Tapping the reef

After six consecutive days of diving in the pristine turquoise waters of the Celebes Sea, you could say that I'm going through a little bit of withdrawal. So much so that I, someone who usually hates playing any kind of computer/iPhone game including Angry Birds, Plants vs. Zombies and the like, have downloaded Tap Reef 2, a mind-numbingly pointless game where 3D fish and turtles swim around in an artificial reef and wait for me to feed, pet and even breed them (hey, it's a form of exercise).

So far, I've got Edwards the red snapper, Dolores the green sea turtle, Walton the jelly fish and Barr the Atlantic cod (pre-named, of course) swimming around in my reef, and for some odd reason I've also got an aztec pyramid in the background of my reef. I'm still waiting to earn enough sand dollars to trade in my common sea creatures for some of the more exotic breeds that I saw in Malaysia like the toothy Titan Triggerfish, you-cant-see-me Painted Frogfish or maybe the cute as a button and doe-eyed Black Blotched Porcupinefish?

The game is actually a little like a tamagotchi from the '90s, prompting you when the fish are hungry and/or lonely, or when they've matured into adults for breeding. The only thing different is that when the fish die (which hopefully won't happen to mine), you can actually resurrect them with some points or cash, but I haven't figured that part out yet.

Meet my fish!

For now, Tap Reef 2, with its eerie background music and somewhat annoying underwater bubble sound effects, is (sadly) the closest thing I have to being back in the deep blue sea swimming among schools of jackfish, barracudas, sharks, bat fish, puffer fish, corals, sea turtles, etc... Oh, by the way, the app is FREE so if anyone out there is interested in or already playing it too, let me know, we can cross breed! ;)

Continue reading...

Cockroach CSI: Death by Coffee Drowning

As mentioned before, I am a total cockroach magnet. At my old job, the cockroaches LOVED my corner cubicle and now, we share our tiny SoHo office space with a very fertile family of miniature roaches, who have been spotted anywhere from my desk to the cubicle walls to the secretary's phone.

Luckily, the mini roaches mostly come out at night when we've all gone home for the day, but sometimes the next morning, we'll find them in the strangest places -- like in our coffee mugs. Yup, one morning, I found two dead roaches in the bottom of my coffee mug when I was rinsing it out, and I'm guessing it went a little like this:

Big Roach tells Little Roach how nice it would be to go skinny dipping in a creamy cup of Hong Kong style coffee.

Little Roach struggles to keep afloat in the coffee, while Big Roach relishes in the fact that there'll soon be one less mouth to feed in the "megaherd" of roaches, meaning more crumbs for him!

Big Roach loses his footing while laughing and slips into the coffee as well, where both of them die a slow and painful death since they are highly caffeinated and do not slip into unconsciousness until about an hour later.

Moral of the story? Roaches should wear slip-resistant footwear when walking on slippery surfaces like coffee mugs. Crocs, take note, you've got a new set of customers (with six feet each)!

Continue reading...

Jacky Cheung: King of Cantopop

I don't have posters of him on my walls, I don't have his name in LED lights, nor do I even really know what he's singing about BUT -- I have to say I'm a huge fan of Jacky Cheung (not to be confused with that silly fool Jackie Chan)!

I guess it all started back when I was just a '90s tween in Canada. Jacky had come to perform at this small theatre stage in Vancouver, and I remember running down the aisle every few minutes to take pictures of him dancing around in an Austin Powers'-esque costume. At the end of the show, I ran down to the stage again, hoping to meet Jacky in person, but all I could find, after hoisting myself halfway onto the stage, was his used white facial towel draped over a speaker on the stage.

Of course, I snatched that towel and brought it home with me, proud that it had the orangey markings of Jacky's make-up on it as well as ONE strand of short black hair. I folded it and kept it in the bookshelf above my bed, thinking it was pretty damn cool (until, one day, I think my Grandma washed it).

Anyway... flash forward to today...

I've just been lucky enough to have seen his 1/2 Century Tour for the second time in Macau, and he is definitely THE reigning 'King of Cantopop'! At the age of 50 (half century, get it?), Jacky can still sing, dance, and act with the gusto of a 20-something year old, all without a gasp or falter during his entire three-hour concert.

As you may know, cantopop concerts are known for lasting an eternity so you'd better be a huge fan of whoever's performing to go to one (or really like waving glow sticks in the dark to the beat of local music). In Jacky's case, every single minute of his concert was a blast!

The show started with a tap dance performance (which I'm not quite sure was real or not), followed by a steady slew of hit songs and accompanying videos that matched the songs. For example, for his song "花花公子" (Playboy) he played a sneaky ladies' man who notices Shu Qi at a party, and then you see scenes of them dating happily around Macau, getting married, and eventually fighting as their relationship crumbled and turned bitter. Lots more happens in the show but don't worry, I won't give it all away.

The show's highlights were:

• Jacky's jazz hands all throughout the show
• The dance rendition of his earlier hit songs using the same retro dance moves 
• Jacky doing the SPLITS (no joke!)

The low point (as mentioned by my bf) was:

• Jacky BURPing into the mic after the sweaty dance rendition (he IS local, after all!)

In any case, I highly recommend going to see the "King of Heavenly Kings" when he finishes off his 1/2 Century Tour in Hong Kong in May 2012 if you haven't already seen him at one of his previous 100 shows (yup, he's been touring for an entire year already)! And don't worry if you don't have a clue what he's singing about, neither do I! :)

Here's a little preview:

Continue reading...