the new place.

I heart Hugh Laurie

2006-12-19T01:03:00.000+08:00

Lyrics of the Day

2006-11-25T15:43:00.000+08:00

'Cause you're beautiful my love... when I close my eyes...

Yeah, totally smooth, Collective Soul.

That list.

2006-11-22T01:03:00.000+08:00

So, I know you guys didn't really want to see this, but here's that Christmas wishlist, just in case ;)

The downright impossible

1. A new Tri-specific frame. E.g. the Argon18 Element-114, or the Cervelo P3C. Heck, I'd even take a Kuota Kalibur. Yup. I'm not fussy.

2. While I'm on impossible stuff, why not a new wheelset?? It's only like, $5000.

3. And slightly more affordable, a set of aerobars.

4. Okay, enough about the bike already. Something I really really do want though, is a MacBook Pro. Sigh.

5. Well there are the other trivial things too, like a trip to the Maldives, a car, a house.... but I won't list them all out. On to the next (and perhaps slightly more realistic) list!

The stuff I don't really think anyone's gonna get for me, but I just keep hoping for anyway

1. A Soul S3.0 Wheelset. Seriously need a good set of training wheels so I don't butcher my Zipps on training rides.

2. A new pair of berms.

3. A dress watch

4. A new iPod. Specifically, an 80 GB one, because 40 GB is proving to be insufficient.

5. A new pair of earphones. Am considering the cheaper but pretty stylish Etymotic ER-6i and the slightly more expensive Shure E3c. My E2c's are falling apart, as is the case with all my wired electronics.

The others (or, the list that I know you cheapskates are gonna choose from)

1. A new mouse for my laptop

2. My handphone (02 XDA Mini) desperately needs a new battery cover. The current one's in not too fabulous shape after repeated falls.

3. A good book.

4. Anything, really. I'm not fussy.

So anyway I pretty much know that no one's gonna buy me anything from my first two lists, it's really more or less a shopping list for myself, so I don't forget what I need (yeah, right. Like I ever will). Well all you silent readers who've been here for ages, time to make your presence felt, in a big way!

Christmas is almost here, and I can't stop listening to Christmas songs even as I study. It's sad, because then I can't do much other than bounce around and grin like an idiot in anticipation of Christmas coming. I've got 3 papers over the first 3 days of next week. So far, I've studied 1 chapter of law. As that familiar household (at least in mine it is) tune goes, I'mmmmm deadddddd.

Heh.

2006-11-17T11:21:00.000+08:00

Some complaint letter that apparently won some "Complaint Letter Competition" in the UK. Enjoy.

- - - - - - - - - -

Dear Cretins,

I have been an NTL customer since 9th July 2001, when I signed up for your 3-in-one deal for cable TV, cable modem, and telephone. During this three-month period I have encountered inadequacy of service which I had not previously considered possible, as well as ignorance and stupidity of monolithic proportions.

Please allow me to provide specific details, so that you can either pursue your professional perogative, and seek to rectify these difficulties - or more likely (I suspect) so that you can have some entertaining reading material as you while away the working day smoking B&H and drinking vendor-coffee on the bog in your office:

My initial installation was cancelled without warning, resulting in my spending an entire Saturday sitting on my fat arse waiting for your technician to arrive. When he did not arrive, I spent a further 57 minutes listening to your infuriating hold music, and the even more annoying Scottish robot woman telling me to look at your helpful website....HOW?

I alleviated the boredom by playing with my testicles for a few minutes - an activity at which you are no-doubt both familiar and highly adept. The rescheduled installation then took place some two weeks later, although the technician did forget to bring a number of vital tools - such as a drill-bit, and his cerebrum. Two weeks later, my cable modem had still not arrived. After 15 telephone calls over 4 weeks my modem arrived... six weeks after I had requested it, and begun to pay for it. I estimate your internet server's downtime is roughly 35%... hours between about 6pm -midnight, Mon-Fri, and most of the weekend.

I am still waiting for my telephone connection. I have made 9 calls on my mobile to your no-help line, and have been unhelpfully transferred to a variety of disinterested individuals, who are it seems also highly skilled bollock jugglers. I have been informed that a telephone line is available (and someone will call me back); that no telephone line is available (and someone will call me back); that I will be transferred to someone who knows whether or not a telephone line is available (and then been cut off); that I will be transferred to someone (and then been redirected to an answer machine informing me that your office is closed); that I will be transferred to someone and then been redirected to the irritating Scottish robot woman...and several other variations on this theme.

Doubtless you are no longer reading this letter, as you have at least a thousand other dissatisfied customers to ignore, and also another one of those crucially important testicle-moments to attend to. Frankly I don't care, it's far more satisfying as a customer to voice my frustration's in print than to shout them at your unending hold music. Forgive me, therefore, if I continue. I thought BT were shit, that they had attained the holy piss-pot of godawful customer relations, that no-one, anywhere, ever, could be more disinterested, less helpful or more obstructive to delivering service to their customers. That's why I chose NTL, and because, well, there isn't anyone else is there?

How surprised I therefore was, when I discovered to my considerable dissatisfaction and disappointment what a useless shower of bastards you truly are. You are sputum-filled pieces of distended rectum incompetents of the highest order. British Telecom - wankers though they are - shine like brilliant beacons of success, in the filthy puss-filled mire of your seemingly limitless inadequacy. Suffice to say that I have now given up on my futile and foolhardy quest to receive any kind of service from you. I suggest that you cease any potential future attempts to extort payment from me for the services which you have so pointedly and catastrophically failed to deliver - any such activity will be greeted initially with hilarity and disbelief quickly be replaced by derision, and even perhaps bemused rage.

I enclose two small deposits, selected with great care from my cats litter tray, as an expression of my utter and complete contempt for both you and your pointless company. I sincerely hope that they have not become desiccated during transit - they were satisfyingly moist at the time of posting, and I would feel considerable disappointment if you did not experience both their rich aroma and delicate texture. Consider them the very embodiment of my feelings towards NTL, and its worthless employees.

Have a nice day - may it be the last in you miserable short life, you irritatingly incompetent and infuriatingly unhelpful bunch of twats.

John

Well I didn't quite mean it literally...

2006-11-13T03:57:00.000+08:00

But you know what I said about me being dead? I think it's just about coming true. My vision's gone blurry, my head kinda hurts, my left arm went numb for a while (OK, I kinda...slept on it), and my left eye feels like it wants to roll out of its socket already. Oh and, there's this odd vein on my left temple which is throbbing and threatens to just explode.

Oh yeah, and that report? Nowhere near done. Sigh.

Challenge of the Day

2006-11-12T16:04:00.000+08:00

What: 5000 word report on Income Tax

When: Tomorrow, 11.30am

Current Status: 0 words

I am dead.

To whoever stole my Tim-Tams

2006-11-11T15:55:00.000+08:00

Screw you. You will rot in Spinach Hell, where all men sleep on broccoli beds and only get to eat asparagus and capsicum for breakfast and lunch. Oh and for dinner? Brinjal, brinjal and brinjal.

So.

2006-11-03T08:47:00.000+08:00

I found out yesterday that I've still been getting hits even in this... temporary-sort-of downtime on this blog. It's quite cute because I'm getting not like, 2 or 3 hits a day... a little closer to 20-30 actually, which is somewhat close to what I used to get WHILE I was writing (though that was... 2 years ago).

So anyway, it's really be a crazy week or so. New cracks, old stories, more secrets, rediscovered... friends. I guess it wouldn't be the wisest thing to write about everything in detail here, so... yeah. Whee.

Well, if you must know, I am a really closed person. Which makes the people I share secrets with a pretty privileged (ha!) bunch.

So... to be honest I don't know if I'll keep updating this place... it's become a bit of a chore really, since I've stopped being so ranty and I nowadays use my free time more on training. There's always something new to train for, the big goal on the horizon being the Singapore Ironman 70.3 next September. Of course there are the bigger (and perhaps much more impossible) ones like the Kona Ironman (a total dream, really). So... I'll update when I do.

So... tell me a secret.

And perhaps I'll tell you mine.

;)

2006-09-16T10:43:00.000+08:00

Stay tuned...

2006-08-06T13:30:00.000+08:00

We'll miss you, Chow.

France!

2006-06-28T04:13:00.000+08:00

Hey guys, I know I haven't been updating this page, but I'm now updating another!

Check out my French journals HERE!

Back!

2006-04-30T20:33:00.000+08:00

I'm back! Well not just from Malaysia, but back from blog-obscurity. Spent a good 2 days cycling to Kukup (which is somewhere along the south-western coast of Malaysia) and back, clocking close to 200km in the process.

Malaysia, as usual, was bloody hot. But I have to say one thing: the locals are generally more polite than Singaporeans. The drivers are mostly much more skilful, too, in giving cyclists enough space.

Well anyway, it's good to know that cycling's up-and-coming in SMU, hope to see greater things from the biking team in the future!

Erm ok this post is so extremely disjointed, but sure I can't be blamed! I'm tired. OK. I'll write more on Tuesday. I promise. Will have things to write about, too.

2006-04-19T21:54:00.000+08:00

Hey Pet, remember about this time last year, when I came to you and raved about this new medical drama that rocked and was even better than Scrubs (a true medical drama, of course)? Well guess what, suddenly half of Singapore's watching Grey's Anatomy! Well of course half of Singapore also watches Phua Chu Kang, but that's not the point - this one's the half with taste.

By the way, I still have your DVDs. And you, mine. I've got 4 months to burn and I really wish I had my The Office DVDs right now!

(ed: yeesh, insane number of typos initially.)

It's o-vah!

2006-04-18T13:08:00.000+08:00

Hmm I seem to somewhat recall having posted under this title before.... nevertheless, it's over! Oddly enough though, I never really felt very much under pressure this entire term, let alone the exam period. Of course there were the occasional days of extreme distress or near-seizures, but generally the term's been much more relaxed than the previous. Of course, my grades won't come anywhere near last term's, so there's a tradeoff I guess.

Anyway, enough about school! On to our very nice 4 MONTH summer hols! Ok, that's not very accurate. It's more like... 4 MONTHS AND 3 DAYS. Heh. Can't imagine though that I've more or less packed out my summer already, and none of that comes from work :P. Either way, if anyone has some exciting (and preferably, cheap) holiday plans, feel free to invite me! You know you want to! Just make sure it's nice and far away and won't be too crowded with Singaporeans. Bloody Singaporeans.

- - - - - - - - - -

So the other day, I was on the train when this quite elderly caucasian guy got on. Being the only one without Singaporean ethic around, I of course stood up to offer him my seat. Too bad by then he'd turned and his back was facing me. So I went to him and tapped him on his shoulder and said "excuse me". No response. Repeat on other shoulder. No respone. I must've tapped him 5 times (and raised my voice a little, too) before he finally reacted. Poor old dude.

Ok that wasn't very anecdotal or funny at all. But anyway my point is, bloody Singaporeans.

- - - - - - - - - -

So, much cycling is in order for the holidays ahead - if only Singapore had drivers (and roads) who are as considerate to cyclists as they are in Europe (or even Malaysia). Cycling on the roads in Singapore really is quite hateful, with the average cyclist having to go into battle with a couple of cabs or buses everytime he goes on the roads. Which of course, is why many cyclists resort to doing their rides at unearthly hours. Of course, my grief at Singaporean drivers doesn't just stem from being a cyclist - take a drive along the roads and you're bound to encounter some selfish hog or competitive Chinaman (Singapore-bred) who cuts you off just so he can get to Chinatown Square 2 minutes earlier.

To be fair to Singaporeans, though, the Chinamen (China-bred) are quite a bit worse (it is, after all, where our roots stem from. Hur. Roots. Stem.). But anyway my point is, bloody Singaporeans.

- - - - - - - - - -

Poor Kopitiam stall operators over at SMU. They're really gonna have to close shop for 4 months (and 3 days). School's gonna be pretty much a ghost town - one wonders where they're gonna get their income from.

Wanted:

2006-04-12T01:59:00.000+08:00

Large carton of KOKA (or any other decent brand of ) Cup Noodles.
To be delivered to this writer's residence.
Reward given.

Call for more details.

Randomness

2006-04-12T00:54:00.000+08:00

Ok I've been staring at this screen for about half an hour, determined to blog about something, but nothing else has popped up in the mind except for my Stats paper, which has bugged me for about 37 hours already. Schools need to hire proofreaders for their exam papers because otherwise, people who're anal about english and grammar and inconsistencies in questions (read: ME) will get screwed over, while the majority will carry on and ignore the inconsistency and do the "correct" solution, which destroys all arguments of the anal-retentive-one, because "everyone read it this way, why should you have done otherwise?" BAH.

So basically, end result is that my GPA's going into freefall this term, and I'm gonna get nagged to no end for it. At least my prof is nice, now if only he'd check his email and read the one I banged out yesterday.

Now, word has got out that certain people who shouldn't be reading the blogs of angsty SMUdents in fact have dug up a few of the aforementioned, and so I shall refrain from continuing my tirade lest I be mowed down by a car in an unfortunate accident on the way to school one day.

- - - - - - - - - -

Now that I've only got one paper left, holiday mood's really kicking in. And while I envisioned my holidays to be full of exercise and getting into shape, I spent much of today on my bum. Whenever I wasn't, it was because I was getting my exercise, walking to the fridge. Well at least I got some 'work' done, in the form of getting my bike cleaned up (yes, I KNOW, Pet).

So then, anyone have exciting holiday plans to invite me along on? Not that anything would beat cycling in France, of course, but that's just meant to make you feel as though you could be cool and have me along on your trip. See, how nice I am.

Anyway, plans for BSM Argentina/South Africa (with many not-friends) in December have been scrapped in favour of a trip to Mexico/Barcelona (with many friends) in the not-so-near future. I was beginning to regret cancelling on Argentina... but then... crap I really can't write much on a public blog without being obvious, can I? Maybe it's time to start an LJ, too.

Oh anyway, for those who have like, a proper sense of humour, go get some music from The Notorious MSG now! They're hilarious lah, though a little demeaning if you're Asian (well yeah, that's like all of us) - but it's OK since they're Asian too! Just like how you only call a black guy nigga if you're a black guy too... or something like that.

Right. I need to get my eyes off my computer screen.

Cheeseversation

2006-04-06T15:49:00.000+08:00

Note: Long, extremely punny, but well worth it.

lance! / really needs to be studying. says:
lance! / really needs to be studying. says:
is squash just another name for zucchini?
~crystal - oh no the seasons are changing! says:
no a squash is fat!
lance! / really needs to be studying. says:
if she says so.
weiming / i love my girlfriend long time says:
hm
well
*corny joke*
lance! / really needs to be studying. says:
GROAN
*throws corn*
weiming / i love my girlfriend long time says:
MEGAGROAN
*makes popcorn*
lance! / really needs to be studying. says:
HUMOUNGAGROAN
*slathers cheese over*
weiming / i love my girlfriend long time says:
GIGANTOMONGAGROWN
ok it ends
lance! / really needs to be studying. says:
hah couldn't come up with something more....cheesy?
weiming / i love my girlfriend long time says:
groan
i wanted to keep the exchange brie-f
lance! / really needs to be studying. says:
sidenote
why does minh's nick have latin in it
and GROAN
i can't (camem)bert it any longer!
weiming / i love my girlfriend long time says:
i hate to be curd, but that makes no sense!
lance! / really needs to be studying. says:
its pronounced camembear?
weiming / i love my girlfriend long time says:
meeeeeeeh
and dont tell me you didnt get that!
because it's so corny even "oops i guess i made a blue-per" had to take 2nd place!
lance! / really needs to be studying. says:
huh?
i didnt get meeeeeeeh
weiming / i love my girlfriend long time says:
GOAT
weiming / i love my girlfriend long time says:
GOAT
lance! / really needs to be studying. says:
ARGHHHHHHHH
weiming / i love my girlfriend long time says:
oh dont have cow
weiming / i love my girlfriend long time says:
COW
weiming / i love my girlfriend long time says:
COW
HAH
lance! / really needs to be studying. says:
lol
like, really, lol.
you've taken punning to a new level lah
weiming / i love my girlfriend long time says:
yes well
have had lots of practice
haha
lance! / really needs to be studying. says:
we gouda show this to someone
weiming / i love my girlfriend long time says:
peh
gouda cheese
i had to google to find out that one
haha
lance! / really needs to be studying. says:
haha you'venever heard of gouda?
weiming / i love my girlfriend long time says:
nope
lance! / really needs to be studying. says:
they sell it in ntuc for heavens sake
weiming / i love my girlfriend long time says:
i know few cheeses
lance! / really needs to be studying. says:
you ought to (liva)rot in hell for not knowing that
weiming / i love my girlfriend long time says:
bah
i mars(capone) go and do a little bit more research
mozz(arella) of the cheeses i know are the common ones
lance! / really needs to be studying. says:
don't be a buffalo
weiming / i love my girlfriend long time says:
?
lance! / really needs to be studying. says:
buffalo cheese
but i admit that was gratuitous
weiming / i love my girlfriend long time says:
there's such a thing?
lance! / really needs to be studying. says:
i think
weiming / i love my girlfriend long time says:
hm
lance! / really needs to be studying. says:
they use it in american cooking
weiming / i love my girlfriend long time says:
bah, americans
lance! / really needs to be studying. says:
so it cant be very good though
along with monterey jack
for heavens sake
7-11 has a snack with monterey jack in it
although i quite like that one
weiming / i love my girlfriend long time says:
hm
the taquito?
lance! / really needs to be studying. says:
yup
more precisely, the go-go taquito!
if you leave them out too long they get feta-id, though
you (ri)cotta eat em fresh
weiming / i love my girlfriend long time says:
peh
lance! / really needs to be studying. says:
have you gone off mugging already? don't be a provolone ranger!
weiming / i love my girlfriend long time says:
we've cotta(ge) stop this nonsense
hm
where're (ched)dar and the rest?
(gratuitous, yes i know)
lance! / really needs to be studying. says:
YES
maybe they're on top of a (emmen)tal building!
(fight fire with fire)
or at (roque)fort canning!
weiming / i love my girlfriend long time says:
ok this (sw)iss getting tiresome
so let's study
(see, no pun)
lance! / really needs to be studying. says:
haha fine fine
i was trying to think of a final cheese to say good luck with
but no joy
weiming / i love my girlfriend long time says:
and i always thought camembert was pronounced camem-bert
lance! / really needs to be studying. says:
i don't think so
camem-bear
weiming / i love my girlfriend long time says:
hmm well
lance! / really needs to be studying. says:
i hope
weiming / i love my girlfriend long time says:
BEAR!
lance! / really needs to be studying. says:
otherwise that means i've been pro nouncing it wrong all the while
weiming / i love my girlfriend long time says:
BEAR!
anyway
but dont the danish make it?
or something
or the aussies
hm
anyway
lance! / really needs to be studying. says:
camembert is a very common cheese
weiming / i love my girlfriend long time says:
same difference
lance! / really needs to be studying. says:
i think even malaysians could make it
weiming / i love my girlfriend long time says:
kamembert
lance! / really needs to be studying. says:
if malaysia had cows
yup
kamembert
even vishnu dairy farm in choa chu kang could
i went there on an excursion once
weiming / i love my girlfriend long time says:
hm well
odd that they should be milking their sacred animals
lance! / really needs to be studying. says:
but you have to milk em
its painful for them udderwise
weiming / i love my girlfriend long time says:
arghhhhhhhhh
lance! / really needs to be studying. says:
do you think they'd really give a cow about milking em if not?
weiming / i love my girlfriend long time says:
i dont know
i'd find it offensive, wouldn't yo(ghurt)?
mooving on
lance! / really needs to be studying. says:
oh, so its dairy's churn to get punned on?
weiming / i love my girlfriend long time says:
stats
lance! / really needs to be studying. says:
we sure have a whey with words!
then STOP IT
weiming / i love my girlfriend long time says:
(bo)vine. i will.
dont get all bullish
lance! / really needs to be studying. says:
ARGH
weiming / i love my girlfriend long time says:
hahahaha
one for the rod(eo)
lance! / really needs to be studying. says:
ARGHHHHH
weiming / i love my girlfriend long time says:
i can't believe we just wasted an hour of our lives like that

Just because Lance said it wasn't...

2006-04-05T20:46:00.001+08:00

lance! / really needs to be studying. says:
why do you even have sommany cds, anyway
weiming / i love my girlfriend long time says:
dunno
lance! / really needs to be studying. says:
must have spent a fortune on em
weiming / i love my girlfriend long time says:
one of those phases
i've had a ton of phases
where i spend a lot of money on something in particular
lance! / really needs to be studying. says:
so this is bike phase?
weiming / i love my girlfriend long time says:
computer
gadgets
tshirts
lance! / really needs to be studying. says:
so when is the lance phase coming
weiming / i love my girlfriend long time says:
lance phase?
when i decide to start jousting, of course

Tell me if it isn't the funniest thing you've heard all day! Tell me!

TGIM

2006-04-03T20:55:00.000+08:00

And it's finally (more or less) over... and yet I don't feel as happy as I think I should be feeling. Also, I can't believe it's Monday. For some reason I keep thinking it's a Friday... and then when I realise it's Monday it isn't another half an hour before I start thinking it's Friday again.

Was probably the most stressful day of the term today, what with 3 project submissions and all. Thank goodness I'd the foresight to finish off my LTB portfolio last night (at 4am, of course), and more thanks for my marketing group which I knew I could count on.

And even though all my projects are done with, I just don't feel like it's all past. I think I'm just living in denial because I don't think any of the 3 projects that I submitted today were up to the mark. Or maybe it's because my body's shutting down on me - I've had nary a good night's rest in a month and my nose is running and my throat is dry and itchy and my head's in a swirl - would you like a coffin with that, sir?

I've had a relaxed term, really, save for the occasional bouts of high blood pressure brought on by my LTB group, and I suppose the lack of quality in my work is no more than I deserved with the amount of effort put in!

Anyway, the exams are near, but they won't need that much work either so thank goodness I can start er, playing with my bike again. And spend more time with loved ones, of course. Next up is a trip down to Kukup, will be a relaxing ride, can't wait.

Also, now that projects (and stress) are over, I don't have a reason to eat all my junk food anymore. Bah.

And oh, holidays are here. Overseas trips, phwoaaar. Feel free to ask me on 'em!

How terribly random, this post.

And lookey, a post without any bitchiness in it! It's been a long time, eh? And well, not like I haven't got anything to bitch about anyway, on the contrary...

Ok nevermind back to my cheezels.

Soon soon!

2006-04-03T03:31:00.000+08:00

I promise to write soon! Multiple projects due tomorrow, will write once that's all over... not that anyone's really waiting though. Bah.

Of course this is all provided I don't die of high blood pressure first... am just about ready to pop a vein or two.

You.

2006-03-29T14:21:00.000+08:00

Don't judge me. You're not in my situation, don't know what's happening, you're not me. So don't.

Smoo

2006-03-27T21:42:00.000+08:00

Yes, my favourite topic. I'm not going to outright slam it however, just write a bit of my feelings now that I've just about started to experience what the school's been advertising itself for.

I've tried very much this term to not care about academic results. I've told myself to be satisfied with being on the dean's list and not bother with getting perfect scores or whatnot. And well I've been doing well with the not studying bit (it's really easy, try it!), but not so well with the not-doing-so-well bit. I don't quite know what my point is here, but if anyone knows what I can do about this, pray do tell.

Well with my decreased academic activity much of time has in fact been spent elsewhere - cycling, LKCSB Opening, Zero Limits expedition, fretting over LTB, etc. I'm actually glad to say that there's actually a lot to get involved in in SMU. The unfortunate part of it all is that half of the students here are so bloody competitive that you can't full enjoy your school life, but I'll get to them later on. You can't really enjoy your school life if you're trying to get involved in activities, and yet you know that your peers are going to be working so hard at their schoolwork that you'll just look bad, academically wise. It's a hard balance to strike.

Now, on the point of competitive bastards - I'm particularly peeved by people who'll cut you down just to get themselves ahead. It's not limited to a few, I know of quite a number who would do that over in SMU. Perhaps it's not just in SMU that it happens, but well it's the only place I'm experiencing right now so it's all I'm qualified to comment on. I've only got this to say - if you've got to resort to such means to put yourself in front, then quite obviously you're not good enough and you know it yourself.

But well, you argue, isn't it that way in the corporate world anyway? Well whatever floats your boat, as long as you can deal with it I'm not gonna try and stop you. I'm bigger than that.

Anyway, Comms and LTB presentations over, time for the remaining nightmares that include the blasted LTB portfolio. Help.

Oh yes,

2006-03-25T23:07:00.000+08:00

I can't believe I forgot this -

Thanks muchly to all those who helped make my very unfortunate birthday that little bit more special, boons, Jayne, Lance, and others. Yall know you've done well when you surprise someone who's expecting a surprise ;). Honestly, the moment's still in my head right now.

It's o-vah.

2006-03-25T00:27:00.000+08:00

Well yes, the title says it all. We finally ended off three weeks of (torment? slavery? menial labour?) hard work with a bang - and boy, what a show it was. It lived up - or rather, surpassed - all expectations I'd had, and honestly, from a group of which majority had never performed on stage in their lives, it was fantastic. I had a good time too, and I must say I've learnt a great, great deal from the parties I worked with.

A few words for er, people.

Alex - I would say a lot here, but you don't read my blog, so.

Margaret - Well... you don't read my blog either.

Ok this idea is doomed to failure.

But anyway just as the fanfare from Sinatra's reprise had to die down, the euphoria of the moment had to fade away, and now we're left with routine school work again. It's three more weeks till the end of school, and I do hope I can live through the next week - project presentations/deadlines galore.

For now though, a lengthy period of sleep is in order. I've been running on nothing more than caffeine these past 2 days in particular, having had 13 servings of coffee within the last 36 hours. Goodness, I've just realised how absurd that is lah. I've found out too, that coffee can't cure all sleepiness. Kiwi Vodka, however, does induce it, and I'm glad I've got some in my system now to keep me soundly asleep tonight. No alarms, for once!

Witty title (with political connotations)

2006-03-18T10:50:00.000+08:00

Short anecdote. Lame joke. Link to current affairs in life.

Describe lunch.

Endless rant on how boring life is. Whine. Whine. Whine.

Witty one-liner.

Corny joke. Failed bit at satire. Muddled attempt to get readers to laugh.

Witty one-liner that falls flat.

Give up, promise to write more soon.

Army Daze

2006-03-15T20:38:00.000+08:00

Well, not the play, unfortunately. More precisely, it was me going back and having a lil' taste of ol' army life, sans regimentation, uniform, boots, booking in, smelly bunks, cranky warrant officers...

If you haven't yet guessed, I took my IPPT today. It's actually pretty amazing that I didn't just melt and die halfway through my 2.4km run under the awfully hot evening sun, so I'll just be glad for small mercies.

I've also got a bit to work on to get my fitness back to where it should be, but then again I know I'm just kidding myself. Run, me? I'll just stick to cycling, thankyouverymuch.

Anyway, school's been slowing down quite a bit, with the exception of the curse that is the School of Business Official Opening, which curiously enough seems to be going pretty well. I shouldn't speak too soon though, we've just encountered quite a big hitch, and it's almost entirely under my charge! Ack, Saturday couldn't come sooner.

Why Saturday? It's my weekly ride - just about all that SMU students can afford to spare, one night.

Why's my entry so disjointed? Dunno, guess it's because I'm itching to get back to my game of Winning Eleven. Ciao!

OH, one last thing. To all my readers:

Anyone know where I can get minus-one recordings? In particular, looking for the Frank Sinatra rendition of Swinging on a Star. Can't just use a program to de-vocalise the song because we need it for a performance, so will meet with legal issues. Please help if you can! Thanks!

I heart SMU

2006-03-06T14:32:00.000+08:00

I really do!

Mrs. Henderson Presents...

2006-03-04T13:40:00.000+08:00

A jolly good time!

I watched my first (yes, FIRST) film of the year with boons yesterday, and I am so glad we didn't settle for any other Final Destination 3-esque show. We took a little risk and went for a show that has hardly been advertised, Mrs. Henderson Presents, even though we could barely read the movie poster from where we were and had heard zilch about it. Well actually, I've heard zilch on just about every movie that's screening right now, save for Brokeback.

We weren't disappointed.

Hell, I was absolutely blown away by the movie. The acting was near-perfect - Judi Dench (a show-stopper herself) and Bob Hoskins had incredible screen chemistry, and I can't even begin to describe the stunning Kelly Reilly. Hell, even Will Young (past winner of Pop Idol, American Idol's British predecessor) was pretty convincing in his screen debut. Above all, the film was so full of raw emotion, so full of that certain... je ne sais quoi that makes a good film great.

I left the theater feeling all nice and warm (even in the frigid cold of the air conditioning). You MUST watch this film, especially if you're a fan of British productions.

Reilly, Dench

An absolute stunner

Detest

2006-03-03T00:28:00.000+08:00

I am just sooooo filled with anger now. And as a result, now taking pride of place in my "My Documents" folder is a word document titled Why I Hate SMU, and rest assured it will not remain as a word document. I'm waiting for the right time to unleash it upon the relevant people. Honestly, it's one thing to expect people to do something for you - it's an entirely different affair when you expect people to do something for you, forcing them to do it EXACTLY how you want them to.

Hateful, hateful administration.

I SO WANT THIS

2006-03-02T00:55:00.000+08:00

Vermonty Python

We interrupt ourselves with much hooting through tin horns to bring you this brilliant new ice cream, made from dried shrubbery and old cereal packets. This is a ripping good flavor, really, so buy it quickly and run away, silly person, or we shall taunt you a second time.

Come to Singapore, quickly please!

Public Service Announcement #243

2006-03-01T23:37:00.000+08:00

Dear Singapore,

Do note that skews is nowhere near as polite as a proper "excuse me". Do also note that I will skewer the next person that asks me to skews. It's a joke, laugh.

- - - - - - - - - -

An Ode to Trini

My friend Trini, I've known her for long
And since it's her birthday, I'll write her a song.
Just today she turned twenty-two
I'll tell you a secret, just between me and you.

My friend Trini, she ages gracefully
Many say, not quite unlike a tree.
A tree gets a new layer of bark each year
And Trini, well, you can infer.

My friend Trini, wanted a present, so
I was thinking, Extrim or Xando?
She berated me with a good slap
"I want nothing less than uZap!"

My friend Trini, always seems to wax
Lyrical about her boyfriend, Alex.
I hope that perhaps you'll wed
And spend many good years ahead.

My friend Trini, she's such a dear
Whatever would I do without her?
So here's wishing you a happy birthday
May we remain fatty friends always!

Happy Birthday Tirni!!

- - - - - - - - - -

Oh yah, congrats to lil'sis, who's officially owned me at the A levels! 4As, A2, a Merit and a Distinction!

2006-02-27T23:29:00.000+08:00

You know, I swear I had this pretty witty one-liner that I'd post, but now it's just plain slipped my mind.

Anyway, quote of the day, lovingly ripped off aforementioned blogger's blog:

"I am Xiaxue, and my PSLE is a whooping 269"

I wouldn't normally pick on others' english, but hey, if your PSLE score's a whooping(sic) 269, you'd better know how to spell, too.

weiming / is chao-tah

2006-02-26T16:15:00.000+08:00

OK, my computer screwed up just a coupla minutes ago so it's taking all the patience and love for blogging (zilch) for me to start writing this post all over again.

- - - - - - - - - -

I entertained the thought of ceasing to try and think of witty one liners as blog post titles, and just put my current MSN nick up there, since those tend to reflect my current mood, and are also invariably witty. Or maybe I'll just continue with the one-worder titles that also appear every other post, signifying an inability to think up anything vaguely meaningful as a title. Or maybe not.

Anyway, I was just wondering, earlier this week, how some people manage to find the means and the time to blog everyday. By this I not only refer to some of the big-name Singaporean bloggers (e.g. Xiaxue et al), but also to the lesser-known "what-I-did-today" blogger.

Admittedly, I don't read the blogs of any of the former characters even vaguely regularly; I have, however, read a post or two from xiaxue on occasion (generally, when there's nothing to be done, or when I feel like making myself dumber). Yeah, I know, I run the risk of getting myself exiled to blogspot's version of, er, Siberia (hey wait, I think that's like, China?) by blatantly slagging off one of our local blog-celebrities. I might even get my blog hacked into and log on only to discover that my password's been changed. Well all the better, then I'll finally have a reason to stop blogging, after all.

Anyway, I do admit that some of the big-name bloggers do have a certain amount of wit that nearly befits their status. Others however, not so.

Fact is, I'm quite inclined to think that many of the religious readers of a certain famous local blog (and a coupla others) are sorely lacking in proper literary exposure. Now, I don't proclaim to be the messiah of blogging myself, nor am I under any false illusions that my writing is worthy of a daily readership of 20,000. What I am rather affected by, however, is that after a certain female blogger blogged a rather lengthy post about her hate for parsley, when she was blatantly referring to spring onions (as evidenced by the posted photo), approximately 90% of the 219 readers that commented blindly agreed with her and chipped in with some vague comment about how parsley sucked, automatically registering in their Singaporean minds that them little squarish green splots that came with their food was parsley. Cheers though, to a certain seth who correctly identified that everyone else who commented before him (about 150 of them) basically said the same thing.

Now, what do we learn from this, then? That her readers haven't eaten out before? That they don't cook? That they don't have minds of their own? That I'm jealous of her blog's success? Well, all of the above, 'cept for the jealousy bit, of course.

It would obviously be unfair for me to draw evidence from a single post, and condemn an entire population for it. But well, I decided to read on further, and decided there wasn't much worth reading on the blog. Just more cursing and swearing and the occasional sexual reference.

If there's anything to be gleaned from the above rant, it's merely that Singaporeans are sorely in need of a life. The bulk of the population's so quickly taken by any vague scandal or outspoken-ness. Case in point, the latest handphone video incident (shall refrain from mentioning the magic technorati-ed words, lest any paedophilic pervert stalks by). Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to put down the country at any opportunity I get - fact is this particular situation's true. The only reason why blogs like SPG or XX made it big is because they were controversial. Granted, SPG does write reasonably well and most definitely is pretty well-read too, but I honestly doubt the blog would get half of its readership if not for the sexual content.

I'm willing to wager that if I were to pose as a 17 year old Singaporean girl, and post up appropriate pictures of "myself" using er, "borrowed" photos, and then proceed to detail my "sexual escapades" on my blog, it wouldn't take long for me to make the news, much less tomorrow.sg. A daily readership numbering in the thousands wouldn't be surprising - a 17-year-old nymph, who uses proper grammar? What a revelation!

Now, not to detract from my original point (what was that?) - our country's boring. Not that I'm really looking for much excitement in the way of bombings and the like, but we've really got to buck up and open up our minds a little to the world outside. While I appreciate that the ol' gah-men's doing their best to make the country more exciting, and I also do acknowledge the role of XX and friends in reaching out to the common man, it really does require a radical change in mindset.

Meanwhile though, I guess we'll just have to resign ourselves to the continual worship of the undeserving, while I'll continue to indulge myself in the literary genius of er, Pet. Heh.

Flame away, clueless public.

Ouchies.

2006-02-18T23:24:00.000+08:00

For those who have the esteemed privilege of having me on their MSN contact list, you would probably have noticed that my nick for the past 24 hours or so was "weiming / has had a bad, bad week". Well it's really no exaggeration. I got owned by my Marketing quiz, and Stats midterms wasn't too much better. All that was topped off by major LTB disappointment on Friday. But well, it's all over.

SMU Rugby had its 2nd match today, against NUS, and we were really expecting to be steamrollered by them, judging by the number of national age-group and open team members that they had. Add on the fact that they'd been training 3 times as often and 3 times harder than we'd been, and you'd a recipe for a mauling. But the team acquitted ourselves more than adequately - in fact the NUS coach came over and congratulated us on a superb performance given our circumstances - in only losing 34-7. It may seem like a big margin, but it really wasn't, and we dominated much of the 2nd half, too. Really a performance worth shouting about, after being written off at the start of the tournament even by ourselves, as mere walkovers. Next year will be better though, now that we've finally got off the mark in terms of games, with the (hopefully) higher profile that we've got, more players will be attracted over here. Plus, we're getting more funding!

I'll skip the rant about how SMU doesn't give adequate support and funding to its sports clubs (less its 'favourites', the water polo team and the frisbee team), since it's a pretty well known fact. Also skipped is the 'lack of sports facilities' rant.

Anyway, shan't write too much. My head hurts from a clash with a certain 90+kg hunk of meat and muscle that is Ravi Shankar, and I'm starting to feel giddy. Next up though, Waikiki tomorrow, and Desaru on tuesday. Woot.

Perceptions

2006-02-15T01:20:00.000+08:00

Learning about me. (It's a link. Click on it.)

It's been a long time (2)

2006-02-13T10:14:00.000+08:00

I take my words back. Well, sort of, anyway. It wasn't 12 hours after I'd written this that I got onto the MRT once again.

The situation wasn't too different, but this time, the offender was a fat 10-year-old. Not that I've anything against fat 10-year-olds, of course. They've got enough to worry about as it is. An elderly lady got onto the train, an RI boy, after a moment of contemplation, decided to offer his seat, rather generously, to the reasonably able bodied looking lady. The moment the RI guy stood up, fat 10-year-old (henceforth, F10YO) made a beeline for the seat, and promptly plonked his erm, F10YO ass on the seat.

It's really not as simple as age then, it seems. It's upbringing. And it so happens that many of the guilty parties are in their high thirties. Perhaps then it makes sense that the F10YO's behave similarly, seeing how they are likely descendants of the line of callous 30-plus-olds (henceforth, C3PO).

I could go on with my Singaporean-bashing, but don't get me wrong, I'm not some anti-governmental revolutionary. But there are things that Singaporeans - and people in many other Asian countries - need to learn before we can finally be a gracious society. I've always been one against the White dominant colonial mindset, but I'll admit that there're several things that the Caucasians have over us - and that's all in the upbringing. Sad, but true.

It's been a long time.

2006-02-11T21:54:00.000+08:00

Heya. Will use whatever time I have now (read: none) to bloggalittle bit.

SMU Rugby had its first ever match today, against NTU. We're weren't expecting to win - quite far from it actually. We were actually hoping to not lose that badly, given the relative inexperience and lack of training of our squad. And well we did just that. 27-0 read the imaginary scoreboard at the end of the game, and I would've been happier had I not turned in a shocker of a performance. But well, still trying to pick up game experience in a new position, so hopefully the game next week against NUS will be a better one. NUS will be a tougher proposition than NTU though, so I'd better be up to the mark then.

- - - - - - - - - -

Now, on to what I wanted to write about yesterday.

I was in the MRT yesterday and it was one of those rare occasions that I'd gotten myself a seat. Oddly enough, it seemed that every stop we passed by produced a couple of elderlies who obviously needed the seat more than myself or most of those around me. So being the civic-minded SMU student I hastily gave up my seat to a slightly hunched elderly gentleman. I was also pleased to observe that contrary to what I'd expected, many others also gave up their seats to the other aged passengers.

So, everything's well right? What's there to write about?

Well there happened to be an elderly couple left without seats after the frantic bout of music-less musical chairs, and to my dismay, no one offered them seats even though it was pretty clear that they weren't in the best of shape. What made it worse was that the people right in front of that pair weren't even pretending to sleep! They were happily chatting and joking away, seemingly oblivious to the situation at hand. They weren't the only culprits. The others in the vicinity feigned ignorance or picked at their fingernails or just stoned.

So what's the whole point then? Isn't this just another day on the MRT?

Well it didn't take long for me to realise that all of those who'd given up their seats were youngsters - ie. around 18-29 years - whereas those who'd kept theirs mostly looked well above 30. So really my main point is, you always hear comments and complaints that our generation doesn't respect authority and that we don't know what hardship is. The way I see it, the 30-overs are just being self-righteous.

So what if we haven't lived in poverty? Does having lived through tough times give you the right to be pratty and insolent and inconsiderate? Does having experienced riots or water shortages mean that you can push your way into an MRT through a crowd waiting to alight? Here's a hint - no. I agree, those of my generation have never experienced real physical hardship. But the struggles that we face are of a totally different kind, one that previous generations will fail to grasp.

Our generation now has to deal with competition in the academic and professional world like never before. I feel that along with the development of our country, so do the climate and expectations surrounding its youths change. Right now we're economically and politically stable, and the focus for us is to excel academically to push the nation further forward. We all have our hardships, and while I acknowledge that the trials facing my generation seem flimsy - we're not gonna die of thirst if we don't study hard - the fact of the matter is that it doesn't matter in the end.

I don't know where my post is headed because I haven't really thought it out, and my head's still ringing from the one or ten knocks that I received just now. But after all the ranting and raving, I think that all I really want is for our country to just turn into a gracious society. Singaporeans are too self-absorbed for their own good, too concerned over penny-pinching and their own rights to think about others. It's about time we realised that there's more to living than "me" and that if you really think about it, as an individual we're all nothing.

I confess.

2006-02-11T00:50:00.000+08:00

I wanted to blog today. I really did. But then I didn't and I guess you'll have to wait. But then I've got something I want to write about. Now if only I could find the darned time to.

Hello, you.

2006-01-31T20:53:00.000+08:00

Hello again, I've decided to be nice and write. You've probably noticed that humour hasn't been top of my list of priorities lately, but well, when you're in a generally moody state and hardly have enough time to clip your toenails, you generally also have the sense of humour of a slice of bak kwa.

So anyway along came - and went - one of the more welcome breaks of the year. This year though, I vowed not to binge like I did last year, when I gained 5kg over the CNY break. Welllll... I shan't elaborate too much on whether or not I kept to that vow.

Anyway I was just thinking that CNY really is a season of obligations, when more often than not you're obliged to visit a relative or a 'friend', rather than it being a case of you actually wanting to visit the person in question. Not that I've anything against visiting people, of course, it generally does help the economic situation (mine, of course). But you know me (or maybe you don't, but just pretend you do for a moment), and you know that small talk is one of the banes of my existence. It's meaningless, always leads to the same topics, and always results in someone slagging off the government or a certain prominent Minister (or his mentor) and then looking around the room, face reddened with too-much-wine, finger to his/her lips, warning everyone within earshot against divulging anything to anyone.

Sometimes, there's someone with a sense of humour around, and you thank your lucky stars for that. Other times, everyone's just boring. It's a little odd, small talk, how it can lead from the weather to politics to neighbours to politics again and then to the weather.

Worse still, CNY small talk, in particular, invariably involves large amounts of munchies in the middle of the table. And we ALL know that leaving munchies alone when they're put in front of you is plain bad manners. So what to do then? Eat them, of course. And that's what your resident writer here (who has very good manners, thankyouverymuch) does/did. What, it's my fault now, then?

Anyway, CNY apart, Lance has correctly identified me as morphing into the bike geek now. I am going absolutely bonkers looking for suitable upgrades to my bike, and I can't seem to decide on what would give me the best bang for whatever little "buck" I have now. Right now I've got my eyes set on a new set of wheels, but I really don't know if I should be spending $650 on a pair of wheels which I'm not sure will be used much after France. Well, at least it's about $500 cheaper than its original price!

Decisions, decisions.

2006-01-25T22:04:00.000+08:00

Last term, I'd a torrid time, mainly because I had trouble juggling all my commitments. This term I vowed that I'd drop whatever I could not manage, hoping not to burn myself out again. Well, I obviously didn't succeed in that.

There've been waaaaay too many things that I've wanted (and many others that I haven't) to do, the latest in the long line being the Zero-Limits Expedition trip. I'd really give an arm and Lance's too to go on the trip - it's a 3-week long trip to France, much of which will be spent cycling, from Paris all the way to Montpellier. Many of you would probably know that I was formerly a cycling nut, at least till I got hit by a car. There's no way in the world I would pass on this opportunity.

Unless of course, I knew that I wouldn't be able to cope with the training, especially with rugby already taking up so much of my time. Trainings are thrice a week, with training expeditions to Desaru and Indonesia in the pipeline. I really don't know if I should go ahead and do what my heart tells me to do - just heck care and go ahead with it - or do what a rational person (who's already bogged down enough as it is) would do and just push it out of mind. Of course going on the trip would also encompass significant financial investment, not least on equipment and reworking of the ol' bike; all the more reason not to go, then.

BUT I'm not reasonable! And I'm already leaning so hard towards the trip that I'm just about ready to fall down the cliff of overcommitment.

Bah. Decisions.

More Than Just a Student

2006-01-23T22:04:00.000+08:00

I've finally decided to write. There've been a lot of things on my mind recently and it's taken a while to clear my mind. Not that I've solved all my problems, not by a long shot I haven't, just that I've managed to get myself sorted out enough to confidently say that I've got my priorities righted again.

Behind every act of a person there has to be a driving force. For some, it's money, for others, it's the love for another person. For too long I've allowed myself to be driven by my own selfish ambition to do well and to beat others, rather than focus on what really mattered to me. I've never been one to blog about religion, but it's about high time I did.

Why so? Well let me tell you what my religion - that's Christianity, for the uninformed - means to me:

Everything.

And yet I've chosen to push it behind so many other things in my life, studies, relationships, money, the works. It's only fair then that I recognise now what an impact it's made on me. It provided me with much of my motivation last term, not only in studies but also in serving in various fields. This year though I felt like I'd lost my focus and motivation to do any work, hardly ever opening my textbooks or reading up before lessons, and it could really be linked back to my drifting away from God. I received 2 copies of the same book, The Man in the Mirror, as Christmas presents. I don't think it's a coincidence, but an indication that it's about time I reflected on my own life and started doing something purposeful with it again.

I shan't dwell too much on the subject though, but if any of you want to hear more from me about it, feel free to ask.

- - - - - - - - - -

Anyway, I've finally begun training regularly for my tournament, and symptomatic of the resumption of field trainings is the appearance of mosquito bites on my legs. I really never cease to wonder how powerful the mosquitoes at Turf City (and Bishan Park) are, seeing how I still have the remnants (sic) of bites that I'd got 3 weeks ago at Bishan Park. Not to be outdone, the mosquitoes at Turf City (known in some places as Ruralaysia) gave me hell too, and I've got a weird bunch of bites on my tummy (I would say abs, but..) which itch like a baboon's bottom.

Meanwhile, resisting Chinese New Year goodies, which in previous years proved to be rather much harder than it is to eat them Chinese New Year goodies, is not going well. My mum, having ever the keenest eye for a good bargain, spotted an offer at Takashimaya, which offered 3 bottles of birds' nest soup for every $188 spent. Never content with stopping at 1 (or 3, for that matter), she went on to spend a princely $400, much of which was on the aforementioned CNY goodies, much of which also ended up in my tummy (yes, abs, I meant).

It suddenly occurred to me that CNY really is an odd festival. Everytime it comes around you pig out and get fatter than you'd ever gotten before, and then when you do your visiting relatives invariably ask you why you've lost weight (and of course, if you've found a suitable girlfriend, or won the 4D lottery lately). Well yes, true, all in the name of small talk, but surely small talk has to be based on fact! I mean, you don't start talking about the weather if say, there wasn't anything particularly conversation-worthy of the weather. And though that's a really bad example, you know what I mean, don't ya.

Also, holidays in universities (or at least in SMU) are really anything but. What it really means is that your lesson on that particular holiday is postponed to a convenient later date, more often than not on a day when you've got something important planned. No longer are holidays celebrated like they are in Junior Colleges. Now, they're just greeted with nonchalance, and the occasional sigh.

For now though, I just look forward to the end of this week, hopefully by which I would have started my running regime (though 'regime' would hardly be an appropriate word to describe it) so that I can not embarass myself come IPPT day. Yes, you heard me right, I've got to take the cursed IPPT again, and more upsettingly than 'losing' the extra $200 if I don't get that gold, I'll have to rip off them IPPT Gold badges on my uniform, which will leave an unsightly piece of velcro - the surefire way to tell who's had a gold before and couldn't keep it. Not that I'm really expecting to get a gold, of course, 9:44 is rather out of reach for a struggling, unfit pseudo-student. 11:40, for the silver, might pose a challenge too!

For now though, I'd much rather just enjoy my bak kwa.

2006-01-17T23:51:00.000+08:00

I need a break from this life. Just to get away from it all, and concentrate on what's truly important to me.

Revving it up

2006-01-15T02:29:00.000+08:00

Well as you've probably already noticed, the school term's started, and this place hasn't quite been the well-updated blog it used to be. Not that I've been majorly busy with school-work, today being the first time I've opened a textbook proper, but that I've just been... busy. Whether it was Bondue day, or makeup classes, or going for talks just for a free lunch, or just training up for my upcoming tournament - school's really eaten up the whale's share of my time.

I've been doing a bit of thinking, too, of my future here in SMU. There're so many paths available for me to take - the CCA avoiding, perpetually mugging results-high-achiever; the active both in school life and outside life, but not so results-oriented student; or simply the entirely focused on activities guy. I'd very much like to do everything, as has been quite the pattern of my life in recent times, but it simply isn't viable, and I can just see myself burning out should I even attempt at it.

There'll come a time when I've got to make the decision of what to focus on, and at the moment I really don't know what I should be doing. I've got Uni-Y, which I'd thought I'd focus on, and possibly (and probably) aim for a place in the committee. And then the career-minded person in me tells me that I should be aiming bigger - Bondue, SA, the works. But then, serving with Uni-Y truly is something I enjoy, and right now I think that's where I'm leaning more toward.

And then there's rugby. I'd thought that I'd stop playing rugby once I stepped into Uni, but with a bit of persuasion I decided to join it again, and just play as a keep-fit kinda activity. Well after hearing of Junren's injury (and taking into account the one my brother suffered, in what was supposed to be his second last match ever), I'm actually really scared that I'll get injured. In university, I don't think you can afford to get injured; when you're not in the proper physical condition, you're gonna get injured. That's the main reason why I've been training myself up religiously for the past coupla weeks, so I don't end up with a broken something when the tournament comes around. I do think though that I shouldn't continue taking such risks, and perhaps after this tournament I'll do what the wise man would do and quit rugby.

Of course, there's also church. I feel like I've been neglecting it so much, and my service has been very limited by various reasons. I'm trying to get started again serving in the youth ministry - I'm also gonna be leading the youth mission come this June - and I really hope that I can follow through with my plans and get back on track, where I left off. Time, once again will be my enemy. Last term when I was serving as actively as I'd ever served, my weekends were almost entirely taken up, and eventually studies got the upper hand and church activities had to gradually take a back seat. I can't say that it won't happen again this term, but I hope that I'll still manage to perform my duties to my utmost.

It's quite odd, really, for me to be so pensive on my blog. Can't help it though, every time I think of the years ahead it's as if the next coupla years will totally shape the rest of my life. I had a bad first term last year, in the sense that I got myself totally stressed out, and just about burnt out in my last few weeks of school. Till now, I still haven't got myself back to the work rate that I had in the middle of last term, and it's a little worrying too, this inertia. However, I've started to learn to say no to people, and I've realised that I can't be doing everything myself - it's a sure recipe for burnout, as I learnt first hand.

Right now though, I guess all I can do is start wiping the 'useless' activites in my life, and start learning how to balance good grades, an active school life, active service in church, a girlfriend, a proper social life, keeping fit and the expectations of others, all at once. It's a tough life, y'all.

Schick. Me, not the razor.

2006-01-11T00:05:00.000+08:00

It being a holiday and since I'm forbidding my self to study till Peiyan forces me to, I went out for a bit of dinner at Holland V. today. With Boons, of course. Err, nothing vaguely interesting to say about it, except that I got my parking lot within like, 5 minutes, which is quite comparable to striking the lottery at your first try. That, or having a bird crap on your head while you're walking on the street. Oddly enough though, I've had that happen to me too, but the lottery seems to keep evading me...

Anyway, afterward we made our way down to Mount Faber to look-see at what'd happened to the area, what with all the news about its grand opening etc etc. And then, since we were there already, we for some reason decided to take a cable car ride in one of them "glass cabin" cable cars. Glass cabins sound cool? No. It was pretty much a farce, and the glass, other than the windows which every other normal cable car has, looked pretty frosted to me. In other words, not worth the extra $4.10.

Of course, then there was the view. It was shite. While everything looks really nice from the Altivo, it doesn't look quite as impressive from the cable car. Well maybe it'd all look nicer in the day, but who takes the cable car in the day, anyway?

If there were to be one lasting image from my cable car ride though, it would be this:

The view from the top

Fab, isn't it?

Anyway not to say the night was crap lah, at least I had good company *grin*.

- - - - - - - - - -

On another totally different point, I simply cannot comprehend why one would choose to watch an American comedy over a Brit comedy. I mean, the Brits invented comedies! There's no denying the quality in (almost) every single Brit comedy ever made.

I would go into all the technicalities, like comparing the US version of The Office with its Brit counterpart, and the same for other British imports like Coupling, but it's really too obvious to bother with.

Anyway the whole point of writing all this is so that I can have a reason to go on to my main point of the post - I've always wanted to tell a person to the face "You're shite". But well, never had, prolly never will have the chance.

Universiti Pengurusan Singapura Ragbi

2006-01-06T00:41:00.000+08:00

Today a friend of mine told me quite unexpectedly that he reads (or read, don't know which) my blog, and proceeded to inform me that my writing style was rather endearing, much like a 15-year old GEP. Which is some sort of compliment, I suppose, if you're a 14-year old GEP. I, however, am 21 going on 22, and my GEP roots are reasonably well-hidden, so I really hope none of you think the same way.

I've also recently tried out the SMU gym, and I must say I'm nothing short of impressed. It really is the best gym I've ever used by some measure, and this not only applies to the standard of the err, machines. I'm pretty sure too, that per square foot, the SMU gym has the largest number of hot girls. Heh. Not that I'm there to attract the girls, really, I'm only working out for the sake of my sport. Really!

Anyway, one of the main reasons why I'm training up (honestly) is because I've got a tournament coming up in February. Rugby, for the uninformed. And hey, I just realised that "uninformed" without an "n" is just "uniformed". But back to the point. We're up against NUS, NTU and some team called the Barbarians, which I presume consists of people living in Jurong. SMU Rugby has not trained since last term, which was like, 8 weeks ago? And even then, we'd got like 10 players down for each training session, on average. I'm not one of those 10. Anyway, what this means is that we're gonna get steamrollered by NUS and NTU, and quite possibly them Barbarians too, and I'm just training up so that even after losing 99-0, I can still look like a million bucks. See, all for the sake of my sport!

A note about our trainings though - it's so much better now, we've definitely got to have more than 10 people each time. While we used to train down at Turf City, which I'm pretty sure you have to travel through some portal that brings you through some space-time continuum that transports you out of our utopian paradise to another dimension (private joke, this) and lands you up in Malaysia. Not that there's anything bad about Malaysia of course, it's just.... OK fine it's TERRIBLE lah. At least now we're training in some abandoned school in Mountbatten, which is almost east, which therefore qualifies it as a better place. Well yes, it's abandoned school, but don't we all just love the quaint ol' abandoned places in the east? Old Changi Hospital... old barracks in Tekong... all possess that certain rustic charm. OK I've really started rambling already so I'll just stop. Toodles.

Peh.

2006-01-04T23:24:00.000+08:00

I'd typed out like, half a post already, before I realised that just reading the post would result in my readers convulsing and dying from boredom, and I can't have that happening to my... gnnnnn... must... resist... gah two readers, can I? And gee, the joking about joking about having two readers is itself turning a little stale, innit?

So, what to write about, then?

...

Er, nothing. Will be back when I've got some sort of inspiration.

Dear Santa,

2005-12-30T23:05:00.000+08:00

You didn't visit me this year. I've been a good boy, really! So I'm really just hoping you left it till late to visit me, or braked too late on the way here and fell into the ocean, like everyone else does, and are still coming, just a coupla days late.

Since I'm so sure you're going to be here soon, I just want to make a few requests.

1. Stop school from starting. This isn't really my request since I'm a good boy, but that bad, bad boy Lance has been complaining about this and so I thought I'd be a good, good boy and help him ask you.

2. Let ticket number 2626604 win the 1st Prize in the Big Sweep draw next week. I've absolutely no vested interest in this, obviously (since I'm a good boy), it's just that 2626604's been my favourite number all my life! Wouldn't it be cool to have your favourite number win the lottery? And while you're at it, why not let my 2nd favourite number, 2092337 win the 2nd prize? Then it'd be uber cool.

3. Give me more icewine? Please? It's really all for my friends.

4. Help Arsenal find their mojo.

5. Lawnmowers.

They're really small favours to ask, aren't they? If you grant them, I'll be an even better boy next year, and we all know how impossible a task that is!

Love, Me.

Promiscuous points, score!

2005-12-28T19:30:00.000+08:00

Well Christmas celebrations are finally dying down, and the (non-)excitement is gradually slowing to... whatever's less exciting than non-excitement.

Anyway, Lance and I narrowly escaped death yesterday, not once but twice. Our first brush was a half-hour-long ordeal, in which an innocent old man and a road divider were nearly harmed. Yes, it is that scary sitting in a car Crystal is driving. I would provide you with photos, but my hands were too busy clinging on to whatever support I could find (not Lance) in white-knuckled fear to fish out the ol' camera and snap a few shots. Thankfully though, we made it safely, but barely, to Lex's house, where we had our second near-death experience, in which our escape was admittedly fortuitous. We were spared death by poisoning, as Da mercifully decided not to cook for the party, in view of her illness. Cue wild celebrations as we lived to fight another day.

Well technically we also survived a potentially deadly combination of shocking-bright-yellow-shirt and cheap-2003vintage-american-wine, but that was quite easily averted by good taste and errrr... good taste.

Post-party and post-morethanacoupleofdrinks, we trooped down to Union Square for a bit of salsa and brachata (also known the dog-humping dance). What this really means is- Zee, Miche, Crystal and Da salsa-ed, while Shan'er, Lance and I watched the dogs hump. It didn't take long though, for Lance to get into the act.

And yes well, it all started pretty innocuously, but as the night progressed, and with a few drinks, the inevitable happened.

There, it's all out for everyone to see!

- - - - - - - - - -

I was thinking about how my blog's readership's just about doubled recently, and to milk a stale, mouldy and unfunny joke, that means I've got 4 readers now! Laugh, minions. Anyway, I figured that there probably has to be a reason why a blog's popular. Well either the blogger's good looking, really funny, writes satire or writes about sex all the time. I don't write about sex, I don't usually publish satire, and I'm not all that funny. I guess that means...

Anyway, I would write more, but the IIC's been convened, and we've much to discuss tonight. Top of the agenda (mine, anyway): lawnmowers.

And no, you won't get that if you're not in the IIC.

Tis' the season to do folly

2005-12-24T21:19:00.000+08:00

Against all conventional wisdom, I decided to go down to the dreaded place they call 'town' today. And it was a more than a little reminiscent of well, Patpong. The crowds were absolutely insane, raucous, and the guys looked pretty horny too. And I hate, hate, hate crowds.

The underpass between Taka and Wisma needed traffic marshals to keep the flow of people smooth! And even then, it moved at a snail's pace. Almost as bad, the lobby of Taka, where the Christmas tree was. Half of Singapore seemed to want a photo of the tree, no matter that 50 other people were blocking the view of their cameras. I must say too, that I don't really see the allure in a tree that counts signs saying "High Voltage, Do Not Touch" among its decorations.

And Singaporeans, they like to dally around. Well fine, walk slow if you wish but when your group of 4 always walks shoulder to shoulder (ahem. private joke!) along every single walkway it makes it rather impossible for anything or anyone who isn't smaller than a bagel to pass through. Which is particularly irritating, especially if you're a bagel in a rush to get somewhere.

Well anyway, managed to more or less finish up with last minute Christmas shopping! Christmas is always fun, and ugly Singaporeans can't take away that joy (though bad fruitcake sometimes can). Also, courtesy for dearest boons, I've got the best logcake ever! Totally owns 'em swiss rolls covered in chocolate.

And I couldn't help but notice today that contrary to what I'd thought earlier (I haven't been to town in ages, you must excuse me), Singaporeans don't actually dress well. It was fairly upsetting actually, to see the not insignificant number of people dressed in what must be the bane of every self-respecting t-shirt designer's existence: the t-shirt with huge, nonsensical words, usually on the right shoulder, sometimes carrying over to the rear of the right shoulder, occasionally coming with oddly designed collars and sleeves. Quite a mouthful? Let's just call 'em "fugtees" for short. Fugtees, quite simply put, don't make any sense. I was going to quote one of them fugtees right here but just trying to recall what one said brought my brain so dangerously close to implosion I gave up the attempt.

Well it's not like I'm being all snooty about dressing and stuff, but at least dress in something that makes sense! For example, "Varsity Boy Watching Team" certainly makes a lot more sense than "Style Fashion Skate In Elegance".

So S'poreans, walk fast, and dress sensibly. That is all.

Oh yeah, buy good fruitcake too.

- - - - - - - - - -

Note to self: To beat Peiyan, one must not play computer games obsessively during exam periods.

Okay I give you BEST price...

2005-12-23T22:20:00.000+08:00

I'm back! With luggage and lotsa X'mas presents in tow! This gonna be photo HEAVY so be prepared!

We stayed at the Asia Hotel, which is probably where half of all Singaporeans stay when going to Bangkok. Pretty good, really, because it's as convenient as you could wish! Reasonably central, and with a BST (the over-ground MRT) station at its 2nd floor. Our 1st day was really just getting a feel of things, and we trooped off to MBK for dinner and a little walkaround before getting prepared for the next day's activities.

Well our trip was primarily a shopping trip so obviously we spent much of our time at markets! Some were abysmal, some were pretty decent. And some weren't really markets but made for good shopping anyway, like Siam Square. I must say though, the Thais have the cutest and most obedient dogs! Tiny would really be put to shame lah. The shopkeepers have dogs around much of the time and they'd just hang around the area, not needing to be leashed or caged. And they're always really, really cute.

This lil' one though looked a little bit abused. Pink and purple and blue hair!? Poor fella was left on a tiny pedestal, too.

This one was ultra cute. For sale, but not that we could have bought him. I didn't take many other photos of the dogs around, but you'll have to take my word for it!

Apart from the markets, we also took time to visit some of the shopping centres, and none of them impressed as much as Siam Paragon did. The place is huge, more than twice the size of Ngee Ann City, and certainly much much grander. The shops in there are super posh, and there's an entire car showroom on the 2nd floor! Throw in the weird floor numbering system, and the showroom's effectively on the 4th floor (M, G, 1, 2)! And it wasn't no ordinary showroom, they dealt in supercars and superluxury cars. They had a mini-exhibition on the ground floor, and I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw this:

A friggin' Ferrari Enzo! Only 399 built and one of them was right in front of me!

Lloyd couldn't believe his eyes either.

A real thing of beauty.

There were other supercars and not-so-supercars like Lambos, and other Ferraris and Maseratis and Beemers, but I'll just post up a few photos I took. These totally own the cars you saw, Da!

Murcielago. Not in picture: Baby brother Gallardo.

Cool blue Maserati Coupe. There was a Quattroporte lurking somewhere around too.

Paragon also had really cool Xmas decorations, and there was this fountain outside which was pretty cool too!

Ok lah it's not that special, just a nice photo!

Ok, on to the markets!

One of the nice lanterny shops around in Patpong.

Random photo.

Poor Sue!

Among the markets, most definitely the best one we went to was Suan Lum Night Bazaar, which is just a little bit off Patpong, and across the road from Lumphini Park. It's a little more expensive than Chatuchak, but the place is clean, not as crowded, and waaaaay cooler.

On the way to Suan Lum, on the MRT.

Suan Lum.

Erm. A disturbing sight we saw outside the market.

Anyway, back to the market. It's full of cool stores, and though half of them you'd find anywhere in any other market, the other half of the stores are unique, totally cool, and set up by people with taste. So in other words, no mass produced rubbish for goods! The stores were also designed really tastefully, and it took lots of willpower not to empty my wallet there!

There also happened to be a display of cars fully modded and loaded to the brim with ICE (them audio-visual equipment)!

Just to add to the cool-factor of the place, there were not 1, but 2 beer gardens in the place. HUGE ones. One by Tiger, with the customary dual mega screens showing soccer, and the other one where all the other beers came together, with a live performance going on seemingly always.

The longest foosball table I've ever seen, in the Tiger beer garden.

And well, Bangkok wouldn't quite be complete without Patpong (so says the dirty old man), and we did pay a trip or three down to the place, though we didn't go watch them "ping pong banana" shows. We did however go and watch a 'clean' muay thai fight in one of the bars, The Pink Panther. Well yeah it was clean but other than the not-so-high-standard fight, it was really just another go-go-girl bar!

This guy was hilarious. Never seen anyone so on about boxing before. At first he was just yelling at the boxers and doing his own boxing actions ringside. But later on he couldn't take it and when one of the rounds was over he jumped into the ring, grabbed the bottle of water from the pseudo trainer and started massaging the boxer on his thighs and chest and giving him instructions.

Yup, a traditional Thai diet.

Before leaving the hotel.

The present I bought back for Tiny!

- - - - - - - - - -

I want to upload all the photos, but I can't decide which web client to use! I tire of webshots, any recommendations on what's good? I know of flickr and the lot, but which one's reaaaaaaaally good and easy to upload with?

And Pet, give me a call! I'm free nowadays, most of the time. Well after the post-Xmas party season anyways.

To the rest, I'm available to supper again.

To the IIC, I've got icewine!

Oh yeah, and I'll blog about Y Camp soon!

LOAJP

2005-12-19T01:02:00.000+08:00

That's leavin' on a jet plane for you. No time to blog, toodles!

Must I?

2005-12-15T14:48:00.000+08:00

Ever been put in a position when you really didn't want to do something, but a friend asked you to and then you just do it because you feel obliged to, and then you get stuck in this whole commitment thing that you're just dying to get out of but can't tell your friend because it'd cause a whole lot of trouble and he/she'd have to find a replacement and the event would fail and earthquakes would strike Iran, and so you just stay it through its course and feel shitty about it all the way? Well, if you ever are faced with a situation like this, avoid it like the plague right from the start. Don't even be tempted to say yes out of the pure goldness of your heart. Seriously. Firstly, there's the chance you might be forced to work with horrible people (Okay I meant to say stupid, but that'd just be mean, wouldn't it?), which will just worsen your ordeal.

So what do you do then, when stuck in a situation like this already? Pull in more friends and make them feel the way you do! Well, that's what I'm doing!

Also, Kooky, Irresponsible and Repulsive Prof's in Australia, Letting Students Insisting on New Grades Haggle aimlessly. How irresponsible. I hope something's done about this, soon.

Anyway, to the loyal and clueless (same meaning) readership of my blog (yes the 2 readers joke was stale like, yesterday, I know), I'll be off to camp from tomorrow till Sunday. Will try to squeeze in an entry then before I jet off to Bangkok on Monday. Meanwhile, do drive safe.

Teeheehee.

2005-12-14T21:18:00.000+08:00

I'm in school now. How very upsetting. Well at the very least I'm not actually DOING any work, which is more than I can say for dear Crystal, who is *COUGHCOUGHAHEMAHEM*hard*COUGHCOUGHHACKHACK* at work right now at BGS. Lance, meanwhile, is fast asleep on the scummy sofa in the LKC room.

It's been a good day, finally! We took advantage of the last day of the SMU-Menotti offer and had a pretty good meal at Menotti. And what a pleasant surprise it was that we didn't receive crap for service for once! Pretty decent tagliatelle and tiramisu for dessert, plus a very nice kir royale (bubbly with creme de cassis, or something) made me, in Crystal's own words, "very happy now".

Later on though we continued our day of lazing and eating and lazing and eating by heading on down for some mortinis. And for the first time ever at a bar, I got carded. Actually our whole table did. How very upsetting! In fact, this waiter-esque person nearly stopped us at the door lah, before another waitress-ish person waved us in. Well they've probably tired of people walking in an having one drink for two hours and then enjoying the very good (and free) sandwiches. Well not like I've not been guilty of it before, but we ordered two drinks each (which is pretty much the norm, I should think), and yet they gave us looks as though we were four cheapskate Singaporeans sharing 1 drink. All in all, the service we got, really, was pretty .. ahem.. mortifying, from that certain few people (manageress included).

I'm pretty sure though that it all boils down to two factors, 1. We're young, and 2. We're Chinese. Eating at restaurants annoys me a lot nowadays really, and it's just disgusting how Chinese Singaporeans are treated like second class citizens. It's the ol' colonial mindset debate creeping up again, and it utterly disgusts me. True, perhaps on the whole expats do spend more than Chinese youths at restaurants/bars/fashion boutiques/cafes/bookstores/art galleries/convenience stores, but that's hardly the point! How is it fair that an Asian man, dressed in exactly the same manner as a Caucasian man, can be turned away at the door of a restaurant when the latter would be welcomed in warmly? Service staff are there for a reason and that is as plain as their name makes it seem - to provide service, and good service at that. I'm hardly trying to say that Chinese are better than Caucasians or anything to that effect, but merely that we should be treated as equals as far as service is concerned.

Also, it's absurd that we should have to pay 10% service charge for something we didn't receive. The argument is that Singaporeans are cheap yadda yadda and wouldn't tip at all for the service, if service charge was abolished. Well then, if you don't even provide proper service to the Chinaman in your restaurant, how can you even EXPECT to be paid for it? Similarly, the ang moh guy's tipping you because he's generous, yes, but also because you served him well, duh! It's really a vicious cycle, yes?

Very annoying. What more, from one of the foremost restaurants in Singapore. Or perhaps I should say, BECAUSE it's one of the foremost restaurents in Singapore? Ok, rant ends here, don't want to start another racial riot between the readers of my blog. I've got like, three already, y'know.

Anyway, hidden very snugly in between the activities of the day was... well... a new experience. I got my eyebrows ... threaded. It's... painful. If you've seen me before you'd know that my eyebrows are reasonably bushy, and that the eyebrow hair is also reasonably thick. Which all makes for an extremely traumatic first experience threading. Well, at the expense of going into too much detail, my eyebrows are now very neat and shapely. I am, no doubt, well on my way to attracting more gay men with very very good taste, and also am headed in the direction of lance-culinity. That's well... not very manly. But no comment! Ok lah, it's actually pretty cool looking now, and I might actually do it again. Maybe I'll post a photo too, heh.

Anyway, this is a really long post, because I'm still waiting to be able to leave school!! We're going to have a reaaaaaaaaally good time tonight, and hopefully the police chase us while we're at it!

In the meantime, my all-time favourite riddle:
What's brown and sounds like a bell?

Ask me for the answer, preferably in person!

Look what I found!

2005-12-13T11:54:00.000+08:00

Pho, Ice Cream and Mahjong.

2005-12-10T00:30:00.000+08:00

There, you know what I did last night already! No need to blog about it already.

Well, fine, I'll just be boring anyway. Beats telling you about what I did the day before (hint: it involved a couch, a tv and a remote control). Well, we finally managed to get them westerners to make the (very worthwhile) journey down to the east, at Siglap, where they could at least pretend for a night that they were actually easties and were cool. But well, we ALL know the truth, don't we.

So we ate and walked and we ate somemore and then Crystal, Lance and Shan'er came over for some mahjonggggggggggg. Of course, Lance being the true-blue 1/4 indian, didn't know how to play, so we spent like, an hour teaching him how to play, only to have him rush off for some emergency, leaving the 3 of us stranded. BUT, little did any of us suspect that 3 man mahjong's waaaaaaay more fun than 4 man. It's not often that you win games with like, 8 or 9 tais! But yeah, rather disappointingly the night didn't end in drunken havoc and we all trooped off to our various homes (well, except me of course) rather soberly.

Fast forward (well yeah slowly though) to today, and I spent my afternoon over at COH and APSN, who hold the bulk of the beneficiaries for my upcoming camp. It's really a joy to work with the kids/adults there, though it takes immense amounts of patience, a virtue that I could use more of. I'm looking forward to my camp, but I've no idea if I'll be able to survive it without looking like a zombie afterward!

Well I ended off the day having dinner with boons at Siglap (where else) at a quaint little place called Big Fish. You guys should try it! It totally owns Fish & Co, and it isn't very much more expensive, with a greater range of choice on the menu. Plus, and I must emhasise this plus, it isn't crowded. Though now that I've pimped it on my blog, assuming my entire readership starts patronising the place, they'll have 2 less seats available.

Well then, this post has been all joy and laughter, hasn't it?

Supperance Makes the Butt Grow Yonder

2005-12-07T18:22:00.000+08:00

At the urgent behest of dah-lee-nah, I bloggeth.

Well, to state the obvious, exams are over! Also, the Pope's catholic!

To celebrate (or torture ourselves, you decide), we trooped in a rather large group over to Partyworld KTV, which is just about as chachat and dodgy as they come. Well, long long story short, after a ahem, sticky situation, a bunch of us ended up going over to Crytsal's place, which is much much much nicer than Partyworld, even if only on virtue of having better drinks :P. And kiwi martinis DO rock! Which makes me all the happier that I've got a bottle of kiwi vodka at home, too. Pet, if you still read this, kiwi vodka is by no means dodgy-tasting! Oh yeah, also, we set Lance off down the path... wait, he was already halfway down that particular path; anyway, down the path to hairless legism which invariably leads to gaydom.

Of course, the martini night was but the first leg in my big get-back-in-shape-in-December plan, the second leg of which was carried out to perfection yesterday having supper. Orh lua and hokkien mee doth not a fitteth man make.

My sister's prom is today! So I'm (forced to) tag along and watch her while she gets her makeover done. The incentive is however, a free haircut. Ok la actually my mum's paying, but still that's not the point. Well, if it's free, I'm taking it.

Mmm it suddenly struck me that I've seen so many blogs that really don't make sense, none more so than them so-called 'fitness blogs'.

- - - - - - - - - -

Hi everyone! Here's my stats for today!

Breakfast: Low-fat Waffles with whipped cream and maple syrup and vanilla ice cream. And Low-fat chocolate bars. And Low-carb pork belly.

Brunch: Low-fat low-carb champagne. Also had 20oz of Chicken Mayo Salad.

Lunch: Chicken rice with Char Siew. It's really low in something, I just can't remember what.

Tea: Scones and crumpets with clotted cream. What else would I have?

Dinner: Authentic North Indian roti prata from Al-Azhar. Of course, Ben & Jerry's for dessert. I only have Chunky Monkey, of course. Bananas are high in vitamin B, you know.

Supper: Orh Lua and Hokkien mee.

My workout regime for the day!

3 sets of sprints, computer table to fridge.
3 sets of bicep curls, weight: remote control.
5 sets of finger extensions, weight: mouse button.
5 sets of upper body rows, weight: toilet seat.

What do you guys think of my progress! Do leave a comment!

- - - - - - - - - -

Yeesh, that's like the dumbest thing I've ever posted lah. Anyway, holidays are here! And we've got so many things to do and plan that we simply can't decide what to do, that's why we're all stoning at home. Let's go have our churascarria (sp?) soon! Or we'll have to convene the inner, inner circle to decide.

Please?

2005-12-01T01:58:00.000+08:00

Can someone actually comment on my blog so I can like, pretend that people actually read it?

- - - - - - - - - -

Anyways, just one paper left, and I don't really feel like studying for it... spent much of today well... not studying. It's gonna be my first ever uni holiday! *Insert vaguely bimbotic string of comments*

And well, in what turned out to be the revelation of the day, we finally found out what made people cool. As it turns out, living in the east wasn't a good enough prerequisite, seeing as how there were well, uncool people living in the east. But after our short escapade in West Mall (can't remember where it is... I think it's somewhere in Sumatra), we realised that living in the west automatically excluded you from being cool, or tall, for that matter.

So when we found out that the bitchy three of us attended the same kindergarten, we knew we were on to something. Well whatever it is they're doing, Bedok Methodist Church Kindergarten's sure doing it right! Looking at its accomplished and not to forget, cool alumni, there really is no place else you should be looking to send your kid to. Trust me on this. You really wouldn't want your kids to miss out on the knowing looks that BMCKians share with each other, would you?

Now, photos.

- - - - - - - - - -

We just completed our Creative Thinking project a coupla weeks ago, but I neglected to post up pictures... it's just about the most expensive (and fun) project I've ever done, and I don't think any of you who didn't watch the video will understand the photos, but they're generally pretty well taken (so says I) so enjoy!

Our improvised lighting system for our set! One of the many lights we used, this particular one was just spotlights hung on a clothes rack. Our set was waaaaaaaay cool lah. Totally like filming an indie movie.

That's me filming my first scene. It's only a top-half-of-the-body shot which explains the chachat shorts.

The blue lighting we used for Crystal's scene.

The two RI boy wannabes.

Mandatory Crystal Shot #1. FYI, Crystal is in 90% of our photos, so you can't help but put a photo of her up. Otherwise all the photos I'd have here would be those of the toilet bowl and the paint cans. Which isn't such a bad proposition actually...

Our very very nice studio-esque group shot. My face is hidden in shadow so I could afford to put up this photo without being afraid of any of you readers being stunned by my unbelievable beauty.

Mandatory Crystal Shot #2. This was midway through our production. Don't the red smears look like koi? It's totally a piece of art lah.

Mandatory Crystal Shot #3. At the end! It's modern art, I tell ya.

- - - - - - - - - -

Misc shots.

Yes, the exam stress gets to you.

And for all you sick strangers who stalk around Da's blog, here's a photo of nekkid Da for you to fantasize about. Sorry Da, but I couldn't afford looking silly alone!

Oh what the hey, I'll throw in a picture of what we found on Lance after we took his shirt off forcefully.

Scary, innit?

Your Mother was a Hamster and Your Father Smelt of Elderberries!

2005-11-28T02:53:00.000+08:00

French Guard
I'm French! Why do think I have this outrageous
accent, you silly king-a?!

What Monty Python Character are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

For those who want to study but don't

2005-11-27T19:41:00.000+08:00

Here's what's been taking up much of my time recently:

Motherload!

Honestly, if you really really want to study, don't click on it. (if you're Andy or Peiyan, go ahead and click it, it won't make a difference!)

All part of my continuing strategy of doing better by making others do worse. Refrain from sending hatemail!

Back to (ugh)Vitiating Factors. I'm sure we could come up with a song about this some day. Vi-shee-ating fak-torrrs, almost rhymes w-ith tortttt. Ok nevermind. Ciao!

Tiny

2005-11-23T12:40:00.000+08:00

Well for those of you who read my sister's or my brother's blog, you'd probably already know that my favourite dog Tiny got hit by a car. Actually we're not very sure what exactly happened la, just that the gate was left open by accident and Tiny ran out without anyone knowing and 5 minutes later they heard a bang and squealing. For all we know he could've run into the car or something. Anyway they found him lying in a pool of blood with the car in question in front. Seeing my sis and my dad chiong-ing out of the house the car sped off.

Thankfully though Tiny's ok now... he had some stitches done and 8 x-rays just to be sure he hadn't broken any bones. Now don't ask me why they needed 8 x-rays, but know that vets are cheat... er I mean not cheap. The bill was $667! Including some medicine that cost $60 but which my dad sells for $15! But nmind, all that matters is that the dog is fine. He's walking with a limp now, and we wonder whether he prefers life after getting hit, because he's being treated like a prince! Everytime he comes and begs for food we can't help but give him some, and he's really developing quite a paunch from all that eating. But better a fat, living dog than a skinny, dead one.

Here's a photo of him the night after his accident:

Poor dear was all sedated and hardly responded when I got home. The leg that's bandaged apparently was pretty torn up, so at least the (over-charging) vets did a decent job there. He's got these burn marks all over his legs though, hope those heal fine.

Well he's all fine and dandy now

Well on the road to recovery! Anyway am blogging now to kill boredom from all the attempted studying. Sigh. Was tempted to even do a meme to try and pass off as if I were actually trying to maintain my blog, but I think I shall refrain... well for now anyway.

Back to books, and by the way Da's a bimbo.

mixed.

2005-11-22T00:04:00.000+08:00

Mixed day today. But let's just talk about the good. CT project's finally over! And I thought our presentation went pretty well... it'd better, after all the blood sweat tears, and more importantly, money! Was pretty well received too, who'd have known we never really met to discuss and coordinate the actual presentation! Now that it's over though, I kinda miss doing it already. It was reaaaally fun while it lasted! I'm lazy to post up photos though. Besides, 75% of the photos are Crystal photos, so not so much point in putting them up anyway.

And well, it really looks like full steam ahead from here on, I do sense a tinge of burnout creeping up though. It isn't usual for me to be falling asleep at my table a few days in a row, all before midnight! And to think that even after the exams the work doesn't stop till the 18th! But well, at least the 'work' after the exams is enjoyable work.

Meanwhile, I've been growing my small little patch of love handles.

Ok I'm falling asleep in my chair again, ciao. So much for humorous posts, heh.

Bloated.

2005-11-16T23:14:00.000+08:00

My second last presentation's over! Now all I'm left with is the rubbish that is Creative Thinking. And it's no joke either, our project looks to be the most expensive of the lot.

I've really nothing much to blog about, and I think pretty much the only interesting thing now that I could do (apart from deleting my blog) would be to post up a few videos explaining clearly why Da, Mich and Klara are the Spice Girls. Naturally though, in the best interests of the world, I shall refrain.

You know all this rubbish about fear of being charged for sedition, or defamation, or slander, or getting scholarships rescinded, or getting the whole world gossiping about you - it really makes people think twice now when you want to write something vaguely snide, or insulting. Sure, I'd write and call Da a bimbo, or Lance a tranny and we'll all be outraged and have a good laugh, but at the end of the day I know I'm safe because it's really the truth, and you can't be sued for telling the truth. On the other hand, I have to think doubly hard if I want to go on a long rant about the exThaminator simply because if someone important (like, not you) decides to stumble upon my blog, I could just say byebye to my scholarship. And because my limited range of vocabulary is really...limiting, I can't really rant about someone like Pet does without anyone but the most discerning being able to figure out who it's directed at.

So all in all, I just wasted your time talking a whole lot about nothing.

My very first term here's finally coming to an end, and it couldn't seem any further away. If there's one huge gripe I have about the school, it's the sore lack of any sports facility. It's not that SMU students are really studious and all y'know, it's just that when we want to relax and have a game of soccer, there's nowhere we can go to do it. Well except on the Playstation in the library. The LIBRARY.

Ok seeing how I just fell asleep in my chair, methinks I'm a little too tired to be awake now.

Clap-(self)bang-kiss

2005-11-13T22:19:00.000+08:00

Bahahaha. OK fine I just couldn't help but write about it already. I had this little twitch of an urge to write in to the New Paper after seeing the article, but many others have come to the fore with pieces of evidence I could never have hoped to uncover myself. Don't pretend you don't know anything about what's happening!

But anyway, here's balderdash. Pay particular attention to the entries from November 11th onwards. Makes for quite an interesting (and bitchy) read.

My 2 cents? Nothing against what she's done, or her as a person, but seriously, those fateful lines in the interview? Seriously, SELF-BANG!

Sleepy

2005-11-12T00:42:00.000+08:00

Am rather sleepy right now, which explains why I can't really think or write ~~cohrently~~ ~~coheerantly~~ ~~koherenlee~~. Ah forget it I'm going to sleep.

- - - - - - - - - -

Oh by the way, TubbyT is a mean little bugger.

Hot Cross Dres... I mean, Buns.

2005-11-05T20:17:00.000+08:00

Well Halloween came and went, and against my better judgement, I decided to go down for the party even though I'd a TON of work to do and a whole load of deadlines to meet. I didn't regret it.

The day before the party I decided on impulse to go shop for an outfit, and while shopping with my friends (many of whom already had a costume in mind), I chanced upon a huge, gaudy pair of PINK sunglasses. I tried em on just for kicks, and the moment Crystal saw them it was more or less decided it was gonna be part of my garb. And when we saw the pink feather boa hanging around in the shop, my fate was sealed: I was to be Elton John.

Well not precisely, anyway, because as it turned out my final outfit turned out to be more pimpin' than Sir Elton could possibly hope to be, and a lot more gay. But, I shan't bore you too much with words, here are the much awaited photos, enjoy.

The group who got dressed up at Miche's place. From L-R: Bunny, Drag Queen, S&M Muppet, Fugly Cheerleader, Death and 13-year-old NYGH Girl.

With Rach. She dressed up pretty well.. think she went as a "Pretty Girl" or something.

Eileen, Devil Girl (sorta), gettin' it on.

Me pimpin' mah girls. It's no wonder I'm out of business already.

Rawr.

Not in picture: Puke bag.

From L-R: Bunny, Surgeon, Bangla, Brad Pitt

Here's the group photo... we're missing 2 devils and 1 Happy Rotter though. Don't I have the funkiest classmates EVER?

And just in case you didn't notice earlier, check out my pretty blue eye shadow. Most of it's already rubbed off though since this was after I got hom. If you look carefully enough you'll notice the mascara, eyeliner, powder, glittery face cream, lipstick, and glitter in my hair.

Well that's about it! Back to project-ing. Sigh.

The ol' bandwagon.

2005-10-27T00:58:00.000+08:00

I am the boy

I am the boy who can't think of anything to write.

- - - - - - - - - -

So life's been like that. Been spending my days recently moonlighting as AWOL project-mates, and other interesting things like that. And while I sometimes feel the urge to just stand up and scream, I do realise that in the best interests of my own hind, it's really wiser for me to sit down and be silent.

Of Assets and Liabilities

2005-10-15T20:25:00.000+08:00

In the past hour, I've discovered what must be what keeps accountants in their jobs. The reason they don't leave their desks till late at night. The reason why they stay in the office punching away at their keyboards, rather than going home and doing what they do for leisure, er, punching away at their keyboards. The closest they ever come to real excitement - the Accountargasm, if I may.

Now before you lawyer types start your snorting, believe me, this really is as good as it gets. Accountant-wise anyway. And it's also why I'm very sure I won't be an accountant in the future.

Well, here it is - wait for it -

-waaaaait-

My balance sheet balanced.

After 4 (Yes, 4!) full days of work, it is done. I'm so proud of myself. Who da geek?

Stranger in the Elevator

2005-10-10T17:00:00.000+08:00

I was contemplating, for the longest time, writing a poem, and I had all these awesome tricks that I thought I'd slot in. And then I realised that hey, crappy poems, just don't work. But anyway, along the way I figured this much out -

Non-rhyming poems: God's gift to people with lousy vocabulary.

But turns out that there's more to poems than... a jumble of words. Well I can alliterate and juxtapose and onomatopae.. there really isn't a verb for that is there? But anyway my point is I'm a Proven Poor Poet. I'll just stick to the talents that I'm sure I have, like... err.

- - - - - - - - - -

Anyway, it's nice to know that I've still got readers after all. If you must know, I've stopped reading blogs already so I'm pretty much the blogging equivalent of The Tone-Deaf Neighbour Who Sings Karaoke at Night.

Much has happened recently- too much, too fast, maybe. And I'm still trying to stomach it all.

-

little child, be not afraid
though rain pounds harshly against the glass
like an unwanted stranger, there is no danger
I am here tonight

little child, be not afraid
though thunder explodes and lightning flash
illuminates your tear-stained face
I am here tonight

for you know, once even I was a
little child, and I was afraid
but a gentle someone always came
to dry all my tears, trade sweet sleep for fears
and to give a kiss goodnight

well now I am grown
and these years have shown
that rain's a part of how life goes
but it's dark and it's late
so I'll hold you and wait
'til your frightened eyes do close

Vienna Teng - Lullabye for a Stormy Night

-

I'm baaaa-ack.

2005-10-06T23:17:00.000+08:00

Hello! I've decided that the world needed someone to hate, so I've started writing, again. Don't think it'll be on a very regular basis, but it's a start!

Anyway life's been a peach. You wouldn't believe the incredible fun I've been having. Pet, if you think your drinking parties are wild, wait till you see what goes on in the SMU library. Us students indulge in reference materials like you wouldn't believe.

Ok I really can't go on, because my brain is just threatening to cry.

So, in all honesty, school is mind-numbingly boring. The library's always full of people and there're never enough study rooms around. So don't believe everything they say when they say that SMU's different (HA!) and hip (HA! HA!) and a huge load of fun (I tire of typi... oh who am I kidding. HA!).

On a cheerier note though, today was ended by a very pleasant evening sipping mortinis. Yes yes, I know, I'm supposed to have quit drinking. But mortini's aren't REAL drinks. They're like... classier.

So anyway, if you've been wondering what kind of courses we study here at SMU.. we do really deep stuff. Stuff that gets you through life... like, Creative Thinking. And Communication Skills. And Leadership and Team Building. Aren't you wetting your pants with excitement already?

But the school isn't all bad lah of course.. the.... people are nice. The... grass is quite green.

Anyway I shouldn't spend too much time here. I should be blogging now and then, just so yall will know I'm not dead yet. Yup, I live to disappoint you. Woah, talk about double meaning there.

Ciao!

Just for you

2005-08-15T21:26:00.000+08:00

The loyal reader of my blog who still comes here a month after I said I was closing it. Well it's still closed, just that I thought you might want to have a look at the latest addition to the family!

Cute, no? But let me warn you, a puppy is hard work. Am I'm not even the one taking care of it most of the time! I'm like, the part-timer, since I'm hardly home nowadays. You can't leave him alone fr too long, and when you let him out of the cage, you just have to follow him in case he swallows Dad's favourite socks (which by the way, might not be so much of a bad thing). And when you leave him in the cage after playing with him, he barks in such a sad voice that you just HAVE to go back to him. And of course, he poops everywhere. E-very-where. And he uses fingers as chew toys.

BUT, we love him all the same, and we've decided to keep him for good. Mind you, the guy's a real charmer, he didn't need a minute before charming the socks off Mich and Shen. He's a hoot too, especially when he's in his drunken states, staggering about sideways and walking into walls. Don't ask me what he gets drunk on... probably has some stash of catnip hidden somewhere. And even when he's sober, the way he runs is just so cute.. he tries so hard to run but ends up going not much faster than walking pace.

Anyway, can't spend too long here, for those of you who haven't yet seen the photos on my sibling's blogs, here are more!

Oh and by the way, he's not a mongrel! He's a golden retriever, so while he may be really small now, he's got a long way to go!

But all good (or bad, depending on how you see it) things must come to an end (like this seemingly never-ending title)

2005-07-30T00:24:00.000+08:00

OK the title was going to drag on forever and ever, but blogger really is retard-proof, so they stopped me. Anyway, as the title suggests, the horror that is my blog looks like it's reached its end. I've recently reassessed my priorities in life, and really, blogging and blog-reading is a luxury I can't afford nowadays. If you're wondering, I'm focusing a lot of my energy in other areas, which is probably why you hardly see me online nowadays.

It's been fun, mostly, really. But well blogging's sort of lost its lustre, and having so few replies does take a lot of the fun out of it. Well, I might just pop by with a post now and then, but don't expect any particularly meaningful ones! Not that I've been particularly meaningful anytime in my life, anyway.

But anyway, before I leave, here's just a little something from me:

Tips to Get Through Life

1. Don't ask your friend if he/she is going for so-and-so's birthday party, unless you're absolutely sure he/she's been invited. This may result in unnecessary upsettery and frowning. I've learnt it the hard way. Yeap, I'm usually the uninvited one.

2. If your friend just got a haircut, try not to laugh when you see him.

3. Don't punch anyone.

4. Don't get punched.

5. Don't insult people on your "private blog". Unless they're Chinamen. And don't insult your scholarship awarders. Unless they're from China.

6. ...

Ah I give up. Hope y'all had fun here. Till next time.

Away

2005-07-24T23:55:00.000+08:00

Will be away at another camp till Wednesday.

Miss me.

Well well.

2005-07-24T00:25:00.000+08:00

I swear I'd thought of something to write about. Can't seem to remember what it is now though...

Anyway, for the few who I haven't whined to already, the kind souls who have decided to pay for my education have also decided to veto my choice in laptops. No, not my parents. SMU has decided that they'll only reimburse me my money if I buy one of their tender models. Which really means that I'll either have to buy a dinky little tablet which half the school already has, or I'll have to use a black box as a laptop. Yes, a black box, with the letters "IBM" stencilled in very neatly and more importantly, boringly, on the top corner. Well no disrespect intended, but for a college that advertises its different-ness, we certainly aren't given much opportunity to be different in our choice of laptops! But well, I can understand the rationale lah. It's just not very agreeable with me.

And I really question the wisdom of the above rant. I haven't really had much of a point to put across. And you know what happens to rebellious scholars.

Scholar. I'm not used to describing myself that way. Who'd have thought eh, Weiming, Lord of All That is Slothlike and Unmoving, Scholar. Rejected by all, but somehow given a chance by one. Who'd have thought, indeed.

Ah, also, today during a potluck session a previously unheard of brand (at least to me) of ice cream was brought along. Westerners, you are a lucky bunch. The Daily Scoop really does make some more than decent ice cream at $13.50 per 700ml tub. Since I'd had a lot to eat for dinner already, when the ice cream came out I told myself I'd eat only a half scoop of each flavour (Simply Chocolate and Rum & Raisin). I promptly inhaled about 2 scoops of each flavour though. It's at Clementi, apparently, but they do free home deliveries for orders above $50! And we all know, that's really a very small amount, considering the kind of history I've had with ice cream.

And since you weren't at the potluck, I'll have you know that you missed the best mushroom pork chops I've ever made. I've also only made mushroom pork chops once, but at least, this time no one complimented me on the "chicken" I cooked. By the way Trini, this is why you don't get anymore free food delivered to NTU.

Oh, lastly, everyone who shares my taste in music, you MUST check out Vienna Teng. She is awe-haw-some. She gets one less haw than Corrinne May though. But still, awesome in her own right. Pet, I know you'll like her.

Photos GALORE (Part II)

2005-07-19T11:53:00.000+08:00

Ok I managed to get a couple of photos from my Orientation Camp, just thought I'd share them.

My wonderful group, sans facilitator.

One of THOSE games. Pictured in foreground, tall man with underbite struggling not to get drenched.

Us trying to make the "Open or Close" puzzle a little more than really really ridiculously obvious. It failed.

Erm, yeah another one of those games.

Us and the spiderweb. By the way, we all look pretty kok because our shirts are all tucked in. And also, I actually fit through that tiny hole on the bottom left of the picture. Unassisted. Just so you know. Heh.

Final group pic before breaking camp, with facilitator.

I already wrote my thoughts on the camp earlier, so this is just a picture post!

Photos GALORE!

2005-07-19T11:08:00.000+08:00

K I've finally got my lazy ass down to choosing and resizing all my pictures from my Mission Trip, and also have got a couple of photos from my SMU Camp thing... so... enjoy, or be tortured, whichever way you see it.

Yogyakarta!

Day 0

Well, we actually flew on a Sunday evening, so there really aren't many photos from this day! We didn't do work on the day, just went there and settled our admin stuff.

This is the dinky little plane we flew in (Ok I cheated here, the photo's from the day we left), I sat on row 14, and really that's almost at the tail of the plane, so you get a rough idea of how tiny it is. I don't know if it was the plane or the pilot, but our landing was nothing short of... uneasy. The plane wobbled and jerked, felt like its wings were about to be torn off, and on a whole just felt like a rollercoaster ride with air-con.

Group Photo at Changi Airport.

When we arrived at Yogyakarta Airport, there were a couple of our Indonesian hosts from Habitat for Humanity (HFH, the larger organisation we were working under) there to welcome us.

Day 1!

Here's an idea of the condition of the place that we were working at.

Not exactly your village on stilts, but definitely, definitely run down by our standards.

Ok I've only got 1 real photo from this day, but basically Day 1 showed us the task at hand. By lunch time most of us were knackered and blistered from carrying pails of cement, which were used to fill up a roof. By the way, filling a roof with cement means we have to move the pails upwards too! But thank God we had the help of like, half the village, because with their help, we actually managed to finish our entire day's work by lunch! So after lunch we were able to start on our next day's work. Mind you, they weren't obliged to help in any way, they just volunteered their services out of goodwill.

Anyway at the end of the day we were invited to be interviewed on a Christian Radio Station (Petra FM).

We went there to raise awareness, but never did we expect to receive such a boost so early in our trip. Coincidence? Surely not. Find the photo a tad dark? All the better the hide my face with.

Day 2!

The 2nd day, as impossible as it seemed, was even more tiring than day 1. Basically our morning was spent transporting raw materials, which included the following:

50 bags of cement, each weighing 40 kg!

A huge pile of sand and gravel. By the way, this pile is less than half of what we started with! It's harder than it looks!

My cement bag and I. We make a good couple, don't we.

The afternoon consisted mostly of simple work, just prepping the roof (another one) for the cement filling the following day. Was mostly just tying the metal frame together as a support.

Oh, we also had our first chance to interact with the kids in the village, who were all absolute ANGELS. No Singaporean-esque brats, nosirree!

Day 3!

Day 3 proved to be the most painful day of all. We had to carry wet cement again, and this really takes its toll on the hands. A couple of us were already blistered and hurting, and if we weren't, blisters were soon to form. A lasting memory would probably be one of us guys, after work was completed, lining up to get alcohol on our wounds. Ever seen a guy scream?

So basically Day 3's morning consisted of getting the cement from here where it was made

Up that ladder and onto the roof

Sounds simple enough?

I can't remember what we did on Day 3's afternoon though, but it was probably something easy.

Day 4!

Day 4 onwards was really easy going, since we'd completed all the hard work in the earlier days. Mostly just transported materials again, but this time it was simpler stuff, like tiles.

Our evening was spent on a tour to a prawn farm, really quite an eye opener. One remembers us being able to trick Tess that the little orange things in the water were prawns!

The prawn farm.

The youths.

Us with the 2 youth advisors, in really what must be one of our favourite activities: acting cute.

Dinner was FABULOUS. Well that is, unless you're allergic to seafood. Everything you see on the table, save for the rice and the odd plate of fish, is a dish made from prawns. And the prawns were wonderfully fresh and juicy. And we'd actually worried that we wouldn't be well-fed over there.

Day 5!

The most memorable day of the lot. We worked a little in the morning, and then bid the villagers farewell. We spent the better part of the afternoon playing around with the village kids, and some of us got really, really attached to them. Not that we could be blamed for that, of course, the kids were absolute angels.

Me and my homies!

Don't their smiles just melt your heart? That's REAL happiness and contentment on their faces for you.

2 of the cutest things around (the kids, not the girls).

Well we did bring some things to Indonesia. And we left our legacy of acting cute behind.

The mark we left behind. If you're wondering about the Charlie Brown pattern on the bottom, it's because we only had what, 4 colours to work with!

Day 6 and beyond

Well after that it was our rest day before we left for Singapore, and there's nothing much you'd be interested in!

At some mountain. Can't remember the name. By the way, our tour to the mountain (which is a tourist attraction) took up the whole morning, and cost the whole group a grand SG$5.

- - - - - - - - - -

Anyway if you've talked to me recently about the trip, I'd probably have told you how blessed and thankful I feel for being given the chance to go for it. And I'm also really thankful for these 2 people

Tony and Weejin, our youth advisors, who really took a lot of the responsibility off of our shoulders. It's been a real life-changing experience, and the 2 of them really had a huge part in shaping it.

Anyway, as I've mentioned before, the trip really opened my eyes to a lot of things that Singaporeans and people in developed countries in general lack. We're never happy, never content with what we have. I'm guilty too, and we really should change this! Also I mentioned how the villagers just bandied together to help us in our work, even though they had no obligation to, or weren't being paid to. They did it because of how close-knit the village was, and because they felt that we Singaporeans came all the way there to help them build their village, it wouldn't be right for them to just sit around doing nothing. It's not just the adults who helped out, even kids who couldn't be taller than my knee came and did what they could. You won't find that kind of spirit here, for sure.

I'll probably be going again next year, and I can't wait, because everytime I look at this photo,

I'm reminded of the people whose lives I touched, and more importantly, who touched mine. If you do get the chance to meet me sometime, ask me to tell you the stories of the kids who really touched me, and who really deserve so, so much more.

Brilliance exemplified.

2005-07-18T12:11:00.000+08:00

Who else?

After watching Big Fish again today, I'm still pretty sure that Tim Burton is absolutely unparalleled in his art. This one's like, The Nightmare Before Christmas relived! His works with Johnny Depp (all 5 of them, no less) have always been excellent (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? Another must watch) and I expect no less this time! September! We await thy arrival.

Needed!

2005-07-16T23:56:00.000+08:00

Someone to watch the Corrinne May concert with me. 10/08/2005. The concert's sold out, so I've got to buy from someone... who's really pretty much of a tout. If you're interested, tell me, and tell me how much you're willing to pay for a $38 ticket so I can go bid... it's kinda like a blind auction. Bugger. I don't usually solicit for dates (well, not for free anyway), so you should really jump at the opportunity! And while you're at it, pay for my ticket too! Really, you should!

And, Pet! You MUST MUST MUST read my reply to your comment oh, 2 posts ago. Keep all sharp objects away from yourself first though.

We're different. Yeah.

2005-07-15T19:35:00.000+08:00

Well yeah, I'm back, from 3 days of mud, dirty water, terrible weather, weird insects and uncomfortable sleeping conditions. No, I didn't go to China again. And the camp did lose out to China in one very important aspect - food. Anyway the camp was really much of the usual stuff (for me anyway) - no real surprises with any of the games. What I did get, however, was a wonderful group. It wasn't your average enthusiastic, wild bunch. Nor was it the sportiest, funkiest bunch around. But what I had was the quirkiest bunch who were absolute gems to talk and share with.

But now, it's back to life proper again, with work to (not) do, accounts to settle, clothes to wash, meetings to attend. I almost make myself sound busy, eh?

Not much to say, so I'll just leave you with what must be the quote of the year:

"I don't really have one ready, but I suppose I could riff a list of things I care as little about as our last week together. Let's see: low-carb diets, Michael Moore, the Republican National Convention, Kabbalah and all Kabbalah-related products, high definition TV, the Bush daughters, wireless hot spots, The O. C., the U.N., recycling, getting Punk'd, Danny Gans; the Latin Grammys, the real Grammys, Jeff the Wiggle that sleeps a lot, the Yankees payroll, the red states, the blue states, every hybrid car, every talk show host, everything on the planet, everything in the solar system, and everything that exists, past, present and future in all discovered and undiscovered dimensions. Oh, and Hugh Jackman."
- Dr. Cox to J.D on Scrubs

Well I must be doing something right...

2005-07-11T22:28:00.000+08:00

Because suddenly, within the space of an hour, I had 2 hits from USA, 2 from France, and 1 each from Malaysia, Greece, Australia, Uruguay, UK and Portugal. How freaky is that?

Anyway the point of this post was really just to say that I'll be away at camp from the 12th-14th, that's tomorrow till Thursday. Just so you know.

Yeah, I know, you don't really care.

No, I won't be put in life-threatening situations.

Yeah, that means I probably won't die there.

No, you're not supposed to be disappointed.

I am a Shameless Blog-pimp.

2005-07-11T11:14:00.000+08:00

Yup, I know. I've been pimpin' my blog around and so managed to get that few more hits. Cheap thrill, eh? But you know, like the theme song to Pimp My Ride goes, "So you wanna be a playa, but your wheels ain't fly"... well, if you think along those lines, go off track a little, and then take the sliproad to Out-of-Pointville, you'll figure out why I absolutely have to prostitute (<---this word gets me even more hits from Google searches) my blog.

Picture yourself, horny pubescent teenage boy (this is really just an EXAMPLE. It might, however, apply to you if your name is, say, Desmond) blog-hopping. So you're at your friend's blog, and looking for a new read. Which link do you click on? Well, of course, it's Shirley or Patricia or Jennifer or Angel, BUT CERTAINLY NOT WEIMING! I mean, Weiming sounds just about as exciting as a half-ripe peanut! Just to prove a little point, let's look at the number one result returned by Google on the search parameter "weiming", shall we.

Tu Weiming, Harvard-Yenching Professor of Chinese History and Philosophy and of Confucian Studies at Harvard University and Director of the Harvard-Yenching Institute, was born in February 1940 in Kunming, China. He grew up in Taiwan and obtained a B.A. in Chinese Studies at Tunghai University (1961). He received his M.A. (1963) and Ph.D. (1968) both at Harvard. He taught Chinese intellectual history, philosophies of China, and Confucian studies at Princeton University (1967-71) and University of California at Berkeley (1971-81). He also taught at Peking University, Taiwan University, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and L'Ecole Pratique des Haute E’tudes.

Now don't you just need to read his blog already. No, seriously.

I mean, it's not like hits really matter that much to me. But it's nice to have the odd person actually REPLY to my posts. My pet hamster George seems to be more responsive to me than the readership of this blog! George died, oh, about 10 years ago, by the way. No, my name is not John Nash.

Anyway, I have devised a theory. One which involves my fatness being inversely proportional to the distance Pet is from me (No, Pet, seriously). Now that you're tucked away safely in cheerful, blisteringly cold NZ, I have miraculously regained my taste for oatmeal and all things cardboard. I shall write a paper on this, and dedicate it to you. Now, now, don't get all sheepish (Erm, sheep. NZ. Geddit? Geddit?). Ok you're going to shoot me now, aren't you.

Oh don't have a cow.

I'm sorry. Couldn't resist it.

But you have to admit, IT IS FUNNY!

QOTD

2005-07-10T08:33:00.000+08:00

(X-Men: The Animated Series, Season 1)

Gambit catches Jubilee as she falls, and proceeds to throw his projectiles at the chasing sentinel.

Jubilee: "Wow, how'd you do that?"

Gambit: "With style, petit."

Oh I love Gambit so.

Disappointments aplenty.

2005-07-10T00:07:00.000+08:00

1. Lions get whipped by the All-Blacks. Again. Clive Woodward. You are a moron. Graham Henry. You are a genius. And the ABs - with Daniel Carter - look set to rule the rugby world for years to come.

2. Boks put up a pathetic show against the Wallabies. After all the big talk, it was only inevitable eh?

3. M. Schumacher's 9th on the grid? 9TH!? The F2005 is quite honestly, a crap car. The car's slower than the BARs and the BMWs and the Toyotas and the McLarens and the Williams'. Well that leaves, erm, Jordan, Sauber and Minardi. Wow, what an achievement. Ferrari needs to get their act together, and quickly.

At least my dear LA's still top of the Tour de France. And looks to stay that way, all the way, with Basso and Ullrich quite a distance behind with all the Mountainous stages yet to come.

- - - - - - - - - -

Life's been... boring. Pet, come back. I need more DVDs. Jac, Pet wants your Coupling. And your X-Men's coming along nicely.

OK, I've been sitting in my seat for nearly an hour, and suddenly I realise there's a huge basket right beside me. Point being? Well, nothing, really. Just needed a space filler.

So anyway, is anyone interested in buying a really good and rather underused bike? It's only been in 1 major accident! And at least one of the brakes still works! And trust me, the chain's not going to snap when you need it the most! Honestly though, I'm seriously considering selling off my bike. It's been quite the white elephant since I got hit by that car, oh, a year ago? I should've just sold it then and bought like, Pet's rusting Vespa. Or a year's supply of Haagen Daz. Oh scrap that, make it two years' worth.

Also am aching for a good round of Mahjong. I don't know why, really. MJ and me usually equates to weiming donates his money for public good.

You know, I really wonder if my blog depresses people. I think I write in a really stoned tone. I need a bit of tingting-ishness in my blog (sorry ting for borrowing a name, you're just the most cheerful person I could think of!). I think what I really need are more exclamation marks!

Did it work!

Guess not!

Anyway, will be getting photos from my Yogyakarta trip tomorrow (like, a month overdue)! So will prob post up a few! So, the 3 of you regular readers, stay tuned!

Not the most exciting post ever.

2005-07-09T01:07:00.000+08:00

Just a little update. Laptop's yet to be bought! Waiting for some good lobangs to appear, preferably not under my feet (hur. hur. hur.).

Anyway have been moderately busy the past 2 days with this new program I've signed up for. I actually think it's pretty worthwhile; A little background, SMU requires its students to clock 80 hours of community service during their 4 years in the school. So during matriculation there're hoards of comm service groups lining the corridors pimping their own projects. Basically their selling point's always "Complete your 80 hours before school starts!" or "Save time on travelling with flexible plan!" or "Live nude girls this way!". But I really don't need the hours since I'm probably going to be going with my church on the (hopefully) yearly mission trip, which can (hopefully, again) be used in the computation of community service hours. Long story short (wasn't very... short, was it), I looked for the projects that had the most meaning.

Anyway so this project that I've been involved with recently's some E-Mentoring thing. Basically they get kids from secondary schools to take part in online forums and then we as E-Mentors try and impart values to them, and guide them along the right track in life.

Sounds slack eh? But honestly you'd be astounded by the effect the internet has on these kids. I truly believe that us E-Mentors can really make a huge difference to many of them.

Anyway, not content with doing a long distance relationship-ish thing, I also signed up for another mentoring program which would involve personal interaction. But that's going to start 2 weeks from now, so there's another thing to look forward to.

Oh yeah, for those who I haven't talked to in the past 3 months, I'm going to SMU.

Then again, those who I haven't talked to in the past 3 months, if you read this blog, please do leave your mark here. I'm really interested to see who my stalkers are.

I'm seriously bored. So bored, you couldnt possibly bore me any more, not even with a drill. (ya, I know, I already used that on my MSN nick. I like it. So sue me.)

Erm, and for those who're interested, I'm off to orientation camp next week. Tuesday to Thursday. So Friday to Sunday's free. Start getting your queue numbers.

OK this is seriously the most boring post EVER. So if you're still reading this up to this point, you must really have nothing to do. Or you really do love me. (erm, send me a photo if you're female and this applies to you)
Ahem. Anyway, nothing much else. I'll try and be more interesting tomorrow, I promise. Till then, Good night.

To Sony or not to Sony.

2005-07-06T19:54:00.000+08:00

Well, if you really MUST know what's been going on with my terribly exciting life, the past few days have involved a highly exhilirating search... for my new laptop. Sure sends the pulses racing, doesn't it?

Anyway my search has been extensive, and I have considered all factors which all laptop shoppers must consider as important in making their decisions, not least of all, how pretty the laptop is. Erm, yeah.

Long story short, I've now narrowed down my search to Chio Notebook no. 1, and Chio Notebook no. 2. Confused? Not to fear, I've pictures!

The Sony Vaio S48. How could you possibly resist a notebook THIS PRETTY?
[Here's the link to its page]

The Asus W3V. It's far, far better looking in real life, I assure you. You can't really see the brushed aluminium surface (drool) from the picture.
[Other link here]

And in case you haven't yet realised, YES I AM A GEEK.

But a very choosy one.

So if anyone's vaguely interested in helping me make a choice, let me know and I'll promptly drown you with the specs and prices and pros and cons of each choice, and assuming you don't kill me in a knee-jerk reaction, you could then help me (a little) in deciding.

But, you ask, what benefits come with helping Weiming?
Ah, the benefits are many, though immaterial and not tangible. For instance, you will have my complete and utter gratitude. Such things are hard to come by nowadays. If you wish, you may also request for a nice kiss (satisfaction guaranteed). However, if you are a good-looking female, this is compulsory. If you are a male, this option is not available.

OK but jokes aside, I really need help. This is like choosing between Heidi Klum and Angelina Jolie for a wife. They're both really good looking, are pretty hot when turned on, don't have that good a memory, have nice curves and well, don't really mind ugly husbands.
(but I was only half joking about the good-looking female option)

- - - - - - - - - -

But enough already about all things short-sighted and geeky. The weeks ahead hold much campish activities, and I'm probably going to be somewhat not around.

In other news, I cra-a-a-a-a-a-ve for more Ma La Huo Guo. And raw beef. And Crab Powder Xiao Long Bao. I do, however, appreciate that while we don't have such good food, we do have very nice, un-hairy women here. Don't get it? Next time you pay a visit to China, open your eyes and, erm, don't keep looking upwards.

Oh, also, if you ever get the chance, do watch Mar Adentro (The Sea Inside). It's an excellent movie, if having to read the subtitles does take some of its appeal away. If you don't yet know who to borrow it from, you must not have known me for very long.

I know,

2005-07-04T00:40:00.000+08:00

I haven't been blogging regularly. Well, I'm not about to start, yet. Been busy with church, matriculation and life, somewhat in that order. Cheers, y'all!

I'm back! (Picture heavy post)

2005-06-28T10:33:00.000+08:00

And suddenly I'm in up over my head in things to do, medical appointment to book, matriculation to settle, church meetings to go for, shopping with my sister, people to meet (Pet, your source of entertainment in NZ is at stake here), and overdue birthday presents to get (but mostly optional, of course -grin-).

Well anyway, more on Shanghai. To quote a certain award-winning writer who goes by the surname Lee, Shanghai was... "well I can't say good. Not bad? Not at war?" Well it's surprising how they're not at war, seeing how utterly rude, inconsiderate, uncouth, impolite, and so very... Chinese the people there were. Traffic is a killer. All. The. Bloody. Time. Not a minute goes by without half a dozen people honking their horns. Cab rides are somewhat similar to a rollercoaster ride, smell of vomit included. The roads are filthy, and spit-stained. Street vendors keep yelling at you in a mishmash of Cheenglish that usually goes like, "Hallo! Hi! Lookee lookee! Watchee? Baggie?" And the haze. Don't even get me started. So why, you ask, did I even bother to visit such a place?

Well, if it wasn't to laugh at the Chinese, it must've been the shopping, because it was awesome! And the food! So amazingly cheap! I'm surprised I haven't already qualified for a compulsory purchase of 2 seats on the plane ride back, given how cheap the food was. To give you an idea of how much food there costs, a meal at a reasonably posh Chinese restaurant cost us about SG$80 for 7 people. And we were absolutely stuffed after each meal. And the Ma2 La2 Huo3 Guo1 and Xiao3 Long2 Bao1, simply too good to resist eating more than once during our trip. Shopping was, in my opinion at least, second only to Bangkok. The Swatch lookalikes cost $4 apiece, and were really, really erm, real looking! One really needs thick skin to bargain though. And usually the best bargains are to be had when you don't really want the item. For example, we were given a quote of $33 for a pashmina shawl. We managed to get it down to $4, but only because we didn't really want it! But we ended up buying like, 7 just for the sake of buying it, since it was so cheap anyway.

To be fair to the place though, there were some pretty impressive sights. The Bund was a pretty impressive array of architecture, if somewhat lacking in entertainment and organisation. Xin1 Tian1 Di4 (New World) was like something straight from Europe. Totally un-China, it was like Holland Village, but five times better. JinMao Tower, while providing an uninspiring view, is rather much an architectural masterpiece. And Pudong Airport, while mind-numbingly boring on the inside, is huge. But enough words already, on to the photos!

When we just arrived, our van-taxi ride to the hotel. A costly S$50, but cheap, considering it was 50km away.

This is at XinTianDi, in front of the main shopping building there. I forgot to mention, we ran into YikLey at the XiangYang market on our first day! We knew he was in Shanghai and had joked about searching the red light district for him, who'd have known we'd actually run into him, what more at a decent place. Only got to spend a day with him, but he brought us around and to his friend's bar, where he rather generously treated us to TWO bottles of Chivas.

At the bar. He also introduced us to his friend, Carol, the first good-looking Shanghainese we would meet, and also the last one we would see for a while...

We also visited the supposedly world-famous Shanghai Museum, and well, you can't always be serious at a museum...

and my favourite piece of work:

Foggy view from the 88th floor of China's tallest building, JinMao Tower. The needle with the 3 balls is some TV tower, which is supposedly taller than the building we were in, by virtue of its very long needle. Confusing, it is. Emerged from said tower $10 poorer and uninspired, decided not to visit needle with balls.

The tower however also had the Shanghai Grand Hyatt, which occupied the 54th to 87th floor of the building. From the 88th floor there's a viewing window where you can look all the way down the the hotel lobby. Pretty, yes?

Shanghai's most famous church. As can be seen, we were late.

One of the highlights of our trip, the food!

The XiaoLongBao is damn cheap, and better than any I've had in Singapore.

Something we really, really should have back here. The restaurant also sold a raw beef sashimi-like dish, which we Cheenadequate (Chinese-inadequate, geddit? geddit? OK fine. Not as funny as I thought.) people ordered by mistake. However, it turned out to be so good, we ended up ordering another 2 plates that day and the next time we went to the restaurant.

And of course, who can forget the beer...

Cheaper than Coke here, and a really decent beer, too.

One thing that the Chinese really must have is a sense of humour. Their English is, to put it tactfully, laughable.

Check out the fake Crocodile!

And my favourite shop.

The Shanghainese are supposedly the best looking people in China, but for the first 5 days of our trip, perhaps the best looking person we'd met was..

OK well, there was YikLey's friend and that girl at the counter at Starbucks, but she comes a close third!

Coincidence? No?

But well all trips come to an end, and frankly I was pretty glad to just get back into my own warm bed, and away from the dreadfully dusty air.

But then we read in the papers that China has yet to make sexual harassment a punishable crime, so...

And perv of the day (and week, probably), Ryan Goh:

Well, that's about all I've got on Shanghai. But first, a final salute to China.

Catch y'all around.

2005-06-19T19:56:00.000+08:00

Off to shanghai for a week, be back on the 27th!

2005-06-17T11:57:00.000+08:00

After my second time through it, I still think Band of Brothers is the best war production ever (well unless you consider Schindler's List a war movie, it'd be a close fight then). If you haven't watched it before, you should.

"...for he who sheds his blood with me today, shall be my brother..."

2005-06-14T11:44:00.000+08:00

Before I left I mentioned a new show on WB, Beauty and the Geek. It's, quite simply put, AWESOME. The 2nd ep just screened and I'm already hooked. I wish they'd just start screening it in Singapore already.

One thing the show's producers must have got wrong though must have been their selection of some of the participants. One "geek" in question looks like he might be the lovechild of Tom Cruise and Tony Almeyda (from 24, can't remember his real name). Not surprisingly though it didn't take too long for him to hook up with one of the girls there. Unfortunately for him though, his partner was really, one of the mistakes as far as it came to girl selection.

There you have, Brad, the nerd who lifts weights 3 times a week, and Krystal, who somehow dances for the 76ers.

There are also the extreme couples like the one below:

Richard is the quintessential geek, the kind you'd expect to see on TV playing the geek role. And he even acts the part! I wouldn't be half surprised to learn that he's actually a hired actor brought in to play the part. Mindi on the other hand is totally, absolutely, drop-dead H-O-T. I'm totally just waiting for Brad to pick up the guts to put the moves on Mindi (who, by the way, is also waiting to enter University, so doesn't really qualify for the bimbo tag either).

The remaining couples really just occupy the middle ground. The guys are really nerdy in their habits and hobbies but really look pretty fine, and the girls are just pretty above average looking girls (with the exception of Lauren) who're really quite air-headed too (brings to mind girl who spelled tattoo, "T-A-T-O-O").

It's really an awesome show and it's a pity Eric got eliminated in the first round since he's like the nicest guy in the world, and looks like he might be really good looking given a makeover.

In Loving Memory...

2005-06-13T17:21:00.000+08:00

I hadn't heard the news earlier since I was over at Indonesia. Well I finally did today, and it really got me thinking. Life's really short, live it without regrets.

I really hope with all my heart that Fei's family is holding up well, and I'm glad that they know that he only left to be with the Lord.

I'm Ba-ack!

2005-06-13T09:57:00.000+08:00

Am back from Yogyakarta, and I'm only blogging now because I've just managed to catch up on some of the 30-or-so hours of sleep that I've missed.

I'd write more about the trip, but I think that much of the emotion that I have about the trip would most likely be understood only by those actually on the trip, or those who've been on mission trips before. What I do want to say though, is that the villagers over there really put Singaporeans to shame with their kindness and hospitality, even to absolute strangers. It's really just opened my eyes to how selfish and inconsiderate people here really are.

Yeah well, that's about all I have really. If you want to date me, do it quick! I'm jetting of to not-so-sunny, not-so-beautiful Shanghai next Monday.

Away.

2005-06-05T02:38:00.000+08:00

In what must be every zit-faced nerd out there's wet dream, Ashton Kutcher has come up with the oddest (and potentially most interesting) reality TV show yet. It's titled Beauty and the Geek, and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what it's all about.

7(I think) Women who include Cheerleaders, Showgirls, Dancers and the like are paired with 7 Geeks, some of whom have never been on a date in their lives. Well, the show could be a roaring success, or quite simply just crash and burn.

I'll be following its progress with much interest.

- - - - - - - - - -

Anyway, I'm off today, flight's at 6 PM. Will be back next Sunday, about the same time. See y'all.

Just so I can demonstrate how much time I have...

2005-06-02T19:08:00.000+08:00

I just caught another movie, a throwback to the era of not-so-special effects, Platoon, which is arguably what propelled Oliver Stone to fame. Nothing much to say about it, I really liked the earlier movie a lot more, but was fun seeing familiar faces like my very much loved Perry Cox, M.D., playing a spineless Sgt Red O'Neill. Also, was a little odd seeing a young Johnny Depp speaking Vietnamese (or whatever the people in Vietnam speak). Made me wonder if he actually knew what he was saying, or whether he was just spouting random syllables.

The portrayal of the Vietcong was a little insulting though, as the only 'congs you got to see were really small, and had really high pitched, irritating war cries. Pretty much all they got to say throughout the whole movie was a very nasal "Yaaaaaarghhh".

Perhaps testament to how good the movie is is that I actually sat through the entire thing. If you know me well enough, you might know that I don't like movies that have lousy pictures, which pretty much automatically disqualifies most movies from before 1990. By my own admission, I've never finished watching a single black and white film. Ever. The closest I've come to one was Citizen Kane, which I've watched half of, in 2 sittings! And mind you, Citizen Kane's a real classic. I guess I'm just shallow like that.

Also, in my previous post I forgot to mention, that I think Ben Kingsley bears an uncanny resemblance to Terry O'Quinn, of Lost fame. And more importantly, I didn't win $1.5million today.

Now, what movie to watch next. My butt grows ever larger.

House of Sand and Fog

2005-06-02T15:57:00.000+08:00

I just finished watching this, and honestly, I don't know why it took me a year and a half before I did, even after a reliable source recommended it to me. It's a truly excellent show; immensely moving, haunting and beautifully tragic. It probably speaks for itself that I could really really enjoy the show, even whilst nursing a slight hangover. Hell, I think it even cured my hangover.

For those who haven't had the benefit yet of catching this masterpiece, it's a story which reflects the gap between cultures, as well as several other underlying lessons, about humanity and hope. The directing is nowhere short of superb, and what more from a first-time director. Given how good this show was, I'm most definitely going to be in the queue for his next movie, Truce, even though the premise doesn't sound all that appealing.

That's not where it ends though, the acting in the movie is stunning. Jennifer Connelly showed once again that behind that pretty face (and hot body) there lies immense talent, and that her performance in A Beautiful Mind was not a one-off thing. (She's acting next in yet another American adaptation of a Jap horror flick, Dark Water) And it goes without saying that Ben Kingsley, as always, delivered a breathtaking performance (I honestly think he should have got an Oscar for it). Shohreh Aghdashloo and Jonathan Ahdout were excellent too, and together they helped create a beautifully emotional movie. I only wish that they'd gotten a better actor than Ron Eldard to play Lester, his role was really crucial to the main point of the movie. To be fair to him, he was OK in the role, but given that he was standing among giants, he really showed up as inadequate.

Anyway, if you really want to buy or rent a DVD, this is my recommendation for the moment. Don't get it though, if you're looking for a happy show. The movie is tragic at best, but is definitely a keeper.

- - - - - - - - - -

So the first Wednesday of the month's passed, and I'm still not $2 million richer. I think I should stop buying Big Sweep.

Today's Thursday though, and hopefully I'll be $1.5 mil richer by the end of the day.

A little sidenote.

2005-05-31T22:43:00.000+08:00

I was just looking at my freshly-cut hair, and thinking, what a horrible haircut I'd got, again. Then it occurred to me, that perhaps the reason why every haircut seemed horrible to me was that I secretly expect my haircuts to magically turn me into Brad Pitt.

It's still a crap haircut though.

Advice You Might Need Sometime in Your Life (especially if you're a CTU Agent in LA)

2005-05-31T17:19:00.000+08:00

[DISCLAIMER: If you might watch Season 4 of 24 anytime in the future, and think that I might inadvertently reveal some spoilers, feel free not to read on until the long line made of dashes]

I've just finished watching Season 4 of 24, and really, there is a whole lot to be gleaned from the series. Apart from the glaring stereotypes and the entire incredulity that one might view the entire situation with, it was a pretty good show, with more than its fair share of cliffhangers. Shocking though, was how the people over at CTU (Counter-Terrorism Unit, for the uninitiated) could be so terribly brilliant at times, and yet so unbelievably stupid at others (I was miles ahead of them in the exploding car scene during the penultimate episode!).

Also, there is a slight suspicion (on my part, anyway) of a political agenda in this show, seeing how President Charles Logan bears more than a slight resemblance to someone we all know very well: Unconfident, unable to make decisions, incompetent, inept, unsure and most importantly, made President of the USA by default. The portrayal of the Chinese was also very typically... Chinese. How can one forget the guy at the Chinese Consulate, with the impossibly small and slitty eyes? Or the Vice-Counsel, ever sly and cunning? It's only too bad they didn't have China launch a nuclear strike of their own. That'd have made the Finale even more exciting, though no more preposterous than it already was.

As expected with a show that promises action real-time however, there're always a few problems, if you just bother to analyse the show hard enough. For example, how helicopters travel at blinding speeds sometimes, and yet crawl slower than cars at others. And how field agents take 20 minutes to reach their objective, and then take about 2 to get back after their mission.

The finale was slightly disappointing though, but I won't spoil it any further. As a whole the season was more than decent, better than the first even, I reckon. As usual, I thought David Palmer was awesome, and I absolutely adored Chloe and Edgar, personality disorders et al.

Anyway, the amount of time I have on my hands has allowed me to compile a guide, with some tips I've come up with after careful analysis of a day in the life of a CTU Agent.

How Not to Die
(A guide lovingly prepared by a 24 viewer)

1. Do NOT fight Jack Bauer. Not even if you're 20 against 1. You just can't win.
2. If you can, be Jack Bauer.
3. Don't approach the terrorist in the car. (and you thought that was obvious enough)
4. Don't secure the perimeter, get someone else to do it.
5. Never be the unnamed Agent who provides backup for Bauer. You're really just going to be the guy who gets shot, so that he knows he's under fire, and
6. Don't be a relative or loved one of a CTU Agent.

The last point is utterly crucial if you never want to be kidnapped, tortured or killed. If you're a CTU Agent, warn your family. They'll probably be kidnapped and held hostage. Or trapped in a nuclear fallout. Or get killed saving the world.

Also, I've learnt how to get really really really really rich real fast by doing illegal work, and yet never get prosecuted. After seeing it happen more than a few times on the show, I'm convinced that all you have to do is offer your services to terrorists for a fee. After you've done your part, try and get caught by the CTU. Upon capture, pretend to offer resistance. Jack Bauer will then come by, and in a display of his omnipotence, offer you immunity from prosecution for past or present crimes for a clue. Give it to him, and you're free! And rich! Of course you then become a target for the terrorists, but then after you confess you never appear again in the show, so you can't really die, can you?

- - - - - - - - - -

But enough about 24 already. It's been a period of season finales. Veronica Mars and Scrubs ended a coupla weeks ago, and more recently Desperate Housewives, Lost, House and Grey's Anatomy ended their first seasons. There's been the absolutely awesome (Mars), and the unbelievably disappointing (Lost). But more importantly, I now have no more TV to watch.

- - - - - - - - - -

I'm sure everyone's had that time when they saw something amazing and yet, didn't have a camera on hand to keep the memory with them. Like the time you saw the UFO land in your backyard. Or when you saw Bigfoot taking a crap in your loo. I had one such occasion on Sunday (and it was real!) when I saw the last person in the world I'd have expected, mopping the floor outside Raffles City. Of course, it sounds a lot worse here than it actually was, but I'm more than happy to leave it that way. I'm on the verge of killing myself right now however, as realisation dawns upon me that my phone HAS a camera.

GSS

2005-05-29T00:07:00.000+08:00

Guilt is a powerful feeling. And I'm kinda overwhelmed by it now, given how much I've spent in the past half a day. Add to that the amount that Jane spent, and you've pretty much got enough to feed a third world family for a year. Make that 2 years. and it's only the 2nd day of the Grrrreat Singapore Sale. It's really scary.

However, that feeling is quite nullified by the glee of a good bargain, and so all's not that bad. I know, I'm terrible. Anyway in the great Weiming-like tradition of CD buying, I walked into HMV and emerged no more than 5 minutes later, 2 brand new CDs in hand. I've wanted them for a long time already though, so no regrets. If you're curious, they're Rachael Yamagata's Happenstance and a collaborations by Stan Getz and Joao Gilberto.

So far, what I've learnt from the GSS? It pays much, much, much better to have a UOB credit card on your hands than it does any other bank. The number of discounts available to UOB cardholders is simply mindboggling. In fact, my best deal of the day came from a UOB discount.

So now, with a considerably fattened wardrobe, I can finally concentrate my efforts on... CDs. I've still got that pending order on Amazon.com because I really can't bear to place a $160 order just like that. Even if they ARE absolutely awesome CDs.

- - - - - - - - - -

And in the tragic news of the day, Elitetorrents.org has just been closed down by the Feds over at our dear US-of-frickin'-A. Coupled with the fact that the 2 top providers for my TV torrents are already down, it looks like my days of piracy are over, with a capital O.

Well, as usual I've got nothing much to write, so I'll just leave you with photos from the very enjoyable time last night at Holland V.

Not Pictured: Couple making out in the corner.

Yup, they're still in the corner.

There they are.

Kong and Xiaowen. Check out Keith in the background, doing his best impression of George W. choking on his pretzel.

OK, I'm out. Need some good sleep before I collapse from utter exhaustion. Have a good week ahead y'all!

An Unprecedented Event

2005-05-26T05:37:00.000+08:00

that's me blogging 3 times in 1 night. anyway, pool's won it, what a game. extraordinary to the very last second. who'd have predicted this result!? though the commentator's half-joke about jerzy dudek becoming liverpool's hero did eerily ring true...

still have time, so...

2005-05-26T02:15:00.000+08:00

Musical Baton, passed on from Pet.

Total Volume of Music Files on My Computer
29.40GB, 5158 songs, 14.4 days.

The Last CD I Bought Was
I just bought 4 CDs a coupla days ago actually, among which most worthy of mention would be Rilo Kiley - More Adventurous and k.d. lang - Hymns of the 49th Parallel. ah heck, i bought Joni Mitchell - Hits and The Doves - The Last Broadcast too, since they were on offer. I've got a consignment of 7 more cds on the way from Amazon though! So, so awesome.

Song Playing Right Now
Vaughan Penn - Brokenhearted

Five Songs That I Listen to a Lot, or Mean a Lot to Me
tough... i guess i'll just name a couple of my current favourites.

1. Eagles - Hotel California (Live version), a no-brainer, really.

2. Bob Carlisle - Butterfly Kisses, i get the chills everytime i hear this one. almost makes me want to have a daughter. almost, i said.

3. Lifehouse - Blind (the acoustic version). ok a little pop-py, but really this is how acoustic songs should be done. close fight with STP's Plush though.

4. Tony Bennett - The Way You Look Tonight, by far the best version of this song.

5. Josh Groban - You Raise Me Up

But I can't just have 5 favourite songs, so, also worthy of mention: James Ingram - Just Once, Frank Sinatra - Fly Me to the Moon, Jem - Flying High, Rachael Yamagata - Reason Why and Worn Me Down, George Michael - Kissing a Fool, and a whole lot of songs by Tegan and Sara.

Five People I'm Passing the Baton to (really just the people who I know for sure read my blog)
1. Jane
2. Ting
3. Kiew
4. Melody (if you still do read this)
5. Trini

And just to end off, there're a few artistes that really do deserve your support. Tegan and Sara, Rilo Kiley, Butterfly Boucher, Jem, Vaughan Penn and Nellie McKay are really unknown over here. Buy their CDs! they ALL rock. Ok time for soccer! Oh crap milan just scored.

ok

2005-05-26T01:52:00.000+08:00

so i'm sort of forcing myself to blog, since it's about an hour from the champions league final, and i've got pretty much nothing to do. might as well keep my blog alive until i hit 20000 hits.

anyway it's been a pretty decent week overall. my indon mission trip is coming along nicely, after a rather shaky start. we've finally got our priorities sorted and got some organisation to ourselves, so it's looking peachy. that is until money comes into the picture. money's still tight, but i'm sure we'll pull through. for those who're bothered, i'm going to be away from the 5th to the 12th.

sentosa on monday, which was a bit of a mistake, the beach was waaay crowded with the vesak day crowd, not to mention palawan beach (our initial destination), which seemed as though there was some huge gathering for all people under 14 years of age. well thankfully we decided to make the move over to siloso beach, where the crowd (and by crowd i mean crowd) was much better, though still not overly pleasing to the eye. no photos here because i have like, 4 photos from the day, and no group photo, mostly because some people left without a word halfway through, and also because i was, well, lazy to gather everyone for a photo. overall, still a good day, topped off with a visit to good ol' tanglin area where we stopped by 2 Ridley Park for my dose of cargasmic goodness. in that brief second i spent outside the house i spotted 5 cars and identified a Murcielago, an F430, a 911 GT2 (i think), another car that was blocked from my view (possibly a 575 Maranello), and most importantly, a Zonda. total value of those 5 cars, easily more than $7 million. the bulk of that's because of the Zonda though, which is worth between $3-4 million. someday, it'll be my turn to take over that house. i'm serious!

and then we come to today, which was really an okay day until the crappy ending. but oh well, at least there's soccer to cheer me up! my money's on pool to win the damn thing, and so's my heart. and i think majority of the neutrals out there are also rooting for the reds.

and tomorrow (26th May) is the police cup finals! that's JC rugby for you, so if any of you have the time, make your way down to police academy. i'm not sure what time the match starts as of now, but i believe it should be somewhere around 4.30pm to 5pm.

well, that's about all the updates i have now. time to wait for the big match.