This is truly touching.... a story of a girl, who found out way too late, just how selfish and irresponsible her boyfriend was. After she got pregnant with their first child.

http://tristefemme.blogspot.com

Bored? Slacker?

It is Tuesday night, and Yenn and I have just finished logging all our assignment deadlines onto calendars.

Yen: "I think you should change the title of your blog."

Me: "Huh? Why?"

Yen: "Well, " [points to the title] "Are you sure you're still bored? Are you sure you're still slacking?"

[Imagine an Aki balloon deflating with a low sigh and a highly depressed look]

---

Happy Birthday Singapore.... Now get over it already!

And so another National Day is over..... Happy 40th Birthday Singapore, only about 10 years more to mid life crisis....

The one good thing out of the end of National Day? [Hopefully anyway] no more irritating "reach for the stars"...... bleah........ If I see one more Taufik and Rui En in the MRT, I might just make the LCD screen see stars...... [Bad pun, but I'll blame it on T and RE's inadequate harmony :p]

I know it's supposed to be the celebration of Singapore's independence and all that, but after about 24 years, the National Day celebrations are getting a bit tiresome. It's all about the same anyway. The different ethnic groups and the ever-present PAP group putting on a few skits, the military shows off its arsenal, everyone gapes in awe at the fireworks, and then goes home with the goodie bags.

For about months after that, you will see the goodie bag itself being used by tons of schoolkids all over Singapore, and a few adults, and then its appearance will diminish over time. Till the next National Day.

A pretty sarcastic take on the whole thing, huh?

And yet I don't see myself as an unpatriotic Singaporean. I don't badmouth every single Government policy, [well, not every single one anyway] I don't badmouth everything about the Gahmen.

Importantly, I don't, at this moment of time, have any plans to migrate to other countries. Other countries are nice, and some might be better than us in some ways, but I would still like to live here, marry here, and perhaps eventually die here.

This I know is totally at odds with a lot of people, and even some of my closest friends :p. But I do feel that Singapore is a good place to settle down for many reasons, most of all being the safe environment, and also the fact that here I am acknowledged as a citizen, and hence I know that, however much I deplore the actions of the government, they are made in my favour.

You think this isn't much of an advantage? Tell that to the Blacks, who suffered the chains of slavery. Tell that to the Muslims in France, who were forced to compromise their religious beliefs in exchange for life in a secular France. Tell that to any other disadvantaged race in other countries.

Your civil rights, though not tangible, are a more precious thing than almost any other thing in this world. And you cannot guarantee that the governments of other countries will grant their Permanent Residents with the same civil privileges that they grant their own home-born citizens.

But still the National Day celebrations and all the marketing hooha leading up to it bores me, and, in the case of the NDay song, irritates me. Why?

Because it's all marketing. Because I know that all this is to promote an image of something else, and ultimately, it's not real.

Because I know that the image is there to cover the reality, which may or may not be the one the Gahmen wants to project to the world.

Because the images of Singapore I see in the MTVs and the National Day parades are NOT the images of Singapore I know and love.

And what I love is what I see and feel around me. The real Singapore.

The prata stall at AMK which I still faithfully patronise every Sunday. [pulling along a father who is getting increasingly sick of prata]

The comics which arrive for me every Tuesday. [ok, not quite every Tues]

The clean and convenient transport. [Sit the Tube and the Metro and you realise just how fantastic our MRT really is]

and more importantly,

All the friends and family who have been with me for as long as I've been living here.

To me, THAT'S Singapore, my home, my future.

So Happy National Day, for all those who truly care.

And let's continue making this a home worth living, for each other.

loss - gain - what?

One of the saddest things about starting work/school/a hybrid of both is simply not having the time anymore for the things you love.

Time was I could blog just about everyday, because of all the time I had. I had the time to compose lengthy, witty, [or least, I hope they were witty] entries, and whole sagas about my then-non-existent-and-even-now-not-quite-there love life.

Time was I spent more time with Photoshop and Freehand than I did with actual human company. My fingers moved with an unconscious fluidity of their own, and created pixels of cartoons and other illustrations.

Time was I could spend a whole afternoon lost in a good book, or comic. Even after I had finished reading the comic, I had the time to spare to lust over the luscious art.

Time was I was poor, but I had enough cash to get by, and I was content.

Now?

My blog got dusty, my typing became stiff, and I haven't created anything new or arty in a while, aside from some black and white ink stuff in my hostel room. [I brought over the barest necessities - A sketchbook, black pens, and a mechanical pencil] I still read, but the time I spend on a book is getting longer. I still buy comics, but I'm not able to read intently, and sometimes I find myself skimming over the words, and not fully appreciating the art.

And my wallet? The excess money only made me want to spend more, a feeling of consumerish frenzy which I am frantically trying to abate.

And I think: What have I lost in exchange for career and financial stability?

And do I even fully know what I have lost?

I think only time can prove this hypothesis. Perhaps I can be happy at this. Perhaps I will find some balance. Perhaps I may never really care about what I lost in the past.

Perhaps I may never be a slacker again.

Perhaps I may declare this blog a waste of my time, and close it down for good, resigning to the depths of the dusty online dungeons.

In a way, this particular speaker I heard in NIE spoke true. That we must "never forget why is it you went into this in the first place" [I apologise, but I forgot who spoke that line, only that the person is in NIE]

And I may have taken the line out of its proper context, but I guess it fits this now.

That I must never forget why I do the things I love.

And never forget why is it I love them so.

And never stop loving them.

[slightly pensive mood]

Conversation

Me: "I'm having bad neckaches nowadays."

schwarz: "Yea, you look like you're getting a dowager's hump."

Me: "What??? Is it because of my posture??"

schwarz: "Usually these things are determined genetically, just that your bad posture could have made it worse."

Me: [conveniently not listening to the second half of the sentence] "Good, another thing I can blame on my parents."

*Doing*

schwarz: "Try not to slouch so much lah."

Me: "I can't help it, most of the time in tuition I have to bend down to help the kids."

schwarz: "How, like that?"

Me: "I know one thing I could do."

schwarz: "What?"

Me: [looking down at her 1.4m frame] "Talk more often to taller friends, for one?"

[that earned me a kick in the knee]

My neck hurts every time a tuition session ends. Or not hurt, but rather, ache. I can feel the muscles in my neck right now screaming out for a good massage, and a lot of those parlors are starting to look real tempting......

So if I go out with you and you notice that my neck is stuck in one position, or, [if you're shorter than me] I'm talking over the top of your head, bear with me.......

Incidentally, I forgot to mention... I've watched Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and had a few thoughts:

1. Johnny Depp's Willy Wonka is not at all like the WW I imagined in the book. [then again, I had the same problem with the Harry Potter movies] Roald Dahl's WW at the time seemed like a lovable, clown-like character with a child-like innocence. JD's WW seemed like he was walking a fine line between sanity and psychopathic behaviour most of the time.

Although he does have a slightly sexy slant in the movie ads... Rowr!

2. Tim Burton's movies have an unmistakable dark quality. There is no mistaking a Burton film for any other film. They all have that same dark comedy feel.

3. The movie will make you crave for chocolate. No kidding.

Why women are smarter than men

The post below this is a rant of sorts, so I thought I'd get you guys into a reasonably chuckly mood before you start reading about my angst....

This was received in my email from Sylveracyd.... [to the women out there] Enjoy!

Marriage - Part I

Typical macho man married typical good-looking lady and after the wedding, he laid down the following rules:

"I'll be home when I want, if I want and at what time I want and I don'texpect any hassle from you. I expect a great dinner to be on table unlessI tell you that I won't be home for dinner. I'll go hunting, fishing, boozing and card-playing when I want with my old buddies and don't you give me a hard time about it. Those are myrules. Any comments?"

His new bride said, "No, that's fine with me. Just understand that there will be sex here at seven o'clock every night ......... whether you're here or not."

(DAMM SHE'S GOOD!)

Marriage (Part II)

Husband and wife had a bitter quarrel on the day of their 40th wedding anniversary!The husband yells, "When you die, I'm getting you a headstone that reads:"Here Lies My Wife - Cold As Ever "

"Yeah?" she replies. "When you die, I'm getting you a headstone thatreads: "Here Lies My Husband Stiff At Last"

(HE ASKED FOR IT!)

Marriage (Part III)

Husband (a doctor) and his wife are having a fight at the breakfast table.Husband gets up in a rage and says, "And you are no good in bed either,"and storms out of the house. After sometime, he realizes he was nasty and decides to make amends and rings her up. She comes to the phone after many rings, and the irritated husband says, "what took you so long to answer the phone?"

She says, "I was in bed."

"In bed this early, doing what?"

"Getting a second opinion!"

(YEP, HE HAD THAT ONE COMING, TOO!)

Marriage (Part IV)

A man has six children and is very proud of his achievement. He is so proud of himself, that he starts calling his wife, "Mother of Six" in spite of her objections.One night, they go to a party. The man decides that it's time to go home and wants to find out if his wife is ready to leave as well. He shouts at the top of his voice, "Shall we go home 'Mother of Six?'

His wife, irritated by her husband's lack of discretion, shouts right back, "Anytime you're ready, Father of Four."

(RIGHT ON, LADY!)

Marriage (Part V) The Silent Treatment

A man and his wife were having some problems at home and were giving each other the silent treatment. Suddenly, the man realized that the next day,he would need his wife to wake him at 5:00 AM for an early morning business flight. Not wanting to be the first to break the silence (and LOSE), he wrote on a piece of paper, "Please wake me at5:00AM." He left it where he knew she would find it.

The next morning, the man awoke, only to discover it was 9:00 AM and he had missed his flight. Furious, he was about to go and see why his wife hadn't awakened him when he noticed a piece of paper by the bed. The message on the paper read, "It is 5:00 AM. Wake up."

---

Men are not equipped for these kinds of contests.God may have created man before woman, but there is always a rough draft before the masterpiece.

And I still haven't gotten my laptop hooked up to the Net.......... phwargh bleargh pooi pooi.........

Ok, lemme rephrase... I haven't gotten my laptop hooked up to the Net... In my hostel room.......... pooi pooi pooi............

It's 10am, in the NIE com lab, I didn't get enough sleep due to weird dreams the entire night, [Turtle was going to jail, and DF and I were back in JC, but he was in the wrong class.....er........] and I stood in front of a damned photocopying machine for one hour trying to desperately photostat whatever I could, and gacking at the sheer amount of paper that was coming out......

Oh yea, time for a good ol' rant...

Firstly, the LAPTOP

I brought it down to NIE com lab early one morning this week, and the lady there successfully installed the network card, and the client software, only to tell me:

"Oh, by the way, you may not get reception in some hostels."

"What? Where would I be able to use it, then?"

"In NIE itself."

*string of bad English, Hokkien and Japanese expletives* Then what's the blardy point of getting the card in the first place??? Why not I just make my way to the com lab each time???

Then, there's THE CABLE

I borrowed a network cable from the hostel office, which presumably was supposed to hook my com up to the Net through the LAN network.

Notice that I'm still in the com lab this morning. (-_-)

An inconvenient part of our room layout is that one LAN point is directly under Yenn's table. So I crawled under her desk to connect the cable, pushed the other end into my laptop, and set the proxy.

No connection.

I bring my laptop to the other side of the room, where our beds are.

STill no connection.

*English expletives* Then why I borrow the blardy cable for??? To strangle the hostel office staff when it doesn't work??

And when I asked the staff about it, all they said was, "The whole campus should be wireless, right?"

Yea, everywhere on campus except your blardy hostel area...... grumble grumble grumble....... This is when images of strangling them with the wire came in..........

Lastly, for today, is the PHOTOCOPYING.

I had [conveniently] forgotten how much photocopying one had to do in Uni. It seems, in the past few days, that everytime I came to the library, it was inevitably for some kind of photocopying. *dryly* After all, who cares about copyright infringements when your education and hence future career success is at stake, huh?

So I stood in front of the machine, zapping...........

And zapping...............

And zapping.........................................

Before I really got tired, and decided, "Screw this for now", and smashed my Iron Fist of Death into the photocopying machine, to the extreme shock and disbelief of all those standing behind me.

Nah, just kidding, though I wish I could have done so.

Now I know why NIE has that psychology clinic on campus...... It's to prevent Columbine-wannabes like me.......................

More rants if something else pisses me off...........

I've had to temporarily remove the tag-board, because I realised that everytime there's an error with the company server itself, the loading of my blog gets slowed down.

So since I assume you're more interested in reading the totally opinionated crap I write, rather than adding your own constructive comments on my writing, I removed the board.

Don't fret, though. If you feel that you absolutely MUST tell me the exact honest truth about my writing, please follow these instructions:

1) Click once on the Address bar.
2) Type http://www.ihateyourblog.com
3) Read the error message
4) Complain to someone else instead

Nah, just kidding. :p In place of the tagboard, use the comments function, by clicking on ".. pieces of crap". Blogger should carry you along from there.

And btw, Nihongo no leberu 2 wa owarimasu! Leberu 3 e itteimasu!

This newest post comes to you courtesy of an NTU computer at the main central library. Long live computer labs and free Internet access. :p Now if only they came with Firefox...

A few of my thoughts on the NTU campus:

- The new library I'm in now, directly above Canteen A, is one of the more better looking campus libraries I've seen around. :p Is there a current trend among the universities to compete for the better looking library? [the central library at NUS arts, after the renovation, was also stunning]

The interesting thing about the way it's been built is the half-circular design of the place. You walk in, and immediately you're standing above a half-moon valley, overlooking a whole prairie of computers, and people intent at work [or sleep, for some]

I walk to the 4th floor, along the moon, and through the windows on my left, I see the sea, [or more possibly, the Straits of Malacca] and what could possibly be Johor. It's definitely a better view than what NUS has to offer :S although most people here seem less interested in the view and more in their computer screens. Welcome to campus life.

And now, my current computer is at a window seat, though my view of Johor has been blocked by some very tall palm trees. Would almost feel like a beach, if not for the fact that I'm in an air-con library, and I have a pile of readings beside me. :s

- A few not so very nice words about their 3D club though...

NTU has a 3D animation club called NTU Siggraph, and usually Yenn and I would be interested, but I'm not too impressed by their management committee.

Erm, is it because the club is too new or something? Because I remember going for Imagereel, which was an exhibition of 3D animation, and not being very impressed with the way they organized the whole thing. Not to mention the commentators weren't too interesting, and Yenn wasn't impressed with the 3D shown, [too abstract and arty for her :p] so both of us overall weren't... well, impressed. :p

Then I went for another one they had at the library. Again, the speaker wasn't too interesting, though in this case, I suppose it's the fault of the external speaker they had, rather than the club itself. Most of the people probably thought they were there to learn some basics about 3D animation. [as I was] Instead, the presenter went like this:

"So if you click on this icon, [clicks on icon] you can do this [fiddles around with mouse, and changes colour of image. We squint to see what icon he clicked] and then this [does something else with another icon] and you can then... [by now he's given up on using verbs at all] after that you.... then you can..........."

Bleah................. at least I got some free software out of that........................

So when I saw the little display they had outside Canteen A, I was a bit apprehensive about the club, even though I saw free basic 3D courses for members. [thankfully, at the same time, they were hiring management committee members] As it is, I think their members need a bit of training in marketing skills.

I stood in front of a sign, just beside the booth, reading about the club benefits for members. The 3 people at the booth itself talk to each other about something.

I feign slight interest. They ignore me.

I decide to make myself more visible. [considering my bulk, this is not a hard thing to do] I walk to the front of the booth, in front of the 3 members.

They continue talking among themselves.

Hallo! I'm here! Me! Interested party here! Yoohoo! Look! I have cash! I'm ready to pay for membership!

I stand there for a good five minutes, before someone sees me. She comes over to talk to me, while the other 2 talk somemore. :s

I ask her, "What kind of courses does your club offer?"

Blank look. Maybe she didn't hear me correctly.

"What kind of activities does your club do?"

She thinks a while, then she reaches for a copy of the exact same piece of paper I was reading a couple of minutes back, and shows it to me. NB. Think I cannot read ah?

I ask a few more perfunctory questions about the club, and its courses, but I want a flyer.

"Sorry, we have no flyers."

No flyers? How about a copy of that paper you're holding there?

"Er, we don't have a copy right now...."

................ You do have a website, right? And I know you do, because you have it written on that very large orange banner hanging over your head over there.

"Er, ya, we have a website................ [why so reluctant to tell me your URL? You got porn stashed away in a link somewhere?] Maybe you can come back later in the afternoon when we have the flyers."

...................................... Wateva. See ya.

Maybe I'm being unfair to them, or maybe they're too new, but [sense of campus loyalty seeping in here] I don't think Bizad would have ever pulled some kind publicity flop like that lor...... And so much more the waste, because 3D animation is gaining in popularity in Singapore.... and their club is doing so little for itself......

Ok, they need better management....................... [And I hope no one in that club reads this the wrong way and send their friends in the Computing Club, if there is one, after my blog. :p]

Hypothesis: When a group of girls go shopping, the girl that already knows exactly what she wants to buy and how much she is willing to pay for it will NOT find what she wants, but the girls who are just there to tag along will end up buying all sorts of things they didn't intend to buy.

Scenario: Group of 4 girls go shopping. One girl, henceforth known as Object Aki is about to break the pair of heels she is walking in, and desperately needs new pair of sandals. Other test variables, Quet, Candle and Yenn tag along.

The Object and Variables make their way to the [semi] controlled test environment, henceforth referred to as 'Far East' to look for a new pair of shoes for Object Aki.

After a couple of hours of shopping, Object Aki is unable to find decent shoes at reasonable prices, while Variable Yenn has bought 2 new items, a beige shoulder bag [at sale price somemore!!! Blardy fark!] and a new pair of shoes. While Object Aki hobbles along, praying that either her feet or her heels don't give out before she finds a new pair of shoes.

Conclusion: HYPOTHESIS PROVEN

Not only that, but just after I bought the new sandals, really, just the second after I bought them, I stood up and immediately felt a paralysing cramp in my 2nd toe on my right foot. And even after Quet attempted to massage it, it still remained stubbornly cramped and out of line with all the other tootsies on my foot.

Finally, after it uncramped itself, and i was able to walk again, I developed a sore blister on my left foot from where it rubbed against the unfamiliar strap. (^^!)

Next conclusion: NOT ONE OF MY BETTER SHOPPING DAYS

Who's seen the new NDP song over the MRT screens?

Well, who's been irritated by the incessant playing of the same few lines of the NDP song over the MRT screens?

Ok I saw more hands rise then...

Anyway, here's an alternate take on the NDP MTV, link found on mrbrown.com and originally done by Cloudywind:

National Day MTV

Most of my close friends know by now of my bf's plans to join the army full-time and of my worries of what he'll do after retirement.

Well, I need worry no longer. Here are his career options:

Jobs suitable for NSFs

I went to Funan and knocked myself out. :P in short, my [very old by now] laptop has gained two new friends, in the form of an external DVD writer and a new 40GB external HDD drive.

The spirit is happy, but the bank account is weak......... (T_T)

After staying in hall for 2 nights, I went back home on Tues to get something from my house. My whole family was at home, and naturally my parents were surprised to see me home already, thinking I was already dying of homesickness, or I had forgotten other essentials. After I had finally explained to them everything, my bro stuck his head out from the computer, and asked me,

"Jie, where did you go?"

"I came from my hostel what."

"Ah? You mean you weren't staying at home for the past few nights?"

PENG DAO. BISH. FAINT. I stay away from home for TWO NIGHTS and my own brother doesn't even notice I'm gone......... That's my family for you.............. *sits moodily in one corner*

[I'm loathe to talk more about NIE or Moe or NTU, so here's something unrelated to education. For education matters, go to Miseducators]

So Yenn and I have received no phone call from our Japanese sensei, which means that we most probably have passed our latest Jap test and are on fully on our way to Level 3. :D Yokatta ne....

In the spirit of this newfound realization therefore, I present to you, some simple cheers we learned in school, translated [albeit very brokenly] into Jap. [This is probably guaranteed to confuse the heck out of the other faculties] Guess what they are:

[note: The cheers can be used in any context for any organization, but because I learned them in Bizad, I have therefore written them that way. Replace the 'Bizad' with whatever school you come from]

Bizad no onna wa kirei yo!
Ichi ni san yon [X2]
Bizad no otoka wa hansamu ne!
Ichi ni san yon [X2]
Watashi wa Bizad, watashi wa ii! [X2]
Uma ga nai [X4]
Oh.... Bizad!

Bizad wa ichiban to iimasu
Anta shinjinai, zannen yo!
Nani watashi hanasu, anta wa hanasu [X2]
[there's more to this cheer, but for my limited abilities, I could only translate the 1st stanza]

Created in a mood of boh-liaoness while walking from LT to LT....... :p

This post comes to you courtesy of the com lab at Nie....

Yes, Yenn and I have successfully assimilated ourselves into campus, and are now quite settled in our room. [somewhat. the climbing of 6 floors to our room takes some getting used to, and there are no lifts.]

The first week of school is still super slack, with us running around campus, figuring out shuttle bus schedules, [I took the wrong bus once from Boon Lay to Nie, and ended up very, very far from my hall in the middle of the night. Took me a while to walk back, hoping I would not get murdererd/robbed/raped] canteens with good food, [Canteen A is good, but the queues are murder] and the overall map of the campus. [we're not getting as lost anymore]

But I still have no Internet access in my room. :S Which is why I'm now in the library waiting for my turn at the helpdesk, so that I can figure out how to get meself one of them cool wireless cards so that my old laptop will be hooked up to the Net.

I. Miss. The. Net. Period.

Meanwhile, today, the day is spent lazily lounging around, since the whole campus is out for Flag Day and we don't have to go. Nyah nyah nyah. :p Which only leaves me to go back to Bishan towards the evening for my tuition. :S

I'll try to post up more exploits later, when I get my card. Meanwhile, you may, er, have to contend yourself with a very boring blog for a while.... Sumimasen.......

Nihongo anyone?

As a form of light entertainment, let me regale you with the stories that happen during Jap lessons with Yen.

Part of our textbook includes a sample dialogue between 2 or more parties, and sometimes, Sensei will tell us to pair up, and practice the dialogue with each other. And Yen and I always pair up, to the most hilarious results.

For example, last week's lesson had the following dialogue: [entirely translated for your benefit] The background is Mira is getting transferred from Osaka to Tokyo, and the rest of the office is giving him a farewell party.

Yamada: Congratulations on your transfer!

Mira: Arigatou gozaimasu! [needs no translation, i think]

Kimura: Mira-san will become lonely when he goes to Tokyo. Even if you go, please don't forget Osaka.

Mira. Definitely not. Kimura-san, when you are free, please come to Tokyo to play!

Santos: When you come to Osaka, please call! We'll have a drink together!

Mira: Yes, definitely. Everyone, I'm really grateful for all you have done.

Satou: Take care of yourself. Ganbatte!

Mira: Yes, I will! Everyone, please take care of yourself!



Then Yenn and I take over. I am now the one being transferred, and Yenn is seeing me off.



Yenn: Congratulations on your transfer!

Me: Thanks!

Yenn: You will become lonely when you go to Europe. If you find a man over there, please don't forget your friends in Singapore.

Me: Er, yea. Yenn-san, when you have lots of money, please come to Europe for a holiday.

Yenn: When you return to Singapore, please call me. We'll have a lot of drink together. [the insinuation here is obviously alcoholic]

Me: Oh, definitely! Yenn-san, I'm really grateful for all you have done.

Yenn: Take care of yourself! please take care of yourself!

Me: Yes, ganbatte. please take care of yourself!



After this, Yenn and I change. Now Yenn is the one who's being transferred.


Me: Congrats on your transfer!

Yenn: Arigatou Gozaimasu.

Me: You will become lonely when you go to Africa. [?!!] THere is a lot of AIDS over there, so you must be careful! When you go there, please don't forget Singapore!

Yenn: [drops her face after hearing Africa] Er...... Definitely! Aki-san, when you are free and have no man, please come to Africa to play!

Me: [trying to supress wild laughter] If you come back to Singapore, please call! We'll go for a drink together!

Yenn: Yes, definitely!

[and so on, and so on]

Well, obviously, our versions weren't the ones we eventually read out to the class....... Though many were much amused to hear that Yenn was getting transferred to Africa.... hehehe...

This is now mine:
And I'm a very happy person, thanks for asking.

*EEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!*

Hehehe...

Another spring cleaning.... Groan

Yup, looking around at the masses of 'things' and the colonies of dustballs that were created in my room, I decided to unleash a holy act of god and sweep them all clean from my room.

After cleaning up the usual obvious mess on the floors and tables, I decided to start on a part of my room that had never been touched before. This was a particular shelf on my gray cabinet that I used for stationery and old toys, and I wanted to clear it out to make more space for my expanding collection of manga and books.


Good gravy god. What did I unleash?


For starters, you have to know one thing about my parents. Other parents bought home toys and stuff for their kids. My parents bought me stationery, because one, it was 'free' from the office, and two, because for practicality's sake, stationery was the one thing I, being in school, was always in need of.

So from Primary to Secondary to JC, my stationery needs were all fulfilled by my parents, except for some emergencies where I had to buy pens from the co-op, or where I wanted cute coloured pens. By the time I got to NUS, I received a lot of free stationery from all the orientation activities I was involved in, and I never had to buy stationery then.

So all my stationery just laid there, in that one shelf, until today, when I decided to clear it out. I wanted to reuse the stationery in nie, since a lot of it was unused and I didn't like to throw away good stuff.

And then I realised.......... Just how much stationery I had. Which was enough for me, Yenn, and possibly my entire hostel block. (^^!)

I uncovered, during my clearing-out:

- Almost 20-30 pens
- About 40 pencils [included in this number are 2 whole unopened boxes of 2Bs]
- About 15 highlighters [i think] of at least 3 different colours
- 1 box of binder clips
- 1 box of paper clips
- 3 packets of index tabs [those coloured stickers you paste on your pages]

And that was just the normal stationery stuff. (^^!) Here are some of the more 'exotic' stuff I found:

- Thin rolls of heavy duty tape
- A metre of raffia string
- A box of coloured chalk [some art set, long time ago]
- 15 small paintbrushes
- A [working] torchlight
- 2 leather [possibly fake] name card holders
- A old foundation holder [!!]
- 7 mousepads [and unfortunately, only one laptop]
- One old Magna Doodle and Ghost Writer set [anyone still remembers what they are??]
- One stack of old computer paper. The kind for dot matrix printers, with the perforated holes by the side

And also boxes and boxes of nice pens. You know, the kind that comes with its own holder and looks really expensive, like Parker? I think I counted almost 10 of those. (^^!)

So now, I'm packing whatever I can into a toolbox [yup, I have one of those too] to bring along to my hostel. I figure, with the amount of stationery, I could probably set up a sideline selling stationery to the rest of the block. hahahaha...