Finally some time to blog. April and May has been a time of making decisions, especially on what to do for this year. Every year seems like a life-changing one, and this year is no different. 

I've been serving Tanglin Trust for almost a year now, and I got news recently that my position will soon be converted to a full time, so I would have to decide on whether I will be staying, or leaving. I was contemplating on quite a bit, since the money is really quite good, considering this is a position of a tech. The job nature is, pretty fun too. Compared to my colleagues, I *think* I probably have the best job scope, though my pay may not be as good.

I thought about it quite long, and... 

I decided to leave. It is actually the more difficult, more challenging and more uncomfortable route, but it is also the route that I will be happier with. I love my part time position as the sound engineer in school, but once it converts to a full time, it'll be a different ball game altogether. I would consider it... a downgrade. Whoever likes being a full time sound engineer and lighting tech, please do apply if you see the job posting appear. It should be anytime soon.

On a good note, I'll still be going back occasionally to help rig lights and all, since I like to get my hands dirty once in a while. It also lets me remember how it is to work on the ground. It's pretty fun too, when you don't do it too much.

Anyway, I'll use the time to focus back on building my online store business, and use the free time to plan for shows for this year. Apart from our EOY 2012 Jpop Live at the Esplanade Concert Hall this year, I also need to plan for the cosplay festival, which is to be held on Sunday, 9 Dec 2012. In fact, I just went down today to have a meeting with them..., a good one, in fact.

A picture for you, so please mark down the dates!



EOY will go through a big change this year, with a split of 2 days across 2 different venues. We're planning for the artists to appear for the live, as well as some possible content for our cosplay festival. With the change in venue, there is also a change in direction. Xin Yu has kindly returned this year to help us with interpretation once again, and we also have 2 new staff on the team. I'll be meeting them in June to discuss and give everyone an update.

I've also bought some new items for my online store, as I wish to expand in different sections, especially games, and phase out sections and items that aren't popular. 

On a more interesting note, I have also finished writing my book, and Angie is my guest editor for my book. She will be helping and advising me on how to improve my manuscript. Vincent, has kindly accepted to design the art for the cover of my book. I've also gotten my ISBN for both written and e-Book versions, and I'm hoping to make publication in June/July this year. It will be published under Amazon's Create Space, and will be available on Amazon, Kindle with e-versions of the book.

The book's title is "W♥RK-LESS, from IT Programmer to Concert Producer". In the book, I share about how I started off in my secondary school days, how I worked to become what I'm doing today. It talks about the challenges I faced, how I overcame them, how to work less, and I also share on how exactly I made money using simple steps, and I touch quite a bit on how to use cloud technology to maximize productivity so that you can achieve more, make more money and free your time.

I also touch about the benefits of assistants, how they can be hired for low cost, and how wonderful they can be. Assistants are the best thing in life, and sometimes I forget that I have 2 of them. They take care of my emails, orders, re-orders, customer service, plan appointments for me, pay bills, settle my rents, and a lot of other things. They save me so much time, and are such amazing staff. You should get one too, and I write on how to get one for a good hourly rate. In fact, my appointment this afternoon was planned by Cassandra, a fantastic assistant of mine.

I never expected one day that I would write and release a book, and it's really amazing how our lives can change. 

Speaking of life-changing, I'm going for a training tomorrow, and I'll be starting to teach from this Sat onward on an assignment basis, and this week, I'll be at Hwa Chong Institute.

So, what would I be teaching?

Financial literacy and entrepreneurship.

You see, besides business, doing shows, sound, fashion, I've always wanted to teach. I recall that there was once I signed up for volunteer teaching, and they rejected me because I had no experience. They didn't even gave me the chance to try. I also signed up to be a lecturer in Poly and ITE, but being just a diploma holder, I did not have the sufficient paper qualifications.

I also applied for secondary school relief teaching, though I was never called. I tried all sorts of things in order to teach, but was never given the chance to teach... until now. So why do I want to teach? 

This is going to be damn dumb, but it's because of this guy:



For those who recognize it, that's Great Teacher Onizuka. In the drama, I know it is completely ridiculous. But like Onizuka, my desire was just to teach, even though it didn't make sense. Growing up, I was always the rebellious student. I defy my teachers, but I still give respect to those who can speak the same level as me, but yet, still knowledgeable.

I wanted to be a GTO.

Alright, dumb things aside, these are part of the dreams that I inspire to get... but I would not have been able to get this, if I didn't decide to terminate my job at Tanglin. It was slightly after that when I looked around, and decide to apply for this. Surprisingly, I got an interview.

I thought I failed it. 

But I was selected. I remember seeing in JobStreet that at least 40+ applicants applied, and only 6 got it. I was one of the 6 people that was finalized. Amazing.

I went the entire round, and I finally got to teach. And best of all, I get to teach secondary and JC students. I don't have as much desire to teach primary school (though they are probably more fun), but probably because I really love to work with young people, even though they really do stupid things sometimes. I mean, just look at EOY. I get the occasionally comment from the random idiot that knows nothing. 

But sometimes they are just ignorant. They need to be educated and showed the way. I really hated studying, and I constantly skipped lessons in my poly days. But there was one teacher that didn't give up on me, and spoke to me in my language. She mixed rebuke with love. 

I changed... a bit.

But I remember her, and I hardly missed her lessons since then.

I want to tell the kids that entrepreneurship is not a difficult thing. It just looks like it is. You just have to find the correct people, don't overspend, market it socially and it'll all work out. I want them to know that they can pursue their dreams and their passions, and yet make money out of it. I really enjoy my work, and I want them to experience this kind of life too.

I still think that it's amazing how far God has brought me to, and how I managed to become a trainer, teaching my favourite genre of students, teaching my favourite subject... the art of business.

Indeed, you'll never know what God brings you to.

I think 2012 will be a great year. I still have an unconfirmed show in Oct 2012 for another English artist, and the Jpop live for EOY in Dec. I was supposed to do another Korean show in July, but the show fell through.

I guess... this is the really fun part about life. Unpredictable, packed, but lots of fun.

God really blesses my life. He really gives me everything I desire. He really blesses me in all that I do. Even when I am in the rut, he always saves me. The favor of God is really so tangible sometimes.

Starting Sat, I'll be a trainer. Here makes a milestone of another one of my dreams being fulfilled. If I can live my life to the max, you should do it too. Consistently persist in your passions and never give up. If your passion changes, change with it. 

Alright, it's time for sleep. I have training tomorrow.

Never despise the day of small beginnings. We all start somewhere.

It's been a long time since I updated. Really long.

I'm typing this from the computer in Kranji Camp 3, and have been serving my reservist duties since Monday. We're going outfield next week, though it has been a pretty relaxed week so far.

Also be awarded a new cosplay project at Liang Court for next month, and I'll be handling some of the content and production aspects for the show. On top of that, I'm also currently advising on the technical and production aspects for Mother Africa, which is a circus production to be held at the Esplanade Theater next month as well.

Feb was a mad month for me, as school's schedule was totally crazy then. I had very little weekends, so serving reservist here is actually quite a good change for me. I had time to reflect on my thoughts, work, read and even write a little.

I hope I get to do more shows in this year, possibly with some exciting artists for this year's EOY.

Life is really full of challenges, though it is through these challenges that sometimes put you in lucky situations.

Alright, it's time to go. Going to meet my friends for dinner in town.

A crazy week, indeed.  

And 2011 has just passed, and we're already halfway into 2012. It's amazing how time flies. Every year holds its own challenges, and nevertheless, 2011 was another life-changing year for me.


In Jan 2011, I became father to baby Zack. Parenthood really changes your life, and I really respect all the parents (including my dad and mom) for bringing their children up. It is certainly not an easy thing.

In Feb 2011, Ling and myself celebrated our 2nd year anniversary at Le Bistrot, and I played "Kirara" for her on their grand piano:


My good friends, Billy and Gloria got married, and I played "Theme of Love" on the baby grand at Shangri-la Hotel (Orchard):


In March 2011, I went for in-camp training (reservist), bought a Blackberry, and was invited to the be the guest cosplay judge for J-Obsession:


In April, I did sound as the engineer for the Start of Year Cosplay event:


And also had a really pretty Black Alice tea party at Lawry's:


In May, I caught up with the guys from Comic Fiesta to discuss on how we can work together, despite our dates clashing for EOY / CF. I was also offered the job at Tanglin Trust School as their theater technician / sound engineer.


I started work at Tanglin Trust in June. It was also Cosfest, and my birthday. We (Ling) also had a short 1-Day trip to Batam. I spotted Elise wearing Sugary Carnival during Cosfest, my favourite AP print of all time.


In July, I went to KL to the Sepang F1 track for hot laps with my Civic Type R. A truly enjoyable experience:


I also did a cosplay show production at Marina Barrage for the Singapore Children's Society:


August was the month of celebrations; Natsu Matsuri and STGCC. It was also the time where I met and became friends with Kipi, a very famous cosplayer in Japan.


In September, I was the production manager for Drum TAO at the Esplanade Theater for a 3 day show:


I was also involved with a cosplay talk-show at Scape:


I also went to Chiang Mai with my good buddy, Yuan Kang. Rock climbing was one of the highlights of our exciting and crazy trip:


In October, we had another nice Black Alice tea party:


November was a crazy and extremely fun month for me. I caught LiSA during the Anisong concert (Anime Festival Asia) and was also involved in the Cosplay Idol, Seniors Edition event at Hougang Mall:


I also went Japan with Vincent and Wilson, and it was a total blast. We attended 2 concerts (SCANDAL, Live5pb), met with many people, and traveled all over the place. Maid cafes are love. We caught up with Kipi (cosplayer), Epic Records / Sony, DANCEROID, Tocco (Baby, The Stars Shine Bright), Junne, Ferlyn and Xin Yu. One picture with DANCEROID:


And in Dec...

It was EOY 2011, one of the highlights of every year. It's always my biggest show, and this year we had lots of fun. We invited Hitomi from @home maid cafe, and she was our guest artiste for this year:


I also played "Persona 4 - Poem of Everyone's Soul" on the stage, to thank all the guests for coming to EOY each year:


It was another great year, and another blast. Despite clashing with CF, the bad weather, the breaking down of the MRT, the far location, it was still a great EOY. I had lots and lots of fun.




I think it is very hard to explain why I work and spend so much time on EOY... it is really very fun running your own production, and leading a team of people to deliver an event... it is an indescribable experience. Meeting artistes, planning for stage productions, running sound, leading people, running a business, cosplay, meido, lolita are all things that I truly love in my life, and they all come together under one thing called EOY.

As with any event, there will never be a perfect one, and also being an organizer, like what Emerson says, is usually a thankless job. I so agree with that. Most importantly, is that I had fun in process, and tried to relay those feelings to as many guests for EOY as much as possible.

Lastly, in Dec, I also announced and decided to graduate Black Alice, and will stop all major activities for BA in the end of Jan 2012. Our graduation tea party was held end Dec 2011:


Thank you Loli's, for all the happy memories of Black Alice.

It was an amazing 4.5 years, and I'll never forget about them. Thank you for giving me a chance to be the owner of Black Alice, and for changing my life. These memories will stay with me for as long as I live... and even when I die, I'll bring them all to heaven with me.

2011 was a great year. It was challenging, but God brought me through.

He is truly amazing, and I'm looking forward to 2012. Each year, God always outdoes what I expect myself to do.

I relentlessly pursue my dreams each year, and I hope that you will, too. It is never easy, but life is too short to have regrets.

Dear Loli's,
Perhaps some of you might have already heard the news already, but Black Alice will be graduating on 31 Jan 2012. Though I will still retain the name "Black Alice", we won't have any major activities after Jan 2012. During each year, if there are exciting activities to participate (i.e. EOY's annual Lolita fashion runway), we will make announcements for those.

I thought it very long, and very hard, before deciding to graduate Black Alice. It was a very exciting 4 years, and I learnt many, many things through Black Alice. I lost a few friends, but I made many, many new friends. When we first initially started BA, we wanted to upgrade the standard of Loli, because there were so many Ita-Loli's those days. We really loved the idea of sharing this fashion with people, and educate them on how to carry themselves well.

We did many tea parties, conducted make up classes, did movie screenings (Shimotsuma Monogatari & Alice in Wonderland), to even more non-conventional things like ice-skating and scrap booking.

During the past 4 years, I really had a very enjoyable time running Black Alice. We started off as a small booth in Cosfest, then moved out to Bugis, before settling at Cathay for 2 years. We're still currently at Far East Plaza, sharing a space with Dark Royalties now.

It has always been my dream to open a Loli retail store, and Black Alice exceeded what I imagined it to be. I never thought that one day we will get to be the distributor for BABY, Angelic Pretty, Innocent World, Mary Magdalene, Victorian Maiden and even Putumayo. These were brands that I never thought I would get to work with. I met up with Akinori Isobe, the owner of Baby, and also visited the offices of BABY, AP and IW. It was really a very magical experience.

Back in those days, I still couldn't speak Japanese, but recently I went to Japan, and met up with Tocco, our account manager at BABY, and I was so happy that I could converse with her in simple Japanese. Together with Junne, we talked for hours in Japanese at the Alice in Wonderland and Criston cafe at Shinjuku. They really treated me like old time friends.

Over the years, I've watched and seen Loli's come and go, and I've seen how regular girls transform into the pretty ladies that you are today. For some of you, I remember the day I first saw you at Black Alice, when you bought your first dress, when you attended our first tea party; but you eventually graduated to become the pretty Loli you are today. Your coordinates got better, your make up skills improved and you made many friends.

Among the many things I got from Black Alice, the friendships I made with some of you were really one of the best. The days that I had lunches with you all, hear about your lives and see the challenges you go through. I've also seen quite a number of you through your dating times, right all the way till you got married.

Seeing how close the Lolita community has become has made me very happy. It made me feel that everything that me and Ling have worked so hard for, was worth it. In a way, when I look at all of you, it makes me think that hey..., perhaps my job is done. My dream and desire has been fufilled, and perhaps it is time for me to go, for me to move on.

Opening Black Alice was one of the best things that ever happened in my life. It proved to me that we can pursue what we love in life, against all odds, even when other people think that it is ridiculous. Without Black Alice, I would never have gotten the chance to run EOY, where running stage productions became one of my passions.

I was just doing an interview with Grace the other day, and she asked me what I'll like to do again, if I were to be able to live my life all over again.

I will still marry Ling, buy the same cars that I own, live in the same house, and I will still open Black Alice, and I'll still do EOY. I will live my life exactly the same way again, even if I am given another chance.

In this same notion, I hope that I have inspired you, also, to pursue your dreams and passions in life.

The upcoming Doll's tea party (26/12) will be the last tea party for Black Alice, so please do RSVP to Sheryl, and I really, really hope you can join us for our graduation tea party.

Next, the current consolidate batch for BABY (http://www.babyssb.co.jp) will also be the final one, so please browse whatever order you would like to make for this one by this week. For the final consolidation order, we will extend a 10% discount on all orders.

Also, as a special preview to our sale, there is a 40% discount of all existing Black Alice items if you are joining us for our tea party this coming week. You may browse our site (http://www.blackalice.com) and get Sheryl to reserve the items for you (by Thursday 23:59 pm). Once you have reserved an item, I will bring it down during the tea party.

In closing, I want to thank you for being part of my life, and for being part of Black Alice's. It has been an honor serving the Lolita community; sometimes I feel that you're all my little daughters, and it brought out a bit of a fatherly nature in me.

Perhaps I might have changed some of your lives, but deep inside, I am very, very grateful that you, have changed mine. Because of you, I was, and still am, the very, very proud owner of Black Alice.

Just for you, my lunch will always be open to you, because Loli's will always have a special place in my heart. Thank you for being part of this family, and I'll never, ever forget this. Even when I die, I'll bring all the happy memories of Black Alice to heaven with me.

I'll see you at the tea party.

And with that, my calling for Black Alice has been fulfilled.

Love,
Tim

It's been a long time since I've updated; the past few weeks have really been busy with the auditions for EOY. This year, there were more registrations, so we had to use 3 sessions to clear everyone. 

On another note, Grace has left Black Alice as she has graduated from university, and Sheryl is the new brand manager for Black Alice currently. She's been a great help to me so far, and she recently helped to organize the recent tea party. I think she's a really lovely girl, and does her job well.

AFA is just round the corner this week; lots of exciting happenings this year. Hao and myself will be going for Lisa's live on Saturday. We initially decided to go for Miku, but later switched to Lisa instead. I guess it's no surprise that they didn't put Kalafine and Lisa together, since those are what I (most people too, I believe) would want to see the most.

On another note, Wilson, Hao and myself will be flying off to Japan next Tuesday for a week. We'll land in Haneda in the late evening, chill out, and then go full force the next day onwards. Some highlights of our trip will be a day trip to Nikko, SCANDAL concert at Shibuya (http://www.scandal-4.com), cutting our hair/shampoo at Moe Sham, a meido hairdressing saloon (http://moesham.com), Afilia Saga East Live w various artistes (http://5pb.jp/afiliasaga/) and multiple dinners at Cosplay/Mei-do cafes.

We'll also be making a trip up to Epic Records @ Sony Music Studios to discuss some work stuff, hopefully we'll able to have some collaborations for 2012. I'll also be catching up with Tocco, a good friend from BABY, The Stars Shine Bright (http://www.babyssb.co.jp). Most probably as well, we'll be catching up with Yumiko (aka MTP Sensei), and hopefully with Kozue and Ikura as well. I really hope to meet them again. By some weird chance if I'm able to meet Marisu...... (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UOUKRbRiww)

I'm not sure if the calendar allows it, but if possible I'll like to catch up with Nagayama from Angelic Pretty (http://www.angelicpretty.com) and Reinnie. Before I die, I want to have tea with Aoki Misako (http://aokimisako.net/) as well, though I have no idea how that is going to happen.

After AFA is over, it'll be EOY. It'll be a busy period for all of us then, and Japan will be a good time to chill out, gather ideas and make some arrangements for next year.

Looking at this year's auditions, I'm really looking forward to an even greater EOY this year. Some of the performers this year are really outstanding. I'll post some audition videos on a later date. Although we had the least number of people auditioning on #3, it was one of the most stellar ones I've seen in 3 years.

Also, we've scored another project to handle the production and some content for the "Cosplay Idol Competition (Senior Citizen)" at Hougang Mall at the end of this month. There's also another pending concert project; let's see if we manage to get that as well.

Hope we'll get even more shows to do after EOY is over~

So fast; it's been 6 days since I've stepped foot into Chiang Mai, one of the places in Thailand that I've always wanted to go. It's a city that I fell in love with; people are generally very hospitable and warm. I can't say that for all of the city though, as I felt some of them weren't too polite to us.

Out of the city in the rural areas, the experience was fantastic. I had lots of fun talking to locals, eating local Thai food, practicing what little Thai I know, and hearing the lovely Thai ladies in trying desperate to make conversation with their limited English is so "Na Luck Mah" (very cute).

We stayed about 50 km away from the city centre at Mae-On area (it's really far), and cost us 800 baht each way when we want to go to town, though fortunately we rented a motorbike for like only 200 baht/day. We stayed at Tharnthong Lodges, where it's a beautiful chill out place with cataracts just outside our small villa. Kitchen also served excellent food.

Our total stay of 6 days, 1 motorbike and with meals at our villa amount to 9,290 Baht, which only amounts to S$200/person for the entire duration. Unbelievably cheap. Though far, I love staying in rural areas because people are generally nicer, and they really treat you like guests. Our host, Prim, taught us Thai for 2 days with... no charge at all. Try finding that in town. She was really warm and nice. The only downside was that our internet was a little slow, and that I have no mobile reception on the mountain.

Most of our other money was spent on new experiences such as one day tours, rock climbing (this was an awesome experience) and a little bit of drinking. Our total trip, including airfare was about S$730. Yes, everything in, including airfare, trips, food, transport, drinks and accommodation. That is pretty unbelievable, for a 6 day trip.

I think one of the things that I accidentally discovered was that I really love talking to the local people in their local language. I never knew that it would be so fun and interactive; and the Thai's love it when you talk to them in whatever little you know. It makes you appreciate their culture and people more.

In addition to Jap, the next language that I'll like to pick up is Thai. It appears that speaking isn't really that hard (no tenses and such), though writing can be a bit more of a challenge. I also want to learn Spanish eventually.

Chiang Mai was more of a time for me to rest up, especially from my super packed hours when I was doing the TAO production a few weeks ago. With all my trips, I always try to make them "business leisure", so that I get to do a bit of work, and have lots of fun while at it. Every time I travel, my assistants help to ensure that all of my businesses run well.

I slept very well, traveled to many places and tried many new things, one of which I thought was really enjoyable was rock climbing.

We went for one at the Crazy Horse Crag, and even did rappelling into one of the caves, which was like 130ft/25m deep. I think that was at least 10 storeys high, which was kinda scary. Our virgin climb was also about 100 ft or so; really high up. That was one point while I was reaching for a rock and climbing up when... I saw a gecko STARING at me just where my right hand was. I nearly freaked out. It was bright white/orange in colour.

It was super tiring, but I made quite a few friends from USA and England from the climb. They were all beginners, just like I was. And everyone had lots of fun~

I'm actually typing this on the plane, and I love it probably love because there is no internet access. You can't do much, except reply some of your emails and probably... write. It's a good place to consolidate your thoughts, and pen them down in words. After all, writing is a form of expression, which I like to encourage my friends to do. It's also a form of remembrance for the things that you do, since our memories tend to fade over time. My memory isn't that good, so I always make use of pictures and my blog to recall my memories when I need to access them. Best of all, or worst of all, depending on how you look at it, the internet isn't around to distract you.

Some random things that we did this time in Chiang Mai:
* Basic conversational Thai lessons for 2 days.
* Riding motorbike all around town and in the rural areas. On some nights, we were riding in complete darkness. Kinda dangerous, but we took every possible care, especially navigating up the mountains at gay hours.
* Tried rock climbing and rappelling for this first time. It was totally crazy.
* Eating at random restaurants and practicing our Thai.
* Riding into the heart of the city with some prior GPS planning on Google Maps. I love Google Maps. It's an amazing tool, and I think Google contributed a lot to the world that we live today.
* Random foot massage after a long day of climbing.
* Drinking at a bar in town.
* One day tour to visit the Lost City, and the biggest waterfall. Did about an hour of trekking there, and got my foot yanked into a pool of water. Totally nuked my shoes from white to brown.

Over the course of a few days, we got to know many friends, and it was a great experience. Rested well, had fun, and I think I've brought back quite a lot of happy memories of Chiang Mai. I hope that if/when they visit Singapore, we will be able to meet up again. Facebook is such an awesome tool; I think that like Google, it changed the world. It makes keeping in touch with friends so much easier.

Yuan Kang was a great travel companion for this trip, and I think he had a lot of fun too. We're a little sad to leave, but we have more important and fun things waiting for us back home too.

My impression of Thai girls have also changed during the course of the trip, and I think I finally understand why I have friends who marry Thai girls. I've always thought that there are nice, and this time, I've discovered that they generally have a very sweet and pure nature in them.

In short, Chiang Mai was a blast.

Whenever I travel to any country, I always try to live like one of their citizens, because I feel that through in this way, you can truly experience the culture, and how it feels like to be one of them in a foreign land.

I also try to avoid all the tourist-y stuff (or at least minimize it), attempt to speak their language, eat their food, drive on their roads and try new things. I really hate tourist traps. No one likes to be sold to.

I love holidays. Looking forward to Japan in Nov 2011. Now that I've been a Thai for a week, it's time to be a Japanese for another then.

Pictures of Chiang Mai trip: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150805995165291.733127.775650290

It's been a while since I sat down and wrote... as in, really write. I recall that I still have an unfinished book of about 30% to complete. Although my English isn't that great, I like writing, and blogging is one of my ways in which I express myself.

Growing up, my dad was always different from most dads. From young, I never really quite understood the notion of working for people, because my dad is a businessman, and showed me a very different lifestyle. On most weeks, my dad will bring me to his office, have breakfast together with him, buy live fish/shrimp to feed his fishes and just chill out. I recall most of my childhood days feeding fishes, learning how to rear them, playing games on my dad's com; it was pretty fun.

The introduction of the internet was something that really influenced me. After my Ah Beng years in Sec 2, I started doing a website called "FantasySquare" (http://www.fantasysquare.com). It used to be one of the most popular Final Fantasy related websites back in the 90's. It was also the site that incidentally led to my current online store "My Import Store" (http://www.myimportstore.com) to be developed, something that I still own till today. Maybe web designing became more appealing than Ah Lians.

Because of FS, I grew an interest in web development and programming, and picked IT as my course of study during my polytechnic days. At the end of my 1st year, I had the chance to pick either programming, BIS (a little bit of business+a little bit programming), networking or design.

I picked BIS because I had an interest in programming and business at the same time. Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on how you see it, BIS was also the course for rejects. People who couldn't get in into design, networking or programmer got thrown into my course. My year 1 classmates who were really good at programming got into the programming courses.

Looking at the standard of "programmers" in my course, I can safely say that the standard of the most of programmers in my course... leaves much to be desired. And that includes teachers. A couple of us can program better than our teachers. Isn't that... ridiculous?

Still, the BIS taught me a lot of things that were useful for my work, and part of my online store success comes from it. Business as a youth was interesting probably because no one else was like that. I became a little proud of my own achievements.

Until I went for my 1st reservist back about 5 years ago. I thought I was good, but I was grouped with aircraft engineer leads, director of law firms, owners of underwriting companies, owner of busing companies. Have you ever seen an owner of a underwriting company scold another Ah Beng reservist in the same platoon in fluent hokkien until he apologized? I had. It was an amazing sight.

The owner of the underwriting company was like a civilized, professional Ah Beng. He had the language capability to converse to lawyers, and also the ability to reason with Hokkien soldiers. He was freaking cool. "Zai" is an understatement.

During my 2 week reservist with these people, I learnt many things. It was also one of the most humbling experiences in my life. These people were so successful, but yet, they behaved so humbly, and were so free to share their experiences and edify one another. It was really an eye-opener for me, because it taught me that hey, I aint that great as I think I am. It was one of my life-changing moments.

I've always loved Lolita fashion, and a few years after that, I attempted to start Black Alice (which now I still own), and opened our first brick and motar shop at Bugis Street in 2007. We tried a short term lease there for 3 months, before moving to Cathay for 2 years.

Opening Black Alice was really an awesome experience. Despite the many challenges that I faced, I learned many, many things. Through BA, I made many friends, but I did, however, lose a few of them. We started with the initial vision of upgrading the standard of Lolita, by educating the public about Lolita fashion and how to graduate new Loli's from ita's (painful-to-the-eye Loli's) to full fledged, pretty Lolitas. We conducted make up classes, did workshops, organized tea parties and even movie screenings.

It was one of those things that I have always dreamt of doing... opening my own Loli shop, and selling BABY/Angelic Pretty stuff. Although we no longer are at Cathay, we have a small physical presence at Dark Royalties / Far East Plaza. I really miss Black Alice at The Cathay though; I have so many fond memories there.

I moved from doing online business to retail, which is a totally different market from what I studied. I had no experience in running a retail business, nor studied it, but still did it anyway. It was difficult, but it was really, really fun.

In Dec '08, I inherited EOY. It was my favourite cosplay event then, and the organizers decided to cease it in 2008. I had some experience in business, but zero in events. Still, I felt that it was a waste to let the event die and dissipate as a memory. Sound and stage were things that really intrigue me, and I've learnt a little on how to handle stages through sound ministry in church.

2009 was my first EOY, as it was really difficult. We persisted, and here we are 3 years later. In these 3 years, I met Yui Makino, one of my favourite singers, Mikuni Shimokawa, another one of my favourite singers, and Kozue Aikawa/Ikura, which are 2 of my favourite YouTube/Nico Douga Dancers. This year? Maybe we'll get to meet someone special again.

Earlier this year, I saw a sound engineer position opening at Tanglin Trust School for their performance hall. I love running stages, and being part of a school environment was one of my dreams as well. I can never teach secondary school because MOE doesn't allow a diploma holder to.

This position happened to be a part time one, and fits well with my businesses that I own. The school knows and acknowledges that I owns my own businesses, and they still gave me the sound engineer/tech position. I've been with them for almost 3 months, and have just been confirmed. It's a little weird, but I'm a permanent part-time, which means I get entitled to bonuses, leaves, CPF, and other staff benefits.

These days, for EOY, periodically we get to run shows for external parties, some which are cosplay in nature. We did a cosplay production at Marina Barrage last month, are going to do another talk show next month, and I'm also involved in another production at Esplanade Theater. We're discussing for another event in Oct, though that is not confirmed yet.

I never dreamt that one day I'll be running stages and producing shows. Neither did I dream that I would one day own a Lolita store, much less become the distributor for BABY, The Stars Shine Bright, Angelic Pretty and Innocent World. I met the owners of BABY (Akinori Isobe / Fumiyo Isobe), talked with their staff, visited Angelic Pretty at their office, met Innocent World's owner and designers; it was just an amazing experience.

I studied IT, moved to retail, moved to events, and now became a sound engineer/producer for events. I got my position at Tanglin Trust simply based on my portfolio; I have zero qualifications in sound. I just had an interest in it and learned.

I moved from industry to industry, but I totally didn't expect that I will land in sound. Perhaps 5 years down the road, I would have shifted again, perhaps to something even more fun.

Life is full of surprises. Sometimes we spend so much so much time wondering what we should do next; whether we should study this, whether we should change our job. Sometimes, the biggest problem is us. Our reluctance to move because we are so afraid to change sometimes.

The past 5 years have been really difficult for me, and though I've been through many challenges, I've learned a lot.

I have heard countless advices from people on not driving to foreign lands, not owning a performance car, not taking risky moves, but... the things that people told me not to do, are often things that they themselves do not dare to do.

Some of the most exciting and memorable experiences of my life were driving in from Tokyo to Osaka, sprinting through B roads on the opposite side of the road in Taipei, driving through mountainous trails and riding a bike in Phuket during peak hour traffic.

Contrary to popular belief, driving in foreign lands is extremely fun. Just that... some people will never dare to try it. The same stupid advices that you hear every so often. What people do not understand, they criticize.

It was a big jump from IT to sound engineering, but the journey was tons of fun.

You'll never know what to expect, so just keep chasing the things you like in life.

I really, really love my life, and I hope you can experience the joy that I have as well.

Embrace change. You can do it.

I want to thank the former EOY committee for giving me the chance to run EOY; it was something that really changed my life. Like Black Alice, it added colour to it.

For the people who stood by me, supported me, gave me a chance and believed in me, thank you so much.

And for the idiots waiting for us to fall, please...

Go get a life.

Man, it's been a month since I last updated.

Earlier last month, we (Vincent, Wilson, Chin Leong) went to the AKB48 cafe at *Scape to have a look, and the place was pretty good. Service was great and it's a nice chillout location. Although food is average, the pretty waitresses/hosts made up for it. Kiyomi and Yui were very warm to us.

Before we left, I opened my mouth and asked, and we all got pictures:

Yui on the left, and Kiyomi on the right.

On the same weekend, we had our Black Alice Masquerade Tea Party at Sixth Ave. I don't have a group shot as I needed to leave early for church service, but I did manage to get a picture together with Grace:

Grace is the brand manager for Black Alice, and she's an extremely great help to me.

I drove to KL on 15 July for the Honda Civic Type R track day special; I love track days! It's been a while since I last went for one, and I can VTEC to my heart's content. Although I spun out of a couple of times, I got to know my car a little better. I mounted my Flip camera and took a video:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyTnzDJbeD0

Also went for "Ballet under the Stars" at Fort Canning with Ling on the same weekend:


We did a stage cosplay production for Singapore Children's Society on 24 July at Marina Barrage, and got some of our performers and Chris' band to do up a show for them:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93lai98DBlI
That's Momo, dancing to "Sweet Magic".

Last week, I went to the SKE48 live with Vincent, and it was amazing. I didn't expect too much because the equipment at *Scape is not that great, but they brought in a lot of new rigs, subwoofers and moving lights. The lighting designer was very good.



Unfortunately, the girls were lip-syncing though. Fortunately though, we were there to watch the girls dance, not so much to sing. Though because of my job nature, I tend to be very particular with I see artistes lip-syncing. But they danced really well. They treated us with a hand-shake session after their live. Moe~ <3

Vincent wrote a nice entry about it here at:
http://sg-kawaii.com/cutepop/2011/07/ske-48-stage-1-performances/

Since he mentioned that his favourite was Shiori Takada; mine was Haruka Ono. I think she dances really well.

I also met up with the people from Drum Tao at Forlino, a french restaurant at One Fullerton last week. It's a Japanese martial arts Daiko/Drums performance to be held at Esplanade Theater from 1-4 September, and I'm the production manager for the event, where I will be handling the sound, lights and other show matters for them. You can get tickets from SISTIC at:
http://www.sistic.com.sg/portal/dt?dt.isPortletRequest=true&dt.action=process&dt.provider=PortletWindowProcessChannel&dt.windowProvider.targetPortletChannel=JSPTabContainer/sEventsCalendar/Event&dt.containerName=JSPTabContainer/sEventsCalendar&dt.windowProvider.currentChannelMode=VIEW&dt.window.portletAction=RENDER&contentCode=taod0911

That's about it! I initially wanted to write about another topic, but I think I'll save that for another time, since I've written quite a fair bit today.

Life is good so far, and I bought a new Apple iPod Nano 8GB, which will be delivered next week.

Yay! Damn fun job(s) I have.

Been a couple of busy weeks, finished the drama productions, and a few other assemblies (they had some performances). It's the school holiday season for Tanglin Trust now, so it's kinda like the lull season now. Recently we've been doing maintenance work, with upgrading software, tweaking speaker settings and rigging lights. I prefer running shows.

I guess it'll be more of a slower pace till end August, when activities will probably start again.

Part time work aside, I'm negotiating for another project; hopefully we can get it for this time. It's a smaller event of about 200+ people or so.

The technical rider for Tao: Art of Drums is also pretty complex, but I guess being challenging makes it fun. It'll be my first show at the Esplanade Theater.

For Black Alice, we have a Masquerade theme party coming up, and I'm looking forward to it!

I was supposed to be involved in a few more other projects, but not all came true, unfortunately.

Life has been good to me so far; God has been good.

Will be going to the AKB48 cafe this Thursday; I hope it'll be a nice experience.

Catch up with you guys soon.

Woah~ been quite a while since I updated, and I've been pretty busy with my new workplace, as they have a major drama production coming up next week. As I'm on a part time basis, my hours are not fixed, and some weeks I come in 3 times, on other weeks I may come in everyday from 7:30 am to 12:30 pm.

This leaves me to still do my stuff at MIS, BA and EOY, which is actually more fun.

As part of my job, I get to plan speaker placements, run mixers, and decide/design how to mic/plot sends to the mixer. It's basically what a sound engineer does... design and make the production sound good. Been tweaking the performance hall speakers recently, and Ling bought me 2 new mics (Shure SM58, AKG C1000) for my birthday, and will probably get to use them very soon.

Earlier this week, I also shifted BA from Haji Lane to Far East Plaza; hopefully response will be better in our new location, as it should be slightly more convenient for everyone as well.

Next tea party is also coming up, and I'm pretty excited about it as well. It's been a while since our last tea party.

Over this week, I also went Batam with Ling, and we had a short getaway for a very cheap price. We paid about $100/person, including all taxes, ferry rides, seafood lunch, dinner, 60 min massage as well as a new 5-star hotel stay, including buffet breakfast. The only downside is that they brought us to various places to "shop", which is probably how they make money to cover for the shortfall.

Was still a pretty nice break though.

Speaking of holidays, I'm going Chiang Mai for a week with Yuan Kang in September, and then Japan for a week with Hao in November. I definitely will not have enough leave to cover for that period, but we'll work something out.

Looking forward to my holidays, and 2011 is going to be a great year.

Each year just brings so many surprises.

Good night all, it's time to sleep.

Setup two weeks was good, and I've been offered the sound engineer/theatre technician position at Tanglin Trust School, and I'll be starting work this coming Wednesday. It's on a part time basis, so I'm contracted to go down about 3 times a week, though the hours might shift if there are events going on.

Will probably be pretty interesting, since I'll still be juggling my businesses, and doing some part time assignments at the same time. The Esplanade show in September would probably be very interesting as well, as I'm tasked to handle the stage productions for them.

Had a great trip to KL with Shi Hai to meet up with the Comic Fiesta folks last Wednesday:


It was a great time of catching up, getting to know new people and exchanging ideas. They're really awesome people.

Prior to that, managed to have tea with Hermes and Aiko too:


Has been pretty fun recently.

Alright, it's time for dinner at my mom's.

In September, I will helping out in another external event called "Tao Drums", which has been having tours in various countries, and they'll be doing 4 shows at the Esplanade Theatre. I'm in charge of the technical aspects, primarily in sound and lighting, to help ensure the show goes smoothly. I also want to ensure that the show sounds good.

Tomorrow, I'll be helping out with a setup at Tanglin Trust School with lights, which is unfortunately, not my forte. I hardly have any experience in it, but I'll be there to learn. I think they purposely put me there to see how I fast I pick things up. Assuming all things go well, I'll probably be awarded the part time theatre tech position sometime next month. Let's see how it goes for now.

And I've updated my birthday wish list on my left side bar, just in case anyone wants to buy any gifts for me. Sometimes, I get gifts that I really don't know what to do with them, and unfortunately I have to throw them away. Please, please do not try to guess what I want. I really feel very sad when money is wasted to buy something that I don't need/use, especially when something else cheaper and nicer could have been gotten. If in doubt, monetary gifts are the best, and I'll use them to buy what I like.

Thanks a lot!

=== Wishlist ===
Hosa Tech. Y-Cable
Shure SM57
Shure SM58 (Wireless)
AKG C1000
DBX 215s Equalizer
DBX 266sx Compressor/Gate
Soundcraft EFX12 Mixer

My interview went pretty well last week, and I'm shortlisted for a trial to help with a children's concert setup 2 weeks from now at Tanglin Trust School. Assuming nothing goes wrong then, I think I'll most probably be selected for the position. I hope everything goes well, and I can bring more good news in future entries.

General elections is just round the corner, and I'm pretty glad that it'll be over soon. You know, politics is a little bit like religion. If you impose it on others forcefully, you'll lose friends. The current atmosphere is generally pretty anti-PAP, and very pro-opposition.

There are always 2 sides of the coin. To be honest, there are many good things that the PAP has done in the past 15 years, with a few credible mentions such as low crime rate, extremely low unemployment rate, good GDP growth, a strong currency, law and order, 1st in the world for corruption (lowest), low pollution and well paved roads. We take safety for granted here when we chill till out 3 am with our friends, with hardly any fear of being robbed. Some interesting stats here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_rankings_of_Singapore

Unemployment rate is damn low, which is almost certain that anyone will get a job, if he/she is not too picky. The government is also very smart to outsource a lot of their external private sectors' work out, such as building of HDB flats, to things like bulk purchase of air tickets for students (MOE), which actually creates many jobs for people. You can bid for government projects at:
http://www.gebiz.gov.sg/

After which, the government introduces the quota system, which varies depending on which industry you are in. For example, you may only hire 1 foreign worker for every 10 local ones. This makes local employment rate high. The introduction of the casino (their main argument was that it creates jobs) also create many jobs with a relatively high pay ($2,000+) for a relatively low skill job (handing out cards). Whether it cause more debt to citizens is still unknown for the time being. Even now, I still occasionally forget that Singapore has a huge casino.

Considering that Singapore has a death penalty for 15g of drug trafficking, having a casino sure feels like a weird thing.

I gave my vote to PAP during the last round, but I probably wouldn't be doing that this time. And I don't like Nicole Seah nor Tin Pei Ling. Yes, Nicole is eloquent, but she comes across to me as a cynical youth that is quick on criticizing PAP, and some of her figures are baseless. I have no idea where she gets her information from, especially when she mentioned about GST, and that we pay high salaries to our ministers in the form of tax. Lots of bogus figure quotes that cannot even be found here:
http://www.singstat.gov.sg/

Singapore has one of the lowest taxation rates, and people like you and me probably only pay very little, as compared to the top tiers. My brother-in-law pays like 40 times more tax than me, though his income with bonuses is probably at most 2-4 times more than mine. And, only 1/3 of all Singaporeans are "eligible" for income tax. So... it's not really our money to pay ministers; it's really less significant that you think. I do, however, think that they are overpaid though. Some of our ministers' pay are higher than American president, Obama.

And Tin Pei Lin? She's really feels like a cute air-head that knows nothing about politics. Her speeches are boring, scripted, childish (my biggest regret is not bringing my parents to Universal Studios; right...). I almost get the feeling that she was roped in just to win the votes of the younger Singaporeans. I certainly do NOT want her to be my MP. But yes, her Kate Spade picture and foot stomp are cute.

There are tons of reasons why you should consider voting for the opposition, but don't vote for the sake of opposing. Know why you are voting for the opposition, should you decide to. For me, I feel that 82 out of 84 seats in Parliament seated by the PAP is not a healthy figure. A good organization should have a good balance of individuals from various backgrounds, especially people who dare to challenge bad policies. A 70/30 PAP/Opposition result is good enough for me already.

One of the reasons why oppositions cannot promise many things, or rather, why it is not so important is because policies are not just invoked on the spot. As a minister, their job is to convince others that your idea is feasible, and how to go about doing it. Just because a minister think that dropping HDB prices is good (yes, it will probably benefit the citizens) doesn't necessary means that it will happen. He will have to convince the rest of the ministers to buy his cause.

No government is completely clean, but I would like to see some positive changes as well. A few things that got me thinking, and may get you too:

* GST rose from 5% to 7% one year after the previous election. It affects every single purchase, but worst still for my Japanese imports as well. 7% is extremely painful on business margins. I cannot imagine them raising it to 10%.

* Town Council & Utility bills have been rising non-stop. 2 years ago, for utilities, I was paying about $90, now I'm paying about $150.

* ERP is a good and proven solution to congestion charging, but remember that is the purpose why it was built. I do not see why the government should charge me $3.00 on a Friday when I use the Nicoll Highway. It is almost always empty. I've seen it raise from $0.50, to $1.00, to $2.00, and now $3.00. That is... a little ridiculous. And they built many new gantries over the past 5 years.

* COE has been mercilessly going up; the transport minister messed up the quotas previously, and did a sharp revision in 2010, causing the supply/demand curve to go berserk. In the last 5 years, during recession I seen it grow from $8,000 to about $50,000 now. I can buy a Kia Forte with $50,000 2 years ago.

* PAP has the history of putting people to jail without trail under ISA (Internal Security Act), many under communist claims, which were seldom proven. Many people have been jailed or made bankrupt when they chose to stand for opposition. One of the most famous being "Operation Coldstore":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Coldstore

People like Lim Chin Siong (the co-founder of PAP) was jailed for 17 years, the longest ever jail term for a political party in the history of the world.

* Singapore is the 3rd most dense country in the world (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_dependencies_by_population_density). With this amount of congestion, why are we still importing so many foreigners? Although a small percentage, I have read that our government actually offers a package to some Beijing students to come over to study, all expenses paid, with a PR citizenship... using the citizens money.

* Government linked companies such as Temasek Holdings & GIC lost billions of dollars, as reported by Bloomberg. The money lost was those in our revenues, the same place where the money that we pay for our HDB flats. Is that the reason why HDB flats are so expensive? It makes me wonder if their investments are really sound.

* Ong Teng Cheong was probably my favourite president, and I have a lot of respect for him. He passed away in 2002, and was probably one of the most courageous president to challenge the government. He was the one who pushed for SMRT development, and was one of the most well loved presidents in Singapore history.

You see, as the president, no one is allowed to touch the nations reserves without his authority. It is his responsibility to safeguard the reserves. Back in the 1998, POSB is a state-reserve directly under the president's protection, but PAP negotiated a deal with DBS and sold the reserves to them without the president's knowledge.

OTC called in to stop the sale, but the deal eventually still went through without his consent. When he passed away in 2002, he was NOT given a state funeral. He is the first and only president of Singapore that did not receive a state funeral. In comparison, when LKY's wife passed away, she was given one of the most extravagant send-off ever, and she was not even a civil servant.

Sources:
http://theonlinecitizen.com/2009/02/president-ongs-interview-with-asiaweek-revisited/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ong_Teng_Cheong

In short, PAP has done a lot to ensure progress of our nation. But what they have failed to do, is to educate the people about the good things that they have done. Their arrogance (i.e. Mah Bow Tan) is what truly disturbs me, especially since he serves Tampines GRC, the place which I live in.

But in the last 5 years, I really didn't see progress. The influx of foreign talent, raise of GST right after elections really caused me to lose my trust in them. They meddled with the reserves, just like when they did so during Ong Teng Cheong's presidency. And because I love my former president, I probably will vote for the opposition this time round.

Among the opposition, my favourite candidates are:
Low Thia Kiang, WP
Chen Show Mao, WP
Slyvia, WP
Vincent, SDP

No government can be completely clean and transparent, but they all can be better. I believe Singapore has a better future with these individuals. Please win Aljunied GRC.

Be an informed voter. Know who, why and what you are voting for.

A few days ago, I applied for a part time position as a sound engineer/theater technician at Tanglin Trust School. I got a call from them earlier today, and I've been scheduled for an interview next week.

The requirements/skills that they are looking forward seem quite similar and appropriate with the experience I had, and since I have some free time, I thought it would be quite nice to run shows, stages and theatre productions. It'll be a good opportunity to learn more about lighting as well, though my forte is still sound engineering.

Let's see how it goes, and I hope to bring good news. Thankfully, it's not a full time job, so I'll still have hours to plan my other work, and more importantly, enjoy life, should I really get to work there. Adding to the fact that it's in a school environment gives it bonus points.

I think it'll be quite an interesting experience.

Let's pray and see how everything turns out.

Had a great weekend over at SOY'C. I thought I wouldn't have too much time to take pictures, but my most busy period was during the band and karaoke competition. Thankfully, Vincent, Shi Hai and Yu Bin were there to support the event as well, so all was good.

Turnout was good, and the sound aspects generally went quite well. My only complaint is that the sound is a little thin and sharp, which I am certain that I can fix it if I'm given access to the Soundcraft board at the top. I could only cue and request for EQ/fader adjustments from the front during the karaoke, but that's probably more apt, anyway.

Thankfully, I have full control over another mixer at the floor area for the band competition and ambient tracks. There were a 31-channel EQ, 2 compressors and 2 gates for me to play with.

Met a lot of friends, and made a lot of new friends as well. I am also surprised by the number of friends that I can tag in my pictures... a good lot of them are actually in my Facebook; I just couldn't recognize them.

楽しかった！

One each of Angeline and Katherine, because they look so adorable~


And one each with Serene & Ume:


More pictures on Facebook Album: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?id=775650290&aid=640205

Ah alright, it's been confirmed... EOY will be supporting SOY this year for sound, and I'm the sound engineer for this year, and will be helping to plan the mics, bands, music and all other sound aspects. There's a limitation to the number of lines, so will probably have to re-plan a little, and make the best of everything.

The venue is huge this year, and will probably see a lot of people this year. The mixer is a little far though... at level 3, so that would be a slight challenge to mix. I've gotten a few guys to help me out, and should make it slightly easier... no way I can do the sound alone.

I hope they have a good mixer and wireless mics.

Going to be another busy week ahead, but it's all for the good. I hope this year will be a good one for me. The last 2 years have been filled with many challenges.

Currently hibernating at Yuan Kang's place, doing work together. We normally chill out on Mondays together, since our schedules are relatively flexible.

Negotiating a few other projects; and hope those go through smoothly as well.

And we had an awesome Black Alice Tea party last Saturday. The place was beautiful; all the guests really loved it.



More pictures here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?id=775650290&aid=637483

Running Black Alice and EOY are 2 incredibly fun things to do.

Busy over the course of the week, mainly with many meetings and arranging for deliveries and stuff for Black Alice. I really like the Sugary Carnival series from Angelic Pretty, but unfortunately when they re-released the series, it was completely sold out AGAIN within 1 day.

Anyway, we're having a tea party this Saturday, and attendance is a lot bigger than I thought! We have like instantly like 30+ people for this weekend.

Taking care of Zack has been pretty tiring sometimes, but it's still a rewarding experience as a father. Now Ling and myself put Zack at my mom's every Tuesday so that we can go dating alone then. We went cycling last week, and for this week, we caught "Red Riding Hood" at Cineleisure, and had dinner at Ootoya at Orchard Central; the food there is actually quite good~

Going through a few projects recently; hopefully all goes through well soon. Might be doing sound engineering for another cosplay event. Did sound for a combined meeting last week too.

Life has been busy, but pretty interesting so far, I would say.

Currently writing this from Linux Ubutun 10.10 via my desktop. It's an extremely sociable OS, considering how it integrates my Facebook/Twitter/GTalk, weather, email and Last.fm directly to my desktop. Chromium browser saves all my themes and bookmarks, so that all my browsing history from my Mac is brought over.

I can even access my Calendar from Linux... and even listen to my favourite music via Last.fm and mSpot... it's true wireless cloud computing, everywhere... and I've also got Google Cloud Printing for printing wireless-ly. I can do my work on any computer, on any OS, in any part of world, as long I have an internet connection. Best of all, it's free.

I hope I manage to find more time to go back on writing my book; it's a little overdue already, and I have a number of people who asked/reminded me about it.

I guess 2011 is a year of many changes. Slightly tired, but God has been very good to me.

Reservist was the previous week, and it was pretty fun. As usual, we spent most of our time waiting for things to happen, and we had a one day field range to practice being ambushed and to counter fire. The fun parts? Going for tea breaks, eating chendol/ice kachang, sleeping in the bunk, eating ice cream and simply just talking cock and chilling out with my buddies. Apart from rifles, we also play Monopoly Deal. Hao, Wilson, Liang Inn and Steve were there to make the reservist really fun.

For this reservist, I bought a Blackberry Tour 9630 as I wanted a non-camera phone with internet access. I wanted to get the HTC Snap, but it wasn't as readily available. Plus, I've always wanted to try using a Blackberry. After using the iPhone for more than a year, I switched to the Google Nexus One, and now have a Blackberry for reservist. It is probably one of the best phones you can get without a camera... the only downside? It requires a Blackberry Internet Service (BIS) in order to go online and use their BB apps. I had to get Singtel to turn it on for a month for month, which cost about $20+ for a 5GB plan.

I've heard so many people complain about in-camp training, but I really... quite enjoy it. I mean, apart from the boring army stuff, we get to shoot rifles and live rounds (the scope is really like those you play in games), eat, chill out and forget about work. It is also a good time to reflect on your life, catch up with your buddies and get ideas from one another. You also get to see the weirdest people. The army is full of them.

I was also invited to be a guest judge for J Obsession, a Japanese music event held last Saturday at The Cathay. The quality of the cosplay competition was pretty good. Not all the performances were stellar, but it was a very good effort on the part of the cosplayers.


Group shot of most of the cosplayers for the cosplay competition.


And that's Aya, the winner of the cosplay competition. Her make-up/hair/lashes were really beautiful, and she sang really well too. She wins a Sony 40" TV. Pretty impressive first prize, I must say.

Pretty busy over the past week trying to clear work from the reservist period. Thankfully, I have Grace and Cassandra to help me take care of my entities when I am not around. I have a few important meetings over the next 1-2 weeks, so I hope all goes well, and I'll have good stuff to be able to announce then.

Also did some simply planning for EOY as well, and once again, I'm getting pretty excited about it as well. On a sadder note, a good friend and member of our team has tendered from EOY, as work commitments and new projects have taken over. It's a little sad, because deep down inside, although I always hope that my team will stay forever with me, I know that it simply isn't possible.

Since day 1 when I took over EOY, I was preparing for the day that one day team members will eventually have to go; they just happened a little earlier than expected. Nevertheless, life still has to go on. People come, people go, I guess... it happens with any organization. Both of us are pretty sad, but it was time to go.

In any way, SOY is the next cosplay event coming up, and I will most probably be heading down then too. Please poke me if you see me!

Unfortunately, I wasn't selected as a volunteer teacher for City College, probably due to my lack of experience in teaching. They did offer me a position to do a bit of coordination work, to ensure that each session runs smoothly, and also to do some work on social media. Interesting, but that wasn't what I signed up for. I do coordination, project management and social media almost every day, so I definitely wouldn't want to do that again, considering that I outsource so much of my work out. I told them that if I was not given the chance to teach, then I rather not.

It was a little disappointing, but I'm glad that I tried, anyway. I have always wanted to teach, and perhaps someday I'll be able to exercise this passion.

My grandmother (paternal) passed away a couple of days back; thank you to all who sent their regards. My family and I are all doing well, and she passed away peacefully at the age of 96, so everyone was prepared for it. She'll be sent back to Malaysia, where she'll be buried beside my grandfather tomorrow. I remember her as someone who is warm, nice and speaks only Teochew, and the little that I can understand, probably comes from her.

Recently did a clean install of Linux Ubuntu 10.10 (http://www.ubuntu.com) on my MacBook, and also flashed my Nexus One to Cyanogen Mod 7.0 RC2 (http://www.cyanogenmod.com). Released Twitter for My Import Store and Black Alice as well, and did a few modifications to my rest of my accounts.

You can follow us at:
Black Alice: http://www.twitter.com/myblackalice
EOY: http://www.twitter.com/theeoy
My Import Store: http://www.twitter.com/myimportstore
Myself (Tim): http://www.twitter.com/nozomi83

I also had a nice supper with Roy and Hao earlier at Ang Mo Kio, and we talked primarily about relationships. On a side note, Ling and myself are also getting more used to bringing Zack around. It's still not easy, but life still goes on, and we have a good time eating together and having fun as a family.

Been also getting busier lately, especially since the reopening of Black Alice at Haji Lane. I have also been working a little on EOY as well, as we're in the midst of planning for 2011, with some major decisions to be made.

I think... 2011 will be a great year.

I'm going for an interview next week as a volunteer teacher for City College:
http://www.citycollege.edu.sg/home/Home.aspx

I have no idea what to expect during the interview, nor what will happen should they accept me as a teacher. I heard that there will be training, and I guess this will be quite an interesting experience. I've always wanted to teach; it's a great way to fill my calendar with events too.

I'm also looking for people to go Chiang Mai together in September, because Air Asia has this crazy promotion of $94, 2-way, all tax inclusive and I've heard and read so many good things of Chiang Mai. Not overly commercialized, but beautiful, great climate, warm people and cheap to live in. I'm looking forward to biking/driving all over Chiang Mai once again, with a Thailand mobile number, getting internet access all over the country while enjoying all the beautiful scenery.

I would like to work a little during the day, then perhaps go for short 1 hour Thai language course, then spend the rest of my day traveling around and enjoying life as a Thai. I hope Hao, Wilson and Roy will be able to make it. I really need more traveling partners.

During this season, I also met up with people from AFA and STGCC to do some planning for EOY this year. Nothing has been confirmed for the time being, but I believe it'll be a great EOY once again. I'm still trying to finalize the location, as we might be using RP again this year. It's far, but the place is huge enough to accomodate the crowd.

Also, for Black Alice, I signed up for a new retail space at Haji Lane at The Blog Shop for a small rack and shelve to display our Lolita items there. This way, our customers and Lolita's have a place to go down to view products, try them on and even serve as a collection point for their items. We'll be starting in 1 March, so I'm in the midst of preparing all the little details. I'm pretty excited actually... though small, we have a physical store front once again!

Alright, it's time to watch Top Gear, my favorite car show. I love cable TV.