My mum found my skates yesterday. I thought I could start skating regularly again for light exercise. Today, I went to East Coast Park to join my friends for some skating. Not halfway through, the shell of the left boot of my skates cracked in at least three places (pictured above). I think one piece is missing already.

I thought that since I found my skates, I don’t need to spend money to buy the Roces Majestic-12 ($199). I cannot afford it! And my K2s were so expensive at the time I bought it. Grr...

But I had fun at East Coast Park today. It’s been a while since I skated. I couldn’t do any grinds today because I haven’t done it in such a long time, and plus, I didn’t want to destroy public property (honest!).

Taken during Sonic Camp. Photo: Jean Tan.
It’s Chinese New Year day 1. Nothing much happened, except for our visit to my grandmother’s place in Yio Chu Kang Gardens. We went there in the afternoon and I managed to collect some ang pow (red packets) from extended family members as well as some ‘unknowns’. After a while, everyone left except us; we were staying for dinner.

In the meantime, we watched Chen Kaige’s The Promise. Contrary to popular opinion, it’s quite a good movie. Sorry, everyone. But, it seems that my taste in movies has drifted way off from you. But could you not see how the characters in the film struggled with their destinies?

I suppose most people don’t really appreciate Chen Kaige’s directing of his actors. One thing about his films (except for Together) is the overdone expression the actors project. When I first saw The Emporer and the Assassin, I felt like I was watching a stage play. This would be true throughout most of his films. Most audiences seem to think this is a bad thing. Actually, this is one of the things I like most about Chen’s films.

When I first heard my friends’ opinions about the film, I thought, Oh no, don’t tell me Chen Kaige’s sold out [to special effects] too. They said that judging from my earlier opinions on films, I definitely would not like The Promise. But you know what? My friends were wrong. Again. Which means that next time, I’ll have to watch films for myself to say whether I like it or not.

Rueben and I finally did the recording today. So now that it’s been nailed down, I will be editing it to sweeten it up. For those who do not know, Rueben and I make up Signs Of Life, a Christian DJ duo affiliated to Sonic Edge.

In recent months, we have been concentrating our Tuesday nights working out the tracks and the mood of the CD, and, most importantly, praying. The recording is going to be our main demo as Signs Of Life, and it will be sent out to the clubbing industry.


‘Is it worth it?’

Hahahaha.

This is very interesting (pictured). It’s a Desktop Mini Candy Grabber by Jumping Banana. The price is $60. Can you imagine the amount of training for candy/plush-toy grabbing this will provide? Shout out if you think cute!

It’s the beginning of Chinese New Year weekend—a weekend that lasts until Tuesday.

I was reminiscing my inline-skating days when I remembered that I’ve always wanted a Roces Majestic-12 (pictured above). It’s more for street skating than half-pipes.

My first pair of aggressive skates was, coincidentially, the first pair of aggressive skates ever made—Rollerblade Tarmac CE. I still think it’s a real classic today, even though I had to shave off the not-so-durable ankle belt thing. It was really, really comfy, and very light, once it molded to me feet. I learnt my first tricks on it. The Tarmac CE is a real classic.

My second (and current) pair of aggressive skates is a black K-2 Fatty. I haven’t spend very much time on this pair, but what I realised is that I don’t really get into the soft-boot thing. In any case, I’m going to make it a point to dig it up sometime. But I think I’m also just going to save up some cash for the Roces Majestic-12. It has a closer feel to the Tarmac CE—low profile, understated, classic.

The Majestic-12 is no longer available though. What you’re seeing above is an update version called M-Twelve. It’s the last skate today that still bears the classic aggressive skate look pioneered by the Tarmac CE. It should cost less than SGD 300.00 a pair. I’m going to check it out soon.

Can you believe it? I was searching through a shelf-full of CDs and I found a Channel 8 drama soundtrack compilation from the 90s. It probably belongs to my sister.

Meanwhile, I’ve started listening to Gus Gus. Hard to imagine, huh? Also listening to Groove Armada, Dream Theater and some of Yuji Ono’s jazz stuff. I’m still looking for more elevator music, but nothing has turned up since November.

My DJing is veering towards a Digweed kind of sound. I can’t seem to help it. It’s really quite hypnotic. Haha.

Hooo... just came back from my mother’s mother’s younger brother’s son’s wedding dinner. Chilled out, standard Chinese dinner fare. The food’s good—quite tasty and very filling. But most importantly, it’s free! I took a few pics of my cousins and myself.

Before the wedding dinner, I was having a nap. I was having a nap because I was zonked out. I was zonked out because I just came back from Sonic Camp. It was an awesome time of worship, fellowship (fay-loh-sheep), and Ben & Jerry’s!

Here are some pics . . .

Sonic Camp photos: Gordon Khoo and Esmond Wee

This is me.

I’m going to Sonic Camp tomorrow.

In the next month or so, I will be moving this entire website to a new domain name: genshi-monogatari.com. Some of you may have remembered what shuttercollective.com was for. Of course, since, I didn’t feel like following up or make my programming life easier by learning PHP and all that jazz, the idea of shuttercollective died.

In any case, I’m abandoning the 3-year domain of shuttercollective.com to the more personal genshi-monogatari.com.



Meanwhile, I saw this book at the Relevant Store and thought I’ll just keep it in mind to get it sometime later this year. Apparently, a certain friend of mine can help me get some discount for it. Up on my wishlist, this goes.

Above: Joe and myself just before I went red-faced with one beer at Shawn Damon’s wedding. As usual, my eyes are small. My eyes are always small on camera. Maybe they are small to other people, but when I look into the mirror, I don’t see how cameras can catch my eyes so differently.

There’s also a ‘better-looking’ side of my face: the left side of my face. Why? I’m not sure, but I think it’s because my left eye is slightly bigger than the right.



Meanwhile, Google Earth is MAD. Here is a pic of my apartment block.

Mobile phone of the moment for me. In the last month or so, I’ve been getting a little fed up with my phone service. Even my mum agrees with me that Starhub isn’t big on reception. So, well, she suggested that I get a new line with SingTel Mobile. But I’m not going to get the new line straightaway. I’m going to wait until I can afford the Sony Ericsson W800 mobile unit (pictured above) before I move on to a new line. It’s gorgeous, isn’t it?

I realised that some people use their blogs for poetry or journalistic styles of writing. Sometimes, for them to blog is for them to practice their writing as if they were writing something artsy or otherwise.

For this blog, however, there isn’t any rule as to how I would write what I write. I’m not a poetic person, nor am I in the habit to post the lyrics to popular songs here (I’ve tried it somewhere in the last few posts). If you want to see some of my prose fiction, head to the Writings section, but I must inform you first that my writing is not fantastic.



Above: Stackable living units from Spacebox. It’s an interesting concept for studio apartments. And it’s trendy too. Visit the site for more details.

Tanaka Tatsuyuki’s Cannabis Works

Despite its name, this artbook has an amazing style. I really admire some of the newer Japanese artwork going on in the manga scene even though I’m not one to read manga. It’s going on my wishlist. If you’re interested to see Tanaka’s work, you can find Cannabis Works at the manga section of Books Kinokuniya at Ngee Ann City.

The weather in the last week or so has been awful. I haven’t seen a patch of clear sky. I have to admit that it’s actually getting to me. I really want to see the sun. Although I’m the type of person that can handle cold weather, I also rather like the sun. The heat energises me.

I don’t mind if it’s terribly hot as long as it’s not wet. On hot days, we can still go out wherever we want and do whatever we like as long as we keep ourselves hydrated. We can’t, however, prevent ourselves from getting wet on rainy days. No, the umbrella is never enough.

There is ‘romantic’ rain. When I went out on my first date, which was kind of impromptu, it was a rainy day. The rain, however, was light. There was a cool breeze. The weather in the last few days is nothing like this kind of ‘romantic’ rain.

My friends and I call this ‘English weather’—cloudy, rainy, perceptibly cold. I have to switch on the lights in my home, which would otherwise be too dark and depressing to walk around.

I caught several films recently. Peter Jackson’s King Kong was okay only, but I found that the emphasis moved too much from character to character. Perhaps it’s because the film started out with a Martin Scorsese feel to it, with a touch of Sergio Leone. But the main character really was the one played by Jack Black, or is it? Naomi Watt’s character doesn’t seem like very much, although she holds her light most consistently throughout the whole film. Yet I find her character somewhat simplistic or one-dimensional. Having a heart of big apes doesn’t make the relationship complicated. Adrien Brody’s character is too Brody, if you know what I mean. But his character is just as bad. The film seems to have a problem with deciding whether to include him in it. I find the film’s constant shift on the emphasis of characters hilarious. It gets a bit tiring to think who is the protagonist all the time. And why does Adrien Brody’s character gets the girl at the end? It’s got nothing to do with the plot at all! It seems the film writers didn’t know what to do with Jack Black from the time after King Kong escapes Broadway.


Samurai Fiction is an interesting piece of work. It’s a well-written samurai farce. If you think that the cuts are too rough, or the acting too unfinished, I assure you that these were intentional. It merely serves to put the irony in this story in the right perspective. Strictly speaking, this isn’t really a samurai film at all. Perhaps it can be called a comedy set in the Edo period that involves samurai and ronin as characters. Yet, it sets out to define samurai values throughout the film, however jestingly. Samurai Fiction is a story about a young incompetent samurai who sets out on a mission to retrieve his clan’s sword that had been stolen by a ronin (vagabond). Along the way he meets a laconic stranger who happens to be a retired instructor in swordsmanship. He learns much from this older man but nothing of swordsmanship. The plot twists are not dynamic, but they tend to take leave of the characters’ control. Even the ronin, who tries to control his fate, twice murmurs, “How did it come to this?” The worldviews of the main characters are very well-defined. I like that, however compartmentalised. It does not, however, make the characters more simple than they should be. Yet, this film does not set out to expose complex characters to begin with. The simplicity of this film allows viewers to step right into it. I found it rather easy to invest my emotions in the characters, even in the villain’s role.

My sis is now back in America. But the night before she left, we went to eat at The Tapas Tree and drank at Marrakesh. The Tapas Tree is a place more for appetisers, as the name suggests (I don’t know Spanish). But I quite like the taste of the Tapas. Marrakesh is a Moroccan bar that has a gorgeous Moorish interior—mosaic tiles, elaborate star patterns, lush colours, onion-dome-like arcs . . . You could almost believe that you’re just a few minutes away from Gibraltar (yes, I know where Morocco is). In terms of interior design, it beats The Balcony, though it doesn’t have it’s own CD. There’s a lot more to say about Marrakesh, but I’ll just leave it at that.


Photos: Kimberly Ong