hey! today is a holiday in singapore. (today meaning february 2 okay? even if it's past midnight)
hari raya haji day. my pakistani roommate afzaal explained that the actualy celebration was yesterday, and today's just a rest day of sorts.
so i took advantage of this day to do STUFF. actually there were 3 major highlights of my day:
1. i bought a digicam! it was a looooong bus ride to sim lim square in bugis, but wayne my trusty companion and i finally got a good camera at a good bargain.
here, for the techies out there: minolta divimage X20, 2.0 megapixels, 3x optical zoom, 4x digital zoom, 64mb sd card and 8mb card, video clip capable and with music too, rechargeable batteries. so there. the uncle at sim lim threw in the 64mb sd card (around 50 bucks if bought separately), and a silver tripod too, because he gave us "special prices because we were students."
ooookay! if he says so. 420 singaporean dollars (1 S$=30 pesos).
but no, he just had to sell me the digicam's case too, which he boasted was pure leather (even attempting to ignite it with his cigarette lighter..hahaha), for a whopping 50 bucks! sheeeet. that was too much for some case. he gave me a "friendly" price of 25 bucks, which was STILL, too pricey. i mean, HELLOOOOOOOOOOO?! it's just small squarish case! and so finally he settled for 15 bucks. that was still quite expensive, but what the heck, i spent a fortune on the camera, so i figured i might as well protect it. oh well. uto-uto ka talaga joseph. hehe. but i daresay it was a good deal! even wayne dell thought wanted to buy it! here's what the camera looks like:
and here, for the techno savvy, for the specs and a review.
hmmm... mike thought i'd post photos taken by the cam here, but for the meantime, i'll just post photos OF the cam itself.
i'll post photos promise, when my fingers are too lazy to type and/or my conscience has succeeded in making me study so much i forget to blog.;)
2. fencing! this time, i really was on a roll. remember how i thought i was sucky and all? hahahaha. this time i scored!
not only did i score, i won a match!
not only once. not only twice. no, thrice isn't even enough.
FIVE TIMES!! wooooohoooooooooooo!!!
AND, that's FOUR wins in a row. that's what i call a hot streak! yeah! :D
pardon the hysteria. i was just so overwhelmed that, for the first time, i won a series of matches, and when chin wee, the vice-head, had to go to the non-winning player to pull out the wire that was attached to the lame (la-mey) so that he could connect it to the lame of a new player, i was just SO damn glad that i my "life support" a.k.a. connecting wire wasn't cut at the end of each match. i was uber happy when i won against yesu (who had earlier defeated two other players), and i didn't quite expect 4 more rounds coming.
up next was shao tze (not sure of the spelling, but his english name is also jeremy), who i made me fear a little, as i knew he was from wushu (which, as i recently learned, is the same as kung fu) club. i remember him for poking with such a force that i thought the foil would've pierced through me had i not worn my suit and lame. somehow i managed to get point after point, till i reached 5 (it was a race to 5).
aurelia (a malaysian friend, the only girl that session) was up next, and i was a little hesitant to poke her in the chest. haha. you know why. i mean, even if she had protective gear that's specially designed for females, it was still quite awkward. hehehe. but anyway, i finally poked her finally (LOL), and won the match. i think the score was 5-0. *grin* (nahiya pa raw ako tumusok..hahahaha.)
next up was jeremy, a big tall guy, who i managed to beat although he put up a good fight (maybe because he missed quite a number of training sessions).
that was 4 people down already! that made me feel good! i was exhausted as hell, what with the fancy footwork and the pokes i suffered on my chest, and even one on my arm (off-target hit). i was sweating like crazy, and i didn't mind even that the mask i was wearing was already soaked in perspiration (it was already wet when it was given to me..eww.. hahaha).
anyway, sun zhi was next. he was good! and i lost. it didn't matter that he was reprimanded quite a number of times during our twice-a-week training, because i realized this guy had a great fencer in him. i lost but it was okay. also, i had committed the blunder of covering my chest with my left arm unconsciously, which is a violation of the rules. i was given a warning by KY amny times, until finally, he said that at the third offense, he would have to award my opponent a point. oh well. turns out my left arm has a mind of its own and just HAD to defend my chest. i lost 2 points, but what the heck. i was tired as hell anyway, and the outfit was just a little too wet. ;)
that was four already! and that was a happy time.
chinwee gave excellent advice to let my left arm settle. he told me to grab my suit on the left shoulder with my left hand, so it wouldn't try to cover my chest. =)
we were quite few in that session, and soon, after a round robin, it was again my turn. i beat jeremy the big guy, although he put up a REAL good fight this time, working out some strategy, and, was beaten by jeremy the wushu guy (shao tze) during the next match. i didn't mind. i was happy already. =)
besides, my last highlight was coming, and i couldn't wait.
3. the final highlight of the day was SURVIVOR! the premiere of season 8, ALL-STARS (see the survivor link on the sidebar).
hahahaha. it was on at 10pm, and, after checking the clock in the common hall for about a hundred times during fencing, waiting impatiently for the free fence to finish and rushing into the airconditioned lounge in my sweaty shirt, i finally settled myself on one of the comfy couches and braced myself for the ultimate survivor showdown.
it was about 10:15 when i arrived, but ivy tells me i didn't miss too much. still, i'm thinking about downloading the episode from the internet to see what few minutes i missed (fanatic alert!).
anyway, it was fun to see the survivors all over again, in this new brutally cool series. i mean, it's gonna be fun, seeing them strategize, suffer in amazingly-crafted challenges, have fun once in a while, and yes, backstab one another in the hope of not getting voted off the island (which is somewhere in panama). it would be interesting to see how these clever survivors, who have been such dominant personalities in the last 7 seasons, outwit, outplay, and outlast one another when they've already seen how their competitors maneuvered through the previous seasons.
okay, so it's set again in panama, where they held last season's survivor.
but this is an all new-playing field, where the "human terrain" is gonna make the show one helluva ride. =)
