Everyday without fail, I buy a coffee at Bar Bellos, a lovely cafe at Circular Quay. I was introduced to Bar Bellos by Sylvia Santoso, a friend who really knows her coffee (we both agree that Star Bucks suck).

We get on well with the guy who makes our coffee, whom we’ve secretly nick named Botak (Baldy). He’s not really bald, but shaves his head with a shaver setting of 2.

Anyway, Sylvia and I buy our coffees at different times of the day, and she always leaves cheeky messages for Botak to pass to me. Today, she instructed Botak not to serve me my regular soy hazelnut latte, but to use skim milk instead.

Botak claimed that since I was counting calories (as part of my workout plan), I should drink skim as it’s lower in calories and fat and higher in protein. I refused to believe it, as I was misled by the soy manufacturers that soy milk is better. Plus, I love the taste of soy coffee (if prepared right by experts such as Botak).

Then I realised that the soy manufacturers were always comparing soy milk to regular milk, not skim milk. The naughty buggers! Botak made me look at the nutritional information of both, and true enough, for the past few years I have been cheating myself of precious protein while taking in unneccessary calories.

I’m switching to low fat milk, while saving soy milk for special occasions.

And when I really want to reward myself, I’ll go full cream.

Today, I’ve reached the ripe old age of 27. I’m pass the age where my car insurance gets cheaper, and I’m officially a lao chee ko (dirty old man).

This year’s birthday pressies were quite profitable. My investment in my friends’ finally paid off in the form of good food and snazzy presents.

• Wireless keyboard and mouse (Logitech Cordless MX Duo).
• eyeToy and SingStar for my Ps2.
• Red boxing gloves.
• Cool t-shirt./li>
• Heavy photo frame/album./li>
• Money $$$!/li>
• Socks and CK briefs (people want to be my underwear, and touch me there, there and there).
• Sinfully delicious cheese cake.
• Tony Romas babyback ribs.
• Chocolate mud cake, extremely high in calories (would’ve killed Atkins).
• Nothing from my best friend Simon

I have not rewarded myself with a present yet. I’m looking at getting a plasma TV that’s exorbitantly priced. Still doing the cheap Asian routine, going to every store and haggling down the price, then going off and trying to get a better deal.

These things take time.

Durians can kill you. It’s well known that its pungent smell intoxicates certain people (mainly guai-los). But did you know eating too much can “heat” you to death?

A Thai man literally burnt his insides out when he consumed too much of the durian fruit. The moral of the story? Alcohol and durian don’t go hand-in-hand.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/05/31/1085855496294.html

The Asians know what it means when you say certain foods are “heaty” or are “cooling”. I tried to explain the concept to a guai-lo, and had to use certain examples that I feel will be beneficial to all.

Go to McDonalds and buy a large order of french fries and finish it without drinking any water. Does your throat feel swollen and are your lips stinging from the salt on the fries? Do you feel unheathly and greasy? That’s “heaty”!

Head to any Asian supermarket and buy a can of grass jelly drink. Are finishing the can, do you feel cleansed? That’s “cooling”!

Eating excessive “heaty” or “cooling” food is not good for you. Both have detrimental effects. You must learn to balance the amount of “heaty” and “cooling” food.

Does that mean you should always have grass jelly drink with your fries? Absolutely not! It means you should stay away from both, and drink plain water instead!

Read an article on the Herald again today that was very relevant. It identifies a new category of young adults among the Australian population.

These guys are in their late 20s to early 30s, have jobs, no financial commitments, and two thirds of them still live with their parents. They tend to spend all their money on designer clothes, alcohol, gadgets and other toys. They don’t save, don’t invest and seek instant gratification. They indulge in themselves.

They watch less TV, and prefer surfing the net instead. When they do watch TV, they watch shows such as Big Brother and Australian Idol, where they think it’s easy to become famous.

Initially, after a brief self-reflection, I thought I was part of this group. But then I realised I’m actually an Asian version of the “Me” generation.

I don’t spend alot of my money on food and booze. I mostly eat at home before going out. I think Giodarno is designer enough, and don’t buy real designer clothes. I do buy gadgets and toys, but settle for the cheaper Taiwanese or Korean alternatives.

And finally, although I do watch the occasional Australian Idol, I’m too cheap to vote.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/05/24/1085389339741.html

Interesting article on the Sydney Morning Herald today. Basically, it confirms what most of us gamers have been claiming all this time. Playing video and computer games gives you an edge in life.

Quote: “Researchers are finding players can make sharper soldiers, drivers and surgeons. Their reaction time is better, their peripheral vision more acute. They are taking risks, finding themselves at ease in a demanding environment that requires paying attention on several levels at once.”

I grew up playing all sorts of games. And in a quest to complete some of them, I enabled cheats or hacked my saved games. Now I cheat and hack my way through in life, accomplishing my goals in record time.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/05/06/1083635268977.html

I run a Windows 2003 Server which I can access remotely via Remote Desktop, formerly known as Terminal Services. I tried accessing it today but after entering my username and password, I got automatically logged off!

Then I found out it was because of the NVidia drivers I recently installed. NVidia adds this service called the “NVidia Display Driver Service” that gets start automatically. Why is does that, I will never know.

A quick disabling of the service resolved the problem.

It’s a well known fact that Japanese men are some of the most hardcore, sex crazed men in the world. The sinful things they have introduced to this world includes school girls, anime porn and so much more.

Now they are turning the sex industry upside down by introducing pay-for-self-service sex. I mean, there are many sex movie places already that lets you do all that (I heard from friends of course), but this takes it up to a whole new level.

Basically, you pay for a girl to join you and as she exposes herself, you play with yourself. It’s the safest of sex. And since there’s no physical contact, you pay less and the girl earns less.

http://mdn.mainichi.co.jp/waiwai/0404/0417relief.html

Alan “Animal” Chin had his buck’s night yesterday. That’s a stag night for all of you not familiar with the term. The organiser was Robin Long, one of the biggest heathens known to man.

He rented a hotel room, and arranged for a stripper to come and do a private show. I had no knowledge of what was happening beforehand. Of course as soon as I found out the stripper was coming I tried to leave. All of you know what high morals I have! But, the rest of the guys restrained me physically.

The stripper arrived, and she must have known there were only six lame asians and a guai-lo in the room, because she didn’t bring any security. After taking 20 minutes to get ready in the bathroom, she started. It was a sinful, shameful show, which involved the use of chewy lollies, body lotion, a pearl necklace and a chupa chup. She also set Alan’s armpit hair on fire.

I expressed my outrage by staring in silent protest.

The whole performance lasted only 15 minutes. And she walked away with $400 in cold hard cash.

After that, we had a 2 hour karaoke session but poor Alan had too much to drink and passed out. Everyone else got involved which was good fun and we ended with a big Y.M.C.A.

Once that was over, I headed down to the MSO dance party and caught up with a couple of friends I haven’t seen in ages. It was funny… I haven’t been to one since I left the US. People were still waiting impatiently for the R&B and hip hop to come on. Some things never change.

I know it has been an extremely long time since I last posted anything. I sort of lost interest in the site, as I wasn’t getting alot of hits. Plus, I have been very busy at work and with uni.

Anyway, I had a look at my web stats and 2 days ago I did get heaps of new hits so I’m gaining interest again.

I’m also caving into pressure and will finally start blogging. I used to think people wouldn’t be interested, but it seems the things that how I see life makes people laugh.

What else is new? Have been working on a human resource assignment that absolutely sucked big ass bananas. I hate writing up reports or critically analysing things. Have a presentation next week which should be alright as my group is a dream team and the final exam a week after that. Will this nightmare ever end?