seems like more has changed at Paragon than i've kept up with. lots of new shops upstairs. branded stuff at the first few levels remain the same. now there's Toys 'R' Us at Level 6, wow. amazing lor, whatever is it doing there. there's a classy looking Sushi Tei, and also a classy looking Crystal Jade. u really gotta dress up to be at paragon. there's Giodarno Kids too. for whatever reason as well, a lot of kids clothing shops. also i finally found the Gramaphone hiding in a corner at the basement. i am also rather astounded by this funky sports equipment shop at level 4. it sells really evil looking off road bikes, that comes with front and back mud-guards, and one has a bike distance meter, and they're only $4xx-$6xx. and at their front door is a pool table for sale for $1800. their best item has to be this triangular shaped boomerang. it's like a cross between a frisbee and a car breakdown triangle. i was stunned to see this oddly shaped thingy, from some cheem scientific company. they also have advanced frisbees. rather cool item. the shop's beside Planet Traveller. and Lawry's Prime Ribs have finally given up their prime front window space and settled for a smaller off-centre area. now the front middle is occupied by Calvin Klein Jeans...???... yeah. looks comparatively trashy.

so there.

long wasteful morning.

read Orson Scott Card's Shadow of the Giant at Borders for a few hours straight after that. skipped lunch because i wasnt in the mood/ because i abhor food prices(i still think nourriture is a fantastic waste of money)/ becase my throat hurts, until i ate a yam pie/taro turnover near 5pm. not a very fantastic book, but well it did have a few nuggets of information about Ender, so those little bits were fun.

HMV's classical section. i wish i were rich enough to buy many many cds. *sigh*

marche. nice lamb stew. nice mushroom and cheese crepe too. i think i eat that too often. nice gathering with Wenyong, Yihao, Shumin, Xinmin, Lawrence, Wenjing, Kevin, Darence Leng. nod. at least it hasnt been that long that i forget names and faces. i do forget for pple i havent seen in a long time. it's rather bad of me. but what can i do. *grimace* i forget too many things. most pple still look the same, behave the same. i feel, that bunches of people that do things together outside of their official acquaintanceship, stay together longer. like if we were only together during band pracs, or when working tog in the medical centre, then after that we'll just drift apart because the central object is no longer present. however if u can remove the band pracs or the medical centre, or the classes from the picture, then the group can stay together longer. pity that wenjing is so out-of-touch now. she feels so distanced, so foreign, so polite, so formal, so withdrawn. some vestiges of her old self, but not close, not relaxed, not comfortable. there are some who will leave and venture on their own. shall we congratulate their adventures or mourn their departure.
do we live lives for these little moments to look back on happiness.

and i dont know how today's food can give me another tummyache. i hate my intestinal flora.

i think the only arcade game i play is "air hockey" thing. at the arcade at least. i do play some on my computer, those that are possible, since it's more worth it to play on the comp.

and more issues in the papers about the legal problems of blogging. ah well. testy people.

more sorrow.

more orange words too. since you people seem to take a fancy to it, even though i've used orange words before.

some unfortunate change of schedules means that somebody can't watch Swan Lake with me. *sobs* therefore, is there anyone else out there who wishes to go???

25th June, Saturday, 8pm. Esplanade Theatre, Royal Ballet.

gentle sorrow

1. 6% of americans have passports
2. it costs $50,000 to scramble fighter jets each time some idiot flies over the white house or other important buildings.

the t-shirt front

watching the words roll down the screen and knowing it's the last. how sad. finished watching movie today. there it goes. not so mad about it this time round compared to Episode II.
won a free red t-shirt with a simple pic of darth vader on it. amusing. fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to what?. chey so simple. i've been mad over this line for years, can never ever forget it.

movie had some weird disjointed accelerated parts. i suppose Lucas had to squeeze in a decent length movie in the middle of Ep2 and Ep4, and having to complete all the links, and sorta wrap up the story. wrapping up a story by doing the middle part is sorta suicidal.
opening scene was Fantastic though. absolutely breathtaking space battle. shall not put any spoilers since the movie has barely opened. the rest of the movie din have such a great impression on me though. there were a few minor new bits of info, but not very important.
people not following Star Wars might get lost as to what the heck is going on. with most of the characters popping up and disappearing. more like showing clips of their deaths rather than the whole long story. to fans, it's just the bringing to life of the story that we all know already. never have i seen a full length expensive movie that is just a simple wrap up of a story. no plot by itself, but just the Ending that has to be there, and which everyone is already expecting. it is a movie people watch purely for the sake of watching the End, and for the effects.
and it has such a unique and queer marketing strategy which lives up to it's own honour of being a weird series of movies that revolutionarizes the film world. being the End movie, they just sell everything before hand, sell the book(which contains the whole movie) before hand, sell the movie picture books beforehand, put so many shows on the day before Opening Day. i dont think we'll ever see any movie series like that in our lifetime. it took 30 years for starwars to get to where it is. lord of the rings lasted only 3.

ah well. if you are going to watch, you will; if you are not, you will not. there is no persuasion or dissuasion. so there.

May the Force be with you, or, too bad if you can't feel it.

door was closed. plastic bag of mangoes found. undecipherable. later when turned over found chinese words written with black marker. addressed to my mother. undecipherable name. rather formal chinese. :/

bigger shot

1. figured a way to get an account at DeviantArt, after being stumped for a long time coz they banned my singnet IP group coz of some abusive user. routing browser through free anonymous proxy servers couldn't hide my IP. finally accessed it through websites that allow u to open a webpage through their page, thereby anonymizing. good thing they only ban IP for signups but not for accessing.

2. got a new Mouse, finally, couldn't stand the trouble the old one was giving.

3. am upset, as usual.

look at this guy. the surfless surfer. surfing is singapore is a great sport: in front of ships, without any waves. whatever he's trying to do...

thank you for cheering me up and bringing me out =]

erm. part of the contribution to the web's collection of weird signs

old photos. have you seen this? mushroom hidden in the plants. looks cute. sorta. er..

whee, there's a furry black thing in the middle, half hidden by flower. it's a furry honey bee. and it's Wild. and well i couldn't get a proper shot of it coz it keeps flying around and it's hard to find the darn thing when you're zooming, and your camera takes 3 seconds to take a photo. but well, a wild honey bee.

erm. what plant is this. found this photo in my archives. i dun remember taking this photo. but there it is. and i think i like it alot, haha. from New Zealand.

link

The Official MapleGlobal service will finally debut with a special "Preview Session" on May 11th at 1AM GMT (9PM Eastern Standard Time). During this period, only our current beta users of MapleGlobal West will be able to sign-up and participate in various events. MapleGlobal.com will now serve as the homepage of the new service. The beta service will not close but will be moved to beta.mapleglobal.com.

Things to note about the New Official Service:
1. You must create a NEW account. Old accounts will only be accessible on beta.mapleglobal.com.
2. The "preview session" sign-ups will be opened only to users that have beta test accounts AND have not been blocked for misconduct such as hacking or botting.
3. To thank our beta testers for their patience and support, we will be raising experience and drop rates during the preview session to help you get back on track. Also, during the preview session, users will be given a limited edition beta tester item at Lith Harbor by our NPC, Nemi.
4. Strict abuse policy - All hackers will be given permanent suspensions. All botters during the "preview session" will also get permanent bans.
5. For account security, all accounts must be verified with an emailed verification code post sign-up and after any account edits. Users cannot enter the game world without verifying their accounts.
6. Ossyria will be open!!!
7. The Cash Shop is not ready but we are preparing for launch later this summer.

It is important to note that the beta client and official client are two separate files. For those beta testers who still want to play in the beta server, don't worry as it will not be deleted. The beta will remain our test client. However, the beta will not have Ossyria for some time. In the future, the beta will get most updates and patches prior to the official service. Unfortunately, we cannot transfer the current accounts to the official service for multiple reasons and we hope our users will understand. (NOTE: The official client will write over your beta client. To re-install the beta, you must download the zip file on the beta site and install into a different folder than the official client).

For those users who are waiting to enter MapleStory for the first time, thank you so much for your continued patience, interest and support. We are very excited to bring you MapleStory and hope to have you join us very soon during open registrations of MapleGlobal in the month of May. stay tuned for an official launch date!

there goes mapleglobal. ossyria. new accounts. restart, more exp.
i wonder if maplesea is going to restart again too. after all, it's still beta. they suck at this.

1. the first time i tried to start my computer, the hard disk was not detected. gave me a fright. the 2nd time it was fine. i hope it survives. sigh.

2. my mouse is still acting weird. i hope it is the fault of the mouse. i shall see how long till i test the hypothesis and how long before i replace my 4 yr old mouse.

3. i actually watched Kingdom of Heaven. Orlando Bloom is such a wimp when it comes to fighting. he is so scrawny and boyish looking. not like a MAN. cant fight for nuts. the Siege scene reeks of "Lord of The Rings". I love the scuffle fight at the start though, it was really cool and amazing and Manly.
rather alright movie. nice effects. not very unique other than the improving quality of CGI, it looks very very real. i din even realise it was CGI. ouch.
got deafened by sitting in the front row listening to endless booming and horses' hooves.

4. europe.

To leave sorrows for troubled joys
Would be a pain not lessened by

BBC Link

The crew of a US submarine that ran aground in the Pacific Ocean in January did not adequately review navigation charts, a Navy report says.

darn idiotic. esp when they have other charts on board that showed a danger zone. use wrong chart at this day and age.. aiyoh... what a waste of a perfectly good expensive sub.

In the land of the Fallen Foes
where the archangels' shadow lies
Cries the Knights Templar of Risen Dead:
the Dead suffer not the Living's sighs

Ethereal swordblades of dead-ash bones
Guarding the Halls of Ancient Runes
chants the Knights: The way is shut.
It was made, and cursed, by Death alone

Trapped within and trapped without
The Dead keep the Shadowed Ways


variation on lotr

Night in gale


Quiet has the forest been
And silent too the night
The wind passes through inhibitedly
Like leaves that do not wake with light

Long has the Dark plagued
the spring which bubbled once
Longer still has discontent grew
festering in the shadow's gloom

twinkles faded from wrinkled eyes
weariness eased the smiles
Happiness left for better lands
Darkness toiled the harrowed ground

where once the nightingale sang
the song plays no more
where once wove chapters of magical tales
the wand waves no more

oh nightingale of my lustrous friend
why have you left his side
how would the tales then travel hence
if the night no more holds your songs

before the same plague conquers me
let me search for your graceful wings
to save from the ashes my fallen friend
whose heart must burn with thee

yet the hour grows dark as Death's gate tolls
mocking Spring's half desperate growth
but perhaps new roots can break the frost
if the seeds can flee the snow

I rouse the chilly flames of life
with my frosted breath on ice
rolling dice that the fires of hope
might resurrect the Fallen's soul

The last days of ending Hope
might see the Sun go down
but yet still must we close our eyes at dusk
giving up the rays of truth for blinded hope

Nightingale if you bring your light
show him where his path should lie
lead with song and fluttering wings
the verse that sings the rhyme

Lead him lost if else to me
tarry not his stumbling toes
swift wings fear not jagged rocks
nor icy river floes

Wake him if need be from the numbing cold
crush the latticed ice
let the pale lips blush with redness
and the fingers hold the quill

fly oh Nightingale fly to him
searching with heartbroken songs
bring the wizard his woven wand
let the necro's curse be born

so now everyone's all on about racism and blogging. haiz..

in the papers today:
"I find the responses more disturbing than the supposed ill will meant by the perpetrator of the comments. I know Chua Cheng Zhan. He never treated me or his Indian and Malay classmates badly. Yet the fact that his comments were taken from a password-protected website and sent to the scholarship board and the media reeks of ill intent. It makes the whole idea of freedom of expression very dubious."
by who? TRIS PRUETTHIPUNTHU.

"A study by a PhD candidate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology showed that 12 per cent of bloggers have been in legal or professional trouble because of their blogs. ..."
-TEE YOCK SIAN, 2nd yr student at NTU.

--------

i think the "anti-racists" are overzealous and slightly lunatic. they're so crazily intent on picking all forms of racism and so eager to root it out. i think the overwhelming emphasis on not having racism only makes it more apparent and more prolific. or at least it applies to me. i dunno. they seem to be the ones carving out the divide by expressly trying to weld groups together.

taxes collected on these machines last year was S$200+ million. and they stated that the tax rate is like 40+% on these things. so total amount wasted on these machines is like S$600+ million.

shocking high amount of money that people would spend on sitting there and watching revolving pictures.
but look at the tax rate, forty over percent. on taxes. how many percent is profit? and how many percent left is your chance of winning. pathetic chance. i can't believe people actually want to play these things. it's ridiculous.