Random Ramblings....

I have a bruise on my shin the size of a Wang Wang biscuit, and I have absolutely no idea how it got there. I don't know why bruises appear all over my body when I have no idea how they got there. I'm pretty sure there's enough fat all over my body to cushion it against any shocks.

Krystal, the Tim Tams were so good, my family finished half of the original ones for me, and I've pretty much whacked off almost the entire pack of caramels by myself. Now I'm afraid of touching the 2 alco ones in case I end up pigging on them myself. My... precious biscuits...

Some stuff I've done in prep for the bazaar on Fri...

Butterflies in my stomach...


and more Bubbles....


What do you guys think? I'm thinking at least they're a bit more 'arty' than the ones we sold at Stadium Cove...

Plus here's something I saw in Toa Payoh...



It's so sad to think that these poor cats have to resort to begging on the streets for their milk...

( Nah, he was fine, just taking a breather from this carton of milk someone bought for him. Dammit! Stray cats on the streets get taken care of better than some of us humans! )

Also, it occurs to me that 2 books I've been reading this week have to do with characters being able to deal Death by thinking or writing about it. Allow me to introduce you guys to Death Note ( Manga by Takeshi Obata, same guy who drew Hikaru No Go ) and Lullaby ( Novel by Chuck Palahniuk, same guy who brought you Fight Club )

Death in your Hands

In Death Note, a high school student finds a notebook lying on the ground one day, and picks it up. He finds out that it's a Death Note, and that if you write a name in the book, that person will die within 40seconds. He then goes on a power-ego trip by writing names of convicted criminals in the book, hence killing off hundreds of criminals in a matter of weeks.

The scary thing is that he seems to see himself as a future God of some sort, with the power invested in him by the book. Innocence and greed are mixed in an uneasy combination. In one page, he says, "I am the best model student in the whole of Japan... and also... [next panel] The God of the New World!" He's utterly convinced that the only way to cleanse the world is to kill off all the unsavoury elements, and that he's the one chosen to do so by the book.

The other scary part is that he's frighteningly sane as he goes about his business. Unlike most other would-be-world-dictators, he's cool and calm and never frothes at the mouth, yelling about how powerful he is. He is sane enough to calmly calculate risks, strategize, and ponder his next move in outwitting the international police agencies.

And yet, he's nuts enough to think he could one day be a God.

Holy shit. This kinda power should never fall into human hands.

Manga-wise, however, it's a well-drawn, well-written book. Obata-san is a skilled manga artist, as evidenced by the success of his previous series, Hikaru No Go, which led to an outburst of interest in weiqi across the whole of Japan. Anyone who can influence popular culture across a national level like that deserves respect. :)

The other book, Lullaby, speaks of a old African poem, a culling song, used to euthanize warriors and dying persons. Anyone who hears the song being sung will die within a short period after hearing it. Streaton is the main lead, who accidentally sang the song to his wife and daughter one night, and woke up the next morning to find them dead. He is hence on a quest to make sure that no more copies of the book with the poem in it remains on the earth.

Palahniuk's style of writing, however, is much different from other bestselling authors. It is, wat, subtle? There is no emotional connection to the character, and everyone in the book feels detached, somehow. Like they have no emotions, or refuse to admit that they have emotions. Which in a way, makes sense. The main lead, Streaton is attempting to curb all memories of his wife and daughter, and to do this, sinks himself in noise. He lives among what he describes as 'quiet-ophobics', people living in his apartment block who are afraid of silence, and hence switch on their TVs and radios as loudly as possible so that they will not live in silence.

Is that the case these days? God knows the world is getting noisier and noisier, cars, traffic, TVs, radios, mahjong, except in the dead of the night. Even when I'm home I have to have the radio switched on. Perchance, it gives us a false sense of company, making us feel less alone than we really are. Switching on the radio or the TV makes you feel as if someone is with you all the time, that the DJ on the radio is really talking to you, and not the whole of the island. It distracts us from our loneliness.

Oh well, everyone sing:

Hold me now
Warm my hand
Stay with me...
~Song currently on radio