binglemumps

Lately I’ve been wanting to watch anime portably. This has been inspired by (a) being jealous of Fat Cat and Dogmeat who have (or have recently purchased) PSPs to watch animes on during lunch and commute time (b) FMP Fumoffu looking really nice on TJ’s 4 inch Archos screen and (c) finally trying to watch anime on BART and realising that I can’t read subtitles on my tiny Zen.

I know it’s terribly indulgent when I got my Zen just 4 months ago, and the thing is I’d bought the Zen precisely because I wanted something small, but at the time I’d (a) not thought I’d want to watch videos on the go and (b) not considered the fact that I might want to watch stuff with subtitles….So anyway, I won’t try to justify this because, like someone said, I know I’m just going to give in to my primal urges and buy a new toy regardless of whether I’m justified to do so.

The thing is, it’s not the cost that’s holding me back, it’s the fact that I have so much Stuff in my room. I don’t have a lot of storage space, but I have a lot of Stuff. And buying a new toy will mean a new charger, a new box, a new user manual, a new USB cable, too much New Stuff. When I look around at how much Stuff I have I feel like such a Consumer and I’m ashamed of myself for having given in to Capitalism so many many times. But I’ve been thinking about this way too long now (2 days) to let it go so I’m just going to have to do it.

So now the question is, do I get a PSP or another portable media player (PMP)? The arguments for either are as follows:

PSP

• Price - this is about $170 on Amazon.com before taxes, with a 4gb memory stick it’ll be about $200. The PMPs I’m looking at (Archos 605 and Cowon A3) will be upwards of $300.
• Might play games on this? I definitely want to get a copy of Me and My Katamari. Although I’m admittedly not convinced that I’ll be making good use of the gaming function, it’s at least an option, plus it would make me feel a lot less dumb than if I got yet another PMP.

PMP

• If I’m primarily looking for a video player I should look for something whose primary purpose is to play videos? No idea about video quality, but a PMP will be able to handle a lot more formats. Not sure if the conversion programme for PSP can handle .ogm and .mkv files? Or if there’s free software out there I can download for conversion?
• A lot, a lot, a lot more memory - I’m going to have to pay extra to get a 4/8gb memory stick for the PSP, and a PMP will have at least 30gb. Of course, as many people have pointed out, if I delete and upload episodes on a regular basis this won’t be a problem, it’s not like I’m using it as a storage device and the battery is bound to run out before I can get through 40 episodes of anime anyway…
• TJ thinks the PSP is ugly (open to debate).
• Tim doesn’t like Sony (not that I care haha).

I’m actually pretty sold on the PSP, since it’ll be something different. I’m just looking for reassurance that I’m doing the right thing!!!! I have to wait for my Amazon gift certs to come through (redeeming credit card points o.o-b) before I can make a move, so tell me what to do before then!

http://www.kcrw.com/music/programs/mb/

This is a radio programme I used to listen to a lot a couple of years back. I’m sure the other programmes on the channel are good too, but MBE was enough to keep me occupied so that I never checked the rest out. It’s great for discovering new obscure music, I like the host a lot and it has some really awesome live performances (at really good quality too, as far as I can tell). My favourites are obviously the Kings of Convenience and Iron & Wine ones, but there’re also similarly good shows by Semisonic, Imogen Heap, Athlete, Feist and a bunch of other artistes you may or may not have heard of.

I rediscovered this and found a fairly recent Iron & Wine performance following the release of their (although technically it’s made up of one person, so his) latest album last year. I didn’t like the new tracks much, but the real gem was a live performance of The Trapeze Swinger (from the In Good Company OST). I’ve always liked the song, but it sounds even better with just the acoustic guitar (as a side note, this is a song I’m positive Germ will hate because it’s just one verse repeating itself, so Germ don’t listen!!). His voice is probably one of the few that actually sends shivers up my spine (in a good way of course). Although I completely don’t get the lyrics? Maybe someone can enlighten me. In the meantime, I’m going to go replay it and stare pensively into space while listening to it because it’s a much less painful alternative to studying…

Today I picked up dinner on the way home from here. I’ve been here with my coworkers a number of times and they all love it. I think it’s pretty good but a bit overrated; the dishes always sound so impressive on paper but they somehow fall short of expectations. Thai Basil at the Asian Ghetto is comparable (even if it doesn’t have fancy sounding dishes like ‘Volcanic Beef’) and is half the price, so I only go to Osha when I’m not paying.

Tonight I got my usual pineapple fried rice (all the fried noodle dishes are a bit wet for my liking, the green curry fried rice is good too but a bit too spicy for my current recovering-from-cold state) and a cup of tom yum soup.  I usually get the tom yum with scallop, but today I tried the combination seafood, and I’m so impressed! There was a good amount of straw mushrooms (GOOD) and squid, and I was expecting just a couple of prawns, but there was actually crab in there. Like real crab. Complete with shell. And a mussell, also with shell intact. Admittedly I wouldn’t have minded if they’d used the shell space to put in more seafood, but it’s pretty cool opening the little plastic bowl and seeing an actual mussell shell in it. So impressed!

On a separate note, tomorrow is the last day in my cube after 2.75 or so years. Sniff.

On another separate note, how is David Archuleta so cute?!??! Can I pinch his cheeks too??

I can’t believe I’ve failed to mention this before, but did you know that Lost is the best television series ever created? Not that I’ve been watching much TV, but I’m pretty sure that in terms of any imaginable measure it is by far the best show I’ve ever seen. Except maybe comic relief? Although I do find the dialogue very funny sometimes. Season 4 has been downright incredible. Every episode is such an event, every scene is so well acted and there seem to be more good lines in the script than ever. And Desmond is like, how hot!

Just saw the latest episode and bawled my eyes out. So good! Soooooo good.

It makes me sad that so many people I know don’t watch Lost. If you don’t watch TV at all I guess that’s kind of forgivable, otherwise what are you thinking?!?!?! What are you thinking. I’m all in a flurry now.

I have recurring dreams about forgetting to bring my PE t-shirt to school on a day when I have PE class. And I spend the dream panicking about how to get out of trouble.

I also used to have recurring dreams about forgetting to study for Geography exams. Why Geography? It is a mystery. I mentioned it to my secondary school Geography teacher when we had dinner a few years back, and she said ‘But why? You were always quite good at Geog wat’. Which is true. I was quite good at Geog.

Anyway, this is not an entry about how I was good at Geog. It is an entry about how terrible it is that when we were kids they got us all stressed out about stupid little things like remembering your PE t-shirt, and textbooks, and consent forms for the field trip to the Bird Park. I know inculcating a sense of responsibility is good, but why make small children feel like every tiny oversight will lead to certain disaster?

Clearly I have been scarred for life.

I woke up at 6+ today and couldn’t really get back to sleep. Then I proceeded to spend the entire day being dead tired at work. But somehow when I got home after dinner at 10+, I was wide awake. How do you figure? Not that I’m happy about having to stay up till 2am to work on a bloody FAS report. I know I told myself I wouldn’t complain about my hours, after learning how much harder my friends in Singapore work. But tamade!!!! Still not happy about staying up till 2. Pfft.

So I just had to mention that today I threw my wristlet away with my lunch trash.

We had lunch in the lunch room, and a few minutes after I got back to my cube I realised I didn’t have my phone, which I had kept in my wristlet. I couldn’t find it in the lunch room, but I wasn’t terribly panicked because I was convinced that either (a) I had absent mindedly kept it somewhere safe out of habit and completely forgotten or (b) Joe was playing some stupid trick on me. After some mild concern Joe decided to help me look again, and we looked in the trash can Just In Case. I tell you, at the time there was very little doubt in me that we wouldn’t find it there. Even now I’m quite disbelieving about the whole affair. I still think Joe might have planted it in there, although hiding my stuff in trash might be going a bit far even for him.

WTF right? I have zero memory of it. So inconceivable. Can’t believe I did that. Never gonna get over this.

Random thoughts -

I love my bed. I was so happy in bed this morning that I refused to get up and ended up sleeping 4 extra hours. I think I have an infinite capacity for sleep.

I saw Jay Chou’s Secret on the flight back, and I thought it was pretty decent. The story didn’t really make sense and the ending was a bit depressing in my opinion, but I was pleasantly surprised at the very existence of a plotline. The only really cringe worthy part of the movie was at the end when the building was getting demolished. I bet he thought he looked really cool playing the piano amidst mass destruction. So typical Jay Chou haha. I also saw Enchanted (very cute) and Aishiteru no Sign (main character not good looking enough). Airplanes are excellent places to catch up on brainless sappy movies which you would never pay money to see.

Today I decided again how happy I am that I don’t do a single shred of ironing. Which is a good thing, because back in the day when I actually tried my hand at it, I wasn’t much of an ironer. Some people were quite shocked when I mentioned it, but seriously, it’s totally doable. Even if it’s stuff that’s not wrinkle-free, I just shake it out once it’s out of the dryer and put it on a hanger, and even if it’s a bit wrinkly at that point it straightens out in a few days. Like magic! Or maybe it’s still kinda wrinkly and I subconsciously ignore it and go to work in wrinkly clothes. But that’s ok too, a little humiliation is worth it in exchange for the pain I save from not ironing.

I spent 150 bucks on CDs in Singapore. Which reminds me, I forgot to give my 70% filled Popular rewards card to my brother!!!! #*$@(!($* Anyway, I’m listening to my Alex To greatest hits thing now and I’m very content. I also bought this huge Liang Wen Fu compilation that cost an unexpected 70 bucks. I think my brother and I are the only people in the world I know who listen to Liang Wen Fu. It’s one of those things that make me realise how much my brother has influenced my interests. I guess spending the first 10+ years of my life listening to what he listened to, reading what he read and playing the games he played doesn’t quite wash off with time. It’s really thanks to him that I was bred to be such a geek.

So not looking forward to work tomorrow. =( On the bright side, seating arrangements for our new office are out! And March Madness is starting and I get to waste 10 dollars trying to predict basketball results based purely on how much I like the names of the teams. What fun!

I get really mad whenever I read about the whole homosexual debate. It’s not like I particularly care about equal rights or any of that crap. The thing that seriously pisses me off is that people are such bloody hypocrites.

I hate how all these anti-gay marriage (or in the case of Singapore, anti-gay sex) arguments try to sound all intelligent and they have all these stupid counter-arguments against people trying to repeal anti-gay legislation. Like please. If you’re just narrow minded and prejudiced, at least have the decency to admit it. Sanctity of marriage my foot. If your marriage is so unstable that it’s gonna fall apart just cos you don’t like who your neighbour is having sex with then you clearly have problems to begin with. And I honestly don’t see how legalising gay activity is supposed to promote promiscuity. WTF??

Even if you have a somewhat legit and logical point to make, I don’t care. Cos when you get down to it we’re all horrible horrible people that cannot accept anything different from what we deem morally acceptable, except some of us are at least cognizant enough to recognise that.

I tell you, this is the problem with the world. People are just so damn arrogant they refuse to acknowledge they could be wrong about anything, so they think up all this sophisticated sounding bullshit to try to rationalise their completely irrational fears. A little more self awareness and people wouldn’t be killing each other all over the place.

Gahhhhh. I hope all their kids turn out gay, then we’ll see how loudly they dare to speak. #*&@#&!!