After-party

About 10 hours ago, I landed in Changi Airport and was greeted by the friendly sounds of Singlish that filled the air. I've spent the last couple of weeks on a mad rampage to see the world before I get confined to a life of no more summer vacations :P After graduation, I headed down to Peru with my brother to embark on a 4-day hike to Machu Picchu along the Inca trail, an endeavor that was preceded by 3 days of altitude sickness which involved masive headaches and some degree of nausea. (Interesting fact: The best way to deal with altitude sickness in Peru is to drink coca tea or chew coca leaves. Incidentally, these leaves are one of the components in the manufacture of cocaine. No, you don't get high chewing the stuff itself.) Nonetheless, Machu Picchu and the other Inca sites are pretty darn amazing. The sheer scale and intricacy of the construction is truly a testament of what alot of people can do with alot of time. The jigsaw puzzle-like walls carved from stones dragged over from faraway mountains have even led one guy to theorize that the Incas must have had help from aliens. The Incas were also really into building terraces for agricultural purposes -- to experiment with plants and to acclimatize low altitude plants to higher altitudes. Now that's some pretty neat stuff! For anyone thinking of heading to Peru, I would highly recommend going on the Inca Trail, especially if you get hooked up with a decent company like SAS or Andean Life. The trek itself was pretty demanding since we didn't hire personal porters, but the service (which included hot tea during your wake-up call) was simply mind-boggling. It's luxury camping that well worth the price you're paying.

After Peru, my brother went back to Singapore (earning $300 along the way due to an overbooked flight), while I flew to Tokyo to meet up with my girlfriend. Having flown through Narita Airport on the way to the US about 3 times now, I've always wanted to see what Japan was like outside the terminal. In reality, not much is happening outside the terminal since it is about a 1.5 hr ride to the northeast corner of the city. We hit most of the major locations in Tokyo then headed out to Nikko for a day, which was an altogether more rural-esque escape. Highlights of the trip for me were the Tsukiji fish market (where we ate supposedly the best ultra-fresh sushi available), staying at a ryokan and looking at all the crazy food like US$157 watermelons and desserts that look like main-course items (e.g hamburgers, sandwiches, cod roe...)

So now I'm back in Singapore, exhausted from planes and trains, and starting work the day after tomorrow. Fun times :)

Graduation

The Passing of an Age

For some 2 years now, I have been served by my faithful Merrell Chameleon (left), which I have worn pretty much everyday. Now it is time for a change. The shoes have lost their water-repellent properties and the soles are completely worn out at the heel. These puppies have been replaced by a Merrell Ventilator II, which will hopefully aid me in my upcoming ascent of Machu Picchu :) I love Merrells!

Graduation Pre-game

After some 9 months of separation, I am finally reunited with my kin :) I first took an extremely boring bus ride up to Montreal to meet my mom and we spent some time hanging out with my aunt who's living there. After a couple of days in Montreal, we took a less boring (since it was overnight) bus ride down to New York to meet up with my brother who's finally done with his National Service obligations. Now, the 3 of us are back in Boston and will be heading out to Connecticut tomorrow. ~Whew!

Missing in action here is my youngest brother who unfortunately had to stay back in Singapore to wrestle with his upcoming exams :(

Washington DC

After having spent the past 4 years in the US, I thought it would be rather silly if I never visited the nation's capital before heading back to the motherland. It turned out to be a pretty good time to go down to DC coz it's Memorial Day weekend, so the city was filled with lots've Vietnam veterans walking around proudly displaying their military patches and other paraphernalia. My trip was made all the more awesome by my gracious hosts Wayne and Jason, whom I stayed with on different days.

All in all, DC is a rather exhausting place to visit if you don't have much time because there's simply so much to see. The Smithsonian museums alone would occupy a couple of days if you actually took the time to read the information next to the exhibits (I sped through millions of years of evolution in some 5 minutes). The major memorials are all pretty spread out too and I would recommend buying a Tourmobile pass from Union Station or any of their busstops. This would allow you to hop on and off a shuttle service thats hits all the major monuments. Washington is certainly filled with memorials, but I think the sad thing is that in the process of becoming tourist attractions, these memorials do lose some degree of the reverance that should be associated with them.

MI:3

As some of you might know, this film has faced some degree of resistance from the Chinese censors who feel that certain scenes in the movie were "detrimental" to the image of Shanghai as a metropolis. 3 days ago, the South China Morning Post reported that MI:3 will be allowed in China on the condition that some scenes are cut. These scenes include shots of laundry hanging on bamboo poles in the foreground of the establishing shots in Shanghai, as well as the downtown car chase scene. Demands have even been made for some footage of elderly people playing mahjong in Xitang to be cut as well. Yet despite these unpleasantries, this installment is most certainly the best of the MI series so far.

Firewall

Just spent the past hour and forty minutes following Harrison Ford's attempt to relive his action hero days and give Jack Bauer a run for his money. Despite terrible reviews, I found Firewall to be sufficiently interesting and engaging despite the somewhat ridiculous storyline (willing suspension of disbelief eh?). Honestly, I much preferred this to Capote, but that's just my low-brow taste. Ford plays Jack Stanfield, security specialist at a Seattle bank. His home is soon overtaken by evil men who force him to hack into his own bank's computer system and transfer some huge sum of money into an off-shore account.

Anyhow, one thought that did cross my mind as I watched the film's climax was how evil masterminds in movies tend to also have some kick-ass martial arts abilities up their sleeves as well. What are the odds that this brilliant guy who is able to devise this crafty scheme is also some kung fu expert. Unlike the villains in computer games, I would expect a real mastermind to be someone physically less capable. If you spend all your time thinking of evil plots, where do you find time to go practice your wu shu? Think Napoleon: brilliant strategist and leader, but probably crappy street fighter. There is a difference between being ruthless and having lightning reflexes.

Hard Rock Hallelujah

While randomly going through YouTube, I came across this group called Lordi which recently represented Finland in the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest, and claiming top prize with their song, Hard Rock Hallelujah. If you think the title is bizarre, wait till you you see their costumes, and if you think that is bizarre, just listen to the lyrics. Invoking words like "Arockalypse" and "Day of Rockoning", the song seems more like a joke than the hardcore metal stuff that the name seems to imply. The chorus that goes "All we need is lightning with power and might" is downright hilarious! But what truly astounds me is how they can play their respective instruments with all that make-up on. You can also watch their music video and *gag* press conference.

Brian and Helena's Wedding

Here are some photos from the wedding of one of my bible study leaders, Brian Anderson. It was a really simple affair, with none of the pomp that has led to TV programs like Bridezillas, and I think many people really appreciated the unpretentious and relaxed atmosphere. In Singapore, it almost seems like a crime if you don't have some insanely expensive wedding dinner to match this once-in-a-lifetime event. The sermon preached today addressed this issue directly and stressed that a marriage is less a commitment to each other than it is to God. On some level, turning your wedding day into this spectacular event focused around yourself is tantamount to idolatory. Now that's a thought...

Dancing with their parents

Highrock

For the past 8 months or so, I've been attending Highrock Church twice a week, and during that time, I have truly been blessed by the various members of the Highrock family (aka "Highrockers"). Highrock is an amazing church seriously committed to the task of building up a community of believers that cares for one another and supports each other in ministry. Through the various small groups I attended, the very insightful sermons by Pastor Dave, and the friends I've made in the process, Highrock has certainly opened my eyes to what a loving community might look like and it is my prayer that I will be able to find a similar community back in Singapore.

Some friends from Highrock

New York Meet-ups

Having some time on my hands, I headed down to NYC to meet up with a couple of friends, some of whom I may never see for quite a long time once I return to the motherland. Good times.

(Clockwise) Camille & Koksiew, Abilene, Xinghong, Andrew

Quanhui and Diana's Concert

The Superstars

The groupies


The video with unsynchronized sound

Bad Movie

This is a terrible movie. I guess that should've been pretty obvious from the poster. I was planning to avoid this like the plague, but after watching the trailer, I thought, "Hey, maybe the action will make up for it." Nope, this movie sucks big time. In many ways, I think it is trying to rip off Equilibrium, but fails miserably due to a ridiculous plot, bad acting, awful lines, stupid-looking sets and crappy special effects. This seems more like an extended computer game cut-scene than an actual movie.

Speaking of bad movies, here's the classic bad movie from way back when.

Game Over

As school begins to draw to a close, many people are having mixed feelings about returning to Singapore, fearing that it's going to be the start of a boring 40+ years of living the Singapore dream. But things are not all doom and gloom, and I think Joel's blog captures this tension pretty well.

Urban Camouflage

Some pretty cool photos by Désirée Palmen.

Here Fishy, Fishy, Fishy...

I just got back from deep sea fishing and I still feel as though my world is rocking. Once upon a time, I had the impression that "deep sea fishing" meant putting on scuba gear and going deep into the sea to harpoon some fish, so I was a little disappointed when I found out the reality was not quite so exciting. Nonetheless, we headed down to Captain John's this morning (setting out at 5am!), ready to start our own private aquarium. Alas, catching fish isn't very easy. Within a couple minutes of dropping our lines into the water, Xiaojuan caught the inaugural fish of the day, setting the pace and filling me with optimism for the day ahead. Unfortunately, the fish she caught was considered too small and had to be returned to the ocean. This was the same case for Gabriel's catch a few hours later, and Yogi's one as well. Our sole victorious fisher(wo)man was Kat, who managed to snag a rather large fish after sinking a rather large piece of bait. At the end of the day, the losers of the day were Daryl, Eli and myself, as after 8hrs on the boat, we still had no idea what a bite on the hook felt like :( Thank goodness for the supermarket otherwise my family would surely starve. Well, at least we got to see whales :) Anyhow, this seems like a faster way to go fishing...

Tianyu's Birthday

Dinner at a French-Cambodian restaurant called The Elephant Walk

Free TV with ABC

From May 1st till June 30th, get free streaming of primetime ABC TV shows like Lost, Commander in Chief, Desperate Housewives and Alias. Best part about it, this time it's legal!

Virtual Reality Street Art

This is just amazing! Check out more pics here.