jet lag

America is an enormous frosted cupcake in the middle of millions of starving people. 

~Gloria Steinem

Hokay! Where shall I start?

It's been more than a month since my last update, and I'm beginning to get worried that people might start to think that I'm actually abandoning my blog for real.

I won't deny it. The thought of shutting down my blog for good has crossed my mind several times, but I just... well, I don't know.

I mean, I can conveniently update my status on Facebook (which, by the way has more popularity than blogging) anytime I like, and it's live feed, so it's more interesting too.

But blogging is like, a channel for me to express myself I guess, but recently I've been getting lazier and lazier to do so and updating my blog has been becoming more of a chore rather than a past time.

But I digress.

The whole point of this blog entry is to announce that I'VE SAFELY ARRIVED HOME FROM THE STATES!

Ah, there's nothing better than the feeling of sleeping in my own comfy bed.

Which I did, for 11 hours. I arrived back home yesterday, and then went to bed at 4 p.m., slept all the way till past midnight, and then woke up at 3 a.m. this morning. I've not gotten any sleep since then, it's now night time, and I' sleepy as hell.

I hate jet lags. They screw up my sleeping hours so friggin' bad.

So I know I promised lotsa stuff I'd blog about, but I just didn't manage to get around doing it cos I was busy. You know, with traveling around and stuff.

Now that I'm back home, I've got a ton of stuff to do, namely, uploading photos, editing videos, updating my blog, and some school stuff.

You'd think I deserve a better rest after an exhausting vacation.

Speaking of which, my superbly loooong visit to the States obviously warrants more than justa few blog entries, so I shall try to be systematic and do them by parts in the hopes that it wouldn't be too confusing for the both of us.

But first, let me upload those damned photos onto Facebook. I've got like about 2000 photos to do, and my jet lag ain't helping.

Out.

P.S.: I know this entry is lame and meaningless but this is all I can manage for now. I promise, I will update again soon.

FML.

''Today, I woke up and looked in the mirror and noticed that my face was covered in glitter. I asked my wife about it and she said she put it on me while I was sleeping so that I would sparkle like Edward from Twilight when I'm in the sunlight. FML''

-FML website-

So it's my third day in the US now. So much to tell, so little enthusiasm.

Where shall I start?

I know this blog entry should probably warrant hordes of photos, but I still haven't gotten around to transferring the photos from my camera yet.

You know I'm always lazy when it comes to things like that.

So the day before I flew off, on the 20th of May, Little Grass celebrated my birthday with me at Timbre!!

Photos galore!!!

Not.

Okay, okay I'll upload them once I get around to transferring them onto the computer.

(Oops, it's already May, my birthday has come and gone, and I still haven't gotten around to uploading/blogging about Kevin's birthday party. I shall do both events in one blog post. Some time in the future. I'll do it, promise.)

So this entry isn't really about my birthday (as mentioned, I shall do a separate one for that later); it's about my horrifying Journey To The West.

So.

I flew from Singapore Changi Airport to Malaysia's LCCT at 1 p.m.. Transferred to KLIA, and took a flight back t o Changi Airport at 9 p.m.. Slept at the airport, and then took a flight from Changi Airport to Narita Airport (Tokyo, Japan) at 6 a.m..Took another damn long flight from Narita Airport to Detroit Metro Airport. Then, finally, internal flight from Detroit to Richmond, Virginia.

If you have noticed, please don't ask me why I had to fly from Singapore to Malaysia and back to Singapore again. In short, it was cheaper that way.

Entire trip took me 40 hours, a sore throat, chapped lips, and awfully dry and peeling skin.

Not to mention, constipation and feeling fat from sitting around all day eating plane food.

Can you believe that throughout the entire journey, I didn't even watch one single plane movie. Not even one.

They had such a wide range of selection of really, really good movies that I always wanted to watch but didn't have the chance to! I don't know how I missed it. I kept telling myself "I'll watch it later, I have a looong flight," and before I knew it, we were landing already.

I lost my glasses in the process. I was sleeping in the plane and when I woke, my glasses were no where to be found.

FML.

I tried to go to the optometrist at Walmart, but the lady said I needed a prescription from an eye doctor, who charges ridiculously, considering it's just a simple eye check-up and prescription. Not that I blame the doc, I've heard that medical charges are expensive like that in the US. Further more, after getting the prescription, I still need to pay a separate amount for a pair of glasses.

So for the rest of this entire US trip, I shall be depending solely on my contact lenses alone. FML. 

And then, if that isn't bad enough, when we arrived at Detroit, I retrieved my luggage bag only to find that the zipper lock was no where to be found and the zipper was slightly open.

I did a quick check on my things inside, but I didn't realize anything was missing until I checked into my dormitory, where I realized my pouch that contains RM 500 was missing. FML MAX.

Seriously, man. Could this trip get ANY worse.

I was in a horribly foul mood for the rest of the day in the US.

Come 2nd day, I felt much better. Visited Walmart. Had our first decent meal in a Chinese restaurant. So much for flying all the way to the west, just to eat something that could easily be found back home. Irony much?

Bought groceries, and ingredients for a homemade sandwich.

Apparently, there isn't any food establishments open around this area at night (except for Burger King which is open during the day but is horribly expensive and is about a 10 minute walk away - you know how much I hate walking) so we either starve or make our own food.

Most people cook here, but you know my thoughts on the ratio of time spent preparing the food to the time spent eating it. It's value is never larger than 0.5.

So today was spent procrastinating around, and before I knew it, it's already midnight.

I guess that's all for today... Except for the part where this stupid Ang Moh lady pissed me off.

But I'm not in the mood to rant right now, so I shall leave it for another day.

Boy, do I have lots to blog about. I think I'll have to make a list:

1. Blog about Kevin's birthday and my birthday celebration.
2. The incident where the Ang Moh lady pissed me off.
3. Another separate blog entry dedicated to photos taken so far on this trip.
4. Not about blogging, but it's related: Upload photos onto Facebook!!

I know this blog entry isn't much (probably bored you off halfway through) but I am not in the mood right now. Wit zero. Creativity zero. Inspiration zero.

Hence this shitty and crappy stuff. 

21.

"Finally 21, and legally able to do everything I've been doing since 15."

~ Anonymous

Iiiiiit'sss...

My.

Birthday!

Not just any ordinary birthday, but the day I officially turn 21.

You got that right, adults who think you can show me no respect but on the other hand expect me to respect you just because y'all older than me.

I am officially an adult, just like all of you, and regardless of age, I expect to be given the same respect as everyone else.

If you haven't noticed, society doesn't put much emphasis on age, as much as they do on capabilities and self-worth.

Whatever. At least now I get the chance to show no respect to lil' kids.


*Okay, okay. Kidding.*

Aaaaanddd...

My exam is finally OVER OVER OVER. I cannot reiterate enough on how awful the past few days were. Worst. Exam. Experience. Ever.

Probably (mostly) due to the fact that I didn't study at all, and did last minute cramming (which honestly, seldom works, unless you're a super genius) which was horrid coz then I got panic attacks (yes, literally) which made me unable to study. An experience so horrifying that I can find no suitable words to describe the trauma I've been through (okay, maybe being a lil too dramatic here but you get my point).

AAAAANNNDD...

Off I fly to the United States of Amewikka in about another 30 hours!

See you soon!

XOXO

unveil the surprise.

Anybody still buying the "December 21st 2012 is the end of time" thing? No? Oh.

-Terry Mun-

First, an intro:

Before I unveil the surprise.

Last weekend was...

Eventful.

Okay before last weekend.

Took Tuesday and Wednesday off work to go shopping with family who came to visit.

Bought couple of stuffs.

Cute shoes. Shorts + two cute skirts. Sweater and blouse from Esprit. Shall not upload photos here, coz they're just common items (plus, too lazy to snap pictures) except for the shoes coz they were really cute:

Just held it up to Photo Booth and snapped. For convenience sake.

Cute, right??? Only $39. =)

Wore them to work, even my boss noticed and commented. *grins*

Finally, some decent shoes I can wear to lab without having to lace/velcro/wear socks. 

Yes, I'm that lazy.

Now, to last weekend. 

Lazy to type, here are pics:

Cousin and I wearing cute santa hat clip ons. Bought them at $5 each for charity.

Camwhoring.

Crazy man doing funny dance moves.

Silver man + his wife??

As a token of thanks, I received a $30 voucher from Exxon. Decided to spend them on this REALLY CUTE IRRESISTIBLE collectible limited edition Domokun figurine:

OMFG SO CUTE.

It was freaking FORTY. SINGAPORE. DOLLARS. I would never have bought it, if not for the free $30 voucher from Exxon. It's now sitting in my room, in it's unopened box. Shall leave it that way. No way I'm gonna let my precious lil Domo out of the box to sit outside exposed to dust and susceptible to falls.

At around 3 p.m., received an SMS from Reebonz about this crazy sale. At around 10 p.m., I rushed from Orchard Road to F1 Pit Building. For those of you who don't know where that is, the F1 Pit Building is just nearby the Singapore Flyer.

Hence, the introduction photo at the beginning of this blog post.

i.e., this:

Added the photo here again for suspense. =)

Inside the bag was...

TADAHHH!!

Surprise unveiled.

My very first designer bag!!!

Can you believe it, in my 20 years of life, I have never ever ever once in my life owned a designer bag.

There was this dark period in my life when I thought bags from Roxy and MNG counted as designer bags. This period lasted waaay longer than I am proud of.

But what the heck. It's all over, my head is cleared, and I have my very own bag!!! One that I bought using my hard earned money, at that.

For those of you who are curious about the price, let me first say this:

I am not. NOT. In anyway showing off or flaunting my financial status by announcing the extravagant amount of money I spent on *just a bag*. I understand that I am not rich, and I am merely sharing my happiness of owning a designer bag with you readers.

However, I can't help it if you are bitter with envy coz I own a designer bag (which I worked very hard to save some money for) and you don't, and hence cover that envy by bringing me down by saying I am a show off.

So.

The retail price was $550, but it was sold for $399 at the sale. A further reduction of 10% was incurred during the last 30 minutes of the sale (it was closing at 11p.m., and I bought that bag at 10.30 p.m.) so I only paid $359 for it.


*beams proudly*


Thanks to my daddy for buying the Canon G12 for me!!!!

Sorry for the blur image. Not that my photography skills suck, but the mirror was awfully dirty and stained. 

lightning never strikes the same place twice, but your electronic device can get drowned twice.

Remember my Tamagotchi I bought few months back?

This one?

Mine's the white, with Kuchipatchi (the green character)

So anyways, as you can see, each Tama-Go (that's the name of this Tamagotchi edition) comes with a faceplate (which is changeable; I'll explain why later) and a figurine which can be attached to the top of your device.

Upon purchase, you get a default figurine and faceplate, however, you can buy extra figurines and faceplates at $11 each. Each figurine unlocks more games on your device (Bandai's smart but evil way of extorting cash out of poor innocent Tama fans like me) and lets you buy even more items. The biggest catch is that if you have connected up to 5 figurines on your device, you get a special secret surprise.

Well, at the time of purchase, I scoffed and told myself I'd never fall for Bandai's evil plans to extort even more cash than I have already spent on the device alone ($49.90).

1.5 months later, I was strolling along the aisles of Popular bookstore when I saw this:

OMG VIOLETCHI IS SUCH A CUTE FIGURINE, PLUS, THE FACEPLATE IS PINK!!

I just had to have it.

For goodness' sake, it was PINK! PINK, I tell you! How could I resist???

At the time, $11 didn't seem like such a huge amount anymore.

Bought it instinctively, and attached it onto my tama right away.

From plain ol' green guy...

To this cute thing!

You can see Kuchipatchi lying at the back.

 I'm officially addicted to collecting Tama-Go figurines. 

While Googling, I came upon this website.

Custom faceplates!! Now, I can save the trouble of measuring my own dimensions. I can just download a template, PhotoShop it to my own liking, and VOILA! My very own custom made Tamagotchi faceplate!!

Today, at work, my boss saw the tama on my table and he was like "what's that?" 

When I told him it was an electronic pet, he was like "electronic what??"

So then I explained, and he was like "Wasn't that popular 10 years ago? Is it still popular now?"

And then he was so intrigued that he asked to have a look at it. 

Lolness. My boss is cute. =)

***

MY IPOD TOUCH IS FINALLY HERE!!

This is the 3rd iPod Touch I have owned in 3 years, coz well, my previous two went for a swim and never survived.

Know the saying "lightning never strikes the same place twice"?

Apparently, it doesn't apply to electronic devices; your iTouch can get drowned twice.

Don't think it'll happen thrice, will it?

My lovely, precious iTouch. 

So far, have spent $1500 just on buy iTouches.

***

Transparent iPhone4!!!

Randomness. LOL.

***

The Astronomical Society went for a star gazing trip to Pulau Ubin last weekend. Was really fun and educational, but damn exhausted.

 Spent all night looking at stars - I saw the Orion constellation!!!

We were supposed to see the Hartley comet, but the sky was too cloudy that night. =(

Made a few friends - stayed up till 4 a.m. chatting and star gazing.

Slept at 4 a.m., woke at 6.30 a.m., just in time for the picturesque sunrise.

Photo of the sunrise:

Don't expect gorgeous pro-photographer-wallpaper-like quality. Just casually snapped this with my HTC.

Best part of it all?

I slept under the stars.

Not even in a tent, but literally under the night sky. Moon, stars, and all.

Great experience. Will go again next year.

Donkey Ears

So today I went and bought this book at Harris for $26.70:

I feel so intellectual. =)

Lotsa stuff to update; no time, no motivation.

Firstly...

Cousin's wedding!!!

Here are a few randoms taken by my bro's EOS 500D. I didn't take any pics myself coz (hate to remind myself of this awfully shameful fact) I do not own a camera.

There. I said it. I do not own a camera.


*Well, unless if you wanted to call that lomo toy of mine a camera...*

Not for long, though. I'm getting the Canon G12 as soon as it launches!!! Gah, when will it EVER launch in Malaysia/Singapore?? Been waiting FOREVER!

Anyways. There you go. Pics. Just a few, not a lot. Sorry. Bro took like hundreds of 'em, but I thought I'd only pick those with me in it, since I'm the one blogging about it.

Okay, here's a bonus pic for you guys:

On cue, lets all go "AWWW!!"

Gratz to my lovely cousin and my new cousin-brother-in-law!

Did I mention? My bro FINALLY got his very own cellphone. Yes, at the age of 17, his very own cell. Personally, I would call it a bit late, but as long as he's happy not owning a cell phone for the last 17 years of his life, who am I to judge?

His first phone's a HTC Wildfire.

Like wtf, first phone already get smartphone. Lucky him.

So anyways.

WENT TO UNIVERSAL STUDIOS SINGAPORE WITH KEVIN!!!

Reason: 2nd anniversary. =)

Spent $280 on entrance tickets; 2 adult weekend passes at $72 each, and 2 weekend express passes at $68 each.

72 x 2 + 68 x 2 = $280.

Nice.

Express passes weren't that useful anyway, coz most of the rides were only 15 minutes waiting time tops, save for a few popular ones which had insanely long queues, and if not for those godly express passes, we would have stood in queue for over an hour for the water rafting, 50 minutes for *some ride - I don't remember the name*, and another 30 mins for *some other ride*.

But still, paying $68 just to cut 3 long queues (out of like, 20 rides or so?) wasn't really worth it.

On the bright side, there was a special route for express pass holders, and we felt like VIP's, breezing by all those pitiful people who had to stand in queue for, like, ever. I almost could imagine them staring at us lucky express pass holders with begrudging envious eyes.

LOL.

My favorite place was FAR FAR AWAY!! OMG it was like damn fairytale like - kinda romantic too, in it's own way.

Made me love Shrek oh-so-ever-more.

We visited the Talking Donkey, and he married us!! Yes, the Talking Donkey from Far Far Away actually MARRIED US!! YAY!! Donkey wise, WE ARE OFFICIALLY MARRIED!!

He (the donkey) even had us stand in front of the crowd (which clapped and cheered for us *grins*) and asked us the big question, and then Kevin and I had to say "I do", and then the donkey insisted that we kissed, but regrettably, we didn't coz at that time I guess we were kinda shy coz of the crowd.

And then there was this B-boy dance group on one of New York's streets, and they dragged me up as a volunteer for free dancing. =.=

So scary okay.

Luckily I managed to do a few moves, which I personally think it'd do for an amateur. Had always wanted to be a dancer, but never had the courage to do it. AT least this time, I was forced into it, and admittedly, I kinda enjoyed the attention as well.

(Ugly pics of me dancing at the bottom, feel free to scroll down and laugh at them.)

I kinda liked the water rafting ride, too. The end part got some of the people in our boat soaking wet, but fortunately for Kevin and I, we didn't get wet at all. =)

Bought souvenirs too!!! Kevin bought me a pillow from Far Far Away, and I bought him a mug that says "Universal Studios Singapore" on the front.

Enjoyed ourselves to the max!!

Just one thing, I took pics using my lomo.

Awfully bad move.

Lesson to learn: Never, ever, ever bring a toy camera into some place you've paid hundreds to get in, just to snap some crappy shots out of it.

Anyways. Scanned the pics, here they are:

The pics suck like hell. I swear I will never use a lomo ever again.

P.S.: The donkey ears were a souvenir meant for my cousin, but I took the liberty of wearing them first. Heck, how many times do you get to wear a pair of donkey ears without getting weird stares?