Take the What Should Your New Year's Resolution Be? Quiz

Happy New Year in advance to y'all. Hope everyone will have a fantastic year coming up. :)

Sometimes I wish I could read while walking. I don't mean audio books. I don't like the idea of those cos to me, having a voice narrating the book will add dimensions to it which is unintended by the author. Will it be a male or female narrator? What kind of accent will he/ she have? Will I be concentrating on the way he/ she talks rather than focusing on the story? Besides, I love to see the written word.

I wish that there could be an invention to display book texts like some sort of subtitles along the bottom edge of my peripheral vision, like in a movie. Then I could multi-task and read while walking or attending a gathering. How wonderful!

On authors named Naomi. I think I only know 3. Naomi Klein (who wrote No Logo), Naomi Wolf (who wrote The Beauty Myth)and eh, Naomi Campbell (supermodel who moonlighted as a featherweight co-author of pulp fiction called Swan). Though I own books by the first 2 authors, I've not come around to reading them yet. I did manage to borrow and read Swan out of curiosity, and it's a flat story on what else but supermodels. Yew.

If Heaven and Earth have conspired to land me in the middle of a booksale, who am I to deny Fate? :) Ok ok, I succumbed and bought 15 books today while Yoyo bought 9 and leslie_ 3. When we got to the booksale, leslie_ passed me an empty carton box and told me I would need it to lug around the books I've picked. I declined cos I didn't think I would be buying so many books. 20 minutes later I ate my words. lol. Lots of books were gone by the time we got there... there were no more Harry Potter's or Dilbert books. However, there was still a sizeable collection available.

So leslie_, to answer your question on number of books I've purchased this year... it's 58 (excluding magazines and comics). The number of books I've read though is a miserable 15, and these 15 are not all from the books I bought this year, and some aren't even my own to begin with. I fared better reading music magazines and the weekly 8 Days magazines though that 3 year subscription to Business Week is definitely a gone case.

Next year I have to blog less and read more!

I just did a tally for the year 2001. This year I outdid myself by watching 81 movies and buying 123 CDs (not inclusive of give-aways from music magazines). I believe the movie count will get higher next year cos I just joined the Film Society. Amazing what information you can reap from a Palm Pilot. lol.

Today was a magical day where everything fell into place. First I met up with ttj and yoyo to watch the french movie Amelie from Montmatre, which was absolutely divine and funny. Then we trooped off for dinner with Dave, B12, my best friend and his SO. It's been a long while since all of us met up so I felt a buzz thriving on meeting the gang again. B12 was telling us about the mph warehouse sale at Tagore Drive and I'm going there with leslie_ and yoyo to check it out tomorrow. Happy. Surely as Costeau sang, the last good day of the year will be the last day of the year. :)

I didn't realise Quest aims with only his left eye open while playing pool. Hegemony and I aim with both eyes open. Then I was asked which eye of mine is the master eye. I assumed that it was my right eye, but Hegemony got me to test it out. The trick is to form a triangle with the thumbs and index fingers of both hands, and keep your arms outstretched before you. With both eyes open, focus on something which appears within the triangle. Then take turns to close either eye. The object of focus will disappear if you're looking with the non-master eye. Eh. And so my master eye turned out to be my left one instead. They were surprised I didn't know this test, but I guess it's something they picked up from National Service.

Yesterday I had probably my last jog of the year with my best friend. This is the first time I brought along my mobile phone to substitute my watch. As luck would have it, my mobile phone rang while I was running. I answered it while I continued to run, but the other party didn't seem to hear me properly and hung up. So the next time it rang, I stopped running to talk on the phone. The caller asked me to confirm my mobile phone, and when I asked why? She replied that my mobile phone number belongs to her brother. Huh? This number has been mine for a long while. Odd. By the time I ended the call, I had lost the momentum to run.

I guess I learnt not to bring the mobile phone along again if I'm serious about running.

Funniest search link to my blog that I've seen in a while is the phrase "how to swallow an antibiotic". So, did you find what you're looking for? :)

Let's meet 10 years later.

Alive to every smile.
- latest album by Trembling Blue Stars.

What a wonderful album title, don't you think?

I've just clubbed at Chinablack. I've also been there when it was previously Venom, and even before that, when it was Studebaker. Whichever name they call it, I've never really liked the music there. The plus point is the club has huge glass windows overlooking the downtown area. Jedixus and his friends didn't make it here though. Where did you end up at? :)

On children's TV shows. B12 is fascinated by them to the extent of considering being a children's TV show producer as his dream job. Vibrant colours, goofy characters, simple stories with morales.. what more does one need for entertainment? To him, everything is so clear-cut if you make decisions with a child's logic.

Sometimes I see traits in friends which I wish to inherit. If it boils down to one, I'll take B12's rule of not wasting time. He doesn't believe in being wishy-washy or being bogged down by wishy-washy people. When people are conferring over making a decision, he'll gauge 3 lines into the conversation if it's going anywhere, and if it doesn't, he ends it. And everything moves swiftly on again.

What will induce someone to name a song Pineapple Spongecake? Despite liking this track from Swayzak, this question lists as one of the top musical mysteries to me. lol.

Shouldn't I do something about
The road I'm on
Try to turn around
I don't know that I want to
But maybe I ought to
Shouldn't I be scared by how
Fear only makes itself
Known to me
At certain moments of clarity
That stop me feeling detached - where I'm almost carefree
Stop the noise in my head
Shock the numbness out of me - out of me
I'm half in love with leaving
With stealing away
I think about it every day
- Trembling Blue Stars' song Half in Love with Leaving

Though he's my friend, B12 doesn't read my blog despite knowing I've blogged about him. This self-restraint and lack of curiosity is something I don't think I can ever possess.

The best way to describe B12 is actually via his namesakes, the twin bananas B1 and B2 in the children's TV show Bananas in Pyjamas. There's this recurring exchange between the bananas where B1 will go, "Do you know what I'm thinking B2?". And B2 will reply "I think I know what you're thinking B1". And both bananas will go do whatever they damn wish, leaving the audience in suspense. That sums B12 up quite well too.

Do you ask a car crash for another take? Do you ask a volcano for another take?
- actor Klaus Kinski, fuming against performing more than one take for director Werner Herzog

There is really only one chance to do whatever you have to.

Would change anything for you but myself.
- caption from a T-shirt Michael Stipe wore

B12 is a huge Daft Punk fan and over dinner last night, we talked about Daft Punk's DVD called D.A.F.T. - A Story About Dogs, Androids, Firemen and Tomatoes (1999). B12 explained about his favourite Daft Punk music video Burning. It's about a disco party on top of a highrise building, how a fire broke out, fire engines got onto the scene and the dancers got evacuated. To him, the video had it all: music, firemen, drama... like a music video for the movie Towering Inferno.

Last night I posted a long entry which got lost when Blogger got hacked. So I guess some things are meant to be left unwritten. Today isn't bad despite the constant rain. Yesterday I read 2.5 music magazines and a 400-page book. Who knows about today? :)

A new friend surprised me. We were talking about the movie Pi (which I would be able to watch next February finally!) and he scribbled the math proof for Pi on a piece of paper, scanned it and emailed it to me. He needed it handwritten so he could use the math symbols. I think he did it off the top of his head rather than consult any math textbook. To quote him briefly, By experiments, we can cut a circle through the centre into N pieces of bilateral triangles. If N becomes larger, the circumference of the circle can be approximated by the summation of all opposite sides of the triangles.

Thank you, I think it's the first time I had a math proof as a Christmas gift. lol.

Just now, I didn't manage to login successfully to my Blogger account which I have logged in at least once everyday. I was told that I've forgotten my password so I had to request for the password to be emailed to me. Odd. And the password I received was so ludicrous I guessed Blogger reset my password. Oh well, at least I'm on leave from now till New Year's Day. :)

Met with my UK travel mate for drinks. She's just returned from a diving trip, and on this trip there was a Spanish dive master. This guy has a Chinese character permanently tattooed on his arm which has the meaning of "nobel character". He said he liked the look of it. Incidentally, this Chinese character is also my name. How bizarre.

I think you're the only person I ever knew from Christmas. Do you listen to Swayzak anymore? To be frank, I never touched that Enya album again.

I just wanna say Hello, it's Christmas again. I still remember Pi.
3.141592653589793238462
This one's for you, wherever you are.

There is only one who felt like a fren to me and you know who he is.
I'm blogging what you wrote, lest I should forget.

I bought Bryan Ferry and Roxy Music's Best of compilation. More musicians from the past. ttj thinks they shuffle their songs to make new album compilations every 2 years or so, but this is the first and only album of theirs that I've got.

It rained. My track shoes got wet. I gave gym a miss. I could have guessed this would happen.

First of all Rat, you never let on how much you like a girl. "Oh, Debbie. Hi." Two, you always call the shots. "Kiss me. You won't regret it." Now three, act like wherever you are, that's the place to be. "Isn't this great?" Four, when ordering food, you find out what she wants, then order for the both of you. It's a classy move. "Now, the lady will have the linguini and white clam sauce, and a Coke with no ice." And five, now this is the most important, Rat. When it comes down to making out, whenever possible, put on side one of Led Zeppelin IV.
- Mike Damone's "Five-Point Plan" in the movie Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982)

I wonder if folks know who Led Zeppelin are now, and if they understand the concept of side one (since there are no side one's with CDs). I used to own Led Zeppelin IV, but I lent it out and somehow my friend lost it. Sigh. There are wonderful tracks here, like the classic Stairway to Heaven, When the Levee Breaks and The Battle of Evermore.

I remember there was an American radio station devoted to playing only Led Zeppelin hits, and once they played Stairway to Heaven on auto-repeat throughout New Year's Day as a tribute show. A listener phoned the police to report that the radio station was hijacked, since they kept looping through that one song. The police raided the radio station and all mayhem ensued. Strange, but cute.

Half day in the office today before going to the gym. It's been weeks since I last exercised so I hope I won't procrastinate this time. I brought Daft Punk's Discovery album along to distract myself in gym.

Have a good Christmas tomorrow. :)

Though I've given up on New Year resolutions, I still do a summarization of the major events at the end of every year. Believe it or not, the most important thing I did in 2000 was learn to drink more water.

This year blogging wins without a doubt, though the thrill of having long hair again after 4 years comes a close second. :)

On complacency. B12 likens it to a butterfly gathering nectar consistently from flowers. Too safe. Sometimes it's time to forsake flowers for the poison ivy.

On Miyazaki's Japanese anime. My Japanese colleague commented that the main characters always fly in his movies. On the other hand, I observed that though the main characters are mostly young girls (around 10 years old), they always have love interests.

[WARNING!!! LOTR Discussion! Spoiler alert! Don't read this if you haven't watched the movie and want to do so untainted by any knowledge of its plot!]

I've been asking people who their favourite LOTR characters are. My favourite response comes from ttj, who surprisingly likes the 2 characters who died (Gandalf and Boromir... though ttj actually remembered the names of the actors who played these roles), as well as Bilbo Baggins the Hobbit. If I didn't misunderstand him, it was cos they chose to do the impossible mission thrust on them by fate, and in the end, managed to redeem themselves. For that, he chose the ones least favoured.

Bought more music. The give-away CD from January 2002's issue of Mixmag and this double CD compilation of french chill-out jazz. It includes one CD for Paris by Day 12.00PM (more uptempo) and another for Paris by Night 12.00AM (more loungey). It helps that Stephane Pompougnac is one of the artistes in the compilation.

One of the worst possible dating scenarios to me. The guy serenades me with a mushy top 40 hits love song like My heart will go on or whatever one of those boy bands/ girl groups sing. I will absolutely freak out.

I'm losing it. When friends ask me how I am nowadays, I actually ask them to read my blog when I should pay more attention to them instead.

My brother bought me a daily Dilbert calendar for next year. I told B12 and he mentioned that he had one before too. He would scribble on the calendar as if it's a memo pad, read the daily comic and laugh before tearing the page off.

I can't bring myself to tear off the calendar pages. I want to flip through the calendar and read it like a comic book.

Had a long day visiting new places with an old friend. Met B12 for breakfast at 9.30am before checking out the watch fair at Alexander Technopark. I know the place cos just last week I had sent a watch in for repair. That watch's face was supposed to be scratch-proof but somehow the whole watch face came off instead. Sigh. The watch ended up being retained by the customer service center till the new part comes in a month's time. Anyway, the watch fair was quite dismal. Not many watches left cos a lot have been sold yesterday. We didn't get any and wandered across the road to walk round Saint Andrew's Junior College instead. I've never visited that school before so I wanted to go take a look. Then we leisurely proceeded to Queensway for coke floats before going elsewhere to check out a toy fair on a whim. We bought some toys and candy and I got myself a white long-sleeved Digimon jersey. Impulsively bought a candlestand and it's a strange coincidence cos I received a candle from my best friend and his SO today. Thanks. :)

My Japanese colleague took a look at my casual clothing today and burst out, "Wow. Today you look like... peasant." Then the two of us looked at each other and thought huh? And laughed out loud.

When we were little kids, my mum used to bring my brother and I out to watch chinese weepy melodrama movies while dad's working. In those days, they had heavy folding cinema seats and my brother and I couldn't sit alone in one cos we didn't weigh enough to force the seats down. My mum then placed the 2 of us on one seat so our combined weights would do the job. It did, but my brother and I ended up sitting awkwardly, with one of us wedged in and the other, out. Not only that, it was odd seeing our mum sniffing and sobbing as the movie unfolded. You know how it goes, star-crossed lovers doomed to part, one of them has an incurable illness, or the couple is actually brother and sister.

It's funny how the roles have reversed and it's our turn to bring mum out for movies. Mum no longer likes watching the chinese weepies. Instead, she likes epic blockbusters and action flicks. In English. And I've become the sentimental one to sniff at movies. lol.

I just watched LOTR with my longest-serving movie companion... my mum. When the chinese subtitles appeared, I heaved a sigh of relief. Since my mum doesn't understand English, LOTR would have been too complicated and too long for her to sit through without aid. Before the movie, I tried to give her a brief synopsis but words failed me. I couldn't find the chinese words to describe hobbit, orc etc. Thank goodness they managed to add chinese subtitles. We weren't so lucky when we caught Ocean's 11 last Saturday. Anyway, LOTR was a visual feast and we love Frodo's (Elijah Wood) eyes.

Sorry I watched it first though I'm supposed to catch it with you. I'll watch it with you again though. :)

Watched The Score last night and picked up tickets for Lord of the Rings and Japanese anime Spirited Away. Movies on 3 consecutive nights, I hope I can last. Already I'm forced to wear glasses to work this morning cos my left eye has mysteriously tinged itself red when I popped my contacts in.

I should laser my eyes... not.

And while we're at it, here's films that time forgot. The only one I really remember is Electric Dreams.

Least essential albums of 2001.

Highlight of today: received Christmas greetings and tapestry bookmarks from my ex-colleague in Poland. I cut out the envelope corners where the stamps are and stapled them to my cubicle wall. So far there are 9.

Listening to Daft Punk's Aerodynamics on auto-repeat now. Pure instrumental track which starts off with church bell chimes, launches into a chirpy frenzied layering of bass and electronica, and ends off with church bell chimes. Near seamless wrap on auto-repeat.

Music makes everyday Saturday night.

You can't dictate what I write. If you don't like it, it's not my problem.

The reason I like to know endings before reading a book or watching a movie is not because I enjoy it safe and predictable. It's because I need to come to terms. I need to accept the fate of the characters, whether good or bad, so I can move on with their story.

I'm constantly surprised by my reactions to gadgets. I don't bond well with all, just some.

In the early days when I had a Palm III, I hardly used it. It was only when I switched to a Palm V in 1999 that I used it actively, even more than 2 years later. Is it purely the sleek form of the latter? I don't know. On the other hand, playstations and game consoles have no appeal to me whatsoever. I like the idea of playing, but not on those.

My lomo however, scored high on my Wow! scale cos it seemed to have more of a personality. It's pretty fickle and there's no guarantee on the outcomes of the pics I took. It completely upsets the WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) concept I've come to associate with cameras. It also pretty much disproves what I've come to take for granted, like... No, the viewfinder doesn't help much, you may as well just swing the lomo around when you snap. So that's what I did.

With other cameras, I used to be more of a scenery person. I like to keep people out of the shot if possible and I also dislike being photographed. I realise however, that the lomo is a People camera. Traffic, buildings and trees come out ok but people really STAND out. Cos people are animated and the lomo really brings this across. My favourite shot so far was taken this afternoon during lunchtime, where I took the lomo out in a desperate bid to finish the film. I was waiting at a traffic junction with my colleagues and explaining to one colleague about the lomo. He laughingly pointed a finger at the funny contraption and said What, this is a camera? And I took a spontaneous shot then. The segmented shots of his jabbing finger and cut-off chin/ his broad smile/ his eyes/ his whole face told it all.

It's strange. I rather think the lomo is more a random picture generator than a camera.

A friend told me that when exchanging casual emails with a stranger, she will give bonus points to someone who constantly changes the email subject header. She said this shows they put thought into their emails, even the subject headers. Hmm. My jc girlfriend and I have a habit of putting the day of the week as our email subject header, followed by an exclamation mark (eg. Mon! Tues!). We relished counting down to Friday, which is represented by TGIF! instead of Fri!.

My boss hooks this ergonomic keyboard to his laptop (you know, keyboard curved like a little hill with the left and right letters split, so your left and right hands do not cross). If my boss ever wants to torture me, he can make me use that keyboard. It'll be hell for me to type on that since I only type with 2 index fingers and my left thumb. Trespassing on each other's territories is what my fingers do all day.

How long will you carry on visiting blogs that haven't been updated in quite a while, just because you like what you read there? I find that I don't mind visiting dormant sites for months on end, only hoping one day to be surprised.

Today I promptly bought another roll of 400 film but didn't manage to load it into my lomo successfully, even after exposing a few shots. Like ttj mentioned, lomo is the "lo-fi post-rock equivalence in photography", and I guess I'm too used to the normal auto-load idiot-proof cameras. So I brought the lomo down to the pool joint and asked limabean to help me load it. Then he used his lomo to take a shot of the pool balls while I was breaking. When developed, that pic turned out quite nicely despite the sparse lighting.

After some experimentation, we found that it is possible for pics taken by the lomo to come out blurred (despite being more like a pin-hole camera). And it seems better to focus on more colourful moving subjects not too far away. Anyway, I still have a lot to learn.

Maybe I should bring both my lomo and my digicam around to take similar pictures and compare their effects.

No jogging this morning. Thwarted by rain. Spent another lazy afternoon napping. How wonderful to have a public holiday today. :)

I started the day with the good intentions to work out (either jog or gym), followed by a bout of intense cramming of Lord of the Rings.Of course as it turned out, I didn't exercise but managed to finish watching the cartoon adaptation of LOTR. Not really satisfying cos lots of omissions in plot and characters (Arwen the Elf princess didn't even appear!). Then I took an afternoon nap, during which I had 3 phone calls. By the time I had the third call, I realised that any further plans to sleep would be quite in vain and decided to go join limabean in his Christmas shopping. Well to be precise, part of the time I was waiting for him at Borders reading LOTR while he did his consumer duties there. (Hey, right at this moment I'm 66 pages from the end of Fellowship of the Rings, muahahaha!)

Anyway, I'm glad I met up with him cos he showed me his new toy... a lomo camera. He demonstrated how it worked (no batteries needed, manual wind-up action), and it was one of those with 2x2 split lens. I mean I've read reviews about a lomo before, but to actually hold one and use it was something else. It didn't matter that the view-finder was a hollow glass-less frame and the lomo had quite a few limitations. I just felt... delirious. So limabean took me to buy one too. I bought a different model from his (a cream coloured lomo with 4 lined-up lens) and straightaway started snapping pictures all over the place. I didn't think I was that trigger happy. In fact, the main reason I switched from my previous camera to a digicam was cos I never managed to finish film and always left film in the camera for months on end.

In the end I finished taking the whole roll of 24 pic 200 film in an hour or so, and we dropped the film off at a photo shop for a quick development. However, when we got back to pick up the pics half an hour later, the shop lady only produced one pic. ONE. It seemed like all the other pics turned out too dark. I was so crestfallen clutching that one pic that I hardly talked. All those moving traffic and people I've taken! That colourful double-decker bus that flashed by! All those missed shots! But then I took a closer look at the murky blue-black pic I held in my hand and thought, "At least one made it". Next time I won't use 200 film, that's all.

And then inbetween all this, I received a long distance call from a good friend. I wasn't very coherent and it was probably a confusing conversation, but thank you for remembering me. :)

Today's such a pretty day.

I've got 4 new albums to listen to today! It's been 13 days since I last bought CDs... way too long. One of the CDs is This is Stina Nordenstam. I've got 2 of her previous albums and this Nordic lass never disappoints.

Welcome to happiness
No smoking allowed
Here it's so easy to burn yourself
And equally hard to survive
- Stina Nordenstam's Welcome to Happiness

I don't have a problem buying mainstream music, but I do have a problem buying albums which are liked by someone I don't favour. Somehow, music is personal for me... it gets tainted/ contaminated when someone I don't like happens to like it. It doesn't mean I don't buy those albums, just that I have to overcome uncalled for prejudices. I know it's unreasonable. But.

I know that at this rate, I won't be able to finish reading Fellowship of the Rings before watching the movie. And I can't recall the plot since it's been nearly a decade since I last read it. So I've resorted to cheating. Today I went to buy the Warner Bros cartoon VCD movie adaptation of Lord of the Rings and I'm going to watch it first instead. In this way, I'll be able to grasp the plot better and focus on more details when I watch the new movie.

No, it doesn't make sense. It doesn't need to.

I talk faster when I get excited, but not as fast as I want since I'd only be incomprehensible. If I could have my way, I want to talk as fast as I think. I'd probably sound like a chipmunk on speed.

My mum has a thing for musical boxes. Recently I've bought her another one which also doubles up as a snowglobe. She really loves this one and went to buy an exactly identical one today. I asked why she didn't choose one of the other designs but she said in earnest that she wanted an exact backup. omg. My endearingly whimsical mum. :)

This reminded me of my ex-boss who's german. My colleague followed my ex-boss on a business trip to Germany and was struck speechless on seeing that my ex-boss had the exact colour and model of car in Germany as he did in Singapore. It's like he never left the country.

A funny quote from the December issue of Q magazine.

I keep hearing about muthafucking Harry Potter. I'm like, Who is this muthafucker I keep hearing about?
- Snoop Dogg, whose new movie The Wash opened in America in the same week as Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

I bought the December issue of music magazine Q today. Normally I don't read it, but the December issue comes with a free CD of the supposed cream of the crop plus a list of the Top 50 albums this year. I'm strangely fascinated by what critics consider absolute essentials cos lots of times I think their picks are odd. Sometimes they pick obscure albums by artistes nobody's heard of... snob appeal? Anyway while scanning through the Top 50 albums list with ttj, I found that I could not only identify those albums I own, but also those owned by each specific friend. Gee. I didn't know I bothered to remember other people's music purchases. Well, I only have 5 of the Top 50 albums while ttj scored 10.

Mine are:
- the Avalanches' Since I Left You
- Nelly Furtado's Whoa, Nelly!
- Radiohead's Amnesiac
- the Strokes' Is this it?
- Travis' The Invisible Band

To be frank, I think there are much better albums dropped from the list.

I was telling limabean that among my secondary school classmates, I was the only one in class who didn't have any musical training. I didn't play the piano or violin, and I didn't dance ballet. The music teacher took it for granted though that everyone in class could read musical notes, and gave us music sheets to fill in. I was stumped. Luckily, some girls helped me out.

Well, Madonna doesn't read music either (or at least not for a long time), and look at her now. But back then in secondary school, my ego was dealt a blow. I don't know if this is partly why I'm so into music now.

I gave up my regular Friday night pool session to attend dinner with some ex-classmates from german class, and got snubbed by one of them instead. Unbelievable. This 40-year-old first dominated the conversation by gushing about her 2 month European trip with her rich husband. She raved about visiting Bergen (Norway) and Prague etc, and everyone listened on attentively. I've been to those places 3 years ago too but I didn't say anything to steal her limelight. However, I was totally bored. Then I got a couple of sms from friends about other drinking sessions, and this woman glared at me and sneered, "Oh, you must be quite a clown to be so popular." What the fuck? What's the bitch talking about? I curbed myself from spitting back in kind and just smilingly shrugged. The others sat in uncomfortable silence. Great. I told myself there and then that life is too short to spend time with people I don't give a damn about. In the end, I left after dinner and didn't join them for drinks. I sms'd Jedixus to find out if he's clubbing, but decided against joining him cos of the long queue.

The up side is l had a brief drink with limabean before the gathering with my ex-classmates and tried an Old Speckled Hen beer at Penny Black for the first time. Then I managed to see my brother and sis-in-law at my place when I got home, before they left for their own place. The evening wasn't that wasted after all.

Lots of colleagues have taken off for the long weekend. I feel so bored in the office that I'm sorely tempted to phone up blogger friends to please post something so I can read. No pool tonight but at least there's drinks.

My screen saver is now Liv Tylor as Arwen the Elf Princess in Lord of the Rings. She looks so good with pointy ears.

Most single women are still waiting for Renaissance men. This term is coined in the past for men who excel in any field... they fence, they do horseback riding, they paint, they do ballroom dancing, they discuss politics, science and whatever warrants interest.

They are also most probably extinct.

The December issue of the IT magazine Intelligent Enterprise Asia did an overview of different Asian countries to find out how IT savvy they are. Singapore is supposed to have a PC penetration rate of 59% (6 out of 10 households own at least one computer) while the mobile phone penetration rate is also 59%.

I would have thought more Singaporeans had mobile phones. Or since PC and mobile phone penetration are supposedly the same, should we infer that the same Singaporean who owns a mobile phone also owns a PC? Strange.

Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
- Step 2 of the "12 Step Essays of Alcoholics Anonymous"

I've dug out my A Hard Day's Night CD to listen to again. Blissful music. :) Definitely catching the movie once more.

More on childhood lessons. Though my family is Cantonese Chinese, my brother and I only talk to each other in English. We can speak to my mum and our friends/ relatives in Cantonese or Mandarin, but when it's between us, we'll naturally spring back to English. It's all my mum's misguided attempt to improve our English. When we were kids, she told us she would deduct from our allowance if we spoke to each other in any language but English. We panicked and spoke English in earnest, so much so that we didn't pick up any Singlish accent. Sigh.

Kids believe anything when it concerns their allowance.

Baking analogy at work. I'm frustrated that I no longer bake and hence can't bake as well as I used to. When customers ask me about baking, I have to bring bakers along to answer questions. This is utterly stupid cos I used to be the one people bring around to answer questions! My bakers don't want me to bake cos I'm slowing them down by asking them simple things I've forgotten, like how many eggs go into a cake? Or even, did someone move the oven?

I NEED to bake well again!!!

I read in this morning's newspapers that the Beatles' movie A Hard Day's Night is going to be re-released on the big screen soon. I've seen it before, couldn't really understand much of their Cockney accents but their sense of fun is infectious. I simply love the Beatles. And that made me remember you cos you didn't. Not only that, you didn't know any Beatles song. None at all. It seemed a long time ago when I sang the Beatles' I Wanna Hold Your Hand into your answering machine, only for you to ask me later what that song was.

Will you be watching A Hard Day's Night?

Just finished watching 2 VCD movies: Stanley Kwan's The Island Tales and the old 80s teen cult movie The Breakfast Club by John Hughes. When I mentioned the latter to ttj, he had no idea about it. It's only when I told him that John Hughes also directed the movie Home Alone that he got it. I don't know about you but this movie is a classic to me. It's about 5 students faced with spending 8 hours together for a Saturday detention. They started off being stereotypes like a jock, a prom queen, a brain, a basket case and a criminal, but they ended up being friends.

There's this scene where Molly Ringwald (acting as the prom queen) was giving Ally Sheedy (acting as the basket case) a makeover by helping her with cosmetics. Ally asked, "Why are you being so nice to me?". And Molly replied, "Cos you let me".

Cos you let me.

Go see this sculpture by Marie-Madeleine Gautier in the Opera Gallery at Takashimaya. I like it. :)

B12 mentioned Fibonacci's number sequence to me today so I decided to do a search on its application to the stock market. When I was younger, I've only thought of math in the academic sense and hence, didn't like it much at all. It's only when I started reading about eccentric mathematicians and their passion for numbers that I started to appreciate math.

My best friend previously told me about the brilliant mathematician John Nash who turned schizophrenic at his peak, and took a long time to recover before he won the Nobel Prize in 1994. Incidentally I saw a book on his life in Borders and it's called A Beautiful Mind. I believe Russell Crowe is acting as him in the movie adaptation. Hmm.

Odd day. First, I forgot to bring my drawer key to work this morning and couldn't retrieve my laptop locked in my drawer. Luckily, a colleague is out on training and I hijacked his laptop to work on instead. Then during lunchtime, I realised I forgot to bring my wallet to work too and had to borrow some cash from my colleague for lunch. Not really preturbed, just amazed at how careless I've become nowadays.

On childhood lessons. ttj told me his first important lesson in life took place when he was 2 years old. Then, he owned a toy cement mixer truck where the cement mixer bit is transparent and filled with plastic blocks. He broke it accidentally and discovered to his horror that it couldn't be fixed... things that break may not mend. It was his first brush with mortality.

Being the younger child, my whims were often indulged. When we were very young, my brother and I both wanted to own the same issue of a comic and we didn't want to share. My dad had no choice but to buy 2 copies of the same comic. I then had a false expectation that I could have everything my way. Then I was always given the drumstick as the choice meat while eating chicken. However, at a family meal at my cousin's place, my mum told me there was only one drumstick available during the meal and that it wouldn't be mine. And so this was my first important lesson... I learnt not to ask for the drumstick again, and that I couldn't always have everything my way.

Strange how small events in our youth shape us.

My Chicago friend is the first person I know from internet. We started with talk requests on unix nearly 10 years ago and are amazingly still in touch now. He's back in Singapore for his vacation so I met up with him today for a late afternoon tea at Borders.

Topics range from:
- the comparison of Tom Clancy's books to their big screen adaptations (he explained that the books are technically detailed to the point of describing an explosion for a whole chapter; while on the movie screen, it's a split second affair and hence doesn't do justice to the books);
- Jin Yong's Chinese martial arts novels (he said there're too many superfluous descriptions which could be skimmed through while reading... I could imagine a sort of kinship between Tom Clancy and Jin Yong);
- the state of the hair care industry (his rationale is unlike the PDA industry where innovation is still highly necessary, the hair care industry is a matured one... everything that can be done to hair HAS been done to it).

I would say rediscovering old friends is a highly recommended activity.

On shoes. Generally I think women have more intense relationships with their shoes than men. Buying shoes is gratifying and we don't seem to have enough shoes. To us, every pair of shoes has a tale to tell.

I used to own a pair of 4 inch open-toed black heels, kinda elevated like platform ones and the most dangerously tottering pair I've owned. I bought them while shopping with my ex, simply cos he jokingly asked me to buy a higher pair of heels to compensate for my lack of height. I only wore them a handful of times and after breaking up, promptly threw them away. Never buy shoes cos of other people.

My favourite pair of shoes though is this pair of çheap beat-up worn brown leather slippers. I've worn them to death for more than 2 years and I've bought replacement casual shoes in the thought of retiring the slippers. But somehow I'm reluctant to do so and carry on wearing them. Maybe I'll only give them up when the soles come off? lol.

On this KL trip, I bought whimsical shoes: creamy strappy heels with huge roses attached; brown loafers; black strappy wedge heels. Somehow, visiting KL for me seems to tie in with buying shoes. It's crazy cos I still haven't worn some shoes I bought a year ago from the previous trip. Hoarding shoes doesn't seem too bad.

On my KL trip. Despite Malaysia being Singapore's closest neighbour, I've not travelled to Malaysia frequently. In fact, the lame joke is I've been to Germany more often than I've been to Malaysia, and that's only a couple of visits. Though I'm quite independent backpacking to other parts of the world, I'm heavily reliant on my US and UK travel mates when we travel round Malaysia. Somehow I just switch off and am content to tag along wherever the girls go. It started off last December when we went with some other folks to spend New Year's eve in KL. Then we had a glorious time eating round KL (the famous duck sold by the Four Eyed Guy, bakuteh in Chinatown etc) as well as shopping. So this year we went back to KL to do exactly the same. Well, not exactly. Last year I bought 4 pairs of shoes back and this year I only bought 3 pairs.. but more on shoes in another post.

This trip I remember relaxing and drinking beer in the hotel room with the girls; taking the KL LRT for the first time; reading Lord of the Rings while the girls read their books at a cafe which sells heavenly cakes; getting caught in the jam at the customs at Sunday midnight.. We didn't manage to eat bakuteh this trip but maybe next year? :)

Met Quest and Jedixus for supper just now cos I'm on leave today. I propped up my feet to curl up on the narrow backseat while Quest drove and Jedixus navigated, half awake as we went in search of food. Old songs like Pat Benatar's We Belong were playing on the radio; random shots of lights were flashing in the dark sky...it's all somewhat surreal but well, nice.

Just got home from KL and instead of blogging about the trip, I'm trying out an Art test from Dave's blog. Hmm.

If I were a work of art, I would be Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa. I am extremely popular and widely known. Although unassuming and unpretentious, my enigmatic smile has charmed millions. I am a mystery, able to be appreciated from afar, but ultimately unknowable and thus intriguing. Which work of art would you be? The Art Test

These days I don't seem to have time though I'm not really planning anything. Events seem to be happening and carrying me along in its wake. Work is fine now and there's no reason for complaints. I'm meeting more people than I can imagine meeting. I'm not depressed or unhappy, but I'm not delirious with joy. It's been a while since I was delirious. I miss the feeling.

Friday night without pool feels so out of place.

What is not written in the contract doesn't exist.
- my boss

Baking analogy at work. My favourite customers are those who show glimpses of their little boy selves. When they're buying wedding cakes and discussing earnestly about pricing, I could still see them as little boys furtively reaching their hands into the cookie jar for cookies.

Buffet lunch and dinner in the same day. omg. I'm stuffed like a turkey proxy.

While taking a Comfort taxi cab from my customer's office back to mine, the cab driver passed me a stack of postcards and a Comfort Survival Kit. I'm quite bemused to find messages on the postcards like "Yellow means I'm available for hire" and "Oops! Sorry. I'm blushing red and I'm not available for hire". Eh. I'll rather the taxi company didn't waste money printing moronic postcards but spent it instead on ways to improve customer service.

I didn't take the Harry Potter sorting hat test but I succumbed to finding out the kind of cat I am. I meow, do you? Hiaks.



Take the What Cat Are You? test by webkin!

It's my UK travel mate's birthday today, so many happy returns to you. :) Knowing you was the best reward for attending german class.

My ex-colleague in Poland said I should visit her next year while she's still free to show me around. So plans for Chile have been shelved and I've altered course for Poland. It's been a long while since I've seen her cute little son. :)

On delayed friendships. As Jedixus said, "Better late than never".

People who have caught me online have all commented on my tendency to lag in messaging them cos I prefer to blog. I guess I just choose to be addicted.

You phoned to ask how I was while you were on your way out of the office. You told me you would call me back in a couple of minutes after you've shut down your PC and taken the elevator down. So I spent 4 minutes of my life leaning my head against a wall outside my favourite pool joint, standing very still and feeling absolutely blank, waiting to resume our suspended conversation. During that stretch between 9.13 to 9.16pm, I wondered why I've seen people chatting on their mobile phones in lifts but I've never succeeded with mine. Then you rang me again and I offloaded on you. Selfish ignorant me and nice understanding you. I'm sorry, and thank you. :)

I never did figure out how to braid my hair into one single plait, for the simple reason that I can't see it from the mirror. I've always envied some girls their dexterity at plaiting hair or twirling it into a bun. I just don't seem to get it.

B12 has given that big-faced watch of mine the nickname Big Ben. Cute. :P

I'm off at my customer's site for this week so there's not much time to blog. Tiring really but I've got a weekend trip to KL to look forward to. :) Travelling with my UK and US travel mates is always so fun. Can't wait already!

Occasionally people would comment on my photo on my credit card but I've never really explained about it. It was cropped from a pic taken on my Uni prom night, where I was dressed somewhat against convention. Instead of spending hours at the hairdresser's fixing my hair into some elegant do, I wore my long hair loose and was in a plain cream thin-strapped long empire dress matched with a pair of chunky boots. lol. A friend took a pic of me then, and I looked so amazingly young and fresh.

Within 24 hours after taking that pic, I got into a 4 year relationship with my ex. Unwittingly, this pic became a milestone in my life. Maybe that's why I chose it for my photo card.

Attitudes towards soft toys. B12 noted that men normally read the tags on soft toys while women will hug and oooh and ahhh over them. Anarchy behaved true to form by reading the tag of a soft toy I bought, and noted that it's manufactured in China, with a web url in Australia and a hotline number in Hong Kong. I didn't know all this. Instead, I was busy pressing the squeaky toy to well, squeak.

B12 mentioned that one thing he learnt from me is to pick up his old punctuality habit again. Maybe it's fitting then that he's the one I'm with when I end up buying watches. Today I bought a watch with the biggest face I've ever owned... it's so big it practically spans my wrist. The watch shopkeeper confided to us that Fann Wong bought an identical watch from them too. Ooook. Short-sighted people, come stand next to me! lol.

First impressions. B12 told me he initially classified me as a 'Toontown' friend because I'm so eh, animated in real life. Jedixus on the other hand, initally thought I was quiet and unsuccessful in blending in by trying to be bimbotic. B12's first impression was just more than 2 years ago, while Jedixus' was 5 years old. Time made all the difference. Now, Jedixus described me as coffee powder and water, unstirred. What, raw and difficult to digest? Go figure. :)

There is a song off Natalie Merchant's latest album Motherland named after Henry Darger. I heard it off the sampling machine at HMV, fell stunned, and came home to do a google search on him. Haunting.

Madam! You're playing badminton, not volleyball.
- my colleague's comment to me, on my inclination to leap rather than move further back to take a shot in badminton

You know, previously I never really understood your obsession with her. I chastised you for wallowing, and told you to move on. I wondered why one of the most infuriatingly logical guys I know turn into a puddle. And then, you trust me enough to introduce us. And now stupid as it sounds, everything became crystal clear. Within a few minutes of meeting I liked her already. There is no choice but to. I'm not saying it's ok to wallow, but that I finally realise why you do.

Sometimes it's so easy to presume. I'll take this as a lesson to learn not to.

I've only slept 3+ hours and now I'm wide awake without a hangover. Well, not that I ever had one before. A stint in the gym with the gals later will be good. I've also finished my bout of antibiotics. Yes yes yes! No more pill popping!

I went to watch Porgy & Bess (bad accoustics like Dave described... Summertime sang opera-style, in a fashion that didn't break my heart like it should) before going drinking with a good friend and his friends. It's funny cos I've known this friend for nearly 2 years but his friends were strangers till tonight, and then I see a whole bunch of them at one go. And the guys in the group recognise me from pool. lol. One of his friends was celebrating his birthday so we went drinking at a joint along Mohamed Sultan, and I got quite smashed but not the highest I've been. I know cos I didn't start singing, and I could still play (and win at marginally) pool. I hope I didn't embarrass my friend too much.

Thanks for that last game of pool. I've never played pool intoxicated before and now I know. :) You're right as you usually are. I'm not that drunk am I?