Distant Worlds: Final Fantasy concert

It started with music to stir you into battle... Music that quickened your heart and made you sit up on your seat in attention.

Then it became music sweetly calming, full of peace, calm and fields of flowers.

After that was music of a forgotten city, attacked by giants and trolls and left for dead, till one grownup survivor brought its people back.

It was music of love, comradeship, honour, battle lust and of the hope that comes happily ever after.

One of the better orchestra concerts I've been to. Now to get my hands on a cd... ;p

Yenn and I met for dinner before the concert at the esplanade.

"what did you order?"

*points to soup*

"Hey, you ordered the same soup I did. What sandwich did you get?"

"bacon and cheese"

"I got that too!"

*pause*

"what tea is that?"

"peach"

"me too!"

*pregnant pause*

"we may be hanging out too often together."

"agreed. What colour underwear are you wearing?"

And for the record that last line wasn't mine!!

Flashback to the Past

One day, I saw a notification on Flickr that I had no Pro account, and that only the first 200 photos of my account would be shown.

Because of that, I thought maybe I should delete some of the photos from the account, reasons being 1) I already had copies of those photos on my hard drives and 2) I wanted to free up space for other stuff.

So I had to go into the account and discover what were the photos that I should delete. Only to find a whole trove of goody oldies.

For example, who would have thought this illustration, from back in 2005, would strike such a chord now? ( Although for polarly opposite reasons than when I first did it )



People never change either. 4 years on, I still irritate her and she still takes revenge for it.



Some made me feel regretful. I don't know when I'll ever be able to churn out something as nice as this again: ( Or whether I'll ever have the leisure to do this in real life )



Other than these, I also found a whole bunch of thought-lost photos from Graduation 2003 (!!!) that made me realise that, however fat I thought myself back then, I was actually thinner. InThan in the present now anyway -__-!!!!!! And like my weight, other subtler differences could be found if you looked closely enough. I was thinner, just like some of the others, [although the graduation gown did a wonderful job of hiding those figures] Faces looked fresher, even with the lack of makeup. No eyebags, worry lines, and a totally fresher expression in the eyes, without the effects of lasik.

I'm not sure if I should ever show these photos to future generations.

A more poignant were the even older Redang Part 1 photos I found, where all of us looked thinner, younger, fresher, and totally unaware of all the upcoming crap that was awaiting us in the so-called real world. The photos, which back then seemed so new and fresh, now took on a slightly dated feeling of being old, already beginning to take on a sepia tint although they were clearly in full colour. The colours had already faded a little, and bled a little into each other, so that the outlines were not as clear as before. Looking on them, you start to think, did it really look like that? Does my memory fail me?

Maybe these I should keep as a warning to future generations. ( "Don't think you'll never grow old. Look at Mummy and Aunty back then......" )

I only had slight regrets in the end when I was deleting the photos from the account. Of course, the important ones had already been saved in my hard drive, so no worries on that part. But as the pictures disappeared one by one from the profile page, it seemed to draw a comparison with our memories of our youth.

It was as if with each delete, I was cementing a fact that these were times and attitudes that I would never be able to revert back to. That they were gone, lost, somewhere in my past. Even though I would be able to view them again from time to time, that was the only contact I would ever have with a past that was irretrievably behind me.

Suddenly I feel too old for my shoes...... I want to go back to this.......

Bloglines - Laptop pillow

Bloglines user boredslacker (boredslacker@gmail.com) has sent this item to you, with the following personal message:

Either for sleepy workaholics, or for those weboholics who can't get enough of Facebook/Twitter... :p

---

Boing Boing

Laptop pillow By David Pescovitz Over at Boing Boing Gadgets, Lisa Katayama beckons me to this "laptop pillow for sleepy workaholics."

Let's see if I can post the events of the week without going into too much detail..

Did overtime on 2 days without finishing my regular work.

Prepped for a presentation to the boss which could have gone far better.. but he still cleared me so not complaining too much...

Have had a meeting dumped on me which clashes with a show that I bought tickets for in March. -_-!! and then dismissed by the boss before I can even try suggesting an alternate arrangement...

( would it kill you to try it? Or to even listen to me fully first?)

Been told that I have to inject more personality into my work? Although for this last part I really can't care anymore...

Plus the usual multitude of chaos from the underlings, today resulting in blood and stitches...

This year has been a total downhill slide following the stock market. I'm not entirely sure what is causing me to lapse into these depressive moods but I have to wonder how much job-related crap I can still take, or if I have to, how to get a better shovel to throw all the crap back.

But I think... I most probably want to switch company by this year. I just see no future for me right now, or rather, a future that I would look forward to.

Maybe it should be a crime...

 Massachusetts wants to imprison people for 10 years if they take a nude photo of their over-60 spouse, even with spouse's consent 

Then again, maybe it should be a criminal offence if your grandparents take nude photos if each other. Especially if they post them somewhere on the Internet... 

Sent from my iPod

Nuking a handphone in a microwave

 Microwaving a cellphone is surprisingly cool 

Now what if it had been an iPhone in that microwave? Hmmm...

Sent from my iPod

Here's a pic of e new Phone... Hoping he

Here's a pic of e new Phone... Hoping he works better than e previous one... Still tryin to get used to e operating system though...

Yes, I finally got myself a new phone... It's a Sony E 905 in gold...

I don't often change phones but the nokia was just giving me more trouble than it was worth. How dost thou irritate me? Lemme list the ways:

1. Hanging while I am doing something innocently, say sliding it open. Perchance my slides were too rough for it. A phone has to be slid like a hockey puck across ice.

2. Refusing to read my memory card. One day, the phone had an argument with the memory card when I was not looking. Since then they've refused to speak to each other. Never mind that I cannot save anything in the card since then.

3. Throwing diva fits on me and asking for strange numbers to message centres when previously none was necessary to send messages.

And to add oil onto fire, when I went to the m1 shop, I realized that it doesn't even gave a tradein value.... -_-!!! presumably I'd even have to pay m1 to take it away from me...

To a point, enough us enough. I wouldn't have minded using the phone for 2 years, but with these kind of problems coming in just after the one year warranty ( how convenient ) I think not worth it la...

Let's hope the new phone lasts longer now! If not, iPhone still looks tempting... :p

3.

If I was given the chance to change over my life, would things necessarily be different?

If I was put in a new place, where nobody knew me, and I didn't knew anybody, could I change myself? Change long-established habits and quirks? Develop a totally different personality? Make myself into another different character altogether?

Actually, I think I could not. I've been in situations like the one described above before, where I found myself by myself surrounded by total strangers, and each outcome turns out the same.

At the start, I'm always the aloof one. I can make decent small talk with people, but after that, people seem to forget me, or look over me. [maybe sometimes, this is due to the presence of other prettier, slimmer, and more guy-pleasing girls in the room. -_-!!!]

Given more time, and more interactions, I slowly start to develop relationships. I start to get to know a few people, hang out with them, start to know them more. Then the interactions get more regular, to the point where I know I can trust them for help.

This is the same pattern I have everytime I'm in a new social situation. I very rarely make bosom friends on the first try. It usually takes a lot more time, and a lot more fate. It also helps that there are people willing to go past my initial aloofness and actually ask me out for a second cup of coffee. [thanks, guys]

But because of this, I don't really like being put in places where I am alone. Alone, I have to either try to socialize and make small talk to appeal to those in the room, or sit in the corner like some kid punished in school. Neither of which is a very appealing option for me.

If I were to be put in a new environment, where everyone is a stranger, what will I do? Probably end up hanging out at the bookstores or the libraries. The Internet and books will always be your friends. :)

If it was you, would you change? Would you even want to change?

red

red
Originally uploaded by aki_onna

A long time ago I made a resolution to do more art. Look where that got me. -_-!!!

So now I downloaded this nifty app into my iPod that lets me doodle and another app that lets me upload the doodles to flickr. :) Let's see where this gets us.

This doodle was done when I was thinking about colour. What images come to mind when you think about a certain colour? What mood does it put you in?

For me, red is the diehard romantic colour... always associated with love, and hence this doodle.

Yes, I'm the typical Piscean I guess... :)

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Class 95 Dog Walk

All I had to do to find the Slayer and her dog was to follow the sounds of excited barking, and as I got closer, the smell of the dogs. Welcome to Canine Land. Keep your dog on a leash and try not to step on any poop.

The short walk was fun, though, because of all the dogs and a thousand photo opportunities. Which is when I learnt why showbiz rules always says never work with animals and small children. Ever tried taking a frontal shot of an unwilling dog?

Still, was fun to take pix of them all. Will try to upload when I remember... :p

20 ridiculous tourist complaints

My favourite is the one about the beach, image no 3.

( I have to agree with the blogger ondine. Why is it these people van
go on holidays and we're stuck here? )

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/picturegalleries/5005019/20-ridiculous-complaints-made-by-holidaymakers.html

For the best content online, visit www.telegraph.co.uk

Sent from my iPod

Too much work-related thoughts have been going through my mind lately because of the major event coming up. I can still concentrate on the things I read or see or shop for, but when my brain is unguarded, a stray thought goes in and I'm in the loop again. :s I need to get the mind off...

I do wish sometimes I could put all my thoughts online like this in detail so that for once everything would be clear upstairs. Writing in code doesn't always help because later I have to translate everything into intelligible form for friends. Writing in detail will probably get me fired one day. Locking up this blog and making u readers type in a password to get in feels clandestine. What then is a good balance?

Tired of my job

Yes, I have finally gotten tired. Not the I'm-sick-of-this-crap-and-I-
wanna-quit kind of tired, but the kind that makes you want to spend
the day sleeping in instead of reporting to work kind.

I only just remarked this to a colleague that there were that more
stuff to do this year. I seem to have more work to do than before, and
shorter deadlines to finish them by. Whether this is really happening
or just a figment of my imagination I'm not sure. I just feel more
fatigued this year than in the previous two that I've been working.

Health? Diet? Social commitments? External expectations? I'm not sure
what... I just wish I had more time to properly slack for a while
instead of having the constant feeling of work looking over my shoulder.

Sent from my iPod

A slightly-abridged-cut-n-paste of a conversation today with Yenn:

"I want to buy some new music but nothing appeals to me."

"Uh-huh"

"I mean, most of the music out these days are like casual flings. Hi, yea, it was nice hanging with you, but we're really not that compatible, you know? I just think we should start seeing other CDs."

"Uh-huh"

"And then, you meet a CD, and the music on it is like, whoa, your music soulmate, the ONE you've been waiting for all your lonely life, and listening to it, it's like having sex."

"Uh-huh????"

"Ok, wrong comparison."

I think you'll be able to guess which is Yenn and which is me.......

A simple video, yet, that is powerful in its simplicity.

The last day...

That I'll ever be 27. :p

I know this is one occasion where people feel obliged to moan that they're getting older, and I know many of you do the same every year. [oh, you know who you are]

For me, I never felt this grief about 'getting older'. To me, birthdays were great excuses to blow off work, [still is] binge on favourite foods, [still is] and a time where you got unsolicited gifts of cash and book vouchers from friends and family. [though a nice new bag or two would be great...]

Lots of great memories of parties / binges on my birthdays. Heh.

And the getting older part? Never really been bothered by it, actually. Lately, been actually thinking that maybe it [breathes in] wasn't so bad to grow old after all.

Ok, there goes a controversial opinion.............

But looking back on some of the other snafus that happened in my life, I have to admit that this current age, where I am now, holds somewhat more advantages than any other time in my life. Every other era in my life so far has been a smorgasbord of the worst kind of insecurities, and it's only as I'm nearing 30, that I've either come to terms with these insecurities, or learnt to chuck them aside as a waste of my time. I feel... strangely more emotionally stable, more grounded. I can care about the things that are really important to me, while deciding not to care at freakin' all about the stuff that should be bothering me.

This was something that I could not do well at any other age.

So let's stop looking at the worst parts of life as something to regret or close into the attic. They should be celebrated, with great glee and joy! [and partly because they're over] In this wonky spirit, let me show my gratitude for all the shit received in life thus far:

I'm grateful for being stone broke for most of my teenage years, and for spending till I was stony broke in my uni and tuition days. Only when you go through days of having absolutely no money do you appreciate it more later in life and learn how to save and spend more wisely.

I'm grateful for all the ghastly, ill-fitting and totally unsuitable clothing I wore. Only through those mistakes did I start to learn the rudiments of good taste. [and, in other people's opinion, still learning]

I'm grateful for being fat. That way I know no one is ever around me simply because I'm sexy and chio. It also gives me a stronger drive to exercise and eat more healthily than a lot of thin people.

I'm grateful for my job, which sucks the life out of me and surrounds me with people that drive me nuts. They make me more creative in imagining how to start a new business, new career and drive me to seek out ways in which to make my life better. Without this bloodsucking job, I don't think I would have researched career options, gone out with friends as much, or even learnt lindy hop. I would have just been.... another civil servant.

I'm grateful for all the stupid, narrow-minded and plain incompetent things that I come across. They stimulate me to find better solutions, simply just to prove to unbelievers that there is a better solution out there.

I'm grateful for all the years I spent single, while others were getting attached, and even married. They made me more grateful and patient for the one that came along. Which also reminds me that.......

I'm grateful for all the heartache, disappointment and grief the DF put me through. [including the kitchen sink] It was only after we aggrieved each other that he learned how to live with/endure me, and me the same to him. Makes me think that we do have a shot at being with each other after all.

And before you're convinced that my life has been nothing but one bad dream....

I'm grateful for the friends I have. The friends that I meet a few times a year remind me how precious our relationship is each time we meet. The friends I meet every week help me get through the daily turmoil of life. I can't live life without either kind.

and to sum up:

I'm grateful for all the shit in my life. It makes cheap toilet paper that much more precious.


So, sweep all old regrets under the presents. Birthdays are a time for cake, and even better if the cake comes with mascarpone cheese and plenty of rum!

On Valentines' Day, he fetched me from my house for dinner. When I
opened the car door, there was, lying on the car seat, a freshly
bloomed dark red rose and a knowing grin on his face.

A good start to a good evening. ;)

Sent from my iPod