I've actually been dedicating a gargantuan amount of time towards the custom arts site and the drawings pertaining to the site, such that I've kinda forgotten about updating this.
Did some layout readjustments here, so I hope the site'll be more viewer-friendly now.
Finally decided on a name: Bric Brac d'Art. Basically an amalgamation of the French words bric-a-brac and objet d'art, signifying the combination of something small, frivolous and cute yet classy and elegant at the same time.
It's been about a week of basically sticking my ass to whatever exalted throne there is available and just drawing and site-designing and digital editing all the way. I go out once in awhile to find yet another exalted throne to plant my butt on and get more inspiration just to continue working on this, bringing along the huge sketchbook that Alvin gave me. *Arty-farty yuppie mode* :\
I think I'm actually quite fuckin' hardcore. If everyone put in the amount of effort and concentration I'm putting in now for this, I reckon the total output harnessed could quite possibly save a third world country or something... Anyway whatever.
The site has undergone some developments too, so you can check it out here: http://www.freewebtown.com/customarts. We're considering the domain name registration possibilities, but that's just one out of a myriad of potential concerns, such as marketing, site layout development, payment procedures etc.
The past week, I:
- Once slept at 4am and woke up at noon the next day and I was a total wreck the whole day. Will probably be the last time I will ever attempt to do something like that. It's not like in secondary school and JC anymore when I could just sleep anytime I wanted and get away with it I guess. Must be some age factor, though I'm just somewhat being dismissively hopeful in a totally whatsthefkingpointanyway manner.
- Went to Grapevine with Dick, Dud and Thiampeng, and we talked some of the funniest shit I ever had in awhile, regarding government and politics. I won't elaborate much cos it's not so much of a free-speech country I live in and I don't find the prospects of getting dragged away by intelligence cops very enticing at all. We were, to sum things up, just four rather noisily ignorant cocksters trying to comment on things like why Russia is developing nuclear tech in Myanmar and what are the repercussions of voting for opposition, as well as what would lead to people actually voting for opposition.
- Had a field soccer game at a totally fucked up, swamped out Yishun locale and lost 11-1. It was one of the dumbest, most uninspiring soccer matches I ever had in my life and I will forget this sooner than I know. But this does make me wanna have another go in future soon, something proper for once. Is it really such a pipe dream to have the opportunity to just play some decent football on a normal pitch in Singapore?
- My Creative Zen Vision M has died. The guys at Creative can't save it. The bloody device has failed on me and along with it, traumatically, goes all my photos and videos. I still have songs on my laptop so that isn't an issue, but all the pictures I've decided to invest in the player's storage are gone, stuff from family, army, prom and everything. All my soccer videos too. Sigh. But well, now's a good time to apply some self-philosophy so I can only be as upset as I can allow myself to be so wtf wheee. The bigger pain, though, is the warranty which is out for a good 2 months already. I'm trying to see how I can avert the costs of repair, which is a crazily whopping $350-odd (inclusive of $40 admin fees, wtf?) that I could use to get a new player altogether, and that can be waived if my warranty's still valid. I might forge or something.
Some people seem to read the Bible a lot as they get older. Maybe they think they're cramming for their finals.
Today's Listenables:
Stone Sour - Through The Glass
Saturday, 19 May 2007
Sunday, 6 May 2007
A quick run-through of just about the first week of being a funemployee:
1) Finished Life Of Pi.
2) Watched Step Up and Tenacious D: The Pick Of Destiny.
3) Busted my legs (bones and muscles) from soccer on both weekends; today's and last.
4) Secured the freelance sub-editing job. May be securing more copy-writing assignments too, if things go well on Dody's end.
5) Roamed all over town with Kee every other day.
6) Watched Spiderman 3 at the cinema.
7) Charmain's lunch treat.
8) Washed all the fans in the house.
9) Working on more drawing assignments (here).
10) Working on the custom arts website (here). Just a raw framework, so don't expect much. Still deciding on a name.
Next read in line is Prozac Nation. I've had a quick browse through some Spanish language instructionals, one of which was Spanish For Dummies, and it seems like quite a decent language to pick up. For starters, its phonetics are fixed so you won't end up having words with multiple sounds, like in English. Only problem is that the average cost of these books are about $35. That to deal with next.
Spiderman 3 had some hot action sequences, but I thought the plot was pretty convenient for itself to unfold. Like Green Goblin teaming up with Spiderman. Huh? And Harry's bitch telling him right at the end about his dad. Eddie Brock looks like a wimp, and I suppose the portrayal of an evil Peter Parker requiring him to dress and look like an emo kid says something about perceptions lol.
There's a play titled '251' about Annabelle Chong. The number, for those who are unaware, is the number of men she had sex with in that famous coital marathon. To a certain extent, with the right marketing push (whether called for or uncalled for, official or unofficial), she could end up being the next Che Guevara. Poor dude became a victim of pop culture because they portrayed him as the famous rebel. A few plays have already portrayed Annabelle Chong as the liberal feminist due to her sexual stunt and it, depending on perception, may have been something silly turned into heroics by the media. Imagine silhouetted photos of Annabelle Chong on t-shirts.
Women shouldn't give men the silent treatment and be pissed that they aren't doing anything about it. Men love the silence.
Today's Listenables:
Skillet - Whispers In The Dark
Monday, 30 April 2007
Wasted
It was only when I got out of bed and took my infant steps for the day that I realised I'd put myself through a battering for the soccer morning the day before. My glut-muscles (on my ass), groin muscles and muscles in all random areas of the body - right shoulder, left ab, lower back - ached with such an acute and annoying intensity that I felt it a chore just to do something as simple as walk.
I'd played right out of my skin that day. So much so that, I realised, we'd demolished the inadequate, unnecessary obstacles of the AJC teams with an urgent ease so as to move on to the 'ultimate malay team' and 'ultimate chinese team', so coined by Zhiquan and quite possibly his other soccer friends. And amazingly, we did away with the both of them too, one after another, before failing to rise to the challenge of the 2nd UMT (they had enough people to form 2 teams), but considering the impossibility of this eventual occurrence (of the winning streak since my team was quite an oddly assembled one to begin with) it was ridiculous enough to find yourself up against one ultimate team after the other, without the familiar respite of another random mediocre team in between, and even more ridiculously so to have had them booted out by your own doing.
Without a bigger challenge, I can sometimes labour to a hard-earned victory over the random, more mediocre teams present and on some occasions, even lose to them. If only I was stronger-willed with more consistency in the desire for victory and stay more focused. Adrenaline is a powerful drug indeed. It wasn't til I got home that I found huge bruises on my shins and calves and a bleeding left toe, preceding the muscle aches.
It's Kee's liberation day as her final paper ended this morning in bittersweet fashion, i.e. crappy paper but whogivesadamncositsover nonetheless. Poor girl hadn't slept the whole night; I was amazed at her ability to even last our date! It's the start of our holiday together and I've got ideas swirling in my head. Nothing heavy for the day, just some light shopping and food; an easy-going prelude to more interesting propositions.
I'm getting reinitiated into narrative writing by reading Life Of Pi now. The amount of descriptives in the novel is colossal to say the least and I was having trouble deciphering and imagining Yann Martell's lengthy and tedious written portrayals, of the boat especially. For the most part since my JC days, I've been reading more stuff that's angled towards opinions, facts and pretty much unnarrative stuff. At the moment it's quite passive reading, but credit to the author definitely for those descriptions I can vividly capture, as the writing is indeed beautiful. Just a pity that most of it is wasted on me.
Expecting life to treat you well because you are a good person is like expecting an angry bull not to charge because you are a vegetarian.
Today's Listenables:
Waking Ashland - Hands On Deck
I'd played right out of my skin that day. So much so that, I realised, we'd demolished the inadequate, unnecessary obstacles of the AJC teams with an urgent ease so as to move on to the 'ultimate malay team' and 'ultimate chinese team', so coined by Zhiquan and quite possibly his other soccer friends. And amazingly, we did away with the both of them too, one after another, before failing to rise to the challenge of the 2nd UMT (they had enough people to form 2 teams), but considering the impossibility of this eventual occurrence (of the winning streak since my team was quite an oddly assembled one to begin with) it was ridiculous enough to find yourself up against one ultimate team after the other, without the familiar respite of another random mediocre team in between, and even more ridiculously so to have had them booted out by your own doing.
Without a bigger challenge, I can sometimes labour to a hard-earned victory over the random, more mediocre teams present and on some occasions, even lose to them. If only I was stronger-willed with more consistency in the desire for victory and stay more focused. Adrenaline is a powerful drug indeed. It wasn't til I got home that I found huge bruises on my shins and calves and a bleeding left toe, preceding the muscle aches.
It's Kee's liberation day as her final paper ended this morning in bittersweet fashion, i.e. crappy paper but whogivesadamncositsover nonetheless. Poor girl hadn't slept the whole night; I was amazed at her ability to even last our date! It's the start of our holiday together and I've got ideas swirling in my head. Nothing heavy for the day, just some light shopping and food; an easy-going prelude to more interesting propositions.
I'm getting reinitiated into narrative writing by reading Life Of Pi now. The amount of descriptives in the novel is colossal to say the least and I was having trouble deciphering and imagining Yann Martell's lengthy and tedious written portrayals, of the boat especially. For the most part since my JC days, I've been reading more stuff that's angled towards opinions, facts and pretty much unnarrative stuff. At the moment it's quite passive reading, but credit to the author definitely for those descriptions I can vividly capture, as the writing is indeed beautiful. Just a pity that most of it is wasted on me.
Expecting life to treat you well because you are a good person is like expecting an angry bull not to charge because you are a vegetarian.
Today's Listenables:
Waking Ashland - Hands On Deck
Sunday, 29 April 2007
Every week, I look eagerly forward to my weekend soccer games. It's like everyday, I just go through the day so that that weekend kickabout draws closer. Miss one session and I feel completely fucked up for the rest of the week to come.
Today was fantastic. Usually, the weather would be mercilessly scorching but it rained in the dead of the night so the sun wasn't blazing up the courts this morning. We had up to 8 teams, which is pretty insane for one street soccer court, but I felt good and my makeshift team that didn't really gel anyway made good for 5 games. Notched a couple of goals myself.
My love for soccer is pure and simple.
I left Love Airways on friday and I was given the 'farewell lunch' treatment at where Wei claims serves the best Thai food place in Singapore. For a 45min quick bite, $131 is quite a bomb, but the food was good. Just a bit too exotic (I couldn't picture anything on the menu when I was ordering) and not filling enough, but I'm not complaining!
Chinhong is taking over me in the admin role and in the whole of last week, half the time was spent handing over stuff and the other half... Well, just finding fillers to justify my time in the office, such as watching shows I'd meant to watch for the longest time but didn't on my laptop and finally checking out the Love Airways TV show (which really sucked la).
Sorted out some things with Wei and gave him some feedback, like what I didn't think the admin person should have to be responsible for and why I felt the pay, at $6/hr, wasn't justified. Some points taken, some not. If things work out, then I'll be offered a $400/mth freelance sub-editor role for the magazine, which would have various leverage factors for the company anyway, the main reason being that I'll still be kept in the loop, but the rest of which I'm too lazy to elaborate about.
Now that I'm off work, it's time for the month of important personal pursuits before school term begins and I'm back to being stifled by academics in the name of future survival's sake in the workforce.
1) Reading. Have kicked-started that off already with 2 books in hand - Life of Pi and Prozac Nation. Linda lent me Life of Pi and bought Prozac Nation for me, and I was quite pleasantly surprised at the gesture. Whenever I thanked her profusely for it (cos I'd probably not have spent such money on myself), she'd just say that it's like sharing a passion so she'd do it anytime. Have started reading Life of Pi already.
2) Watching good movies. I've a list of good movies to catch - some arthouse ones and some not, but not your mainstream flicks. On the list are An Inconvenient Truth, The Pursuit of Happyness, City of God, and Fight Club (Richard swears by this movie), just to name a few.
3) Possibly embarking on another run-to-nowhere attempt.
4) Picking up Spanish.
5) Picking up percussions (this one's only hopeful, depending on the capital).
6) Having a great time while the family's away in Macau from the 29th of May til the 4th of June.
7) Soccer tournament at Jeremy's church carnival on the 26th.
8) Legs and Paddles with Kee on the 27th.
9) Field games. Bring on the field games! It's been a long while since I could experience 20-yard shots, sprinting down flanks and providing/receiving inch-perfect through-balls.
10) Lotsa time with Kee. There's gonna be food-hunts, urban exploring and cycling trips among many others cos she's on holiday!
11) Journalistic pursuits, such as sub-editing for Love Airways. Linda is also trying to secure the writing connections for me with some magazines and there's remuneration for articles too. Dody the designer might have copy-writing assignments for me as well with his clients.
12) The custom arts online business venture. I've already started working on some free projects for friends to beef up a portfolio of sorts. When everything works out, this custom arts service will provide people with the opportunity to have art that is customised and/or personalised for themselves, such as photos, names, other text and jewellery. Kee and her sis will have a hand in the jewellery aspect and names too. If it all goes very well, then we will quite possibly consider venturing into getting prints onto apparel such as shoes, bags and shirts.
So it's not all fun and games, but if everything works out fine, it'll be one great month.
Having a sense of humour as a woman doesn't mean you tell jokes. It means you laugh at his jokes.
Today's Listenables:
Full Blown Rose - In The Light
Today was fantastic. Usually, the weather would be mercilessly scorching but it rained in the dead of the night so the sun wasn't blazing up the courts this morning. We had up to 8 teams, which is pretty insane for one street soccer court, but I felt good and my makeshift team that didn't really gel anyway made good for 5 games. Notched a couple of goals myself.
My love for soccer is pure and simple.
I left Love Airways on friday and I was given the 'farewell lunch' treatment at where Wei claims serves the best Thai food place in Singapore. For a 45min quick bite, $131 is quite a bomb, but the food was good. Just a bit too exotic (I couldn't picture anything on the menu when I was ordering) and not filling enough, but I'm not complaining!
Chinhong is taking over me in the admin role and in the whole of last week, half the time was spent handing over stuff and the other half... Well, just finding fillers to justify my time in the office, such as watching shows I'd meant to watch for the longest time but didn't on my laptop and finally checking out the Love Airways TV show (which really sucked la).
Sorted out some things with Wei and gave him some feedback, like what I didn't think the admin person should have to be responsible for and why I felt the pay, at $6/hr, wasn't justified. Some points taken, some not. If things work out, then I'll be offered a $400/mth freelance sub-editor role for the magazine, which would have various leverage factors for the company anyway, the main reason being that I'll still be kept in the loop, but the rest of which I'm too lazy to elaborate about.
Now that I'm off work, it's time for the month of important personal pursuits before school term begins and I'm back to being stifled by academics in the name of future survival's sake in the workforce.
1) Reading. Have kicked-started that off already with 2 books in hand - Life of Pi and Prozac Nation. Linda lent me Life of Pi and bought Prozac Nation for me, and I was quite pleasantly surprised at the gesture. Whenever I thanked her profusely for it (cos I'd probably not have spent such money on myself), she'd just say that it's like sharing a passion so she'd do it anytime. Have started reading Life of Pi already.
2) Watching good movies. I've a list of good movies to catch - some arthouse ones and some not, but not your mainstream flicks. On the list are An Inconvenient Truth, The Pursuit of Happyness, City of God, and Fight Club (Richard swears by this movie), just to name a few.
3) Possibly embarking on another run-to-nowhere attempt.
4) Picking up Spanish.
5) Picking up percussions (this one's only hopeful, depending on the capital).
6) Having a great time while the family's away in Macau from the 29th of May til the 4th of June.
7) Soccer tournament at Jeremy's church carnival on the 26th.
8) Legs and Paddles with Kee on the 27th.
9) Field games. Bring on the field games! It's been a long while since I could experience 20-yard shots, sprinting down flanks and providing/receiving inch-perfect through-balls.
10) Lotsa time with Kee. There's gonna be food-hunts, urban exploring and cycling trips among many others cos she's on holiday!
11) Journalistic pursuits, such as sub-editing for Love Airways. Linda is also trying to secure the writing connections for me with some magazines and there's remuneration for articles too. Dody the designer might have copy-writing assignments for me as well with his clients.
12) The custom arts online business venture. I've already started working on some free projects for friends to beef up a portfolio of sorts. When everything works out, this custom arts service will provide people with the opportunity to have art that is customised and/or personalised for themselves, such as photos, names, other text and jewellery. Kee and her sis will have a hand in the jewellery aspect and names too. If it all goes very well, then we will quite possibly consider venturing into getting prints onto apparel such as shoes, bags and shirts.
So it's not all fun and games, but if everything works out fine, it'll be one great month.
Having a sense of humour as a woman doesn't mean you tell jokes. It means you laugh at his jokes.
Today's Listenables:
Full Blown Rose - In The Light
Monday, 23 April 2007
Bang, Bang
Nat, Richard, Leon and I had a great time at Cartel's yesterday being the few supporting Newcastle against Chelsea in the most animated of manners. Especially Nat. Dude was fuckin' funny at times, like practically jumping up and cheering when Lampard blasted over the bar from between 5-10 yards out and when Nicky Butt calmly walked the ball away from the goal-line as Chelsea looked to prod one in desperately. Leon was basically the Man Utd guy so he was obviously against Chelsea too, so that made at least 3 of us. I know Richard likes watching Drogba play lol.
And Newcastle had quite a number of chances to knick the game away. We were contemplating celebrating in front of everybody if the score stayed 0-0.
Tomorrow should be the beginning of the end at Love Airways for me, unless the sub-editing job goes through. It's production deadline time again, and it was a pretty hectic but rather satisfyingly enjoyable day cos it's sardonically therapeutic when you get clutter, loads of it, and you get to class it all up and eliminate them one by one to find that you have a very neat, conclusible piece of paper with a summary of what little's left pending and what's already done at the end of the day.
Her boyfriend's a dick
He brings a gun to school
And he'd simply kick
My ass if he knew
The truth he lives on my block
- Teenage Dirtbag
I was walking home one day and Wheatus came on random shuffle on the player and during those kinda zoned out long, lonely walks, a hundred and one things actually spin around my head and my thought processes are simply unleashed and allowed to run wild.
Which brings about some level of zen to me like being in the eye of a hurricane. I think about everything and anything, from how I can actually attempt to map out the road I'm walking on in a 3D manner, politics of the world today compared to the past, to why I do things the way I do due to symbiotic or psychological reasons.
Anyway, I just happened to really pay attention to the lyrics and it led me into thinking about how much it'd actually suck to know that a classmate of yours brings firearms to school. It actually sounds bloody sickening to be honest.
That was two days before the Virginia Tech massacre.
Bowling for Columbine featured Chris Rock in a stand-up routine saying that he thought the solution for gun violence was making every bullet cost a bomb (that sounded wrong).
"I would blow your fucking head off, if I could afford it." And he has also said, "bullets should cost $1000. That way you can be damn sure there won't be any innocent bystanders."
Well, I'm sure there'd be plenty of homemade bullets to follow if this were to happen. Eric Thompson has some truth in his words when he says that while it is easy to believe stopping people from possessing firearms could've prevented such a tragedy, a person like Cho would have found other means to do so if he really wanted to kill. While it is true that perhaps 33 people may not have died that day if guns were not so readily available, it is counter-intuitive to assume that such ill-will is absent just because people don't have the immediate or convenient means to manifest them into a horrid reality.
Guns don't kill people. People do.
Anything can be a weapon if you know how to hold it.
Today's Listenables:
Something Corporate - Konstantine
And Newcastle had quite a number of chances to knick the game away. We were contemplating celebrating in front of everybody if the score stayed 0-0.
Tomorrow should be the beginning of the end at Love Airways for me, unless the sub-editing job goes through. It's production deadline time again, and it was a pretty hectic but rather satisfyingly enjoyable day cos it's sardonically therapeutic when you get clutter, loads of it, and you get to class it all up and eliminate them one by one to find that you have a very neat, conclusible piece of paper with a summary of what little's left pending and what's already done at the end of the day.
Her boyfriend's a dick
He brings a gun to school
And he'd simply kick
My ass if he knew
The truth he lives on my block
- Teenage Dirtbag
I was walking home one day and Wheatus came on random shuffle on the player and during those kinda zoned out long, lonely walks, a hundred and one things actually spin around my head and my thought processes are simply unleashed and allowed to run wild.
Which brings about some level of zen to me like being in the eye of a hurricane. I think about everything and anything, from how I can actually attempt to map out the road I'm walking on in a 3D manner, politics of the world today compared to the past, to why I do things the way I do due to symbiotic or psychological reasons.
Anyway, I just happened to really pay attention to the lyrics and it led me into thinking about how much it'd actually suck to know that a classmate of yours brings firearms to school. It actually sounds bloody sickening to be honest.
That was two days before the Virginia Tech massacre.
Bowling for Columbine featured Chris Rock in a stand-up routine saying that he thought the solution for gun violence was making every bullet cost a bomb (that sounded wrong).
"I would blow your fucking head off, if I could afford it." And he has also said, "bullets should cost $1000. That way you can be damn sure there won't be any innocent bystanders."
Well, I'm sure there'd be plenty of homemade bullets to follow if this were to happen. Eric Thompson has some truth in his words when he says that while it is easy to believe stopping people from possessing firearms could've prevented such a tragedy, a person like Cho would have found other means to do so if he really wanted to kill. While it is true that perhaps 33 people may not have died that day if guns were not so readily available, it is counter-intuitive to assume that such ill-will is absent just because people don't have the immediate or convenient means to manifest them into a horrid reality.
Guns don't kill people. People do.
Anything can be a weapon if you know how to hold it.
Today's Listenables:
Something Corporate - Konstantine
Friday, 20 April 2007
Will the sheer behemothicness of MP3s pull it through to legality one day? Just as how handphones used to be banned in secondary schools during my time, their necessity or influence can't be overlooked anymore now and assuming that the law can cap the advent of traded music is either blatantly ignorant or purely puerile.
Things are pretty unstable at LA since Jace's left and it's been sometime since the golden era of Alf and the 2 Js. Yilin was the hyper one that came in and found familiar friction with Doc and then left cos she's smart and stubborn in her own ways and he couldn't exactly 'manipulate' her in the way he'd like it to be.
But Yilin was fun in that really frivilous, lian kinda way. She came in one morning and basically said, "that guy cheebai one leh!" Which just left me in a mixture of surprise and amusement all the same.
Linda: "I don't have any friends. Maybe only 4 or 5 la."
Me: "Linda. Are you my friend?"
Linda: "No, I haven't seen you naked yet."
PWNT.
He who is hesitant is... Umm......
Today's Listenables:
Submersed - Hollow
Things are pretty unstable at LA since Jace's left and it's been sometime since the golden era of Alf and the 2 Js. Yilin was the hyper one that came in and found familiar friction with Doc and then left cos she's smart and stubborn in her own ways and he couldn't exactly 'manipulate' her in the way he'd like it to be.
But Yilin was fun in that really frivilous, lian kinda way. She came in one morning and basically said, "that guy cheebai one leh!" Which just left me in a mixture of surprise and amusement all the same.
Linda: "I don't have any friends. Maybe only 4 or 5 la."
Me: "Linda. Are you my friend?"
Linda: "No, I haven't seen you naked yet."
PWNT.
He who is hesitant is... Umm......
Today's Listenables:
Submersed - Hollow
Wednesday, 28 March 2007
Touche
Oftentimes, for lack of inspiration I can only get down to something mediocre when I post and so I decide against it. That doesn't mean I believe that everything I eventually type is read-worthy. There've been blogs I've visited that made me feel that I'd be better off stapling my ears midway through reading and then there were those that just made me either feel inspired to get my fingers typing right away or want to give up writing anymore completely.
I've watched The Arena a few times and boy, can those kids argue. Having to follow through aggressive arguments, make split-second judgments, spot the smallest errors that can topple your opponent, dig into that bottomless pool of information in your head and sieve out an inch-perfect return ball. I could never do that.
The people at work run trains of thought at the speed of light. Wei, Linda, HJ; all top-guns in their line of work and ever-ready to mince your words and serve them back on a platter. I just let them go on and on cos I could never bother. I have my ways.
I'm not one to mentally multi-task and beat my conversational counterpart into pulp in an argument, but I'm not any less capable in the propensity of thought. It's just that I've met people who are so self-assured that idealism makes you a loser, but I'm sure we're all just pretty much on different ends of the personality plane. You've got yours and I've got mine, and then we'll never see eye to eye which can be such a pity but that's just the way it is.
At the end of the day, I'm all for pragmatism and a supposedly time-wasting whollistic conversation and I won't bother selling an idea if I know I'm not naturally capable of it.
Alv's left the office now; I'll always remember his laid back stance with a consistent fag in hand, and his "fuck la, just follow your heart, I say" will be etched in my head quite permanently.
Corporate gay-ness is quite an inevitable thing.
It's really not all the money and power in the world I'd wanna have, no matter how good you could argue in a that's-the-only-thing-that-ever-matters kinda way. I've got pursuits that'll make me feel a million-grand richer.
There aren't any virgins left, cos life has screwed us all.
Today's Listenables:
The Ataris - My Reply
I've watched The Arena a few times and boy, can those kids argue. Having to follow through aggressive arguments, make split-second judgments, spot the smallest errors that can topple your opponent, dig into that bottomless pool of information in your head and sieve out an inch-perfect return ball. I could never do that.
The people at work run trains of thought at the speed of light. Wei, Linda, HJ; all top-guns in their line of work and ever-ready to mince your words and serve them back on a platter. I just let them go on and on cos I could never bother. I have my ways.
I'm not one to mentally multi-task and beat my conversational counterpart into pulp in an argument, but I'm not any less capable in the propensity of thought. It's just that I've met people who are so self-assured that idealism makes you a loser, but I'm sure we're all just pretty much on different ends of the personality plane. You've got yours and I've got mine, and then we'll never see eye to eye which can be such a pity but that's just the way it is.
At the end of the day, I'm all for pragmatism and a supposedly time-wasting whollistic conversation and I won't bother selling an idea if I know I'm not naturally capable of it.
Alv's left the office now; I'll always remember his laid back stance with a consistent fag in hand, and his "fuck la, just follow your heart, I say" will be etched in my head quite permanently.
Corporate gay-ness is quite an inevitable thing.
It's really not all the money and power in the world I'd wanna have, no matter how good you could argue in a that's-the-only-thing-that-ever-matters kinda way. I've got pursuits that'll make me feel a million-grand richer.
There aren't any virgins left, cos life has screwed us all.
Today's Listenables:
The Ataris - My Reply
Sunday, 25 March 2007
The Lives Of Others is a really good movie. I'm only left pondering how much reference it has to any real events. If not, then it's a fascinating portrayal of 70s Germany.
Work has degenerated into a comfortably stagnate level and I'm pretty much left to my own devices now just the way I like it. I've dug up a fair bit of skeletons with the history of my work place and it's people, though I'm not saying that things are as bad as they seemed in the past, of which I wasn't a part of so it wouldn't be fair for me to comment.
CDS stories never fail to live up to their levels of incredulous insanity. The CO's changed, prominent figures have swopped roles and things are following their usual route of general decline... Climates that I can't imagine having to brave through if I was still there. Just hope that reservist isn't that such a pain in the ass to bear.
Another uninspired post and my chatterbox died.
Live today; it is where tomorrow's memories begin
Today's Listenables:
The All-American Rejects - Dance Inside
Work has degenerated into a comfortably stagnate level and I'm pretty much left to my own devices now just the way I like it. I've dug up a fair bit of skeletons with the history of my work place and it's people, though I'm not saying that things are as bad as they seemed in the past, of which I wasn't a part of so it wouldn't be fair for me to comment.
CDS stories never fail to live up to their levels of incredulous insanity. The CO's changed, prominent figures have swopped roles and things are following their usual route of general decline... Climates that I can't imagine having to brave through if I was still there. Just hope that reservist isn't that such a pain in the ass to bear.
Another uninspired post and my chatterbox died.
Live today; it is where tomorrow's memories begin
Today's Listenables:
The All-American Rejects - Dance Inside
Sunday, 4 March 2007
I'm in the office on a sunday cos I've got nothing to do at home and the office being based in town makes it quite convenient as a 'station' place for me to do my own stuff while waiting for meet-up plans to materialise. I'm meeting Wesley later anyway. I was supposed to be here at 1500h cos one of the temps under me wanted to work and we decided on this time, but I got quite carried away with the Pool - Man Utd repeat game and ended up coming here an hour late. And the poor sod doesn't have a handphone, so. *Shrugs. I have no idea where he is now either.
I've come to a compromise with my dad and I'm gonna try for the Marketing module in term 3B (June - July), which means I'll start earlier, but not as early as April.
I've said before that school's a good excuse to get by, cos parents get all sensitive and protective and leave you alone when you declare that you're studying, so you can actually just forsake everything and study cos that's the presumably responsible thing to do; unlike if you're a working adult. You can't tell the crying baby to shut up cos you're working.
Add this growing reluctance to work to the equation and that's a huge nudge in the direction of deciding to compromise and opt for the early enrolment as well. My work at Love Airways is exciting no doubt, as are the learning prospects and opportunities and all that 'working with the media' jazz. As a temp myself, I'm actually governing a lot of power here. But sometimes there are some things I'd rather not wanna be involved in, and at the rate we're going, I'm nose-diving right into the fray.
I think I can sum up my attitude towards this job as a one-week holiday where you'd like to be in day 3 or 4 and skip the rest.
Watching the Liverpool Vs Manchester United game, I can't agree any further with the commentator after O'Shea put the Red Devils in the lead at the death and exclaims, "isn't that the hallmark of champions!?"
I've talked to Eufai about this before over MSN one day. There's a significant difference between a 'classy team' and a 'class team'. Arsenal are a truly classy team and their search for the perfect goal is always a sight to behold when you watch it unfold in play. But that doesn't always mean they win games.
On the other hand, Manchester United are a true class act because they can grind out the results whether or not they are playing well and that really defines a true winner. And although there were hiccups, they have never taken more than 1 or 2 seasons to put their championship race back on track, and have been getting it right all the time. That kind of glory sends shivers down my spine and I'm not even a Manchester United fan.
Life's too short to be taken seriously.
Today's Listenables:
Metallica - Ain't My Bitch
I've come to a compromise with my dad and I'm gonna try for the Marketing module in term 3B (June - July), which means I'll start earlier, but not as early as April.
I've said before that school's a good excuse to get by, cos parents get all sensitive and protective and leave you alone when you declare that you're studying, so you can actually just forsake everything and study cos that's the presumably responsible thing to do; unlike if you're a working adult. You can't tell the crying baby to shut up cos you're working.
Add this growing reluctance to work to the equation and that's a huge nudge in the direction of deciding to compromise and opt for the early enrolment as well. My work at Love Airways is exciting no doubt, as are the learning prospects and opportunities and all that 'working with the media' jazz. As a temp myself, I'm actually governing a lot of power here. But sometimes there are some things I'd rather not wanna be involved in, and at the rate we're going, I'm nose-diving right into the fray.
I think I can sum up my attitude towards this job as a one-week holiday where you'd like to be in day 3 or 4 and skip the rest.
Watching the Liverpool Vs Manchester United game, I can't agree any further with the commentator after O'Shea put the Red Devils in the lead at the death and exclaims, "isn't that the hallmark of champions!?"
I've talked to Eufai about this before over MSN one day. There's a significant difference between a 'classy team' and a 'class team'. Arsenal are a truly classy team and their search for the perfect goal is always a sight to behold when you watch it unfold in play. But that doesn't always mean they win games.
On the other hand, Manchester United are a true class act because they can grind out the results whether or not they are playing well and that really defines a true winner. And although there were hiccups, they have never taken more than 1 or 2 seasons to put their championship race back on track, and have been getting it right all the time. That kind of glory sends shivers down my spine and I'm not even a Manchester United fan.
Life's too short to be taken seriously.
Today's Listenables:
Metallica - Ain't My Bitch
Monday, 26 February 2007
Place In Time
I've always wondered what it would be like to have everyone from a particular time your life in the past come back together again. Like for me, maybe 4E1 or 03S3A, with everyone back together in the same room, topped off with the same teacher(s) we had. I won't really know what to expect, except to describe any notion of anticipation about the whole situation as 'interesting' probably. If we could get off to any conversation at all without any hint of awkwardness, there'd be opinions we'd share now that we wouldn't have in the past cos time and age brings new insights and there'd be friends where there were enemies cos sometimes, we find that conflicts are really much more blown out of proportion than they should be.
Also, I really think that the friends we make now are very different from the ones we made last time. Back then in secondary school, it was okay to be yourself in all your innocence because you were young and retarded anyway and that kind of made the friendships established those many years ago a whole lot more innocent because the friends you made were real and came naturally, not because you had a false front or you had to know the person due to some obligations. Moving on from those years through JC to the army and, to some extent, the workforce now, you'll find that new friends are there because you have to work with them or that you had to take the bus with them everyday, and half the time you do have a facade put on for some form of impression to give when you first meet a person. Things are a lot more formal now than they were in the past and, of course, your old friends from school will be the only ones entitled to know in full colour the silly things you did, unless you're still unabashedly doing them now, and that really does make a difference as to the levels of emotional attachment between you and your friends.
That said, if, for example, I had known my acquaintance-level colleague now as a secondary school friend rather than as an office colleague, he might have been a close buddy to me, rather than just a mere acquaintance.
Things are really determined by their place in time. I do believe to quite an extent that 'fate', or whatever you might wanna call it, is quite intertwined with many other things we attempt to make happen to determine our destinies for ourselves. You could be the safest person alive but if a car decides to swerve off the road and careen off the kerb into your path, you were just doomed to die. And if you find that you've had all kinds of relationships but not one of them has lasted, the one probably just hasn't arrived yet and there's nothing you can do about it. Same goes for the purpose in life idea. I don't mean to stereotype or judge people but when I was in the army and in charge of my men, there were people who really had both the look and behaviour that simply screams aloud that they're just gonna be workers for the rest of their lives. That's their destiny and you can't force any form of enterprise onto them or get them to be a little more entrepreneurial simply because it's the 'better' thing to be or do. Afterall, some people are happier being off the frontlines of doing 'glorious' stuff, like finding new businesses and companies, and working quietly for their simple keeps.
I've always felt like I was more of a backstage person anyway. My work shines when I'm off the limelight and able to look at things from a step back. I don't aspire for any form of greatness, just as long as I'm happily doing what I like.
My dad's making me go for the special term enrolment, which is really messing me up at this point of time. I'm all prepped to fire back at this bollocks of an idea.
Children in backseats cause accidents. Accidents in backseats cause children.
Today's Listenables:
Saosin - Sleepers
Also, I really think that the friends we make now are very different from the ones we made last time. Back then in secondary school, it was okay to be yourself in all your innocence because you were young and retarded anyway and that kind of made the friendships established those many years ago a whole lot more innocent because the friends you made were real and came naturally, not because you had a false front or you had to know the person due to some obligations. Moving on from those years through JC to the army and, to some extent, the workforce now, you'll find that new friends are there because you have to work with them or that you had to take the bus with them everyday, and half the time you do have a facade put on for some form of impression to give when you first meet a person. Things are a lot more formal now than they were in the past and, of course, your old friends from school will be the only ones entitled to know in full colour the silly things you did, unless you're still unabashedly doing them now, and that really does make a difference as to the levels of emotional attachment between you and your friends.
That said, if, for example, I had known my acquaintance-level colleague now as a secondary school friend rather than as an office colleague, he might have been a close buddy to me, rather than just a mere acquaintance.
Things are really determined by their place in time. I do believe to quite an extent that 'fate', or whatever you might wanna call it, is quite intertwined with many other things we attempt to make happen to determine our destinies for ourselves. You could be the safest person alive but if a car decides to swerve off the road and careen off the kerb into your path, you were just doomed to die. And if you find that you've had all kinds of relationships but not one of them has lasted, the one probably just hasn't arrived yet and there's nothing you can do about it. Same goes for the purpose in life idea. I don't mean to stereotype or judge people but when I was in the army and in charge of my men, there were people who really had both the look and behaviour that simply screams aloud that they're just gonna be workers for the rest of their lives. That's their destiny and you can't force any form of enterprise onto them or get them to be a little more entrepreneurial simply because it's the 'better' thing to be or do. Afterall, some people are happier being off the frontlines of doing 'glorious' stuff, like finding new businesses and companies, and working quietly for their simple keeps.
I've always felt like I was more of a backstage person anyway. My work shines when I'm off the limelight and able to look at things from a step back. I don't aspire for any form of greatness, just as long as I'm happily doing what I like.
My dad's making me go for the special term enrolment, which is really messing me up at this point of time. I'm all prepped to fire back at this bollocks of an idea.
Children in backseats cause accidents. Accidents in backseats cause children.
Today's Listenables:
Saosin - Sleepers
Monday, 19 February 2007
I passed my driving test and I'm fucking happy. Period! No more instructor to contend with, no more money wasting, no more dragging my feet down to the driving centre because it's turned into a bloody sian routine where I spend 2hrs of my day to make myself feel turdy the rest of it, and now I can drive the way I want to, within safety limits of course. :)
That's a happy, sweet, sweet valentine's for me. And of course I dedicate it very much to Kee!! (Also cos I hadn't done much for valentines' day for her.. *sheepish)
The big annual reminder of what your relatives look like is here again and while some are genuinely looking forward to the festive reunions of Chinese New Year and others judging their visits by means of RP$ (ang pao currency, i.e. uncle X loses his visiting value after you have received red packet from said uncle), I'm not that excited about it at all and things really went by without a cinch, my family being done with the main body of visiting by 3pm today. Of which I'm pretty glad.
I treat the total sum of my red packets (which, at less than $100, isn't much anyway but I'm not saying that I'm complaining) as an annual bonus that would otherwise have come from my dad anyway; apologies for not being any more interesting about the whole joy of red packet receiving and I'm just gonna boringly deposit the cash into my bank after the 15th day (I'll stick to some degree of tradition about this one, albeit still in a modern context lol). I'd already done away with the festive shopping a month or so ago and that's that.
Doing this meet up of relatives once and for all for the rest of the year does have its silly, pointless joys no doubt, when you talk to uncles, aunties and the more approachable cousins and smart-aleck your way around inconsequential conversations and some of them, especially the uncles and aunties, really give you the look that says, "wow he's really grown up since that little cockster I'd known a decade ago." Because most of them have the impression stuck in their heads anyway that you were only 10 years old just every other 'last year'. Some people also ask why I don't wear spectacles anymore, when they've been asking the same question for the past 4 years.
And every year, it's almost ritualistic that they'll ask Kenny and I to stand side by side to compare heights. And I should prep this list of calling names to revise before meeting up because I can never remember all the ranks of my uncles and aunties and who's who.
Meeting Kee's family up was fun, though I'm still pretty hampered by the language factor between her folks and I but it's okay. It's interesting when your girlfriend's dad is a reknowned chinese artist who's met the likes of the government (I can't remember, president? Or prime minister or some people like that), the Singaporean UN ambassador and others and has his work featured regularly in newspapers and books. And his cooking's really zai.
Kee's sis has a new boyfriend too; name's Douglas and we had drinks and conversation going so it was quite a good meet up.
I'd like to visit friends though. In all honesty, that really holds more meaning to me than the relatives-visiting despite the whole obligatory concept of oh-you-have-to-do-this-cos-you-are-family-and-you-have-to-respect-some-people-and-the-new-year-tradition. I'm sure I might be labelled as a little unfilial or unfeeling towards those of close kin to me, or something along that line to a certain degree by some people but I'm just being frank.
A man gazing at the stars is at the mercy of every puddle on the road.- James!
Today's Listenables:
Hinder - Lips Of An Angel
Sunday, 11 February 2007
I was up at 10am to cycle down to AMK for more footy again, and now I'm pretty much officially wasted but satisfied. Wonder how long we're gonna keep this 2-games-per-weekend program up... I'm quite sure it's just the post-ORD high that's resulting in this. Soon people'll be getting jobs over the weekends as well and we'll settle to a more digestable routine I suppose.
Love football. Really do. It gave me so much more than just something to do after school. Saying I've gained friendship, leadership and confidence while at it is just scratching the surface ever so briefly.
Wonder what's coming up over the years for soccer for me? Cos by now I suppose if, at my age of 21, you aren't already playing for some team like Geylang United, the sun has probably set on any soccer potential for you. And then you find that all those times you spent learning those snazzy tricks and perfecting your first touch and shooting accuracy comes to nought; then you tell your grand kids that you played against Khairul Amri and lost 14-0 to him and his team in a secondary school tournament and that's the closest you ever came to anything that mattered.
Anyway, he scored a brilliant goal against Thailand in the 2nd leg of the Tiger Cup finals. Though we were just sitting at a prata shop a thousand kilometres away from Thailand where the game was held, the atmosphere was electric and for just one moment in time we were truly united; the connection from us and the team we were rooting for to represent our national pride and glory was so strong such that our emotions rose and ebbed with the flow of the game, with each battering that Singapore took from another Thailand attack and each counter that Singapore attempted to turn the game in their favour. Truly more than just _____________________ (insert anti-football female cliche here).
Years down the road, maybe I'll be at a field near you with the uncles on an easy evening when work doesn't spill over into the weekend and the wife and kids are occupied with other stuff, lol.
Amongst other relevant things, Newcastle 2-1 Liverpool. Go Toon!
When your work speaks for itself, don't interrupt.
Today's Listenables:
Saosin - It's Far Better To Learn
Love football. Really do. It gave me so much more than just something to do after school. Saying I've gained friendship, leadership and confidence while at it is just scratching the surface ever so briefly.
Wonder what's coming up over the years for soccer for me? Cos by now I suppose if, at my age of 21, you aren't already playing for some team like Geylang United, the sun has probably set on any soccer potential for you. And then you find that all those times you spent learning those snazzy tricks and perfecting your first touch and shooting accuracy comes to nought; then you tell your grand kids that you played against Khairul Amri and lost 14-0 to him and his team in a secondary school tournament and that's the closest you ever came to anything that mattered.
Anyway, he scored a brilliant goal against Thailand in the 2nd leg of the Tiger Cup finals. Though we were just sitting at a prata shop a thousand kilometres away from Thailand where the game was held, the atmosphere was electric and for just one moment in time we were truly united; the connection from us and the team we were rooting for to represent our national pride and glory was so strong such that our emotions rose and ebbed with the flow of the game, with each battering that Singapore took from another Thailand attack and each counter that Singapore attempted to turn the game in their favour. Truly more than just _____________________ (insert anti-football female cliche here).
Years down the road, maybe I'll be at a field near you with the uncles on an easy evening when work doesn't spill over into the weekend and the wife and kids are occupied with other stuff, lol.
Amongst other relevant things, Newcastle 2-1 Liverpool. Go Toon!
When your work speaks for itself, don't interrupt.
Today's Listenables:
Saosin - It's Far Better To Learn
Sunday, 4 February 2007
Fur & Feather
The Fur and Feather Party event at China One was a blast! Damn. It was amazing watching the fruits of your labour take shape in such grandulous form. China One was packed and it was really happening... With dances and a live band and anyone and everyone from everywhere else mingle. There were top CEOs and founders of companies present. There was Maia Lee. There was Fashion TV filming the event live. Calling it a hive of activity would be a gross understatement.
Sheena and Chelsea looked fab in their Sister Love costumes draped with feathers and Alvin, Linda and Dr Wei were clad in full fur coats, complete with rabbit ear muff hats. Killer! I wished I'd taken more photos though. There were free Jack Daniel's flying off the counter and I helped myself to 3 glasses before feeling that one more serving could potentially start making me feel wootzy.
Spent the whole week helping to plan, coordinate, administer and do the necessary marketing for the event, and on friday went around getting the props and recce-ing China One itself and spent the day right through til 9pm in the office, and it's amazing seeing all your work culminating into such a success. It's been pretty happening working at Love Airways so far.
Lotsa people are unclear about what I do, so for the uninitiated, I saw Dr Wei's ad in the classifieds over a month ago when I was still at sea in employment and sent in my resumé. A week or two later Dr Wei invited me down to the 'office', which was a little more than a shophouse out of nowhere, next to Raffles Hotel opposite Bras Basah Complex, a benign alley-way right smack in the heart of the city. It was a real eyebrow-raiser of a place. I can't really describe it. Maybe next time I'll put photos here.
When I first came into the picture, I had to sort out a disastrous database mess left behind by the previous admin tempie. That's been long since settled and buried, and I've been doing everything from setting up Love Airways' and my colleagues' E-mail accounts, content work and calling all kinda big name personalities just to name a few.
Happening.
When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist.- Dom Helmer Camara
Today's Listenables:
Junior Senior - Move Your Feet
Sheena and Chelsea looked fab in their Sister Love costumes draped with feathers and Alvin, Linda and Dr Wei were clad in full fur coats, complete with rabbit ear muff hats. Killer! I wished I'd taken more photos though. There were free Jack Daniel's flying off the counter and I helped myself to 3 glasses before feeling that one more serving could potentially start making me feel wootzy.
Spent the whole week helping to plan, coordinate, administer and do the necessary marketing for the event, and on friday went around getting the props and recce-ing China One itself and spent the day right through til 9pm in the office, and it's amazing seeing all your work culminating into such a success. It's been pretty happening working at Love Airways so far.
Lotsa people are unclear about what I do, so for the uninitiated, I saw Dr Wei's ad in the classifieds over a month ago when I was still at sea in employment and sent in my resumé. A week or two later Dr Wei invited me down to the 'office', which was a little more than a shophouse out of nowhere, next to Raffles Hotel opposite Bras Basah Complex, a benign alley-way right smack in the heart of the city. It was a real eyebrow-raiser of a place. I can't really describe it. Maybe next time I'll put photos here.
When I first came into the picture, I had to sort out a disastrous database mess left behind by the previous admin tempie. That's been long since settled and buried, and I've been doing everything from setting up Love Airways' and my colleagues' E-mail accounts, content work and calling all kinda big name personalities just to name a few.
Happening.
When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist.- Dom Helmer Camara
Today's Listenables:
Junior Senior - Move Your Feet
Wednesday, 31 January 2007
Looking Back On Today
I started this post last saturday but I never really got down to completing it because somehow I'm starting to lose my attention whenever I start to blog.
Anyways!
A reason why I've never given my life a stock-take is probably because I spend a substantial part of my time thinking about it and that, in all it's consistency, renders a summation of events pretty much redundant; almost like how you'd compare someone who tidies up his room everyday versus someone who tidies up his room once a week. The result is essentially the same.
But a 'look back' post always makes good blogging fodder, somewhere along the lines of those neverending 'The Best of (insert boyband name here)' music albums and the unceasing 'closing down sale'. These endless conclusions always have some degree of short-term juiciness.
So I went through Junior College, disillusioned as the mechanics of education went from bad to worse in terms of my personal preferences and expectations, and I grudgingly toiled through two years of distasteful science that didn't really mean much to me. I mean I really do appreciate the importance of good science but all that physics and chemistry mumbo jumbo wasn't for me.
I was still quite naive and impressionable, so life breezed by as I enjoyed school without the examinations, doing silly things here and there that I'm not really proud of now on hindsight. Don't even mention the secondary school days... What was I thinking back then? Come to think of it, not much probably.
Then came the 3rd quarter of JC life. The 'A' levels came and went like a crashing train - hard but fast - and I met Yingqi. I definitely wouldn't be shaped into the person I am now without her. The post-exam years were just like a fleeting drug; quick events like the prom came and we were high for a moment and then the sun rises the next day and you wonder what just happened, sobered by reality.
And as everyone would love to have it put, NS came too soon and before you knew what the hell just hit you, you'd be digging in the mud with a rifle slung around your back. Sometimes it really happens because I do wonder how on earth I got there into the shit-hole. Like, huh? You mean I marched 16km here? And it seemed like it was just moments ago I was still slumped in a sofa seat with iced mocha on the table, and feeling irritated that my browned hair was getting into my eyes. Is this all just a dream? Then you learn to space out and detach yourself from yourself (kinda) and just go along like a zombie, and before you know it you're throwing your SBO onto the floor back in bunk and feeling like a relieved wreck as you subconsciously slump into a chair and unbutton your soiled no. 4.
Days go by and while some choose to be sentimental and remember 'the good ol' days' of CDS, everything that was said and done is now kept locked away in an abstract part of my memory. Sometimes someone tells me about something we used to do, or some sticky situation I'd gotten myself into, and I genuinely go, "did that really happen?"
But while, in terms of joy, there's a lot left to be desired in the period of CDS unit life, I'd personally learnt more than I could ever learn anywhere else in a little over a year there. BMT was frivolous, SISPEC was totally fucked up, but all my dear experiences and lessons came from CDS. Putting these experiences and lessons into text would be pretty shortchanging but I'll try.
I found that the quickest way to learn anything would be to be thrown into the fray, because cliched as it sounds, experience is a hard but effective teacher. People bitch way more than they have to, and when things come full circle it's like they're bitching about themselves. Unity is strength. And when you empower your people with freedom and dignity in the right way and gain their trust, you will get the same amount of support back from each and everyone of them.
I don't really know if I'm making sense but it doesn't really matter. Soon enough, after playing my cards right, I had an unofficial 3-month break as a precursor to my ORD. Foresight and anonymity is good when times get tight, and as it seemed, every other day felt more laced with tension than the ones before.
I emerged, pretty much more aware of myself and things around and possibly a whole lot more cynical, while also becoming much more disciplined in terms of personal responsibilities and money. I can't make myself spend when I don't have to. I'm a fireball of pensive energy, rational and calculated by the belief that you are only as upset as you will allow yourself to be. Out went the baggy shirts and jeans ten times too large for me, and in came the fitting, collared clothes and neat shoes.
Then the realisation of bigger things ahead strikes, and every now and then old boys will meet again to muse about broken relationships, parenthood, career paths and anything and everything. You then begin to wonder about all the financial possibilities and burdens and the 'adult-stuff' you could happily put off when you were a swinging sixteen, like life-savings plans and insurance policies and maybe Yun Nam for some.
So, looking forward to university is like longing for the the final chance in life to do something objectively without the burdens of responsibility attached to it; because studying can be an excuse to get by. Four years of studying before plunging into a world where everything you do and everything you pull has an impact like ropes attached to every other consequential part of your life.
And in hopes of doing something different, I chose SMU.
Ok lah this post wasn't supposed to sound so unfunny but I just got more and more bored typing towards the end. And besides, talking about CDS can be depressing at worst.
Anyway, Singapore 2-1 Thailand. What a lousy decision, what a gay reaction. I'm not proud of the victory in the manner it's won, but that was really sissy stuff from the Thais. But I don't know... Two wrongs don't make one right.
Any Singaporean travelling to Thailand for the return leg is a very brave soul, and he/she shall have my respects. Haha.
"...the temerity to believe that people, pawns in the ultimate chess game, are smart enough to figure out the rules." - George Johnson
Today's Listenables:
Chris Daughtry - What About Now
Anyways!
A reason why I've never given my life a stock-take is probably because I spend a substantial part of my time thinking about it and that, in all it's consistency, renders a summation of events pretty much redundant; almost like how you'd compare someone who tidies up his room everyday versus someone who tidies up his room once a week. The result is essentially the same.
But a 'look back' post always makes good blogging fodder, somewhere along the lines of those neverending 'The Best of (insert boyband name here)' music albums and the unceasing 'closing down sale'. These endless conclusions always have some degree of short-term juiciness.
So I went through Junior College, disillusioned as the mechanics of education went from bad to worse in terms of my personal preferences and expectations, and I grudgingly toiled through two years of distasteful science that didn't really mean much to me. I mean I really do appreciate the importance of good science but all that physics and chemistry mumbo jumbo wasn't for me.
I was still quite naive and impressionable, so life breezed by as I enjoyed school without the examinations, doing silly things here and there that I'm not really proud of now on hindsight. Don't even mention the secondary school days... What was I thinking back then? Come to think of it, not much probably.
Then came the 3rd quarter of JC life. The 'A' levels came and went like a crashing train - hard but fast - and I met Yingqi. I definitely wouldn't be shaped into the person I am now without her. The post-exam years were just like a fleeting drug; quick events like the prom came and we were high for a moment and then the sun rises the next day and you wonder what just happened, sobered by reality.
And as everyone would love to have it put, NS came too soon and before you knew what the hell just hit you, you'd be digging in the mud with a rifle slung around your back. Sometimes it really happens because I do wonder how on earth I got there into the shit-hole. Like, huh? You mean I marched 16km here? And it seemed like it was just moments ago I was still slumped in a sofa seat with iced mocha on the table, and feeling irritated that my browned hair was getting into my eyes. Is this all just a dream? Then you learn to space out and detach yourself from yourself (kinda) and just go along like a zombie, and before you know it you're throwing your SBO onto the floor back in bunk and feeling like a relieved wreck as you subconsciously slump into a chair and unbutton your soiled no. 4.
Days go by and while some choose to be sentimental and remember 'the good ol' days' of CDS, everything that was said and done is now kept locked away in an abstract part of my memory. Sometimes someone tells me about something we used to do, or some sticky situation I'd gotten myself into, and I genuinely go, "did that really happen?"
But while, in terms of joy, there's a lot left to be desired in the period of CDS unit life, I'd personally learnt more than I could ever learn anywhere else in a little over a year there. BMT was frivolous, SISPEC was totally fucked up, but all my dear experiences and lessons came from CDS. Putting these experiences and lessons into text would be pretty shortchanging but I'll try.
I found that the quickest way to learn anything would be to be thrown into the fray, because cliched as it sounds, experience is a hard but effective teacher. People bitch way more than they have to, and when things come full circle it's like they're bitching about themselves. Unity is strength. And when you empower your people with freedom and dignity in the right way and gain their trust, you will get the same amount of support back from each and everyone of them.
I don't really know if I'm making sense but it doesn't really matter. Soon enough, after playing my cards right, I had an unofficial 3-month break as a precursor to my ORD. Foresight and anonymity is good when times get tight, and as it seemed, every other day felt more laced with tension than the ones before.
I emerged, pretty much more aware of myself and things around and possibly a whole lot more cynical, while also becoming much more disciplined in terms of personal responsibilities and money. I can't make myself spend when I don't have to. I'm a fireball of pensive energy, rational and calculated by the belief that you are only as upset as you will allow yourself to be. Out went the baggy shirts and jeans ten times too large for me, and in came the fitting, collared clothes and neat shoes.
Then the realisation of bigger things ahead strikes, and every now and then old boys will meet again to muse about broken relationships, parenthood, career paths and anything and everything. You then begin to wonder about all the financial possibilities and burdens and the 'adult-stuff' you could happily put off when you were a swinging sixteen, like life-savings plans and insurance policies and maybe Yun Nam for some.
So, looking forward to university is like longing for the the final chance in life to do something objectively without the burdens of responsibility attached to it; because studying can be an excuse to get by. Four years of studying before plunging into a world where everything you do and everything you pull has an impact like ropes attached to every other consequential part of your life.
And in hopes of doing something different, I chose SMU.
Ok lah this post wasn't supposed to sound so unfunny but I just got more and more bored typing towards the end. And besides, talking about CDS can be depressing at worst.
Anyway, Singapore 2-1 Thailand. What a lousy decision, what a gay reaction. I'm not proud of the victory in the manner it's won, but that was really sissy stuff from the Thais. But I don't know... Two wrongs don't make one right.
Any Singaporean travelling to Thailand for the return leg is a very brave soul, and he/she shall have my respects. Haha.
"...the temerity to believe that people, pawns in the ultimate chess game, are smart enough to figure out the rules." - George Johnson
Today's Listenables:
Chris Daughtry - What About Now
Monday, 8 January 2007
Pwned
My havaianas slippers broke! After about 2 years of good service... Kee bought them for me and they really served me well. :[
The job application e-mailing hit a crazy total of 64 resumes sent out this morning (this started on friday), and at about 1300h my 64 hooks caught a sniff. 0930h at somewhere near Chinatown tomorrow to turn that sniff into a bite.
Suddenly remembered that Kee and I saw Jamie Yeo and Glenn Ong last week at Serangoon Gardens. I've gotta mention this because I was ordering something when I saw this ex-NYJCian nearby. When I went back to our table, I told Kee that I found that guy familiar (cos at that moment I hadn't identified him as an ex-NYJCian yet), but I couldn't really show her where he was cos he was blocked by some other people.
So there we were, focusing and trying to look behind the people blocking us when Kee suddenly said, "hey isn't that Glenn Ong and Jamie Yeo?" My eyes refocused and I then realised that the people blocking our view were actually the celebrity duo.
And I was so caught up in looking beyond them that I couldn't even notice them. Pwned.
Some funny, alternative 'pwned' definitions at Urban Dictionary:
pwned
Created in 1972 by the 3rd SOG (Special Operations Group) when a Lt. Colonel Hank Munro shot a Vietnamese sentry with a Mk22 Hush Puppy. Due to the tension at the time, he inadvertantly said "pwned" instead of "Delta, move in and eliminate all hostiles." The subsequent death of Lt. Col. Munro as he charged a heavily fortified position lead to the term "pwned" being adopted as short-hand for "that dumbass just got his ass whupped in a helluva funny way."
"Did you see that car crash where 27 people died after someone swerved to avoid a cat?""PWNED."
pwned
An intentionally mispelled term for "Owned". Originating as a result of the "P-key" being adjacent and aligned with the "O-key" on the QWERTY keybpard, it is a commpnly accepted term ampng gamers and shares the same definitipn as "Owned".
1. You just got pwned
2. To accredit the usage of "Pwned" to anything mpre particular than a commpn typo would be an unsubstantiated concept of it's origin.
3. Everyone else's definition of "Pwned" just gpt pwned.
Imitation is the greatest form of flattery.
Today's Listenables:
Secondhand Serenade - End
The job application e-mailing hit a crazy total of 64 resumes sent out this morning (this started on friday), and at about 1300h my 64 hooks caught a sniff. 0930h at somewhere near Chinatown tomorrow to turn that sniff into a bite.
Suddenly remembered that Kee and I saw Jamie Yeo and Glenn Ong last week at Serangoon Gardens. I've gotta mention this because I was ordering something when I saw this ex-NYJCian nearby. When I went back to our table, I told Kee that I found that guy familiar (cos at that moment I hadn't identified him as an ex-NYJCian yet), but I couldn't really show her where he was cos he was blocked by some other people.
So there we were, focusing and trying to look behind the people blocking us when Kee suddenly said, "hey isn't that Glenn Ong and Jamie Yeo?" My eyes refocused and I then realised that the people blocking our view were actually the celebrity duo.
And I was so caught up in looking beyond them that I couldn't even notice them. Pwned.
Some funny, alternative 'pwned' definitions at Urban Dictionary:
pwned
Created in 1972 by the 3rd SOG (Special Operations Group) when a Lt. Colonel Hank Munro shot a Vietnamese sentry with a Mk22 Hush Puppy. Due to the tension at the time, he inadvertantly said "pwned" instead of "Delta, move in and eliminate all hostiles." The subsequent death of Lt. Col. Munro as he charged a heavily fortified position lead to the term "pwned" being adopted as short-hand for "that dumbass just got his ass whupped in a helluva funny way."
"Did you see that car crash where 27 people died after someone swerved to avoid a cat?""PWNED."
pwned
An intentionally mispelled term for "Owned". Originating as a result of the "P-key" being adjacent and aligned with the "O-key" on the QWERTY keybpard, it is a commpnly accepted term ampng gamers and shares the same definitipn as "Owned".
1. You just got pwned
2. To accredit the usage of "Pwned" to anything mpre particular than a commpn typo would be an unsubstantiated concept of it's origin.
3. Everyone else's definition of "Pwned" just gpt pwned.
Imitation is the greatest form of flattery.
Today's Listenables:
Secondhand Serenade - End
Friday, 5 January 2007
V
I've been spending days trying to get that elusive early goodnight cos things keep screwing me up, like Newcastle playing Manchester Utd at 1am and V for Vendetta at midnight.
Ooh I've had a nice, deep dose of thought-provoking movies (judgment made without any prior reading of the books written before the movies) this week.
Caught Fast-Food Nation at the movies with Kee and what a surprising show it's turned out to be. A fictitious narrative somewhat, depicted from the lives of a few people intertwined into one another due to the fast food chain Mickey's, reflects the extremely ugly side of the modern fast food business in the world today, together with its harsh realities and moral and social repercussions. Read up on the book it was adapted from and its catchphrase was cool: "Do you want lies (fries) with that?" If it was a more mainstream movie that people would flock to just like they would to the Matrix or Mission Impossible, a lotta people would really think twice before sinking their teeth into another burger.
And I thought V For Vendetta was absolutely mind-blowing, in so many ways ranging from concept, plot and philosophy to the way Hugo Weaving 'weaved' such life into his character, V, by the extremely artistic usage of his voice (seriously pardon the pun I couldn't help it). A provocative movie that makes you question your stand as one of 'the people' in a country under a government.
And the dialogue is absolute poetry. Can't help it man here are some:
V: ...A building is a symbol, as is the act of destroying it. Symbols are given power by people. A symbol, in and of itself is powerless, but with enough people behind it, blowing up a building can change the world.
Evey Hammond: My father was a writer. You would've liked him. He used to say that artists use lies to tell the truth while politicians use them to cover the truth up.
V: But regardless of what weapons they try to use to effect silence, words will always retain their power. Words are the means to meaning, and for some, the annunciation of truth. And the truth is, there is something terribly wrong with this country.
Creedy: Die! Die! Why won't you die..? Why won't you die?
V: Beneath this mask there is more than flesh. Beneath this mask there is an idea, Mr. Creedy, and ideas are bulletproof.
Evey Hammond: Who are you?
V: Who? Who is but the form following the function of what, and what I am is a man in a mask.
Evey Hammond: Well I can see that.
V: Of course you can. I'm not questioning your powers of observation, I'm merely remarking upon the paradox of asking a masked man who he is.
Valerie: I remember our teacher telling us that it was an adolescent phase that people outgrew. Sarah did. I didn't. In 2002, I fell in love with a girl named Christina. That year I came out to my parents. I couldn't have done it without Chris holding my hand. My father wouldn't look at me. He told me to go and never come back. My mother said nothing. But I'd only told them the truth. Was that so selfish? Our integrity sells for so little, but it is all we really have. It is the very last inch of us. But within that inch we are free.
Valerie: It seems strange that my life should end in such a terrible place, but for three years I had roses and apologized to no one. I shall die here. Every inch of me shall perish. Every inch, but one. An inch. It is small and it is fragile and it is the only thing in the world worth having. We must never lose it or give it away. We must NEVER let them take it from us.
V: People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people.
More quotes here. Hoho. Cheers people. Oh and anyway today's audio candy is the tune they're playing in the latest Nokia 'musiconnects' advert. Just thought it was really catchy so I got down to a little seeking and found it. Daft Punk... Ooz.
You go to sushi land and order the cast of the Little Mermaid on a pad of rice.
Today's Listenables:
Daft Punk - Digital Love
Ooh I've had a nice, deep dose of thought-provoking movies (judgment made without any prior reading of the books written before the movies) this week.
Caught Fast-Food Nation at the movies with Kee and what a surprising show it's turned out to be. A fictitious narrative somewhat, depicted from the lives of a few people intertwined into one another due to the fast food chain Mickey's, reflects the extremely ugly side of the modern fast food business in the world today, together with its harsh realities and moral and social repercussions. Read up on the book it was adapted from and its catchphrase was cool: "Do you want lies (fries) with that?" If it was a more mainstream movie that people would flock to just like they would to the Matrix or Mission Impossible, a lotta people would really think twice before sinking their teeth into another burger.
And I thought V For Vendetta was absolutely mind-blowing, in so many ways ranging from concept, plot and philosophy to the way Hugo Weaving 'weaved' such life into his character, V, by the extremely artistic usage of his voice (seriously pardon the pun I couldn't help it). A provocative movie that makes you question your stand as one of 'the people' in a country under a government.
And the dialogue is absolute poetry. Can't help it man here are some:
V: ...A building is a symbol, as is the act of destroying it. Symbols are given power by people. A symbol, in and of itself is powerless, but with enough people behind it, blowing up a building can change the world.
Evey Hammond: My father was a writer. You would've liked him. He used to say that artists use lies to tell the truth while politicians use them to cover the truth up.
V: But regardless of what weapons they try to use to effect silence, words will always retain their power. Words are the means to meaning, and for some, the annunciation of truth. And the truth is, there is something terribly wrong with this country.
Creedy: Die! Die! Why won't you die..? Why won't you die?
V: Beneath this mask there is more than flesh. Beneath this mask there is an idea, Mr. Creedy, and ideas are bulletproof.
Evey Hammond: Who are you?
V: Who? Who is but the form following the function of what, and what I am is a man in a mask.
Evey Hammond: Well I can see that.
V: Of course you can. I'm not questioning your powers of observation, I'm merely remarking upon the paradox of asking a masked man who he is.
Valerie: I remember our teacher telling us that it was an adolescent phase that people outgrew. Sarah did. I didn't. In 2002, I fell in love with a girl named Christina. That year I came out to my parents. I couldn't have done it without Chris holding my hand. My father wouldn't look at me. He told me to go and never come back. My mother said nothing. But I'd only told them the truth. Was that so selfish? Our integrity sells for so little, but it is all we really have. It is the very last inch of us. But within that inch we are free.
Valerie: It seems strange that my life should end in such a terrible place, but for three years I had roses and apologized to no one. I shall die here. Every inch of me shall perish. Every inch, but one. An inch. It is small and it is fragile and it is the only thing in the world worth having. We must never lose it or give it away. We must NEVER let them take it from us.
V: People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people.
More quotes here. Hoho. Cheers people. Oh and anyway today's audio candy is the tune they're playing in the latest Nokia 'musiconnects' advert. Just thought it was really catchy so I got down to a little seeking and found it. Daft Punk... Ooz.
You go to sushi land and order the cast of the Little Mermaid on a pad of rice.
Today's Listenables:
Daft Punk - Digital Love
Resolution Absolution
Happy new year people.
In a flash, I've been through new year's passing and it's as hyped up as it commercially ought to be, our jubilance marketed to us right at our doorstep. There were parties, sales and events galore, but personally, this year's was really just another date on the calendar. I must admit that, considering the number of times I've told Kee my fast-approaching 21st birthday is but just another day, I might be taking the significance of a day like this for granted, but realistically in the bigger scheme of things in my life, it didn't hold any significance anyway nor make things any more pleasant for me.
The Christmas to new year period brings forth some of the longest holidays of the year and in light of my present predicament, employment would be and indeed was at an all-time low and I went through the festive season jobless and ultimately unable to cash-in on the very lucrative public holiday working hours too. And to top it all off, I couldn't party the holidays away and make the most out of my 'funemployment' because I had zero spending power and I was totally not in the mood given the circumstances of my futile job-hunt too.
Then there's the little part about the new year resolutions. Thankfully, the scenario of people asking you about your resolutions nowadays is dying out just like how forwarded SMSes are, so I'm not that bothered about the whole thing like how it used to be when we'd all have some resolutions just for the sake of it so that we've got a prepared answer when someone asks us about it.
"I never used to make any. I didn't believe in them. I thought they were pointless, distracting and prohibitive. I considered them a restriction on how you should live your life, and the kind of thing done by people who were afraid of taking things as they came. I also thought that if you wanted to give something up or change your life then you shouldn't need the prop of 1st January to do it."
A paragraph taken from someone's view about resolutions (named Ian for copyright's sake). He eventually defended the ideals of resolutions though, albeit for politically incorrect and sarcastic reasons. Just some cynical food for thought, cos to some extent that paragraph had an acute degree of truth in it, though not entirely considering that virtuously sticking to good resolutions may herald positive outcomes in life for those who are weaker-willed to deal with personal issues.
Anyway I've just got to say that watching Arsenal pick Charlton Athletic apart last week in such unapologetic and playfully patient manner is such a delight to watch. Now Henry's back, though not to his individual best but still bringing out some of the best in Arsenal's play, and the captain and his boys are still searching for the perfect goal; such a rare sight and one to behold in the physical nature of the English Premier League where, sometimes, the game is over before you can even hope to enjoy it.
Spent the majority of the week away prepping my Curriculum Vitae (CV, fancy word for resumé) and looking for work. It's quite a learning experience actually, and I'm almost sheepish to know just about how little I know. Chinhong mused about entry-level jobs being like playing an online game with guilds, like Gunbound - you've just joined the game but no guilds will accept you cos their minimum entry level is level 10 or so and you're only level 1. Or the 'pro's keep kicking you from rooms cos you're a newbie chick. A sucky vicious cycle arises and you end up spending alot of time in noob places trying to level up very slowly cos the level 10s don't wanna give you a chance.
In a flash, I've been through new year's passing and it's as hyped up as it commercially ought to be, our jubilance marketed to us right at our doorstep. There were parties, sales and events galore, but personally, this year's was really just another date on the calendar. I must admit that, considering the number of times I've told Kee my fast-approaching 21st birthday is but just another day, I might be taking the significance of a day like this for granted, but realistically in the bigger scheme of things in my life, it didn't hold any significance anyway nor make things any more pleasant for me.
The Christmas to new year period brings forth some of the longest holidays of the year and in light of my present predicament, employment would be and indeed was at an all-time low and I went through the festive season jobless and ultimately unable to cash-in on the very lucrative public holiday working hours too. And to top it all off, I couldn't party the holidays away and make the most out of my 'funemployment' because I had zero spending power and I was totally not in the mood given the circumstances of my futile job-hunt too.
Then there's the little part about the new year resolutions. Thankfully, the scenario of people asking you about your resolutions nowadays is dying out just like how forwarded SMSes are, so I'm not that bothered about the whole thing like how it used to be when we'd all have some resolutions just for the sake of it so that we've got a prepared answer when someone asks us about it.
"I never used to make any. I didn't believe in them. I thought they were pointless, distracting and prohibitive. I considered them a restriction on how you should live your life, and the kind of thing done by people who were afraid of taking things as they came. I also thought that if you wanted to give something up or change your life then you shouldn't need the prop of 1st January to do it."
A paragraph taken from someone's view about resolutions (named Ian for copyright's sake). He eventually defended the ideals of resolutions though, albeit for politically incorrect and sarcastic reasons. Just some cynical food for thought, cos to some extent that paragraph had an acute degree of truth in it, though not entirely considering that virtuously sticking to good resolutions may herald positive outcomes in life for those who are weaker-willed to deal with personal issues.
Anyway I've just got to say that watching Arsenal pick Charlton Athletic apart last week in such unapologetic and playfully patient manner is such a delight to watch. Now Henry's back, though not to his individual best but still bringing out some of the best in Arsenal's play, and the captain and his boys are still searching for the perfect goal; such a rare sight and one to behold in the physical nature of the English Premier League where, sometimes, the game is over before you can even hope to enjoy it.
Spent the majority of the week away prepping my Curriculum Vitae (CV, fancy word for resumé) and looking for work. It's quite a learning experience actually, and I'm almost sheepish to know just about how little I know. Chinhong mused about entry-level jobs being like playing an online game with guilds, like Gunbound - you've just joined the game but no guilds will accept you cos their minimum entry level is level 10 or so and you're only level 1. Or the 'pro's keep kicking you from rooms cos you're a newbie chick. A sucky vicious cycle arises and you end up spending alot of time in noob places trying to level up very slowly cos the level 10s don't wanna give you a chance.
Sunday, 24 December 2006
His And Her
I'd say this is one of the biggest English boo-boos to be found around Singapore, because of the huge number of toilets having this design template from town to the heartlands. wtf dude? It's either HIS and HERS, if not then HIM and HER. HIS and HER is just totally grammatically wrong and embarrassing.
Tuesday, 5 December 2006
I've always thought it was pretty interesting how systems come and systems go. Systems get borne out of nothing, just so that things keep moving. Something just has to happen because somehow, we're not meant to stagnate. Natural habitats have to be disturbed to get their gold mines cleaned out. Plays have to go on because people enjoy a good show. A peaceful family generation needs a court battle over a will just because. Wars arise for the most absurd reasons we could never fathom.
Get that paper qualification and make that job opportunity count or spiral down towards a long, winding death. What a life.
Get that paper qualification and make that job opportunity count or spiral down towards a long, winding death. What a life.
Wednesday, 29 November 2006
For most cases, sending your kid to a school like Rosyth's like trying to put him or her on a path that leads on, hopefully, to academic excellence. But what can really determine these things? We shape our destiny as fate shapes us, two seemingly unfathomable concepts intertwined to bring us full circle to where we are now, and very much beyond.
Having spent most of my schooling years in, I'd admittedly say, the higher-end of the academic class (though not that much higher-end, just a little bit above the average on the scale) seriously puts me in a social culture that is relatively shielded away from most of the basic ills of society. The other day on the bus, some young, undecorous lout had an argument with a bus conductor and proceeded on to lay a barrage of hokkien vulgarities on the old man who was just trying to do his job. And last week, some kid was contemplating whether he should jump from my block cos he 'de2 zui4' (offended) some other retard. I'm going to SMU a little under a year's time; where exactly do I have the place for such people or scenarios conceptually in my life, no matter how apparently simple these examples may seem?
Having spent most of my schooling years in, I'd admittedly say, the higher-end of the academic class (though not that much higher-end, just a little bit above the average on the scale) seriously puts me in a social culture that is relatively shielded away from most of the basic ills of society. The other day on the bus, some young, undecorous lout had an argument with a bus conductor and proceeded on to lay a barrage of hokkien vulgarities on the old man who was just trying to do his job. And last week, some kid was contemplating whether he should jump from my block cos he 'de2 zui4' (offended) some other retard. I'm going to SMU a little under a year's time; where exactly do I have the place for such people or scenarios conceptually in my life, no matter how apparently simple these examples may seem?
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