Went to lunch with Andrew today... He had told me last week of the Evolve MMA gym roadshow. He reminded me of it again today, said they were asked for volunteers yesterday to go up on stage to try hitting some guy in the face. The people who went up were given ipod shuffles, regardless of whether they managed to hit the guy in the face.

He was recalling ro me some chinaman who went up, took off his shirt, and proceeded to hit empty air for the next 30 seconds while jumping around like a monkey. He still got the ipod shuffle.

My curiosity and greed was piqued. The reward was not too shabby, and would be worth the walk to raffles place.

So I agreed to go down and take a look with him, and see whether they were still giving away the ipod shuffle.

On the escalator ride up the MRT, we heard the promotor cajoling the crowd. Good.

There was a sizable crowd there, which at a glance I took in to be office workers. Inconsequential. I walked to the side of the crowd, so I wouldn't have to look past people's necks. The promoter was some ang moh, had a fighter build. He was explaining the rules of the game about to be played.

Standing on the same spot, 5 punches against some topless guy in boxing attire. The guy looked thai, well built. He was demonstrating, taking swings at the guy. The guy dodged them easily. I wasn't very impressed, looking at how he was swinging his punches. I was getting stoked - how nice of them to start the giveaway just as I arrived.

I made my opinion known to Andrew, at quite a loud volume apparently. He was asking for volunteers, I saw some people raise their hands, was a bit sad that there were actually takers, but decided to try my luck anyway. Some promoter in the crowd was kind enough to tell the promoter on the stage that he got a guy (referring to me)

I was well pleased when I was picked. Time to walk the talk, and test my prowess. As I made my way into the ring doubts started to surface, but I couldn't chicken out now could I?

He passed me the boxing glove, then placed me slightly more than an arm's length away from him. I despaired. I would have to reach. Automatically I cheated. I changed my stance to southpaw (right hand first).

I think I realised it was quite unfair to the guy taking the blow at the same time as when the promoter asked me to switch back. Oh well.

The promoter asked for my name, which he didn't manage to pronounce properly. I didn't really care though. Time to win the shuffle.

I stare at the thai guy, trying to predict whether I would be able to hit him. The promoter turns around to the crowd, repeating the rules of the game and saying there's no time limit. As he's facing the crowd I decide to take my chance. The thai guy's arms are up, I didn't catch him unaware. He's looking at me, I'm looking back.

Tap. I tapped his forehead and my arm was back before he moved.

The promoter turns around, thinking I hadn't moved. I told him I've hit him already. He says he didn't see it.

I wasn't pleased. The whole bloody crowd saw it. I'm sure the thai guy felt it as well. Looking back, I guess it wasn't really his fault. He really didn't see it as he was facing the crowd. But at that moment I was quite pissed off. Pissed off because I had already done it, and I was not sure myself whether it was a fluke and whether I could repeat it.

Doubts again.

But I tried again, and this time I felt the blow connect. It was defintely a more solid hit than the first, I imagine due to my displeasure, and I'm not sure if I imagined it, but I really think the guy moved into my blow. I definitely didn't use my full force; that'd been mean.

This time everybody saw. I'm not sure if the crowd cheer, but I was pretty damn pleased with myself. The guy couldn't avoid the blow.

Sam was right. It's neigh impossible to be able to avoid a blow, especially from someone trained, much less catch it. Hence most akido moves that start with catching punches are quite pointless. It was verification of what I had learnt, proof that I hadn't been wasting my time.

The promoter commented: "Just like that!"

Damn straight son. Just like that.

I stood there, wondering if I would get my other 3 blows. The blood mist had descended. But alas, it was not to be. The promoter jokingly chased me off stage "Get him off the stage, someone give him his ipod shuffle!"

I was mightily pleased with myself, and the ang moh chick who gave me my ipod shuffle was pretty as well! A pity she was so much taller.

Later over lunch I was regaling Andrew with my flights of fantasy, and he was explaining why the promoter picked me over the rest.

It appears that I had spoken a bit too loudly to him regarding the difficulty, or lack of, of the challenge, and how I thought I was up to it. The flier distributor had heard me, and so had been so nice as to point me out to the promoter on stage.

Ah, so there was the mystery solved.

Though actually I hadn't given it any thought. But it was a good point nonetheless. He said after I hit the guy the 2nd time I gave a smug look. He showed the smug look to me, but when I denied it, he said it didn't show in my face but in my eyes. Ah... I couldn't contest that. I haven't learnt how to control my eyes. I tried to justify it, telling him of my displeasure after being cheated of my first blow. He said he didn't see it - some lady had apparently distracted him by asking him whether I was his friend. He also told me of another guy who went up yesterday - an old man jumped up on stage yesterday when the promoter asked for a volunteer. Since the rule was 30 seconds of unlimited shots at the guy, the old man actually grabbed the guy and proceeded to pound him. My sympathies to the poor man. He could probably tear the old man apart, but he had to endure it.

Tsk, what a letdown. Even worse, the lady was average. What a pity!

Being cocky isn't good. But then again, neither is false modesty. But the question is, if you're unsure of how you measure up against external circumstances, which would be the better choice? Say like you train at something once a week, but never had to test using the skill you trained. So before the test, should you say you can do it, or try to play down others' expectations? Or just keep quiet, in which case you'll be anti-social?

I actually gave this some thought while taking a dump. And I couldn't come to a conclusion.

The promoter claimed the ipod shuffle was a limited edition evolve MMA one. Well, examining the transparent case, I don't see anything special about it. Andrew joked that the thing limited about it was that it was out of production. My riposte was that it had limited memory - 2 gigs.

Anyway the roadshow is till Friday, I recommend everyone free to go give it a shot. (I went at 1)

After work I watched Daybreakers. This is DEFINITELY the comedy of the year. The reviewer at today gave it a 3/5, saying it was a B movie trying to be more, let down by its excessive gory and campy scenes. It was quite the understatement.

The first vampire test subject for the blood substitute started having boils appearing all over his body, thrashing wildly after he was injected with the blood substitute. Then some analgesic was injected, and he appeared normal once more. Then his head exploded. In a very loud and gory fashion.

I was laughing my ass off, but beside me the woman laughed louder. I was thoroughly amused by that. I actually laughed till I teared. What are the odds at someone laughing even more inappropiately than me?

But really, the show takes the cake. If you don't laugh even once at the supposedly gory scenes, you really need to have your head checked.

The show has so many pop-in and sudden loud noises that it's really irritating. And when I say loud I mean loud. Think a bat's high pitch squeal.

Don't expect anything from the show, except for a barrel of laughs at the director's stupidity and getting peeved at the loud noises.