Blog Under Construction

So so so very very very Sian...it was raining cat and dog today in Dallas and there was also a Tornado warning watch. Tornado did touch down on certain area of Dallas and there was fatality and extensive building damage. Bad weather means I am stuck at home the whole day. In US, weather is not play play one... the bad weather can kill people unlike the rain in Singapore which is only good for taking MC and an excuse to come in late for work.

Completed the entire series of the Gundam animation "Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory". Than felt bored again.... So I decided to redesign my blog which so far is still using the default template design provided by the website. I dislike comformance, ordinary or the standards thus have been pondering in the past to redesign my blog to make it much more unique in design.

So far, I only manage to put a "LIVE" Weather image tag on the right column and throw in a couple of mahjong tiles. Couldn't have work faster cause I got to read the coding of the blog line by line to find out which code to make the changes. Besides that, got to use Adobe photoshop to make the "Mahjong tiles" back ground element.

Currently, my blog is undergoing overhaul. Will keep you guys updated on any new improvement or deprovement if you don't like the design which I don't give a heck OK?!?!? Its my blog anyway...

Opps...accidently removed all my good "Cock talking and Mahjong friends" blog link. Will add it back soon, no hard feelings alright?

Dry Ice needed URGENTLY

Suddenly, we need Dry Ice for our work! Wah wah...panick. Aircraft need to roll out from servicing on thursday, got to fix up the bushing on tuesday night and up 6 rotorblades by Wednesday. The dry ice is needed to freeze and contract the bushing so that it will have a interference fit in the blades shock absorber bracket bore...

Luckily for me, Dry Ice is not like somekind of special ingredients that need to be brought from Big companies. The local supermarket like Kroger, Tom Thumb and Walmart is selling Dry Ice manufactured by AIRGAS.

Gotta get some of it and bring it to base on tuesday...

Here is a video showing the cool use of DRY ICE!!! Dry ice is very useful during power outage.... to restore power?

What happen to Street Fighters 10 years later?

3 Episode and continuing series on Street Fighters character who supposesly retired 10 years ago from the competition...

Best and the worst in Winter

Q: What is the best part of coming back home early in the morning at 4am after a cold day of work at the base?
A: A nice hot shower to warm those cold stone body back to life. Shower so hot you might consider scalding in Singapore but its just warm right here. I will be willing to trade in every piece of furniture in my house but not the hot shower system. And it better not breakdown...

Q: What is the worst part of the shower?
A: Having to soap myself with the water turn off. It get so cold, so quickly. What took 2 mins during suffer just took me just 20 secs during winter. "Ta boleh tahan" the cold. Even with all the insulation temperature in the house drop to 12 degrees Celsius in the house. Not even the coldest aircon in Singapore could beat that.


In other news...

Taiwan was hit by Earthquake on 26th of December 2006
The devestating Tsunami devestated Indonesia on 26th December 2004
Coincidence huh?

Winter Trees

PadThai at Best Thai Family Restaurant

Weather forecast for flurry snows today but instead we got drizzling rain for the whole day. I kept myself at home the whole day, thanks to the weather, and watched half the series of GUNDAM 0083 Stardust Memory.

Eventually decided to head out for dinner with Garfield because I suddenly have craving for Thai Food "Pad Thai". Its a common but popular noodle dish sold in the street of Thailand however I only got to eat it when I was in US. How strange huh? Despite the rain, we still headed out to 'Best Thai Family Restaurant' located between 635 Highway and 161 Highway, along MacArthur Road. When hunger craving calls, not even the tornado can stop a hungry man.

"Pad Thai"

Two guys, one avid blogger and another avid photographer ended up in a Thai restaurant on a Christmas eve. There is no customer at this time cause everyone probably went home for Christmas Dinner, just 1 waitress, her mum the "Boss Chef" and a Hispanic kitchen helper. So we guys decided to step into the kitchen and get a feel of how its like to be a chef and to make the Pad Thai by ourselve, with the lady boss permission of course...

Chef "Majmoron"

Chef "Garfield"

However, we both were so lousy cook that "Boss Chef" took over the woks and pans from us before we get ourselve toasted by the flames. Got the relegate our faith to be customer, not cook for it take years of practice, even more if you wanna run a family Restaurant. The Pad Thai was delicious and I am planning to make it by myself next week. Gonna source for the ingredients at the local Asian supermarket.

"Boss Chef" was very friendly and accommodating to our request for a group photos with her and her beautiful daughter before we left the place... the food and people make me wanna go Thailand!


We were so into the photo taking that I almost forgot to pay the bill...

By the way, there was this sign in the restaurant that says B.Y.O.B thought it means "Be Your Own Boss".

Christmas Lighting at Deersfield

Recently went to this small town call Deersfield for they have a Christmas Lighting Competition...

PHOTO ALBUM

Christmas day is coming to town, LIGHT UP!

Boy....Christmas is coming and Christmas falls on a Monday which means another round of LONG LONG weekend for our guys right here. Still have not plan for what I gonna do for the weekend, gonna check out whats going on in town right before Christmas.

Looking at all the lightings going around Coppell area and seeing my Balcony looking so dark and dull and Halloween Spooky each night I came home from night shift makes feel so out of place. I told myself I got to get those creative juice flowing again and do some Home improvement for this Christmas Season.

Time to light up for the season, set the tune to Christmas and of the beaten track a bit of Cartoon for my Balcony decor. Got some white lightings and color lightings from Walgreens and a inflatable Tigger the Tiger character from "Winnie The Pooh and Friends". Did not thought of getting Winnie The Pooh instead cause I find that bear too gay for my liking and Tigger does some how represent my character. Not wanting to be just another ordinary looking christmas lighting, I decided to spice up the atmosphere with a portable radio playing Christmas song burn from my MP3 collection from Dusk to Dawn right from my Balcony. I hope the passer by will find this concept much more refreshing ( hopefully not too much of a noise pollution). 18 tracks playing in Shuffle and Repeat Mode.




To tell you guys the truth, I did all the set up during the day time and the tweaking and tuning of the lightings and music in the early morning hours after my nightshift work...in the cold...hands numb already. Just hope that all this work will brighten the days of each and everyone passing by my apartment daily.

We are hanging on a precarious position

Sick should take MC but sometime no choice.

Sometime I feel our Empire is in a dangerous "manpower" position.
If 1 guy goes on MC, we suddenly have shortage of manpower
Now the empire is downsizing. We got less man but we might have more work.
So what if they say its call 'Right Sizing" I think its just sound nice to pacify others outside the Empire.

Blog: Riccardo!!! Can you be less negative and talk about something morejoyous!!!

Riccardo: Oh...Ok... My good Brother Son's have just celebrated his 1 years old birthday. I am very bad at remembering birthday even for my mum and dad so I guess it was on the 13th November. Here is the link to P.C Wu's son, Ryan Wu 1 years old birthday photogallery. Wah!!! Look at that boy, so much hair on his head already and so Kawaii!

Ryan Wu 1st Birthday

Sunday...

Sunday, the only real weekend I got this week. Wake up pretty late at 1.30pm and drove out for lunch along Beltline Rd. I really miss my car which right now is still at the Body workshop getting the door fix up and it will be until Monday evening that I will get my vehicle back. So in the mean time I got to drive Ricky's Corrolla around... his car is just too comfortable for me but thanks him anyway else I'll be handicapped for the weekend.


It was Grilled Pork Chop lunch at "PHO Republic Noodle and Rice Restaurant" which so far is the best place for Vietnamese cuisine that I know of. Food is not cheap here is Dallas and the only cheaper alternative is actually home cook. For a glass of ice water, a plate of grilled pork chop rice and some tips, it have already set me back US$9, approx S$14. Thats like 6 plates of Chicken Rice and still some spare change to go. But you know, I got used to the price here and there is absolutely nothing more convenient than paying the bill and filling the stomach without doing the cooking and washing. Not even a blink of an eye when I paid the bill.




Next stop, my monthly haircut at "Vision Salon". As usual, went looking for my regular hairdresser TINA. No haircut instruction need to be given for a regular patron like me... she knew right away what style I wanted and both of us just talk cock and sing song while she do up my hair. Was feeling really tired still even with that long sleep I got since early last night so I was looking forward to the hair washing after the cut. I guess Tina must have sensed that I was looking tired and I got the wonderful experience of a long hair wash process. Not just an ordinary hairwash but a nice long head massage with shampoo on. Ahh......so so so shiok and fingers so so so strong....kekeke. I mean she is pretty but she is also really good with hair wash and making customer have to extraordinary hairwash feel. I literally relax into sleep mode... Wash up, Dry up, style up and ready to leave not forgetting to tip TINA for her great hairstyling service and also buy a bottle of hairgel from her.




Head off the Fry's Electronic next to return the 'Guitar Hero' games that I got no time to play with. To my shocking surprise, they do not allow for software to be return when the wrapping have been taken off. That sux.... to be frank my intention is to just play the game for a week and return it to the store since they got a 30 Days return policy. Seems like my plan backfired this time for I did not read the fine prints about the policy for return or exchange of software. No choice, got to keep it with me. At less I enjoy the game just that I do not have the luxury time to spend on video games so the thought of returning came to my mind. Pay now, enjoy and return before 30 days...that was my plan. Sian Sian Sian.... failed plan liao. But I still got Plan B...kekeke, must win the Ang Mo in anyway I can, so will be going back to the store again tomorrow to carry out Plan B.

Spend the rest of the evening with Mun Kiat, Shirlene, Phua Wee Seng and his family plus Aaron and His wife to some far away place to enjoy the Christmas lighting competition at some residential estate. I think the place is call 'Deersville" somewhere far North of 121 Highway, right next to Legacy Drive. We got our pro photographer Garfield with us and took lots of picture. Will need to get the picture from him someday and post on my online photogallery and share with you guys. Took some nice and some crazy pictures.

Have our Dinner at a Mexican Restaurant nearby. Food is good but too filling for Asian small stomach. Everyone have poor blood circulation to the brain after such filling meal that we headed home straight away... I was tired but have already plan to pick up my friend who came back from Las Vegas with his wife today. Glad to see them feeling so refreshed and smile across the face after their Holiday. I wish I was on a Holiday right now.... so tired of work sometime. Need to get that refreshment and smile back to my face again.




Haiz...sigh....the next Holiday I got will be my home trip is March 2007. Can't wait to see my family, my good brothers, my Dear Dear, my own house, my god son and daugters, my favourite roti prata join...QUICK QUICK! GOD MAKE TIME FLIES!!!

Of Houses and Crows

Saturday Work! Again? All the way till next year Feb? This really sux and it came sooner than expected. We are already working today, Saturday and my section have been working from 9am to 6pm today. Well, I don't want to sound like I am bitching about work or something. Its the festive season and close to end of the year and there are lots of guys on leave or on holiday, the man power are tight and supposely I was expecting the management to tone down on flying operation and to give us extended time for aircraft servicing work. Look at whats happening now? Suddenly, I am so envy of those who took leave during this period...at less they have "Siam-ed" all the weekend work. Lets not even talk about fairness or something, lets just think if I am the boss, what would I do? I surely will set realistic targets and not expect the guys to come in every saturday. Sigh.... I am Maj Moron, not Major Tan so sadly I am not in any position to help the guys. Our BIG BOSS ask us to consider this jam packed servicing like a build up to WAR... The DEFCON status stuff. Oh Yah....War coming people can go on leave huh? Kekekeke... Please, just tell us the Emperor have BIG expectation for the upcoming military exercise and just want to pressure cook us. In fact, we got all the time from Monday to Friday to complete our servicing just that this organization thrive on redundancy paperwork and servicing features which I will blog about next time... I call it the BS of the Organization that turn me off. Something not to be mention in recruitment posters.

Sometimes its hard to love my job with BS policy, process and people around. Today work, althought it sux big time to come back during the weekend, we manage to achieve lots of aircraft work done and paper work closure. Thanks to a combined A and B shift effort into a single shift, we got maximum brains and brawns for the work. Althought its a Saturday work and the mood does feel bad in the beginning but our section close cooperation see us through the day unscathed. I love the day for the achievement and close working relationship with section mate but of course it was full of BS in the morning and some unhappy incident in the afternoon. There is a Chinese saying "爱屋及乌"...To Love the House, you got to tolerate the crows that come with it. So true to my job...I love aircraft technical job but I got to tolerate couple of nonsense daily.

Crow 1,

Today, I was suppose to come in an hour later so that I could collect my car from Driver's Edge. The mechanic told me that my car will be ready this morning unfortunately, they have not fix up the locking mechanism of of Door yet. So I got to wait till Monday evening.

So off I head to the Base with my housemate, Ricky's Corrolla instead. Upon reaching the base, I was told that my Encik have an arguement with one of our base "Old Crow". Seems like the "Old Crow" expect our section to supply guys to do quality check on the base and my Encik was telling him that we can't supply guys cause everyone is in today to clear aircraft servicing. Here is where I come into picture. 'Old Crow'-- "So you could afford to let one guy come in late to collect car and still mention that there is not enough guys?" Well my sources only share the story till this part but thats enough to make me pretty mad. What the F@%#, we guys are not free and easy to come back on Saturday just for some stupid walk around check. There is a appropriate time for Quality Assurance check and today is just not it. We are here for a single focus objective -- Aircraft servicing. I think this "Old Man" better get himself straighten up and not disturb us at work. What an A-hole, picking us here and there for nonsense stuff. So what if there is a quality lapse, come on! You think we got lots of time to jaga this and jaga that? If we are so free, we won't be coming in on weekend lor. I hope he could be more EQ than that.

So what if I come in slightly later? I mean, why take it so personally with my good Encik? At less I still come in and get the job done? Right? What a childish remark he made. Next time please pick on me and not my Encik ok?


Crow 2,

Sometimes when you do good thing, only GOD can see. When you make a mistake, the whole world will know. Was ask by my good Encik to get some cleaning solvent to clean up the new combiner transimission. The work is hectic and I got to speed up my pace. Seeing the the chemical barrel is empty I went ahead to top it up fto full with cleaning solvent from our POL storage so that the rest of the guys could safe the trouble the next time. Little did I notice I actually spilled some of the chemical on the ground.

Than in the middle of my work, someone shouted my name. It was the CROW...haiz.... he actually was angry I did not clean up the spilled area and he knew it was me cause I was actually asked by him yesterday to top up the chemical barrel from storage if the barrel is empty. Man... the stress of the work and the "Saturday Mood" and the way he shouted so loud that the whole Hanger knew I was the work makes me pretty piss off. I mean he could have just come to me instead of embaressing me in front of so many people with his loud ass mouth! What the hell... I knew no one will top up that barrel and I knew this CROW would rather surf net for deals rather than topping up that barrel, so I decided to initative and do it myself. HE SHOULD BE THE ONE TOPPING UP THE BARREL when I hinted him yesterday by saying the barrel is empty. Rather than doing so, he choose to sit down there with some other guys looking for some kinda online shopping deals while I am busy with my work. What an A-Hole.

Of course I was wrong to leave the small spill there but I honestly did not notice it in the midst of all the work. I do feel like going to that crow with the cloth soaked with chemical from the floor and shaft it down his throat but I told myself before....never to be emotional with work...just work like a robot most of the time and speak like a monk. So that little Motto of mine "Never to be emotional at work" pretty much keep me in control else I think I could get into trouble for swearing against a senior ranking guy.

From today onwards I shall refer to my Base as the Empire...the guys and gals in the base are either with the Empire or with the Rebels. For me, I am the Robot C3P0...emotionless at work...less trouble. This Empire have trouble through its core and its affecting our galaxy. The rebels are there to make a change for the good of the galaxy but the Empire "BS" grip on power is so strong that many suffers. It is a climb in the mountain to loosen the grip of the Empire and their evil doings to our Galaxy.

Ku Ku Ang Mo reversing

Today I went to my local area Car Workshop called "Driver's Edge". All the mechanic right there are certified mechanic which means their labour cost is charged per hour.

After leaving my car for almost an hour for their free engine inspection, one of the mechanic assisted me to reverse the car out of the workshop, unfortunately while doing so he forgotten to close the driver side door and accidently collided the door with the workshop building's pillar. This is my car first accident in United States but the driver was not me.

Haiz....have to leave my Car in the workshop for a few days for the Driver's Edge guys to change a new door for me and of course FOC (Free Of Charge). In the meantime, I am going to be handicapped again.

What begin as a routine 1 hr inspection ends with a broken door. This is call Murphy Law; "The Law broadly states that things will go wrong in any given situation, if you give them a chance".

Saturday Yakuza Outing

The meeting of 3 top Gangster from Japan, in Dallas Texas... they got the "Don't Mess With Me Look". Especially the center guy who will not hesitate to throw the hot glass of green tea at you.

This is Toyo Tamiya Riccardo and behind him towards the background is the shrines of our organization forefather, long tradition dating back all the way to Shogun period. He is specialty is Assasination using harmless colorful looking Tamiya strap with bombs.

This is Shohuke Chan. He like to "Siow Hun Kee" (smoke). He is an excellent spy in rival organization for he always under the protection of smoke screens so not one know who he really is. Like to smoke people to confusion and submission.

Konicayo Garfield. A one man operation who always conduct drive pass shooting. Not the deadly shooting but equally deadly pictures that will help our organization track down the whereabouts of our enemies. The Intelligence guy. Long range, short range and macro range shooting. The organization can count on him

Dozo Shalom Andy. The Peace Maker admist the clan violence. The ability to negotiate resolve without bloodshed is a god gifted skills. Bloodshed need bullets, parang and manpower, Peace Talk is cheaper.

This??? Its just a Cat... harmless little creature in the Japanese restaurant

What to do with Silly things?

What can you do with cans of silly string?

Find trip wires bomb in Iraq
Read all about how US Marines improvise in battleground...

Sometime it can be Dangerous to be too safe. Take for example today during a short end of the day briefing by our new Chief Warrent Officer...

Its freezing weather right now, the road are sometime slippery and icy and our boss was concern about us driving in the cold. He advise us to put breakdown cones or sign several meters behind our car if it ever stalled on the road either from a routine flat tire or a failed engine. And to be extra safe, he told us to have a guy stand at the cone so that he can shout out if ever a vehicle came straight for the cone and the stranded vehicle....

DUH....

I am very positive that this "look out" man will shout if a car ever came rolling down towards him...who won't?

Long sleepless Day and Tom Thumb Shopping

Dear Blog,


Sunset to Sunrise, Work and work and work

I have been working since yesterday 3pm in the afternoon till early morning 8am today. Its the first day of work after a long long break since last thursday. It seems that all the work load from the break we have for Thursday and Friday have been accumulated and suddenly thrown at us yesterday like a big molten lava from a fiery volcano. So nothing is free I see. Due to my recent Lasik sugery not so long ago, my eyes are already feeling really tired in the middle of the morning work at 3am. Have to substain myself through all of it with constant use of eye drops to refresh those tired eyes, its like steroids to keep things going.

Have been hopping from one Aircraft to another, fixing this and that. The whole hanger was like the movie E.R (Emergency Rescue, about Hospital Emergency room), bustling with activity in the middle of the cold winter morning and night as we try to fix up one bird after another. Was really frustrated this morning when I realise one of the aircraft we attempt to fix up did not respond well. What a wasted effort on my teams part. Bo Bian, have to hand over the sick bird to the morning shift to respond to.

...its not about the aircraft rect that is problematic, working on aircraft is never a problem to me cause thats my Passion...its SBAB MC and HQ chasing after the report and my poor boss have to both handle them and handle the physical word. Makes me not wanna be in their shoes. We are working our shit out here and they keep on pestering for the report. I hope the Singapore higher management will just give us our own time to throughly investigate the rectification and give a better, complete and useful report rather than just pushing us for it. Want quantity time but not quality report...how can? They expect things to be a snap of a finger when we only have so few guys and time. Seriously Ai Pi Ai Qi Ai Tua Liap Ni ( Want Cheap, Want Good and Want Big Big tits).

Guess I was more on auto-pilot mode during the early morning work than human mode. Felt like a poor lubricated robot with rusty joins as the hours get longer and longer. This is call fatigue and its one of the dirty dozens that leads to something unpleasent. Reached home after driving down the wrong highway and fall flat on my bed sleeping like a pig...

Free gift! Thank you "Tom Thumb"


You know what the best part about not doing grocery at Walmart? Walmart is HUGE and sometimes just too big that it frighten me away. And its so crowded sometimes, shelf are untidy and getting from one point to another is more like a walking exercise. Yes, it got everything you can think of but when it comes to pure grocery shopping and quality product, the neighbourhood Tom Thumb Store is the way to go. Neat shelf, great cooked food, friendly stuff and if you take a bit of effort with the store advertisement, there are stuff which actually sell cheaper than the Walmart. Whats even better is the atmosphere, since most people head out to Walmart, Tom Thumb turns out to be much more quiet and less crowded. Easier to manuver the shopping trolley and have peace and quiet enjoying the grocery shopping. The nice christmas music playing throughout the store further relaxes the mood. Its all about Quality shopping right here.

And at less the staff looks much more cheerful and professional right here. Much more personalised to service and not the "Check and Go" or "Self Service" type found in Walmart. Listen to this, they actualy have a guy helping you to load you stuff onto trolley and offer to push it to your car for you and that really deserve a 1 dollar tips.

Heres something lagi better... the eye drop shown below is selling at 50% off MSRP (Manufacturer Suggested Retail Price) originally price at US$9.17. Its a good deal for I am using eye drop like drinking water so far.


Instead of ringing up 4.99 at the cash register, they charged me US$9.17 instead. Highlighted the price difference to them and the customer service staff at the store decided to give me the eye drop for free! Got my US$9.17 back and got a bottle of eye drop for free!

Pictures of the week

And here are a few interesting picture taken during this cold cold week,

Water turning into ice without artificial refrigeration, all natural winter cold freezing...
Check out more background from this link

Snowflakes on my apartment balcony patio

Sunset as view from my apartment Balcony

Snow covered ground. Hope it could be thicker

My latest toy, "GUITAR HEROES". Those race seats and guitar remind me protagonist Nekki Basara from Macross 7. Except he is on a fighter jet with a guitar.

And the picture of the week, me giving the new comer a US welcome gift...

So soft, it melt in your hands..

Natural Ice Kacang, anyone wanna try?

30th November 4.00pm

Snowflakes so soft it melt in your hand and not in the mouth. I got it wrong, this morning snow was actually sleet because what falls to the ground from the sky are just tiny spherical ball of ice. What we got right now is real SNOW and true to what I have been told, each snowflakes look unique. In any case, it was a really nice but cold experience.

Latest picture taken from my Balcony

Right now, the roof of the apartment in my neighbourhood have already been filled with snowflakes and it is really a dramatic sight to see it getting blown off the roof by the strong gust coming from North West. It felt like a blizzard to me with the wind and snow, of course I never been in a blizzard before so I guess this snow was quite intense...keke

Someone vandalized the roof...

VIDEO CLIP OF SNOWING IN COPPELL,DALLAS

The snow came quickly and left quickly. Its like drug that give you a temporary great feeling but withdrawen symptoms afterwards. What was snow earlier on gave way to gloomy evening weather, cold and quiet. However, we guys sure have fun taking pictures to show the world our first winter snow experience and of course lots of cold limbs here and there. Its so cold out there right now, I'll just stay at home to blog, play Playstation and watch Anime over hot tea and Pizza with my friends here...

Me and my Room-mate Ricky.

Me and Ah Chan, Delta Platoon mate and now together in the CH-47SD/D helicopter servicing team

Thursday Morning Snow

30th Novemember 10.30am

Thank god I did not laze in bed this morning. I was expecting the cup of water to freeze up this morning due to the 0 degrees temperature but it did not. Than after making some hot water for morning coffee and my thermoflask to hot tea to keep me warm for the day, it starts to drizzle. Next its SNOWING!!!! Boy was I a excited, quickly headed to the balcony in my T-shirt and shorts forgetting that its freezing and wind chilling. Totally caught in the moment man...

Its not the kind of obvious snowing we usually get to see in TV and Movie...just a drizzle snowing and a drizzle rain. I attempted to take a video of it but its too fade to be captured on film. Now I am starting to feel the freeze pain in my hands so off I put on my track pants, jacket, cap and gloves, headed to the carpark for further investigation. Manage to grab some snow that fell onto the car bonnet.

My neighbours Nissan and Mr Frosty's skin on Bonnet


Mr Frosty's skin flakes on my hands

Freeze Warning, Snow, Tornado and Hailstone

Looks like the scene from the "Day After Tomorrow" is coming to Dallas except that its not going to be such a destructive forces of nature as depicted in the movie. The Weather forecast for early tomorrow morning in Dallas is -3 degrees celsius and with the humdity hanging around 65%, we might be experiencing snow right here. Wow, come to think of it I never experiencing such freezing temperature and not to mention snow too! Don't even know weather to celebrate outdoor when it snow or to stay indoor away from the cold. Texas use to be bright, sunny, dry and hot. Right now its really cloudy as we are under the edge of the invading cold front.

Autumn is here and the leaves are falling.
And the weather look gloomy.

Now the cold weather or cold front as they call it here came all way from North Western part of United States sweeping through many states in a South Easternly wind direction before landing right here in Dallas, Texas tomorow morning. So right now the weather is still pretty mild at 25 degrees celsius but we are already experincing the strong wind that is sweeping the cold front towards our place. There is already a Tornado warning siren been broadcast in certain area of Dallas and right now I am eager to see a Tornado 'LIVE' around my area ( but not crossing over my house). There is even report of quarter size hail stone that might be falling in our area.

Looking at the weather forecast, its going to be between -1 degree celsius to 13 degree celsius for the next 5 days. Talk about mother nature at its most coldest. Since all Hell is going to freeze for this few days, I am already embarking on a series of cold weather experiment for the next few days...

This is a cup of water in Liquid state

This is the same cup of water place at my balcony

Now I just gonna wait for night fall and see for the first time water turning into ice without a fridge. My camera, jacket and blanket is ready for tomorrow morning extreme cold weather... Planning to take video of snow if it occur. Some may thing I am kind of Bo Liao for this little experiment and the American might thing I am "Sua koo" but for a Tropical country boy like me, this is something very exciting to experience. Hmm...hopefully the ground freeze with a layer of ice just enough for a bit of ice skating with slippers.

Sore Throat

In the morning...

Bloody hell, I got sore throat today and its Sunday!!! What a way to start the week.

Now reporting in the evening...

What the hell, I sprained my ankle while jogging this morning. Can't see the pot holes on the ground and step right into it. Must be my cock-up left eye landing me in trouble. Two black kids were laughing non-stop while I was sitting at the side of the road in pain. At less they drop by and ask me if I am alright....

Must have looked really "Malu" to get myself hurt while running in full sporting attire and a nice oakley sunglasses.

Happy Thanksgiving Day!!!

Its the 4th Thursday of November and its THANKSGIVING DAY!!! And there is no work on Friday which links up to Saturday and Sunday. That equals to 4 days of break!!! Yippie!!!

So whats ThanksGiving Day? I have "Wikipedia-ed" it right HERE

Most shop is close today, even MacDonald. The atmosphere out door is like the first day of Chinese New Year in Singapore, nothing is open and everyone is taking a break to THANK God. I will be staying at home for rest after a long night of Guard Duty since yesterday evening. As for today evening, we got some new guys coming from Singapore to work right here in Peace Prairie Detachment and I will be heading down to give a red carpet welcome to them at Dallas/Ft.Worth Airport.

Man....can't believe I have already been here for 7 months. When I first arrive, I was recieved warmly at the airport by my seniors (really appreciate that) and I was totally new birdie and blur about US from shopping to supermarket, from the direction of road to the driver's side of the car. Since its Thanksgiving Day, I got to thanks all the guys who helped me oriented myself in United States and guided me during work. There is a Chinese saying "在家靠父母，出外靠朋友" (At home get the support of parents, when away from home get the support from friends). The saying is very very true and working in a foreign land, your friends and colleague are the closes to you when help and support is needed. They are like my family.

And the beauty of helping each other like a family is that its contagious. Good things get pass down from one person to another and I will pass down whatever good things I recieved to the new guys who will be needing it for their stay in Dallas and I'm hope this spirit will be pass on from them to the next new birds coming in like a never ending relay.

The Hello Kitty Syndrome

Long long time ago, in a country far far away which actually is smack right in the corner of South East Asia. There emerge a lifeless cat with short legs, 2 eyes and no mouth and for a set of fast food breakfast, lunch or dinner, customer get to have one lifeless cat of infinity life for a nominal price. The cat name is Hello Kitty and Hello Daniel and they come in 5 different pair with different assortment of costume. But in this country far far away and probably smaller than a Vatican City, a massive Q was formed by the natives to get their hands on the cats, the Q almost rival those at Vatican City where people around the world Q to get blessing from the Pope, at less peacefully.

What started as another MacDonald Value Meal promotion become a National Q-ing phenomean or should I say disaster. Many fanatic from young boys to old Ah Mah relentlessly Q up over the night almost everyday outside every brunch of MacDonald hopping to be the first few to get a hold of the limited stock of Hello Kittys the moment MacDonald opens at 6am in the morning. Waiting and camping outside of MacDonald for at less 6 hours is a norm.

What turn out to be peace and smooth as Vanilla soon brings out the ugly side of the society. Desperate Q cutting, quarreling, fightings and glass breaking. One incident happen between an old uncle and a group of Ah Bengs and Ah Lians. It was 1 vs many in a fight over "Who the hell Jump Q", that eventually required the intervention of the Police. Than there was the other case of the glass wall of the MacDonald outlet shattering due to crowd overpressure and pushing and shoving. Blood was drawn. Soon every Q around Singapore become a waste of tax payer money when Police have to be posted at almost every MacDonald to ensure law and order. So what begins as simply two lifeless cat almost stained the entire society. It brings out the best Kiasuism and Kiasee-sium in Singaporeans. And to see people getting the toys and throwing the fresh food away, I feel we ought to throw this kind of people to Africa.

All this craziness was thanks to a few speculators who mention that the price of a pair of Hello Kitties are going to fetch a high price over the second hand market, some even selling at more than 300% profit. No wonder Uncle and Auntie and even Ah Pek and Ah Mah who don't even know what Hello Kitty still brave the Q just to get their hands on one. Within a few months after the Hello Kitty Syndrome or Craze, this lifeless Cats are worthless in such EBAY ads

Back to the presents in the year 2006 and just for the past couple of days, we see the launch of Sony Playstation 3 and Nintendo Wii, two latest generation powerhouse gaming console from two video games giants. I was wrong when I think only Singaporean have the Q-ing culture. Our good old Americans here do so too! At less its not some lifeless critters but the latest in entertainment system. How the hell can you play with Hello Kitties? Role play them? The Playstation 3 is pretty awesome but I won't be buying it untill the price falls and definately not going to Q overnight for it. Nintendo Wii is pretty neat too for it got controllers with motion sensors and that adds a brand new dimension to gaming. Now I could be playing a tennis game and instead of pressing the buttons till my fingers get numb, I could just swing the controller till I break my arms. Ha ha.



If you have read the news for the past few days, you won't miss the news about the huge crowds around United States and Canada and Japan Q-ing up outside electronic superstore to be the first few to get their hands on this incredible entertainment hardware. However not everyone is buying just because they are in love with it but because of the second hand market rate for the console. What was US$450 in store becomes US$2000 in the Ebay market... Greed scores it points again and with greed comes violence.

Man kanna shot for not giving in to robbers

So what is the "Hello Kitty Syndrome"?

1) It is define as the desperation to buy some worthless stuff hopping to sell it of at a higher market price when the market is still hot like a burning matchstick (which fizzle really fast).

2) The act of sacrificing sleep, humanity, moral values and Values Meals in the garbage bin just two get the lifeless soft toy.

Dinner at ROCKFISH

Everything Seafood!!!