So I tripped up on the little silly personality-esque test and the ego got the best of me. I am glad to say I am quite happy with my results. The Green Lantern was always a more obscure superhero, usually met with a roll of the eyes by schoolyard children and or comic book convention aficionados. I, however always had a fondness for the not-as-super heroes. The back story of the Green Lantern has been modified since its inception, such as the Green Lantern Corps (now with brown dude! — how modern and inclusive).

My results: You are the Green Lantern — by eighty-five freakishly chiseled pectorals percentage points no less. Hot-headed. You have strong will power and a good imagination. It’s like they looked inside my brain!

Wow, so vague, yet so accurately vague. Don’t let a duck-like gait, or a persistent under bite dissuade you. My friends you too, can waste time! — er, I mean fight crime.

Other results include:

Mr. and Mrs.

Sometimes, clarity of thought requires a separation from emotion – and a month or so of recovery time. I can laugh now, because my tears ducts have dried into shriveled pockets of cells weeks ago. Nearly four months has passed since the day of my matrimony (October 7th, 2006 actually), I do find myself far enough removed from the eventful day, to give an objective break down. Allow me to sit back and review…Mind you, we still have a couple of loose ends to tie up (I am looking at you ‘Thank You Cards’ and ‘Studio 409′ — our official ceremony and reception photographers).

In any event, as I look back now, I am overwhelmed with a sense of joy and general warm’n'fuzziness. My lady and I essentially, went against every primal instinct and the final result was truly an affair to remember. I do not hesitate using the term awe-inspiring interchangeably with mind-numbing. They really go hand in hand when we are talking about the pomp and pageantry of a modern wedding celebration. We went über-conventional, meaning the flowers, the hair, the make-up, the church, the caddy, the jovial Scottish minister, the bridesmaid, the groomsmen, the custom invitations, the hotel reception hall, the multimedia slide show, the overpriced photographers, the bottled wine, the hand-made bonboneries (guest gifts for the uninitiated), the cake, the tropical South American honeymoon, the aunt from France, the feuding cousins, the former work colleague that seated herself in the family-only section, the babies, the speeches, the dancing, the laughter, the joy, the tears, the FUN. And just for good measure, the traditional Vietnamese and Indian wardrobe changes. IS NO JOKE. Take a moment, breathe.

Let us go back to 2005, we found ourselves in love and engaged. We both wanted to be married, that was never in doubt. My first inclination was to elope. Made sense to me, if not the both of us. Then the realization that were the proud owners of about ten dozens sets of uncles, aunts and cousins had set in; and that notion of a quaint intimate ceremony and dinner with close family became a tired running inside joke, that produces more tears than laughter. You see, with big families such as ours, if you invite one then you surely had to invite them all. We were quite proud of the fact that our numbers levelled off at 165, because if it weren’t for the minute amount of resolve that remained within us, it could have easily ballooned to 300. I kid you not. We quickly realized that phrases like “No”, “We can’t invite them” and “We are not paying that ridiculous price” would eventually dissolve into “Whatever…”, “Sure, bring the kids” and “Do you take credit?”. Mind you, we were somewhat stubborn in our determination to do things ourselves, and quite ambitious with our time line for deliverables. Everything went off marvellously, I do seem to be laying on the superfluous adjectives with ease, but we were truly blessed. The only sunny Saturday in October fell on our wedding, one has to think that there’s some sort of universal serendipitous hands working in our favour. I am by far too Asian to believe in mere coincidence.

October the 7^th, two-thousand and six will be known as one of the happiest days of my life. A great start to a new chapter. I am often asked if I feel any difference. And everyone is surprised to hear that EVERYTHING is different. The air is better, my step is livelier - I smile about 200% more. I know that we are a generation of sceptics, and I, a practitioner in the art of cynicism; baffled by my own testimony. But, I do want to relay some hope toward this institution. An institution that has undoubtedly been battered and bruised. But like any matter of life, if you enter it with earnestness and a commitment to hard work, the rewards will come back ten folds. A wedding is a declaration of that commitment, a declaration bared witness by your private community. I may have overstep the sap quotient, but this would be the first time where my sarcasm has no place. It was a day of true romance.

The only advice that I can pass on to anyone entertaining the idea of marriage is this, people do get over it (whatever it may be) and no decision (however monumental you may deem them) during the process really matters in the end. If that day ever arrives, enjoy each other, enjoy your guests and most definitely enjoy the wine.

I conceived of the mantle of ‘Jumboshrimp‘ back in the summer of 2001 — the Summer of Discovery — no less. Back in those heady days, Blogger and I were merely in the flirtatious phase. We were young, and it was fun.

The name derived from my fondness of all things aquatic and edible AND its oxymoronic union. How clever I thought. Can you believe I was merely 24 years old at the time? Clever, indeed. Yes, Jumboshrimp - from the fine makers of Halitosis and Dysentery…and other fish-based goodness.™

A quick search with Metacrawler resulted in various links towards seafood related sites. Japan seemed to have some sort of odd strangle hold on the species. But not a single online entity using the little crustacean that could for a moniker. It was set, Jumboshrimp and I were on like Tron.

Blogger had been around the block for a couple of years, and I was a social networking neophyte. So, flirting quickly turned into heavy petting, and Blogger, she became a very nubile and attentive mistress. Sure there was a brief intense dalliance with Livejournal, but really Livejournal? Who are we kidding? Sure, I toyed with the emotions of a spiraled notebook, or two. But, if you are serious about ranting, and have a true passion for raving. You NEED to be online. So back into Bloggers’ meaty arms I turned. BUT…

Listen baby, the old flame is barely producing any smoke now. Besides when we met, I didn’t know what blogging really meant, at least true blogging anyways. Granted you looked good in a browser, but I am not going to let nostalgia slow me down, I need to grow. You changed, but more so I changed. Blogger you were good to me, but you know what…I have different needs now. I need to see other services, you were suffocating me. Why can’t you see that? I got sick of looking at your tired templates, and you weren’t even trying anymore. We had a good run — times, they are a-changing. I need to have an open-sourced relationship, and you just can’t give me that. I am seeing WordPress now, WordPress gets me. We finish each other’s sentences. We even like the same things!

By the way, you can keep my old posts Blogger, they meant more to you anyways…because towards the end I was faking it.