Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Korean Trip Day #2
Went to Lotte World today. It's the equiv of Disneyland for Seoul. Open by the Lotte Group. To me, it's basically a disney rip-off. Their mascots are these 2 raccoons called Lotty and Lorry. (Try to guess which one is male and which one is female). The icon for this place is a castle similar to that used by Disney. I'm just wondering why Disney hasn't sued them yet. But there's a unique and fairly original twist to this theme park. It's part of this shopping mall which also has a ice skating rink at the basement. The theme park is made up of 2 parts. One is called adventure land which is an indoor area which has rides and all, one of them is called Pharoah's fury which is a copy of Indiana Jones's ride in Disney. Then there's magical land. Which has a cool bungee ride which does multiple drops. There's also an interesting twist to the haunted house which is seen thru the eyes of a cat.
Going to DMZ tomorrow. Very sensitive area in Korea.
Went to Lotte World today. It's the equiv of Disneyland for Seoul. Open by the Lotte Group. To me, it's basically a disney rip-off. Their mascots are these 2 raccoons called Lotty and Lorry. (Try to guess which one is male and which one is female). The icon for this place is a castle similar to that used by Disney. I'm just wondering why Disney hasn't sued them yet. But there's a unique and fairly original twist to this theme park. It's part of this shopping mall which also has a ice skating rink at the basement. The theme park is made up of 2 parts. One is called adventure land which is an indoor area which has rides and all, one of them is called Pharoah's fury which is a copy of Indiana Jones's ride in Disney. Then there's magical land. Which has a cool bungee ride which does multiple drops. There's also an interesting twist to the haunted house which is seen thru the eyes of a cat.
Going to DMZ tomorrow. Very sensitive area in Korea.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Korean Trip Day #1
As luck would have it, it's actually a public holiday in Korea (Chuseok) so almost everything is closed. We walked around a few places and took their subway. Similar to Japan except less costly. Average trip is about 1.70 SGD as compared to 5.00 SGD for Japan.
So far, Korea seems like a tamer, more quiet version of Japan. No pachinko parlors or arcades in sight. Although they have a few ufo catchers but a different variety. Lunch was quite interesting. The food was not bad, unfortunately I have no idea what I ordered so I will never be able to recommend it.
As luck would have it, it's actually a public holiday in Korea (Chuseok) so almost everything is closed. We walked around a few places and took their subway. Similar to Japan except less costly. Average trip is about 1.70 SGD as compared to 5.00 SGD for Japan.
So far, Korea seems like a tamer, more quiet version of Japan. No pachinko parlors or arcades in sight. Although they have a few ufo catchers but a different variety. Lunch was quite interesting. The food was not bad, unfortunately I have no idea what I ordered so I will never be able to recommend it.
Monday, September 24, 2007
Korea Trip Day #0
Whoo hoo.. am now at the kris flyer lounge. It's cool man. First time here. So mountain tortoise. But the facilities in this place are wicked cool. There's a home entertainment room with DVD player, LCD tv and surround sound speakers. There's this internet lounge area. There's an all you can eat snack buffet bar and a slumberette. And showering facilities. I'm guessing these are more for people who are in transit (really long transit).
Well first things first, my theory of travelling in a group is proven true once again. My mum has a urinary tract infection. There's always a party member who will be under the weather.
Anyway since I have time, I shall now blog something a bunch of guys and I were talking about over the weekend. Movie Classifications. I feel that there are 3 movie categories:
1) Guy shows- shows which may be shallow in plot, but the focus is on more than relationships. Also car chases, killing, cursing. Shows with Arnold, Seagal, Stallone, Van Damme, Alba, aliens and bodily fluid gags automatically classify them as guy shows.
2) Chick flicks - shows with lots of weeping, emo-ing, long dragged out deaths. Mainly focuses on a lot of talking heads. Example: The Incredible Hulk movie by Ang Lee and Spiderman 3. Spiderman 2 was dangerously close to becoming a chick flick with emo-man.
Last and least,
3) Arty Farty Crap - shows which are so pretentious in the sense that they create stylistic crap. Shows like World without Thieves which started out with so much promise, but degenerated oh so quickly. Batman & Robin the movie was so campy it became arty farty crap. Martin tells me that House of Flying Daggers was also quite bad.
Whoo hoo.. am now at the kris flyer lounge. It's cool man. First time here. So mountain tortoise. But the facilities in this place are wicked cool. There's a home entertainment room with DVD player, LCD tv and surround sound speakers. There's this internet lounge area. There's an all you can eat snack buffet bar and a slumberette. And showering facilities. I'm guessing these are more for people who are in transit (really long transit).
Well first things first, my theory of travelling in a group is proven true once again. My mum has a urinary tract infection. There's always a party member who will be under the weather.
Anyway since I have time, I shall now blog something a bunch of guys and I were talking about over the weekend. Movie Classifications. I feel that there are 3 movie categories:
1) Guy shows- shows which may be shallow in plot, but the focus is on more than relationships. Also car chases, killing, cursing. Shows with Arnold, Seagal, Stallone, Van Damme, Alba, aliens and bodily fluid gags automatically classify them as guy shows.
2) Chick flicks - shows with lots of weeping, emo-ing, long dragged out deaths. Mainly focuses on a lot of talking heads. Example: The Incredible Hulk movie by Ang Lee and Spiderman 3. Spiderman 2 was dangerously close to becoming a chick flick with emo-man.
Last and least,
3) Arty Farty Crap - shows which are so pretentious in the sense that they create stylistic crap. Shows like World without Thieves which started out with so much promise, but degenerated oh so quickly. Batman & Robin the movie was so campy it became arty farty crap. Martin tells me that House of Flying Daggers was also quite bad.
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Tip of the Tongue Syndrome..
Have you ever been in a social setting where you meet someone whom you know and have not met for a fairly long while and you realise that you've forgotten their name? Now assuming that you do not want to ask the said party their name, how would you go about asking their name? Paul and I faced a similar situation this week at VCF and it set me thinking of how to go about getting the person's name without directly asking the person for their name.
The suggestions I've gathered from people so far (in no order of sanity or merit):
1) Start a conversation and as you are leaving, ask the person for his/her number and pass your phone to the person while you go to the washroom or something.
2) If the person only enters the number, ask how to spell the name (which may backfire if the name is very simple/common)
3) Ask the person if he/she has a name card.
4) Ask the person if he/she has a boy/girl friend and asks what he/she is called and ask if you can use that nickname or what other options.
5) Do a magic trick which involves the person writing his/her name on a playing card. (Caveat, this requires you to know a magic trick which requires the writing of the name, or just say you forgot the trick after you get the name)
Some of these options may get you the person's name but, you may never have the chance to talk/call this person again. :D
Have you ever been in a social setting where you meet someone whom you know and have not met for a fairly long while and you realise that you've forgotten their name? Now assuming that you do not want to ask the said party their name, how would you go about asking their name? Paul and I faced a similar situation this week at VCF and it set me thinking of how to go about getting the person's name without directly asking the person for their name.
The suggestions I've gathered from people so far (in no order of sanity or merit):
1) Start a conversation and as you are leaving, ask the person for his/her number and pass your phone to the person while you go to the washroom or something.
2) If the person only enters the number, ask how to spell the name (which may backfire if the name is very simple/common)
3) Ask the person if he/she has a name card.
4) Ask the person if he/she has a boy/girl friend and asks what he/she is called and ask if you can use that nickname or what other options.
5) Do a magic trick which involves the person writing his/her name on a playing card. (Caveat, this requires you to know a magic trick which requires the writing of the name, or just say you forgot the trick after you get the name)
Some of these options may get you the person's name but, you may never have the chance to talk/call this person again. :D
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
The Saga of David Teo (aka How 1 man inadvertantly exposed alot of flaws in the SAF)
Poor poor David Teo. He violated the numero uno rule of the SAF. If you're going to screw up, don't get caught. And he screwed up big time and got caught. (I'm not saying that I endorse a mentally unsound person carrying a live firearm in public.) Anyway that's not the point I'm trying to bring across which is that the SAF has always been very slack with security despite what the officials say.
(I haven't really read in detail but I believe it went something like this) When questioned in Parliament about how the guy got rounds, Rdm Teo said investigations were still ongoing. Duh.. Assuming that the rounds are counted before handing over everyday, it means the guy got it from the firing range. Which is very easy to do. (Not that I've done it before) But go to any local forum on this topic and there will be people saying how to do it. And the methods are quite valid. Hiding in the boot is one common method because the metal detector doesn't really go there.
Also how come his presence wasn't detected, another duh moment. Have any of these people sitting in Parliament ever served in the SAF before? Or did they buy their way out of it? There are so many violations of protocol in one single session of guard duty. People asleep instead of doing duties, on handphone, never patrol the whole place etc etc. What utter bollocks from the people in Parliament. These is the brain trust that we place our country's future with? If you've never served a day in the country, at least go read some local forums. Come down from the Ivory Tower. At least they're looking into making the lives of the people better.. right?
Anyway what this will result in is a "review" in procedure and clamping down which will lead to overzealousness which will only make the already involuntary 2 years service more painful, which will eventually die down and then we'll be back to square one which no one will know about until another Dave Teo appears.
So I salute you Dave Teo. For screwing your friends and future generation of NS eligible males and helping to expose a bit more of the incompetency that is the SAF.
Poor poor David Teo. He violated the numero uno rule of the SAF. If you're going to screw up, don't get caught. And he screwed up big time and got caught. (I'm not saying that I endorse a mentally unsound person carrying a live firearm in public.) Anyway that's not the point I'm trying to bring across which is that the SAF has always been very slack with security despite what the officials say.
(I haven't really read in detail but I believe it went something like this) When questioned in Parliament about how the guy got rounds, Rdm Teo said investigations were still ongoing. Duh.. Assuming that the rounds are counted before handing over everyday, it means the guy got it from the firing range. Which is very easy to do. (Not that I've done it before) But go to any local forum on this topic and there will be people saying how to do it. And the methods are quite valid. Hiding in the boot is one common method because the metal detector doesn't really go there.
Also how come his presence wasn't detected, another duh moment. Have any of these people sitting in Parliament ever served in the SAF before? Or did they buy their way out of it? There are so many violations of protocol in one single session of guard duty. People asleep instead of doing duties, on handphone, never patrol the whole place etc etc. What utter bollocks from the people in Parliament. These is the brain trust that we place our country's future with? If you've never served a day in the country, at least go read some local forums. Come down from the Ivory Tower. At least they're looking into making the lives of the people better.. right?
Anyway what this will result in is a "review" in procedure and clamping down which will lead to overzealousness which will only make the already involuntary 2 years service more painful, which will eventually die down and then we'll be back to square one which no one will know about until another Dave Teo appears.
So I salute you Dave Teo. For screwing your friends and future generation of NS eligible males and helping to expose a bit more of the incompetency that is the SAF.
Monday, September 17, 2007
For all the fans of Korean dramas out there
Here's the number 1 K drama in Korea now. Recommended to me by Elizabeth.
And to make up for that painful nonsense, here's Naudo, one of the top youtube guitarist.
Here's the number 1 K drama in Korea now. Recommended to me by Elizabeth.
And to make up for that painful nonsense, here's Naudo, one of the top youtube guitarist.
Saturday, September 08, 2007
Japan Trip Journal
Just a summary of sorts of the 10 day trip.
I'm glad to say that on this trip we didn't go to a lot of the tourist-y places to get ripped off. So we got more authentic experience of Japan. Ate the stuff which the locals eat (except onigiri which I was unable to find). Sat the train with the locals. Got caught in rush hour traffic also. For those who are intending to go to Japan in the future, please ensure that you have a rudimentary mastery of the language to make your life there a lot easier. And it doesn't really help when all the words I know are basically "Where is the (insert subject, usually toilet)?" and "Thank you." With the occasional "Dozo" which is a very powerful word. It covers everything. Then there's "this", "that" and "over there"...
One of the stupidest things I've ever done: Brave a typhoon to get krispy kremes
Person who said that most inappropriate things: Abi
Person who spent the most on non-food/transport: Me (sigh.. sad but true. The dvd, 2 cds and 1 sansamp bass driver set me back)
Most costly expenditure in Japan: Transportation
Best discovery in Japan: Second hand shops (They are cheap and of quite good quality)
Best buy in Japan: Sansamp bass driver for under $200.
Best meal: Okonomiyaki made by Joylyn with lots of bacon and sauce.
Cheapest meal: Macdonald's McPork burger ($1.30)
Most anti-climatic moment: The queue at DisneySea for Journey to the Center of the Earth which led to a lift which led to another floor and voila... yet another queue.
Place where the girls spent the most time: 100 yen shop (excluding travel time, probably 30-40% of the time was spent there)
Place where the guys spent the most time: waiting for the girls
Japan's most high tech device: Tie between the toilet bowl and the video arcades
Most Unique experience: Karaoke Church
Most common sight: Pachinko places, UFO catchers and Gashaphon machines
Rarest object in Japan: Dustbin
Best places to go in Tokyo: Music Street, Tokorozawa, Hon-Kawagoe and Ueno.
Just a summary of sorts of the 10 day trip.
I'm glad to say that on this trip we didn't go to a lot of the tourist-y places to get ripped off. So we got more authentic experience of Japan. Ate the stuff which the locals eat (except onigiri which I was unable to find). Sat the train with the locals. Got caught in rush hour traffic also. For those who are intending to go to Japan in the future, please ensure that you have a rudimentary mastery of the language to make your life there a lot easier. And it doesn't really help when all the words I know are basically "Where is the (insert subject, usually toilet)?" and "Thank you." With the occasional "Dozo" which is a very powerful word. It covers everything. Then there's "this", "that" and "over there"...
One of the stupidest things I've ever done: Brave a typhoon to get krispy kremes
Person who said that most inappropriate things: Abi
Person who spent the most on non-food/transport: Me (sigh.. sad but true. The dvd, 2 cds and 1 sansamp bass driver set me back)
Most costly expenditure in Japan: Transportation
Best discovery in Japan: Second hand shops (They are cheap and of quite good quality)
Best buy in Japan: Sansamp bass driver for under $200.
Best meal: Okonomiyaki made by Joylyn with lots of bacon and sauce.
Cheapest meal: Macdonald's McPork burger ($1.30)
Most anti-climatic moment: The queue at DisneySea for Journey to the Center of the Earth which led to a lift which led to another floor and voila... yet another queue.
Place where the girls spent the most time: 100 yen shop (excluding travel time, probably 30-40% of the time was spent there)
Place where the guys spent the most time: waiting for the girls
Japan's most high tech device: Tie between the toilet bowl and the video arcades
Most Unique experience: Karaoke Church
Most common sight: Pachinko places, UFO catchers and Gashaphon machines
Rarest object in Japan: Dustbin
Best places to go in Tokyo: Music Street, Tokorozawa, Hon-Kawagoe and Ueno.
