20.11.2011 20:11

It is surprising that so many were making a big hoo-hah over 11/11/11 thingy 9 days ago but nothing much this time around. I think 20.11.2011 is a nicer pattern. Anyhow, November is always a month with my worst spending. Christmas is just around the corner and I have always found very good reasons to have Christmas presents for myself. This year, it was really really early.

I went to extend my Kinokuniya membership on Tuesday. I think Kino is cool. My membership was expiring on the 19/11/11. I renewed on the 17/11/11 and the new expiry date remains as 3 years after the 19/11/11. Wow! That means it is not trying to cheat when asking members to renew 1 month before expiry. For my 3 year loyalty, I was rewarded with $5 voucher -___- So cheapskate!! Zomg.. Although it is still a nice gesture that there is no expiry in the voucher.

I used the voucher immediately. Haha.. I saw Manga Messenger. Yup this is the last one from the Manga Bible series. It covers the prophets. I find the story "choppy" and confusing (with all the similar-sounding names of the Kings) but I guess really that is the nature of the Old Testament.  However, I gained a new knowledge regarding the prophets. After the fall of Israel (which was divided into north and south), the various prophets were actually kinda "specific" in their site of preaching i.e north or south Israel. I never realised this from reading the bible alone. Haha..

I am not a fan (yet) of Final Fantasy Type-0 but I still bought the postcard book o_0 With the list of characters, it makes sense why the character names are so weird like Ace, Seven, King, and Queen. It is actually following the card deck Ace up to King. Ace is kinda cool, Deuce-Trey-Cater-Cinque-Sice are good attempt to "mask" the numbers 2 to 6, Seven-Eight-Nine are just not creative (imagine calling someone as a number!), and Jack-Queen-King is just normal. Yup so that's it. I will be looking forward to the game early next year (the US version)

As I was paying for these 2 books, the person in front of me was paying for Harry Potter Page to Screen The Complete Film Making Journey Book. It is basically a film-making book which covers all the Harry Potter films. $100+ Wew!! So I decided not to buy. I shall wait until next year when there is 20% storewide discount (additional 10% = $10 is quite significant!). Guess what, 2 days later, Kino is having Early Christmas Special 20% Sale. Aaargh!! My first thinking was SHUCKS! If only I was patient enough, I could save another $5 from the Manga Messenger and Final Fantasy Type-0 postcard book. But in the end, I went back to buy the Harry Potter book. It is awesome! Yes it is pricy but with close to 600 A4-pages, full of never-seen-before pictures, and lots of interesting read, I love it :D I am impressed with how much effort they put into making the props of the film as the directors "die-die" want to avoid CG as much as possible. Two thumbs up for that!!

Google-google-google and I found that last year, a Harry Potter film book was released with title Harry Potter Film Wizardry. Obviously it only covered up to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1. Some reviews mentioned similarity of the content and pictures with the Page to Screen. $62+ for 160pages seems too steep of a price when compared to the gigantic 580pages Page to Screen for $100. The pulling factor was the various bonuses like the Marauder's Map, sample of Quidditch World Cup booklet and ticket, Yule Ball invitation, Hogwarts Acceptance Letter, the Weasley Twins' shop catalogue, and many more. Really amazing what JK Rowling can do with her imagination and her stuff. Since the sale is still on, I decided to take the risk and buy. I briefly look through and the pictures were not repetition leh! Lucky sia!! Hahaha.. The way the filmmaking is described is also rather different. With 160pages, you can expect a much shorter. So it is not a duplication ^^ Yay.. And that is my second Christmas present for 2011.. Hopefully it will be the last too!! Haha..

US version. UK version has blue cover and different faces.

 

So yeah.. Quite bankrupt for this month.. Oh wait.. Not over yet! I bought 2 coins from Singapore Mint!! Rrrrah... Only bought the cheapest coins bearing rabbits (my Chinese sign!) for $42 in total. Almost tempted to buy limited edition EZLink card to commemorate the rabbit year but $28 for a card which will expire in 2015? I give it a pass.

Ring master Rabbit Festive Pack 2011 (back), Rabbit 2011 Coin (front)

A zoom of the Rabbit $2 coin (left). It is made up of cupro-nickel (that's why cheap!).

On the right is the certificate of authenticity.

I lost my macro phototaking skills. I was frustrated after numerous failed attempt to get a close-up of the coin in the Ring Master Rabbit Festive Pack. And yeah, glad to be able to post this right on the 20:11 mark. Lol

Good people.. Bad people..

It has been emotional roller coaster for me for the past 3 days. It is all because of the people around me. Haiz.. really people around you can really impact your life. I shall try not to be so emo and start sharing the bad ones first.

1. My house owners

I know it is your house and you have the right to do whatever you want. However, I am damn bloody paying you and I deserve to get whatever I am paying for. It is really disgusting for these 2 people to act as if they are considerate and understanding and always ask me to be understanding. About a month ago, you wanted to paint my door and you only told me 1 day before. This time around, it was much worse. I was only told the night before that they were going to repair the bathroom tiles and I would not be able to shower for 3 days. They expected me to go to the swimming pool or friend's house.

Seriously the house has 2 bathrooms. Why the fuck are you being so selfish and can't lend me your bathroom to use? At most I only need to borrow it 10mins x2 daily. Fuck all your "pretentious understanding yada yada". Do you even give a damn about me? Zzz if it is not because I am going off at year end (when the contract is ending), I would find a new place and move already. Stupid shit! But now I can't do anything funny because I need to negotiate to at least extend a few more months before I want to move out.

This place is good. The owners are quite okay. But I just can't stand these calculative people. I can only hope God give his justice. I know this is bad but I am glad when one of them complained "Why the worker so dishonest never tell me they install new shower head in the other toilet? I pay them already and they still like that". Hah! Think about what you are doing to me! Fucker.

2. A dumb ass

I nearly exploded to this bloody guy today! Haiz wanted to mention the race but I think I should avoid being racist. Okay he had 2 external prescriptions so upon payment, everything was lumped into one basket. Initially I only found 1 invoice so I scanned that: $100+. He sounded so anal "Are you sure $100+? Not $500+". Only then I checked the items on the screen. Oops only 1 item was displayed on the screen. So my mistake. There should be another thing as his basket had at least 4-5 items. So I asked him "Did you see the doctor here or did you bring external prescriptions?". He answered so agitatedly that he did not see the doctor. Ok fine. I asked him how many prescriptions he had. No bloody answer. Fine, I dug the basket. Yes I found another invoice with $200+. So I told him total is about $300+. He became total shit up to this point: "Are you sure it is not $500+? You better check because I am not gonna pay more if it is more than what you said?". Holy shit! I wanted to explain about computer calculated already bla bla bla.. But nevermind, since he was an ass, I punched calculator to calculate the price from each pack of medicine. Tada it was really $300+. I felt like replying him cheekily "Then if it is really $300+ are you gonna pay me your $500+?". But of course I did not say that. But I would not want to back down to this piece of shit. So I waved the calculator in front of him and said sarcastically "Here is the calculator. Do you wanna count yourself to make sure it is correct?".

Oh yeah.. I won.. You were owned!!

Done with the bad ones. Moving on to the nice ones.

Yesterday, a lady almost cried in front of me. It was quite poor thing to hear her story. She is a very nice and gentle lady. Congrats for her completing the treatment for her cancer. Unfortunately, the effects of chemotherapy tend to be quite long lasting so she still does not feel 100% well. What made her almost cried is the fact that she could not really ask questions to clear her doubts everytime she had her chemo appointment. She had lumps at her neck and she was really worried about it. CT was done and everything was ok (in the sense it should not be cancer or something). But when I asked her whether it caused her some pain. That was when her eyes started to tear. I was like "OH SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT!".

So that should be a lesson for the arrogant people in the hospital. Yes you may be smart and busy and bla bla bla.. But you see how you impact patients. Do not look down on us the community settings. Yes we may be more slack, more stupid, bla bla bla but thank goodness at least we have the time to give lengthy explanation and discuss whatever doubts the patients have. I really hope the lady will be strong and fine. God bless nice people like you.

This morning I had another surprise from the one of the aunties who distributes free newspaper daily. She recognised me and asked "Hey, you are working at the XXXXX (I don't want to reveal). I remember talking to you". Wow.. I can't even remember her. So yeah I don't know whether I should be happy or I should be scared. Due to language barrier, I can only attend to English-speakers and they are not very many of them. Most of the time at least I remember what I spoke to them previously. For the others, I always call my colleagues to assist. Since I can't remember this person, there is high likelihood that she belongs to the latter category! Ouch.. =x But looking at the bright side, she spoke to me in English today. So maybe I really did talk to her. I hope she is not one of those whom I gave lousy service and black face ba..

My only wish is that there are more nice people. And I really hope those people whom find me good and helpful would actually send in written compliments (nope I won't solicit compliments by giving feedback forms). Not that I want to be complimented or what. It is just for me to balance any complaints which I may get. It is to show the boss that there are people who give me good compliments and people who complain about me. Please do not blame me. Those complainers complain because of themselves! I am naturally a nice person. Unless you are nasty to me, I will be nasty back to you, and then you will complain lor. And nope don't ask me to be a "nice guy" towards this nasty unreasonable people. That will never happen! I will defend myself for the things I am not at wrong.

Anime Festival Asia 2011 (AFA11)

Anime Festival Asia 2011 (AFA11) was held from 11.11.11 (nice number!) to 13.11.11. Yup that was just the last weekend. I realised how dumb I am: I always thought last year's AFAX stands for Anime Festival Asia, actually it means Anime Festival Asia `10. Lol.. Anyway, this year it was bigger. And I had high expectations to be able to take more photos and buy more things.

This year I only bought the pass for the exhibition. There was AKB48 event but only 2 of the girls came and I am never a fan of cosplay competition. Watching once last year is enough for me to know what cosplay competition is all about. So there was no need to see the main stage events this time.

This year's ticket. It is still the same mascot!!

Upon entering, I honestly was quite disappointed to see so many One Piece stuff because I am not a fan of One Piece :(

Isn't this the same Chopper from last year's AFAX? Lol. He is out of his plastic prison this year.

However, next to the huge One Piece area was huge Bandai area. Yay for Gundams!! Although seeing the complete range of Master Grade Gundam Wing robots only made me emo. I want but I have no space to display already. Haha.. Too bad this year there were not many Saint Seiya stuff. There was a corner where people can 'pose' the Gundam models and took picture. There were Gundam Wing Zero Custom and Tallgeese III but when I realised this station, it was too late and crowded. So I gave it a miss.

Human-size Gundam (I believe from Unicorn) model.

My biggest disappointment was the lack of Final Fantasy Action Figures being sold. There were lots of FF XIII Play Arts last year. Grrr.. I was expecting them to come back with cheaper price, as well as Zack+Aerith from Crisis Core, and the latest Dissidia Duodecim Playarts. I only managed to get Aerith. I was unsure whether to buy or not because there was no Zack :(

$45

But surprise surprise: I found a rare Laguna 1/6 figurine! At first I only saw 1 box which quite a terrible dent at one corner. But then I saw another 1 box (still very nice box) at the other side of the display table as I was digging for Aerith-in-a-nice-box. So sad there was only Laguna T_T I want Quistis from this series. I did not want to buy Laguna as the face is rather longish. But hey, this item was first released in 1999. To be able to find something released 12 years ago still in this relatively mint condition is really good. And in eBay, this item is selling for USD60 and above, excluding shipping fee. So heck just buy! It is quite expensive nowadays because it seems to be some limited edition or something. Mine bears the serial number 3244. Maybe I should by 4D.

Taken with my camera because I can't find big picture on the net

From this AFA, I learn that next year I should come after 5pm because some shops will start to slash price. The shop where I bought Aerith and Laguna offered 10-20% off. Laguna was supposed to be $60. I bought it partly because of the sale too. Aah, I could have saved $4.50 for Aerith :( At this time, I saw Hope (FF 13) too. He was $40 i.e $36 after discount. And seriously it is damn bloody cheap! I have no idea what is wrong with FF13. The action figures are only about 1 year old and it seems that for this year only Hope and Sazh left. And they were sold much cheaper than the older Final Fantasy 7 Crisis Core set.

I actually wanted to buy a step display case ($22). But since I already spent about $100, I decided to buy it another time. Anyway the stall selling that was Latendo and I think it has a shop somewhere at Funan IT Mall so I can get anytime. I also did not manage to find Sebastian Michelis (Black Butler) Nendoroid. But no worry, I found a seller on website selling quite cheaply so I shall settle that when I am back at home this year end. I also missed out Mickey Mouse Nendoroid for $35. There was one shop which was quite funny. It had 3 sets of this Mickey Mouse Nendoroid. On 2 sets, the price tag said $40 and on 1 said $35. The $35 was already sold.

If there is something I regret not doing at this AFA is that I did not pay to be drawn/sketch in anime style.. $10 only leh! Grrah.. I only saw the stall after lunch time and the queue was already long there. So next year, I have to go since early morning to be drawn and then stay there until 5+ to get discounts. Haha.. And for next year, I will be waiting for the price of Lelouch figurine to drop to $50 (this time around was $90-$120).

Bounty from AFA11

Tintin

This is a bit 'old' because I watched The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn on last Thursday. I am not a fan of Tintin. In fact I never read any Tintin book. I watched the trailer a week earlier before The Three Musketeers started and I was not every interested. Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson have big names but I am also not a fan. Lol.. the reason why I watched was because the good review in the newspaper o_0 Haha.. Or maybe because I was to free.

Anyway, the movie was A.W.E.S.O.M.E. The animation is like WOW.. I can even see the freckles and the pores on the characters' face! I love the details of the marketplace at the beginning of the story, the city of Barggha, as well as the port at the climax. These places look gorgeous.. seriously. The action sequences were EXCITING and I really had adrenalline rush during the chase-and-run sequence in Barggha and on the tanker. The battle between the 2 ships was (okay I run out of good adjective) even more exciting than the airship battle in The Three Musketeers. The climax (for me) was when the plane crashed at the desert. Even though I know the people would not be dismembered by the spinning blades, it was still very exciting.

Despite all the goodness, I still don't think it is perfect. I don't see the point of the pickpocket old man as he does not seem to be involved at all with the main conflict. And the final showdown at the port is anti-climatic. The worst part, perhaps, is the ending. I just hate it when stories are "hanging" there.. Sigh..

I just find it interesting that the last 2 movies that I watched bear so many resemblances. Firstly is the ship battle (one is airship, one is ship in the ocean). Secondly, the endings are 'hanging' suggesting possible continuation. For this, I think the ending for The Three Musketeers is more exciting. I can foresee (and will be willing to watch) for a sequel then Britain attacks France. Tintin's ending rather sucks as after the whole movie, what they manage to discover is just "another clue" for the real big treasure somewhere in the ocean.. Bleah..

But overall, I think it is a good watch. Perhaps rating will be 4.8/5. Lol. I will rate it 5/5 if not for the 'final battle which is overshadowed by the previous scenes' and the 'hanging' ending.

Be Positive

I just watched the last episode of the current season of Amazing Race. It is quite sad to see the Twins go. However, I admire them this time around. In last episode, they were frustrated with their beach umbrella. This time around, I am amazed with how positive they were. Perhaps they were prepared for the worst and hence took everything positively?? I don't know.. I was like "WOW!" when they got so excited to do their speed bump (their "punishment" for not being eliminated for coming in last previously ). They exclaimed "Yay!" to wash the elephants because they love elephants. 

Poor Thai industry is being represented badly this time around where Taxi drivers at Phuket were cheating tourists. One team was ripped 4500 baht. Another was ripped USD150. One commented (under the Youtube video) that with USD 150, they can afford the airplane ticket from Jakarta-Bangkok (Indonesia was the previous pitstop before Thailand). The poor twin almost missed their Phuket-Bangkok bus because of the issue with the taxi driver. They had no money in Bangkok. In such desperate situation, I am amazed that they were still smiling and intending to walk 5hours to the next destination. Lol.. The taxi drivers in Bangkok 'saved' Thailand tourism industry. Really amazing that the Twins managed to get 2 taxi drivers to drive them for free.

I am glad this time around the Grannies came in 2nd. Well, it is a pleasure to see positive people. I need to learn to be positive :( Haiz.. I always complain complain complain. Another day is wasted just for assignments :( And I am frustrated with my own body. Currently from top of my head to the bottom of my feet are inflicted with illnesses of some sort :( I am worried about my infected nails but I guess worrying will not help. I can only do what I can do: apply the antifungal twice daily.

My mum called me about my fungal infection. It was nice to hear her voice. Apparently my mum had it before. She got it from soil thanks to her hobby of planting flowers. Worse, it was during pregnancy so she could not take any oral medication. Apparently it reached the nailbed so it had to be removed (after local anaesthetic of course!!). OUCH!! She assured me that it would be ok since mine has not reached the nail bed yet. And even if it reached the nail bed, just go doctor, remove the nails and it will grow back. That is being POSITIVE! Haha.. Gosh I hope it does not reach that stage although I feel that the infection is getting closer to nailbed despite my clotrimazole lotion for more than a week already. GOD HELP ME!!

On a different topic, I wanna talk about Sexy Zone. It is a new J-Pop group formed in support of Volleyball World Cup in Japan or something. Based on history, perhaps this will be "big". Many Johnny's group started from this Volleyball World Cup thingy starting with V6 (1995), Arashi (1999), NEWS (2003), Hey!Say!Jump (2007). I find it weird that the song for a sport competition is called "Sexy Zone" performed by a group called "Sexy Zone". WTF! Previously the plan was to call the group "Sexy Boy" OMG! Google that and I think porn websites will appear instead of this group. Even search results for "Sexy Zone" are not that children-appropriate too lol.

Anyway I think the song does not really capture the mood of sports competition. Quite weird. Perhaps the worst out of the 5 groups I mentioned above (well apparently V6 sang "Music For The People" which was a cover from dunno-who). Well I think NEWS' song for this world cup thingy is the nicest among all. Haha.. Too bad this group is the most suay, down from 9 members to 4 right now. Not sure whether it will be a success this time eh.. Haha.. I thought Kis-My-Ft2 debut song few months back is even more suitable for this Volleyball thingy haha..

News - News Nippon (live) by x-purpl3-girl-x

Live!! And everyone had a chance to show their off-key singing LOL

A bit sian of my Christmas songs collection. Even the my perennial favourites (Billiy Gilman's, Charlotte Church's and Disney's) bore me out this time around. Never really like David Archuletta's Christmas albums. And from Mariah Carey's albums, only about 3-4 songs I like from each album. Perhaps I should find Celine Dion's These Are Special Times as my "Christmas Album of the Year". Or should I try Justin Bieber's?? Lol

Retail

I completed the first week of retail attachment. It is relatively slacker than the outpatient. Haha.. Although I am much more useless there because most of the people spoke in Mandarin or dialect. Although it should be more customer-oriented, I don't give a damn to the ya-ya-papaya people. 

Firstly, there was one lady who took 2 tablets of calcium daily. She never said that and only said "I want 6 month supply" in god-knows-what language. Since most people took 1 daily, she came back and protested that my colleague packed wrongly. After saying sorry, I told her off, "Next time you must say how many you take because most people take 1 tablet daily. If you never say, how do we know you are taking 2?". I think she scolded me after that (again in god-knows-what languange) "Ni suan zuo" or something, which I don't understand, which is good. Although I think it means "your mistake" or sumthing liddat. So yeah, it is amazing that there are such people exist. When you go restaurant, will you say "I want xxx to last me until dinner time"? Of course not. You will say how many portions you want. So what's this stupid way of buying medicines to just mention the duration?? Zzz...

Another irritating type of customers are those regular ones. Yes they may be regular but please, when you see someone you never meet before, how on earth you expect me to know that you are a regular and know what you want. -__-

Next irritating ones are the nurses, especially the retired ones. No offence to the nurses but when it comes to 10% off for health professionals, you people are damn irritating and damn "act big". Not all item is eligible for the 10%. And more importantly, if you cannot produce your practicing card, how do you expect me to belive that you are a nurse or an ex-nurse. Jeez.. Pharmacists come second for this kind of non-sense. The doctors are generally not like that. The last customer on Saturday was the polyclinic head. Haha. I was nervous. I knew I should give the discount but I only remembered that when I handed over the change! Lol.. Must be to nervous (and embarassed) because he mentioned that my preceptor mentioned me at polyclinic roll-call regarding compliments.

So maybe it is not a wrong decision not to go retail. I think I cannot tahan these kinds of people everyday lor. haha.. And I don't know how I can hit sales target. Based on my experience this week, I mostly refer people to doctor, recommend them cheaper alternatives, or tell them that the item they are willing to buy is not useful (in other words, don't buy!). Lol..