Happy seeing the dentist?

Sat 01/28/06, Chinese New Year eve. Dentist appointment. Happy?

Actually, I started off a bit annoyed. I am not afraid of the dentist, just never thought it to be necessary. The last time I visited one was back in….wait, I forgot.

Anyhow, as you know, in the US, you get insurance for every little thing, including dental coverage. Since I am already paying for it, why not use it, right? Actually, Wan was the one pushing me for it, and made the appointments for both of us. She heard of the Cerulean Dental Spa which was ravely reviewed by colleagues. Hah, dental spa?!?

Anyhow, we went to this upmarket area called Rivermark, a masterplann development, where townhouses costs USD700k upwards. That’s where the dental spa is located. Before seeing the dentist, of course, there are 4 different forms to sign-off, with contact details, medical history, allergies etc, plus waiver if you die on the chair. Actually, no lah. No waiver like that.

That’s when the fun begins. Really.

First, I was brought to a nice leather reclining lounge seat and they had a 40” flat screen TV mounted in front of it, on the wall. Then, the dental assistant came by, introduced herself, and told me what she was going to do next. Took blood pressure (why does that affect my teeth?), took digital x-rays and a panaroma x-ray, both digitally. Then, they played a video that explains what will happen next, and why.

The dentist then came by, introduced himself, and explained step-by-step, what they will do, and why. Does your dentist ever tell you why they are doing stuff they do? This is a brand new experience!

Then, he did a periodontal probe, measuring the distance between my gums from my teeth. They even have a scale for it. 1, 2 or 3mm is good and 4 onwards is bad. Next, he did a cavity scan, using a laser probe! Something called a Kavoscan or something like that. Any readings higher than 15 on the scanner is not good.

Next, this is incredible…. He showed my on the TV, the x-rays of my teeth, with the associated periodontal probe readings and Kavoscan readings imposed on each individual tooth. I wish I had photos to show you, but I don’t. Then the dentist proceeed to explain what it all means, which tooth needs work, etc.etc. All that does not happen now, but is scheduled over my next 4 visits. I need some fillings done. They will remove my old silver fillings (made with mercury, dangerous stuff) and replace them with new ceramic plastic types.

Then, he introduced another dentist, who would be doing the actual cleaning.. You know what the dental assistant brought me? A menu selection of DVDs to watch while the cleaning goes on!! They had like 2 full menus of movies and TV series to watch!

I chose ‘Scrubs’, the very very funny TV sitcom. Was laughing while the dentist was cleaning and polishing my teeth!! And I had to laugh during that time. Swallowed some minty polishing agent, but that’s alright. She even flossed my teeth after the polish. Have you ever had this kind of service?

Of course, when the bill came, that’s a shocker. The first trip was fully covered by my dental insurance, but the next 4 trips will cost me slightly over $1k, coz I would have fully utilized my insurance coverage. I think I will split it into 2 years to do those work……

Man, this is one dental trip I don’t mind going again. I know more about my teeth than my last 30 years!! What technology can do……

Bad start to a morning

Sigh.... walked to my car this morning to go to work... and saw a big dent in the left side of my car. And the parking spot beside me is empty. That driver simply drove off without even writing a note! What a lousy neighbour. I wish upon him/her endless car breakdowns, tire punctures, stones against windscreen etc.....

Sigh....

World traveller

I've been to 23 countries so far, which only covers only 10% of the world. I guess I've been more widely travelled than most. Have been lucky that my parents love to travel, and I get to tag along when younger. Now that I am in the US, perhaps I can hit South America sometime. (oh yeah, I've got my travelogue photos in my website, if anyone is interested.)

I'd love to see the world, but I doubt many people actually gets to visit all countries in the world in one lifetime. And many times, one city does not represent the whole country anyway.

When you visit on a tour, you just see the pretty sites, not the real life of the local people. I found my backpack tours brings me more intimate with local life, and staying locally gets you even closer, of course.

How about you? Where do you want to go today?

p/s: thanks to jadeite for this cool website!



create your own visited country map
or write about it on the open travel guide

Micasa

Home sweet home....

Finally got it all set up... ahhhh.....

New Year tourney, part 2

Scrabble Daze…

This morning, I woke up very early…. just after 6am. Not sure why, but cannot go back to sleep… very well, I woke up to get ready for the 2nd day of the New Year Scrabble tournament at Los Gatos lodge. I sure hope they have power today.

Even after breakfast, still too early to go to the venue, so I played a little Civilization IV to pass time. It is a great game! Surely will get addicted to this…

Ok, time to go…

Game 7
Opponent: Martin Mondragon, rated 1053, seeded 26th of 28.

I have matched with Martin in my last tourney, and lost. I hope to exact my revenge here. And what do I do? I played DA#!! Bloody hell…. Had LANATES, LAMENTS, CANDIES, SHOEING. But all orphaned…. total frustration… Lost 299-419, my largest negative spread so far…

Game 8
Opponent: Jeannie Wilson, rated 1185, seeded 24th of 28.

This was a close fight. You first bingoed with NEATENS, and I immediately replied with BRaISED. But I made a stupid error later on. The board rapidly closed up, leaving an exposed N on the bottom triple line. I had ARISTAE with nowhere to go, and considered playing the A on top of an E (to form AE) for only 2 points, but gives me a second open line above and yet keep SATIRE on my rack. However, I chose to play off the A on top of PE in a closed-off area in the board just to get 7 points, an additional measly 5 points. Big mistake. She bingoed using the exposed N to form ROaSTI(N)G, and the board closed up. I subsequently held racks with VERITAS (which S can hook AE to play SAE), EROSION (N to hook AE to play NAE), OESTRIN and NAILERS. All orphaned for a measly 5 points…. *kick* *kick* *kick* own butt. Lost 325-358. Oh, and this game is the first time I played the F**K word in a tournament play!! So embarrassing to play it against a lady opponent, but those 4 tiles in the rack, what else can I do?

Game 9
Opponent: Thomas Conrad, rated 1126, seeded 25th of 28.

This game started well. I bingoed with ETHIONS on my 3 turn, but he replied immediately with sOLANiNS immediately (which I thought better not to challenge). It was pretty close after that. I actually layed down the word JENNY with J on the double letter and Y on the double word to give me 42 points, but chickened out because I was not sure. Played JUICY elsewhere for just 23 points. Bad mistake. Firstly, the word was good and the points were good. Secondly, not playing JENNY allowed him to bingo EGESTED, which JENNY would have blocked. *kick* *kick* *kick* own butt. Lost 367-397.

Game 10
Opponent: Emily Weissman, rated 1665, seeded 10th of 28.

I don’t know how the pairing works, but I am playing the 10th seed?!? Anyhow, I picked up a very nice first rack, with CEEST?? She started with WAXEN for 38 points. I took some time, and laid down rEC(A)STEd* across the A to hit double-double word. But chickened out and played C(A)SsEtTE instead, just in case I am wrong, which I was. (Side note: Auditors will know this word in real life as ‘recasted’ is regularly used in audit lingo, meaning to have recalculated the total of a column of numbers)

I proceeded to close up the board, and at the end of the 10th turn, I was ahead 256-186 with a pretty closed up board. Then, my mistakes began. First, I played GOS#, which is a OSW-only word, which she challenged off. I had held GGOORTT which I should have exchanged. Then, she opened up with ZEROS, with the Z just five space above the bottom center triple word space. I tried to block by playing ZOO. Major mistake! She placed TY to form ZOOTY for 54 points. I challenged, not knowing this word and lost my next turn too. I had crappy 1 to 2 point tiles while she picked up the big scoring tiles and the remaining ‘S’, and the J which she used well with JAMB. I lost 301-353.

Game 11
Opponent: Martin Mondragon, rated 1053, seeded 26th of 28.

Ok, now playing with repeats, and meeting Martin again. He bingoed LANDInG and I replied later with the phony BARNIES*, which he did not challenge off. But he had better tiles while I collected crappy unbalanced racks despite having the other blank tile. Lost 341-383, with a 0-3 record against Martin. Sigh….

Game 12
Opponent: B.A. Toole, rated 987, seeded 27th of 28.

I meet B.A. again for the final round of tournament. She has 3-8 wins and a negative 900+ spread, while I have 2-9 wins with a negative 400+ spread. So, this game was the game to determine who becomes last in the tournament!

First rack, BFHINTV…. Played BIN for a measly 10 points. Second rack, FHRRTV?. What the ?&$@#^!…. Changed 4 tiles on my 2nd turn, kept the ?RT. Happy! Bingoed with RiVETED next turn. Imagine, I threw the V and picked up the other V from a almost full bag!! And later on, I bingoed SMARTIE. Also played JO, QUIT and NAZI consecutively for high scoring words, with Q and Z on the triple letter spaces. Wrapped this game up, winning 401-353. Yay!! I am not last!!! Well, came in second last, but still good coz I am seeded last… oh well.

The tournament officially ended after the 12th game, due to the lighting problem yesterday. But there were originally 14 games scheduled, so the tournament directors allowed us to play another 2 rated games, but will not count towards the tournament results.

Game 13
Opponent: Paula Catalanese, rated 1386, seeded 18th of 28.

I was off to a good started, with second rack for a bingo TERTiAN. I kept scoring consistently good scores while she struggled a bit with her words. She picked up 3 of the 4 ‘S’s and the other blank but failed to capitalize on them. I won 345-310. Woohoo! 4-9 record!!

Game 14 (final game)
Opponent: Pat Diener

Started well, and I bingoed cR(I)TTERS on a double-double word tiles. Suffered after that with bad tiles, at one point and EQUID on my rack with no place for the Q anywhere. So, I exchanged it off..….. towards the end, I picked up EENRRTT with a closed-up board. Played off an e for a measly 3 points, and picked up…. what else? Another E. Played off the new E for another measly 3 points, and hey!! Got the blank! NETTERs!!! But no place to play. So, off goes another E for 4 points… guess what…. Q came visiting again…. desperately played QaTS later to hook AE with an S, but of course, AES is no good and was challenged off. Lost 256-412, my worst spread in this tournament. Final count: 4-10 record. Ok, not too bad, I guess.

There. That’s it. Done. Just got back the ratings…. I did ok, gaining 85 points to go to rating of 921. Sigh….. started off at 922 after the first tournament, dropped steadily ever since, and now not even back to my original rating!!! Oh well, more words to learn…

Summary of bingos played:
Game
1: CeMENtS
2: -none-
3: -none-
4: PLaSTER
5: HIsSERS, WINIESt
6: -none-
7: -none-
8: BRaISED
9: ETHIONS
10: CASsEtTE
11: -none-
12: RiVETED, SMARTIE
13: TERTIaN
14: cRITTERS

Candlelit Scrabble

Happy New Year everybody!! May 2006 be a grand new beginning for you to achieve even more success in every area of life!!

So, what does an avid Scrabbler do on New Year’s Day? Play Scrabble, of course! Los Gatos organized a 2-day tournament this weekend to take advantage of the long weekend. Held in the Los Gatos Lodge, the first day has been interesting…

I took up the Division 1 challenge and, as expected, I am seeded 28thof 28, ie. last. Actually, no shame in that, since I won’t lose too much rating points even if I had lost all my games, but will have more to gain if I win any games at all. I am rated 836 and the rest are rated from 900+ to 1900+!

So, here is a brief outline of my experience, heh heh…

Game 1
Opponent: TC Houlgate-West, rated 1366, seeded 19th of 28.

I picked up the 2 blanks together for this game, so a bingo should be easy enough. Unfortunately, the board was not that open but left a space on the left KA, to hook an ‘O’ or ‘S’ as the last tile on the bingo. I stupidly played GlaICES*, with the SKA hook, and was challenged off. I really though it was good… actually, on checking Lampwords later, I had 9 playable words (or 18, if using SOWPODS) on that combination but only CrInGES, CaGIESt and InCaGES could go down the board. And I never saw any of it. Anyhow, after 2 turns, I bingoed with CeMeNTS.

Meanwhile, my opponent played phoneys such as DORA, RIBE and DELIST, which I did not challenge. Still self-doubting, I am.

Won this game though, 365-351. Had better tiles overall. Next time I play against her, I know to challenge phoney looking words.

Game 2
Opponent: John Ortman, rated 1593, seeded 11th of 28.

I had a good start on this game. On the 5th round I was 139-58 ahead. But he recovered pretty fast, with his bingo of SONsIER and started catching up. I had an orphaned bingo VETOING on my rack on the 8th turn, and the orphaned bingo TORSION as my last rack. By then, he was way ahead and I lost 315-391. Not too bad, I guess.

Game 3
Opponent: Chris Patrick Morgan, rated 1310, seeded 22nd of 28.

Ok, the vowel gods stuck to me again…. had racks such as EEEIIMR, EEGIILR, EEIIILU, EEIOULY (where once again, EUOI# would be so good!) and EEEEIIL for my last few racks… in a row!!! And, made my first mistake with PO* too…. Lost 302-393.

Game 4
Opponent: B.A. Toole, rated 987, seeded 27th of 28.

She is the closest rated to me, and I began thinking that I have a good chance against her. Started of well, and halfway through the game, the lodge suffered a brown-out (called black-out back home) due to the rain. We continued playing with light from the windows, but being a rainy day, it was pretty dim. I put down PLASTer on the 7th turn but the game turned against me after that. Towards the end-game, all I had was 1-pointers, and she caught up. Losing 328-339. Painful lost. I could have done better, but she played well. And I stupidly played PO* for a second time in a tournament!! Major *kick* *kick* in the butt.

After this game, we broke for lunch. Finding a restaurant that opened on New Year’s Day is difficult, and finding one that does not have a long, long queue was doubly difficult.

Game 5
Opponent: Alan Whitman, rated 1529, seeded 14th of 28.

This was a tough fight! I had QUAILED in my first rack, which is a good word, but I chickened out. Played QUAIL for 48 and was satisfied. Of course, 104 points to start with would be mighty good! By the 2nd round, the board was closed up, with me leading 63-43. If no one opens, we will be done after 6 passes! Anyhow, I changed my tiles and got HISsERS with S hook on the QUAIL for a measly 76 points, but he caught up a bit playing REX immediately for 44 points on the triple-word on top of by HI. Later on, I played SENIORS, hooking S on AFF, but AFFS* was no good and was challenged off. He tried a phoney GRUNTLER which I challenged off. I was behind quite a bit still, trailing at 239-299. But a breakthrough came at the end. I got WINIESt, hooking to the right of BRIEF (which I played in my last turn on top of AFF), to form BI, RE, IS and Et concurrently. I leapt ahead to 336-332. Then, I knew it has to be a strategic end game to win. He dropped his time to give me 10 points, and I won 369-350.

Funnily enough, when I introduced myself to him before the tournament got started, I told him I was rated 836 and he said I was ‘ambitious’. He did not know I had been playing for a good 5 years or so, I guess.

Game 6
Opponent: Ellis Wyer, rated 1449, seeded 15th of 28.

It was getting dark at about 4pm, being winter and been a rainy day. The lodge’s staff put on candles and tiny lights to help light the tables. Romantic? Nah…. one thing I noticed, you don’t have many pretty girls in Scrabble (other than those Thai sisters I saw in Bangkok’s Kings Cup last year, which had most of the guys losing concentration playing with them!!!).

I had poor tiles on this game. Not much to say except she played well, with a bingo of AMmONIA. Lost 267-352. Darn, I hate playing sub-300 point games….

By now, the room was getting too dark and the tournament directors decided to cut it short today, and to have the rest of the games tomorrow. Sigh…. playing till late again… Definitely not looking forward to work on Tuesday…

Hey, someone snitched my nice tile-bag! A ‘Royal Salute’ 21-year old whiskey bag… Not easy to get, you know! Anyhow, found it later on another table. Someone has switched it with a lousy Travel Scrabble bag without asking.

For today, I guess a 2-4 record is not too bad! My ratings should go up as I win more, and should no go down anymore if I do not do too well later. Anyhow, more to report

Googled am I

A thought came to me today... Google is so pervasive in our internet life, I am sure most of you agree. On a whim, I googled .... me. (by the way, yes, google has become a verb, but not accepted in TWL/OSW or SOWPODS, haha!)

Wow, there are many pages with my name on it! But not all is me. My name is not as unique as I once thought. I knew my name is unisex, but mostly used by girls. Ok ok, it IS UNISEX coz I am using it!

Back to the subject.... I googled my full name, and guess what? The most hits on google relates to a really scary, scary movie 'The Eye'. The name is used by the lead character, acted by our very own famous Malaysian-born actress, Angelica Lee Sin-Je, who plays the blind girl who got someone else's donated corneas. I highly recommend this for scary-movie-buffs. This movie is a multi-country production, by Hongkong/Thailand/Singapore/Malaysia actors/actresses.

Anyway, I tried just googling my first name, and found some webpages actually relates to me!

As of today, I got this websites from Google:
1. Page 2: I appeared on jadeite's blog, about our conversation in Bangkok King's Cup 2005. Pink!?!

2. Page 3: I appeared on the now-defunct website of the Malaysian Scrabble Association, which is a dead-link anyway(504 Timeout, whatever that means). Basically, Scrabble results.

3. Page 9: I am still on meetup.com! I used to be the organiser for the Singapore Scrabble meetup, but resigned when they wanted to charge fees for using it. But I am still linked to their Scrabble sites.

4. Page 10: Got 2 hits here, from the US National Scrabble Association website. Another Scrabble result.

Ok, no more pages....mostly 'The Eye' anyway. I am just a Scrabble statistic in the online world... except for jadeite's blog, where I actually exist as a person in an interaction. When I used my online name, I actually get my website on #1!!! Ding ding ding!!!

What about you?

My Scrabble stats!!

Wah.... I got my US Scrabble stats online... so paiseh, my ratings dropping like a heavy stone in water... didn't even knew this site existed... my meanderings through blogs lead me to it.

I was kinda reading through some blogs... went to Scratchpad, written by Ricki. He is one friendly Singapore Grandmaster, who was most encouraging when I started my competitive Scrabble life again, 5 years back. He almost seems normal by Scrabble standards, notwithstanding his word power.

Then found out about Scrabblestats, written by Hubert. Hubert is one Scrabble-savant. He kinda started off Scrabble about when I started playing. Both of us were written up in the Singapore SA News as upcoming players, but he way surpassed me already. I had challenges communicating with him, as he had with most others. But he certainly made strides in mixing with the Scrabble community, and brought out the best in his talents in Scrabble. So surprised that he even blogs. And he had a link to Cross-tables, the US ratings site. So, I went to look for my stats, and there I was. So paiseh.... my records really is sucky. As of today, I have a peak rank of 2070th in the US! I guess that's alright, considering US has such a big pool of players. As of today, in Singapore, I am 30th of 81 members and in Malaysia, 84th out of 290 players, so it is humbling to be in the US rankings...

One tournament coming up this weekend. Hope I do better this time!! I only wish for balanced racks. Time to kick ass!

Scrabble in the USA: PEE or POO?

Being in the USA now, I feel the difference and the pain in adjusting to a TWL (Tournament Word List) environment. Coming from a SOWPODS background, where I have been playing regularly for about 5 years, the change in dictionary really affected my game. I have been down-rated from 922 to 900 to 859 over 3 tournaments!

In case you are wondering (like I did) why TWL instead of OSPD that makes up the SOWPODS anagram with OSW, TWL includes words that are deemed ‘offensive’ to the family playing environment but allowed in tournament play.

The Scrabble scene is pretty dynamic in the USA, as there are many more clubs and tournaments available almost every week. Near my home in the city of San Jose, the 2 closest tournament venues are in Los Gatos (15 minutes away) and Hayward (45 minutes away). There are also regular Scrabble playing sessions scheduled in Los Gatos, San Jose and Palo Alto, normally in a restaurant or a bookstore.

I have never considered myself as a super-expert-master-Jedi Scrabble player, merely an advanced intermediate so-so type, who occasionally win better players due to mere luck. My aim in each tournament has always been:
1. Don’t be last
2. Win half my games
3. Be top half

The clubs near my place organize tournaments monthly, and are usually short 6-games tournament. I just participated in one yesterday, on Dec 17, in Los Gatos. Below is an excerpt on my play (terribly, of course). And I show how it might have been better if it was SOWPODS was used instead.

Game 1:
Opponent: Ms. Grace Hersh, rated 846.

The curse of the vowels is on me, with having tiles in my rack such as AEEIILP, EEEEIIL & IIIJRTU. Of course, I had to make it worse by challenging PEE, and lost my turn, because I confused it with POO#, Yes, I know it is stupid to confuse urine with faeces. POO# is currently OSW only, but good in OSPD-2005 and perhaps will be adopted into TWL-2006. Plus, my opponent had the 2 blanks and 3 of the ‘S’, with a bingo of RIGGeRS along the way. Lost badly, 253-399. I hate getting sub-300 point games.

Game 2:
Opponent: JC Green, rated 834.

Mr. JC Green is a regular fixture in the tournaments, being a director of the Los Gatos club. He is a stickler for the Scrabble rules, which usually draw smiles from other regular players whenever he brusquely ask people to keep the noise down, opponents to stop fiddling with tiles on his turn, and when playing with me, to stop announcing my total after my score for my turn. He said it was not legal for me to speak after announcing my score and pressing the clock, as it is his turn and his time and I should not disturb him. We have matched twice, with a 1-1 record.

I started first, with FROTHY (I love it when I get to play coffee-related words, especially having bingoed CAFFEINE once before) for 38 as my opening move, and AgONIES following that, building up a strong lead. I had a 97 point lead by the 4th move, but it all went downhill from there on.

Later in the game, he challenged off my BRINY due to a DI# hook, which I had stupidly forgotten. If I cannot even get my 2-letters right, how am I going to get the 3 or more letters right? I played DA# later as a hook too, but he missed that one. I had simple bingos like PAINTeR and ORATiNG and PaINTER in 3 different racks, but they cannot go down due to a rapidly closed board. Lost this game 294-301, a mere 7 points!! If I only I get my 2-letters right…

Game 3:
Opponent: Martin Mondragon, rated 1034.

This guy is pretty good, and lucky too. He got bingos such as LEANInG and SpANNED (both the blanks!) and played well. I, on the other hand, loved me. ‘I’, as in the letter ‘I’. I had racks like EEIIRTY, AEIIIFR, IIIIRED. Had BEASTIE, but hesitated to play it. Lost 289-419. Martin won this division today with a 5 wins.

Game 4:
Opponent: Ms. Trix Kout, rated 837

Ah, the vowels love me still, with racks like AAAEMUU, AIINOOY, AEIIOUR (where EUOI# would be so, so, so useful). But I got lucky with RETAINS on my 3rd rack, and faked a HaRRIET* (non-word) late in the game, which was not challenged. But got RIVO# challenged off. Luckily, this time, it did not dent my lead, and I won 449-305.

Game 5:
Opponent: Barry Leung, rated 819

Now, this is one game where SOWPODS is a double-edged sword. Barry is a newcomer to the Scrabble scene, but I believe he will continue to climb the ratings pretty quickly. I bingoed with ALeVINS and INSANER, and he SALUTED. But I lost 2 turns in a row to him, for playing OXER#/WEX# (X hook on WE, with R on the triple-word) for a 55 pointer, and HOX#/AX for a 51 pointer. He promptly blocked those spots with relatively low-pointers. Sigh…. anyhow, I won the game by catching him with the Q, E and N with all the ‘U’s already played and inaccessible. There were plenty of exposed ‘I’s, where QI# would have gone in a SOWPODS world, but I won this game 418-408 after adding 24 points from his rack. Will not be so lucky when QI gets official in March 2006, I think.

Game 6:
Opponent: Gloriosa Agdeppa, rated 918

This was a relatively close fought game. I had played Gloriosa before, which I had lost due to playing EE#. This time, the vowels returned, with racks like AEEDUUW and AEEEUUO. Towards the end, she pulled away with a closed board while I had orphaned bingos such as ASHAmED, nAIADES (no, ARAISED# will not work…) and ABUSIvE. Lost 317-345.

Results: 2 wins, 4 losses. Rated 4th in the group of 8 in the lowest division, and ended up 6th, so drop in ratings again! 859 to 836. Oh well. I met 1 out of 3 of my targets, not being last.

Full results available at: http://www.yak.net/kablooey/scrabble/LosGatosDec05results.html

Next challenge! I will be taking part in a 2-day tournament on January 1-2, 2006 in Los Gatos, where I bravely decided to up myself to play in Division 1 (for players with ratings > 1,600 and people who wants to play up). Crazy, I know, but what the heck! I just want to know what level those guys are playing at. With opponents with double my ratings, I am up for a uphill battle!

I guess I really need to sit down and study my word lists. I am playing at less than 100% because I have been second-guessing myself during play, on words I know to be good but perhaps is OSW-only words. PEE or POO!!

Ice-skating & inline-blading: Not the same!!

Wan & I went ice-skating on Saturday. San Jose Town Centre sets up an outdoor ice-skating rink in the town centre during the winter season every year. This year, for the first time, our firm booked the rink for a private party, entrance fees & skate rentals, snacks and hot drinks, all included. Nice, isn't it? You'd never find your firm doing such things in Singapore nor Malaysia.

It's been a long, long time since I last ice-skated. Probably remember that converted cinema (forgot the name) in Singapore, and Jurong Point. In KL, probably a couple of times at the Pyramids Shopping Centre. Even inline-skating, which I did enjoy for a time, was a memory.

But surprisingly, I adapted to the ice pretty quickly. Wan started tentatively, but by the end of the session, she can skate pretty easily. Stopping, that is another matter! Fun, fun, fun! With pastries for breakfast, coffee, hot chocolate & hot cider available... nice!!

One thing though, I cannot skate backwards... I used to be able to inline-skate backwards pretty easily, but on ice, it's quite different. Once I do a turn, I stop. Lose the momentum almost immediately. Oh well, it's been a long time. Perhaps I'll get it with more practice. But have to pay next time!

Cabling nightmare

This is how I feel today.... tired, but have to work...

Been tinkering with my home theatre set-up the past few nights. I am not an audiophile in anyway, but would just like to have some A/V stuff to complement my movie watching and enjoy music in general. And D-I-Y is NOT my forte...

Got the Accoutimass Bose 6 Series III speakers (coz I am in a pretty small apartment), and later found out online that most audiophiles bash Bose products... hooked it up to a Sony A/V receiver, a pretty basic model, STR-DE598. Got a pretty good deal on a Sony Grand Wega 42" LCD projector TV earlier, and a simple Samsung DVD/VCR combo.

The nightmare begins... first, cabling. Have anyone tried figuring out which cable goes where? Or even what cable to get, to begin with? First, I found out that audio cables and video cables are separate ones (after the first night). And they come in different standards. Audio has 'RCA', 'coaxial' and 'digital' (in increasing order of quality), and video has 'composite video', 'S-video' and 'component video'. Then, I found out that the manuals were so misleading, the diagrams indicating that I needed 'cable A' AND 'cable B', when it is 'A' OR 'B', so I got extra cables I don't need (after the 2nd night). So, I had to return some extra video cables to the shop, and exchange for some audio ones. And the fella in the shops were no help too... they don't know what they are talking about....

Finally, hooked it all up last night (3rd night) .... and the sound is disappointing.... sounds like (*pun intended*) the Bose-bashing audiophiles online were right....
(their chant is: 'no high, no low, must be Bose' or that
BOSE stands for '
Buy
Other
Sound
Equipment')

Now, I am considering to return the Bose speakers and get the recommended Polk RM6800 speaker set for newbies. Or maybe I just hook them up wrong... getting help is expensive, about $200 just to set up. Feel like screaming.....

So, that's my face up there last night... not really lah! I took this shot in San Diego, in the facade of a beautiful building complex, part of the historical California Tower, now used as the Musuem of Man. There is a saint stepping on his head in the facade, so I am guessing his headache is probably worse than mine. So, I am not that bad off...

Caffeine dreams

Got my espresso machine set up last weekend, but had little time to test it. Too much to do, things to settle....

But this Saturday is a relaxing one. And gave me time to work on my barista skills. Ok, the description below is for people with barista experience...

The Gaggia Classic is a beautiful little machine. Made in Italy, the machine is one of the best reviewed on www.wholelattelove.com, the website I bought it from. It is a one-group high pressure espresso machine, not those cheapo steam ones.

Accompanying the Gaggia, I got a Solis Maestro Plus burr grinder, for a consistent espresso grind. Along with it, got the shot glasses, tamper, milk frothing jug, milk thermometer.... the works!!

Turn out pretty well! Made a good latte for myself, and a mocha for Wan.

Ingredients:
- Peets Espresso Forte blend (Peets has one of the best beans in US, almost comparable to San Francisco Coffee , ahem...)
- Silk organic soy milk, instead of cow milk (trying to avoid dairy products). Made a pretty good latte!!

The espresso shot was sweet, with good crema during a 25-second shot. The Silk soy milk was sweeten, so the latte tasted somewhat like a vanilla latte. Must try unsweeten soy milk next time.

Made a mocha for Wan too, with additional ingredient:
- organic Abuela hot chocolate powder from Chuao Chocolatier (yummy, yummy) . She liked it!

More to experiment later.... now I can have all the coffee I want!! Caffeine overload!

My cool ride

Here's my spiffy blue beemer!! Love the ride man!

Look at the reflection on the bonnet. I stayed there for a while, Wan's sister's place. Nice huh?

TWL Scrabble, why oh why??

Played in my 3rd tournament in USA. Not faring too well. Won 2, loss 4 today. I'd say I can do better than that, and that's not just coz I am big-headed. The rules here are different, and different enough that I am playing at probably 60% capability.

One thing is the TWL dictionary. It is so typically American that they don't accept OSW, where English actually originated from, the UK. As per a seasoned veteran, it is not likely to change anytime, when most Americans don't even have a passport, and could care less about the world at large. I played UEY# today, and of course, got it challenged off. (# - OSW only words, not acceptable in TWL). I almost played KAGO# too, but of course, was not sure, and played a safer INKER somewhere else.

Second difference is the double challenge rule, where you lose a turn if a challenge a good word. This makes people really think about challenging, which is good in some case, I suppose. But 5-point challenge rule is definitely more forgiving. Sometimes, the 5-points loses you the game. But in double challenge, you give the opponent 2 turns in a row! I think you will probably lose about 20-points on average because of that. Of course, if your word power is good, that is to your advantage. For newbies (and not so newbie like me, a SOWPODS player), that is tough. But you can also fake it a bit more, if you establish yourself as a word power player.

Well, I got my first rating at 922 in October 2005. So, having on 2-4 in Hayward 2 weeks ago, and 2-4 today, I'd probably drop down to sub-900, I think. Sigh.... hope I can break the 1,000 rating point soon.

Looking forward to 2006!! The new word list will come into play, and with it QI#. And a lot more 2-letter and 3-letter words will come in play, words that I already know. And a new word too, ZA (short for pizza). Yes, the Americans think some words in UK English is not good, and they add ZA!!

Goyang Kaki

It is interesting to note how drugs fill the TV ads in USA. And not the narcotic types, but drugs for illnesses.They advertise for every type of illnesses: eg. diebetes, heart disease, mental illness. No V*iagra or C*ialis though. After all, it is family TV. I only get those in my email spams.

But I saw one tonight that takes the cake!! Imagine..... there is a drug for..... ***drum roll*** the "Restless Leg Syndrome"!!!! No kidding.... saw it live on TV is my own 2 eyes! It is defined as, if you sit down and yet your legs feel like moving... what has the world come to! For us back home, it is simply 'shake leg', or 'goyang kaki' or whatever lah! If only I get to do that every day.... sigh...

Morning person? Oh please....

Guess what? I have been waking up at 6.30am every morning for the past 3 weeks!! Not by choice, really. Staying in San Jose, and getting assigned to a client in San Francisco, about 55 miles away (that's about 80km). Dragging myself from bed every morning is not fun... those who know me well enough knows that I am a late, late, late person.... (I can sleep at about 2-3am, and wake up at 3pm....built into my body system since uni days...)

Been driving up daily, which is a 1-hour drive up, and then an hour back home in the evening. It can be a pretty nice drive in the morning, going past lakes and hills beside Highway 280, but very dark at night. Oh, it is getting dark by 5pm now, being autumn now. And we are on daylight savings time now.

So, I was thinking, maybe public transport is the way to go. At least I get to sleep on the train, right? And save some miles on my spiffy Beemer. So, I braced myself last night to take the Caltrain, which leaves the nearest station to my home at 7.13am! So, I wake up earlier than usual, left my apartment earlier than usual, and guess what?!? Missed the darn train by 3 mins. And the next one arrives an hour later!! Darn, wake up earlier, and yet still have to drive up to SF... not a good start to my day.... *Sigh* will try again tomorrow, and wake up even earlier....

How to start?

Hmm, how do i start this blog.... wondering for a while for something smart to say..... and finding out i had none, haha!

So, went clicking on to random blogs (you know, the little button at the top right corner?). I was surprised to see quite a number of Malay-language blogs.... learn something new everyday.

Anyway, it was a beautiful day in San Francisco today, as I see it from the 29th floor of my client's place. Nice view of the city and the bay. But gonna rain soon, so gotta run... end of the day, and a looooong commute home....

Have to find something to write about... darn, I am so boring...