The art blog of Cooljoedog

Weird experience with service in Singapore.

2011-09-16T20:21:00.000-07:00

Another one of my unpleasant encounters with service...

Other day went to a DIY store in a mall to buy a bulb to replace one that blew in my bathroom.

I brought with me t bulb as a sample. When I reached there, I approached a staff after I couldn't locate one where t bulbs were.

Me: "hi, I am just wondering, do you have a one that's similar?" and handed t bulb to her.

Staff just starred at me and said nothing.

After a moment of awkward silence, I asked her again.

Me:"you have something similar? 20v? Warm white?"

Staff: "................."

Me:"er....you understand what I am saying?"

Staff:".................."

That's when I switched to speaking in Chinese....and she finally opened her mouth! And when on to tell me in Chinese, they don't have my type of lights. So I end up buying one at Ntuc.

What's t point of hiring staff that can only speak Chinese? How are they going to help Malay n Indian customers? Sigh....ridiculous.

More drawings! - In a day - Incredible!

2011-04-01T01:17:00.000-07:00

This is another different style that I am trying to do.

It's been a while....Part 2

2011-03-31T22:20:00.000-07:00

It's been awhile since I drew anything. Blame it on the lack of time but more on my laziness.

The Art Of Sucker Punch is a book that I purchased recently and it's one of my favourite.

I guess I have the girls in there to thank for inspiring me to pick up my wacom pen and draw again.

I can see I am so rusty at it. But hopefully with this drawing, it's signal for more of them to come.

What's amazing is that I have a phobia of drawing girls ...but yet, this bunch of girls have made me wanna draw again.

This is a Babydoll inspired drawing. It definitely don't look like her (Because I suck at following faces) and it's definitely a lot more Asian. That's just an excuse for not being able to draw one that looks like her. hahaha..

Will I colour it? hmmmm....being the lazy ass that I am...I will just give you the excuse that I prefer B/W outline drawings. haha.

So....meanwhile...

TTFN (Ta ta for now)

It's been a while...

2010-08-20T00:50:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I blogged..

Just took some pictures of my workspace...or rather the toys that's occupying my workstation. Hahah..

I miss these guys...

2010-01-22T15:23:00.000-08:00

nuff said..thanks for meeting up, guys! See you all soon!

A new drawing to welcome the new year...

2010-01-03T23:10:00.001-08:00

This is a drawing inspired by the book and movie, "Where the wild things are" by Maurice Sendak.

It was one of my favourite book when I was a child and I believe for most of you as well. If you haven't seen the book, I suggest you go borrow/buy/steal it and have a look. The artwork is magnificent. The movie wasn't that bad as it wasn't easy to do a movie based on the it. Go grab the book and have a look. You will understand why.

Happy New Year.

The Yeos

2009-12-23T17:35:00.001-08:00

I did this for a friend of mine. My mahjong kaki. It's their Christmas present. Since I am going budget this year, I thought this would be more meaningful.

It's Christmas...may there be piss on earth....

2009-12-23T17:25:00.000-08:00

Oh Shit Part 3

2009-12-03T19:37:00.001-08:00

Oh Shit part 2

2009-11-24T02:07:00.000-08:00

Cest la vie....

It's been a while....SHIT....

2009-11-17T18:23:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I posted or drew anything. Been exremely busy with work. Yeah, but that's a lousy excuse.

So I finally did something recently. Printed it out and it's now a poster on my wall.

"Cest la vie" One of my favourite quotes..."That's life"

When things don't go right in life, and there are many incidents that cause you to be frustrated and sad.....just tell yourself, "Cest la vie"

BTW, my airplants, have "given birth" to new shoots...so exciting. I will take some photos when I can.

Me and my plants.

2009-09-24T23:08:00.000-07:00

I have been rather busy lately....with my plants...hahah..

Well, I am still very much into tillandsias (air plants) and I bought a couple more since I last blogged. I managed to find some nice drift wood to tie them up as well.

And when everything was done and hung up on my wall, I must say I am very pleased with my creation.

Hope to get more soon. Hahaha...

I transfered all my cactus that was in individual pots and put them together. Makes it nicer as well.

And yes, I love orchids as well. Think when I retire, I will do an even larger project and devote the rest of my life to growing plants. Definitely much better than buying toys....right? hahah...I AM SURE some of you would agree... haha

Yum yum lunch...

2009-09-24T23:07:00.000-07:00

We had a nice lunch before going down to meet our designer at Dempsey Road.

It was one heavey lunch! I didn't eat breakfast in the morning because I knew it was going to be a huge portion....alot hor?

And it looks really good right? It's a wagyu beef burger! YUM YUM!!
Here are some of the photos that we took.

This is the first time I had a peanut butter jelly milk shake. The taste was kinda weird at first but then it kinda grows on you. But I won't have it the next time. Too rich....

Waiting patiently for food to arrive...

And here it comes!

Definitely one of the best burgers I had. Agree B?

Do you refer to the skies or clouds as a "he" or a "she"? Well, now I know.

2009-09-03T18:27:00.001-07:00

I do know that when it comes to cars and ships, they refer them as a "she" and so other day, 2 minutes before it rained "cats and dogs" I took this photo of this dark cloud gathering just outside my house and I believe, dark clouds, should be refered to as a "she" as well....hahaha.. Just joking lah! But I like this photo because I love rainy days.

I love my tillandsia...

2009-09-03T17:53:00.000-07:00

Recently, my colleague and I have been scouting round Thompson area, visiting Far East Flora and Goodwood Flora. We were looking for "airplants" or "tillandsia" as they are scientifically called.

I absolutely love airplants and I had my first experience in keeping them last year when I bought 2 at a kiosk in White Sands. They didn't last long because I didn't really know how to take care of them.

So this time, I made sure I read up on them before I bought any. So I made sure I didn't water them too much and made sure they had good access to a windy area and not too sunny.

And I am happy to say, that of the 8 that I have bought, 2 of them have flowered. Very pretty right? The photos were taken by my iphone which isn't fantastic. So I will retake them tonight when I get back.

Meanwhile, bear with it.

I will take more of them soon!

Mascot

2009-08-06T00:52:00.000-07:00

I haven't been drawing for a long time. Same stupid excuse. Been so busy with work. I have morning and afternoon classes almost everyday. And at the end of the day, I am totally bumped. Low energy level.

This is a mascot that I did for my company's digital media competition.

It's just opened to our infocomm club members. I will show you some of their works here when they finally submit.

They are just primary school kids, but some really have the talent in them. Back tide push front tide. (Those whose Chinese is good will know what I mean, haha)

So, here is my mascot. It's used in the company website and brochure. Simple. Be blogging soon...take care y'all.

The Women in my life....

2009-07-30T00:58:00.000-07:00

Haven't been posting for a while, been busy with work. So just thought I did this random one about the women in my life. Hmm...should I also show photos of.....haha.
Ok, better not...Jason...You have to learn to let go. (Slap myself in the head)

First, my mom. Still looking good, on her BD.

And for memory sake, here's one that I took with mom, almost 20 years ago. Haha.

B....(She loves photos taken by my iphone, says it takes good photos. But most of the time, you have to have a good cameraman first. haha)

And lastly, my friend's baby. She is only 7 months old, and that day while we were having breakfast together, I took her in my arms and for the many times that I carried her, that day was the first time she fell asleep...and for almost an hour! I had to replace my entire arm after that. Went numb! hahah.

Oh well, will update when I have something interesting. Meanwhile, I leave you all with one of my favorite quotes from tne movie "Watchmen".

"It rains on the just and unjust alike"

My plants and flowers updated.

2009-07-13T18:01:00.000-07:00

Just did a bowl of plants last Saturday. It's a good way for me to unwind after a busy week. I bought them from Far East Flora. Visited them last week and I spent almost an hour plus just walking around them. I evenutally bought some plants, including my favorite, the African Violet. I then went down to Ikea to get my bowl where I replanted the plants. And oh yes, I bought food for the plants as well...haha...

Here is what I did. Enjoy my new arrangement.

And this is my favorite flower, the African Violet. I am happy it can survive with the amount of sunlight(or the lack of it) in my room.

My new hobby....

2009-07-07T17:44:00.000-07:00

Well, this ain't exactly true. This is something not known to many people. I actually love plants since I was young, especially the African Violet. That's my favorite. Recently I started having some plants in my room. It's very therapeutic to water the plants in the morning. Good way to destress. And recently, one of my old friend showed my a website that inspired me to do even more.

I took some of my plant's young shoots and leaves, cut and replanted them in bottles from Starbucks coffee and another one I bought from Ikea. You need to have the proper soil and stones for it as well.

Like what some of my friends say, maybe I am getting old, start to like plants...hahah...no lah, I just find that it adds abit of greenery to my room. And besides, I stay on the 3rd storey, so to go to the garden, it's abit cumbersome...so I bring the garden to me...haha. I will do more as well, but that means I have to drink more Starbucks coffee...hahah..

Houdini Course

2009-07-07T17:05:00.000-07:00

Last week, I attended the Houdini course, thanks to my company. So bascially I have been a student for 2 whole weeks. On the whole, I enjoyed the experience, of having not to work but to go learn. Of going to a place to be trained, instead of me training others.

Here are the pictures of my teacher and my colleagues. We were doing the gun pointing at our heads because that's what we felt like everyday after the lessons. Don't get mistaken, the teacher is a nice and patient person. It's just that the 3D software that we were learning, was quite complicated. And for a 2D person like me, it can be quite daunting and difficult to learn. But at the end of it, I must say, I did my best and managed to learn something. It's been 11 years since I last touched any 3D softwares. Back in 1998, I did my advanced diploma in computer animation. Back then we were using 3D studio...not even Max yet....and it was in DOS platform.

I must say I am eager to learn more after the course and will do some 3D works when I got the time.

Meanwhile, here's the picture.Don refusing to be part of the suicide squad.
Ramon and I still trying to kill ourselves.
Look at my trainer, imagine him blue and with a white cap...doesn't he look like papa smurf? hahah...I told him that and he said he hates that character! hahaha...Said he was Master Wu Gui from Kung Fu Panda....so we had to call him that instead. Cute...haha

Student once agin! Toonz Training at Singapore Poly

2009-06-29T05:39:00.001-07:00

Been very busy for the past weeks. I am a student once again! I really enjoy going back to school and studying.

Last week, it's was to study another professional 2D software called Toonz. Toonz is used by quite a lot of animation studios around the world. Including Studio Ghibli! Yes....Ponyo on a cliff was done using Toonz...So was Wolverine and the Xmen, and Persopolio to name a few more popular ones.

I won't elaborate on the course.....all I can say is it almost drove me crazy...see photo...

Our trainer is an Italian guy...YES...ITALIAN..the one that one of my ex-student loves!! So I believe she will be looking at this photo...hahaha...

The rest of the attendees of the course included 2 Malaysian Girls and a Hong Konger guy. It's always good to network...hahaha..

This week, I am learning a 3D software, Houdini. Let's just say, after the first day, most of my brain cells died. I am struggling with it, but I will say I am doing my best to keep up! Will update once my course is finished. I am doing homework everynight I come back...hardworking hor? Of course lah! I love being a student once again. To all my ex-students and students reading this, remember, always treasure your school life....being a student is going to be the best time you will ever have.

The One with the Torch Relay

2009-06-10T18:06:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I met up with the gang at ITE. I missed them lots! As usual, we had our "Bitching" session and lots of laughter, and it usually ends with a fantastic dinner! And usually at Swensens....hahaha

Here the pictures of the gang and me...

Uncle Ee was so hungry he wanted a piece of Sir Chye..He was having his appetizer....Oily English Ears.
And after dinner, we had our "ice cream torch" relay...

Bro Rid was most happy when he was with his ice cream torch,

Bro Vince semi-pissed because his milk shake was served first during dinner so he had to watch the rest of us enjoy our ice cream...hahah

Sis Sri performed her "Pro-Japanese" pose....gambute!!

The youngest ice cream torch relay bearer of the group...no doubt about it.

Half way thru the torch relay, Sir Bro Chye did a deep throat on his cherry...

I love these group of crazy people, cheers!!

And we have a winner.....and first prize goes to...........

Holding his torch high and proud....it's Bro Rid!! hahaha....1 down....11 more to go.

See you all again soon! Enjoy your holidays!

The run, finally over.

2009-05-28T20:15:00.000-07:00

And so the race finally ended. The night before I took some photos before I slept. Yeah, very vain. haha....But it was my virgin run after all.

So here it is. Just some photos.
These was my shoe with the tag...
And here is my number. No point buying 4D with that. Won't strike one lah...knowing my luck. hahah..
This is me...showing you all how I will be running...with the perked up lips and all. hahah..
And finally, this was taken after I have finished my race on Sunday. The so called medal which resembled more like a key chain. But I proudly displayed it on my computer because it will remind me, I now have to train for my half marathon which is 21 km...that should be in October or November. It depends.
I regretted not bringing my handphone on my run because I didn't snap any photos on the actual day. There were about 11000 runners that day! And those that were competing, they were really fast. For me, I took the non competitive event, so I just took my time, and I completed my 10km in about 1 hour 5 minutes. Not bad an achievement for me. hahah...

2 days before the run.

2009-05-22T08:13:00.000-07:00

So it's finally here. After so many months of anticipating and training, I am finally going to take part in my first public mini marathon. It's only 10km that's why I call it mini. And it may not even be considered a marathon. But for me, it's an achievement if I were to complete it. Here are the reasons why.

1. Months ago, I torn my achilles tendon. I have just recently recovered.
2. With the doctor telling me I can no longer play badminton, I decided to try jogging.
3. I hate jogging. OR rather, I hated jogging. I love it now.
4. I couldn't run a complete 2.4km previously.

With all these reasons, I believe it to be an achievement for myself, hence I will pat myself on the back when I finally complete it on Sunday.

The run I am going for is the Singapore Passion Run that is being held on this coming Sunday at East Coast. I will be taking part in the 10km non competitive run. I am not there to compete. I just want to prove to myself, I can do a 10km run and then slowly move on up to a half marathon (21km) and hopefully....a full marathon although I doubt if I could ever do that.

My knees are hurting everytime I complete my jog and I often wonder to myself when I will eventually sucummb to the pain and stop jogging. But I am pushing myself and with every jog that I complete, the feeling is undescribable. It's simply awesome.

And before I go for my jog this coming Sunday, there are couple of people I would like to thank for helping me achieve this goal. To some, a 10km run is nothing, but for me, it's almost a miracle. So therefore, I would like to thank,

1. Uncle Ee - my long jogging partner, for running with me when I was in ITE
2. Hocky - for running and giving me tips on running and pushing me further in my runs
3. Darren - my mahjong kahkee for going for jogs with me every weekend, before our mahjong....haha.
4. My ITE students - for joining me in my runs after I recovered from my injury.
5. Moo - Wink...(you know what I mean :) )

Nowadays, my jogs are usually alone. I often go to East Coast after work, put on my jogging gear, listen to my music as I jog from one point to another.

Thanks once again for all those who have accompanied me thus far on this jogging journey of mine. I am sure I will be jogging as long as my knees allow me.

Godspeed.....

Poster for my loo

2009-05-07T02:45:00.000-07:00

Just did this poster that I will put in my loo. Don't ask me why. Just felt like it.

Wolverine

2009-05-06T02:29:00.000-07:00

Just finished watching "Wolverine - The Origins" the other day and I must say I love the movie, so here is a drawing I did, as a tribute to my favorite Marvel hero, Wolverine. As usual, click on it to have a larger image.

Background

2009-05-05T00:07:00.000-07:00

Here is a background drawing that I did today.
I love to draw backgrounds nowadays, although when I first started drawing, it was something that I hated. But to date, the longest background that I have ever done, and it was done in pencil, was way back in 1993, when I was still working as an apprentice with a mentor of mine called Steve Woods.

He inspired me to do this background that was about 6 to 7 A3 size long. I still have the drawings up to now. And I still treasure it alot.

Nowadays, I prefer to draw backgrounds that are more graphic looking. Usually done in flash, and those that you can see in Cartoon Network. Not as good as theirs, but I am working on it! Practise makes perfect! Click on it to get a bigger version of the drawing!

Random girl drawing.

2009-04-28T20:22:00.000-07:00

Thought I drew something that I hardly draw and that's girls. I usually don't draw girls or women because I find them very hard to draw. So this was a challenge for me. But hey, she's quite sexy right? hahah..And in case you are wondering how come she doesn't get a tan....DON'T THINK TOO MUCH!! hahah...

Another random drawing

2009-04-21T19:18:00.000-07:00

Here is another drawing that I did recently. My students want me to draw some chibi student characters so I thought I better see what I can whip out. And this was the result. I haven't drawn manga or chibi characters for years! So it's good practice.

Random Drawing.

2009-04-20T07:43:00.000-07:00

Hi all, sorry for the lack of updates.
Just posting a random drawing. But it means something to someone.

A friend that told me that she lost her camera cable. So I thought since she got a hamster and she mentioned that she lost it at home, I just got inspired to draw a piture of her hamster using her USB camera cable that it stole and using it as a rope, dressed up as a cowboy...or should I say...Hamboy? haha...Like I said....a very random drawing.

Next up...I have been tasked to do Manga drawing...yes..manga drawing by my little students from Primary school, and Secondary school, so I have to draw something to show them.

I will post them up here. Not really good at drawing manga, but I got to try. Hey...I am versatile. Heh heh...

Good Moaning....don't read this if you are not above 18.

2009-04-06T01:53:00.001-07:00

From an advise of an old friend, who told me to channel some of my feelings into creating something, I came out with this, a poster for a comic strip that I have in mind. Called "Good Moaning". Maybe it's not what he has in mind. Hahah...But I think I like it.

It's basically based on this character who loves to complain and moans alot! And he has got some serious issues with him. It's a bit adult themed. So yeah, it's not going to please everyone. But who cares.

Not sure if anything will come out of this but at the moment, I am happy I came out with this poster. I will draw more if I got the time.

WARNING! The poster is quite vulgar, so all you goody 2 shoes, please don't continue to read my poster, I don't want people telling I have corrupted their thoughts.
I am sure the net has got far worst things compared to this poster. haha..

Well, hope to come out with something soon....The character may change, I don't really like the look of it at the moment. Who knows?

Snake saving day...

2009-04-05T05:00:00.000-07:00

Just a short post.

Last night after playing mahjong at my friend's house, as I approached the lift, I saw a snake. A very small snake, around 15 cm long. It was slimy and it was struggling to get out. My question was, how did a small snake get into the lift?

My friend's wife and my GF wasn't exactly thrilled to see it but I didn't want to kill it. So I asked for a plastic bag and proceeded to put the snake into it by letting it coil on my car keys.

I brought it back to this big grass patch near my house where I let it go. Hope it survived.

I feel happy to have saved it, although I am know sure if it can survive in the wilderness. But if I left it in the lift, I am sure it' live would have been alot shorter. haha...

Picture of me with a babe

2009-03-31T17:09:00.000-07:00

Here is a photo of me with a babe!

Cool right?

Hahaha...actually this is the baby girl of my friends, Darren and Cheryl.
She is so cute right? But she was in a grouchy mood when we took photos of her. So I am using the best one already.

Anyways, sorry for the lack of blogging. I have been very busy with work and I got to be in school on some days as early as 7am! But it's fine because I am a morning person. But it's when it reaches the end of the day, I am totall exhausted.

Thanks once again for all the birthday wishes from everyone. Thanks to all the friends who have celebrated with me, my ex-students who surprised me with a cake back in ITE.

As I told some of my friends, my birthday kick starts a month long celebration because after mine, follows a string of other friends' birthday, all the way lasting till 21st of April. I kid you not! Every week, I will be celebrating their birthdays until the date. But it started with mine...haha...so my birthday feels like Hari Raya. Haha..

Well, tata for now!

The day before tomorrow....thru the years...

2009-03-19T18:04:00.000-07:00

It's a day before I turn 39 years old. 39 freaking years old!! Sigh...looking back, I always wonder what have I achieved. What is success based on? The amount of money one collects each month thru their salary? The number of kids he or she already has or have. The size of their car, house, and the 5 Cs? The number of friends, boyfriends, girlfriends, wives, husbands, affairs one has? Can one actually base on these things and say that they are successful?

Or at the end of the day, can one say that success in life is based on the number of days one is happy in his or her life?

I tend to think it's based more on happiness. At least that's what I think. I feel that if one wants to know who successful one is in life, it can be measured by how many days one feels happy....and I mean, truely happy, not getting drunk...that doesn't count...or getting high on drugs, that doesn't count either. It has to be from the heart. That you are REALLY feeling happy. So based on that, can you say you have been successful?

On another topic, I know one thing for sure, turning 39 years old have made me more cautious about my health. I have some people to thank for it, because they have encouraged me to exercise. I have always been fat. At least since primary 4 onwards. Before that I was a scrawny kid. Then something happened when I reached primary 4. I became hungry most of the time. And my weight just ballooned. It went down when I as in the army but once that was over and done with, I put back on again.

I have made a resolution last year that I will run in a 10km marathon. But that didn't happen after I torn my achille's tendon. But it's been 6 months since the accident and I have started running again. And the amazing thing is, I am actually enjoying it. I never thought I would say I will enjoy jogging. I hated it for years! But I can say, at least it's one way to let me keep my weight in check.

I can now run 8km, something which I can't even do when I was in the army, and I am happy, and proud of myself. I will push myself till I can finish my 10 km and hopefully, by this year end or next year, when I reach 40, I shall attempt my first 1/2 marathon which is 21 km. I am not sure if I will fulfill it...but as long as I don't meet with any injuries, you can be sure I will try my bestest!!

So before I go, here is a look at how I aged from the year 2000 to 2009....

Actually, if I may say so myself, I think I am getting younger. Hahaha...Just like the curious case of Benjamin Buttons. Hahaha...

Quotes....

2009-03-14T03:09:00.000-07:00

I heard this on the TV today, and I thought it was very meaningful.

"The day you let go of your dream, is the day you let go of your life."

Meanwhile, nothing else to update. But here's one for the road from me,

"Same life, different shit, same shit, different day, cest la vie"

Watchmen - What a show! What a P****....

2009-03-08T06:50:00.000-07:00

I remembered this epic comic book way back in the 80s. I was working in a comic shop in Bras Basha complex. I was still an Art student doing my diploma in Graphic Design.

I remembered hordes of people coming in and buying this comic. Watchmen. At that time, I must say, I didn't appreciate it at all. Now, turn the clock almost 20 years later, I caught the movie and I must say, I am absolutely blown away by the storyline, the direction of the movie and the graphics involved. And now, I will go buy the graphic novel.

Most of my ex-students won't be able to watch this since they are still below 18 and this movie is R18. And it's quite appropriate that they did it R18. Should have gone R21 and we would have got even more scenes uncut.

This isn't your ordinary superhero movie. Those expecting will go away disappointed. Instead it touches on the vulnerability of each and every heroes that was in there. I will not discuss too much of the movie, all I can say is "Watch it".(For those who can lah) It will be worth your money.

And in the movie, there is a character called "Dr Manhattan" who is almost God-Like and he goes around in the movie, blue skinned butt naked most of the time and you can see a full frontal view of the male sexual organ.!!! And it's blue

Here is a picture of him, without exposing too much. Pardon my pun.

And when I saw it for the first time in the movie, I almost shouted, "Lan Jiao!" hahahaha.

Go catch this movie if you haven't. It's fantastic.

Drawings....at last...

2009-03-02T22:00:00.000-08:00

Here is a drawing that I did recently. As to why I drew it, I have no idea. And I also have no idea if I will colour it. But knowing me, the "lazy ass", I probably won't. Hahaha...but then again, I might surprise myself by colouring it. One day.
It's just a crazy guy on a bike...feeling the wind in his face. I might add in a background...Might...the word is "might". hahah

3rd week at new work place

2009-03-01T16:44:00.000-08:00

I am in my 3rd week at my new work place. Fast hor?

I am getting busier and busier as the days go by with new schools to train and creating of more and more lesson plans! And I have to create the materials as well. But all in all, it's not boring but fun and time passes by real fast.

These are some pictures of this primary school kids that I am teaching now. They got very excited when I drew a care bear for them using flash. Yes, Primary 4 to 5 kids are already learning flash...amazing right? And they are all using wacoms. Although it isn't the big type, but they are getting exporsure to it which is good. But alot of them don't like to use it because they say it can't draw properly. Then upon checking, I realise that it's because they didn't install the wacom driver in the computer. So that problem is fixed.

See? They took out their phones and started taking pictures of it. hahah. Very cute.

Well, I don't have much to talk about, but here is a picture of another side of my table which I arranged last week. More Ultraman has landed! Wait...it's Ultramen..haha

Sorry for the lack of updates.

2009-02-21T18:17:00.000-08:00

Hi readers of CJD's blog,

so sorry for the lack of updates.
I have just gone to my new workplace and it's been busy busy busy.
And the fact that I have to go down to the hospital every evening including weekends to visit my dad hasn't helped.

For those of you who have sent their regards to my dad, thanks. The results isn't good but we are trying to stay positive for him and hope he will recover. He will have to undergo rehab as he has lost the use of his left limbs and soon he will moving to AMK community hospital to do just that. And after that, he will most likely have to go for radiation therapy for 6 weeks because it's likely he has cancer. It has been tiring especially so for my mother. Well, that's life at the end of the day.

I have started my training in schools and anyway for confidentiality sake, I can't say which schools or take photos with students inside. This is because the students are mostly primary schools and secondary. Anyway, my job is provide training to the info comm clubs of the schools and teach the children animation. Incredible, right? Learning about animation at such an age when they should be practising more of the fundamentals. Anyway, I think I am "old school" and I have "old school thoughts".

Nowadays kids are so advanced in the digital age. But I feel they may have also lost some of their innocence due to that.

Anyways, days that aren't spent in schools, I have mostly doing up lessons plans. YES!!! LESSON PLANS!! I hate it! Hahaha...but at the end of the day, I think I am beginning to start to like it abit. Well, we will see how.

So this is how my new work place looks like. Envious right? It's a Mac, but not the keyboard...hahaha....I am given a HP laptop, but I use the Mac just to play around like listen to music and watch videos and surf web. The laptop is purely for work.

Well, I hope to update a bit more when I have the time. I am very tired everyday when I get back from the hospital and I also have to work on Saturdays now, from 8am to 12noon. It's ok for me, I am enjoying the training of the students.

But just a note to all my ex-students of ITE, Mr J hasn't forgotten any of you at all. I still miss you all alot! Work hard!! We will meet again when I got the time to go back school. See Ya...TTFN!!

My wise sayings...

2009-02-15T05:53:00.001-08:00

Just thought of putting some of the quotations and sayings that I like to say, some original, some are taken from others, but I like to quote it.

"There are no guarantees in life other than death itself"

"Some people are destined to start families, others are meant to wreak it"

"Life is a series of photos/dogs/girlfriends/insert your own"

"Karma's a Bitch"

"The grass is always greener on the other side, and mine is burnt"

"Whatever your sexuality is.."

"Life is short, procreate"

"Somethings in life, you can only admire afar"

"Just when you think you found true love, look behind and double check"

"I don't care and I don't give a shit"

"Being kind to animals doesn't necessarily make one a good person"

"The Devil is in, dial 1800 YourDevil"

"I wish I can tell someone my problems, but I end up telling myself"

"I am not a nice person, that's why I am called the Devil"

"I wanna do a "Michael Douglas"

"In life, you can't get everything you want. Instead, life will throw everything down at you, and you have to sort it yourself."

Been a depressing 2 week for me with all the things that's happening around me. I am begining to lose my will to smile. Hope it will get better when I go see my friends in school. They will at least provide some temporary relief. See you all on Wednesday.

A friend passes on...in Memory of Dean.

2009-02-14T19:16:00.000-08:00

Last night I went of a wake of a friend. He died suddenly of a heart attack on Friday morning and when I received the call from an old class mate, I was too shocked to speak for a while. His name was Dean, and he was my senior from La Salle. Probably older than me by 1 or 2 years, that was about it. We weren't really that close, but we definitely talked and had fun when we were together in La Salle.

The funeral was more like a gathering of old friends, some whom we have not met for almost 19 years. It's amazing how time flies and you see how some faces remain etched on your memory and even when you don't see them for 19 years, to me, they still looked the same. There were some that remembered me instantly, but yet there were some that said I looked so different. Think more handsome. Hahaha.

It was really nice to sit down and chat although I wished it was under better circumstances. In the age of technology, there is no excuse not to stay connected. We exchanged handphone numbers and facebook accounts and promised to meet up again, just in case the next one to go is one of us.

Here is a message for Dean.
It's sad to see you leave this world at such a young age. Your death is definitely a loss to everyone close to you. Thanks for providing a chance for all the old friends to come together although I wished it didn't have to be this way.
May you rest in peace. So long, my friend.

Before I leave, here is a photo taken with some of them in the 80s. It was Chinese New Year and we went down to Chinatown to take photos. Those were the days, huh, guys?

Take care of your health and best of luck to you and your family. Peace....
Note to my ex-students - For some of you who thinks that those big glasses that you are wearing now is the in-thing, trust me, it was what we were wearing in the 80s. Hahah.

Dad and jogging update - My dad's results would be out by this week and I hope latest by Wed, I can go down back to school and jog with you all. I will let you all know. Take care

My last day at work.

2009-02-11T05:16:00.000-08:00

So that day finally arrived. And I had to bade farewell to all the good people that I have worked and taught. I am not going to say much. Just posting up the photos.

I will miss all of you. Kisses and hugs! I love all of you! But some even more! haha.
Farewell people. You will always be in my memories.

There were just too many photos to upload, so those of you with my facebook account, you can go see the rest of the photos! COOLZA!

I am just posting the group photos that we took.
These are the Devil's angels....ironical huh?

See? I told you they were angels...they can fly...hahah
Then the lecturers had some camwhoring themselves...so funny..
Giving our best serious look...scary hor?
The Kung Fu Masters! Short of one. Bro Riduan! He was busy preparing the farewell party for me. Thanks bro. It was a fantastic surprise.
And all hell broke loose when the angels descended on Ah Chye's toys...
No one...no one...except the Devil, I, managed to touched his toys. hahah..pinch pinch...

At 4:30pm, I made my way back to the office because I promised my students I will talk with them for the last time. But I never expected this! 81 students gathered inside COE to bid me farewell. I am so so touched. It is something I will never forget.
The cake that V Class bought for me. Thank you guys.
The KUNG FU MASTERS! All together!
Ah Chye trying to be a cock.
B/K Class! - You know how much I miss you all...
The first class that I ever taught. I won't forget you all!
A/J Class - Sigh...what else can I say. I am heartbroken.
P and soon to be V Class - I never taught you guys, but you still came. I love y'all..
And these were all the wonderful presents, cards, cakes and all that were given to me. They are at a very special place in my house. It's like an altar..
That's me cutting the cake that V Class brought for me.

I went home and laid out all the gifts....so many!! I love them all!
Beautiful card from B/K Class, with all the words that we use very often...
The farewell cards from B/K Class again, made into a booklet, gifts and extra cards from individual students. You know who you are...
Cards and drawings by A/J class. Very nice...very nice.
Ah...the beautiful picture of me, The Devil - Done by the good ppl of P Class. And it's framed up..
Thanks Sri, for doing up that wonderful card, towel with the word "holysticks" and "cooljoedog" and the photos! Pei Ling! Thanks for the pen, I have started using it already.
I love this cow! Cute...like me...hahah
More individual gifts from the students. I am putting them in my car!

Well, that's it. Do go to facebook to see even more photos.
I don't know how many times I have said this but I miss you all. I have never felt so sad leaving a work place before. I have never regretted my decision to be a teacher. It is one of my proudest moments in my life. I now leave this place and I will be teaching in another. I hope to inspire them as I hope I had inspired you all.

And as for the great bunch of friends and colleagues I left behind, I didn't want to say goodbye. Because I will see you all again. As I would for the students. Do say hi to me if you see me on the streets. I will remember you.

Exit stage left. I hope I will come back for an encore one day. Till then. FAREWELL

I miss....

2009-02-08T07:10:00.000-08:00

Oh,I miss my younger days.
How I wished they would last.

There wasn't hatred or thoughts of evil.
There wasn't greed or acts of lust.

There was just smiles and sounds of laughter.
There was just kindness, love and trust.

But all these innocence gets lost,
As one gets older.

Nobody really knows why,
Perhaps, no one really bothers.

And when you do, it's all too late.
As love eventually loses out to hate.

I wish I could stop the hands of time,
So that I can stop the rot of life.

And return me back to those days,
where smiles and laughters stays.

Oh, I miss my younger days.

A poem by Cooljoedog.

A reminder to smile....

2009-02-08T06:55:00.000-08:00

Of late, I have been feeling down. Alot of things are happening, me leaving my job tomorrow and starting a new job with new expectations on Wed. The new job is ok, just sad leaving my old job.

And at the same time, my dad, has just been recently diagnosed with brain tumor.
My mom and I just admitted him to the hospital this afternoon. He is scheduled to be operated on tomorrow, which is also my last day at work. So it's not going to be a very good day for me.

I hope my dad will be fine. But I will only know the result next week whether or not it's cancerous.

With all these happening at the same time, I have at times lost the will to smile and am abit distracted.

However, someone out there, was nice enough to remind me, that in spite of all this, I mustn't forget to stay positive and be happy and most important of all, smile.

Thanks, you know who you are...and to remind myself constantly, I have stuck it on my pc at home...one of the places where I spend most of my time at home.

More photos part II

2009-02-06T05:02:00.000-08:00

Today we went crazy and took more photos for memory sake! I enjoyed it so much. I am sure the students enjoyed it as well. And at the end of the lesson, I gathered them for a last talk with them, I choked and tears started flowing down. Sigh. I have been trying so hard to suppress it but in the end, when I knew that it was the end of my lessons with them, the tears just came out. Couldn't control.

I wish you all the best! Work hard, and be the animators that you all aspire to be!

Ok, enough babbling...here are the photos. Thanks for the memories..

After class, I went out for lunch with my wonderful colleagues...soon to be my ex-colleagues :(
I will miss them as well. They are a great bunch of people to work with. They are another reason why I am sad to leave this place. Thanks too for the memories, guys!

A poem to my students.

2009-02-04T17:17:00.000-08:00

This was a little something I wrote for my students.

No matter how I try,
It's hard to say goodbye.

To a place where I have found,
Joy and happiness all around.

So with just a wave of my hand,
I bade you farewell my friend.

But before I leave,
Let me say these from my heart.

I will miss you very much,
I wish we didn't have to part.

I hoped you enjoyed my classes
I hoped I made you laugh.

I hoped I inspired you.
I hoped that this will last.

You put a smile in me,
That none can take away.

So with this , I promise you,
We will meet again someday.

This is all I have to say.

From your teacher,
Mr J.

My Last Lesson

2009-02-04T16:25:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was my last lesson with my students. I am at a loss of words. Because the feeling of leaving them is very painful. I have never felt this way when leaving for a new job before. All I can say is these group of students and colleagues here are simply the most fantastic and fun people you can ever teach and work for. I wish them all the best. And I will miss you all badly.

Before I go, just to make myself better, I will always remind myself that
1. "Nothing in this world last forever"
2. "All good things must come to an end"
But I leave with good, good memories of this place and the people.

Meanwhile, We took some really funny photos yesterday. I just let the photos do the talking.

These are those I took with K class. Luv y'all!!

We took individual shots as well but for those that has my facebook account, you can go see it there!

And in the morning, I had J Class, and these were those I took with them.

Thank you for being part of my life.

Other than that girl sitting on the chair while we were all taking photos. hahaha

Ultramanlah Forum gathering at Ah Huat's new house!

2009-02-01T03:03:00.001-08:00

Today I went to a gathering at my friend, Sze Huat and his wife Melissa's house. It was also a long overdue gathering of the people from www.ultramanlah.com

We used to meet up quite often and as usual, after the "honeymoon" period, lesser and lesser people came as they all have their own commitments. So this is the remaining few who would meet up more often compared to the rest. And many thanks to Sze Huat and Melissa for inviting us to his house.

We were doing potluck today, and for me, I usually whip out my fried noodles. Something that I learned from my grandma. So I woke up at 7am this morning to go market to buy the ingredients. Not very complicated, it's just cabbage, fishcake, luncheon meat, chinese sausage, prawns and egg noodles. And if I may praise myself, I do cook rather well...hahaha..

And finally, when all is done, this is what I brought over.

Tony and I doing our pose...

As usual, we brought too much food...and we just couldn't finish everything...sorry, for we have sinned..

The man and woman of the house

The "young" boy of our group. Stuffing his face with food.haha

Tony and wife, Veron

Ian and me, in terms of age, he is number 1, I am number 2...sigh...getting old.

And the story teller of our group, Adrian. We must always have him around. He will always crack us up.

And after the meals, the all important group photos...

And after that we just talked about Ultraman stuff and some gossips which I can't post up here ....hahaha...

It's been nice catching up with you guys. We will meet up again soon! Take care!

Just pictures...

2009-01-26T08:43:00.000-08:00

These are photos taken by Hocky using his new hp camera. It's super clear! And some of the moment it was taken, was perfect timing as well. So thanks to Hocky for this contribution to my post.

This is a very popular Sesame Street song that I use to sing along when I watched it.

3 of these things belong together,
3 of these things are one of the same...
But one of these things doesn't belong here,
Tell me before my song is done.
And now my song is done.

Hint: Only one person is not smiling....

Neo showed us the tattoo that he got recently. Yes, it's the "shit in my hands" tattoo. Very rare. Even rarer than "golden poo" (once again, only my students playing pet society will know what I am talking about)

Neo tries to hypnotise Vince.

A little secret....Neo likes to hold Vince's hands when we go out for lunch. It was also witness by a very petrified bystander. And captured by Hocky.

I will miss you guys...

What Chinese New Year means to me.

2009-01-26T00:26:00.000-08:00

So what do Chinese New Year mean to all of you nowadays. To me, I feel that it has lost it's innocence, ever since I have grown up. It's really not just about the red packets or the lack of it that I am complaining.

This is what I used to do last time. We would wake up early in the morning, go to my mom's Buddhist temple to pray. (I just sit there, because you all know me and my issues with religion)

Then we would set off to my great grand uncle's house, followed by my grand uncle's house. This is where I usually get my big red packets. My grand uncle has a big koi pond and I would always enjoy feeding his fishes for him.

After that, we would head off to my grandma's place. That's my favorite because all of my cousins would be there and we would play together and make a lot of noise.

We would have lunch there and then play black jack. This became mahjong eventually as we all grew up. We would bet 20 cents to 50 cents. That was alot of money back then. The most allowed was $2. And usually it would be our uncles that would be the dealers, since they were the ones working then. If we won, we would be happy and if we lost, we will put on a black face..and the uncles will return the money to us..hahah

When all this is done, I would head over to my big aunt's place. It's there where I have another group of cousins to play with. And we stay there till dinner is done.

After dinner, I would go to my 2nd aunt's place, where I will pick my elder cousin up. He will always stay overnight at my place for the new year. We would normally catch up on the things we missed over the year, and talk about our childhood days.

We would then wake up early in the morning and cycle around to have breakfast. And then head home to prepare for open house at my place where all the relatives we met yesterday would come over to my place for a meal.

Why do I say all these innocence is gone? Well, it ended the time where these people that I would visit, passed away. First was my grandpa, then great grand uncle.

But after my grandma passed away, the uncle and aunties stopped visiting one another. But we will still go to another aunt's place instead. But that feeling is different. We are all grown up. All my cousins have kids of their own. They would be talking about their houses, watches, trips they made...etc. Boring...

Until last year, my cousin would still make the trip to my house to stay over. But today when I asked him, he said that he can't because his wife will make noise and nag at him. So that's another tradition down the drain.

And my nephew is going off to Germany soon because his dad (my brother) is posted there. So I won't see him for a year. Oh, I am going to miss my nephew badly.

And with me leaving my job in ITE, I know I am going to miss Uncle Ee, Bros and my students too.

OH well, like they said, nothing in this world last forever.

I wrote this while I was in my big aunt's place. Nothing else to do...hahaha.
And I was quite bored and didn't want to play mahjong. So, I don't find New year exciting anymore..

Happy Moo Moo here and a Moo Moo there new year to all.

2009-01-25T17:15:00.000-08:00

Here is wishing everyone a Happy New Year.

May this be a BULLiful year for all.
May you all eat lots of snacks and don't get fat,
May you eat as much heaty food as you want and don't get pimples,
May you all look younger than you are last year,
May none of your hair drop from your head,
May you spend and spend but yet still have lots of money in your wallet,
May you strike 4D and toto every week,
And last but not least,

May you all get $1000000 lottery strike in your pet society game and level up every time you play,(only my students know what this is)

Actually hor, all these is just alot of BULL.....shit..
hahahaha..

I will just keep my wishes simple.
So here is my actual wish,

I wish that the world would just get along with one another.
And that starts with me playing a part as well. And I will TRY...

Happy Bull Year.

A year filled with Bull........shit...

The proper way to wish.

2009-01-20T07:18:00.000-08:00

Sorry bro, but this photo is just too good not to post up...hahah...if you want to take revenge....create your own blog and post funny picture of me..I won't mind. hahah.

Today's lesson is on the proper way to make a wish.

This is the correct way.
1.Make sure that both your eyes are closed.
2.Elbows at 90 degrees, not necessary to have your hands gasped too tightly.
This is especially so for people with sweaty palms.
3.Try to have your eye brows pointed down.
4.Give a cynical smile.
5.If possible, make offerings using a cake with 3 candles. Birthday cakes are alright, but not too much cream.
6.Have a female subject nearby as well and get her to perform the one hand, middle finger touch thumb stance.
7.Female subject perferably with eyes closed as well.
8.But with a sweeter smile, if possible.
9.Don't forget to write incomprehensible writings in the background.
10.Last but not least, offerings of drinks are welcome. Sprite is ok, but next time, use rootbeer.

Like this, confirm your wishes will come true! And even more so, if done on your birthday.

See example below.

And for a negative demostration, this is wrong. Because it looks too much like praying. And the female subject is clearly distracted by something happening in the background.
So, remember, if you want your wish to come true...follow my advice..you can't go wrong. You got to pray just to make it today...(song by MC hammer) Those of you too young, won't know what I am talking about. Till next time...TTFN. Ta ta for now.

Mural, mural on the wall, who's the most "yan" of them all..

2009-01-15T23:32:00.000-08:00

This is a mural on my office that was done together with students. Nice right? It has some of my drawings in there as well. The rest belongs to my COE students.
This is going to be a good photo-taking place for the visitors in the future.

We were inspired by a poster that Toon Boom did for theirs, so we followed the same concept. Thank you Desiree for putting the characters together.

Bro Vince and me..damn "yan" right? hahah
So happy, I am immortalised. Got my name there at the bottom. Hahaha.

Lesson preparation for Cut-out Animation

2009-01-13T05:27:00.002-08:00

Haven't drawn in ages. Sigh. Hope I will get my urge to draw again. Otherwise I am a bad example to my students. Hahah. I have been more occupied with other things, like cleaning my toy room and bed room.Chinese New Year coming...

Anyway, tomorrow is Digital Pro lesson. And I created this 2 new characters this tuesday evening to show my students how to use it to create cut-out animation using Toon Boom Digital Pro.

It is my all time favorite software. And I just recently spent $1000 over to get an original copy from them. Money well spent if you ask me.

So here it is, for my students if you need reference on what to draw, remember, I said you all can draw anything, just as long as it's standing at a 3/4 pose. No action poses for this because we are going to do cut-out. One with outline, one without. It's really up to you. And oh yes, it's got to be 2 legged.

See you all tomorrow. Remember to prepare your drawings.

Guess Who?

2009-01-09T00:58:00.000-08:00

At the moment this picture was taken, someone farted. Make a guess who? Haha
20 cents for the winner. Answer will be revealed on Monday.

2009-01-05T03:40:00.000-08:00

With the start of a new year, means also a start of more animated movies to look out for.

There will be a lot hitting our screens later this year, so I thought I will show you guys some. If you haven't already watch the trailers for these up and coming animations, do so. Keep yourselves updated on what's happening.

My childhood hero other than Ultraman, it's "Astroboy" this time done in 3D and by the company that did TMNT. I can't wait to watch this. But it's only a short trailer done at the moment. Hope there will be a longer one soon. 23rd Oct 2009

This is one that's is produced by Tim Burton, called "Nine". I believe it's going to be AWESOME! For those who think he sounds familiar, he's the one that did "Nightmare before Christmas", "James and the Giant Peach", The Corpse Bride" 9th Sept 2009

And who can forget, my favorite animation studio by far, Pixar, with their new movie, "UP" 29th May 2009

Not wanting to be left behind, Dreamworks, makers of "Shrek" and Kung Fu Panda" comes "Monsters Vs Aliens" March 27th 2009.

Finally this is "Coraline", done by the famous author of Sandman, Neil Gaiman. Feb 2009

I believe there are going to be a couple more animations. But these are my favorite for the moment.

Well, hope you all enjoy the trailers and make a beeline for the movies when it comes out! I am going to be broke! Haha.

Therapeutic Start to the New Year

2009-01-04T07:06:00.000-08:00

Today I embarked on a therapeutic start to my New Year. I cleaned up my room and threw out alot of stuff. Mostly old documents and threw away stationeries that no longer worked. Arranged my "Art of" books and DVDs, cleaned the floor, my computer. Think it would be good if Ah Chye bro was here. I could just sit and watch him clean for me instead. Hahaha.

Actually I wanted to do "spring cleaning" for my toy room, but I just didn't know where to start. So I decided to do my bedroom instead.

Started at 11am and worked all the way to 6pm to break for dinner and came back to do again. Only finished at 9pm! hahah..But it felt good. Every is in order, so I can go mess it up again. MUHAHAHAHA.

Think I will go and take photos of it before anything else happens in the cardboard.

Tomorrow will be my first day of work for the new year. Can't wait to go back to see my Holy Sticks and my students! See ya soon!

Happy New Year...whatever...

2008-12-31T22:07:00.000-08:00

So the next year has arrived. Just went to one of my bestest friend's house on New Year's eve to welcome their new addition to their family.

Welcome to the world, Kayla. I am very happy for both Darren and Cheryl and their step into parenthood. I believe the both of them will make great parents.

This morning, sent Nicki to the groomers, to be shaved bald because she has tick infestation...and spent an hour plus cleaning the house to rid of the ticks. Happy New Year to me.

My new year resolution.

1. Save more money
2. Build up my stamina to go jogging once I get the clearance from my physio
3. Be nice to people.
4. On second thoughts, scrap no. 3.
5. Not to have any more New Year resolutions.

Happy New Year, everyone.

Krabi - Part 05 - Just the 2 of us...

2008-12-30T03:46:00.000-08:00

And finally, photos with my GF and me inside. I love Krabi. Overall, in terms of snorkelling, I would say it lost out to Redang, Malaysia but then maybe it was because on the day I went, it was windy, cloudy and raining abit. But Krabi was beautiful in it's own way, and we were the 0.5% of Asian tourist there. I kid you not! Krabi was filled with Europeans, Austrailians and Americans! All the Ang Mos were there! But they are very friendly as well, and we had many good talks with them during our day trips. Yes...there was Italians there as well....(WINK!)

Most of them have heard of Singapore, but they just say it's too clean and too organised for them and they normally just stop over for a day or two. But they don't really enjoy it apart from the shopping.

If anyone from Singapore Tourism Promotion Board is reading this, do take note. Anyway, we can't offer them what these other countries can offer since we don't have anything natual, except us humans in Singapore and even then, most of them are going for plastic surgery, dying of hair. So, so much for natural. Haha...

Back to Krabi, I enjoyed all the massages we had every night, the food, the places and sights we have seen, but most of all, I enjoyed it most because my GF was there with me. (No, she didn't point a gun at my head to write this....hahaha)

The pancake store...

Thank God they still have Starbucks there! We just had to have our cuppa!

See what see? Poke your eyes out!

For some weird reason, my GF loves this picture....hahah..

Strike a pose...

This dog was so adorable. Kept coming to me. I would have loved to bring it back.

Every trip I go to Thailand, I would buy one of these sand filled lizards. At the moment, I have got 4 of them. They are so beautiful.

Well,that's all folks and till the next trip.

I will see the rest of you back in school. Storyboard presentation...sounds familiar to some of you? hahahaha..

And have a HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Krabi - Part 04 - Thru the lenses...

2008-12-30T03:05:00.000-08:00

Just one word, Beautiful....

And last but not least....luckily there weren't any sharks around, because I think my nose bled....hahahah. I have no idea whose butt that belongs too, but something tells me, it's European...hahah

Krabi - Part 03 - Our Resort - Ao Nang The Cliff

2008-12-30T02:54:00.000-08:00

Here are the photos of the resort that we stayed in, Ao Nang, the Cliff, named so because of the cliff at the back of it. You can see it in some of the photos.

My first photo of the resort and that's because when we arrived, it was almost 10pm at night!

Here's the entrance in the morning. Can see much clearer.

That's our resort, on your right, covered abit by the banana leaf.

The pool! Cool right? See the cliff behind? That's why they called it "The Cliff"

They say that the pool is haunted... hahaha..joking lah, that's me!

Close up to our resort,

It's quite small, but cosy...this is how the room looks like.

Our shower,

And my throne....where I made important decisions everyday. Especially after breakfast. Haha

Krabi - Part 02 - Food, glorious food...

2008-12-30T02:25:00.000-08:00

No trip of mine is ever complete without pictures of the food I had, be it on the plane, or at the places I have been. So, if you are on a diet, be forewarned, don't look at the photos....they will drive you crazy!! hahaha..

Food from Thai Air - Bro Vince, they never changed the menu, same food we had when we flew to Bangkok! Chicken with noodles

Same once again when we flew back - Curry Beef with Rice

Ah, my favorite meal of the day, breakfast...look at the yummy eggs! We had breakfast served to us everyday where we sat outside our resort, will show you that later. We can have different types of breakfast, but we more or less stuck to the same american type everyday because we would have Thai food outside.

Pancakes and cornflakes. Yum yum!

And more eggs!! I tell you, the sausage is damn nice!

We would normally not really eat lunch but snack because we would be so full from breakfast, and here is a sample of what we ate. They called it pancake, but actually, it's more like roti prata with fillings. And it's cheap. Less than $0.80.

This was the nice lady that was doing it for us. I asked her for permission before snapping away. They have lots of these type of stores selling road side food. And most of them smell and taste damn good! Food court food sucks!

I ordered coconut for mine.

Looks like prata, right?

Banana for my GF

And she would cut it into small bit sized pieces, and dipped condensed milk onto it.

Dinner time! We had Thai food every night and it's like tze char in Singapore except alot cheaper. Normally we would have fried kang kong or morning glory as they call it over there. An omelete, usually with crab meat or onion, phad thai, fried rice, and dish, usually chicken or beef, soup, coconut juice....

I tell you, this omelete is so delicious, I would kill for it! hahah, it's cooked with some type of sauce, minced pork and veg. I tell you....ARRGGHHH!!!

Beef noodles!

And that's Donald Duck...hahaha

And no meal would be complete, NEVER COMPLETE without this Thai dessert. We had it at every restaurant that we ate in. And they all taste so good. I miss it already. Nothing like the sort you get in Singapore, pay so much and the mango is sour and so little. Over here in Thailand, the mangoes are always sweet, and alot more.

The average amount one would spend for dinner, would be around less than $15 per person for all those dishes I just mentioned, which is about 4 dishes with drinks and dessert. You can't get it here in Singapore.

I would say, for all the meals we had in Krabi, I only felt cheated once, and that was at a sea side restaurant where we also had crabs. Not that it taste bad, but it was very little and we had to "donate" blood...

Krabi - Part 01 - The view from the top

2008-12-30T02:14:00.000-08:00

Finally, I can post my pictures of my Krabi trip. There are just so many to post, so I will post bit by bit, topic by topic. The first one would be pictures I took when I was going and coming back. I always love taking photos when I am in the plane. And also just in case, one of the engines catch on fire and the plane crash and I die, it's documented....hahahaha.

So here it is, part 01 of my trip with my GF.

View from Changi Airport.
Simply breath taking.See this photo carefully, it looked like there was a nuclear explosion at the bottom

K Class's Chalet

2008-12-29T08:52:00.000-08:00

Hi all, sorry for the late post. Been away for my trip. Many thanks to those who texted me during Christmas. And sorry for not replying because one sms would have cost me $0.70....hahahah....that's why you only received my replies today when I finally reached...

I haven't posted the photos taken at my class's chalet. So here it is. These were all pictures taken from Uncle Ee's camera...that's why so nice...those I took with my photos...CMI...so they won't be shown.

Trip photos coming up next!!

Domo Kun

2008-12-17T18:20:00.000-08:00

Just some random pictures of this soft toy that I bought...yes..amazing...I bought a soft toy..hahah...but mostly because I really like this character from a Japanese animation. He is called Domo Kun...If I had a choice, he would be going to Thailand with me. Hahaha...

Toon Boom Seminar at ITE

2008-12-10T16:29:00.000-08:00

Some photos that Uncle Ee took with his new camera and "tupperware on his flash". This was on Tuesday when the good people of Toon Boom Animation Inc (Canada) came over to give a seminar and talk on their latest products and softwares. I met up with Sergio, my host when I was in Canada last year. He took real good care of me. Well, I am only posting photos of those that Uncle Ee took with us so here it is. His camera damn "power". All the shots turn out nice...and when you look good, you will end up looking even better...hahaha.

That day was also the day I started to walk without my crutches! After almost 3 months. But I still walk with a slight limp and can't go walking for long distances. Also my wound kinda split open, and it's taking very long to heal...sigh...oh well, at least I am walking...So here are the phots.....

That's Sergio, the Canadian person that host me when I was over there for my training.Sitting together with Sri and Riduan together with the students during the talk.Tim as a flower.Think it's a rare one because it has piercings...hahahaPhotos with the students and Uncle Ee

Shaiful was caught accepting a bribe from me...OORRR...die lor!!
The 2 "lau" heros....Shaiful and Alice trying their best to interrupt...Two people,One word..."Yan"

Supper at Old Railway Station

2008-12-09T08:51:00.000-08:00

Supper at the Old Railway Station.

Had supper with Uncle Ee, Khidir (P class), and the 3 students from B class, Alice, KJ and Nabs.

Alice as usual, couldn't maintain herself, and she was going crazy when she saw a train coming. So I lent her my camera to take one. Not a bad shot I must say.
Think it looks better with me inside. HahahAnother handsome old man..Yan TaoNabs and Khi...:)Alice and Nabs...Open your mouth any bigger, and the train will drive thru...
One Eyed KJ and Alice
The Devil with his minionsone not too old man...and 2 rather old but still good looking men. Hahah
And I will end it off with this picture of a pussy...She seems to be saying "Meow, stop taking pictures and pass me the fish before I scratch your face!"The lecturers have finished keying in the class's results today, so it's a huge weight off our shoulders. Time for us to chill.

Tomorrow, I along with the rest of the lecturers will be attending my class's chalet. Please get ready the food and drinks. Roll out the red carpet, we will make our grand entrance.

A friendly message from Cooljoedog. With my new toy.

2008-12-08T00:46:00.000-08:00

Ok, I went abit crazy shooting the photos of my new toy, and I decided to do something with it...Enjoy...Click on it for the larger version, so you can read the story.

Why I have been...

2008-12-06T16:35:00.000-08:00

Today's just a post on why I have been taking pictures frantically these few days and posting them up on my blog. And it's pictures of my students together with me.

It was only this year, well, about mid year, that I finally got to be a Class Advisor to a class of my own. The infamous K Class! And while the time was short, I enjoyed being their form teacher. And now the time has come, they have graduated. I kinda feel this sadness and happiness inside me.

Happiness because they have all grown up and are ready for their next phase of life, sadness because they are leaving. And there is also Uncle Ee's class, who is also going off. Guess it's part and parcel of being a lecturer. Leaves this "sour" feeling in my heart. Wonder how many people can relate to that? Haha.

I am one who often preach the "Bu Zai Hu Tian Chang Di Jui, Zi Zai Hu Ceng Jing Yong You" tagline. I can't type this in Chinese, so a translation for those who don't understand, it literally means "don't care sky long ground aged, just care that we used to have it".

But seriously...what it really means is "it’s not really whether it lasts forever but it is the memories shared that is important"

So with this, I will feel better. So I thank my students (J and K class) for the memories we shared and had. I bade you all farewell and all the best in your future.

For the guys going NS, remember the advise I gave you all "Be smart, don't act smart"
For the girls either going to work or furthering their studies, work hard and don't be late.

Next up, I will post up the picture of a new toy that my Bro Chin Chye helped me collect before he went for his trip. Thanks bro.

Good luck to Bro Hocky on his Standchart run. I wish I was there today doing it as well if it wasn't for my left foot..

Operation - Cleanup!

2008-12-03T04:24:00.000-08:00

It's nearing the end of the year, and as a practise, I will get the year one students, this time it's Bro Vince's B class, to do spring cleaning in my centre just before the year twos graduate and them taking over.

We sure had alot of fun, although I took more photos than to help out. But as usual, the wonderful students of B class worked together without complaining and everyone gave it their best to give the centre a good clean together with Riduan.

So, here it is, more photos, for the memories....
Let the cleaning begin!
And here are the group photos...My Vacuum girl and Stick boy, Alice and Shafiq.
Adam and the old boy of the class, Irzad.The Knees (Denise), Bashful Kok Wei and Firdaus.2 of the "Bah Xian", I am the other one, "Tei Quai Li"Little girl, Xin YuForever hiding her face, Siti and funky boy, KJ.My librarians for the day, Khirul and Kim,Helmet boy Riduan and Rocker TimSweet smiling Nabs and KJ again!Adam and The Hokkien Boys, Lin Yu and Allen. We are missing 2 more, Malcolm and Andrew...where are you?? Pei Ling and Leon,
Yes, Denise, that's a "Wacom" pen, nothing to be excited about....hahahaMy class's student's Vick, Rizuan and Rafie....the year 2s are relaxing...Bro Riduan doing the inspection....Chester helping him out.Ghazali the Dancer, the other Hokkien boy Malcolm and big boy Faz..And the first table was cleaned....so shiny until I could see my teeth. So take picture with the winners! Shafiq and Alice.Alice trying to suck the seriousness out of Chester.One of my year 2, trying to set a good example, cleaning his wacom tablet. Good boy Zuo Ping,2 more of the year 2 students, Good samaritan Jia Yuan, pushing "loves to play with my crutches" Justin...After the cleanup, some of them stayed on to complete their assignments. A big thanks once again to the students of B class.

Uncle Ee Class's Final Year Presentation

2008-12-02T03:50:00.000-08:00

Today was the 2nd day of final year presentation for the graduating students. It's the class of Uncle Ee. I only taught them for a semester. But they too are a jolly bunch. I wish them well in their studies and career. And remember what the lecturers told you all today.

Enjoy the photos!
Presenting the J Class!

The future chef of a famous restaurant and me. Remember to treat me good food ah!

Miss Nippon and me!

And with her favourite teacher..

Yaa Tah!

Nice pose....

3 crazy girls of J class!

Told you they were crazy..

Wah lau a..

"Abusive" students

My class's final year presentation

2008-12-01T03:55:00.000-08:00

Today is my class's graduation presentation. They have been so stressed up for the last few weeks. Now that it's over, they are all happy, waiting to take a good break.

It's time like these I wish I was still a student, getting ready for presentation, doing up my portfolio. Now I want to be one also difficult. So please, my students if you are reading this, cherish your school life because it's going to be one of if not the best part of your life. Stop skipping classes and stop making excuses for not handing in your work. Trust me, you don't enjoy whatever you are learning now, you won't be happy working in animation later.

For my students who are graduating, I wish you all the best and don't forget all the advise we lecturers have given you. For those you have done well, don't slack or get proud. Always maintain your hardworking attitude. And be respectful to your future employers and lecturers. I will never forget this class of mine. I wish you all success in your future endeavours.

Meanwhile, here are some photos that we can all share together.

During the presentation, all looking so tense. Haha

Finally it's over! Group pictures!!

With Team TPX

Team ImaginArt

Team Digital Art Productions

Musketeers

Desiree and Daphne. The double D....

Team Production Girls

Daphne and Hocky!

Lone Rangers

DJD...hahah

It's all over, taking a break and Bao Bao striking his favorite pose.

I am angry....with religion and the problems it has caused.

2008-11-28T15:51:00.000-08:00

I am angry...very angry with what I feel is once again, violence created out of the pretext of using religion. This is going to be a very sensitive topic on my personal take on religion. If you are very sensitive to it, may I suggest you go elsewhere and not continue.

Ever since the Mumbai attack 2 days ago, I have been keeping updated on the news, and when I read on the Internet last night that the Singaporean hostage was killed in the Mumbai terror attack, I was so angry. Perhaps angry that we couldn't do anything for her and her family but just sat there waiting for the news.

She was only 28 years old. Recently married. A lawyer, who was just there for a one night business trip when it all happened. They found her body, murdered in cold blood by those who held her hostage, by those who claim to do it in the name of religion.

I don't care what religion it is. What sort of religion goes around saying that it's your God given right to go kill a helpless lady in cold blood? And say that you are doing this because other people are killing people of your religion? So because your people are dying, you go around killing other innocent people, so what are you trying to tell? All you terrorist are cowards, balless cowards!

When is this ever going to stop?

NEVER!

Because these religious extremist, no matter which one you are, will always think that your God is the one and only, that only your God is great and that the rest of us have to either submit to your religion or die under your filthy hands....I spit at you!

I am happy with the fact that I am a free thinker and I am proud of it because I don't have quarrels with any of my friends, relatives on their religion. Everyone should be free to practise what they want. Just be moderate and don't go too crazy on it. Don't get brainwashed!

Look at what this world has become. Sometimes, I think not bringing another life to the world might be a good thing because I think this world has gone koo koo..

And since we are at religion, let's also talk about this so called group of religious heads, who brainwashes this group of youngsters who attacked Mumbai to take over holiday spots and kill people.

IF you are so god damn righteous about all this, why don't you have the f***ing balls to go and do it yourself rather than training other people to do your bidding?
I spit at you again!

And you religious heads, are so hypocritical. Let me give you an example of the news I read yesterday and my jaws practically dropped.

This so called religious preacher, who supposedly supports that anti-pornography movement in Indonesia, just got himself a 12 year old bride....Yes..you didn't see wrongly. He got himself a 12 year old girl for a wife! And he is planning 2 more!!! One 7 years old and one 9 years old. WHAT THE HELL!!??? And guess what? The children's parents agreed to it because he is the religious preacher there. And there are other religious clerics supporting him.

What sort of good religion is doing, if it allows things like this? And he says that he won't have sex with them till they are 18 years old....Com'on, like we are supposed to believe you! IF that's the case, then marry them when they are 18, and are able to think for themselves, you old prick!

Sigh, I feel 911 happening all over again. I felt so sick to the stomach. I always feel that, we humans should be the ones called animals if we continue to live like these. IF there really is a God, I hope you are happy with what your religion is turning these group of people into.

I don't feel sorry that I don't believe in any religion. Since mankind had religion, they fought countless wars because of it. Millions die because of it and most of the time, it's innocent men, women, and children.

With all these said, I would like to emphasis once again, I may be a free thinker, but I never stop others if they feel they want to embrace religion or practise their religion. It's good for some people, because it guides them to do good, to have hope and give hope. Religion is supposed to bring out the best in you, not the beast. I have many friends with different religion, and we get along fine. I am happy to say that at least here in Singapore, we can do that. Be respectful of another person's religion, whether you believe or not. Don't think for once that only you and your kind are allowed to practise your religion and the rest of the people have to follow you and your religion.

And even religious peace in Singapore, we mustn't let our guards down, because there will always be a group of cowards trying to destroy the harmonious lifestyle that we have and make us succumb to theirs. For those group of religious extremist people, since you believe in heaven and hell, then may you burn in Hell for eternity.

In memory of Singapore's first terror attack victim, Ms Lo Hwei Yen. My heart goes out to her family. May you rest in peace.

One last note: This is my personal opinion, I wasn't preached or brainwashed by non religious people or was forced at gun point to write this.

My Dream Car (NOT ANYMORE)

2008-11-19T02:33:00.000-08:00

Today's COE for cars dropped to $2. My jaws dropped to the floor!
What the #@#*! Everytime when it's my turn to buy a car, the COE hits the roof! Is this what they mean by "Cest La Vie"? hahah

One of my old friend, from a forum, showed me this link of a car that he thinks I will like and my goodness, he is right. I absolutely love this car!

It's the Honda Crossroad. Kinda looks like a mini hummer. I love it!

Here's the colours that's available. Can you guess what's my favorite?

Kung Fu Cat!

2008-11-13T00:21:00.001-08:00

I am on a roll! My 3rd one so far....think I am going to run out of steam soon. Haha

Kung Fu Croc

2008-11-12T17:45:00.001-08:00

The 2nd of my Kung Fu animal series! Kung Fu Croc!! Coolza!

Just a guide on how I did it, for those of you who are interested. I did my sketches and cleanup in Toon Boom Digital Pro, exported it out as a swf file which I can open it in Flash. And that's where I did my colouring of the character and took out the blacklines and did the background in there as well.

Kung Fu Bunny

2008-11-12T04:07:00.001-08:00

Can't get enough of Kung Fu Panda the Movie, so I decided to do one of my own.

Kung Fu Bunny!

Done in double quick time. 1 hour and 15 minutes from sketch to outline and colour. Enjoy!

The Seven Heavenly Masters

2008-11-09T21:55:00.000-08:00

This was a drawing I did together with Uncle Ee a while back. He was the ones that supplied the caricatures....and he is getting very good at it. One day I will try and convince him to start a blog so he can post whatever he has drawn.

This drawing is a depiction of the lecturers in school, a bit liken to old masters of kungfu. So cool, right?

This was also done during the time that Kung Fu Panda came out so the background design was inspired by the movie.

This is just the background done in flash....
After which I took whatever Uncle Ee has done and put it to photoshop and did the touch up and recolouring there.
Click on the drawings for a larger version.

Songs for Obama - By Will.i.am

2008-11-08T18:01:00.000-08:00

Found this 3 songs done by the talented Will.i.am, one of the singers of Black Eye Peas, also one of my favorite music group. 2 of which he did while the newly elected President Obama was on the campaign trail. 1 which he did after he was elected. It is really good. Have a listen to it.

My DD was the one who found it and she showed it to me.

I have no idea why I am so drawn to President Obama, but I really feel he is a very charismatic leader whom I feel can really bring change to the United States of America and the world as well, although I am from Singapore and I think I am ashamed to say that I followed this campaign trail more than I did during Singapore's election.

Maybe it's because I know for sure who is going to win. Just by how low or high a percentage. And a person like President Obama goes once in a blue moon, person like J F Kennedy, Dr Martin Luther King, Abraham Lincoln, and from our tiny island, MM Lee Kwan Yew. I have always believed, without him, Singapore won't be where we are today. And I am sure it's alot more good than bad. It's people who always think that he is draconian in the ways that he does things that hates him.

But they will always have to look back at history and think of those times, what he did was necessary for the survival of this small country and what it has done for us. Ok, now before I bored everyone else with my political view, here are the songs. It would be nice if some of our songwriters in Singapore could write something like this for our leaders.

"We Are The Ones"

Yes We Can"

And this was the one Will.i.am performed during Oprah Winfrey's show. "Its a new day" Enjoy...

Many thanks to KJ for helping me solve the youtube problem. I am not as savvy as some of my students when it comes to stuffs like these...hope you all(my students) watch the videos and be inspired by what both these men have done.

OBAMA OBAMA....

Obama wins!!

2008-11-04T23:49:00.000-08:00

So it's been finally decided, Barrack Obama wins the presidency for the United States of America over John Macain.

I am really glad it has happened. The first black President of USA. What an achievement. Really comes to show that over there, if you dream and work hard enough, your dreams will become reality...

Well done, Mr President Obama....and goodbye Bush!

I hope with him coming to office, the world will be a more better place to live in, in terms of economy, the war in the middle east to cease, and most of all, for all of us to live together in peace. (wishful thinking, but no harm wishing, right?

Death...

2008-10-30T20:14:00.000-07:00

My hands got itchy and I decided to do another Halloween drawing...hahah.

It's been a long time since I used Flash to draw anything and most of all to do without outlines. Rusty already. This was a quick illustration, done in 45 minutes.

It's someone all of us will meet one day...MUAHAHAHAHAH.....

Happy Halloween!

2008-10-30T18:32:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween. Today is the official day (Althought it's not reflected on the blog because we are following US time, it's 31st here in Singapore already)

So I decided to do a greeting card for all my readers. Click on the picture to see a larger version of it.....Happy a spooky night ahead....BOO!! BOO!!

Hao Kow Ki Seow....Good Dog Gone Bad...

2008-10-29T21:56:00.000-07:00

90 Degrees

2008-10-28T23:09:00.000-07:00

After 46 days, my leg is finally put into a new splint that is adjusted to 90 degrees.

Went to the hospital again this morning. Met the same physiotherapist that changed the splint for me the last time. Her name is Hui Wen and she had a new colleague that was understudying her called Pamela. Promised them that I will go look for them when I go for physio next time.

They seem to enjoy their job, which is helping other people get better. It's a nice job. Rewarding, just like teaching. :P All the best to the both of them. Keep up your good work!

After she did the splint for me, Hui Wen said that this would be the last time that I will need to change the splint. They next time would be for rehab if I need it.

With that said I was discharged. So happy. But still no weight on the foot, that was the advise from her until I see my doctor in 2 weeks time. Oh well, definitely getting there! Now my leg is hurting because it was pushed to the 90 degress, well, no pain, no gain.

Big thanks to Chye and Sri for taking over my lessons today, were my students naughty? Haha...

Here are pictures of my new splint, looks exactly like the old one except for the angle that's been adjusted. So I am going to bring the old one, after I have bleached and washed it, for you guys as promised, to sign on...and I will keep it as a momento...to remember you all by.
Tah dah!! 90 Degrees!!! Awesome!Can't really tell, right? Until you put the old splint and the new one side by side, and you can see there's lots of difference.While I was at the hospital, I was looking at the news on the TV, today's stock market is down again. Thank goodness I know nuts about shares and stocks, othewise, I may have to take up part time job, just to get by.

The week in a nutshell

2008-10-28T04:51:00.001-07:00

Ok, so it's been a week since I returned to school. I really miss seeing all my colleagues and my students. Think I actually missed work. Can't imagine me saying that. Haha.

But I guess after staying too long at home nursing my wound, I kinda felt the walls closing in on me. It was suffocating. So going back to school was wonderful although on the first day, I had 2 close falls! Really scary, because I am having phobia of falling and beginning to forget how to walk. Yes, that's how it is.

So on the second day, I decided to bring my wheelchair and it's been great. Only thing was, that because I was sitting down the whole time, by Thursday, my foot swelled up to almost twice the size. I didn't really noticed it because I still had bandages on. So Friday, I was back at home, resting once again. I had to prop my leg up and because the blood could go down but had difficulty going up.

Ok, enough of the stupid leg. Just very thankful to all my colleagues who have been extremely helpful while I am gone and while I was in school.

Siti, Alice, KJ and Nabs came to visit me in Uncle Ee's room AKA my resting area.

KJ looking extremely stoned in the photo.... hahah..must be lunch

On Wednesday, it was birthday celebration for the October babies!! Lecturers and students included! On Tuesday, 28th Nov, together with the lecturers from animation, we attended a talk given by the good people of Aardman Studios! A big thank you to British Council and NYP for making it possible.The speakers were David Sproxton and Luis Cook. If you have no idea who Aardman are, you are not from Earth....Just go to their website and you will immediately know who I am talking about.

www.aardman.com

Or I could just mention 2 names, and most of you would get it.

Wallace and Gromit. I knew you would get it... :)

It was a very interested 2 hours spent there. I went there on my wheelchair and thank you to the Holy Sticks for helping me move around. Met up with an old colleague of mine, and we all had lunch together before the talk started.

Abit of cam whoring before the talk started.

Ok, the talk is going to start, remember, do not use this...
We were treated to Aardman's showreel, or most of the works done by Luis Cook and those produced by David Sproxton. The one that I liked most was this short done by Luis Cook called The Pearce Sisters. It was his first non-commercial film for Aardman. Fantastic story, no dialogue but it was simply amazing!
Well, that's if for now. I will be going to get my cast re-adjusted tomorrow. One step closer to ditching my crutches for good.

A 1000 hits.....

2008-10-28T04:48:00.000-07:00

Wow, imagine that. A 1000 hits on my blog....Hahaha...
Anyway I think 999 could be from me myself. Oh well, it still feels good. So here's a photo to celebrate!

From the archives...

2008-10-22T17:24:00.000-07:00

Found this drawing I did a couple of months back. I have always loved drawing wizards and dragons. So I chanced upon a drawing which inspired me to do this one. Can't remember the name of the artist that inspired me..but thanks. What I did was look at the way he did his drawing for 5 minutes, take in as much as I can, close the drawing and do one version of my own in sketch and then outline it later.
This was the outcome. You can click on the pictures if you want to see a bigger image.

Get busy living, or get busy dying...

2008-10-22T16:58:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween in advance everyone!

Was running out of inspiration on what to draw recently and since Halloween is somewhere near the corner, here's a good halloween greeting to everyone. "Get busy living or get busy dying." A famous quote from my favorite show "The Shawshank Redemption."

Retro Looking Ultraman. GIMME GIMME GIMME!

2008-10-16T23:53:00.000-07:00

Thanks to my friend, whom I will call Mr D, he alerted me to this new Ultraman that's selling from http://www.hlj.com/product/M1G28065

I have no idea why I love to collect Ultraman so much. Some people tell me it's to fill up the void I have in my life, but then again, I don't really have much voids in my life....I have a great family, fantastic GF, great friends, nice but noisy students...so what more could I ask for??

hmmm...let me see...how about....LET ME WALK NORMALLY AND RETURN TO JOGGING AGAIN!!! Hahaha..

Anyway, that's none of the reason why I ended up ordering this Ultraman, I just couldn't resist it. (Thanks Mr D!)

I shall call this my "comfort myself because recession is coming" present. Haha

This is the toy upclose, taken from HLJ.com whom I ordered from. I will take the actual photos when my orders come and replace this ones.

My foot gets a new home....

2008-10-15T01:16:00.000-07:00

Today went to see the doctor again! Happy because he said that I will get a new casting so off with my old one and I will adjust it to a new angle as well.

The day before I took photos of my foot one last time before it moves to a new home. Thanks for taking care of me this entire month!

Mom asked if he could do a splint for me instead, which you will be able to see at the last 2 photos as to how it looks like. It's much lighter, but it's more expensive but what's important is that with this, I can take it out to bathe my foot every day instead of just wiping it.

The physiotherapist was very good in doing the splint for me. It is just a huge plastic sheet, which she puts into this boiler, when the material, which is white, turns translucent, she wraps it round my leg as you see in the photo.
She makes some marking and then she takes it out to cut it into shape. What was funny, was she had these different colours of Velcro which she asked to choose. Naturally I choose white because my splint was white in colour.....hahaha...
So here it is, my new cast, or should I say, "splint". Very nice hor? It's the new improved version. I still can't put any weight on it, and still have to walk around with my crutches. Sigh....2 more weeks later I have to go and readjust the angle and see the doctor again. This thing is costing me alot of money. Crap!

Random Drawing and rantings.

2008-10-14T09:54:00.000-07:00

Just a random drawing. Think I watched too much American choppers. Haha!

Hope my students are enjoying their first week of school. Thanks to the lecturers who are helping me with my classes. I will be back next week...in my crutches and cast. But it's good. Because I am going mad staying home all the time.

I will still be on MC, but I will go when I have lessons. Hopefully, it would not be too stressful on my leg. Guess time will tell. See ya!

Top 50 animated films of all times

2008-10-06T00:17:00.000-07:00

This is a compilation of the top 50 animated films of all times based on the findings from from www.rottentomatoes.com

I am just going to put the list out and see how many of them I actually have watched.
Those not in bold I haven't seen.

50. South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999)
49. Watership down (1978)
48. The Rescuers (1977)
47. Paprika (2007)
46. Fantasia 2000
45. Sleeping Beauty (1959)
44. Tim Burton's Corpse Bride (2005)
43. The Emperor's New Groove (2000)
42. Lilo and Stitch (2002)
41. Howl's Moving Castle (2005)
40. Cinderella (1950)
39. Mulan (1998)
38. Lady and the tramp (1955)
37. Tarzan (1999)
36. The Jungle Book (1967)
35. Akira (1988)
34. The Little Mermaid (1989)
33. Bambi (1942)
32. Shrek 2 (2004)
31. Kungfu Panda (2008)
30. Shrek (2001)
29. A Bug's Life (1998)
28. The Simpson's Movie (2007)
27. Aladdin (1992)
26. The Lion King (1994)
25. Princess Mononoke (1997)
24. Beauty and the Beast (1991)
23. The Triplets of Belleville (2003)
22. Yellow Submarine (1968)
21. Antz (1998)
20. Monsters, Inc. (2001)
19. James and the Giant Peach (1996)
18. Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005)
17. Persepolis (2007)
16. Ratatouille (2007)
15. Dumbo (1941)
14. The Iron Giant (1999)
13. Spirited Away (2002)
12. 101 Dalmatians (1961)
11. The Incredibles (2004)
10. The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
09. Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988)
08. Chicken Run (2000)
07. Fantasia (1940)
06. Finding Nemo (2003)
05. WALL-E (2008)
04. Toy Story (1995)
03. Pinocchio (1940)
02. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
01. Toy Story 2 (1999)

So of all the 50 films nominated, I have watched 47. Not too bad. Can't say I agree with the results...as in Toy Story 2 being the no. 1 animated film...but every one's entitled to their own opinion. Not surprising to find that 6 out of the top 10 aren't 3D animations but traditional and stop motion animation. I am just glad WALL-E made it into top 10. They deserve it. So does Nightmare before Christmas and Who framed Roger Rabbit. Come to think of it, I don't really have a favorite animated film. But if it comes to favorite movie, you can be sure I will always say "Shawshank Redemption" followed by Lord of the Rings Trilogy

Screwed up thoughts...

2008-10-05T22:19:00.000-07:00

Spoiler warning: If you are depressed, please don't read on, it may make you feel even worse.

I miss my childhood days, back then I don't have to worry about world recession, the economy, USA's presidential election,(it affects us, yes, even in Singapore)rising prices on almost every damn thing that you can imagine, people putting poison into daily products so as to deceive the buyers into believing that they actually getting good products.(the melamine incident from China) and the many other things happening in the world right now. And yes, even the dormitory incident in Serangoon Gardens is disturbing me even though I stay so far away from that location.

I also didn't have to constantly worry about my job, whether I would still be doing this (media industry)5 years from now, would I have enough money to give my DD the wedding she wants, the renovation works that we would have to do. Would I eventually go get myself a degree? I have this constant invasions of questions in my head all the time. And I guess, being cooped up at home isn't helping. Because the silence gets to you. Even watching TV or listening to music doesn't help as well, because I would be still be thinking of it.

When one gets older, one tends to looks at life and see the whole complexity of it. Not that I want to, but it just happens. I realise that everything I do, it affects everyone around me. And I have to worry about that as well. I wish I didn't have to.

You would also realise this.

The more you earn, the more you spent. The more you have, the more you want. Life is one never ending story of "wants" and "must haves". What happened to just being satisfied?

So is this what it means to be an adult? There are so many responsibilities that comes with it. Getting married, having kids, buying a house, paying bills insurance, making sure you don't ever lose your job or all of this will just crumple.

I can understand why some of us refuse to grow up and I am 38 years old this year.

As compared to my other peers, I seem like a late bloomer and I don't even think I have bloom yet. Many of my friends are already married, have kids and more or less settled down. Me? I seem to take the road less travelled. Hopefully one day I will get there. But it's definitely going to take a much longer time. Even my younger brother who is 7 years younger than me, is already settled down and has one child of his own, my favorite nephew, Nat.

Being a kid is fun. Then again, I won't say that I did have one helluva childhood. It was at least, mediocre. It wasn't boring but nothing really fantastic happened back then, life was simpler, but happier.

As a kid, I dreamt that one day, I would have a wooden cabin in the mountains, lived with my wife and kids, and next to the cabin I would have a river or a stream, and probably a waterfall. Looking back at this, I realised that I did a drawing of it when I was about 12 years old and I think I still have this drawing if I went to look for it.

Nothing wrong in dreaming, but sometimes, you realise it's just a dream afterall and you will wake up from it and the whole reality of life sinks back into you again. Wakeup! Wakeup!

These are just my personal thoughts, that have been bugging me of late. So since I have a personal blog, I thought it would be good to write it down.

On a lighter note and because I still have a sense of humour, I have been following the US presidential election very closely and this popped up in my head, Obama Bin Biden. The names of the 2 democrats candidates for presidency (Barrack Obama) and vice presidency (Joe Biden). Hahaha..It's almost like Osama bin Laden. Can't get any closer than that.

But I hope the 2 of of them wins it and not John Macain and Sarah Palin. Not that it matters because I am in Singapore and I can't vote for them, it's just my personal view on it.

9 more days before I get my cast re-adjusted to another angle. I hope it comes off soon...

R.I.P. My friend.

2008-10-02T06:12:00.000-07:00

Today I finally took my Wacom pen and did a drawing. It's in tribute to my friend. Someone that has been with me almost all of my life. Since I was 10 years old exactly.

This dear friend of mine passed away on the 14th Sept 2008. The same day I broke my Achilles tendon. It's with a heavy heart that I decided to do this today. The drawing fully describes how I feel. I thought by doing this, I will bring for us both a closure in life.

We started playing together in my old house at Bedok. It was in the 1980s,and we played mostly at the carparks because at that time, there wasn't that many cars around. Sometimes, we would play in school if there was space for us to do so.

We lost contact for a while when I went to art college as I was so busy with school projects but we met again when I was in the army. After that, every now and then we would meet up, and we would play the same thing we did when we were children, except, we got much better at it.

In 1996, we both had a close shave when I had my slip disc and the doctor said I might have lost you back then. But we both recovered and went back to doing what we love doing most besides drawing.

It was this year that we started to meet up more often, usually once a week and until your death, almost twice a week.

Oh, why did it have to happen? I am so sad to have lost this friend of mine.

All I can say now is thank you for the memories, thank you for the good times and the bad times, you will always be on my mind.

With that I say rest in peace and goodbye my friend, Badminton.....if there is such a thing as reincarnation, I would love to meet you again in my next life. Till then all I have left is your racket. I will never throw or give it away. It will always remind me of you.

The gathering of the Masters (short of one)

2008-10-02T04:39:00.000-07:00

Today I had a "Gathering of the Masters". Uncle Ee, Tim, Sri, Hocky and Ah Chye came to visit me. It was short of one more Grand Master, Master Lau...if not, we can combine powers to do our "Kueh Hua Bao Dian"

The Wisest Grand Master making a call...
The rest of the grand masters. (One of them is from Wudang, one from Er Mei, the rest from Shaolin..hahah)
We basically sat down and talked about really really "DEEP" stuff, like alien life forms, religion, inventions.....wah...very cheemp. It was fun having them to chat around...just like having our tea break except much much longer. Haha.

Much thanks to Sri for bring her festive goodies for me! I am going to grow fatter! Haha...I always love Malay festive goodies, favorite being the pineapple tarts and the honey cornflakes....super YUMMY!!

Check them out! Yummy right?

To be honest, I ate some before taking the photos...too tempting. Hahah

Ah Chye brought my Medicom RAH Ultraman he helped me collect from Falcon's Hangar. This is my first Medicom RAH and don't think it would be the last.

For the moment, this Ultraman will remain in the box...till I have a proper display for it. Think it's going to take a long time.

I am really looking forward to returning to school. I hope the doctor will give me the green light when I visit him the next time. Sigh..But chances are low. People with the same injury that I have normally take around 3 to 4 months to recover. That's very long. So most likely I will return to school even though I am on MC. But I will have to be very careful. Doc said if I have another relaspe, it's going to be worse than this time round. Till then TTFN!

More "invasions"

2008-09-30T08:12:00.000-07:00

After yesterday's "attack" of 13 people, (joking lah, you know I love y'all company)
I had a visit from a old colleague. We go back a long time, knew him since 1994. And we worked together in 2 companies. Who knows, we might work together again.

Thanks Song Biao, for visiting me and bringing me the fruits.

After that, my very own K class finally pays me a visit. Well, better late then never right? Hahah...no lah, I know they were very busy with their FYP, so I am very happy they spared some time to come visit their poor old teacher. Joining them were 2 of my ex COE students. One is in the army while the other is going for further studies next year...I wish both of them all the best.
And of course, since they are here, they have to take the "my foot in the picture" photo...hahah

Then we did the "Bed scene" or the mass orgy if you prefer it.

Poor justin, please buy tissue paper from him please...lost his right leg...sob..

Please pay Jeremy, the one pushing his chair. Later then I come and collect. Haha

Thanks once again for all your visits!

Ultraman Thumbdrive

2008-09-30T08:01:00.000-07:00

It's finally here! My Ultraman thumbdrive! All the way from Japan. It's the first time I have tried to buy anything from VPost Japan. I was rather "blur" because the procedures were rather complicated. The price I paid for it was rather expensive considering it's only a 2GB thumbdrive, but after the shipping, it cost me almost SGD$60 for it! But being an Ultraman fan, I just had to buy it. And also because I haven't bought any toys for a long time...good boy! Haha

Ultraman standing tall

When he sits down, the part that's sticking out from his backside, that's where you put him into your USB

He comes with his own throne if you can't bare to stick him on your PC

That's Ultraman plugged into the USB

Cute right? Now I regret not getting another one, because when I checked, it's sold out! DAMN!! I hope there will be restock...

Invasion - Part 2

2008-09-29T05:41:00.000-07:00

The invasion cometh one more time!! Hahah...today B class came over again, well, it's new faces plus some regulars..hahah...We played "Taboo", watched some Mr Bean video clips, some TV and they played with my dog, Nicki and made alot of noise! Haha

Here are the photos, I really love it! Thanks, B class, for the card you made, (very last minute, I can tell, haha) but like always, it's the tots that counts.

The first 8 came around 3 plus. They were lost and I was panicking for them because it started to pour! After a while and alot of directions from me, they finally arrived...it was the "Couples" group. Ahem, better don't let your parents see it..
Yes dears, that's my foot, now look at the camera,

Good,

Better...closer.

Oh, laughing at my expense I see..

Strong girl, oooo...

My get well soon present from Kim. Thanks y'all.

Notice my hand - I was the dog handler, so Nicki will sit still long enough for them to take photos.

At 4 plus, the 2nd wave came! Run for your lives!

Alice wants to be part of the dog team as well...

These 2 looks like they just quarrelled. Haha

Then the abusing of my wheelchair and crutches began....

3 beggars selling tissue paper - "Tissue paper, tissue paper!"

Com'on Kim, more emotions

That's good Irzah! Very good!

Alice pretending to be studious...but no lah...she was really reading my book and I insisted on putting my foot to take the famous "foot in picture" photo.

Even Kim couldn't escape that fate! Take that!

And then the crazy photos began...We were testing the strength of my bed, and as you can see, you guys covered up all of it...incredible.

Well, that's all for the photos. I didn't post all, because I am sure Alice will want to post some different ones in her blog, so I will let her.

Thanks guys for the visit. You guys certainly brought smiles and laughter to me. Oh yes, before I forget, one of you left your fanta grape bottle on the floor of my room which reminds me that we need to clean COE when I get back. Haha!

So here's a closeup of the get well soon present. I will name it "Spotty Ally"
Say "hello" Spotty Ally!

Hope you all enjoyed the Ikea chicken wings treat after that! It's nice right?
I would love to be there as well, because I miss those wings too! It was good food advise from me right.

I will be attempting my drawing soon...wish me luck! Till then TTFN!

Operation - Remove Stitches - Scream like a girl!

2008-09-29T00:08:00.000-07:00

Date: 28th Sept 2008
Time: 2030 hrs
Venue: My Room
What - Removal of my stitches.

So the date's been set, 28th Sept. 15 days after my surgery, my mom says it's time to remove the stitches!! I have quite a good threshold of pain but...I guess when you can imagine someone cutting your stitches and pulling it out from underneath the skin, it's damn painful...hahaha.. So I have my DD who is assisting my mom. Mom's qualified because she is a nurse and she helps the doctors remove stitches before.

So there I was on the bed, sweating in my palms, because it is afterall the first time I am getting this done.

The operating instructments

One last look at my stitches....Frankenstein foot!

Let the operation begin!

First stitch out!

The operating room (DD hand is holding the torch, mom's the one with the scissors)

Operation over - Whew....I was screaming into my pillow and making weird noises so as to distract myself from the pain!

The stitches...looks like daddylonglegs....it's a type of spiders if you all don't know

My left foot - wrapped out but without the cast for the moment. Have to wrap it up soon. Sigh....

Dreams of walking

2008-09-24T18:35:00.000-07:00

I must miss walking around alot because for 2 nights in a row, my dreams have involved me either jogging or running. Woke up feeling quite depressed even though so far many people have been telling me I have been taking this incident quite cheerfully.

But I guess after spending most of my time in bed and still unable to sit for long because I can't put pressure on the foot, I kinda miss the "great outdoors". Just for me to be able to walk downstairs for my meal is like a relief for me. I am not one to sit still for too long and this is proving to be very gruelling for me.

Mom brought me a wheelchair from her workplace 2 days ago, so that has brought me some sort of freedom as well. I was telling my DD that maybe on Saturday she wheel me around in White Sands shopping mall and I can at least go buy something on my own and draw out some cash from the ATM. I just miss walking around and going out.

My DD also is on leave from Wednesday to Friday, so she is keeping me company. :)

I tried drawing yesterday but nothing came out. It's like I lost my inspiration to draw. Which is bad. I will try again soon. Just can't sit down long enough to draw something out, I guess.

Well, I hope the B class had a wonderful time at their BBQ. Thanks for wanting to bring me BBQ food but it's ok, it's the thoughts that count. :)