Bamboo. Singapore. The Arena @ Clark Quay. August 31, 2008.

Long time fan, first time concert viewer.

Bamboo songs are heavily rotated in my iPod. Can’t wait to see them live.

I’ve been using FoxIt reader even before version9.0 went out. It’s a very decent alternate for mighty Adobe. Light and compact. It gets the job done and no useless crap installed within it.

It’s mostly an electronics shop with all the merch I can look and handle all day. Today I hovered over PSP games, DVDs, CDs, earphones, headphones, desktops and laptops.

PSP games
I had no intention of buying anything in this shop, especially NOT PSP games. Ridiculous prices at 80 dollars a title!!!??? With 5 titles I can already get an ASUS EEE (more on this later). But anyways, I found some titles I heard talked about in The Totally Rad Show (podcast that Ajay got me watching since last year) and some that I thought were interstng. There’s Prince of Persia, SIMS pets, Need for speed, Shinobi-something (not Shinobi, this one I can’t remember the title of has a lady protagonist) and Loco Roco. I was tempted to buy Loco Roco coz it was on sale for 30 dollars. But damn that, I can probably get it someplace else…

Other consoles
Holy crap, I didn’t know the DS Lite was so much more cheaper than the PSP! I never bothered to compare prices. (Long overdue thank you to AJ for the gift!) Anyway, I must say, there are sooo much more DS merch in Sydney. Come on people… seriously? Isn’t the graphics sucky in the DS? Oh well, I guess the games are fun. You gotta admit, playing on the Wii is really fun, and those graphics aren’t as fancy either. But come on.. really? Games on Sony consoles look so much prettier.

DVDs
The DVDs here were plenty, but not as comprehensive as the shop in Singapore (what was it called AJ?). What they did have that was impressive was a classics section. I gotta get one of those Rodgers and Hammerstein DVD boxes!

Audio/CDs
They had Beatles records! And I mean the old phonograph records! So awesome. They were having a sale of old CDs too, but none were really interesting. I looked at the new titles, sure enough Coldplay and Radiohead are in the recommended titles. I held them in my hands for a while to have a feel. It’s really different to actually see the album covers printed. I purchased In Rainbows online (hey, that I can afford coz they didnt put a price on it: guess how much?) as I’m sure a lot of others did (even AJ). Was cool to see it there in the store. While the new Coldplay album I have yet to hear, I loved the Radiohead album.

Computers
The desktops are quite cheap, but I don’t really need a new machine. But it was interesting to check the specs. The desktops are pushing 4GB RAM with quadcores now. The laptops are a minimum 1GB. I hovered for a while in the Apple section (as I always do, coz they’re so pretty). I hear a lot of reverence and obsession on Macs most espcially when the Air came out. Well, I’ve had my share of using Macs in Canberra, and I don’t really see what the hullaballoo is about. I’ve had a desktop crash on me many times. Yeah it’s sleek and Unix-based. I would love to own one (when I get to afford one). But at the moment, while I admit I am green with envy to Mac-owners coz of the prettiness factor, it’s not something I gotta have. In fact, I was more interested with the ASUS EEE. The updated notebook is now 12GB in HDD memory, and expandable to 2GB (I think, I forget if it was 1GB) RAM. It doesnt have an optical drive like the MacAir, but it has a webcam and an ethernet card (both missing from the MacAir). And the best part is that it is small and light at less than a kg. Sure, the Air is pretty, but the A$500 price beats the A$2500+ for the Air. From what I understand the EEE is built on Xandros Linux, but is also compatible with WinXP.

Etc
I looked at different earphones coz the ones I have are wearing out (and seeing how white gets dirty so quickly, I am often the one sporting the shabbiest earphones). But I didnt buy any, coz all they had were fancy ones of Sennheiser, Panasonic and Sony. The cheap China ones are really crap (sorry to offend anyone, but they are, I’ve tried and they sound awful). I just wanted a standard symmetric kind which I couldnt find. Looks like it’s time to give those ipod earphones a break-in.

So, I started with these:

and ended up with this:

Successful! Hehe. First chair I have assembled in my entire life. Now I only need a table to match the chair.

The first year is not a rollercoaster ride that I expected it would be. Surprisingly, everything went fine. Much thanks to my cousin Nandy and wife Cia for adopting me for two weeks while I was waiting to transfer to my condo.

So for the record, I stepped foot into Singapore since Apr 29 and started work on May 2 2007. I have been in the same company and just renewed my work pass for another year. The only thing that saddens me is that I haven’t been able to save as much as I have hoped for. That goes without saying, that I have been spending and enjoying life. I’ve been to Australia, brought Pen here twice, went back to the Philippines once, brought a DSLR and some lens, paid off loans and some other things that needed money to enjoy. No regrets though.

A view of our condo.

Been staying in the same condo for a year now. Friends keep on telling us that we have a great deal with our current condo. With the rents going up with no end in sight, we are currently secured with a 2 yr contract at a ludicrous cheap price. Housemate and I are praying and hoping that we can finish the contract and the owner won’t sell-off.

Pen and me walking off towards the rear exit of the condo compound.

Cheers to me that I have secured a spot here in the IT outsourcing country.

Been playing two straight nights before I go to bed.

These are my screenshots. Notice Patapon and Puzzle Quest in the background

Kratos!

Funny thing, I used to play this type of game with Pen reading the walkthru out loud for me. She’d tell me where to go next and how to do it. Now that I play alone, I find it hard when nobody is coaching me. I tried not to read a walkthru, but there is one part that I have no idea where to go next. I caved in and searched for a game guide. Now I rely to the document whenever I am lost.

Gonna play more of Kratos later.