Ash and aces...

Studies have started again and there will be a lot of catching up to do. Once again, gotta reschedule my workouts. I have been doing a lot of workout planning but have been skipping a lot of workouts and I owe it all to the busy schedule. I have a good feeling that I'll be able to start working out again by this week if all goes well. Sis came back for her holidays and she'll be here for a week. Gotta make it a point to spend some quality time with her. Its rare that she gets to come back and I have yet to formally introduce her to Bel anyway. Anyway, my parents will be going to Europe for a one month vacation after my sister goes back to studying and I'll have the entire house to myself! Definitely something to look forward to...

Just got back from shopping with Bel. I bought 480 sheet set of foolscap paper only to find that it does not fit my file. The paper has two pussies. The file has three dicks. No matter what position I try, they just... won't... fit... Now because I am a gentleman and Bel's granny is around... I can't swear out loud. FUCK.

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Met Ashley (Bel's niece) yesterday. She's a cute kid and Bel said she'd be scared of me. Not a chance in hell! She looked fearless and she had the most sarcastic laugh I've ever heard from a kid! Almost evil! She was playing a pretty laggy game on Bel's computer and her head was too small for the headphone so I had to place my hands on top of her head so the headphones could reach her ears. Aunt Angela found out I was a performing magician and kinda asked if I would like to perform for a combined nursery day. We're talking about toddlers here... Still giving it a thought...

Bel got us tickets to an upcoming concert. It aint no Woodstock but I'm not complaining. It kinda makes up for the Rainforest World Music Fest that I missed in mid-July. To tell you the truth, I'm actually looking forward to this concert. It's a violin & piano concert by two reknowned instrumentalist. Geoffrey Pratley happens to be a famous accompanist on the piano in Britain and Yap Ling is well known in the local music industry. I have this thing for classical music and instrumentals. It happened back in '96 when I was studying for my UPSR. Attended a study seminar and they said Baroque music was good for studying. I ended up stuck on the music instead of my studies. Got me hooked ever since...

Four Aces... What are the odds???

The pressure to perform...

Performed for a family day event at Parkcity Everly Hotel yesterday. Had to do the opening illusion and some walkaround magic. Overall it wasn't that bad and everything went smooth as I had thought. Right after the event I rushed to pick Bel from the the daycare centre where she worked as I was already kinda late. No thanks at all to the delay during the family day.

After lunch with the darling, rushed again to campus for Orientation Night preparations. I was the Organizing Chairperson and the emcee for the evening as well so I kinda took the extra mile to double check the logistics to make sure I don't miss out on any details. The evening went exceptionally well by the way. I was kinda nervous as I rarely emceed for events but it turned out much better than I expected. Night ended with mental and physical fatigue...

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Watched the first episode of the World Series of Poker. It's been a while since we had our poker night and I'll make it a point to revive the tradition when Cuban returns. Motivates me to return to my online poker habits...

One of the suspense moments: Mueller vs Berger.

Billirakis played really well, now the youngest WSOP bracelet winner.

First episode ended with Steve Billirakis winning the WSOP bracelet at the age of 21 yrs and 11 days. Being the youngest player to ever win a bracelet breaking the record of Jeff Madsen (who won the bracelet at the age of 21 yrs and 39 days). If only I could join the WSOP...

Life of a carnie...

Lately been into Carnivale. One of HBO's series. I've watched one episode on HBO a couple years back and it kinda got me hooked then. Found the two season DVD sets and it hooked me on again especially now that I'm actually performing part time. It inspired me in a way as I thought of ideas to spice up my illusion shows. Anyway, Carnivale was sweet. If you expect a lot of action and fast paced thriller you'll be disappointed. Its a movie that kinda explores the arcane and esoteric connection between good and evil. Timeline was in 1934 but they were expecting the coming of the Apocalypse then. To quote a review site:

"...(it) questions identity and vocation, and asserts a cosmological framework no longer in television vogue.You’ll see astonishing sights: a woman vomit coins, a jarred fetus blink, dead men stampede a strip show, and a wheat field shrivel when a lame girl walks. You’ll be barraged by tattoos, Nazis, snakes, dead fish, vanishing trailers, psychic fires, and the explicit beyond. You’ll meet amazing people: a bearded woman, a telekinetic psychic in a coma, a sullen escaped con with mysterious powers, a lizard man, conjoined twins, and a preacher with disturbing visions. It will break your heart, stir your spirit, and engage your curious mind."

Had a talk with my manager about plans to set up a freakshow last year. Plans were kept for Halloween 2006 but due to lack of time and props, we kinda moved it on to this year. Now it seems that it would have to be dragged on to the following year. A combined inspiration of Chaplin, Angel, Houdini, Cirque du Soleil, and Carnivale. I was thinking that if I was involved in this freakshow, it'd be like living Carnivale. Awesome... Anyway, gotta prepare later in the evening for two shows tomorrow. One in the morning and another at noon.

It has been a while too since i worked out. Two weeks to be exact. Now that the new term is starting soon, I think I'd have to reshuffle my life shedule to fit the workouts. Been bingeing on many evilly-fat foods and this has gotta stop. I've sworn off ice cream for now and I think that's a good start. Now I can only have a serving of ice cream per month. Gotta clean up the food intake so I can ultimately reach the goals by December. Studies, on the other hand... another busy term up ahead for me... and I still have no idea if I had passed my Supplementary. The wait is killing me...

word.

Chocolates and paint!

Got these from Labuan!
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A short review on the foods...The chocolate liqueur was really sweet. I couldn't complain about it though because there wasn't any comparison to the taste. It was just unique. Bailey and Kahlua lovers would like it but other than that, there wasn't anything special about it. The fact that it is made out of 87% cocoa was the only thing that made me buy it. My parents love it though.

The 99% Cacao bar... Now that. The texture was perfect. Soft and smooth like it was the best chocolate ever. The taste however, was like cooking chocolate. No sugar and the bitterness was beyond anything I can bear. Because I bought it, and because I kinda 'recommended' it, I had to swallow the damn thing whole in front of my family just to convince them it was ok. Evil. I know. They knew it too. Right after they took a huge piece each... :P

Sent the dear to her piano exam yesterday. She was nervous about it but I was sure she'd do well. Being stressed by it and all, I was glad she took everything so well and despite the interferences during her practise time and pressures from many people. It also happened to be our 4th month together but it feels like we've known each other for so long. It was a really comforting thought to know that we're really open to each other and that makes us understand each other pretty well. What more can I ask for? Celebrated the monthasary at the new Halo Cafe. Food was great. Service was great. Environment was great.

Well, today was another day spent with Bel. Helped out in painting the 'treehouse'. The paint on the wall was badly peeling thanks to the next door neighbour who refused to paint their side of the wall. Water seeped into the cement and caused the peel. Had fun painting it though. It's been a while since I painted walls and it kinda feels refreshing in a way. Anyway, my car's signal lights were smashed badly by some motherfuckin morons. I had no idea how or who did it but it happened two nights ago when I was parked outside Bel's place. The neighbours opposite the house were hanging around outside at that time so I reckon I'll find out who did it through them. Unless they're the guilty ones...

Bel doing her part of the wall...

The Labuan gig...

It felt very refreshing to be finally over with the Supplementary Exam and the pressure to perform set in really quick the following day when I had to go to Labuan for a gig. I was really nervous about the whole situation mainly because I had just completed the exams and my mind wasn't really set to perform. Barely had enough sleep thanks to the exams and the last thing I needed was such stress. But the show must go on and everything went extremely well...

So I arrived in Labuan and the first thing we did was to go check out the venue of the function. It was the regular semi-ballroom and after a few adjustments and double checking the schedule, we headed off for lunch in town. Jacky mentioned that it was the best chicken rice in Labuan. To be honest, I hate it when people recommend food to me and claim it to be the best. I just think that different people will have different perspectives. Just like beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. But...

The chicken rice was REALLY good. Well, I won't contradict what I have just said. It was really good to me. I have no idea if its the best chicken rice in Labuan but it definitely is the best chicken rice I've tasted so far. The secret to making a good chicken rice is not in the chicken but in the rice. Nothing more to say about it. I gotta hand it to Jacky for this one...

Then there was the shopping. After lunch I wanted to get some stuff for the darling and my parents so we went shopping for chocolate and liquor. The chocolates were really cool and fancy and I went cross-eyed looking for a good one. But even imported Cadbury's are hard to find in Miri so I ended up getting brands I actually know. There was a Japanese branded chocolate bar that caught my eye. It said 99% Cacao (cacao is another word for cocoa). Regular Cadbury's had around 70-80% cocoa but this was 99% cocoa! I had to and I did get myself a bar of that. That bar of chocolate deserves a special review post to it... Got a carton of Marlboro Reds for Azrul and it was quite cheap. Kinda like a sign of thanks to him for tutoring me for the Supplementary. Other than that, I bought a bottle of Mozart chocolate liqueur for my parents. I've tasted coffee liqueur but never chocolate ones so that itself was motivation for me to get it. There was even chocolate vodka but I decided to get it another day. Anyway, like the Cacao chocolate bar, it deserves a review in another post...

Now, back to the show...

I'm still tryin to get pictures from my performance in Labuan so they will hopefully be up in the next couple posts. Fingers crossed. Jacky invited me over to perform in good faith of what I can do and it was my job to make him look good by entertaining the guests (Kim found out that I was performing there and he gave me a call a day before I went to Labuan and it was good to see him again). It wasn't as hard as I imagined and the crowd was wonderful. It was the kind of crowd that performers would love to have. Enthusiastic, supportive, and most importantly for magicians, skeptical. I am proud to say that I have converted a couple of skeptics that night. A few unexpected twist of events happened along the way as I performed but all turned out amazingly well in the end.

I managed to meet Natalie and her boyfriend Charles after my second sequence. Apparently Charles was into magic at one point but stopped halfway. So I kinda performed for them and it got Charles wanting to learn magic again... The night ended with a supper with Jacky, Kim and their girlfriends.

Exhaustion made me pass out till the next morning...

Moving back into blogspot...

The functions on blogspot has kinda differed compared to a year ago. There are quite a number of big improvements. Good ones. I've been jumping around to find the right place to setup my kinda permanent blog. From Friendster, to an uber personalized one, to Blogspot, Vox, and now back to Blogspot again. I think I stayed the longest on Vox. It was a great place but too many things kinda crowded the whole blog I guess. It was more like a community there. People were great and I had a fair share of stories posted there as well. Anyway, most of my peeps used Blogspot and it was much easier for comments from the masses as well. Maybe that's the main reason I'm moving back here...

Anyway, been studying for a supplementary exam that's gonna happen 13 hours from now. Fatigue hits the brain from all angles and directions. Resitting for an exam is the last thing I need right now and yet I long for a vacation in my holiday. Booked for a performance in Labuan on Saturday. I have yet to brush up on magic and my performance. I'm really positive that I'll eventually manage to retrain my brain to performance mode. The pressure to perform provides me with a calming effect. It's kinda like orgasm. The nervousness before a performance wells up and when its actually time to perform, everything suddenly calms down and I just wish the whole day never ends. Euphoric...

Exhausted from squeezing the juices of the grey matter, I shall update once I return from Labuan...

word.