Sunday, November 25, 2007

I want to protect you and that disappearing smile

Guess how I got today's blog post's title? ^_^ From the lyrics of D-tecnoLife, Bleach's second opening, haha. :)

I'm still looking forward to Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE chapter 175, haha.

Did you know that the causeway bridge connecting Sentosa to Singapore was built a long eighteen years after the Singapore Cable Car system was built? For eighteen long years, people who wants to go to Sentosa were literally forced to pay huge sums of money to take the stupid cable car, as they can't travel by car, by bus, or by foot!

Yes, I was so bored I was wasting time reading the Wikipedia article on Sentosa instead of doing something productive, like playing RuneScape. But at least, hey, I'm learning something about the country in which I belong to and in which I am proud of. :P

Okay, nothing else miscellaneous to blog about. Onto today's events!

Today's Sunday, which means that there should be no work, but instead, as we have just moved to another new spot for our operations, that means more work for us to do. Besides, the pay for overtime on Sunday is a huge $10 per hour! That was just irresistible for both Hong Wei and Andy, both of who decided that they will come no matter what. Andy even told me yesterday, "If I don't go to work tomorrow, then 我就不叫 (I will not be called) Andy!" XD And well, since one of my factors for coming to work is to be with my friends, why not?

So, yesterday night, Hong Wei and I agreed to meet up at Tampines MRT Station at 7.30am and walk to the factory. Work starts at 8am by the way.

This morning, I left my house early, due to three reasons.
  1. My mother was being a naggin' pain-in-the-ass. =.=
  2. I had been the later one quite a few times already when meeting up with Hong Wei before work, and I'd like to be the early one for a change, or I'd feel bad XD
  3. I won't die. Because there is still something I must do. Okay, I quoted that from Syaoran from Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE. :P But there IS something I must do, lol. What? You'll find out later on. Read on.
Okay, I just realized that I forgot to mention this in my previous blog posts (must have missed it out or some shit), but according to my chat log with Nathan (you'll find out why later), during work on 16 November (nine days ago), I received postcards from one of my colleagues. He has one whole stack of them (who knows where he got them), and after taking one look at them, I realized that they were by Singapore Tourism Board as a method of promoting tourism. You write a postcard to your overseas friend, inviting them to come to Singapore, and they will send it to you for free. :)

And oh, I got one large stack.



Well, that's nothing compared to what Hong Wei received though. ^_^"

Well, it'd be a waste to just dump it in my house where no one gives a damn about its fate of the postcards, I decided to send messages to whatever overseas friends I have on MSN (in which I met on RuneScape or through some other ways), asking them if they want to receive a postcard from me or not. XD

Well, I only managed to ask four, Nathan, Jason, Timmy and Peter. Nathan and Jason both declined. D: Peter, that nub, he didn't reply to me though, even though he's online right now. :( *pokes Peter* Timmy is okay though. :D

So yup, the thing that I said I must do just now, it was to send that postcard to Timmy, haha.

Lmao, the first bus ride of the day sure seems memorable. When I got up, whoa, the only people on board are an elderly woman passenger, and an equally elderly bus driver. Just when I thought as if I (almost) had the whole bus to myself, guess what? The bus driver was chatting with the woman similar to how most taxi drivers chat with their passengers, lmao. But very unfortunately, for that, he chose to drive slow like hell. -.- I had an urge to shout, "Uncle! 我赶时间! (I'm rushing for time!)" Lol.

Arriving at Tampines Bus Interchange after a bus ride from my house, I first headed the other way from Tampines MRT Station, where I am supposed to meet up with Hong Wei, to the Post Office in Tampines, and chucked the postcard into the slot where it says "Other Countries". I wonder when Timmy is going to receive that postcard. :P

Then, I went to Tampines MRT Station to meet up with Hong Wei. On the road I walked, I can see Tampines Mall and Century Square together in the distance, and figuring that they look great in the morning sun from a distance, I decided to take a photo. XD



I reached Tampines MRT Station at 7.10am, twenty minutes earlier, and started reading Reader's Digest, which I brought from my home. XD Oh, and I saw a girl wearing really sexy clothes at the MRT Station as well, seemingly also waiting for someone else. Feeling curious, I tried taking a look at her face to see whether she is cute or not without attracting her notice nor attraction.

I regretted that stupid action.

It also made me want to kneel down, weep and pound on the floor with my fists, crying out loud, "There are no more chio bus in Singapore!!"



Yup, that was Sanji from One Piece. XD I added the Japanese characters "あ" to indicate screaming and/or shouting, figuring that the white space on the right side (for those of you who are intelligent enough to figure this out, I flip the picture horizontally from the manga, so it reads left to right, as per traditional English way XD) is a bit empty, haha.

Oh fuck. I just realized that I accidentally ended up flipping the Japanese characters at the bottom as well. Oh well, ignore it, please.

At 7.30am, Hong Wei comes. Punctual, I know, but it'd be better if he came earlier instead. XD That stupid dry throat of mine acts up once again, and once again, we went into Cheers and bought two bottles of H2O. I stuck to Sparkling, while Hong Wei decided to try Apple. Hong Wei also bought for himself a hotdog wrapped with seaweed. And guess what? He paid for something worth $1.50 with a $50 note. -.- Rich guy.

And as we left the shop, I told him, "Now, we set off on our adventure."

It’s an adventure, right? Right?! In the world where truths turn into lies
I’ll become strong because dreams exist, not for someone’s sake
It’s the beginning, right? The beginning, right?!
Like beauty shining on darkness, midway on the adventure of me and you



Lol, lyrics from Bouken Desho Desho?, the second opening of The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi, which translates to "It's an adventure, right? Right?" :P

Here's a map of our route. :O It's been a long time since I did one of these, lmao, since back when I used to cycle with Yujun...



The red (and later blue) line depicts our route.

We went pass Yujun and Yuchi's house quite briefly, haha. Didn't even bother to go up and say hello. :P When we reached Block 936, I recounted to Hong Wei that there was a really wide drain there, so when Yuchi and I went cycling last time, thanks to that stupid drain, Yuchi tripped, so I went running and finding a shop so I could buy a plaster. But when I finally found a shop, the Indian shopkeeper told me, "Ten cents.", and I realized, "Oh, shit! I didn't bring any money! ", so I ran all the way back to Yuchi, took his ten cents, ran all the way back to the shop again, bought that freaking plaster and then ran all the way back to Yuchi again. =.=

By the way, that shop in mind, it was in the middle of Block 935, which I pointed out to Hong Wei when we walked past it. XD

Where the line on the map turned from red to blue is where we realize that with five minutes to 8am, we were almost late, and decided to start running. XD

Let's start running, let's start running!
Deploying our flag up high in the sky.
We won't show it to anyone.
Even if we have tears in our eyes.
Let's chase it, let's chase it!
The compass pointing towards our dream
has a straight sight.
We won't stop.
Around the world!
Start me up!

Lmao, lyrics from Brand New World, the sixth opening of One Piece! :P

I gotta admit, man, all of a sudden, I was shocked to see that Hong Wei has worse stamina than me.

A little recounting first. Five years ago, back when I was in Primary 5, and back when Sean and Hong Wei were still my classmates (good old times ), our primary school organized an event called the "Fun Run" (lame name, I know). We just go to some park near the school (that particular park we went to was the one directly in the middle between our primary school and Yujun's house XD), and the girls would run four rounds while the boys wait, then the boys run four rounds while the girls cheer. I don't know why, but us boys would just sit down, chat and procrastinate, not giving a damn, when it's not our turn, while the girls would cheer on us with all their might, haha. :P

Well, Sean, Hong Wei and I were best friends then (still are, I hope XD), so we'd agree to run the four rounds together no matter what. But very sadly, my stamina greatly sucks (though I have evidence to believe that both my speed and acceleration, given my long legs, are better than theirs :D), so every time I would run out of energy after a while (a fact that still hasn't change after five years, sigh), and them, out of patience, would just leave me walking alone and run on ahead. =.=

Oh, and just to add something, after the beginning, I'd usually just walk through the entire thing, except past the strip of road where the girls are, cheering on us, when I sprint with full force. :P It's so obvious why I did that, isn't it? XD

Come to think of it, I remembered there was a certain 2.4km run/walk of the NAPFA test during one of this year's PE lessons. Yoshida and I (both of us with lousy stamina :P) were running together, but when we reached and ran past the school's front gate, where Fym was cheering on us (oh, almost forgot, Serene was there too ). I activated Gear Second and went Soru (in other words, I sprinted with all my might :P) past the gate, though I still ended up waiting for Yoshida after the gate, since that guy couldn't (or he could, just didn't in the four years that I know him XD) sprint, lmao.

Whoa, long flashback. Anyway, remember how I mention that Hong Wei had much better stamina than me? Come to think of it, I think he has the best stamina among Sean, him and I! He always last the longest whenever we play Ice&Water (oh my God! How I miss that game! XD Hong Wei, Sean and I were almost always playing as ice, lmao), and was almost always the one essential (oh my God! I actually forgot how to spell this word until I looked up the dictionary! ) in catching water, the other being Sean, who would always pop up out of nowhere, joins the game and catches the water with surprise. XD It's like the water (most often it was Wenjia who fell for this :P) runs away with us (Hong Wei and I) in pursuit behind. Just as he reaches a corner, Sean hops out of nowhere (hiding behind a wall or something beforehand) and grabs hold of a surprised and shocked Wenjia. XD

Ok, enough of recounting, or I'll never finish this blog. :P

Anyway, I was really god damned surprise to see that Hong Wei has even worse stamina than me now! While running to the factory, he would not only be running behind me (due to our speed differences :P), he would also stop and start walking instead very often! Oh my God! Hong Wei! What happened to you? What happened to the star player of our Ice team (Sean's trick can only be used once in game, lmao, before he joins it, or else he blows his cover, and no one falls for it any more, since everyone already knew that he was in game and tend to avoid him :P)?? O_O

We reached the factory at 7.59am, lmao! One more minute and we'd be late! XD

Andy though, poor thing, he ended up late. 8.05am. :P

Today seems to have increased my suspicious that the supervisor is actually a demon sent by the overlord of an evil realm to take over our world.

Well, what the hell, I won't let her have it her way. I won't let her take over our world. I'll stop her. I'll defeat her. Ore wa ano akuma ga taoseru! [俺はあの悪魔が倒せる! It means something like "I'll defeat that demon!", lol, but because of my lousy Japanese (which was learnt solely based on me watching anime :P), I think I might have got something wrong, haha]

But first, I want to learn how to draw my sword magically by clapping my hands and then just pulling my sword out of my left palm with my right hand like how Syaoran does it. =.= That should give me an element of surprise. I doubt she'll reveal her true form and attack me while I have a sword swinging around at my waist. While I'm at it, I might as well learn Syaoran's Raitei Shourai (雷帝招来), Kashin Shourai (火神招来), Fuuka Shourai (風華招来) and Suiryuu Shourai (水龍招来). =.=



Well, why would today increased that already huge suspicion (I can sense her evil aura emitting out of her...)? Because all of a sudden, for no apparent reason, she changed Hong Wei and my place, forcing us to work in different lines, with different people! As Hong Wei himself points out, "Finally we've gotten used to it and started settling down, and now this!" Somehow, I think that this is another one of her plots of break us (the first one being separating us. Why else were Fay and Yuui separated in Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE? To break them, that's why).

Just imagine this scenario: There are two people (*randomly grabs names off my MSN list* :P), Nathan and Phil. Nathan lives in a hot desert, wearing very light and thin, white cloth to not only protect him from sunburn, but also keeps him cool. Phil, on the other hands, lives where snowstorms and blizzards are very common (*cough* Siberian winter conditions =.= *cough*), and wears very thick fur clothing to protect himself from the cold.

Now imagine what would happen if you switch their places. Throw Nathan into the snowstorm and Phil into the desert. Nathan, with his thin clothing, would immediately freeze to death. Phil, combined with his thick fur clothing, would get fried and receive a heatstroke. Worse, if he removes his thick clothing, he may prevent himself against heatstroke, but there's still sunburn and dehydration to worry about.

Yup, something like that. Forcefully changing the conditions of places in which two people live will drastically affect them, even kill them. By doing the same thing to Hong Wei and I, that evil supervisor is trying to kill us.

I won't let her kill us though. We will kill her before she does to us. Let's go, Hong Wei! *draws sword while Hong Wei draws his katana* BAN - KAI!



That woman is horrible. Give me a sword and I'll cut her down, no argument.

Other than that, I found work today relatively slack, lol. As there were still a long of things which needed to be moved, Hong Wei and I were once again arrowed to move them from the first floor to the fourth floor, along with four strong men. I found it slack because, one, we tend to rest and procrastinate a lot, two, we handle the light things, while the other four (and furthermore often with additional help from others, so we don't really have to do much) handle the difficult and heavy ones. :P

To make things better (worse for the boss and productivity though :P), Hong Wei and I kept going to the toilet, under the pretext of "washing our hands" (we have an excuse technically though. Those things that we moved were full of dust and dirt, our hands immediately turned black =.= Sadly they weren't charcoal, or I'd have burnt them and increased global warming).

Only once, we were slacking in the toilet when the boss walks in on us. O_O We immediately got out of the toilet without another additional word, where we got arrowed for more work, lmao. XD It was suicidal to stay inside the toilet with the boss, that's for sure.

During breakfast, Andy was complaining how cold it is inside the factory when even I, with shit immunity against cold, didn't felt it. Strange, lol. He was wearing his friend's jacket, apparently lazy to return it to him (XD), and Hong Wei suggested wearing that hood. Maybe it would make him feel warmer, lol. When he wore the hood and gave an expression telling us that he's acting cute. Being with Yoshida for already four years, he immediately reminded me of this:



Though guess what Hong Wei said? Little Red Riding Hood!! XD That got me bursting with laughter, haha. Good one, Hong Wei!



And work ends at 12pm, whoohooo. I felt like eating McDonald's for lunch, so I asked Hong Wei. He agreed, but expressed his strong displeasure at eating at McDonald's. -.- So we ended up agreeing to go to KFC instead. I asked Andy along as well, and he replied, "I don't mind. :)" After work, my father came and brought the three of us to Tampines central. I'm glad he didn't ask for transportation fees like last time.

We went to KFC. Both Hong Wei and I ordered two pieces chicken meals, but as I upsized my pepsi from regular to medium, mine cost $6.50, thirty cents more expensive than Hong Wei. Andy though, he ordered Zinger student meal and paid only $4. =.=

Hey, what the hell, lol. Every time we are at KFC, Vernon and I would always switch our coleslaw with whipped potato, since both of us hated it, but yet, I finally knew someone who is completely reversed! Andy likes coleslaw and hates whipped potato! XD Next time I eat KFC with him, neither of us has to change anything. We can just make trades after ordering them. XD

Somehow, after eating half of my second chicken, I felt an urge to vomit, and knew that I could not continue eating any more. I think the way they cook it just turns me off or something, who knows? It's been a long time since I ate KFC anyway. Just when I was going to leave it there and waste food (T_T), Andy comes and offers to eat it up for me! :D Thanks, Andy! Reminds me of when Vernon always used to just leave his chickens and I came and eat them. :P

In return, Andy couldn't finish half of his regular pepsi and gave it to me. ^_^

After lunch, we went to Comic Connection in Century Square and checked the manga.

After a long time, guess what I found? The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, volume 2! ^_^ I've never bought any Suzumiya Haruhi books, lol, but figuring out that I was a Haruhiist, I might as well buy it. Besides, Mikuru-chan just looks so cute on the cover!

XD



And then, guess what I found as well? Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE volume 20! O_O Whoohooooo! The Singaporean version only published up to volume 16 (with 17 coming soon I think), but the Taiwanese version up to 20 already? Whoohooo! Of course, I bought it as well! :D

Then, which one to buy? Ah, heck, I just bought them both. XD

It was a fucking surprise to me when I realized that both of them costed $17.50. O______O What the fuck!? That was fucking expensive and way over my budget! Shit!! I borrowed $10 from rich Hong Wei. :P

Moral of the Story: Never ever buy stuff without price tags without first asking how much they cost. -.-

After that, the three of us went to play in the arcade. :D Andy and I each bought two dollars worth of tokens, just to play a bit, while Hong Wei decides not to waste any money and just to watch us play.

Andy first played Soulcalibur II alone. He used the character Kilik. Wow, the graphics of this game are nice. Kilik's swinging his rod produces light blue arcs, those were beautiful, haha. Reminds me of the game Arc the Lad: End of Darkness, where the main character, Edda, uses a rod as well, and when he swings them, he creates yellow arcs. XD

Andy got owned in the second fight, lol, 2-0. I wanted Hong Wei to play House of the Dead IV with me, even going as far as treating him (It was $2 per player per game, a barbarous ripoff -.-), but he didn't want to, so who cares, I got Andy to play. :P

Somehow, the accuracy of the gun I used sucks. It took me a long while to realize that where I am shooting is a bit further below and to the left of where I actually aimed, so I had to adjust to that. Unfortunately, though, that realization came a bit too late. ^_^" Andy was the one who lost all three lives first, haha, though I only managed to survive five minutes more than him. :P

Andy, with three tokens left, goes back to playing Soulcalibur II, with the two of us watching him play. He uses Kilik once again, and scored better this time; he lost the third fight with a score of 2-1.

After that, as I was rather bored, I suggest we find a game that can have two players, as Soulcaliber II only had one controller. I wanted to find a fighting game similar to Soulcaliber II, but the only two-player game there was a rather lame beat 'em up game, lol. Players can get briefcases and change their character's appearances and fighting styles. Andy's character always get transformed into a jiang shi when he gets the briefcase, lmao, in which he would loudly complain, "Wah lao! 我不要变僵尸! (I don't want to change to a jiang shi!)" XD

Being my first time playing that game, I died pretty fast though, although Andy made it rather far on his own, even beating a boss on his own. Though, his health just gets depleted bit by bit, and eventually, in the end, he lost. D:

The three of us then went to Tampines Bus Interchange together. Again, Andy was complaining that it was extremely cold, both in the factory and in the shopping centre. He was also wearing that jacket of his friend.

Though on our way to Tampines Bus Interchange, outside, under the hot sun, he was still wearing the jacket. o.O It was so stupid I couldn't resist not taking a photo while we walk. o.O



Again, very, very predictably, my bus arrives the moment we stepped foot into the bus interchange, and I ran off with a rushed "Bye!".

While I was having dinner at McDonald's, oh my fucking god, that noob who served me was a fucking idiot! I told him my order, and he just has to go through the monotony of repeating it for God's damned sake. And guess what? He freaking missed half of what I ordered!! Idiot! Worse, he just has to keep asking me what drink I want. *rolls eyes* Coca-cola for fuck's sake!! Isn't that the standard drink at McDonald's?! Or should I instead ask for Tiger beer?! Or maybe Carlsberg?

Oh, and to make shit worse, he had to keep referring to my receipt, with fairly simple orders, for about six to seven times! I'm so sorry if my orders were so complicated that they were out of your puny brain's ability to handle and process it! My sincerest apologies! And while we are at this, go fucking upgrade your brain to a better processor! I recommend Intel Pentium Dual-Core! Maybe it'd help you to serve two customers at once, which is obviously something that you'd screwed up big time at your current state! No wonder he ends up working at McDonald's, which I heard from my friends is very, very underpaid... He's an idiot, making stupid choices in his job opportunities.

And oh, on the way from Tampines Mart back home after dinner, it was raining (wasn't really a surprise, as it's stupid monsoon season now). There was a cute girl walking away from Tampines Mart as well, but poor her, she didn't have an umbrella and was walking in the rain, all drenched and wet. D: I wanted to snatch the umbrella away from my mother and offered it to her, but heck, I bet ALL of my money that my mother would nag, and there is nothing I hate more than a nagging mother (in which earns the top spot in my blog's dislike list ^_^).

Sigh, so sian lor... I decided, if I could help by sharing that pain, I will. I decided to walk under the rain with her as well. ^_^

It just reminds me of something that still to this day I regret. On a similarly rainy day, after school, I was walking out of school with my umbrella when I saw Huiping, without an umbrella and drenched wet under the rain. I thought of giving her my umbrella, so she doesn't have to be pelted by the hateful rain, but instead, I decided against it, an action to which I still regret today. Sigh...



I control my own fate...
I control my own destiny...
I control my own life...

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