Mindspeaker Returns

All this while I’ve been waiting for iTunes shop to come to Singapore. What I didn’t realise was that I don’t have to wait for it at all! I can simply buy songs or shows from the US iTunes shop. i didn’t realise I could do this. They actually sell online gift cards for iTunes. So I got about 20 US worth of gift card and started downloading stuff (legally for once!) from iTunes.

Why did I start doing this? Well…its all because of HEROES! My father-in-law bought some HEROES dvds, but they weren’t the complete set. I was still missing about 6 episodes. I’m not going to wait till Channel 5 finally shows these last 6 episodes. My daughter’d probably be able to talk by then! So I decided to find out whether I’d be able to get them from iTunes. It was! So the next step was to find out if it is possible to buy the shows off iTunes. After abit of prodding around, I realised that it was possible! I downloaded these movies at $1.99 US an episode. Spent about 12 US dollars on them. Its a whole goddamn lot cheaper than buying them off the shelves. Yeah sure, you’ve got the subtitles and all the other stuff with the boxed set, but what happens after you watch them? You keep them in your drawers where they gather dust. Might as well buy them without all the frills. Even if they gather dust, it doesn’t hurt that much

Now that I’ve got the six episodes, the only thing left to do is to WATCH them. Yeah…haven’t had the time to do that over the weekend. We had a quick tour of Geylang bazaar last Saturday, where we saw a girl who looked like she was drunk when she got her hair coloured. It was as if somebody just splashed different coloured paint onto her head! I would rather shave off my head than go out with hair like that! Then there’s this guy who had his hair all bleached out and he had black spots all over his head. He looked like a ladybird. Some people are freaking…freaks.

Can’t wait for tomorrow. We’d go all out on our shopping cos it’d be payday!  

Channel 5 is really a lame channel. Its funny how they talk about being the first to show movies or series when other channels have shown these shows long ago. Their monopoly is not very effective and kind of comical when people have cable nowadays. Gone were the days when they could boast that they show movies earlier than their Malaysian counterparts at RTM.

Nowadays, other Star World, HBO and many other channels are showing movies and series far earlier than Channel 5. One good example is the series "Heroes". I can’t believe that Channel 5 is having trailers for "Heroes". And they’re proudly announcing the fact that they’ll be showing "Heroes" in November. By the time November comes, I’d have watched the entire series.

For people who have been catching "Heroes" on Star World, the series would have been well in advance by now. As for me, I managed to watch it on DVD. My father-in-law got the whole series on DVD. Don’t ask me how he got them.

I knew he bought them a while back. But I never got around to watch them. I saw some parts of the series on Star World, but I never really watched them cos I didn’t really take note of the time slot that the show was in.

So yesterday…I found the DVD set while I was waiting for time to break fast. I popped the first DVD in and watched. We ended up watching the show till about eleven! It was that good. It was that riveting!

I can’t imagine having to wait from one week to another waiting for the series. I can’t imagine having to put up with stupid advertisements. I’m just glad that F-I-L bought these DVDs! I don’t have to put up with all that nonsense. And, unlike the Hikmah series, I didn’t even fast forward any scenes cos I just wanted to absorb every single storyline and every single character in full detail.

The series was really, really that good. If I were Channel 5, I’d bump off whatever other stupid late night shows I have just to play "Heroes" NOW! Ditch the Desperate Housewives. Enough of Ugly Betty. Its just a long-winded "The Devil Wears Prada". Lost can get lost. Ok maybe CSI can stay. But everything else must go NOW. Not in November. No.

I can’t wait to get home to continue watching the series tonight!

It happens all the time. Whenever there’s an earthquake in Indonesia, we’d be getting the tremors. And whenever we get tremors, there will be people recording the tremors on their handphones. These video recordings would then be sent to Mediacorp, which then shows them to us during the News.

And so it happened yet again yesterday. The newscaster (Neena Mairata) talked about it. And there were the interviews. Yes…the interviews about how the "victims" felt the giddiness and how everything was swaying all around them. I mean…is this so important that you need to put it up on the news? Yes we know there’s tremors, and what do tremors do? They make you feel giddy and things start shaking all over. What do you expect? Tell me something I don’t know!

Then they proceeded to show the various videos showing the effects of the tremors. Cutlery shaking. Chandeliers shaking. Even keys on the window grilles shaking. For added effect, they overlayed a blowup of the keys at the bottom right of the video, just in case you couldn’t see the shaking keys! And finally, there’s the customary fish tank with mini waves caused by the tremors (Fish: Hey look Ma! I’m on TV yet again!).

Do we really need to see this? Do we really need to know yet again about how some housewife felt when there’s tremors? Do we really really need to see the blow up of the keys on the window grilles? Do the home owners realise that potential robbers now know that they leave their window grille keys on the window grilles?

Fascinating stuff.

As for my baby, she’s more interested in the Weather. Somehow or other, she’d stop what she’s doing immediately and focus on the TV whenever she hears the weather jingle. I think she’s hypnotised by it! Or maybe she has friends in Dubai or Taiwan? 

On another note, I was pleasantly surprised when I realised that the mosque I went to for Zuhur (afternoon) prayers had started giving out porridge after the Zuhur prayers. Usually they’d give out porridge after the Asar (late afternoon) prayers. I never thought I’d be able to get the porridge as I normally perform Asar prayers at home. That’s nice :) 

Pheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeyewwww!

I’ve finally been released from the shackles of having trainees with me. At one point, I actually had up to THREE trainees with me. What a handful. I can’t squeeze them all inside the staffroom, so I had to hole up in the lab. Personally, I prefer hanging out in the staffroom as I get to talk to the teachers around me.

And as a result of me having trainees, I really wasn’t able to blog. One of them has this irritating habit of popping up to me and asking me questions on every single thing imaginable. Really, really lacking in initiative. I just wish her all the best in whichever school she’s in now.

Anyway, enough of all that talk about trainees. I’m back and I will blog more often from now on!

The Lucky Draw
So what’s been happening lately? Well…for one thing…for the first time in my entire life, I won in a lucky draw. Yeah and its the FIRST PRIZE too! I spent three years working as a teacher in my previous school. Three years…didn’t win a lucky draw prize during Teacher’s Day dinners. And every other time. Entered so many competitions, didn’t even manage to win a consolation prize. But in my first year as an IT Trainer, I ended up winning the first prize hahaha….

How I wish I had that kind of luck during my wife’s D ‘N’ D many months back. The first time was an LCD TV! What I won was nothing as significant as that, but to me, getting the first prize was just thrilling! Just imagine…out over 80 people, I won the first prize! Freaking wow! I’ve actually gotten over it by now, but just typing this out makes me feel blessed once again

Baby Blessings
Speaking of blessings, my baby’s making huge progress in life. She’s had her first steps and she’s been starting to babble. The babbling’s just nonsense, but its a precursor to continous speech. In addition, she’s able to point out at certain things such as CAT, BIRD and FAN to us. I made sure that she’s pronouncing the words right. No meow-meow for cat. Its just CAT.

Hikmah 3
On another note, we’ve finished watching HIKMAH 3. Yes…not HIKMAH 2 which is trundling along on Suria. All 40 CDs cleared within the space of two weeks. How did I manage that? Well…I’d fast forward the parts where I deem irrelevant to the storylines that matter. I can’t stand having to sit through the ramblings of all these bit part actors on TV. Sometimes the segments can be so insanely boring. However, when you rent the VCDs you have the pleasure of not caring about whatever is happening to whoever that person is. I don’t know and I don’t care. I only need to know about what’s happening to Adrian, Arman, Adit, Bu Ratna, Ana, Marla and Amanda. And let me tell you…there’s lots of eye candy in HIKMAH 3

Ramadhan
And finally, its Ramadhan once again. My aim is to be more proper with my fasting. Fasting is not just about abstinence from food. Its about controlling yourself as well. I’m ok with not eating or drinking. But I have to be more careful of what I say. Sometimes swear words come out from my mouth without even me realising it. I hope that I’d be able to stop this bad habit. And I’d like to perform my terawih prayers with my wife too.

Selamat Berpuasa kepada semua Kaum Muslim serata dunia!