Friday, November 20, 2009

Friday...but I'm super sleepy now...

It's that dreaded post-lunch syndrome...

I call it the 'pig-pig' syndrome, where individuals will always feel sleepy and experience this intense desire to rest their heads on their desks and sleep. I am quite traumatized by this because I've been trying to find a way to stay awake so far, and the only way is blogging. At least it forces me to use my brain to think and construct ideas around the English language.

I am seriously dozing off as I write this...I just want to go home. Please......

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

A Phoenix Down for Me & You

Last night was great.

I managed to procure and use a phoenix down for myself.

And I think at the same time, you got one for yourself too.

Time to start leveling-up again, and learn new skills, and may we meet again when we've attained our next Limit Breaks/Overdrives attacks.

Cheers babe!

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Goodbye

Sitting together one last time in a place that held so many memories.
Expressing all that needed to be expressed - one with words; one without.
Lingering touches and longing looks.
Whispered thoughts and careful embraces.
Kisses that flowed through trembling lips.
The back of hands, wet from wiping away hot, painful, poignant tears.
The dull thud of a joking sentence, that just wasn't that funny anymore.
The very real fact of farewell sinks into both poor, unfortunate souls.
The closing of one platform makes one wonder if it will ever be revisited.
It feels like a book is being archived, never to be seen again for a long, long time to come.
The cool caress of the night wind makes it that much harder, as the pillows and the bedclothes give up little comfort.

A final kiss of berries and lips oh-so soft.
A final embrace of love disappearing, and yet not.
Such is the torment that was chosen, so many years ago.
Goodbye my love, goodbye.

Friday, November 13, 2009

Pro Tour Qualifier (Singapore) - San Diego (backdated)

I just managed to rush out this disgusting title that has been plaguing me since the day I stepped into the company. Anyhow, it's on its way to the printers and now everything is (as Jo says) 'sales' problem'. LOL.

As such, I've decided to spent the last few minutes of my time at work blogging about my weekend...I'm already too tired of staring at anything work related. I shall start again tomorrow morning. =)


Disclaimer: The following post is highly technical, and should only be read by fellow Magic: The Gathering players, or individuals are familiar with the game on a fairly technical level. You have been warned, so proceed at your own risk. PS: If you wanna learn to play, contact me ok? :)


So...last Sunday, I spent close to 8 full hours playing Magic! It was a qualifier event, and what was at stake was a return air ticket and invite to Pro Tour - San Diego in 2010! As you all may know, playing professional Magic at a world stage is one of the things on my bucket list, so I was very excited when I chanced about this opportunity over the local MTG forums.

So I made my way down to the venue which was a condominium on Braddell Hill. It's quite remote, or at least I've never been there before, so I was quite amazed to see such a beautiful old estate. It's ALMOST self-contained...I say that because they have everything in the estate EXCEPT a place for food or groceries! Hard to imagine right?

So yesterday, 81 Magic players crammed themselves into this function room to play Zendikar Sealed Deck. It was fun man...my card pool was pretty amazing, although it was 'worth' a lot. In the end, we conducted a deck swap and I had to build a deck from cards of the player opposite me.

Basically, I built the following deck:




*Rares
 This R/B deck was quite fun to play, and as you can see, I had tons of creature removal AND burn spells. Sadly, I made some bad plays which resulted in my less than stellar performance. In fact, I think I made too many bad plays, which really cost me...a lot. I have a lot to learn about mulliganing, and deciding what type of hands to keep, both on the play or on the draw.

My Best (and most Risky) Play
I was facing down Sphinx of Jwar Isle (5/5, Flying, Shroud), a Vampire Lacerator (2/2), and an untapped Gatekeeper of Malakir (2/2). My Heartstabber Mosquito had just died from blocking the sphinx, and I had nothing on my board. Here's what I did:

I played the Goblin Ruinblaster without kicker from my hand and attacked. My opponent blocked (to my glee) with his Gatekeeper. I proceeded to burn his Vampire Lacerator with a Burst Lightning, and then cast my own Gatekeeper (KICKED of course) to take out his Sphinx! Wootz! Needless to say, I won that one.

The Best (and most surprising) Play Against Me
I was facing a G/B mid range deck. And I was slowly soaking up damage, but I thought my life total could take it. I was at 15 life, and the current attack would bring me down to 6. I did some math, and decided to take the damage to spare my creatures.

Just when I thought it was safe to untap and start on my turn. My opponent stopped me and announced that he was not done with his combat phase. He tapped two Swamps and showed me two copies of Vampire's Bite for an additional (and lethal) blow to my life points. I was amazed by that play and congratulated him of course. =)


I can't wait for the next event on the 6th of December. I'm definitely going to be there competing again, and this time, I hope I get to build an amazing deck!

Wish me luck!

Tuesday, November 03, 2009

WORDS I Hate...

1. Okay.
2. Nevermind.
3. Mm.


Used wrongly, these words can get me SOOOOO fucking mad.

Fucktard.

PS: 'Mm' is technically not a word, but it manages to become one JUST FINE...evidently...

Doodling!

This week is a week of in-house courses at work where we are learning about the ins and outs of the editorial process and what not. Of course, not ALL the lectures are interesting, and I usually am able to get some doodling time in. Here are two of my sketches:


It started off with me just wanting to draw a pumpkin head (for the Halloween season and what not you know?), but it became this full-fledged 'abomination'. I am quite pleased with it though. Alas, I still suck at drawing hands. 




Strange hibiscus-looking flower. Don't ask, I don't know why I drew it also.

Drawing shenanigans aside, I did have quite a good weekend. I went to Sentosa with PY JUST to have lunch at Cafe del Mar. Total waste of money, but the food was good, and I enjoyed myself. That's most important I guess. Here's what I ate:




Somewhere at the beginning of the meal.


AFTER.

Alright, signing off...Time to get back to work.

=)

Friday, October 23, 2009

The Joys of Creative Writing

Please click on the post's title for a funny read. =)

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Breakfast & Dogs

I KO-ed and woke up at the strange time of 3.44am today. It felt good and yet surreal. I did not really know what to do with myself, so I played Bejeweled Twist, hung up my laundry, and when the sun came out, I made myself some breakfast:



The eggs were my proudest creation I think...I loved how the white was firm and slightly runny, and how I managed to maintain the liquid integrity of the yolks. And they're so pretty too yes? =) The picnic ham was just a must add, if not the plate would have looked too empty. Topped everything off with a light sprinkle of black pepper and the teensi-est bit of salt. I had a good breakfast. 

---------------------------------------

On a side note, there was something that I saw on a book in PageOne at Vivocity, that I have been meaning to post up, but keep forgetting to do so. Here it is:



Native American elder:
"Inside of me there are two dogs. One of the dogs is mean and evil.
The other dog is good. The mean dog fights the good dog, all of the
time." 

When asked which dog wins, he reflected for a moment and replied:

"The one I feed the most."

This is one of my favourite parables. And when I saw this on the cover of one of the books in the store, I just HAD to take a photo of it. Something to remind to feed my 'good dog' more and 'bad dog' less.

Time to start work! Meetings to go to today! Wheee.... =)

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

The Effects of Boredom

When you're extremely bored at work, this is what happens.


http://christmascarolscootermagic.blogspot.com/2009/10/halloween-origami.html

A Great Weekend!

Yesterday had to rush some work the entire day, so it was industrious and somewhat satisfying. Heh. So now, I have some time to blog! Mwahahahaha. Here's what I did over the weekend. I must say it was pretty shiok.

Saturday

Tuition in the morning.
Coaching in the afternoon.
Gaming and dinner in the evening!

I went over to Melvyn's place to play games and have dinner! He made warm tomato salad & chicken stew....very nice. Before that I also pigged out a bit on the homemade hummus and doritos...yummy yummy. Unfortunately, I only took a picture of the stew, but I assure you, everything else was super good and HEARTY! I must remember to get the recipe from him.


Chicken Stew with Foccacia

After dinner, it was a nice evening session of bitching at the VMA '09 show, warm apple pie, and Runebound! It was this role-playing broad game that I've never played before. It was pretty fun, except that I didn't win. I think it's because I picked a character called Sahla the Shaman...confirm lose right?


Sahla the Shaman

Looks complicated huh? It is. But it was quite fun, and I guess my imagination and inclination towards things like these help. Eventually, it was too late, and instead of going ahead with the initial plan of playing GuildWars, we all just went to bed. Oh! I did manage to get a game of BlazBlue on Mel's PS3 in! Shiok also that one. (My English is so terrible...so fun!)

Sunday

Tuition in the morning (different kid).
Drafting Magic with Isaac in the afternoon.
Coaching in the evening.
Dinner with friends!

Drafting was fun. Isaac and I played two-man draft - trust me, it's not as simple as you think it is. There's a different kind of strategy and thinking behind two-man drafting. We drafted both M10 and Zendikar. I won the first draft, but lost the second! Died to Bloodchief Ascension! WTF lor...it's not a card to be underestimated. It can swing games man.

Dinner was DAMN good. First it was Sun & Moon at Wheelock.



Sashimi!

Then we went to Dempsey for dessert! (PS: Paying a PREMIUM for good dessert is both painful and pleasurable at the same time. Ouch - Mmmmm....)


From top:
STICKY DATE PUDDING
APPLE CRUMBLE
STRAWBERRY TWIST - THINGY
YUZU LIGHT CITRON CHEESE CAKE

Of course there were drinks all around and lots of conversation and laughter. I enjoyed myself that night and I'm glad everyone else did too! =)

Now, the next milestone is pay day! Then I can start clearing all the stuff I need to clear! Yay!

Have a great week everyone.

Friday, October 16, 2009

Operation: TWS

It's not often I get the chance to coordinate an elaborate covert ops exercise from the comfort of an air-conditioned office. It all started when I saw this particular tweet by Vicki, and found out about the TANGS WAREHOUSE MOVING OUT SALE. So I sent the news to some other colleagues of mine via trusty Gmail, and before I knew it, I was coordinate a shopping trip during our Friday lunch hour.

After elaborate correspondence over Gmail chat, we decided that we should have an early lunch in the canteen upstairs. After a quick lunch of highly affordable economic rice, and fruit that tasted vaguely of other fruit (imagine a papaya with a mango aftertaste = mapaya/pango and watermelon with a tinge of pineapple = waterapple? / pinemelon?), we grabbed a cab from the main road and made our way to the sale.

Surprisingly, it wasn't as packed as I expected it to be, and the very friendly orange signs along the way made it easy to identify and locate the 'warehouse' which 'hosted' the sale. In a nutshell, I felt the sale was more suited for aunties and ladies. The selection of things for men just weren't enough. I ended loitering around the super affordable Sanuk racks, and looking at the tiiiiinnnnnnnnyyyyyy Timbuk2 rack. In the end, I DID spend some money on some things (actually, I think I spent the most amongst the girls who went with me...lol). Here's the breakdown of the damage:



The big-ass orange plastic bag all the stuff I bought was placed in. =)




Two pairs of Sanuk slippers: SGD$38.00
(one for me, one for a friend)




Box of Japanese chocolate sandwich biscuits: SGD$4.50
(Birthday present for a colleague)




Nabisco Cream Crackers: SGD$5.90
(For my increasingly frequent 'cracker + something' sessions with Jo-Ann)



Gummibears for a friend: SGD$5.00
(I think I got ripped off on this one)




Timbuk2 Messenger: SGD$89.00
(I'm going to trust that the PINK in this bag is what's going to make me stand out in a crowd. It's just more fun to have a colour combination that I think very few people would actually choose)



GRAND TOTAL: SGD$137.40 + SGD$5.00
(the Gummibears were bought after at a secret location that we did not notice until after we'd all paid for our stuff)

Today's operation was quite fruitful actually. I shall be on the look out for more warehouse sales from now on. Seeing as how my workplace is in such a godforsaken place already, I might as well make the most of it and find excuses to get affordable deals like these during lunch hour. =)

Till the next mission!

Signing off.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

I love my brother!

I was having a conversation with my brother, and it was really funny.

Here's how it went:

Me: Yo, watcha doing?

Bro: Oh, I'm TUMBLR-ing...

Me: Huh? What's that?

Bro: It's like Twitter, but like blogging style.

Me: Oh I see.

Bro: OH! Have you heard about this thing that this guy said about Youtube, Twitter and Facebook?

Me: No. What did he say?

Bro: *announcer type voice* In the near future, users of YouTube, Twitter and Facebook will be able to access all three on a brand new collaborative platform called YouTwitFace.

Me: *laughs like a madman*

That was it...YouTwitFace...Classic man... Damn Funny.

=)

Thursday, October 08, 2009

Stupidity

I was at lunch, and was waiting for the canteen uncle to finish preparing my lunch (I ordered Chicken Cutlet...heehee). So I was standing there, waiting there with the rest of the hungry office workers. It was exceptionally crowded today because it was raining and no one really wanted to head out to eat.

So there was this group of girls who were waiting for their fish and chips, and while doing so, they were trying to prepare chilli sauce for themselves. So they took the dainty little plastic saucers, and began to squeeze the sauce into the dishes. After awhile, the sauce got stuck and refused to come out. Of course any sane, commonsensical person would know that it's because there is a bubble of air stuck between the chilli sauce and the mouth of the bottle. So the most logical thing would be to give the bottle a good hard shake and trying squeezing again after that.

This nincompoop of a girl, kept struggling with the bubble of air, and in the end, she concluded that the bottle was "spoilt".  IDIOT. All this while, her friends who witnessed the entire thing, obviously displayed a greater lack of brains as they backed away from her attempts to get the sauce out of the bottle as though they were afraid that the red, plastic squeeze bottle would explode or something.

-- 10 minutes later --

The SAME girl finally got her fish and chips, and asked the uncle for mayonnaise. Now, the uncle does not understand English, and he says so, and asks her again what she wanted. And she replied (adamantly at that) with the SAME request, in English. She did this a total of three times, and if it wasn't for the auntie who came out from the kitchen and happened to notice the self-righteous girl getting slightly irritated at this entire thing, I'm sure the idiot of a girl would continue asking for the mayonnaise and not even care about the obvious communication gap.

Haiz... People really ARE that STUPID.

Monday, October 05, 2009

I need...

...to be STRONGER.

Friday, October 02, 2009

Exciting Weekend Ahead

I am excited about the coming weekend.

I am going to be doing SOOOO MANY things. =)

1. Giving intensive GP tuition to my Indian kid from 730am - 11am! Woots!
2. Playing for two events at a Zendikar Launch Party
3. Coaching my client who just arrived in Singapore.
4. Attending a TCC Preview to represent Coaching.
5. Heading home to have celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival with my mom.
6. Giving tuition again to my tuition kid from 9am - 1130am! Double Woots!
7. Spending the day tanning/swimming/reading at a pool or a beach.
8. Having dinner at VERVE, which is NEAR my home! Hurhur.
9. Going for an important meeting, that I can't wait to give my input in.
10. Going down to ZIRCA to support my friend who's in Mr Singapore! YAY! So exciting!

*rubs hands together gleefully*

PS: Watch out for my geeky, and totally incomprehensible report on my Magic morning! Yay!

Friday, September 25, 2009

~BORED~

I am so bored.
I AM SO BORED.
I aM sO bOrEd.
i Am So BoReD.
I Am So Bored.
I aM sO boreD.
I Am So BOREd.

I am so bored that I am trying out other ways to type the same sentence, over and over again.

Life's great.

PS: Miffed that I'm missing the Zendikar pre-release tomorrow. CCB! =(

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Wish I had more time with her...


I was in the middle of a Chain Revolver combo courtesy of my favourite gunner babe from BlazBlue, Noel Vermillion, when my mobile vibrated. I checked it, and it turns out that I actually had tuition in an hour's time. So upsetting can? I thought I could have one more round of combo practice in the arcade before heading off to do my market research. =(

I ended up buying the books before rushing to tuition. So now I have about 5 Primary 1 Grammar Practice/Activity books to look through. Spent $34.57 on them...must claim back from the company.

I am thinking about what to do with that ONE remaining token still sitting snugly in my right pants pocket. I wanna play!

Argh!

Monday, September 21, 2009

Food, just Food...

Spending the day with L normally equates to the consumption of waistline-unfriendly amounts of food. This happened last Saturday. Here are some pictures:


 

 

 




I just love food. Heehee.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Love this song...



Watched Sayang Sayang that day on Channel 5. I really like this song....A LOT.

(The video has an annoying Channel 5 advert for 2 secs in the beginning, but overall, the video and sound quality of this video is the best I've found so far.)

It's Time For Sayang Sayang


There seems so many things that lie before us
There's just so many things we want to do
But let's just stop and pause
For just a moment cause
We should do something special...me and you

It's time for sayang sayang
It's time for sayang sayang
Caring for one another 
Family and friends
It's time for sayang sayang
It's time for sayang sayang
As we go walking together, hand in hand

The time that we all love is here to treasure
A very special time of the year
These days we're sure to find
These days of yours and mine
We'll share them with the ones we hold so dear
(Hold so dear)

It's time for sayang sayang
It's time for sayang sayang
Caring for one another 
Family and friends
It's time for sayang sayang
It's time for sayang sayang
As we go walking together, hand in hand

As we go walking together, hand in hand

Monday, September 14, 2009