a new bicycle

this has to be one of the most wuliao posts i ever put up this year. but then the year is ending, nothing better 2 do, n wat r blogs for but for recording every trivial detail in our life in the hope that, in retrospect they might juz reveal some great hidden truth about our inner selves....eheh

anyways

for over a year n a half, since coming here, i had been putting up wif a lousy piece of junk they call a bicycle. it rusts like nobody's business, needs 2 b fed air into its tyres every 2 weeks or so, n is so notoriously unstable dat if going at a fair speed i need 2 actually come to a near complete stop b4 making a 90 degree turn. wat else. its lamp started flickering 3 months ago n gave out completely last month so i had been riding in the dark (since it gets dark at 5pm here nowadays) whenever i come back frm uni....not 2 mention the fair number of times its suspicious (read: cheap-looking) profile plus lack of functional lamp has caused me 2 b stopped by the ubiquitous traffic policemen 4 'routine checking'. around 2 weeks ago its basket suddenly started ripping down the side n d last time i saw it one side of the basket had almost completely came off. wif the high service costs in japan, it wud probably cost more than the bike itself to hv 2 put back into shape.

oh yea, forgot to mention, it threw me off once, resulting in the loss of 1 pair of jeans (i had 2 pairs at dat time, which meant i went around for almost 2 weeks wearing the same pair). or mebbe i shud blame the slopes for that.

so anyway, i wasnt particularly fazed when i left it at d bicycle park at kita-senri, the nearest train station, n came back 2 find it gone....along wif the other 20+ bikes dat were not inserted into the parking lot's bicycle locks properly. prob management had them all moved 2 some remote location 4 not making use of their locking facilities (which cost 150 yen per lock; tho i wasnt there more than the minimum 2 hrs so i cud hv got off free). if my experiences in tokyo were anything 2 learn frm, it is dat i'll prob hv 2 pay like 1000 yen to get my junky old bike back. so, sayonara bike.... (n thanks, kita-senri management, for taking the problem of bike disposal off my hands :P)

so i went for bout 2 or 3 days without a bike n then went to kohnan yesterday lookin 4 a new one. n the very SAME model i had (by a company called southernport..warning: dont buy any bike frm them) dat cost 9800 yen when i bought it, is now 12800 yen! sheesh...talk about inflation....n shudnt the price hv gone down after the model has aged for nearly 2 years? but anyway i learnt my lesson n picked up another one. the cheapest bike without gears was 8800 but it was real kiddies-type so i took the 10800 yen....wif insurance that came to 11300 yen (insurance, by the way, is the little label on the bike dat tells police 'come stop this rider n check his name, then match it with the 5-digit number printed on me'). so im set back by 11300 yen for a bike without gears. ah well, gears r largely useless in osaka anyway, wat wif all the slopes... but i cant help having a nagging feeling dat ive replaced one piece of junk wif another...heheh.

new bike, u better serve me well or u'll suffer a worse fate than ur predescessor >.<

well anyway so thats the story of my bike, thanks for listening n come back tml for another of Shao Thing's Boring Life Stories ;)

Malaysian English and British English

(a list shamelessly lifted off wikipedia)

This is a list of words and phrases that have one meaning in British English and another in Malaysian English

Word / Phrase	Malaysian meaning	American / British meaning
last time	previously	on the previous occurrence
a parking lot	a parking space, e.g. "That new shopping mall has five hundred parking lots."	a parking garage (from US English)
an alphabet	a letter of the alphabet, e.g. "The word 'table' has five alphabets."	a set of letters used in a language
bungalow	A mansion for the rich and/or famous; or a fully detached house, regardless of the number of floors it has. Lately, some housing developers have changed the usage of this word further and we now see terms like "a semi-detached bungalow".	A small house or cottage usually having a single storey and sometimes an additional attic storey that is free standing, i.e. not conjoined with another unit.
to follow	to accompany, e.g. "Can I follow you?" meaning "Can I come with you?"	to go after or behind, e.g. "The police car was following me"
to keep	to put away or store, e.g. a parent tells a child "Keep your toys!"	to retain as one's own, e.g. "I must decide which to throw away and which to keep."
to revert	to get back to someone, e.g. in an email: "I will investigate this and revert to you by tomorrow."	to return to a previous edit or state (although this meaning exists in BrE as well.)
to send	to take someone somewhere, e.g. "Can you send me to the airport?"	to cause something to go somewhere without accompanying it, e.g. "I sent this letter to my grandma."

Most Malaysians are adept at switching from Manglish and Malaysian English, but are sometimes unclear as to the differences between Malaysian English and SABE (Standard American-British English). Awareness of these differences would prevent misunderstandings when dealing with people from different English-speaking backgrounds. This evolution in the use of English follows a worldwide trend and is unlikely to disappear.

pictures of autumn

autumn is my favourite time of the year. its also the shortest season (at least in japan), only displaying its colors for slightly more than a month at best. AND its that time of the semester when mid-term exams come crashing down on helpless students' heads (especially this particular student). dats y, after 3 autumns in japan, i still havent taken a really decent collection of autumn shots. but anyway, this year i was lucky 2 hv the camera handy a couple of times n managed 2 get these:






















will post up some descriptions when i feel inclined to do so...rite now hv 2 get back 2 swotting 4 stupid inorganic chem exam on monday. btw, laz 2 pics were taken wif my shitty mobile phone camera, so they naturally look horrible when enlarged :P

cold weather n a piano

its getting cold lately. last night it dropped to 9 degrees celsius, the 1st time it went under 10 degree this month. feels abit early to be getting so cold, but then ive only been in japan for 2 autumns, who am i to judge.... still it does seem like this is a comparatively cold year, wif winter lasting well into feb (it snowed in mid-feb, remember?) n all traces of summer heat gone by october..... im not complaining, mind u, i prefer cold :D

so wats new. oh yea, after 1 n a half years of waiting/hesistating, ive finally went n got a digital piano! for those interested in knowing, its a Yamaha Arius YDP-160, not one of the famous Clavinova series but still reasonable advanced n well-made. n it costed a mere 85000 yen compared to the cheapest clavinova model which was around 120000 yen (my arius is actually technically superior to some of the lower-end clavinovas cuz its new n technically more advanced, hehe). neways, i'll b posting some pics (n a more complete review) as soon as i get my ass around to copying them over frm my camera.

lately..... bananas r EXPENSIVE. some smarty jap professor or nutritionist apparently published a book extolling the virtues of a 'banana diet' n it seems like half the nation's females jumped on the wagon immediately. anyway bananas r now 200 yen for a bunch i.e. 4 or 5 bananas. dats like RM6-7. n dats the cheapest bananas i can find, cuz sumtimes the 'premium sweet' brands from philipines cost twice that. whew. pisang goreng sellers back in msia wud faint if they heard this.

oh, n there was a discount at a nearby supermarket about a week back n i bought a big bunch of like 15 banans for juz 300 yen. then gorged myself silly on bananas for the next few days until it became apparent dat i wasnt gonna finish eating them b4 they went bad. so wats a resourceful guy like me gonna do? dats right, i made banana pancakes again. n not juz once but on 2 consecutive days (sat n sun). dats a lot of bananas to consume, n i suspect it was the cause of the really er.... fragrant bout of flatulence i had on monday, hahah

speaking of last week, it was like party week. the weekend before that was uni festival, so it was an extended weekend stretching frm last last friday to last tue. so a bunch of us ryuugakusei (international students) got together n had a party at our (me n han yee's) place. we each cooked something frm our respective ountries n it was great (felt guilty afterwards tho, damn im becoming way too diet-conscious). then on friday there was another party organised by the uni's international students association featuring Iranian Food...! n of course a bunch of us went n gorged ourselves again. damn, iranian cuisine is simply delicious... n they prepared ample amounts of it too, unlike the previous parties where all available food is consumed within the first 3 mins of the party n we r left wandering around wif empty plates talking 2 ppl..... anyway, this iranian food party was well worth the 500 yen we paid each, hehe....

i realise im starting to ramble here, so lets keep it short. lets see......

had a really weird dream last night, a half-nightmare, but can only remember one part of it in which i was sent along wif another guy to retrieve something frm an abandoned sch building n we got attacked by a ghost or spirit or something. as usual it feels like there was quite a bit of back-story to that particular scene but its all i can remember.... damn im sure my dreams wud make great adventures if only i can recall n re-experience them :P

oh ya, got stopped by the police AGAIN last sunday. was kinda in a hurry 2 go 2 uni so i cycled across the zebra crossing without noticing dat the pedestrian light was already red. n horror of horrors there was a policeman standing on the opposite side wif a notebook lol. luckily he was juz stationed there to check passing bicycles for their theft-prevention stickers n not to collect duit kopi like in malaysia. he began wif the greeting 'lately theres been a lot of traffic accidents, eh?' n then did his check n i was off wif a slight admonishment. had it been in malaysia i think i wud hv been 5000 yen poorer, lol.....

ok, done my duty again, time to sleep.... wait, i still hv 2 blog in mixi n post pics in facebook. arggh, talk about online obligations......

i had a weird dream last night. u noe how dreams go.....sometimes u remember only the later half of it n hv no idea wat happened b4 that, or if there was even an earlier part, even tho it feels like there is n wat u CAN remember is actually a continuation of that part. or mebbe its a sequel to a dream u had previously which accounts for the 'familiarity' of the dream, but u cant remember the previous one......

ok i'll stop going around in circles, this is wat i CAN remember frm this particular dream:

(im QUITE sure there was something about a football match or sum event in a stadium, then i was exploring a kinda-old town wif all those stone buildings n stuff....)

then i heard some strange piano music coming from 'above' (i was either inside a building or an enclosure made up of a cluster of buildings) so i look for stairs to go up n check out the piano

it turned out that there were no stairs n i m now outside a tall building wif lots of sloping surfaces on its sides, so i run up those slopes to get up instead

on the way up i pass by groups of ppl who look like university or high sch students, there was an unsually large number of girls :P they looked like they were gathering for club activities here n there

at the top i suddenly find myself among a throng of primary sch students in their morning assembly n a teacher was playing an old, BIG (long) upright piano

i felt this great longing 2 play dat piano so i waited till assembly was over n the students went outside to do watever they do there (outdoor games mebbe?) then i pretended to be a shameless gaijin (foreigner) n sat down to play the piano without permission

the teacher who had been playing the piano previously, an elderly man (sumhow i knew he was the music instructor) seemed impressed when i played rondo alla turca. then another teacher, a young woman came n asked me to play the Yellow River wif her (its actually a piano concerto, but in my dream it was a piano duet, kinda like jay chou's 四手连弹 duet.

unfortunately b4 we can start to play my handphone rang n i was woken up -_-"

ok if anybody feels inclined 2 post sum ideas about wat my dream meant they're welcome to...lol...

btw, sorry (again!) for the long interval between this post n d last....n paiseh i didnt complete my last post like i was supposed to....heheh....lotsa things happening plus im getting lazy....but ive decided not 2 give up bloggin yet! :P so stay tuned for the uh....next post

reminder to self.....

....that i MUST relly blog sumting tonite! b4 sch reopens....looks like a tough semester ahead lol....
5 consecutive classes every wednesday, wtf who planned our class schedule this year......

list of things to write about:
- summer holidays
- weather in osaka
- recent happenings (very little of these, dun worry.....)
- reflection on my life, past n present

got a stupid class orientation n (maybe) party later on, so cant write much yet...

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines (a review)

this game is great. go get it, if u guys havent already.

omg, my chatterbox died again n i didnt notice...shit dat juz shows how little traffic my blog gets nowadays :(

cant relly write properly, havent been writing anything longer than 2 sentences since 1+ months ago.....i noe wat u guys r thinking, wtf this guy's been back home for over a month n he hasnt blogged at all other than a post to complain about this n that.....well its hard 2 find the time n moo 2 do it lah, blogging needs a period of quiet time alone for reflecting upon stuff b4 writing about it n that juz doesnt seem 2 come along very often.

anyway i guess this hols passed rather mundanely........ didnt go travelling anywhere n dint relly go out much except to Penang Swiming Club to exercise..... wish i had met up wif more ppl la but then, life's a bitch, either ur busy or the other ppl r busy, dun wanna keep bugging ppl to meet up oso lah or else it starts 2 sound like im desperate for company heheh. sigh..... guess times change n frens do, too.......

neways, been playing a couple of rpgs lately, since i managed to cut myself off frm dota 2 weeks after coming home (not by choice but rather becuz shitmyx sucked too much to hv a decent game wif the buddies back in japan).... one was Jade Empire which was not too bad tho imho combat system was repetitive n predictable, tho all those techniques n styles u can pick up looked cool. the other, Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodline; originally the review of which was to become the main topic of this post haha. guess my writing skills hv not recovered sufficiently for such an undertaking, so lets juz say, it has 2 b the BEST vampire role-playing game out there. u get to pick from one of 7 vampire 'clans', each of which is played differently....n when i say differently, im talking major differences in gameplay; u can muscle ur way thru the game wif melee weapons, shoot ur way thru fps-style, sneak around like in Thief: Deadly Shadows, blast everyone to shreds if u pick the blood-mage clan, or even go around talking/persuading/seducing everyone to doing ur bidding. theres even an 'insane' clan that makes ur character see talking stoplights, spout shakespearean poetry during normal dialog, n enables u 2 cause enemies to go mad instead of killing or persuading them.....how cool is that??

ok enuf wif the review, as expected i fairly suck at writing stuff like this anyway :P

well....next post will prob b my last in penang this year, stay tuned for a recap/review of my holiday 'exploits' heheh

back home.....with shitmyx

streamyx is.....damn SLOW! after getting used to downloading songs in under 10 seconds there in japan, having to wait up to 5 minutes for a single song, n spending whole mornings or afternoons downloading one measly anime episode is very.....unsatisfying. not to mention all the lags n disconnects i get when playing dota....

but anyway, main topic: reminder to self, do NOT ever forget driving license again. being stuck at home more than 1 week when holidays r limited to a precious 6 weeks is NOT a good thing. 1stly, cant meet ppl, which was the main reason i came back so early this year (cuz not coming back next year). 2ndly, cant go out for exercise, which means all the hard work put into physical training this last semester is going to waste (its a mystery how u can spend 5+ months training hard n then get flabby abs within one week of coming home). 3rdly...i HATE being dependent on ppl, n being unable to drive means having 2 depend on my mom or bro for transport (n having to face their er...'black faces' lol)

malaysia is - as always - hot, humid, wif a general atmosphere of laziness in the air somehow. its not a bad place to relax during the holidays, but i can see now y ive never managed to change n improve my life by much back when i was studying here. im easily affected by the environment, n malaysian environment is not conducive to progress. the very climate itself contributes to drowsiness n laziness, n the attitudes of ppl around do not do much to stimulate us either. n its hard to make changes when living wif family cuz (in my case at least) we're more or less bound by established patterns n ways of life. we cant simply adjust our life bit by bit to suit our mental, physical n social needs n circumstances. living overseas, alone, i think ive managed to introduce more positive change into my life than i had in all 20 years of being at home. n this may sound really controversial (n corny) but i think dat the seasons over there aid us in change too. when the seasons change we can feel dat a year has passed n the time has come for a fresh start. its so unlike here where the environment remains static n once ur life gets stuck in a rut the prospects of turning things about do not come around so easily.

i suppose one of the only things i relly missed about msia is the food, but then....it has struck me dat every time i come home wif a huge appetite for malaysian food, that appetite vanishes within a few days. why? partly its my fault for gorging myself upon arrival, to the point of overeating....but i think cleanliness n nutrition has sumting to do wif it too. there is a significant difference in my energy levels here n in japan, n its probably to do wif the fact dat food here is not so clean n less nutritionally 'dense' (as EJ pointed out too). i get full here easily, leading to the uncomfortable 'stuffed' feeling, not to mention feeling lethargic after every meal (like a python, for lack of a better analogy lol) whereas in japan i can eat lots after exercise sessions n still be reasonably active n alert. but m i really eating that much, nutritionally? i think no.....cuz if i eat less to avoid this aforementioned 'stuffed' feeling, i exhibit symptoms of lack of nutrition. like getting fatigued easily, loss of strength, n muscular atrophy (well it might juz as well be lack of exercise causing the latter). hopefully this feeling is juz psychological n i havent relly become as weak as i feel...guess i'll find out after a trip to the gym tml....by comparing my performance wif last sunday's.....

ok enuf wif the complaints, time for a nap :P

hopefully in the next post i can write bout sumting a little more positive about msia, b4 i get labeled 'traitor to the country' hahaha

juz a brief note

2 more days of toil, 11 more days till i go home.....oh yeah.....

hell is a hot place where u r forced to study.....i noe cuz im already there. cant wait 2 escape frm this place dats causing me to literally lose sleep due to the heat, damn

naruto shippuuden: kizuna (bonds) is coming out, mebbe i shud go out wif sum1 n watch my 1st cinema movie in japan b4 going home hehe

made bak kut teh yesterday, taste was not bad but sumting in the herbs or mebbe the heaty pork itself combined wif the freakin heat made me nosebleed n i felt like vomiting sumting dat tasted suspiciously like blood later on.....

lately heat's also been lowering my physical abilities....havent made any progress in either str training or karate the last 2 or 3 weeks.....got worse even, maybe >.<

damn, wish i hv more ppl 2 hang out wif....everytime an exam finishes i feel like partying my ass off but every1 already hv plans....need a better social life!

ok time 2 head 4 gyoumu to shop 4 groceries.....tata

update....sort of

well its exam time now, cant blame me for not updating.

its summer in osaka n it is HOT! temp juz reached 35 degs celcius the last 2 days.....midday temp of course, but night-time isnt much better, wif temps around 29-30. maybe i'll hv to start studying at mister donuts across the street if the temp continues to climb....looks like it'll b an even hotter summer than last year.

anyway, this year i'll b going back 2 msia real early, 7th aug (going 2 attend my bro's convocation on the 8th), will prob b back in penang on night of 8th or 9th....n i'll b staying for over 1 1/2 months this time all the way until 22th of sept, so if anyone's around lets meet up lah! aus ppl, take a weekend n fly back to see ur dear fren raptor the ravenlord! :P

come to think of it, this summer will mark 2 1/2 years since i came 2 japan...half of my total scheduled period of stay under the undergraduate program, that is. tho i'm almost certainly planning to continue to masters, n theres a big chance i'll end up doing that in japan too. damn, sumtimes its scary how time flies n our lives change.....

anyway, now's not the time for musings or trips down memory lane. 5 exams this week, n i havent even started studying for sum of them (dun wanna say exactly how many, juz in case my mom happens by this blog n decides to kills me :P)

ok then time 2 study....

pancakes

quiz: which pancake ingredient should be increased in order to obtain harder (less crumbly) pancakes? (flour; baking powder; egg; milk)

to tell the truth i hv no idea myself. anyway, as u can guess frm the title, ive been trying my hand at making pancakes lately. specifically BANANA pancakes. now i noe this is a stupid reason but every week i buy a bunch of bananas n end up not being able to finish them before the last 2 or 3 become soft n pulpy. so i was looking for a way to cook them n avoid wastage n i tried han yee's banana kuih recipe but it requires too much oil, imho. so i searched online n voila! i found this.

so how did they turn out? well today saw my 2nd attempt at pancake-making n they were quite a bit better than the 1st one. 1st batch was too salty due to me misreading '1/4 teaspoon of salt' as '1/4 tablespoon of salt' (ppl who laugh will get their heads chopped off). anyway here r pics of my er...rather amateur 2nd attempt:






the 1st attempt produced similar-looking results, albeit wif a rather horrible salty taste :P

well that concludes my post for now. done my duty....again. heh....

3 reasons y i hate osaka

hey hey, im BACK in the blogosphere after several long months of absence! in response to numerous pleas frm my faithful fans, ive decided to return to blogging once again.....cross ur fingers n pray/hope that this attempt will last a bit longer than the previous ones heheh

well anyway as u can see frm the title, ive been feeling a bit tulan about osaka (which is, incidentally, the city i live in at the moment, since im sure some - or most - of u out there r bound to hv no clue as to my whereabouts after losing contact for so long...hehe paiseh)....

1st reason: its damn HOT n HUMID. osaka must b one of the hottest n most humid cities in japan...at least the hottest (according to my japanese sensei, n i totally dont disagree) among the bigger cities in japan. as for humidity, u can literally get DRENCHED by juz standing in an enclosed space, as happened to me juz today when i went to the gym n got covered wif sweat juz talking 2 my frens....

2nd reason: it rains. a LOT. sumtimes....well most of the time....its juz light drizzling but the overcast skies n increase in the already ridiculously high humidity can hv sum real bad effects on my mental-emotional state. yea thats right, i get depressed after facing 2 or 3 days of continuous semi-darkness n sticky humidity. n well, sumtimes the sky decides to POUR an extra bucketful juz when u decide 2 brave the rain n cycle back home.

3rd reason: the weather forecast here is totally crap. i mean totally crap. u check it the night b4 n it says clear weather today followed by cloudiness at night, then wake up in the morning to find the sky already overcast n the forecast predicts light rain in the evening. then u go 2 sch n it starts raining halfway thru the afternoon.....by the time u finish classes n try 2 cycle home the rain has become a roaring downpour. so much for japanese technology....it only applies to DEVELOPED areas like tokyo, yokohama, nagoya, kyoto, kobe, probably hokkaido n okinawa but NOT osaka. sigh.......


(4th reason: ok this was uncalled for, but it suddenly popped into my mind...today on the way 2 sch, i was stopped by a police officer frm the koban (police box) across the street for the FIFTH time since i came 2 osaka. juz a routine bicycle check, they say. wtf, do i look like a bicycle thief so much...? n cant they stop posting different ppl to that police box so that at least those who hv checked me b4 will noe dat im not the sociopathic bicycle-swiping psycho they seem 2 think i am....)


well thats it, done my duty to my fans, now 2 turn in for a good night's sleep, the 1st i will b having in this entire week thanks 2 the two midterms i had.....

side notes n brief report

2 recent discoveries:

1) adding ginger to my cooking helps relieve blocked nose....cuz of d spiciness i think

2) going one day without coffee is impossible

elaboration on number 2. i sumhow 4got 2 drink coffee b4 going out 2day, somehow sat thru 2 classes without sleeping......but the effects of coffee withdrawal were far more subtle. it was only when i tried speaking to sum of my classmates dat i found dat the 'wires in my head were crisscrossed'. well...duno the exact term for it, IF there is one....but i ended up inserting the wrong words into my speech n only being aware of it a few secs after speaking out....which resulted in sum rather embarassing moments. n stuff like forgetting wat i was gonna say rite b4 i open my mouth to speak, walking by an ex classmate without noticing him until i was called....

bottomline: no coffee, no social ability

anyways, for those interested in wat ive been up 2 during the spring hols, i 1st went to taiwan around the end of feb.....met up wif dan (BOY, u shud see his spare tyre....hehehehhehe) n went places like the taipei night market n 101 building - tallest in the world at the moment - plus the hualian district in the eastern region which had sum pretty nice scenery. lots of nice food in taiwan too. then coming back i had about a week of rest b4 mom, together wif han yee's mom, visited japan n we went out everyday showing them around kansai. pretty much covered osaka, kyoto, kobe - at least, those places most worth visiting - but didnt go to nara cuz we were all too tired at the end of 4 days of continuous sightseeing. anyway, right after they went back, there was ANOTHER trip, this time all the way to sendai in the northeast (touhoku) region of japan, followed by a stop for 4 days in tokyo on the way back. n no, we didnt get to rest after that, for the kohai frm tokyo came over to kansai n we had 2 take them out again. then the NEW batch of kohai arrived frm malaysia n we had to take THEM out around. phew.

so anyway today was the 1st day of sch. had 2 lectures but basically juz revision of stuff we already knew. so we'r having our classes in suita frm this year on which is a good thing cuz toyonaka feels like a prison compound. but i forgot to drink coffee this morning, plus it was raining the whole day so im feeling a bit under the weather atm. anyway, more on my holiday travels in the next post (wif sum pics if i get down to it :P)

snow n other stuff

ok so about 2 weeks back there was snow here in osaka :D on.....9th of feb to be exact. to cut a long story short, han yee woke me up at 11am (i slept at 5am the night before) n i looked out... n holla, Its A Winter Wonderland! snow was flying all over, coming down in great big flakes (at least, compared to the tiny specks of 'kona yuki' dat fell a few times before). so of course i cudnt sleep anymore....went 2 sch 2 meet up wif a few frens (taking much longer than expecting cuz the bus stopped running due to the snow n i had 2 take a monorail which was damn expensive >.< )

so here r the pictures to prove that Raptor Has Experienced Snow:










enuf wif the mundane, on to snowmen-making! we begin by rolling some snow:


it looks a little dirty but i assure u the technique is all correct :P see the final product:




i modified the 1st snowman to become SnowGuy n made a SnowGirl for him:


miscellaneous pics of sum of my adoring fans:


its not my fault that they hv a fetish for my gloves:


well thats it for my snow pics, got many more but uploading to blogger is a major PIA. u can check them out at my facebook photo album :P

last note: going to taiwan on feb 21-26; seriously doubt any1 will miss me (heck, prob no 1 will hv even read my blog in that time period) but anyway, hasta la vista! will take pics of hot taiwanese chicks n post them here!

SNOWED!!!!

IT SNOWED IN OSAKA YESTERDAY WOOHOOOO!!!

more on this later. lotsa pics 2 show hehehe.

cool song

dont watch this at night all alone tho hehehe

dreary days....

so in the end, i din get to go himeji after all.
wats all the deal about himeji anyway. i hate traveling alone. wazawaza going all the way to himeji, almost 2hr each way, juz 2 use up a stupid one-day unlimited train pass to see an old castle in the cold winter weather AND it being cloudy n rainy to top things off.....not my idea of spending a weekend day.

still, each 'use' of the 18kippu (the name of the one-day train pass) is 2600 yen, so in essence ive wasted 2600 yen, almost RM80....

the stupid weather forecast predicted snow frm tonight (monday night) till wee hours of tuesday. but today forecast changed to sleet followed by 'wet snow' (wtf is that anyway); a few minutes ago upon checking again, its changed again to sleet throughout the night. now as we know, sleet is a mixture of rain n snow....IF there were any slightest hint of snow in the drizzle outside, i wud b happy 2 accept all the shitty rain.....but NO ITS ALL WATER AND NO ICE zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

so im stuck indoors, outside its dark n gloomy n affecting my mood, n i hv 2 cram like crazy for the calculus test this wed. its such a contradiction dat i actually find calculus interesting but its my worst subject. n i HATE the weekly tests. being given 10 mins to write 2 whole pages of proofs means that u hv 2 memorize everything beforehand......anyway lets leave it at that.

so yeah, another year has rolled by......a few weeks ago ppl were all going 'MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!' but wat the heck. i never had a reason 2 feel happy during this 'festive season'. all those stories ive read about celebrations, festivities, gatherings n fellowship during christmas time.....i never experienced them b4 anyway. n here in japan christmas is synonymous with 'couples' day', which makes things even worse....THIS christmas wei liang dragged me to universal studios japan so u can imagine the feeling of being stuck wif a guy when there r couples all around u. if we didnt look gay i duno wat else we cud hv looked like....lol

damn, winter is such a melancholy period.....its like when cold envelopes u physically it seeps into ur heart as well....winter is a time for feeling both the pain of heartbreak n the forlornness of having been alone all ur life...........a contradiction in itself cuz ive never had a gf before so i shudnt be feeling any 'heartbreak'....but i guess i DID experience sumting of the sort b4 so im able to relate to the nostalgia n longing that ppl sing about in songs.............or mebbe ive juz listend to too many sad songs n watched too many stupid romantic movies....hehh

neways, enuf time wasted.....time 2 prepare for calculus! may god smile upon me....wait, i dun hv a god......may the fates or watever smile upon me then, n duncare if they dun anyway.....life is about believing in n depending on urself, not sum omnipresent, omnipotent deity who may or may not save u on a whim.....

3 unsuccessful attempts to travel alone

thu night: tells everyone i wud b going 2 himeji alone to use up my seishun 18 kippu, then plays dota until 4am
fri morning: wakes at 2pm, too late for trip

fri night: tells han yee im going to himeji the next day, then plays dota until 3.30am, followed by sum messing around wif facebook applications until 4am
sat morning: wakes up at 11, hits the snooze button about 5 times each time spaced 5 mins apart, then continues sleep until 1pm; decides to go to gym instead

sat night: tells han yee who juz returned frm a trip to wakayama that i'll b going on sun cuz cudnt wake up; plays dota until 3.30am n messes around wif sum stuff till 4am again
sun morning: (copy n paste frm sat morning)


anyone see a pattern of bad habits plus no self-discipline here?

oh n i havent touched the piano in suita campus for more than 2 weeks now. damnit i need a piano......

Recommended Songs of the Day 1

Exile - Michi
Funky Monkey Babys - Mou Kimi ga Inai
Kobukuro - Kimi to Iu Na no Tsubasa

key differences between tokyo and osaka

1. uncovered drains in osaka are common; almost unheard-of (unseen?) in tokyo
2. cats rule in osaka; no wild cats in tokyo - ive only seen less than 5 in my entire time in tokyo!
3. bread is available in 8-slice loaves in tokyo; loaves in osaka r 6 or less thick slices.....ughh, all that carbohydrate...
4. air is clean in tokyo; air in osaka approaches penang-level (read: polluted)
5. things in tokyo r uniformly expensive; prices in osaka fluctuate like crazy
6. good orange juice can b gotten for 105 yen in toyko; juice in osaka tastes like shit n is generally more expensive (for the same brand)
7. more hot gals on trains in tokyo; more giggly gals on trains in osaka
8. tokyo schgals hv nice short skirts; osaka schgals hv long ugly skirts....hehehehe
9. u can stay out until 11 or so in tokyo n still make ur way home thanks to its transportation system; u can start to go back at 9.30 in osaka n find u juz missed the last bus...
10. lots of cheap (~1500yen) tabehoudai in tokyo; tabehoudai in osaka usually costs 2000 over
11. ppl r unfriendly in tokyo, or so ive heard; ppl r weird in osaka
12. tokyo gaidai is the best uni in japan; osaka gaidai is....well.....
13. i like tokyo; i dont like osaka so much
14. tokyo uni is for stuck-up achievers; osaka uni is for stuck-up underachievers
15. u can save on transportation costs in tokyo by cycling everywhere, n get sum exercise while u'r at it; in osaka, cycling is impossible becuz of the slopes and bad air
16. total cost for transportation to shinjuku frm place of residence in tokyo: 190 yen. total cost for transportation to umeda frm place of residence in osaka: 490 yen (- -"")
17. kare-raisu (curry rice) in tokyo is sweet; in osaka its tasteless
18. otsuka ai was born in osaka; otsuka ai left for tokyo to pursue her singing career (wise move)
19. crowds in tokyo r impressive and annoying; crowds in osaka r annoying without the impressiveness
20. garbage in tokyo is sorted into combustible, non-combustible (plastic), glass, PET, etc; in osaka there's a 'combustible' tag but no 'non-combustible', so u chuck the plastic n all into combustible garbage....hmm....burning plastic, never a good idea
21. in tokyo u pay when u get on the bus; in osaka u pay when u get off
22. there is one cheap fruit in tokyo: bananas; in osaka theres no such thing as cheap fruits n the bananas rot pretty quick
23. public toilets in tokyo r as clean as science fiction; public toilets in osaka generally match penang's in terms of 'delicious' odours
24. beef chunks for making curry r cheaper than many other kinds of beef in tokyo; no such thing as cheap beef in osaka supermarkets
25. ppl dun (rarely?) smoke while walking on the streets in tokyo, which probably contributes to its clean air; in osaka i sumtimes wish for a gas mask when walking around more populated areas, even the open spaces
26. (in response to a comment) house rent in tokyo is expensive; house rent in osaka is slightly cheaper so the landlords make up for that by charging an exorbitant amount of shiki-kin, rei-kin etc ("key money" n all that stuff)...hence, living in osaka is actually MORE expensive for the first 1 or 2 years
27. ppl in tokyo wait for the traffic lights even tho there r no cars in sight; ppl in osaka cross roads malaysia-style 70% of the time

well thats it for now, wud dearly like to make it 20 but ran out of time n brainpower to think...neways, will b updating if i think of anyting 2 add later on heheh.

disclaimer: this is a completely biased, subjective view of the differences between 2 cities as observed by an extremely biased and prejudiced foreign student, hence they do not necessarily reflect actual conditions. ppl deciding to visit either city shud not use this as a guide or let it influence their preconceptions of either city, n obviously the municipal council of either city shud not sue me for inaccurate descriptions

(updated 3x)