The first day of 2006 started off with Necroz, fireworks, handphones and cameras, and a lot of crap.

Strange that the first day of 2007 almost starts off the same way.

For one, Necroz was there again, as was Kreuz, and the DF.

For another, there were fireworks galore again along the Marina waterfront.


*though I was too tired this time to try taking photos, so this photo doesn't belong to me, but to stoical on flickr.

We still had a whole nation of aspiring photographers.
Taken from last year, and still the same thing at the Esplanade waterfront this year. -_-!!


And after searching through the blog archives, I found the New Year greeting I used last year on Necroz with the dessert:


Cheesecake, for a sweet mouth when talking to others, and make it a rich one, to put richness into your life.
Iced tea for a 'liang shuang' life. [roughly meaning a light and carefree life?]
Water, to 'yin shui si yuan' and always be humble.


This year we had plenty of crap and good dessert too, in the last few hours of 2006, so I guess we more or less settled that? ;) But then those who know me know that I will never run out of crap anyway. ^_^!

Just a few things different about this New Year's:

1. That an early sleeper and riser such as DF was actually willing to stay wayyy up late to usher in the NY with me, simply 'cos I wanted to, and that he was even willing to entertain two of my friends at the same time. I like the fact that he's making me appreciate him more and more as this goes on. :)

2. 1st Jan will start off relatively mild for the afternoon and then I'll be swing-dancing at night with Quet and Goldfish! Great way to start off the dancing for the rest of the year!

3. I actually fulfilled one of the three resolutions made to myself at the start of 06 by saving more money. [I won't humiliate myself by mentioning online the ones that I didn't] I'm more specific as to my resolutions for 07 and am hoping that I actually manage the same success rate. ^_^!

Funny how things stay the same, and yet can become different at the same time. Maybe life in the long term is just like that. That the most important differences aren't necessarily the most dramatic in your life, but instead are the little bits that change from day to day, year to year. Those that you don't notice till many years later when you realise how far you've come from who you originally were.

Some of the things in my life have been precisely like that. Minor changes to character, personality, outlook, relationships, lifestyle that I don't notice till I realise one day what a difference they made.

What a difference a year made.

So to all who are reading this blog, wishing you:

Plenty of cheesecake, iced tea and water in your life for 2007. :)
Many more fulfilled resolutions.
and
All the little things to make a real difference in your life.

See you in 2008! Wonder what will remain the same, and more importantly, what will change?

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

Swing Kids

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

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

Would be nice to dance with Christian Bale though :p

A chalet. What is your idea of a chalet?

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

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

I was wrong.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Naked Women!

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

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

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

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

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

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

(0_0)!!!!!

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



Either though I would rather be like this?:



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

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

Budak Pantai Unplucked!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

*Sigh*

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

Snoopy + Spiderman = ?????

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

Click Here!

*Note*

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

Onwards with regular blog programming......




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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Just leave me alone.

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

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

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

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

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

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

If you do, Candle and I need YOU.


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

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

The details are as follows:

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

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

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

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

*Sigh*

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

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





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

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

Something like this:



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

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

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

*itch itch itch*

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


On the prowl. Rowr.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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




Bring me there. Now. Sigh.

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

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

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

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

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

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

*Sigh* Help me, god...

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

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

There are days.

There are days where everything goes wrong.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Death Note

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

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

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

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

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


Manga is better

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

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

The Prestige and The Departed

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Talking Cock In Parliament

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

TalkingCock in Parliament - Part 7

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

the mrbrown show 30Aug06:TalkingCock in Parlimen-HossanLeong

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