Back in Maple Story

Back In Maple Story :

After a long hibernation period of a few months, I am officially back playing Maple Story. Firstly, my apologies to my guildmistress and my fellow guild members because I was really too busy with my work and other personal committments in the past few months. Re-familiarizing myself with the commands in gameplay, however, took shorter than I expected and I presumed it has something to do with my subconscious learning due to the consistent playing in 2006. My guildmistress was obviously very happy because our guild's rangers are pretty much inactive recently and having my return means an additional deterrence force against the younger players in my guild who may need protection against some of the very aggressive and hostile players in the game.

Equipment in Maple Story are still pretty expensive, in my own opinion, even though my guild members said that prices have fallen drastically ever since I went into hibernation. Well, I personally still felt the pinch in my pocket when I paid 31 million mesos for a 10 Weapon Attack Work Glove. Anyway, the pair of work gloves manages to uplift as my attacks become much stronger and impressive against the monsters, frightening away potential map-stealing players.

Right now, I am working hard towards my next character level before I reward myself with the Samurai armour outfit that I had always wanted (see the image attached). Quite cool-looking, right? I like that outfit alot and it is probably because I am quite influenced by the costumes in the movie "The Last Samurai".

27 January 2007 End of the Day Post

Trial Gym Session at True Fitness:

I received an invitation and a free two weeks' worth of VIP pass to trial the facilities at True Fitness at Raffles Place on Friday and I decide to pop over and have a look to see what this new 3 month old fitness club has to offer.

I got over there at around 12.30pm and a young fitness consultant, Elle (IMO, quite an attractive-looking girl with big sparkling eyes), gave me a tour of the facilities and even talked quite extensively about the types of yoga classes they have in the club, hoping for me to join them. Throughout the whole thing, she was nice, polite and helpful with my enquiries and I was pretty pleased with her service (and it's not because she was better-looking than the rest of the consultants).

After the 40-minute talk and tour, I thanked Elle for her help and ventured out to try out the gym equipment in True Fitness. The things that I liked about the gym - The service is polite and wonderful, the grips on the free weights are a perfect fit and the music is not too loud for my ears. However, the things that I don't like about it are that the bench press is too narrow for my shoulders, the machines have too little padding for the impact and there isn't a proper place to put the towels when I am doing the free weights, and the cost of joining it is a tad too high even for most of the professional fitness clubs in Singapore - a whopping $850+ (joining fee + processing fee + 1 monthly fee).

My verdict - Not worth the value. My current neighbourhood gym provides older (even rusty) but more reliable gym equipment and weights and even though there aren't any towel services, personal trainers or even pleasant-looking fitness consultants around. Moreover, the environment at my current gym is still much more suitable for my style of training - full concentration, no-distractions, no-nonsense free weights training. I guess I'll will have to pass poor Elle the bad news that I don't favour True Fitness' gym facilities at this point of time.

Leisure Reading at Ngee Ann City's Coffee Bean:

I am pretty pleased to do something today which I had not done for a long time - a good magazine read at Coffee Bean on a nice Saturday afternoon with iced mocha and a slice of tiramisu cake. After the trial gym session at True Fitness, I made my way to Orchard MRT and had a quick lunch at Yoshinoya Japanese fastfood restaurant and bumped into one of my secondary school tuition student. She was with her friends so I ate my beef with vegetables alone and moved off to the Orchard Library to get some magazines.

I only managed to find an issue of National Geographic so I lugged it off to the Coffee Bean at Takashimaya Shopping Centre and thankfully found a single-seater even though the place is extremely full on a weekend Saturday. I ordered a nice small iced mocha and a slice of tiramisu cake and sat down for a full 1.5 hours there, slowly sipping my mocha and savouring my cake while reading about nanotechnology, Hutterites in America and the pelican at a nice, leisurely pace. Of course, I had to see many disappointed people walking past me because they could not secure any seats in the Coffee Bean outlet there. Lucky me. =P

Birthday Celebrations Part III:

One of my secondary school student insisted on celebrating my birthday today so I went to meet him at Cineleisure Orchard because he wanted dinner and a movie but we could not find a nice movie at around 6.30pm so I suggested a dinner at Pastamania until we decided what to do with the rest of the evening.

After a filling meal of pasta and pizza, both of us made our way to the K-box (again) at Cineleisure Orchard because I can't think of anything else to do since he is still underaged for many nightlife activities in Orchard. We took three fun and entertaining hours of singing off the evening time. It was, to my surprise, the first ever KTV visit by the student and he was happily experimenting with the songs over there even though his Mandarin is not very good. Seeing how enthusiastic he was, I gave him some pointers in holding the microphone and taught him how to breathe properly while singing the Mandarin songs he had always liked.

At around 10.30pm, I opted to stop singing even though he was still pretty high about continuing because I have morning lessons to cover on Sunday so we headed home. Overall, it was a good Saturday and I hope the coming week will be just as nice. Got to go bathe and sleep now. Take care, everyone!

(Image source: Al-Fassam, 7 Feb 2006, Flickr)

My Birthday Celebrations

Day One - Swenson's Lunch Treat By The Changed Man:

Yeah...how time flies...I have been quite busy in the previous two weeks trying my best to get the supporters of Teresa to go for the Hougang Mall Roadshow and lo and behold, my birthday has come knocking again. However, this year, I am doing a simple celebration this year, probably because I feel a little awkward doing large celebrations at my age.

Anyway, I started out with a simple lunch with The Changed Man at Chinatown Point and it had to be quite short because he has to clear some work on a Saturday afternoon. Poor thing. Swenson's lunch was pretty alright, considered that I had not really had the time to lunch there for some time now. I ordered a Caesar's salad and a Fish-and-Chips while The Changed Man helped himself to some of the salad, a chicken baked rice and some birthday sundae. We talked about his work and he mentioned some of his work plans for the coming year. We also joked about some of his scandalous adventures with the girls, which I shall not detail any of these here.

Day One - Comic Book Treat from Comics Connection:

After the brief one hour lunch, The Changed Man went back to his office to clear his work and I proceeded back to my place but not before going into the comics connections shop to buy myself a comic book to entertain myself for the remaining of the afternoon. I am thinking that the weather is still drowsy and lethargic today so a comic book reading session will be ideal. I chose my favourite Wind & Cloud comic series because I had been reading the series for a couple of years now. Recently, I didn't buy the series because my room is already packed with books, files and other miscellaneous stuff but since it's my birthday celebrations, I might as well reward myself with one of the volumes in the series. By the time I am done with this post, I finished the new comic volume and am a happier man with one more book to the collection.

Day Two - Birthday Cake Celebration with Family:

Even though at my age, my mother insisted a birthday cake celebration with the traditional red boiled eggs because she believed the ritual will bring good luck and peace for the new year in my life. It was a simple morning occasion in front of those birthday candles and a birthday wish, but it is still nice to have my family celebrating my birthday with me after all these years. I fed them with as much chocolate cake and red boiled eggs as they could stomach before I left for my afternoon lessons.

Day Two - Karaoke with The Changed Man:

After my afternoon lessons, I met up with The Changed Man because he wanted to make up for the hasty lunch he had with me the previous day. So both of us went to the Pasir Panjang Food Centre and we ordered a big round of dinner which included cooked sea-snails, fried sotong, satay, kangkong with some sweet sauce and barbequed chicken wings.

After filling our stomachs, The Changed Man opted for karaoke-singing and we headed off to the K-box n Clementi Central. And I had my longest ever karaoke session of more than five hours there from 7pm to 12am. My voice now is nearly hoarse from all the singing. We sang at least sixty songs between the two of us from singers like 李圣杰，张学友，陈奕迅，王力宏，陈伟联，张敬轩，光良，范逸臣，陶哲，张智霖，动力火车，周杰伦，张惠妹，梁静茹，飞儿乐团，梁咏琪，五月天 , 伍思凯，competing with a group of guys who were literally screaming atop of their voices a couple rooms down the line. It was really fun and it was also one of my most satisfying ktv session ever! The Changed Man was just as happy because he was able to practice with his falsetto and his rock renditions of some of the songs. =)

There is no cure for birth and death save
to enjoy the interval.

By: George Santayana, Soliloquies in England, 1922, "War Shrines" US (Spanish-born) philosopher (1863 - 1952)

(Image source: http://www.spcnet.tv/tinha/wind.shtml)
(Quote Souce: http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/572.html)

The Blood Diamond, Let It Shine Idol Drama, (再)与死神擦肩而过

The Blood Diamond:

After two weeks of procastination, I managed to get myself to the cinema today to watch this seemingly bland movie about a big diamond - how wrong I was. The movie turned out to be far more exciting than I could expected because other than the really intense acting, the setting of the story was very thought-provoking. A South African mercenary turned diamond smuggler + A fisherman turned diamond miner + A persistent human rights reporter + A 100 carat pink diamond + A dark and looming story about the atrocities behind the diamond wars.

Far too few people actually realized that diamonds originating from conflict zones brought sweat, blood and death to so many innocent Africans and most countries just watched it happen for so long before finally doing something about preventing the purchase of conflict diamonds. The movie was quite bloody in certain parts, especially during an invasion by the rebel forces on a city but it was quite realistic and adrenalin-pumping. I considered a good plot twist when the fisherman father tried to save his son who had been unwillingly brainwashed into a vicious rebel child soldier. This is yet another good movie that I watched and I am pretty happy about it.

Let It Shine TV Idol Drama:

I have finally got myself the new mobtv thing after one entire week of trying. There was originally some problem with the video streaming test but I finally resolved it two days ago and have happily watched the first two episodes of the highly-anticipated TV Idol Drama by a few of the Campus Superstars.

Although it may seem skeptical at first that the talented young singers from the Campus Superstar competition can act, but the viewing of the episodes so far has not been disappointing at all. The young singers were quite natural in their acting and bolstered by the presence of other experienced young and senior actors, the whole drama "Let It Shine" had, in my opinion, been entertaining and refreshing. If the drama manages to meet the expectations of the other supporters of the Campus Superstars and of the drama as a whole, I believe continued acting opportunities will be on the plate for the young singers.

Appealing enough to the cameras and having realistic-enough expressions to carry their screen personas (despite it being the first acting experience for some of them), it looks set that MediaCorp has finally succeeded in grooming a young generation of Superstars. What now remains is how well MediaCorp wants to develop them into true Superstars of Singapore so that their talents in both singing and acting will not go to waste. Way to go, Let It Shine!

（再）与死神擦肩而过：

今天早上一个不留神，差点就被死神用利器戳破喉。好像已有十次与死神擦肩而过了吧，每次都险象还生。这次，我还是不知道这次是死神又一时失手，或有天使看守着，还是是个警戒要我更把握我的生命。

无论如何，能再次闪开它的致命一击，还是值得庆幸的。可是死神的功力毕竟非同凡响，仍然能重创我的肩膀。虽然不致于断臂，但戳中了肩膀的要脉，红肿加麻痹加上瘀血，看来最快也要两三天的全力疗伤，方能康复。

生命是如此的无常，若不把握眼前人和事，更待何时？今天的空气特别清新喔...

(Image source: http://sg.movies.yahoo.com/The+Blood+Diamond/movie/13778/)

Report on the 13 Jan Let It Shine Roadshow at Hougang Mall

Below is my duplicate post from Teresa's Fanclub. Hope you have fun reading it!

Report on the 13 Jan Let It Shine Roadshow at Hougang Mall

Hi faithful supporters of Teresa!

Pre-Roadshow:

I arrived at Hougang Mall at 1230hrs and I already saw a small crowd of twenty people around the audience area waiting for the Style For Stars Roadshow by Monsoon.

I scouted the area and decided to skip lunch and book a suitable position to watch the Let It Shine Roadshow and I managed to take up a place right behind the judges’ tables in front of the stage.

Xiangrui joined me ten minutes and both of us started chatting until Jinfu arrived. I quickly made use of the opportunity to grab some burger and drinks before the Style For Stars Roadshow started and after a long and draggy show by the models, The Let It Shine Roadshow finally commenced at 3.20pm. Unfortunately, the organizing committee decided to shift some of the barriers and amidst the pushing, Jinfu, Xiangrui and I were pushed further back and instead of front row seats, we were then in the fifth row with one really gigantic guy in blue right in the front row, blocking our full view of the stage.

Start of Roadshow:

Shen Weijun, the mcee for the roadshow, started to warm up the crowd by asking who do the audience support and I was surprised to hear quite a murmur from the audience, saying “Teresa”. I was very happy when I heard that because although most of Teresa’s supporters are usually not that vocal, that murmur means a pretty strong presence of people who supports Teresa.

Appearance of Teresa:

Teresa got onto the stage with all the rest of the young actors in Let It Shine and the mcee began to ask all the young actors about their roles in the drama and what their memorable moments of the drama acting were. For those of you who were not present, you should have seen how most of the photographers began to train their cameras onto Teresa as she appeared onstage. Obviously, she was the fashion and camera favorite and she tried her best to smile at the cameras as they clicked away. Go look at the photo sections of the fanclub for a detailed photograph of Teresa’s outfit for the roadshow.

4.1) Fashion appeal and impression (4 out of 5 marks)
4.2) Suitability for song genre (Not applicable)
4.3) Suitability for stage movement (Not applicable)
4.4) Suitability for lighting effects (4 out of 5 marks)
4.5) Suitability for image of performer (4 out of 5 marks)

My grading For Teresa for her Stage Attire is 12 of out 15 marks.

Stage Activities of Teresa:

However, Teresa, in my own opinion, did not do quite well for the mcee question and answer section because she was like smiling and laughing away without giving any audible answer. A pity because I believe many people would be delighted to hear her speaking voice as they have had already been impressed by her singing voice. After a few murmurs, Teresa passed the microphone to Lirong, another female actor in the drama.

The mcee then started a game that involved the connecting of words as well as a recitation of all the connecting phrases made by the previous actors and so on and so forth. This time, Teresa did much better as she concentrated on the game and was one of the few who were not eliminated from the game. The game, however, was too long and boring and it featured very little about the young actors, other than their memory power. So part of the weak mcee interaction lies in the responsibility of the organizers. But I am penalizing Teresa heavily because I have already advised her on paying attention to questions and answers from the mcee quite some time ago.

3.1) Stage posture (4 out of 5 marks)
3.2) Stage movement (Not applicable)
3.3) Audience interaction (3 out of 5 marks)
3.4) Camera interaction (3.5 out of 5 marks)
3.5) Mcee interaction (2.5 out of 5 marks)

My grading for Teresa for her Stage Presentation is 13 out of 20 marks.

After the game, some prizes were awarded hastily and all of the young actors left the stage to make way for the senior actors in the drama. Jinfu and I decided to try to find Teresa at the backstage area because Jinfu had a gift for Teresa but the stage door was too far and the organizing staff was out of our reach to help Jinfu to pass the present to Teresa.

After the senior actors had their stage moments, Chen Fengling did a song performance of one of the songs in the Idol Drama. I was hoping for a theme song performance by the Campus Superstars but that never really happened and after Fengling did her song, all the actors, young and senior went onstage for the last time at the roadshow to appeal to the audience to watch the Idol Drama and they left for the waiting MediaCorp mini-bus outside Hougang Mall.

Teresa was walking way too quickly and Jinfu missed the chance to pass the present to her. I consoled the fellow that there would be other opportunities to pass the present to Teresa and all three of us parted company.

I would like to all the supporters who responded to my call to gather to watch the roadshow and even though some of them are too shy to turn up in person in front of the three of us, they were there alright because I was still in contact with them on the phone.
That’s all for my report. Stay tuned for more photographs and hopefully a video recording from idollic.com administrator. For those who wishes to read this report on websites other than this fanclub, I will duplicate this report on both idollic.com/teresa and on my personal blog at http://heaven-earth-human.blogspot.com/

Sean Ho
“Music clears the mind, fills the heart, moves the soul.”

(Image source courtesy from blanket of TFC)

Song Recommendation: 给自己的情歌 By 梁咏琪

In order to try and bring more variety to my blog posts, I decide to try my hand at song recommendations and I have the following song for listeners of Mandarin songs.

I like the song because its tune is not only catchy and smoothing to my ears but the lyrics are also very meaningful and insightful into the theme of love. I believe it is one of latest songs from Gigi and I personally think it is a keeper. Of course, don't take my words for it. You listen for yourself and decide. You can find the song at either my music playlist above at song number 45 or simply click on the hyperlink on the title of the song below. For those who don't know who is the singer, Gigi Leung, or prefer a visual treat of the song, I have attached a Youtube MV of the song at the top of this post. Enjoy!

給自己的情歌(國語版)
梁詠琪
原詞曲Original Lyrics & Composer：周杰倫、陳少琪
中文詞Lyrics：陳鎮川

妳是誰 怎麼一夜不睡
重覆一樣的音樂 不肯承認正為愛受累
早就過了 青澀歲月
卻仍然心裡有個空缺 便急著想要有人陪
無怨無悔 又忘了最後要受的罪
妳的美 有些憔悴
抿著嘴說不出抱怨 躲著偷偷流眼淚

最初那一句台詞 填補了寂寞位子
它不關年少無知 誰都高估愛的價值
平凡的女子
清醒一次一次 糊塗一次一次
不過是
再見那一個手勢 便明白到此為止
說穿了有些諷刺 從沒把握一生一世
痛難免真實
多出來的鑰匙 留給愛的堅持
下一次

聽妳的故事 笑得有些衿持
怎麼會和我那麼相似
開始結束 彷彿公式
是誰說愛情就該如此 失控哭一哭就會沒事
一個堅持 究竟容得多少次的迷失
讓過程 都像歌詞
不過短短幾行文字 當作紀念的心事

Hope you enjoy the song recommendation from me. Have a good day tomorrow!

(Lyrics source: http://www.haoting.com/htmusic/135515ht.htm)

(Video source: kubaobao, 02 Jan 2007, Youtube)

FM 93.3 Radio Interview of Teresa, Zhiyang and Khim, The Electric New Paper Article on Campus Superstars

FM 93.3 Radio Interview of Teresa, Zhiyang and Khim (09 January 2007 Tuesday):

The above radio interview is solely provided for the listening pleasure of people who missed the radio interview from 9.30pm to 9.45pm or for those who wishes to refresh their memory about the laughter- and chatter-filled interview. My thanks to blanket of TFC for his kind permission to use the file on this blog and of course FM 93.3 for the really fun-laden interview.

The Electric New Paper Article on Campus Superstars (09 January 2007 Tuesday)

The above article was also released today at the website of The Electric New Paper and for all those CSS suporters who cannot get enough news of the Teresa, Zhiyang and Renfred, do click on the link and enjoy the update. Of course, I hope they will get their recording deals eventually because their voices, especially Teresa's, are uniquely refreshing and inspiring especially in the teenage music and entertainment scene in Singapore, which has been pretty barren for almost 10 years already. My thanks again to blanket of TFC for informing me about this article.

The key to realizing a dream is to focus not on success but
significance - and then even the small steps and little victories along your
path will take on greater meaning.

By: Oprah Winfrey, O Magazine, September 2002US actress & television talk show host (1954 - )

(Image source: http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/show/story/0,4136,121060,00.html)

(Quote source: http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/33465.html)

Latest Drama Trailer From Let It Shine!

For those who have not been able to catch the trailer on Channel 8 for the Idol Drama "Let It Shine"...Enjoy!

(Video source: keriner, 07 Jan 2007, Youtube)

Recon @ Hougang Mall For 13 January Roadshow

Reconnaissance @ Hougang Mall For 13 January Roadshow:

I decided to go down to Hougang Mall to have a quick look at the area in which the roadshow event will be held and I took a long bus ride to reach there. Hougang is quite a backwater but everything is still nice and neat and I still like it despite the size of its mall

As I am not familiar with Hougang Mall (I have been there only three times and those were in quite a haste), I could not find the reception or concerige counter so I headed straight for the Hougang Mall Management Office because I believed they would definitely know about the details of the roadshow. When I reached the office at the fifth level, I realized that it was lunch time. I chosed to wait at the garden parapet overlooking a nice view behind Hougang Mall when a nicely-dressed lady came back with a packet of lunch. I approached and asked her about the event on Saturday and she looked really surprised to see me at the rather isolated entrance of the office. Three minutes later, I got the information I wanted and left my thanks with the polite lady to went to have a quick tour of the mall on my own.

The mall's interior design is quite packed (but brimming with all sorts of shops one can imagine) and I went from floor to floor, eyeballing the stage area and thinking of the best possible position for TFC supporters to view the roadshow on Saturday. I also went into the Hougang Community Library and borrowed four magazines (Two Times and Two Newsweek), and I then detoured into a computer games shop to see what they have in stock, as well as a gift shop to have a quick look at the soft toys there because I am still searching for one particular one for a gift.

When I reached the second floor, a customer service personnel from a chocolate shop approached me with samples of chocolates and I ate about three of them - one dark chocolate flavour, one hazelnut and one champagne-laced. They tasted great but I did not buy them because the reconnaissance was on my priority list and I was too thirsty to eat chocolates then. Maybe I'll get some of them for those TFC supporters who managed to turn up for Saturday's roadshow.

On the ground floor, I surveyed all the possible angles to the stage and physically walked around the stage to scout for the best possible spot for the fanclub's cameramen who would be photographing and/or filming the event. With a good idea of how the event would be looking on 13 January, I left Hougang Mall, satisfied and went back home to type a quick preliminary report on the fanclub's website. What is now left to do is to get as many TFC supporters to turn up for the roadshow...

(Image Source: http://www.hdbhousing.com/townhougang.htm)

Teresa Tseng's （曾咏霖）Calendar of Events For Jan and Feb 2007

[Teresa Tseng is the girl on the right side dressed in a white sleeveless top and jeans. The rest are some of the cast and production crew members of Let It Shine - Any other familiar faces such as Liyuan, Renfred, Zhiyang, Chuxuan, Fengling, Sijia, Jeraldine, Lirong, Khim, Brian?]

1. 9th Jan 2007 - FM 93.3 Radio Interview from 9.30pm till 10pm
(For those who miss the really happy-sounding and jovial interview, you can go to Idollic.com/teresa and go to the forum section under General Category and then under Announcement to view the recording of the interview. Of course, the recording is strictly just for the listening pleasure for supporters of Teresa, not for any commercial distribution purposes.)

2. 13th Jan 2007 - Let It Shine Roadshow at Hougang Mall @ 3pm
(For those who want to join TFC supporters for the roadshow, please go to TFC and look at the designated post for further instructions on meeting up. For those who want a more indepth understanding of what the Idol Drama "Let It Shine" is all about, you can read the mandarin synopsis here.)

3. 3rd Feb 2007 - Road Show at Northpoint and Causeway Point (Timings to be advised)

4. 11th Feb 2007 - Chinese New Year Album Promotion Roadshow (Timings and venue to be advised. Teresa Tseng will be singing a Chinese New Year Song with some of the artistes in the album. Watch out for the release of the album soon!)

5. 17th Feb 2007 - Chinese New Year Live Show (Timings and venue to be advised)

(Image Source: Photograph grateful courtesy of Jeraldine of MediaCorp)
(Information Source: Events list grateful courtesy of Thomas of TFC)

My 2007 New Year Resolutions

Hmm....I think I am quite late in doing this but I have been so busy ever since New Year Day's celebrations ended. It's an unearthly hour to blog (2 a.m.) but since I am still waiting for my hair to dry, I might as well get started listing down my new year resolutions. I read quite a few new year resolutions on other blogs so I decide to present mine in a different format just for the fun's sake.

1) + 1 Luck: Didn't feel exceptionally lucky last year because I made quite a number of business mistakes which were pretty costly (amounting to thousands of dollars?). I think it will be nice to have a little bit of more luck to make my life better this year.

2) + 1 Agility: Not just physically agile but also mentally as it will be useful to handle the heavier workload in 2007. Physical agility will make sure I can travel from destination to destination more efficiently.

3) + 1 Intelligence: I am not really the brightest tool in the toolbox so I must work on that, even though it will be difficult since I am not that young anymore. Maybe I can read up a little more and increase my intelligence, which will be useful for my work and in many aspects of my life as well.

4) + 1 Charisma: Social skills a bit on the low end. I could not catch some of the witty jokes from my friends and I should have treated a few of my friends better since they have been nice to me but I sort of neglected them. Hopefully, a little bit more charisma willl help me bridge those social gaps.

5) + 1 Endurance：The physical endurance to strengthen my body and the mental endurance to survive all the viccisitudes of life. Such are improvements I would always welcome to have in 2007.

6) + 1 Perception: As I meet more and more people in the course of my work and life, I hope I can improve on my perception skills so I can prevent a poor judgement of character and save myself from unnecessary troubles. It's still quite a jungle out there.

7) + 1 Strength: After all the gym in 2006, I hope to gain some physical strength and mass so I'll look better in formal attire, which will hopefully offset my less-than-handsome physical appearance. As much as I loathe it, most people judge by first impressions and a good build can improve that impression by that much.

8) + 1 Finance: Earn and save more money for my future and in case of any rainy days. I am not a slave of money but with the prices of everything set to go up, I hope to achieve this and at least survive all those rainy days intact and contented enough.

9) + 1 Wisdom: All the above resolutions are useless if I don't have the wisdom to use them properly so I hope to have a little bit more wisdom in 2007 to enable me to use my attributes and resources to make myself and everyone I love happier or at least content.

Interesting Tarot Cards Quiz

Interesting Tarot Cards Quiz:

I was browsing through blogs when I discovered the following quiz and I thought it might be fun to try it out. Hmm..my results are mentioned below. I wonder what's yours?

You are The Sun

Happiness, Content, Joy.

The meanings for the Sun are fairly simple and consistent.

Young, healthy, new, fresh. The brain is working, things that were muddled come clear, everything falls into place, and everything seems to go your way.

The Sun is ruled by the Sun, of course. This is the light that comes after the long dark night, Apollo to the Moon's Diana. A positive card, it promises you your day in the sun. Glory, gain, triumph, pleasure, truth, success. As the moon symbolized inspiration from the unconscious, from dreams, this card symbolizes discoveries made fully consciousness and wide awake. You have an understanding and enjoyment of science and math, beautifully constructed music, carefully reasoned philosophy. It is a card of intellect, clarity of mind, and feelings of youthful energy.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

03 January 2007 End of the Day Post

03 January 2007 End of the Day Post:

I woke up around 7am today not because I have lessons but because it's time for an early breakfast. No, no, it's not because I am exceptionally hungry but it's a habit of mine to have my breakfast two hours before my gym session can start. After all the eating, drinking and celebrating for New Year Day, I must shed off those extra fats or end up being short of breath whenever I run around for my lessons.

Breakfast was a standard fare of roti prata and hot milo - full of carbohydrates and of course, flavour to wake myself up before I prepare for the exercises. The weights are not exactly light and I don't want to be crushed under those nasty icy-cold weights. I had a near accident before during my JC days and it was a close shave from death on the bench press.

After breakfast, I started twiddling with my Fallout Tactics game files because I have been modifying the game files with lots of real-life information in order to make the game even more realistic and fun to play with. This morning, I started on the enhancer drugs section where the characters can innoculate themselves with special medicines or steroids to improve their performances. It's quite similiar to real-life combat situations where sometimes adrenalin is used to hype up the soldiers before a difficult and dangerous mission.

Gym was the usual weights training on the shoulders and chest (without the running) because I have a meeting with a director of a tuition centre. The meeting took far longer than I expected (1.5hours) and I was literally starving at the end of it. I am still considering the business plan proposed by the director and it will probably take days to sort out those thoughts.

I had a pleasant surprise when I went for my afternoon lesson with one of my long-term student and he was very nice to prepare two presents for the festive season - both from Switzerland. The first one was a beautiful minature classical guitar because he saw my blog post on guitar-playing. I am going to find a nice place to display it in my room. The second one was a slab of Swiss chocolates but with a difference - it contained cognac (a type of strong liquor) and I am probably going to eat them after dinner on a full stomach in case I get drunk from eating those liquor-filled chocolates.

Dinner was simple fare of instant mee goreng and two fried eggs because I did not have too much of an appetite tonight and here I am at the keyboard typing this post after my dinner. I'll probably watch the performances of the female PSS 2 contestants because the theme for tonight and tomorrow night is super oldies and some of the songs sounded interesting and thus worth a viewing.

Hmm..come to think of it - I haven't really gotten down to thinking about my New Year resolutions for 2007. Perhaps I'll have to start setting some goals this year again...

(Image source: selva, 30 Jun 2005, Flickr)

My Thank-You List for 2006

My Thank-You List for 2006:

I have been surfing the blogs tonight and I realized it is a tradition amongst many blogs to do such thank you blogs at the end of each year and I suppose as a newbie in blogging, it will be appropriate for me to follow this blog tradition as well. So here's my thank-you list for 2006. Unfortunately, I cannot publicly name some of the folks here on this public blog so I'll have to make do with codenames and for those who know who I am talking about, go ahead and smile. Here we go:

The Changed Man (VIP) --- My buddy has had many changes in 2006 and whatever happens, I'll be there for you just as he has been there for me for the past...hmm...13 years. I hope he finally knows what he wants in 2007 and go ahead. Right now, enjoy your ultra-high self-confidence but don't mess with troubling waters - you know what I mean.

The Directionless Girl (VIP) --- My close friend from my university days because she is one of the few who truly understands my point of view and how I feel about things without spelling it out. Methinks she is working too hard just to numb herself from finding her true love but she's a good girl in her own ways and I am sure there'll be somebody suitable for her hopefully in 2007.

The Sushi Rabbit (VIP) --- Another ultra-close friend of mine because like the previous two VIPs, she knows when to stand behind me, when to stand beside me and when to stand in front of me depending on the prevailing situations or dangers. Definitely one of those VIPs whom I would like to keep beside me for the rest of my life. Stay safe and don't hop into unnecessary dangers just for the fun of it.

Teresa Tseng (Campus Superstar) --- At one point of time, I was quite stagnant in my music pursuits because I was demoralized by the quality of singing during the early 2006 months until this girl sang on national television during the competition period. Unknowingly to her, she brought back the spark from the music embers inside me and I owe that breath of rejuvenation to her. I will continue to help her towards Superstardom within my possible means - as long as she continues to help herself.

Samantha (TFC) --- An intelligent and hardworking girl. She's been quick to update news of the Campus Superstar, Teresa and has been working overtime to provide the information to everyone else in all the possible channels recently. If someone is to organize an elite team of publicists, I would put in my letter of recommendation in for this girl.

Jinfu (TFC) --- From the way he blogs, he is a funny man in his own right. However, this guy knows what he is talking about and definitely has the capability to do what he says if he wants to. If an event or concert is to happen, he is the man to look for and I am still holding on to his promise for professional help if Teresa gets her own concert sometime in the future..haha.

Chengsong (TFC) --- A well-travelled guy but extremely shy. So shy that he still refuses to let me link his blog to mine. Other than that, he is really helpful and polite and I wish there are more people like him around. He has contributed much in many unseen ways to TFC and is one of those rare gems around. Good luck in his work in the new year!

Idollic.com Administrator (Idollic.com/teresa) --- An extremely mysterious fellow whom I don't think he would even want me to name him in this blog or anywhere else. This guy is another workhorse behind the scenes, supporting Teresa with his efforts on idollic.com. He is also very quick with those performances videos, clips and all the techie things that I am unfamiliar with and he has been very dependable in providing all those without a single word of complaint. Teresa is lucky to have someone working hard behind his back. Hope the girl can visit his webbie and give him a pat on his back for his hard work throughout 2006.

Blogger.com (Inanimate) --- I never actually thought of blogging even though it has been around for quite a number of years, but blogger.com actually made it really convenient for a beginner like me to start. And when I did, I realized how much fun there is in blogging and it has become a passive form of online communication between my friends and I, especially when we are too busy to chat on MSN. Hope to continue my blogging for a long time to come.

My Computer Games (Inanimate) --- I would like to thank those computer games that kept me company throughout 2006 whenever I was bored at home but did not feel like talking to another human being. Maple Story, Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel, Sacred, Port Royale, Titan Quest, Soldier of Fortune, Rome: Total War. Most of them are role-playing or strategy games but I love all of them for what they can bring to me - a mental sweat and hours of concentration away from the real world when I needed it.

My Gym Mates (Fitness Club) --- I don't know their exact names because I only recognize my fellow gym-mates by their faces - I think everyone else there does that too. These peope gave me the necessary concentration and motivation to exercise and keep myself healthy. They don't really talk much but their gritted determination and bulging muscles whenever they concentrate on their weights reminded me to keep my mind clear and focused when I lifted mine. Thanks for being there to push me in an indirect way and keep my life balanced through motivating me to exercise.

My list could probably go longer than this but my heavy eyes are not helping me carry on. For those names that I miss, I seek your forgiveness. I did not forget all of you but my fatigue prevents me from typing further. My thanks anyway to all those who have been with me for 2006 and may all of you have a great year ahead.


(Image source: clafouti, 06 Jan 2006, stock.xchng)