Duo Me Doll sucks

I feel like shit to discover that the custom figure of myself broke. I had it done in December 2018 so it is barely 2 years old. I took a good care of it by not storing it in an airy cupboard and away from light and heat. I even open the cupboard door occasionally to let cool air in. What is more painful than seeing $200 gone just like that is that I never even had the chance of taking photos of it. I did not expect its lifespan will be this pathetic. The previous custom figure of myself (Lilliput Island) lasted longer and it was much cheaper. In fact, other than the initial chip on the hair, the figure still retained its condition at least until the last time I saw it in 2017.

This Duomedoll is actually quite disappointing right from the start. That's why I have been lazy to take a photo. Similar to the previous one, the hair was already having some problem since the start. However, overall this Duomedoll is not similar to the photo that I sent. Since having a customised body only cost $20 more, I decided to choose the iconic pose of Heero Yuy. The body was quite disappointing: the 'neck' is too long,  the raised arm is more muscular than the relaxed arm, the shirt is tight (unlike the original picture), there are white discolourations and the body is not upright but slightly bows to the front. Although I appreciate the creativity for the base, the bricks look lame. The details of the shoes are good though.

The cracks are not obvious in pictures but they are so obvious in person

The source of inspiration

The dismembered head

I tried to remove the head in hope of gluing the cracks together. After dismembering my own head, it is not a surprise that the lifespan of this shit is so short. Instead of being sculpted as a whole head, it was done like how we played plasticine when we were kids. There is a wire that connects the body to the head. Inside the head, this wire is 'wrapped' by a layer of the clay and then the rest of the head goes around this layer. The hair is a separate piece pasted over. While the layer around the wire remained intact, the rest of the clay making the head simply disintegrated into many irregular pieces. I really wonder what the initial material was that it can disintegrate naturally until this bad. I threw away without taking any photos of the broken state as it is just making me emo.

I wanted to throw the body so that I am not reminded by this $200 shit anymore. However, I decided to still keep it since the body seems quite sturdy and has not shown any sign of disintegration. I think it is clear that the materials used for the head is simply of a lousier quality. If only the quality of the head is as good as the body :( While I know things do not last forever, I knew my gut was right that I was buying shit as the guy could not speak English. Anything coming from THAT country cannot be good and yep I am right.

Breaking the head of the figure feels like breaking my own head as I am having a headache now. Haiz.. This evening I was in a good mood and I wanted to complete my faith story. Now this shit happened and my mood turned shit again. Damn it..

One thing for sure: no more clay figures now. I will consider if it is made of resin though. So sad that previously from Lilliput Island is more long lasting, cheaper, but unable to make a customised body while this Duomedoll can have customised body the head (which is the most important part) does not last long.

Drowning

Hehe perhaps my dream of dying may be coming to reality soon. After the dream as a ghost, last night I dreamt of drowning -although it was not the drowning until dead kind. I was going into the pool but surprisingly the pool was deeper than expected. Since I cannot really swim, I can only resign to my fate to go all the way down under the water until my feet hit the bottom of the pool and kicked myself up. When I re-surfaced, I was coughing out water. The dream had got to do with my phlegm when I was sleeping because when I had a bit of cough and phlegm and funny whitish thingy from my mouth.

I woke up early and would be in time for my gym but I decided to cancel. Bleah.. Now my arms and shoulders cannot take it after push ups and bend over rows. That was why I skipped on Friday and I ran out of banana for breakfast this morning. That was my excuse this morning. In order not to repeat the same excuse for tomorrow, I had to do groceries today to get banana for breakfast tomorrow. Although I promised not to KFC again, that did not happen. Haha.. Since I would be going over to Thomson Plaza, might as well get something for lunch and KFC was the choice. I managed to skip the bubble tea today though.

I am not a fan of One Piece but I am pretty sad to find out that One Piece at Tokyo Tower had permanently closed. I went to Tokyo for a few times and not a single time I visited Tokyo Tower. That is why I never visited the One Piece theme park. Although I am not following the manga or anime, it is really amazing to see those life-size character statues. It would have been very nice photo opportunity and I am a sucker for this kind of thing. Sigh.. One Piece is a super duper popular series and I really do not expect the theme park would close. Lessons learnt: next time just get a chance to visit this kind of anime related stuff quickly before it is gone for good.

An exciting new is the update on the Gundam at Gundam Factory in Yokohama. Recently they did some tests and I am quite blown away with the range of movement. Having a Gundam that can fly to the space may no longer a just a dream perhaps in the next life time. Looks like if the whole COVID situation is over, I have to apply for a visa and go to see this next year because I see the event period is only until October 2021. No idea what will happen after that but I definitely do not want to miss this. Aaah but of course if I die before that, I will be happier also.

Toys I cannot own

I am quite emo with Tsume's recent announcement of making HQS+ for the 5 Bronze Saints to accompany the recently released Athena HQS+. I do not collect HQS+ as scale 1/4 is simply too big for me :( In addition, they started with HQS line since 2013 (with Gemini Saga that I did not buy previously because I was still poor and barely out of school) and that line is not even halfway done.

Even though I know I won't buy Seiya, I was still tempted :( Surprisingly it is only 699 Euro, which is half of Athena's 1499 Euro's price tag. At the local shop that I am patronising for Tsume, Seiya goes for $1230 which is only $30 more than HQS Camus whose original price is 100 Euro cheaper than Seiya. Why like that. Damn.. Tsume is really money minded bastards and that Camus is more expensive than necessary just because of the Aquarius lady which is even bigger than Camus himself. It is unnecessary waste of resources. Oh well as much as I complain, I will still continue to be willingly ripped of for HQS :( When is Aries Mu coming..

Since I give Athena HQS+ a miss, I became tempted at random 1/6 garage kit statues of Athena to go along with the rest of my HQS. After spending a few hours googling and thinking, I decided to be sane and not to buy garage kits since I will not be certain of the quality. Anyway I have to give credits to Tsume because a lot of these unofficial Saint Seiya garage kits actually copy Tsume's style for the base. Seeing how random companies can churn up statues faster and cheaper, aaah if only Tsume is less money minded, they would go even further.

I also missed out on keyblade-shaped conductor baton from Kingdom Hearts concert merchandise. This time it is a set with 2 different keyblades. I received an email about it earlier this week and there were only 41 sets remaining. Sadly with the ordering opened at 3am here this morning, all were gone by the time I woke up. Apparently when I googled, this was put on sale some time last year. How come I was not aware at all? I always read my emails, even those promotional advertisement, before I delete leh. Oh well :( I am not really a big fan of Kingdom Hearts but since I already have the conductor baton from the previous concert, it would be nice to have more keyblades for the collection. Now the only hope of getting this is if somehow they are holding the concert in Singapore again like previously and they will produce more of these merchandises.

Just a random thing to end this post: I finally start wearing the sandals that I bought in Taiwan more than a year ago. Haha.. My old pair was finally near its end of life with a part of sole coming off. It was getting irritating as it made me feel that I stepped on something when I walked too fast.

Nothing special about the sandals, except for those green lines hehe...

Gosh.. I should be working on my faith story instead of blogging random things.

Ghost

Blood donation and diet do not go well together. I think I am still in the process of recovering since I have been feeling quite lousy from Sunday. My plan to keep spending for food in September to less than $200 is a failure now. I ordered Grab Food for dinner on Monday and yesterday because I felt weak on Monday and I was having headache since Tuesday evening. Yesterday was quite bad because I was avoiding taking medicines. I bought 2 packs of potato chips, 3 ice creams, and a bottle of milk tea in attempt to get rid of the headache but they did not work. That was why in the end I still ordered delivery for dinner. Luckily today I felt better and I went to gym again.

The headache and tiredness yesterday brought a very weird dream. For the very first time ever, I was a ghost in my dream. Haha.. It was like as if I was a ghost who could not pass on until a living couple helped to get my medical files. After knowing what happened to my health, I was satisfied but as I was about to say thank you to them, they could not longer sense my present. It was so random but there are 2 things I remembered very vividly from the medical files. First is a brief medical history of myself since I arrived in Singapore.  It was signed by an uncle who is a doctor but the funny thing is that I never consult him for any health problems in my life. Haha... Second is something to do about hernia. I saw multiple MRI images which made me finally realise where the lump was prior to my surgery last time. I remembered seeing black and white MRI images but I did not recall any details of the hernia itself la. Anyway it was so random and sadly I still woke up to reality of living. Bleah...

I was planning to do minor revision and addition to my Landings faith story although the usual recommendation is to re-write and not to re-use those done in the past since with time, the way I look at or feel about certain past things may no longer be the same. Looks like God does not wish to be naughty since apparently I do not have the old file. Huhuhu T_T I found a record in my 'sent' email but that was barely 1 page long. It seems that I typed halfway before sending it to my work email and to finish it at work. I printed it out last year but did not keep the completed digital copy. My weekend will be for this and my online photobook progress has to be put on hold again.

I seldom rant about work nowadays but this week I really get very irritated and upset with bitches at work. I am too lazy to type into the nonsensical and wasting time details but I think my work relationship with them is done for. I keep telling myself to exercise self-restrain and not to explode because perhaps I am just being a bit more sensitive due to my low energy. But honestly, I feel that what they have been doing is already undermining the spirit of teamwork and most importantly, my trust. Seriously these childish bitches should learn to think before saying irresponsible or useless things or making emotional decisions without thinking the long term consequences. In the future, they will complain again over their own stupid decisions done emotionally in the past. Really damn fucking stupid bitches.

For now I can only be thick skin as defense mechanism. Fiuuh... I am higher than them and I have more things to deal with. I simply do not have the time to deal with nitty gritty stuff that these lowly people are bitching about. Haiz.. I am really not looking forward to phase 3 since it means I have to see these bitches again. Can they please quit or something? Or I don't mind if I die so that I do not have to deal with them anymore.

KFC weekend

My worry of returning to indiscriminate junk food indeed becomes a reality with frequent trips outside as I am returning to gym. My physical fitness has not returned and I still cannot go every alternate days or go two days and rest for one day. Now I am still in the stage of going once and resting for two days and yet I cannot resist the junk food. This past week alone I finished 3 bags of Kettle's potato chips as Cold Storage was having a sale ($3.65 each) and the Korean BBQ flavour is not available in Fair Price.

This weekend is particularly disastrous. Yesterday I still did not feel 100% fit and skipped gym again despite already skipping for 2 days. Yesterday I slept in a bad position and my inner right elbow is having a bit of pain until now. I skipped gym again as push ups, mountain climbers, and any other hand movements will trigger the discomfort.

I went for blood donation this morning and this was the excuse of my KFC weekend. I got some promo codes since last week and I managed to suppress my desire until this week. Haha.. There were 2 promos that I was eyeing and my initial plan was to have one today and the other one next weekend. Well I could not resist yesterday and I downloaded the KFC app. It makes ordering for takeaway so convenient and that is the reason why I had it again today. Haha.. I went for my donation right when the centre opened at 10am and I was not expecting to end near 11am which is the starting of the normal menu for KFC. Anyway after having both promos on two consecutive days, my cravings are fulfilled and I have deleted the promo codes. No more KFC next week.

With all these rubbish diet, obviously I gained some kg and now am back to 60 again. Sian.. Plus I decided to get XL-size bubble tea from R&B. I seldom go to Thomson Plaza and anyway it was my first time buying from R&B so when I saw XL-size (which is a normal size available in any other bubble tea shops), I decided to just YOLO it. That was the main culprit from the bad sleeping position since it made me so full and uncomfortable when sleeping.

On the bright side, I find it a miracle that my junk diet has not really affected my food spending this month. I manage to limit the junk to weekends and groceries and currently I only spent less than $150 this month for food. Wow!! If I can keep my discipline until the end of this month, this will be the first time ever that I will spend less than $200 for food in a month. Let this weekend be a turning point and no more junk food from now on. I am sort of bored with my weekly bubble tea already so it will be quite easy to skip that subsequently.

Another good news is that I have solved my agony over blocked Youtube series. Thank goodness for Opera browser which has VPN included so now I am done with the series that I was watching halfway and now I can follow the new series every Sunday. Hehe..

Cash Advance

The weather has been very cooling recently that even without turning on the aircon, it is colder than usual nights when I switch on the aircon. The coolness makes me keep sneezing and very sleepy though. It was so bad today that I even forgot to take spoon after buying lunch. Worse, I withdrew cash from the ATM using my credit card. I was surprised that I could do that. It made me realise that I unintentionally used the Cash Advance which has additional charge of 8% or $15 minimum. I was emo but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise as when I checked my credit card statement, I realised I made the same stupid mistake last week and I could see the $15 already charged.

I was totally unaware that I also used my credit card last week but I remembered seeing 'Balance $0' on the screen which made worried since I knew I still had balance in my bank account. I immediately checked my balance and I thought everything was fine. It was because I only withdrew $50 last week. Anyway being charged $15 for $50 withdrawal is just ridiculous. I was blessed that the customer service lady was willing to waive the charges for me and taught me how to link my credit card to my bank account to prevent this Cash Advance thingy if I commit this same silly mistake again in the future.

I decided to be gung-ho on last Thursday and did jump pull up since there were only 3 sets. It was a huge mistake since I suffered the pain and sore in my arms, shoulder, back, groin and thighs for 3 days. I went to gym again yesterday although I was not feeling 100% but I survived. I should stick with the squat pull first until perhaps around 1 month of being regular at the gym again.

I signed up for a free online course on mentorship. I still have to deal with students as well as team members who behave like 'kids' so I decided to see if there are new things to learn. It was quite awkward to switch on my webcam throughout but I suppose I was just being too obedient since some people did not switch on. Haha.. I sort of feel that it was a waste of time since I did not really learn something new in terms of skills or approach. Perhaps one takeaway for me is seeing the shifts in mindset in terms of career. The emphasis nowadays seems to be at transferable skills. Unlike in the past when people used to stay for decades in their job and job-hopping was shunned, job-hopping and rapid changes at work are expected nowadays. I am glad I had the opportunity to change job 2 years ago since it is really good to broaden my horizons with different settings and environment. Oh one interesting thing was that I think one of the trainers was my JC classmate. Haha... I was not close to her so I did not bother to ask but from the name, the face and the way she speaks, it really reminds me of her. At least she is one of the nicer ones and not one of the bitchy ones that I disliked in class previously lol.

I start to take my eye supplements again after many months of not taking. I have not been buying since I already fulfill my $500 monthly credit card spending. After being 'forced' to use online shopping during circuit breaker, now I am enjoying that to get my dehumidifiers. I need at least $40 to get free shipping so while browsing for more items, I saw my eye supplements having 40% off as well as $22 off for $100 promotion. It was really a good deal. Previously I always waited for buy 2 get 1 free promotion in the physical store which came to around 33% off. So $500 for this month is settled and I need to resort to weekend delivery meals hehe.. Next month should not be a problem too with my skin doctor appointment and time to replenish my Centrum.

Bad week for entertainment

This year is a bad year for mobile games that I am playing. After Final Fantasy Mobius was discontinued in June, I just received the in-game notification that Detective Conan Runner: Race to the Truth will end in October. Sigh.. The good thing is that I have not spent any cents for this game. I also did not spend too much time for playing as I am only interested in collecting the cards and animation for summer, Halloween, and Christmas. I did not even get all the Christmas special cards last year and there will not be a second Christmas for this game. I will definitely miss this game for the nice illustration of the cards and the game relatively has low time commitment.

I am damn sian since Thursday after GMMTV started blocking some of their series. One series that I am in the midst of watching (I only watched 1 episode daily during my lunch break) is affected. Darn! It is not available in kissasian. I think they only update the series by popular actors since for this particular series is divided into 4 sub-series and only the 2 with the more popular actors are available. Looks like I am not going to complete this. Bleah... The worst is a new series that I am eagerly waiting also kena. This is a sequel of the series that I completed in just 2 days in July. Tonight will be the second episode and I will emo again tomorrow if I cannot find where to watch.

A silver lining from this is my discovery that Line TV is now available in Singapore too. Previously I need to wait until someone uploads in Youtube for series that do not officially get uploaded in Youtube. Now I can catch those series directly from Line TV. Sadly the series that I want to watch and get restricted by GMMTV is also restricted in Line TV. Huhuhu...

I am lucky to sell my WBMA Takara Tomy Twin Drazeros - Gold Version. I have no idea what series this is from and I cannot even remember how I get this. I have put it up on Carousell since 3 years ago and it is really a good surprise to find a buyer for this. The buyer is in Malaysia and he actually asked his uncle to pick it up from my place. Yay. With carousell limiting free active listings to 30 items now, any successful sale from there is really miracle. Haiz.. There are still so many items that I hope to flip to no avail. So irritating that some people ask if the items are still available or ask for meeting locations only to disappear after that. Well, I can only hope and wait patiently.

Towards normalcy

I am running out of gym suspension. Initially I planned to finish everything before returning but a part of me is still holding on to the very slim hope that things may return to normal by the end of the year and I would like to have some suspension when I fly home for Christmas. Thus I reactivated my membership on Sunday. I went again on Monday and today.

Another push to go on Sunday was to help my sister check out Winnie the Pooh t-shirt that she wants to buy online. I remembered seeing the pop-up store at Takashimaya so it would be good if I could check the physical item first. The pop-up store is no longer there unfortunately. Seeing the crowd on Sunday, I really thought things were returning to normal. After gym, I reached Orchard around 1030 and the crowd at Tangs and Lucky Plaza was already mamma mia... Takashimaya Department Store only opens at 11am nowadays and there was a long queue of people waiting to enter too. I am wrong, though. When I went to gym on Monday and today, the MRT crowd is definitely smaller than pre-covid days. Similarly for my bus rides home. That means there are still a lot of people working from home. Honestly, I hope this continues.

After exercising on my own in my room for the past 5 months or so, I had an idea that perhaps I do not need gym anymore and I will not renew my membership after this. Oh boy how wrong I was. Haha..  Now I am already aching everywhere despite the 2-day break. Somehow exercising is more tiring at gym. Although the main difference is only the weights, I suppose the larger space enables me to work harder and less reserved. In my room, my space is only one stretch of the floor and I have to be conscious not bang my desk and my bed.

I wanted to skip again today but decided to go since I wanted to cut my hair. It has been 2.5 months since my last hair cut and it is actually still not that long. I just cannot stand it anymore because the sideburns and the fringe are irritating to my face while the back is pricking my neck. Anyway this is another benefit of working at home. In the past I already have to cut at around 4-6 weeks as my hair will already be unpresentable It will be okay once it grows a bit longer (i.e. at 2 months or so) but between the 4th-8th weeks is usually too ugly already.

One downside of starting to go out again is realising the worsening of my visual acuity. Sigh.. Every time I think about my eye health, it makes me want to just die. Everyday I pray for it but it seems that my prayers have not been heard. I don't know why I find it so difficult to be discipline with eye breaks when I am at home. Actually it is harder to do so in the office as it will mean I am frequently out of my desk. But now I really do not have objects at long distance to stare. Haiz.. God help me...