yeap, Cathay has decided to raise its ticket prices by 50 cents. whats more, there will be an additional 50 cents for so-called blockbusters, making it $10.50 for a weekend movie, the first of which to fall under this scheme is Ironman. But how is a blockbuster movie defined? A big name franchise like Harry Potter, Batman? a big budget movie? or a movie that has raked in millions since its opening overseas?

me at 5:55 PM

i actually met three people from my former JC, in the very 1st malay tutorial class! the class was split up into mini-groups of 5, and in my group of 5, not only do all five of us live in the east, 4 of us actually came from the same JC. talk about coincidence.

me at 11:01 PM

today i actually watched 2 monster movies, cloverfield and the mist for the price of one!!! heres what happened:

me and a couple of friends bought tix for cloverfield, timing afternoon. after the show, the staff ushered us to the exit. we visited the washroom first, and after that... we noticed there was another theater just outside the washroom, doors open. i thought, probably no show in there, but decided to take a look anyway. and.. there was a movie showing. we even took the best seats(last row, by the aisle)! then we were trying to figure out what show was it and how long it had been running, when the image of an oncoming mist came onscreen. at that moment i was like hey! isn't this movie the mist, which i intended to watch another week! and watching further on, we realized the show had just started!!! so yea thats how it went.

speaking of which, cloverfield, with its oh-my-so-shaky-and-jerky handheld camera view was actually quite good. yeah, there were people leaving the show midway, probably feeling sick, but i thought the right-in-your-face experience was very exciting and intense. you can literally feel your heart pounding... especially in one of the more memorable scenes, where the helicopter the characters were in was damaged and descending towards death. not for the faint-hearted.

the mist... was good as well. I mean, a movie based on a Stephen King book can't go wrong. weirdo monsters on the loose, and townsfolk trapped inside a supermarket, great premise. add that to the showcasing of the ugly side of human nature, and a nice product. but the ending... well, it was certainly very unexpected and twisted (which was different from the novel ending).

After the double movie, we went to the health exhibition at the expo, where we caught sweetie-pie Felicia Chin in action.



and finally... saw this poster at an arcade



it initially seems a little confusing, but i guess it means shooting, driving and musical games allowed on weekdays whereas other video games aren't. but why?

me at 11:46 PM

at first, the phone (which i've had for like only 4 months) started to lag and 'hang'. ok, i thought, doesn't matter. but the phone slowly degenerated, from not registering phone calls, to speaker problems (the other party couldn't hear me during phone conversations), and then the ultimate demise, where the phone couldn't even be switched on. i finally lost my patience and took it to the service centre.

well, the service was good and surprisingly very fast. it took me just 5 mins of waiting time to report the problem and send the phone for repair, and it was instantaneous when i returned to collect the phone. well, perhaps i went on weekdays, thus the virtually-none waiting times. and the phone is looking good so far, with the mentioned problems all vanquished. hopefully the problems won't resurface.

me at 3:07 PM

Singapore is one of the 2 candidates left (along with Moscow) running for the host of the inaugural Youth Olympic Games. Go Singapore!

Singapore adventurer Khoo Swee Chiow has set another record, this time the World's
Longest Journey on Skates! He skated 6000km, across 5 Asian countries, below 100 days!

The STI slipped below the comfort zone of 3,000 points, as global stock markets
continue to take a beating.

The train disruption on the eastern mrt tracks was caused by the breakdown
of a maintenance works train between tampines and simei. Man, i didn't even know of these maintenance vehicles until this disruption incident.

me at 7:08 PM

the morning queue at the station was long, and i thought it was some freebie/the
distribution of the today newspaper, which usually attracted a fast moving queue. closing in, notices indicated that train servies were disrupted, my 1st time in such a situation. anyway i was pondering whether to just go back home to sleep, or go on and probably miss the 1st lesson. i decided to move on, and started looking for shuttle buses.

But blur me didn't know where the shuttle buses were, so i simply followed the queue of commuters who were let into the station, group by group. turns out the east bound train was used to ferry passengers to tanah merah, where train services were ongoing. but the intervals of these shuttle trains were taking near 30 mins to arrive. there were seemingly many disgruntled passengers.

at tanah merah, the central train towards the airport/expo were used as a west-bound train instead. and i saw this couple, who seemed to be telling the mrt staff that they had a flight to catch at some time. if they were locals, maybe they would understand... but if they were foreigners... well, might have left a bad impression.

and on the jam packed train, people were... gawking at the opposite track, where there were 2 trains (stationary) and this yellow thingy, neither car nor train.

so.. yeah. quite an experience. and i actually typed so much of the experience!

me at 8:59 PM

its only a week of the lectures, and... im sure i know where the semester in heading, in terms of the modules im taking:

another horror module. following last semester's terror MA2108 maths module, i need to take another core level 2 maths, linear algebra. and oh my, if the maths module last semester was a mouse, this new one would be Godzilla. i cant describe this module in words... or, the most appropriate word is... argghh!

another typical statistics module, learning about surveys.

general biology. interesting! 1st time exposed to biology material.

actuarial statistics. man, finally, after one and a half year, i see a module which is relevant to future job prospects. interest rates, annuities, survival analysis. yeah!

malay. though no lessons yet, its gonna be like the japanese i took some time ago: study hard and revise continuously, get good grades, slacken off just a bit, kiss good grades goodbye.

me at 9:59 PM

Instead of watching regular Deal or No Deal episodes featuring many babes, i caught the Hunks special episode. Hmm...

me at 11:50 PM

The movie poster for the Deathnote spin-off movie is out, and its L: Change the World. At first i thought its some typical crime-solving spin-off, but the Shinigami Ryuk is shown in the top left corner of the poster! So the Deathnote may still be involved after all...

me at 5:20 PM

to celebrate the opening of the new orchard mrt entrance, ushers were stationed at the escalators, free refreshments were given out, and policeman were dancing at the exit. yeah, real police traffic officers 'directing' traffic in a funny way and dancing away to hip-hop! funky yea.

me at 5:24 AM

yep, the 4th semester has commenced (im halfway through my studies! time really flies, at rocket speed) and its time to get back to old habits:

buying lotsa snacks in sch-i kinda get hungry quite easily;

printing every single sheet of lecture notes in sch; the printer at home: expensive, slow, cumbersome

harming my ears by listening to the mp3 at a rather loud volume, and for rather lengthy periods since the mrt journey to sch is kinda long

get back to writing poems; almost all my inspirations and compositions have come on mrt trips thus far

and of course... ogling at pretty girls. (saw so many today, its an opening day record.)

me at 6:30 PM

yes, the gala prize ceremony has been canceled, with the winners to be announced in a news conference. the actors have boycott the awards show, in support of the writers' guild strike. wow, after killing prison break 3 and heroes 2 (and many more shows), i didn't expect the golden globes to be ko-ed s well.

me at 3:09 PM

yes, the daily Chinese newspaper, my paper, dropped a stunner this morning with its new edition: 5 times bigger, with half the paper in English, and the other in Chinese. and its still free! (well maybe not for long)

me at 11:04 PM

a small list of new year resolution:

-to become a better person, definitely
-cut down on... tummy fat
- to blog... less. yes, not more, but less. its kinda hard to keep up with daily blogging, and i've run out of ideas after the beginners momentum.

me at 11:57 PM

im wondering... we take the bus and mrt frequently, but how many seats are there on the mrt/bus? and what is the exact number of people, standing included, who can squeeze onto a bus/mrt?

me at 12:27 AM

Took this pic a week ago...



Oh man, someone actually left bread in the library locker!!!

me at 12:48 AM

David Beckham has started training with Arsenal, preparing to win his 100th England cap since American soccer is now in its close season. A chance perhaps for Becks to join Arsenal in the future?

me at 12:15 AM

saw this cute dog version of monopoly:



but then...



there's so many more versions!

and also saw this... bang bang bang shirt



me at 1:05 AM

before i get to the new year resolutions for this year, i had one before the new year, that was to watch golden compass, warlords, national treasure, i am legend and avpr. and i nailed it with avpr cleared... and thats a rather gruesome and gory film, with a particularly disturbing scene which pregnant ladies should not watch. of the lot, warlords surprisingly turned out to be the best... i rarely watch chinese movies, and that turned out to be a blast. on the other hand, golden compass and i am legend, both book adaptations, didn't seem to get the job properly done.

and of course, new movies will be on the list again, with cloverfield, the happening, WALL.E, kung-fu dunk, CJ7... Btw, Stephen Chow is the producer for the live action version of Dragonball, due to be released this year!

me at 1:10 AM

...3, 2, 1... Happy New Year!!! Wishing everyone a great year ahead!!!

me at 12:42 AM