2 features today: A link on whether Jesus might be gay, (?) and a lengthy complaint about Light Years. I don't usually hate shows so much, but this one has earned the honour.

Jesus May Be Gay?

This was originally sent in an email to me by Tenderheart, but hee..... it's so interesting I just have to share it.... before the lightning comes down and strikes me anyway.... Anyone out there more religious than I am... please tell me how much of this could be truth or not....

Was Jesus Gay?

As a sample, the authors note this fragment from the Bible:
"And the youth, looking upon him (Jesus), loved him and beseeched that he might remain with him. And going out of the tomb, they went into the house of the youth, for he was rich. And after six days, Jesus instructed him and, at evening, the youth came to him wearing a linen cloth over his naked body. And he remained with him that night, for Jesus taught him the mystery of the Kingdom of God".

Your Pain On 5

Pain. Hurt. Anguish. Agony. Just a sample of what I went through tonight. And I have only one thing to blame for it.

CHANNEL 5 PROGRAMMES ON A TUES NITE

My family and I were watching the TV while eating our nasi lemak dinner. First on was Tan Kheng Hua and some show on food. Not too bad. Tan is very vibrant, very bouncy and looks very natural while doing so. A talent that sadly, something like 90% of the actors ( and actresses ) in TCS lack. ( That was just a general estimate by the way. Actual figures may be closer to 99.9999% )

Then came Phua Chu Kang. A lot of lame, slapstick kinda humour, ( One of the blur workers thought he had breast cancer because he felt a lump on his chest and ended up being dragged for a mammogram by the 2 women of the household ) but we expect it. After all, it's Phua Chu Kang, him of the perms-mole-boots getup for heaven's sake. Anything else from this show would've been like asking Mr Bean to perform Cirque Du Soleil.

After that, however.....

Oh Carol! came on. ( for some reason, my mom suddenly felt like doing the laundry ) I don't know if it was intentional or not, but apparently there was a technical error, so we didn't get any of the canned laughter that usually came on during these shows. That's what I first thought. Later on, I was getting to be of the opinion that the laughter didn't come on because there was nothing funny in the show. She screams at co-workers. She suffers pre-marital anxiety and cancels her wedding to Utt. ( which probably brought sighs of relief to female MTV fans all over Singapore ) Oh well, ho hum. Pass the samosas.

The really painful part came on during Light Years. Harken this name, all intelligent beings, and be wary of it. It is awful, the characters are totally fake, utterly unbelievable and extremely childish. Not only that, but the entire plot is so predictable, you start feeling clairvoyant. Let me give a good example of bad scriptwriting from the show:

( background: in case you didn't know, Light Years is about a group of students in Poly and their experiences. Good, now forget it, because it's not worth knowing )

One of the opening scenes feature this girl, a student, let's call her A, and B, a guy, getting into a cab at the exact same time, and telling the cab driver the same address. ( some fictitious poly ) Then when they become aware of the other person's presence, they start arguing about who got into the cab first, how rude the other party is, and will you please get out of the cab.

Of course, the "twist" at the end is that A finds out that B is her new lecturer, and the school term starts off on a fine new note for her.

Now, let's get one thing straight. I've never watched Light Years when it first came out, so I never had any strong opinions on it before. Hence I decided to watch it tonight and see what it was all about. And OMG, it was about the worst pukeworthy crap I had ever seen in my life.

Let's start attacking the opening scene. Firstly, what the Hell are the chances of 2 people walking into a cab at the same time? Won't they have seen each other before then? They couldn't have been standing next to each other and not being aware of each other now, couldn't they? Fine, let's give them the benefit of the doubt. They only saw a cab and were so blur they were totally unaware of their surroundings. Which makes them pretty clever creatures for being able to hail a cab in the first place.

Secondly, they proceed to argue with each other, and A demands that B gets out of the cab, and doesn't see why she has to share the cab with him. I'll tell you why, honey, so that you can SHARE CAB FARE. You two are going to the same place, hence you can split the fare 50-50, and pay cheaper fare! A simple, obvious fact which was pointed out by the cab driver, but she still put on that arrogant-piss-ass style and said she didn't see why she had to share a cab with him. OMG! How did this girl have the brains to supposedly rise to 3rd year in Poly? I can't figure out how she even got past Primary 6 if she couldn't even see such a simple logic on her own. And although B was supposed to be a Poly lecturer, he was also stupid enough to argue with someone obviously lacking in her intellectual faculties. That's like fighting with a donkey over a carrot, and a rotten one at that. He didn't even see that they could share the cab fare and reasonably point it out to her.

There is a fine line between stubbornness and downright stupidity. These folks ran all the way past it and jumped headfirst into the Point of No Brains, all the while arguing with each other about who should jump first.

Thirdly, the rest of the cast act so childishly, you'll think you were watching Moulmein High instead of Light Years. At least in MH, they were supposed to play sec. sch students. A certain level of immaturity is expected. But surely not of 3rd year poly students! This guy, whose character came back from a student exchange trip in Japan, kept going on throughout about how he was so cool in Japan, how the girls loved him in Japan, and how cool he thought he was. Newsflash: Did you happen to miss, say, Changi Airport on the way here? Did you fail to realise that you were in Singapore, and not Japan? Or were you just wondering why everyone was suddenly speaking English around you?

Fourthly, the cast, as poly students, are more fake than an LV bag bought off the street markets of China. Did the scriptwriters actually think that Singaporean youths speak like that? That fake, pseudo-American accent became so yesterday, like.... yesterday. This Speak Good English movement has a lot to answer for, if you ask me. And the lines are so bad, they made me cringe, literally. The actors sound, at times, like those wooden dolls that go "Mama!" when you pull a string at the back. Wooden lines, wooden accents.

This show is not just BAD it's pukeworthy. No, scratch that, I won't even want to puke on it. It's trash, rubbish, bollocks, bullshit, and I'm pretty certain if you watch it enough, your IQ will drop till you consider Forrest Gump to be the pinnacle of human intellect. Do NOT watch it even if you have time to waste. I feel sorry for the campus that lent itself to the shooting of this show, because now everyone who watches it will think their students are childish, argumentative, stupid, fake, egoistical lowlives like certain TCS actors.

And as a note, all this rubbish happened in the first 15 minutes of the show. I switched channels because I was starting to feel pain just watching it.

Sigh..... having trouble again with photos... really considering whether i shld fork out the money to rent space on the Net....
maybe if I manage to get more students....

Hey guys, long ramblings below which go ever on and on, but if you get bored halfway, there're comics to entertain you along the way. You can also scroll all the way down for some links, if, *sniff sniff* you don't like my writing, despite all the trouble *sniff* I went through to write it *sniff* what with my eyesight being what it is....

Paper to Film

With the showing of the ROTK, the endless battle once again is started..... that neverending struggle between the forces of good and evil.......

Yes, it is the place for confrontation between fans of the book and fans of the film.

Gimme My Comic!

Usually I do a review for the movies that I watch, but this one is so heavily reviewed and raved..... I think there's no point preaching to the highly converted. Instead, I will offer some comments on an old issue that this has raised again.

In this week's 8 days, [Britney Spears cover] David Fuhrmann-Lim mentioned 2 kinds of LOTR fans. There are the film fans, and the book fans, and the differences are highly marked. As living examples, I will highlight 2 people I know. Let's call them D and C. [if you know who i'm talking about, let's just maintain anonymity here, eh?]

Gimme My Comic!

D is a book fan. He's read all 3 books, The Silmarillon, The Unfinished Tales, possibly all other books by Tolkien, hails Tolkien as the Father of Modern Fantasy, and is able to deliver a treatise on how every other fantasy writer out there has stolen ideas from Tolkien one way or another. [An example: kender in the Dragonlance series highly resemble hobbit in Tolkien] He's seen the films and thinks they're "ok".

Sidenote to Dragonlance fans: Don't you think the undead armies of Lord Soth are highly similar to the Armies of the Dead? Ok, back to the crap.

Gimme My Comic!

C is a film fan. She thinks Legolas is the hottest thing in the film, but Orlando Bloom looks better in that film than any other. She downloads pix of Legolas onto her handphone. She thinks the scenery is stunning, the actors are hot, Sam and Frodo are possibly gay, and who's Tom Bombadil?

The rest of us just watch the films. Haha! But you get the idea.

The 2 extremes in this case are either like Jason/D/Book fans, or Paige/C/Film/Orlando fans. And they have utterly different reasons for catching the film. D would most likely want the films to be as close as possible to Tolkien's original vision. C is just thankful that Peter Jackson cast Legolas as such a hottie. [no offence to C, who may be reading this..... but face it....... haha!] And I sure as heck do not ever want to involve both parties in a LOTR discussion, unless I want to see D strangle C in total exasperation.

[ one of my favourite lines below. "Filler stuff"? ]

Gimme My Comic!

So what is the difference between the 2? Frankly, there's a lot. If you have read the original Tolkien novel, just the first 3 books, you would know that there are tons of history and character Tolkien has that Peter Jackson does not, due to the shortcomings of film. For one, there is the character of Tom Bombadil. Also, Aragorn's history is never really explained clearly, to my satisfaction, and the Aragorn-Arwen romance is played up too strongly. [Arwen's character in the film is kinda extra, in my opinion. There seems to be no satisfiable reason for her to be there, other than because pple like to see romance in the films.]

I happened to watch the movie before I ever read the book, but from personal experience, book-to-film adaptions never really work to satisfaction. My experience during the first Harry Potter movie was such. The first film didn't just lack, but was utterly bereft of the magic of Rowling's writing. Although it was an entertaining movie, I felt that I was watching something without soul, or character. The magic was lost. To explain it in other words, the movie was not entertaining to engage me the way the original book did. To this extent, I can understand the feelings of book fans. I can also understand the feelings of Jason in the comic below....

[ Another good line. "Who's Gollum?" ]

Gimme My Comic!

And it's not like some of these books need the additional publicity from the film anyway. JK Rowling was already an international bestselling author before The Philosopher's Stone was ever made into a film. Tolkien was already well beloved as a master of fantasy literature. In fact, it was their fame in the first place that led to these books being made. These directors, in a way, were betting on a sure winner, books with their loyal following of fans that would earn money and publicity for the film and ensure that it wouldn't be a total bomb altogether.

Also, it's absolutely frustrating talking to a total fan of the film sometimes, when u even a slight knowledge of the books and Tolkien. When C talks about how cute Legolas is, and how gay Sam and Frodo are in the film, it makes me wanna tear my hair out. [thank the gods, i've never done that.] How the heck do you expect me to explain that this is just P.Jackson's vision, Tolkien's experiences in war, and the possible interpretation that Sam and Frodo represent the camaderie between the upper and lower classes that evolved during the binding crucible that is war? All the freak she can talk about is how gay they are!

Gimme My Comic!

*sigh* I know the usual excuse for this is "Each To His Own", and I know that everyone has their own preferences, even if it's freaking-little-white-face-Orlando-Bloom, but Gees! For the umpteenth time, Sam and Frodo are NOT gay, and stop casting this lime-giantic-1000watt-spotlight on Legolas! He's a supporting character for heavens' sake! It's totally alright to be fans of the book, or fans of the film, but at least do not accept either as the gospel truth and elevate Jackson to god-status! Because Jackson, technically, is copying a script from Tolkien and adding his own interpretation of it. When you keep seeing scenes of Legolas jumping over oliphaunts and shooting arrows into its driver's back, that's Jackson's vision. When you insist Sam and Frodo are gay............... er, that's just your own mind working.

Gimme My Comic!

My main stand here, I guess, is that take whatever view of the show you like. Whether it be book or film. But never accept one totally. Read/watch the other medium, expose yourself to other interpretations, or the original version, and at least have an awareness of the other side. If you've read the book, accept that Jackson had to cut certain scenes out or portray them differently, in order to accomodate the shortcomings of film. If you've watched the movie, at least attempt to read the book, to open yourself to Tolkien's original vision and understand where he's coming from.

Unless you're now a firm Orlando Bloom fan. Then please go off on your own tangent and stop muddling the discussion.

For more info on the characters, I found this site:
The Barrow-Downs

And for pure entertainment, this flash was sent to me by C, but I couldn't load it. You guys try.
Gollum Rap

According to a random piece of Javascript, one of my elvish names is Pennberaidiel. Haha!
Try It Out, Guys n Gals


Foxtrot Comics are done by Bill Amend, and these strips were from UComics. If you're from that site, and you see these comics here, please have the courtesy to send me a letter giving me a chance to take down the strips before you start suing me. Thanks.

Renovations UnderWay...

I'm still trying to refurbish my blog, and I'm trying a 2nd attempt at putting pictures up again. *gawk* All pics are taken by my camera phone, so forgive the lousy resolution. Put mouse arrow over picture and see comments.

Meanwhile, the [highly under construction, under renovation, totally not finished yet] links above are [kinda, supposedto, hope they do what they're meant to] working already.

But looks slightly neater, already, eh? ;)

Merry Xmas All!

Yes! Bring out the champagne, turkey, eggnog, misteltoe, and PRESENTS!!!!!

Well, kinda late to be saying that, since as I type this, it's already Dec 27th.... duh.... but Xmas lasts for 12 days no? :p

Anyways, Merry, merry Xmas to all, [esp. those who got me presents when this scrooge here didn't get anything for anybody. Oops!]

May those in school sail through their assignments and pass with flying colours

May those currently unemployed find gainful means of employment soon

May those in jobs they hate either:
1) Get a raise soon
2) Get a promotion soon
3) Get a better job soon
4) Kill their bosses soon

May those out of love find it soon, whether it take the form of:
1) Friendship
2) Family
3) Marital bliss
4) Boy/Girl Friend
5) Pure, unadulterated sex

Er, if you find the last one..... play it safe and spare me the details......

And here's to the New Year ahead!

An Attempt at Bad Pool Poetry

Chalk.
Cue.
Table.
Balls.

Left hand touches
Green mat.
Right grips cue.
Body leans on table.
Eye aims.

Line of sight
from ball to hole.
Angles calculated.
Cue adjusted.

Relax right grip.
Center of white.
Draw back
And hit.

White to coloured.
Grazes the side.
Ball rolls.
Enters hole.

Game is done.
And Won.


Hee..... went for pool game today with libexco..... and won some games...... happy person now....... :)
Necro, I await thy next challenge!

Best of British Blogging

Some of them ain't too bad, especially the ones that are at the top.... Design very good....
Check It Out Guys!

Clang! Clang! Bang! Hiss!

As you guys can see, page is under construction, under construction.... please walk carefully, and watch out for mud puddles and falling bricks.

Look Out Below!

BANG!

*Huff huff huff*

See what I mean?

Nike Vouchers For Sale

When my dad got me my new phone, he got 3 Nike vouchers together with it. They're $50 each and have no minimum-purchase-required, and strangely, no date of expiry either. Does anyone want to buy them? Cos I didn't see anything that I particularly wanted at Nike.

Well, ok, their backpacks look good but I have enuff bags as it is.... :p

If you guys are interested, sms me k?

Infrared argh!

Gods I still can't get my handphone to transfer pics to my laptop..... why? Why? Why? On my laptop it just comes out as a BMP file which I can't read. What the hell is going on here? WHy?

Meow meow....

Just felt like doing that, donno why...

Well, at least got a few more stuff to put up here....

Exposed! Revealed!

As a tribute to LOTR, I bring you The Secret Diaries of LOTR as I found it on Goldfish's weblog. [to GFish: Where the heck do you find these things??] One thing about the diaries? You'd realise that somehow every character has homo tendencies. Yes, dearies, including the dishy elf. :p All for fun, all for fun.... If my AHRM Tolkien-crazy-groupmate is reading this, maybe you could read it and comment? Hahaha.... tell us all if Frodo and Sam really have homo tendencies.... :p

NUS is now paying me

Continuing on, I got the NUS research assistant job.... Meet my fellow RA, now to be known as the Violinist, for lack of a better nick. ( Er, Tenderheart, if you're reading this, pls don tell him that, k? ) Apparently this prof, now known as Dr Fox Mulder, ( His name sounds like that. Really. ) is doing a thesis paper on humour and its effect on work performance. So what he wants me and the Violinist to do is to think of and come up with 3 short videos, then show them to subject pools of hapless Yr1s in March. Very flexible about pay too. Apparently, sitting there in the Mac's being briefed about the project and talking cock with the Violinist earned me 2 hrs of pay. Don't you just love it?

BTW, he's the Violinist cos he plays the violin and teaches it too. For Candle: Earth hands, like Hellbound's and short thumbnail. Down to earth, practical, sensible and reliable, and sees through most of his projects. Quite the opposite of me. Oh dear. I'll tell you guys more details if I see ya, cos to spill abt him on the Net seems wrong for some reason. :p

Thank god for some cash anyway. Been spending like crazy, esp. since I've started collecting all those kino coupons. *groan* To Necro, I bought Loki, Mythical detective of Ragnarok, and dang, I think you're more suited to it than me. All the characters are the cutesy bigheaded type, and so far, no bloodshed, no murder, no sex, no psychotic characters, no incest, no occult activities..... *yawn*

My New Phone!

And I have a new phone!!!!! My dad used his plan to get me the N3200! It has integrated camera, flashflight, FM radio and a whole buncha other features! So far I've only taken a few pics with it. Granted resolution sucks like crazy, but as a toy it ain't too bad. [good enuff for me to snap the pics off mag covers, i discovered with my FIRST cover of Aragorn] Can change the cover too, so can design my own cover. :D Also came with Nike vouchers! Does anybody want to buy those? Cos there's nothing much at Nike I wanna get.
Of course, the flip side is that we went to J8 just today and saw the model selling for about $150 cheaper than what he got it for. *peng*

Me & Dad: Huh???

Me: So does this mean I pay you less now?

Dad: *cheshire grin* Sorry gal.

Bleah. But least mine comes with the Nike vouchers....... Once I figure out to, I'll try to post some of the pics on the Net.

Hee..... so excited...... :) :) :) I already printed and cut out a new cover for the phone, from an anime wallpaper that I dloaded.... painstakingly cut out all the holes and stuff ( thank god this keypad only has 9 keys altogether. If it had the full 11-12... I'd die ) and den found more cool-looking covers in the box that I'd overlooked. Bleah bleah bleah. Anyway, so now my phone has an anime theme to it, with wallpaper and outside cover. Now I'm just left with the ringtone to dload and transfer whatever old pic msgs were on the old one...

Out of NUSSUX...

My exam results also came out, and I got 2 As!!!!! *champagne pops, confetti flies down. Thank you. Thank you very much* But then again I also got 2 Cs, *bleah* so the whole thing evens out into something like straight Bs. But nevermind! I got As! And in the modules I liked better too! *sniff sniff* Tai4 Gan3 Dong4! And I get to zhao outta NUSSUX with a merit!

The Roll:
AHRM: C+
Service Marketing: C+
OE: A
Internet4Marketing: A ( Despite me last time being 'defensive' during our final presentation...)

Any of my ex-groupmates reading this? How'd you all do for the modules?

Amazing how some people can get so excited about little things like that huh?

Love Me....If You Dare
Wowza! Great show! Refreshing from the usual fluff anyway...... I got so inspired, I went and made a website to the movie. [partly also because my blog's getting clogged, so this way I get more space to dish out my crap. Mwahahaha...] Check it Out! [even though it's very, very amateurly done. I was watching CSI at the same time. :p ]
The First Jeux D'enfants Fansite

And if Sylveracyd's reading this, don't worry! I'm still working on your tiles!

Asia Weblog Awards
Wow, this is how big the blog has gotten. Now there's even an unofficial contest out on the Net. [not that I was ever in the running....] Check it Out Here! cos you seriously have to see some of the blogs. They're great! Especially the ones in the design category! *flash of inspiration before the eyes*

Man, how am I gonna sleep tonight?

I'm so turning into an online voyeur. I hardly go to any websites anymore, and most of my time online is spent reading other people's blogs. Well, mostly that's because people usually update their blogs more frequently than regular websites. Also, it's nice to see what's happening in my frens' and other people's lives. Yup, I'm fulfilling my inner kaypoh.

leaving the house soon to catch a movie, hope Cathay doesn't screw me like the last time, by listing it in the papers and not having it in the movies. ( Great customer service don't you think? State in the papers that you have a movie showing and then not havin it in the theatres when customers go to catch it. ) If I do get it, you guys will hear about it on this blog. And no, it's not LOTR3.

Also, this blog will be going through some intensive construction in the upcoming period. I'm puttin' on my yellow helmut and PCK boots and going tramping around! Hope the whole thing doesn't collapse on me......

Sylveracyd's tiles site is almost ready too.... Just have to tweak the code for the forms a bit......

Thanks to Tenderheart bear, who's thrown me a lifeline by introing me to her sup. who needed a research assistant. Really hope he accepts me, as 1) the job scope is interesting, involves some writing and amateur digital video, and 2) for once, i'd be going to NUSSUX to get paid, rather than paying to be there.

Still reading through my books too.... so much to do, so much to do....

Thank god my blog doesn't keep breaking down the way Quet's does.... although I have to admit, her new blog does look pretty damn cool.... NVM... wait for this one to get the hang of her webdesigning once n for all... hee.... :p

Anyway, anyone read my previous rant on the low birth rates in Singapore? Well, if you see today's Straits Times, there's a little graph there with a line that's shooting all the way to the bottom. Yes that's our birth rates. We need at least 50,000 births to sustain our country's needs, but last way, there were only 40,864 births. ( Wonder if there was something unauspicious about that way. Would explain it a bit. Our country planners could try asking the geomancers for advice instead )

And remember why I said this was the case? Cause everyone was subliminally conditioned into thinking about money first? The paper states that "The poor economy this year probably contributed to the drought, as couples tend to put off having chidren until they think they can afford to." and Ms Tan Yen Nee, 24, says: "We can't expect a decent standard of living with a child. We've got our housing loan and we're saving up for a car."

What this means is that this Ms Tan actually feels that having a decent standard of living, [whatever that may be to her. 5room? Maisonette? Condo?] and a car is currently higher on her family's priority list than having a child is. Could we infer from this also that her material needs come before her maternal ones?

Admittedly, I am utterly blur about Ms Tan's income and her husband's income and her reasons for not wanting a kid at this point of time. [in response to Kairos' comment, this is why I can't write into the forum, cos I'll get totally blasted to bits by other less open-minded souls.] But I really have to question if she's that poor that she can't even fulfil the 2nd level of Maslow's hierarchy. I also have to question what she means exactly by "decent". My parents, at the time that I was born, didn't even have a house of their own. And even after getting a house, they managed to sustain 2 kids at the same time, at a "decent" standard of living, meaning we had food to eat and clothes to wear and a car for Daddy to drive his ungrateful kids off to school.

Better economy then? Simpler way of life? I don't know. ANd the govt's measures aren't helping. Supposedly the gahmen has this entire basket of subsidies and rebates given out to families for their 2nd and 3rd child, so all these should help financially right?

Once again, nipping the symptom, but not the disease. If you look carefully at the stuff they offer, the bulk of the offers come in the form of cash, rebates, subsidies, with the exception being the extended maternity leave. Do they think that just by throwing money at us, we'd be immediately inspired to procreate? ( Hey honey, forget the Pill. Let's just do it and get the cash! )

Yoo-hoo, Mr Gahmen, if we have all those kids you want us to have, how'd you like to take care of them for us? Here's a great plan: You can keep the money, ( Which will only minimally sustain us for the first 6 years of the kid's life, and hereby saving them from paying for the time in the kid's life which gets really expensive ) and take care of our kids for us instead! Open up the Istana every Mon - Fri from 7am to 7pm and turn it into a giant nursery house! With all that space, I'm sure you have enough room for at least 40,000 babies and toddlers. And with the national guards, we sure don't have to worry about security now, do we? Maybe if we did that, you'd have a slight inkling of just what a DAMN HECK OF A TROUBLE it is to raise a kid!

And all that's just when they are toddlers! What happens when they go to Pri Sch? Meet other kids? Meet bullies? Get picked on? Can't do their homework? Can't understand Chinese? Need tutors, cos we, their parents, don't get Chinese as well? Go to Sec Sch? The Os? Get into JC? Meet members of the opposite sex in a co-ed environment ( some, for the first time ) at the most hormonally charged stage of their lives? The As? Uni? Graduation? All this is a freakin' 20-odd year process, of which the gahmen is only helping for the first 6 and then you're on your own! Good luck and try not to trip on the way to nursery school!

Whoever's in charge of this birth rate problem, pls come up with some new measures that'll actually help. We need our CPF. We need shorter work weeks. We need longer maternity. We need more family-friendly measures in the work place. We need bosses that don't see us as asset machinery that lives to work for the corporation alone. And we can't have all this, until you make the right moves in the right direction. If all you can think of is the monetary side, then that's all we, the citizens, are gonna focus on. And we're just gonna end up paying ( No pun intended ) for all this while you sit in your pretty little house with the damn huge golf course and wonder why we're not having more babies.

If you haven't seen the article, [or don't subscribe to Straits Times, hint hint wink wink tsk tsk], here is the link:
Singapore Sees Lowest Birth Rate in 26 years

It's Official: My exam dates come back on the 19th, so on that date, I can see if I have to continue worrying about getting a job, or worry about seeing my damn lecturers again next sem. My sole comfort is that I don't have to agonize over it over Xmas.....

For the NUS students:
Exam Results Hell Day

Wah Freakin' Lau
Once again I'm stuck deep in HTML mess because I glibly agreed to do SJ's website for her. Talk abt shooting myself in the foot, I think I kicked myself in the arse as well. Bleah. At least this time it ain't so bad, cos I've finally discovered the wonders of Dreamweaver 4.

[angels above: Hallelujah. come to think of it, has anyone ever wondered why we pronounce it "ha-ley-lu-IAH" when's spelt with a J? Hee...]

Now the only thing left is to figure how to get a form online.... urgh.... more trips to the library....... n more javascript madness........ will publish the site on this blog when it's done, cos right now, it's so under construction, it's liable to collapse anytime. [and we sure won't want you to walk around the site with yellow helmuts. Not to mention how incredibly stupid you'd look wearing a yellow helmut in your own house]

Also got a new tuition job, [FINALLY!!!] teaching in Geylang east of all places. The place is abt half an hour's MRT ride from my place, and the pay is less, but I'm despo so who's complaining? The kid is pri 6 come the new school year, and I'm teaching English only. At least there's a library near their place for me to hang out if I reach their area early.....

Watched LXG and Nemo FINALLY! Good movies, though LXG is kinda mindless hollywood entertainment. Animation in Nemo: Fantastic. Kudos.

We Don't Want Kids...Unless they pay their own way
And currently on the News as I hear it, Singapore experiences its lowest birth rate, despite Govt. baby bonus. Like, DUH! With all the education, tuition and other unsavoury influences to worry about, why the heck would I want to raise a child in Singapore and subject him to the same shit that I went through? Why, he could grow up learning Hokkien expletives, be an utter disgrace in Chinese, turn nigh-suicidal from the homework at school, turn into an overly-pragmatic, materialistic, money-grabbing glob [for lack of a better word] and *gasp* vote PAP and wear white his whole life. [while this might mean he could go to RI....]

Ok, forget about the above paragraph. I have nothing against the PAP or RI, so don't blast my mail or my blog. But frankly, there's very little in our society and culture today that's actually helping the birth rate right now. In Europe, they have paternity leave and maternity leave that's way, way longer than ours, and not to mention the shorter work weeks. On the other hand, you have our gahmen, CUTTING CPF, RAISING GST, in order to become more COST competitive with China, and urging us to not be so PICKY in jobs and TAKE what you can while you can..... I have to ask: why are they wondering why we're not having babies? Because it's not COST-EFFECTIVE anymore!

To put it into crudely concrete terms, a child is a money-losing investment these days. You pay for all those years of raising a kid and in the end, when you've drained all your CPF seeing him grow up, he's off making his own millions and leaving you in an old folks' home. [unless you had the foresight to instil a strong sense of filial piety in him] While I doubt that most people think in such monetary terms when it comes to kids, I believe with all the COST, COST and COST being mentioned in the papers today, our gahmen has managed to subliminally condition us into thinking about MONEY, MONEY and MONEY all the time. There are plenty of examples of this. When they ran an article on why service was so lousy in Singapore, they found out it was because we put price and quality over service. Look at the crowds at the Robinson's Sales. And when something is being given out free, you can bet there'll be a queue of people, whether it be free food or free bras.

Everything we do in our lives revolves around money, and how to maximise the money we already. When you've led entire generations to think this way, what makes you think we're gonna have babies? Because frankly, unless you have a really strong sense of parenthood, [not to mention god-like patience and self-sacrifice] you're not really likely to have a kid at all. With the pay we're getting, and the CPF cuts, our generation will be lucky if we can even save up enough cash for retirement if we're SINGLE. What about when we're married? What about when we have kids? If we ourselves are struggling just to earn enough for ourselves, how the heck are we gonna afford kids? The gahmen was so worried about us losing out to China, they forgot to worry about us losing out ourselves. [gee, did that last sentence make sense?]

The gahmen had better think real good about their long term plans for Singapore.

In the name of literary balance, I'm gonna write something light-hearted to compensate for the heaviness below, so here's:

Love Actually Is All Around

I finally caught Love Actually and kudos and credits to Quet for getting the tix at half price. [ha! Nyah nyah to the rest of you!]

NOte about this show: This is definitely something to catch if you have a bf/gf as a companion. Richard Curtis, who also created Bridget Jones' Diary, 4 Weddings, and Notting Hill, produced (I think he produced.... I think) this romantic comedy revolving around these couples who are loosely related. The relationships are something like:

The PM of Britain falls in love with Natalie, and his sister is
Karen is married to Harry, who's attracted to his secretary. Working in Harry's office is Sarah, in love with Carl, hot latin hunk.
Karen is also friends with Daniel, who's stepson is in love with a girl at sch, and Daniel is friends with
Jamie, who's in love with his Portuguese housekeeper, though they don't understand each other linguistically.
Jamie is friends with Mark, who loves his best friend's new bride.

Out of the whole sequence, seemingly, is Colin, self-proclaimed sex god who flies to US for a shag, cos he's convinced that all American girls think British men are hot. And Billy Mack, whose Xmas spoof on Love Is All Around beats Blue's single to become the top single for xmas. [his single is played in snippets throughout the entire show]

V.funny show, though the British slang and accent may mean that you might miss a few jokes. Also amazing is how they managed to sew in the stories of so many disparate characters and yet not make it confusing to watch. [hint to all: don't think about the relationships between the characters. just concentrate on the love that is all around.] Not too many love cliches also, thankfully, but then again, isn't love in the movies a kinda cliche already? The difference is that here, this movie seems to say, "Yea, I'm about love, so what about it? Sod off, mate"

Fluffy, comfy movie. Watching it at xmas is kinda like curling up in front of the fire in a pile of blankets and a mug of hot chocolate and marshmallows. :) Gives you that warm, cosy feeling. [or maybe it was 'cos I was wrapped up in my shawl throughout the whole movie.]

For more pro reviews, check out:
IMDB
The Official Site [ Might take a while to load ]
and for a more balanced view,
Rotten Tomatoes

Can't stand my parents
damn damn DAMN once again I type in a whole chunk of stuff and when I leave to answer a call, the blogger server kicks me out and now I've to rewrite everything. damn damn DAMN!

Ok, as much as I can remember I was griping about my parental units. [i coined that phrase with the slayer] I started off with: My parents have been pushing for me to work in the same place that my cousin does, 'cos they say some money's better than just sitting at home. Downside: My cousin sorts and delivers mail at $5 an hour. That is one damn lot bunch of peanuts.

Q: If I decline this seemingly-generous offer, am I being the picky graduate that everyone picks on in the papers?

The problem with our parents is that they grew up in a totally different environment, with a totally different and narrow perspective, and somehow, they think this infuses with the wisdom of the ages and that it is their sublime and holy duty to make us that us, their offspring, follow their wisdom, otherwise all manner of disaster and mayhem will befall us. This is the problem with my units. From primary One they've been telling me to do things the way they like, only that now that I'm older and obviously have a thinking mind of my own, it's a bit harder for them to do that. Then to them, I become selfish, materialistic, picky and snobbish.

[i'm now posting this para by para so that I don't lose anything]

I missed a tuition offer over the weekend. The agency called when I was in Jap class and I didn't get the call, cos my phone was on silent. A potential channel of future income: Gone. The best thing about it is that they called my house then, so my mum sent me an sms and that's how I finally got to know about it. I couldn't call back the agency cos firstly, it was late [who's at the office at 630 on a sat nite??] and also becos my phone was on low batt again and I wouldn't have been able to talk to the lady for more than 5 sec without it dying. [some of you may know about this curious trait about my phone]

Anyway, I got a bit upset about it when I heard about it, because hello, come Jan, I'm on my own, and I like, really need the income? And my parents' way of comforting me? Telling me that I should have gotten my priorities right. [ie take the call and leave the jap class] So sue me if I follow a basic courtesy practice that HALF the population of Singapore doesn't, even if I've been doing it all my 3 years in NUS.

The irritating thing about my parents is that they think that their narrow perspective on life has somehow given them the wisdom of seniority, and that if I don't follow that wisdom, I will be struck down by God or something. Never mind that they grew up in totally different eras, or that they are 2 different people from me, or that they didn't follow the same educational path that I did, they somehow think that they can impose their way of thinking over me, because they're always right and I'm always wrong or at best, misguided. They're always harping about 'my priorities' when it's perfectly clear that they don't know what my priorities are, and couldn't care less, unless it was out of line with what they think it should be. They did it in pri sch, after my Os, after my As, and now they're doing it after I graduate.

Like, screw you. I have my own goals in life, and I don't need you to decide them for me.

Now I can only pursue my goals in silence, cos if I tell them what I really want to do with my life, their response will be so predictable. MONEY. It's always about MONEY and even though I know there's some truth in it, I'm sick of the way they keep harping on it, and the way they keep pulling me to join their path of monkeyhood. I know I need money to survive but I don't see why I have to become a damn wage monkey to a multi-billion corporation who's more interested in their shareholders than the needs of their employees. [and that I have NO illusions about, becos that's exactly what they taught us in bizad]. There are more than one ways of pursuing money, why can't I, for now, try a different way?

The worse thing about my parents is that they don't give a heck about my priorities, unless it's out of line with what they think it should be.

My pix don't work!!! I donno why cos I swear I typed the URL and everything correctly and quet tells me all she sees are 2 little red crosses on the screen and candle doesn't even seem to see the new entries........ oh gawds above kill me.... kill me now and end it all now........

Singapore's famous once again.......... for creating the world's first genetically-altered pet (!!) banned in California of all places. I mean geesh, what percentage of the population there is already genetically altered? Read it here!

The good thing is that I finally got the hang of colouring manga images in photoshop, although my final work tends to look AMATEUR. Nevermind, it's all a matter of practice............. My blog is long overdue for an image makeover and I also intend to make a website showcasing more of my AMATEUR work. The pic on the left is my latest self-tutorial, YM B/W pic coloured in Photoshop, using marquees, paint buckets and lots of dodge, burn and smudge.

Finally I've been let on the Net! I swear my modem is female, cos yesterday she went on PMS and refused to let me come online AT ALL! She'd blink orange, yellow, then yellow, blank, yellow, blank, and just as I hold my breath in anticipation she switches back to orange yellow mode again! ARGH! Modems are FEMALE i tell you!

Cos the silly thing is that now that I've finally accessed my blog I realise........ I have nothing of substance or crap to mention. Bleah. These few days I've been out, out and out. Out one day for interview, then quet n candle came over for photoshop crash course, [luv photoshop. learn something new everyday i use it] ladies nite at london nite, boat quay. [not too bad. sat outside where it's nice and airy and drinks of cors' free for us. ha!] and yesterday met candle aft. her iv and met the eggies for dinner at sanur. [good bbq sotong. very, very good. though i know there are some pple who'd accuse me of cannibalism.] Ack! and today i'm supposed to go to a groupmate's house for dinner and hopefully squeeze in a few mins with the Slayer who's coming home from Australia today. Where did all the time go?? I still have 3 movies to watch [1 pirated VCD and 2 on the hard drive] and my photoshop [i've learned how to colour manga images. Yay!] and my freehand! And I still have to find my eat rice money!

hourglass turned upside down. sand trickles down.

Anyway, for your entertainment, anyone heard the song Stacie's Mom by Busted? [i tink it's by them anyway] Well, me in a state of boredslacker-dom came up with the following female version. Enjoy:

(Disclaimer: I do not know any Casey or his father. I just used the name cos it rhymes.)

Casey's Dad ( sung to the tune of Stacie's Mom )

Casey's Dad, he's really quite a man (X2)

Casey can I come over after school
We can hang around or swim in the pool
Is your father back from his business trip?
Is he there or is he trying to gimme the slip?

And I'm not the little girl that I used to be
I'm all grown up now baby can't you see?

Chorus:
Casey's Dad, he's really quite a man
He's all I want, and I need him so bad
Casey can't you see, you're just not enough for me
I know I might be mad, but I'm in love with Casey's Dad

Casey's Dad, he's really not too bad (X2)

Casey do you remember when we sat on your lawn?
Your dad came out with just a towel on
I could tell he liked me from the way he stared
And from the way he said, "That's a fine looking girl over there"

And I know you think it's just a fantasy
But since your mom walked out your dad could use a girl like me

Chorus

Lots of stuff, lots of stuff......easter egg.....seafood sukiyaki......and rice money.... scroll down lots guys....

Easter Egg Found!
congrats [i tink] to eastpaw who's the first one ever to find an easter egg blog. And who's probably the only one of my friends who know what it was I'm talking about. :p

FYI an easter egg, in techie-talk, is an additional feature that is usually written into video games and is not mentioned anywhere in the manuals. For example, imagine you're playing final fantasy, and when you enter a strange room and walk into the corner, u suddenly find treasure. It's a hidden feature that usually is a treat for the gamer, hence the name "easter egg". Now that you all are enlightened, can you please find it already??

Seafood gets massacred by Sukiyaki Egg
I kid you not. This really happened at Er's steamboat dinner just this Sun. The Little Plastic Castle has some info on the event, but here are some more little details:

Who: Me, Jul, Daf, Krystal, Er, and Goldfish ( ok, goldfish uses diff nicks, but i like originality ) plus some of Er's NIE frens
WHat: Steamboat dinner at Er's house
When: Sunday nite
Why: Um, he missed us?

So during the dinner, Jul and Gfish do this sukiyaki egg thing. This is really, really good in a steamboat BBQ. You crack a raw egg, stir in some soy sauce and pepper, and you dip all your food in it. Gawds it was good. We dipped chicken, fish, sotong, sotong ball, veg-thingy in it and btw the 5 of us, we used like 4 eggs. Oh, the cholestrol......

Then someone got the bright idea to dip the raw food in egg and then cook it on the BBQ. And it tasted great too! Soon, our side of the table were happily making little crabmeat omelettes on our side of the steamboat, with the NIE side looking on in a restrained, polite way, the way people do when someone is doing something stupid and out of courtesy to the host you don't wanna say anything. [recipe for crab meat omelette: Unroll crabstick, and pour abovesaid egg mixture all over it. Great!]

The best part was when they cooked the tentacle part. WOw! You know, when you put the pile of tentacles on the grill, the heat causes it to move and it looks like it's alive? I could just imagine my tentacles going "Noooooo.................I don't wanna die............... " and I even did this matrix-squiddie-robot impersonation with it and attacked Gfish's tofu by crawling all over it. I guess you could say, [in chinese] my tentacles ate her tofu................................

Ok, lame-o joke. Couldn't resist at that moment. Hee.

[Er's other frens quietly ignore us somemore, then quietly exit the house and talk outside.]

So we continue talking and laughing and chatting and laughing and crapping and laughing and laughing and laughing........ It got so bad, his aunt, sitting in the room watching tv told us that we were making too much noise and though she'd already increased the volume several times, she still couldn't hear maksim playing. Oops. Gfish didn't even know she was there in the first place............. We think the final straw for her was when maksim was playing the Hungarian Rhapsody and Jul said it was something he heard on Tom and Jerry.............. We then quietly make our exit out of the house and sit by the pool to continue the hilarity.

And after a while, a security guard comes over and brings Er to one side.

[hush hush whisper whisper]

Apparently we were making too much noise too, and some residents had complained about us. We spared the aunt, but subjected the entire block to our laughter instead. And Jul wanted to let loose a string of guffaws to get back at the block, but krystal and I stopped him. Anyway by that time, it was late and we all had to go.

I can't remember the last time I got scolded at a friend's house for making too much noise while playing. And judging how quickly the security guards raised the barrier to let Jul's car exit... we think they were really, really glad we were gone.

Good steamboat, although we may never be allowed into Er's place again. :p :p :p

[Are all my frends like that? I remember Vday at Suntec with the FWFC and how we 8 single gals kept talking about blood tests and gross stuff and divorce rates with all the couples around us..... ]

Eat Rice Money hopefully come in....?
My interview for the Retail Management Trainee is tom.... Glorified Sales Assistant....... and yes, I got my dream bag and shoes..... although dream shoes gave me a blister on big toe when I wore it for the first time today...... :p :p Went to Metro with the Turtle and found dream bag too.... although had to go from Metro Paragon to Metro Marina Square becos at the M.Paragon, when I asked for the brand I wanted, they told me, "We don't carry such cheap stuff here."

I admit it, I'm broke, and thanks to the additional boost to my ego, you $5-an-hour-and-hopefully-commission-once-in-a-while sales assistant you.

Photostating certs on copier now, abt to write resume.

I'm surprisingly [calm] abt the whole thing. The funny thing is that after answering the call and accepting the interview, I realised that I didn't really want to work in retail all that much. Should have tot of that before you sent in the resume Considering retail hours, [12 hour workdays + weekends + public holidays + peanuts] I won't really have a lot of time to work on the stuff I want to do. Does this really gel with my long term career goals? er, your long term career goals are about.... 2 years..... I'm not gonna have time to practice, and I might not even be able to go for Jap class.

O well, treat it as an experience and see how it goes. And if not..... well, the shoes and bag can always be used for shopping......... :p

And kudos to the power of the blog. I mentioned in a previous entry if anyone wanted simple + cheap website design and Tenderheart actually emailed me saying her father wanted one and asked me my price. ($$) Can I actually carry this off? *crosses my fingers and hopes that nothing attacks self-esteem at this point of time*

Jul has also gotten back to me with the RC teaching offer and he said that I'm pretty free to choose whatever it is I want to teach, and the hours are pretty flexi at that too. Which means I may even have my own manga class? ( Manga drawing being the only [specialized] teaching subject I can prob do ) Suddenly I have a lot more options in my life. Can I do it all? Can I really do it all?

Sideline: All gaming freaks watch out. Playstation has released The EyeToy.
According to my copy of Newsweek,

"When you connect the EyeToy to your PS2 via a USB port, your image appears on screen. The camera lets PS2 track your movements, which means that you can now use your hands, knees, feet and other extremities to interact with games that take advantage of this new peripheral."

From the pic, it looks like a little webcam that sits on top of your tv, so when you move, it captures your image. How accurate it is, I'm not too sure, but it definitely takes gaming to a new level of cool. :) Unfortunately, according to the website, it's only available in the States, or from online. Funny thing is that there's not much info on the website about it. Why won't PS wanna promote a toy like that? It's pretty cool what....

I can imagine the local usage of it though. Para-para-ing.....

Unbeknownst to the rest of you, this is actually the 2nd time I'm writing this, the first draft having been erased when my browser hung. Sheesh.......

My Life As It Is
Er, boring? :p Well here are the highlights so far....

I have an interview!
Yes, remember those 2 resumes I sent out? I actually got a reply from one of them, the Retail Management Trainee. They called me up a few minutes ago and asked me to come down for an interview. [they wanted today, I stalled, and it's fixed for Tues]

So..... I have an interview and I'm scared stiff. I'm reconsidering whether I wanna become a monkey, whether I'm gonna get peanuts, I'm wondering what's gonna happen to my time, can I still persuade my graphic design, and I'm wondering why the heck I did this to myself. I also realised that I have no bag to carry, the majority of my bags being for casual use. Awl Gawd.............. [banging head on table, taking care I don't hit my laptop]

At least now I know that the 'French boutique' is actually that shop in Suntec city that's opposite to Polo Ralph, and not some dingy moulin-rouge-wannabe in Geylang........ yeesh........

watashi wa saru desu?

My [graphic design]
Freehand has been a bit easier to learn than I thought it would be. I can now do simple line drawings and add some colour with it. It's not photoshop, but it is a lot easier to draw with it, than Photoshop.

Your graphic design career's gonna take a while, huh?

Oh shut up.

The Books I've Read
One interesting one I've borrowed from the library is The Looks Book. It's created by the same people who did gURL.com. It's a very interesting look at beauty, what people have done for beauty, and goes through all the major female body parts. [sorry guys] For example:

Skin Care Through the Ages [or what people have put on their faces in the name of beauty]:

Ancient Egypt - hippopotamus fat, curhsed donkeys' teeth
Ancient Syria - camels' lungs
Ancient Greece - the urine and saliva of virginal female slaves [sickos]
Ancient Rome - crocodile dung
19th Century America - horseradish and sour milk
North and Central American folklore - the "warm urine of a little boy"
And during the late 14th century, the future French Queen Isabel of Bavaria washed her face with a concoction that included boar brains, wolf blood, and crocodile glands

eeeewwwwww..........

Ok, besides these, the book also talks about body decorations, modifications, and the different fashion styles today. It has a really funky wild design and the arrangement of the contents remind me of a website. Like, if you're reading about skin, they'll tell you to go to page XX to read more about skincare, something like that. Fun to read, even if the book is targeted at teens. ;)

The one way I know people are still reading my blog.... is when I see all the personality quizzes I did appearing on other people's blogs... hahaha....

Rabbles from a Job-hunter
Writing Resumes....... is a damn tedious process.......... I've barely scratched the surface of the job-hunting jungle in Singapore and I already feel like giving up on the whole damn thing. Gawds!

Anyway I've sent out a couple of resumes, and by a couple, I mean that. Exactly 2. [er.... talk about the picky graduate huh?] One is for a technical writing post, and the job scope is to review and write about the latest tech hardware in town for this website. [Gee, does that mean I get to use them first? Ooh... bring on the toys baby...] Another is for a Retail Management Trainee for a 'french boutique'. I have no idea why these companies don't ever wanna use their real names on application adverts. I mean, if you want people to work for you, you gotta let them know what they're getting into right? [Unless for course, they don't want people to know what they're getting into. Oh oh...] I also signed up for a couple of tuition agency websites as a cross-my-finger gesture. Hope somebody wants to hire me and give me money.

I also realised [again and again and again] that I seriously need to brush up on my graphic skills in order to even get into graphic design. [which means that I have to hit the software pirates to get bootleg copies of Illustrator and Fireworks and the lot and some books from the library. I'm broke, and I have no choice but to be cheap.] Really have to start practicing on this. I have an old CD with some of the software from my stint in BizadPub with Prof. Lye, but some of the passwords don't work, so need new CDs. It might be a good idea for me to update my portfolio, with the comics realm website for Internet marketing and maybe even this blog! Gawds, imagine a potential employer viewing all this! [No........................................] Most of the applications also list 'diploma'. Wondering whether I shld go for some kinda design course or just rely on a good portfolio. [then again... my dad did say the other time that he didn't mind paying for education. Hmm...... ($$)] Anyone needs simple n cheap website design? Hahaha.... I'll charge you a milk tea and large fries from mos burger........ that'll keep me happy......... :p

Hm, am I being too picky? I don't think so. I'm not holding out for the big bucks. [I go to 4D n Toto for that]. I'm pretty much just looking for some kinda experience and hoping to get a job in the field I want to do. Now I gotta really cross my fingers and hope that at least, I get some 'eat-rice' money once my dad cuts the apron strings, so that even when I fall, I don't bruise my butt too much. [Thank God I have a big, soft one....]

Various humour off the Net
Been surfing the Net, and checked out this blog by Margaret Cho that was recommended in the Sunday LIfe today. Her latest entry on homosexuality is an....... interesting.........read....... Everyone please please please take it with a pinch of salt, some open-mindedness, and don't carp on to me about the parts with God and sexual organs. As potentially-pagan as I am, that part made me go a bit, "er.........."

But it's a good rejoinder to all these people who think that the only version of God's love is the one they know. I mean, hallo, just because you've read the Bible umpteen times and go to church every Sunday, you think you know God better than everyone else? Like only Sunday catholics have a monopoly on God's love? Who died and made you God-Almighty? ( certainly not Jesus anyway..... )

In another article, I got the link for this off Dave Barry's blog. I know people get mad when their inbox gets spammed, but dude......... Spam Rage

Also, at Dave Barry's blog, check out the Ebay item of the day. And when the page opens, scream, "CON!!!" Cos this item has that word written all over it........

Incidentally, in this latest test, I have an "artistic" soul....... do i sense the invisible hand of destiny? Hee......

Name: Khelath
Status: Unemployed
Gawds, that sounds sad...

Anyway, my 2 tuition assignments have 'fired' me, so now I'm like, so totally free. In fact, I'm so free, I don't even know what to do with all the time I have. Amazing, because when you're so busy you feel guilty doing something work-unrelated, you think of all these things you'll do with your free time. Then when you actually get the free time, you donno what to do!

So I'm gonna do some self-reflection-NY-resolution style. What am I gonna do with this time?

1. Call some tuition agencies and try to get assignments. ( this is important, or I'm not gonna be able to eat rice come Jan )
2. Learn Freehand, or Adobe Illustrator
3. Read all those books stored away in my to-be-read cupboard. The ones I bought more than 6 months ago at a book fair at Expo and have stored away since then
4. Do more drawing. My art skills and creativity levels have plummeted after all those years in bizad. Time to get it back.
5. Do up SJ's website and teach HTML to all who's asked for it. ( anybody wants? Call me )
6. Get going doing some small biz of some kind. Maybe sell off the shirts from the last stint I did. ( this is gonna take a lotta effort....... )
7. Finally plan and draw my own comic story

Hopefully I have better luck with these than my previous New Year's Resolutions......... and that No. 2 also helps me get a foot in to the graphic industry in Singapore...... other than that, all I can hope for is that I'll always have $3 in my wallet for rice to eat........ :p

3 hours.... spent on the Net....ogling Yami No Matsuei Pix....... freezes......Your.........brain.......n...... seriously...........affects.........ur...........eyes...........(@@)
But.........will.........be.......so......worth..........it.......... heh........heh.........heh............

Incidentally, some poor bloke got hired for blogging! You can read it here

This might be a bit of interest to the HellB Lady..... Found a whole bunch of Yami No Matsuei tests on quizilla.... u can come to my personality test website to check out the ones I did...... I did another one that says my ideal date is Tsuzuki, but unfortunately, he's quite gay.... (~~;)

Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls, Deviants and Innocents, Care Bears and Care Cousins,
It is my pride, joy and yea, honour, to announce that:
I'm FREE!
Freeeeeeee................. as a bird.....................
[wacky, hysterical laughter]
My exams are like, so finally OVER! Hahaha! It ended with my reallly crappy AHRM just yesterday, [for which I really unloaded a shitload of C.R.A.P. upon my unwitting lecturer] and to top the whole thing off, I went out with my group to Swensen's for food and ICE-CREAM! [major sugar rush!] You know, my AHRM groupmates are pretty crappy sometimes [well, make that pretty much all the time] and when we finally got a chance for it..... wahahahaha.... pity the poor, solitary male in our group, the bedtime bear, for bearing the brunt of all that hyped up estrogen. (^^)
Anyway, major thanks and salutations to all my groupmates for this semester, if you be reading this. The list goes as follows:

Internet 4 Biz: Even though you guys left me dry at the final presentation, with one giant joker almost not coming, and Dr Tan thinking I'm being defensive.... haha, just kidding..... least we survived his boring lectures and lousy sense of timing...

Service Mkt: Candle, once again you managed to survive me as a groupmate for another sem. ;p Major thanx for helping me through that horrid, horrid case study for Credit Suisse and let's just hope Dr Rajiv [n chantika] never cross our warpaths again...

OE: We had a bit of a hiccup with the case study, but at least we pulled through that for the debates and the project and we scored... heeheehee.... LK, will always remember you telling Dr Chung "Ni bu si hen shuai".....

And how to forget...

AHRM: We are like, so freakin' crappy guys........ and the brunt of that all falls on bedtime... hahaha... But it was sooo fun working together for this sem and we can really qualify for the "Group With Most Fun", ya? ;p

And that's it. Another chapter of my life closed. Who knows what the next one is gonna bring?

Anyway, for some extra entertainment, check out the KFC Reloaded for an extra-crispy take on the infamous Architect's Speech from M.Reloaded. This is something Xeo put up on the Friendster bulletin board.... hee......

And also, here's something from matt from that same friendster bulletin...

"A woman without her man is nothing"

A professor scribbled on the chalkboard and
asked his students to punctuate it correctly.

All of the males in the class wrote:
"A woman, without her man, is nothing."

All the females in the class wrote:
"A woman: without her, man is nothing."

Moral of the story: Punctuation is POWERFUL...

It's almost Over.......
My two exams are almost here, and my time as a happy-go-not-so-lucky student is almost over. No more allowances from parents. No more worrying about menial stuff like exams and homework, [least I hope so anyway!] no more student discounts at selected outlets. :p

No more childhood. No more innocence. Time to face the real world.

Yea, like you haven't any of that yet?

Got a point. Even though we're still relatively protected in a 'school' environment, it still ain't the pretty picture of innocence [I wanna think] it is. When I read through some of my friends' blogs, I really get an idea of just how big a shitass some people can be, and how lucky I've always been, to have always been surrounded by great people. [Yes, dearies, that includes you, you, and YOU].

I used to think it was a minus point in my side, to not be able to socialise, or be able to just talk to some stranger without worries. Now I think: It's kinda a strength for me. My [dao] means that the only people who get near to me are people who are truly interested in me as a person, and not for my looks, position or power. [although I have to admit, I don't have much of the last 3, so....] This same [dao] acts as kinda filter, keeping out the leeches, parasites, and other undesirable scum of society. It's the mask I put to the world, the sign that says, "Nothing interesting here. GO AWAY!". [Although it doesn't seem to help when it comes to surveyors, solicitors, and people who wanna preach to me about God]

So do you think it's worthwhile to carry this sign? Won't you keep out a lot of other good people?

No. I'm not carrying it 24/7, don't be silly. [My arms will get tired]. It's up to me whether I want to show the sign, or whether I want to put it up. I've met people who automatically activate this sign, and I've met people who make me wanna put it down forever. The question here is whether the person will activate this sign or not. And if they do.... I won't really want to put it down when I'm with them.

And how long do you think you can carry this sign?

I'm gonna carry this sign for a long, long while in life. I'm the Fool of the Tarot. And the Fool always wanders alone.

Dreams, Existence..... a lot of this existentialist stuff has been going around lately. Wonder why?
Maybe it's because a lot of us are so disillusioned with life as it is. And it's not just a lonely graduate thing. Other friends I know not in NTU or NUSSUX feel the same thing to some degree or another. Maybe it's all the bad news going around right now? War, SARS, unemployment, possible nuclear destruction at hands of psycho dictator....... not exactly the best of times right now. Once you start to question the reality around you........ what other reality is there for you to live in? You become just like someone in the Matrix. If you know that the comfortable world around you is in fact, false........ do you still wanna continue living in it? Or leave for an uncertain future and possible death? Applying it here, once you know that the stories your parents told you [grow up, study, get job, marry] were just stories, would u rather cling on to them as all you have, or would you rather go out n see the world for yourself?
I suspect I'm gonna get my own answer to that very question very soon...........

This may be a bit heavy. I should lighten up...... Here's an interesting article about what happens when Mum finds ur blog..... hee..........
My Mom Found My Blog!

Can anyone out there find the easter egg? Hee.... If you do, tell me so on the tagboard, but don't reveal where it is... doomo..... ;)

The Shit hits the Fan..... and that's us
Anyway, I finally watched the Matrix Revolutions and gotten closure on the whole Matrix series. If you ask me, considering the hype of the first movie, it's sad to see that the next two just degenerated into the regular action movies that Hollywood churns out mass-production style. I'm understanding why my fren Jubilee says she prefers foreign films. It's cos' they're just darn good..... They're way more creative in terms of storyline and they have so much more impact on the viewer. Watching a film like 15, for example, is like getting hit in the chest by a flaming meteroid. Watching Revolutions was like...... a wadball..... [piece of wetted tissue paper that kids blow thru a straw onto unsuspecting victims] The action's good, but ultimately, the film's forgettable by itself, and can only exist thru the fame of its eldest brother.

Remember from Econs 1001: What happens when you give one company an entire monopoly? THey start producing crap stuff for you 'cos they know you can't get ur kicks anywhere else. It's sorta like the crack dealers. They can mix in baby powder with the crack and charge the crap off you for it, cos they know you just want more........ this is cos in the movie industry, only Hollywood has the clout [$$$] to produce a movie and let the whole damn world know about it. Other pple have to beg and scrape for production and distribution, and then even if it's critically acclaimed, there's the chances that no one wants to see it, cos no one believes the critics anyway. An example of this would be Mel Gibson's Passion, for example. [A film about the life of Jesus Christ].

The same thing's going on in the music industry. Nowadays, if your album doesn't make it big the first time round, the label drops you. They're not interested in the lifetime potential of the artist, they just wanna see the big bucks now. [candle, remember the concept of lifetime value from service? Well, they're not doing it.... ] Instead, they just push stuff like *shudder* Britney Spears at us again and again. Pls, if I wanted to see bellybuttons, I would have just lifted up my shirt and looked at myself in the mirror.

This is soooo sad......... the entertainment industry is potentially going to shit and all of it's falling on us............

Anyway, not that you'll need it or agree with it, but:
Khel's List of Top Ten Movies
In no particular order,
1. Lord of the Rings: Finally! A decent fantasy movie(s)!
2. 15: Teen angst at its best
3. Gangs of New York: I have a thing for gangsta flicks
4. Moulin Rouge: The colour and song.... fantastic mix
5. Battle Royale: Blood + Teen angst
6. Bowling for Columbine: Guns + Teen angst
7. Hero: Loved the cinematography and colour
8. Romeo n Juliet: Shakespeare MTV style
9. Shakespeare in Love: The passion...sigh
10. (vacant) Hey when I think of the tenth one i'll tell you..... :p

Extra thought: Anyone read last week's issue of Newsweek? They had this great feature on human beauty, and the lengths we go to achieve what we deem as physically beautiful. My thought: SHALLOW. All these pple can think about is how pretty they are, and how everyone thinks how pretty they are. They think people think:"Wow! This woman is great! She's beautiful!" when in reality they could be thinking:"Wow! This woman is great! I wanna F**K her!" [ok, this might seem like a basketful of sour grapes] The article is great in explaining what we think is beauty [The Golden Mean and the lifetime average] why our idea of beauty has changed [globalisation and the pan-asian look] and how people are willing to go thru all lengths of plastic surgery to achieve that standard of beauty. My favourite example is this woman, who went thru sooo many operations, the beauty salon is adopting as its mascot. [and when I showed Candle the photo, she said the woman still looked more or less the same. Makes me wonder what exactly it was she paid for] My favourite quotation also comes from that woman. When the reporter asked her who she wanted to look like? She said: "I'm not trying to look like anyone. I'm just trying to be myself."

I'm really wondering if she's serious or just trying to be funny.

Deliver Us
There's a land that
You promised us

Deliver Us
To the Promised Land....


Yes, dearies, the theme of today's blog is Deliverance. Why? Mainly becos of 15.

For those not in the know, 15 is the stunning new local production by Royston Tan. ( No relation to the one in bizad ) What he did was to basically take a camcorder and film these 5 teenage boys as they go about their daily lives. No, it's not just school, home and sleep for them. These kids smoke, play truant, get into fights, and sell drugs for a living.

[and what was i doing at 15? reading comics and doodling furiously during my physics classes]

But kudos to Royston Tan. He managed to befriend these kids and even persuade them into letting him film them freely while they went about the lives. THe boys are not professional actors, but are real-life street delinquents. Thus, a lot of the events in the film are given a very real dose of realism to them. Halfway through the script, Tan even had to change the actors. [although i'm not sure if he did it becos the 1st 3 boys refused to go on filming, or becos something happened to them] At the end of the show, the end credits tell you that one of the boys is awaiting trial for drug smuggling, another was involved in a stabbing incident, one attempted suicide, and one is missing, whereabouts unknown.

For me, the film brings home the stark reality that these boys face, an often hidden facade of Singapore, underneath the clean HDB blocks and the shopping malls full of giggling kids. These boys are the dark beneath, living on the fringe of society, and sniffed upon by the rest of us 'civilized folk'. In one of the scenes, 2 of the boys are sitting in a coffeeshop next to a group of students [dressed in all white, they could be SJI, RI, or even Maris]. One of the students blows a water pellet at a stray cat, much to the amusement of his peers, but not to the 2 boys. They confront the students, who scold them back in English, and a verbal battle of hokkien and english swear words ensues.

[I am amazed at the utter arrogance of those students. Didn't they ever realise the danger of pissing off 2 boys with tattoos all over their arms, and one with piercings over half his face?]

In a later scene, the group of students corner the 2 boys in an underpass and start beating them up. Unknown to them, they are seen by another boy, Armani, who notifies the rest of his 'brothers'. Suddenly, in the middle of the fight, a whole gang of bengs wielding cleavers, parangs and other sharp objects appears in the tunnels. [K*****, wo gai brother le gan pak? Ok, my hokkien looks even worse when I type it down...] Of course the students run. [ah bah then???]

But there are other literally gut-wrenching scenes in the movie. One of the scenes shows the boy, Armani, trying to commit suicide by slashing his wrist. [i had to close my eyes] Another shows another boy swallowing condoms filled with ecstasy pills. [closed my eyes too] Then there is the one where this boy just stands there, while an unseen paternal figure hurls vulgarities at him, calling him useless and telling to just leave home. [No, i didn't have to close my eyes here]

This show exposes the plight of this underbelly of Singapore. It shows a group of kids, [they're all 15] who no longer have the will to go on living, becos they have lost all hope in life. Throughout the movie, the 5 of them carry the same look of hopelessness and resignation. They are fiercely committed to their 'brothers', because all they have is each other. Lacking in academic ability, they are condemned both by family, and by society. [one of the boys is thrown out of his house for failing a maths test] Why do they have to live like that? Why can they not pick themselves up? Why is it everyone prefers to just give up and look down on them? Hard questions we walk away with after the movie.

Deliver us/To the Promised Land.......

Personal Thought: Though very much more blessed than these boys in terms of finance and family, there is a certain aspect of them that my friend and I could identify with that night. My friend has been considering quitting her job for a long while, but yet still remains, unsure of her next step. I am able to graduate, and yet I have no idea what to do with my future. As we walked around in the lonely hours of Orchard, I guess we were another kid of 'delinquent', no aim, no goals in life, unsure of our direction, and no yellow brick road with the Emerald Castle at the end. Stuck in situations that we want to get out of, and yet not knowing how to. In the end, we are just aimless wanderers, like the boys in the film, with only each other for support.

In the end, we're just like the Hebrews. We call and pray for deliverance from our prisons. Yet when we get it, we end wandering in the deserts, following the crowds, hoping the guy in front knows what he's doing and trusting to God to show us the way. Will we wander forever, or will we finally reach our Promised Land?

Random Ramblings.....
It's been a while since I had anything really worthwhile to say on this blog, so i'm just gonna try rambling on and see if I hit something....

Kazaa
It's been an even longer while since I've downloaded anything, cos I was watching the whole download-witch-hunt going on in the States. Now that I've finally been on, it's such a BLAST to receive music illegally for free again! ( Gods, if someone from that law firm sees this blog, i'm screwed............ ) The only irritating thing has been all the new measures taken to stop downloaders from well, downloading. First, there's the file that plays one section of the song over and over and over again. Then there's the one where the song starts normally, and then disintegrates into static. Another one just opened into.......silence.......
Well, screw you, music moguls. I think it still takes less time for me to delete the song and find another [good] copy than it takes for them to create and flood kazaa with all these duds. 'Sides, there's always some other hacker out there who'll manage to get a good copy out on the Net. [Hands up for electronic freedom] As I speak, i'm listening to the 2nd version of "Life Got Cold" by Girls Aloud, and the line "And we hate when we have to pay..." Hee..... so suits the mood now.
~[still waiting for the record companies to find a viable solution to deal with online music]
~[also waiting for record companies to come up with good music, instead of giving us more swinging bellybuttons. Hey, who wants to pay for that kinda music?]
Incidentally, there's a really good acoustic version of Matchbox 20's "Unwell" that's going around the Net right now. You guys really shld get it.

Still on the Shelf..... and waiting
A Salut! to Candle, who did a tarot reading for me on Sat nite on my love life, and who told me that my love life is surrounded with conniving, cheating, no-good-lyin' conman [sniff] and that there's no change in that anytime soon [SNIFF!]. What's a girl to do, but to go home, and get herself a tequila on the rocks? [Sniff......*hic*!]
Nah, I din get myself drunk, never fear.... i'm not at the stage where i'm gonna drink myself silly on my own living room floor. Think of the mess i'd have to clean up in the morning. Yuk! But it is a bit depressing to hear such news about your [as-yet-non-existent] love life. With all those connivers around me, no wonder I'm still single! At this rate, shld I consider lesbianism? [cos the tarot mentioned a MAN as the connving one, not a female figure]
Ah well....... no matter what, even if i remain single, celibate, and [straight] all my life, it's good to know that i still have other things in life to keep me happy [and ranting]. I'll still have friends, comics, books, my blog, and my 2 bottles of vodka and tequila always there for me.
[at least candle did another reading for me, which though said roughly the same thing, also said that i'd have a happy ending at the end of the rainbow, with 7 cups floating in the air.......]

I saw dead people..... in my presentation!
Once again, this Y.O.O.H. girl is in the com. lab, writing on her blog. ( If you donno what those 4 nos mean, see entry below) but actually, this time I'm not slacking. I'm supposed to be working on a 24 hour final exam but my brain is so stoned and I'm hoping to pump it awake again. ( if you're wondering about the 24 hour exam, it's when the tutor gives out the case study at the end of the lesson, say at 6pm in my case, and we're supposed to bring it home, analyze it and email it back to him by 6pm the next day )

So let me tell u about my OE presentation today. ( Once again, for an explanation of the modules I did this semester in NUSSUX, go to archives and check out the very first entry or so )

Our group analyzed the Columbia incident in NASA ( foam tank fell off, hit left wing of space shuttle, re-entry into earth turned it into flaming ball of fire ) and the organizational factors that led to the incident. ( My groupmates are now convinced that the NASA management are just a bunch of dumb monkeys ) So as a conclusion, we included a photo of the 7 astronauts who died in the crash, posing in the shuttle before takeoff.

There were 7 astronauts right? Well, just as the slide came on, someone pointed out an extra guy standing behind the 7 astronauts, making it 8 people in the photo.

So fine, we said it could've one of the technicians who knew the astronauts.

Then someone else said, " But you can't see his feet!"

And another one said," And he looks as if he has blood coming from his eyes!"

Er.........................

No conspiracy theories. As a practitioner of the Art of Photoshop, I can safely tell you that wherever we took the photo from, someone had digitally cut and paste his face among the astronauts. Not doing a very good job of it, I might add. But it did serve to send some excitement to the class at that point of time, especially as how it was a photo of the 7 of them ( before they died ) on the shuttle ( that killed them later ). The lecturer just had his jaw open during this exchange and everyone was like "What the heck.....?" Hee.... so funny......

Incidentally, my groupmate will be deleting that slide from her desktop the moment she returns to her room.....

More Bored.Slacker from the Com Lab
I'm spending a lot of time in school these days, in the com lab, slacking aren't I? Hyuk hyuk... call it the End-of-School Syndrome, otherwise known as Y.O.O.H., or, Yippee, i'm Out Of Here..... those of you who are quitting or thinking of quitting might identify with this syndrome. Symptoms include fall in productivity, increase in slack, and blissful thoughts of the holiday ahead. Aaaahhh.......

Of course another side effect is that I run out of stuff to write on this blog.... Thus, I've taken up Chemistry. See the column to your left for more details... :p Have fun guys...

Below is what I got when I mixed er, khelathium and kry5y4lium.....
From Krystal's blog, and an example of what happens when we get together. Haha....

The Potion Maker
kry5t4lium is a cloudy, porous white solid obtained from the sap of a monkshood.
khelathium is a translucent, fine aquamarine powder siphoned from the heart of an anaconda.
Mixing kry5t4lium with khelathium causes a violent chemical reaction, producing an opaque peach potion which gives the user protection from angry glares.
Yet another fun meme brought to you by rfreebern

For more chemical reactions, go to my personality tests

Latest from Bored Slacker:
I've decided that the personality tests take up way too much space here, so from now on, all personality tests will be pasted at:
Bored Slacker's Tests
Hopefully this will ease some of the clog up here...

Let's get Political...
Once again, I'm kicking my heels in the Com Lab waiting for Candle next to me to finish her work, so here I go...
I've decided to talk about something more [intellectual] today than my usual crap. Today I'm griping about the EZ Link card.
Yes, dearies, the humble little tap-as-you-go EZ Link card. Yesterday's news announced that they were gonna raise the non-refundable deposit on the card from 5 to 7 bucks. Why would this affect you, you might think, since the price of the card remains the same?
Well, the main effect is that then, you paid $15 for a card with a stored value of $10, refund deposit of $5, and a non-refundable deposit of $5. Now, you pay $15 for a card, with a $7 stored value, and the non-refund deposit of $7. [the figures might be a little wrong, but essentially, the non-refundable deposit increases and the stored value decreases]
How did this happen? The supplier of the EZ cards is a monopoly in Singapore. [Yes, bizad darlings, we all know what happens when someone gets a monopoly] Their method of earning revenue is when people use the cards, but not when people buy the cards. Essentially, some dumb spark in EZ Link got the idea that "Hey! Every fool in Singapore using the MRT is gonna use our cards at least twice a day! We're gonna be rich if we charge these suckers every time we use the cards!" He sold the idea to the CEO, the CEO loved it, and they plugged it to LTA.
Now what that dumb spark didn't realise, is that people buy more than one cards. How he didn't realise this, I don't know, because all he had to do was look back at, oh, maybe 10 years of SMRT consumer usage patterns? Gee, was that too little data for him to go on? What most people do is buy a card to use, then buy one as a spare, another one in case the spare gets lost, and why the heck not, one for Grandpa if he decides to go out. Most Singaporeans don't buy just one card to use, they buy spares. It's called kiasu-ism. [Hey, dumb spark in EZ Link, heard of that word?]
So now that they've realised what a dumb mistake they've made, they're trying to cover as much of their ass as possible by shifting the extra costs onto the consumer. "Like hey! I need to eat! I can't go one day with earning at least a billion bucks from all them hapless dumb-as....I mean informed consumers!" What this extra cost means is that we're being punished cos one guy in the Marketing Dept. at EZ Link didn't do his homework properly. [Should've taken some hints from us. hahaha!]
So what can you do about it? Revenge is a very, very easy course for us. What every one should do is buy as many as the damn cards as possible. Yes, go forth and purchase. For the sake of free-market principles, everyone in Singapore should go forth and buy an extra EZ link card for yourself, one for your mother, one for your father, your brother, your sister, your uncles, your aunties, your grandparents, your maid, your dog, and the girl/guy across the street whom you've always tot was cute but never had the guts to approach. It doesn't cost very much, just $15 and all you have to do, is buy some stickers, [Comic Connections sells stickers for the EZ link cards with popular manga characters on them], decorate them really nicely, and give 'em away as xmas presents!
You can do your part, to bring down this monopoly power with a really bad Marketing Dept. If you collect too many EZ link cards from people with a power, you can make a collection for the excess EZ Link cards, collect 'em all in a box, and write on the box: "This is What We Think of Your Non-Refundable Deposit!" Then dump the boxes in front of the EZ office, together with the rest of the boxes that other disgruntled people are gonna send. We can let 'em know what we think and we can bring down the company at the same time, paving the way for people who actually know how to conduct business!

[BTW did I ever mention to you guys that I really admire Michael Moore and the stuff he does? Heh.... ]

Another One! [I'm starting to think I should really put all the quizzes onto a separate blog instead...this is taking up way too much space]

CLUELESS IDIOT
The kind of idiot that everyone keeps around for
pure amusement for themselves. They know your
dumb ass will never catch on. P.S. There is no
Santa Clause.

what kind of idiot are you
brought to you by Quizilla

More Personality Tests!

From the Matrix, I am the One....

You are Neo, from "The Matrix." You
display a perfect fusion of heroism and
compassion. [I also display a dead expression on my face, lots of black in my wardrobe and one heck of a pair of killer shades!]


What Matrix Persona Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

And if I ever commit a crime, I'd go to jail for.....

You're goin' down! FOR HACKING INTO COMPUTERS!
Please rate if you liked!

If you're a goth please visit
groups.msn.com/gothicteensoftheworld and join
up cause it rules!


What Would You Go to Jail For? (Many outcomes)
brought to you by Quizilla
This I like, Cos it's def. something I can see myself doing........ mwahahahaha.........

And I have a...
Congratulations! You have an understanding of the
goth culture!


A True Goth Quiz
brought to you by Quizilla

And concerning my mental health... er.....
Umm, you might consider suicide maybe a total of
about 10 times in your life. You think that
sometimes life can become too stressful and you
just wanna leave it all behind and die. But
don't worry. It will pass in time. I hope you
liked the quiz! Please Rate!!! `-)


Are you going to commit suicide? (PLEASE RATE) `-)
brought to you by Quizilla
Well, at least it said it will pass in time.... ;p

Another monkey, free as can be,
Happily swinging from tree to tree....

Tarzan!


What movie Do you Belong in?(many different outcomes!)
brought to you by Quizilla

Would have liked Gambit, but oh well.....

You are Beast!

You are brilliant and extremely clever. You can
handle almost any problem swiftly and
efficiently. You are devoted to philosophy and
are always up for a good discussion.
Sometimes, though, your anger gets the best of
you and you upset those whom you care about.


Which X-Men character are you most like?
brought to you by Quizilla

The Strangest-Testimonial-Award goes to DL, for his claim that I love beef noodles with lots of cow blood...... :P~ Fren, if you're reading this, the next bowl of beef noodles with cow blood goes onto your shirt.....

Thankfully for me now, a lot of pressure is finally starting to slack off. I'm down to:
3 presentations
1 individual report
1 group report
1 take-home exam
and 2 final open-book ( YAY! ) exams

There's a whole lot more time for me to sleep/eat/read and especially read all the books that have been sitting in my cupboard for ever since last semester. I'm also getting the travel bug, esp. after talking to Mr Lu that nite, thanks a lot man..... looking forward to Thailand, or maybe even HK or TW. The main thing is, all that shitload of school stuff is almost over. Time to really slack..... :) :) :)