Merry eX-mas?

So this is a bit late.... yar.... :p but Merry Xmas to all...

The party went great, thanks to all who came, saw, and demolished the turkey ;) You guys are the reason why my mom still likes to go crazy and strangle disemboweled birds every year.

Thanks to all who played along the Twister game and for embarrassing yourselves in the name of mass entertainment. Now I know why Twister is still the classic party game. ;)

Thanks to those who took the effort, and braved the Xmas crowds to buy gifts for the gift exchange. Your gladitorial bravery is commendable.

And even if he doesn't read this blog, thanks to a DF who flew by and made an attempt to socialize with my friends, something that I've been bugging him since, well, the start of the relationship. :S hey, it's a start.

Thanks for the gifts, the cards and the reaffirmation of friendship, the greatest gift of all.

Here's then to next year, and to more of the best, less of the rest!

What I consider a droolworthy Christmas:

Namely consisting of just about everything in that picture, if you can find them.

Note: I didn't get any of them -_-!! but a dream's a dream, hey? ;)

I just finished through clearing and deleting a lotta old email from my main yahoo accounts. *keeps the spade*

Out of curiosity, how much stuff do you keep in your inbox? I ploughed through my accounts, tidied up a bit, and I realised that in my personal account, I have mail that reached all the way back to 2002 -_-!!!!! I had mails sent to friends, mails with stupid jokes, [that I still found funny, haha] and so much old mail I kinda felt like an archeaologist. -_-!!!!!

The interesting part is reading through the mails I had written to friends back then when I was still in uni. [how long ago that was] I read about some of the crap I went through back then, and now I think: man, I was an angsty teenager then :p Thankfully I *think* I'm more mature now so that all that stuff back then seems..... too long ago. Despite all the *angst* I seemed to have put in my emails, I don't even remember some of that crap that I was so anxious about back then anymore.....

Chalk it up to one more advantage of age: Other concerns are now literally long gone. ;)

New Hair

A trip to the hairdresser and a thought about change means that now I slightly resemble this:

Without the egg, hor.....

Why I did it? Honestly when I saw the photos that she showed me, the hair I saw was a lot straighter and longer. -_-! So I thought, ok lor, just for a change and pretty curious to see myself with curls too.

IT was a long laborious process of wash, cut, and getting hair zapped in some sci-fi alien anime contraption, only to see hair that, at first, looked like this:

Later on, after some washing and drying and brushing, the curls have sort of settled. It's still like freshly cooked maggi, and I'm not exactly sure whether it's the greatest follicle faux pas on my part, but I'm still fascinated by myself in the mirror. [my hair is actually curly!!!] Not to mention at least it's got more volume than it ever did when it was straight, and on a good mood, I think it adds some spunk to my look. ;) Let's just hope the good mood lasts ;)

The both of us are back from Bintan with slightly charred skin. -_-!!! Thankfully for us, the weather was sunny and cool for the 2 days we were there, and only rained on the last day when we were due to leave anyway. Ha!

I did think of going on that mangrove trip, but when it came to whether we should 1) sit in a boat out in a swamp looking for snakes and 2) sit in a massage bed and get a cheap massage and sleep, -_-!!! You can guess what we chose......

The 3 days were the most slack holiday I had ever taken. Previous holidays saw me rushing from venue to venue, wildly taking in the sights and taking in the shots with Kenny. This one saw me lying by the pool for half the afternoon, and then swimming in the pool for the rest of the afternoon. [sea out of bounds due to strong monsoon winds]

Actually, the 3 days were so slack that I just realised I have nothing to blog about anyway! -_-!

Overall a good relaxing trip, but next time I think I'll try Batam or somewhere cheaper. The prices are outrageous even by Singapore standards....

Random rambling 1:

Am going to Bintan tomorrow for 3D2N to do nothing but slack and forget that I ever have to go back to work.

Random rambling 2:

Opened email at 1:45pm to find that had entered wrong amount for Bintan trip and had to pay additional to make up the difference, or face reservation being let go without notice. Deadline of payment: same day, 12pm. -_______-!!!!!!!!!!!! [My understanding: If I do not pay on time, I could potentially go all the way to Bintan tomorrow morning only to find that the room would have been given to someone else.]

Random rambling 3:

Frantically log onto website only to find that payment was unsuccessful.... twice, with 2 different cards. Frantically call agency 5 times, only to find...... phone call mysteriously hung on other side. Wondering if my late payment among many others has been responsible for financial downfall of travel firm.

Random rambling 4:

Finally get someone on the line, spoke to her as *politely* as I could without actually shouting *too loudly, I hope* at her, and she confirms that the reservation will be held till I come back to Singapore. *phew*

Random rambling 5:

Finally feeling my heart beat go back to normal. Sighing over how job has quickened temper. At least I'll be able to go on my 3 days as planned.

There is a rather discordant [read: f**king NOISY!!!] symphony being played in my house at the moment that is drowning out anything else played in the house.

This symphony is played by the HDB Construction Unsymphonic Orchestra, and the programme is as follows:

Opus of the Thumping Hammers
Clattering Planks
Symphony of the Drills

The performance is for the benefit of Replacement Metal Roofworks and is performed free of charge for my block every afternoon. Because it is held on the roof, I have Category 1 seats to this engaging performance.

Here is my resounding response to their performances:

Done by one Seb Lester on Flickr.

This is a post about Kuroi, who has so completely integrated himself into my life in a way that Shiroi [the iPod classic] did not.

Yes, a month or so with Kuroi, the iPod touch, and I'm in danger of selling my soul forever to Steve Jobs. How do I feel about Kuroi? Well, after using him a while, my predominant thought is:

Why didn't anyone THINK of this before? It's GENIUS!!! *end fangirl drool*

Through sheer ingenuity and possibly the backing of the devil, Apple has managed to come up with something that is not quite an iPod, but more of a mobile entertainment device. Other than the usual storage of music, videos and photos, [was it that long ago that MP3 players could only hold music?] Kuroi also holds contacts, notes, a calendar. It also holds the one killer app that killed me, namely, a wireless adapter .

Paired with the Safari browser, this made the iPod into a mini PDA, but the one that really killed me down was the App store. Connect to this baby, and you get games, utilities, games, note-taking tools, games, photo apps, and did I mention the games?

And half of them are free!!!!! The other half you pay for, but some are as cheap as 99cents. Argh!

Ok, if I sound bad, it's because I know I really got it bad. I started out with a few games in it, and I used it to read blogs and mail on the go, but last night I opened the App store and that's when it all tumbled down for me.

In went drawing software, note-taking software, an app for a fashion website, and a Japanese dictionary -_-!!! And in the space of a few minutes of each other........

But on a more sober note, I can't help but think that this is what mobile computing should be all about. Here I have a device that fits into my pocket, that can surf the Internet on wireless, and that can download straightaway and painlessly, numerous other applications that would make it stronger. The reason why I was so hooked on the App store was that it was so darn easy to download them. A matter of clicking on a button, waiting a few minutes and then the app was downloaded. No opening of new and unnecessary windows, no having to choose a file to download it in, since it went straight to desktop and all free.

I have run into some problems with it, of course. A lack of office tools makes it unsuitable for office drones who need their Microsoft packages, and also means that I am not able to do work on the go with this, unlike my previous PDA, Suss. [Although with something this sleek, you won't want to do work on it anyway. :p] Typing is a chore without a stylus. And don't talk about connectivity to other devices. No infrared and no Bluetooth, so everything I keep in there is stuck in there, unfortunately.

But other than that, the touchscreen, the Apps, the games are addictive enough for a leisure user to keep in her pocket. The OS is simple enough to quickly understand and get used to. If only I could hook this baby onto mobile broadband, it would be perfect... which makes its big brother, the iPhone look more and more tempting.............

*end hungry fangirl drool

It's getting more and more addictive to play with Kuroi on a wireless
connection... Makes those mobile broadband plans more tempting anyway,
if not for the threat of me becoming a permanent resident of the
Internet... Sigh...

--
Getting all the slack I can...
http://boredslacker.blogspot.com

Bossa Nova

No, this is not a post about beach jazz, this is really the 2 kittens suddenly adopted by Quet.

Quet's friend had found the above Nova and his black sibling Bossa near the Esplanade, and if she and her colleagues had not rescued the kits, they could have been culled by the authorities.

Nova was placid enough to let us take her out of the box and walk around the seat. Bossa, being the more psycho one, tried a few times to scratch the hand that tried to take it out, so we gave up after a while. Later on, when it probably got a bit lonely, we took it out, whereupon it tried to make a break for freedom, ran into Yenn's vest and encouraging its obedient sibling to do the same thing. [Yenn had the scars to show for it]

They are cute, though. Here's Nova: [check out the ears]



We called them Bossa Nova because of the jazz that was playing at the open stage. Indeed, while Quet was driving them home, they mewed the loudest when her Dark Knight soundtrack was playing, but kept quiet when she switched to 92.4 These are some cultured kitties!

Quet and her friend were supposed to split the kits between themselves, but later the kits were found to be too young and too fond of each other to split, so both cats ended up in her house!

Last I heard, they were rapidly running amok all over her house, playing with the gleeful abandon that all children have and causing no end of anxiety to their new owner. In the two days that they had been in her house, they had ran amok, making her have to chase them down, bankrupted her with their vet checkup, caused her to sprain an ankle, and got themselves stuck in her massage chair while they were running from her.

After I bemusedly heard all this from her on Monday night, I can only conclude, that these kits are not destined to be this for her:

Anime Festival 2008

You gotta love an event when cosplayers turn up. It's guaranteed to liven up any anime event where the main purpose is to sell as much merchandise as possible and promote any screenings as much as possible. Because, as from the picture above, inviting the cosplayers invariably invites the fanboy/girl-photographers. Yes, I know, moi being one of the mentioned.

The event itself was interesting, but there's a glut of too many retailers [toy sellers, comic sellers, art companies selling books and posters, anime companies promoting upcoming movies and serials, and one manga cafe] and too few fanart. [exactly 4 stalls -_-!!!] Which is a pity, because judging from the art on those fan tables, it's a crime against society that some of those people aren't doing this professionally. One more group of victims of the recession. *shrugs*

But you din' read this post to read my rantings on the unfair treatment of Singapore artists. No, you did it to see pictures of cosplayers, didn't you, and here they are:


Other cosplayers have a hard enough time getting around in their costume. This guy did it complete with skates.

I love the detail and attention on hers.

I have to insert a blogpost of thanks to the cosplayers who gamely posed for the shots, despite us photographers hovering around like shot-hungry vultures everytime one of them so much as combed their hair. The cosplayers I approached for some shots were more than willing to pose in their costumes for my 1 or 2 shots, and the other 100 that came from other photogs as soon as they spotted them posing.

I'm learning something about photographing other people. Most people are more than willing to pose if you ask politely and take a good shot of them. [no one wants fugly shots of themselves on the Internet] So if you ever want to take shots of people, the first thing to do is just ask.

I loved the delicate way she posed with the flower.



When I was taking the picture of the two cosplayers above, I looked down and I saw something you would not usually see on the ground:

A tail! Belonging to one of the next 2 cosplayers:
And this guy was my favourite of the entire show. He was not the best dressed, he was not the most detailed, he was probably not the most realistic costume.....

\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
But he's the cutest, can?????? Most of the time he had a friend helping him to get around to places, because, face it, where are the eyeholes on that costume?

Fun though it was to walk through and take photos, more could be done for the con. I remember going for one that was organized by a major fan club once and you could tell the difference. There were tons more fan events, fan booths, fan art, fan stuff... you get the idea. It's more interesting to shop through the art done by fans who really put their heart and soul into their art and stuff rather than.... a bunch of panels put up by odious Odex. And how about more art and doujinshi?

The con has potential, just wished it did more.

blogging wirelessly

From my twitted box some may have guessed correctly that I am having
one he'll n I mean HELL of a time trying to go wireless. A summary of
problems is as follows:

1. I forgot the password to my wireless@sg account. Initial attempts
to sign up for a new account were disastrous. Everytime I made a
mistake, the login page just erased all info previously entered,
meaning I had to re-enter everything again... N after 3 tries I just
gave up.

N u know what was one alleged mistake? The salutation for god's
sake.... U mean I should have put myself as a Mr. instead???

2. When I had successfully signed up I tried logging on in a
library... N was told 'wrong user name'. This led to 10 different
permutations being tried till I realized all that was missing was
'@singnet' at the end of the username.......*pengs

3. After all that, still cannot log in!!!!! I had to change physical
location and try another network before I got in...

4. I can't type in Blogger!!!! *cries I really dunno why but I just can't!!!

Finally I'm down to typing this in Gmail and emailing it to my
blog.... I had other posts planned but now the only things I wanna
blog down are all the stuff that irritated me! Bwagh!

( wannabe digital nomads treat this as a caveat when u are trying to
get online outdoors.... Mobile broadband seems so tempting now...
Sigh... )

--
Getting all the slack I can...
http://boredslacker.blogspot.com

I'm really praying I do get reimbursed for this:

Meet Sonny, the latest addition to a growing line of electronic products in my house. ^_^!!! Even if every photo I have is saved in soft copy in my laptop, it still is somewhat of a nostalgic thrill to hold a real photo in your hands, something that can survive crashes, hangups and can be hung and viewed without a 45sec bootup.

And printing out the above picture taken in Greece makes me not regret paying good money for Kenny and Sonny both. ^-^ Lookit that colour and detail!

So my day playing hooky, ahem, on MC turned out to be productive than I thought. While stopping a leaky nose, I managed to successfully install and use:

1. One card reader
2. One Nokia PC suite
3. One photo printer driver

Plus printing out 5 sample photos on said printer. Man, if only I had this kind of productivity at work.

Then again, maybe not. :p

For those who like eggs, whether fresh or scrambled, you have got to see this!

An appointment made to hang out on Deepavali Monday was duly cancelled on the morning of Deepavali Monday due to familial obligations. Namely, the obligation to hang out with family instead of me because of lack of time spent with them.

This is the kind of thing that you get irritated at because you shouldn't be irritated. Yes, he did make the appointment with you first, but he spends more time with you than his own family, but he cancelled last minute, but you know you'll see him next weekend and so on in a sisyphean cycle of forgiveness and blame.

I'm more irritated at the last minute nature of it all. Well, heck, if you wanted to hang with your family, then you tell me in advance and I'll just find other entertainment. But don't let me look forward to meeting you, only to let me down on the day itself, when it's too late to jio other people out ma. [and even when I surfed the cinema websites there's not even a show worth seeing. -_-!] I'm irritated that his family would 'book' him on such last minute timing, I'm irritated that he would go along with the last minute timing, disregarding plans made with me, I'm irritated that I have to play second fiddle to the deserving ones who contributed to his genetic makeup.

Bwah! I need something to stop me from getting more irritated by the minute......

Seasons come, seasons go, and no one knows how the leaves will fall
Life is the throw of a dice into the roulette table
All we can do
Walk in circles while doubting the sands beneath you
Praying they never part

Sinfest is a wickedly clever comic strip that I subscribe to, and the artist does great storylines. Especially with all the politic-financio drama happening in the US right now, which provides great fodder for some of his strips. Here is the latest, which I couldn't resist pasting here:

You must check out his cartoons here.

A random thought....

Pluses and Minuses of doing things yourself as opposed to getting others to do them

Doing your own cleaning
Plus:
- You get to tidy things up the way you want
Minus:
- Ever tried vacuuming and mopping an entire house? You have to have tried it to know why I call it a minus

Doing your own work
Plus:
- You get things done exactly the way you want it, without having to listen to someone else's opinion
Minus:
- No scrapegoats when something goes wrong

Sex - Doing it yourself
Plus:
- You get it done exactly the way you want
Minus:
- Er, isn't the point of it to be with someone else? [doing a solo act once in a while, fair enough, but for the rest of your life??]

Random thought of the day. Thank you for reading.

Sales and Weddings

I went for an FJ Benjamin sale on Saturday, where brands like the Gap and Guess Marciano were on sale. It was also a sale where the acrazed shopping bitch was prominently on display.

Witness: A guy pours a box of bags into the discount bin, where they are promptly and thoroughly snatched up by very quick hands, one being mine. I assess the bag, decide it's not worth it, and then throw it into the sea of handbags, where it's promptly snatched up by two lady sharks instead. *shudder* If I had thrown it back more slowly, I might have lost a hand.

Told by Quet: She carries a Raoul bag around her shoulder after deciding to buy it. Now, you see a woman carrying a bag, you assume that bag is her property right? NOT! A woman actually grabs at the bag on her shoulder, and then when Quet turns and glares at her, she actually asks if she's buying it.

Uh duh!!! If it's already on her shoulder, you think she's just carrying it around for the sake of a cheap shoulder massage?

Strangely enough, I like such sales. Amidst such predators, I feel like a hunter, sneaking and grabbing for prey....... :p Although that may mean I'm also eating too much meat in my diet.

---

I'm reaching the age where my friends and I are getting a whole lot of wedding invitations from people around our age group. And to the inevitable question: No, I'm not marrying him yet. :p It really seems as if most of our friends have reached the sell-by date and are now flying off the shelves a la a 90% off sale from FJ Benjamin.

It used to be that we would mainly meet for birthday parties. [still do, actually :P] but now instead of cake and dinner, it's cold dish, chicken, fish, seafood, noodles, dessert and the complimentary doorgift. And it's more expensive than any birthday present I ever bought. -_-!!!

And it's no picnic for the couple either, as anyone who's had to attend to the logistics of a wedding can attest to. All kind of finicky details, from the gown right down to what kind of cloth to be used for the tablecloth. -_-!!! Personally, bridezillas who insist on planning down to the tablecloth confound me. To me, something white that I don't have to personally launder later on is ok with me.

Although the DF brought me to one of his colleague's that was remarkably elegant in its simplicity and cheapo-ness. The couple saved a bundle by booking a SAF chalet at Changi, [yea I know, not the most ideal of locations] and had a buffet dinner for all the wedding guests instead of the usual ten courses.

But yet, the air was cool when they took their vows. The wedding couple facing the calm sea as they were joined in matrimony, the sky almost at dusk. No one had to dress formally and because of the out of way location, it provided a great amount of privacy. If you couldn't go to Bali, this was the best and closest you could get.

Interesting. Sometimes I wonder if by worrying about all the nitty details, we lose sight that what is at heart is the joining of two hearts, together, through all of life, till death do us part.

Not very happy at work

The longer I stay in my job, the more mornings that I don't want to get out of my bed.

The longer I stay in my job, the more I get used to it, and the accompanying generous months of paid leave.

It's strange. Sometimes, every morning for a week, I wake up thinking that yes, this is the day I'll play hooky and take a false MC and pay the doctor for that one glorious day off that I can use to regain my nerves and sit in the library and read all morning and take a afternoon nap after lunch.

And then I somehow pull my unwilling body to work, scream for about 4 hours, stone for about another 2 or 3 or 4 after lunch, and then marvel at the fact that I actually managed through another workday.

I find it a miracle of God that I actually managed to get through so many weeks without succumbing to the MC path of temptation. [aside from the one day that I was actually sick] My [seemingly] robust health at times seems like a blessing and a burden.

My friends and I have become the Bedsheet Bimbos.

This started out innocently enough when Candle first discovered Aussino, and that one could have colour-coordinated, 200 threadcount bedsheets and pillowcases. Then Yenn got into it, buying quilts, bedsheets and more pillowcases than the number of pillows she has on her bed. ^-^!

This month Candle, Yenn, Quet and I embarked upon the hapless Aussino staff at Paragon during their sale. Before we did, over dinner, she was telling us about how some people she knew had spent close to $500 on bedsheets, pillowcases, quilts and other assorted at Aussino.

"Who spends that much on bedsheets?" Famous last words.

After the shop closed and we were the last customers in the store, the cashier racked up sales from us to a total of $412.50. That's like an average of $100 spent by one person on bedsheets. -_-!!!!!!! [for the record, I only bought a comforter set at $42.]

Who spends that much on bedsheets? Us, the Bedsheet Bimbos.

I'm touched. *sniff* While I was in Singapore whining away about not having any company, the rest of the gang, on the last day of their trip, eked out the last remaining baht they had to come together to buy me this surprise present: A new LeSportsac pouch!
The design is......... so typically me. :p Looking at the pouch and the shirt they got for me, I have to admit I'm quite the easiest person to shop for, as long as it has 2 ears and whiskers......

The pouch is not exactly this design, more squarish, but it was the closest to it I could find on the LeSportsac website......

*sniff* tai gan dong liao........ Now I gotta figure out what to put in it... >^_^<

In the midst of the political unrest in Bangkok, Candle, Quet, Yenn and Jules have decided to fly there on holiday. *sigh* My hopes are they don't get caught in any unrest and end up having to run from angry mobs carrying loads of shopping bags. I'm getting pretty bored in Singapore with all my regular dinner and drinking kakis off shopping, getting massaged, and avoiding rioters. Thursday I kept thinking I wanted to call someone for dinner, and then I had to mentally remind myself that the names I wanted to call were all overseas. :s Argh! Sat I'm just gonna sit in a corner and stone...........

I'm currently reading a book that's making me think [slightly more than usual].

The Lucifer Effect is written by Philip Zimbardo, the same professor that was in charge of the infamous Stanford Prison Experiment. This was the one where he got 2 groups of students in a realistic prison-like setting to see what was the effect of being imprisoned on guards and prisoners. The experiment had to be terminated after only 5 days [he intended it to go on for 2 weeks] due to the increasing sadistic tendencies of the students assigned as guards, and due to a moralistic awakening on the part of the professor.

Conclusion: Situational forces are strong enough to significantly alter people's behaviour, often to unrecognisable states. Students who are assigned to be guards became sadistic SOBs, but even more scarily, students assigned to become prisoners became depressed, detached, and suffered from increasing levels of hopelessness.

The even scarier part of it: Even when student-prisoners knew that at any time, they were free to leave the experiment, none of them took up the chance. They were so deeply entrenched in the prisoner mentality that they totally resigned themselves to their situation, and literally became prisoners of their own making. At one point, they asked the student-prisoners: If you could leave the experiment early, without collecting your monetary reimbursement, would you? 3 out of 4 students said yes, but did not leave the experiment. Even when the chance to leave was offered to them, they did not leave! They said yes, and then walked back to the guard to be literally shackled down!

Zimbardo's point was that the situational forces at work are so strong, that they confer a kind of mentality on the persons in that situation. If you were an easy-going, carefree person, who was put into a position of power over others, the situation that you were put in would transform your personality into a domineering tyrant that you wouldn't recognise if you saw yourself on TV.

This is scary, because I immediately started seeing paralells in my work situation. Ok, not quite to that extent, or I'd probably be fired, but I recognised some of it in myself. At home, or out, I'm relaxed, easygoing but in my work situation, I have to change into a more aggressive, domineering figure. [Yes, some of those under me would probably describe me as being tyrannical. -_-!!!]

And once I started to really think about the prisoner mentality, I started to realise that there were many other paralells you could find in society in general. Doesn't everyone know someone who would tell you to just obey the boss, despite his outer-worldly requests for your soul, because that is what you are supposed to do? Don't people complain endlessly about the gahmen, but leave it only at verbal complaints because they see no point in taking action against those in power?

Come to think of it, everytime you succumb to a figure of authority, or a general way of thinking, simply because that's the way things are, aren't you succumbing to a kind of prisoner mentality? Your job may suck, you may feel depressed, but you stick at it anyway, because of the perceived benefits in terms of the paycheque, and because you're not entirely sure that things would be better somewhere else. You've become a prisoner of the company in your own mind!

And just as in the experiment, these are boundaries that exist in our own mind and nowhere else. Is it such a moral sin if you decide to quit your job? Or get out of a bad relationship? Or decide to become a full-time bartop dancer? And yet there are people who will subscribe to that way of thinking, and who will tell you that such things cannot be done, because of various reasons, but actually because it just isn't done this way in our society. These people have created a prison for themselves, even though the prison door was never closed and locked.

You don't have to stay in a bad situation in life. You can always get out and change yourself. It only depends on whether you want to accept that you have this chance at freedom and whether you are willing to take it.

This somewhat reminds me of a scene from The Sandman: Season of Mists. Lucifer is talking to Morpheus, and of the souls in Hell, he comments wryly, that they can ascend to Heaven any time they want. They are only there as long as they want to inflict punishment on themselves for their sins on Earth. And some of them put themselves there for eternity.

It may look a long road to freedom, but maybe it's not as long as we think it is, as long as we start walking on it.

I'm still reading the book, so I haven't reached the part where it gives tips on how to get out of that prisoner mentality. But I am starting to think twice about the whole career deal and about what I really want for myself out of life. Freedom? Or handbags? ;)

I realised that after a while, due to my bag-whorish tendencies, my relationship seems to be progressing in terms of the bags he buys for me. :s Yesterday, it reached a all-time peak in the form of a *little* something he *subsidised* for me. Well, it ain't a gift but at least I got a really good discount out of it. :p Oh, and it comes from a new-yorkish brand named after a woman, in case you're wondering.

[rest assured, it ain't an LV. For that, I'd have to marry and bear him at least one child. :s]

Sadly, I had to temporarily cut off the respiratory tubes to one of my budding little children today. She had real potential but I wasn't coping with the responsibility well and the neglect showed. Hopefully one day I can get back to her and develop her to her full potential.

And btw, NO, this doesn't have any connection to my job. :p

My Birthday Wishes for Singapore

Happy National Day! Here are my wishes for the country:

May we understand the meaning of democracy does not solely include freedom of will, but also includes the responsibility of the citizens to be informed and to take action on behalf of the greater good of the state.

May we understand and appreciate the freedoms we already enjoy, instead of focusing on those inconsequential ones we think we lack of.

And lastly,

May the satay always be sweet and tender and the gravy always be nutty. ;)

Happy Birthday Singapore!

Yahoo! Toolbar is now powered with Search Assist.Download it now!
http://sg.toolbar.yahoo.com/

It&#39;s so sadly typical and ironical when the one person [or rather 2] who can make you do things against your will, things that you have flatly refused to do with your oldest and closest friends, happen to be......

No, not the boyfriend, but a 5 year old kid. -_-!

First, know that I&#39;m a chicken, coward and a lily-livered wretch when it comes to anything more than 3 stories off the ground. Especially on a transparent container being hoisted off the air by the Singapore Flyer.

Secondly, know that the DF got cheap tix to the Flyer, and I was perfectly fine with the idea of sitting in Kenko, waiting for him and his family to come down.

Thirdly, you have to know that his mom brought along a 5yr-old, for whom the phrase &#39;it&#39;s too high&#39; has no meaning.

Lastly, know that my fear of heights is less than the stubborn dignity I feel I have to uphold in front of kids. And it was that stubborn dignity that brought me up the Flyer which brought me up 42 stories in the air.

But it was my height phobia that kept me butt rooted to the seat as the container made its revolution. -_-! Ok the view was ok and all, but I like the view I get from the ground very much better thank you.

Next time he gets tix to something in the air again I think I&#39;ll make him give it away......

New Email addresses available on Yahoo!
Get the Email name you&#39;ve always wanted on the new @ymail and @rocketmail.
Hurry before someone else does!
http://mail.promotions.yahoo.com/newdomains/sg/

As all my friends know, I'm a 100% kentang.

So if I ever have kids, does that make them kentang kia?

But I'm kentang what, so must translate to kentang terms:

My kids in the future will thus be french fries. And I'll probably be the baked potato. [Because the potato would have been 'cooked' ;) ]

******************************************************

Anyway, for various reasons, this fat baked potato of a kentang has been getting gradually interested in China, especially during the Cultural Revolution period.

It's a fascinating period for several reasons:

1) The enforced conformity of the citizens, and the repression of desire that arises. When the govt determines how you work, where you live, and when you marry, what does that do for the wishes and desires of the people?

2) The elevation of status of the Mao, from once-guerilla leader fighting for all the ordinary workers and people, to All-Around God above petty peons Whose Every Whim Must Be Obeyed.

3) The ferocity of the Red Guards and Mao Thought Propaganda Teams [I'm guessing this last moniker is directly translated from the Chinese], personal bulldog troops of the All Around God who were swift in exacting severe punishment to any infringement of their All Around God And Leader.

and lastly,

4) The similiarities between the Cultural Revolution, as seen above, and the modern day workplace, especially in places like Yenn's and mine.

Power to the People!

Again, this has been a week of nothing to blog about. [nothing that would not potentially get me sued by my employer anyway] so Quet has suggested I blog my version of what happened to her car on July 6. Since I don't think I'll be sued by Quet for this, here goes:

We just had the usual dinner and drinks and had actually decided on an early retirement home. So as usual, Quet sent Yenn home and she, Candle and I were on the car driving down the ECP towards Candle's house.

This is when it happened. As the car cruised along the expressway, it coughed, sputtered, died, and then literally cruised along. As Quet tried to direct the car towards a breakdown zone, the car ran on nothing but kinetic energy and then finally came to a halt serenely parking itself in the breakdown zone.

Did I mention this was at, like, 1am at night?

Being 3 girls with the combined car-mechanical knowledge of a peanut, we began calling up the men in our lives for SOS. [Our closest bimbo moment] Quet's brother, unluckily, had a car breakdown of his own to settle. -_-! Jules was having supper with his friends. -_-!! Quet's friend had no idea what had happened to her car. -_-!!!!!

Finally it took Quet's dad to come down and rescue us, or rather the car from its comatose state. As this was happening, I got more male attention along the highway than in all my years of being a woman. Witness the number of men who slowed down to look at us, wound down their windows to holler at us but never stopped to offer us, 3 girls along the expressway at 1-2am at night with a broken-down car. -_-!!!!!!!!!

At any rate, when Quet's dad came, even he couldn't start the car, it being really stuck in its automotive coma. Luckily some policemen stopped by and gave us the number to a tow service. And then even luckier, Jules told us he was coming down to rescue Candle and I!

At this point, I would like to blog my heartiest thanks to my fake husband for gallantly driving down at 2am to fetch both his fake wife and mistress home. I only hope the Carl's Jr supper we treated him to was enough thanks.

Finally, Quet's car was carried by EMAS guys to the nearest car park to wait for the tow truck, and Candle and I were off home in Jules' car. Maybe we have been abusing Quet's car too much, what with the drivings to obscure drinking spots in jungled areas...... May I suggest that when the rest of them head off to Bangkok to give thanks for unexpected windfalls, they also donate a little something in the box for the strength and longevity of the car...... ;)

what's there to blog about?

I think I'm getting too slow at catching up with my blogging.By the
time I actually have the leisure to think about blogging about
something, I read some frens' blogs only to realise that what can be
said has been said.

Breakdown of Quet's car and subsequent rescue by Jules, blogged by Quet.

Obscene monkey face and sexual depravity on Yen, blogged by her liao.
[although she may have phrased it differently from 'depravity'......]

What is left that is unique to me... are specific work stuff that I
can't blog about in case I get spotted by a co-worker or even my boss.

Er... should I start making stuff up a la Leonard Frey? Any ideas
anyone? *sigh*...

--
Getting all the slack I can...
http://boredslacker.blogspot.com

I woke up this morning hacking away my lungs and I decided enough was enough. Time to honour that promise made to myself and get an MC the moment I was sick this year.

Took me till July to get it, but hey......

And it's taken me long enough too. In a spit of self-justification, I would like to say that in 2 years of service, I've never taken a single MC yet [not counting lectures skipped]. I have endured my little gremlins through bouts of flu, pounding migraines, and even a bout of throat that was so bad once I had to do everything in writing. [and considering my job, no mean feat!] I would like to think that this one day is at least justifiable, from that point of view.

The doctor has diagnosed it as the 'usual' sore throat and cough, going around via the 'usual' bug that commonly hits teachers, students, policemen, and prisoners. [huh] So his advice to me: Lay low, rest and don't use my voice for the next 2 to 3 days.

I could only look at him with eyes upturned, in a 'yea, right' fashion.

Comic book and toy geeks, take note: Today is the last day of the first ever Singapore Toy and Comic Convention.

Slayer and I went down, so for more pix, you can probably check out her blog. Me, I'm gonna blog about the horrendous logistics of the Tokidoki signing. :p

What's a Toy and Comic Con after all if you can't get merchandise [at wildly discounted prices] from your favourite designer?

Rockin' tshirt, retailing at $75 selling at $20.



2 fans, subsequently autographed by Simone Legno.



Great piece of artwork, found in convention programme.



Da man, like, de man. And de autograph.


And also a handful of stickers featuring his characters, not shown here.


But mind you, it was almost a matter of blood, sweat and tears in order to get those signatures from a jet-lagged Simone Legno. For one, I wonder if the organisers of the convention were blindly unprepared for the hordes of nerddom and geekdom descending on Suntec city. There were NO QUEUE LINES for gift redemptions, or signing sessions.

What results thus is ABSOLUTE CHAOS especially when autograph sessions start. When Slayer arrived for the earlier Tokidoki signing, she described it as a horde of fans descending on the glass table where the hapless Legno was frantically signing every piece of his designed merch being thrust at him. [think of 90% off sales at Robinsons]

Then when I came for the second autograph session, I was No 4 at the table. Together with Nos 1 to 3 [order decided by mutual consent and based on proximity to signing table] we marshalled some people into a sorta rough queue behind us. Which, Singaporeans being the queue-disciplined people we are, was formed pretty easily. Until other people decided to cut in front of us from the other side, yelling that they'd been queueing longer than I had. Hey, you were queueing since before 3? That's weird, cos I was there since 3 and I only noticed you coming close at around 330.

I count myself lucky I got my stuff signed and vamoosed before things really got ugly. As it was, before I got my stuff signed, one lady cut in front of me with 2 fans, and I don't even think she was a fan, just coming to sign for the sake of it. [disgust] Then as I put my stuff in front of him, someone else blatantly tried to cut in front of me. -_-!!! Times like this, I thank my dad for the genes for a quarterback frame.

The dumb thing was that all this mayhem could have been avoided with a bit of forward planning, some string and a couple of pieces of paper. All of which were conspicuously missing at the autograph sessions. -_-! And at least I scooted with some autographs. Some other people were pissed off at missing the gift redemptions [after queueing for more than an hour] because other people had cut in front of them.

All in all, great convention, good intentions, bad planning.

Pointless Nostalgic

Pointlessly nostalgic indeed... for the break that is just about almost over. :p Next week I resume my usual job and then the week after that all hell breaks loose again, like it always does.

Not that regretful over it. Well, maybe more than a little regretful. This month is always when I start making plans and when I start breaking all of them over the objective of full-time slack and nothing else. Know the feeling? When you tell yourself stuff like "When I have time I will spend more time at the gym..." "I will read more..." "I will complete that masterpiece I'm supposed to deliver to Sotheby's...." and the so on.... Then when the time is over, and you haven't done a blessed thing, you feel guilty and make more unfulfilled resolutions for the next time.

But this month I made it easier by telling myself "I will slack a lot this month." With a resolution like that, how can you go wrong??

That being said, the slacktime has been good. At the risk of incurring envious wrath amongst my working friends, I've been waking up at 9 [without an alarm!], having leisurely breakfasts, followed by peaceful readings at the library till lunch, and then going home again to read/slack/break my DJ Portable score on the PSP and going out shopping again. Yup, life has been good. :D

What I'm mostly regretful for are the myriad other directions my life could have taken if I had not walked this path. Now that I have the time look over my life properly, I realise I have friends who have opened and are aggressively marketing their own businesses. I have art projects that I should have started ages ago. I have books that should have been read months ago. In other words, now that I 'stopped' working for this time period, I have to ask myself, is this really what I want to work at for the greater majority of my life? Or do I want to do something else instead?

I have regrets that I only properly looked at when I had the energy and leisure to do so. And when you wait for too long to look back at your life and pause to think about the stuff you did, you have to ask, Is it too late??

But I know when I step through those gates again, everything else will just fall into step like it's always done before. I will go to my cubicle knowing what it is I have to do, I will again step into the rhythm of work, and strangely enough, I might just enjoy it. Because on reflection, it is not that I hate what I am doing now, it is just that I wish I could be doing other stuff as well. [the short attention span of the Gen-Ys?]

I have a year to decide the rest of the direction of my life. Do I stay at my job for the necessary monetary benefits, [which the DF reminds me, is still necessary for a lot of day to day living] or do I go back instead to my hippy tuition lifestyle [which I sorely miss] or aim for a mix of both? No matter. My ultimate goal in life is still To Die With No Regrets. Regardless of which path I take, as long as I can do that, I think I can count myself having been self-fulfilled.

3 reasons why Thai women are not fat:

1. Eating dead spicy tom yam soup, green and red curry is a great [and tasty] way to burn calories. Good desserts like mango with sticky rice also ensures that you get your dose of vitamins. And don't worry. Fruits and fruit juice is relatively cheap, at around 10baht [50cent] for one serving in a bottle. And you get your daily servings of vegetables in mango and papaya salads. With such a diet, how not to lose weight?

2. Clothes are darn small. Go to a shopping mall, try asking for XL sizes, and you will understand the motivation behind losing weight in Thailand. Then again, if you make it a habit to go to large shopping malls to shop everyday, that's about 30 mins of cardio exercise just trying to shop from one end to another.

3. Major train stations have escalators. Others just have 2 storey high staircases that you have to walk up and down everyday to go to work, lunch and back home. That's at least 10-20 mins of cardio exercise everyday. Those in Singapore, I say, love your escalators.


My new buzzline: Love Your Escalators.

data overload?

Was reading a back issue of Time mag recently where the tech writer
wrote an article about dangers of data addiction.

if you are part of the zombie multitude who simply must check email,
read blogs, update your own blog, and do these not just once a week or
twice but more like once every 2 minutes, yar, you a zombie horde foot
soldier yar.

ok, I'm no zombie foot soldier , but looking at his warning signs,
many of us are taking that dangerous step towards it already. We
already own some of the pretty niftiest wireless gadgets in the world.
we're pretty well-connected in wi-fi, judging by the number of
starbucks n coffee bean outlets with wireless, and the numerous other
buildings as well. Our generation grew with computer technology n now
we check email, write blogs n get music from the net with the ease of
an extra limb. By gosh, we're on the path of zombiehood.

Then I look at my poor blog, underfed, undernourished, gathering dust,
hoping for a smidgen of attention from me. Always longing but always
patiently waiting like the dog waits for its owner to come back after
school. I think that maybe it would benefit from a spot of indulgence.

And then I think of myself talking about my blog, a bundle of unfeeng
code, like an actual sentient being...... -_-! I might be more in this
than I thought......

--
Getting all the slack I can...
http://boredslacker.blogspot.com

It's not hot. It's simply sweltering.

Hot is one thing. Hot is what you lived with your entire life while living in a tropical city. But now, we have hot and we have no air circulation. That means the only wind in circulation is coming from either your air con or your industrial fan, which right now is blowing at me while I blog.

It's causing a sort of heavy heat fog to hang over the beloved city. Nowadays, you walk out into the street and you don't just feel the heat from the sun. No, not only that but you also walk into a layer of heat and humidity as you exit the building and run for the safety of either the air-conditioned bus or MRT train. Sometimes I feel as if I'm walking into a cushion of hot air when I leave the house or the bathroom, except this cushion isn't the soft cuddly kind I bring to bed at night.

*Sigh* Oh, for some rainfall........

And by the by, I still prefer living in this heat than in winter. In heat, I'm simply uncomfortable. In cold, I think I'll die............... or come pretty close to it.

It's funny, but after a few waves in the career side, which spilled over to the lazy beaches of my social life, I have this feeling of 'life is finally getting back to normal'. Does this sound weird? It feels to me like some major part is over and now the bits and pieces are settling down to what it used to be before. This is even though I can't say much significant things are happening right now in either the work sector or the slack sector.

*weird*

After slightly more than 2 years with my Panasonic, I decided it was time for a change.

*duh duh DUH!!!* *ominous music*

How to describe? Maybe in chick-lit terms, it was simply 'time to move on'. :p The battery was dying at a faster rate than before and you could sense that, well, it didn't have much more longer to go on to. So I decided on a euthanasia and bought a new Nokia.

Yes, going full circle.

Transferring information out is a pain though. When you are transferring from Nokia to Nokia, the transferring is relatively painless. When you are transferring between two incompatible models altogether, the process becomes tedious. Pictures, videos, sounds, even SMSes have to be transferring to PC first, and saved. You have to look through the entire drive of the phone to make sure you didn't leave anything out. Then you have to find some way of transferring everything to the new one, and again make sure you didn't leave anything out.

ARGH!!! This is why I don't change phones often......

Although.... excitement of new phone aside, I do find myself wishing for some of the features the old phone had, say the layout design, the look of the font, the quality of the camera [sadly, Nokia cameras are sadly lacking in photoquality] Just like breaking up, you like the new guy, but you just can't forget the ex that easily...... :p

Anyway, here's a pic of the phone, only difference is mine is black:

My hug0 school project was finally completed yesterday night. We started in a flurry of chaos, went through it in a tornado of insanity, and packed up the place in a disaster of Hurricane-Katrina proportions.

Even then, there's still loads of mopping up to do. We have lost property to find, I still have reports I need to write *groan* and there's a massive stocktake that needs to be done of the stuff that we used.

But, on the greener side, the kids had massive fun. Most of them were bundles of raw nerves before it all started, and when it was finally ended, everyone was giddy with excitement. And for us, we're just glad that the massive part of this project is over.

And the mops for cleaning up, we're only gonna take out on Monday. :p

Do u get sick of cities sometimes?

I get this feeling every time I get onto the bus at the wrong times. This is when there are tons of sardines, oops, sorry, people on it, the whole can of a bus is shaking too hard for you to handle your MP3 player and get the music starting, and everyone just pushes past you like in a bowling ball manner when it reaches a stop.

The worst part of it could just be the sar-, people. People on buses during rush hour turn into either predatory animals or mechanical bulldozers.

Example of a predatory animal - The lady who shoves her way to the front of the bus queue before the bus even reaches the stop. And then who shoves her way into the bus and hurries to the back of the bus to get a seat.

Example of mechanical bulldozer - The ones who pretend there is no one dearly hanging on for life on the bus handles and walks through the aisle pretending not to notice the people they push aside in the process.

It's enough to make me turn to homicide, sometimes.

And everytime this happens in the bus, I can't help but think this is because I'm living in a city, and especially a little red dot of a city with 4 million people jostling for their own personal space. The bus is just one example of a greater picture. When you have that many people who need to be in that space, you get a lot of shoves and a lot of disgruntlement.

This is really frustrating. Once in a while, you get murderous fantasies of jabbing elbows into the peabrain next to you, or aiming your Charles and Keiths into the arsehole of the guy in front of you. Anything, just to create some space around yourself.

And I think this is what I don't like the most about the city. Barbarianism begets barbarianism. When you get enough people pushing and pulling at you, eventually you get real pissed off and you start to push other people back. Because this is the only way to finally get some space to yourself. But then the other person gets pissed off and it goes on and on and on.

If I ever go back to tuitioning, it will be because of this. Because of being able to walk through the streets freely, without having to overtake people, and without incessant 'excuse-mes' because blessedly, there will be no one ahead of me or behind me.

I never thought an empty street would be such a luxury.

Random Ramblings

A week's holiday has passed.

An extra Friday's holiday has passed.

With each holiday, it gets increasingly difficult to go back to work.

*sigh*

The past week I got screwed twice by 2 different colleagues, details of which I have to tell u guys face-to-face so as not to compromise Internet Anonymity. Suffice to say justice was served by a higher authority in one case, and in the other, I'm still waiting for her to get her karma.

This is not something I need, what with the Major School Event coming up. I half thought I was going to give myself another migraine episode like last year, but the headaches stopped mercifully when retribution was served.

There are days when I think I may go on doing this for the rest of my life. There are other days, like this, when I find myself wishing I was doing something else. At least something that doesn't require me to wake up before the sun.

There are major pay revisions coming up to ensure that more trained professionals don't leave the line, but judging from the real-life examples of Yenn and Ondine, this is not enough anymore.

Ironically, the needs of the future economy is the very thing chasing us out. To rear enough trained professionals to keep Singapore running, you need equally-if-not-more well-trained professionals. Push the pressure on these trainers, and you more or less keep the economy going. Push too little, you get morons out of school. Push too hard, you get a lot of very good trainers leaving.

And right now, the Gahmen is caught in a kind of ratwheel. It doesn't know how exactly to keep more teachers working in schools, it needs to continually attract people with pay and perks, and yet it needs to stem the flow of those who are sick of all the pressure.

It can give those who want to excel loads of opportunities to climb the ladder, but what about those who just want to perform the simple function of teaching and nothing else?

There is almost nothing for such people, because they want even these mediocre ones to climb th ladder.

So if there is nothing for them, they leave. And the Gahmen has to work at the promotion and the advertising campaigns and recruit another batch of people and go through the same stuff with them again.

It's like everyone is caught in this giant ratwheel that goes nowhere.

I want out one day. That's all I know.

A review of the one week break:

Mon - Slack. Went to work for a while and then in the evening, head for Kebab dinner and drinks at Recess at Old school with uni gang. We then find out that sitting at an outdoors table just after it's been raining is an open invitation for ants to invade our shapely legs.

Tues - Slack. In evening, send Brother to camp and have dinner at Farmart at Chua Chu Kang. Food is ok-ok only, unless you're a starving army man in one of the camps. At night, have artery-clogging glutton's dinner at Miss Clarity Cafe with Quet and Jules.

Wed - Head to leez's office and watch Jules, Candle and Quet fumble in a photoshoot. Ironic how, as much as we try to look natural we always end up looking more artificial. :p Head to City Plaza for fried chicken lunch and then to Goodwood Hotel for diabetic high tea with colleagues. End off with Sushi Tei dinner.

Thurs - Slack. Watch Evangelion, a remake of the classic series. More scenes added to flesh out the plot so it's not as mind-bogglingly confusing as the original series. Plus, watching giant robots fight it out on the big screen is so much more satisfying. :) Foot massage and then late night dessert at Little Part 1 cafe at Upper Thomson Road. Good fries.

Fri - Wake up, wondering where the time has flown. *sigh*

All in all, a good week break, except for the enormous quantities of good food I seem to have eaten. *ahem* Gym sessions start next week...... :p

From a newspaper article, it was estimated that approximately 1000 Singaporeans leave the island each year for greener pastures.

I didn't think the percentage [1000 out of 4 million] was that large till I started really reading the emails and catching up with a group of friends I have, almost all of which were either already staying overseas with significant others, who were foreign, or considering going overseas, or who would stay overseas if they could.

Like, wow. In this group, my civil servant status and Singaporean boyfriend actually makes me the so-called odd one out, though in another group, it makes me the status quo. :S

Let's do a brief stocktake: Of this group, all are dating foreigners, though some have dated local guys, one has already moved to Europe with her boyfriend, one is about to leave for Australia with her boyfriend, and another is staying in Singapore, though if needs be, she may move if her boyfriend does! Now you know why I consider myself the odd one out?

But I guess I know why I'm the odd one out in this sense. Of the 3 mentioned above, all have studied overseas, whereas I've only briefly sojourned overseas, only to come back to Singapore eventually. My entire education was tied up in Singapore, and now even my job is tied up with the Singapore government.

Partly because of this, and partly because of myself, I've always had the need for some kind of security. Moving overseas gives me a too-wide range of mixed feelings, because of the radically different life I could build for myself, outside of the too-comfortable and one-size-fits-all HDB living here, but yet is filled with unknown challenges of racism, work permits, and hiherto utterly unknown lifestyles. [Shops closing at 5??]

But yet, if I never tried, could I stay that I would never succeed? Actually, no. After all, look at my grandmother. She settled successfully in Australia in her late 40s, and she's been there happily till now.

Me, I do get envious when I hear about friends able to go to all these exciting places, live in apartments with BFs, and get the jobs they're happy with and still be able to pay the rent and all. It sounds almost as if they're already married, albeit without the hassle of wedding dinners, ROMs and annoying relatives. I do to a certain extent envy that degree of independence that they have, which makes me seem, frankly, juvenile. 27 and living with my parents. :S

But for me to move.........? Well, not in the near future. My butt is too comfortable where it is. Maybe that's just my lot in life. To live in HDB, and be happy with it. Because I haven't found another place in the world that has manga store, library and wireless broadband all in one. :p

On the last day of school, and the day we're supposed to have a sleepover at Jul's house, I get hit by a travelling flu bug. What's the justice in that?

My nasal was so blocked that I could actually apply tiger balm right beneath my nostrils, and still not be able to smell it. :s Takes a lot of fun out of eating, I can tell you that.

Fortunately, thanks to lots of sleep, and a vitamin boost from Juls, the virus mostly scattered, and I could still go out with DF on Sat, but we went home early because he had to go back to camp, and I was still sluggish.

Now I get a sense of just how often I go out. When I came home on a Saturday night at 530pm, my family stared at me. "How come you're home?!" is my mother's response to her daughter being home early.

Later in my room, both parents take turns to come in and ask if I'm alright, if I'm sick, Am I having flu etc etc etc...... because I'm lying in bed reading my books.

My presence at home is getting increasingly rare, to the point that when it does happen, it must be due to impending death. Sigh.

Bump, crack, groan....

Mas Selamat owes me a few $100s for damages to a guy's car whom I don't even know.

Ok, did that opening line get your attention? Hahaha... Events are as follows:

Because of this whole fugitive business, the DF got caught up in camp for events beyond either him or me. Since the parentals, and the fake husband were also in Malaysia, [convenient, I know] I decided to take the car for one day out to town.

And you know, aside from the usual humps and bumps of driving a car you're unfamiliar with, everything was actually going sui sui... I managed to get the car rolling with stalling, and even remembered the correct exit to take to go to orchard and how to get up the Taka carpark and everything.

Ok, EXCEPT for that last part.

Because on the way entering Taka, mind you, not even the spiral route that leads to the level 6 carpark, but at the ENTRANCE, I didn't depress the clutch enough, and the freakin' thing rolled down the slope.

I felt/heard/smelled a *THUNK* at my backside and another *THUD* at the sound of my heart stopping its beating and falling into my pants.

Finally, after a slight assessment of damage, and holding up traffic at Orchard for 5 minutes, I got the clutch grounded and made my way up to the 6th floor, followed by a resigned Subaru Legacy. -___-!!!!!!!! I didn't even realise it was a Subaru till I told Quet the model name later and she identified it as such.

So what to do? Exchange details lor........ Later, after frantic calls to Quet and Juls, I arranged that the guy should go to my dad's mechanic and get it fixed there so he doesn't run an insurance scam on us and all that. And more importantly, call my dad and then resign myself to getting an earful and probably losing close to $1000 for the repairs. -_-!!! -_-!!! -_0!!!!!

Luckily for me, the damage wasn't bad. Turns out the guy had done modifications to the car body, and it was that which had come loose just a little, so my dad estimates maybe less than $500 for the damage. *Giant sigh of relief* So the guy wasn't pissed, and my dad wasn't too pissed and maybe I just lose a few hundred bucks, and treat it as the cost of renting the car.

Anyway, I attribute this to a few factors:

1. Me choosing to park in Taka. Aside from the horrendously expensive parking charges, this also cost me the repairs to that guy's car. Next time I park somewhere else.

2. Me choosing to drive. Next time, GO GREEN and take public transport.

3. Me choosing to go out. Should have stayed at home and played computer games, but as the DF smsed, "You never want to stay at home anyway." -_-!!!

and finally,

4. Mas Selamat, for choosing to escape and imprisoning my boyfriend to camp. If the DF was out, we'd have gone out as usual on PUBLIC TRANSPORT. I attribute YOU as the ultimate cause of my driving fiasco.

Which makes me really hopeful that someone catches him soon......... I don't wanna get into more trouble without the DF.............

I'm turning........... into a huge, formless, spineless blog, existing only to eat, sleep and receive what meagre entertainment I can get from my laptop and wireless Internet. In one corner of my mind, I can vaguely compute that there are things I should be doing, things I can be doing, but I groggily swat at it and turn my fat ass over to another comfortable spot on the bed, my poor excuse for increasing blood circulation...................

Ok, so I'm feeling a little lethargic this weekend.......

Slacking at Starbucks

the first thing I have to do is give a hearty thanks to all who SMSed
me on the B-day. Thankee all... amazing the response u get when yr
bday is listed on your MSN... ;p

after the going-ons on the previous weekend though, the day itself was
pretty dead. I woke, I worked, and I went home. well, at least I put
in dinner with Jules n Turtle n then a haagen dasz dessert...

Birthdays get so mundane as we get older and I seem to be the only
person who finds that sad. everyone is like, "Yar, it's just another
day what..." huh? I can somewhat understand why though... when you
can't take an impromptu holiday on the day [I used to skip classes in
3 yrs of uni] then yeah it becomes another workday alright. [though I
have to admit, I was sorely tempted to take MC for once, but my
irritating integrity won out in the end. damn!]

when I meet responses like that, I always think: Why? why does it have
to be that way for us? Our ancestors used to celebrate birthdays
because that meant they had lived through another year of hardship and
pain, despite the odds. nowadays we still live through some kind of
hardship and pain [as anyone working a full time job can attest to]
but we would rather look forward to our physical release from life in
general than celebrate the fact that we are able to enjoy many more
days of our stint on earth.

to all who will celebrate your birthdays this year: make sure you buy
yourself a slice of your favourite cake. Or that new necklace you've
been eyeing. Or that dress that looks great on you but is too
expensive and you don't know how many times you'd wear it to make it
worthwhile. Heck, just do something to make yourself smile that little
bit. After all, if you have to go through all that work n hardship in
life, you may as well make yourself happy once in a while. ;)

this entry brought to you by wireless@sg at starbucks orchard. long
live free wireless! n green tea lattes!

--
Getting all the slack I can...
http://boredslacker.blogspot.com

First up, Shinnen Omedetou Gozaimasu....... (^_^)/00 Those two last circles are oranges, if you just imagine a little bit more......

One thing I will certainly be grateful for are the friends in my life who are genuinely concerned for my well-being. This will come in useful if I am ever raped, kidnapped, or involved in a car accident.

Today, it being CNY eve, I left work at 1030 to go home. I had forgotten to charge my handphone the night before, so it was on precariously low batt mode, and I thought, well, leave it at home to charge, and then go get something to eat.

So I did. I went to J8 for lunch, lingered around the library, got a foot massage and then went home.

To find something like 4 SMSes all asking if I was still alive. And 3 missed calls from the same people who sent those SMSes.

It turns out Jules and Turt had called to see if I wanted to lunch together. And when they couldn't reach me, imaginations started flowing. Turt started worrying that I had been raped and left for death in some alley at, oh, a bright sunny 12 o'clock in the afternoon in the highly populated area of Bishan.

As I heard it later, the guys' concern [or hytsteria] apparently became pressing and they called Candle to ask if I was with her. But I wasn't, so Candle now had to call Yenn and DF to ask if I was with them. [Apparently Candle had to call DF, cos Jules was wondering what the real boyfriend would think if the fake boyfriend called him directly asking about the whereabouts of the missing real/fake girlfriend. Yes, I know. It sounds complicated enough even as I type it.]

And while the man[or rather, woman] hunt was going on, I was lying on a recliner chair reading a mag, while my feet were being kneaded by the masseur.

And then I go home and read some of the following SMSes: [amended from the originals]

Where r u? Turt thinks u've been raped or dead

Where r u now? E guys have been calling to look for u

And my favourite:

The others worried sick that cant get thru to you and called me... i was rushing marking and NOT at all worried... [Thanks............. I think...................]

Well, in a way I have to be thankful. At least I know if I ever really got into trouble, [fervently touching a plywood desk] there will be people who will try to hunt me down. Or rather, at least 2 of them will be anyway. :p

Quick cookie bites:

- The roach 'toon I did a while back was actually requested for a story that this guy was doing online about Poverty Olympics. ( Certainly not the original intention of the cartoon ) Hey, I'm published! :p ( futile hopes of an aspiring starving artist )

- Watched Chesty-Nutty-Bang-Bang and Joja Wendt ( jazz pianist ) over the weekend. Chesty-Nutty was hilariously full of the duh-est brainless jokes I ever heard ( sometimes the brain just needs a break ) including a rendition of Rihanna's Umbrella done in Hokkien. That alone I think was worth watching the show for. :p

- Joja Wendt is one of the funniest, charmiest pianist that I ever watched on stage. Full of humour and numerous oblique-yet-not-so references to his overwhelming skill on the piano, this was a refreshing change from the usual staid penguins who usually perform on stage.

- If you've read Hellbound's blog, we're both hoping that we passed another Jap test by the skin on our teeth.

- Have joined Amore fitness with the intention of deflating the spare tyre, but instead ending up stretching muscles I never used, or never even knew existed, and generally wishing that I was dead.

That has to be all for now, 'cos I'm tired and tomorrow's just one more long day till the CNY weekend. Gong Hee all!

Boredom is defined, not as not having anything to do, but as the inability to latch onto anything to do.

Which makes sense. In our time and society, since when is there nothing to do?? As I type this on a Sunday morning, I can feel almost a sense of boredom, but in actuality, there are tons of stuff for me to do. I am typing this blog entry while listening/watching to MTV, I have a magazine waiting to be read, several more books and magazines in my room waiting to be read, a wardrobe to be cleaned out, and... and .... and.......... Aiyah you get it lah.

[Make a mental inventory next time you feel 'bored'. perchance there are stuff waiting to be done.]

But that doesn't help us much, does it? If there were stuff to be done, we shouldn't be feeling bored what. All we have to do is choose one, just one, and then get going to do it! Get our butts off that sofa and do it! [since I'm blogging, I have the luxury of keeping my butt on this sofa]

Herein comes the problem.

Let's take out the stuff that we have to do, but would much rather not. This includes laundry, wardrobe, and any other physically exerting domestic chores. For some of you, this might erase more than half the things on your things-to-do list. So what we are left with are stuff that we might want to do.

Might want to, but either didn't, or can't bring ourselves to. Why?

I blame this partly on our work lifestyle. By the time you come home from one wonderfully productive day at work [bleargh!] how much energy do you have left to do the stuff you want to do? Even for me, where I have the luxury of [sometimes] coming home before 5, I sometimes just don't have the energy to do anything other than plonk onto my bed and make up for having to wake up at 6 in the morning. [those who think my job is not as bad as theirs should try it first, before saying anything.]

We're exhausted. And by the end of the day, we don't want to do any creative, enriching, mind-stimulating activities. We want to collapse, recharge, and let our brains do mind-numbing TV-watching activities.

Then comes our modern lifestyle, with its myriad choices.

More choices good, right? Nowadays, you can either watch TV, surf the Net, listen to music, learn a new language, learn a musical instrument, connect with friends on Friendster, Facebook, Multiply, Maplestory, Second Life, watch a movie, go shopping, read, listen to music, get a massage, get a manicure, get a pedicure, watch a play, watch a concert, watch a film, watch a musical, set up a business, set up a blog, make a blog, make a video, make some pretty photographs, make a scrapbook......

Ok, try choosing from that. Writing that list alone already makes me want to give up, and vegetate in front of the TV with some Twisties. Choice is good. Too much choice gives you a headache.

That's why, sometimes I find myself staring at my laptop screen for moments, having to think of what to do. I know I want to create a new illustration. I know I want a new blog post. I know I want to do all this, despite the time and effort needed.

But I end up playing endless rounds of Sudoku instead. :p~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It's a strange kind of mental ennui. That given all the choice in the world, if you don't latch onto something quickly, your brain refuses to take in any more mental input and shuts itself down. Then you end up couchpotatoing on your sofa, pretending that this is what you want in life.

*Hai* Already I feel myself rambling on just to keep this blog post going so I don't have to do anything else. Ok, stopping blog post now,

Resuming rest of ordinary life.

*click*

It's easier to draw when you're just... drawing. It's easier to come up with images when you just let your pen move freely over the paper first, then worry about perfection later. When you try to make every stroke perfect from the start, that's when you get real problems when drawing. To allow the creativity to come out, you have to let it out in its unbridled form, rather than control the flow to a standstill.

This is evidenced when I tried an illust on Bamboo. The previous times, I had problems because I was still trying to make it come out with exactly the kind of lines that I wanted. This time, I simply let the pen flow first, and then made the adjustments later. I ended up with a style that looked alright, and yet had that rough, raw feeling to it.

Anyway, here is Feb's illust early, inspired by Yenn's taleban battles:

How she makes a mundane encounter with a cockroach sound downright epic is beyond me, but it's a great laugh. :p

Yes, I did get another expensive piece of frivolous technology, as some would call it. With some of my bonus, I got myself a pretty fun piece of bamboo.

But hey it does help. As you can see, I'm trying very hard to keep to my NY resolution of blogging and drawing more often [as opposed to my real need to, say, get a pile of marking done on time] , and [I think, I hope, I pray] that this'll help me keep to it. Well, make it easier a bit, I guess. No more fiddling with the little red nipple on my laptop or cussing at the scanner.

For this month's illustration and blog entry I slightly cheated [I suppose] and combined both to show my state of mind at the start of work again, after a month of rest:

I can do better, I know. Gimme time, it's only Jan. :p