Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Shingo's LiveJournal:

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Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009
1:35 am	Planning Ahead As everyone around me begins to reveal their end-of-year plans for their holidays, the urge to just book something takes over. My last self-kidnapping attempt to Bangkok did not happen at all, which was really disappointing. It is but too much to ask anybody to just hop onto a plane with me in less than a week, and proved to be a lesson to remember - holiday trips, no matter how short they might be, still require time to plan and book. My colleague asked me the question during our one-minute pantry-talk session - are you going away for the holidays? I was secretly whispering to myself "what holidays?" under my breath. Has everyone forgotten how we all nearly died over the last project submission? We have another one due on the 1st of March 2010, and it would be best to avoid the similar calamity by getting on with it already! The moment December kicked in, I sensed the world around me spinning a lot slower. Even my bosses seem distant and slightly aloof. I would not say that I have been running on full steam lately, but at least it would be nice to keep a steady pace and a firmer grip on things in general. Or maybe I should just let the fruit cake take over and be all festive and jolly ho-ho-ho. Going away at the end of the year? Computer says NO, but perhaps a short thing in early January. Keep your fingers crossed yffar that I would pick up the courage to actually book something. Meantime, it is time to start playing Christmasy songs on my iPod la! I so enjoy Christmas songs. ********** Current Mood: contemplative (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, December 1st, 2009
1:06 am	Do you still cry with me at night? That I would be good even if I did nothing That I would be good even if I got the thumbs down That I would be good if I got and stayed sick That I would be good even if I gained ten pounds That I would be loved even when I numb myself That I would be good even when I am overwhelmed That I would be loved even when I was fuming That I would be good even if I was clingy That I would be good even if I lost sanity That I would be good Whether with or without you..... ********** Current Mood: melancholy (Comment on this)
Monday, November 30th, 2009
9:59 am	Happy Birthday To Me Five days later, I can still taste the bitter bile passing through my throat. Yes, I got very drunk on my big Three-O. I would suppose that most people would, either to celebrate the coming of the second age, or to mourn over the passing of one's twenties. In a way, I was doing both, and was thankful to have my good friends around me to share the moment. I should think that being thirty would mean a number of changes. My back aches now from lying in bed too much for the past few days. I really should had gone outside more for fresh air this weekend, but spend most of it in bed instead. This would be the last time, for a very long time, that I will ever get that wasted. ********** Current Mood: tired (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 17th, 2009
10:12 am	2012 The age of the new sun being dramatized in a movie seemed inevitable. Back then when news about this rather significant winter solstice of our time being possibly the indication for the apocalypse of our world as we know it gained pace, I could already envisage the movie posters and how it would be like. I was actually anticipating it to be more like KNOWING where everybody dies and some alien form would rescue a boy and a girl to keep our species going. Somehow or rather 2012 made it feel less impactful than some of the more frightening theories of how the would would possibly come to an end. The movie was still thoroughly entertaining nonetheless, and does remind me about how great the strength of Mankind could be if everyone were to unite and act as one. OK starting to sound like a hippie here, but I really do think so, which probably makes me a hippie too. Oh well. Apart from gawking at John Cusack's overly-botoxed face, the special effects were pretty mind-blowing. I particularly enjoyed the design of the arks that carried the people and animals etc, which looked pretty convincing. At least they had the decency to put arks in the plot, and not something as far-fetched as space ships rocketing off with whoever could afford a seat. It was a nice movie. I enjoyed it. ********** (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009
11:08 am	Let's Write Something I thought I had better write something before it starts to really stink here. Busy period is over at the office, and I have time to go to the gym again. Also, it is time to think about a short break - to Bangkok or something. Would anybody else like to go? Sometime next week for maybe 3 to 4 days! ********** Current Mood: sick (10 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, October 3rd, 2009
3:37 pm	I better read between the lines, in case I need it when I'm older In our search for the meaning of life in this vast universe, we sometimes seek solace in regarding love as the answer. However, it is quite inevitable that one will inevitably realize that love is something that cannot illuminate us, and that on the final day when the light leaves our eyes, the only thing that leaves with us is one's own self. ********** (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, September 14th, 2009
6:29 pm	It has been awhile In a blink of an eye, we are already in the middle of September. I made a mental note to myself to write something in the first week of September, but time really tries hard to out-do you in the race of life. And time always wins. The clash of deadlines happening within September and October has resulted in us experiencing the toughest period the firm has ever gone through. I have been with them for three years already, and never have we been so scared about deadlines till recently. At least it feels good to see that most of the office coming in over the weekend, instead of just the few usual suspects (including myself). Although we are all feel like convicts lined up and waiting to be shot from the back by a firing squad, we all secretly know that once the time bomb that has been ticking explodes, it is all really quite over and that life merely carries on. I really want this all to past, so I can finally plan a cosy house-warming get-together with my friends. After 15th October yah? I have been drinking a lot recently. Yes, it is bad. And yes, I know that I have gained quite a lot of weight in the recent months. Try going from a 4-times a week gym regime to zero and see what happens. Yeah I know it sounds like a pathetic excuse, because I eat a lot to bury my stress away. So most probably it is the combination of eating and drinking plenty that contributed to this, with lack of exercise not being the main factor. But sometimes I do wonder also because even if I do not eat much, I do get fat just sitting around. After 15th October yah? Shawn promises to start exercising plenty again and spending more time at the step aerobic classes. Gosh I really miss attending them. Eagerly anticipating for Mariah's new album to drop. "I WANT TO KNOW WHAT LOVE IS" is playing on repeat mode on my iPod, and at home too. I really love her retrospective direction in her upcoming album, but I wonder how many people would actually be pleased about it, now that she has finally "gone back to her roots" and did all this. Oh well...old or new, Mariah is my goddess forever. Still at work now, but probably taking it easy tonight and hang with S. After 15th October yah? ********** Current Mood: busy (9 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, August 31st, 2009
7:38 pm	I WANNA KNOW WHAT LOVE IS! Like a breath of fresh air. Finally a new Mariah song worth waiting for. In my opinion, E=mc2 was really very boring. Her remake of Foreigner's hit song sounds like she has really put in the hours to get good vocals. Really miss her soaring notes, and there is plenty of it in this track. Can't wait for the album! ********** Current Mood: excited (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, August 12th, 2009
10:49 am	Sleepless Night There are still so many things that I do not understand about myself. I would have thought that the person who would understand me the most, would be myself. Yet so many questions about what I do, how I feel, what I eat, that can still seem quite delusive. I spent the entire night tossing about, and only managed to find a comfortable position to fall asleep after my alarm clock rang. It was warm, but I avoided from using the air-conditioner. I knew I should have, and that it would have helped a great deal. But I kept the fan going, and tried to drift to sleep anyway. Drifting in and out, I never really quite remember sleeping at all. Do we remember such things? When the alarm chimed, I heard it very clearly, like how the phone rings when you are sitting at your office desk. From the start till the point you pick it up. I couldn't sleep. Should have tried sleeping earlier, instead of staying up chatting on MSN. ********** (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, August 10th, 2009
9:18 pm	Body Shop - Japanese Cherry Blossom Time for a new scent for my bedroom. My last bottle of room fragrance had not completely been used up, but I left it behind at the temporary flat in Toa Payoh and never brought it back. It was a nice one from Crabtree & Evelyn, and apparently was a Christmas special fragrance that is no longer available. I was at VivoCity yesterday and passed by a Crabtree & Evelyn store. I tried to get another bottle of the same room fragrance (the simple kind where you stick the sticks into a bottle of scented oil), but it seems that it is no longer available. "India Hicks" is too strong for my liking, and so I left the shop empty-handed. Then it dawned on me that I could check out Body Shop, where there would be a wide selection of such things. I looked under the mall directory for the unit number, and marched straight towards it. The shop assistant introduced me to the current fragrances, and I fell in love with the "Japanese Cherry Blossom" range. It was light, uplifting and very floral. I initially thought that it was a very lady-type of fragrance, but the divine scent just convinced me to purchase a bottle. The kit contained a bottle of scented oil, a pack of sticks, and a very zen-looking square tapered glass container with a wooden cover that had holes drilled through, one for sticking through one stick. Now my room is entirely bathed in its floral scent. So nice! Heh... ********** Current Mood: weird (7 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, August 8th, 2009
8:56 pm	Shopping for my room I had been planning to get some stuff to get the ball rolling on my bedroom make-over. Ever since I had shifted back home after the renovation works have been completed, I had yet to really think hard about how I wanted my room to look like. Although the wardrobe has space for storage, I realized that I needed more shelving space to place and display certain items. They include DVDs, books, CDs, magazines etc. Also missing is a DVD player, which would be nice since I realized that I watch a lot of DVDs on my computer, which is not very good actually. After a quick brunch consisting of a chicken nasi briyani that my Mom brought back in the morning, I cabbed down to Best Denki to grab the DVD player. I had been there last week and had my eye on a particular model from Pioneer. It had all the features, sans the Blu-Ray part. I do not have any Blu-Ray discs, so it would not be a problem. All I need is a multi-code type with HD capabilities. Walking up towards the DVD player department, I nonchalantly browsed through the selection, when a salesman approached me and recommended me the exact model that I had been thinking of getting. I took it as a sign of good judgement on my part and his, and picked it up. With DVD player in hand, I cabbed down to IKEA to look for a nice book-shelf kind of thing. I had in mind the one that yzac has in his room, but was worried that the width might have been too wide for the side of wall where I am intending to place the shelf at. Also the price was quite steep for what it was, so I thought to myself that I would probably be looking for an alternative one. Reaching the shelf department at IKEA, I looked around and saw this shelf. Apart from the fact that it does not have separations between each "level" of shelf, I thought that it looks really nice and chunky. The price too was considerably lower than the one I initially thought of getting ($199 compared to $290). I also noted that the shelf was much taller than I was, which is a good thing actually. I asked for a white one (choice of black, white, red, light blue and wood grain), and while the nice lady was printing out the PO for me bring to the cashier for payment, I started asking myself if I would be able to fit into a taxi and manage all by myself. IKEA charges $50 for delivery, and I was not prepared to pay for that because it is really ridiculous, and I wanted the shelf like NOW. The nice lady suggested that I called a Maxi-cab to transport it back. It was a good suggestion, but not free either. So I called my Mom and asked is she could drive her seven-seater down to IKEA and help me with bringing the shelf home. When she arrived at the basement carpark, we folded all the seats down to make room for the shelf, which was packed into a cardboard package. I took a deep breath, and hoped that the shelf would fit into the car. Thankfully after nudging it into place, resting at a thirty-degree angle, we managed to slide the entire package into the back. Phew. After I got home and assembled the shelf, I started placing some stuff into it when Dad came in to take a look. He thought it looked quite nice, and started grumbling about how Mom never thinks about buying nicer-looking shelves like the one I got for my room. You see, my Mom is like a life-time member of TOYOGO products, and even all the modular-shelving in her bedroom and study are the ugly plastic kind. I am actually quite embarrassed by all the plastic stuff in my house. The next thing to do is to look for a nice TV console, which is not as pressing because I have a writing desk for the TV and DVD player to sit on temporarily. ********** Current Mood: accomplished (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, August 6th, 2009
3:17 pm	The Right Shoulder This Time So it was a really busy day at the office yesterday. Everyone were trying hard to resolve materials requiring the bosses' approval before they left for Beijing today. I was trying very hard to get some perspectives prepared for them to view, and decided to stretch a little while I was seated in front of my computer. I raised both arms, clasping both hands together in an attempt to stretch my upper body, when suddenly my right shoulder popped out. I started freaking out a little and realized that it came out quite a lot that time. While trying to access the problem, my right arm started going numb and every slight gesture I made caused quite a lot of pain to shoot through my body. I struggled on and started yelping for help, while both my bosses were seated (their desks were just next to mine) who by that time realized that something funny was going on with me. According to my other colleague seated across diagonally, my face started turning pale as I could feel my blood pressure dropping. My vision started going blur and I started breaking out in a cold sweat, much like how it felt the last time it happened at the gym. One of my boss suggested lying down on the ground and "try to put it back". It seems that she too has a similar problem and sees a chiropractor who "puts her back together" when she felt like she was falling apart. I tried standing up, and braced myself for the series of nerve-shocking spurts of pain as I attempted to. Nearly two minutes had passed and my bosses and colleagues were watching me helplessly as I struggled to recover. After the third minute, I finally felt the direction to place the joint back, and slowly nudged my shoulder to place. Now, my right shoulder feels loose as hell. I probably tore all the muscles around the area and snapped a couple hundred of nerve endings. Oh well...maybe I need to call Dr W.C. Chang and see him tomorrow to see if I had placed it back properly. ********** Current Mood: sore (9 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, August 3rd, 2009
9:50 pm	Mahjong Fairyland for iPhone/iPod Touch So the Auntie/Uncle inside me started craving for a good Mahjong game to play on my iPod a few months ago. ressurnation recommended me to get "Mahjong Fairyland". I never really had the chance to check it out until a week ago when I found the Lite version on the iTunes Apps store. The thing about these Lite versions of the actual game is that they really work, in terms of making me buy the actual game. In less than a week, my dependence on the game started growing. Soon I was playing the game during any single opportunity I had. I just bought the full version at USD$1.99. Not too bad, but considering how other people who jailbroke their devices get these things free, I felt slightly foolish once again. Oh well. *cough* Piracy kills creativity *cough* ********** Current Mood: silly (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, July 21st, 2009
3:56 pm	OBSESSED Music Video Oh yeah...Mariah Carey's video for OBSESSED is out. I am in shock because it really is a very shocking video. Current Mood: embarrassed (5 Comments |Comment on this)
2:21 pm	New but old So the big move-in happened last weekend. Mom woke my up on Saturday morning at 7.30am, telling me to get my stuff all gathered. I planned the night before, and estimated that I would be able to get everything in my temporary room together in 45 minutes. The movers were delivering stuff from the storage facility back home at 10am. In the end, we stood around waiting for them for nearly 2 hours. Cutting the story short, we got most of everything shifted back in by 5pm. As of now, the study room is filled to the ceiling with boxes waiting to be unpacked. Among the stack are 4 of the 6 boxes of my personal stuff all lost within the sea of carton boxes. Not that I really care about the stuff in them - after all I have managed to survive for three months without using anything in there. It really feels great to be back home, except that the air is heavily intoxicated with fumes from various paints, solvents and adhesives. Not quite as pleasant as the "new car scent" eh? Well it certainly makes me feel a little giddy when I am at home. Hope that the fumes will go away soon because it is starting to make me sick. Got the TV from Josh on Sunday. Amos very graciously delivered the TV to my place before we all adjourned for dinner somewhere in Serangoon Garden Estate. The TV size feels just about right for my room. The next thing now is to look out for a suitable TV console. Looks like I reduced my carbon footprint by not buying a new TV! Taking my first (proper) shower in my toilet felt quite magical. It was all good till I noticed how a mosaic piece laid on the floor was chipped... ********** Current Mood: cranky (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, July 10th, 2009
2:00 am	July Update The month of June always feels the strangest nowadays. After not being in school anymore for so long, I have started to detest June. Why? Because everywhere feels more crowded because students are walking along the streets instead of being in school or at home doing homework. People at work are on leave all the time because they need to bring their kids out somewhere - this means that single people like me are obliged to cover their asses while they are away. I think the only good thing about June is that the traffic on the roads and MRT in the morning seems a little less congested. June was also spent discovering RESTAURANT CITY on Facebook. Normally I am quite slow with jumping onto the bandwagon with these things, which is why I only started playing it now. At present I have eight staff working in my restaurant, and saving up $$$ to do a good interior overhaul when the time is right. Renovation works are nearly complete, and my parents and I will be moving back home this weekend. I am not sure if I will be sleeping there by Sunday, or stay at the temporary place till we have really cleaned up everything. It will be strange to walk around floors that feel chalky and dusty. ********** Current Mood: bouncy (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, July 5th, 2009
3:47 pm	Home Renovation Update 6 This week's renovation review ended in a disaster. Mom and Dad had gone to see the place the day before and already had a big fight about their bedroom. To be precise, a big fight over my Mom's overly-large dressing table. I am not trying to take any sides, but I do think that Mom's dressing table (built-in kind) is really too big. If the bed goes in, my Dad (who sleeps on the wardrobe side of the room), has barely any space between the edge of the bed and the wardrobe doors. They are getting the contractor in tomorrow to discuss on how to reduce the overall width of Mom's huge-ass dressing table. From the looks of it, everything is almost done. The contractor had made a lot of progress from last week. I guess he too wants to finish up everything ASAP. I think I can start packing up my stuff here in Toa Payoh (whopee!!!) and get ready to shift back in a week's time. The kitchen feels very built-up in my opinion, but I guess Mom will need all the space for her Tupperware collection. Sometimes when I open my cabinets below to look for something, I thought that we are running a chicken rice stall at home. We even have a set of ugly-blue melamine plates ala hawker-centre kind for goodness knows when. They have finished all the cabinetry work, and I have mixed feelings about my wardrobe. I had previously suggested to Mom about how I think the wardrobe in my room should be, but nearly nothing followed-through. I think the sliding doors to my wardrobe look quite nice, but the configuration of the shelving is left to be desired. Oh well...I really cannot complain because there was nothing to like or hate about it, I thought to myself when I opened the doors to have a first look. The contractor had also relocated the water heater to the other side of the wall. So hooray, and I await for them to re-do the patch of mosaic where the mounting of the heater was. I did not really ask much about how the new bathroom door was going to be like, and I think that the frosted glass sliding/folding look quite nice actually. Except that the same door is installed to the toilet downstairs in the kitchen. If I were a guest at my place, I would not turn the lights on in case someone waiting outside might think that I was giving a wayang-kulit performance. Oh I can't wait! ********** Current Mood: excited (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, June 28th, 2009
11:20 pm	Home Renovation Update 5 The new additions to the past week of work - granite tops and window grilles. The entire lower level are is filled with the carcasses of all the built-in cabinetry for the bedrooms upstairs. I think that the magic of the look of the entire apartment was gone once the window grilles went up. I am just glad that Mom did not decide to go for the gaudy wrought-iron look (ala ugly staircase handrails and main gate), and opted for simple white aluminum horizontal bars. So far I have not covered on my parents' toilet, which features simple black floors with white tiled walls. A full-height strip of red rose-motif tile in the shower area breaks the monotony. I personally think the red tiles look a little tacky, but Mom seems to be quite happy with it. So there. The granite counter tops have been placed. I have always like granite counter tops, and the one we installed looks fantastic. I think we are going to spend many happy Saturday mornings having breakfast over the new breakfast counter. The sloping ceiling below the new roofed area looks quite neat. The only problem now is how we are going to hang our laundry... All I can say about the basin in my bathroom is that it looks huuuuge. Again I think the granite top looks quite lovely. Plenty of counter space for the products...heh. From the looks of the progress so far, I think that it will be another two to three more weeks before we can actually start moving in. I am really looking forward to the day. Just bought a 29" LCD television for my room from a friend who is going away. Woopee! ********** Current Mood: happy (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, June 21st, 2009
9:51 pm	Home Renovation Update 4 The renovation works in the past week focused on the built-in carpentry work and ceiling. The skeletal framework of the kitchen cabinetry has been installed, and suddenly the kitchen feels small again. In terms of the configuration on plan, it has differed very little from the original state. The new addition would be the little breakfast counter over the sink, as well as a full-height pantry, which I think would be very useful indeed. I am not very keen on the choice of laminate for the sides, which was selected by Mom. I have no idea about how the cabinet doors are going to look like, except that it is frosted glass for the top cabinets, and the same boring pseudo-wood-grain for the bottom ones. They have also installed the lovely glass shower screen and door. Thankfully my toilet is rather big, which allows a good amount of space for the shower area unlike my parent's en-suite. I asked for a wider vanity top too, and that is what the contractor built for me. In fact the whole thing looks so big that I fear the mirror cabinet we got would look terribly out-of-scale. Well at least there will be lots of counter-top space to sprawl out all the products...hiak. While on the road to our home, Mom and Dad were giving a brief run-through to me on the work progress. I was not really paying attention to them, until I heard them say "cornice". To conceal the wiring. What wiring? I felt a tad bit horrified when I stepped into my bedroom and there I saw that the ceiling had the gross-looking Corinthian-style cornices around the perimeter. And they looked huge. Where my ward-robe would be, they stopped it at the front of the sliding door location. I took the measuring tape to measure the window dimensions for the blinds, and had to leave the room ASAP. I wanted to take deeper breaths to calm myself down, but realized that the air was quite dusty... Back downstairs to the former balcony, one can see the profile of the false ceiling taking form. The contractor intially proposed to slab it over entirely flat. I personally feel that the sloping ceiling would look and feel a little nicer. So there. The entire balcony area feels so much neater already compared to the stack of pots and ladders leaning on the wall where the cabinetry is at present. We spent the rest of the afternoon getting the down-lights for the living areas and some others here and there. Mom pointed to me the light in the store she got for the dining room. Can't wait to see it installed. ( 2 more pics ) ********** Current Mood: calm (10 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, June 17th, 2009
5:13 pm	Why Are You So Obsessed With Me? So the first single from Mariah's upcoming album "Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel" has made its impact. The question here is, who is Mariah pointing the gun at this time? The track title itself says a lot about whoever it is that she is trying to diss at. Some say that the song is directed towards Eminem, who recently released a diss track "Bagpipes from Baghdad" on not only Mariah, but her husband Nick Cannon. That aside, I don't really know what to make of this song really. It has her voice put into the electronic box thing that makes a Britney song a Britney song. Some high notes at the end, but really, Mariah? I really hope that she delivers more that that in the album. ********** Current Mood: Hmm! (3 Comments |Comment on this)