This is most decidedly an ungodly hour. I just came back after a wonderful dinner at Kenny Rogers' courtesy of Tenderheart. Many thanks and roses to you. Also shared Black Angus mudpie with her too. If chocolate was sinful, then I'll gladly jump into the fire and brimstone.

Pix gone. Again. My poor pix. Daff: The method I'm using for this table is the percentage method, so that obviously is a crossout. I'm not sure abt the cm method 'cos that might mean that my table will be fixed no matter what browser you guys are using and might cause other viewing problems too.

I'm currently tweaking the code a whole damn lot to get the look I want. So this is gonna turn into a construction site for a while, sans concrete and yellow boots. Bear with me guys. I know it looks terrible right now.

That done, here is a Little Bad Poem dedicated to my trials with HTML:

I hate .jpegs.
I hate tables.
I hate javascript.
Bleah bleah urgh.

I did say it was a Little Bad Poem.

Onto blogging proper now....

Chocolates. Ice cream. Sex.

Just an example of the things women eat to reduce stress. I'm not sure about the sex part though, I just put it in the headlines to get your attention. *grin* But it will come up later in the blog.

Kry5t4l's blog [link on the right. check it out] has a little ditty this week about how girlfriends are the most important friends in your life you'll ever have. Now I produce scientific evidence to support this hypothesis. [ooo I sound all reseach-ey]

From Readers' Digest:
Shelley Taylor, a University of California, LA, psychology professor, [this is all to show you that this woman knows what she's talking about and ain't just bullshitting you] says that "Women have a potent stress-fighting system based partly on oxytocin, the 'cuddling hormone'"

Known for being produced in women during chidbirth and lactation and in both sexes during orgasm, [hence the sex part. Hey, does that mean sex will help us reduce stress too?], oxytocin has also been shown to boost bonding in rats, sheep and prairie voles. [what's a vole? why are we being compared to animals?]

Giving rats daily shots of oxytocin cuts blood pressure and the stress hormone cortisol [that's the idiot hormone screwing all of us up] while promoting wound healing and possibly, weight gain. [probably from the chocolates and ice cream]

Oestrogen increases oxytocin's effectiveness. To Taylor and others, this shows that women may naturally cope with stress not just by fighting or fleeing, but by finding comfort in friends too. Most intriguing is how... oxytocin may feed a kind of self-perpetuating loop of stress reduction.

So when stressed, forget the pills and the food. Call up your girlfriends, have a night out, and chill in each others' comfort and misery. Note one thing: The article makes no mention of male friends. :p

Hence women are better equipped to handle stress, because we reach for our girlfriends the minute stress hits? This may be more true than you think. Think: What do women do when they face stress? They SMS, they call, they meet their fellow girlfriends.

"My idiot boyfriend..."
"Dat damn bitch at work..."
"All guys are blocks..."
"They ran out of ice cream!"

Don't you think? When my frens have a shitty day at work, or a bad day with the BF, or a bloody hell of a time organizing a holiday across the European continent, I'll hear about it sooner or later. Whether through SMS, phone, email, ICQ, MSN, blog, or when we're really pissed, or bored, meeting up face to face. Or through the wonderfully effective grapevine within the group. I think the intelligence network within a group of women would put the CIA to shame. Then again, they're men. Go fig. It also shows why Bush never managed to get definite intelligence about Iraq's weaponry either. He's a man. He's genetically deficient in intelligence gathering. Ok, I'm digressing.... *ducks tomatoes*

I think part of what helps women to handle stress is the ability to share stress with her fellow women. Instinctly we have a need to pour out our sorrow, grief, joy to our frens, and instinctly we are made to receive that stress, share in it, and offer our own, sometimes unwarranted, opinions. Nothing wrong, bad, even particularly good about it, just the way good ol' Mother Nature [or God] made us.

Ditch the Valium. Ditch the chocolate. Ditch the ice cream. Gals, your best stress reliever is always there, free of charge, and only an SMS away.

Which triggers a question: Do guys handle stress the same way? Thru' male bonding? Or do they just drink themselves silly or something? Any male readers wanna comment? Or do I have any male readers at all?

A Multi-faceted Diamond...

Is my blog... because almost everyone sees different sides of the same thing. Bleah argh eek.

Overwhelming opinion is that the right column with the tagboard seems to be 2X the size of the left column. Damn. Totally the opposite of what I usually see on my screen. This is probably due to the HTML code I used, for tables. Someone more versed in HTML please give me an answer to this... Doshitte??? *hunts for her Idiot's Guide to HTML*

And all hail me, proponent of Graduate Issues. I can just see myself in Parliament...

"You con all these parents into thinking that the only way their children can have a future is to have a degree, and then you pick on them for trying to carve out that future for themselves? Shame on you, Mr Goh, shame on you!"

Right..... The only problem is that if I appeal to the grads for votes, seeing as how little a number we are compared to the entire Singaporean workforce, I don't think I'll ever make it as far to Parliament. Unless I'm standing on the lawn having my picture taken as a tourist. :p

Thankfully the rest of my life is sailing smoothly along. The online comics are still coming up, *grin* my real-life comics all came, and I'm on an Agatha Christie fever.

Blood, Gore, and the Little Grey Cells

There's a good reason they consider Agatha Christie one of the best selling mystery authors of all time. Because she's just so damn good! I've been reading her Hercule Poirot series, ["use the little grey cells, mon ami" "order and method!"] and by Jove, they're stunning! One yardstick by which I measure how good a book is is how much it pulls you into its world. i.e., a really good book should be able to make you oblivious to everything around you, because you're too absorbed in it.

Another measure could be the number of MRT stations by which you overshoot your stop, because you were too engrossed in reading the book... :p

Ah... murder, mystery, and mayhem. Brings me back to my childhood days.... When I first read Sherlock Holmes. [don't worry, my childhood wasn't that traumatic] How exciting it was to hear of the murder, and then follow eagerly on the trails of the detective as he sought out the villian, eventually roughly pulling off the mask of the suspect, and exposing his dirty, murderin' face for what is was. Of course, Sherlock Holmes was also a most polite, civilised Englishman. Despite a cocaine habit, he also played the violin and was well-versed in many subjects. [all pertaining to the art of murder, unfortunately. His knowledge of literature, for example, was described by Watson to be dismal]

Then in secondary school, I discovered the mangas Detective Conan and Kindaichi. Again, both fantastic murder comics. Conan being a young high-school detective, who was induced to swallow a mysterious drug by black-robed villians, and then turned into an 8 year old with the mind of a teenager. Don't ask. Sometimes it's best to just accept it as it is. In fact, this manga became so popular in Japan, that the town that the writer/artist, Gosho Aoyama, has declared itself the Town of Conan and there are statues and memorials to the young boy detective everywhere. The power of fame...

Kindaichi is also a high-school detective. No drugs, just the grandson of a famous detective in Japanese mystery literature. He goes around solving cases too, like Conan, but his cases tend to be longer, and usually involve a lot more blood and a lot more bodies. :p In fact, there is a pattern that runs throughout all of the Kindaichi comics:

1. Kindaichi fumbles into something, or joins something, for eg, a mystery club in school.
2. The first murder occurs. Kindaichi proclaims dramatically that "The Murderer is within our midst!"
3. Kindaichi goes about solving the crimes. Nanase, his childhood sweetheart, is usually put into danger.
4. Kindaichi, after coming across an important clue near the end of the story, says, "The riddles are all solved. I know who the murderer is!"
5. Kindaichi exposes the murderer in front of everyone. Sometimes the murderer takes his own life to avoid the shame of prison, sometimes he takes a hostage, most times he goes along quietly.

It's too bad that the Kindaichi comics have ended, but the authors have released a new title called Detective School Q, revolving around a famous Japanese Detective School, which teaches its students the art of crime detection! The main lead here is Q, [don't ask either, just accept it] who's a 10 year old boy [i tink he's ten anyway] and a prodigy at solving crimes, with a great sense of observation. It's just too bad, that, just like Kindaichi, his general knowledge is woefully poor.... sometimes not even knowing the most general of knowledge.

And now I come to Hercule Poirot... all I can say is masterful. Simply masterful. The crimes, the methods, the human psychology behind it all. In fact, Agatha Christie's main interest in all her mysteries seem to be the human psychology. The way a murderer thinks, and the way that influences the way he commits his murders. Of course, there is also plenty of physical evidence to back the psychology, but you will find that the way the criminal thinks is just as important to her. No wonder that her books are one of the world's best books, and only outsold by the Bible and something else, I forget what. :p

For people with too much time on their hands, [:p] and a good love of murder, I suggest The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie for a mystery novel with a wild twist like no other. If anyone has read this book before, don't reveal the ending!

goldfish's comment on the tagboard does raise an interesting question mark in my mind now: Just what does my blog look to you guys? On my house PC I see 2 columns, and the left column is 2X the width of the right column. Do you guys see that? Or do you see something different like what she does? Plus does anyone see the 3 cat pix on the right and the boredslacker one on the left? Are you reading my blog at all??

Grad Employment Woes

Anywayz the FWFC are unemployed once again, apart from the long-suffering Yenn. [Whom I nag at every week that she should quit, but she still labours on] The common reason amongst the different resignations, or unhappiness at work, seems to be "that damn bitch". I never hear any complaints about "that damn asshole" or "that damn dick". Hm, looks like women really can't work under women huh?

In a wider view, though, it is interesting to see how disgruntled [most likely dip holders or lower] others would take this as a cause against the "picky grad". Some common views include:

"You youngsters don't know the meaning of hardship, of perseverance!" ~ Thanks a lot, Daddy.
"Grads these days don't know the meaning of loyalty to the company." ~ Quet's boss.
"Grads like you so educated don't even know how to send fax meh?" ~ Friend of Quet's experience.

Let's face it, everyone has it in for the grads. We hate grads. Lousy, stuck-up pigs. Bring out the flaming pitchforks.

Well, excuse me all. Does hardship and perseverance mean that we should stay stuck in the same, lousy job until the day we die? Does it mean we should accept bitchy supervisors and unreasonable bosses all our life? Does that mean we should just meekly accept our lot in life and deal with it somehow? I thought the reason for our education was to give us something of an edge over all that. Face it, no one excepts a grad to take a clerical job, doing data entry and filing for $1K a month and if someone did so, it would be acceptable only as a temp job to something higher, or that you were just plain crazy.

Why does everyone have this thing against us? Well, firstly you have to blame some of our own stuck-up, stupid grads. These are the idiots that ask for a salary that's 2K above the current market rate, and all sorts of fancy-shmancy benefits thrown it with it. "Oh, and nothing less than a BMW." It's idiots like these that just spoil the market [and the rest of societal opinion] against the whole lot of us, and lead society to condemn us all as spoiled, money-grabbing apes. Next time you see a stupid grad like that, whack him/her in the head, and shout, "Don't be a godamned fool!" These are the idiots that deserve to be mopping floors in McDonald's, so that they don't think that hardship is having a salary less than $3K.

The other reason that everyone hates us stems partly from that, and partly from society's own envy and jealousy at us. We are the "privileged" class, the one that tasted the sweet wine that everyone else can't have and the orgies that come with it. [ok, maybe not the orgies] Remember all that "top 20%" crap that SML used to dish onto us in JC? Never mind that most of us didn't care that we were the "top 20%", the fact that we were intelligent, hardworking, and just plain lucky enough to get in didn't cut it with most Singaporeans. [oh, I'm blushing] They still seethe at what they don't have and they blame us, because we are the ones who have what they don't.

So anytime any grad expresses dissatisfaction with their work, people automatically think, "oh, they're too soft. They don't know what hardship is like". Screw you. Our parents slogged and pushed us into this, so that we could have a chance at a better life. What's wrong if we take that chance for our own? Won't it even more of a waste of their money, if we are stuck doing what they did all their lives? If we should be content with lower salary, lousy working hours and tons of work, then why study all the way here? Why not stop at PSLE and work at Mac's? Or in a factory?

*Sigh* One thing's for sure. Being a grad really gives you a perpsective over society that is different from everyone else's. In fact, the "streaming" starts as early as secondary school, when students are put into Express, Normal A and Tech, and Gifted. The separation of classes begins as early as that, and from there, the hierarchy of society is formed. It's sorta like the Indian hierarchial system, but a little more relaxed.

The levels remain, however, and they remain all throughout life. So essentially, we're dealing with a resentment that is over 10 years old! These guys started hating us from secondary school! How do you deal with that??

There are a few arguments:
On hardship: Do you except us to stay at the same lousy job all our lives just to show others how well we can experience hardship? Obviously not lah! Given the choice, [and if other jobs were available] many other people would also quit the very next day. We have other jobs available. Therefore we quit. It's not our fault if people like to hire us.

On company loyalty: Quoted from Quet: "The way you treat your staff, the way you pay them, you think anyone wants to be loyal to you? They're just sticking it out 'cos they don't know where else to go! I know where else I want to go, and it's not anywhere near here!"

On the fax: Quoted from Quet again: "If I was smart enough to use the fax, you'd be out of a job, so thank your lucky stars I'm that stupid."

At the end of it, it's your life. No one else should tell you what to do with it. Not parents. Not employees. Not bosses. Not the Government. It's up to you what you want to do with it.

Even if you want to be a full-time tuition teacher. :p

Ok, on a lighter note,

Bday Outing with Egg Squad

Never mind that merlin's bday is in Jan, and mine and Juls are in Feb. Due to Juls' totally fluid schedule, what was supposed to be a Feb 28 celebration finally happened in March.

So we met up one Fri night for dinner and dessert. Dinner was... a mucho cheapo affair at Burger King, seeing as how we couldn't decide where to eat, and I had coupons handy. :p The good thing was that it gave us a good reason to splurge on a really good dessert. Mwahahaha.... The whole squad looked good, though goldfish was a bit frazzled at her thesis. [Slog on, girl.]

And now for some shameless promotion. The mudpie at Black Angus [1 fullerton] is REALLY BLOODY GOOD!. Ok, first up, we ordered the Wild West Onion, heaven for onion lovers I tell you. Imagine one huge onion, opened up like a flower, and fried to crispy goodness and served with a special sauce. OOO mama mia! When you eat it it's crispy and crunchy and tastes divine...... though your breath will stink like mad after that, and you might end up releasing a lot of gas into the environment... but that's where the...

Mudpie comes in! A thick slab of ice cream cake, that comes with a cup of chocolate sauce which you pour over the entire cake! O la la! And the apple pie was good.... fresh apples in a pie, served with a scoop of ice cream. [food orgasm] We totally whacked the dessert while talking, it was bloody good!

Anyone up for Black Angus dessert one day? ;) It's that steak place at 1 Fullerton, but the desserts are $10 and below. 2 plates like the ones I mentioned are enough for 4 people sharing, so it's more worth it... heh heh heh...

I read the Death comic I got from the egg squad. Argh so bloody cute!!! Sandman stories are usually dark, grim and grimey, and this one was a manga-esque offering from Jill Thompson, same artist who did the cutesy big-eyed Sandman cartoons. Suddenly a lot of manga comic styles which I had never paid attention to became glaringly obvious when applied to a comic such as this. For eg, a scene where Edgar Allan Poe falls for Despair stunk of shy schoolgirl shoujo manga. Then there are the other manga references, such as the big-eyed characters, [Death is the archetypical 'silent cool guy'] and the sound effects and stuff. WoO! The effect is sort of like hearing Josh Groban sing a Linkin Park song. :p

And yes, my pix disappeared again.... I hope some of you can see them....

BTW thankfully they found all the guys who escaped to Tekong and also seem to have recovered the guns that they had on them. Phew! Fortunately I'm not as prophetic as I was afraid I was...