Year 16

I slept at 2am last night. Surprisingly, it took me 1.5 hours just to dust 1 and half section of my figurine display cabinet s so I decided to stop first and continue some other day. After that I flipped through the FF XV Official Works that I bought 2 weeks ago. It gave me an impression that this game is rather emo and sucky. There is older Noctis and fat Prompto which makes me go what the hell. I got curious and after googling this and that, it was 130am. Haha.. I find out that Lunafreya and Noctis die in the game and the happy ending in the game is either a dream or is an afterlife. Seriously what the hell? Can't we go back to PS1 era with decent games and plots which are great without making people confused with all the time travels, dream world, etc?

I was surprised that I did not have any emo post on this day last year. Perhaps I was too caught up with all the shit that happened with my work that time as usually I will not not feeling emo on 28 October. 28 October 2002 was the day I left home. It has been 16 years away from home and being homeless and I still cannot stop imagining what life could have been in the alternate universe if I decided to rebel against my parents' wishes 16 years ago. Noone will know if things would turn out better or worse but when the going gets tough and I hate my current life, I cannot help to run away to my imagination and dream world.

I know I am supposed to be grateful for what God has given me. Sadly I decided to skip mass today for Pokemon Go. I am sorry, God! Lol.. An error occurred during Community Day last Sunday so this Sunday was the replacement. My luck was not as good as last week, perhaps because I was naughty and skipped mass :p Last week I caught 8 shiny Beldum in 1.5 hours while today I only got 3 in the full 3 hours. I had high hopes with my power bank but it did not work or maybe I don't know how to use it. 2 Giratina escaped and I did not get Feebas from 10km egg. Nonetheless, I should be happy with my 7 Metagross and the remaining shiny but has room for improvement Beldum.

No special meal or celebration today but I ate at Fisherios at Takashimaya Basement because that was one of the places with available seats. I still consider it a special meal because I have been curious about this place (well who will not be tempted with fried stuff) but I have never tried once in my 16 years here. I am quite amazed that it can survive this long because I think the food is only so so at best. I was thinking if I should get the Alladin Gallery of Light that I saw yesterday but in the end I decided that if my diet tea was available at Donki today, I would just stock up and settle Aladdin this coming Friday after work instead. That turned out to be the case. Lol.

My worries about my eyes after changing to a desk job become a reality. Seeing signboards at road side and shopping malls confirms that my visual acuity has worsened. What's the point of sacrificing health for work/money? If I go blind, what's the point of all the money? Haiz.. Seriously fuck la. I am not blaming my new job or hating it. I just hate my life. While emo-ing about this, my Catholic quotes calendar happens to remind me 1 Timothy 6:10 : For the love of money is the root of all evils; it is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced their hearts with many pangs. How true :(

What a busy Saturday...

I was pissed with Fedex. During failed delivery attempt 2 days ago, I spoke to the delivery man he said he could help me with arrangement of the re-delivery on Saturday morning between 9am-12pm. He did not leave any missed delivery notice and when I called Fedex yesterday evening, the customer service person said nothing was reflected in the system. Then he said the delivery timing for Saturday is 11am-3pm or 2pm-6pm. Cham liao. I already promised a meet up with carousell seller for the phone case of my Huawei Nova 3i and now everything was messed up.

I woke up at 5am this morning and after playing game for awhile, I went to sleep again until 830am as I wanted to call Fedex again to ask the status for my re-delivery. During this short sleep, I had a good dream about my grandma. It was a happy dream but it made me cry. I think I still miss my grandma. Basically in the dream, I was having a meal with my dad and my grandma. My dad bought fried chicken for my grandma and chicken strips for me because I am lazy to eat things with bones. Surprisingly my grandma said she would like to eat the chicken strips inside. Haha.. My grandma is in her younger years in the dream as I recall vividly her still black hair and full set of teeth. I pray and I believe that my grandma is happy in heaven now.

I received an SMS from Fedex delivery man about my item and thank goodness he replied me back when I asked about approximate time that he would arrive. Item was delivered about 10am and that meant I was able to go to the gym for the 12pm session.

After gym, I went to Plaza Singapura for the meet up and I stupidly tempt myself at the toy shops there. I saw the rare Olszewki Disney Gallery of Light Magic Carpet Ride figurine at Movie Replicas. There was Bambi too. I asked about Aladdin and the guy only showed me Bambi ($160) and said Aladdin should be the same price. I did my homework online. Bambi is available in eBay for about 130-140USD including international shipping but noone is selling Aladdin. Past price showed up to 300USD for Aladdin. Looks like I will have to buy it.

So while googling, I ended up finding ArtFX+ Newt Scamander and ArtFX J Ash and Eiji from Banana Fish from Amazon JP. In total, they were $100 cheaper compared to if I were to preorder from local shop. Wow.. I was also hunting for ArtFX J of Kaito Kid and Conan which are just earlier this week. I did not pre-order a lot of things because I was running out of storage space but after tidying up my things last week, I realised that I still had some space and that's why I ended up splurging again. Oh well.. At least it urges me to dust my figurine display cabinets now. I have been procrastinating about it since before I went to Japan in September and the dust is visually making my fingers itchy to clean already.

IT madness

National Steps Challenge season 4 will begin on 27 October and it seems that HPB never learn to improve itself. I went for the new tracker collection at Jurong few weeks ago and although the closing time was at 7pm, when I reached there around 630pm  the queue was already closed due to overwhelming responses. It is so stupid because HPB should know how many people already join and complete the previous seasons and yet they restrict the places for these people to collect the new tracker while opening more places for first timers. In addition, HPB adds a MVPA category (moderate to vigorous physical activity) component by tracking heart rate and only the new tracker is capable to support this. Obviously everyone is forced to collect and we are not simply there just to collect free stuff. Anyway it is smart for them to add a new category since the steps tracking category is prone to abuse like shaking, strapping it on pets, putting it on fans etc. Now people really cannot cheat heart rates eh?

Luckily I did not chiong to queue on the first weekend because after that, the collection method through post office was made available and I collected mine from the post office. Unfortunately the problem does not end there as the new tracker was undetected by my phone. I went to one of the shops for troubleshooting and it was a waste of time. The person at the shop was also a noob and did not do troubleshooting as she claimed "we are here only to settle exchanges". Well the thing to be exchanged also not detected so no point for me to exchange.

Emailing the customer support was also a waste of time as they only gave guidelines. I had no choice but to waste more time to go to HPB. The people were also noob as they were only following the guidelines I already followed. In the end, they conveniently blamed my Android to be "too old" while it is still perfectly within the minimum requirement of the app. Pfft...

With that, I have no choice but to start using my iPad. Yup.. it has been a month since I bought it and I have not even opened the packaging. Lol. I think all the tax free and 5% savings by buying it in Japan is spent for the screen protector and the protective case already which are given free if I buy directly here. I will definitely need to learn and adapt to use iPad as I have been on Android all these while.

My Samsung E7 is near to its end of life and I have to start looking for replacement. I am due for recontract in January but I am glad I did my research early. Now there is SIM-only plan that it is no longer worth it to buy the phone bundle plan. In total, the phone bundle plan will only save about $100-$150 but I will be "tied" to the contract for 21 months at least. Bleah.. not worth it.. I made up my mind to change to SIM-only plan so I can get a replacement phone now and I decided on Huawei Nova 3i.

I bought it on Tuesday from Best Denki for $378 (after $20 discount) and there were some freebies such as memory card, power bank, cable, and stand. I am not sure how long this will stay in the box as I have to find a screen protector and case first before using. Lol. I consider myself lucky because I was told that I bought the second last set that the store had.

Only available in black or purple so I choose the colourful over the boring one. Lol.

When I switch to this phone, my prepaid card which is currently in my Galaxy Note (the first gen) can finally move to my current Samsung E7. I already prepared myself with the new nano SIM which cost $37.45. After checking with M1, it reaffirms that I made the correct decision to get SIM only plan next time because the $40/month phone bundle plan will not be eligible for corporate discount. Wow... The SIM only plan will not be eligible too but that simply means the calculation that I did is correct that it is not worth it to the get the phone bundle plan.

I started to play Pokemon Go enthusiastically again. I think partly because the amount of walking with my new workplace that hatching eggs are do-able. Haha.. I am surprised that despite being desk bound, I still can hit 10000 steps everyday leh. Wahaahaha.. Nice nice.. There is no need to be worried about the steps challenge now. I also raid at Bishan if there is ongoing raid on my way home and finally I am able to complete the Mew quest. Lol. My luck has been pretty good in the game as I caught Mewtwo and that is the very first legendary that I successfully catch from raid. Although the Community Day ended early today because some errors, I miraculously caught 8 shiny Beldums in 1.5 hours. That is really amazing. I hope my luck will continue in this game or I will quit again. Lol.

Oh ya, the teaser trailer for Aladdin Live Action was out last week. It is a bit what the eff as it was just a CGI galore and only at the end of the trailer that the Aladdin appears. Although I am a fan, I am somewhat disappointed sia. The guy looks to old to play Aladdin who is supposed to be 18 years old or something. Anyway the teaser trailer actually follows the original teaser for the original cartoon. Because the lack of anything in the teaser, most people are actually commenting about Disney being finger snapped by Thanos for the sand being wind blown effect. One thing I have to say great from the trailer is the music.

I will still be supporting the movie as it may mean more Aladdin merchandises coming up (ouch my poor wallet!). I think it will mean more competition for Aladdin characters at Disneyland though I hope this will make Tokyo Disneysea think about having Aladdin and friends as regular photo characters at the Arabian Coast instead of merely as roaming characters!

Yesterday was my volunteering and that was my first time back in dispensary after changing job. I think I have not lost my touch. Haha.. Throw me to any dispensary and the black face and the chiongster spirit will somehow come back.

Shopping spree again

I applied for Bank of China Elite World Mastercard in preparation for my trip in September. It is so stupid that the card only arrived after my holiday ended. It took almost 2 months for approval so it is not a good first impression of the bank that already has a lot of negative perception from people. With the bonus miles promotion ending in the end of the year, I have 3 more months to maximise the miles. That is not a good thing because I have no more travel plans so the foreign spending basically means shopping.

The first item that has my attention is Age of Ultron diorama by Royal Selangor. Remember the statue shown for ending credits of the movie? I always want a figure of that and this diorama is basically the first figurine based on that statue. I have no idea I end up at Royal Selangor website for this item so maybe I am just fated to spend. Lol.

$2800 for this beauty

I know Royal Selangor has series of Batman and Star Wars figurines but I never know they have Marvel. They even have 1/1 scale of Iron Man on display at Suntec City. Good thing I am not a fan of Iron Man. I spent the past few weekends checking out all Royal Selangor outlets in Singapore to see the physical item before deciding to buy. Apparently only MBS has it on display and each of the character is actually quite small so I am still undecided.

I contacted Royal Selangor online and they allow payment by foreign currency if I want. Currently MBS and Suntec City is having a promotion until tomorrow spend above $400 and get 3 mini figurines ($55 each). So I am calculating whether it is more worth to get the bonus miles for foreign currency or to get this mini figurines. However likely I will wait until December in hope of Christmas promotion or something.

When I checked out Royal Selangor at Takashimaya, I opened more cans of worms. Swarovski has this amazing Mickey Mouse and friends figurines to celebrate Mickey's 90th anniversary for $25500. Wow!! As wonderful the figurines are, this is something out of my reach. Perhaps it will be apt for my 10-year-plan to get whatever limited edition figurines they have for Mickey's 100th anniversary.

I think original price is USD 17000

It is also my first time coming across to the brand Lladro which also produces Disney porcelain figurines. Thank goodness I am not a fan of Mulan or Snow White as their faces look so pretty. If Lladro ever produces Aladdin and Jasmine figurines, I will definitely buy. The one that has my interest this time is Peter Pan figurine. The retail price is $910 and when I searched eBay, I find one for USD 375 with USD 32 shipping. It is a no brainer not to buy. Haha.. While eBay-ing, I find another Peter Pan figurine by Lladro but it seems that the best price that the sellers are willing to give me is USD 190 so I shall KIV this first since I am getting the other one.

The only problem I have with this is the closed eyes

I also managed to find Final Fantasy Dissidia Ultimate Collector's Edition being sold at original retail price. I managed to bargain to USD 120 so I am very happy that I did not succumb when the game was released earlier this year when sellers were jacking up the prices. The box is not as big as what I imagined so I am thinking of trying to sell this at carousell while there are still eBay sellers selling at original retail price.

It is a crazy waste of money but I think I shall excuse myself of splurging to commemorate my new beginning at a new job. Hahaha...

Adapting well

I am adapting pretty well with my new job and life is definitely better with responsibility and stress level commensurate with pay. Regular working hours and travelling by MRT allow me to have regular schedule throughout the day. Gone are the days where remembering roster time and setting alarm clock change everyday.

I also enjoy the "own time own target nature" of office job. On some days I can go home earlier when I already complete my work. If I come late, I can just stay a bit longer to compensate and a bit of plus minus for lunch time is also okay. Thank God for allowing me to experience an office job kind of life. Lol.

I never understood what is so great about dressing down on Fridays. Now that I have experienced it, I can testify that it makes a huge difference. It makes Fridays more enjoyable and I woke up feeling happy. I only started this Friday because 2 of my working pants got holes so I had to "save" my working pants for next week.  Bleah.. I decided to buy 3 sets of working pants from G2000. Maybe this is a sign that I am getting fatter from the sedentary office work.

Nothing is perfect so what are the stresses with the current job? Mostly they are minor things like competing with lunch crowd, expensive food (double or triple the amount I paid in my previous job), keeping myself awake at work, and my eyes. Sigh.. perhaps the last one is a serious thing. Anyway I spoke to my boss about it and she also said that I should be taking frequent breaks for my eyes. I am trying to look at the bright side of the expensive food as it forces me to go back to my L-men for dinner. I really need to lose weight as I am inching closer to 70kg and it is scary!

There have been some hiccups as well. I think my boss can be cold and moody at times. Well I always tell myself that it is normal to have sucky boss so I should not be complaining at times. What irks me the most is the inadequate training. I was just thrown the SOP and when I asked questions, I was told to refer to SOP. However, the SOP is badly written that I need clarification. When I try to clarify, the answers really reinforce my point that SOP is bad. Some parts are inaccurate and when I just follow, things are not actually being done according to the SOP. What the heck.. Nonetheless, I am not going to be quick to judge if I dislike this job or I dislike my boss. After all, it is only 3 weeks. For most part of the days, things have been more on the good and happy side.

The next few months look great for movies. I was just talking about Fantastic Beast and the Crimes of Grindelwald with my friends few days ago and the final trailer was out a few hours later. The final trailer reveals Nagini as a human character and action shots look promising. Can't wait for 15 November. Wreck-it-Ralph 2 is scheduled to be out a week after that and these 2 movies are sure watch for me. Bohemian Rhapsody looks promising (because who does not like Queen's songs!) but perhaps I will wait for reviews first since a movie based on a real life of a huge persona may potentially be damn good or damn bad. Meanwhile for December, I am still on the fence about The Nutcracker and the Four Realms and Mary Poppins Returns while I will give Aquaman a miss just like how I skip Venom. Wow.. Disney sure has so many movies lined up.