Bora Bora

The first time I heard the name being mentioned in the Amazing Race, I was like "Huh? Where are they going? Mordor?". Lol.. I could only catch the "or.. or.." sound. Anyway Bora Bora is an island at the French Polynesia region. Out of the few seasons of Amazing Race that I watched, perhaps this is the first time that watching it makes me very very interested to visit the place.

The environment looks very pristine with clean beaches and emerald clear water bodies. Is this heaven on earth? Haha.. I actually don't really enjoy beaches but looking at these scenic places, I just can't help but drool. In addition, there seems to be tonnes of fun activities like sky diving and various water activities. I think I am daring enough to do sky diving. Haha.. The instructor is actually tagging along above you so you can just enjoy the jump and trust your life in his hands. Haha.. Ironically, I find bungee jumping scarier because there is nobody jumping with you. Lol..

Bought it for close to $60 many years ago. Sold it for $10 only T_T

Sorry Kitties.. Not really a fan of you.. Gotta let you go to free up more space.. Hamburglar and Ronald's costumes are cute though.

I am glad to announce that I managed to sell away Eragon/Eldest boxed set and Hello Kitty set from McDonalds. Sigh.. I am still waiting for some kind soul to purchase my damaged Rinoa and my full set of Final Fantasy VIII Guardian Forces Kotobukiya ArtFX. I want to buy the Japanese version to get the Ragnarok leh :'( Crossing my fingers.

I am feeling old.. Sigh.. Yesterday the guy volunteer (I don't know what he is volunteering for) at my workplace came to approach me. Apparently he just finished army and is waiting to enter university. He is interested in healthcare with medicine as first priority. Oh well, I actually only left the university 2 years ago.. That means I am at least 6 years older than him.. Damn bloody old!! Anyway, I asked him whether he would be trying for dentistry. He shared the sentiment as me: not interested as it only involves mouth!! Grrah.. perhaps that was my biggest regret: not trying for dentistry. Among the healthcare providers, I think dentistry are the most balanced. Well, at least the patients can't talk/shout/scream at them when they are immobilised with mouth open ma. Haha..

Well, this young chap is still noble: he wants to do something which helps people. That is why he prefers medicine or pharmacy to dentistry. Haha.. As I was in my coat, I have to be politically correct and not spill out 1001 reasons to make him change his mind. He retook his A-levels for better chance in getting into medicine. Results will be out this Friday so all the best to him. Perhaps we need more noble doctors like him. Oh and another interesting thing, he used to be an Indonesian too!! Haha.. But he has been here since 3 years old.

Okay that was random but I enjoy knowing more people at workplace. It makes working feels less lonely.

Academy Awards 2013

I realised that I have not been writing about what's going with my life for the past week so it is time for that now. The air tickets for my August trip to Europe had been purchased. Fiuh.. Have to apply for visa but the application is only possible at least 3 months before the departure so at least 1 less thing to worry at the moment. Ah, and while talking about air ticket, I am absolutely angry with myself for buying the April ticket so early. I spent close to $170 for my April trip. And guess what: Jetstar is having post CNY sale! Damn! If I were only to buy it now, it would cost me less than half of what I paid initially T_T Sigh.. Of course complaining and cursing will not help and I can only accept. After all, as what people say, you don't complain to a shop for having a sale when you buy the same thing for the full price a day before the sale. Lesson learnt: next year wait for post-CNY sale before buying April ticket.

The blood test results from last November are finally out and they are delightful results. Frankly, I am quite amazed that with my shitty lifestyle for the past year, all the cholesterol and sugar results are okay. Haha.. Well, that is inside the body. Outside the body, I cannot lie that I am not getting fat and physically more and more unattractive. Weight is going up and waist circumference is expanding. Gosh.. gotta start exercising leh :( I was so happy when the sun was out on Sunday and I thought the rainy season was gone for good. I was wrong. It was stormy again yesterday and today evening. Bye bye to my jogging plan although even if it is not rainy, I doubt that I have the energy to run.

Academy Awards or the Oscars 2013 was on last Sunday. I just would like to share the Les Miserables cast singing a live medley.

Anyway, congrats to Anne Hathaway for winning the Oscars for her role in Les Miserables. I think her win is overshadowed by her wardrobe malfunction. Sigh.. I just realised that she had one in December during the premiere of Les Miserables. And that was much worse because she accidentally flashed her private parts when alighting from her limo. Sigh.. I don't understand why she did not wear any panties sia.. And I think the sadder part that despite the embarrassment, she still had to smile as if nothing happened on the red carpet.. Bah..

And another hilarious video from the Oscars below. I still can't believe that this is in a big event like Oscars. Haha.. Quite crude but then it speaks nothing but the truth :p Again, no HD video.

We Saw Your Boobs

The new season of Amazing Race have begun. Quite disappointed that the teams I like are almost out. The twin doctors were out on the 2nd leg. Sigh.. Again, luck is always an important factor. Apparently one of the twins have problems with water and the challenge on the 2nd leg involved diving. I won't call them dumb, lousy, etc. Everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses and they just happen to be unlucky that the challenge here is the one they have phobia off.

I also like the Father - Son team: Dave and Connor. Both are cancer survivors. Sigh.. The son is only 21 years old and I still could not believe it that he survived a testicular cancer at that age. Haiz.. Life is cruel. This team is likely to be eliminated next week. Dave ruptured is Achilles tendon when sprinting to the finishing mat on the 2nd episode. Bleah.. I can't understand why the need to chiong to the mat for the first prize and risking an injurly like this.. The focus should be on the 1 million, shouldn't it? Oh well, kiasu people always put in effort in wrong things bah.. I just hope that the injury was not serious and they could still continue leh..

Gundam SEED

I watched this for the first time in 2008 and I merely wrote a paragraph about it. Okay that does not do justice so I am writing a new entry for this great anime since I just finished rewatching it yesterday.

Set in the Cosmic Era, the colonies vs Earth takes a deeper meaning with Coordinators (or genetically-manipulated human beings) in the PLANTs vs Naturals on Earth. The conflict worsened with earth's nuclear attack to the agricultural Junius Seven colony which resulted in death of hundreds of thousands civilians. In retaliation, the Coordinators dropped N-Jammer to the Earth, disabling all nuclear activities and plunging the Earth into an energy crisis.

The story opens at Heliopolis, a neutral colony owned by Orb. Although it tries to be neutral, some people are helping with the development of latest machines (i.e Gundam) and battleship (called Archangel) for the earth. The Coordinators know about this and attempted to destroy the latest battleship and to steal the Gundams. Well, the Coordinators are able to steal 4 Gundams setting the fight with the remaining Gundam and Archangel which they fail to steal and destroy.

The first half of the series deal with Archangel attempt to regroup with Earth Alliance forces and PLANT attempt to destroy this latest machines of war. The next quarter deals with Archangel defection to the neutral ORB and the destruction of ORB for its refusal to side with any of the warring party. The last quarter is the climax of the conflict with an all out war.

In my opinion, this is the best and most solid Gundam series which I have watched. And there are plenty of reasons for that. Firstly, the relationship between the various characters in the different factions make the conflict an emotional roller coaster to watch (and I like stories which make me cry). There are a lot of characters here but you can remember most of them as they are somehow connected to the "main" characters. 

Secondly, the Coordinators vs Naturals conflict is relate-able to various discriminations in real life. Blind hatred and discrimination can be very scary as shown by both parties in the anime. The Naturals are infiltrated by Blue Cosmos who aims to wipe out every Coordinators while the Coordinators are led by Patrick Zala who wishes to wipe out every Naturals. Ironically, these "racist" leaders are the ones driving the war. The civilians and the solders want a truce after seeing the devastation of the nuclear attacks. However, these leaders are the ones who want to wipe out every single enemies. Interestingly, the main antagonist of the show is none of these people. It was actually Rau le Creuset. He is a clone and thus does not consider himself as a human, be it a Coordinator or a Natural. His ultimate goal is to make the two sides hate each other enough for the outbreak of nuclear war which will destroy both earth and colonies. 

Thirdly, the fights in battleship is something fresh and as exciting as the mecha battle. Not to mention that more female characters are taking part in the war.

In contrast to total pacifism theme from Gundam Wing, the neutral party in Gundam SEED (Orb and then subsequently the Three Ship Alliance) has weapons to stop both sides from fighting. Rather, it invokes emotion that war brings nothing. Killing someone will just make other people want to take revenge. But even if you take revenge, another person will take revenge on you and the vicious cycle of war continues. The question is ultimately: will revenge bring back the person who has been killed in the first place? And it's good to see Lacus to actually participate in war rather than seeing Relena in her ivory tower of total pacifism.

If I have to mention something negative about Gundam SEED, it will be about the mecha as there is not much focus on the Gundams here. Oh ya, I should also mention Flay Allster. Haha.. I understand why so many people hate her sia.. She is just irritating and eye sore. Lol.. I thought the last few episodes are quite rushed. In one episode, Muruta Azrael gets hold of N-Jammer Canceller technology which allows the Earth Force to use nuclear weapon again. Then BAM!, in the next episode, tonnes of nuclear missiles are ready for use already. Got so fast meh? Haha.. And character-wise, Calamity, Raider, and Forbidden pilots are just WTF! Looks like they are too lazy to write in substantial characters from the Earth side.. But anyway, near the end, almost all the "central" characters become the neutral party as Three Ship Alliance that there is hardly anyone to lead the two warring sides.

There is also Gundam SEED OVA (which only lasts for 5 minutes) which basically gives preview on what happens to the characters after the war. Well, the anime ending is kinda abrupt. Haha.. I get this from Youtube. Surprisingly, it is impossible to find it online, be it direct download or torrent.

I also manage to get hold of Gundam SEED Tanakyara Gekijo (or Gundam SEED Character Theatre). It is basically a 4-part short parodies with characters from Gundam SEED and SEED Destiny. Each part is about 5-minutes long. They are very hilarious as they use elements from the the original series like Athrun's hairstyle, Kira as crybaby, Yzak's kiasuness, etc and the characters are in SD (super deformed) form. The mismatch between the serious voice actings (as in the anime) with the lame SD faces and plots is just priceless. Haha.. Anyway the first 2 parts deal with Yzak rivalry (jealousy) towards Athrun. Dearka suddenly becomes a very interesting character in these parodies! Lol. The last 2 parts deal with Gundam SEED Destiny characters' missions to break Kira-Athrun and Kira-Lacus relationship. I really recommend you to watch this if possible, particularly the last part when Shinn is cross-dressing as Lacus and singing Lacus' Shizukana Kono Yoru Ni in hardrock style.

Gundam Wing goodies

Earlier this month, I bought 2 Gundam Wing books which I have not owned yet. As I was about to leave feedback for the seller, something unexpected appeared under the suggestion. That is the Gundam Wing Clothes Change Cell!! It is an item produced by Movic in 1995. That was my first time ever seeing it on eBay. There was no bidder so I immediately BINned it! BIN stands for Buy It Now! Haha.. I think the BIN price is about $5 more than the starting bid price but I just did not want to spend a few days worrying whether I could get it or I could get outbidded. Haha.. So yeap.. Cool.. It is in fact very difficult to get information about the item. I don't know how much the original price is. I paid USD 39.99 for it.. Well, perhaps ignorance is a bliss.

From the same seller, there was an even bigger surprise: a Gundam Wing Music Box!! I never even knew about its existence!! According to the seller, it was also produced by Movic in 1996. It plays "Just Communication" by Two Mix which is the first opening of Gundam Wing anime. Not exactly my favourite song but I gotta have it! Haha.. Starting price was quite pricey at USD 49.99. Thank God I won it with USD 50.99. Again, no info on this thing online so I don't know how much I overpaid for it. On the sticker at the box, there are 2 numbers "0296" and "2300". Does this mean the price was originally 2300 yen and it is limited production and mine is the number 0296?? I guess I will never know.

Ultimately, the shipping cost was the killer at USD 42.02 -__- But oh well, items arrived in good condition in 10 days.. Better than my other items which had been shipped from a month before but still yet to arrive until now T_T

Here are the pictures. The Clothes Change Cell pictures are courtesy of allaboutgundamwing.com and the music box picture is courtesy of the seller.

Casual Wear

Folk Costume? No idea where Trowa is coming from..

OZ Uniform

School Uniform

Suit

Swim Wear.. More like Underwear to me.. Anyway this is the "base" cel with the face and body.. The other cels are just the clothes.

Gundam Wing Music Box

How it sounds..

And this is completely unrelated by I am rewatching Gundam SeeD. Lol.. I don't know why I am not so into it although I find that it has the most solid story line among the Gundam series which I ever watched. Haha..

No More Marvel (comics)...

Since young, I have always been more inclined to Japanese mangas than to American comics. The reason is simple: Japanese mangas and animes have been flooding my childhood. In contrast, my exposure to American comics was only to X-men cartoon, Johnny Quest, and the comic strips in newspapers. These comics strips were often taken from the time before I was even born and clearly I was not impressed with the style: be it the graphics as well as the wordiness.

Things changed after Marvel: Avengers movie in 2012. I thought Marvel did a great job utilising the momentum to generate a lot of interest for that movie. I started playing Marvel game on facebook and then the card game on Android. These things caused me to develop interest. However, as I checked things out on wikipedia, I was again unimpressed with the multiple universe, multiple retcons, multiple spin-offs, multiple deaths and ressurections, etc. To me it simply portrays poor story telling. Then came the hype about Avengers vs X-men (AvX) series. I have always liked X-men and the movie and games introduced me to Avengers. I thought this would be quite badass and ordered the hardcover bundled edition from Amazon in December.

Firstly, I was mesmerised with the weight and thickness of the book. Wew.. Japanese mangas are never that thick. Haha.. Oh well.. However, after I started to flip through, everything was just a good surprise. The art is top notch, gone are the days of those newspaper comics strips. I though nothing would be good except for badass brawls between superheroes. Ironically, I thought the fights were not up to my imagination. Lol.. However, the story simply blew me away! I am quite amazed that in just few hundreds of pages, the story can go that far. In comparison, a manga tankoubon is also typically few hundreds pages and sometimes even after few tankoubons, the story often goes nowhere. In short, AvX is just awesome!

AvX deals with Phoenix, minus Jean Grey (thank goodness! I am getting sick of her being dead and resurrected for countless times). Phoenix is believed to be coming to earth and the human host is suspected to be Hope Summers, the mutant messiah. The X-men believed that Phoenix's coming will help mutant powers to re-emerge again in the aftermath of Scarlet Witch's "No More Mutants" in House of M plot. As Phoenix is believed as a power of destruction, the Avengers would like to secure Hope to prevent Phoenix from destroying the Earth. The X-men believed that the Avengers would like to kill Hope and thus eliminating the possible "resurrection" of the mutant race. The mutual misunderstanding leads to an all-out-war between the two sides.

As I enjoyed AvX thoroughtly, I wiki-ed again to see whether Marvel has other great stories out there. As a kid, I actually love X-men. But story-wise, I am drawn towards crossover series more than X-men titles or the individual superheroes stories. The reason is simple: in crossover, there are a lot of popular characters fighting together or fighting one another. That is better than in their individual titles when they are fighting some obscure villains. Haha..

From many fans' opinions, it seems that AvX is nothing compared to Civil War crossover. After deciding the pros and cons, I decided to buy it yesterday instead of waiting Kinokuniya sale since I was already in Orchard for my dental. Taking into account the money spent for transport and meals if I were to make a second trip during the sale, then the savings from the sale will mean nothing. Excuses.. Oh well. Lol..

To me AvX is already awesome and so my expectation is sky high for Civil War which is deemed by many as the best crossover so far. It turns out to be very disappointing. Good thing first. Despite it being older, I have to admit that the art style for Civil War is much much better and prettier than AvX. No argument about that. The characters look gorgeous! The details make AvX seems to be hurriedly drawn.

But a big capital "BOO!!" for the plot and the fights. On the surface, this is quite similar to AvX in the sense that the superheroes are divided into 2 factions. In Civil War, the public is finally fed up with superheroes-related events and casualties and hence they push for the Superhuman Registration Act. With this Act, the superheroes essentially have to be registered and be accountable to the government. Some support the Act while the others oppose. It is a bit "political" as comparison can be drawn to pro-government (and thus support the Act) vs anti-government.

While the "arguments" from each side have their merits, it is not clear why certain people choose certain side and it is not clear what they are actually fighting for/against. The fights end up as brainless brawls and the ending is a big bullshit. I was like what.. the.. fuck...

I also bought the bundled X-men: Dark Phoenix Saga. Again, it is dubbed by many as the most famous and most referenced arc in Marvel universe but it turns out to be another big disappointment to me. Okay I should know that this was published in 1980s and the art style is the reason why I hate American comics in the first place: bad art and too wordy.

Everyone knows the main plot: Jean Grey is corrupted by Phoenix, becomes Dark Phoenix, and wreak havoc. The story and the details, however, suck and are all over the place. If Civil War caused me to have WTF moment at the end, I have WTF moments throughtout this! I know, it is unfair to judge something from 1980s by today's standard but I can't help but feel this sucks.

Bleah.. I really regret buying these 2 books :'( Now I am thinking of selling them again (for a loss I am sure! Sigh..) Perhaps I should have just followed my initial intention not to buy. But oh well.. I guess American comics are not my things.. Just like Scarlet Witch's "No More Mutants" which changes Marvel universe, I think it is time for me to say: No More Marvel (comics)..

Bad start of Lent

Bah.. I am sorry for the sudden change of tone. I had a bad day today so I hate my fucking job.. and I hate my fucking life.. and so I hate the one who created my fucking life.

I had gastric discomfort because of the "fasting" yesterday. I hate gastric pain! Yes I hate it even more than flu. Sigh.. I personally do not see the point of this fasting because honestly, even in my normal days, I eat vegetarian food more often than meat-containing food. So it was quite upsetting when yesterday (the day I was supposed to avoid meat), the vegetarian stall was not open. Bleah.. I hate being fat so even in my normal days, I already ask for less rice. To eat even less than my usual less is simply too much. The shitty thing is that everything goes perfectly fine usually.. so why the heck must I got the gastric pain on the day of fasting? Devil's play? Temptations? Or simply because my body sucks? I don't know..

To make me feel shittier, today one fucktard from last week returned. Okay I hate this fucking bitch and I also hate my company for being ultimately anal about customer service and complaint. I mean come on, seriously this is a fucking bitch.. If you want to complain, you should complain from the start i.e last week and your complaint should be consistent. Hey, I also like to complain, okay! But when I complain, my story never changes. So this idiot bitch came one week later and she kept changing her stories. Last week she said "Why should I count? It is your job!".. Today she said it was okay to count. Last week she said she was fine with coming back for medication shortage because she did not want to count. Today she said that would be inconvenient. And best, now came the part I hate most: me being rude (or "curt" was the word she said) and then she felt that I was blaming her. To quote her silly words "His face is like blaming me!". Seriously, this type of people are disgusting. After unable to get what they want, they will keep changing their stories (plus throwing in some of their imagination) and when everything fails, the final weapon is their subjective sensitivity: someone being rude, someone being loud, someone being impolite bla bla bla.

Okay at least she admitted that she was the one SHOUTING last week (after blaming me to trigger her shouting). Jeez.. I had at least 2 witnesses next to me who supported me that I did not lose my temper or being rude last week. To be honest, I am very honest and fair. When I had my first complaint last year, I accepted it because yes I admitted that I lost my temper and was being rude. I got nothing to hide and I saw no need to defend myself as I was clearly at fault (okay that stupid couple was partly at fault too.. they should learn English) But this time? Fucking NO! Is it my fault for someone to be extremely sensitive? My face is like this so I am sorry if you find my facial expression as BLAMING you. I never even know there is such an expression before.

I did not even ask why you lost your fucking tablets. In fact, I apologised (for not even my fault) that this was the second time happening to her again. So I informed her what we plan to do in the future to prevent this from happening again: making her count the tablets as well. So she apparently took it as me blaming her and then all her shouting began. If she found me being curt, maybe it was because I was trying to compete against her hysterical shouting.

Anyway, in the end, she counted her bloody tablets today! And I surely hope she would be short again in the coming 3 months. See what stunt she will throw the next time.. Fucking bitch!

Okay I am sorry God for the failed Lent.. Sigh.. Perhaps I should abstain from saying the F-word next year..

Atashinchi no Danshi

Synopsis:

Mineta Chisato is a 20-year-old girl who lost her mother at a young age. Unknowingly, her father left her with a huge debt and she has to live as a "homeless" to escape from the debt colectors. Her life changed after meeting one man, Okura Shinzo, who will pay her debt if she is willing to be his wife for the last month of his life. Shinzo is a bachelor and has adopted six good-looking sons with the hope of one becoming his successor. After his death, Chisato realised that there were additional terms and conditions for her contract: to be a mother of these six sons. Will these seven strangers be able to live as a "family"?

My opinion:

From the synopsis alone, several cliches come into my mind. First, this is likely going to be a romantic comedy with multi-sided love among the six guys and one girl. Secondly, it looks like the funny parts will likely stem from the girl catching the guys in various states of undress.. And thirdly, the plot will most likely go on like this: each guy has their own dirty secrets or troubling background and the girl will solve each guy's issues one episode at a time until we reach the part where all the guys realise how "special" this girl and feelings develop.

Thank goodness the dorama turns out to be great and avoids all these cliches. Yes, there is some romantic comedy but the romance is more for comedy purpose, rather than the main plot. The main theme still focuses on "family". There are plenty half-naked scenes which I believe are for fan-service for the fan girls. I just think it is quite weird for these people not to take a shower but to spend time together in the sauna. Haha..

The plot development also does not follow the formula: one guy - one problem - one episode at a time. It is quite nice that all the characters and their problems are sort of mixed together in every episode. In addition, it is quite surprising that there is no really "central" guy character here. All six are equally represented with the same amount of screentime as well as with their own strong unique characteristics. It is not a case of 1 main guy and 5 supporting casts but rather 6 guys and 1 girl. In fact, even the supporting casts provide sufficient laughing materials.

Everything goes on well until the final 2-3 episodes. The portion on the corporate takeover and the closing of the story seem to be too "forced" to "gel" these people as a family. The actors are doing good job but I think they are not good enough to immerse into the RPG-like plot near the end to find the treasure.

My afterthoughts:

Honestly, I am feeling quite mixed and confused about the values being highlighted here. If these 7 strangers can be a "family" even without being blood-related, how is it going to be different as compared to families which are blood-related? Is blood-relation really that important? It also leaves a very good reflection: if strangers can live as a "family", what is actually wrong with families who have constant arguing and fighting?

Sigh I don't know but I think I favour the view that blood-relation is not important to constitute a "family". I mean, just put any random people to stay together, live together, they will grow close enough and bonds/relationships will form. Similarly, love is a bullshit. I don't believe in marrying someone that you love bla bla bla.. It takes commitment, responsibility, etc for a marriage to last. Similarly, sex is over-rated. You don't need love to have sex. Just put 2 people and if they grow close enough to have sex, they will soon admit that they are in "love". And for couples who are in love vs couples who are in "love", sooner or later, sex will get boring too. Ultimately, it takes commitment and responsibility right?? Haha.. Of course love may help but I think "love" can also become love. Okay perhaps can ignore this since I have never experienced love before. Haha..

I notice something interesting. The mansion in this series (they call it Trick Heart Castle) looks a like to the mansion in Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge. What a coincidence to watch these back to back! Haha.. Anyway my suspicion is confirmed when I googled. Many people also realise the same thing. Lol.. Actually it is also the same place as Yukan Club which I watched years ago so I can't recall. Haha.. The actual place is called Lockheart Castle (it's true!!). Here is the website for more information about it.

I also find that one of the supporting cast very familiar. However, when I read the cast list on wiki-addicts, there is no familiar name. After randomly clicking on the Japanese names, I discovered that there is this person who is the brother of Eita. No wonder he somehow looks and sounds very familiar. Haha.. Anyway, his brother is much more famous lah. He plays in in famous series like Waterboys, Nodame Cantabile, etc. Okay, I think my last 2 paragraphs are quite random haha..

Festive February

On the first day of CNY, I thought "Wew.. What a long holiday.. 2 more days to go". Yesterday I suddenly felt "Oh shit.. 1 more day!". And today it was like "What the fuck?! I thought CNY is a 2-week affair. Why am I back to work tomorrow? T_T". Anyway, love it or hate it, it is reality that life is back to normal tomorrow. :( I finished watching Atashinchi no Danshi during this short break and I shall write about it later this week.

CNY is not yet over and tomorrow it is already Ash Wednesday. Lent is here and Easter is just somewhere at the corner. On Thursday, it is another special day.. although for singles like me, it remains a Thursday. Haha..

While thinking about Lent resolution, yesterday's news about Pope Benedict XVI's resignation came as a big shock. I think majority of people has always thought that it is an office for life. Well, can't help it since the last time a Pope resigned was more than 500 years ago. Anyway regardless of what people say, I have my hats off for him to take that decision. I think it is a difficult decision to accept that oneself is getting weaker due to age to continue on being a leader of 1.2 billion people in this world. One interesting about the news of this resignation is how suddenly people are mentioning about Prophecy of the Popes by Saint Malachi. Seriously, this is my first time hearing about it. Wiki it if you are interested in knowing more about it as I am lazy to write about it. Haha.. Anyway, the "gist" is that according to this Prophecy, it will be one more Pope before the End. Yes, a capital E there.. Oh well, when the time comes, it will come. Only the Father knows about it.

I have decided about my Lent resolution for this year. The last time I had such strong resolution was a few years back when I found myself getting too addicted to various facebook games. Can't remember whether I succedeed or failed.. Perhaps I will re-read my old blog posts for more info about it. Again, this time I feel that I am helpless and hopeless with my latest addiction: online toy shopping. Bah.. A lot of money has been spent for toys and I am running out of space already :( It has to stop!! So for the next 40 days, I will not check Amazon.com, Yahoo! Auctions, eBay (except to sell my items), etc. I certainly hope I will succeed and this can continue even after Easter.. On top of that, I also aim to avoid any potato chips, bubble tea, and Starbucks etc for this coming Lent. I am not so much into these things but I realise that when I have nothing to do, the first thing my brain tells me is to buy these things to fill my time. Haiz.. Bad effort..

Well, it starts tomorrow.. It is not going to be easy but I think I should be able to. Of course, Lent is not about abstaining from things. It has to serve a bigger purpose which unfortunately, I am still thnking about. What difference will it make by abstaining from these things? Will I have more time to focus on God? Will I have more money to help others?

Anyway, there is an exception that I will make for the no shopping thing. I think I will buy Marvel Civil War and X-men Dark Phoenix Saga collections. Haha.. The reason is I wanted to buy these books today. But then I realised that usually Kinokuniya has post-CNY 20% member sale. So I should "delay" my purchase today until the sale.. Hmm.. suppose this year there is no post-CNY sale, then I should just buy these books when the next sale arrives. Hehe..

Happy Water Snake Year 2013!

On Friday, I had this man who insisted that he was not given 1 box of medicine. That is 100 tablets. Luckily for us, it was still within a month and we still had our CCTV recording which clearly showed that it was given. After telling him that, he still insisted otherwise and wanted that 1 box for free. I called for help from the operations manager who advised me to bring the guy to watch the recording. After both of us spoke to him, he refused to watch and he changed his story: he just wanted the medicine and he would pay! Cool.. Guess what he said after I processed everything: I know you guys think that I am trying to cheat you all. But it is actually you guys who are cheating me! He said that twice -_-" Not only that, here comes the ultimate words: In the name of Jesus, I forgive you. Sigh.. God, please just quickly end this world.. It is just amazing that someone still dare to invoke Your name after lying and accusing other people for something we never do. Serious, what is wrong about these people!!

Today is the first day of Chinese New Year. Welcome to the Year of Water Snake. Based on feng shui prediction, it will be quite a bad year for my zodiac. But well, with everything new, it is normal for people to wish that things will be getting better compared to the previous one.

The New Year falls on Sunday so I was expecting a half-empty mass today. I was wrong. The crowd was no different from the normal Sunday crowd. Wow! I was quite surprised. Haha.. And I take the opportunity to rest today. I downloaded Music Station 18 January 2013 episode which has One Direction. Okay I am not a fan of them but it is always interesting to see Western celebrities when they visit Japan. Sexy Zone was in that episode too so it would be quite interesting how One Direction would react to that sexy name. Lol.. Nothing was particularly interesting so I deleted the file after watching.

I came across this One Direction Japan Party. This mini concert took place in 19 January which was a day after the Music Station. When asked what songs they were currently into, they mentioned that as a group they were into Sexy Zone songs. Haha.. I am sure they only heard it once on the day before in Music Station. Lol.. They were only able to catch the English words in the lyrics haha..

Okay that's all for now. My first wish for the Snake year is for me to be able to sell away my Rinoa & Siren statue and FF VIII Guradian Forces ArtFX Kotobukiya. I have put them both on international eBay. Sigh.. I just realised that regardless the duration of sale, the eBay fee is the same! What a waste to put up Rinoa & Siren just for 7 days when I could put them up for 30 days for the same fee!! Please God.. Let them both be sold :( I really need space haiz..

Being antisocial is not always a bad thing. I was quite shocked and sad to find that my spending for food in January was 30% more than usual. The increase was just because I went out on 3 different occasions to catch up with different friends. Woah.. Can't imagine if I am a social butterfly or I have a girlfriend.. How much money will be spent simply on food and transport etc sia?? Not to mention how much fatter I will be too.

Money problem was further aggravated when I saw auctions for a full set of Japanese FF VIII Guardian Force ArtFX Kotobukiya which comes with Ragnarok pieces. Suddenly I regret having collected the US version which does not have the Ragnarok pieces. Gotta admit that I am greedy! To complete even the US version for about $500+ inclusive shipping is actually already a good bargain!! Oh well, now I am putting this on sale on eBay Singapore. Still no takers :( I am also thinking of selling my damaged FF VIII Transcendent Artist's Collection Rinoa & Siren. This is my first item which I listed on international eBay. It cost me USD 0.62 for listing it for 7 days. Still no takers :( Haiz I really hope I can get rid of these 2 to get more space leh..

Work has not been without problems too. I hate it when people have "with us" or "against us" kind of mentality. Seriously, can't everyone just be friends with one another? Bleah.. I always try to be fair, to be friendly to everyone, to be strict to everyone too. So I was quite stunned when some people think that I belong to a clique. Oh well.. That is kinda ironic. I thought I was not particularly close to any group but people think otherwise. No wonder I am always alone and lonely. Perhaps my standard for "closeness" is just too high. I don't know..

Anyway, this incident at least taught me something: being thick-skinned is not always a bad thing. I mean I know I am quite thick-skinned. I know my strengths and my weaknesses. I know people will always bitch about one another. I know people will talk back about how I am very petty with details.. about how I suck at work because of my language disabilities etc. But who cares? I have strenghts that these bitches don't have. Everyone has their + and -. Do not try to condemn and put me down unless you are perfect. Of course it is always sad to know people talk back behind you but at least I am not as affected as my colleagues who are more sensitive.

Today was particularly a bad day. Bleah.. I faced 2 fucktards and potential complaint cases. Haiz.. it is tiring to put up a brave and smiley face when facing fucktards. The first one really made blood boil while the second fucktard made me want to boil her in my boiling blood. I am to lazy to recall the details as the idiocy of people from the lower strata of society is simply beyond reasoning. And nowadays, the trend is "not to stop at 2". So here comes another 3rd fucktard via phone. He called on behalf of the wife who claimed short of medications. How on earth people can help if you don't even know what medicines that your wife was short. The best laughable answer was given "I don't know what medicines.. It is not my medicines.. Can you call my wife instead? I am busy". Wow.. all that after all the rudeness and even banging the phone when the doctor tried to call.. I called the wife and it was just shocking that such a reasonable lady is married to such an asshole. Anyway, tomorrow the asshole will appear and let's see what will happen.

I apologise for showing off now. There is one thing which at least boosts my ego a bit this week. Quality Manager of my company was vacant for the past many months and they could not seem to find replacement. I heard someone recommended me.. Well obviously I don't get it. Not even in my most remote imagination that I will be in HQ with my less than 1 year of working experience. I am not close to the one who recommended me. Last year, I was asked to help her with some work for a nursing home. Well, I just did what I thought was best for my help. I just did not expect that she thought I did a great job and saw my potential. Oh well, I just hope that I will always do my best in whatever I do and sooner or later I will be "talent-spotted", instead of by nepotism, to get out of my current place. Bleah.. Sick of facing fucking fucktards everyday.