Cosplay @ Ngee Ann City

Met up with my school mate again for another round of cosplay action. Place was packed and I think there were lots more participants this time round.

Seems like the maid and gothic lolita looks are the in-thing...

FYI, this person's a guy...

Whoa! Was starting to get really hungry after several rounds of walking round the venue getting photo opportunities. Met up with more of my friends and we split to Adam Road for dinner...

Tulang...

Indian rojak and roti john plus stingray and satay which aren't in the pix as by the time they came I was too engrossed in the food. THIS IS BINGING! ARWOO! ARWOO!

Vader's Fist: The 501st Legion

Went down to the cosplay held in the front of Ngee Ann City today. Place was packed and had security up the ass as the event venue was to be visited by several members of parliament. Had to have my camera bag and personal items scanned in order to be let into the venue. As I jostled with the crowd to make my way to the cosplay area I chanced upon a booth where they were recruiting people to join the empire. Hmm... will I be deployed to the Death Star after my training or serve on a Star Destroyer?

You will be issued with your uniform and helmets immediately upon signing up

"Don't be a rebel scum! Join the Stormtrooper Academy!"

There was simply no escape from the recruiting officers of the 501st legion. However, I used a Jedi mind trick to convince them that I was an imperial guard sent undercover to infiltrate the cosplay event to capture rebels dressed as anime characters. Stay tuned for the next field report...

Back in school...

It's been an exciting (and mentally draining) five months and I'm glad to be back in school for the next two weeks before starting a new job in August. Most of the documentation required for the last lap of my course are almost done except for some extras here and there which seem to come in on an ad-hoc basis.

Anyways, I've compiled a playlist of songs that I'm currently listening to while I'm in the labs. It's player-friendly so enjoy!

My Top 10 Demotivators for Office Survival

I noticed that many organisations have motivational posters put up around the office to encourage their staff to go the extra mile. But I'm wondering exactly how many people actually stop midway in their work to look at these posters and ponder on their messages.

Maybe I'm alone on this but I'm pretty desensitised to these posters as I've been exposed to them since national service. However, what I do find interesting and amusing to read in-between work are demotivational posters . For the new and uninitiated, here's an example:

Of course your HR department would never put these up around the office but hey, I seriously think it has a better effect since humor's a good way to help unwind while you're working on your deadlines.

And here's my favourite list of demotivational messages:

1. Apathy: If we don't take care of the customer,maybe they'll stop bugging us.
2. Blame: The secret to success is knowing who to blame for your failures.
3. Cluelessness: There are no stupid questions, but there are a LOT of inquisitive idiots.
4. Consulting: If you're not a part of the solution, there's good money to be made in prolonging the problem.
5. Demotivation: Sometimes the best solution to morale problems is just to fire all of the unhappy people.
6. Mistakes: It could be that the purpose of your life is only to serve as a warning to others.
7. Power: Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. But it rocks absolutely, too.
8. Pressure: It can turn a lump of coal into a flawless diamond, or an average person into a perfect basketcase.
9. Procrastination: Hard work often pays off after time, but laziness always pays off now.
10. Worth: Just because you're necessary doesn't mean you're important.

Free to good home: Kitten goes or husband goes

Found this actual newspaper ad while surfing through digg.com. Wife is literally taking his word for it when she put up this ad. Talk about having two extreme options if you ask me. The source of this ad can be found here.


read more | digg story

Whats wrong with this picture? Uh oh.....

It's quite obvious what's exactly wrong with this pic. I suspect that the person responsible for this may have never used them before hence the little boo-boo.

read more | digg story

Lessons in Corporate Life

I received an email from a friend with several stories related to lessons in the corporate world. Here are two of the six that I found amusing.

Story 1

A turkey was chatting with a bull. "I would love to be able to get to the top of that tree," sighed the turkey, "but I haven't got the energy."

"Well, why don't you nibble on some of my droppings?" replied the bull. "They're packed with nutrients."

The turkey pecked at a lump of dung, and found it actually gave him enough strength to reach the lowest branch of the tree. The next day, after eating some more dung, he reached the second branch. Finally after a fourth night, the turkey was proudly perched at the top of the tree.

He was promptly spotted by a farmer, who shot him out of the tree.

Moral of the story:
Bull Shit might get you to the top, but it won't keep you there.

Story 2

A little bird was flying south for the Winter. It was so cold the bird froze and fell to the ground into a large field. While he was lying there, a cow came by and dropped some dung on
him.

As the frozen bird lay there in the pile of cow dung, he began to realize how warm he was. Thedung was actually thawing him out! He lay there all warm and happy, and soon began to sing for joy.

A passing cat heard the bird singing and came to investigate. Following the sound, the cat discovered the bird under the pile of cow dung, and promptly dug him out and ate him.

Morals of the story:
(1) Not everyone who shits on you is your enemy.
(2) Not everyone who gets you out of shit is your friend.
(3) And when you're in deep shit, it's best to keep your mouth shut!

What a long tongue and lotsa sliva's good for...

"Hurry up dude! I have to mail my cable payment..."

Mannequin Mischief...

Saw the movie Zodiac with a friend at Cathay on Saturday night. Movie had an excellent storyline focusing on the characters involved in the investigation rather than on the serial killer himself. Although often slow at times, Zodiac portrays the obsession of the characters involved in the case directly and indirectly and how it results in their journey on the downward spiral.

On our way out from the theatre, we walked past a This Fashion outlet on the way to Plaza Singapura and chanced upon this in their shop displays...

"Yeah baby! Reach out and touch yourself..."

Marketing ploy or mischievous prank, this was quite freaky especially when you're looking at it at 1.00 am in the morning.

Thursday nite headbanger's ball...

Just discovered BlogMusik, a site that allows you to create a playlist based on songs stored in their database. Selection's pretty good (by what I've found) and you can create an account to store your playlists. Cool thing about this is that you can listen to your playlist of songs anywhere as long as your computer's connected to the internet.

Well, enough of my driveling. Here's my songlist, enjoy!

On the subject of body parts...

Hmm... It seems that even action figures are not spared.

Texan Revolution Autoshow @ Police Academy

Decided to check out the motorshow held at the old police academy the weekend. Place was packed with car and motorcycle enthusiasts equipped with cameras. Highlights of the event included motorcycle racing:

"Okie guys, last one to finish cleans the porta loos..."



"Eh Macik, mee siam satu mai hiam!"

Professional drifting demos:

"Raise your hands if you'd like to smell more burning rubber!"

"Ole!Let's do this El Matador..."

And of course, no motorshow will be complete without a race queen competition...

"No points for guessing who the sponsors are..."

More race queen contestants...

And even more race queen contestants! But I didn't stay to find out who won though because my nose was protesting from excessive inhalation of burning rubber...

Play Wii for MC!

Just read an article on yahoo news on a new ailment published in the New England Journal of Medicine called "Wiiitis" (wee-eye-tis). Symptoms include sore arms and shoulders as a result of playing long hours without resting.

Similar to strenuous exercises, stretching is very important for long hours of gaming. Warming up before game play and warming down after ought to prevent muscle strains and sores. Plus, taking breaks to stretch your fingers and rotate your wrists should reduce cramping especially when you've got your hands grasping that controller for hours on end.

As a gamer myself, that's my two cents worth.

;)

Anything and Whatever brand extensions

Recently a new line of soft drinks were launched which seems to be very well received. Called Anything (carbonated) and Whatever (non-carbonated), the novelty of this beverage line is that you'll never know what you're going to get until you pop that flap (deja vu Forest Gump and his box of chocolates).

Anything could contain either cola, cola with lemon, apple, fizz up, cloudy lemon or root beer. As for Whatever it's either ice lemon tea, peach tea, jasmine green tea, white grape tea, apple tea or chrysanthemum tea. Demand for both lines seem to be high as coffee shops and food courts seem to be out of them whenever I try ordering either of them.

In view that people seem to like surprises, why not extend the line to include more than just soft drinks? Here's some suggestions to extend the Anything and Whatever line:

Cigarettes: Light up your life with a different flavor in each pack! Choose from reds, lights, menthol, menthol lights, strawberry, cherry, vanilla, kretek and kretek menthol. Comes packed in an ambiguous cigarette pack so you can't tell what's inside!

Paperback novels: Can't decide what to read? Grab a black shrink-wrapped package from the bookshelf and expand your intellectual horizons! Content could range from autobiographies, sci-fi, fantasy, romance, religion, management, etc. Plus, up the excitement level by having these categories published in our four main languages; English, Mandarin, Malay and Tamil.

Alcohol: These will come in black bottles and flavors range from whiskey, tequila, gin, rum, vodka or pure moonshine. Hic! Getting high has never been so thrilling as you'll never know what's your next poison. Better still buy them by the crates for your next party or office function and get wasted mixing up lethal cocktails.

Beer: Duuuude! If you're doing hard alcohol you can't neglect the beer community and vice versa right? Have the cans filled with different ales, lagers and the exclusive chase stout can randomly placed in every carton. Imagine doing shotguns with mystery cans or the 100 club...

And last but not least...

Condoms: Get more bang for your buck with these exciting little rubbers ranging for ultra thick to ultra thin, ultra ribbed, ultra lubed, wasabe or calamaric flavored!

So there you have it! Additional product lines that could be rolled out to sustain the brand when people get tired of drinking mystery soft drinks and decide to opt for the obvious.

D-I-Y Phone Themes

Being the El Cheapo that I am I've gotten round to designing phone themes for my SE K800i. It's quite a therapeutic pastime designing and editing the pics. Plus heaps fun adding in the ringtones and alerts.

Here's one of Optimus Prime:

And one of the Neon Genesis Evangelion series:

Hey, Even Hell's Got a Budget...

This is the result of me finding my old Ghost Rider figure in the back of my cupboard and matching him with the BMX that I bought from the Falcon's Hangar.

A Looong Time Gone.....

It's been a long while since the last post and much has happened since then. Last August I enrolled myself in a post-graduate course in system analysis since my previous jobs entailed managing IT related projects.

Since day one a lot of time was devoted to learning how to code in less than a year plus figuring out how to draw use cases and sequence diagrams. And now, six school projects and five exam papers later, I'm serving a six-month attachment developing an online admin system for a government organisation. I'm nearing the end of the attachment and will be finishing soon.

Anyways, I managed to find some time to meet up with an old school friend at a cosplay event today at the youth park. Also got the dust off my camera and took some pics which I have not been doing in a very long time...






Have to admit, it's my first time at a cosplay event and I didn't know what to expect in terms of photo opportunities. But it was heaps fun though the sun was very uncompromising. Oh well, at least be glad that it didn't rain!