Some things good this way come

counting down the days :))

Project: The Game !

Tommy my elitist Harvard mate sent me the link to Project: The Game!

Ahh ... it was fun whilst it lasted.

Ingenious. Only, Yale also lost 35-3 to Harvard. What a score.

All I want for Christmas

Ms Depp just updated her Amazon wish list, in time for the holiday season. That reminds me to do the same for mine ... well, just in case anyone does decide to send something to me. (Okay that's a hint, you.)

There, #4 on my outdated list of six items (only ! ), is what's also on everyone else's wish list, (if they don't already have it): an Apple 20 GB iPod M9244LL/A.

Added August 13 04 ! Before the release of the 4th Generation ones, and the U2 Special Editions ('black is now the new white ! '), and the new and rising star of the family-- the iPod Photo (where you get to put porn jpgs for bored moments in the office. Okay, just kidding).

The i-folks in California are really pushing the market along, aren't they. A perfect illustration of the Chinese saying, "打铁趁热" (strike when the rod is hot). Look, even the C-people are imitating the i-P strategy.

But I digress. So #4 is a 3rd Gen iPod. Amazon says that, "This item is currently unavailable." I should have just taken it down and update it with the 4th Generation one. But I didn’t. I am interested to see what stuff I am lustful for as time goes by so I am leaving the wish list pretty untouched. Tho' the reason is more like, other than #4, I would still like to receive any of the other five (all under $20. That’s another hint, you.)

Something’s flowery around here.

Dad gave Mom a stalk of red rose with a really big head of petals and an extremely short stem. I thought it looked funny, and said so really loudly. Mom, too, commented that it was one of the clumsiest rose she’d ever seen. But she couldn’t stop smiling when she said that.

59th College Photographer of the Year

"Winning a contest does not make a photographer, but it can be a bellwether of talent." -- Rita Reed, Director of College Photographer of the Year

Indeed, their works are truly remarkable.

I am going crazy

This time last year:

Lecter had his major eye surgery.

I was outbided at the very last second (literally) on Ebay by a Mr. j1b who proceeded to send me an email:

From: ptex2metal@aol.com
Subject: HAHAHAHA!
Date: Sun, 23 Nov 2003 20:51:17 PST

I AM KING

On Thanksgiving I went to DisneyQuest®, where I was ousted by Mrs. Security Guard for having a sleeping Lecter in my bag around the clock so I could give him his medication every half hour.

Then to Universal Studios where I was put on stage, conspired against, coaxed, bullied to tears and finally cheered for. I got a Polaroid shot, and gained some fame on ground in return. Ahh ... fame.

this is an old shot dug up from the old blog. u probably would have seen it before+

I also caught The Matrix Revolutions at the CityWalk®, of which I still don't get what the revolution really is all about.

---

And this year:

I stayed in, forgot all about an appointment (well, actually I thought it was canceled coz there were so many variations of the arrangement beforehand), couldn't find my socks and DVDs, lost my notes and ate an A5-sized chocolate all by myself right after dinner.

Arghs. I need to get out. Bye.

Since my last entry I have:

1. received a rather weird email from an old friend. I still don’t know what to make of it.

2. had a peaceful fallout (yea okay, oxymoron) with another -- there were no curses, hisses, slaps, or plain ol' pulling of hair. Just the new age, cyber one of logging off rather abruptly and not responding to any messages since.

(and dear sista, I know you would probably see this so I just want to say, well this gridlock wouldn't really melt away (no, not really) as long as you are keeping away.

'Til the time you decide to respond/return/jokeandlaughandbesadajiestogetheragain, Happy Holidays.

ps: I still have that something to pass you. You might want to get it soon. There's expiry date on it ! Heh.)

3. learnt what and how torrents work. (I know, I am slow in the game.)

4. finished 2046, the latest four South Park episodes, two favorite ones from Futurama, but couldn’t find my Donnie Darko disc.

the south park boys at 4 y/o !!

5. finally got the import permit in my mail ! Lecter is coming to town for X’mas :))

SMS to the Cheena Winterland

Dear Mom and Dad,

There are big black ants looking for food. I have not seen them before. I think they migrated here from next door. Other than that I am good and fine here. The laundry is done and the floor is half-mopped. I had my fifth packet of instant noodles for the week. I just watched a show 'Saw'. It has gore, suspense, one funny scene, and a superb ending.

Love,
Your daughter.

Dear Daughter,

We are having our honeymoon. You know what to do.

Love,
Dad and Mom.

Module 101: Differentiation of People

An African American friend once told me that us Asians look alike. Well I really wanna tell him that I couldn't really differentiate them blacks from one another either. Tho I'm not very good at distinguishing the Asians too.

That doesn't sound very good does it. Oh well. Today I took a visual test on an interesting page with an interesting url http://www.alllooksame.com/. I scored 7 out of 18 and got a disapproving look from the site's mascot icon with the words "Obviously you can't tell the difference."

Yeah yeah I know that already. But surprisingly, my score also happens to be the exact average score ! Haha. So I am not the only cock-eyed one around okay.

The Christian Festival of Lights

It was full blown christmas deco downtown.

The same white lights and towering x'mas trees (recycled every year). The new (boring) endless (boring) rows of hanging lights (sponsored by Hitachi ! The Christmassy way to advertise ! With lights ! and more lights ! ), dancing x'mas trees (by Visa) and statues of plastic-looking elves against cardboard-looking backdrops of Leaning Tower of Pisa (what's the connection between the two eh ?).

The crowd in Orchard on Monday (public holiday) was almost scary. Seas of people along the streets, clusters more at traffic junctions, and clot-fuls in the shopping centers.

The short stretch of road was so jam-packed with vehicles that I could have been cruising down the road in a rickshaw instead of riding in a car. A squeeze-free way of seeing all the street deco tho'.

All I could effectively remember was Hitachi. Hitachi. Hitachi. under those rows of lights. I guess that means Hitachi has succeeded in its brand awareness/marketing campaign.

What do you see ?

Vision without action is a daydream; action without vision is a nightmare.

-- Japanese proverb

via A Whole Lotta Nothing

Snail-slow Efficiency

Lodging a police report at your friendly Neighborhood Police Post is almost like queuing to get an MC consult the doctor at the local polyclinic; slow and draggy and makes you wanna sleep.

When it's finally your turn, the Investigation Officer in charge would try to dissuade you to lodge the case, with the professional opinion that the case would be closed not long after it's filed anyway (read: trivial matter. useless paperwork. stupid girl.).

Then when you affirm your decision to lodge it anyway and finally sign the documents two hours later, even if it is an obvious case of fraud, the case would still be placed under unclassified, 'til further decision by the panel'. So I am wondering if there is an alternate 'police way' to interpret fraud. Like em ... well can't think of any now.

Maybe you can tell me when you do.

Up the only hill that Singapore's got

I was out of the house by 6.23am, at Bukit Timah Hill by 7am, and was soon puffing up the steep slopes with younger sister and later, parents and friends too. It was my first no-mosquitoes walk/run in a forest/hill/nature setting. I didn't even sweat. I know. I'm not normal.

6.33am. Moon. Sleep-deprived. Bed beckoning.






















after the walk/run, we had breakfast at Toa Payoh Lor 8. Very cheap food.


mom's.


younger sis's.


dad's. or rather, the 'extra' dish that we shared.
had lots of eggs. very value-for-money hor


mine. devoured in approx 5 mins. I know. I am not normal again.

Mr Lecter in ...

Camera-shy take 1: Die die don't want to look.
(caution: medium-sized file. all 3.4MB of it.)

Lonely on a one-dimensional string

The Parents are going for their second honeymoon for this year. Okay, I add in the honeymoon part myself; the Dad is going to Cheena for a biz trip, and he has asked the Mom along. For some private times away from the kids I guess. Heh.

Unlike most people I know, talk to or read about, I am very liberal about the idea of parents still getting it on in the bedroom. It's all good for the body and mind, you know. My paternal Grandma passed away when Dad was only two/three years old and Granddad never remarry. I wish he did tho'. He was alone without a companion for over fifty years. All this time, he still keeps Grandma's dowry chest (jia zhuang) besides his bed, close to him.

They see only what is immediately visible to the eye

‘A young hoodlum heaves a brick through the window of a baker's shop. The shopkeeper runs out furious, but the boy is gone. A crowd gathers, and begins to stare with quiet satisfaction at the gaping hole in the window and the shattered glass over the bread and pies. After a while the crowd feels the need for philosophic reflection. And several of its members are almost certain to remind each other or the baker that, after all, the misfortune has its bright side. It will make business for some glazier. As they begin to think of this they elaborate upon it. How much does a new plate glass window cost? Two hundred and fifty dollars? That will be quite a sum. After all, if windows were never broken, what would happen to the glass business? Then, of course, the thing is endless. The glazier will have $250 more to spend with other merchants, and these in turn will have $250 more to spend with still other merchants, and so ad infinitum. The smashed window will go on providing money and employment in ever-widening circles. The logical conclusion from all this would be, if the crowd drew it, that the little hoodlum who threw the brick, far from being a public menace, was a public benefactor.

Now let us take another look. The crowd is at least right in its first conclusion. This little act of vandalism will in the first instance mean more business for some glazier. The glazier will be no more unhappy to learn of the incident than an undertaker to learn of a death. But the shopkeeper will be out $250 that he was planning to spend for a new suit. Because he has had to replace a window, he will have to go without the suit (or some equivalent need or luxury.) Instead of having a window and $250 he now has merely a window. Or, as he was planning to buy the suit that very afternoon, instead of having both a window and a suit he must be content with the window and no suit. If we think of him as a part of the community, the community has lost a new suit that might otherwise have come into being, and is just that much poorer. The glazier's gain of business, in short, is merely the tailor's loss of business. No new "employment" has been added. The people in the crowd were thinking only of two parties to the transaction, the baker and the glazier. They had forgotten the potential third party involved, the tailor. They forgot him precisely because he will not now enter the scene. hey will see the new window in the next day or two. They will never see the extra suit, precisely because it will never be made. They see only what is immediately visible to the eye.

No more supper in town

Halloween night, we drove uptown for supper. Instead of getting our tummies filled we were bested by lanes-cutting cab drivers (reckless ! inconsiderate !), speeding lancers (modified), middle-finger-pointing ah beng drivers, luminously-lit van gangs and eh ... sirens of patrolling police cars. Ahh ... sights and sounds of a 2a.m scene on the road in Orchard. On a weekend night.

How rousing, only we were none too impressed with the cabs that dashed out of nowhere, made sharp turns and/or cut into your lane abruptly without signaling. In fact I was made considerably nauseous by all the braking to avoid some serious collisions (brake. drive. brake. brraake. drive. screech. e-brake.) and we ended up changing the supper venue and going some 20 mins away to the East, for some cheap and very unhealthy ba chao mee (noodles in soup with pork balls and eh.. fried lard).

They really oughta do something about the cab drivers on night shift.

*

Just in time for the holidays. The Ashlee Simpson iPod.