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!