Bankai!

Been some time since I've last caught the latest episodes of Bleach and Naruto.. ended somewhere when the Buonto were invading Seireitei and Naruto was and still is in filler mode (bleah! yuck!). At one point, Silmeria on PS2 seemed to be a better choice, considering that the Bounto was a tad bit boring and Naruto was getting on my nerves.

So, after months of anime depravation, and thanks to my good bro in KL for the episodes and a smoke beast for reigniting my Bankai abilities after a battle at RC, I have managed to go back into Bleach mode (I am still sick of Naruto. Why can't those #$@&%$#%$#@ restart the main plot?!?).

Well, we were introduced at the beginning with the Hollows, the Shinigami and the Quincy. Then the Bounto fillers came in. Now that the Bounto are extinct, we now have two new races; the Arrancar, beings created by Aizen which are Hollows with both Shinigami and Hollow powers and the Vizard, Shinigami who have awakened their inner Hollow. Then the giant Hollows or the Menos Grande are also distinct by three subdivisions; the Gillian, footsoldiers of the Menos, the Adjuchas, smaller in numbers and commands the Gillian, and the Vasto Lorde, only few in Hueco Mundo, but with battle abilities greater than the Shinigami Captain Class.

What this really means is that PS2 will be on hold from its stress relief duties, up and till the next Bleach episode is not available....hehe

My england powderful leh..

Went back in kl for cny. While having dinner with my cousins, we had a casual chat which somehow led to my cousin naming cartoon characters like sylvester, goofy and tweety bug. Tweety bug??!? hahaha... reminds me of how anus bug got his name..
The conversation went to a few years back where he was telling us about how good the 'ala-pata' was. Baffled by what he said, he went on to explain that it was a 4 man group that sang with unaccompanied voices. Gave us such a good laugh... In case you are just as blur...he was referring to 'a capella'. Another instance was when he was talking about the Friends actress Courteney Cox.. pronouncing it as 'ku-or-re-te-ney cox' everyone had a hard time understanding which Indian Actress he was referring to.
Anyway, there are tons of others who mispronounce words like Japanese and Selphy (to Ja_Penis and Syphilis in case you are wondering) so its not too bad if we mispronounce a word or two sometimes..saw this on a website for most mispronounced web addresses... these are normal websites...enjoy finding out what they really are:

Therapistfinder.com
Penisland.com
Powergenitalia.com
Molestationnursery.com
Gotahoe.com
Mypenisland.com
Thepenismightier.com

Hehe..

Forward...no oops... Reply to all...click...aiyak!!

Ever tried flaming someone on the mail, and then sending the mail straight back to that person? I remember some years back when a colleague was complaining about a consultant, on how stupid and idiotic the consultant was. Well of course, his intent was to vent his frustrations to us but somehow, having a sudden disability of motor skills, he clicked on the 'reply to all' followed by the 'send' button on his mail. 2 seconds later, a state of panic commences and he goes round all our cubicles asking us... "Die la what to do..". Lucky thing was that the consultant replied to say that he was sorry he caused so much trouble and that he would buck up to improve.

Just a while ago, the same thing happened to another colleague. Recieving a task we were all dreading to accept, the colleague wanted to inform everyone that she had been arrowed. Having the same distorted motor skills as the guy in the first para, she clicked on the two dreaded combinations.. 'reply to all' and 'send'. Well, all goes to say, the archer recieved the note on his arrow. Once again, luck was on her side considering that the archer had a sense of humor.

It does happen to everyone once in a while, so the best thing to do is.... look at the receipients before you click 'send' la!!! hehehe..

Professional Grooming

Try typing "professional grooming" into yahoo's search box and you'd probably get links to Professional dog grooming or Pet grooming.

Quoting from the article 'Professional Grooming - Not Just for Puffy Pooches' By Janice Biniok on CentralPets.com, Jan. 2003, "If you think professional dog grooming applies only to certain breeds, here's good news for you: any dog can benefit from a professional grooming, even dogs with low-maintenance coats! And there are plenty of advantages for their owners as well." Well, I presume she was referring to owners being more obedient after watching their pets go through a grooming session.

Well, why the sudden interest with grooming? My colleague got a pet and has been talking about it for days, I've just attended a professional grooming course and after a long bout of diarrhoea, I'm feeling a bit distorted from the amount of chores I've been having lately.

Ok, back to the topic. I was at this professional grooming course conducted by an image consultant. Well, the lady wasn't half bad, as most people came out laughing and saying that the course was better then expected. I went in a little late, and as I sat down, they started with the major turn offs for men and women. For men, there were things like greasy hair (thank god I just cut mine before the course), unironed shirt (mine is very tidy... my grandma and aunt transferred the art of ironing level 8 to me at the age of 16), and non-matching socks (my dark blue socks looked black, so the lady mistook that I had good color sense). For ladies, messy hair (is that really a problem?), too much make up (yes, totally), armpit hair??? etc etc.. I guess the ladies have far worse problems than we men do...hehehe...

Then we went on to color combination, and what colors suit you.. we learnt about warm and cool colors and how that matched our dressing. Mine is definitely cool as mint... I only have black, white, grey and blue clothes...no other color. In another time and era, I would've thought that I was boring, but here, it seemed like color was on my side.

Then there was the face shape. Someone queried on the difference of a trangular face and a heart shape face. The lady drew some faces on the board. And finally, I understand that a person with a heart shape face is a person that has a triangular face plus a receding hairline!

We moved on to etiquette and manners. Seemed like everyone had difficulty to answer a phone call. We have variations like:
a) Hello, I am X, what you want?
b) Good Morning, who r u?
c) Good Morning, I am X, from company Y. How can I help you?
All 3 variations were wrong. Stopping at company Y in variation 3 would be sufficient. Adding the 'How can I help you' statement is deemed to be superficial.

Then it came to introduction of friends and colleagues. Wow...it baffled me watching some colleagues going. "This Tarzan, This Jane"...well except of course their names were not Tarzan and Jane. Very primitive way of introducing people to others. The lady preferred a description say "This Tarzan, Jungle Boy, This Jane, White Babe" which gave better clarity of what each of them were. I do agree though that many times, when we meet friends, we don't introduce our other halfs creating an awkward situation for our partners. Guys out there, remember to intro your gfs when you meet friends!

We moved on further to handshakes, sitting postures and many other things. While I actually dread courses sometimes, especially ones that aren't technical in nature, I guess this one course wasn't all that bad. At the least, it gave me some humor, some peace of mind and a break from problems in everyday life.

Communication.. 101

Lesson 1 in communication: Seek first to understand what others understand, before you think you understand what other understand from you.

We were heading to a convention when a collegue messaged us that he had arrived. The message went "Go to K4....etc etc". So, the moment we drove into the carpark, the first thing we looked out for was a K. Looming ahead us was this sign on the column that showed L10...and obviously beside it was K10. Going in the right direction, we headed past a few more columns and reached K4. Not seeing my colleagues car anywhere, we started cursing and complaining that he had not arrived. As we walked to the carpark staircase, we gave him a call and hey, guess what.. they were at Carrefour..

Lesson 2: It's not what you say, it's not even how you say it. It's how much flak you can say it with..

I always admired people who could speak well. Sometimes, with just the right words at the right time, things could be settled just like that! We met up with an agent for a viewing, an agent which we didn't really see eye to eye with and had frequent if not many arguments with. Half way through the conversation, her boss appears driving a huge Mercedes. As usual, we continued with our ever inquisitive barrage of questions to the agent and this new fella. What baffled us was that he sold 8 units on the ground floor where other agents were having difficulties selling them. His response was.. well .. "At the hierarchy of pyramids, as you grow older, you'd realise that having a place that your kids can run around, while you observe them at the safety of the ground floor, might be a blessing. Furthermore, regulations state that you cannot have a physical wall at the ground floor to demarcate your territory. However, no one mentioned anything about creepers. So, with a natural boundary made by the creepers, the patio is practically all yours." Had a hard time avoiding all the smoke he was releasing.. pity the 8 guys who bought the ground floor units from him.

Lesson 3: Diagnosis must precede prescription

We were at a Teppanyaki restaurant having our dinner. One of the special dishes involved the waiter putting flame on the meat using matches and alcohol. The waiter took out some match sticks and nonchalantly lighted them with one hand and held a bottle of cooking wine in another. Having seen this before, me and my other half instinctively moved our chairs back a little. The chef made a giggle and told us that "If there's anyone that is in danger, that would be me....not you." Having said that, he proceeded to put some cooking wine on the meat, lighted the wine and scalded his finger. Feeling sheepish, he turned around and poured some gravy on his finger. This chef kept quiet the rest of the evening.