Used my Citibank Clear card to book the gym at Great World. Have decided to try to cut down spending in the upcoming year, so jettisoning my gym membership and will try to book my gym time in advance. Quite a nice gym over there with bigger lockers and a proper stretching area. Have decided to watch Lord of The Rings tomorrow morning 10 at Great World, so hope the theater is nearly empty and can stretch. Finally!

Just got back from a BBQ and good to know that quite a few people have found jobs. Not all production related but hey, it's something.

Also hi to Alice and Wilkie and welcome back from your China trip. I'm sure it was swell. :)

Extremely, extremely cool

What do you know. Ebert puts Totoro into his great movies list. I saw Grave of the Fireflies last night and liked it, but it was too dark and tear-jerky for my tastes. It revolves around a brother and sister left orphaned during WWII. 9 more films to go for my Studio Ghibli festival...

Yesterday night had a bbq dinner with the ex-ACC folks. Surprising to see how many are jobless now. Food was good and we chilled at some place at Bishan before leaving. Hope that those who were retrenched find something in the upcoming year.

Looking at the votes for NBA all stars and I'm miffed. Grant Hill is out for the season and both Steve Francis and Chris Webber have been injured for most of the season so far. Guys like Paul Pierce, Steve Nash, Shawn Marion not getting the recognition they deserve, in particular Nash. Hope they get chosen to play anyhow as they're more deserving. Pierce is definitely more deserving than Jordan.

Wow the swim tired me more than I thought. Slept away the morning and afternoon. Guess I'm pretty unfit. Need to hit the gym as well as I haven't been going and quite a waste of money. Probably will just cancel it and save the money.

Watched Totoro while having lunch. Nice and sweet film that feels like the pilot episode of a cartoon serial. The little sister is very cute. I still prefer Princess Mononoke and it's epic scale and there wasn't much sense of danger in Totoro. Also saw the music video Ghibli did for Chage and Aska which had a sci-fi setting you wanted to learn more about.

Just went for a swim and it was FREEEEEZING cold. Good to get the chill out. They put a Crow trap at a grass field next to the swimming pool. It's a cage which has a v-shaped door at the top. The crows fly in but once they get in, they can't fly out. Crow Trap. Must keep that in mind.

Finally stopped raining. One of the wettest Decembers of all time. Hope there's time to jump into the pool later to chill. Ex-ACC gathering tonight. Also finally got hold of the Studio Ghibli 11 movie/1 music video set. So looks like more movie gouging...

Saw Ocean's Eleven yesterday and thought it was good but forgettable. Everything went too smoothly but I guess Soderberg didn't need to stretch any muscles for this film.

Also made it to one month with SO. Hoping for many more. :)

Man is it EVER going to stop raining? Pinned at home due to the rain. Watched this movie called The Beast about a Soviet tank lost in Afghanistan. Very so-so and not as absorbing as other war movies. Been going through more of the Simpsons and the earlier episodes are pretty lacklustre; nowhere the extremes of satire of later seasons. Probably will try to watch Carnival of Souls tonight. 83 mins so should be sufferable.

Christmas was quiet. We drove up to see a factory we own in Kota Tinggi and some resort in Desaru. The resort is half-finished, and looks pretty drab. If you drive around Desaru you'll see a bunch of half-finished resorts and closed hotels, yet another victim of the property boom of the mid 90s.

Well finished Devil May Cry but the endgame is quite a let down. Turns into a shooter and it sucks that you have to kill each boss monster about three times. Cheesy story as well, with the protagonist ending up with a sword about the size of a cannon. I guess the size of the sword throughout animation and comics has some phallic significance...

Getting addicted to Devil May Cry. Found the memory card so been able to save games. The change in perspective is quite annoying but the cut scenes are great. Will be glad to finish it and get it out of my system...