One of my teleconferences today was cancelled because a typhoon was making its way across Manila. I've heard that some power lines are down and co-workers have been sent home. Hopefully everyone is ok.

My father once said, "Be kind to boys. They're not as tough as they seem. Don't break their hearts." He was drunk, confused. He'd cut his finger with a paring knife. I was twelve. I promised.
- Steve Almond & Julianna Baggott, "Which Brings Me to You"

You put my iPod on and started humming to a Johnny Cash song. I asked if you've heard this song before and you replied "No, but all country songs sound alike don't they?"

You. You are my country music predictive engine.

My own kind. I'm not sure there's a name for us. I suspect we're born this way: our hearts screwed in tight, already a little broken. We hate sentimentality and yet we're deeply sentimental. Low-grade Romantics. Tough but susceptible. Afflicted by parking lots, empty courtyards, nostalgic pop music. When we cried for no reason as babies, just hauled off and wailed, our parents seemed to know, instinctively, that it wasn't diaper rash or colic. It was something deeper that they couldn't find a comfort for, though the good ones tried mightily, shaking rattles like maniacs and singing "Happy Birthday" a little louder than called for. We weren't morose little kids. We could be really happy.
- Steve Almond & Julianna Baggott, "Which Brings Me to You"

Whenever I rekindle interest in reading my own stash of books, I will somehow end up borrowing library books instead. One time I've borrowed a book which I already own from the library, just so I could read it faster. Then there's also the occasional book which I've lent out before reading it myself. Well, as long as I'm reading, it doesn't matter right?

Roll-call for the current batch of library books:
Jonathan Safran Foer's "Everything is Illuminated" (now a movie starring Elijah Wood)

Dave Eggers' "How We are Hungry" (because I love his "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius"")

Steve Almond & Julianna Baggott's "Which Brings Me to You: A Novel in Confessions" (because it opens with the lines "I know my own kind. We're obvious to each other")

On and off now I wonder if this is how my blog dies: lazily. But then I'll rustle up and do a short post to show that I'm alive.

We went drinking last night with friends. I remember getting a buzz in that hopeless way I do before I sometimes fall asleep, and I turned to you cheekily and asked if you wanted my phone number. You (who have memorised my phone number by now) told me I was too direct, and we grinned at each other. It was nice, drinking with you.

I've finished reading Bill Bryson's "A Short History of Nearly Everything".

We're still running. I need to jumpstart you to run, but you keep me going.

We're going away end December to Cambodia. Quite a few friends have visited Cambodia recently and I joked that Cambodia seems to be the new Vietnam (in terms of travel destination). This will be the 4th country we've visited together this year.

The weekend is really something, isn't it?

It is slightly galling to think that we live in a universe that, for the most part, we can’t even see, but there you are. At least the names for the two main possible culprits are entertaining: they are said to be either WIMPs (for Weakly Interacting Massive Particles, which is to say specks of invisible matter left over from the Big Bang) or MACHOs (for MAssive Compact Halo Objects—really just another name for black holes, brown dwarfs, and other very dim stars).
- Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything

What I've learnt over lunch with Tweewo today: Deep Fried Mars Bar

Work makes me say stupid diplomatic lines like "I have a different understanding on that".

One of my birthday presents is a book voucher, and I just used it to buy Annie Murphy Paul's "The Cult of Personality Testing: How Personality Tests Are Leading Us to Miseducate Our Children, Mismanage Our Companies, and Misunderstand Ourselves".

Somehow I don't think this was what the girls expected me to buy.

Lovely birthday weekend.
Need to run more. Read more. Learn more. Sleep more.

Today, I borrowed 3 books from the library and effectively abandoned all other books I'm reading now. The culprits are:

1) Jack Lechner's "Can't Take My Eyes Off of You: One Man, Seven Days, Twelve Televisions" (this should be a real eye-opener, especially since I don't watch any TV)

2) Ben Slater's "Kinda Hot: The Making of Saint Jack in Singapore" (unfortunately, I've not had a chance to watch the film before)

3) Raphael Millet's "Singapore Cinema" (Singapore cinema through the eyes of a frenchman)

On top of that, I've got 5 DVDs to watch over the weekend (which is already packed).

Record for this year: 79 films and 21 books so far.
All-time record in a year: 214 films and 51 books.
I don't intend to gorge to match even 1/2 the all-time record.

Whether consciously or not, this is what I've learnt from you.
Skype (my mum thinks I've gone nuts, talking to my laptop while web-surfing).
Internet banking (I know it's late but I've finally succumbed).
Cooking (well, sort of).
Be calmer (debatable).
Give the White Stripes another chance (at least they made it into my iPod now).
And how the $ works in Excel cells.

Sometimes I wonder what you can learn from me, besides my occasional uncontrolled bouts of online swooning over you.

In the small matters trust the mind, in the large ones the heart.
- Sigmund Freud

But if people have different classification for what constitutes small or large, even for the same situation, there will be people who trust their mind and others who trust their heart. Does this mean: "In all matters, trust the mind or the heart"?

Sometimes, I suffer from being overly logically.

Last night, over a dinner of Persian food (and though I've never had it before, this is mediocre at best), a co-worker taught me an italian saying. It went something like: "Eating with friends, you'll never grow old". That sounds nice, and I'll really like to believe that.

I woke at 4am this morning to create a playlist of 117 mp3 songs. Strange as it may sound, I've never made a playlist before despite hoarding so much music (or maybe precisely because of this). It took me 2 hours and though I've lots of music I've still not added, I'm quite proud of what I've done. And then I realise I've not had enough sleep and there's a 9am teleconference this morning (the first amongst 4 teleconferences today).

Lol.

First attempt at cooking fish roe congee with century egg.
You had your first luncheon meat sandwich for lunch.
Lazy Sunday reading on DJ history while you worked.
Realised it's been a while since I've blogged, but I don't really miss it.
But it's been over an hour since I've last seen you, and you I miss.

The average pencil is seven inches long, with just a half-inch eraser - in case you thought optimism was dead.
- Robert Brault, software developer, writer (1972- )