My regrets

Regrets are the natural property of gray hairs", Charles Dickens

It’s no wonder that I have so many gray hairs now. Regrets however can incarnate to burning passions to appease one in correcting his muddles of the past. Here are some of my regrets:

1. Not picking up soccer earlier (primary / high school)
2. Being unable to play musical instruments (could have been a rock star)
3. Being hot-tempered growing up (root of many situations)
4. Stealing just one piece of magnesium ribbon instead a jar during high school ( it got me detention class anyway)
5. Sleeping during chapel service (no real regrets yet..hehe )
6. Using cheaper charcoal instead of powdered carbon powder to make gunpowder (explosive wasn’t as effective)
7. Making explosives as science project (burnt down a park accidentally)
8. Collecting miniature alcohol bottles in primary school (teacher called parents up)
9. Getting into a fight with Dinu growing up (he later passed away in the Army)
10. Day dreaming in class (a habit that is stuck with me for life)
11. Fighting with my siblings for food (my mom now complains there are no one at home now to try her cooking)
12. Setting up a chemistry lab in my room (Probably permanently damaged my health I still have a jar of Mercury in my room)
13. Not wearing hearing protection during army (Turning ipod’s volume full in planes is not enough now)
14. Playing “Daytona arcade game” wasted hundreds of dollars on it
15. Losing touch with my homies in Singapore (lost most of my friends in Sg)
16. Riding my bro-in-laws 1200cc Harley without license ($5000 worth of repairs and busted knees and elbows)
17. Procastinating living LIFE (ongoing regret with my career ambitions)
18. Being a private person (trying to open up myself now, might be little too late)
19. Hurting the ones I cared for the most (especially Bubutummy)

Back in Puerto Rico

I am back in good ol' Puerto Rico and will not be going back home for 3 weeks!!! That makes my appartment the most expensive room per day basis. $500 per day!!! based on the number of nights I will be at my apt this month. Sometimes I wonder why I bother having an appartment compared to staying in a hotel.


Well the most exciting thing is I will be back to MIT next week for recruiting!!

I'll be at the Marriott at Cambridge, its close to the T and its at MIT, so thats great!! I've already old 100+ boy but I need to let Matlove know...these are my objectives for the 1.5 day I will be there before I fly back to Puerto Rico again...

I've instructed 100+ boy to quit school for 2 days so we can hang out. IF I ever see him lighting a stick, I swear I will stuff all the nicotine gum up his #$$%

• GET MY long due FERRARI pistons from 100+ boy!!!!!
• play soccer / tennis
• roam around at mit/harvard square/boston
• have dinner with the gang
• visit my professor and my lab
• see the state of my "time-travelling machine"
• say "hi" to missy and pinch her
• get drunk with 100+ boy
• i suppose help out with recruiting

Gillette break through shaving technology

I got this article from the onion.


Fuck Everything, We're Doing Five Blades
By James M. Kilts CEO and President, The Gillette CompanyFebruary 18, 2004 Issue 40•07

Would someone tell me how this happened? We were the fucking vanguard of shaving in this country. The Gillette Mach3 was the razor to own. Then the other guy came out with a three-blade razor. Were we scared? Hell, no. Because we hit back with a little thing called the Mach3Turbo. That's three blades and an aloe strip. For moisture. But you know what happened next? Shut up, I'm telling you what happened—the bastards went to four blades. Now we're standing around with our cocks in our hands, selling three blades and a strip. Moisture or no, suddenly we're the chumps. Well, fuck it. We're going to five blades.
Sure, we could go to four blades next, like the competition. That seems like the logical thing to do. After all, three worked out pretty well, and four is the next number after three. So let's play it safe. Let's make a thicker aloe strip and call it the Mach3SuperTurbo. Why innovate when we can follow? Oh, I know why: Because we're a business, that's why!
You think it's crazy? It is crazy. But I don't give a shit. From now on, we're the ones who have the edge in the multi-blade game. Are they the best a man can get? Fuck, no. Gillette is the best a man can get.
What part of this don't you understand? If two blades is good, and three blades is better, obviously five blades would make us the best fucking razor that ever existed. Comprende? We didn't claw our way to the top of the razor game by clinging to the two-blade industry standard. We got here by taking chances. Well, five blades is the biggest chance of all.
Here's the report from Engineering. Someone put it in the bathroom: I want to wipe my ass with it. They don't tell me what to invent—I tell them. And I'm telling them to stick two more blades in there. I don't care how. Make the blades so thin they're invisible. Put some on the handle. I don't care if they have to cram the fifth blade in perpendicular to the other four, just do it!
You're taking the "safety" part of "safety razor" too literally, grandma. Cut the strings and soar. Let's hit it. Let's roll. This is our chance to make razor history. Let's dream big. All you have to do is say that five blades can happen, and it will happen. If you aren't on board, then fuck you. And if you're on the board, then fuck you and your father. Hey, if I'm the only one who'll take risks, I'm sure as hell happy to hog all the glory when the five-blade razor becomes the shaving tool for the U.S. of "this is how we shave now" A.
People said we couldn't go to three. It'll cost a fortune to manufacture, they said. Well, we did it. Now some egghead in a lab is screaming "Five's crazy?" Well, perhaps he'd be more comfortable in the labs at Norelco, working on fucking electrics. Rotary blades, my white ass!
Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe we should just ride in Bic's wake and make pens. Ha! Not on your fucking life! The day I shadow a penny-ante outfit like Bic is the day I leave the razor game for good, and that won't happen until the day I die!
The market? Listen, we make the market. All we have to do is put her out there with a little jingle. It's as easy as, "Hey, shaving with anything less than five blades is like scraping your beard off with a dull hatchet." Or "You'll be so smooth, I could snort lines off of your chin." Try "Your neck is going to be so friggin' soft, someone's gonna walk up and tie a goddamn Cub Scout kerchief under it."
I know what you're thinking now: What'll people say? Mew mew mew. Oh, no, what will people say?! Grow the fuck up. When you're on top, people talk. That's the price you pay for being on top. Which Gillette is, always has been, and forever shall be, Amen, five blades, sweet Jesus in heaven.
Stop. I just had a stroke of genius. Are you ready? Open your mouth, baby birds, cause Mama's about to drop you one sweet, fat nightcrawler. Here she comes: Put another aloe strip on that fucker, too. That's right. Five blades, two strips, and make the second one lather. You heard me—the second strip lathers. It's a whole new way to think about shaving. Don't question it. Don't say a word. Just key the music, and call the chorus girls, because we're on the edge—the razor's edge—and I feel like dancing.

The legends and fables of Hedonism

I did not know that within my lifetime, my era will be recounted as a legend. Shows that my greying hairs are not just a fiction of my imagination.

Just like how Homer's Iliad and Odyssey gave us some insights of the Trojan war, the periods of hedonism when high school friend J helmed the empire is recounted in this article (100-plus boy some-how found this article and brought to my attention). 100 plus boy insists that I belong to the "chinese-speaking, non-cheonging, christian group". Alas, I'm busted, my truth known...


http://pinkshoefetish.blogspot.com/2005/03/purdue.html

My dismal trip back

I just got back all beaten up from Puerto Rico. After eating Mofongos (mashed plantain fattening piece of junk) and the likes for 2 weeks I was looking forward to visiting my Brazilian friend, Joule in SF. I havent seen that dude since college but my plans got squashed..just like that mofo mofongo. I drove an hour to Mayaguez airport or aeropuerto to take the twin propeller plane to San-Juan for connection till the storms ruined my plan. I waited in the airport for an hour or so before deciding to rent a car to drive for 3 hours or so in torrential downpour to San Juan. I missed the connecting flights and was left with two pathetic options.

1. Stay a night at the ritz in San Juan and fly out the next morning reaching Cali at 2 pm
2. Take the last flight (8pm) out of San Juan to NY (JFK), spend a night there and take a morning flight to LAX reaching there at 10am

I chose the latter.

The 767 to nyc got delayed too. I ended up relaxing at the admiral's club lounge, bought some fridge magnets for mom, bought Don-C Rums (2 bottle actually, one for my friend, Wallstein. I need to be nice to him, he might get me a ticket to world cup matches in Germany as he has all the german connections), chilled at the bar drinking Tanqueray on the rocks with Pellegrinos . FINALLY, I boarded the plane 1/2 past 9 and reached NYC past midnight. I was SO GLAD that I got first class but got a bloody headache from sitting with some woman who had a reeking scent on her. I was too tired to read or do any work. I ended up doing fuck-all playing poker on my black berry throughout the trip; not bad, at one time I was $70,000 in the green. Maybe one day I might hone my skills enough to make a trip to vegas.

Since all the hotels in the NYC regions were taken up by UN delegates, I ended up in a comfort inn in Queens!! NYC was nostalgic, I got reminded of my trip to NYC with bubutummy in summer of 2003 and so I gave her a call and we chatted a while about our adventure together. I got to sleep at 1:20am and got up at 5:00am to catch the 6-hour flight to LAX.

The wonderful omlette and chocolate chip cookies was the highlight of my flight. I managed to get business class sheer luck, so no complains. I spent most of the trip in a state of concussion from sheer fatigue.

I got Jim pick me up in his limosine though I am not a big fan of lincolns. For 150 quints, you get a black car service, better than taking a united express shuttle plane . An hour later, I was in office and that was the end of an ordeal...

My expenses came up to $3500 for two weeks...as I inch towards getting enough points on my amex card to get that bose noise cancelling phones. I need that thing before I lose my hearing in total from all these trips. As it is I am partially deaf from my macho days of not wearing ear-plugs during my military / artillery days.

I am back so I can fly out again on Monday to Puerto Rico again!!!! DAMMit. My dismal life is representated by my 1/4 million miles just on American airlines.

What a catch, yawl?

WTF...

I found my poison tonight

My fellow agents left the island today and I've some extensive plans for this evening...eeeh Haah! Sorry, I forgot I'm no longer in Texas.

For once, I plan to chill out at the private beach at my hotel and before that, I will ingest my FAVORITE wine!

100 plus boy will be envious to find out that they have a GOOD selection of Spanish wine here. They have....ta-dah... Muga Riserva, Rioja 2000, in the local restaurant here! (see proof ).



Okie, as I was scrambling out my room at dawn this morning answering to duty-call, I saw something blue staring at me from my balcony. IT came to my attention, reminding me that I have an ocean view....

A strange land

Though the jungles of Brunei have honed my navigational skills, I decided to opt for a car with GPS in order to reach my hotel earlier without an unintentional tour of PR. More importantly, to avoid getting in a predicament of being physically pleasured in an unknown land by a bunch of Puerto Ricans drunk on Bacardi rum.

I realised it was quite easy to to detect cops: the emergency vehicles here including cop-cars have their flashing lights on at all times and only when they have their sirens does it signify true emergency. I was perplexed to see a cop car parked on the side of the road with his flashing lights on looking for speed violators. I guess when you get used to these lights, you grow oblivious to them.

It took me 3 hours to get to my hotel. Kinda pissed as it seems like I am the only one on the team who would be here this weekend. I was strongly advised to stay at the Ritz in San Juan during the weekends. I might just do that and tour the city center with the little Spanish I learnt. I know "Pollo" is chicken and "Salidas" is exit and "Policia" is police. At this rate, I would have learned 30 words by the end of this trip.

Back to flying

I have accumulated over 200,000 miles on American in just less than a year due to my periodic flights to Dallas in my last mission. Flights to Puerto Rico are definitely going to rake up my mileage; 3 hrs to DFW, 5 hours to San Juan, in addition to 3 hrs drive to final destination. I better get some sleep now!!

Gas for ENZO

At the lights coming from the exit of 405S, there was this homeless dude asking for change with a board that read "My Ferrari ran out of gas". A few hundred yards later, I caught a glimpse of a silver Enzo Ferrari!

Enzos are extremely rare and you need to be invited by Ferrari to even purchase one. Maybe the homeless dude eventually got his change to fill up the tank. I can't blame him, it cost me $65 the other day to fill out my 20 gallon tank as Mamo drinks a gallon for only 12-15miles!!!!!!

Building relationships

This was shared with me by Bubutummy and I wanted to share this with you. It gives some perceptives to me at least.


The following is the philosophy of Charles Schultz, the creator of the
Peanuts comic strip. You don't have to actually answer the questions. Just
read the e-mail straight through, and you'll
get the point.
1. Name the five wealthiest people in the world.
2. Name the last five Heisman trophy winners.
3. Name the last five winners of the Miss America.
4. Name ten people who have won the Nobel or Pulitzer Prize.
5. Name the last half dozen Academy Award winner for best actor andactress.
6. Name the last decade's worth of World Series winners.
How did you do? The point is, none of us remember the headliners of
yesterday. These are no second-rate achievers. They are the best in their
fields. But the applause dies. Awards tarnish. Achievements are forgotten.
Accolades and certificates are buried with their owners.
Here's another quiz. See how you do on this one:
1. List a few teachers who aided your journey through school.
2. Name three friends who have helped you through a difficult time.
3. Name five people who have taught you something worthwhile.
4. Think of a few people who have made you feel appreciated and special.
5.Think of five people you enjoy spending time with.
Easier?
The lesson: The people who make a difference in your life are not the ones
with the most
credentials, the most money, or the most awards. They are the ones that
care.

Puerto Rico, here I come...

Do you know that Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory? Neither did I, and I am so glad..I don't need to deal with immigrations...but the problem is it looks like a 3rd-world country using U.S. currency. The 3-star hotel looks like crap and you still pay $200usd/ night.

Finally, I will be heading out to Puerto Rico. It is not the best time of the year to be there as the storms have been giving it near misses and knowing my luck, I don't wanna push it. The last time I was there, I got reminded of weather in Singapore; really humid, warm and heavy tropical rain. However, the vegetation was much more lush and heatlhy looking with beautiful hilly terrain.

Since I'll be there for two weeks, I plan to visit the old San Juan city which had impressive history dating way back to 1521, amazing isnt it? Arecibo will be the next on my list. The catch is, I have to also study for my GMAT and complete my applications while I am there.

Anaasco is the city I'll be staying at. It is on the west most part of the island and its known for its excellent surfing. I can't bring my boards over but I am sure they rent them there.

-Agent Black