Happy Chinese Tourist New Year

I wonder why I've put off uploading of the pics I've taken at Chinatown on Chinese New Year's eve. After all, I've only 13 pictures in total with 10 to show. It's that dismal yes, there were more tourists and gawker than ChineseNewYearers. And in Chinatown, no less. I mean c'mon, it's not as if I'm expecting a crowd to throng say, Little India on Chinese New Year but the lack of a crowd on a Sunday?

10 totally unremarkable photos

First and last



This was the first and last pic taken. It's like a typical must-take photograph for photographers, as though a large TAKE-MEEEEEEEEEE sticker was stuck on that scene. Yea I took it.

Compulsory pedophilia



I love how there's a single sweat drop down the side of his head. So anime-ish. Except in anime their sweat drops are caused by anything other than heat.

Papercraft



Lalala~ No caption~~

I've realized



That taking these pictures, aren't really very exciting. They're the sort of pictures tourists would take and show their friends and say, "See? These are sweets sold during Chinese New Year."

And these are...



Chinese New Year tidbits lor. Pineapple tarts and all that crap.

Pumpkin



I don't really like them.

Old man in the middle of the street



Was he actually playing the er hu or was he pretending to? I can't remember.

Ninja skillz!



With my rotatable barrel and mad skillz, I managed to take an unflattering photo of an unflattering uncle selling pomelos. He has a sprout of white hair from mole on his chin.

Ninja kids!



At shutter speed 400, the kids were still a blur, you could have imagined them zipping around zip zip whoooosh!

Ninja uncle!



I didn't manage to take a very satisfactory shot of him but he notiecd me and disappeared before I had to chance to take a second short.

The last photo of 2008

Taken from a bus.

Very punctual

Wah. This is really early! For photos that happened LAST YEAR, they finally make an appearance now.

And it's not like there are a lot.

I present to you, EOY08. Bleah.

Previously I'd usually categorize them as pictures with Rachel in them, and those without. Since Rachel didn't cosplay, I shall put the pictures as Pictures that are horizontal and Pictures that are vertical. Also, the lack of witty comments shall be indicated with a 'Yea'.

Horizontal Pictures

It's FFIV!



EOY: Where you can wear weird clothes or go half-naked without getting arrested for indecent exposure.

No OBJECTION!



The sort-of full cast for Apollo Justice. Godot is never without his special blend and Emma is fraternizing with Kristoph.

Eetsa me! Luigi!



Not upstaged by his brother Mario for the first time.

Shaman King



Julia from secondary school and her friend, as characters from Shaman King.

No More Dirty Teeth!



Besides using the lightsabre to hack and slash at opponents, the pointy edge can be used as a toothpick too!

Seductive Warrior



Flirtatious eyes shooting electricity. 电死你！Pew pew pew!

All together now...



Awww. SO CUTE!!!

Vertical Pictures

Long time friend



Yea.

Compulsory FF



There must be one every event. This time it's Zack Fair.

Pink Lady



Yea 2.

Weird Shadows



If you notice the shadow of the pipe, where is it being reflected? On the ceiling? Weird.

Advice



Don't patronize her plastic surgeon.

Ok the end. Now to work on the other project, hopefully within the same year.

You have defeated Procrastination!

Experience points +infinity.

Hooray for hard work, lazy asses and days off. The long overdue Cosfest pics are here, with captions! Yaaay!

Ok as usual, because I went to the Cosfest with rachel, mandatory pictures of her are here. So let's get them out of the way first!

Meet Kula Diamond



From King of Fighters, the bleahry effect at the back is a mixture of skill, shaky hands and pure dumb luck.

Candy



The candy serves no combat purpose. Really.

Unceremoniously stuffed down her ass =P



When she isn't posing with the lollipop, she sticks the lollipop down her back pants pocket.

Get me out of the sun!



It's really hot outside. The irony, since Kula Diamond's powers are Ice.

Freeze



Not even Kula Diamond's icy powers can defeat the Singapore Sun. I bet her attacks would just spew water if the stage was Singapore. *ICY KICK!!* (lots of water splashes everywhere)

Haado Gei! HOOO!



Lol ok random. Trying to fit something into her mouth.

+friend



Rachel with er, according to her, hot bishie vampire friend.

Hot bishie vampire friend part 2



Part 2.

Not bishie or vampire, just friend



It's Yimon! Rachel forcedcoaxed her to come down and see her cosplay.

Ok so that was it for Pictures with Rachel in it. Now for: Things I recognize

Petrol very expensive



To beat rising gas prices again, Optimus Prime makes yet another appearance to earn some extra dough. Transformed into a truck, you realize, GASP, he doesn't have the ERP unit thingy!

Iron Man too?



Maybe not petrol, perhaps lubricating oil prices have risen too?

I'd like to thank...



I'd like to thank my fathermotherbrothersistersunclegrandmothergrandfatherCatsAndZebrasInLarge/TinyHiredCagesMakeSurePadlockedGoondu for this award. Oh, and World Peace.

Not you too Gundam?



Maybe whatever it is Gundams run on have been hit by the worldwide inflation too.

Help!



I'm too tall for this picture!

Bling



Life's better with bling-bling eyes.

Oops



Ironically, for placing this photo under the "Photos of things I recognize", suddenly I forgot what game this is from.

Well...



Well I do remember he had an oversized weapon in the game.

Take That!



Franzizka von Karma took that.

Squally and Rinoa



Rinoa has an uber weapon, Squally uses a lousy revolver. Pooh.

Mandatory emo



Because without which, Squall just wouldn't be squall

Mandatory un-emo



Because without which, Rinoa wouldn't be that irritating female lead that she is. If it were up to Squall, he'd have dumped her for Seifer and they would emo together.

Old skool never dies



White Mage.

Now comes to the portion known as "Pictures of people I don't recognize".

Uh?



Maybe I'm lazy and can't think of what to type, but I choose to say "I don't recognize anything! Yay no need to type anything witty!"

Uh? 2



Nice wings. I don't recognize anything! Yay!

Uh? 3



Still the same person.

Uh? 4



Well she was lying down so I took a picture of her. This is one of my favourite pics.

Cosplayers get tired too



I guess she just needed a rest.

Hot bunny!



Honorable mention for this elusive bunny.

I had to take this from very far away =(



I remember her! She cosplayed Aeris at EOY some years ago! Wait wouldn't that mean I recognize her and that this photo should be up above?

And finally, the last section: Guess who I met at Cosfest?

Irene Ang



Haha Shuhui cut her hair and now I think she looks like Irene Ang.

Irene Ang and 2 L's



One's L, the other's name begins with L. Lol.


Ok that's the end byebye.

Of Lobsters and Blobs.

After much clamor about going to Nova Scotia and forcibly riding crustaceans, everyone who has had ears bleed from my incessant talking about it would probably want respite in the form of their eyes melting from my pictures. So melt away.

In somewhat chronological order, and no I didn't take 58973 bajillion photos like some of my other teammates did. And definitely NOT SNEAKILY of others too, may I add *glares at Kee*.

Ride the Lobster



Dah dah dah dum dum dum dum. Presenting a slideshow that you have to scroll down, Riiiide the Lobster!

Country for Old Man



My flight to Halifax was delayed for 2 hours. I changed 50 SGD at a very bad rate. I was stuck in Chicago. Lost and lonely, I settled for taking pictures of blobby old men staring out of windows with very, very nice polarizing... window shades?

Alternate uses for a bench



Tired of being sat on by asses all the time, the bench at the Champlain motel got its proverbial panties in a knot, got up and tried a different job: Modelling. Is expecting proposals of hot furniture sex to follow.

Beark a Leg!



Kids want us to beark our legs. =( Wo wo. Maybe I'm no kid-art savant, but the girl illustrated looks more like she's balancing on balls instead. Maybe that's how you beark legs?

Friendly teammate number 1



Demonstrating deer-in-headlight stance. The scalloped potatos were supposed to drop off despondently from his fork to highlight the comical effect but he is a FAIL.

Seafood



Hey! Do you want seafood? Here! See-food! Ahh..... Exemplary table manners and masticated scalloped potatos (seefood) at Annapolis Royal.

No ghosts...



No nasty deadies/mummies/in-betweens disturbed our graveyward tour, but plenty of mosquitos did. He is the guide and the something-of-the-something committee.

Fishy



There is something very fishy about Yarmouth. My 1337 deduction led me to conclude that Fishes were the culprit. Elementary my dear Watson, it's all elementary.

Lamps



Eep I ran out of funny/witty stuff to say!

Skies on Fire



The sun set into the clouds and promptly set it on fire.

Ew Gross! Part 1



Canada has strange bugs.

Ew Gross! Part 2



Seriously why do I keep taking pictures of these bugs?

Endless road



Endless motivation. Endless uphill. End of caption.

To make Jiahui feel better...



By manipulating the camera angle, it makes her look as though she was going downhill! That makes all the difference doesn't it? What do you mean it doesn't work that way?

Dandy Lions



Huff-huff...mrraooow.

He couldn't pay the rent



So the landlord forcibly evicted him. With a bulldozer.

Så kom och!



Dansa med oss
Klappa era händer
Gör som vi gör
Ta några steg åt vänster
Lyssna och lär
Missa inte chansen
Nu är vi här med
Caramelldansen

Awesome skill



...and crotch-grabbings and decapitated hands.

Leap of faith



The look on the lady's face is priceless.

Aw



Coochie coochie coo!

Flying carpet



Lol. Looks like one.

Berlin Wall is falling down



And is not in Berlin anymore. Truro.

Manly



Epitome of manliness and music.

Not-so-manly



Self-explanatory.

Ok smile!



Do not let the sign and smiles beguile you, because...

The face that launched a thousand ships



...A second later, "A smile is frown, upside down! Lalalalaa!"

Bald Eagle



With better table manners (and real seafood) than Jiahui.

Mandatory flower pictures



It wouldn't be nice to spoil tradition and not take pictures of flowers.

Foggy



Meh.

We couldn't find snow in Canada



So we settled for the next best thing and made snowmen out of yucky mash potatos in a Chinese restaurant in Baddeck. Mash potatos that you cannot cut with a spoon.

Team Masticating Bunnies from Hell



3 Masticating Bunnies and 1 honorary Bunny from the German Speeders. I have cleverly disguised myself as a triple-chin-ed blobby so you don't see me in the picture. Muahaha.

This is it. I know I didn't take a lot of pictures. I was too busy riding and lying about riding when in actual fact just too lazy to take the camera out.

Almost about again.

Photos will come up soon. Surprisingly there aren't as many photos as I hoped that'd be.

Almost about

Almost about to leave for Halifax, that is. Anyone going to miss me? Reckon not. I brought my camera! So that means somewhat some photos are going to make it here, after such a long absence of updates.

Seeya.

No.

Ashes or dust?

Golden square,
spilt with the blot of black;
spreading,
wracked with the burdern of heat,
crumples, crushes, cracks and cries.
The glisten of the yellow square
screams bronze - no, black
as they lie, consumed by flames.

Silver square,
on a sheet of white;
off-white, specked with bits and pieces of tears.
The fingers of fire
willfully peels at it,
the silver square submits
as it whispers a collective sigh
before turning into
ashes.

The silver basin
sits in front of me.
Round, its mouth is
gaping wide
as I feed it
squares of silver and gold.
So wide,
within, are the remnants of the fed -
look at its lips,
stained with the demands of its greed
as dancing lights of maniacal gleam,
red and orange,
flicker off its palette.
Is your appetite never satisfied?

Are we all kindling?
Are we all pieces of dying ember?

Ugly pictures of ugly people doing ugly stuff.

An aside, with reference to previous post, 'Drive' was defeated by procrastination, laziness and strangely enough, Trauma Center: New Blood.

So there will be no pics of ethnical Chinese New Year decorations.

On the other hand, I present to you ugly photos of ourselves. Make that 2 people and 1 cannot-see-face person.

Ride the Lobster Team Pics



A rather dismal attempt to take a silhouette of 3 of us against the sun and sea, with Jiahui doing a seat-drop and the 2 of us flanking either sides. I wanted to do a wheel-walk. Needless to say, the ground was so slippery I slipped trying to run to my own unicycle and then mounting without falling was an uphill task on its own. Probably took like 3948094 attempts. Sans exaggeration.



Jiahui's stand-up. Not that hard to take actually.



The face of nightmares and countless sleep.



I would like to say something nice about this picture. Er. Nice sea?



You had no idea how hard it was to take this pic, albeit sunny smiles and disposition because Kee just couldn't tackle the rocky groyne. Cue laughter from Jiahui at the word 'groyne'.



Heavily edited to obscure my face. The title did mention Ugly People whaat. I seem to like pointing a lot. At what I have no idea. Some of my other pics had me pointing too.



Wah wheel-walk. On a groyne. Cue laughter. If you look carefully, I'm pointing again.


There were more pics but my face was harder to obscure in those so I chose not to put them up.

Drive.

I wanna go take pictures of Chinatown in festive mood. Watch this space for pictures.

Verisimilitude.

Gravitational potential energy is not energy (As written by an ignorant arts student with very little grasping of physics and science)

Among laymen, potential energy is the energy derived from height or a position which objects are wont to be that gives them the potentiality to move from one place to another such as the potential energy derived from standing on a high mountain that would make it possible for a man to roll down said mountain slope. It is an accepted fact that potential energy is indeed a form of energy; hence the moniker ‘potential energy’ but this might not exactly be so, as will be demonstrated.

Potential energy exists, but it does so not as energy but as a potentiality, a state of existence or being. Energy is an entity that is derived from the existence of things occurring or is the occurrence itself. Kinetic energy is derived from the process of movement, not as merely an end product or even strictly sustenance for movement but is movement per se, of which magnitude is determined or rather described (symbiotically actually) by the amount of kinetic energy it has. Nuclear energy can be loosely described as the energy released in the splitting or fusing of atoms (fission and fusion). Chemical energy, like the reaction itself too is not simply the end product or the sustenance of a reaction but is the reaction itself. Many other forms of energy fall broadly into these 2 categories. However potential energy does not. Taking gravitation potential energy for example, the amount of potential energy is derived either by its mass, gravity and height, as described in its equation:

PE = mgh

where ‘m’ is mass, ‘g’ gravity and ‘h’ height. There is no occurrence happening. Energy must do something or be something being, being the capacity to do work. Potential energy is simply derived from being where and what it is without anything occurring or being, as though its ‘energy’ is conferred to it out of circumstantial reasons. The more formal definition is that potential energy is the energy of position, that is, the energy an object is considered to have due to its position in space. Potential energy is its potentiality to be converted into other forms of energy and primarily, for gravitational potential energy and perhaps, I may be wrong, solely only into kinetic energy. This appears to be the case so as applied to this world. And as such, being a potentiality is very different from being energy. Being a potentiality simply means existence in a state about to exist. The thing itself does not exist yet but will or might, and this ‘yet’ and ‘might’ is the potentiality mistaken as potential energy, in this essay’s context. To cite an analogy, to be about to be married does not make one married, the marital status is still single (barring ‘attached’, divorced’, ‘practically married’ or ‘it’s complicated’). An apple that can be eaten or is about to be eaten is still intact or a felon yet to received the death sentence is still very much alive. However all these ‘about to be’s’ is a state of being; a potentiality. Therefore potential energy is the potentiality of an object that is capable of being turned into other forms of energy but is not energy itself, because potentiality does not belie the probability or is the raison d’etre of work being done. Men on high mountains have high potential energy or persons with greater mass have higher potential energy than those on low lands or are of a lighter persuasion can potentially fall a longer distance, maybe faster, or bigger massed objects harder. So it is the potential for something to happen that’s being recognized here and is in no way, energy of the mundane sorts. Like a Schrödinger’s Cat scenario, potential energy appears to be the summation of the possible ‘paths’ that can be taken, or superposition of energies that it can be converted into, but with the given context not to cats and radioactive substances.

Next we look at the aspect that the equation of potential energy = mgh remains true. Since establishing that gravitational potential energy is potentiality for something to happen, such as conversion of potential energy to kinetic energy, when you remove the potentiality in potential energy, potential energy should cease to exist. The thing about gravitational potential energy is that objects are always assumed to be able to be related to ground level or a common ground, which is implicating that objects can theoretically ‘move’ or be related to this common ground. Two identical balls on platforms, one higher than the other would result in the higher ball having greater potential energy than the lower simply because of the two balls’ relation to a common ground, where the value of ‘h’ can then be derived, in short ‘movement’ towards this ground. However, what if this common ground is removed, or alternatively, the ability (potential) to move towards the common ground is removed? Having lost its potentiality, potential energy then becomes 0. As mentioned before, since potentiality is required for potential energy to occur, an object on a higher ground but with no capability or potential to move or happen whatsoever has no potential potential energy, as compared to an object on a lower ground. The afore-sentence recognizes a common ground, but removed potentiality. The alternative should remain true, but is a concept harder to conceptualize. Therefore it is wrong to say that all objects on higher ground possess greater potential energy. It’s like Schrödinger’s Cat being dead before being put inside the box and wondering if it’ll live – there ceases to be potentiality for that scenario, probability and potentiality are 0 and therefore no ‘paths’ to be summated. And since potential energy is converted mainly and perhaps only, as disclaimed before, into kinetic energy, the existence of movement, the removal of the possibility of movement not just along physical planes but of theoretical and hypothetical would render the potential energy of any object to 0. How is it possible to remove the theoretical plane of an object from ‘common ground, then? While possible with actual physical movement along a plane, the theoretical removal of the possibility of relation to ‘common ground’ is impossible. However, the theoretical removal of relation to ‘common ground’ and hence potentiality is just as real as the relation of objects to a ‘common ground’ – objects on slopes or heights roll not simply because they are on heights but because they’re allowed to roll or fall. Therefore to believe in relative height from a ‘common ground’ must be to believe in the removal of it, because they’re all hypothetical. This leaves behind the only actual tangible possibility of potentiality, vital importance to the definition of potential energy, of the potential to move physically.

Dissidents who disapprove may state that gravity and height gives an object the potentiality to move, were they to abide, outrageously, by this house’s argument. Therefore an object at high heights but still perceptibly locked in position, rendering mobility impossible still has potential energy simply because being held static does not render the object unaffected by relativity to ground level. Once again, they argue so on the theoretical level that ‘given the possibility for the object to be moved downwards towards ground level’; already have they ignored the fact that it, the ‘given possibility’ has a probability of 0. It cannot happen physically and exists only because humans created a hypothetical scenario for height to happen. Height does not matter when down does not exist. Therefore the potential energy they speak of exists only in their head, hypothetical, but is in fact non-existent. It exists as much as the imaginary number ‘n’ people use for the sake of an expression and ease. Granted, height will be a factor should an object be allowed to move physically downwards, but the hypothetical relative height then collapses because it exists only because the object can physically move; exclusion of the former denies the latter. So this potential energy that people are clamoring about still recognizes the rule that the potentiality of movement must be present, be it physically or hypothetically for potential energy to exist. While the value of gravity is more or less an absolute, height is a relative factor – absolute height is still relative height. The existence of any relative value or factor does not happen when the relativity is removed; the brightness of a color does not exist when no other darker or brighter colors are juxtaposed in perspective; fast or slow; heavy or light – these become inconsequential isolated. Height exists because people like to draw links to the ground.

Therefore, potential energy as energy is a fallacy. Firstly it is not energy because it is only a potentiality, a superposition of states of energy that it can be converted to BUT does not indicate itself as energy. While this seem to question the established statement that energy cannot be created or destroyed, as then people would ask what then would the converted energy be derived and converted from, this does not in fact run contrary to the established statement – it does not claim that any energy is lost or created; taking an example of a rollercoaster, after moving downhill it goes uphill and the kinetic energy is suddenly converted into potential energy simply because it has lost kinetic energy and must be converted into something else before being converted back into kinetic energy and for the sakes of expression, people term it as being converted into potential energy. But at the peak of the hill it has the potentiality to be converted into kinetic energy again but the potentiality per se is not energy but a state of being. So what was the kinetic energy converted to prior to being converted back into kinetic energy? While this remains an unknown, this house shall informally coin it as ‘negative kinetic energy’. If negative velocity and negative acceleration can exist, negative kinetic energy can be a consideration. The more an object is being slowed, the more negative kinetic energy there is until the limit where the object stops completely and that is where negative kinetic energy peaks. This explains neatly what potential energy truly is; a potentiality, while explaining the missing link between conversions of energies. Next, potential energy exists where height and gravity do too is flawed. Removing the potentiality of movement simply mean that there is no way any energy can be converted into any other forms of energy. This is why non-reactive metals can be thought of as having negligible chemical potential energy, because of its very low potentiality for a change of state. So, a hypothetical substance with absolutely no possibility of reaction can be thought of as having 0 chemical potential energy; objects with absolutely no way of movement, physically or hypothetically, have no potential energy. Height is a value derived from relativity drawn from the ground, but without the potentiality to move physically, this hypothetical height becomes redundant. An analogy: a man living on a flat and level plateau very high up with no knowledge that he is on elevation will have no consciousness of the fact that he is high up and height becomes irrelevant to him. To remove the potentiality of movement in potential energy is to be ensconced in the plateau, like the analogous person. It is only until the man moves to the edge of the plateau and looks down that he suddenly realizes “Woah, I’m living pretty high up, huh?”


Disclaimer: This essay does not seek to disprove the existence of potential energy. This is merely an exercise in essay-writing and the exploration of critical thinking. This essay is lacks actual scientific research. This essay also seeks to practice the usage of words in which affects the opinions of people reading this essay. So do not believe wholesale this article. However, whether it is actually true or contains any verisimilitude is actually debatable. It does sound rather credible, or does it?

The poem finished.

With reference to THIS, an inspiration for an unfinished poem, is now finally finished, in army camp *gasp*.

So without further ado, here it is.

A prelude to a Storm Subsiding

A prelude to a

Tickle;
the patter of tattoos
petering the passages of the heart
and pensive, passive, plosives
that urges to
proceed -

Storm

Throbbing, throbbing bleakly abreast the beat and
ebbing, it brings to break its swollen banks.
The brook has flooded, breakers breached.
My river flows not in rain, it beats,
blaring its pleads and needs
as crash of thunders, peals of lightning
flash and splash
that illuminates
what feeds your appetite.
Still the ice that lie within as
you feast upon men.

Subsiding

It ends, like it should, as always, as all else,
the victims walk away unscathed.
But the river of the heart
bleeds a lonely, longing
tear.


[end]

I quite like it. It's personal.

Abrasions the size of Texas. (This is a Ride the Lobster qualifying ride report)

Day 1 (26/1/2008)

Temperature: 24 - 32 degrees celcius
Humidity: 84%
Distance ridden: 84km
Subjective rating: 66km extreme temperature, 1 km light rain
Total time taken: 11 1/2 hours



Day 2 (27/1/2008)

Temperature: 25 - 32 degrees celcius
Humidity: 87%
Distance ridden: 89km
Subjective rating: 76km extreme temperature
Total time taken: 12 hours



Something must be wrong when I start to post near a 100 photos of seemingly nondescript photos. You're right. I'm doing this for the Ride the Lobster qualifying report. Being painfully camera shy, any photos you see of me (they have to be there for credibility, darn!) are either silhouettes or taken such that my face isn't really seen. But it's me! Really.

Day 1



I started by taking a train to Kembangan. You see I stay in the WEST and Singapore's so small, all of us have to ride the EASTERN Park Connector for the qualifiers. I reach there at 9am.



How I knew where to go. These devious buggers, as I would soon learn, disappears sneakily along the way.



Ridiculous-looking contraption, but ironically the thing that saved me from utter testicular destruction the second day. The sponge, that is. Not the unicycle. It is a 24" by the way, with hookworm tires.



Starting point, at 9am-ish. I headed off from Siglap Park Connector towards East Coast Park. The sun was strangely hot in the morning but I attribute that to this being the east and happenstance the direction in which the sun rises.



Nice view, only possible taken from...



An overhead bridge which...



Fines people for riding on it. I couldn't resist. The things I do for unicycling.. Incidentally the original fine amount was $1000.



Another silly thing you'll find in Singapore. Being to lousy to afford jet skis, you can achieve almost the same thing by cable-skiing! Nothing says fun like being dragged along a cable going around in CIRCLES IN A FRICKING POND. That explains why the ski cable is facing up.



Endless road, number 1, east coast.



Doesn't look so daunting on a harmless signpost. This is some where nearing the end of East Coast park, I think.



But OMG this is not encouraging.



Endless road number whatever. This is the beginning stretch of road of the Changi Beach park connector that is to stretch for about 7 kilometers plus.



On the left is Changi Airport. A plane. I'm not thinking straight at this point. In fact, I'm not thinking at all.



Very encouraging, yes, still. Did I mention at this point that I wasn't wearing cycling tights? It was 7 kilometers of TORTURE.



In one of my rests in the rest stops along then ever-ending Changi Beach Park connector, I realized my unicycle is in a very bad state.



It's so rusty it might fall apart. *hint sponsors for a new uni hint*



And that just won't do if I was to *ahem* represent Singapore, would I?



Rare cannot-see-my-face shot of me number 1.



Someone scrawled this on the wall. I took this simply to amuse Jiahui, who too took part in the qualifiers, seeing how she used to work for EA. I think it stands for 'Ever Acquiring'.



So that I know the 7 kilometers plus is nearing an end.



It ended! And the nice smell of... ship fumes celebrate my exit from that dratted stretch of road. This is taken just right after the SAF Ferry Terminal, or the Singapore Armed Forces Ferry Terminal which cannot be captured on camera or risk dire consequences. But this nice splash of waves is harmless.



Some jetty that brings you to Pulau Ubin, offshore island.



Rare cannot-see-my-face-shot of me number 2, wheelwalking.



In the words of Jiahui, humps are annoying. Somewhere along the roads of dunno where (I think it's Loyang), and uphill.



Sign indicating that I'm lost. The road doesn't look like a park connector.. (It isn't.)



1pm, and finally civilisation in the form of a shopping mall! I stopped here for lunch and left an hour later, starting at 2pm.



ITE, some technical education institute, where ITE stands for Institute of Technical Education?



It's pronounce tam-penis. It is worth noting that while unicycling, the sneaky sporadic arrows that point to the next connector disappear as and when they please, causing much speculation where to turn next. I got lost alot here.



Which thankfully is sheltered.



Another signboard, but between the signboards I got lost. Again.



This looks pretty cool, but it isn't sheltered. Simei Park Connector.



Another mall, local to Simei.



EXPO, the giant exhibition hall.



Resting at one of the benches at Bedok Park Connector at around 4ish, I think I realized that my shoes were in a really bad shape.



Look! I can see my socks from the SIDE.



Another connector, another step closer towards the goal.



One of them buildings that cannot be photographed.



At around don't-know-what-time, I ended up here which led back to East Coast instead of Kembangan MRT station indicating that I was very, very lost.

So in the end I did not got the traditional route, that the rest sorta took but rather an improvised one with the distance almost being the same, give or take. Take the above report and multiply it by 2, which sums up Day 1's ride. Very boring.

Day 2



Deciding to start somewhere a little closer to home, and instead of taking a train all the way to Kembangan to ride the Eastern Park Connector, I decided to ride there instead, and will not have to suffer riding the stupid connector route twice. Starting off at 7.30am on an empty stomach, I unicycled towards the next station in search of breakfast. Incidentally, Lakeside is in the western recesses of Singapore, Kembangan in the east.

MAP OF SINGAPORE'S MRT STATIONS



I didn't realize there were park connectors in the west too!



Just that they're not as long.



Nice scenic route especially in the early mornings. This route is in between Lakeside and Chinese Garden, the next station eastwards.



At about 8am, I headed towards the town centre for some breakfast and decided to eat wanton noodles. They look pretty decent.



Did that noodle just wink wantonly at me???? The brown drink is a cup of Iced Milo, something akin to Iced Chocolate. Iced Milo is a traditional drink that Singapore Unicyclists like to drink. Well if that isn't a tradition yet, it ought to be. The wantons refer to the dumplings, actually.



Leaving at 8.30am, I headed for the next station and up and down some minor slopes et al, and passed by this shiny Buddhist statue of a goddess.



Near Dover MRT station, I saw this poster for some joint program between the local management university and some university in Chicago. Notice the subliminal advertisement here??



OMG MacDonalds you are t3h evil!!!



Directly outside Dover MRT station, this building is Singapore Polytechnic, Singapore's first vocational institute.



Disused train tracks at Buona Vista.



I think this picture is chronologically out of place, but yea, building for one of those wonder ointments Asians like to use alot.


Queenstown MRT station.



Alexandra Road, after which is a slew of car showcases. Singapore is peculiar like that, they like to cluster specific industries together. Redhill is the place to purchase cars, Orchard Road for massive consumerism etc.



After Redhill, the MRT tracks go underground, leaving me rather confused as to which way to go as this while I've been mostly following the MRT tracks to lead me towards the east. Here's a picture of one of the playgrounds located somewhere in between, with me being rather lost.



Ok this is one of those malls that have an underground train station attached to it, which is the Tiong Bahru station.



Once again, in the quest to go east, and being lost AGAIN, this reeks ominously of uphill climbs.



Why yes it is! This is an arduous climb that seems to go on...



...And on...



And finally some downslope, after much burning legs and burning sun. There's little to no tree cover here. Even though there seems to be a lot of trees in the pictures, they offer little respite.



Something of note to myself. Though I live around Boon Lay interchange, I never knew it was renamed to Boon Lay Temp(orary) Interchange. Ok this adds no value to the report.



After much random routes, I found myself at Chinatown, a clustering of well, typically Chinese groups. But that's rather redundant, because these old clusters have eroded and everyone's almost everywhere nowadays. No longer do Indians reside exclusively in Little India, or Chinese Chinatown etc. But I'm somewhat familiar with Chinatown and am not so lost now.



Singapore river, once Singapore's dirtiest river, now cool water feature straddled with multiple pubs and clubs to pander to tourists' tastes.



Funan the IT mall. We're headed closer and closer towards town, and this is the place to purchase electronics. One of the two specialized places, that is. This is in City Hall.



St Andrews Cathedral, Singapoer's oldest Catholic church. Also in City Hall.



Singapore's city skyline of sorts, also in City Hall. There's quite some things to see in City Hall, strangely.



Glass roof of the Esplanade, a theatre specially built and subject to much criticism over it's ugly roof. Opinions are divided. But everyone agrees it looks like a durian.



One of Singapore's latest project, Singapore's answer to London's Eye. All still in City Hall.



The Cenotaph. City Hall. Though what a Cenotaph is I have no idea.



Singapore's largest library at er, 14 stories tall? Not in City Hall any longer, but Bugis.



Arab Street, one of the old zoning places for er, Arabs and Muslims. Behind is the historical monument, Sultan Mosque. Nearest station being Lavender.



Sultan Mosque up close.


Finally! I see the train tracks again! I heave a sigh of relief. The station thereafter is Kallang.



Making a slight detour but still parallel to the train tracks, I went to Geylang, Singapore's er, notorious place for entertainment of the physical kind. It's not legal, of course, but things happen in back alleys. Yes it's a red-light district.



But my main aim in going to Geylang was this! Rochor beancurd, probably the best in anywhere else. I tried this a long time ago and all else bean curd never tasted sweet again.



A picture of divinity. Time was 12.20pm. Nearest train station is Paya Lebar MRT station.

After that I went for lunch and made it to Kembangan at 3. Mostly because of the lunch.



This is in the direct opposite direction of where I headed in day 1.



Once again, VERY encouraging. Urgh. So this is the beginning of the Eastern Park Connector again, but in the opposite direction.



OMG rare I-can-almost-see-my-face picture of myself.



Bedok Park Connector. It's very misleading because it fails to state that it contained...



THIS. Up and down slopes and uneven bumps!



After the hell that was the connector and many overhead bridges later, I reached the park. I don't know what're in those bags. Probably half dead unicyclists.



Park connector sign.



I ended up tending to take alot of these pictures, huh?



Totally irrelevant picture of Tampines regional library.



OK SunPark. I realized previously I missed this because it was a way off from the main road.



A one-foot pirouette.



How photos of myself are best taken - without my face in it.



They turned one of the lakes at I-don't-know-where into a prawn fishing pond!



Random bird. Soon to mark the beginning of a route that will cause me to be VERY LOST.



Cycling about 2.5 to 3km into the park, I saw this sign and knew something was wrong. It led to a dead end. I was in Pasir Ris Park and there were no connectors at all. I had to backtrack out. Meaning an additional 5km ride.



The familiarity of the tarmac of the park connector brings a tear to my eyes. Oh and some mosque in the background too.



At about 6pm, OH NOES it's the dreaded Changi Beach Connector of DOOM again!!! All 7.9km of it.



I gave up taking pictures at this point.

In the end, I reached Kembangan MRT station from the opposite side, via Siglap Park Connector at around 8pm. I also realized that deciding to call out friends for lunch midway while doing a long distance ride was quite a bad idea. They tend to make the lunches longer and indeed I spent a significant amount of time lunching, about 2 hours or so, from 1pm to about 3pm.

I took a train home, feeling sore and pretty much nothing else. No victory whoops, no vestigial virgins celebration vindictive victory. Just fatigue.

Still in the process.

I have started my Ride the Lobster qualifiers. Day 1 report as goes.

Temperature: 24 - 32 degrees celcius
Humidity: 84%
Distance ridden: 84km
Subjective rating: 66km extreme temperature, 1 km light rain
Total time taken: 11 1/2 hours



Photos and descriptive report to come.

I came, I saw, the Luna Sea One Night Dejavu concert.

So that means I went to Tokyo. And that means... photos! All 62 of them, out of 853947.3.

So, here goes nothing!

Kaminari-mon



One of the first attractions we went to, because it was the nearest.

Kaminari-mon dori



The sreets leading up to Senso-ji, full of people trying to sell you useless but touristy stuff and...

Sweet Sake seller



... sweet sake! Seller not for sale though. Sweet Sake seller, in both ways.

Colors of Dembo-in



Fodor guidebooks LIE. Dembo-in is no longer accessible to people.

Cheap fortunes



For 100 yen, get your fortunes told.

Giant Pigeons!



Only because I zoomed in. Haha.

Expensive sushi



And to rub salt into the proverbial financial wound, they're not edible. They're replicas used by restaurants around, and they look damn real. You should see the other replicas of noodles and meat. Found in the shop, Maizuru, in Kappa-bashi.

Kabuki-za



Traditional Japanese theatre that is not Noh. Though the play that we watched was a hybrid of Noh and Kabuki, that means the front part of the play was excruciatingly slow. I fell asleep standing up, because there was no sitting room. But the Kabuki itself was entertaining. I rather liked the music, it was quite eclectic.

Kabuki-za decorations



Outside Kabuki-za. Though can someone tell me what they're for anyway?

The ceiling inside the theatre



Photography is strictly not allowed. So all I could come up with was with this.

And this



It was damn hard to take this picture lah! The best I could come up with of the play was this very blurry photos of the ladies when they transformed into demons. This black-haired one was the head demoness. I was all the way in the stalls at the back.

To give you a clearer picture of what I was actually shooting...



Here's a picture of the poster, though of a different play. Haha. What's the point then, you may ask?

The emperor is rich



He has a courtyard this big. You can hold a concert here and still have enough space to host a soccer match in the same space. Taken in the Imperial Palace's grounds, because it's the emperor's birthday and it only opens twice a year! 23rd December, his birthday, and 2nd January.

Celebrating Japanese



Alot of people were busy waving flags. I was busy taking pictures of them doing so.

Maple trees



Who knew there were these in Japan? Ok so maybe it's just me being ignorant.

Fancy gates



The palace grounds sure has fancy looking gates.

Emo kid drawings



These are drawings on light cannisters that are supposed to show love for the Earth, by grade school kids. Apparently some kid has a flair for art and emoism.

I was there at One Night Dejavu!



I wrote on the Hong Kong SLAVES banner because I didn't have any. They were nice enough to let me write. Though, if LUNA SEA ever sees this, they'd probably think we're part of Hong Kong or something =\ The concert was AWESOME, by the way.

Sad dogs in Harajuku



If I was the dog and I had to don this ridiculous outfit, I'd be sad too.

Cosplayers in Harajuku



There was some cosplay event at the bridge in Harajuku. Also, another highlight was an old man all dressed up in a pink dress and having tea. Photos will not be posted here for the sake of sanity.

A little night photography at the Asahi Beer Hall



The headquarters of the popular Asahi beer brand, just a really big stone throw away from our hostel!

Azumabashi at night



At where we were staying in, Asakusa, there are three bridges, a red, a green and a blue. Ours was nearest the red, Azumabashi.

The bridge that we never take



This is the road that we religiously never fail to jaywalk, because who the hell in their right mind would take an overhead bridge when jaywalking is so much easier? Ignored on a daily basis.

Tokyo by night



Taken on top of the Tokyo Tower.

Ferris Wheel in Odaiba!



You can see all the way to Odaiba, the offshore island from the Tokyo tower! Brochures boast that on a clear day Mount Fuji is visible too.

Streets of Tokyo



I wanda if yoo know, how they they drib in To-ki-yo/ Once you've seen it then you mean it then you know you have to go/ FAST AND FUYIOUS!!!!! DRIB! DRIB! DRIB!

Tokyo Tower



Er. Looks a bit like my photo of the Eiffel Tower HERE.

WARNING! SEPHIROTH FANATISM AHEAD!
zomgwtfbbqSEPHY!!!!!!11!!



Like any Square fan, one MUST make a pilgrimage to the Square-Enix showcase and zOHMIGOSHIT'SSEPHIROTH!!

HABAHABABLADALADEESEPHYYY



*frothsdroolspasms*

zOMGWTFBBQSEPHYISNEKKID!!!!



YOUDON'TSAY???NEKKID!??*DIES*

Now that that was over, we move on to other more normal stuff.

But, pedophilia isn't normal!!



Oh dear, I seem to have contracted Charmaine's apparent pedophilia. But how can one see this kid and not go "Sooo cute!"??? And take pictures.

Ok I need help



The sister, in Minnie costume!

We now present you nice pictures of animals.



So now what, it's bestiality???

Okok how about Chip and Dale, it's harmless right??



If talking animals on crack are your thing, perhaps.

Proof that I have been to Disneyland



Other than pedophilic pictures of adorable kids, here's a nice harmless fountain.

Wanted!



Found posted on a notice board while queuing up forever for the Toontown ride.

What a room setting



Very seedy.

Dine in all resplendence



in the castle in Alice in Wonderland. It's a restaurant, I think.

Random hanging things



Off the Roaring Thunder Mine Ride or something like that.

Random rusty tools



In the 2 hour queue in the Roaring Thunder Mine Ride or something like that.

The Ride itself



Can you see me? That's right. I'm the one... behind the camera. Haha.

Very nice decor



To distract you, and take your mind off the fact that you've been queuing for 2 hours and are nowhere near the ride.

Apt desciption



Kinda describes my situation with money.

The ride of DOOOOOOM



Forget roller coasters. I present to you the ride of CHAOS AND FURY! TEACUP RIDES! PH33R THE SPINNERS THAT LIE WITHIN. A seemlessly harmless ride harnesses the power and fury of hell in the disguise of a teacup.

Fancy spaceship



The prettiest ride you've ever ridden. It's like Singapore's Escape Theme Park's indoor roller coaster, but so much more impressive. Especially the part where you're immersed in a galaxy of stars.

I like the band



A small brass ensemble with a sousaphone!

Disney Castle



Ironically, the only attraction we didn't go.

Birds



The following pictures of the birds are just an excuse for me to show off my photographic skillzzzz.

Birds in flight 1



Blah blah blah.

Birds in flight 2



Bloo bloo bloo.

Bird almost in flight



La la laa.

The underside of a wing



Actually looks rather pretty.

A famous lotus pond



Is now but a mass of dead leaves and yellowing vegetation. Outside the Shitamachi Hakubutsukan (Shitamachi Museum).

Wealth-beckoning cat



They have them back in the Edo-era too! Ok it probably originated from those times anyway.

Colorful straps



To make the old wooden clogs used in the ancient times.

Above-mentioned clogs



Just so you know.

How they washed clothes in the past



Really tiringly. Ok for those who are lost, the before photos are taken in the Shitamachi museum, which showcases and preserves the old ways of ancient Japan.

Tea anyone?



Teaset in a very small room.

The modern-old days



Hey my grandma had that sewing machine too!

Guess where I got lost?



In Shinjuku ni(2)-chome. With a friendly sign above the street proclaiming "Friendly Street". The colorful flag attests to it.

Kupo!



My very own moogle! Pity the pom-pom's a little small though.

Perfect for Lulu wannabes



Aw, how adorable. I <3 my moogle. I feel like getting the cactuar too.


That's about the pictures I have to upload. It's kinda tiring to do so. Wish me luck in being able to go for the competition in Canada, then that way I'll have more pictures to upload!