I also got a gift better than I could have ever planned, as I was whisked here, there and everywhere as I succumbed my day to her whims and will.

My only gripe was that I wore a black-dark, thick cotton shirt because she asked me to dressed smartly, and only because I think that I could have still pulled the whole day off with my usual jeans and suave tee.. but that’s just me.

What did I get to do? Let’s see..

Karaoke session was good, lunch was splendous and she got strangers to sing me a birthday jingle.

Then we shopped for ‘the birthday gift’ even though I was reluctant to make her spend, but in the end my choice of the wrist watch was eccentrically scrumptuous – a toss between a white Diesel one and a metallic Armani Exchange. This gift, which I still think is way too much too spend on this 30 year old, but way too awesome nevertheless.

And the fireworks, literally, came up in the evening spent at Sentosa, which was nothing short of magically flawless, save for the bird-dropping, mosquito-biting thingy.

But those were mere headfakes, for the real gift was the gift of love, masked within a tender company and waves after waves of generous gestures.

I’d never thought turning 30 meant I’d be pampered this way, but for that special and memorable gift of company, I really couldn’t have wished for anything more.

Ahhh, being 30 feels so awesome! *wink*

I might feel inclined to believe that the ones being regulated are the fat wallets and the insane paychecks of the movie producers, and if they’d really wanted to rightfully earn their money, then why spend millions in shows, such as Golden Globes and the Academy as well as obscene movie promotions, where they fly their stars around the world?

In any case, it is sad to see Megaupload go, not least they’ve been misused, and abused by the pirateers, but the thought that millions of simple users like you and me that are affected, and affected by having our paid accounts seized and rendered useless.

Oh man.. and to think that I’ve just resubscribed to another 2 months worth of subscription to watch “How I Met Your Mother” online~

Adoi~!

7.15am: Rise & Shine. Feels too early.

8.15am: Beauty World Centre @ Bukit Timah

8.30am: Big Breakfast Deluxe @ Macdonlads.

8.45am: Farid’s Arrival

9.30am: Grand Prix Trial KL Begins.

10.00am: First Loss of the day.

4.00pm: 6 hours later and I’m looking at a 5 Loss, 1 Win scoreline.

Oh man, what can I say, the metagame for the current season is so volatile that the only expectation you can set for yourself is to expect the unexpected.

After nearly 5 weeks of ‘seasoning’ myself with the G/B Elves-Tron deck, I thought that I’d stand a good chance, figuring that the metagame is going to be filled with creatures (Delvers/Humans/Wolves) heavy deck, but lo and behold, it was more of a 70% U/x Control vs the rest of the field.

Shocking, indeed, if you even know what all these jargon means.

Still the lesson at the end of the day is…. *wait for it*… ‘Take it on the chin and move on.’

That’s right, sometimes things merely progresses on its own, ‘market forces’ traders would call it, and these are things that one can’t expect to be certain of at any time, and so the best bet that one can ultimately make is to estimate where this ‘progression’ leads to, and how to best live with it.

And then sometimes, you’ve just got to wing it and spin it.

On a sidenote, Beauty World Centre didn’t seem to have changed much since the early 90s when I first patronised it regularly, and I kind of enjoyed the nostalgic ambience it had.

Awesme!

And then it hit me that youths around the world, okay maybe around singapore that takes trains (when they’re not breaking down) and buses still need their fix of custom printed EZ-link stickers, and how cruel it’d be to rob them off of this opportunity.

Oh, how could I just sit by and do nothing, denying these youths the chance to express themselves?

I remember a wise man once said ‘When good men do nothin, evil triumphs’.

Or something like that.

And so Stickerdojo.com is back online, enabling youths to sticker up their EZ-links and brining joy and smiles back into our faces.

I’m certainly glad that I didn’t give it a pass. Cue, wide, beaming smile.

The original Jim Henson’s The Muppet Show

I have to admit that The Muppet Show, or TMS, was not at all on my radar and I only chanced upon it while browsing for reviews of Breaking Dawn, the ‘in’ movie right now — why, everybody loves sultry vampires, shirtless-werewolves and a-teen-angsted-girl-that-can’t-wait-to-get-it right?

Apprently, after reading enough reviews of Breaking Dawn: Part 1, it dawned on me that there’s only 2 things worth noting of that movie.

1) That ‘wedding ceremony dream’ and 2) the ‘bella and baby birthing’ scenes. Ok, next!

And then there was The Muppets, a show that I’ve never really loved nor went all out to catch an episode of, but somehow reading its reviews won and warmed every bits and pieces of my heart, of which Breaking Dawn’s reviews managed to tear, crush and disappoint succesfully,

Here’s a disclaimer though: Unless you are an animated character yourself, The Muppets will probably bore you halfway into show, but if you’ve always had that little kid in you lying dormant for a very long time, then there’s no better movie to let it out to than this.

Like I mentioned earlier, it’s a nostalgically, pleasing show that puts you in a world where the only line drawn between Man and Muppets are… oh, there’s no line!

For goodness’ sake, it’s The Muppets!

The movie is musically pompous, and comically graphic, but take nothing away from its ability to reel you emotionally into their world, a world which is in danger of being wiped away due to Kermit’s initial act of passing over the Muppets Studios’ deeds to an oil baron, in hopes of better care, and as we all know too soon, it’s all but a scam!

That’s where Walters, our main lovable star comes in, and I must say how spot on the guys at Disney were in building up his character from the start, as it’s hard to not empathise for Walters as he watch his brother, Gary, grows up.

While all the growing up happens, all of a sudden you’re whisked into the magical and maddening, earnest and endearing world of the Muppets, as they seek once more to preserve themselves, and as much as I’d like to say how much of a cliche this movie is, it all somehow feels warm and fuzzy, and everything is good.

As The Muppets climaxed and went for it’s closing moments, I felt a tingling sensation at the back of my tear glands, where I’d sum up the feeling as if I was transported back into the 80′s, where watching hand-driven puppets were as convincing as today’s 3D graphics.

Indeed if you were to ask I’d retort with ‘who needs 3D’ when you’ve the Muppets?

Indeed, all those high star ratings for The Muppets have been wholesomely deserved, and as for Breaking Dawn, oh well, I think that I’ll still pass!

And now, if only I can get one of them ‘travel-by-map’ button…

- Bill Shankly

.. and I wholeheartedly agrees so. I miss football dearly, after weeks of non-football action. D*mn the rain.

This was the deck that I piloted at the recent Friday Night Magic, or FNM at Gameshaven, where I received my best score in an FNM to date.

What’s FNM? Nothing much really, just a weekly MTG competition where players from all walks of life gather themselves (and their deck of precariously assembled cards) for a shot at CCG glory.

What’s CCG? Collectible Card Games, but some parties refer to MTG as a TCG, short for Trading Card Game, because trading of these cards is very much a healthy on-going occasion almost daily.

Enough about acronyms et all eh? I guess enough for today. Perhaps I’ll reserve another post for more showering of praise on this great game.

Here, enjoy browsing at my decklist, brought to you by the fine folks at mtgdeckbuilder.net. I call it MonoBlack Flails — not to mistake Flails with Fails though!

MTG, loving it.

Oh what was it that I wanted to blog about? Let’s see..

How about.. Liverpool FC? My second religion, if you had to ask, and how I’m having mixed thoughts of how the season has been. Our next league game is against Swansea, a team where I used to pick while playing Championship Manager of old, playing from 3rd division, and all the way rising through the ranks into the Premiere League — not without one or two cheat codes of course! *winks*

Swansea doesn’t really allay that much of a concern to me, but it’s the trips afterwards, after the international break, to Chelsea and the hosting of Manchester City, before heading back to meet Chelsea that sorts of gives me the chill, because Liverpool never really gets an awesome result, to put it mildly, whenever they return from the break. Splendid indeed.

So what else..

NS! Of which I’ve managed to succesfully, dodge all the obstacles thrown, subversed and darted in my way. From late-comers to late-bloomers, NS turned out to be a revelation!

For the first time, I had to man the helm of my unit on my own, and though it wasn’t easy, the truth is I thought I kinda liked it. The perks that came along with being the biggest bad-ass on the pitch became quite a challenge and a thrill indeed. There’ll be guys that will dog you on for mild incentives like taking shortcuts and short breaks, annoying you a little as the requests pile on, and then there are those that will look to you as a source of motivation and inspiration, driving you forward until the end of the day.

Indeed it’s not a place that I personally chose to be in, but it’s one that I’ll heartily grab at, and given the opportunity, I’m inclined to think that I did no harm for that period, of 4 days of maintenance training, where for the first time also, I cleared my physical proficiency tests, my high-powered sub-machine gun marksmanship, as well as acing the wilfully hand-held revolver classification shootings. Thank god!

And then..

After years of taking a break from the collectible card game, I went straight back into competitive magic, still chasing for that one Friday Night Magic, or FNM win!

With what time I’ve left after my NS commitments, the magic deck I crafted and piloted at JCube’s FNM is probably the strongest ever deck that I’ve ever used for FNM. Despite losing all three closely contested pairings for the night, I think I ended up with valuable lessons from a few awesome people there, with this memorable quote that I likely will remember for nights to come: “A 5 casting cost card should be winning the game for you when it comes out. It’s the card that turns the tide into your favour. That’s what a 5 casting cost card should do in today’s metagame.“

The credit to the quote goes to a certain Russell, branded as ‘loud’ by my pals, but skillful and thoughtful nevertheless, as those words of his rang within my earlobes as if giving me that wake up call that I’ve been ignoring all these while. Why have I been ignoring it, when I’ve known it all along?

I think you know how sometimes there are things where one is fully and highly aware of and yet keeps doing the same mistake of not paying heed to them, only to indulge in games of questions involving ‘Why?’s. Well I guess it’s human nature to be reminded of things that should matter to them.

Sometimes a timely reminder is all that we need, and (I guess) fortunately for me, another timely reminder is on its way soon — the Hari Raya Haji holidays, a much needed 2 days off-from-work break.

Perhaps it’s time to take a break from life’s chalice of chaos and mayhem and invest into a well spent lull of a time with my loved ones.

Ooh, that’s another challenge indeed for me!

3 more days to go lor!

And I love these two much, much, much.

My dad with my lovely little baby.

Okay I lied, cos It’s actually my uncle’s son, but isn’t he just so adorable?

Shower kids with love and they’ll grow to appreciate and be generous in the currency of the heart.

You could even shower them with a birthday party and smile beamingly like my dad here.

He threw a birthday party for little Irfan and I’m jealous because I didn’t even get one when I turned one!

Or perhaps not that I could remember but…

… cute birthday cake right?

The strawberries and mangoes are screaming “bite me, bite me!” while the cream, well it’s just white uh?

In any case, I’m not a fan of cakes, so even if it looks deliciously yummy, I don’t think I’ll miss not eating this.

But I do miss this yummy little boy here.

One of God’s gift for us to appreciate and nurture and love.

Oops, make that TWO of God’s gift to appreciate greatly, nurture endlessly and love unconditionally.

Yummy.