thirdmaster

Mid-Autumn Festival

2005-09-18T14:54:10Z

We celebrated the Mid-Autumn Festival this weekend.

We carried lanterns to Linear Park which is near our home and walked around. We also ate mooncakes and played chinese chess with chess-piece-sized mooncakes!
The mooncakes were filled with lotus paste and were delicious.

The moon we saw tonight was humongous! It looked somewhat orange-ish. It went back to normal after sometime though.

I got a new game cartridge for my Nintendo DS today: Super Mario 64 DS. I'm only allowed to play it after the exams however. I think it looks good, but my sister thinks otherwise. She doesn't like the graphics because she can see the polygons in the 3D. I think she's just complaining because she doesn't have a DS herself. She's been waiting since July for her own.

September holidays - food

2005-09-11T15:04:23Z

Today we went to eat "fake" beef noodles. It was a vegetarian food stall. The beef noodles weren't very nice though, and so was the beef. The beef was obviously made from mushrooms, although they did resemble beef in texture and looks. My mother and maid enjoyed it though.

I heard from my mother that in Taiwan there are vegetarian food stalls that cheat people by using products from real meat in their vegetarian food to make it more "real" and attract customers. Those stall owners have eventually been caught though. I feel that they should not have cheated the customers as there are people like monks who cannot eat meat but come to their stall to eat vegetarian food. They put their trust into the stall owners but end up being cheated.

My mother bought yam mooncakes today. I thought the mooncake was a rather strange lotus mooncake and only found out it was yam after I ate the whole thing. My maid and sister enjoyed the mooncakes. My sister only eats certain yam foods, and this is one of them.

It is nearly the mid-Autumn festival and my mother has been buying a lot of mooncakes. My favourite is the chess mooncakes that are filled with lotus paste without any yolk. It's a pity we didn't have enough to play chinese chess with them! :D

September holidays - shopping

2005-09-11T14:55:32Z

Shopping is very annoying.

Everytime my mother and maid go out on Sundays, we often end up in stores staring at bags and shoes, both of which my sister and I take no interest in.

High-heeled shoes are bad for you because:
1. They give you knee problems.
2. They give you bunions.
3. They're probably really expensive.
4. Why bother? It's good enough to have something to wear already.

Similarly, expensive bags are not good for your wallet. They burn a hole in it. All for the purpose of carrying things around, which can be done with cheaper things.

Fashion is ridiculous in the sense that people spend lots and lots of money just to look good, which is not all that important as compared to intelligence. Few people seem to realise that however and continue to chase after the latest things. Which is more impractical after one finds that fashion changes after every 5 minutes.

Shopping hurts your feet too. *ow*

September holidays - arcade!

2005-09-11T14:47:57Z

Last week was the September holidays.

My mother brought my sister, my maid and I out during lunchtime during the holidays. We went to a games arcade in Eastpoint near the Simei MRT station on one of the days and played a game with drums. We played the same song many times over even though the cymbal was not working properly. The song images had something to do with a panda, although I was not sure of the meaning of the song, which was in Japanese. Good thing the machine was an old version of the game (version III, the latest version is V), or my sister would have played her favourite song a million times over, or as many plays of the game that could be fit into $10.

We also visited another games arcade in Tampines Mall on another of the days.
While we usually played House of the Dead 2 in that arcade, we decided to stick to "regular" arcade games. I played a game that involves piloting a plane and destroying things, and got 1st in the high scores. My sister played a game where you're supposed to shoot marbles at a chain of marbles and burst them.

We had a great time in the games arcades! :)

On Sunday

2005-08-26T17:00:44Z

On Sunday, my family and I went to Furama Hotel to eat a buffet dinner along with my cousins. We ate pasta, salmon sashimi, cakes, bread, pudding, ice-cream, beef, sausages and other kinds of food. Please don’t mouth-water at my description of this load of delicious food. Altogether, there were about fourteen of us, including me, of course. I enjoyed eating with my relatives, who were supposed to go back to their house in New York or London on Saturday. They were with us in Singapore for about two weeks. I had two cousins. One was naughty, noisy and spoilt while the other was quiet and good. I had some great fun during the time they were here and I hope they would be coming back again soon. That’s all for now. Bye!

Eating with my cousins and their parents

2005-08-22T15:04:33Z

On Sunday, my family went to eat at Laguna, in a chinese restaurant. My cousin was called Isaac, without a "Newton" at the back. Apparently, I also had a new cousin, by the name of Oliver, without a "Twist" at the back. I was playing the new gameboy advance game which I got that day. The food was okay, I guess. I don't really like Chinese food. The game I played was about angels, demons and sprites and stuff like that. Well, the game is called "Riviera", so you can buy it if you want. I ate mango Pudding and chicken and noodles. I walked around the place as I was very bored and I couln't wait till we could go back home. Anyway, we stayed there for a fair period of time before leaving for home.

National Day this year

2005-08-15T12:40:18Z

On National Day, My sister, maid and I went to the cinema to watch the movie “ Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”. It was a great movie but we had to sit in front as almost all the places have already been booked. Anyway, it seemed that all the chocolate and sweets were real and the director spent a bulk of the money used to make this film just to gather all the chocolate and sweets. There also was an arcade just outside the cinema, which was at Tampines Mall. While waiting for the show to start at least an hour later, my sister and I went to play in the arcade for fun. It was great and I enjoyed this national day. The only problem was we came at 2:00 but the show started at 2:05, so we couldn’t make it; we then went to another cinema in which the show started at 3:00 but the tickets were sold out; WE went back to the other cinema for the 4:00 show which was a long time later and so, we got the front seats. Overall, I enjoyed this National Day. That’s all for today!

Carnival

2005-08-11T04:47:25Z

On Saturday last week, most of the people in the whole school went to the carnival held at the Convalescent Home. Only a few people like Alexander Tan Yang Feng did not come as they had other things to attend. The Home itself was very hot and you would die from thirst if you did not have any water. You could buy a set of coupons which consists of 3 food coupons, 1 drink coupon and 2 game coupons for a whopping TEN dollars! I think it is very expensive and it is very ridiculous only to get 1 drink coupon in a set. You can’t buy the coupons individually, so you need to buy 5 sets of coupons to get just 5 drink coupons! Luckily the people at the stall was very kind. They allowed you to use food coupons instead as it would be horrible just to get a drink. There also was a stall which sold drinks for 1 miserable dollar and I actually only knew about its location when it was almost at the end of the carnival and they had sold out all the drinks!!! They also sold a different set of coupons which was, well, absolutely HORRIBLE! FIVE DOLLARS FOR 3 GAME COUPONS!!! It was such a miserable deal but as I was bored, I went and used 10 bucks on this little thing. At the stall I was working in, things were equally bad. The ball picker is basically a miserable, poor person who runs about picking balls hiding everywhere in the sun and under bags or tables. And it was ME who had to pick up the balls. I volunteered at first as I thought it would be very fun but it was, instead, my worst NIGHTMARE. Other than that, I had to bear with the kids’ impudence. They threw ping-pong balls at me and showered me with the prizes and sweets. I think I would have cried if I were at home at that moment. Well, I THINK. So don’t get so sensitive about it just because I’m a 13 year-old boy (I don’t want to get all grown up into a teen!).

But, on the other hand, there was some fun to be had at the carnival. It is, after all, a carnival and you should enjoy your self in there and not spend the whole day sitting there, walking around and picking balls. It just would be too dull that way. So, I had my fill of food, drink and games. I also went to the play ground at the Home and went on the swing for a while before meeting this ferocious girl who could actually threaten people and even spout vulgarities out like a flowing river. She also hit some boys (including me) for talking back at her. Anyway, there were more activities to be done even after the carnival was officially over there was a lame game of “passing the ball” and “transferring of a spoon with a ping pong ball on it” which was held in the person’s mouth (don’t get the wrong idea. You don’t pass the spoon by MOUTH.) Anyway, to tell the truth, I didn’t really like the carnival but the main aim which my father told me was that I was donating to the Home and not for the sake of the fun!!! I wrote EXTRA long today so as to make up for last week’s super-short bloggy.

Internet Problem

2005-08-01T01:51:22Z

My Internet was down just Yesterday, so I could not do my online Blog. SORRY!!! Well, apparently, the cause of this was a spoilt telephone wire. I was thinking if the wall had to be torn down to check the line. It looks like the internet connection wouldn’t be done very soon, so we’ll just have to wait. I am hoping that it would be done on Monday so I can post my blog on the net here. I will post a proper blog next time as I don’t have much to write about for the time being, so please wait till next week!

Interesting Roach incidents and peanuts

2005-07-24T15:22:34Z

From July 17~23, a few interesting roach incidents had happened, of which I will now write about. One incident happened on Monday, in which my maid(Who has stayed with us for fourteen Years)used a slipper to kill hit a roach. It managed to get away, hiding behind the CD rack in the living room. A few days later, it was found that the pitiful cockroach was about to fall of the side of the stairs, with half of its body hanging in mid-air. Apparently, it had died while trying to escape out from behind the CD rack. How pitiful. Another incident happened on Saturday, in which a cockroach flew into the air-con above my sister's bed without knowing it. Then, suddenly, out of the blue, it fell from INSIDE the air-con and landed on my sister's bed where she was studying. She, of course, was frightened and shocked. The maid then came over, grabbed the cockroach by its feelers and held it in the air. My "ruthless" maid then sprayed Baygon onto it and watched it squirm.she, apparently, after killing so many cockroaches, seemed to take delight in torturing cockroaches and watching them wriggle helplessly in her hand. She also kills cockroaches by using her slipper to crush it and watch it squirm, picks up the squirming cockroach by its feelers and shows it to us, making us feel disgusted. I could even hear the crunching sound of a cockroach being crushed by her slipper. Anyway, about peanuts...... There have been many peanut jokes ever since the NKF incident had taken place. Someone said he could not sleep every night in fear of being burgled as he had two tins of peanuts at home! (The peanuts they are talking about here cost $600, 000) Anyway, that's all for now. I'm going to bed now to sleep because it is eleven-thirty p.m. now. Goodnight!:)

Nintendo DS and others

2005-07-17T14:38:50Z

Last Sunday I got my Nintendo DS, which stands for Nintendo Dual Screen because it has two screens.
It is blue in colour and has one viewing screen and one touch screen, which is used for writing on with the stylus provided. The screens are backlit, which means that it can be played in darkness with less damage to eyes as screens with light from the foreground.In the machine itself there is a chat function, which can be used to communicate with people in the same chatroom and with Nintendo DSes within 100 feet of the player. There is also a built in calendar and clock, and you are able to set your birthday and name such that you receive personalised messages.
While I still do not have any game cartridges designed especially for the Nintendo DS, I have explored the functions of the Nintendo DS and found that the chatroom is rather amusing. In the chatroom, you are given a small space to type or draw your message and send it, and as I have said before, players within 100 feet of the message sender and in the same chatroom (there are four chatrooms altogether) can receive the message. Due to this function, certain people have discovered a way to play an interesting game simply by using the chatroom. They call this game Pictoquest.Each person holding the DS draws out a part of a short story, and lets the next person continue from where he or she left off. In this manner, the story unfolds and there are often interesting results.

Referring back to the first post, the nicknames that I did not mention were better than those I had listed. I generally consider those written down to be more or less insults, but not very strong ones.

On the question of what a cosplayer is, a cosplayer is a person who dresses up as a character from his or her favourite show/anime/manga/comic/cartoon etc. These people often like spending time making their own costume, and consider it part of the fun in cosplaying. One unusual(and unspoken) rule of cosplayers is that costumes should not be recycled, as the general theme of cosplaying (especially at Cosfest) is being "new". It does make one wonder what cosplayers do with their old costumes.

Something that happened this week

2005-07-10T15:18:47Z

This Sunday, I went to Cosfest 2005, which is an annual event held in Singapore where a lot of people who wear costumes from Japanese comics (manga), cartoons (anime), games and rock bands gather. They walk around in the costumes and talk ot each other. They also allow non-cosplayers or cosplayers to take pictures of them. There were groups of cosplayers in the same series and friends who go there to take pictures, be a cosplayer and take part in the event, go up on stage to do some acting or give some details on the character he or she had chosen and even buy merchandise from the shops at the sides of the area.

I saw a group of cosplayers at the location of the Cosfest at Downtown East in the same series. There were at least ten of them in the same series gathered at one place. They seemed to be friends and there even was one who put on a fake beard! Another one from a different series had a wooden sword and a very strange hairstyle, much to the amusement of all the people. Another from a different series of which I do not know the name of had a great big claw for a left arm.It looked very cool and it was shiny, as though it were made of metal. The emcee was equally amusing with his jokes and comments. He wasn't even nervous in front of the audience! I guess that is a trait that one must have to become an emcee......There was also a part in which a girl with glasses sang. She had a loud, booming voice and sang very well. She had the tune of the song and memorized all the lyrics! She also wasn't afraid in front of all the people down below and sang to her heart's content.

The merchandise they sold was fantastic! The drawings were drawn by the cosplayers and there was a graffiti wall for you to doodle on with a marker, pen or pencil. The pictures on the badges and the badges were made by the cosplayers and there were special T-shirts that could only be found there. Also, a cosplayer had lost his or her costume's tail somewhere in the area and everyone laughed when they learned about it.

Soon, it was time to go and we left the place to go to Chinatown to shop. We walked back to the car happily with some souvenirs and drove off contented.

About myself

2005-07-05T13:46:08Z

Hi, my name is Tan Jie Yang.

I like to play computer games and to play badminton. I also like swimming and tennis, although I don't play it. I also like to crack my brain solving puzzles and I play games and fix things without looking at the instructions most of the time. I dislike having to wait and I don't have much patience. I don't like to be laughed at and I hate to be hit by other people for no reason.

I also have a few nicknames, namely : House Goat and Clean goat. Ihave others which I won't mention here. I am in HCIS (Hwa Chong International School), class H1A, register number 27. My horoscope is Cancer and my birthday is on the twenty-fourth of June, which had passed some time ago. I like to go to a website called http://www.gamefaqs.com as it tells me information about the games I play and what I have to do next in the game. I also like to go to websites to play minigames.

That's all. Bye!