Saturday, June 27, 2009

A Short Break from Long-windedness

This was meant to be part of one long long post but I cut it short to accommodate your limited time. Blehh..

I thought it’d be mean to post about this but I just have to! If you think that Apple was a peculiar name, wait for this (last names intentionally abbreviated to protect the identity of those mentioned. They are my colleagues!):
1. Dolphin D.
2. Freya W.
3. Fracy C.
4. Yoyo Y.
5. Bominic L.
6. Cookie X.
7. Flower G.
8. Lorry Z.
9. Erazor L.
10. Pallas L.
11. Feline L.
12. Inez W.
13. Kindson Z.
14. Lamar L.
15. Maky P.
16. Morning J.
17. Rusty F.
18. Salon B.
19. Wicy R.
20. Ashy C.
21. Cissy L.
I know that I’m being mean and judgmental here but..but…but

That’s all for today. Till then, tata.

Posted by mcmeanie at 9:05 AM

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

My Late Promise of an Update

(written on June 11th )
I finally decided to update my blog and Brett inspired me to do so. We’re both sitting at our workplace, doing nothing, drawing silly pictures onto our trash paper. I drew my bag which was sitting oh-so-comfortably on my table and Brett drew some crappy pac man (or egg). It is boring when we’re not doing much thinking… We’d be doing much more important things in the coming weeks..

But, we haven’t been doing much today. Moments ago, our senior colleague from Corporate & Commercial Banking briefed us about the roles of deposits in maintaining a certain ratio and his job in securing them. Well... it added 6 ounces of knowledge to my seemingly empty skull!

I knew I’ve been absent for a long while and there was nothing that could push me to update this dusty blog which is now filled with spider webs, tiny mice, dust mites and it probably smells like age-old mothballs.

I could end up writing 15 pages worth of interesting (and stupid) things that have happened to me since my last post... and I might as well do so.

I am now in Shanghai, doing my internship at a bank with Brat. We’re both in the Corporate Commercial Department and will be rotated to various divisions in the coming weeks. I’ve already been in Shanghai for 3 weeks.

My sister and I arrived on May 17th and we were greeted by astronauts at Narita and Shanghai airports who invaded our aircrafts with sci-fi gears and unique outfits. I felt as if I was on the set of Star Trek. The Shanghainese astronauts even provided a disclaimer over the microphone “Dear passengers, we are from the Ministry of Health. We are here to check your body temperatures in accordance to the bla-bla-quarantine law in China. Please do not panic. Thank you.” With such things said over the aircraft microphone, it was hard not to freak out. I read that the 9/11 terrorists did the same thing before they crashed into the World Trade Center.

Anyway, before that, I was obviously absent from the blogosphere as I was busy preparing for my final exams. NO..I wasn’t…
Hmm…it was cos the wifi at my residence hall was awful. Not really..
My laptop keypad was broken and I couldn’t type!!
Anyway, please buy one of my excuses. You get my drift...

Since the last post, I had a more colorful experience at Drake.

One of the highlights was Drake’s annual street-painting. I was lucky that I could experience it this year because the event was cancelled in ‘08 and ‘07 due to the lousy weather. The morning began with volunteer work at a kindergarten where my friends and I helped our ‘students’ decorate their stationary box with colorful stickers. In the name of colors, Gabby (my student) painted her dad blue in color and giggled when I asked if her dad was really blue. Later in the afternoon, my buddies and I went street-(and face) painting. I could not recognize anyone as everyone had five thousand colors on their faces. As expected, my clothes were ruined and my shorts immediately looked designer-ish (I bet I could sell it for thousands on eBay). Paint was all over my face, hand, legs, hair and even at unexpected areas. The big issue was this: I HAD A FORMAL TO ATTEND IN 2 HOURS. The process of removing paint in a short period was definitely not easy. Nevertheless, I made it to the formal and though the event sucked, the after-party wasn’t entirely bad. As if my day had 36 hours, I went with my buddies to a local ‘hangout place’ and we continued partying till 4 in the morning (A large portion of details were omitted. The legal age in US is 21. Hehe :D). I told you my days were longer in Des Moines.

I had many interesting nights/evenings. Case in point being the one when my more-than-just-tipsy buddies and I were singing Flo Rida’s “Right Round” till we finally had a late-night supper break at I-Hop at 4 IN THE MORNING! And on another night, singing “I Kissed a Girl” on the way back to our dorm in the wee hours of the morning.

One of the less-interesting nights being the time when I saw a certain icky-icky big and hairy Malaysian seemingly taking advantage of my friend at a bar. I swear that I felt like puking even though no alcohol was ingested. And the shitty thing was that his dancing was shitty. Other boring things that I did were carrying a tonne of laundry a thousand miles to the laundry room, watching Grey’s Anatomy while having Shin Ramyun noodles, e-mailing my professors, flipping through the pages of textbooks, wiping my laptop screen….

I had many other colorful experiences but the bigger one was the ones with my close buddies for Spring 09 in Drake. They were exchange students from France and were only in Drake for a semester. We became really close friends and had an exchange of culture mainly in terms of foul words. These colors finally faded when all of them saw me off on my final (Spring 09) night in Des Moines. I was the first to leave (for Shanghai). Period.

So, what’s next for me? Hmmm..in Fall, I’m having a room(kinda) to myself. I’m sharing a unit with my current roomie, Ian (he has his own room in the unit too) and we don’t have to wait an hour for the lift to arrive or climb 500 flights of stairs to get to our unit because it will is on ground floor. Apparently, it happens to be the most coveted unit among others in Drake University.

The next less exciting thing happening to me is Calculus 2. I’ll finally be taking it after a delay in taking Calculus 1. I could bore you with the other subjects which I am taking simultaneously but I shall save you the details.

Coming soon…
More updates from my workplace and stuff I encounter in Shanghai.
Cheers!

Posted by mcmeanie at 6:46 AM

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Oh! Did I tell you guys that I visited Chicago during Spring Break?

My buds and I met our old bud Obie at the Sears Tower gift shop ;p

Adler Planetarium..where Night at the Museum was filmed..apparently

"Go Human Go," says Quacker. But, where to?

Honey, I shrunk that steel dude!

I camouflage so well..

My newest ride..........

.................was 13 blocks away at the station...

(Self-explanatory)

The one and only CHICAGO BEAN!!

(From L-R: Chloe, Sunshine, Emo and Cynthia)

Posted by mcmeanie at 10:28 AM

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

What's wrong with the face??

1. Receding hairline..
2. Droopy eyelids.. (Call Janice Dickinson's plastic surgeon now!!)
3. Nose that does not conform to Hollywood standards (Save Janice Dickinson's surgeon on speed dial!!)
4. Jaw and cheek bones aren't defined enough- therefore less masculine

NOPE!

If only he could correct all wrongs by paying a visit to JD's surgeon.

This is Bernie Madoff, one of TIME MAGAZINE's "25 People to Blame for the Financial Crisis." What did he do? To put it simply, he guaranteed investors huge returns and paid off early investors 'huge returns' using the capital raised from later entrants. In other words, his investment scheme, known as the Ponzi scheme, was a fraud.

When rumors about the authenticity of Madoff's investment scheme started swirling, investors started pulling out from the scheme. Of course, our smart Maddie has personally pocketed some hundreds(or thousands) of millions of dollars from the scheme.

All in all, the scheme was a $50 billion scam- one of the biggest ever seen by USA.

Maddie faces life sentence.

Have a nice day.. =)

Posted by mcmeanie at 9:32 PM

Things I Thought I'd Never Do

Since coming to Drake, I've tried many things I've never considered doing. Nothing illegal and obscene here. I would prefer my blog not to be flagged as obscene as far as I'm concerned. I've done the following throughout my three months here:

INTRODUCED MYSELF AS JASON

COOKED TWICE IN TWO WEEKS (PAN MEE, CURRY CHICKEN)

DANCED IN THE COMMON RESTROOM @ 3am

SHARE A ROOM WITH ANOTHER GUY

BUY STUFF ONLINE

ENJOY THE SUN

UTTER SO MANY CHINESE FOUL WORDS

UPDATE MY BLOG TWICE IN THREE FOUR DAYS

cheers

Posted by mcmeanie at 9:21 PM

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Absence

I've not been blogging for 528 hours and I'm not apologizing for it. A combination of factors deterred me from updating my blog. First, I had exams. Second, I had quizzes. Third, I had tests. I was lazy.

So, in the past 528 hours of my absence,

1. Dow Jones has risen 1118 points

2. One could have flown from Los Angeles to London 48 times

3. One could digest food from 105 times to 176 times

4. The Earth has spun around its axis 22 times

5. The (filthy rich) owners of the Tesla electric roadster could have charged his/her super electric car at least 18 times!!

6. Blood has completed approximately 31680 circuits around your body

7. The 2010 British Motor Show has been axed (Reason cited: Automotive Crisis)

8. SOB Chris Brown was charged with two felonies for beating up Princess Rihanna

9. Michael Jackson aka Wacko Jacko aka Paedo-man announced his first comeback residency in almost 12 years!

10. The Mercedes-Benz E-Class coupe is launched.

Posted by mcmeanie at 12:18 PM

Monday, March 2, 2009

Mosquito galore

I'm dedicating this post to someone special..REALLY SPECIAL. I intimately refer to him as Mosquito.

JL struggles to play "Chasing Cars" on the grand piano.

Mosquito flies by and decides to hit the low keys just to spoil the fun.

JL remains silent cos he is still struggling to find the right chords.

Mosquito : "Do you know how to play piano?"
JL : "Nope. I learnt it off YouTube. Cool right? I have no background in music at all man!"
Mosquito : "No wonder you fingers are so stiff and weird la."

JL starts to get irritated by the persistent buzzing of the insect. Remains quiet, now struggling to keep fingers from curling up to form fists.

Mosquito: "Oh, I play the organ. I don't play the piano. Organ is much more difficult to learn than piano."

JL walks away.

Yup! When we have mosquitoes, who needs nuclear weapons?