Sunday, November 20, 2005

Tada

Good bye all!

Friday, November 18, 2005

Most amazing

I was watching the news a few days ago and came across an incredible proposal that called for the ban of taking photographs of children in public places. The rationale was this:

"The Attorney-General, Philip Ruddock, is considering laws governing unauthorised photography and publication, particularly of children, after the discovery of voyeuristic websites with pictures of children at sports events and on beaches - including one gay site with shots of a group of Melbourne schoolboy rowers. His nationwide consultation on the issue has just ended." (see Sydney Morning Herald for full article).

I remember the first time I came to Australia a decade ago, the most important thing we took back with us was not the clinging koalas things that cost $2 for a pack of 6 or the toothache-inducing hard nougats or the t-shirts that has the fabulous bikini-clad woman body drawn onto it (and I admit that it did looked weird on a 12 year-old) but it was the tape of my young brother running freely along the beach. He was approaching the waves with some trepidation as they were retreating. When the waves came towards him, he ran from it in fear and yet at the same time, in enjoyment as if taunting the waves that they would never get him if he ran fast enough.

Fast forward to if this proposal is passed and a nationwide ban on public photography of children is issued. What kind of memories can we get from our time on the fabulous beaches of Australia? Some people save up for a long long time just to get to travel to Bondi Beach or the Surfer's Paradise only to be told that photography is not allowed for fear of voyeurism or the pictures landing in the grubby paws of paedophiles? What about the fight against terrorism? Didn't the media and prominent politicians always say that we should not bow to terror and should carry on with our lives as they were? Why should we change our behavior now because there is the slight possibility of voyeurism? Are we then shrinking away from fighting against paedophiles?

If the paedophiles are looking for something to excite them, they can find it in the simplest form; it doesn't even have to be photography. Advertisements with kids in them might suffice. Are we going to ban those too? Somehow I don't think the people from Baby Guess are going to be very pleased.

Thursday, November 17, 2005

Days of nothingness that resulted in something

As some of your probably know, I only have one paper (yes, I'm rubbing it in) and am now enjoying days of nothingness. Doing nothing is great. Having time for yourself is the most awesome thing. You sleep when you want to, you watch whatever you have been dying to watch (because there is the intranet to download stuff from) and you catch up on surfing friendster (friendster is way underrated).

So while I was busy doing nothing, I stumbled upon a few good shows. For some reason, I tend to gravitate towards medical shows so not surprisingly, these are the programs I have been catching:


Scrubs



House M.D



Grey's Anatomy


I think I like medical shows because come on, let's face it, at some point in our lives, we must have wanted to be a doctor. It may be (mostly) for the great pay or the power to save lives. Whatever the reason, I think being a doctor would kick ass. Out of these three shows, my favourite is House M.D because the sarcasm of the lead character, Gregory House (played by Hugh Laurie) is first class. If you like sarcasm, this is the show to catch.

The close second would be Scrubs, of which I am on the 4th season. It can't be too bad if it stars Zach Braff who got to smooch Natalie Portman in Garden State. Upon seeing Mr. Braff you might find it hard to believe that he is actually a director and writer. He is really excellent playing the role in Scrubs because he had no qualms about falling down all the time. I think one of my favourite character in the show must be the janitor played by Neil Flynn who loves tormenting the young doctor played by Zach:


The janitor has no name in the show


Scrubs is a little like Ally McBeal as the characters imagine things in their minds. House is interesting because it is about solving puzzles except that the outcome is the difference between life and death.

As for Grey's Anatomy, I don't really like it, I'm just sticking around to laugh my ass off at some of the incredible things that happen like how the group of interns are all attached to one another and to their attendents in this x-sided love er... shaped thing. If you look back at the picture, the two on the exreme right are in an on-off relationship ONLY that the guy is actually married (let's call this couple A). The black guy standing up and the Asian girl sitting down are together which is kind of against the rule because one is the superior of the other (couple B). The guy beside the black guy likes the girl from couple A but is too chicken to tell her. Then the blonde girl beside him and the guy next to her are together as well, but only just because the girl cannot stand the guy (couple C). The remaining two people in the picture? Well, they are not together saved for the black guy having something with the girl from couple A. So, count the sides now people.

Let's get back to the more interesting shows. Why this post says doing nothing resulted in something leh? Because these shows are not merely TV programs! Oh no! There are so many memorable quotes from them that I found it hard to keep up. Here are a selected few:

Scrubs
JD: That's a load of crap because nobody is themselves when they start dating. Dating is just acting like you are somebody you're not until the person likes you enough so you can show them who you really are.
Elliot: No it's not.
JD: What do you call that bra you wore for your date last week?
Elliot: Oh, the miracle lift super push-up bra.

House M.D
Dr. Gregory House: You think it's going to come out on its own? Are we talking bigger than a breadbasket? 'Cause actually, it will come out on its own, which for small stuff is no problem: it's wrapped up in a nice soft package and plop. Big stuff? You're gonna rip something, which, speaking medically, is when the fun stops.
Young Man: How did you...?
Dr. Gregory House: You've been here for half an hour and you haven't sat down; that tells me its location. You haven't told me what it is; that tells me it's humiliating. You have a little birdie carved under your arm; that tells me you have a high tolerance for humiliation, so I figure it's not hemarrhoids. I've been a doctor twenty years, you're not going to surprise me.
Young Man: It's an MP3 player.
Dr. Gregory House: Is it... is it because of the size, the shape, or is it the pounding bass line?

***

Rachel Adler: I just want to die with a little dignity.
Dr. Gregory House: There's no such thing! Our bodies break down, sometimes when we're 90, sometimes before we're even born, but it always happens and there's never any dignity in it! I don't care if you can walk, see, wipe your own ass... it's always ugly, always! You can live with dignity; you can't die with it!

That first bit about the dating thing is a bit sad ah. But I think it's quite true. A lot of times, we set out to impress somebody initially, watching what we talk about, how we eat/sit/drink/fart/dig nose and later when you are more comfortable with one another, they only see you in your well-worn home clothes and smell your 3-day-never-shower fragrance.

And for the dying with dignity part, I wonder if I would even care when I die. It's just a corpse after all. This leads me to something I was asking my housemates the other day. On the telly, they were talking about doing face transplant for disfigured people. I was wondering apart from asking the recipients whether they would like to have somebody else's face, who would want to donate a face? 死无全尸 leh. Hmm... Then my housemates said they would be ok with donating organs but not the face. I also don't know whether I would donate my face. I figure because the face is so much of our identity; it is how people know us and it also conveys to others what we are feeling; it is such a big part of us that I think it would be hard to part with it even in death. By the way, the recipient would not look purely like the donor; instead the final outcome will be the intermediate of the two.

I wonder if males can get female faces and vice versa. Hmm... Think about it eh!

Experienced

Some days, we felt like we are dying. But when those days are over, you think to yourself: Hey! That was a good experience.

Sunday, November 13, 2005

You and I

You and I, we were never apart. Everyday when I woke up and thought about you, my heart leapt a little and danced a joyous dance. I was thankful that I had you in my life and never thought you would some day leave me. Even though it had not been a smooth ride, I had fallen hard for you in the short time we were together.

Do you remember that day? When I dressed up to go out and there you were, wearing that color to compliment me. No other men would have done that for me. All my friends were envious of us. They told me how lucky I was to get you because upon seeing you, they knew you were the one for me. I never doubted it. My friends know me well.

Before I left for school, I would always think about you. Some days, we would go to school together and on those days, you made my toes curled up in happiness. Before I went to bed, you would always be on my mind and I would smile a little.

You know, mum was against you initially. She did not see you in the same light as I did. But I was glad I had chosen you for besides you, no other would do. I had not told mum about us but she found out later anyway and gave me a shake of her head. I did not like seeing mum unhappy but just a glance at you told me I made the right choice.

My friends did not feel you were good-looking enough. So who cares! In my heart of hearts, I know you and I were meant to be. Why, why then, did you have to break my heart? I gave my all to you; I even painted my toenails when I went out with you. Why did you have to give me such happiness and now bear to leave me alone? I know you had to go sooner or later but I just cannot stand the sadness in my broken heart now.

I hate you. For now, my heart is dead and I can never love again.

Saturday, November 12, 2005

Randomly now

Sometimes I think it might actually be easier to show your friendship than your love. It may not be a big deal to show your friends that you care for them in an off-handish kind of way way but some may see you as less "cool" if you go all lovey-dovey on your other half.

Just a random thought.

***

I think guys get PMS too and sometimes they are scarier than girls. With girls you can (supposedly) predict and it usually lasts for a few days. So, after your initial scare with your female friend, you know to avoid her for the next few days or so. But with some guys I know, they can actually go from hot to cold in seconds. I think that is way more irritating.

Furthermore, I hate people who put girl's bad mood down to "that time of the month". Well, fuck you because not all girls get moody in the pre-menstrual period and is that you trying to say because it's the hormones that's making her like that so we can all proceed to ignore her outburst because it really doesn't mean anything? Sorry buddy, think again.

***

Some talk with my girlfriends later, I gathered that the world is not easy on males today. Firstly, there's the whole sexual equality bullshit and then there's the being a gentleman nicety thing. This is an old argument so let's not get into that. So I asked my friends this:

"Would you want your other half to be a male chauvinist?"

A restounding "No!!!".

"Do you think he should be jealous?"

Perfect harmony of "Yes!!!".

Girls, what do we want? -sigh-

Thursday, November 10, 2005

My second half day

Now I realize all my brothers are reading my blog on and off, even my elder brother! Yikes! Scary!! Haha… Anyway he asked me sometime ago when I would continue my crappy 2nd half day, so here goes…

As mentioned previously, I was waiting for the beloved 411. As I sat there, I saw how interesting it was that almost all the posters in UQ had an Asian in them.


Ahhh... Represented!


Something struck me. When you are a minority, you start to see yourself differently. What is your identity? I see myself as a Singaporean but what sets someone from Singapore apart from others who, externally, look the same?? I found out later that we do have a Singaporean accent. It is not the “lah” and “meh” for I try not to use these in class not because I am not proud to be from Singapore, but because I think most people would not understand what it means. For this very reason, I am highly amused by local productions. Do we hear people speaking in pure English with a slang that is not American, not British in reality; speaking in a way that is not punctuated with “mah” and “hor”? I think the thing that is not common in mainstream media actually might actually be the very thing that binds us together. Anyway, I digress.

So I kept looking out for the bus and was ready to hop on the moment it pulls up at the stop. It was going to be my first bus ride! Complete with my nerdy outfit and torch in the bag. When I board the bus, I did as E instructed:

Me: Hi, how much is it to Hawken Drive please?
Driver: I don’t know.
Me (??? You don’t??? know who?? will??? know?????): Ermmm… Hawken Drive? (pushes specs up my oily bridge)
Driver: Well, it depends.
Me (????? HAR??? HUH??? WHAT??? HMMMM??): It depends?
Driver (getting frustrated): It depends on whether it’s adult or concession!!!
Me (???HAR??HUH???HAR???): Concession?
Driver (louder voice): DO YOU HAVE A CONCESSION CARD??
Me (stammers): erm… I don’t have one… but I am a student here…
Driver (even louder voice): WELL, THAT’S ADULT THEN!!! $2.10!!!
Me (picks up fallen jaw from floor and dug for money): Oh.. thank you... (held out money in my palm)
Driver: DON’T GIVE IT TO ME! (Ed: Yes, at this, I had an even bigger question mark above my head) (taps on a small table-like thing beside him) PUT IT THERE!

WHAT A MOTHERFUCKING SONOFABITCH!!! In case you were wondering, while this excruciating 2 minute conversation was going on, there was a queue behind me, waiting to get onto the bus. If being rude was not enough, he had to shame me in front of the whole bus. Don’t he know we are the customers while he is the driver? I mean where is the respect?! Yes, yes… I know some of you are sniggering now, thinking why I didn’t lash back at him. Look at it this way, if I did, he might throw me off the bus and the last meal I had was like 9 hours ago and it was just a bun! If I didn’t go to the grocer asap, I just might expire there on the ground or have a really bad start with my housemates for stealing their food.

I told myself then that I would never go get grocery again. I was even too tired to be properly angry. I concentrated on remembering E’s instructions. She said I will see this place on my right with the big letters “COLES” written. What the hell is a COLES? I had no frikking idea. If that’s a restaurant, I don’t care if the meal cost me $50, I am going to eat. I want food. I need food!

I settled in for the bus ride and casually glanced around, absorbing the scenery. Like what housemate G said, the sky here is really blue. Suddenly, a flash of red caught my eyes. THE MORONIC COLES! Damn! I so do not need to antagonize the driver now. The bus had stopped but the back door wasn’t opened because no one had pressed the bell. He was only letting people up the bus. I decided to try my luck and press the bell gingerly. –driiiiing-

Ah! Music to my ears! The doors opened and I leapt out as fast as I could. I swore the driver deliberately closed the doors a second earlier, hoping to nick my ankles. Anyway, I didn’t give a damn, the beloved COLES was right across the road!


Village sia! This building is as big as the "village" goes. But kind of reminds me of Holland Village, the part where Cold Storage is.


So I skipped hurriedly into its welcoming doors. Supermarket! Yay!!! I grabbed a trolley (later I realize because they have an aversion to trolleys here; they love to work their arms) and like the nerd I was dressed as, I went berserk. I rushed from aisle to aisle, grabbing whatever caught my fancy. After all, I was NEVER, EVER going to do groceries again. EVER. Here’s a list of what I got:

 Serviettes
 Toilet rolls (We all need to shit don’t we?)
 Tea towels (Mama said must clean the cupboards)
 Container (Don’t know for what)
 Cheese
 Frankfurters
 Pork loin steak
 Eggs
 Cabbage
 Margarine
 Sugar
 Instant noodles (LOTS AND LOTS AND LOTS AND LOTS AND LOTS)
 Bread
 Rice
 Detergent
 Moisturizer (The air here is horrible. I actually had a minor nosebleed… Even eating chocolates did not do that to me…)
 Shower foam
 Muesli bars (When I get gastric pains, I need my filling food immediately!)
 Milo
 Coffee (They don’t have instant coffee here! *sobs*)
 Canned tuna
 Pepper
 Oyster sauce
 Soy sauce (Don’t try to be a smart alec and save money by using the homebrands. You will kill yourself from the taste.)
 Mineral water

That rang up to a grand total of $79.35. Ka-ching! :( And here’s some of the goods:


Gloves from my friends! I'm not that anal!


My arms nearly broke the first time I tried to carry all the stuff. OH NO! I forgot that I had to travel back! Where is the bus stop?! I asked the very cute cashier where the bus-stop to UQ was. He gave me a weird look. I thought I had really bad accent so I asked again. He told me it was just outside, while continuing to give me the puzzled look. How am I ever going to hook guys if all they are going to give me are looks that say they think I am crazy? Haiz… On the other hand, after I’ve been here awhile, I get weird pick up lines. The most recent one was two guys following me while I was shopping alone in the city yesterday. They were standing behind me on the escalator talking very loudly, but I was just excited about my first city trip in don’t know how long so I didn’t really pay them any attention. I walked into this shop and they trailed behind me. Suddenly, right into my right ear, this voice murmured:

“Excuse me miss, how short is your skirt?”

Wah lao! My skirt not even short lor! I knew I was going out alone and hence wore a longer skirt. Don’t come and harass me lor! I know yoga ok! (Right… That just makes me flexible, not dangerous… Hmmm...) Somemore, I think I looked sick with my red nose and all:


My red shiny nose and orh bak kak


I pretended not to hear and walked around the shop. But they insisted on pestering me, asking me the length of my skirt, in inches, in centimeters, in meters. Still, I did not reply. I just kept on walking as though they were not talking to me. But it was quite fun. Just when I was thinking of replying them in mandarin, they gave up. zzzz…. No kick. Anyway, back to 2nd half day.

I waited and waited at the bus-stop for the bus to take me home. I just want to devour all my food. But sad to say, the frequency of their bus service here is atrocious. Especially on weekends. Besides, I was so nervous about meeting the bus-driver. What if all of them are the same pain in the ass fucked up service PROVIDERS? Luckily for me, this guy was alright, though the exorbitant bus fare still made my jaw dropped again (Actually, if you take any bus within two hours from the first ride you took, you just have to show the driver your previous ticket and you can transfer buses for free. But you cannot take back the original bus. Sounds complicated? You bet! I think they can have a whole degree course on taking buses here.)

I struggled and struggled with the groceries, all the while wishing for the guy who had helped me with my luggage to appear before me again. But no luck. Then I saw the slope I had to take. Oh yes, welcome to the tone-your-arse hill.

Finally I got home. Wait a minute! This isn’t my home! I just arrived! My home is back in Singapore. Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!

Monday, November 07, 2005

Friday, November 04, 2005

I need help!

Come! Faster wish me luck for my first and only paper tomorrow! I need it! zzzzz

Management Studies

I don't know why it's around. Everything is contingent; something might happen; not applicable in all cases...

Many different names to mean the same thing
E.g. Vision = aspiration = strategic direction = strategic intent = strategic path = what we stand for = to be said in less than 5 minutes and generate understand and/or enthusiasm

I only know my vision = poor.

Pui!

Poem for you my friend

My dear friends who are facing impending exams, here's a nice poem for you while you take a break and read my blog:

The sun is rising, the birds are chirping,
My time is running and so is yours
The mind is bleeding, the eyes are tearing,
My boat is sinking and so is yours
The back is aching, the pens are drying,
My clock is ticking and so is yours.

STILL READING?! STOP!

Wednesday, November 02, 2005

Why do we blog?

The blog comes along and hey! Suddenly, everyone has a voice! We want our opinions about this, this and this to be heard. There’s almost no censorship and it’s ours; we can write what we want. Well, firstly, MDA will disagree with you. There is no practice of free speech in Singapore; in fact, what we have leans more towards responsible speech. Why should someone be allowed to say what he wants and not have to account for it? We also have pretty strong defamation and slander laws so that’s food for thoughts.

As for blogs being an avenue for your views to be seen, it’s not that straight forward is it? If everyone talks, who is going to listen? You have to be pretty famous before you gain the whole critical mass and the snowballing starts. In the meantime, you are really blogging for yourself. Some may argue that those who remained obscure have blogs that sucks. Well, you be the judge of that.

There is another view that we blog because we can remain anonymous but this anonymity is only perceived. Many people have gotten fired for blogging because they unknowingly posted work-related topics which some employers are extremely sensitive about. On the other hand, some companies have also started to use blogs as a marketing channel. The more honest of these might provide popular bloggers with endorsement deals or give freebies to these bloggers and hope they blog about it and influence others to get that products. The more deceitful might start a blog and pretend to have no affiliation with the company yet sing their praises sky-high.

Another reason to blog is because we are egotistical and exhibitionistic in nature. Some like to post lots of photos of themselves while others like to talk about their lives and themselves. This would suit the voyeurs just fine because they can openly peep into the lives of others from the comfort of their own homes. I heard that some of these people even ask their friends to refer to their blogs to know what’s going on in their lives instead of having a face-to-face chat.

There’s also the bloggers who start a blog out of pure boredom or just for fun. Somehow I suspect that these will be the ones who are less popular. I mean, to churn out a really good blog does really some thinking after all. But judging from what started them out, they are likely not to give a shit about their popularity or lack of.

Lastly, there’s the group who will blog to jump on the bandwagon. The herd instinct is strong and in order not to be left out from the “latest craze” and from conversations, you blog.

Soulmate... or not?

Can you start a relationship with someone who’s very much like you? It sounds great, doesn’t it? Perk your butt a little and the other party knows what kind of fart you are going to emit. You will have the same interests and same ideas about everything. He just has to look at something and look at you and bingo! You get him. Completely. She looks at something and looks at you and there! She gets a diamond ring. Expensively. Perfection?

On the contrary, I think that life with someone who is JUST like me will be so boring. Do we even need to talk? I can imagine our conversations will go like this:

Me: I think we will never be contended with what we have.
Him: Yes, yes, yes! I think that ALL the time!
Me: But in a way it’s good too, isn’t it? Then you will strive for more.
Him: Yes, yes, yes! I think that ALL the time!
Me: Hmm… I feel like having cheese cake now.
Him: Yes, yes, yes! I think that ALL the time!

Someone once told me that he could not be with his soul mate because it would be incestuous. If you know so much about that person, would that be too much?

On the other hand, if you date someone who’s the complete opposite of you, it’s going to be hell on earth. Imagine disagreeing on everything. So, so tiring…