*ms INTRUDER foo. (;

gdday everyone ! hurr hurr. im an intruder who is secretly leaving a message while our friend is still in slumber land. :D nothing much is up. just tt im at work and a lil bored cause im waiting for stuff so that i can do my stuff. so just dropping by to annoy.

to aidan goh ching ming : happy 10 months babes. (: thank u for being so tolerant with my grumpy-ness. <33 Godbless + & necessarily not ? necessarily not. ilu*

It's time for another diary entry, and as anyone who checks this often enough can see, updates are few and far apart. I just renewed my Diaryland subscription (yes, I have to pay for this blog) and I figured out that it would be a terrible waste if I just left it alone for too long. Gotta sweep the dust off and get my procrastinating ass to getting another entry up.

I have alot of stuff I could talk about, so I'll just write whatever comes to my mind. The cruise that I just had over the weekend comes up right away. Honestly, that is my kind of a holiday. Just to eat, no, gourge myself silly, and being pampered and all just makes it better. Jean and I went aboard Superstar Virgo by Star Cruise, and we basically pretty much ate. And ate. And ate. And we played Bingo too, which is terribly exciting for the uninitiated like me, but gets boring quickly. We tanned, yes, even though it isn't at all apparent, I did sit in the sun for an hour and a half. We caught a movie, went to the gym, got a nice massage, strolled around the ship and basically just to unwind and relax. I loved it, and I would go for it again if I could.

Magic is a game that is really growing, not in Singapore, but in the States. There have been a fraud conviction from someone who was not delivering sales of Black Lotuses and other Power Nine stuff on eBay, and got handed a jail term of 1-2 years, I think. And just recently, Wizards is pursuing legal action against rancored_elf and others for leaking spoilers before sets are released. It just shows that Wizards are sufficiently concerned enough to want to protect their core product. Also, there has been a scammer on MTGO who has scammed thousands of dollars from Wizards in credit card chargebacks. And I just have this pending transaction which appears to be an unauthorized transaction claim filed by a buyer on eBay. And I thought not accepting credit cards directly will negate the risks of chargebacks. I had never knew it possible to claim an unauthorized on a transaction done through eBay, but apparently it is quite possible. I stand to lose like 150 bucks, but there were sellers, and a whole lot of them, who would be losing alot more. So its crazy. The fact that these are digital products are the main reason why there so many such cases, as it is a whole lot harder to trace their delivery, and companies usually give the buyer the benefit of the doubt. So there you have it. The treacherous world of Internet commerce. I'm complaining again, but a year later, I'll still be complaining again.

Yesterday was Pauline's birthday. Happy birthday! My conscience had actually been loud enough to make itself heard, and compelled me to get her something, if not to make up for the years I've not, at least not to miss it this year. So, yeah, I got her something small, as much as to surprise her as so assauge my guilt. And today marks 10 months of Jean and I. 10 months, damn, can you believe it? It's nearing a year soon, and from the looks of it we are gonna still be together. I had better do something about it...

Just kidding. I had been talking to Maureen alot more recently, and had sufficiently caught up with her over a few stuff. Ya know, it is really nice when someone believes in you and says something about that belief. One of the most memorable statements in my life was when Maureen said I will turn out to be a great guy. I'm still far from that, but hey, I certainly wasn't the lazy self-centred immature bastard I was back then when Maureen said that and everyone else just rolled their eyes at me.

Newcastle. Newcastle newcastle newcastle. Whatever can I say about you. The same. So full of potential unrealized. Next.

Bangkok's next on the list. Looking at the list of expenses, I shudder. I hope I can come up with enough to support them.

Perth in less than a month? If not for my car, I would be totally loathing to go back. Somehow, it seems to be alot more funner in Singapore than it is in Perth. But I am also looking forward to another semester in UWA. Kinda have had enough of bumming around and would like to actually get back to studying. And maybe it isn't all that bad at Currie Hall, with the usual crop of friends and people as well as the new batch of freshies.

Well, I haven't been bumming around exactly. Suin Yong and I finished up with a stint at Jurong JC selling cosmetic jewelery. It was a decent 'test the market', and I have an idea of what would sell well and what would yield a nice profit margin. And also how girls could pay for bits of metal and plastic that look nice. It's just, well, not weird, just amazing. I learnt quite a few stuff from this, and also about myself. I think I am a horrible person to work with. I'm bossy and demanding, and somehow, I don't think I'll ever make a great business partner. I think I am better off being on my own, and if, IF, I ever get to have employees, someone please remind me to not be such an obnoxious bastard.

If there was ever a worst dining experience, today would be it. I can't for the life of me remember any other incident that was as repulsive as today's dinner. Maybe it was also because the price was a factor, but even hawkers have a higher standard on their fare than this restaurant opposite Billy Bombers and beside Pastamania in Bugis Junction. They had some promotion set dinners which cost only $17.90, and it was fronted by this middle-aged waiter with a 'fragrant' body odour. Never mind, it's not like we are gonna be in close proximity with him. We sat ourselves down, made our order of grilled fish and chicken each, and buffalo wings to start it all off. The cream of mushroom came, and it was actually sour. The buffalo wings positively stank of leftovers and borderline rot. It tasted gross as well, and our moods were doused at this point of time. The main course came, and while the fish was edible, the chicken tasted and smelled nearly the same as the wings. We were too upset to finish the food, and called Mr B.O. over to have him rectify that the wings was fit for human consumption, and not even to justify that it cost 9 bucks. He disappeared into the kitchen, and return claiming that it is the marination. Yeah right, unless you marinate it in dog urine, it shouldn't be anything like that. We tried to finish as much of the food as possible, but the mood was almost entirely negative, and we called for the bill even though dessert wasn't served. I didn't want to hang around to find mould on my pudding, and I didn't want to find out if Mr B.O. had matching bad breath to go along by arguing with him that the buffalo wings stank as nearly as much as he did. And to top it all off, even though we were clearly traumatized by the entire experience, and have clearly rejected the wings, we were still charged for them. That spoke volumes of the restaurant's policy towards customers; take their money and leave them be. I'm sure the wings cost as much as the pudding that we had foregone, but no, they had to charge us for wings marinated in dog urine. You have been warned.

I need to fail my IPPT before I leave. I mean, book it. I also have something I have to see to about my exit permit last year and not reporting that I was back in Singapore. It is annoying, I mean, like how the army still hangs on to you even after you have given 2 years to them.

But barring that, I keep hearing things about how Singapore is small. Saturated too. The government has been encouraging the younger generation to branch out overseas and work. But I find that Singapore is still a pretty good place to live in. I really love Singapore, and being away just accentuates it. While many other people find Singapore too hectic, I think Australians are a lazy bunch of people. My heart would probably slow down until I die if I live there. I don't know, but I really like how Singaporeans are so meticulous, so kiasu and so competitive. Being kiasu may be bad if you are talking about Hello Kitty, but there are many other areas in which being kiasu has helped Singapore to where it is today. And while Singapore is small, it has one of the highest population densities in the world. Sure, China has a population of 1 billion, but if you don't have the means to reach out to 4 million people in Singapore, there isn't gonna be much difference if you move to China. I guess it is all about the industry you are in. And until I start making regular CPF contributions, I have decided that PAP is the best thing for Singapore. Yeah, it's boring, they are always winning. If ya want an exciting government, I hear Iraq is a good place, with all the dictators and war and upheavals.

I realized that I am not a very gadgeted person. I find little use for PDAs and digicams and MP3 players, and I don't lust after them either. I used to lust after gaming devices, like how I should be lusting after a PSP, but I don't even do that now. I don't mind not being able to take pictures at will, or to listen to music wherever I go. Just a book on the move, and writing down little tasks on scraps of papers is enough to keep my life organized currently.

Which brings me to Dune. I find that I really struggle through the original Dune series past the first book. I love the universe, and I thought it was very well introduced in the first book. But from the second book onward, the focus shifted to the religious and philsophical aspects, and away from the politcal ones. There's alot of abstract conversations, and it is increasingly difficult to trudge through all them. I would have given up if I have not been more than halfway through the book. I am 2/3s of the way into KOTOR2, and I intend to finish it before I head back to Perth.

Ok, that's all I can think up of for now. I should return not too long later with a report of CNY takings, and maybe more musings and loud thoughts.