Rent

Two young girls in tight small dresses and high heels and heavy make-up just walked in the warehouse. They wanted to rent a place for a weekend to sell things from their blogshop. They wanted a warehouse space that is air-conditioned!

PITT Pen

I'm trying out the new Faber-Castell PITT pen. I got the brush tip. It seems superior to the ZIG ones. I prefer it over the Copic pens too. This is promising.

The pretense of being an artist

In an earlier online conversation, we were just talking about this person. I said:

"Who cares anyway. He can't draw. He is getting the attention that he clearly craves for. He is enjoying that pretense of being an artist."

New call

‎'Hello, this is Shawn calling on behalf of ANZ Bank..' I put the mobile in my drawer and let him speak. Heh.

This is a new nuisance. I haven't encountered any representatives from that bank until today.

Battlefield 3 latest

I haven't been playing well. I lack the presence of mind to maintain a 7:1 ratio. The ratios last night were: (from latest games to earliest)

15:13, 26:10, 25:13, 26:11, 7:7, 7:9, 6:2, 2:1.

I got hit way too often. Careless. A bit of bad luck here and there.

A nice quiet weekend. Just the way I like it. Heh.

Urgent email

A lady called from Dun & Bradstreet a few minutes ago. She said that she has an urgent email that she wanted to send to the IT Manager. I said what is so urgent about it? She said 'Don't worry, it is not a sales email, it is purely informational.' Barefaced liar. Urgent? What's so urgent about this informational thing? Not sales? Doh. Resorting to such words to mislead is simply not ethical.

If it is sales, say so. If it is information leading to an eventual sales call, say so. I don't need to be lead on by this sort of unethical marketing script.

Blocking idiots

I had stopped two idiots from seeing my posts on Facebook. Moments after I removed those blocks, they started 'LIKING' and commenting. Of course, I re-imposed the blocks.

In the air

I seem to sense a large amount of emotion in the air. I don't know. Maybe, I am imagining it. Whatever it is, I hope those people deal with whatever personal issues they have.

Loud lady from the Bank of China

Some loud, really loud lady on the mobile. 'Hello, this is.. xxxx, calling on behalf from the Bank of China...' I left my mobile in my drawer and let her continue... I could hear from speaking loudly from the closed drawer. Haha.

Himbo

I have a himbo commenting frequently on my Facebook links and status updates. He makes the most inane of comments. I have prevented him from seeing my posts in the past. As soon as I removed the hiding bit, he would post inane comments. Ugh.

Bloomberg Businessweek

I am deciding if I should order Businessweek. The Straits Times business section has gotten a lot worse over the last decade.

Cheapening of the arts in Singapore

There are certain activities in Singapore's little art world that cheapens the work of artists and illustrators. I was drawing with a number of artists recently and I learned of their plight. Low price for individual pieces, commissioned pieces and more unless they are in advertising (which clearly, isn't art but the product of a committee who have the cheek to call themselves 'creatives'. Very presumptuous).

That is how the economic value of their activities are priced. One can distort it through laws, minimum wage and more. From talking to them, many illustrators and artists I know are still earning the same level of wages from about a decade or more ago. Why? This is how the market prices these products. How do you get around that? And illustration and art pieces can also be done anywhere outside the country anyway. I met quite a number of hardworking and skilful Filipino illustrators. Their hard work puts some of the local aspiring types to shame.

From what I see, these certain activities will serve to lower the expectation of pricing for the work of these folks. I won't mention which activities but they should be obvious enough.

Fortunately, I am not in the industry.

Battlefield 3 news

If I can, I try to maintain a 7:1 kill ratio. Ambitious? I know. I'm trying to improve my K/D ratio. The best result last night was only a 6:1. Most of the others were 1:1, 2:1 or so. A lot of bad luck last night. In addition, some of my positioning was poor and I was not alert enough.

Most of the time, I was engaged in close quarter combat, hence, my use of the P90 and hand grenades. I am tempted to use the UMP-45 which had been accurate and lethal for me. My nemesis? M26 and shotgun users.

 

The teams I join were really poor. I wasn't good enough to really influence events though I was in mostly close quarter combat. Look at the number of times I joined the losing side. The losing side was hapless to say the least.

Many people were attempting to switch teams throughout the game. Each time, my side ended up pinned to a corner and was thumped through and through. I was able to salvage a 1:1 or 2:1 ratio in those circumstances through staying mostly in ambush positions.

I managed to get my fourth P90 star and also my first M18 Claymore star last night.

Quests completed!

Quests completed. Back from NTUC, Royals bakery, Cedele Bakery, Cold Storage, Crystal Jade Bakery, JapanHome at United Square and Square 2.

Lame

I don't like Google+ with all those forced 'Be Awesome' rubbish. Don't force crap on us. It's lame. Contrived.

One Hundred Trolls Blog

The new One Hundred Trolls blog is up with many artists and illustrators. Like the Ninety-Nine Castles blog, this blog is one of different conceptions of trolls from different artists and illustators.

A wet, rainy Monday morning.

Drawing trolls

A quiet quiet Saturday. I'm drawing trolls at work. Doh.

Celebration

The fact that Manchester United got nothing warrants a month-long celebration! Whee!

Friday finally! I decided against going hiking at Bukit Timah Hill with the guys tomorrow. I just want to paint. It is the end of a long week.

Nice, chilly, rainy morning. 25.5 degrees

Friendly

I saw Goh Chok Tong when I was running yesterday evening. Twenty aunties in running gear ran over to him and asked to take photos with him. He was in a suit and tie with many others in business attire. He obliged and smiled with them. They were talking about 'Photoshopping' away some elements, and he laughed, saying, 'Don't Photoshop'. Quite funny. This is the second time that I have seen him in real life. He came across as very friendly and approachable.

New look 99 Castles

After a few years, it is time for a new look for the 99 Castles blog.

 

The new look.

The former look.

Wheeeeeeeeeee! Manchester United got nothing!

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Manure (Manchester United) got nothing this season! Wonderful! Hahaha. 89 points and nothing.

Haha. I was playing Battlefield 3 last night. And I did check the results from time to time. When my last Battlefield 3 game ended, I checked at the 79th minute and City was going down 1-2. I thought it was over. I went to hug Mimi and read. This morning, it was an utter surprise to say the least.

Later this morning, once I have cleared up urgent matters at work, I will go check every single British paper online and also footpage pages! I want to savour every single account!

This is simply wonderful!

I remember when Manure was given 6-7 minutes for that Owen goal against City some years ago.

That's definitely payback. Thanks Gerald, for that video of Sir Red Nose's fac

PRICELESS!!

Penny wise pound foolish

I can't understand it, some people are really penny wise pound foolish. They can't see the wood for the trees. I fear that a bad decision may be made in the interest of saving money. Ugh.

Pesky investment caller

Ooh, a call from some guy in Toronto wanting to sell me socially responsible investments. I told him that I have no interest in his investments or information regarding it. He said surely I have an interest in making money and I told him no. He went on saying that I am not in the business of charity and surely.. and that I was close-minded in that I didn't want to hear him peddling his investments and.. I did the prudent thing.

It was some angmo dude. His script was one that I have heard before, exact same script. That other angmo called from Tokyo. Smooth talker. The claims of locations was amazing in every instance.

There must be victims for these scams, otherwise, there wouldn't be so many persistent calls over the years.

24 degrees this wet morning! Nice cool day!

Drawing at Sim Lim Square

Drawing at Burger King at ION Orchard

Drawing at Epilogue in Prologue at ION Orchard

A nice quiet day. Such a hot afternoon though. I will go running after work.

Drawing at Spinelli's at Orchard Central

Fake electrical cables from China

My Daikin aircon at work is now functioning. It wasn't for a week. The Daikin repairman was clueless. My mother called her usual aircon man over. He was experienced and he found that the copper wires were fakes from China. The wires were aluminium with a coloured coating made to resemble copper. Upon burning, it gave off a white ash. I looked at the cross-section of the fake cable and saw silver rather than the ochre copper colour. After reconnecting with real copper wires and everything is fine.

Drawing at Sim Lim Square

I had forgotten that it was Labour Day yesterday. I went out in the hot sun and met Wilson at Epic Gear.

15 Minutes wasn't open. I was at a café at the basement of Sim Lim Square with Jerry, Jake, Leos and Amelia, drawing for most of the afternoon. I had a headache after.

My drawing that I completed at midnight wasn't inspiring either.