25 April 2014
Yes! Another success! I mean another girl chats with me! And she's pretty cute too. Not sure about her personality yet but a success is a success.
This one is slightly different - I had forgotten to ask for her number on the 23rd, and I just couldn't let it go since it's so hard to find any girls below 30 in these clubs, so I emailed her my number via her profile page. Usually, this doesn't work, and this is actually the first time an email has worked for me.
Woot!
This may be good but I must not expect much here. Cute fresh grad. She's going to attract a lot of guys for sure, regardless of her personality.
And today I got some horrible news - my elder staff is quitting to take care of her grandchildren. She's the only one who can handle the sewing machine, so this is really bad news for me. First thing is to ask the other staff if the friends she mentioned have any ability in sewing. Second is to push all the admin work that the elder one used to do to her. Third is to persuade her to be willing to stay back slightly longer if the transporter is late, which he is sometimes during our peak seasons.
As for myself, I will have to go back more frequently to make sure the new employee is doing ok.
C'est la vie.
26th April 2014
Spent the morning exercising before going to my bro's gf's home to 过大礼. Turned out to be nothing. All we did was bring some pastries over and the parents gave us some stuff in return. Dowry I think. Since we had no parents and we don't give a damn about the dowry, we had to bring back some tubs and some of the pastries.
After that, I was free. Pretty awesome day chatting with two ladies. The new girl, I had already asked to join me for flamenco tomorrow but I don't believe she will come. Doesn't matter, if it doesn't work out, I move on as usual.
Brains and beauty. Just young and lost. Still unsure about her. She seems to be warming up to me pretty quickly but I can't tell yet what kind of person she is. NUS fresh grad confused about what career to pick. From China too, but I don't mind since she's been here for a while.
28th April 2014
Met the cutest and most bubbly girl so far during the dance workshop but didn't manage to talk to her because she left immediately after it was over. Sucked.
Couldn't get her out of my mind; she made every single girls I've encountered in the last few months look plain.
The worst thing is that since we never got to chat, there was no opportunity to get her number. Letting go of someone like this just like that feels bad.
Hence there is that possibility that this will be one of those people you really like but will only meet once and never again.
C'est la vie?
What is this shit?
Although my detective skills and google-fu have led me to her facebook account, this is information that is useless by itself, unless I discover what she likes and fake a coincidental encounter. Wow, I bet girls would think this is creepy! Why am I even thinking this?
Is she really that fantastic?
I couldn't get her out of my mind the entire day and I'm blogging about her now at 8am the following day, so... maybe.
Yet according to the FB page she's the artsy type and very, very outgoing. Probably way younger than me too.
The best normal thing I can do is attend the final workshop and hope she comes again.
Or I could PM her on FB and say that it wasn't too hard to find her there after seeing her name on the instructor's website. Would that be creepy or is that just my emotions talking?
Am I just being shallow? I know I'm usually quite shallow but is this purely shallowness?
Or maybe I'm just crazy for bubbly girls.
Tentatively, I will PM her just that, but I MUST give it a few days. Let's see if I cool down enough to think clearly by Wednesday. She really was that attractive!
I don't want to simply give up on girls like that.
Or I can see if she comes for the next workshop. If she does, I'll ask. Otherwise, I'll PM her saying that I checked the instructor's website out of an interest in her classes and happened to see her name.
Not sure if I'm patient enough for the latter though.
29th April 2014
Ok, the fresh grad is distracting me enough that I don't think of her that much anymore. I'll just wait till this Sunday and ask for her number if she's attending the workshop again. Otherwise, I may message her.
The grad girl, just like most of the other girls, needs time to warm up. A little on the pessimistic side though easy enough to get her to be more positive, though she needs regular reminders.
Young, idealistic and disappointed that reality falls short of her expectations after graduation, she's not looking to settle down so this could be good if we really can click.
I think I'm just being shallow here, but practice is practice. I need to practce chatting with the ladies, seriously. At this point, I have yet to ask a girl out for an actual date. How do I even approach this topic?
Ok, I've confirmed that masturbating daily is bad. It makes me a terrible conversationalist by making my mind very sluggish. No wonder married couples only have sex 2-3 times a week. How can they operate at work if they do it whenever they can?
This is going to suck but I will need to bring my old Nokia N8 phone to camp with me for internet access for my iPad.
It all began with the realization that I can no longer rely on the 3G0-USB-dongle-cum-mobile-router combination to get 3G for all my devices since I no longer carry a bag every time I go out. The last time I tried, I bent it too much while it was inside my pocket and broke something inside.
This means I need to use a phone for this and I'm ordering a Lenovo P780 to serve this function. This phone, though not sold by any retailer in Singapore, has an insanely huge battery (40000mAh) and is dual-SIM. Browsing the web and messaging normally will get a user 30 hours of usage!
The catch is that its OS is badly optimized and doesn't have Gorilla Glass, so maybe that's why Lenovo didn't bother to market it here.
I've ordered it for less than S$320 on Qoo10 and it's going to take two weeks to get here. By then, I'll be almost done with reservist training that's starting this week. Hence during the training, I need an alternative makeshift setup to get 3G for all my stuff.
The problem now is that N8 can only create an ad-hoc network with an app, and the Windows OS of my Lumia 520 doesn't work with such a network. I can put the 3G data SIM in the Lumia but I don't want the hassle of moving stuff around and losing Whatsapp conversations, so I'm going to use the expensive 3G just for these two weeks.
As for the N8, I'll use it for my iPad which can work with such a network.
After that, I'll have the new phone that will be using both the data SIM and the N8's, and I'll finally retire the N8.
I don't think the grad girl is interested. Either that or she's more introverted than she thinks she is. It's taking quite a bit of effort to get her to start chatting, and although she seems happy enough when we talk, she ends our conversations and never resumes any.
Time to move on.
19th May 2014
Today I embark on yet another strange journey in life, the second so far. Before, it was merely the taking over of a mature business. This time, the risks are far greater than what I've ever expected myself to take.
There is a great chance that all my effort in this venture will yield not a single dollar.
Exploring new fields isn't a new field anymore.
By this point, it is undeniable that I'm a gambler now.
It is strange how such opportunities just suddenly appear out of nowhere. Never saw either of them coming before they hit me, and I've always said yes so far. Wonder if they were wise decisions, but I'll never know till I summarise my life some day.
20th May 2014
As for girls, I've stopped searching for new choices since just before my ICT a fortnight ago. Right now, I am in the dilemma I expected to be in right from the beginning - two very nice girls who seem ready for long-term relationships now like me.
The chances of this happening were not high to me before, but here I am, not knowing who to choose.
One won't be back till mid-June, while the other does not live in Singapore. The former is more of an unknown but is very ready to go on a date when she returns; the latter is probably ready for marriage already. I'm not even exaggerating about the second girl - I have had the approval of her parents and several relatives for months now. Apparently they praise me all the time in front of her, and she always asked me when I would fly over.
The biggest issue, IMO, is the fact that I am a Chinese (Chinese in race) businessman. As a businessman in this part of the world, it is inevitable that I will not be 100% faithful to whoever I marry. If I am to entertain clients, there are things I have to do to fit in, and this is a fact that the girl I end up marrying must accept.
The first girl, whom I currently like slightly more, seems to be of the idealistic opinion that her boyfriend must never cheat on her. The second girl is extremely close to the wife of my banker cousin, and he thinks that she is the sort who will accept anything just like her cousin and probably already knows enough about his personal life from his wife.
Now that I've put it this way, the second girl does seem to be better wife material. However, the first girl may accept it once I explain it to her what I expect to do in my future if I am to make more than the pittance I do now.
Simplest solution here is to wait, date the first girl a few times, then talk about this. But then again, I will never know for sure if she will be ok with it forever.
And to clarify, the first girl is the grad girl I mentioned last month earlier in this post, while the second is the girl I did the bungee-jump with at Auckland.
Funny how things turned out when this cousin tried to be my wingman for an evening. None of the girls at the wedding were viable options - those who were still single were so for good reasons. The final result of that evening was the contact of a KTV hostess at some shitty bar. It was strange to find a decent girl at the place like that, but currently in my life, strange is the new norm.
We found her to be decent despite her job for a few reasons.
First, when we shook hands, her hands were cold.
Second, she was quiet and shy like myself. The only time I touched her was during the handshake.
Third, she told me she worked there only because the boss didn't force them to do things they didn't want to.
Fourth, she refused the tip from my cousin even when he doubled the S$20 to S$40. That was when he suggested that she should give me her number.
I have doubts - on the Internet, there are tales of such girls beguiling men with their sob stories. According to my wingman, she was good for a fling and I agree, but
1) I am not looking for flings.
2) She may be lying all along and one day may convince me.
3) If she's really honest, that's even less reason to do this to her.
So I stopped talking to her after a few words on WeChat. Net result of that evening: absolutely nothing but poor opinions of the girls at the wedding.
Speaking of the wedding, my impromptu speeches were so different in quality. I hadn't had time to prepare during my reservist training so I googled a bit before I boarded the minibus and thought it up on the way there.
It seems that my English speech was very good but my Cantonese one was embarassing. Woot! At least one was good given the amount of preparation that went into them.
I have guts? What does it mean to have guts? If having guts means the willingness to do what is necessary, then yes I do have them. Yet if it is something I have to do regardless, why am I considered to be brave to do it? I am merely doing whatever needs to be done, that's all.
Oh, this isn't good. A third girl is asking me out on a date. Got to stop all these now. A tough decision between two girls is hard enough.
Tuesday, 20 May 2014
Friday, 25 April 2014
Rant 1194 / Movies First, Everything Else Second
27 March 2014
So I recently bought a set meal from the Korea Food Company instead of just the bibimbap like my first order there, and what I found really surprised me.
The kimchi was fantastic, far better than those I usually find in Korean restaurants in Seoul! The spring onion in it really made a huge difference. Next time, I'm ordering the other kimchis in their menu, like the radish kimchi, and when I go to NZ at the end of the year, I will bring a jar of this kimchi over since my uncle likes it.
$11 for a 1kg jar? Worth it.
The bibimbap was split over three meals although it was meant for 5-6 people, and it made me gain 4kgs temporarily. The japchae, which appeared to be glass noodles with vegetables, was awesome because of the sesame seed oil and sesame seeds. Finally, the chilli anchovies were a nice snack.
Now what shall I do with the steel chopsticks?
28th March 2014
Initially planned to chill at home this fine Friday evening and watch GSL on the new Twitch channel, maybe play The Last Remnant that I had just bought on Steam, but some chiobu asked me out for movie, got to give face.
Ok, that was an exaggeration. She's good-looking but not to the point of being a "chiobu", and there are a few others in the group. It was funny how she phrased it: "a select few". This made it sound so exclusive, as if there were some special criteria we had to fulfil before she would invite us.
TBH I have no idea why I was invited since I've only met her once and after that, I didn't go beyond asking her about the disappearance of a photo she uploaded for the last outing. Maybe I'm just too new to this; maybe this is supposed to be normal.
But there is nothing on my schedule tonight, so it's fine. There is a slight problem though - no pants! I'll have to wear the pair of old jeans again. Sucks to have just a single pair of dress pants. Can't wait till three other pairs are done next week.
Worried about my waistline now. Although my weight has remained below 90kg so far, I've been eating more stuff recently. Tried to offset this by having just a protein shake to replace meals (even though they aren't meal replacements) and it may have worked so far.
Bought a jar of meal replacement thing from iHerb though. Hopefully it will last longer than the two hours this protein shake gives.
Speaking of my fitness, I've finally managed to do one set of 10 reps of lateral raises using 5kg weights without stopping!
Woot!
Whoever thinks it's a waste of time to do just 3 sets of 10 of weights everyday needs to rethink this. It works, just slowly.
29th March 2014
So it seems I still lack experience when interacting with friendly people - I wasn't the only person she invited whom she's only met once.
The Japanese event was a little awkward. The entire place was filled with Japanese people and apparently, our meetup group didn't sit together, so everyone around me was speaking Japanese. Still, it was interesting. Tried to talk to them a little but they all knew each other so it was hard to join in their conversations, especially since they all spoke Japanese to each other.
Heirloom vegetables, as they call it. They really were species of vegetables they used to grow but are no longer as valuable as the more conventional species we eat today. It's more of an economic and social change, as farmers find that other species created by agricultural companies yielded bigger harvests, tastier produce or just better-looking ones.
Urban-dwellers don't have the expertise to tell whether an uglier-looking fruit can be sweeter, so the appearance is important.
This event is meant to increase awareness for these crops, especially since plenty of them have really gone extinct already. I thought this was just pure nostalgia to be honest, because if they really are as tasty as they say, they would be valuable enough to be grown by more farmers. The fact is that they just aren't worth the time and effort to grow.
Sorry if this offends any farmers or Japanese people, but I just feel that this is the undeniable truth.
Natural selection.
The singles event tonight was much bigger and a lot more interesting. While playing the icebreaking game, a group of ladies old enough to be my mother told me to forget the game - they could just give me their numbers directly.
I was like, ok, go ahead. Not sure why, especially since I do not plan to call them. But somehow it was funny when another girl gave me her number on the same piece of paper and got surprised by how "popular" I was.
Anyway, two girls out of the 20-plus there gave me their numbers and promised to call me. Not sure if this is good or bad, but this will be my benchmark. Probably bad, but we've all got to start somewhere.
One of them was probably way older than me, had a horrible job and liked to run (not sure why she thought we click), while the other looked close to my age and appeared more interesting. For the former, I felt more sympathy than interest.
Maybe I should go for more of these events, just to thicken my skin. It took a bit of guts to talk to every girl there, even though I ended up only remembering the names of three girls. Everyone else on the paper, I don't remember anymore.
Another thing I noticed is that my job does turn heads. If I just introduce myself, some of the girls appeared completely uninterested and would just turn away once we were done with the icebreaking game. But when I talked about what I do, at least one girl turned her head and decided to join our conversation instead.
Those steel chopsticks were surprisingly light! Must be hollow, unlike the ones I always use in Korea. Nice!
30th March 2014
Chatted with one of the girls who promised to call me. Turned out to be trying to promote something. All she wanted to talk about was that, and when I told her directly that I was not interested in it, she just ended it with "Good night"... at 8pm.
Now I move on to the last girl I'm going to talk to whom I've met last evening.
31st March 2014
We could've had it AAAAAALLLLLLLL!!!
Looking back, I have no idea what I'm doing specifically. The general direction is still there but the details are lost in the mess. I'm just going with the flow. My flow.
It's been exciting and the flow does not look like it will be ebbing anytime soon.
Approaching and chatting with one of the hottest girls that evening while being completely sober was another new thing I've never done before. New step? New milestone? Waste of time? All of the above?
Heck, I'm moving on anyway. Next step: finding someone who can click with me (and is still single and is not overly-mature).
01 April 2014
Mixing normal crappy kimchi with the nice kimchi doesn't work :(
Got to see if the Korean shops nearby sell this kimchi with spring onions, otherwise I'm going to have to keep buying from them.
Or, I'm going to have to make it myself. Could be fun! I'm a little tired of those cheap ones I find in supermarkets that are sometimes more sour than usual because it was either not stored properly or have been out for too long. Still edible, just not as pleasant. Apparently, some people do like their kimchi more sour, so they just place it outside the fridge for a couple of hours.
Mixed day. Today I spent the day watch the guys from the town council carry some old furniture out because my bro's getting some new ones over. Like a sofa. Haven't had a sofa in years!
Needed one because the relatives of his wife will be coming to visit during festivals.
Wonder what's going to happen if I get married too. Going to be interesting.
Rearranged my room too, after removing the shittier wardrobe, leaving me with my parent's one which is way sturdier despite its age. Dusty too, lots of dustballs were revealed when I shifted it.
Now my room is a lot roomier. Now for the rest of the house.
That was really tiring but turned out to be good exercise because my aim really improved tonight in NS2.
And the two girls I'm still chatting with seem to be warming up to me. Blatant flattery really seems to work, but I will need more evidence to make a solid conclusion. My words were sincere, but the old me would never have said such things to girls I barely know.
So I really did make less than last year, as expected. But only by a few thousands, so I made more than expected. It's actually good news from my perspective. This year, I'm sure it will be better.
02 April 2014
Joined the Marco Polo Club. Doesn't sound too hard to fulfil the minimum requirements for automatic renewal annually. They require 4 trips every 12 months, and I'm already flying at least twice a year just for work at the end of the year. Adding another 2 isn't hard, especially since I plan to skydive this year, making it 3 trips. Next Chinese New Year, I'm going to fly to Hong Kong, so that's 4. Easy.
So my new portable routers arrived and I discovered that they don't support HSDPA, while my 3G USB dongle uses that.
/facepalm.
Still no 3G then.
Clutches that can fit my iPad are so hard to find in retail stores here!
04 April 2014
So I somehow sat close to that desperate girl I met previously after the movie last night, and she turned out to be so obnoxious!
There was a Swedish guy next to me, and she went straight to admitting that she's one of the "10% of Singapore girls who like white guys only", before moving on to "What do you think about local guys?"
That was a weird question, a hilariously weird one.
He ended up saying we were friendly, to which she replied," What? Really? Like him?" while pointing to me. I was like "WHAT?"
Wow! No wonder she's single and desperate at 30. Not desperate enough to be nice though. And I thought I was insensitive!
Am I not friendly?!?
Noah was boring at some parts. Draggy. Not my kind of film.
The clutch has arrived and it's big enough for A4-size papers. Wonder if I will like it. Will find out soon enough. Came with a cardholder as a freebie which I'm using immediately.
So one of the girls I talked to at the singles event is really trying to ask me out now, but starting with group gatherings, or more specifically, a cycling event. Still wondering how much older she is than me, and what sort of girl she actually is. She doesn't say much, prone to single-syllable replies sometimes without elaborating like I used to. All I can tell is that she's warming up to me and she likes the flattery. Not sure about her overall.
The other girl, I like more at the moment. She's easier to talk to and ALWAYS replies whenever she can, frequently with long answers. She accepts the flattery quietly but clearly wants to begin as friends. A serious Christian too. The worst issue here is her schedule, because her job takes up a lot of her time, and she's got plenty of other people to go out with.
Seems that again, the harder a girl is, the more I like her. But too cold, like some others, and I feel like I'm wasting my time if I talk to them.
Or maybe I just like girls who actually talk with more than single-word replies.
One thing I've really noticed about myself is that I don't give a shit if a girl describes herself as "simple". People are never simple, and it does not matter to me at all whether they are that. What's so attractive about simple people? Aren't they boring?
It seems that the issue with my 3G stuff is not because of compatibility but the SIM card itself. Tried it in my old phone and it didn't work. I'm going to have to go down to one of the M1 customer service centres to replace it. Ugh.
Bought several shirts from Gilt. Despite spending almost S$500 there on four shirts and some tie bars, I don't really feel guilty though because my wardrobe is still going to be smaller than my bro's. Still planning to buy more from some local department store.
Also got a pair of jeans and a belt yesterday from Levi's using the Groupon voucher, so that I can return the pair I'm currently wearing to my bro. It's pretty worn and very comfy, so he really wants it back lol.
So now I have 3 pairs of jeans, a dark blue one that's still at the tailor, a somewhat faded one from Levi's and a black one from Density. The first two are classic straight fit, but the last is a low-rise slim fit. Don't really like low rise though, but I guess it's normal enough that I may wear it sometimes. I like its fabric the most, so that's the main reason for keeping it.
05 April 2014
So I went to M1 and realized that the SIM card was fine. Dang, need a new dongle.
Two things I've noticed about flattering girls:
1) When a girl says something nice about you, even if she's simply being polite, say that she's sweet. Remind her some time later, eg you have to go to work/exercise and couldn't continue chatting regardless of how sweet she was.
2) When she encourages you to do something, say that since a cute/pretty/hot/gorgeous girl is supporting you, you will definitely do it.
Simple rudimentary stuff I'm picking up from trials-and-error that seem to work. Got to be sincere though.
Went to Levi's and picked up the new pair of jeans and the brown belt. The jeans needed to be shortened. Now I have a belt that matches my suede shoes, but my suede shoes are being cleaned for a month. Oh well.
At least now I don't have to wear my bro's jeans anymore. May still want to get an even lighter pair though.
Also, I've confirmed that I really don't like low-rise jeans. Really. So I'm going to either donate it or trade it in.
Went to take a look at the T M Lewin store at Plaza Singapura too, and they're having a sale, so every shirt costs $100 or less. So going to buy them soon. Maybe 3, maybe 6. Not sure.
21 April 2014
Long time no blog!
First, the SIM card. It was ok. The issue was that when telco customers get the free USB dongle for the SIM card, its settings have been set by the telco to run straight away on the correct options. With the one I bought from some random Chinese online store, it took me a while to realize I had to set everything myself.
Now it works!
But the battery-cum-router was a disappointment - it lasted five hours, not ten as advertised.
Got a second clutch that looks better than the plain black ones. Too bad the magnet sucks, but I'm getting used to using one now.
T.M. Lewin shirts are too big. The fabric of their non-iron series is awesome but the cutting is too big for a big Asian guy like myself even when I chose only the slim fit shirts. On the other hand, Goldlion shirts are fantastic. From now on, I'm going for those brands instead. As for pants, Pierre Cardin and Goldlion do have very nice pants, so no worries. Cheap too, compared to the chinos I used to get from JShopper.
Flamenco was fun. Very hard too, needed quite a bit of concentration to coordinate all my limbs and maintain my posture at the same time. Somehow the instructore and the other guy attending the workshop kept telling me that I did very well throughout the 2-hour lesson even though I'm 100% sure I kept missing SO MANY STEPS all the time, with or without music. It's harder with music.
Anyway that particular class was on alegrias (a form of flamenco) so even the beats took some getting used to. It was a 12-beat rhythm instead of the 4, 8 or 16 beats we're all used to, and emphasis while clapping to them was on the 3rd, 6th, 8th, 10th and 12th beats.
The instructor was big on the techniques. Not only did she keep watching our posture, she made sure we did the stamping the correct way, which is NOT to stamp it with force but simply let go after lifting the foot.
Both were due to safety concerns. The posture made sure we didn't injure our back, just tire it; the stamping would kill our knees if we did it forcefully.
This, apparently, was different from most other instructors because they actually encouraged stamping hard. As for posture, they didn't care too much because girls tend to not find it good-looking - the correct posture does not involve sticking their butts out. Since girls like to look good while dancing, the instructors can't do much about it.
This instructor, on the other hand, is pretty new and had studied under one of the most prominent instructors in Spain, apparently a master of the castanets (an instrument played with certain styles of flamenco).
"I love National Geographic. The mating habits of mid-level government employees, totally captivating."
Best line ever.
23 April 2014
Looking back, I don't seem to be particularly good at talking to girls. During the most recent movie outings, one girl asked for my number (without doing anything with it) while another turned cold the day after we met even though we were getting along so well when we shared a cab home.
Result at this moment: just one girl still chatting with me, the attached one whom I've mentioned before.
Still going to try. As long as girls are asking for my number, it can't be going too badly :D
But seriously, I have no idea why the latter got so unresponsive. Next time we meet, I'll try that line I've used on another unresponsive girl before that got me a positive reaction, something about how it's hard to compete with the 20 other guys also trying to chat her up after that evening. The problem is that she rarely attends these events so this is going to be just something I'll keep in mind.
TBH I'd be surprised if she's still single. She's friendly, good-looking and nice enough to pay for my share of the taxi fare that evening (then refused to accept my payment afterwards). How can a girl like that still be single, unless there's a major catch somewhere?
Anyway, I'll be going for a chick flick this evening with 2 other guys... and 14 girls. Hopefully, things will go well tonight.
Also, managed to persuade another girl to go for the flamenco workshop this Sunday, but she's way older than me, so it's purely to support the instructor.
Maybe I'll even try the actual classes held by the instructor.
My Marco Polo card is here!!
Comes with two special classy baggage tags too!
Cool!
Green member now, which only gets me priority boarding in addition to these tags, but it's a start :D
24th April 2014
Tired for some reason. Managed to hit 88kg (lowest point so far) yesterday so I ate a lot last night.
Disappointing though because no one stayed for coffee after the movie, and I forgot to get the number of the only girl I was interested in. Oh well, next time then. As for today, it's going to be all guys, with just two ladies I have already known for several weeks. Brick Mansions, it's a guy movie.
Probably my favourite Skrillex music.
So I recently bought a set meal from the Korea Food Company instead of just the bibimbap like my first order there, and what I found really surprised me.
The kimchi was fantastic, far better than those I usually find in Korean restaurants in Seoul! The spring onion in it really made a huge difference. Next time, I'm ordering the other kimchis in their menu, like the radish kimchi, and when I go to NZ at the end of the year, I will bring a jar of this kimchi over since my uncle likes it.
$11 for a 1kg jar? Worth it.
The bibimbap was split over three meals although it was meant for 5-6 people, and it made me gain 4kgs temporarily. The japchae, which appeared to be glass noodles with vegetables, was awesome because of the sesame seed oil and sesame seeds. Finally, the chilli anchovies were a nice snack.
Now what shall I do with the steel chopsticks?
28th March 2014
Initially planned to chill at home this fine Friday evening and watch GSL on the new Twitch channel, maybe play The Last Remnant that I had just bought on Steam, but some chiobu asked me out for movie, got to give face.
Ok, that was an exaggeration. She's good-looking but not to the point of being a "chiobu", and there are a few others in the group. It was funny how she phrased it: "a select few". This made it sound so exclusive, as if there were some special criteria we had to fulfil before she would invite us.
TBH I have no idea why I was invited since I've only met her once and after that, I didn't go beyond asking her about the disappearance of a photo she uploaded for the last outing. Maybe I'm just too new to this; maybe this is supposed to be normal.
But there is nothing on my schedule tonight, so it's fine. There is a slight problem though - no pants! I'll have to wear the pair of old jeans again. Sucks to have just a single pair of dress pants. Can't wait till three other pairs are done next week.
Worried about my waistline now. Although my weight has remained below 90kg so far, I've been eating more stuff recently. Tried to offset this by having just a protein shake to replace meals (even though they aren't meal replacements) and it may have worked so far.
Bought a jar of meal replacement thing from iHerb though. Hopefully it will last longer than the two hours this protein shake gives.
Speaking of my fitness, I've finally managed to do one set of 10 reps of lateral raises using 5kg weights without stopping!
Woot!
Whoever thinks it's a waste of time to do just 3 sets of 10 of weights everyday needs to rethink this. It works, just slowly.
29th March 2014
So it seems I still lack experience when interacting with friendly people - I wasn't the only person she invited whom she's only met once.
The Japanese event was a little awkward. The entire place was filled with Japanese people and apparently, our meetup group didn't sit together, so everyone around me was speaking Japanese. Still, it was interesting. Tried to talk to them a little but they all knew each other so it was hard to join in their conversations, especially since they all spoke Japanese to each other.
Heirloom vegetables, as they call it. They really were species of vegetables they used to grow but are no longer as valuable as the more conventional species we eat today. It's more of an economic and social change, as farmers find that other species created by agricultural companies yielded bigger harvests, tastier produce or just better-looking ones.
Urban-dwellers don't have the expertise to tell whether an uglier-looking fruit can be sweeter, so the appearance is important.
This event is meant to increase awareness for these crops, especially since plenty of them have really gone extinct already. I thought this was just pure nostalgia to be honest, because if they really are as tasty as they say, they would be valuable enough to be grown by more farmers. The fact is that they just aren't worth the time and effort to grow.
Sorry if this offends any farmers or Japanese people, but I just feel that this is the undeniable truth.
Natural selection.
The singles event tonight was much bigger and a lot more interesting. While playing the icebreaking game, a group of ladies old enough to be my mother told me to forget the game - they could just give me their numbers directly.
I was like, ok, go ahead. Not sure why, especially since I do not plan to call them. But somehow it was funny when another girl gave me her number on the same piece of paper and got surprised by how "popular" I was.
Anyway, two girls out of the 20-plus there gave me their numbers and promised to call me. Not sure if this is good or bad, but this will be my benchmark. Probably bad, but we've all got to start somewhere.
One of them was probably way older than me, had a horrible job and liked to run (not sure why she thought we click), while the other looked close to my age and appeared more interesting. For the former, I felt more sympathy than interest.
Maybe I should go for more of these events, just to thicken my skin. It took a bit of guts to talk to every girl there, even though I ended up only remembering the names of three girls. Everyone else on the paper, I don't remember anymore.
Another thing I noticed is that my job does turn heads. If I just introduce myself, some of the girls appeared completely uninterested and would just turn away once we were done with the icebreaking game. But when I talked about what I do, at least one girl turned her head and decided to join our conversation instead.
Those steel chopsticks were surprisingly light! Must be hollow, unlike the ones I always use in Korea. Nice!
30th March 2014
Chatted with one of the girls who promised to call me. Turned out to be trying to promote something. All she wanted to talk about was that, and when I told her directly that I was not interested in it, she just ended it with "Good night"... at 8pm.
Now I move on to the last girl I'm going to talk to whom I've met last evening.
31st March 2014
We could've had it AAAAAALLLLLLLL!!!
Looking back, I have no idea what I'm doing specifically. The general direction is still there but the details are lost in the mess. I'm just going with the flow. My flow.
It's been exciting and the flow does not look like it will be ebbing anytime soon.
Approaching and chatting with one of the hottest girls that evening while being completely sober was another new thing I've never done before. New step? New milestone? Waste of time? All of the above?
Heck, I'm moving on anyway. Next step: finding someone who can click with me (and is still single and is not overly-mature).
01 April 2014
Mixing normal crappy kimchi with the nice kimchi doesn't work :(
Got to see if the Korean shops nearby sell this kimchi with spring onions, otherwise I'm going to have to keep buying from them.
Or, I'm going to have to make it myself. Could be fun! I'm a little tired of those cheap ones I find in supermarkets that are sometimes more sour than usual because it was either not stored properly or have been out for too long. Still edible, just not as pleasant. Apparently, some people do like their kimchi more sour, so they just place it outside the fridge for a couple of hours.
Mixed day. Today I spent the day watch the guys from the town council carry some old furniture out because my bro's getting some new ones over. Like a sofa. Haven't had a sofa in years!
Needed one because the relatives of his wife will be coming to visit during festivals.
Wonder what's going to happen if I get married too. Going to be interesting.
Rearranged my room too, after removing the shittier wardrobe, leaving me with my parent's one which is way sturdier despite its age. Dusty too, lots of dustballs were revealed when I shifted it.
Now my room is a lot roomier. Now for the rest of the house.
That was really tiring but turned out to be good exercise because my aim really improved tonight in NS2.
And the two girls I'm still chatting with seem to be warming up to me. Blatant flattery really seems to work, but I will need more evidence to make a solid conclusion. My words were sincere, but the old me would never have said such things to girls I barely know.
So I really did make less than last year, as expected. But only by a few thousands, so I made more than expected. It's actually good news from my perspective. This year, I'm sure it will be better.
02 April 2014
Joined the Marco Polo Club. Doesn't sound too hard to fulfil the minimum requirements for automatic renewal annually. They require 4 trips every 12 months, and I'm already flying at least twice a year just for work at the end of the year. Adding another 2 isn't hard, especially since I plan to skydive this year, making it 3 trips. Next Chinese New Year, I'm going to fly to Hong Kong, so that's 4. Easy.
So my new portable routers arrived and I discovered that they don't support HSDPA, while my 3G USB dongle uses that.
/facepalm.
Still no 3G then.
Clutches that can fit my iPad are so hard to find in retail stores here!
04 April 2014
So I somehow sat close to that desperate girl I met previously after the movie last night, and she turned out to be so obnoxious!
There was a Swedish guy next to me, and she went straight to admitting that she's one of the "10% of Singapore girls who like white guys only", before moving on to "What do you think about local guys?"
That was a weird question, a hilariously weird one.
He ended up saying we were friendly, to which she replied," What? Really? Like him?" while pointing to me. I was like "WHAT?"
Wow! No wonder she's single and desperate at 30. Not desperate enough to be nice though. And I thought I was insensitive!
Am I not friendly?!?
Noah was boring at some parts. Draggy. Not my kind of film.
The clutch has arrived and it's big enough for A4-size papers. Wonder if I will like it. Will find out soon enough. Came with a cardholder as a freebie which I'm using immediately.
So one of the girls I talked to at the singles event is really trying to ask me out now, but starting with group gatherings, or more specifically, a cycling event. Still wondering how much older she is than me, and what sort of girl she actually is. She doesn't say much, prone to single-syllable replies sometimes without elaborating like I used to. All I can tell is that she's warming up to me and she likes the flattery. Not sure about her overall.
The other girl, I like more at the moment. She's easier to talk to and ALWAYS replies whenever she can, frequently with long answers. She accepts the flattery quietly but clearly wants to begin as friends. A serious Christian too. The worst issue here is her schedule, because her job takes up a lot of her time, and she's got plenty of other people to go out with.
Seems that again, the harder a girl is, the more I like her. But too cold, like some others, and I feel like I'm wasting my time if I talk to them.
Or maybe I just like girls who actually talk with more than single-word replies.
One thing I've really noticed about myself is that I don't give a shit if a girl describes herself as "simple". People are never simple, and it does not matter to me at all whether they are that. What's so attractive about simple people? Aren't they boring?
It seems that the issue with my 3G stuff is not because of compatibility but the SIM card itself. Tried it in my old phone and it didn't work. I'm going to have to go down to one of the M1 customer service centres to replace it. Ugh.
Bought several shirts from Gilt. Despite spending almost S$500 there on four shirts and some tie bars, I don't really feel guilty though because my wardrobe is still going to be smaller than my bro's. Still planning to buy more from some local department store.
Also got a pair of jeans and a belt yesterday from Levi's using the Groupon voucher, so that I can return the pair I'm currently wearing to my bro. It's pretty worn and very comfy, so he really wants it back lol.
So now I have 3 pairs of jeans, a dark blue one that's still at the tailor, a somewhat faded one from Levi's and a black one from Density. The first two are classic straight fit, but the last is a low-rise slim fit. Don't really like low rise though, but I guess it's normal enough that I may wear it sometimes. I like its fabric the most, so that's the main reason for keeping it.
05 April 2014
So I went to M1 and realized that the SIM card was fine. Dang, need a new dongle.
Two things I've noticed about flattering girls:
1) When a girl says something nice about you, even if she's simply being polite, say that she's sweet. Remind her some time later, eg you have to go to work/exercise and couldn't continue chatting regardless of how sweet she was.
2) When she encourages you to do something, say that since a cute/pretty/hot/gorgeous girl is supporting you, you will definitely do it.
Simple rudimentary stuff I'm picking up from trials-and-error that seem to work. Got to be sincere though.
Went to Levi's and picked up the new pair of jeans and the brown belt. The jeans needed to be shortened. Now I have a belt that matches my suede shoes, but my suede shoes are being cleaned for a month. Oh well.
At least now I don't have to wear my bro's jeans anymore. May still want to get an even lighter pair though.
Also, I've confirmed that I really don't like low-rise jeans. Really. So I'm going to either donate it or trade it in.
Went to take a look at the T M Lewin store at Plaza Singapura too, and they're having a sale, so every shirt costs $100 or less. So going to buy them soon. Maybe 3, maybe 6. Not sure.
21 April 2014
Long time no blog!
First, the SIM card. It was ok. The issue was that when telco customers get the free USB dongle for the SIM card, its settings have been set by the telco to run straight away on the correct options. With the one I bought from some random Chinese online store, it took me a while to realize I had to set everything myself.
Now it works!
But the battery-cum-router was a disappointment - it lasted five hours, not ten as advertised.
Got a second clutch that looks better than the plain black ones. Too bad the magnet sucks, but I'm getting used to using one now.
T.M. Lewin shirts are too big. The fabric of their non-iron series is awesome but the cutting is too big for a big Asian guy like myself even when I chose only the slim fit shirts. On the other hand, Goldlion shirts are fantastic. From now on, I'm going for those brands instead. As for pants, Pierre Cardin and Goldlion do have very nice pants, so no worries. Cheap too, compared to the chinos I used to get from JShopper.
Flamenco was fun. Very hard too, needed quite a bit of concentration to coordinate all my limbs and maintain my posture at the same time. Somehow the instructore and the other guy attending the workshop kept telling me that I did very well throughout the 2-hour lesson even though I'm 100% sure I kept missing SO MANY STEPS all the time, with or without music. It's harder with music.
Anyway that particular class was on alegrias (a form of flamenco) so even the beats took some getting used to. It was a 12-beat rhythm instead of the 4, 8 or 16 beats we're all used to, and emphasis while clapping to them was on the 3rd, 6th, 8th, 10th and 12th beats.
The instructor was big on the techniques. Not only did she keep watching our posture, she made sure we did the stamping the correct way, which is NOT to stamp it with force but simply let go after lifting the foot.
Both were due to safety concerns. The posture made sure we didn't injure our back, just tire it; the stamping would kill our knees if we did it forcefully.
This, apparently, was different from most other instructors because they actually encouraged stamping hard. As for posture, they didn't care too much because girls tend to not find it good-looking - the correct posture does not involve sticking their butts out. Since girls like to look good while dancing, the instructors can't do much about it.
This instructor, on the other hand, is pretty new and had studied under one of the most prominent instructors in Spain, apparently a master of the castanets (an instrument played with certain styles of flamenco).
"I love National Geographic. The mating habits of mid-level government employees, totally captivating."
Best line ever.
23 April 2014
Looking back, I don't seem to be particularly good at talking to girls. During the most recent movie outings, one girl asked for my number (without doing anything with it) while another turned cold the day after we met even though we were getting along so well when we shared a cab home.
Result at this moment: just one girl still chatting with me, the attached one whom I've mentioned before.
Still going to try. As long as girls are asking for my number, it can't be going too badly :D
But seriously, I have no idea why the latter got so unresponsive. Next time we meet, I'll try that line I've used on another unresponsive girl before that got me a positive reaction, something about how it's hard to compete with the 20 other guys also trying to chat her up after that evening. The problem is that she rarely attends these events so this is going to be just something I'll keep in mind.
TBH I'd be surprised if she's still single. She's friendly, good-looking and nice enough to pay for my share of the taxi fare that evening (then refused to accept my payment afterwards). How can a girl like that still be single, unless there's a major catch somewhere?
Anyway, I'll be going for a chick flick this evening with 2 other guys... and 14 girls. Hopefully, things will go well tonight.
Also, managed to persuade another girl to go for the flamenco workshop this Sunday, but she's way older than me, so it's purely to support the instructor.
Maybe I'll even try the actual classes held by the instructor.
My Marco Polo card is here!!
Comes with two special classy baggage tags too!
Cool!
Green member now, which only gets me priority boarding in addition to these tags, but it's a start :D
24th April 2014
Tired for some reason. Managed to hit 88kg (lowest point so far) yesterday so I ate a lot last night.
Disappointing though because no one stayed for coffee after the movie, and I forgot to get the number of the only girl I was interested in. Oh well, next time then. As for today, it's going to be all guys, with just two ladies I have already known for several weeks. Brick Mansions, it's a guy movie.
Probably my favourite Skrillex music.
Monday, 24 March 2014
Rant 1193 / Still Going Up! Still Going Up. Up Is The Only Path!
Note: It's obvious that I look really stupid in the earlier parts of this post and I
have considered not publishing them, but I think I will go ahead and
post everything. My life isn't perfect and I'm not a particularly smart
guy; hiding it here while I'm semi-anonymous is pretty pointless.
17 March 2014
Great success!
She's just... Whoa! If not for the fact that she's Muslim, she'd be too good to be true. Yea, that's the catch, and a huge one lol.
But the things she's been doing, WOW! No wonder she gave her number so quickly! Such an extrovert! She's totally my role model now!
At 22, she's already planning to start an aqua gym within 3-4 years - in New York. I don't think she's lying because she really does travel a lot, and have photos to back up her travel stories. Yea, her family used to be rich, so she's really a different breed compared to me and people I know. So ok, my family used to be rich too, but I didn't grow up in wealth. Maybe just upper middle class, back then.
Her, she travels almost every month as long as she's not too busy. Wtf, right? She's so outgoing, she's based on Australia, grew up here, went back to Australia for a while before getting posted back here last year, and sometimes travel to the US for work. Holy shit. 22 years old. Holy shit.
As I type this, a sense of disbelief is exploding in my mind. Well, at least she's agreeing to more dates so I can find out more about her.
Yea, dates. I just had a lunch date with such an incredible girl, and I've only started chatting on Whatsapp with her at 8am today.
Now, I have an even harder time believing that she's still single. Am I being paranoid or does this make sense? How does a girl like that stay single for so long? She says she doesn't like Muslim guys in Australia and here, but I know plenty of nice Malay guys.
I don't know. On one hand, she's just unbelievable. On the other hand, she's just unbelievable.
Probably not a good idea to think too much on this; I should just be more cautiou, even though her Australian number does say a lot about her finances.
Regardless of whether the date was really "awesome" like she said, I'll have to wait till the second date to confirm whether this is going well. For all I know, she could just be very polite.
As for the long term, yea it does not look that bright unless I expand my business. In fact, the chances of a happy ending, assuming everything she's told me is true, are very slim.
18 March 2014
So she's willing to meet today for lunch again! Now I'm excited because a second date usually means success to a significant degree. Not complete success but this must be going somewhere.
Still worried about the long term consequences though.
Anyway it's not confirmed because of her work. If she's busy today, she's already agreed to lunch on Thursday anyway.
But I can't keep treating her lunch. First date, ok. Today, she's got some serious family issues to worry about, so ok again. But next time, I'll need her to pay her share. At the rate I'm going right now, I'll need to watch my money to have any hope of taking that business class flight to Canada this year or early next year.
19 March 2014
She's totally ignoring me, but then again, she's got major issues at home and lots of work. Kinda rude though.
Or maybe it was because I was straightforward enough to tell her that I can't keep treating her lunch because I want to start saving for a chance to take a business class flight to Canada.
She's so sad.
Yet I am not as motivated as I would with other girls the more I learn about how devout she is to her religion.
As for her character, I still don't know enough about her to make any sort of conclusion. I think she's as self-centred as I used to be because she neither offered to pay for our first lunch nor really asked about me, although to be fair, her story is pretty bad so she's got a lot on her mind.
Or it may have been an elaborate scam to get free lunches from gullible guys.
Got my MOS shirts and chinos back from the tailor, and during the same trip, I also brought my suit, my blazer, 4 pairs of pants and 3 shirts for him to fix. $247 this time, but it's way cheaper than buying brand new ones to replace all of them.
That suit was the most expensive to shrink at $85 but that's just 10% of the cost of that suit, so overall, from that perspective, I feel that I've got a pretty good deal already.
20 March 2014
Second day ignoring me. Strange that she didn't block me outright, but I guess that's still a rejection. Still a bit confusing since she asked me where I was, for some reason, after we parted that day. Phew! No more worrying about the long-term consequences of dating a good Muslim girl. Now to move on to another girl! I think this one is going to be overweight but practice is practice, and I'm not particularly slim myself.
As for the MOS shirts and chinos, the pair of pants was ok. Pretty awesome since the fabric is super stretchy, but the slim fit shirt was too slim for me. Dang! All that loose skin around my torso needs to go away! In the meantime, I can only wear the classic fit shirt and keep the slim fit one in my wardrobe for the future.
The weights training is also going well for me. It's starting to feel easier to do lateral lifts with 3kg weights. I think tomorrow I will move on to 5kg ones.
21 March 2014
Went for another movie outing with another small group. This time there was this girl who seemed to keep trying to talk to all the guys, not just me. I don't know if she was joking but she claimed that she was 31 and hence she was joining all these outings to know single guys.
I gave her my number; practice is practice. She seemed like a pretty fun person too, going to Cambodia alone next week. Technically I could join her, but will I?
Another girl there talked like a robot; I have no idea why and it seemed rude to ask. She just seemed to pause between every word in her speech.
Also saw Mark Lee, the Singaporean celebrity, while searching for the group, just chilling with friends.
As I look more carefully at the top end jackets, I realize how large the gap is between my products and theirs. No wonder they charge S$800 (shipping excluded) for some of those! Seriously, they make my $100-200 jackets look at junk!
A jacket meant for extreme conditions and wear and tear weighing only 700g! I will never achieve that standard with my current manufacturers, not even close!
23 March 2014
Met this cute girl again at another event organized by another club last night and we got along pretty well since we already knew each other. Pretty sure I could have gotten her number but... she turned out to be much older than she looked. Seriously, I thought she looked and sounded like around my age, but she was really 35.
That was a deal-breaker right there.
Just to clarify, I'd still totally ask her out for dinner - in fact I wanted to - but it didn't feel right to waste her time. She was looking for a husband and it would take A LOT for me to overcome my hesitation about settling down with a girl 7 years older than me, not to mention I'm not ready to settle down so soon.
Still, these events are far better than online dating sites, seriously.
Went for two movies today but didn't really make many friends this time. I suspect I'm more tired today and henceforth I won't be going for these events on so many consecutive days.
Anyway I mentioned that joining these movie outings were better than joining than those dating outings because of my relatively young age (I was the youngest yesterday evening, and the youngest girl there was my age), and also told the group about the girl I mentioned earlier, and everyone told me that age is not a barrier.
But I'm not trying to get hitched within the next five years.
Anyway the harder a girl tries to find a partner (not just me specifically), the more hesitant I seem to get. She was not totally desperate like another girl but the way she told me about her failed attempts just turned me off. Worse was how she seemed to have given up being proactive.
The more I think about her, the less attractive she gets.
Or maybe I'm just a terrible guy.
Looked back and thought about the two things I'm pretty sure were taught by that dating coach that I observed during the dating club event. Missed his dating seminar so trying to learn something from the guys who went was part of my reason for going there.
The first I already noticed before - don't describe yourself using the word "boring" even if it's true. I found out about that on the online dating sites because after I removed that word from my profile, responses came more often.
The second was to try to share a meal with the girl. Didn't seem to work by itself because the guy who tried that on the girl I mentioned didn't get along with her as well as I did. Looks like it has to be done together with something else. You can't just eat silently when you're sharing food with the girl, and the "Is it good?" or "How do you find it?" questions can only go so far.
And if she turns out to be some kind of connoiseur, I'm going to be pretty fucked. It would be like another girl I met during one of today's movie outings who turned out to be some kind of film and theater expert. My attempts at talking to her always ended in monologues.
24th March 2014
So there was another girl I met on Friday evening that seemed like an unlikely choice. She was so friendly that after the last two experiences with friendly girls, I pretty much doubt that I was going to have any chance with her.
Yet... so far so good. Hopefully she's still single though, otherwise I'd feel so bad.
We only talked a bit before the movie, and she disappeared quickly after the film ended. The only reason I have her number is because of the Whatsapp group. That's the best thing about this club - every outing has its own Whatsapp group, so we don't even need to ask for anyone's number. The downside, compared to dating clubs, is that not everyone is single nor is everyone in the same age group.
But talk to her I did, the morning after. Somehow just managed to get the courage to message her, and her replies have been positive. Today, she told me I was more mature than other guys my age, so I said she was sweet, then she asked if I was employing some tricks I learnt from the dating club because I appeared to know what girls like to hear.
I just hope she's being honest like me. I mean, she really is a sweet girl if everything she's told me is true, like how she is considering a career change mainly because of her desire to help others.
Forearm muscle pain!
This I really didn't expect when I increased the weight of the dumbbells I use from 3kg to 5kg for my shoulder exercises.
Closed the last of my accounts in online dating sites. They suck, enough said.
Bought a clutch. It was a little hard to find on Qoo10 because I wanted a cheap one that had a loop and was large enough for my iPad. Ended up with one that only cost less than S$30.
This is meant to be a trial run to let me see if a clutch is a good idea for me. Currently, I use a large laptop sling bag but it ruins my shirt. If I like using a clutch, I'll get a better one from the more expensive brands. Obviously a $30 clutch from some unknown Korean brand is not going to last very long, and I don't want it to break when I'm at work outside.
Also considered using my father's but the leather was coming apart.
17 March 2014
Great success!
She's just... Whoa! If not for the fact that she's Muslim, she'd be too good to be true. Yea, that's the catch, and a huge one lol.
But the things she's been doing, WOW! No wonder she gave her number so quickly! Such an extrovert! She's totally my role model now!
At 22, she's already planning to start an aqua gym within 3-4 years - in New York. I don't think she's lying because she really does travel a lot, and have photos to back up her travel stories. Yea, her family used to be rich, so she's really a different breed compared to me and people I know. So ok, my family used to be rich too, but I didn't grow up in wealth. Maybe just upper middle class, back then.
Her, she travels almost every month as long as she's not too busy. Wtf, right? She's so outgoing, she's based on Australia, grew up here, went back to Australia for a while before getting posted back here last year, and sometimes travel to the US for work. Holy shit. 22 years old. Holy shit.
As I type this, a sense of disbelief is exploding in my mind. Well, at least she's agreeing to more dates so I can find out more about her.
Yea, dates. I just had a lunch date with such an incredible girl, and I've only started chatting on Whatsapp with her at 8am today.
Now, I have an even harder time believing that she's still single. Am I being paranoid or does this make sense? How does a girl like that stay single for so long? She says she doesn't like Muslim guys in Australia and here, but I know plenty of nice Malay guys.
I don't know. On one hand, she's just unbelievable. On the other hand, she's just unbelievable.
Probably not a good idea to think too much on this; I should just be more cautiou, even though her Australian number does say a lot about her finances.
Regardless of whether the date was really "awesome" like she said, I'll have to wait till the second date to confirm whether this is going well. For all I know, she could just be very polite.
As for the long term, yea it does not look that bright unless I expand my business. In fact, the chances of a happy ending, assuming everything she's told me is true, are very slim.
18 March 2014
So she's willing to meet today for lunch again! Now I'm excited because a second date usually means success to a significant degree. Not complete success but this must be going somewhere.
Still worried about the long term consequences though.
Anyway it's not confirmed because of her work. If she's busy today, she's already agreed to lunch on Thursday anyway.
But I can't keep treating her lunch. First date, ok. Today, she's got some serious family issues to worry about, so ok again. But next time, I'll need her to pay her share. At the rate I'm going right now, I'll need to watch my money to have any hope of taking that business class flight to Canada this year or early next year.
19 March 2014
She's totally ignoring me, but then again, she's got major issues at home and lots of work. Kinda rude though.
Or maybe it was because I was straightforward enough to tell her that I can't keep treating her lunch because I want to start saving for a chance to take a business class flight to Canada.
She's so sad.
Yet I am not as motivated as I would with other girls the more I learn about how devout she is to her religion.
As for her character, I still don't know enough about her to make any sort of conclusion. I think she's as self-centred as I used to be because she neither offered to pay for our first lunch nor really asked about me, although to be fair, her story is pretty bad so she's got a lot on her mind.
Or it may have been an elaborate scam to get free lunches from gullible guys.
Got my MOS shirts and chinos back from the tailor, and during the same trip, I also brought my suit, my blazer, 4 pairs of pants and 3 shirts for him to fix. $247 this time, but it's way cheaper than buying brand new ones to replace all of them.
That suit was the most expensive to shrink at $85 but that's just 10% of the cost of that suit, so overall, from that perspective, I feel that I've got a pretty good deal already.
20 March 2014
Second day ignoring me. Strange that she didn't block me outright, but I guess that's still a rejection. Still a bit confusing since she asked me where I was, for some reason, after we parted that day. Phew! No more worrying about the long-term consequences of dating a good Muslim girl. Now to move on to another girl! I think this one is going to be overweight but practice is practice, and I'm not particularly slim myself.
As for the MOS shirts and chinos, the pair of pants was ok. Pretty awesome since the fabric is super stretchy, but the slim fit shirt was too slim for me. Dang! All that loose skin around my torso needs to go away! In the meantime, I can only wear the classic fit shirt and keep the slim fit one in my wardrobe for the future.
The weights training is also going well for me. It's starting to feel easier to do lateral lifts with 3kg weights. I think tomorrow I will move on to 5kg ones.
21 March 2014
Went for another movie outing with another small group. This time there was this girl who seemed to keep trying to talk to all the guys, not just me. I don't know if she was joking but she claimed that she was 31 and hence she was joining all these outings to know single guys.
I gave her my number; practice is practice. She seemed like a pretty fun person too, going to Cambodia alone next week. Technically I could join her, but will I?
Another girl there talked like a robot; I have no idea why and it seemed rude to ask. She just seemed to pause between every word in her speech.
Also saw Mark Lee, the Singaporean celebrity, while searching for the group, just chilling with friends.
As I look more carefully at the top end jackets, I realize how large the gap is between my products and theirs. No wonder they charge S$800 (shipping excluded) for some of those! Seriously, they make my $100-200 jackets look at junk!
A jacket meant for extreme conditions and wear and tear weighing only 700g! I will never achieve that standard with my current manufacturers, not even close!
23 March 2014
Met this cute girl again at another event organized by another club last night and we got along pretty well since we already knew each other. Pretty sure I could have gotten her number but... she turned out to be much older than she looked. Seriously, I thought she looked and sounded like around my age, but she was really 35.
That was a deal-breaker right there.
Just to clarify, I'd still totally ask her out for dinner - in fact I wanted to - but it didn't feel right to waste her time. She was looking for a husband and it would take A LOT for me to overcome my hesitation about settling down with a girl 7 years older than me, not to mention I'm not ready to settle down so soon.
Still, these events are far better than online dating sites, seriously.
Went for two movies today but didn't really make many friends this time. I suspect I'm more tired today and henceforth I won't be going for these events on so many consecutive days.
Anyway I mentioned that joining these movie outings were better than joining than those dating outings because of my relatively young age (I was the youngest yesterday evening, and the youngest girl there was my age), and also told the group about the girl I mentioned earlier, and everyone told me that age is not a barrier.
But I'm not trying to get hitched within the next five years.
Anyway the harder a girl tries to find a partner (not just me specifically), the more hesitant I seem to get. She was not totally desperate like another girl but the way she told me about her failed attempts just turned me off. Worse was how she seemed to have given up being proactive.
The more I think about her, the less attractive she gets.
Or maybe I'm just a terrible guy.
Looked back and thought about the two things I'm pretty sure were taught by that dating coach that I observed during the dating club event. Missed his dating seminar so trying to learn something from the guys who went was part of my reason for going there.
The first I already noticed before - don't describe yourself using the word "boring" even if it's true. I found out about that on the online dating sites because after I removed that word from my profile, responses came more often.
The second was to try to share a meal with the girl. Didn't seem to work by itself because the guy who tried that on the girl I mentioned didn't get along with her as well as I did. Looks like it has to be done together with something else. You can't just eat silently when you're sharing food with the girl, and the "Is it good?" or "How do you find it?" questions can only go so far.
And if she turns out to be some kind of connoiseur, I'm going to be pretty fucked. It would be like another girl I met during one of today's movie outings who turned out to be some kind of film and theater expert. My attempts at talking to her always ended in monologues.
24th March 2014
So there was another girl I met on Friday evening that seemed like an unlikely choice. She was so friendly that after the last two experiences with friendly girls, I pretty much doubt that I was going to have any chance with her.
Yet... so far so good. Hopefully she's still single though, otherwise I'd feel so bad.
We only talked a bit before the movie, and she disappeared quickly after the film ended. The only reason I have her number is because of the Whatsapp group. That's the best thing about this club - every outing has its own Whatsapp group, so we don't even need to ask for anyone's number. The downside, compared to dating clubs, is that not everyone is single nor is everyone in the same age group.
But talk to her I did, the morning after. Somehow just managed to get the courage to message her, and her replies have been positive. Today, she told me I was more mature than other guys my age, so I said she was sweet, then she asked if I was employing some tricks I learnt from the dating club because I appeared to know what girls like to hear.
I just hope she's being honest like me. I mean, she really is a sweet girl if everything she's told me is true, like how she is considering a career change mainly because of her desire to help others.
Forearm muscle pain!
This I really didn't expect when I increased the weight of the dumbbells I use from 3kg to 5kg for my shoulder exercises.
Closed the last of my accounts in online dating sites. They suck, enough said.
Bought a clutch. It was a little hard to find on Qoo10 because I wanted a cheap one that had a loop and was large enough for my iPad. Ended up with one that only cost less than S$30.
This is meant to be a trial run to let me see if a clutch is a good idea for me. Currently, I use a large laptop sling bag but it ruins my shirt. If I like using a clutch, I'll get a better one from the more expensive brands. Obviously a $30 clutch from some unknown Korean brand is not going to last very long, and I don't want it to break when I'm at work outside.
Also considered using my father's but the leather was coming apart.
Sunday, 16 March 2014
Rant 1192 / Nowhere To Go But Up Now
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Wednesday, 26 February 2014
Rant 1191 / The Comfort Zone Is A Trap, And Comfort Is The Bait.
16th Feb 2014
How to handle an expired can of abalone:
18th Feb 2014
So I had a nightmare in which I weighed 94kg today.
Imagine my surprise when I stepped onto the weighing scale for real after work and found my weight to be... still 90kg!!!
Woot woot!
Maybe this LCHF diet does work!
So far I've been cooking everything in butter instead of oil, and eating more vegetables.
Some random boiled leafy vegetables and some kimchi and achar.
Yesterday, I had burger patties made from minced chicken with skin, and that was pretty good. The minced skin gave it more fats than the minced chicken I used for the patties months ago, and fats make the patties much better.
19th Feb 2014
Disciples III: Resurrection has some nice music, like this one:
The only issue with this series's music is that they're always too short, another nice example being this one:
22th Feb 2014
Didn't know it had such a good trailer. That double entendre was genius!
26th Feb 2014
89kg! EIGHTY-FUCKING-NINE!!!!
LCHF WORKS!!
Woot woot!
Cheddar and brie everyday!
Also been talking to this girl who's really confusing me. She says she talks to me because, unlike most guys she knows, I don't sound flirty but then again, I wouldn't know how to be "flirty" even if I wanted to. Duh.
The funny thing is that she talked about private stuff that no girl has ever discussed in such detail with me before - on the second night we chatted on Whatsapp. And that was after she offered me her phone number without my asking.
Now it feels like something is off - or that I'm really, really inexperienced in social interactions with younger girls.
It was only recently that I have learnt that girls will give cute nicknames to guys they're friendly with, but do they get even friendlier than that?
In any case, I believe I'm mentally prepared for any possibility.
How to handle an expired can of abalone:
18th Feb 2014
So I had a nightmare in which I weighed 94kg today.
Imagine my surprise when I stepped onto the weighing scale for real after work and found my weight to be... still 90kg!!!
Woot woot!
Maybe this LCHF diet does work!
So far I've been cooking everything in butter instead of oil, and eating more vegetables.
Some random boiled leafy vegetables and some kimchi and achar.
Yesterday, I had burger patties made from minced chicken with skin, and that was pretty good. The minced skin gave it more fats than the minced chicken I used for the patties months ago, and fats make the patties much better.
19th Feb 2014
Disciples III: Resurrection has some nice music, like this one:
The only issue with this series's music is that they're always too short, another nice example being this one:
22th Feb 2014
Didn't know it had such a good trailer. That double entendre was genius!
26th Feb 2014
89kg! EIGHTY-FUCKING-NINE!!!!
LCHF WORKS!!
Woot woot!
Cheddar and brie everyday!
Also been talking to this girl who's really confusing me. She says she talks to me because, unlike most guys she knows, I don't sound flirty but then again, I wouldn't know how to be "flirty" even if I wanted to. Duh.
The funny thing is that she talked about private stuff that no girl has ever discussed in such detail with me before - on the second night we chatted on Whatsapp. And that was after she offered me her phone number without my asking.
Now it feels like something is off - or that I'm really, really inexperienced in social interactions with younger girls.
It was only recently that I have learnt that girls will give cute nicknames to guys they're friendly with, but do they get even friendlier than that?
In any case, I believe I'm mentally prepared for any possibility.
Sunday, 16 February 2014
Rant 1190 / How Did They Get My Card Info??
14th Feb 2014
Ok, I will stop this insane starvation diet next week. I'm currently at 90.5kg and obviously that last half kg will be gone by the end of this week, even with the weekly feast taken into account.
From next week onwards, I will try a different weight-loss regime. Currently, the LCHF diet looks interesting. The gist of it is to eat normally, except to avoid carbs as much as possible. No rice, no noodles, no bread, just meat and vegetables.
No fruit too, because of the glucose content, although avocado should be fine.
This will be interesting. I'll probably begin with lots of minced meat.
15th Feb 2014
A momentous day, but not the end.
Haven't been this light for years!
Now I shall stop starving and try something less crazy, like LCHF.
After reading on this diet, it became obvious that the name "Low Carbohydrates High Fats" is very misleading.
It's not about eating lard and oil but replacing your carbohydrate intake with fat intake. For example, instead of bread, you consume fatty meat. In terms of energy content, it must still remain constant because energy is energy, regardless of its source.
This method is supposed to work because it changes the way the body consume its energy store. Instead of using simple sugars, the LCHF diet forces it to go straight to fat-burning all the time, also allowing the blood to have minimal insulin and thus avoiding diabetes.
This method is not supported by all physicians yet due to the relative lack of data on its effects compared to traditional weight-loss methods, but there is sufficient information for health organizations to recognize it as a legitimate weight-loss method now.
So I will try it!
Everyday I will be eating meat! Probably pan-fried in butter with herbs. And lots of vegetables. How does minced pork stir-fried with peppers sound?
No carbs is going to be an issue in the long term though. No otah, no bread, no rice, no noodles, no fishballs, no fried food with thick crust, no pizzas, no pasta, no prata, no thick gravy due to starch content, no potatoes, no fries, no muffins, no cakes.
The thing is that I won't be able to have weekly special meals with this diet because for one, there is no energy-content-deficiency to compensate for. Another reason is that I expect my normal meals will be awesome as they are without carbs.
Well, I think wraps are still find. It's LCHF after all, not NCHF. The carbs just got to be kept at a minimal level.
Halfway through the dinner, I received SMSes informing me of payments I did not make. The first SMS was ignored because I tend to ignore all calls and messages when I'm eating, but when the SMS ringtone was sounded about fifteen minutes later, I thought it might have been an urgent issue from my brother and picked the phone up.
Both SMSes told me I had paid a small amount in USD to a company I have never paid before in my entire life.
Immediately, I called the number in the SMS and it turned out to be the bank's customer service number (expected it to go straight to the credit card department). The good thing was that they were quick even though it was a Saturday evening, and the girl who handled my case cancelled my card promptly before informing me that I had to go to a branch to get a new card and that I must go to the bank myself to make a report.
That will be done on Monday.
Next, she transferred me to the someone who handled new card applications but I told her I might as well apply when I go to the bank personally. Although it's a little troublesome, getting it through her takes 3-5 working days while doing it at the bank gets me the card immediately.
Before hanging up, I thought of another important question, so I did. It may have been common sense but I had to go to the police to make a report, and bring it to them when making a report at the bank.
Well, no shopping this weekend. Hopefully the bank will compensate.
16 Feb 2014
Today upon entering Kickstarter, there was a notice informing everyone that the website had been hacked. Immediately, I thought that might have been how someone got my card information yesterday, but then, I recalled I never save my card information anywhere except for one website.
The problem with that was that my password for that particular website was different from all my other passwords, so I wasn't too worried. Regardless, I've just checked the transaction history and removed the card (useless anyway). Nope, it's not that.
Also just thought of going to the company's website to see if I could talk to them about this. Good thing I could, so I'm doing it. Let's see if they have received the payment and can make a full refund....
LOL!!
So the Blizzard representative informed me that my card had actually been used SIX times since January but four were declined, including one a few hours ago. WTF?
Good thing I had SMS notifications for transactions of any value.
Even better was that the two that I knew about were cancelled since I managed to call the bank early enough, while on Blizzard's end, the Battle.net accounts were automatically locked.
LOL!
According to the GM who handled my case, the charges appeared to be most likely character transfer charges. In addition, the transactions were getting processed when they were cancelled. I'm so glad I managed to hear the ringtone and checked because often, I can't hear my phone at all when I'm playing games or watching movies.
Same for my doorbell, actually.
In any case, those assholes got what they deserved and I've only got to lose a little time to get to the bank for a new card. It's fine because it's just a ten-minute walk, and if I go there early, I should be able to avoid the queue.
I'm so relieved.
Ok, I will stop this insane starvation diet next week. I'm currently at 90.5kg and obviously that last half kg will be gone by the end of this week, even with the weekly feast taken into account.
From next week onwards, I will try a different weight-loss regime. Currently, the LCHF diet looks interesting. The gist of it is to eat normally, except to avoid carbs as much as possible. No rice, no noodles, no bread, just meat and vegetables.
No fruit too, because of the glucose content, although avocado should be fine.
This will be interesting. I'll probably begin with lots of minced meat.
15th Feb 2014
A momentous day, but not the end.
Haven't been this light for years!
Now I shall stop starving and try something less crazy, like LCHF.
After reading on this diet, it became obvious that the name "Low Carbohydrates High Fats" is very misleading.
It's not about eating lard and oil but replacing your carbohydrate intake with fat intake. For example, instead of bread, you consume fatty meat. In terms of energy content, it must still remain constant because energy is energy, regardless of its source.
This method is supposed to work because it changes the way the body consume its energy store. Instead of using simple sugars, the LCHF diet forces it to go straight to fat-burning all the time, also allowing the blood to have minimal insulin and thus avoiding diabetes.
This method is not supported by all physicians yet due to the relative lack of data on its effects compared to traditional weight-loss methods, but there is sufficient information for health organizations to recognize it as a legitimate weight-loss method now.
So I will try it!
Everyday I will be eating meat! Probably pan-fried in butter with herbs. And lots of vegetables. How does minced pork stir-fried with peppers sound?
No carbs is going to be an issue in the long term though. No otah, no bread, no rice, no noodles, no fishballs, no fried food with thick crust, no pizzas, no pasta, no prata, no thick gravy due to starch content, no potatoes, no fries, no muffins, no cakes.
The thing is that I won't be able to have weekly special meals with this diet because for one, there is no energy-content-deficiency to compensate for. Another reason is that I expect my normal meals will be awesome as they are without carbs.
Well, I think wraps are still find. It's LCHF after all, not NCHF. The carbs just got to be kept at a minimal level.
Just got these from Qoo10 - two boxes of 50 sticks of ready-to-eat chicken yakitori and they only cost me $52.60 total with delivery included!
I am so sure this is alright in the LCHF diet. Guess what's for dinner every night this month?
Halfway through the dinner, I received SMSes informing me of payments I did not make. The first SMS was ignored because I tend to ignore all calls and messages when I'm eating, but when the SMS ringtone was sounded about fifteen minutes later, I thought it might have been an urgent issue from my brother and picked the phone up.
Both SMSes told me I had paid a small amount in USD to a company I have never paid before in my entire life.
Immediately, I called the number in the SMS and it turned out to be the bank's customer service number (expected it to go straight to the credit card department). The good thing was that they were quick even though it was a Saturday evening, and the girl who handled my case cancelled my card promptly before informing me that I had to go to a branch to get a new card and that I must go to the bank myself to make a report.
That will be done on Monday.
Next, she transferred me to the someone who handled new card applications but I told her I might as well apply when I go to the bank personally. Although it's a little troublesome, getting it through her takes 3-5 working days while doing it at the bank gets me the card immediately.
Before hanging up, I thought of another important question, so I did. It may have been common sense but I had to go to the police to make a report, and bring it to them when making a report at the bank.
Well, no shopping this weekend. Hopefully the bank will compensate.
16 Feb 2014
Today upon entering Kickstarter, there was a notice informing everyone that the website had been hacked. Immediately, I thought that might have been how someone got my card information yesterday, but then, I recalled I never save my card information anywhere except for one website.
The problem with that was that my password for that particular website was different from all my other passwords, so I wasn't too worried. Regardless, I've just checked the transaction history and removed the card (useless anyway). Nope, it's not that.
Also just thought of going to the company's website to see if I could talk to them about this. Good thing I could, so I'm doing it. Let's see if they have received the payment and can make a full refund....
LOL!!
So the Blizzard representative informed me that my card had actually been used SIX times since January but four were declined, including one a few hours ago. WTF?
Good thing I had SMS notifications for transactions of any value.
Even better was that the two that I knew about were cancelled since I managed to call the bank early enough, while on Blizzard's end, the Battle.net accounts were automatically locked.
LOL!
According to the GM who handled my case, the charges appeared to be most likely character transfer charges. In addition, the transactions were getting processed when they were cancelled. I'm so glad I managed to hear the ringtone and checked because often, I can't hear my phone at all when I'm playing games or watching movies.
Same for my doorbell, actually.
In any case, those assholes got what they deserved and I've only got to lose a little time to get to the bank for a new card. It's fine because it's just a ten-minute walk, and if I go there early, I should be able to avoid the queue.
I'm so relieved.
Sunday, 9 February 2014
Rant 1189 / Reading About The Last Byzantine Emperors Is Like Reading A Series Of Tragedies
2nd Feb
Dieting!
Been trying out a milder version of my previous diet for a week and I don't like the result.
100g of pasta plus a generous serving of vegetable-filled gravy per day, no milk this time, jog/walk 5 times a week.
I've only lost half a kg (before passing motion today) this week.
So I must ramp it up more. No pasta from now on!
Instead, I shall try a vegetable-filled diet since it's more interesting.
According to some googling and calculations, an eggplant I can find in the market usually have about 60-90 calories (250-350g) while a small packet of 150g of shiitake mushroom only has 51 calories.
My aim is to have 200 calories per day at most plus 2 glasses of skimmed milk. The total will obviously be above 200 calories but should be less than 500 calories a day. As before, I aim to lose 1-3kg a week like this.
My current weight is 94kg and I have to stop at 70kg because eating normally will make me gain back about 5kg, and my target weight is 75kg.
If I lose 2kg a week, by the end of April (8 weeks from now) I will have lost 16kg and reaching 78kg. If all goes well, I will be done by the end of May.
9th Feb
Finally, a decent 100cal meal!
A can of tom yum broth - 76cal
a can of pacific clams - 132cal
a can of champignons - 28cal
a can of straw mushrooms - 62cal
total = 298cal
split into 3 and there are three 100cal meals!
Also found another great alternative - Marigold low-fat yogurt. They're all just 100cal a cup!
Managed to squeeze into a 35" business pants this week so I wore it to visit some people for the Chinese New Year. One of them could barely recognize me! Losing 18kgs is a lot I guess, though I can't tell since I see myself everyday.
The shirts were all borrowed from my bro though. I don't have any shirt that isn't baggy at the moment, but they were good enough. One of them, the Apollo 2 shirt from Ministry of Supply, had sleeves that were too long, but I really like the rest of the shirt, so I folded up the sleeves, and kept the collar button and the next button unbuttoned to match the sleeves.
Needed his belt too. All my belts are old and cracked, but they didn't used to be an issue since I never tuck in my polo shirts.
The Elder Scrolls Online MMORPG is unimpressive. It's just like most MMORPGs but in first-person view. Not buying even with the 25% discount on GMG.
Dieting!
Been trying out a milder version of my previous diet for a week and I don't like the result.
100g of pasta plus a generous serving of vegetable-filled gravy per day, no milk this time, jog/walk 5 times a week.
I've only lost half a kg (before passing motion today) this week.
So I must ramp it up more. No pasta from now on!
Instead, I shall try a vegetable-filled diet since it's more interesting.
According to some googling and calculations, an eggplant I can find in the market usually have about 60-90 calories (250-350g) while a small packet of 150g of shiitake mushroom only has 51 calories.
My aim is to have 200 calories per day at most plus 2 glasses of skimmed milk. The total will obviously be above 200 calories but should be less than 500 calories a day. As before, I aim to lose 1-3kg a week like this.
My current weight is 94kg and I have to stop at 70kg because eating normally will make me gain back about 5kg, and my target weight is 75kg.
If I lose 2kg a week, by the end of April (8 weeks from now) I will have lost 16kg and reaching 78kg. If all goes well, I will be done by the end of May.
9th Feb
Finally, a decent 100cal meal!
A can of tom yum broth - 76cal
a can of pacific clams - 132cal
a can of champignons - 28cal
a can of straw mushrooms - 62cal
total = 298cal
split into 3 and there are three 100cal meals!
Also found another great alternative - Marigold low-fat yogurt. They're all just 100cal a cup!
Managed to squeeze into a 35" business pants this week so I wore it to visit some people for the Chinese New Year. One of them could barely recognize me! Losing 18kgs is a lot I guess, though I can't tell since I see myself everyday.
The shirts were all borrowed from my bro though. I don't have any shirt that isn't baggy at the moment, but they were good enough. One of them, the Apollo 2 shirt from Ministry of Supply, had sleeves that were too long, but I really like the rest of the shirt, so I folded up the sleeves, and kept the collar button and the next button unbuttoned to match the sleeves.
Needed his belt too. All my belts are old and cracked, but they didn't used to be an issue since I never tuck in my polo shirts.
The Elder Scrolls Online MMORPG is unimpressive. It's just like most MMORPGs but in first-person view. Not buying even with the 25% discount on GMG.
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