The Great Graphic Guessing Game!

For lack of a better name.........

Anyway, here are some shots I took around Singapore. In the most-likely event you guys don't see them due to the Phantom Pix thing, go to my camera pix website. If nothing, at least it'll give my shots some additional exposure. [bad photographic joke there]

So this is the game: I took these shots in assorted places around Singapore. What you guys do to play the game is to simply guess where I took each one, and put the answer on the tag-board. Simple right?

PS: If you want additional clues, you can click on the link to go to my camera pix website.

Pic 1:


Pic 2:


Pic 3:


Pic 4:

Tired. Wet. Irritated

Which pretty much describes my mood these days.

Tired comes from helping Tenderheart distribute surveys all over prime office space in Shenton Way and Orchard. Went building to building, door to door, knocking on doors, pressing doorbells, intercoms, all with the same story. "Hi! I'm a student from NUS and I'm conducting a survey in this building!..." Responses range from outright rejection, [Woman at UOB Kayhian cut me off with a curt "We have no time to entertain these!" the moment I said the first 5 words] hesitation, ["er, I'll try, but I don't know if she'll do it] and the rare acceptance. ["Sure! WHere's the survey?]

Then after that come the telephone rejections, and Tenderheart got the blast of it, cos her number was on the forms distributed. Most pple are rather polite about it, but some woman just blasted her off on the phone, about how her envelope wasn't attentioned to anyone, and that pple would usually throw it away, [Gee, how'd we know who to attention it to? Shldn't the fault lie with ur receptionist for not putting anyone's name down on the envelope?] how the thing got thrown to her, [that's not our fault isn't it? How can we be responsible for what your company does to you?] and that the most atrocious thing was that her boss asked her to reject us politely. [ironic, considering she was anything but polite to Tender, and that she considers it beneath her to show simple courtesy to others]

Bleah. Can honestly say that this is the most tiring of survey distribution methods ever. Not to mention that most people are turned off by the sheer bulk of her survey, which is about 40 odd pages. [Most common response:"Wah! So thick ah?"] Takes a buncha wheedling and begging after that. ["Please............ I need it to graduate"]

One interesting thing about this affair, however, has been the part about how to get into the buildings in the first place. Since we don't exactly look like executives with a mission, dressed in jeans and carrying stacks of surveys, we get stopped by the security guards most of the time. When we have to explain that we're NUS students and we want to distribute surveys, we know we're gonna get turned away. The guards don't wanna get into trouble if any tenants complain about us. So we either walk right in, like we own the place, or we come up with some story. Case in point, 78 Anson Road:

Guard: [sees us looking around, gets suspicious] Where are you going?
Me: Er, [looks at numbers on lift lobby] 13 floor.
Guard: Oh, Alexandria, is it?
Me: [relieved] Yea, yea, that's right

After this phase of survey distribution, we're all rather familiar with the level of security in most of Shenton Way, which you cannot get in, which you can get in with a little *tweaking* and which have empty floor spaces for you to attach incendiary devices [IBM towers is the most empty building in Tanjong Pagar]. We actually have enough information to start off a terrorist bombing in Singapore. Just kidding. Hope no one from the ISD reads this.

So after all that physical activity of the past 3 days, coupled with tuition after that, I'm bushed. Drained. Whacked. Insert adjective for lack of energy here. Not to mention the rain has definitely dampened my mood. Haha. [n my humour as well. Damn.] I woke up today, not having to wake up early to distribute surveys, hoping for a nice hot, crispy prata with teh peng at AMK, and instead what i get is more showers of blessings. It's been raining since like, 8 in the morning in Bishan I think, and 5 hours later, no sign of stopping. And I have tuition later in the day so I can't stay at home and cower. Blast. Need to get wet again in the name of financial sustenance. I hate life.

I thus decided to log on to the Net, do some blogging, send off some email, and stuff. THat's when I realise that the modem was missing. My dad's been messing around with the coms trying to get a router working, but so far no luck. My laptop was out of the table, on the beanbag, as usual. It's funny how parents nag at you for leaving books and magazines lying around on the living room table or floor, then conveniently leave a $2000odd laptop lying on a beanbag susceptible to a big fat butt being sat on it. I rescued it from impending death by butt, then started a search for the modem. Even when modem was found, telephone wires was missing. Shifted com table, found one wire hanging behind it, and now I'm on, telling the world about the rubbish I went through today, regardless of whether they want to hear it or not. I think I'll leave everything in a state of mess to make a statement to my father.

Bleah. mood is definitely sucky today.

Damn, cos of poor lighting and stuff, some of my camphone pix didn't turn out so good and I had to mess ard with PSD for them. Looks like i'm gonna be doing that a lot with the night shots. I'm also accumulating enough shots for a short photo-essay on Bishan so hope that turns out well. :p Click on the camera pix link above to see some of my latest efforts.

ooo boy.... got a lotta rantings this time..... first off......

Raining again??

Bleah. It's been raining on and off and on and off this CNY period. Just as it was time for our family to go out for dinner, it went BOOM and BISSSH and *sings* showers, showers of ble-ssings..... Tried to order pizza so we could stay at home like little cowards afraid of a little water, but even the pizza lines were clugged up. Too many cowards like us cowering in the comforts of our homes. So we had to brave the rain, go out, and sit in the coffeeshop with the wind blowing rainwater into our food and making us shiver in our pants. I swear, if not for the threat of imminent starvation.....
Days like these, you just wanna curl up in a warm, comfy bathgown, with furry bunny slippers and a cup of vanilla tea by your side. Unfortunately, right now all I have is the vanilla tea and I finished that a while back. :p What the hey. I'm just glad to be sitting in my home, while it pours on some other poor sad soul outside. Hate rain. Everything gets wet and cold and muddy and you can't go out or do the things you like to do outside, like shop, or blade or stand with your toes barefooted in the grass and hold your hands up to the sky. [no, i've never done that last one] What happened to that sunny, tropical climate that we were supposed to be so famous for?? Where the heck did all this water come from? Is God having some serious diarrhea issues up there? [eww..... that puts it in a perspective that I shouldn't be thinking about]

Ok, other stuff instead....

School of Rock

I recently caught this one on a pirated VCD while waiting for my mother to get ready for visiting. [yes, she takes that long] The story roughly is that Dewey Finn [Jack Black, main character] poses as his fren and takes up a substitute teaching post at a prestigious prep school. Then he gets the class to participate in a band competition. Along the way, they learn self-confidence, rock 'n roll history, values, and how to do a mean guitar solo.
This movie goes into the Dead Poets category. If I sound unenthusiastic about it, that's because I don't really find another new or inspiring in the movie. It's a pretty much set formula of DeadPoets+humour+rocknroll, and it becomes pretty predictable that way. You know he's gonna inspire staff and students and show them an alternative way of life. You know he's gonna inspire all of them with his wayward, carefree ways. You know so much, nothing become surprising in the movie.
One uplifting part about the movie I suppose is the talented cast. I swear, if those kids are really playing the instruments and not just shaking their fingers, then they're pretty damn good. Some of those supposed 10year-olds are good enough to be pros!

Egg Squad goes to River Hongbao

Yup, we got up to some serious comedy stuff here. [?] Started out with dinner at Kenny Roger's, where I ate enough potatoes and pasta to make Atkins swoon into a dead faint. [so sue me, they were good. :p] Then went to River Hongbao, and I managed to snap some shots with my camphone. Check out the camera pix link to see them. [hopefully when you do, i'd have finished putting them up] Lots of crapping around, esp with Jules. Wonder why the stupid stuff always comes from him? After that we went to Insomnia at China Jump. I realised that the band apparently changes every 10 weeks or so, so that explains why sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad. That nite I went down, the band up there wasn't too bad. Lots of rock music though, so not much dancing going around. Long island tea also sucked. The bottles sold at 7-11 are cheaper and much stronger than the one sold at China Jump. Never again, never again....

American Idol 3

This first episode of AI doesn't seem so interesting, mainly cos Simon doesn't do as much dissing in this one. The thing to watch out for were the gawdawful contestants, who think they're the "next American Idol", but in reality don't know the difference between a C and a G. Some of these contestants have utterly no shame. They go on national [and now international] TV, sing a song so badly off-key, and as David Eddings once wrote, "made up some notes that never existed before", shake their pathetic little ass, and expect a contract to be given to them. Yea, if it was American Failure, or American Laughing Stock, maybe they would've qualified but....
There was this black lady, she sang so bad, Simon said if she was singing in a bar or restaurant, she would drive out half their customers. She said she didn't believe that. [note: self-delusion of talent] So Simon took up a bet with her, and Ryan Seacrest, the host, brought her out to a restaurant, where she started belting out a tune. Er, true enough, more than half the customers standing there watching walked out. One or two even walked up after hearing her sing 2 notes. Reality check dahling.....Another woman sang some undecipherable tune, [not the Asian lady on TV] and of course, got dissed. "That was utterly horrendous. Have you heard yourself sing?" She started tearing and she said all she wanted to do was to sing, God on her side. "Well, he must've taken the day off, darling." Owch....
But no matter what, they all have the same response. "You're wrong." "You're so wrong" "You'll be sorry you didn't sign me" and this is the most popular one "I am the next American Idol." One lady was really bad, and when she got dissed, she started on about how she knew she could sing, and how she had talent [even though her singing consisted of maybe, 3 notes?] and when she went out crying, her friend actually assured her? "Of course you have talent. These idiots just don't see it. They just can't see your talent. Get that f**king camera out of here!" er, have you heard your fren sing??? I am reading through this book about mental disorders right now, and maybe I should go through the one on self-delusion again. Might explain a lot about these folks. What I remember is that sometimes sufferers get so caught up in the delusion that they can't see anything else. Yup, says it all.

Ok, that's all for now. Don't feel much like writing, cos it's cold, wet and I feel something coming on. Urgh. Need more tea.
As entertainment however, betcha never thought germs could be toys. So cute. Wonder when they'll come up with one for SARS?
I've also taken up reading spacefan's blog. Quite interesting, take a look.

Gong Xi ah Gong Xi!

Fa ya fa da cai.....

Hopefully for me and everyone else too. May monkeys and sarus upgrade to chimps and eat more bananas. May unemployed slackers like me find alternative means of economic sustenance. May those in school not find their intelligence stifled by uncaring professors. May everyone's wishes come true, unless u wish someone dead, in which case you're excluded, cos I don't wanna be an accessory to murder.

Yup, it's been an ok CNY for me so far. Went to Chinatown on the eve of the eve, and it's as crowded as heck. Is there some deep, inborn instinct in Singaporean Chinese for them to all flock to Chinatown during the CNY period? You know, like birds going to the south during winter?

That part was ok, though, cos the really interesting parts came during reunion dinner.

My family and I went to the SAFRA club at Yishun for reunion dinner this year, and encountered a few "incidents". Firstly, they had us and a whole buncha families waiting outside for our dinners. Why this is so is because the place has 2 sessions of reunion dinners. One starts at 5 something, and the other, ( ours ) starts at 730. But at 8, we were still waiting outside, cos some of the diners inside were still eating. So my dad goes over to the bouncer at the door, and goes "I'mbloodyhungryandsoismyfamilyiwantutogoinnowmakesuremydamntableisready!"

ok, he din exactly say that, ( knowing my dad, it's most prob to be all in hokkien anyway ) but whatever he said worked, cos finally we got a table, while a whole buncha families were still outside waiting.

The real award, however, goes to my aunt. The place was taking forever with our food, and there was something like a 20-min break between each of the courses. What was irritating was that while we were waiting for our first course, we saw waiters walking to other tables with their 2nd or even 3rd courses! So she started with this guy in the suit, and the mike to his mouth, let's assume he's the head waiter. As the guy walks by, she goes, "Shuai ge, wo de fan zai na li?"

bleah. If you've never seen my aunt, she's a total tomboy and almost-there butch lor. and imagine her going "Shuai ge...." at some waiter. Bleah bleah bleah.

So we get our 1st course. Talk talk talk for about 20mins and the 2nd course is nowhere in sight. She calls the same guy over. The following conversation took place in Chinese, but for the sake of easier typing, becomes English.

Aunt: Do you guys have a doctor here?
Guy: *blur* Doctor?
Aunt: Ya, a doctor.
Guy: Er, I donno if we do. Why? *confused*
Aunt: I need a doctor soon. Cos I'm getting gastric waiting for your food.
Guy: Duh...... ( din say this out, but it was in his face )

The final clincher came when we were waiting for our 2nd/3rd last course. She says she thinks she knows this guy in a grey shirt serving food, and she asks Guy what that one's name is. Guy says Richard. Aunt says ok, thanks. Later, Aunt calls Richard over, asks if he remembers her, and it turns out his fren knows her or something like that. Guy comes over, and says, half-jokingly, "You don't say anything bad about me ah! he's my boss ah!"

Ok, Richard wasn't exactly the boss, but more like the Guy's superior. So anyway, after it turns out that my Aunt knows his superior, suddenly he becomes really attentive to our table. We get extra chilli sauce, and even extra green chillies when my mum asks for it, and he makes sure we're happy and we get food. Man, I wonder why she didn't say she knew Richard earlier. Would have saved us a lot of time waiting for our food. We got in there at 830 and dinner ended at almost 1100 cos of all the table spent waiting. Duh.

Well, that for me was the highlight of this CNY anyway. Today was spent going to the usual relatives' houses eating, collecting and listening to my relatives telling me I shld get a job and how the economy is improving. Thankfully, because of my bro's vocation, most of the attention was diverted to him. On the flip side though, the general comment was that he had made the right choice, cos of the job security. Duh, does that mean my choice of education was a mistake altogether? Then they were telling me to be a teacher, police officer, watever that has money and some security. Thanks ah. As if I wasn't worried enough already. Next year I shld try to get a boyfriend, then they'd be talking about something else at least instead.

What You Think is Not What Is

Or rather, what you think a situation is sometimes, may not be what is really happening in reality.
Like when you go for a tuition lesson with a kid, and you do your best to explain the words in the comprehension passage to him, and try to explain what the whole passage means. And you go through all the questions with him.
And you explain half in Chinese and half in English, because the kid is from China, and his English is not all that good. In fact scratch that. You explain practically the entire passage to him in Chinese, and correct his understanding of the words.
And then you go home, thinking everything's ok and how you're gonna conduct the next lesson.
And then the tuition agency calls you up and tells you that they thought you couldn't speak Chinese and they decided not to have you back again.

Cannot speak Chinese????? I went through an entire 1.5 hours conducting an English lesson in Chinese and I can't speak Chinese????

Ok, apparently there was some really weird breakdown between the grandmother and me. I went for my first lesson with this family at lives at AMK, ( 5 mins bus from my house. What a waste! ) and they're all from China, so naturally their Chinese is power. ( The guy has a copy of Shakespeare and World History in Chinese. Good god! ) The grandmother first talked about her son, and how he was doing at school, and how his English and Science was, and then left me alone with the kid. Note, she's speaking all in Chinese, so I answer her in Chinese. I go through the abovementioned process with the kid, and then I say bye and leave.

And after that, they called the tuition agency and told them I couldn't speak Chinese, and they'd rather not have me back, because it's not good for the kid in the long run.

2 rantings about this picture: Firstly, I was speaking Chinese all the way in their freakin' house!!! I explained the entire passage in Chinese, ( ok, maybe not the entire passage, but sizeable portions of it ) I spoke to the boy in chinese, I spoke to his grandmother in Chinese. HOw the freak did they come to the conclusion that I couldn't speak Chinese????? This one didn't just fly over my head, it went by so fast I only saw a blurry streak.

Secondly, why the heck would my Chinese matter in the first place??? I'm there to teach ENGLISH, not Chinese. If you want your child to learn English, then why on earth are you looking for a tutor with a high Chinese level???? What is it exactly you want me to teach your kid? Shouldn't my English matter over my Chinese? And why is it it matters that the grandmother thinks I can't understand Chinese? Shouldn't they have asked the kid whether he got it??? And of course he's not used to my teaching! It's the first bloody lesson!!!!!

Dammit. On a more reasonable side, I suppose they wanted a tutor with some Chinese ability so that it would be easier to explain English words to him. Bloody hell. I suppose I'm a little pissed at the fact that they thought I couldn't speak Chinese, ( I passed with B ok?? ) and a little confused that they came to that conclusion when I was speaking to them in Chinese. Plus, there's the part about lost potential income again. *Bang bang bang BANG*

Fired on the first lesson. I don't believe it. Someone just run me over with a car.

Before you read my Insane and Possibly Unreasonable Rantings below, I would like to intro a link to you:
Women should remain single to stay sane
No offence intended to my attached galfrens, ( though there is some sly humour involved ) just something to make me ( and my other single gal frens ) feel a bit better about being single at our age. ( Or rather for my case, being single all my damn life )

Insane and Possibly Unreasonable Rantings

Firstly, let me do some insane ramblings....

ARGH!!!!! I had GOOD tuition prospects and I LOST IT! This guy was looking for a tutor to teach 2 girls together, sec 1 and 2, maths and sci, and I said I did O level phys/chem, went onto commerce in JC and did business in NUS. That was this morning. Tonight, he called back and said he changed his name, sorry about it.

Insane ranting no. 1: You're sorry??? I just lost $600 potential income and you're sorry???

And this is not the first time. Last time I got offered 2 girls by the agency, 2Xweek, $500 a month. I said yes I want, ( and they stayed in Bishan some more. ) That agency never got back to me. Today, after the above guy called me, an agency smsed me, China woman, every day tuition, 15 an hour, and stays at AMK, but because of *below* kid, I told them I can only make it mornings. Then they said, sorry, she didn't say she was schooling, can only make it after 330. I told them I have other students, can only make it mon tues wed and fri afternoons. ( Thurs *booked* for Kovan, and Sats I have Jap class and Sun I try not to work if I can help it. ) The agency now said they'd get back to me tomorrow, and it looks like it'd be with a rejection note.

Insane ranting no. 2: Argh!!!! Why why WHY do I keep losing all the tuition assignments that I want to get??? What freak sense of karma here is stopping all these good-income assignments from going to me??? Bad enuff that I have to worry day and nite about my money, but I have to have these things slip out of my hands time and time again??? And end up with the super far assignments that don't pay as much???

Then we come to the Kovan Kid.

Just that Thurs, I went down to teach this kid at Kovan for the 3rd tuition lesson, and when I got to his house, the maid said, "But he just went out 5 minutes ago." What?

Anyway, guardian calls kid on handphone. Rant rant. Scold scold. Then tells me that he's at heartland mall and he's not coming back so they have to cancel this lesson so sorry about it would you like to call him and arrange the next lesson?

Yes, I would. At the same time I would like to arrange a session to kick his ass big time.

So I called him back. He claims he told the guardian he didn't want tuition on thurs. ( Incidentally, original tuition timing is mon + thurs. He didn't want on mon, so change to wed + thurs. Wed lesson got cancelled cos he had to stay back after sch. Thurs guardian never tell me anything. ) He said she told me wrongly. I said that's not my fault. He replied "Well that's not my fault either."

Fine. Whatever. Communication breakdowns occur. So I ask when he wants tuition again. I hear a "argh" over the phone and he cuts me off.

The little bleep bleep cut me off.

I call him back again, and after less than 10 words he cuts me off again.

The next time I call back, his fren answers and says "Wrong number."

Finally I get him and I say when you want tuition tell me now and forever hold thy peace. He says saturday, so fine, I'll see you on Saturday. When I tell the guardian this, she goes, "Oh dear, he has chinese tuition on saturday."

So now I can't come on Saturday. He doesn't want it on Mondays, he's at school on Wednesdays, he skips on Thurs, and he has chinese tuition on Saturdays. I get the picture. You don't want to see me. You don't want tuition.

Insane ranting no. 3 coming up.... ( The FWFC will know that when I get really pissed off my language gets a bit colourful. Hence, the following rant has been edited accordingly )

IS IT THEN SO HARD TO GIVE PPLE A BIT OF **** RESPECT WHEN YOU TALK TO THEM???? I think the whole part about that day that really pissed me off was the fact that he ***** cut me off 3 bloody times when I was already at his damn ***** house wondering where the hell he was! Then he ***** cuts me off, and has the ***** nerve to get his fren to tell me "Wrong number"??? I never in my life saw such a ***** ***** who had so little respect for the pple around him and if I ever see him on the streets.... **********

I am seriously pissed, insulted and highly offended by this one stupid gesture. If there was a pure communication breakdown, then at least have the courtesy to acknowledge this, and arrange another day when I can come. When you cut me off like this, and even give the phone to your fren, to me, you're just making an effort to be rude and you don't give a damn about the fact that I came all the way to your house. Not to mention you bring yourself closer to getting yourself severely beaten up by myself one day.

Damn kid. If Bunny or Turtle is reading this, then I'm sorry that you had to see all this here. Bunny, it's nothing personal to you. I'm truly thankful that you gave me this chance when I needed it, don't doubt that. It's just that this particular incident has really riled up my fur. I have considered quitting, but I feel I have to give the kid one more chance. ( I always believe in fair play. Damn. ) I will try to see through 5 more lessons with him. If this goes on, then I'm sorry, but I will quit. I do want to help the kid, but I'm no Dead Poet wannabe, and I seriously need the stable income. I cannot help him if he refuses to even come for class with me. And I'm not going to coax him nicely into doing things. I did that for 2 years with my other kid and it didn't work. Not to mention if I can't even settle a fixed timing with him, it's very hard for me to arrange other students during the week.

We will see what happens after 5 lessons.

Shopper's Paradise? My foot!

I actually had the inspiration for this last Sunday, but never wrote it till now. :p

So last Sunday, I had to go shopping for my CNY clothes, and since I'd already covered Suntec area with Quet on Thurs, I decided to go Orchard this time.

And I nearly killed myself in the process.

So....... the following are my gripes about shopping in this so called "shopper's paradise" Phaw!

Please don't give me good service

You read a lot about how everybody keeps complaining about the standard of service in Singapore, about how bad service is, abt how sales pple can't be bothered to serve Asians but run to the ang mohs, abt they're rude, blah blah blah.

Well, let me be original then. I hate good service. I hate it when you walk into a shop and all the sales assistant go "HI!" or "Huan1Yin2Guang1Lin2" at you and they look at you with their beady wide eyes the moment you set one foot in their store. When they do that to me, all my hairs stand on end, and I feel like some poor piece of prey that a predator has its eyes on. Then when you glance at a item they immediately take it out for you, tell you about the wonderful fabric that came from some Nepalese mountain that went into the making of this item and it's so soft and it won't lose its colour and speaking about colour it comes in 6 different colours here let me show you!

Ok, maybe that's a bit exaggerated, but here's an example. I stepped into a shop at Far East, and here's where I should have been warned. It had been raining that afternoon so there were fewer people than usual walking around the mall. Hence there was 1 other customer in that shop and about 4 sales assistants standing at the counter. The moment I walked in, "Hi!"

Cripes. Help me now.

If I wasn't so despo that day to get something for CNY, I might've just smiled and walked hurriedly out of the shop. As it turns out, I needed something and some of the fishermen's trousers in that shop caught my eye. So I winced, and walked to the trousers that caught my eye. As soon as I took it off the rack, this sales lady came over to me, and started her pitch, "This trousers very special, hen3 du1 te4 de3. We also have in other colours, other designs, sell very well, easy to wear also. See, not bad right? I also have some of these at home, very comfortable to wear."

Me: "Er, right, can I try that on?"

Her: ( In an eager, puppy way ) "Sure! Can! No problem! You know how to wear?"

Me: "Er, yea, you put them on, fold the big leg over, tie at the waist, and fold the folds down"

Her: ( Thinks I'm a idiot who thinks I know ) "You just put on, the big leg you fold over like this, then you tie at the waist, and fold down"

Right.........................

Why do they have to treat me like some kinda idiot? Why is it the moment I walk in you have fall at my feet and start fawning me? It's not as if I'm more likely to buy something if you start getting all over me like this, I'm not a male customer at the KTV lounge ya know. When I shop, I go in, see if there's anything I want, try on what I want, and then get out, and it's kinda hard to do that with a sales asst lapping at your feet every minute. ( It dogs your steps ) I don't like excess attention given to me like that. ( Like the staff at Long John's, every time you walk out they have to shout out together, "Please come again!" Dammit! ) You won't believe how many times I just felt like railing at some sales asst "F-off already! Get off my back and lemme alone dammit! Go away! Harass some other poor soul with a bigger wallet!"

Next gripe.....

Women come in all shapes and sizes

A piece of common knowledge and common sense right? We're all made different, right? Specially moulded from God's hand and all that?

Tell that to all the @!#$% fashion designers.

To this particular *species* of people, women only come in 2 sizes: Small and Xtra small. How the bloody heck do you explain the clothes on Orchard? If you're not either of those 2 sizes, you can't get anything at a reasonable price. The cheap stuff are all made for, I donno, Lolitas, maybe, and the expensive stuff are obviously over priced. $30 for a 3/4 sleeve shirt? Watch me stuff that shirt up some unmentionable bodily crevice.

And this is not just in Far East. That place I can excuse for the weak reason that it precisely caters to pre-pubescent Lolitas whose obviously aren't old enough to have gained the feminine bodily assets that I was so endowed with. That's the market. So if they want to sell exclusively to flat-chested, twig-like, straight-as-a-rod girls, fine, that's their market. What about the other boutiques?? Obviously you're catering to women a little older and more developed right? Then why are your clothes made for the flat-twig-straight girls?? Firstly, all their sizes come in S or M, ( and I dare any sales assistant to tell me that "we don't sell clothes for ..bigger women" ) so girls like me can forget abt shopping there. Secondly, their S and Ms are overstated labels. What they mean by "s" and "m" is really "XS" and "XXS". Some of these tops, supposedly for M girls, my M frens will be hard-pressed to squeeze into them. Unless they remove a rib.

Then this leads to the next gripe.....

Changing Rooms!

These smart-ass designers must've told the interior designers before they opened shop: "Oh, btw, our clothes are only for the very small sized girls, so don't bother making the changing rooms too big. We don't want to encourage fat customers in our store. *shudder* Just give it enough room for someone to stand up in. Space to wave their arms? What for?"

I'll tell you what for, you idiot. Because when pple try on clothes, they don't just raise their arms and wait for the clothes to magically fall on them from above. We have to mess around with buttons, zips, snaps, clasps. We have to fit our arms into sleeves and raise our arms to pull the clothes down onto our bodies. In other words, we have to move. And it's pretty hard to do all that in a space that's even smaller than the toilet in your average coffeeshop. Granted, retail space in Orchard is expensive, but then again, so is customer satisfaction. It's bad enough we have to queue for ages, holding our clothes, getting knocked at by sales assistants and other customers moving in and out of the fitting rooms, but then even in the fitting rooms, you get knocked at the elbows/knees/arms/legs while trying to squirm around fitting your clothes on. Eat your heart out, Houdini.

And you know what's worse? While you're getting knocked at everywhere in the changing room, you also have to worry about whether women outside are privy to your predicament. WHy? This is cos there's this trend in Orchard to fit curtains instead of doors on the changing rooms nowadays. I figure it's cheaper to just buy cloth instead of wood for the changing room doors. And if you're not careful, the curtain at the edge can be blown easily, maybe from the sighs of impatience from all the other women waiting outside. If you don't close it properly, then the next woman in the queue gets a full blast view of your purple Triumph bra and matching undies and will probably even see what model you're wearing. ( this is why they don't allow men near the changing areas )

But then again, even vacuum-sealed steel doors are no match for the incompetence of the sales assistant or other customers to boot. That thurs nite I went shopping with Quet, we were at this shop at Citylink where the doors were see peh solid ah. Solid wood through and through, heavy as oaks, and when I tried to open one, I had to tug with all my weight. When I closed it, I heard this sucking sound, like the air was being sucked out. No worries about peepers. That changing room could've held gold safer than some bank vaults. Oh, and it was spacious enough to do so too.

So anyway, I had found something that I wanted to try, and I asked if the changing rooms were available. This sales assistant went, "Oh, let me check." and pulled open the door of one of the changing rooms, only to let both of us behold this woman in her underwear putting her leg into a pair of pants. She went, "Oops, sorry." and closed the door again.

So who's the bigger idiot here?
a) The salesgirl, who could've checked if there was anyone inside by simply knocking at the door and hollering, "Anyone inside?" but inside pulled it wide open.
b) The customer inside, who didn't even lock the door properly, perhaps trusting too much in the vacuum sealed door.

What a pig it is shopping for clothes in Singapore. This is why I prefer Borders and Kino. I don't have to worry about size when it comes to books, there's always an empty corner for you to sit or stand, and the sales people leave you alone when you're browsing their stuff. *sigh* Too bad we can't wear books.

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This came to me in an email from the Slayer..... Just for fun till something interesting in my life happens again.... like a car crash or something....

*Sung to the tune of Clay Aiken's Invisible*

Whatcha got in your hand
Oh Bilbo I wish you’d tell me it all
You were giving your speech
Then you left the scene
Why can’t I see you
Where did you go
(Oh Bilbo)
We threw a birthday party then you left the show

My Uncle’s invisible
He just disappeared without a clue
My Uncle’s invisible
I can’t see him tonight
The hobbit’s untraceable
He’s probably off to a new land
‘Cause he wants to see Mount-tans
My Uncle’s invisible
Oh wait- I have the ring, damn

Now I’m stuck with this ring
And riders in black won’t leave me alone
Me and eight of my friends
Went on a road trip
We met the Balrog, and Gandalf died
(Sam’s Crying)
Boromir lunged at me so I had to decide

Hey, look I’m invisible
But now I must walk into Mount Doom
Sauron is invincible
He’s putting up a fight
If quests were untakable
Then I could relax home in Hobbit land
I would give the ring to Sam
And he’d be invisible
But wait- who’d water my plants?

Gollum, I know you’re behind me
Even in the Dwarf mines
You’re trying to find me
But I can’t do this without you
Bring your best friend Smeagol too

(Invisible, invisible, invisible)
(oooooooooooohh)
Hey, look I’m invisible
And I’m taking Gollum to Mt. Doom
He really looks miserable
He and Sam always fight
Our supplies are minimal
So I’m glad we have this Lembas bread
Two more weeks and I’ll be dead
If I was invisible, Hey look I’m invisible, If I was invisible

Body Worlds 2003

I have to say........ this exhibition puts a whole new perspective to the whole idea of signing your body up for science. As I walked through the exhibition, I kept wondering whether all these poor souls knew what was really going to happen to their bodies and the implications of what they had done.

Ok, some brief intro first. This exhibition is currently being held at the Singapore Expo and is basically a showcase of preserved human bodies. What makes this unique from your average bio lab display is firstly, the process used in preserving these bodies. The process of plastination, to be exact, which was invented by Gunther Von Hagens. It is basically the "forced infusion of anatomical specimens with reactive plastics", which seems to preserve the organs and even the nervous system.

It also allows the body to be preserved so well, pieces of muscle can be peeled away from the body, and even every intricacy of the central nervous system is preserved. This I can vouch to. In some of the exhibits, the nerves are preserved so well, they resemble nothing less than pieces of thread, covering our ( their? its? ) entire body. Also makes you wonder what happens if, say, someone sneezes hard in the wrong direction, or spiders decide on the cadavers for their holiday residence. ( Oh honey! This will be perfect! Look, even the web has been built for us!)

There was even one playing chess at a table, and Slayer and I were thinking that that could've been us in our chess-playing days. Eek. ( Noticed however, that they placed the black pieces inaccurately. :p )

They had specimens of the human body, ( male mostly. Slayer says sexist/generalist. I say we women know better than to just sign on the dotted line ) and a section to foetuses. The row of deformed foetuses is.... unnerving. There was a deformed foetus which had its ( his? her? ) brains and intestines growing out of its body, at abt 5 mths I tink, and the sign said it was a disorder present in every 1000 foetuses. Most times it's nothing. Sometimes..............

We tried to take some pix, ( yes, photography was not allowed ) with my camera phone. Since it wasn't allowed, the following took place:

Me: ( pretending to SMS ) All clear?
Slayer: ( Shiftily glancing left and right ) Clear. Quick! Do it now!
Me: There're people here! They'll notice us! ( Students on field trip standing ard us )
Slayer: Damn! She's moving nearer! ( Security staff )
Me: Ok, got it! ( Snap )

Aside: Slayer thinks the pix I took weren't too bad, and that I have a future as a budding paparazzi. My career prospects look so bright at this point of time. The 4 miserable pix I took can be seen on my camera pix website, link at top of page.

Viewing the exhibits is a morbidly fascinating affair. You look at it, and you think, "Good god, is that me? Could that be me?" Or rather that's what I mostly thought. The Slayer, whom I went with, for some reason, thought more in the direction of "Your dick is so small. I pity you." and "The dead foetuses are cool! They should have more!" ( She wrote that last thought in the comment book provided at the end of the exhibition, by the way )
As an aside, if you're reading this, I'm never going to such an exhibition with you again.

Excellent exhibition, especially for
1) budding doctors/nurses/anyone in medical field
2) anyone with a taste for the macabre
3) Jack-the-Ripper wannabes

More references, if I got your interest whetted:
Body Worlds website

Servers are Back Up

The Blogger servers are finally working again and I can continue blogging and reading once again. *PomPom*

The unfortunate thing is that I have nothing in my life to update about. *PomPom wilts*

Hm, so let's pick the nitty-gritty.....

Sylveracyd's website is coming up nicely, though a couple of pages need cosmetic arrangements, and some more organizing. I spent the entire afternoon yesterday before tuition alternating between helping Quet on ICQ with her report, ( Ya owe me, fren. Mwahahaha ) changing the order forms and cursing formsite's stupid arrangement, ( Form has to keep uploading every time I make a change. Bah! ) and using PS to change the logos. Gawk!

Then the new tuition kid....

Let's have some basic details. I got this kid thru Bunny ( er, for lack of a better nick, though Turtle may frown on me infringing his BF copyrights. ) and the kid's Thai, studied in Singapore for abt 2 years and now in P5. Firstly, I got terribly, terribly lost trying to find my way to the place, cos it's this super ulu-fied private estate bang between Hougang stadium and Heartland mall. Bleah. Then the kid turns out to be the most super-unmotivated-bochup-don-give-a-damn kid I've ever seen in my life, and yes, his English is...............bad.

God help me now, but I really need some damn creative-divinely-inspired way of getting this kid to even look at me, let alone do the work I set for him. I realise that getting assessments is prob useless and even ineffective, if he can't be bothered. Then when I call Bunny later at night and talk to her more about the kid, she tells me more horror stories about him, like how she went for lessons and when at their doorstep, he refused to come out for lessons and his guardian just said lesson cancelled but charged anyway.

Well, getting paid for not teaching........ hmmm......... I better think up some super creative way of teaching this kid English. Help!

Does anyone notice this weird thing with blogger that's going on? Everytime I try to access someone's blog which is hosted on its server, it just directs me to the main blogger page. Hello.........i think someone in tech support isn't doing his job well..........

New Website!

No, not the blog, unfortunately.......... but i did up a simple one for the pix i took on my camera phone.....there aren't much there right now, but I will put more up! Yessiree I will! My Photos
Things to note:
I used frames for the site, so if you don't see anything.... er, your browser doesn't support them n i'm sorry.....
I know the resolution sucks! It's a camera phone so whatdya expect?
I will not put up pix of my frens, in accordance with my views on anonymity on the Net. So don't worry, I won't put up those embarrassing shots I took of anyone while you were asleep.

2 features today: A link on whether Jesus might be gay, (?) and a lengthy complaint about Light Years. I don't usually hate shows so much, but this one has earned the honour.

Jesus May Be Gay?

This was originally sent in an email to me by Tenderheart, but hee..... it's so interesting I just have to share it.... before the lightning comes down and strikes me anyway.... Anyone out there more religious than I am... please tell me how much of this could be truth or not....

Was Jesus Gay?

As a sample, the authors note this fragment from the Bible:
"And the youth, looking upon him (Jesus), loved him and beseeched that he might remain with him. And going out of the tomb, they went into the house of the youth, for he was rich. And after six days, Jesus instructed him and, at evening, the youth came to him wearing a linen cloth over his naked body. And he remained with him that night, for Jesus taught him the mystery of the Kingdom of God".

Your Pain On 5

Pain. Hurt. Anguish. Agony. Just a sample of what I went through tonight. And I have only one thing to blame for it.

CHANNEL 5 PROGRAMMES ON A TUES NITE

My family and I were watching the TV while eating our nasi lemak dinner. First on was Tan Kheng Hua and some show on food. Not too bad. Tan is very vibrant, very bouncy and looks very natural while doing so. A talent that sadly, something like 90% of the actors ( and actresses ) in TCS lack. ( That was just a general estimate by the way. Actual figures may be closer to 99.9999% )

Then came Phua Chu Kang. A lot of lame, slapstick kinda humour, ( One of the blur workers thought he had breast cancer because he felt a lump on his chest and ended up being dragged for a mammogram by the 2 women of the household ) but we expect it. After all, it's Phua Chu Kang, him of the perms-mole-boots getup for heaven's sake. Anything else from this show would've been like asking Mr Bean to perform Cirque Du Soleil.

After that, however.....

Oh Carol! came on. ( for some reason, my mom suddenly felt like doing the laundry ) I don't know if it was intentional or not, but apparently there was a technical error, so we didn't get any of the canned laughter that usually came on during these shows. That's what I first thought. Later on, I was getting to be of the opinion that the laughter didn't come on because there was nothing funny in the show. She screams at co-workers. She suffers pre-marital anxiety and cancels her wedding to Utt. ( which probably brought sighs of relief to female MTV fans all over Singapore ) Oh well, ho hum. Pass the samosas.

The really painful part came on during Light Years. Harken this name, all intelligent beings, and be wary of it. It is awful, the characters are totally fake, utterly unbelievable and extremely childish. Not only that, but the entire plot is so predictable, you start feeling clairvoyant. Let me give a good example of bad scriptwriting from the show:

( background: in case you didn't know, Light Years is about a group of students in Poly and their experiences. Good, now forget it, because it's not worth knowing )

One of the opening scenes feature this girl, a student, let's call her A, and B, a guy, getting into a cab at the exact same time, and telling the cab driver the same address. ( some fictitious poly ) Then when they become aware of the other person's presence, they start arguing about who got into the cab first, how rude the other party is, and will you please get out of the cab.

Of course, the "twist" at the end is that A finds out that B is her new lecturer, and the school term starts off on a fine new note for her.

Now, let's get one thing straight. I've never watched Light Years when it first came out, so I never had any strong opinions on it before. Hence I decided to watch it tonight and see what it was all about. And OMG, it was about the worst pukeworthy crap I had ever seen in my life.

Let's start attacking the opening scene. Firstly, what the Hell are the chances of 2 people walking into a cab at the same time? Won't they have seen each other before then? They couldn't have been standing next to each other and not being aware of each other now, couldn't they? Fine, let's give them the benefit of the doubt. They only saw a cab and were so blur they were totally unaware of their surroundings. Which makes them pretty clever creatures for being able to hail a cab in the first place.

Secondly, they proceed to argue with each other, and A demands that B gets out of the cab, and doesn't see why she has to share the cab with him. I'll tell you why, honey, so that you can SHARE CAB FARE. You two are going to the same place, hence you can split the fare 50-50, and pay cheaper fare! A simple, obvious fact which was pointed out by the cab driver, but she still put on that arrogant-piss-ass style and said she didn't see why she had to share a cab with him. OMG! How did this girl have the brains to supposedly rise to 3rd year in Poly? I can't figure out how she even got past Primary 6 if she couldn't even see such a simple logic on her own. And although B was supposed to be a Poly lecturer, he was also stupid enough to argue with someone obviously lacking in her intellectual faculties. That's like fighting with a donkey over a carrot, and a rotten one at that. He didn't even see that they could share the cab fare and reasonably point it out to her.

There is a fine line between stubbornness and downright stupidity. These folks ran all the way past it and jumped headfirst into the Point of No Brains, all the while arguing with each other about who should jump first.

Thirdly, the rest of the cast act so childishly, you'll think you were watching Moulmein High instead of Light Years. At least in MH, they were supposed to play sec. sch students. A certain level of immaturity is expected. But surely not of 3rd year poly students! This guy, whose character came back from a student exchange trip in Japan, kept going on throughout about how he was so cool in Japan, how the girls loved him in Japan, and how cool he thought he was. Newsflash: Did you happen to miss, say, Changi Airport on the way here? Did you fail to realise that you were in Singapore, and not Japan? Or were you just wondering why everyone was suddenly speaking English around you?

Fourthly, the cast, as poly students, are more fake than an LV bag bought off the street markets of China. Did the scriptwriters actually think that Singaporean youths speak like that? That fake, pseudo-American accent became so yesterday, like.... yesterday. This Speak Good English movement has a lot to answer for, if you ask me. And the lines are so bad, they made me cringe, literally. The actors sound, at times, like those wooden dolls that go "Mama!" when you pull a string at the back. Wooden lines, wooden accents.

This show is not just BAD it's pukeworthy. No, scratch that, I won't even want to puke on it. It's trash, rubbish, bollocks, bullshit, and I'm pretty certain if you watch it enough, your IQ will drop till you consider Forrest Gump to be the pinnacle of human intellect. Do NOT watch it even if you have time to waste. I feel sorry for the campus that lent itself to the shooting of this show, because now everyone who watches it will think their students are childish, argumentative, stupid, fake, egoistical lowlives like certain TCS actors.

And as a note, all this rubbish happened in the first 15 minutes of the show. I switched channels because I was starting to feel pain just watching it.

Sigh..... having trouble again with photos... really considering whether i shld fork out the money to rent space on the Net....
maybe if I manage to get more students....

Hey guys, long ramblings below which go ever on and on, but if you get bored halfway, there're comics to entertain you along the way. You can also scroll all the way down for some links, if, *sniff sniff* you don't like my writing, despite all the trouble *sniff* I went through to write it *sniff* what with my eyesight being what it is....

Paper to Film

With the showing of the ROTK, the endless battle once again is started..... that neverending struggle between the forces of good and evil.......

Yes, it is the place for confrontation between fans of the book and fans of the film.

Gimme My Comic!

Usually I do a review for the movies that I watch, but this one is so heavily reviewed and raved..... I think there's no point preaching to the highly converted. Instead, I will offer some comments on an old issue that this has raised again.

In this week's 8 days, [Britney Spears cover] David Fuhrmann-Lim mentioned 2 kinds of LOTR fans. There are the film fans, and the book fans, and the differences are highly marked. As living examples, I will highlight 2 people I know. Let's call them D and C. [if you know who i'm talking about, let's just maintain anonymity here, eh?]

Gimme My Comic!

D is a book fan. He's read all 3 books, The Silmarillon, The Unfinished Tales, possibly all other books by Tolkien, hails Tolkien as the Father of Modern Fantasy, and is able to deliver a treatise on how every other fantasy writer out there has stolen ideas from Tolkien one way or another. [An example: kender in the Dragonlance series highly resemble hobbit in Tolkien] He's seen the films and thinks they're "ok".

Sidenote to Dragonlance fans: Don't you think the undead armies of Lord Soth are highly similar to the Armies of the Dead? Ok, back to the crap.

Gimme My Comic!

C is a film fan. She thinks Legolas is the hottest thing in the film, but Orlando Bloom looks better in that film than any other. She downloads pix of Legolas onto her handphone. She thinks the scenery is stunning, the actors are hot, Sam and Frodo are possibly gay, and who's Tom Bombadil?

The rest of us just watch the films. Haha! But you get the idea.

The 2 extremes in this case are either like Jason/D/Book fans, or Paige/C/Film/Orlando fans. And they have utterly different reasons for catching the film. D would most likely want the films to be as close as possible to Tolkien's original vision. C is just thankful that Peter Jackson cast Legolas as such a hottie. [no offence to C, who may be reading this..... but face it....... haha!] And I sure as heck do not ever want to involve both parties in a LOTR discussion, unless I want to see D strangle C in total exasperation.

[ one of my favourite lines below. "Filler stuff"? ]

Gimme My Comic!

So what is the difference between the 2? Frankly, there's a lot. If you have read the original Tolkien novel, just the first 3 books, you would know that there are tons of history and character Tolkien has that Peter Jackson does not, due to the shortcomings of film. For one, there is the character of Tom Bombadil. Also, Aragorn's history is never really explained clearly, to my satisfaction, and the Aragorn-Arwen romance is played up too strongly. [Arwen's character in the film is kinda extra, in my opinion. There seems to be no satisfiable reason for her to be there, other than because pple like to see romance in the films.]

I happened to watch the movie before I ever read the book, but from personal experience, book-to-film adaptions never really work to satisfaction. My experience during the first Harry Potter movie was such. The first film didn't just lack, but was utterly bereft of the magic of Rowling's writing. Although it was an entertaining movie, I felt that I was watching something without soul, or character. The magic was lost. To explain it in other words, the movie was not entertaining to engage me the way the original book did. To this extent, I can understand the feelings of book fans. I can also understand the feelings of Jason in the comic below....

[ Another good line. "Who's Gollum?" ]

Gimme My Comic!

And it's not like some of these books need the additional publicity from the film anyway. JK Rowling was already an international bestselling author before The Philosopher's Stone was ever made into a film. Tolkien was already well beloved as a master of fantasy literature. In fact, it was their fame in the first place that led to these books being made. These directors, in a way, were betting on a sure winner, books with their loyal following of fans that would earn money and publicity for the film and ensure that it wouldn't be a total bomb altogether.

Also, it's absolutely frustrating talking to a total fan of the film sometimes, when u even a slight knowledge of the books and Tolkien. When C talks about how cute Legolas is, and how gay Sam and Frodo are in the film, it makes me wanna tear my hair out. [thank the gods, i've never done that.] How the heck do you expect me to explain that this is just P.Jackson's vision, Tolkien's experiences in war, and the possible interpretation that Sam and Frodo represent the camaderie between the upper and lower classes that evolved during the binding crucible that is war? All the freak she can talk about is how gay they are!

Gimme My Comic!

*sigh* I know the usual excuse for this is "Each To His Own", and I know that everyone has their own preferences, even if it's freaking-little-white-face-Orlando-Bloom, but Gees! For the umpteenth time, Sam and Frodo are NOT gay, and stop casting this lime-giantic-1000watt-spotlight on Legolas! He's a supporting character for heavens' sake! It's totally alright to be fans of the book, or fans of the film, but at least do not accept either as the gospel truth and elevate Jackson to god-status! Because Jackson, technically, is copying a script from Tolkien and adding his own interpretation of it. When you keep seeing scenes of Legolas jumping over oliphaunts and shooting arrows into its driver's back, that's Jackson's vision. When you insist Sam and Frodo are gay............... er, that's just your own mind working.

Gimme My Comic!

My main stand here, I guess, is that take whatever view of the show you like. Whether it be book or film. But never accept one totally. Read/watch the other medium, expose yourself to other interpretations, or the original version, and at least have an awareness of the other side. If you've read the book, accept that Jackson had to cut certain scenes out or portray them differently, in order to accomodate the shortcomings of film. If you've watched the movie, at least attempt to read the book, to open yourself to Tolkien's original vision and understand where he's coming from.

Unless you're now a firm Orlando Bloom fan. Then please go off on your own tangent and stop muddling the discussion.

For more info on the characters, I found this site:
The Barrow-Downs

And for pure entertainment, this flash was sent to me by C, but I couldn't load it. You guys try.
Gollum Rap

According to a random piece of Javascript, one of my elvish names is Pennberaidiel. Haha!
Try It Out, Guys n Gals


Foxtrot Comics are done by Bill Amend, and these strips were from UComics. If you're from that site, and you see these comics here, please have the courtesy to send me a letter giving me a chance to take down the strips before you start suing me. Thanks.

Renovations UnderWay...

I'm still trying to refurbish my blog, and I'm trying a 2nd attempt at putting pictures up again. *gawk* All pics are taken by my camera phone, so forgive the lousy resolution. Put mouse arrow over picture and see comments.

Meanwhile, the [highly under construction, under renovation, totally not finished yet] links above are [kinda, supposedto, hope they do what they're meant to] working already.

But looks slightly neater, already, eh? ;)

Merry Xmas All!

Yes! Bring out the champagne, turkey, eggnog, misteltoe, and PRESENTS!!!!!

Well, kinda late to be saying that, since as I type this, it's already Dec 27th.... duh.... but Xmas lasts for 12 days no? :p

Anyways, Merry, merry Xmas to all, [esp. those who got me presents when this scrooge here didn't get anything for anybody. Oops!]

May those in school sail through their assignments and pass with flying colours

May those currently unemployed find gainful means of employment soon

May those in jobs they hate either:
1) Get a raise soon
2) Get a promotion soon
3) Get a better job soon
4) Kill their bosses soon

May those out of love find it soon, whether it take the form of:
1) Friendship
2) Family
3) Marital bliss
4) Boy/Girl Friend
5) Pure, unadulterated sex

Er, if you find the last one..... play it safe and spare me the details......

And here's to the New Year ahead!

An Attempt at Bad Pool Poetry

Chalk.
Cue.
Table.
Balls.

Left hand touches
Green mat.
Right grips cue.
Body leans on table.
Eye aims.

Line of sight
from ball to hole.
Angles calculated.
Cue adjusted.

Relax right grip.
Center of white.
Draw back
And hit.

White to coloured.
Grazes the side.
Ball rolls.
Enters hole.

Game is done.
And Won.


Hee..... went for pool game today with libexco..... and won some games...... happy person now....... :)
Necro, I await thy next challenge!