The Cool Hunters

The title of the website reminds me of a book I read called So Yesterday, by Scott Westerfeld. [a pretty talented teen lit writer. Go check it out!] I'm not uber cool [one only has to look at my pink chipmunk shirt to see that] but I like to browse through cool stuff. And this site features some pretty neat cool stuff.

Like Iconz IPod video cases



A pretty neat Wonderbra advertisement. [pull on the string and the page folds up, creating the illusion of... voluptuousness.]



A kids' paper chair that I so wish I had when I was a kid



And pretty morbid looking jewellery.



Go check it out! The Cool Hunters

Work sucks. I feel shit about the first lesson I ever did, but I'm trying to comfort myself by saying 1) it's not an observation lesson, and no one was around to see me screw up 2) I'm still in training, so I still have excuses,

and 3) I will do better next time. There's no way but up.

*sigh* Anyone got a few grand to lend me to break my bond?

On a more lighter note, here are pix of some of the stuff I got for my quarter...


Remnants of the seafood dinner with my family. As you can see, we liked the food.


Indirect present from the uni gang, courtesy of a Borders card. Haven't started reading any yet, though, because of the pile of library books I have to clear.


Card from the Slayer. The inside reads, "That either means 'Happy Birthday' or 'I left a dead rat on the sofa'. Wicked cute.


I think my brother's trying to make a hint at my newly found out attached status with this. Either that or he's telling me not to heavy colour light fren.

And finally,


This is from HIM. A collection of 8 different premium chocs. Though I have to say, this kinda stuff is wasted on me, because I ate one so far and I'm like, that's it? Shld've gotten me Royce.... heh. But I still love the thought of him buying me something.

My dad actually gave me ang pow as well, but............

Well, I paid him back for the phone he bought for me, and he took out one of the $50 notes I paid him, and said, "Here, that's your birthday angpow." -_-!!! So my 'present' aside from the dinner was a $50 discount on my new phone...... My dad for you...........

Quarter

I'm now a quarter. One-fourth. Whoop de doo.

Only about 3 more to go... :p

I did take a bunch of pix of the loot, oops, presents, but for some reason, the connection from my phone to my laptop isn't working. -_-! It's like when a new cat moves into another cat's territory. Bound to be some compatibility problems. Or so I think. Anywayz, many thanks to all who contributed to my loot, n for all the SMSes I rec'd. You guys actually remembered. *sniff*.

Well, the weekend went fine for me, certainly compensated for my working days starting on The Day itself anyway -_-!!!!!

Fri nite Candle, Yenn and I, and very briefly Jules, had a college frat-like party, and had pizza and booze at my house, while we watched a very weird Thai movie, in which some Aussie Ah Kwa Gangsta Boss ordered some guys all the way to Thailand to steal an elephant, which infuriated the elephant keeper, and spurred him into going all the way to Australia to get his pachyderm back.

I can't believe that I actually wrote the movie into sounding lamer than it already was.

Anyway, after that was a seafood dinner at Punggol Marina with the family, which had funnily assumed that DF would be there, without me saying anything. Huh?

Funny thing though, I ended up saving an angmoh woman from getting stuck in the toilet.

Anywayz.........

Sun I met him and proceeded to get back for the sms on Vday:

"So what did you do on Vday?"

"I went out on a date."

"Oh..." unconcerned, slightly amused.

"We went out to the beach for dinner, and dessert, and sat by the beach talking."

"Oh......"

"And he even bought me a rose! There were these rose sellers, and at first he said no. Then I went to the toilet, and when I came back, ta-dah! He had bought me a rose! What a sweet surprise!"

"Oh............... so who's this guy?"

"Who do you think?"

"I can only think of J or G?" [his exact words]

"G? G will meh?" scoff scoff.

"J???"

"Ah ba then?"

"Oh............................................." stony tone. Daggers. Death in eyes.

"And he even sent me home in his car after that! Not like someone who was in camp, and didn't want to come ou to see his gf on valentine's, and who just sent one idiot sms and who wanted to give me one blardy borders discount coupon somemore."

"Uh huh...................." cautious guilt and some amusement.

And so on. :p Well, yea, eventually I did tell him what really went down on Vday's, and only after that did he decide to spare Jules' life.

And I dropped so many dripping comments about Vday's, that he made up for it by going for a gay cowboy movie with me, [which he thought was totally slow, and which he almost fell asleep halfway, and thought was unnatural.] and then brought me to the Straits Kitchen buffet at the Hyatt, [which sold grossly overpriced hawker food, in my opinion] and gave me a box of [grossly overpriced] chocolates from Godiva.

But as I told him, it's the sincerity behind that I'm looking for. And yes, he had that so I was happy. :)

Though it might have been nice to get a rose...........

I once said that I 1) preferred Nokia phones and 2) didn't like clamshell phones



I stand corrected on both points.




Meet my new phone:





What won me over was the colour screen and, the beauty of it, a 2mpx camera. *sigh*

Here's a sample of the kind of pix it can do:



And this is just the small version! I can actually take and store pix up to 640X480, which is, actually, farking amazing considering the capabilities of my old Nokia.

And yes, I am experiencing syncho problems. As in, the Panasonic OS is driving me nuts after using a Nokia for so many years. The SMS part is alright, but the general navigation and finding stuff?

ARGH!!!

But all in all, it's pretty cool to have a new phone. Heh.

And to those who remember my two statements from above?

Saw the following in 8Days:





I believe she knows that this is for her. *grin*

Buns?

Something light before the more sombre post below... Since I have a little bit of time after finishing my assignments... :p

I wonder whether this is a freudian thing I'm seeing.... but tell me whether you guys see anything crude in the advert....

breadtalk promotion

Love Again?

'cos a few more thoughts on love and relationships popped to mind after talking to some friends over the week.

First let me say at the outset that I'M NOT OUT TO SLAM ANYONE HERE. Anything I write on this blog is my own personal opinion, and I'm not attacking you or slamming you. Take what I say with an open mind, consider my opinions, and then slam me back in the comments if you want.

I have some friends recently who seemed to be snowballing into their relationships. Why do I say snowball?

Well, take a small snowball and place it at the top of a hill. Push said snowball down. See it roll down, getting larger and larger and larger. You get the picture.

The weird thing is that this isn't just happening to one friend. It's happening to a few. And it's left a number of people befuddled.

Maybe I tend to be cynical, but how on earth would you know that the guy/gal you're with for say 3-6 mths is the one?? The One you'll gonna stay your whole life with, the one you're gonna marry and bear children for?

I'm not even talking about friends who've known each other for years before getting attached. I mean as in you only knew the other half for a few months, before deciding that he/she was The One.

I've talked to some of these friends, and I can come up with a few reasons why I'm so cynical about the whole thing:

Not every one has a happy ending. Sure you know you're in love now, but are you certain that that feeling will continue? on both sides?

I'm asking this because for every couple who started out lovey..... i know of others who got thrashed. Bad.

Yes, you're good now. Yes you will work at being good. But how do you know that your relationship will be able to sustain the trials of time, when you haven't even had those trials of time to begin with?? When your relationship hasn't been tested by everything that life has to throw at it, how do you know that you will be able to leap those unknown obstacles?

These friends are mainly attached now, so fine, most of them know what it is like to be in a relationship. What I fear they don't know is what it means to be in a long term relationship where both parties are deeply dependent on each other materially and emotionally. Or what it means to have a sexual relationship. [Don't ANY of you try that now!] Or what it means to have dependant children, or what it may mean if you end up pregnant with a child.

As in, are you sure your boyfriend-girlfriend status can prepare you fully for a cohabitant or married status? Because each stage is totally different from the other, with its own trials and tribulations. What you experienced while you were dating can be totally different from what you experience if you're living together, or married. And that experience may not be enough to sustain you.

And no, love and determination is not enough, in my opinion.

So to me, time is needed. Time is important. It's not always a matter of the quality of the experience with him/her, it's also learning to actually live with the other party. It takes time not just to fully understand the person's character, but also to find out if your relationship is strong enough to go through all the hurdles that time and change may bring.

Sure, love is important, but dont' forget that love and character may change over time. And if it does, where does that leave you?

Yes, I sound cynical. No, it's not cos of sour grapes. No, it's not because I hate your boyfriend/girlfriend/sexual partner/whatever

I'm cynical about the whole affair because I'm worried that you're too busy staring into the other person's face to notice the potholes or lampposts ahead.

And at the end of it, I don't want that rolling snowball to crash into some hard rock at the bottom.

I'm sorry if this post may offend some of the friends whom I am obviously talking about. And I ask others not to reveal anything on this blog that may reveal their identity, if you know who I'm talking about.

But I feel... better you prepare yourself for the hard truth from me now, rather than suffer it later.

And I hope you understand where I'm coming from.

Was spent, most funnily, with 2 gals and a guy.

Much kudos and envy the guy must have had, being accompanied by 3 lovely ladies on Valentine's, none of which seemed much put out that they had to share their date with 2 other women, but well, it's a modern society we live in.

*sigh* Who am I kidding? With the DF in camp, I pretty much had two choices:

1. Stay at home, do report and mope about being home on Vday, plus fend off questions from pesky parent
2. Go out with friends, think of him, and be surrounded by lovey dovey couples carrying flowers, presents and sweet talk

In the end, I decided that to stay at home was just that much sadder than going out and at least I would have some entertainment, so.....

Jules drove Quetz, Candle and I to East Coast for a romantic dinner by flourescent at Mac's, it being the only place in the beach which still sold food at its normal prices. We went for dessert at Gelare's after that, and then went walking around the place, whereby Jules was immediately accosted by a very determined rose-selling aunty.

"Buy a rose for the girl leh!"
"But I've got three of them!"
"Buy for all three lah!"

Who can withstand such female determination? He duly bought the roses.

Which became much abused by us. In the following order,

While sitting on the breakwater to admire the waves, [and spoil Vday for other couples with our bad jokes] Candle used the rose to swipe away the cockroaches lingering around our butts.

Whenever he made some bad joke, I whacked him on the head with the rose, n even poked him in the arse several times.

When Quet wanted to get his attention in the car, she hit his shoulder with the flower.

Finally, at my block, he arghed in frustration, "The first time I ever buy flowers for a girl, make that three girls, and what do I get? I get hit with it, poked in the ass with it, and they even use it to kill cockroaches! What's wrong with me?? Am I that bad?"

"No, you're just not him!"

Which pretty much summed up my feelings about the entire Vday. You're not Him. -_-!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And my "Vday Present" from him? An sms which read:

"Happy Flogging Day"

My boyfriend. With all the romance of a glacier. And a sense of humour to match it.

Hi, see that new link? At the sidebar? Contribute to my Johari Window please! I'm curious to know what you *really* think of me...

"Do you know how Valentine's Day came about?"

"How?"

"No, I'm asking you, because I'm wondering myself.

You see, it used to be that in medieval times there used to be a pagan festival in Feburary. In this festival, young men and women would put their names in an urn, and then take turns to draw out names. You were then considered 'married' to that person for a year. The church later stopped this debaucherous practice and replaced with Valentine's day. "

"Yea, and?"

"There was another pagan practice as well. During this month, people would whip themselves to atone for their sins, and also dedicate themselves to a particular saint, and follow his example for the rest of the month."

"Uh huh."

"And St Valentine's was a priest, so if you followed him, you would have to remain celibate for the month!"

"Uh huh."

"Why do we celebrate Valentine's day anyway? Why did we choose Feb 14 to be Valentine's Day? It's become so commercialised anyway, with all the roses and flowers and the only people who are happy during this time of year are the florists!"

"Yea, and...?"

"Just wondering, that's all."

"BLARDY HELL DUN WANNA BUY VDAY PRESENT THEN SAY LAH! GIMME ALL THIS PAGAN CRAP!"

I think you can figure out who I had the above conversation with.

Find out more about Valentine's Day from Wikipedia

The News in Brief... and Thong

Cow, it's been a while since I updated.... So what's going on with my life since, well, last Monday?

Well, I've been a bad, bad sinner. Especially when I look back at all the food and stuff I consumed over the weekend. ^_^!!! Let's see how badly I need penance:

Work/School:
Am happily skipping lecture with Yenn right now, while blogging and do all sorts of non-work related stuff on the Internet. All this while I have 3 deadlines hanging ominously over my head.

I think I'm just the sort of person that can only work well when it comes to a do-or-be-seriously-fucked situation.

SIN FACTOR = 1

Leisure:
This being just over the weekend, there's just way more stuff to say about this, though I have memories of a lot of cake and ice cream.

Thurs = Lindy nite. We've just finished Lindy 2 [yay!] but we weren't sure enough of our skills to go for the Lindy 3 course yet, so Jules and I decided to just head for the Swing Flings and polish our steps on the dance floor.

Of which we realised that we have a long way to go. As in from here to Harlem.

i trounced like an elephant, forgot moves, lost beats and even cramped a foot ^_^!!! Jules trounced around too, and had the tendency to stick the same dance routine.

This meant that after a while, you realise that he would do the same steps over and over and over and over...etc again while you are dancing with him. After one night, I think I could've led the dance for him even.

To Jules: NO MORE CHARLESTONS!!!

SIN FACTOR = 0 [the Kenny Rogers dinner we had being offset by the exercise on the dancefloor]

Fri nite = Drinking session at Paulaner's to celebrate mine and Quet's turning a quart of a century old. Well done on living so long. Now let's try living for the next 3 quarts. That was followed by cake with Quet and Jules at the old Lips at Cineleisure. [incidentally, they have good, rich chocolate truffle]

SIN FACTOR = 2

Sat nite = I *finally* go for Jap after a 2 week hiatus. I also meet Candle at the Pasta Cafe at Taka for dinner, followed by a Tiramisu al cafe at Coffee club with her and Turt and Jules.

SIN FACTOR = 2

After that, they watched Brokeback but I was too tired, so I didn't follow them. Instead I went to Borders to use my recently-acquired giftcard.

And btw, thanks to the FWFCers for *getting* me Freakonomics and Artemis Fowl for my birthday. "How did you ever guess?" And also make the DF wonder what to get me as a present, now that the obvious solution has been done.

Which brings us to:

Sunday = Wow. This was one of the most eventful days I spent with him yet. We went down to the Botanical Gardens first to look at flowers [yea, what else?] and about a dozen varieties of orchids. [the weirdest being the one dedicated to Arroyo which had twisted petals and looked like a bunch of dried chilli]

Then it was to Marina Sq where he bought the weirdest, qian-pian looking cushion I had ever seen.

Dinner was at Spageddies, but it was really dessert that killed me.

CAKE MELT AT THE TEA ROOM!!!!!!!!!

The Tea Room is next to Max Brenner at the Esplanade and is one of the most expensive dessert places I have ever been to, where the price of cake can go up to $20odd.

It's also the most BLARDY SINFUL, TONGUE-TINGLING, FOOD-ORGASMIC place I've ever been to.

The one piece of Paradise/Hell I had, the Mixed Berry Cake Melt came oozing with rich sticky berry goodness and even had a shot of Tequila Rose as well. [Tequila rose tastes somewhat like a strong, strawberry-flavoured Bailey's and is TOTALLY yum.] The first bite I had, with the mixed berry crushing its juice into my throat and the rich texture of the melted cake, made my tastebuds scream with absolute delight.

I swear I nearly had a climax there and there. Major food orgasm.

They're really famous for their Bailey's cake melt though, but apparently it's become so popular since I ate it almost 6 months ago, that you now have to call to make a reservation for the cake! I swear, it's that good.

And the Shepherd's Pie he ate was like nothing ever. It was like, a SOLID POTATO CAKE swimming in a kiddy pool of creamy mushroom sauce, lightly seasoned to taste oh-so-good.

I have to admit, there are advantages to having a boyfriend that is a diehard food addict.

SIN FACTOR = OFF THE BLARDY SCALE.

Now let me atone for my sin...... by going vegetarian for the rest of my life.

YEA RIGHT!!!!!

"Do you know how Valentine's Day came about?"

"How?"

"No, I'm asking you, because I'm wondering myself.

You see, it used to be that in medieval times there used to be a pagan festival in Feburary. In this festival, young men and women would put their names in an urn, and then take turns to draw out names. You were then considered 'married' to that person for a year. The church later stopped this debaucherous practice and replaced with Valentine's day. "

"Yea, and?"

"There was another pagan practice as well. During this month, people would whip themselves to atone for their sins, and also dedicate themselves to a particular saint, and follow his example for the rest of the month."

"Uh huh."

"And St Valentine's was a priest, so if you followed him, you would have to remain celibate for the month!"

"Uh huh."

"Why do we celebrate Valentine's day anyway? Why did we choose Feb 14 to be Valentine's Day? It's become so commercialised anyway, with all the roses and flowers and the only people who are happy during this time of year are the florists!"

"Yea, and...?"

"Just wondering, that's all."

"BLARDY HELL DUN WANNA BUY VDAY PRESENT THEN SAY LAH! GIMME ALL THIS PAGAN CRAP!"

I think you can figure out who I had the above conversation with.

Find out more about Valentine's Day from Wikipedia

Tell me what makes a man......

'Cos I really wanna know.

I've already 'interviewed' some of you on a highly-informal, totally-unscientific manner already, so now I wanna get more responses.

Answer the following questions please:

1. What do you think makes a man a man?
2. What do you think makes a woman a woman?
3. What do you think is a man and a woman's role in family life?

Either answer the questions in the comments link below, or email to boredslacker@gmail.com
I will use the 'findings' in an upcoming blog entry, but I won't quote your real name or email addy on my blog at all, so be assured of anonymity. I'm not doing this for school, but as more of a pet project. Get all your friends to send in too!

Note to commentors on my blog:

- No, I really don't want the laptop cover for my birthday, if that's what you meant. :p I want other things, like a wireless-enabled PDA, the new Nokia L'amor phone, a graphics drawing tablet, and why not throw in a new car while you're at it? >D

- Meeting his parents is NOT a direct precursor to marriage. Trust me, we're far, far, faaaaarrrrrrr away from that goal.

- Yes, I will wait till 2008 to receive my ang pow. >D

Now back to regular blogging:

Freedom... Or peace?

Sometimes it really seems as if the two are on opposite ends of a scale. And I especially felt that way after seeing the two following articles:

European press enters fray over Mohammed cartoons
and
Blair under pressure after defeats in Parliament
[read the two articles to make more sense out of this blog entry. Hey, a little current affairs won't kill ya :p]

It seemed to me that the common thread between these two articles were the fight between freedom of speech, and potential offenses to the Muslim communities in each country.

It also seemed to me to be a pretty dumb thing.

Ok, freedom of speech is a great thing and all, but surely there have to be limits?? You publish cartoons you know will offend just about every Muslim in the world, and you insist on your freedom of speech rights, then you cry and scream Murder and Anarchy when these JI-types decide to bomb a few buses in your country.

Granted that terrorism is NEVER the solution, but in cases like these, I feel there is a tinge of 'they asked for it'. Citing "freedom of speech" as their excuse to communicate highly flammable messages like this...... Well, it's like going up to the local bully, [who weighs about 400kg more than you do] calling him a yellow-bellied girly wuss, and then stating that to do so is your right to freedom of speech.

Please lor! Sure kena whack one what!

IF you already know that relationships between the Western world and the global Muslim community these days are not quite at their best, then why, why, why on heaven's sake do you keep on insisting on keeping your 'personal rights' at the cost of the society around you?

This I think is the one biggest flaw of the Western world. Their insistence on democracy, and especially their personal rights.... they seem to think that their personal views and preferences prevail over the safety of society at large, even if what they say could potentially hurt and kill those close to them indirectly.

Most tragically comical was the quote I read in the article about Blair's bill:

" But after the 90-day proposal was rejected, the Lords had inflicted a series of defeats on the Racial and Religious Hatred Bill in a bid to safeguard freedom of speech.

It notably put in an amendment restricting the new offence of inciting religious hatred to threatening words and behaviour, rather than a wider definition also covering insults and abuse.
The Lords also required the offence to be intentional, and specified that criticism, insult, abuse and ridicule of religion, belief or religious practice would not be an offence."

Do you know what these could mean in ordinary terms?

- It is ok to scold someone, "You dog!", but illegal to shout, "I'll kill you, you dog!"

- It is ok to laugh, and call someone, "Hahaha!! You fucking dog!" or tell someone "Your fucking religion sucks! Hahaha!" AS LONG AS it wasn't intentional [hence the "Hahaha!" to indicate humour]

- It *might probably be* ok to write long lengthy blog posts on why you think Muslims/Catholics/Christians/Buddhists/Jews/Mormons/Aum worshippers are all muthafucking dogs AS LONG AS your blog is based in the UK.

[to S'porean Internet Watchdogs... please read the context of my blog carefully... and don't haul me to court for inciting racial hatred]

What kind of blardy weirdo rule is this that allows a person to criticise, insult and abuse another person's religion in the name of free speech?? And "unintentional"??

"Hahaha! You fucking dog! Hey! Why'd you hit me for? I didn't mean it when I called you a fucking dog, you blardy muthafucker! Take that!"

There are so many things wrong with that. How can you legally prove the person's intent was malicious? How do you prove in court that the person called you a fucking dog intentionally to cause you hurt, or to threaten your life?

These rulings are so ludicrous it's a wonder the Western world survived this long....................

Not to say freedom of speech is a bad thing. It can be a very good thing, especially when you are trapped in a communist dictatorship state and your people are starving by the dozens and your leader seems to have a great fondness for luxury and nukes. It is in these circumstances that we need people to speak out against injustice, so as to make life better for all, and to push that crazy leader off his missile.

Sometimes, you can change things just by speaking out.

But people now seem to be taking this as their god-given-no-one-can-take-away right. And the worst part is that they don't seem to care about the consequences of their words, as long as they are allowed to say exactly what they like. And that is the problem: That people either have no idea of, or do not care about the consequences. To them, their personal freedom is more important to them than civility, good manners, or, other people's feelings. Which in itself is actually a very selfish action.

*sigh* This is one crazy screwed-up world........ crazy ang mohs........

Laptop Covers

Uhm, I don't really care about the boring, standard black colour of my laptop, I really don't, but my lapy just keeps insisting she wants this totally cool and hot cover on her. [cool and hot?]



Yea, um, I'm really not too tempted by it...... Really, I'm not......

And erm, just in case you guys are interested, which I definitely am NOT, the covers are made by a company called Skyn that specializes in these laptop covers. It's not so much a cover, but more of an adhesive cover that you can stick on to your laptop and peel off as well. [think removable gmask] Not only that, but they can do custom skins as well.

But I'm not tempted. Really! I"m not! I'm...... not.

The Night After...

CNY Day 2, and the DF and I do the family rounds.

Afternoon was a dimsum lunch with my family where we ate lunch, and I watched my dad roll his eyebrows at a couple of things he said. Generally, my family has decided that he's just like one of my uncles. Eats [too] healthily, doesn't drink, sleeps in early and stays at home a lot... yea, that's him.

Despite the differences in interests though, [my dad likes kayakking and blading and him.........] they bonded over the one thing that most guys of legal age have in common.

"So... which camp are you in?"

And that was that. Cue my mom and I sighing and helping ourselves to the dimsum while the men talked army.

Well, at least he managed to keep up a decent conversation running with my parents. Which is more than I could say for me and his family. X(

We had planned to go to his grandma's house for dinner, only HE hadn't told a single soul about it aside from his parents! So we went there [ahead of the rest of his family], they got curious, asked, and "This is my girlfriend."

Cue the raised eyebrows, and the mental ah-ha...... going on in everyone's minds...... which also made for a coupla wisecracks later: ^_^!!!

Overheard when lao-ing yusheng:
"May the eldest grandson get married soon!" [guess who] "and may we see great-grandchildren soon!"

When his grandma gave me an ang pow:
"Here's an angpow from ma-ma wishing you good luck in life and career!" Ma-ma? I thought my ma-ma passed away years ago but apparently I have a new one....... -_-!!!!!!!
His aunt started laughing, and "Here's one from gu-ma as well!!" and continued laughing uproariously.

I didn't know what else to do but to hide my face by burrowing in his back while the entire extended family enjoyed the joke at my expense........ -_-!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But well, at least with the shuang qing meeting [did i get the name right?] it's sorta like we reached another stage of "officiality" with each other, now that both sides are aware of each other.

Though it still feels weird when I spend CNY with his family instead of mine. Like I'm still trying to find a place to fit in this family that's been going along just fine before I came along. And now I gotta find the missing spot in this jigsaw for me to fit into.

*Haiz* Oh well, at least it didn't seem like they hated me on sight.......... Let's see how it goes till the next CNY....... ;)

Caves and Clubs

Read in Subnixus, the blog of a professional blogger:

“The moment the slave resolves that he will no longer be a slave. His fetters fall… freedom and slavery are mental states. - Gandhi”

How true, how true.

Although if you read his entry, I'm not too sure whether you can reasonably live in Singapore with USD$640 a month considering that the rental on a room in a HDB flat could cost u around $300 [without Internet] the last time I checked, but hey, least in Singapore, food's cheap. :p

But can any of us ever do that?

Because we're not talking about just living cheap here. We are talking about completely shackling off the rat race and living on a meager lifestyle in order to pursue whatever it is one wants to do. It means not earning a safe salary every month into your bank account, it means not going to work with the rest of the corporate rats, and also a lot of embarrassing scenarios at festive seasons when relatives ask you "so exactly what are you working as?"

Trust me, I've been there. And it's not something you should take up lightly.

But yet, so many of us get caught in this rat race. We become convinced/persuaded/fooled into thinking that we need that new car, that house, that home entertainment set with surround sound [ok, maybe I go too far here] in order to live. And it makes sense in a Darwinian sort of way.

Turtle the other way was griping about how materialistic women were in Singapore. They would never go for a guy with an 'ok' salary, and with no career aspirations, even if they didn't have any themselves. They always went for the guy who was 'confident and outgoing' and focused in his career development, and who could provide them with a measure of material security, which in his opinion, was much higher than was necessary for living.

His conclusion was that most of these girls were superficial and materialistic. [something which I agree with him to a certain extent]

But from the standpoint of evolution it makes sense. We women are most vulnerable during the 9months of pregnancy, and that's when the biological need for security developed. I think somewhere along the way, some cavewomen decided that the caveman with the bigger cave and the bigger club could take better care of more of her children than the guy who was sleeping under the open sky. And all of womenhood followed suit.

And once all of womenhood followed, the guys had no choice but to follow. In order to get a mate, they had to prove that their cave was better, or they were better at clubbing animals for food, literally bringing home the bacon.

Skip forward a few million years of evolution and here we are.

But where are we?

Still looking for that bigger cave. *sigh* But now your cave comes made of brick and mortar, and comes with running water and decent toilets.

Sometimes I get so sick of it, I wonder why I even signed up into this system in the first place. Like, why should I put myself through this grief if my other life wasn't going too badly.

But sometimes I guess I just have to remind myself: Freedom is a state of mind. If I believe that I am free to pursue whatever it is I want to, if I believe that the only limits exist only within my own mind, then nothing can ever really imprison me.

Nothing.

Holiday Syndrome Strikes...

I've got at least one assignment to do for every module, 2 of which are due on the wed and fri just after CNY. I'm up to my shitassload in work,

and in true Holiday Syndrome style, I can't be bothered to touch an inch of work. Bleah.

At least this CNY it's been relatively calm. We went for dinner, did the usual visiting, and ended up at KFC for dinner because, well, half of Singapore is closed.

This aspect of CNY is always the most fascinating to me. The idea that a single holiday can cause just about the entire Singaporean [and now China] economy to come screeching to a halt for 2 and a half days [including the reunion]. The idea that for 2 days, the streets will be empty, save for the red-clad visitors, the stores will be closed, and the whole place will resemble some post-nuclear-apocalyptic scenario.

Yea, I imagine too much. :)

Anyway, this has never caused a bother to us, because usually we sponge off some relative for lunch and dinner, or we eat either fast food or muslim for 2 days. This year, it's slightly more troublesome because the family is meeting the DF for the first time, and are therefore obliged to bring him somewhere nice for dinner, I think in part because his family brought me somewhere nice.

So my parents have been wracking their brain to think of all the possible 'nice' places that could be open during CNY and we ended up booking a place for 5 at a dimsum place that would be open. [miracle of miracles!]

So the lunch is tomorrow, wish him luck, especially since some of the stuff I told my dad about him has been making my dad roll his eyeballs. The only consolation is that 1) He doesn't stop me from doing dumb stuff, even if he doesn't do it himself [case in point being the drinking] 2) If ever we go to a drinking hole together [hahahaha! Yea right!] he's definitely the designated driver.

Anyway we see how tomorrow goes.......

From the Parents' Mouth........

"So what did your parents say?"
"Let's talk about it over lunch.. "

"So.... your parents?"
"So fast? I haven't even ordered...."

"So what did your parents say???"
"Ha?"
"OYYYY!!!!!!!!!"

As you can see, it took a while before I got the news out of him......... -_-!!!!!

Turns out though, that most of his mother's comments were......... constructive........ advice that had already been given to me by other friends.......... -_-!!

Like, lose weight/style hair/wear better clothing [i wore a usual black shirt and jeans on that day]/wear makeup/take care of face [settled by him, if you know what he's like] ............................... -_-!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You have to consider. His mother's quite the typical Chinese-Indon type who prefers to dress up and stuff, so all this is like, critical advice she feels her son's girlfriend should take note of, or rather that's his rationale for it anyway.

She also commented that my hairstyle made me look old -_-! my skin too dull for my age -_-!!! I looked years older next to him -_-!!!!! I looked huge next to him -_-!!!!!!!!!! and around this time, I was starting to want to die of embarrassment.

Overall, she felt I looked too simple, though his father said it was a good thing, because that meant he won't have to spend much money on me........... >D

But OMG!!!!!! It was starting to sound as if his mother wanted to send me for some total head to toe makeover, with new hair, new skin, new clothes, and for all I know, slimming sessions!!!!!

But the bright side of this all......... his mother said these mainly in jest [i hope, anyway] and overall she's fine with me. To her, all this was a matter of personal choice, and if her son was happy with me, then that's alright. :) They thought I was a little quiet, [duh] but she didn't say proud [phew]. She was more concerned about my religion, apparently, but since it's the same as his, that's no problem. [aside for the slightly sticky question of attendance, but.............]

So ok lah. Not so bad. :)

Now for him to meet mine............... MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

What, u think I'm just gonna let him go for that? >D