30 Jan 10

1. General. Today wasn't very exciting. Only Troy, Kenta and I went to the Extreme Skate Park. We got there early like about 9ish so there wasn't a lot of people. We slid down in to the bowl and danced because it was shadier. Anyway, Kenta can do the Ninja Warrior thing when he runs up the wall of the bowl and climbs out. Troy can do it too. I was the only one left in the bowl because I didn't have the arm power to pull myself up. Damn I'm weak. Gonna hafta start doing pull ups and push ups again.

2. Magic, the Gathering. Tomrrow Ernst and I are going to Suntec City for the worldwake prerelease in the afternoon. If there aren't any places left in the singles category, we're gonna play 2HG. Mr. Kng has managed to get the boxes so I'll see if I can get them tomorrow. I hope I get like 2 Jaces.

3. Love and Comedy. I have made up my mind. Poly will start in 2+ months so I told myself to go for a girl closer to home. I mean, She's kinda far and I really gave this alot of thought. I have my checklist/criteria so let's see where this road takes me. 

4. Things I've Learnt. I'm gonna do a presentation on Uptrends and Downtrend to a small group tomorrow. I hope I don't screw up, like that stupid Chart Nexus guy with the bad English and very bad content. Wish me luck!

29 Jan 10

1. General. I played snooker by myself today because Brendan took leave. I challenged myself to legally pot all the balls in half an hour. I only had the pink and black ball left. Damn. Oh I just remembered: my twitter is flattop915. Duh.

2. Magic, the Gathering. Tomorrow after cycling I'm going to check out the prelease at Hobby@sg to see the cost, format and stuff.

Oh I just found this joke site for MTG called goodgamery.com. It's full of joke cards and some are very funny. Like Battlejace Angel and Martial Coup. Check it out.

3. Love and Comedy. I just started a Top 10 Things I would like about my Girlfriend. It actually started off as a checklist. Anyone wanna share their top 10?

4. Things I've learnt. I've learnt that a certain someone jut learnt how to ride a bike. And I'm tired so that's all for now.

28 Jan 10

1. General. Another day of tearing paper and validating invoices at work. I'm so sleepy every morning and evening that I sleep in Aunty Josephine's car and keep waking up in starts. Kinda rude of me I suppose, but I can't keep my eyes open. In the morning, I have to drink coffee in order to wake up and do a good day's work, but the moment I'm in the car on the way home, I drift off to sleep. As long as I'm moving, I'll stay awake but the moment I stop and rest, I succumb to the seductive power of sleep. It's very annoying, truth be told, to keep waking up. I shall go to sleep at 10.30pm instead of 12 midnight tonight.

I have decided to remove and compress a few sections of my blog. Love and Comedy will become one section called Love and Comedy (so original!). Trading/Investing and Personal Development will become another, called Things I've Learnt. This will also encompass anything I learn outside of Trading, Investing and Personal Development.

2. Magic, the Gathering. OMG. Brendan just called me and told me something amazing!!! There's this new card in Worldwake called Eye of Ugin. Legendary Land, rare, Colourless Eldrazi Spells cost 2 less to cast. There was also a tutor tap ability which I forgot but that's not important. A bit of background: Worldwake has not revealed ANY Eldrazi spells so they should come out in Rise of the Eldrazi. Now a few years back, Future Sight came out. There is this colourless card which I forgot the name to but that's not important. Any way it's 3 mana, instant, colourless, [cardname] deals 3 damage to target creature or player. That's not the exciting part. This is: the flavour text mentions the Eye of Ugin, a dragon's eye! They're gonna bring back some cards from future sight!!! Holy crap.

3. Love and Comedy (so original). I got nothing but this:

Question: Name 2 pronouns.
Reply: Who, me?

Lol this was from my brother's joke book.

4. Things I've Learnt. Well I didn't learn anything useful today other than Magic, the Gathering. Today's a bit short because I'm tired. Goodnight everyone. It's 10.10pm. 

27 Jan 10

1. General. I can't BELIEVE what I heard this morning on the radio, that a 16 year old girl in Bangladesh was raped and she was punished for getting pregnant!!!! The punishment was 100 strokes of the cane! And as if that wasn't enough, the rapist was PARDONED by the elders!!! Outragous!! What are these people thinking??

Other than that, I had a great day today. I was accepted on to TP in the FBI course!!! Yay! I'm gonna go there and own everyone in the course. Well, that's my goal anyway.

Fun day at work. Murali, my colleague left today. He was also a part timer and he's been posted to VJC! Smart guy. Brendan and I played Snooker without him at lunch. I lost this time, 5-22. I entered the game halfway because someone else was playing with him. Brendan potted the last 4 balls. Nevermind, we'll start our Snooker competition tomorrow. Just him vs me.

2. Magic, the Gathering. I think I will go and make a UB mill deck with leviathans and krakens around Quest for Ula's Temple. With Crabs. Learnt more about drafting on Limited Information in magicthegathering.com. I think I will go and find the places for the Prereleases on sat before I go with Ernst on Sunday.

3. Love. I got nothing to talk about today. Apparently, She's going to ACSI.

4. Comedy. Here's a quote:

    Any man has the power to sweep any woman off her feet. He just needs the right broom.
            -Will Smith, in Hitch

Witty, yet sentimental.

5. Trading/Investing. Daddy and I went for a public talk by Chart Nexus this evening on breakout patterns. It was sorely disappointing. The speaker had such bad English you can't even call it a language. I mean, not just spelling and grammatical errors, but gazillions of other syntax errors. Okay maybe I'm exaggerating, but he was bad. I ended up tuning him out and started work on this post until daddy asked if I wanted to leave halfway. I jumped at the chance to escape and we broke out of there. Now if this breakout had been accompanied by high volume...

6. Personal Development. Mrs Low replied regarding my draft application for the ISS scholarship. She said I was good, but can add more stuff about IT like focusing on how I would apply IT to my work. So I'll do that.

This Sunday I intended to do a short presentation on Chapters 1 and 2 of Crucial Conversations. Daddy said maybe summarize the book instead, or find the 3 most important or interesting things I learnt from the book an present 1 of them. That doesn't seem to be a bad idea, because if anyone wants a summary of every chapter, they can just read my blog. Duh. 

26 Jan 10

1. General. Had a fun day tearing paper today, not shredding them. I had to tear them along the jagged edges and I like the ripping sound. (Sadistic, isn't it?)

After work went for a movie with friends. We watched The Spy Next Door, but it was kinda disappointing because the only funny part was the bloopers. Okay so it may not be Whose Line Is It Anyway, but I really expected more. I mean, is it too much to ask for just ONE scene to tickle me? I was totally not impressed until the bloopers.

2. Magic, the Gathering. I'm so happy that I found a new Magic, the Gathering player in Leon! He just started a few months ago with Time Spiral. I taught him a lot of basics on the way back home.

All the cards released today on mtgsalvation.com. No other Planeswalkers, only Jace, the Mind Sculptor. The second multicoloured card came out today and it's quite awesome, if you can get it on the field and deal damage. Wrexial, the Risen Deep: 3UUB, Legendary, Kraken, Mythic Rare, Islandwalk, Swampwalk
Whenever Wrexial, the Risen Deep deals combat damage to a player, you may cast target instant or sorcery card from that player's graveyard without paying its mana cost. If that card would be put into a graveyard this turn, exile it instead. Combo with Quest for Ula's Temple would be amazing.

3. Love. She's shorter than I remembered. But I love her petite form, I really do. Nothing much happened today because we were late and had to rush in for the movie. My plan was for all of us to get drinks, then I'd toast:

Never Lie, Steal, Cheat or Drink.
But if you must lie, lie in the arms of the one you love.
If you must steal, steal away from bad company.
If you must cheat, cheat death.
If you must drink, drink in the moments that take your breath away.
           -Will Smith, in Hitch

Now that would have been awesome.

I wish I'd used the chance given to me to talk to her. I should have asked her to tell me about her trip to Italy. Tsk. Wasted opportunity. I had everything nicely planned out, but the moment we were late I screwed it up! I'm so frustrated with myself. Here was a nice opportunity to build rapport with Her and I chicken out. Grr.

What happens now?

4. Comedy. Leon told bad jokes today. Lemme see if I can do better.

Friendship is like peeing on yourself. You never see it, but you always get that warm fuzzy feeling.

5. Trading/Investing. Daddy saw wrongly. The course isn't on Friday night, it's Wednesday night, tomorrow! Hiya. I will put up what I learn ther tomorrow. Something about Breakout Patterns.

6. Personal Development. I didn't read today, so I'm just gonna put a poem directly from memory. It's the short version of Don't Quit, and that's what I will do with Her.

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low, and the debts are high,
When you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest, if you must, but don't you quit.

Success is failure, turned inside out,
Like the silver tint of the clouds of doubt.
And you never can tell how close you are,
You may be near when it seems so far.
So stick to the fight with your hardest hit,
It's when things go wrong that you musn't quit.    

25 Jan 10

1. General. Another good day at work. I did alot a filing (yay!) and felt very satisfied with myself. Murali and I had a good time shredding paper in the paper shredder and Brendan gave me a Rap tour of the 5th floor. He kept saying "uh-huh" and "word". I'm not angry or upset with him anymore. I've gotten over it. Looking back, it WAS kinda childish and immature of me.

2. Magic, the Gathering. I'm not gonna talk about spoiler cards today. I'm gonna talk about the game format Sealed Deck, a sub-group of Limited. Now this coming Worldwake Prerelease is a Sealed Deck. You get 6 boosters, 3 from Zendikar and 3 from Worldwake. The article I read today said to use Zendikar as more of a base, becuase Worldwake was designed to support Zendikar. So that's exactly what I'm gonna do. When you open the packs, sort the cards out according to colour, and do your best to make a 2 colour deck, because there is consistent mana and you can't make a mono deck anyway. Pick cards according to creature removal, then spell effiency. One would normally win a Limited format by damage but I'm gonna go for milling as my primary Win Condition. I think Ally Mill would help out alot. Usually draft about 15-17 lands in a 40 card deck, but it can vary. Some people do well with 12 or 13 lands because they may have card draws, tutors or just really cheap spells. We'll see how well I do this Saturday.

3. Love. Yes yes yes! The movie is confirmed! Tomorrow night I will see Her again. I'm gonna go for the image of "Gentleman", yet with a (hopefully) cool factor. I'll give blow-by-blow details tomorrow night if everything goes well. Yay! Kari Kimmel is singing in my head again...

4. Comedy. Like I said, Brendan gave my a Rap tour of the 5th floor. He was like, uh, this is, uh huh, the CEO's, uh, Crib. Yeah, word up. We were doing our best to stifle our laughter! Lol that was today's Epic Joke of the Day.

5. Trading/Investing. I'm gonna go find the book 50 Economic Ideas you should Know. It seems to be a good book.

6. Personal Development. Chapter 11 wasn't very exciting. It just gives many different "impossible" scenarios and how to apply the skills taught in the book. What I mean is, scenarios that just don't allow you to use any of the skills, eg, the person withdraws (silence) and will not budge no matter how much effort you put in to make it safe to talk. I think this is more of a reference chapter, like when you experience one of these scenarios, you can check that section of the chapter to see how well you handled it. It's more of a "learning from your mistakes" tool. I think I will use it like this, rather than memorize the individual scenarios.

24 Jan 10

1. General. Yay I'm so happy that today was a boring day. I spent quality time with myself just happily being miserable. Everyone needs to wallow in self pity once in a while so now I feel much better. Not so angry at Brendan now... just hurt that he behaved that way.

2. Magic, the Gathering. Wow they released 23 cards today!!! What to talk about? Hmm I really like Archon of Redemption: 3WW, rare, 3/4, flying, Whenver Archon Of Redemption or another creature with flying enters the battlefield under your control, you may gain life equal to that creature's power. I'm gonna make a mono white flying deck, especially with Kor Skyfisher and Emeria Sky Ruins and Felindar Sovereign. 

3. Love. Tsk. She hasn't answered me yet. Is she even interested? Or is she just busy. These lyrics from The Corrs really show what I feel like saying:

What can I do to make you love me?
What can I do to make you care?
What can I say to make you feel this?
What can I do to get you there?

If we do go for this movie, it will be the last time I see her until we meet again at AKLTG. When? March or June or November. I hope. So this coming movie I will hafta make my move. Will I have the courage to do so? Maybe yes, maybe no. 

Sigh... I should just drop it, shouldn't I? I won't be able to keep the relationship going if we even start one. She's just too far. One should not start a relationship with someone of they both can't keep it alive. I should just stick to having relationships with inanimate objects.

Okay it's 10.30pm. She finally told me can. Tuesday night. But only after I prompted her... Sigh, like I said, I dunno how interested she is. But I am very excited about it. I'll be able to see her face in real life again instead of just on Monique whenever I unlock. Yay! Oh and I decided I wouldn't change my wallpaper of her face when I meet her. I've already thought of what to say if she does happen to see it. What is it? Oh I'm not gonna spoil it. Yet. Until I actually use it.

4. Comedy. Time for a classic joke: a man walks into a bar. Ooh, That's gotta hurt.

5. Trading/Investing. Results of the JAE will be out on the 27th. I hope I'm accepted into the FBI course. I found this trading game on the Apps store. Start with 1500 and trade. 3 modes: 15 day, 30 day and 60 day. I only played the 15 day twice. First I got 6000+ but I improved the second time, getting 24000+. I could only use the graph, semi-reliable tips and the company's history. I was also limited to 6 stocks, so this game isn't really a good representation of the trading world.

6. Personal Development. Okay I started crafting out my testemonial for Mr. Lak, my principal, to sign. Gonna base my next few testemonials to my teachers on this draft.

I've decided to do a presentation of chapters 1 and 2 of Crucial Conversations to the High Fivers group. Hopefully, this will increase my understanding and I'll be able to remember the skills better.

Read chapter 10. Now this is a really useful chapter. It teaches you how to remember all the skills taught, especially in something as unpredictable and fast moving as a crucial conversation. It keeps you thinking straight and on your feet. All you hafta remember is watch out for people (including and especially you) that are moving towards silence or violence. They also give a visual model to remember but I can't put it here and I can't find a website that show it. If anyone can, do let me know and I'll post the link in whichever post I do on the day I receive it. Thanks!

23 Jan 10

1. General. Oh man rough day. Started with last night when I SMSed Kenta to confirm our usual skating/cycling at 10.30am. He said he couldn't make it. So I quickly SMSed Brendan: "eh, Kenta n Joey aren't coming tmr at 10.30!" He replied: "they're coming dood..." I got the feeling like he was treating me like I didn't know anything and I thought that was pretty rude. I replied to say that Kenta just told me via SMS that he can't come at 10.30am. His reply: "I was just talking to him..." I got the impression of like, "I'm smarter than you so I'm right and your wrong". Urggh. So SMS to Kenta again and he tells me he had Kendo so he can't make it at 10.30am. Notice how I'm harping on the time? That's our usual time we meet. I told Brendan exactly what Kenta told me and finally, he says: "they're meeting me earlier at 8.30am." arggh!!!! So frustrating! He couldve told me from the start if he was READING my message! I then replied that I would meet them at the soccer field at 8.30am then. Next morning (today), I got there at 8.32am and called Kenta. He overslept, so I told him I'd wait for him. Then I called Brendan. He said he was ALREADY AT THE UNDERPASS! I'm liked what??? Didn't we agree to meet at 8.30? And he said "yeah, but you weren't there at 8.30 so I left first. Meet you at Ray's shop." (there are not enough words to show how angry and upset I was that he didn't even wait 5 minutes, didn't even bother to call Kenta) Okay he tries to call me before he left but I was cycling and didn't feel my phone vibrate. Sigh. Later Kenta and I met Brendan at Ray's shop and I asked him why he didn't wait for us. He said we were late. Fine. I was technically 2mins late but couldn't he have waited??? An not even an apology... We were cycling back from the skate park to Ray's shop then I slowed to check something. The rest went ahead. After I finished, I went to catch up with then and found Kenta waiting at the corner, then he left for Kendo after we caught up with Hafiez. Apparently, Hafiez and Brendan had a race and Brendan won, so he was far up ahead and we couldn't see him. We pedalled faster but after awhile, I was beginning to wonder where Brendan was. I assumed he'd meet us at Ray's shop as usual. When Hafiez and I got there, he wasn't! I quickly called him and he took awhile to answer. When he did, he told me he had sat down somewhere and took a nap! A NAP?! Outrageous! Wow some leader he turned out to be. Doesnt wait for his team members, sleeps on the job, and is gives the impression of arrogance. We (Brendan, Hafiez and I) then decided to go for lunch at the Lagoon. Brendan and Hafiez were talking and I didn't really feel like talking so I put on my music. Halfway through, Hafiez speeds up and then Brendan suddenly turns away. I thought he was just going to rest then catch up with us so I pedalled faster and shouted to Hafiez to wait. When we turned back to find him, he was gone. I later found out he had told me he was going home but I was listening to my music and didn't hear him so that's partly my fault. I didn't even realize he spoke to me. I thought he was angry with something so I let him go. After lunch I called him but his phone was off. Or so I thought. I called his home phone and he answered. When I told him his phone was off, he said no, it's on, try calling again. So I did, but the female voice said that his phone wasn't responding. I called his home again and told him. Know what his answer was? "something wrong with your phone." As if straightaway, it's my fault and not his. Can you believe this??? I hung up. I'm seriously beginning to reconsider our friendship.

2. Magic, the Gathering. Very black and vampiric again. 4 out of 12 were black and one artifact which is vampire based but not vampire required. Which is good. Red also getting quite strong. Searing Blaze, RR, instant, common, Searing Blaze deals 1 damage to target player and 1 damage to target creature that player controls. Landfall-Searing Blaze does 3 damage to target player and 3 damage to target creature that player controls instead. In effect, it's a double Lightning Bolt at it's best. So you could potentially run 12 Lightning Bolts using only 8 card spaces! Coolness. That's gonna be another $1 common.

3. Love. Man, should I step forward? Should I step back? I'm stuck now. I dunno what to do. She still hasn't replied about the movie. Why not??? And I've made a terrible mistake. I thought she lived in yio chu kang when she doesn't. Arrgh!!! Damn. I still dunno if she just went through a rejection, breakup or argument or if she even has a boyfriend. What should I do??? Maybe I should just stick to loving Monique.

4. Comedy. Sorry guys I'm too pissed at Brendan and confused about Her to joke now. Maybe tomorrow.

5. Trading/Investing. Uncle Van helped my download some audio and video tracks on iTunes U about econmics several weeks back and I've been listening them. Not absorbing much becuase it's damn confusing but this is only making me wanna study economics even more. Macro- and Micro-economics are fascinating... Confusing? Yes. Tedious? Yes. Fascinating? Hell yes.

6. Personal Development. Finally managed to read chapter 9 today.  It's all about taking action. First before a discussion, decide on how to decide. The four ways are:
Command- Decisions made without involving others.
Consult- Input is gathered from the group then a subset decides.
Voting- An agreed ob percentage swings the decision.
Consensus- Everyone comes to an agreement and supports the final decision.

Each of these tools have their strengths and weaknesses, and each one is and should be used in different situations.
Command- One authority makes the decision because it's crucial. Eg, a parent decides his/her children's punishment. However, explaining why helps alot, especially in a company.
Consultation- Similar to command but the authority considers everyone's input and bases his/her decision on that.
Voting- This is a bit touchy because in the end there will be winners and losers. This should be used as a pre-decision, eg vote to reduce a list of 20 things to just 5 things and use say consult or consensus from there. Don't use it as a "okay we'll never agree, let's vote." All you do is make enemies.
Consensus- The best kind of decision because everyone one is involved and everyone is supportive. When used correctly, it's extremely powerful but when it's not, it's just a time-waster. Do not force consensus. If the only tool you have is a hammer, then every problem starts to look like a nail. Consensus isn't the only way to make a decision. Do not accept martyrs or become a martyr, using sarcasm to snap at people. This just pisses everyone  off. And don't take turns to give in. Give in because the other party is right or has a genuinly better idea. Base the decision on merit, not whose turn it is to be walked over.

Finally, decide WHO does WHAT by WHEN. Be clear and set follow up dates and milestones.

22 Jan 10

1. General. Wow today was tiring. I woke up this morning only to go to sleep on the sofa in the living room. If my grandmother hadn't been brought out of her room by her maid, I would've probably slept till noon and missed work. And it rained in the morning. Heavily. Luckily I was already in Brendan's mum's car on my way to work. It has a sunroof so I was very mesmerised by the water droplets that formed on top. It would've been a nice picture if I had camera.

2. Magic, the Gathering. New cards out. 1 token released: a 0/1 plant. It was released along with the card that makes that token: Avenger of Zendikar. 5GG, 5/5, mythic rare, elemental, When Avenger of Zendikar enters the battlefield, put a 0/1 green Plant creature token onto the battlefield for each land you control.
Landfall - Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, you may put a +1/+1 counter on each Plant creature you control. And there is a land, Khalni Garden which produces a plant token upon entering the battlefield. Looks like there can be a tribal plant deck.

Some cards are just confusing for now like Selective Memory (3U, sorcery, rare, exile any number of nonland cards from your libray. Then shuffle your library) and Eye of Ugin (legendary, rare, Colorless Eldrazi spells cost 2 less to cast.
7, tap: Search your library for a colorless creature card, reveal it and put it in your hand. Then shuffle your library.) I'm like, huh?

Anyway, more cards for me. Seer's Sundial would go great with my Esper deck for card advantage, Jwari Shapeshifter is extremely flexible for my Ally Mill, and Calcite Snapper is an excellent draft card along with Iona's Judgement. There's just too many cards released today so tomorrow I'll talk about more.

3. Love. Man I love that song (It's Not Just Make-believe)!!!! I was listening to it over and over again this morning. Everytime I hear it I've got to resist the urge to Shuffle. Lol. Anyway today she replied so I can meet her again (yay!) for a movie. Just dunno when yet. My heart is soaring!!! We'll see how this turns out...

4. Comedy. Notice how some people tend to eat alot when their under pressure? Well, that's because stressed spelt backwards spells desserts! Lol.

5. Trading/Investing. Today had a small WBG 88 meeting. Kelly and Wee Heong didn't come. Anyway, it was a good meeting overall because I learnt from other's mistakes.

Daddy's stocks (SATS and SingTel) went up a bit today. SATS is up to 2.66, 2 cents more than when he bought it at. That's good, but not enough to cover the commission. SingTel went up 1 cent to 3.01 so still at a 3 cent loss but at least both stocks are maintaining while many others plunged. I heard it's because of China's decision to raise interest rates. It's economy shot up so they needed to control it. People over-reacted so these past few days have generally been bear.

6. Personal Development. Sigh. Like I said, busy day today. Didn't read. Tomorrow will have time so I'll read like 2 or 3 chapters, the post one chapter a day fro the next few days. I've had a lot on my mind recently so tomorrow when I go cycling, I'm gonna sit at the beach and just relax. Sharpen the Saw is the 7th habit of Steven Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. I think. 

21 Jan 10

1. General. More filing and sorting today. Posted a joke on FB and got scolded by Darian for misleading him. Go to my facebook page if you wanna see it. I won't be changing it like for a long time. I'm very upset because all I wanted to do was tell a joke and now I'm getting scolded for it? Don't get me wrong, I'll accept crap like 'lame' or 'WTF man..' but I will NOT accept people who scold me for 'misleading' them. Don't like it then don't comment.

2. Magic, the Gathering. On a happier note, today there were cards for me in the spoiler!!! Yay! Finally a ram card which is NOT green. Amulet of Vigor: 1, artifact, When a permanent you control enters the battlefiel tapped, untap it. Now that very good already right? Wait there's more. It's only rated Rare and it's NOT LEGENDARY. Which means you can have multiple copies on the field and THE ABILITIES STACK. That is, if you have 2 Amulets in play, and you play an Arcane Sanctum, it comes in tapped, then the first Amulet untaps it. Say you tap it for mana before the second Amulet triggers, then when all the abilities resolve, you end up with one mana and an untapped Arcane Sanctum! Note: the permanent HAS to enter the field tapped. You can't play a normal land and tap it. It will not trigger. But that's alright for me cuz I play alot of tap lands and borderposts. Next card: Everflowing Chalice. 0, artifact, muiltkicker 2, Everflowing Chalice enters the battlefield with a charge counter for each time it was kicked, tap: add 1 for each charge counter on Everflowing Chalice. It's alright for me because it still functions as a free artifact to sacrifice for Thopter Foundry or becomes a 5/5 with Tezzeret, even without the kicker. However, it only produces colourless mana which may be a problem for other decks. Now this new card Bazaar Trader came out. It's 1R, goblin, 1/1, tap: target player gains control of target artifact, creature or land you control. Now I can understand Abyssal Persecutor better. Whack till your opponent has negative life then give him/her control of Abyssal Persecutor via Bazaar Trader. Game over. 

3. Love. Damn she hasn't replied to my twitter message yet. Sigh. I disguised it as a reunion with some other friends instead of it being her and me, but if she reads this, then... who knows what'll happen? She could ignore it or she could drop me hints or tell me outright exactly what she thinks. I don't know what I would prefer. But if she does say she likes me I would be singing Kari Kimmel's It Not Just Make-Believe in my head. Go check it out on YouTube. I love it cuz I can shuffle to it as well. The beat is nice and fast.

4. Comedy. 
Mitchell, my brother, told me this next joke too.

Ring ring... Welcome to the Psychiatric Hotline! For those with obssesive compulsive disorder, please press 1 repeatedly. For those with co-dependence, please ask someone to help you press 2. For those with dyslexia, please press the number that closely resembles 3. For those with multiple personalities, please press 4, 5, 6, and 7. For paranoid delusionals, we know who you are and what you want. Please hold while this call is traced. For schizophrenia, listen carefully and the voice inside your head will tell you what to press. And finally, if you are a maniac depressive, it doesn't matter what you: press- no one will answer... And, thanks for calling!

5. Trading/Investing. Bear day. Many stock prices dropped. NOL and SGX dropped further so it was a good thing daddy cut loss. Then the other 2 stocks he bought with cash (SingTel and SATS) did NOT go down. They maintained their prices. Well, SingTel is still down 4 cents from the price he bought it at but it's the same price as yesterday. No change. Wow my dad made the right choice. Coolness.

6. Personal Development. Nope didn't read today. Yesterday was because I had to do my scholarship application (ms Judy replied. She's damn fast). And today was because daddy asked me and Mitch to help him with going through the Mechanics questions for his Adaptive Testing job for MINDEF. Had several good arguments over Fleming's Left Hand and Fleming's Right Hand and the Right Hand Grip rule. I am going to ask Mdm Soh, Miss Siow, Mr Lak, Adam Khoo, Conrad and Leroy to write testemonials for me. I hope they say okay, especially the latter three.     

20 Jan 10

1. General. Yay today I learnt more office skills: chopping, matching invoices to their delivery orders/work reports, sorting them alphabetically and inputing them into the computer. Wow like some RPG I level up and learn new skills! Lol.

3. Magic, the Gathering. Today was very black, very vampiric. So no cards for me. However this is interesting: Abyssal Persecutor, 2BB, 6/6, flying, trample, you can't win the game an your opponents can't lose the game, creature-demon. Huh? Yes you read right. It's so wierd. Looks like the only way to win with this is attack till your opponent has negative life then Path it or cast Day of Judgement. Alternatively, you could attack with Novablast Worm on turn 8 of a Doran-coloured deck. But hey, it's a 4 mana 6/6 with Flample. Another interesting one: Urge to Feed. BB, instant, target creature gets -3/-3. You may tap any number of Vampires. Put a +1/+1 counter on each of those Vampires. At the very least, it's decent removal or a global pump for vampires. Gonna be super awesome in draft if you can play mainly vampires.

3. Love. Sigh. I'm not sure if She's reading my blog but I'm gonna assume She's not. I won't reveal her name though, in case She DOES read this. Or in case my parents do. Hey Girl if you read this and know it's you, gimme a shout out will you? Anyway, I asked her out today. Sort of. I left her a message on Twitter inviting her to a movie with me. Okay so I didn't exactly ask her out on a date, but I just started work in Woodlands and she lives in Yio Chu Kang (I think) so it's easier to get to her. I hope She says alright. Kinda nervous right now waiting for her reply. Wow this is the longest I've wrote for this section. Coolness.

4. Comedy. I met a man who loved to make mental bets. Just the other day he lost his mind. My brother thought that one up. Awesomeness.

5. Trading/Investing. Today bad day. All daddy's stocks went down so he cut loss for 2 of them. NOL he cut at $1.88. 5 cent loss times 8000 shares. That's about $400 with the trading fees. The other stock was SGX which had only 2 lots but it went down alot so in the end he lost. Ah well.

6. Personal Development. Other than my new office skills, I haven't done anything else. Didn't read chapter 9 because of work, but I did complete my draft form of my scholarship and sent it off to Miss Judy Pereira to look through. Once all changes have been made, I need to call up Mdm Soh and Miss Siow to ask them to be my referees.

19th Jan 10

1. General. Wow tiring day today. Started my job as an accounts assistant (temp) at Beyonics Technologies. Staple paper, punch holes, file paper, move paper, staple more paper, punch more holes, sort paper, file paper. Whoo! Fun. I used to sort my Magic, the Gathering cards by colour then alphabetical order and it took me quite awhile. When I finished, I'm always like, wow, that took up alot of time. But now I'm paid to do the exact same thing! How cool is that? Now after I sort, I'm like, wow that took up a lot of time, but I'm paid!! Lol cheap thrills.

2. Magic, the Gathering. New cards today. Novablast worm. 3GGWW, 7/7, when Novaworm attacks, destroy all other creatures. Interesting, but I'm not gonna play it. Now this card, Hada Freeblade, is much more interesting and simpler to use. W, 0/1, Ally, Allyfall- put a +1/+1 counter on Hada Freeblade. It's like a defensive Elite Vanguard that grows. Turn one you have a 1/2 on the field. Immediately knocks out Raging Goblin. Awesome.  Including that into my Ally Mill deck.

Oh I just read today, there is no maximum number of a single card you can put into a deck for Limited and Sealed Draft! Now definitely confirmed it's possible to make a Tome Scour deck with 8 Tome Scours, if you can get them. Excellent. Hope I can exploit this advantage in Worldwake draft. I'm gonna draft a simple ally mill deck.

3. Love. I got nothing to say today except that I should probably make my first move soon...

4. Comedy. Historians and archeologists make the best husbands. The older his wife gets, the more interested he is in her! Hee hee... I'm so not gonna be either one though.

5. Trading/Investing. Dad's shares went  up more. NOL closed with a doji with a long bottom shadow so that may indicate possible momentum tomorrow. I told my dad to remove his stop buy at 1.88 an see if can ride it up or break even. He bought at 1.93 and was getting ready to cut loss at 1.82 but just as he was about to click, the price went up. So he waited and his paitience wa rewarded when NOL closed at 1.87 today. Well, we'll see what happens tomorrow.

6. Personal Development. Couldn't read chapter 9 today cuz I was working. But I was working and that counts as Personal Development. I'm honing all my office skills: filing, punching holes, stapling. I was given a giant stapler and a giant hole puncher today. Showed off to Brendan and he was like aww, why didn't I get one? Well he processes orders. On the computer. So why would he require one? Anyway, there were tonnes of paper in the finance department. Mountains. I was wondering, with a name like Beyonics Technologies, why isn't everything, or at least most of it digitized? 

18th Jan 10

1. General. Not boring but not very exciting day today. Decided to start using my Twitter. No one's following me yet. Got a job from Brendan today. Starting tomorrow. Beyonics Technology. I'll be working in the finance department. $50/day, air-con, not bad actually. Met Miss Fatimah as well. She's daddy's friend and she's doing her best to get me an internship with her company, an accounting firm. I can only work there after I'm 17 years old.

2. Magic, the Gathering. More cards released today. Another man-land. However, this man-land can produce +1/+1 counters on itself. And guess what? When it changes back into a land, the counter doesn't dissolve!!! It just sits there waiting for the next time it transorms! How cool is that? Imagine turning it into a Zendikon, then changing it into it's creature, dumping the counter and having a powered up Zendikon on your opponent's turn! Holy crap... Wow imagine a deck with no creatures, just ram spells and man-lands. Wow...

3. Love. Arggh! I can't stop thinking about her. I can't give her up. Until maybe She rejects me. Grr... I'll ask her out for a movie and see what she says...

4. Comedy. Allegations are made by Alligators. Get it? Lol. I got that from the book Spy Girl. She's witty.

5. Trading/Investing. Daddy's shares went up in price but he's still in the red... He went throught the Chart Nexus book with me today. Very interesting. Now I understand why sometimes the pattern is there but it fails.

6. Personal Development. Read chapter 8 today. How to explore other's path to action, to understand what stories they tell themselves and to understand why they act the way they do. The chapter then follows up with ways to deal with different people when they are in different states. Such skills include mirroring, contrasting and clarifying. 

17th Jan 10

1. General. Super boring today. Didn't go out, didn't chat. My brother and I did watch Small Soldiers though. That was fun. Mostly lazed about all day today. Such nice weather to sleep in...

2. Magic, the Gathering. New card. Not exciting to me. It's red.

I disbanded my Crypt Mill and Lost Bant today. Started work on Annoyance. So many win conditions. Damage, Mill, and Life Gain via Felindar Sovereign. Lots of fog cards as well. I increased the deck size to 62 to include more Gigantiforms. Only 8 creatures: 4 Felindars and 4 Hedron Crabs. I did put in Luminarch Ascension to produce Angels though.

3. Love. Wow whole day she didn't Tweet or Blog. Suddenly stopped. Hmm...

4. Comedy. Procrastinators Unite!!! Tomorrow... Get it?

5. Trading/Investing. Dad went to a Chart Nexus course today. Supposed to start yesterday but he was super busy.  Apparently there's more to triangles than we thought. I thought it was only a breakout pattern but it's more of a continuation pattern!! Interesting... 

6. Personal Development. Finally read chapter 7. There was a lot of emphasis on stating facts and speaking tentatively in this chapter. Facts lay the groundwork for any conversation because nobody can argue with them. This then allows you to lead on to stating an opinion. That's what the second part of the chapter teaches- to state opinions carefully and speak tentatively. People won't get offended then because you're stating unquestionable facts and offering your opinion in a soft way.

16th Jan 10

1. General. Bicycling day today. Fell down but no serious injury. Just a few scratches on my hands and a big bruise on my left knee. Still throbs a bit. I'm still not sure exactly how I fell. My wheel just sort of turned. Okay well I was cycling without my hands but I always do that. Maybe I wasn't going fast enough.

2. Magic, the Gathering. Played draft with Lloyd, Wheelock, JY, Vincent and John today. I won 3rd place and got Liliana Vess, Howling Mine and Open the Vaults. Yay! Draft was damn fun. I should draft more often.

3. Love. Maybe it IS time to change my focus on girls. She's just too far. I won't give up entirely, but I will be looking at other girls closer to me. I'm sure in TP I'll have alot of chances. So when I go for the Freshman Orientation Camp and/or Workshop, I will make alot of friends and maybe even find someone who likes me.

4. Comedy. Heard the saying "Money Talks"? Well, mine mostly says "goodbye".

5. Trading/Investing. Nothing happened today. Of course nothing happened- it's not a trading day.

6. Personal Development. I am such a slacker and a procrastinator. I did work on my IDA application till 12 midnight though. Maybe that counts under personal development.  

15th Jan 10

1. General. Nothing much happened today...

2. Magic, the Gathering. Yes part of the spoiler is out!! Lodestone golem will be awesome on my esper deck. 4 mana, 5/3, artifact creature, Non-artifact spell cost 1 more to play!!  Whoo this is totally gonna revamp my deck. Also so many Man-lands!!!! Excellent. Imagine a man-land deck. Hmm... That would be interesting...

I lost to Clement's Jund deck 3 times in a row today. So I remade my deck. It's more comeback-y now. Still a bit weak to Maelstrom Pulse though.

3. Love. Still following her twitter an blog. Quite touching, the pictures she put up. Oh man she has a lot going on in her life. How am I supposed to make my way into her life? The only times I can see her would probably be at AKLTG when we coach. Correction: IF she coaches. She's going to JC and while I'm happy for her, it means she'll be even busier and probably won't be coaching this March. It may be time to look for love elsewhere but until that day comes, She will still be on my mind...

4. Comedy. On a lighter note, did you know that Embargo backwards is O grab me? Hah I got that from Ryan in Whose Line Ia It Anyway and Collin replied: oh I bet you thought of that a long time ago. Lol

5. Trading/Investing. The 1999 shares went up. So dad made lesser losses. Yay! Still in the red but like less red. Lol

6. Personal Development. Ah crap nothing again. Tomorrow also won't have because I'm going bicycling and have draft later.

14th Jan 10

1. General. Went to TP today to see Miss Judy Peirera because I needed help with doing the application form for the IDA Scholarship. Couldn't find the button. So anyway found it at TP and signed up so now gotta write a 200 word essay on my personal goals, a 200 word essay on my career path, and a 500 word essay on my life goals. That's 900 words!!! I thought exam over no need to write compostion then now got this. Ah well if I wanna have the scholarship must put in effort.

2. Magic, the Gathering. I love this game. More on milling week today. I finished making my Defense Mill deck so now waiting for more cards to modify the deck with.

3. Love. Ooh haven't practiced Falling for You in the last 4 days. Oops. Think about Her too much until forget to practice. Lol

4. Comedy. Light travells faster than sound. That's why people appear bright- until you hear them speak. This goes out to all the people out there who have experienced this problem. From either point of view.

5. Trading/Investing. Dad set a stop loss on CMC market. He had 2000 shares and was using leverage. The stop activated but guess what?? He only sold ONE share!! He forgot to set the thing to sell 2000 shares so now he has 1999 shares. Lol. Anyway it made back a bit of money today so he lost less. Guess it was a sort of blessing in disguise.

6. Personal Development. Crap. I didn't read today. Totally forgot. Nevermind I'll read tomorrow.

Lol kinda short again today...

13th Jan 10

1. Boring today. Nothing happened except a meeting with Wealth 88 and Uncle Wahab about CMC market. 

2. Magic, the Gathering. Yes! Finally the first visual spoiler on magicthegathering.com. There's a new blue ally: Halimar Excavator. It's very good for a common. Extremely efficient. 1U, 1/3, AllyFall-target player mills X cards where X is the number of allies you control. Whoo making a Defensive Mill deck with lots of walls and defenders. Threw in a playset of crabs too. Can't wait for the rest. Starting next week I think. I'm so excited!!! Gonna keep close watch for anymore mill cards to modify this deck with.

3. Love. So busy with everything else so no updates. Still think of her alot though. Obviously. Still following her twitter and blog.

4. Comedy. Parents are wierd. They spend the first 3 years of our lives teaching us to walk and talk but spend the next 15 telling us to sit down and shut up! 

5. Trading/Investing. Wealth 88 met again today and discuss CMC markets. Dad loves it because it shows depth. i.e. it shows the number of shares queueing up to buy or sell.

6. Personal Development. Nothing today.

12th Jan 10

1. General. Went to TP today to find out more about Financial Business Informatics (FBI). Very interesting. Saw Miss Rita there an she remembered me!!!!! Yay I feel good! Met new teachers too: Mr Johnathan, Miss Jo, Miss Judy, Miss Chen (the head, I think) and Mr Rao. Now they all know me. Hah! I made a name for myself. Oh I applied for the TP scholarship and I'm still trying to find out how to apply for the IDA Scholarship. Miss Judy showed it to me today and I saw the "Apply Now" button. Now I'm at home and I can't find the freaking button. I found the correct page but the button mysteriously disappeared! Hmm very strange...

2. Magic, the Gathering. I love Milling Week. Only Day 2 an I learnt how to draft a mill deck. Apparently the "playset" rule doesn't apply for drafting. Thats something new to me. You can have as many Tome Scours to make a Tome Scour Deck for example. That is so awesome. Can't wait for tomorrow's product release!

3. Love. Still no updates. Still thinking about her. As usual.

4. Comedy. Today we (Troy, Audre, Hafiez, John and me) were sitting at the Design School's canteen because Troy likes the Milo-Teh Beng mix. So the conversation turned to Troy and his Skateboarding and he said he could do implants. And Audre quickly quipped: YOU have IMPLANTS?! Of course we all got that immediately and fell about laughing. Lol. That was today's Epic Joke.

5. Trading/Investing. Going to FBI!!!! Learning all about trading whoo!!!! Hoping to get scholarship.

6. Personal Development. Chapter 6 taught me to look back on the situation carefully. Sometimes, we tell ourselves stories to justify or hide our actions. These stories make you percieve the other person as a villain and you as a victim. So one needs to percieve everyone as humans, not villians with bad intentions. Always look back at the facts and question yourself. When you master telling only true stories to yourself, you will behave differently and have a good dialogue.

11th Jan 10

1. General. Whoo today was a good day!!! I got 12 points for L1R4!!! That means I can get into Finincial Business Informatics in TP under School of IIT!!!! Yes! Last year's cutoff was 14 and I can still minus CCA so quite safe. Going down to TP with Troy and Hafiez tomorrow to talk to the teachers. 

2. Magic, the Gathering. Yes! This Wednesday is the product release and next week is the spoiler!! About time too! My parents just allowed me to go for the Worldwake Prelease so I'm very happy. I managed to register my DCI number but only because I put my age as 20 years old. Hmm.

3. Love. No new updates. Still thinking of her. Always. *blissful sigh*

4. Comedy. I remember once Brendan treated us to Sake Sushi. Troy, Kenta, Bryan and I, that is. We had just finished and were walking down the steps to the MRT when Kenta sat on the railings and slid all the way down. We all laughed at that. Then Brendan said: "you go up then I impress. Do it Mary Poppins style!" We all cracked up at that. That was the epic joke of the day. ROFLMAO

5. Trading/Investing. No updates. Except Audre and I had a Facebook debate on playing with stocks and shares. No elboration.

6. Personal Development. Just more on chapter 5. Use contrasting to diffuse a situation and make it safe. Clarify what you don't want to clear up or avoid any misunderstandings, then state what you do want for the outcome of the conversation. This clears up any doubts about your intentions and the person feels safer talking to you because he/she knows that your intentions are good and that your not aiming to put him/her down.

10th Jan 10

1. General. Wow I'm so sleepy. The aftermath of partying too much. Just had a 2hr nap (oops). Today was more or less a boring day apart from the meeting this morning which I'll talk about in Trading/Investing.

2. Magic, the Gathering. Lol nothing again.

3. Love. No updates. Still thinking about Her... Falling for You is still damn hard. I can't seem to get the chords right. Out of practice...

4. Comedy. If at first you don't succeed, sky diving is not for you. I laughed myself to pieces when I heard that. I dunno, maybe I was in a good mood...

5. Trading/Investing. Today had a sort of meeting. Lee Peng taught us about stock options. Well it was supposed to be options basics but the discussion kinda went deeper and more confusing. I mean for the rest, not for daddy and me because we already had a grounding. So this was more of a revision for us. Definitely wanna go into options.

6. Personal Development. Okay today read chapter 5. When you identify a crucial conversation and the other person doesn't feel safe, make it safe. It makes it easier on both parties. Step out of the situation, look at it and ask yourself, how do I make it safe? How can I talk to this person without us hurling insults at each other? I think this is common sense. If you need to talk about a touchy subject you should warn that person first and get him/her in the right frame of mind, especially when giving feedback.

9th Jan 10

1. General. Whoo!!! Today was an awesome day!!! I think I had a bit too much, uhoh oh ohoh... Today was the TP Jam n Hop which was super fun!!! I can SHUFFLE!!! FINALLY!!! Troy and I actually taught others how to shuffle, tecktonik and jumpstyle!!! Can't wait for the Freshman Orientation Workshop and Camp! Gonna shuffle our way to TP! Lol.

2. Magic, the Gathering. Lol today no articles on magicthegathering.com. So sad... 

3. Love. Yes! Found out more stuff about Her on her twitter. *grin* I hope she does come to AKLTG in March. And I love Monique my iPod... Lol just had to say something.

4. Comedy. I still don't know whether or not I like indecisive people.. Those of you who didn't get it, read it again and see the irony. Just FYI, I made it up myself. I'm so proud of it. Lol

5. Trading/Investing. Nothing today. Sorry guys.

6. Personal Development. I learned how to shuffle! That's today's personal development for me. Now super tired.. Gonna sleep...

Goodnight... *yawn* sorry a bit short today. Kinda tired.

8th Jan 10

1. General. Wow today was a great day! Went to the TP open house with Troy and Hafiez. Damn tiring. Wow the skate team rawked! I could watch them all day. So synchronized and smooth. They did a good job: I want to join them. Oh the mass dance was fun but I didn't join in because I forgot the steps! Argh!!! Nevermind, today was a good refresher so I'll join in next time. Lol going for tomorrow's Jam n Hop at 7pm. See if I can improve my shuffling. Troy's gonna Tektonik as usual. Show off... Thinking of joining the T.P.S.U as well, and the tennis team! Wah so many how to choose?! Sigh... Wish I could join all of them.

2. Magic, the Gathering. Nothing much today still waiting for Worldwake Spoiler to start... Yes Tom LaPalle just talked about Blue being a strong colour again! Yay definitely gonna play blue in draft. We're gonna see if we can play GGD when the box comes out.

3. Love. Found out more stuff about Her today. Following her Twitter and Blog so hopefully i'll find out much more. (Keep posting!!! Please.) Very excited maybe can see her again in March if we go and coach at AKLTG... 

4. Comedy. Extracted from a dictionary:
Prank: see Practical Joke
...
Practical Joke: see Prank

Lol next time you can use this to make fun of dictionaries and encyclopaedias.

5. Trading/Investing. Today had WBG 88 meeting. Very interesting. We split into several groups, each in charge of one section eg trading, Internet business etc etc. I took trading with dad because it's more fun than fundamental analysis. Each time we meet, a different group would present to the rest and we would all learn from each other. This is good as when you teach, you learn too.

6. Personal Development. Didn't read today cuz there was alot going on... Sorry!!!

I think from here on I have to cut down on blogging time. Maybe I'll combine 2 or 3 days worth together.    

7th Jan 10

1. General.  Huh. Didn't sleep last night. Only slept this morning at 1am. Was helping dad do some stuff regarding hotspoting items. *yawn* 

2. Magic, the Gathering. Went out with Brendan today to go to Raffles City because there was a card shop there that sold rare and uncommon singles. He was making the Grapeshot storm deck so he got a playset of Pyromancer's Swarth and 2 Lotus Blooms. Lotus Blooms were freakin ex! $12 apiece! Ah well he said he was quite serious about this deck... Not my cuppa tea though. We went to Simei after that to pick up some commons. I mean we intended to get commons but there were no freakin commons we wanted at all! Sigh... So we had a few games there. His Dragon Ram vs my Esper Fog. I knew he had a Violent Ultimatum in his hand (he always does) so I skipped my land drop to allow him to use it. He played Broodmate Dragon instead and smashed my face. Ah well I knew I was gonna lose anyway. I always lose to that deck.  Heck, I'm just gonna wait for Worldwake and modify. Hurry up, Worldwake!!! Only a month left!!!

3. Love. Oh damn. Mum saw the girl on my iPod. I set a picture of her face as my wallpaper. Found it on Facebook and it was during her prom night so she was all dolled up. Ah well now I can say that that is the girl I like. Hmm.. Must remember to change the wallpaper before I go to AKLTG. I might meet her and use my iPod. Don't want her to start asking why her face is on my iPod. No her name isn't Monique. That's the name of my iPod touch. 
Didn't manage to learn Falling for You last night because I had to help dad but I did try to learn it just now. OMG it's so difficult! I thought I had to chords but it didn't sound right so I went to search some more and I found like uber hard chords. I had no clue what the chords were telling me. Like some different language. So long never touch the guitar...

4. Comedy. Before you criticise someone, walk a mile in his shoes. That way, when you do criticise him, your a mile away- and you have his shoes! Lol. Had a lot of good laughs with Brendan today. Him and his stupid 'Ninja' as usual.  Tried to ninja me by stopping behind a pillar. Lol sometimes we are just so lame...

5. Trading/Investing. Oh I forgot, hafta do fundamental analyst on some companies today. Dad bought Keppel Corp shares (2 lots) yesterday and now profited $500! This is probably due to the January Effect making the breakout patterns so strong and reliable... Ah well good for us!

6. Personal Development. Okay I just finished chapter 4. I learnt the next skill: watching for
 a) What a person says
 b) The conditions i.e. When a conversation turns crucial, signs that people don't feel safe and how you behave under stress
 c) When you see safety problems, change the situation to make it safe because when people don't feel safe, they tend to clam up or force their opinions. identify when people are moving towards silence or violence
So when you can identify these, you can better handle the situation. This goes back to lesson 1: start with the heart. You have a goal, and these skills allow you move toward that outcome.

6th Jan 10

1. General. Okay I managed to find out the other 3 girls who I forgot yesterday: Tiffany, Si Tian and Mehlissa. I remember Tiffany and Si Tian (just couldn't remember their names then) but I've totally forgotten Mehlissa. Ironically, she's the one who uploaded our group photo at the jetty to Facebook. Sigh... Ah well, I can consider this as making a new friend! Heh. Ah! Just heard it on the radio: O level results out this monday at 2pm. Excellent. I got an iPod touch cover today at Dieso in Vivo for $2. Mum bought it for me (thanks mummy!). I also got a screen protector (3 actually) from Popular but it was $29! Oh it did come with a screen cleaner cloth thing and mum's Popular card got me a 5% discount to $27.55 but Ouch! Protector for $2 but $27.55 for a screen protector?! Holy crap!!! Putting them on tonight. Anyway I'm gonna create a new section for this blog: 6. Personal Development. So read on...

2. Magic, the Gathering. Ah! I just finished making a new decklist. Revolves around Open the Vaults and enchantments. Except that I'm still deciding between Luminarch Ascension and Sigil of the Empty Throne. I call it Annoyance because there's alot of Fog cards. Nevermind, i'll wait til Worldwake comes out then modify it. Can't wait!!! 

3. Love. Well, gonna start learning Falling fo You tonight. Found the chords on the Net and mum just taught me the strumming. That song really says how i feel now about that special someone (Troy you better not tell anyone!) Never actually ever had a serious girlfriend... Being in a boys school (St Pats) for 4 years doesn't help much either. So i met this girl at AKLTG when i went 2 years ago. And she is damn cute. Oops getting very close to revealing so i'll just end off here...

4. Comedy. Remember, you're unique, just like everyone else! Hah! Hope that made you laugh. Been watching Whose Line Is It Anyway? alot on YouTube lately. Collin Mochorie is really good! I love his deadpan face, especially when he plays Weird Newscastors and Scenes from a Hat. Oh! How could I forget the game Whose Line? He and Ryan Stiles rock! They always make the lines seem to fit. Sort of. Hah I wanted to star on Whose Line once. Mummy said if they ever came to Singapore we'd buy tickets no matter how expensive they are.  

5. Trading/Investing. My dad made money today! Yay! Today was a good day. Dad bought 2 lots (2000 shares) of Wilmar a few days ago at $6.52 an today it spiked up all the way to $6.79! Daddy quickly put a stop loss (actually a stop profit) at $6.68 and unfortunately got stopped out.Total profit: $227 After all the commission and financing charges. Yay! Should have sold at $6.73 before lunch but it seemed like it had momentum so dad let it run. Ah well, don't be greedy, at least he made money. Found out it was easier to play with stocks than with the S&P 500 index, although he does do well in a sideways market, or a 'crab' market, as dubbed by a fellow investor at one of Conrad's previews. So now we have bull markets, bear markets, and crab markets!

6. Personal Development. My dad told me to read this book: Crucial Conversations. I must say it's very interesting. I started yesterday and I'm learning alot. The first 2 chapters was more on defining crucial conversation moments (chapter 1) and the benefits of mastering this skill (chapter 2). Anyway, chapter 3 is when they really start teaching you. "Start from the Heart" . This is the first part to learn. When you enter a crucial conversation or when a conversation turns crucial, you need to keep your goal in mind and do not react immediately. If not, you start defending yourself, tempers flare and the topic of discussion is lost. Conversation digresses so far that time is wasted. So this is what I've learnt so far. Interesting? I'll put up more tomorrow when I finish chapter 4.

My first real posting

Ok straight to it:

1. General. Yesterday was an awesome day! I met up with several of my Primary 6 classmates. 4 long years have gone by and I was quite embarrassed to find that i'd forgotten most of their names, especially the girls. Thank goodness for free Internet at the Macs at ECP where I quickly checked the facebook profiles of the friends I had to match their faces. There were 12 of us so let's see how many of the 11 I can name:
Hau Yan (duh, she organized it and invited me)
Kun Long (joker, still as large as I remember)
Bryan (how to forget? Freaking tall guy, towering over all the teachers)
Nicholas (the only ang mor)
Daryl (okay I forgot him at first but Nicholas introduced himself to me as Daryl so I figured they pull a prank I would have and swapped names)
Christy (found on facebook looking through pictures. Whew!)
Yuan Yuan (could hardly recognise her at all! So different! I found out her name later during cycling when Kun Long called her name. I was like WTH! That's Yuan Yuan?!)
Jing Yuan (pale as ever. Confirmed her identity when she mentioned Mitchell, my brother.)
okay I've seriously forgotten the last 3 (sorryyyy, girls!) I honestly didn't recognise or remember them. Not even facebook could help here.
Ah well we all did have a good time cycling to the jetty and back. I got blisters which thankfully didn't pop. I really need to get myself a pair of gloves.

2. Magic, the Gathering. Umm not much to say right now other than I LOVE THE NEW JACE! 4 freakin' effects! He's so control-ly now I'm definitly putting him into my mill deck or maybe modify the Jacerator with Worldwake cards. Hmm... My Esper Fog deck is doing well, currently this is the best deck I've ever built. I mean original, not taken from the Internet like Crypt Mill or Jacerator. Unfortunately, it still can't beat Brendan's Dragon Ram. I mean, who can survive a turn 3 Violent Ulimatum? Nobody can recover from land loss. An I really hate the new Muli-kicker ability. Ram decks are gonna go through the roof! Especially Eldrazi Green with Joraga Warcaller. It's too imba. Not fair. On the bright side, Aaron Forsythe did mention a good number of blue cards (yes!!!) which means control decks might get a boost (yay!). Now the suspense begins as it's only a month left to the release. When are they gonna start the spoiler?!

3. Love. Sigh what to say? I found this song on Joelle's blog and i love it. I'm gonna learn how to play it on the guitar. The song is Falling for You by Colbie Caillat.

4. Comedy. Hey this is fun. Go watch Jeff Dunham. I like Peanut, Achmed the Dead Terrorist and Jose Jalepeneo on a stick. It's super funny and I really applaud Jeff Dunham. He's a wonderful ventrilquist. I actually wanted to become a ventriloquist once when I wanted to be a comic. It's so much more fun with 2 people talking rather than just 1. It's kinda hard to find someone to click with so I thought, why not click with myself? I dunno if I'll ever be able to become as good as Jeff Dunham. Ventriloquism is extremely difficult to master.

5. Trading/Investing. My dad and I have attended many talks on these subjects over the holidays and it was really fun. I learnt alot and the most important thing I learnt was Macro-Economics. Conrad (the best trader I know personally) told us about it. So I did some research and I think the best place to start learning is Conrad's blog (www.conradalvinlim.com). I found it very informative and easy to understand. I'm definitely gonna follow his blog.

Okay I'm done for now. The last thing I wanna say is thank you to my Uncle Van and Aunty Lee Beng for getting me an iPod touch! In fact, I'm using it right now to type my blogs and I'll continue to do so. I engraved the word 'Control' because in MTG, I'm a control player, and if I ever lose this, I'll lose Control!! See what I meant by lame jokes? I also named this iPod Monique. I really like this French name. I have no idea why, I just do. It's so... interesting, know what I mean?

5 Jan 2010

Hi! This is the first time I'm blogging. Ever. I mean, I never even kept a diary or journal though who knows how many times I've started. Hopefully, this one will be kept alive for many years to come. I think is easier this way, as everything is digitized by the Internet. I must thank this girl, Joelle, for inspiring me to start a blog. Okay well she didn't do it on purpose- I just spent yesterday morning reading her whole Tumblr blog on my iTouch- but she still deserves to be mentioned.

Anyway, I spent last night, just before I went to sleep, about how I would format my blog. I decided to separate my postings in several groups as I have different interests. This would make it easier for anyone reading my blog to skip parts they find irrelevant or boring. Some sections would only make sense to those who share it with me, an there will be alot of inside jokes outsiders may not get. These are my sections:
1. General. This part is about my everyday life, though I won't put a posting everyday. This is about my life in general, much like Twitter except I'll have more than 140 characters in this section. *grin* Anyway, a bit about myself and this blog. As I said, I was inspired by Joelle because after I read her whole blog, I felt it was a very emotional place (no offense, just stating opinion) and I was amazed by how much emotion was poured into this. It was like a whole side of my friend I haven't seen before. This is when I realized the power of blogs. It's a place to pour your emotions into when you feel overwhelmed. It's a place to share experiences, good or bad, with the rest of the world, it's a place to... You get the idea. In this section, I will put up photos and video links (if I can find them) that relate to each posting. Enjoy!

2. Magic, the Gathering. This is a trading card game which I love, not a gathering of illusionists. Coincidently, Magic, the Gathering (or MTG for short) is exactly the same age as me. Yes, it started the year I was born, and I have fallen in love with it since my dad brought home Duel Decks when I was 8. Can't wait for the new release of Worldwake in Feb!!! Some people view this as a childish hobby but I'm not here to promote the game. And those who say it to me to my face, I will respond: "I don't insult your religion, do I?" Yes people, I follow this game religiously. I have no religion of my own, by the way. I'm a firm beliver in free-thinking. Ironic much?

3. Love. This is gonna be kinda vague to keep annonymity. Sometimes this part will just have a picture or video link or quote. Somtimes there will be explanations, but not too much. Follow the KISS rule: Keep It Simple, Stupid.

4. Comedy. In secondary school, I wanted to be a comic with one of my best friends, Brendan, and we actually put up a short performance for PAEF in Sec 3. It kinda died after that but I'm gonna partly revive that in here. I use to think I was terribly funny an I was right. Partly. The 'terrible' part. I was a lousy comic. My friends and classmates all thought i was lame. Well I'm just gonna put up some quotes and jokes in this section. Hope to brighten your day!

5. Trading/Investing. This is a new area for me. My dad introduced trading and value investing to me and was hooked.

I think that's all for now. It's the beginning of the year and I'm really excited because I just finished O levels last year and I'm anxiously waiting for the results next week. My MTG friends and I have planned to open our results one at a time like booster packs. If you don't understand this well, too bad. Nah i'm just kidding. If you really wanna find out or learn about MTG, go to www.magicthegathering.com to learn.