Chapter 1

15th april 2010 – Celebration with ‘Mammy’

 On our way to Raffles City to…

satisfy Mammy’s cravings for this green tea ice cream, indigenous to the Streets of Japan, Shokodu.

 A photo of the two of us.

We then headed to Ichiban Boshi located at the Esplanade for our dinner.

Here’s a pic of myself and the our meal. As far as I can remember, the food was only so-so but the quiet ambience makes up for it. I remember having quite an engaging coversation with Mammy here.

Here’s Mammy and her share of the meal. 

We then went down to The Cathay to catch a movie. Concidentaly, my birthday was the day Kick Ass was released and I remember seeing some postivie reviews about this film. So, I guess it’s a pity not to watch it, eh? This my friends, is a film that I’ve pretty much enjoyed. It’s been a while since I saw something good in the theatres. Well then again it’s distributed by Lionsgate, one credible sign that a film is decent.

And another photo of the two of us to end this chapter off.  

Chapter 2

24th april 2010 – Celebration with high school friends.

We started the night off by going to one of my favorite restaurant, Empire State.

I can’t remember what we were listening to, but I think i was distracted by something else.

Sadly, we didn’t have any photos of the great food that filled our stomachs. So here’s a quick jump to Sin Chyuan and our cash.

We then headed down to Beach Cabana at East Coast Park to chill out. Over there, we had babes and hunks play a gambling game with us. It was pretty memorable because I lost the bet and had to…

buy a bucket of Mexican Sol Beers. It was aite, but my friends seem to enjoy it. Guess I’m not a beer person.

After the booze and the games, it was time for the awaited group photo. Credits to Yi Ci for taking the photos for my birthday. He’s a great photographer.

From then on, the guys went to grind some chicks at Zouk but I guess I’ll skip this part. It was a fun night nonetheless. Hopefully that many people show up for my birthday next year. A big shout out to those who came, I’ll remember it for a life time. And you know it’s a big deal when it comes from a forgetful person.

Chapter 3

8th May 2010 – Celebration with Poly mates

It was a joint celebration for the April babies and seriously what could be a better place to conduct this event other than Li Qing’s place? We had a great BBQ session again at Li Qing’s place. I think that was like the 3rd time we had our BBQ there, with the first being very memorable.

 Here’s our feast for the night!

And a brawling session with my first friend from Poly, Joshua. It’s Black or White, place your bets now!

Couple shot. Well Yi Chee was merely a standin Ying Ying. So… Haha to his gay look. =X

The extremely mouth-watering cake. Hmmm yum yum.

The April babies without Maybelle =( She will be dearly missed.

And finally, our group photo for the night. Thanks for coming, guys

Last Words

A big shout out to those who have been there to celebrate the day I arrived on planet Earth. Each day were well spent and I just couldn’t ask for more. Well, there are actually still quite a few people that I haven’t gotten the chance to celebrate my birthday with.  I think they know who they are if they ever come across this entry. It’s a real shame. But doesn’t really matter because I’ll be definitely calling them out for my 21st, so do expect to hear from me!

So a 20 year old Jacky shouts out to the people that have been there: ”Good game and thank you guys!”

See you next year,

Sign off,
He

Speaking of mugging, that moments of me scribbling away in the living room can’t help but remind me of the gruelling days I used to practise for the O-levels A math and E math examinations in the same exact environment. I remember spending at least 10 hours everyday of sole practising for a week. Yup, that’s really crazy. Hell I even woke up drenched in perspiration from nightmares of mind-wrecking equations that I can’t solve in my dreams. Looking back, I don’t even know how I even managed to endure through those days. But while I am glad that those days are over, that form of discipline has undoubtedly helped to push and place me where I am today.

Thankfully, while the piano definitely wouldn’t be as taxing as those days I’ve been through, the same form of discipline applies here. It’s all about practising and practising before reaching that standard. The difference is however, at least I enjoy it and I guess that’s all it matters.

Yup, that’s right folks.

Signs off,
He

Recently, my mom got me a digital piano to further aid me in my learning. It is a P85 digital piano from Yamaha that costs about 1.2k. Well depending on how you are going to look at it. It can be considered economical or extravagant. If you’re looking at it from a beginner’s standpoint, then cheaper keyboards are usually the way to go. But really. After practising for weeks on my mom’s organ, I’ve developed a phobia of not being able to play a piece I’ve mastered at home at my teacher’s acoustic piano. Reason being, the keys on the organ/keyboard are too soft and my fingers grew weak because of that. So with this being said, I guess I was left with no choice other than a digital piano or acoustic pianos. But really, what I really need besides the key pressure is the ability to plug in a pair of headphones and practise. Also, let’s just say I’m not Mozart or whatsoever and I am trying to be considerate for my family members and neighbours. And did I mention, the touch of it feels almost identical to the piano my teacher has. Pianos all have different touch, but I’m sure the digital piano is going to be way closer to it than a keyboard could ever be. What’s more, you can set it to produce sounds from various instruments. My favorite of all these is definitely strings and there’s also the metronome which I still haven’t really make use of. =/

So why the sudden decision to pick up a piano? To be completely honest, there’s no sudden urge. Music, just like any of my other interests, has always been part of me. I’ve always wanted to pick up an instrument ever since I became a teen. So the moment I hit 13, I went ahead to learn drums but it was kinda the wrong step to begin with. It didn’t really serve my purpose very well because you don’t really learn much of music theory. I mean sure, you learn how to read the drum notations but really it’s all just rhythm. However, the pay off is that the drums present in music sounds ridiculously clear to me now. When I hear a piece of music now, drums just clearly stands out subconsciously and you can identify which parts of the drums was being hit, therefore allowing you to play a song by ear. I don’t remember it to be so clear before I started learning drums.

So after the drums but I was 16 that time and had to set aside some time to prepare for the ‘O’ levels, afterwhich I spent a great deal of time investing in computers. Shortly after I went into Ngee Ann Polytechnic in pursue of my passion in filmmaking and hell it was crazy. I practically did not have time for other things during school days. Sure, there were free time during the 2 month holidays that comes every 6 months or so but it’s back to hectic schedule again. And finally, the 3 years of my polytechnic education has come to an end this is where I am now.  This is when I get to continue my music joruney.

So now comes the question: “Where do I see myself 5 years down the road?” Well, honestly, it’s still too early to tell but I’ll be sure to hang on to piano till I’m at least Grade 5 – that’s where most people stop right? I hope to break that barrier and advance through it. But ultimately, I am hoping to reach the stage where I am capable to play most of the pieces I enjoy.

Here are a few songs that I look forward to play. Enjoy them.

Man, I’m still amazed by this band cover. No keyboardist involved but the idea of playing in a band like this just wows me. I’ve always been looking for people to jam and play music. Sadly, not many of my close buddies are into music. Even the few people who play music differ from my taste of music. So… Hopefully, I meet new people that share my interests in the days that come.

Well, till then.

Sign off,
He

My afterthoughts? I guess it can summarized by this quote from Helen Keller:

When one door of happiness closes, another opens, but often we took so long at the closed door that we do not see the one that has been opened up for us.

Sign off,
He

Sure, if you’re feeling generous, you can click on the “Buy Gold Member” button to purchase a gold membership (about 4 USD for 1 month) that rewards you the privileges to enter full overpopulated rooms, gold plated alias, double EXP, etc… Well, I’m not here to advertise that plan so if you’re really interested in that price plan, then don’t bother to look any further.

So, you’ve decided not to spend money on Garena huh? But you’re pulling your hair out when you and your friends try to enter popular rooms, especially the Ladder rooms. Spamming your way is one way to enter but that takes time for you and your friends to enter. So even when you managed to squeeze into the room, yoour poor friends are still trying to enter the rooms. Some of them might give up and go do something else. And you’re tired of right clicking on their names and then inviting them again and again.

That’s okay because I’ll teach you a way for you and your friends to enter full rooms. This trick involves at least 2 people and here’s how it can be done:

1. One of you have to enter a full room first. So you got to do this the tedious way. Spamming your way in.

2. For the first person who manages to enter. Look over to your Contacts List, double click on your buddy who hasn’t entered the room to bring up the chat window. Wtf? Yeah be patience, you’ll know why.

3. With the chat window open, close the main window of Garena. You MUST do this in order for the trick to work.

4. Now with only the chat window open. Click on the “Invite to Game” button.

5. A dialogue box will appear telling you that you have invited your friend. Hit Enter on your keyboard and click on the “Invite to Game” button again.

6. Rinse and repeat. Isn’t this so much easier than the right clicking on their protraits and then inviting technique? And now all your friend has to do is the keep his cursor at the same position and click accept.

Spread it around. Cheers

Sign off,
He

Since the Shoutbox is down and He’s Blog has no Guestbook. I’ve implemented a Contact Form to He’s Blog. It can be found right at the top of this site at the Navigation Bar. Check the image if you still can’t find it (Look for the male sign). That will hopefully make it easier for people who don’t know me personally to contact me.

Check it out!

Sign off,
He

As soon as everyone arrived, the conversations just kept flowing, never stopping for a quiet moment. The strange thing is that even though we haven’t met in such a long time, we still talked about things freely without any restraint. We didn’t have to worry about filtering about words because we understood perfectly how each of us work. Even if words sounded too direct at times, the tolerance threshold we had was high and none of us took offense from them. Now that’s when you know the bond between you and your peers are strong. And yes, we never get bored about talking about the same old topics. 

It’s times like this that I appreciate and treasure. But sadly they never last for long. Like all good things, they have to come to and end. In a blink of an eye, it was time for us to say goodbye. Come to think about it, I can’t exactly remember when was the last time I met up with my teacher. I’m guessing it was the previous holidays because I was never ever free during school time.

But at the end of the day, it’s not really the low frequency of meetups that matters because we all have a mutual understanding for the reasons behind it – that we each have our own obligations in life. What really matters is whether we seize the opportunities that come to meet up or not. 

And here’s a great photo to end this post off.

Sign off,
He

Here’s what I found out about this video. The dancer in the video clip is Makoto and the song that she is dancing to is Renai Circulation. Contary to what you may believe, Makoto invented this dance and released it as an original home made video in Nico Nico Douga, a popular video sharing website in Japan. It grew to be a sensation in Japan and lots of Japanese follow it. Hey, even gian (a caracter in Doraemon) dances it!

My comments for this dance? When my buddy, Ri Chang, showed me this video. I was totally captivated by it - both Makoto and the song. First of all, the song is very catchy and addictive. You can’t just get enough of it! And it doesn’t help that the girl dancing it is so cute and attractive. Lol, then again, the song wouldn’t have been that mesmerizing if not for Makoto. 

But honestly, I gotta admit that although I was never fascinated with Japanese girl, this one really hit me well. What is weird is that she is the exact opposite of what I would have preferred. She’s Asian, petite and looks too kiddy. Argh… Pedophile! But maybe that’s probably why she was able to pull that dance off. Oh well, too bad girls like Mokoto are only limited to Japan. Sigh…

Anyways, enjoy the clip!
Sign off,

He

I am very proud to announce several great features that I have added to this site. That’s probably why He’s Blog was down for days. But please don’t be mad because you’ll be amazed with the new features that I’ve brought to He’s Blog! Remember I mentioned that He’s Blog are still lacking a lot of features during its genesis? Yup, that’s right, I’ve gone ahead and added some wonderful features to this blog. So sit tight and buckle up while I take you through the list of the long awaited updates!

In conjunction with the long list of awaited updates, the first thing I did was to give He’s Blog its very much deserved favicon. In case you folks don’t know what a favicon is; it is the essentially the little logo that appears next to a website’s URL or name in the favorites list:

I know what you’re thinking. Yes! It is indeed a 2D image of myself. How narcissistic eh? But before you go on and judge me further, that’s not my main point. The aim is that now that there’s a favicon, you will no longer encouter difficulties recogonizing He’s Blog when you go through your favorites list in the future. Heh, such a thoughtful fellow. And… it also gives He’s Blog an identity, in this case, my Avatar. Oh come on, He’s Blog is my blog isn’t it =/

Next on the list, I’ve also made big cosmetic changes to the tag cloud. The tag cloud now presents itself as a flash tag cloud instead of the previous text-based tag cloud.

I really like this implementation a lot because it represents the chain of thoughts that resides in my brain. And since He’s Blog serves as a remote settlement to my thoughts, this feature definitely brings He’s Blog to another step.

As internet surfing on mobile devices become more and more mainstream today, there is no doubt that some of you would want to read my blog on it too. With that in mind, I have gone ahead and created a mobile version of He’s Blog. That way, you won’t have to worry about exceeding your bandwidth with this resource-friendly version. Of course, you can still visit the full version of the site simply by scrolling to the bottom and clicking the Full Version link.

So what are you waiting for? Visit He’s Blog now with your mobile devices and enjoy the resource-friendly site.

Last but not least, I have also taken the time to actualize this long awaited admin comment feature. It has been one of the features that I’ve been wanting to implement but haven’t got the time to do so. Basically what it does is that it gives my comments a distinctive look that seperates it from the other readers’ comments. Cool isn’t it? Now you can quickly scan a thread to see where I’ve left a comment. Heh, oh I’m such a narcissistic guy. =X

Oh, and for those of you have probably noticed the broken Shout Box at the home page and were wondering what ever happened to the Shout Box. Here’s what happened: It turns out that the host for my shoutbox – Nat1on.com went burst and hasn’t resurfaced since then. It has been months now and I doubt that they are ever going to return to service. I am currently trying very hard to find other Shout Box alternatives to fit into He’s Blog but it’s tough because I am real picky (You can’t really blame me for that, can you?). So I am not sure when it will return but rest assured that I am looking into it.

So that’s it! I hope you guys have enjoyed the updates!

Now get out of here!
He

Looks gorgeous doesn’t it? Here’s a little info about the mouse:

The Razer Naga is supposed to be the next level in gaming mice aim at MMO players, more specifically people who play World or Warcraft . It is then no wonder that the mouse will be designed to give MMO gamers a competitive edge. The biggest feature of this mouse? You guessed it. It is the whopping dozen of buttons on the left-hand side of the mouse.

Features of the mouse:

5600dpi Razor Precision 3.5G Laser Sensor

1000Hz Ultrapolling™ / 1ms response time

200 inches per second max tracking speed

Zero-acoustic Ultraslick™ Teflon feet

17 MMO-optimized buttons (including 12 button thumb grid)

Optional MMO-specific software AddOns

Unlimited character profiles with AddOns

Approximate size:  116L x 69W x 41.6H (in mm)

The damage: 159 SG Dollars.

Good news for my fellow Mac users, there is no need to settle for a third party driver anymore because the Razer Naga works with both Windows (tested on Windows Vista) and Mac OS X (tested on Leopard). This is in compliance with the pledge Razer made to support the Mac gamers.

Anyway here’s my thoughts on Razer Naga after using it for about a week. While there is no doubt that the dozen of buttons at the side are an amazaing asset to possess, you’ll really have to get dedicate yourself enough time to the mouse before you can fully exploit the mouse’s main gimmick. Right now, I find myself only using 6 buttons out of the 12 (Buttons 1, 2, 4, 5, 7 & 8). Well maybe that’s because the game, DotA, that I bought this mouse for does not require that many buttons. But still, I find that the 4th row of buttons a little tedious to reach. It is still reachable but your thumb movements will not be as smooth as compared to the first three buttons.

Razer Copperhead and Razer Naga

Also, maybe I was too used to my previous mouse, Razer Copperhead, Razer Naga feels a little small in my hand. Not that it’s too big of an issue because its shape allows my right hand to rest on it comfortably. Other than that, this is a great mouse and was my dream mouse when I was still indulging in the World of Warcraft. Even though I no longer play the World of Warcraft, here is a video that demonstrates how the mouse can be effectively used in other games like DotA. Observe how fast the items were used. Such feat can never be possible without the Razer Naga!

Conclusion: So is it really worth to change your current mouse for this sexy Razer Naga? Well, if you’re a MMO player, then go all out for it. I used to play a level 80 Blood Elf Rogue and PvP was my forte. When I was using the Razer Copperhead, I binded Sprint and Vanish to the side buttons. These are my so-called panic skills and I have always wanted to bind more panic skills to the mouse but I was limited with the amount of side buttons Razer Copperhead have. With Razer Naga, I could freely bind more skills like Blind, Arcane Torrent, and Evasion to side buttons and do without the awkward modifer keys like Ctrl+Shift+1 (That’s just dumb).

But my word of advice is that, you’ll really have to spend time getting used to the mouse before you can fully utilize all the side buttons. Razer Naga is undeniably a great mouse in its own right, but how it serves you is totally dependent on your willingness to learn how to effectively use it.

Signed,
He