So I went paintballing in Queens today. You have to know how paintball works. Basically, those paintballs (which get shot out of an air pressure gun) have a plastic casing which explode upon impact and splatter you with paint.
They EXPLODE on impact so yea, you can imagine the force at which those thinggies hit you - and one of them hit me on the NECK!
NOW TO TURN MY HEAD, I HAVE TO TURN MY WHOLE TORSO!
WTH!!! DAMMMMNNNNNNNN PAIN!
Paintballing gets you 1) Oily ( It should be called Oilballing instead) 2) Bruised 3) Injured 4) Tired 5) and your clothes FREAKING STAINED.
BUT IT IS FUN! But I think I shall abstain for a while. Least I find I want more kisses on my neck.
HEH.
To get to the painballing place, we had to take the subway to Queens. The subway in Queens is above ground, much like how the MRT goes from underground to above ground. But here, the aboveground subways dont go underground, so u have to change from an underground subway to an aboveground one.
So many little nuggets of goodness!
My team, AFTER the few games! hahahaha.
Look at those pants! I'm still soaking those pants but the oil smell won't come off!!!
. . . . . .
On another note, I was being a masseuse to Yi today, the girl had so many knots in her neck. And she's like me: you can knead as hard as you want, it wont feel painful. HA!
Awwww. What an awesome cousin I am. RIGHT YI????????
:)
I need a massage for myself too. Bleagh. On my bruise.
Today the OISS (Office of International Students Something) organized a trip to the UN with a guided tour. Ok pardon me, but I'm super tired so I shall just post pictures and comment on them. After which, I shall go sleep and sleep and sleep!!!!!! Tomorrow's gonna be a fun day so yea, I will blog more about it when I come back.
Real One.
Fake One.
This was on the exhibit on disarmament - this land mine is designed to look like a yoyo so that children will pick it up.
WHAT KIND OF MORBID MIND CREATED SUCH A DISASTROUS HEINOUS OBJECT???
Me looking visibly tired in the UN General Assembly Hall.
A LARGE GIANORMOUS persian rug - a gift from IRAN to the UN. We should get one this size and stuff it into our living room AND dining room. Heh.
Ok this one was seriously amazing - a super intricate ivory carving from China Don't worry - the guide reassured us that when this was created, ivory was still legal. heh. 12 freaking elephants contributed their tusks to this thing.
The carving is AMAZING though. just LOOK AT THAT DETAIL! . . . . . Well, yes, so for lunch I met up with Huifang who was visiting from Princeton. I love love lunches with old friends. So comforting.
in the SUPER LARGE restaurant. It was funny cos the entrace on the ground level was really small, u know, like one of those shophouses in Chinatown. Yet, when we entered, the place was HUGE.
Like HARRY POTTER's Quidditch tents. HA!
Huifang looking happy. It's her birthday tomorrow and she got to eat dimsum that's why! Ok maybe not, but anything la.
Ahh...
. . . . Ok, so for dinner met up with En and Yi again!
The mad girl. haha.
Alright! So I'm done with my 'So today I did this and today I did that' blog post. heh. Well, Ok, so i admit most of my blog posts are like that(Unless of course i didn't do anything that day during which I would provide interesting nuggets of info !) , but that's what a blog is for!Right??? Dun need to be so fancy pancy la.
En(nie) came to visit me today. She's gonna be here for the whole weekend. :) Immensely sweet of her ! Thank you En!
Doncha think En looks mature/lady like here! And NOO I DONT MEAN IT IN A BAD WAY!
Yi trying to disfigure her lips. She was complaining about her whole week, how she was snapping at everyone and blah blah. I wanna snap at people too. SNAP SNAP.
Even though I've been to the restaurant a gazillion times, I didn't notice the 'Niang Re' on the wall!! Ha!
We all know about the recent Israeli offensive into Gaza ( they say in response to rocket fire which undoubtedly have been on-going over the years from Hamas, and whether or not the size of the offensive was appropriate is still being debated) and we are all aware of the number of civilians killed - more than a thousand and many of them children.
What I found happening to me as I followed the conflict over the course of the offensive was that the news seemed to became more and more depressing till after a while, I just stopped clicking on all Gaza related news.
If you click on the link above, you will see that the zoo occupies only the first 1/3 of the article. The rest is about the conflict and the devastation that was caused as well as the suffering that the Gaza people are facing.
I don't exactly have a major point, but I guess that it's sad that I (and I'm sure I'm not the only one) went to the site only because the word 'zoo' piqued my interest in the article - an article about a conflict between humans and in which humans are suffering the most.
I think many of us just want to turn a blind eye towards all the horrible events going on in the world - we refuse to face the fact that so many people are dying in useless conflicts out there - and I guess this is the best way to remind people to not overlook the intense suffering that still goes on elsewhere.
hmmmmm. Oh wells.
Ok, back to Financial statement anaylsis! (what irony!)
Ok, so I am now inundated with work, hence, hence. (can you imagine, im awake at 9 to start doing my work BEFORE I leave for school? what the?And it's not like I'm exactly enjoying what I'm learning. Hrmphrhrh.)
MY LIFE IS OFFICIALLY BORING NOW.
I shall thus look forward to the weekend. The weekends sustain me. En is supposed to be visiting and I have 2 other events awaiting me. heeeee heeeeee.
meanwhile, I also have a website to update/revamp, gym to go to, laundry to do, groceries to shop for.... ahhhhhhhhhhh the life of a semi - independent soul.
To prevent this place from becoming too depressing, I have a few nice renderings by this renderer, Norio Fujikawa to keep you guys entertained while my boring life picks up the pieces:
Ok, before I bundle up my stuff and rush off to school in about 15 mins, just wanted to share this just hot off the press news with all of you:
(mostly for all those non-bbc readers and don't worry, I ignored all the depressing 'American Economy is facing intense recession/ Bail Out won't work etc sort of news)
. . . . .
Finally, the phone companies are banding together to create a UNIVERSAL PHONE CHARGER!
Ahhhhhhhh. Bliss !
No more "Hey, do you have a Nokia/Sony Ericsson Charger?" "No? Wait, that charger, can it fit?" "Damn!!! Now my phone is flat!"
There are dozens of different cable chargers for phones
The world's biggest mobile phone makers and network operators have backed plans to create a universal phone recharger.
Most manufacturers now produce chargers which work only with their own devices.
The re-charger will consume 50% less stand-by energy than today's cables, the GSM Association (GSMA), an umbrella group for the industry, said.
Firms to back the plan include Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, LG, T-Mobile, Orange, 3, AT&T and Vodafone.
The majority of new handsets will support the re-charger by 2012.
"This is a broad agreement that will move the industry to a single, energy-efficient charger for all mobile phones," said Michael O'Hara, marketing director for the GSMA.
In a statement, Mitti Storckovius, director of environment, devices at Nokia said: "By supporting this industry initiative on common charging solutions, and enabling consumers to choose if they need a charger with every new device or can re-use existing ones, we can contribute further in improving the industry's environmental footprint."
The micro-USB connector will be used as the common charging interface.
Manufacturers had been under pressure from the European Commission to produce a standardised charger.
EU Industry Commissioner Guenter Verheugen told German radio station Deutsche Welle last week that there were more than 30 different kinds of charger in use across the 27-nation European Union.
The GSMA estimates the new charger will mean the potential elimination of up to 51,000 tonnes of duplicate chargers.
Before I go on to talk about the unique & the ubiquitous, let me just say that I'm so proud of myself because I have sewn my first ever button! I couldn't wear a jacket for the longest time ever because a button had popped out, leaving the epaulet hanging lifelessly by the side.
And surprisingly, it's not that difficult. ha!
Tada! The jacket can now be worn! . . . . . . .
Ok, now on to more serious things. Today, we decided to go visit IKEA in Brooklyn.
Now now, don't be hasty and judgemental and think to yourselves "nothing better to do is it! Go and visit IKEA for what?"
Well, if you didn't already know, the IKEA in brooklyn is the world's first IKEA to have a dedicated Ferry Service to transport customers to their store! The service transports customers from Pier 11 on Manhattan, to Brooklyn, where their Store is not near any convenient public transport.
Apparently, when this free service first came out, they marketed it as a 'Cruise and a Dinner' for 6.99. Cruise (free) + Dinner at IKEA (6.99) . ha!
With such ingenuity, it's no wonder IKEA remains one of the largest furniture retailers in the world.
So, to get to Pier 11, which is near the tip of the of that piece of land that is Manhattan on your right, we had to alight at Wall Street station and walk down.
This my friends, is Wall Street - Not quite as glam/swanky as I thought it would be. Maybe perhaps because it was a Sunday. Where the Blue arrow is pointing is our destination - Pier 11!
NYSE
This is the iconic image of NYSE. (see my head there?) This is where they had the demonstrations against the bail-out plan.
An image that I koped from somewhere else.
I think this dog was the glammest thing I saw on wall street that day
As it was a Sunday, the whole place was filled with tourists. See everyone taking pictures?
I somehow had this image in mind that this would be how it will be like 1000 years later, when Wallstreet is crumbling and old, and tourists would come, visit and gawk at the ancient ruins, much like the Egyptian Pyramids now.
HA! . .
Ok, the following is ironic, given the current Financial Crisis:
So............What needs repair?
The Wall Street Bull! (it was in the same display) . . We reached pier 11 after some walking, and there was this couple who were feeding the seagulls. I remembered that incident in San Frans a gazillion years ago when the seagull stole my fish, and my first thought upon seeing the couple was, "mistake, mistake!"
Well, yea, unsurprisingly, she got swamped! ha!
Brooklyn bridge.
The dedicated Water Taxi Service!
The Ubiquitous Blue and Yellow!
Some weird-ass metal sculpture. They might have made it with scrap metal left overs after they finished the building! ha.
This was the view from the IKEA restaurant - a SHITLOAD of buses. Has anyone seen these kinda buses in Singapore? I don't think so right?
Shufen and Martin digging in. . . . Ok, so now let me introduce my new friend : MR CLOWN!
Well, so he was the balloon sculptor and he was going around making little kids happy, when he decided to come ka-chiao me.
APPARENTLY... He said my HAIR was TOO SPIKEY or something that I did not catch, but yea, he therefore
1) used the air pump to fluff it
2) used a balloon to flatten it EVEN MORE
3) and eventually just leaned on my hair and Shufen promptly took a photo.
Awwwwwwwww. Nice guy . . . . .
Ok, how many times must I say that we are so lucky? In D.C., we saw the memorial on a beautiful sunset- without intending to.
Today, on the water taxi back, we were JUST AS FORTUNATE It was sun set and my my, it was GORGEOUS.
This was taken by me: too bad I didn't have an SLR to take a nice photo :( I LOVE the ferry in front.
This was taken with Shufen's Prosumer cam. Gorgeous ain't it.
Here's a video from the ferry (to create some atmosphere on the blog. LOL):
The flag at the back of the Ferry. (wow, my face doesn't look fat here!) . . . . . So on the way back to the metro, we decided to visit the Bull (that needs Repair! =P)
The many many many security cameras at the subway. This was the cleanest subway I had ever seen in Manhattan. Finally something neat and clean ! . . . Ok, that's all folks.
AND 
To get to the painballing place, we had to take the subway to Queens. The subway in Queens is above ground, much like how the MRT goes from underground to above ground.
So many little nuggets of goodness!
My team, AFTER the few games!
