17 May 2011 -- Let's Play In Orchard!

I was given two choices to spend my time on this public holiday, and these two requests came from two separate set of friends.

1) Go cycling in Palau Ubin at 8 a.m. It actually is a brilliant idea, but I ain't exactly very keen about waking up so early in the morning just to cycle. And I can't cycle, for one thing.

2) Have lunch at Orchard 313. This looks appealing too, but stuff in Orchard are pretty expensive, and I am a bit tight in my finances lately...

So after a period of consideration the night before, I have made my final decision.

...

Cycling in Palau Ubin just doesn't sound cool to me. Sorry to those who went(you know who you are!). And so I headed off for Plan 2.

We had our lunch in RamenPlay located in 313@Somerset. I normally do not like to have noodles, especially when I am eating out, because noodles take very long to cool and I will take very, very long to finish eating a bowl of noodles. But hey, after seeing and tasting my bowl of ramen, I agreed it was really worth coming.

I ordered their house specialty the Tonkotsu Ramen, and I must say, it's really worth every dollar. The serving is pretty large,so it was awesome for me. The pork slices are also very tender and has absorbed the flavour of the broth, thereby enhancing the taste of the pork slices. Speaking of the broth, I must say that I really loved the soup. It's not very salty and one can taste the very essence of miso and pork marrow bones. Most importantly, the noodles are well cooked. It definitely left me wanting for more...yum yum.

The next stop... is of course dessert. So off we went to Orchard Central, where our next destination awaits. I was recommended to a cafe called Fruit Paradise, which is well known for its fruit tarts. By the time I reached Orchard Central, I was so full from my previous course that I decided to just order a ice mocha, while the rest ordered a fruit tart along with a pot of floral tea. Now, allow me to show you how wickedly awesome and tantalising the fruit tarts are...

Awesome eh? Just looking at it makes one feel like eating it. Fruit Paradise is a good place to have your afternoon tea, when you can enjoy your tea and slowly indulge in your cravings for a sweet fix.

With our dessert settled, we went off to have a game of pool until 6pm, when I left for home while they went for dinner. I definitely enjoyed my day in Orchard, where there are many places for good food at affordable prices - the two places I went to are very good examples. Look around carefully the next time in Orchard, and I am sure you can definitely find places like these. :D

Auto-Correct Needs To BE Corrected...Somehow.

Whew, what a scare!

As many may have known, Blogger was down for more than 20 hours due to a maintenance-related glitch. That had me worried for quite a while. Luckily, Google managed to get Blogger back online, just in time for me to update! :D

Anyway, I was scouting for cool sites to go to, and then I finally found one.

We rely a lot of technology in our daily communication. So sometimes, we become so overly dependent that it does not matter whether you type a word incorrectly. Why so? Well, there always the autocorrect function to help amend your typo errors. Not saying that autocorrect is not good, but I just felt that it can lead to disastrous (read: hilarious) results. So this website I am about to introduce gathers all sorts of mistakes made by the Auto-Correct function on iPhone.

Introducing: Damn You Auto-Correct! It's a website where netizens post their screenshots of Auto-Correct failures, and I can guarantee lots of entertainment by looking at some of the screenshots.

In order to uphold the clean image of the blog (although I felt that this image was somewhat ruined by my previous post "What If My GP Teacher Was A Geisha?"), I have decided to look for a less obscene example to post here:

A: What do you want with your chicken?

B: Umm I'll have porn.

B: OMG I mean corn!

B: Stupid spellcheck!

A: Um excuse me!?

B: :(

To end off, if you need something that can keep you entertained for the day, don't hesitate to search for this website!

My Hallyu Top 5! :D

I was exposed to K-pop at a much later stage compared to many other Hallyu Wave fans, but nevertheless, I find that the songs are quite cool. The emergence of so many different artistes and groups,however, can be quite confusing though... :-S

When I listen to K-pop, what attracts me is actually not the appearance of the artistes (although it is, a contributing factor to how much I enjoy that song). Rather, I like how some of the songs can make one feel like dancing along with the tune, and how some of the music videos are filmed.

I have friends who tell me that since they don't understand Korean, it's a bit pointless listening to K-pop. In my opinion, language is not a barrier in the world of music. As long as people enjoy a song, it is good music.

Frankly, I am not a fan of K-pop, but I am definitely a fan of good music. :D I don't have a lot of Korean songs in my MP3 player, but these are my top 5 favorites on my playlist. Enjoy...

5. Orange Caramel -- Bangkok City
As many would have known, Orange Caramel is a subgroup that contains three members from the girl group After School. They released their latest digital single this year. I liked this song because it is very catchy and the tune just doesn't go away, although the pretty Raina, Nana and Lizzy are a bonus.



4. IU -- Marshmallow
Released on November 2009 in the album "IU...IM", this song did not initially endear to me. In fact, I found the song too sweet and it took a couple of times for me to finally get used to it. Watching the MV makes me want to be the marshmellow in there... :D



3. TVXQ -- Keep Your Head Down
I have to admit, this song is the first I've heard of TVXQ. Even though they have been in the K-pop for very long and have gone through a lot(e.g. the departure of three of the members), they are still one of the strongest bands. Keep Your Head Down marks their return as a two member group.



2. 2NE1 -- It Hurts (Slow)
The first song that got me listening to K-pop is 2NE1's "I Don't Care", but I like this song because it shows a different side of this girl group. 2NE1 is known for their techno-pop its like "Go Away" and "Can't Nobody", but this song proves me wrong...they can sing anything!



1. Big Bang -- Tonight
Big Bang returns with this wonder of a hit, Tonight. The album, which also goes by the same name, went on to become a chart-topper upon its release on many Korean music chart.



So that's it, my personal K-pop favourites. Enjoy the MV!

Interesting Read -- Packing For Mars

Whew, what a busy month this is!

I had such a packed schedule, that there was no time to update the blog! :D

Anyway, I have been picking up some cool books from the library to read, one of which will be introduced in this post.

Presenting: "Packing For Mars" by Mary Roach!

Mary Roach has previously combined science with topics like sex (Bonk -- The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex), and even investigated the possibility of an afterlife in "Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife". This time round, she tackles the topic of space travel and life without gravity.

Have you ever thought about how food in space taste like, or how much time and resources are required to plan a simulated moon expedition, or even how to answer nature's call in space? Well, this book covers a wide range of topics regarding space travel that will keep you entertained throughout the book.

Reading through scientific books can sometimes be a bother, because the content can be pretty dry and hard to digest. However, Mary Roach's humorous and witty writing style, combined with interesting scientific knowledge and real-life examples, got my attention. I was reading through the chapter on answering nature's call in space travel, and to illustrate that clearing fecal waste in space can be a frustrating matter, she provides this excerpt from the Apollo 10 mission transcript:


Cernan: ... You know once you get out of lunar orbit, you can do a lot of things. You can power down... And what's happening is --
Stafford: Oh -- who did it?

Young: Who did what?

Cernan: What?

Stafford: Who did it? [laughter]

Cernan: Where did that come from?

Stafford: Give me a napkin quick. There's a turd floating through the air.

Young: I didn't do it. It ain't one of mine.

Cernan: I don't think it's one of mine.

Stafford: Mine was a little more sticky than that. throw that away.

Young: God almighty.


[And again eight minutes later, while discussing the timing of a water dump.]


Young: Did they say we could do it anytime?

Cernan: They said on 135. They told us that -- Here's another goddamn turd. What's the matter with you guys? Here, give me a --

Young/Stafford: [laughter]

Stafford: It was just floating around?

Cernan: Yes.

Stafford: Mine was stickier than that.

Young: Mine was too. It hit that bag --

Cernan: [laughter] I don't know whose that is. I can neither claim it or disclaim it. [laughter]

Young: What the hell is going on here?

Aside from the main content, the author also provides annotations at the bottom to give further explanation on some of the terms in the chapters. This allows the readers who may be familiar with the scientific terms used to further understand some of the concepts in this book.

I would strongly recommend this book to all, even if you are no fan of space travel. But if you are interested in how life is in the void, this is the book for you!

Kengsters' Outing! 美味しい！

Last Saturday, we went out for dinner at Sole Pomodoro.

Being there the first time, I was excited about what the restaurant has to offer. The Italian restaurant offers a great variety of pizza and pasta, and has been highly recommended by many, so there's no way I am going to give it a miss.

We met at Little India MRT station at 7p.m and made our way to the little restaurant at Mackenzie Road. There were actually quite a lot of people there for dinner by the time we arrived, so we were lucky enough to find seats.

As every pizza on the menu looked so enticingly good, we really could not decide on what to order! Finally, we decided on five on them, namely:

1. Diavola - Tomato sauce, mozzarella, spicy salami. Liked the combination of mozzarella and the salami.

2. Siciliana - Tomato sauce, mozzarella, anchovies, cappers. The moment I took a bite, I was overwhelmed by the taste of the anchovies - it gives me a feeling as though I was eating a seafood platter. Maybe a bit too salty for me but still palatable.




3. Bufala - Tomato sauce, Buffalo mozzarella. My favorite. The Buffalo mozzarella melted over the pizza was awesome and it actually left me wanting for more. Unfortunately, we ordered one per flavor and there's only one per person. So oh well...

4. Crudo e Rucola - The Parma ham on top of the pizza was the clincher. Yum yum.

5. Calzone Solepomodoro -Came off as a big surprise for me. It was up to my liking actually.

After we ate our fill, our food outing did not stop there. Of course, how can we miss out dessert? :D So next stop, The Cathay!

A few of us went to eat sushi, but the rest decided to have something sweet. And off we went to Cafe Cartel to have our dessert. To our delight, all drinks and desserts were on 5% off from 9p.m onwards, so it was a pretty good deal! Unfortunately, I was so full from having 5 slices of pizza, hence I decided to order a mocha frappe. Vincent ordered a Eastside Brownie Stack while Kang Yueh ordered a Waffle with Ice Cream set. As the ice cream waffle looked so yummy (pity my full stomach), I decided to take multiple shots of the waffle as Kwang Yueh poured honey down the delicious dessert...


As we enjoyed our dessert, we talked and discussed about many things like movies etc. until about 10+ p.m, when we finally bade each other farewell and wrapped up the dinner outing.

I look forward to our next dinner gathering! :D

The Adventure Continues... In Pokemon Black and White!

About 20 days after its release, a copy of it is finally in my hands.

Introducing: Pokemon Black and White.

Having played the last few installments of the game, I picked up Pokemon Black. It was better than I expected.

The 5th generation of Pokemon introduces up to more than 150 new Pokemon to the franchise, and this time, the adventure takes place in Unova Region, which is based off New York City. The game starts off with you and two other friends receiving a starter Pokemon as a gift from Professor Juniper. As with other versions, the aim of this game is to obtain all eight badges of the Unova region and challenge the Pokemon League.

In addition to the aim of becoming the Pokemon Champion, players would also have to thwart the plans of the games' main antagonist Team Plasma, a group that seeks to liberate Pokemon from human oppression.

The game starts off at a very slow pace (for me at least) as Professor Juniper will guide players through the various aspects of the game, such as capturing a Pokemon, so as to allow players new to Pokemon familiarize with the game.

New features included in this game include the seasonal cycle. This means that only certain areas can be accessed and certain Pokemon can only be captured in different seasons. Some Pokemon change appearance according to season as well. Another new feature to note would be the Triple Battle Mode, which increases the challenge of a Pokemon Battle.

After an hour of gameplay, I find the game fun but challenging. It can be quite frustrating for new players, as battles between ordinary trainers can now be quite a challenge even for veteran players too. I was however disappointed by the absence of the mascot of Pokemon -- Pikachu. Pikachu is the reason why many fans are familiar with Pokemon, and Pikachu cannot be found in Pokemon Black/White unless you trade it over from previous versions like Diamond/Pearl/Platinum/HeartGold/SoulSilver. Without this symbolic character, I felt that the game seems be missing something.

But overall, the introduction of new Pokemon and new game features make it an equally awesome gaming experience for old and new players alike.

Before I end this post, allow me to introduce the starter Pokemon of this series:

Tepig - Evolves into a Fire/Fighting final stage. It has the worst Defense, Special Defense and Speed of the trio's final evolutions, but makes up for its limitations with a high HP, Attack and Special Attack. Learns several strong moves to complement its offense-based stats.




Oshawott - Evolves into a Water final stage with an appearance of a sea lion. It is a balanced starter, and can learn all three of the Water HMs, i.e. Surf, Waterfall and Dive. Good for beginner players. Its movepool is decent, with good Water moves like Aqua Tail and Razor Shell, and also stat-boosting Swords Dance and Focus Energy.



Snivy - Evolves into a Grass final stage. Unlike Tepig's evolution line, it is more defense-oriented. It has the worst HP, Attack and Special Attack of the trio's final evolutions, but does have the best Defense, Special Defense and Speed. Pity the narrow movepool though, and its only decent level-up move is Leaf Storm of base power 140, learnt at Lvl.62 (groan).




So after all these talk, I can't wait to continue on my adventure in the Unova region! :D

What If My GP Teacher Was A Geisha?

Note: Before watching this video, please note that parts of the video may be offensive. In that case, please refrain from watching and skip this post.

My colleague introduced this video to me, and I laughed like there was no tomorrow.

Enjoy. :D