wePadding

Right.

So here we are in Suntec City blogging from an iPad. A display set in Epicenter jailbroken and running Cydia with the fonts replaced with horrible Times New Roman, but goodness it's a pleasure to type on this heavy baby when it's resting on a surface in landscape mode.

Also, the screen on the iPhone 4! Gorgeous. We had a side-by-side comparison with our 3GS and it was like comparing a plasma telly to a LED telly.

The things we do to walk off a heavy Japanese buffet lunch at Kuishin-Bo!

Collector's Curse

If there's a bane about collecting anything, it's the amount of space available for whatever there is to collect. From the usual stuff like books and pens to caps and cups and playing cards (okay we sorta described the stuff we've collected in our lifetime), we've reached a point where we can't really just buy whatever we want on a whim.

All covered by a single phrase: "There is no shelf space left!"

Which holds true when it comes to books, caps, and cups. As for pens, well, the pharmaceutical industry is one with multinational companies generous enough to hand out gimmicks so pens are ever plenty to the point where we've stopped collecting, unless we come across a nice unique pen that's worth keeping (like the bone-shaped Fosamax pen, or this large pen filled with numbered balls for a quick game of bingo or lotto, or souvenir pens). We've some three venti-sized Starbucks cups now filled with pens that most of them have dried up without even being used much (or at all).

Sigh.

Our Starbucks City Mug collection has reached its limit now that Kepong Biceps has brought back the Scotland City Mug (with the new design) for us (seeing how our old Scotland City Mug got chipped and mum immediately trashed it for us before we could stow it away, chip or no), and we may be expecting a London or Amsterdam City Mug from another friend too. There's also other coffee mugs we've gotten stowed together with our City Mugs, waiting for the day when they finally have a showcase/shelf where they can be displayed individually.

Books? We actually now blame BookXcess for considerably filling up the bookshelf we had installed under our cubicle, and am now considering a second bookshelf if we can find that particular model again. We actually find ourself walking into the store almost every single day of the week just to have a peek at what's new on the shelf (even if there hasn't been any new arrivals!) just in case we spot something that would be snapped up quickly, like Calvin & Hobbes treasury comics or The Art Of Discworld, and we don't care we're going to blame them for the fact that we have two copies of The Hounds Of The Baskervilles.

But we love them anyways. Where else can you find the complete set of Little Miss series (we'll wait until the complete Mr Men series are out before we buy 'em!) or audiobooks at the cheap? We'll be drowning our little niece with books from here!

Anyways. We sort of find that we need to cut down on the collecting especially after we've relocated and find that to our shame we have ten cups/mugs/glasses in the office, out of which we only use three - our KL City Mug for our drinks, a glass that looks like the A&W Root Beer stein from Chatuchak, and the third one technically a cafetier but take off the cover/plunger/filter bit and we can use it to drink water. As for the rest, well, they've just got to be stacked nicely into bags and stowed under the cubicle desk...

Filing Fail

We're in the midst of relocating, and it's at this time where all the old stuff comes out into the open. Stuff that we've sort of shoved into a cabinet and left till times like spring cleaning or relocating when we have to take it out and organize it into boxes, files and folders, or the rubbish bin.

And to our shame we'd come across a large bag (the largest plastic bag you'd get from the supermarket), filled chock-full with letters, letters, more letters, claim forms, product inserts, pay advice, magazines, and even something far more intimidating than enlarged lips pasted on a mask...

In those stacks of letters, we find our missing phone and credit card bills from 2006. Statements, blank envelopes for cheques, brochures and rewards booklets still in the envelopes. An archeological find indeed, of an era when Janvier had yet to develop the technology of filing! Much discovered today helped to fill in the missing gap of missing bills and statements, and now our archiving is far more complete than it ever was before!

Everything else, like old Guardian punch cards and claim forms, magazines, product inserts, credit card reward booklets and envelopes were either shredded or binned. Finally. Clearing up space and giving us some ease of mind.

Now that Technology: Filing has been discovered for over a couple of years, next in line is Technology: Digital Filing. This once we've relocated, gotten ourself a new PC and a second external hard disk and set up the scanner with paper feeder. Then we'll start transferring all our work dossiers and documents into digital copies, even though admittedly we prefer actual hardcopies.

Onerous Onlineness

The current method of anti-piracy prevention where you need an internet connection to play games irk us terribly. Not that there's a lot of games that do this, really, so far it's only with Steam that we have our gripes against but with games like Assassin's Creed 2, C&C4 and now even Starcraft 2 requiring an internet connection to play, we get a serious case of the irritables.

You're paying some RM250 for an original copy and there's still more hassle? In order to install, you need to connect once and create a Battle.net account and link your CD Key to your account, then you're able to play? In order to save your achievements in the campaign, you need to be connected. In order to play multiplayer, you need to be connected because there is no more LAN multiplayer.

Well. At least it's a mite improvement compared to C&C4, where in order to play even the single player campaign you need to be connected.

We have this notion that if we buy Starcraft 2, we're buying a game that we can play as we like at any time we like provided we have a PC that can support the hardware requirements. We kinda see Starcraft 2 as a single-player strategy game with additional multiplayer options, hence we think of it as a game where you can play offline and only connect online should you want to play with/against other players. Not, as it partly looks like, a multiplayer online game with a single player campaign story mode thrown in. Perhaps if we think of Starcraft 2 as a multiplayer online game then we wouldn't gripe over the internet requirement for gaming. But it's hard to think of it that way when Blizzard is releasing Starcraft 2 over three campaigns for the story!

So what happens if internet connectivity goes down again? No multiplayer then, yeah?

It's interesting how Starcraft 2 gets our goat while C&C4 doesn't. Sadly after Red Alert 2 we haven't really had any of the Command & Conquer games make us feel like how Starcraft 2 does - like we're back in college or university and off to visit the cyber cafe after lectures almost every day. We put this down to nostalgia and the love for Zergs.

You can label us as being 10 years in the past where 'connecting online' was an option limited by the speed of the modem and data charges, nowadays everyone is on broadband. But we don't like to take our internet connection for granted as being 'always there'.

Wax / Wane

Right. It's been a month now since we've waxed, and convenience-wise waxing definitely tops shaving. While we may like the feel of short prickly stubble, chafing stubble is no fun at all (especially when they're prickly enough to prick through clothes!) and we can only take a week at most before having to shave again. While post-waxing hair is soft and does not itch as it is not prickly! Also only need upkeep after 3 weeks! And we're told that after a few sessions the regrowth rate will slow down even more!

The only problem is, waxing will wax our wallet free of cash too if we keep at it every three weeks, compared to shaving. And we could just let hair grow back again, that would be even more wallet-friendly.

Oh well. If we didn't like it we would have stopped shaving a year back, heh.

Wax On... Wax Off

...don't forget to breath. Very important.

So. Stewerdess Sal opens her own aesthetics shop, and she needed help from her friends. Specifically, she needed volunteer models so that her staff could practise their techniques when it came to brow treading, manicures, pedicures and waxing. Volunteer male and female models.

Everyone was apprehensive about the waxing thing, whether it was the axillae, the legs, nose hair, and most balked at the idea of going brazilian. The private bits, open for viewing, subjected to scrutiny, and soon shorned of shrubbery.

The thing is, everyone has this idea that waxing brings about an entire world of pain never felt before. The closest we think waxing may feel like, is like having a Handyplast plastered to the leg where there is hair, and yanking it off. Already as it is, peeling the bloody plaster off slowly may sting, what more will waxing feel like!

Since it's for a friend, most of us agreed to lend a helping hand, or in this case, helping arms and legs. We had the impression that it would be just us and the trainee after all. A trainee that we didn't know.

We were ok with volunteering, so our only question we needed to ask Stewardess Sal was, "What's the minimal hair length required for waxing?"

'Cos it's no point us volunteering when the hair length isn't long enough to wax off, isn't it? We've been shaving for close to a year now and it's been taking a toll in razor blades, as we have to shave every other day. If we leave it, at the most after a week it'll start getting prickly and we'll have to do something about it. And we were curious about two things about waxing: just how painful waxing really is, and how long does it take before hair grows again.

And so we made an appointment, and as the day drew closer we received and email from Sal saying that we're the first male model for waxing and that she would be the one to attend to us as the other trainees are working on other volunteers. If we weren't comfortable with that, we can come in later that day after she's done with another volunteer.

Naturally we hesitated. It's one thing having a complete stranger wax you, it's another when it's a friend that you aren't that, er, close with.

It's also a good thing Sal told us this earlier and not on the day we arrived, 'cos we had time to think it over and in the end we thought, what the heck, let's get this over with. If she told us upon arrival we might just have chickened out for good, or else gone through with the thing but felt as if we were doing it against our will.

So when we arrived we got a quick tour of the place, and when it was time we were shown into a room where we changed and waited for Sal. Sal then tried a brand of hot wax on our right axilla. Smelled of rose, and while we couldn't see her applying it we could definitely feel something warm there. Not searing hot, but comfortably warm.

Then we felt a slight pinching feeling.

Then she yanked. And immediately after that, using a gloved hand, pressed on the area waxed.

And in our opinion, it's not that bad. Certainly nothing to scream about!

Then she informed us she was trying a different brand of hot wax on our left axilla (the, well, advantage of being the first volunteer, you get to try a few different stuff!). This time we felt it sting a bit more, so for the rest of the session Sal used the rose-smelling wax.

It was all professionally done. And the pain nothing that would cause us to take pause and breathe or whimper. All the while the two of us chitchatted about this and that. And in under an hour we were finished! With, admittedly, bits of beeswax stuck here and there on our skin, as there was no shower room to clean up after a session.

So our take on waxing? Not the horrifying scream-inducing painful experience that you hear about, probably because hot wax was used and not wax strips. And we're now three weeks past without feeling prickly!

And we gather we had an easier time after all - Rambunctious Ron was the next to be waxed, and in his session he had Stewardess Sal overseeing two trainees waxing him! Turns out he was ticklish during his session, and his laughter could be heard outside the room! Would have made anyone wonder just what was going on in there. Well at least it wasn't the three girls who were laughing!