KANPEI!!! *hic*

Yesterday, I had to go for dinner with one of our clients with my colleagues even before I had officially started on the job. My boss had filled me in on the agenda before the dinner so I know whom I'm talking to, but I wasn't expected to talk much beyond friendly chatter because I'm still a freshie, so they would understand. It didn't turn out as well as I would want it to be, mainly because this was my first time and I'm sure I made a few mistakes here and there, but none too glaring I hope. Dinner in a business context sure has its dos and don'ts, and I hope I can pick up the nitty gritty fast. As what my friend Doong said, I will, or rather I have become a social butterfly. Indeed it has, it is part and parcel of my job and it represents a major shift in the lifestyle I will be leading from now on...

I AM AN ARMCHAIR SAMURAI <武士>

Just finished a history documentary on samurais. It was a pretty interesting clip though, and I always seem to like history a lot, especially when it digs up little nuggets of information that stirs up the imagination of enthusiastic viewers like me.

The Samurai were reputed to be one of the fiercest and most lethal class of warriors ever known. It's because they fight with scant respect for the word fear. The only fear they know, is in the eyes of their enemies when their blade is about to cut them down. They do not fear death, and they live by honour and dignity befitting their status. The documentary explores the lives and history of these men through the ages of time, and their changing social status to reflect the advancement of society.

What struck me most was the revelation that kamikaze pilots in world war 2 are known as the samurai warriors in war-time Japan - somewhat a distortion of the samurai spirit originally intended to serve the good of others. Well, if you think of it from their point of view... it is, actually.

Such is the popularity of the samurai in Japanese culture that it has spawned movies depicting the way of the samurai exactly as was known by their famed characteristics. I'm a sucker for samurais and ninjas and shinobis as you would not have known yet. From way back in primary school, I was hooked on the SEGA game THE SUPER SHINOBI, and NINJA GAIDEN on NES. I doodled plenty of ninja pictures on my chinese and math textbooks, and just about any piece of paper I can lay my hands on. Hahaha... Now, I'm all grownup and watching animes like "Samurai Seven" and "Naruto" and occasional similar themed movies like "The Last Samurai"...

Speaking of which, I also happened to chance upon this movie titled : " SHINOBI-Heart Under Blade "showing soon. By the looks of the trailer, it looks quite cool and not the mention that the female lead is sibeh chio =D~~~ Hahaha... The only thing is, I don't know whether it will show in local cinemas though...

Singapore football sucks!!!

The Singapore U23 football team loses to 1-2 to Vietnam in the opening game of the SEA games in Manila. Don't be fooled by the scoreline. Singapore deserves to lose by a bigger margin because they literally play like crap, and simply because they are not good enough. Time and again, the inherent flaw in our national team has been exposed cruelly by our opponents. Imagine the feeling of dejavu and helplessness when your national team concedes a goal at the very last minutes of the first half... again. Just what is up with our national soccer players?!!!

If you were to ask me, I don't think there is very much difference between the two sides in terms of the skill level to begin with. What is lacking in us, is that we have a WEAK mentality. We just don't seem to have the winning mentality inculcated within our players. The confidence is lacking, not to mention the drive, the hunger and obviously the pride and passion in playing for the national team.

What we are lacking in may be attributed to the fact that our Singaporean players have it too good going for them. That is, living in a far developed country that has everything one can possibly ask for. We have become soft over the years, or rather, we were never tough before. Vietnamese players, as well as those from other developing countries that only recently began to prosper have more hunger and bite than our own lions... I mean pussycats because they are very much depending on their survival instincts, much like their countrymen to survive in this competitive world we live in today.

It pained me so much to see the equalising goal go in for Vietnam but I forced myself to sit through the second half. It was the same old story, I saw no improvements for our team and once Vietnam had taken the lead after going behind, I said to myself: "That's it, I had enough of this nonsense." I switched off the TV immediately. Our national football team is a sad and sorry bunch of never-was and will continue to be a joke to the footballing fraternity. And did you say we won the Tiger cup only this year? Ah, tyco only lah, we only played well because the other teams didn't.

As they say, form is transient, class is not. Our boys DON'T have any class at all. Period.

PARANOID

Mmmkay man, this is really getting to my nerves now. Its been a week since I last went for my medical checkup arranged by the company and they still haven't contacted me as to when I should go down to put pen on paper. For the past few days, I've been practically clutching my handphone wherever I go, even to the loo! Because I'm expecting them to call me anytime during the day but its already the end of the week and I ain't hear nothing from them yet. I'm getting paranoid now. What if they suddenly refused to hire me for whatever reasons?! Now, that would be the nightmare of nightmares man...

The Road To Hell Is Paved With Good Intentions

Pardon my lack of understanding for the above proverb, but what exactly does it actually mean? Or is there no one fixed answer to it at all? Since being a proverb and all, the sentence by itself is open to different interpretations depending on how you want to see it?

I had always thought this is a proverb that is essentially an irony by itself. How can the road to hell be paved with good intentions? Or put it this way: How is it any good doing good knowing that eventually you will end up in hell anyway?! It just doesn’t make any sense at all.

Since the proverb stems from a religious context, allow me to put forward this scenario: There is this person who preaches about christianity, about how good it is for you and your soul... blah blah blah. And then after a period of time, the person eventually gets turned off by the constant pestering. The road to hell can be visualised here with respect to the deterioration of the relationship between these two or put in another way, if the person converts, the road to hell begins for people around him/her who cannot accept his/her conversion. Different scenario, yet yields the same results. Either way, we lose. More hatred in this world, not that we don't already have enough anyway.

Can you see where I’m getting at? Religion drives people apart, not bringing them together! That’s like the mother of all ironies man. It’s just like forcibly telling people: “Either you are with me, or NOT”. Wah, wu jit kuan eh daiji ah? Like that how different are these zealots from the terrorists that have been bombing innocent people everywhere?

Where is the sense and sensibility needed to sustain the fragile peace in this world? Haven’t we got enough trouble in the world already? Why can’t people of different faith live together peacefully? Israelis and Palestinians? Or something closer to home? Fervent christians who are forever trying to convert people, and the rest of the population?

Yah yah you tell me its not so easy. 废话, wounds take time to heal I also know. But YOU can take that small step today and make a difference to the world we live in! How? Embrace each other and say: “To hell with God! Let’s make love… errr and I mean peace, yeah peace!!!”

Say if there IS a God above, I’m sure He wouldn’t mind either. Who needs wars and conflicts where you can have love and peace?

Cleaning Out My Closet

Spent the whole of today cleaning out my room in preparation for the next phase in my life. A new start, hopefully a fruitful one. Man, its gonna be one looonng journey. Certainly hope to find meaning in life with work and by saying that I don't mean to say I find life meaningless now. In fact, its fantastique! What I meant to say is that one should not live to work, but work to live. Work is just a means to the end at this point in time and I cannot honestly say I will lurrvvee what I am about to embark on. Every job has its pros and cons.

No doubt it is a good career option by my standards, and with the opportunity to travel overseas quite a fair bit of the time, I cannot ask for more really. I should be thankful of the fact that the company decided to give that elusive position to me over the others. I will work hard and hopefully the belief that the hardworking will be rewarded prevails at the company.

So right now, I'm practically counting down to the last days of my treasured freedom. I should be expecting a call from them anytime now asking me to go down to sign the contract I guess.

Jobless no more!!!

Wahahahaha! This is just in. Fresh from the oven! I have just received a call telling me that I have been hired for the sales and marketing executive position that I've applied for at this Japanese company. Omigosh! I love you guys! You didn't make the wrong choice! Now can I kiss your feets now? *muack muack muacks!* Muahahaha!!! Damn I'm such a slut! Woohoo!!! I'm soon gonna work in the same building as my sister (not that condemned one). Maybe I can get free lunch from her also? o_O"

So finally, I can stop reading Straits Times classified ads for good! I'm so bloody sick of scrutinising advertisements day in day out and typing cover letters until my fingers bleed! I can also stop surfing JobsDB every single moment of my waking life and no lamenting over interview calls that never came! No more shaking leg at home! Yippee!

But with great powers comes great responsibility, a superhero once said. No more can I act like a kid around my friends all the time, I have to learn to behave according to the situation and be responsible for my own actions. Of course I can handle that! Why do you think they would even choose me in the first place??! Wahahaha... Wah I damn cocky now... Just like when I put down my fellow applicants mentally during the initial interview stages. Hell, if you are not even confident about yourself in the first place, who else would??!

When night becomes day and day becomes night...

Wonder what went wrong with my bio clock. Have been sleeping like close to 6 in the morning for the past few days. Might have been the champions league soccer games on TV, or it could have been the late night suppers at bedok simpang. Damn, my paunch is growing by the inch with every bite of the sinful pratas I take. It didn't help that I couldn't go for jogs with a sprained ankle.

My laptop broke down just now while I was trying to fix a problem. Apparently, it got hit by a trojan virus and when I was randomly removing suspicious programs, I triggered off something and now my screen is only available in the VGA mode... wtf... I'm very distraught now, as though something hit me square on the face and I don't know what the hell it is. Hahaha...

Halloween's!

Still felt groggy from last night's halloween's party at the liquid room. I wouldn't wanna go back there again man. Music not that nice, then somemore place so small and smoky that it hurts my eye bad. But alot of chiobus lah... hehehe...

I suddenly remembered I had a bad dream days ago. I dreamt that somebody was brewing some soup and had asked me to go over and put some ingredients in. Then, when I opened up the lid, I saw live terrapins being boiled in hot water. They were still not dead yet, half cooked and squirming in pain. I felt sick to the guts at that point in time, and woke up to find that it was morning already. It would have been even more sick if the terrapins in the pot were to be my kawaii snot nosed turtle instead. Eeewww... *faints*