Palpable Crapping

Thought of the day

2006-01-25T20:46:00.000+08:00

"It is not very wise to use the word 'cartel' in the name of a cafe."

*****

Happy Birthday Hoiching (boy, this is late!)

Thanks for inviting me to the chalet, even if I didn't stay for the whole thing.

checking chequeing cheque checks

2006-01-17T21:28:00.000+08:00

Rachel's got a laptop!

*****

I'm not going to work 9 to 5. Eww. Not on this job at least. Staring at the computer for the better part of the 9 hours, increasing my myopia by at least a hundred degrees. Clearing cheques is so monotonous, I fell asleep. And when I asked around, I wasn't, fortunately, the only one.

Here are two of the most interesting stuff I've come across today:
The largest amount chequed that I handled: 1.5 million SGD
The smallest amount chequed that I handled: 2.50 SGD
I was imagining a man clad in a three-piece business suit who ordered a bowl of meepok-ta at a hawker centre, only to find out that he forgot to bring his wallet, so he went "Uncle, uncle! Got accept cheque onot?"

See how boring this job is. I even found such trivial things amusing.

At least the people are nice.

*****

My Infatuation.

I don't care what he is.
blue
red
purple
orange
yellow
brown

I'll love him.

It really is all about him.
Beautiful, gorgeous him.

His presence is louder than anyone else's voice.
He feels more tangible than anything else.
He smells better than Chanel No.5.

I hope you'll love me too Mr Money.

*

Ok that was really stupid.

Ok really really stupid.

fob

2006-01-03T12:13:00.000+08:00

the missing pieces have come together
criticism under the facade has come through
enough of the masquerading already
i now see the true you.

merry new year

2006-01-01T08:49:00.000+08:00

spent the last day making full use of my ezlink card.

my heart sank when i finally heard only one beep when i tapped the card on the trip home.

it cost $1.25 to get back from orchard.

i am so mercenary. i only care for my bus fares.

what's the point of playing like mad on new year's eve and start the new year zombified. haha. off to sleep!

Merry New Year everyone!!

Merry Christmas To All!

2005-12-27T01:06:00.000+08:00

happy christmas guys. Spread the cheer and laughter. Two days late (:

ok I was quite busy on christmas eve with the party thingie with the lyes, a little groggy on christmas morning and afternoon and had dinner with the family on christmas night. Follow that up with another gathering on boxing day morning and meeting up with a friend in the afternoon and yet another gathering at night. Phew.

The party was pretty fun. It wasn't really meant to be an ultra-christmassy christmas party but just a gathering before more guys go to NS. It'd be really hard to get them for future gatherings when that happens. I'd like to thank all the lyes for contributing and the birthday present and especially cy for the surprise birthday cake, that was real nice of you. And oh ya! I loved sweet serendipity. Gratifying confections on every page. Sweet.

Popping over to peach garden (the road name not the restaurant) for lunch later with my aunt and watching Narnia after that with shar.

Going out with Tang Wei to get his crumpler bag and lunch on Wednesday.
And King Kong after that with 6J people at 6pm. Sooo looking forward to that, it's been so long since the last outing.

I'm not really the type who posts events up diligently. I'm just writing my schedule down because I'm afraid I'd forget. Haw.Haw.

*****

After leonard's description of his hot chocolate, I was so impressed i decided to make my own 50ml of pure ultra-sweet melted chocolate . Slathered on loads and loads of whipped cream. The amount of whipped cream was so much more than the chocolate though. haha. Whipped cream is my weakness.

*****

Here's a song I'd like to dedicate to Ming. Lol. I think my repeated singing of this song was the origin of the rubber duckie nickname. I had so much fun squeezing the rubber duckies along with the song (:

Rubber Duckie
sung by Ernie (Jim Henson)
Written by Jeffrey Moss

(spoken)
Well, here I am in my tubby again. And my tubby's all filled up with water and nice fluffy suds.
And I've got my soap and my washcloth ... look at this ...
and I got my nifty scrub-brush, to help me scrub my back.
And I got my big, BIG, fluffy towel to dry me off when I'm done.
And there's one other thing that makes tubby-time the very best time of the whole day and you know what that is? A very special friend of mine, my very favorite little pal ....

(sung)

Rubber Duckie, you're the one
You make bathtime lots of fun
Rubber Duckie, I'm awfully fond of you
(woh woh, bee doh!)

Rubber Duckie, joy of joys
When I squeeze you, you make noise!
Rubber Duckie, you're my very best friend, it's true!
(doo doo doo doooo, doo doo)

CHORUS:
Every day when I
Make my way to the tubby
I find a little fella who's
Cute and yellow and chubby
(rub-a-dub-a-dubby!)

Rubber Duckie, you're so fine
And I'm lucky that you're mine
Rubber duckie, I'm awfully fond of you

Hey Rubber Duckie, would you like me to scrub your back with my nifty little scrub-brush?
You would? Okay!
How's this?
Hey, you want me to scrub behind you ears?
Oh I see! You don't have any ears, do you?
Well how about your tummy? Scrub your little duckie tummy! Ooo ticklish!

(repeat chorus)

Rubber Duckie, you're so fine
And I'm lucky that you're mine
Rubber duckie, I'm awfully fond of
Rubber duckie, I'd like a whole pond of
Rubber duckie I'm awfully fond of you!

(doo doo, be doo)

hydrogen bull

2005-12-23T01:08:00.000+08:00

From Speech by Dr Yaacob Ibrahim:
Given the current global energy supply situation coupled with the concern over climate change, I think it is timely for such a gathering of experts and specialists to take place. Hydrogen, as we know, is a clean-burning fuel. It can be burnt or used in fuel cells where hydrogen and oxygen combine to form water, generating electricity without the emission of pollutants or greenhouse gases normally associated with the burning of fossil fuel. I understand that this convention will showcase the latest developments in hydrogen and fuel cell technology, which has long-term benefits for both our environment and the industry.

Ah. The promise of clean air and a better environment. With the efficient burning of hydrogen in the new oh so environmentally friendly hydrogen-powered fuel cell cars, who needs conventional gasoline? What a load of crap.

While it's true that water is the only by-product and there'd be zero emissions from the car, it is necessary to realise that it is not easy to extract hydrogen. Remember electrolysis of water? That's the way to produce hydrogen, but we're forgetting that electrolysis requires electricity, which comes from our usual power stations that burn oil, again. And that just means that the pollution will not be coming directly from the car, but concentrated at the power stations. The process, per car, produces about 40% more pollution than the emissions of a car running on gas. Hydrogen is also expensive and dangerous to compress and the lousy hydrogen fuel has lousy mileage and travels real slowly and my point is, stick to the conventional gasoline until we find a better fuel.

So much for "revolutionizing fuel technology". Unless they use natural gas to replace oil as the primary fuel for power stations or use clean renewable resources like the sun for electricity, there really is not much point of using the supposedly-cleaner hydrogen fueled cars.

I really liked the idea of Mr. Fusion from Back To The Future II that used rubbish as fuel. Or, more accurately, would be using rubbish as fuel. Cool!

*****

Thanks for the birthday treat guys. It was great.

*****

Haha. Ah Mok is FINALLY 18.

*****

Yay going out to have seafood later with minxuan! Cool.

The Groovy Movie Week

2005-12-12T20:17:00.000+08:00

The Disney channel's groovy movie week so lives up to its name :) Dinosaur's on now.

*****

I love Gerald Durell books. His "My Family And Other Animals" was the one that inspired me to be a zoologist, at least for now (: Too bad that's the only one I have. Saw "A Zoo In My Luggage" the other day, but my pocket had too huge a blackhole to allow it.

On Playgrounds

2005-12-12T14:43:00.000+08:00

Why don't new playgrounds have monkey bars. Or swings?

Monkey bars and swings are what make playgrounds, playgrounds. And the reason they're removed? Safety. Have the kids half a generation younger than us become more puny, or in any way, more susceptible to playground dangers than we were? What's a few cuts and grazes, or a little splinter or splintered bone? Depriving children from normal exposure such as these (ok, maybe not the splintered bone) and the learning of playground etiquette would probably cause even greater mishap.

Swinging and monkeybar-ing are the apex of playground life. Especially the art of swinging at least 50° from the vertical and feeling the wind at 80km/h. I can't imagine a babyish next generation that cannot SWING or hang upsidedown from the monkey bars. It's deplorable. It's tragic.

*****

Mulan rocks. The cudgel scenes were so cool. I think it's the last disney cartoon movie that left a lasting impression. Lilo and Stitch was cute, but not memorable. Chicken Little lasted a pathetic 1hr 10min.

*****

Oh man. Can't go Taiwan.

2005-12-04T13:12:00.000+08:00

Quote of the day:

"Yes I have many unfinished things that I wanna finish and so little time!!! No, wait, time is the one thing I have in abundance. So many things so little motivation!"
-- wen en

i'm a retiree

2005-12-03T22:04:00.000+08:00

And I've just retrieved my 7 digit CPF (:
At least, I feel like I have, and judging by the rate I'm swiping the card, those 7 digits would be dropping to zero very, very quickly.

Oops.

I've been leading the life of a retiree lately. Watching vcds. Mahjonging. Playing Maple. Shopping. Ok, maybe retirees don't play maple, but still, a bit no-life la. I only havoc-ed for a few days, which is so sad. The other days were spent doing really mild stuff, like shopping.

I got my children channels back! Nickelodeon, cartoon network and disney. MINE... ALL MINE. My mum let me trade the chinese infotainment channels for them. No one watches those anyway. Oh dexter my darling you never stop being tormented by deedee, oh tommy, oh chucky, oh phil, lil, and not to forget, eliza, Mr and Mrs nigel thornberry. There's also Cow and Chicken and your upperbody-less mom and dad! You never fail to turn my brains into petroleum jelly and proceed to rot that as well. And bye HBO! You keep repeating your movies. ):

I can't take my driving tests - hang on, I can't even take a date for my driving theory test yet because I'm not 18 yet. Can't they make exceptions for post-As-nothing-to-do people who are very, very unfortunately born slightly later than their peers?

I like Little India. I like the lingering smell of the spices there.

My lifestyle for the past week has been quite extravagant. 2 shoes, 2 shirts, 2 pairs of earrings, 2 movies, Ding Tai Feng and caviar and scrambled eggs on toast. I didn't know what the black stuff on the eggs were until my aunt told me, which was after I gobbled everything down and before I had the chance to relish the caviar dollar by dollar. It wasn't delicious. Maybe it's because I was concentrating on the eggs and ignoring the alien garnishings. I remember half-holding my breath while eating them just in case the garnishings tasted bad. Surprisingly, that mercenary thought wasn't the first thought that came to my mind then. Instead, I had images of endangered sturgeons crying out for their roe flashing across my mind.

I like Parkway Parade. It would be the best shopping centre in the residential areas if there was an MRT nearby. But that would be redundant. The place is already overflowing with people without the MRT. There are a lot of nice shops there. Bye bye John Little, helloo new esprit, topshop, dorothy perkins, mphosis and a nice little coffee place and two wagon shops. It's a mini town area. As if I can afford anything there. The Giant logo looks 1990. The Republic Theatre should reopen to provide budget movies for retirees like me.

I'm blogging very incoherently. I like Spanish. ¿por qué? There I go again. My recent posts have been crap. This has to stop.

2005-11-22T22:50:00.000+08:00

Why do we study?
To get a nice-paying job.

Who said anything about getting a job?

*****

One of my all-time favourite movies will be coming on soon. HBO, 11.05pm. Stars Uma Thurman, Ethan Hawke and Jude Law.
It's the reason I fell in love with Schubert's impromptu in g-flat major. Finally got the score to it.

Muaha. ha. ha. ha.

One more.

2005-11-19T00:28:00.000+08:00

So I came back a week early. Can't believe I'm playing Maple story.

As weren't fantastic.

I thought I did ok for GP. But after some pondering, I realised I didn't answer the questions. All my points were so fleeting.

Math was better than usual, but not very good if you consider that my "usual" is either an O or an E.

Chemistry was better too. My usual's F.

but Physics. Ew. I was sick. I ate medicine. Medicine made me drowsy. Slept during paper 2. Couldn't finish paper 2. Paper 3 was difficult. Everyone else said it was easy. Sure die. End of story.

I now highly doubt my ability to even pass the freakin' Physics S paper.

O well.

*****

After some thought, I figured I had to find something that I could turn pro (or something close to that) in.

And since the singapore tennis centre was so near my house, tennis came to my mind.

Tennis? Anyone?

I'm serious about this, so anyone interested in learning, please drop me a message. Thank you.

banned. boo

2005-10-22T21:49:00.000+08:00

My sister had a birthday party a week ago and my father made huge blocks of ice for the drinks. It was a really hot night, so when I found the last block of ice lurking in a corner of the freezer, its fate was sealed. *evil laughter* I hugged it to sleep last night, the basin that contained it, at least.

I think the heat was getting to me, so I became a little perverted and tried my hand at cryogenics on my iPod.

iPod on Ice

I bought her a puzzle pack for her birthday (the kind with crossword puzzles and the sorts). It came with museum-worthy pencil sharpeners and wooden pencils. Cool.

These sure bring back memories from the pre mechanical pencil era.

In the name of A-levels, my mum's banning me from the computer and television and has roped in everyone in the house to help drag me away from the nasty electronics. I have, admittedly, zero self-control. I just wished she did this during the O-levels too.

And this marks the very last entry I'll have before the end of the As.
I'll be back on the 25th November 2005.

today

2005-10-18T22:05:00.000+08:00

The weather has been so shuang (literally) for the past few days. It felt like 23 degrees for the whole of yesterday.

*****

The graduation assembly and farewell concert brought back memories I never knew I had. Never in my life had I viewed tj in this light. Guess that's what all farewell concerts do; invoke feelings of sadness. Boo.

Ponned chemistry today. This is the first time I felt my conscience being pricked for that and also the first time I felt somewhat sorry for rita. (yes, i've always been that unfeeling)

Went for lunch with mum so I didn't join the rest of the gang.

*****

Made a trip to pasir ris to collect some of the organic chem notes that zh helped me zap to restore my dismembered collection of chemistry notes.

On the way back, I sat beside an Indian guy who was in his 30s. I was staring rather blankly at the alkenes notes when the guy suddenly spoke. "Reminds me of what I did. I took chemistry engineering. I had to memorise the whole periodic table then", he said with an accent. I was like ?!@#$%. How could ANYONE memorise the WHOLE periodic table?! He then went on recited a couple of the elements and left me quite awestruck.

He turned out to be a nice New Dehli native working at IBM Singapore in some creative department.

How often do you get people on public transport (with the exception of taxi drivers) who talk to you spontaneously and with no particular intention? It's really quite fun talking to strangers :)

*****

I miss TJ.

Once a TJcian, always a TJcian.

Thanks to everyone who made the experience so memorable.

you goondoo

2005-10-16T23:09:00.000+08:00

study.
study.
study.
study.

psycho-ing myself to study.

study.
study.
study.
study.

It's the As liao. Not the promos, you goondoo.

you can google everything on earth

2005-10-12T20:14:00.000+08:00

My extent of boliao-ness has reached infinity. I finally downloaded Google Earth, months after all the hype about it.

Bird's eye view of Dunman High from Google Earth.

It's quite interesting to view familiar places from this very different perspective. Sadly, TJ was very covered by a cloud. Reminds me of the Sim City game I used to play, where they had this rather detailed display of the city which really looks quite like what our Google Earth has here.

reptilian encounter

2005-10-10T20:09:00.000+08:00

Saw this really hot lizard basking on the fence outside the lep block while ponning lecture.

new ambitions... again

2005-10-08T21:32:00.000+08:00

I want to be palaeontologist
or maybe a podiatrist, considering my perpetual fetish for feet
or perhaps a prosthetist
or my all-time favourite: a part of the police

I love my Ps.

*****

I've fallen in love with this car. It's so pretty.
Maybe I should stick with my bmw designing ambition.

trouble

2005-10-04T13:35:00.000+08:00

Amazingly, I found some peace amid the symphony of drillings from the unit above.

Life's so good I wished for some trouble. When trouble came, I wished I didn't.

gp

2005-10-03T23:07:00.000+08:00

I had the feeling that I didn't do well for this. Right from the time the nib of my pen landed on the foolscap when I started the essay question.

I wasn't wrong.

Soon after the papers were returned to us, Ms Kwan made her down the rows to provide her ever-insightful comments on the exam. It was not long until her great shadow loomed before me.

She has, on many occasions, told me I was capable of getting an A and would probably get it relatively easily. Whether she said it to give me confidence or because it really was true, it would be another matter.

She looked like she was on the verge of strangling me. She did, actually, with her you-should-have-done-so-much-better-what-happened-I-am-so-disappointed-in-you-how-could-you-have-failed look on her face. And somehow, she made it a point to make an alamak-what-happened-to-you remark everytime she walked down my row, like 4 or more times within the short span of 40minutes? "Rachel, what happened?" went through slightly clenched teeth. It was as though my table had a anguish-triggering mine that she never fails to step on when she's in the vicinity. Yikes.

I'm so darned stricken with a big fat guilty conscience now.

Hope

2005-10-03T14:16:00.001+08:00

Nothing is bleaker than the future, except perhaps the past. -Raiha

2005-10-01T11:37:00.000+08:00

HAPPY CHILDREN'S DAY!!!

prelims aftermath

2005-09-30T23:18:00.000+08:00

I think the probability for my chemistry exam case is 0.00001. Armed only with knowledge in electrochem, thermochem, chemical kinetics, chem/ionic equilibria (5 out of the 50 topics), I marched into the exam hall and braved the exam.
Paper 3: 21/100
Paper 2: 26/60
Paper 1: 22/40
Look at my paper 1!!!!! With the skimpy knowledge of the 5 topics named above, some meagre information that's stuck in some desolate corner of my brain and the-power-of-tikam, I murdered James Bernoulli and his binomial equation to form Rachel's the-power-of-tikam equation!
I should have scored a pathetic 10/40, but nooo. I ended up with 25% more than that. Therefore, the the-power-of-tikam equation is true and this case will occur again in the As. Yea right. It's just me and my wishful thinking.

Doing the math paper was disappointing, partly because I only started studying stats on the morning of paper 2 itself. Lost like 15% of the marks to carelessness for both papers (typical)
Had a sinking feeling about it, but was quite happy overall. Thought I was going to F-away, in terms of both results and verbal abuse.

Can't say I'm not happy about physics main paper; it's the best I've ever scored, but I expected better marks. Gah. I have too many blindspots and self-created tripwires.
Glee. Passed physics S. Didn't expect to after I skipped an entire 20mark question.

*****

Went to my niece's for her man-yue today. Name's Aerin. Unique huh? Her brother's got a cute name as well: Tarquin. All babies are so squishable and edible. We had a dinner there, but all I felt like eating was the baby. Just one of my more paedophilic moments.

After the dinner, we had a beautiful performance put up by Lester(violinist) and Chester(bassoonist), music prodigies I tell you. They were then joined by my aunt ( a pianist) and my cousin, Gabriel (yet another violinist, 11). We were in for a night of smooth music man. Who cares if I missed my chi zi cheng long and fa yi X dang an?

2005-09-29T22:25:00.000+08:00

Happy Birthday Allan!

*confetti*confetti*

Sze Lang Too!

*more confetti*more confetti*

the child of our time

2005-09-22T23:34:00.000+08:00

who scored highest on the three-word sentence formation test at 18 months was one of the triplets. She was happily playing when this annoying adult (one of the researchers) came in and tried to get her to do something. In response, she said, " Go away." "Bitch."

Now isn't that sweet?

small world

2005-09-22T21:57:00.000+08:00

Last paper today. Physics S. 90% chance of getting unclassified.

Went to play pool with leonard at parkway after wasting 3 hours in school. He invited two friends along and we were supposed to be total strangers; one of them was leonard's ex-classmate kaihong and the other was his classmate's friend's friend (so complicated lol), marie. I knew that kaihong looked somewhat familiar and I was right, he was from taonan (: My 1D classmate renfu's cousin.

I had quite some luck with pool today. yay. Must be because I had such rotten luck for the exam.

Yesterday..

We had our lunch/dinner at Ajisen, taka. Went to Kinokuniya and egg and I plonked down at the interior design section while erjie and sanjie looked for 2006 organisers and cy looked for comics, that hopeless comic addict. I fell in love with the chinese themed designs while egg obsessed over the cosy cottages. I used to love that kind of cosy farmhouse setting, but I think there's this city freak in me that sorta rejects it strongly. On to my favourite: chinese designs! A couple of the chinese houses had this really funky chinese calligraphy, not the usual paper and ink kind, but glass and metal with the calligraphy etched on them. Some of them also had really pretty screens. There were also crash courses on how to infuse different elements into your house. Maybe I'm going to be an interior designer.

Off to watch Child Of Our Time.

distractions

2005-09-16T22:47:00.000+08:00

My week long abstinence from the internet has been relatively successful.

But depriving myself of entertainment is very impossible, so I turned my attention to the piano.

My fingers used to be alive, flying across miles of black and white.

They are stiff, like their stricken with rigor mortis. Dead, in other words.

After a couple of hours, I heaved a sigh of relief. They were not dead, just in suspended animation, and I've just revived them.

*****

Been watching quite a lot of Jamie Oliver lately. I love his liberal use of spices. The show never fails to make me dream up a scene of a nice little shopping trip to the supermarket.

I shall cook.

Don't give me that look, mum. Just get the Agfas ready. I'd be conservative and triumphantly announce that I've predicted that I'd end up with a mass of 50% carbon (in its raw form).

Essex Boy's Caviar looks nice. It's just de-skinned aubergine la. No way would I be able to afford caviar.

*****

TJ physics prelim 2005 data analysis question:
To control crowds, either plastic bullets or water cannons are used. Plastic bullets can be fatal within 20m. Water cannons only have a range of 20m.

What kind of crowds would you use water cannons on?

Ans: Crowds that use fire la? Not correct meh?

*****

Got to ask yourself the question,
Where are you now?

Frizzle Mania

2005-09-03T18:58:00.000+08:00

As Miss Frizzle always says, "Take chances, make mistakes, get messy!"

Surfin' on a sound wave
Swingin' through the stars
Take a left at your intestine
Take your second right past Mars
On THE MAGIC SCHOOL BUS

Step inside -- it's a wilder ride!

*snap*snap*

back to reality.
Safe, unerring and disgustingly clean notes.

I miss Miss Frizzle.

*****

Why do I realise that is too late only when it really is too late?

F2

2005-08-30T22:30:00.000+08:00

As a child, I loved playing Microsoft solitaire. You could close both eyes and click blindly and when you open them again, you'd see the cards streaming down the top of the window. It's a big fat no-brainer. And this characteristic of the game is even more pronounced when they with the restart button.

Everytime you have or you think you can't put any more cards down, you just push the F2 button. Easy as that. The computer would just whisk your crummy old cards away and another set appears on your screen immediately. You then begin afresh.

I have always thought I could adopt that attitude towards everything. F2 and everything bad disappears in a flash and you have a beautiful new deck for you to start over again.

No one's life is flawless, is it? I guess that's why everyone goes fanatical when the subject of time travel gets brought up. F2-ing the mistakes that they think have brought their lives to the current, horrible, state. Digressing (a lot), although the erasure of that certain mistake would actually change their lives for the better, it would cause them to not realise that they would have to go back in time to change that mistake. Put simply, it disrupts and would probably destroy the space-time continuum. Too much Back to the Future. Heh.

An F2 button for life. That'd be the day.

Support the yellow ribbon project.
*Didn't mean this entry to be for this link, only realised it after finishing it. Thought it was a little relevant.

vrrooomm

2005-08-28T01:29:00.000+08:00

Time sure flies by.

Didn't the midyears just end??

And I'm doing everything but studying.

I'm baking.
I'm taking español.
I'm touring Singapore.

Catorce days left.

*****

New ambition again: to be a designer at the BMW design centre in Singapore *wow*

in the name of geeks

2005-08-23T13:56:00.000+08:00

Orisinal has a new game!

Am I the only J2 who noticed? I'm feeling so geeky.

education

2005-08-21T16:53:00.000+08:00

Sadly, the singaporean education system hasn't affected me much, yet, I hope. That means I still haven't studied since my last entry, yet. I really wish it would shoot me now and bury me in the mountain of notes so I'd be forced to study, but noooo, I have a bullet proof vest permanently stuck on.

It's not that I didn't try, I did. But everytime I pick up a set of notes, my thoughts would drift light years away. When I come back 2 hours later, I'd still be on the same line. Either that or I'd fall asleep. It works better than sleeping pills. I think I have an attention deficit disorder or something.

I'd also have to suppress my obsession for vacuuming the house. "洁癖" they call it. Just finished another round of cleaning the house.

Mugging disease! Infect me!

Oh. I forgot. I'm naturally immune to it.

*****

My GP results are frighteningly erratic. I can get an F one day and a B on another. Sheeesh.

*****

It's been about a month since my uncle and aunt attended some education summit. I think it was held in Helsinki, Finland.

Finland has a whopping 20+ universities for 5.2million population. Singapore has 3 universities for our 4.4million population. You do the math.

The main part of the summit that should be of interest to us students (however dubious it may seem or may be) is that Finnish tertiary education is free... *drum rolls*... even for foreigners! It's also conducted in English. However, a quick check at the Helsinki University Webpage has revealed that there is no one course that can be completed solely in English, so I am still ultra-super-duper doubtful about this, but I haven't bothered to confirm this with the Finnish Embassy. Let's just hope that the website is outdated. Heh.

It would be such a bargain. The priceless experience of overseas education for the mere price of living expenses. True or false? We shall see.

*****
abc (modified)

Boo boo boo boo boo boo
If you went to school tonight girl
which you never never knew before
(fading) i aint giving it you easy
why 2 + 2 makes 4 now now now
i'm gonna teach you
All about mugging
(fading) i've gotta teach you and me
all you gotta do is listen to me
ABC, it's easy as 123
If only that Physics, Math
'n' Chemistry
were all also that easy girl
ooooooohhhhhhhhhhh
easy as 123
If only that Physics, Math
'n' Chemistry
were all also that easy girl
(fading) i'm gonna teach you to sing it loud
come on come on come on
let me show you what its all about
reading, writing, arithmatic
all the branches on the learning tree
your education aint complete
T T T Teachers gonna show you
How to get an A
OH ABC it's easy as 123
If only that Physics, Math
'n' Chemistry
were all also that easy girl
its easy, its like counting up to 3
sing a simple melody
thats how easy math can be
thats how easy chem can be
sing a simple melody
123, you and me
sit down girl i think i love you
no get up girl show me what you can do
mug it mug it baby
mug it mug it baby
mug it mug it baby
123 baby abc baby do ray me baby
thats how easy 'A's can be
its easy, its like counting up to 3
sing a simple melody
thats how easy 'A's can be
come on come on come on
let me show you what its all about
abc is easy its like counting up to 3
sing a simple melody
thats how easy 'A's can be
oh oh oh baby
abc is easy its like counting up to 3
sing a simple melody.

elections are coming!

2005-08-18T21:40:00.000+08:00

Now what has that got to do with me? One, I'm not 21 and two, I'm in a GCT's walkover constituency.

The politically ignorant me doesn't give two hoots about what policies they are making or changing; what catches my attention is my first impression of their speech. Despite being able to quite accurately fake european or american accents (mostly to annoy people.. haha), as a congenital Singaporean, I have an innate predilection for the asian 卷舌 custom (see Tamil and Beijing Chinese) that LKY and LHL have blended into their English with mastery. Their English is grammatically perfect, but appropriately seasoned with a tangible dash of asian accent. Making the people feel culturally similar to them, I think, would be an integral part of being a leader in any country. I guess it sounds pretty biased, but that's the way we're hard-wired: to feel more comfortable around people who share more things in common with ourselves, especially in terms of culture. ky, ct and the current pm have achieved just that with a mere tweaking of the movement of their tongues. So clever :)

I stumbled upon Singapore Democratic Party's "podcast". Yes people, there are other political parties in Singapore.

I was utterly mortified to hear this sounds-like-he's-trying-to-be-americanandorbritish CSJ (Chee Soon Juan) trying to promote the SDP. After one and a half centuries of colonisation and a gruelling fight ( i think) to independence, please, not another angmoh...

*sidetracks: I still think the joke about the American company "colony" buying over the raffles hotel (british colonial building) is very amusing.

Gah. I think I have nothing better to do.

*****

GO STUDY LA!! 3 WEEKS ONLY... ONLY STUDY FINISH 4 TOPICS.. PIG MORE HARDWORKING THAN YOU LOR..

Rachel defends meekly: but.. but.. i finished electromagnetism and induction today you know...

LIDDAT THEN HAO LIAN LA... FINISH 6 TOPICS.. OUT OF NINETY OVER LOR.. STILL DARE TO SAY..

Rachel tries to defend again: my.. my rate has increase by 2 topics compared to last week....

YOU DID NOTHING LAST WEEK MY DEAR.

Rachel (indignantly): I got OK!! *thinks hard for a few minutes then tries to change the subject*
(helplessly) 3 weeks...hehe.. still quite long la.. got time one, got time one..

(also feeling helpless) *resorts to using hypnosis* STUDYING IS GOOD FOR YOU... STUDYING IS GOOD FOR YOU...

Rachel: (appears to be in a trance)

Will Rachel succumb to the evils of the singapore education system? stay tuned to find out...

*****

Haha. I feel like the schizophrenic Golem from the Lord of The Rings. except i'm singaporeanified.
But I'm honestly starting to think I'm dead meat.

the insides of the house

2005-08-15T20:53:00.000+08:00

Before getting into the main entry, I'd like to publicly revel at what happened during the 2.4km run today. I DIDN'T STOP UNTIL THE FIFTH ROUND! a first!!! I usually stop at the 3rd round or earlier and sprint periodically after.

Okay. Finished revelling.

*****

I've been such a dear to my mum today, spending the entire day vacuuming the entire house. I've just finished and everything's so squeaky clean, all thanks to this baby..

the Osim iEcologi!

It steams (sanitises) and sucks (cleans) simultaneously, removing the toughest grease stains with a few strokes. For the first time, I'm in love with doing housework.

*****

I've been fantasizing about designing the interior of my own house.

A few years ago, when I realised the existence of those cute ikea annual catalogues, I dreamt of filling my future house up with ikea furniture and pairing them up with the electronics I find in the sony catalogue. Ikea's got the niftiest stuff I tell you, and they still do. Everything looked so aesthetically pleasing and their functions so accessible. Of course, that was a few years ago. They still look quite fun, but I look elsewhere for nice designs - they look the same after a while.
After my ikea craze was over, my favourite furniture haunt became barang barang. Pretty stuff everywhere. It took me that long to understand that you can't get the best combination of furniture from the same shop, you have to traipse around different stores (especially those back alley ones) to look for them. You buy them, transport them to your house, shuffle them around, stand at a corner staring at the arrangement trying to sort out your thoughts on what would look most appealing, and shuffle them around some more. After breaking a few legs, you'll get the most gorgeous house. It works, really!

I've also always wanted a tree-house situation. Hiding in an elevated corner of the house that can only be reached by ladder, just like charlie in his bedroom, would be just like being in a lair, a hide-out, a cosy loft. The theme would have to be multicultural; stepping into my house would have to be like stepping into a blent world. There'd be a piece of something from every continent in the most perfect set up such that there'd be no awkward or rude extrusions or clash of cultures. It'd be perfect harmony. The subtheme would be rustic, with the feel of natural woods and textures of dark-oak floors and terracotta tiles.

There also definitely has to be a dog. Terrier, perhaps. ( a reason why i won't choose modern chic designs)

With such a house, all you need now is a hammock. Every house needs one. I'm gonna get a hammock.

National Day

2005-08-09T23:58:00.000+08:00

I feel so patriotic.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SINGAPORE!

My aunt actually organized a National Day Party?? We don't really meet up very often, so I guess we have to use every public holiday wisely. Look at Tarqs!!! He's soo edible.

Proudly wearing our red and whites. We love Singapore!

It was initially my aunt who was invited to the parade, but she scared of sun, so the tix now belong to sharlyn and me.

Popped by my other aunt's house and found a little bovine peeking from the back of the garden. Three cute little moomoo advertisement cows have cleverly settled in a comfy corner of peach garden.

Uncle changed car! He said the lexus's cheaper. It's SO COOL. It's the kind you don't need a key to operate, just push a button and the engine starts. That dark display you see's an lcd screen that reflects the fuel consumption at any instant etc. It also turns into a rear view mirror that reflects the blind spots of the actual mirror when you go on the reverse gear. cool.

Horrible shot of the fireworks, but that's all I have. What can you expect from a camera phone anyway? I think the best part of the parade was being able to sit at my second most favourite building, city hall, although I had to endure having the car parked at the new supreme court's carpark (my least favourite building).

Went down to Chinese Swimming Club for dinner after the parade. The last time I went there was way back when I was in tao nan, during that swimming carnival thingy. It sure brings back memories. Tatsu Sushi or something. It just opened 2 months ago and its food is quite commendable. Impeccable service, and unlike other restaurants with so-called great service, they don't have people staring at you for every darned moment there.

Dozing off at the screen now, have to go.

pigging out

2005-08-08T23:01:00.000+08:00

I have become quite rotund lately, though not to the extent of augustus gloop. My mind has somehow toggled my digestive system and told it that my usual diet simply would not do. So now I think I can only subsist on the one and a half times the normal fare and at least 2 bars of chocolate daily. And I haven't talked about the intermeal snack times and the intersnack time bites. It's as if the holy grail came to my house or something, but it obviously didn't, so the food supply my family was hoarding (for who knows what) is being depleted very rapidly.

Meanwhile, as the tummy expands with a rate comparable to violet beauregarde's gum, I desperately await its popping.

maize

2005-07-29T23:06:00.001+08:00

Just heard the broadcast of the song "When You Say Nothing At All" by Ronan Keating.
"You say it best, when you say nothing at all"
I mean, that's the corniest lyrics I've heard in years. The way it was sung seemed like it was meant to be some lovey-dovey pop song, but the silly lyrics made the guy seem like he was trying to get his friend to shut up. Quite an old song actually and despite hearing it repeatedly over the radio, I still get stupified by the admirable lameness of the lyrics.

I remember watching "VR-man" or something on Channel 5 many years ago, starring James Lye. I'd always get really engrossed watching it due to my penchant for electronics and everything related, but I can't really remember anything now. VR-man. It's supposed to sound all cyber and cool and all (I think I thought it was), but it's like sooo La Mer now!!!

I think I'm a secret bimbo... look at my writing style. so bimbotic. Ughh.

yay. I finally made a post really live up to its name. I do love my corn.

chao mugger

2005-07-27T20:50:00.000+08:00

i am a chao mugger.
i hit the books whenever i can.
i am a chao mugger.
i do nothing but mug.
i am a chao mugger.
i am smelly.

That was the undesirable but most poetic side of me, which acts as an outlet that has the sewer pipe as its equivalent. Sorry bout that. I just have the sudden urge to make an entry live up to the title of the blog. It only happens once in a while, and this just happens to be those once-s of the while.

*****

I swear I have freaky juniors. One's topped vj science and the other's in top 50 of rj. Holy crap. I topped tj too, like what, from the back?

*****

What to do when you receive you A-level entry proof:
1. Fold it into half.
2. Repeat step 1 until you can't fold anymore with your puny strength.
3. Stuff the fire hazard into your bag.
4. Reach home to find that it's fallen out of the gaping hole in your bag that you swore to mend a few weeks ago.
5. cry la.

Indulgence

2005-07-24T23:53:00.000+08:00

in sleep when I fell into and stayed in slumber for 18 continuous hours.

of my tastebuds when I took a trip down to Parkway and got myself a charsiewsoo and delightfully fluffy pau. Don't start with the lard involved please.

The day ended with more dim sum than ever, with a pair of dim sum dollies tickets waiting for me at home.

I've got them!
I've got them!
I've got them!

I missed them last year, so I'm not going to let myself regret again :)

delectable dim sum

2005-07-24T02:38:00.000+08:00

dollies!

I have to get tickets to the dim sum dollies.

I have to.
I have to.
I have to.

What sixty eight bucks? I'd pay a hundred.

ChEnyU's bIrThdaY

2005-07-22T00:24:00.000+08:00

This post is so overdue.

HaPpY biRthDay ChEnYu!

Man! I see others typing xiaodi so much that I also get the urge to call him that, only to go "yarhor!" and then go back to delete it.

This post is late, and so was I on Sunday. Bad traffic and bus. Apologies again.

*****

Itchy fingers changed my blogskin. Although I know the kind of satisfaction in store after the completion of making my own, I never bothered putting in any effort. I hold the prospect of having a bright future through hardwork in very dark light. In short, lazy la. What can you expect from Rachel? Diligently scrutinizing every symbol in the script? Not in several lifetimes. That's why the words are so teensy weensy.

*****

I think "persistent vegetative state" would be an understatement to my current activity. I'm stoning. Think along the lines of igneous and sedimentary. Metamorphic too. Not a trace of life. I guess I'm just trying to continue stoning and exposing myself to the cosmic rays and essence of day and night stuff and hope for a miracle - perhaps the chance of transforming into a monkey.

I could go to an overseas u if I asked. But I don't want to ask. So I'm gonna miss out.

pity

2005-07-15T17:59:00.000+08:00

"NKF CEO and board quit" smacks the front page of today's ST.

I do sympathise with Mr Durai. On his inability to differentiate between what's excessive and what's acceptable. The golden tap was the limit for most Singaporeans.

But on another note, it really isn't easy handling a multi-million dollar charity. A man of Durai's calibre could have easily made it big on his own, with a salary that's macadamia instead of pea. Judging by the immensity of the Singapore population, getting another person who's on par or exceeds Durai in all respects wouldn't need much effort. Yea right. But I doubt anything postive can be done about his marred image on Singaporeans, pity that.

*****

I have been watching Batman and Robin again. Not those with flashy pyrotechniques and masculine batmobiles, but Batman in spandex with a paunchy actor behind the floppy-eared mask. I had a good laugh watching the amazing special effects of their time, e.g. batman scaled a vertical wall with his body parallel to the ground. They talked funny too, like they just came out of a comic book.

How batman disposed a bomb:
He picked up the round cannonball-looking thing that had a piece of string sticking out on one end, and ran around. Unfortunately, there wasn't any open space on the pier he was on, so he attempted to throw it into the sea on many occassions, but the civillians were always in the way. When he finally found a free space, he jumped into the sea along with the bomb. What a clown.

Word of the Day

2005-07-13T17:32:00.000+08:00

Dictionary.com Word of the Day for Wednesday July 13, 2005

malfeasance \mal-FEE-zuhn(t)s\, noun:
Wrongdoing, misconduct, or misbehavior, especially by a public official.

How appropriate for the big hoo-ha that followed the defamation suit that was filed and then hastily withdrawn by Durai.

Kinda disappointed about Mrs Goh's comment on the case. I thought lawyers had more ability over their words and are less likely to shoot their mouths off, much less to reporter. And the action ended so quickly... had to cut losses? Guess they just got out of their slumber, where they unconsciously decided to pit their guts against a media giant.

yay

2005-07-11T19:13:00.000+08:00

I am so proud of myself.

Went to study at Bras Basah ulu pandan Mac with Egg and Erjie and successfully completed what I would have completed in a week!

Yay.

But I was at the brink of insanity when this fluffy-haired person kept pressing me to do tutorials.

Doing so much homework in a day is an achievement too much to handle.

hAHA.

witness

2005-07-09T23:54:00.000+08:00

Beachfront living always had its perks, but a downside was the ECP expressway.

Having to live next to the expressway would mean having thousands of cars pass by everyday, so once in a while, there'd be a mishap.

There'd be screeching brakes every week or so, with my heart also screeching to a stop until no further sounds were heard.

This time, it was SCREEEECH... with a BANG.... and then a PRIANG...
Man. The wreck was in full view lar, a mere 50metres away. And that was also the first time I saw traffic slow down so rapidly without red yellow greens. Ambulance came in about 5minutes (I'd have to commend SCDF's efficiency)

scary.

books

2005-07-09T16:50:00.000+08:00

Kelly celebrated her 21st birthday yesterday. It was a party on the beachfront at pasta fresca, the one where Mr Salvatore's present. It was hawaiian-themed, and Tarq and co looked so squishable with their grass skirts. Tarq's one guy i'll go gaa gaa over. haha.

Gave her the book that anyone would kill for, by the cover at least. The Book Of Answers was sitting in an inconspicuous little corner at MPH parkway just waiting for me to pick up. It was strong and black, with gold trimmings, completely furnished to be part of Harry Potter's school booklist. You wouldn't find pretty hardcover books like these very often now.

The first thing that came to my mind when I saw The Book Of Answers was the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything from a Douglas Adams book, which is by the way, 42. Quite senseless to have the answer to the ultimate question when you don't know the question. D-uh. The Book Of Answers is much more practical and entitles you to a question followed by some stroking of the book. Voila! You really DO get an answer.

I stumbled upon another book entitled I, Lucifer. Warning: It's about the devil. But as most people know, I always do things that are debased and I'm soo gonna get that book.

I aspire to be A. Shore.

Genting Trip

2005-07-08T15:20:00.000+08:00

Genting: pronounced
Jen-ting (English) or Gen-ting (Bahasa Melayu)

1st July - the day we had been counting down for!
Set off via coach to GENTING!!! on a transtar bus at 2200hrs. First time on a coach so we were awed by the huge chairs. Business class sia. Couldn't really sleep on the bus despite the size of the seats and neither did the rest; a result of being too excited for the trip and a slightly bumpy ride.

2nd July
Arrived at 0530 and left our bags at the bell counter. The rooms weren't ready for checking in yet, so we went for breakfast at only mee. Rushed to the ticketing counter at 0800 (opening time) for the theme parks and bought 7 all park tickets. This day was a wild day. Some weather problems so we stayed indoors for a while. Played bumper cars and a kiddy roller coaster ride. Chyork was screaming his head of on it. Waited for the for the mist to clear and went to the outdoor park. Warm-ups: The circular motion thingie that spins you around (yixiang kept looking for the outer-rimmed one and went on to explain that by F=mv²/r, the force acting on you on the outermost chairs is the largest), some toboganning thing, Funkart and its laopok cars, the Mine Train and the Corkscrew. All of which Chyork screamed hysterically on, 'cept for the gokart and the toboganning thing. Proceeded to check in at the agent's for 2++hours. Sheesh. And the most efficient person there was wearing a "i'm new" badge. Lol. Can't help but salute her; she settled 3 clients in the time the manager took to settle one. Faidi Faidi!!! Lunch at the pizza parlour. Met Ah Gong there!!! and he piled cupnoodles, fresh fruits and hotel toiletries on us. Went back to the theme park after lunch and got on the circular motion thing again. Then, it was the king: The space shot. 10 storeys high. The rest had a really hard time getting me and royston up cos of out phobia of heights. They somehow did, partly because of roYz philosophy: why should we be scared when so many other people have gone on it? HaHA. All of us went up in the end :) Played bumper boats and witnessed an ying xiong jiu mei scene. hehe. It was so classic. Wang Lee Hom's concert was also held at that time, so we ended up crouched at the door, recording Forever Love.

3rd July
0000. Chyork's birthday! Got two coffee bean cakes and a candle to celebrate. The expression on his face was hilarious when he was forced to eat both the cheesecake and chocolate cake on his own. Obviously, yixiang and royston chipped in too. hAha. Plonked on the bed and slept.

1145. Outside Be A Star, the kbox of Genting. RM8 for lunch of Nasi Lemak + 2hrs + drinks + peanuts. RM10 for dinner of Char Kuay Teow + 2hrs + drinks + peanuts. =) Went for both and K-ed the day away. The rooms were about 4 times the size of KBox's and there were so many lor. Went for Kenny Roger's after that... the muffins were superb. Played concentration and the finger game until a couple of us (Jen, Chyork, Royston) went down. The remaining people (yixiang, horse, mok and me) played bridge all the way.

4th July
Went for the breakfast buffet, RM21. Not much to me. I guess it could have tasted marvellous if my taste buds were awake, but most of us fell asleep at the table. Kaplonk. Returned to the hotel room for photo time!! Don't really know what happened after that cos i was sleeping. Took the coach back at 1400 and arrived in Singapore at 2200.

The entire trip was SO MUCH FUN!!! After all, it's the company and not the venue that makes everything everything. We're all qiong shu shengs now, but just wait till we're older! I'm sooo looking forward to the year-end trip :)

Meanwhile, it's mugging time... yuck.

omg

2005-06-27T19:14:00.000+08:00

How do you know when you need help?

When you do what I did.

As soon as I reached home, I took of my shoes and threw my socks into the dustbin.

Then I went to watch television. Until it hit me that I did what I did.

Am I conscious. Was I even half-conscious for the entire day?

Physics - DEAD
GP - DEAD
Chemistry - never touch... of course DEAD la.
Math - on life support.
di... di... di... dididididididiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
someone get a defibrillator! stat!

This blog is beginning to look like a mortuary.

Wouldn't it be nice if the world was Cadbury?

2005-06-26T00:31:00.000+08:00

I'm on a drug.
It's called chocolate.
And I'm getting very high on it.

Cadbury version:

Wouldn't it be nice if the world was Cadbury
You could surf inside a chocolate tube
Ride your board across the wave forever
Get wiped out and never get a bruise.
And if a shark came up and tried to bite you
You could say "I'm chocolate I invite you"
Wouldn't it be nice!

Wouldn't it be nice if the world was Cadbury,
Driving in the car would be a tasty treat,
Changing gears would soon become a problem,
Cadbury Dairy Milk is so good to eat.
And when you arrive at your destination,
You'll be greeted with an exclamation,
Wouldn't it be nice!

Dangerously high. =)

Original version (By The Beach Boys):

Wouldn’t it be nice if we were older
Then we wouldn’t have to wait so long
And wouldn’t it be nice to live together
In the kind of world where we belong
You know it’s gonna make it that much better
When we can say goodnight and stay together

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could wake up
In the morning when the day is new
And after having spent the day together
Hold each other close the whole night through
Happy times together we’ve been spending
I wish that every kiss was never ending
Wouldn’t it be nice!

Maybe if we think and wish and hope and pray it might come true
Baby then there wouldn’t be a single thing we couldn’t do
We could be married
And then we’d be happy
Wouldn’t it be nice!

You know it seems the more we talk about it
It only makes it worse to live without it
But lets talk about it
Wouldn’t it be nice!

solitary confinement

2005-06-25T21:44:00.000+08:00

It's self-imposed, actually. There's no one at home and I'm too lazy to step out of the house, so here I am, immersing myself in cyberspace. It's 2 days to the start of the jcts and no one's online. So bored. So I decided to make myself some chocolate souffle.

Chocolate is the invention of the human race. I'd soooooo want to make the molten chocolate cake... I tried making chocolate souffle with my mum, but we didn't put the milk in, misled by some whacko french chef, so it looked all cakey and dry. The product tasted bitter, very scorched - like it was roasted by a flamethrower on full blast, and a nudge with a fork made it crumble as if it were a building hit by an earthquake that's 8 on the richter scale. Or maybe I'm just not cut out for baking.

I'm just finished eating a bowl of chocolate icecream on my bed. 1/2 a litre to be exact =) Belgian chocolate from Häagen Dazs, *gRinZ* although I like their macnut better. I blow into the bowl and the cool air deflects back onto my face with a faint chocolatey smell as I reminisce the stingingly dry sensation the bitter chocolate leaves in my throat.

More on chocolate... The chocolate dictionary

Forgive me. I think it's my pre-"Charlie and the Chocolate Factory movie" release craze that's getting to me.

Here's a cute site: How To Clean Anything. Haven't actually tested any of the methods because the klutzy side of me has been, rather unexpectedly - especially with the icecream-on-the-bed incident, unavailable for the month.

Happy Birthday Zg!!!

2005-06-24T19:34:00.000+08:00

美丽的误会

2005-06-23T23:35:00.000+08:00

那时候听爱如潮水
想象着万一我们不是一对
你和我谁会在深夜里孤独的买醉
这一晚我一个人睡
防备着那于事无补的伤悲
还有很多工作只能面对不能憔悴
我为我的坚强而骄傲
却为这段情感到惭愧
我只能够承认失去了你都无所谓
我听的歌爱的人说的话是不是美丽的误会
我不能为你不顾一切的崩溃
除非这样子能保证把你挽回
我牵的手伤的心流的泪是不是浪漫的误会
是爱得太伤还是伤得太累
难道你还不配让我的心碎
这一晚听爱如潮水
数算着为感情而吃过的亏
搞不懂麻木是不是我学到的智慧
那时候我们都很累
还以为分手之后总有机会
让我们说后悔为了失恋为
所欲为在爱情的面前我宁愿卑微

2005-06-20T01:49:00.000+08:00

and it's raining all so suddenly. winds howling, rain spluttering.

Are the windows in Singapore made of tempered glass? especially the coastal regions? The windows sound like their gonna burst.

2005-06-20T00:12:00.000+08:00

i have a fetish for feet.

*griNz*

Moving.

2005-06-18T21:36:00.000+08:00

The Supreme Court.

My favourite building. It is one that carries with it awe, grandeur and regality, instilling fear into the guilty and strength to the upright. This post would serve as a tribute to its serving of justice for the past century. The following is an informative passage on it, from Frommer's:

The Supreme Court stands on the site of the old Hotel de L'Europe, a rival of the Raffles Hotel until it went bankrupt in the 1930s. The court's structure, a classical style favored for official buildings the world over, was completed in 1939. With its spare adornment and architectural simplicity, the edifice has a no-nonsense, utilitarian attitude, and the sculptures across the front, executed by the Italian sculptor Cavaliere Rodolpho Nolli, echo what transpires within. Justice is the most breathtaking, standing 2.7m (9 ft.) high and weighing almost 4 tons. Kneeling on either side of her are representations of Supplication and Thankfulness. To the far left are Deceit and Violence. To the far right, a bull represents Prosperity and two children hold wheat, to depict Abundance.

The copper dome of brilliant blue was meant to be of a brown hue (lol.. it rhymes). They say injustice was done to it by the humid Singaporean climate. I say it's beautifully done localisation.

As of Monday, the supcourts will move to their new premises; a silly looking building that a spaceship had crashed into. It's glass and concrete. It's nice, but dull and characterless and utterly uncomparable to the old supcourt's colonial era feel and and magnificent corinthian columns, ever so upright, ever so strong. Ugh.. Glass and concrete. And to add to that, high courtrooms with light-coloured timber, how sad is that? Where's the sombre feel of the dark interiors that the original courtrooms have? It feels like a whitewashed wall.

Whitewashed

2005-06-18T20:53:00.000+08:00

Whitewashed walls. They're always so placid looking. So sickly, so deadened and as happy as the make-up pallette of a mime. Having the white substance callously smothering the original wall would be like brightly coloured vats of dye dulled by the twilight sun. How stifling.

A True Prodigy

2005-06-13T01:52:00.000+08:00

William James Sidis (1898 - 1944)

http://hiqnews.megafoundation.org/William_Sidis.htm

Here is a partial list of William James Sidis' extraordinary capabilities and accomplishments:

1. Given IQ is a purely anthropocentric means of assessing intelligence, Sidis' IQ is crudely estimated at 250-300.
2. Infant Billy listened to Greek myths read to him by Sarah as bedtime stories.
3. Started feeding himself with a spoon at eight months (after two months of trial and error).
4. Cajoled by Boris, Billy learned to pronounce alphabetic syllables from blocks hanging in his crib.
5. At six months, Billy said, "Door." A couple months later he told Mom he liked things, doors and people, that move.
6. At seven months he pointed to Earth's moon and called it, "moon." He wanted a 'moon' of his own.
7. Mastered higher mathematics and planetary revolutions by age 11.
8. Learned to spell efficiently by one year old.
9. Started reading The New York Times at 18 months.
10. Started typing at three. Used his high chair to reach a typewriter. First composed letter was an order for toys from Macy's.
11. Read Caesar's Gallic Wars, in Latin (self-taught), as a birthday present to his Father in Billy's fourth year.
12. Learned Greek alphabet and read Homer in Greek in his fourth year.
13. Learned Aristotelian logic in his sixth year.
14. At six, Billy learned Russian, French, German, and Hebrew, and soon after, Turkish and Armenian.
15. Calculated mentally a day any date in history would fall at age six. Absolutely fascinated by calendars.
16. Learned Gray's Anatomy at six. Could pass a student medical examination.
17. Billy started grammar school at six, in 3 days 3rd grade, graduated grammar school in 7 months.
18. At age 8, Billy surpassed his father (a genius) in mathematics.
19. Corrected E. V. Huntington's mathematics text galleys at age of eight.
20. Total recall of everything he read.
21. Wrote four books between ages of four and eight. Two on anatomy and astronomy, lost.
22. Passed Harvard Medical School anatomy exam at age seven.
23. Passed MIT entrance exam at age eight.
24. Intellect surpassed best secondary school teachers.
25. At age 10, in one evening, corrected Harvard logic professor Josiah Royce's book manuscript: citing, "wrong paragraphs."
26. Attempted to enroll in Harvard at nine.
27. In 1909, became youngest student to ever enroll at Harvard at age 11.
28. In 1910, at age 11, lectured Harvard Mathematical Club on 'Four-Dimensional Bodies.'
29. Billy graduated from Harvard, cum laude, on June 24, 1914, at age 16.
30. Billy entered Harvard Law School in 1916.
31. Billy could learn a whole language in one day!
32. Billy knew all the languages (approximately 200) of the world, and could translate among them instantly!

Please.. please... lend me just a quarter of your brain for jct... (if i.q. is spread proportionally around the brain, i'd have roughly 180! - Einstein level!! Don't have to study!!)

of fish and plastic

2005-06-09T23:28:00.000+08:00

I had the most brilliant snapper pie today. I'll go straight to the point: the puffed pastry was thorougly baked and fluffed through to the core, no hard to chew dough debris there; the cream-base was lightly textured, unlike others with unforgivingly thick textures which give us those insufferable vomity feel; but the star of the show would have to be the snowy-white loin of a freshly caught fish, each flake slipping away cleanly with every cut of the knife.

Sheer culinary delight.

*****

Took a trip to my cousin's clinic and bumped into a family friend there. I'll swear I'd never go for that dreadful mesotherapy. On the counter table of the room was a cavalry of tiny bottles, each with elaborate medical terms and syringes next to them. The friend was there for that mesotherapy thingie, and had dozens of marker x-marks crossed all over her back and arms. Those are where the needles all pumped up with the contents of those scary little bottles are supposed to go. Ughh..

But then again, plastic surgery does really seem fun. IPL would be the most minor procedure (I probably wouldn't even call it a procedure) , but I have no idea why my mum's so terrified of it. It's just laser, not needles. As long as nothing pokes through my skin (unless under anaesthesia.. hehe), I'm really fine with it.

oh yeah?

2005-06-02T22:46:00.000+08:00

after a while, i realised that being bored is much more interesting than mugging.

so bored, i'd rather study.

2005-06-02T16:52:00.000+08:00

The most boring trip I've ever had. Had I known it was so boring I'd have stayed at home to mug.

Egyptian Cappuccino?

2005-05-27T23:05:00.000+08:00

I've developed a fetish for personality quizzes. Do bear with it for the moment.

You are Cleopatra; allegedly seductive,
intelligent, and ambitious. The common
perseption of you is decadent and sexual,
though you only had two lovers. Julius Caesar;
who was just as quick-witted and intelligent as
you, and the famous Mark Antony, someone strong
and handsome, but someone whose unintelligence
bothered you plenty. You knew nine languages,
and married your younger brother when your
father, a pharoah, died.

Which Historical Personage are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

You are a cappuccino, sipped in the afternoon,
after sex.

You are not trendy; you set trends for others. You
wear black or nothing, and your playlist
alternates Mahler with bands no one else has
heard of. You read Rimbaud in public places,
and you have a vintage poster for La Dolce
Vita hanging over your bed. You pepper
your conversation with quotes from obscure
Jacobean revenge tragedies, and you cackle to
yourself when your lovers assume that you are
quoting I Love Lucy. Your glasses have
designer frames and you do not need them to
see.

What kind of coffee are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

My Music Personality

2005-05-25T22:38:00.000+08:00

My Music Personality

72 % enjoys reflective and complex music
4 % enjoys edgy and aggressive music
51 % enjoys fun and simple music
7 % enjoys energetic and upbeat music

Surmise

2005-05-23T18:57:00.000+08:00

We learnt, in primary school, that the nine planets revolved around the sun. A few years later, we learnt about the electrons around the nucleus. The surmise is that the nine planets revolve around the sun in the same way the electrons circle the nucleus. Our galaxy's is thus, a corresponding atom. The same goes for the other galaxies out there, except many galaxies do not exist as isolated galaxies. They exist as clusters (correspondingly, molecules) with gravitational forces that hold them together instead of the electrostatic forces that hold atoms together. The universe is the mixture of the seemingly infinite number of galaxies (atoms and molecules) and probably is just a matter; a plastic cup, for example. However, calculations have shown that the universe is expanding: our plastic cup's probably melting. There would be another planet our melting plastic cup is on (and another force alien to us binds the cup to it), which belongs to another galaxy and so on. The universe is probably finite. The number of times a universe is outside of another universe probably isn't.

If so, we're just a negligible coating of an electron, inexistent in the universe outside of our universe. Do we even exist, or are we just a result of random interferences of different forces and matters?

[*sidetrack - dang.. just got sunburnt by our nucleus]

So why do we bother doing anything in this ethereality, if our lives are ever so ephemeral?

But then again, why do we always think of what made us, when what we make are far more baffling? (think linguistics, culture, psychology and etc.)

*****

Metaphysics aside, The Beautiful Mind was a beautiful film. How punny (if you've watched it). The more I watched it, the more I felt I was crazy. I have been living in my own little world lately, ponning lectures like they weren't on the timetable and spending money with no regard for the balance, if there were any.

I'm turning insomniac. I need some sleep. Where's Rita???

Singin

2005-05-21T19:16:00.000+08:00

Had Lion Dance performance today, just for a short while. Went to KBox with San Jie and cy after that and called Leonard and Allan along.

Leonard. What more can I say?

San Jie traffic light

There wasn't much space on the table for the food, so we put the phones on the plate. Let's tuck in.

Went to a petshop after singing and snapped this:

A cute pile of rabbits.

I actually had a dog poo picture from the petshop, but it's too... icky. I deleted it of course.

Lion Dance at Lion's Homes

2005-05-15T21:23:00.000+08:00

Went to the Bedok and then to Toa Payoh. Travelled on a cute little lorry with all out stuff. It was so funky... riding on the expressway, clanging and banging and waving to the drivers all the way. Don't know how many motor accidents we caused out there by doing that. Haha.

There was food at the Toa Payoh home. We tapao-ed some back on the lorry. Cy brought tea. Halfway on the journey, he asked everyone if they wanted to see missiles and flipped the almost empty but not empty cup of tea. Due to inertia, huge missiles of tea came raining down on the few of us in front of him. -.-" sian half.

Actually, the cymbals players were the slackest =P .Yay.

*****
Movie Marathon at home man!!!

On Saturday,
Congo,
Babe
and Gattaca.

Today,
It's The Frighteners,
Super Babies: Baby Geniuses 2
and Deep Blue Sea.

Oh Boy.. the Amityville horror movie now seems delightfully tempting after hc and wy's reviews... Eeeks.

But I still won't watch horror movies. Ha.

Interlocked

2005-05-09T16:29:00.000+08:00

Interlocked

*****
Where's the prudence that was? Now it just boils down to velocity, wavelength and frequency. So which is it?

Boiling... boiling... boiling...

Friday, May 06, 2005

2005-05-07T01:55:00.000+08:00

A recollection of yesterday's events.

DAD'S BIG DAY!!!

He Did So Freakishly Well!!!

You're a natural man.... ai ren gogogo! Laughed till we were in stitches lo.

All the best for today's performance too...

*****
GP lesson

After Ms Kwan's enchanting description of Dubai, it has now risen through the ranks to become the country I'd want to go to most. Having both cutting-edge technology and age-old traditions flanking one of the most advanced cities in the world is so unimaginable, but beautiful. I think Singapore has somehow been brainwashed into thinking that we'd have to live, think and breathe global to be a globalised nation. So have I. This little prologue of Dubai and it's intriguing combination of the seemingly immiscible areas of technology and tradition has an almost fictitious quality to it that is so darned drawing.

I wanna go to Dubai. I wanna go see it for myself.

Egg's Birthday

2005-05-03T22:54:00.000+08:00

WeEhee... This post is late. As are my other posts.

Still unhatched after 18 years. Fossilized, I suppose... (kidding)

I've got to say that she's really been through a lot. The rubbish bin (垃圾烫) especially.

Happy Birthday!

P.S. Apologies for the short post; it was longer!! until who knows what happened and I had to retype.
Summary: i was lazy to retype. =P

the second full moon

2005-05-02T00:37:00.000+08:00

Green tea, watermelon and a candlelit dinner.

talent

2005-04-30T01:54:00.000+08:00

Things are never created equal. But we are never wrong to delude ourselves to work harder, even though we know we can't make it.

Bankers aren't bankers for nothing. People always say they lack the chance, despite their expertise. But things are always unfair and there's more to the job than the knowledge to it. Ask e.w. a question and he'll give you the answers for the next hundred you've intended to ask. Talents such as these are the ones that separate the directors from the managers. What to do? Born like that. Can't be helped ma..

*****
Tessellate endless amplified reasons.

A first.

We can't laugh our lives away.
I'm tired of clandestinity.

*****
http://www.fasco-csc.com/works/viridian/index_e.php

Some help here? I've got through, but apparently there's only one way out. Been trying to bypass the creepy skeleton for who knows how long.

2005-04-21T18:42:00.000+08:00

鸡蛋

Fluffy Heads

2005-04-19T00:15:00.000+08:00

I've come across a couple of egotistic people recently.

One would be - "hold on a sec, my room's really messy; I haven't packed my 3 laptops."
With much and highly undeserving emphasis on the last two words.

Another is - "Rag? O... just use that Issey Miyake shirt there..."

And another - "OooOo... come try my 2000kbps cable connection."

NEWSFLASH!!! There's the maximum of 6500kbps and that's considered pathetic outside of Singapore.

The unnecessary numerical details added were clearly meant for showing off.

Some heads are fluffy. In a the big-but-low-density sense.

Lalala... Feeling a little grouchy today. Don't come near. I'll bite.

Go Wushu!!!

2005-04-18T23:42:00.000+08:00

18/4 - Wushu Competition
3 Golds, 1 Bronze.
Hey cy... heard you did quite well too... we're noobs, good le la... haha...
Congrats guys! Go TJCPC!!!

New Phone!!!

2005-04-16T00:53:00.000+08:00

I hope...

My dad saw san jie's phone and the truth was out. He found out about the stolen phone. His favourite phone. It's a nokia 8850, outdated in function but absolutely gorgeous in the style department.

I expected a homicide-related headline the next day.

But in an unprecedented act of weirdness, he actually expressed interest in getting me a new phone. Heehee...

So there's definitely hope of getting a new phone. =)
Not in the near future though, after sneaking a look at the appalling vulgarity spewing income tax documents. =(

Sugarcane

2005-04-12T22:19:00.000+08:00

Buy 1 get 1 free for the price of 2.

Right..........

Insecurities

2005-04-10T13:02:00.000+08:00

More often than not, I'd see many wonderful blog entries with brilliant ideas about life and many other things and how should be, marred only by a certain footnote, such as that of

"I've been talking rubbish", or

"What the hell did I just say???" or

"Nah... That's just my meagre opinion, don't think too much about it..." or
The most recent one i had in my entry Tiramisu,
I love the word "stuff". It somehow embodies just what I want to say. Vague yet clear.

"I have no idea what I just wrote."

These pathetic little disclaimers serve to nullify what the blogger's just posted, but if they're already posted up, there is the intention of letting others see it. So why nullify them? If their not morally unacceptable, let the critics fire their arrows without shielding yourself with your insecurities-filled footnote.

Of course, there are exceptions to this, like making libelous remarks. There has to be a certain limit to the content posted online.
An example would be: Student punished for comments made in online journal

These are blogs and we do have the right to post whatever we deem is right. (use your own discretion to decide... you're not a kid anymore)

So POST!

-Targeted audience: 16 & above

bored

2005-04-10T00:44:00.000+08:00

So bored I actually resorted to watching 真情 to kill time.
I even found it more exciting then vegging in front of the computer, which is what I'm doing right now.

Flunked chem, don't talk about it.

Casuarina

2005-04-06T20:55:00.000+08:00

Lining the coastal regions of Singapore would be casuarina trees. They have the softest and most subtle look from afar, yet up close, they are spiky and wintry. It's like putting a welcome sign on the door and letting the guard dog loose in the house. But that's not the point.

I have always been bemused by the oddity of having temperate trees in a tropical climate. They just don't go together. I'd expect them to get waterlogged and die sooner or later, but that didn't happen. I'm no botanist, but I know they'd probably tweaked the conditions to suit them, unnaturally. I also know apple trees don't grow in Singapore and mango trees don't grow in Britain, and sometimes no matter what you do, they just won't survive in the other climate.

Tiramisu

2005-04-05T23:06:00.000+08:00

Today's food section:

I find it especially annoying when I eat dry Tiramisu. Actually, I don't even know what tiramisus are supposed to taste like. It's just like prawn mee a.k.a. rochor mee a.k.a. hokkien mee, some like it dry but others like it otherwise. I like my tiramisu wet. The way the lady fingers are soaked extravagantly in coffee and a dose of rum, coupled with the rich yet fluffy cream and cheese is truly heavenly.

I once bit into a horrid piece of tiramisu that had cream with the texture of aged blue cheese and the most flakey and "lao hong" lady fingers. Yuck. On top of that, when other tiramisus have cocoa powder lightly dusted on the top, they had cakes of cocoa powder. Eeww.

Heard of tiramisutra? These guys have great ideas man...

*****

I don't like LV bags, in general. That's because most of them have those hideous monogrammes on them. Now they have the coloured series. When will this end? They used to have great stuff, but now they're horrific.

*****

I love the word "stuff". It somehow embodies just what I want to say. Vague yet clear.

I have no idea what I just wrote.

Coffee

2005-04-03T00:56:00.000+08:00

Caramel Frappucinno after 1 hour. Note extensive diffusion of cream.

Chess pieces

2005-03-30T22:38:00.000+08:00

The last time I played chess was late last year, with an 11-year-old. I lost, not surprisingly, considering the fact that this kid was a genius; gifted programme... you get the idea.

I always wondered how people could play chess for hours at a time, like the time when Kasparov battled it out with Deep Blue. Mine always ends within 10 minutes. What??? Resistance was futile!!!

Maybe it's because I don't think before I move my pieces and never, ever defend. You can imagine how shocked I was when I found out just today that people thought a few steps ahead before making any move. Just as a passing remark, I apparently only think of the previous steps, for no particular reason. I shall cease to use chess as an incredibly soporific analogy to life before I become a greater bore. Lala... philosophy....zZzz...

I thrive on insipidity.

Fine, I'll admit. I suck at chess.

*****

Let's donate the money to a more worthy cause, like legalising prostitution! - "someone's nick"

Songs

2005-03-28T19:52:00.000+08:00

勇气

终于做了这个决定
别人怎么说我不理
只要你也一样的肯定
我愿意天涯海角都随你去
我知道一切不容易
我的心一直温习说服自己
最怕你忽然说要放弃
爱真的需要勇气
来面对流言蜚语
只要你一个眼神肯定
我的爱就有意义
我们都需要勇气
去相信会在一起
人潮拥挤我能感觉你
放在我手心里你的真心
如果我的坚强任性
会不小心伤害了你
你能不能温柔提醒
我虽然心太急更害怕错过你

This is quite an old song (was it last year or something when it came out?) by 梁静茹. Heard it recently again on the radio. Anyone have it? Hehe...

Can't really explain my recent fanaticism for Black Or White by MJ. You're guilty, but we still love your songs.

2005-03-27T02:11:00.000+08:00

Thanks =)

broke...

2005-03-25T23:25:00.000+08:00

Right... This is the second time in the week I'm in the cinemas. And yes, it's another comedy, called eye10.

You'd have to drag the hell out of me to get me into a screening of a horror movie, but this was particularly funny. Ha. The funniest part had to be when the kid was mistaken to be a ghost and got an undeserving kick in the face. Poor kid. O dear, I sound so sadistic.

I feel my life ebbing away with the disappearance of my phone. Ahhh. I'm dying... Imagine being deprived of your main form of communication and all your contacts..... C..an't....s..ur..vive... mu..ch...long..ger...

Gramp's birthday celebration on Sunday, though his actual birthday isn't exactly known. All that's said on his passport is - Date of Birth: __ / __ / 1929... so everything's according to a rough gauge of the Chinese calendar. Cool...

kena con

2005-03-22T23:55:00.000+08:00

Shit. My phone was stolen.

Having fallen into the darkest trenches of stupidity, I once again reclaim my rights to the lofty title of "sotong", even to the extent of rising through the ranks to ascend the throne as the "Blur Queen".

Ha.

movie mania

2005-03-21T22:53:00.000+08:00

I actually did two pieces of homework! Hurrah! Hurrah! Man, this is such a great cause for celebration!

*****

Son of the Mask was quite alright. Cute babies and all, but I can't not compare with with the actual mask. The lead character just didn't have that craziness Jim Carrey had. Without that crazy smile and those zany facial expressions, it just couldn't give that much impact. But the funniest part just had to be when the kid inflated his head. Ha! Sweet, typical happy ending. Pretty average on the whole.

*****

LOTR was unquestionably great, even though it was severely interrupted by the silly commercials. Finally found out who Orlando Bloom was and yep, definitely ming bu xu chuan!!! Others must have watched it for the gazillionth time and this is my first, kinda lag huh. The only thing that puzzles me is: why didn't I watch it sooner??? Dear me, how could I have missed seeing such a great show before?

At least Two Towers would be screened on HBO, soon. =)

What a great holiday.

2005-03-19T20:02:00.000+08:00

Went to "Malaysia" on Sunday. It was rather last minute. And sorry for not going for the rice table thingie, a source said that very few people were going and it wasn't on.

Stayed in Bukit Panjang on Sat for a while and explored the Western world of Choa Chu Kang. Dragged Yilidan out and we bounced around her territory.

Was supposed to stay in "Johor".
Fickle Fickle.
Went to "KL".
Fickle Fickle.
Went to "Genting".
Fickle Fickle.
Went to "Malacca".
Fickle Fickle.
Back home.

Haha.

Back on Thursday night and caught Spongebob, The Movie at Great World. If you're not a bouncy preschooler, you'd probably fall asleep after the introduction. I didn't... *infer*infer* haha. They didn't have all the fancy animation techniques you'd find in Disney animations or a brilliant storyline, but the tickets were sold out?! Even the series were better than it (yes, i watch them too). Rather disappointing actually. Oh. Had Crystal Jade La Mian before the show with aunt and nieces, Alex and Georgia. Pippa was too small. Awwe. For a while, I thought I saw their mother, Way (who looked like Wong Lilin), but I was wrong. It was Wong Lilin. Haha. With Allan Wu and their daughter. So Cuuute!

Had wushu yesterday. One more month to competition and counting. O dang. Wushu barbecue rocked. We had it at Rachel's house (she lived alone, so cool!!!) as part of Zen's birthday celebration. Happy Birthday Lao Da! Woohoo! We had a hell of a time! 'Nuff said.

Ooo... tomorrow's LOTR on Channel 5.

Busy is as Busy Does

2005-03-09T19:50:00.000+08:00

The As are coming.
Wushu Competition is coming.
The inevitable hordes of tests (substitutes for MCT) bombard us regularly and ruthlessly.
Chem SPA (otherwise known as Standard-statements Puking Activity) next.
Et Cetera.

Ever since the arrival of our beautiful timetables, I have been vegetating in the hot afternoons with the knowledge that there is still the night.

The sudden surge of the above activities have, unfortunately, ended my days of sweet siesta. Judgement Day for lazybones?

Under the SCOC (Slacker's Code Of Conduct), it would be unbecoming of me to say this, but these activities (otherwise known as the insurgents of the Slackers' World) have somehow brought me to anticipate the next day, and not avoid it. Weird.

I need a psychiatrist. I am soooo off the SCOC. I am typihg incoherently. I have noticed that I have made a typographical error, but I refuse to correct it. Instead, I have used an entire sentence to point out and make up for the mistake, and once again, going against the SCOC. Something must be wrong. Very wrong.

*laughs maniacally*

*****

But if all goes well, I'd think this year would be very fruitful. =)

That's Life

2005-03-07T19:05:00.000+08:00

That's life, that's what all the people say.
You're riding high in April,
Shot down in May
But I know I'm gonna change that tune,
When I'm back on top, back on top in June.

I said that's life, and as funny as it may seem
Some people get their kicks,
Stompin' on a dream
But I don't let it, let it get me down,
'Cause this fine ol' world it keeps spinning around

I've been a puppet, a pauper, a pirate,
A poet, a pawn and a king.
I've been up and down and over and out
And I know one thing:
Each time I find myself, flat on my face,
I pick myself up and get back in the race.

That's life
I tell ya, I can't deny it,
I thought of quitting baby,
But my heart just ain't gonna buy it.
And if I didn't think it was worth one single try,
I'd jump right on a big bird and then I'd fly
I've been a puppet, a pauper, a pirate,
A poet, a pawn and a king.
I've been up and down and over and out
And I know one thing:
Each time I find myself laying flat on my face,
I just pick myself up and get back in the race

That's life
That's life and I can't deny it
Many times I thought of cutting out
But my heart won't buy it
But if there's nothing shakin' come this here July
I'm gonna roll myself up in a big ball and die

My, My.

80th Birthday

2005-03-02T19:22:00.000+08:00

Today marks the start of the eighth decade in Daddy's life. The hardworking polygamist Bengali had toiled for many years to raise eight children, with the unknown whereabouts of the first wife, the cheap but never around second wife and the sticky transvestite of a third wife. Alright, crap ends here.

We went to celebrate laopa's birthday early at seoul garden on Monday. Only one of his wives turned up though, and boy did they have a good time, followed by a myriad of unsightly zipai poses. (Rated M) Haha. But I have to admit that one of the pictures taken of the third wife was quite good.

Hey dad! Get Thonged!

relishing the pod.

2005-02-27T23:23:00.000+08:00

Such crisp and beautiful sound and drop-dead good looks.

Saving up for Sennheiser.

*****

As much as I'd hate to say it (I was one of those who took advantage of it), I think apple made a wrong move reducing the prices of their iPods.

With the dwindling prices of other players of similar capacities, it seemed a practical move for apple.

Apple has built a small but unusually strong fanbase of Mac addicts and the devotion to their company is amazing. I once met a mac addict who refused to accept pc products and insulted those who used them. One of the reasons for this is of course the quality of the products, but another one would go right down to the psychology of these people. The high, and somewhat extravagant, prices of apple products somehow implied that apple users were more highbrow, or high class. The drop in prices mean that apple is more widely available to the masses, something the "exclusive" club of apple users wouldn't be quite happy about, especially when earlier iPodders bought them at a more expensive price.

In the earlier part of the year, it announced the arrival of the new product: the iPod shuffle. Meant for expanding the number of podders, it's price was naturally lower, as affordability was quite a factor for consumers. It was priced at S$178 for 512MB, or 0.5GB and S$268 for 1GB. After the reduction in price for 4GB iPod minis, from S$458 to S$348 (an entire $110), you'd just have to fork out an extra S$80 for four times the storage size and a gorgeous lcd display. They have probably destroyed their 1GB iPod shuffles' saleability just with that move. (The iPod shuffle was quite impractical anyway, imagine scrolling through hundreds of songs without a display.) Talking about iPod shuffles, I can imagine seeing the shufflers sulking at the price change. S$80 to ditch a gum pack for the real beauty is the bargain of the world of mp3 players.

Lalala... I don't take econs. I'm crapping.

But I'm all for the price cut!!! I just love contradicting myself.

iBought iPod, iPok, but iLaud

2005-02-26T22:13:00.000+08:00

I'll let the title speak for itself.

Oh. And before I forget. Yay!

*****

Laopa's birthday's coming soon. 30th February. We got something nice for you!

academia nausea

2005-02-24T18:47:00.000+08:00

Got 1/22 for Chemistry, or 4.5%.

Boo.

Who cares?

Will be watching Cat in the Hat and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets on Channel 60 later. Haven't watched the former, but I'm just watching for the sake of watching it. 8.30pm!!! Here I come!

Pictures!

2005-02-20T18:22:00.000+08:00

I didn't intend to put any photos in my blogs, but I couldn't resist; they were too cute. Here are some photos of some of my nephews and nieces for my virgin picture post, taken off a camera-phone.

Here's Tarquin, 2, with his room of toys. Mummy's on the left and she looks mad. Uh-oh.

This is Alexandra, 9, currently schooling at mgs.

and this is Philipa, 15 mths, just up from her nap.

Niki, 2, and her funny face. She's dreadfully tall and a potential six-footer. So that's where all the tall genes have gone to...

Splurge

2005-02-19T23:11:00.000+08:00

For everyday of the past week, at least one of my meals was McDonald's. Super-size Me on a lower level. Super-shrink My Wallet on a colossal level. Spent S$30 in a week (reflects on stupid behaviour and pukes).

Was flipping through the channels and happened to catch "Flatly Stacked" on CNA, a show on women with small breasts. Right... I do hope they'd come out with a "Short and Stuck" soon, it'd would probably gain more i-am-in-the-same-plight (couldn't find the right word) feelings from the viewers (and of both genders) of the asian society. There are, of course, exceptions.

Dropped by Borders with Eggie today and she actually bought a book! Quite a good bargain I must say. We were walking into the store when this really tall guy walked past. 1.8m is tall enough. That guy was at least 2m! The poor girl beside him was dwarfed by a whole 50cm.

Before this, we were at Kinokuniya Orchard with Er, San, Si Jie and Liu and Qi ge. San Jie was looking for communism manifesto?! Haha, cheemology. Crowded around the astrology section and tried to look into our futures. There was one which was terribly accurate about my compulsive gambling attitude, it's exact words were:" 说到赌，眼睛就发亮。" It's irrefutable. And another reason why I do not want the darned casino here. I need the freaky paternalism. Haha. Hovered around other shelves and chanced upon an animated book which was about the life of a 150cm-tall girl with much discussion on the ever sensitive height issue. Haha. Met Lao Pa ( and a probable si ma) while making my way to Wheelock with Eggie.

Dragged the scrimper along to NYDC (now how did I do that?) and went ahead with some serious excavation of our wallets with a drink and a dessert. *makes mental note to starve for the whole of next week*

Silly road run. It started at 8.15a.m. and I woke up at 8.00a.m.. Made a $5 journey down to school just to run 3.6km. Arhhh!!! Why on earth did a slacker like me not think of just using oversleeping as an excuse not to run? Haha.

De-furred

2005-02-19T18:57:00.000+08:00

Literally. And very graphically.

http://my.so-net.net.tw/sirwang/fur.wmv

A highly disturbing video made by taiwanese animal activists, from Maris.

For the benefit of the faint-hearted, it's basically an explicit footage on the entire process of de-furring of a raccoon (in the first half) and a fox (in the second half). No facts, it was just playing predominantly on our emotions.

P.S. Please watch if you think you can take it.

In The House Of Style

2005-02-15T21:57:00.000+08:00

This is a really drool-inducing programme on channelnewsasia. Although it isn't educational enough for aspiring architects, it would probably ignite a small flame of passion for design.

The houses are drenched with appeal, with themes ranging from cool minimalist to resort-style balinese. But that isn't the main point. The owners are mostly in their early 30s and live in their pool-ed designer landed properties, mostly on at least 1000 sq feet and in Bukit Timah, making them worth at least S$2m each. They're 30-year-old millionaires, and judging by the number of houses they showcase every week, there must be hundreds of these people around. Bloody rich kids.

S$2m. Doesn't look like a lot, does it? If you make S$2000/month, you'd only take 1000 months to achieve that. Ooops, that'd be 83 years.

Fine, I admit. It is a lot.

The Lyes go a-visiting

2005-02-15T21:45:00.000+08:00

What a packed weekend.

11/02, Saturday

Present: Laopa, Hoi Ching, Wanyi, Yilin, Zheng Gang, Chenyu and Allan.

Punggol: Visited laopa's house. Quite cool, especially the LCD TVs in the rooms =)... (drools). His sister's quite pretty.

Bedok: Wanyi's house next. Her mother was still as bubbly and high-spirited and most youthful. Haha. She gave me a... actually I don't know what to call it. Thanks!

Marine Parade: My house. Stopped over to change shoes. Owch.

Kampong Arang: Zheng Gang's house. Found out the secret of his diet... Gua Zi!!! His sister was the spit 'n image of him, in a wig of course.

Geylang (Bahru): Hoi Ching's house. Her mother's soooo cute!!! Ate steamboat then mahjonged for a couple of hours while watching Power Rangers The Movie. Us gambling freaks wanted to stay over, but then decided against it for some reason or another.

12/02, Sunday

Present: Laopa, Wanyi, Yilin, Zheng Gang and Chenyu

Bukit Gombak?!?!?!: Eggie's house. Why in the world would we travel so far?!?! Muahaha. The group burst out laughing when we heard the audio system (if that's what you call it) go "Bukit...." It was sort of an audio landmark that signified the vast distance covered - laughter was our expression for relief and amazement at our achievement. =D

Was scheduled to go to Hougang, but I had a family gathering in which I wasn't notified of until the last minute.

13/02, Monday

Present: Laopa, Hoi Ching, Wanyi, Yilin, Zheng Gang and Chenyu

Hougang: Made it here after school. Chenyu's house is BIG. Tidy too. Mahjong again!!! Gambling freaks never change. Playstation gamers at the TV and mahjongers at the table. UNO attack was quite interesting. Fifth bro also attacked the Gua Zi stock. (pushes blame to 3kg gua zi king). Chenyu's sister's sooo cute!!! lalala...

Covered lots of Singapore within three days man...

CNY supplementary entry

2005-02-10T23:46:00.000+08:00

O sheesh. My entry titles are getting lame.

It's the end of the second day of the Lunar New Year. Honestly, rooster reminds me of "the simple life". Too much reality TV I guess. I like golden pheasant better. "Pheasant" sounds like "pleasant" and "phoenix". What could be better than a pleasant phoenix?

Went to Jurong West (so far!!!) before going to my aunt's house yesterday for a gathering. It makes it so much more convenient than having to go individually to each other's houses to visit. Had dinner and great KONG BAK PAU. Muahahaha... You are what you eat, and I think i'm already beginning to look more like the fatty meat in that pot. Ate and ate and ate and ate. They were the usual stuff, but still addictive. Lingered around for an hour or two, singing abba and other great songs.

Today was a not a good day for visiting. The temperature rose to a record 40°C on the car thermometer. Dizzy and sticky and blinded, we zipped around the katong area, desperate for the visits to be over. Good thing we had air-con blasting car rides in between, or the next thing we'd be visiting would be the hospital.

After two days of vegging, I feel so retarded, moving in slo-mo and behaving like a sloth. Grrr. Brain's in cold storage man. Finally learnt how to play bridge though . Yay. Great achievement for the retardo.

Veg. Veg. Veg. Veg. Veg. Veg. Bah.

*****

Eeeeeeeks!!!!!! BORDERS is having a 4 for 3 paperback sale!!!!! AHHHHH!!!!

Gong Xi Gong Xi

2005-02-09T13:04:00.000+08:00

In a festive house of awry colours, the tables scattered with nougats and peranakan goodies, peeling mandarins gave me an odd satisfaction for the nothingness in the passing of time waiting for visiting friends and relatives. =)

Yay... Lao Yu Sheng next!!! Muahahaha... I live for the crackers and honey.

Happy Chinese New Year to All!!!