One more post for the road before I leave......

In case you didn't read previous entries, [shame on you my readers] I will be leaving for Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, from the 19th to the 22nd of Dec with Candle, so this blog will be conspicuously quiet, unless I can find cheap Internet over there.

Meanwhile, to entertain you, here's some highlights from my very busy week:

For some reason, the days just before I leave have been packed with appointments, to the extent that even when Slayer offered me free tix to watch Oi! Sleeping Beauty for FREE mind you, I couldn't even take it because I had no time to go watch at all. ^_^! Cheapskate me turning down freebies, and free tix to boot. Sigh.

But here's the reasons why:

Thurs: Candle generously came to my house to help me clear up my room, an outstanding feat for which she deserves to be nominated for sainthood. We cleared out about 3 garbage bags of rubbish, repacked some of my unread books into boxes, and cleared out bookshelves for upcoming manga and books. Already, I can feel the chi flowing through my room again.

The only problem is that, as usual, just after I cleared it, I found it impossible to find some stuff again, because it had all been rearranged from their previous positions. Bleah.

Went for dance class, nearly got killed, as you can see from the Death By Lindy entry.

Fri: Another busy day. I met the Slayer in the afternoon to go shopping, and bought an electronic Sudoku toy. I'm getting so addicted to this I know. The only problem is that the toy makes a lot of little beeping sounds, which while I don't mind, could seriously irritate everyone else around me, so not much chance of playing in quiet public spaces, I think. Unless I feel particularly shameless addicted.

If you don't know what Sudoku is already, [how could you not???] check out this website which I am currently addicted to.

Later, went for Jap class, made fun of Yenn's cough as usual, and then it was to Zouk!

Candle's colleague MT managed to score free tix from her cousin and so we got in for free. *yeah* The place didn't seem to change much, after their renovations, except maybe the toilets look better. ... hahaha....

But Candle and MT are apparently very...... attracting of male company, let us say. We got approached twice during the night by *interested men, with *interested friends. Note that I never get approached by these men, only whichever friend I happen to be with.

Of course, since neither Candle nor MT were interested in making the acquaintance of any of these men, our strategy would be to make a hasty feminine exit to the toilet, stay there a while, and then re-enter the dance floor from the opposite direction of the men. I have to say, it worked for us anyway.

BTW, Phuture apparently has better music than Zouk itself on Fridays, if you like being literally packed like sardines on the dance floor.

Sat: I watch Pride and Prejudice with DF. He thought it was gonna be a soppy chick flick, but it turned out to be pleasantly amusing. Am now contemplating getting and reading the book. >D To all who told me it was good, you were right. To all those who haven't caught it, WTH??? But really, it's a good flick, with great witty dialogue. [i never knew one could argue with such aristocratic English] We also went to a texan grill place outside Far East. Good food, but a bit more on the pricey side.

And that was it for Saturday. What, you thought I was gonna give u kinky details? >D

Sun: Lunch with Jules and Greg, and then this with Daph and Merlin:



Budak Pantai! Greatest and Funniest Acapella band in SIngapore, in my opinion! The songs were great, sticking very loosely to the xmas theme. For example:

"Our next song is Qing Ren De Yan Lei, or Lover's Tears. What does this have to do with Christmas? Well, if you were 9 months pregnant and had to ride a donkey, you'd be crying too."

Pause for groans.

But really, they're a great band, and the way they ham up their songs is amazing. They sang a range of songs, from Maroon 5 to Teresa Teng, from English to Mandarin to Malay. I love this band for their quirkiness and their versatility, and of course, their irrepressible sense of humour.

And finally, I topped the day off with Xmas shopping with Daph, and that was it.

I came home with my purchases, packed the clothing, charged the batteries, and I'm almost ready to head for Vietnam.

Kinda thrilling, and a little scary, to be heading for another foreign country again, but slightly nostalgic also. I took out the bag I brought to Europe, the passport, the tickets, and especially the journal, and yeah. I remembered.

*sigh*

I'll see u guys [with loads of photos probably] when I come back.

Death by Lindy

This night, Aki Tan aka Boredslacker, was nearly killed by her dance partner [guess who] while both were trying to master a new dance move.

The move in question was known as the flip flop. This move required the follow to kick out her foot on the first beat, and then pivoting 180 degrees with the foot on the ground, while hand in hand with her lead. Then, they would kick out their feet again, and pivot 180 degrees with the other foot. [er, maybe you guys have to see it to know what I'm talking about]

Basically, the hard part here is that part of the move requires you to make a 180 turn on one foot. Which both of us had big trouble with.

Thus, our attempt went as follows:

1st attempt: Both of us lose our balance while trying to pivot with our feet. We nearly fall on each other. We also get the move utterly wrong, pivoting and kicking on the wrong feet.

2nd attempt: We start to get the hang of it, and our footwork is *somewhat* correct. However, we still lose our balance while trying to pivot.

3rd attempt: Our footwork is correct, but we're still having problems with balance. Our instructors say that's because we're relying too much on each other for balance, rather than on ourselves.

4th attempt: I'm somewhat ok with the balance, but either he is off-balance, or I'm pulling too much on him. Whatever the cause, he ends up toppling onto ME and I get shoved by his sheer weight, and nearly end up falling onto my bag and crushing BOTH our handphones to death, and then HE almost loses his balance and nearly falls on ME on top of it all. Our instructor makes a valiant attempt to save me before I end up crushed beneath Jules in a potentially deadly way.

OBF. [You guys can go guess what that means] We've had trouble with dance class before, but not to the extent that we get a move sooooo wrong that one of us nearly ends up with serious potential injury and death by crushing weight.............

The Pet Professional is one of my favourite online comics, about a hitman who only takes out animals. [granted, not a PETA favourite, but still one of the slickest online comics I've seen] And it's only too funny to see the comic in the form of a silent animated movie, proving indeed that a picture [or several moving ones] do speak more than a thousand words.

Check it out guys!

Strange Rumblings...

There's some painting and stuff going on in the blocks around my estate, which makes for some pretty surreal happenings. Living at the height that I do, you're not used to the sight of people walking around and talking while right outside your living room window. I keep fantasizing that one of them is gonna jump right into my house, and rob/rape/murder me. So sue me, i was reading a couple of murder mysteries at the time they were painting. ^_^!

But definitely, there were some interesting/nervecrawling things that have been happening with the painting.

Take for example, the strange sounds I've been hearing on top of my flat this afternoon, which sound eerily as if someone was trying to break into the flat from above. ^_^! Sounds of ropes hitting my window, almost as if they were leading into the house. Strange banging from my ceiling, and definitely not upstairs neighbours.

Not a pleasant thought, though not exactly possible either, if you guys know my flat. Add to that the ropes hanging outside my flat, in front and behind, and it's almost a setting for the next Mission Impossible. Or Scream. ^_^!

I'm hoping for Mission Impossible. It's easier for me to deal with armed terrorists grappelling into my house trying to kill me, than a masked murderer with a large axe coming after me. Don't ask me why.

Then there was the singing painter. I was seated in the sofa in my living room quietly reading, when the paint cart slowly trundled up past my balcony. I think the guy didn't think I was there, because I was out of sight of the cart [though maybe he saw me through the reflection on my kitchen window] so I just sat there quietly reading my comic.

And then the guy started to sing. In I don't know what language. And very loudly at that.

Since I don't know the song at all, I assume he was singing in tune. [er...] But again, in my house, you don't always see a guy, standing right outside my kitchen window, doing his work and singing as if it were the most natural thing in the world. Ack! It's not!!!

I think he didn't know I was there though, and that's why he was singing, because the moment my dad came back and saw him, he stopped. Funny thing he didn't know he already had an audience all along.

I just wish the painting to be over soon. It's weird the way I keep hearing sounds from my bedroom and panickedly thinking that someone is gonna abseil into my house and break in any minute. if that happens, god save the man, because I will throw every piece of heavy electronic equipment at him till his bloody corpse lays at my feet. [except for my laptop of course. Are you freakin' crazy??]

The Selfish Phone

Oops, din' post the last one properly... Here it is again...

Telemarketers definitely use this phone model.........

The Selfish Phone

Telemarketers definitely use this model of phone......

Ok, this is interesting... a kid called Delwin Olivan got caught sharing some music with his friends and got slammed with a lawsuit from the RIAA [Recording Industry Association of America and bigtime corporate enemies of file2file sharing] to the tune of $5000. [payable within 60 days]

This would be a typical lawsuit, if not that his fellow students have apparently rallied to him and are now raising funds for his lawsuit by asking for funds online and selling T-shirts with his face on them... Have to admit, one of the most interesting online student rallies I've seen in a while......

The phrasing on the website is rather..... er......... , though [You have to read the phrases in italics to know what I'm talking about]:

" Music makes Delwin smile. Well, it made him smile, until he learned that a few downloads would cost him over FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS. --- But what exactly was his crime? Philanthropy. The key to avoiding a subpoena like the one Del is facing is to refrain from sharing, and he knew this. ----- only when you give music away for free are you illegally distributing copyrighted material.

This truth tormented Delwin deep within his conscience, for he had gained so much musical wealth from the i2hub community and given none back. He felt it only right to return the favor, to open his own gates and let others enjoy his happiness. Del's flaw was nothing more than a magnanimous display of philanthropy."

~Manifesto of Freedelwin.org

Like, I do feel the RIAA is being a corporate bully, but raising the guy to the heights of philantrophy seems a bit too much even for me.

The Week in Review

Quite a number of eventful things this last week.... Phew!

First up was the 2day camp I had to do with my group as part of our community service project for Nie. [bleah] For which, we worked with a family service center to organize a camp with the theme "School Can Be Fun!" The camp went pretty ok and the kids were not as bad as we thought. The way the center described them, some of us made them out to be juvenile deliquent hooligans, but actually, they were all not too bad. Quite, well, like normal kids.

But there were subtle things which showed that all was not well in their family background. I saw a few clues in the artwork that we had them do for us, that some of these kids did not exactly come from even what we deem a 'normal' middle class family. [sorry, can't say too much due to privacy issues with the center]

One girl caught my eye though. She was dressed rather to the nines for the 2 days she came for the camp, [spaghetti and halter] and as a collage, she designed what could've been a fashion runway page from Cleo, by cutting out runway models from various magazines. ^_^! I say, she either has a keen future in fashion, or she's growing up to be a total vainpot. Let's hope for the former.

And some of the things they said were darn cute, in a rather naive childish kinda way. Like when we showed them a rather modernist/surrealist collage and we told them it was done by a professional artist, one of the kids bluntly asked, "Then why is it so ugly?"

Yea, the things kids say. ^_^!

We even had a Chicken Little lookalike! This little 6 year old boy came who was the dead ringer for Chicken Little, with his roundish head, big round spectacles and small pursey red mouth. A lot of us were oohing and gaahing behind his back, and we all just couldn't help looking at him throughout the camp because of his uncanny similiarity to Chicken Little. The best part, for me, was that he came for the camp carrying a backpack with the KFC chicken on it. Argh!!!

Then there was Slayer's bday, one of the last amongst our group to finally hit 24, and the drinking session at Paulaner's for Krynn's Bday, with special mention to Ros. Yea, so HAPPY BDAY to all the December babies. ^_^ And thanks for reminding the rest of us how old we're getting. ^_^!!!!!

News for the FWFC crew though: The Xmas thing at my house is BYOF, namely, Bring Your Own Food if you're coming, unless you don't mind me calling KFC/Pizza/Mac's or something. ^_^! But of course, if you come, there will be free flow of alcohol and drinks the entire time. I wonder if that's why you guys like coming to my house so much......... I'll confirm the date and time again, and make sure my mom isn't bringing the entire family tree down on that day, but it shld be fine for now. :) Other friends interested in coming are also more than welcome! [close friends being defined as those who know where my house is in the first place]

Another news: I'll be flying off to Ho Chi Minh City next week, from the 19-22, so don't expect updates from the blog during that period. Hopefully, if I can buy myself a gigantic memory card, i'll take loads of pix and upload them sometime.

Meanwhile, the holidays are almost coming to a close...... *haiz*

The Pseudo Purity Test

Saw this off Popagandhi and Tym and proceeded to copy it here:

Start off with 100% and minus off 1% for each thing that has happened to you.

Smoked.
Drank alcohol.
Cried when someone died.
Been drunk.
Had sex.
Been to a concert.
Given a handjob/gotten a handjob.
Given a blowjob/gotten a blowjob.
Been verbally sexually harassed.
Verbally sexually harassed somebody.
Felt someone up and/or been felt up.
Laughed so hard something came out of your nose.
Cheated on a boyfriend/girlfriend before.
Been cheated on by a boyfriend/girlfriend.
Been to prom.
Cried at school.
Gotten lost in a WalMart or a department store.
Went streaking.
Given a lap dance.
Had someone of the opposite sex in your room.
Had someone of the opposite sex sleep over.
Slept over at someone of the opposite sex’s house.
Kissed a stranger.
Hugged a stranger.
Went scuba diving.
Driven a car.
Gotten an xray.
Hit by a car.
Had a party.
Done drugs.
Played strip poker.
Got paid to strip for someone.
Ran away from home.
Broken a bone.
Eaten sushi.
Bought porn.
Watched porn.
Made porn.
Had a crush on someone of the same sex.
Been in love.
Frenched kissed.
Laughed so hard you cried.
Cried yourself to sleep.
Laughed yourself to sleep.
Stabbed yourself.
Shot a gun.
Trash talked someone and then acted like their best friend the next day.
Watched TV for 9 consecutive hours.
Been online for 9 consecutive hours.
Watched an animal die.
Watched a person die.
Had sex and/or messed around somewhere with at least 1 person present.
Pranked somebody.
Put somebody in the hospital.
Snuck into someone’s room and/or your own room after being out.
Kissed somebody of the same sex.
Dressed punk.
Dressed goth.
Dressed preppy.
Been to a motocross race.
Avoided somebody.
Been stalked.
Stalked someone.
Met a celebrity.
Played an instrument.
Ridden a horse.
Cut yourself.
Bungee jumped.
Ding dong ditched somebody.
Been to a wild party.
Got caught stealing something.
Kicked a guy in the balls.
Stolen a boyfriend/girlfriend from a friend.
Went out with your friend’s crush.
Got arrested.
Been pregnant.
Babysat.
Been to another country.
Started your house on fire.
Had an encounter with a ghost.
Donated your hair to cancer patients.
Been asked out by someone that you never though you’d to be asked out by.
Cried over a member of the opposite sex.
Had a boyfriend/girlfriend for over 3 months.
Sat on your ass all day.
Ate a whole carton of ice cream all by yourself.
Had a job.
Gotten cut from a sports team.
Been called a whore.
Danced like a whore.
Been mistaken for a celebrity.
Been in a car accident.
Been told you have beautiful eyes.
Been told you have beautiful hair.
Raped somebody.
Danced in the rain.
Been rejected.
Walked out of a restaurant without paying.
Punched someone/slapped someone in the face

I scored a very high 78. See, I'm not as corrupt as you guys think... Bleah... :p

La Vie Boheme!

Only thing to do is jump over the moon

the Slayer's favourite part of the entire musical when I watched it with her 5 years ago, and consequently, the only line that stuck firmly in my head after the show was over.... haiz....

What can I say? 2 Thumbs Up solid to last minute tix... the moment I read in the Sat papers that the last 4 shows were selling for $50, I rushed to Sistic and bought up the tix for the last show on Sunday night.

And $50 for what used to be a $100odd seat..... is more than worth it, especially for a show with a stellar cast like Rent. :)

All the vocals were power to the core, and the acting was fabulous. Most noticeable being the drag queen character, Angel, who tragically sucuumbed to AIDS in the 2nd act of the show. Some of the other characters too didn't seem that outstanding at first, but when it came to solos, *phew* their voices could blow you away to kingdom come.

There is no solid plot to Rent. It's not the kind of show where you can describe it as "This guy went to that place and did those things and fell in love with a girl and eventually...". Rent is more like a snapshot of a year [one xmas to another] in the lives of a bohemian community living in a fictional part of NY, and the drama surrounding the various characters, as they struggle with crime, homelessness, drug use, AIDS and the risk of selling your artistic soul to the mega corporations.

Homeless folk:
"Christmas bells are ringing...
Christmas bells are ringing...
Christmas bells are ringing...
SOMEWHERE ELSE"

But the music is fantabulous all around. Not the usual almost-operatic types [think Phantom] but lively, passionate rock, accompanied by a live band on stage, which makes ALL the difference from the usual orchestra. :)

As for the themes of the play... the Bohemian values in it may seem estranged from our Singaporean audience quite a bit, considering that, well, this is Singapore and not many people are living in almost-poverty to pursue their art. ^_^! But I think it will strike a chord with the growing numbers who are getting increasingly fed up with our paced lifestyles and long for something more. [yea, like me] Maybe secretly, we DO wish to be bohemians. ;)

Ditto with the theme of AIDS, which involved a number of characters. But I feel in this aspect, it is good for us to watch, simply because we are so far removed from the emotional aspects of AIDS, and its effects on the sufferers as well as those around them. Watching the character of Angel especially might enlighten us just a little bit more on this.

Overall, a GREAT musical. The movie is expected to come out next year, but like Chicago, I expect it to be a poor substitute. [but hey, you are paying only about $7-8 for it] If I've piqued your interest in the musical, you can check out the link to the official website:

Rent - Broadway Musical: Has song samples you can listen to, and info about story and cast. The whole story has also been put up, sans lyrics

and for those who can't catch the lyrics:

Rent Lyrics: Seeing that the entire musical is in song, you could probably read the whole thing from all the lyrics, but no kick lah.

If you want more concise info:


Wikipedia on Rent: Concise info all on one page

La Vie Boheme!

I'll leave you now with my favourite song from the musical:

525,600 minutes
525,000 moments so dear.
525,600 minutes
how do you measure,
measure a year?
In daylights,
In sunsets,
In midnights,
In cups of coffee.
In inches,
In miles,
In laughter, in strife.
In 525,600 minutes
How do you measure
A year in the life?
How about love?
How about love?
How about love?
Measure in love.
Seasons of
Love.

525,600 minutes!
525,000 journeys to plan.
525,600 minutes
How can you measure the life
Of a woman or man?

In truths that she learned,
Or in times that he cried.
In bridges he burned, or
the way that she died.

It’s time now to sing out,
Though the story never ends
Let's celebrate, remember a year
In the life of friends.
Remember the love!
Remember the love!
Remember the love!
Measure in love.

Seasons of love!

Seasons of love.

Funny Pic

Found this off Tomorrow, a pic of the display. Someone at Changi airport has a strange sense of humour:



e_rambler:

Looks like someone in Changi Airport has a sense of humour... Or is CAAS intentionally pursuing the pink dollar? LOL...

Wonder whether they will realise it and whether they will change it... :p

PS: For the full effect, read from the words "Changi". :)

All I want for Xmas...

after I get my palm/graphicstablet/comics/artmaterials/photoshopsoftware/books....

would be this little toy:



Go to bloglines blog to find out more..... but suffice to say i'm not about to invade any countries with it.... but it looks like a darn cute toy... :D

---

One late night at a 24 hour's Mac's with the guys, and one packet of seaweed shaker powder.

Jul: "Eh, donno whether nice or not, should we still pour it into the fries and shake? It's pure MSG leh!"
Turt: "Pour it on the tray then we all dip lor"

Warnings of MSG and transfat pouring through my mind, I regretfully take a few fries [sans seaweed powder] while the guys gobble the lot, realising that they very much liked the seaweed powder after all.

I didn't realise how much they liked it though, till much later after the fries were finished, and I caught the two of them dipping their fingers into the powder and sucking it.

Me: "What the hell d'you think you're doing??!! That's pure MSG!!!"
Jul+Turt: "Er, nice mah... ok I stop...."

So they stopped a while, and we talk some more. After a while, Turt takes a straw and starts to play with it.

Then he takes the straw, presses one end into the powder, and puts it to his mouth and licks it, almost looking like a coke addict snorting up his coke.

I shriek again, and he hurriedly retreats, chucking the straw to one side.

Then the ultimate conclusion. Jul gets bored, and pours out an unused packet of chilli onto the powder. [??] Then he starts mixing the two together to form a vile-looking and equally vile-smelling mush that looked as if it crawled out of a Potions class.

Snorting the powder was bad enough, but now he was almost on the verge of creating a new lifeform with that smelly thing. Finally the stuff gets thrown into the bin at my command.

I swear. Boys.

Cookies on the Bloglines blog: Links to the Deadly Squirrels and the Guy Who Bought a Car By Blogging. This is to free up space on this blog to talk about

Lindy Graduation

Note: The following key may help those uninitiated with Lindy Hop. Readers like goldfish can just skip the whole damn lot. Or read through and see whether I made any mistakes. ^_^!

Lindy 1, 2, 3 = classes of varying levels in the school, with Lindy 1 as the basic class and 3 the highest
triple step = one of the basic steps in Lindy. In music, it's like a ta--- ti- ta---
8 step = a series of steps based on 8 beats in the music
6 step = a series of steps based on 6 beats instead
Leads and Follows = men are the ones generally leading the dance, giving direction to the follow [the lady] by way of various hand and body gestures to indicate which moves or routines he would want to go into.

And for those interested, read more at the Jitterbugs Website.

One last turn, one last spin, with an extra flourish added at the end, and with that, Jules and I 'graduated' from Lindy 1. ^_^ It's been a great 8 weeks of lessons, ploughing through the basics, triple-stepping, and trying not to injure yourself and your classmates in the process. [as Jules did with his elbow to my ear once]

And after our teachers declared ourselves 'graduated', they opened the door to another crowd of much-experienced-looking dancers, and gleefully told us that this would be our dancing partners for our last dance in Lindy 1. Much to much aghast on the face of the male leads in our class, since they were now expected to lead dances for dancers much more experienced than they were.

I wonder whether that was responsible for the low transfer rate to Lindy 2. It seems that most of the dances with the Lindy 3 people were, well, not exactly smooth trippin'. The guy who danced with me led me into strange routines and counts that I had not done before [wait, what're you tryin' to do? Is this the 6 step? Spin? You mean now? Whoa!] and the Lindy 1 guys confessed that during the dance, their follows did mostly the opposite of what they wanted them to do. ^_^! "I wanted to lead her into a 6 step, and she went and did an 8 instead!"

So maybe after that harrowing [and very humbling] experience, I think most of them decided they needed more practice before attempting the faster music in Lindy 2...... ^_^! what a waste...

And thus, after that dance, only Jules and I and another lady were daring enough to try our hand at Lindy 2 next week. ^_^! Here's to next week, and hoping that I don't triplestep into anyone's feet.

I tell you, what's the point of going wireless when your family just insists on switching off the blardy router whenever they stop using the PC, thereby shutting down the entire network and making you have to go into the room anyway to switch it on? Why don't I just use the damn PC then anyway???

Days of Yesterday

I've just started reading Good Morning Yesterday, a blog started by Mr Lam Chun See, who writes about his memories of Singapore Past. One interesting thing about this blog, firstly, is the age of the writer. Mr Lam is about 55 and writes this blog because "it's good for our aging brains". Besides that, he has tons of memories about Singapore in the 60s and reading this from a first person perspective is probably more interesting than watching all those period dramas on national television. Like one of his observations on Bishan:

"I remember him telling me that the Pik San Teng [ ?????] cemetery ( located off Thomson Road and Braddell Road) was generally scarce and scanty with graves but beginning from the early 50s it began to get crowded. That Pik San Teng had now become the land for the living…the Bishan housing estate, and the mass rapid transit (underground subway) runs through it, geographically dissecting through the whole area.

Ironically enough, the ex-occupants of this area were underground. Now the MRT runs through it above ground, in fact, this is the first train station where it begins to surface above ground after all the city stations that are underground. This route winds its way round the north and western part of the island of Singapore (all above ground) till it returns to the city area in an almost anti-clockwise format. Again this is just an observation."

yea, an interesting observation nonetheless. :p

Been feeling gross these few days... I suspect I had a case of gastric flu or something, having hurriedly chomped down my food 2 nites ago while mildly gastricky. [I only suspect gastric because I haven't barfed anything, hence, not diarrhea or food poisoning]

After that, I was attacked by stomach gas half the night, and woke up the next morn still experiencing mild stomach cramps and a mild fever @_@ Lesson: Never chomp down your food, and never delay mealtimes in order to finish Spider Solitaire games.

The fever receded last night, though I'm still feeling slight cramps in my stomach here and there. *ugh* The only good thing that could come out of this is that I might lose some weight, seeing as I have no appetite to eat anything except porridge and soft foods. Yes, I have gone vegetarian, but only for this short while, because I have no appetite to eat anything resembling solid foods.

Not to mention the pounding headaches that came along with it.

This highly sucks.

On the bright side, I am feeling mildly better today so I'm hoping this thing is leaving my body for good anytime now. *fingers crossed* Now lemme fall back onto me bed......

I've 2 pretty lengthy posts up for today, being in a most writeworthy mood, so the following links may help you:

Movie Review: HP4 sucks
Pretty much sums up my whole opinion about the movie

Use Your Brain, Please!
A reflective piece on the dangers of blind obedience, and how we come so naturally towards it. Based on an incident in the States

Note: The 2 links would probably open up separate windows with only the blog posts in them, and not the entire blog. If you don't want this, you can always scroll down as usual.

THE MOVIE SUCKS!!!

note: Yenn n I never had that particular conversation, but the 'barbarian' part is one of my favourite comments to her... hahaha... Not the 'elitist' one though...

I may be a literary purist at heart, but I think HP4 really bombed on this one.

Ok, imagine you take a HP4 book.

Now open the pages at random, and cut out chunks of text. If you don't have a pair of scissors, just tear them out. [but NO F**KING WAY you do this to MY COPY!!!!!]

Once you're done, read through what you have left, and write a new HP story based on the remnants of the book.

And THAT in my opinion is what the HP4 movie turned out like. ^_^!

Whole portions in the start of the film, which were intended to place setting and orientation, ALL GONE.

Other areas, integral to character development and depth, CHUCKED OUT.

I know that this is a common thing to happen to book-movie adaptations, and yes, it happened to HP1, 2 and 3 and LOTR and a whole lot of other books as well, but the difference is that those turned out good. While I did not particularly like the first 3 movies, I did feel that they remained more or less true to the spirit of the book, and the directors did a rather good adaptation.

THIS WAS UTTER RUBBISH. AND IT'S ABT AN HOUR LONGER SOMEMORE. Whole blardy thing should've just gotten expelliarmus-ed into the nearest dustbin.

*spoiler ahead*

Like for example, in the opening scene after the dream with Voldemort in it, Harry is immediately waking up in Ron's room in the Burrow, while Hermione is nagging them to quickly get a move on.

A move on where? What's he doing there? Where are they going?

Then the next scene, the whole family is walking up a grassy hill.

Where are they going? Why are they there?

That's why I feel the opening scene is so cut-up. Because a lot of info that was supposed to establish orientation was simply NOT THERE. And if I had not read the book beforehand, I might've been left wondering what the hell was going on.

Also the ending: Why did Harry's wand have that effect when Voldemort cast the Avada curse on him? Why didn't Harry die [again]? Again, a lot of vital plot information, LOST.

*fuming in a fit of righteous indignation*

The part that the movie is strongest in is in its portrayal of the students as real students. Only when watching the movie and seeing the antics of Harry and the other Hogwarts students interacting on the school premises did the students become more real, more realistic. Because the book centers mainly around Harry and all the other life-threatening events that happen around him, you tend to forget that at heart, he is really a student. And there are other students around him. The movie serves to flesh out this part, and complements it very nicely, especially in the scene where they are studying in the Great Hall and whispering under their breath to one another, only to get whacked on the head by Snape. ^_^!

So this would have to be the best part of it. To be able to see the students being portrayed as students, who are there to study, make friends, and cheer their houses on.

Other than that, I seriously implore to all of you: READ THE BOOK. It's thick but it's a much more satisfying experience than the !@#$%^& movie.

Note: The original source for the following post is my bloglines blog, but I think it's something that we should all be seriously concerned about, so you guys should see it as well.

Use Your Brain, PLEASE!

A common complain in Singapore is that people here tend to be followers, that they just blindly do whatever the gahmen tells them to do, and don't think enough for themselves.

Well, guess what? Apparently this is not a trait that is exclusive to Singaporeans alone. According to the research of Stanley Milgram, a controversial social psychologist, this innate need to obey authority is within all of us, and can make us do the most unethical of actions.

For example, in an experiment he found that two-thirds of people will generally give electric shocks to protesting victims under the command of an authority. And under pressure from this authority, people will generally buckle down and do whatever that authority tells them to do, no matter how heinous the act.

This may sound fantastic, but this could explain the hoax that affected a number of fast food restaurants in America last year. [Read a more detailed report of the case here]

What happened was that a mysterious caller called fast food restaurants, identifying himself as a police officer, and instructed the managers there to strip search and perform other perverse sexual acts on their employees. And the shocking thing is that many managers did exactly what the caller asked them to do, despite lack of identification whatsoever.

One of the most horrifying cases concerned 18-year old Louise Ogborn, who had been abused by the assistant manager and her fiancee over a shocking 4 hour period, because a voice on the phone told them that it had been cleared by 'corporate'.

Obviously, the girl is now pretty much traumatized for life, and there are lawsuits flying swiftly from each party to the other, but one of the most shocking aspects of the case is that never once did the asst manager or the fiancee ever think that this could be wrong, and refuse to follow instructions.

In fact, the only way the girl got saved, was through a 58-year old janitor, who refused to play along with the caller's game, and hung up. And the moment he did, a spell seemed to break, and the asst manager finally realised the severity of her act.

What is utterly amazing to me is that the need to follow instructions from a higher authority is apparently so strong within us, that we are actually capable of following such orders. The asst manager must have had some high school education or another, and even she didn't even stop to think that this could be morally wrong. And it took a janitor to stop the act?

Just how unthinking, or unwilling to think are we as a human being?

And if one day, someone commanded you to do something that was wrong, would you have the courage to say, "No"?

Most people apparently would not. In the electric shock experiment mentioned above, only about one third of the experiment participants refused to do it. So most of us would pretty much do whatever a higher authority tells us to do.

I wonder whether this tendency could be stronger in Singapore. Because here, we are raised with the Confucian ethic to respect and obey thy parents, and this moral of filial piety is pretty much repeated in most religions here. And because we are raised to obey parents when we are children, we are also conditioned to obey our leaders when we are adults ourselves.

But most people forget another aspect of this philosophy as well. Which is that although you have the right to command obedience from your children/followers, Confucianism also demands that you MUST be a wise leader as well. In other words, you have to be deserving of the obedience that you demand. It doesn't advocate blind obedience.

I suppose, though, that it's convenient to forget this part when you want someone to do something for you.

So the next time you are commanded to do something you don't agree with, I hope you remember this case, and the case of Louise Ogborn.

Just because someone asks you to do something, doesn't mean it's right. Before you blindly go along and do it, ask yourself whether you'll be able to live with it.

ph43r 3 h4xx0r5

f1201V1 3 13L0gL11V35 13L0g:

1-14v3 j00 3v3r 1-134r1) 0f H4xx0r!???!?!?!?!?!?!? I+"S 4 f0rIVI 0f 0NL1n3 kl1ng0N 1V1aY13e 1)eVel0pe1) bY H4xx0r5 VV1-10 VV4n7e1) 4n071-1eR VV4Y 0f 74Lk11Vg 01VLi1V3.

fr01V1 13011Vg2 1-13r3"5 4 PSD C01V1p3717101V 71-147 15 l337!!!!!! 31Vj0Y!

2 m4k3 yr 0VV1V h4xx0r, u c41V 7rY 71-115 l11Vk.

[back to normal programming in a while......]

This probably just shows I spend too much time online, but well... it's a fun thing to learn. Be warned though, the dialectizer link may not necessarily translate everything you see on this page, cos some of the words I came up myself. You could call it a variation [or distortion] of l337. ^_^ Translate it for you? No way! That won't be fun anymore... XD

Kinda shows you how much variation there is within the English language nowadays, all entirely thanks to the advent of modern technology that has made it possible. Think about it, if we didn't have hackers trying to look cool, would we have h4xx0r? 1 71-111Vk 1V07. Most of the typed lingos all evolved through the use of modern keyboards.

And then with handphones becoming the next lifestyle staple of Singaporeans, you get another dialect coming up which is SMS lingo, and which is totally indecipherable to people who believe that phones are only for making phone calls.

Whch means dat if i typ in SMS den evrytin on dis pg wll look lke dis instd. e ideas 2 del vwels u don need n udder xtra stuff. n lke h4xx0r SMS's only a wrtten lingo.

So if you were read out everything I wrote in h4xx0r and SMS, it would seem like perfectly normal English. That's the beauty of the typed lingos. ^_^

Then you get the smileys, which evolved from the basic :) [i suppose you could call this the root smiley?] to about a thousand variations, like ;) :D >) >D XP and countless others. Smileys spice up any online conversation, and unlike the two, would be completely incomprehensible if you were to try to use it in spoken language. "Hi there, colon closing bracket!" ?????

I kinda like h4xx0r though, because of the way the meaning of the way the words are written out so plainly, and yet totally indecipherable at first glance. The only trouble is that if you're not used to it, like I am, you'll find one hell of a time trying to type in the whole thing. ^_^!

Oh and btw, the key to deciphering h4xx0r is simply that: Look for the words. They're written clear as day. >D

In other news...

For those who just luv to read about dirt on SG bloggers [or those who just luv drama] , here's 2 links you can read about SG's more notorious bloggers.

Top 5 SG Bloggers We All Hate by TuaPehKong.com
Survival of the Blog Goddesses by bryyin