somedays

Ever had a day, when you just feel that the world is against you?
Ever had a day, when you feel so down, its kinda hard to stand up?
Ever had a day, you smile but it felt more like a frown?

Sometimes, we have those days.. and mine happened to be today.

hugging buddha's legs

i'm supposed to write a paper on trauma... i think now i'm traumatized! arghhhh! that's why la.... last minute job.. ai si ah!

gan cheong liao la.... no time no time! die die die!

same sex marriage

It is now legal for same gender couples to be married in California (USA). Otherwise, it is also possible to be married in Netherlands, Belgium, Spain and Canada.

The most vocal protestors would be from religious point of view. However, in most society nowadays, it will become increasingly common to have individuals who has partners of the same sex.

of weddings and such

Went to a wedding dinner yesterday. Jonathan ('tho in office we call him by his Chinese name!) and Elizabeth, happily ever after. Enjoyable dinner, with ex-colleagues (alumni club!) and current ones.

With age catching up, I don't think I'll ever be married. Cynical? Yeah.. or probably realistic. I don't believe in marrying without love. Practical union? Urgh.. no thanks. Idealistic, yes.

So, probably all the investment that I'm embarking on, will be used to fund my stay in the old folks home later on. Better still, open one and stay for free!

tokyo stash

foodstuffs from japan (but it's for other people... i got the tokyo banana!)



royce... probably can find in singapore also



did i mention i love tokyo banana?



recommended to try! soft and fluffy!

when is dead.. means really dead?

Recently occurred, and once again, a man who had been pronounced dead... minutes or hours later, came back to life... miraculously. The man apparently had a heart attack, massive one, mind you. And after doctors couldn't resuscitate him, he was pronounced dead and were scheduled for organ transplant. Doctors WERE actually in the process of preparation for organ transplant! But I wonder what does the preparation process involved? Were they actually carving out the organs already or were they just preparing the apparatus to do the deed, or what?

Anyway, the moral of the story is... science need a better method to ensure that the human is really DEAD, when they're dead.

Read about it here.

You Are Bert

Extremely serious and a little eccentric, people find you lovable - even if you don't love them! You are usually feeling: Logical - you rarely let your emotions rule you You are famous for: Being smart, a total neat freak, and maybe just a little evil How you life your life: With passion, even if your odd passions (like bottle caps and pigeons) are baffling to others

The Sesame Street Personality Quiz

You Are 40% Boyish and 60% Girlish

You are pretty evenly split down the middle - a total eunuch. Okay, kidding about the eunuch part. But you do get along with both sexes. You reject traditional gender roles. However, you don't actively fight them. You're just you. You don't try to be what people expect you to be.

How Boyish or Girlish Are You?

Your Mind is Purple

Of all the mind types, yours is the most idealistic. You tend to think wild, amazing thoughts. Your dreams and fantasies are intense. Your thoughts are creative, inventive, and without boundaries. You tend to spend a lot of time thinking of fictional people and places - or a very different life for yourself.

What Color Is Your Mind?

Your Values Profile

Loyalty: You value loyalty highly. You're completely devoted to your friends and family. Even if they totally screw up, you're still there for them. Just make sure they're equally loyal to you! Honesty: You don't really value honesty. You do value getting your way, no matter what. And if a little lying is required to do that, no problem. A few white lies never hurt anyone (at least, that's what you tell yourself!) Generosity: You value generosity highly. So much so that you often put your own needs last. There's nothing wrong with having a caring heart... But you may want to rethink your "open wallet" policy. Humility: You value humility highly. You have the self-confidence to be happy with who you are. And you don't need to seek praise to make yourself feel better. You're very modest, and you're keep the drama factor low. Tolerance: You value tolerance highly. Not only do you enjoy the company of those very different from you... You do all that you can to seek it out interesting and unique friends. You think there are many truths in life, and you're open to many of them.

The Five Factor Values Test

stem cells research

Stem cells has the potential to revolutionarise treatment of diseases. It works on the premise of the self-renewal and its capacity to differentiate (transform into) specialized cell types. There're two types: Embryonic (can transform into any cell types) and Adult (specialized). In short, the most powerful stem cells, are the ones that can turn into any cell types. Imagine its usage, for example, cancerous cells destroyed by the mutation. Now plant some new cells into it and voila, healthier ones are now taking place of those diseased ones. Or, in damaged muscles, transplant some of those stem cells and you'll have new ones.

But, the controversy comes from the process of getting the embryonic stem cells. Ethical issues it is, as argued by the exponents, as it is moving towards human cloning which in turn might devalue human beings. Proponents views it as significant medical potential which might provide cure to currently devastating medical conditions.



Read more here.

goodies from Hokkaido



close up of packaging.. so cute hor?

handsome guy

Oooohh.. did I tell you that yesterday that one handsome guy came to the office? Muahahahhaha, he came to demo something (sales rep from headquarters) together with his Singapore counterpart. Hong Kong people's English has a certain accent to it that makes it distinctive (in a good way, I think..)

He was all dressed up in coat (like a business man), but alas, our small meeting room was a little too hot. So he took off his clothes (jacket lah...) Hahahaa!

Yeah, got a chance to shake hands with him. Not once, not twice but three times! Kakakaka!

meow~

Somehow, my neighbourhood got lots of cats. Few around my block, then some across the street etc. Fed by citizens, so they're everyone's pet. They're like in show biz, feed them, stroke them and they'll purr.... meow~


moving, so quite blur



i was thinking whether it'll jump and pounce on my phone

amusement

the clock ticks
the bones creak
wrinkles showed, even as u speak
growing old is automatic (some say traumatic!)
age encroach us at our peak

feels like autumn

Some scenaries from near my place:





feels like autumn... well, almost...


sometimes the squirrels might pop by to play...

thank you!

A BIG thank you to all who celebrated my birthday this year! All your well wishes, gifts and thoughts, I've warmly received.

THANK YOU!

This year's stash:


watch (from colleagues)



wendy bought dinner + chocs, so sweet!

excuse me... can move your butt or not?

Can't understand some people. They think you can squeeze through the door if they just moved a quarter an inch of their butt?!? So difficult meh? Just to move out and then come back into the MRT or the lift after that? Will die isit?

prisoner of love

平気な顔で嘘をついて
笑って 嫌気がさして
楽ばかりしようとしていた

ないものねだりブルース
皆安らぎを求めている
満ち足りてるのに奪い合う
愛の影を追っている

退屈な毎日が急に輝きだした
あなたが現れたあの日から
孤独でも辛くても平気だと思えた
I’m just a prisoner of love
Just a prisoner of love

病める時も健やかなる時も
嵐の日も晴れの日も共に歩もう

I’m gonna tell you the truth
人知れず辛い道を選ぶ
私を応援してくれる
あなただけを友と呼ぶ

強がりや欲張りが無意味になりました
あなたに愛されたあの日から
自由でもヨユウでも一人じゃ虚しいわ
I’m just a prisoner of love
Just a prisoner of love

Oh もう少しだよ
Don’t you give up
Oh 見捨てない 絶対に

残酷な現実が二人を引き裂けば
より一層強く惹かれ合う
いくらでもいくらでも頑張れる気がした
I’m just a prisoner of love
Just a prisoner of love

ありふれた日常が急に輝きだした
心を奪われたあの日から
孤独でも辛くても平気だと思えた
I’m just a prisoner of love
Just a prisoner of love

Stay with me, stay with me
My baby, say you love me
Stay with me, stay with me
一人にさせない

bombastic

What's precipitates?
It's an adjective/noun and it means something like 'to hasten' the occurrence of something, or to bring about prematurely/abruptly.
Example: The crisis precipitated by Russia's revolution.


What's impetus?
It's a noun/plural. And it means stimulus, an impelling force.
Example: approaching deadline gave impetus to the investigation.



I realised... my ang moh bo ho.

train

Went home recently on 4th May. That was a day after the train derailed near Rahang (Seremban). Was at the train station at 720am and the KTM staff train will set off from Singapore but passengers will have to take bus from Tampin. Didn't think too much so just went in and waited for the train to set off.

That day my carriage was full of Indian tourists. Apparently their breakfast n lunch were provided by their tour agency. Anyway, there were some minor confusion when the staff inside the train said he's not sure whether we're changing to bus at Tampin or Gemas. Finally, they've decided to change train at Gemas.

It was chaotic once we reached Gemas. Didn't know what buses to take or where they'd go as no one could provide that information. We disembarked and walked towards the exit of Gemas station. There, the KTM staff said the buses are all ready but the driver went to grab a drink. The sun was hot and there we were, a train load of passengers standing in the hot sun, waiting for the drivers to come back. The buses.. man, if you know those rural areas school buses (cum factory buses). Lok lok kok kok! And the seats! It was like claustrophobic! Anyway, no choice. Got onto the bus and had to wait till they fill up all the seats. Once you're seated you basically can't move.. no aircond.. no air. I managed to get into the first bus but after travelling for 5 minutes, a girl went up to the driver and told him something. Next we knew, we were heading back towards the train station. Apparently, the girl left her certificates and impt docs inside the station's toilet. -_-'''

So, we waited for another 10 minutes for her to go down and find her certs. So after that began our ardous journey from Gemas to Seremban by bus. After 2 hours of travelling... suddenly there's a whiff of shitty smell. Apparently someone needs to go to the toilet. Man... so the bus driver turned into a petrol station and about 5 passengers went down for toilet break while the rest waited. We waited for about 10 mins for all passengers to finish their business. After that we travelled for another 1 hour before we reached Rahang.

Passed by the train wreck (it was still there on Sunday evening) and silently were thankful that I wasn't in that train. The train driver was killed in that accident. Traffic was slow along that stretch as the rescue teams, police etc were there to supervise/oversee the operation on how to clear the tracks.

Reached Seremban around 4plus and finally reached home at around 5pm. It took me 10 hours to reach home.

hot hot hot

Can you stand it? These few days is like living inside a furnace. Perhaps global warming has hit home.

land banking

Haha, this one is strictly for those who are interested and know about this type of investment. Finally exited, after 6 years.

What is land banking? (dun quote exact, as this is from my own understanding!)
In lay man's term, a piece of 'raw' land (or agriculture land) was bought by this big company at a very cheap price and then they'll open up and invite investors to 'share' this land. Everyone gets a title deed etc. So after that, the process of land 'development' will be initiated. Means that the idea was to prepare documents, plan, design whatever, so that the piece of land or the area surrounding it will slowly be developed. Once that happens, the developers will be keen to take over this initial 'raw' land and to turn it into either commercial or residential areas. And once the price has been announced and where all the other investors agree to a certain percentage, the land will then be sold. Then each small investors will get their share. Minimum purchase at that time was half an acre but you can share with others if you like. So my brother's friend suggested to my brother and he was interested, so I follow.

That piece of land was at Canada, and the instrument during that time was, you pay the downpayment (a quarter of the purchase price and subsequently, you can pay via loan by morgaging the land). The finance company that provides the loan was the same one that sold the land to us. So, the interest for that was very very high. If not wrong, about 11-14%.

So, in year 2002 (I think la..) my brother and I paid SGD$3750 each for the downpayment. Then every month pay about SGD$180 each to service the loan. The interest are all calculated in Canadian dollars so, as the year goes by, Canadian currency grew so we actually paid abit more.

In year 2007, the land was sold. But everything was only finalized in year 2008. So we got our money back. After minus the mortgage loan payment and lawyer's fee, the approx. profit is about 6%. Ok bah? At least better than bank interest rates lor.

Nowadays, the investment mode has changed a bit whereby, the investor just dumps in $10K (in whichever currency of the land). For example, USD$10K will give you about 0.333 acre of land. The previous one was C$37K will give you about half an acre.