Welcome!

Best choice is often the hardest.

2009-09-09T14:57:00.003+08:00

Made the decision just a couple of hours ago to not go to the Holiday Inn workshop.

It was a painful decision but i think it was necessary to prevent any case of infecting other people with my illness.

"Money can always be earned some other time, but health is the most important."

I know it very well, but thinking of how the timing of this flu and how it forced me to give this event a skip is rather heart wrenching.

Things haven't been going well recently. Lost phone, though manage to find it at the end. Then this illness.. Shld go pray pray after i recover.

Feeling much better now, last temp taken was 37.3 degrees celsius, a good drop from the 39.0 degrees at 1pm.

Have to recover soon, lots of work and things to do.

2009-09-05T23:28:00.000+08:00

Hates misunderstanding

3rd week of school..

2009-08-24T00:31:00.002+08:00

Yeah! Going into the 3rd week of school! That means tutorials will be starting, so will labs. Not exactly excited with the latter.. =/
Will be spending more time in studies from now on, which means more time in library during weekdays. As for weekends, first priority will be my dear gal =D, followed by catching up with some balloons action.
Think I'm starting to understand why balloons had such a 'pull' factor on me, as compared to doing magic. Since performing magic is something that requires more presentation and talking, I subconsciously leaned towards balloons, which don't really require a lot of those skills. As much as I would like to improve those aspects through performing magic, chances to do so aren't really what I'll call abundant. Moreover, balloon twisting has a greater appeal among children, and making them happy with my works is something that's rather satisfying.
Still looking for opportunities to make use of this skill to generate some much needed income. Will be looking forward to any chances to set up booths selling balloons during any events in school. ;) Also, the website is still in progress, and much need to be done. Hope to find time after studying to accelerate the completion of the website.
Just participate in a few balloons event recently, including a small scale scrupturing event at Metta school, balloon decoration for TWCC's BGM, and also went to Yew Tee's BGM to see see look look. Sadly I wouldn't be able to be early and help out more for the President Challenge event this coming Sat, but is excited to see how it'll be like when I head down after tuition. I'm extremely looking forward to help out Vivian Tan in her job next month though, think it'll be damn fun! Haha..
Besides studies and balloons, have to also find time to exercise and run!!!! RunNUS this coming Sunday will be a good training. =)
Thats all I guess, feeling sleepy.

Missing my gal..

2009-08-09T00:51:00.001+08:00

3 nights down, just 1 more before i can see her again! Hurray! =D

Balloons balloons..

2009-08-08T22:26:00.003+08:00

Dunno what's wrong with blogspot, or my com. The posting page now is like plain white background, with funny layout.

Anyway, I had been pretty occupied for the past few days. First was with helping David in his decoration job, followed by a balloon scrupturing job @ Metta, and finally some pre-event training @ David's place. All were great, enriching and fun. Damn thankful and appreciative to have all these experiences.

Had recently figured out the small cube/ball that David does, the one that doesn't burst easily. Though it's a shortcut method, I like it very much. Consolation came from Gabriel who told me this,

"Balloon twisting is not about the method, but the product."

Not that the process is not important, but since there're many ways to attain a certain result, there's no need to 'die-die' go for a certain method. Hopefully I can 'find other ways of fishing' that is tailored made for myself. =)

Though managing to do the cube is something to be happy about, it soon paled in comparison among the really solid cube, the puff heart, and rose that people like Gabriel, Weilai and Baofa are doing. So these stuff would definitely be in my 'To Learn' list. Not forgetting the 2D heart, which I should aim to make it smaller.

Apart from learning these creations by other people, I also hope to find a specialty of myself soon. Something that's uniquely me. Time to let some brain juices to flow! =P

Tomorrow is my grandma's birthday, will be making some balloons for her i guess. Flowers? Most probably. =)

Ok, adios!

Joel's Ex-sch Founder's Day Event.

2009-08-05T10:51:00.006+08:00

Yesterday I went to an event of making table centrepieces, together with joel. It was his former school's Founder day, and they were celebrating it with a dinner in their hall.

So we met up the day before to buy the necessary balloons at the Balloon Baron. Got our stuff, of course after nearly a halfday 'workshop' under David, haha. Joel initial plan was to do a Bear with flowers for and '6 flower' flower bundles. I had the impression that it should be quite easy to complete the models, as i only pictured us making just 35 tables of stuff, moreover we had almost the entire day to do them. It took the actual doing of the balloons to knock some reality into me.

The next day, joel was there at his church before me, and had already done quite some geoblossoms for the bases. After doing some, I realised that making these stuff wasn't easy at all! Got ourselves very wet due to them constantly exploding. Bad quality huh, David. (I think he wouldn't deny that since those geos were qualatex balloons, and he already hates them so much.. =/) Ok, then the making of flowers. I actually thought we'll be making not much of those, but ended up having to do almost 200 of them, or at least we tried to. We ended up doing 2 laundry baskets full of flowers, and had to stop due to time constraints. Making the bears were quite successful though, although we didn't make a lot of them as they required more time to do. The bears were a better looking one as compared to the simple bear.

Assemble part of the process were quite tedious as well. Connecting the flowers to their stems, tying them together, trimming the length, and combining it with the geo bases, all these were little little things that took up so much of our time when done in bulk! Worst thing was that the balloons were constantly bursting, i suspect due to the hot temperature. It was till the final hours of the evening when things got clear that what we'd done wasn't enough. So joel thought of the idea of using the table number stand to do a simple 'flowers on vines' presentation, which i think was the best of the situation. Great thinking man. =)

So luckily, all the table were ready with at least a certain balloon scrupture on them before the dinner began.

I think this event provided me a great experience, and gave me an idea of how important it is to plan carefully. I think we made the mistake of underestimating the amount of time required to do the scruptures, esp the flower bundle. The distribution of the scruptures among the tables were rather messy too, due to the inability to make enough identical scruptures for all the tables.
Because of all this inperfections, I had a great time an learnt a lot. =)
Some of the photos are can found here:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/photo.php?pid=8162221&id=803010354

That's all for now! Time to rest my poor fingers.. or not! =P

Not So Fast!

2009-07-26T00:47:00.003+08:00

Happening now? When i'm still so young? I won't let hereditary issues win! I'll make sure won't have the same problems as my dad. ROAR!

Stage or not?

2009-07-19T16:57:00.002+08:00

I would like to do shows, like children birthday shows. But that means I have to learn stage magic, buy stage props, buy nice magician clothes (basically stylish black outfits LOL). Not easy.
Last time tried doing a children's show under Reuben's recommedation, which made me realised that with what I know, I can't do a show.
Will take one step at a time. Thinking of my spongeball routine now.

A fruitful day. =)

2009-07-02T16:00:00.009+08:00

Went to meet Rui Ming for lunch yesterday over at Dhoby Ghaut Sunshine Building. Ate the Thai food there that made us wait super long. RIP to his laptop, hope the one who kop it starts to rot the minute he/ she starts using it. Rawr!
Felt good to meet up with him, brings back the old JC days. Have to meet up with the rest of CTG 218 soon! Haha..

After that I went Aunty Betty's place to pick up a deck of Bicycle Seconds ($3.50) and 4 (1.5 inch) sponge balls ($6.00, without box).

Then I went to Sim Lim to check out prices of RAM for gal. The embarrassing thing was that I got laughed by one of the shop's uncle sort of because I still thought Pentium 4 processors was still the fastest processor till date. LOL! Now already dunno what quad core liao but somehow I didn't realise that. So funny. =.=

Leaving Sim Lim after visiting an exciting place, I headed to tampiness to visit David's Balloon Baron. Actually thought of buying the balloons in bugis area, but they sell one packet of 260's for $15.00! So expensive! Also wanting to improve my skills, I went to BB at the end. Reached there and realise that no one else is there, apart from Jessie, David and another lady, whom I didn't catch her name. Had a really long talk cock session with David.. which basically means I listened to his stories for very long. Haha! Although his thinking and theories aren't always the best, I have to admit that I felt honoured to have the chance to talk to and know a legend like him. Indeed this 'balloon-artist' (quoted from him) has done stuff that no other balloonist can achieve. He may seem full of himself, but I feel that he has the right to be so. Being the pioneer of ballooning art in S'pore, he was able to be so successful and also perform for many important people in Singapore and Asia.

Think he see the way I twist also ching-sim already. Lol. I seemed so lousy as I struggled with some twists. Even so, he didn't come down too harsh on me, and even gave me some valuable advices. All in all, learnt a lot that day, restocked my balloons, and even bought a new pump! Yay!

2009-06-29T23:09:00.003+08:00

Hopefully everything turn out well for my dad. The environment of his current job is getting bad recently according to him. Upper management getting lousier, manpower getting tighter. Which was why he was looking forward to this new job. I can see that he still has feelings for this current job- after all he has been working there for over a decade already. But he felt that the deteriorating working environment is too much to take, and also since the company seems to have some buyover problems, might not be a bad choice to 'jump'. Prospect of the new job looked good, but now might not be within reach given the sudden realisation of some contractual issues. Sigh. My dad's like is filled with ups and downs, why can't he have something smooth this time? God/ Guan yin/ Buddha bless him and our family.

Recently went to Pek kio market for their last CLAP! fundraising event for the needy residents there. Brought over 5 decks of cards, 2 balloon pumps, 2 bags of balloons. Ended up using only the balloon stuff. Was happy with my first experience in helping out in a booth selling balloons, but I felt that I really need to improve on my speed and control, so as to burst lesser balloons. The afternoon ended with a parent complaining abt the slow making of her bugs bunny and she being frustrated, scolded her children for doing some harmless stuff. All because I did the bunny too slowly and it was due to it keep bursting. Really sucks man.

Heard from Baofa and Veronica that Wei Lai's event still might need helper, so I decided to join them without asking WL's permission. Luckily it's a rather free and easy thing, so more helpers are always welcomed. In the end I went to jurong earlier than the required time, so I sat on the upper stairs of the area where people waited for the IMM shuttle bus, and did a 160 bunny while waiting for the Chevron shuttle bus. Was determined to make one at a faster rate, but ended up only doing a little but faster. Hope to speed up my balloon making process with more practice from now on. Balloons are running out, think need to get more soon. =/

Whatever the thing is, just hope they go shun shun..

Gypsy Thread

2009-06-26T17:44:00.004+08:00

Just finished watching the download. It's something very visual and magical for the audience, if done right. The problem is the handling has to be rather delicate and careful. It's not difficult to flash. Will spend some time to practice the effect. Dan Sperry is expectedly humourous, but I felt he could be more detail in his explanation, like giving more tips and experiences on the handling. 28 mins seemed like a lot of material would be covered before watching the clip, but much of the time was spent on meaningless stuff and humour. Watching the performances by Wayne Houchin and Dan himself made me feel the effect would be very clean. While I felt a little deceived, I'll strived to achieve that kind of standard. Time to practice!

2009-06-26T12:51:00.003+08:00

The passing of Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett were kind of shocking to heard this morning. Knew about the MJ's news since everyone on Facebook starting posting RIP messages about him. For the latter, not many knew or talked abt it, but saw it on the Yahoo! news while I was checking out MJ's news. Kind of a bad day to pass don't you think, as her death would be overshadowed by that of MJ's. =/ In any case, R.I.P. to both of them, and may those who loved them live on happily.

Had been visiting theory11 and dananddave website recently and I have some items that I'm interested to learn!

Gypsy thread seemed to be around for a long while, but sadly I've only heard of it recently. Will be looking forward to learn it on the 1-on-1 soon, when i still have some extra cash to spare. =D

Professor's Nightmare is also another trick that belong to that ' IshouldknowthattrickbynowbutIdon't' category. Norvin said that it's not expensive to learn, probably will check out the price from Baofa's side, if not might get from Aunty Betty's.

Identity by Richard Sanders! OMG it looked amazing! Extremely visual, and very high WOW factor in my opinion. Price is a little steep though. It's definitely in my wishlist, but maybe not buying it now. ;)

Knew about Pressure for quite some time now, but haven't really got into finding out abt it. Saw the trailer again today, and since I had some balloons with me, I thought I'll give it a shot. The basic effect worked out pretty well, though I'm still thinking abt the clean-up. Have some idea abt it, though pulling it off in front of a live audience might be a little hard. Wouldn't be buying the download/ effect since I don't think I wana spend that kind of money. Would have some fun trying to figure it out and perfecting it though.

Feeling good =)

2009-06-15T00:48:00.006+08:00

Surprised gal today with this!

Been very happy playing with balloons recently. Very fun and entertaining hobby actually. =)
To say that it's all joy that's the motivation for this interest is not entirely true, as I also do hope to use this skill to help me earn some pocket money, which can be extremely useful based on my current situation. So I hope to learn as much as I can for now, and seize any opportunities along the way.
Gal mentioned an interesting idea earlier today, shall think abt it these few days.
Also realised that this blog is becoming something that it wasn't meant to be when I first started it. I actually wanted to make it a magic blog, something like what Baofa started recently. Then somehow it became more like a daily diary blog, haha. Anyway, will try to put more magic/ balloons stuff in this blog from now on. =)

Bintan + Horrible job + To dos

2009-06-11T21:13:00.003+08:00

Long time since I updated!

First thing on the list would be Gal's bday also our 3rd anniversary! =)
For the photos of Bintan trip, go my facebook see ba.
Our bintan trip can be summed up with the following:

-one dizzy ferry journey
-one look at how caucasians can be more kiasu than singaporeans
-one long wait to get room
-one nice room with fantastic view
-one delicious pizza
-one disappointing trip to pasar oleh oleh
-one broken down shuttle bus (in the middle of NOWHERE!)
-one 'lok kok' shuttle bus to our rescue
-one expensive and forgettable dinner
-one heartwarning gesture from the hotel, also a funny yet beautiful misunderstanding
-one breathtaking view of the nightsky full of stars above, with creatures of similar beauty flying among us
-one sleep till xiang xiang night
-one apparently not wonderful night for my gal as woke her up thrice by accident, oops! =/
-one rather satisfying breakfast buffet
-one beautiful beach! (really REALLY nice!)
-one attempt to suntan
-one small rain that killed that attempt
-one swimming pool that kept us occupied during the small drizzle
-one stone that poked a hole in my foot T.T
-one not so Yummy pizza
-one nice and sweaty experience with archery
-one smoother ferry journey home
-two cup noodles
-one more look at kiasu caucasians

All in all, a great holiday!

Came back from Bintan with a very positive mindset of finding a job. End up till now also don't have a decent, long term part time job for this vacation.

Had a extremely lousy one that required me to work from 8pm - 8am. YES! Night to morning, and not the other way round. And doing what? Stocktaking. =.= The worse is meeting a certain weirdo. Haiz, how wish nv take up that job. Lucky only work for a week, if not really will mati.

Currently I have another one-day job coming up on the 16th, suay suay that certain weirdo also doing. Haiz.

Went for a few interviews, going for one more next week also. hope something come out of it. Never thought searching for a part time job can be so hard. Guess I took the Nomura experience too much for granted. Bye bye $18/hr. =(

So now while searching for job, I'm also starting to get interested in balloon twisting! Very fun once you get started. Going to crash another workshop tomorrow, as well as another magic workshop. Need to see how thy actually teach kids magic, as it's something I can't really imagine very very well. Teaching kids of e.g. primary sch age things like card magic seems a little inappropriate imo. Coz it seem a little adult, and sort of like giving them the head start in gambling. So for me, if I had a workshop teaching magic, I'll probably teach them the very basic of magic. Misdirection, coins, spongeballs to name some of them. But not teaching card magic would be hard, since that's what probably they signed up for, after seeing so much 'miracles' performed by Liu qian on Taiwanese tv. =.=

Ok, so what will I be doing for the rest of the holiday?
1.) Go swimming
2.) Go running/ exercise
3.) By doing 1 & 2, I wana get a more even tan! =D
4.) Get a job
5.) learn the roads of Singapore
6.) Think about Father's day
7.) Learn more balloon twisting, including a certain requested one. =P
8.) .. add in when I think of them.

Me and my big mouth

2009-05-24T23:10:00.005+08:00

Time travel would certainly be a useful supernatural power I would want to possess now.
Everytime I watch a drama showing a actor whose rash actions brought about undesirable consequences, I'll always cringe and say to myself, why is he so stupid. Use his brain la. Never thought I'll be in this smelly shoe of this character before.
Good intention doesn't always translate to good actions.
Now that my mum also knows about it, a small misunderstanding somehow got upsized, with no welcome given.
Hate to be the screw up. Just hate it.

Just suddenly remembered something. Record it before i forget.
Actually I was talking rather politely when I called him. Started to ask him some questions, then I think I blew up when I heard this:
"If you weren't her brother, I'll use the word on you too."

"If at first you don't succeed, double undercut."

2009-05-10T02:04:00.004+08:00

I love the quote in the title. Saw it in someone's signature in T11 forum. It's just so hilarious.

Updates!
Went out with gal today, and had some hiccups along the way. And I'm apologising here once again gal! Sorry! Will plan things in more detail next time. =)

Went to bugis to get gal's watch and then we went to a place called Bar Bar Black Sheep. Read on Hungrygowhere.com about its good reviews and wanted to give it a shot. The problem was the rather ulu location and remembering the bus stop location was a bit hard to do, and also due to poor planning. So after some efforts, we found it and had some food. There were 3 types of food that one can choose to eat: Western, Thai or Indian. The western seemed to be the most popular as we had to wait for a long time before out orders are served. We had Beer battered Fish and chips and Beef Burger with fries. Both were served with salad.

Here're the photos:

Beef Burger - S$12

Fish and Chips - S$12

The portion for both dishes were humongous! We could barely finish our own plate. Eat till wana vomit. T.T

We then went to West Mall for some grocery shopping for my Mothers' Day breakfast tomorrow and then went to play in the arcade. Fun! Love you gal! =)

Ok, till now, I've managed to exercise, play bball. Dinner meeting with MS and gang is set to be at next Sunday for now. Hopefully Charmain can make it since she's the only one who haven't replied me. Next few days will continue to send out resume and search for a temp job. Argh, I want $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$!!!!!!! $.$

Exams over! So.. what next?

2009-05-06T02:19:00.002+08:00

Gone are the exams.. Also gone are 2 years in NUS. Seriously I think my time in there is kind of like wasted. Hopefully the results this time round will be encouraging.

Ok, so what to do this looooooooonng break?

A few stuff on the itinerary (based on chronological order):

1/2.) Meet Meisan and gang for a meal,
1/2.) Mothers' Day,
3.) Gal's Bday/ Anniversary,
4.) In the mean update my resume and find a part time job,
5.) Exercise regularly,
6.) Take IPPT and get some long overdue monetary award from SAF,
7.) Update myself on magic stuff, hit the streets with Reuben and gang,
8.) Read up on CE2407.

For something nearer, what will I do tomorrow? I'll exercise in the morning, and maybe play basketball. Then I'll prepare my resume, and start sending it out. Then I'll also look out for tuition assignment. Come evening I'll leave for tuition. Should be too late to meet gal for dinner, so I said maybe another day, probably thurs or fri? =)
Will also chiong the level in restaurant city. Wahaha, gal don't scold me for overtaking you.. =P

A great food pic

2009-04-26T02:39:00.003+08:00

If this blog is something that introduces good food, i think this picture would make a good photo of the food. Had this in Woodlands food court today:

Haha hello..

2009-04-23T20:19:00.005+08:00

Got reminded by gal that I have not blogged for a long time.

Exams are coming soon, soon as in next week. This time round feeling more prepared, though still scared that results will be disappointing. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst!

Hmm some interesting that happened recently.. urm.. oh ya, been sort of hooked to a few things, one being the show "Gossip Girl". I know it's supposed to be a girly show, but somehow it's quite nice to watch, haha. Another would be the facebook game, "Restaurant City"! Quite fun to see the little people walking here and there serving the computer generated customers food, and designing the restaurant is also quite fun. Haha..

There's also gal's graduation ceremony, or otherwise known as Convocation. Quite inspiring to see people wearing the harry potter robe and receiving their certs. Also met some friends there, like Kwen, Debbie and Wei Fen. Many grats to the first two for their graduation! =)

Took up a new tuition in Sembawang. The kid's pretty smart, from Catholic High. Currently sec 1. His mother is also one kind one, quite anxious about her son's results and work. Overly-anxious actually. But I guess that's how parents are nowadays. Sigh.

Ok this is a pretty boring post, so lets spice it up with some pics! Roar!

Restaurant City- Showing Me and Gal =)

Graduation Ceremony @ SIM

What is on your mind

2009-04-05T02:53:00.001+08:00

Stressed.

2009-04-02T22:17:00.003+08:00

Lot of project datelines coming up. God bless.

2009-03-31T01:00:00.004+08:00

Feeling relatively emo today. Doesn't seem to be able to know what she wants, likes or dislikes. Been together so long, but why is this still so. Too long have I gotten it wrong, and the feeling is not good. When will I ever get it right?

About recent activities, went to Earth hour at Marina Square. Could be because we didn't participate in the right activites, as it didn't turn out to be what I imagined it'll be. I pictured a day of outdoor fun, enjoying the performances put up by the organisers, a little romantic as well perhaps. But somehow it was received to be nothing more than just a hot, sticky and unbearable place to be at. Maybe going to the town to see the shopping malls go lights out will be better, or even campus activities.

Many things going in my head now. Assignments, projects, revision, RT, surviving financially, planning tuition lessons. Things I'll be doing in the ideal world- preparing for IA/ SEP, having a stable income from tuition assignments, not worrying about exams and datelines, knowing everything my gal wants. I yearn for a better life. Don't see it coming soon.

Various things

2009-03-22T01:16:00.003+08:00

To a certain extent I'm proud of myself, as I recently reported a suspicious item. I was happily looking for a seat in Techno Edge, and when I found one, I saw a white envelope on the chair of the table beside mine. It was an A4 size envelope, rather bloated. No one was seated there, but it had a name and address on it. At this point of time, I'm sure almost 99% of people would ignore it and continue with their own business. I was partly part of the 99%, so i continued with my food. Then it came to me, "What if it's a bomb?" Then a series of images floated to my mind depicting the scenes of explosions and shouting and my head somewhere away from my body. LOL ok not that gross, but you get the point.
Hence I whipped out my handphone and phoned the Campus security (I just knew taking down their number would be of some use), told them the situation, and the guy said that his colleague would be coming down to check (clever guy who picked up the phone). His guy came down, bravely picked up the parcel and examined it, even squeezing it. And guess what? Of course it wasn't a bomb, if not I wouldn't be typing this lengthy passage.
Before I called them, I knew it wasn't a bomb. I knew someone must have left it behind. However, I still called them. As I know if the situation was what I thought it was, the most the guy will get some exercise by walking there and pick up the lost and found item. But what if I was wrong? The results will be drastically different.
"Better to be safe than sorry" - This can never go wrong.

Secondly, I hate myself for being so plan-less, and doing things without thinking much of the consequence. Today would be so much productive if I had set off later. Doing so would also let gal have more rest. In the end I wasted my time loitering in the neighbourhood, while she had to wake up and tidy up the place.
I'll never go to her place before she wakes up ever again, and more importantly, will do things with a good plan in hand.

Lastly but most importantly, R.I.P Fluffy (Gal's hamster). You'll be missed.

Muscles degenerating?

2009-03-19T23:07:00.003+08:00

Results for IPPT: FAIL.

Sit ups and shutter run cleared as per normal. SBJ failed as per normal. 2.4km run barely made the mark, but it's improving. The one thing that surprised me was that I could no longer do any Chin-ups. I wouldn't be that surprised if I all along have been a 'zero-fighter'. However, before I started the present RT training, doing the minimum of 6 was no problem at all. But since I attended a session that required me to do 'Eccentric Pull ups'- coming down slowly after pulling myself up the bar, my arm muscles had been aching and strength-less, even till now. People told me that my muscles are recovering, and need time to rest. But isn't it taking a bit too long? Hopefully my strength comes back to me soon.

Something sad happened to my friend Hui Jie, who cleared the static stations with flying colours, like 4 stations with 19 points. (WTF? *envy*), but didn't managed to clear 2.4km by just ONE second. That's a very unfortunate thing. Hope he'll get over it soon. Well, to some extent I'm not complaining, as that means I have a companion for the next few training in phase 2. Oh crap, phase 2. 3 times a week, how can I take it man. =(

Taking a break.

2009-03-18T18:03:00.007+08:00

Tomorrow:
1. ESE2001 test.
2. IPPT.
Hope I can clear the IPPT, if not phase 2 of RT will be really nasty.
Working on something..

ESE2401 Test tomorrow!

2009-03-11T19:24:00.005+08:00

Test tomorrow and it's in the morning! Cannot oversleep this time! Roar!
Test tomorrow and I'm still blogging! Can't help but find ways to slack! Roar!

Managed to do up a video about clip shift on Utube last night. It has been a long time since I recorded and uploaded anything on magic over there. Seeing it again now, find the movement a little awkward. Will see if it can be improved in time to come. You can watch the video here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kL4xDorZUGo

Broke my glasses last night while trying to cleaning it. (I think I may have some sub-conscious mega strength.) So here's how I look now.

Adam is a divine dog..

2009-03-08T23:57:00.006+08:00

..because the 4 numbers i got him to pick from 10 tennis balls that we number 0-9 opened in today's 4D! Though it's shoot from behind to front, it's still quite amazing. If I had bet I-Bet, I would have won some small money. But too bad, I did not. Haha.

Ok, Melacca trip. An ok trip, walked the jonker street, the shopping mall, ate nonya lunch. The most important discovery of this trip is.... .... a RM3.00 svengali deck. Which is about S$1.26. Here're some pictures of it:

Yes, it's a pirated copy. Its instructions are also hilarous as they're filled with grammatical errors. =D

Function wise, it's pretty good. Works well for the tricks that uses this deck. Exceeded my expectation in this acpect. Initally I bought this deck, with it being an manipulation deck in mind (after seeing its "Card For Juggle" name), like for cards back palming, stage act etc. Didn't think that it'll be a Sven. Cool.

Also bought a normal deck, but it's really shitty. Forget abt it.

Will probably rest soon, after doing some work.

Gal, sleep well ya. I'm open for ranting tomorrow. Got some gifts for u too.. =)

Tired.

2009-03-07T22:22:00.007+08:00

Kids are a tough crowd. Needed more skills on audience control, and more routines for doing mini-stage like performances like this. Arm twisting exercise went reasonably well, reactions for tt with silk was probably the best. Cardtoon onwards, as they're mostly close up stuff, started to lose some attention. Same for the disney cards. Gave lots of them out also, not sure it's still for sale.. Sponge balls was still ok.. Its just that each routine is too short, same for the other tricks.. Did some card tricks to fill the time, went ok. Overall it was alright, can be better, just hoped i could do more to make the fee i received more worth for its value.
Was exchanging messages with a youtuber, who is a professional magician in the states (I think) and here's what I told him.

"Just today I went for my very first paid gig, for a group of kids. The plan was to keep the kids entertained for one hour as part of the hosts' birthday celebration for their daughters. I practiced my stuff, thought I was ready. A bunch of 7-9 year olds couldn't be anything close to harmful right, I thought to myself. I went there and was proven wrong. Audience control techniques was terrible, tricks weren't done well, routines went faster than expected and had nothing much to perform near the end. It was so bad that I even felt guilty taking the payment after I was done.

I belong to the group that you have mentioned, doing tricks for family and friends and think I'm good. Truth is, I'm far from it. Even previous experiences from busking in the streets with a group of magicians didn't quite prepare me for this. Family, friends, street busking, for all these performances, one can easily stop performing or walk away, go to another group, or let other magician peers take over. You'll probably not see those strangers anymore later in your life, so even if you did make a mistake in presentation it's fine. Being hired for a show is entirely different. it's like you are the only one there, and you have to perform non-stop for a specified duration! "

This performance struck me how much more I need to improve before I can go into accepting paid performance. Good experience though, will remember it for life.

After the performance, went for RT. Working out with muscles still sore from the last training is a killer. Extremely tired now. Think I should be going to bed now. Nite!

Gal I love you! =)

Paid gig.

2009-03-07T03:44:00.007+08:00

YAY! I've finally gotten my first official paid performance! I'll be doing an hour of magic for a party of kids, should be a birthday party. Location is at a condo in Kovan, and to think about it, I have not checked out the directions to go there. Ok I'll do that now. .. ... Ooo, just beside the Kovan mrt. =)

Things that I'll do are: Twisting arm exercise, silk using TT, disney cards, cardtoons, rubber bands, factory sealed (if angles are good), simple coins and some levitation. Hope they'll all work out well. Tried to not include any card tricks, since I will hate to be accused by the kids' parents of teaching their kids the wrong things i.e. gambling. Cards that I'll be using are all non-gambling ones, and are very cute and suitable for kids. Don't sue me dear parents. =(

Not sure if I can any video footage for this trip, since I'll be going there alone. So probably not. But it'll certainly be a memorable experience for me, as the first ever solo performance to earn me some decent money. Thanks Reuben for the intro, and also for Jason for not being able to make it, hence giving me the chance to be the replacement. Haha.

Tomorrow will be a busy and tiring day, have to do RT after the performance. But I foresee it to be one of the most fulfilling one lately.

Ok, other than this update, something else on the sunbird. The babies are gone already! Both flew away and surviving (I hope). But before one of them could take it's maiden flight, it had trouble learning how to do so, and was stuck in our balcony.

Also went to my uncle's place and visited their dog, Adam! Very cute and active dog. It was originally from my cousin's place. Adam and its wife gave birth to 3 pups, and due to its perpetual eagerness to have some loving time with its mate, when it's very frail and tired, my cousin was forced send it away. Didn't really go well at my uncle place for the first 1/2 days, as it was whining most of the time, probably missing its family. But now it seem very happy living there and that's good to see. =) Here's a pic of Adam.

Tired for a good reason.

2009-03-05T23:03:00.007+08:00

RT is really tiring. Exercises are demanding, and really do work out my core muscles. Which is good, since it has been a long time since I did any proper exercises. Hopefully next training will have more running.

Saw a beautiful rainbow just like yesterday or something. Such big rainbows have been sighted often these days in Singapore. Hope they'll appear more often! =)

Saw something interesting while I was heading for dinner after today's RT. A rather hilarious signboard. Looks like something a loanshark would write. =.=

It reads: "Sure? So cheap?"

Going to Melacca this coming sunday, under a tour my mum is organising. Something like a one-day tour. Can foresee myself having to help her take care of her participants, so much so that enjoying the trip should be rather impossible.

Ok, time to do some assignments!

2009-03-01T21:00:00.002+08:00

...

Shagged.

2009-03-01T19:24:00.004+08:00

Can imagine myself having aches all over tomorrow. And the day after, and probably even the following day.

RT today was so shiong. Maybe it wasn't that shiong for others, but for me it was a killer. Totally wacked my long slacken muscles. How wish the state of my body can return to the BMT stage, where I'm still relatively fit. Oh well, that is everyone's wish isn't it?

School reopening tomorrow. Can't say I'm all ready for it. Some more mugging later tonight to catch up would be needed. Hopefully all the datelines and tests wouldn't break my aching bones.

Gal still in the expensive and creepy hair stylist salon doing her hair. Can't wait to see you new look!

P.S. Curse that GST credit admin staff for not processing my payment quick enough. Hmmf.

27/02/2009

2009-02-27T21:11:00.002+08:00

Today managed to meet up my Ebay buyer and completed the transaction. Sold my Guardians deck, Black Ghost deck and the Shadow Masters Deck. As only the guardians is unopened, I priced the other 2 at a lower cost, and sold them only at $30 in total. A bit heartache, but since they're sold, they're sold. Don't think I'll ever open that Guardians deck, so selling it was ok. Black Ghost, didn't like it much ever since I bought it, so also ok. But my Shadow Masters.. one of the best deck ever created- smooth as silk, beautifully designed. Must get a one from Aunty Betty one of these days. My TNR is still unsold. hopefully someone will bid for it soon.

27th of every month is a beautiful day. Since it's so beautiful, decided to look up gal to surprise her. But end up late and it wasn't really a surprise. Wahaha. Went to the prata shop near her house and gobbled down 2 plain and 1 cheese-egg. Pretty nice, and ate till quite full.

Chewing gum from johor left the very last one. =(

Operation [Sunbird]

2009-02-25T17:46:00.008+08:00

For a long time, our balcony has been a landlord to generations after generations of Sunbirds. They will come and make a nest under our shelter, using a branch of a big plant as the support. Sometimes they'll use the nest of the previous batch of birds and just patch up a little.

Recently a couple came and made use of a existing vacant nest. Soon after we can hear soft chirping sounds coming from the nest even when the adult birds were not in.

Today I woke up hearing some chirpings. Initially I thought they sounded pretty much the same, like every other day. But after a while, I soon realised that it was different. It was more like a constant rate of chirping, something that I remembered hearing last time, when a baby bird dropped out of its nest and landed on a pillow that we placed under the nest.

I went out and was proven right.

There were like a total of 6-8 attempts to put it back into the nest, twice it pooped on my hand. Initially it keep coming out as it wasn't in the nest deep enough, and when it struggled to get food from the parents, it'll just drop out. Well for now it's still in there, hopefully it'll stay that way.

Here's a pic of the unlucky bird together with it's sibling happily in the nest:

Ebay! + S.H.E + Magic + Game

2009-02-21T23:49:00.002+08:00

Selling some stuff on ebay, only to local buyers as i'm not sure if i can afford postage at the moment. Haha. Anyway, here's the link to my selling page: http://myworld.ebay.com.sg/desmondleung86/

Watched a S.H.E MV & Concert DVD today. They're as lively, bubbly and cute as always. Something I feel about Hebe is that, she seems the least like a celebrity among the three of them. Feels like someone who do not prefer extra attention, and just want less trouble. I say this because she is normally the most quiet of all, and gives me the impression that what she does is entirely for work purposes, as if she's an entirely different person while not on screen or not working. I do like her a lot as a singer and artist nevertheless. In any case, go S.H.E.! =)

As for my magic interest, I've been trying to perfect the cherry control these days, trying to get the angles right. Been also practising Kammagic's ACAAN. Very nice effect, and simple too. Wanting to perform magic soon, might be looking at doing some volunteer work at old folks home perhaps?

Started to re-play a rather mindless game that I've played many years ago, called Terran Legacy. It's like a web-based starcraft, needing you to do nothing except to click on links and see text after text after text. It's really a good time killer imo. haha.

Well i think that's it for now.

Ciaoz.

Recess Week

2009-02-18T18:02:00.003+08:00

A break is finally coming!

This semester isn't as packed as a few of the previous ones, as the timetable isn't filled with lessons everyday. However, somehow it's still not easy to follow the syllabus. So the break will give me a good time to do so.

RT was supposed to start this coming sunday, but was informed that it'll be cancelled due to the camp's maintainance schedule. So it bought me another day of rest! Many see RT as a bad thing, sure it's troublesome to go to camp for exercise twice/ thrice a week. But for people like me, who exercise quite little, I guess it'll be a good thing. Passing IPPT would be great, though being able to clear Standing board jump isn't something I see myself doing even after the RT. Just being more fit will do.

Friday's meeting with gal changed to next monday= more time to meet up! =)

Backup your F*#king files now!

2009-02-17T01:47:00.004+08:00

Something dramatic happened just a while ago.
Was trying to uninstall that QVOD player, which is the program needed to watch videos from tom365.com, as it was all over my main folder. As i was lazy during the installation, i did not assign a specific folder for that particular program, so i saved it in my main folder. As it was installed, the sub-files were created in the main folder and that made my folder look very messy, and attempts to cut and paste them to a separate folder made the program faulty. Hence i thought of uninstalling it, and installing it in a separate folder the next time.
Then, IT HAPPENED
As it was unstalling, it started to delete the rest of my files that were in the folder. All my photos, videos and semester 2 sch stuff, all gone. Basically the whole folder was empty.
Tried to reload the backup, but i realise i had NO shadow files saved, as i did not back up using the com's backup function. Luckily i did manually saved my files in an external HD at the end of last year. So stuff for the new sem and recent photos/ videos were the victims for this time.
I'm really sad as all the precious videos I took during a recent Genting trip with gal were all gone, along with the photos taken. Gone too were the saved copies of the V-day card design, CNY photos etc.
I guess it's a good lesson, but at the same time, a really hard pill to swallow.
How wish time can be reversed, to undo my stupidity.

Valentine's Celebration 2009

2009-02-15T01:29:00.004+08:00

Today we went to the Khatib's Bottle Tree for prawn fishing. Guess how many I managed to catch? ZERO. And gal managed to get 2.
I dun think it's the lack of sufficient number of prawns in the enclosure, as there are some people who keep tio prawns. It's the bait that we use. Probably using worms would be better, or just something different from the dunno what chicken liver that they give, since the prawns would have long gotten sick of those.
It's $14.50 per hour, and i think $29 for 2.5 hours. Some better rates for midnight prawn fishing as well.
We then went to Kallang Leisure Park(KLP) for a movie. The FilmGarde in KLP is the only one in S'pore. Its theatre are new, clean, and cozy. Nice video quality, and i think all seats allow the centre armrest to be pushed up. (Good for couples.) We watched Curious case of Benjamin Button. It's an EXTREMELY long show (almost 3 hours), nevertheless it was quite touching, and also funny at times.
Somehow didn't get to take much pictures for this trip. Sad =(

Anyway gal, thanks again for the company and the nice gifts. Everything gonna be alright. *hugZ*

V-day card finalised!

2009-02-13T19:10:00.003+08:00

Tada!
Now I just have to write the card. ^^

For the activity, I've decided to bring her to Bottle Tree for some prawn fishing. Then head back my place to freshen up, either cook dinner or have it outside, then go for a movie. =)

Happy V-day to all couples out there!

Valentine's Day preparation

2009-02-13T00:23:00.004+08:00

Ok, here's a glimpse of my gifts for my gf this saturday.

The card is 100% homemade! Designed it using photoshop. Well, being a magic lover, I've wanted to make something like this long ago. And a random sighting in someone's laptop background while attending GEM2900 inspired me further. The bear is from "Juzzz", (www.juzzz.com.sg) Great variety of dolls and bears that're very cute.
To gal- there's a surprise about the bear, like it? =)

Incidently, the printer ran out while printing an earlier copy of the card, and I got this pleasantly nice 'product'.

I'm thinking of selling this design/ greeting card, though it'll be long over Valentine's day when people get to see this post. But I guess it's still good for any romantic occasion couples have on their own calender. Do contact me if interested!

As for the activity, well it's still somewhat in planning. A quiet and relaxing picnic will be nice. East coast park? Will iron it out by friday afternoon. You've messed up Christmas, don't let the same thing repeat itself! Roar!

First post!

2009-02-12T23:50:00.000+08:00

Cliche title, but that's how it goes!

Hi everyone, my name is Desmond. Thought of listing down my particulars here but I think there'll be a space in the other columns for that.

Anyway, lets talk about why I decided to make another blog. Yes, another one. The first one isn't really presentable and it's mainly filled with trash and mindless ranting, so I'll leave it out of the picture for now. So why this blog? Why create a blog near midnight with tons of project datelines creeping closer each second and with many other assignments that I can do instead? Why spend time writing something that probably no one will see? (actually thats how my first blog turned out, as I didn't publicise it much, which is normal since it's a self-ranting blog, oh whatever.)

The REASON is... ... I realise that I'm too lonely. Friends (not those hi-bye ones) made during the current University time can be counted with 2 hands. Close friends? Not really anyone.
And the reason for this sad fact is that I can't really sustain a proper conversation for any decent amount of time. I'm boring. It's a fact and I will not hide it. Somehow conversational topics don't just come to my mind as quickly as they would for other people. To make matters worse, I often stutter while talking- a bad habit that, despite strong efforts to correct, has followed me for a number of years.

So since I can't really talk very well, I thought of using this page to convey my inner thoughts to anyone interested. The fact is I really really REALLY hope to make more friends now. Seeing my ESE class and how everyone has their own clique is really something that I envy. Hopefully things will get better as time goes by.

Guess that's all for now?
Catch y'all later.

Btw, gal, if you're reading this, Hi! Love you! =)