Anyway, just a quick post to say I’m alive and kicking! Just got caught up with life and all that so it’s rather hard to sit down and do a proper blog entry. I’ve got some creative stuff to upload to the crafty blog and I’ve barely done so

I need a new anti-spam plugin for WordPress since Spam Karma is now not really updated Any recommendations?

Anyway, a random photo of Zayden Asher. (Bet you’ve missed him *wink*)

I still remember on this day last year, I was still working at Loof as a bartender and having a blast after the clock struck 12 because everyone was spraying water at each other with the bar gun after our assistant manager toasted champagne with us into the new year.

Man, I really miss working there

Corin, Zen and I at the end of 2008

Anyway, 2010 will be a great year. Well, I am planning that it’ll be a great year. I have lots of goals and I hope that I can accomplish them. 2009 kind of failed since I didn’t have much goals set up. But next year would be different.

1. Journal diligently – I used to write in my spiral-bound notebooks/sketchbooks almost every other day back when I was in secondary school. Somewhere down the line two years ago, I stopped. Or rather, I wrote rather inconsistently. I was either too tired or my hand cramped way too easily while furiously writing everything down. I realized that it left a huge gap in my memories and a lot of things remained forgotten

2. Blog frequently – When I first opened my domain, I blogged religiously everyday. I guess it took a whole lot of my time because the reason why I blogged lesser and lesser was that I felt that blogging took quite a huge amount of time. I guess I like things to be neat and I edit every photo I post here (Hint to Guan: Blog more!)

3. Remember people’s birthdays – I always tried to keep up with everyone’s birthdays. I would be faithful in wishing them a birthday greeting. But by around April, I would tend to forget or the dates kept slipping off my mind. I must really try to keep this in 2010

4. Be more crafty – I stopped designing and coding websites for a couple of years now. I still have no passion in redoing my current theme (Laziness. Still, this current layout is nice). And every since I graduated from school, I stopped doing any crafty thing (aside from scrapbooking recently). I hope that my creative mojo would be back next year.

5. Get involved in communities again – I stopped forum posting when I put most of my online life on hold. It’s time to get back to the good ol’ community and make the connections again

6. Brush up on photography – As much as I enjoy photography, I am (as usual) still mediocre. Guan and I got this photography book and it’s all so wordy and full of theory that reading them makes me shudder But he said he would help me out so I hope to take better pictures. I’m not sure if I should do the whole 356 photos a year (one a day) but we’ll see how it goes.

7. Finish up that cross-stitch piece that has been sitting uncompleted for the past year – That kind of spoke for itself

8. Take up Japanese class – Ever since I was 17, I have signed up for three Japanese classes. And I never completed any of them. It’s about time I completed one, eh?

9. Exercise regularly – Ever since I had to stop my late-night running with Felix, I totally stopped exercising. And I found out that I could no longer do a pull-up I have to be able to do my usual three pull-ups at one go!

10. Keep things neat and clean – I have been a very messy person since young. Unfortunately, Guan is also a very messy person. My attempts to keep our room dust-free has not been going well so far. Let alone keeping it neat and tidy. I can now understand what my mother has been trying to teach me all these years. (Thank goodness I don’t have my own home yet!)

This isn’t the full list but I thought it would be nice to share 10 things on my list What about yours? (Feel free to link to your blog if you have blogged about it.)

Well, half an hour more to go!

Wishing everyone a Merry New Year! May 2010 be a great year for all!

Merry 2010! From Guan, Zayden Asher and myself

Happy Birthday to my awesome dad!

And that means this domain is 6 years old! Wow. It has been a really long time…

I signed up for Shimelle‘s online class—Blogging for Scrapbookers and it started on Monday. But, being the usual procrastinator that I have always been, I kinda sorta lagged behind since caring for Zayden Asher takes up practically ALL my time. Well, not to mention checking out Tumblr and helping Guan with his FarmVille on Facebook and looking at deals at 2peas

Anyway, I spent the last weekend meeting new crafty people on the class forum and admiring everyone else crafty and pretty works while I did my usual gawking at pretty papers and layouts

I read up the class notes and have got Google Reader ready And I shall attempt today’s—well, yesterday’s, actually—prompt.

I was on my way to MWL to buy the new MME journaling cards and the fastest way was by the train. And, somehow, I always seem to have very annoying kids taking the same carriage as me.

He was about six and he sounded Filipino and I shall assume that he was sitting (on the reserved seat for those who need) with his mother. I stood in front of him, trying to ignore him while half-gaming, half-tweeting on my iPhone, and he kept whining and fidgeting in his seat. Okay, granted that he’s a kid so given that his butt probably had needles on them, but, did he need to whine (almost) endlessly?

He kept going on and on and moving about in his seat and when he wanted to lie on his mother, he got really comfy by putting his legs up against the glass on the side of the seat. If his legs were any longer, those ugly Crocs would be right in my face

Needless to say, I was pretty thankful when I finally alighted at my stop—only to discover that he and his family alighted along as well

That is why I hope Zayden won’t grow up to be those annoying, irritating, badly-behaved children I see running around, making a ruckus in public I shall do my best! *yosh*

Oh, well. Anyway, I got my journaling cards! But I couldn’t find one of them so my set isn’t complete

A Zayden Moment

Anyway, Guan and I finally went to check out the new mall in town. ION Orchard boasts to have brands like Cartier, Dior, Dolce & Gabbana, Giorgio Armani, Louis Vuitton, Prada, Uniqlo, Topshop and Topman along with Bimba & Lola, Boss Selection, Chaumet, Christian Audigier, Dsquared2, Diane von Furstenberg, Just Cavalli, Marc Jacobs, Patek Philippe, and Vivienne Tam, which are new to Singapore or having its own stand-alone boutiques for the first time. (Taken from here.)

After touring the floors, to us, ION was like, just another Paragon across the street. Well, not till we went to the basement to look for food. There, we saw shops that were “familiar” to us. That means stuff I can actually afford

I loved the sake bottles at Nippon-Ya! Apparently, this Japanese food boutique has an outlet at The Central and I find it a really random shop because it sold food stuff along with accessories and toys. It was so random I couldn’t differentiate half the time which were edible or not

Guan commented that there were a lot of Japanese food around the basement. I’m hoping that Tsukiji Gindaco would restore my faith in takoyaki. But due to the rather long queue and our tired legs, Guan decided to forgo his yakisoba and I, my takoyaki. We tried The Taiyaki’s Bacon/Egg and German Potato taiyakis and they were really good as they were stuffed with really nice fillings and the batter was crispy. It tasted like a toasted sandwich I had initially wanted to try the chocolate batter stuffed with banana paste but it contained custard cream and the azuki looked the same as Chui Jia’s Ooki Taiyaki. Still, if I want to save money, I would still choose the chocolate ones at Ooki Taiyaki

(Okay, CJ! I’ve finally mentioned your store!)

We settled our dinner at Ginza Bairin where he had the chicken karaage curry and I had the ebi fry don. His karaage, although crispy, was rather tough and chewy. My jaws actually ached while eating just one piece. The curry was okay—sweet, not too spicy, but not the best I’ve tried. My ebi was okay—I think I’ve tasted better ones Anyway, for those who would like to try, I’ve found two very different reviews online here and here. (The first one made me laugh out loud!)

I guess we’ll head back to ION next time to try the other food stuff along with getting some pretty bottles of sake!

(A side note: This is my really lousy first attempt to write a food review. Haha!)

Anyway, I’d like to say that Tumblr is extremely addictive especially if you’re into pretty things (paper, craft, illustration), photography, quotes and sad secrets. I spend more time re-blogging instead of posting at Twitter

I’m hoping that Despair would be back soon. I have been helping Naco with the checking of members and I must say that it is not an easy feat

On a side note, it’s my cousin Jolene’s wedding today. Hope the dinner would be as good as the last one

Anyway, I have been staying home lately and catching up with the final season (or so I’ve heard) of Prison Break. Currently, no episodes are being aired for the time being. New episodes are coming back in April. Exciting!

I found it quite hard to believe that Guan didn’t pick up this show (and the only other shows I know he watches are HIMYM (thanks to yours truly), House and American Dad). He doesn’t even watch Heroes! (Oh! The horror!)

So I fed him with the first season (of Prison Break) and he was hooked. So once he’s done till the last episode (which is episode 16 of the 4th season), I’ll start him with Heroes He claims it’s too confusing so it looks like I’ve a lot of explaining to do

And aside from doing the above mentioned, I have been slacking around at home, re-watching awesome HIMYM episodes along with my Legend of the Condor Heroes DVDs and, well, sleeping.

I don’t like not having anything to do because it makes me rather lazy.

Not to mention that even though I have thought about changing my layout (it’s been up for like, more than a year. Or is it two years now?) I just can’t get my creative juices together to come up with a neat and awesome layout like this current one. (I should mention that Alexis Bledel is still really pretty.)

Anyway, I have finally upgraded to WordPress 2.7.1 and I’m still trying to get used to the new interface

Rey‘s finally in Australia and I will really miss him. No more 3-am-Carl’s-Junior-burgers for me, I guess. Or awesome talk and HIMYM references

Anyway, Xavier introduced me to a bar job and I’m hoping to start next week and switch to full-time next month. So, no more hoping-for-an-admin-job for me. It’s back to the bar!

As a final note, Tarmidzie told me that the Coldplay concert tickets have all been sold out All I can say is: SO FAST?!

Hoo boy am I suffering now

What is says about you: You are a passionate person. You appreciate energetic people. You get bored easily and want friends who will keep up with you.

Find the colors of your rainbow at spacefem.com.

Anyway, it’s my dad’s birthday as well as Sweet-Child.net‘s 5th birthday! Can’t believe I still keep this domain for half a decade

Happy Birthday Daddy!

More about my surfing trip at Cherating in the next post…