What's on top of your monitor?

One of the biggest problems with LCD monitors is that you can't put your toys and action figures on top of them - simply because they're too narrow.

Which is why I'm glad my company is too cheapskate to buy new LCD monitors for the office. This is what the top of my monitor currently looks like:

Old monitors: good display cabinets

Starting from the left, I've got a solar-powered "Maneki Neko", a Tomy Flip Flap solar-powered plant, two Kiwi tiki dolls behind it, a dancing hamster that sings Kung Fu Fighting, a Tomy Bit Char-G remote controlled Ferrari F40 in front of it, an AV-98 Ingram Unit 2 from Patlabor, the remote control for the Bit Char-G behind it and Asamiya Athena and Mai Shiranui from the King of Fighters series.


The latest addition to my collection is the AV-98 Ingram. It's part of the Revoltech series of action figures made by Kaiyodo. It's a fully posable figure with ball joints all over the place, which is good.


bang!

If you've not seen the Patlabor TV series before, I highly recommend it. It was one of the pioneering Anime in the late 80s and early 90s, and had a huge pool of talent working on it - including Mamoru Oshii of Ghost in the Shell fame.

Unlike most other robot Anime of the time, the show was written largely for an adult audience and had rather sophisticated humour and themes. Plus, its cute to see big ass robots doing mundane stuff like directing traffic and helping old ladies cross the street.

Anyway, what's on YOUR desk? :)

Japan GT arrives!

For the benefit of the uninformed, the Japan GT is an annual event in Malaysia where Japanese girls dressed in tacky (and revealing) plastic / polystyrene clothes saunter around a race track - holding umbrellas and posing for sweaty palmed photographers.

Apparently, an automobile race of some description takes place as well, though that's not important. After all, you'd have to be either too geeky or gay to prefer training your zoom lens on a polycarbonate sports car instead of a silicon-filled race queen.

Which isn't likely because:
a) All geeks are closet perverts and would rather stare at women than cars (the cars are just an excuse).
b) Gay people seem to like cars less than women (Note: this is a random assumption).

Anyway, the good news for the guys at the office was that the Japan GT came to us this year. Yes, a couple of race queens graced our cubicles and caused quite a stir among the sweaty palmed male population in the building.

Konnichi wa! O genki desuka? Minna de fukuran desuka? Doki doki waku waku!

They started with Mr Steven Patrick, who was sitting closest to the door. And for the first time in his life, Steven pretended he actually likes cars.

Konnichi wa! O genki desuka? Shah Ruh Khan desu ne? Kahlia-jin ga DAI-suki desu!

Next, they headed to Ron's desk for a photo opportunity.

Konnichi wa! O genki desuka? Polycarbonate sports car ga suki desuka?

SO there you go. That's the Japan GT.

...and she said, "Yes."

^_^


We just came back from an excruciating climb up Mount Kinabalu, Sabah (Well, actually the descent was a lot more painful) - took banana loads of photographs there though I've already posted most of them on my Flickr site, which seems more suitable for displaying a large number of pictures.


For me, the highlight of the trip was when Elaine and I reached the summit of Mount Kinabalu:

We made it!

We were really slow going up the mountain - thanks to altitude sickness and general lethargy - what should have been a 2- to 3-hour climb from Laban Rata turned into a grueling 5-hour crawlfest.

Anyway, after taking a few pictures at the peak, I told Elaine: "Before I continue taking pictures, there's something I must do..."

I went down on one knee, fumbled with the plastic wrapper concealed in my wallet - where I had hid a ring. A ring that I subsequently slipped onto Elaine's finger, though we were wondering which hand/finger it should've been - we were sobbing :)

I told her that I love her with all my heart and all my soul.

I told her that she brought me happiness nobody else has ever given me.

I asked her if she would be my wife.

...and she said yes ^_^


Me and my future wife

This was the second time I've cried tears of joy (the first was when I got accepted into University, what with my shitty A-Levels results and all).

And after this moment of pure bliss, we had to quickly make way for a group of elderly Japanese tourists who caught up with and later overtook us on the way down the mountain.

And she had to take the ring off her finger, otherwise, she might have scratched it :)

We did contemplate re-enacting the whole thing so we could get it on video, but that would be lame... -_-

For more pictures and commentary about the Kinabalu climb, visit my Flickr gallery at www.flickr.com/photos/chrischong/