Saturday, July 21, 2007 -

"In my opinion, Comic art is the most proliferating form of printed communication today. It is the new literacy." - Will Eisner ( Creator of the Spirit ~1917-2005~)


Yup....I'm back with a brand-spanking new post as I promised........and as You can see I'm already brushing up on my referencing skills for my upcoming school projects......hahaha.....this is a completely art-related post........quite a few people have been curious as to how I do what I do......and I've posted some examples of Finished artwork on my blog......but usually I can't be bothered with detailing the entire long ,ardous process of getting a drawing done but now that I got some spare time in my hands...so I thought why the hell not? So for the very first time I'll breaking down the different steps in the creative process of completing a piece of artwork in substantial detail.....giving all you folks an intimate tour inside my head......and trust me my head is not a nice place to be.....remember to take a shower after you're done reading this post....hahhaha

Let me start off doing what I'm best at and giving you a brief(Yeah right...BWAHAHA!!) history of how I first dabbled with drawing....and what is it I'm best at you ask? Why being Long winded of course!!!!Ha!.....


I started drawing around the time I was in Kindergarten......and I did like drawing a whole lot but did'nt feel I was particularly gifted in drawing or anything...I was pretty much as sucky in art as any kid I knew.......and usually I drew out of pure boredom....my mum would be fixing dinner after She picked me from school and since she was busy...so I had to kill some time cos I could'nt irritate her........hahhaha......and I remember my mum enrolled me for art classes but I dropped out after my very FIRST lesson!!.......holy H Christ!! I think I set a new record for the fastest art class drop-out in 1988...haha....

After that time.....it all gets kinda blurry......Ihough I do distinctively remember that my chinese textbooks and PETS workbook were filled with drawings of Mighty Max,Galactus and the Silver Surfer from the front page to the back cover of the book...

Flashforward to 1995, My dad and my uncle set up a bike shop and everyday I would be at school till noon and then take a 10 mins bus to railmall and stay till around 10-11pm everyday......for weekends I would be there for 12 solid hours 10am to 10pm.........and since my parents were busy as hell.......my mum would give me a stack of A4 sized paper and just leave me to draw or watch TV..........and this was the period that I REALLY started to take drawing seriously........I would draw for hours and hours....with whatever tools I had...markers,highlighters,ball-point pens,pencils...whatever........and I would fill these A4 paper to the brim with crazy doodles and random stuff.

Problem was....I sucked. I sucked BIG TIME!! and I knew it..........I was folding A4 paper in half to make my own mini-comics, drawing the comics in pencils and color pencils and even at age 11........even then I was practical enough to know that I was no damn good.....because I was reading quite a few comics at that point ........and My art sure as hell did'nt look anything like what I've been reading!! My comics were drawn in ballpoint pen (!) and color pencils(!!) and those Pilot High-Techpoint V5 pens(!!!) that would bleed like hell on the paper when you applied too much pressure........

So One day I just decided I wasn'y any good and stopped drawing cold turkey......my parents said my stuff was great but PUH-LEASE....I knew better...hahha.....I was serious about wanting to get really really good at drawing and around age 14 and I decided then That I would self-teach myself human anatomy, sequential storytelling,pacing,inking and basically just learn the tools of the trade by heart.........so its either I improve dramatically or I do everybody a favor and refrain myself from polluting the local art scene with my shoddy drawings........ahhaha.....see if you think I'm harsh to fat girls and banglas.....I can promise that I'm 3 times as harsh to myself when drawing is involved..........hahha...

So for the next few years, I drew very little but I researched and studied a lot............I wanted to learn from the very best....from the masters of the comicbook medium itself.......so I would read up on these thick books on comics history from the 1930's till the present and I would select artists that I really liked from each era.....the cream of the crop.....artists who changed the medium,who were innovators, who pushed the envelope............and I would hunt down reprints of their work and just immerse myself in them,trying my best to learn from their work......from the Golden Age(1938 to 1955) I would religiously study the work of Will Eisner(Creator of the Spirit), Jack Kirby (Co-creator of the whole Marvel Universe) and Dick Sprang (Batman), from the Silver Age(1956- 1970-ish) Neal adams(Batman), Steve Ditko( co-creator of Spider-man), Wally Wood (Tales from the crypt), Alex Toth( Zorro) and from the Bronze Age (1970's to 1990's) I studied the work of John Byrne(X-men and Fantastic Four), Walter Simonson(The Mighty Thor), Frank Miller( Daredevil), the Kubert Brothers(Hulk and Kazaar), Darwyn Cooke(New Frontier) and Bruce Timm( The Batman animated series).....blah,blah

So long story short, within the next 2-3 years........I pored through whatever comics,interviews or artwork by these artists and soak up as much as I could,mixing and matching the elements I like and trying to apply it to my own work..........It was this time that I taught myself foreshortening,perspective,layouts,storytelling,panel arrangement, spotting blacks,anatomy, cross-hatching,lettering and etc.....by 1999, I had the basic foundations and knowledge I required......and this was probably my most productive period ever.........I did 4 short 8-10 page stories and 1 extended story (30 pages or so) and 3 dozen pin-ups within the span of the 1999-2001............

Iit was a real baptism by fire man....learning and solving artistic problems as I worked.......I was young and on fire.......churning out work on a regular basis...problem was I was still using pilot G-tech pens and High-tech V5 pens that really muddied up my art.....I realized that I still did'nt know shit about inking properly.....

Around year one of Poly, I decided It was time to work on another major project.....So I did this Batman story sat in the future and this time I wanted to use the RIGHT tools.......I wanted my work to look as professional as humanly possible.....sharp,clean and delicate lines....no muddy,blunt lines........it was during this period that I switched to the Micron 0.05 Nip pen which produces a line that still remains THE sharpest and thinnest line I have seen...and I have been using the same tools from 2001 till now.....


Anyway to make sure everyone isn't falling asleep by now..haha....let's have some visual examples.....to give you an example of the fundamental differences between my inking back in 1999 and the kind of inking I do now.......


HERE'S WHERE I GET TECHNICAL!!!Quick...Drink some coffee!!


The 1st drawing is the original drawing I did in 1999 and the 2nd drawing is the new one I did two weeks ago.......I drew the second drawing completely based on my first drawing in pencil and inked it in the style I employ now......it may not be that noticeable but here are some of the differences.....

1)Concrete( circa 1999)


-The entire drawing was inked by Markers

- Notice the lines on the body, they are inked with the same marker and therefore there are no variations in line thickness and weight which makes everything looks flat

- The lines of the cracks and crevices do not go from thick to thin,they're are of only one thickness

-The edges of all the lines are blunt at the end/edge

-The eyeball is the worst part of the entire piece and is extremely poorly inked



2.) Concrete (circa 2007)

-The entire drawing outline of the character was inked by a combination of markers(thin and thick) and the 0.05 Micron pens for detailing


-The outline of the face was inked with a thicker marker to help it look distinctive when contrasted with the thin lines of the body...


-Every Single line and crack on the body has varying line thickness, so the lines gradually goes from thick in the middle to thin at the edge.....giving variations in line thickness and weight,therefore providing some "texture" and added craggy-ness to Concrete's body....instead of the flat marker lines used in the first drawing that added no depth to the lines.


-The edge of each and every line on concrete has been sharpened to a razor's edge......rather than the blunt lines evidenced in the first drawing...


-The Eye has been corrected and the inking and placement of eye reflections looks much better in this drawing

- An added background of splattered white paint has been added, a visual technique that I wasn't yet capable of employing back in 1999....


So the above is just a small look back and illustration in terms of the kind of advances that have been made in terms of basic fundamentals and some of the old mistakes that were committted in past work........but now onto THE MAIN ITEM:


I'm finally clearing my off and ORD leave in army and what better way for me to commemorate my new found freedom then to start drawing again?And what better character to draw then my all-time favorite character, the very central theme of my blog...........Gotham City's very own Knight in Blood-caked armor.....Batman.


This drawing will be drawn in an entirely different style from my usual stuff. .After going through the work of so many artist, I realized the one that I'm head over heels with is Frank Miller's work..........I personally prefer drawing in Black and white (B&W) and to me Frank Miller's "Chiaroscuro" style in Sin City Makes FULL use of the B&w Format............because most of the time Black and white art just looks like art that is uncolored....... Frank Miller's art completely POPS in B&W and adding color will only dilute and muddy its effect.....that to me is the epitome of Good B&W art.....when the drawing stands completely on its own and any coloring is a distraction rather then enhancement....

>I have set some guidelines for myself. This piece is supposed to be as close to the"Chiaroscuro" style of drawing featured in Sin City as I can make it. The drawing will be consistent with My take on Batman in that he's virtually a creature of the shadows, an almost mythic creature who is extension of the darkness, draped in the shadows......white,cold,inhuman eyes......I want the whole page to drip with black ink.....so the drawing will be unapologetically dark and gritty.


Anyway enough ranting,here now is a detailed,step by step breakdown of how I plan and produce a piece of artwork from start to finish..........and if I'm successful the final drawing should look like a page taken right out of Frank Miller's work in Sin City.


1.) Research and development:





Pictured here is a stack of comics I read for >ahem<....R&D purposes....hahhaha....The most important thing when planning to revamp your current art style or understand the innerworkings of your favorite artists is to do extensive research. I've been studying Frank Miller's Sin City comics since around 2000..........so in preparation of this piece, I read through every single Sin City story he's done and tried to absorb as much as I could visually, I also read through interview books that Frank miller has been involved in.......interviews from 1970 to 2001 and sometimes in these interviews Frank miller may elaborate on the kind of tools he uses or his working style employed or the different flourishes he puts in his work and basically I combined this information with whatever elements I pick up through my own personal observation of his comics to form my own theories on the how his creative process works......


2.) Tools of the Trade:







Ok here's a check list of the tools I use from right to left:
-Eraser
-Mechanical pencil (For stuctural drawing)
-HB pencil (For shading purposes)
-micron 0.05 pens (Detailing,inking)
-Red and Black Marker (For rough sketching and preliminary drawings)
-Uniflo Permanent marker( For inking the large areas of black)
-Pain brush,Toothbrush and white paint( For the various special effects applied to the drawing)


3.) Preliminary Concept Sketches





Usually either you have a clear image of the picture you want to draw in your head or you can just doodle various poses or concepts on a piece of paper until you stumble on something you like. This are just warmy-up practices for me have some fun and to pin down the pose I want for my final drawing so the drawings are very rough and unfinished........anatomy need not be correct at this stage......and anyway as you can see, I sketched out 3 different poses and I'm settling for the rough pose on the right of the paper.......and with the pose in mind, we can move on to the next stage.


4.) Finalized Marker sketch:





For this stage I do a tighter,more detailed marker sketch of the final drawing I intend to do. Whatever important details is more or less worked out at this stage of drawing. I draw it using black and red markers because underneath any drawing,minus the armor or the costume and whatever....the figure needs to be proportionate and anatomically correct so it is always a good idea to draw a "naked" anatomically correct body before adding any details to it therefore the underlying basic figure is drawn in black and then I add his cloak and cape and gloves in red..........so that I know how the body works and the red allows me to know how the figure will look like with clothes,gloves and etc on him without obscuring the main figure.......


This marker sketch gives a damn good indication of the direction the final drawing will take and already I can identify some of the things that needs to be corrected for the final drawing like the placement of the figure(Too high and not centralized), his right arm (not properly foreshortened)and thigh(too fat and anatomically incorrect)............

5.) Structural Preliminary Pencils



With the marker sketch as a guide, I begin work on the actual piece itself. The basic figure,the placement and anatomical problems are ALL worked out at this stage.......any mistakes is corrected at this stage.......the problems with the thigh and arm have been corrected in this stage...also I marked out the areas that are supposed to be in black with these little infinity symbols(Shorthand for indicating areas to be inked) but don't shade any of the areas yet. Usually I can ink the drawings at this stage but for the benefit of you folks....I'll add another stage which is the tigthening up the Final pencils next.


I prefer my pencils to be looser and less detailed when I ink my own art because if my pencil art is too complete and every detail is worked out then inking is going to be boring and basically you just trace the image with little to add. But if my pencils are looser ....then I can have alot of fun and more spontaneity when I'm inking....adding different flourishes and additional details in the inking stage.Think about it..........when you are inking your own work why pencil so tightly and add so much details at this stage....everything is going to be covered in ink anyway!You take the fun out of inking......its best that you ONLY pencil tightly and super detailed when someone else is inking your work,so since everything is already worked out by you in the pencilling stage it helps minimizes of the inker misintrepretating your work and screwing up the final look of your work ....

6) Final tightened Pencils:




This is the final,tightened pencils and I will ink Directly over this pencilled drawing. As you can see, the difference with this stage and the previous one is that most of the areas that are supposed to be black have already been shaded with the HB pencil and all the different lines have been tightened and finalized in anticipation of the inking.


An Important note I like to make is that I regard Pencils as a structural tool/ a stylus......and I regard ink as the actual drawing medium. What do I mean? Pencils are used to provide the basic structure and foundations of EVERY drawing, however pencils can be rubbed off and changed.......while inking is final and so only when pencils are inked can the drawing be finalised. Without inking......pencils just provide an unfinished foundation and not a completed work of art.


Case In point; This Drawing above Completely does not work at all while in Pencil form. Look at it, in this current form, the drawing is a muddy mess and the main figure itself does not stand out at all.......in this pencil form...this drawing has zero impact......the magic behind it is that this drawing will only work when it is finally inked, when I start laying the inks in the next few stages you will see how this picture slowly comes together.........however looking at this finalised pencils, I am already mentally inking it and have a pretty good idea of how the final piece will look like in my head....so far I'm happy with it....


7.) Initial Inks


This is the stage where I ink the entire figure itself,the background lightning and the other more intricate lines and details with the 0.05 micron pen. I do not fill in the Large areas of black in the picture yet because that is done with a thick uniflo marker . I added the lightning in the background because firstly it serves as a homage of Frank Miller's cover to Dark Knight Returns#1 and secondly because it serves as a dramatic element in the picture that helps pop the main character out(rather then placing him in a complete black background) and it also serves as an explanation for the dramatic lighting of the main figure( I want it to seem that Batman is completely submerged in the shadows and this bolt of lightning behind him illuminates him just for a brief instant in the most drmatic fashion possible)

8.) Intermission( Resting and Reflecting)




Ok now at this stage all that remains is to fill in the large chunks of black and see the drawing take its final form. I detach myself from this drawing and return to it in a few hours because when you're in the middle of drawing,and you're in the heat of things.......you might not be able to spot some of your mistakes if you were to complete the drawing in one entire go. However by resting and reflecting for a while......you return to the drawing with fresh eyes and can spot certain mistakes you were'nt able to when you were in the midst of drawing....
The paper is of course weighted down by my Brand-spanking new King Leonidas helmet paper weight that comes included with every deluxe,boxed version of the 300 DVD!! GET YOURS NOW!!!

9.) Laying in the blacks


Yup those are my dainty fingers inking in all the areas marked with the infinity symbol with my uniflo markers...hahha...I ALWAYS start inking the face/head first and if i screw it up,I abandon the drawing completely because it'll be deemed unsalvageable....I generally use the 0.05 micron pens for inking the fine details and the markers are used to fill in areas that require large chunks of black.....after inking with the marker,I go back and sharpen everything up with 0.05 micron pen........the paper underneath my hand(overlapping the drawing) is to prevent my hand from smudging the pencils as my hand moves across the page....

10.) Work in progress





As you can see here, the drawing is partially inked and you can actually start to see how the picture is gradually coming together. This "chiaroscuro" style is a super stylized and high-contrast sort of drawing and the positive areas(white spaces) is completely defined by the negative areas( black spaces) and black merges with black and white merges with white.....i bet my Frank Miller collection that y'all dunno what the hell am I talking aboutat all...hahaha...simple:
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Take a look at the part where the lightning makes contact with the figure. When I was drawing in pencil, I drew the figure first and then the lightning in the background afterwards but if you notice, when I ink it....there is no line seperating the white areas......the lighting is completely merged with the rim-light of the figure(lighted silhoutte).... whenever two white areas meet....They're merged as one in the inking process....no lines to seperate them
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Another example....Look at the head of the figure. when I was drawing, I drew the head as I normally would but when inking it....I erase all the pencil lines and let the shape of the head be defined by the black areas instead. I'm speaking kryptonian?hahha... well look at the lines of the cape..........they all converge on the head and they're all cut off by a circular area of white and extend no further......so as you can see the area where the black lines stop short actually forms the outline of the head and therefore the entire white area of the head is defined by the black area...and the white areas of the cape is merged into the white area of the head without lines to seperate them...this creates the pure black and white/high contrast look I wanted to achieve....


My father took some pictures of me while I was knee-deep at working on the drawing........and NO. I don't usually draw in such poor lighting. My Father wanted to light and photograph me in a more dramatic fashion...hahaha


Another shot of me at the drawing table with my scowl intact......hahaha....one important thing, I hate to draw with my spectacles on......the proximity of the page is close enough so I prefer drawing without any visual enhancement.....


11.) The ALMOST final drawing




So there you have it........The Drawing is completely inked and you can see how much more effective it looks fully inked as compared to the fully pencilled version. The Lighning and the figure finally makes sense once all areas of blacks have been filled in. BUT WAIT......the inking is done but the drawing isn't finished yet....one Final step.


12.) The White paint 'Splatter' test






I'm going to be applying some minor "special effects" with white paint to the picture to finish it off and I gotta say that white paint is an unpredictable medium. When you're flinging white paint on a drawing with a brush or toothbrush....You never know where the specks of paint are going to land on and how the final look is going to be like....but what you can do, is try your best to control the chaostic nature of the white paint.

Therefore it is best that you do a small practice piece first to warm up yourself .Diluting the brush with water before flinging the paint and using a dry brush to fling the paint produces different results.........what we're after its "Controlled Chaos"...where although you do not know how the final piece will look like.....you try to minimize the risk of things going wrong by doing trial tests.
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As you can see above, different paint splatter effects can be achieved with varying speeds of flicking your thumb over the tooth brush.The bottom two panels are something different......the bottom left panel is done by coating a brush with paint and just flinging it downward as fast as you can and the bottom right panel is a practical application of white paint effects on a test drawing... I never understood why artists drew blood instead of spraying some paint on the paper which will produce the most realistic spurts of blood that no hand can recreate....paint and blood are both liquid....a spray of paint on paper achieves the same basic look as spraying blood on paper...



Yet another shot of me finishing up and correcting some other flaws I overlooked before I let the white paint fly. The drawing is basically covered with 4 other sheets of paper and only the area I want to spray the white paint on remains exposed.




AAAAAND I'm DONE.This is me (in normal lighting) finally putting down my pen with the completed drawing on the table........with what is possibly as humanly close to a smirk as I can muster...hahaha


13.) The Final drawing






This is the FINAL completed drawing. As you can see I added a fine spray of white paint at the bottom right of the drawing just underneath his boots. Why??? What the hell does it add to the overall look?!
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Everything happens for a reason... Comic art is a static medium. Unlike film So we can only convey movement to the readers using certain stylistic tricks like blowing bits of paper or leaves to indicate wind being present for example. The spray of white paint is precisely located underneath the boots to indicate movement......look at the drawing: by adding the white paint the figure looks like he leapt out of a rain-swept pavement and into the sky instead of it just being a static figure in the sky.......AND the direction in which the lightning strikes is NO accident....the bolt of lighning strikes from the left to the bottom right,precisely where the splatter of white paint is...to enhance the explosive nature of the spray of white paint.
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So There you have it:




THE DARK KNIGHT OF GOTHAM!
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>whew< .....so that's it Folks........I told you it was going to be a comprehensive,step by step look into my personal creative process.........hahaha....Overall I'm quite happy with the final piece......could be better of course but it does more or less capture the kind of approach that I wanted to achieve...so I'm satisfied.........
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Alright I'm off to watch my new ,super-cool-kick-yo-momma-ass-blue and black jive-turkey ! boxed set of the extended Lord of The Rings trilogy............I'm the kind of guy who can never get enough of Special features BUT shit! the sheer comprehensiveness of this 12 disc DVD set is exhausting thes hit out of me.....there are times I pray that peter Jackson could just stop featuring every tom,Dick and harry who worked on the film in the behind the scenes featurettes.........hahaha.....I mean...spemding 10 mins on the guy who glues the hair on frodo's feet?!??! WTH!!!...... what's next ?The guy who handpaints the liver spots on Gandalf's ass???ahhahaha
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Anyway Ta-Ta folks.............STAY TUNED GENTLE READERS FOR THE NEXT PULSE-POUNDING,SENSE-SHATTERING CHAPTER!!!!
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~To Be Continued~

8:46 AM


Saturday, July 14, 2007 -

~And thus today.....So Endeth the first two weeks of university for me.......~


Yup.......today is the last day for my first 2 weeks of studies at SIM.........6 days of lectures a week for the past 2 weeks.....plus doing duty back in base after lessons..........its been a long-ass week and man am I beat....hahaha....but its over....Fer now that is......


The First 2 weeks of lessons has been a surreal experience for me.....I don't know if it's because I'm still in my army mode or what but it feels weird to be rushing for classes,listening to lectures and taking down notes,buying textbooks,checking my timetables and seeing so many girls in one place............just being in a lecture theatre again.....it feels familliar yet foreign...man...my head is still trying hard to process coming back to school......hahaha.....


I think part of my confusion is due to the fact that most of the days,after lessons I gotta report back to base for duty from mid afternoon till about 9-10pm........because when I'm at school I have to switch to student mode,then 2 hrs later....I'm dressed in full uniform and completely in army mode.......so switching from one mode to another just screws with my head.........Am I student or am I a soldier now? Somewhere in between?!.......a schooling soldier? A combat ready student?!.............haha...I sometimes I am in the school's LT with my full uniform folded in my bag and sometimes I'm in my camp with a bag full of school notes.....haha....I feel like freaking Clark kent or something....mild mannered student by day, field defence trooper by night!!....hahhaa


The first day of school was a real killer though........dunno what the hell I ate but I think I kanna food poisoning........so at 2.00am on the first day of school, I was like curled in a foetal position on the floor of my toilet after puking my guts out and feverish.....yup.....as always Starting the Term with BANG!!!hahhaa......Dammit......felt like shit on the first day of school.......headache, loud growling tummy,fever....the whole freaking package!!!.........and ater school?! why....Its 6 more hours of Duty Time!!wow......hip-hip-frickin' Hooray.....hahaha......


I think the whole fever/vomiting thing lasted for 4 days........on the second day,my fever was down but I had a vomiting relapse and puked all the way from the bus stop to my camp ....on my third day, against my better judgement.......haha....I went out with Wenjun and Huiling for the whole day........and I had a fever relapse during the evening........man when they were looking at shoes and cosmetics....I was just staring off somewhere and my head felt like a 10 kg sandbag........by the time they were looking at DVDs and Fridges, I was looking at my whole life flashing past me...hahah.... lasted all the way till I got back home when I promptly crashed in bed and slept..........and the 4th day, the puking was mild and the fever was gone...........man......I went from like 64 kg to 59 kgs now........hahaa....why exercise when you can shat those unwanted pounds?!hahaha.....I felt like the possessed little girl from The Exorcist...projectile vomiting and projectile pooping at the same time......Now THAT'S Multi-tasking !!hahaha


And guess who's the Familliar Face that's my one companion for my studies at SIM??!?! Who Pray tell?....why it's none other then my old mocking partner and the nightmare of Japanese School Girls all over God's green Earth....FELIX!!!!hahaha......after a 2 year hiatus....once again we've reunited and joined forces against all that is fat,buck-toothed and sharpie-browed.......hahahaa............man somethings just never change I tell you......right on the first day we were back on form,firing at all cylinders and mocking everything in our way......ahhaa...everytime there was anything even remotely funny,Felix would turn and look at me and give me that face....hahhaa


Felix being Felix of course Gravitated to the fattest guy in the module.....for the first 3 days, he wasn't looking at any girls instead he was always keeping an eye on what the fat guy was doing , walking near to the fat boy and telling me that he wants to go approach the fat boy and be friends.......and I told him that the only reason he wants to befriend the Fat guy is so he can mock him over and over again behind his back....ahahha.....while seeming like a nice,sincere, friendly school mate who just has a penchance for gravitating towards befriending overweight folks......hahaha...

Felix is back doing what he does best.....errr....embarassing himself repeatedly?!hahahah......within the first 5 days, he was on stage doing a presentation and telling the most groan-inducing jokes EVER.....ahhaha......he was presenting a question of how to promote a new cigarette made of cocoa and citrus....and Felix was on stage yammering about how he wanted to promote the cigarette by bundling it with Mcdonald Happy meals so that when Kids open the box....they get a nice Nicotine surprise.......dammit....hahaha

Oh and today? guess wat folks.....He FARTED in lecture.haahaha..........a girl from our project group was sitted with us and Felix was right in the middle of 3 of us.....and halfway through the lecture....I heard double farting sounds breaking the tranquility of the LT......damn...not one but TWINS!!!hahaha....the girl could'nt believe her ears and kinda turned to felix with an expression of disbelief..........and I looked and felix and said "What the hell was that dude?"......and Felix turns over to me with the most innocent eyes he could muster,with the most sincere look he had and pursed his lips and started making Farting sounds.....and replied"Hmm....Nothing....I'm just making some weird noises"...and he continued making fart noises.........but since I KNOW every freaking trick in Felix's book.....I saw right through his painfully obvious ruse....hahaha

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I did'nt want to embarass him in front of the girl so during lunch I looked at Felix and said:"Dude.....You Freaking FARTED in the LT just now did'nt you?"....hahahaa....and Felix looks at me,laughs and said.."No dude... I swear I did'nt....did you smell anything?...no right....I was just making noises lar dude...I swear sia!!.........hahaha...so I replied:"Aye please lar dude..........i know you for how long sia....you freaking farted and then pretended conceal the truth by trying to make farting noises to pretend like those noises actaully came from your mouth and not your fricking' ass!!hahaha...Admit it fool!!"..................hahahah...Felix of course burst out laughing and said:"Dude...I think you know every trick in my book sia....wah lau...aye Please don't tell the girls about it man!!!"...........hahaha.....So I told him how can I let him live this down......He knows I don't keep anything from Wenjun and Huiling....hahaha...Of Course i'll tell them!! DUH!!!....ahhaha......sorry dude.....but the truth will set you free!!!hahahah.......but if the truth smells like your farts then Jack Nicholson was right:"I CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!!!"......Hahaha

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Hahhaha.......its a wonder how easy we both slip into our old roles and old habits so quickly,........when I was given a piece of foolscap.....the very first thing I did was to doodle on it just like I did back in my poly days..........and when we see odd-looking people or whatever fat girls ,the mocking will just start flying...fast and furious....I remember that on saturday, after lessons.....me and Felix went to town...............and we were passing Takashimaya when we saw that this big Cos Play event was going on and there were LOADS of Over weight Inuyashas,Card captor Sakuras and sailor moons just walking around the exterior of Takashimaya..........hahha....Man It was Early Christmas for us!!!haha.....we were like kids in the candy store......who to mock first?!?! So many to mock so little time!!..........back in SIM,we only mocked people here and there......but now this was an entire sea of weirdos concentrated in one area....parading around for our benefit.....hahhahaa......so me and Felix got some Old Chang kee Curry puffs, propped our selves on one of the seats.........and just mocked a whole afternoon away....hahahhaa.......aaaaaaaaahhhhh......reliving the good ol' days.....hahaha



But I REALLY gotta say..........that both Felix and me are MUCH more serious about our studies this time around when compared to our poly days.........ya know....mocking people is only our way of killing time and just a form of relaxation but I think we're both pretty serious as far as work and school is concerned.........I can see quite a big chnage in Felix's overall attitude.......back in Poly he's either snacking,making fun of the lecturer or doing his own crazy versions of pop songs dedicated to Siew Yong.........but now he's always taking down notes,highlighting stuff,never skips lectures.....heck he was even early for lectures for the first 3 days of class(BUT OF COURSE.....It did'nt last...hahha).......and he even went to the SIM library to borrow Books on Organizational Behavior to read up on......HAHAHAHA.....I felt like i just walked into the twilight zone or something!!.............as For me, I'm glad to say that I've not skipped a single day of lecture despite being really tired and having to go back to cap regularly, I've NEVER been late for class for the past two weeks and I'm taking an ASSLOAD of notes down in every lecture........(back in Poly days,i only copied notes when ABSOLUTELY necessary...otherwise they're mostly blank except for sketches of Batman that is...hahaha).......and I've got a very short attention span but I find myself really working as hard as I can to concentrate on the lectures instead of just wandering off...........I'm really trying my best to not stray off in my own thoughts like I always did in poly.....
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I think Army has indeed made us more serious about a lot of things in life, after being goose stepped on by all those high ranking officers in charge of you..........telling you what to do,controlling your every step,forcing you to do everything according to their specifications............it all just kinda cultivates a dislike for Authority figures in you, you just wanna work hard when you get out of army to ensure that you get good grades,get a good job and take charge of your own destiny......to ensure that in the future instead of having people step all over you and order your around for the next 20 years...........you'll be the one in charge, the one running things and making your own decisions.......all I know that I freaking' want that Degree with Distinction Reeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaal Bad!!!hahahhaa...
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Studywise, a lot of the stuff that the lecturers are teaching I already know, so I pretty much walk out of all the lectures knowing what is going on instead of scratching me head...........although after 2 years, I really got this nagging worry that I won't be able to perform up to snuff...............I mean its been a long time since I studied,2 whole years of brain dead duties...........I dunno whether I can memorise the assload of notes that I used to, I don't know whether My project skills have gone to shit by now or if I can put together a cohesive essay for my individual essay...........this is just kind of nagging at me.....what if after 2 years, I just can't perform as well as I did........I was thinking the other day that instead of waiting for the day where I go for a test and can't regurgitate everything word for word...haha....I better start going through the lecture notes gradually day by day, so if today lecture is on chapter 12,after school I'm going to spend 2 hrs maybe going through the notes again and trying to commit it to memory..............hahhahaha....if I really do bother reading up on the notes ta home,every day after lecture.....My God.......I'll be a changed man!!!hahaha.....it'll be like a new milestone in my road to Personal enlightenment.....hahhaa...I've never been so hardworking.....EVER.....hahaha
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I also had the chance to see many old faces in the first 2 weeks,most of them from my old marketing cohort....it's really a small world.......I saw Cai Hong and Adeline my old TB31 classmates,JianNing,Gavin, Eve and Gloria from TB03, Kat and one of my old secondary school friend Kai Qi and my BMT platoon seargent are in the same Marketing course as me.....man what a coincidence........hahaha....well in any case I had a nice chat with all the old faces I met and it was nice seeing them again........I was telling Gloria that It did'nt seem that long the last time I saw her during Graduation....then I realized Graduation was 2 years ago.........damn....time flies.....but it's always delightful to meet some old faces again........
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As for meeting new people, well me and Felix already manage to source out two different groups that we can join for different subjects............so in the coming weeks ahead...should be knowing these folks a little better...........although Felix and I are still mourning the loss of 3 extremely pretty potential project group mates...after Felix TURNED them down when they approached us to join them.........hahaha....Thanks Dude!! the highlight of my day is reminding him that its the biggest mistke of his life...everytime they walk past us......and seeing him clutch his head in shame!!!hhaaha.........but oh well,no point crying over spilled milk,the lack of pretty group mates will ensure that i'll be more hardworking because instead of looking at my current group mates...I Think I'll rather look at my lap top screen.....hahaha.....yup....can you see that I'm trying to console myself?!hahaa.....
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Felix tells me that when they asked us about joining them,he could'nt believe himself and was speechless when he was looking at the girls and anyway he said some mumbo jumbo about how his subconscious mind was telling him that there was no way he could get such pretty project mates and so he just decided to reject their offer.....WHA-HUH?!......thanks dude....hahaha
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As for me..........man its the first 2 weeks of school, so as usual I'm about as sociable as a menstruating Bear.......ahhahaha....I just hate the whole breaking the Ice process man......I'm getting too old for it.....having people ask you the same old basic questions again and again and again and having to introduce yourself once again repeatedly and trying my best not to roll my eyes and not being able to make any sarcastic jokes because the new people will not be able to handle it just yet........hahaha...plus after being a Regimental Policeman who's bread and butter is to put the fear of God into hundreds of base personnel......my socializing skills are even worse.......hahaha.....sometimes instead of giving a friendly "Hey...Let's be friends" face...I flash my "Do Not F*CK with me in my base" face instead....hahahah....but still Its going to fine later on....I just prefer to observe and draw my own conclusions rather then shoot my mouth off when I first meet people....a trait somebody I KNOW could learn from....bwahhaha....
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But seriously I told Felix that we need to compliment each other......he needs to tell me to snap out of it whenever I'm not being too responsive and I need to tell him to tone it down whenever he's about to make a flaming ass of himself.....in other words.....I need to hype myslef up and he needs to tone himself down......hahha..........ah well, it always takes a long time to develop some chemistry and synergy between school mates..........yeah....it takes about 5 years of beating,screaming,scolding,demanding,online death threats and hand bag bludgeoning to develop a super high level of synergy and chemistry where everything runs as smooth as clock work.....hahhaha.....right Wenjun?!?hahaha.....
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Oh well...........the first two weeks are over and my Juniors have finally completed their job training...........so come next week I officially start clearing my leave and off....No More Duty For EVER!!!!hahaha...........I have to go for my m-16 firing range/combat shoot on the 16th and 17th of July though..............sian man....well at least....me and my platoon mates get to go on one last big event together in our original group before we ORD.....the last time we did our range was 1 1/1 year ago when we were still trainees...hahha....and this time since we're no longer the newbies,I think the range will be a fun experience for the old gang......have to skip lectures on this two days though for this compulsory event.....hahah.....but after 17th...I get a 6 day break until 23rd July...............Man I'm going to really ENJOY myself and rest for these 6 days. REALLY looking forward to taking a break and having some time to myself.....
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Alright that's about it for this post.............I already planned my next post which I will be posting Very,Very soon............to celebrate my new found freedom and return to the drawing board, I'm going to Draw an all-new picture of Batman in the Black and white Chiaroscuro "Sin City"style that I've spent months trying to master through constant research and I'm going to post pictures detailing the process it takes to complete the drawing............from the preliminary pencil layouts to the finalised marker roughs, white paint splatter experiments, the loose pencils,the final pencils, the partially inked version and the final inked version........also I'll post a comparision of two of what is essentially the same drawings ...one I did in 1999 and one I just completed today and show you the evolution of my inking and drawing style.....and I'll take pics of the drawing in the different stages while I'm working on it and break down my whole drawing process for you............Its going to be good....an intimate look at the creative process..........REVEALED for the first time EVER....hahha....it'll show everybody that it takes a HELLUVA lot of planning and hard work before a final art piece is finished and drawings don't just flow out of my pen fully formed......STAY TUNED True believers!!.......hahaha
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Well Lemme end this post with what I think is PURE Genius for a marketing strategy....as part of FOX's promotion for the upcoming Simpson's movie, they're signed a deal with 7-11 that will allow 7-11 to change various of their outlets in US into Apu's Kwik-E mart.........selling Donuts,Duff Beer,Krusty-O's and stuff we only get to see in the cartoon!!amazing stuff that will give the hardcore Simpsons fans multiple geek-gasms.....D'OH!!...ahhaha....Enjoy.......
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http://flickr.com/photos/rdr07/sets/72157600590001691/
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Ok Folks..........I'll be signing off now.........stay tuned for my upcoming Post!!I promise It's gonna be a good one........haha.... alright Adios mi hombres!!

6:35 AM


Monday, July 02, 2007 -

Well Folks….its been quite some time since my last post and lots of big-ass changes are coming my way so its Update time!!! General feedback seems to indicate that my last post was my shortest post since…EVER…hahhaha…..well Please allow me to correct that oversight with this post…..hahaha….

Like I said the wind of change is blowing right now……my new batch of juniors have graduated from their course and completed their two weeks On The Job(OJT) training at my RP headquarters side……and actually My OC promised Pass office that the new batch of personnel picked to go pass office would come to Pass office for their OJT straight after graduation and did not have to go through the two weeks OJT at the HQ side first…….but once again my OC went back on his word and said that their performance was so poor that he wanted them to stay for one week before coming to Pass office for their two weeks OJT……but WAIT……that Mole-ridden ass changed his mind again and said that he wanted them to finish the two weeks there before coming to pass office for another two weeks….(1 ENTIRE MONTH!!!)….well my OC not keeping his word..….. WOW…Ain’t that a surprise ?! hahaha…

So anyway because of the delay…..All my RP friends can start clearing their leave on 26Th June because the newbies have finished training at their side….but I can only clear my leave and off days on mid of July instead of 1st July as originally worked out by my superiors…..and my school starts on 2nd July…….which means….instead of attending classes peacefully….for the first two weeks of school(where I have classes 6 days a week) I would have to attend classes in the morning and then rush to camp for duty and go home late at night and go for class in the morning and report to work after that…so on so forth…..for two weeks…..hahah…But whatever……The end is nigh…..

When Bad shit happens to me in camp……I’m not surprised….I’m really not….I’ve learnt that Whatever that can Possibly go wrong WILL most probably go wrong in my camp….I’m not being cynical but when bad shit happens to me….I always kinda expect it to….and I’m really genuinely surprised if things go according to plan for me as far as my NS is concerned……Case in point:

Less then a month or so ago, just as I paid all my School fees and accepted my place in SIM….3 days before the day that my school fees would be non-refundable in the event of pulling out of course…My CO announced that a new SAF directive is being passed that states we would not longer be able to clear our leave and off days in order to study……..which means we can clear our off and leave as planned….and sit on our asses and watch tv and shake our legs all day long BUT we can’t do anything productive like work or study and if we study during this period we would be hunted down, charged and sent to the detention barracks and would thus no longer be eligible for any University at all upon finishing our term in military prison……

A Mad scramble ensued of course….those who already confirmed their places were stuck…….BUT those who attended NUS,NTU,SMU have the option of Disrupting the last few mths of their National service and go for their studies? Those in SIM like me……well they said that SIM was not recognized as a local university and we don’t even have the option of disrupting or national service even if we wanted to…………so I had the best of both worlds…..I couldn’t clear my off days and leave for the purpose of studying and I couldn’t even disrupt my NS to study like those in the other Unis can……..and I already paid up and was days away from having all my fees forfeited……I had 3 days to pull some kind of plan outta my ass to get my money back since my Co broke their news so late………My mum said that I lead a Cursed NS life when I told her the news…….I’ll be hard pressed to disagree….hahaha.

So within that 3 days……I ran all over the place….I approached SIM about switching to the January BMGT course in case my CO wouldn’t back down from his stand and allow me to continue to study in July…..I had to call the department heads, draft an e-mail pleading my case and give them a solid reason for pulling out of course and transferring to another…..I told her I will try to work it out and give her a final answer soon and she said that by Wednesday I HAD to e-mail her an official letter seeking full refund of fees, the reason and the course I wanted to transfer to and it has to reach her by 7.30 pm on Wednesday otherwise my fees would be forfeit under their rules….

I also went to my S1 (in charge of manpower issues and leave)day after day to ask her plead my case to the SAF manpower branch, talk to my CO about the matter because I was very near the deadline …..my S1 promised that I would get an answer ON the final day where I could still get my money back which was wednesday…..since I had work on wed itself….I drafted a letter on Tuesday night before I booked in to tell the Lady in charge of the Marketing course that It was really with great regret that I have to pull out due to circumstances beyond my control and would like to seek a full refund and thanked them for their kind understanding on the matter and patience……and told my dad that since I was in camp and could not send the e-mail myself, I will tell him whether my S1 convinced my CO to allow me to go ahead and study and if he did not……I needed my dad to help me e-mail my letter using my e-mail acc to SIM immediately so that it would reach them during office hours……

On that day I had to ask my S1 to set up a meeting with my big boss about this matter because I was literally going to lose $6000 if I didn’t get an immediate answer……..so she told me my CO was on a holiday now (Of all times!!) and that she would schedule a meeting with my S3 who was a Major and second in command and a MUCH nicer guy…..I went to see him and told him about what is going on and apparently my incessant bugging of my S1 had resulted in her pleading my case to my CO and she actually convinced my CO to allow me to go for my studies……and he passed down that instruction to my S3……..so my S3 told me that my CO is not os Cold-blooded as to see me forfeit my fees since I didn’t have the option of disrupting my NS……and that they would allow me to study on “Grounds of compassion”……but to never forget who we really belong to……we’re SAF property….they have us on a short leash…we have to Pick SAF over School if the situation arises…we would be charged for any failure to do so….YADDA,YADDA,YADDA………BUT bottom line….I could study on my leave and off days!!!.......when I called my parents ….they damn were relieved that I finally got a concrete answer…..so was I….

I forgot what week that was…..I think the same week Huiling, Wenjun and Gerald were supposed to get their results…..but I really ran myself ragged that week…….had to spend all my rest time in camp running around and pleading with the right people, compose e-mails when I was back home, calling dozens of people in SIM up, skipped meals cos I was running around or just did’nt plain have the appetite………….by the end of the week I lost like 4 kg…from 65 kg to 61kg now and worse of all………on the Sunday that week….My mum found a single strand of WHITE HAIR on my head…..man…my hair is Black as hell and very thick and dense and I’ve never had any white hair before…..my mum said that it was because I was probably stressed out for the whole week…..Hhahaha……but PHEW…..I was so glad it was over……..(see this post is already longer then my last post and only after my first Rant!!hahaha)

So anyway the new guys just arrived this Wednesday after my OC’s constant delays and now I’m training them to take over us so that we old birds can F.O from P.O…….hahahha….but this bunch has got to be one of the sorriest bunch of Ne’er Do wells I have ever seen……but in my time, only the best were given the opportunity to work in Pass office but now? They are whatever rejects my OC choose to throw our way…..These 9 guys were told to write a composition about themselves and hand it up so the Sergeants could gain a better understanding of them……anyway my shift SGT told me to read their compos and have a good laugh….and have a good laugh I did……hahahah

Man…..this was one bizarre batch….not a single Poly graduate in the entire group, most are from ITE or are poly dropouts and some of them are truly bizarre………there’s this guy who was a skin-head gang member and has a police record after being jailed for a couple of days for doing some stupid stuff, there was this guy who said he had a picture perfect family except for the fact that his brother was a Jehovah witness and had to be jailed in DB because of his religion, that was this guy whose first line in his compo was:” I’m 22 yrs old this year, I live with my parents and my sister. She is 24 yrs old and is a butch……which means she doesn’t like guys”……Err…DUH!!!!.....and there was this guy who said his life was “all about skate board and sex”…and goes on to say that he first started having sex when he was 18yrs old and has done it over and over and over again with dozens of different partners before falling in love…….and how older women are the best sex partners and blah,blah……..man I was telling me colleague that based on this guy’s compo he seems to have had more sex then the entire pass office combined including my staff sergeant ….who’s married with 2 kids!.....hahaha…..so I was anxious to see who was this amazing sexual God king that women threw themselves at……did he look like a cross between Brad Pitt and Louis Koo??.........well I saw him…..turns out that he was this small ,half-thai, dark skinned chubby guy who’s smaller sized then me……….man….I could’nt believe it………I wanted to walk up to him and ask him “How come ur getting so much action? You look like crap man…..err…What’s ur secret?” hahhaha…….

Bizarre man……….oh well……two more weeks and then I retire………one phase of my life is almost done…….one more phase is beginning…such is life…..the one thing I really want to do when I finally ORD?
I want to have a LONG good sleep…….I want to take a nap in the afternoon and not wake up feeling that I lost so much precious time…..I want to be able to watch TV regularly again and follow some tv series, day after day……..but really I just one to get a Good, long solid day of rest………

I haven’t had a decent night’s rest whenever I’m in camp, due maybe being a little mentally affected and paranoid after the constant turn-outs and countless days working the grave yard shifts…….I sleep like a baby at home literally the moment I lay down on my bed…but in camp? I’m a super light sleeper…I can only sleep up to 3 hrs at a time……and I keep waking up throughout the night due to being ultra sensitive to disturbances after all the training…..So that’s what I want….A good solid day of rest….I don’t want to wake up every morning knowing full well that I’m not fully rested…I don’t like the fact that scientifically an average person needs 6-7 hrs of sleep but my body can make do with 4hrs and proceed to do 12 hrs of continuous duty……its very unhealthy……….when normal people are awake, I am sleeping….when normal people are sleeping…I am awake doing duty……….two more weeks and I’ll rest peacefully without feeling guilty that I’m squandering the little time I have out of camp….cos I’ll have all the time in the world…

I also wanna just slow down my pace significantly…….after joining NS…I’ve had to learn to maximize my time and multi-task by necessity ….so any day that I’m out of camp….I will be back home, trying to get myself ready to go out again, watch parts of a dvd and surf the web all at once…….and once I’m out of the house…I’ll be meeting my friends for movies, meals, chat sessions or speed-walking from one side of town to the other then to bugis, city hall and maybe Marina and sometimes all in the same day……..and if I reach home earlier…I’ll go for a 1 hr jog, try to have dinner with my folks and thereafter I’ll be back packing my stuff, watching some tv (jumping from channel to channel mostly) and surfing the net concurrently and before I sleep…..I’ll be doing a couple hundred crunches wile watching a DVD in my room….try to read some comics maybe and I should be in bed by 2 am and ready to wake up at 5.30 am for duty the next day………….When I ORD…..I wanna burn one entire day just sleeping at home and watching TV….why??…. cos I CAN afford to that’s why!!! Hahaha…..No longer need to be dangling from puppet strings and getting manipulated by some outside source……. Hahhaa…..that day is soon….

Well enough army talk………when I’m out of camp….nothing gives me more satisfaction then watching a movie with the company friends or even enjoying a excellent new DVD at home……….and since this season is chockfull of big summer films, three-quels and new DVD releases….here’s a short review of all the big summer films I watched for the past few mths…………..

1.) Spider-man 3 – I’m a big comic fan but that also means I’m a whole lot more critical then your average movie Go-er……..Spider-man 3 is probably the worst of the trilogy man…….the first two were really good comic book films and even my parents enjoyed them a whole load when I watched the films with my parents prior to the opening of the 3rd film….but the third one ain’t that good man……..the CGI stuff is top-notch but the love dovey aspects of the film were really draggy, Mary Jane’s screaming and damsel in distress act is getting DAMN old and having 3 villains was overkill and neither got enough screen time as a result,( Venom looked cool but was the worse villain of the lot(He’s a 1 dimensional cypher and doesn’t have the necessary motivation brought on by personal tragedies like Dr Octopus, Green Goblin and even Sandman)………the worst scene? When The evil Peter Parker started dancing in the jazz club with the use of his spider-powers….I though I was watching Jim Carrey’s The Mask instead…..2.5/5

2.) Pirates of the Carribean 3 – You know why sequels make big bucks? Because of good will generated by the first film……..in subsequent films, the audience is already emotionally invested in the characters after the first film, they love the characters and want to find out what happens to them next………During the opening scene of POTC 3… I remember thinking………man I practically like the whole cast except Orlando Bloom…..Jack Sparrow is great, Davey Jones is a good villain…I even like Mr. Gibbs, the Dumb guy with the talking parrot, the midget pirate, the Two dumbbells(one with a wooden eye) even the monkey…….but when I continue watching the film, whatever goodwill I had seem to slowly disappear………..the film is draggy and convoluted, everybody seems to be double-crossing everybody else multiple times, the CGI was really overkill and Jack Sparrow’s novelty as a character seems to be wearing thin………and Orlando Blooms ends up looking like he walked right out of the cover of a Danielle steel romance novel………..Dammit…..2.5/5

3.)Shrek 3 – Things took an upswing after I watched Shrek 3………it wasn’t as funny or original as the 1st one or second one and a lot of the tried and tested gags are recycled but it’s a hell lot of a better then Pirates of the Carribean 3 and Spider-man 3…….the animation is good, the characters are cute and there’s enough funny bits to carry the movie and it doesn’t seem to take itself as seriously as the other big blockbusters which is a good thing……..Its nice albeit forgettable… light-hearted fun…..3.5/5

4.) Ocean’s 13 – This movie is GOOD……at last…..the final chapter of a trilogy that is actually quite solid……expectations for this film were definetly lower then those big movies like POTC 3 and Spider-man but it’s so much better…..it’s a nice, entertaining, caper movie…..I was especially excited that Al Pacino was going to be the big bad guy in this movie….and he was quite cool……I love seeing this same gang of likable rogues back in Las Vegas doing what they do best…..robbing some asshole blind and having fun…..hahaha….and the fact this time they’re pulling this heist as payback for one of their friends makes you root for them even more……all the gags are funny and the dialogue is sharp and the film looks great…….Best three-quel of the summer in my opinion….not as good as Ocean’s 11 but better then Ocean’s 12…..4/5

5.) Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer – I detested the first movie…….but surprisingly I kinda enjoyed this film……this film is designed to appeal to kids,the plot is thin and the villains are as 1 dimensional as all hell….but as long as you turn of your brain and don’t think about how great a Fantastic Four movie could be with a better director and cast……..it kind of works……The Sequences with the Silver Surfer is good, he was wonderfully translated to screen and looked damn good…..but you don’t actually feel that the Fantastic four just emerged from the greatest fight of their lives at the end of the movie after going up against a God….cos silver surfer’s big boss, the planet devourer, Galactus looked more like a Cosmic Fart that was swirling above Earth’s atmosphere…haha…..its a fun enough movie though……..3/5

In addition to all these movies…..I also managed to catch an assload of other movies on DVD or vcd during my free time …..Here’s the movies I caught in no particular order: Something’s Gotta Give, Ocean’s 11,Ocean’s 12, Sea of Love, Frankie and Johnny, Free Money, Wag the Dog, The Awakenings, City by the sea, 15 minutes, The Last king of Scotland, Rocky Balboa, Letter to Iwo Jima, Blade Runner , Dick Tracy, Dog day afternoon, Carlito’s way, Primal Fear, Protégé, Simone, The insider, Insomnia, China Town, Robocop 2,Troublesome Nights IV……….now that the HMV is having their big sale….I foresee me getting my grubby mitts on many more movies……….hahaha…..Mine, mine, mine…..ALL MINE!!!

I’ve also been reading more books nowadays, in an attempt to diversify my reading habits and branch away from just reading Comics alone….in the past few weeks I’ve finished reading Marlon Brando’s Biography, Robert Deniro’s Biography, Al Pacino’s Biography, Stephen King’s Dark Tower volume 1:The Gun slinger, Stephen King’s The Shining, Giles Forbes’s Last King of Scotlang and I’m now reading Dashiel Hammet’s (the Originator of Hardboiled detective pulp fiction)The Maltese Falcon…….all good stuff…..

I’m also thinking about re-arranging and classifying my Trade paperbacks….instead of dividing them into 3 categories; Marvel Comics, Dc Comics and alternative Comics……..I’m going to divide them into 4 categories……Marvel, DC,alternative and Frank Miller….hahaha….That’s right!!!! I have so many Frank Miller books that starting next month, Frank Miller is going to get his very own category……..I have the complete run of Sin City, all his Batman stuff, His entire body of work on Daredevil, and various tpbs of his other works like 300, Ronin, Hardboiled, Martha Washington, Bad Boy, Robocop and various other are Frank Miller oddities and interview books that I’ve managed to uncover over the years………..hell I trawl the aisles of Kinokuniya’s graphic novel section trying to find works of Frank Miller that I haven’t read or missed out previously…….and sadly I don’t think there is any….hahaha……imagine if my future kids or nephew and nieces start becoming big fans of Frank Miller works and one day the old fart version of me tells them: ”I have something for you”……..”Issit the keys to a Ferrari??”……..”NO! Better!!!! Its a whole box full of Yellowing Frank Miller comics that encapsulates his entire body of work for the past 25 years!!!”…….I can already imagine them lining their bird cages with my treasured comics…..hahaha

But on to other things…….. Talking with a very old friend of mine the other day and going with My parents to my old neighborhood in Jurong West for dinner…… helped raised some very interesting questions for me…like Just how much of a person’s likes and dislikes, attitude and basic core principles from their childhood remain intact decades later when they’ve reached adulthood??……..I realized that my very likes and dislikes , attitude, personality traits and principles remained pretty much unchanged up for the past 2 decades.………..

The moment me and my parents went to our old neighborhood for dinner….I immediately gravitated towards ordering from the same old stores I ate from nearly 13 years ago when I first moved from Jurong west to Bukit Panjang…..I bought the same popiah from the same stall and the same uncle who I have been buying from since I was in primary 2……..I remember bringing my mum to that store and buying two rolls of popiah everyday after school without fail, rain or shine….and 13 years later….I’ll be damned if I dun still love the hell outta his stuff!!.......and I can’t believe its been about a good 12 years since I last ate there……

Whatever Food I loved as a kid……I still love now, whatever food I won’t touch when I was young…I still don’t touch them now……..whatever guiding principles I followed back then…I still adhere to now……….My old friend was asking me….”since the day I know you…you’ve never smoked, drink or gambled….what the hell man….you would have been better off moving to a monastery and becoming a monk!!!”.....

I dunno why my sec school friends think that there is some great mystery or fantastic reasons or some complicated back story as to why I don’t do all this stuff…….the reason I don’t is simplicity itself……….I did’nt smoke, gamble or drink when I was young….and twenty years later I still don’t see the need to….its not so utterly difficult to undertsand......

I don’t Smoke because when I was a kid…..My mum told me that smoking is harmful, that only bad kids do so and that I should never become heavy smokers like my mum’s brothers………and she went through all the hazards of smoking with me using my Health Ed textbooks…..so I believed that and promised her that I would never touch a stick of cigarette…………and its as simple as that….a child’s promise……..I hate smoking then and I hate it now…….and boy have I had the opportunity to start smoking………My sec school friends were like 75% smokers and when we hung out after school…..there would be literally 6 of us sitting near the overhead bridge and all of them were puffing away except me…….when they offered me a stick and I turned them down….they always looked at me like I just landed from mars……hahaha……..and even in army, goddamn so many people pick up smoking because of the stress or whatever……but I’ve never had the urge to……I hated the smell ,the smoke, the wear the scent clings to your clothes……..still do….

I don’t Drink because when I was young…..my family and I would go for dinner at the coffeeshop near our block and on many occasions……..there were always some groups of old, sun-bitten looking old farts, chinese and malay folks, who would get drunk and start yelling hokkien expletives, create a scene and start getting in fights right at the coffeeshop………and the police would come and separate them or even take the rowdier ones in……and this did’nt just happen once……….it just seemed dumb to me,getting drunk and behaving like a complete ass in public………..further more back then, My dad was only a sales executive and no sales manager so his boss always sent him to entertain overseas clients and he would have to take them out to dinner and drink with them to the wee hours of the morning to close whetever business deals…..and on occasions my dad would come back, not very sober, try jangling his keys for 5 mins before he could open the door and he would be real quiet and just crashed and slept at our sofa set once he was in………and neither me and my mum had the strength to get him to the bed……….and the stench of alchohol was helluva bad……….so I never really liked drinking….I always felt it made perfectly sensible people do perfectly senseless things………I don’t mind the occasional drink for social purposes but I prefer to generally stay away……….

I don’t Gamble but to be honest of all the three vices…….I don’t really mind gambling as much as smoking and drinking…….I don’t mind playing cards and mahjong and making small bets during Chinese New year for the fun of it………..but other then that I never really felt the need to buy 4D,Toto or bet on soccer matches….even though I have no problem with anybody doing so….my parents and grand parents and various relatives buy 4D regularly too……..but I always thought that instead of waiting for some divine miracle, heavenly blessing or a one in a million chance to be rich…the sure way of getting money was just getting off your ass and working for an honest day’s wage……seemed more practical…instead of building sandcastles in the air……

Hahha….Every time my mum complains that I’ve been buying too many comics…..I tell her that Comics is my one and only indulgence/vice in life, instead of relaxing or taking a break from your problems with cigarettes and alchohol……….ain’t reading comics a much more decent way of entertaining yourself and keeping your mind off things??? It’s safe, stimulates your mind artistically and you can read them again and again and they actually have a high resale value…it’s a win win situation Mum!!!

Also since I was a kid……..I never liked relying on people to solve my problems for me………I always thought that you should always work through your problems yourselves instead of making your problems your friends’ problems……….my parents always told me to “not be dependent on people, to help yourself instead of relying on outside sources….because if you don’t help yourself….who will???”………..now I don’t mind bitching and confiding about all my problems with my friends but I would never do them the disservice of burdening anyone with my personal problems by getting them directly involved……..I think you should be the one to work through all your own problems, take whatever advice or bits of info your friends can give but at the end of the day you have to solve your own problems instead of unfairly expecting people to………….

Hoho…..This was kinda a weird rant but man…….So many traits you picked up as a child practically follow you for life….. There’s an old saying: “The more things change, The more they stay the same.”…….how true….hahhaha……


Lastly……… the first day of School at SIM was Today!!! It’s feels good studying again but its kind of take some getting used to, I’m still in army mode and haven’t been studying at all for almost the past 2 years……..so I dunno whether I should feel happy, excited or indifferent that the next phase of my life has begun……….just came home from my camp, I went to school in the morning and back to camp for duty right after it……its going to be a tiring two weeks……….on a Side note , after going with Felix to Ngee Ann poly for lunch….I ‘ve observed that the dressing of SIM females is SO much better then the way poly girls dress……..man…..just a difference of a couple of years…..but their dress sense has really taken a quantum leap in quality…..hahha…its like Miranda Priestly from the Devil Wears Prada gave them a crash course in style or something…..hahaha

The best part of my 1st day of school ?? :I’ve not fallen sick for practically the past two years but of all times to fall sick….I fell sick on the day before school………just when I was thinking that I could finally clear my leave, relax and study…..just when I let down my defenses for a brief moment……I fell sick….shit………I dunno what happened …I was still chatting with Huiling, Wenjun and Felix…..then just as I was finishing up……I felt real woozy and the next thing I know I’m staring at my toilet bowl at 2.00 am puking my guts out……..had a bad case of diahorea too and started feeling feverish……….

So I attended my very first day of Uni feeling feverish, as nauseous as an 8 mths pregnant woman who was about to shit in her pants at any given second……I was walking around looking constipated,with my ass firmly clenched….because if I ever lose my concentration for even a second….there was going to be some free warm, chocolate fondue in my pants……hahahaha……Reported back to camp after that, puked twice before taking over the pass office counter from my shift mate and sat for 6 straight hours feeling feverish and giddy with an ass full of liquid fire……hahaahha…….

So anway….. I Just got home and took my stomach medicine and some panadol………so lets end this post and If y’all kind folks would kindly excuse me….I think I’ll go shit my pants now……haha….Adios!!!

9:17 AM