the day after.....

One hell of a xmas it was with you guys in my house. Many thanks to all those who came, ate, and got highly sloshed. :p

I always believed that a good party should be like that. Good food, friends, and plenty of good drink. And god knows I've held enough of those kind of parties in my house, especially with the uni batch of friends. :) My mother now likes you all because you loved her turkey so much, and my dad likes you all because you love, er, my alcohol so much. -_-!!!

But maybe next time I should ask someone to bring good DVDs. Otherwise I'd spend another afternoon watching the Spongebob Squarepants Movie. -_-!!!!!!! Many thanks to the Slayer, and Jubilee14 for that. If only Yenn and her DVDs had arrived earlier......

Anyway, after all the events I've held in my house, I've come up with 2 Laws of Partying, which all party hosts and goers should observe. This I've done after much observation of the many events and parties I've hosted in my house over the years, and which I generally have found to be *more or less* true. What, you thought it was all fun and games? No, observe the following:

The First Law:



Forget the diets, forget the calories, and chuck away the nutritional labels already. A party is about fun, and excess, and letting your hair down for one night. And as I've told a certain friend before, what kind of damage can one night of good food do to you anyway? If you've been faithfully following a healthy diet all the while, and you can stick to that diet after the party, then that night of good food can't do much to tip the scales out of your favour. And if it does, there's something seriously wrong with the diet you've been following all along anyway.

*The only exception I'd make is for people who are vegetarian for health or religious reasons, or who have health problems. Otherwise, chuck the Atkins book already

The Second Law:



In case you're wondering, the cyan arrows indicate the level that the previously-full bottles fell to after the party. -_-!!! Thank you Johnny, Gordon, and Comrade Absolut. Thou hath served me well.

But yes, for a good party, [attended mainly by people of legal age. better insert the disclaimer before police come after me] let the drinks flow. And flow. And flow. This has several advantages to it:

1. People like free drinks. Especially when the ones in the club are so overpriced.


2. People are happy when they are sloshed. So keep them sloshed.


3. Even if your party sucks, they're too sloshed to notice.

So don't be stingy with those bottles. These were made to be shared. But always keep around the following:

1. Plenty of water and ice. For those who get too sloshed.


2. Clothes. For those who vomit when sloshed.


3. Numbers of cab companies. For those who are... well, too sloshed.

Remember the rules wisely, young padawans, and they will serve you well.

Above all, though, remember to have a good time, with good friends, and all will take care of itself. :)

So thank ye all who came. This was not the first, and will not be the last of parties to come. :) :) :)

Back

Oh yea, I'm back from Ho Chi Minh, as you can see from the oh-so-predictable title......

Mainly the trip was alright. HCM has few attractions, but is very rich in history, during the Vietnam War period. It also helped that we had a very helpful friend bringing us around every night to eating spots around the city. ^_^ Many thanks to A.Low, his hospitality and his insatiable love for good food.

And yes, I kept a journal during the trip again, so look out for the Vietnam Instalments soon. I hope. As soon as I get my lazy bum around to doing it. ^_^!!!

Aside from that, I went for Lindy after a short nap, and ended up trashing the feet of every guy in class. And the few guest dancers who came in due to a lack of leads.

The big problem was re-learning a move that I had previously learned. [goldfish: The Charleston] While in Lindy 1 I learned it by starting off with my right foot, in this class, I had to start it off with my left instead, and basically do the exact opposite of what I had been conditioned to do in the basic class.

Which meant that my foot stepped backwards on the wrong foot [the right foot, instead of the left] and ended up crunching the toes of the poor sod who was my partner. Good god, what a nightmare.

And if you read my previous Death By Lindy entry, yes, this time I was the one who nearly caused serious injury to my innocent leads.

At least the instructor, Marcus, was more upbeat about the whole thing. "Don't worry about a thing, just remember that you're supposed to use your left foot.... And I have insurance."

Yea, yea...............

ANNOUNCEMENT

SLACKER'S CHRISTMAS

Yes, the Christmas Party at my house has officially been confirmed with the 'rents. Details:


Place: My house. If you don't know how to get there, or don't know someone who knows how to get there, you're not invited. [I'm kidding. SMS me if you donno]

Time: 25th December 2005. [don't come next year] Anytime around Lunch or after.

Requirements: FOOD!!!!! I need help with the food, so if you're coming, please bring some food for about 4-5 people. I'm not expecting that few people, but I don't want an excess of food either. To make it interesting, don't tell anyone what you're buying, and just surprise us. I don't think our fate is such that we'll be eating 10 packets of hor fun on that day.

And naturally, yes, drinks and alcohol will be on a free flow basis. You pigs you, this is why you like my house right?

As u guys know, I'll be in vietnam from the 19th to the 22nd, so only SMS me confirmations from the 23rd ya?

Ok, see u guys after I get back...... And now one last long blog post before I go.........

One more post for the road before I leave......

In case you didn't read previous entries, [shame on you my readers] I will be leaving for Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, from the 19th to the 22nd of Dec with Candle, so this blog will be conspicuously quiet, unless I can find cheap Internet over there.

Meanwhile, to entertain you, here's some highlights from my very busy week:

For some reason, the days just before I leave have been packed with appointments, to the extent that even when Slayer offered me free tix to watch Oi! Sleeping Beauty for FREE mind you, I couldn't even take it because I had no time to go watch at all. ^_^! Cheapskate me turning down freebies, and free tix to boot. Sigh.

But here's the reasons why:

Thurs: Candle generously came to my house to help me clear up my room, an outstanding feat for which she deserves to be nominated for sainthood. We cleared out about 3 garbage bags of rubbish, repacked some of my unread books into boxes, and cleared out bookshelves for upcoming manga and books. Already, I can feel the chi flowing through my room again.

The only problem is that, as usual, just after I cleared it, I found it impossible to find some stuff again, because it had all been rearranged from their previous positions. Bleah.

Went for dance class, nearly got killed, as you can see from the Death By Lindy entry.

Fri: Another busy day. I met the Slayer in the afternoon to go shopping, and bought an electronic Sudoku toy. I'm getting so addicted to this I know. The only problem is that the toy makes a lot of little beeping sounds, which while I don't mind, could seriously irritate everyone else around me, so not much chance of playing in quiet public spaces, I think. Unless I feel particularly shameless addicted.

If you don't know what Sudoku is already, [how could you not???] check out this website which I am currently addicted to.

Later, went for Jap class, made fun of Yenn's cough as usual, and then it was to Zouk!

Candle's colleague MT managed to score free tix from her cousin and so we got in for free. *yeah* The place didn't seem to change much, after their renovations, except maybe the toilets look better. ... hahaha....

But Candle and MT are apparently very...... attracting of male company, let us say. We got approached twice during the night by *interested men, with *interested friends. Note that I never get approached by these men, only whichever friend I happen to be with.

Of course, since neither Candle nor MT were interested in making the acquaintance of any of these men, our strategy would be to make a hasty feminine exit to the toilet, stay there a while, and then re-enter the dance floor from the opposite direction of the men. I have to say, it worked for us anyway.

BTW, Phuture apparently has better music than Zouk itself on Fridays, if you like being literally packed like sardines on the dance floor.

Sat: I watch Pride and Prejudice with DF. He thought it was gonna be a soppy chick flick, but it turned out to be pleasantly amusing. Am now contemplating getting and reading the book. >D To all who told me it was good, you were right. To all those who haven't caught it, WTH??? But really, it's a good flick, with great witty dialogue. [i never knew one could argue with such aristocratic English] We also went to a texan grill place outside Far East. Good food, but a bit more on the pricey side.

And that was it for Saturday. What, you thought I was gonna give u kinky details? >D

Sun: Lunch with Jules and Greg, and then this with Daph and Merlin:



Budak Pantai! Greatest and Funniest Acapella band in SIngapore, in my opinion! The songs were great, sticking very loosely to the xmas theme. For example:

"Our next song is Qing Ren De Yan Lei, or Lover's Tears. What does this have to do with Christmas? Well, if you were 9 months pregnant and had to ride a donkey, you'd be crying too."

Pause for groans.

But really, they're a great band, and the way they ham up their songs is amazing. They sang a range of songs, from Maroon 5 to Teresa Teng, from English to Mandarin to Malay. I love this band for their quirkiness and their versatility, and of course, their irrepressible sense of humour.

And finally, I topped the day off with Xmas shopping with Daph, and that was it.

I came home with my purchases, packed the clothing, charged the batteries, and I'm almost ready to head for Vietnam.

Kinda thrilling, and a little scary, to be heading for another foreign country again, but slightly nostalgic also. I took out the bag I brought to Europe, the passport, the tickets, and especially the journal, and yeah. I remembered.

*sigh*

I'll see u guys [with loads of photos probably] when I come back.

Death by Lindy

This night, Aki Tan aka Boredslacker, was nearly killed by her dance partner [guess who] while both were trying to master a new dance move.

The move in question was known as the flip flop. This move required the follow to kick out her foot on the first beat, and then pivoting 180 degrees with the foot on the ground, while hand in hand with her lead. Then, they would kick out their feet again, and pivot 180 degrees with the other foot. [er, maybe you guys have to see it to know what I'm talking about]

Basically, the hard part here is that part of the move requires you to make a 180 turn on one foot. Which both of us had big trouble with.

Thus, our attempt went as follows:

1st attempt: Both of us lose our balance while trying to pivot with our feet. We nearly fall on each other. We also get the move utterly wrong, pivoting and kicking on the wrong feet.

2nd attempt: We start to get the hang of it, and our footwork is *somewhat* correct. However, we still lose our balance while trying to pivot.

3rd attempt: Our footwork is correct, but we're still having problems with balance. Our instructors say that's because we're relying too much on each other for balance, rather than on ourselves.

4th attempt: I'm somewhat ok with the balance, but either he is off-balance, or I'm pulling too much on him. Whatever the cause, he ends up toppling onto ME and I get shoved by his sheer weight, and nearly end up falling onto my bag and crushing BOTH our handphones to death, and then HE almost loses his balance and nearly falls on ME on top of it all. Our instructor makes a valiant attempt to save me before I end up crushed beneath Jules in a potentially deadly way.

OBF. [You guys can go guess what that means] We've had trouble with dance class before, but not to the extent that we get a move sooooo wrong that one of us nearly ends up with serious potential injury and death by crushing weight.............

The Pet Professional is one of my favourite online comics, about a hitman who only takes out animals. [granted, not a PETA favourite, but still one of the slickest online comics I've seen] And it's only too funny to see the comic in the form of a silent animated movie, proving indeed that a picture [or several moving ones] do speak more than a thousand words.

Check it out guys!

Strange Rumblings...

There's some painting and stuff going on in the blocks around my estate, which makes for some pretty surreal happenings. Living at the height that I do, you're not used to the sight of people walking around and talking while right outside your living room window. I keep fantasizing that one of them is gonna jump right into my house, and rob/rape/murder me. So sue me, i was reading a couple of murder mysteries at the time they were painting. ^_^!

But definitely, there were some interesting/nervecrawling things that have been happening with the painting.

Take for example, the strange sounds I've been hearing on top of my flat this afternoon, which sound eerily as if someone was trying to break into the flat from above. ^_^! Sounds of ropes hitting my window, almost as if they were leading into the house. Strange banging from my ceiling, and definitely not upstairs neighbours.

Not a pleasant thought, though not exactly possible either, if you guys know my flat. Add to that the ropes hanging outside my flat, in front and behind, and it's almost a setting for the next Mission Impossible. Or Scream. ^_^!

I'm hoping for Mission Impossible. It's easier for me to deal with armed terrorists grappelling into my house trying to kill me, than a masked murderer with a large axe coming after me. Don't ask me why.

Then there was the singing painter. I was seated in the sofa in my living room quietly reading, when the paint cart slowly trundled up past my balcony. I think the guy didn't think I was there, because I was out of sight of the cart [though maybe he saw me through the reflection on my kitchen window] so I just sat there quietly reading my comic.

And then the guy started to sing. In I don't know what language. And very loudly at that.

Since I don't know the song at all, I assume he was singing in tune. [er...] But again, in my house, you don't always see a guy, standing right outside my kitchen window, doing his work and singing as if it were the most natural thing in the world. Ack! It's not!!!

I think he didn't know I was there though, and that's why he was singing, because the moment my dad came back and saw him, he stopped. Funny thing he didn't know he already had an audience all along.

I just wish the painting to be over soon. It's weird the way I keep hearing sounds from my bedroom and panickedly thinking that someone is gonna abseil into my house and break in any minute. if that happens, god save the man, because I will throw every piece of heavy electronic equipment at him till his bloody corpse lays at my feet. [except for my laptop of course. Are you freakin' crazy??]

The Selfish Phone

Oops, din' post the last one properly... Here it is again...

Telemarketers definitely use this phone model.........

The Selfish Phone

Telemarketers definitely use this model of phone......

Ok, this is interesting... a kid called Delwin Olivan got caught sharing some music with his friends and got slammed with a lawsuit from the RIAA [Recording Industry Association of America and bigtime corporate enemies of file2file sharing] to the tune of $5000. [payable within 60 days]

This would be a typical lawsuit, if not that his fellow students have apparently rallied to him and are now raising funds for his lawsuit by asking for funds online and selling T-shirts with his face on them... Have to admit, one of the most interesting online student rallies I've seen in a while......

The phrasing on the website is rather..... er......... , though [You have to read the phrases in italics to know what I'm talking about]:

" Music makes Delwin smile. Well, it made him smile, until he learned that a few downloads would cost him over FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS. --- But what exactly was his crime? Philanthropy. The key to avoiding a subpoena like the one Del is facing is to refrain from sharing, and he knew this. ----- only when you give music away for free are you illegally distributing copyrighted material.

This truth tormented Delwin deep within his conscience, for he had gained so much musical wealth from the i2hub community and given none back. He felt it only right to return the favor, to open his own gates and let others enjoy his happiness. Del's flaw was nothing more than a magnanimous display of philanthropy."

~Manifesto of Freedelwin.org

Like, I do feel the RIAA is being a corporate bully, but raising the guy to the heights of philantrophy seems a bit too much even for me.

The Week in Review

Quite a number of eventful things this last week.... Phew!

First up was the 2day camp I had to do with my group as part of our community service project for Nie. [bleah] For which, we worked with a family service center to organize a camp with the theme "School Can Be Fun!" The camp went pretty ok and the kids were not as bad as we thought. The way the center described them, some of us made them out to be juvenile deliquent hooligans, but actually, they were all not too bad. Quite, well, like normal kids.

But there were subtle things which showed that all was not well in their family background. I saw a few clues in the artwork that we had them do for us, that some of these kids did not exactly come from even what we deem a 'normal' middle class family. [sorry, can't say too much due to privacy issues with the center]

One girl caught my eye though. She was dressed rather to the nines for the 2 days she came for the camp, [spaghetti and halter] and as a collage, she designed what could've been a fashion runway page from Cleo, by cutting out runway models from various magazines. ^_^! I say, she either has a keen future in fashion, or she's growing up to be a total vainpot. Let's hope for the former.

And some of the things they said were darn cute, in a rather naive childish kinda way. Like when we showed them a rather modernist/surrealist collage and we told them it was done by a professional artist, one of the kids bluntly asked, "Then why is it so ugly?"

Yea, the things kids say. ^_^!

We even had a Chicken Little lookalike! This little 6 year old boy came who was the dead ringer for Chicken Little, with his roundish head, big round spectacles and small pursey red mouth. A lot of us were oohing and gaahing behind his back, and we all just couldn't help looking at him throughout the camp because of his uncanny similiarity to Chicken Little. The best part, for me, was that he came for the camp carrying a backpack with the KFC chicken on it. Argh!!!

Then there was Slayer's bday, one of the last amongst our group to finally hit 24, and the drinking session at Paulaner's for Krynn's Bday, with special mention to Ros. Yea, so HAPPY BDAY to all the December babies. ^_^ And thanks for reminding the rest of us how old we're getting. ^_^!!!!!

News for the FWFC crew though: The Xmas thing at my house is BYOF, namely, Bring Your Own Food if you're coming, unless you don't mind me calling KFC/Pizza/Mac's or something. ^_^! But of course, if you come, there will be free flow of alcohol and drinks the entire time. I wonder if that's why you guys like coming to my house so much......... I'll confirm the date and time again, and make sure my mom isn't bringing the entire family tree down on that day, but it shld be fine for now. :) Other friends interested in coming are also more than welcome! [close friends being defined as those who know where my house is in the first place]

Another news: I'll be flying off to Ho Chi Minh City next week, from the 19-22, so don't expect updates from the blog during that period. Hopefully, if I can buy myself a gigantic memory card, i'll take loads of pix and upload them sometime.

Meanwhile, the holidays are almost coming to a close...... *haiz*

The Pseudo Purity Test

Saw this off Popagandhi and Tym and proceeded to copy it here:

Start off with 100% and minus off 1% for each thing that has happened to you.

Smoked.
Drank alcohol.
Cried when someone died.
Been drunk.
Had sex.
Been to a concert.
Given a handjob/gotten a handjob.
Given a blowjob/gotten a blowjob.
Been verbally sexually harassed.
Verbally sexually harassed somebody.
Felt someone up and/or been felt up.
Laughed so hard something came out of your nose.
Cheated on a boyfriend/girlfriend before.
Been cheated on by a boyfriend/girlfriend.
Been to prom.
Cried at school.
Gotten lost in a WalMart or a department store.
Went streaking.
Given a lap dance.
Had someone of the opposite sex in your room.
Had someone of the opposite sex sleep over.
Slept over at someone of the opposite sex’s house.
Kissed a stranger.
Hugged a stranger.
Went scuba diving.
Driven a car.
Gotten an xray.
Hit by a car.
Had a party.
Done drugs.
Played strip poker.
Got paid to strip for someone.
Ran away from home.
Broken a bone.
Eaten sushi.
Bought porn.
Watched porn.
Made porn.
Had a crush on someone of the same sex.
Been in love.
Frenched kissed.
Laughed so hard you cried.
Cried yourself to sleep.
Laughed yourself to sleep.
Stabbed yourself.
Shot a gun.
Trash talked someone and then acted like their best friend the next day.
Watched TV for 9 consecutive hours.
Been online for 9 consecutive hours.
Watched an animal die.
Watched a person die.
Had sex and/or messed around somewhere with at least 1 person present.
Pranked somebody.
Put somebody in the hospital.
Snuck into someone’s room and/or your own room after being out.
Kissed somebody of the same sex.
Dressed punk.
Dressed goth.
Dressed preppy.
Been to a motocross race.
Avoided somebody.
Been stalked.
Stalked someone.
Met a celebrity.
Played an instrument.
Ridden a horse.
Cut yourself.
Bungee jumped.
Ding dong ditched somebody.
Been to a wild party.
Got caught stealing something.
Kicked a guy in the balls.
Stolen a boyfriend/girlfriend from a friend.
Went out with your friend’s crush.
Got arrested.
Been pregnant.
Babysat.
Been to another country.
Started your house on fire.
Had an encounter with a ghost.
Donated your hair to cancer patients.
Been asked out by someone that you never though you’d to be asked out by.
Cried over a member of the opposite sex.
Had a boyfriend/girlfriend for over 3 months.
Sat on your ass all day.
Ate a whole carton of ice cream all by yourself.
Had a job.
Gotten cut from a sports team.
Been called a whore.
Danced like a whore.
Been mistaken for a celebrity.
Been in a car accident.
Been told you have beautiful eyes.
Been told you have beautiful hair.
Raped somebody.
Danced in the rain.
Been rejected.
Walked out of a restaurant without paying.
Punched someone/slapped someone in the face

I scored a very high 78. See, I'm not as corrupt as you guys think... Bleah... :p

La Vie Boheme!

Only thing to do is jump over the moon

the Slayer's favourite part of the entire musical when I watched it with her 5 years ago, and consequently, the only line that stuck firmly in my head after the show was over.... haiz....

What can I say? 2 Thumbs Up solid to last minute tix... the moment I read in the Sat papers that the last 4 shows were selling for $50, I rushed to Sistic and bought up the tix for the last show on Sunday night.

And $50 for what used to be a $100odd seat..... is more than worth it, especially for a show with a stellar cast like Rent. :)

All the vocals were power to the core, and the acting was fabulous. Most noticeable being the drag queen character, Angel, who tragically sucuumbed to AIDS in the 2nd act of the show. Some of the other characters too didn't seem that outstanding at first, but when it came to solos, *phew* their voices could blow you away to kingdom come.

There is no solid plot to Rent. It's not the kind of show where you can describe it as "This guy went to that place and did those things and fell in love with a girl and eventually...". Rent is more like a snapshot of a year [one xmas to another] in the lives of a bohemian community living in a fictional part of NY, and the drama surrounding the various characters, as they struggle with crime, homelessness, drug use, AIDS and the risk of selling your artistic soul to the mega corporations.

Homeless folk:
"Christmas bells are ringing...
Christmas bells are ringing...
Christmas bells are ringing...
SOMEWHERE ELSE"

But the music is fantabulous all around. Not the usual almost-operatic types [think Phantom] but lively, passionate rock, accompanied by a live band on stage, which makes ALL the difference from the usual orchestra. :)

As for the themes of the play... the Bohemian values in it may seem estranged from our Singaporean audience quite a bit, considering that, well, this is Singapore and not many people are living in almost-poverty to pursue their art. ^_^! But I think it will strike a chord with the growing numbers who are getting increasingly fed up with our paced lifestyles and long for something more. [yea, like me] Maybe secretly, we DO wish to be bohemians. ;)

Ditto with the theme of AIDS, which involved a number of characters. But I feel in this aspect, it is good for us to watch, simply because we are so far removed from the emotional aspects of AIDS, and its effects on the sufferers as well as those around them. Watching the character of Angel especially might enlighten us just a little bit more on this.

Overall, a GREAT musical. The movie is expected to come out next year, but like Chicago, I expect it to be a poor substitute. [but hey, you are paying only about $7-8 for it] If I've piqued your interest in the musical, you can check out the link to the official website:

Rent - Broadway Musical: Has song samples you can listen to, and info about story and cast. The whole story has also been put up, sans lyrics

and for those who can't catch the lyrics:

Rent Lyrics: Seeing that the entire musical is in song, you could probably read the whole thing from all the lyrics, but no kick lah.

If you want more concise info:


Wikipedia on Rent: Concise info all on one page

La Vie Boheme!

I'll leave you now with my favourite song from the musical:

525,600 minutes
525,000 moments so dear.
525,600 minutes
how do you measure,
measure a year?
In daylights,
In sunsets,
In midnights,
In cups of coffee.
In inches,
In miles,
In laughter, in strife.
In 525,600 minutes
How do you measure
A year in the life?
How about love?
How about love?
How about love?
Measure in love.
Seasons of
Love.

525,600 minutes!
525,000 journeys to plan.
525,600 minutes
How can you measure the life
Of a woman or man?

In truths that she learned,
Or in times that he cried.
In bridges he burned, or
the way that she died.

It’s time now to sing out,
Though the story never ends
Let's celebrate, remember a year
In the life of friends.
Remember the love!
Remember the love!
Remember the love!
Measure in love.

Seasons of love!

Seasons of love.

Funny Pic

Found this off Tomorrow, a pic of the display. Someone at Changi airport has a strange sense of humour:



e_rambler:

Looks like someone in Changi Airport has a sense of humour... Or is CAAS intentionally pursuing the pink dollar? LOL...

Wonder whether they will realise it and whether they will change it... :p

PS: For the full effect, read from the words "Changi". :)

All I want for Xmas...

after I get my palm/graphicstablet/comics/artmaterials/photoshopsoftware/books....

would be this little toy:



Go to bloglines blog to find out more..... but suffice to say i'm not about to invade any countries with it.... but it looks like a darn cute toy... :D

---

One late night at a 24 hour's Mac's with the guys, and one packet of seaweed shaker powder.

Jul: "Eh, donno whether nice or not, should we still pour it into the fries and shake? It's pure MSG leh!"
Turt: "Pour it on the tray then we all dip lor"

Warnings of MSG and transfat pouring through my mind, I regretfully take a few fries [sans seaweed powder] while the guys gobble the lot, realising that they very much liked the seaweed powder after all.

I didn't realise how much they liked it though, till much later after the fries were finished, and I caught the two of them dipping their fingers into the powder and sucking it.

Me: "What the hell d'you think you're doing??!! That's pure MSG!!!"
Jul+Turt: "Er, nice mah... ok I stop...."

So they stopped a while, and we talk some more. After a while, Turt takes a straw and starts to play with it.

Then he takes the straw, presses one end into the powder, and puts it to his mouth and licks it, almost looking like a coke addict snorting up his coke.

I shriek again, and he hurriedly retreats, chucking the straw to one side.

Then the ultimate conclusion. Jul gets bored, and pours out an unused packet of chilli onto the powder. [??] Then he starts mixing the two together to form a vile-looking and equally vile-smelling mush that looked as if it crawled out of a Potions class.

Snorting the powder was bad enough, but now he was almost on the verge of creating a new lifeform with that smelly thing. Finally the stuff gets thrown into the bin at my command.

I swear. Boys.

Cookies on the Bloglines blog: Links to the Deadly Squirrels and the Guy Who Bought a Car By Blogging. This is to free up space on this blog to talk about

Lindy Graduation

Note: The following key may help those uninitiated with Lindy Hop. Readers like goldfish can just skip the whole damn lot. Or read through and see whether I made any mistakes. ^_^!

Lindy 1, 2, 3 = classes of varying levels in the school, with Lindy 1 as the basic class and 3 the highest
triple step = one of the basic steps in Lindy. In music, it's like a ta--- ti- ta---
8 step = a series of steps based on 8 beats in the music
6 step = a series of steps based on 6 beats instead
Leads and Follows = men are the ones generally leading the dance, giving direction to the follow [the lady] by way of various hand and body gestures to indicate which moves or routines he would want to go into.

And for those interested, read more at the Jitterbugs Website.

One last turn, one last spin, with an extra flourish added at the end, and with that, Jules and I 'graduated' from Lindy 1. ^_^ It's been a great 8 weeks of lessons, ploughing through the basics, triple-stepping, and trying not to injure yourself and your classmates in the process. [as Jules did with his elbow to my ear once]

And after our teachers declared ourselves 'graduated', they opened the door to another crowd of much-experienced-looking dancers, and gleefully told us that this would be our dancing partners for our last dance in Lindy 1. Much to much aghast on the face of the male leads in our class, since they were now expected to lead dances for dancers much more experienced than they were.

I wonder whether that was responsible for the low transfer rate to Lindy 2. It seems that most of the dances with the Lindy 3 people were, well, not exactly smooth trippin'. The guy who danced with me led me into strange routines and counts that I had not done before [wait, what're you tryin' to do? Is this the 6 step? Spin? You mean now? Whoa!] and the Lindy 1 guys confessed that during the dance, their follows did mostly the opposite of what they wanted them to do. ^_^! "I wanted to lead her into a 6 step, and she went and did an 8 instead!"

So maybe after that harrowing [and very humbling] experience, I think most of them decided they needed more practice before attempting the faster music in Lindy 2...... ^_^! what a waste...

And thus, after that dance, only Jules and I and another lady were daring enough to try our hand at Lindy 2 next week. ^_^! Here's to next week, and hoping that I don't triplestep into anyone's feet.

I tell you, what's the point of going wireless when your family just insists on switching off the blardy router whenever they stop using the PC, thereby shutting down the entire network and making you have to go into the room anyway to switch it on? Why don't I just use the damn PC then anyway???

Days of Yesterday

I've just started reading Good Morning Yesterday, a blog started by Mr Lam Chun See, who writes about his memories of Singapore Past. One interesting thing about this blog, firstly, is the age of the writer. Mr Lam is about 55 and writes this blog because "it's good for our aging brains". Besides that, he has tons of memories about Singapore in the 60s and reading this from a first person perspective is probably more interesting than watching all those period dramas on national television. Like one of his observations on Bishan:

"I remember him telling me that the Pik San Teng [ ?????] cemetery ( located off Thomson Road and Braddell Road) was generally scarce and scanty with graves but beginning from the early 50s it began to get crowded. That Pik San Teng had now become the land for the living…the Bishan housing estate, and the mass rapid transit (underground subway) runs through it, geographically dissecting through the whole area.

Ironically enough, the ex-occupants of this area were underground. Now the MRT runs through it above ground, in fact, this is the first train station where it begins to surface above ground after all the city stations that are underground. This route winds its way round the north and western part of the island of Singapore (all above ground) till it returns to the city area in an almost anti-clockwise format. Again this is just an observation."

yea, an interesting observation nonetheless. :p

Been feeling gross these few days... I suspect I had a case of gastric flu or something, having hurriedly chomped down my food 2 nites ago while mildly gastricky. [I only suspect gastric because I haven't barfed anything, hence, not diarrhea or food poisoning]

After that, I was attacked by stomach gas half the night, and woke up the next morn still experiencing mild stomach cramps and a mild fever @_@ Lesson: Never chomp down your food, and never delay mealtimes in order to finish Spider Solitaire games.

The fever receded last night, though I'm still feeling slight cramps in my stomach here and there. *ugh* The only good thing that could come out of this is that I might lose some weight, seeing as I have no appetite to eat anything except porridge and soft foods. Yes, I have gone vegetarian, but only for this short while, because I have no appetite to eat anything resembling solid foods.

Not to mention the pounding headaches that came along with it.

This highly sucks.

On the bright side, I am feeling mildly better today so I'm hoping this thing is leaving my body for good anytime now. *fingers crossed* Now lemme fall back onto me bed......

I've 2 pretty lengthy posts up for today, being in a most writeworthy mood, so the following links may help you:

Movie Review: HP4 sucks
Pretty much sums up my whole opinion about the movie

Use Your Brain, Please!
A reflective piece on the dangers of blind obedience, and how we come so naturally towards it. Based on an incident in the States

Note: The 2 links would probably open up separate windows with only the blog posts in them, and not the entire blog. If you don't want this, you can always scroll down as usual.

THE MOVIE SUCKS!!!

note: Yenn n I never had that particular conversation, but the 'barbarian' part is one of my favourite comments to her... hahaha... Not the 'elitist' one though...

I may be a literary purist at heart, but I think HP4 really bombed on this one.

Ok, imagine you take a HP4 book.

Now open the pages at random, and cut out chunks of text. If you don't have a pair of scissors, just tear them out. [but NO F**KING WAY you do this to MY COPY!!!!!]

Once you're done, read through what you have left, and write a new HP story based on the remnants of the book.

And THAT in my opinion is what the HP4 movie turned out like. ^_^!

Whole portions in the start of the film, which were intended to place setting and orientation, ALL GONE.

Other areas, integral to character development and depth, CHUCKED OUT.

I know that this is a common thing to happen to book-movie adaptations, and yes, it happened to HP1, 2 and 3 and LOTR and a whole lot of other books as well, but the difference is that those turned out good. While I did not particularly like the first 3 movies, I did feel that they remained more or less true to the spirit of the book, and the directors did a rather good adaptation.

THIS WAS UTTER RUBBISH. AND IT'S ABT AN HOUR LONGER SOMEMORE. Whole blardy thing should've just gotten expelliarmus-ed into the nearest dustbin.

*spoiler ahead*

Like for example, in the opening scene after the dream with Voldemort in it, Harry is immediately waking up in Ron's room in the Burrow, while Hermione is nagging them to quickly get a move on.

A move on where? What's he doing there? Where are they going?

Then the next scene, the whole family is walking up a grassy hill.

Where are they going? Why are they there?

That's why I feel the opening scene is so cut-up. Because a lot of info that was supposed to establish orientation was simply NOT THERE. And if I had not read the book beforehand, I might've been left wondering what the hell was going on.

Also the ending: Why did Harry's wand have that effect when Voldemort cast the Avada curse on him? Why didn't Harry die [again]? Again, a lot of vital plot information, LOST.

*fuming in a fit of righteous indignation*

The part that the movie is strongest in is in its portrayal of the students as real students. Only when watching the movie and seeing the antics of Harry and the other Hogwarts students interacting on the school premises did the students become more real, more realistic. Because the book centers mainly around Harry and all the other life-threatening events that happen around him, you tend to forget that at heart, he is really a student. And there are other students around him. The movie serves to flesh out this part, and complements it very nicely, especially in the scene where they are studying in the Great Hall and whispering under their breath to one another, only to get whacked on the head by Snape. ^_^!

So this would have to be the best part of it. To be able to see the students being portrayed as students, who are there to study, make friends, and cheer their houses on.

Other than that, I seriously implore to all of you: READ THE BOOK. It's thick but it's a much more satisfying experience than the !@#$%^& movie.

Note: The original source for the following post is my bloglines blog, but I think it's something that we should all be seriously concerned about, so you guys should see it as well.

Use Your Brain, PLEASE!

A common complain in Singapore is that people here tend to be followers, that they just blindly do whatever the gahmen tells them to do, and don't think enough for themselves.

Well, guess what? Apparently this is not a trait that is exclusive to Singaporeans alone. According to the research of Stanley Milgram, a controversial social psychologist, this innate need to obey authority is within all of us, and can make us do the most unethical of actions.

For example, in an experiment he found that two-thirds of people will generally give electric shocks to protesting victims under the command of an authority. And under pressure from this authority, people will generally buckle down and do whatever that authority tells them to do, no matter how heinous the act.

This may sound fantastic, but this could explain the hoax that affected a number of fast food restaurants in America last year. [Read a more detailed report of the case here]

What happened was that a mysterious caller called fast food restaurants, identifying himself as a police officer, and instructed the managers there to strip search and perform other perverse sexual acts on their employees. And the shocking thing is that many managers did exactly what the caller asked them to do, despite lack of identification whatsoever.

One of the most horrifying cases concerned 18-year old Louise Ogborn, who had been abused by the assistant manager and her fiancee over a shocking 4 hour period, because a voice on the phone told them that it had been cleared by 'corporate'.

Obviously, the girl is now pretty much traumatized for life, and there are lawsuits flying swiftly from each party to the other, but one of the most shocking aspects of the case is that never once did the asst manager or the fiancee ever think that this could be wrong, and refuse to follow instructions.

In fact, the only way the girl got saved, was through a 58-year old janitor, who refused to play along with the caller's game, and hung up. And the moment he did, a spell seemed to break, and the asst manager finally realised the severity of her act.

What is utterly amazing to me is that the need to follow instructions from a higher authority is apparently so strong within us, that we are actually capable of following such orders. The asst manager must have had some high school education or another, and even she didn't even stop to think that this could be morally wrong. And it took a janitor to stop the act?

Just how unthinking, or unwilling to think are we as a human being?

And if one day, someone commanded you to do something that was wrong, would you have the courage to say, "No"?

Most people apparently would not. In the electric shock experiment mentioned above, only about one third of the experiment participants refused to do it. So most of us would pretty much do whatever a higher authority tells us to do.

I wonder whether this tendency could be stronger in Singapore. Because here, we are raised with the Confucian ethic to respect and obey thy parents, and this moral of filial piety is pretty much repeated in most religions here. And because we are raised to obey parents when we are children, we are also conditioned to obey our leaders when we are adults ourselves.

But most people forget another aspect of this philosophy as well. Which is that although you have the right to command obedience from your children/followers, Confucianism also demands that you MUST be a wise leader as well. In other words, you have to be deserving of the obedience that you demand. It doesn't advocate blind obedience.

I suppose, though, that it's convenient to forget this part when you want someone to do something for you.

So the next time you are commanded to do something you don't agree with, I hope you remember this case, and the case of Louise Ogborn.

Just because someone asks you to do something, doesn't mean it's right. Before you blindly go along and do it, ask yourself whether you'll be able to live with it.

ph43r 3 h4xx0r5

f1201V1 3 13L0gL11V35 13L0g:

1-14v3 j00 3v3r 1-134r1) 0f H4xx0r!???!?!?!?!?!?!? I+"S 4 f0rIVI 0f 0NL1n3 kl1ng0N 1V1aY13e 1)eVel0pe1) bY H4xx0r5 VV1-10 VV4n7e1) 4n071-1eR VV4Y 0f 74Lk11Vg 01VLi1V3.

fr01V1 13011Vg2 1-13r3"5 4 PSD C01V1p3717101V 71-147 15 l337!!!!!! 31Vj0Y!

2 m4k3 yr 0VV1V h4xx0r, u c41V 7rY 71-115 l11Vk.

[back to normal programming in a while......]

This probably just shows I spend too much time online, but well... it's a fun thing to learn. Be warned though, the dialectizer link may not necessarily translate everything you see on this page, cos some of the words I came up myself. You could call it a variation [or distortion] of l337. ^_^ Translate it for you? No way! That won't be fun anymore... XD

Kinda shows you how much variation there is within the English language nowadays, all entirely thanks to the advent of modern technology that has made it possible. Think about it, if we didn't have hackers trying to look cool, would we have h4xx0r? 1 71-111Vk 1V07. Most of the typed lingos all evolved through the use of modern keyboards.

And then with handphones becoming the next lifestyle staple of Singaporeans, you get another dialect coming up which is SMS lingo, and which is totally indecipherable to people who believe that phones are only for making phone calls.

Whch means dat if i typ in SMS den evrytin on dis pg wll look lke dis instd. e ideas 2 del vwels u don need n udder xtra stuff. n lke h4xx0r SMS's only a wrtten lingo.

So if you were read out everything I wrote in h4xx0r and SMS, it would seem like perfectly normal English. That's the beauty of the typed lingos. ^_^

Then you get the smileys, which evolved from the basic :) [i suppose you could call this the root smiley?] to about a thousand variations, like ;) :D >) >D XP and countless others. Smileys spice up any online conversation, and unlike the two, would be completely incomprehensible if you were to try to use it in spoken language. "Hi there, colon closing bracket!" ?????

I kinda like h4xx0r though, because of the way the meaning of the way the words are written out so plainly, and yet totally indecipherable at first glance. The only trouble is that if you're not used to it, like I am, you'll find one hell of a time trying to type in the whole thing. ^_^!

Oh and btw, the key to deciphering h4xx0r is simply that: Look for the words. They're written clear as day. >D

In other news...

For those who just luv to read about dirt on SG bloggers [or those who just luv drama] , here's 2 links you can read about SG's more notorious bloggers.

Top 5 SG Bloggers We All Hate by TuaPehKong.com
Survival of the Blog Goddesses by bryyin

Testing... Testing...

Currently testing a new blogging tool, so you might see some strange stuff here...

Like the font may suddenly change in type, and become totally different from the one I was using.

It may change in size,

or suddenly become bold, italic, underlined, or striked.

I may even decide to experiment with different colours.


My words may even do the hokey pokey

They'll go to the left

And they'll go to the right

And then to the left

And then to the right

But at least you know

I will always maintain my center of balance ^_^

So we'll see how this goes.

And if this tool works,

You bet I'll blog about it.

While I was blogging/surfing/reading sites, I realised that my emptied cup of Milo had attracted a small family tree of ants.... ewwww.... Note to self: Put cup in sink before blogging next time...

Anyway, I know I just blogged earlier this morning with the news, but I saw this paragraph on Krystal's blog which looked interesting, and here it is:

If you read this, if your eyes are passing over this right now, even if we don't speak often, please post a comment with a memory of you and me. It can be anything you want, either good or bad. I promise not to come after you with a sharpened pencil either way. N pls leave ur name or initials at least so I know who =P

When you're finished, post this little paragraph on your own blog and be surprised (or mortified) about what people remember about you.


Hm. I'm curious as to what you people could possibly say, since I have no memories of either getting so drunk I puke on some guy's pants, or dancing on bartops or stripping for strange men...... But follow the instructions anyway and let's see what rose-tinted [or blackened] memories you people have of me... :)

The News as read by Aki

At this moment in time, I am pleased to inform you that this blog post is coming from the comfort of my living room. Hence, you may all deduce, correctly, that my father has finally managed to configure the wireless network in the house. Doomo Arigatou Gozaimashita again to my long-suffering dad, and may the megabytes never fail. *bows deeply*

In other news, my second reading of Harry Potter: The Goblet of Fire has finally ended. Hence, I consider myself all ready for the movie on Sunday, and ready to blast down claims of "I think the movie is better because..."

I'm a literary purist at heart. NOTHING BEATS THE BOOK, YOU HEAR ME???

However, *hrmph*, I shall nonetheless watch the movie and offer my unsolicited opinion on this blog once I've done so.

Also, a serious accident almost happened last night during Swing Fling, though thankfully no one was seriously injured. The accident occurred while said assailant, Jules, was attempting to perform an inside turn with his partner, namely moi, and raised his elbow at the wrong spot, thereby causing it to collide most painfully with my right ear. ^_^!

As I said, no one was injured. Well, the blows I gave him in revenge certainly weren't enough to injure him seriously anyway.

In the blogosphere, as if I hadn't enough of blogging, I've started a new one to comment on the stuff I see online. Bleah. This one is really more of a trial thing, but check it out if you will.

In announcements, The Slayer returns to our shores for the summer. [the Aussie summer, anyway] boredslacker would like to be the first to bid you welcome back, and hope that the people and the heat doesn't kill you this time round.

That's all for the news this morning. Please stay tuned for more broadcasts. Arigatou for reading and Sayonara!

Postsecrets

A cookie: This is interesting. The premise of the blog is that you create a piece of artwork about your secrets, send it to them and they post it on their blog. The intention is apparently to collect enough pieces to create a book one day.

You might have to scroll down quite a bit to see all the artwork, but some of it is pretty interesting and thought provoking.

Some I liked:







Check it out, mate

Make Money Through Blogging

Blogging is getting more and more popular, so why not make money through your blog?

Ok, you can stop laughing now. Obviously I'm not getting anywhere like that with this blog. ^_^! But there are others out there who are trying out the same thing, with varying degrees of success.

One of the most recent examples I've heard of is Subnixus: From a 9-5 job to Blogging full time

I know this is what Xiaxue aspires to do, but is it entirely possible? These people would have you believe it is.

But their methods differ. While Xiaxue aims to earn revenue through advertising, Subnixus aims to earn revenue through adclicks and eyeballs.

Of the 2, I'd feel that Subnixus is the more successful. His website claims that he earns about $50 a day through adclicks on his site alone. [so tell me, why are we all still working?] if you browse on Xiaxue's site, you'd see that she has only one advertiser, namely Localbrand.

I guess part of the problem is her notoriety. Note the previous fracas when she wrote about using disabled toilets. The next thing you know, her 2 sponsors withdrew their sponsorship. Granted that they had only given her a 3 month contract, but would they have extended it if not for the hoo-ha over the disabled toilets? We would never know...

But a point can be made here about reputation and revenue. She should have known from the example of Kate Moss' snorting that notoriety is not always good for business in that way, and that some businesses can quickly pull away their custom if they think that your antics [or your words] can have negative effects on their reputation as well.

I suppose in that way, Subnixus' method seems more sound. He earns revenue through adclicks and offers good advice about blogging on his site. [check it out man] Hence, he is not overly dependent on a few sponsors for his revenue, and can easily make it up through other means.

Anyone tempted yet? I sure am... hahaha

Another group of people are the ones who sell things through their blogs. One example I am keeping an eye on is the Ampulets blog. This artistic duo maintains a blog, which they use to sell artwork and merchandise. The blogger software makes it easy for them to organize their website without having to resort to HTML, but their model is not that much different from the dozens of other websites out there which sell stuff. Another example is jun gifts, which was sent to me by Necroz, and which sells Japanese-themed gifts.

So is it possible? Could you? Hm, I should explore this option a little more... hehehhe....

Update: The previous rant is about how I couldn't get the wireless network to work for nuts. This update is to announce that after dinnertime, my dad had a second go at the thing, and now it works, and I'm now blogging this from Lappy. Doomo Arigatou Gozaimashita to my dad from the bottom of my bloggy little heart.

IBM Laptops are super antisocial

From the previous fracas of my old laptop comes another disaster with the new one. ^_^!

Because right now only one PC in the entire household can be connected to the Internet at any one time, my dad has been trying to set up a network so that all of us can be connected at once. This is particularly crucial for me and bro, cos we're the most frequent users of the Internet and also, the ones who fight most over the usage of the PC.

So I bought a wireless router and a couple of wireless network cards from the NTU co-op and thought that was all to go.

Me thought sooper wrong.

The router worked fine with the PC itself, but when it came to my laptop, it resolutely refused to communicate with it, no matter the amount of cajoling and threatening we did to them. [the router and the laptop] The worse part is that whenever I switched on Lapy, I could see that a wireless connection could be sensed, but when I tried to go into the Internet, nothing could be reached!!!

With a sinking feeling, I realised this was the exact situation I faced with the old one in my hall room.................

Then one day, I came home and dad told me that he had managed to get the thing working, but for it to work, I had to use a LAN cable to connect to the router. Nabeh, then I buy a wireless router for what somemore?

But one connection better than nothing. So we connected everything, switched on Lapy...

Only to find that the connection didn't work, now that I was in the room. Cue another hour or so of cursing and dad clicking intently away at the laptop.......

*string of bad expletives* Why the af does this always happen to me and IBM laptops??? Had I known this would've happened, I shld've just plopped my money on a sweet little Mac instead......

Then again, who's to say that the Mac wouldn't have given me the same problems? *Heavy sigh*

So we're back to sharing a PC for the Internet till my dad can figure out what the heck is wrong with this connection. Shinde......

A really busy Sunday

I was out with him almost the whole day and after lunch, this is what we did:

World Cyber Games

2 words: Boys' Playground. The place was packed with guys staring intently at video and computer screens while battle raged in cyberspace.

Conversely, the chairs around were filled with bored and tired parents, who had probably been badgered by their sons into bringing them here. ^_^

We walked around the place a bit, but there weren't really much exciting battles going on at the time. In fact, most of the gamers there seemed to be amateur gamers who were just taking advantage of the free gaming computers. [according to him, they were amateurs anyway. To me who can't play for nuts... ok they seemed pretty decent]

Too bad we missed the grand final match. Oh well, onto the...

Let's talk about... Sexpo

Quite a disappointment, really. Even the DF found it mild by his standards, and that's saying a lot. ^_^!

When we went in, there was a slightly 'cleaner' family section outside, and the more 'adult' stuff was in another area which had been walled off from the rest of the public, and guarded by pseudo policemen who were really security guards. [whacha gonna do if a minor really tried to run in? Pin him down and arrest him?]

And the first thing we saw when we went in was 3 guys trying to blow up condoms in a given timespan. ^_^!!!! [actually, my thought was I never knew condoms could be expanded to the size of monster jackfruits, but I digress...]

The whole thing was just really mild to the point of boring. Besides the little stage with the condom-blowers and pole-dancing girls, there was just some ancient Chinese sexual artifacts and a bunch of stalls around selling sexual items. The artifacts were of some interest, but were mainly erotic paintings. There were though, these little ornamental fruits. You opened them up, and they revealed a little porcelain couple in a sexual position. Apparently, mothers included those in their daughters' wedding presents to prepare them for marriage. How that worked, i don't know, cos I didn't see instructions included....

Anyway, it seems our ancestors weren't exactly that pure either. There was a hell of a lot of stuff going on beneath the covers [literally and figuratively] but all were hidden beneath a veneer of respectability. Like on first glance, the fan which had a normal painting of a warrior on one side, and an erotic painting on the other side. The person using that fan must have fanned himself pretty hard, I must say........

Of the stalls, the largest [and most crowded one] there was from Condomania, stocking a huge variety of vibrators on the walls, from the [do penises really come in that size??] large to the tiny ones you could put in your purse. But really, most of the stuff there could be bought in their brick and mortar shops too, so what was the point? [quite ex also]

In fact, the DF got quite bored along the way, and wanted to go shopping at the other halls. I was wondering whether I should be worried, that my BF seemed to be more interested in shopping than sex, [!!] till we walked nearer to the entrance, and we saw that the condom blowing guys had been replaced by a young nubile thing gyrating on the pole.

"Now it's getting more interesting!" He said, before I steered him firmly to the exit at the other side of the hall.

Note: actually it might've been more interesting if we had Jules and Candle with us. The 2 of them came in after we had started shopping, and according to Candle, Jules kept up a very..... lively commentary of the items in the show. Which was actually one of the reasons why I was hesitant to go with him, but well... :p Maybe next time I should start a podcast with the things he says... hahaha...

Edit: I found some photos on the web. Click here to see some.

A Twist of Fate

The musical I watched with Candle and Mega after the Sexpo was much more entertaining. In the style of a classic whodunnit, the whole thing centered around a peranakan household in 1937. The death of the family patriarch sparks off a fit of soul searching and secret baring amongst the household, as their sordid secrets come out one by one till the real murderer was revealed.

The music, composed by Dick Lee, was cute, though not quite memorable. But what really stole the show were the actors, and not even the award-winning actress who was in it. No, for me, the most entertaining actors were the family matriarch, [a formidable, kebaya-wearing woman full of hairpins in her bun] and the family servant, Ah Si. Good god, the matriarch was really peranakan to the core, the way she flicked her wrist and spoke to the others, and at certain times, she even reminded me of my great grandmother.

The family servant Ah Si was most endearing, in his star-crossed love with the daughter of the matriarch. But he was most cute when he started singing about how he hated the matriarch, and how it made him want to kill.... chickens. *pwak* It's really one of those things you had to see. :p

All in all, a busy Sunday for me.....

Check thy CDs now!

Because it turns out that some CDs which Sony had produced come with a hacking tool that leaves your PC vulnerable to virus attack if you play it on your PC. :( A summary of the whole fracas can be read at this link, and if you're worried about your CDs, check this list of CDs which come with the software. If you're interested in reading latest updates on the people who are suing the pants off Sony, read the blog on Sory Electronics.

What a dumb move for them. Bad enough for the company that they're losing money through illegal downloads, now they do something like this which just discourages people from buying the original item altogether. [You can get viruses through P2P software too, but at least you got free music in the process. Here, you're paying them to install nasty stuff in your PC.]

There was a contest.

There was a winner.

At the end of it,

There was a really cute film.

Minnasan, mite kudasai. :) Kawaii desu yo.

Jesus loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life: HELL

Before you start stoning me, not my words, but taken from this website. It's amazing, how people can just blindly do things and think the way they do, before thinking through on all sides, and considering if they were actually *gasp!* misguided in the first place.

Take a look at some of the inane things they say:
Jesus Would be Ashamed of You

Inflict ancient Chinese tortures on me.

Make me listen to inane professors lecturing.

Force me to eat my greens.

But PLEASE don't make me............







Clean my room. Bleah.

After officially moving out from the hostel, I was left with a pile o' stuff in my room, which I had left there conveniently because I had no other idea where to put them.

The little pile grew and grew in strength each day, until it became a strong, sturdy pile, capable of swallowing up whole boxes and refusing to spit them back.

It was then time, I knew, to do another complete spring clean. [in what would be winter. Yea, I know.]

I wish spring cleaning was easy for me. I wish it was like this:



But it's not. Most of the time, I end up like this:



The horrible, horrible part about it all is that I'm an uncontrollable hoarder. A trait I inherited from my grandmother, apparently. I'd never forget the huge amounts of stuff we took out from her cupboard the week after she passed away. That cupboard alone seemed to defy all we knew of the normal laws of physics.

And the weird stuff she hoarded: Money was tucked away in envelopes, or under shelf lining, on each different shelves. Ditto with jewellery, and a menu from the hospital my grandfather stayed in. Yes, a menu, which looked like it came from Cahaya or something like, but actually was from Tan Tock Seng.

Yea, I know where I got this from.

So when I had to clean my own room, you can imagine the stuff I managed to dreg up. For a while there, it seemed as if that strong little pile in my room had grown into an INSATIABLY HUNGRY MONSTER WHO WON'T STOP TILL IT HAD MUNCHED UP HALF THE WORLD. I ALMOST LOST A LEG, I TELL YOU.

But I managed to grab a dusty [trusty?] broom and whacked it back till it was whining on the floor in submission. Damn thing.

Now I've managed to pull in a favour from Candle, who'd be helping me next week to stop the pile from taking over the world. And btw, if you're reading this, I've blogged it and made it officially public, so NO BACKING OUT! xP

Some cookies before the Bangkok rant below...

The Gorillaz are actually a virtual band, with 4 cartoon characters as its members. They won the Best Group Award at the MTV Europe awards recently, and, by the miracle that is technology, managed to appear on stage for a 'live' performance. Gawdammit.

Ok lah, it's actually done by an old theatrical trick called Pepper's Ghost, but you can see how cool it looks on stage. :p

watch the live virtual performance here.

Singapore is a fine city, and that's something we've known for ages and ages of empires long gone. [bad gaming joke. sorry.] But what's refreshing is Kenny Sia's take on it.


Read it.. It's a fine laugh and you won't get fined.

my faraway land...

This thing between Bangkok and me has become almost something of an obsession during this holiday period. I think it's because this is the last holiday I can go, obligation-free, to any country, and because of that, there's a certain mental pressure on me to go somewhere.

And that somewhere is Bangkok.

And why Bangkok? Well, cheap foods and shopping come to mind. :p Plus also because practically the WHOLE of Singapore seems to have gone there at least once except for ME.

As I ranted to Candle the other night, it's crazy to think I haven't been there. It's like an hour away, the airfare is cheap, and so are the accomodations and the shopping. There should be NOTHING to stop me, monetary-wise at least.

But strangely enough, everytime I think I'll be able to go, something crops up, and the plans are dashed. *irritated crease on forehead*

Like the other time, Quet and I planned to go one Dec and she ended up going to Phuket with her BF. [heavy colour light fren.......grrr.....] And of all the times to go, she went on the most 'interesting' one. :p

Another time, I was supposed to go with Doe in place of her BF, but we couldn't change the airline tix and that was cancelled too. X(

This time, I thought I found a travelling partner in Necroz. I told her to take leave on any day in Dec and we'd go book it together. She was all set to go......

Until she found out she had to go to Malaysia for a wedding instead. X( X( X( X( X(

NONE of the guys I know wanted to go with me. Strangely enoughly, the name 'Chatuchak' alone put fear in their hearts and sent them screaming.

WHAT THE F--K IS THIS?????? It was actually easier for me to go all the way to freakin' London than it is to go to Bangkok!!!!! It's like the entire world has conspired against me to stop me from going to a country which is barely one hour's flight away! You know it takes me LONGER than that to travel to blardy NIE from home????

I can't stand it. My many thwarted attempts have made me even more stubborn about the whole idea of going there. Now, I just wanna gawdammit go there just to prove that THERE! I'VE DONE IT! YOU TRIED TO STOP ME BUT I DID IT ANYWAY!!! NYAH NYAH NYAH!!! >P >P >P

So now I'm thinking of either 1) going there by myself and praying I don't get mugged/raped/kidnapped there, or 2) booking myself on some package tour. One way or another, I'm going there at least ONCE in my life before I FREAKIN' DIE.

*one freakin' irritated traveller*

Marbles, Sand and Coffee

In response to krystal's blog, the story [slightly rewritten by me] went like this:

So you take a huge glass jar and fill it up with marbles. Make sure you fill it to the brim.

Full already? Shake it a bit, to let them settle, then try to pour more in.

Managed to pour more in? Good. Can any more marbles go in? No?

Can you say the jar is full? Ok then.

What if you pour some sand in? Smart, eh? The fine sand trickles down and fills up all the space left in between the marbles. Fill it up to the top, and make sure you don't spill any.

Any more space in the jar? No?

What about some coffee then? What will happen if you pour some coffee into the jar?

Try it.

What happened then? Were you able to pour it in? Of course you were. The sand soaked up the coffee and so you managed to squeeze in one cup of java into the mix.

Have you realised something? Everytime you think the jar is full, there's actually a bit more space for you to fit something in.

Now what's the deal? What's this gotta do with my life, you say?

Think of it this way.

The marbles are the most important things in your life, the things you will never compromise on. Things like your family, friends, your career, et cetera. Even your dog if you will it to.

The sand is the other extras in your life. You know, the stuff you could do without, but yet are still in your life anyway. Things like your deadend job, the endless social acquaintances, the shopping and movies, and all the other little distractions.

See, even with a whole bunch of marbles in your life, there will always be cracks for you to fill up with sand. You can have a whole bunch of important things in your life, but there will always be other little stuff to distract you from them.

The key thing is to not fill up with so much sand that the marbles start to drop out of the jar. Like, why would you let the little stuff get in the way of the big ones? At least marbles are something hard and solid, that you can hold in your hand.

Ever tried holding a handful of sand? Yea, that's how stable they are.

And the cup of coffee? Well, that's mainly to prove another point.

That despite how many marbles

How much sand in your life

There is always time

For a good cuppa coffee with a fren. :D

The City

I love this song. I always imagine a passing overhead shot of NYC in the morning whenever I hear the intro. And if you change the words to "S'pore City", it's almost exactly what I feel towards Singapore. You can't stand it, but yet, you love it and in a funny way, you can't get away from it. And so was inspired this illust...



NYC Weather Report by Five for Fighting

Got to get away from here...
Got to get away from all these thinkers... drinking up my thoughts again
Got to get away from here...
Got to get away from all these choosers, losers... all my best of friends
Sit back New York City
You're not cute but you're oh so pretty
When the rain comes you fall up again...
SUNNY... You are a part of me
SUNNY... You are the heart of me

Got to get away from here...
Got to get away from all these people who need people... You know it really makes me sick
Got to get away from here...
Got to get away from expectations, recreations, just for the sake of it

Sit back New York City
You're not cute but you're oh so pretty
When the rain comes you fall up again...
SUNNY... You are a part of me
SUNNY... You are the heart of me

Sit back New York City
You're not cute but you're oh so pretty
When the rain falls you come up again
Sit back New York City friend...

Got to get away from here...
Got to get away from what I'm thinking...I'm thinking...it's too much for anyone...
Got to get away from here...
Got get away from what you're drinking... you're drinking...so I'll take another one...

I am Woman, Hear me Roar

This is an interesting article about Women In Power. I read the original in my subscribed copy, and the interesting part is where the articles written by various women in powerful situations. These women talk about how they gained power, status, and importantly respectability in their various fields, and also juggle family and work life at the same time. They range from Oprah Winfrey, to a HK virologist who worked with the bird flu virus and SARS.

I guess the most empowering thing about the article is the message that you can do it. It takes planning, commitment, and a whole lot of guts, but it IS possible.

A group of us were hanging around outside the classroom, waiting for the lecturer to come and the class to start, and we started talking.

"You know, after the exams are over, I don't know what to do anymore."
"Ya, I know what you mean! You feel so aimless, like you got to do something, but there's nothing to do."
"Ya, and I don't know how to pass the time also."

When I heard that, my thoughts went back to what I did after my last exam and report deadline. Which was return to the room with Yenn for a 3 hour nap, followed by a trip to the library, which resulted in a very hefty reading list for the next few weeks or so.

I also thought of all the shopping I wanted to do, [as soon as I got my paycheck] the blogging, the art, maybe a few afternoons sitting in a cafe sipping coffee and reading, finding a wireless router and trying to configure it in my home, maybe a new graphics tablet, the lindy, the japanese......

Nothing to do? Sorry gals, I passed that stage a long, long time ago while still in school. [although technically I am still in school, but let's not get distracted.]

But it did occur to me how easy it was for us to just let our jobs take over our lives. Most of us, we work most of the day. We leave at 5,6,7 and go for dinner with BF/Friends/Family. Then we watch TV at home, sleep and repeat cycle the next day. With maybe some shopping over the weekend as an interlude.

Your job takes up the majority of your day, and of your energy. And hence, sometimes, there isn't time left for much other stuff. "I'm interested, but I'm so busy with work now, I don't have the time!"

Well, when will you ever have the time?

I realised what a big risk it was to let your job take over your life, till pretty much all you live for is your job. Imagine, that if as students, you can already feel such a sense of aimlessness after your papers. What would happen if you lost your job for some reason or another? Do you have anything else in your life to back you up? Do you other ways in which you can earn an alternative income?

We always say we don't have enough time to do all these things. And then when something happens, we lament that we didn't do something earlier to prevent it.

Well, make a change. Don't let your job lead your life. You lead it.

One Hell of a week...

In more than one ways.... starting from Sat when I watched the Possession of Emily Rose with DF...[his idea]

Now, I'm not the World's Most Devout Catholic, [I'm somewhere towards the other end of the scale] but something about this movie chilled me to the bone. Yes, chilled is the word. For those who don't know, the movie is about the [purportedly] true story of Emily Rose, whose demonic possession is the only one officially recognised by the Church so far. Ok......

The movie is not particularly scary. If you want a real scare-fest, I'd say look to the Koreans or the Japanese.

However, it did touch me on several levels. One, because as a Chinese, you're constantly exposed to tales of the supernatural world around us. Witness the Hungry Ghost Festival every year. And it goes without speaking that you are brought up with tales of ghostly hauntings and wandering spirits and vengeful gods.

Two, as a Catholic, you are brought up to believe in the existence of the Devil, and his minions. Because face it, if you believe in God, you have to believe in the Devil. The existence of one implies the existence of the other. And if you read your Good Book regularly, you will know that there are demons in the world around us.

And if you forget that fact, or let it drop from mind, there's always Emily Rose to remind you. :p

So if you're brought up with helpings of both of what I just mentioned above, you get a pretty shaky mix of Asian-Western Fried Potato. And I say fried, because if you put in too much helpings of supernatural beliefs from each culture, that's what you become.

And if you're an Asian-Western Fried Potato like me...... You sleep that night with a bottle of holy water next to your bed. [PS, I ain't kidding about the holy water. Conveniently, or fatefully enough, my mom went on a pilgrimmage to Malaysia and brought back bottles for the whole family] And you will NEVER dare wake up at 3am in the night, as that is supposedly the demonic hour, where demons roam the earth.

This I do to myself, after the previous Black River House scare... duh.......

And what do I do this week? One exam ended on Monday, and the very last essay of the term was handed up, so I have officially started holidays. ^_^ Me and Yenn are two very happy birds, Yenn with her now-incessant Mapling, and me with my long-neglected library books.

[Aside: The National Library has doubled the loan quotas for all library card holders, so this is a GREAT time to start your reading habits!]

And of all things, I start with... The Dante Club, by Matthew Pearl, which is the story of a series of murders modelled after the Hells of Dante. ^_^!!!

Like, for instance, in one of the scenes, Neutrals [people who refuse to choose between good and evil] are set upon by flies and maggots which eat their very flesh while they are alive. In another, Traitors are placed in ice so that only their heads are above the surface. Simoniacs [priests who accept money for unholy reasons] are buried headfirst underground, so that their legs are above, and then their feet are set on fire.

WHAT'S FREAKIN' UP WITH ME??? I NEED MORE CHICK LIT!!! I need to read and see more of the pink cottony, lah-lah fluffy rainbow stuff and EXORCISE all these from me!!!

Time to start more on the Photoshopping and stuff before I go completely wonkers one day......

The Big S

Went to Batam on Deepavali with Juls and Greg and learnt two things:

1. That Batam is just like Perling, Johor

So true. We entered through the main Batam centre by ferry, and the minute I walked out of the centre, I could've sworn that we'd ended up in Malaysia by mistake.

Certainly on first glance, it seemed like it. Bahasa everywhere, [even though yes, I know, that Bahasa Indon. is not the same as Melayu] the mega airconditioned malls, [these things are everywhere nowadays, and I swear the one at the centre was built for the express purpose of Singaporean dollars] and the endless rows of suburban houses and shophouses and trees.

But there are differences if one cares to look more closely. Streets are dirtier than in Malaysia, for one. [sorry, Candle] Some of the sewage drains I saw were filled with extremely noxious looking grey.... sludge that looked deadly to any living creature foolish enough to step in it.

Also, there is a diff in the shops over there. The streetside stalls all sell the same range of goods, namely wallets, caps, belts, shoes, and the huge piece of cloth that Muslim women wear over themselves. [sorry, i don't know the name of it] We walked a few km along one long stretch of stalls, and it felt like I was seeing the same cycle of stalls over and over again. Wallets, caps, belts, shoes, cloth, wallets, caps, belts, shoes, cloth, wallets, caps, belts......

The prices there are also generally cheaper than in Malaysia. Sure, you'll feel like a billionaire when you count your currency in terms of 10000s, but when you look at the prices, you feel more like, an upper class man? I did a double take a couple of times when, after mentally converting the prices in my head, it was still too low for me to believe.

Like, in the department store, a decent tee shirt, maybe about the Hanes standard, cost about 16000rp, which translated to S$4??? And we stopped at this beauty stop [hair salon/manicure/pedicure/facial/massage.... Good god, has anyone done this in singapore? It's a stroke of genius!] where we found that the price of a 45 min massage was.... S$8. Bloody fork! Juls and I ended up going for a massage each while Greg was left to play at the arcade. :p

Of course, the dark lining of all this is that you have to pay about S$30 from Singapore to actually get there. So when you count the transport, food, and massage.... it doesn't quite become so worth it anymore. ^_^! If you want to make it worth it, you have to do a hell lot more stuff than we did. But hey, once in a while, I don't mind doing stupid stuff like this.

2. We have big 'S'es written all over us

I think that it is inevitable that, if you live in any country for an extended period of time, it leaves its mark on you. I notice this in some friends who go overseas, and now I know it is on us, even in a nearby country like Batam.

The moment we started walking around the town, Nagoya, [sounds Japanese, doesn't it?] I felt as everyone knew we were from Singapore and that we didn't believe. We didn't even look like the local Chinese, even though we were plainly dressed in tees and jeans. What was it? We don't know, but I suspect a great deal stemmed from us speaking flawless English most of the time. ^_^! Bummer.... Can you stick out anymore in a place where 90% of all people we met spoke only rudimentary English? ["Taxi! You want taxi?" being one of the most common phrases I heard being thrown at us]

And even then, our clothes didn't fit in. What we wore and carried looked just a smite too good to have been bought from their department stores, which carried This-Fashion-like stuff. [which also meant that everything in the ladies dept was 10 sizes too small for me. ^_^! If I lived there, i'd have to buy everything from either the Muslim dept or the menswear]

But it wasn't just us. Even while I was having my massage, I saw this lady come in, and my first thought was: Singaporean. Again, the bag she carried looked too good, and most telling of all, she was wearing a light blue gypsy skirt, which I never saw being sold anywhere in Batam. The funny thing was that her face did NOT look Singaporean at all when I looked at it again, so....... i don't know. :p

Another lady was more obvious. She was a 40s odd woman wearing 2 spaghetti tops, cropped pants and huge colourful wedges. Oh yea, very HDB tai-tai chic......

But really, we didn't fit in. And I felt like everyone was looking at the huge S written invisibly on my forehead......

I guess in a way, going to such places just makes you appreciate home that much more. [ESPECIALLY for the clean toilets with running water in the flush and adequate toilet paper] Even when you go to nearby countries, with plenty of Asians and Chinese, it's still pretty obvious the way you stand out from all the other locals. While we were there, I had this weird feeling that people were staring at me, and whispering to each other, "Singaporean must be lah..." [on a sidenote, must learn Bahasa so this never happens to me, either in Indon or Malaysia.]

It's only when you come back to Singapore that you, I don't know, fit? That suddenly, your behavior and appearances cease to be weird or ill-fitting, and that you're able to disappear into the rest of the crowd, because you're just like the rest of them. Yea, I know there are plenty more countries which are waaaaay more accepting of weirdness than Singapore is, or more open than Singapore is, but as much as I don't fit quite into Singapore society, I still fit more into it than all the other countries that I've been to. That it's the only place I know I can disappear into the crowd, and that won't mind me ever being there. It's weird, I know, and possibly also because I haven't stayed in any other country for a long period of time, but hey, that's just my humble opinion... :p that's just me.

Black River House

Was surfing randomly through the Net looking for free legal music [yes, there IS such a thing] when I stumbled upon The Secret Method and the Black River House.

The story goes that the Black River House was the site of the gruesome murder of an entire family that was living there in 1992. Later in 1996, a band called The Secret Method snuck into the house to, I suppose, record some music using the atmosphere of the site.

Don't ask me why, but the band vanished without a trace after that, leaving all their equipment behind.

After reading through the website, I only have 2 things on my mind:

1. This is NOT the thing to be reading at 1am while alone in your hall room. [YENN!!!!!! Anta doko ka??! *Wails*]

2. I SO do not feel like downloading the music, free and legal it may be.

Read the story for yourself

It's been a long time since I posted up any illustrations or cartoons on me blog, so here goes the set meal....

First the appetisers....

I know this may come across as slightly paedophilic, but lookie at this cover of the nov issue of First magazine...



Is it my imagination, or is Harry Potter getting more hot?! Yup yup.... :p

Next appetiser...

I did this one a while back, just after I ended lessons with most of my tuition students:



My happiness over the extra free time I had lasted for about a min... then I realised that I had a laptop to pay for in full, and my income had just gone down by about a third. *faint*

But even with the tuition and the extra income, I didn't have that much extra time either to go out with friends on weekdays or to pursue my dance.

The difference was more obvious after I got my first official paycheck. Suddenly, I realised that I could buy a LOT of the things I had always wanted. [Lapy being one of them] I even had the cash to indulge in afternoon coffee sometimes if I could spare the time...

But at the same time, there were a lot of things I could NOT do. You couldn't just take leave when you felt like it. You couldn't just plan your lessons as you felt like it. You couldn't teach the way you wanted sometimes, because of the restrictions placed by schools. And a lot of your time is taken up by your work.

So in the end... you realise that nothing really comes with no strings attached. If you want the extra money, you pretty much give up a lot of things. And if you are content with less money... don't expect to do a lot of shopping. :p

Now a starter before the main course....



World Animal Day was held at Bishan Park today, which made it highly convenient for me to pop by after my roti prata session.

Of all the charities in the world, the ones I probably have more sympathy towards are those animal-based charities.

This is cos I feel that while people are always able to help themselves, or are more inclined to help those of their own kind, they don't always feel the same way towards animals. And I feel that in our urban jungle, animals are more vulnerable, more helpless, and hence more needy of our help.

A big plus point is also I cannot resist the sight of poor helpless kitties......... ^_^!

I picked up these postcards from ACRES, which deals mostly with wildlife animals involved in illegal trading. They had some of the wittiest designs I had seen so far, and I picked up a button as well. [camera didn't capture it too well, so it's not in the pic]

Also present was Noah's Ark, from which I bought a pin. Noah's Ark provides sanctuary for animals who would otherwise be abandoned. They let the animals run free in a plot of land and they are dependent on donations and sale of goods like this to keep the place running, or all the animals have nowhere to go.

There were others, but these were the main ones I bought stuff from. No Cat Welfare Society... damn....

If you're interested in either of these organizations, check out:

http://www.acres.org.sg
http://www.noahsarkcares.com

Now the main course...

I'm realising how easy it is to get misunderstood over a blog post. My previous post on the ministerial salaries clearly ruffled one or two feathers, who immediately ran clucking to my comments box to tell me just what they thought of salaries and how wrong/misguided/delusional I was.

And who ALSO didn't see the next post after that about how ministerial salaries was NOT the point of the post.

You see how people can be selective about their reading sometimes? They see an issue that they are concerned about, and immediately I get more links about how cheated we are, and more info about how I'm really being scammed by the Govt.

ARGH! My point was NOT about ministers' salaries! I don't give a fork about ministers' salaries! [i'm more concerned about my own] My point was about the discrepancies and biases in THAT ONE EMAIL.

So granted, maybe they thought to clarify the discrepancies in that email by handing me more information and proof to back up their stance. Fair enough.

But ack! I still don't feel like I'm getting a balanced enough view of the entire issue. The whole Net seems to be full of people who are more interested in pushing their opposing views rather than people who are genuinely interested in exploring the issue more deeply.

[this is one funny trait about me. I don't like to subscribe to absolute views, and if I feel I'm getting one, I like to play devil's advocate just for the heck of irritating the other person]

More reasons for me to simply not get involved in local politics....... next time i'll just put the inane blatter on my blog......