As The World Turns

Mainstreet


Downtown Lake Louise


When the snow melts..yucks


Squirrel


Snowflake

As usual in my search for a new placement (aka job) I decided that more research is needed. This to able to narrow down my search and not waste time job-hopping trying to discover what works for me. I actually bought this book last year on a moment of impulsiveness, it finally came over with the rest of my stuff and now I actually get to use it. But the exercise in it is long and hopefully useful, it’d better be!

So has anyone read this book? Is it useful? Does it work? Don’t waste my time?

Your input is most welcome :D

So I spent part of the day checking out Banff, which was really an excuse to go sightseeing in my own backyard, the best part of the day was up in Sulphur Mountain. To be able to see the entire Bow Valley, to have clouds hanging right in front of you. Now If I could only do something about the tourists and the bitter -10C windchill.....

Clouds, Banff, the Bow Valley, the white serpent snaking thru the valley is the Bow River and note a very frozen Lake Minnewanka at the base of the mountains, thats some 10km away


The 1956 Cosmic Ray Station atop Mt Sulphur


Now I can report I'm pretty happy with the Nikon. Great for all but the most extreme shots, sharp, useful scene mode, pretty good zoom and it came with this nifty panaromic software which I could splice pics together!


The cam was fash enough to catch the upper Bow River Falls' rushing waters with the zoom...


From a moving car, it locked on to the mountain, see the blurred foreground trees, Mt Fairview


The only bear I've seen all winter

and by special request...me :P

Haiz! Yippee! Hohoho!

Everyone, thanks for all the advice and tips. Altho I tried to eenie meenie minee mo, the hiao side of me won....

I got to kill four birds with one car today! (albeit driving thru a snowstorm to get there, kinda amazed myself when I slowed down as I hit the storm only to look down and see myself going "slow" at 120kmh on snow :P)

I got to eat Siew Yoke (roasted pork), sorry no pic, no camera yet.

I got to buy me a durian which I will devour later!!!


I got to check out a lot of cars!!!


But the new Honda Civic grabbed me! I'm eyeing the Si version (after I get me a new job! haha) which has the 2 litre 200hp engine, 6 speed manual box, race tuned suspension *saliva already dripping* but what blew me away was the sexiest, coolest dashboard this side of the starship USS Enterprise (I'm gonna get me the licence plate NCC1701R, R for Racy, anyone a Trekkie here?)) , it looks wayyyyyyy better in the real, thing, check out the guages, wth separate tachometer (in front of sterring wheel) and a further up the dash under the windscreen the speedometer) with the hues of blue, I just love that blue, a speedometer that looked like it's colour was airbrushed in...weeee...wheet!! now I know what my next car might be! I also miss my ole Civic I had in SG which was the SiR model, damn stable and damn fast that thing, oh my memories of a couple of 190kmh runs in it *sniff I miss it* check out my speedo on one late night run ....(and I musn't forget to get the radar dectector also... and I also saw the new Dodge Charger Hemi R/T Daytona...wahhhhh.....damn mean fella with that big block 5.7L V8, but banana yellow aint my colour, I wonder what the insurance will be like)

and

I got me a new cam!!!! (i'm proud I didn't give in to temptation and got something more expensive instead). So there I was, at Best Buy a store that has all kind of electronics something like Harvey Norman's. I had a look at the Canon first ... hmmm that thing is fatter than my 35mm film camera. But it had nice features, that 4x zoom can be useful. Then I went around to the other side of the aisle, spotted the Nikon and flipped.



Its half the size of the Canon, half the weight. It fits into my pocket, was cheap. Enuff said.

But like a true Geek, I spent at least half an hour weighing the pros and cons of each (but really dreaming of a Fujifilm S5200 at another store but twice the price but got 10X zoom leh, check out Marita's pics, but then again I gave up SLR photos, those were film days, digital not even invented yet, cos I got lazy and wanted to just point of shoot, got tired of adjusting all the time, or having to carry 2 cameras, one 35mm auto and one SLR, anyone remember shutter speed and aperture settings or for that matter remember what SLR stands for? test time! (marita you can't answer!!) but actually feature wise both more or less the same.

So that held me back, I used to dabble in some serious SLR film photo, loved doing lots of time lapse night shots, black and whites.... maybe I might get back into it ... but when you're good, even a 35mm lens will do hehe, come to think of it, I still have a Yashica 120mm camera with a lookdown viewfinder and twin lenses, circa 1965, the one that took my baby pics, I still have it !haha, all the recent pics I posted here were taken with a Sony U50 a tiny 35mm cam, 2MPixel, no zoom, limited ISO, limited just about everything, so needed to carefully frame the shots.. )

So now I got me a new toy !!!! with lots more features and a 3x zoom! big improvement haha

Tomorrow I'm heading out to see what it can do....but a forecast is for a snow storm hmmmm.....lessee if I can capture snowflakes falling, that'll be cool...or I might be asking too much....

The other day, thanks to my very buttery buttered fingers, I managed to drop my cam (thats y no more new pics). At first I thought it was ok, but later I found the battery cover could not close properly. So officially its broken, might still be able to fix it by replacing the case, my guess repairing it will cost more (here at least cos of high labour) than a new one for a similar amount of money. *sniff sniff a moment of silence*

So poor me, after doing a lot of research, came up with 2 possible contenders for replacement. Both have at least 3X zoom ( I really wanted the 10X zoom wan but I think once I move to the city I won't use it so much). Both are 4megapixel to keep the price down (previous was only 2meg!). Every thing else very simlar and most importantly both are cheap cheap cos I'm spending a bomb to fly back next month.

So here we have:

The Canon A430


The Nikon L4


The Canon is $10 less a bit bigger and has a 4x zoom.
The Nikon is smaller lighter and is "branded".

Tomorrow we shall see as I head into town and get my paws on them to test......

Ok my road back to fitness is more or less on track. I gotta admit, I've been living the low life aka couch life for the last couple of weeks. Ahhhhh nothing like a nice comfy armchair in front of the telly, munching nuts, tacos, chips :P ok ok I could feel the ounces piling on, the cholestrol choking up, ole Vince McMahon sneering at me (I got his cover staring at me). My marathon training got curtailed by a twisted knee during skiing, but mainly I could feel my knee ain't happy doing that kinda of speed and mileage....so now back to work......yippee..

Last saturday and sunday, I did a 2 day course in Standard First Aid and Level C CPR (cardio pulmonary resuscitation, aka the kiss and pump of life). Since I last did my certification 3 years ago, it was a great refresher course as well as see what's new (like the unconcious choking rescue has changed although the old method still works well, simplification....). It was also rather useful that the instructor was a firefighter so he managed to regale us with some tales of on the job which I shall not go into detail...(gory!) Suffice to say, I passed, with a 100% score somemore, something I did not expect since I didn't really prepare (see Helen, Jomel, I'm like you guys, last minute study) and I got snookered by the instructor (I was daydreaming as usual) into believing that the sample questions at the back of the manual was very similar to the test question which it was not!

So I've been whacking at the gym this week, training everyday since monday. I usually do one body part per session. Its a solid one hour (more than 45mins your glycogen stores are not enough for the same high intensity) of chest exercises on monday, tuesday was shoulders and arms, yesterday I crashed early (no surprise, sore!! but woke up at 2am (damn roommate make so much noise coming back) and went job hunting online, so I'm left with today to do my legs and back, whew, that's some combination. (Tomorrow night I'm working at the store and sat I'm going to Calgary for more Dim Sum.....Slurp!)

My biggest surprise was that after not doing any leg work for some 3 months, I'm still able to squat some 250lbs or 120kg using an olympic bar and finished it off with 3 sets of seated inclined leg presses of 520lbs or 225 kgs. Tomorrow I know I'm gonna die.....

Everyone has got their favourite exercises and mine is the squat. It's also the single most hated exercise for most guys, check out the chicken legs. A lot of guys can work their upper body sui sui but go beach must wear long long bermudas to hide the matchsticks. I wonder why these guys don't train their legs when you use them every single day? For ladies is the complete opposite. Spend all the time in the gym training their legs and shy away from upper body exercises (and then the lower body gets bigger not smaller). No wonder the sexes are meant to complement each other! This is the opinion of one who has spent 20+ years in gyms...

Before anyone starts throwing potatos and tomatoes this here open forum ah?
What about you folks? Do you have a favourite exercise? An opinion or lifting the chopsticks for the slurpy kohloh mee is enough? :p

The Keys to Your Heart

You are attracted to those who have a split personality - cold as ice on the outside but hot as fire in the heart. In love, you feel the most alive when things are straight-forward, and you're told that you're loved. You'd like to your lover to think you are stylish and alluring. You would be forced to break up with someone who was ruthless, cold-blooded, and sarcastic. Your ideal relationship is comforting. You crave a relationship where you always feel warmth and love. Your risk of cheating is zero. You care about society and morality. You would never break a commitment. You think of marriage pessimistically. You don't think happy marriages exist anymore. In this moment, you think of love as something you thirst for. You'll do anything for love, but you won't fall for it easily.

Hmmmm Intersting!!!!!

You Should Drive a Ford Shelby Mustang Cobra

You have an extreme need for speed, even when you're not in a hurry. And while your flying by, you don't want to look like every other car on the road!

No suprises, thats why I moved here! Muscle Cars baby..

YOU SHOULD BE A ROMANCE NOVELIST

You see the world as it should be, and this goes double for all matters of the heart. You can find the romance in any situation, and you would make a talented romance story writer... And while you may be a traditional romantic, you're just as likely to be drawn to quirky or dark love stories. As long as it deals with infatuation, heartbreak, and soulmates - you could write it.

Yippee a new season has started. Its already episode 3.

My favourite TV show in whole universe.
You get to see bits of the world, exotic locales, see people struggle, argue, quarrel, bicker, fight, pout, sulk, scream, shout, cry, smile, grin, cheer. Alamak where to else to see such a range of emotions in one show.

But ultimately being the kaypohs we naturally are, seeing the human interaction, seeing the pain of being eliminated, seeing the graciousness of having understood they gave their all. The joys of being first. Seeing the happiness of not being eliminated. The frustrations of being lost. Makes the show interesting.

Aiyoh this show, can make me pump my fist with energy, cringe and slap my head at the diffculty of a seemingly simple task, cheer for a team who made it to the next round, feel sadness for a team who got eliminated (with the exception of Rob and Amber), jeer the boorish teams.

Macham like watching football match, combined with a soap opera, combined with James Bong action.

Sigh, Happiness its back.

Now that I got my Formula 1 fix and pardon my 5 year old scanner.....Ok after listening to the Voices CD in, out and over night. Of the so many tracks and all these are bona fide hits, very popular as can be seen by the recommendations given....it was a close fight, but.....

Somehow they all don't move my soul, Dido, Christina Aguilera, even Cyndi Lauper (!) .... were all pretty decent but somehow, that Close to You Long to Be element was missing , except maybe for one.

In My Daughter's Eyes - Martina McBride

Ok the low down is this, a lot of singers these days, you can't tell who they are unless someone tells you. Very few singers have a distinctive enough voice that immediately gets you sitting up on your seat and going woa! thats my fav singer I think, even if you havent heard the song before.

Johnny Mathis, Barry White, Dionne Warwick, Barbara Streisand, Tom Jones, Karen Carpenter, Cliff Richard, Gloria Estefan, Olivia Newton John, Englebert Humperdinck, Barry Manilow, Kenny Logins, Sandy Lam etc all had unique voices. This uniqueness made them all superstars with a huge following, instantly recognisable.

Today you can't tell Sheryl Crow from Christina Aguilera from Avril Lavigne, I think its got to do with the style of music, kinda nasal, with a drawl. Come to think of it, a lot of today's bands sound no different from the 80's style of Metallica/ACDC etc as I was listening to the radio the other day....I had this Burt Bacharach CD with Sheryl Crow singing one of his compositions and it blew me away. If only she would sing like this more often, but she chose to be a flower girl...her latest album is so so (yes I got it)

So my take is, this album is a nice collection, wish I spent my money elsewhere though...except for one redeeming song making it a keepers..(whew)

PS: Dang I screwed up my previous template......oh well new beginnings....

Browsing the village bookstore today, after work, I came across a CD featuring the Carpenters (bought it). They were among the first pop groups I fell in love with and Karen Carpenter's voice! My oh my, if you could fall in love with a voice I would. I don't think there's anyone out there with a rich a voice as hers (If there is, tell me, quick! I already have Diana Krall and Julia Fordham, I can't stand Mariah Carey and Celine Dion has disappeared, Cheryl Crow is close but not the same voice control) What happened to all the true blue singers? Those that you can actually hear what they are singing, hope they're not a dying breed. Probably in Las Vegas headlining. I used to follow the American Top 40 with Kasey Kasem every saturday night without fail on Rediffusion (Is this still on?). That set was in the kitchen as my grandma used to listen to all the Lei Tai Sor cantonese serials on it, but I could still hang out there without a comfy chair and listen. Then I knew which was hot or not. Couple of weeks ago, I went to HMV, was browsing around the pop section and I didn't have a clue who was who.... It doesn't help of course that I'm more into Jazz these days. Listening to the radios, I also don't hear any songs by the newer singers or bands that catches my attention. I don't really dig today's bands, can't hear what they are trying to say, then again in the old days Metallica and Iron Maiden was about the same. Thats why they call it rock I suppose, don't understand just rock along.... (in other words, old liao), just listen to Karen Carpenter sing this and Richard Carpenter's arrangement, who uses a orchestral backup these days?... a beautiful song.

I Need To Be In Love
- The Carpenters

The hardest thing I’ve ever done is keep believing
There’s someone in this crazy world for me
The way that people come and go
Thru temporary lives
My chance could come and I might never know

I used to say no promises,
Let’s keep it simple
But freedom only helps you say
Good-bye
It took a while for me to learn
That nothin’ comes for free
The price I’ve paid is high enough for me

I know I need to be in love
I know I’ve wasted too much time
I know I ask perfection of
A quite imperfect world
And fool enough to think that’s what I’ll find

So here I am with pockets full
Of good intentions
But none of them will comfort me tonight
I’m wide awake at four a.m.
Without a friend in sight
Hanging on a hope but I’m alright

***
Having seen up close (too close) how fragile life is, I am unable to shake off this nagging thought
What legacy do I want to leave behind? If any?
***
Added at 2am:

Good grief, a couple of hours after posting this song with a line about being awake at 4am, here I am, can't sleep and still awake at 2am (later go work sure die).

And its all because of this little bugger (grrrr but shiok). One can in the afternoon is enough to keep me up (plus the coffee in the morning, its loaded with caffeine for those who are wondering. So instead of going to zzzzz happily earlier as I thought, I ended up watching Howard Stern's Private Parts movie, which I had rented earlier and was lying around. I expected some sort of B movie, R rated crap shoot, self promoting pedestal but you know what? I'm now a fan of his, the movie was hilarious and this guy is a really really good DJ, underneath that facade. Now those of you in Asia have never heard of him, probably cos the movie got banned, neither did I, until one time many moons ago when I still had thick hair (this movie was made in 1997), I was flipping through my favourite MAD magazine and there they had a satire of this movie. For some reason i never forgot about it (prob cos it looked like a X rated crap shoot), it stuck at the back of mind and when I saw it at the movie rental I grabbed it. I gotta tell ya, this guy is really something.

Now Howard here is a national radio DJ, something like the radio version of David Letterman (he was on the movie as well, as was Ozzie Osbourne albeit in a cameo) and I believe is still, the number one D jockey in the US. Anyways (I got lots of time here since I'm awake), big difference is that Howard would have been right at home in our Lin Dynasty Saga. His show is so hamsup, controversial, so sexed up, so unconventional ...I'm searching for a word here... shocking(?), he had strippers in his show, he got a girl to orgasm at home on his show (on a hifi speaker!! wish I could do that! girls don't try this at home, boy was that scene funny, so after the show I'm more awake! darn).

But, but at the end of it all, its all showbiz (yeah like wrestling). He could just have about any girl he wanted, but there's a Real Love Story here *sniff, grabs some tissue* he stuck through thick and thin with his college sweetheart, who also stuck through thick and thin with him, despite his antics on the show (a bare-assed naked chick in your office and your wife wouldn't be jealous?), got married, stayed married (that was 1997, now errrr not sure, check back for updates), now has got 3 kids and contrary to his persona, doesn't screw around.

So the latest news is that Howard is going satellite, so it means I'm getting satelite radio! gotta catch his gig....

Just finished watching the movie Layer Cake last night. What's so special about this movie? Well its made in the UK, kinda rare these days, a really good movie but its star Daniel Craig is going to be the next 007. So I'll admit that was what drew me to this movie in the first place.There's been a lot of controversy over his casting. But then the same can be said about Michael Keaton (what no muscles?) when he was casted as Batman, until we saw him in costume. So it's probably the same for Craig. I faintly remember Craig in Tomb Raider as a dastardly ex-flame of Lara Croft. Layer Cake was pretty good and with that voice and intense look, I'm pretty sure Craig will make a good Bond. So the more I watch, the more I'm convinced this guy will be more like a 20th century version of Connery. In this promotional pic of the movie, he looks helluva lot like Sean Connery with a gun and he's got a great body to boot.

Brosnan's by far probably the prettiest of the Bonds, Connery the most rugged (they labeled him a truck driver at his screen audition), Moore the most debonair (he was after all Simon Templar, The Saint you know), Dalton was a mix of Connery and Moore (he didn't smile much) and don't even mention Lazenby. But I think Craig will do just fine. And having seen some on set production pics I'm really looking forward to Casino Royale. So waddaya think?




On a side note;
Every year during the Oscars presentation, they always have a in memoriam segment and each year, movie stars I grew up with pass away. It's almost like seeing a part of you chip off. People you grew up with, now gone forever. But their movies will always live on.

The very vivacious, all baking, all cooking, all dancing, all singing lovely Ah May passed the torch to me to keep the Lin Clan story burning. There can be many twists and turns and indeed reading all 11 prior chapters was a hoot.

These are the Rules

Chapter 1 - Lin Peh
Chapter 2 - PJ
Chapter 3 - Lilian (password: chapter3)
Chapter 4 - Cocka Doodle
Chapter 5 - Ah Pek
Chapter 6 - Helen
Chapter 7 - Zara's Mama
Chapter 9 - Seng Kor
Chapter 10 - LB
Chapter 11 – May

LIN DYNASTY CHAPTER 12

The Flyboy walked back to his stool and the bar and downed his Scotch. He motioned to the bartender for another. As he sat there pondering his next move, his mine wandered back so many years ago to the time when he first had stopped by Mamasan Lin’s Kai Tow at the base of Tanjung Pinang’s Bukit Keretapi. The Simple American’s brethren were still in Vietnam then.

***

Deceptively, from the outside, it looked like any other decrepit kopi shack in the neighbourhood amongst all the asam laksa stalls. Passing through the front at the shop, after reluctantly greeting the smelly Unke pouring the kopi, at the back of the Acme refrigerator, there is a concealed button, pressing it, a hidden door slid aside and a spectacle awaited you. No wonder Mamasan Lin had all the girls in the whole Tanjung Pinang region working for her. Once you stepped inside, it looked like no other mansion you ever saw. Tiled from floor to ceiling with the finest Italian wall tiles, floored with the finest Ipoh marble, furnished with Qing Dynasty antiques, the demonstration of palatial corpulence was immense. There was a flowing natural water fall one side of the immense room, fully air-conditioned; it was truly a paradise in heaven. As he admired the original Olive Tree painting by Van Gogh, a curtain parted at the side and entering the vast hall was a very young, pretty, slim curvaceous lady with straight long black hair, clad in a stunning, figure hugging red Cheong Sam with a gold dragon motif that started at the hem of the left thigh, ending with the Dragon’s head at the tip of the right breast. It left little to the imagination. **Karen Carpenter’s Yesterday Once More playing in the background**

“Flyboy! I see you are back again. How is your business with that Air America lot in Laos ah?” Mamasan Lin asked, beaming.

“It was excellent! I made so many gun runs for that Viet Cong General Thong I lost count. Now I need some R & R” replied the Flyboy.

“Yes, I can see that” Mamasan Lin purred.

She held on to the Flyboy’s hand and gently led him to one side of the hall. Pressing a hidden button, another door opened and she pulled him into the master suite. A pink heart shaped water bed lay in the middle of the room; Sergio Mendes was humming softly in the background, a mirror in the ceiling, the room softly illuminated with the colours popular during those days, a psychedelic mixture of pastel. “You know I don’t bring people into my personal bedroom you know, it’s my girls who do all the work.” Softly the words came

“Aw…Mamasan, you know there is only one girl in this whole mole hill who could satisfy me” grunted the Flyboy as he struggled to take off his new Rawhide boots. Finally he got them off and turned to face the Mamasan, who had been watching bemused. He pulled her by the waist towards him and gently nuzzled her breasts through her dress. As she softly moaned, with one hand, he deftly, slowly undid the chrysanthemum buttons at the side, all the while caressing her erogenous lower back and buttocks. At last the dress dropped open, exposing her soft white body clad only in a creamy lace bra and panties. He could feel her hands undoing his jeans and felt them dropping the floor. The persistent stirring in his loins had now blossomed into a full hard erection and he could feel her hands now softly caressing his exposed member. He gently started kissing her neck, moving up towards her ears, playfully flicking her lobes with his tongue, the bra and panties were slowly peeled off. He could feel her now bare perky breasts rubbing against his chest and he slowly brought one hand up and slowly massaged her left breast, gently, kneading, playfully arousing her nipple. Pressed together in each others warmth, he gently drew her to the bed where he started a slow sensual massage for her, working down her back to her warm moist womanhood. Engaging in an intense extended foreplay culminating in an orgasmic climax which neither wanted to finish.

***

As he tossed another Scotch down, the Flyboy remembered the letter Mamasan Lin had sent to him while she was in prison. That place had changed her; she was no longer the demure Mata Hari he once knew. When he read that letter, its contents had send shockwaves through him.

“Darling, I think now is the time to tell you this. During our times together, how I had lusted for you to come and get rid of that stinking impotent Unke who pretends to be my husband. Even a mouse’s cock can stand harder and straighter than his. If only his Tai Kor’s hadn’t to threaten to feed me to the Iguanas I would have flown long ago.

Now it is the time I told you, as you were my only lover then, before I became so distraught with that Lou Yea Unke even mengkali I also take. But one of the mengkali was too much so I had to chop him into pieces, I was going to feed it to the Unke but he must have called the polis, that bastard.

Ever since you had to move away to Canada, I never got the chance to tell you.

You have two daughters. Unke thought I was pregnant with boys but actually they are girls, I swapped them at the hospital with aunti Lillian. One is called Ahmay and the other one Ahjomel. Ahmay was raised in KL by Albieno’s sister but she damn blur, after she found out who I was, she went to confront that lousy fella Unke and now he kidnapped her and use her worse than bangalah worker. Got to clean his stinking feet, stinking body, that fella never did know how to use deodorant.

Ahjomel have been cared for by Mother Superior (1-800-Holiness) in Singapore so she doesn’t know a thing and is now running loose somewhere around KL thinking she is a Tai Tai, if she only Really knew! I hear she is a very groovy gurl by the way.

Btw I’m still very loaded you know, lucky that Bukit Keretapi got a lot of hiding places to stash cash before that Unke steal all from me and then play me out by calling the polis and eloping with Helen. I really want you to give her a good anal screw before I take my revenge and get all my choy chan back.

I am now asking you to also help free Ahmay from the clutches of that Klutz. And you might want to find Ahjomel to let her know who we are.

I will call you once I’m out of prison. I got lobang wan”

Reflecting on that letter and the subsequent phone call. The Flyboy now had to figure out a way to get to Ahjomel and enlist her help to free Ahmay. His thoughts wandered back to that plane trip and the very short and very intense tryst with Helen. A curl formed at his lips, no wonder that Ah Pek and Unke all lusted for her. She had a vaginal control that was out of this world. Kidnapping and playing with her might be fun.

He picked up his and started dialing Mother Superior’s number; he had to find out where the next author Ahjomel will be. He will need her help to plot out his next nefarious move.