Adventure in the wet

This is gonna be a long entry. However, it will document what has happened from Friday till Sunday, of the weekend
just gone by.
It was the day of Friday. Everything was fine and dandy. Work was fairly easy, it was a near end of month week,
and I managed to get everything finished before 4:30. So I said to my supervisor I will go early, he agreed and
said I can leave when it was quiet. So, it was quiet at 4:45 and I left. Nothing bad happened on the way home, I
got my stuff and then dropped my bro off at the station. It was weird that I was fighting traffic on the opposite
way from work though... people must leave work early on a Friday I guess. I stop-started for about 30 mins then a
good run, then stop-started the rest of the way. Arriving at 6:30, there were plenty of cars in the carpark at
Naamaroo, but I managed to find one space to park. And so the fun begins.
Dinner was a lunchbox. There were two flavours, one was 'ru ro' (baised pork), the other was 'pai gu' (pork steak).
Immediately when we got there, I almost had a bond with several guys there. They were in the same boat as me,
being told to come here and no questions asked. So they were as 'what the f*** am I doing here' attitude as me.
One of them was Jimmy, and the other was Tom. They are both very funny... Like 'funny c**t' funny. We basically
just hung out through the rest of the camp. After the dinner, we got told to sit down and they told us what cabin
we got to live in for the duration. I was in cabin 4, with Jimmy. We were separated from Tom. Still, that doesn't
prevent us being smartasses in the camp The cabin was basically 4 sets of 4 bunk beds, 16 beds in total. Our room
contained 9 people max, the other would only have 12 people max, but with the people that didn't turn up I think
they probably also had 9 people as well. After that, we got back to the hall, and played the 'lets get to know each
other with 1 minute each time' game. Essentially, it's speed dating, except there's 21 (supposedly) guys and gals
and the time is much shorter. It became a shouting match because everybody was trying to chat with everybody, and
then swapping to the next person. So that was pretty fun but hectic. And repetitive as well, since you repeat what
you say essentially 20 times. But sometimes the girls didn't seem to be interested, and well, that's disheartening,
but hey that's life. I wasn't interested in most of them either, but I tried my best to make some friends. After
that, we played another game called 'Guess what'... It involves you writing your name on one piece of paper,
location on another, and an action on the last piece. This can have either weird or strange consequences. I was
REALLY out of it. I got second last, and it was singing. I don't sing. So I got forced to do a pole dance, except
I didn't want to pole dance. So I really made it a bad impression. But remember, I didn't really want to be there
in the first place. So I think I put the nail in my coffin. The next event was another guessing game, except this
time there were only 10 guys chosen. 5 guys in a row, all masked by Batman, but blinded. Looked really cool,
because there's different colors for each guy. Then there's 5 girls, who are gonna massage the guys, and the aim is
to massage the guy you're assigned. And the guy has to guess who massaged them the best. The first 5 had 3 guys
guessing right. Then I got chosen to go into the second group. Now, I had not known which girl was which at this
stage, so it was difficult already. Then the massage begins. Now, 3 girls were actually nice to me. One ticked
me. One was ABSOLUTELY EVIL to me. This girl basically slapped me hard. Like *smacked* hard. Also I got punched.
Almost as if the girl was out to get me. I nearly died of shock because I was being smacked so hard. Then she got
swapped so I was spared. None of us got it right though... and there wasn't another round after that -_-". I asked
around to see if they remember who slapped me, and NOBODY can remember! Geez... talk about a bad start huh. We then
got separated into groups for next day's activities. I was in group 3. We had 4 girls and 3 guys, since one of the
guys had to leave... So for supper, we had to think about what we're doing tomorrow, which was saturday. We had to
think of a group name, and a catchcry. Well... the second nail was in place, we couldn't think of anything cool.
So we chose "JJ". Why? because we happened to have both of the guys (excluding me) named Jerry. Hows that for
planning, or lack of? The girls couldn't think of something interesting either. So it was pretty bad. We were
doomed to fail. Of course, winning isn't everything. It's just some movie tickets. That you can go with your
group. I didn't need to go watch movies with people, since well, it's not something that you would do in a group
situation, with people you hardly know. It would be better in, say, a dinner or party situation. But that's the
prize. Anyways the catchcry was rather lame as well. Compared to the other groups, they really put a lot of effort
into theirs.
Anyways, our camp coordinators were called Caroline and Michelle. I don't know if they are actually sisters, but
they act like it. Also there were another sister group in the camp, but I didn't realise that till later. Caroline
hates me from the start, because I didn't put 100% into participating. I can't blame her tho, she's already
engaged, and she wants everybody to have fun. I tend to not have fun in these kind of situations... By that time
(midnight) it was raining, and we went back to our cabins. Except nobody wants to sleep. So there was a big game
of cards. Of course, some guys were already tired, so they tried their best to sleep, and succeeded in one case.
They played some games that I didn't know, then it got bigger, even some girls joined in. One of them got my
attention... but I was too tired to join in the fun. One of the games was "Snap", which each player gets a stack of
cards, and if the number in sequence was the same as the card put down, you had to slap the card, and the last
player gets the cards. The one who has to most card loses. The girl who got my attention was very funny, she kept
slapping even though she lost. The girls didn't like getting slapped that many times and their hands were red to
show to the guys... hehe expecting sympathy of course :) I was on the top bunk just looking down, because I
actually worked really hard during the day and have no energy. I think they finished around 2am. Then they left
and we tried to go sleep. Except two guys in the next cell (each 4 bunk beds = one cell, each cabin has 4 cells)
decided to talk about female anatomy and facial features for the next hour or so. We (me and Jimmy) didn't get to
sleep because we were trying hard not to laugh... those guys (James and Jerry) are also funny. So, after they shut
up, we slept. Till 4 hours later when we were woken up.
Saturday. 7:30. Damn it's raining and humid. AND COLD. And the lack of sleep isn't helping. So we got up, and
used the amenities, and then had breakfast. The free time after breakfast was used to think of what we were gonna
do for the catchcry. Ours was just to scream it out. But even that's lame. So we had the games straight after.
The games is the process to get scores to get the prize, which is a movie ticket. That doesn't interest me at all.
That means I actually have to find time to use it. And then to get to the cinema. And then watch the movie. When
all I have to do is... um... look it it from a different alternative.
The thing about this camp was that the girls are a bit perverted. They want people to pole dance. "Tiao gung wu".
And the first event was to see which group can pole dance the best. Except that there's no pole. The guys (and
girls) are poles, and they swap and dance. Again, our group was the lamest, because we had the least people. One
group, who had James, was the best. James basically did a flip and had Stephen spin him around (while he's upside
down) so he actually looks like he's spinning down the pole. Except the funniest thing happened. His pants
actually pulled down (rather, he slid out of them), and then his underwear too. The girls literally screamed
because they can see his a$$. Hahaha I think everybody laughed. They got full marks. Then the catchcry came, and
well... it was bad as well. Ours I mean. We got that out of the way... and then played some games.
There were 6 games originally. One game got cancelled because it was deemed too dangerous. Holding a spoon in your
mouth isn't good, OH&S wise. So there were 5 games. 1) Pick up rubber bands with a toothpick. 2) Step on other
people's balloons. 3) Three-legged race 4) Mime-Guess and 5) Blow ping pong balls. 1) was easy, just try to
manipulate the toothpick to pick up the rubber bands. 5) was to blow ping ping balls on a bed of flour (nasty) and
try to land it to the next bowl. To get points. 4) was to guess what the person is miming. The best one was our
group, Jerry can really mime. He got spiderman down pat. Of course, the guessers were good as well. 3) is self-
explainatory. 2) was the event where I hurt my leg. I have been hobbling along for 2 days now, my foot still
hurts. Of course, I don't whine too much, but it does hurt when I walk, and I walk alot in the warehouse. Needless
to say, each competitor has a balloon next to their foot, and the aim is to pop the opposing team's balloons. We
won, by 3. One team was so good that they survived with 6 balloons. So it was a fun but rather suicidal game. We
were jumping around and stomping, it was that crazy. Thats why I hurt my foot because we stomped so much and so
hard. But it was fun. Our team, after the score tally, came equal last. Then it was Lunch time. Then we had a
presentation about posture and etiquette. Pretty interesting stuff. Then it was a short discussion about why we
were getting married later and if we were for/against having a de facto relationship/having sex before marriage kind
of thing. Most of it was boring, but you can see who thought what. Some were straight laced, others were casual.
It's interesting. Then after that, we had dinner. I'm telling you, there's like 5 meals a day here. Too much food
and it's fattening. After dinner, we had 1.5 hours to get dressed for the main event. Dancing. Taught by some
parents who goes dancing. The difference between guys and girls are... Guys can take 10 mins shower, and 10 mins
dressing up. And is ready. So we literally were waiting for 20 mins before 7:30 before we went and showered and
changed. But the girls... well they literally took 1.7 hours. Shower, and then dressing up/makeup. All the guys
were down there practicing the first dance for 10 mins before the girls rocked up. Then we danced for 1.5 hours,
had 3 kinds of dance, and then it was supper. Except it was so boring that we all left the centre and went to the
city. Except the straight laced people. They stayed behind and played cards, or went to bed early. Jimmy however
had to work on Sunday (like wtf man, why work on Sunday??? crazy mofo). So didn't catch him later. I was with the
group that went into the city to drink and dance. I had my first hard drink. Scotch and coke. It burns your
throat but after a while you'll get used to it. And I don't get drunk as well, which is weird. First I don't get
awake with coffee, but tired (and some of the guys has the same effect at the camp, I'm so relieved that I'm not the
only one) and now I don't really get drunk unless I drink a lot of hard liquor. Except that's what happens to our
family. My grandfather apparently can finish a bottle of the stuff and not feel anything. That's either strong or
weird. Anyways, after that, about an hour later, we came out and I was nearly deaf. Couldn't hear a thing. After
that we went to Wolloomoloo (sp?) and everybody except a few had hotdogs and pies. I wasn't hungry and one of the
guys actually slept in the car because he was tired after dancing. But the time was 2:30am, there were around 50-60
people around this place, called "Harry de Wheels". There were also seagulls awake at this place, because they can
eat the scraps and not sleep. Or maybe they can sleep during the day. Being nocturnal. NOT. After spending half
and hour, we went back and got to sleep. For 4 hours. This time, it was raining and I got woken up by the rain.
Sunday morning. 7:30 am. Lunch finishes at 9:30. I got up nearly an hour after waking up. And had a quick brush of the teeth and wash of the face and I was the 4th guy in the dining hall/kitchen. 1 guy already had 1 plate of breakfast, 2 girls just starting. "Where's everybody"? "Sleeping" was the answer. I got a plate of food and sat down. Then one of the 2 girls gave me a present. I was surprised to say the least. Because of the games, we had to buy a present for the opposite sex. This was a thank you present, because you're supposed to look out for your guarded 'name' on the paper when we first arrived. I think I talked to her once at the intro, but didn't get to talk to her much later. But she obviously knew who I was... so I thanked her and rushed back to my room and got her present, because she wasn't staying after breakfast. After that, about 9:20am, the girls all came in. Then the guys. In the end, it was 9:40 and then we were supposed to have another presentation about 'life' in the hall. 10 mins already gone by, and he didn't have so much pressure to tell everything he knew. But it was an interesting talk again. It's about how to make your world a more interesting place. I got asked who (girlwise) I liked in this camp, and I said nobody. I think I got more people to not like me... which is ok I guess. Tom though I was pretty evil there too... Which is funny because I thought I liked some girl... but they weren't that interested in me. So after that, we had to pack our stuff out of the cabins and into our vehicles. And then we had lunch. Originally it was to be a bbq, but then it was raining, so they bought some food which they cooked at home (they = parents, and the women's association who arranged the camp) and we had a chat and ate. Then it was time to go. My bro actually got dropped off by his gf, because they live close, and since I was that tired, I let my bro drive. So I got home around 1 and then unpacked, and surfed the net etc. Then crashed out for a nap, waking up around 8:30 and taking an hour to eat dinner because I was telling my parents generally about the camp. Overall the camp was pretty good, but I think they could've organised it a bit better. Somewhere remote would've been funny because we wouldn't be able to sneak out and party. But that means you'll be spending more time with people that you might not be interested in. But the main purpose of this camp was for them (the same definition as above) to find bfs for their daughters. I think maybe not this year. Better luck next year. Meanwhile, I was thinking about this girl who got my attention, but I didn't get hers. Even the girl at work knows her and how she is a christian and stuff. She's defiantely not in my list to chase after now :P The more I hear of her, the more it seems like there's more things I don't like... like my bro knows her sister, and that their mum wants a doctor to be her bf/hubby. Well being a doc to chase a girl seems like something stupid to me. But then I'm not gonna chase her so it's alright... She might be a nun or something in the future...
Monday. Back to normal. Or not. It seems like one of the casuals is heading back to HK for a holiday, and I will get put into his position, which was my old position, more than 10 months ago. John will be put into my position, and Bruce will stay in the same position. Therefore, it will be hell when it gets busy. But apparently it won't be too busy, so it's alright.
And it's raining hard now. 12:12 and I'm still awake. Damn I'm so stupid to start this marathon blog so late. Oh well. Till next time...

Hot Saturday

It's hot today. After a couple of days that were cool, it's been hot. Lately I've been playing Need For Speed:Most Wanted demo, and it plays fine, because my computer is cool. But then when I played it today, it rebooted my machine. It simply put my comp's temperature (inside the box) to above 60 degrees. The average temperature in there on a normal day is around 37 or so, but when I played NFSMW, it got around 60 and basically the computer just couldn't handle it, and rebooted. I need better cooling I guess.... but I turned up the fan in the computer, still that couldn't take away the heat? Strange. So I won't play the game during the hotness of the day I guess.

This is the weekend before I will be going to a camp. Needless to say, it's gonna be a weird experience. Will they expect me to be able to understand all the chinese/taiwanese spoken? Or to speak chinese/taiwanese? I have no idea. I can speak mandarin and listen to taiwanese... but both aren't good at all. And the camp is for volunteering... ah... I wonder what will happen to me.

Last week Saturday, my bro got engaged to his long time gf... I think they were going out for less than a year but got told they were going out for more than 3? Is my memory really that bad? I remembered there was another girl in that bro's life, and that wasn't more than 4 years ago. Or has time really gone by quickly? Anyways, the ceremony was that we got there at an auspicious time, showed them the pressies (that my bro and his fiance bought together, of course) and then had a tea drinking ceremony (can't drink all of the tea...), then they put rings on each other's fingers, and then the opposite parents (my mum to her, her dad to him) gave them pressies as well. Matching watches and etc. Then after that, we went to a restraunt. Just before the end of eating, we left without saying a word. It was pretty weird... We just stood up and left. It's meant to say that we're now officially together as a big family, and thus no need to say goodbye or anything like that. Of course, the guests (around 20 odd people) also got told of this before the day, so they were pretty quiet when we left... rather cold I must say, but then again, this 'big' engagement is rather weird. Most people get engaged without pomp and ceremony, and have a big wedding, but chinese have a big engagement and they can have a small wedding, if they want. Or a big banquet/traditional chinese wedding. I don't know what they'll do tho. It's just weird that they want to have a big ceremony.

Work has been very quiet lately. It seems to have died off this month. Next week is still not EOM, but the week after is. Now EOM actually ends on the ACTUAL date of the month. Not the weekend. So it shouldn't impact my camp in anyway. I told my supervisor already. He can't force me to come... and I can't come anyways, with the camp going over the weekend. However I got to tease my colleague because he's been giving rides home to a girl that has managed to crash her car, trashing her radiator and perhaps the engine or something. He's gotten sick of it, but I haven't... This week he's given 3 rides, however he didn't give a ride on Friday arvo. I'm dissappointed. However, I believe that I'm such a nice friend >:D He told me to give her a ride, but with her living the opposite way away from work, no frigging way. Petrol prices aren't cheap. And I have the camp to look forward to... even my colleague thinks I should take one to the xmas party. Hm... would that be too soon? I don't know, it seems like I'm going ahead of myself too much. From nothing to something... it takes time.

Musically, I've been listening to Jay Chou's "November's Chopin"... it's quite alright to me. I also like Younha's "Go! Younha" album. Other than that, the English market isn't quite as interesting to me.

Anime, Bleach is still going good. I also watched some others, like Animal Yokocho, Karin, Lamune (which actually supposed to be "Lemonade") and Ginban Kaliedescope. A healthy mixure of the weird and funny.

J-Drama, well, since Densha Otoko has finished, I decided to take on a new one which is also starred by the actress who played "Hermes". This time, she plays an older sister who's like an airhead, but enjoys life, to a younger bro who's cynical and doesn't know why she's there to piss him off. It's pretty funny to see the "serious" Hermes play a funny girl. Will be watching this one till it finishes, of course. Also, in DO, there's the evil girl who I called "evil sl*t" because she is evil and well, "eats" with anybody who's in a position of power. However, she also acted in a movie I watched sometime this year, called "Swing Girls", the story about a jazz band made up of nobodies. I got that movie out and watched it again, and saw her as a not so evil music teacher. However, she still has the weird evil smile. Guess she can't change that... But at least she didn't "ROAR" in Swing Girls.. Phew.

Ah one more week... then who knows what will happen??? HMMMM...

Aftermath

Um.. so what's new in the world of me? Saturday gone by, worked from 7am till 2:30pm, to stocktake. There were about 4 pairs of people there to stocktake, and the process still took that long. Last time we had 2 pairs and it was up till 5pm or something. The reconcilation of the stock against the system takes the longest time. Things have to be added and removed, and well, I wasn't the one stuck with the job this time around. It's been 2 weeks since I got my Creative Zen Vision - a deal which to me was pretty good. $660 including shipping. Considering that it costs $700+ in the shops, it's pretty good. The only problem I had with it was that... I took out the power in our house on Saturday morning. I left the charger of the Vision in, and when I unplugged it, it went 'poof' and a big spark jumped, and all the computers and shit turned off. Oh-oh, I thought, this isn't good at all... I turned on the lights, they worked, so I had to go outside at 6am and find the safety and turn it back on. Lucky everything turned back on. I think I'll have to find another way to charge my player. The charger is of the dodgy design. Made in China, what do you expect? It was making a loud buzzing noise before I unplugged it as well -_-".

With less than a week to go to my bro's engagement, my bro is still in the states at a dodgy conference (he said so himself) and I just find it funny that they have such bad organisational skills for an international gathering. But he seems to be ok, afterall, it's his second time there. I've never been to the states *sobs* and I have no reason to, yet. He'll be back on thursday, have friday to prepare and saturday will be the big day. Or whatever day. Sigh... no sleeping in that day either.

Today was a strange day to say the least. Not that I didn't expect it, but having both the pickers away (one had business, the other had to help pack up shit at a convention). So then I had no delivery to process till when they came back... And then when they came back, there was a heap of stuff... -_- Talk about weird stuff like that. There was also a big problem with one of our customers. We sent them a pallet of stuff for a show, and they've signed for it and everything, and they are denying that they've got it. After my supervisor's left for the day, he got called up 7 times. And each of the 7 times, he called back to the warehouse. I think I got fustrated after the 5th call -_-. He asked me about the connotes and all possibilities about the particular customer, what we shipped on the days surrounding. It was all good on our end. So I ended up a bit pissed off. But it was nothing compared to the end. We called up for our courier to drop off our convention stuff from the morning, and they literally came in late. After the finishing time. So I had to unload everything, and that made me OT till 6... sigh. Even if it was good money I wouldn't wanna OT in this way... Pain in the ass.

Hopefully it'll be ok tomorrow. The weather is getting cool... Weird isn't it... but it's nice. I washed the car on Sunday, and now it looks 80% already (meaning it's already dirty 20%). Parking under a tree that has birds on it during the day is not good. I really don't like taking care of the car, since it's not my pride and joy... my Vision however... it's my baby... Plus my computer of course ^^.

It looks like my Vision does charge via the USB port. I'm glad. :D

It's gonna be a busy month

So... the weekend shortened one hour of sleep for me, daylight savings kicked in. Then today, the last day of October, 2005, I spent a fruitful 3.5 hours doing orders. Past 5:30 pm, of course. Then at the end of this week, we're gonna have an End of Year stocktake. No sale, just stocktake. With shipments coming and going, a whole 3 or more months has gone by and we didn't do a stocktake. Several stock has indeed gone out of wack, as with the usual problems, short shipment, mislocated stock, and general stupidity on part of the stores. That will be the first weekend used up. The second weekend will be just as fun. This time, I will be putting the suit in the last blog post to good use, at my bro's engagement party. Yay. It's gonna be hot, and we'll all be sweating our asses off in the hot sun. Maybe not. Then the weekend after that, it's pretty much a free time I think. Then the last weekend... I think everybody who I've told it to had a REALLY GOOD LAUGH at me. I get to spend $70 for 2 nights and 3 days with some of my own countrypeople right here in sydney. Except that they are the same as me, in the marital sense. Originally I heard it was 20 guys and 20 girls, aged between 25-30, and now I saw the ad in the paper, it became 25 guys and 25 girls, between 23-32. So, I think because of the lack of male interest (my colleague seems to wanna go, even tho he is attached... I told him that the girl at work is available, and that shut him up straight away :P) They are trying to broaden the spectrum so more guys will be attracted and attend. The girls spaces have already been filled up. I guess they are more worried about the girls not getting a bf/hubby or something... So yeah... I've told some of my work colleagues, and they had a good laugh, I told a couple of online friends, and they had a good laugh as well. The whole problem isn't my fault, my dad signed me up... I told him that I'll start looking for a gf next year... but seems like he's worried about me not finding a gf or something... and thus taken this drastic measure to take away my weekend away from me :P Not that I do much on the weekend, I usually catch up on my sleep. Being a workaholic and all. So, I shall do whatever, and hopefully something interesting will happen on the last weekend of this month.

All dressed and not going anywhere...

For my bro's engagement, which is happening soon, there's a load of activity. And one of them involves me buying a suit, which I did today. We went to DFO, Direct Factory Outlet, which has a lot of discounted goods, mainly clothes. My suit cost $130, and my other bro's suit cost him around $200 or so. The quality is apparent because mine was more gray, and his was more black. Doesn't really matter, since I hardly will use this suit anyways in the future... *sigh*.



And in case you were wondering, I am wearing shorts :P

what's going on?

It's been a good while since I last put my thoughts to keyboard... Work is work, and well, I'm always home around 6pm... that is, after the hustle and bustle of End of Month (EOM). Every EOM, I always have to do OT and well that makes more $$, but I'm tired. But now I don't make as much $$ and is less tired, I get to go home on the dot at 5:30 and enjoy relaxing at home. Then EOM arrives... soon :P.

Tomorrow, both the guys that deal with the in-out of service stuff have a day off. That means it's bad news for me. Since I am the only other guy who knows how to do it (apart from the worthless guy who wants to pass on the crap that he gets) so I have to help out with the service shit. Needless to say, it should only be tomorrow. Great, I haven't done any service roles for about 10 months or so now... so I might not be able to do well. Oh well it's their problem, not mine. Meanwhile, John will take over my position, and Bruce will do all the manual labour.

What's with people and relationships anyways? My bro is getting engaged (isn't he in a hurry... the other bro (who's younger than him) got a gf earlier but still no sign of getting engaged, but these 2, they are gonna get engaged... after maybe less than a year together? hmmm...) sometime in the second week of November, so I have to go and buy a suit. Yay. I am getting asked by my parents why aren't I getting a gf yet, and my reply is that I'm helping them paying off the house... if I get a gf then how will I help then... :P The other 2 brothers, though they help in paying off the house, are hardly around. The one that's around, he pays the least. The one getting engaged, he's at his gf's most of the time because of reasons which I can't say on this blog. Also my colleague wants to hook me up with a girl. And my brothers also. And then my future sis-in-law also wants to as well. And... it's just weird. I can't be getting old and requiring a gf? I like my own space... :P Plus the girls at work... they kinda freak me out... I walked past them and they asked why I walk through that section of the building... I find that's the quickest way out of the building, but they just find it strange... well they are strange themselves. WHO CARES ABOUT WHICH WAY I WALK THROUGH THE BUILDING???? weirdos.

Also today was a quiet day, till 5:20. This massive, 2 page order came down. Knowing my luck, it'll hit the fan tomorrow and I will be a busy, busy man.

I reckon that I might start looking for a gf next year, after our debts have been paid. Watch out, wallet. You won't be the same...

I'm back

So, what else is new? I've been back 2 days and it doesn't really felt like I've left. Brissie isn't such a different place, especially with the hustle and bustle that is life, on the weekend... I still can't believe I was in Bris... Anyways, this is how it went down...

Friday, I didn't do any OT... was out of there like a rocket bang on 5:30pm. Got home, about 2 mins before my brother got home. Had a quick dinner, my bro didn't have dinner, he just had some focaccia (dunno spelling) with his gf. He didn't want to drop me off at the airport too late, even though I was catching the 9:30. So it ended up that I got there at about 8 or so... had to kill time for 1 hour and a bit. I checked in my bag, and then walked through the security gates. No problems there. Then a few meters on, I got called up by one of the security people to have a random 'explosives' check. I guess I look like a terrorist. Or something. Being asian and all. But yeah, the guy scanned my hands and pockets for explosives, and then my bag. I'm clean. So I walked to the designated gate, and it was still 10 mins or so before the flight before mine leaves... Still a lot of people there. I went to sit another gate's lounge and watched a bit of the rugby. Also to listen to my mp3s. Recently I'm addicted to Ayumi Hamasaki... Don't know why, but she's really cute, but hey, I don't understand a word she sings. Her album "My Story" has some nice ballads in it, and the concert even shows her crying during one of her songs. Must be a sensitive subject for her to be crying while singing... Nice songs include "Carols" "Moments" and "Walking Proud". Rocking songs include "Humming 7/4" and "About You". The rest are ok. Anyways, the plane arrived on time, and departed on time. And then arrived on time in Bris, without any problems. Which is good.

Brisbane. Arrived at 10:30, and got out of the plane and down to baggage claim. Saw my friend which I haven't saw for 4 years and his gf, who is also my friend, that I probably haven't seen in about 2 years. As he commented in the car, its the first time that us 3 met in real life. Amazing isn't it. Considering that I knew momo for a long time, and wooks for a fairly shorter time, but in the college it felt like a long time. Momo drove and dropped me off, she went back to her place cos she was tired. So it was around 12 before we really started to chat. I also met wooks' flatmates, Joey and Roy. Then I crashed on the mattress thinking that the temperature was nice. Except that at about 4am, the upstairs neighbours came back from whatever they were doing. A bunch of noisy gals. And it was suddenly cool, so I wore more clothes. I was caught out that evening, pretty bad isn't it. Lucky I didn't catch a cold. Woke up about 9ish, but still felt a bit crap from that 4am wakeup... So tried to catch a bit more catch eye. Except the flatmates were awake and offered me breakfast... which I accepted, since I was a bit starved. Very generous of them. Then wooks decided to take me around to other college people's places, since they all practically live on the same street... So we had a mini reunion of sorts, also around 4 years that I haven't seen them. Except that most of the time I didn't get to hang out with them. But it's still cool to see some familiar faces. We hung out at around 3 different places, going here and there and meeting about 7 people all up. Then we went to have laksa nearby, 4 people went, then we went back to one of the people's place to decide what to do, and finally decided to catch the Citycat (a Brissie Ferry) to Southbank and check out the markets. I was at that time a bit anxious, since it was about 15 mins to get to southbank and 15 back, so had to get back earlier to change and get to the reunion at 5pm. Which didn't happen, because of the fact that they decided to drink at 4pm in a pub at southbank. I didn't drink, but I did tell wooks that it's getting late, but he said "we'll go at 4:30"... -_- Well, we went at 4:30, and I didn't get to the school till 5:25. I walked around trying to find people, and the last place was the 'new' Gymnasium. And I managed to find them. Spent about 5 mins touring the gym, then the tour ended. So we had to make our way to The Regatta. We had 5 people in our 'mini-group', and we couldn't get a big taxi, so 2 went by taxi, and 3 got a lift with one other who was going to the reunion. He's a lawyer, so he was driving a nice set of wheels. We got to the reunion early, so people started buying drinks and well, drinking. Then the reunion started officially at 7pm, and it went till midnight, where our function room was closed and we had to go back downstairs to the general pub. By then, it was full of people having a good time, and well, I was really tired, plus I didn't drink, and well, I didn't feel like dancing or picking up any girl. So I walked back to wook's flat. It was (strange coincidence) right opposite the Citycat stop. So I knew how to get back. Plus being sober helped. If I was drunk, maybe I wouldn't remember anything. Never tried drinking till drunk, so there's still any sort of possiblity it can happen.

Sunday, it was such a lazy day in, we went out to have lunch after waking up late, then came back to his flat to play PS2. Burnout 3 is a fun game, makes me almost considering getting a PS2 plus the game, just to play it. But it would be such a waste... -_- So maybe not. We played for almost 3 hours or so, unlocking many levels along the way as well. It truly is a fun game. Then it came around to 6pm, nearly time for me to go. I packed my bags and we had the final dinner at a Coffeeclub, I had calamari and chips + ice mocha, while momo had pasta and wooks had pizza + lemon spider. It was pretty good actually. Then I actually couldn't believe it, me and wooks hugged... I guess he's pretty keen for that kind of stuff... He walked back home, while momo drove me to the airport. I shook hands with her and thanked her and him, and got back into the terminal. This time the flight wasn't on time, because it was raining hard while we were going to the airport. But it departed 5 mins late, but still arrived Sydney on time. And I had to wait for 30 mins before my bro can pick me up (slow ass driver). Also it was funny because we managed to beat the rain in as well. Got home about 11:30, and that was the end of the trip. All in all it was fun, I met people that I haven't seen in a while, and I would definately go back for a 20 year reunion. Hey I might even drink by that time :P

Statistics... 240 students in year 12, 50 turned up for school tour, 70 turned up at reunion, one smart guy stopped being a Physiotherapist to become a priest. Go figure.

A week to go...

So, in a week's time I'll be up to my old haunting grounds, where I was for 5 years. My Alma Mater. The other place that I was at for 5 years, well they have a monthly meeting in sydney for all the sydneysiders, so it's nothing special, but for my HS, it's a 10 year reunion. So, I've got my plane tickets pre-booked, my accomodation hopefully remembered (I'm crashing at a mate's place) and my reunion... ready. I haven't really seen them for more than 5 years actually... not since I got into uni...

So what else is new about me? I got a haircut. Though I do get a haircut once in a while, it doesn't really change me. My computer is still good, the HDD space is getting less and less, but then again, HDD are cheaper and cheaper nowdays. If I max out my system, I can get a total of 4TB. 4000 GB. Thats if I buy 10 x 400 GB drives. But that's overkill, for now. (Yes, my motherboard has 8 SATA plugs and the standard 4 IDE ports.) But my bro has bought a new HDD today, 300GB worth of goodness. He's still not at the 1TB stage. Still, he's maxed out at 4 HDDs, 2 SATA and 2 IDE... being a older mobo and all... I'm glad mine is a little bit futureproofed... for maybe 1 year? :P

Anime, I haven't been really watching the new ones, but I started getting into Initial D again... so now I'm nearly finished season 4. What I've got of it, that is... The rest, is out there somewhere. My bro has other anime and thats why he needs the HDD space. It'll be about 2 months or so before he starts complaining about space again...

Also I've been playing with models... paper ones. From the "entertainment" section of the Yamaha website. Soon I'll have a bike! yay! After nearly a month of cutting out tiny parts and gluing them together... I'll have this paper bike. Pics will come, if I want to take them. :P

May the people of New Orleans have peace once more, it's terrible.

Hows this for cool...

This is a keyboard that outputs and inputs. Talk about a boy's toy, it looks to be very interesting. Only problem is, the software will have to provide drivers to actually change the pics on the fly. What happens in games, for example Battlefield, is that when you get into a vehicle or plane, the controls change. The software will have to change the keyboard's graphics, which for now is pretty radical. But it might be normal in the future. Very interesting indeed.

Oh and work sux, blah blah blah. I'm still wondering if I'll be able to go to ATI's launch event on saturday... because I'll be doing some OT...

Trials and tribulations

Ah... it's the second day of my new computer, and well, it's been one hell of a build. Bios, memory, and the general shebang. It's not too shabby, if I say so myself. I haven't fried any components (yet) and I won't do it just yet I hope. More research will be needed, and well, it'll be an interesting experience. If I don't come back on after a while, you'll know that I'm A) too engrossed with the new computer and not doing much online B) had my computer hijacked by something C) still trying to move stuff across the drives. I shall be back!

I knew I saw that face somewhere... and other stories

I watched the Initial-D live action movie a couple of days ago. The main female in it was very familiar. Then I was surfing around some websites (as you do when u're bored) and I saw 'Return Future (Korean version)'. What's that? I thought it was a sequal to Returner, a movie from 2002 but I watched either this or last year. And then it hit me. The main female in Returner is the same one as the main girl in Initial-D! The girl is Anne Suzuki. Not too bad, but I thought she was a little chubby. Oh well.

War of the worlds wasn't too bad. Lots (and I mean lots) of CG and it's very well done. The snake looking thing reminded me of "The Abyss".

Sin City was very violent, bloody and good. Lots of near naked chicks. If u're the type to wince at blood, stay away.

Batman Begins wasn't what I expected, but it was ok. It was more 1 person vs 1 person, rather than Batman kicking a lot of asses. Then again, he was trying to take on many many jail prisoners in the beginning, so it was ok.

On Anime watching, Bleach was great, Ichigo kicked Ken-chan's ass. Don't know how, but it's always left as a cliffhanger.

Gokujou Setokai is a funny story concerning a school president who will become an arrogant and snobby woman if they don't win a futsal practice match. Of course that's not it, its more to do with this girl who has a puppet on her hand which isn't controlled by her.

Yakitate!! Japan's newer episodes hasn't been released... I wanna see more...

Shuffle! is about a guy who lives with his neighbour since his parents and the neighbour's mum got killed in an accident. And then finds out that he has the choice to become a god or a demon. Funny, but needs to see more before I can comment.

Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid is a new one, I haven't watched it, but it's a continuation of the other Full Metal Panic series. It's back to the serious style rather than the comic style of Fumoffu!. I'll watch it soon.

Kamichu is also a new anime, and it has a very cute girl that says that she became a god one evening. And is not sure of what kind of god she is. But it's a cute anime. I'll see how it goes on, but I'm enjoying it so far.

Honey and Clover has already hit the 12-13 episode mark, and I look forward to every episode. It is that interesting and silly and funny that I can't wait to see what happens next. Of course, there's some drama involved (thus the OP is named 'Dramatic' and sung by Yuki. I was looking for Yuki stuff on Yesasia when I found that Return Future was Returner, and surprised that the main girl was the same one in Initial-D... you get the picture?)

He is My Master is a silly and funny series about 2 girls that work as maids in a kid's mansion. His parents died, and they were rich, so he dreams all day to make the girls his. One of the girls is extremely cute, but weird. She owns an alligator/crocodile. She can also jump straight into a death metal rock concert. Singing "I am a cute maid" and the audience going 'die! die! die'. It's really weird. But funny at the same time.

There's a lot of anime but I can't be stuffed typing it out.

On other news, I've commited to buying a new computer. Previously, I've commited $1500 to the parts. That then blew out to $1800. Now I'm actually gonna spend over $2000. Am I crazy? Yeah. I sit in front of a computer all day at work, and I'll do so when I don't work. I don't have a gf, so yeah, spending this amount of money is justifiable :D (or justifyable...).

CPU: AMD AMD64 Socket 939 Venice 3200+
Motherboard: DFI Lanparty UT NF4 SLI-DR. I hope this has some rounded cables, if not, I'll have to spend more $$... *sigh*
Memory: Previously I wanted to get some OCZ Performance CL2 for around 185. It would give me the supposed timing of 2-3-3-6. Corsair has the Twinx-3200C2 with the same timings. But it was around $195. $10 more, and I don't know how much it will overclock. But the OCZ has sold out, so I will get the Corsair modules. They offered me OCZ Winbond UTT Value ram for 180 but I think the timings are 2.5-4-4-8. So I think I will try my luck with Corsair...
Video Card: I will get the Leadtek 6600GT Extreme edition. Simply because I want to. It's not futureproofing, since it's in the lower bracket. Any 6800 version card is simply too much $$ for my tastes. If I wanted to save money, I could go for a dodgy card, but I want to be able to play games decently.
HDD: 250GB SATA. Doesn't matter which brand. 300 if cheap. 'nuff said. Will get more in the later stages. Same as the video card. If they go out of stock, too bad.
Case: I had a really big toss-up between Antec's P160WF and P180. There were only 8 bucks difference. P180 looks sleek and really good. Like a fridge. P160WF doesn't look that good in my books, but it's meant to be quiet, and comes with a clear side panel. Since my motherboard is UV reactive... I'll get some lighting in there and make it look cool. JUST BECAUSE I FELT LIKE IT! My bro says that it's a waste, I'll never go to any Lan party to impress anybody, well, I don't mind. It's my new baby when I build it and I'll get 3 years from it. I hope. :P
PSU: Antec's Trueblue2.0 480W. Simply because it has a blue light. Nah, it's cheap and it has ATX2.0 specs. 480 might be a little less, but I think it'll be ok for now.
HDTV Card: Compro DVB-T300. Simply it's accepting both analogue and digital signals. And it's not bad, at 130.
Cooling: Coolermaster Aquagate Mini 120R. Plus Antec's Artic Silver 5 thermal compound. So I can overclock.

So, am I a geek? Or I'm just somebody that has too much time on his hands? *rubs hands gleefully* ho ho. That's $2000 of sweet loving already. And I'll get some UV lights and decals. It'll be a mean machine when I'm done with it. I swear.

Also, the newest Harry Potter book has been released. People has been lining up since the break of dawn to get their copies in their cold hands. But some other people just walk into Myer (a store franchise) and bought the book $3 more than the normal bookstore. And walked by the 200 people lining up and saying 'Suckers!!'. Even one of them considered reading the last page aloud in front of the 200 people. That's pretty funny :P But what's even funnier was that I did a torrent search for the book, downloaded the torrent, open the torrent, and had the book within 1 MINUTE. All without breaking a sweat. Of course, it's illegal, but that's the power of the net...
My bro would probably get the book soon too...

ElectricNews.net:News:Sharp develops incredible dual-view LCD

ElectricNews.net:News:Sharp develops incredible dual-view LCD - Very Interesting

Blogging is suspended indefinately.

That is all.

I'm tired... 

Back to work

Another day, another dollar. Work is work. And some people commented on my haircut. One even said 'you dropped your ears?' haha funny :P Some others called it Funky. I dunno. Anyways, I'm tired for some reason, by not doing anything at all I guess. Or the lack of sleep, one of the two. Also I had to stay behind, because somebody forgot to put the keys back. They took the keys home. So I stayed behind to guard the warehouse, till somebody found a spare set in the office. Then I went home. The bad thing about today was that they were digging up the front of our 'strip' of land, to build a garden. And they were using some powerful manure. Really strong, when the wind came and blew it into the warehouse, everybody went 'phwoah!! what the hell was that!!' It stinks. But you get used to it. Well, at least I got used to it. Having lived on a farm before. But alot of these city slickers don't know how to block out the smell. So they were complaining for many many hours.

Public Holiday

Well it's a public holiday. The queen has a birthday, and all her peons celebrate her bday. What happens when she leaves us, does the date get changed? Only time will tell. So, it's a lazy day. Watched Hostage. Yesterday, watched Unleashed. I think Unleashed is more fun than Hostage. Though, Unleashed is not for the faint of heart. Lots of ultra-violence. And asskicking. Definately ass kicking. Thats why it was more fun. Hostage was more thriller, and well, there were some surprises there. Bruce Willis is pretty good, and the girl who was a hostage, she was a bit overweight. Thats just my observation.

Anyways, on Saturday I did OT from 7am till 6pm. It's a record I think. It makes up for today's pay.

Yesterday, talked to somebody who I've not talked to for a long time. She moved house, thats why I didn't see her for a couple of weeks. She was talking about how she is getting scared that she's getting older, and still not in a relationship. And she doesn't wanna be single when she's 30. And then saying that I (me) am alright until I'm 40. Yeah, if I'm still single at 30, I'll be a monk then I guess. I also saw a net friend's pic of her trip back to Taiwan and France and now she's in London. In France there was a pic of her bf, and she quickly deleted the pic. Saying that she hasn't asked him yet. I don't know if they had taken pics together yet tho... If they did, she doesn't dare to put them up yet. But a cute canadian boy and taiwanese girl... thats nothing to be ashamed of... maybe she's scared of her parents... But then I know somebody else who's been telling me of her friend who's also in a relationship with a canadian... and she's taiwanese... so it must be a popular choice? I dunno :P

F0oking Biatch.

Before I had one other time in the warehouse that I had a shouting match. Today was the second time. This time, it was with a service support person. There is only one female support person, and well, she thinks she's top sh*t. She always uses the excuse 'combine with *name* order', and even if there's no order to combine, she'll raise a big ruckus. And this time, she yelled and screamed, so naturally I yelled back. Needless to say, the 4 other people in the near vincinity were trying to either A) calm us down or B) trying not to notice it. What makes me amazed is her attitude. She says I got an attitude problem. Well, I'm not the person to get stuff from other people and not return any favours. I've let her borrow my anime, and she has not done anything for me at all. And she has the guts to say I got an attitude problem. Well f*ck that. She can go get f*cked. And I mean it. If she wants to say she will talk to upstairs people and my supervisor, feel free. She can't control me, only my supervisor can. She is just a little potato, but she felt like she can control people. So, she can get screwed. If things come down to me, I will quit. Simple, they can get John to take over, but hell I'm doing so much shit that I'll be wondering how well the next person to take over my position (it's not a job) fares. And the fun thing about it is... Tomorrow I have to OT. at 7am. And they didn't give us Double time for the last month, but they gave it to the other casual. My colleague says that we got 75ed. And then when I came home and told my mum, she said exactly the same. We got 75ed. Only problem is, the payroll guy goes on hols till 20th June. Damn this company. Damn it to hell. Going into Complementary Partnership with a failing mobile fone maker doesn't mean that its great, it treats the people in the warehouse like dogs. And the people in service have more of an attitude problem than the warehouse people. If I leave, I leave with no regrets, since I done nothing wrong. And they'll get their Karma.

Pissed... 

now they tell me...

I've been using the 'new' system that they had for couriers for about 2 weeks now... or maybe 1 week. But needless to say, it's a bi*ch to use. Labels don't stay landscape, and manifest are only available if u choose the sender. Our company. and that was only when they told me today. So the past few days/weeks I've been manually creating a manifest just for the normal day. Each day. Also I've started saving the connotes onto the network because somebody was complaining about the amount of emails they get for... nothing. Fine. They don't want my kindness, they can get my coldness instead. Also I think I should have my own phone, because almost all the warehouse calls are for me! Like what the hell is going on, if the fone rings, "Ken!" they'll yell out. F*ck can't u see I'm busy? No? Tell them to bugger off. Also they're trying their best (and not succeding) in trying to hook me up with this girl. No way, she's definately not my type. And they'll keep on going. But they will never succeed. Because I'm the master and they don't know how to turn things around :P

Hectic...

It's end of month. What else to expect other than 'to ship everything out'. That means practically 400 orders. Today. Except this time I had somebody stay behind to help me. If I was to do it all by myself, it would've probably taken me past midnight... -_- But lucky we got all the orders under control and we were outta there by 9. Except that we had some problems because some of the orders weren't shipped out... But the orders were never given to us. So yeah, it was very weird. Needless to say, we invoiced the orders, so now the next step is to... pick and sticker them. Yay. Thats what saturday is for. OT. Start at 7am. Fun oh fun. And I thought I didn't have to OT ever again... boy was I wrong. I need to take a holiday or something... *sighs*