[S]ugar [H]oney [I]ced [T]ea

2010? Bring it on!!!

2010-01-23T15:14:00.005+11:00

Ok, here I am, back again, with a healthy dose of chagrin. I did say I'd be committed to my blog right. Ok fine I want to also add that I have commitment issues. :) I have the same issue with FB, so it's not just you, my dear bloggie.

Well, I don't wanna fill this first post with cliche nonsense about 2010 resolutions. Resolutions require resolute people. If I resolve to become resolute, I would have to be resolute in the first place in order to stick to my resolve to become resolute. Geddit???? Which won't work in the long run. Tee hee.

Dang it. Been watching too much "I think, therefore I am" kinda Anime again. Got to stop. Blame it all on Ergo Proxy. Before that, I was still fine, since Ride Back, Shugo Chara Doki, Soul Eater and Maria Holic don't contain deep intellectual sojourns into the philosophical. If I think I am, but in fact I am not, am I? I think, therefore you are. Does that mean you and I are the same? But we are not. I am not you, yet without you I am not. Yet I think, therefore I am, therefore without you I still am.

I still don't quite get it, so I'll leave the rest to Descartes and his crew to wrangle that out. "Cogito ergo sum"

Ride Back: 8/10

For such a short anime of 13 episodes, it explores a futuristic world with a well-crafted simple storyline. A fun ride, and well worth the time. :)

Shugo Chara Doki: 8.5/10

Hehe, ok this is the second season of Shugo Chara, and up there is my fave Amuto pairing!

Soul Eater: 9/10

LOL! One of the best anime I've ever watched, because, unlike Bleach, it doesn't take itself too seriously, but contains enough drama and action to keep the adrenaline pumping. The pace is fast too, which means almost no fillers and the characters are so neurotic, weird and unforgettable! All I can say is, hello, 51 episodes no enough, more please! ^^

Maria Holic: 7/10

At first, the premise of the story was very interesting, but then it turned out to be one of those nosebleed kinda animes. Although it was so silly and just plain WEIRD and CRAZY and that I couldn't help but finish it. LOL. Definitely not "I think, therefore I am" material. But even Soul Eater was more funny than this, so I won't necessarily recommend it unless you're into Love Hina, Ah My Goddess and that kinda crap. :P

Ergo Proxy: 9/10

Wow, this was very intriguing. There are plot twists in almost every episode, so much so that I am often caught with my mouth open. And even when there are no twists, these people really know how to do cliffhangers. I finished this hell of a ride in 2 days! Well, 23 episodes of apocalyptic landscapes do get you down a bit I guess. Maybe watch Soul Eater/Shugo Chara AFTER you watch Ergo Proxy. :P Explores quite a bit of that whole "I think, therefore I am", and though some parts can be confusing and not all questions are answered, the series delves quite deep into the deep end of things. But still. Must-watch for Ghost in the Shell fans.

Moving on to more mundane issues: today's broadcast includes the fact that Avatar in 3D is pure awesomeness. It is awesomeness distilled and evaporated to its highest density and potency and transformed into a movie. So magnificent it is that I feel I have to put up a picture:

They did the eyes really well I must say. Very soulful. Although I might agree partially with Empire's remark that the scenes with masses of them swaying to and fro might be a little cheesy and New World-ish, it brings home the fact that, yeah, everything's connected. :)

So just like that, my favourite movie of all time has gone from LOTR: Return of the King to Avatar. 9.5/10. Seriously just go watch it. For me to describe the movie here is like using baby speak to describe the Grand Canyon ok.

Will be watching it again next week, in 3D AGAIN, HAHAHAHAA! Ok but it'll be a little different I guess. I watched it at Shaw Lido. The next time will be at GV Vivocity. Will take the opportunity to compare 3D quality. Heehee.

Meanwhile, my mum and me have been going all over the place looking for CNY clothes for my two brothers. One Billabong shirt costs like $60 can. =_= But Bugis Street is not a very conducive place for my mum to shop, can't bring her there for all the $10 bargains. Ah well. Next time I'll have to drag my lazy bro to Bugis to get his shirts.

Alas, I have been summoned to lunch. Well, that was a lovely bunch of crap up there. Stay tuned for more slack-at-home crap in the meantime! :P

The Art of Kaypo-ing (Or Not)

2009-05-15T16:44:00.003+10:00

Really, the formal word for it is "interviewing", but that's how I feel about it in general. :P

I wanna write about yesterday, when I went about interviewing buskers. They're all really interesting people. There was this duo and their guitar broke, so one of them asked me to stick my hand in and try putting a wire through a hole at the other end of the guitar, but my hands not long or thin enough, so in the end I couldn't help them much.

At any one time there are like 4 buskers on Bourke Street, I hadn't really given them much notice at all. since buskers are to Melbourne like ham is to cheese. If you just sit along Bourke street during the afternoons you can hear guitar music, piano music, weird-ass music that's not really music, people doing portraits and drawings, and even saxophones. O_o I didn't interview some people, for practical reasons. Like I couldn't very well go up to that man standing on a barrel covered in flowers, face paint and hula-hooping like there's no tomorrow. (Seriously, he was like hula-hooping for 2 hours straight, I swear, no opportunity to talk to him at all)

And no, I didn't interview that weird not-really-music guy because he looked a bit dodgy. But don't tell him I said that. ;P

It's also quite harrowing and rushed, because you're interviewing them in-between their busking and I felt bad keeping them from actually busking and may be earning some gold coins. And sometimes it was just a practice of patience because I had to wait til they finished playing a piece, then some random person will talk to them (ahh, missed my chance!) and then they'd start playing another piece, and I'm just sitting there going "C'mon c'mon I'm freezing!". But hey, that's part of the fun too.

Then again, I really shouldn't mention anyone else, cuz my article hasn't been handed in yet.

So tell you what, I'll rewind until Wednesday, which was a super stressful day, all in all.

On Wednesday, Writing Journalism tute was rather scary for me because I still hadn't thought of a topic for my feature story. So I was sitting there listening to other people talk about their ideas and their interviews and I was going "OMG sh** I'd better start soon." and hoping fervently my tutor didn't go around listening to our ideas individually because I would have NOTHING. LOL, thank goodness we didn't have time for that.

Carried both mine and Yuqi's lunch to her house after that, which was a balancing act in itself. I was supposed to be presenting during Administrative Law that day, so I borrowed some of her stick-on notes to mark pages and cases. A bit scary to know that you'll be called on to answer questions in class. But then again I was stressing about my feature story, so admin took second stage.

Rather depressingly, I found out I failed my seminar response assignment. >.< Should've collected the damn thing after class, cuz during class I got so depressed and worried I couldn't concentrate. GRAHHHH.

It got better after that though. I think.

My aunt messaged me about this dinner we were going to have at Box Hill with the relatives, so that meant I could leave my Property class 15min early. I managed to squish myself onto the full-to-the-brim tram and made it to Melbourne Central in 10min, hooray! By then I'd already missed the Lilydale train so I took the Belgrave express.

And I gained a whole insight into why people in Melbourne are constantly so disgruntled with trains. It wasn't air-conditioned, it was old, creaky, cranking, the seats were uncomfortable and it felt like I was in some old tin can with crumpled sides. At least the ride was smoother than on trams, that's all I can say in defense of such an ancient contraption that should have been scrapped long ago.

Since it was an express, it stopped at Richmond, skipped all stations and stopped at Camberwell, then skipped all stations and then stopped at Box Hill, so it was quicker that I thought it'd be. I hopped off and arrived at Fu Long restaurant only to realise no one was there yet. HAHA, quite embarassing, I barged into the restaurant and looked up and down the tables but no one had arrived. XP

Turned out my aunt told me the wrong time. The dinner was set for 7pm but she told me 6.30pm. LOL. I arrived at 6.40pm and thought I was already late, oh well.

The food was ok. I don't know why my aunt likes Fu Long so much, the seafood and stuff wasn't even that great. The crab was good, but not awesome. The steamed fish was great though. :) Not alot of people went for the fish, so my aunt ended up lumping this whole stash of fish onto my plate, including the fish cheeks (which are the bestest part of a fish). So yay! Not too thrilled about crab though, I'm a seafood person but I'm not a crab person. I don't mind it, but I won't go gaga over it. Unlike prawns. XD

After dinner, we all headed back to our house, and my uncle had this semi-family-reunion. It was quite cool. He'd asked all his siblings to contribute stuff about their childhood and compiled it into a booklet and distributed it to them. When I read about their childhood, like the swimming around in long kangs, playing with firecrackers, rowing sampans into town, buying their favourite mee for 15cents, eating 20 mandarins at one go and hoarding precious soda drinks under their beds, I thought it was all just so cool. Most people my age don't have such kampung-like childhood memories.

O_O OMG. Most of my childhood memories involve HDB flats. HOW SAD.

How typically Singaporean. :P

I also had this peculiar urge today to buy a container full of strawberry-flavoured Hello Panda.

Oops, gtg for yet another relatives' dinner thingy. See you guys soon! <3

XOXO

Poop Is DONE

2009-05-08T14:18:00.002+10:00

Ahhh, definitely feels like something like that, lol!

But no, what I really mean is:

MY FRICKIN' HORRIBLE PROPERTY RESEARCH ESSAY IS HANDED IN AND DONE WITH!!! Awww yea, you know what this means?

XD

I'm gonna eat lots of junk food and sweet stuff and PARTAYYYYYY~~

At least, for maybe a day. =__= If I don't start catching up with Admin and Property it'll be damn bad. GRAH. So hard to start work right after you've finished something BIG. LIKE THIS. XD

Well, I've been having weird dreams lately. O_o Must be because of the stress. The one I had this morning was I woke up in my cousin's house (no, it wasn't my real-life cousin's house, but in the dream I knew it was my cousin's house). I walked out, the walls were all white, quite bright and airy, and then the walls were not white anymore. I walked closer to the wall and inspected it, it was like metallic with cool futuristic fonts on it. Then I went into some random room, picked up a laptop from who knows where, and started typing up my property essay (yea, seriously, in my dreams as well, =___=). There was a beanbag in the room though, so I sat on it.

For some reason the laptop couldn't work halfway, but it didn't matter, cuz my cousin was in the room suddenly and we were comparing the essays she does and mine.

I can't remember much else...something about merry-g0-rounds, ponies, cupcakes and then her brother came and dunno do what.

LOL ok this is a really random dream, and this is a really random post, HAHA. But it's cool to remember dreams. I wished I'd taken the time to record all my dreams in a dream book, then over the years look back and laugh at the funny stuff I've dreamt about.

But then again, there're those dreams you can't really forget, like for me, I still rmember that stupid spy, pig and dustbin dream. SO NONSENSE. Oh, and the organic apple dream. In a supermarket. But I can't remember much else. HAHAHAHA. I knew it was organic though. XD

Now the only dilemmas I have are:

1. What to eat first? HOHOHO.

2. What to watch first?

OH! Despite all my proeprty essay issues going on last night, I still managed to catch Ghost Whisperer and Grey's Anatomy on TV last night. WTH!!! Grey's Anatomy is undoubted one of the most moving and ethically ambiguous shows I've ever met. Can't believe doctors have to make such decisions sometimes. High stress people like me not suited to become doctor la, I'll just make my patient even more stress, and send him/her into seizures or something. XD

Hmmm...I also wanna catch up on Bones and Life leh...

WHICH ONE LA.

1. Grey's Anatomy
2. Bones
3. Life
4. Dollhouse

I'll go use that iPhone app which helps me make decisions... teeheehee. ;P

EGG TARTS EGG TARTS EGG TARTS AND ICE MILK TEA ICE MILK TEA FTW!!!
(And Bak Kut Teh, cuz my aunt makes very nice Bak Kut Teh.)

:)

Here we go. HERE WE GO!

2009-05-02T19:53:00.003+10:00

"Everybody's gonna get high, let's go!!!" - Bowling For Soup

New year, AGAIN. New blog skin, AGAIN. :D And of course, doing this up when I really should be doing work, haha. Fresh Start, Old Me.

I'm not gonna start from Ground Zero and list what's happened since I last blogged. My notoriously short memory doesn't quite stretch that far. Suffice to say that I shopped, I dropped, I ate lots of porridge, I survived another 2 plane rides, I lost and gained weight, I gave and received, I laughed, I cried, I played, I watched, I squealed, I LOVE BLEACH and I marathoned 200 episodes.

Um.

I caught up, I lost contact, I celebrated, I lamed with, I crapped, I played board games at Settlers' Cafe, I J-Co-ed my doughnuts, I closed and re-opened Generation Gaps, I hugged, I bullied, I kachau until people go siao, I whined, I overslept and underslept and slept just nice, I lost my favourite big bath towel to some sadly deprived dude in Thailand, I witnessed pig slaughter, I ate it anyway, I carolled until 3am, I collected shatloads of hongbao, I splurged in Bugis, I visited old haunts, I perspired like mad, I counselled (LOL), I hung out, I crammed everything into one obese luggage, I missed my chance for a chat with a shuaige sitting next to me in the plane, I touched down, I shivered, I discovered my new room layout, I love my full-length mirror now on my wardrobe door, I got an iPhone plan, I got addicted to Apps, I went cold turkey on music (because I apparently now have the hearing of a 35 year old, courtesy of some free hearing test App), I collect newspapers everyday like a karang guni man, I always discard the Sports and Business sections, I met awesome people and ate awesome food at Careers Dinner, I still cannot tahan alcohol or sake, I love mochi, I steamboat-ed and hotpot-ed, I pyjamas-ed, I went to the Camberwell Markets and found gorgeous vintage dresses, I chionged during Nightmare Week,

Ahhh.

I k-boxed and I Box Hill-ed and I yumcha-ed and I slept over. I got a bit sick from playing with a motion-sensing App while sitting backwards on an old, cranky bus late after class. And I love my aunt's Seafood Marinara and Curry Laksa.

Meh. The above paragraphs are what happens when you press the fast-forward button on words, instead of on video. Anyway, now that's all over and done with...

Don't we all love Fridays. My latest Friday was spent finding and printing journal articles on Property, and of course the paper wouldn't let me escape without giving me a few cuts first. =__= Then Jess (hereonin J.Co) and Cal (hereonin Calisto) and me (Bento, HAHAHAHAHA) went to this new Korean place on Lonsdale, since Oriental Spoon was closed.

I will remember the dish I ordered til the day I died. It was called Jjol Myun and it was some sort of sweet and spicy cold noodles. Goodness knows I HATE cold noodles and I almost choked to death on them since they were so hard to chew.

"Silly girl dies while choking on Jjol Myun. Friends who collapsed in fits of laughter sent to Royal Women's Hospital." - Herald Sun, 2 May 2009.

J.Co, meanwhile, was frying her brain circuits because the Korean Hana Yori Dango was showing. Every time Goo Jun Pyo appeared on-screen she let out little squeaks and squeals like a seal. I was surprised she could still eat. :P The wise Calisto ordered something safer (which I should have done, I dunno why I go for all these weird-sounding dishes in the hope that I might discover something akin to Asian caviar), BiBim Bap, which was good, and more importantly, WARM.

Eventually, after taking pity on my sad, sad situation with the cold (bloody) noodles, J.Co traded her AWESOME Tuckboky with me! The noodles and fishcakes and rice cakes were awesome in the sauce, though I think Big Mama's stuff is of a higher caliber. Nonetheless, at the end of the whole meal I was feeling decidedly spicy-fied, and my nose felt the same, because it kept running. ("Running Away" by Midnight Hour is an awesome song, by the way) At least the water was free. Why does Singapore charge 10 cents for tap water anyway? WILL AN EXTRA 10 CENTS KEEP YOUR RESTAURANT AFLOAT DURING A FINANCIAL CRISIS???

"Wall Street saved by restaurants charging 10cents for tap water. Obama vows to adopt NEWater in gratitude." - New York Post

We then tramped down all the way to Chinatown where J.Co introduced us to what has replaced TenRen's as the premier Black Milk Tea place in town: "...".

Yes, that's right, I forgot the name. It's on Russell Street, if that helps. BUT NO, I DON'T WANT IT TO HELP, I'LL KEEP THIS PLACE SECRET, IT'S ALL MINE. MINE MINE MINE!!! BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

That place also has awesome buns and pastries.

I bought one.

Damn sad right? Only bought one. Shoulda bought the whole damn store. (I also wanna buy Air Force One, anyone wanna chip in?)

We three Musketeers proceeded to sip happily on our superb drink with sill expressions on our faces down Russell Street. Then we gostan-ed back to QV to sit and chat (cuz, hey, my mouth was in heaven but my feet were in hell).

My hypothesis is that, in order to reach 7th Heaven, all you have to do is eat or drink 7 things from "...". Breadtop is NOTHING compared to "...". Even if TenRen's Black Milk Tea used to be as nice as the tea from "...", now it's no longer comparable. In my humble opinion, "..." should be re-named "Stairway to Heaven", one because it really is, two because it's easier to remember "Stairway to Heaven" than "...".

And yes, for those people who "get it", the Milk Tea from "..." is much like the Egg Tart from Shark Fin House. XD

It all went downhill from there though. J.Co started zi lian-ing in front of the reflective surface of her mobile phone, Calisto made it worse cuz she kept taking pictures semi-surreptitiously of J.Co and J.Co just lapped it all up. Note to J.Co: next time just hire a bunch of paparazzi to surround you and keep taking your photos la, simple right? ;) And the worst thing of all???

I FINISHED MY MILK TEA AND HEAVENLY BUN.

I know. The tragedy right? More moving and poignant than Shakespeare and his angsty shakeforks, shakespoons. More moving than that boy who sparkles. Especially since said boy didn't bathe for 3 whole frickin' weeks and had balls of dandruff rolling off his scalp, holy crap. It can't get any less moving and poignant than THAT okay... =__=

Errrr...

Yar, so, when I ran out of Heaven, it was time for us to catch X-men Origins: Wolverine anyway, so la-di-da, we headed to Melbourne Central. And of course another random person was holding another random rally outside the State Library at such a random time, it was randomly annoying. As if people who have just got off work after a tiring week wanna spend their Friday nights out in the Autumn cold looking at someone with a loudspeaker vent his thoughts and saliva because he doesn't know how to publicise his own blog with Google Ads.

[By the way, I always seem to be carrying enough bags for 3 persons. How can people get away with carrying only one small purse on their arm??? Oh. I think the bulk of it is in their boyfriend's Country Road bag. I see. No wonder she must cling on so tightly to his arm. One must always be careful with one's own belongings. Pickpocketers are rampant.]

Gosh, this stress is really making my random-mometer shoot sky-high...

X-Men Origins: Wolverine - 7.5/10

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Not brilliant, but enjoyable, and the action scenes were done quite well, IMO. Daniel Henney as Zero came as a pleasant surprise though, but his hairstyle was too slicked-back, weird. He does psychotic villain who kills grandmas quite well though. Hugh Jackman, what can I say? Always a pleasure to watch, he's built for Wolverine, he IS Wolverine and if he of all people actually turned into a wolf I wouldn't be surprised. I think the girl, is she Native American? She was really pretty in that Native American kind of way. Her sister looks so different from her though. Must be that casting director's fault. I really hate how he cast Gambit as well. I mean, what a fine way to mess up a fine character. Long hair??? Gimme a break. Gambit was never that much of a sissy, and definitely more pragmatic than whatshisnamewithlonghair. Seriously, the casting director shoulda just gone and killed a hamster, it would've been less traumatising. As it is, I'm still feeling the after-effects of my disappointment with Gambit in the movie.

I'm gonna hunt that casting director down and spread toothpaste on all the door knobs on his house.

Liev Shreiber was magnificent, claws and fangs and rangy gait and all. Love the way his fang peeks out from under his lips when he smiles that sardonic smile. He might not have the cleanest of fingernails but he sure had his role down pat. Except, ok, I still think it's weird when humans run on all fours, even if it's enhanced with CG effects. Like come on, if our hands and feet stayed on the ground we'd all look so ridiculous with our asses kissing the sky.

And with Experiment 11??? If that sword guy's mother saw how he looked at the end, she'd flip in her grave. Heck, I would flip, if I had a grave, but hopefully I won't have a grave, and hopefully they'll check that I'm well and truly dead before cremating me. Honestly, since now property prices are so high, I wonder how much a rectangular piece of burial ground would cost. $200k? Won't surprise me. :S

Wolverine's claws are cool. I wonder what he'd have done if he'd accidentally cut one of those children in two while he did that whole claw thing with the cages. And why did it look like he needed to put in a bit of effort to claw those cages? His claws can like freaking cut through diamond, he didn't have to go all Hulk-like. I think he coulda just started waving his claws around like a fairy wand and they woulda still been able to cut up the metal. WTH. See how Hollywood exaggerates things?

Ahh, and now we come to the juvenile Cyclops, who for all appearances confirm the popular saying "Once a nerd, always a nerd." His writing on the chalkboard reminded me of Bart Simpson, but of course I reckon Bart Simpson trumps Cyclops in terms of teenage charm. Cyclops vs Wolverine is like New Age Sensitive Guy vs Valiant Medieval Knight. No wonder Jean killed him, she must have gotten so annoyed with his whining and his "OMG I can't find my glasses, where're my glasses? I CAN'T DO ANYTHING WITHOUT MY GLASSES, HELPPPPP!!!" predicaments. GO JEAN YOU ROCK! :) Well, ok, not really, you really shouldn't have tried to kill Xavier, he such a nice old man.

I miss Storm, Nightcrawler, Mystique, Magneto, Xavier, Jean, Iceman and Rogue though. BRING X-MEN BAAACCCCKKKKKKK! Oh, and bring Viktor back too, he sorta just disappears without showing his face again.

"Back to back!" - Logan and Viktor, X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

Hehe, very cool. Not so cool is how sometimes during the movie Jackman's hair sort of gets a life of their own and in some scenes, one in particular, looks like some sort of semi-Afro. I guess when someone's just killed your wife and you're in the midst of trying to avoid getting killed, putting on hair gel is just too much to cope with. I feel you man, I really do.

<>

J.Co wanted to try this cod place, Nam Loong on Russell Street. Hey, the cod was really good! I think why they had to fry it though is because the cod here is not fresh enouogh to be steamed and still taste good. But like I always like to think:

"It is the sauce that makes the fish, not the fish that makes the sauce."

My Japanese tofu was nice as well! XD But we couldn't finish the lot, it was too much. I still can't quite believe it's possible to have 6 bowls of rice and STILL be hungry. No wonder my parents are so fanatical about saving money. They're saving up for the bowls of rice they have to buy when my two brothers grow up. Dunno they eat so much also for what, just stay at home and play computer games is all they do most of the time after school. >.> I know la huh, CounterStrike must be very tiring for them, the clicking on the mouse and moving it here and there is particularly exhausting on the body, poor things.

=_=

After Nam Loong though, it got really interesting, cuz I think I nearly got a heart attack from running from Bourke to Swanston in 3 minutes. My Amazing Race can? Only no prize money, just alot of wheezing and panting at the end. Now I know how in need of exercise I am, HAHA! Run a few blocks so tired already. What happened to the 2.4km I used to be able to run? Maybe the 2.4km would still be there if, say, an angry bull was chasing me.

I accidentally took J.Co's strawberry danish home as well, LOL! Ate it this morning since I was not sure pastries could keep so long, and IT'S REALLY VERY NICE. So when I say I'm not gonna buy from Breadtop anymore, I mean partially: I'm still gonna buy that strawberry danish, mango wrap, vanilla brioche and taro buns. :P

OK OK OK OK. Epic post, I ranted too much already, my fingers wanna break from my luo suo-ness. This blog post is like the modern-day grandmother story. EEeeyyeerrr. Already becoming like grandma. Choi.

What Happens When...

2008-11-28T11:57:00.002+11:00

...the holidays begin?

^^

I'm so glad to say that, well, haha, NOTHING MUCH HAPPENS! YAY!

I love when nothing much happens. Boredom is SUCH a LUXURY. ;3

So far I've been catching up on reading all those books accumulating in one corner. That is all. :) I just thought my blog looked really dead, so I needed to SAY SOMETHING. Besides, now that I've all the time in the world, why not? ^^

Surprisingly it's not been that hot here in Melbourne, what with storms and such shit. Weird for this kind of year, at one point during the weekend before my final exam it was absolutely WINTRY. Then again, this is Melbourne, why do I sound so surprised...

Maybe I'll pop down to Officeworks today and buy a whole exquisite blank sketch book just for DRAWING!!! OMG that'd be a good idea. Especially since I just replaced my faulty tablet pen... Hehe, time to start dabble dabble in Photoshop again!!!

Oh but curses, I forgot to get Adobe CS from my cousin. -__________-;; Ah well, Elements will do, it's just that I want to fiddle around with CS's functions as well, it looks like it has really cool effects and brushes~~~ *whine* And I was thinking of getting Dreamweaver or some such similar program. Been itching to make some blogskins of my own too...

But yeah, all this for later. :) First and foremost...RIP ALL MY UNRIPPED CDS INTO MY MP3 PLAYER YOU STUPID PROCRASTINATOR!!!

Golden Dragon Palace; 金龙官

2008-10-26T18:15:00.009+11:00

***Warning, this post has loads of pictures***

My aunt made a booking at Golden Dragon for her birthday, so we went there today for the first session of yumcha. Before I go on, just a side note, Golden Dragon is reputed to be one of the best places for yumcha in Melbourne. Yes, all my relatives have very discerning tastes. Which I can't complain about, can I? :)

^ When you first step into the cool interior of the restaurant, you'll see loads of traditional Chinese oriental pictures on the walls. The walls, floors and chairs are mostly of dark and heavy wood, which is a typical feature of Chinese restaurants in Melbourne.

^ There's also a large mirror, with a low table in front. I saw the Melon magazine there. :P The logo of the restaurant is also pasted semi-translucent on the glass. And yes, more pictures of oriental-looking plants...

^ I would say, for a yumcha restaurant, the ambience is as muted as it gets. But we came on a Sunday, so I'm not sure if this is always the case. The lighting was soft and yellow, which was pleasant, but was no help with my photos.

^ WTH? Lol, even the prison-like bars on the windows look oriental. Figures. Btw, that's my aunt in the middle. I mean, both are my aunts, but she's the one with the birthday. :P

^ Woohoo~ Our table, which was sizeable. Plus we had a spare chair... The glass top in the middle got really dirty at the end, lol! But if I were the table, I wouldn't be complaining yea, having tasty food spilled on me would, I think, be a good thing. :)

^ When I describe the ambience as 'muted', it's meant to be a compliment. There was a considerable crowd already milling at the front of the restaurant BEFORE it even opened... And when they DID open, everyone was like chionging inside... LOL, but okay, to be fair, it had started to drizzle by then, so yeah. W00t~ Now to the food section, OMGAWDDDDD. XD

^ Say hello to the very first dish I ate. ^^ Chicken pie! And one of the best I've tasted. Not too fat, not too much chicken stuffed into it, and just the right amount of suger brushed on top to complement the savoury flavour of the chicken inside. Not to mention the pastry was really melt-in-the-mouth crumbly. :)

^ Feng Zhao!!! Usually, I'm not really enthu about this kind of dish, but I can say now that I rue only having taken one. It was really good, with a slight tang of pepper to liven the usual taste. When I say I didn't even mind biting the toes off, it's a testament to how good it tasted. :P

^ Tripe, I think. Dunno whether it was beef tripe, or pork tripe, or whatever, lol. I didn't touch this dish, but my cousin seemed to like it, so yeah.

^ Hmm, I didn't try this dish as well, because it looked very mundane. I was trying to save my stomach for the weirder stuff to come. :) If I hazarded a guess, this would be vegetarian pork dumpling...???

^ OMG! This dish was pure heaven! Scallop Siu Mai! The scallop was so fresh and juicy, and it tasted awesome combined with the siu mai. I would have order another one just for myself. XD

^ Oops, wait, was this the tripe? LOL. Don't know, I didn't eat this anyway. :P

^ Suckling pig! Not bad, I quite liked this dish. But there's still a suckling pig place in S'pore which I like better. :) Then again, this was a good effort. I just wish there were buns provided with this dish. :P

^ Ha Gau!!! Yea man, this dish was awesome!!! Compared with that mistake of a dish at Claypot King, this was the embodiment of REAL Ha Gau, haha! The skin was thin, but not too thin so that all the stuff falls out, and the prawn inside was SO fresh my goodness... You know those kinds of prawn you chew and chew and juice keeps coming out? Yeeeaaaaahhhhh... :D

^ Sesame Prawn dish! Quite good, the first time I've eaten a dish like this, but I'm biased toward anything with prawns inside, hahahahaha!

^ Oooh, I remember this weird dish, this was fried/steamed Eggplant. Though I didn't try it, the adults all seemed to like it so, lol. I only like eating eggplant with curry, so I avoided this dish.

^ Look at it! Just look at it! XD Glutinous rice, and it was so yummy. Too bad we only ordered one plate, I I just had one spoonful, but it was nevertheless very nice. No overcooked or undercooked rice, and it was chewy and subtly flavoured. I woulda had a bowl to myself if I could. XD

^ Chee cheong fun with prawn! XD one of my fave yumcha dishes, and Golden Dragon didn't let me down! :) The cheong fun was smooth, soft and thin, and (duh!) the prawns were super fresh, HUGE and juicy. We odered the char siew version as well, but I chose to put this up instead, since prawns PWN char siew anyday.

^ This is yet another dish which wow-ed me. Introducing Prawn wrapped in Glutinous Rice! (With a lap cheong on top, lol) Can I just say that pairing savoury, flavourful prawns with relatively mild-tasting glutinous rice is pure genius??? The taselessness of the rice provided the perfect background to enjoy the savoury sweetness of the prawns within. I should have just fainted and gone to heavan lar, with all the prawn dishes I was eating. XD

^ Hey hey, the humble char siew pau also didn't lose out. Once again, a normal yet exceptional dish. The bread was soft (with no unpleasant damp or stiff parts) and the char siew sauce inside was smooth and very sweet and flavourful. I like that the meat didn't contain much fat, unlike some of its mediocre counterparts.

^ This carrot cake made me feel so nostalgic! It was thick and dencely flavoured, with the hint of pepper. Neither was it too sweet or too salty, it had just the right texture! X3 Best of all, I had one all to myself, since by this time people were starting to get full, lol. (Usually what happens when everyone starts to get full is that they push everything onto my plate, LAWL! They all know of my bottomless pit stomach. XP)

^ This is the typical yam dish. I didn't try it cuz I don't really like this sort of dish, and I didn't want to ruin my appetite eating a dish I didn't wanna eat in the first place. Yam can be quite filling. But again, one of my cousins LURVES this dish.

^ ALERT ALERT! SUPERSTAR OF THE DAY! Mango and Cream Wrap! You know, I thought I'd be the last person to ever endorse a cold crepe dish, but I'll be damned if anyone ever tries this dish and can honestly tell me they don't like it. Seriously, if you ever try this and say you don't like it at all, then I say I can see your nose growing very very long. This was my stairway to heaven lor! Even my cousins laughed when they saw my face, lol. Apparently I had this very worshipful expression on my face, HAHAHAHAHA!

No words can describe how frickin' wonderful the combination of pastry, mango and cream was. It was just mind-blowing. It looked so harmless at first as well. That is, until you bite into it, OMYGAWD. You get the gist. This is one of those try-before-you-die kind of dishes. A safe bet you can only get it at Golden Dragon.

^ Fried lin yong and Banana. This dish offered one of the most unique and unexpected tastes of the day. Seriously, who would've thought? Lin yong and banana? Well, haha, you haven't seen the salted egg and custard dish yet to come, lol... But yeah, this was pretty decent.

^ After tasting this dish, I feel kinda ashamed of myself for saying before that I don't like this kind of egg tart. Because this dish made me change my mind. ^^;; I mean, HELLO??? The pastry was so light, fluffy and tasteless enough to complement the superb sweetness of the egg inside. Plus you could actually taste the egg, just slightly, not just the sweetness. HAHA, and I had two, because by this time all the extra food was being pushed to me liao, LOL! I know la, I'm kinda shameless when it comes to food. :x

^ My phone cam makes this sago dish look like crap lor... SIGH. It was so nice somemore! Warm and not too sweet, kinda thick and kinda not. Sits in the mouth really nicely. :) Another must-try (haha, arguably, almost every dish I've posted up is a must-try). What I love about this is that the sweetness is not over the top, and it wasn't too gooey. Understated elegance man.

^ Say hello to the salted egg and custard bun. Not bad, not bad, tastes like what kaya kueh might taste like. ^^ One of those dishes which sound really weird and scary, but actually is quite nice when you actually taste it.

^ Ok this is either the fried milk or the steamed milk dish. The weird dish that my third aunt really really LURVES. Looks more like the steamed milk dish, but then again, I can imagine fried milk will also look like this.*shrug* Yes, you hear correctly, FRIED milk. LOL. This dish had a slight garlic aftertaste, which means it had this really healthy sort of taste, very liang. Like the liang feeling after you drink ginseng tea, or something to that effect. Apparently it's very health. O_o But for me, heck care whether it's healthy or not, it tasted weird. But I don't like garlic anyway, so take this opinion with a pinch of salt.

^ Last dish! ^^ Ummm. this is actually the fried skin of those fried red bean paste balls. You know? Those fried red bean paste balls with sesame seeds stuck outside. Yeah, this is the red-bean-less skin, served by itself. Lemme just say this tasted really funky, lol! Like eating those fried red bean balls without the red bean inside, haha!

So there you have it, a very satisfying and worthwhile trip. But be prepared to foot the bill. We had nine persons, so it came to about AU$30 a head. Otherwise, if you feel like splurging some cash on really good food, then you should head down to Golden Dragon. For those on a student's budget, this is a place worthwhile to save for. :D If I ever decide to return, I wanna try out their Sharkfin Dumpling Soup dish. Come with, anyone? :)

Blog Meme! (I Got Tagged!)

2008-10-15T20:51:00.002+11:00

I've read other people who've basically been too lazy to blog, so their blogs are full of blog memes. :P NOW I'VE BECOME ONE OF THEM, HAHAHAHAHA! Ok here goes...

1. what's the best movie you've seen in the past two weeks ?
Wall-E! <3

2. name one person who made you laugh last night .
Ziva from NCIS.

3. what were you doing at 0800?
8am: waiting at the 207 bus stop
8pm: trying to stuff the already-overfull recycling bin

4. what were you doing 30 minutes ago ?
Tidying up my room

5. what was the last thing you said out loud ?
"What was the last thing you said out loud" LOL. Yes, I repeat the questions under my breath. It's a bad habit when I read stuff. XD

6. how many beverages did you have today ?
Ummm... 2 bottles of water, 4 mugs of water, 1 500ml ice break coffee

7. what color is your hairbrush ?
Navy blue and black

8. what was the last thing you paid for ?
My 500ml ice break coffee

9. where were you at 7 o'clock tonight ?
In my room

10. what's the weather like today ?
Sorta cold in the morning, but fairly warm and really sunny in the afternoon. A cool, pleasant day.

11. what's your favorite ice-cream flavor ?
It's a tie between Chocolate Peanut Buttercup and Roche

13. do you want to cut your hair ?
Nope, I am under express orders not to do so. :P

14. are you over the age of 25 ?
Nope

15. do you talk a lot ?
Yes, I even conduct imaginary conversations with myself and inanimate objects

16. do you watch the O.C. ?
No... who gives a damn about the O.C. when there's Ugly Betty and Heroes???

17. do you know anyone named steven ?
I read a book once called Even Steven...

18. are you a jealous person ?
Depends, y'know?

19. who're you thinking of right now ?
Jess (I think because I'm doing this meme cuz she tagged me, LOL!)

20. name a friend whose name starts with the letter K .
Kwann

21. who's the first person on your received call list ?
Yuqi

22. what does the last text message you received say , from who ?
"I didn't go cause my sister wanted dessert house :( i want to try next time though.." from Yuqi

23. do you chew on your straw ?
No, unless I'm sharing drinks with someone and have to find some way of identifying my straw. I like my straw to be at full capacity, thank you very much. Chewing a straw only makes the opening smaller. Can't stand those idiots who chew their bubble tea straws; how the heck do they manage to suck up their pearls???

24. do you have curly hair ?
Nope

25. where are you going tomorrow ?
To Las Vegas to buy a hotel. YEAH RIGHT LOR. A better question would be: Where are you NOT going tmr?

26. what was the last thing you ate ?
Chicken and mayo sandwich

27. will you get married in the future ?
I hope I will :)

28. is there anyone you like right now ?
Nope.
Well, I like all my friends... :D

29. when was the last time you did the dishes ?
Monday

30. are you currently depressed ?
Kinda, and stressed at the same time. -____- Stressed = depressed in my dictionary.

31. did you cry today ?
Nope

32. what's your favorite hang out place ?
Red Silks, King's Cafe, Sambal Kampung, Teppansan, Max Brenner's, Hudson's Coffee, Pancake Parlour etc. Places which have nice ambience.

33. name one of your hobbies .
Reading and drawing. Who gave you the right to decide that I can only list one? Baka.

34. did you ever lied to your best friend before ?
Mainly white lies. :) Anything more serious and my conscience will bbq my ass.

35. quickly take a picture of you right now and post it here .
Aiya go search me on facebook la, as if I got so much time. My pc doesn't have a built-in camera. YOU'RE DISCRIMINATING AGAINST PEOPLE WHO HAVE OUTDATED PCs!!! ihateyouihateyouihateyou.

36. name your first love .
Hmmm...it's a tie between reading and drawing...
But relationship-wise, no, none, nada. :P

YAY! There, I'm done. That was kinda fun, haha!

Birthdays, Essays and Cornflakes

2008-09-03T20:59:00.004+10:00

Man, I am getting worse and worse at coming up with a blog title for each post. -___- Actually, I might be lazy and just let you guys infer the story from the title...

HAHA, cannot cannot. I promised myself to blog after both my essays are done, and they ARE, thank goodness. ^^ In a very good mood now, in fact.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY once again to JESS the BAKA! :DDDD 19 is a very nice number, no? The number just before a person hits the 20s. So still considered young la. HAHAHAHA.

The weekend was full of essay crap, so I shall not elaborate. Monday was a nice day despite the fact I woke up at 3am to chiong finish my Arts essay. Decided to skip contracts and constitutional law, because after 3 consecutive days of closeting myself in my room and staring at the PC for hours on end, I thought I deserved a break. :) Later that day, ended up in Melbourne Central browsing the magazines in preparation for my ad analysis. ^^ There was a mini-fashion show being held next to the clock, it was really quite fascinating, except for the fact that my cam video quality is worse than shit. (BTW, I've found my DREAM PHONE: the 8.1mp Sony Ericsson phone coming out end of this year/beginning of next. OMG I can't bloody wait! Apparently this phone is the flagship of Sony for 2008! And it looks uber sleek and awesome! XDDDD)

Ahem. Oops. Went off into hyper I-love-tech-stuff mode. Ehehehe. After hanging around a bit to watch a few more sections of the show, I ended up at Valleygirl checking out some of their spring arrivals. SO MANY FLOATY, FLORAL AND FUN STUFF!!! But in the end I restricted myself to a cute shirt. :P Since shirts are the only clothing I never buy from monday.com.

Tuesday was spent slacking too. I headed down to target during my 4hr break to look at a blanket I wanted, but ended up shopping instead. -________- On the bright side, I only bought one item, hehe. :) I'm getting better at controlling my shopping impulses, YEAAAAAHHHHH! Now to reduce that one item to zero...............

I suppose I'm one of those people who shop for the sake of shopping bah...~shudder~ What a horrific thought.

Today was damn fun though. Although Wednesdays come with the prerequisite 4 hours of law in the morning, having good friends in class helps pass the time. Christine was promoting Festival of Nations cuz she was manning a stall. So after classes, Yuqi and I headed down to Union House to check out the FOOOOOOD! Weee! (The thing about these sorts of festivals is that if any of your friends are operating the stalls or selling stuff, you all of a sudden feel obligated to buy. XD And of course those bloody good friends will "coerce" you to buy la, LOL, damn funny.)

We obligingly bought Nasi Bryani and Rendang (with free drink) from Christine's store, Poh's Kitchen, and it was pretty good, all for $6. :) Then we went to the Malaysian store to get goreng pisangs, which were pretty good too! ^^ Except it came in bits and pieces la, but who cares, it brought back fond memories! XD As we were walking back, Yuqi told me she recently got a pet mouse, Cornflakes! OMG of course once I heard that I HAD to drop by at her place to catch a good look at the adorable, dark grey guy.

Apparently when she told this to everyone else they just said "Ewwww, gross, a mouse!". Which I think have no rational basis at all. I mean, would you rather hold a cockcroach or a pig? Just because mice are criminalised and villainised on TV doesn't make them evil incarnate and rabies-infected mutants. In fact, as I held Cornflakes in my hand, he was shivering la can! And his ears are so small, fine and translucent, and his cute nose kept quivering and he kept scurrying around just being naturally adorable. Except he seemed so fragile I was loathe to handle him for too long.

In the end I think he got a bit of heart attack and went all hyper because of me (a stranger), so Yuqi had to cover the cage with towels to calm him down. Thereafter I ended up chatting for another hour, lol!

Dunno why, but I suddenly have the itch to read Twilight. Where is the Borders coupon when you need it??? ~curse mumble curse~ And I feel like apple pie. (' o, ')

Yada~~~! Cannot think of food now. Instead, I shall just end my post with the photo of my dream phone. HAHAHAA.

And this is what Cornflakes looks like, only cuter:

とても　かわいい　です！

Thursday's Tail and Misc.

2008-08-10T16:30:00.003+10:00

Hello people! (Just a side note, hooray! This is the 100th post for this blog. HAHA. Landmark man, I never supposed I'd be able to persevere with a blog for this long.)

Remember the previous post? When I had to go for class? XD Turns out there were more surprises in store for me. Looking back, I realised Thursday had more highs than lows, and man, was Thursday exciting.

So, I left off going for class right? I haven't told you people about the fab new Studnet IT labs in the new wing of the ERC Library. OMG, there were sofas, plush lounges and rows of new computers. They even had a section filled with Mac PCs! ^^ Everything looked so new, and the tone of the place was very relaxed. I managed to find my new relaxation island at uni, safe-from-the-elements, upbeat and comfy. Yet another plus for the day! <3

The class I had first was Marketing Communications. I found the class in the Asia Centre building, and, looking into the room filled with people, I panicked and thought I was late for class, so I barged in and frantically looked around for a seat. Then the tutor looked at me pointedly and said, "This is the Fiction class.". OMG lol, so embarassing. I couldn't make my exit fast enough! LAWL! I got second thoughts about whether my class was really going to be held in that room, so I asked a random girl, who turned out to be in the same class I was. Heehee! Made a new friend already, which is a great start to a tute, in my opinion.

The tutorial room was pretty spiffy, for such an old building like the Asia Centre[Thumbs Up!] and the tute was really full (lots of Asians, lol). I started chatting with two girls when...

ONE OF THE GUYS FROM BIG BROTHER WALKED IN and sat down at another table. (Btw, for those who've kept up with this season of BB, it was Nobbi!)

At first I couldn't believe my eyes, and took a second look. Then I looked at my friend, and she looked at me, and we starting smiling like idiots and making shocked faces at each other.

"Isn't he that guy from Big Brother?!?!"

"Yeah, he is! LOL!"

"I can't believe he just walked in, OMG!"

*snicker snicker giggle snort* followed by discreet pointing and rolling eyes.

But really, he was quite irritating in class, but opinionated and loud all the same (just like he was when he was in the House). The tutor seemed pretty nice too, as were the people in the class (some of whom I recognised from previous tutes, so yay!). All in all, a pretty pleasant experience, especially since I managed to make new friends in the tute. Which always makes me really happy and really high. :P

Next class was Lifestyle and Consumer Culture, and the people in the class had ballooned to twice the size of the previous class (meaning alot of people have enrolled in this subject recently, which is what's been happening in Marketing Communications) and I found out that Cherie from Trinity is in my tute. :) Plus I really like the tutor (I think she's Singaporean), who's friendly and amicable and approachable.

Yippee! So my Arts classes this semester seem to have made a good start! <3

But my dramatic day wasn't quite over yet. At the end of classes, I caught the 203 home (lucky! I thought I'd missed the 203! XD The 203 is the fastest bus I can catch home, since part of its route is on the highway. And fast is a good thing during peak hour.) The bus was almost full, but I managed to grab a seat beside this Asian girl who so nicely set her groceries on the floor. I smiled and thanked her and she smiled back. After awhile I noticed she was having trouble keeping her bottles upright on the floor, so I persuaded her to put the bottles back up on the seat (told her I didn't need THAT much space on the seat anyway, lol).

We could have started talking then, but I was kinda tired, and my jaw was aching from an entire day of talking (not to mention smiling, laughing etc. Smiling is something that puts the most strain on my jaw I find, but I CAN'T HELP SMILING, CAN I??? Grrr.) Looking back, I should've struck up a convo, made a new friend. Why, you ask? Well, haha, a pleasant surprise at the end of my bus ride was that we got off at the same stop! ^^ (Which might not seem much to you but most of the time I'm the only one who gets off at this particular stop, one of the last few stops on the route)

Oh well, I'm sure we'll meet again next time! ^^

Fast forward to BAN's Olympics Opening Ceremony commentary:

Eto...for a person who's been born and raised in Singapore, and who's watched National Day Parade for the past 12 or so years of my life, the Opening Ceremony was just a more large-scale production of epic proportions. I guess the Chinese were really making full use of their vast population and gunpowder. :P Some really fancy graphics and artistic ideas, especially in the calligraphic portion of the show and the unfolding scroll, and lighted costumes. The movable type presentation was fascinating, and so was the globe that rose up out of the floor. But on the whole, not something to stay up til 2am for (which was what I did). Good enough to wait for the repeat the next morning, where all the highlights are shown, so you don't have to look at the boring bits, like random obscure nations' athlete parading out. I kept dozing in and out of the parade of 205 nations, lol.

The finale lighting of the torch and fireworks were spectacular, but still a bit disappointing, as I was totally expecting a flying firework dragon to weave through the sky (a la Harry Potter). Nevertheless, I've been missing the last 3 years of NDP, so this experience was a tad nostalgic. :)

Today's Sunday right? I've been watching the Gymnastics portion of the Olympic Games. China's gymnasts are pretty darn good, and Roumania was good on the poles thing (I don't know the technical term for those -__-). But those were only the qualifiers I think. I'll bet the finals would be a sight to behold.

Ugh. Reality has hit me. I'm supposed to be reading Constitutional Law right now. Oh, go stuff yourself. Ihateyouihateyouihateyou. Iloatheyouidetestyouiwannaburnyouintolittlecinderbits. *shrug* I'll end up not reading them anyway, knowing me. Teehee. Plus, recently, I've been reading books 1 & 2 of the English version of Skip Beat, haha. Not bad, it seems that the original appeal of the manga transcends the borders of language. XD I still laugh, squeal and tear up at the proper moments. Ladeeda~ I even got Yuqi hooked up to Skip Beat. She told me she read the whole series so far in about 3 days! O_O Even pro-er than me, LOL! At least in the English version I can be bothered to read the mangaka's notes at the side, which give me extra insight into the manga (and her apparent severe lack of self-confidence ._.).

Bamboozled!

2008-08-07T14:44:00.002+10:00

I CAN'T FRICKIN' BELIEVE THIS!!!

More importantly, I can't FREAKIN' believe that I fell for such a ploy.

Ok ok, not really. To people who know me very well, I am super duper naive. Of all people to get scammed of $14, it would be me. ME. WHY ME???

Sorry if I sound whiny. but I feel like whining now. Let's turn back the clock to discover what went so horribly wrong...

So. This morning, I went to the doctor's to have that weird, painful lump on my thigh inspected. It turns out it was NOT:

a) an insect bite
b) cancer
c) deep vein thrombosis (DVT)

It turned out to be a skin infection, and the swollen look was because of a bit of pus. YIPPEE! [Stamp Of Approval] All I have to do now is apply my ointment 3 times a day and I can stop having to sit in weird positions on buses, trams and in class! (you will not hbelieve how hard it was just to find a comfortable position to sit in, since the infection was underneath the thigh, where people SIT on; I kept wriggling on my seats like some lice-infested weirdo CAN??? XD) I think this is mostly due to the fact that the nice doctor poked my infected area with a fine needle (ouch!) and got the pus out, so now it's not swollen and I can sit like a human being once again. ^^

Then I toddled off to the law library to finish my reading for Lifestyle and Consumer Culture. I also managed to load episode 3 of Shugo Chara! OMG. Awesome series man. Funny, yet meaningful at the same time. I guess this anime is going to be as popular as Fruits Basket, if not more, because they both have similar qualities. The most important of which is characters still trying to find themselves, searching for an identity. Which is why I think many people will like this show, since we are all still trying to find ourselves, are we not? Trying to discover if we really DO have this would-be self that is perhaps more glamorous, out-going, fantastic and uber-cool than our everyday mundane selves. Besides, Shugo Chara is SO DAMN KAWAII! (Amazing how I still like it since I tend to avoid shows which are too kawaii, like Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya).

After I was done at the lab, I trammed down to Bourke to meet Jess. And here comes the [Thumbs Down] part of the day. This scruffy-looking guy with about maybe two days' growth of beard pushed his bike to me and asked if I could spare some change, $5 maybe. So I told him I didn't have a $5 note, then I handed him $4 out of sympathy (STUPID STUPID STUPID). Then he asked if I had a $5 note, and I repeated that NO I didn't have a $5 note. Nevertheless, he told me to check my wallet and I then said I only had $20 notes with me. So he should me a crumpled fistful of $5 notes and a large quantity of $2 coins and asked if he could exchange my $20 with the coins and $5 notes.

Seeing as he evidently had ample money to exchange my $20, I was like "Why not?", so I handed him my $20 note. THEN! He thrust the $5 notes at me, got on his bicycle and rode away, saying 'Don't worry, I've counted, it's correct!". He disappeared before I could blink. I looked at the notes in my hand and...

There were only two $5 notes. He gave me only two $5 notes in exchange for my $20. AND HE JUST FRICKIN' RODE AWAY. It made me feel so terrible. I believe in helping people who genuinely need money, but these cheats just give human charity a bad name. Don't they have any conscience?

I felt hurt, used, upset, shocked and dismayed. And then, as I had more time to think, I realised my $14, although gone, was a lesson well learnt. I also find that, instead of really hating that man, I find I pity him. How empty his life must be. To have stooped so low is, I believe, an indication of upbringing. How lacking in love , charity and concern his home must be. I believe people are victims of their upbringing sometimes, and I'm glad I have a happy home and a family who has taught me well.

No money in the entire world can purchase a conscience, and I'm glad I have one. :)
So, [Thumbs Up]! Besides, I hate holding grudges, made even more pointless in this situation since i don't even know who the man is. But whoever you are, I wish you the best of luck, and at least hope that you do something useful with that $14! (Though I doubt so)

*ahem* Class is starting soon, lolz, gotta scram. Cya soon!

Pass the Baton!

2008-08-01T12:01:00.003+10:00

It's official: our medical practitioners are engaging in a pastime that is spreading like wildfire. Curiously, only medical professionals in developed healthcare systems have taken on board this habit.

The catch is, in this particular marathon, only the patient comes out the poorer.

As of today, I have received my third referral, to see a jaw specialist for my partial jaw dislocation. Having been pssed on from doctor, to dentist to specialist, I have become somewhat disillusioned by this so-called highly advanced health care system that so many developed countries now boast about. Hell, my injury is almost minor in nature, and yet I feel as though I'm being pushed across a chess board from square to square.

If it were only one referral, then I wouldn't be in such a ruffled state, but three? It's been 2 months since I'd incurred this injury and all any of the professionals I've met have come up with is a description of what went wrong, and some suggestions. It's a good thing I haven't had to cough up a cent until now. But really, it's only a matter of time.

I'm not the only one suffering from this ridiculous pastime. Take those patients who have to wait in line for major surgical operations. Surely, in an advanced healthcare system, no one would have to wait more than a few days for a heart transplant? With surgeons, nurses and doctors in short supply and a growing number of patients with urgent problems, can doctors still afford to play hot potato? Even with hospitals being revamped and new ones in the works, this will still be too little too late for many patients on waiting lists.

Nevertheless, newspapers seem to echo the government's chant that our hospitals and medical centres are better equipped than ever. Horrific stories of bad hygiene and debilitating diseases in other countries only serve to heighten our complacency that we have a reliable and professional healthcare system that will be there to support us if ever we have a need.

Perhaps even before evaluating our own health, we should extend a magnifying glass and get a glimpse of the rot that is spreading throughout the medical system. The rest of us may be healthy enough, but our support system seems to be ailing. It's time to store away the batons, so that those among us who need help can pass the finishing line without having to race against time.

And The World Goes 'Round The Sun

2008-07-22T13:27:00.003+10:00

-____________-

I can't believe all the hassle I've been through just to turn my timetable into something more humane. If I'd left things as it was, I would have had 15hrs of FREE TIME on my hands between lessons. Considering I only have 13hrs of contact time during the week, 15hrs is unbelievable.

Now, after a few days worth of stressing and rearranging and emailing, I've cut that break down to 4hrs. 4hrs is still alot, considering my timetable last semester had only a 2hr break, which was split half-half. Now this semester I have a 4hr continuous break. Oh well. I discovered something weird.

If I hadn't changed my subjects this semester and left it at that boring subject I disliked, I would have gotten 2 days off and little/no break. It happens with my other politics subjects as well (and OMG hopefully I will no longer be taking any more politics subjects). Like for Chinese Politics last sem, my timetable was near perfect!

So I have come to the conclusion that if I am to take subjects I actually enjoy, I will have to bear with the imperfections of my timetable. Which is fair enough, I suppose. Every choice has its ups and downs. :) So yeah, I could actually be using my time now to reduce that 4hrs to 2hrs, but I've decided to let it go for now.

Instead, I've come up with a list of things to do for that 4hr-long break:

1) Learn Japanese***
2) Do essay research (if any)***
3) Read course materials***
4) Go to the gym
5) Play around with my DS
6) Stream dramas on school computers to while away the time
7) Download more DS games/music
8) Watch movies on my mp3 player
9) Go window shopping
10) Muck around with friends
11) Do grocery shopping

After consulting this list, I realise I can do quite alot of stuff in this time period. And then I didn't feel so bad anymore. HAHAHA! Especially the top 3 on the list. Those are the things I wouldn't otherwise do unless I'm at school, so I guess this "break" actually forces me to sit down and keep up with my readings. Whoopee. Haha, no, really.

This also means that from Mon-Thurs I will definitely be free during lunch times, and definitely free from 1-3pm on all these days! So if anyone wants to catch up with me or hang out for lunch, I will be able to make it 99% of the time. :D

By the way, The Dark Knight is AWESOME. So dark and menacing, unlike so many other predictable superhero shows (which become predictable because of this same formula: guy/girl has super powers, is defeated by bad guy the first time, makes a comeback and defeats villain, and gets the girl/guy that he/she loves in the end). So many themes in the story are relevant and meaningful, and some are questions we ask ourselves on a daily basis. Instead of labelling this a superhero flick, I think it should more precisely be hailed as a movie going one step further and questioning what it means to be a superhero and whether the world really needs one.

Watch out for Heath Ledger. His Joker will send spiders up your spine, and keep you on the edge of your seat (forgive me this cliche).

Another observation: I've always had the impression that word-of-mouth advertising is tedious and weak, but being myself a proponent of this activity just recently, I now think otherwise. Of course, it still helps more if you broadcast on TV, but word-of-mouth advertising is still effective because it's more viral and it comes from a source you trust or have a certain proximity to (e.g. friend, relative, tutor etc.), which means you're more likely to go try a product or service.

I think that's how Ying Thai got famous anyway. But that's just IMO. :D

Guilty Annoyances

2008-07-05T23:11:00.002+10:00

Frustrated SIGH.

You know sometimes you piss me off alot. ALOT. The things you say are so frustrating and just piss me OFF. What's more, I just feel so guilty for disliking you because you mean well and you're a nice person, but I just can't seem to make myself like you. Admittedly, sometimes I try my darndest to like you, and sometimes this works. But most times I fail miserably and end up being annoyed at you whilst feeling guilty for being annoyed at you at the SAME time.

Which only serves to frustrate me more. And yet I can't bring myself to tell you howirritating you are. Love your neighbour as you would yourself, this much I am certain, but the things you say and the way you say things...

You might not mean to annoy or irritate me, but you DO. Your ideals and ways of thinking just really really annoys me. Pisses me off. You're a nice person, but I can't seem to agree with you, or tolerate you for long periods of time.

I'm so so sorry that I feel this way. I wish I didn't. I'm trying very hard not to feel this way. But it seems like the more I try NOT to get annoyed, I DO. Which only serves to irritate me more, what the heck.

So I'm sorry if sometimes I seem very waspish. Your personality seems to rub me the wrong way, even though I know very well that you don't mean anything by it. I disagree with most things you say, which frustrates me, because you keep trying to persuade me to see it your way, and I CAN'T see it your way because I DISLIKE your way.

You're such a wonderful, bright and cheery person but I can't seem to make myself appreciate you. Maybe because you're everything I'm not and you make me feel ashamed? Probably. Maybe because your views differ vastly from mine? Probably. Maybe because you're S-L-G? Probably.

Would you please stop bothering me with your NICE-ness already? Maybe if you stop being so nice and try being a little mean I might start to like you. Until then...I shall ganbatte and keep trying to appreciate you more...

I'm sorry.

Stranded

2008-06-29T20:41:00.003+10:00

YES, I spent quite a considerable time today being STRANDED. At Melbourne Central. Where I was supposed to meet Isabel and Ashley. Why? BECAUSE I LEFT MY FRICKIN' PHONE AT HOME!!! -_______- The moment I realised this on the tram, I felt so vulnerable all of a sudden. Darn it. I hate being reliant on technology, but then again... >.> Since today was so bloody cold and dreary and windy, I decided not to get off the tram to go get my phone.

Phoneless, I ended up waiting like an idiot at the Melbourne Central clock, looking at the Sony LCD TV screen replaying the SAME Pixar animation OVER and OVER and OVER and #$@%. What's more, I kept anxiously looking out for either Isabel or Ashley, and this Korean couple beside me kept thinking I was looking at them (yeah, reality check, why would I want to look at people I hardly even know??? -___-). After waiting for an hour or so, I saw Ashley sauntering into Melb Central. OMG I was so relieved. I had thought that the only highlight I would have today was going to Coles and getting some shampoo... XD

(SOMEONE'S been using my shampoo, I just know it. My shampoo bottle is emptier than a black hole, but still my conditioner is half full. Grrr.)

We wandered around a bit through Ozmosis, Jay Jays, Billabong, Espirit and Myer. One really irritating incident was when I needed the restroom and there were queues frickin' EVERYWHERE. (Thanks a lot, Melb Central, for having TWO cubicles per toilet. I can see you guys are totally focused on providing the very best of retail experiences at the expense of making money) Myer is no better. They should hand out GPS devices to all their customers at the entrance, just so we can find where we're meant to go, quickly and efficiently, instead of having to wander around like lost souls... That poor customer service lady out front must be really really patient, seeing as how she's got to give directions to the different departments and all. Pei fu pei fu.

Then we went to Chom Chom for dinner. OH EM GEE! Haven't been there in ages! I missed my prawn noodles so much. Aside from the fact that the soya milk tasted like so much crap (forgot that cold soya milk isn't as nice as the warm sort), it was a pretty good dinner. If it wasn't for Ashley going on and on and on about Zowie... -____-

Grahhh. Funny how I don't have any more urges to blog once the holidays are here. I guess maybe I don't have anything to rant about anymore, HAHA. ^^

Things to do soon:

1) Go Kbox
2) Watch Kung Fu Panda, Hancock, Mamma Mia! and Happy Go Lucky
3) Eat steamboat
4) Cook something. ANYTHING. Instant noodles not counted.
5) Lodge a complaint with Fitness First for giving me follow-up calls
6) Get a job. ANY JOB.
7) Buy remaining books
8) Go Box Hill eat yum cha

XD When one has nothing to say, make a list. ;P

Tah~

Job Seekers a.k.a. Slackers

2008-06-16T22:42:00.003+10:00

Basically, what I did today can be condensed into a single sentence: went job-hunting in the city with Jess but ended up slacking, shopping and sipping. Slacking: There were jobs, but either we couldn't be bothered giving our resumes, or we didn't want the job, haha. Shopping: Randomly stopping by bookstores, sweet shops and DVD shops along the way. Sipping: As in relaxing at Tenren's (me with my two cold egg tarts, boohoo~).

By the way, we met two interesting girls today. Why interesting? Both carried identical hand bags, both ordered identical drinks and food for lunch (they were sitting beside us), both went on a double date at Tenren (we saw them again later) and both went to the loo at the same time...

So yeah. Super funny. I first noticed this trend, cuz of their hand bags, lol! Thank goodness at least they weren't dressed identically... :P

ARGH. The Nak-Ji Gui at Kimchi Grandma SUXOR. And their side dishes are abysmally cheapskate and lame and horrible (except for the kimchi). Next time I'm sticking to Big Mama. -____- What a disappointment. Not eating there ever again for a long long time, unless I feel like eating the Bul-Go-Gi there. But even then, Big Mama and the food court's Bul-Go-Gi are just as nice, if not better. So I'm not going to go there again in awhile. Also because they revamped their menu and it's more expensive... >.>;;

I bought Le Chevalier D'Eon today. Apparently it's quite good. I hope the subtitles are good though, lol! And I bought 3 more books. ^^ Happy happy.

And right now I feel so darn full, bleah. All thanks to my milk tea (which isn't as good now that Jess' friend isn't working there anymore), two egg tarts and not-so-nice Nak-Ji Gui (baby octopus). Hello? The baby octopus weren't even that baby can. Some could have been considered teenage octopuses. So BIG. Shit la. Who likes to have to stuff their face with too-big octopus???

My feet feel kinda tender from walking around so much today. Must make sure to rest them up tomorrow by watching a drama. I guess I'll watch either ISWAK or 2 Outs In The Ninth Inning tomorrow. But for now, I have an article to type, EGADS!

I wanna SLEEEEP, but I can't sleep on a full stomach! I'll get that awful minotaur nightmare I had last night again!!! NNNUUUUUUUU!!! Where are all my sweet dreams when I need them? Like, what happened to all the imaginary shuaiges floating around beside my neurons??? Make an appearance la come on. People need eye candy you know. XD

In awhile, crocodiles!

This Ineffable Feeling

2008-06-14T11:40:00.006+10:00

This morning, I woke up at 5.30, and I lay in bed listening to my cousins' family get ready to go on their Great Ocean Road trip. With eyes closed, I heard the floorboards creaking, the voices, the doors swing open and shut. And I tried to go back to sleep, but I couldn't. Yesterday's discussion just kept sticking in my head. I think I managed to doze off for a bit, because I managed to sleep til, well, now, haha. But I feel this overwhelming urge, this ineffable, indescribable feeling well up inside me that I feel God wants me to blog about. It's times like these I can see how God works through people. I mean, hello? I just woke up and washed up, and my room's still a mess, I have an article to type out, my stomach's hollow with hunger and I'm still in that post-sleep daze zone. And here I am, a bit sad, a bit glad, and very bewildered. But here goes.

***Start of serious rant***

One of my favourite verses in the Bible is by far this one:

"Faith, hope and love...the greatest of these is love." 1 Corinthians 13:13

It's printed on a bookmark sitting beside me right now. And I think back to my ku ku, who gave this to me before I left for Trinity (oh shit damn I'm crying now argh) and all I see in that bookmark is LOVE. The way she used to piggyback me home from preschool, even though she was about, what, 50+ already? Because I was (and am) such a spoilt brat? The way she hugs me and is all squishy, and always tries to chat with me in English, even though she's more comfortable speaking in Cantonese and Chinese? The way she stayed over and cooked us delicious lunches and made our kitchen such a lively place when my mum was in the hospital? The way she would pat my arm with her wrinkled, work-worn hands and tell me to be good and not make my mum angry? The way she would smile at me over the rims of her huge glasses, as if we were sharing an inside joke?

I'm not saying my mum didn't do all this, I guess it's just because my mum was working during my childhood years and couldn't spend as much time with me. But I love the both of them just as much.

What I'm trying to say here is, well, every time I look at the bookmark she gave me. I mean, gee, bookmarks are such simple, humble objects. People disregard them all the time when they walk into gift shops, and yet each and every time, it faithfully marks out the page in the book we've stopped at, without a complaint (even though sometimes we'd just go, OMG bookmarks are useless, why do people even give them nowadays). It's silently THERE. All the time. Ready for whenever we need it again, at some unpredictable time in the future. Never holding a grudge, never judging, but ever faithful and constant and present. And that, for me, is what God's love is. All encased in a simple, unassuming bookmark.

And in my ku ku's bookmark, all I see is LOVE. God's love comes in so many forms I am amazed all the time. Sometimes I don't even realise it's love until much later. (Like how I used to think that me getting a piggyback ride home is, of course, one of my innate, inalienable human right XD)

I look at all the love around me, and I am again reminded of the real reason I accepted Christ.

See, being brought up in a Christian family, I was exposed to Jesus and his teachings at, well, when I was aged 0, lol. I still remember the time I first accepted Christ into my heart. It was when I was maybe...8? I'm not sure, memory fails me (as always, ugh -__-). At that time, the reason I accepted Christ into my heart was crystal clear: the Sunday School lady had said to us just before that, whoever raised their hands to accept Christ would receive a goody bag, and I wanted that goody bag, LOL. I didn't get goody bags very often, and at the time, I thought, if all I needed to do to get that goody bag was to sit with someone and pray, then why not? So yeah. :) That my friends, was the first time I accepted Christ into my heart. For utterly selfish reasons.

Only when I was about 13 that I fully understood the ramifications of that gesture. God touched me at Youth Camp that year, and I cried and cried and cried, and I couldn't stop. So what if accepting Christ means I will go to heaven? I felt (and still feel) so undeserving, as a sinner, of his all-encompassing LOVE. Only at 13 did I finally realise why I became a Christian, it took me, lol, 5 years? HAHA. Before that, all Christianity ever meant to me was, well, going to church and chatting it up with bosom buddies and church pals, and having lame discussions about Bible stories because we'd all heard about them already in Sunday School, when we were kids.

I am an undeserving wretch of a sinner, and still God loves me. We are all selfish beings with major faults and God loves ALL of us. His love is BOUNDLESS, ALL-ENCOMPASSING, INDISCRIMINATE, CONDITIONLESS and CONSTANT. And yet, I am speechless when confronted with Christians who are elitist, who think they deserve more than anyone else JUST because they've accepted Christ.

***End of nostalgic reminisce, start of rant against elitist mentality***

(This rant is directed more to Christians than any other audience, and is merely my humble opinion. If it offends anyone I am truly sorry, and you can tag me about it, and we can start a lively discussion ^^)

HELLO PEOPLE. We are ALL sinners. Just because we've come to know the love of God doesn't make us any better than anyone else. Just because we've managed to stumble upon God's love (by His grace, not through any talents of our own, mind you) doesn't make anyone else more inferior. Deep down we are all still sinners. Sinners, ok? We are all still human beings capable of mistakes, and crimes, and all that bad stuff. And BECAUSE we are all still unmistakeably human and prone to selfish decisions, bad stuff will nevertheless happen to us.

I cannot fathom why certain Christians feel they deserve better than non-Christians. We've been saved, BUT only by God's grace! Everything good that has happened to us, we are living off MERCY. Should we not then be MORE HUMBLE THAN MOST? Jesus came down to us from heaven NOT TO BE SERVED, BUT TO SERVE.

TO SERVE!!!

(I cannot emphasise this more. Italics is simply too insufficient a tool to express this emphasis. Sigh. The emotional magnitude is lost to the inadequacies of the written word.)

If we aspire to be more like Christ, then as Christians we are SERVANTS, we are not kings, queens or royalty who deserve better than the dogs under the banquet table. Through God's love, what we really should do is live to serve others, not serve ourselves, or our selfish, worldly needs. I, as a Christian, am humbled by God's love and by its sheer magnitude. I am undeserving, and yet His love is such that it encompasses all in its generosity. And I was humbled, really humbled, and that was why I cried so much the day in June of the year I turned 13. His Love just HIT me full on in the face, like a slap and a wake up call at the same time, and I truly fathomed what a pathetic creature I was (and still am, arguably).

***So there, my rant against the elitist mentality is finished. Here comes my rant against the whine-OMG-why-is-God-not-helping-me-its-all-his-fault.***

*deep breath, plunge into deep end, hold breath and swim for all I am worth*

Yes. It is true. God will help us. His Love ensures that it will, because. (See? This is one question we can answer with just the one word "because". Why does God love us? Because. XD Going off on a tangent, if only we could do this in exams, especially with essay questions. Why did the Chinese Communist Party abandon Maoist policies after the Cultural Revolution? BECAUSE. Muhahaha.)

But sometimes what we often forget is this: God WILL help us, BUT also only if we help ourselves! We can't just go, "God, I leave my exams all onto you, I'm not going to study and you'll help me ace them, just cuz I'm Christian". In other words, we can't expect God to go down to the nearest Coles and complete the grocery shopping while we sit at home in front of the TV munching potato chips, kicking back and relaxing. Instead, it should be US taking the time to walk/tram/drive down to the nearest Coles, (pay a parkng ticket if necessary) commandeer a shopping trolley, brave the aisles and humbly request if He could, by His grace, maybe guide us to foods that are not dodgy. (ie. dumplings without any cardboard filling)

If He doesn't, well let's face it people, we already deserve the cardboard dumplings. In fact, we don't even deserve the cardboard, us being such vile, loathsome creatures. If He does, then He'll probably have worked in and through us and made us pick up the packaging and read the labels before purchase.

I don't know if my analogy is getting through. -___-;; The point is (I reiterate in case it remains unclear) God will help us, BUT only if we help ourselves. In other words, only if we take action can God work through us and aid us. We are His TOOLS. He is the potter and we are the clay. He is the cook and we are the cooking utensils. Capeesh? Don't expect God to help us merely because of the fact that we are Christians. It just doesn't work like that(IMO).

Instead of blaming God for what is or is not happening, perhaps we should be looking to ourselves instead. Blaming someone else for our own deficiencies and mistakes is not the way to go (duh). It is by no means God's fault that we go through the trials and tribulations we have in life. Rather, I'd like to think that the reasons we go through hardships is 1) because of our own selfish humanity, as we are imperfect but God is perfect and blameless, 2) to help us grow in our faith, and learn to take refuge in him and have hope when all seems to be lost.

***End of rant against the whine-why-isnt-God-helping-me-I-hate-Him, start of rant against the constant-harassment-of-non-Christians-by-Christians***

I love all my friends. I feel truly grateful that they haven't already left me in disgust. XD I respect their beliefs because I respect them as people who have grown up with their own values, with their own situations and with their own experiences. That is why I don't believe in imposing Christianity on them by constantly reminding them that I am Christian or constantly reminding them that they are not Christian. This attitude has the added nuance of being very elitist. Kind of like saying "I'm a Christian, why aren't you one yet, you fool?" If I were on the receiving end, I'd feel really really offended.

Being a Christian and being confident and loud and proud about it, there's no problem with that. It's only when one crosses the line into thinking that everyone else who is non-Christian is inferior and are pathetic creatures to be guided into the Light that it becomes a problem. Just like my parents can't get me to do something by constant nagging, Christians aren't going to achieve anything by constantly harassing non-Christians. What happened to God's love, and channeling God's love by understanding others and putting ourselves in others' shoes? What happened to loving other people for who they are without pushing them too far, or making value judgments about them?

Is making your opinion known more important than caring for your friends' feelings? That, surely, is not what God's love is. God's love is unconditional, and our love should be likewise. So what if our friends are non-Christians? Christians make themselves out to be this elitist, privileged group of people who pity everyone else not in their circle, and as a Christian I am very aware of this flaw. Sure, we want others to experience God's love too, but they DO! They simply encounter it in a different way than we do! Constantly telling them that they should adopt Christ will only arouse negative feelings if we don't put ourselves in their shoes.

If someone tells you they're not interested in Christianity, let it go! It's not their time, and it's not our place to impose our beliefs on others if they don't want it. Time works in miraculous ways, and God works through time. God's time is not our time, and who are we to be impatient? By all means we should constantly pray for our friends and their well-being, BUT this should not be because we want them to convert, BUT BECAUSE WE LOVE THEM. We pray for them because we love them and want to share our joy with them, we don't pray for them because we pity them and want them to adopt Christianity. (It's like how we tell someone about a good Chinese restaurant because we want them to try out the awesome food there, not because we want them to become Chinese.)

In other words, because we have experienced the joy of God's love, we want to SHARE it, not IMPOSE it. Constant harassment and untimely reminders will only serve to alienate the friends we have and love. I think the best way we can be a Light for Christ is by being an exemplary friend, by channelling God's love in our every action towards them. Thus, while keeping quiet about our Christianity, we can still bless others. We want to be defined as Christians through our actions. People should identify us as Christians not by our loud proclamations, but by our silent behaviour. In no way should we intimidate people by wielding our faith like a sword and making people feel guilty just because they are not Christian.

We are all equal in God's eyes. No one person more deserving of His love than another.

***End of Serious Rant as such***

P.H.E.W.

I feel as though this burden has suddenly lifted off of my shoulders. Like I've been carrying this boulder since this morning and only now have I put it down.

It feels GREAT! I feel re-energised (but STILL hungry, darn it). And I've consciously stopped myself from swearing "damn" and "OMYGOD" but I'll probably start up again due to ingrained habit, even more proof that I am unworthy. :P

Here I stand an unworthy servant, in fact a servant of a servant, and all that I can ever hope for is to channel God's love through my every thought, action and attitude. Love is truly what makes the world go round. If everyone could just pause, take a breath, and start loving everyone else unconditionally, we'd have just created our own heaven, no? ^^ No one love is better than another, because love in all its forms is still love. A rose by any other name [is still a rose]. Hope in all its forms is still hope. Faith in all its forms is still faith. And in my opinion, with all due respect, we would all do well to remember this. :)

Oh man, I'm so hungry now. I'm gonna go down and make myself a toasted ham and cheese sandwich. HAHAHA. I haven't blogged about it yet right? My aunt bought this new sandwich toaster thingy, you know the professional deli ones that close over the bread and toasts it? Yeah. HAHA. And there's so much COON cheese in the fridge right now. -___- And because some of it has been in the fridge for AGES, some of it's been frozen into chunks, so I have to hit the whole bag against the marble table tops. HAHA, this is called working for my meal. My daily gym exercise: hitting frozen cheese on table tops. How utterly fascinating.

***Prince Caspian Spoiler Alert***

OH! And me and Jess watched Narnia yesterday! XDDD Ok, Prince Caspian IS hot, but he was such a wimp in the movie (except for the part where he saved Susan) that well, haha. Peter is HOTTER. It's just too bad Peter and Susan won't be coming back to Narnia again! NOOOOO! I want them all to be together! ARGH! WHYYYYYY???

But yeah, I think the movie is great! 4/5. :) And it's good to see Edmund having grown up and getting Peter out of foolish mistakes. He and his torch, HAHA. Cute. And how adorable were those sword-wielding mice??? I WANT ONE FOR MYSELF!!! *throws tantrum* The lead mouse had a feather on his head, it was SO KAWAII!!! *girly squeal* And at the end, when his friends all volunteered to cut off their tails for his sake, that was just so touching! And hilarious, cuz they carried him to Aslan with weird music, like a funeral procession, lol! Priceless. Honestly, there are some really ingeniously funny moments in the movie that were absent from the first Narnia movie, which I think is really refreshing. :)

***End of Spoilers***

More importantly, EXAMS ARE OVER OH MY FRICKIN GOSH!!! That tight little knot of stress in my tummy is FINALLY TOTALLY ERADICATED! I can eat properly again! ^^ And I can DO WHATEVER I WANT without feeling GUILTY about NOT doing work! XD

But let's stop here and have a moment of silence for those of us still bravely forging on through exams. Salute their courage and wish them well, for their arduous voyage is about to end! And then we can all partayyyyy!!! MUHAHAHAHAHA *evil laughter echoing again and again and again* I was totally high yesterday. Even higher than a Jess-on-a-Friday Night. XD Now if only my deformed right hand (having been strained from doing all that messy writing) will right itself, everything will be right. ;P

I'll probably come back and post some more crappy stuff, but for now, my stomach calls, and I must take heed.

Tally-ho, fellow musketeers! Til next we meet @ the next post! XDDD

Korean Dramas '07, '08

2008-06-01T18:31:00.002+10:00

Waahhh~~ I was supposed to do work today, but I woke up at 2pm and did not feel like doing any work. >.> Hell, I spent the last few days stressing over Legal Theory and Obligations, no way amd I going to put myself through it again so quickly.

So I decided to compile a list of dramas I want to watch. At first I looked up Japanese dramas but they didn't sound interesting, so I looked at Korean drama lists instead, and OMG, found so many I'm interested in. I have no idea how I'll be able to get my hands on them all though. The best I can hope for is to save up for them and get them when I'm back in Singapore... T^T Unless of course someone (going back in July) will be so nice as to purchase them for me... ... ... LOL. I wish.

(by the way, they're in no particular order, I wanna watch ALL of them, haha)

2007 List:
1. New Heart
2. Bad Love
3. In-soon is Pretty
4. Lobbyist
5. 9 End 2 Outs
6. Me-Ri, Dae Gu's Attack and Defense Battle
7. Hello! Miss
8. When Spring Comes
9. Dal Ja's Spring

2008 List:
1. Powerful Opponents
2. Who Are You?
3. Hong Gil Dong

Alternatively I could always camp out somewhere with unlimited Internet and watch them all at one go. HARHAR. Yeah right...

If I Were A Poem

2008-06-01T00:31:00.003+10:00

It would be these two. ^^ (Yeah I know the title says "A" Poem, but I had to include both. I think both of them speak volumes about who I was, who I am, and who I'm going to be)

Where the Sidewalk Ends

There is a place where the sidewalk ends
And before the street begins,
And there the grass grows soft and white,
And there the sun burns crimson bright,
And there the moon-bird rests from his flight
To cool in the peppermint wind.

Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black
And the dark street winds and bends.
Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow
We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And watch where the chalk-white arrows go
To the place where the sidewalk ends.

Yes we'll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And we'll go where the chalk-white arrows go,
For the children, they mark, and the children, they know
The place where the sidewalk ends.

- Shel Silverstein

Television

The most important thing we've learned,
So far as children are concerned,
Is never, NEVER, NEVER let
Them near your television set --
Or better still, just don't install
The idiotic thing at all.
In almost every house we've been,
We've watched them gaping at the screen.
They loll and slop and lounge about,
And stare until their eyes pop out.
(Last week in someone's place we saw
A dozen eyeballs on the floor.)
They sit and stare and stare and sit
Until they're hypnotised by it,
Until they're absolutely drunk
With all that shocking ghastly junk.
Oh yes, we know it keeps them still,
They don't climb out the window sill,
They never fight or kick or punch,
They leave you free to cook the lunch
And wash the dishes in the sink --
But did you ever stop to think,
To wonder just exactly what
This does to your beloved tot?
IT ROTS THE SENSE IN THE HEAD!
IT KILLS IMAGINATION DEAD!
IT CLOGS AND CLUTTERS UP THE MIND!
IT MAKES A CHILD SO DULL AND BLIND
HE CAN NO LONGER UNDERSTAND
A FANTASY, A FAIRYLAND!
HIS BRAIN BECOMES AS SOFT AS CHEESE!
HIS POWERS OF THINKING RUST AND FREEZE!
HE CANNOT THINK -- HE ONLY SEES!
'All right!' you'll cry. 'All right!' you'll say,
'But if we take the set away,
What shall we do to entertain
Our darling children? Please explain!'
We'll answer this by asking you,
'What used the darling ones to do?
'How used they keep themselves contented
Before this monster was invented?'
Have you forgotten? Don't you know?
We'll say it very loud and slow:
THEY ... USED ... TO ... READ! They'd READ and READ,
AND READ and READ, and then proceed
To READ some more. Great Scott! Gadzooks!
One half their lives was reading books!
The nursery shelves held books galore!
Books cluttered up the nursery floor!
And in the bedroom, by the bed,
More books were waiting to be read!
Such wondrous, fine, fantastic tales
Of dragons, gypsies, queens, and whales
And treasure isles, and distant shores
Where smugglers rowed with muffled oars,
And pirates wearing purple pants,
And sailing ships and elephants,
And cannibals crouching 'round the pot,
Stirring away at something hot.
(It smells so good, what can it be?
Good gracious, it's Penelope.)
The younger ones had Beatrix Potter
With Mr. Tod, the dirty rotter,
And Squirrel Nutkin, Pigling Bland,
And Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle and-
Just How The Camel Got His Hump,
And How the Monkey Lost His Rump,
And Mr. Toad, and bless my soul,
There's Mr. Rate and Mr. Mole-
Oh, books, what books they used to know,
Those children living long ago!
So please, oh please, we beg, we pray,
Go throw your TV set away,
And in its place you can install
A lovely bookshelf on the wall.
Then fill the shelves with lots of books,
Ignoring all the dirty looks,
The screams and yells, the bites and kicks,
And children hitting you with sticks-
Fear not, because we promise you
That, in about a week or two
Of having nothing else to do,
They'll now begin to feel the need
Of having something to read.
And once they start -- oh boy, oh boy!
You watch the slowly growing joy
That fills their hearts. They'll grow so keen
They'll wonder what they'd ever seen
In that ridiculous machine,
That nauseating, foul, unclean,
Repulsive television screen!
And later, each and every kid
Will love you more for what you did.

- Roald Dahl

I really really cannot express how grateful I am and will ever be to my parents, who nurtured my love for books, and fuelled the flames so that I could read tales about King Arthur and his Court, Puss in Boots, Naughty Amelia Jane, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Silver Brumby, The Spotted Pony, Thumbelina, Wishbone Mysteries, His Dark Materials, Thumbelina, The Hungry Caterpillar and so much so much so much more.

I think my parents gave me the world when they gave me books. And someday, if ever I have children, nieces or nephews, I hope I can pass this limitless universe on to them as well.

I loved the times I spent
at the sidewalk's end,
where I'd fly my kites,
and make my friends.

Now
No more free kuti kuti
from that friendly canteen lady
No more bee hoon 放 curry
Or hopskotch 1 2 3
No more waterbottle string
or marikita to sing
Want to visit Mrs Lim
(Only prefects can go in)
No more happy teacher's day
No more recorder to play
Look Up Lift Up assembly
排队两排不要急
Fire drill last time so fun
Don't need learn maths -- "Cannot run!"
Ballet class forgot bring shoe
升级 then 'I don't friend you'
Children's Day give chocolate coin
(naughty go and feed the koi)
PE T-shirt must tuck in
Sharpen pencil near the bin
Monitress must wipe chalk board
Run in hallway kena caught
"Register number 33,
Dental checkup" (heng! not me!)
听写 never learn Orh hor!
Sports Day cheer until 过火
Glasses big and body small
Those were days I had it all

What's left now I cannot say
A faint echo fades away
I look back at what was me
Truly, truly...
I was:
FREE.

Romanticising...Or Not...

2008-06-01T00:01:00.004+10:00

What I'm about to post really gives insight into the assumptions we make about what we read and what is actually the truth. Jess, this I think is quite relevant to your essay topic about romanticising...although I think maybe this is the opposite of romanticising... O_o

_START_

Have a close look at the photograph & read the messages below them. Forwarding this message to as many people as you can. This wouldn't fulfill a wish; nor deleting it will cause any misfortune; but its our moral duty to be concerned... towards humanity. (Click to enlarge)

Kevin Carter

This was found in his diary:

Dear God, I promise I will never waste my food no matter how bad it can taste and how full I may be. I pray that He will protect this little boy, guide and deliver him away from his misery. I pray that we will be more sensitive towards the world around us and not be blinded by our own selfish nature and interests.
I hope this picture will always serve as a reminder to us that how fortunate we are and that we must never ever take things for granted.

_END_

When I read this email I was really shocked. And THEN I read the TRUTH about this controversial email:

_START_

From Wikipedia:

South African photojournalist Joao Silva, who accompanied Carter to Sudan, gave a different version of events in an interview with Japanese journalist and writer Akio Fujiwara that was published in Fujiwara's book "The boy who became a postcard" (Ehagakini Sareta Shōnen).

According to Silva, they (Carter and Silva) went to Sudan with the United Nations aboard Operation Lifeline Sudan and landed in Southern Sudan on March 11, 1993. The UN told them that they would take off again in 30 minutes, (the time necessary to distribute food), so they ran around looking to take shots. The UN started to distribute corn and the women of the village came out of their wooden huts to meet the plane. Silva went looking for guerrilla fighters, while Carter strayed no more than a few dozen feet from the plane.

Again according to Silva, Carter was quite shocked as it was the first time that he had seen a famine situation and so he took many shots of the children suffering from famine. Silva also started to take photos of children on the ground as if crying, which were not published. The parents of the children were busy taking food from the plane so they had left their children only briefly while they collected the food. This was the situation for the girl in the photo taken by Carter. "God was smiling on Kevin." A vulture landed behind the girl. To get the two in focus, Carter approached the scene very slowly so as not to scare the vulture away and took a photo from approximately 10 metres. He took a few more photos and then the vulture flew off.

Silva stated that he also took similar photos, but didn't win the Pulitzer Prize. "That's just the way things go."

_END_

I feel so naive and gullible. Funny how people seem to assume that pictures never lie.

They always do.

What's In A Name

2008-05-31T23:01:00.002+10:00

I just felt like blogging, really.

Over the years I've had several nicknames.

But none of them have lasted as long as the two I will mention below. Why? LAWL I don't know. Nicknames have a habit of sticking to you if people around you keep using it. It sounds natural after awhile, but people you're not close to will think it's weird. Nevertheless, it's good having a nickname. I think it'll be quite miraculous if your good friends around you don't have a nickname for you by the end of the first year of being friends.

1) Isetan (or Ise)

Yes, well.

I think this name stuck because it really sounds super close to my name. O_o But how cool is that? To be named after a shopping centre. Even though the only thing I can remember that I ever bought from Isetan was my secondary school prom dress... $99. I should have just bought some cheapo dress and mod-ed it. But then again, what lah. First prom ever. I guess it's ok to splurge abit. For me now, $99 is half my one week's expenditure on food, travel, books and etc.

2) Ban (or Bun)

This came about during Trinity. Funny how nicknames come up in the most mundane of situations. I can't imagine what I'd have been called if we weren't talking about that exact topic, at that exact time and place. Maybe people will still be calling me by my normal name. Cuz I know if I didn't ask that stupid question, NO WAY in the entire world will this nickname ever be made. But let's face it. I buy so many buns from Breadtop all the time. Maybe now I'm resigning myself to my fate.

Why do I keep getting nicknames?

I must be very gong.

Yes, that must be it.

But then again, I don't think I mind. Being gong is fun. But of course, being gong by yourself is not as fun as "gong"-ing with other people. :D I'm glad I've found people to gong around with. If all my lame jokes fell flat, I'll feel like I would DIE!

And my JAW is aching like SHIT from all that CHEWING and LAUGHING that went on today. I'm just super happy that my milk tea turned out great. I'll definitely be going back to Dessert House sometime soon, especially to try out the other rice dishes. I just hope my jaw gets better soon. It's kinda hard to work up an appetite with it being so hard to CHEW. DAMN you, you horrible jaw, I HATE CHEW.

<3-ing M&M Crispies. X3

凤脚点心

2008-05-18T12:57:00.003+10:00

:D

I went out with my aunt's family to eat yumcha today at Box Hill! Wow, it was good. Too bad I was too busy eating to take any pictures, lol. Today was also the first time I've tried eating that chicken feet dish. After all the hype about it being so good, I was expecting something close to divine bliss. Alas, people always hype things up too much. I enjoyed my egg tart better. Not that I'll never eat chicken feet again, but I won't squeal and jump around about it. Although...it WAS fun spitting out the joints after I finished chewing on them...it was just the thumb part I couldn't chew off... O_o

Aside from the chicken feet (we ordered 2 plates), there was chee cheong fun (prawn, it was nice, but the white stuff was a bit too thick), chicken pie, har gao, siew mai, pig's stomach (which tasted distinctly disgusting and greasy!), carrot cake (nice, really nice), glutinous rice, spring roll (a bit too salty for my liking), char siew pao (AWESOME-ness, sweet and warm and just plain GOOOOOOOD), prawn wrapped in fried wonton skin (really good, I'm partial to anything with prawns in it), some weird meat thing (I don't know what it was called, but it was still good, lol) and pei dan chok (crystal jade's porridge is better, but then again, there's no crystal jade kitchen here is there? Grr. Nevertheless, worth a taste).

Unless my memory fails me, that's about it. Now I just feel a tad too full, but that's how I always feel for lunch anyway. For dinner, I just feel 3/4 full which is just the way I like it.

We arrived at the restaurent at about 11am, so we got a 20% discount for arriving early, Heck, we were their first customers for the day! ^^ It was a Post-Chiang Chinese restaurant, you know the Kuomintang leader, Jiang Kai-shek? Yeah. There were pictures and descriptions on the walls about Jiang's favourite foods, but then again... the stuff they sold were just about what you'd find in any restaurant, in terms of dim sum. But I guess they were referring to the a la carte dishes. The Kungpo Pork is apparently brilliant. Although it doesn't quite live up to its name, picture-wise... My aunt says its awesome though. Looks are deceiving.

All I have to do now is wonder about what to do on my birthday. Hmmm. 19's not really anything. It's the halfway point between 18 (OMG-I'm-an-adult-now) and 20 (OMG-I've-hit-the-20s). I guess it's significant because 19 is the last 'teen before twenty. So does this mean it's the last year I can be stupid and childish? Nope. My cousin's 23 and he's still childish. ;P In a fun way. I just hate it when my birthday falls on a weekday. At least I don't have to wait for every leap year to celebrate my birthday! XD

In the car on the way back, my cousin started talking about 1st, 2nd and 3rd generation Asians. It goes like this: the 1st generation starts making money, the 2nd generation builds on it, and the 3rd generation spends it all. Apparently, my other cousin has this really stupid friend who just spends stuff. He works for his parents and gets paid, AND his parents still get him a $70k++ car. That is SO LAME. Anyway, that got me thinking: into which generation do I fit in? I have no idea of my grandfather was rich or not, but I'm guessing no. So if this IS the case, then my dad has got to be the 1st generation and I'll be 2nd generation. But I think I'm quite spendthrift. Although I DO feel the need to work. Does that mean my CHILDREN will be spending and spending and spending but never earning?

That settles it. I'm not having children.

I mean, imagine going through 48 hours of labour pains! I'm not going to do all that just to become a mother! It's OVERRATED! *ahem*

And what was with the weather yesterday??? I was SO FREAKING COLD! Thank goodness I didn't go out for the whole of yesterday. Pouring, dreary and wet wet wet and COLD it was. Even huddled under my blankets didn't make me feel any better. Until, of course, dinner time and my aunt heated this leftover soup up (her soups are really good, ESPECIALLY on cold bitter nights). You know how soup gets better the longer you cook it and left it sit? Well, yeah, this soup was 3 days old, and it only got more awesome! So imagine my delight when I grumpily shuffled downstairs to find HOT SOUP waiting. ^^ And the heater was on downstairs. Whee!

Of course, I'm going to get that $20 fan heater from Target now. My cousin has one, and she seems the better off for it. I WANT ONE TOO! Imma get myself one on Monday. Heehee.

I also have to remind myself not to cook double packets of instant noodles for lunch anymore. It's just WAYYYYYY too much. Plus I added too little water so it ended up quite salty, and I was chugging down water like my throat was on fire for the rest of the day. (Or then again, the water went so quickly cuz I put two eggs in as well, hahaha) My cooking skills are sadly lacking, How I wish I could cook Kungpo Pork as well. No wait, stuff that. I wanna make pastries. I wanna be a pastry chef and make delicious cakes. And then I want my husband to be good at Asian cooking. YAY! My children will become fat and obese and I will have to ship them off to Africa for a couple of years. During which time I will take a break from child-rearing.

Wait a minute, didn't I just say I wouldn't HAVE children a few lines before? Dammit. Must be Legal Theory screwing with my brain cells again.

Blabbermouth

2008-05-08T22:44:00.003+10:00

SAYO! ;)

So today, early in the morning at 6.30am, I woke up, took a shower and swept off to Uni to do my habitual bit of reading for Legal Theory. I'm falling into this routine where getting up super-early is becoming to feel normal. O_o At least now I know I'm devoting sufficient time to getting my Pass grade for Legal Theory. XD Of all places where I thought I could evade Philosophy, here I am being corralled into doing it. GAH.

Ok I should stop ranting about my studies now.

My aunt told me this morning that she wouldn't be cooking, so I found a good reason to eat out today for dinner (even though I missed, like, 3/4 of Ghost Whisperer). Usually Thursdays are the worst of days, since the last day of uni is when you want it to end the most. But today was really fun. I mean, the last part of the day.

I finally escaped the library at about half past 12 to go catch some lunch. Sat down at my fave corner in QV with my two sushi rolls, and couldn't help but keep glancing at this plump woman sitting opposite me munching on KFC. In fact, I felt kind of put off. So this world is filled with skinny people who like sushi, fat people who like fast food and fat poeple who don't like sushi but eat it cuz they're on a diet. O_o How come I don't see skinny people liking fast food? LAWL. That's easy to answer, I guess. Like, when you're not used to fast food, it feels as though your body rebels every time you eat fast food. Every time I eat fast food, my stomach feels all weird and makes gurgling noises. The last time I ate any sort of fast food was KFC, and I got a bad headache after THAT. >.> Almost immediately after finishing the meal. WTH?!?! Must be because I haven't eaten fast food in a LONG LONG time.

Which is to say, a good thing. I still remember my Trinity days, when I ate KFC once a week and I was ok. Goes to show how toxic fast food is once your body has really purged it.

At that moment, just then, I felt like telling the woman to just leave the fast food and her huge cup of Coke. I felt like telling her, you'll feel so much better about yourself, and your body will feel so much better, if you just stopped and tried to find something less unhealthy to eat. Heck, instant noodles feel better than fast food. And they cost like, 45c a packet (although I eat 2 at a time).

In the end I just kept my meddling mouth shut. Hey, individual natural rights. People have the right to decide what's best for themselves. Who am I to give advice as some random person? I feel I have no authority, and I don't have thick enough skin to approach people like that, on my own. She might sit on me and squish me. X(

For all my talk, I still went to get a cup of chocolate mousse from Breadtalk after I finished my sushi. XD

Obligations was fairly ok today. I'm enjoying it actually, one of the best law subjects I've had so far. Anyway, one of the students brought her baby to class. He/she (babies are so unisex, they look the same from afar) was SO SO CUTE! Like, he/she made gurgling funny noises during class and the lecturer was obviously charmed by the little kid. Haha, our lecturer is such a nice guy! :) I hope more of my Law lecturers are like him in future.

Then of course the baby started getting fussy and irritated. I mean, how can you expect a baby to pay attention to an Obligations class? Hell, even I fidget during class. Can't imagine what the baby must be going through: "What the hell is that guy talking about? How come all I see are words and no nice pictures?! I don't understand why mommy must stay for this boring shit! I WANT OUT!!!". (Ok, maybe something less vulgar, haha) She kinda had to leave halfway because the baby had had enough. ;P Too bad.

During Chinese Politics and Society after that, I managed to PAY ATTENTION! As opposed to my usual habit of doodling ALL OVER my lecture notepad with bad pictures of disproportionate people... LOL.

Because I'm not working anymore, I decided to go healthy and walked to Bourke Street from Uni. Quite an exhilarating experience, when you're all snuggled up in a warm coat and comfy boots. I ended up choosing where to eat (not surprisingly) so we went to the newly-revamped King's Cafe in the Arcade.

HELLO! PEOPLE! King's Cafe is quite a decent place! Why not abandon that Dessert (#%@$) House on Swanston and head there for a meal instead? It won't disappoint, I assure you. Go against the grain and stop being herded around like sheep (i.e. OMG so many people are queueing up there, let's eat there too!) who assume that only crowded places have good food. What's life without a bit of risk? Eating the same, safe thing over and over again is -_-|||. Life's not meant to be safe. (I mean, I totally respect that security is important in a person's life, but c'mon man, it's just food, experimenting a little more won't hurt much) It's said that the bigger risk you take, the bigger the gain you stand to receive. ^^

We stayed there for about 2hrs, haha, cuz we were busy chatting. I'm surprised I didn't eat more air than food! Though I wholeheartedly believe that meals are primarily about the company than about the food. What's a five-star dinner when you're eating alone? Eating instant noodles with friends seems so much the richer. That's why I love people. They give your life colour, when sometimes you just bore yourself out. :) If tehre were no people other than yourself, who'll be there to irritate you, to irk you, to make fun of you, to laugh with you, to accompany you, to talk with you, to help you understand you etc.

HAHA, I know I was complaining and nagging about missing Ghost Whisperer but inside, I know I would have chosen to go out with friends over staying home to catch a TV program. :) I just nag cuz it irriates people I like to irritate. MUHAHAHAHAH!

I'd like to end with a final observation: the new Flinders St tram stop is really cool. Love the additional benches. Love all the people surrounding me and holding me up, too. They're like benches. Always there for you when you need to rest, and fun to "sit" on. HEEHEE.

NARA! <3

Storm on the Horizon

2008-05-06T20:14:00.003+10:00

Yaii!!! The exam timetables are out.

'nuff said.

Well, ok, not really. I have to say, this'll be the first time I'm finishing up my semester so EARLY. In fact, I'll be free by the end of the 2nd week of June. How cool's that? Except of course this means my exams are much earlier than before...which means cramming and all that sh*t.

So, with all the essays, websites, take-home exams and exams that are arriving soon, what am I doing? Yep, You guessed it. I've been fooling around on Facebook. This is, of course, a form of de-stressing that doesn't actually work.

OH NOOOOO. I have exactly 11 minutes to blog before NCIS starts on TV. After which I'll be hooked for the next two hours. Don't bother contacting me during that time cuz I'll be blind and deaf to the world, hahahah!

This morning, after a night filled with editing and previewing and adjusting html on my bloody bright screen, I woke up from the dead to go to Uni and read Legal Theory. It wasn't an entirely wasted session, but what I can tell you is that I am SO NOT a morning person. Even if I sleep early the night before. My switch isn't flipped yet, not until after lunch. I guess I should be thankful, then, that both my exams are in the afternoon. X)

Oh, I have something else to vent.

Why is it that people bring their subjective assumptions about movies onto other movies that aren't even related? And thus miss out on a totally fulfilling movie experience? Take Transformers. So many people were like dismissing it for being a children's film and blah-de-immature-and-blah. Why can't people just take a movie at face value, and give it chance? Instead of shoving each movie into stereotypical pigeonholes, why can't people approach movies with an open mind? I hate it when people form assumptions about movies and dismiss them before that particular movie has had a chance to entertain them.

It's not all that important, you'll tell me, whether people make presumptions about movies and dismiss them or approve of them accordingly. Yeah, ok, granted that's pretty true. BUT if people carry over these presumptions and apply them to people instead, it becomes a whole new ball game. This is the arena where misconceptions such as "blondes are dumb" and "chihuahuas are for girls" and "people who wear specs and are smart are nerds" come from.

To presume something about someone is, to me, one of the saddest occurrences in the world. Because when you do that, you lose a potential friend, and you disregard a person's multi-dimensional nature as well. I mean, how would YOU feel if someone else viewed you as a cardboard cut-out?

Thus, in conclusion: Iron Man is NOT Transformers. Narnia is NOT The Dark Is Rising. Spiderman is NOT Batman. Go on, you. Start off with a clean slate and start discovering movies you never knew you'd ever like. ;) I DARE you.

Snip Snip Snip

2008-05-05T21:29:00.003+10:00

Yes, you guessed it, this part contains photos from my hair cut day out with Adlin at Springvale.

^ Adlin, glowing with HAPPY after her brand spanking new haircut! We took this at the train station while waiting for it to arrive. It started raining on the way back, which was just plain horrible. Considering it was so sunny when this picture was taken!

^ Me, with my new haircut! Can't really see it cuz my jacket's blocking the view, but hey, I was cold, and comfort comes before looks in my dictionary. Ideally, comfort should accompany looks. XD

^ Ooooh! Adlin showed me her limited edition Singaporean $20 note! I've never seen anything like it before. Wonder if people in Singapore will recognise it and allow it to be used in stores. I'll bet the cash machines in Singapore don't have an extra slot for $20 notes. Wonder what they'll do if they get a note like this, lol!

^ Yeah, those are my research books. Although admittedly I didn't end up using even half of them, this is what research ultimately entails: sifting through shitloads of books until you manage to sniff out the relevant ones. And reading and browsing through every one of them to see if they're relevant. -_- WHYYYY am I not enrolled in a science course? Regular lab reports don't sound THAT bad...

^ Just a random doodle of Adlin, secretly drawn while she was poring over her Chem notes. Face it, I was just so dead bored I needed a distraction. Plus there was scrap paper, and Me + Scrap Paper = Doodles. What can I say? It's in my nature...like if I see this blank piece of paper, I feel some sort of magnetic force to bring my pen to it and make SHAPES. O_o

Sun, Sand and Sky

2008-05-05T20:51:00.006+10:00

More photos, whee! I'm on a roll...

Well, only because I just got round to transferring all my phone pictures into my PC... which is really the product of procrastination and pure laziness. ^^

Whew, I had no idea we did so much camwhoring on the tram, LOL! Shameless la, we all.

^ Adlin, laughing at who-knows-what-weird-things-she-laughs-at on the tram to St Kilda beach. HAHA.

^ Me, haha, the ultimate chio-bu. :P Jess said I looked like some Hawaiian. She forgot to complete the phrase with "princess". So I'm supposed to be a Hawaiian Princess. Muhahaha. Ahem. Please don't bash me. I have my rights.

^ Clarice, living up to her T-shirt's name, haha!

^ OMG *barf puke vomit* Although I am extremely reluctant to put this up, I have a moral and ethical obligation to. Otherwise this pic would have ended up deleted from my Recycle Bin. Jessica, "The Shameless One", trying to open her eyes wide enough so that she will get transported into the world of anime and manga to find a bishounen boyfriend. XDDD HAHAHAHA. ROFL. Most probably she's praying that people will eat her pancakes...

^ Calista, the total opposite of "The Shameless One", haha! Jess must learn to be as camera-shy as Cal is. This is the picture of humility! :P She looks like she's gonna explode from something funny. XD

^ Sunny Shay Fern! The sun shines on where it properly belongs. :) (No wonder the first picture of Jess was as dark as hell...;o)

^ Another photo of Adlin...well...just cuz she's Adlin. ;) And also because this pic speaks volumes about her spastic personality. Like, almost on the verge of "chou jing"-ing every time she looks into a camera... LAWL.

^ Everyone staring in awe at the sand...
"Is this really sand?!?!"
"Oh my gosh!!!"
"I can't see my foot!"
"Adlin, you baka..."
"Sorry lah! Jess' shirt so bright, make me step on your foot! All her fault!"
"What lah! Wan-die-arh?"

^ Adlin's delightful box of agar agar...or wait, was it konnyaku jelly? HAHA. I forgot. Oops. Too bad there were too few of us to finish it, they were all so pretty...we should have coated them in plastic so that they'd last forever. And use them as paperweights. LOL. Or if we waited long enough we could poison our worst enemy, or at least throw them so that the enemy gets a concussion...

^ Munch time! Jess and Clarice look like hamsters, haha! And Adlin "The Queen" looks like the ultimate trishaw rider. Hello??? You don't see Queen Elizabeth doing that la can. Ruining the reputations of all the great queens who have reigned on Earth. Tsk tsk Adlin.

^ Whee! My name engraved in the sand with my foot! Although my phone cam didn't capture it particularly well. ;P Now if only I can find a way to make it permanent...will it be considered vandalism if my markings don't vanish from the sand? HAHA.

Altogether a very fun day. Coupled with all the silly dares and stunts that we did, I'm surprised we all managed to survive, haha! Quoting that donkey from Shrek who every time is used in that irritating Hoyts ad before movies start:

"Let's do that again!"

Lots-a-n00dles!

2008-05-05T20:15:00.006+10:00

Actually what I meant to say is, lots of pictures. It just somehow felt right to put "noodles" in my blog title. :D Today's entry is going to have a heck of alot of pictures, so if any of you have freaking crazy download limits, I'm sorry! XD

This post will be labelled:

My Lovely Silly Brothers

^ Here they are! :) Love them lots! This was taken while we were at Swensen's in Singapore celebrating my mum's birthday. I can't believe I ate a whole pan of apple crumble on my own. HAHA. The one on the left is Yi Zu and the one on the right is Yi Jia. ^^ Mostly, I can get Yi Zu to do stupid things, like those below...

^ LOL. This was taken while we were waiting outside to get into Swensen's, Toa Payoh there, and there was the cinema just outside. So we started taking stupid photos like this. I said I wanted to watch The Water Horse cuz its so cute, and my bro, as usual, went and did this...which was SO DAMN FUNNY...XD Priceless, my brothers, priceless.

^ We discovered a hole in L's cardboard arm, lol! Looks so real right? Haha, freaky. Ok, well, it WOULD have looked freaky, except that my brother looks so goony beside L that it sorta spoils the effect. Bwahahahaha!

^ A tiger's eating my bro! Oh goody! XD Nah, we went over to my cousin's house and discovered a whole treasure trove of soft toys, including this life-sized tiger, which OF COURSE Yi Zu wanted to mess around with, as usual. (Had he NOT messed around with it, it would have been extremely abnormal) Makes me wanna bash him all the time, haha, for doing stupid things. XP

^ What can I say? My bro's got this thing with his nose...(please refer to the above Water Horse photo...) But, yea, gotta admit, DAMN FUNNY as usual. :)

See where I get all my silliness from? I have good teachers. ;3 And spontaneous, adorable brothers who mostly do what I ask them to do. ^^

Surprise, Surprise

2008-04-22T22:31:00.002+10:00

Now that all my mid-semester assignments are done and handed up, I now feel at a loss as to what to do.

So I blog.

When of course I should be reading manga and watching more dramas and anime. When OF COURSE I SHOULD be studying and doing research for my legal theory essay. Which OF COURSE will be the last thing on my mind right now. Which brings me back to square one: blogging.

During Net Communications class this week, our whole tutorial was spent exploring Second Life. It was pretty fun, especially since the Internet connection at Uni is pretty fast, unlike the crap reception I get at home. Anyways, so we messed about for quite a bit. Mostly though, I played with the dressing up options and clothing freebies. There were some really cool ones, very fantasy-like ones, complete with swirling robes and humongous wings. Damn fun. Plus the flying around part just makes you wanna do it all day and not stop.

But it's not a game with a POINT. I mean, unlike other games like Maplestory and World of Warcraft, there's no goal to aim for (except of course amassing virtual property, but hey you loser, won't it be better to amass property OUTSIDE the virtual world???). So yeah, 2 hours was quite enough of Second Life for me. I don't know how people can STAND to be on Second Life for longer than a day. It's so mindlessly boring and all you do is talk to random people, fly around and dance. Plus the graphics aren't fabulous anyway, so there really isn't any beauty there to appreciate. At least Maple characters are cute.

Aside from that, nougat has to be the most marvelous invention ever! I cannot comprehend how such a small object can induce so much bliss. Instant mood booster. The only drawback (IMO) is the potential tooth decay. (I mean, being a dental assistant myself, it's hard to ignore this fact, seeing as how I'm confronted with all the tools of the dentistry trade) Apparently, there was this one session at the clinic, about 1h 30min or so, and the guy said that the amount he was paying would be about how much one would pay for a car. WOW can. Just 1h 30min and *poof*, CAR! O_o No wonder so many of my friends are in dentistry. Just think of all the working incentives!

I'm getting sleepy. I always get sleepy around this time. Big Brother is going to be back on Australian TV, which SUXOR. And I hope Jack wins So You Think You Can Dance Australia. He's just so plain cute. Stream of consciousness writing is really quite pointless. I just begin to spout nonsense and contribute to the pollution.

I shall switch to being green now, and sign off.

P.S. You know the supermarkets here are trying to get the government to allow them to charge 25c for each plastic bag they give out, as an incentive for people to buy green bags? Futile I tell you. The government will do better to charge $1000 for each cigarette pack.

Third Degree Stress

2008-04-13T22:09:00.003+10:00

Yep yep that is what I'm going through currently. This will probably last me the whole entire week. You know like third-degree burns? Yar. Something to that effect.

When this week ends I'm going to make sure I get my well-deserved break. Now I'm living in a nightmarish sort of reality where I wake up in the mornings and feel a sense of dread, a monster at my back called "3 Assignments due this week". Well, I'm going to follow the advice of the Great Leap Forward propaganda of three years of suffering and a thousand years of happiness. At worst a week of hard labour and several weeks of hitting my head on walls. Other than that I'm glad to report that my sanity is still intact.

So I was reading Jess' blog about lousy boyfriends, and it just hit me all over again that Love, however much it has been praised and romanticised, is ultimately Blind. We put Love on a pedestal and worship its perceived perfection that we neglect to see the chinks on its seemingly pristine surface. It's kinda like worshipping a doughnut but forgetting that there's a HOLE in it (I know, bad analogy, I'm so full of it right now).

I've always wondered if, one day, my turn came to fall and hit my face first into Love, whether I'll be as Blind as so many others I've come across. I sincerely hope I won't be, but I'm sure others who have fallen into this trap have also regarded themselves as being able to see clearly while in Love. Maybe it's up to our best friends to guard our well-being. After all, friends are there to provide a shoulder to cry on after breakups, and to spew bad things about the person who broke up with you. They help you on the rebound as well, I guess. I dunno, never had the experience of being dumped (yet! O___o).

There should be laws regulating this kind of thing. And women living in modern society should have more backbone than to let a guy bully them (IMO). Unless of course the guy is someone they sincerely care for. In which case they should just have a huge crying jag and THEN counter-dump the partner in question. Like, leave him a voicemail message whereby you scream at the top of your voice for about ten seconds, then slam the phone down. Now THAT'S attitude.

Hey hey, lemme see if I can come up with the Ten Commandments for the Treatment of Girlfriends:

1. Her Word is Law. Come hell or high water. (Of course if she asks you to dance barefoot on a cart of durians, then in this situation common sense should prevail)

2. Never patronise or condescend to her or make her feel stupid.

3. Be sensitive to her moods.

4. Always put her welfare before yours (because she'll likely do that anyway) and because you are in a better position to sustain damage.

5. Chivalry is NOT dead! Don't be a coward, be a gentleman.

6. Do NOT give her lame presents which show you didn't put any effort e.g. generic photo frames, generic birthday cards. MAKE HER FEEL SPECIAL, make her feel like you KNOW her likes and dislikes. ***REMEMBER HER BIRTHDAYS*** (This is irregardless of the fact that you may have short term memory or Alzheimers. It's do-or-die.)

7. Always tolerate her teasing. In fact, constantly attempt to make her smile.

8. NEVER EVER raise a hand or a voice to her. EVER. Because then she'll have a reason to take you before a Court of Law. (Y'know, "To Violence Against Women, Australia Says No")

9. Maintain physical contact if reasonably possible. She appreciates the sense of security it provides.

10. Keep trying to get to know her better; she'll grow on you.

Somemore important guidelines:

11. Acting "cool" is, in fact, NOT "cool" at all! Instead, it makes you look like you have a major self-confidence issue.

12. Do not assume that she will be vividly interested in Counterstrike strategies, Internet protocol or World of Warcraft economics.

13. Never brag. Refer to 11. Instead, what you SHOULD brag about, is her. :)

14. Try to eat as messily as you can, so she won't feel bad about digging into her food. (Again, slobbering all over your food like your pet bulldog is never a good idea. You might be a hygiene hazard to her long-term overall health)

15. Insist on paying for the bill, but if she steadfastly refuses, let it go and do NOT see it as a blow to your ego. EVER.

16. NEVER spend longer in front of a mirror than her. Cuz if you do, that just goes to show that you love yourself more, eh? ;P You should be busy helping to curl/straighten her hair or fetch her makeup instead. (Hey hey, no complaints! She's doing all that to look good for you!)

17. Never be impatient while she's on a shopping spree. Instead, give her constructive advice on the clothes she picks, and maybe do some browsing of your own. (Goodness knows how many pieces of decent clothing you have in your sad, sad wardrobe anyway)

18. Girls always appreciate good listeners, so do keep an ear out for any problems she might give voice to, or anything else she has to say, for that matter.

19. Looking at other girls while on a date is just BAD BAD etiquette. I can totally understand the activity of appreciating beauty, but doing so at her expense is in bad form.

20. Last (but NOT least), if you feel the relationship isn't working out, gently break up with her. Do NOT procrastinate as this will make the break more painful for her. TAKE NOTE: ALWAYS explain to her the reason for the break up. ALWAYS blame yourself, instead of her, if things don't work out. DO NOT EVER make her feel like she is the reason for the break up. She already has her share of insecurities without you adding to the fray.

Phew.

I was on a roll there. ^^

Cya sometime next week, when I'm no longer inundated by landfills of assignments! <3

During Class...

2008-04-07T15:23:00.002+10:00

I'm in class now, and I'm supposed to be creating a blog. HAHA. So irrelevant. So now i figured that I should be catching up with what I've done in the past...week??? OMGAH! No way. I can't recall so many things. I'll just start with the day we went to watch Spiderwick Chronicles.

It was one of those days where I felt kinda lucky. As opposed to the sorts of days where I wash up and I find that the tube of toothpaste is used up, the shirt I want to wear is still drying, I can't find my socks and i miss the tram by a few steps. Which sucks. Yeah, one of those feel-happy, get-lucky days.

Then Cal sms-ed me and told me that she wasn't feeling very well, lol. Everyone seems to be getting sick already, and it's not even WINTER! >.> The last time I got sick here it wasn't so bad. Maybe I have what I call "Tropical Immunity". I don't catch many colds here in Melbourne, I realise, as opposed to when I'm in Singapore. I guess the people in Singapore carry more germs around with them, what with Ah-peh's spitting into longkangs and the bacteria spreading into the air... O_o Not to mention the overpopulation of stray animals in hawker centres (which I adore, so I really don't mind). Oh, did I mention that old lady I saw in the hawker centre plucking beansprouts and scratching her armpits at the same time??? Yeah. So those may be reasons why I get sick more often in Singapore. It's just too plain hygienic here.

Me and Jess ended up eating at Singapore Chom Chom, where she got bullied (as always) by her former workmates. HAHA. Jess is (supposedly) very cu lu and bao li. ^^

GAH I have to go now. Be back.

Sudden Inspiration

2008-03-23T17:28:00.003+11:00

After Jess announced she was gonna switch back to blogging in English, that got me thinking...how about I try blogging in CHINESE???

#%$@!!??!!

Since this is the first post, don't mind the random English words in between kae. It's a far cry from my secondary school days, I know! T^T

这么久没讲华语了，连写华文字我也差不多忘掉了。这也是当然的啦。自从我决定到澳洲去读大学，在那个时刻之后，可以说我差不多抛弃我的母语。一开始，我也蛮高兴与兴奋。对我来说，华文是个很花时间的语文。要写一篇decent的文章，需要一小时的烦恼，然后三个小时的writing. 但是，过了一段时间，我却莫名其妙地开始想念华文`华语之类的东西。尤其是中学那段时间的华文课。我记得，我总是会在老师没注意的时候跟朋友说说笑笑。不然呢，我就会在笔记本里画莫名其妙的东西。

Looking back, 我发现吴老师真的非常照顾我们这一班。Ok, 可以说我们班在我们的年级是比较聪明的，所以老师们当然比较注视我们的学习。虽然事实是这样，我还是非常尊敬我们华文老师的信心和细心。

呓？！我的blog什么时候变成一个崇拜华文的篇章呢？？？我只是想表明自己对华文的一些感想罢了！糟糕。Off-topic华文怎么说呢？哈哈。我真得受不了现在的自己，连句子什么什么的都弄不清。希望以后我会再improve我的华语。现在呢，我只能七七八八地把我所想的写出来。如果我还是写得很糟，请多多原谅。也许我没发觉我的华文是这么的刺眼。T^T

今天，没什么发生。我做了家务之后，身体感觉非常的腰酸背痛，但是，一样的，我也有收获啦。不知道减肥了吗？哈哈。我也管不了太多。只是，把全家的房子都vacuum和mop的感觉非常好。有一个很优越的sense of achievement。哇，我又再写什么废话啦！简直像家庭主妇一般唠叨。可恶！读者们，这就是叫做"no life".

我本来想把昨天发生的事都写出来，但是我的华文本是没那么好，以及我也懒得用母语。写了以上的东西我也蛮辛苦了。快喘不过气了。Tat boleh tahan already. 我应该到此停笔了，呵呵。

不可以！我怎么能这么轻易就放弃了呢？真对不起我的教育。哼。希望大家能帮我鼓励鼓励，哦。

昨天刚喝了天人的奶茶，简直像升天那种感觉似的！每次我喝那一杯魔法奶茶，我就会觉得更清醒，更开心。而且非常的幸福。幸福就是这样吗？那当然！不用男朋友，不用钱，不用衣服，不用家，不用朋友，不用车。就这一杯奶茶我就幸福了。哈哈。开玩笑啦。如果没有朋友，没有家人，怎么能活得下去呢？:)

说到这里，你们还能读得懂我在写什么吗？:P

我和洁西卡（哈哈，我把你的英文名translate到华文了，蛮好笑的！）到一间新开的korean和japanese餐厅，叫Big Mama。他们那里的豆腐多么的好吃呢！能跟我的魔法奶茶相比，呵呵。我们应该点了多一个。如果整餐只是吃那个豆腐，那该多好！读者们如果以后到澳洲melbourne旅行，一定要尝尝Big Mama的Agedashi豆腐，哦？千万不要去喝天人的奶茶，因为那个魔法奶茶是属于我的，你们给我记住。HOHOHO。

因为现在我们在Easter假期的期间，在城市里非常少人。在Melbourne大学见到的人影少得很。虽然这样平常对我来说是一件好事，但是我的research当天也落空，连一丝relevant article也找不到。也许那天我是fated的。早知道会这样，我也不会去图书馆了啦！多么的浪费我的宝贵时间。离开图书馆以后，我们到洁西卡的apartment去。花了老半天，我这啰里啰唆的朋友终于换好了衣服。谁叫她的apartment的镜子这么大. 镜子多大她就会花多少的时间准备. ;)

我们决定去天人那里吃晚餐, 然后我们点了一个非常奇怪的花生面. O_o 不知道杰斯卡有没有把昨晚的花生面拍下来, 可以让你们看, 哈哈! Suffice it to say, 那盘面不太好吃啦. 我也蛮kaypo的. 一直注意着坐在一旁的两位女生. 她们好像吵架了, 正在默默地吃晚餐. 我们觉得十分莫名其妙.

咿呀! "莫名其妙" 这个成语我用得太多了. 总共用了三次. 请各位recommend意思相近的成语, 可以吗? 我的头脑快要爆炸了. 也许写太多华文对我的神经不好? 哈哈. 也许吧. 问题是, 我的神经早有malfunction了.

YAY! I managed to type it all out in stuttering Chinese. Hope it's even half-way coherent. :P

1st Day of 2nd Year Uni, 2008

2008-03-03T20:54:00.002+11:00

:D

The lecturer for one of my Law subjects looks and talks like Voldemort. But he seems like a nice person, amicable and all that. It's just that the very first word that came to my mind when he spoke was Voldemort. It's not that his voice is all evil-sounding and sibilant, it's just that it sounds very gentle, almost faint, as if he's speaking from a great distance. One of the most unique voices I have ever heard.

For first days, today was quite good. Except for the fact that the 207 bus I took had this weird smell, the smell of when people perspire onto the seats and the cushion absorbs all the sweat and gets old. Yeah. Kinda gross right. The key is to NOT think about it. At least it was air-conditioned. Today was SO SO bloody hot, like 32 degrees. Worse than S'pore man. At least tomorrow is gonna be better.

My Net Communications lecture was full of jargon, but it was all very comforting. After months of not doing anything much at all, it feels really good sitting down to a lecture which you don't enjoy (after all, during holidays, all you do is do thing you enjoy) and listening to the lecturer droning on about transcoding and new media and blah blah whatever. I didn't know how much I missed Uni until today. :)

Since this week is only the first week, there were no lab classes for Net Comm, so I hung out with Jess instead. She was walking around trying to look for job vacancies. I should have been doing the same, except that I haven't gotten my work visa done yet. BUGGER. Oh well, sooner or later I'll get one. Hopefully the money will start coming in, haha!

I was expecting my Law lecture to be a total waste of time, as all introductory lectures always are. All they do is go through a summary of the course, what to expect, assessment, guidelines blah blah. But I ended up quite happy to go to today's lecture. Got to meet with Yuqi, Lionel, Sue Ann, Mabel and OMG-I-cant-believe-I-forgot-her-name-she's-so-nice. Everyone lives so close to Uni. I tagged along with Yuqi to get a glimpse of the new apartment she's renting, just a few metres for the Law school. It was small, but very quaint, with a decent balcony view and spiffy toilet, although it wasn't much bigger than the bathroom in my aunt's house. The sink, for instance, was the size of a bowl. Seriously. But other than that, it looks nicer than the other apartments I have looked at. The price is pretty nice as well, about AU$900++ a month. For a room. Oh well, that's the life of people who don't have relatives here. ^^

Oh, I just found out that the really shuai angmo guy who was in one of my Media subjects last semester is also taking one of my Media subjects this semester. Hope we're in the same tute, but it's highly unlikely.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO JINGYI WHO TURNS 19 TODAY!!! ^^

(I don't think she'll see this message cuz she doesn't really use the com, so if someone would be so nice as to tell her I said this, I'd really appreciate it. Especially if you are from REEDS and are reading this. :P)

Now if only it would get cooler...

Apple pie tastes weird with chocolate and honeycomb ice cream. But I had no choice. There was no other ice cream flavour in the fridge, and how can ANYONE possibly eat apple pie without eating ice cream???

I HAVE TO WORK HARD THIS SEMESTER.
I WILL TRY TO WORK HARD THIS SEMESTER.
I CAN WORK HARD THIS SEMESTER.
I SHOULD WORK HARD THIS SEMESTER.

...

Talk is cheap! OMG. Boohoo.

Mysteries Solved, Unsolved

2008-03-01T23:48:00.002+11:00

I now know why I blog more in Australia, and neglect it anywhere else. Have I ever mentioned how slow life here is??? If Australia were a person I would grab it her by the shoulders and give her a good, long shake. Oh, and gift her a pair of good earphones, attached to an iPod with neverending songs. Cuz it's just so bloody quiet out here in the suburbs, I can totally envision a horror movie being shot here, with no one being able to hear you scream. Can't wait til uni starts next week. I'm not looking forward to the work, mind you. I'm just looking forward to the fact that I'll have something to do, somewhere to go, people to see. Right now I'm just stewing like a pot of laksa at home and being envious of other people going to work and being able to meet friends every day. HAHA. I was just reading Hy's blog, and I'm so jealous of her $1.27 bus fare. Here? The best you can hope for is a $2.60 city saver, and that's only enough to last you one trip, through the city only. -_____-||| Right now my monthly ticket costs $104, up from $98 the last time I bought one. If inflation were a person I would stick an umbrella up its arse and open it. >.>

Aside from money woes and nothing-to-do-so-bloody-boring woes, I know I'll be wishing for some peace during semester, haha! I have no doubt that the moment I set off for uni on Monday, the essays will come flooding in, the readings will bog me down and the early morning calls will tire me flat. Oh well. Being tired is much better than being bored. At least when you're tired, you can sleep.

Shopping online is the most unbelieveable fun. It's just that the guilt that comes after feels horrible, haha. Oh well, there goes my ang pao money. The next time I go on a shopping spree, it will be with my pay. I just have to get off my ass and get my working visa soon. If not I'll lose my drive altogether. And in the end NOT get a job. But I have to get a job if I wanna go exploring around Sydney this July holiday. At least, whatever job I get, I know that the pay's good. ^^ Let me see if I can recount what I did for the past few days.

Tuesday I arrived, very astonished at the cool weather here. Was expecting it to be blisteringly hot. Glad I didn't have to carry my jacket then. I met this girl called Eunice, who took the same flight with me. She's a 2nd year doing political science, seemed very nice. I wanted to get her hp number to keep in contact, but we parted at the declarations area, darn. Oh well. Maybe I'll meet her on campus. Got picked up by my aunt, and then when we got home I slept for the next 8 hours, to my delight. I like sleeping for long periods. It's so very relaxing and stress-free. Plus I get to meet all the shuaiges in my dreams. Ok lah, who am I kidding, there aren't any shuaiges in my dreams, my subconscious mind is not so kind. I get weird stuff I forget in the morning.

Anyway, it was around this time after waking that I read my friends' notes and watched the short movie clip. It really uplifted me, seeing as how I was really missing my family and home sweet home already. For some reason, this year's homesickness was worst than last year's. I think I cried for a few days, until I sorta got over it. Must be all this idle activity. I'm not doing anything, so I think too much. I must remember to leave my thinking for work instead, for studies. LOL.

On Thursday I went out with Jess to catch the movie Jumper. It was quite ok la, if not for a cliche plot. I'd really really like his power. Paris, Egypt, Japan and Shanghai in a day? I wanna do that too! XD He got to stand on a sphinx's head, haha. Probably one of a handful in the whole world who got to do that la. I was already feeling a little sick by then. I think it's my body transitioning from S'pore to Melbourne weather, cuz I feel fine now. I mean, from 28 max to 18 max is a big temperature jump. Had to re-adjust and remember what sort of clothing to wear for this weather, O_o

Jess says she likes four seasons. The only reason I like winter is cuz I get to disguise my arm fats by wearing long sleeves. Don't deny and try to make me feel better, I KNOW I have arm fats. Just like I know I'm not obese but say I am. Anyway, the issue of weight and fats is insignificant in my life right now. What is significant in my life now is that thick uber-scary-looking tome on my bed called Contracts: Cases and Materials. More intimidating than my Torts book. I tried reading a random page and nearly gave myself a heart attack. Maybe, postmortem, I'll still be holding that book in my hands, my mouth open in a silent scream.

GOSH, I don't even watch horror movies, where is all this horrid imagery coming from? I keep diverting from my topic. Oh, so on the day I watched Jumper, we ate zha jiang mian at our reliable and cheap shanghai dumpling store. I really really felt like eating zha jiang mian cuz I kept seeing people eat them in Witch Yoo Hee and Coffee Prince. AAARRRGGGHHH. I really really love noodles in gooey sauce.

The next day, aka Friday, I felt even worse. Sicker than usual. Plus I HAD to get out of bed to go to the city, cuz that was the last day I could collect my Law materials from the darn office. So, amazingly enough, I managed to drag myself out of bed, onto the bus and I made it to the Law building without collapsing on the floor twitching. Imagine my dismay when the lady hefted this monster stack of papers when I told her this semester's subjects. Was I surprised? HAHA, not in the least. Was I disappointed? Yes, quite. Did I expect it? Yes I did. Hey, it won't kill me to do some wishful thinking right.

At least this time, only one subject needs a textbook. The other relies on notes only, HUHUHU.

Now if only my classes are filled with shuaiges. FAT CHANCE MAN. I miss the multitudes of good-looking guys in S'pore. Oh well. Depriving myself of eye candy is another way to a slim figure. Figuratively, I mean. OMGAH what am I talking about? This is the typing equivalent of mumbling. I wonder how many words a person can type before he dies. If he was a secretary, he'd probably type alot more than, say, a toilet cleaner. And every time I think toilet cleaner, I think of Lionel being mean and tricking me into thinking that he took a part time job at Newton Circus as a toilet cleaner. BAH. I'm so naive. Why are people constantly taking advantage of meeeee!!!

I feel bad about blogging too. Cuz when you blog, all one is doing is talking about oneself. When, really, one should be living for the sake of others, cuz other people matter the most.

The last thing that the founder of the Red Cross organisation said to the volunteers in his final letter before he died was this:

OTHERS.

OTHERS.

I think now that the world only seems small because most times, we think only of ourselves. Unhappiness seems to always stem from us wanting to satisfy our selfish desires, yet we are reluctant to embrace true happiness by putting others first. Love begets love. I am blessed to be a blessing. :) I hope and pray that I will be just that, a blessing to those around me. I hope that my life will be a gift to others, and especially to my family. Yet I know that I still have my selfish ways, so I can only try harder, to mature faster, and to love others more than I love myself. Talk is cheap, haha, and I may take a lifetime to achieve this, but with God's help and guidance, I want to at least try, even if I have zero confidence in myself, to be a candle to others. Weird thing is, before I can learn to love others, I have to start loving myself first. GANBATTE!

The Proverbial Writers' Block

2007-10-26T15:15:00.000+10:00

I am sitting here at Barretto's, contemplating a non-fiction piece I have just completed. It is total, bloody shite. Even I don't feel like reading it. I have no qualms about completing the fiction portion of my creative writing assignment, but my life so far has been rather uneventful. WHAT CAN I WRITE ABOUT??? Even my blog is testament to my humdrum existence. While I can imagine how others might have experiences in gay clubs and drunken boyfriends, I have none of those. Maybe I'm just searching for something too sensationalist? I could start a piece about my grandmother, except I didn't know much about her, and someone else is already doing a piece on a grandfather. A very good piece, I might add. GRAH. Maybe I SHALL do a piece about someone I know, or people I know of.

Better than a godforsaken romp through my bedroom. I'll bet only insatiable voyeurs would want a look inside and get a blow-by-blow account of each object's history.

I am so boring I even bore myself.

I shall now brainstorm right here. I feel too lethargic to stretch my fingers to open the Microsoft Word application.

Write about:
- my guzheng competitions
- my grandmother
- my first return to S'pore***
- my annual visits back to Pinang to visit relatives (some distant, some eccentric, most friendly) in their goldsmiths' shop
- my attempts at rearing various insects during my childhood

GRAAAAHHHHHHHH. This is all I can think of now. As it is, my laptop's battery is only going to last me for another 45 minutes, and I have yet to collect my essay on Defamation from the Law faculty. WHAT ARE THE TEACHERS DOING, LEAVING IT TIL THE LAST DAY OF TERM??? I will bash my face into a marble pillar if I flunk this essay. And ask the office for a $50 refund on all the photocopies of research I've done.

Plus I'm hungry, so I'll just go off now and munch on the cheese sandwich I've packed for myself.

I've decided: my writing style is more suited to the journalistic profession. I am in no way creative. At all. Ok, maybe just marginally, but marginally does me no good, since there are so many other geniuses in my class.

I haven't touched this blog in ages, have I? Whoa. Revelation. Seeing as I'm currently pissed off at my non-fiction piece, there won't be any updates anytime soon. If I can't be bothered to write about my life in an assignment, what more in my own blog??? LAWL.

Ciao!

Edoooowadoooo~

2007-09-22T09:59:00.000+10:00

OMG thank you all for being so encouraging, LAWL! The post below was written on one of my DOWN days, so yeah. :P I feel much better now, and the COLD is G-O-N-E!!! WOOHOO~~~! So my ego is back to the normal high. HOHOHO.

I've also got a grave statement to make:

Edward Elric has officially topped my fave anime character list. PERMANENTLY. OMG.

_SPOILER ALERT_

Haha, yeah, I might be a bit slow, but I finally got around to watching FMA!!! XD So basically this whole post is going to be a rant about it. Haha. Non-anime interested people can leave now, shoo shoo. Cuz only major anime freaks will understand what I am vigorously muttering about here.

Kidding lah.

Anyway, after watching the series, I got damn sad lah~. Maes Hughes DIED (the frickin' idiot, discover a Homunculus also dun wanna get help first, straightaway rush down to the stupid trap. I mean, he's head of the intelligence department CAN??? INTELLIGENCE~!. *grumble grumble*) and then two of my fave characters in the show fight in the finale and one kills the other. -_=

But after watching the movie, I feel that the whole anime gives me a very bittersweet feeling. In fact, so bittersweet that, up til now (I finished the series + movie 3 days ago can, still haven't gotten over it...) I can't help but cry when I hear the 2nd Ending Song (because I feel that this song sums up the whole anime in the BEST and MOST AWESOME way) and the background song "Brothers". In fact, I cry the MOST when "Brothers" is played. So now I restrict myelf to only hearing it once a day, if not I will always be in a perpetual shadow of sadness. Seriously. I get THIS ATTACHED to an anime series. That's why I get apprehensive around epic anime like this. But at least FMA wasn't as heart-rending as Chrno Crusade. Haha, for Chrno Crusade I swear I cried for almost 30min. T^T

I read online that so many people hated the Conqueror of Shamballa movie. I, for one, LOVED it.

(OIOIOI for those who haven't watched the movie, BIG SPOILER HERE, AND THIS IS THE LAST WARNING I'M GIVING FOR SPOILERS since most of my friends don't really care about them anyway. I'm just wasting valuable typing space.)

Why should people be sad that Ed has to stay in our world? And Al too? I mean, for Ed right, even if he goes back to his world, he won't be able to become a State Alchemist anymore, and plus he burned down his house. It isn't realistic to say that he and Al will stay at Winry's because, let's face it, FMA is not an anime for happy endings, just like all good anime. Anime with happy endings don't get as much hype and/or praise. Plus, Ed and Al staying with Winry just irks me because I don't like any of the girls in the anime. Oh, with the exception of Lust, cuz I think she's really cool.

And my strongest argument? I just don't see Ed retiring happily in the countryside with Winry and the rest of them. It's just wrong. Even if he stays back in his world, he'll surely be off travelling and helping other people through his alchemy, maybe even fighting in the border disputes. Even that isn't realistic. If he helps in the war, he's either for or against the military, and both don't look like very probable possibilities.

For Al? Haha, this is an easy argument. If he stays back in his world, he would have lost all his memories of the 4 years of travel he did with his brother. And that would be the BIGGEST loss ever for him, since I believe he learned alot during his travels. So if Al is able to regain his lost memories by staying in our world with Ed, isn't that all so much the better? After all, their promise was to find each other eventually, and they HAVE, even if it isn't in their world but in ours.

So there. WHEW. I fully support the fact that Ed turned 100 in the year 2005 of our world (haha, omg, the OVAs were so cute, too bad they only made 4, and out of the 4, I couldn't find the 4th: "reflections"). That must make Al 99 in 2005. LAWL. But I'm digressing.

I guess the one thing I feel bitter about is the fact that Ed and Al can no longer practise Alchemy. It was so gut-wrenching for me to watch (in the movie) how much Ed missed Alchemy. You know, the scene where he completes drawing the alchemic circle, and then berates himself for doing so cuz alchemy can't be practised in our world. AAGGGHHHH.

Therefore, in conclusion... (LOL) The anime is bittersweet for me because bitter = cannot practise alchemy and sweet = Ed is reunited with Al in the end, after all their efforts.

I can safely say that I'll shelve this anime along with all my other all-time favourites like Chrno Crusade, Groove Adventure RAVE, BLOOD+ and +++ (because I forgot the rest). Hehe. Here ends my tirade about FMA.

_SPOILER END_

It's funny how people bond to the first thing they watch. I lent my cousin a copy of my Japanese Hana Yori Dango, and she said she didn't like it cuz it felt weird, since she watched the Taiwanese one first. I, on the other hand, watched the Jap one first, and thought that the Taiwanese one was the inferior one. O_O LAWL. Just a random point I'd like to make.

But apparently all the people who watched Full House loved it no matter what. HAHA.

Lastly, I'd just like to remark upon the fact that I purchased a FMA mug from eBay. :)

To remind myself every day that, even if the Pinciple of Equivalent Trade is too simple a formula to be applied in such an imperfect world, one will always be able to gain something of value if one puts in enough effort, whatever the goal is. :P

Ganbatte, Ed and Al! ^^ (I wonder where their graves are in this world...or have they even died yet...? HOHOHO...)

Word Vomit

2007-09-12T17:58:00.000+10:00

I'm down with a cold. RAWR. The only decent thing that's happened to me all week is Ratatouille. TT_TT

And I have this RANT that been fermenting inside me for such a long time I feel I'm about to burst, so I really really have to blog about it.

_START_

Look, I know I'm stupid. I know most of the time I say the stupidest things. I'm forgetful. I'm blur. I speak without thinking about what I'm going to say. I mistake some things for others. I remember things wrong. I panic for no reason. I do silly random stuff that most normal people won't do. I AM A BLUR, EXCESSIVELY THICK-HEADED SPOILT USELESS BRAT AND I AM VERY AWARE OF THIS FACT.

BUT PLEASE WILL YOU ALL STOP LOOKING DOWN ON ME.

Not everything I say deserves to be scoffed at. Not every memory I recount is wrong.

It has just come to a point where I feel as though I'm being JUDGED by EVERYONE.

It just sometimes hurts SO MUCH when what I say gets dismissed. JUST LIKE THAT. And I don't say a word and smile and laugh and act as if nothing is wrong, but it's times like these that I feel smaller than a gnat, even more insignificant than a piece of discarded chewing gum.

Is it so wrong to be naive? Is it so wrong to make lame comments? Is it so wrong to BE ME?????????????

Because I'm SORRY. THIS IS WHO I AM. SO RIGHT NOW I AM APOLOGISING TO ALL OF YOU WHO HAVE BEEN OFFENDED BY WHO I AM AND MY VERY EXISTENCE ON THIS F***ING PLANET.

_STOP_

Whew. Maybe it's just my cold working up. I don't know. Such a mouthful, right? HAHA. When I mean fermenting for a LONG time, I mean LONG time. I've had years and years of this kind of experience and today I'm just letting a bit out. Cuz I'm sick and sick people are allowed to wallow in self-pity.

Plus I have an Op-Ed to type and a presentation to do, and my head is killing me and my nose is trying to burrow into the other side of my skull.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE let me be able to sleep tonight.

PLEASE. ONEGAI.

:'(

A Brief Respite

2007-09-05T09:31:00.000+10:00

HOHOHO. I'm in the library right now, cuz I'm 30min early for class. Usually I'm not this early. The 205 bus driver is supposed to drive slower than this, but today I hitched a ride with my uncle, since he was already fetching my counsin to work. Haha. Beats sitting on the bus and listening to the horrible rock-n-roll the bus driver turns up on the radio. This happened to me yesterday and I was damn pissed lah. The driver tuned in to some stupid channel with screaming singers and lots of rock'n'roll and it drove me crazy can. And there I was trying to listent o some soothing tunes on my MP3.

But that was the only adverse thing that happened yesterday. Peanut buter and jelly tastes kinda nice. I keep reading about it in books but have never actually made some for myself. I even made it on time for my earlier bus, which put me in a good mood when I arrived home, after which, of course, I continued reading Lovely Complex. I'm at book 6 now, by the way. Too bad I have to read book 7 online, since I don't have it. I'll have to read books 11-14 online too, which SUXOR! Yesasia had better restock quickly or I'll eat it.

Oh well. Worst comes to worst I'll rent the comic on Saturday or something. Beats WAITING.

I now have a Country Road bag (lent to me by my cousin, haha, so kind) to carry my laptop and all my stuffs in, so that I don't have to carry two bags. TWO BAGS! They're so irritating! Especially since the laptop bag is a hand-carry.

These few days my nose has been feeling horrid. Utterly horrid. It's like it's going on strike or something. And I just read Cal's blog, and she says she'd love to have a blocked nose. You can have mine Cal, give me yours. We'll trade for a month or so.

The STATIC in my HAIR is ALSO driving me crazy. I combed my hair this morning, and I swear, I looked all the worst for it. So much so that I mussed it right back after combing. Geesh. You never get this in S'pore. Wait. I shouldn't be complaining, should I. In S'pore my hair is FLAT. As flat as that plateau that is supposedly the heart of Australia (forgot it's name. I'm never good at names, even rote memorising doesn't help). Why is the grass always greener on the other side?????? I need to send myself to Africa in a crate one day.

Which is to say, NEVER.

There's nothing wrong with being a spoilt brat. It's KNOWING you are one that really matters. So I AM ONE. Not proud to be one though, but then again, I'm humble. Huehuehue (Cal says no one uses "huehuehue", so I'm using it now. Now it's (c)YiXian. HUEHUEHUE)

My creative writing assignment is due Friday, but I'll have to hand it in on Thursday, since Friday I have my "bee" job. Again. Oh well. I am telling myself that I'm saving money to go to Sydney next year, but really I'm just kidding myself. I'll probably splurge it all during the two-week holiday I have. XD Which is in 1 and a half weeks' time!!! JOY JOY JOY! But really, I shouldn't splurge. I need to be held in those restraints they put on mentally-ill people, but the straps on mine should be neon pink. That way, even if I'm bound up like a crazy, I'll still be fashionable.

OHMYGOSH what am I blogging. the truth is that I just like the feel of my fingers on the keyboard. That's all. My genetic makeup is keyed for office work, which is really sad. I'd like to be able to say I was built for bungee-jumping, or even poem-writing or fashion-designing. Even house-cleaning!!! Being built to do officework is just thw most mundane of mundane-ness. Even Kenny has a job much more fun than mine. He cleans SHIT. Which actually MAKES A DIFFERENCE. AND HE ONLY GETS PAID LIKE $400 A WEEK, MAYBE EVEN LESS, I'LL BET.

Agh, leture's about to start, but at least I LURVE my Arts subjects this sem. Takes the sting off all the horrid Torts stuffs. Even Dispute Resolution isn't THAT bad. No wonder I've been having better moods. :D

***NOTE TO SELF: Buy Girlfriend! XD And smoked salmon, for next week's lunches. YUM. And Philadelphia cheese. And those Allen's gummies. And more packet tissue. And a carton of milk. And a life (which probably costs $1,000,000++).

Liar Game and ETC

2007-08-26T21:22:00.000+10:00

Heh. It's been so long. HI! Just wanna show you all some pics from the uber-cool new drama Liar Game.

Hehe. I'm getting so lazy nowadays, blogging in pictures. Cal-ifornia told me that kennysia pays like RM500 to host his own domain! I should be glad to have my own space to blog at all. LAWL. Don't we all take things for granted.

"Requiem for the Otherwise Unacknowledged"

Cradling it between finger and thumb
I feel at home. It calls to me
to trace out people and places
beyond my wildest dreams. I feel
the silken wash as I guide it down
a pristine white landscape. Layering beauty
onto beauty and breathing life into
a void.

Perhaps a hare, and a nifty dandelion. Perhaps
a castle floating in the sky and
yet
still they are but shallow reflections
of a profound pond. Beauty is but fleeting
and shapes will still crumble with time, yellow
and dog-eared with love. But still
they are mine, and it will always be there
lying patiently in wait, when next
the whimsical muse summons.

Green thumb have I not, but have I need
for one at all? For it is an extension
of myself, not borne from the womb. If ever
I lay it down to rest then so shall I, in the smug knowledge
that another of its brethren would live on, and another
and another in the joint creation
of worlds upon worlds.
Ever constant, ever changing, it is yours, mine and
ours.

Ahhh. Now that I've gotten THAT one out of my system, how about... a random short story? :D

_ START _

Jamie. Yeah, that's my name. It's been mine for over sixteen years now. But it's very androgynous, isn't it? I've always been teased over it, and I don't seem to mind, but who knows? Maybe I do. I've never made it a sore spot though, and I've never really thought about it, until the day I met him. He's a Jamie, too, but a very different one. Sometimes I think it's a wonderful thing, that all us Jamies are so different and yet so alike. But what intrigued me about this particular Jamie was his eyes, which were grey, but sometimes is spattered with flecks of gold. The gold only happens when he's excited about something, which isn't very often I must say.

He didn't make much of an impression on me at first. During the introductions, he just sat back on his heels, his lips pursed in a thin line and his gaze somewhat unfocused. I thought this was because he was on coke or something, but it turns out that's just who he is. Like I said, he didn't seem like someone worth my attention, and I was busy sweeping eraser dust off my desk anyway. That's what happens when your desk partner is left-handed, especially if your desk partner's name is Melanie. All the Melanies I've ever known seem to have an obsessive-compulsive about something. The first Melanie I got to know, years back, always had a wad of tissue stuck to her nose, and bawled for her mother most of the time. The next one I knew had to check her front door approximately ten times before she could safely say she locked it, but we got into a spat about a particular shade of lipstick she liked and I've never spoken to her since.

Melanie Version 3, also known as Melanie Fraser, hated to find eraser dust on her desk.

"Don't you hate it? When all these grey things just sit on the table. They're like stagnant dust mites, ewwwww." She swept more greyish bits over onto my already-cluttered tabletop and gave an eloquent shudder.

I removed the piece of gum that I had studiously been chewing over Geometry and most of History, and stuck it into its wrapping. There wasn't much point in replying to most of her comments, but I felt generous that day since I discovered I passed that surprise Geometry test.

"Not really. And if you don't like it, why not use a pen?" I've told her that millions of times, and always, I get the same reply. Sometimes I'm not even sure why I bother, but I guess it's already become a habit. Being around Melanie, most everything becomes a habit.

"Pens don't make that same scratching sound. Don't you see?" I shut out the rest of her long oration about the benefits of the pencil and dug around in my pockets for another spare piece of gum. But of course there wasn't any. I only ever plan far enough to get me through the hour, maybe two hours, if I'm feeling far-sighted. I leave the rest to luck and my uncanny ability to get out of the tightest of spots. It might sound like I'm bragging, but I've honestly never found myself between a rock and a hard place.

What I managed to frisk out from my pockets was, well, more eraser dust. If I had a choice, I'd never have chosen Melanie for a partner, but I suppose that Fate has to have its laughs, if not where would the rest of humanity be? Down a stinkhole, probably.

A smattering of half-hearted applause ripples through the class, which makes me sit up. Now comes the time where the new guy has to find a suitable place to sit. Having been through that initiation process countless of times, I sit back and ponder about how he'd go about doing it. Picking seats, after all, is a tricky business. Where did politicians first get a taste of politics? In the classroom, of course. First, you had to make sure you didn't sit too far up front, with the nerds in their thick-rimmed glasses and sweaty palms. But you couldn't sit too far back either, else you'd be frowned upon by by the teachers. You wouldn't want to incur the wrath of those who gave out the 'A's and the 'D's. That left the seats in the middle, which wasn't much of an option since most of us who were savvy enough had already taken them up.

That left... I surruptitiously swept a glance at the vacant desks still remaining. The one at the corner had a shaky leg, and didn't look as if it could carry a sponge, much less a Biology textbook. The only option open was the desk just behind Brent Harkner. Nobody, I assure you, absolutely nobody, would want to sit behind Brent the Brute. You might think it weird, us calling names behind each others' backs at sixteen, but there are a few perfectly good exceptions. Brent happened to be one of those "elite" few.

Not many sixteen-year-olds are convicted of drug-trafficking, and Brent had earned that bad-boy status a few months before. But it wasn't as if he needed that criminal affirmation in the first place. All of us knew what he was capable of, and although most of the activities in his repertoire was mostly innnocent bullying, you never knew with Brent. He had his cronies, and he had his own corner of the canteen. He even had his own "protection" agency going awhile ago, until the headmaster threatened expulsion. What better way to spark an egotistical coward's interest than the new guy on the block?

I winced inwardly as the other Jamie sauntered over to that ill-fated desk. It seemed as though the class had collectively held their breaths, and only let it out when he made it to his seat and sat down. Rather heavily, I might add. He had an air of already being tired of the world. My dad calls it the "world-worn" look, and says he always sees it in those elderly people on the park benches in the mornings, with their leathery faces and knowing smiles. An image of a sack of flour came to mind, and I nodded to myself. What happens if you put a sack of flour behind a raging bull? Does the bull not bat an eyelid? Or does it find in the sack a new punching bag?

Undoubtedly, all would be revealed. But right then, Miss Ermine had snapped open her copy of The Merchant of Venice and I busied myself with the rubble on my desk. Time enough to wonder about the future, and I didn't want to be the next donkey Miss Ermine pinned the tail to. It was always unpleasant reading Shakespeare aloud with her staring down her disapproving nose, and if you stuttered, well, that was basically the end for you.

_ TO BE CONTINUED _

That is, if I feel like it. I rather like Jamie. She just popped up in my mind's eye and I decided I just HAD to tell everyone her story. Hmmm...

Middle-time

2007-08-02T13:38:00.000+10:00

I am, currently, in the midst of the most boring day ever imaginable. So I've been using this spare time to keep up with my friends' blogs, especially the ones in S'pore. Being here for more than a year, I've almost forgotten how stressful school life was back in S'pore. For example, *ahem*, after reading Hy's blog about getting into Uni, I realise that I will never empathise with that sort of trepidation, or dread, for that matter.

And you know how people complain about others they just can't stand in school? *ahem* Hy's blog again. (Gomen ne, I just felt rather reflective after reading all your entries. You update damn fast neh...) Well, ridiculously, I kinda miss those ill feelings. Right now, in uni, like I said, my classes are all over the place, and so are the people in my classes, so I never get to know anyone well enough to like/dislike. It's nice to be surrounded by people you know, those who are predictable to you, and you know specifically what you like/dislike about them, their habits, their vices, their virtues.

Beats being alone, right? :)

Well, besides that, I wanted to put some funny pictures up, but too bad I'm not on my laptop. It really eats at me how my blog entries are only ever filled with words, like I can only every communicate in paragraphs.

GGGGRRRRRR.

I used to be able to survive on $50 a week. So this week, I'm trying really hard to restrict myself. But here, for $4, you get 2 sushis, or maybe a cupful of chicken nuggets. In S'pore you get a bowlful of Loh Mee, or chicken rice. So I'm looking forward to seeing what I can eat/not eat on this $50 diet. And mind you, this $50 is only for food, kae. Good thing I'm getting a job soon. :P

Oh yeah. Just before my Professional Writing lecture, when I was lounging around outside waiting for the previous lecture to end, all the students came filtering out of the theatre, AND I SAW THIS JERRY YAN LOOKALIKE. OMG. I feel like cursing myself now that I didn't get a second look. Haha, you could say I was too shy, or you could say he walked away too quickly. Whatever.

Yesterday my uni ended at 1pm, so I had time to tram down to the city (omg, have I ranted on about why I hate trams cuz they're so slow and so crowded during peak times??? I wanted to get off halfway, see, BUT THERE WERE JUST DAMN TOO MANY PEOPLE AROUND ME.) I got off at QV and went off to Breadtop to get my cheesecake (IT WAS SO LOVELY!!! It's got to last me for four days' breakfasts) and my chocolate mousse. That chocolate mousse was really good! I would buy it more often, except that it's like $2.50 per cup. :S So I'll consider it an indulgence food.

Oh oh oh.

I arrived at uni super early today, so I got pissed at myself. I seem to be having too much free time. You know how every semester your timetable changes and every week, there's always this one day you'll hate? Well, this semester, it'll be thursdays I'm hating, so people, please don't give me a hard time on thursdays. :D Last sem I remember I hated wednesdays. Somehow or other it always has to be one of the days in the middle.

Plus I have too many vintage tees. After my vintage-spree during the hols, I've counted all the tees in my wardrobe and now I'm starting to feel horribly guilty (not verily, but sufficiently) about all those tees. You know how people have shoe fetishes? And collect hundreds of shoes? And only wear each pair like once or twice??? I think I have a vintage tee fetish.

WOW. FETISHES! I have a sudden inspiration about what to write about for my magazine profile assignment. :P

I wonder if pollinating flowers for my uncle will be tedious work. I mean, so what if it's $15 an hour if you break your spinal cord and forearms in the process??? I seriously hope it works out though. I need that money for my allowance, since what's left of the money in my bank account I have to use for uni fees. WHY DOES THIS WORLD REVOLVE AROUND MONEY???

I read an article this morning about how Nicole Kidman earns $35 million a year, and The Wiggles earn about $50 million. Heck, if only I write to Nicole to ask for a donation of just $1 million dollars, our money woes will be over, no? That money can be used to pay me and my brothers' uni fees, and maybe even pay off our house loan, and then some for my mom's medical fees. I mean, it'd be such a waste if she used that money to buy a Porsche instead. >.<

Ooops. It's almost Torts Lecture time. God, I don't have any friends in THAT lecture either. SOMEONE SAVE ME.

Replying To Tags

2007-08-01T23:09:00.000+10:00

Jess: Update already lurrrrr!!! XD I didn't you you wanted to read my blog so much. Next time come my blog must pay entrance fee. :)

Serena: WOW! HI! So glad you dropped in. Yar, I'm enjoying myself, as long as uni hasn't started (which it has...). How've you been? It's been quite long since I've met you at the bus stop. Hope you're having fun in S'pore. :P

Nette: The entrance fee arh...I know I'm rather senile, but if I'm not wrong the student's fee is $16. :D Not bad, but if you have transport it'd be better to head to Werribee Zoo or Healesville.

Rachel: HAHA! So kind of you to offer, but at the time I couldn't be bothered lah. I only had 20min of lunch hour left, so even if I called you, no point. But it's alright lar. I expect I'll be missing quite a few lunches this term, to save up for all the times I eat out. O_o;; Serves me right, HOHO.

Huiyun: Your mum thinks I look pretty??? LAWL. I've always known that fact, don't need to re-confirm. :P Why you so amazed? >_> My hair not really that long lar, just looks long cuz it's hanging all over the place. >.< You still chopping your hair short arh? How's things in S'pore? Anymore new suicide cases so far? :x

Cowboy Bebop + Harry Potter

2007-07-31T20:11:00.000+10:00

Since uni's started there really hasn't been much to blog about, but I've suddenly felt like blogging, so here I am.

The title probably reads weird, but it helps me to determine the timeline of my life. Next time when I'm 50 I'll click through my archives and know approximately when and what happened. Right now I only feel like talking about Cowboy Bebop, since I've already discussed HP at length with my friends and cousins already. It'd just be a tedious process to type all I've said out again.

I've noticed that whatever drink I buy from Boost, I dislike. And somehow, I always go back for more. I just don't get me sometimes. Anyway.

Yeah. Cowboy Bebop. Have I ever explicitly warned people about stereotyping and making assumptions? I do that all the time, especially when I had to defend the Transformers movie. If not for my cousin I would have fallen into another trap and been deprived of an old but classic, stellar anime. I know I know. At first glance this anime just looks like just another anime set in the future, replete with spaceships and aerial combat and the proverbial bounty-hunting to add that cool-ness factor. But figure in unique jazzy music, strong and well-fleshed out characters with all their quirky vices and hobbies, non-stop action that will leave you slavering for more and just the right amount of mystery, and you get a brilliant anime that lives up to all the hype that has been built up around it throughout alot of years.

No wonder anime such as this never die in popularity. Like how some of my friends keep reiterating that Jay Chou would be a star that will never stop shining, I believe, likewise, that Cowboy Bebop will be just such a star, along with popular raved-about classics such as Ghost in the Shell and Neon Genesis Evangelion and Full Metal Alchemist. So if any of you people out there dismiss Bebop with a wave of your fingers as "just another aniime", you'll be missing out alot on what I believe is an anime masterpiece. Replete with unforgettable music as well.

Plus it's only 26 episodes. It's not like you'll burst a vein trying to finish it, unlike Naruto or One Piece.

Ahhh. That was such a raving good review. I feel so much better now. All that remains is the formidable prospect of having to hanker down with my Law readings after I finish this post. NOT FUN.

I love my creative and professional writing classes this term. The people in my workshops are all so talented writers, I love it when they read out their writing in class. Some of it is funny, nostalgic, tragic, sentimental, and others are just plain frank, raw and reflective. How I'm going to be able to compete with all these sub-human geniuses is beyond me. All I can do is try my best and hope that I don't get smothered in the process. I really really hope that one day I'd be able to reach a literary level that will be on par with theirs.

Meanwhile, today, I missed out on lunch, not because I wanted to, but because i had no money on me. Literally. I forogt to top up my bank account and had no cash with me (despite the fact that I was so loaded down with coins so recently). I ended up trudging off to afternoon class clutching my dismal bag of gummy bears I always keep handy in my school bag for just such occasions. Needless to say, when dinner came along I wolfed down my usual portion, and then some. :) Though my aunt's curry was a tad hotter than it usually is.

I'm getting mighty sick and tired of wandering around campus on my own. Everywhere I look I see people walking around in twos or in groups and I think to myself: why is it that I'm always walking around campus on my own? Then I answer my own question: because tehre never is someone with the same next class I have, and because my uni friends are just not, well, on good enough terms with me to warrant a lunchtime hang-out session. And so I was thinking this as I walked past yet another student BBQ. You might have wondered why I didn't just dip in and get some free sausages, but I wasn't sure if the BBQ was a free-for-all, and it's just awkward going to a BBQ on your own. Most everyone near the pit were laughing and talking with friends.

That's something else I've noticed about me and uni life. I've started talking less often. Sometimes I can go for whole stretches not uttering a single word, and it can get kinda depressing, considereing how chatty I usually am. But what can a person do if there's no one THERE to talk to? I can't very well go about campus muttering to myself about how insanely crazy the wind was today. I can't help but wonder if this would have been the case had I gone to NUS instead, or even attended JC. I find it easier to speak up when I'm around people from similar backgrounds. It's just harder for me to voice my opnions in a roomful of foreigners.

Maybe it's a mindset problem. I always think of myself as an outsider, the International student amongst all the locals who speak so freely and easily, as well as the Aussie-born Asians, who speak just as easily. I miss the days at Trinity where people would just refuse to answer questions and be too afriad to speak up. I felt more at home there.

Oh no. Here I am getting all nostalgic when I have who-knows-how-many pages of Dispute Resoluations to read. Have to go. BYE!

Timetable Vigil

2007-07-17T23:39:00.000+10:00

Riiiiight. Now I'm currently waiting for 12.01am so that I can change my timetable. I have this feeling 99% of Melbourne Uni students are currently awake right now too, all for the sake of getting the perfect timetable. GGGRRRRR. Why is our uni so special? Why can't we do timetables like RMIT, where we get to choose every tutorial time and arrange everything on our own? That way, it would have saved me a lot of 烦恼-ing over where to switch slots and how. The only reason that's helping me stay up late is the thought that, if I don't, I'll end up with a horrid timetable like I did last semester, with my last classes ending at either 5 or 6pm most days. I am SO not going to repeat my past mistake.

It's just something about the concept of fastest-finger-first that gets to me.

I think it's mainly due to the fact that I am very mindful that my fingers may very not be the fastest. Oh well, even if all does not go as planned, my latest classes still end at 4.15pm, not as bad as last sem's 6.15pm. Still, I'd rather like to have most of my afternoons free, thank you very much. :)

I spent the morning gathering cute animated GIFs, then got bored of staring at the stupid screen and got down to reading The Half Blood Prince. Right now, I think I'm, what, 1/3 finished? Haha, I have to admit, I miss reading Harry Potter books. It's been since the Order of the Phoenix first came out that I've read a HP book. J.K. Rowling's style is still as light-hearted and intriging as ever, and I love how she keeps the sinister undertones running, even with the more comedic fronts her later HP books sport on the surface. If ever she comes up with a new series, or just another new book, count me in for the ride. She is one of the few favourite authors I read who have not died, like Roald Dahl.

What's more, the floppiness of the book and the material used for its pages appeal to me even more. Weirdly, if I like the texture or the paper used for a book, I'll tend to feel like reding it. Even if a hard-cover book with stiff pages had a better storyline than a soft-cover book with floppy pages, I'd be hard-pressed to read the hard-cover book first.

With the final HP book though, I guess I won't have any choice, since everything will be in hard-cover. I honestly don't see why people think hard-cover books count as "special" books. For me, the hard-cover just makes the book more cumbersome and less reader-friendly, and the stiff pages just give the reader a hard time when flipping pages, and bending the book at the right angle so the light catches the words you want to read.

I bet I'm sounding like some book freak here, but really, it's not my fault. As I'm blogging, I'm looking at the PC clock and willing it to turn to 12.01am. Right now it's showing 11.54pm, and I am seriously contemplating whether to strangle it or not...

HAYAKU! ^(-_=)^

超级 Revamp

2007-07-16T17:59:00.000+10:00

I think I finally realise why Jess takes quite some time to do blog reconstructions. I TOOK ALMOST A WHOLE DAY. GAH. But at least I'm satisfied with the result. I'm so proud of it, haha, since this is the first time I have made my own layout. YAY!

I also caught a bit of a cold, and my aunt is making me drink Ribena for the whole of today and tomorrow, not that I mind. :) It's been so long since I've drannk Ribena, and now I'm drinking it as a substitute for water. Supposedly, my aunt says that whenever she catches a cold she does this, and her cold always goes away within 48 hours. I wonder if that's true, lol. She says it's because of the Vitamin C, BUT isn't vitamin C only good for PREVENTING colds? What's the use of drinking truckloads of vitamin C if you've already caught the cold?

:x

For this current layout I've chosen Blood+ as my theme, since I harvested so many delicious pictures off of the Internet in my Blood+ frenzy. I'm glad I did though. All I had to do during the Photoshop process was open my Blood+ folder and yank out anything that looked nice (which was almost every one. I almost split my head trying to decide). At first, I didn't intend to put any words on the final picture, but then once I started I couldn't stop. WHEE!

Hope you guys enjoy this bright and cheery layout! X3

JUMANJI!

2007-07-15T20:46:00.000+10:00

Ok, not really lar. It's just that we (me and Jess) went to the ZOO today! WHAHAHAHA. I felt like a kid today. Such a pity that I felt lethargic for most of the time. My mind was in some kind of haze and I was mostly walking around in a kinda daze. GOMEN Jess! Did I spoil your trip? I meant to be as enthusiastic as possible leh! :x I know how much you wanted to come see the moo-moos and the caw-caws and the eek-eeks. But I think I had lots of fun taking all the pictures. Sorry if I made you frustrated also, haha, I know I was maniacally taking lots of pictures, and most of them weren't really that good anyway. But a Zoo blog entry wouldn't be the same without pictures, and since I'm finally feeling hale and healthy upon reaching home, I shall upload all my zoo pictures immediately and post up the better ones.

I just hope they're not all blurry, especially the tiger ones. OMG the tiger ones were pure love. I don't have many pictures of birds though, because the Princess didn't like going into the bird exhibits. LOL. And we missed the reptiles and the peacocks, but I reasoned that all the reptailes are busy hibernating anyway, and I felt much better. I know Jess feels devastated because she didn't get to see her beloved crocodiles and the iguana that she says looks alot like me. (I almost bashed her for that, except that I knew the zoo staff would restrain me and call the police...)

Oh yeah, before I start posting the piccies, I just wanna say that I managed to pay Jess back for her Trojan.M virus trick. HAHA. I told her there was bird shit on her jacket and she believed me. OMG I feel so moved by the power of our deep friendship. HEHEHE. HOHOHO. HAHAHA.

Here's one of the first few animals we saw: a snow leopard. Cute right? I've always had a soft spot for cats, whether big or small. That's why I'm always so gleefully happy every time I come to the zoo and look at the cat exhibits. HAHA. You can say I sorta "get high". This first big cat was pretty cool, I liked that it was white. I've always thought white animals have some sort of mystery around them, but that may be due to the fact that white is not a very common colour among animals. :)

This was the bear exhibit. Although we didn't linger here very long, I feel that the bears needed some photo time. :) Hey, after all, one of the most greatest inventions on Planet Earth was the teddy bear. You'd think the creatures who inspired such ideas deserved some respect. LOL. I'm NOT crapping. I'm being totally serious. It's just sometimes people laugh when I'm talking about serious things. Why arh? O_o

The Four Kings of the Savannah. HAHA. When we arrived at this exhibit, Jess was like, "Why all of them got the same expression one? So funny!" And then went on to remark that they looked like F4. O_o So hilarious lar, but I have to admit, those "kings" look really fat and lazy. Plus there weren't any lionesses around either, so I have no idea what they're looking so high and mighty about. Jess says that lions got very popular after Lion King scored at the box offices. I'd have to agree with that.

I call this picture the 2-in-1, because I managed to get a giraffe and an ostrich in the same shot. HAHA.

Ahhh. Australia's signature animals: the kangaroos, or kangaroosies. :D They were so kawaii! I have some close-up shots of other roos, but this species is my fave. They look so cute yet majestic and so humble. Haha, that's what I like about roos: they look so harmless and adorable, but they can put up a heck of a fight. :) MY ASPIRATION!!! *ahem*

Pure kawaii-ness! My heart melted when I saw this wombat. It was TOO TOO adorable! Just like a gigantic hamster. :P A snub-nosed shy little cutie.

What's the big deal about two ducks? Well, when I took this picture, it reminded me of the movie "Spurn Left, Spurn Right", the one that comes after "Turn Left, Turn Right". HAHA. I know, weird right, but I thought it's an interesting fact. If you think I'm wuliao THEN WHY ARE YOU READING MY BLOG IN THE FIRST PLACE??? My blog has always been the wellspring of wu-liaoness. So if you can't stand it, too bad. My other posts won't be much better. ;X

OMG *swoons and faints* The star attraction! <333 For me at least, lol. Everyone was like pushing and shoving to get a good look into the tiger exhibit. Where can I start? I love every bit of these majestic and powerful creatures. Their presence is so powerful and inexplicably commanding, yet they're still an endangered species. I can't fathom why people can find it in their hearts to slaughter these beautiful creatures, so sleek and so graceful. If ever I have a second life, I'd like to be reborn as a tiger. Jess asked me who would win in a fight: a lion or a tiger. Realistically, I think the tiger would win, because their one of the biggest most powerful predatory cats that exist. But then again, we'd never knw, right? Since tigers live in tropical rainforests and lions live on the dry plains of Africa. Oh well. It's nice to wonder about this though. Feels something like the question: Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

The sun's rays look photoshopped right? Haha, I'm proud to say that they're not. I just managed to catch the evening sun at just the right angle. It was just a pleasant coincidence that those elephants busy feeding each other are in the picture. HOHO. So huge yet so lovable. I remembered when I was in Thailand I fed the elephants there pineapple husks and bananas. So fun. It's like they eat anything. :)

These orang utans were showing off can! Think they so pro... ok, actually they were la. HAHA. I just chose to put up this particular picture because he/she looks stupid right now. It looks like it was warming up la, just hanging there. We had fun watching the orang utan exhibit, since these monkeys never stayed still. We spent our time there watching them clamber up and down and up and left and right and down and left and up. So fun!

Oh, this arh? This is a very rare breed of albino gorilla. This particularly rare species (it's the only one of its kind in the whole entire world) has a psychological anomaly: it believes it can fly. So, as a result, this particular species of gorilla constantly spends its time flapping its arms while walking around the zoo, making weird noises as it goes along. This species of albino gorilla is pretty harmless, therefore it's given alot of freedom to run amok. :D Oh, and its favourite colour is pink. Just so you know.

Feeding frenzy arh!!! PANIC PANIC. It was feeding time, and all those parakeets (I think) were SO SO SO damn noisy lah. Their only saving grace was the vivid colours on their feathers. Other then that, they were like all beauty and no brains, just flapping and screeching and making havoc like those fangirls you see in manga, constantly gathering around some shuaige and going "NYAH~!". O_o;;

Lookie, a meerkat! Haha, it looks more chubbier than Timon on the Lion King. Oh well, the rounder the better, haha. The fatter the cuter. XD So chubby! I felt like squishing it. *ahem* In a good way, not the squash-flat-and-die way.

OMGWTFLOL. #&$%@! Look mom! I folded a paper swan and it turned into a REAL one! I'm SO UBER-TALENTED! I'm a tensai, a genius! Everyone stand in awe of the only person in the world to ever turn dead matter into a living thing. SQUUEEEEE!!! *faints*

I love buying exotic soft toy animals. This zoo trip was no different, haha. I brought back a small little Red Panda, and it looks like a cross between a raccoon, a cat and a bear. HAHA. I've decided, after much serious and profound deliberation, to name him Benji. Jess wanted me to name him Pee Pee, and I gave her the "Look" (c). So right now, in my room, I have my giraffe soft toy called Wuffle, my unicorn I have yet to name and my red panda, Benji. :) I'll probably forget these names and rename them in the future, but for now, I feel these names fit them best.

After being surrounded by a real jungle, we set off for the concrete jungle where we ate at Chilli Padi at Melbourne Central. WTH??? It was like such a high-class place can? We were a little intimidated at first, but the waitors and waitresses there were really professional, so that made our experience more enjoyable. But one bowl of laksa cost us $14??? @%$#! At keast the bread and butter pudding we had for dessert was good, although I couldn't seem to taste any bread in the pudding.

***TODAY WAS THE FIRST TIME IN A FEW YEARS I ATE A CINNAMON BUN FROM ST CINNAMON!!!*** I was reminiscing the past while munching on all the savoury sweetness of my sticky yummy bun. HAHA.

Gah. My eyes are almost shutting down *the Windows shutting-down jingle plays*. GOOD NIGHT and oyasumi everyone! <3 See you next time and hope you all enjoy all my gorgeous pics and recognise how talented I am.

;3

Budding Entrepreneur

2007-07-10T22:06:00.000+10:00

Yepyep, that's me. Ok lah, not really anything that great. All I did is set up an eBay account and started selling unwanted DVDs. :P But still, I'm starting my own business leh. I feel super grown up. ^-^

Besides this, I've started watching Full House, and it's fantastic! Despite the fact that I dislike watching Korean Dramas because I don't like the language, this show is pretty much worth the somewhat uncouth language. If it wasn't for the storyline I wouldn't watch the show even if you paid me. :D But what am I doing??? I have so much to blog about and here I am talking about this. URRGGHHH.

I had this last-minute sleepover at Jess' house on Sunday, because thanks to some stupid heroin-abuser lying down on the tram tracks and refusing to get up until two police cars arrived, we ended up eating dinner super-late, like around 9.30pm. So then I called my aunt and she told me she'd feel better if I didn't travel home so late at night. In the end I had to crash at Jess' place, haha. I bet she was secretly happy lah. Just don't want to say only, hor? *poke poke SLAP*

At first we fiddled around with SDO. Wow, I have to say, the costumes in the game are really elaborate and pretty! As compared with Audition, that is. Plus the dance moves on SDO are infinitely more realistic than in Audition. :) It's so nice just watching the dancing. I mean, seriously, can a real-life dancer turn on his/her head for 10 revolutions or more??? I can just imagine myself just sitting at the computer trying on different looks. HAHA. Damn fun.

Since Jess' daily circadium rhythm starts at around 4am, I decided to accommodate her somewhat eccentric sleeping habits (some might say vampiric, but to her it's a compliment, so I'll just keep quiet) and I stayed up to watch Meteor Garden with her. Guess what? Although I really hate staying up late cuz it messes up my own rhythm, it was TOTALLY worth it. Why? HAHA. For one reason, and one reason only, and this reason is so simple that all I have to do is include one picture, and all you people out there will know why I willingly stayed up until 5.30am, despite my obsession with my precious beauty sleep:

HAHA. Ok. That's just my hormones blogging. Ignore them. They only know how to communicate in pictures. ^^ After that, we slept (fitfully, thank goodness), and the next morning we went to makan and book Harry Potter tickets. YAY! Oh, and I was flipping through my (very limited) Idol folder and came upon another pic I've almost forgotten. :) Ichihara Hayato-kun!

Today was supposed to be zoo day, but Jess woke up 2 hours late. HAHA. I didn't really mind though, but I know she really really wanted to go to the zoo. :) I put that 2 hours to good use though, and then when I finally made my arduous and dangerous and costly journey *nudges said person* up to College Square to fetch Her Majesty, I was equipped with my DVD set for Full House. :P We ended up crashing Rachel's apartment to check it out, and OMG it's so claustrophobically small. I will never ever want to live there in a million years, even if there's unlimited Internet. LAWL.

I think we went a little crazy there. Need I mention that mobile phone dog strap game thing? HAHAHAHAHAHA. Better not. I don't want to get admitted into some psychiatric ward. While I'm on the topic of being crazy, I want to mention another thing. I met up with Eunice from Trinity near Melbourne Central, and we chatted for about half an hour. Turns out she's attending Monash Caulfield right now. It's so nice catching up with old friends. Such a pity we never bump into them often enough! Anyway, after that pleasant chat session, I don't know what made me do what I did, but I walked past Famous Amos and suddenly decided that I should get some cookies. I wanted to get the 100g at first, but there was an offer on the 200g that gave you extra 50g for free, so I took it. Then after I bought it, I wondered why I did that. OMG. AM I GOING SENILE??? Now I have a bagful of cookies with no home to go to. And my stomach seems to be denying any more. Oh well. Nankurunaisa. 船到桥边自然直.

To compensate for today's non-zoo trip, I want to show you all something so profound and meaningful it will bring tears to your eyes:

And how could I forget this? LOL. This picture made me rethink the concept of Japanese porn:

Nankurunaisa

2007-07-03T22:30:00.000+10:00

"Everything will work out in the end."

Hehe. My my. I've been away for so long...

BLOOD+ rocks! Bloody, wicked and bittersweet stuff. :) It's been so long since I've watched an anime with more dark and sinister themes. Like human genetic manipulation, Chiropterans, bloody battles with lots of gore and death and a cool katana to top it all off... Not to mention the numerous bishounen in the series. :D

Will blog more soon, right now I'm in a BLOOD+ kind of a feel-good-but-bittersweet phase... Just wanna blog here to show I'm not dead or anything. Just really into anime. HAHAHA. Can you blame me? BLOOD+ is 50 episodes long lar. Lemme include an image so that all you people can get a glimpse of what I'm on about.

Haha. Hohoho. I was thinking of stopping there... but I harvested so many mouth-watering pics of Haji from the Web that I simply MUST share it with the world, and show how he's the most shuai-est bishounen vampire in the whole entire world!!! <3

And all these pics of Haji have got me thinking about the other bishies I love in the series: namely both Solomon and Moses. Ok, don't get me wrong, it's not like Kai (the other guy beside Saya in the 2nd pic) is not shuai. He is. Just not shuai enough to compare with the general degree of shuai-ness of the other characters. I couldn't get very good pics of Solomon and Moses though, so I'll just put up one of each. Daisuki-des!

Here's Solomon *fan-girl squeal*:

And here's Moses (he's the guy at the bottom) *fan-girl sigh*:

Now let me go off and listen to the series' exquisite songs. One thing good about this many episodes is that you get to listen to so many new songs. :3

See you all! <3 Don't all these pictures make you wanna watch BLOOD+ too???

WHAT DO YOU MEAN, "NO"??? -_-;;

O(^~^)O

Bashing the Boredness

2007-06-22T16:47:00.000+10:00

Wow. So far two of my buddies have been bitten by the bored bug. It's a seemingly incurable disease that I fear will spread as the July holidays come around. Luckily for me though, I am fairly confident that I will never ever succumb to this disease. As I'm sitting and typing here in front of my screen I am well aware that time is short, and I have so many plans and ideas up my sleeve I have absoluately no time for boredom. Idleness, as they say, is the Devil's playground.

Why am I NOT bored, you ask? Here are the reasons:

1) Have to transfer all the songs in my new CDs into my faithful MP3 player.
2) Have to transfer all the episodes of the shows I've received into the MP3 player to watch between classes next semester.
3) Have to complete the art I've started in Photoshop in two months.
4) Have to watch all the Japanese movies I've bought: four in total.
5) Have to finish all the Taiwanese drama I've bought: two in total.
6) Have to finish all the Japanese drama series I've bought: two in total.
7) Have to finish all the anime series I have yet to watch: six and counting.
8) Have to read Ouran book 6.
9) Have to cut off all the tags from the new clothes I've bought and take the time to brainstorm for new clothing combos.
10) Have to cull last year's clothes from my wardrobe to make space for the new ones, like give away that shirt I'll never ever wear again.*****
11) Arrange a sleepover and maybe even a clothes swap session. :D How fun!
12) Buy the new hard drive I've been craving.
13) Sell the old one on eBay (clear the old contents first).
14) Watch all the movies I bought from JB Hi-Fi: five in total.
15) Read the Dragon Temple Saga: Books 1-3
16) Read the other stand-alone books I've bought: six in total.
17) Watch the upcoming movies I'm interested in: Nancy Drew, Transformers, Blades of Glory etc.
18) Make my own blog layout using someone else's basic html.
19) Handwrite letters to three of my closest friends back in S'pore, since I promised and up til now haven't the time to sit myself down and write a long heartfelt thingie.
20) Arrange the mix-ups in my MP3 player according to album, artist and genre.
21) Start my own manga...? :) 9I'll only do this once everything else on this list is done.
22) Continue with the story I've typed up so far in the computer. (Again, I'll only have time to do this once all the above is done)
23) Plan my perfect and beauty-licious timetable for next semester using the tutorial times for this semester.
24) Continue with my Mapling adventures. (I'll only do this if my friends are online. It's uber-boring Mapling on your own)

I DON'T KNOW HOW I'LL EVER BE BORED WITH ALL THE STUFF I HAVE TO DO. It's obvious that some of the items on this list will never be completed in a day. And I have 24 items in all. It feels so good to be busy with things other than uni work though, so I'm welcoming this particular type of hedonistic labour. :D

The moral of the story? Before complaining about boredom, sit down and think deeply about what you've still got to do. Because what I believe is that, a person will ALWAYS AND FOREVER have something to do. Always. No matter what the situation, the time or the place. Want an example? If you think you've really got nothing to do, try a new recipe, bake a new cake, compose your own song, write your own poem, draw a self-portrait, go for a walk, go window-shopping, go sit at the park with the birds and a loaf of fresh broad, go sit on a random bus and see where it goes, go do something nice for a person close to you, go start an online business on eBay and make profits with your unwanted goods, go Go GO!!!

See? And I thought up all these things on the spur of the moment. Holidays aren't meant to be boring, live it up! <3

The Story Thus Far

2007-06-21T22:49:00.000+10:00

I was blog-shopping when I came across Basuki-senpai's lament about: BAN! JESS! WHERE ARE YOU??? Yep yep. So I was about to post a comment, which turned out to be quite long, and I decided to make an entry myself. Since I'm free and all. MUHAHAHA. So, here are the few reasons why I haven't been online much, or Mapled:

1) Went out with Anita and Jess on the day my exam went kapish. :) We met up and had dinner at Hawker's Cafe because I had a craving for the Teh Tarik there. Turns out the Kon Low Mee I ate there not bad. I just left out all the veggies. LOL. And I remember it got so cold my eyeballs were icing over can??? After the fruitful dinner we got our warm butts off the chairs and made our way to Hoyts to watch Bridge to Terabithia. HOMIGOSH. I bawled my eyes out lah. Really, really hard. Man, it's hard to hold back sobs in a cinema. SIGH. BUT IT WAS SO SAD. And totally not what I had expected. It was THAT much more special and THAT much more meaningful and THAT much more enchanting than Narnia, which, if you ask me, pales in comparison with respect to emotional depth and metaphorical beauty. I have a love/hate relationship with weepy shows. I love that they're always so heart-rendingly and moving, and yet I HATEHATEHATE to feel sad. REALLYREALLYREALLY hate to feel sad. I'm a happy-addict, ok? Sadness and tears and melancholy are just so NOT my thing. I can worry, I can be joyful, I can be angry, I can be emotionless, I can be confused, I can be in awe...I don't even mind nostalgia. I JUST CAN'T STAND BEING SAD.

&#%$@!?

Ah. I feel better after that rant. (Maybe I'm just pissed cuz there was this girl who STOLE my fave seat on the tram home. ARGH. LOL.) Basically, I really really LURVE Leslie's sense of style. So Japanese-street-fashion-meets-Western-chic. I can't believe I'm taking fashion tips from a, what, 10-year-old? T^T I went home in a totally dejected state. The fact that my MP3 player was out of GAS made it WORSE. I mean, I could have at least listened to some uplifting music. BUT NO. That was denied me as well. I had to settle for being glad my exam was over. Meh. Ok. I was content with that. HAHA.

2) The next day: Took the time to tidy up my room, from the messy computer desk, to the floor, to the cupboard, to the bed, the store room and finally, the dressing table. ARGH. Took me almost half a day, I swear. And I spent the next half of the day slacking in front of my computer watching SAIUNKOKU MONOGATARI. Oh man it rocks. My top 3 most fave characters are Ryuuki, Ryuuren and Sakujun, in that order. WAHAHAHHAHAHA. That show has so many bishounen, no wonder after every episode my mouth feels dry. *wink*. Oh, and to make matters worse, I got sad because of what happened to Sakujun. WTH. So what if he killed alot of people??? If Shuurei had come into his life earlier, maybe he would have turned out like Ryuuki, who had Seien for company. To be honest, I can't fault Sakujun for wanting to kill his power-hungry family. Even if it was in cold blood. Heck, if I was raised iin a family like that, I'd be corrupted too. What I really admire about Sakujun was that, even after living amongst so much greed and hatred and manipulation and hate, he still managed to learn how to love in the end. And that, my friends, is the greatest achievement of all. Faith, Hope and Love. "...and the greatest of these is Love." 1 Corinthians 13:13.

It's easy to love once you've experienced it, right?

Well, what if you were never loved?

:)

The other characters are easy to explain. I think. I love Ryuuki for being who he is, and for caring so much about Shuurei. I love his "Tamaki-ness" and his maturity, and him putting duty before his personal interests. It's that vulnerability and that strength in him that earns my respect. Shows that you can be weak, and yet strong when your loved ones and country are counting on you. Just the right balance of sensitivity and maturity. :D HAHA. So that's Ryuuki for you. And Ryuuren? OMG. For those of you who know me, I love eccentric, weird and strange stuff. And, well, Ryuuren IS eccentric, weird and strange. Not to mention incredibly hot. I so totally understand why he has to present himself as a lone weirdo. But inside, I know he's just an ordinary guy forced to live up to high expectations and to live under a veil. If ever he reveals his true self, he'd have to assume alot of the Ran family responsibilities, and become enmeshed in power struggles and politics. (Worse still, he'll have to struggle even more because Ran is supposedly a politically-neutral family clan) AHAHAHA. And I love it when he calls Shuurei and Eigetsu his "bosom friends" or "soul friends". LAWL. If you ever asked me what impacted me most about Ryuuren is the phrase he used when Shuurei and Eigetsu drove him out of Brown Province because they didn't want him getting caught up in all the struggles. He said something along the lines of: "But I stayed BECAUSE I wanted to get involved. The only people in the world who can ever take advantage of Ran Ryuuren are my soul friends."

Don't you think he's just too adorable? ^~^

3) Which is today. Went out with the MIRROR queen today. -_-;; Guess who. Bwahahaha. Today was shopping day, haha, and admittedly, we DID shop quite alot. But mostly in the city though, around Jay Jays (bought a Snoopy vintage tee, whee!), Cotton On (bought a long-sleeved top with ribbon, and a white, supersoft scarf), Supre (bought the same short dress as Jess, grey and pink, hontou ni kirei desu!), Deborah K (got three GORGEOUS tops that compliment my broad shoulders, lala~) Jeans West (I said I'd buy that rainbow dress and cute square-collared pink top. And I did. HAHA.) and the socks place in Melbourne Central, where me and mirror"preen"cess bought enough hand socks and a legwarmer to mimick Leslie's style in Terabithia. :D So naughty I know. ;P We bought tickets to Silver Surfer, then ate at Teppansan, where my Teppanyaki noodles WEREN'T AVAILABLE AGAIN. GAH. But we didn't feel like eating big anyway, so ended up eating takoyaki, tempura and yakitori instead.

THOSE OF YOU WHO HAVEN'T WATCHED SILVER SURFER I SAY GO WATCH IT NOW. Or else the Timbuktunian Mafia will come finding you.

Seriously.

The Silver Surfer rocks! <3 I don't know how a bald guy covered in silver manages to look hot. But he IS. Maybe that's because he's, like, in human terms, practically naked? >:O Me and mirrorprincess both hope that there's a Fantastic 4 Part 3. XD AND both of us got high when they started showing the trailer for The Golden Compass. OMGOSHNESS I LOVE THAT PHILLIP PULLMAN SERIES! HAHAHAHA! I DON'T EVEN CARE IF HARRY POTTER ENDS, CUZ THERE WILL STILL BE THE SUBTLE KNIFE AND THE AMBER SPYGLASS! WAhahahhahaha... *maniacal laughter goes on for some time and trails off as people start banging on the door and asking if I need a psychiatrist*

P.S. I told them I didn't.

HAHA. There ends my summary of reasons why I have had no time whatsoever to Maple or be online in general. That makes tomorrow too, because tomorrow is Hana Yori Dango day. :D And Saturday is chores day. So boohoo. I don't think I'll be able to Maple much anyway, considering there's still Blades of Glory to watch, and Transformers and Nancy Drew coming out next Thursday. AAAAAAHHHHHHHHH. All the movies I want to watch are coming out in force. And I say...

BRING IT ON, MAN!!!!!!!!!!

A Quick Prison Tour

2007-06-19T08:03:00.000+10:00

It's made of a light wood, and quite durable. Doesn't wobble when I write anything down. On the shelf, there are loads of miscellaneous stationary that I hardly pay attention to. The super bright lamp on the right side provides me with all the yellow light I will ever need in a lifetime, and the wide, spacious nature of the table leaves me plenty of space to lay out my spare examination pads, notes, files and reading material, not to mention my dictionary and textbook. Right now it's litter with papers and pens and highlighters, but in 9 hours time they will all be gone, without any shadow of a trace of their existence. The chair is comfortable and obedient enough for me to feel like studying, and is able to swivel to accommodate all my fidgeting and stomping and general restlessness.

Beside me is an old discarded computer moniter flanked by three motherboard units that have become too outdated and have been replaced by a newer model gleaming black at me to my left, across to the other desk which we call the "computer table", for general family use. On that table in particular is a crappy book called the Secret, which I flipped through and found it to be another one of those fickle self-help books that I totally despise. I can never understand why people must read this particular genre of books to "improve" themselves. Better off going to read Aristotle, Socrates and Harry Potter. Heck, read about Aboriginal injustice, like I was doing just a few minutes ago.

Across the expanse of the faded pink of the carpet, there lies a bed, recently put there by the prison wardens for god-knows-what. All I can discern is the fact that it's supposed to be a day bed whereby one is supposed to lie down in and wallow in self-pity. Ok, maybe not that extreme. I'll probably use it to read a book, since the heater being downstairs is also a plus in winter. But for the time being, it has come in handy during breaks between intensive writing, grouching and squinting at all the almost-one-dimensional surfaces filled with words and meanings my mind clambers frantically to understand. It is a place of respite in an otherwise dour prison of inescapable reality and emotionless entities.

Above me and in-my-face is the lamp-cum-chandelier used for my particular prison cell. It's wide flat plate-like glass surface and bulb in the middle reminds me of the planets orbiting around the sun, the solar system, to be precise. Due to this very characteristic of its nature, it has caused many of the previous inhabitants to leave dozens of CDs on its top, creating a somewhat modern-postmodern effect that I can't help but mull over, just for an excuse to be distracted from my work. Finally, to my extreme left, there are the windows, and the blinds that are so often drawn down by the prison wardens that I have to repeatedly draw them back up. Not surprisingly, my prison wardens and fellow inmates don't take too kindly to being rudely awakened by the morning rays of sunshine beaming through the slats.

The view provided by the drawn blinds is mundane indeed: a paved driveway of muddied red bricks flows down to melt and meld in with the cracked pavement outside. This gives way to a substantial strip of grass which then abruptly ceases when the road cuts a swathe through its luscious green ranks. What else mayhap be in the distance I cannot be too sure, for my mind wanders and is easily distracted from the tastelessness of suburban decor. From time to time my eyes alight on the mailbox, and I wonder about the mail and the package yet to arrive. And then my mind dismisses the notion, relegating that stray tendril of thought back into the recesses of my inner vault.

My one last thought as I turn away from the scene outside is how the hedge lining the rest of the front portion of the house feels remarkably similar to the likes of the one found in I'm the King of the Castle. I can somewhat experience a semblance of what Kingshaw feels as I stare at those hedges. And then Mabo No 2 and the separation of powers and the rule of law filter into my thoughts again and my heart sinks with the recognition of the inevitable return to my accursed studies. I pick up my pen, and begin to write lines and lines of meaning that seem to not mean a thing...

Yep. This is as close as I hope I'll ever get to being in a real and proper prison. TT_TT In 9 hours I WILL BE FREEEEEEE. And somehow I know it will feel more liberating than the knowledge that Aboriginal land rights have been acknowledged by the High Court judgement in Mabo.

Cheers!

Enough Said

2007-06-11T22:38:00.000+10:00

This is what happened to me today:

one day, i was chatting with my friend
suddenly, i wanted to make fun of her, and so.
I made her to copy down my words, how funny.
it's so much fun, and that lightens up my mood.
and her name is Ban Tan Yi Xian

Yeap, and I know SOMEONE who will find this particular paragraph hilarious.

>_>;;

My Nose Ish Cold

2007-06-07T23:21:00.000+10:00

But my feet aren't, cuz today I bought a GORGEOUS (and I'm still admiring them AND getting admiring glances) pair of uber-fluff boots that rival the feet of that monster in Monters Inc. It even has fluffballs I can play with if I'm stoning. How cool's that? Oh, and if it seems weird that I'm writing a deep and profound analysis of a pair of rainbow-coloured boots, don't be surprised. I, the ultimate must-have-8-hours-sleep-if-not-"mati" sort of person, woke up at 3am to do my MPS essay. Worst still, I think I'll have to do this consecutively for my Law exams as well. But my brain's sick and tired of mulling over work work work. Let's see what I did today, shall we?

So I slogged through the essay and finally arrived to meet Jess in the city with Basuki-senpai at around 3pm, after which I went and bought those BOOTIES. :) Sha told me that Basuki-SENSEI aleady passed 2nd job advancement for Maple can??? LOL. I doubt that I can ever become so dedicated a player. Maybe if I have enough social support...yeeesh, that's my essay talking. *throws it out of my head* Anyway, to revert back to "me" and not to the "essay" talking, we finally met Sukiyaki to go to the Aussie Immigration with the imposing revolving doors I almost knocked into because I was trying to fit some free newspaper into a clear file. Scary. Don't want to think what will happen if I wedged myself and got stuck.

The wait was fairly short, thank goodness, because Sha and Sukiyaki were TOTALLY trying to jam spoilers in my ears about Shinshi Doumei CROSS. HUMPH. Not to mention the fact that I was HARAHETA!!!!!!

So we finally ate at Kaneda, since the last time I went I didn't finish my food, so today I was able to soothe my guilty conscience. :D Sha gave me a quick run-down on how to cook fried rice while Suki went to buy ice-creamies and we all trooped down to the Chinese supermart to get our STUFF. And when I say STUFF, that meant me carrying this SHITHUMONGOUSOHMYGOSHYOUWILLNOTBELIEVEIT-sized bag. -_-;; Do I look like I got Hulk arms? If I had the Hulk as my shopping boy then maybe I wouldn't even give a DAMN, but even then, that's HULK-ABUSE.

And I had no idea until today that 6pm here now looks like 9pm. I mean, I've been here for almost 1.5 years, you'd think I would have gotten used to it by now, but no. It's just so wrong for it to be so dark and I'M AFRAID OF THE DARK!!!! WAAAHHHH. And that's why I hate being home alone as well.

Man, my eyelids feel like they're made of lead. I better go off now (shit, most of the English and grammar used in this post is SO CRAP, so typically sleep-deprived me. ARGH. shall sleep and drool on my pillow tonight ALL I WANT and no one, not even Mojojojo can stop me.)

I'M LOVIN' IT (a.k.a. my boots/slippers/legwarmers/newbuddies/fluffies/cotton candy/OhMyGoshIAmSoFreakingShit-ified)

ZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

I'm Complaining Again

2007-06-05T17:45:00.000+10:00

Yep. As usual. Do you all have ANY IDEA how uneventful the past two days have been? :) Ok, this is considered sulking. But I like to sulk. Sounds better than wallowing in self-pity. HAHA. I'm supposed to be gathering all my research together now, but HECK CARE MAN. You know, for once, I just want to throw all my books in the air and DON'T GIVE A DAMN. Just for a sweet blissful moment. And then reality comes crashing down all around me again. Sigh. I'm so bored I actually look forward to the breaks between my research? Like today, I couldn't wait for that irritating watch of mine to reach 1pm, so that I could stop researching for awhile and go bathe, then cook instant noodles??? THAT was my highlight for the day. But admittedly, even though doing essays might make me feel like pulling my hair out, I'd rather essays than exams. :P

Jess' blog is so chio now la. I hate to say it, but I LURVE her new Chinese blog. Just like she's making resolutions to go to the gym regularly, I'll make resolutions to read her blog daily, to keep up with my dastardly chinese. HAHA. Reading her Chinese blog, for once I felt happy that I could finally read a whole paragraph without stopping to wonder: what weirdo-cheem word is THAT??????

Everyone seems busy chionging for exams as well. Except for me. LAWL. Not because I don't want to, but because I still have 2 more 2000 word essays to write. I am so NOT looking forward to my LAW exams at all, at all. The only way I can make myself feel better about those exams is to tell myself, at least I'm not lying by the road somewhere, killed by some serial killer. HAHA. Drastic, I know, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

A few days ago my second aunt brought over a cauliflower-broccoli hybrid. Not only did it NOT look like either a cauliflower or broccoli (by the way, we call it the broccoliflower. Figures.), it looked like some SPASTIC alien plant from some other planet. And right now its sitting innocently beside the lettuce in the bottom drawer of the refrigerator. :( A constant reminder that I'll have to EAT it someday soon. OH NOOOEEEZZZZ. I'd better find out in advance when my aunt's gonna cook it, then whip up an excuse to go out for dinner. And make plans for the next day as well, since there'll probably be leftovers.

I'm such a conniving little brat. :D

I've also taken recently to noting down all the movie premiers of the ones I wanna watch on my Year Planner on the wall. HAHAHA. They look so out-of-place beside all the essay deadlines and exam dates.

Besides that, I woke up at 4am today cuz I had to use the loo, and couldn't sleep after because I was brainstorming in bed about my story. Sigh. So I ended up tossing and turning until 9am in the morning. It's times like these where I envy how Basuki-senpai and Sha can sleep so late without waking up. For me, once I reach my limit of 8 hours sleep, I wake up. For no other apparent reason. Plus I feel so smothered nowadays, due to the sheer amount of blankets I use because winter's here. Right now I have 4, not including the spare one I have in the closet just in case it gets colder. And it doesn't help when the 2nd level has no heater.

At least I have my Hello Panda. :3 (Gosh, I eat so much it's a wonder I never get fat. Maybe I have worms in my tummy. EEEEUUURRRRGGGHHHH. NONONO. Yuxor. I'd rather think that I have high metabolism. That sounds more lady-like.)

MySpace and More

2007-06-02T18:44:00.000+10:00

Oh man I feel so guilty now. After going onto LexisNexis to do research, I finished at about 3 and spent the next 3 hours setting up a MySpace account for the fun of it. So lame. And I don't think I'll even use it anymore. :S WASTE TIME OMG I DESERVE TO FAIL MY EXAMS AND ALL MY ESSAYS.

And here I am blogging because, what the heck, since I've already thrown so much time away, no harm in waiting for dinner right? :D

So while MySpacing, I searched for Dean Geyer's profile, since I was uber-bored. Came up with his music site, and his songs were not bad. Like "Rush" and "If You Don't Mean It". But I still prefer chinese and japanese songs.

Oh Oh. When I got home yesterday after dinner with futuresexygirl and basukiyaki, I realised belatedly while flipping through the 3 DVDs I bought that:

ALL OF THEM HAVE ICHIHARA HAYATO IN THEM!!!

I nearly died from bliss. I had thought only 2 had him in them. But the Mika Nakashima one had him inside also!!! Man. I'm swooning in from of my computer screen. I should have searched for his name on MySpace Japan. :'(

HAHAHAHA. I am SO SO looking forward to watching those 3 movies now. Psyched! I don't feel like blogging much today, so I'll just jot down the main highlights:

1) Watched PoTC: At World's End. Not too bad. Didn't expect the ending, but at least it wasn't cliche. The plot was too complicated for children to comprehend I think.
2) The vanilla brioche at Bread Top is really delish!
3) I wish my chinese was as good as futuresexygirl's. One of her posts almost made me wanna cry. :D
4) I wish I could just settle down and do my essay properly. But it's due on Thursday, and I have no sense of urgency whatsoever. Punish me someone!!!
5) Ate at Nando's on the night of the PoTC jaunt. Man, the chicken portions are so small. And no, it's not because I have a big appetite. Grrr.
6) I'm coming up with really fun plot ideas for my story, and I'm looking forward to fleshing it out and creating that alternate world with its many (hopefully unique) characters during my school holidays. My target: 10,000 words, maybe more. :) Sigh. I don't usually make it public, but everyone has an ultimate dream of dreams right? Mine is to get published. XD What I'd give for something like that! To make a living out of weaving enchanting stories with winning heroines and fast-paced plots with lots of derring-do and fantastical places and creatures. And I have so many movies and authors to thank for my ardent love of fantasy.
7) Whadayaknow. I've run out of things to say.
8) Oh, thank goodness I'm finally brushing up on my digital illustration skills. All hail Photoshop and my trial-and-error luck! Will put up my finished art soon! ;)

Yawn. Time for dinner and a bath. But brrr it's so damn damn cold. I just realised I've got so many thiings planned for my hols. O_O

1. Job Advancement for MapleSEA. Ganbatte!
2. Work on my yet-to-be-named story: 10,000 words.
3. Complete digital illustration.
4. Read all the books I've left unread, like the Dragon Temple Saga and especially that Faith Hunter series. (I am so so impatiently waiting for Book 3 of the Zodiac series. *throws tantrum*)
5. Finish reading any outstanding manga.
6. Watch all the movies that I've bought, including Death Note etc.
7. Watch at least some of the anime series I have, like Full Metal Alchemist, Saiunkoku, Shaman King, BLOOD+ and Ouran.

That may not sound like alot but I can easily spend hours on digital illustration alone, not to mention the inking and the layering. :'( I'll probably finish one book in one day, so that won't take too long, and I'll bet I can finish reading all my manga in a day. Not sure about being able to finish watching the longer anime series though. Will try to cram. As for my story, it'll take quite awhile to plan the plot outlines and characters' traits, and the timing of each characters' appearances and etc. Plus do research on miscellaneous details like boat structures, land formations, miscellaneous musical instruments, maybe even look up that myth about the youth elixir and strange weather phenomena? And theories on alternate realities, plus research on Egyptian myths and culture. Yeah. Oh, and I have to think more about my theory of shapeshifting. Surely it must be a painful process???

As for MapleSEA, LOL! To level takes 2 hours. You calculate the rest bah. I still have 10+ more levels to go to 2nd Job Adv.

WOW. So there. All my musings about my holidays to come.

Watashi zettai ganbatte! (broken Japanese)

LOVE: Mon, Tue and Fri!

2007-05-16T13:47:00.000+10:00

In case you didn't know, Mon, Tue and Fri are my pet goldfishes. HAHAHAHA.

No way man.

In any case, here I am 15 minutes before class starts, and I'm supposed to do my readings but I REALLY CAN'T CARE LESS! Suki-senpai and SheeSHA and I have decided to meet up every Mon, Tue and Fri lol! Yay. So happy. Now all that's left are my crappy wednesdays and thursdays to get through. Oh well, what am I complaining about? Left only one and a half more weeks until semester ends, so I don't really mind. :) I think I really eat out too much leh, so much so that if i tell my parents they sure scold me, haha. Well, the trick is to NOT tell them right? Ahhaha. What they don't know can't hurt.

Ooh-er, almost forgot. Me and SheeSHA wenton a semi-shopping spree on tuesday lol! I finally managed to get a stuffed jacket! XD I've been looking for a jacket of that sort for eons, centuries, decades... Ok, you get my drift. So I was darn happy. Jess bought lots of stuff too, especially from Jay Jays. I didn't buy anything, since I didn't see anything I really liked. You know how jay jays puts some clothes damn high on the rack for display and people can't reach then? HAHA. So senseless. You hang so high and people see, of course they want to buy, but they can't GET AT IT cuz it's so high up. LOL. Figures why they have quite a few staff around. >.< For us shorties.

Speaking of shorties, I miss my milk. Waaahhhh. So long never buy milk liao, and I don't know when I can buy it next. maybe on Friday I'll just get off the tram at Coles to get some, despite the cold and the (probably) late hour I'm gonna go home by, and the infrequency of the night trams. Sigh. I'd like to say that I'd go to the ends of the world for milk, but sometimes that's hard to do. Maybe if you ask me to go to the ends of the world for Jack Sparrow, I might seriously consider it. Then again, in the end, all I'd do is give the matter lots of thought, and refuse to do it cuz I'm just so butt lazy. :P

Countdown: 10 min to class.

Yesterday night our Internet went gaga and even my genius cousin couldn't fix it, LOL. For some weird reason he likes to smear himself against my door as a substitute to knocking. O_o *shrug* I guess we all have our eccentricities. So I ended up reading Patricia Briggs' Blood Bound yesterday, and I only slept at around 4.30am because Blood Bound lived up to its predecessor, Moon Called, and I COULD NOT COULD NOT stop reading. XD OMG I love all her characters: Mercedes (Mercy), Adam, Samuel, Stefan, Warren and even Ben. XD oh, and Jesse and Honey, even though Honey was a bit bimbotic at first. LOL. I have never once NOT enjoyed Patricia Briggs' books. I'm just hoping fervently that she comes up with another sequel to Blood Bound, but it's highly probable so I'm not worried.

^~^

Mood: Highly contented and slightly smug.

Goodbye y'all!

There's Squeaky Clean, and then there's Freaky Clean!

2007-05-14T10:32:00.000+10:00

Don't ask me about the blog title. My answer is: I don't know! I think maybe that damn washing advert on TV is flapping around in my head. I like the slogan though, very clever. But today is a Monday, and I'm blogging about Friday, and maybe a bit of Saturday, but not Sunday for sure because I spent the day doing my news story analysis. Sheesh. (Sha seems to like this word)

SheeSHA.

SHASheesh.

XD

*ahem* Fridays are usually very boring. I've fallen into this routine of going to the city, visiting my usual haunt at Minotaur to get my weekly dose of manga, then going off to QV to get lunch (because I'm sick of the lunches at Trinity College), and then going off to the dining hall to meet with Lucia and Adlin (the ONLY time every week I get to see them at all). After that, I'll go to Law tute, and AFTER that I'd go to Coles Express to get my yummylicious organic full-cream milk. I'll take the tram home from there (and begin muttering curses at the peak hour crowds) and once I get home, I shove the milk into the fridge, go back up to my room, lie down on the bed and sigh. :)

But last Friday was special. Adlin had to do research for her essay, so we didn't meet up and I felt so bored and friend-less I felt like strangling someone. So I had free time to go shopping for more bling at Diva, and ended up getting sushi from QV. There were too many people, so I opted to tram up to the Lincoln Square park and munch happily on sushi away from the pressing crowds. My sushi got a little soggy on the trip there, but it was still nice cuz I like the fake crab meat and sushi. After that, I dragged myself to read that Mabo case (thank goodness we were assigned only 8 pages) and went to Law tute.

Then came the fun part: after class, went to meet Jess and Cal for dinner and some mapling, because Cal wanted to celebrate her assignment being done and I wanted to celebrate my H2A for my PPL essay. There were some melted ice sculptures hanging around beside where they were sitting la. So funny. We went to our usual cybercafe and mapled for 2 hours (where I leveled up, and where me and jess did stupid things like cry and kowtow to Basuki-sensei. O_O;; A bit got mental problem, but still it was fun. Goes to show gaming is not always about leveling, but having fun with friends online by doing weird crazy stuff with your characters. HAHAHAHAHA.) After mapling, we went on to eat as a Malaysian food place where we tried the Lor Mee. In the end, the Lor Mee wasn't gooey enough. Sigh. I was SO looking forward to eating gooey Lor Mee can??? Cheat my feelings. Anyway, after that we went mucking around in the city and looking at boots and winter coats.

I suddenly felt like eating Macca's fries, and said so. And Jess agreed that she felt the same, LOL! She said she forgot Mac's had fries. HAHA. Damn funny. So we ended up there and had a few laughs of that one single toilet, and Cal's aunt's chaffeur. XD That was Friday as I knew it. :)

Then on Saturday, I got down to reading Kitchen Princess. OMG la, the mangaka is so talented!!! All the food she drew looked so delicious, espeically the rainbow jelly and strawberry shortcake! Food lovers should definitely check this shoujo manga out, it's really nice! <3 Plus the story is very original, and the characters are fleshed out nicely (partly, I think, because of the fact that the story and drawing were done by different people. I hate it how some mangas don't flesh out characters properly, or resolve complicated issues within a few pages. I also hate how these shoujo mangas don't deal with difficult teen problems and realities. Kitchen Princess bravely dealt with eating disorders, and I'm proud of such a manga with such depth. So go read it, kae? It's not like other shallow shoujo mangas.)

This ends my rant for now. But be sure, I'll have more rants in the future, and definitely more restauRANTS. XD

Lame. I know, but please don't flame me. Fame me, don't flame me. :)

ObentoBAN-desu, hajimemashite!

2007-05-09T22:48:00.000+10:00

This blog entry will be a rant about Russell Street. If any of you aren't interested in reading about a street, then I suggest you take a walk. :D

Anyway, on Monday (beautiful day) Sha, Senpai and BAN went to Russell street to CHECK IT OUT. (yeah) We ended up at a little place called Teppansan, and I've got to admit, I LURVED it! Lemme see, there was a cheap lunch menu, and the bento boxes (at lunch) only cost $10, and you get miso soup, 4 takoyaki, 2 (delish) spring rolls and the bento of your choice (from the list, but here I'm betting that all of them taste fabulous). Now THAT'S value. Now all I have to figure out is: why is Russell Street always so deserted? Even during peak lunch hour? With all the suits and high heels running around, I can hardly believe that majority of working people actually miss out the fact that Russell Street is an eat-out haven! Especially for people who are sick of eating along Chinatown and the (overrated) Desert House, and worse, Melbourne Central. Gosh people! Explore a little more yeah? It's only when you really try that you manage to pick out those few jewels of eateries that are small-time businesses (i.e. not franchised so no duplicated food, and less emphasis on profits and more on service).

The waitress actually memorised our orders, the food was unbelieveably value-for-money (yes, I'm a sucker for those. So sue me). SO WHERE WERE THE PEOPLE??? Their food-savviness even went so far as to refrain from adding ice to our soya milk, cuz more ice means more dilution (e.g. they weren't too lazy to actually refrigerate their drinks instead of just adding ice).

The next time, we've decided to try out that quaint little Malaysian store a little ways up from Teppansan. I want to see if their lor mee is really lor mee. Of course, I'd be delighted to find if it WAS.

Do join us! <3

Onee, NOT Oni! <3

2007-05-07T21:12:00.000+10:00

Yes. Only SOMEONE would be able to understand the meaning of the title, and I'll save the story for another day. If anyone else is interested, go read the princess' blog. I'm sure she'd have blogged it. LOL. The misadventures of Resha and BAN.

XD

Well anyway, I just finished my 2nd skills assignment today, so instead of breaking out the champagne, I Mapled with Jess a bit today and decided to blog. :) Fantastic! Upkeeping a blog mightn't be too hard. At worst, I can just "copy and paste" my tutorial postings here so that I actually have some text.

For dinner we went to this Hong Kong store which called itself Fresh Stop. O_o;; What a weird name. If I were left to myself I would never imagine myself setting my foot into a place like it. Even the menus looked sensationalistically corny. But it turned out the food was great, not bad. This goes to show chefs can't advertise to save their asses. -_-;; At least display some good-looking pictures of food outside the window, so people actually know its a restaurant. At first, when I saw the shop, I DID NOT think it was someplace to eat. So I really really think they should change the name of their shop to something with food in it, at least, like Rainbow Porridge or Hao Hao Eatery...

Now my hands are all aching because I carried those books painstakingly to and fro. It's like I've taken them around town sightseeing because they've lived out their whole lives on the shelves, and who knows where else.

I love my new shelf! It's in a dark wood colour, damn nice sia! Somehow, I'm not a light-coloured wood person. I'd go for mahogany colours or darker. :) Someday I know I'll have loads of fun picking out my own furniture. I'll theme all the rooms in my house with a different colour, so then there'll be a Purple room (my bedroom of course, and the bed must have a canopy to keep mozzies away and look pretty), a Red room (to vent your anger in, so the walls are soundproof, bullet-proof, spit-proof and everything else-proof), a Green room (to grow plants in, especially those fragile plants that have to be kept indoors), a Yellow room (a playroom perhaps? Or else it'd make a great cheery colour for a study room. I loathe drab colours), a White room (probably the bathroom, so I can keep track of where all the dirt goes), the Black room (so when anything explodes in the kitchen, no one will see exactly HOW bad a cook I am ^^;;), a Blue room (living room, since blue is a nice, calming, tranquil colour, ideal for relaxation), a Pink room (O_o I have absolutely no idea what room this would be...my future daughter's bedroom? If I made it a guest room I'll never have any guests... Ok then, this would be the playroom), a Grey room (the laundry room, because I hate doing the laundry. HAHAHAHA) and a Beige room (the dining area, because I wouldn't want to offend my guests' tastes with my overt love of colour, muhehehe. It's a nice, neutral colour).

WAU.

Next time, when you ever come to my housewarming, keep this in mind, because I'm (almost) taking all this planning seriously. :D

...my cousin just asked me if I wanted to come along for rock climbing. I said:

"NNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Musings of a Maple Leaf

2007-05-06T08:34:00.000+10:00

One of my classmates is a Deviant! O_o;; Her art was fantastic. I wish I had the time to deviate as well, but I guess my only opportunities would be during a long break, because I can't see myself sketching, inking, scanning, adding layers, colouring in and shading all in one day. Unless, of course, I do simple stuff, like chibis. But unfortunately, crunch time is near, what with all the essays and the exams. I feel as though I haven't the space to inhale!

So, I've taken to Mapling as a good way to de-stress. If one can't destroy one's monsters clinging to one's back, one might as well endeavour to destroy cute 2D ones. It's the best alternative I've found so far, instead of moping over all this academic bull****. Even reading mangas make me feel guilty, along the lines of: why am I reading manga right now??? I should be holding some law-related ****ing case and studying for exams! Sometimes, I just wish my conscience would get with it, or GET LOST. This must be attributed to the fact that I was brought up in the study culture in S'pore, where good grades is a significant part of your identity, and not gender or race or whatever. In a way, yes, I'm lucky in that we don't have apartheid or something similar, but isn't this extreme meritocracy???

If I seem intense, do pardon me. It's 8.42am in the morning and I read somewhere that at this time, a person's stress level is highest, and it tapers down the later in the day it is. I think I read it in Cosmo. Wow. Such a good, reliable source of educated information. We should all do away with the thick tomes of textbooks and start going through past issues of Vogue and Famous.

Which reminds me. I was sitting alone at breakfast (again)...

Give me a moment to bemoan the fact that many people don't think breakfast is necessary. I need a moment of profound silence to pay the death of the breakfast sufficient respect. May it rest in peace and live forever thus in my heart, Amen.

As I was saying, I was sitting alone at breakfast and gazing into the sky and daydreaming like I always do about clouds moving sedately across the huge expanse of blue. Then I thought about a hill, a person, grass and the wind, and...

Invisible comb of the Lady.
Unnoticed but for
Its vanity.
And the exquisite crown
Grew green.
Casting shadow
On the beneath.

And I thought: How appropriate, how true. And for awhile I couldn't speak because it was so beautiful and perfect and ugly.

Some people say I'm pessimistic, and then others say I'm quite the opposite. I'd just like to clarify right now that I am neither of either of these ideals. I am a realist, not an idealist, and I believe in facing the truth of things. The truth hurts only because we, as frail and hole-riddled humans, cannot handle the starkness of it, and attempt to surround ourselves with a barricade of thoughts and ideas and excuses so that the truth is made murky and no longer rings sharp and true. An optimist ignores unwanted aspects of the truth, and a pessimist exaggerates the immensity of a truth. Me? I'd like to think that, even though I might dislike truth, and often times it hurts, but by accepting it and surrendering, I feel empowered to create my own truths: truths that I will mould out of my own hands and thus not be injured by it in the process; truths that I will not have to shield myself from, because they are MINE; truths that I might attempt to create from a flurry of lies.

And all I have said, are truths: my own.

That's why I love art. Art is a way of creating one's own truth, or one's lies, however you see it. It embraces everything, and yet it excludes everything else.

I see I've suddenly waxed melancholic. I guess sometimes I get sick of all the superficial bimbotic posts I make, and I want to make sense of who I really am. It's hard, isn't it? To define oneself indefinitely. To define is to clarify, and yet, to define is to restrict. Sometimes, I feel as though I'm in and out of this world. A part of me is grounded solid, absorbing and being influenced by incidents around me, and the other part of me is hovering in the air somewhere above my head, but no matter how far I crane my neck I can't make it out. All I know is that THAT part of me is constantly evaluating what I do, how I do it, when I do it, where I do it. And sometimes I ignore it, sometimes I embrace it, sometimes I feel like screaming and crying at it to stop watching my every move. But when it all comes down to it: I'm yelling at myself. Do I have a self? Or am I many selves condensed into a single entity? WHEN an I MYSELF, and WHEN am I someone else?

Sometimes I look in the mirror and wonder if that's really me, or someone else, a total stranger that I'll never be able to identify. If it IS me, then how can I embrace myself? And everything I signify?

No wonder they say finding yourself is a lifelong journey. I just hope I hold on tight, and laugh with my eyes wide open.

Good thing I'm armed with comfort food: my strawberry-flavoured Hello Panda can. :) Oh, and my trusty bolster. The raggedy one I've had with me since forever.

Bloody Blisters

2007-04-18T22:16:00.000+10:00

Sigh. I LOVE my new KEDS. I just wish they didn't give me blisters the size of 50 cent coins... >_>

This post comemorates the end of my one and only PPL essay, and the beginning of my LMR essay. Whoop de doo. I finished my essay at 12nn on the due day, lol, and I spent like 7 and a half hours footnoting. Hell right? Then I tried handing my essay in online at Turnitin. I thought my Internet was gaga, or maybe my computer was lagging or being lazy, but in the end? My aunt switched off the modem. Lame. I panic over the stupidest things.

After that, I took the bus to the city. Was so surprised it only took 20min+ to reach my stop. O_O Love off-peak hours.

Me and Jess went to lunch at that noodle shop in the small alleyway corridor place, and we saw that weird guy from Red Silks. O_o More like she spotted him and pointed him out to me. And I swear the waiter at the noodle shop can't understand English. He's probably too busy speaking some native dialect to realise that Australia is an English country. =_=;;

Jess was also explaining to me about the merits of a host club. But I didn't get it, and I don't think I ever will. If there was a host club set up as a CCA in S'pore, you definitely won't be getting an A1 for your CCA grade, that's for sure, lol! I mean, sure, meet new friends and all, but only because they're shuai? HAHA. I'd rather do volunteer work at SPCA or at Unicef and meet guys who don't have to be nice to you just because they HAVE to. XD I would rather a guy be nice to me because he thought I was worth being nice to. And that would be splendid, don't you think? <3

But off the topic of host clubs...I'm having a brain-drain session right now because I'm not thinking straight. Seriously. All this while I'm typing almost blindly what I'm literally thinking because I think my brain has ceased to function. So if I have lots of typos please let it pass. GAH. I feel as though none of the gears are clicking in my head, like everything's gone deathly still.

And there you are thinking, "Oh, she's just realised she's stupid."

And about the Virginia Tech incident, why do I have to get flamed because of my opinion? Just because I think the leniency of gun laws in America and the NRA are partly to blame doesn't make me a blonde idiot. I also have a second humble wish: if people want to have a rational argument, please don't TYPE IN CAPITALS and curse every third word in a sentence. How am I supposed to defend my opinion if I get swear words thrown in my face like confetti??? Sheesh.

Just because I think I'm an idiot doesn't mean I always AM an idiot.

I swear my printer guzzles black ink like limousines guzzle oil.

Crummy Work Choices

2007-04-13T17:46:00.000+10:00

I spent the whole day (or the better part of it) looking for research books. So fun right. The only highlight for the whole entire day was lunch with Jess. Before that, she slept late, and so since I was already incredibly starving, I went to Mac's to get a $2 Cheeseburger, and walked into Imagination to find so many BOOTS! <3 All of them were so lovely, but unfortunately, today wasn't boot-buying day, so I didn't get any. Today was research day. =_=

After coming out from Imagination, I went over to 7 Angels because they were having their half-priced sales. I love these sales they have. I always seem to get good bargains during these sales if I go to them early, muahahahaha! So I got this lovely lacy dress that Jess called Snow White. XD That $10 was well spent. Now all I have to do is find the occasion to wear it... LOL.

When I met up with Jess we inevitably started asking each other to choose where to eat. It's become a ritual. But today, she cut off our usual wishy-washy "You choose la! No, you choose, yesterday I choose liao. No la, yesterday where got?" and introduced me to the set lunch meals at Ye Shanghai. On the one hand, it was good that the restaurant's ambience was lovely, and I can't say that the food was bad, it was pretty, especially the fish cakes, and given a chance, I'd eat there again. :) At least it's not Red Silks or something predictable again. :B

The corn soup was tasteless, but the PRAWN. The ONE SINGLE PIECE OF PRAWN I had was so good. And the GRAPES. LOL. To think I was complaining that they only gave us two measly grapes and a small chunk of rock melon. Jess was laughing at me la. But then again, she always does that, so now I'm de-sensitised. By the end of this year, the shoulder where I always hit her will become immune to the pain as well. ;P

But today isn't over, because we're supposed to have this super big dinner at Hog's Breath again. That Spanish restaurant on Wednesday wasn't too bad, but the lemon lime bitter I drank got old after awhile. I love oysters! Lol, and peeled prawns. My cousin Mei Lin wanted someone to finish the prawns, and I'm a prawn-lover, except that I hate the peeling part. So she peeled them for me and I ate LOADS. XD I can NEVER get enough of prawn. Whee!

one interesting fact Jess taught me today: White Catfish are soon going to be extinct. So next time, whenever you're thinking of eating White Catfish, switch to venison instead, it's much better! <3 T00dles!

Friendster-Surfing Geisha

2007-04-12T19:30:00.000+10:00

Ooooohhh-er. I haven't blogged in awhile and everyone's forgotten about me? That is just so disappointing. And I thought I was just as famous as Mother Theresa. :'( *pout* But I'm very proud of the title of today's entry, because I promised Jess that this would be the title of today's entry. XD Go click on her blog link and look at her picture. Your head will be nodding and you'll be saying "Yar hor..." unconsciously. <3

HIKARU HITACHIN HIKARU HITACHIN HIKARU HITACHIN HIKARU HITACHIN HIKARU HITACHIN HIKARU HITACHIN HIKARU HITACHIN HIKARU HITACHIN HIKARU HITACHIN HIKARU HITACHIN
Daisuki desu!!! <3

Can't say that I remember everything that's been whizzing on so far, but I read Jess' blog to refresh my memory. :)

What happened on Wednesday was that me, Jess and Basuki-senpai went to go watch Happily N'ever After, produced by some ulu film company that I've never in my life heard about. Perhaps that is one of the reasons why the movie is so dodgy and downright crappy. Yes, if you might be wondering, crappy as in totally predictable, UNfunny every which way, cliched storyline and all-too-perfect characters that only help the damn story limp along like some Ah Peh who's past his prime. XD Wait. An Ah Peh is already a person past his prime. O_o Whatever. I'm not thinking right, after all this PPL Law Essay crap, and neither is Jess, since she walked out of the lift wrongly and in front of a car today. But who am I to judge? Lol. The lovely Baka-chan stayed with me while I did my Primary readings (and I haven't finished. Sun of a beach). But that's today. Heck, I'm trying to talk about Wednesday!!! Oh my Tian.

After that dismal hell of a lousy cheat-both-my-money-and-my-feelings movie, we went to Smith Street to get my wonderful KEDS shoes. The Mischa Barton line. I wanted that red-and-white cherry one can!!! Not only does it have cherries on it, it's patriotic! XP Oh well, but the yellow-and-green lemon one I settled on was cute as well, uber-cute, so I wasn't THAT disappointed. Goes to show that ignorance is bliss. I SHOULDN'T have seen those cherry KEDS. *slaps own eyeballs*

MOO. The RMIT building is so funkeh compared to Melbourne Uni's stiff formality. I kinda like that informal ambience there, like everyone's so laid back etc. In the Law building especially at Melb Uni, I always feel as though I have to walk around with my back ramrod straight or something. O_o :B

Huh? Where was I huh... After the KEDS, I decided, what the heck. I'll have dinner with friends instead. Eating with family has just become so passe. Besides, eating out for two meals a day feels splendid! XB Guess where we went??? I can't believe we almost settled for Spicy Fish. Before we went in, I was like, let's try Supper Inn. Both of them told me it tended to be quite crowded, but the optimistic and opportunistic me saw a chance and I grabbed it. YEAH. Great decision! *pats meself on the back* The shitake mushrooms were REALLY REALLY mouth-wateringly delish, and so was the chicken! XD I'm sure all you pork-lovers and meat-lovers out there would appreciate the pork as well, but I didn't. I wish I'd ordered a whole plateful of baby spinach just for myself... *DROOL*

That's not all though. I'm used to getting up for a walk after a heavy (trust me, it was heavy, the meal was so heavy I MYSELF felt heavy. >.>) meal so we three best buddies trotted down to the Yarra River where we discovered GODZILLA!!!

Ok lah. Bluff you.

We found a ferris wheel instead! And instantly I was filled with a distinct nostalgia. It's been ages since I sat on a ferris wheel that size. The one in S'pore at the Escape theme park might as well be the 3rd storey in a normal block of flats. =_= The 3rd storey in the block of flats will also be more fun. At least there right, you can 跳楼 if it gets boring. You can't 跳楼 out of a squeezy ferris wheel carriage.

That's not the point. The price was an exorbitant $5 but, hey, when it's an opportunity for a good Kodak moment (ok ok, it's not like anyone uses Kodak anymore), and yet another one of those unforgettable memories that one should never stop collecting, that $5 was worth it. The view was great, the company was perfect, and though the random fireworks were scarce, I'm sure me, Jess and Calista had lots of fun. :D If my dad read this I would be strangled over webcam for spending money on a "stupid" (Dad 2005: 1-forever) ride. I'm just a tad sad I couldn't get a ride on the carousel, because I was broke. XD

I couldn't have asked for more, Lord. You have been my provider and my sustenance and you have blessed me with friends I feel I don't deserve. So thank you, and I pray that you'll be with all these special people in my life, giving them your guidance and your love and your everlasting care, and so even if they don't know you, even if they don't believe in you, even if they can't see you and even if they're skeptics, I know you'll be there looking out for them for the rest of their days, even when I'm no longer here, because you love each and every one of them, and because I pray for them too. What else can I ask for that you have not blessed me with?

The Lord is my shepherd and I shall not be in want.

Here's spreading the love to all my friends and family, to all my acquaintances and relatives, to all my teachers and lecturers and to all that I will meet in the future by God's grace: I LOVE YOU ALL WITH ALL MY HEART AND I HAVE NEVER AND WILL NEVER FORGET YOU, JUST LIKE THE LORD NEVER FORGETS YOU ARE THERE. Though sometimes I might be foolish and act rashly, please forgive me. :)

各位兄弟姐妹，多多指教！<3

When Bored I Resort To...

2007-01-29T20:53:00.000+11:00

Your Aura is Violet

Idealistic and thoughtful, you have the mind and ideas to change the world.
And you have the charisma of a great leader, even if you don't always use it!

The purpose of your life: saying truths that other people dare not say

Famous purples include: Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Susan B. Anthony

Careers for you to try: Political Activist, Inventor, Life Coach

What Color Is Your Aura?

Your Brain is 80% Female, 20% Male

Your brain leans female
You think with your heart, not your head
Sweet and considerate, you are a giver
But you're tough enough not to let anyone take advantage of you!

What Gender Is Your Brain?

You Are a Caramel Crunch Donut

You're a complex creature, and you're guilty of complicating things for fun.
You've been known to sit around pondering the meaning of life...
Or at times, pondering the meaning of your doughnut.
To frost or not to frost? To fill or not to fill? These are your eternal questions.

What Donut Are You?

Your Scholastic Strength Is Deep Thinking

You aren't afraid to delve head first into a difficult subject, with mastery as your goal.
You are talented at adapting, motivating others, managing resources, and analyzing risk.

You should major in:

Philosophy
Music
Theology
Art
History
Foreign language

What Should You Major In?

You Are: 70% Dog, 30% Cat

You and dogs definitely have a lot in common.
You're both goofy, happy, and content with the small things in life.
However, you're definitely not as needy as the average dog. You need your down time occasionally.

Are You More Cat or Dog?

The Keys to Your Heart

You are attracted to good manners and elegance.

In love, you feel the most alive when your partner is patient and never willing to give up on you.

You'd like to your lover to think you are stylish and alluring.

You would be forced to break up with someone who was ruthless, cold-blooded, and sarcastic.

Your ideal relationship is open. Both of you can talk about everything... no secrets.

Your risk of cheating is zero. You care about society and morality. You would never break a commitment.

You think of marriage as something precious. You'll treasure marriage and treat it as sacred.

In this moment, you think of love as something you can get or discard anytime. You're feeling self centered.

What Are The Keys To Your Heart?

Held @ Knifepoint

2007-01-29T19:51:00.000+11:00

This is how I feel about today's entry. If you people would just move your eyes over to Adlin's few taggie posts, you'll hopefully understand how I feel. In order to stop her blatant spamming sprees, I am forced to continue my memoirs. But the problem is I don't really think my life deserves a blog. I think people like Lara Croft should have a blog, and maybe it'll go something like:

Dear diary, can't update much now. An ancient Egyptian sphinx is on my tail because I just stole the Great Jewel of Horus. The fact is, the last few weeks have been filled with gruelling hiking trips, and we would've been eaten up by the local cannibals if not for our guide's quick tongue. After speaking to the village chief though, we prepared to leave, and his little son approached me with his favourite toy: a baby's skull. As an act of respect I accepted his generous offer, but later on decided to leave it somewhere near the edge of a great canyon we traversed in order to get to the Cove of Yellow Rocks. Along the way we were inturrupted by a cougar, and the guide had to use the last of his poison darts to neutralise it. Next time it's up to my semi-automatic, but I tend to prefer leaving well enough alone. Our rations are dwindling and we're now reduced to living on rutabaga and mangrove roots, but otherwise, we're making good time towards the Amazon. Til then, lots of love, Lara.

Wouldn't a blog like that be so much more interesting than something like:

Sigh. My life sucks. Didn't do anything today except muck around on the computer and answered the phone once. Now I see why going to school and going to work is actually necessary to keep a person sane. Read about some interesting stuff in Life! newspaper, and later on I'm intending to lug my laptop back up to my room to continue my Japanese drama stint. Other than that, even the plants in my garden seem to be having more fun than I am. It's times like these that I wish I were a tadpole. Or maybe a goldfish in a bowl, swimming round and round in circles and never knowing that I'm swimming around in circles and having a ball of a time. Being a lion on the Serengeti would be fun too.

See? Note the contrasts. By the way, the second example passage IS what's happening in my life right now. Fascinating isn't it. So deep and profound and meaningful.

ARGH.

I just spilled watermelon juice on the keyboard.

OMG. My Primary 3 brother just asked me how to write "9" in Chinese, and then muttered that homework is so complicated. My pedigree is showing. I'd better start barking and begging for food instead of lamenting about the uneventful turn my life has taken.

Oh, if your life were a car, what'd it be? I know Adlin's life would be a Volkswagon Beetle. Mine? ... ... I'd say I wouldn't know what my car would be, because of the big yellow sign hanging on it that reads "repairs in progress". Because this entry has been so absolutely dismal and boring, I shall end this bout of forced typing with a lame joke that, hopefully, would be able to hobble along and generate at least some weak measure of laughter...

Why shouldn't we be early risers?

...

Because the early worm gets eaten by the early bird.

***Due to excessive lame-ness, this blog entry will self-destruct in 5-4-3-2---***
***Error: Hand cramp***

Bras 'N' Things

2007-01-19T20:47:00.000+11:00

The title sums up today very well indeed. I shall consider not even bother to blog about today.

Considering...

Considered. But rejected. LOL.

Today was OG day. Overnight, I managed to finish Auntie Carrie's silhouette stuff, and I actually enjoyed it. It's been so long since I've done artsy-fartsy stuff like that. After mum's prayer meeting, she, my aunt and I went to eat the famous Ka Soh fish head noodle. At Quemoy street I think. It was a wonderful experience. Although I know they out XO in fish head noodle soups, it tastes great. Been so long since I've eaten stuff like this and I was like zoning out in bliss. I can't believe people can actually hate Asian food. It's so wonderful and diverse and titillating and so much less fattening than Western stuff. O_o *hugs Asian taste buds* Wait...how do you hug taste buds??? -_-;; Ahem. They so kindly refilled the soup for us once. The soup is like turtle soup, not the taste, but those type of soups that you can keep drinking and never tire of them, no matter how many times you drink. ^^

Next destinaton was OG (oh no, it's started raining already??? Sigh.) and I got this funky colourful pair of slippers. (Note to teens: Only shop for the expensive stuff when your parents are present, unless it's something they don't approve of like...ummm...sorry. I have no examples. Go think up X-rated stuff on your own) Mum got this weird beige jacket thing (I will never understand adults) and I updated my underwear closet. Got an extra pair of black shorts with buttons (whee buttons!!!) and we left OG to go buy hot snacks and soya bean. The mr bean mascot is so cute. XD I wish they'd make it into a soft toy. After soya bean, we said goodbye to my aunt ( I love my mum and aunt both so much, so old, kind and jolly. On the trip to the fish noodle store they were like giving the taxi uncle food advice for the elderly. XD Luffs them both dearly!) and queued up for taxis.

So now I'm back. Here. In front of the computer. Wau. At least this entry's short. I'm gonna go get a chocolate marshmallow mini-bun from the snack shelf. All of you people still chionging in JC2, ganbatte! I am eagerly waiting for all my Digimon and Inuyasha songs... *sly grin*

:T

Marina Rectangle

2007-01-19T20:07:00.000+11:00

Why do they even call it Marina Square? It's more like a rectangle. I remember thinking on the way there (since I can safely say I had never been to Marina Square before until that day) that even if I got lost, I'd be exploring new places. Haha. So the already 15min late me sauntered out from City Hall and sluggishly made my way slowly (but languidly) from the MRT station to Billy Bombers to meet Ashley and Clarice. I was so surprised to find out that there are so many eateries at Marina. Like, one LONG list of restaurants stretching from top to bottom on the directory. Some even have plastic models of the food they sell, and I knew I ogled at some cool Japanese desserts. Ahem. But I must always keep in mind that people are more important than food, so I shall now proceed to describe Clarice and Ashley. Weird or what? I always hang out with friends whose names start with "A" and "C". Ashley and Clarice, Adlin and Calista... O_O I just realised this amazing fact. WAHAHAHA. Ashley, apparently, has had a change of hairstyle 3 times this past month, and so now she has several patches of straw blonde mingled with remnants of washed-out green, and a lonely hair extension hanging out of nowhere. I know this is not exactly a very flattering description, but I'm telling it like it is. ^^ Clarice has a single blue hair ext. which I think is appropriate in a subtle way. For me? I love my hair thank you. It has stayed this way since I was a baby and I hope it'll stay this way until I'm old and it starts graying. XD Dyeing hair is like losing your virginity. YOU CAN'T GO BACK. So that's why my hair's special. MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

We were wishy-washying on where to munch, so reliable Ashley made the abrupt decision to eat at Cafe Cartel (proclaiming loudly that she now hates Asian food and will advocate Western food from now on). Upon arrival however, she switched to wanting to eat at Swensons' instead, so in we went. ^^ I think I was just "blur"ly following along. I am SO NOT a town person. Played around with Clarice's D Mobo phone a bit, then her salad came together with gigantic fork and spoon. LOL. Her eyes bugged out can? She thought she would be eating a "light" meal. But how light can $9.90 be? Me and Ashley's (I am carefully not using Ash's, since she specifically complained about that during lunch. I'm so considerate.) chicken baked rice came along, and we happily dug in. Miracles of miracles, I managed to finish my baked rice and I was still hungry. ^^ Thank goodness for Ashley's apple crumble. IT WAS WONDERFUL!!! OMG. Now I know to order apple crumble when in Swensons. Crap. Just thinking about it now makes me wanna eat it. X3 I had my ice chocolate blended (thick and yummy) and we set off for the bowling alley.

Guess what??? Clarice wears size 4 bowling shoes can? I wore like size 7. But mine was strangely comfortable and worn, I almost didn't want to return it. ^^ At first I kept long-kanging, but then I got used to it and remembered how to bowl. We only played 2 games though (love those 8kg balls) and ended up at the arcade where Ash showed off hr skills in shooting and ParaPara. O_O She scored at the top of the hi-score list in ParaPara can? And just a little note: I only come to arcades once in a blue moon, so if felt strangely weird going into one again. I can safely say that I haven't been to the arcades since I was...primary six...12-13 years old. O_O And I remember my fave game was the hit the crocodiles as they come out of the hole game. That's the only game worth pplaying in an arcade, if you ever bother asking me. Ash and Clarice played a bit of a lame drum game, then we wandered around those small cute shops again. I LOVE SMALL-TIME SHOPS LIKE THESE. I'm not really into Espirit or Giordano etc. Preferably nameless shops, or Ice Lemon Tee.

Ashley's parents arrived at Jack's Place at around 5.30pm, and we were at Watsons marveling over these miracle glasses with little holes in the black lens. It really made a difference when I put them on. I was like OMG IT ACTUALLY WORKS??? After Ashley left, me and Clarice went noseying around shops like The Body Shop and Mini Toons (where I bought this pretty starry bracelet in gold, bronze and silver). I felt really happy with my purchase at Ice Lemon Tee, although I had to dig quite deep into my pockets for it. Clarice bought this bear soft toy storage box for her sister's birthday, it was so sweet. The day ended with us parting ways at the horrendously crowded MRT station. ARGH. Sardines ok, sardines.

DUM DUM DUM DUM. So this was my day at Marina Rectangle, where I finally got my MP3 to work again. *big sloppy grin* Once again, I'm being hounded by mozzies... And why must Saiunkoku have 39 episodes? It's breaking my heart...

Ichi, Ni, San...

2007-01-19T19:46:00.000+11:00

Yes yes. I have three days to blog about. And OMG I don't feel like blogging. But I MUST. It's like my homework. HAHA. Maybe I should label them...

First Day

Yes. This day was the Yi's day where I went out with Yi Ching. HAHA. So fun. We went to Bugis and loitered around... Shucks. I remembered we arrived, then went looking for "cute" stores... Unfortunately, all the clothes didn't appeal to me. Oh well. More money in my pocket then. After that window-shopping session was Kinokuniya, where I managed to find the two different editions of Play mag featuring Hana Kimi (sorry Ching, but I just HAVE to mention it again. wakaka) and Colour mag. After agonising over which cover to buy (there was a wu zun one and a Jiro one. Guess which one I bought.) That day I remember whining on and on about not being able to find the DVD, haha! But patient Ching was there with me. LOL. Being a Neoprint-ster, we naturally ended up taking Neoprints at Angel Queen. Not bad leh. I think I'm very photogenic. NOT. Oh, another thing I was very happy about (praise God) was that I managed to meet Yi Ching even though it completely escaped my mind to get her hp number. I felt so dumb can? HAha. It can be said now I feel clever.

But that's not the point. We decided to go to the Icon, which was this ultra-ulu mini-shopping complex filled with teeny weeny boutiques, where Ching got her nails painted. Its located opposite Bugis, but so deserted. And SMALL. While it was interesting to note how small entrepreneurs struggle to survive... errmmmm... not a very fruitful trip. A bit dismal, actually. I feel mean. OH NO. >.< We went to this bargaining place next, a Bugis market sort of thing. The ground level was HOT and packed with people, so we went up to the second floor instead, and Yi Ching bought this gorgeous red plaid sling bag. She needed one actually. But that's not the main point anyway. RED PLAID = SHIN. ^^ Before we ate lunch, we were like wondering out loud where to eat, and we half-shouted half-screamed "air con" at the same time. Loud enough that a few people actually glanced over. Have we been influenced by Australian youth??? Lol.

Ended up at Yoshinoya, where we agreed to have this open policy of "speaking up". The spudsters tasted disgusting!!! I so regret buying them. Should have ordered Ching's scallop prawn things. At least I enjoyed the salmon bowl and miso. After our scrumptious meal, both of us headed over to Citylink mall to check out if HMV had the Hana Kimi DVD. Well, it didn't. We couldn't decide whether to go to Marina Square or Suntec, and weirdly we ended up at the Plaza Singapura Starbucks instead. O_o BUT I MANAGED TO FIND THE DVD AT THE TS THERE! BLISS! ^^ I rewarded myself with a chocolatey eclaire from Starbucks, and I remember those funky tables they had, with words on them that actually tell some semblance of a story. Next time you people are at Starbucks, go read the tables. XD Thus, our day ended with me dragging my feet back home and falling promptly asleep on my wonderfully soft and succulent pillow (the word succulent is here only because Adlin said she had succulent eyeballs in her sms to me, which I thought was disgusting but so typical of her...).

EEEeeeeeee... this is LONG. I initially started out hoping I would blog about one paragraph per day. BUT. SEE NOW WHY I FAIL MY SUMMARIES???!!!

scratches head

2007-01-15T00:27:00.000+11:00

Sometimes, I just can't be bothered wih a title. :) Let me tell you about my eventful Friday! Bet you're all interested in my vunderful life. ;D Guess why Fridays are important? Because that's the only day I ever get to go out with my friends in JC. HAHA. Poor unfortunate souls. Jingyi had CCA on Friday, but we managed to meet for dinner at least, at Hougang Mall. Friday, if anyone remembers, was a shitty-crap day filled with heavy showers and intermittent pauses, so praise God! When I walked out of my house the rain paused, then continued after I was safely at the bus stop. And I guess I missed my 113 because I waited for 15min. So xian. But there was this cute little boy at the bus stop too, and every time a bus came he announced the number. Haha, felt like pinching his chubby cheeks but his mum might sue me for molestation...-_-

Initially, I was expecting a short boring bus journey (I forgot to change my MP3 player's battery, whee...) but lo and behold!!! I met XIAO YANNY!!! XD I didn't expect to ever meet her, so I was damn happy. :DDD Turns out she's at NY too, surprise surprise. So many PLites in NY, and so little in NJ. *hint hint all pre-JC PLites* It turns out she was going to meet Junli and gang at White Tangerine cafe, so I decided to get off the bus with her at Kovan anyway. Good decision, because by the time I reached Hougang it was pouring tomcats and bulldogs. :) Luckily, from Kovan to Hougang only one stop, LOL, cuz I was already 30min late can? XD Found Jingyi already waiting for me (OMG SO SORRY!) and we mucked around a bit. Christine called us a bit later and asked if we wanted to join the gang at Tangerine, but we decided to eat dinner at Long John's first.

The ironic thing about Long John is that the chicken is better than the fish lah. And even that is not really that remarkable. The only reason I'll go back to Long John's is for their scrumptious fries. We had fun crapping all over JC life and such like (but I shouldn't mention anything here cuz the things we discuss quite slanderous, HAHAHA). JY told me that in JC Lit they learn odes and elegies and cool stuff like that. Sounds so fun... especially since I know I won't be taking Literature anymore. T_T After our meal, we window-shopped somemore and I went up to Poh Kim to see if they were selling the Hana Kimi DVD yet. Oh well, I left disappointed.

JY had to go after that though, but it was only 8pm and I had time to kill. So I called up Christine and ended up joining them at White Tangerine (I did some grocery shopping for my mum first), where they were in the midst of a very hilarious game of Monopoly (S'pore Version). Junli and Xiao Yan were playing as Sang Nila Utama (Merlion), then Chris and Huiyun played as Cat in the Hat(Hat). Cairong was Sole Survivor (cuz her token was the Shoe, HAHA). Eeerrrrr...I forgot what Sheryl played as though, LOL. But when I joined them she was like THE Tycoon, haha, with all the $5000 notes. ^^ Cairong was moaning because she owned all the cheapo estates, and she didn't manage to buy a house for any of her properties. XD Then Sheryl made a "grave" mistake, haha! She sold her MRT station to Cat in the Hat in exchange for Queen Astrid Park, then Chris and Hy had monopoly over all the MRT stations and Sheryl kept landing on the MRTs! WAKAKA. So suay. Oh, and another interesting point to note is that Sang Nila Utama (the dice is Junli roll one lah) kept landing on Geylang lor, DAMN FUNNY! About 5 times? HAHA. Joked that it was their favourite haunt.

At about 9pm, they decided to drop the game and the whole group of us went to Kovan to loiter around. Saw this very Japanese schoolgirl top (imported from Japan), but I bet it wouldn't fit me, haha. Anyway, Chris and I spotted some cool Adidas earrings, so we bought them together. I bought bubble tea, and all of us said sayonara to each other. At the bus stop ne, I was going on and on and on about Hana Kimi to Junli, lol. Chris stays very close to my house, so we took the same bus and I found out she plays Fantasy Warrior on her phone too! XD

By the time we reached the stop, it was pouring. X( But at least I had my umbrella, and I didn't get very wet at all! ^^

Oh manz. One day of my life takes up...like...O_O No wonder I sucked at summaries in secondary school, HAHA! At CG yesterday, we were helping Alethea with her English Compre (actually, more like Sharon lor. Me and Mel were figuring out how to make "Cars" work, since it was pirated, haha) and it brought back lots of unwanted memories of horrible summaries. XD I'm so glad I'm no longer in secondary school, but I still admit to missing sec school life...

*waves goodbye merrily*

Fave Ha'Ki Guys

2007-01-12T18:26:00.000+11:00

Today, I feel like letting pictures express all my current feelings. So here goes...(maybe I'm just getting too lazy to bother explaining myself...?) LOL. I thought Ha'Ki was a cute nick for Hana Kimi. XD Uhhhh...before I go on...***SPOILER ALERT***

This is Jiro Wang. Or 汪東城, in other words. Up til now, he still stands as my unwavering favourite in the show, as 金秀伊. I wanted to show you a more cheerful picture of him, but I kinda like this one, because of his cross necklace. ^^ Yay. I love how he lightens up the show... His character reminds me of ME sometimes, especially when my friends are down, and I don't know how to cheer them up, so I say stupid crappy things... XD I'm also putting him as the first on the list because 秀伊 is uber-cute and innocent, and always tries his best to cheer on the people around him. I also think 秀伊's character also quite the DRAMA, like me. LOL. I hope I can be like 秀伊 someday, constantly being an encouragement to the people around me and not letting things get me down. WAKAKAKA. Next...

Kk. This is Wu Zun. Or 吳尊. He plays as one of the main characters in the show, 左以泉. I feel like laughing every time someone messes up his name. Reading posts on Youtube, I see different versions of his name crop up, like "Jian", LOL. Then I feel like yelling to these n00bs, "It's Quan! Not JIAN!!!" *ahem* Jiro has no such problems, since he's Jiro. XD At first, I must admit, I didn't like him. I thought his character was much too cool and stiff-faced. HAHA. But he kinda grows on you, I guess. And upon reading his profile and finding out he graduated from Melb Uni... I guess that helped too. ;)

Introducing Tang Zhi Ping, or 唐治平. XP In HanaKimi, he plays this gay doctor, 梅田, who always becomes a reluctant ally with Ella, constantly helping her get out of difficult, and often hilarious, situations. ARGH. He is in such fierce competition with 左以泉 ok? I still can't quite make up my mind but... His character in the show is SO SO funny. I love how he always runs away from 盧瑞莃 everytime he sees her coming to him for advice. LOL. He has this adorable tired/bored/xian look that is just PRICELESS can? Definitely an important asset to the show! *nods profusely until head drops off* On a serious note, I love how he seems like the "wiseman" of the show, albeit a reluctant one, and when I learnt that he has two sisters and that 梁思南 was his nephew...LOL. He behaves so meekly around his older sis. ^^ Oh, and one more thing I like about 梅田 is that he can't stand 瑞莃 touching him can? So adorable, keeps shrugging her off. I still LOVE LOVE LOVE the scene where he stuffs cotton into his ears. It's PRICELESS. Lalala~

HAHA. You might be wondering why he's even making the list, but anyway, wait and see... XD His name's Ruan Jing Tian (阮經天), and he plays the character 申樂 in HanaKimi, as 泉's rival. On first impression right, he seems stuck up and rude and arrogant and blablabla but on his further character, I find him rather cheeky, and although he doesn't like 泉, he's cool. :) So actually, he's not that bad. After all, a person can't be ALL bad, and with such a cute little sister, 申樂 has successfully made it onto this list. XD I kinda liked his scene where he warned 瑞莃 about that bad dude (I won't even bother finding out what his name is, LOL). In that scene he said that there weren't many people he liked. ;) I hope I am one of the few deserving of his approval, HAHA!!! Here he actually shows that one must EARN his respect and liking, not buy it or anything else. Isn't that a fantastic trait? My impression of 申樂 also changed because although he keeps acting really unfriendly around 泉, it's also his way of encouraging him. ^^ Takes alot for someone to actually encourage a rival, don't you think? And the scene where he teases 泉 half-seriously about 瑞莃 going out alone with that guy...haha. SO DON'T YOU PEOPLE GO HUH-ING ON MY TAGBOARD ABOUT WHY I LIKE 申樂 OK??? I think I've explained myself pretty well already. PPPBBBTTFFFFHH XP

Oh yes, and people, it's 申樂 (Shen Le) ok? NOT SHEN LURK. What kind of stupid turkey name is THAT??? *kicks Youtube posts*

There it is, people, my HANAKIMI TOP 4. If anyone does not agree with my analysis, please post a rational argument on my tagboard and not some squeal-ly "I LOVE WU ZUN HE SO CUTE" bimbotic phrase *ahem JESSICA*. LOL. I'd be happy to hear fromyou people who you guys like and why. Let's share and bask in the warmth of Hana Kimi together!!!

O_O

I just now realised I sound like this totally obsessed Hana Kimi fan. Chronically obsessed. Please note that I have already realised this and will now moderate my behaviour... ... ...

NOT!!! XD

Hana Kimi Marathon

2007-01-09T23:26:00.000+11:00

Haven't blogged these few days because I have developed a severe addiction. I'm not really a Youtuber, but...

HAHAHA. Hana Kimi is the GREATEST.

My head is full of Hana Kimi stuff right now, and why can't the VCD or DVD come out sooner??? Sigh. It's such a bother downloading it from Youtube, but I suppose I should be thankful that I'm watching it. For those of you familiar with the series, I'm raving about the new Taiwanese Drama, not the Japanese manga. XD It has some of the craziest scene ever!!!

LOL. Wu Zun and Jiro are super cute, but I like Jiro better! His smile is so infectious, OMG! I wanna smile together with him!!! ;P Another character I adore is Mei Lao Shi (aka the doctor). He is SUCH the funniest can? The way he keeps flipping his hair is so hilarious. His character makes for the funniest situations! :) I love the scenes of him and Ella together, especially the scene where she complains to him about her brother and how he's gonna bring her back to the US of Wu Zun doesn't jump high enough. I think that has got to be my most favourite scene so far.

I'm high right now because of that very scene. LALALA~ Thanks to all those wonderful people who introduced me (very eagerly) to the show. I shall be indebted to each and every one of you forever and ever and ever... Romantic comedies are just so fun. As they say, a day without laughter is a day wasted, so I think I've laughed enough for the rest of the week, and some more. Aaahhhh... It sure feels good to shriek in laughter. Been so long since I've done that since I've been staying with my aunt. LOL. Of course, not that I didn't cackle loudly while in Australia.

If you ask anyone in my family, they'll say I laugh exactly like a hiccuping hyena. Seriously. Especially if you sit me down in front of comedies like Hana Kimi. GOSH. What Sylvia told me is right. Downloads are really slow in the 8-10pm period. Sigh. I guess I'll go off to sulk now, then wake up super early tomorrow morning to continue my Hana Kimi Fest.

But before that, I must(x300) find out who's the actor for the doctor. If not I know I won't be able to sleep tonight. He has the world's best "diao" look. I felt like pausing the video at that exact moment to draw the vertical lines and sweatdrops lah!!! ARGH. I wanna take a screenshot to show it to you guys, but how do you screenshot on YOUTUBE???

O_o

Life is unfair.

***Please note: This is just yet another one of those tantrums I have yet to outgrow. Bear with me, or else go away. XD

My Eyes ------> (=_=)

2007-01-08T17:41:00.000+11:00

WAhHhHh~ This morning of all mornings. I got woken up by both my brothers' bingbingbongbong-ing and the mite bites on my elbow. At about 5.30am I think. I only managed to go back to sleep at about 6.45 - 7.00am like that, then I had to wake up at 7.30 to go to the Australian Embassy!!! Which was all for nothing because I'm supposed to apply online for my visa. Ohwells.

What am I blogging for?

Hurrrr.

Oh yeh. It's to tell you guys about my new MyPod player on my blog. :) Wouldn't it be cool if we could customise our real iPods like that? So fun. Less fun for those iPod-less people (aka me included). Otherwise, nothing out of the ordinary happened to me today.

I re-read Vivian Vande-Velde's dragon book. HOW COULD I FORGET THE NAME!!! I JUST READ IT LAST NIGHT!!! This says alot about me. Oh well. Even after quite a few years, Selendrile still seems so cool. XD Since I didn't bring any of my unread books from Aus, I'll just have to re-read. LOL. But it's damn fun revising all the old stories again, just like I enjoy re-reading my old pre-school Cinderella, Rapunzel, Little Mermaid, Red Riding Hood, Gingerbread Man etc. books. :) I still find children's books very enchanting to read, wau.

EEEeeee. Later my bro's piano teacher coming again. Don't wanna see him. XP So unfortunately this'll be a short post. Until he goes away again. AHAHAHAHA.

Random AuditionSEA Screens

2007-01-07T19:57:00.000+11:00

HAHA. I was bored, so I thought I'd post this, since lots of people have been asking me what AuditionSEA is, LOL. But I didn't take lots of screenies though, cuz uploading takes a shitload of time. :D

My nick is Sorenza, before I forget.

I thought this move was cool. XD We all looked like we were about to do some wushu move, so funny! I guess I just like the crescents formed by the hands though. :)

HAHA. This one is funny. Like we're all trying to listen to something. ;P Do people really dance like that??? LOL. But it's fun to watch replays. Some dance moves are way fab, especially the finishing moves. It's just that I can't really do finishing moves for random fast choreo yet!!! TT_TT So no screenies, nyah nyah nyah.

BTW THANKS JESS, for teaching me how to "screenshot". I am damn blur about these sorts of things. Hope you peeps enjoy these piccies, and 'til next time!

Sweet Treats

2007-01-07T18:17:00.000+11:00

Yeah. Friday was SWEET all right. Well, not the beginning part, more like the end part. All that I can remember for the beginning part of Friday is that I almost set my tongue on fire with that RED HOT wan ton mee. O_o This was the day where Sylvia and I had to go shop for our ingredients and stuffs, and initially Jingyi thought that she couldn't make it, but she DID, and I got to see SAJC's uniform. The tie was darn cool, but the skirt looked like nerdy baggy shorts from some angles. TJ's skirt is still the bestest. Pleats rock! Ok, enough about uniforms (but boy do I miss uniforms...why is the grass always greener on the other side?), we bascially had a great time browsing through the items at Cold Storage and telling lame jokes, like the "Mr Muscle" one, lol (pronounced mus-kle). Cold Storage is the best for buying Japanese snacks can? Not like I'm doing any product placement or free advertising, cuz it's true. And I bought a Nata De Coco drink on Jingyi's recommendations. Her recommendations are always SUPER on-the-dot, I am so jealous XD. She does this with the neoprint machines too lor.

The neoprint machine I chose only allowed us to take TWO PATHETIC shots. AND we didn't have extra time to deco the pics. But the one she chose? (I think it's called the Angel Queen one, it rocks) Unlimited time plus 12 shots choose 6. X( Not surprisingly, the shots we took in Angel Queen (ohman. I'm like referring to the MACHINE like...like the Titanic or the QE2) were the better ones. HAHA. I liked the act dao one, and Jingyi's DARLI smile. LOL. And I think I'd better not cut anymore neoprints... The line I cut was horribly jagged, and I was doubly horrified. Next up was chocolate eclaire time, but it turned out I was the only one who ate any eclaires, lol. We ate at the Hougang Mall Delifrance, and one lousy cup of ice lemon tea cost $3.30. *_* That aside, I enjoyed my mixed fruit tart and choc eclaire. :) Then all three of us had a heart-to-heart talk about school and relationships and problems and it felt just like old times. Don't worry Sylvia, I am SO ABSOLUTELY sure that someone out there has a crush on you but you just don't know it. OPEN YOUR EYES.

We roamed around Hougang for a bit, then JY had to go. TT_TT I had to go take my 自恋 photo for the embassy visa thingy, and while waiting for the photos to "ok", we met up with two friendly Christian ladies (both accountants, and I HATE accounting like hell...) and we chatted for 10 min. HAHA. I was glad. At least I had something to do while waiting for the photos. :) I hope Sylvia 大姐 enjoyed herself as well, yeah? Because I did!

OMG the bus journey home was the FUNNIEST. If we had taken a video I think it would have won Singapore's Farniest Videos. It went something like this: we got on the bus, then we were like telling each other to sit down first cuz we thought each other got off earlier. Ended up with me sitting on the outside. Awhile later, I looked at the bus route we were on and I "realised" that Sylvia got off first, so we switched to the opposite aisle seat (all the while giggling a little, cuz we felt damn stupid and gundu-ish) and Sylvia sat outside. THEN, when 113 got to Kovan I REALISED that in fact, I got off FIRST. HAHAHAHAHA. We both realised our mistake and started laughing like hell (I think I laugh like a canary with hiccups XD) and we switched seats AGAIN!!! So you can imagine by the end of the bus ride we felt like children, shifting seats here and there like gongs. XD I can't stand it!

At least, because of this, I got home in high spirits. XP Don't worry Sylvia, if you think you're blur, I'm blur-er. :D We shall both be blur queens and rule the world together. :)

That's all folks. I feel like bananas now...

3 Little Pigs + Giraffe

2007-01-07T17:37:00.000+11:00

No offense Wenying. Giraffes are very beautiful creatures. Like the giraffe in "The Wild". :) I was about to write wolf but none of us are very wolfish at all... In case the rest of you don't get it, haha, well it all started with a person whose MSN nick is "pien kan te lord chi wit". I DO NOT understand her nick at all. But that's not the point. LOL. So this little piggy asked me, aka another fellow piggy, whether she and some friends could come over to make some tasty treats and mess around with my house oven (no really, it's not because of you guys that the oven dieded on and off. it was gong when I came back from Aus already, so don't go and punish yourselves like that albino monk from the Da Vinci Code. XD). Thus, one bright and early saturday morning, Shi Tian, Sylvia and Wenying cheated my feelings. They didn't tell me got school CCA fair!!! OMG, it's been ages since I've heard any guzhengs playing. TT_TT Am I just too deprived? No. It's because I'm just lazy to play my own guzheng. And THAT's because I so long never 调音 already, and I bet a month's allowance that all the strings are out of tune. XP

Ahem. But I appreciated the white balloon doggy and I will wait patiently for the wonderful dangly earrings that Shitian and Sylvia will SOMEDAY manage to make for me. LOL. We opted to make the honey cornflakes first, and we melted the butter, sugar and honey together in a pot. It smelt SO wonderfully yummy. But it was DAMN hot. Luckily I remembered this before I attempted to stick my finger in. After this, we had to mix the stuff with the chopped almonds and cornflakes. But even then, it didn't taste as good until we ate the honey cornflakes straight out from the oven. MMmMmMMmMmMMm. One cupful of cornflakes = one round around the track. Unfortunately, I think my equation is bound to become extremely unbalanced. HAHAHA. And so begins the story of all my cellulites and extra "beer" belly. But I shall neglect the unimportant issue of fats and proceed to sing the praises of the double chocolate chip cookies we made after the cornflakes. Hehe. They turned out good, even though the oven decided to throw another mild tantrum during the baking. But Wenying had to go for tuition before the cookies, so we bid her farewell (btw, she wore another shirt with a pretty face on it lor, so now we know what sort of shirts she likes, LOL).

While the cookies inched closer to their imminent doom in our tummies (aka in the oven), Sylvia showed me the TJ yearbook. WOW. So little guys in their year, and the previous year as well. And their were so many shots of Pris, haha! After that, Shitian went on to discuss her numerous crushes (as many as there are stars in the sky) and then I found out one of Sylvia's crushes was a classmate I had in kindergarten. That was SO astonishing. :) Too bad I lost my kindergarten class photo somewhere in the murky depths of one of the myriad cupboards in the house...my mum seems to have only kept the photos of my bros... >_> But I know it's not favouritism since I'm her FAVE daughter. XD XD XD Aiyo. I'm still as ego as ever. Friendster is actually quite useful though, now I've realised, for tracking down old friends.

The cookies, when they were done, were still quite hot though, so we decided to wait for them to cool, and went up to my room to hand-make those dangly earrings. Shitian and Sylvia bought some crystal beads and chains cuz they wanted to try making their own jewelry. OMG WTH ROFL. WHO KNEW JUST TWO LOUSY BITS OF METAL COULD BE SO HARD TO MAKE??? We spent, like, more than an hour, and in the end managed to each make only one earring each (except me, I just couldn't be bothered). @_@ I now have a new appreciation for the complex dangling earrings you see in retail stores, and I shall, from this day forth, no longer cringe at their sky-high prices. I would also have no reason to cringe because I'd never purchase them anyway. :P All in all, the day was a success! I just felt more like a pig, but aren't we all? :)

After the other two little piggies went home, THIS smelly piggy went to take a shower, and got shoved into the car immediately after that to go eat curry bee hoon at this impromptu missions gathering thingy. LOL. Managed to play two decent games of Bridge (I make such a SUCKY partner at Bridge...my first game went along the lines of "London Bridge is falling down...") before I got rudely ushered back home. O_O So for the remaining part of the day I just went with the flow, because sometimes the current is just so strong and its not like its gonna hurt you to just float along and drool...

>_~

Hmm. Just realised I forgot to blog about the day before this thingy. Ohwells. And Ashley and Clarisse called to see if me and Adlin wanted to meet at Cathay Cineleisure. But I think Adlin's SIM card is broken or she switched off her phone. WAU. I'm also quite thoroughly broke now, since I took like four neoprints in two weeks. Plus plus plus. ARGHHHH!!! All these small little mites are driving me over the edge!!! One just crawled on my forearm and tried to bite me can. I can almost see it's evil little eyes eyeing me and my pores. *whimper whine whimper whine*

I love giving out prezzies. Giving out prezzies = warm, golden fuzzy feeling.

Honeydew Sago Days

2006-12-30T21:27:00.000+11:00

I really wanna eat that honeydew sago that Yingxiu says is like sugar in HK. Ohwells. Might as well tell you guys here about my interesting life, aye? :) Places I frequent: Kovan, PS and Hougang. XP So guess where I went yesterday?

Wrong.

Plaza Sing. If you guessed right, you're still wrong. LOL. Anyway, before the whiole thing began, I was still busy at home barging through my christmas wrapping and cards trying to finish them before I left the house. So the meeting time was 1pm and I left my house at 12.45pm. Not bad eh. I turned out to be half an hour late and made Hy wait for me (like a good slave should). Cuz Jingyi wasn't coming, so at first there was only me and Hy, and we walked in circles until I made up my mind to eat at Burger King. The mushroom swiss actually tastes disgusting to me now lor. AAAHHH. Australia has turned me into an Aussie Burger lover. No lah. My aunt liked Aussie Burger so everytime in Aus went to BK and ate that. Come to think of it, it was quite nice. Lol. Gradually, everyone started coming, and Sheryl arrived looking like a teacher, haha! So funny...but I know her secret and I won't tell.

The ice in my Milo all melted and it became icky-tasting. So I turned my attention to CR lor. She wore until so cute can. All orange. Like some Sunkist person. :) I suggested she paint her nails orange too, haha, to match. Actually, Hy wanted to watch "Night at the Museum" at that new Cathay Pacific place near PS, but we ended up watching at PS instead, 2ND ROW OK. NO JOKE. But before the movie details, we went down to Watson to pick Junli up. LOL. She's still as tall as ever. And I felt all the more punier. TT_TT CR and Hy went to test the weighing machine, and so heng I couldn't weight myself. Oh, I bought some really nice violet nail polish, the exact shade I was looking for. Cool. :) The shade where it can be said to be either purple or pink. So in fact I have a 2-in-1 nail polish. :) Sheryl bought some gold nail polish lah, so funny. Which suits her weirdness anyway. In the movie theatre we were initially complaining about neck cramps and everything lor, with the screen so IN-YOUR-FACE. Ahaha. We saw the trailer for Spiderman 3 and Shrek 3. Spiderman 3 looked cool and all, so I'm definitely watching it in theatres. The only reason I'll watch Shrek 3 is to see the cat again. XP Wanna hug it.

IT. WAS. A. REALLY. GOOD. MOVIE.

REALLY. REALLY. GOOD.

Man. I laughed so much my tummy ached. EVERYONE READING THIS GO WATCH "NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM"!!! ^^ Free advertising, but the movie deserves it. Ben Stiller is a good main character, and Robin Williams was a cool supporting actor too! The movie suddenly made me wanna go visit a wax museum. I will never look at a T-Rex skeleton seriously ever again. Man, I WANT MY OWN T-REX SKELETON!!! *ahem* Movie aside, we had lots of fun just roving around PS like a group of gangsters, lol. We ate dinner at the Kopitiam (my fried fish noodle tasted almost like maggie noodle can...>_>) and I shared Honeydew Sago with Yingxiu. Wow. The taste of the coconut melds so well with the honeydew flavour. I think I almost swooned and died. XDDD

Next stop was Comics Connection, where I bought my A-cash card and we ended up taking SOOO long because SOME PEOPLE (aka Sheryl and Junli) were browsing almost all the 偶像 (idol) cards. AND IN THE END THEY BOUGHT SO FEW. HAHA. (i'm glad my com can finally type chinese. :) Next I'll input Hiragana) CR was whining (no offense, whining cutely) to go to Best Denki, so we went and there were these cute photo programs whhich put stuff on your face if you look at the camera. There was a sunglasses one, then an Afro hairstyle one and a long blonde one. SO cute. Stupid Hy kept pushing me into the cameras lah. OI. 美女害羞 understand or not? HAHA. I remembered something totally hilarious. Sheryl went to try out the massage chairs, even though she had no intention of buying any, lol. The salesperson guy must also have known la, but sheryl was damn thick skinned can? HAHAHAHA. Upon seeing her in the chair, we all burst out laughing! XD

Didn't do much after that, just went into Dorothy Perkins (which is way out of me budget) and went to Samuel and Klein to find Hy's crush which apparently, according to her, looks like JJ Lin. To trust her or not to trust? LOL. No question. The answer is NO. To her immense and utter disappointment, her "guy" wasn't working that day, and she left the store looking stricken and devastated, and as deflated as if a pony had kicked her. haha. Something very to that effect. ^~^

While walking home, this Ah Peh suddenly began walking behind me. Damn scary lah. It was like 9 something at night. O_o But thank God it was just my imagination. :) I should stop making assumptions about these Ah Pehs. Maybe they're actually loving grandads who have cute grandchildren and are generally kind to everyone they meet. :x

HAHAs. Goodbye then, I'm off to AuditionSEA already because it's mindless fun (and I'm gloating cuz Hy thinks its hard). LAlaLAlaLAH~ Oh, I ate wanton mee for the first time in a very long while. WOOHOO. Hooray, I can tick that off my to-eat list liao. Next up I guess is carrot cake and char quay teow.

*big wave* (O,~)(Y)

Merry Christmas!!!

2006-12-26T02:04:00.000+11:00

Hmm. This is my christmas post, but unfortunately nothing remarkable happened today, lol! I had a rather NORMAL, of sometimes boring, Christmas Day. Oh well, its not like I mind. :) It's christmas but, looking around at hawker centres and stuff, life still goes on. So, it's true what Pastor William said: Do you see what I see? You see just another day in 2006, I see a birthday party of universal proportions. You see Santa Claus and presents but I see a baby in a manger who doesn't cry. You see the end of another year, but I see the start of a whole new chapter. You see religious crap but I see a miracle of reality.

So do you see what I see?

In the massive city
One temple
In the flock of birds
Two pigeons
In the midst of the crowd
Three people
In the family
One True King
And that is X'mas in numbers

:)

I think I've lost my storytelling skills. :( Tried writing a paragraph and it came out all crappy. LOL.

Holy Night

2006-12-24T18:09:00.000+11:00

Empty words flow from earnest lips
Like plastic flowers
Cascading from an illusion
And sunshine twinkles off perfection
Shrouded with broken glass
Glue!
Glue.
But the need is gone
Marred but whole in the eyes of one
From the abyss
Come whispers of
Bliss.

Yes, that indeed sums up my feelings for the day. It may sound complex, but feelings ARE indeed complex, so if you guys don't understand, just forget about it. :) It's hard enough figuring out your own feelings without having to decipher others', haha! This one's for Saturday.

Ok, the day actually started out pretty slowly, with me waking up sluggishly from bed, just to discover in my email a letter of offer from Melbourne Uni. :) So I was happy and all, and went to find out some admin stuff. After that, had to go out for lunch, and my dad brought us to Lorong 8 to eat his beloved Pinang Hokkien Mee. Yeah, it was quite good actually, so no complaints from me. Had to go NTUC shopping though, and we racked up $250 worth of groceries cuz my mum hasn't grocery-shopped for 2 weeks, lol! The counter-lady was very friendly though, just like an Aussie. The cashier table top was damn small lah, and we constantly had new stuff to pile and pile and pile. I thought it'd never end! But finally we did (I had the honour of carrying the eggs. Carrying the eggs is a symbol of trust on my mother's part, lol. so I felt grown up. XP I know lah, sounds so childish but I DON'T CARE) and upon reaching home I had to rush to go bathe cuz the TM412 x'mas party started at 3pm. I thought it started at 3.30pm lah, so I ended up being one hour late!!!

It was quite fun actually, we played lots of games, had some testimonials, and I got to reunite with many church friends. The drama team was very good as well. Bravo to all their efforts! C.O.M.P.A.R.E means Comparing Only Makes People Angry, Resentful and EE-irritated. :P Very meaningful indeed, in terms of S'porean society, where we keep competing and competing just to feel better about ourselves. What, the government never boost our morale enough meh? So what if your son did better than your friends' son? Does that really make you a better person? If you really think so, then you have a long long long way to go in terms of mature thinking. That's why I hate it when mothers compare their children or their work during parties I've attended. I can't help but EYEBALL them and their prim little stuck-up pathetic noses. Their noses look like nose jobs as well. PITY them, PITY them. But I despise even more those who compare DISCRETELY, because that's equivalent to flying under the radar and goodness knows Big Brother hates it when people do that.

After the fun and games were over, we had a Western dinner thing, with fried rice, fish, chicken, fries (yes, fellow S'poreans, it's FRIES, NOT chips. Chips are those that are crispy and thin and come in packets.), coleslaw, pasta etc. Quite good actually, but too bad Sharon had no appetite. Oh, I loved the colour of your bag that day Alethea! :) When the event ended, we were supposed to get picked up by Alethea's parents, so before I went I gave Minghui my prezzie, and Gladys gave me the truffle prezzie too! Thanks lots to the both of you, I'm sure you put your heart and soul and sweat and blood into those innocent-looking brown balls of chocolate and "other stuff". Looking forward to eating them! Sharon (poor thing) spent her remaining time at church to give out prezzies. She was like ticking people off her list like some desperate shopper! XP

Finally, our "chauffeur" arrived and we all piled into the car to get to Melissa's house. Upon our arrival, my mum proceeded to "show me off" like a trophy in front of all the senior citizens. Luckily I wasn't wearing trishaw-rider singlet and shorts. Everybody kept saying I had matured and grew fatter (ok, they didn't exactly say fatter, but used the word "plumper" instead. Oi people, just be frank with me lah). The program started and we had the proverbial carol-singing (in both English and Chinese), then we had the drama put up by the under-eighteens. LOL. Alethea! Your "smooth silky hair" arh!!! Damn funny. But it was quite meaningful though. BRAVO people!!! Great job, especially the lip-synching parts. Then we had the pass-the-parcel game, which wasn't really much fun because grown-ups can't think of outrageous forfeits to save their lives. *eye roll*

For dessert, we had the normal chocolate log cake and an ice cream one from Haagen Daaz (how do you spell it again???). Of course, after that, we just HAD to play cards. LOL. I didn't feel like playing, but played one game of Dai Di in the end, although I would have preferred to play Bridge instead, to brush up my skills. It's also fairly mindless, Bridge is, compared to Dai Di. Melissa's Vietnamese friend, Hanh, also knew how to play Dai Di, lol! So besides the universal language of Brands (like Nike and Coca Cola), I've discovered the universal language of cards!!! :)

That was my Saturday. Now I have to do my "chores":
1. Write x'mas cards
2. Wrap x'mas prezzies
3. Go book my flight ticket with SQ
4. Send my acceptance form in
5. Handwash my clothes and barang-barang
6. Buy my Jay Chou CD

HAHA. Wish me luck on my arduous and perilous journey of everyday life! Ta-ta for now!!!

Silent Night

2006-12-24T17:45:00.000+11:00

Aha! I have to blog about two days for today's entries. Ok, first things first, let's talk about Friday! :) So fun.

Friday was VivoCity day with Adlin and Calista. As expected, Calista was late for almost an hour, and Adlin was so un-fashionably late by 20min. :D I was the only person on time! 3 cheers for the Princess of Punctuality! We met at Dhoby Ghaut, so during their late minutes, I had Green Day and the Corrs keeping me company. Adlin had such "big-ass" (Calista darling likes to use this word. cuz it's a big-ass nice word to use. ;3) earrings, which were also accentuated because she tied up her hair. LOL. So basically I looked at her and saw this big ball with two other balls dangling at the sides. HAHAHA. While we took our first few baby steps into Vivo, Calista told us ALL about her BAD DAY *song starts playing*. All about how they basically got soaking wet, their bus broke down, they made other people miss the bus, they had to take off their shoes, Calista's sandal strap broke, MICE bar was full so they were turned away, ended up as a bunch of bedraggled "homeless" people. So. I've never had a day THAT bad. :)

Tangs had these really adorable intricate sets (yeah, with intricate prices of $300 and above) of electrical toys, like the moving circus, carousel and this mini rollercoaster thing. It was all made of wood and very fragile, not like those cheapskate penguin toys you find people selling at pasar malam. Calista offered to give me her penguin rollercoaster set, but I graciously declined, seeing as she needed it more than I did. XD We tramped around Vivo, popping in and out of stores like Forever 21 and Espirit. Too bad there wasn't a This Fashion or Mad About Shoes outlet. Hey, a student's budget is MEAGRE. Oh, Adlin's finger almost got stuck permanently in this gaudy black ring she randomly tried on at Forever 21. LOL. Her face had the word "panic" all over it. Damn funny. I stole many bars of nougat from her bag as well, sometimes with her permission, and sometimes without. :)

Up on the third level were the gift stores Mini Toons, Action City and Mu-Ee, together with another one selling many anime figurines. :) It was so crowded, but I guess its gonna be christmas soon and everyone was doing their last minute shopping. SO LAST MINUTE, tsk tsk. They had free gift-wrapping services as well, and it looked as if all three stores were competing against each other. HAHA. There wasn't any McDonalds or KFC at Vivo at all, so we contented ourselves with Carl's Jr instead. The burger was quite good. I ate the spicy BBQ burger. And the drinks were refillable. Whee!

Later on we wandered out of Vivo and I got two more cute prezzies, but for who I won't say. Sufice to say that by then my feet were aching like mad (that always happens whenever I wear that stupid gold pair of shoes. I'm trying to break them in lah, like Adlin's Keds). After Carls Jr (while we ate she was writing her x'mas cards, lol!), Adlin had to scram, and before I went home, I managed to grab a handy pack of kawaii x'mas cards. Just in time too.

After I got off the bus at my stop, guess who I met? Haha. Huiyun lor. She called me saying she THOUGHT she saw me. But ended up she was right. LOL. We chatted for a bit, then I had to go cuz my mum was bugging me. We had this family dinner at Island Country Club (complete with suckling pig, but I think Carls Jr ruined my appetite) with Da Gu Zhang and Michael's family. And I got to see Yan Zhong too! OMG, I can't believe I forgot to video him! He's not even 1 yr old and he's so huge! XP They had this fake snow thing outside as well, but when my dad touched some, he realised it was just soap detergent. Eeeyerrrr.

Thus the day ended. HAHA. If my tone seems flat, pardon me. I don't really feel like blogging but I still have to catalogue my eventful life.

^_^

And Heaven And Angels Sing

2006-12-22T01:27:00.000+11:00

Hmm...Adlin's blog can't seem to load. Gah! I forgot Calista's blog address. I was thinking of using her blog to go there. Dumb baby killer whale. At least now my laptop's wireless is working brilliantly. How I love my laptop keys. So soft and pleasant to the touch.

Yeesh. I sound like a CPU pervert. *bangs head on fridge*

Once upon a time...actually, not really. I just went to Plaza Singapura today with Jingyi and Melly Fong (aka the !Kung Bushman). Kiasu is one strong word you can use to describe my character. I arrived like 25min early. Luckily, I had my Jay Chou to pei wo. Too bad it wasn't JJ Lin today, I just finished listening to him. ^^ Then Jingyi came. Somehow, she always seems to be carrying a white bag...or is it just me? LOL. We met up with Mel at the MRT station where she confused us as to where to meet. Dhoby Ghaut is damn big. So many escalators. I felt like one of those mice in one of those lab experiments with mazes. O_o

Finally, we got to the actual mall, and wandered around a bit. I saw this gorgeous cute shirt with nekos on it, but it was $30. I am NOT buying one shirt for $30. NOTHING is worth $30 unless it has something to do with manga or anime. NOTHING. :D I'm having a current fetish for shorts with ribbons at the bottom, but can't seem to find a cheap pair. Hoping to be able to find one at VivoCity *crosses fingers*. (shit, I just dropped the grape I was eating on my keyboard. TT_TT Have to pause and clean)

Hmm, Jingyi's in SAJC now, and Mel's in NYJC. Not bad. Jingyi kept telling me how much she missed me!!! I feel so loved. *hugs self* Wound up in Yoshinoya. Luckily I ordered the Salmon set, because they sorta changed the sauce for the teriyaki one, and it was SOSOSOSOSO salty. The meatballs given in the so-called "Holiday" meal tasted just like normal meatballs. So cheat my feelings. Oh! Now I remember why I was kinda happy. We went up to Comics Connection (yeah, its a ritual for me and Jingyi. anywhere we go, we will always end up there. so even if its the apocalypse, you'll find us there. HAHA.) and I found some kewl JJ Lin calender cards. BLISS. I'm gonna use them in Uni next year, introduce all my angmo friends to this wonderful guy I will probably never meet with face to face. Boohoo. Oh well. Bought my manga mags too. It'll feel great being able to browse through them again. :)))

Guess what?

Wrong.

Guess again.

Wrong.

You're all such hopeless cases.

I was finally able to reunite with my octopus takoyaki today!!! We "illegally" sat at this table at someplace-near-the-takoyaki-store and while I happily munched away, Mel and JY chatted about shit-I-forgot. Oh yes. Her crappy President. I shall not say more lest I get sued for slander. This message is for whoever's gonna sue me: I surrender!!! *ahem* Mel had to go (whew! finally...) for her piano lessons, and JY and I ended up in Kovan once again (sigh, just once, just once I'd like to go back to Compass Point and eat my addictive chocolate eclair at Starbucks. Is that too much to ask??? *echo echo echo*). Mucked around for a bit, and I twiddled around with all the kawaii stuff at Mini Toons. Saw this semi-cool Vampire Knight keychain there too, but then I can't really afford $2.90 with $0.50 right? *sighs dramatically* There was this cute furry sleeveless hoodie thing at This Fashion that I reckon I'll look so irresistable in. HAHAHAHAHAHA!!! *maniacal laughter continues for some time, then fades and a bout of coughing takes over*

I guess I got tired of shopping though (yes, however incredible that may sound, this extremely rare phenomenon DOES happen, so WAKE UP PEOPLE!) and JY and I sat on the Kovan benches and had a really fun heart-to-heart talk. The contents of which I am not at liberty to divulge. But I am able to divulge THIS however: her brother really looks like a genuine gundu. Not even those pirated poser-gundus. But a REAL honest-to-goodness gundu. Whee. And THAT, ladies and gentlemen, IS a compliment.

We sort of arranged this ice-skating thingy, but I have a strange feeling it's gonna fall flat, and Mel's gonna be more than a little disappointed. Ah, before I forget, in my eyes right, both Mel and JY haven't changed much either, especially Mel. Still as gila as always. She only bought 2 onigiri-things at Yoshi to eat, claiming that she had to "save" money. So sad. She even had to steal JY's black pepper sauce to season her sushi. LOL.

My next mu4 biao1: Sakae Sushi. I should, like, connect the end of the sushi train to my mouth. of course, unwrap all the sushi first, then put them on the moving belt. That way, everything will end up in my mouth without me having to reach out with my hand. Saves me the trouble of choosing too. I wonder if they charge extra to have the sushi train installed in your mouth. I should go ask.

A final piece of info for all of you to "BOO" at: The neoprint shop at Heartland has CLOSED. Arrivederci. Sayonara. Zai4 jian4. Goodbye.

CHEAT MY FEELINGS!!!

Let Every Heart Prepare Him Room

2006-12-22T00:54:00.000+11:00

Lol. Ok. Today, I'm typing on my laptop, so halleluiah! :) This post will summarise like, all my mucking around since yesterday, haha! Yes, tomorrow there will be yet another post inwhich I educate my readers about VivoCity and my cute nephew!!! Can't wait. But first things first.

Yesterday, went out with Shitian, Fanny, Sylvia and Wenying. Such a pleasant surprise seeing them again, felt so happy inside! *glow glow* Anyway, we met at Kovan. But before that, I was at Cold Storage drooling all over the Japanese tidbits that are way out of my budget. (I've been going out every day this whole week and now my allowance is reduced to 50 cents, so tomorrow I'll actually be shopping with my Chinese New Year 2006 money. LOL. It's worth it though, so I don't really care. The word "saving" sounds almost foreign to me now, in shopping-paradise Singapore. Muahahahaha!!!) I vowed to myself that I'd drag my mum along one day to Cold Storage and threaten her at knifepoint to buy me those Galbo chocolates, my pudding marshmallows and my Japanese cheese biscuits. ^~^ Oh yes, and those Kettle chips. Blah. See? I'm SUCH a glutton. So who's a baby killer whale now, ADLIN???

We ended up chatting at Mac's for a bit, crapping alot about useless stuff and this show Hana Kimi that all of them were so enthu about. I shall go Youtubing once I am free of the X'mas and New Year rush. Meanwhile, we talked and talked and talked, and some of the highlights were that Shitian looked so different with her hair down, and she's like the VP of harmonica!!! Who would've thought? I mean, she so DOESN'T look like the harmonica sort. (If you're reading this Shitian, please don't bash me. I'm saying this in the name of free speech) So she's in VJ now, haha, cool. That used to be my dream JC, until I met TJC. LOL! Sylvia and Fanny dears are in TJ now, together with Priscilla and Melissa. I can't help but imagine what it'd be like studying with them there too! Wenying was last to arrive, and she was as tall as usual. She was like,"I scared the girl on my shirt too pretty, than no one will look at my face!!!" Damn cute. She reminds me of guzheng again. Sigh. Gone are the Da4 Jie2 Zhou4 days. *sentimental music plays, then is cut off abruptly*

After Shitian make me open all the chilli packets, we went off to buy bubble tea and I got brain freeze for the first time in a long while, since we couldn't bring drinks into the MRT station. Maybe I should stop sticking with Chocolate Milk Tea and go for something more interesting, like that salty plum milk tea we (almost) ordered for Wenying in her absence. HAHAHA. Upon receiving our delightful drinks, we proceeded to sip happily on them and ended up in Hougang. I bought F.I.R.'s latest CD, and almost bought Jay Chou, but realised I didn't have enough, so I tied up my hand behind me and threatened to kill it if it moved an inch. So we wandered (a bit mong cha cha) around Hougang Mall. It's changed so much since I went there in Feb. A new Comics Connection opened there, and the kind lady who owned that small modest comic book store who watched TV all day got replaced by a bag store. How...sad. The CD stores also changed, like Sembawang is now there, together with a new game store. Then again, some stores still sell the same things, but they just changed their name. HOW LAME. Oh, and level 2 has this new eating partition. Not really very interesting though. Blah de blah de dah.

Haha. I bought my beloved Vampire Knight series, then Wenying had to go for Chem tuition. We three remaining buddies decided to be cheapskates at that neoprint place, HAHAHA!!! It was SO DAMN funny. We were like using all the neoprint machine backgrounds to take group pictures with Fanny's phone (it's that gorgeous new Sony Ericsson Z610i phone, totally pink). Some of them really came out like neoprint pics, and I'm eagerly awaiting for her to put them up on her blog. :P We took a photo of all our little footies as well. Then we all got hungry and ta-dah, ended up at Long John Silvers with those exquisitely delicious fries, small scrawny chicken and fish that was actually decent. Me and Fanny are such bai chis at asking counter staff for stuff. XP

The day ended with Fanny calling her mum to pick her up cuz she wanted to watch the 10pm channel 8 show with the airplanes. LOL. Whatever THAT is. Me, Sylvia and Shitian felt so guilty, because we were still eating at 9.30pm at night! Haha, as if I wasn't fat enough. On the bus, Shitian revealed an amazing fact: Fanny's tu2 di4 is attached! To Fanny, if you're reading: what doing you? Even your tu2 di4 so pro already, as shi1 fu4, FAIL man you!!! *ahem* *reverting to more proper English* Thus, the day ended with me slumped on the bed and diving into wonderland. :) So comfortably tired I was, it was one of THOSE days... *big fat contented sigh*

So there went my Wednesday, the 20th of December 2006. I think I'm gonna crap alot about today as well, so might as well start a new post. Man. All these words on my blog giving my a headache. If it's giving you a headache and you're reading this, come to my house for free Panadol.

Go find it yourself, I won't help. :D

Let Earth Receive Her King

2006-12-19T23:40:00.000+11:00

Lol. I'm still sticking to my title trend. :)

So, as forewarned, this post contains my reflections. If you're looking for lighter entertainment, scroll down to the other two entries below this one, all in the same day. Gosh, I am doing lots of typing. Here goes: (closes eyes and jumps off a cliff, and the herd of dumb sheep behind follow suit)

As I said, so much and so little can change in a year. Let's start with what hasn't changed much. Well, duh, my house of course (all the surrounding street signs have also ditched the Zen-ish black and white for a dunno-what-ish green and white). Mostly, all the landmarks of my life haven't changed (or since I checked on Google Earth). It's mostly the people. Some people haven't changed much, like Mel and Sharon and Minghui etc. The list goes on. I don't know about my other friends though, will have to wait and see. :D I'm sure certain friends will turn up with weird hairstyles or some such thing.

Changes scare me. Its an instinctual thing. It's not that I can't adapt. It's just that, for that short period in your life, everything's different, and you're thrown off-balance both physically and mentally. I know my life now will never be short of changes, and I don't dread it. There is that vague sense of trepidation, but also that vague sense of calm. It also amazes me how its so difficult to convey certain feelings. I mean, what do you call the feeling when you feel slightly nostalgic, a little excited, maybe sad, but also quite happy, and yet there's a healthy does of fear and anxiety mixed with a calm assuredness. Any suggestions??? LOL. Maybe I'll go look it up in one of those thick Oxford dictionaries, perhaps in the year 2011.

Apart from this as well, a part of me WANTS myself to have changed in some way. Preferably in the "better" direction. Humans (yes, I hope only humans are reading this, no martians or KKK dudes) are characterised by change. We ARE change. And that's the only reason why we've come so far ahead of dolphins and gorillas and the occasional orang utan that can play chess. Change, for me, is like a double-edged sword, and yet, in the heat of battle, it rings true. :) Dunno if this makes sense, but I'm saying it anyway.

Take my dad, for instance. At the beginning of the year, he was always so boisterous, so confident. He thought he was capable of everything, and his shadow has always stood towering in front of me (not menacingly), like a monument to "anything is possible" and "reach for outer space, not just the skies". Lame jokes, computers and electronics and efficiency has always been (and I hope always will be) in his repertoire of talents. At the beginning of the year, I thought my dad was capable of anything and everything. He has this uncanny way of making things work out, always with God's help, of course. To put it simply: he seemed untouchable. I guess its always like this with most kids. We look up to our parents, and although we complain about their faults, somehow, deep down, there's always the instinct to come back to them for help, that they have, and always will, be better and more capable than us. Lol. (i'm saying "lol" in a contemplative sort of way, please don't get it wrong and start laughing hysterically)

When I came back, apparently he injured his chest and arm while in Vietnam. When I heard this, I couldn't help but think "Hey God, I prayed so hard for my family's safety in Vietnam, why???" But always when I ask why, I already know the answer. It's just in my character to ask why all the time (like why is the sky blue and why does Barbie have to be blonde and why can't whales communicate with dolphins and why can't there be a person who is extremely intelligent but who has Savant Syndrome at the same time). Anyway. That's beside the point. It's like, a year has transformed my dad. Now, thinking about this, I gloomily reflect that, yeah, we're all living and breathing, but we're also dying every day inside, a little by little. So even an infant a day older is decaying physically by that much. Shit. Remind me why we celebrate birthdays again? Isn't the "Birthday" a Western cultural imperialism thing invented by that money-gobbling conglomerate that is McDonalds'? Yeah, like they always say, knowledge is power but ignorance is bliss. How true.

My dad post-2006 is now more subdued, and more aware of his limitations. More aware of his vulnerability, I guess. Somehow, he's losing his grip on his confidence, and seeing someone as CONSTANT as my dad start slipping is more than a little disturbing for a girl who knows she's not gonna see her dad properly until after 5 years. I mean, when mum started getting sicker and sicker, the scales sort of tipped and I looked up to my dad more than ever before for both assurance and support. So when he insisted I go overseas, I went anyway, NAIVELY believing that he would never change, always be the same strong person. I hate it how sometimes we humans can get things so completely wrong. I thank God for God. At least I can be SO SURE that God will never change or forsake me. ;) I'll never make a mistake there.

So now he's changed, and I guess I'll have to change along with him. I worry about both mum and dad all the time. Like, ALL the time. They're never far from my thoughts. Hey, come to think of it, one of the most primary reasons why I was so reluctant to come back to Singapore was because I dreaded seeing how much my parents have aged. Its frightening, it is. At least if you see them every day you get to see the whole process and etc. But, the reason why "Click" the movie resonated so much with me is that, like Adam Sandler, I feel like I've fast-forwarded the "Singapore" part of my life, and I'm gonna do so for the next 5 years. This is more than a little upsetting.

Hmm. The only reason why I brought up this word "change" is my parents. LOL. So much for my reflections. On my part, I don't think I've changed much, still the same old me if a little more picky (like, now I INSIST on using gloves while doing the wash) I'd like to think I'm more daring and outgoing and confident and social, but hey, honestly Adlin, you epitomise all this. :) Love how you're so friendly to everyone all the time (yes, yes, this includes both calista and rach so don't you both go complaining arh, I'll like "slap your eyeballs").

Blah. This entry seems a bit too private. I just hope the people reading this will have the discretion to keep their mouths wide shut. I don't wanna have to take off entries like...ahem...some Trinity people I know. It's embarrassing when people bring up private stuff like this when they're talking to me. This entry is one of the few that will ever grace my blog actually touching on...well...dotz...you know. I just feel weirdly sentimental today. Gosh, I'm 17 and I STILL have mood swings???

...

What am I???
a) Seahorse
b) Chio
c) Tiramisu
d) Freeloader
e) All of the above
f) None of the above
g) (Fill in the blank)
h) La*me :)

The Lord Is Come

2006-12-19T22:14:00.000+11:00

...and the title of the next post after this will be "Let Earth Receive Her King". I just got this brilliant idea. LOL. This title thing will go on til christmas, so until then, all my blog titles have NOTHING to do with the post itself.

Spiffy huh?

Ok. I shall cut with the crap and say I LOVE BANANAS! I broke my virgin fast from bananas at Auntie Cindy's house. "What", you say, "were you doing at Auntie Cindy's house freeloading off her you freeloader?" Well. I'm not gonna answer that until the next paragraph.

Haha. Cheated you. I LIED. *gasps of horror and indignation arise from my mass blogger audience*

We three were having a sleepover. I guess its because this weekend was the last available weekend to have a "just us" sleepover, seeing as everyone I know starts school in January except for an elite few. During my fruitful stay indeed, I learned how to play Bridge and refreshed my memory (yet again) on how to play Dai Di. Not bad. A good harvest, for someone like me. *deep evil Mojojojo-like laughter* Later on, me, Sharon, Melissa and Alethea started crapping lots in the bedroom. I think we made too much noise, but I guess I was too busy laughing and snickering to care. Laughter is the BEST, I say, THE BEST way to get high. *hugs my lovely endorphins* In the end I think we ended up sleeping around 3.

Next day, it was ice-skating time! Woke up, mucked around, and finally, we were off!!! When ice-skating with lots of church people but I can't quite recall all their names...will try though. It's like a tribute or something. (tribute for what I don't quite know, but I just do stuff I feel like doing, is all. maybe because I love making lists, like shopping lists, address lists, presents lists etc.) So it was me, Alethea, Melissa (Sharon had to go for her flower-arranging competition, so, best of luck gal, making sure the tulips and petunias and roses and chrysanthemums and spider-lilies and morning glories don't start world war 3 or something), Chrysan, Gladys, Joash, Ian, James, Minghui, Priscilla, Avelyn, Michelle... dotz... I know I'm missing one. Please forgive me. I'll give whoever you are a "slap-my-face-once" voucher the next time I see you. How's that? ;)

Who knew ice-skating can be so fun? The skates were quite similar to rollerblades, and much more stable, easier to balance. of course I was wobbly (I still am) when it came to "rink" time, but it was way better than I expected (my rollerblading experience? No. Not vey fun at all). I only allowed myself to skate faster when someone was holding my hand. (yeah, so baby, I know. but hey, it helps psychologically when you have a hand to hold on to. so, NO SHAME on my part) Other than that, when I skated myself, I just wobbled and glided along. Not so bad. The temperature at the rink was also just like normal weather in Melbourne, quite nostalgic actually. More people started coming though, and I know kids are adorable and cute and devastatingly huggable and sweet and squishy BUT. :) One word says it all. i LOVE multi-function words.

Minghui started talking about food, so that reminded me to be hungry, but I forgot my poor mistreated stomach when I returned to the rink again, lol! Lucky I ate that banana at breakfast. Made me feel all sunny inside ;D Towards the end, almost everyone began sitting around on the benches. Since I was also tiring, I went back. So we spent like, hmm...almost 5 hours at the rink. Quite value for money. Haven't done this much exercise since Feb. I'm amazed I'm still not eligible for The Biggest Loser yet. Oh well, maybe next year I'll get my chance at misbegotten fame and fortune that will last the span of 3 months, or as long as the span of the show.

Saw the ad for the Death Note movie on the way down from the escalator, which got me on a new high. I am SO SO SO ... ... errr. I just paused to eat dinner at this point, so I kinda lost my train of thought... *smiles sheepishly* We then chose the convenient option of KFC for lunch, and I ate my beloved Shrooms again, for only $2.75!!! I have gotten so used to food being around $12.50 in Melbourne that, omg! $2.50 lor mee??? *swoon* Ahem. But a Shrooms burger the size of my fist (which is quite small. wait, your fist is supposed to be the size of your brain right? so if a person undergoes plastic surger on his/her hand, then that's so cheating!!! Sry, just a random thought) is NOT enough for a growing, bright and energetic 17-year-old. :) Decided to go back with Melissa just so i could tompang with Auntie Cindy (random comment: its so nice to tease Auntie Cindy. I can't do that with other aunties. or uncles, for that matter) That was, once again, my freeloading instincts kicking in yet again (somehow it never fails me).

On the MRT, listened to Ian's MP3 player. Switch Foot is not bad actually. I might just break the stupid new law about downloads and download their songs anyway. *huge grin with tongue sticking out* Haha. I miss Corinne Mae. Have to get her new album soon. Along with numerous other albums like F.I.R.'s first and third albums, Jay Chou's latest album, JJ Lin's first album, AFI's latest and I'm gonna try My Chemical Romance. Sigh. This so stinks of "hole in my pocket". I hope Sandi Thom comes out with a second album. I ADORE her songs and her strong vocals. But JJ Lin is my hands-down fave. XD *shrieks and faints* I'm also gonna look for all the soundtracks for Digimon at HMV, since my dad deleted all my carefully hoarded treasure trove of Japanese songs. SO SAD. At least I got to listen to Rurouni Kenshin on the train. :) That was an unexpected treat.

Stayed over at Mel's for a second night, and me and Minghui went a bit "high". Lolz, Minghui, if you're reading this, good for you. It baffles me how two so-called "mature" girls can get high while playing "pretend" restaurant. And, yeah, how can one RESIST playing restaurant? Priscilla had this really cool toy kitchen/restaurant set with all this realistic-looking food, complete with a fake black forest cake??? I just HAD to HAD to play. Everytime I play pretend cooking, I feel so nostalgic lah. I used to (and still do) love playing cooking, but my cooking set was limited. I didn't have, like, chicken drumsticks and sunny-side-up eggs that Prissy's set has. And, let's face it people, pretend cooking is so much more fun than actual cooking.

Yeah, I believe you should mature as you age. I mean, be more responsible and independent, and have more self-control. But some things you just can't afford to lose. Like imagination and childhood fantasies and dreams. In terms of these, there's no such thing as childish imagination, because children invented imagination (at least that's what I think). Why should children have all the fun? I see, over the years, so many adults with unnecessary wrinkles and frowns on their faces (if they even have any expression at all), walking robotially from trains and MRT stations, complaining about income tax rises and fussing over dishwashing... maybe I'm not making sense here. All I'm trying to say is, if you lose the "child" in you, you lose yourself, and the very essence of who you are. Because as a child, you are unmoulded by society, carefree and un-selfconscious about society's restrictions. As an adult, you are merely more educated in terms of etiquette snd tact, and perhaps mentally less naive. An adult is, I think, a "kid" who has been adjusted by society to think in certain ways. So, the "child" in everyone is in fact their purest, untainted sense of self. Basically, what I'm also trying to say is: Go out and have some fun sometimes. Even if its only just playing pretend cooking. Nothing that is able to put a smile on one's face deserves to be called childish (as in the demeaning sort of childish).

I've wandered off-topic again, have I? LOL. Anyway, eventually we ate dinner, then had a bit of bedtime gathering thingy (listened to some weird mrbrown stuff which is all propaganda anyway), after which we went to ZZZzzzzzzzzzzzz. Oh yes, surprise surprise, it has been raining every since I set foot in Singapore. How depressing. Rain is fun and all, you get an excuse to get wet, and the world seems tinted in this greyish hazy blur. BUT. (this word again. me loves this word. a picture can speak a thousand words, but certain words can speak a thousand pictures)

Voila! That has been my life so far in Singapore. I'm anticipating that I will be blogging alot here, so heads up people! Plus tomorrow I'm meeting up with some old and very dear sec school friends, so I'm sure I'll have loads to say. :) Meanwhile, weirdly, I am in a VERY blogging mood today, so in the next post, I'm gonna blog some of my reflections so far. Ever since my arrival. :)

It's amazing how so much and so little changes in a year.

^~^

(i just learnt this cute expression from calista's sms, thanks gal)