I am currently watching The Legend of Korra - aka Avatar, The Last Airbender sequel. Did I interpret it wrong or did Aang marry Katara in the future or something?  New show seems to imply so.

Korra's likely new love interest reminds me of Zuko. I can live with that.

Not sure how I feel about the design for "New Republic". Too much "San Fransisco", if you ask me.

What is with the double spellings for names of protangonists anyway?

This is one of those Sundays where I wonder what's going on with the lives of all those people I have lost contact with or no longer have contact with.

Yes, even those that I never could stand to be around with.

You know for all the 3 degrees seperation and stuff in SG, there are  still people that only pass your lives once and never more. Hmm.  Maybe they've emigrated....

This time last year I was probably somewhere in Sapporo attempting to making snow bunnies.

I miss making snow bunnies.

...is possibly one of the more interesting dreams I've had lately, which, unfortunately, I couldn't completely piece together to form a concrete storyline. What I can remember is this:

The setting: It takes place in a hotel-cum-themepark-like setting, which had virtually elements of the theme parks I've ever went to and liked. The interior consisted of colours and lighting not unlike the swanky interiors of the RMS Titanic, which includes the grand staircase, and walking from the ground floor to the middle floor, opposite view reveals a full panel of windows that has special effects of a violent storm happening outside, ala the Steven Spielburg effects studio at Universal Studios. How I can be inside what is obviously Tatanic and not think in my dream that I am witnessing a real storm outside = big problem waiting to happen is really beyond me, but I think even in my dream I believed it to be a theme park or grounded hotel not out in sea, or that I've seen it all before to know it's just special effects.Or I was that oblivious to warning signs happening around me.  Instead, I was observing/swimming  on the ground floor right under the staircase - which happens to have one of the larger theme pools from Yuensen: the swimming-pool/onsen theme-park from Japan. And on the wall just left of the pool was a large wall mural painiting of a raintree. No I don't know where that came from.

Another part of my dream involves a blender concoction of fragments of stuff I've seen/done/thought about yesterday: In my dream I saw Stitch giving some guy at the ticket counter trouble and being chased around. And there was something that concerned a certain "Takasugi" from Bakuman being confused with a "Takasugi"... from Deathnote??? And something which involved kids singing, colour pencils and colouring in a sketchbook. The Takasugi confusion bit I think I get. It's because I was watching Gintama yesterday which did a spoof of Deathnote. Now I know Gintama does indeed have a Takasugi character, and I know I always thought Bakuman's Tagaki was Takasugi for awhile. Amusing as hell. Also I got to colour / sketch in my dream. Not bad for multitasking things I would have liked to do while I'm awake. And there was singing (not by dream me, think was by some random choir kids???).

The only part of the dream that concerns me was that while I was preparing to change out of the pool and trying to find a T-shirt to wear, the first shirt I rustled out was a white T with a gray rat (not the cute variety, mind), which my dream self thought was a little omnious to wear on CNY and changed it to something else (think it may have been pink). It bothers me a little because the actual new shirt I own is a white T with a gray KITTY. I know they say when you dream of rats it signifies feelings of doubts, guilt and/or envy, which... I can't deny that, though I would have to chalk it up to work related events unfolding in work life, but ah, that's another story for another time.

For now, I wish I could have remembered the whole story, but I was obviously more awed by the setting than by whatever is happening in it,haha!

2011 was the year I made some serious resolutions and saw them through, kind of. Here are the big ones i remembered doing:
1. pass jlpt
2. pick up a new language - moderate success at hangul, but not as  satisfactory a progress as i was hoping for,still i can read their alphabet slow n simple phases. that counts till i forget.
3. pick up something new - bit of a cop out but i took a simple storyboarding course , learnt adobe after effects!
4. Travel. 
5. *Find a new job.
6. build my lego train.
7. build my pink gundam.

Think i'll take this year slow. start with planning a nice birthday... and not losing my wallet. 

そう。 It looks like FB now dominates whatever pre-disposed internet time I have when I'm on the move (let's face it, it's hard to blog long prose on the bus and train, so).  Also, office hours = No real internet. And office hours = lots of overtime. Even with mobile internet I still feel a little internet deprived for many reasons, mainly stemming from the fact that I really don't get much internet time during office hours because I've been so busy there's no real time to surf, and whatever time there is, doesn't give me access to the sites I access in the office unless I log on with my itty bitty phone and let the data plan suck battery life. Tablet during office hours is also a wee bit too obvious, you know?

Anyhoo! December is set to be a busy month:

In case I get ahead of myself, list of weekends of DecemberI am scheduled attendance for - I know this should be on my calander in my mobile but you won't believe how slow I am at programing it in. haha / copy pasta

Marked!
1) 3rd Dec - JB day trip with Sis & Co to some shopping outlet. <-- wrong info last month, updated
2) 10 Dec - WICKED the musical
3) 15 Dec - Co. Year End Party
4) 17 Dec  ~ Tai Tai Day!
5) 18 Dec  - Elephant Workshop! <-- yes this will be interesting stay tuned!
6) 21 Dec - Co's "team bonding" outing trip  (not convinced such things work, but outing on office time, why not ?)
6) 23 Dec - Dinner Night!
7) 24 Dec - Christmas dinner with Family
8) 7 & 8 - Potential plotting
9) 9 & 10 Jan - on leave without a plan.

And pending some more. I am looking to do dinner with at least 3 more ex-colleagues I haven't seen in awhile (depending on whether they are free), probably on weekdays. My lessons finish on the 9th Dec so I'll be a free man soon again. Then I have to see if I want to retake my languages next year or be bothered. It's a good thing I opted out of JLPT this year, with the new work load load and time and all, I really am still on the fence whether I'd be able to handle an exam at this time of the month. It's been WHOA. Looks like it's going to be the running pattern in this industry. Ah well.

Nah, I haven't fogotten about the lego train. I am just having extreme difficulty prioritising time for it. Hmm.  

In case I get ahead of myself, list of weekends of November I am scheduled attendance for - I know this should be on my calander in my mobile but you won't believe how slow I am at programing it in. haha., anyhow:

1) 12 Nov - AFA 2011
2) 19 Nov - Ex-colleague's  Wedding
3) 26 Nov - Pulau Ubin (may or may not happen )
4) 3rd Dec - KL day trip with Sis & Co.
5) 10 Dec - WICKED the musical
6) 17 Dec  ~ nothing as yet but I am pretty sure something should come up, since my lessons should have ended by then and I'd be busy trying to chope some old friends out if I can.

So... when is the next PH? Someone told me there's a Hari Raya around the corner again, and I want to be sure I have something to look forward to.

Yesterday's dream reminded me that I dreamt of something rather interesting early last week, but the only thing I can remember of it by now is "candles".

I am recently on a Durarara!! novel binge, finally made possible by pdf e-reader!  (I'm sorry, but despite the files being in my com for years(?) , I can't "read" a novel seated in front of the PC. It just doesn't get me focused long enough to get past one chapter... but it's a different story altogether when I'm outdoors or travelling or on the move. Ironically, the exact opposite can be said about watching shows. I can't seem to get motivated to watch anything long on my tab. This mental segregation is interesting to observe.  I don't think I've ever devored so much reading material - make that a long story - with so much frevor in a long while. Turns out I can get obsessed with books too. Who'd have thunk.

Well, okay, I do know when I get into a book I can't put it down. I just don't find many books which can sustain my interest after 5 pages to go on, or maybe the "mood" isn't always right for a good book?

Japanese Culture and Society, SC2311 I think,

All I remember of the lectures were that they played movies and anime. And that my assignment (graded) was about Escaflowne vis-a-vis the identity crisis of Japan. Or something. haha... if I were a parent I'd be horrified that was a paid course, seriously. Since it's something I can do on my own free time... and I'm not sure if there is any real understanding that needed a 'professional' to teach it (though it is definitely fun and hey, if it adds to credits who am I to complain about its frivolity and lack of actual use concrete use in finding a job? (A++ for liberal arts! Too bad Singapore culture does not appreciate it the way boston does. )

Actually, if I weren't such a rationale "the idea of a degree is to get some paper that gets your foot through the door to something that actually pays a salary and a BA in English might better secure you a teaching job" creature then, there would almost be a 80% chance I'd ditch majoring in English language and jumping into majors like music, or European studies. Okay maybe not European studies pe se as I wasn't *that* into it at that time I think, but French and German and languages might have been on the cards, and my brain would have been more receptive to it then.

Ah, I feel old today.  

Seeing lila's travel list makes me wonder if I should start a new batch of serious resolutions next year. This year was the only year I was actually a wee bit more proactive about making (and keeping) a batch of them, most of which I have already fulfilled... not that I was keeping track/acting on them religiously or anything, though occassionally I'd be reminded that  I have one of these resolutions thingys going on, and I'd try to do something about it (to various degrees of success/failure/procrastination).... which is actually not all that much different from when I had no resolutions. Not sure if I see it as a sustaining habit though, I don't like the pressure to perform under a deadline much, even if deadlines seem to be the only thing that gets me going, haha. 

I did kinda hope that I'd clear them all by mid year, but I just remembered I have one more resolution not done yet, and I don't see myself getting to it just yet because it's probably least important on my list and life is getting in the way. And that would be building the lego train set I bought last year in October.

Told you it was a random train, lol.