Letters, Songs & Wishes

A few things to share today (28th Jan 2007). First up, the wish.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEREK! Hope yer having a good one. Your SEA cousins love ya. Have fun in NY.

Next up. Songs. I have a new mobile (let's hope this one lasts with me more than 1 year, 2 years cause I don't wanna be a materialistic bitch). Anyway, its SonyEricsson. K800i. In-built MP3 player. So I've loaded songs into it. A whole load of Hillsongs United (oh-ohh!). Amen eh? Take Take Take It ALL!!! Church service today was good. Love Take It All. Haha. Aight, that's about it for songs.

Letters.

Dear Nana,
Its been so long since I wrote to you. I'm sorry. I have not forgotten you. It still hurts y'know? Something I will probably never get out of my system ever. We love you Nan. Whatever I had in my head these few days, its not coming out. I'll write soon.

Love,
Jono.

Dear bro,
Likewise, its been sometime now. I'm sorry. I haven't forgotten you either and it hurts too. I dunno why, but it just does at times. Maybe it was the sudden-ness of it all. I miss yer opinions and stuff. Really. Sigh. Hope things are going well. Little one is growing up I hear. I shall stop here...

Love,
Jono.

Shout-outs:
Gabe-bro: Thanks for the prayers. Gonna pray for you too. Mehh, gotta talk more.
Ben-bro: Dude, confidence man. Believe, trust. Today in FUEL, I've learnt something. Will send an email to you with the stuuff in it. Hope it speaks to you. =)) Praying for yer exam results. Confidence man. Believe, trust.

-LIVESTRONG!-
Heads Up and Stay Strong
Be Proud

Ravu versus Moto

Ravu versus Moto. A new season of Survivor, two new tribes, a new winner. Survivor: Fiji premieres February 9, Channel 5 at 11pm.

Ravu
Anthony
Earl
Erica
James
Jessica
Michelle
Mookie
Rita
Sylvia
Yau-Man

Moto
Alex
Boo
Cassandra
Dre
Edgardo
Gary
Liliana
Lisi
Stacy

-LIVESTRONG!-
Heads Up and Stay Strong
Be Proud

Big Brother & some updates

Big Brother, a show mostly unfamiliar to those in this region. Think Survivor, but in a house. And for much longer. No contact with the outside world (ie. No Tv, No Internet, No Phones). They participate in challenges akin to reward challenges and immunity challenges. There's also a special one for veto.

Basically how it runs is that there's the "immunity challenge", or known as head-of-household challenge. This grants immunity to someone who is given the rank "Head-Of-Household", HOH. This person then can nominate 2 people to vote out of the house. Voting would take place shortly, but after the veto competition is concluded. The prize is to be able to veto someone from the chopping block.

Let's play a scenario.
A - HOH
B - Chopping block
C - Chopping block
D - House guest
E - House guest

Lets say C wins veto competition. C can veto himself from the chopping block and A will have to nominate D or E to replace C. If E won, E can listen to B and C's pleas and removed B/C or not at all. If B/C was removed, A will have to place D on the block.

Nominees are voted for and the one with most votes leaves. In some regions, veto competitions are not held and voting is done by public polls instead of by the house guests. Veto competitions only apply to the US version.

BB is different, on a whole new level. Competitors are limited and restricted to a certain area. Compared to Survivor, they can take a walk down the beach or into the jungle. But in BB, they are only allowed to go within the house compound. Sometimes when there's unwanted attention from the outside world, they may even be restricted to just within the house. As such, cabin fever can result.

Okay, that's it with reality shows. Oh, wait. An announcement. The Apprentice has sunk to a level beyond calling it crap. Yes. I thought season 6 would be good but its baaaaaaaaaaad. Why? 3 silly twists that's why.

1) Losers live in backyard tents called "tent city".
2) Winning project manager stays as project manager till team loses.
3) Winning team exempt from some tasks.

Its a flop. Call it the end Donald. I think he's pretty mean, unneccessarily mean, at times. Anyway, been uber busy lately. Ignyte Video, school and exams soon. So, you know why there's a lag.

-LIVESTRONG!-
Heads Up and Stay Strong
Be Proud

Idol Mania

American Idol and all other national idols out there (Pop Idol, Arabian Idol, South African Idol, Australian Idol, Indonesian Idol, Malaysian Idol, Singapore Idol, Indian Idol, Canadian Idol), use the same format. The original was the UK series, Pop Idol, which soon spread to a lot of other countries. The format involves various stages in this vocal competition. The first stage is the audition stage, where the hopefuls face the judges and sing acapella to pass the auditions and move on to the next round. The next round is where the top 100 is selected, usually in some high class place (Hollywood for America), after the nation-wide audition stage is passed. This is then narrowed down to the top 24, whereby most of the control of the judges expires.

At the top 24 level, the competitors perform live on TV and viewers vote for their favourite. The competitors with the highest number of votes then moves on into the final 12 stage. Various set ups have been used at the top 24 stage. The first three seasons in American randomly assigned competitors to the three different rounds (each with different competitors on a week by week basis). From the pool of candidates that did not make it pass this round, hope comes in the form of the wildcard round where 8 to 12 are brought back for one last chance at the final 12. The judges pick 3 and viewers one competitor to go on.

American Idol's season 4 and 5 divided the top 24 into male and female weeks to even out the gender playing field in the final 12. Instead of the top 2 competitors from each week moving on to the final 12, the viewers now watch 12 males/females sing and then vote. The competitor with the lowest votes then is eliminated. Each week sees two competitors of a certain gender eliminated. There is no wildcard round (that I can recall) for the last two seasons.

At the final 12 stage, the competitors fight it out, live, on a much larger stage. Viewers vote once again and the results are then announced. From the remaining contestants, the three with the lowest number of votes are called down to the elimination floor. One by one, those with the higher number of votes are allowed to return until the person with the lowest number of votes is left on the elimination floor. A video then plays, marking various milestones in the competitor's journey thus far, the judges give some constructive advice and the contestant sings one last time. This format follows until the winner is announced. All voting from TV is done overnight with a results show the following day.

Part of American Idol that has gotten me disenchanted with the series is the introduction of the new top 24 round elimination. I would rather prefer we see mixed batches and from there, the contestant with the highest number of votes from each gender moves onto the next round. The current format takes too long and it gets dreary after awhile. Part of the excitement of being in the final 12 was getting to know the contestants better in terms of full singing ability. With the new format, one already knows of the contestant's singing abilities and the final 12 stage is just a repeat of the top 24 stage, only with the shows being themed to a particular music taste. Another way to divide it up would be one week for females, one week for males and one week mixed. The fourth week would be the return of the wildcard round.

Also, production during the final 12 stage has waned. There used to be live performances and MTVs played during the results show. They also used to show videos of what the contestants were up to that week. But this has mostly fizzled out and we're left with a vocal competition in the very purest form. This has made American Idol dry for me.

The next reality show feature? Big Brother.

-LIVESTRONG!-
Heads Up and Stay Strong
Be Proud

The Fiji cast

The Fiji cast announced. After looking at the pre-game interviews on the innertube, I'll say that the cast is really likable. Check out the cast announcement on The Early Show (a bit of the Fiji theme plays, sounds cool and really tribal war-ific).



A few spoilers trickling through. But Fiji looks like its set to be a good season. This cast has many likables, that I probably like 75% of them. Lol.

Alex: Seems okay to me. Heheh. Knows his gameplay.
Anthony: Seems genuine. Knows what he wants.
Boo: Leaving all options open.
Cassandra: Cirie v 2.0! I wonder if she will have good confessionals.
Dre: Uhh, I lost count of how many "y'know what I mean"s he had in his vid.
Earl: Umm, I need to see more from him.
Erica: Genuine and out there to go get it.
Gary: I like this guy a lot. Not like Jake or Willard, seems young at heart. Energetic!
James: Another one for "y'knows". Sounds like a guy who you'd like to hate.
Jessica: She's out to kill. Really out there for business. No picnic on Fiji for her.
Liliana: She's cool.
Lisi: Very, very different. I get a Twila vibe from her.
Michelle: Ugggh, too act-cute-ish.
Mookie: Mookie, heheh. As good as his name?
Rita: Nick from PR, love him. I hope she's just as good.
Stacy: Looks bimbotic, but I think she makes sense somehow. Don't judge a book by the cover?
Sylvia: An older Asian woman! From Hong Kong! Whooo. She's different from previous Asians.
Yau-Man: A Malaysian born guy. Haha, speaks like a South East Asian alright.

Time for tribal warring!! Haves versus Have nots. 19 castaways since one lady bailed the night before the game began and no alternates were on hand.

Next reality tv show feature coming up: American Idol.

-LIVESTRONG!-
Heads Up and Stay Strong
Be Proud

The Apprentice

Today's reality show feature is The Apprentice. The premise is that this reality interview is a 15-week long interview testing different aspects of the interviewee in a reality show style. Tasks are awarded to teams who then compete to perform better. Winners are given a reward while the losers face the big boss in the dreaded boardroom where "someone will be fired". A catchphrase is usually used, something along the lines of "you're fired!" or "you just don't fit in". My ultimate favourite, though, comes from one episode of The Apprentice: Martha Stewart in which she said "you're just not working for me". Kinda harsh, but yeah man, totally icy.

Some seasons do produce people who are really adept, while others have teams bombing out leaving less "qualified" people around. Season 1, from what I've heard, was good. The cast was somewhat competent and managed to produce a good season. Season 2 had characters, they were less competent at the tasks compared to the previous season. Season 3 had to take the cake for the least competent cast when it was shown. This season had the street smarts (diploma holders) against the book smarts (degree holders). Once the teams were shuffled though, the Net Worth corporation bombed out by losing almost every single task. Season 4 brought the series to a new synergy, as though it was revitalised. This went downhill in season 5, with the cast coming up behind season 3 for least competent. Season 6 is currently underway with season 7 slated for filming this year.

Some memorable characters were Ivana (who took off her skirt for a person to buy chocolate), Jennifer Massey (for being the "fembot"), Chris from season3 (for being short tempered), Tana (for her bedazzeller love), Kendra (for being the only female winner thus far), Randall (for an unbelivable track record), Rebecca (for being in crutches) and uh, Brent (for being a total pain-in-the-ass bastard).

Meanwhile, here's the identification of some members from the Survivor: Fiji cast. Moultrie, Kenia, Stacy, Michelle, Rita (Nick Verreos from Project Runway 2's sister), Mookie, Jessica.

-LIVESTRONG!-
Heads Up and Stay Strong
Be Proud

The Amazing Race

Today's reality show feature is The Amazing Race. The series, together with all versions has 10 American versions and one Asian version at the moment. A Central Europe version is due. Season 11 of the American version is or already has been filmed and is an All Stars season.

As the teams race around the world, they receive different types of race information - route information, detour, roadblock, yield and the newest, intergration. Non-elimination legs require the last team to arrive at the check-in point, called a pit stop, to give all their money to the host and start the next leg without receiving any money. While teams on the Asian version are very kind, with each team leaving an amount of money for the last team, the American version has people who have plain out refused to do so (Rob & Amber versus Meredith & Gretchen, Season 7).

The race has numerous participants of different ethnicities and backgrounds and personalities. There have been Asian, Hispanic and African American racers, and more so than on Survivor. In the most recent race, Season 10, there was even a Middle Eastern team and an Indian team. There have also been fame whores on the show (Rob & Amber). Collectively, they have been on 5 reality shows to date and even had their wedding filmed and telecasted.

Rob Mariano
Survivor: Marquesas
Survivor: All Stars
The Amazing Race 7
The Amazing Race 11: Return of the Racers (All Stars)

Amber Brkich-Mariano
Survivor: The Australian Outback
Survivor: All Stars
The Amazing Race 7
The Amazing Race 11: Return of the Racers (All Stars)

Others include former drug addicts, teachers, a former prisoner of war in Iraq and former Miss USA contestants (Dustin & Kandice). The race is often stressful on the teams as they compete to come in the top positions for each leg. Each leg poses various tasks for the teams to complete, such as rock climbing or driving a go-cart around a track. They need to finish these in order to get the "clue" in the form of a route info. Detours are tasks from which the team may choose to complete. There are pros and cons to each task. A roadblock is a task which one member of the team may perform. In some seasons, the number of roadblocks that may be performed must be equal among both team members.

Generally, the editing is good and the race intense, even for the homeviewers. Suspense can mount when it comes down to a foot race for positions when nearing the pit stop. Here's hoping that season 11's All Stars will really be All Star players and out to race the best ever.

Not forgetting, there are many times where teams simply meltdown. A few famours ones:
- Flo at Zach taking off his pants before the bike ride
- Victoria suddenly getting cut in the mud task
- Colin's "My ox is broken!"

Enjoy.







-LIVESTRONG!-
Heads Up and Stay Strong
Be Proud

Project Runway

Today's reality show feature is Project Runway. It's been a revolutionary show, giving new meaning to reality. Fashion is real stuff! Anyway, the challenges are interesting. From tearing up the designer's evening wear to a bar to scavenging the quarters for useful items to make a design, the challenges are tough. And they really do bring out the creative side of the designers. One has to have vision when making such stuff. I really do take my hat off to the designers for creating such wearable stuff within a matter of hours. All that sewing is done by themselves and no one else.

I remember the very, very first challenge of the first season. The contestants had to purchase things from a supermart and create a dress with the materials purchased. Austin's design, made for corn husks, was fantabulous. Dried or not, it was daring yet unique. Awesome stuff.

Project Runway, although only 3 seasons old, hasn't escaped from its fair share of controversies. Like when Keith was the first contestant disqualified for illegal possession of books and use of the internet. Needless to say though, the show has had its plethora of entertaining characters. The evil food ingredient siblings, Wendy Pepper and Santino Rice. Keith. Vincent. Andre. Daniel Franco and Daniel Vosovic. Jay McCaroll. Kayne. Jeffery. Uli. All memorable for different reasons. And who can forget Kara Saun and her awesome work?

Project Runway has a very interesting premise that seals the show's ability to pull in audiences. Let's hope for more interesting characters and more seasons to come eh? Viva la Project Runway. Au Weidershen (forgive my spelling oh Germans).

-LIVESTRONG!-
Heads Up and Stay Strong
Be Proud

Survivoresque

What do you think of reality shows? Personally, I find them really interesting from a production point of view. Have you ever wondered how the contestants actually can remember the exact details hours later when they have to sit down and do a confessional? Hahaha. And how do they even have such time to do confessionals on some shows. Like on Project Runway. Aren't they supposed to be busy doing their pieces? How the heck do they get the time to get away from their work and narrate what's going on? And the Amazing Race. The US version shows the teams in like, their homes? And they sit there telling us what is happening and all. Like, whoa. For the Asian version its clear that at each stage of the race they do confessionals after the leg is run.

Survivor has awesome challenges and the Apprentice looks really tough on the contestants. I wonder what the Apprentice 6 will bring. Heh.

Anyway, reality show for today is Survivor. 13 seasons on and it still has its draw. You have to give credit to the producers for coming up with so many ideas. The 14th season is filmed and applications for the 15th season are underway. Each season is unique and largely attributed to the cast of the season. Some seasons you get boring people, others you get interesting people.

My favourite seasons:
1. Pearl Islands
2. Australian Outback
3. Cook Islands
4. Vanuatu
5. Guatemala
6. Borneo
7. Amazon
8. Africa
9. Marquesas
10. All Stars
11. Palau
12. Thailand
13. Panama

Panama sucked really badly in part because of the cast. I didn't like them really, they were sort of bitchy. If there are a few people who are bitchy, its ok. But when the whole cast is bitchy, uggh. And Terry didn't help with that winning streak of his. I grew tired of Terry. The concept of Exile Island didn't work very well either.

Thailand was just, well, boring. The highlight? Grindgate and Brian screwing everyone over and yet winning. Oh, and the Shii Devil.

Palau in part, I didn't like since the season was lopsided. Koror just bulldozed every immunity! Stephenie was portrayed well in this season. Pretty much like Rupert in Pearl Islands.

All Stars was a bomb out. I think in part because everyone knew how the other played, so each tried to out do each other. Chapera was pretty stupid for letting Romber breeze through.

Marquesas, nearly pulled a Palau. Maaramu tribe was sorta doomed till the switch up. I don't remember much about Marquesas except Vecepia winning it since I switched off on this season. Same for Thailand.

Africa was dry and looked really hot. For the most part, the cast was okay. They had their fair share of conflicts, what with Diane versus Clarence. Heh. Sounds a lot like grindgate but not to such a big extent.

Amazon spiced things up with the gender split. And the girls kicked ass out there! Haha, I mean, it would've been okay if the guys were humble but they were big headed so just as well that the gals kicked their asses in the first challenge. And Christy's expressions, oh goodness.

Borneo was the mother of all reality shows. After this season kicked off, it hooked people for the second season, Australia. Fairly interesting since it was a new concept but I don't think it was as captivating as other seasons.

Guatemala was also nice. I really liked the change of scenery that was needed after being on so many islands the past few seasons. Gameplay wise, it was okay. Judd was entertaining while I will always remember Danni's funny way of saying things. And Amy! We're decimated!

Vanuatu was interesting again. Gender split where the girls trumped the men again but then got lost in translation somewhere along the way. Who won't remember Chris the only man with six girls on an island and surviving it all? That same Chris who kept dropping off the balance beam. And Twila swearing on her son. I think she got a lot of unnecessary flak from that.

Cook Islands was interesting with the enthic split. A lot of wishy-washing and very inexperienced players made it an interesting season for sure. And then there were the underdogs who you could not hope and hope for them to make it. Oh, and what a pagonging they did too.

Australia was an interesting season with the flood and all. It was still new so its appeal was quite high. The cast was a good one too. Remember Alicia and Kimmi over the chickens? That finger wag. One of the best moments ever.

Pearl Islands, the first time they went there out of three. CBS, do not recycle any more locations. Once is okay, twice it starts to get old though its still tolerable, but thrice is the limit. Anyway, since PI was the first time it was nice. The outcasts twist was a big no-no in ethicality but that did little to dampen the effects that the cast had. They had a synergy like none other. Sandra versus Jon, pouty Lillian the white whale! A whole lot of characters. Big bird Christa, scared of big birds Osten. Heh.

The editors must have a fun time fiddling around with all the footage. Including that that is not shown. Its like creating a movie and they get to see all the deleted scenes. But Cook Islands had great editing after the crap season that Panama was. Personally, I like a larger cast although it took longer to get to the merge (which seemed like forever). There were a lot of possibilities that were explored in this last season that were not done in Palau because they messed up the 20 castaway twist. Survivor: Fiji, coming February. Let's hope for more fantastic editing, a balanced cast and more thrilling gameplay.



-LIVESTRONG!-
Heads Up and Stay Strong
Be Proud

Swimming

Last night I finally used the pool at our place. I was the only swimmer there, heh. I swam the breadth of the pool rather than the length since its been sometime since I went swimming so I needed to get used to it again. One side is 0.75m deep and the other is 2.5m deep. The shallower side is really, really shallow. Maybe too shallow. But yeah, it was a good workout for sure and the pool is nice. Especially on a hot day, it looks really inviting. But heck, night swims are good too.

-LIVESTRONG!-
Heads Up and Stay Strong
Be Proud

Home

Home - Michael Buble

Another summer day
Has come and gone away
In Paris and Rome
But I wanna go home
Mmmmmmmm

Maybe surrounded by
A million people I
Still feel all alone
I just wanna go home
Babe I miss you, you know

And I’ve been keeping all the letters that I wrote to you
Each one a line or two
“I’m fine baby, how are you?”
Well I would send them but I know that it’s just not enough
My words were cold and flat
And you deserve more than that

Another aeroplane
Another sunny place
I’m lucky I know
But I wanna go home
Mmmm, I’ve got to go home

Let me go home
'Cause I’m just too far from where you are
I wanna come home

And I feel just like I’m living someone else’s life
It’s like I just stepped outside
When everything was going right
And I know just why you could not
Come along with me
That this is not your dream
But you always believed in me

Another winter day has come
And gone away
In even Paris and Rome
And I wanna go home
Let me go home

And I’m surrounded by
A million people I
Still feel all alone
Oh, let me go home
Oh, I miss you, you know

Let me go home
I’ve had my run
Baby, I’m done
I gotta go home
Let me go home
It will all be all right
I’ll be home tonight
I’m coming back home

Yesterday this was playing on loop at Aunty Linda's house. It's a really nice song. Way to go Buble! Awesome singing. I love Michael Buble. Such a smooth voice!

-LIVESTRONG!-
Heads Up and Stay Strong
Be Proud

New Year Party

Today was spent most lazily. I have yet to gain momentum on revision or even completion of the departed assignment. CGD still hangs in the air with me just collecting sprites thus far and the rest of the projects are going no where. But I am not panicking, no. Anyhow, I digress once again. As I was saying, today was spent most lazily. I woke up around noon and then proceeded to play on the computer for awhile before eating lunch and then tea when the rent's friends came over to discuss cell planning.

At night, however, we were invited to dinner by Aunty Linda who made it clear to mom she wanted Frederick and I to attend. It was fantastic, poor Aunty Linda spent the whole day cooking tonnes of delicious food. There was pasta, noodles, rice, curry, stew, fruit salad just to name a few. Eric was more open today than previously and I talked a little to Kevin (who I think needs a confidence-in-results booster) and was shown by Eric the game Puzzle Fighter (in picture above). The Cafe guys and I used to play this at the Jurong entertainment arcade, so I knew how the game works. And believe me, it really IS a fun game. Thanks Eric. Am I glad I went? Ohohohoho, yes.

Aunty Linda has a new dog (a shitzu I think) called Angel who is really cute, and her friend Aunty Nancy also brought her pomeranian, Tabby who was equally as cute. Cute cute dogs! And Tabby likes tummy rubs too. Haha. I love dogs.

-LIVESTRONG!-
Heads Up and Stay Strong
Be Proud

Happy New Year?

Happy New Year one and all. I realised that I indeed do have a few more people to thank and will do so soon. Hope you guys have a great 2007 and that the year will be kind to you. I spent new year's eve at the PL building today. Its nice. I wonder how Ignyte will fit into LT2 though, it only seats 270. Well, at least it won't look like its a small ministry. New fuel group, can't wait to get to know them and the new section. Section leaders are still WaiWai (yeehaw!), Sister Esther (yay!) and *ta-daa* Jenn!!!! Anyway, it was communion day, so we spent a lot of time queuing and waiting. Dinner was with the 'rent's cell (which has grown really big I must say). Some other guys and gals were there, so that's cool. Haha. Anyway, more shout outs.

Shout Outs:
Gabe - Dude, the past year has been a great time of getting to know you. Thanks for the friendship and appreciate it.
Jenn - Thanks for the care & concern you've shown throughout the last year and for being "Mama Jenn".
Kenny & Nikki - Dudes, thanks for being awesome dinner and fuel buddies. Grow more in the new year yeah?
Grace & Joyce - The short time I've known both of you has been enough to see that you guys have big hearts. Thanks for all the fun times.
Esther Ng - Thanks for the mentorship in the video team.
Wai Wai & Sister Esther - Thank you for making the section one that has the right balance, synergy and one that is so awesomely united and fun!
Jean, Sok Boon, Gracia - Gals, each one of you are fun and encouraging. Thanks for all the encouragement the past year and thanks Soks and Gracia for the sweets!
Cafe - Guys, you know that y'all are still the best sec school friends ever. Thanks for sticking close all the way these past two years! It's been awesome to hang out with you guys and hopefully we can hang out more in time to come yeah? (*ahem* Ah Pa, don't work so hard lah! *ahem*)
Jerlene & Carolyn - When the fuel groups were restructured, you guys came in. But it wouldn't have been the same if you guys had been shy or closed up, sooooo, Thank you for being so confident and open and mixing well and creating a really coherent fuel group!
Eileen - Thanks for the mentorship in the video team.
Ben, Edwin, Donovan, Guo Rui, Ronald, Inez - Thanks for signing onto the video team & be willing to take part & learn.

I think that's all... For now. =)) Have a good day of rest.

-LIVESTRONG!-
Heads Up and Stay Strong
Be Proud