dedicated to... The Room

This is the last few days that Yenn and I will be spending in our hostel room at NTU, since our days at NIE end this week. As hence, this blogpost is therefore dedicated to... our room.

Around last year in june, we moved in to our 6th storey little flat. For all its great advantages, we faced some pretty daunting setbacks too, including climbing 6 storeys of stairs, communal bathrooms with security codes, [this doesn't sound so bad, until you're hit with diarrhea and you're frantically trying to key the numbers in correctly] and for Yenn, crazy neighbours who liked to shift furniture at 3am in the morning.

Nonetheless, there were some great advantages to make up for this. The LAN connection was a BIG plus, and also the location, which was a 10min walk from our campus. This meant waking at 8 for a 830am class, and also coming back for afternoon naps during lunch breaks. ^_^ While others had to wait for 3 hours in the library/cafe/other nooks of NIE during their breaks, we would doze off in our rooms, or Maple or blog. [no guessing who did what]

Of course we faced problems when we started to live together. One big problem, that haunts us to this day, is that Yenn is a light sleeper. A very light sleeper. And I am a klutz who stomps her way out of bed, banging into chairs and tables, to get to the bathroom. Another problem arose when Yenn got sick, and the fan aggravated her coughing. The resultant heat and stuffiness in the room made ME feel like I was in the Gobi. After much tossing, sweating and grumbling on both sides, I finally bought a standing fan, which improved the situation much.

The funny thing is that after she recovered and the ceiling fan could be used, the fan started to blow exclusively at Yenn's laptop, which was switched on 24 hours a day so that she could constantly check on her Maple account. -_-!!!!!!!

Luckily for us, we got used to each other without murder, although we came close several times. I guess some factors helped, like us already knowing each other, and being able to generally get along with each other.

Anyway, now that we're moving out, here are some pics of our room as a flickr set. [i'm too lazy to upload everything on the blog. :p] Look at the pix, and then click on them for more descriptions.

X-Men 3... Hopefully the Last?

Aw let's just face it. In all probable fangirl indignation, I didn't think X3 was that good. In fact, I didn't think it was very good. As an X-MEN movie.

Hey, you're dealing with an established brand name with years of history and thousands of customers all around the world. Make some effort to pleasing them damn it!

Aside from the usual complaints of "They didn't do that in the comics!" I think the plot this time wore pretty thin at some edges. Not only that, but with the sheer number of mutants in the film, the existing characters didn't manage to get fleshed out enough. Heck, I didn't even notice some other mutants like Psylocke till the DF told me about it. -_-!!! Yes, someone else's eyes are that much sharper than mine.

Bryan Singer definitely a much better job, a fact driven in my face since the trailer for the first X-Men movie was playing on TV just now, bringing back memories of the movie. The characters were more focused, and the plot was that much stronger.

Plus what the heck was with Cyclops? Like Jubilee said, "Extra!" ***Spoiler alert*** He comes out for a while, depressed, moody, unshaven, [though I'm not complaining about the last, because he looked THAT much more hotter] kisses the Phoenix and BISH!!! Gone!!!

Aw well. *Sigh* Next time I should just continue reading the graphic novels like I always did.

Although I did catch the slide at the end of the show, and it does seem to be hinting at a 4th movie. I just hope that it's much better than this one.

Anyway for some extra entertainment, here's some other X-men entertainment

I'm apparently a more generous and giving person than I thought I was. After leaving the hall yesterday and arriving home, I received the following SMS from Yenn:

"You infectious piece of crap! I kena running nose and cough... cough until vomit out a 10cm diameter of phlegm..."

Er....... Here's the downside of living in close quarters with a walking germ carrier... you get to enjoy the full effects of her bounty.... yooku sumimasen to Yenn, and a warning to everyone else with lesser immune systems than mine....

Meanwhile, I'm waiting for the KOLling to begin once the servers finish their maintenance. There's no program in Nie for us, so I'm enjoying this free day back at home, dousing myself with hot tea and plenty of lozenges.

And of course, Yenn's Gundam Seed Destiny DVD set.... heheheh...

This is a pretty interesting article, considering that I just went to the country:

Why is everybody going to Cambodia?

I say, just go to see the ruins. It's worth it.

I'm sick. *Makes pathetic sniffing noises* And I donno how coincidental it is that I fell sick on the first day of returning to hall life on campus. Must be something about the campus environment [mine in particular] that's making me this way. *grumblegrumblegrumble*

Yea, so for the next 2 weeks or so, Yenn and I are back to being hallrats. The school has some enrichment programmes that we have to attend before being posted, so here we are, back again. Luckily, the programmes are not too time consuming, and most of them end at 12, so we have plenty of time to watch anime, read comics, and taking advantage of the LAN with lots of mapling and KOLling. :D

The only snag i've hit is that I actually fell sick when I moved in, and today it erupted into flu, meaning that my nose decided to do a marathon without my consent. [running nose, get it?] I've had waterfalls coming down my face the entire afternoon and it's only now that it's finally stabilized. I have no idea whether it's being I got slightly caught in the rain on the first day of menses, or because of the dust on my bed, desk or an unhealthy combination of both. Knowing my luck, probably both. -_-!!!!!

Another snag i've hit is that it's UTTERLY BORING here. Once I finish up my kolling, read my books, and surfed and read all the blogs there is, there's really nothing to do. Well, except sit beside Yenn while she maples and poke her to death. Thank goodness I bought the Last Exile anime set in Jurong Point, so that's gonna keep me occupied for awhile. Plus, Yenn brought Gundam Seed Destiny to the hall, so YAY!!!!! :D

And then there's you, of course, my faithful blog reader. If my flu actually heals itself to the extent that I can think properly without reaching for a tissue, I hope I can post more stuff on this blog other than "today was boring. Again." every time. Meanwhile,

*ACHOO!!!!!* >o~~~~~~

At first I thought I'd slack off blogging a while, and then I read something on the Net that made me think of blogging again. :p Inspiration strikes.

From Tomorrow.sg, I read a China forum post about the blog posts of a Singaporean exchange student studying archi there. Because of the parallels to Candle studying there, I got curious and started reading. [all those years of reading Chinese comics paid off finally]

It became... an interesting read on the Arrogance of 2 Nations?

Summary for the linguistically challenged: The girl is studying archi in Xian on exchange. And she posted a lot of potentially very insulting items on her blog about the air in Xian, the people, how arrogant they are, how bad they are, how poor they are, how she doesn't like the food, how behind the education system is, blah blah blah.

Funny thing. I thought pple generally went on exchange trips to learn and experience other cultures, not insult them and compare them to your home country. But hey, maybe that's just me.

I read through her blog and I realised why so many forum readers in Xian were getting so upset. I'd be pissed off too at some foreign upstart who came here seemingly to tell me constantly how bad my country was. Granted that no country is perfect. But after a while, I realised that the Xian posts were starting to take the same line as the girl.

No, I don't mean that they started insulting Xian as well. I meant that although some of the posts were written in righteous indignation, some other posts started insulting the girl as well, like how she was fat, ugly, should just go back to her own country, think your own country so great ah, actually ah... blah blah blah.

Alamak. What's with some people? they always believe in getting an Eye for an Eye, but they never wonder what they're gonna do with all them extra eyes. And all they achieve is a lot of bad blood on both sides.

The problem here, of course, is that the Internet allows anyone to post their honest person opinions on the Internet, even if some government officers think that these honest personal opinions should be moderated.

On one hand, the idea of controlling the flow of information on the Internet is ludicrous, and is reminiscient of the Great Firewall of China.

On the other, you get blogs and forums like the Xian archi student. -_-!!!!!!! Whose posts n forum opinions you wish were never posted.

Know what we need? We need Moderators. We need more Mods with moderate opinions to stand up, n spray the hose on all the fighting dogs on the Internet. Then maybe we can have more balanced opinions.

In other words, we need more individuals with mature, balanced opinions to speak up more on the issue. We need people with unprejudiced views, who are able to look at both sides with a clear and just eye.

No point in closing down opinions or policing the Internet. Negative reinforcement will only result in more negative results. We need more Mods.

Crazy Japanese

Courtesy of someone Candle knows, here's some Japanese phrases some of you might find useful:

omae no ketsu wa kirei da na --- Your butt is beautiful

ii karada shite da na --- Nice bod

kissu shitai --- i want to kiss you

kissu shite --- i want you to kiss me

sekuhara --- sexual harassment

onatarashi --- playboy

watashi no kokoro wa eien ni anata no mono desu --- my heart belongs to you

watashi no kokoro wa kizu tsuita --- my heart is broken

of course, someone with an intermediate grasp of the language, and particularly foul humour, can also manipulate the phrases to come up with other stuff

Guess what the following mean:

sekuharashitai

omae no ketsu o kissu shitai

watashi no karada wa eien ni anata no mono desu

and finally, what you would always love to tell those you aren't too fond of:

watashi no ketsu o kissu shite

Me Is Back

In case you guys were wondering, yes, I am back from Siem Reap.

Impressions on the place?

1. Tomb Raiders Wannabe



The temple ruins are the best part of going to Siem Reap, and indeed, the only reason why anyone would ever go there. :p Seeing the ruins makes me think.... If in their dilapidated state, they still exude their ancient grandeur, what would they have been like in their glory?

Not to mention the cities are practically mazes. We whizzed in and out of pillars, columns, nooks and crannies and even got ourselves lost more than once. I tell you, the place is big. :p



There is a kind of solemn air about the ruins though. It could be because of the deathly aura of the place, like the building had already died and only the ghosts of its former inhabitants lived in it, heightened only by the already ruined presence of the place.

There are tons of ruins but we covered 3, Angkor Thom, Angkor Wat and Ta Prohm in one day, almost getting ourselves horribly sunburned in the process. That's what you get for trying to be crazy tomb raiders in one day.

Oh yes, n can you spot the distinguishing feature of a Cambodian temple ruin from the pix below?



Yup, many of the figurines have been vandalised due to plundering and their heads are sold everywhere from Bangkok to Singapore. [according to one guidebook anyway]

Though the most painful vandalism I saw had to come from this poor lion:



2. Beggars and Sellers



Everyone in Siem Reap seems to have something to sell. Maybe it's because they're poor, that they become either accomplished beggars, or accomplished sellers. Every child who came to us either wanted money, or to sell us something. Can you blame them? Most of them looked pretty poor, but I din't want to give out too much cash either. I could only give so much.

Also visible, but not as often, were the various mine victims. You could tell them apart, because they were begging most of the time, and they had either one or two limbs missing. Some of them found ways to earn a living, like a guy who had fashioned a sort of tuk tuk that he could pedal with his hands, since he had no legs! Another bunch of guys formed a traditional band that was playing outside one of the temple ruins.




More interesting were the kids who made a living by trying to sell something, anything. Like the kid who showed me where the toilet was only to promptly ask me for 500rheul to use it. I think I paid too much because I offered him USD$1 [no local currency] for some change, I forgot how much, n when I paid him and used the toilet, I could hear his gleeful singing all the time I was doing my business. -_-!!!!!

In a way, yes I was probably gullible enough to pay too much for toilet usage. In another way... The pain I felt from being overcharged was probably much less significant to me than the glee that kid got from one miserable dollar. So i'll justify it as a form of charity.

Then there are the other kids who hounded us to buy bracelets, "you want nice bracelet? 10 for one dollar? 20 for one dollar?" postcards, "you want postcards? 2 for $1?" and drinks "cold drink? cold drink? 2 for $1?"

Which brings me to my next point on

3. Handling Street Urchins

We tried 3 different methods when handling the street waifs who tried to sell us stuff.

Polite refusals

Do not work. Somehow they take it as a good sign that you have acknowledged their presence and they will redouble their efforts to sell you, hounding you a long distance.

Speaking in a foreign language

Is not quite effective, but produces humourous results. Like when I spoke Hokkien to a girl who tried to sell me postcards. [hokkien is in italics]

"You want postcard? 2 for $1"

"You talking what? I don't get."

"You from Japan?"

"Ha? I'm not Japanese."
"Ni doru?"

"2 what? I don't want."
Girl jumps up and down in frustration. Another friend joins her.

"You from Korea?"

"Ha? Where? I don't understand you."

"2 dollars" thrusts the postcards at me and puts up 2 fingers.

"2? 2 what?"

After a few minutes of going around in this fashion, after which a gang had already gathered around us, the whole lot finally gives up and goes off.

Putting on the right face

Worked without me trying. There I was, hot, sweaty, tired, walking along when a girl approached me, I assumed to sell me her postcards, but before I could even say "no" she took one look at me and fled off to her friends.

Now if I only knew what face I had on that time.......

4. The Misc Stuff

Tips on going Siem Reap?



Save the money and book a room in a guest house in the Psar Chars [Old Market] area. There'd be plenty of food around, and tuktuk drivers for hire at US$10 a day. We made a mistake with ours because it was so out of the way that we couldn't hire tuktuks from right outside our hotel, hence having to hire the guy who did our hotel transfer for the day, whom we paid US$25. -_-!!!! Also, there's plenty of good food in the area!

The USD is king here. Seeing that we are tourists, everyone quoted us prices in the USD. Shopping wise, once you really bargain, you can get some good bargains, even with the USD, but there isn't much stuff that much different from what you can find in Singapore. Unless you wanna bring back Buddha statues and mini Angkor wats, that is :S

Food wise, we had much more luck with the slightly more ex stuff. The cheapo places we went to on the first day had ...Ok... food but not very appetising. When we went to the more ex places, paying about US$4-5 each, we had MUCH better food :P

Some of the better places we ate at:





And I nearly had a heart attack when I saw the drinks menu at one of the menus. Look at the price of my fave Long Island:




That's like SGD5 per cocktail? HOLY COCKTAIL SHOOTER.

Unfortunately, Necroz doesn't drink so I only had one Long Island. -_-!!!

Overall, a good trip ^-^ but Siem Reap itself can be explored in less than 3D2N, depending on how many temple ruins you wanna see.

I'll *try to* post up another entry about the temples themselves, but that's it for now. Now I'm considering my next adventure. Laos or Myanmar anyone? :p

More Cookie Crap

Now that I've ended my practicuum, and er, trying to get my butt to doing up my practicuum file, I've a lot more time to do a lot more slackerworthy stuff, like:

Play the Kingdom of Loathing

A smart, wacky game, reminiscient of Tom Holt's books and cover art, it's a prehistoric, stick-figure style RPG. No need to make your characters move, or do all those flashy power effects. This is a fool-proof MS-DOS style RPG game where all you have to do is read the text, and make your selection. Good for pple like me who like their games simple, and idiot proof.

The funny part is in the way they wrote the game. For instance, I'm a Pastamancer Level 2 [Yeast Scholar]. In my first quest, I killed fluffy bunnies for their meat, and helped a Pretentious Artist find his palette, paint and pail, for which I acquired an Empty Pail. That should tell you what the game is like.

And then I stumbled onto Grating Cards, cards for those un-Hallmark moments. Like when you want to tell someone that:

Oh yea, says it all. 6 cards for $20 if you're interested. Just don't tell me who you're going to send them to.

What a flower is the Jasmine flower
Its fragrance unparalled
But pluck it not early
Or it will never bloom

How true, how true. And how aptly portrayed in 'Jasmine Women'.

The movie portrays 3 generations of women, named Mo, Li and Hua. [For the less linguistically-abled among us, a mo li hua is a jasmine flower.]

Played by Zhang Ziyi, all 3 women are different in their subtle ways from each other, but the similarities in personalities are striking. The one flaw being that none of them seem to have any luck finding happiness with men, and always rush headlong in relationships, getting burned along the way.

hence the song. Pluck it too early, and it will never bloom for you.

And plucked early they were. The Grandmother, Mo, in her innocence was seduced by movie light glamour into becoming the mistress of the Director, who subsequently left her when she refused to get an abortion. The resulting child, Li, cannot conceive, and her impending insanity indirectly leads to the suicide of her husband. The child she adopts, Hua, secretly gets married to a graduate student who is too busy studying in another state to see her, and later asks for a divorce.

That's some fodder for about a few HK dramas.

The interesting thing is that the 3 different women make the same mistake about men that their predecessors did. Which leads me to wonder:

Are we doomed to the sins of our mothers?

I know that just by being in school, I've started to take on some of the characteristics and bylines that my own mother used to use on me. I suppose she being my first mentor in child management, it's understandable that some things I do will naturally be an echo of her.

But when it comes to men?

Are we doomed to make the same mistakes our mothers did?

Freedom is a ephemeral and illusory concept.

f**k, how did I come up with something so... cool, in a literary and geeky kinda way? :p

Anyway, why I came up with that particular phrase is because my practicuum has officially ended. No more early mornings, bratty kids and piles of worksheets to mark. *Yay*

But which also means 10 weeks less of being a trainee and that much closer to becoming a full-fledged govt slave. *Boo* -_-!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So hence, ephemeral[temporary and fleeting]. To enjoy something for a while, and then to lose it most cruelly to the bondages of reality and maturity.

[getting depressed at the thought]

Well, at least there are some pretty interesting stuff happening during this ephemeral period:

Like the Fiction@Love exhibition coming up at the Singapore Art Museum, which "seeks to explore the concerns related to the satire and fantasy of love through contemporary artistic expressions. The participating artists present diverse perspectives of the flux of ideals through the whimsical, simple and yet at times, fast paced aesthetics of Animamix Art (Animation and Comics)."

You can imagine which words caught my eye in that paragraph. :p

"Organized by Singapore Art Museum and Shanghai Museum of Contemporary Art, Fiction@Love examines the influence of contemporary popular culture such as anime, comics, graphic communications, and manga in art. Through paintings, murals, sculptures, videos and interactive installations, the exhibition looks at ways in which emotions like 'love' are expressed, transformed by the crossovers of the real and the virtual, and exposure to the aesthetics of the internet and comics."

From 12 May - 2nd July at the SAM.

Oh yea, sounding better and better.

And on top of that,

COSPLAY ON THE 27TH OF MAY!!!

"OFF THE WALL PARTY
In conjunction with International Museum Day celebrations

Calling all Cosplayers and party people! For one night only, SAM’s garden and driveway will be transformed into a mythical Neverland for her very first street party. Spare no expense, unleash the imagination and come as a Manga or fictional character because we’re looking for the ultimate King and Queen of this May Ball! Be crowned and win attractive mobile phones from the N Series kindly sponsored by Nokia. Cool giveaways for the first 200 partygoers to arrive!

27 May (Saturday), 7.30pm (Lightshow spectacular), 9.30pm till late (Party time!) "

From love/fiction

And since it's at night, sounds like a time for the trenchcoat and medallions? ;) Too bad b4 that I have a wedding dinner to attend.

Minna san! Isshoni ikkimasenka?

In an intrigued response to a post on Krystal's blog:

[RTs are Random Thoughts that she had. The rest is my response]

R.T 1: Is it possible to love someone so much that you will be willing to do anything for them just to please them? Even help to take their life?

I think by that time, it ceases to be love. It becomes infatuation or worse, obsession. If you really loved a person, you would do anything to make them better, not kill them.

R.T 2: As stupid as this is going to sound, is it possible to find the person of your dreams....the one person who really is everything you want and have dreamed about.....and want to run away from them because you feel you're not perfect enuff for them?

Yup... If you're nuts enough to do so, yup. F'gd'ssake! This is the person of your dreams here!

R.T 3: Is it possible to grow up too fast and have certain parts of u trying to catch up (mentally and emotionally I mean)?

Well, considering that we have no choice over the physical development of our bodies, and that puberty comes regardless of whether we're ready or not... Yea, I would say so yes. Especially if you know any adolescent boys.

R.T 4: Why do we find it hard to let go of things that we know we're meant to let go of? Of things that we no longer have/find attachment to?

Maybe because we have more attachment to them than we realised?

R.T 5: How does one undo many years of damage and how long does it take for one's eyes to no longer be clouded by saddness?

Sadly, as long as it takes. And this varies from person to person.

R.T 6: How do we know whatever it was we were meant to be/do? How do we deal with the realisation esp when it's something that we never expected or (maybe even) want to happen?

1. We may never know.
2. With a lot of tequila.

R.T 7: What's wrong with me......

Too many random thoughts. Hahaha.... :p

The "Respectful Artist" somehow says it all...... though I have to admit this is one of the more accurate tests I've taken.....


My Personal Dna Report

The thing that suffers most during my practicuum and probably during my working days.... My poor, neglected blog......

What with school 5 days a week, tuition, dance, Jap and DF, not much time lately to devote to actual blogging... *sigh* Not to mention my latest habit of dozing off in the afternoon instead of doing more productive stuff like, planning lessons or er, blogging......

*SIGH* Tell me again why I entered this line?

Anyway not that my social life has suffered much. I managed to catch The Producers, Mirrormask, and West Side Story all last week, even in the midst of, er, frantically preparing last minute for lesson observations.

Again, here comes my bad habit of running away just when things are getting real bad, and then coming back to frantically sweep up a lot of bullshit that accumulated during that time.

This week is a bit less chaotic, since all my lesson obs have been completed and this is the last week of practicuum. [yay] Which also means that the permanent posting [and hence more work] is getting closer [boo]

But at least.... I'm getting a break for a while. Here is to formally announce that I will be flying to SIEM REAP, CAMBODIA from 12th May to 14th May with Necroxz, to see Angkor Wat, and basically do all the stupid touristy thing of walking around with my camera around my neck and taking a dozen shots of everything.

Yes, you read that right. CAMBODIA.

I think I'm getting a weird fascination with the 3rd world countries around our area. One reason is hey, Angkor Wat is like one of the world's oldest ruins, and was, at the height of its power, more powerful than the kingdom of Rome. It's also been named as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. I've been reading a guide book I borrowed and the more I read, the more I'm fascinated by these ancient ruins and the intricacy of the sculpture design.

The other reason is at least I'll be going where half of Singapore hasn't already gone. :p

I'll be bringing trusty Oliver as my travel mate again, since he's proved himself wonderfully during Ho Chi Minh, so he definitely comes along again. Shiroi will also be going to provide entertainment, n also to help me [hopefully] make some podcasts. And of course there's my human companion, Necroxz. Heh.

So if you don't hear from me a while... Don't call the police. Call the hospitals to check whether I stepped into any mines.

heh. Just kidding. *choy*

One of the lindy regulars came up to me during class last night and asked me,

"Where's your husband?"

Husband? What husband?

"Isn't he coming for class today?"

For class... Oh good god you don't mean.........

"Good god, no! He's not my husband! He's not even my boyfriend!!"

"You're not married?? I'm so sorry!!"

Thank goodness *I think* the DF doesn't read this blog anymore. HE reckons it's a good motive for murder if he ever does.

In a recent email...

Yo,

After seeing ur pix......... I can understand how cramped the place was. My sympathies... :D I don't think I would have been able to sleep much in such a place....

Then again, it still looks more comfortable than the bus to redang... hahahaha....

But hey, at least you got to go somewhere.... that's one advantage of a big place like China... there are more places to travel within the country itself and since it's within the country, you don't have to worry about visas and stuff... the thing you have to worry about more is money i guess... esp. since that time you were looking at Tibet of all places..........

I wish Singapore was as big sometimes. But sometimes, I also think, maybe I'm so convinced that there's nothing to see in Singapore because I also can't be bothered to walk around and open my eyes.

I find this a lot in other Singaporeans. People always say there's nothing to see or do in Singapore, but what they mean is there's nothing worth their time to go see or do.

But that's pretty much a matter of perspective isn't it? If you think that things that are different from what you are used to are not worth seeing, then you won't see very much at all.

For eg, how many pple do you think will be crazy enough to go all the way to Pulau Ubin like we did that time? Just for the heck of cycling around the island? Most pple won't, because they think that there will be "nothing" to see in Pulau Ubin. Despite Chek Jawa, swamps, tons of greenery, old temples, and fresh coconuts. [the best part of the entire trip]

Sometimes I tell pple something about Singapore, and they're surprised that such a thing existed. Or that there was such and such a place. Or that they could do that in Singapore. They don't explore, they don't walk around, they only want to stay in their shopping centres. And what will you ever see beyond those airconditioned walls?

*Sigh* Honestly I miss having you around at times like this. I think you were one of the really few pple who were willing to do all these crazy stunts with me. [definitely you can forget abt DF] It's pretty sian walking around and wandering by myself like some loner outcast freak.

Or sometimes I wish I was out traipsing around in some foreign country with you, getting lost, asking for directions, taking photos and seeing loads of stuff.

Or maybe I just wish I was anywhere but here, dreading the prospect of going back to school tomorrow.

*Sigh* Or maybe it's just too late at night and I should stop this email now.

Aki

MirrorMask Opens!

Finally, months after the most esteemed Neil Gaiman hit our shores, his movie Mirrormask is opening this week, 20th April at GV Plaza and Tampines.


Order tickets. LIKE NOW.

After reading Yenn's blog, hey it looks like both of us are going through a wallowing phase in our work. Kampai, fren, time to hit the bottle.......

Yes, I hit some pretty big rocks at work this week. As in, ship-almost-capsizing kind of rocks. I had some pretty bad observations and took a plummet in the self-confidence, and for a while there, I was severely regretting a signature on a certain piece of paper.

The one thing that saved my ship was my Lindy class at the end of the workweek. Kudos to Lindy. It's pretty hard to feel depressed about work, when you're too busy trying to remember something like "fall off the log, 8, 1,2, step, down, jump! Back! 8, 1, 2, step, down, kick! 8..." and so on for an hour, and then trying the same moves without crashing into your dance partner in the meantime -_-!!!!!

Suddenly it hit me how important an after-work life was. We keep thinking about how little time we have to finish the work in our lives, and we spend so much time on it, that it becomes so hard to get it out of our minds. It haunts us after work, it haunts as when we eat, and it haunts us when we sleep. You become so tied to your work, that your confidence, your self-image and the rest of your life gets tied up in it as well. And when something happens to affect it, it affects everything about you badly.

If I had no Lindy class that night, I might have gone home totally depressed about the observations and my teaching ability as a whole. Instead, I rushed [almost late] to Lindy, worked my way through the Chase sequence, stayed back an extra hour for the Charleston stroll sequence, [a highly aerobic dance sequence that left me sweating and panting] and by the end of the night left the studio on a high.

Granted my mood didn't stay so high for long, but at least it wasn't as low as it was in the afternoon.

Can I keep this up as I take on the full workload? I honestly don't know. There may come more than one time when I would have to sacrifice my Lindy or even my weekend Jap for my work. But at least I know now that for the sake of my mental sanity, I can never fully give them up. They are too important to me now, and their importance lies beyond the simple acquisition of a new skill.

And thanks to all who've expressed concern over my face and outrage at the facial place. Thankfully the scabs are healing, and some of them have dried and falled off, leaving smoother skin in their wake.

THANK. GOD. ALMIGHTY.

Welcome to the blogosphere, NudeFish. Though I donno whether there's any significance to your nick, [???] welcome anyway. :)

I'm a Lifer!

To you, a job is what pays the bills. You put in your hours, follow the rules, and then go home. Occasionally, you consider quitting, but then you think of how bad the job market is and you reconsider. Whatever happiness you get, you get from your life outside the workplace. Relationships, family, hobbies, and outside creative pursuits are what really matter to you. You're probably taking this test at work because you don't have anything better to do.

Talent: 36%
Lifer: 62%
Mandarin: 49%

Take the Talent, Lifer, or Mandarin quiz.

This quiz actually hit it quite on the dot for me. Except for the part about taking the test at work.