JmaX

I originally wanted a more poetic and melancholic tone for this post, but the instant I started to type it, the inspiration just dissipated from my head. URGH.
What can I say, I can never stay angry with ’someone’ for long, it’s just not possible. That’s a good thing, thankfully. 2 months have passed in the blink of an eye, though it felt ever so long with so much having gone through. I must say that’s quite an amazing feat for me, that a short 2 months can bear so much.
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I ought to be thankful. For the first time, I get to really feel what it means to be responsible, not just to myself, but to my other half too. Of course, all these is in my own interpretation and realisation of the important ingredients that fuel a relationship. Different situations that arise, be it happy or sad, anger or nonchalance, require a more delicate approach than how one would normally react around friends or acquaintances.
Even so, there’s much to learn down this path, for I have not had the chance to experience what it means to be able to be maintain flexibility, freshness, unfaltering devotion, and mutual content in the long-term. Indeed, maintaining a long-term relationship, or even a marriage, is one that takes a lot of maturity, communication, and magnanimity. I’m constantly learning…
Quarrels, disputes, disagreements naturally come part of the package, and often than not it is the bane of most, if not all, failed relationships. A lack of understanding and patience, even maturity in some cases, arises when one is unable or unwilling to communicate and share, leading to an endless flow of petty disputes that remain unaddressed, which will eventually contribute to the greater evil that initiates a split. I’m no guru of relationships, not while I’m inexperienced, but at least I want to find the determination to make sure that “greater evil” doesn’t materialise.
Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong and I’m really happy with the way things are. I’m merely indulging in a self-evaluation of my experiences.
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I notice an acquaintance on MSN who has only 1 kind of MSN nicks: the FUCKING EMO BEYOND HOPE kind.
I don’t want to be mean, but honestly this is the kind of emo that annoys people a lot; I don’t even need to talk to him to feel totally turned off.
An example of a nick: “U are not deserved to love anymore. *****,wake up. U are idiot,really is a idiot!!!”
Like I said, I have no intention to be nasty or nosy because I can’t be bothered, but every nick from this person so far has been along these lines. In fact, I dare say some of you might even know him…
Firstly, you keep telling yourself to wake up, so please fucking wake up the right way. Wallowing in the worsest of self-pity doesn’t gain anyone’s sympathy, neither does it help you get the person you’re interested in. I know this pretty sure myself. (let’s just say I had my fair share of despondency, though not this exaggerated or annoyingly loud)
Secondly, if you think that the uber-ridiculously-fucking-emo image is going to gain you some awwww-points and hitch you a nice person, you are way too deluded I wouldn’t even want to smack you awake. Tell me, would any person in the right of mind want to get newly attached to a depressed soul? It would mean endless baby-sitting, psychological counselling, and double the emotional work since emo-you has spent all your time being emo and is incapable of understanding and acting on the emotional needs of a relationship. In this case, seeing a shrink (or psychologist if you don’t know what’s a shrink) would be far more beneficial than getting attached.
Thirdly, as long as you remain like that, you will constantly view everything in the saddest way possible. Ever wondered why no job seems to suit you that you need to keep looking for a new job? Have you thought about why you feel so empty inside, and you always ache terribly when someone you have an interest in dates someone else or even gets attached? Did you consider the real root of your depression? Obviously not, not when you fail to realise that YOU are your problem.
If you’re not even contented with you yourself, no one else but you, a single you, there’s no way you can have the determination to get through life’s daily struggles. A relationship involves two people who are primarily mature enough to be self-sufficient and confident, secondarily able to communicate, understand, and compromise with each other with great magnanimity, thirdly able to actively provide positivity and mutuality to fuel and strengthen the relationship in the long-term. Honestly, happiness in a relationship is 2-way, not solely one party constantly feeding the deficiencies of the other. It is true that people tend to go for someone who is humble yet self-confident, because these people know their limits and capabilities and how to achieve their highest potential, and hence these people are more “fun” to be with.
At the end of the day, my point is that you need to learn to love yourself first and foremost before you even consider venturing out to the world of relationships. Relationships require much more than what you usually give yourself.
I quote from an email a friend sent me:
THE KEY TO SUCCEEDING IN MARRIAGE IS NOT FINDING THE RIGHT PERSON; IT’S LEARNING TO LOVE THE PERSON YOU FOUND.
SUSTAINING love is not a passive or spontaneous experience. It’ll NEVER just happen to you. You can’t “find” LASTING love. You have to “make” it day in and day out. That’s why we have the expression “the labor of love.” Because it takes time, effort, and energy. And most importantly, it takes WISDOM. You have to know WHAT TO DO to make your marriage/relationship work.
Hey *****, how do you feed a relationship when you can’t even feed yourself first?
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Keep your eyes on me, won’t you?

Just yesterday we celebrated Daniel’s birthday. I shall not go into details of what we did, instead the focus of this post is on our visit to Heaven’s Loft at Orchard Central.
Honestly, I didn’t know Orchard Central has opened, even though the official launch is in July. Some shops have already opened, they include Celio*, Nike, Tonkichi, Ben & Jerry’s INSIDE Heaven’s Loft. The first thing I felt while inside Orchard Central, was that it felt like Clarke Quay’s Central… Crammed, maze-y, confusing, narrow, a very good place for kids to play hide-and-seek.
There are open-air verandahs on different levels of the building, offering a night-view of Orchard Central’s neighbours. The unique thing about such a view is that it’s never been seen before in that area, and there’s this tinge of emo-ness and melancholy that seems perfect for a scene right out of a drama serial (as according to Dayvid,” *drama-tone* 你要的钱我会还给你的，你还要什么？”).
It still too early to tell whether Orchard Central is going to be truly boring like how Clarke Quay’s Central is, or would it house a whole a fresh new chain of boutiques. Also, it seems that there’s going to be an indoor park on the 13th storey, that had better be a saving grace too.
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We visited Heaven’s Loft on the 8th floor (or maybe 7th).

I’m going to be very honest. I don’t like the decor there, I don’t like certain aspects of the service there, and the only saving grace is that Heaven’s Loft has a partnership with Ben & Jerry’s so ALL the desserts are from the Ben & Jerry’s stand in the cafe-restaurant itself.
Decor: The silver cushioned seats are hard and uncomfortable. The moving spaces in between tables are so narrow and crammed. The lighting is alright being low and UV-neon-ish. The ceiling design comprises uniquely angled and shaped mirror panels, with LCD screens showing the stage outside. I don’t see the point of having those LCD screens flat on the ceiling, it’s a pain for diners to look up vertically to see what’s on the screen so effectively no one would; if no one bothers to look up, those screens are going to be a waste of money and electricity.

Service: Standard politeness in speaking tone and behaviour of the staff is there. What drives me totally ANAL AND IMMENSELY ANNOYED is that THEY CLAIM THAT THEY DO NOT SERVE ICE WATER, OR EVEN JUST PLAIN TAP WATER, instead they could only provide hot water, or bottled water (which means paying for water). So all of us asked for a cup of hot water since that’s the only water that’s free. What’s further amusing is that while that’s what they claim, we could clearly see the bar guy serving kids from another table with a constant flow of plain ICED WATER. GLASS AFTER GLASS AFTER GLASS AFTER GLASS AFTER GLASS AFTER GLASS. SERIOUSLY WHAT THE FUCK!? That’s plain bias in the treatment of customers. A possible reason could have been because we only ordered from the dessert menu, which would mean from B&J’s and not from their kitchen. Even then I don’t see why they should differentiate like this since they have a partnership with B&J.
Let’s face the facts Heaven’s Loft: Firstly, obviously B&J is far more famous and is going to be the very reason why people would even step into a restaurant that is 7-8 storeys high, so if you continue to treat customers like that, people would rather visit B&J outlets the rest of town than your place. Secondly, with all your competitors throughout Orchard having signature dishes that people love, and serving free-flow of plain iced TAP water to customers, do you think you can survive being so stingy?
Heaven’s Loft? Seriously I don’t think Heaven is a place where people get angry, and get denied of plain tap water…
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Lousy service bitchings aside, we were the first customers to order the Vermonster at B&J @ Heaven’s Loft!!! That means a complimentary camera shot by the B&J crew and our picture will be on the B&J board there. LOL it’s hilarious, that they’re first Vermonster customers are a bunch of erm… people (if you get what I mean)!

20 scoops of icecream, toppings of nut, M&Ms, chocolate rice, candy flakes, brownies, cookies, cookie dough, chocolate fudge, caramel, a whole canister of whipped cream. I know, this is TOTALLY sinful!!!

THIS is what we call HEAVEN.
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Vvvvvvermonster KILL!

Recently, JS posted a video about Project Naval. Seriously, it blew me off my seat!
Just watch and see why:

This is gaming on orgasmic levels!
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Remember the days where you slugged your life out doing endless arrows of sai kang, repeated your IPPT/SOC and field trainings over and over meaninglessly, yearned for every nights out, every off and leave and public holiday?
Wonder what all that would be like in a Final Fantasy game?
Check this out:

Credits go to NCH Animations for creating this erm… “cute” animation.
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Let’s face it, MANY of us somehow get hooked to facebook games. On first look we’d say it looks stupid/corny/dumb/childish/lame/no-life/boring, the next moment we (or most of us) get hooked on it, staring at it aimlessly daily, hourly, minute-ly, second-ly!
It all started with the immensely popular Word Challenge and Geo Challenge, and people go ballistic trying beat everyone else (they still do anyway). Who would’ve known these 2 games indirectly pitted everyone’s language power, geography general knowledge, and most importantly, their reaction and mouse clicking (or spamming) skills.
Then came the uber cute Pet Society. For once, being sociable became the IN thing. Why? Because the only way to earn money was to visit as many friends’ pets as possible daily, interact with the pets and then clean or rub those pets whatsoever, win the pets race 10 times daily, or go picking random coins in the field all just to earn that few hundred in-game cash. Guess what? That jukebox everyone wants costs 20,000 cash. So… Happy visiting!!!

The latest craze in the list, Restaurant City. Own a restaurant that expands with each level, own a few friends including yourself and give those little people jobs like cook, waiter, cleaner, or rest (reluctantly), feed those impatient and attitude customers and hope they eat faster and leave earlier and give a thumbs up, make sure all litter is clear and toilets clean, increase the menu level through frantic trading of ingredients with friends. Now that’s quite a mouthful!

I personally prefer Restaurant City as compared to Pet Society. It’s easier to earn cash, items cost cheaper (I’ve yet to see anything hitting 5 digit, YET), and somehow it’s more fun observing ugly idiots cook and wait on more ugly idiots. Honestly, watching your pet prance about like an ass is worse than boring!
The only thing about Restaurant City is the game server connection feels so flimsy. I get disconnected easily for no reason even while on full wifi-signal, whereas Pet Society never crashes on me.
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I should have posted this yesterday by 9am but I was far too lazy and tired, so I’m doing it now.
Last Saturday, Kwee Haan, Brian, and I took part in our virgin Sundown 42.195km, in fact this distance is our first too.
I realised that it pays to be minimally conditioned before taking on feats like this, because it requires a lot of stamina and endurance (both physical and mental). Hence, it’s important that one has been running fairly regularly of at least 10-20km before taking up long-distance marathons. Of course, supplements like power gels and energy drinks come in handy too, provided you’ve trained yourself to run with that extra weight. A full-body warm-up stretching is a must before runs, the intensity at which you’re running might cause upper body crams in your arms, back, or deltoids too. Carbo-loading and hydration the day of the run is essential as it jams your body with a huge influx of carbohydrates and fluids which will be burned off intensely during long-distance marathons; this includes more rice, noodles, pasta, potato, bananas, etc.

Picture 1: Before the run. Anticipating certain doom, we’re hoping to return before daybreak.
Picture 2: After the run. Elation and relief that we’ve triumphed! Hey the sky’s still dark! :D
During the run itself, maintaining an effective pacing and momentum is necessary to optimise one’s stamina. In the case of impending muscle cramps, there is a need to stop immediately to stretch that muscle group; it helps far better than allowing the muscle to fully cramp-up and limping the rest of the run. Many runners love to have their mp3 players plugged on, I’m no exception; it really helps to have your favourite upbeat songs (in my case it’s club remixes) taking your mind off the pain and inducing a stable running pace. At about 18km into the run during the East Coast stretch reaching the Siglap Park connector, the remix for Brandy’s ‘Long Distance’ started playing which was rather hilarious (imagine: With you is where I’d rather be, but we’re stuck where we are. It’s so hard, you’re so far. This long distance is killin’ me.) LOL!!!
Based on the visual timeboard, I came in at 5hrs 30min, far better than my expected timing of 6hrs even though I wasn’t feeling too well and kept coughing all through the run. I ought to thank the guy who rubbed my back towards the last 2-3km of the run when I coughed a bit too badly; throughout the race I saw runners who stopped to help the guy/lady cramping by the sides. Somehow it’s these little acts of paying it forward that give people an unforseen warmth and motivation to push on (I zoomed off after giving him a word of thanks LOL)!

It’s 6.30am in the morning, and we’ve just pwned 42.195km through the run!
Now that I’ve broken through the 42km mark, I feel a new found motivation to continue running as a hobby and participate in more events in the future!
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AHM’s next. Nike Human Race, Run for Hope, New Balance Real Run, and Stanchart anyone?