Friday, September 28, 2007

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Lots of Queries

Lots of question marks, lots of whys, whys, whys.

Why do we exist?
Why is there life?
Have you ever wondered, what your purpose in life is? Just to spend everyday like it is? Just to have children, grow old and die? What for?
Why is everyone blindly working for money? Yes, all of us need money in order to survive. But why to survive? What for?
Why are there planets and stars?
What exactly is the Universe?
Where does it exist?
Is it an arbitrary component of something?
If it is, what is that something?
Why does the Universe exist in the first place?
Are you sure you can control your own life?
Are you sure your life isn't already drawn out all for you?
Why do people get deja vus?
Why can some people predict the future? Does it mean everything has already been planned by someone, or something?
Can we travel the 4th dimension of time?
What happens after we die?
Why do we want to live? Ultimately, what are we looking for...? What are we aiming towards?

I quite believe our lives have been pre-destined, we're just characters in a game. What we feel/think we are doing, it's not us who're doing the thinking. Somebody, or something, are making us think.

We might even be robots with individualistic minds, but with preset actions and motives.

What are we created for? Are there people studying the meaning to life? I believe life's not that simple... there must be something to it.

Enlighten me please.

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

City that never sleeps - Las Vegas!
























Wee-uuu-weet!!! We've finally reached Las Vegas!!!

State: Nevada
Weather: Hot+ultra sunny+hot+ultra sunny!

Located in what was once a desert, Las Vegas is super hot can. You can almost feel the rays of the sun beating on ur skin, you just wanna hurry into the nearest shelter. Our tour guide said it's no wonder why casinos can earn so much, because tourists simply don't wanna go out into the sun.


We bade farewell to our very interesting tour guide who was with us for 7 days.

Below is Fremont Street, which was originally where all the hype of LV was. Now they have constructed a screen over the whole street, where they play LED shows every hour!!!! The whole stretch is about 400m!
























One of the busker stands at Fremont Street created the below picture, using only spray paints, believe it or not.

























Pictures of some very famous hotels and casinos in LV:























Caesars' Palace


New York New York. You can see replicas of most famous icons in NY here, for eg Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building, Chrysler building. Can you see some red curves in the picture? Those are tracks for a roller coaster ride!!!!!


Street of LV taken from an overhead bridge.
























Wynn.
























Donald Trump's building still under construction. Looks spectacular already right!! Like gold-plated!!


The Mirage, another very beautiful hotel cum casino.

We also went to factory outlets in LV, where we did our last shopping. There was a Disney store which sold cute toys at low prices! For example check out the below!!















































Ultra cute toys!!! Ivan got an entire set of Winnie the Pooh characters for Shilin, aww so sweet.

At M&M building, which is the largest in USA. 4 floors in total, there was even a cool simulation ride!

Check out the variety of colours of M&M chocolates!! Holy moly!!

And below are how the famous M&M mascots today started out from. LOL.














































The thing about Las Vegas is that jackpot machines are EVERYWHERE. You only don't see them on roadsides and inside washrooms. Other than that, they're lying everywhere, with the constant jiggling sounds coming out from them. Hotel lobbies are flooded with them, the jackpot machines almost form walls and barriers!

Our tour guide told us what the top 3 jobs in LV are.
3) Cocktail girls. Basically they serve drinks to customers who are lazy to get out of their gambling tables. Mostly dressed scantily, they get heavy tips!
2) Forgotten. :( (Busy Roys, do u still remember?)
1) Valet parking boys! They can earn average of USD8000 every month!! Incredible!!!

But our tour guide also said though they earn alot, they also spend alot due to succumbing to gambling temptations. He also said that even taxi drivers earn about USD5000! Wha piang! WHAT ARE WE STILL DOING IN SG ?!?!?!!!!!!

That night, we chanced upon an arcade and decided to spend USD35 on a card which entitled us to unlimited games. HAHA! We shared the card among all of us, swiping here and there and running about everywhere. Ultra fun!!!
























Bee playing a guitar.

Some night shots...

Bellagio Hotel.


Caesars' Palace.

I played a game of Jackpot once, while I was waiting for my friends... I simply swiveled around on the chair, inserted a one dollar bill and pressed the buttons. Normally a dollar would last you about 20 turns, depending on how many lines you bet on. BEHOLD!!!


A row of lucky 7's !!!!!!!!!!!!!! HAHAHA!!!!



Even though it looks ultra nice, it only won me 80credits = 80 cents. LOL. Because all the 7s are of different colour ma. Haha. But still, WOOT!!! ^_^ The girls advised me to cash out immediately. Heeee. And by the way, we guys gambled abit on roulette over the 2 days... we won about USD8 each!!!! HAHAHA!!! Now we can proudly boast, "I gambled and won at Las Vegas!!!!!"

Below are pics taken from Bellagio, which has its own musical fountain every half hour from 9 till 12.




























Finally, Bee and me on Fremont Street, holding a long cup of La Bayou, cocktail mixture.

























Las Vegas is so pretty and happening. Check it out even though you don't wanna spend your money on jackpot machines and gambling tables. =)

Monday, September 17, 2007

Food Chaaaaaaaaaaaase!!!

Everyone knows what "十字路口" is! Today, together wif Busy Roys, we participated in the English version of it! It's called "Food Chase" and held at Downtown East!!

For peeps who don really know the game, you start off with the name of a food given to you. Finish the dish, after which the name of ur 2nd dish has to start with the last alphabet of ur previous dish. For eg, "nasi lemaK, King Kong, Goreng Pisang, Gado GadO, Orange Juice etc etc"... (kidding abt king kong). You guys get it? =) You have to finish the food before you can move off!

For this competition, they will provide the name of the first dish. After ur 5th dish, we will have to run back to the foyer and get the location of the "road block". Sounds exciting rite!! After completing the road block can we know the last dish's name. And btw, we have to finish 10 dishes minumum. And each team will be followed by a marshall who will be doing all the buying of food items and checking everyone plays by the rules.

Super exciting!!!! (me and roy were thinking, how about we eat Scallops and lobster and some other exotic food...)

Our reporting time was at 3pm but we reached there at around 1.30pm to recce the area. Our competition was gonna be at 4pm, but there were about 18 teams (consisting of 2 ppl each) who were gonna play too at 2pm. Their first dish was MEE REBUS!! As soon as the name was revealed, everyone evacuated the foyer in like 5 secs. -_-"

ROAD BLOCK!! After 5 dishes, from the foyer in downtown east, you had to actually run/jog/sprint/walk/crawl (depending on your fitness) about 500m to Costa Sands Resort where there's this rock wall? One team member has to climb all the way up and touch the wall!
























Since I was rather afraid of heights, we agreed that Roy would do it!

Anyways, the final dish was "Garlic Bread". After completing the road block, they gotta jog/walk/crawl (since you'll be damn shagged by now) 500m back to downtown east, and continue with the game!

Only when you have finished eating the last dish can you run back to the foyer and dong the gong!!!

The first 3 teams came back in less than an hour. -_-" sweet. donoe how they run and eat so fast. They were consolation prizes for every team behind the 3rd. 1st team would get $500 cash (BELIEVE IT!!!), 2nd, $300 and 3rd, $200!

We certainly had a great advantage knowing where the road block is now. Plus, we also know what the first and last dish are le!!! Believeing it might be like some tertiary institutions where past year papers' questions are repeated over and over again, we began to sit down and brainstorm how we would play OUR game at 4pm. =)
























We're team 8!!!!

Hence...
























SOON, the host was briefing us on the rules... As they were about to reveal the first dish, we were about to start running off to get MEE REBUS already... But ALAS!!! The organisers were no tertiary institutions' lecturers, we got it wrong!!! Holy Mackeral!!!

SANDWICH! First dish is a freaking SANDWICH!!!!

We dashed off to Cheers thinking they might have the triangular kind of sandwich in the fridge. I was the first to run in. From 10m away, I asked the auntie whether they have sandwich. BLOODY HELL NO!!!!! *pulls hair! PANIC!!!*

Subway! Subway sells sandwiches rite!!! I pulled Roy and the marshall back to Subway, which was just behind where the starting line was. Some of our hopes of finishing first were dashed when we saw there were already 3 or 4 grps munching on their sandwiches already. =( "Give me a sandwich, any sandwich!", I exclaimed to the counter. HAHA. I asked for as little ingredients as possible, then me and Roy started gobbling it up.

Next dish, we had to eat a food starting with a "H". We settled on Hamburger from Mac.
1) SandwicH
2) HamburgeR
3) Red bean SouP
4) PeanuT
5) Toasted BreaDD

We only asked for one tablespoon of red bean soup from the dessert stall in the foodcourt, 2 peanuts from Kway Chup Stall and 2 mouthfuls of the toasted bread. I even had to tell the auntie twice, "don't put the butter liao! don't need kaya le! Just toast the bread for 2 secs!". SO EXCITING! everyone was so rushing about!!!

We were relieved to discover we were the 3rd team to reach the road block. Luckily they never change the exam question for the road block. LOL. We were panting and puffing for oxygen, at the same time with the toasted bread still in our mouths man. HAHA!

Roy did a great job reaching the top, and soon we were jogging back thinking about our 6th dish. Last dish is "ICE CREAM".

We were in some trouble because we couldn't think how to connect them... we were stuck for a minute before deciding on
6) Dim Sum.
7) Mee Rebus,
8) ??
9) Nasi Briyani
10) ICE CREAM.

SIANZ! Cannot think how to link the S and the N!! cannot SoyabeaN, cos they don't have it. No, they also do not have SupermaN, or SpidermaN. We were stuck for one minute before Roy pointed to the board of a stall and exclaimed "Salted beaN!" Within 10 secs, we were munching on it already.

We raced back to foodcourt to have nasi briyani. I asked for "2 mouthfuls can already, Auntie!". She gave me half a bowl. I said, "too much!", but she proceeded to give me curry and I had to stop her. -_-. Lol! I asked her to take back some of the rice before I started to eat the rice. Roy was already off to buy Ice cream from Mac. (we were cheating abit here, cos we could only move on after finishing the current dish. but our marshall was flexible on this area....)

We met at the entrance of the food court where we finished off everything before racing back to the finishing line!


We were 3rd!!!! ^___^

And the fourth team arrived 10 secs behind us only... PHEW!!!

Roy and me congratulated ourselves profusely, we were so elated! HAHA! Roy told me later the fourth team was actually in front of him for ice cream!! PHEW phew! And also, guess what... he actually exclaimed "Salted beean!" out of nowhere - it wasn't written on the signboard. We were freaking lucky they actually sell it. HA!!


We gave our thanks to our marshall who helped us so much in many ways. He was also very fit, could actually keep up with us wherever we dashed to!

On top of the cash, we were also given membership cards, which would entitle us to the below:


SUPER SHIOK!!!!!!!!!!!

HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!









Now don't try to rob me. =P

We all had SO much SO much fun, we have so often talked about having adventures together. Haha. Thanks Roy!!!

Also thanks to my Mom who told me about this competition. =)

Definitely will be there again next year!!!!!!! Legs are aching from all the racing liao, going to sleep now!

This is what life should be about!!!!!!!

Sunday, September 16, 2007

Faith

I'm starting to believe in this relationship again.

=)

The way you are as of recent, makes all the faith and belief come back to me.

=)

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.








Arsenal go go go!!


Saturday, September 15, 2007

Package tour!

Departing San Franscisco was very sad... but we really had to. We took a Greyhound bus to Los Angeles. The Greyhound bus was late for almost 3 hours, and all of us were super worried that we couldn't make it for our package tour departing from LA. However, we were very blessed. After numerous calls to the company (which kept connecting us to voice mail), we finally communicated with a person and told him our problem...it was very very very relieved to know that we could board the bus from another destination at a time which we could make it. PHEW!!!!

The 7 day package tour is super affordable. The itenarary includes places like Las Vegas, Arches National Parks, Yellowstone National Parks, Salt Lake City, Mt Rushmore etc etc! 9 states in 7 days, would you believe it?! 6 nights in hotels all included, only for around USD400!!

Lemme try to recall what the 9 states are:
1) California
2) Arizona
3) Utah
4) Colorado
5) Wyoming
6) South Dakota
7) Montana
8) Nevada
9) Idaho

Woohoo!!!!! (I cheated abit for the last 2....referred to google map. haha.)

Photos are not in order of visit....

Arches National Park!! Look at the ENORMOUS landscape arch. You see teeny weeny people standing below? LOL.

Loads of photos taken at Yellowstone National Park. It's the world's first national park and largest animal reserve in America. Damn exciting place where one could see many many natural wonders all in the park itself! It's 1/4 the size of Taiwan... and believe it or not, the whole park is situated at the top of a volcano crater.

The body of water is not the sea! It's a very biggggggggggggggggg lake formed by rainwater collected on top of the crater over the centuries!










Nice shirt! From Van Heusen. Anyway, check out the lush landscape and the mountains in the background! We're at Grand Teton and does the highest mountain look familiar? Think Paramount Pictures, got a mountain with stars on top right? Yes! That's THAT mountain!

We even saw a bear which was trying to attack us! Just kidding, this is just a picture from a postcard. HAHAHAHA.

Different layers and colours of rock formed by the effect of sulphuric water flow.



Wha lao super nice scenery!!! Very difficult to describe to you leh, it's just super nice!!



They're trying to mimick the 'devil's face' on the rock wall....


The "Old Faithful" Geyser, world's most famous geyser. It might not be the one which sprouts out the tallest, but it is the one which is the most predictable - it erupts every 90 mins.











The nice shirt again! Check out all the different colours of the ground!!! So pretty! The body of blue is called "Prysmatic Spring", it is super pretty, there are rainbow colours on it!



















Another very beautiful sight...






















Mud pool which keeps bubbling because of gases escaping from the mud bed. It's very smelly here because of all the sulphur. It smells like tons of rottten eggs thrown on ur face.

Real Buffalos walking on the roads! Buffalos are only found in USA, they are VERY humongous. We had Buffalo Steak one night... it was FANTABULOUS. It's leaner than beef but more tender....absolutely heavenly. One big piece, USD20.


Finally at South Dakota, the legendary Mt Rushmore!! I'm sure you guys have seen it before...the 4 great USA presidents. From left: George Washington, Jefferson, Franklin Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln. Our tour guide was very well-read, he told us the whole story about the construction of this monument... Roosevelt wasn't meant to be inside in the first place! LOL!
Crazy Horse monument. It's the largest sculpture in the world, and it's still in progress. The White figurine is how it's supposed to look like when completed. See the mountain on the right background? That's the Crazy Horse still in progress...it's super far away, that's why it looks so small... but you can make out the face and the raised arm? The extended hair of the Crazy Horse alone is the size of Mt Rushmore...It already took decades just to reach this stage, Crazy one larh, how to complete the whole thing?!?!


While at Deadwood City in South Dakota, one of the oldest living cowboy cities!!

They've got people dressed up in cowboy suits... one of them gamely posed for a photo with us!!


One of the nicer jumping pictures at Grand Teton...

At Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Those grey things that form the arch are actually real antlers from elks! (elks are a moose-like deer animal)

This is even more fantastic. This framed up picture was 'drawn' with bullet holes! A very famous sharp shooter standing about 20m away, took only 30 secs with his automatic machine gun to create the head of a native Indian. Impressive.


















Trying to imitate the moose.....doesn't it look like the blue colour moose from Happy Tree Friends?





















Extremely big tyre from one of the ultra humongous trucks used to transport sand... remember the ultra big truck in one of Jackie Chan's movies?

Kennecott Copper Mine, the other man-made object besides Great Wall of China that is visible from outer space. It is IMMENSELY huge.


Posing with real antlers!





















To end off the entry...



Brokeback Mountain, literally.

Random notes from Ye

On 2 separate occasions, I was working at my home desk when Ye sat beside, doodled on a post-it and passed it to me: