Over a stormy sky

Guide to flirting - The scientific method / Roleplaying

Here's an interesting guide for geeks and intellectuals and all other species of asexual lifeforms - technical flirting!

Some exerpts:

"...most parties, celebrations, carnivals and festivals are governed by a special code of behaviour which anthropologists call 'cultural remission' - a temporary, structured relaxation of normal social controls and restrictions. ...'Cultural remission' does not mean abandoning all your inhibitions, letting rip and behaving exactly as you please. There are rules of behaviour at even the wildest carnival - although they may involve a complete reversal of normal, everyday social etiquette..."

"...You will generally find a lot of flirting among incompetent tennis players, unfit swimmers, cack-handed potters, etc., but somewhat less among more proficient, serious, competitive participants in the same activities. There are of course exceptions to this rule, but before joining a team or club, it is worth trying to find out if the members have burning ambitions to play in the national championships or win prestigious awards for their handiwork. If you are mainly looking for flirting opportunities, avoid these high-flying groups, and seek out clubs full of happy, sociable under-achievers..."

"...Eye contact - looking directly into the eyes of another person - is such a powerful, emotionally loaded act of communication that we normally restrict it to very brief glances. Prolonged eye contact between two people indicates intense emotion, and is either an act of love or an act of hostility..."

"...To show interest while your target is speaking, you need to look at his/her face about three-quarters of the time, in glances lasting between one and seven seconds. The person speaking will normally look at you for less than half this time, and direct eye contact will be intermittent, rarely lasting more than one second. When your target has finished speaking, and expects a response, he or she will look at you and make brief eye contact again to indicate that it is your turn.."


Ah... well the rest of the article is brilliant as well. I don't want to cut and paste the whole article.

posted by Tempest Blue @ 10:06 PM 3 comments

Maslow's Heirarchy of Needs

Weak foundations. Is it any wonder my work situation is all crumbly? :-/

So I was just thinking, maybe the traditionalists had it wrong when they said Career before marriage/love.

Who's right? Who's wrong? What do you think?

posted by Tempest Blue @ 12:52 AM 3 comments

Philosophical ramblings

Blogging about nothing really.

I was reading the news article last sunday in The New Paper, about how a gay kindergarten teacher got himself arrested for performing a lewd act on another man in public. Parents of the kids he was teaching got wind of it, and forced the kindergarten terminate his contract, AND to tear down and replace everything he has touched, from the toilets to the mugs and tables and chairs. The total cost of replacement came up to tens of thousands of dollars.

Why? Because the parents are afraid that he could pass on Aids or STDs to the kids. Never mind that Aids can't be transmitted through casual contact or through common items. Never mind that he doesn't even have Aids or STDs. As some idiot parent so smugly said in the paper, She knew HIV can't be spread through furniture but she wasn't taking any chances. Riiiight.

Might as well tell her to shut her mouth, because while she might not have any disease that could transmit from the hot air that comes out of her pie-hole, we shouldn't take any chances.

I will admit I do not approve of a homosexual lifestyle, but to paraphrase a more famous saying, I will defend a person's right to engage in it, provided it does no harm. Furthermore, what really irks me is the sheer thoughtless outrage of it all. It only shows us how little it takes for society to revert back to barbarism, to mindless witch-hunting and public lynching.

I think MM Lee Kwan Yew was at least right when he said we aren't so far departed from the racial riots of the 1960s. We are a very long way off from being a tolerant society. We are a long way off from being enlightened, or hell, even just being educated.

***

I guess I'm feeling a little bit angsty after reading Sophie's World, written by Joestein Gaardner. The philosophical monologue in the novel rekindled a little of the flames of passion I had as a teenager, when I actually gave a damned about the larger things in life. Logic, ethics, morality. The eternal search for Truth. As it was so succinctly described, we are like parasites clinging onto the hair of a giant white rabbit. As a child, we cling on to the very tips of the hair, and we had a clear view of everything around us. As we grow older, we slip further and further down, until all we can see is hair, and a few bits of empty space in between. Philosophy tries to push us parasites back up to the top, and re-view the world with the eyes of a child again, unfettered of biases and preconceived notions.

Finding the philosophical answer to the meaning of life is well and good, but it doens't put food on the table (unless you're a tenured philo professor). It doesn't grant you a good social life. It doesn't even guarantee happiness.

But it does force people to think. It forces people to re-examine their own actions. Maybe if there were actually a culture where people engaged in philosophical thought and became more self-aware of their actions, there would be less mob mentality and witch hunting like the incident I mentioned above.


Some things are illegal. Some things are immoral. Some things are both, and some things are neither. It's important to know the difference. - Tempestblue

P.S - Speaking of philosophical ramblings, what is a person's motivation to work? And what is a person's motivation to work when the normal motivations to work don't.. um.. work? Because I sure as hell don't know...

posted by Tempest Blue @ 10:38 PM 3 comments

Sentosa Night Skating - PG 13 for prospective violence and gore

I just came back from a 'Saturday Night Skate at Sentosa' event organized by Skateline. Picked up G and A from harbourfront and drove in. I can't remember what the entry prices were the last time, but now its $2 per person, and $2 for the car. That's pretty cheap, I think.

The turnout was pretty good, and Skateline planned the logistics pretty well. There were guides at decent intervals along the track, and people carrying bright torches. The 3 of us, being the last-minute kings we were, didn't bring any, so at times were were literally skating in the dark.

We first skated along the beachside track stretching from Palawan Beach to Siloso Beach. The conditions weren't very good for skaters though. Parts of the road were extremely rocky and potholed, while some stretches had sand and silt covering it.

We also followed the 'advanced' route, which led through the island's Jungle Trail. It was CRAZY man! The track was narrow, windy, and snaked up and down a small hillock. Imagine sitting a roller coaster. Then imagine you had no seatbelts, and the train could run off the track. Then imagine that the track was slippery and the wheels were prone to skidding. Then imagine steering through near-total darkness, picking up speed as you surged downhill, on skidding wheels, through a narrow serpentine track with a steep drop off one side of the track. Fun right!!! I panicked when I started rolling down. T-braked all the way, but the slippery wheels didn't give me enough control so in desperation I did a spin stop and in the process crashed into G, who was behind me at the time. Luckily we didn't do a headlong tumble all the way down.

That was one of two incidents that made it worth the trip there. That mix of exhilaration and sheer terror. The second was near the end of the return trip, where I zoomed gleefully down a short, steep incline, picking up speed. Then, my balls dropped when out of the darkness, a gleaming row of metal drain covers (the ones with the gratings) appeared across the road. In the 2.135 seconds I had before reaching it, my mind was able to grasp the concept that if I rolled across it, my wheels would go right in between the grating and decelerate me from 15km/hr to 0km/hr in .. oh i dunno. 2 seconds. I was also able to predict that I would fall forward, smack my face on the pavement, do a Superman for 2-3 meters, and end up with a face like the Terminator after his climatic battle scene. Then my mind blanked out and handed control over to my visceral instincts. I did a Kiai yell very loudly and then madea leap of faith a fraction of a second before impending doom.

Now, the fact that i am here now typing this entry instead of being in A & E being treated for multiple head fractures and severe concussion should suggest to you that I was successful in my endeavour. I landed a little awkwardly on the other side of the drain cover, wobbled a bit and flailed my hands like a madman, but managed to keep my balance! Yeah! Go me!

Anyway, I'm going blading again tomorrow. Fun fun fun!

posted by Tempest Blue @ 12:09 AM 6 comments

Bittorent woes

I missed last thursday's 'Lost' showing on Channel 5 because I was out on the blogdate, so on friday I loaded up my dusty bitcomet and tried to d/l it online. What transpired after was over 4 hours of reading technical forums and self-help guides while trying to boost my connection rate.
I found a torrent to download Lost episode 4, but the d/l speed was only about 6kb/s; The equivalent of a 56k modem.

Unacceptable!!

So I took an impromptu computer network crash course to try and figure out how to configure a static ip address, and do a port fowarding through my NATs and router firewalls and whatnot, increasing the half-open tcp/ip connections (which win XP SP2 has absurdly set to 10) to 50.

At the end of it all, the d/l speed went up to 7kbps. I gave up and left the pc on overnight to download the 350Mb file. This morning, I was happy to find it all finished and ready to be played. I switched it on and was bowled over by its fantastic video clarity.

Then, one of the main characters started to speak. In French.

ARRRRGGGGGHHH!!!!!!

posted by Tempest Blue @ 3:53 PM 4 comments

Movie Baton

I've been bonked on the head by a movie baton! From Lancerlord no less! Wow I'm so honoured!

Total Number of Films I own on DVD and Video:

VCD - Err... Um.... hehe....if by 'own' you mean purchased *cough*fromauthorizeddistributors*cough*, I have 1 *blushes* - Forever Fever
Otherwise... erm... lets just say lots, and leave it at that.

DVD- also 1 - Meet the Fockers

Last Film I bought:

Meet the Fockers

Five Films I Like...A Lot: (Only 5?)

1) Waterboy (made me cramp my stomach from laughing)
2) One Night at McCool's (Made me nearly lose bladder control)
3) Mystery Men(made me burst a gut)
4) Cinema Paradiso (made me cry)
5) Dead Man Walking (made me cry)

Other honorable mentions:
6)Se7en (Mystery thriller)
7)6th Sense (Horror)
8)Emperor's New Groove (Cartoon)
9)The Incredibles (Cartoon)
10) Jerry McGuire (Renee Zellweger! hubba hubba!)

5 people I'm passing the baton to:

1)Orange
2)Averil
3)Ivanny
4)Ang Ku Kueh
5)Satin

posted by Tempest Blue @ 12:59 AM 5 comments

My very first Blogdate!

I went out on Thursday for a blogdate with 3 charming ladies Satin, Wendy and Orange.

It was a terrible day for a blogdate. I woke up in the morning and when I looked in the mirror, I saw a huge pimple on my chin! Waah! How can? I haven't gotten any pimples for most of the week, why did one suddenly pop out on that very day? Maybe its a blogdate curse, like when Hisreason went to meet his blog friends. Its one of those definite Murphy's Law things. I wanted to squeeze it really bad, but held the temptation. It wasn't ripe yet, and I didn't want it to gush blood. I consoled myself by squeezing the blackheads on my nose.

Then I went through my clothes and realised there wasn't anything remotely presentable that I could wear both to the lab and for a social event. Wah.. I need new clothes man! Those 6 yr old polo Ts are a bit too CMI (Cannot Make It) where presentability is concerned. Luckily I always have a slightly 'used' but presentable T shirt which I keep on a clothes rack, just for emergencies like this. I took a sniff of it. There was no odour, which was good. I hope the girls don't have a better sense of smell than I do.

We met at 7.30pm in the underground station at City Hall, where strangers alone or in couples or in big bunches stare at the commuting crowd passing through the clunking red gantries. Not an ideal place to be meeting people whom I've never seen before, except in pictures. Lucky we had hp numbers of everyone.

I met up with Wendy first, who had been shopping at City Hall since 6.30pm. She looks like her photos, but less fierce and more sweet. :-) We were soon joined by Satin, who turned out to be a slim, dreamy-eyed girl wearing spectacles. Orange was held up by work or some shady dealings, so the 3 of us chilled out at the Cafe Cartel outlet at Raffles City.

I guess I was kinda nervous at first, meeting two complete strangers, but having read each other's blog for nearly 2 years, having shared our happy moments and bei chan stories, I found it easy to relate to them.

To me, conversations exist only at the moment it is being held. There are jokes; there is laughter. Words are tossed around and savoured, and then left to drift away into the air, replaced by other words. Important things should be recorded on the spot or written down. The rest is gone. Irretrievable. Passed away. In other words, for the life of me I can't remember what it was we talked about. Something about jobs and face cream and blogging(of course). Of course, the most important thing that I do remember is that conversation was wonderful, relaxed and flowing.

Food at Cafe Cartel is so-so. I ordered a chef's special sauce pasta thingy, which came with a spicy egg gravy. You know what else is has spicy egg gravy? Chilli crabs! So yes, I was eating something that tasted like Chilli crab pasta, without crab. They had no man tou, but the bread slices comes close I guess, hahaha. Still, I'm no fan of fusion cuisine. I'll give that dish a pass the next time.

Orange finally came along and gave me her 'wow-you-actually-can-socialise-a-little-' look of incredulity . We took a scenic walk to Suntec, met Satin's scary colleague whom everyone thought was male (but wasn't), and ended up sinking into really comfy cushioned sofas at Starbucks. There, Orange attempted to get to know everyone better by asking questions such as "What shop/flower/dimsum are you?" According to popular consensus I'm a coffeeshop/crysanthemum/siewmai. And yes I did check that I closed and locked up my coffeeshop before going out to meet them.

Due to the largely female presence, I also had a nice lecture on things like the fine line between gentlemanly gallantry and wierdo-ness, and how PMS is like National Service. Girls bond together by talking about PMS the way guys do by talking about NS experiences. Both issues are also similar in the way they piss off and alienate members of the opposite gender when they talk about it. And yes, PMS is contagious. It affect men too, so remember guys, don't stand too close to a girl with PMS! Haha, thanks for the education, girls! I really had fun!

posted by Tempest Blue @ 2:30 AM 5 comments

Recurring dreams

I better get this down before I forget.

For the past few nights I've been having recurring dreams of ghostbusting in a haunted school house.

In the dream, I always end up in a fluorescent-lit classroom in the 13th floor, facing a demon queen armed with only a large frying pan. Then, I'd get this wierd sense of deja vu. I'd fail to defeat the queen, and reload a past save, and try again. And again.

I am disturbed by the parallels my dream has drawn from real life. I just wish Life had a 'Save game' function too.

posted by Tempest Blue @ 10:32 AM 4 comments

Short bites

Mood is : :-(

I can't pour my heart into this blog anymore. Too many people watching.

posted by Tempest Blue @ 12:23 AM 6 comments

And there was Food, and it was Good.

My left index finger smells of fishy tuna. Now, as much as I love my cat, having wet, sticky, tuna and white fish flavoured catfood on my finger is just not cool at all. In fact, it is kinda icky. Maybe that's why I stopped liking canned tuna. The texture and consistancy and smell makes me think I'm eating catfood.

Anyway. Saturday was a total letdown, or so I thought. My friends were not blading that weekend, and someone invited me to play football, but all the way across the island at Jurong. :-/. So that meant I was at home shaking legs.

Got invited by Furby and his family for dinner at the Tanglin Club. Pfwah! Its a damned posh place, full of rich ang mohs and Singaporeans. Went to one of their club restaurants for steak. Damned good steak! Steak with huge, manly proportions like those in the US, not the sissified portions like the ones you get at the hawker centre for $6.

I had what they call 'gentleman's cut' of prime rib, which is the polite restaurant term for 'damned fucking big', while the others had other various cuts. Aunt P had a piece of Australian Wagyu beef, which as far as I understand is just like Kobe beef, but different in that it hasn't been banned in Singapore yet. She was kind enough to offer me a sample, which promptly sent me to orgasmic rapture(luckily the dry kind) when I tasted it. The meat is so tender it seems to melt in the mouth, and so rich it sent my tastebuds into overdrive. Shiok man!!

Conversation mainly revolved around Uncle S's business, and as shocking relevations of the cut-throat business tactics employed by a certain big ink cartridge and printer MNC to force out smaller competitors. I'm rooting for the little guys of course. Go kick em in the nuts!! Yeah!

Sunday was another Eat-out day. Met Orange, Tea and Pegasus at Yum Cha in Chinatown for lunch. Chinatown is fast becoming a joke. Upgraded and freshly painted shophouse facades, paved streets for walking, shops selling touristy knick knacks you'd never buy if you were a local, not to mention trendy restaurants and gay pubs - I mean what the heck? Its so touristy!! Why would anyone come to china-town when it looks like another Bugis/Parco shopping mall?
Bring back the old open air coffee-shops with marbled tables and wooden chairs and little-green-tiled floors. Bring back the dried goods shop where they sun the hae-bee and dates and ikan bilis in large rattan baskets.

Ya, anyway, Yum Cha is a really expensive place to eat Dim Sum. cost us $19 each for less than 10 containers of dim sum. And we were 4 people. Some idiot in management probably thinks its a crafty strategy to put only 3 pieces of dim sum in each container. As Tea commented, 3 is not a good number of people for a social outing so people usually go in pairs or 4 or more. So, said idiot probably thinks putting 3 pieces of Har Kow in a container would force people to order at least 2 servings. Which we did. But it didn't leave me with a good impression. Service was pretty good though. There was a queue to enter the place, and the waiters served cups of iced water to us as we waited.

After the meal, Gibs left for some place and the 3 evil conspirators sat down at Mac's to devise a cunning plan to conquer the world. To complete the evening, dad cooked some really delicious crabs while I made some quick pasta. I ended the evening feeling as bloated as a pig. Time to dust off those jogging shoes again, I guess.

Monday - A day better left undescribed except for the evening. Went out with some Aikido khakis to watch Batman Begins. I think its really good. The story was tight, and the mood was suitably dark as befits a Batman movie. At last, after the previous 2 slapstick farces, they finally got things right again. I do have a few complaints though, mostly regarding Christian Bale.

1) He really needs to get rid of that double chin. That tight batmask and batsuit really scrunges up his neck until you can see a thin layer of fat.

2)I hate the growlish voice he uses whenever he's Batman. Dude! Got sore throat isit? Drink some Liang Teh lah! Leave the growling to Wolverine.

3)Come on man... Give us some better choreographed fight scenes. How do you expect a crowd who's used to watching countless Jackie Chan and Jet Lee movies to be satisfied with the fight scenes? All I see on the screen is very bad lighting, some obligatory chop-sock moves, and shaky camera movement to compensate. Ugh, I don't care how having shaky cameras is a filming technique to convey action or what-not. I hate shaky cameras! I want to see the detail, dammit, not see the action from the perspective of a jumpy cameraman/ninja prancing about!

Notwithstanding these minor flaws though, it was a great movie!

Next on my to-watch list: Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, War of the Worlds, Mr and Mrs Smith.

- This has been another pointless entry brought to you by Tempest Blue and the Infinite Boredom

posted by Tempest Blue @ 6:25 PM 4 comments

Cryptonomicon - Review

After 15 tortuous nights of reading Neal Stephenson's historical cyberpunk novel, Cryptonomicon, I have come to one conclusion.

Neal Stephenson is absolutely brilliant. A fucking genius writer.

He has to be brilliant, because if he weren't, his readers all over the world would take a plane, or ship or FedEx themselves over to the UK, trace his address, creep up to his house in the middle of the night and stab him 217 times with a dull fruit knife, one for each time Cryptonomicon has willfully frustrated them and caused extreme mental anguish. Then they would drag his bloody carcass over to a deep lake, chain it to a huge stone, row a boat to the middle and dump it.

And then they would do the same to his editors.

No, wait... that wouldn't be right. Make that 317 times.


Ugh... ok. Well at least I got that rant out. As may have been evident, I had a love-hate relationship with the book, which runs for a massive 910 pages at a trade paperback size, excluding the appendix at the end. The genre, as close as I can make it to be, is both historical fiction and modern-day techno. It is the interweaving of 2 stories, one occuring within the setting of WW II and one somewhere in the 1990s.

The first tale is of a motley of odd characters, such as British mathematician Lawrence Pritchard Waterhouse, US Marine Corp Bobby Shaftoe, the mysterious priest Enoch Root and the Japanese engineer Goto Dengo, who become embroiled in a huge conspiracy involving German and Japanese gold reserves, plundered from their conquests of South East Asia.

The second tale, woven between the historical accounts, tells the story of Randall Waterhouse, grandson of Lawrence, as he, his colleagues and several other descendents of the Shaftoes attempt to set up a data haven in an independent little island republic, and end up getting involved with the conspiracy left unfinished by his grandfather and friends.

At the heart of it all is the theme of cryptography, the crucial roles it played in turning the tide of the war, and its implications in today's society, an age ruled by the internet and information technology.

First, the general observations:

Cryptonomicon is a very male-oriented book. Not only that, it is a very male-nerd-oriented book. All the main characters are male. There is only one female character of note, who exists as a token figure for the romance subplot. It is also a very nerd oriented book, in that there is a lot of high-school level maths being flung liberally about. Graphs and summations and number series pepper the pages occasionally, in addition to sample cryptographic techniques and even a computer encryption algorithm in machine language. I don't mean references to them. I mean actual numbers and symbols, like you see in a math or programming textbook. In this regard he almost seems to have the same style as Dan Brown in Digital Fortress or The Da Vinci Code.

The good:

The story, like Dan Brown's books, is about Ideas. Curious little nuggets, or huge monoliths that sit within the universe of the story and bend the flow of space-time around which the characters, and the rest of the world, flow along. Neal Stephenson is brilliant when it comes to playing with these Ideas, large and small. Each paragraph of his entire book is sprinkled with little nuggets of trivia, or historical accounts, or obscure news. He touches on diverse topics such as number theory and the Riemann Zeta function, the Turing machine, philosophical musings of Godel and Liebnitz and Whitehead, Crypto-analysis and Van Eck phreaking, socio-political climates in various little countries, delves deeply into the geographical and anthropological aspects of the Philipines, New Guinea, Japan, and even mentions Singapore and Michael Fay.
The last time I read a book with that much detail and depth was ... well, never! The sheer richness of the story is breathtaking.

The bad:

The problem with this kind of book, of course, is that you probably need a university degree or three in engineering, computing, philosophy and economics, not to mention read very widely, to derive the most out of this book. Otherwise your eyes will cross whenever he starts deriving math equations from scratch, or miss the significance whenever he starts name-dropping and making references to Alan Turing, or Bertrand Russell, Macarthur, Karl Donitz, Einstein, and other big or not-so-big names.

Also, because this is the story about Ideas, characterisation to me is pretty poor. If I were to use an analogy, the story would be like a game of chess played on an exquisitely carved cherrywood and magahony board with bevelled edges and inlaid with gold, and tiled with alternate squares of the finest white marble and volcanic obsedian. The pieces in contrast, would be carved, adequately but plainly, out of pinewood. Their sole purpose is merely to convey the strategy of the moves of the game, mere markers for the ideas that are being played out on the board. Characters are well fleshed, but show almost no emotional growth at all. They reach the end of the story the way they appeared at the beginning. Static.

As it is, the chess moves by themselves aren't that great either, just as neither one of those 2 tales, standing on its own, offer much in terms of plot. Where it comes together is the interplay between the two stories, like the two sides of chess, and the gradual resolution of the events as draw to a close with an adequate ending. Checkmate.

That aside, Neal Stephanson's style tends to bug me at times. Its not so much that he chooses to write in the present tense. I think that's pretty cool as it lends a certain sense of immediacy to the scene. Its the fact that his snappish, acerbic style of wit gets splashed so heavily into the narrative that it totally overpowers that of the protagonist who's Point of View is being narrated. Bobby Shaftoe's thoughts sound like Neal. Lawrence's thoughts sound like Neal. Randall's thoughts also sound like Neal. Its bad form for the director butt in to his lead actor's screen time, you know?

Neal also has a penchant for going off on a tangent on a whim. Such as taking a sidetrack for a page or so, just to set up 1 punchline. Or as spending 3 full pages describing, in exquisite detail to the very last sub-atomic particle, the correct anal-retentive way of eating cereal with milk. Or 6 bloody pages on the exact text of an obfuscatingly worded email message! I shan't even go into how he mathematically derives the differential relationship between masturbation and work productivity.

Seriously, the book was 910 pages long. The story could have been finished in 600 pages, with all the main elements intact. I'll admit to occasionally skipping several pages of 'Bleh!' narrative to get to the meat of the action, and in the final pages I was skimming through the words because I couldn't wait for the book to end. Didn't they teach that redundency was a bad thing in Writer School?

My third pet peeve is that everytime he breaks a POV and returns to it later, there is no attempt to bridge the gap. One moment A happens, and Bobby Shaftoe held captive in a sinking sub, the next moment, he's in a Swedish bar drinking beer with the German skipper of the sub, then D, E and F happens, while the reader is still going HUH? WTF is going on??. THEN, after a chapter or so, he does a flashback to explain what happened to the sequence of events B and C. I'm sure in every part of the world, there's a Cryptonomicon reader somewhere with a bald patch on his head after tearing out his hair in frustration.

And that's why I said, the man is brilliant. Because only sheer brilliance could have pulled off a book so exasperating to read. And made me last all the way to the end.


Rating: 8/10

posted by Tempest Blue @ 10:23 PM 7 comments

Am I?

You Are a Snarky Blogger!

You've got a razor sharp wit that bloggers are secretly scared of. And that's why they read your posts as often as they can!

posted by Tempest Blue @ 11:55 AM 0 comments

Alternative Asian Music

In the plastic, superficial world of the Chinese pop music scene populated with Jackie Cheung clones, manufactured pretty-boy groups like F4, or fresh, nubile sweet young things who rely on sex appeal(Oh, I dunno. Isn't it interesting that you NEVER see an ugly female singer make it in the asian charts?) to sell albums, I would like to take some time to recognise the efforts of some brave asians who dare to be different. Who dare to break the mould of conventional Asian stereotypes through their music.




William Hung acting cute

Of course, how can I not begin with the most famous of them all, the Phenom known as ..... William Hung? Yep, this civil engineering student and American Idol reject shows how you can make it if you just do your best and have no regrets. He's got enough fame to rival Clay Aiken, he has his own CD, his own fansite, and he's even a movie star now! I'm sure he's laughing all the way to the bank!

Listen to some of his music here:

The classic 'She Bangs' MTV
Samples from his 'Inspiration' CD





The evergreen Wing

Next on the list is one of New Zealand's fastest rising stars. Her name is Wing, and her claim to fame is her bold, non-conformist reinterpretations of popular classics such as Abba's Dancing Queen, and Maria Carey's Dream Lover(Not to be confused with US porn star/aspiring politician Mary Carey). Recently, she has also been given a guest starring role in an episode of the cartoon Southpark.

You can check out more song samples here, or check out her official website Wingtunes. I just saw that she covered an ACDC song, 'Highway to Hell'. Man, I would love to hear that one.





Notorious MSG

Third on the list are a trio of Chinese gangsta' rappers from NYDC Chinatown. Move over Wu Tang Clan and Energy, here come the Notorious MSG! Dey be da real shit! You guys should check out their music video "Straight out of Canton"(right-click and save as) and stop by at their funny-as-shit website.


We really need more of these talented souls about. Maybe these two young kids featured here will be future stars in the same mould as them. They certainly have the makings for it, despite their choice of song.

posted by Tempest Blue @ 12:09 AM 1 comments

Nothing in life is ever simple

I need/want a new phone. My faithful Sony Erikson t610 got squashed last saturday when I fell onto it while skating and dragged it a few meters on the asphalt.

Unfortunately, mobile phone sellers seem happy to torment me by setting their prices *just* beyond the value/money ratio I'm prepared to go for. Anything that looks remotely good costs and arm, a leg, and one of my balls. Those within my price range look absolutely dismal in comparison with their pricier counterparts.

Does anyone have any suggestions? My main criteria is Value for Money, and I won't go above $400.

Ideally, I want (in order of preference):

• Fast text messaging and menu interface ( No multiple confirmation buttons to send a single sms pls!!)
• Long, long battery life
• MMS
• Adequate Camera
• MP3 and fm radio
• Preferably a nice design (damned, that rules out ALL Nokia models)
• Preferably clamshell

So far, the ones that fit these criteria, or have my approval, are the Mitsubishi M900 , Samsung E720C and P730C, Sony Eriksson S700i.

Unfortunately the only criteria they don't meet is the price range. :-/

So now, I'm considering the SE k700i (Singtel is selling it cheapest. It figures that my free mobile upgrade would be from M1), Nokia 6260, and 7260. I'll head down to TP mall and take a look first though.

How? you guys have any reccomendations? Or maybe I should just take a crap phone and use the savings to get new skates. Or forgo the skates and get a good phone... argh!!!! Why isn't anything in life ever SIMPLE?

posted by Tempest Blue @ 6:33 PM 5 comments

A very eventful Sunday

Runway cycling was fun. I woke up at 6am and ate 4 slices of bread with Planters peanut butter. Then I drove to Paya Lebar Airbase. I travelled by Old Tampines Road and parked the car very far from the runway, because the traffic warden ask me to park there. So I had to walk 10 minutes to get there.

The place was very crowded. Many people cycling and skating everywhere. We all gathered at the start point, and a helicoptor came to take pictures of us. We waved at the helicoptor. At 8.30 pm, the minister flagged us off. At 8.35am, it suddenly started raining. So, we turned back to the shelter and waited until it stopped raining.

Luckily, the rain stopped. Then we continued to skate. My friends and I skated for 15km. I know it is 15km because it says so on the board. Some parts of the runway were very hard to skate, because the road was very rocky. I hit a lot of stones and nearly fell. Because the ground was wet, we also saw many many millipedes crawling across the runway from the field. I do not know if there were that many, or because they got run over and cut into 2.

After we got back to the start area, we sat down to watch a group of people do tricks on skates. Some of the skaters were only little kids! But they were all very good. I also want to learn to skate like them.

We left after the lucky draw announcement. We didn't win anything. That is ok, because the top 5 prizes were Shimano bikes. If we won it, we will have problems bringing it home.

We went to East Coast food centre for lunch. I noticed we were all very black. My friend thought it was a tan, but actually it was soot. The runway is a very dirty place.

After lunch, we went home. I was very tired but happy. Today is a really fun day!

posted by Tempest Blue @ 12:33 AM 0 comments

Blood and Ashes.

I woke up this morning with the tang of metal in my throat. My head was still heavy, my nose was still dripping. I tried to swallow, but the dryness made it painful. My left nostril felt crusty as well, as if the pee sai had dried up and was tugging my nose hair in a most uncomfortable manner. I stuck a finger into it to clear the blockage, and felt some stuff flaking off the inner membrane lining. I pulled my finger out and looked at it. It was black and powdery, and upon agitation with the thumb and forefinger it crumbled and drifted onto my T-shirt.


I got up and probed more carefully. The black stuff, I noticed, was actually a very dark red. I must have had a nosebleed last night. The air-conditioner must have been turned down too low, and the dryness must have burst some little capilliaries. I think I have a medical condition which in Traditional Chinese Medicine is categorised as ' Pu Zhua' (Heaty). Well. At least the nose had stopped bleeding.

I took a look around. On the left shoulder of my shirt was a dark circular patch of maroon, probably from when my nose snogged the shirt while I was sleeping. Two little lines of blood also streaked across my pillow. Luckily though that was the extent of the damage. I guess that means no air-con for me tonight.

If I thought I was done with blood for the day, I was wrong. I went to practice my skating at Bedok reservoir sometime in the evening. Training for the Paya Lebar Runway skating event tomorrow. Somehow I knew I beforehand I would fall. And fall I did. I have a small graze on my right elbow. Elbows seem to be one of the easiest places to get grazed. Even a little abrasion will draw blood. One of my friends also had a graze there as well when he fell, and both of us were wearing elbow guards. I'm thinking that its due to wearing an incorrect guard size. The fit is loose, and when you fall the friction pushes the PVC plating off the elbow, and the road rubs against the wrinkly skin. I consider myself lucky. I know of another friend who broke her ulna and had to be warded. Thats the bone in the forearm, by the way. Not anywhere else.

Dirty minds.... ;-p

Yeah.. so anyway... that's not the worst thing. I also smashed up my handphone when I fell. The LCD screen is cracked and is showing some really funky colours, kinda like the ones you see on the surface of a soap bubble, or oil puddle. Lucky I got a spare phone lying around.

I'm excited about tomorrow's Runway Skating at Paya Lebar Airbase tomorrow. 15km. 10,000 people. The conditions are right for a stampede. Whee!

K. Gonna check the route to get to the airbase. The roads at Paya Lebar is freakishly mindboggling because of the perpetual roadworks going on. I hope I don't get lost. Skateline is offering 30% off on 2004 season skates, and 40% off on Father's day on 19th June. I'm tempted. Inline Culture is also offering sales on Salomon skates. Hmm...

posted by Tempest Blue @ 9:57 PM 2 comments

Smashed.

I think I have a sinus infection. Again. Woke up this morning feeling like my head was clamped in a vice. My throat is swollen and it hurts to swallow. My eyeballs feel like they're gonna pop out of my head, and my nose is dripping like a leaky faucet. Worst of all, my oral-facial nerves are throbbing painfully, as if someone was strumming them like a banjo.

Ug.

posted by Tempest Blue @ 12:22 AM 2 comments

Mount Ophir May 2005: The Ascent of Gunung Ledang

Our starting point for the ascent was at the Gunung Ledang Resort, a nice little place tucked away at the foothills of Mt Ophir. It looked really comfy, and on hindsight, it might have been a good idea to have book a room for the night there, and then attempt a 1-day climb to the summit and back.

However, we had a different itinerary planned: It was about 3pm when we arrived at the foothills. We would instead hike up to the half-way point at checkpoint 4, also called 'square pool', and make camp for the night. Then we would head for the summit the next morning, turn back, and camp another night at square pool before heading down the next day. The tents and food added a lot of weight to our backpacks, but I must admit there is a certain appeal of camping out in the wilds and we were all looking forward to it.

We checked in with the ranger station and had a guide assigned to us: a tall, lanky youth who told us cheerfully to call him Ah-Boy. Once we were ready, he led us along a wide, paved footpath that ran alongside a sluggish river. Holiday goers were everywhere: children in wet, colourful clothing ran up and down the path, or splashed about in the shallow waters, while parents looked on, seated comfortably in nearby stone pavilions or picnic mats. Elsewhere, enterprising people were setting up makeshift barbeque pits, or cooking food on portable stoves.
It felt very much like a walk in the park, and accordingly, we saw many young couples strolling leisurely along the river bank, or making out in the more secluded niches.

And then we hit the stairs.

Stairway from Hell

Well, we did make it up to Puteri Falls, which was a pretty impressive waterfall with a nice splash pool to play in. You could go right up to the cascading water and do your best 'Feng Yun' impression. It still counted as part of the 'park' area, so it was crowded.

Rock trail

A nice little stream gushing over rocks

More gushing streams. They have a lot of that over there

Nice scenery

More nice scenery

A quiet little rock pool

I don't know who the heck they are

One good thing about the Mt Ophir trail is that, being so frequently travelled, the paths are well defined (if not exactly easy), and there were no leeches or dangerous wildlife lurking near it. I wore only sandals for the hike as I was anticipating a few river crossings. However, the trail is pretty dry most of the time, and while I had few problems climbing in sandals, I would reccommend wearing good hiking boots for better protection and ankle support. But don't wear your $500 Timberland boots up, because you'll most likely trash it from the abuse, and then you'll be very xim tia (heart pain).

We had to climb through this hole to continue

There was even a portable toilet in the area, though the sewage 'tank' looked like it was about to burst, and the flush system was manual. i.e. you took a bottle of river water in with you and sloshed the bowl with it when you were done.

Evening sun behind the trees

We were all tired and hungry when we reached Square pool, so after setting up the tents, we wasted no time cooking our instant noodle/instant rice meals. I also made some mashed potatoes from powder sachets. I believe Enid Blyton knew exactly what she was talking about when she said that food always tastes much better when you're outdoors. Not to mention when tired and freakishly hungry.

Cooking manoeuvres in the dark

We decided to turn in early after dinner. M, J and I shared a tent. The 3 PRC guys shared another and the 2 girls took the third. We thought we'd fall asleep immediately, but the strangeness of the first night outdoors, the incessant chirruping of insects, and the bloody freaking stump of tree root beneath our tent kept us awake. The 3 of us ended up talking cock for the next few hours. All in all it was a pretty bad night and I don't think any of us got any sleep. I was tossing and turning every hour just so my back wouldn't cramp up. Morning came as a welcome and we were all eager to be up. We had a quick breakfast and by 9.30am we were ready to ascend. Our guide told us to leave all our stuff in the tents, bringing up only water, lunch and our valuables. Phew! What a difference that made.

Munchies for the trail

We were among the latest to set off to the summit. Most of the other campers had left at the crack of dawn. Some even made the climb in the darkness so that they could catch the sunrise at the summit. The trail up to the summit was even tougher than the day before. The climb was much steeper, though there were ropes at the harder parts of the journey.

KFC: The tree roots form natural steps



Root trail

We passed by an area called 'KFC', which unfortunately didn't have any 3-piece chicken meals + pepsi for sale. According to the guide, it was called 'Killing Feet Center' in reference to a long stretch of steep natural stairs formed from tree-roots holding on to packed earth. And yes it did kill our feet real good.

The highlight of our climb was when we approached a steep cliff, about 10 meters up in a near-vertical incline. We had to shimmy up a long knotted rope, while behind us, the mountain dropped away, giving us a breath-taking view of the valley below. Few things give you a rush of adrenalin like staring down nearly 3000 feet clinging only to one flimsy rope, knowing that a single mis-step will send one tumbling into empty air for a long long long time....

5 monkeys up on a rope

Our first clear view from the mountain top.

We made it past the cliff and reached a small clearing called Botak hill. We took a small detour to a small spring and filled our water bottles with some authentic mineral water. It was faintly yellowish but clear of sediment, and tasted pretty good, actually.

Spring water! I've always wanted to drink from a spring ever since I was young, because I was an Enid Blyton junkie, and the Famous 5 were always doing it. (And no, that's not me in the pic. ;-p)

From Botak Hill and up the trails got so steep that ladders were placed in many parts of the climb. Bales of packed straw or something were also stacked along the path to provide better footing for the climb. By this time, I was just climbing, and climbing and climbing. The surroundings just passed me by in a blur. Time passed. And then suddenly, we reached the top. As we reached the stony outcrop at the summit, we were greeted by a gorgeous panoramic view of the land below. And also a very noisy group of 40 people wearing bright yellow T-shirts.

It turned out they were fellow Singaporeans, cheerful, friendly young people from the Toa Payoh Adventure Club. They offered first aid to JL, who had suffered some minor abrasions during the climb. Later, a girl from the TPAC offered us some of their extra food. I guess it worked out well enough because we were really hungry, and they were trying to get rid of excess baggage for the climb down. The most astonishing thing was that they had apparantly reached the summit with their full gear, tents and everything. According to them, they reached the peak via another trail beginning from the Malacca side, and would head down to square pool to camp. I took another look at their packs, and gave them my sympathies.

The view from the summit

Clouds!

We spent an hour at the peak, taking pictures, having a mini picnic with tuna sandwiches and chocolate biscuits, before heading down. The adventure club people were heading down too, and it was just as well because half-way down, I got lost. The 3 PRCs were far ahead of me, while J, M, JL and A, the two couples, inched down the treacherous path behind. I was torn between trying to catch up to the front three, and waiting for my friends behind. In the end, I managed to lose sight of both. And then A-boy took the two couples behind through a shortcut, so when I backtracked I couldn't find them. I wasn't worried though, for strung out along the entire trail were the TPAC people. One of them had a walkie talkie to communicate with their other group leaders, and they found my friends further down the trail, so I just kinda followed the group I was with and chatted a little until I finally found my friends again.

Travelling light, we overtook the TPAC people and made it back to square pool by 5pm, so we took the time to take a little bath in the stream. The water was chilly but refreshing, and there were fishes in the water, some of them as long as my fingers, and they would hover teasingly near our feet, or hands, but just out of reach.

We ended our day with a good dinner: instant noodles with funny variations on the soups, such as tomato sardine and miso soup. The second night was just as bad, someone from the other camp was blasting retro music from a radio and playing some kind of camp games. The girls JL and A talked all through the night and then came out of their tents around 3 or 4am to make milo. I got up happily and was about to join them for breakfast, until I checked and saw that it was still dark. Towards morning when the temperature dropped and our feet got cold, J and I started a tug of war over the blanket that covered the 3 of us. Poor M, who was in between, had to endure hours of us tugging it from one side to the other. Dawn again came as a relief. We were eager to eat, pack up and go back down.

***

Next week, in the concluding episode of "Mount Ophir: The Journey Home" - Trouble befalls the band of intrepid adventurers and leaves them stranded, far off their intended course!

Hungry lah... where can we eat ah?

Whatever will they do? Will A have to miss her first day of work? Will they have to camp out at J's Amah's house? How will they defeat the dastardly and enigmatic forces of the KTM? Don't miss the next episode of "Mount Ophir"!

posted by Tempest Blue @ 11:31 PM 5 comments

This is me, laid bare

Every so often something happens that alters your very perceptions of the world, yourself, everything. The experience is like that of the flare of sunbeams across the heavens at dawn , as the sun crests the horizon and paints the sky a violety-red. Clouds and tall buildings and flying birds are etched in stark contrast against the backdrop. Everything becomes clearer, drawn as it were in harsh lines and dark shadows.

Today, nothing like that happened.

But I did do a few Myers-Briggs style online tests (Like Kiersy test, Blogthings and Bloginality) in an effort to determine my personality and also kill off some time. I scored a definite INTP every single time, and on every single test. I guess that means they're pretty clear what kind of personality I have.

When I searched the web for a breakdown on INTP traits, it was as if the psychological equivalent of my genetic code lay bare before me. Everything I was, every idea I held dear, every secret fear and every little quirk, all foretold and laid in writing before I even existed. The very idea of predestination suddenly didn't seem too far fetched after all, for if it could know me as I am now, could this information be extrapolated into the future to reveal a me I have yet to discover?

Anyhow, this is me. I am INTP, hear me roar- think!!

Extracted from INTP Profile

Dominant Thinking Introverted ( Ti )
Secondary iNtuition Extraverted ( Ne )
Tertiary Sensing Introverted ( Si )
Inferior Feeling Extraverted ( Fe )



On thinking, and doing:

"The INTP is above all a thinker and his inner (private) world is a place governed by a strong sense of logical structure. "

"For here is the central goal of the INTP: to understand and seek truth. The experience of anything takes a back seat. The INTP is not interested in experiences themselves but is far more fascinated by concepts. "

"the INTP will become quickly bored with anything that he has successfully analysed to the point of understanding it. Once understood, it has nothing left to offer, once the satisfaction which comes with achieving the goal of understanding diminishes "

"The Ti-Ne axis leads to a curious overriding desire to observe from a detached position, indicating the preference for intuitive perception with respect to external things. the INTP invariably seeks to withdraw, at least in spirit, from the situation being considered. This detachment can sometimes be so marked that he will readily see himself as a neutral observer having no personal association with that going on around him. INPTs prefer to let the world flow by: to observe the waves being made by others, but to make none themselves "

"If an INTP decides to learn a skill, then it is very important for him that he reaches a sufficient level so that basic errors can be avoided. So, as soon as he puts himself behind some task, then he must achieve competency. But that is as far as it goes. Refined competency requires too much effort and has little attraction. It would require practice and that usually bores an INTP. Hence, it is common to see INTPs dabbling at many things, achieving competency, just enough to prove to themselves that they could become more proficient if they wished, but rarely actually bothering to refine their skills further. "

And so that's why I can swim, cycle, juggle, do Aikido, skate, rock-climb, go trekking, play ping pong, badminton, soccer, tennis, basketball, understand astronomy, read philosophy, literature, understand basic physics, chemistry and biology.... but only with passing familiarity, and never with true proficiency.

The INTP sees himself as the independent arbiter, whether a fair claim or not. However, when someone has proved his credentials through having sensible opinions, he will be afforded great respect by the INTP. Most respected of all are those who are not only sensible but also innovative. Intelligence is above all highly prized.


Knowledge is everything. They tend to believe that information is the key to life. All mistakes can be avoided by having the right information at the right time.

My life mantra ever since I was 15, spelt out almost verbatim. Seeing it there was kinda creepy.

To know is everything, to do is a lower order necessity, if it is necessary at all. The INTP is often satisfied simply by knowing that he could do something if he wished.

On decision making:

If an INTP is pushed into doing something he will automatically resist. INTPs tend to resist being forced to make quick decisions, for they know that their emotional judgement is their achilles heel. He must be given the chance to reach an independent decision, approving or rejecting the action. Hence, he must withdraw to allow the analysis process to work. The best way to get an INTP to do something is to suggest the idea as an option and let him sleep on it.

No insurance agent making a cold call to me (and there have been many) has ever succeeded yet.

On inter-personal relationships:

An INTP will often make controversial, speculative points of argument and make them in such a way as to leave the impression that he is very serious about what he says. In reality, the INTP is not actually even certain himself whether he really stands by what he is saying, but his Ne strongly suggests that there must be a core of truth there. The purpose then of his outspoken style of argument is to sharpen his own intuitive understanding by testing the reaction of the listener, and indeed to examine the logic of his own arguments in real time while speaking them out.

I always make ridiculous proposals sometimes just to see how people react. And I like playing the devil's advocate, if only to make people defend their views. All these have been recorded in past journals.

He is happy to be seen as somewhat eccentric, innovative and perceptive. In dreaming about what he would like to become or achieve, his goals are invariably highly individualistic. He must become the composer, the solo performer, the genius scientist who makes the unique discovery. If he is to be noticed at all, then he must be centre stage.

INTPs dislike making the first move and tend to mirror the emotional content of the other person. INTPs preference for intuitive perception (rather than action) with respect to people results in them resembling a chameleon.

I always mirror the person I interact with. What is my true personality? Even I do not know.

On Leadership:

INTPs make very poor leaders. On the other hand, they can make very good assistants to leaders.INTPs are often glad when someone else takes over the lead, again providing the leader is of the same mind. An INTPs ideal is to provide all the ideas for a project and have a charismatic leader, who agrees with him, carry them out.

On attention to detail:

INTPs are usually oblivious to external details unless something forces them to take notice. When an INTP goes into a new room, or walks through a city street, he is blind to much of the detail. The INTP always tries to get a feel for the big picture, using his Ne, and habitually ignores all detail.

That's why I always remember how I feel about a place, but not who was doing what, or who said what to whom. And that's why my thesis project is so grand, but I can't get past the logistics.

When an INTP lives alone, his home is usually spartan and utility-oriented. There will be little or no decorative objects, electronic equipement will be in abundance and the importance of any object will depend only on its usefulness.

My car is devoid of anything remotely frivolous. No car decals, no furry dolls, no bumper stickers, no religious artifacts. Ignoring the utility items, it is as bare as the day I got it.

When he visits a place, whether new or already known, his Si function gives an overriding concern for the atmosphere or mood of the place. In his subconscious, he connects the present experiences of his surroundings with memories of his past, sometimes deep past. A sense of history, of universality, is almost always invoked. When on holiday, the INTP wants to experience above all the ambience of each location. Specific details in the present are relatively unimportant and will not be well remembered.

I vaguely recall an argument I had with my friend in 2002 while in Brussells, Belgium. I said that the EU headquarters was ugly. I argued that it should have a more imposing architecture, as befitting the immense stature of this institution. Maybe some vaulted arches here , some gothic stonemasonry there, etc. I also said something along the lines of how I did not care for the history of a building and its architecture, but only for the mood invoked by it. Its all there in my Euro-holiday journal.

On Clutter:

When an object is put aside, not to be returned to for a while, it will lie fully ignored until used again. Objects which lie unmoved for more than about 48 hours usually become invisible to the INTP, until such time as he has a use for them again. For the INTP, however, no problem exists. Corners of rooms, table tops and cupboards may become cluttered with objects, but while they don't move they remain effectively invisible and are unimportant. The one thing that will force an INTP to tidy his home radically, even when alone, is when the clutter eventually gets in his way and hinders some activity. Often, however, the offending objects will merely be moved into another corner where they can spend some more weeks being invisible.


'nuff said.


Because the present is inextricably linked to a sense of the past, INTPs tend to hoard items which help solidify the connection to the past. They find it very difficult to let go of anything they have collected (or indeed created) and which may have a nostalgic meaning. Hence, INTPs are collectors, but they are collecters for whom the objects themselves are only important in so far as they evoke a connection to past events, in so far as they yield a nostalgic mood. The curious problem with any collection of an INTP is that he typically fails to enjoy it in the here and now. Items are stored away so that they can evoke this time at some point in the future, but such a point often never occurs.

Did I mention I have a love-hate relationship with clutter?

On music appreciation:

Generally, INTPs are fascinated by atmospheres evoked by music.

INTPs are also drawn to complexly structured music, thanks to their Ti core. An appreciation of modern classical music, as well as perhaps contemporary jazz, is therefore common with them. Such music types are usually too complex to be understood after a single hearing, which hence provides excellent material for analysis, exciting the INTP no end. Indeed, the Ne is usually hard at work during listening sessions, trying to grasp the meanings behind the often fascinating combinations of sound-world evocations, structural developments and nostalgic impressions.

Hence, INTPs are often drawn to dissonance. Indeed, they may even thoroughly strive for dissonant sound worlds. The ideal music for the Ti core might be typically a modern symphony, with a complex, but analysable structure, with a rich and varied sound world, predominantly dissonant but with sections of melodic motifs to provide solidity.

My musical interests as listed in my profile speaks for itself

On emotions:

In reality, the extraverted nature of the INTP's feeling judgement means that his emotions, when visible, are pretty direct and easy to assess. Since the INTP normally wishes to hide his emotions; when they do come out, they do so in outbursts with an almost childlike innocence. There is a sense of all-or-nothing and, when visible, there is nothing enigmatic about the feelings of an INTP: indeed, shadow functions always seem pretty raw and basic.

INTPs detest irrational emotion above all things. INTPs must take a very wide berth around people who appear to be irrationally, outwardly emotional. INTPs are very sensitive to such a trait and fear the potential excesses of the emotional attacks which do not yield to a defence based on logic.

In a similar way, INTPs dislike being in an atmosphere of emotional disharmony. If they need to say something unpleasant to someone close to them, they would prefer to avoid this task for fear of the disharmony that may result. This results from the INTP's fear that he does not have the emotional competence to deal with disharmony.

INTPs never like doing something until they know they can do it.

I really don't know. I guess I'll find out only on the day my emotional thresholds get pushed beyond their limits. I've done too good a job in protecting them so far.

posted by Tempest Blue @ 12:08 AM 3 comments

Footwear-in-the-Mouth disease

i've been blading quite regularly every weekend for the past few months, and now that I'm more or less sure that its not just a passing fad that I'll lose interest in within the next few months, I'm seriously considering buying a new set of skates.Not that there's anything wrong with my first pair. My Rollerblade(TM) Viablades have served me well for the past 5 years or so, ever since I bought them from EWorldofsports during their buy-1-get-1-free promotion.

I've since found out that Eworldofsports are evil. Their promotion strategy consists of outrageously inflating their original list price, and then offering the 1+1 gimmick. I did some comparisons between them and Sports Connection once, and found out that the promotional items in Sports Connection cost about the same as the same Eworldofsports product, after you buy 2 and divide the price by 2. So lets say you have product A. Sports connection might price it as $100 but offer it as a special offer at $80. Eworld of sports would price the same product A as $160, and THEN tag it as part of their buy-1-get-1-free scheme! So instead of getting one product A at $80, you have to pay $160 to get 2 of the same thing!

Eh.. but I digress. I think I paid a few hundred dollars for 2 sets of blades for me and my dad. Recently I checked an online store, and the list price for that model is now US$25! My blading and Aikido buddy SW also told me that Skateline is offering a trade-in discount of up to $100 for their K2 range of products. Tempting... so tempting.

But what's wrong with my blades now, you may ask? Isn't it still working? Why waste money? Well, 4 things, excluding that trade-in offer thingy.

1) My wheels are only 74mm in diameter.
2) They're extremely worn on both sides.
3) My ball bearings are only ABEC 1 (Lowest quality ones - meaning they don't roll as fast)
4) My friends are sporting a faster rig with bigger wheel base of 82mm, and ABEC 5s or 7s

So yes, my main reason for wanting to buy new blades can be attributed mainly to ball envy.

Oddly enough, this reminds me of an incident back in 2001 when I was undergoing an industrial attachment program at EPCOS Singapore, an electronics and wafer manufacturing plant. The Engineering manager at the time was a real SOB who took pleasure at inflicting tough discipline on the IA students there. He was worse than the worst regimental officer of my NS days.

I still remember an incident where he was ticking us off over something. He pointed at me and suddenly asked:

"How many pairs of shoes do you own?"

I told him that I had about 4 at the time. (actually I had more)

"Ha!", he said. "Do you know how many I have? One! You young people are so ..blah blah blah.. spendthrift.. blah blah... don't treasure .. blah blah..no discipline.. blah blah.."

I forget what the point of the analogy was. All I remember was looking down at his very non-descript brown leather shoes, and feeling very sad for him. I mean, come on...he only has one? That means he doesn't have any sports shoes. That means he can't go jogging, or play sports. Maybe he doesn't have sandals too. Does he wear his leather shoes everywhere? To the hawker centre? To the wet-market? to the beach? Or wait. Maybe he doesn't do any of those things. Maybe when he's not working, he sits on a chair at home all through the weekend until Monday comes around again.

Of course, I did think of my own situation too. I feel privileged to be able to own many pairs of footwear. I know I'm lucky, but I resent being made to feel guilty about being well-shod. Besides, a lot of the time, it is societal pressure that forces people to own multiple sets of footwear. On my part, I believe I do not have any redundant shoes. Each has its own use and can't be substituted by another. AND, because I'm bored and want to kill time and hear myself speak, I'll go further and list them out.

1) 1 x Walking shoes - Merrell's Alpine Slide. For informal social situations where sandals are inappropriate, like going to a restaurant.

2)1 x Sandals - Teva sandals for X-treme casual situations like going to the market, going to the beach, attending lectures in NUS or hiking through rainforests.

3) 1 x jogging shoes - Nike jogging shoes, mainly for jogging and running in a forward direction. Doing stuff that requires a lot of sideways motion, like basketball or badminton, will destroy the rubber faster than you can say "FUCK! WHY NIKE SHOE SO KOYAK WAN!"

4)1 x Yonex badminton shoes with non-marking sole- Too ugly to be worn in social situations, this stalwart shoe is perfect for playing tennis, badminton and court soccer due to its tightly seamed rubber sole which resists tearing, and appeases inane regulations inspectors who are afraid that normal footwear will somehow dirty the badminton court's parquet flooring

5) 1 x court soccer shoe - because the Yonex shoe is too big and clunky to have good control over a ball

6) 1 x field soccer shoe - because they have studs for better traction on dirt, and because my soccer kakis can't make up their bloody minds to play on court or field.

7)1 x Americaya leather shoe - My most comfy shoes to date. For formal situations like going to work, or Weddings. Hey, I'd be happy to wear my Teva sandals if everyone would just STOP giving me the eyes when I do that.

8)1 x flimsy flipflops - I wouldn't even go to the wet market in them, since I have no desire to do any im-promptu skating on their wet and slippery floors. Ideal for wearing in the kitchen when the floor is grimy and oily.

9)1 x inline skates - Because I can't skate in anything else. No. 8 doesn't count.

10)Another dozen or so 'Abandonwear', which I am loathe to throw away after I upgrade. They might have a broken strap or ripped sole, but surely they can still be used after some extensive super-gluing! Throwing them away is so wasteful!

Did I mention I have a love-hate relationship with clutter? :-/

posted by Tempest Blue @ 1:59 PM 4 comments

Mount Ophir May 2005: The Approach

Gunung Ledang, more famously known as Mount Ophir, and more obscurely known in Segamat as Air Panas, is the highest mountain in the state of Johor in Peninsular Malaysia, the 64th highest mountain in Malaysia, and is rated the 6th most difficult Malaysian mountain trail to climb. On hindsight, I should probably have realised that this wasn't going to be the picnic trail I imagined it would be.

We started the journey the cheapskate low-budget way: Meeting up at Kranji MRT station at 7am before taking SBS bus 170 on its 3-legged route up to Woodlands Checkpoint, across the Causeway, and from JB up to Larkin bus terminal. From Larkin, we would take a bus down to Segamat, where we would hop onto a cab to bring us to the Gunung Ledang Resort at the foot of Mt Ophir.

Of course, like all trips to Malaysia it wouldn't be complete without the usual transport screw-ups. The minor delays, like the typical 'Singaporean Rubber-Time'(TM), the last minute lao-sai pleas, crawling Malaysian Immigration counter queues, morning traffic snarls... well, all these little things conspired to have us reach Larkin Bus Terminal with only about 5 minutes to spare before our bus to Segamat scoots off the terminal. After a mild panic attack when we realised our bus tickets were printed in Bahasa Melayu (which none of us knew how to read), we managed, with the help of a few friendly locals, to decipher which bus bay we had to go, and then dashed like mad to catch the bus.

On a side note, it never ceases to amaze me how the Malaysian bus system operates. My previous experience with inter-state buses tells me that:

1) Just because you have a bus ticket, it doesn't mean you have seats to that bus. If you're not around when they start checking the tickets or something, it gives them the right to sell off your seats to late buyers.

2) Just because your ticket has a seat number, it doesn't mean you have a right to that particular seat Free seating rules until someone complains, which probably means the bus company double-booked the seats. See (1)

3) Just because you booked for a certain departure time, it doesn't mean you can expect to leave at that time Buses leaving before or at the appointed time is very rare, except when you're late and rushing for the bus. More common though, it is perfectly normal to wait for between 5 mins to 2 hours for the bus to get moving. This is due to 1) them selling off tickets to the empty seats, and 2)arguing with people who find themselves with tickets but without seats.

4) True to the Malaysia Boleh attitude, bus companies are pretty good at compensating for their organizational shortcomings. Bus over-booked? No problem! they can always activate an extra bus to carry the displaced passengers. No more buses? No problem, they can arrange for another bus company to take them up.

ANYWAY, as you might have already guessed, our bus to Segamat didn't go very smoothly. We got to the bus bay in time, Our bus was overbooked, we were delayed, and they managed to get a second bus running for us displaced passengers. There was a very worrying clunking sound coming from the engine at the back, and I guess the driver was worried that it might explode on us midway through the trip, so he took a detour to some ulu bus garage, kicked us out and made us wait for another half-hour while he found a replacement from who-knows-where.

Malaysia believes in the harmonic coexistence of urban landscape with nature: Grass is never weed-whacked, but allowed to develop to is natural, scraggly and scrubby form. The natural forces of erosion is allowed to take its course, and the potholes and broken chunks of kerb are testament to Man and Nature co-existing in harmony.

The Gunung Ledang mountain range. ( I think). Everything's so quaint in this little suburb

We took this picture so we could have a map in case we got lost.

To be continued....Next entry, 'The Ascent of Mount Gunung'

Stairway from Hell

posted by Tempest Blue @ 12:02 PM 2 comments