A Day In The Life Of An Oblivious Ape.: September 2007

Hellu hellu...

Welcome to another edition of the Ape's Amazing Updates!

Music: An Instant Brainwave?

In this issue, the Ape discusses the implication of letting kids listen to music at a tender young age.
WOULD listening to music actually make them SMARTER? AAU conducts its own experiments in this top story.

This week, the editor goes undercover at Block 446, Pasir Ris Drive 6 to find the real source of these "brainy kids", recently dubbed by scientists as the Ardinium Qistinatus syndrome. Apparently, this gene turns all newborns into extremely cute babies within a year.

Parents have also been known to be affected by this syndrome, turning them into blubbering fools mouthing the words "Alah, cayang. Comelnye Dini! I Wuv You!"

The editor has this to say about his findings:

"As you can see, the mask I am wearing is for me own safety, lest my own intelligence be compromised. Seriously, the mothers...Nothing further can be done, I must say. The situation is uncontrollable. Even at this stage, I can hardly look for an escape from this oh-so-cute Hell. Till further notice."

_______________________________________________________________

Yeah, I found this magazine opened to this page on my desk. Wonder who left it there...

Anyway, I spent the half of yesterday sitting my ass off in SGH, waiting for a response from the A & E department (That's Accident & Emergency for you noobs.) to give a ward to my cousin. Apparently, she some gallstone in her gut that's causing a whole lot of pain. And, to think, she just gave birth 2 weeks ago! Amazing.

I finally got the video of our group's performance during the Samba Camp. Man, every time I look at the fella to the left, I can never manage to stifle a giggle. And now, all of you may witness the humiliation...of Muhd Hafeez. I thank you all. :)

HUZZAH!!!

So the Halo 3 Launch Event at Suntec today was a BLAST. Although I still went ALONE (What can I say...), the fun was there nonetheless.

I arrived just in time to catch the lucky draw for the Legendary Edition of the game. Those lucky bastards. And I say that in THE most endearing manner possible. It consisted of the Halo 3 game, some extras, and the creme' de resistance':

The Master Chief 'thingamajig'. At least, that's what I call it. I think it's supposed to hold all your game discs. Interesting.

The atmosphere was obviously thick with geeky fanboy sweat. DIS-gusting. They came in droves straight out of school, looking eager as if they WERE true fanboys. Do I hear 'kiasu' and 'freebies'?

I admit, I TOO was there in hopes of a few free treats.

Sgt. Johnson...Why'd you have to GO!?!?! *sniffle*

Official demo-ers...demo-ing the game. Huzzah.

HAHA ROFLOLMAO. I KILL-ED YOUZ! ROXXORS!

The game was REVAMPED from what I saw last (in Halo 2). Apparently the game starts where the Halo:Uprising comic mini-series left off (Yes, I bluddy hell ripped it off Wikipedia!). Brutes are smarter but MUCH easier to kill now. Guess intelligence kills endurance huh? That explains why most geeks ain't got much to say about their bods. (That includes me though. XD)

From here on out, I shall leave you with a few vids I took at the event.

The sights and sounds on Suntec, filled with the squeals of geekdom.

Here they demo-ed 'Forge', an new introduction to Halo's multi-player line-up. It looks promising enough to generate enough revenue for Youtube for the next 2 years or so! HAHA.

Enjoy.

Great.

Just GREAT.

Halo 3 Launch Event's tomorrow and no one's free to enjoy it with me.

This is just dandy, people.

DANDY.

(-_-)

So let's start the birthday summary, shall we?

Sunday

So my mum DID take me out for a great dinner; it was at this semi-swanky restaurant in Eastpoint, called 'Eatzi Steakhouse and Bistro'. Apparently it's under the Jack's Place chain of restaurants, so I was expecting good stuff out of it.

I haven't tried steak in my life, so I figured this was my chance at one. According to my mum, cost wasn't an issue that day, so I went on to order the Chef's Special Steak. The steak wasn't half-bad when I tried it, though it was strange being asked for the first time "How do you want your steak, sir?" It could have used more gravy, though, and less carrots. =P

But the epitome of the night was the APPLE PIE. It was served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream that REALLY complemented the pie! When you ate both the pie and the ice cream at the same time, it would taste like cookies and cream! No kidding!

Here's a pic of it:

Yummeh.

Monday

So the guys brought me out for dinner at Seoul Garden today. Being my birthday and all, my meal was on the house! (Well, on 'their' houses; they treated me. LOL)

Ate a whole lot of meat. I'm sure my piss'll stink the next morning. Ian's taugeh made a whole mess of the grill plate, so we had to change it. XD Then he did it AGAIN.

We gave up.

Well, not really. Then the guys got hung up on floats late at night. And I was just beat from the whole day, so I kinda just zonked out the later part of the meal.

Here are some of the hijinks in Seoul Garden. Enjoy.

The guys trying their hand at making omelette on the grill. Good luck with THAT.

Our very own IAN tries HIS hand at making a smoothie cocktail. MAJOR luck with THAT one. XD

Overall, the night was great, guys. Thanks for EVERYTHING, to those who were there, and those with the wishes. It means a lot.

Really. =)

Well, today was a bit of a disappointment. And it was all my fault.

Or, maybe not. Arrrgghh.

Well, me and Ian arrived a bit too LATE for the Believer Event at Suntec today. It was scheduled at 2, but we all know that like any self-respecting event organiser, they HAD to start it earlier.

Bummer. WE DIDN'T EVEN GET TO SEE SERGEANT JOHNSON GIVE HIS BRIEFING!

But then again, it wasn't much of a problem for me, 'cos I've seen it already. But Ian...dude...I'm sorry, man. LOL. At least you got...to...see...the Master Chief, right? ^_^"

No pics either...ALSO because we arrived late. DOUBLE BUMMER. Ah well, there's a light at the end pf the tunnel. There's a CHANCE that I'm gonna be treated to a great dinner tomorrow by my mom. *shrugs*

HOO-RA!

Well, the time now is approximately 11:22 pm. The 4th and final Halo 3 Believer Events is tomorrow! =D It's gonna be at Suntec Digital Playground so, if anybody wants to catch a glimpse of me, you know where I'll be. ;P

I can't wait, man. The Launch event's gonna be on 25th September, A DAY AFTER MY BIRTHDAY! How COOL is THAT?!?! Too bad I didn't go to ALL the Believer Events and collect ALL the pieces of the Believer kit. That way, I could have gotten the Premium Goodie Bag, inclusive of a EXCLUSIVE sling bag by Tagger! Can anybody give me a "HOO-RA!"?

Man, I am SORELY in need of an exercise. Hopefully, the plan to go jogging tomorrow morning WILL be carried out. Hopefully.

Ciao.

Those nights at Loyang Point, the four of us.

The Halal Chinese restaurant,

Serving all our favorites: Shrimp Paste Chicken wrapped in Pandan Leaf, Lemon Chicken, Sambal Fried Fish,

Going for the ritual after-dinner arcade gaming session.

Returning home, fulfilled.

I Miss 'Em All.

Sentimental musings of an Oblivious Ape.

Who am I to disagree with the Master Chief? XD

WHOOHOO!!!

So I went to Vivocity today, ALONE (I'm lookin at you three! You know who YOU are.) The 3rd in a series of 4 Halo 3 Believer Events was held at the Samsung Concept Store. I went there by cab, and it made me broke for the rest of the day. Never again.

The vid's taking ages to load so I'll comment on it another time. MASTER CHIEF WAS THERE!!!! WHOOHOO!!!

They gave us these tokens to redeem the third piece of the Believer kit, AN UBER COOL MAT CAP! HAHA! It looked good on me, by the way, so there.

Look at those fanboys...YAY!

Oh yeah, and I quit my job as an otah-griller at the food bazaar at Tampines Block 940. Do you have ANY idea how HARD it is to constantly grill for 4 hours straight? Well yeah...

I bet you guys are disappointed, huh? HAHAH...I've only worked two days and my body's giving up. Nice going, Hafeez. Real nice. Not to mention I'm being hackled at by EVERYONE in my family! You try doing it for a day and get back to me, IF you still can. I'd rather get my grades up and land a cushy desk job.

Air-con and swivel seats for me, thank you very much.

On a final note, here's one from TfK Productions. a.k.a ME.

Okay now. I'm finally getting round to putting up the updates for the past three days. Yeah...

So Samba Training Camp ended on Tuesday. Here are some of the pics I took.

Yup, there we are. Erastornado 2007. Lol. And, yes that's me goofin' off at the back.

That's the whole gang. The timer kinda went off a little too early. :P

That, my friends, is what a TP street looks like at 2.30 in the FUCKING morning.

And this...is a TP sunset. AWESOME. This was the BBQ pit, by the way.

THE best BBQ I have ever had. Bambang, kirimkan terima kasih aku pada mak kau, ye?

Oh yeah, and we also spotted a frog after clean-up. Can somebody get Kermit outta here?

Next post comin' right up....

I am happy.

In fact, I'm so happy, I could jump out of my window right now and fall without feeling a thing! But then again, that would mean that I was killed on impact so...

On a less morbid note, I have just gotten the PANTS OF MY DREAMS.

Cargos.

Really Baggy.

Really Loose.

Really....Poppin'.

Just the way I like it. :)

AND I also found a pair of Bermudas that actually FIT me! *squeals* Together with the striped polo tee I picked out, the pair will look GREAT. Maybe a bit MAT...but, hey, one can't deny there's a sense of style to it.

AND ALL THESE AT MARKS AND SPENCERS!!!! AHHH!!!!
The price is another question.

On the other hand, Samba Training Camp's on tomorrow. Packed all my bags, and set to be a happy camper! (-_-)" To be surrounded by music that moves your feet FOR A WHOLE DAY...and to make up new beats...WHO COULD ASK FOR MORE?!?!?

HAHAH!!!

Here's a lil' wee bit of entertainment for the really bored...or young at heart. Whichever's applicable.

So I had the BESTEST of BEST meals today at Orchid Country Club. The MENDAKI awards ceremony was over and it was on to dinner.

For appetizers, we had this dish called 'Macerated Red Shrimp and Spicy Mango served with Arugulla Salad and Cheese Tuille'. Simply put, it was Shrimp Coleslaw with Mango Acar. XP

For the Main Course, we had 'Oven-baked Corn-fed Chicken Balutin with Walnut and Pumpkin Mash served with Root Vegetable Chips and Rosemary Potatoes'.

Sounds so fucking 'chim' eh?

Here's what it looked like:

Looks 'kinda' appetizing, somewhat?

Yea, I guessed as much.

Well, for DESSERT...THAT was a whole new story altogether. It was this bar of gateau...soft hazelnut chocolate on the top that slides smoothly down your throat, complemented by a crunchy layer beneath made of sugar chips...and a cake base.

PURE HEAVEN, I tell you.

16 years and we're still goin' strong.
Intellect, I owe you one.

Okay....Here comes a hell-load of updates.

# Thursday

School's OFFICIALLY out! We headed out to that HMV building by bus 518 after the Ess Gra paper was over, which burned a hole in my damn EZ-Link card. (NEGATIVE $1.06, mind you.) Walked around for a bit while waitin' for Dawn. Found a really cool shop tucked away in a corner of the topmost floor. Sells all those really cool and innovative trinkets that you don't really NEED but they're good to have.

There was this piggy-bank in which you put a coin in and you can see from this screen in the front of it that it actually SHRINKS before your eyes! You gotta see it to believe it.

So when Dawn came, she related her 'harrowing' experience in the train with a bunch of horny Mat Sallehs. Ah well.

Had lunch after that. We decided to head off to the Esplanade after MUCH deliberation. (-_-) There's just this really unexplainable attraction that I have to the Esplanade.

The view...the atmosphere...experiencing Art in every breath.

Take a look:

Yep, those were our antics at the Esplanade. Too bad it was low tide by the time we got there. (AND raining, I might add.) Great stuff.

# Friday

Went back to Dunman yesterday. Teacher's Day, I guess. Great times, they were. Secondary school days. Teachers. Friends. Acquaintances. Surprises. Not-so-surprises.

AND POLY STUDENTS STILL RULE!!!!!!

# Saturday

Went to the rehearsal for the Mendaki Dinner and Awards Ceremony thing. Man, was it something. Orchid Country Club. Met my cousin there, though there wasn't much to say since we only meet EVERY DAMN HARI RAYA! Sembawang, you see. What to do... So there I was, nervously standing around amidst a group of totally UNKNOWN people....that is, until Rezza came along.

Too bad we weren't in the same group for photo-taking. The Prime Minister's gonna be there, so I guess there's something to look forward to after all.

Still, I can't imagine eating a 4-course meal among people I don't know. I don't even know which damn fork to use for what dish! And yes, it IS a formal event. Bollocks.

There was a gamelan ensemble practising outside the Grand Ballroom. From Siglap Secondary School...I guess they ain't half bad. They totally re-funked the whole traditional theme that gamelan stood for, instead going for more modern beats incorporated with traditional ones. Oh, who am I kidding...THEY WERE FREAKIN' AWESOME!!!

Damn, I always wanted to join a gamelan band....and a Dikir Barat troupe. The Malay performing arts really has so MUCH to offer. Seriously.