I'm Stupid

I'm very stupid! That's what I finally realised.

It took me almost 10 years to find out I had been fooled by rat. That hardship the rat had been talking about was in fact nitpick from the lap of luxuary. Based on that information, I made wrong decisions, stupid moves, and then I ended up in the current state.

I had always wondered why the pig gave me so much autonomy, I suspected it was because whatever assigned to me was not important, yet I still diligently worked on my tasks. Then the pig cancelled the project.

The pig assigned people to me under training. I spent my time and effort training the new guys. If anyone one of them happens to have great potentials, he/she will be re-assigned to other projects, due to a resource crunch.

The pig said I was not knowledgable enough to do presentations to the customers, so somebody else should go for that trip. A couple of years later, when I gained the knowledge, the pig sent somebody else for that trip, saying that guy is more suitable, although that guy had no clue about what he talked about.

The only good thing of being stupid is you are transparent in the office. People walk past you as if you do exist. Absolutely nobody will get jealous about you, and your position is very 'safe'. Nobody will take up that position.

There is a saying it is better late than never. Taking 8 years to realise I am stupid is still not too bad. Just don't get fooled around by pigs and monkeys. Today is the most memorable day in my life. I should never forget this date. It will become my 纪念日！Finally I am honest to myself!

Because of the pig's mean setup, and my own stupidity, I wasted a precious 8 years at my current position, the most precious 8 years in a persons life! The set-backs in this position has made me have low self-esteem. When it comes to dating, this failure always daunts me, making me feel inferior to the girl I date. But today onwards, I will not have the inferior feel anymore. I should not punish myself for the pig's fault. I shall live as a happy person, get back what I have lost in the past 8 years!

Gyuzen (牛膳）

Japanese beef is world famous, when you are in Japan, how can you miss such delicacy? When I was in Himeji, I discover a small little shop specialising in Japanese beef, with a reasonable price.

Well, we ordered the cheapest, just in case it is not good :) The set we ordered is a 3,800 yen set, which comprises 3 types of beef, hundred-day old chicken meat and different vegetables.

The 3 types of beef basically refer to beef from different parts of the cow. The prices for beef from different part of the cow can vary a lot more than you thought, so does the taste! A picture is worth a thousand words, so just let you see the picture of our food and you will know.

They actually put labels on each type of meat to let you differentiate them, and feel the different tastes later. To turn the raw beef into cooked beef, you have to do your grilling yourself. Wah, with a great chef, R, around, the grilling is exceptionally good. You ask me how the beef tastes? Ok, it melts in your mouth. It is juicy, fresh, delicious, tasty, running out of words to describe it.

The grilling part is fun too. Time for you to chit-chat with your friends, enjoy a glass of beer. And most importantly, there is no smoke!

My rating: 4.9/5

You can visit their website at: http://www.kanoko-co.jp.

Ramen Santouka (火头山)

There is a small Japanese restaurant hidden at one corner of the Central Mall in Clark Quay. The shop is actually behind a Chinese restaurant called 'The Grains'. Yet, there is always a long queue outside.

Just out of curiosity, I paid a visit to them. Small shop space, only a couple of tables, less than 10? As the name implies, they are most famous for their ramen, and the meat from a pig's chin.

Pig's Chin Meat

The pig's chin meat is tender, has nice texture. They marinated with some special sauce, so it is very delicious. A top recommendation from my friend, R.





Their ramen are served in very thick soup base. They are just like those served in Japan itself. As you can see in the pictures above, the portions are big, more than enough for a young man to have a filling meal.

However, in terms of taste and healthy eating, their food is a bit more on the salty side. The pig's chin meat is marinated so it is naturally more salty; the ramen soup base, I suspect, has been cooked for long hours, so it is also a bit salty, as a result of the many long hours of cooking.

My rating: 4/5. It is quite close to what you can get in Japan itself.

Ramen Santonka
6, Eu Tong Sen Street
#02-76, The Central
Tel: (65) 6224-0668
Business Hours: 11:00-21:45
Website: http://www.santouka.co.jp/

And it has these two special notes to the customers:
1. In such situation of soup running out, we may shorten the day of business hour.
2. We do not take reservations.

Wow, judging from such statements and the long queue outside the restaurant, their business must be really good. Anyway, good things should be shared :)

JJ Lin Jun Jie 林俊杰

This is a very back-dated post. I happened to bump into JJ Lin Jun Jie's meet the fans session at last year's Chinese book fair at Suntec City. Too bad, I was there late, and he was already singing the very last song. Followed by a one-to-one photograph session with his fans on-stage. For those few who had the honour to go on-stage, I don't know how long they had been queuing at the venue waiting for that moment to come.

Sometimes I really pity those 'stars'. They have to be approachable to almost everybody, sometimes even have to do things that ordinary people won't want to do. In certain cases, I feel those 'stars' are kind of modern day geisha. "stars" is just a name that sounds more glam.

Shocked Rejections at 123RF

I got a shock this morning when I logged in to my 123RF account. 5 out of 11 photos have been rejected. All of them have been rejected for the same reason:

Incomplete or No Release:This image requires you to provide and attach the proper model or property releases. To resubmit the image for review, please start attaching the releases to it.

Similar photos have been accepted just a month or two ago, and now all of a sudden I am asked to upload a release! Is this a policy change? If yes, then the change should be communicated to the contributors earlier. Or is it just a new reivewer coming onboard and exercising his/her new found authority? I don't know. Looking at 123RF's forum, some other contributors seem to have encountered the same problem, but no replies to their questions.

Below are the 5 rejected photos of mine.

New York Fashion Week 2009

The New York Fashion Week kicks off this week, and here are some of the video clips on the fall season fashion 2009.

Purpose of Life

What is the purpose of life? In the animal world, the primary purpose of life is no doubt to ensure the survival of the species. Once that mission is accomplished, your value drops to zero. That's why you see in the insect world, some males will be eaten by the females after they mate, as the male has no more value to the species anymore.

How about humans? Of course the primary purpose is to ensure the survival of the species too! What do you think the reason behind all that 'pro-family' policies advocated by many governments around the world. Without enough young people, the survival of the nation will be at risk!

Well, other than that, the remaining purpose of life is just to experience life. Try that food you have always wanted to try but never, go to that place you have dreamt since a young kid. The list is endless. As I grow up, I realise that some of my dreams will never come true. Not because I won't be able to afford it in my life time, but because the opportunity is gone forever. Anita Mui is my teenager time goddess, I had always wanted to attend one of her live concerts. I did have the opportunity, but then I never thought that was something urgent. Now, she is gone. I will never be able to attend her live concert, no matter how much I am willing to pay.

I still remember vaguely a conversation in Home Alone 2 - Lost in New York. Kevin said to the lonely lady in Central park, he used to keep his pair of new shoes and seldom wore them. Then one day, when he wanted to wear that pair of shoes, they were too small for him to wear. See, if you have something now but you don't use it, it may become totally useless to you later.

AMK Hub Fried Prawn Noodle

There is popular fried prawn noodle stall at AMK Hub food court. Newspaper/magazine cuttings displayed on their wall to show how famous they are. Obviously, they have been recommended by almost all the local newspapers, be it in English or Chinese, from the more serious ones to tabloids.

Their way of cooking the noodle is quite different. Usually, the cook will prepare the noodles in small portion, customer to customer. At this stall, they cook a large quantity of noodles at one go, using a big iron wok. Haha... people say big iron wok has more wok 'air'. :)

They cook with a big iron wok

The fried prawn noodle is juicy & creamy. The sweetness of the bean sprouts are absorbed into the noodles, both the yellow noodle and the white rice noodle. You should definitely try their chilli sauce. The sauce is not too spicy, but it has this special taste that I don't know how to describe. Guess it must be their secret recipe.

Ok, one thing I don't like though, is the prawns. The prawns they use are not really that fresh. The flesh sticks to the shell sometimes. And a common problem of the Singapore way of preparing prawns is that they don't remove the veins, neither do they raise the prawns in clear water for a few days to let the prawns get rid of the mud in their body. If you don't make a conscious effect to remove the veins yourself, you are basically eating mud. That's the turn off thing for me.

Overall, the taste of noodle is not bad, as long as you leave the prawns alone. :)