On Daisies

Elle m'aime un peu, beaucoup, passionnément, à la folie, pas du tout...

Byakuya

Kuchiki Byakuya rocks, nuff said. He's the head of one of the four noble families in Soul Society, and certainly fights in a manner befitting someone of his class. Notice his scarf around his neck as he fights (its a family heirloom that's worth several houses), as well as the cherry blossom attacks. Awesome shit!

Bankai


Byakuya and Yachiru


Byakuya Tribute

CBS is great...

Watch this spoof about Ben Bernanke done by the MBA students of Columbia Business School (CBS). It's freaking hilarious, a definite must watch. Yes, I know I'm a month late, and I blame my friends, especially one Columbia bound academician (no Taida shirt for you =P).

On a side note, just yesterday I was arguing with Kok Heng about the importance of emphasisng a brand's positioning strategy in advertisements, and that relying solely on catchy jingles (which seems to be the fad these days) that don't strengthen a brand's position is a waste of marketing budget.

I stand corrected. Who needs HBS or Wharton - repeat after me, CBS is great, wouldn't change his fate, CBS is great, wouldn't change his fate, CBS is great..

Winter

I was chatting with Janice yesterday, and since, as of two days ago, I official became part anglophile, I saw it fit to talk about the weather (in Taipei, where I’m currently on vacation).

Me: Terrible weather here. Really terrible.
Janice: Oh really? How so?
Me: Freezing cold here. You won’t believe how cold it is.
Janice: Better wear more warm clothing then. Is it snowing?
Me: It’s 15 degrees.
Janice: …
Janice: 15 degrees?
Me: Yes, mightily cold don’t you think?
Janice: Daniel, in America, we go jogging in shorts in 15 degrees.

An affront to my manhood, a veritable affront, she has committed! To redeem my pride, I shall go streaking around Taipei. If I should die of Pneumonia or get executed for indecent exposure, I shall come back and haunt her while wearing a red overcoat!!!
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

Just kidding… I won’t wear red – white goes better with my skin.

PS: As with most conversations quoted on my blog, probably only 50% of it is accurate. I have a bad memory.

Domestication

Of late, as my nearest and dearest and generally anyone within audible range can attest, I’m fallen in love with Pride and Prejudice. Not to mention Keira Knightly. Thus, when Focus Features remade my all-time favorite romance novel and cast my all-time favorite female actress in it, it was hardly surprising that it turned me into a slobbering, waxing lyrical fan boy.

In fact, I’ve decided to name my first-born, if she happens to be female, Elizabeth. Of course, this presupposes I overcoming my intense hatred for children, but considering that up till early last year, I was still actively contemplating eternal singlehood, I think there’s a high chance of that happening.

One more step down the slippery slope of domestication…

University Application

If there’s one university application question that’s incredibly irritating yet unbelievably ubiquitous, it's “Tell us why you want to study at xxx College/University.” Not only is it narcissistic, it’s almost bound to elicit a stock answer thus making it rather redundant. But have no fear, I’m here to provide you with different answers that are almost certain to be efficacious…

Brown:

“It’s my favourite colour”

Harvard:

“For one, I heard students get incredible support from the faculty. Wait a minute, I’m in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire right”

Oxford:

“Two words: Emma Watson”
“It’s my dream to study at Hogwarts… opps, I mean Oxford”

Princeton:

“Because I don’t want to be taught by TAs and I want to be able to walk out of campus without being stabbed”
“Social life ought to be good. After all, Princeton’s school mascot is a pussy”

Yale:

“Because Harvard Sucks and Princeton doesn’t matter”
“I’m gay” (Disclaimer): I’m STRAIGHT. This is not something I would use!

Of course, efficacious only if you want a particular outcome …

Duels

For the longest time I’ve been dreaming of living in the Victorian era. The country houses, the lavish balls, the pretentious mannerisms; surely it must all fit me. Alas, I’m stuck here in the mundane present where people gyrate in smoke-filled rooms instead of waltzing in chandelier-lit ballrooms. Not to mention they don’t even bow or curtsy when asking for a dance. Oh, for humanity’s sake!

Indeed, I had written off society as a cesspool of moral deprivation. Thus imagine my astonishment when Mr. Pang challenged me to a duel. How quaint, thought I, but how much pleasure it must surely afford. “Rapiers or pistols,” enquired I, adding that my second would meet his to arrange the time and terms of the duel.

“Neither,” replied he, “Warcraft III will do fine. And no seconds.”

No seconds, no pistols, no rapiers. Unheard of, thought I, but I soon decided that these could be overlooked. History was, after all, in the making, or rather, re-making.

Thus began the fateful duel to the death…

To those unfamiliar with Warcraft III, the first order of the day is to choose a race and a hero. Now, my worthy opponent chose the savage Orcs, which, in my opinion, while possessing fearsome combat abilities, possess even more fearsome eating habits. Indeed, their table-manners, or lack of, still send a chill down my spine. However, though reluctant, I had to, in the spirit of fairness, choose the same race as my opponent.

I chose the Far-Seer as my hero, an obvious choice seeing he was the only “mounted” hero. Sure, riding on a wolf is not exactly the same as riding a horse, but it was better than running around on foot. Why, I may have gotten my boots dirtied.

Once properly equipped, heroes start “Creeping,” an activity almost analogous to hunting. Heroes look for prey to hunt and gain items and experience in the process, but unlike the rabbits and foxes in the gentlemanly sport of hunting, creeps bite back. They really ought to know their place in society. Appalling manners really.

But their indecorum was soon eclipsed by the behaviour of my opponent, Mr. Pang, who soon arrived at the grounds where I was hunting creeps. Etiquette dictated that one should wait one’s turn when hunting. I was there first, and I naturally expected him to find his own creep but, to my great shock, he promptly shot at my prey! How rude, thought I, and just as I was about to confront him, he attacked me!

What an utter lack of decorum! What an affront to civil society!

Disclaimer: For those who don’t get it, this post is meant to be farcical. The truth is that I got pwned by the better player, and I don’t see any shame in that. Kudos to Terence, and subsequently Wan Yuan.

English Accents

This morning, while surfing through the Jon Stewart videos, I found a recent clip of Keira Knightly appearing in his celebrity interview segment. Ten minutes later, I found myself hopelessly infatuated by her golden tresses, her winsome appearance, her sharp wit, and most of all, her British accent. Of all the accents in the world, nothing appeals to my aural senses more than the vocal inflexion of an Anglo-Saxon, but hers was even more special.

It is on such occasions that I curse myself for not applying to Oxbridge. Indeed a tragedy of Shakespearean proportions.

Bad News for Bush

These make my day.

Bush's popularity reaches new low
Libby's trial to be prolonged
Brown is more incompetent than originally thought

With any luck, control of the Senate will revert back to the Democrats during the 2006 mid-term elections, giving liberals the power to kickstart investigations regarding the Iraq debacle. This isn't quite the blame game that the Republicans like to accuse the left-wing of, but the issue of accountability (which incidentally is the phrase Republicians touted almost ubiquitously during the Monica Lewinsky scandal).

In 2000, Bush ran on the electoral pledge of "restoring honour and dignity to the White House." Well, with any luck, they will be restored in the White House, but perhaps not quite the way Bush had expected.

GOP

And the tides have once again shifted to favour the Democrats, courtesy of a bold manoeuvre by Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (the person shown above) had this to say. "This is an affront to me personally. This is an affront to our leadership. It is an affront to the United States of Amserica, and it is wrong."

Or, if I may summarise, "I've been owned."

Republicans have been crying foul over this development, calling it a stunt designed to draw media attention away from the recent White House nomination of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court. While some may consider this to be hypocritical as the said nomination came a few days after what pundits described as "Bush's worst week," we must conclude that this cannot be so as only Democrats pull stunts; Republicans are way too honorable to stoop to the same level as their liberal counterparts.

Yessir, the GOP stands for accountability, honour, and ethics, except when it came to Katrina. And Plamegate. And Tom Delay. And Haliburton. Yessir, the GOP stands for all these values, except when Republicans are involved; but on all other occasions, you can count on them to be beacons of moral rectitude and deliverers of justice.