Made In China!

My dad bought an amplifier from somewhere in bugis... some unknown brand. Here, word-for-word, are excerpts of the "Usage manual"

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High class family movie theatre figures stereo set series

AV-series voice frequcncy powcr chlarger

Usage manual

Use to bchind collect as treasure, then have to check

(Page 1)

To customer:

Thank yoked very much to buy our company's product, for make this product can bring the most satisfied sound effect to young, at usage before, please detailed read this usage the manual, for the purpose of understanding main theme of various functions and various operations of this products.

These machine characteristics:

-Forerunner's exceed is low to lose the true function to enlarge the circuit

-The profession class is efficiently low to leak the magnetism wreath type the transformer

-Forerunner's figures karaoke system

-Double the road microphone input the electric outlet

-Special front-panel that process of high technique

Safe suggestion:

Usage this product before invite the whole a reading book the safety suggestion, then insure this product and Human body the safety.

-Please not to try to fix or refit this machine, and not dismantle the outer shell, contact the safety of scathing breakdown for will for dangerously, may causing this machine and your Human body of internal piece.

-Avoid to placed the following situation:

1. machine from cold of the environment inside were taken the sufficient to divide in the heading's environment, and the machine inside may coagulate the humidity to cause can't normal work, therefore in the confirmation this machine the inner part have no at the back of the humidity and can use.

2. close to the headwaters such as wash rinse pond, damp ground floor... etc. the place.

3. long hours expose in the vertical to shoot the room inside of the sunlight bottom, and close to the strong light source or hot fountainhead.

4. there is high dust, steam or temperature, have the soot's place.

(Page 6)

Break down the phenomenon

-The karaoke have no the voice ........

-Have no the voice ........

-The loudhailer have no the voices .......

(Page 7)

-our company maintains to entrust the responsible for contact of dealer to contact.

-this product continuously improve, design the specification to may have the alteration, forgive with the function not another line circular.

-this manual the contents is already careful checkup, such as appear mistake to leak because of the printing or other reason, and cause the question to please contact with our company to this, and our company is your service the enthusiasm.

(Page 8)

The guarantee to keep sth. in good repair byelaw

My company inside (from purchase the day that invoice open out the calculation) of product at a year, such as the occurence not artificial facter breakdown that cause, was checked by company to belong to solid, free fix and replace spare parts.

But below the circumstance does not belong to the guarantee to keep sth. in good repair the scope:

1, inaccuracy the operation results in the product damage.

2, by onself the disassembly to change any part (such as circuit, spare parts) and artificial damage of product inner part.

3, the artificial damage of product external appearance transforms.

This card pleases appropriate take care of, if product quantity is take placed with operate the problem, and please with my company after-sales service department contact.

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Chairman Mao, he say, what the fark toking you??? hahahhahahah you have NO IDEA how hard it was to type this out... with the struggle to type in horrigible engrish!! who in the world wld understand it? prob his fellow chinamen also wun lor!!

5 Questions for... TT Durai

Today's TNP had an article saying that ppl have been calling in after rare sightings of the elusive T. T. Durai. They actually caught up with the guy at some fren's office, and once he knew they were reporters, he scampered off into the wilderness again, with the fren blocking reporters.

TNP also asked what ppl wanted to hear from the weasel-ly guy himself. some 18 yr old actually wanted to know how he and his family were coping with the fiasco! Talk about being naively noble. Look kid, if my name was splashed in newspapers for days and i had no less than S$13million stashed away somewhere, i'd be like a rock star lor! wat an idiot... hahahah with so much money, i'm such he has no trouble coping at all... save for knowing that he wldn't hv gotten much more if he didn't get caught so soon....

Anyway, in response to TNP's Top 5 Questions the Ppl wanna ask TT, I got my own 5 questions:

1) So where's the money? Swiss Bank? Bank of Mumbai? (apparently he goes there often with Mathilda) Under your mattress? It IS your mattress??

2) Since now you, Richard, Alwyn, Mathilda, Su Ying and the rest of your whole merry gang can no longer get employment in Singapore but can't leave, who's the one most likely to get an Extreme Makeover first? (might i suggest mathilda needs one anyway)

3) How much are your assets worth in total? (ie. How much can the people of Singapore expect you to return to them, willingly or not?)

4) Presently there are plenty of bloggers slamming you and your frens, ranging from wanting to know answers, to insulting language, to pathetic attempts at satire like this blog. But after all that's happened, do you still have the balls to sue anyone now?

5) Last question. So where do you get ur spiffy long sleeved shirts? always see you in them during press conferences and court hearings... never any creases!! must be real good material!! 1 how much??

A Merry Christmas Afterall

Dearest Ally, Bowl, Cyclist, Kok, Meng, Piak, Puss and Qi (although not all of u know of this place)

Thanx for making my x'mas merry. Thanx for the cards, cakes, games, cap, coffee, and the use of house + huggable penguin. And most of all thanx for the company.

:)

Rockie's Tales - Waiting For Santa In Singapore

“Don’t worry darling… I’m sure he’ll come next year.” Mum said to the forlorn little girl staring downcast at the warm milk and soft cookies on the table.


A week later on the 1st day of school, the little girl couldn’t help but overhear school mates here and there gushing about Christmas night:
“… and Santa gave me this Hello Kitty backpack! Just what I want for Primary 2!”
“… almost as big as my baby brother! And then hor, when you hug the soft tummy, got music one leh…”
“… she ALWAYS gets more presents than me. Not fair!”

Of course, she was smart enough to know that not all presents came from him, no matter what they insisted. It wasn’t their fault though; it was just their parents lying to them about the origin of the presents. She would know. She caught her Dad 3 years ago.

One loud voice caught her attention. It was one of the more popular girls in school, the one with long, straight, slightly brown hair, always tied in two ribbons. But it wasn’t the volume, but what was spoken and the whining tone that stood out:
“… why must Santa always come at meenite? Then I want to watch the 10.30 movie on TV also cannot, my mummy say must close door and go to sleep else Santa wun come… Don’t come don’t come lah! Every year come very troublesome leh!”

She felt hurt for him. Knowing how popular this particular girl was, she was sure Santa DID drop by her place every year. She knew that if only he came to her place, just for once, she would welcome him warmly and treat him with affection and respect. But against her heart, she knew she shouldn’t try to make him stay – he would have many, many more children to visit and presents to deliver. This popular girl clearly didn’t know how lucky she was.


She knew he was real. Mum told her that she herself had a visit from Santa, when she was six years old. Only that one time, and never again. Mum reasoned that since Santa was an ang moh, he probably only came to Singapore occasionally. More often, he would be in those ang moh countries where they would get presents from him personally every year, or else those ang moh parents would get angry, and they probably knew where he lived.

She knew there were plenty of fake ones as well. Especially those at places like Toys R’us or those shopping centres with big water fountains. Santa wouldn’t have the time to sit around and pose for photos or ring bells and shout out “HO HO HO MERRY CHRISTMAS”. During this period he would have so many toys to make and so many deliveries to plan, he would be as busy and cranky as Mum was during her peak periods at work.

Then she realized it might be the HDB flats that confused him! After all, he’s used to those nice ang moh houses with chimneys and gardens… maybe he got confused by the endless corridors with similar doors and windows. She never ever went to the far end of the corridor herself – she had been warned of a fierce dog living there. Maybe Santa could never get past that dog as well.


So this time round, she decided to help him find her house. With Mum’s help, they strung up twinkling lights on their windows and front door, in addition to the sparkling Christmas tree they kept on every night. On evenings, coming back from the shopping centres, she could clearly see her spruced up, twinkling and flashing windows, high up on her block, all the way from the playground. He wouldn’t be able to miss her house this year.

Of course, since they didn’t have a chimney, he would be coming in by the front door. She once did think that he would come in from the rubbish chute, and tried to leave the door to that open. But she dropped that silly idea since what Mum said was true – surely he didn’t want to come into people’s houses so stinky. And what if someone happened to throw a whole big bag of durian husks down? Surely he was too smart for that. No, he would still land on the roof of the HDB flat with his sleigh and reindeer… climb down the ladder from the roof to the staircase landing and visit each door one by one. She hoped that seeing the guiding lights on her front door would make him brave enough to quickly dart past the house with the fierce dog.

But still, they couldn’t leave the door unlocked for him. It wasn’t safe. Only Mum would be allowed to stay up and open the door for him. She wasn’t allowed to open the door for anyone at night anymore, ever since that year she happily dashed and opened the door to a drunk neighbour who mistakenly thought he was home. Her terrified scream woke up everyone in the block, and definitely sobered up the newly-oriented, unkempt and apologetic drunkard.

Even with plenty of earlier mistaken identities at shopping centres, that really bad scare, and with every Christmas morning being disappointing so far, she still hoped that one year, he would come. She wasn’t getting any younger… had a grand old age of 8, all she needed was 4 more years before she would have enough allowance to buy herself presents, and maybe then Santa would see no point in delivering to her anymore.

So she helped Mum place the usual tall glass of cold milk (they only used the tall glasses for rare, important guests) and a plate of eight Chipsmore chocolate chip cookies (her favourite, and signifying her age) on the table, with a note to help himself to more in the fridge, if the milk wasn’t cold enough or the Tupperware, if the cookies had gone soft.

That night, she couldn’t sleep, of course. But she knew she couldn’t let a soul know she was still awake as well, or else he wouldn’t come in. She hid under her comforter, alert for any and every creak, squeak or bump. Motionless and silent, she lay there until… until…


Her eyes shot open wide and stared momentarily, taking in the daylight. She fell asleep! She threw off the comforter and ran out of her room.

“Don’t worry darling… I’m sure he’ll come next year.” Mum said to the forlorn little girl, staring downcast at the warm milk and soft cookies on the table.

Giving Answers

I've turned down 2 x'mas appts (a rarity, i might add (turning appts down, not x'mas appts.)) for todae and tml.

i'm not "mourning" in a sense that my depressive period is over... a short 2 days, partly thanx to a day spent outside with kitty. being home alone helps, but only for the inital stage. when its time to get over it, fresh air(con) is good.

i've turned them down coz within these gatherings, there are ppl who i do not owe answers to, esp to one particular question i know will pop out. these ppl were frens of a tainted past, now casual acquaintances at most. or those who have always been nothing more than acquaintances.

a few frens have already asked me that question over msn - the close frens out of goodwill, and hopefully the not-so-close ones too. But it is the wrong question to ask, so i do not give any answers.

but face-to-face is different. questions asked face-to-face are more difficult to leave hanging without answers, especially when repeatedly asked. so one of two outcomes wld happen:
a) i still do not give answers - leading to the question repeated, making everyone curious and getting me irritated.
b) i snap the answer out - leading to the atmosphere being tense and everyone uneasy.
so i choose to not make them happen.

so why is it the wrong question? coz i will get irritated and pissed. and on hearing the answer, ppl will start offering meaningless statements meant to comfort - which i do not need. or worse, attempt to make the situation humourous - which i do not think it is so. especially from ppl who are not impt to me.

so don't take offense if i don't go to your gathering. it's just that the combination of some ppl and some questions wld ruin the evening for everyone. (i quite power hor? can ruin it for everyone. haha) and don't worry. if u read this, u're not likely to be unimportant to me. but still, the wrong questions will not get u answers.

someone did ask me the right question. but i volunteered the answer without the question first because she went thru the exact same thing before. that's probably how she knew wat the right question was.

anyway, i'm still going for a x'mas gathering on sundae with a grp of close frens. not bcoz all of them are close enuff to ask the wrong question, but coz they're close enuff to not ask it.

Troubling Thoughts On Sleepless Night

Actually, even though its 3.15am and I haven't slept yet, it's not due to the thoughts. I've been marvellously entertained by blogs. Just search "NKF" on blogger and you can spend hours laughing at what singaporeans have to say abt durai and his antics.

But it's coz of all these blogs that I have troubling thoughts. And of coz the eventful days i've been having. They're still jumbled, so I hope i get them all down.

First of all, who says singaporeans are apathetic? Have u searched "NKF" under blogger like I told u to? Go. Go check it out. WOW. and some of these entries are really good. 1 guy even wrote a cover letter applying to be the CEO of the "old NKF" to Gerard Ee. Now why didn't i think of that?

And I thot I did write rather well. I admit the quality of words waxes and wanes with the tides of my moods... but at least I thot I was entertaining. But now I see that it's not "a mountain behind still got one mountain higher"(Chinese four-letter word) but there are so many high mountains above me... and i notice 2 patterns about the good blogs:

a) most of their entries are commentaries, and they satire what is going on.
b) they have many links to other blogs or news sources.

My blog is different coz (a) sounds too much like work to me, and there's nothing I like more than to talk about myself. Hence this entry, of course. (b), OTOH, sounds like too much work to me...

So... suddenly it strikes me... how mediocre I am. Now only hv i not accomplished anything much in these 25yrs... what skills or attributes I thot I had pale in comparison to others.

My writing: is nothing compared to so many others.
My photography skills: are overrated - only some are really good.
My outdoor & leadership skills: are sorely unused.
My people skills: are merely an effort in facade I need to maintain.
My relationships with others: deserve a whole entry by itself.
My self discipline: is non-existent.
My plan for the future: is always sitting around waiting for something to happen.

I'm already getting left behind. Can't afford to sit around with my head in the sand anymore... For too long I've been cursing the darkness, but not daring to light the candle. I've always been ranting about what could have been, when in actual fact I don't know for sure. Hiding behind inherent difficulties was always easier than actually finding out "what if"? Giving too many excuses.

"All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us." -
Gandalf

So I have been given more time to develop my body and mind - to do what I need to. I hope i have the strength to to keep at it. Maybe everything does have a good reason for happening; but it is up to me so see that the reason does indeed become a good one.

note to self: a journey of a thousand miles - is not merely a single step.

Suggested Penalties for Public Enemy No.1 - Durai

I am in a rather foul predictament, but I have to speak up on this.

For one, I really really hope that Durai, that evil bitch, gets convicted for criminal offences and gets thrown into jail and butt farked by unclean toilet brushes wielded by disgruntled hardcore criminals who were moved by the countless NKF charity shows to make a $10, $20, or $50 donation to a 1900-number, of which plenty went to high flying trips around the world. I hope they make him fly so high he sees stars.

Barring which, here's a suggestion on how he can pay a fine instead. Based on a few assumptions:
a) Every donor asking for refunds from "the new" NKF will only hurt patients and their measly million-dollar reserves.
b) We do not know for sure exactly how much he got direct from donations and how much he got from possible kickbacks from other director's entreprises.
so we use calculation.

Since durai likes to calculate back payments so much, let's calculate the amount he got since 1992 when he became CEO:

in the ST case, it was revealed that in the last 3 yrs he got a take home pay of $1.8million.
which leads to $600,000/- a year.
CPF contribution is about 33%, so it's 798,000/- a year.
have a back payment since 1992, that's 13 years, he needs to pay back to the public $10,374,000/-

This does not include his benefits of insurance, car(s), air tickets, cashcard top ups, credit card bills, "unused" leave, "OT" pay, etc. from ST yesterday:

"OT" Pay: $187,000 from Sept 97 to Oct 03
"unused" Leave which he extended himself: $423,000 from May 95 to Nov 03
Credit Card Bills paid for by NKF: $290,447
Car payments, including insurance, tax, repairs, wife's cashcard: $6885.86 for THIS YEAR ALONE not including his own cashcard
(NB: his wife cashcard topup is $423.61. imagine his shd be about same amount. I don't even use that much a year on my debit card!)
Bonuses: not known exactly yet, betw 4 to 12mths. average of 8mths then.
Air tickets and insurance amounted not stated in ST.

So, we extrapolate some of these figures. Stated "OT" Pay claimed is about half is tenure. So he possibly got $374,000 in total.
Car payments extrapolated for 12.5yrs, based on the figure above only being for 1/2 a year: $172,146.50

So amount, which is still less than total, stands at $10,374,000 + $374,000 + $172,146.50 + $423,000 + $290,447 = $11,633,593.50

of coz, still got interest rate. i don't have exact figures, so let's estimate it to be 12%, including possible investments he made with that money, which comes up to $13,029,624.72/- which he owes donors. still not including other numbers yet to be released by newspapers. This penalty should be extended to the whole board of evil directors he was in cahoots with as well.

So this is how much singaporeans have been blindly giving him. An estimated $1million a year straight into his pocket and perks. So what he would need to do is hire KPMG, since his old frens at PwC seem so incompetent, so dig the records and find out which singaporeans donated how much in proportion to the total population and give back accordingly based on the $13million figure. Then all would be forgiven and he would be allowed to take back his passport and run back to his hometown in india (hopefully) penniless and never be heard of again.

Of coz some might think, with all that trouble and all that money, it wld be easier to go to jail. but durai should note that only a select few has the option of exchanging money for jail time. Just ask melvyn "boo hoo hoo i'm cancelling my few-hundred-dollar-per-ticket shows and running home to jolly old england" tan.

in fact, the courts would probably cite that case as an example, since both of them share many similarities: durai is also now a famous household name, and is a great musician! just ask all those employees, donors and gahmen ppl who've been listening to his music like the children in the "Pied Piper of Hamelin"

Added: We cannot thank them enough. They cannot compensate us enough.

Note to self: I'm not giving to charities anymore! Unless I'm the CEO of one... hahahhha

Further note to self: Dream job - CEO and all-encompassing despot of HUGE charitable organisation with standing policies of non-disclosure and being in good books of reporters.

Who Heeds...

...when the horn of gondor sounds?

World Class

I have no frigging idea why NTU always claims it is one of the top universities in the world when

a) employers dun hv a good impression of its graduates, as reported in newspapers recently
b) students hv many gripes, be it about campus transport, ECAs and accommodation administration, academic administration, teaching and non-teaching staff, and food. hey, isn't that almost everything?

so, wat's my gripe todae? SAO (or whoever's in charge of exams) has so kindly put "3rd week of december" for everyone's fricking release of results. probably to give leeway to the poor academic staff who mark so fricking hard every may and nov and do nothing much but speak to OHPs for the large part of the yr.

so it's nerve wracking for ppl like me who's anxious to graduate. i nv was bothered by results before, coz i knew no matter wat, i'd still be studying the next sem. now's different. now i either am free, or shackled for another sem. nerve wracking.

so which WEEK do they consider 3rd wk? if they consider the half that was nov and the half that was dec the 1st wk, this wld be 4th wk liao. so whole of last wk i checked, and apparently this wk is the 3rd wk.

so which DAY are they going to release it? it can be any day, coz they didn't specify. i checked over the wkend, and today got some ppl get their results liao, but i still hvn't. so i gotta come online and check EVERYDAY.

i just hope that they'll delaying my results so that they can push everything up to a pass. haha.

assholes. causing me to lose sleep and get anxiety attacks. I hope they get only between 1 wk to 1mth of bonus, not revealed exactly until their payday, which exact date will be revealed later.

i hope i hv nothing to do with NTU from this mth on....

Uncontrollable

I tried to prevent it, but it still comes back. But of coz, these times nv last.

I used to believe there's no such thing as fate. Maybe there is after all. Perhaps this is my purposeless fate...

Oh well. purposeless doesn't mean not fun...

Tired after driving 4 dead bodies home. 7am and still up. time to sleep....

Something's Missing

Thot wld hv plans on thurs, but nothing materialised.

Thot wld hv plans on fri, but was cancelled the day before.

Heng chel replied positively. so had coffee with chel, zz and girl. then went late nite KTV after.

I just took a step back and let the others decide wat next. i tend to do that when i'm with them... dunno why. i guess since i hv no violent objections to their plentiful ideas... so anything lor. as long as the company's there, everything's cool.

Didn't sing much though, dunno why also. Didn't feel like, there wasn't a song in my head. Just simply, no mood. Others requested many songs, and inserted them in front of mine as well. strangely, i didn't mind at all. none of my requested songs made it to the TV, but i didn't give a crap anyway.

Why?

Something's missing somewhere... Purpose maybe.

Of coz going KTV dun need purpose... but the whole picture in general. Since sch ended i've just been bumming around, meeting frens, having fun. sure, i did run stanchart... but it's over liao.

Ppl around me mostly now have busy, miserable jobs... but as they always say, at least they're earning. The more miserable the job, the higher the pay. IF i grad i'll look for a job and will be like them too... working and earning.

But there's a nagging feeling tt tells me i'll be doing tt mainly coz I shd, coz tt's expected of me. It is some kind of responsibility to my family and to myself too, and of coz i shall find a job which i like and will hv fun in. So it isn't too bad.

But still... something's missing. There's got to be more than this.

But what?

Stand Up or Stand Down?

Over dinner, Dad suddenly said that I shd learn to take things easier, not to let the small things bother me and get me upset.

????

Had no idea wat brought it on. Wat he actually meant was I shdn't keep picking on ppl and finding fault and getting everyone upset. Even if ppl were unreasonable, there are so many of them around, so no pt getting worked up all the time. Let things pass, it's all small stuff. He cited the chinamen incidents and the LJS 30 cents incident as examples.

My defence was i wasn't really upset over those incidents, but i needed to do wat i felt was right, to do the right thing for myself anyway. He didn't really buy it, so in order not to argue i reluctantly said ok.

Dear Dad... i know he means well. He's afraid tt i'll either die early from a heart attack or a parang one if i carry on "picking on ppl". but he worries needlessly coz I don't take these things to heart... in fact if i've been trampled on and don't do anything abt it, to stand up for myself, i'll regret over wat i could hv done and get the heart attack anyway. as for parang attacks... i choose my battles. usually in a controlled environment, ie. sch lib or fast food restaurant, and i only, only fight when i know i'm right.

So how do I convince him that i'm only standing up to bullies? I've been bullied before... 2 real bad incidents were once, in pri sch by 2 classmates, and once in sec sch by a teacher (yup, tt's rite. if u want more details let me know.) Dad helped resolve both incidents: by telling me to report it to the teacher in pri sch, and coming with me to see the principal in sec sch.

So along the way I decided I've had enuff... I will no longer be a silent victim of bullying, be it unreasonable reserving of seats or the cheating of my money, no matter how small an amt. I know there're plenty of silent victims out there, either choosing to lay low and skulk away or choosing to ignore and forget. But every time a victim stays silent, the bully is just emboldened to inflict his unreasonable behaviour on someone else.

Idealistic, yes. but i stand up to bullies in hope that my behaviour wld put a stop to, or at least discourage, their's. that others will be spared of being bullied or cheated. And also I stand up for myself so i will nv ask myself y i took that lying down.

note to self: Support CASE!

Day of Darkness...

Currently Playing: Old Chines Song whose title I have no idea but the lyrics are super tacky by My uncle

Bad day. Woken up late, by a nightmare, and started wondering abt my solo trip. Had my first coffee only at 4.45pm, therefore cranky and uncoordinated. Met my mum after work and got closed on by a lift door operated by some damn cock aunty. Took a nap, woken up by sparodically by:

Dad comes home from work and whistles, Mum opens the door for him.

Dad speaking loudly thru the intercom: "YAH YAH THAT'S MY BROTHER"

Uncle's voice.

Dad's voice.

Suddenly, in my dream about multi storied MRT stations with unending flights of escalators and rumbling trains on every floor, a whiny, nasal voice starts singing a tacky chinese song which sounds very, very old.

I wake up in blurness... the song still being played... and after a long while, i realise it's my uncle! first thot was: did he write that song? u know the kind where only the song writer thinks it's brilliant and oblivious to the agonised faces all around when the song is played? it went something like (translation):

I sent you present... did you get it...
Some presents cannot be seen by eyes
blah blah blah
Presents must treasure....
Else someone else will take it...
blah blah blah

In all honesty, my uncle's a very nice guy. but his nasal singing voice just makes the tacky chinese song worse. needless to say, cannot sleep liao. so here i am recording this day of darkness. everything seems to go wrong somewhere. i hope this is the end of it liao....

Having Doubts.

I might be having second thoughts.

"Why you want to go alone? One person not boring meh?"

"So I can discover myself once again. Just Purple Monster and me."

Really? Do I really want to be in a faraway strange foreign land with strangers all around?

All by myself?

Eating bread for meals?

Sleeping in small huts all alone in the middle of nowhere?

Forced to seek the company of strangers?

Forced to talk to sheep to ease boredom?

Spending money doing ridiculous things?

Like kayaking in rough open sea?

Like being spun round in a washing machine?

Like walking all alone for days in wilderness?

Like taking long, long bus rides?

All by myself?



Yup. Coz then there'll be no one else around to learn about.

Hauntings

Even though it was all over so long ago, some things just won't let u go.

Even though you don't talk or even think about it, their names, their faces still haunt you.

You wake up with a jolt, almost in a cold sweat.

I've had 2 nightmares this week liao. Back, surrounded by them.

Even as I'm being released from one nightmare, another old one is reclaiming me.

One I have no control over.

I hope it doesn't come back to reclaim me for real. At least now, they are still dreams.

Just twisted, altered memories from my tortured mind.

Some Wedding

Currently Playing: Mais, Que Na by Astrude Gilberto

Just attended my Dad's cousin's son's wedding. some guy i've never met before. Minutes after taking my seat i realised why i shdn't hv come... always get so bored at these family gatherings. the adults make small talk and i can only talk to my bro and make small talk back to adults. oh yah, i'm an adult too... hahahah but u know wat i mean. most of the time i'm so bored i constantly fiddle with my hp and hope someone smses me out of my misery.

at least the hyatt hotel played nice bossa nova. been so obsessed with zero7 i forgot how nice bossa can be. esp in that kinda setting... cool dark evening dinner. with plenty of chatter to contend with.

the opening of the dinner was rather funny though. they played some kinda house-style music and the unrehearsed-enuff waiters and waitress for the 53 tables came out in batches of 5-6 at a time... all nervously taking their places and frantically waiting for the next cue. with no one guiding their positions, the front few tables, which were supposed to be most impt, were missing waiters.

then the cue came for them to serve the tables. with no order to speak of, the waiters dumped the cold dish plates on the nearest table they could find. the waiter nearest to me hurriedly looked from table to table, which 3 out of 4 were empty, and placed his plate on one of them (not mine); all around waiters in black were rushing abt to their "usual" positions of serving, almost knoocking into each other. kinda like giant ants. hahahh

anyway. i sympathise with my bro's position more than my own really... not only is he bored, now being the eldest unmarried grandson, he's constantly badgered to get married. can't blame my grandma... 92yrs old liao. and so far only 1 grandchild married.

so i'm in a large ballroom filled with ppl i'm supposed to know, watching slide shows of ppl i dunno, and supposed to share in their wedded bliss and all that. but when they play the games and show the slides and all that, i'm just wondering when the next dish is coming, i'm starving.

there was a point to all this, but i've forgotten wat. maybe something abt how i dun really like extended family gatherings. and CNY is coming up.

well anyway i've had enuff of this bliss bliss bliss crap. anyone whos getting married, let me know beforehand. i'll need to check my schedule to see if i dun hv a plane ride to cambodia or somewhere that day....

Hmmm.

Many a time, something turns out to be nothing.

Oh well. I got FarCry now. So heck. :-)

The Perils of Looking Unboring

Currently Playing: In The Waiting Line by Zero7

"Your hair all black, look kind of boring... but at least you look less beng."

That was just one of the oxymorons and nonsensical sentences that characterised the dinner I had with misa. other examples include: "You look like you've shrunk." etc.

so taking her advice to look less boring and more uncouth, I had my hair hairlighted todae.

was a little hesitant... and i came to realise why when the hairdresser aunty (an ex-lian) started to trying to pull a gigantic condom ridden with holes to fit over my head.

after much painful tugging she suggested i pull myself, which might be less hurting. then she proceeded to forcefully gouge out tufts of hair thru the holes of the "condom", using some kind of metal stick. ouch. ouch. ouch.

she left to answer the phone. and i see a ridiculous image in the mirror: a balding guy with tufts of long hair sticking out at right angles and a huge condom on his head. aunty ahlian must hv been wondering y i had a silly grin.

then, using some kind of brush, she slathered my stray tufts of hair and the gigantic condom with foul smelling hair dye. and left to do other stuff.

all the while, her husband had been cleaning up the floor and windows and mirrors and nagging at their boisterous 7-yr old girl to pick up all her toys: they were going JB tml, so any toy left behind wldn't go with them. although their first language is hokkien, second language chinese, the couple nv failed to speak to their daughter in english, however broken. it showed: her english was rather ok.

so as the family milled abt the place, i sat there motionless, staring into space, with a gigantic condom on my head stinking to high heaven. just bored until the tv start blaring that terrible chicken little + cockroach song in chinese. now i was bored senseless.

finally it was time for the condom to come off. the rest of the hair cut was ok enuff, i usually let the barbers do wat they want... hair gel is the antidote to all haircut disasters. but for some reason aunty ahlian was just obsessed with getting rid of tiny little hairs at the back of my neck. by the 4th time she ran that little electric razor up and down my neck i was thinking "aiyah ok oready lah..."

and so it was done. but i didn't bring enuff money!! short of $9. she and husband said nvm, next time pass by then give her the rest lor.

very heartland feeling... kids at the shop, hokkien speaking owners, dun mind u paying next time. anyway i'll be going there often coz it's the nearest one i know... the next one is prob few hundred metres away...

New Desktop PC

Currently Playing: The Space Between by Zero7

Got my new computer up and running yesterday! thanx to Alwyn!

Advertisement: Wanna get a new computer fixed up in place of an old one? just look for Alwyn! In return for old dusty RAMs and Graphics Cards, he'll do a customised quotation of components, go with u to sim lim and buy, go to ur place and fix up + install all the necessary software, even wash ur plates after dinner and give free t-shirt from chiang mai some more!! where else can get this kind of service? call Alwyn todae!!

Back to blog.

Now every component is shiny black. from new superbright LCD monitor, shiny new CPU, squeaky clean keyboard, young mouse, modem, speakers, everything. before this it was all sticky and dusty black. hahahah

u notice something weird. "squeaky clean keyboard". yup... u guessed rite. i cleaned my old keyboard and plugged it into the new CPU. not just clean, SQUEAKY clean! i took old all the keys one by one, wiped them, wiped away all the dust and petrified food particles underneath. i know, coz i remember dropping them there... especially the chocolate and cookie crumbs. hahahahha

but hey i'm not the only culprit lor. last time when i was staying with those chao ang mohs in hall, they got use my computer w/o permission lor. come back over the wkend and the keyboard feels sticky. and i know they do eat and drop half their food all over the room. well i'm assuming the stickiness comes from food. i will not entertain any other thots on that.

so how did i make sure i put every key back in place? when i take them out one by one, i place them on the table in order like a "virtual keyboard" lah! u think i memorise every position ah? ahahah even took a photo of the "keyboard" with me virtually typing! hahahah but i can't upload it coz i just lent my buddy my camera....

so for now, my whole table setup is clean! from cables behind the monitor untouched for mths, to the once-dusty keys. FOR NOW lah... hahahah but one thing is for sure... no more petrified food!

note to self: no eating in the room!

The Last of FYP?

just spent $49.20 to print and bind my FYP report.

as I carried the papers as gently as i could to the binding shop... had a funny mix of emotions.

Felt proud coz I did it all by myself, all 72 pages of it.

Felt guilty coz it was only 72 pages - i could have done more and a better job.

Felt nonchalant coz it was part of something I didn't really want to do anyway.

Felt relieved coz it was finally over.

Oh well. It's over. Now to move on the better things, things that i wanna do. Confirm will hv more motivation...

that's why i'm taking it really easy now... waking up earliest late morning, meeting frens for lunch and dinner and watching tv and bumming around. coz when I do start on a job i like, i don't think i'll get much time to do all these liao. but i don't think i'll mind. ;-)

note to self: start sending out resumes next wk!

My First Medal In 10 Years

That's the problem with not having a PC handy. By the time you can blog abt some event, it's no longer as fresh in ur mind. Oh well... let's try anyway.

Another small milestone on 4th Dec 2005, Sunday. at 25yrs and 1 mth exactly, I took part in the StanChart 10km run. Well, i didn't really run all the way... walked for 5-10mins betw the 5km to 8km marks. The non-stop running for the last 2km was my desire to complete the run; the non-stop running for the first 5km was my desire to empty my bladder.

Yup, frens can attest that I ran exceptionally fast for the first 5km. After alighting from the cab at raffles city, i blur-blur followed my frens (i'm not a morning person)... and before i realised it, we were actually on the road behind the start line! I thot we were just going to hang ard 1st and i could go look for a toilet. Then the crowd surged around me and there was no turning back. or turning around with my back to everyone to pee on the grass, coz there were ppl everywhere.

Everyone started stretching. The deejays interrupted the blaring retro music more and more with their meaningless banter. And I knew if I wanted to go, I had to go along with the crowd, until i meet a frenly cubicle along the way. I guessed the first one I'd meet would be 2km away.

Those were the longest 2km I had ever run... and still no cubicle. I kept trying to surge forward and run faster, coz I'd probably explode if i gave in and walked. All the way from esplanade to the ctr of marina bay, my motivation for running the race was a portable toilet.

It wasn't gleaming, but i didn't care. I didn't care abt the wet toilet paper all over the seat, or the dubious splatter in the bowl. But within those little plastic walls, the heat i was giving out and the heat already inside was just terrible. I was glad to be out of there.

unfortunately... now got less motivation! so my focus turned to getting water bottles at every drinks station, drinking 2 mouthfuls, then blatantly littering and wasting water. every singaporean must hv had fun doing that.

There was another form of motivation as well... I didn't know SG got so many girls for look nice from the back in tied up hair and tank tops... hahahah but i didn't bio them from the front... was getting rather tired and didn't want to be seen as rude.

the last 2km were pretty good... running past those big tall rich CBD buildings... past bhangras and other foreign workers trying to cross the road with so much oncoming human traffic... past ushers who incessantly screamed at us to keep left, keep right, etc.

Crossed the finish line at 1hr 7mins 27secs. Spent abt 20mins in a daze trying to get everything back in normal function. had a can of 100plus and collected my finisher's medal from a chiobu. ok, everyone got the medal... but look at it this way:

21000 ppl participated in the whole event.
5242 finished my event, 10km run.
I finished 1604th place.
so there were about (21000 - 5242 + 1603) = 17361 ppl in front of me
so I am 17362th in whole of singapore, population abt 3million.
so that puts me in the top 0.6% of the population!! HAHAHAHHA!

I deserve that medal. and that huge breakfast at cafe cartel I had after the run.

Thinking since i had so much fun these last 2 wkends, running outdoors... maybe i could make it a regular thing. oh well... we shall see this wkend if i really wanna do it.

note to self: Join 10 km run again next year, WITHOUT stopping. so will run extra fast all the way!

Presentation Lingo - What They Really Mean

Phrase: "Why didn't you do that?"
Meaning: "You should have done that."

Phrase: "You had 8 months to work on the project. How much time did you spend on learning the software?"
Meaning: "I don't expect you to have another 12 subjects to worry about, or have a life outside this project."

Phrase: "I see you spent a lot of time on simulation."
Meaning: "You were slacking away, weren't you?"

Phrase: "I don't think that is feasible."
Meaning: "Stop trying to smoke me, you young punk."

Phrase: "How can you apply this to manufacturing or logistics?"
Meaning: "I don't see any relevance whatsoever to this entire project."

Phrase: "You must realise the real world is not so ideal, you know?"
Meaning: "Aren't you glad I'm just an academic and don't know any better as well?"

Phrase: "If this was in a real work environment, you'd be in serious trouble."
Meaning: "If I was your boss, I would so fire you on the spot right now."

Phrase: "Why are you doing your presentation now? Four and a half years? This is your final semester?"
Meaning: "I'm wondering if I should be a nasty, evil old man."

Phrase: "All the best." *Smile*
Meaning: "If not for the fact that your sup and I are buddies, you'd be seeing me again in 6 months."

Lessons Learnt from Presentation

1) Being a nice cheerful guy only earns u points with ur direct supervisor, but not a moderator who has nv seen u before.

2) Substance must come with style. No substance got how much style also no use.

3) Never do means never do.

4) Give over and beyond the minimum.

5) Put in more effort than needed.

6) Follow up on own initiative instead of confining ur scope to that of the direct supervisor.

7) Practice your speeches more than once.

8) Slowly walk the audience thru, and not jump into the next steps.

9) Be nice to your supervisor anyway, coz he can come to your defence.

10) No one can resist chocolates.

More Singaporean Trends

The local butches are getting weirder, if the one i encountered really is one.

On his/her name tag was printed "ian", but the baby smooth complexion and high kiddy voice, skinny frame and lack of boobs, not to mention short bed-head hair, left me rather perplexed.

not only are these ppl confused, they're confusing others as well!!

it's ok if others are private citizens who dun give a crap, but i wanna work in the service line some time soon, and imagine my dilemma when addressing someone like that.

With standards being pushed to improve, i cant go "wat u want?" which is now construed as "rude". i must go "good morning sir/madam*, how may i help u?" (* means i can only use one option, not both)

but when i get these guys, most prob i'd be going "good morning sir...? madam...? how may i help you?" (notice the words are same but punctuation changed) then most prob i'll be thot of as rude as well!

chiatlat... it's a lose-lose situation. with everyone confused, how to give good service? maybe these "high-risk" customers shd let us know how they wanna be addressed... maybe wearing those ugly baggy street clothes they are akin to wear, with big bold words proclaiming "i'm actually a girl" or "i really wanna be a guy" or even "i was a guy" so at least hapless service staff can be less hapless.

on another note. some melvyn tan guy claiming to be a renouned and probably meaning rich pianist has come back to singapore after being a wussy and escaping NS call up by staying far far away from home in cultural-enriched, vibrant, cosmopolitan, plagued-by-4-seasons UK. oh the poor thing...

the courts, taking these matters on a case-by-case basis, took into account his long years of suffering away from home in an expensive european country the majority of the population can only dream of going via winning a chan brothers' lucky draw, the fact that his long years of suffering made him into a renouned pianist who could potentially draw tourist dollars, and probably also coz he bears a unfortunate striking resemblance to paddy chew(skinny botak faggot who proudly announced to everyone he had aids from butt fucking before dying of it). and slapped him with a possible MAXIMUM of S$5000.00 without JAIL TIME for ditching his NS obligation.

many ppl (esp those who actually DID serve NS while also suffering for long yrs away from their little HDB flats.) are up in arms about the seemingly little "slap on the wrist", while in NS, 1 day AWOL means a few days in the army prison. wat more shd a guy get, missing for he entire 2 1/2 yrs + all the reservist in camp trainings?

to add salt to the smarting wound, pianist guy claimed to the newspapers he doesn't rem how much the fine was, sort of gloating that the money spent was insignificant to him. of coz, he could probably bring in much more than that in tourist dollars.

so, unlike the rest of sg men who are flying into rages over the cheapening of NS, like any entreprising cosmopolitan singaporean, like how gahmen also tell us to be, i've decided to work this to my advantage.

once i sign up for my yamaha guitar course, with the receipt i'll be going over to MINDEF, and with $5000.00 to pay for all my reservist in-camp trainings. since i served my 2 yrs liability liao, i think it'll be less than that, but they can keep the change. the receipt will show that i'll be a renouned guitarist one day bringing in plenty of tourist dollars so it is justified. meanwhile, i'll spend a few terrible years suffering away in sunny australia, where they dun hang evil drug traffickers, wintry new zealand, where they have more sheep and hobbits than ppl, or plagued-by-terrorists USA, where they have one bomb detector for every arab.

don't cry for me singapore, i'm suffering so i can bring u guys tourist dollars. maybe after playing at las vegas shows to full houses and making obscene amts of money, i'll play at the IRs to my fellow countrymen for a discounted price of $599/- per ticket.

and hopefully in other countries there'll be less gender-confused ppl out to confuse me.

A Long Time No See Wkend

Currently Playing: ARGHZ!! that stupid chicken little song that keeps playing in my head!!! I will NOT watch that frickin movie!!!

Anyway. aside from negative exposure to bad music, this wkend was great... something unseen in a long while.

Met girl, chel & zz at ECP... surprise surprise i was the 1st, and only one on time, even though i dilly dallied and walked/jogged there... i guess that means i can dilly and dally even longer... hahah

we ran an astounding 6.6km!! from mac to fort rd and back. it doesn't sound too far coz it's the the nearer end of ecp... we even ambitiously wanted to run to the food ctr!! siao!!! on the way back to mac i oready dying liao... even fell into a walk for a while. was seriously wondering how to run further than mac when i saw chel stop running just after mac. relieved....

but not bad ah.. for a guy who hasn't run for 2 mths due to "suspected foot bone fracture"!! hahah

all sticky and in shorts & singlet, i blur blur went with them to bugis and PS... but we split after coffee. went back and bathe and concuss. before sleeping dad asked me if beef kway teow was ok for dinner... so i dreamt that i was eating it... woke up and ate "again"! hahah

next morning woken up by a call from girl... say wanna go buy adidas. ok lor... i only got 20mins left to sleep anyway... hahah. but then on the way out my 2.45pm appt (kitty) and 12noon appt (eve) cancelled on me... so i kena one huge chunk of empty time betw lunch with girl til dinner w ally.

so decided to
1) go the new national lib see see look look,
2) go PS check out yamaha classes,
3) go cafe cartel eat brownie,
4) go taka buy chocolates for fyp sup & lab aunty,
5) go borders get something to read.

i only managed to
1) go the new national lib see see look look.

hahahahah
got distracted by a 2nd hand book sale at bras basah... spend $18.90 for 3 books... no need go borders liao, but after abt 1 hr of browsing a multitude of old musty yellowed books, i felt kinda giddy... dunno if coz i kept my head down so much or the smell... hahah

nat lib's han's has good KOPI!! just normal kopi... not the lah teh or the moh char....

and the nat lib has a lot, a lot of empty space. they packed the normal lending/reading lib only at B1, and stuff the terrorism exhibition there as well, but on the upper floors, besides the gardens on the 5th and 10th floors, still lots of empty rooms or exhibition space.

travel tip: ride down at least 10 floors on the lifts facing out the building, standing near the glass walls!! adrenaline rush!! hahahah the designers kindly places hand grips for ur terrified convenience, but i dun see anywhere u can puke except the fake potted plants near the lift doors...

on my way to walk to city hall/PS, i crossed the road and saw this beat up old pinkish car that looked like ally's. was a "sabrina" (SBR) too... looked at the driver and it WAS ally! hahahha wat a freaky coincidence...

so we went off together. hotel phoenix was fully booked so we settled on PS cafe cartel, where i had my brownie eventually. overall, a very nice, busy, eventful wkend. thanx to all who made it happen, even the cancellations. hahah

note to self: soup + main course + brownie = too full. packed wkend = long boring entry

One Big Thing? or Many Small Things?

Exams are finally over.

But after a mth of one-task-a-day, now the multitude of things i'm supposed to do overwhelm me! hahahha

Got so many things that i put off for exams, and to prepare myself for wat lies ahead.

Just from now until next Sun, i got FYP presentation, buying of new PC, Stanchart run, Star Wars, frens and family stuff to take care of.

Gotta start doing things to help in my job search and "work-life balance" hahahha

A bit not sure where to start also. oh well... one at a time i guess. but i wanna make use of the drive i feel now before it dies off from slacking... hahaha

note to self: One BIG thing to focus on lets me have total concentration, but a multitude of things keeps me from getting bored. just gotta make sure i concentrate on each thing fully when i'm doing it... then to let my mind wander too much... hehz.

A Day At The Pool

Yesterday, a day after my last paper, I spent the day at the pool.

That's it.

:-)

It's The Little Things

When something so big and overwhelming invades ur life, the little things suddenly become so impt, while everything else just fades into the background.

Little Things like:
- Coffee, 1 cup every 6 hrs.
- Blasting rock music / Class95.
- Playing my new Zero7 CD at nite so I can relax enuff to fall asleep fast.
- Being able to get 6 hrs of uninterrupted sleep.
- Sweets. At least 3 types: mints, chewy ones & hard ones.
- Newspaper to get my mind off studies.
- SMSes that remind me I'm not alone.
- Amazing Race, Lost, Taken & Survivor. Apprentice just ended 2 wks ago.

As such, it doesn't take much to piss me off too. OK it nv takes much anyway... but nowsaday my short fuse is even shorter than usual.

And now i realise why ppl smoke... if this dragged on longer i'd probably hv taken it up too... hahahha

Coz when they go outside and light up... they are taken away from their books and notes and such crap to a far more relaxing place... away from everyone else and they can leave all those equations and formulas and graphs and x, y, z's behind, and just be able to concentrate on one thing: sucking in that smoky bliss deep all the way into their depths, let it clear out their insides (literally) and expend it all out slowly, deliberately. repeat until flame dies out. bliss. escape from all the stress and all the quotas and the tutorials and memorising and everything else that is senseless. drugs and alcohol probably provide such a great escape from the insanity of the world too.

Well... i get that kind of escape too, but one which is, i hope, less damaging in the form of coffee. bliss. blissblissbliss. i go sit by myself at one quiet corner on a faraway stair and gently blow the smooth scalding beverage and let it slowly seep and burn all the way down my gullet. all i need to concentrate on is following the burning seepage all the way down and escape from all the madness. Of coz, i still stick to the healthy limit of 3 cups a day. (hey, a large cup is still a cup k?)

they say one of the true measures of a man is wat he does when times are rough. so this is me? selfish, mercenary, quick-tempered, hard-to-please, easily-frustrated, almost succumbing to the things i hate so much?

at nite i waste electricity by having the aircon on, just so that i dun get disturbed by ppl going to toilet.

i dream of sch work / library / mrt (pick one) every nite.

i tok to frens only when i need to. (i.e. abt exams)

i get mildly irritated when ppl take more of my sweets than i expect (i.e. more than one at a time)

i hvn't cut my hair in mths.

i get pissed when i dunno how to do tutorial qns and ppl see it.

i don't go home for dinner.

i can't be bothered with many frens anymore.

hopefully, i'll get over this phase and be a better person once again. and hopefully, the next time i get overwhelmed again, at least it'll be something i enjoy doing.

at least it'll nv be as bad as this again... can always tell myself "i've been thru worse" from now on... just like titiwangsa. hahah.

time for coffee. before piahing again. sigh.

A Round Peg In A Square Hole

No matter how u try, cannot fit one.

so y dun u stop wasting ur time and my time, let this all slide and just gimme that piece of paper.

it's just going to be for display purposes anyway... i promise i wun use it for it's supposed purpose.

i don't want to anyway...

just close on eye and gimme all D's can liao.

let me off... i've been here 4yrs longer than i want to liao.

When It's Darkest...

They say it's always darkest before the dawn.

I try to reassure myself that it is so.

That it'll only get bright from here on out.

That in a week's time I will see the sun again.

That I'll finally be free.




Unless, of course, it's dark, but not the darkest yet.

And I don't know it coz I dunno how dark it's going to get.

So when it's darkest...




It just might get darker still.



Hahahaha.

PC Down

my computer at home got problem... cannot start up properly. anyway i also need to piah for my (hopefully) very last 2 papers next wk, so wun be coming here unless really need to.

no worries... shd be getting a new PC soon if my current one can't be revived.

think i did hv something to write abt, but can't rem wat it was liao... so heck lor.

meanwhile, hang in there dear readers!! if u experience withdrawal symptoms due to lack of new entries, try to ease ur pain by reading some of my old ones.

note to self: study!!

Frequency

Currently Playing: Over Our Heads by Zero7 from my NEW Zero7 CD!!! (Thanx guys...)

just watched the movie "Frequency" on TV... i watched it in the cinema before, and it left a very deep impression on me. still remember it up to now... at least 3-4 yrs liao. i came out of it probably even more affected than after i came out of saving private ryan... hahah

= synopsis:
in 1999, under an aurora filled sky, a 36 yr old policeman switches on his father's old ham radio set for his fren and manages to speak to his fireman father, who's been dead for 30 yrs. policeman convinces his dad to take another course of action while fighting the fire that would supposedly kill him.

then as the new set of events 30yrs ago unfold differently, the policeman gets added memories... he now remembers all he knew before, but with a conflicting memory of his father dying of lung cancer 10 yrs ago instead... which his frens agree to as well.

but then he also realises that his mum is now missing from his life... turns out in saving his dad, things changed and his mum got murdered by a serial killer instead. still in contact with his dad from 30 yrs ago when his mum was still alive, father and son work together; father stopping the murders before they happen, while son tries to establish the murderer's identity from past crime records.

= end of synopsis... dun wanna spoil the movie if u guys wanna watch it.

maybe it sounds a little far fetched, a little cheesy, or just a little too confusing (my father got a bit blur)... but i find its a great "family working together" story and abt the son getting back what he lost years ago... and gave me the revelation that wat u do now affects ur future in ways u may not know. and i was reminded of it again.

so that's y i am who i am... i am not willing to do some things coz i know in the long run, it's going to hurt me, like smoking, drinking, gambling. and y i am willing to take certain risks and unwilling to take some others. coz just like in the show survivor, wat u do will ultimately come back to haunt u.

cautious? well at least i wun mess up too badly ;-)

It's A Surprise After All!

Currently Playing: Home by Zero7 from my Zero7 CD!! (Thanx so much to CS, ZZ, Zow and Girl)

Haha! apparently they picked up and acted upon the previous entry much sooner than expected... so it's a surprise after all!! you guys planned it all along didn't you??? hahahahha

chialat lah u all... just setting the standard for urselves higher only. next yr even if 1 mth after my birthday, i'll still be looking over my shoulder wondering when u all are going to pop out from under the table or on my way to the toilet... hahahha

once again... thanx u guys. everything was great... the food, the CD, the cake, the thot.

fact of the day: when i need to pee, i'm unattentive to everything else!!

Don't Ask.

Note to self: Go indonesia learn how to make bombs!

Freedom

Currently Playing: Joy Zipper - Christine Bonilla by Zero7

In reference to the previous entry.

Well... i dun blame anyone... squid is always harping on expectations... although he seems to take it a little bit more to heart than is healthy, i do learn from his lessons, and after a very bad one on myself, i've decided that "expectations" is a bad word when it comes to others... hahha i try not to expect much from anyone liao. haha... wld that make me more cynical than i already am?

i guess everyone has their own busy lives and busy work schedules and busy work-life balances and busy accompanying their busy bfs/gfs and busy this and busy that, of which i'm mostly not part of. in fact, that i got any birthdae smses is great liao, coz these ppl did rem that it's my birthdae, even though i dun really "celebrate" it. shd really thank the ppl who actually spend 5 cents to make me feel good.

chope. just a thot. seems that my bdae isn't a big deal until someone forgets it. hahah.

so it's ok. i know now this may seem like a ploy to make them feel guilty or attract attention or watever... but its not. they read this too, but i dun care. this is my outlet, i write wat i want.

besides, it's when i hv an issue in my head that i write well. rite?

so... no matter. no big deal.

and u know... i've been spending the longest time waiting and waiting... waiting for that someone who will come along and magically change everything: suddenly my world wld be full of colour, full of fun and adventures, full of companionship and love. so much so that now my schedule's rather empty, but i dun bother with it until the week before or even that same week, where i realise my fricking schedule's so empty i look like a total loser and will be fricking bored.

and just 3-4 yrs ago my schedule wld be so packed u wld need to book 2 wks in advance to get me out on a wkend, and that wld be if u were lucky.

basically, kind of like on standby so i can spend all my available free time with that angel whenever she chose to descend from the heavens. so i start calling up ppl (sometimes rather last minute) and make plans to meet up for movie, dinner, supper, anything.

ok enuff. i'm not going to wait ard anymore... enuff of moaning and groaning and wondering y it's impossible to get some ppl out and empty promises and endless waiting and standby and whatnot.

once the papers are over, i shall set off to do the things i like, with or without companions, just like old times. i shall get my own busy, busy schedule and busy fulfilled lifestyle and finally do the things i wanna do and not watch time slip by. can take a (wet) feather from squid's cap... look at him. regular weekly guitar, climbing, whatnot... (hey, i'm not saying this just coz u were 1st to sms me that nite... hahah)

That is, of coz, still dependent on wat happens next. recently i came across two quotes:

You are only as free as your choices.

and

Freedom: Another word for Nothing To Lose.

So i'm rather free... but depending on your definition of freedom. hahah.

So do i hv enuff freedom to run off solo to NZ and do crazy stunts and put myself at risk of physical harm as well as open myself to mugging, getting lost, cheating, kidnapping, (receiving end, of coz) etc. opportunities?

To answer that question, let me share another quote.

To discover new lands, one must lose sight of the shore.

note to self: 25 yrs liao. how many more u wanna waste?

4th November 2005

Currently Playing: Passing By by Zero7

Midnite: received happie birthdae smses from squid (1st one), someone possibly significant, someone insignificant, and my YEP nurse. nice of her to rem :-)

Morning: got more smses, with a esp meaningful one from someone unexpected. went for the paper.

Afternoon: a few more SMSes here and there. but totally none so far from a particular group - which nv fails to turn up somewhere with a cake (no matter how cheapo).

Aha! i put 2 and 2 together and deduce they must hv pretended to "forget" my bdae... and will show up to surprise me! i play it cool.

qz, alw and sop jio me to study at their table... hmm... they know that i study with them... could these 3 be in the plot too, and want to keep an eye on me? i take their offer.

i eye them suspiciously everytime they start sms-ing furiously. reporting my whereabouts to particular ppl? they leave the table now and then... sop keeps asking when we'll be eating dinner. *wink wink*

Evening: I look up anytime someone walks near our table, preparing to look unsurprised when the familiar faces pop up. i even plan to ask nonchalantly "when's ur next paper?" even though they grad liao. of coz to act cool on seeing them in sch when they dun hv a good reason to be here (but actually they do)

can't settle down to study. i wonder out loud whether i shd go home early in an attempt to set off alarm bells from sop and qz. they try to convince me to stay on to study. ok then. *wink*

Can't wait for the surprise liao. hungry, wanna eat dinner. anyway sop or qz will update them on my whereabouts. chit chat, even came upon the subject of birthday sabos. still looking out for anyone approaching the table.

After dinner, alw and sop say they are tired, and want to go back early. hmm. maybe they weren't in the plot after all. ok then, i want to watch survivor anyway.

on the mrt, sop wishes me... after a good 8 hrs of studying out together. hahah. i mention that some ppl hvn't yet, and sop jokingly suggests she sms them asking why. i tell her not to, they probably want to be the last to wish me, or maybe hv some surprise planned.

After survivor. still nothing. maybe they really want to make it last minute, to gimme a good scare. hahaha... hmm... previously on one of their birthdaes i drove, picked everyone up one-by-one and went to her place to give her a surprise... are they going to do that? well no one else drives... i hope they're not going to ask me to pick them all up are they??? or maybe they'll show up and hope that i drive them all home... i dunno leh. kinda tired...

wait a minute. do they know how to get here? not all of them come before...

midnite. 1am. nothing. hmmm.


An event...
which turns out to be a non-event...
is an event in itself after all.

Birthday

Currently Playing: Destiny by Zero7

It's my birthday! ho hum.

been not much and not much more to look fwd to... just finished 461 which i HOPE i'll pass... it's a 50-50 chance at the moment. dun wanna think abt it liao... coz next wk got another 2 more papers... so no time to celebrate also.

anyway... actual day nv really celebrate for dunno how many yrs liao.... except the times when the odackies wld take a break from studying exams to come over to where i wld be studying... with a cake and hugs. think got 3 times liao. thanx guys n gals....

hopefully next yr will be a better birthday... not stuck in sch at least. or work. hahahah

tired + brain dead.

but not giving up.

yet.

The End of The Beginning of The End

Currently Playing: Spinning by Zero7

Just had 1st of the last(hopefully) papers... QA. shd get quite a good grade considering i only learnt 1 of the essential chapters from a buddy 18hrs before the paper. hahahha if it was a engineering subject i wld hv just given up. no way i can grasp some engine shit in 18hrs... but anything else i can. ;-)

hopefully, the other papers go as well... or at least all pass... else cannot go nz. taking a rest til 3pm... then will go look ard for a seat w/o computer... maybe start picking a fight again... hahahha so fun.

feel more motivated to study also... maybe coz the end is finally in sight. can't wait to get out of this chinaman-infested nerd-filled engineer-crammed cesspit.

note to self: go study at 3pm!! SS & SS!!

Rockie 2 Chinaman 0

"Can you stop picking fights everyday at 830 in the morning???" - sop

Feel so accomplished todae... scored another hit against the evil chinamen of LWN!! before going into the details, a minor detail: the crowd outside the lib doors is growing!! now it's reached the middle of the stairs leading to the lib liao. HORRIBLE. next wk i must bring my camera to sch to take photo, show u guys the horror mug-fest that is ntu.

So once again, i walk into the lib seeing chinamen in front running all over the lib like mice, and no available tables. i plonk myself on a table with four clear folders, and from 2 tables away, the same reaction comes: my frens are coming.

"so where r they?"

"coming in 5 minutes" (this is grammatically correct coz the conversation was in chinese, so now i'm translating)

"well too bad. i was here first, and i'm need to study too."

"dun liddat lah, they are girls..." (does it matter? and wld i care anyway?)

"so...?"

"ok we'll be taking the other three seats while u take one."

"two seats. i hv a fren coming."

"three seats."

"we'll see who comes 1st then."

i hurriedly sms alw to rush down.. but he was at the mercy of the rain and the mrt system. no matter... i settle down and read newspaper. i get back from the toilet and find more papers on the table infringing my space and my bag has been placed on my chair, but no one is there. i push back the papers and replace my bag on the chair next to me.

a while ltr, i go back with a filled water bottle and find 3 chinamen including the orginal one standing ard the table. they sit down after the one next to me asks abt the ownership of my bag and i place it on the floor beside me. "so, taking 2 tables now eh?" i ask the original chinaman. i do not get a reply, nor was i expecting one.

the chinamen open their folders but after a short while, the 2 opposite me get up and leave, but not before the original one takes something from his belongings 2 tables away. aha. i look below the table and see they did not bring their bags with them, only left folders. easy pickings.

alw arrives, but doesn't not settle down as he has a class. after he leaves, chinaman beside me goes to one of the cubicles nearby, takes some stuff and disappears as well. seems like they like to occupy two seats at different locations. their butts too big? or it makes it easier for them to spread butt lice and ring worms and other butt infestations they might hv?

no matter. i decide to hold my ground and stand firm. to change place now wld be to admit defeat. even if i hv to be at such close proximity to these inconsiderate, boorish, smelly, ugly chinamen, i will stay put. and mentally make a note to fark them up if they start their loud "whispering" and intend to educate them on wat whispering is exactly.

time passes but the 3 do not return. coming back from the toilet, i find 3 normal-looking guys settling down on the 3 now-empty places. cld they be mr chinaman's china frens? i ask and find out they are singaporean, and do not know any chinamen. woohoo!! they must hv vacated on their own accord!! SCORE!!!

in the end, i still failed to get alw a seat, later he settle down at the computers. but at least my act of holding my ground let another 3 genuine lib users get a chance to study. but unfortunately, i did not manage confine the chinamen's selfishness... the initial guy found a cubicle and is shuttling back and forth betw the cubicle and his place 2 tables away from me.

nvm... i am encouraged by this success and will continue my efforts in educating these louts. after exams, i'll see wat else i can do... maybe suggest some curbs to be handled by lib staff or maybe get some sch newspaper to do a feature exposing these ugly chinamen.

ok back to studying.

note to self: hold my ground!! i will not be bullied in my own country!!

Morning Adventures in LWN Library!

Currently Playing: I'm A Fool by Letters to Cleo

Really exciting morning today. After a quick breakfast, I made my way up to LWN lib at 825am coz i had heard that the chinamen queue to get in and wanted to see for myself. I was expecting an orderly, long, single file queue snaking down the stairs, probably 10 nerds in line.

Apparently, I forgot an interesting fact from my trip to china recently: chinamen dun queue. they SQUEEZE.

and true enuff, wat i saw literally threw the air out of my lungs. A huge, orgy-like mess of 50-60 chinamen nerds stuffed in front of the lib doors to the stairs. from where i was, i cldn't see a single space in between them. ppl were having trouble not falling off the stairs. it was like a revenge of the nerds class photo. reminded me of those "MPE Class of 200_" photos u see at MAE gen office, except with less balding heads.

bo pian... i had to follow the crowd in coz i was supposed to save a seat for alw. ppl were RUNNING to get tables and cubicles. and as soon as they threw their bags on the table and placed the notes so that every empty seat had its own set of notes, they left, presumably to the canteen for breakfast.

I looked ahead of me and couldn't see an empty seat in sight. remarkable. and I had enuff.

Background:
Earlier in the week i managed to get a cubicle coming into the lib at 8.32am. the table directly behind me had 1 set of notes for every empty chair, no bags, no ppl. i know coz that's where i dumped the china magazines that were left on my cubicle by some inconsiderate chinaman the night before. as i studied, quite a few ppl walked past looking for a seat... couldn't find.

very, very tempted to tell them that the table was empty, but decided not to make trouble 1st. the occupants (chinamen, of coz) came in only at 10am. so within that 1 1/2hrs of their absence, how many ppl did they deprive seats from? if u can't wake up early enuff, too bad. there are ppl who wake up earlier than u but can't find seats. fair?

To set things straight: i have no problems with ppl who chope the three other seats on their table coz their frens are coming. i myself like my studying material spread out on a bigger space so it's easier for me, but of coz i will make way if someone requests. but it is another thing to chope an entirely different table leaving 4 seats empty while others can't even find a seat.

Back to today:
so i looked at the table next to me - 2 sets of notes, 2 files. no bag. that'll do just fine. i set down my bag and newspaper and pushed the notes aside.

the thin red-shirted chinaman in front of me turned ard and stood up, telling me the table was for his frens.

"so where are they now?"

"they are coming, in about five minute."

i gave him a skeptical look. "OK. then i shall sit here until they arrive."

he hurriedly calls someone on the phone and walks off. i flip thru my paper.

a plump chinager with glasses comes soon enuff, offering me a table on the lower floor, as the chinamen want to sit together. i graciously accept her offer. i don't want to sit near chinamen who whisper as loudly as they talk anyway.

she shows me to the new table, i presume she is sensible enuff to speak some sense to.

"you're from... people's republic of china rite?" affirmative reply, of coz.

"look... a lot of u all just chope the whole table with four pieces of paper, when there are people who come earlier than ur frens looking for seats. pls be more considerate next time ok? i'm not being personal or anything here... this is just being selfish. OK?"

she probably got most of it, coz after i came back with my bag, i saw her talking to another chinager, who blurted out "mei you feng du"

well, if u ppl behave liddat, y shd i waste feng du on u?

hmm... apparently, the table i wanted to take was an extra one afterall... since they can exchange it for another, in a different part of the lib. so y do they need a whole extra table? they carry that many notes and text books and dictionaries? can't be selfish or "accidentally inconsiderate" coz they dun use it themselves. maybe they are just out to make studying difficult for non-chinamen so they can continue getting their A's...

note to self: Singaporeans Score!!! *sings* Stand Up For Singapore!! i shall not be bullied in my own country!!

Teachers Actually DO Have a Life...

Currently Playing: Don't Know Why by Norah Jones

Today's new paper had an article abt a JC GP teacher's blog making fun of her students grammar mistakes in one entry. they put a screen shot of the blog but removed the url. un-smartly enuff, they failed to remove the top most bar where it says "Rockies Ramblings" on top of this screen... so i managed to find that blog anyway.

http://myplaypen.blogspot.com

just read that featured entry and scanned thru the place... GP teacher seems like an OK kinda person... busy with work but active and has some kind of a life. weird... in JC i nv saw teachers anything more than teachers... ppl who made our lives miserable in and out of school, with the rare, rare few giving us real knowledge in GP and econs. hahaha.

anyway. bad news. my fyp sup sent an email inviting me to his place on campus for a deepawali celebration with his family. he started with "dear folks" but my name was the only one on that particular email. ominous.

anyway. actually i wldn't mind going if it could score me brownie pts for fyp and possibly tips for my exam (as suggested by qz and alw) but it occured that i could be the only cheena student there (also gleefully suggested by qz and alw) and i wld stand out like a single green pea in a pack of muruku.

but the real, more terrifying reason for my unwillingness to go is coz it's on deepawali 1st nov itself, 6-9pm, while i hv my QA paper on 2nd nov morning. unless i could bunk in at his place to study, which i dun want to, i'd better not go.

so, how to say no respectfully without jeopardising my fyp and exam? hahahah but i must admit it's really nice of him to invite me. earlier this yr he wld gimme a blank look wondering who the hell i was everytime i stepped into his office. at least now he acknowledges my presence even in class.

OK. enuff abt teachers. gotta cover my quota for the day, and i hvn't even started. and tml got a quiz which i hv only tml to prepare. they still making my life miserable now...

note to self: SS & SS!

My Last No-Achievement Day

Currently Playing: Give It Away by Zero7 (thanx CS!)

todae is my last no-achievement day for the next 30 or so days... woke up at 10am, 12nn and 2pm. went out to buy lunch and papers, read them for 2 hrs, went back to sleep and woke up again at 530pm. sorted out notes, checked email, had dinner. hahah slack like hell.

background: i give myself a no-achievement day every now and then... just hv nothing on my plate the whole day. it has a dual purpose: to recharge, and so that the next day, i wake up to realise i hv 1 day less to accomplish wat i need to, panic and quickly start up my engine!!

my papers end exactly one mth from now... 23 nov. hopefully will pass all... but i realise hope rests mainly on effort (sorta) so from tml onwards everyday for 30days i gotta study! gotta cover all subjects in their entirety...

so apologies if i dun post stuff here too frequently liao... and if i do its probably gripes abt studies too. so dun expect much here for the next mth...

and do me a favour... if u see me online, tell me this is the last time liao! stop slacking!! or u can be "mean" like qz and ask me if i wanna grad with him... haahhaha keep me studying!! thanx a lot guys........

note to self: whether this is the last time is now dependent on myself... stop slacking & start studying!! (SS&SS)

Too Used To Being Rude To Be Polite

On a roll todae.

This morning on my way to sch i got waylaid by a young girl who tried to burden me with a flyer to accompany me on my long long ride on the mrt, just outside the station. she tried something different - with every offer of a flyer, she let out a cheery "good morning!"

but the five ppl before me and I didn't give a crap. we just showed her our defensively open palms to indicate our disinterest. her fren some distance behind her good humouredly remarked that it was akin to having your picture taken unwillingly...

immediately after i heard that, not only i found humour in it, but also saw the contrast. here were 2 ppl, 1 trying harder than the other but still not getting anywhere. so y bother to try so hard? and i'm ashamed to say that i didn't at least give her a "good morning" back. too busy rejecting the flyer.

maybe we're too used to the sullen aunties and bored youngsters standing outside mrt stns dishing out limp flyers without a word... usually the youngsters wld be emotionlessly plugged into their mp3 players as well. we match disinterest with disinterest, used to it so many times until we cannot change tack even if the other party does.

in this case, its not abt service. i wldn't hv taken the flyer no matter wat. but it's abt being polite when been polite to.

note to self: return greetings as well as non-greetings!

She's The Man, He's The Woman?

With the same new paper in the previous post, i glanced at an ad which featured 4 butches.

during my 2nd round of the paper, i realised that they were one of the androgynous taiwanese boy(?)bands! 1st thot that it was F4... upon looking ard the ad, it turns out they were 5566. thot they had 5 or 6 ppl that's y call 5566? so now shdn't they change their name to 3344(in case one more person, realising the greatest mistake of his life, leaves)?

tsk tsk... now i know the reason y got so many butches ard(just saw another one todae. looked like sec 4 kid)... it's not coz more gals are turning lesbian, coz they all wanna be like their androgynous idols!!! (hey that wld be a great competition: androgynous idol! then that orlinder ((androgynous name alert! "prefix-linder" eg. or, ber, etc)) can finally get a singing contract instead of an acting one this time!)

chialat... now not only we gotta look out for guys who look like girls and girls who look like guys (refer to past posting), now we gotta also look out for guys who look like girls with short hair who look like guys, and girls who look like guys with long hair who look like girls! who's the man, who's the woman?

= added =
oh yah... another thing abt androgynous names... more and more of them popping out everywhere. from the usual "sam", "jo" to the nowsday popular "ashley"... now got sissy sounding "vaness" to the downright ridiculous "milk", "toro".... hahahahah dunno whether to laff or puke man... ("hi, i'm milk." "y do they call u that? coz u produce... ???")

any more androgynous names? pls feel free to contribute! maybe next time i'll write a book "what not to name ur kid: so that he/she doesn't get mistaken for a he-she"

A Very Good Reason for Staying In School

Until "O" levels, at least.

Today's new paper has an article, where a taiwanese man, after being bugged by his fren for abt 1/2 a mth, took $50 from his fren and killed him by shooting him in the chest.

no no, it wasn't a case of aggravated robbery + murder... it was a case of insurance claims gone wrong.

the "victim" hatched a brilliant scheme to claim the max payout from his insurance by getting injured as much as possible... by being shot in the chest. so he started bugging the shooter to shoot him, since he knew the shooter owned a pistol. i guess after the bugging, the $50 given prior to the shooting was a redundant incentive.

and if that wasn't intelligent enough, the "victim" was so smart as to think that his heart was in the right side of his chest, so the shooter was instructed to shoot the left side.

the shooter probably didn't know any better too...

Lessons learnt:
1) everyone shd stay in school long enuff to learn where their vital organs are located
2) ppl who didn't stay in school long enuff to learn that, shdn't own guns, or insurance policies
3) new mkt for mrt stn insurance agents: coverage for faulty education leading to death

hmm... i do know of some ppl i dun mind helping in this aspect... i give discount - $40! for "the poker", i give special discount - $30!!

(backgrd: the poker was in sch earlier this wk. dunno y also. quickly walked past him in the hope he didn't see me, and kena poke. for that, i give the extra discount!)

Alamak

Girl proposed. Luckily, on msn.

Tried to throw her off the track by asking abt the details.

"you're rejecting me!" (she knows me well)

"sorrie lah... now's not the right time. need to be alone to study...", i offered.

"ok... next time i try again."

(these sentences might not be exact words, but meaning the same)

Late Nite SMS

Just received this from CS. part of it anyway:

"dun lose to e universe! dun give up! rockie can do it!"

I won't, I won't, and I will.

thanx so much... i'm keeping it. ;-)

Conspiracy!

The lab computer, which i'm using for my fyp, 1 out of only 2 PCs in the sch with the powerful simulation programme i'm using, and the only one that has all 8 of my simulation models, does not have the capacity to save screenshots onto microsoft word.

so all my simulation runs today came to nought coz i can't save anything to show in my report. of coz, my sim runs are the purpose of the report, aren't they? and tml's my last day in the lab.

The universe is out to get me, i swear.

Always Fighting the Universe

Ever had one of those days where nothing ever goes right?

When something goes wrong, everything else tends to follow suit.

Feel that i'm always fighting against something.

Sometimes i know wat it is, sometimes i don't.

Of coz i'll continue fighting... seems there was never another way.

But sometimes I get tired, and wonder why me?

Light? or On-coming train?


btw, i hope 54497 horny hamsters gang rape the farker who took my ezlink card... hump in every orifice possible. must be some improverished loud smelly inconsiderate commie chinaman.

The Perils of Modern Communication

Ever tried jio-ing frens for movie via sms nowadays? its difficult work. take my (very) recent experience:

ppl involved: piak, meng, kitty, kok, squid, me.

Day before planned movie (the exchange below is all thru sms, unless stated otherwise. words may be different but content is the same)
Mass sms from me to grp of frens: anyone wanna watch [insert 1st movie name] or [insert 2nd movie name] tml evening?

Replies -
piak: not free... gotta study for exams!
kok: change to afternoon? kitty wanna watch [insert movie name]

reply to kok: ok. u any time can rite? i ask kitty wat time free.

sms to kitty: u wanna watch [insert movie name] rite? tml afternoon wat time u free?
kitty: not free tml...

sms to kok: she not free lah

Hours later, in the evening

Squid: who going?
reply to squid: so far only kok and me

sms to kok: so far only 2 of us leh. u still on?
kok: kitty free in the evening.
me: u ask her can?
kok: working.

sms to kitty: you tml evening wat time free?
kitty: not free lah
me: then y kok keep saying u free?
kitty: haha... coz he stood

Hours hours later

sms to squid: so tml u wanna watch movie?
squid: may hv something on, will let u know later.

sms to kok: i think maybe only 2 of us, squid still ai mai ai mai
kok: get kitty lah, she at nite free

sms to kitty: kok says u free at nite. is this true?
[no reply]

Next afternoon, smses waiting for me

meng: paiseh reply so late. not free.
squid: ok i'm watching with u guys
reply to squid: just woke up. ok i'll book online, will confirm with others.

sms to kok: still on for movie? 2 of us and squid.
[no reply]

sms to squid: think my computer spoil. can u check timing and book movie?
squid: the others leh?
me: no others... irritated by kok who keep saying kitty free when she isn't. ok i'll ask him again. help me check movie online can? then sms me wat time and where.
squid: ok

sms to kok: for the movie, squid will check online and confirm with us.

Tired from rebooting my computer over and over again, takes a nap. woken up by call from kok

kok: where r u?
me: huh? wat? i'm at home... just woke up
kok: wat? didn't u get my sms? i'm at PS already!
me: wat sms?
kok: nvm... i'll call squid tell him not to come.
me: we can still watch later show rite?
kok: see how lah

smses waiting for me:
squid: u can check from newspaper? doing stuff now.
kok: ok meet at PS 630!

After a while, call squid. call gets rejected. call kok:
me: so how? still watching?
kok: not watching already
me: ok lor

misses squid's call when in toilet. calls back:
me: so how? not meeting already hor?
squid: you all lah! fricking waste my time only.
(hears kok's voice in the backgrd: "who's that?")
me: come on lor. it's u guys who couldn't make up ur minds. and kok keep saying kitty free when she's not.
squid: ok ok all our fault.
*click*

I call VJ
me: yo. ur church finish wat time? wanna catch midnite movie?
vj: 11plus. hmm... but i got stuff tml 8+. ends at 1pm, can meet u after that.
me: i could drive...
vj: i'm not sure wat time i can meet u, maybe earliest is 1140 liddat.
me: ok wat... watching midnite movie rite?
vj: ok anything lah. in church now, just sms me the details.
me: anything can lah? but u must confirm with me mah.
vj: yah ok. but i won't be replying u until later.
me: how late? need to book ticket asap wat.
vj: ok. by 8plus.
me: kae cya.
(decisive conversation over in less than 5mins)

So here are my gripes:
1) wild goose chases are NOT funny. so DO NOT say someone is free when SHE IS NOT. bo liao jokes waste time and money.
2) smses give us the convenience of replying whenever we want to, even if it is much, much later. but an early sms saying: "i'm interested, but i'll confirm with u later, at abt [insert timing]" helps the organisor decide whether to still carry on trying to organise, and does not leave everyone else hanging.
3) sometimes the organisor may need help in trying to organise. if u can help, help. if u can't help, quickly tell him u can't so he can find alternative sources.
4) and for goodness sake pls make up ur mind. if u can't decide betw 2 or more events, just decide anyway, so ur frens can go ahead with their plans. or if u're left hanging by one group, pls dun leave another backup group hanging in case the 1st grp pang seh u and u are left with no plans. since u dun like to be left hanging, other ppl also dun like. try to be decisive, coz ur decisions affect others too. and the reason others are affected is coz they take ur views into consideration.
5) calls are a more efficient, effective way of communication than sms.

note to self: since movie groups of 3 are so difficult to form, try asking just 1 fren instead.

Declaration

In light of the recent crackdowns, as sole author of this blogspace, i declare the following:

- I will not single out any community for blog fodder.
- I will not be complaining abt any of my tutors and lecturers in a way that they can search and identify themselves from any search engine.
- I will not be complaining abt any of my former teachers also.
- I will not be commenting anymore about the gahmen, nor any public service body or stat boards or companies linked to the gahmen, lest the police come round to slap me on the wrist.
- There are no white mammals, or any other white creatures, or mammals of any other colour, placed anywhere on this blog.
- I have NOTHING against the colour white. it is a nice colour.
- I have NOTHING against other colours. esp ppl of other colours. or any colour.
- I am not being racist! and i do not judge ppl by their skin colour! skin colours do not matter to me!
- Oh no i'm digging myself deeper and deeper into a hole... pls dun arrest me... i didn't mean anything defamatory... help!!! i need subhas anandan's number!!! nowadays the in-thing to do when charged with murder is to say u're mentally unstable liao... i wonder if i can say that voices told me to type all this?

Pasta Buffet!

Oh well... at least, barring the movie-sms incident, the wkend so far has been ok... early in the wk, zz jio-ed us for a fridae pasta buffet at CPF building... $12 all u can eat!! of coz i onz lah....

but unfortunately... we all were late in meeting him. i wanted to finish my fyp data compiling before i ended the day... and it took longer than expected. i let him know, and later he sms-ed me saying there wld be chance i wld still be the earliest!! think he had the impression i had finished when i sms-ed him... but i only finished 1hr after that... oops. it's v sian when u organise outing and u're the earliest, and v to wait for everyone else... so i sms-ed him my apologies. and turns out the ala carte buffet's last order was soon!! i managed to rush down just in time...

girl and sy were already there with zz, almost done with eating. well the good thing abt going just in time for closing at a ala carte buffet is when u order everything at one shot, the feeling is SHIOK!!! the whole table in front of me had plates and plates of pasta, pizza, side dishes and desserts. one mouth creamy pasta... next is fish... followed by banana pizza... followed by hawaiian... followed by brownie... followed by tomato-based pasta... more banana pizza... SHIOK!!!

ahhaha too busy eating to join in conversation, so the 3 of them talked. managed to hear bits and pieces here and there... but the food took priority... esp since i hardly had lunch in preparation for this!! girl said she enjoyed watching me eat... i make the food seem so delicious... well i'm not a fussy eater lah. as long as got lots and lots, i happy liao.

seems there's been changes with sy and girl... not close to sy in the 1st place, but girl and i hvn't been talking for a while liao... girl, i'm glad for u... but proceed carefully k? still too early to say wat will happen.

after that went for ktv... 4 ppl for 4 hrs!! v fun... seems like quite a while nv play with zz & girl liao... too bad zow not there. maybe it seems long coz been too busy in sch, nv see the 2 girls since girl's house warming.... but ok... enuff fun liao. now gotta stop thinking abt playing and piah this last stretch.....

thanx for a v fun nite guys... ;-) in dec, after stanchart we go sentosa like old times k...

Tired.

6 mths ago...
Zow: Been studying hard?
Me: Been hard studying.

quiz today. quiz tml. Fuckingup-Your-Personallife(For-Your-Prof) FYP report due in 2 wks. 6 papers. 2 have some clue, 2 have a few clues, 2 have no clues. tml's quiz is a no clue one.

brain dead. but not letting go. the longer i drag this, the worse its going to get.

i wanna faster get out, and prove that wat matters is not grades, but passion, interest, motivation & a desire to prove myself, to perform.

i'm going to be a success. then one day the U is going to invite me to speak at a convocation, where i'll be the one telling all those mortar boards, "you're all screwed. 1st class? lagi gone case. u'll all end up working for ppl like me, who didn't even hv a convo."

The newspapers will conduct an in-depth interview, where i'll tell them these 4 1/2 yrs were a perfect waste of time: expensive, unstimulating, rigourous without purpose. and how short-sighted those in power were back then... to slot everyone into pigeon holes using their arbitrary classifications. Quote from the interview: "Things are better... now that I'M in charge."

these 7 years are coming to an end. i only hope that the light, at the end of the tunnel, does not turn out to be an oncoming train.