Used to take the normal version of these pills when i was in canoeing. Worked pretty well and made me super alert during class. Friend passed me a whole bottle of the hardcore version the other day cos he took one pill at 11am and could not sleep till 5am the next day.

Some user review quotes that alarmed me:

“Could not sleep” (heard this one 20 times)

“Works like a charm but heart palpitations made me stop” (WTF!!!!!!!)

“Any fat consumed just ‘passed’ out my system” (gross man…)

So needless to say, i am a little scared. Maybe i shouldn’t. Yeap. Plus, are pills supposed to look this scary? You can’t really see it but there are like white streaks and the liquid inside is red and glittery.

This post and its importance may be lost to some but for those of you with whom i have been embroiled with in an eternal struggle with regards to the colour of my car, i thought i would put an end to this with a little write-up.

A few necessary presumptions are in order:

1) I am not colour blind, having passed the pilot medical, so please assume this to be true. The SAF just can’t be wrong =p

2) I have always said my car is blue while u ppl say its green. I have, at the very most, retreated to ‘greenish blue’ and you have all, at the very most, said its bluish green. Damn bloody stubborn.

3) The presumption above can be reduced to me saying my car is more blue than green while you guys say its more green than blue. Why do we do this? Cos most of us cannot tell the difference between ‘cerulean’ and ‘teal’ the way Meryl Streep did in the Devil Wears Prada. So something is either blue or green depending on which base colour we see more of.

So let me present the evidence now.

1st and foremost – this is a picture of my car, ironically with a lot of green in front of it.

Argument number 1

So first let’s see what Hyundai (the company that chose the colour, painted it and sold it) chose to name it as:

Teal Blue.

Here’s the link: http://www.hyundai.co.uk/newCars/tucson/colours/

For those who argue over what ‘teal’ means – some ppl and websites say its ‘blue-green’, others say its ‘bluish-green’ and some others say ‘its greenish-blue’. It does not matter here cos Hyundai added the word ‘blue’ after teal so you know what they are trying to classify it as. Besides their other blue shade is called ‘marine blue’ so the ‘teal blue’ version must just be another in that ‘family’ of blue colours.

Result:

Argument number 2

Wikipedia. Now i know some of you may be squirming saying its not realiable but the thing is that w.r.t colors, they take their material off CSS/HTML definitions of the colour and reputable sources like “Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill”. So think of it as a ‘concentrated’ source. Now if you look thru the colours in their main page, this looks closest to my car:

Teal

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teal_%28color%29

Now if you look at the R, G, B, numbers – the values for green and blue are the same – 128. So i guess we can call this one a draw at best. Even though teal is usually defined as greenish blue. But whatever.

Argument 3

Very tired already. Plus damn waste time!!!!!! So. Unless u can show me evidence to the contrary, i rest my case.  Shall post pics from rugby game i went to tomorrow. and scary hydroxycut pill. Stay tuned!

10 things about Primary School in the 90’s i will not forget:

1. The coloured sticky tape u attach to the top corner of exercise books

2. Carrying workbooks to and fro from Teachers’ Room

3. Buttoning all the way to the top (even when not wearing my tie)

4. How, when talking about street fighter, ppl pronounce it “Goolie” and “Raayoo”

5. Starving myself so that i could buy Dragonball Z cards and ‘country flag’ erasers

6. Teacher saying ‘use 2 batteries’ and me using 8 batteries in series to light the bulb during Science practical classes

7. Escaping BCG by saying i had important violin recital – twice.

8. The prestige of bringing a ‘Discman’ during excursions when everyone else had cassette players

9. Having one of those ‘Tiger’ handheld games while looking longingly at other ppl’s Gameboy

10. Playing football with crushed up tetra pak cos ball sports were banned during recess

10 things about Secondary School i will not forget:

1. Bullying Jayaraj – but only cos i was bullied by others so it was my way of ‘venting’ =)

2. Danesh laughing when i told him i was joining Cricket, cos i was not ’sporty’

3. Not being able to do a single pull-up for 4 years

4. How shoes had to be 75% white when wearing school uniform

5. ICC and how we kicked ass at RGS all arts

6. ICC playing soccer and how i dislocated by hand – and someone yelling at me to stop faking it

7. Seeing something… ‘out of this world’ late at night in RI while boarding

8. Playing the ‘Eliminator’* with Adib, Syahid, Shaiful and Faizal

9. G-Shock and Alba Spoon

10. Burning the OHP and punished by holding a paper saying ‘i will not burn the OHP’ for 10 mins every recess for 2 weeks – in the Teachers’ Room

*The Eliminator was a challenge where 4 ppl will do 4 things to you while u sit on a chair:

1) ‘Kali maaa’ to your chest – From Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

2) ‘Calculator’ to your head – rubbing a knuckle on on your scalp super fast

3) ‘Nipple twist’ – self explanatory

4) ‘Buzzer’ – poking your hip, the lamest one ( i came up with it)

the basic idea was to see how long u would stay in that chair. I did respectibly, lasting about 25 seconds and coming in 2nd while Adib was the runaway winner – 1min 23 seconds. And only cos we got so frustrated we just started beating him up to get him off the chair – talk abt perseverence.

No its not really a diatribe. Just thought i’d use a little alliteration. Miss literature u see. Anyway, in the past few years, i have been exposed to more dance than i have in the rest of my life combined – and it has been great. The exhilaration of performing on stage and the facial expressions and acting cool unique to tamilian dancing is something that i treasure and 2 sangaes and 1 roadshow and a dhool will attest to that. As a NUS group, we’ve seen the best (acidhouz’s performance, dhool 07 final) and worst (multiple – shall not bother) of others and we’ve had our own ups and downs.

BUT.

Just to put things in perspective as to where we stand on a global level. Watch this.

Damn the japs and their attitude towards, well, everything. I can’t even do a normal moonwalk!!!!! (you’ll know what i mean if u watch it)

“Video games are bad for you? That’s what they said about rock and roll “

- Shigeru Miyamoto.

I love video games. Sure, so do quite a few guys my age. The thing unique abt our generation is that our games grew up with us. 20 years ago, it would take a very strange man to play Super Mario for hours while in his late 30s. Today, however, games have evolved with the times, catering for the young and old. Games with adult themes and difficulties (e.g. manhunt, starcraft, crysis, gears of war) are churned out weekly and there is always Pro evo (winning eleven for you asians.. heh heh) for the dull days.

So back to my point. I am still a kid. Why? Cos i just bought my Nintendo DS and guess what is the first game i get?

Yeap. Its a game abt a bunch of guys who solve perilous missions (think 007) by dancing their way thru them (think para para). Your job is to use the stylus and tap on the touch screen in rhythm to the song (which ranges from YMCA to sk8er boi). The missions range from saving the world to helping a teenage girl get a boyfriend while babysitting some kids. So yeah, feel free to tell me i am immature cos i love it. Besides, that is why i bought this t-shirt a week ago:

Dead bored on a tuesday night as there is absolutely nothing to do so thought id write a post. Before i forget, for those of you who have not, please watch The Brave One when it comes out in s’pore and if it is already out, trust me its worth your money. Its got something for everyone – for the girls, there’s jodie foster’s awe-inspiring acting and the cinematography and directing is great as well. For the guys, well there’s a nice cataclysmic mix of vengeance and cold-blooded murder. Its like watching a more down to earth Punisher movie – of sorts. But it was one of those movies where you’re still staring at the screen even when the credits start rolling so yeah..

Second, i know i’m late but i just watched the 2 girls 1 cup video! That was some nasty s***!!! Was having COCO POPS at the time too… Nice. For those of you who don’t know what i’m talking abt, good. Dun watch it. Seriously. You’re not gonna listen to me are you? Well have fun and dun say i didn’t warn ya.

Third, i thought i’d blog more abt the trip. Belgium this time. It was actually my fav place, brussels. There was much to do and it was so much nicer and cleaner than the ‘commercialized’ cities (paris comes to mind). I’d let the pics do the talking.

Would show you the day time scenery if not for the fact that i was just too cold during the day cos it was snowing so heh. Btw they have the coolost comic museum cos tintin and the smurfs originated here and one of the writers of Asterix as well (Remember Gluteus Maximus??).

And so ends a very stoned post. Cos i’m bored. Ah well at least there’s ultimate practice tomorrow. Ciao.

All in all it was awesome. Really tiring (cos of long travelling, which was cos of multiple budget airlines/buses/trains, which was cos no $$) but awesome. First place we went to was Fort William in Scotland. I know most ppl usually go to Glasgow or Edinburgh but I chose it cos i always wanted to go there since i first watched Highlander. Braveheart just confirmed it for me and i knew tt it would be worth it to brave the weather, the long journey and the scottish accent so that i could see it all for myself. If you’ve never watched Highlander, watch this to know why this is a must see location in Europe:

See what i mean:

The picture above was taken on the way to the top of Ben Nevis – the highest peak in the U.K. Its really easy to get to the top (we only went half way cos night comes at 4pm in winter and we started late) but usually its really cold (averaging sub-zero temps even in Summer) and u need hiking boots, which we did not have.

Going out for walks along the countryside yielded remarkable views as well – Thought this pic had an almost monet like quality to it (have been going to way too many museums, surimasen ) :

And this one was just cool since i was in it:

Well as you can see – there ain’t much else to do in Fort William – even the bars close early. So in the evenings, we would just stay in our hostel room and watch dvds with our American roommate. Yes yes i admit it, we watched Braveheart. We just had to la.

The commute back (via Glasgow) was such a bitch. There is so much i could complain abt but i won’t. Additionally, here’s a tip for future scotland travellers – do not assume that bus stations are good places to rest and wait for your 4am flight in an attempt to save money on accomm. Cos they ain’t indoors. And its -3 degrees on some winter days. I really felt for the homeless that night as i got a taste of what they go thru 3 months every year.

But that being said, i really wanna go back cos there was so much left to do in Fort William (in terms of hiking) and i’m gonna brainwash some of you to come as well for some 12 hour hiking fun.

Dun worry, Paddington.

(This article is part of a 4-part series – to be continued soon!)

Lemme clarify something abt men.

Ladies, its not that guys don’t want to listen to your problems. We do. Be it becuz its a close friend, becuz its your gf and you have no choice or becuz a guy just wants to get in your pants. We really DO want to listen.

It’s just that it is a little hard when 10 pages of a letter/ 15 mins of dialogue monologue can be compressed to a few sentence. As Ross says, its hard when “it’s 5 in the morning, and you had RAMBLED on for 18 pages – FRONT & BACK!!”. Granted it’s Jennifer Aniston, but it still does not excuse her from exercising brevity. C’mon we all had the same English Summary classes in sec/jc right?

Ironically, just when i had this thought a lecturer told us that in China, men used to be able to get a divorce on the grounds of ‘the wife being too talkative’ – i laughed so hard that day that a few tears came out. And i know a few ppl who would be in SO MUCH trouble if they were in China (no names mentioned for i value my life).

So there. Pretty much all i wanted to say (see how easy it is!) – but i will leave you with a video from Chris Rock (again):

P.S. >>it has to be said – any reference to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental (i.e. it ain’t you ___________(insert name here))

No pictures this time fellas, you’ve been warned. Thought i’d post about some random stuff before watching The Matrix with flatmates later (yes we are that bored). I guess it’s cool that its a retro movie cos i’m pretty much talking abt retro stuff this post as well. 4 sub-headers, so here i go:

1) 10 Canoeing Moments i will never forget

a) Jason Wong doing an acoustic version (minus guitar and well, anything else acoustic) of She Bangs by Ricky Martin after Christine’s farewell at some random walkway in Orchard.

b) Christine.

c) Alvin Cai doing no-hand cartwheels in front of the cineleisure box office as we wait for our movie to start.

d) David’s absolutely funny comments that only i ever heard and his no-talking-on-race-day policy which i openly ridiculed and secretly respected.

e) That f***ing slope near the red house after training (you ain’t a Rafflesian if u don’t know what i mean).

f) Alvin chow’s saliva sticking to his face at the end of a 500m race.

g) Singing canoeists whom i always wished would stop.

h) Cheryl playing ‘who got bigger balls’ (the irony…) against a dragon boat with MY K2 craft…. Poor baby (Boat, not Cher)

i) Kevin and Yuan having the same clothes, school bag and other accessories (queers.)

j) The 165 gang

2) Platonic friendships

(edit: when u read this plz dun think i mean i guy and a girl can’t be friends. you know what i mean)

This one’s simple really but it took me 8 years to figure out. But to all those out there who still, at the age of 21-25, define their ‘relationship’ with a person of the opposite sex with terms like ‘platonic’ and other like terms are just, say it with me…. kidding themselves. You know that for a FACT. Well i think that’s all i have to say abt this topic but i will leave you with a Chris Rock quote:

“What women term a ‘platonic friend’ is merely a dick in a glass case – you know, ‘break in case of emergency’. There ain’t no such thing for a man, no no no there ain’t. There’s only girls that we haven’t f***ed YET“.

Unless of course you get into the ‘friends’ zone but that’s just drivel not worth mentioning now.

3) Chavs and the Singapore equivalent

For those who don’t know what a Chav is, it is a person from an underclass of society here in the U.K. that is pretty hard to define but i think things will all make sense to you when i try to parallel-import the term here – Anjadis for my tamilian friends and Ah beng, Ah lian for my manjan mates) . You see i came across this peculiar class of ppl when doing research for my criminology module and a quote in particular really got my attention. Now, just remember, when u read it, keep your singapore equivalent in mind to see how true the following is:

“Humanoid in appearance, but primitive and animalistic in nature, chavs are fast
becoming the bane of humanity. Now all but classified as a completely separate
species, chavs took the left fork of the road of evolution when everybody else went
right.
The chav is like a wild beast… Their main source of food is found at the local
McDonald’s, where a Big Mac and fries will see them tamed for over twenty minutes
. . . Chavs are responsible for the crime ratings [sic] increase that their country of origin
has seen over the last 5 years. Unfortunately, chavs are seen as the cancer of the United Kingdom and as such, many professionals have been searching for a cure. As of yet,
all known cures are still illegal.”

4) Miscellaneous

Came across a sign in the school toilet (just beside the club) the other day that said:

I Love Leicester uni.

Lastly, was saving up some money so that i could either buy an IPOD touch or a PSP. But guess what, i’ll be spending the 500 bucks on this instead:

God i love illogical decisions.

Went to Loughborough (ed pronounced it loogaborooga) last weekend (edit – Vim actually believes its pronounced loogabarooga.) for the beginners’ ultimate frisbee tournament. Basically it’s a 5 a-side competition that only allows those who’ve played the game less than 3 months to compete (with one experienced person who has to wear some sort of head gear). It was really fun cos it’s been a long time since i played a competitive sport.

Some pics:

Some ppl got real innovative with their ‘head gear’:

Our captain played the second day in the party costume from the night before:

Since i’ve mentioned him, i might as well say a few words. Meet Joe. Joe is a natural athlete. Joe played for just one year before becoming indoor team captain. Joe is taller than me. Joe is faster than me. Joe is smarter than me. So if u are asking wat kind of idiot plays in pyjamas and a silly hat, its cos he can.

One thing i love abt the game is its emphasis on ‘the spirit of the game’. Firstly there are no referees. We make our own calls and the opponents can contest it if they want to – someone usually graciously gives in so being a bastard is highly frowned upon. Second, both teams get together after each match for some fun and games. And brits can come up with some seriously funny stuff:

In this game, you pass around a can of beer and you have to use your head and smash the can open. First one to do so takes a sip, smashes his head against it again to make the hole bigger and passes it on. Point of the game? none really. But its good fun:

Some ninja game where you have to pass on the slash of death – ppl start yelling ‘mitsubishi’ and ‘toyota corolla’ after a while:

Joe usually wins these games as well. pfeh.

I learnt a few things that weekend. For example here’s a way to do a proper huddle:

Here’s a negative demonstration (seriously):

All in all it really was good fun and i’m glad i went. We came in 12th out of 32 teams – not too bad but sad really, as we were 3rd at the end of the first day and slipped 9 places on day 2. Oh well…. playing in team 2 for the regionals tomorrow at nottingham – that’s the real deal. Hope it goes well for Jesters 2 (my team)! Wish me luck guys and i’ll cya in 2 days!

some parting pics:

Kung fu Kumar: