I woke up this morning hacking away my lungs and I decided enough was enough. Time to honour that promise made to myself and get an MC the moment I was sick this year.

Took me till July to get it, but hey......

And it's taken me long enough too. In a spit of self-justification, I would like to say that in 2 years of service, I've never taken a single MC yet [not counting lectures skipped]. I have endured my little gremlins through bouts of flu, pounding migraines, and even a bout of throat that was so bad once I had to do everything in writing. [and considering my job, no mean feat!] I would like to think that this one day is at least justifiable, from that point of view.

The doctor has diagnosed it as the 'usual' sore throat and cough, going around via the 'usual' bug that commonly hits teachers, students, policemen, and prisoners. [huh] So his advice to me: Lay low, rest and don't use my voice for the next 2 to 3 days.

I could only look at him with eyes upturned, in a 'yea, right' fashion.

Comic book and toy geeks, take note: Today is the last day of the first ever Singapore Toy and Comic Convention.

Slayer and I went down, so for more pix, you can probably check out her blog. Me, I'm gonna blog about the horrendous logistics of the Tokidoki signing. :p

What's a Toy and Comic Con after all if you can't get merchandise [at wildly discounted prices] from your favourite designer?

Rockin' tshirt, retailing at $75 selling at $20.



2 fans, subsequently autographed by Simone Legno.



Great piece of artwork, found in convention programme.



Da man, like, de man. And de autograph.


And also a handful of stickers featuring his characters, not shown here.


But mind you, it was almost a matter of blood, sweat and tears in order to get those signatures from a jet-lagged Simone Legno. For one, I wonder if the organisers of the convention were blindly unprepared for the hordes of nerddom and geekdom descending on Suntec city. There were NO QUEUE LINES for gift redemptions, or signing sessions.

What results thus is ABSOLUTE CHAOS especially when autograph sessions start. When Slayer arrived for the earlier Tokidoki signing, she described it as a horde of fans descending on the glass table where the hapless Legno was frantically signing every piece of his designed merch being thrust at him. [think of 90% off sales at Robinsons]

Then when I came for the second autograph session, I was No 4 at the table. Together with Nos 1 to 3 [order decided by mutual consent and based on proximity to signing table] we marshalled some people into a sorta rough queue behind us. Which, Singaporeans being the queue-disciplined people we are, was formed pretty easily. Until other people decided to cut in front of us from the other side, yelling that they'd been queueing longer than I had. Hey, you were queueing since before 3? That's weird, cos I was there since 3 and I only noticed you coming close at around 330.

I count myself lucky I got my stuff signed and vamoosed before things really got ugly. As it was, before I got my stuff signed, one lady cut in front of me with 2 fans, and I don't even think she was a fan, just coming to sign for the sake of it. [disgust] Then as I put my stuff in front of him, someone else blatantly tried to cut in front of me. -_-!!! Times like this, I thank my dad for the genes for a quarterback frame.

The dumb thing was that all this mayhem could have been avoided with a bit of forward planning, some string and a couple of pieces of paper. All of which were conspicuously missing at the autograph sessions. -_-! And at least I scooted with some autographs. Some other people were pissed off at missing the gift redemptions [after queueing for more than an hour] because other people had cut in front of them.

All in all, great convention, good intentions, bad planning.

Pointless Nostalgic

Pointlessly nostalgic indeed... for the break that is just about almost over. :p Next week I resume my usual job and then the week after that all hell breaks loose again, like it always does.

Not that regretful over it. Well, maybe more than a little regretful. This month is always when I start making plans and when I start breaking all of them over the objective of full-time slack and nothing else. Know the feeling? When you tell yourself stuff like "When I have time I will spend more time at the gym..." "I will read more..." "I will complete that masterpiece I'm supposed to deliver to Sotheby's...." and the so on.... Then when the time is over, and you haven't done a blessed thing, you feel guilty and make more unfulfilled resolutions for the next time.

But this month I made it easier by telling myself "I will slack a lot this month." With a resolution like that, how can you go wrong??

That being said, the slacktime has been good. At the risk of incurring envious wrath amongst my working friends, I've been waking up at 9 [without an alarm!], having leisurely breakfasts, followed by peaceful readings at the library till lunch, and then going home again to read/slack/break my DJ Portable score on the PSP and going out shopping again. Yup, life has been good. :D

What I'm mostly regretful for are the myriad other directions my life could have taken if I had not walked this path. Now that I have the time look over my life properly, I realise I have friends who have opened and are aggressively marketing their own businesses. I have art projects that I should have started ages ago. I have books that should have been read months ago. In other words, now that I 'stopped' working for this time period, I have to ask myself, is this really what I want to work at for the greater majority of my life? Or do I want to do something else instead?

I have regrets that I only properly looked at when I had the energy and leisure to do so. And when you wait for too long to look back at your life and pause to think about the stuff you did, you have to ask, Is it too late??

But I know when I step through those gates again, everything else will just fall into step like it's always done before. I will go to my cubicle knowing what it is I have to do, I will again step into the rhythm of work, and strangely enough, I might just enjoy it. Because on reflection, it is not that I hate what I am doing now, it is just that I wish I could be doing other stuff as well. [the short attention span of the Gen-Ys?]

I have a year to decide the rest of the direction of my life. Do I stay at my job for the necessary monetary benefits, [which the DF reminds me, is still necessary for a lot of day to day living] or do I go back instead to my hippy tuition lifestyle [which I sorely miss] or aim for a mix of both? No matter. My ultimate goal in life is still To Die With No Regrets. Regardless of which path I take, as long as I can do that, I think I can count myself having been self-fulfilled.

3 reasons why Thai women are not fat:

1. Eating dead spicy tom yam soup, green and red curry is a great [and tasty] way to burn calories. Good desserts like mango with sticky rice also ensures that you get your dose of vitamins. And don't worry. Fruits and fruit juice is relatively cheap, at around 10baht [50cent] for one serving in a bottle. And you get your daily servings of vegetables in mango and papaya salads. With such a diet, how not to lose weight?

2. Clothes are darn small. Go to a shopping mall, try asking for XL sizes, and you will understand the motivation behind losing weight in Thailand. Then again, if you make it a habit to go to large shopping malls to shop everyday, that's about 30 mins of cardio exercise just trying to shop from one end to another.

3. Major train stations have escalators. Others just have 2 storey high staircases that you have to walk up and down everyday to go to work, lunch and back home. That's at least 10-20 mins of cardio exercise everyday. Those in Singapore, I say, love your escalators.


My new buzzline: Love Your Escalators.

data overload?

Was reading a back issue of Time mag recently where the tech writer
wrote an article about dangers of data addiction.

if you are part of the zombie multitude who simply must check email,
read blogs, update your own blog, and do these not just once a week or
twice but more like once every 2 minutes, yar, you a zombie horde foot
soldier yar.

ok, I'm no zombie foot soldier , but looking at his warning signs,
many of us are taking that dangerous step towards it already. We
already own some of the pretty niftiest wireless gadgets in the world.
we're pretty well-connected in wi-fi, judging by the number of
starbucks n coffee bean outlets with wireless, and the numerous other
buildings as well. Our generation grew with computer technology n now
we check email, write blogs n get music from the net with the ease of
an extra limb. By gosh, we're on the path of zombiehood.

Then I look at my poor blog, underfed, undernourished, gathering dust,
hoping for a smidgen of attention from me. Always longing but always
patiently waiting like the dog waits for its owner to come back after
school. I think that maybe it would benefit from a spot of indulgence.

And then I think of myself talking about my blog, a bundle of unfeeng
code, like an actual sentient being...... -_-! I might be more in this
than I thought......

--
Getting all the slack I can...
http://boredslacker.blogspot.com

It's not hot. It's simply sweltering.

Hot is one thing. Hot is what you lived with your entire life while living in a tropical city. But now, we have hot and we have no air circulation. That means the only wind in circulation is coming from either your air con or your industrial fan, which right now is blowing at me while I blog.

It's causing a sort of heavy heat fog to hang over the beloved city. Nowadays, you walk out into the street and you don't just feel the heat from the sun. No, not only that but you also walk into a layer of heat and humidity as you exit the building and run for the safety of either the air-conditioned bus or MRT train. Sometimes I feel as if I'm walking into a cushion of hot air when I leave the house or the bathroom, except this cushion isn't the soft cuddly kind I bring to bed at night.

*Sigh* Oh, for some rainfall........

And by the by, I still prefer living in this heat than in winter. In heat, I'm simply uncomfortable. In cold, I think I'll die............... or come pretty close to it.

It's funny, but after a few waves in the career side, which spilled over to the lazy beaches of my social life, I have this feeling of 'life is finally getting back to normal'. Does this sound weird? It feels to me like some major part is over and now the bits and pieces are settling down to what it used to be before. This is even though I can't say much significant things are happening right now in either the work sector or the slack sector.

*weird*

After slightly more than 2 years with my Panasonic, I decided it was time for a change.

*duh duh DUH!!!* *ominous music*

How to describe? Maybe in chick-lit terms, it was simply 'time to move on'. :p The battery was dying at a faster rate than before and you could sense that, well, it didn't have much more longer to go on to. So I decided on a euthanasia and bought a new Nokia.

Yes, going full circle.

Transferring information out is a pain though. When you are transferring from Nokia to Nokia, the transferring is relatively painless. When you are transferring between two incompatible models altogether, the process becomes tedious. Pictures, videos, sounds, even SMSes have to be transferring to PC first, and saved. You have to look through the entire drive of the phone to make sure you didn't leave anything out. Then you have to find some way of transferring everything to the new one, and again make sure you didn't leave anything out.

ARGH!!! This is why I don't change phones often......

Although.... excitement of new phone aside, I do find myself wishing for some of the features the old phone had, say the layout design, the look of the font, the quality of the camera [sadly, Nokia cameras are sadly lacking in photoquality] Just like breaking up, you like the new guy, but you just can't forget the ex that easily...... :p

Anyway, here's a pic of the phone, only difference is mine is black:

My hug0 school project was finally completed yesterday night. We started in a flurry of chaos, went through it in a tornado of insanity, and packed up the place in a disaster of Hurricane-Katrina proportions.

Even then, there's still loads of mopping up to do. We have lost property to find, I still have reports I need to write *groan* and there's a massive stocktake that needs to be done of the stuff that we used.

But, on the greener side, the kids had massive fun. Most of them were bundles of raw nerves before it all started, and when it was finally ended, everyone was giddy with excitement. And for us, we're just glad that the massive part of this project is over.

And the mops for cleaning up, we're only gonna take out on Monday. :p

Do u get sick of cities sometimes?

I get this feeling every time I get onto the bus at the wrong times. This is when there are tons of sardines, oops, sorry, people on it, the whole can of a bus is shaking too hard for you to handle your MP3 player and get the music starting, and everyone just pushes past you like in a bowling ball manner when it reaches a stop.

The worst part of it could just be the sar-, people. People on buses during rush hour turn into either predatory animals or mechanical bulldozers.

Example of a predatory animal - The lady who shoves her way to the front of the bus queue before the bus even reaches the stop. And then who shoves her way into the bus and hurries to the back of the bus to get a seat.

Example of mechanical bulldozer - The ones who pretend there is no one dearly hanging on for life on the bus handles and walks through the aisle pretending not to notice the people they push aside in the process.

It's enough to make me turn to homicide, sometimes.

And everytime this happens in the bus, I can't help but think this is because I'm living in a city, and especially a little red dot of a city with 4 million people jostling for their own personal space. The bus is just one example of a greater picture. When you have that many people who need to be in that space, you get a lot of shoves and a lot of disgruntlement.

This is really frustrating. Once in a while, you get murderous fantasies of jabbing elbows into the peabrain next to you, or aiming your Charles and Keiths into the arsehole of the guy in front of you. Anything, just to create some space around yourself.

And I think this is what I don't like the most about the city. Barbarianism begets barbarianism. When you get enough people pushing and pulling at you, eventually you get real pissed off and you start to push other people back. Because this is the only way to finally get some space to yourself. But then the other person gets pissed off and it goes on and on and on.

If I ever go back to tuitioning, it will be because of this. Because of being able to walk through the streets freely, without having to overtake people, and without incessant 'excuse-mes' because blessedly, there will be no one ahead of me or behind me.

I never thought an empty street would be such a luxury.

Random Ramblings

A week's holiday has passed.

An extra Friday's holiday has passed.

With each holiday, it gets increasingly difficult to go back to work.

*sigh*

The past week I got screwed twice by 2 different colleagues, details of which I have to tell u guys face-to-face so as not to compromise Internet Anonymity. Suffice to say justice was served by a higher authority in one case, and in the other, I'm still waiting for her to get her karma.

This is not something I need, what with the Major School Event coming up. I half thought I was going to give myself another migraine episode like last year, but the headaches stopped mercifully when retribution was served.

There are days when I think I may go on doing this for the rest of my life. There are other days, like this, when I find myself wishing I was doing something else. At least something that doesn't require me to wake up before the sun.

There are major pay revisions coming up to ensure that more trained professionals don't leave the line, but judging from the real-life examples of Yenn and Ondine, this is not enough anymore.

Ironically, the needs of the future economy is the very thing chasing us out. To rear enough trained professionals to keep Singapore running, you need equally-if-not-more well-trained professionals. Push the pressure on these trainers, and you more or less keep the economy going. Push too little, you get morons out of school. Push too hard, you get a lot of very good trainers leaving.

And right now, the Gahmen is caught in a kind of ratwheel. It doesn't know how exactly to keep more teachers working in schools, it needs to continually attract people with pay and perks, and yet it needs to stem the flow of those who are sick of all the pressure.

It can give those who want to excel loads of opportunities to climb the ladder, but what about those who just want to perform the simple function of teaching and nothing else?

There is almost nothing for such people, because they want even these mediocre ones to climb th ladder.

So if there is nothing for them, they leave. And the Gahmen has to work at the promotion and the advertising campaigns and recruit another batch of people and go through the same stuff with them again.

It's like everyone is caught in this giant ratwheel that goes nowhere.

I want out one day. That's all I know.

A review of the one week break:

Mon - Slack. Went to work for a while and then in the evening, head for Kebab dinner and drinks at Recess at Old school with uni gang. We then find out that sitting at an outdoors table just after it's been raining is an open invitation for ants to invade our shapely legs.

Tues - Slack. In evening, send Brother to camp and have dinner at Farmart at Chua Chu Kang. Food is ok-ok only, unless you're a starving army man in one of the camps. At night, have artery-clogging glutton's dinner at Miss Clarity Cafe with Quet and Jules.

Wed - Head to leez's office and watch Jules, Candle and Quet fumble in a photoshoot. Ironic how, as much as we try to look natural we always end up looking more artificial. :p Head to City Plaza for fried chicken lunch and then to Goodwood Hotel for diabetic high tea with colleagues. End off with Sushi Tei dinner.

Thurs - Slack. Watch Evangelion, a remake of the classic series. More scenes added to flesh out the plot so it's not as mind-bogglingly confusing as the original series. Plus, watching giant robots fight it out on the big screen is so much more satisfying. :) Foot massage and then late night dessert at Little Part 1 cafe at Upper Thomson Road. Good fries.

Fri - Wake up, wondering where the time has flown. *sigh*

All in all, a good week break, except for the enormous quantities of good food I seem to have eaten. *ahem* Gym sessions start next week...... :p

From a newspaper article, it was estimated that approximately 1000 Singaporeans leave the island each year for greener pastures.

I didn't think the percentage [1000 out of 4 million] was that large till I started really reading the emails and catching up with a group of friends I have, almost all of which were either already staying overseas with significant others, who were foreign, or considering going overseas, or who would stay overseas if they could.

Like, wow. In this group, my civil servant status and Singaporean boyfriend actually makes me the so-called odd one out, though in another group, it makes me the status quo. :S

Let's do a brief stocktake: Of this group, all are dating foreigners, though some have dated local guys, one has already moved to Europe with her boyfriend, one is about to leave for Australia with her boyfriend, and another is staying in Singapore, though if needs be, she may move if her boyfriend does! Now you know why I consider myself the odd one out?

But I guess I know why I'm the odd one out in this sense. Of the 3 mentioned above, all have studied overseas, whereas I've only briefly sojourned overseas, only to come back to Singapore eventually. My entire education was tied up in Singapore, and now even my job is tied up with the Singapore government.

Partly because of this, and partly because of myself, I've always had the need for some kind of security. Moving overseas gives me a too-wide range of mixed feelings, because of the radically different life I could build for myself, outside of the too-comfortable and one-size-fits-all HDB living here, but yet is filled with unknown challenges of racism, work permits, and hiherto utterly unknown lifestyles. [Shops closing at 5??]

But yet, if I never tried, could I stay that I would never succeed? Actually, no. After all, look at my grandmother. She settled successfully in Australia in her late 40s, and she's been there happily till now.

Me, I do get envious when I hear about friends able to go to all these exciting places, live in apartments with BFs, and get the jobs they're happy with and still be able to pay the rent and all. It sounds almost as if they're already married, albeit without the hassle of wedding dinners, ROMs and annoying relatives. I do to a certain extent envy that degree of independence that they have, which makes me seem, frankly, juvenile. 27 and living with my parents. :S

But for me to move.........? Well, not in the near future. My butt is too comfortable where it is. Maybe that's just my lot in life. To live in HDB, and be happy with it. Because I haven't found another place in the world that has manga store, library and wireless broadband all in one. :p

On the last day of school, and the day we're supposed to have a sleepover at Jul's house, I get hit by a travelling flu bug. What's the justice in that?

My nasal was so blocked that I could actually apply tiger balm right beneath my nostrils, and still not be able to smell it. :s Takes a lot of fun out of eating, I can tell you that.

Fortunately, thanks to lots of sleep, and a vitamin boost from Juls, the virus mostly scattered, and I could still go out with DF on Sat, but we went home early because he had to go back to camp, and I was still sluggish.

Now I get a sense of just how often I go out. When I came home on a Saturday night at 530pm, my family stared at me. "How come you're home?!" is my mother's response to her daughter being home early.

Later in my room, both parents take turns to come in and ask if I'm alright, if I'm sick, Am I having flu etc etc etc...... because I'm lying in bed reading my books.

My presence at home is getting increasingly rare, to the point that when it does happen, it must be due to impending death. Sigh.

Bump, crack, groan....

Mas Selamat owes me a few $100s for damages to a guy's car whom I don't even know.

Ok, did that opening line get your attention? Hahaha... Events are as follows:

Because of this whole fugitive business, the DF got caught up in camp for events beyond either him or me. Since the parentals, and the fake husband were also in Malaysia, [convenient, I know] I decided to take the car for one day out to town.

And you know, aside from the usual humps and bumps of driving a car you're unfamiliar with, everything was actually going sui sui... I managed to get the car rolling with stalling, and even remembered the correct exit to take to go to orchard and how to get up the Taka carpark and everything.

Ok, EXCEPT for that last part.

Because on the way entering Taka, mind you, not even the spiral route that leads to the level 6 carpark, but at the ENTRANCE, I didn't depress the clutch enough, and the freakin' thing rolled down the slope.

I felt/heard/smelled a *THUNK* at my backside and another *THUD* at the sound of my heart stopping its beating and falling into my pants.

Finally, after a slight assessment of damage, and holding up traffic at Orchard for 5 minutes, I got the clutch grounded and made my way up to the 6th floor, followed by a resigned Subaru Legacy. -___-!!!!!!!! I didn't even realise it was a Subaru till I told Quet the model name later and she identified it as such.

So what to do? Exchange details lor........ Later, after frantic calls to Quet and Juls, I arranged that the guy should go to my dad's mechanic and get it fixed there so he doesn't run an insurance scam on us and all that. And more importantly, call my dad and then resign myself to getting an earful and probably losing close to $1000 for the repairs. -_-!!! -_-!!! -_0!!!!!

Luckily for me, the damage wasn't bad. Turns out the guy had done modifications to the car body, and it was that which had come loose just a little, so my dad estimates maybe less than $500 for the damage. *Giant sigh of relief* So the guy wasn't pissed, and my dad wasn't too pissed and maybe I just lose a few hundred bucks, and treat it as the cost of renting the car.

Anyway, I attribute this to a few factors:

1. Me choosing to park in Taka. Aside from the horrendously expensive parking charges, this also cost me the repairs to that guy's car. Next time I park somewhere else.

2. Me choosing to drive. Next time, GO GREEN and take public transport.

3. Me choosing to go out. Should have stayed at home and played computer games, but as the DF smsed, "You never want to stay at home anyway." -_-!!!

and finally,

4. Mas Selamat, for choosing to escape and imprisoning my boyfriend to camp. If the DF was out, we'd have gone out as usual on PUBLIC TRANSPORT. I attribute YOU as the ultimate cause of my driving fiasco.

Which makes me really hopeful that someone catches him soon......... I don't wanna get into more trouble without the DF.............

I'm turning........... into a huge, formless, spineless blog, existing only to eat, sleep and receive what meagre entertainment I can get from my laptop and wireless Internet. In one corner of my mind, I can vaguely compute that there are things I should be doing, things I can be doing, but I groggily swat at it and turn my fat ass over to another comfortable spot on the bed, my poor excuse for increasing blood circulation...................

Ok, so I'm feeling a little lethargic this weekend.......

Slacking at Starbucks

the first thing I have to do is give a hearty thanks to all who SMSed
me on the B-day. Thankee all... amazing the response u get when yr
bday is listed on your MSN... ;p

after the going-ons on the previous weekend though, the day itself was
pretty dead. I woke, I worked, and I went home. well, at least I put
in dinner with Jules n Turtle n then a haagen dasz dessert...

Birthdays get so mundane as we get older and I seem to be the only
person who finds that sad. everyone is like, "Yar, it's just another
day what..." huh? I can somewhat understand why though... when you
can't take an impromptu holiday on the day [I used to skip classes in
3 yrs of uni] then yeah it becomes another workday alright. [though I
have to admit, I was sorely tempted to take MC for once, but my
irritating integrity won out in the end. damn!]

when I meet responses like that, I always think: Why? why does it have
to be that way for us? Our ancestors used to celebrate birthdays
because that meant they had lived through another year of hardship and
pain, despite the odds. nowadays we still live through some kind of
hardship and pain [as anyone working a full time job can attest to]
but we would rather look forward to our physical release from life in
general than celebrate the fact that we are able to enjoy many more
days of our stint on earth.

to all who will celebrate your birthdays this year: make sure you buy
yourself a slice of your favourite cake. Or that new necklace you've
been eyeing. Or that dress that looks great on you but is too
expensive and you don't know how many times you'd wear it to make it
worthwhile. Heck, just do something to make yourself smile that little
bit. After all, if you have to go through all that work n hardship in
life, you may as well make yourself happy once in a while. ;)

this entry brought to you by wireless@sg at starbucks orchard. long
live free wireless! n green tea lattes!

--
Getting all the slack I can...
http://boredslacker.blogspot.com

First up, Shinnen Omedetou Gozaimasu....... (^_^)/00 Those two last circles are oranges, if you just imagine a little bit more......

One thing I will certainly be grateful for are the friends in my life who are genuinely concerned for my well-being. This will come in useful if I am ever raped, kidnapped, or involved in a car accident.

Today, it being CNY eve, I left work at 1030 to go home. I had forgotten to charge my handphone the night before, so it was on precariously low batt mode, and I thought, well, leave it at home to charge, and then go get something to eat.

So I did. I went to J8 for lunch, lingered around the library, got a foot massage and then went home.

To find something like 4 SMSes all asking if I was still alive. And 3 missed calls from the same people who sent those SMSes.

It turns out Jules and Turt had called to see if I wanted to lunch together. And when they couldn't reach me, imaginations started flowing. Turt started worrying that I had been raped and left for death in some alley at, oh, a bright sunny 12 o'clock in the afternoon in the highly populated area of Bishan.

As I heard it later, the guys' concern [or hytsteria] apparently became pressing and they called Candle to ask if I was with her. But I wasn't, so Candle now had to call Yenn and DF to ask if I was with them. [Apparently Candle had to call DF, cos Jules was wondering what the real boyfriend would think if the fake boyfriend called him directly asking about the whereabouts of the missing real/fake girlfriend. Yes, I know. It sounds complicated enough even as I type it.]

And while the man[or rather, woman] hunt was going on, I was lying on a recliner chair reading a mag, while my feet were being kneaded by the masseur.

And then I go home and read some of the following SMSes: [amended from the originals]

Where r u? Turt thinks u've been raped or dead

Where r u now? E guys have been calling to look for u

And my favourite:

The others worried sick that cant get thru to you and called me... i was rushing marking and NOT at all worried... [Thanks............. I think...................]

Well, in a way I have to be thankful. At least I know if I ever really got into trouble, [fervently touching a plywood desk] there will be people who will try to hunt me down. Or rather, at least 2 of them will be anyway. :p

Quick cookie bites:

- The roach 'toon I did a while back was actually requested for a story that this guy was doing online about Poverty Olympics. ( Certainly not the original intention of the cartoon ) Hey, I'm published! :p ( futile hopes of an aspiring starving artist )

- Watched Chesty-Nutty-Bang-Bang and Joja Wendt ( jazz pianist ) over the weekend. Chesty-Nutty was hilariously full of the duh-est brainless jokes I ever heard ( sometimes the brain just needs a break ) including a rendition of Rihanna's Umbrella done in Hokkien. That alone I think was worth watching the show for. :p

- Joja Wendt is one of the funniest, charmiest pianist that I ever watched on stage. Full of humour and numerous oblique-yet-not-so references to his overwhelming skill on the piano, this was a refreshing change from the usual staid penguins who usually perform on stage.

- If you've read Hellbound's blog, we're both hoping that we passed another Jap test by the skin on our teeth.

- Have joined Amore fitness with the intention of deflating the spare tyre, but instead ending up stretching muscles I never used, or never even knew existed, and generally wishing that I was dead.

That has to be all for now, 'cos I'm tired and tomorrow's just one more long day till the CNY weekend. Gong Hee all!

Boredom is defined, not as not having anything to do, but as the inability to latch onto anything to do.

Which makes sense. In our time and society, since when is there nothing to do?? As I type this on a Sunday morning, I can feel almost a sense of boredom, but in actuality, there are tons of stuff for me to do. I am typing this blog entry while listening/watching to MTV, I have a magazine waiting to be read, several more books and magazines in my room waiting to be read, a wardrobe to be cleaned out, and... and .... and.......... Aiyah you get it lah.

[Make a mental inventory next time you feel 'bored'. perchance there are stuff waiting to be done.]

But that doesn't help us much, does it? If there were stuff to be done, we shouldn't be feeling bored what. All we have to do is choose one, just one, and then get going to do it! Get our butts off that sofa and do it! [since I'm blogging, I have the luxury of keeping my butt on this sofa]

Herein comes the problem.

Let's take out the stuff that we have to do, but would much rather not. This includes laundry, wardrobe, and any other physically exerting domestic chores. For some of you, this might erase more than half the things on your things-to-do list. So what we are left with are stuff that we might want to do.

Might want to, but either didn't, or can't bring ourselves to. Why?

I blame this partly on our work lifestyle. By the time you come home from one wonderfully productive day at work [bleargh!] how much energy do you have left to do the stuff you want to do? Even for me, where I have the luxury of [sometimes] coming home before 5, I sometimes just don't have the energy to do anything other than plonk onto my bed and make up for having to wake up at 6 in the morning. [those who think my job is not as bad as theirs should try it first, before saying anything.]

We're exhausted. And by the end of the day, we don't want to do any creative, enriching, mind-stimulating activities. We want to collapse, recharge, and let our brains do mind-numbing TV-watching activities.

Then comes our modern lifestyle, with its myriad choices.

More choices good, right? Nowadays, you can either watch TV, surf the Net, listen to music, learn a new language, learn a musical instrument, connect with friends on Friendster, Facebook, Multiply, Maplestory, Second Life, watch a movie, go shopping, read, listen to music, get a massage, get a manicure, get a pedicure, watch a play, watch a concert, watch a film, watch a musical, set up a business, set up a blog, make a blog, make a video, make some pretty photographs, make a scrapbook......

Ok, try choosing from that. Writing that list alone already makes me want to give up, and vegetate in front of the TV with some Twisties. Choice is good. Too much choice gives you a headache.

That's why, sometimes I find myself staring at my laptop screen for moments, having to think of what to do. I know I want to create a new illustration. I know I want a new blog post. I know I want to do all this, despite the time and effort needed.

But I end up playing endless rounds of Sudoku instead. :p~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It's a strange kind of mental ennui. That given all the choice in the world, if you don't latch onto something quickly, your brain refuses to take in any more mental input and shuts itself down. Then you end up couchpotatoing on your sofa, pretending that this is what you want in life.

*Hai* Already I feel myself rambling on just to keep this blog post going so I don't have to do anything else. Ok, stopping blog post now,

Resuming rest of ordinary life.

*click*