No English? No Problem!

Thursday, December 15, 2005

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!

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

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??]

Tuesday, December 13, 2005

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......

Sunday, December 11, 2005

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*