Chill In The Air

It's cold. And I hate the cold.

I'm really more a hot person than a cold one. Meaning to say if I had a choice, I'd rather melt to death than get my balls frozen. Unfortunately, it's the winter season right now and even though the weather here in southern California is supposed to be the best in the United States, it's still as cold as a polar bear's ass. What's more, it rained yesterday making it even colder, not to mention wet as well.

Coming from a tropical island, one of the first things I always feel as soon as I step out of the airport into the open air is the lack of humidity. That's the reason why you hardly feel sticky when you're over here; because all your sweat dries up so quickly. That's the good part about the weather here.

What really gets to me though, isn't the low temperatures, but the chill that's in the air.

When you breathe normally it's not too bad, but as soon as you start running and panting, the cold air starts filling your lungs like ice cold water in a cup. After that you start to feel as if there's not enough oxygen going in and that your lungs are being constricted.

But of course, there's nothing constricting your lungs. It's all a matter of getting acclimatized I guess.

Now that I'm here and I'll be staying for a while, I want to get a job. Rather than sit down in front of my laptop and do nothing all day, I'd rather earn some money and keep myself occupied. At least when I bring back to Singapore, it'll multiply at least 1.5. My friend of mine says his company is currently hiring, so I'll probably check it out next week.

Man, I'm starving. It's time to go scavenge around in the kitchen.

Video of The Day #15

It doesn't matter if you've never played Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat before; enjoy the action.

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Touchdown

So, I've finally arrived.

The 2nd part of my flight went rather well and quick. I was given an aisle seat, the first seat on the first row. It turned out to be the seat I ever got. It was right in front of the lavatory, right in front of the video screen and most of all, it had lots and lots of leg room. Trust me, in long flights, leg room makes a huge difference in comfort. I had so much space I could even stretch my legs right up against the wall in front of me.

When I reached home, I found out that the youth group from church had prepared a surprise welcome party for me. As I opened the door and saw everyone there, I said to myself, "Oh no. A welcome party."

You see, I don't like being the center of attention; especially when it comes to parties. Everyone comes up to you, trying to make small talk. And they ask so many questions. That's why I never organize any birthday parties. When it comes to celebrations, I like to keep it small and simple.


Anyway, now that I'm back, I'm glad to once again see my super cute dog, Rainbow.



"Please give me some food."


He was a bit cautious wondering who I was at first, but once he remembered, he started following me all the around the house.

Earlier on at the party, some people were asking me if I was feeling jet lagged, but I'm not feeling any jet lag at all. It's most likely to due my irregular sleeping times back in Singapore which messed up my internal clock.

Still, I guess I should be going to sleep now. After a long flight, nothing beats a nice, comfortable bed to sleep in.

Transit

(As stated in my previous post, here begins the first of my backlogged entries. This one was written manually on my notepad as I waited in the airport for my connecting flight.)


I'm at the airport in Manila right now, waiting for my connecting flight to Los Angeles at 8:30pm. That's right, once again I'm on my way to the United States again to visit my family.

I'm having a 4 hour stopover, which really sucks, but there wasn't much choice in picking my flight. Most of the dates were either fully booked or cost too much due to this being the holiday season. So after all that searching, this flight is the best I managed to get. A Philippine Airline flight from Singapore to Los Angeles with a 4 stopover at Manila.

I've been walking around for the past hour or so and there's really nothing much in this airport. All they have in this area in front of the gates a duty free shop, a Delifrance outlet, some small counters selling sandwiches and drinks, and a massage outlet. I've been text messaging my friend back in Singapore and he says it's quite empty because this airport is newly built.

So after walking around I've come to find myself seated on a table in front of the Delifrance counter, with my sandwich and a can of coke, writing all this down.

I don't know what everyone else does, but when I've really got nothing to do, I just people watch. I like to try and read people. You know, like to try and tell how they're really feeling, read their body language, find out what really goes on in their head when they're interacting with other people.

Look close enough, and you'll be able to find all those feigned acts of interest like patronizing smiles and fake laughs. If you really want to read someone though, look at their eyes. In spite of their facial expressions, whether they're offended, awkward, pissed off, tired, lying... you can tell from looking straight into their eyes.

Likewise, if you can control your gaze, it's hard for people to read you. The ones with the straight, stoic eyes are the ones hardest to read. Or you can just cover your gaze, which is pretty much the reason why people wear shades when they play poker.



"I'm all in."


When I hide my feelings though, I don't usually use go for ice cold, stoic gaze. For me, I simply use my eyes as the primary outlet to convey the feelings that I want to. It works much easier for me.

Hmm, an old man just requested to seat at my table. Don't get any weird ideas, all the other tables are occupied that's why.

I guess I'll end here. It's better to give up this table to others who need it since I'm done with my sandwich. Besides, I'm not in the mood for some social interaction with strangers, so I'd better get away before this old man talks to me.

Another long flight over the Pacific but somehow, I'm not dreading it at all. I think I've gotten used to it and I'm starting to enjoy the long flights by myself.

Delayed

Damn it, I've really got to update this blog.

Actually I've got a whole backlog of entries written on my laptop, but never got to uploading, because my laptop was not working for a short period of time and when it was fixed, I still didn't get down to it.

Which explains the weird date of this entry (even it's currently March 31st) because January 21st is of the date of the first of my backlogged entries.

However, I shall delay a little longer. It's been a long day at work today and I can barely keep my eyes open as it is.

So, until then.

Nokia Aeon

Everyone's going crazy over the iPhone ever since it was announced. It looks really cool and that new touch screen interface is what impresses me the most.

When it comes to mobile phones though, I'm really a Nokia kind of person. You could say I'm loyal to the brand now after using it so long. Because I'm no technology expert, my reasons for picking and sticking with Nokia were simple.

1) It was the first mobile phone that I ever owned.

2) Its interface was easy to use.

3) Compared to other phones, it's SMS interface was the easiest and fastest to use.


Reason 3 is the key reason for my preference for Nokia phones. I used a Motorola phone for a while and I tell you, their SMS interface sucked big time.

Anyway, I was surfing through Digg as usual and I found out about the new Nokia Aeon. And I must say, it looks damn good.









It's still a concept and undergoing research and development though, so there's nothing definite for now. But if it does get released, you can be sure I'll be getting one.

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2007 and Disciprine

Once again pardon the long absence of entries. Initially, I was writing an entry on New Year's Day about Saddam Hussein's execution but I found myself writing and wandering into more complicated issues like the death penalty and the justification of America's war in Iraq. But I got sleepy and distracted, so right now that entry is half written, in the drafts folder, which means it's unlikely that I'll complete it because that's what happened to all my other incomplete entries. Perhaps I'll get down to finishing those entries one day.

It's 9 days into the new year of 2007. I don't know if everyone made new year resolutions but if you did, I bet you've probably broken them by now. I certainly didn't make any. I've never had much of a thing for new year resolutions. I've always felt that if you sincerely wanted to make a change in your life, you wouldn't need an occasion to make that change.

To make that change, it all comes down to discipline. When I was younger, I never realized the value of self discipline until now. When you're a last minute person and procrastinator like me, you really need self discipline to push yourself get things done.

On the topic of discipline, here's something from South Park about discipline that I find really meaningful.





Disciprine aside, I really recommend watching South Park. There's usually a theme in every episode and creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker's imagination to come up with such hilarious crap while enforcing those themes is something I admire and enjoy.


Here's a clip from the episode "Miss Teacher Bangs A Boy".




And from "You Got F'd in the A".






Here's website with lots of South Park episodes. NICCCEEE~~.


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