Happy Lunar New Year!

这是Teabone祝贺您新年快乐,心想事成!

(Translation: This is Teabone, wishing you a Happy Lunar New Year! May you succeed in all endeavours!)

The WoW Lunar New Year started a little early. We went visting to get angpow...



(Actual conversation)

Aurelius: I BOW TO NO ELF!

Ferragamo: Shut up, kneel and get your angpow.



The lengths we go to get angpow....



After that, what better way to celebrate than to have a wonderful (banned in Singapore) fireworks display!



After much celebration, it was time to confront the fearsome Omen, or 年. Half an hour later and after many deaths, Omen lay slain before us! What a way to usher in the New Year!



Yes, Omen is that damn big.

Happy Lunar New Year, once again, from....



Teabone, aka "Almost Infamous" Anthony

Top 10 Signs You Are Addicted to World of Warcraft

10. Your colleague says "I'm sick, I need to go on an MC run", and you wonder if he's already attuned.

9. You refer to dates out with your wife as "Wife Faction Quests", except you know you will never be Exalted.

8. You refer to talking about WoW on a date with your wife as "generating aggro".

7. Punctuation marks are -much- more meaningful now.

6. One question mark good, two question marks bad.

5. You think Elf/Tauren babies are acceptable dietary supplements.

4. Chinese New Year is a big deal (especially if you are a farmer).

3. You think this comic strip is a hilarious joke.

2. You -don't- think this comic strip is a joke at all.

1. You organise group outings with the preface "LFG".

Meme of 4

Tagged by The Notorious C.H.I.A


4 Jobs You’ve Had In Your Life

Salesman selling Post-It's at a Post Office (I kid you not)
Management Flunkie in an ill-conceived Dot-Com
Lawyer in a mid-sized law firm
Legal counsel in a tiny telecommunications start-up


4 Movies You Could Watch Over And Over

Kung Fu Hustle
A Better Tomorrow
Fighter in the Wind
Transformers the Movie (and with that I display my age)

4 TV Shows You Love(d) To Watch

The Daily Show with John Stewart
CSI Las Vegas
Drawn Together
Visionaries

4 Places You’ve Been On Vacation To

Hong Kong + Shenzhen
Sydney + Hunter Valley
Santa Cruz
Tokyo

4 Places You Would Rather Be

South Africa
In space, preferably with a space suit on
The Orient Express
In an underwater dome

4 Of Your Favourite Foods

Mom's fried bee hoon
Roast Duck
Fried Carrot Cake
Stanley's Ice Cream

4 Websites You Visit

Something Positive
Questionable Content
PvP
Penny Arcade

4 Tagged

The Hungry Bunny
Victoria
Gloria
Brenda

Medisearch

I've been asked by a friend to plug a new free webservice, so here goes.

Medisearch is Singapore's first medical services website searchable by location and operating hours. Pretty useful, if you happen to be stuck in the office and need a doctor for an MC badly.

Take a look for yourself.

www.medisearch.com.sg

My First Road Trip

It has been almost 7 months since I first made The Move. To my shame, I haven't really been sightseeing around the area. This was something I remedied yesterday. We took our first road trip to Santa Cruz, home of some really famous surfing spots.

Downtown Santa Cruz


Santa Cruz Downtown

Our first stop was to the Visitor Center in Santa Cruz. We got there too early, so we spent some time chilling out at the Macdonalds opposite. At the Visitor Center we were redirected to downtown Santa Cruz. We spent some time exploring the cute downtown and assembling supplies for our foray into the Santa Cruz coastline.


Clock Tower at the end of Santa Cruz downtown

We did not, however, manage to find what we wanted - a picnic basket. After some discussion, we headed to another possible location where we could obtain picnic food - the Santa Clara Wharf

Santa Clara Wharf

The Wharf was a tourist attraction in its own right. Extending a half-mile from the coast, it is also the nesting place of many a seagull, pigeon and sea lion.



Don't seagulls just look rude?



Sealions taking a break from mating season



Mommy and Baby Sealion

I personally liked the Sealions. You could hear them barking from under the wharf. At first, I thought they were seagulls until I actually -heard- a seagull caw.

I missed a really good photo opp though. From the wharf we saw a sealion catch a fish, only to be attacked by a particularly rude seagull wanting its share of the spoils. The sealion dived under the water to escape and we never saw that sealion again.

We bought some really bland fish and chips and headed to our next stop, Lighthouse Point, for an improvised picnic.

Lighthouse Point

Lighthouse Point is a lighthouse (duh!) converted into a Surfing Museum. It also has some of the best views of the Pacific Coastline I've ever seen.



We also saw surfers. I never realised how dangerous the sport could be until I saw this...


Surfers climbing down jagged rocks

I could only imagine what happened if the waves got too big and wached these surfers onto these rocks.

Still I reckon they had fun, even if it was a lot of paddling for a couple of seconds of surfing.



With that, we headed for our final destination.

Natural Bridges State Park

We headed here on the recommendation of the Vistor Center. We hoped to catch a glimpse of Monarch Butterfly clusters. Instead, all we got along the path was this...


A felled tree blocking the nature trail

We then proceeded to catch some tidal land pools, and the natural bridge for which the park was named.





Dinner

Dinner deserves a special entry. It was a letdown. We returned to the wharf for dinner after exploring the coastline for the afternoon. My wife and I were of the same opinion - that salt and spices must be REALLY expensive in Santa Cruz.

Names are withheld to protect the guilty.

I'm glad we made the trip. With some luck, we'd be able to head down to Half Moon Bay or Napa sometime in the near future.

I Knew It!

A while back, a friend of mine asked me for an opinion on YouThink, Singapore Straits Time's new youth column. I was a little hesitant, given Straits Time's track record for creative quoting, but since it was a friend who asked, I sent him a quote, and kept the original copy for myself.

Here's what Straits Times quoted.

"'YouthInk is a symbolic gesture in the right direction. I acknowledge the pressing need to make our youth feel engaged in Singapore's social structure. At the very least, it symbolises an attempt to show the youth of Singapore that their views actually matter.

'However, as a forum for youth expression, YouthInk has a long way to go.

'A young voice is powerful because it is young, free from the preconceived 'wisdom' that afflicts adults. It took a child to question the emperor's nakedness. Yet, in the articles I have seen, there wasn't a single one that posed the tremendously difficult questions that the youth are privileged to ask.

'Two articles on blogging advocated simple truisms without further analysis - that we should be responsible with what we write online. Why is no one challenging the conventional models of career success? Why does no one question why young people are flocking to the modelling profession in droves?' -- ANTHONY LIM, 29, currently doing postgraduate studies in San Francisco"

And here's my full text.

"I appreciate the vote of confidence. As you well know, I am not exactly a fervent supporter of mainstream media. If the objective is to get a counterpoint to how well YouThink is doing, you might have come to the right place. If the objective, however, is to get a quote useable by the Straits Times, I'm pretty sure you've asked the wrong person.

Nevertheless, since you've asked, here's what I think.

YouThink is a symbolic gesture in the right direction. I acknowledge the pressing need for mainstream media, and the Government by extension, to make youths feel engaged in Singapore social structure. At the very least, YouThink symbolises an attempt to show the youths of Singapore that their views actually matter.

However, as a forum for youth expression, YouThink has a long way to go.

A young voice is powerful because it is young, free from preconceived "wisdom" that afflicts adults. It took a child to question the emperor's nakedness. This is perhaps the greatest lesson that YouThink should take to heart. Before the eyes of youth, we are all naked.

Yet, in the six articles sent to me, I have not read a single one that poses the tremendously difficult questions that the youth are priviledged to ask. Two of the six articles simply advocate more of the same - a top down, government-driven approach to solve problems. The two articles on blogging advocate simple truisms without further analysis - that we should be responsible with what we write online.

Wherein lies the wisdom of youth? Why is no one asking whether the modern Singapore student wield so much power that teachers are unable to do their jobs? Why is no one challenging the conventional models of career success? Why does no one question why young people are flocking to the modelling profession in droves?

I do not know, nor do I wish to speculate as to this cause. What I am certain of is this - the day that such questions are asked and published is the day YouThink, and all of Singaporean society, has arrived.

I pray fervently for that day to arrive."

The parts in bold are the portions that Straits Times omitted. Not a terrible omission, but one that takes a lot of force out of my opinion. My wife points out the irony of the omissions - that the truly provocative questions have been omitted.

I believe these omissions speak for themselves.

Symmetry

I am home, having left home.

Buddhists believe in a cycle of karma and retribution. Taoists believe that events occur in natural cycles. Historians believe those who do not know history are doomed to repeat history. Scientists believe that beautiful people are beautiful because their faces are symmetrical.

Such was my visit to Singapore.

I started my acting stint 12 years ago, in the ACJC drama club. My first production was the Merchant of Venice. I played Solanio. The drama teacher in charge at the time had it in her head that we'd look interesting in chinese costumes. We wore awful satin sam-fu's and most of us didn't have a clue what our lines meant. We acted to a huge audience in the AC auditorium.

12 years later, I headed to the Substation to watch the Merchant of Venice done by the current batch of AC Drama. What else can I say about the production, apart from singing its praises? This was the first time AC Drama had used a live band for its musical performance. Electric Guitars, Drums, Bongos even. The results were spectacular, to say the least. They are part of the Art Elective Program now. I say they've earned it.

****

12 months ago, I started playing World of Warcraft. I stumbled around, pretty lost. That's the price I paid for being an early adopter. No information, no news, and no one to help me around. I changed server three times, moved from Alliance to Horde, and played almost every character in the process except the Paladin. I remember being scoffed as being an addict, and told that no one else would join me in the game except me bro and Apocalyptic Wen.

When I moved to California, I stopped playing for a long time. I had a level 46 troll shaman which I gave up in frustration. My bro and Wen operated at a time zone that I couldn't coordinate with. I tried hard to keep in touch through WoW, but no one was there.

When I returned this time, my friends were talking about nothing but WoW. The guild which I signed the original charter had grown tremendously in my absence. Apocalyptic Wen was the guildmaster. I recall the days of dragging Apocalyptic Wen's cloth-covered ass down dungeons for equipment. They all made me a promise - come back, and they would help me get back in shape. For some odd reason, they were happy to see me back.

I've been playing again for the last week, and I've got a level 24 Tauren Druid. All that playing around with other classes allowed me to understand Druids better than most starters.

****

12 is a magical number. There are 12 months to a solar year. Both the Chinese and Western Zodian have 12 constellations. There are 12 numbers on a clock. 12 is the number of the cycle completed. 12 is the number of renewal.

As I had struggled 12 years before, so does AC Drama now bear fruit. As I had struggled 12 months before to help, so I am now helped. It all came round.

Symmetry is beautiful. Beauty is Symmetrical.