"Ministers' Pay is too high"... Really?

This post may get me into trouble with some people, but I just wanna say it. Don't worry, nothing seditious.

There are a few reasons why politics in Singapore generally does not interest me, and the most common one which I tell people is:

"Because there's simply no opposition worth voting for."

Put it this way. Between a respectable-looking minister and a guy hawking propaganda in front of Centrepoint shouting anti-govt slogans.......... It's simply not very convincing of your political ability, is all.

The one opposition candidate that got my vote [not literally] is Chiam See Tong of Potong Pasir. Here was a man who seemed generally interested in the welfare of the residents under his care, and didn't see the need to resort to hawker-like behaviour in order to boost his relationship with his voters.

The reason why I've turned this way is because of an email I recently received.

The email railed a familiar complaint, that of ministerial salaries, that they were too high. Among some of the statistics they mailed to me were:

Annual salaries of heads of government:

1. Singapore Prime Minister US$1,100,000 (S$1,958,000) a year

2. United States of America President: US$200,000

3. United Kingdom Prime Minister: US$170,556

4. Australia Prime Minister: US$137,060


Annual salaries of heads of government:

1. Singapore Minister: US$819,124

2. UK Minister: US$146,299

3. US Cabinet Secretary: US$157,000

(Source: Asian Wall Street Journal 10 Jul 2000)

And then the crunch:

"In stark contrast, BASIC SALARY FOR A MINISTER STARTS AT SGD1,166,844 A YEAR,OR JUST UNDER SGD100,000 A MONTH.

What these ministers earns in just ONE MONTH exceeds the ANNUAL TAKE HOME
salary of 80% of Singapore's income earning population."

Upon first read, you might feel scandalized, or at least a bit kek, like I did, especially if you're one of those Singaporeans earning less than 100,000 a month. BUT is there something wrong with the way the numbers have been displayed?

The most glaring omission of course, is that it is NOT stated whether the President of the United States earns US$200,000 a year, or a month, but I'm assuming the authors mean a year. I don't believe that they feel we are that stupid.

Secondly, the ministers earn a salary that is more than the yearly salary of most Singaporeans. SO WHAT??? That's totally keeping in terms with economical concepts. If you're a degree holder, do you expect to have the same take home pay as an A level holder? NO, YOU BLOODY WELL DON'T. That's because of all the hard work and sweat that you and your parents went through to bring you through Uni. In fact, you EXPECT to earn more simply because you have been through a better education than other A level holders.

It's funny how most people will agree with the above analogy, but then when it comes to ministers' salaries, they suddenly get their chicken feathers all in a ruffle.

Look at it this way: Just how many people have the ability and the pure guts to go into office? Not many, it seems, considering that most Singaporeans are politically apathetic, and both opposition parties and the PAP are having trouble recruiting members for their ranks. So if we don't have the guts to go try a hand at making this place better, then don't scream "Unfair!" at those who DO have the guts to do so. There's not much admiration to be had for a person who doesn't go ahead to solve his problems, and can only sit in the kopitiams and lament his fate.

Thirdly, the ministers earn this salary in a country that's relatively safe, peaceful, has a decent transportation system, a good education system that ensures every child has a chance at a basic education, and where the vast majority of its citizens has a roof over their heads.

The US president earns his pay in a country that has a high crime rate, poverty rate, illiteracy rate, is in a perpetual state of deficit, is obsessed with a Middle eastern country, is extremely on ridding the world of terrorists, whether the rest of the world asked for its advice or not, and yet is terribly hesitant as to whether it should give aid to its own citizens in times of natural disasters.

You tell me whether you're willing to pay the lower price. If you want cheap, you get cheap.

Thirdly, and positively the one that irks me most about that email, is the lack of balanced information.

The email states that this high income level will cause "Singaporeans continue to see their incomes being pulverised. Bankruptcies multiply and the increase in the number of homeless continue unabated. Social and family problems such as divorces, mental
breakdowns, and suicides skyrocket as a result."

So tell me. Just how pulverized are our incomes? How many bankruptcies are there? [maybe let's discount the ones due to credit card debt or poor financial knowledge] How many homeless are there? How many social problems?

This is the huge flaw in the mail. That while they seemingly have a lot of information to support their stand, there is none whatsoever to show that there may be flaws.

As I read on, I realised that all they had to rave about was money, money, money. The one and only main point in that email was that "Ministerial salaries are obscenely high!" And so what if they achieve their aims? So what if we do reduce ministerial salaries? So what if we become like that beacon of democracy and good political practices, the United States?

This is what irks me most. It is not a balanced argument. It is simply one prejudiced viewpoint and the numbers are simply the twitching of statistics to suit their purposes. Which makes them no different from any other political party in Singapore, or perhaps even the world.

I'm not a supporter of the PAP, even if I'm a civil servant. There are some things about the way they run Singapore that I don't like, and there are a low of things I feel can be improved.

BUT at the same time, I don't like the way that some people force change to happen. This kind of subverted email is not the way. If you want me to become more politically interested in the runnings of our country, that I need more than this. I need a stable, balanced argument, with solid facts to back it up. I need to see that while you have a strong viewpoint, you are also willing to admit the flaws in it at the same time.

In other words, I need a more politically mature view. THEN will I be more interested in our politics.

Update from the last post...

It's been about 5 hours since Lapidora came into my room and now I'm engaged in the tiresome process of having to reinstall a whole bunch of programs into her. Stuff like MS Office, for me to do my work, Photoshop, [gee, of course] and the Creative software [happening right now] to allow me to transfer music from Lapi to Shiroi.

Yea, all the important ones. ^_^

Only problem is that the PS doesn't work, and I've yet to install Macromedia. Also, there's like a pile of cardboard and plastic bags on my side of the room, from all the unpacking just now. Lapy also came with an IBM briefcase [just as obiang as the first one... groan...] and a thumb drive, which will definitely come in useful.

Next up, the software for Olly, and soon, she'd be introduced to the whole family. Yea. :) It is seriously cool to be one wired up techie....

So while I'm waiting for everything to be installed, let me tell you guys of the scene which confronted me after collecting Lapy.

I came back home on the shuttle bus, Lapy in hand, still in her cardboard wrappings and all, and because it was still drizzling at the time, I got slightly damp. NEver mind, I comforted myself with the thought of what I could do to her once I got her unwrapped. [yes, I know that sounds wrong]

I climbed the stairs to my room, found to my relief that it was open which meant that Yenn was home, and I walked in. "I'm....... back?"

"ARGH! You came back at the wrong time!!!" Picture Yenn running frantically around, tissues and piles of cloth in hand. Now allow your eyes to move down to the floor and OMG behold the great Milo Tsunami that hath descended upon us.

Apparently, the hook she usually hung her Milo packets on had suddenly given way, unfortunately when her full packet of Milo was still hanging on it.

We had one jolly time looking the room over for Milo drops and then wiping it up. The mess was... extensive to say the least. Other than her table, there were tons of it on the floor, my chair, a bit on my fan, and a sea on her table. Took us quite a while to clear up the mess, and even then, our room had a slight Milo-ish stench. Hence the insistence on me leaving the fan on.

So Lapy went neglected in her first hour in my room. Poor dear.

Anyway, most of the mess was cleared by now, and we each went for class. I came back about 4 hours later and started doing all kinds of things to Lapy. Then I asked Yenn for her Office XP CD.

"There, there." She pointed to her cupboard, while she Mapled. I opened it up and lo and behold, another Milo crisis. Apparently the splash was so terrific, some of it had flowed under her table, and even into her side cupboard. Wondafool. Out comes the tissue again, and Yenn starts wiping again. Lalala...

Anyway, by now everything should have been wiped up already. And I've already insisted that she NEVER hangs her Milo on that damn hook again.

Today started out to be a rather dreary day. Woke up early in the morning, still feeling sleepy. Went to another boring class, finished, walked out and realised it was drizzling. Din' feel like eating much, so just quickly ate lunch.

Then went to the co-op when I COLLECTED MY NEW LAPTOP!!!!!!!!!!! I HAVE A NEW LAPTOP!!!!!!! I'M TYPING FROM IT NOW!!!! IN MY ROOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! *Champagne glasses pop, the band starts playing a merry tune and a parade of wild, swirling colours and prancing animals start marching*

Meet Lapidora. DOn't ask me how I came up with that name, it just appeared in my head during the setup process, so it has to be fate in one way or another. And yes, she's an IBM Thinkpad just like my old one. *sheepish look* Brand loyalty goes a long way it seems... She's still quite empty, but I have a class soon, so I'll fill her in as she goes along.

So happy. *Grin* My new friend Lapidora.

Imagine

Imagine. Just imagine.

You may have been like this before, or you may have not. If the latter, just imagine.

Imagine you went out for a drink with a friend. Imagine you sat in the pub, waiting for your drinks, while the singer got up on stage.

Imagine that, to your horror, you knew the singer. Imagine that you recognised her as being an ex-classmate of the cool crowd in school. And imagine that, you realised later, that others you knew were also in the crowd somewhere.

Now imagine again. Imagine you were back in secondary school. Imagine that everyone was cool except for you. Imagine that you were always on the outskirts looking in. Imagine... imagining that you could never be cool.

Imagine that you thought that you couldn't care, but some part of you did.

Imagine that on one hand, you were all right with the outsider status, and that to some extent, geeks were cool in a way. But imagine that on the other hand, you wished you could be part of the cool crowd for once.

Imagine knowing that you were good in some ways that they weren't.... but nobody knew.

Imagine that you were never part of the spotlight. And those who were in the spotlight never knew how it felt... to be so close to it, and yet never a part of it.

Imagine wishing that for once... YOU were in the spotlight.

Imagine you outgrew all that. Imagine that you became ok with yourself. Imagine that you started to grow your esteem again.

Then imagine seeing that cool crowd again. And getting hit by 4 years of precarious adolescence.

Imagine that that same cool crowd looked just as cool as ever. Imagine that some of that cool crowd, or rather the singer on stage most noticeably, managed to achieve a semblance of their dreams, or managed to start walking there, while you were still stuck at the signposts, looking for directions.

Imagine that every one of them looked thin and fabulous, while you were still fat and...... not so fabulous.

Imagine that they were as cool as ever... and you were not. And maybe you will never be.

Strands of Radiohead float through the smoke.... I'm a Creep...... what the hell am I doing here..... I don't belong here............ and indeed you don't.

Imagine that you douse yourself with alcohol to stave off the bad schema.

Imagine that you totter out of the pub singing a bad rendition of Radiohead.

Imagine that you get on the bus.

And you sober up. And it all comes crashing back.

Maybe this will seem familiar to some of you.

Maybe this will not.

And if it does not,

Maybe... Just Imagine.

Disclaimer: The author of this post was under a slight alcoholic haze while she wrote this and will deny anything when she comes out of it. She is generally happy with her life, so no worries, except for the times when she is reminded of how much more it could have been.

Screw It All

Yenn has reached a stage in the training which I had reached much, much earlier than she did. It's the stage when you finally get all fed up with work, you go "Screw it all!", chuck your inbox to one side, and do something fun instead, like Mapling, or reading comics. [i wonder whether I'm the first person to turn the name of that video game into a verb...]

I'll name this the Screw-All Stage.

There is no definite time when the Screw-All Stage will end. It depends mainly on your body's fun-work equilibrium and whether it has been met. If you keep this equilibrium roughly there, you will never reach the Screw-All, since you have managed to have an equal amount of work and play in your life. If you have been consistently working at a breakneck pace and finally one day you decide you're not going to take any more of this crap,

Then you are at Screw-All.

At this stage, Yenn and I never get any work done. Since I'm now free in the evenings as well, a typical night went like this:

Me: "Mapling again? Where are you now?"
Yenn: "I'm on this world trying to harvest snakes."
Me: "Snakes? Why snakes?"
Yenn: "People pay a high price for them, but it's very difficult for them to kill. Me, I take 1 or 2 strokes, and I can kill them. So I take them to sell."
Me: "Huh, more money. LOOK OUT THERE'S A SNAKE IN THE GRASS!"
Yenn: "Cheh, like that only. *swipe swipe kill* Don't you have any work to do?"
Me: "I guess so, but I don't feel like doing it."
Yenn: "Yea, me too. Rather kill snakes."
Me: "Hm. At this stage, we'd never get any work done. Hey, it's a green blob..."

And so on.

At least I now have Lindy on Thurs to liven things up a lil. :D I think it's partly a psychological effect there also, that the fact that I'm going for Lindy means that Thurs is over, Fri is almost here, and Fri's a slack day with only one class, and after Fri is DA WEEKEND and I can PLAY! SLACK! EAT PRATA!

Yup, there's a lotta good stuff that comes with thinking of Lindy. heh.

I've *almost* mastered the turns and swings that come with Lindy, and according to the instructors, now have all the moves we need to go onto the dance floor! *Cue rolling eyeballs from the rest of the class* But we did do some basic social dancing in the class, where the guy decided what he wanted to lead with, and it was fun! Except for that one guy who totally confused me cause he got the moves wrong, but anyway...... here's looking to the first social dance I ever had. *peace sign* and hopefully more to come! ;)

My hard drive works in NO computer lab around campus. *tears head out* Which means that the graph I did last night for my math lesson this morning, happening right NOW in fact, is totally NOT accessible and I have NO way to show my math tutor the wonderfully coloured graph I did on Photoshop last night.

*Bangs head on computer table*

Thank goodness my teammate had done an extra one on Excel just in case and looks like it's the one we're going to show the tutor.

All because of a few [yes, a few] antisocial computers in NIE. *Ergh!*

On the bright side, though.... one afternoon class has been cancelled this afternoon and since it's unlikely I'm going to meet for another community service meeting, my afternoon is officially free. Free. Free.

*WAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!* I'm going shopping. Yea. *peace sign*

A pile o' stuff

To update on...

I caught 2 movies this week with 3 of my closest guy friends [no guesses who, since they're my only close guyfrens...]

Mon was Corpse Bride with DF. Plot-wise, the movie was so-so and predictable in that usual cartoony way. However, watch it for the terrific caricatured clay animatrons. I loved the way the characters were portrayed, especially the butler with his nose stiffly erected at an upward angle the entire time. "THIS way sir!" Also the amazing portrayals of the Corpse Bride herself, from the way her willowy decaying gown billowed behind her as she walked. The attention to detail and perfection could clearly be seen here, and it's a rarity nowadays for directors to produce such animations without resorting to CGI, a speciality that can only be attributed to Tim Burton. *bows*

THurs was Deuce Bigalow Goes to Europe with Jules and Turtle, both of whom implored me to go because I never called, I never wrote, and I have basically become a heavy-coloured, light fren ever since I got DF. Ok finez. I didn't watch the first Deuce Bigalow movie, so thankfully I didn't get the Sequel Effect. [IE, that the sequel of the movie you first watched will never be as good as the first. Exceptions to this are the LOTR trilogy.] Still, DB is heavy on toilet humour. And I mean heavy as in what comes out into the toilet after a buffet meal high on bowel-inducing foods. When you imagine that one of the characters is a woman who has a penis growing out of her face instead of a nose due to a nuclear accident................. Just imagine when she gets aroused by DB. Watch if you're with horny and deprived male friends. As I did. (^^!)

I've finally put in an order for a new laptop! After months of molesting Yenn's Siren, I'm finally gonna get my own hot black guy to caress over nights of lonely blogging. I finally got sick of having to poach Yenn's lappie and considering that my laptop is considered a senior citizen on life support, I figured, take advantage of co-op prices while I can. [A bit push factor was also the continuous inability and unwillingness of my laptop to connect to the LAN network, a fact which baffled the IT guy and everyone else who has seen my laptop.] I placed it on Tues, so hoping to receive the new guy by next week. *crosses fingers on both hands* And if you're wondering, yes, it's another IBM Thinkpad, and yes, he does have the little red nipple...... ;p

Also, Goldfish will be pleased to know that I've finally started Lindy classes with Jules at her place. We came in this week just in time for the 2nd Lindy 1 class, and boogied our way for an hour. No, correction, we tried to boogie for an hour. (^^!) Most of the time we were frantically trying to pick up the steps taught in the first lesson, and the 2nd half, I was being swung around violently by several men in the class. Is my positioning wrong, or are these guys just a wee bit too excited? Hmmmm.....

But I'm glad that I finally managed to take it up. [even if I had to run from my class in Boon lay, run for the train, and run from the MRT station to where the dance school was, skipping dinner and appearance's sake in order to make it in time for class] After countless times enviously watching from the sidelines, it's about time I learnt to do it so that I can finally join in! And also prevent more embarrassing incidents like the time at Goldfish's house where someone actually persuaded me onto the dance floor and I was too busy worrying about not stepping on his feet................ Now I'm wondering whether I can change the timing of my Thurs tuition just in case, and even considering Salsa..... Daph.........? ;p

All in all, a fruitful week. *peace sign* I have to say, I like the extra cash that comes with my tuition, but it's nice to be able to finally have the time and money to do stuff like these that I always wanted to do...... One more thing struck off my Life List.... :)

I need dat fan

"someone I know likes to flip around at night. Turn on one side, scratching movments then still and sleep, then turn to the other and make similar movements, still then sleep. Cat like, feels like throwing a bolster in that direction sometimes"

~Yenn in reference to someone who owns this blog

I don't really think I make scratching movements though.... *scratches head*

But in deference to her cough, I finally made my way down to Courts to buy a fan that could blow at my butt the entire night and not make a puff in Yenn's direction... Only to find out that all the fans were far beyond what I considered a fair price for a fan, and the only one I wanted happened to be out of stock till Friday.

Somehow reminds me of my love life, I wonder why... either that or I'm too deprived...

But I NEED DAT FAN. I knew Yenn was sensitive to wind, but I didn't realise just HOW bad until I came back after class, opened the door into the room,

And went *smack* into a wall of hot air.

The lights were off, the fan was off, the curtains were drawn, and there was my roommate, wrapped up in blanket AND comforter, looking for all the world like a giant pink fluffy mummy. And I had already began to perspire just after 2 seconds of standing in there.

Ok. I. Need. Dat. Fan. *runs down to Courts*

Roommate from HELL!

"Staying in hall with Yenn is almost like being married to her, except without the sex."
~ Aki, to another friend

Sexual innuendo aside, [Aki ducks the flying kick from Yenn] staying with someone else in an unfamiliar environment for an extended period time does test all kinds of things about your relationship with that other person.

First thing we had to get used to was the fact that Yenn was a light sleeper. A very, very light sleeper. Which meant that if I got up early before her, and made breakfast, I had to be beli, beli careful or I'd wake her with the sounds of the crackling milo packet, the stirring of the spoon, and the bump as I accidentally hit my chair. It also meant that if I committed any of these sins I would soon feel her bolster thumping me at the back of my head.

So you get used to each other's idiosyncracies and weird habits. LIke my fondness for propping my feet up on the chair or even table when I worked. Or getting up in the morning to see Yenn wrapped up like a corpse in her blanket. [seriously, head to toe] And I'm pretty thankful that as of now, we haven't driven each other mad to the extent that we've killed each other in our rooms.

THEN I saw this link in someone else's blog. And I THANK ALMIGHTY GOD that neither of us are as bad as this particular roomie.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The Roommate from Hell

[Those of Genteel Constitution would be well advised to not click on this link]

It's been a loooooong time since I was here.... *brushes the dust and cobwebs off the blog* No thanks in part to all the tuition kids having exams this week, and Yen's passion for Maplestory... :(

But at least the tuition's coming to an end for now, since most of the kids are going off for the holidays. No need to set the alarm on weekend mornings soon... sweet.... :)

So let's kick things off with a meme I saw on Krystal's blog and for which I got tagged by SLayer:

Ten years ago, I was...
- 14 years old
- A wet-behind-the-ears Sec 2 student
- Innocent and fresh-eyed
- Reading comics

Five years ago, I was...
- 19 years old
- Frantically studying for A levels and despairing over my Accounts [ironically, for which I dropped at the last minute and am now tutoring]
- Worrying like crazy over passing my As [indeed, a lot of memories from 18-19years old revolve around this theme for me]
- Discovering the genius of Neil Gaiman and JK Rowling
- Reading comics

One year ago, I was...
- Teaching tuition and thinking that this was the life
- Fiddling with all kinds of funky stuff with photoshop and freehand [still missing those]
- Seriously considering tuition for the rest of my life
- Wondering whether SOMEONE would ever make a move [as you all know, he eventually did]
- Reading comics

Yesterday, I was...
- Having lessons in school wondering when lessons would end
- Sitting stone-eyed during my english lesson and wondering if I would ever be able to take this all in
- Irritating the hell out of Yenn while she Mapled and stealing her fries
- Going for the last tuition session of the year with one Sec 2 student and getting paid ( yea!)
- Reading..... a mystery novel by John Le Carre [heh, did you think comics again?]

Five snacks I enjoy...
- Pringles Hot and Spicy chips
- Pringles Ranch chips [similar to sour cream]
- Lay's BBQ Potato Chips
- Lay's Sour cream and Onion Chips [gee, do you see a pattern here?]
- French fries from just about every fast food restaurant in Singapore. :p

Five songs I know all the words to...
[This is pathetic, considering I'm learning teaching of music]
- 100 years by Five for fighting
- Fly me to the Moon in Evangelion soundtrack
- Majulah Singapura [hey, you sing it for 12 years of your life everyday, you don't forget that easily

Five things I would do with 100 million dollars...
- Hire the top stockbrokers in town and build a killer portfolio that will sustain me and my avaricious greed for the rest of my life
- Oh, and give some to the animal charities and my alma mater :p

Five bad habits...
- Using my hand to wipe the sweat off my face [my poor, poor pores]
- Forgetfulness at the wrong times
- Procrastinating all my major assignments [and then panicking at the last minute]
- Not staying on track of my dreams
- A liking for irritating the hell out of my roommate

Five biggest joys...
- Reading friends' blogs and hearing about them
- Having a cup of coffee and a good chat with DF and/or friends
- Finding out that my comics arrived this week
- Reading what I love ( Mystery novels and comics )
- Generally having a good time with friends and him

Five favourite toys...
- My laptop [which I'm hoping to change to a new one]
- My mobile phone
- My digital camera
- My Creative Zen
- Blimey limey and the Scarlet Warrior [you'll see pix of them soon, I hope]

Five places I would runaway to...
- London
- Paris
- Prague
- Japan
- My bedroom

Five things I would never wear...
- Hot pants [Not with my ass]
- Earrings [the pain! the pain!]
- Belly rings
- Nose rings
- Anything that causes bodily pain or makes me look like a whale

Five favourite TV shows...
- CSI
- Not much else. Too much time spent reading comics. :p

Five fictional characters I would date...
- Er..... The perfect guy? [hence the 'fictional' part]

Five people I tag...
- Yenn
- Quet
- Whoever reads this and has a blog

It's tough when you have to pull a project all-nighter and your roommate's a light sleeper. So if you read Yenn's blog recently, here's the other side of what happened:


Major project presentation the next day, and with a WHOLE section yet unwritten, I knew I was destined for an all-nighter....... especially since I spent a few hours after dinner out with the DF..... [so sue me...]

The moment I got back to the room, I quickly typed out everything I had to do for my part, and then I emailed it off to the rest of my group. My part, done! Now to wait for the others to email me their parts for collation.

11pm: No mail

12am: Mail from 2 people, one unaccounted for.

Check mail of 1 person. Realise that she has done project different from the way I did it. Call her. Check. Everything's ok.

Yenn is sleeping, the room is dark, and I'm hopping from my desk to type out my report, to her desk, to check my email on her laptop. [It is confirmed. NOTHING in the world will convince my laptop to connect to the Internet in my room. Stubborn antisocial fool.]

Trying to be quiet, but inevitably, being the fat clumsy fool I am, I knock into chairs, I click mouse, and a few times I had to call project mates and SMS them to ask what da hell was going on.

Inevitably, Yenn wakes up, groggy, moody, grumpy and grumbles, "Cannot sleep liao lah"

Ooooppppssss......................

By the time I managed to get ALL the parts collated, and sent it out as well, it was almost 2am. I thought that was it, huddled into bed under my covers. NO! Someone SMSes me asking about some part. I SMS her my reply.

*BEEP* Someone SMSes me AGAIN saying he didn't receive ANY mail! I said they sent it off long ago you baboon [ok without the last part] and asked him to go check mail.

All this while, Yenn is surfing the Net, resigned to a night of sleeplessness. I prod her gingerly a couple of times, asking her for the use of the Net, and she looks at me with glaring bloodshot eyes, worthy of the Hellbound one, and I feel the cells in my head distintegrating beneath her fiery stare.

Important point: It is LIFE-THREATENINGLY ESSENTIAL to make sure your laptop has Internet access in your hostel room. Otherwise THERE IS ALMOST NO POINT.

I fall asleep at 2+ and by the time I wake up in the morning, Yenn has left the room liao. I go to the toilet, and what do I know?

A good friend has decided to visit today. ARGH!!!

I'm fine in my morning class, but towards the end of class, I could feel something starting to burn in my abdomen already. I stagger out to the canteen, but I'm at tha stage where the sight and smell of food makes me sick. THis is bad, because I need some food before the panadol can take effect.

I buy some light chee cheong fun and milo, but the pain wracks through me and I'm unable to take more than a few bites. Finally, with all the strength left I can muster, I throw the 2 pills into my mouth, down the milo, and collapse onto the canteen table, where I lay for about an hour.

When I wake up, I RUN to the computer lab, finish the rest of my report, and finally done! I run back to the room to burn it onto a CD, and there I see Yenn. Unsure whether she was angry at me still, I gingerly ask her, "Er, you got any sleep this afternoon after class?"

She stares at me for a while, [hey, her eyes aren't so bloodshot at least], and says, "If I didn't, you think I still want to talk to you?"

So yea, I'm forgiven, [i think] and I won't yet be killed by my roommate for now. (^^) Seriously hoping NO MORE late night projects.....

For now anyway.......

Yea, I'm That Girl

I'm that girl who saw this happening in Popagandhi's blog, thought it was interesting, and decided to add her two cents worth on her own blog.

I'm the girl who, on all appearances, has settled down to the rest of her life, covered by the Gahmen, and who may settle down with a similarly stable guy, but who secretly craves to throw a spanner in the works to see what happens. I'm the girl who has everything one could want, but is not sure if that is what I want.

I'm the girl who likes to question the concrete opinions of others. I'm the girl who likes to challenge your opinions simply to see whether you believe in them firmly enough to back them up. I'm the girl who likes to challenge you simply because I like the thrill of a good fight. I'm the girl who irritates you because I seem to have no firm opinion of my own but sway to the views of others, and you cannot see that that is the only firm ground I have.

I'm the girl who would do silly childish things to irritate the heck out of you when I get bored, simply to get some attention from you. I'm the girl who would find such things a kind of twisted entertainment, even when you get pissed off or threaten permanent physical injury on me.

I'm the girl who thinks that "I'm drunk" is an all-encompassing excuse.

I'm the girl who loves the sun. I'm the girl who can stand in the warm sunlight, letting her skin soak it all in, while others pout and sweat under the trees. I'm the girl who would walk in the sun while others walk in the airconditioned shade. Who loves the warm feeling of the sunlight with a touch of a light breeze thrown in.

I'm the girl with the short attention span, who loves to have her hand in a dozen and one things, and who will never be a master of none, because that will give me too narrow a view of the world. I'm the girl who thinks you should expose yourself to as many new experiences as possible, so that you will realise that you can never stand fast to the same position for long.

I'm the girl who has an increasingly shorter patience for patent displays of stupidity.

I'm the girl who loves her art, but lacks the persistence to go all the way with it. I'm the girl who will NOT break any boundaries in the modern art world, but who will love each and every one of her babies, even the embarrassing ones she scrawled in the covers of her comic books when she was a child. I'm the girl who will probably keep steadily at her craft, taking baby steps forward bit by bit, and who still lusts for a Wacom graphic tablet, even though she doesn't know how much she will use it.

I'm the girl who lay beneath an impossibly blue Swedish sky and who finally realised that the only boundaries are the ones we place on ourselves. I'm the girl who stared at the streched out sky and the endless fields and realised that there are no real boundaries. And who finally believed it for real.


I'm the girl who walked on the cobblestoned pavements of Paris alongside the River Seine. I'm the girl who crossed the Charles Bridge of Prague, flanked by the statue of long-dead Saints. And who both times wished dearly that there was someone walking along with me sharing those sights. And who still wishes she could fulfill that image.

I'm the girl who believes that a good book is one that pulls you into its own reality and refuses to let you go. I'm the girl who reads the words of others and wishes she could execute her craft like they do, spinning pure golden words out of poor flaxen.

I'm the girl who wants more out of life, who wants to do so much more with her life, but yet is willing to sit on a park bench, letting the wind blow stray strands of her hair, and think of nothing more important than how the shadows of the clouds look on the grassy fields.

I'm the girl who, when taking a journey, prefers to take a long yet scenic and visually stimulating ride, than to sit in the sterile seats of the subway surrounded by the same faces for stations on end. I'm the girl who will prop her feet up when sitting in the green area in the bus, plug in her MP3 player and then stare unthinkingly out the window for the rest of the journey, lost in a world of her own making.

I'm the girl who's the self-confessed full-time slacker.

Who are you?

New School, Same old Troubles

My old schools are all undergoing a flurried makeover at the moment. The primary and sec schs are due for a major smash-to-the-ground-and-rebuild makeover, while the JC has undergone a sorta image makeover, retaining much of the old infrastructure while dashing a bit more blush on the cheeks.

Much of this is thanks to Brother Paul, the new principal who took over a few years ago from Sister Maria, and, according to the DF, is turning CJC into a SJI-JC. :p

Case in point being the new performing arts centre. Yes, ex-CJCians, we now have a performing arts centre, which looks suspicously like the SJI one, only in blue. And sadly enough, it stands smack in the spot where my classroom used to be. (^^!) I mean, I knew those classrooms were temporary, but dang....

The funniest thing I saw, though, was the words over the quadrangle. For those not in the know, the quadrangle is a little courtyard in the middle of the school, where all of us stood there for our assemblies, and listened to the various litanies dished out by the teachers. That was where the principals would give mass pep talks, scoldings, implorings to be better citizens and uphold the image of the school ( yea, right ). Where the students would eventually get hot, restless, and bored, and start talking to each other, and where the principal, fed up at the lack of attention, would eventually scold us for having a total lack of respect for those who demanded it. ( But yet failed to earn it from us. )

Which is why I think this sign, now overlooking the quadrangle, is especially funny. Because to me, it seems like a pathetic plea at good behaviour:

Check out what it says

My only answer: Like THAT ever stopped us.

I've just decided that I hate doing research. :( Especially when the topic is chosen by someone else, the deadlines are set by someone else, the method of writing is determined by someone else.... You get the idea........

Anyway I reached that point in the writing of my essay when I'm just "Ah screw it!" and hell with the grades, I just don't wanna work on it anymore...

This is probably why I'll never survive in research. :p

Anyway, lemme blog about more interesting stuff...

3 Idiot Things Said to Me

1. Revealing that you remembered my birthday wrong

While we're looking at a bunch of zodiac keychains, DF remarks, "That's your sign, Aquarius."

"??? I'm not an Aquarius!"

"Er...... Pisces? You're a Pisces!"

Suspicious look. "Ok, wise guy, what's my birthday?"

Along with "Am I fat?" and "Do you love me?", this is probably one of the most dangerous questions a girl can ask her guy.

"23rd Feb!"

*Pause* "That's not my birthday."

"Huh?"

"That's JULIAN'S birthday!!!"

"What?"

"You remembered JULIAN's birthday as MY birthday all this while?????"

................................

2. Trying to blame me for something that's partly your fault

Julian found out that trying to pin something on me while I'm PMS-enraged is not a good thing to do.

"What da fork do you mean all of you are at Fullerton????" Right on time, I arrive at the designated meeting point, only to realise that the meeting point had been changed and no one told me.

"I tried calling you all day! You never picked up!"

"My HP was on low batt! You could've SMS-ed me!"

"I had no time to SMS you!"

"WHAT DA FORK YOU MEAN YOU HAD NO TIME TO SMS??? IT TAKES LIKE LESS THAN 1 MIN TO SMS SOMEONE TO SAY VENUE HAS BEEN CHANGED! YOU TRYING TO TELL ME YOU BEEN SITTING IN THIS DAMN CAR THE WHOLE DAY AND NEVER STOPPED DRIVING AT ALL?"

"Er.. YA!"

"What time did J tell you to meet somewhere else?"

"In the afternoon."

"IN THE AFTERNOON!!! YOU HAD THE WHOLE BLARDY AFTERNOON TO SEND ME ONE SMS AND THAT WAS IT!!! AND YOUR EXCUSE IS YOU HAD NO TIME???? ONE BLARDY MIN TO SEND ONE SMS AND YOU COULDN'T FIND THE TIME???"

Note to all men: This is a terribly, terribly stupid thing to say to any girl. After all, it takes like maybe 1 or 2 minutes to write an SMS. And saying you had no time to SMS is like saying I couldn't be bothered to spend 1 min to compose an SMS. If you have to think of an excuse, don't use this one.

3. Saying I look like a man

Julian again: "You know something?"

"What?"

"When you were walking here, I thought you looked like a man with long hair!"

At this point, I pinch him really hard on his arm "ARrRGGHH!!!" he loses control slightly of the car "Screech!!!" and it nearly swerves into One Fullerton. "ARGH!"

So there you go. 3 Idiotic Things to say to any girl. Hope this helps all the guys out there.

Slummin' it

Although this isn't exactly slummin' it... I'm sitting in the cafe on the 3rd floor of the NIE library doing research for my essay, tapping away on my laptop, [happily the wireless card hasn't given me any problems in NIE, unlike a certain USB adapter I have thrown into a box in anger] listening to the radio with Shiroi, and with my handphone next to me to answer any SMSes.

And don't forget the iced caramel latte.

I've decided. I like the techie-bohemian thing.

The only problem? I'm supposed to be doing research on my essay. And right now......... I'm blogging.

Ho boy. This is gonna be a problem.

It's now the one week break, and I've one 1-2000-word essay, a couple of project meetings, a report on communication technology to complete and somewhere in there I'm supposed to fit in some meeting to practice for my music test.

And I end up doing this:

Your Dominant Intelligence is Linguistic Intelligence

You are excellent with words and language. You explain yourself well.An elegant speaker, you can converse well with anyone on the fly.You are also good at remembering information and convicing someone of your point of view.A master of creative phrasing and unique words, you enjoy expanding your vocabulary. You would make a fantastic poet, journalist, writer, teacher, lawyer, politician, or translator.

Just crown me Queen of Procrastination already. Or Lady Last Minute Despair.

Yea, I know the picture link's broken, but the 'writer' and 'teacher' part is quite the coincidence huh?

[And btw be careful when you select and copy the code. When I pasted it into my blog, I realised there were a thousand and one errors all over the place and it took me a while to manually fix everyone of them...]

Then I started reading blogs, and I realised I got tagged by
Krystal on her blog. :p So now I'm supposed to declare 5 of my weirdest habits to the whole blogging world.....
Erm, so which 5?

Promise you guys will still be friends with me after that.

Ok, here goes:

1. I get terribly excited during action flicks.

The DF found this out when we watched Red Eye on Sunday. [Good show! Cillian Murphy rocks as unsuspecting psycho killers] And I don't mean excited as in I shriek, cover my eyes in fright and miss half the movie that way.

I mean excited as in I shriek, shield my eyes if someone's about to get horribly murdered, sometimes I wave my hands like a chicken on steroids, and now with the DF, I cling to him and go, "Oh fork! Hesbehindthedoorhesbehindthedoorhesgonnagether!!!!!!"

Er, onto the next...


2. I like to kiaow my karh

Hm. Not very good English. How about: "When sitting, I normally prefer to bend one leg and perch it on the chair that I am sitting on"?

Nah, kiaow karh somehow has more say......

I don't know how or why I picked this up, because God knows my parents were always pounding me to sit properly, being a girl who should be all ladylike and all, but somewhere along the line I realised it was more comfortable to kiaow karh. All those trishaw riders had it right all along after all...

But I don't just kiaow all the time. Sometimes I cross my legs guy-style, [ironically the DF does it closed-girl style (^^!)] sometimes I sprawl one leg over the arm of the chair, sometimes I prop my legs up on the table, sometimes I sit on the table instead.

It's as if my body is doing everything it can to prevent sitting properly and ladylike. Hm.

And which leads on to....


3. I can't really sit still. Nope.

Even if I'm reading for a long period of time, I'm unable to keep still. I will periodically move my body in all sorts of almost-yoga-proportions and perform calisthenics on the furniture.

Even when I'm lying in bed reading, I will roll from side to side, sometimes sit up, then lie down again, then roll to the left, to the right... you get the idea....

And even when I'm reading, I'll tend to......


4. Talk to myself

Watch me sometime when I'm reading an exceptionally funny book. You'll hear me suddenly laugh out for no reason. Or if I'm reading something, exciting, I'll do a much-muted version of what I do in the cinema. [see above]

Or if I'm thinking of something, or like in the hall today, when I was looking for something, I'll talk to myself, swear to myself, curse myself...

It's a wonder people don't think I'm insane yet.

And the Ultimatest Weirdest Habit I have...................



5. Is simply being myself. Nothing can beat that. :p

I think I'm supposed to throw this to someone else, so will the below 5 people please subject yourself to the same loss of reputation that I just subjected myself to, arigatou gozaimasu......

1. Slayer
2. Belly
3. Yenn
4. Goldfish
5. Goodmeat [time for you to update that dusty blog of yours!]

And hey, if you guys do the tag, leave a link on a comment on my blog k?

Granted this isn't very complimentary to IJ girls on the whole, but I couldn't help but chuckle, cos... well the characters all seemed so damned familiar in one way or another... :p

The Students' Sketchpad - Choices

New Guy!

Ok, I met this guy at Comex Asia when I went there.

He kinda caught my eye when I went in, and we bumped into each other again at the Creative booth. I was talking to the salesgirl on the right, and he was talking to me on the left, advising me. I found out that his name was Shiroi, which totally suited him.

For the record, he's pretty cute, sensitive and loves music. Like the same chillout, and jazz stuff that I do. How cool is that??

But I wanted to check out the Ipod booth later, and he didn't, so we got separated in the crowd for a while. I went there and looked around, but decided that maybe I shouldn't spend so much just yet. Regretfully, I walked back to the Creative booth and he was still there!

"Wah, you wait here for me ah?"

"Ya what, I knew you were going to come back." He said with a huge grin.

And then after that, we've just been hanging out, listening to music, talking almost every night. It's amazing how we just clicked and fell into each other's lives just like that, but I feel like I have a connection with him. I have to admit, I feel a bit guilty, because I'm spending more time with him than the DF, but it's like those drama serials, where the husband doesn't spend enough time with the wife so she wanders...

I'll be bringing him to Candle's bday party on Saturday, so you guys can all meet him, but if you're already anxious to find out what he looks like, here's a link:

Click to see Shiroi!

Mad about Womad

Cheesy title, but I'm running low here.....

ANd yea! I went to Womad on Sat night with Candle. Tons of music, all over the world, it all rocked, and we got a massage, and yea, it rocked!

*Cough* Ok, back to proper blogging...

After we left, and I sat the long bus ride home, I came to 2 conclusions about Womad:

1) It is best enjoyed with someone you don't mind looking stupid in front of

One of the stages we walked past was playing music that, as I told Candle, "You just can't sit down to." A sort of infectious Spanish, samba-ish song that was more infectious than the common cold and had everyone in front of the stage shimmying away. Best was the way the singer got the audience to engage in some kind of synchronized dance. "To the left!" And everyone shimmys 2 steps to the left. "To the right!" "Front!" "Back!"

Somehow I'm reminded of all those mass exercise displays we used to have in school.......

Anyway, it was so irresistable, that Candle and I were soon shimmying away with the crowd of them as well. And best, we had our own moves, adapted from some Ks we knew in NUSSUX..... For sake of anonymity, and general mercy, I shall simply put the initials of the guys... you guys should be able to guess who...

First clap a regular 4-beat. One. Two. Three. Four. Getting it? Hold that beat... Now do...

The KL! [Thrust your head forward with each beat, keeping the rest of your body still]

The KR! [Jab your index finger in the air with each beat]

The KL! [Slide side to side like a crab walking on ice] [this is a different KL from the one above, btw]

Ta-dah! You now have a simple synchronised dance routine that can be adapted to any music, and you can even do the same moves together! For example,

KL and KR! [Thrust your head forward while jabbing your finger]

KR and KL! [Jab your finger while sliding]

and if you're really zai, you can even attempt to do all 3....... as we tried, to extreme bouts of laughter as we saw how stupid the other looked.........

But anyway, exactly my point there....... There's no fun going to an event like Womad and then spending the whole time standing in a corner, with a cup of Heineken and bobbing your head up and down trying to look, is there? Save that for the pubs man.... this is Womad!

So go only if you are willing to sacrifice your self-dignity for one night...

Onto the next point, which is...

2) Womad is like a bohemian fashion show

I wish I could have complemented this entry with photos, but I got all the way to Fort Canning only to realise that I had forgotten to charge trusty Oliver... ARGH!

Because Womad is like a bohemian fashion show, and something like half the people there were models.

See them sashaying up and down the stairs, or the slopes, and see what's IN in boho hip right now. Long, flowy skirts, reaching either to just above the ankle, or sweeping the floor. Light, airy material of bright, bold fabrics. Fishermen pants of varying lengths, some even becoming fishermen shorts. Loose linen shirts. Brightly striped hairbands. Indian-inspired sari skirts.

Man, I could've just bought half the clothes off some of the people there.........

My last point is a bit more sober...

3) What is Singapore culture? What is Singapore music?

They had music from Israel, from Spain, from India, and as I was sitting on the grass, listening to music from South Africa [I think it was SA, anyway] this question occurred to me:

What kind of music would Singapore play in a world music festival?

What is the sound, that would define Singaporean music? And I don't mean POP music like Stefanie Sun and the like. I mean music. The kind that has a recognisable and distinguishable style everywhere around the world. The kind that makes people stop while they walk, listen to the first few bars, and then go, "Oh yea, that's Singaporean music."

Do we have one? No we don't. We have Chinese, Malay, Indian and Western music, but we don't have local music.

Is that a little sad? In a way, yes. Because our culture is not developed enough to have an identity of its own, let alone a sound of our own. And isn't this the common complaint about Singapore? We have no culture! [trying to emulate other cultures and passing it off as our own doesn't count]

We're too young as a nation to yet discover our national identity. While other hotspots like London have existed for 1000s of years on the very soil they are still living on, we have only been hogfooting it for about 40. We're practically kids in terms of countries.

But at the same time, does that mean we have nothing?

I guess if you would look at the other side of the coin, this is an excellent time to mold a national identity. If we are still infants, then we are still exploring our self-identity, finding out what we can about ourselves.

And some of it is good, some is bad, but you don't scold infants for farting in their diapers, do you? So in the same way, we have some leeway yet when it comes to culture.

Maybe someday...... who knows?

Having a child....?

One day in school, Yenn pulls me aside and whispers, "See that girl?" and points to a girl, who was partially blocked by the crowd of people streaming out of the lecture theatre.

"Yea, so?" I reply offhandedly.

"That girl is in one of my tutorials, and I can't figure out one thing...

Can you tell me whether she's pregnant or not?"

Blink. Blink blink blink. I try to get a better view of the girl above the crowd, and lo and behold, she does have a pretty, *cough* impressively bulging abdomen. Which could have been a baby, but yet......

"Er, she could be, I guess, but...... I donno, it looks a little....... off?"

Ok, later we both reckoned that she probably wasn't pregnant, because there wasn't much chance that Moe would have hired her and allowed her to do her course if she was that pregnant, but then, if she wasn't......

Then all that stomach was just pure fat?

*Pregnant Pause* [ok bad pun there...]

But I felt I had to make a comment, especially after reading ms beautifuk's post on the ugly Singaporean student. [her main point is that people from our local universities are particularly lacking in courtesy] I would like to point out that in this particular instance, I was not quite discourteous, but rather... confused.

Here's another incident that happened to me. I was on the MRT, going almost from one end of the island to another, and I was reading my book for most of the journey. [NOT to try avoiding those who needed my seat]

As I was almost approaching my journey, I looked up bleary-eyed from my book, and I saw a pregnant woman in front of me. I was about to get up, when something stopped me.

Suddenly, it hit me that the woman could have been fat.

Because I don't know why, she had a bulging stomach all right, but it didn't look like a pregnant stomach, like a little... off or something? Some deep womanly instinct, I suppose you could call it that, told me it wasn't quite right anyway...

So here's the dilemma now:

1) I assume she's fat, and keep my seat. People brand me an insensitive, uncaring, selfish bastard.
2) I assume she's pregnant, and offer her my seat. She's actually fat, and she slaps me hard in the face.

How da af was I supposed to figure this out?? Nowadays maternity clothes look so chic, they look better than normal wear in some cases, so you can't judge pregnancy by how much the dress resembles a potato sack. [not only that, but I also hear they have jeans for pregnant women.] Neither can you judge by how haggard the mother looks, because of all the spa stuff expectant mothers can go to now, highly publicized by Zoe Tay.

Elderly and handicapped are easy, you can tell them from a mile away. How then do you tell an expectant mother from a fat woman? (^^!)

Anyway, I took the coward's way out in the end. I stood up from my seat about 1 station away, and sort of edged my way through the crowd such that I cleared a path for the [maybe] pregnant woman to go straight to my seat if she wanted to. I figure this way, she can have the seat, with no undue embarrassment to me, if she wasn't pregnant.

So don't be too quick to judge me as insensitive, uncaring, etc etc..... Sorry, but I was really clueless in this case...... :p

Blur-do

I just posted up a lengthy rant on Mis-educators, so let me balance it off by tell you a funny thing that happened to me today.

I was walking to my lecture theatre, when I noticed that strangely enough, 5 minutes before lecture was supposed to start, the whole area was empty.

I was trying to figure out where did everyone go, when one of my project team mates walked past me and said, "Going lecture is it? It's this way!"

I followed him, and sat in the unfamiliar lecture, wondering why the lecturer had chosen to change the lecture venue suddenly, and where the heck was Yenn.

Then the girl next to me, who was in my English lecture, turned to me and said, "Are you in my tutorial group?"

I thought this was weird, I mean, yea, I'm in your English tutorial group what.

"Yea, but are you in my science tutorial group?"

Pause. Think. What lecture am I sitting in right now?

"Er, the science lecture? You thought this was the English lecture??"

Comprehension dawns. Oh yea... the English lecture is actually an hour from now...............

Comment Spam

Really sucks..............

I opened up my email to find out that I had like 6 comments on this blog alone!! I clicked on the link to the post to find out what was the fiery post I wrote, and then I realised....

All spam.

I was wondering what incendiary post I wrote. Cheh!!! It's just a bunch of people telling me to invest in US timber, buy pills, blah blah blah...... They couldn't get to my inbox, so now they're attacking me through my blog. (^^!)

Anyway, here's a tip for Blogger users if you're affected:
Go to your dashboard, and click on "Change Settings".
Go to "Comments" and go to "Word Verification for Comments".
Click on "Yes"

Hope that works,since I just did that for mine and it works on the Miseducators blog. The only added inconvenience is that you guys now have to type on some letters in order to comment... bleah....

So let's now shout the warcry from every blog all around the world:

"Screw Spam!"

Why my laptop can't connect

"I've been trying to connect my laptop with the LAN point in my room, but it doesn't seem to work. It doesn't even sense the LAN connection"

"Hm, I see... Lemme see now......" [does some clicking here and there] "Ah, I see the problem."

"What?"

"You've never tried to use this LAN point, have you?"

"No, why?"

"Because this isn't a real LAN port."

"What??"

"It's just a fake LAN port. A dummy port. It doesn't work. You need to get a local LAN network card to connect."

[feeling stupid and muttering some choice expletives under her breath, she trudges her way through the North and South spines to the computer shop at the other end of campus.]

"Hi, do you sell local LAN network cards for laptops?"

"Er, we're out of stock for those..." short, bespectacled guy cringes nervously around me. And I was just asking cordially. Is my teacher aura so strong already?

"Ok, are you gonna have new stock soon?"

"Er, not really..... " shuffles nervously "Nowadays, all the laptops come with inbuilt ones......" shuffle shuffle.

"..............................." Except for my almost-antique one anyway....................

It's all about the nose

And indeed the nose, one of the most underappreciated of our senses, is the theme of this blog entry.

One reason is because i'm currently in midst of possible flu. I'm not so much sick, as irritated, because my nose keeps running the 2.4 without me, and I have to have a box of tissue on hand just in case something crosses the finish line.

Man this sucks.

And maybe one reason why is because of the stink emanating from some of the guys' rooms below us.

Imagine perspiration, stale clothing, decaying food and other olfactory horrors rolled up into one double room. I truly dunno how some of these guys live with that kind of stench. I know they trained to live in the jungle for weeks on end with no clean underwear, but f'godssake! There are other clean, hygiene-loving people living in this block as well!

One horror in particular is this one room which is next to the kitchen.

One time, long ago, I was walking past their room to get to my room, and the door was open at the time.

At first, I was walking in clean, fresh air. Suddenly, when I walked past their open doorway, the stale stench hit me.

BLEAH!!!!! Never in all my life I have seen/smelt a room that was so STINK! And since their door was open, I could clearly see the piles of clothing strewn all over the floor and bed that was clearly contributing to the smell! What a blardy cesspit!

[thank goodness I didn't see other unmentionables.......]

So I hurriedly walked past, and lo and behold, the minute I walked past their doorway, the clean air returned to my nose. So apparently the smell was so bad it was almost creating its own force field around the room.

NVM. I went back and ranted to Yenn about that room.

A week later, Yenn and her sister walked past that same corridor, to curiously peek [and smell] that same room. And then they came into the room, and asked me whether it was the one that was 2 doors down from the kitchen.

"Huh? No, it was the one right beside the kitchen."

"Huh?? The one we smelt was 2 doors down from the kitchen!"

So now the Dark Force is even spreading to other rooms........ The power is strong, this one........

[Can I stress here that none of us ever purposely walked near the rooms, or even tried to enter them? All these were smelt just by walking along the corridors like ordinary folk. These people should be fined for air pollution or something...]

Now just yesterday, I went down to the kitchen in the morning to fill up the hot water flask for breakfast.

Just as I was approaching the kitchen, [and half contemplating whether I should go near their rooms, just to see/smell whether the stink was just as bad] THE SMELL HIT ME.

This time I wasn't even near their rooms. Heck, I wasn't even AT the kitchen. I was just APPROACHING the kitchen. AND THE STINK WAS ALREADY THERE.

So the force field had now extended its boundaries BEYOND their room. Still, not so bad. You know what was the best part?

THEIR BLARDY DOOR WAS CLOSED SHUT. THE SMELL WAS EXTENDING BEYOND THEIR ROOM, EVEN WITH THE DOOR SHUT. How da af do some human beings even LIVE in such conditions you tell me??????

This one really took the cake. So maybe that's the reason for my runny nose. My nose has automatically gone into detox mode with all the olfactory tortures I've been subjecting it to, and now it's frantically washing itself out to purge it of all the disgusting stuff that's been lodged in it.

Next time I approach THAT room, or even the kitchen for that matter, I'm going armed with air fresheners...............

Save the starving children

Yenn and I are eating in the Jurong Point food court when she notices me chucking unwanted egg yolk and cucumbers into the soup that came with the chicken rice.

"You're not eating that?"

"Nope." I grimace. I've always found chicken rice soup too bland for my taste.

And then comes the highly cliched line: "Think of all the starving children in Africa."

Pause. "Would me not eating the food help the starving children?"

Yenn looks up from her food, wondering what crap I'm about to come up with.

"If I finish the food, does it help the starving children in Africa? No! In fact, you're taking away much-needed food from them!"

Yenn stares.

"And if I didn't finish it, would it help them? No! Because there's no way for this bowl of cucumber egg yolk soup to reach any starving children in time for them to save them!"

Yenn stares.

"And even if there was a way to fly this bowl of soup over there, would it reach the starving children before it spoiled? No!"

"And even if there was a way to bring this bowl of soup over there before it spoiled, and in such a way that it would not spill a single drop of soup, would it help? No! Because this bowl of soup would only feed one child! And even then, this serving would not be enough to save him from starvation!"

"And even if miraculously, it did manage to save him from starvation, you'll only be feeding him for one day! There's no guarantee there'll be another bowl of soup for him, and there's no guarantee that this one bowl of soup will save his economic situation and find him a job so that he can earn more money to buy more bowls of soup for his family!"

"So that line about the starving children just carries no balls, because whether or not I drink this bowl of soup, it's not gonna do anything about the famine situation in Africa!"

Yen: "........................................................."

This is how you know we've been working too hard............

I. MUST. WATCH. THIS. MOVIE.

Click to see the movie trailer!

Is it a big deal?

In regards to Slayer's comments about tristefemme........ [krystal: this link shld work]

Hmmmm.....

It wasn't really the abortion part that struck me as much, I guess, as her description of the relationship between her ex and herself. Her ex apparently had been showing her a false front all along, and all those overtures of care and concern was not because he truly cared, but because he thought that was what a boyfriend should do.

And what a selfish pig he turned out to be in the end. Claiming how he hurt her and his family, when really it was HER side who would always suffer from the stigma. PIG! [getting all feminist now]

Slayer's comment:
"I really think she's old enough to make her own decisions...Abortion isn't a form of contraception but it IS an option..."

I spoke to Slayer a bit more to get a clearer view on her comment..... Her view was that the girl was mature enough to know what she had to do, and old enough to get an abortion if she wanted to [she didn't], so she didn't like the fact that she seemed to be victimizing herself in the blog. To her, it's not quite the big deal the girl makes it out to be in her blog.

These are my views:

1. As to her age, I don't really know whether the fact that she's 26 makes her more mature and more able to handle her pregnancy. After all, we do know some over 20s who act as if they should be in diapers....... but I digress.

To me, whether you're 16 or 26, an unwanted pregnancy can hit pretty hard. Mental trauma aside, you'd have to care for the child through the term, and live with the stigma throughout. Not to mention the hurt and disappointment on the parents as well.

True enough, being older may mean that she has more options at hand, than if she were underage, but that doesn't necessarily lessen the stress.

2. To the victimizing part... Hey, everyone with a blog rants once in a while. :p If you were to read selective entries from my blog, [esp. those regarding one block of an insect] you could think I was a neurotic psycho hair-pulling female who just loved to cry to the whole world about her boyfriend. [which I'm not, ok??]

And sometimes, the act of just typing it out, or telling someone about it is therapeutic in itself, and helps one to deal with the situation better. She may seem "victimizing", but everyone needs a shoulder [or a laptop] once in a while. Let her have that break.

Gimme more big talk

It's good that I never went into marketing, because I decided that I'm really tired of small talk.

"How are you?" "How's class?" "How's your projects?" "That GESL thing, sucks huh?"

Good god! I never really realised how tiring it was to keep thinking up common topics between a person I hardly know, and myself. What IS there to talk about?? The ramifications of US trade policy in the Saudi region? [and me hardly understanding the statement I just typed] Or the different graphic styles in each Sandman volume and how it affects the storyline in question? Or the Christian connotations in Angel Sanctuary?

No, it's "how are your assignments?" most of the time. Bleah.

And yet, as a form of social obligation, you have to at least make some kind of pathetic attempt, even if it's just "Hi." That way you are still "part of the community" [makes the little aprostrophe signs with her two fingers] and people still "like you" [makes the little signs again], otherwise you are "out of it" [frantically making little signs again]

What's wrong with being out of it? Sometimes, I feel it's easier on me. I come for class, I listen, I do my work, and I leave. No need to worry about what people think of me. No one to attempt to talk petty topics with other people, and no need to hear other people's sanitized comments in return.

And not only that, but at least I know that if other people come to talk to me, it's because they are genuinely interested in doing so, and not because they don't want to appear dao. I know there are people like that, but at the same time, there are people also who just talk to you on the surface, so that they can absolve themselves of the responsibility. "Well, I tried talking to her, but we didn't really click, so like that lor." That way, it sounds as if they tried, and the reason why we didn't click it off as bosom lifelong friends is entirely due to me.

It's mainly because of the 2nd group of people that I feel like branding myself the local pariah.

But yet, at the same time, you have to do group/pair work, and you have to work with others. So one has to have some kind of basic socializing. *haiz*

Being human stinks, sometimes.

---

This is truly touching.... a story of a girl, who found out way too late, just how selfish and irresponsible her boyfriend was. After she got pregnant with their first child.

http://tristefemme.blogspot.com

Bored? Slacker?

It is Tuesday night, and Yenn and I have just finished logging all our assignment deadlines onto calendars.

Yen: "I think you should change the title of your blog."

Me: "Huh? Why?"

Yen: "Well, " [points to the title] "Are you sure you're still bored? Are you sure you're still slacking?"

[Imagine an Aki balloon deflating with a low sigh and a highly depressed look]

---

Happy Birthday Singapore.... Now get over it already!

And so another National Day is over..... Happy 40th Birthday Singapore, only about 10 years more to mid life crisis....

The one good thing out of the end of National Day? [Hopefully anyway] no more irritating "reach for the stars"...... bleah........ If I see one more Taufik and Rui En in the MRT, I might just make the LCD screen see stars...... [Bad pun, but I'll blame it on T and RE's inadequate harmony :p]

I know it's supposed to be the celebration of Singapore's independence and all that, but after about 24 years, the National Day celebrations are getting a bit tiresome. It's all about the same anyway. The different ethnic groups and the ever-present PAP group putting on a few skits, the military shows off its arsenal, everyone gapes in awe at the fireworks, and then goes home with the goodie bags.

For about months after that, you will see the goodie bag itself being used by tons of schoolkids all over Singapore, and a few adults, and then its appearance will diminish over time. Till the next National Day.

A pretty sarcastic take on the whole thing, huh?

And yet I don't see myself as an unpatriotic Singaporean. I don't badmouth every single Government policy, [well, not every single one anyway] I don't badmouth everything about the Gahmen.

Importantly, I don't, at this moment of time, have any plans to migrate to other countries. Other countries are nice, and some might be better than us in some ways, but I would still like to live here, marry here, and perhaps eventually die here.

This I know is totally at odds with a lot of people, and even some of my closest friends :p. But I do feel that Singapore is a good place to settle down for many reasons, most of all being the safe environment, and also the fact that here I am acknowledged as a citizen, and hence I know that, however much I deplore the actions of the government, they are made in my favour.

You think this isn't much of an advantage? Tell that to the Blacks, who suffered the chains of slavery. Tell that to the Muslims in France, who were forced to compromise their religious beliefs in exchange for life in a secular France. Tell that to any other disadvantaged race in other countries.

Your civil rights, though not tangible, are a more precious thing than almost any other thing in this world. And you cannot guarantee that the governments of other countries will grant their Permanent Residents with the same civil privileges that they grant their own home-born citizens.

But still the National Day celebrations and all the marketing hooha leading up to it bores me, and, in the case of the NDay song, irritates me. Why?

Because it's all marketing. Because I know that all this is to promote an image of something else, and ultimately, it's not real.

Because I know that the image is there to cover the reality, which may or may not be the one the Gahmen wants to project to the world.

Because the images of Singapore I see in the MTVs and the National Day parades are NOT the images of Singapore I know and love.

And what I love is what I see and feel around me. The real Singapore.

The prata stall at AMK which I still faithfully patronise every Sunday. [pulling along a father who is getting increasingly sick of prata]

The comics which arrive for me every Tuesday. [ok, not quite every Tues]

The clean and convenient transport. [Sit the Tube and the Metro and you realise just how fantastic our MRT really is]

and more importantly,

All the friends and family who have been with me for as long as I've been living here.

To me, THAT'S Singapore, my home, my future.

So Happy National Day, for all those who truly care.

And let's continue making this a home worth living, for each other.

loss - gain - what?

One of the saddest things about starting work/school/a hybrid of both is simply not having the time anymore for the things you love.

Time was I could blog just about everyday, because of all the time I had. I had the time to compose lengthy, witty, [or least, I hope they were witty] entries, and whole sagas about my then-non-existent-and-even-now-not-quite-there love life.

Time was I spent more time with Photoshop and Freehand than I did with actual human company. My fingers moved with an unconscious fluidity of their own, and created pixels of cartoons and other illustrations.

Time was I could spend a whole afternoon lost in a good book, or comic. Even after I had finished reading the comic, I had the time to spare to lust over the luscious art.

Time was I was poor, but I had enough cash to get by, and I was content.

Now?

My blog got dusty, my typing became stiff, and I haven't created anything new or arty in a while, aside from some black and white ink stuff in my hostel room. [I brought over the barest necessities - A sketchbook, black pens, and a mechanical pencil] I still read, but the time I spend on a book is getting longer. I still buy comics, but I'm not able to read intently, and sometimes I find myself skimming over the words, and not fully appreciating the art.

And my wallet? The excess money only made me want to spend more, a feeling of consumerish frenzy which I am frantically trying to abate.

And I think: What have I lost in exchange for career and financial stability?

And do I even fully know what I have lost?

I think only time can prove this hypothesis. Perhaps I can be happy at this. Perhaps I will find some balance. Perhaps I may never really care about what I lost in the past.

Perhaps I may never be a slacker again.

Perhaps I may declare this blog a waste of my time, and close it down for good, resigning to the depths of the dusty online dungeons.

In a way, this particular speaker I heard in NIE spoke true. That we must "never forget why is it you went into this in the first place" [I apologise, but I forgot who spoke that line, only that the person is in NIE]

And I may have taken the line out of its proper context, but I guess it fits this now.

That I must never forget why I do the things I love.

And never forget why is it I love them so.

And never stop loving them.

[slightly pensive mood]

Conversation

Me: "I'm having bad neckaches nowadays."

schwarz: "Yea, you look like you're getting a dowager's hump."

Me: "What??? Is it because of my posture??"

schwarz: "Usually these things are determined genetically, just that your bad posture could have made it worse."

Me: [conveniently not listening to the second half of the sentence] "Good, another thing I can blame on my parents."

*Doing*

schwarz: "Try not to slouch so much lah."

Me: "I can't help it, most of the time in tuition I have to bend down to help the kids."

schwarz: "How, like that?"

Me: "I know one thing I could do."

schwarz: "What?"

Me: [looking down at her 1.4m frame] "Talk more often to taller friends, for one?"

[that earned me a kick in the knee]

My neck hurts every time a tuition session ends. Or not hurt, but rather, ache. I can feel the muscles in my neck right now screaming out for a good massage, and a lot of those parlors are starting to look real tempting......

So if I go out with you and you notice that my neck is stuck in one position, or, [if you're shorter than me] I'm talking over the top of your head, bear with me.......

Incidentally, I forgot to mention... I've watched Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and had a few thoughts:

1. Johnny Depp's Willy Wonka is not at all like the WW I imagined in the book. [then again, I had the same problem with the Harry Potter movies] Roald Dahl's WW at the time seemed like a lovable, clown-like character with a child-like innocence. JD's WW seemed like he was walking a fine line between sanity and psychopathic behaviour most of the time.

Although he does have a slightly sexy slant in the movie ads... Rowr!

2. Tim Burton's movies have an unmistakable dark quality. There is no mistaking a Burton film for any other film. They all have that same dark comedy feel.

3. The movie will make you crave for chocolate. No kidding.

Why women are smarter than men

The post below this is a rant of sorts, so I thought I'd get you guys into a reasonably chuckly mood before you start reading about my angst....

This was received in my email from Sylveracyd.... [to the women out there] Enjoy!

Marriage - Part I

Typical macho man married typical good-looking lady and after the wedding, he laid down the following rules:

"I'll be home when I want, if I want and at what time I want and I don'texpect any hassle from you. I expect a great dinner to be on table unlessI tell you that I won't be home for dinner. I'll go hunting, fishing, boozing and card-playing when I want with my old buddies and don't you give me a hard time about it. Those are myrules. Any comments?"

His new bride said, "No, that's fine with me. Just understand that there will be sex here at seven o'clock every night ......... whether you're here or not."

(DAMM SHE'S GOOD!)

Marriage (Part II)

Husband and wife had a bitter quarrel on the day of their 40th wedding anniversary!The husband yells, "When you die, I'm getting you a headstone that reads:"Here Lies My Wife - Cold As Ever "

"Yeah?" she replies. "When you die, I'm getting you a headstone thatreads: "Here Lies My Husband Stiff At Last"

(HE ASKED FOR IT!)

Marriage (Part III)

Husband (a doctor) and his wife are having a fight at the breakfast table.Husband gets up in a rage and says, "And you are no good in bed either,"and storms out of the house. After sometime, he realizes he was nasty and decides to make amends and rings her up. She comes to the phone after many rings, and the irritated husband says, "what took you so long to answer the phone?"

She says, "I was in bed."

"In bed this early, doing what?"

"Getting a second opinion!"

(YEP, HE HAD THAT ONE COMING, TOO!)

Marriage (Part IV)

A man has six children and is very proud of his achievement. He is so proud of himself, that he starts calling his wife, "Mother of Six" in spite of her objections.One night, they go to a party. The man decides that it's time to go home and wants to find out if his wife is ready to leave as well. He shouts at the top of his voice, "Shall we go home 'Mother of Six?'

His wife, irritated by her husband's lack of discretion, shouts right back, "Anytime you're ready, Father of Four."

(RIGHT ON, LADY!)

Marriage (Part V) The Silent Treatment

A man and his wife were having some problems at home and were giving each other the silent treatment. Suddenly, the man realized that the next day,he would need his wife to wake him at 5:00 AM for an early morning business flight. Not wanting to be the first to break the silence (and LOSE), he wrote on a piece of paper, "Please wake me at5:00AM." He left it where he knew she would find it.

The next morning, the man awoke, only to discover it was 9:00 AM and he had missed his flight. Furious, he was about to go and see why his wife hadn't awakened him when he noticed a piece of paper by the bed. The message on the paper read, "It is 5:00 AM. Wake up."

---

Men are not equipped for these kinds of contests.God may have created man before woman, but there is always a rough draft before the masterpiece.

And I still haven't gotten my laptop hooked up to the Net.......... phwargh bleargh pooi pooi.........

Ok, lemme rephrase... I haven't gotten my laptop hooked up to the Net... In my hostel room.......... pooi pooi pooi............

It's 10am, in the NIE com lab, I didn't get enough sleep due to weird dreams the entire night, [Turtle was going to jail, and DF and I were back in JC, but he was in the wrong class.....er........] and I stood in front of a damned photocopying machine for one hour trying to desperately photostat whatever I could, and gacking at the sheer amount of paper that was coming out......

Oh yea, time for a good ol' rant...

Firstly, the LAPTOP

I brought it down to NIE com lab early one morning this week, and the lady there successfully installed the network card, and the client software, only to tell me:

"Oh, by the way, you may not get reception in some hostels."

"What? Where would I be able to use it, then?"

"In NIE itself."

*string of bad English, Hokkien and Japanese expletives* Then what's the blardy point of getting the card in the first place??? Why not I just make my way to the com lab each time???

Then, there's THE CABLE

I borrowed a network cable from the hostel office, which presumably was supposed to hook my com up to the Net through the LAN network.

Notice that I'm still in the com lab this morning. (-_-)

An inconvenient part of our room layout is that one LAN point is directly under Yenn's table. So I crawled under her desk to connect the cable, pushed the other end into my laptop, and set the proxy.

No connection.

I bring my laptop to the other side of the room, where our beds are.

STill no connection.

*English expletives* Then why I borrow the blardy cable for??? To strangle the hostel office staff when it doesn't work??

And when I asked the staff about it, all they said was, "The whole campus should be wireless, right?"

Yea, everywhere on campus except your blardy hostel area...... grumble grumble grumble....... This is when images of strangling them with the wire came in..........

Lastly, for today, is the PHOTOCOPYING.

I had [conveniently] forgotten how much photocopying one had to do in Uni. It seems, in the past few days, that everytime I came to the library, it was inevitably for some kind of photocopying. *dryly* After all, who cares about copyright infringements when your education and hence future career success is at stake, huh?

So I stood in front of the machine, zapping...........

And zapping...............

And zapping.........................................

Before I really got tired, and decided, "Screw this for now", and smashed my Iron Fist of Death into the photocopying machine, to the extreme shock and disbelief of all those standing behind me.

Nah, just kidding, though I wish I could have done so.

Now I know why NIE has that psychology clinic on campus...... It's to prevent Columbine-wannabes like me.......................

More rants if something else pisses me off...........

I've had to temporarily remove the tag-board, because I realised that everytime there's an error with the company server itself, the loading of my blog gets slowed down.

So since I assume you're more interested in reading the totally opinionated crap I write, rather than adding your own constructive comments on my writing, I removed the board.

Don't fret, though. If you feel that you absolutely MUST tell me the exact honest truth about my writing, please follow these instructions:

1) Click once on the Address bar.
2) Type http://www.ihateyourblog.com
3) Read the error message
4) Complain to someone else instead

Nah, just kidding. :p In place of the tagboard, use the comments function, by clicking on ".. pieces of crap". Blogger should carry you along from there.

And btw, Nihongo no leberu 2 wa owarimasu! Leberu 3 e itteimasu!

This newest post comes to you courtesy of an NTU computer at the main central library. Long live computer labs and free Internet access. :p Now if only they came with Firefox...

A few of my thoughts on the NTU campus:

- The new library I'm in now, directly above Canteen A, is one of the more better looking campus libraries I've seen around. :p Is there a current trend among the universities to compete for the better looking library? [the central library at NUS arts, after the renovation, was also stunning]

The interesting thing about the way it's been built is the half-circular design of the place. You walk in, and immediately you're standing above a half-moon valley, overlooking a whole prairie of computers, and people intent at work [or sleep, for some]

I walk to the 4th floor, along the moon, and through the windows on my left, I see the sea, [or more possibly, the Straits of Malacca] and what could possibly be Johor. It's definitely a better view than what NUS has to offer :S although most people here seem less interested in the view and more in their computer screens. Welcome to campus life.

And now, my current computer is at a window seat, though my view of Johor has been blocked by some very tall palm trees. Would almost feel like a beach, if not for the fact that I'm in an air-con library, and I have a pile of readings beside me. :s

- A few not so very nice words about their 3D club though...

NTU has a 3D animation club called NTU Siggraph, and usually Yenn and I would be interested, but I'm not too impressed by their management committee.

Erm, is it because the club is too new or something? Because I remember going for Imagereel, which was an exhibition of 3D animation, and not being very impressed with the way they organized the whole thing. Not to mention the commentators weren't too interesting, and Yenn wasn't impressed with the 3D shown, [too abstract and arty for her :p] so both of us overall weren't... well, impressed. :p

Then I went for another one they had at the library. Again, the speaker wasn't too interesting, though in this case, I suppose it's the fault of the external speaker they had, rather than the club itself. Most of the people probably thought they were there to learn some basics about 3D animation. [as I was] Instead, the presenter went like this:

"So if you click on this icon, [clicks on icon] you can do this [fiddles around with mouse, and changes colour of image. We squint to see what icon he clicked] and then this [does something else with another icon] and you can then... [by now he's given up on using verbs at all] after that you.... then you can..........."

Bleah................. at least I got some free software out of that........................

So when I saw the little display they had outside Canteen A, I was a bit apprehensive about the club, even though I saw free basic 3D courses for members. [thankfully, at the same time, they were hiring management committee members] As it is, I think their members need a bit of training in marketing skills.

I stood in front of a sign, just beside the booth, reading about the club benefits for members. The 3 people at the booth itself talk to each other about something.

I feign slight interest. They ignore me.

I decide to make myself more visible. [considering my bulk, this is not a hard thing to do] I walk to the front of the booth, in front of the 3 members.

They continue talking among themselves.

Hallo! I'm here! Me! Interested party here! Yoohoo! Look! I have cash! I'm ready to pay for membership!

I stand there for a good five minutes, before someone sees me. She comes over to talk to me, while the other 2 talk somemore. :s

I ask her, "What kind of courses does your club offer?"

Blank look. Maybe she didn't hear me correctly.

"What kind of activities does your club do?"

She thinks a while, then she reaches for a copy of the exact same piece of paper I was reading a couple of minutes back, and shows it to me. NB. Think I cannot read ah?

I ask a few more perfunctory questions about the club, and its courses, but I want a flyer.

"Sorry, we have no flyers."

No flyers? How about a copy of that paper you're holding there?

"Er, we don't have a copy right now...."

................ You do have a website, right? And I know you do, because you have it written on that very large orange banner hanging over your head over there.

"Er, ya, we have a website................ [why so reluctant to tell me your URL? You got porn stashed away in a link somewhere?] Maybe you can come back later in the afternoon when we have the flyers."

...................................... Wateva. See ya.

Maybe I'm being unfair to them, or maybe they're too new, but [sense of campus loyalty seeping in here] I don't think Bizad would have ever pulled some kind publicity flop like that lor...... And so much more the waste, because 3D animation is gaining in popularity in Singapore.... and their club is doing so little for itself......

Ok, they need better management....................... [And I hope no one in that club reads this the wrong way and send their friends in the Computing Club, if there is one, after my blog. :p]

Hypothesis: When a group of girls go shopping, the girl that already knows exactly what she wants to buy and how much she is willing to pay for it will NOT find what she wants, but the girls who are just there to tag along will end up buying all sorts of things they didn't intend to buy.

Scenario: Group of 4 girls go shopping. One girl, henceforth known as Object Aki is about to break the pair of heels she is walking in, and desperately needs new pair of sandals. Other test variables, Quet, Candle and Yenn tag along.

The Object and Variables make their way to the [semi] controlled test environment, henceforth referred to as 'Far East' to look for a new pair of shoes for Object Aki.

After a couple of hours of shopping, Object Aki is unable to find decent shoes at reasonable prices, while Variable Yenn has bought 2 new items, a beige shoulder bag [at sale price somemore!!! Blardy fark!] and a new pair of shoes. While Object Aki hobbles along, praying that either her feet or her heels don't give out before she finds a new pair of shoes.

Conclusion: HYPOTHESIS PROVEN

Not only that, but just after I bought the new sandals, really, just the second after I bought them, I stood up and immediately felt a paralysing cramp in my 2nd toe on my right foot. And even after Quet attempted to massage it, it still remained stubbornly cramped and out of line with all the other tootsies on my foot.

Finally, after it uncramped itself, and i was able to walk again, I developed a sore blister on my left foot from where it rubbed against the unfamiliar strap. (^^!)

Next conclusion: NOT ONE OF MY BETTER SHOPPING DAYS

Who's seen the new NDP song over the MRT screens?

Well, who's been irritated by the incessant playing of the same few lines of the NDP song over the MRT screens?

Ok I saw more hands rise then...

Anyway, here's an alternate take on the NDP MTV, link found on mrbrown.com and originally done by Cloudywind:

National Day MTV

Most of my close friends know by now of my bf's plans to join the army full-time and of my worries of what he'll do after retirement.

Well, I need worry no longer. Here are his career options:

Jobs suitable for NSFs

I went to Funan and knocked myself out. :P in short, my [very old by now] laptop has gained two new friends, in the form of an external DVD writer and a new 40GB external HDD drive.

The spirit is happy, but the bank account is weak......... (T_T)

After staying in hall for 2 nights, I went back home on Tues to get something from my house. My whole family was at home, and naturally my parents were surprised to see me home already, thinking I was already dying of homesickness, or I had forgotten other essentials. After I had finally explained to them everything, my bro stuck his head out from the computer, and asked me,

"Jie, where did you go?"

"I came from my hostel what."

"Ah? You mean you weren't staying at home for the past few nights?"

PENG DAO. BISH. FAINT. I stay away from home for TWO NIGHTS and my own brother doesn't even notice I'm gone......... That's my family for you.............. *sits moodily in one corner*

[I'm loathe to talk more about NIE or Moe or NTU, so here's something unrelated to education. For education matters, go to Miseducators]

So Yenn and I have received no phone call from our Japanese sensei, which means that we most probably have passed our latest Jap test and are on fully on our way to Level 3. :D Yokatta ne....

In the spirit of this newfound realization therefore, I present to you, some simple cheers we learned in school, translated [albeit very brokenly] into Jap. [This is probably guaranteed to confuse the heck out of the other faculties] Guess what they are:

[note: The cheers can be used in any context for any organization, but because I learned them in Bizad, I have therefore written them that way. Replace the 'Bizad' with whatever school you come from]

Bizad no onna wa kirei yo!
Ichi ni san yon [X2]
Bizad no otoka wa hansamu ne!
Ichi ni san yon [X2]
Watashi wa Bizad, watashi wa ii! [X2]
Uma ga nai [X4]
Oh.... Bizad!

Bizad wa ichiban to iimasu
Anta shinjinai, zannen yo!
Nani watashi hanasu, anta wa hanasu [X2]
[there's more to this cheer, but for my limited abilities, I could only translate the 1st stanza]

Created in a mood of boh-liaoness while walking from LT to LT....... :p

This post comes to you courtesy of the com lab at Nie....

Yes, Yenn and I have successfully assimilated ourselves into campus, and are now quite settled in our room. [somewhat. the climbing of 6 floors to our room takes some getting used to, and there are no lifts.]

The first week of school is still super slack, with us running around campus, figuring out shuttle bus schedules, [I took the wrong bus once from Boon Lay to Nie, and ended up very, very far from my hall in the middle of the night. Took me a while to walk back, hoping I would not get murdererd/robbed/raped] canteens with good food, [Canteen A is good, but the queues are murder] and the overall map of the campus. [we're not getting as lost anymore]

But I still have no Internet access in my room. :S Which is why I'm now in the library waiting for my turn at the helpdesk, so that I can figure out how to get meself one of them cool wireless cards so that my old laptop will be hooked up to the Net.

I. Miss. The. Net. Period.

Meanwhile, today, the day is spent lazily lounging around, since the whole campus is out for Flag Day and we don't have to go. Nyah nyah nyah. :p Which only leaves me to go back to Bishan towards the evening for my tuition. :S

I'll try to post up more exploits later, when I get my card. Meanwhile, you may, er, have to contend yourself with a very boring blog for a while.... Sumimasen.......