X
MerrY
X'Mas
to just
about all
the peeps I
know and love
and a
happy
new year

Swing Kids

I want to find this movie now... hehehe... not least because of the dancing :p

For those of you who've always wondered what is this Lindy Hop I've been blogging about, here's something to give you an idea. While the dancing we do is a lot less dangerous and life-&-limb threatening than those in the movie, most of the basic steps can be seen in any social nite at Jitterbugs.

Would be nice to dance with Christian Bale though :p

A chalet. What is your idea of a chalet?

When people tell me that their family is having a chalet, I imagine one bungalow, or one semi-detached house, with one or two bedrooms, and a living room. I imagine adults sitting around, eating, drinking, barbequeing, and children running around amok. Maybe about 2 or 3 families.

Hence when the DF told me that his mother was having a chalet, and that we were going over, that was my idea. His mother being one heck of a socialite, I imagined maybe 5 or 6 families in a large bungalow.

I was wrong.

Firstly, what do you wear to a chalet? Tanks, halters, shorts... But on the day itself, he told me just before I left the house that his family was going to church before the chalet, and was I joining them? Ok lor... So I wear a T-shirt and jeans instead.

Then I asked him where and what time we were supposed to meet, and THEN he decides to fall asleep -_-!!!! I call him three times, SMS him 5 times, and NO REPLY.

Fine lor. I head down to J8 to our usual meeting place.

At the time we usually meet, he tells me that they were going straight to church. So from J8 now I have to dash down to the church, which is walking distance from my house. -_-!!!!!!!!!!

THEN at the church itself, he tells me there are a lot of family and friends around. Hope I wore something nice. Like hallo? No lor....

THEN he tells me oh oh... it was his dad's baptism.................. I didn't bring anything, I didn't wear anything nice, and I'm in FLIP FLOPS F'GOD'SAKES. And EVERYONE is dressed in their Sunday best.

Never have I come so close to killing him, if not for being in the house of God and all.

After the service, I then realise his mother had chartered 2 tour buses to bring all the guests to the chalet. (!!!!!!!) And I ask how many units had his mother booked?

Apparently almost 10 units....................... Plus a function room for a lengthy thanksgiving service, entirely in bahasa and of which I understood 5 words, and filled full of people I didn't know and I didn't understand a word of what they were saying. Plus apparently some of the closer ones knew me, knew what I did, knew everything about our relationship before I even knew their names. -_-!!!!!!!!!

*SIgh* At least their singing was good........

Usually our Sundays are quite relaxed, take-your-own-time affairs. Yesterday's was like a culture-and-in-law shockbomb hurled at me.

The idea of forgoing the usual wedding dinners in favour of elopement suddenly seems more tempting than before......

Naked Women!

Why do I feel this post will get more hits on the search engine than any other?

Anyway, before you start running from to the authorities, this post is about nothing pornographic. Rather it is about how old I've been feeling. Especially when I go into the locker rooms at the fitness club I've been going to.

Apparently the women in the room are pretty liberal. I, and the friends I've been there with so far, would usually go into the room, get our clothes, have a bath, change in the shower room, and then come out fully clothed.

Not some of the women there. The other day as I entered the room after class, I saw 2 women, who seemed to have just finished bathing, and were now talking to each other. The only thing being one woman had only just a towel wrapped around her waist. Leaving her breasts free for the whole locker room to see.

....................... (0_0)

And then there was the other girl, I suspect younger than me, whom I think did not want to wear her dirty clothes into the shower room. Hence, while I was sitting barely 2 metres from her, she stripped off all her clothes, giving me a full view of almost everything before putting on another set of clothes and then going into the showers.

(0_0)!!!!!

Now I really gotta wonder: Am I getting so old that the sight of women so fully willing to unclothe themselves in my presence becomes shocking?Am I becoming like this:



Either though I would rather be like this?:



Well, Candle for one thinks maybe it's just a matter of not being used to something. After all, this being common practice in Japanese and Korean bathing houses, but not in Singapore, so maybe it's just a matter of being unused to something.

At least it's not that I'm turning lesbian or worse, old. >D

Budak Pantai Unplucked!

The funniest, most hilarious and most entertaining local acapella group I have ever heard is back in concert. For 2 nights only at the Esplanade recital studio, and for $25, the music will be GOOD. Trust me. ;)

It's free seating on that night, so I'm buying my ticket early, for Friday, 29th December, at 9:30pm. If you wanna join me, buy a ticket by clicking on this link, or at any Sistic outlets.

The quintet also performs on Thursday night, 28th Dec, at 730 and 930pm, and Friday 29th, at 730pm.

There is one day in the year which makes a lot of civil servants very happy, and today it is. \($_$)/ I think I'm heading to Orchard later... ^_^ ^_^ ^_^

Other than the shopping though, it's been a b*tch trying to keep myself occupied during this December. Since I stupidly waited too long to buy airline tix, I'm stuck in Singapore while other colleagues are going to Tokyo, Hokkaido, Batam...... *cries* Must NOTNOTNOT be late for June....

So what am I left doing? Tons of reading, for one, and later on, I'm going to buy more comics. ^_^ Trying to do more art but not producing that much -_-!!! and also pulling Candle for dinner whenever I can. I've also probably watched more MTV than I've watched from Jan to Nov.

I've also gotten a 1 mth free membership from California Fitness courtesy of a colleague, so I'm actually going to the gym. (0_0) Though since I don't have to eat school food anymore, I think I'm just struggling to keep the extra cals off rather than burning off those I already have. -__-

*Sigh*

Next Dec, I will heck care and book me a trip somewhere......... I swear...........

Snoopy + Spiderman = ?????

Here's a collection of pix where Marvel Superheroes meets Peanuts...

Click Here!

*Note*

If you haven't seen the previous blog post about the video, scroll down and read it first!! Then SMS either Candle or me with your reply...

Onwards with regular blog programming......




One lesson I learnt from my mother is the power of words.

Never underestimate the power of the spoken word. Never think that what you say will have no effect on the listener whatsoever. Never dismiss the words that you speak to another.

I learn this lesson from her almost every weekend morning, when I wake up before she does. Because my morning can be going fine, all hunky-dory, I could even be in a good mood, until she wakes up.

And her first words to me are never 'Good morning' or 'Have you eaten?' but more like 'Get that room of yours tidied!' 'Bring in the laundry!' 'Always know how to enjoy yourself!'

And then, my mood for the entire day is spoiled.

What makes it worse is that my brother gets a different response from her. With him, it's 'Do you have any clothes for me to wash?' 'You want some breakfast? Eggs? Tea?' Jules says this is due to the whole NS thing, that mothers will fret about what the Army is doing to their precious offspring.

My reply to him was that that may be true enough, but it didn't exactly reduce the suckiness of the whole situation.

I'm past the point where I want a semblance of a relationship with my mother any longer. Nowadays I'm contented if she was to just leave me alone for the rest of my life. I don't want to hang out with her, I don't want to talk to her, and I don't want her to attempt to make conversation with me either.

I just want to lead my own life myself, and I don't want her to force herself into it, because the results always end in trauma for me.

Just leave me alone.

I'm wondering how many of you remember the days.

You know, the days of Uni gone by, when we had 4 hour lunches in the canteen, 12 hour project meetings, and then chucked it all out the window during the long hols from May till late July? Yea, those days.

Do you remember how it all started? How some of us stayed overnight at the Bizad faculty working on the Rag float with a huge purple genie, and hung out more and more after that? Do you remember all the things we said, the jokes we cracked?

Do you remember the holidays to Taman, KL and Redang? Do you remember the Curse of the Batcave? The shopping in KL? The toothpaste we put on the guys on the bus?

Do you remember the Promo project, and the insane hours we spent on that project in various locations, including NUS, Bishan, and Sixth Ave? Do you remember the equally [or more] insane hours we spent on that project? Do you remember the insane amount of blood bled on that project, and the Seoul Garden payoff at the end?

Do you remember Redang beach? Do you remember its white, powdery sands, its clear blue seas, and us pretending to be seaweed in the water? Do you remember the love dramas that developed plots along those trips? [and don't pretend that you don't!]

If you do, Candle and I need YOU.


We are trying to create a sort of time capsule video. The purpose of this, is twofold. One is to capture all the precious and embarrassing moments for all posterity, another is to help those who can't do so, remember. This is because we believe that such memories should not be lost. [even those that you prefer would rather be forgotten]

For this, we are trying to get all of us together at my house to interview you and tape you on everything you can remember about the shared history we've been through. Your payoff for this, would be the CD with the video on it, and as usual, lunch at my house, and Happy Hour if you so feel like it. -_-!!!

The details are as follows:

Venue: My House
Date : Dec 16 [Sat]
Time : 12pm

SMS/call Candle or I by this Friday to confirm whether you'll be able to come so that we can do the arrangements quickly as possible.

We really wanna do this, so we hope you can reply and confirm ASAP! C'mon guys!

I may just need a PDA. Several times I've thought of something blogworthy, and then because of work/play/whatever I was doing at the moment, forgotten it in the next instant. Then when I'm finally sitting in front of my laptop, I realise that I have nothing to blog about.

*Sigh*

On the bright side, school hols are upon us. *yay* The bonus for civil servants has been declared *yay* I'm thinking of [finally] going to Bangkok if I can get a flight out. *yay*

My life suddenly feels... stable, like I've finally surpassed all those of levels of Maslow and then gotten myself too comfortable at one particular level. Like a true blue cat, I've plunked my butt down and lounged languidly in the sun.





This is bad. I'm getting old. *Sigh* One day I'll wake up and find out that I:

Have a beer belly
Live on Pringles and beer
Watch endless reruns of Days of our Lives

Something like this:



But you get the idea I think. If you wake up one day and you look back at your week, and it's been nothing but work, home, work, home, friend, boy/girlfriend, work, home I think it's time you did an auditing of your life.

I realised I'm like that. Lounging around doesn't quite suit me. Sure I can pull it off for a day or half, but after that I get itching. I've tried staying home on a Sat night and I couldn't get used to it. I tried to read, but couldn't last more than 5 pages. I went online but no one was there, and I finished all the blogs. I even started pacing up and down my living room and that's when I knew sitting down for too long wasn't for me.

Even now, after my tuition has ended, and my evenings are suddenly free, I find myself at a loss as to what to do with myself come dinnertime. Home is not an option because my mother doesn't always cook. Where to go then? Friends are not always free to meet up. I can't watch movies or read every night.

*itch itch itch*

I need slightly more activity in my life, other than just going out to the libraries or the shopping centres. I need some mental and creative simulation, and actually create something rather than just admiring other people's works. I need to be more like this:


On the prowl. Rowr.

So please, if you find yourself free on a weekday for dinner, [other than Lindy Thursday] or if you find out about some exciting new thing in town, or even way out of town, and you have no one to accompany you, tell me about it. GET ME OUT OF MY COMFORT ZONE.

[but please don't bust my wallet while you're at it]

The DF has finally taken a step forward and gathered up the guts to meet some of my friends!

Ok, admittedly, he met the Turtle and Jules, both of whom were already familiar to him from JC, and I had to do some pleading on my end, but I like to think he's finally taking baby steps on his own. :p

After all, how long has this friends issue been going on? Almost as long as we've been together. -_-! And he's never voluntarily met up with ANY of my friends till now, as most of you keep reminding me. -_-! It's also been a sore point with me, because

1. I could never understand what was so hard about him sitting down to have a meal n chat with my friends [all of you being the wonderful, charming, sadists that you are]

2. I had already gone out with him n his friends on several occassions, and emerged with no visible scars. What's so hard?

So granted, it's a small step, but I like to look on the bright side and think that it's a baby step in the right direction. :)

Anyway, it turned out to be so entertaining for him, what with Jules and Greg spilling out embarrassing anecdote of me one after the other. I swear, I've NEVER seen him laugh so much with his own friends yet. -_-!!!! When he heard about some of the stories, he was laughing so uncontrollably he turned speechless and his face turned red, while I was getting ready to mangle Jules for it.

So 1 point for the DF finally. :) Now to work him up to meeting the REST of my friends....... WITHOUT him getting scars.

With the end of Friday's workday, I took a deep breath, sat on my chair, and thought to myself: All done.

Over the past 5 months, I've graduated 30 lower primary children and 2 O level students. I think I can safely say that my labours for now are over, and it's time for my turn to enjoy, and reclaim whatever's left of my humanity.

The hard part is letting go. Even now, sometimes I walk by, see something, and immediately think of how I could use it in the classroom. -_-!! And not to mention there's another class and another load of students to prepare for next year. -_-!!!!!!!

But for now, I'm happy to simply look forward to my dance, my books, my comics and my life. :)

And for the work-weary out there, check out the movie A Good Year. Other than the tempting message that it would be cool to quit your job and take up a vineyard in France, there is also the wonderful footage of Provence to ogle over.




Bring me there. Now. Sigh.

Although I have to admit, Russel Crowe's character in the movie was earning disgustingly pornographic amounts of money before he made the decision to quit and move to France. Not to mention with the pound and the euro being what they are, and the distance between the countries... I suppose for us it'll be kinda like moving to a more expensive form of Malaysia. -_-!!!

But don't tell me you aren't tempted by the idea: Quit your job, take all your money, move to a breathtakingly picturesque country, and live your life there with the love of your life.

*Sigh* Excuse me while I wallow in self-pity now at my life........

lack of posts. Yea I know. Blame it on any one of the following:

1. Work
2. Tuition
3. Dance
4. Wanderlust that compels me to leave the house and go walking around the whole day
5. Fatigue from feeling compelled to blog
6. Lack of inspiration
7. Auditionsea

So aren't you glad I managed to wake up at 530 on a Saturday morning, giving me enough time to go for breakfast with the folks, and come back in time to read blogs, watch MTV, and blog before recess has even started? X( I swear, this body clock thing will kill me in the long run. It's unnatural to be waking up this early on a Saturday morning of all things!!!

*Sigh* Help me, god...

On the other hand though, it's pretty refreshing to have a Saturday where I don't have to rush out much LPs, no tuition, no Jap, just one glorious Saturday morn and aft where I can do what I want, and not be constrained by a schedule. Where I can finally just, take the day as it is, one minute at a time. Enough time to eat, blog, read email, and still go out.

Hm. Maybe I could get used to this Saturday morning thing.

There are days.

There are days where everything goes wrong.

There are days where everything seems designed to make you go insane, where even the simplest things seem beyond you, where even so, you have to grit your teeth and bear whatever nonsensical lemons life decides to throw your way, because there's nothing else you can do about it, where you go home at the end of the day, and you feel tired and drained out of all life and blood there was in you at the start of the day.

And then you meet your friend and one good line manages to lift your spirits and end your day on a good note.

Insurance agent: "Do you have any disorders or abnormalities?"

Friend: "Yes, I have an abnormality, it's just... I'm abnormally handsome. I have to go for an operation to uglify myself and make myself look more normal."

Insurance agent: ".... Wh-what?"

I'd rather not name sources on the Internet but I think most of you know there is only one guy who has the balls to come up with a line like that. ;)

This is what happened to me: I go for a long, long movie drought in which I watch NO movies at all, and then suddenly, over the weekend I catch 3 movies. -_-!!! I don't know whether you can call this a Reclamation of Life, but...

Death Note

A Shinigami [Death God] drops the Death Note onto Earth. Any names written within the book will die within 40 seconds of a heart attack. A narcisstic megalomanic genius picks up the book with intentions of killing off all the criminals in the world and creating a new world order in which he is God Supreme.

What a great plot premise, no? You really have to read the manga to appreciate the intricacies and plot twists and turns of this manga. My more barbarian friend may disagree with me, but I feel it is this which makes the manga truly stand out from the rest of those on the market, not to mention the novelty of the plot, whereby the main character is a kind of villian, rather than savior.

All this, to me, is lost in the movie.

To me, this movie is another reminder why I should never watch book-movie adaptions. [bleargh] Because in almost every movie in which I have read the book before, [most notable example being Harry Potter] I have been bitterly disappointed by the lack of depth in plot and character in a movie. Face it, a 2 1/2 hour movie is just not enough to truly do justice to a good sized book, let alone a manga whereby the storyline runs over 12 volumes!

Suddenly, the characters become more 2D, an irony since they are obviously 3D characters adapted from a 2D book. The plot becomes more shallow and brainless. There is no 'mindfuck' in watching the movie, [the term 'mindfuck' being attributed to a certain swingin' fren overseas] and hence there is no mental titillation. There was nothing to excite me about the whole plot and I ended up getting pretty bored halfway through the movie. Like, kill someone already.


Manga is better

Part of the problem is also that I've read the entire frickin' series. I know how he did all his tricks, I know how the plot will develop, I even know how the frickin' thing is gonna end. What on earth is there to look forward to for me then???

And there's a part 2 even. *swoon* I'm not sure whether I should spare myself the agony, or just watch it for closure.

The Prestige and The Departed

"Hey! I'm sorry I said Christian Bale was cuter than you, OK???"

Interestingly enough, the 2 movies that I watched with him on Sunday had the common theme of deception in their scripts.

The magicians of The Prestige are essentially liars. They make you believe that they are capable of performing amazing magic, where actually, they just rely on props and showmanship to deceive you for that moment. The policemen and gangsters in The Departed are just liars, since a mole is basically that. He lies about what he is, in order to conceal what he truly is.

To him, these were both movies that left a bad aftertaste in the mouth. [his exact words, not mine] They are not feel-good movies, and even their endings may not be pretty. I feel at least that the Prestige had a pretty good twist at the end, which somewhat acted like a sort of prestige for the film. Actually, it seems that the whole film was meant to be played sort of like a magic trick. You see an ordinary object, and then the magician does something to that object. But the part that truly amazes you, the audience, is the part at the end, where he brings the bird back from where he made it disappear, and that is the Prestige. In the same way, the twist at the end was such an unthinkable ending, that it really was a Prestige in a sense.

The Departed was based on the movie Infernal Affairs, which yes, I had watched before, but somehow I didn't suffer the same boring deja vu I had while watching Death Note. I did know how the plot was going to proceed and how it would end, but the western adaption of the film was so different from the original HK version that it became entertaining to watch on its own, if only for the colourful characters that peppered the film. It just shows, Hollywood has a certain skill in adaptation. [probably because of a lack of creative scriptwriters... hahaha]

If you have to watch them, I say go for either the Departed or the Prestige. I liked these two better, even if it didn't have the happy endings that he wanted. :p

It's almost back to hostel days, as Yenn prepares to stay over for the next 3 nights at my house, due to an inefficiency in deployment over a nationwide marking exercise. :p Currently her laptop is beside mine as she maples and I blog.

Yup, back to hostel days, except that tonight the room is much, much bigger, and the food better as we just came back from a ChompX2 dinner. :p

The break from the kids is proving good for the two of us. We were just about reaching that point when we were dragging ourselves to school and she was spamming my hp with "My life sucks"-type SMSes, so it's just about time we spent some time away from the kids before the exams started.

Man, we almost sound like a married couple in that last sentence.

The only problem now is that for some reason, the lag is much worse for her during her Mapling sessions, though my blogging and surfing sessions seem just fine. Considering her possible future [as evident in that South park episode in her blog] as a gamer though, I'd say it's just as well for her. >D

So how has life been to me so far? Other than how my kids seem to be going utterly insane towards the exams, it's good to see that some time is finally clearing up. One tuition kid has just ended his exams so I've stopped him for now, and I finally have more time on Saturday afternoons. *phew* Only 2 more kids to go for now...

The dance is going as well as before, though I haven't been able to go for a proper Fling in weeks. -_-!!! I have been to some events at the Library@esplanade and the change of venue is proving refreshing, though the faces are just the same ones transplanted from Fling. -_-!!!!! Considering another jazz dance course in Nov if I feel up to it, and not too fat... :p

And speaking of dance, who's free on Fri and Sat night?

Other than that, it's been a smooth, eventless life so far. Funny how everything just seems so... settled... right now, like, nothing happening, little hiccups here n there but nothing that is beyond my ability to handle, or chuck aside to a convenient corner of the mind....

Hopefully not the calm before the storm..........

Talking Cock In Parliament

In lieu of many blog entries not done, [life been too boring, sorry], here are some videos I found of the Talking Cock in Parliament event I attended in August. It took me one HELL of a lotta effort to make sure they published correctly, so WATCH THEM!!! Esp the Ruby Pan and Hossan Leong ones, 'cos I think they're the funniest. :p For the other, just watch it for the Candy guy making the Candy line.

TalkingCock in Parliament - Part 7

Skip this till u see the candy guy in the candy shirt... :p n check out his opening line

the mrbrown show 30Aug06:TalkingCock in Parlimen-HossanLeong

From Talking Cock in Parliament, that I watched a while back, this is the Hossan Leong song that I loved... and I managed to find it on Youtube! With lyrics to boot! A definitely more fun way of learning Singapore history :p

TalkingCock in Parliament - Part 8


Here is the Ruby Pan video on different accents in Singapore.... Also hilarious!

A White Death

With the blogging of the Bintan trip, I forgot to blog about the other disaster that struck me after I came back. [yea, not a very good week for me overall]

My Shiroi Creative Zen was playing music for me on the way to work, as usual, when suddenly it hung, and refused to go any further.

I had encountered this problem before, and luckily Creative now has a service center at Marina Sq so I headed there after work to get it fixed.

Where, I found to my profound, abject horror, that to fix the problem, the entire hard drive would have to be reformatted, resulting in the total loss of all the mp3s i had in the player.

I swear, my heart just stopped then and there when the service guy told me those fateful words. Like, the player is only about 1 year old????

Unfortunately the problem was such that there was no way to fix it without erasing everything.

And total loss? We're talking about 1068 mp3s here. [!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!]

Hence, now I have to drag out my CD collection box by box and start retransferring them into Shiroi again, CD by CD....... -_-!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh god, I feel like my baby just went to the brink of death, and was narrowly saved by a long, nerve-wracking, operation.

There's bit quite a bit of drama over these few days, so here's fodder for this dusty ol' blog.

I went to sunny Bintan over the weekend with DF and his group of friends, but even a seemingly simple trip almost didn't happened due to some stupidity on my part.

The ferry we were supposed to take on Fri was supposed to leave at 8. I left work early, went to buy some Children's Day pressies with colleagues, and then rushed home to bathe, quickly pack and then take a taxi to Bedok MRT to meet him.

At 1830, I realise that I left my passport at home.

After I made my heart start beating again, I tried calling home to see if my dad or anyone was home, but no one. I quickly ran to get a cab and rushed back home to get my passport. But sooooo many things went against me.

Rush hour traffic slowed down the cab. Mom called, only to berate me for being such an idiot. All the while I prayed fervently that I would just get through the traffic to reach the ferry in time.

Now when I'm in action, I don't think much. But when I'm not doing anything, like just sitting in a cab, I have nothing to do but fret. And I fretted all the way from Bedok to Bishan and back, almost crying in the cab, thinking of how mad he would be, thinking of how my mom was thinking of what an idiot I was, but not thinking of a way to help, thinking, thinking, thinking too much.

To cut a long story short, I didn't make it. 15mins to 8, he called me to tell me that the ferry gates were closing and that we'd have to scrap the trip.

After trying so hard, praying so hard all the way, to be told that I couldn't make it after all...... my heart sank all the way to my toes. I was that disappointed, that I couldn't make it, that I had disappointed him.

I rolled into the ferry terminal to meet him, and we took the cab back to Bishan.

To his great credit though, he was surprisingly upbeat about the whole thing. He was all normal and ok, and he said it was alright, that if I wanted to go all that much, we could just book a ferry for sat morning. I said later that I thought he'd be mad, or upset, and he said,

"It's not what you do, it's who you do it with."

When we left each other night, I looked at his receding back, and thought: That's a good man I chose.

Anyway we went down on sat morn, snorkelled a bit, lounged around, walked around, and before u know it, it was time to go back on Sun morn :p But he was talking about what we could do the next time we went down, just the 2 of us, so I'm keeping my hopes up ^_^

I feel like my stock is slowly appreciating in value, though I'm not getting much dividend returns... hahaha

Because, er, you never know what profound effects for humanity there will be, if we can make teh tarik in space. Imagine, instead of sucking up dry liquids from an airtight pack, astronauts can make fresh, floating teh tarik in zero gravity. They don't even have to aim the cups properly, just let the liquid mass bob along in space until you scoop it up in a cup. Let's all make teh tarik in space.

I caught a few opening minutes of the Singapore Biennale last night.


Firstly, a gripe. If you're advertising to the open public that the event starts from 1800h onwards, then kindly let the public see something at 6!!! I was there from 6 onwards and the only thing going on was some laundry lines with balloons on them being installed. All the main [and I'm guessing, finished] installations were kept away in a tent with entry only for VIPs and media.

Phwargh! Organization sux!

Anyway, soon enough I managed to catch this installation:

Notice the words on the front of the Supreme Court? The artist had a long list of sayings and [possibly] propaganda flashed onto the facade by a high beam.

Which creates an interesting effect doesn't it? The grandness of the project lends it a V-for-Vendetta kind of effect, its sheer magnitude somehow lending it more gravity, especially when using a solemn old building like the Supreme Court as a background. You kind of believe that there has to be some kind of truth to such large, glaring words, and that they have to have some kind of power or truth behind them. Until you read lines like this:for those who can't see clearly, it says Disorganization is a kind of anesthisea or something spelled like that

Clearly something I can identify with, considering the state of my room and my desk at work. And the next one is something interesting too:

I thought this one was interesting though. It makes you think about the words that come from important and seemingly all-knowing people and places. Do the words have more meaning and power because they are against the Supreme Court? What if they were flashed against the UOB towers instead? Or the Esplanade? And if you were standing there, reading the words against the Supreme Court, would you have more belief for these words?

In the words of goldfish, this is one mindfuck awright. :)

For more info, go to the Singapore Biennale website. The theme for this travelling exhibition is Belief, so many installations will be held at religious places all over Singapore. Check it out, take a look, and maybe open your minds a little.

Ironically, it was a few bad incidents on Teacher's Day that made me wonder why I became a teacher.

In the end, after all the trinkets, stationery, and artificial flowers received on 31st Aug, the true Teacher's Day present came this morning, the Teacher's Day school holiday which incidentally is also a prelude to the one week Sept break.

However, the body clock being accustomed already to one term of school, I woke up at abt 7, still early enough to make it down to school for flag-raising *_* Except this time, I lazed in bed about half an hour longer, then fixed breakfast, surfed some blogs, and now I have MTV on while my laptop is on my lap.

This is the real Teacher's Day :)

Later on, I'll decide what to do in the afternoon, and what to do for the rest of the week, [I might even think about some lesson plans for the next few weeks. Eek.] but for now, I'm content to laze the morning away. *Ah* Now I remember why I joined this line. :p

Work, extracurricular activities, [mine, not the kids'] and the remnants of my social life are catching up with me.

What with the tuition, and the social life, my weekdays and ends are almost always completely booked up. :( And that is not a mere brag. Some weeks I find myself running from school to home, only to bathe, and then get out again to tuition/dance/friends whatever.

I'm not complaining though. In a way, it's very satisfactory to come home, late, but psyched from getting out, sometimes, just for the sake of it. Even if it's just to laze somewhere with a cup of tea and a good book, something I could do very easily at home as well. :) If I had a wireless-enabled PDA, I'll probably be blogging and surfing the net outside as well.

I think I'm just one of those people who need to be doing something. Even if that something is not very much at all.

Anyway, the past week in brief:

Thurs: Talking cock in Parliament. An event organized by the TalkingCock people, where several friends of the founder get together to talk about their Uniquely Singaporean experiences. Witness the woman who reminisces about how going to a more privileged secondary school suddenly makes her feel ashamed of her humble upbringings. Or how the other performers jibe about MPs, Singlish and accents.

The one highlight of the night, however, had to be that gay guy who came dressed in a brightly coloured vertically-striped shirt, lamenting that it made him look like a candy store, and that "You can call me Candy. I'm always hard and you can lick me anytime."

-_-!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fri: Dinner with Yenn followed by some light shopping, in which I buy a pair of great shoes, which bust on Sunday afternoon. -_-!!!!!! Later, Krynn joins us and gets so red-in-the-face by the drinks at Fish N Co that she earns sly, knowing glances from the waitresses on the way out. Heh.

I end the day with a peaceful jaunt through the books at Borders.

Sat: Womad rocked, but not as much as last year, despite the great picnic dinner with roast chicken, chip n dip, and juice. A bit too much reggae maybe? But Jimmy Cliff does some real good reggae... Full of meaningful lyrics...

Sun: The DF and I watch The Devil Wears Prada. I'm glad this was one book I never read, because I rather enjoyed the movie with the hard-as-grit Dame Bitch Miranda Priestly, and the aspiring innocent Andy. And the fashionwear in the movie is to die for.

Watching the movie did remind me of one point of myself though. I guess the whole point of the storyline was whether you were willing to sacrifice everything for what you wanted, love, life, family, everything. It reminded me again why I should never aspire to top management positions. Because I was never quite raised with that killer instinct that Miranda Priestly demonstrated so effectively in the movie. And I could never treat people with that same disdain as she did, crushing them under her feet.

However, on the flipside, you never know quite what you are capable of till you actually did it. So how would you know?

Maybe the real challenge is knowing just when it is you're getting sick of it, and want out. Something I'm glad I'm not quite feeling about my job right now. [certainly I do not have $40,000 in the bank]

What a week! Thankfully my tuition kid has cancelled for the week, and Fri's a sch holiday. *peace sign* Here's to the upcoming week........

This is funny. And should make you want to quit your job.

Some observations from Lindy class:

1. Beware of the shirts you wear, innocently snitched from your brother's wardrobe.

"Can I see your shirt?"

"Sure."

"Hey, isn't that the name of the nudist beach in Australia?"

"What?"

"Hahaha! I wouldn't have known it of you!"

"It's not mine! I got it from my brother's wardrobe! I swear!"

"Yea sure!" *wink wink*

And later with other partners,

"Manly beach. Heh."

.................................................. -_-!!!

2. Fast Lindy songs are hard. Slow Lindy songs are harder.

With fast Lindy songs, you fly by each beat and triple step in a blur, swooshing around from A to B and pulled around by your partner as if you were a shot put ball at the end of a string.

With slow Lindy songs, you feel like you're doing a Lindy Tai Chi.

Example of a medium Lindy beat:

Rock step triple step rock step triple step

Example of a fast Lindy beat:

rostetristerostetristerostetriste

Example of a slow Lindy beat:

Rooooocccckkkkkkk sttteeeeepppppppp trrrrriiiipppplllllleeeeee sttttteeeeeppppppp

'Nuff said.

A wistful longing

Watching Where the Hell is Matt made me feel more than a bit wistful, simply cos of the sheer number of countries that he's been to.

Here is one pretty interesting guy. One day he decided he was bored with his life, so he took all the savings he had, went as much around the world as he could, and made a video along the way.

Of him dancing none too gracefully in all the locations he's been to. Seriously, you have to see it to know what I'm talking about.

As stupid as the whole concept sounds, I can't help but feel envious along the way. Like, this guy has travelled to more countries than most people have heard of, can???

I know there are many people who consider travel a frivolous affair, a waste of money that could have been put to better use. Sometimes, they are right. Sometimes, they have the wrong idea of travel altogether, ie to eat, shop and repeat pattern.

I feel real travel should be something that adds to your life, and which greatly enhances its colour and vitality. It is a reasonable assumption that if I was the kind of person who had decided to spend my savings on, say, a new car, or the deposit on my online stock trading account, and not on my Europe trip, I would probably be a far more boring person than I am today.

I think I would also be a more narrow-minded and short-termed person, incapable of appreciating a great deal of the diversity of life and culture, and only able to see as far as fulfilling the financial needs of my future children. [if any] The Trip, and all subsequent travel, did a great deal to open my mind to the rest of the world, and to show me just how many possibilities there were out there, if I were only willing to grasp them.

And if I were not bonded to a powerful government agency, but that's beside the point now......

Of course there were setbacks, and disadvantages. For one thing, that Trip seriously impoverished me, in terms of preparations, actual expenditure over there, and put me in serious debt for several months.

But for all I saw, for all I experienced, and for all the memories? Like the ad said, priceless. For all that I lost monetarily, and it was no small amount, it was still a small price to pay for the riches that I brought back with me. And that will last me for many memories and stories, all the way down to my grandchildren.

I guess if you're worried about the money aspect, think again about the future aspect: What would you rather tell your grandchildren about your life? That you went to school, got a job, got married, and had kids and that was that?

Or would you want to tell them that........ [fill in blank with hope and dreams]

A Burst of Patriotism

Flags at the Esplanade

Frankly, the happiest part of National Day has to be waking up later on a Wed morn and the school holiday on Thursday. [yes, one of the perks of the job]

In a recent SMS conversation, The Slayer was bemoaning the hypocritism that pops up during such occasions. Why do we need a National Day to remind us of how patriotic we should feel? Why do we spend most of our year complaining about this country and then a burst of pride only on one day?

Well, I was thinking of it, and I decided, well, you don't need a Valentine's Day to buy roses for your lover, but it'll be nice to do so all the same ain't it? ;) Regardless of all the petty arguments you've had all year.

I think our feelings towards our country is somewhat like that, like a up-and-down relationship or a dysfunctional family. We go through a bunch of shit here and there, but at the end, this is where we are. This is ours.

I think in order to fully appreciate National Day, it's not quite enough to think of all the things we have here. [The usual litany of things being safety, convenience, oodles of food.......] Maybe we should instead think of what it would be like in another country, and what we don't experience here, that we might overseas.

We don't have suicide bombers, terrorists, and other acts of mass destruction on a day to day basis.

We don't walk down the streets without stares at the colour of our hair and skin, and without condescension and derision. [you can't appreciate this unless you've really been stared at]

We don't have governments which are willing to imprison and starve their people in the name of power, and tell the rest of the world that it is right in doing so [though it has its faults, I doubt you can really compare the PAP to the North Korean govt, or the Myanmese govt, or the Pol Pot regime, or even the US.]

We do not contribute half our income to tax. [owch]

And it is only in Singapore that we can walk around with that sense of belonging, where everything is so familiar that it ceases to be an amazement any longer, where you walk with that sense of confidence that tells you this is where you're supposed to be and this belongs to you

I don't know about you, but after touring a couple of countries, it's always a kinda relief to come back, and feel that mental 'click' as if I was an astray puzzle piece and I was finally coming back to familiar ground, where I knew exactly how to get around, how to talk to people, and be understood, and where I was treated exactly the same as everyone else.

Maybe that's the most important thing to appreciate about our country, no matter where. That this is where we know where we stand.

Sure we have our problems, but it's probably a good thing that most of the problems and the things which piss us off about our country are problems of the educated and affluent class, ie issues of democracy, income, press freedom, rather than problems of the desperate and poor, ie, how am I going to live till the next day?

So for all the little things, for the big things, and all the shitty things about this country, yea, I'm still pretty glad to be living here.

Happy National Day.

Silence of the Kittens

Not a Hannibal Lecter knockoff by the way. This was a play I watched last night with Slayer at the Black Box at the National Library. [one of the smallest performance areas in Singapore]

The play draws on the SARS period, where cats were blamed for spreading the virus, and there was talk on whether they should been culled from the streets, to the chagrin of many cat owners. Using this as an inspirational springboard, the play examines how, in trying to create safe, comfortable lives for ourselves, we somehow let go of what makes us human, or rather, our 'inner cat'.

If I had an inner cat, my fondness for slacking and snacking would probably make me a Garfield. But I do fully agree with one of the lines from the play, where the actress says,

"Somedays when it's hot and I know it's going to be cool later, I like to lie down and laze.... The work can be done later."

My thoughts after the play... Hmmm... I don't know whether it's because I'm older now, or working or whatever, but I find myself half agreeing with the themes in it, and half disagreeing. Half agreeing because I think there's something profoundly disturbing about the idea that it's somehow acceptable to disregard other human and animal lives in the name of societal peace and stability. What kind of people are we if we are unable to show kindness and compassion to the animals in our world? What does that show us about our attitude towards those we deem the weaker and unacceptable in society?

I think if you consider yourself human, then you should have that shred of compassion that separates you from the animals.

In this sense I can fully agree with the allegory presented in the play. We can try to create a safe, comfortable environment for ourselves and our children, but in doing so, we may risk them growing in a sterile, growth-impeded environment, where anything 'dirty' or 'different' is to be chucked away or hidden under covers.

In fact, we risk creating a narrow, close-minded society where people are unable to accept those even slightly different from themselves.

But of course, on the other side of the coin, looking at the audience members already show you what kinds of people are those who are agreeing and identifying with the themes in the play. A quick glance around showed western-educated, [i heard a few faux accents] well-dressed and possibly decently-paid employees. In other words, those who have the money to spend on plays, and the time, on a Friday night to watch the show. Maybe cos they have no children to occupy their time, and no need to work late in order to earn a living.

No surprise then, that they are the minority who are bemoaning their lack of response or rights in this society.

For a better comparison, maybe we can compare the students in my secondary school, to the students in the primary school where I teach. Most of us back then had both parents around, grew up in a relatively middle class setting, and enough money to at least eat during recess and buy the textbooks and stationery we needed.

Looking through my pupils' particulars one day, I could see, albeit through a lot of second-guessing, what kind of lifestyles they led. Some pupils had the particulars for either the father or mother conspicuously blank. Most parents were working in lower income job brackets, and possibly earned less than I did. One girl once skipped school because her mother had to work in the afternoon and didn't want her coming home to an empty home. [huh?] Some pupils went without green pens or didn't have exercise books or activity books for weeks because their parents forgot. I'm praying it's not because they didn't have the $2 to spare at that point of time.

How do you tell these people the importance of civil rights for all? How do they convince them that such values are important, when they are too busy trying to eke out a living for themselves?

Who are the real victims?

I'm turning into a capitalist, label-chasing whore. I'm walking down the dark, dark road to becoming a tai-tai wannabe, seduced by chic fashion labels, smooth, skin-kissing fabric, and all because of a DF who has preferences for brands previously out of my income range.

I actually went to Armani Exchange and bought 2, yes 2 tops.

Which leaves me poorer by about $270.

WTF????????????

I blame the lack of variety in this year's Great Singapore Sale. If there were more stuff, and in my size, I might have bought more of the cheaper type of clothing and not be stuck in this dilemma on whether to flaunt off my new shirts, or bang my head against the wall.

But damn, it's hard to resist a shirt which you love, and which your bf thinks makes you look slimmer, taller, and er, bustier :p

Yes, I still live. In case anyone [anyone at all?] was worried by the lack of entries in this blog, I still live, albeit barely.

Anyway, lemme tell u about the fiasco that was Cabaret.

Firstly, I had planned to watch this musical with Juls a long time ago, so about a couple weeks ago, I duly went down to book the tix.

On Thurs morning, on the way to work, I was musing over the thought of watching it that night, and I took out the tix to check again what time was the show.

And found out that the date on the ticket was: WEDNESDAY NIGHT

And I had paid about $70 for each ticket.

I don't think I need to type down all the unsavory words that passed through my mind at that point of time.

I depressingly smsed Juls at work, telling him about it and telling him that he no longer owed me the $70, fool that I am.

Luckily for us though, Juls had less of a defeatist attitude than I did. We still met up, and rushed to the Esplanade, where Juls told the receptionist how we had asked for Thurs night but got Wed night instead. I didn't hear the entire conversation, cos I was quietly fretting in a corner, but the end result was that they found that there were still seats in our category and they let us in to watch the show after all. [Yay!!!]

I owe quite a debt of gratitude to the polar after this.

So we still managed to catch the show!



Overall, I have to say the singing and the acting weren't half bad, but I do think there were many aspects that could have been better. For one, considering that the title of the musical was 'Cabaret', you would think the cabaret in the play would have occupied a larger role than that. As it was, it seemed to be a very minor side player.

Also, the revolving set design concept is so old already. I've seen it so too many stage productions for it to have any novelty anymore.

I guess overall, it was ok, but I don't think very memorable.

Kyo, Yenn-san wa 'Anta no blog wa nani mo aranai yo' to iita. Hai, muzukashiikara, nani mo kaita. Doomo sumimasen. :p

Kyo, watashi to Yenn wa Level 3 kara gougakushimashita. Omedetou! Korekara, watashitachi wa Level 4 no gakusei.

Speech o kiiteru nagara, sannen no nihongo no benkyo o omotteita. Hajimeta toki, 'watashi wa Aki-san desu. Doozo yooroshiku' shika wakaranakatta. Heta ne! Ima, joozu ni narimasen ga, heta ni narimasu. :) Ima, nihonjin ga hanashiteru, 80% o wakatteiru. Ii desu yo! Ganbatte!

Eh, for you gaijins, sumimasen, eh? :p Needed some of the writing practice after receiving one of the most horrendous marks ever for my Jap test. X( Even though I passed, well, I think I might've scored higher if I had actually studied, so well, like that lor. :p

The days have been passing just, like that, for me. Somedays, I feel as if I'm not so much as getting through the day, as being dragged through it. I know of no other way to describe that feeling other than that, though I would think that many of you working types may know what I'm talking about.

I think one of the aspects of the job I seriously dislike is how it spills over into personal time. Time supposed to be spent recuperating energy and clearing oneself mentally is instead spent thnking of the next day's work, or scouting for resources for the next few lessons. X( I know teaching is supposed to be a vocation, but if this workload goes on, the govt is left with 2 alternatives:

1. All the teachers with anything less than a life-binding passion for teaching leave, which leaves those with a real life-forsaking passion for the job tempted to leave as well.

2. Most of the teachers stay, because of the pay, but they spend so much time on the job that they all become spinsters, causing the national birthrate to spiral further downwards.

Which is why after Yenn and I met in town today, I was so reluctant to return home. Because to return home would be to face the reality of my LPs and the ending of the weekend. It's as if by staying out, I would be able to delay the inevitable and delude myself that little longer.

Of course, this never works. *Sigh* But at least it was nice to reclaim my humanity for a while.

He meets the Rest of the Family

It's been a long time since I had anything really blogworthy in my life [you know, the kind that doesn't leave me liable to legal action by govt bodies] and finally here's one!

My Aussie grandma goes back to Australia this Thurs so b4 she left, she had one grand cookout at my uncle's house, inviting all the close relatives on her side of the family. And of course, the DF was invited.

I think the first time he met my grandma, while she was drinking her 2nd mug of Tiger, still didn't adequately prepare him for the shock that was my mother's side of the family. For one, dinner was already well underway when we arrived, which also meant that my grandma and uncle were quite comfortably high by that time.

Much to his chagrin, because for one, my grandma couldn't get his name right, and ended up calling the shortened version of it. [imagine calling him by the first syllable of his name and you get what I mean.] It made him sound like his was some, I dunno, redneck cowboy or something.
He was also eyebrow-raisingly shocked at the familiar terms on which my backside cousin spoke to him [IJTPs, you know which cousin I'm talking about] and the way the cans of Carlsberg were passed around so freely from uncle to niece to nephew and back to another uncle. All of legal age of course.

He found himself in a most uncomfortable position when my already rather drunk uncle found out that he hadn't touched a drop of beer, a sacrilegious action in his books, and then found out that he was a teetotaller. Horrors of horrors!!! He was just like my other holier than thou uncle who didn't drink, didn't smoke, and never socialized. [kwakwakwa]

And then my grandma managed something that a rare number of people, not even ME had ever managed to make him do before. Between her and my uncle, they managed to get a can of beer into HIS hands, and with much cajoling, ["C'mon then, I'm flying off soon anyway, one sip for me and that's all!"] he was actually going to drink the beer!!!

Ok, so he was only going to take one sip of it, but anyway, I saved him from it by drinking gulps of it everytime they weren't looking, so the can was noticeably lighter much later. :p

I do think my grandma liked him though. She patted his hand while talking to him, slapped his lap, and in one photo, even put her arms around him and pressed her cheek to his! I must show you guys the photo that my dad took of it, because his face in that photo was HILARIOUS!!! [do i have a rival here?]

Of course, it was also possible that my grandma was more than slightly drunk... hahahaha......

Overall though, I think his eyes really opened WIDE at how 'liberal' my family was. [his word, by the way] And comparing his family and mine, I think I agree. Mine is certainly more siao during family gatherings.

Especially when the beer is flowing. :p

Lemme clarify something. In an earlier post, I left a link that was highlighted 'Not to be read by strict Christians' or something like that.

The link would have brought you to the website of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, which, the website proclaims, is responsible for all creation on earth. [ah, nebbe read right? Now regret...]

Is this real? OF COURSE NOT LAH.

The FSM is really a tongue-in-cheek response to schools that teach the Creationist theory as part of legitimate science. The author of the website argues that if schools can disguise religion as science this way, then they should also teach his version of Creation, ie that a Flying Spaghetti Monster is responsible for creating all of us.

Of course, if you're now a fervent believer, by all means, subscribe to that church............ I ain't stopping you. :p

I should really be typing out LPs before I meet him, but instead I've got KOL open in one tab and Blogger in another.

*Sigh* Procrastination is such a big problem with me.......

This is not just because of my job, btw. I've been suffering from this affliction since days of yore in school, where I would gleefully postpone studying in order to read my comics or books or whatever.

Obviously this is not a trait that serves me well in my career. Where I'm trying to convince little ones NOT to follow in my footsteps. -_-!!!!!

After 2 weeks of school and helping out in a major education fair, I'm just of NO mood to care about the Future of our Leaders/Followers/Winners/Potential Dropouts.

Yenn and I were talking last night about our careers and the dangers of Occupational Hazards. [So maybe you wanna skip reading this blog entry if you're reading it. Heh.]

That day, I got up early to go down to help out at the education fair, and I was especially grumpy about it, because there was nothing for me to do except stand outside the class during the 2 hour presentation, followed by help them pack the stuff back to school, and by the time we ended and gotten back to school, it was so drastically late I had to call up and cancel tuition. [Which I would have much preffered to have gone for]

Then someone wanted to talk to the other new teachs about performance appraisals, so we talked. And we talked so late I had no way of going to my Jap class on time. T_T Which made it the 1st time in this year that I skipped Jap class and also something I would have much preferred to have gone for.

The whole shittiness of the job, I will comment on in another blog............

Anyway the end result was that I was tired, my feet were sore, and I was moody about having missed my entire Saturday for something I would not have voluntarily gone for.

here's the hidden Occupational Hazard that you don't usually hear about. OH: Your job seeps into your life.

I have lain awake in my bed at night, trying on one hand to sleep, while ideas for LPs and classroom mgt raced through my head.

I have listened to music on the radio and wondered how to incorporate it into my classroom.

I have spent time daydreaming about how to discipline the kids in the class in a more effective way.

And this is just after 2 freakin' weeks on the job!!!!! What happens after 3?????

Which in a way explains the procrastination and the gaming of Yenn and I. There are times where you just need to sweep everything out of your head. To wipe out the persistent stain of bad memory and kleenex the whole thing. Yenn Maples. I KOL and lindy. And on days like this where my tuition has been suddenly cancelled and I suddenly have free time on my hands, I just don't feel like doing work.

I feel like just enjoying what I have left of the Sunday. And then meet him and enjoy the rest of the weekend together, before I come home and deal with the LPs.

Granted that this job is a vocation, but stretch a person too far and eventually they all start dropping like flies.

Cookie: Not for strict Christians.

Tonight the DF finally returns from Indo, where he's been holidaying with his mom. And about time too. The Illegitimate Husband is good company, but I'm starting to miss the Legitimate Boyfriend more. :p

On the one hand though, I'm thankful that I'm not one of the girls who only have 'couple' friends, or where my only friends are my BF's friends, otherwise I'd be so screwed. Thank heavens for a social life, the Kingdom of Loathing and plenty of schoolwork to get me down. -_-!!!!!!!!!

Just as well today is Youth Day, for all the youths to enjoy and for the overdue youths like me to sleep in late and catch up with some lesson plans. :p when I finally get off the blogging that is.

Withdrawal symptoms aside, here's a sample of the last weekend:

Saturday:
Another Jap class fumble, this time on my end:

Sensei: 'Aki- san wa nani o suru no ga kirai desu ka?' ["what does Aki hate doing?"]
Yenn: 'Aki-san wa hataraku no ga kirai desu.' ["Aki hates working."]

Sensei writes the sentence on the board, and something else. She points to the board, and suddenly calls on me while I'm daydreaming. 'Aki-san?'

'Ah? Eh.... Yenn-san wa hansamu-ja nai otoko no hito to de-to suru no ga....' [Yenn hates dating guys who are not handsome, but the sentence is not completed.]

A very surprised 'Eh.....?????????' from Sensei and laughter from the floor follows. Apparently Sensei had written 'joozu' [good at] on the board, and had expected me to answer with a sentence on what Yenn was good at doing. Which according to me, now happens to be 'Yenn is good at dating ugly guys'.

Ok, so she's not the only one who ever fumbles during class..........

Later after class and dinner, we have so much pent-up energy and are so bored, we follow the Singapore River all the way from the Esplanade, to Clarke Quay, to Robertson Quay, and then to Great World City. [yes, that canal next to Great World City is the Singapore River.] From there, we follow the road and finally end up in Orchard where we take a bus back. :p

Heck, I could become a walking tour guide in Singapore. Heh.

Have to admit though, saw a bunch of bars and restaurants that we would never see on the beaten track. Some of the restaurants looked pretty good, and the bars pretty happening, if not for all the plasma screens showing football matches. -_-!!! From Great World to Orchard though is all private residences so not much to see.

Ok, we were that freakin' bored lah, can?

Sunday I went for a piano concert played by the very talented Lee Pei Ming. I must admit, it is a pity that we aren't willing to support our local players, because some of them, like Lee Pei Ming, are very, very good. :) The choice of song was also very interesting, especially the piano remixing of a jazz piece by Thelonius Monk, 'Round Midnight, which required the performer at certain times to reach inside the piano and strum the strings with her fingers! And also take up a stick and make a knocking sound inside the piano. [!!!]

I seem to have a knack of choosing concerts where extremely unconventional sounds are made with the piano. Cue to Jamie Cullum concert. :)

Anyway, she's a good player, so if you ever see her playing anywhere else, try to catch her in action. :)

The DF returns tonight. Finally!

One week on the new/not so new job is already getting to me. I'm not sure whether it's the environment or the job scope or just me.

Pretty much I'm fine with the job. Even the admin work that has come my way so far I've handled all right. Then again, I'm only looking at the admin that has come so far. The duties that it entails is fine. I've had hiccups, and I've had flareups, but so far nothing I've not expected.

It's a bit strange how I eased into that aspect. The first day I ever did it, I died. I died so badly I thought I would never live again. The second time I did it, I was wounded so badly, I thought I'd just bleed to death on the premises.

Now my third time doing it, I've more stuff, I'm still getting wounded. But I'm not dying. [yet, anyway]

Maybe you do get used to it the longer you stay in it. *shrugs*

The one thing so far is that my fatigue seems to be increasing. I think it's something about the hours and the lack of opportunity for food. I wake up early in the morning, still relatively fresh. I grab a cup of milo and I'm out of the house. Halfway during the day, around lunch time, I start to get shagged out. When I finally reach home in the late afternoon, I'm all knackered out and ready for more sleep. :p

I know part of the problem is not sleep, but infrequent meals. Because something always seems to crop up, there have been days when I don't eat lunch, till very late. Which leaves me fatigued. Next week, I'm definitely bringing bread or something to work.........

Work. Man, I've actually grown up and started to do the whole adult thing.

Cookies!

This is really for the Slayer, but also for all those who are sick of going to Swensen's for Earthquakes.

Read about the Vermonster.

And for all those who think the stuff in my room is becoming a potential fire hazard, check out this guy's apato:



Talk about Otaku............

[url=http://the-rye.dreamhosters.com/users/paranoidandroid/bk/][img]http://the-rye.dreamhosters.com/users/paranoidandroid/bk/SD.gif[/img][/url]

A Power Player is I!

And of course, if you don't know what this is all about, To the Kingdom of Loathing you must go!
[this is also why I'm currently a Ravioli Sorcerer]

For other KOLlers, get the quiz here

Escaped by the hair off my fingers

This story just had to be told. It's a good one, trust me.

My grandma [The Australian one who just flew over, remember?] was trying to get the stove working, when she asked me for help. Now if you've never seen it, my stove is a gas stove, those that run with the large blue gas cylinder underneath. To get it to work, you have to switch on the gas, and then press an ignite button till blue flames appear on the surface.

The more quick-minded of you might have already seen where this is going.

Anyway, so my grandma had already put the pot on the stove, and had been trying to ignite the gas when she asked me for help. I checked that she had switched on the gas dial for the right stove, and then bent down so that I could see whether the flame had come on beneath the pot, while pressing the ignite button repeatedly.

PHHHOOOOOOMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The gas ignited in a sudden hellish fury, sending out a circle of blue flame around my stove, diameter of 1m. I actually felt the flame stroke the tops of my fingers in that split split-second before I yelped in terror and jumped 3 feet back.

Thankfully, both my grandma and I are fine. My grandma was standing behind me when it happened, so she was alright, and thankfully my cat-like reflexes weren't that of Garfield's. The only so-called visible damage was to my fingers.

Well, they didn't get burnt, but if you look at two of them, where there used to be hair, there is now hardly any left. Apparently when the flames travelled across my fingers, they also took half of the hair there with them. -_-!!!!!!!!!!!!!

See, I told you it was a good story. >D

So the past few days were spent accompanying my grandma around the area in less dangerous activities. Now if you told my drinking gene came solely from my dad, you will now be surprised. I haven't seen my grandma drink a drop of water since she was here. Instead, it's been:

Breakfast: soya bean milk
Lunch: Tiger
Tea break: Tiger
Dinner: Tiger
After dinner: Tiger
Supper: Tiger

You ever heard about how Australians drink beer like water? It's true. And she's 75 to boot. >D The DF had a horrified look on his face when I told him about her. I think he had this image of a kindly old lady sipping tea or something. Oh so wrong is he.

Surprisingly, though, despite all the beer, she's actually very sprightly at her age. One can only hope I inherited those genes.........

Jamie Cullum In Concert

Absolutely. Fuckin. Brilliant. Concert.

What can I say? The concert was absolutelyfucking brilliant.

For those who don't know [philistines!] Jamie Cullum is a pop/jazz pianist and singer, with 3 albums out so far, Pointless Nostalgic, TwentySomething, [the one that pushed him to the public eye] and Catching Tales, his latest. Why I like him is because not only is he great at jazz, and jazz improvisation, his songs are also witty and brilliant, and I have this thing for Brits. :p

Although I was rather chagrined, when I went into the Suntec hall, only to find out that my $100 tickets, which were the mid-range ones, gave me a seat with this view:


Can you see the very small looking concert stage?

WTF??? I'm only like a few rows away from the cheapest seats lor!!! This is what I paid for?

Ok fine, I sit down and soon the concert starts.

Sidenote: It took this concert for me to realise why the Esplanade was so strict on latecomers. Because the people streaming in after the concert was supremely irritating. Imagine, you're lost in the piano strands of music, and then suddenly, one dark humanoid blob is walking across going, "Sorry, sorry, excuse me..." Argh!!!

Then there were the people who were constantly leaving the concert hall, why??? I didn't get it, because some of those people had obviously paid about $100 for their tix and they were walking out in the middle of the concert in twos! I mean, did you want to watch the concert in the first place? *mystery*

But for those who stayed, what a concert!!! Halfway during, he jumped off stage with the trumpet player and started an improptu performance in the middle of the audience! OF which I totally missed, because of all the rabid female fans surrounding him.... -_-!!!!! Finally I looked at the people beside me, sitting sedately, [not even tapping their toes, sure you enjoy or not!] I looked at the screaming, jumping fans below, and I quickly decided which side was having more fun.

I ran off my seat and to the front of the hall, in response to his invitation to the fans to come to the front. ["Don't worry, they're with us," was what he told the security guard who feebly tried to protest] So from my seated $100 seat, I ended up standing right next to the stage to the left, screaming my head off and thumping the beat on the stage.

This was how near I was:



Trust me, it IS Jamie Cullum.

Er, granted it doesn't look like much, considering I used my HP cam, but trust me, I could've jumped up on stage and ripped his shirt off. :p Funny thing, I never thought of myself as much of a fangirl during my teenage years. I suppose those pubescent hormones kinda laid hormone till I actually had the money to go to these concerts. :p Probably barely explains why a 25 year old girl/woman was screeching and screaming, jumping up and down and thumping her hand in the air or on stage. I was just saving them all for later. :p

Oh, but the concert was GREAT, and especially exciting though wince-inducing was when Jamie would do some stunt on the piano, which he is famous for. I mean, you can't help but pity the piano when he does this:



And I'm not sure whether it was a stunt or what, but after he did this running jump thing to the piano where his fingers were supposed to magically thump the right notes for a particular song, the piano lid actually came off! He tried to put it back, though he didn't quite manage it, but somehow the noise he made in trying to became an impromptu percussion performance! I love that spontaneity! Plus, I'm also sure I've never seen a pianist play the piano by reaching his hand into the body and thumping and plucking the strings. -_-!!! And making it sound good to boot. Kids, do not try this at home. Jamie has insurance

Overall, great concert. :) I'm especially happy that my way-at-the-back seat became a front row stage space. :) :) :)



What a difference you made.

My poor, poor blog. *blows* Almost as much dust around as there was in my hostel room.

And btw, Yenn and I have officially given up the room. We went back today to throw out the last of the trash, and then return the keys and the LAN cables.

The one thing we didn't do was to move back the furniture into its original position :p We figured if the neighbours didn't, and got away with it.........

Man what memories we had in that room. Definitely living away from the family and with someone else to boot is a different and very enriching experience. We learnt a lot of things about each other [some stuff that we would rather not know, as well] we learnt to live with each other [harder than you know] and we still managed not to kill each other at the end of it. Looking at the room, completely devoid of human possessions, and everything that had made it alive and our 2nd home for one year, just seemed...... sad.

So since the last entry was about photos, this one now is dedicated to some of the highlights of the one year's stay:

- Our various assorted neighbours:
The one I thought was a filipino maid but who turned out to be a resident, and who had an assorted of wushu swords in her room
The girl who kept 2 rabbits in her room and whose stink reached out to the corridor
The 2 siao char bo who giggled endlessly and who dragged furniture around at 3 in the morning, driving Yenn insane but never heard by me

- The men below:
The room next to the kitchen on the floor below us, which had a constant STINK emanating from it. First, you smelt it as you walked past the open doorway. Later, you smelt it as you approached the kitchen. The best of all, one day, I smelt it BEFORE I even reached the kitchen doorway, only to find out that the door was closed, and the smell was evidently strong enough to break through it. I have no idea how those guys live like that. Maybe they have no noses.

- The time Yenn got sick and couldn't have the fan on or risk a coughing fit and I nearly died of the heat and suffocation. We stepped very tenderly on each other's toes until I finally bought my standing fan. Later when she recovered fully, that fan became used to blow at her laptop when she left her Maplestory store open 24hours. -_-!!!!!

- The day I brought my new laptop back to the room in its box, all the way from the other side of campus. I huffed and puffed my way back to the hostel, climbed the excruciating 6 stories of stairs, and opened the door only to find Yenn frantically wiping up spilled Milo. Apparently the hook that she had used to hang it on broke while the packet was still hanging on it, sending a packet of Milo crashing [splashing?] to the ground. We spent hours wiping up the mess with toilet paper, because the Milo had seeped everywhere. Months later, Yenn would open a little-used desk cupboard, to find fungus growing there from some Milo she had missed.

- Many afternoon naps and Mapling time when we were supposed to be studying or writing papers.

- The great western food stall in our hostel, and the great Jap store with great fried tofu in the hall next to ours. Many boxes of spaghetti bolognaise imported from NIE.

- Many jokes/threats traded between the two. For eg, throwing each other's underwear out the window, warnings not to engage in illicit sex while the other was out, threats to throw each other's underwear to the guys below, threats to give each other's hp nos to the guys below, threats to burn each other's clothes, threats to call my boyfriend OR the illegitimate husband to come n give me sex already because I was so desperate, threats to call some strange guy to come up and give her sex because she was so desperate.......... Maybe I should stop this section here.

- Other strange people who did strange things around the hostel, like scream "CCB!!!" in the afternoon in an empty car park. *Weird*

So many incidents in just that one year of living. ^_^!!! But somehow it was living and experiencing that with a friend that made it all that much more bearable. And interesting. I'm not sure that if I had to live with a total stranger, I would have had that much fun in campus. And I think that makes all the difference. :)

But at least I'm thankful my underwear is safe now.

dedicated to... The Room

This is the last few days that Yenn and I will be spending in our hostel room at NTU, since our days at NIE end this week. As hence, this blogpost is therefore dedicated to... our room.

Around last year in june, we moved in to our 6th storey little flat. For all its great advantages, we faced some pretty daunting setbacks too, including climbing 6 storeys of stairs, communal bathrooms with security codes, [this doesn't sound so bad, until you're hit with diarrhea and you're frantically trying to key the numbers in correctly] and for Yenn, crazy neighbours who liked to shift furniture at 3am in the morning.

Nonetheless, there were some great advantages to make up for this. The LAN connection was a BIG plus, and also the location, which was a 10min walk from our campus. This meant waking at 8 for a 830am class, and also coming back for afternoon naps during lunch breaks. ^_^ While others had to wait for 3 hours in the library/cafe/other nooks of NIE during their breaks, we would doze off in our rooms, or Maple or blog. [no guessing who did what]

Of course we faced problems when we started to live together. One big problem, that haunts us to this day, is that Yenn is a light sleeper. A very light sleeper. And I am a klutz who stomps her way out of bed, banging into chairs and tables, to get to the bathroom. Another problem arose when Yenn got sick, and the fan aggravated her coughing. The resultant heat and stuffiness in the room made ME feel like I was in the Gobi. After much tossing, sweating and grumbling on both sides, I finally bought a standing fan, which improved the situation much.

The funny thing is that after she recovered and the ceiling fan could be used, the fan started to blow exclusively at Yenn's laptop, which was switched on 24 hours a day so that she could constantly check on her Maple account. -_-!!!!!!!

Luckily for us, we got used to each other without murder, although we came close several times. I guess some factors helped, like us already knowing each other, and being able to generally get along with each other.

Anyway, now that we're moving out, here are some pics of our room as a flickr set. [i'm too lazy to upload everything on the blog. :p] Look at the pix, and then click on them for more descriptions.

X-Men 3... Hopefully the Last?

Aw let's just face it. In all probable fangirl indignation, I didn't think X3 was that good. In fact, I didn't think it was very good. As an X-MEN movie.

Hey, you're dealing with an established brand name with years of history and thousands of customers all around the world. Make some effort to pleasing them damn it!

Aside from the usual complaints of "They didn't do that in the comics!" I think the plot this time wore pretty thin at some edges. Not only that, but with the sheer number of mutants in the film, the existing characters didn't manage to get fleshed out enough. Heck, I didn't even notice some other mutants like Psylocke till the DF told me about it. -_-!!! Yes, someone else's eyes are that much sharper than mine.

Bryan Singer definitely a much better job, a fact driven in my face since the trailer for the first X-Men movie was playing on TV just now, bringing back memories of the movie. The characters were more focused, and the plot was that much stronger.

Plus what the heck was with Cyclops? Like Jubilee said, "Extra!" ***Spoiler alert*** He comes out for a while, depressed, moody, unshaven, [though I'm not complaining about the last, because he looked THAT much more hotter] kisses the Phoenix and BISH!!! Gone!!!

Aw well. *Sigh* Next time I should just continue reading the graphic novels like I always did.

Although I did catch the slide at the end of the show, and it does seem to be hinting at a 4th movie. I just hope that it's much better than this one.

Anyway for some extra entertainment, here's some other X-men entertainment

I'm apparently a more generous and giving person than I thought I was. After leaving the hall yesterday and arriving home, I received the following SMS from Yenn:

"You infectious piece of crap! I kena running nose and cough... cough until vomit out a 10cm diameter of phlegm..."

Er....... Here's the downside of living in close quarters with a walking germ carrier... you get to enjoy the full effects of her bounty.... yooku sumimasen to Yenn, and a warning to everyone else with lesser immune systems than mine....

Meanwhile, I'm waiting for the KOLling to begin once the servers finish their maintenance. There's no program in Nie for us, so I'm enjoying this free day back at home, dousing myself with hot tea and plenty of lozenges.

And of course, Yenn's Gundam Seed Destiny DVD set.... heheheh...

This is a pretty interesting article, considering that I just went to the country:

Why is everybody going to Cambodia?

I say, just go to see the ruins. It's worth it.

I'm sick. *Makes pathetic sniffing noises* And I donno how coincidental it is that I fell sick on the first day of returning to hall life on campus. Must be something about the campus environment [mine in particular] that's making me this way. *grumblegrumblegrumble*

Yea, so for the next 2 weeks or so, Yenn and I are back to being hallrats. The school has some enrichment programmes that we have to attend before being posted, so here we are, back again. Luckily, the programmes are not too time consuming, and most of them end at 12, so we have plenty of time to watch anime, read comics, and taking advantage of the LAN with lots of mapling and KOLling. :D

The only snag i've hit is that I actually fell sick when I moved in, and today it erupted into flu, meaning that my nose decided to do a marathon without my consent. [running nose, get it?] I've had waterfalls coming down my face the entire afternoon and it's only now that it's finally stabilized. I have no idea whether it's being I got slightly caught in the rain on the first day of menses, or because of the dust on my bed, desk or an unhealthy combination of both. Knowing my luck, probably both. -_-!!!!!

Another snag i've hit is that it's UTTERLY BORING here. Once I finish up my kolling, read my books, and surfed and read all the blogs there is, there's really nothing to do. Well, except sit beside Yenn while she maples and poke her to death. Thank goodness I bought the Last Exile anime set in Jurong Point, so that's gonna keep me occupied for awhile. Plus, Yenn brought Gundam Seed Destiny to the hall, so YAY!!!!! :D

And then there's you, of course, my faithful blog reader. If my flu actually heals itself to the extent that I can think properly without reaching for a tissue, I hope I can post more stuff on this blog other than "today was boring. Again." every time. Meanwhile,

*ACHOO!!!!!* >o~~~~~~

At first I thought I'd slack off blogging a while, and then I read something on the Net that made me think of blogging again. :p Inspiration strikes.

From Tomorrow.sg, I read a China forum post about the blog posts of a Singaporean exchange student studying archi there. Because of the parallels to Candle studying there, I got curious and started reading. [all those years of reading Chinese comics paid off finally]

It became... an interesting read on the Arrogance of 2 Nations?

Summary for the linguistically challenged: The girl is studying archi in Xian on exchange. And she posted a lot of potentially very insulting items on her blog about the air in Xian, the people, how arrogant they are, how bad they are, how poor they are, how she doesn't like the food, how behind the education system is, blah blah blah.

Funny thing. I thought pple generally went on exchange trips to learn and experience other cultures, not insult them and compare them to your home country. But hey, maybe that's just me.

I read through her blog and I realised why so many forum readers in Xian were getting so upset. I'd be pissed off too at some foreign upstart who came here seemingly to tell me constantly how bad my country was. Granted that no country is perfect. But after a while, I realised that the Xian posts were starting to take the same line as the girl.

No, I don't mean that they started insulting Xian as well. I meant that although some of the posts were written in righteous indignation, some other posts started insulting the girl as well, like how she was fat, ugly, should just go back to her own country, think your own country so great ah, actually ah... blah blah blah.

Alamak. What's with some people? they always believe in getting an Eye for an Eye, but they never wonder what they're gonna do with all them extra eyes. And all they achieve is a lot of bad blood on both sides.

The problem here, of course, is that the Internet allows anyone to post their honest person opinions on the Internet, even if some government officers think that these honest personal opinions should be moderated.

On one hand, the idea of controlling the flow of information on the Internet is ludicrous, and is reminiscient of the Great Firewall of China.

On the other, you get blogs and forums like the Xian archi student. -_-!!!!!!! Whose posts n forum opinions you wish were never posted.

Know what we need? We need Moderators. We need more Mods with moderate opinions to stand up, n spray the hose on all the fighting dogs on the Internet. Then maybe we can have more balanced opinions.

In other words, we need more individuals with mature, balanced opinions to speak up more on the issue. We need people with unprejudiced views, who are able to look at both sides with a clear and just eye.

No point in closing down opinions or policing the Internet. Negative reinforcement will only result in more negative results. We need more Mods.