According to this, I'm a grassroots leader. Enjoy guys. :)

http://www.talkingcock.com/html/games/handover.html

Most of you guys couldn't see the pix of the Flags and my room, so here goes again:


Flags

My Room, before:





And after:

Righteous Indignation

Russian school siege. French reporters kidnapped.

Recent headlines on 2 different terrorist activities that have once again shocked the civilised world. No different from the other strikes or threats that have been happening these few years.

No different?

The Russian School Siege happened a few days ago, when Chechen rebels took over a school in Russia in order to protest against Russian occupation in Chechenya. The rebels stormed a school on the first day, and held teachers, children and parents hostage in the school gymnasium in the stifling heat.

Finally, as Russian authorities were negotiating with the rebels, something happened. No one knows what was the spark, but the end result was that everything was launched into chaos. The rebels though police were shooting them, police thought the rebels were shooting hostage, and suddenly, it was every ass for itself.

Latest count is that 350 people were killed, and 400 more injured.

Now how do we play the blame game? The unknown who shot first and ruined all chances for negotiating the kids safely out of the school? Though negotiations were tense, they were relatively smooth, till something sparked it off, and in the midst of the chaos, no one knows exactly what was it, but suddenly everyone thought the other party was shooting at them, and then that was that.

The Chechen rebels who took the school children hostage? I don't know about you guys, but to take innocent children, to subject them to that kind of an ordeal, and to freely wave the threat of death over their young heads is to me a most despicable and heinous act. These kids have no idea why they are being treated like this, and many of them may suffer serious psychological trauma for the rest of their lives. Is the independence of the Chechen state worth the lives of innocents?

Or how about the Russian government? The little state of Chechenya has no material resources, and economically, is of no worth to the Russian economy at large. Yet for almost 200 years, the Russians have held on to this little state with an iron grip. Why? Because with the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russian terrorities shrank, as their former provinces broke away to declare independence. They're holding onto Chechenya because they don't want to lose 'face' by losing more land.

What is wrong with this world?

And then we have the kidnapping of 2 French reporters by terrorists. The reason for this is the recent ban of headscarves in French schools.

Now France has always prided itself on being a secular state, where religion doesn't take first lead. And recently, the French government instituted a ban on the prominent display of various religious items in schools. This includes Muslim headscarves, Christian crucifixes, and many others.

This has majorly pissed off many Muslims in the country. Although France has always been a secular state, it has been attracting many immigrants, who bring their own religious practices with them. The number of Muslims especially has been rising in the country. So naturally, the ban on headscarves was not to their liking. And to make it worse, the media focused especially on the ban of headscarves, because Islamic terrorists had already been in the news a lot. This is although Islam was not the only religion affected by the ban.

Now 2 French reporters have been kidnapped by what is suspected to be Muslim terrorists, who demand that the ban on headscarves in France be rescinded, or the 2 reporters will be beheaded.

Does anyone see the sheer insanity and pigheaded arrogance of this move?? Who are YOU to interfere with a country's sovereignty? Who are YOU to think you can command the nations of the world what YOU think they should do?

Understanding and sympathy for Islam was just starting to rise, when you BONEHEADS decided that it wasn't going fast enough for your liking, and that somehow you were chosen by God to carry out this heinous act on another man's life. Now because of your stupid arrogance, your misguided belief that somehow your religion makes you better than others, and therefore not subject to the laws of Earth, everything is back to square one.

WTF makes you think you can threaten people into doing what you want them to?

*Huff of Righteous Indignation*


Now for something lighter at heart:

Jamie Oliver Wannabe

Most of you know I'm a culinary disaster, and that most of my cooking comes straight out of the can and into the microwave. Well, today, I decided to try my hand again at cooking pasta on the stove this time, the same pasta that Yen made the last time she came to my house.

Preparing the ingredients, chopping the onions, were relatively easy. It only got disastrous when I started the stove.

Firstly, opened the heat too wide on the wrong stove. Once the gas came out, hellish tongues of fire burst out from the gas ring, threatening to singe my eyebrows off with their satanic fury. Once I managed to calm them down, I poured in the olive oil, and left it while I went to open the bottle of pasta waiting for me on the table.

Excuse me, I meant I tried like HELL to open the bottle of pasta on the table. I huffed, I puffed, and I cursed and swore at that stupid thing in 3 different languages but it stubbornly refused to open up for me.

And finally after I managed to open that bottle, ["Kono kuso boteru!!!"] I looked towards the stove and to my horror, small puffs of steam were already rising from the olive oil, meaning that it was way MORE hot than I wanted, and the area around it was already peppered with little droplets of oil that had splattered from the pan onto the stove.

I ran to the stove and threw the mince in, and snap crackle and POP POP POP POP. The mince actually got cooked in less than 5 seconds, which tells you just how hot it was. I threw in the onions, stirred it already and prayed to God that my lunch wouldn't get burnt and neither would my clothes.

Funnily enough, I actually managed to make a decent plate of pasta without blowing the house up. There's hope for me after all.

And if anyone wants the recipe:

1) Heat oil.
2) Throw mince in.
3) Throw pasta sauce in.
4) Throw onions in.
5) Throw baked beans in.
6) During steps 1-6, if oil gets too hot or food gets too burnt, lower heat.
7) Put pasta in rice cooker.
8) Pour in more water than you usually use for rice.
[PS cooking pasta in rice cooker actually works.]
9) When sauce and pasta are done, scoop into plate and eat.

Jamie Oliver Wannabe signing out.

Random Rants Again...

Cos I can't think of a topic to write on... :p

Even relaxation is hard work.....

http://www.boltcity.com/copper_022_sail.htm

Just like the Harvest Moon game Yenn mentioned on her blog, you have to go through a whole bunch of shit, accumulate and maintain resources, before you can start to relax. [If that time ever comes at all]

Guess the important thing is just never to lose sight of your ultimate goal. :)

And CONGRATS to Quet who's back on the blogging front! Missed it sorely... after all, when your frens don't meet up too often, it's one of the best ways to know what's happening in each other's lives. [But what's with the grasshopper?? Even I don't know what's that about]

Other than that... busy a little more... I've been snapping pix of the shirts yet unsold, intending to lelong them online. [Online store coming soon... hopefully... got other ideas for shirts brewing in my head...] Also got 2 virgo frens' bdays coming up, and busy with shopping and designing their presents.

Then I realised that another fren's bday is coming up too. *Groan* At this point of impending financial collapse in my life, expect self-designed cheapo gifts all around......

And Angie tells me there's a damn cute professor in bizad now! Tall, dark, manly, well-groomed with a voice to kill. Damn!!! Why is it all the good things [including cheap Genki Sushi] only comes up after we leave??

BTW Did anyone manage to decipher the coded parts of the previous post? Curious to know...

Flags.

Did we ever have discussions like these in NUSSUX when our assignments were late?

http://laurascomics.com/

Going into Maid Mode

As a testament to my cleaning skills, I present to you my desk and table:


This was my desk, before I cleaned it on Monday. Piles of CDs, a tarot deck, Oliver and Riva hiding underneath all that, with more piles of bags, plastic bags, paints and other craft stuff on the floor. The only thing stopping me from piling more stuff on the table top was the fact that my laptop was residing on it.


This was the black table, piled with books, a couple of VCDs, and a few dalmatians fallen over at the side. Plus there are some postcards hidden beneath all those, and in the black basket.

And after cleaning:


Wah lau eh! I actually can see the table top now! And I can even tell that it's white!


My god! It's all so clear, I can even see the actual colour of the table! IT's BLOODY AMAZING!

I'm sooooo proud of myself. *Smug*

And this is just the 2 tables in my room. Gods you guys should have seen the floor...... Like, I can actually walk in my room without fear of slipping on an accidental piece of plastic and breaking my neck now. Or tipping over a cup of paintbrushes. Or knocking over a container of fabric paint.

It's so clean, I can feel the fengshui flow. Hee......

Speak Freely Now, or Forever Hold Thy Peace

While I enjoy having this blog and writing about the various uninteresting things about my life, [teh for breakfast. Gosh, what a surprise!] I have realised that a problem comes up when too many people start to read it.

I'm not too worried about strangers who don't know me, and who happen to stumble upon it. What matters to me are the opinions and feelings of people who do know me, and who read this blog.

How does one handle this problem? Some people, like Xiaxue prefer to just rant every single detail out at the world, to the point of posting pix of herself and her friends, so that the whole world knows what they look like. Hold nothing back.

Some like Re-minisce, have an almost aloof approach to their blog. This is all you'll ever see of me. Decipher what you will.

Me? I'm tightroping between the two. For my friends' sake, I won't post up pictures of their faces, or state their real names outright. I only use nicks and badly-airbrushed pictures to indicate their presences, and usually only people who know us well enough will know who I'm talking about.

But even this is not enough sometimes. Note the fiascoes that have come up time and time again with Dragonfly. Bleah.

And yet, if I were to completely hold back... the blog will lack a personal feeling. Everything on it would just be the pleasant facade to cover the chaos beneath. [Sort of like stuffing all the barang into your closet door, and then opening it one day to have all your stuff avalanche onto you.]

The Blogger's Dilemma. Hm, I think I just coined a new phenomenon. Hahaha...

Nbzcf J tipvme kvtu xsjuf jo dpef.

Ant newt dolphin giraffe iguana vole elephant moose yak fish robin elephant newt seal elephant kingfisher elephant yak.

But then that would take too long, and too hard to keep thinking of new ones.

smf pyjrtd ,su dyo;; nr sn;r yp frvo[jrt oy/ ejovj ,rsmd o
f lrr[ jsbomh yp vp,r i[ eoyj mre vpfrd/

how how how......

Well, looks like I'd be sticking to the code names and imagery for now, like:

He held a piece of bakwa in his direction, preparing to hit him without warning.

Now who got that?

More Random Ramblings

Bazaar on Friday was good, managed to crap some customers and sell 3 shirts, which at this point of time in my life, is the pinnacle of my business success.

Makes one wonder what happened during those 3 1/2 years I spent in NUSSUX.

But well, everyone else was lelong-ing their old stuff around us, so you could say it was the wrong distribution outlet... This lady in front of us was apparently selling off her old clothes for $1 a piece! WTF??

Anyway here's some pix. Yenn and Candle don' like their faces being placed on the Net, so they've been airbrushed for privacy:


The Area around the stall


The Stall, with Yenn and Candle

And of all the oddest coincidences, I actually met Bao, an old fren of mine who used to chase me and my frens around the Primary school compound for pouring orange juice into her mee hoon. Turns out she's working at the Center where we had the bazaar. Come to think of it, I haven't added her to Friendster, which is what I was supposed to do.... oops.......

Saturday my pigeons got released high, high into the sky by a fren, so I ended up shopping with Quet and A. Which landed me some serious damage to my bank account, but also one cute tube with a pink little cat embroidered in the corner, a tube of nose pore mask from Body Shop, [you have to ask what for?] and ironically enough, a book on the science of shopping from MPH. Meowz!

Then Sunday was spent shopping with Candle and Yenn, with Candle trying her best to singlehandedly boost the economy by her ownself. Go Candle.

Now it's Monday again and I have to bring my room through a long overdue cleanup. What with getting the shirts ready for the stall, and other assorted little craft projects I have, my little room's been turned from a disaster area, to a No Man's Land. Think tornadoes, hurricanes sweeping through it and dumping in it all the stuff it picked up along the way. Yup, that's pretty much what it looks like now. So this week I have to pick up the brooms and sweep up all the fengshui that's been gathering in it. *groan*

Are these guys for real? Or just gay?
http://www.mensfashionfreedom.bravehost.com/

Haven't done a quiz for a long time:

! You are most Like A Sapphire !
Dark, mysterious - but unforgettable. You have a
deep
beauty. Delicate, and shy you try to stay away from
the
limelight but often your intelligence puts you in
at the
deep end. You're like a Sapphire, because, your
beauty is priceless.
You're intelligent, full of opinions, and not
big-headed about it all.
Sometimes you need to put yourself out there, as
you can be a bit shy.
Congratulations ... You're the mysterious gem
everybody wants to have and learn more about.


?? Which Precious Gem Are You ??
brought to you by Quizilla

Wisma at night.

Slayer: The carton isn't superimposed, it looks brighter because I used my camera phone... hence pix quality not quite there. I swear the cat was exactly in that position. :p Will save you a shirt, and give u a discount too... hahaha... what pic did you say you want?

Also, new design:


Goodmeat: Deathnote> Yea, the crime rate did go down, but if you read book2, he's starting to think about hitting on innocents as well. I guess all that power will eventually corrupt, especially when the power allows you to wield death so flippantly.

Cookie count: The caramels are completely gone, due to no fault of mine. I had 2 cookies left, and one day I just opened up the fridge and they were... gone... [Curse my family!] But I have started on the Tia Maria ones... Major food orgasm on the couch!

Random ramble: Something's so wrong with the family PC. One click on the IE icon and 39 windows opened up at once!!! Is this a National Day Virus??

Women will always live longer because...

Shopping keeps your brain young! Yes, dearies, this I got from Reader's Digest:

Women live longer than men because they shop more. That's what husband-and-wife team Guy McKhann and Marilyn Albert, both professors at Johns Hopkins University and authors of Keep Your Brain Young, have theorised after a ten-year study of 3000 elderly people...

Shopping keeps older women physically active ( bags to lug ), challenges the brain ( a trip to the shops involves hundreds of choices ), and boosts self-esteem ( a sense of accomplishment results ).

Meanwhile, Grandpa is on the sofa watching television, an activity that fails to challenge in any of these areas...

All the women in the house now... YOOHOO!!!!!! Forget the gyms, forget the health supplements and slimming pills, and forget the aerobics! WE'RE GOING SHOPPING!

Think about it, shopping for women is like a full-length gym session:

We can shop for at least 20-30 minutes a day, non-stop, 3x a week.

For aerobic exercise, think of all those times spent walking from shop to shop, rack to rack, shopfloor to changing room.

For muscle-building, think of all the shopping bags to lug around from store to store. ( Women who bring boyfriends along on shopping trips don't count )

For a more competitive sport, try fighting with the aunties at major sales.

We exercise mind power too, in the ways we:

Strategize our shopping route. ( Should we hit the sale at Isetan first, or Mango? Which store is likely to have the stuff we want? )

Make quick decisions. ( Screw it all! I'm getting that red top! )

Assess our competition, their strengths and weaknesses. ( This girl looks puny, I think I can easily push her aside to get that shirt in the discount bin )

Budget, and handle our finances. ( Though truth to tell, most women don't always use this to the fullest when shopping...... oooh I love that bag, who cares if I already have a dozen... )

And the most major stance of all: We contribute to the economy. Everytime we shop, the multiplication effect ( read your economics 101 again ) means that that new bag we buy may ensure our man a promotion in the future. How can any man argue with that???

Random Ramblings....

I have a bruise on my shin the size of a Wang Wang biscuit, and I have absolutely no idea how it got there. I don't know why bruises appear all over my body when I have no idea how they got there. I'm pretty sure there's enough fat all over my body to cushion it against any shocks.

Krystal, the Tim Tams were so good, my family finished half of the original ones for me, and I've pretty much whacked off almost the entire pack of caramels by myself. Now I'm afraid of touching the 2 alco ones in case I end up pigging on them myself. My... precious biscuits...

Some stuff I've done in prep for the bazaar on Fri...

Butterflies in my stomach...


and more Bubbles....


What do you guys think? I'm thinking at least they're a bit more 'arty' than the ones we sold at Stadium Cove...

Plus here's something I saw in Toa Payoh...



It's so sad to think that these poor cats have to resort to begging on the streets for their milk...

( Nah, he was fine, just taking a breather from this carton of milk someone bought for him. Dammit! Stray cats on the streets get taken care of better than some of us humans! )

Also, it occurs to me that 2 books I've been reading this week have to do with characters being able to deal Death by thinking or writing about it. Allow me to introduce you guys to Death Note ( Manga by Takeshi Obata, same guy who drew Hikaru No Go ) and Lullaby ( Novel by Chuck Palahniuk, same guy who brought you Fight Club )

Death in your Hands

In Death Note, a high school student finds a notebook lying on the ground one day, and picks it up. He finds out that it's a Death Note, and that if you write a name in the book, that person will die within 40seconds. He then goes on a power-ego trip by writing names of convicted criminals in the book, hence killing off hundreds of criminals in a matter of weeks.

The scary thing is that he seems to see himself as a future God of some sort, with the power invested in him by the book. Innocence and greed are mixed in an uneasy combination. In one page, he says, "I am the best model student in the whole of Japan... and also... [next panel] The God of the New World!" He's utterly convinced that the only way to cleanse the world is to kill off all the unsavoury elements, and that he's the one chosen to do so by the book.

The other scary part is that he's frighteningly sane as he goes about his business. Unlike most other would-be-world-dictators, he's cool and calm and never frothes at the mouth, yelling about how powerful he is. He is sane enough to calmly calculate risks, strategize, and ponder his next move in outwitting the international police agencies.

And yet, he's nuts enough to think he could one day be a God.

Holy shit. This kinda power should never fall into human hands.

Manga-wise, however, it's a well-drawn, well-written book. Obata-san is a skilled manga artist, as evidenced by the success of his previous series, Hikaru No Go, which led to an outburst of interest in weiqi across the whole of Japan. Anyone who can influence popular culture across a national level like that deserves respect. :)

The other book, Lullaby, speaks of a old African poem, a culling song, used to euthanize warriors and dying persons. Anyone who hears the song being sung will die within a short period after hearing it. Streaton is the main lead, who accidentally sang the song to his wife and daughter one night, and woke up the next morning to find them dead. He is hence on a quest to make sure that no more copies of the book with the poem in it remains on the earth.

Palahniuk's style of writing, however, is much different from other bestselling authors. It is, wat, subtle? There is no emotional connection to the character, and everyone in the book feels detached, somehow. Like they have no emotions, or refuse to admit that they have emotions. Which in a way, makes sense. The main lead, Streaton is attempting to curb all memories of his wife and daughter, and to do this, sinks himself in noise. He lives among what he describes as 'quiet-ophobics', people living in his apartment block who are afraid of silence, and hence switch on their TVs and radios as loudly as possible so that they will not live in silence.

Is that the case these days? God knows the world is getting noisier and noisier, cars, traffic, TVs, radios, mahjong, except in the dead of the night. Even when I'm home I have to have the radio switched on. Perchance, it gives us a false sense of company, making us feel less alone than we really are. Switching on the radio or the TV makes you feel as if someone is with you all the time, that the DJ on the radio is really talking to you, and not the whole of the island. It distracts us from our loneliness.

Oh well, everyone sing:

Hold me now
Warm my hand
Stay with me...
~Song currently on radio

Woke up this morning and this was waiting in the living room for me:



Yes! The much avaunted [what the heck is that word??] package from Krystal has arrived.

Opened it up and this was what was inside:



Tim Tam! Tim Tam Tim Tam Tim Tam!!!!! In order from the top, they are Caramel, Tia Maria, Original, and Kahlua! Ate some of the Original for breakfast already.... ooooooolala............ *satisfied tabby grin*

Also: Went to Guiness Comedy Night at the Newsroom Bar with Quet, Candle, Gamy, Juls, and KL. Wah rau eh...

Can tell you: $10 to watch Koh Chieng Mun, Irene Ang, Patricia Mok and later, Kumar ham it up on stage is bloody value for money. The 3 'Powderpuff Tai-tais' are supremely diva-ishly hilarious. Like in the skit, where they act out a possible scenario that could occur if Singapore's Water Talks were left to women.

IA: *feminine shriek for greeting* Mathathir's wife!
KCM: *feminine shriek again* Lee's wife!
IA: How are you now ah? Pretty as ever! I like your blouse! ( Some portions have been edited, simply because I can't remember the exact wording )
KCM: You like?

Rest of conversation, they blather on about clothing, and finally settle down to a cup of tea.

IA: Eh, I just learnt how to do manicure, you want?
KCM: Oh, I don't mind.

THey settle down for the manicure.

IA: You know ah, I was thinking, nowadays ah, economy not so good, so I was wondering ah, can we buy the water from you for 25cents.
KCM: 25cents?? Cannot!
IA: Oh done! French manicure!
KCM: SO nice! Ok! 25cents!
IA: I do nail art for you also.

She starts painting, and then

IA: ALso ah, since we do a lot of water treatment with our very high tech stuff, I was thinking ah, we can sell to you the treated water for 50cents.
KCM: 50cents?? Cannot! So expensive!
IA: Ok! Nail art finished, you see? So cute!
KCM: OMG so cute! Ok! 50cents!

and that's how Singaporean politics will be easier under a female government.

Oh, but Kumar was FABULOUS. Anybody who ever has a chance to see Kumar in action should GRAB IMMEDIATELY. He was so bloody funny, my cheeks are still aching from all the laughing I did last night. :) For him, I think it's not quite what he says, but the way he says it, with that deadpan face of his that cracks us all into laughter.

K: ( about sex ) Some of these guys ah, dunno what to do at all. Of all places they go to the armpits. What the hell are you doing there?? Some of them, go to the kneecap somemore! ( Looks at guffawing audience with "Huh?" look on his face ) Ok, you enjoy yourself down there, I'm gonna sms for now.

Right.... so I don remember exactly what he said, cos it was a whole string of dialogue, but damn it was good.

but the highlight of the evening for us, anyway, was when they were getting people up from the audience to do a pirated Singapore Idol on stage. The moment they looked our direction, we started yelling, "KELVIN!!!!!" "Kelvin?" Irene Ang goes, "Who's Kelvin ah?" "HERE! HERE! HERE!" we point frantically to our friend who's now trying to look for a place to run, but the place is too packed. He gets pulled up on stage by Pat Mok.

[Juls, incidentally, conveniently had to make a phone call, which meant he was out of the room for this segment, hereby being spared being pulled up on stage and fondled by Pat Mok]

Pat Mok, btw, was veeeery interested in Kelvin, all the time looking seductively at him, arching her legs at him, rubbing her hands over his chest, sitting on his shoulder while he was seated on stage....... Poor Kelvin's face was redder than a Bloody Mary.

Then he had to do his rendition of Lemon Tree in front of everybody. Altogether now: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

The darnednest thing though: I took a bunch of photos of him with my phone, but they got mysteriously erased while I was transferring them to my PC. WASTED!!!

Too bad. Kelvin din win. And at the end, they were letting him and another girl go off stage, and Pat Mok goes, "Wait! Wait!"

She points to her cheek, "Don't I get a kiss?"

Kelvin takes one look, and scrambles into the crowd faster than you can say "Guiness Stout." Irene Ang laughs,"Wah! Look at him run!" while Pat Mok stands disappointedly on stage.

Next month, next Guiness Comedy Night. Definitely going. :)

Rant. None of my most recent picture attempts turned out well, reason being my hand was too shaky, and hence all came out looking like... a short-sighted person's vision of the world without specs. [Apologies to myopic frens] Damn damn damn. A night of shots wasted.

Today also started out as a terrible day. Went down to Braddell to sign up for a stall for a flea market, and on the way out, it rained. I hate rain. Everything becomes ickily wet and you're forced to walk under shelter, and wait under blocks until the rain is over and you can walk in the open space again.

And even though the rain is over, the humidity gets cranked up several notches. You can feel the bouts of warm, moist air literally floating off the pavement, like some weird outdoor sauna. The moisture sticks to you like an outer film on your skin, and you get headaches from all the steam. Damn damn damn.

Then you run into the library for a reprieve, and the aircon makes you feel as if you just stepped straight from a tropical jungle climate into a dreary wintry one. Little men start taking hammers to your delicate brain. And of all things, the library you went to doesn't have the books you went there to look for in the first place, despite you searching the shelves frantically.

And while you're there, familiar cramps tell you that a monthly visitor is about to make her presence known, even though your calendar told you that morning that she's not due for about half a week more. Despite the scheduling differences, your visitor stamps her feet in annoyance, insisting that she's right, and dammit she's gonna come and go as she likes. You're forced to cater to her wishes, and cancel a student in the afternoon so as to accomodate her, bloody bitch that she is.

Crackers. This day stunk. So now, change subject:

Time of the Ghost

Once again, the Gates of Hell have been thrown open, and its denizens let loose on an unsuspecting public.

Well, not exactly unsuspecting. From the numerous joss sticks stuck on the ground these few days, and the offerings of food left over the place, you can see that there are a number of people who have been expecting the arrival of these spectral visitors.

Joss sticks stuck lazily into the grass, their flames lighting up the pavement beside them. Men and women throwing sheafs of joss paper into bins, the flames leaping up hungrily for their food, the people standing around the bins, their actions robot-like, as they take one piece of joss paper after the other. Little pieces of black ash floating hazily in the air. The perpetual smell of incense.

The Seventh Month is upon us.

And besides this, the smell of the incense also evokes a sense of nostalgia in me.

Grandmother kneeling in the balcony, facing the sun early in the morning. A pair of joss sticks in her hand, she shakes them with short, quick movements, murmuring prayers for her family under her breath. The scent of the joss sticks, blown by the wind, enters and fills the living room. From then on, the scent of joss will always remind me of Grandmother.

On a lighter note, though, the Seventh Month is also when I start playing my strange games of hopscotch around the void decks. This is all thanks to the first volume of True Singapore Ghost Stories, which I read at the highly impressionable and imaginative age of 8. [or around there, anyway]

In that volume was a story about a man, who had stepped on some ashes from a burnt pile of joss paper. Now this was bad, because according to the story, the ashes were supposed to show errant spirits the way to Heaven and eternal bliss and all. And when the man stepped on the ashes, he apparently stopped the spirit from its rightful spiritual path towards eternity.

So he was stuck with this justifiably-pissed off spirit, always following him, because it had nowhere else to go. And he had this unshakeable feeling that something was always following him, until one day he spun around and looked into a pair of very ghostly and upset eyes.

He went to a medium, and all was sorted out. The medium persuaded the spirit to better pastures, and the man went on with his life.

Now, I'm a chicken. And I'm imaginative. [See previous post on exorcist] And when I was in primary school, I was an even bigger Imaginative Chicken. And this story freaked the livin' shit outta me, even till this day.

So from then till now, everytime I see a bunch of ashes on the floor, I take care not to step on them, to avoid being hooked onto some spirit. If the entire void deck has been scattered with these ashes, I tip toe gingerly, murmuring apologies to any passing spirit under my breath, hoping that they'll accept them and leave me to my peaceful mortal existence.

So if you're a innocent bystander, you'll see this big buffalo of a gal, hopping away in the empty void deck, all the while, muttering, "sorry, sorry, so sorry, didn't mean that, sorry sorry, duo jeh, duo jeh, excuse me, sorry ah, bu xiao xing" and so on, all the while with her eyes to the floor, and her long fringe covering half her face, Sadako-like.

Gee, after writing that, I'm surprised no one's ever run away in fear from me before.

by the way, I forgot to add... I've decided to go to Thailand around either last week of Nov, or 1st week of Dec, and I need travel buddies! The itinerary is roughly Chiangmai, then Bangkok, maybe Phuket/Krabi/Hua Hin/Some beach during the last 2 days, and back to Singapore. I'm also hoping to keep the cost to $600.

Anyone wanna go? Anyone?

Oh, and as a testament to how small this world is? It turns out that Billy Soh knows Benjamin T and his GF from Bizad. Can you believe it??

Last night went with Necroz to watch an adaptation of 2 of Edgar Allan Poe's stories at the Substation, namely The Tell-Tale Heart and The Masque of the Red Death.

And believe it, the adaptation was carried out by 1 man. With no sound.

Well, they call it a 'visual narrative', and it's something like mime. The man basically acts out the movements and the different characters, without any dialogue. Each character has his own quirks, so for example, if he's standing upright, it's A. If he hunches suddenly, and squeezes one eye shut, it's B. All the actions of the story were mimed by him, with lighting adding to the atmosphere.

And this guy is bloody good. Even with no sound to tell you what's happening, no backdrop to indicate location, you can still follow the story pretty well. Necroz wasn't too familiar with the stories, [I gave her a quick summary about 5 mins before the show started] but she was still able to catch what was going on. Well, most of the time. Some actions just left us wondering..."Huh?"

Amazing the things some people can do for a living.

Also watched the fantastic Facing Windows on VCD just this morning. Hearing that violin strain again... in a passionate crescendo... Sigh... To live for the moment, to catch the opportunity, else lose it forever.

To not be content to merely live, but to demand for a better life.

Replies to my tags:

Krystal: Er, I donno when I'm flying off again somewhere, ( though I always hope it's the next day ) but it'll prob be around late Nov/Early Dec? Won't be as long as the Europe trip though. This something I might enjoy... Does it have an alcoholic content? Hahaha... Which leads onto...

Slayer: No, I didn't drink anything stronger than a Tiramisu latte on ND itself. The rant was pretty much what I felt about Singapore and Singaporeans all along. Just that this time the occassion was ripe for it.

Candle: I was gonna remind about that course this Sunday. :D Cya then! You wanna meet for lunch before that or just go for the class?

But I did go for one heck of a spending spree on ND though. Bought VCDs for Jeux D'Enfants, [love that show!] and Falling Windows. Then went to a pirated CD shop 2 doors down and bought a CD with Photoshop, Illustrator CS and Dreamweaver, Flash and Fireworks MX!!! Yee-hah! I feel the geek in me rejoice!

Though the Photoshop program required a password of some kind, and I apparently installed a 30 trial version... bloody hell... then again, getting Dreamweaver and Flash for $10 is more than worth it. Long live the pirates.

Last night I also finished reading the DaVinci Code. Whoa. Whoa whoa whoa. If you haven't read the book already, go and read it ALREADY! It's bloody GOOD! Especially if you're a Christian, 'cos the claims in that book concerning the Church... well, the underlying idea seems to be that they're a bunch of "lyin' bastards".

[And I don't use that term lightly. There's a reason why I used it. Go read the book and find out.]

But the disturbing thing is that there are tons of historical research surfacing to defend the ideas that Dan Brown has presented in this book. While some are well-known already, [the tendency of the Church at that time to incorporate pagan images and rituals into Christianity, the supposed birthday of Christ being one] others.... if true, will blow the minds of Christians everywhere. It's that explosive, or so I think.

It's not exactly a stunning work of literature, but the action carries well from page to page, and the ciphers and riddles will be enuff to keep you hooked. Please. Read it already.

Today: Movie marathon of sorts. Discovered father had bought pirated DVD for Spiderman2 while in Johor, and so finally caught this movie. [thank goodness I didn't catch it in the cinemas yet] The show's ok lah, kinda predictable [from watching the trailer] so nothing much new, or engaging.

Then Jeux D'Enfants, for the 2nd time. Loving it all over again, like the French version of RnJ.

Then Goodbye Lenin, which Jubilee finally managed to lend me. This one is certainly intriguing. Alexander's mother falls into a coma just months before East Berlin unites with West Berlin. The doctor warns him that if she suffers another shock, she will certainly die, so Alexander does all he can to reconstruct a Communist Berlin in his little flat, while outside, modernity and capitalism marches on the streets. The methods which he employs are outrageous, including getting a fren to dress up as a TV newscaster to fake news programs to show to his mother.

Eventually, though, his mother does wander out, and he has to 'broadcast' even more sensational news to explain the sweeping social changes outside. The interesting part is that the Socialist Berlin that he uses in his news increasingly become the Socialist Berlin he might have wished for. He begins to broadcast his former hopes and dreams for the former Socialist government, against the bleak backdrop of the modern capitalist state they are in. It is like the voice of the grumpy old man, who is unable to catch up with the present, and can only ramble about, grumbling about the good old days.

Watching it now... I wonder, why didn't I catch it before? Sigh...

*for those wondering, I joined this website, www.wholivesnearyou.com and Billy Soh found me on that website.

We are Singapore, We are Singapore...

In line with the patriotic spirit of the weekend, Happy National Day and Fireworks Viewing to all, with the exception of Yenn and Candle who are waaay too far away to catch them fireworks.

Is that the point of the entire parade? To get a goodie bag and catch the fireworks at the end? Hee...

So what did I do on ND? Nothing too patriotic, other than
1) Wearing a red top
2) Contributing to the economy by shopping with Necroz
3) Listening to Singapore Idol on my handphone on the way home

In fact, if you get the gist of the reports going around on the newspapers, people like me count at the foremost of Lee Hsien Loong's Things To Fix About Singapore List. I'm politically apathetic, cynical and pretty much don' give a damn, as long as I get my prata breakfast in the morning. [k that might be stretching it even for me...] Plus the fact that I'm practically non-existent on the IRAS' and CPF records. [cue to scene of Taxman tearing his hair out, wondering how to get at my money]

But I think the more worrisome part [for the gahmen at least] is the lack of concern of today's Singaporeans in Singapore politics. For most of my generation, we plain don' give a damn, and why should we?

We're conditioned from birth to Respect Your Elders Because They Know Better and Don't Argue With Me Young Man. So fine, you think you're so great, don't bother asking us for help. Hey, what do we know?

We look around and all we see are restrictions on our every movement. Don''t Smoke. Don't Litter. Don't Chew Gum or We'll Spank You. Don't Watch Sex At The City, it's Dirty. Remember all those 'Singapore is a Fine city' T-shirts?

Lastly, why do we wanna take over this country? We'd have to wear something akin to the RI and SJI uniforms all day, sit in boring old Parliament listening to boring old men talk. We'd have to listen to other bratty folks like us complain about how little we're doing for them, whine about how little opportunity they have to make it big, and how much we should be doing in order to make their lives happier.

Position available: Prime Minister of small island state. Tropical climate, good weather, may have to deal extensively with locals.

Hai......... As much as I love Singapore, there are stuff that I would like to see changed. It's like how you hate your room, you wish you could paint it a different colour, you wish it was better, but when your family decides to move.......

I want people to be more open-minded and tolerant of differences. I don't wanna hear about any more stories where Singaporeans complain about cleanliness, hygiene standards, food and overall attitude of people in other countries. I don't wanna see fellow Singaporeans judge other cultures by their own country's standards. Good god, people, the reason why you're in another country is to see something different. If you think Singapore has better toilets, then stay in Singapore and use her toilets, instead of going all the way around the globe.

I want more acceptance of diversity. People in Singapore are so hung up on the herd instinct, it's scary. We're on our way to devoluting to the level of cows. I see this sometimes when adults ask me what I do for a living. "Tuition teacher? What about CPF?" Hallo?? What's the deal with CPF?? Let's get it clear, CPF is not a big cash angpow to you from the gahmen when you retire. CPF is a form of mandatory saving. It's Your Freakin' Money. And if I wanted to have some akin to a CPF account, all I have to do is to open an account with POSB and automatically transfer 20% of my savings to it every month.

Don't talk about interest rates btw. You'd probably get better returns investing in almost anything but CPF.

But my point about herd instinct... We tend to follow each other so much, that we don't know how to break away from the group, and think, "Gee, I don't think it's a great idea to swim through that quicksand pit." Some people don't know how to accept other ways of life. Once you tell them you're doing something different, they frown and tell you to get a job like everyone else. Argh!!! Hallo??? There are about a MILLION people out there who live in cities, don't have CPF, don't have cushy jobs in MNCs, and THEY DO JUST FINE. Gimme a chance before you start condemning me to poverty already!

And stop complaining already! Everything that you don't like being done in Singapore, you complain to the Forum and the style of it is always the same. "I don't like XXXXX and think that the government should ban XXXXX. This would make Singapore a better society." You could insert anything into XXXXX and customise it to your own style. Example:

"I don't like kids playing in the void deck in the afternoon. I think the government should ban kids from playing in the void deck in the afternoon. This would make Singapore a better society."

"I don't like pokemon. The government should ban pokemon. This would make Singapore a better society."

Read through the Forum pages and you're bound to see at least a letter, where someone says that the Government should take steps to blah blah blah and ban blah blah and stop blah from blah blah.

People, please hor. People like you want restrictions on everything under the sun, and then when the restrictions are put in place, you complain that we're not a vibrant city, that we have no freedom.

OF COURSE WE HAVE NO FREEDOM. YOU BLOODY WELL TOOK IT AWAY FROM US WITH ALL YOUR STUPID COMPLAINING. Next time you don't like something, settle it yourself instead of running to the gahmen-papa, sniffing your noses, rubbing your eyes, and wailing. If gahmen-papa can't ( or won't ) do anything, deal with it yourselves! You have a brain, that's supposed to separate you from the rest of the jungle-traipsing apes you know. USE IT FOR A CHANGE.

Stupid, narrow-minded complainers.

But as a balance, there are some things I'm eternally grateful about in Singapore:

Safety. To be able to walk home from the MRT past midnight and not be robbed/mugged/raped/kidnapped/murdered. [the police center nearby might serve as a good deterrent]

An easily understandable subway system. Have you seen the map of the Tube??

The house I live in, the education I've been given, and all other state-subsidised products and services.

A stable government, and a stable environment, with a lack of strikes, bombings, terrorist attacks [we're too small for them to bother] and racist attacks.

And the little things. Prata and teh ping breakfasts. Night Riders that go right into my estate. Trains that work. Short travelling times. Junction 8.

And all my friends and family of course, who will always be there to support me, in good times and bad, in times of sanity, and in times of neuroses. =)

Count on me, Singapore.

To Candle: Yes, I think it's probably that time of the month again... I noticed the regularity of my neuroses too. I think the next time it comes around, I should just go eat cake at Coffee Bean or something... :p Though if it works, I'll probably end up eating cake there like, every month. Eek.

To Slayer: Nah, I don't want to do something with/2/against him, as you described. Then again, my neuroses has passed, so naturally I'm back to my stable mood. Haha... Right now it'll just be nice to sit down over a cup of coffee and have a chat. [Hey, you reading this? ;)] And yea, I read your blog and noticed that. You going through a hormonal phase like me? ;)

Oh, horror, horror

On MSN Today, Cinema's Scariest Scenes. I know I'm a total coward, but I couldn't help but check this out.

Watching the clips on the Internet though kinda takes away some of the horror of the films. It's hard to get freaked out when the Psycho clip keeps hanging and pausing while Linda Blair's in mid-scream. And also plus the fact that it ain't the whole movie but a few minutes of the scariest scene... *shrugs* Not much to get freaked out on.

The freakiest clip, though, in my opinion is the Exorcist one. It's not quite so much what is going on in the clip, but what you suddenly see while watching the clip, a demonic face that suddenly pops out for a second and makes you go, "What the hell...?" Ok, maybe that's the wrong expression for this...

I remember one WuLinDaHui when the IJGals came over to my house and decided to watch The Exorcist. Nervous at first, I decided to watch it since well, everyone was doing so [with the exception of the Slayer intent on using the Internet] and it's not that easy to get freaked out while you're in a group, right?

Wrong. Cue to one of the opening scenes, when the female lead [or was it the priest?] was walking around in a kitchen. Everything's normal, till I see a demonic face appear on one of the white kitchen cabinets.

"What the hell... Did anyone see that??"

"See what?"

"That! That demon face thingy that just appeared on the cupboard!!"

"Was there one?"

"Like yea! It popped out on a cabinet and then disappeared in a sec!"

"But... we didn't see anything."

Froze. And then ran in all my cowardly frenzy to the other room, where I remained for the remainder of the film.

What I know now, of course, is that it was a cinematic effect, purposely put in by the director to freak out his audience and lend extra freakiness to an already freaky film. After I saw the first face, the rest of them latched onto this, and from time to time, I would hear screams of "I saw it! I saw it!" coming from the living room.

Ugh. Any more films like this and I'll probably end up covering my room with crucifixes.

A whole new perspective on the love issue....

http://www.boltcity.com/copper_016_fall.htm

so damn cute... :p

Freakin' shit, can someone fly me to Minneapolis? I WANT TO GO FOR THIS!!!!

http://mcadart.com/mcart/index.cgi?ID=C1OY7E&task=show&cat=Scott+McCloud

Scott McCloud, COMIC GURU!!!!!!!!! WHY DO I HAVE TO LIVE IN SINGAPORE???? ARGH!!!

And replies to the Tags.....

Convo pix at:
http://photobucket.com/albums/v137/boredslacker/convo2004/

much apologies for the delay.......hee.....

Rdg the Jap Name Generator, I must've typed in the link wrongly.... try this:
http://rumandmonkey.com/widgets/toys/namegen/969/

Rdg Dragonfly, considering that the only way for the plot to thicken is for me to do something stupid/crazy/weird with/to/against him...... I think I'll let things be peaceful. You guys just have to wait for the action to happen on its own. :p

feel better after a day out in town, and dinner with Juls. The good thing about dinner with him is that he'll talk so much obscene crap to you, that you're more focused on vomitting out your dinner, rather than getting neurotic all over again. Thanks fren... I think...

He did tell me this enlightening story though, about the Coffee Test:

A professor brought out a beaker, several golf balls, a bucket of sand and a cup of coffee. In front of his bemused class, he put the golf balls into the beaker, filling it to the brim with the golf balls, and he asked the class, "Is there any space left in this beaker?"

The class goes no. The professor smiled knowingly at the class, and tipped the bucket of sand into the beaker. The sand filled in the spaces between the golf balls, and now the beaker was filled to the brim with sand and golf balls.

Several heads in the audience nodded. The professor now turns to the class again, "Now, is there any space left in the beaker?"

The class says no again. The professor now tips in his cup of coffee into the mixture. The sand soaks up the coffee, and turns brown. In front of the amused class, the entire cup of coffee was poured into the seemingly-full beaker.

"What's the point of this exercise? You may be asking." Says the professor.

"The golf balls represent the most important things in your life. Your friends, your family, your lover, God. These are the things that will stay solid and firm in your life, like the golf balls."

"The sand represents all the little things that fill up the rest of your life. Your work, your housework, your bills... all the little nitty gritty things you have to do, that fill up the rest of your time, much like the sand has filled up the spaces between the golf balls."

"The coffee... is to make a point. That no matter how much golf balls, how much sand in your life, there's always time... to have a cup of coffee with friends."

Cute eh? Never knew Juls was capable of such... sentimental crap.

Anyway, to clear my mind, went to the Singapore Arts Museum yesterday. ( The old SJI ) They were having a Wunderpark exhibit, which is supposed to be an interactive exhibition. They did up a couple of the galleries to look like a park, sorta, and you're encouraged to go and scribble and leave your mark on the walls.

[side: If pix take too long to load, skip it all, and click on the PhotoBucket link to the right, and go to the album named SAM]
Some pix:

Maybe these are the snapdragons? :) Little red paper dragons, suspended on poles.

Closeup.

Some secondary school had just come in for a visit while I was there. Here, one of the students leaves her marks to one of the cardboard exhibits.

Graffiti-ed walls

Who can resist an unevil bunny?

Other pix:

SAM is taken over by evil orange mutant ooze

JuMing exhibits

Juming is a Taiwanese artist, whose sculptures are currently being showcased at various locations around Singapore. If you've gone to Orchard and seen some dubious blocks of granite outside Wisma, that's his. At the SAM, they have a couple of sculptures from his Living World series and Monk series.

BTW, these are the free ones I managed to see. The others, in another gallery, I had to pay for... so I din go in... hee..

The Living World series is inspired by the sculptor's observations of the world around him. Hence, this series tends to be observations of ordinary people in their everyday lives.

Lining Up - A common sight in Singapore, especially when free things are involved.

Aunties taking a rest - Probably from all the lining up?

Monks was inspired by the Venerable Ming Yi, who has done dangerous stunts in order to raise funds for the Ren Ci hospital. The group of sculptures is done in dedication to his selfless [and reckless] spirit.


There are more sculptures to be seen in the same style outside Fullerton, along Orchard Road, and at Changi Airport.

After dinner with Juls, I also went down to the Substation for First Takes. [yes, I had a very arty-farty night] This is a program organized by the Substation for aspiring local film-makers to showcase their short films.

4 short films were shown, namely:

Under the Manhattan Bridge - An encounter between a Chinatown boy and a Manhanttan pickpocket.

Portrait of a Young Man - The story of Lawrence Leow, which turned out to be a propaganda film for Singapore Poly.

The Assassin - A funny look at the life of a local assassin. :p Very fun, and tongue-in-cheek.

And my personal favourite,
The Funeral Photo - An elderly couple go to a photo studio to have their funeral photos taken.

It was quite interesting, but the Funeral Photo was hilarious. :) Too bad the director wasn't there for the Q&A after that, it would've been interesting to hear his insights on his own film. I signed up for the mailing list too, so if I hear of any other free screenings....

Hearing the directors speak of their difficulties in the local [practically non-existent] film industry in Singapore, though, was quietly inspiring. These people were prepared to take off 3 years from their jobs in order to pursue their dreams, and see if they have any chance of making it here. The Manhattan director was an investment banker before she decided to pursue her filmmaking dream, for g'sakes. Kudos for their guts.

Interesting. When we think of the film industry, we mostly think of Hollywood, Japan, Korea, and some European, but we never think of the local ones. This little pocket of filmmakers have been quietly toiling behind the veils, waiting for their chances, and exploiting little pockets of publicity like this, all confident in their dream, and willing to make the sacrifices just so that they can tell themselves in the future, "I tried."

Why don't they succeed? Funding for one, is a big problem. The 3 directors worked on shoestring budgets, with the exception of Portrait, because it was commissioned by Singapore Poly. The Assassin was shot with one camera and edited on IMovies, which is about as low-budget as you can go. :p Just goes to prove that finance is no barrier to creativity and talent.

Then there's the problem of publicity and public opinion. Most people think of local films as "bad", "low-budget", "fake angmoh accents", and such. As such, public opinion towards most local films is biased, and we tend to think that local films revolve mainly around Jack Neo and Royston Tan, and local actors all come from Mediacorp. There's a whole bunch of talented people out there, whom we've never heard of, but who are toiling for their 15 minutes.

But which also goes to prove. Creativity can exist anywhere. Censorship and funding may limit expression, but not creativity. Creativity can always find a way around everything.

Damn, why didn't I just study the arts?

A little appetiser before the main course...

Using my first name and surname,

My japanese name is 遠藤 Endoh (distant wisteria) 三千代 Michiyo (three thousand generations).
Take your real japanese name generator! today!
Created with Rum and Monkey's Name Generator Generator.

Using my chinese hanyu pinyin,

My japanese name is 中島 Nakashima (center of the island) 久美子 Kumiko (eternal beautiful child).
Take your real japanese name generator! today!
Created with Rum and Monkey's Name Generator Generator.

So I shall combine the 2. My new Jap name is Nakashima Michiyo, 3000 generations of mine will live in the center of the island. :p So my family will live in Bishan for 3000 generations. Hahaha... Yenn and Krynn, wanna try it out before going for Jap class? ;)

Eternal Turmoil of the Neurotic Mind

There are a few things you have to understand about the Piscean mind before you can make any sense of the following entry.

1. We are sensitive. We pick up each trace of emotion on other people, like the magic brush that picks up lint from your clothing, and the lint that we pick up sticks to us. Sometimes, though, we end up thrashing the same surface over and over again, convinced that there are microbes of dust we missed, when actually there may be none there at all.

2. We live with one foot in fantasy and the other in reality. Oftentimes, the world gets too much for us, and our way of handling it is to crawl into our own fantasy cubbyhole and hide there. We hate the real world. ( This is also why Pisceans have alcoholic and drug tendencies )

3. We are imaginative. Because we live so much in fantasy, it's pretty easy for us to weave our own fantasy threads. And we can weave some pretty damn big ones at that.

All 3 options are bad enough on their own, but when you put them all together, it's a recipe for cosmic disaster, if you ask me.

I went through another insomniac night last night, tossing and turning on my bed. Somehow, my body has the idea that it is wrong to sleep before 12, and if I try to sleep any earlier than that, it protests. Either that it was fooled by the light filtering through my window. ( Ever notice how bright it is at night? What with the street lights, and the corridor lights, bouncing and reflecting all over the place, it's a wonder anyone of us gets any sleep at night. )

Or maybe it was all the rubbish that was going through my head. ( Or maybe the rubbish came up because I couldn't sleep? Chicken and egg, chicken and egg. ) Look at the palms of my hand. They're covered all over with lines, criss-crossing all over the surface of my palm. Such lines represent things worrying on the person's mind. And if that's the case, I've tons of worries. ( Probably a result of the 3 Piscean Tendencies )

One of the things on my mind was my love life. ( Gods I hope I don regret posting this up later, but it does feel better to tell someone(s) about it ) Or should I say, rather, my utter lack of it. I'm already 23 and still haven't gotten into a relationship yet. Granted that I'm mature enough ( or I like to think so anyway ) to know that it doesn't matter that I'm single, that I have other things in my life, that there will be someone out there, that my time will come, yadda yadda, still...

"Those who stand in the spotlight will never know how it feels, to stand so close to it, and yet never be in it."
~Xander, an ep of Buffy.

You see all your friends being shot down by Cupid's arrow one by one, ( some of them getting that arrow painfully wrenched out later on, and still having a broken off arrowhead stuck in their hearts ) and pretty soon you realise you're one of the few left standing. The rest are all away somewhere in that little bubble of luv that a couple builds up around itself whenever they're together. It sux even more when you're a single gal out with 2 bubbles. You feel uncomfortable, slightly ignored, and wondering whether if you were to wander off by yourself, would the bubbles even notice you were gone, and how long would it take them to look outside their bubble and realise you were gone?

( With this note, if I ever get attached, I solemnly swear that I will never do this to any of my single-at-the-time friends. If I do, may Aphrodite kick me in the butt. )

Friends give you advice, encouragement, ( for which I am eternally grateful ) but you still wonder. Is this really what God has meant for you? Maybe you can do more good to the world if you were to remain single? Maybe you're destined to be this way? On the paternal side of the family, there seems to be a 1/3 chance of getting hooked. My grandfather was the eldest of 3, and the only one to be married. My father was also the eldest of 3, and also the only to be married. My granduncle, grandaunt, uncle and aunt are all unmarried, even to this day. Maybe it's in my genes? I have a 1/3 chance of getting attached and married, which I share with my bro?

Dragonfly then enters into the neuroses. ( Er, if you're reading this... Bear with me while you can. ) Should I have tried entering into a relationship with him? Do I like him enough to start something with him? Or am I, as juls said in the Reloaded episode, more in love with the idea of love, rather than love itself? Is it fair to enter into a relationship, simply for the sake of ending the eternal loneliness? And just as importantly, do I like him?

( Sensing a lot of people reading this with bated breath )

I have a slight confession to make. *_* Some days, I walk home, wondering whether I'll meet him along the way. I have a student living at his block, and when I walk there, I wonder if I'll meet him, or whether he's home or out late, working on his ECA. Some nights, I stand at my kitchen balcony, looking over at his cluster of flats, and wondering whether he's working late tonight, or whether he's even home at all.

Does this constitute "like"? Or is it more a case of me realising I have a dragonfly and unable to ignore his presence on my shoulder? Am I noticing him because he came up like the little bleep on the radar screen? Or is it simply that the physical proximity reminds me more often of him?

*Bleep *Bleep *Bleep

Then again, what makes me think he's still my Dragonfly? Maybe he's already tired of me, flown away to another shoulder when I turned my head away for too long. Maybe he's been scared off by my neurotism and has gone away to more peaceful shores. Maybe he's just busy with work, school and life and hasn't really thought about it, unlike me.

What the hell am I thinking? What the hell do I want?

ARGH!!! I SHOULD JUST TAKE A BLOODY SLEEPING PILL THE NEXT TIME!!!

Trying to get myself to sleep, I tried instead to think of something that would relax me instead. I tried to use my Piscean imagination to put myself back on the streets of Paris, on Vauxholm. I tried to remember the spread of colours in Midsummer Stockholm. I tried to remember the rolling green fields that had no end, the impossibly blue sky, and the way the seagulls would cry, as they glided above me.

And then I entered another kind of depression, on realising that I was still in Singapore, with all the HDB blocks boxing me in. With the endless pressures and expectations of society, family, friends, and my own insecurities. That feeling of endless hope and potential was lost, and all I had left of it was a rapidly fading memory that I desperately tried to hold on to. Feathers floating off into the sky, my hand grasping desperately for one, knowing that if I caught one, everything would be all right, but still they floated elusively out of reach.

Once I dreamt that I was on holiday again, with Juls, Jordan, and Sophia. We were somewhere, I don't know where, and we were preparing to go off and explore this new city we were in. We ran off along a street, excited and happy...

And then I woke up, and I realised I was still in my bed in Singapore. No new horizons to explore. Same old dreary Singapore. Gods, now that was the most depressing wakeup ever.

I don't miss the buildings, I don't miss the attractions, I don't miss the food, I don't miss the people in Europe. What I missed most were the feelings I had through the trip. Feelings of peace, unbridled freedom, a sense of euphoria, and a heart bursting with optimism, and self-confidence, that everything in the world was truly possible and that I could, and was capable of, doing anything that I wanted. That's what I took from Europe, and that's what I missed most.

What a buncha crap. Note to self: Don't read books about paranoid-psychotic-depressive teenagers before bed, like the Moth Diaries by Rachel Klein, and don't eat garlic bread as a late night snack.

I don't know what time I finally snoozed off, but I know it was after my bro had finished his project work and came up to bed, so it must've been late. I woke up in the morning, at 730, to prepare for a 9am student, and it felt like my eyes were drooping lower than a St Bernard's, and so dry I had to keep blinking and tearing. Even now, at 2pm in the afternoon, my eyes want to sleep, even though my body and mind are wide awake. I even told Dragonfly that I thought he was embarrassed to talk to me or something, because he'd turned me down the last few times I asked him out for dinner. Great, another dumb SMS that I'll probably regret later. Groan...

The one uplifting point about today was the glorious weather on the walk home from J8. 12 in the afternoon, the sky was a clear blue and the sun was a comfortable warm temperature, like the embrace of a lover's arms. Everything was bright and sunny, and served as a reminder from God of 2 things:

1. This is why you chose to forsake the office life. This is one of the simple things in life that tell you life is worth living, and life is good.

2. Everything's good. Everything's fine. Live your life, instead of worrying about it.

Blogging over, time to leave the house, and live. =)

Rainbow Pride

For those who didn't get the hidden allusion in the title...

I finally managed to catch Connie and Carla last Friday afternoon. "Women dressed as men dressed as women!" The basic premise of the story is that Connie and Carla dream of making it big singing show tunes in dinner theatres. One day, they witness their boss getting shot by some gangsters and they run, not knowing that their boss had secreted a bag of cocaine in their purse.

Looking for a place to hide, with no culture, no music and no theatres, as Carla puts it, they therefore end up in Los Angeles. :) There, Connie gets the idea of hiding out as drag queens, and they audition for a pub. Soon, they become sensations, probably because no one could imagine a guy/girl could sing like them.

The best thing is that the girls, with their outrageous show personalities, manage to fit in perfectly into their role as drag queens. They are sharp, campy, and have a f**k-you attitude that is to die for, dahling. Hence, they fit in just fine with the other sharp, campy, f**k-you drags. :)

The plot itself is predictable. You know Connie will fall in love with David Duchovny, ( He of the Fox Mulder fame. Oh, how long it took him to get back to screen! ) you know everything will work out fine, you know the girls will have to reveal their secret identities at the end. So what's the draw for this movie? Watching the gays and the transvestites in it. :D

Gawds! Those guys were hilarious! Like the first time C&C are introduced to these 4 guys, who come in, look at their sparse apartment, and declare "decorating time!" and then turn their apartment into something out of Martha Stewart's Home Living. *flicks a limp wrist* Be-yoo-tiful, dahling. Check out the guys in the audience, who wear pink tank tops and belly-button baring tanks, and who can barely hold back their emotions after the girls finish singing.

Or the drag queens, who dress up in their outrageous costumes and makeup, and who probably act more feminine than I do most of the time. :p "Oh, I hate you!" "Oh dear, oh dear, where's my lipstick?" "Are you all right? Do you need company?" *accompanied by sincere, caring glance* Gawds! They're so campy! You almost pity David Duchovny, who has to make a wrenching decision between his disapproving fiancee ( "Jeff, they're freaks..." ) and his cross-dressing brother. ( "This is who I am. You can't just pick the parts of me to like." ) Especially the scene when his full-dragged up brother walks in one direction away and his stern fiancee walks away in another and he's uncomfortably stuck in the middle, not knowing which side to follow.

Of course, this movie being the predictable type, you know that eventually he will acknowledge his brother.

So not to sound homophobic or prejudiced or anything, but I think the main draw of the movie is to laugh at the gays and the drag queens in it. ( Sorry to any gays or trans out there ) Their performance is superbly hilarious, and more than offsets the predictability of the show. ( Though even the ending was a bit much for me )

Girls' Nite Out

The rest of the night was spent over dinner and shopping with Necroz. High levels of oxytocin were probably in play last night, as we dined over sushi, gossiped, ( "So is your boss as cheekopek as ever?" "You mean he hasn't made a move yet??" ) and then made a beeline for the shopping.

Sometimes, in my single mode, and out with another single female, I wonder why some attached women like to drag their boyfriends along on shopping trips with them. Having shopped with both guys and gals, I say the experience of shopping with gals is way more fun. There's some kind of shopping high when both of you squeal over the same cute bra and run to the changing room to try it in together. ( In separate rooms of course ) Or when you try on new clothes, and step out and ask each other for opinions. ( "You need a larger size for that" ) There are just some stuff that a female friend is likely to tell you, rather than a male friend.

Compare: Shopping partners Necroz ( typical single female shopping partner ) and Turtle ( typical unwilling male shopping partner )

You see a sale in one of your favourite shops.

With N: "OMG, there's a sale!" "That shirt is so cute! Let's go in!" "Yah! Let's go!"

With T: "OMG, there's a sale!" T's shoulders slump, face falls, bored expression shows. "Ha? Another one?"

You take a few items into the changing room, and wear them outside for opinions.

With N: "How does this shirt look?" "Too tight" "This one?" "No leh, colour not nice" "This one?" "Yah! That one looks good!"

With T: "How does this shirt look?" "Ok." "This one?" "Ok." "This one?" "Ok."

You are deciding which to buy.

With N: "This one?" "Hm, no leh, not that nice. Save your money." "This one?" "If you can find it in red, then buy it!" "This one?" "Yah! Get it! You look damn nice!"

With T: "This one?" "Buy so many clothes for what?? So ex some more! Save your money for something else lah!"

You see................

But then again, I suppose the advantage of an unwilling male shopping partner is that his bored mood will lessen your enjoyment at the shopping experience, and hence prevent you from shopping too much and swiping your card too often. ;)

In a sappy mood

My husband was an engineer. Since I met him, he was always an unflappable rock in my life. I knew he always had his feet firmly planted on the ground, and it seemed that no matter what else went crazy, he would be the one constant.

Three years of romance, and two years of marriage later, I got tired. He was the most unromantic man I know. He never bought me flowers, he never surprised me, and nothing changed in our marriage. After some time, I finally found the courage to tell him that I wanted to leave him. He just sat there, speechless. My heart froze... what kind of man was I married to that didn't even know what to say to make me stay?

After a while, he spoke, "What can I do to change your mind?"

"I will stay if you can give me a good answer to this question," I replied coldly. "If I asked for a flower that grew on a cliff, and you knew that getting it for me means certain death, would you get it for me?".

His face grew troubled. "Can I give you an answer tomorrow morning?" he asked. Hearing that kind of answer, my heart died. I knew that I could never be happy with a man who couldn't even give me an answer straight away.

The next morning, when I woke up, he was missing. In the living room, under a warm glass of milk, was a note. My eyes grew misty as I read it... It said:

"Dear, I have my answer. I will never pick the flower for you if it meant certain death. But before you leave, I hope you can give me a chance to give you my reasons....

You will always sit in front of the computer and type for about the whole day, but everytime you will end up in tears cause your formating will always go all over the place... I need my fingers, to do the formating for you, so your tears will become smiles.

You like to travel, but would always get lost... I need my eyes, so that I can bring you to the nicest places on earth.

Everytime you leave the house, you would always forg et your keys... I need my legs, so that I can run home to open the door for you.

You never knew how to take care of yourself... I need my hands to help you get rid of the pesky white hair you hate so much when you grow old, to trim your nails, to feed you.

So you see, that's why I can't pick the flower for you. Until I find that there is someone who loves you more than I do, I will need my body to take care of you. If you accept my reasons, then open the door, where I will be waiting with your favourite muffin."

With tears streaming from my eyes, I opened the door, and there he stood, with a extremely worried look on his face. He still had nothing to say, but just stood there waving the packet he had in his hand in front of me. And then I knew for a fact that I will never find another man who will ever love me as much as he does. Just because someone doesn't love you the way you want them to doesn't mean that they don't love you with all they have...

Altogether now.... AAAAAAWWWWWWW.................... *sniff sniff*

So call me a hopeless romantic already. I'm precisely looking out for that kinda guy. *wink wink*

New Look!

Yupz, I decided to do some renovations... You should all be able to read the blog while the changes are going on, so no worries. Hopefully no more coding screw-ups while I'm at it too.

This past weekend has been... eventful. I started out on Thurs nite ( yes, as early as that ) celebrating Sylveracyd's birthday at her place. At this moment I've just finished designing her pressie, after a lot of headache and printing and stuff. Hope she likes it, if she's reading this. :p

Then Friday night was spent with Quet and Zhuan at Jazz@Southbridge. ( Don't click on the link hor, I don't think that's a working email link ) The music was alright, the drinks were alright. The first one, St Thomas', tasted like peach and lychee juice, making one wonder whether there was any alcohol in it at all. The 2nd, Flaming Lambhorgini, I will NEVER drink again.

After the first drink, I felt properly cheated of my alcoholic binge, so Zhuan and I got a menu for a 2nd drink each. I skimmed through the list, looking for something new to try out, and the name "Flaming Lambhorgini" caught my eye. Sounded interesting, and looked expensive enough to have a higher alcoholic content, so...

Later on, the waiter came by with a martini glass in one hand, and a shot and a lighter in the other.

Bloody hell, I'm getting a bad feeling about why the name is "Flaming"

"Um, this is my first time drinking this, so can you tell me what you're gonna do?"

"Oh, ok. What I'm gonna do is light the drink, pour this in, and you have to drink it up in one shot."

Bloody bloody hell. That goes my hopes of having something to slowly drink the night away.

So he lights it the first time, and throws in the contents of the shot, and the glass is alight with these simmering blue flames dancing on the surface of the drink. Almost poetic, if not for the fact that I had to drink it. Images of my lips catching blue fire raced through my head.

"I'll get you a straw for that." Phew.

He pops in the straw, and I start sucking, but it's still not fast enough. The straw actually starts to melt when I'm halfway through the drink! SOS! Mayday! I pull out the straw before the melted plastic contaminates my drink, and I accidentally drip some drops of the blue flaming liquid onto the table, where they glow for a while.

Suddenly I the words "Nuclear disaster" pop out in my head, along with images of mutated teenage turtles.

Anyway, with the 2nd straw, I sipped up the remainder of the drink, with only 1/3 of the straw melted this time. Another reason why they call it "Flaming": The stupid thing BURNS your throat like no other. It feels like the blue flames from the drink are flaming down your esophagus down to your digestive system. Ergh ergh.......

The waiter got me a glass of water after that, and that was my drink for the rest of the night. Water. Blood hell.

Then Saturday night the Egg Squad made an impromptu visit to Harry's at Boat Quay to watch Goldfish and the Lindy Hoppers dance. Damn those dancers were good. And it helps that the music was TONS better than Southbridge also. Like, this is the way jazz should be! And the dancers exploited the music to the full. Everytime the band started a new set, the whole crowd would descend to the extremely constrained dance floor and dance away, somehow not quite managing to get into each other's way.

( Well, not quite. Goldfish bumped into some dancers I think )

And they had so much fun while doing it, it was infectious. It's tempting to go for lindy classes after seeing other people have so much FUN while doing it! And to dance to your favourite music, what a kick! When I have more cash... :(

Incidentally, omedeto gozaimasu to I-en san, who received a prize for full attendance during Tenrikyo's graduation ceremony. Heh... The ceremony was on Sat afternoon at Crown Prince Hotel, and we all received certs proclaiming us graduated from Level 1. Which means we can basically say "Hi" and "Goodbye" to each other. Hee, just kidding...

The ceremony was long and boring, but the food was worth waiting for. Anyone who wants to hold a function, Crown Prince has damn good Chinese food. Fried rice, dim sum, fried chicken, red bean paste, bee hoon... the 4 of us ( me, Yenn, Krynn and ZX ) ate like crazy, and I don't think any of us had dinner that night. *Burp*

Afterwards Yenn and I went down to the Youth Council to check it out, passing by some bands on the way. I think Sat was kinda a busking festival day or something, cos when I got off the bus at Far East, there was a small crowd there, listening to a band play outside the building. I stand corrected, listening to a band try to play, because they were bad. People like that need people like Simon Cowell to come give them reality checks. What the hell are you doing singing in public like that???

Then outside Cineleisure, while Yenn and I were walking there, another band was trying their pitifully best to do covers of Red Hot Chilli Pepper songs. What they were doing, to my battered ears, seemed to be massacring RHCP songs. ( Did I spell that right? ) God, it pains the heart ( and the ears ) to hear someone kill your favourite songs. I rushed Yenn to the NYC building before we had to listen any more to them.

This band, however, earns praise.

 
Their name is Rave ( I think ) and their songs are rock, with an airy, light style. The kind of music that makes you wanna stretch your arms to the blue sky, and feel the wind on your face. I like their music, and I'm wondering if they would ever come out with an album, because they're freakin' good. Want another opinion? Yenn thought they were good too, and I noticed that while they were playing, there were more people standing around, listening to them, and tapping their feet to the beat. That's how you tell a band is good. ;)

And that's it for the weekend liao... Hope the week goes good...

It figures that the more time ( or lazy ) I am, the more my blog gets updated.

Candle: Yes, I did a lot of thinking during that little road trip to Malmo. Well, when you're in a car careening down the highway, and all the other passengers are asleep, you have no alternative but to stare out at the fields and lose yourself in thought. Hahaha...

But I admit, that road trip, with the endless scenery of green fields, forest, and the giant windmills spinning slowly, will always be etched in my mind.

The Best in the World

Anyway, plagiarised from Newsweek this week, is a special report of The Best Countries in the World.

The article lists the best countries in the world in several categories, for example State, People, Business, Science, and the Arts.

So for example, the best country to be an idealist is The Netherlands, for their curious mixture of business and altruism, while the best country to be young is Turkey, with a median age of 25.

People who want to work overseas, the best country to be an expatriate is Britain, which is keen on attracting those with degrees and talent to their shores.

But another interesting report is the one that asks: "Can poor people be more self-satisfied than the rich?"

The article states that "a World Value Survey of people in 65 nations... decided that the world's happiest people lived in Nigeria"

"Those ranked second to fifth in the happiness survey were the people of Mexico, Venezuela, El Salvador and Puerto Rico."

Huh????? All poor, developing nations? What happened to the big guns, like the US of A, Japan, France? Does it really show that poorer people are happier than the rich?

Well, not exactly. Firstly, every single person on this earth has their own personal definition of happiness. So which means there are, oh, say about 1billion different ideas of happiness on earth?

Then satisfaction too is different from happiness. Remember this theory in Management? That one could be in a state of negative motivation, satisfaction, or positive motivation? ( Ok, I forgot what that theory was ) The idea was that one could be satisfied with one's work, but not be positively motivated to do more for it. You get enuff peanuts to make you happy, but not enough to make you want to work for bananas.

The key point in the article, however, is that "happiness can be a tantalizing but elusive goal - a ripe apple in a tree that's always just out of reach" When you have no money, you want more money. When you have money, you want more money.

Actually in a past, past issue of Newsweek, there was an example that clearly highlighted this. When you're stuck in an office, you envy the guy who's flying off somewhere on a business trip. When you're on economy, you envy the guy in first class
The guy in first class envies the guy in business
The guy in business sees the guy who managed to charter a private jet
And the guy in the private jet sees Donald Trump getting onto his own privately owned jet!

The cycle of envy and want goes on and on. And as it turns, our dissatisfaction grows, regardless of the fact that we may earn more than the average Nigerian, have enough to eat, a roof over our heads, and friends and family who love us and all our money-scheming ways.

Also, there's another theory that "satisfying relationships are a more important influence on happiness than income". So the more or better relationships you have with the people around you would be more likely to affect your happiness.

Judging from some friends, I would say this is true to some extent too. What's the point of working in a nice office, with a nice pay, but where half the people would rather see you dead six feet under? Why not work for far less the money, in a place where you are appreciated, and where people are nice to you and respect you? ( Another reason why I prefer to work with young, impressionable kids )

Well, we all have differing ideas of happiness, as evidenced by this article. If you guys get a hand on Newsweek, ( perhaps the free browsing copies at Borders ) read the article. It's enlightening in more ways than one.

Oh, and incidentally? In their Top 10 countries list, Singapore ranks as 9, with the description "City-state with a corporate mind-set. Clean government", beating Canada. ( We beat Canada?? ) Turtle may be glad to know that Sweden ranks first, because of "high marks for health care and innovation".

So you see, even as much as life sucks in Singapore, we still only lost to 8 other countries to be one of the best to live in. Maybe that's something worth considering over. ;)

Remember Friendster?

So this slacker was checking out the Friendster website this day. ( Yes, remember what Friendster is? ) I got bored, felt kaypoh, and decided to nose around to see who I knew, what happened to who I knew, and so on.

The result is rather interesting. In my messages box, I found a guy that had apparently created a website dedicated to himself, himself and himself. The writing on his page was good, but the clincher was the advert he had made for himself, linking people to his Friendster testimonials. Ok.... Too bad the way he dressed in it made him look like some Chippendale boytoy... ok, maybe I'm being mean here, but check it out for yourselves.

Then it turns out that Sophia ( fellow European traveller ) found my profile, through Jul. Click, added her as friend. Then got curious, wondering who else Jul knew that I possibly did as well.

Click on Jul's friends, found Jordan, ( irritating guy who kept suanning and pinching me ) and other ex-classmates from CJC. Apparently these people out there update their Friendster profiles a whole lot more frequently than I do ( mine still says I'm a student ) and so it's an interesting way to see what's happened to all your old classmates. ( and also kaypohly look at their testimonials to see what others write about them and laugh )

For one, all the girls appear to have become chiobus over time. Did I miss a trend somewhere? Even the already-cute seems to have become impossibly beautiful, as according to their profiles. Why can't someone just put up a photo of them just having woken up with bed hair or something? Plain honesty is so under-appreciated.

Then I kaypohed some more. Hm, this guy is now working as this, this girl is working as that, this girl is in another relationship, this one still likes so-n-so. Please tell me this photo has been altered, because no one someone can look that good in a photo. This guy hasn't changed a bit. This guy has strange hair. This guy watches Naruto. This guy knows... him??? OMG it's him! And suddenly you find someone you thought had dropped off the face of the earth. Now it turns out that with a few clicks, a bit more waiting time, you could be in contact with someone whom, for all you knew, could have died long ago.

Well... that few clicks is still impending at the time I'm writing this, because Friendster also takes a goddamn long time to load. Bleah. And also because I'm hesitant to come out of me comfy little shell to make contact with the world outside again. C'mon, it took me that long just to polish the scales.

Should I make the effort to contact someone whom I haven't seen for years, and will probably not remain in contact with after this? I don't like the idea of collecting Friendster profiles as some kind of hobby, or as a scoreboard for my popularity, but sometimes, maybe you're just curious about what's happened to the people you used to know, and how have they turned out. ( The downside is that it could turn out they've become even bigger bastards than when you knew them )

Or maybe I should just do other stuff with my time, like blog. ;) Well, at least it's inspired me to at least update my profile a little.

Occupation: Full-time Slacker, who teaches tuition for the $$$

Stockholm

Is now up on the Europe Blog.

Met Candle and Yenn to watch Supersize me just last night, and Candle was regaling me with tales of shopping in Thailand. Argh... I can't wait... That wholesale market she visited is especially tempting...

Of course, something else compounding the problem is that I may potentially be out of work around oct/nov/dec, when the exams end, and I don't know if the parents want me to tutor their kids in dec, in prep for sec. sch/O levels/N levels. Now I'm considering all kinds of wayward options to earn money during that time, including:

-Selling T-shirts again, coming up with new designs, and using the old stock from the last venture.
-Setting up some kind of holiday class in my house, like creative writing.
-Starving during those 3 months, and concentrating on other creative ventures, like writing or drawing
-Going to Thailand around mid-end Nov, find some funky stuff, buy back in bulk and sell to people in Dec. :p Anyone needs cheap Xmas presents to give to other people? Hahaha...
-Do everything on my list. What have I got to lose?

So which do you guys think is a more viable option?

Incidentally, after doing some research on the Net, I think I'll be able to go to Thailand for about SGD600, which includes airfare, and accomo for 3N in Chiangmai, and 3N in Bangkok, though I'm thinking of 4N Chiangmai and 2N Bangkok instead. I'll probably aim for mid-end Nov, because of above plans, and I've decided that party should consist of no more than 4 people. Anymore, and decision-making goes haywire.

And I hope to make day trips into Cambodia or Laos too. Apparently it can be arranged from Thailand. Hm...

Ok, need money. Fast. Hard. Any old ladies with gold jewellery around my estate? *Peeps out the window*

SuperSize Me

Watch this show.... and never eat fast food again.

By now most of you know the story of Morgan Spurlock. Spurred on by the lawsuit against Mc's by 2 obese girls, who claimed that Ronald McD was responsible for their obese condition, he went on a 30 day McDiet, eating nothing but Mc's meals, 3X a day, and supersized if they asked him if he wanted it.

And by God, the supersized McMeal? Will probably feed 4 of us. The fries are gigantic and the amount of Coke is about half a gallon. In fact, on the 3rd day of his diet, he threw up the supersized meal in the carpark, because it was so damn much food.

Yes, he's probably insane. There's only so far you can go in the name of artistic license, and in this case, it would have probably shot his liver to pieces, ruined his sex life, and made him gain over 10 kg in a month. ( which he actually did )

And it's good. In fact, I met Candle before the movie, and we ate at BK. I jokingly told her that this would probably be the last time we ate fast food after watching the movie. And in fact, during the movie I suddenly had strong cravings for broccoli. Because Spurlock looks so gross while he's eating Mc's that you just don't feel like eating anymore. Bleah. Thank goodness we didn't even buy popcorn in.

But in the end, the movie is just one side of the Blame Game. Mc's puts the onus on parents to teach their kids. He says Mc's doesn't provide information for parents to teach their kids. The govt is under too much pressure from the food companies to provide healthier food in school canteens. The corporations say they're just doing business.

Yeargh. Please. Everyone knows that fast food is bad for you. If you refuse to believe that, buy chicken from KFC and squeeze the oil out onto the paper. There's no blotter paper absorbent enough to absorb all that oil. Lookit all the mayo BK and Mc's puts on its fish burgers. Check out all the salt on the fries. [Jul has this habit of asking for extra salt from BK and sprinkling it on his fries. Eek. Like they're not doused enough already]

The thing making it worse is that most Americans don't exercise much anymore. Take the average day of an office worker. You wake up, walk to the MRT, go to your office, and you sit there for the whole day, till lunch, and then you sit somemore, till you go home, and sleep. There's not much exercise time in there. Experts say we should have at least 30 mins of exercise a day to keep fit, but face it, who has that time?

Gods. Our office and fast food culture is making us all fat and unhealthy. And who says progress is good for us?

Sorry if my blog went a bit haywire. After getting Candle's SMS, I logged on to discover... all the words on my blog had disappeared. WTF WTF WTF. The problem has hopefully been rectified and you guys are hopefully now reading this as normal.
 
Watashi no Nihon Shiken wa ii desu ne! Watashi, to I-en san, to Lin-Da san ima, wa le-be-ru II no gakusei desu. Rai shu no do yoobi, minna san wa ku-ra-n pu-lin-su ho-te-ru de tabe masu! Yoku desu! Fukuda sensei, doomo arigato gozaimasu! 
  
The Parisian leg is up on the Europe blog. Check it out.  

In today's Sunday Lifestyle, Colin Goh commented that, upon coming back to Singapore for 2 weeks after living in another country, he now feels his Singaporeanness coming back to him. As in, he desperately wants to get out of the country. :p My sympathies, but at least he managed to live somewhere else and make a living there, while I could only begone for a few weeks, and still have to come back here.
 
"Still have to come back here". That simple sentence carries a ton of undertones with it. The strongest of which is the underlying wish that I didn't have to come back. That I could stay over there, explore the rest of the world, and never come back to Singapore again.
 
Though I know that part of it is pure impulse, the trip also opened a kind of hunger for something, which was never there before. It was as if, having eaten some kind of forbidden fairy food, I'm now filled with the longing of it. The longing to see new worlds. The longing to open my eyes again. The longing to watch the sun set over Prague Castle.
 
*Focus. Reality. Here*
 
The result of it is that now I'm filled with a kind of wanderlust, the kind that hits kender in the Dragonlance world, and I want to desperately leave Singapore again. Or at least, see something new other than the all-too-familiar HDB blocks, which seem more and more like the walls of a well, confining me to the bottom, while cruelly allowing me the view of the sky.
 
I will crawl out of this well. Having been shown the way, now knowing that there is a way out, how can I be content for long here?
 
Once you let the bird of the cage, and let it fly, how can you expect it to be happy in its cage again? Even if it is fed, watered, and allowed to play on a golden perch, it will not be happy anymore. Far more merciful to let it out, and let it die under the blue sky.
 
*Focus. Here. Now*
 
Hence I now plan my Thailand trip, browsing through the Lonely Planet website for sights to see in Bangkok and Chiangmai, other than the usual shopping venues. Hence I pulled Yenn one Saturday out of the getting-boring Orchard road into the bustle of Chinatown, ending up drinking teh and munching on kaya balls in a kopitiam, after browsing through much of the tourist trappy stuff and cheena souvenirs. [Side: We actually met Alwin there, and on the way home, I met Denis and Siqi. Why's so many people congregating at Chinatown all of a sudden?] Too bad I couldn't convince her to Little India. :p
 
I'm on a restless phase. Humph. Where will this wind blow me to next?