice mix. Last time, it took a day to cook good chicken rice from scratch. Now all you have to do is buy the mix and throw it into the rice pot. Or something. I haven't tried the mix but it's definitely easier that poaching a chicken for hours.

Well, all this is amusing, but if there is a point to this aimless bashing, it would be that we should think more long-term. There's short term and long term, just like in econs. Everyone wants to feel good now without realising the consequences. Environment problems is one, but that's another story. The world will slowly run into a dead end unless people look ahead and not down at their feet to see if they're stepping on any rocks.

Wow, such aimless ranting. From love to gratification to the end of the world. I hope this blog has imprinted itself as unique in this fashion.

Oh yeah, I may decide to change the blog title. Just a thought, toying around with it, but I cannot shake the feeling that people overseas are really spying on me, and this becomes scary because I cannot track them. They might be spying on me to find out where I live, and then come at me with guns and knives. I don't want that. I want peace. Peace, bro.

Good day, spies.

How strange.

For some reason, I get the stinging feeling that some people grab ideas for their blogs by looking at each other's blogs.. including mine. That's not fair.

In Malaysia, it is not easy to find Internet access. Hence the 7-day rift. I hope that none of you go mad and vandalise my home while I am out. It's not very nice to destroy people's belongings, you know...

Penang has been slow. The way I like it. Everything is a 5-minute walk away. Except the city, where the arcade is. Dooh. Plus I have quite some time to spend here. I will be back... sometime. I can't think of anything else to say. Darn.

I am running short of time. I will continue some other day if and when I have the chance. Good evening, and hopefully you won't die from the lack of updates.

Sawatdee Khrab

You figure out what that means.

Bangkok was nice. Apart from the polluted streets which gave me an almost stinging feeling all over, it was nice. The sun sets at 6, but Bangkok was nice. We bought a whole lot of strange things, like chewing gum (not strange), to glass vials of varying sizes that come complete with cork stoppers (a bit strange), and finally a charcoal pencil about 1 foot long (somewhat strange).

On the second day, we went to this big place called Chatuchak Market. The place is basically a department store, only that it's not air-conditioned, there are hundreds of shops instead of one brand name, and most importantly, you can bargain. They even divided the place into aisles, like one row of shops would be for clothes, or for furniture. We spent about 2 hours there, and bought things like those salt/pepper shakers which resemble a hugging couple (It's rather abstract though. No pics, so too bad).

We got bored thereafter, so we decided to find an arcade. And we decided to do it with style. So we got into a tuk-tuk and went to MBK. The ride was fun. You spent half the time clinging onto the side in attempts not to fall off the vehicle. Which was pretty pointless because the tuk-tuk is in reality quite safe, but there were 3 people sitting in the back, and the tuk-tuk is quite small, so that made the tuk-tuk feel not so safe. But the ride was cheap. 120 baht, and MBK is quite far.

MBK was good too. It was that strange shopping centre which I thought was split into 4. Which it isn't. But it's still big. Anyway, we went there and finished House of the Dead 4 using 140 baht, which is dirt cheap because 1 continue costs 10 baht. When you compare that to Singapore, it only makes sense to play arcade games in Bangkok because one game here costs S$1.50 to S$2.00. The prices jack up in Australia, where games go from A$1.00 to A$2.00. Given the choice, it's only sensible to play in Bangkok, but the only problem is that Bangkok is a very far place to go to by foot. So I'm stuck to playing at super high prices. Oh yeah, we got ourselves some nice joke shirts. You might notice them in the future, so keep watching.

The third day was also interesting. We wanted to go to Paragon, so we were headed toward the Skytrain (quite an efficient system. I like it), when some guy in a tuk-tuk offers to bring us there for 20 baht. That's cheap. But there's a little trick. We must pay a visit to a jewelry shop first. So after halving the trip cost to 10 baht, we jumped aboard the tuk-tuk and visited this shop. They actually make their own gems there, and they even convert currency there if you want to buy from their shop next to where they cut the gems. If you go there, don't convert your currency there because it's a rip. It really looks like a place tour groups would go to. Maybe we should just ditch the tour packages next time because they cost money, and on top of that, you can actually strain discounts from whoever is bringing you to these places.

We went to MBK after Paragon, and played even more arcade. Didn't finish any games this time, but realised Ghost Squad is not really that fun after all because the gun, modeled after a UMP45 (I think), is so cumbersome. Went for bowling after that, and lunch. That kind of stuff. Then it was Chinatown, where we found this back-alley shop selling noodles. It's really back-alley (duh). The shop is sandwiched between the buildings, and it comes complete with junk piled on one side of the street.Despite all the junk, there are no flies. Strange. Food is cheap in Bangkok, and good to eat as well. So far, I haven't gotten food poisoning, therefore the food is good.

Last day was busy because the flight was at 11.45. Nothing to say there, and I am running out of time once again...

So I shall end off here. Good evening, spies. As of tomorrow, I will magick myself away from here, and end up in Malaysia. Maybe I will blog in, maybe I won't. If you want, pray hard that I will, but who am I to exert my hopes on you.. Whatever. Good evening.