The Fly on the Wall of Clouds

Well hello again from 53908502750 feet above land... once again I find myself in a plane when it's time to hit the blog with a new entry. Well this time I got shipped off over to Singapore for a weekend of comedy gigs, it was a lot of fun and this time there was an Indian theme to the shows so that was even better since I could whip out some very Indian bits I have in my little collection of silly things.

Well, here we are ending 2011 and things have been super hectic for me. My schedule has been packed, Hong Kong has been cold and I've been tired. This trip to Singapore has been good because it's forced me to stay very much offline for most of the time which I've come to realize is nearly impossible while I'm in Hong Kong. The temptation to check email or get some work done is far too high.

So on my last day in Singapore I had a few hours to kill so I went to the Marina Bay Sands casino and well...it's a casino. I get it, but they have this weird rule where locals have to pay to enter while foreigners go in for free. That must suck! I walked around, got some food and even treated myself to ice cream (yay for tongue, booo for getting even fatter). Then I decided since I was here I might as well do the uber tourist thing of going to the Sands SkyPark. I knew they'd make us buy a ticket but it cost me 20 Singapore dollars which I thought was more than I expected but ahh well, I might as well. So I got to the top and turns out they've closed off the pool area so I only could be on one side of the roof...and well then I got to see the view....from above. Again, I get it. It's the view of Singapore. Ok. I have to say, this is where Hong Kong wins with the ICC tower's Sky100. Not only does it beat Singapore's 57th floor by being on the 100th floor, it is 360 degrees and absolutely breath-taking!

On a more positive note, I did get to eat a lot of local good food...man I think my cholestoral and everything has shot up these last few days because there has been no meal without a good dose of grease and just guilty pleasure :) I even got to try flavored yakult while I was here (this trip I had time to explore and walk around myself) and well after trying orange and grape, turns out the original flavor is still the best...the others just seem like they're trying too hard to be tasty.

I did find that while I was walking in the Sands Shopping area, I was..happy. Genuinely happy because I felt like I could just shut off my brain for a while and go with the flow with absolutely no worry of interruption. Like even if I wanted to, no one could contact me. I had no phone service and no wifi, so there was no "oh let me go online and read about this" before taking action, it was purely a "go with the flow" moment. Even when I went for ice cream, the scooper guy asked me if I wanted to go with the larger size cup and I was like....why not. And indulgence began.

I think that's definitely something I need to add to my 2012 resolution. Moments to just go with the flow. I used to take Tuesdays off every week and allow myself to just go out and do whatever, I think it really helped my soul in general as it allowed me to re-inforce the reasons I work for myself, so I could follow my mind and soul and enjoy life. I've read so many articles about how you're only young once and I do believe that. I can feel I'm getting older but a big part of me is still like a kid. I still get excited when I see ice cream and I have a chance to enjoy it. I suppose it'd be a good idea to allow myself to just be a kid and be as care-free as possible once in a while, perhaps every 10 days, just like my blog entries.

And speaking of being a kid, my mac has been loaded up with a classic game I grew up playing: Indian Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. I was always a biiiggg fan of adventure games by lucasarts. They just did a perfect combination of puzzles and humor, it wasn't your straight forward humor, but twisted jokes that you got to laugh about after you solved the puzzle in the game. The best part was, I used to sit at my PC when I was younger for hours trying to crack puzzles because there was no internet and no walk throughs I could get my hands on (you had to buy them and at my pocket money, that wasn't happening). And well while I was playing this, it also reminded me how these games taught me to explore all possibilities, even if they didn't seem to make sense. I mean, now that I'm older, I'm realizing a lot of things in the game were direct hints. For example, when talking to an old man in the game who was an antique collector, he'd say "unless you've got some great antiques to show me, don't bother me" at the end of a conversation. This is a hint to say when I do get any antiques, find this guy and he'll give you the next clue. It's interesting when I think back how these games have influeced my mind. Even first-person-shooter games like Quake 2 that I know I've burnt up hours and hours of my youth at. Thanks to that, it has helped me with eye-hand coordination and when it comes to design work, I can move my mouse precisely where necessary. It also taught me to type fast because in between games, we'd have maybe 2 seconds to type out a whole sentence and since internet wasn't that fast back then, you didn't have mic and voice talking in games...it was all typing...ahaha so video games are in fact good for you! And speaking of which, I think it's time to load up some Indian Jones and enjoy some of its classic goodness while I wait for the 3:30hr flight to finish.....see you soon and enjoy Christmas!